It's official.

Sorry for the excessive absence- the past month has been a whirlwind of papers, books, friends and studying for the GRE. But as of today, I am done with the GRE and back on schedule!

Yesterday, I officially reorganized my closet to make room for my winter clothes! There is nothing about winter that I don't love. The movies are better, the clothes are better, the food is better and my family suddenly becomes bearable.

Since coming to college, I've especially appreciated winter and all that it brings even more than usual. With a month long break from classes, winter break is the perfect time to hang out with everyone I never see during the school year and catch up on movies and books I've been meaning to read but haven't had the time.

There are a few traditions I look forward to this time of year. One is watching the Chrismukkah episodes from "The O.C." with Kristin and giggling at Seth Cohen's snarky comments. Another is watching the annual viewing of "White Christmas" at the Pratt's house. Also, my mom and I go shopping at midnight on Black Friday- we are very dedicated bargain shoppers. And I can't forget my incessant desire to watch "Elf" on repeat.

This holiday season, I have something else to look forward to: my best friend's wedding! It's going to make something great even better.

In a final note, Hurricane Ida is ruining everyone's spirits (and ability to get out of bed) with all this unceasing rain.

Toodles for now!

Jill Bliss is wonderful.

Last summer, I found myself in need of a new journal to capture all the great adventures I was having while studying abroad in Cambridge. While rummaging around in a little shop, I found the perfect one.

It had a retro floral design and grid lines- 2 of my personal prerequisites. And it was the perfect size, 5 in x 7in. Needless to say, it was love at first sight.

The name of the company that made all my journaling dreams come true was called "jill bliss". The biggest surprise of the journal was that it was made in San Francisco! I had to travel across the pond just to buy an American-made product...ironic, in my opinion.

jill bliss offers a lot of fun and intricate designs in her paper goods and other products, like jewelry and wallets. Her products are even good for the environment- my "Native Flowers Journal" was printed on 30% post-consumer waste recycled paper.

"the underlaying hope in everything that i do is to inspire others, and to encourage a more thoughtful art and design industry that focuses on local economies, fair practices, reusable or sustainable materials, and less consumption tied to ever-changing trends." - Jill Bliss

jill bliss products are available online at jillbliss.com.

I just can't get enough...

of these songs.

1. "Kids" by MGMT- The video for this one is super bizarre but the beat is irresistible.
2. "Fireflies" by Owl City- The imagery in this song will blow your mind!
3. "Campus" by Vampire Weekend- I have no idea how they make every song so catchy.
4. "She Moves in Her Own Way" by The Kooks- British pop...need I say more?
5. "Daylight"by Matt and Kim- I have never wanted to dance more than when I hear this song.
6. "Raw Sugar" by Metric- For whatever reason, this song makes me want to conquer the world.

Winner takes all.

Ever since I was young, I've been winning things-not anything based on skill but solely on luck. I consistently get crusehd in sports or games. However, if you enter me in a contest of some sort, there is a relatively good chance I can come out on top.

It's a joke in my family that I always win things and for the most part, it's true. The first things I remember "winning" are free sodas from soda machines. I have no idea why but machines used to give me drinks when I pressed a button, even if I hadn't put any money in.

The biggest prize I've ever won came at a time when I couldn't even use it. Every year my mom and I used to go to the Holly Day Fair, a huge craft festival in Fayetteville. Each hour, they sold raffle tickets for door prizes and it never failed that each year, I would win at least 2 door prizes. They would be small things, like a necklace or spices from one of the vendors.

People who didn't win the door prizes were entered into the grand prize drawing. So although I'd won door prizes, I must have still had at least one ticket that didn't win and it was entered into the big drawing. About a month after I had been to the festival one year, I got a call saying that I'd won the grand prize: a trip for two to a casino in Biloxi, MS. At the time I was only 11 and legally unable to go, so my dad got to reap the benefits of my luck.

The funniest part about winning that contest was that it came not too long after I'd won a 6 month supply of M&Ms after finding the gray M&M in a bag that my mom had bought me at the grocery store that night. I was just excited to have candy and be watching my favorite tv show at the time- "Walker, Texas Ranger." I guess Chuck Norris really can work miracles.

My next big win came in high school. I entered into a contest on a teen magazine's website and won a cell phone. After it arrived, I was playing a text trivia game and won an iPod. My parents were convinced I was involved in some shady business that allowed me the money to buy fancy technologies.

Recently, I got my car towed and was not happy about the situation. I was annoyed that I had to spend $100 just to get a man to give me back my own car. Feeling defeated and broke, I went home to volunteer at my mom's school the next day. It was their Fall Festival, so there were tons of kids running around and playing games. My mom gave me money for some ice cream and with the change, I entered in a raffle for two $50 gift cards; one to Wal-Mart and the other to a gas station.

At the end of the night, a little girl came up to me and told me I'd won. While I squealed in excitement, my sisters and mom just shook their heads like they had been expecting it the whole time. It was absolutely one of the most ironic things that's ever happened to me. What are the chances that I would spend $100 only to get it back the next day? Things like that only happen in the movies!

Maybe I won't ever be the best at sports or games but if luck is a skill, I'd say things are looking pretty good for me.

Which is it?

