Long Awaited;

I owe you all an update on my life. I am sorry to those who actually read this blog on a regular basis, but I have been lacking this past month! I am going to blame it on life and me having my priorities somewhat in a scuffle. I am not slacking in school or anything but I have added more to my daily plate with workouts and it seems to be bettering me but also knocking time out of my day to finish everything; hence me failing to blog regularly.

For starters school is in the last stretch, close to finishing up this photography program and having all these late nights and tedious projects be worth it. My painting and drawing class aka 2D Design has been a rather large learning curve for me. I can honestly say this class has been enlightening to me. It has helped my photography in the sense of thinking about composition in a more thoughtful way, and really thinking about how colours communicate to a viewer different emotion. For that I am thankful I took the class, for the amount of work it put me through each week outside of class I dread it!

My intermediate photography class has a project that lasts 5 weeks; each week you take 576 photographs. Each week you print your 5 favourites, get a critique from your classmates and move on. At the end of it all you choose 20, they have to have a common theme, they have to flow together. It’s been challenging for me, I chose night shooting; it’s my favourite time to shoot inanimate objects. The sun goes down around 830pm right now, which leaves me photographing late at nights. It’s hard to always find people to tag along with me, and it’s hard to take 576 photographs a week when one photograph has the exposure of 30 seconds!! It will definitely be interesting selecting my final 20, not sure where I am going with this project!

My Photo lighting class has been enlightening; we had a guest speaker the other day. He is a commercial photographer who makes a living off of photographing inanimate objects. He photographs anything from air duct systems to construction sites. He does a lot of work, and makes a good living off of it. After listening to him talk, and hearing what he does each day to make his living, I have decided that I love photographing people, and the commercial side is something that I don’t see myself in. Although I could make money photographing a piping system, I don’t get the enjoyment out of photographing something I can’t interact with. As far as the class goes, it is kicking my ass right now. Having to book studio time and not being able to take lighting equipment off campus for a shoot makes it crucial that I plan a schedule and that I make use of my 2 hours in the studio. Almost done though!

Art Portfolio is my photography class in which has a gallery showing where we show a project that we’ve made out of our own passions. Ongoing projects are more about fine arts and creating a series of themed images based on an interest or investigating a topic. For me I investigated self-image and how we as humans (mainly females) have learnt to see ourselves. It was an interesting project for me, I don’t see myself as self-conscious so I’ve never really thought about it. Exploring self-image allowed me to really see the issues women have with themselves these days, the constant need to change the way they look. I am happy with the outcome of my images, and I am happy to have them in this gallery showing. I however am intrigued to hear the responses from those viewing them. The show opens April 17^th, so I will let you know the response I get from everyone! I will also post images of them up in the gallery!

Now that we are up to date on school I will fill you in on my spare time! I am still taking the energy supplement V16 Energy Drink from Advocare. It is still working wonderfully and is a great pick me up before my daily workouts. I have started to workout in a more intense manner than before. After soccer season I would run, I would do stairs, simple things here and there to maintain my shape. Now however I have decided to step it up, running at least 2 miles a day and working in either an arm workout or legs. On top of this all, a few of us soccer girls have been doing sprints to help get us back in “soccer season” shape. Although it’s making me extremely sore and tired in the moment… I am finding it giving me more energy in the long run! Having teammates to train with is just making it that much easier to stick with; motivation is always around me!

That is that for the update!  I get to go back to Canada in 34 days, I will be leaving to Europe in 38 days and really I just want to get my summer on the way! I am incredibly excited for what this summer will bring, a huge learning curve will probably be on order the moment I set foot in Europe. Until then, time to remain focused on school and getting myself out of here sane!

Till next time! 

Welcome 2012;

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I hope 2012 brings you nothing but positive energy and some great naps.

I am sorry it has been so long!  I have had some serious home time that has allowed me to see the friends, family and loves till 2 am and sleep till noon. My bed has never been so comfy. I am dreading having to go back to that single bed in Minnesota. Home sweet home, seriously. You don’t realize how much you love something until you are forced to be apart from it for months at a time. I am forever grateful for my family and friends and this beautiful city I call home.

