Thankfulness

Everyone will write about things that they're thankful for, especially around Thanksgiving. It's usually things like, family, food, shelter... those types of things. This morning at breakfast, for some reason I got to thinking about all the things I'm thankful for that don't necessarily immediately come to mind:

• ARAMARK: Without them, we wouldn't have food at all..in D-Hall, the Student Union, everything. Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat in D-Hall. If there isn't french toast or waffle sticks, then I will get an omelet--fixed the same way each time: egg whites, topped with a little bit of cheese, and then ham & green peppers. yummmm. There used to be this employee, Steven, who made the best omelets. All of a sudden, I stopped seeing him. The omelets I got after that were never as good, so I stopped getting them. Finally, they changed the "omelet maker" to this really nice lady. She makes GREAT omelets!! This morning, I saw her behind the counter, but she was kind of instructing this new person how to make omelets. The new lady ended up making mine. When she went to flip the eggwhites, they kind of ripped and I got frustrated because I thought she'd have to start over. I don't know what that ripping did, but it made my omelet taste wonderful!!
  
• HOUSEKEEPING: Yeah, I think I'm a little more thankful for them now that I'm an RA. I enjoy not having to be the one to clean up someone's spilled soda or, um, other un-identifiable liquids, from the elevator. They sweep every hall every day, and I know that on Monday mornings, that may not be as easy. For some reason, people seem to think that just because it's the weekend, that means that they can leave trash of any sort just laying in the hall. Is it really that hard to either a) walk to the trash chute on the hall, or b) take it in your room--I sure hope you have a trash can in there.
  
• PEOPLE WHO WALK QUIETLY: There are seriously some loud walkers that live in Curry. I don't understand how people can be so loud! I swear, it just sounds like a herd of elephants half the time and it drives me nuts. But, I appreciate those people who are also driven nuts by this and understand where I'm coming from.
  
• SCARVES: I usually wear a scarf everyday during the cold. I, for some reason, didn't wear one today, and I never realized how much of a difference it actually made at keeping me warm! When I set my clothes out tonight with what I'm wearing tomorrow, I'll be sure to remember a scarf this time!!
  

That's all for now :)

headaches.

For years, I have had a headache at least 5 days of every week. It hasn't been fun. I've taken so much ibuprofen in the past few years, that I'm basically immune to it now. I tried Tylenol Extra Strength; that made my headaches feel a bit better, but never made them go away. Some days when I'd have headaches were the same days mom and dad got them too, so the headaches were just associated with the pollen/mold and other allergies. And sinus-y stuff.

I finally went to the doctor over winter break and yes, they said I was congested. So, they gave me a prescription, Midrin, to take when I got a headache. Take 2 pills when I first get a headache, and take 1 pill every hour afterwards, as needed, but don't exceed 5 pills in 12 hours. Not only did the Midrin NOT WORK, but also gave me side effects that took a few days to figure out that's what it was. (Matt is so smart.) So, I stopped taking that. The last 2 days I was on the Midrin, I was also taking Claritin every morning. The day after I stopped taking the Midrin, I started getting really congested and I had a horrible cough. Another one of the side effects of the Midrin was flu-like symptoms, so I just associated it with that. Well, a couple days after feeling horrible, I finally went and picked up some Alka-Seltzer Plus Severe Sinus Congestion & Cough. It had all of my symptoms listed on the box: Nasal & Sinus Congestion, Sinus Pressure, Headache + Pain, and Cough.

So, then, I was taking Claritin & Alka-Seltzer. I didn't have a headache for a few days, but I didn't know what was taking care of the headache, since both of them did the job.

I ended up making an appointment at the Longwood Health Center and went yesterday. By that time, I had gone through 2 boxes of the Alka-Seltzer and I still had a cold or whatever it is! The physician's assistant there prescribed me to things: a nasal spray for my congestion, and a swallow pill for my cough (the pills are actually cool looking, haha, because they're these little tiny pearls.).

Conclusion:
-Claritin is not working right now. (Lame)
-I started taking the nasal spray this morning, I've seen a difference. (YAY)
-I have scheduled another eye appointment. (YAY)
-My head hurts so bad some days that I seriously consider night even going to class. (Lame)
-My cough is a LOT better, and I don't sound like a frog anymore. (Double YAY)
-We still have to schedule an appointment with the neurologist. (Lame)
-Sometime, we have to fit into my schedule physical therapy for my back. (YAY & Lame?)


