Tonight: Write rough draft for Writing II essay due next week.

Tomorrow: Work and class, then choir rehearsal until five. Catch up on Greek homework.

Saturday: Class. Write essay for history.

Sunday: Choir concert. Write essay for Greek.

Monday: Work and class. Edit essay for Am Lit.

Tuesday: Work and class. Do Am Lit project.

Wednesday:  Work and class. Study for econ. If not completely dead, go out dancing.

Thursday: Work and class, econ final. Tie up loose ends for essays and projects.

Friday: Work and class. Study for Greek final.

Saturday: Greek final. Dinner and mass with Metanoia women. Go out dancing in celebration of finals week.

Sunday: Relax. Seriously.

Monday through Friday: Just work, no classes except for finals.

Saturday: Perform at commencement (Congrats seniors!). Go home.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18: FAMILY ARRIVES FROM  BRAZIL!

Remember, friends: Just like Alyssa said, God won’t throw anything at you that you can’t handle. My body hurts, I’m sleep deprived, I’ve started having dizzy spells again and I’m so stressed out that “grumpy face” is a near constant, but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. I have less than two and a half weeks to go before I get to see my immediate family, and one day later I get to see three people I haven’t seen in almost two years. Don’t worry, be happy. Even if I need to run the next couple weeks on caffeine and willpower, I’ll do it. Family. It can do that to a person.

Anna

I have had such a tiresome week! It’s been absolutely exhausting. I had the wonderful honor and privilege of hosting a tea party for a professor who visited from England, Dr. Susan Docherty of Newman University College Birmingham. It took place for an hour yesterday afternoon up on the third floor of Beata Hall, where I live. As some of you may know, the third floor is called Metanoia, and is reserved as a floor for people who want to come together and grow in faith. While it is Catholic faith-based, people of all religions can come and live in the community. It was an appropriate place to have tea with Dr. Docherty because she is a theology professor and wanted to learn about Metanoia.

I got to plan and execute the whole thing! Of course, I had the help of several friends and everyone pitched in at least a little bit. I was really warmed by how many people not only reminded me to not do everything myself, but went out of their way to make sure I didn’t. People cleaned their pods so we could show off the building, helped make food, decorated, and helped with guests. In the end, we had earl grey tea with sugar, lemon, and/or cream, cookies, tea sandwiches, and mini quiche. We had so many people show up to celebrate! There were professors, faculty and staff, undergrad and masters students! Even Dr. Carrocci, Dr. Austin, and Fr. Mike showed up.

Dr. Docherty gave us the most amazing gift as a token of goodwill from Newman Birmingham. See, Cardinal Newman was beatified near there last year, and Father Gile got to be one of the celebrants. There were hundreds of priests! The celebrants all got to wear special vestments. Father Gile really wanted to keep his, but had to give it back. Dr. Carrocci opened the gift and there was a set of the special vestments!! They’re absolutely beautiful. I think they’re going to be worn for very special occasions, like the Cardinal Newman celebration we have every spring.

Overall, I could not be happier. The party went off without a hitch and was a massive success. I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time and there were congratulations abound. I hope that the exchange program with Newman Birmingham happens soon!

Cheers!

Anna 

Happy Monday everyone! I had a pretty delightful weekend considering that I did not have to work at all! I got to spend a lot of time with my family and friends. I really enjoy having good, quality bonding time with the people I love the most!

Before I get into my weekend though…Thursday night was a big night in my family. My little baby brother got Confirmed! I was lucky enough that I got to be his sponsor! Not only is he my brother, but also my best friend. I do not know what I would do without him. I am truly proud to say that he is my brother.

On Saturday I spent the afternoon with my amazing mom. I had a great time shopping with her and just being able to spend time with her. I was also able to have family dinner with my family on Sunday night. Nothing can replace the importance of family.

As I also said, I got to spend a lot of time with my friends. I have made so many great friends here over the past couple years and I am truly blessed to know all of them. I am so thankful to have these amazing people in my life.

As for this week…I work tonight and then tomorrow night I start training to become and editor for the Vantage! If anyone has any good story ideas, or something they would like to read, let me know! Wednesday should be a good night out with my ladies and then some fun festivities over the weekend!

I hope everyone has a delightful week!

Keep it classy,

Alyssa

What a fantastic week I’ve been having! Everything is flying by already. We’ve been having a lot of events: I know I mentioned Palace Night last week, but we’ve also had Make Your Own Ice Cream, Just Dance Party, Cards With RAs, lots of picnics, and other things. I play lots of board games with the people I live with, and we watch Jeopardy together almost every day. We’ve instituted Pod Plaid Friday (sometimes Non-Casual Friday) and Scooter’s Wednesday. I love having night prayer together with everyone. I even let my roomies drag me out to Denim and Diamonds last night for the second time ever and had an amazing time! I really, really like to dance. I’m so happy to be an English major too – I have so much free time, even though I know that will end soon. I like English, but I secretly can’t wait to start on my Master’s degree. Yay, linguistics!

