The Semester from the Underworld

I have a confession to make: I am petrified of this semester!

I "took" a course over the summer.  The theory was that it would give me something to do to make the dark abyss of summer break a little easier to deal with, since I really struggle during breaks.  In doing so, the thought was that I could knock out the one Gen Ed requirement that my Metro degree lacked.  A win-win situation, right?

The only option I had to meet both of these goals was an online class (strike 1) entitled "Women in Islam in the Middle East" (strike 2), consisting of a slew of reading that, whenever I eventually motivated myself to do it, made me ridiculously angry at the injustice towards Islamic women and I'm not even a feminist! (Strike 3.  I'm out.)  The course was so packed and intensive that it came with the option of taking a grade of incomplete and using another semester to finish it.  After my laptop finally died from an injury sustained in my October car crash and I was without computer access for a week and lost all hope of ever catching up to make the summer deadline, I went ahead and gave up and took the alternative route.

This was after I made the decision to go ahead and see if I could handle 2 classes at the same time while working full time.

Meaning I suddenly find myself juggling three classes while working full time.

With this week having been the first week of class, I have already started off on the wrong foot.  There was some hard-core crazy drama that went down this week that is now resolved, but was incredibly stressful, and me being "assertive" really feels more like being a jerk.  Then there was meeting half a jazillion new people which happens at the beginning of any new school year.  I had to talk in front of both of my new classes.  I'm still dealing with the bank to replace my debit card from when my wallet was stolen two weeks ago.  I got a call from Biolife saying that my protein test came back low and I have to go in to be retested and can't donate for at least two weeks.  There are some changes going down at my campus ministry that are great and wonderful and awesome changes, but are also kind of scary for this introvert whose comfort zone has already been obliterated in every other aspect of her life this week.

And then I have come to the conclusion that undergraduate creative writing students apparently don't actually write, they talk about writing.  Seriously, I've been waiting to take writing classes so I can write and get feedback on my writing and let my writing speak for me and all that jazz.  I've been waiting to experience workshops for literally years!  Now that I'm finally here though, both of my professors are being super gentle about it.  "I know it can be really scary, but I promise this will be a safe and respectful place to share your work.  You won't be graded on the quality of your writing, so long as you put forth good effort."  So I'm in college for creative writing, and my writing won't be taken any more seriously than it did in high school.  Sweet.  Then it turns out, I'm only going to be workshopped a total of three times this semester...

But will be up to my ears in class discussions.

This is not what I had in mind.

It's Labor Day weekend now, and I am currently taking 24 hours to stay home and recover from the beating my poor, introverted self has taken the last two weeks.  This also includes organizing my life and trying to remember how to juggle more than one class at a time... I haven't done that in two years!  When these 24 hours are up and my life is organized, I will go to the grocery store... And then probably return for some more recovery time.  Basically, I am going to have a lot of respect for my poor, battered comfort zone for a couple of days.

Because on Tuesday, I'll go back to work, I'll have class again on Wednesday, and my comfort zone will once again mean absolutely nothing.  Which, you know, I suppose doesn't have to be a bad thing.  You don't learn and grow as a person in your comfort zone.  God doesn't show up in as huge and amazing ways within the confines of your comfort zone.  You can break free of false limits and find your real ones when you leave your comfort zone.  It's just that my comfort zone is... You know, comfy!

I know I have lots of prayer warriors who read this blog, and I really don't thank you guys enough for how much you pray for me!  I don't directly ask for prayer very often, in part because I know you guys always have me covered anyway :)  But this semester, please pray for some rockin' time management skills, that I can juggle everything this semester.  Pray for courage as I face all of these challenges that lie outside of the parameters of my typical personality.  My original goal for this semester was to get better at connecting with people and making friendships that can bring other people closer to God, and while at the moment that's the last thing I really want to focus on, I know that it's still something God can teach me to do even in the midst of a chaotic semester.  And please pray that God shows up in huge and amazing ways this semester, that all of this craziness glorifies Him and brings me closer to Him.  The Lord is my refuge and my strength, an ever present help in trouble.  Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear no evil.  I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Welcome to the Semester from the Underworld.

Introducing Kaycee's Library!

In light of finally organizing all of my books after my recent move, I have finally decided to share my reading interests with the world wide web!  Let me take this opportunity to show you some images of this inspiration:

Poetry :)

Tolkien :D

I don't have a thing for Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti at all! :D

BOOKS!!! XD  *crazy, maniacal laughter!*

Good writers are also readers, it's as simple as that.  Not to mention that books are just about the safest and most beneficial addiction ever, right?  Hence: My library.  Some day, it will actually be a library instead of books crammed wherever they'll fit on bowing shelves.  Hopefully, like the great aunt's library from the movie Inkheart, complete with the cozy window seat.  That's my dream anyway.

And besides, everyone is always asking me what I like to read, and while the line "I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens" from the movie Ever After is an appropriate response, it would be cool to have a central place with all of my favorite reading delights :)

Thus, my electronic library has been born!

