Identity Mishaps

A requirement, as you all know, the college makes it mandatory (technically) for all students to attend seven convocations a semester. Well as of today I now have two under my belt, such an accomplishment I know. I have survived seven semesters of going to forty nine convocations, fifty one if I start counting this semester. Something I should add here is that I love hats and they are somewhat of a comfort object for me. Without my hat on in crowded places, such as Phelps Stokes during convocations, I get really anxious and unfocused. There is a “responsibility” at convocations that states * Respect for the presenters includes an appearance of attentiveness, including upright posture and forward gaze. Caps, hoods, headphones, earbuds, or any other obstructions to listening or to others’ vision should not be worn. The head over convocations sends an audience rights and responsibility paper out at the beginning of every year. It has been a struggle every semester being told that I need to take my hat off. Something I find interesting though is when I wear sock caps in the colder months they do not tell me to remove my hat. What distinguishes a ball cap for a sock cap, I’ve been asking myself for four years now. Today I got brave or stupid, depends on the perspective you take I guess. Instead of waiting to be told to take my cap off I stopped the head honcho himself and told him my dilemma involving crowds, hats, and anxiety. He looked at me with genuine compassion and said if I let you wear your hat though others might ask why they can’t wear theirs. I see the dilemma here but I wasn’t about to give up. After a minute of eye locked silence he spoke, “Just keep your hat on and if a convocation usher tells you to take it off tell them I approved it.”  Yes! Finally some understanding justice. I thanked him greatly expecting him to move on down the aisle. Nope he then preceded to say, “As a freshman this is something you can work through and maybe you won’t need to wear your hat later on down the road, you are a freshman right?” I kind of panicked at this question, what if he wouldn’t let me wear my hat if I said I was a senior because by then I should be use to the crowds and noise. So in my panicked state mumbled and shook my head yes. As if things could not get any more frightening for me, he asked what my name was. In my not so sound mind I said the first name I could think of that sounded legit, Taylor. Smooth right, how do you even get the name Taylor from Amanda? So now there is officially a freshman from Western Kentucky named Taylor who is thinking about majoring in Child and Family Studies wandering around campus somewhere. Oops! I have no justification for why I lied, it just kind of happened. I feel super guilty about it and tomorrow I plan to go to the man himself and turn myself in, my real self that is.

Northern Ky

I'm about a month overdue on making a blog post, but it's better late than never I suppose. I'm going to have to start putting blog post reminders on a calendar or something so that I won't forget. Even though my life hasn't been too exciting lately, I will fill you in on what you've missed.

I have been feeling under the weather the past few days. Sore throat, runny nose, headache, etc...I'm still not exactly sure what is wrong with me, but I think it may be allergies or a cold. Whatever it is, I will be glad when it goes away. I thought I was going to lose my voice for a minute, but luckily for everyone around me, I didn't! Haha! (I know how much people LOVE hearing me talk all the time!). 

Recently, I went to Tire Discounters in Richmond and got new tires put on my car. About $500 later (tires + a couple parts), my car is now ready to hit the road. I still need some work done on my exhaust, which I will do as soon as I get the money & free time to take it somewhere. Since I was really mean to my car and hurt it, I decided that I would be nice to it and clean it out. I vacuumed it out and bought some new mats to go in the floorboard. (I'm being ridiculous, I know!) 

Callie loves to ride in the car, and although she can be a pain sometimes, I look forward to seeing her sweet face whenever I get home. She is such a happy puppy and has grown so much since I got her. I love seeing her personality come out more and more every day. 

 A couple weekends ago, I went to Northern KY to spend some time on the farm. Here are a few pictures from my visit.

One popular food in Northern Ky is chili cheese dogs, or "coneys" as they call them. I know that people eat chili dogs here too, but it seems to be more of a big deal up there. I was teasing Tim about how much cheese he puts on his coneys, saying that he likes a little chili dog with his cheese! Haha!

Tim and Midnight, his nurse cow.

A baby calf sucking on my fingers. It tickled!

The donkeys were so sweet and funny!

One of the donkeys had zebra stripes under her eyes. So cool!