Speaking of degrees and such- I took a CLEP test and am now a junior! Yeah! I took the Spanish CLEP and scored well enough to nab 12 credits, bumping me up to 62. Mama is so proud. I highly recommend CLEP tests to anyone who knows they can pass a class with flying colors and doesn’t want to sit through it. They’re super handy.

That’s all for this week!

Anna

What a great day today has been! It feels fantastic to be back at Newman. I’m so happy to see all of my friends, be on campus, go to class, and even eat in the cafeteria! I’ve had Scooter’s Coffee about a half dozen times since arriving (spending all my Scooter’s Bucks in one go…. bad call) and I watched Jeopardy for the first time in months yesterday! They don’t show Jeopardy in Kansas City! Everything is so fantastic. My teachers are amazing and I’m taking a ton of honors classes. It’s going to be a fantastic semester.

I can’t wait for tomorrow – it’s Palace Night! Everybody gets to drive over to the Palace and watch a movie for free – can you say cheap college date night? I’m not sure what I’m going to see, but the last time I went it was Gnomeo and Juliet, which is, in fact, the cutest movie in the history of all time.

In other news, today was the Matriculation Mass for freshmen. It was super cool, because not only did we welcome the new class of 2015, but Sister Charlotte also celebrated her Golden Jubilee (50 years of being a sister) AND we blessed the renovated Grotto. I believe it is to Our Lady of Lourdes, but don’t quote me. Then, there was a massive picnic. All in all? Perfect day.

Anna

UPDATE: Yes, the grotto is fact to Our Lady of Lourdes.

It’s July already! With only a month left until I return to school, let’s recap my summer’s events.

I’ve been thinking about writing a new post, and here’s what really drove me to do it: Father Mike is no longer Newman’s chaplain! This year we welcome Father Michael Linnebur as our chaplain and director of campus ministry. We’ll still see Fr. Mike around, because he’s still the director of vocations for Wichita (from what I gather, anyway). Fr. Linnebur (since it’s confusing to have two Fr. Mikes in a row) was an associate pastor at St. Francis of Assisi before being assigned to Newman this year. I wish the best of luck to both of them, and congratulations!

Meanwhile, in Kansas City…. Summer jobs. They kinda suck. To probably misquote something I overheard at Scooter’s one day, “Man, I don’t want to get a real person job.” I currently work at the bakery at Walmart. I get between 30 and 35 hours a week, and my duties are as follows: bag bread, label bread, put bread on shelves, get bread out of the freezer, put frozen bread on trays, clean bakery, do dishes. Occasionally, I write on cakes. Mostly, I bag and label bread and play real-life tetris in the freezer (In real-life tetris, nothing disappears when you get a full row. It’s harder). I say unto you, Newman students: get on-campus jobs! Do it! Look, the employment bulletin and the student application. Click, search, apply. If you want a job this fall, start applying now. Seriously. The bulletin gets updated like every day, and that’s how I got my on-campus job last year. I started immediately – can you say spending money? Yeah!

Besides slummin it at Walmart and not checking my school email frequently enough, I’ve been having a blast. I do a whole bunch of nothing when I’m not working. Sometimes I babysit and sometimes I go shopping. I’m not much of a full summer sun type person, since I burn in about 15 minutes without sunscreen – no joke – but it’s good to sight-see every once in a while! I’ve visited Northwest Missouri State and Baker University with my brother, who is school shopping for this fall (It seems like Alice In Wonderland’s White Rabbit keeps following us, because my dear brother is late, Late, LATE choosing a school!). He’s decided on Baker, and he’s going to be playing football for them! Yay! I’m so proud. Hopefully he’ll come visit every once in a while, since he chose not to come to Newman (Wrong decision, I know). Traipsing the countryside has been wonderful.

I hope everyone is having as great a summer as I am!!

