Trials and Trevails

Today has been just the average Saturday afternoon. Sarah and Rachel and I watching Friends reruns, procrastinating on homework and not having quite enough umph in us to do be more dilligent, when Rachel points out that none of us have blogged in quite some time. Rachel, being the one to realize this, is of course the first to finish hers. Which left Sarah and I fighting over which one of us would get to blog about our experiences 86 year old women stuck in 20-something bodies...sadly, Sarah beat me in the race to our computers. (How rude, right?)

No worries, though, because shortly after feeling a bit sorry for myself that I lost the race, I realized I had an equally good blogging topic: The Gym.

For Christmas, my Mom told me that she would buy me a gym membership of my choice, and as a result, this week I happily joined the ranks of the millions of Americans who flock to the gym each week in an attempt to be strong, fit, healthy, and above all attractive. Of course the whole attractive part doesn't really kick in until after you leave the gym. I don't actually know of any woman who has become lovesick after seeing a red faced man in grey sweats with sweat spots that stretch from their neck all the way to their belly button....but that's beside the point.

As I was driving to the gym this morning for my first workout, the Friends episode where Chandler tries to quit the gym was playing in the back of my mind. (The One with the Ballroom Dancing in season 4) "I wanna quit the gym!" Chandler chants over and over as the gym staff continue to use their special "phrases and peppiness to try to confuse" him. I began to wonder if that's how every conversation with a gym staff member goes.

Not long after I walked through the front door, I found out that every conversation does indeed go that way. Rachel and I had practiced the night before being assertive so that when I went in for the complimentary training session, I could have them do things exactly as I want, rather than be forced to follow their preset game plan. All I wanted them to do for me was show me how to use each of the different weights so I wouldn't look like an idiot trying to do leg reps on a machine meant for biceps.
However, I apparently didn't practice enough because I only managed to get out my first protest, before they had me convinced that I needed to be a triathalon runner in the 2012 London olympics.

After the workout session, he sat me down and tried to sell me a personal trainer for 50 bucks a session plus 150 deposit fee. I just looked at him in absolute amazement as I began to realize that this was the only reason they offer a free personal training session in the first place. All I could say was "I'm a college student....do you really think that I can afford that? If I could afford that, I wouldn't have had to have my my mom pay for my membership here."

I left the gym in absolute frustration, realizing that he only showed me how to use of the machines (one of which I will NEVER use again) and with a pretty sure feeling that I would not have the ability to walk the next morning as a result of the rigorous workout session I was dragged through.

Never you fear, though because I have learned a very valuable lesson from all of this. From now on, whenever I go to the gym I will have my headphones in and my music up before I even walk through the door, and I will master the art of avoiding ALL eye contact.

The Most Wonderful Time...

Yesterday, my roommates and I put up all of our Christmas decorations. The house is so beautiful! We decided to put them up early since all of us are leaving sometime around the 15th to see all of our families. We wanted to be able to get a full month in of the festivities.

We didn't have a star to put on the top of the tree so we made one out of tinfoil. I had some Snowflake stickers that made it sparkle a bit more.


Ta da! The finished product! The Christmas tree we bought came with lights on it already, and Sarah's parents let us borrow some of their decorations, and even gave us a case of bulbs. Sarah and Rachel had painted wood ornaments that they made last year, and I had snow flakes that I used to decorate my dorm room last year.



The nativity sets are my favorite part of Christmas decorations. We have mine that I brought back from Israel, and Sarah's Willow Tree nativity. We put the wisemen up separate from the rest of the nativity set, because they actually would not have got to see baby Jesus until about a year after he was born... It was one of those "You know you're a Bible College Student when...." moments.

This is my nativity set (above) The manger is a music box that plays silent night. The pictures just don't do it all justice. Our whole apartment is much prettier in real life. Especially the nativities.
Here's Sarah's nativity. It's so beautiful. The white wall kind of washes it out. It's much prettier in real life.

The four of us drove up into the mountains in the forest and cut down a baby sized tree for our table. That way we could enjoy the fresh smell. The trip was a lot of fun. We took Mercedes and she played and ran around till she was exausted.

And of course, my pretty ladder...all decked out in lights. Now we just have to find a new place for the blankets. And last but not least....

This little dutch elf is the latest addition to our family. (We really need to name her) Sarah's Grandma made her. I think she is actually supposed to be an ornament, but there was nothing to hang her from, so we decided to make her the look out. There she is, perched at the very top of our tree!

Home Alone

I have the entire apartment to myself this weekend. All of my roommates are gone. Ashley is in Pennsylvania and Texas, Rachel is in Denver, and Sarah is at Tadmor. So it's just me and Mercedes. It's not so bad actually. Having the place to myself is nice. I get to keep the house exactly how I like it (everything spotless clean, with airfresheners to make it smell pretty), I am not getting distracted from homework--ok well I am getting distracted less than usual, and well...that's about it. I definitely am NOT a fan of spending the night by myself though. It was so scary! And I have to do it for two more nights! When you are all by yourself, every little noise you hear sounds like somebody breaking in. All I was thinking the whole night was "I want my mommy and blast it, I don't care who knows!" You might say that is rather pathetic and lame--I'm well aware of that, but that doesn't make it less true. Mercedes is here, and that is comforting...but I kind of have my doubts about how protective she would be. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body. I've heard her bark maybe twice. I'm working on bonding with her though that way she will like me more and feel more inclined to jump to my rescue should anything actually happen. We are a good pair, me and her. I know she sheds and is dirty...but she can actually be a little bit cute at times. See?...Oh, I definitely thought the picture would show up at the end of the post. Oh well. Back to studying.

The Poor College Student Game

My roommate Sarah convinced me that it would be a good idea to start a blog. We all know that I am not good at being on facebook or myspace....checking messages, emailing, returning phone calls and, well...everything else that involves communication, so I am going to be optimistic and assume that this will work better. :-)

Being in college has made me look at being poor like a game. This is the result of one of the games.... I took all of the contents in the fridge--leftover spaghetti, olives, bagel crisps, sour cream and cheese threw it in a pan and put it in the oven...it actually turned out pretty good. Sarah doubted my abilities, but she repented of her ways after she tried it. That will feed two people for the rest of the weekend!