Nancy Drew is old.

For those of you who say Twitter is useless, I say something witty that shuts you down entirely.

I loved reading all about Nancy Drew and her ability to solve just about any crime and wear a pencil skirt while doing it. Now Fred Flare, an online retailer, is celebrating her 80th birthday with a "serialized fashion mystery." Thank goodness somebody tweeted about it or I would've never known!

Check it out here.

Augustutions.

Augustutions= August + Resolutions


After failing miserably in the past year at my resolutions, I decided to make them a little more specific.

1. Make an effort to read FOR FUN at least 15 minutes everyday. Sometimes you just have to put down the textbooks and jump into a novel. Especially now that I have this list (thanks, Abby).

2. Keep a completely clear desk. What's the point of having a desk if it's always too cluttered to use?

3. Eat breakfast. We've all heard people talk about how it's the most important meal but now I actually believe it.

4. Lay out my clothes for the next day. It really is an excellent time saver and I can always use that in the morning.

5. Make a budget and stay within it. This one is still a little vague but now that I'm adult (or at least my mom tells me so), I need to be more responsible with money. Gap and Target are going to take a hit.

6. Listen to at least 1 new album every month. Despite the only music store in Greenville other than Best Buy being turned into a movie rental place, I'd like to take in more music. I am a creature of habit and that sometimes makes for boredom. Suggestions are welcome!

7. Continue the my Picture-A-Day project. So I kind of forgot my username and password for Flickr but as soon as I figure that out, I'll be able upload more.

8. Take a day off. I have a feeling I'm going to need a day where I don't do any schoolwork each week. I would love for that day to be on Sunday but I'll figure that out whenever school starts back.

9. Write a daily thank you note. There's too much to be thankful for and I often forget it.

That's all I got.

Technology Fail

So on one of my first days in Greenville, I had to take a computer competency course on Microsoft Access, Excel, Powerpoint and Word. I failed it. Great start in a new town, right?

Well if you fail the test, you have to take a class. The catch is that it's all online. And it can't be done with Macs. And the professor has the discretion to change the due dates, which I learned the hard way last night.

All that stands between me and summer is the final (online) exam. Unfortunately the site to access the final is down. I failed technology and now technology fails me.

Keep your fingers crossed that the site starts working soon, otherwise I'll have an F in a computing. How embarrassing it would be to talk my way out of that one.

Ohno, he's so good.

There are a lot of things that Greenville does well. The bus system is awesome. I love hopping on a bus every morning that promptly takes me to the exact building where all of my classes are. It's nice to start the day with a little reading on the bus and not having to worry about parking, etc. It's like a daily trip to the spa. That's an overstatement but I do enjoy it.

The university also apparently chooses textbooks well. My roommate Sandy has a textbook with Apolo Anton Ohno on the cover! How exciting is that?! My textbooks just have covers of little kids learning and junk.

Speaking of school, I got my placement for my internship (the PC way to say student teaching) today! I'm going to be at D.H. Conley High School. I'm excited about it. I met some high school girls who raved about the teacher who I'll be working with. I'm a little nervous because she teaches seniors, which means I'll be teaching seniors. I'm barely older than those guys!

It was a good day until I saw this:

{Wit + Delight} posted about this blog called Manrepeller. I'm really sad that they have overalls listed as a HUMAN repeller. Geez, just when I thought they were coming back in style.

Back to studying!

Much love,
Courtney

I'm alive.

Y'all. This past week has been crazy- in both good and bad ways.

Bad news first:

School got very hectic very quickly (5 exams and 4 projects in 2 weeks) but after Friday I will be done and onto second summer break. On Sunday night, I never even went to sleep because I had so much to do. That's no way to live!

My southern accent is thickening. How do I make it stop? I now say that I live in Green-vull. Dang it.

The good news:
I finally moved into my bachelorette pad with Meredith and Sandy! It's perfect and even though we are still working on settling in, it's looking better everyday. Also, I taught my very first lesson today and it went well. It's nice to know I might actually be good in this profession.

Good night! I'm off to read the book I just started.

It's only TUESDAY?

Unrelated topics:

*I cannot wait for The Bachelorette to be over. My ears are tired of hearing people talk about it.

*Second summer (like Pam's second drink) starts next Friday! 3 weeks of goodness that won't involve tests or class.

*I can't believe it's taken me this long to read Catcher in the Rye. It's Emma's favorite book and now I know why.

*Glenn Beck follows Muse on Twitter.