Anna

Happy Holy Week! Wow, I can’t believe Lent is almost over! I get confirmed this weekend at the cathedral, and I am super excited. I can’t believe I’ve been going to RCIA for so long! I’ll be going to mass on Thursday and Friday at the chapel in the convent (it’s BEAUTIFUL!) because there won’t be daily mass at St. John’s. Then there’s Easter Vigil at the Cathedral and Easter mass at St. Johns. What a week! On top of all that, I have plenty of tests and homework this week (boooooo) but such is life. I moved to my new room last Friday, and I love it! It’s so much easier to study and acutally be productive. I couldn’t be happier. Moving out has saved my friendship with my ex-roommate, as far as I can tell. Everything worked out much for the better! I’m in a wonderful mood

Anna

This weekend, I went home to celebrate my and my brother’s eighteenth birthday with my parents. It was wonderful because my brother had come down to spend a couple days visiting me, and we had a ton of fun. We went to the Steve Means concert and to the improv show at Mead’s Corner.We toured some of the city and just chilled. He met all my friends and everyone here in admissions. I was so happy to see him! I love having him around, and I think everyone else enjoyed meeting him, too. At home, we went out to dinner and I had a massive cheeseburger. So good. I’m sad that I won’t be able to go home until the semester ends, but the price of gas is insane and I’d rather not give up my firstborn for a tank of unleaded. Crazy.

So when I got back to school on Sunday evening (EVERYTHINGIS SO GREEN!) a series of events went down that resulted in me finally caving in and deciding to split ways with my roommate. I spent all of Sunday night packing my things, so I’ve been completely ready to go since then. I thought I would have been moved yesterday, but Kate Kimble, head of residence life, is out of town and she has to be here to approve things. It looks like I’ll be moving tomorrow instead. It’s an amiable split between me and my roommate, nonetheless, it’s stressful and it’s wearing me out. I can’t wait to be in my new room. I intend to move to Metanoia, the Catholic floor of Beata. I’ll get my own bedroom in the pod, four other roomies, two bathrooms, a giant vanity, and a living space with a kitchenette. I am so excited!

Anna

I just had an absolutely amazing weekend! On Friday, I attended the Sloppy Joes Improv Show, and they were absolutely hilarious. After, I went to see the slam poet, whose name I’ve forgotten, that was performing in the alumni lounge. While I didn’t get to see WSU’s student group perform, the guest that CAB brought in from New York was mind blowing. It was fantastic. It was moving. It was emotional. I adore slam poetry. I give him… 150 out of 10.

On Saturday, I went on the pilgrimage to Dodge City with Campus Ministry. There were 15 people total, and I had so much fun! While I had to get up very early, it was super worth it. We toured their cathedral (Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe), which is actually very new, and it is beautiful! It’s actually round, instead of cross-shaped, which is an arrangement that’s regaining popularity. Here on campus, the chapel in the convent is round, while St. John’s Chapel is cross-shaped. After touring, we had some time to pray or go to confession or just walk around, then we had daily mass and ate lunch. Then, we all loaded up to go to the Boot Hill Museum. I imagine it would be more exciting in the summer, when all of the live impersonators are walking about, but it was still cool to see the old west. Finally, we ended our day by eating at Carriage Crossing in Yoder, Kansas. Yummy! After we got back, I went for a walk and got to hang out with some of my favorite people :]

Today, I got to sleep in late. Then, I went shopping and received a birthday present! Dinner was so delicious – we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, and honeydew melon. Then, I went on another walk with Anna Perincheri, went to mass, and have spent the rest of my evening doing homework. Now it’s time for bed, and I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend.

Bye!

Goodness,it’s one of those weeks. Actually, it’s one of those two-weeks, because I have four midterms and two tests coming up within that time period – Anatomy Lab, Anatomy Lecture, Biology Lab, and Prob & Stat midterms and tests in Chemistry Lecture and Biology Lecture. Pleasant. The best part is, bio lab, chem, and math all take place today and tomorrow. I’m going to go insane studying! I’m so worried. Chemistry is my worst subject. I’ve made flashcards and worked problems and there is so much studying and not enough sleeping that for once I wish there were 36 hours in a day so I could study myself silly and still get 12 hours of sleep run on sentence. To remedy this problem, I got a medium espresso smoothie with an extra shot of espresso, toffee nut flavored, at Scooter’s. If I’m not wired within an hour, my body is officially immune to caffeine.

In other news, it’s my suitemate’s birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAINA GARRETT! There is a mural outside our doors, stretching from the corner of her wall to the corner of mine, that we made for Spirit week- it’s Super Mario. In honor of her birthday, the green tube that comes up on her door is now spewing balloons, Johnny Jet (who replaced Mario) is wearing a party hat, the “?” box has a birthday cake popping out of it, the coins spell out “HAPPY B-DAY,” a flying koopa is holding a balloon, and a goomba now holds a birthday candle, among other things. Gosh, I love birthdays! The first floor study room in New Hall makes it especially convenient to hold birthday parties, too. We’re going to have a great time celebrating – remember, it’s Fat Tuesday!

COFFEE!

Anna