The fiction section is listed in alphabetical order by the author's last name.  I'm a fan of the old saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all," so you'll only find good books on this list!  I do have books in my physical library that I have simply to expose myself to different kinds of writers, and there are some of these authors that, chances are, you'll never see in my online library that actually are in my physical library *coughcough Danielle Steele cough Stephanie Myers coughcough* ahem.

I do however need to take a moment to shock the world: Not all works of fiction are G rated.  If that isn't the shocking part, this is: I read some such books!  Thus, I shall utilize the Little Brother Test.  My little brother is 16 with a passion to remain pure in the midst of a public high school, much like me when I was 16, and sometimes that requires carefully choosing not to plant some things in the imagination.  Therefore, if I wouldn't want my little brother reading it, I'll add a little heads up to it in the library.

Of course, this is a huge undertaking, so please understand that this library is still under construction.  I'll try to periodically post reminders to check it out!  I'm also hoping to add a poetry section and a movie section later on!  Then when it's all caught up, I can post reviews of various books, poets, and movies with links to my library.  So you know there will be more fun and exciting things to find there!

Thanks for tagging along on this little adventure of mine!  I hope you enjoy!

~  *  ~

Did I put enough links in this blog post?  Did you catch my subtle hints?  You should go check out my library!  Click here!!!

"It's so... Level!"

So it's been a couple of weeks now, but I wanted to report to the Internet community that I am no longer living in what we have so fondly come to know less as "The Coralville Cottage" and more as "The Dump!"  Not gonna lie, I really did love the place for most of the two years I lived there.  Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

My bedroom on my first night in Iowa

The other side of my room that first night

Pre-moving in kitchen

Still not totally sure what was holding the place together!

Don't you love the concept of straight lines?!

One of my bat friends!  This was the first one... not the one that tried to assassinate me!  It should also be noted that, while packing up to leave the apartment, I found a dead bat in the mud room.  So happy to be living in a bat-free environment!!!

And an adorable picture of Gracie, for good measure!

This was the last straw!  I was cooking chicken, and I went to go check on it to suddenly find the handle only half attached to the oven.  This image was the moment where the Coralville Cottage lost its charm!

This guy is my "little" brother, and he was my hero!  I went home a week before the move, and he came back to Coralville with me to help me pack up before moving day!  I don't know what I would've done without him!

The plan was to pack both my library and my bags in one fell swoop... however I underestimated the volume of my library.  It worked for half of it!

Here's the other half!

One last picture of the outside of the place... Again, notice the awesome lines!

It echoed like crazy in there when it was empty!

The move was only a few blocks, but I'm living in an actual apartment complex now rather than the triplex type situation, and that part has its ups and downs.  The parking lot is nice as opposed to the gravel alley-way between two buildings (or rather, the parking lot will be nice as soon as the contractors quit tearing up the concrete and changing where we can park!).  They also spray for bugs once a month!  After two years of living with cockroaches, I'm pretty stoked about that part!  The noise is a down-side, Gracie and I keep hearing our neighbors which is a new phenomenon for us, and we also live between the railroad tracks and the police and fire stations.  There are also contractors on the roof outside our window yelling at each other in Spanish.

We also live on the third floor.  I'm not going to lie, living without stairs for two years probably spoiled me a bit!  However, I also live next door to a *drum roll, please* Laundry Facility!  Seriously, we are right next door to the laundry room!  Granted, it costs quarters, but no more scrambling to hand-wash work shirts on the weekends!

In addition to the laundry room, we also have a dishwasher!  Not to mention flat floors and right angles!  The new bathtub is smaller than my old one, but it's actually sealed into the wall, everything is level, and I can take a bubble bath without an audience of ants!

Gracie and I have also been enjoying the companionship of our new roommates!  My new roomie is super sweet, and I love just hanging out and chatting with her!  We have already eaten together a couple of times and enjoyed a chick-flick with another girl friend of ours, and I'm looking forward to at least two years with her!  The more we get to know each other, the more convinced I am that this was a match made in Heaven!

Gracie's adjustment has been slightly less seamless.  She also has to get used to a new roomie--a gray and white one with stunning green eyes named Kitty.  Both Gracie and Kitty have been only-cats for a while, so they're still working out what to think of each other.  My roomie and I joke that they are probably besties while we're gone during the day, even though there is a little hissing involved when we're home.  But Kitty has been rubbing off on Gracie a bit, Gracie now plays with toys (which she refused to do before, in favor of pony-tail holders and plastic bags tied in knots), and she's slowly starting to warm up to the idea of kitty treats (the ones that my roomie refers to as "glorified cat food").  She loves exploring, especially late at night of course.  I woke up this morning to find my roomie's Wii controller in the middle of my bedroom floor.  There have also been some surprises with Gracie's transition, ranging from the very first hiss I've ever heard out of her to her new discovery of drinking out of the toilet.  She's a crazy kitty, but that's why I love her!  And I think over all, both of us are much happier in our new home!

I'm still in the process of unpacking, so we've still got some boxes going on all over the place.  I would show you pictures, but most of them are up-and-down, and alas, I don't know how to make Blogger rotate them :(  But rest assured, it's a pretty awesome place!  God has provided yet again, and I'm ready to tackle this new chapter of my adventures here in Iowa City!