My Christmas has been amazing. It’s been a few years since we’ve been home for Christmas. Last year we did the hot Christmas in Beautiful Panama; just near Costa Rica. My goodness, beautiful place! I am however happy that this year we are at home! I missed my house; I missed the free food and laundry. Anyways Christmas Eve’s Day was spent on the bathroom floor due to my error in not fully understand pacing yourself. That evening however I went out to family friends, finally allowing my body consumes food. It was wonderful to see the family friends, have a few laughs and then hurry home to get to bed before Santa arrived! My parents were super generous this year, and by that I mean Santa got me just what I wanted/needed! My parents were happy with their gifts, as well with my brother. Seriously I love giving gifts and having the person receiving it get all happy! I got my mom a Coffee Mug with out family photo in it, and then 2 charms for her Pandora Bracelet. I got the father a Flask that had “Learned from the Best” engraved on it. The brother got 6 shirts, the plain v-neck ones that he wears everywhere. Assorted colors of course, and the reason for 6…Urban Outfitters had a stupid awesome deal I couldn’t resist! My grandma always talks about the arts and crafts I did when I was little; painting flowerpots, drawing, painting little statues…anything artsy! Well seeing as she made a comment on how I don’t make those things anymore I took myself out to the crafts store. Bought myself 2 Christmas ornament statue like things. Got some paint, and spent my afternoon having fun proving her wrong. I love painting artifacts. She adored them of course and thought I had bought them already painted! ;)

As for what I received the list is wonderful! I got a pair of Ugg boots; they have got to be just the comfiest things out there! I got a new belt; I desperately needed a new brown leather one. My dad happened to find a perfect one! My brother got me this amazing blazer that I have wanted forever! It’s really cute; it can be worn with dressy clothes or with a pair of jeans. I adore it and am looking forward to wearing it! I also got a bracelet; it’s of Pandora type style and idea but a lot less expensive and really cute! I like it, and my mama put on a few charms; soccer ball, camera, heart, peace sign, luggage. It’s really quite cute! It was a successful Christmas morning and next was my favorite part… DINNER! I love my mom’s cooking’s, and I love my mom. I helped her here and there in between watching television with my brother, skyping with my friends and all that good stuff. Finally 5 o clock rolled around and dinner was served. Another amazing meal, for free and with the loved ones! I am so thankful for my family and being able to be with them over the holidays!

Well school starts up here in a week and with a 3.5 GPA from last semester I am happy to start the next! I am looking forward to more photography, more excitement! However I do kind of wish it was closer to home. I love the idea of travelling, but I don’t like the idea of living this far away from home. I don’t love the city enough to have that desire to be there. I will make the best of it though because miserable days make the time drag on! American spring break is Middle of March; a few of us have been talking about FLORIDA! The guys live there; so we’d have accommodation and the beach is 10 minutes away! What’s not to love about the situation! My dad even offered to allow me to dig into my “education fund” for some help with finding the money. I have the funds for it, but my excitement lies in the possibility of me doing a Europe trip in May! My dad however believes Florida would be a great idea and a great experience that is part of college. He said I shouldn’t throw Florida out the window just because I want to do Europe. I should compromise and do both and he’s willing to help. I love my father for that. The fact that he enforces me to travel and see things, do things is awesome. He’s travelled the world with work and he has come to find that it is the quickest way to learn about yourself, learn about the world and to learn to adapt at quick rates! I look forward to all the travelling I will be doing in my future.

Europe is on the agenda for leaving 3rd week of May. My friend is from Scotland and was going to go back for a visit. I thought, why not turn it into a trip!? We have discussed briefly on where we want to go, what we want to see and how much we want to spend. We will do the UK (Scotland, England) for about a week, visiting his friends/family. Next we’d get into Netherlands and travel through 4 countries. Hitting up the following cities; Amsterdam, Bruges, Brussels, Paris, Bordeaux, and ending in Barcelona. Of course we have room for hitting other cities but those are the main places we decided on getting too. We’d be gone for 4 weeks, and I have thoughts about staying another 2-4 weeks. I want to get to Italy & Greece. The places I want to see are endless, too bad my funds aren’t!

Well Narci needs a good nights rest! I’ve been getting a serious 10-12 hour sleep every night I’ve been home. It’s been amazing; I love the holidays! Although I did get Strep Throat, I managed to get antibiotics and get right back out there as long as I was on my Tylenol and Advil! I couldn’t risk staying home any days and not seeing my friends with the limited time I have! Also oddly enough my naps have been next to none, I’ve just had so much energy! I’ve been going to the gym as much as possible, trying to stay in shape with all the baked goods my mama has been feeding me! Hopefully my energy level sticks around for one more week! I got friends to see and things to do!

Good night all and have a good week!

Surprise!