P.S. Sorry this post is so jumbled and probably not in a correct order. I just wanted to write it all down.

a bad habit.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how I absolutely love working at Chick-fil-A. (that blog post is here).

And I do love it!

But part of that job made me feel bad today.

There's a Chick-fil-A Express here at Longwood. Now, being an Express, they don't have a complete menu so there are just a few things to choose from. That's okay with me, because they have what I eat (the original sandwich or nuggets). However, every time I go in there, I find myself criticizing the employees. I can't help it; it's just a habit. But I can't say anything, because that's probably just the way they do things. One thing that really sticks out is that not all of the (few) employees says "my pleasure." At least not to me, anyway. There are some that do, like that one girl today.

Working at Chick-fil-A in the Drive-Thru gave me a new appreciation for when I go through the drive thru at other places. Okay, so just McDonalds, because that's really the only other fast food place I go to. Normally, I would get irritated if someone didn't get my order exactly right and didn't hear that I said Diet Coke instead of just Coke, but after actually working the drive thru, I know how hectic things can be. If the wind is blowing like crazy, it makes it very difficult to hear what people are saying. Sometimes, people drive up in these monster trucks and you can't even hear over their engines! It can get ridiculous, but there's nothing you can do.

So, even though the Chick-fil-A here may not do exactly the same things we do at White Oak, I'm not going to get too mad or say anything to them, because that's just how they do things.

However, don't get me started on those workers down at Moe's......

I love to read..

...so I thought I would write a blog post to share some of my favorite books I've read, and maybe you'll read them and enjoy them as much as I did!

This first set of books is one of my all-time-favorites! It is absolutely amazing! Several of these books I read in about 2 days. Others (when I was busy with school) took me a little bit longer.
There are 14 books that make up this whole set, but in 3 smaller series: Redemption, Firstborn, and Sunrise. One of my mom's friends from church introduced me to the Redemption series first, and I didn't know that there were two more series after that! My mom has also read them so when she was reading, I kept asking her what part she was getting to!

They are all written by Karen Kingsbury about the Baxter family. This is a Christian-based series and there is nothing not to like about these books!

She also took one of the characters from this whole series and wrote a new series about her. I have 2 of the books at home, from the same friend who introduced me to them in the first place, but I haven't had time to read them yet. I promise myself I wouldn't read another book until I finished the series I was working on already. Which brings me to the next books!

My sister is one of those people who reads the new Harry Potter book entirely as soon as it is released. Me, I can't do that. haha. Which is why it has taken me until NOW to finally be reading the final book. While I do love Harry Potter, I'm not one of those people who gets extremely upset at how the movies leave out details. I don't pick at movies; I enjoy watching them. Plus, I find it much easier to read them after seeing the movies, because I can visualize the characters and the events taken place.

*I had done pretty good at staying caught up with reading the books. The only movies I saw without having read the books were: HP & the Order of the Pheonix (the last half of the book), HP & the Half Blood Prince, and HP & The Deathly Hallows Part I. I do PROMISE that I will have the book finished by the time HP 7 Part II comes out in theaters, haha.

When I first heard about this next series, I thought it was ridiculous. Who wants to read about flippin vampires anyway?! Well, to my surprise, these books were wonderful and I read through them sooo quickly. I read them all my freshman year at Longwood and I always liked to get to class early to get a good seat (yep, still do that because I'm a n.e.r.d). But that gave me lots of extra time to read!

And for those people who are either the on the Harry Potter or Twilight side of the battle, I love them equally. I think I always will love Harry Potter a little bit more, just because it was the first. Annnnnd, Rob Pattinson, who plays Edward in Twilight, is first known for his role as Cedric in Harry Potter, and that's where he'll always be from first!

Other books that I have read and loved are (in no particular order):

*There are a ton of other books by Rachel Hawthorne that I've also read. I just didn't post a pic of all of them.

These last two are written entirely in instant message format. I thought I was going to hate that to begin with, but it actually wasn't much different from reading a regular book! There's also another book in the series, that I have not read yet, called l8r g8r.

What are some good books you have read?

A little alone time..