Over the course of my college career (which is coming to an end much sooner than I want it to), I have had a variety of majors. I started out thinking that elementary education was the one for me. Then I jumped to journalism, which I have always been interested in. Next I hopped over to English and am sticking with it. Going to grad school to get a Masters of Art in Teaching is much easier with an English degree than a journalism one and they overlap quite a bit in the professional world.

Until today, I hadn't really noticed how much each one of them influenced my writing style. Journalists have a straightforward edge in their style of writing that great poets and literary writers have never felt the need to recreate. Somehow I am stuck in the middle with no clear idea of how to integrate the two methods.

During my sophomore year here at UNC, I took a news writing class. For 3 hours on Mondays and Wednesdays beginning at 8 am, I was forced to write news articles with speed and accuracy with little to no room for creativity. Adding to the stress of this was the problem of trying to eliminate as many words as possible because newspapers have to pay to print based on the amount of words in an article. In fact, the best grade I ever got in that class came on a day when I felt so defeated by the blunt way of writing that I failed to put any personality into my article.

However, English classes require basically the opposite of that writing style. Ever since taking that newswriting class, I haven't quite been able to get a grip on the creative writing that I used to love so much and did without realizing it. I'm still stuck thinking about ways to eliminate words and stick to an unbiased view on the subject when my writing should be full of personality and spirit.

Yesterday, I worked on and completed a paper that's not due until tomorrow. It was a close reading of the final paragraphs of the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. Partially trying to show off and trick my teacher into thinking I am more of an overachiever than I have ever been in my life, I quickly became humbled.

After looking my paper over, his response was "It's a great start but..." and told me all his criticisms of the paper. The first thing he told me was that my paper was too coherent and clear. TOO COHERENT AND CLEAR?! I didn't even know anyone could complain about that. He explained by saying that my writing just wasn't analytical enough and that if to make this paper more elaborate and introduce new ideas, I had to sacrifice some clarity in the paper, he would fully understand.

So now I'm sitting outside at one of my favorite places in Chapel Hill, Foster's Market, trying to figure out how to make my paper more obscure and less orderly. It might be the most odd task I've ever had to perform on a paper.

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." - Confucius

Shoes of TOMorrow.

A couple of nights ago, I had the privilege of hearing Blake Mycoskie, creator and founder of Toms Shoes, speak at UNC. At just 33 years old, Mycoskie has developed six businesses but the one he has fallen in love with is TOMS. With the slogan "One for One," Toms Shoes donates one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair it sells. To date, Mycoskie said that more than 400,000 children have been given shoes.

I have been hearing about TOMS for the past year and fell in love with the idea of the company as soon as I heard about it. After hearing Mycoskie speak, I respect him and the company even more. Throughout his speech, he explained a lot of things about the company that shocked me.

One of these things was the fact that the disease, podoconiosis, which children often catch as a result of going barefoot in contaminated soil is resolved just by giving a kid a pair of shoes. Blake also mentioned that while the disease is serious, its aftermath is the hardest part for students.

After getting the disease, the legs of these children swell up to look comparable to those of an elephant, as Mycoskie described it. When this has happened, children are no longer allowed to go school or public places anymore. Even more appalling is that many of these kids end up committing suicide...all because they didn't have a pair of shoes.

Another interesting point of Mycoskie's speech involves the financial aspect of the company. TOMS is not a non-profit organization, which surprised me. However, Blake went on to say that if he had enough money when he began the company to pay for 40,000 pairs of shoes. By making this company for-profit and investing that money, he has been able to supply nearly half a million children with shoes.

One other thing that Blake said frequently confused people was the name of the company. When he started the company, he wanted to call it Tomorrow Shoes because if they were bought today, a child would get a pair tomorrow. But as he and his friends began designing the shoes, they realized that most other shoes had a little label on the back and the word "tomorrow" would never fit on one. So he shorted it to TOMS!

The TOMS website has more information on the foundation of the company and how people can support the company and get involved. Blake mentioned that the easiest way to get involved is to buy a pair of TOMS. He has a theory that every person who buys a pair is responsible for 10-2o kids getting shoes due to the free advertisement- so you should order some today!

When Animals Attack

Since last week, I have become somewhat fearful of animals. I began reading "Moby Dick" and this is when the fear began. As I read through this classic tale, I am astounded at how much damage one whale has done to so many characters in the novel. Ahab, the Captain of the ship, has dedicated his whole life to getting revenge on one whale who ate his leg years ago.

Thanks to the novel itself and this picture that my teacher put up on the big screen in class one day, I now walk around with the fear that a great white whale could attack me at any minute.

This past weekend, I had a few more run-ins with animals that lead me to think they are all up to something.

On Sunday morning around 5:30, I was driving to my parents house. On the way home, I had been counting how many deer I had seen. I was up to 7 and that doesn't include the ones I saw before I started keeping a tally. On the way home, the thought flashed in my mind that of how lucky it is that I had never hit a deer before. Oh how shocked I was when I felt something crash into the side of my car. It was a deer. Thanks NC Wildlife for keeping me modest.

My next encounter occurred just yesterday when I went to the doctor and found out that I most likely had Swine Flu over the past week without even realizing it. So sneaky, you guys.

The combination of all these things has got me thinking...what if "Pinky and the Brain" wasn't just a cartoon? WHAT IF THEY TAKE OVER THE WORLD?