This week was full of surprises, full of lies and full of fun! My parent’s 25^th wedding anniversary is December 20^th. It’s crazy in this day and age for couples to make it that many years, I am thankful that they did and that they have been wonderful role models! December is an awful time to get together friends, not an awful time but just people leave town, have family to see and are generally really stressed around Christmas. When planning a party I took that into consideration and decided American Thanksgiving Weekend would be a great time to have a party. I have school off and so I could potentially fly home to Canada for the party.

Keeping secrets is generally pretty easy for me, I am a good bullshitter…not my best feature…but in the situation of planning a surprise anniversary party it comes in handy! I hate lying to my parents, I hate having to keep track of my lies and make other people aware of what lie I told. Since July I have been lying and planning a party. Finally this weekend it all came to a sweet end!

First surprise went a little like this…My parents thought I was going to be spending American Thanksgiving with my friend Natalia. We were doing black Friday shopping…leaving at 3am to get to the Mall of America in time! My Dad knew about the surprise party for their anniversary. (I had to tell him because with his work I had to ensure he had it booked off well in advance!). My dad called 2 weeks ago and offered me a flight home for the party. He said mom would be disappointed to see a party I planned and not to have me attend. I told him that although I would love to fly home, I missed a week of school for New York and am super behind in dark room time. I need all the days in the darkroom I can get! He said he understood and appreciates that I take my schooling so serious. Seeing as paying for a plane ticket would show up on my credit card bill, which my parents can see with their online banking I had to borrow a little help. My brother has a credit card, with a small limit and only he ever see’s what is purchased with it. We paid off his entire bill and waited to find flights that were ‘reasonable’. Finally found one, had to leave on a Tuesday late at night but I’ll do anything to be home! Tuesday the 22^nd I landed at midnight, my best friend picked me up and we caught up on old times! Next morning would be surprise #1! My friend went to my door, put my luggage on the step and rang the doorbell. My mother came to the door, was surprised to see Natalya and was confused when Nat said “Sarah sent me her luggage home, I don’t know what to do with it so I am dropping it here before I am off to work”. My mom looked at the luggage and pondered…seriously confused. Just as that was happening I came out from behind the tree and said, just kidding I brought home the luggage myself! My mom started crying, questioning how I got home without her knowledge and every other question that you could think of! It was a grand surprise and I seriously made her week! She suspected nothing of me coming home, just that I was simply home sick! Next my father was coming home that day and he was arriving around 6:30pm. I decided to do a little surprise for him too. When he got in the door my brother went and helped him with his luggage, talked with him in the kitchen…you know…the normal father son catching up. After about 5 minutes of normal conversation I tip toed down stairs and said “Hi Dad, SURPRISE!” He was shocked, happy to see me and said “No wonder mom wanted me to text her right when I got home!” Surprise number 1 check!

The whole 3 days I had before the party I kept lying and saying I was out with friends for dinner or out visiting friends for coffee. Really I was doing last minute things with my brother to make sure the party went smoothly!

Party went great, all the guests brought a dish of food, and it was like a potluck party. It saved us money on food. It was great amounts of fun, my mom was shocked and she was initially upset she didn’t dress up enough cause she thought it was just a “café concert”…luckily her smart daughter packed her a dress a heels. The night went great, they were really happy to have had a party and that the turn out was so good! We had close to 50 people there!

Anyways I am at the airport because I have to fly back to Minnesota. 5 days is not near enough time to hang out with all my friends. I can’t wait for 20 days to pass and I can be home for a few weeks at Christmas!
Back to school for me, oh joy! 

yes doctor i'll take some of that;

Maybe its the fact that Narcolepsy might be an Immune system disorder; it would explain why every time someone even gets the sniffles I get a real nice cold.
10 days of being sick, 10 days of having no voice in the morning, and 10 days of feeling sleepless. My body aches, I sleep for 12 hours and I still feel drained. Even thinking about going to the gym makes me tired. Last night I had 3 naps. I haven't done that since before I was medicated!! I had a nap before the boys came over for dinner. My 4 best guy friends here wanted a home cooked meal and I promised I would do so once my season finished. Cooking for 4 football boys, all over 200 pounds was a task! Anyways next nap was after dinner when we were on our way out to a girls bonfire in the country. My oh my she has a cute little farm house! We had fun, but 12:30 came around and I curled up on the lawn chair and started my nap... luckily one of the boys was leaving to go back home so he got me up to leave. I got home and of course since I napped I was up for another hour or so. 2am came around, and I was out.
Today I went to the doctor though, my body obviously needed some help getting over this illness. Got some antibiotics for this sinus infection and I hope to feel better in 5 days or sooner. Fingers crossed because I am exhausted!!
On a side note, i'll have exciting news for you all in about a 10 days if everything goes as planned! So i'll keep you posted!

