One of the best things about living in Prescott is that compared to Pinetop, where I grew up, there are SOO many more shopping options!  Not that I go shopping all that often (I’m a college kid, remember?), but it’s still nice to have options.  For example: in Pinetop, the only place that anybody went for anything was our Supercenter Wal-Mart.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Walmart, but it’s kinda sad when it’s the hot spot for dates.  Here, there’s a mall (gasp), Target (yes!) and, my new favorite local store, Scrap-book-ish!  <3

Scrap-book-ish is a little store on Willow Creek Road that has everything you need to put together a creative journal called a scrapbook.  At home, scrapbooking was one of my favorite hobbies.  My mom, sister and I would gather around the table with pictures and colored papers and stickers and just create!  It’s one of my favorite memories that I have with my mom and sister.  When I went to college, I didn’t want to clutter up my already small room with paper and scissors and hole punches, so I left it all behind.  However, I got back into it just a few days ago because next Tuesday in my speech class we’re giving a demonstrative speech, and I figured that I would show how to make a scrapbook page!  I went to the Scrap-book-ish store hoping to find supplies, and find supplies I did!  (also, it was 75% off day, so that didn’t hurt either!)  My hobby has been resurrected once more!

Here are some pages I’ve made since then:

This is a page of Jessica Watts, Frosty and I on our first snow day of the year.

This one is of Cami Williams and I, while we were bored at a Diamondbacks game last year.  (The background on that one is that since our softball team won state, we were asked to go and stand on the field with all the other 1A, 2A, 4A and 5A winners while the D-Backs were warming up.  It was a BLAST!  And we got to be on the big TV in the corner that everyone tries to get on when you’re there!)  Good times!

This last one is of my suite and I when we were ice skating, which I wrote a blog about, so go check it out!

“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.”

 - Margaret Thatcher

A couple of weeks ago, ERAU held the second Activity Fair this year in the Activity Center, where people can join many different variety of groups (such as fraternities, Break Dancing Club, Hawaiian Club, etc.).  At that time, I joined the Swing Dancing Club, College Republicans, and the Sweatervest Club.  Yes, the Sweatervest Club, although I am ashamed to admit that I, in fact, do NOT own a sweatervest!!  I’m hoping to find one on sale somewhere soon… haha!  What made me interested in this odd club in the first place took place last semester, as I was walking through campus to go to class.  I noticed a bunch of people in sweatervests gathering around a bench.  One of my friends who is also the president of the club, Mitch Mannering, called out a totally random compliment to me as I passed, which totally made me more confident.  Another one of the members shouted another one to me.  I thanked him, kind of confused, and then I saw the sign one was holding that said, “Free Compliments, Courtesy of the Sweatervest Club”.  Underneath that, “In an Effort to Improve Student Life on Campus”.  I laughed at the cleverness, and so when the activity fair came around this semester, no one had to ask me to join twice!  Just on Tuesday, I was having a hard day because I didn’t feel very good about a test I had just taken.  In an effort to waste time until my next class, I went to check my mail, but ran into the Sweatervest Club having Free Compliments day!  I joined them, giving compliments to students walking by, and I definitely felt much better. 

If Michael Jackson went to Riddle, he would have been giving free compliments with the rest of the club.

As for the Comedian portion of this blog (well, Comedian/Magician anyway), I just got back from the Andy Gross show that was held in the DLC (the Davis Learning Center) Auditorium.  He was really witty and hilarious the whole time.  He did everything from the “pick a card, any card” trick to the “pull-a-dove-out-of-a-hankerchief” trick.  Well, he subsequently threw the dove against the nearest wall because it “bit” him, making everyone squeal in disbelief, until we all saw that it was a fake dove!  Thank GOODNESS!  Overall, I could not stop laughing!  Embry Riddle has VERY entertaining comedians that come every month or so.  I thought that it was a good choice to bring Andy Gross.

Avada Kadevra!  Er, I mean, abra kadabra!  Here he is!  (All Harry Potter fans understand that it is actually quite difficult to remember the classic “magic words”, when the famous spell from the books is so similar!  Oops.)

Well, that pretty much sums up the highlights of this week! 

“Never take life seriously.  Nobody gets out alive anyway!”

So, after the big snowstorm that hit Prescott, things have pretty much gotten into a groove around here.  School every day, church, hanging out with friends, and volleyball are all a basic part of my life.  So far, so good!  Classes are going really well, and I’m excited to start volleyball again.  First, though, I just have to say that I have gotten two hundred percent better at skating than I was before last week!

This is where I was about ninety eight percent of the time.  Hey, it was my first time okay?  Here Teri is being a sweetheart and helping me up… for the twelfth time. 

Here are a lot of the girls who came.  Not that I actually spent a lot of time with them… I was mostly clinging to the wall for dear life!

Our suitemates!  (These are the girls who not only made me feel better when I fell, they were kind enough to hold my hand sometimes!)

Just so you know, I actually made it to the middle of the rink without falling more than three times.  So there, skates.  Domination!

School is really fun too.  My classes are getting more and more interesting as the semester moves along, especially Psychology.  It is so fascinating to me how our brain works and how we perceive certain things.  I thought that I was unique, but apparently a lot of humans have the same reactions and thought processes.  Go figure… my whole life was a lie!  Haha just kidding.  But it really is interesting.

On top of school and ice skating, volleyball spring season started today.  All my teammates and I are going to be in really good shape for next season!  Bring it! 

So that’s my life in a nutshell as of this moment.  But who knows… there is always a change around the corner!

“All life is an experiment.  The more experiments you make the better.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson