Victory is Mine!

I have finally captured the elusive 4.0. I had been chasing it for a while, but I finally caught it a couple of weeks ago. I was only taking 3 classes this last semester, but I don't think it takes away from my 4.0 because they were real pain in the butt classes... First of all, I had statistics which I thought for sure would be the end of me. I thought that I just wouldn't graduate because I would never pass statistics. To my surprise, I got a 95% in stats. Then, I had two horribly dry, tedious, sociological theory classes (classical and contemporary). Ugh. If I never have to read the original writings of Karl Marx again I won't mourn the loss. He was a very brilliant man...but damn...I've had enough. So, in summary, I had a really distracting and crazy semester and I still managed to lasso the 4.0 before the end of my college career. Many times I had been close, but close only counts in hand grenades and horse shoes. In summary, lets all take a moment to have a tiny celebration in honor of me kicking statistic's mind-crushing butt.
Hurray!

Ho Finito!

I am done!



It still hasn't really sunken in yet- but yesterday was my first day being done with school so I think that it will take a little bit to stop feeling weird. Due to the fact that I took a year off after high school to work, and proceeded to go part time while I worked part time for a while, it has taken me a little longer than I would like to graduate. However, for the last 5 or so semesters I have been taking classes every semester including summers to catch up, so I have been perpetually in classes. I keep having this instinct like I have school work to do, and then I realize not only is it the end of the semester, but I am completely finished.
I feel like this is definitely the end of one era of my life and the beginning of another. I'm not positive what I am going to do, and I have a few weeks to figure it out. So, I figured that I would start my soul searching with buying a couple of Powerball tickets...have to explore ALL of my options : )
So, thank you to all of you who have listened to me complain about my classes when they were giving me a hard time, kept in touch with me during my adventure in Italy, and for being such wonderful, unique people that inspire me every time I get to see you.

Free Hugs

Great Friends

I love my friends. They are such awesome people...they really are family.
My day started out today by going to a friend's house where she and another friend cooked this incredible brunch. Then, I went home and did some school work (yuck). After that, I went back to this friend's house because everyone was just hanging out there all day. When I pulled up it was snowing- not little flakes but those big, sticky flakes that seem like they are falling in slow motion. The first part of the roof had Christmas lights on it, and there was a speaker sitting outside that was blasting old Christmas tunes. They were in the process of hanging Christmas lights. Granted, it was in the middle of a snowstorm, but to each his own. So, while the carols rang out in the front yard, we took turns holding the lights for Kelly to compulsively straighten. Kelly is really picky about these types of things and I voiced that I thought that climbing on a ladder two stories in the air during a snowstorm was a bad idea, but per usual, she didn't listen to me. Luckily, she didn't fall and everything turned out ok (except that my hair was frozen, my fingers and toes were numb, and I was shivering uncontrollably.) After the light fiasco we baked cookies and played Monopoly. I love good old fashioned wholesome fun like that. It was definitely something I needed. Like food for the soul. I was feeling really overwhelmed, but after getting schooled at Monopoly I realized that things could be much worse. Speaking of which, don't you wish real life could be like Monopoly? like when you have sold everything you own, everything is mortgaged, you have $3 and you owe someone $550 you could just be like, "Ok. Good game. You win. I'm just going to go about my business now." Or, that you get to the roll dice to see how much you owe the electric company...that would be nice.

Here's a picture of Chris and Kelly taking a break from hanging the lights. We were all totally covered in snow like lawn ornaments.

Parade Of Lights

My favorite day of the year was yesterday. Every year around Christmas, the city of Denver has its Parade of Lights. I know that this makes me kind of a dork, but I look forward to it every year. It is especially cool because it comes down the street a block down from my apartment, so every year my friends come over and we leave at the last possible second (because it's always very cold out) and we go down the block and watch the parade. There are all different types of cultural organizations in the parade, representing Mexico, Asia, and of course...those gentiles and Santa....I didn't see any dreidels this year... their were fire twirlers, the nativity scene, Kermit the Frog, but not a menorah is sight....
But anyway, there are also a lot of high schools with their marching bands and big floats. I love when the big balloons come down the street because you can see their shadows on all the buildings and it is just so creepy and cool. I think my favorite part of the parade is the percussion section of the marching bands. There is something about that many people pounding out the same rhythm that makes it impossible to stand still.