And one random photo before I go:

I found a freshly-hatched monarch butterfly after my bus route the other day.

Until next time, 

-Miss Ellaneous

Cincinnati

In between studying for my test on Thursday I'm going to update you on the eventful weekend I had...
My beau and I had been thinking about taking a trip to Cincinnati for a couple of months now and we finally were able to go! So..we made it a three day weekend, and stayed with my Aunt & Uncle who live in the country near Cincinnati.

Day 1: We visited the quaint and very hilly city of Mt. Adams on Friday afternoon. We'd already eaten lunch, so we just walked around the city and up the well-known stairs at Holy-Cross Immaculata Church. We walked down through the main part of this area where there was a strip of bars, restaurants and a coffee shop. We ended up in one of the them, playing a game of pool before we took off for dinner with my Aunt & Uncle.

Day 2: We made Saturday a big day..first stop was Belterra Casino. Neither one of us had ever been in a casino..we were amazed at the age group of basically all the gamblers. We were, by far, the youngest people in the place. It was sad to watch the gamblers at the machine..little old ladies, not even hesitating to press the button. We played at a couple of the machines just to see what it was like. Overall we lost (of course), but only a couple of dollars. We ate lunch in the casino at their buffet. It was amazing! It was a really nice restaurant, with a large variety of food: basic American fare, Asian, a special Oktoberfest (German) food area, salad bar and delicious fresh bakery dessert items! It was all a good meal but I was probably most excited about the dessert because they even had a case of about 10 flavors of gelato. Mmmmm....mmmm!!
After lunch, we went outside the casino to the horse racing. We enjoyed placing some small bets on a couple of the horse races and we won and lost some again. Now I want to go to Keenland sometime! We traveled downtown after this and checked out Oktoberfest. The crowds were so large, we couldn't enjoy it. People were really packed in like sardines. We did get a pretzel though and a drink, but then we got out of there. Lastly, since it was only about 6:30, and we didn't want to go back to the house yet, we drove to Kenwood Mall to walk around and shop. Overall, a fun and tiring day!

Day 3: On Sunday, after going to church with my aunt, we drove to Bass Pro Shops and Jungle Jim's and enjoyed some Mexican food for lunch. We had a fun afternoon, shopping and walking around and got some good deals.
We had a really great trip!

At Bass Pro Shops

On a separate note, I'd love to see my friends again soon!!
The Farmer's Daughter 

Family & Fitness

This past weekend, my mom, dad, brother, and great grandmother came up to visit. I opened birthday gifts they brought me. We ate lunch at Jackson's, a yummy Southern cooking restaurant with very reasonable prices. Then, I gave them a tour of EKU and introduced them to the goodness that is Purdy's. We sat around and chatted at home for awhile before they had to leave. I was sad to see them go. Although I am slowly adjusting to being away from my family for the long term, I still think about them everyday and wish I was able to spend more time with them. Thankfully, we've got wonderful friends here that help us make Richmond a home away from home.

Lately, I have also being doing more in the realm of shopping and fitness. I have been to several yoga classes lately and attended my first 6:00am cycling class this morning. It was definitely tough but I enjoyed it. As far as shopping goes, I have been on the hunt for fall clothes. So far, I have gotten one long sleeve shirt, one sweater, one cardigan, a pair of jeans, a pair of end-of-season sandals, and a few accessories. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures as I wear them so that I can post them later.

A few other exciting tidbits:

* I made a 100% on my first advanced anatomy test! After studying for hours and hours, I was super proud.

* My sister is visiting this weekend!! Since she had to work when everyone else came up, she decided to come and stay for three days! I'm super excited to see her.

* The salted caramel mocha at Starbucks is where it's at. In other words, it's better than the infamous PSL in my opinion. You should try it!

A lesser exciting tidbit:

* I must cease this post and return to studying my notes over ALS, Parkinson's, MS, post-polio and several other neuromuscular conditions because I am definitely not ready for the exam tomorrow.

Hope to see each of you soon!