Today is the last full day I'll be the only person living on the 7th floor; my residents start moving back in tomorrow. While at time I do find it eerily quiet on the hall, sometimes I like the quiet and being by myself. Plus, I know that when everyone's back I'm going to want to be the only person on the floor again. (Not that I don't love my residents, I do. And I like to hear them hanging out with their friends and all, but sometimes, you can only stand paper-thin walls for a short time.) But it's peaceful on the floor, in the whole building for that matter. And I love that the only people currently living here are the REC, RAs, Desk Supervisor, and a small handful of people who are Desk Aides throughout campus. That's only about 15 people I would say. This time next week, there will be hundreds more people back in the building and then I'll be missing the quiet.

Also, 97% of the time, I take the stairs when I go down. It's 7 flights (technically, 14, since you go up some stairs, turn, then up more, to get to the next floor...) so I can easily get a small workout in. But since Wednesday, I have been taking the elevator every single time. Only because I never have to wait more than 5 seconds (this is no exaggeration) for the elevator to come and I don't have to be packed like a sardine with fifteen other people. Plus, the elevator is still clean from when housekeeping was here over break, so I don't have to hold my breath with the leftover smell of stinky people.

Dare to dream.

I like the person that I am,
but I'm in love with the person
I have the potential to be....

For those of you who don’t know, perhaps some of you blog followers I know from Longwood that call another part of the state/country home, Henrico County High Schools all have a different focus area that makes each unique. There are 11 high schools that have different Specialty Centers which range from Arts, Communications, Engineering, Humanities, World Languages, and much more. I chose to apply and go to the Center for Communications, which happened to be at my home high school. I knew I wanted to go to my home high school no matter what, because I wanted to go to school only about 20 minutes away from my house, whereas in middle school, I rode 2 buses to the opposite end of the county which resulted in an hour and a half bus ride (one-way!)

Being in the Communications Center gave me a whole awesome family. I was with the same 30ish people every day, almost allllll day! We laughed, we cried, we fought, we stressed, just like any close-knit group would do. But no matter what, we all understood each other and we were there to help. Always. Besides all of the newspaper articles written and Roll Tape episodes film, one really exciting “Communications moment” to look forward to was the Senior Dinner. A few weeks before graduation, all of the Communications seniors and their parents were invited to a dinner banquet at a local hotel to celebrate all we had accomplished over the past 4 years. Each student was given a different award for something they excelled in or improved on over the years. We also watched “The Senior Video.” This not only included all of our 2 minute senior speeches, but funny clips and memories of everyone from over the years. At the end of the dinner we were given gift bags consisting of our award, a copy of the senior video, as well as a card from all of the Communications teachers, including those who had retired or accepted a new job. (And yes, I did stop writing to go find my copy of this video to watch while I continue to write!....and I may or may not have teared up a little!)

After being inspired by my sister’s bran spanking new clean and organized closet, I decided to go through a few things in my closet. In one of the plastic shoe boxes with random momentos I’ve kept, and I keep a LOT, I found the card from all of the Communications teachers. From being reminded of how every year I always had a screwed-up schedule or how I always smile, one note stuck out the most to me, and I think I read it at just the perfect time. It said, “Don’t let your dreams be dreams.”

…

I took mom lunch at work last Friday, and ended up staying at the library for a couple hours, helping her re-shelve some things and also just looking around. I was so surprised because I never knew school libraries had non-education related books. I know that sounds silly, but I honestly only thought that school libraries had reference books for writing papers, textbooks, biographies, etc. I could not believe that there was an entire COOKING section, for instance. And then these new comic-book style chapter books? I forget what they were called. I came across the Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas book because it’s Christmas (that’s all the reason I needed). Then, Mom showed me where the Career books were and that I might like looking through them. I found a couple of those and then just sat in her office reading through them. Reading through those career books made me realize I have noooo clue what I want to be or what I want to do. There are too many options (some with too much school!). And there are some things that I’d love to do, but I am not up for 12 more years of school. No way. Not now. I just have to find something that fits me well and I’ll actually enjoy doing.

But, I’ll just have to remember the quote I got at the end of my senior year: Don’t let your dreams be dreams.”

More Than I Could've Ever Asked For!