* The boys from The Buried Life are ridiculous, in a good way. Look what they did for an awards show.

* Tomorrow is Free Queso Day at Moe's to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

*Banana Republic is teaming up with Mad Men.

* Forever21 is now making maternity clothes? And getting critiqued for putting the line in states with high levels of teen pregnancy? Come on, now-that's just good business.

The Daily Nail

I really can't believe how intricate those nails are. And that this lady paints hers in some sort of intricate design everyday. I don't even shower that often.

Her collection of nail polish is astounding, along with the fact that she can paint with both hands.

I both admire and pity her.

Brainy muffins.

Turns out moving to Greenville doesn't make you a better baker.

I tried to make some banana chocolate chip muffins today and they ended up looking like miniature brains and had the texture of them too. Don't worry though, they are still delicious!

I'm so glad it's the weekend. Today I only had one class from 2-4 but the fellow future English teachers gathered at Starbucks to talk about literature and critique each other's work for class. I am working on a unit for To Kill A Mockingbird. This was the most hipster-esque thing I've done since being in Greenville, so I celebrated by wearing a plaid dress and TOMS.

My mom will surely be glad when I have friends here. I have called her everyday to talk about things she is genuinely uninterested in, such as nail polish, what I want at my hypothetical wedding and shoes. Then I go on to harass her by asking her questions about everything I can think of. She is forced to give me a rundown of everybody's day from my Poptart (grandpa) to Barney Antoine (the dog). Luckily she's a great mom and doesn't seem to mind too much.

A daffodil.

I just can't figure this place out.

Today as I was leaving class, a guy dressed up like a banana ran up to me, started dancing and told a joke in some sort of pirate accent. The most embarrassing part of it all was that the building beside me had a fire drill, so there were tens (TENS!) of people watching.

About an hour later while heading to my second class, a girl passing by complimented me on what I was wearing. I thanked her and kept walking when I heard a loud "Excuse me!" I turned around to see her coming hurriedly towards me with a daffodil, which she gave me "for being so pretty." Although she wasn't a single, handsome man, I still appreciated the gesture.

Greenville is quite a special place.

Overheard in Greenville.

I had a rough morning. After waking up late for the 3rd day in a row, I dropped both my contacts onto the bathroom floor and only managed to find 1 of them. Then I went on to mysteriously kick my trashcan right over while attempting to put lotion on my legs.

Unfortunately, I had mouthwash in which I proceeded to spew on some of the trash I had just spilled. This uproar made me forget to put on facial moisturizer and I've spent the morning worrying over whether or not my face will get sunburned. Geez.

It didn't put a damper on my spirits though because I have overheard several quality conversations in the past week and IT'S FRIDAY!

Overheard on campus:

"I'm going to shoot myself in the head if one more person asks me to go to the beach."- Really? Going to the beach is that troublesome?

Girl#1- "You need to get tested! Your eggo might be preggo."
Girl #2- "Yeah, I'm pretty busy today though."

And finally, in class today, all the adults tried to define what constitutes an emo kid. In all their middle-aged glory, they came up with these characteristics: very thin, wear black, guys hold hands with girls, kind of goth and guys only wear skinny jeans even though they aren't gay. The last comment was "Yeah, and they listen to Panic! At the Disco."

Boy oh boy, what a morning.

Uptown Umbrella Market

I finally ventured to the Umbrella Market today and boy, was I pleased. I left satisfied and happy with a watermelon (sold to me by a guy in my program, small world...err, town).

Inspiring.

A message from Lady Gaga:

"When I wake up in the morning, I feel just like any other insecure 24-year-old girl. Then I say, 'Bitch, you're Lady Gaga, you get up and walk the walk today.'"
– Lady Gaga to Rolling Stone

A video message from Jessica:



Happy Tuesday!

Some realizations.

A few things I've recently noticed:

- Glasses (for the eyes, not the lips) are the most frustrating things to lose because once you have done so, you can no longer see to find them. Keys come in a close second.

- I wasn't made to work at a desk. My classes are 2 hours long and I am Fidgety McSquirmy within 30 minutes. Studying at one is no better.

- I want everything at J.Crew right now.

-There are no lightning bugs in Greenville.

- I have been in school straight since the beginning of my sophomore year of college, compliments of summer school, study abroad and now grad school. How craycray is that? Endurance called and I answered.

That's all.

P.S. Happy Birthday Elizabeth! I'm terribly glad you were born and that we had freshman English together.