Have a good weekend!

Can you say New York?

I am super excited about life right now! Today’s game was our make it or break it moment with soccer. If we won, we would be Regional Champions, if we lost our season would be over. The game was against a team we had played twice in normal season. We managed to beat them once, but also had lost to them once. The pressure was on and honestly the game could have gone either way. Whoever won this game, not only got the regional champion title, but also get’s to go to Nationals. Nationals are held in New York this year! My little Canadian self has yet to go there, and would really like to go when it’s paid for!

After getting our pre-game speech and warming up, it was time to start the game. We dominated the pitch, moving the ball around, creating chances; sadly not finishing any of our chances in the first 45minutes. It doesn’t matter who has the ball the most in the game, it’s really about finishing your chances. If the other team managed to get a single shot off and use there chance to the best of there ability…we’d be screwed. Second half went better; I managed to get a shot off from about 35 out and score. It was with 20 minutes left, we were playing defensive, at least attempting too. Everyone was so nervous, so worried that it got to us and we had a wee bit of a screw up in the back. Our opponent came back with a goal with 10 minutes to go. Both teams were well “freaking out”. You could tell by the way everyone was playing, it was a mess out on the field, something we call Kick Ball…its not pretty!

With a tie at the end of the regular 90-minute game we went into golden goal. Golden goal, which is played in two ten-minute halves. If a team scores, it’s over. Next goal wins is pretty much the basis of the rule. Neither team managed to score in either of the 10 minutes given. Now it was up to penalty kicks; the goalie of each team faces off with 5 different players of the team. One shot at a time from about 10 or 15 yards out; to be honest I can’t remember the rule. Either way, each player is given the ball, they can place it on the spot indicated, and when the ref blows the whistle you can take your shot. These are the types of shots that are the hardest to stop for a goalie. They have to first of guess which side you’ll be shooting to, and even if they guess right, there reaction is going to have to be quick. Our coach picked 5 girls who she thought have the best penalty kicking skills, I was one of them.

First shooters; both shooters scored… tied 1-1

Second shooters; our goalie stopped the shot…we scored… we’re up 2-1

Third shooters; bother shooters scored….3-2

Fourth shooters; our goalie stopped the shot… now I was the fourth shooter for my team. If I scored, we didn’t have to go to the fifth shooter. I always do my penalty kick to the left of the net (goalies right). Our opponent’s goalie though wasn’t standing in the middle of the net, and she was getting a glove or at least real close on the past three shots. I was extremely nervous and didn’t want to get my shot stopped. I’ve never practiced going to the right like I’ve practiced going to the left. Honestly when I was setting up my ball on the spot, I didn’t even know which was I was going to shoot. My mind was going a mile a minute, contemplating. I took my 6 steps back, tapped my right toe against the ground, and tapped my left. (I seriously have a ritual I do before every free kick, penalty kick…the exact same steps and the exact same toe taps. Haha.) The ref blew the whistle; I stood there for probably 2-3 seconds before taking my run. Seriously, didn’t decide which way I was shooting until about 3 steps into my 6. I went to the right (goalies left)… the goalie dived the other way so there was no way she was getting it. We won Regional’s on that note and now we get to go to Nationals in New York. It was an extremely exciting day. I can’t wait to leave on Halloween for the 19-hour drive. I have no expectations for Nationals; of course I would love to win, but making it to nationals is an accomplishment in itself.

I will be missing a week of school though, so that should be interesting! Working hard this week to get ahead!

Later!

midterm grade check;

From Team Trip to Chicago, IL

Near Downtown in Rochester

Near Downtown

Grade check, as in our Midterm grades have come out of hiding. Its that time of year where you see where exactly you're at; if you need to get your act together or if you're succeeding. Thankfully I am able to give myself a pat on the back; I have a 3.75 GPA. 

Darkroom Class: 91%

Digital Photography: 97%

Business Class: 89%

Drug Use & Abuse: 95% (GPA/Credit boost class)

That is seriously something I have not had since I was in my Sophomore year of high school. I am super proud of it, especially since it's soccer season and I have had to miss a few classes here and there. Looks like I will be continuing to keep up with my school work because these A's are satisfying. Just goes to show that when you're studying something you enjoy, it's that much easier to dedicate your energy to achieving good grades. I however feel that I would never be able to take more than 4 classes at once. Especially when I have my one class that is simple and I barely have to do anything; its basically just a GPA/credit booster.