Working is a whole lot different than being in school. In school, you're thrown into a class where you may or may not know anybody. If you know someone, you hang out with them. If you don't, you choose who you hang out with and start talking and building friendships. Working, for me, is completely different. From my first day of training at Chick-fil-A, everyone welcomed me so much. Then new people were hired, and I wanted them to feel just as I did before. I look back now and see how many wonderful people I have met and gotten to know through work, and I wonder, "how did we build a friendship?" Unlike in school where you choose who you talk to, at my work, you honestly talk to everyone everyday. It doesn't matter if they work in the kitchen or front line; you talk to them. It is amazing how I can now call front line workers, kitchen workers, cooks, baggers, headset person in drive-thru, window person in drive-thru, team members, team leaders, managers, owner truly great people and friends.

-The one who calls you Maly Cat.

-The one who makes all your mistakes okay. (For instance, if you knock things on the floor that now can't be used, she just says, "it's okay!")

-The one who laughs at you when you get nervous about taking headset.

-The one who says something about your different Christmas ribbons each day the week of Christmas.

-Those who give you a million hugs on the one day you got your hours messed up, and not a single person was mad; they were all worried.

-The one who calls you Maly Mal.

-Those who say, "We need more Mallorys."

-Those who insist you go on break now, instead of you letting others go first, because you'll never get one later.

-The one who tells you just to fill up all the ice bins before you leave, then later sees you stocking sauces and wonders why you're still there, and it's only because you don't want to leave yet.

-The one who sarcastically says, "You mean I'll have to see you again in the summer??"

-The one who says, "WHERE'S MALLORY? She better not have left without giving me a hug!"


This is why I love my job.

A New Beginning: Hello 2011

A new year comes with new changes. And there are a few things I’d like to write about:

-First of all, when the new year comes around, all the Christmas decorations come down :(

-I’ve had the same basic blog set up for a while. It’s time for a change. That’s why I decided to change it up a bit. I’m still working on something for part of it, so just wait and see!

-My freshmen residents are no longer just freshmen. They’re second semester freshmen. They’re not really “newbies” anymore. They know so much more about Longwood now and have made such great friends with other people on the hall. But I hope this doesn’t make them too cool to still talk to me and come to my game nights ;)

- New Resolutions? I question this because I always find it difficult to come up with a resolution that can actually be realistic. Is it possible? Some of my past resolutions have been: Read the entire Bible, Read the DaVinci Code, go to the gym more often, to not make a New Year’s Resolution (well, that was definitely a fail!), etc., etc. This year, one that I’d really like to try to do has to do with my blogs. If you didn’t know, I have two. The one you’re reading now gets updated the most, but I’d like to not forget my inspiration blog as well. It shouldn’t just get pushed to the back burner. And I know there are times when I go so long without even posting, and I blame it all on not having enough hours in the day. That may or may not be the case, but I’m sure I could find a small bit of time before bed to write a little something. So, my New Year’s Resolution for 2011 is to write in each of my blogs at least once a week. That may be too small of a goal, but I’d hate to set it too high and fail after the first month. This way, I can [hopefully] at least reach my goal, and then add more if I can!

-Changes in your life due to family/friend losses are always challenging. I may not show it on the outside, but I’m still trying to accept the loss of my friend Casey, and earlier this week, his aunt Charlotte. I don’t talk it about that much, mainly because I think that makes things seem so much more real. And in all honesty, I don’t want them to seem real. Because every time I think about a great moment or memory that involved Casey, my first thought is, “Oh my gosh! I have to text him and see if he remembers this!!” And then it’s kind of all downhill from there. Then come all the thoughts of, “Well, what if…”

-I have to figure out what I want to do in my life, which may or may not be a good change. Later this week, I am going to be searching around finding places where I can intern over the summer. I’m either going to find something I fall in love with, or find something that’ll make me change my major…again! Hopefully, it’s the first of the two. I’m sure my parents hope that as well! I am currently thinking Cardiac Rehabilitation Therapy. Then there are other times when I still want to be a doctor, but I don’t think I can handle that much more school! I’m so ready to be out!

-Growing up. Do I like it or not? Ha. I guess it doesn’t matter; I’m going to have to eventually! So far, Matt and I have three weddings to go to this year. It’s so crazy that we’re now at the age where 2 of our cousins and his uncle are getting married. It’ll be a lot of fun though (I love weddings!).