Hugs,

Lessons From Food Service: Cupcakes

So when I was younger my parent's use to ask me if "Bob" told you to jump off a bridge would you? I would always answer with an empathic no. I am sure many of you have heard this expression used as well. Most of the times in regards to doing something "stupid". Well this post in a real life story in which a very similar story was played out.
I was standing in the dessert line at food service waiting patiently in line to ice my two cupcakes with the multiple flavors of icing set out before me. There was a student in front of me trying to decide what flavor to ice his cupcake. He asked me what flavor I thought the pinkish looking one was. I told him that it was probably strawberry and that he should lick it to make for sure. I added that I wouldn't tell anyone if he licked the spoon. Well this silly person went and listened to me exactly to a T. He even put the licked spoon back in the icing bowl. Bad mistake. Mr. Food service worker got very exasperated and stormed off with the icing never to be seen again.
The moral of this story is you don't have to do everything someone might tell you. I feel as though I learned this lesson way before I entered college. I guess some people will never learn that lesson. I feel bad for the people who may have wanted that icing though, whatever flavor it may have been. Another lesson to be learned is, if you want to taste test something bring your own clean spoon... nuff said.

Country Concert & Fall

Yes..I know, it's not fall yet (7 days!) And yes, I am trying to contain my excitement and enjoy the last couple days of summer. But, I am very excited for pumpkin picking, corn maze exploring, sweater-wearing, beautiful leaves falling, bonfire sitting, caramel apple eating, flannel wearing, pumpkin spice everything...and of course-- birthday...season. I am super excited for all of these things, which has gotten me in the mood to pin countless pumpkin and apple recipes.
Last week I made pumpkin chocolate muffins/cupcakes. For the muffins I just left off the icing. They were pretty good, but I think I must have covered them too soon, which made them slightly wet. Here is where I found the recipe if anyone is interested. And if you're interested in seeing my hours of pinning about Halloween and fall and getting as pumped for the season as I am, you should just check out my fall Pinterest board.

The weekend was very exciting for me..the beau took me to the Burning It Down concert, with Jason Aldean (& Florida Georgia Line)! It had been a long while since I had been to a big concert and we both really enjoyed it. Jason Aldean and FGL both sounded very good in concert, I was impressed. Something I had forgotten about concerts was how loud they are. It's probably for the best that I don't go to many concerts, for my ears sake. (haha)

Well, that's all for my update.
Until next time,
The Farmer's Daughter

Sir George

This is Sir George and his Dr. Seuss bird friend. Sir George changes his attire occasionally but he always stands ready to greet our students as they enter the classroom. He also holds our "word of the day" which typically ends up being a word of the week.

Tick Tock

Sometimes my brain works in strange ways. The following is an excerpt of what it's like sometimes.
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Tick tock tick tock. I hear the clock go but I have no idea if that was the 28^th tick or the 2800^th. The blank page glares back at me like a mother scolding her disobedient child. Tick tock tick tock.  I hear the clock go. Change scene the smell of rotting fruit and dirty laundry over powers me taking me to a distant memory where I was 14 years old getting shoved to the ground by my peers again after P.E. class because to them I don’t belong. Tick tock tick tock. I hear the clock go. Change scene the brown walls swallow me in like Jonah and the whale then spits me back out because even the walls can’t stand me. Tick tock tick tock. I hear the clock go. Change scene I feel the hug of my sweatshirt engulf me and now I am back at the house in the same room where many nights of unwanted hugs overwhelmed me. Tick tock tick tock. I hear the clock go. Change scene the scolding mother, change scene the ground my friend, change scene brown walls, change scene change scene change scene. Tick tock tick tock. I hear the clock go. Finally I look up and see that 18000 ticks have gone by. Five hours yet nothing has changed in the reality outside of me. Tick tock tick tock. I hear the clock go.  Sirens blare, people talk over each other, cars screech and then I find myself under my bed curled up in a ball. 21600 ticks gone now. Tick tock tick tock. I hear the clock go. Change scene my eyes are heavy now, the blank page is dark now, the brown walls are no longer hungry, the hug lingers the longest but finally it goes away too. Tick tock tick tock I hear the clock go softer and softer as I drift off to sleep. 23400 ticks gone in all.