Also these last few days have been a little weird. I have had some solid hallucinations before going to bed in the evening and when my alarm goes off in the morning. I don't think its because I am not getting enough sleep, I think it is a lack of naps. I need to start napping in the day again and get back on a better schedule. Also I have noticed a lack in my nutrition; although I eat healthy compared to many of the people I live with or play soccer with... I lack my daily intake of nutrients. I bought some supplements; the Women's Teen Advantage one a day. I bought the teen one because it had high levels of the vitamin A, B6, D, and magnesium. Technically I am still a "teen" as well...eight teen. With that I also got a Vitamin C-250 and an Iron supplement. I know for a fact I am not getting enough Iron because I find it difficult to eat a lot of red meat or seafood or almonds. I hate almonds unless they are chocolate covered!! Either way; I have found that in the two days I've been taking them I have more energy and I am more lively. Hopefully they help me get all the nutrients I need on top of what I already eat! I know they say freshman 15... but since arriving here I have lost 13 lbs. I didn't need to loose the weight, in fact I was happy with my weight, but with all the running and training we did I have managed to slim down. I feel that I am at a good weight and I feel generally healthier. If I gain any weight back I sure hope it's in muscle! That would be awesome.

I am staying in Rochester this weekend, no away games or any travelling with our team. It should be nice to just sit at home; go to bed in my own bed. Will keep you updated in the future. I can't think of anything else I have to say... am I forgetting to mention anything?

Ciao

Still Alive, Still Awake.

Sorry for the time I’ve left in between this post and the last. I’ve been busy; busy enough not to completely loose my mind, but too busy to even process what’s on my mind. I think it’s time for a break from life. Just two days would be enough. On those two days I would like nothing but a pillow, blanket, couch and unlimited supply of food that will not go straight to my hips/ass/thighs. Oh shoot…is that too much to ask?

I had two awful days since we last talked. I had one night I was up doing homework late, practice the next morning at 6am, and then class from 8am-2pm. I had gotten 5 hours sleep, and had practice and had two classes worth 2 and half hours. The day was hell; I barely made it through to say the least. I fell asleep in the one class. I will pray that I won’t be doing that again anytime soon; let’s be honest though I am in college now this is apparently semi normal? Next awful day was when I got little sleep, missed my alarm and woke up just in time to run to class. I forgot to take my meds, preceded to try and get through the two and half hour class, with scribbling and doodling to keep my awake. My teacher asked after if I really thought he was that boring. How exactly was I suppose to answer that? I probably didn’t answer it the right way but I told him I used doodling to help me stay awake. I failed to mention I forgot my drugs, that’s how zonked out I was. I ran home and took my drugs and had some caffeine in my tea…just enough to get me through my second-class and afternoon practice!

So far I have kept my grades up, have an A in two classes and a B in the other two. I have never use the letter grade system, so to me a B sounds just awful. A B however is around 85-89%. I can’t complain when I think about the percentage. I am proud of these grades so far and look forward to keeping them up! Study sessions and long nights in the photo lab/darkroom will be the only answer to these hopes!

Currently I am in Chicago, Illinois, of course for soccer. We have three games over the course of three days, so far we have won two and tomorrow will be our last game before heading home to Minnesota. I’ve had two great games if I do say so myself; gotten 4 assists and 1 goal. My leg is obviously healed and obviously in great working condition now! Lets keep it this way! 

My parents came down to visit me and were quite wonderful company! I had missed my parents, I wasn’t quite homesick but I will admit I missed a home cooked meal and the little things my Mama would do for me. Moving out hasn’t been a rude awakening, people always said you’d learn to do things that you never thought you had to do. Well I have to say my parents raised me in the best way possible. They taught me to take care of myself; I learned a lot of the hard lessons while I was living at home because my parents forced me to do so much for myself. Yes I might have been spoiled here and there, but I was well aware of what my parents were doing for me and I knew one day I’d be cut off. Living on my own has allowed me the independence I wanted with a good learning curve to keep me grounded. I appreciate my parents far more now that I have moved out. For all the times I fought with them or told them I hated them or yelled at them for giving me a curfew, thank you.

Hopefully my life stays steady, I’ve been pretty tired but this trip to Chicago has allowed me some extra sleep time. The bus ride from 5-6 hours, we went to bed early to get 10 hours sleep. The girl I shared a bed with was a dream to sleep with. She can sleep with me any night, she didn’t move or steal sheets. I wake up a lot in the night because of insomnia, but I only woke up three times. It was amazing! Haha.

Happy days are ahead and fun times are around the corner. I need sleep though, my game is at noon tomorrow and I have had an adventurous day with no room for naps.

Ciao