The 92 Changes of Sophomore Year

Dear Josh,

First day of school! First day of school!

Here I am in my second year of college already. Wow. Time has flown by so quickly—I feel like the last time I blinked was when the ride attendant for College: Year One was reciting the usual “keep your hands, feet, and other objects inside the cart at all times. Oh, and enjoy the ride”.  You may not have noticed the intense speed of last year/this summer while chained between school bells and physical education requirements, but I certainly have noticed it considering my third semester of classes started about, oh, a few hours ago.

I’ve been at Murray since Wednesday (about 6 days ago), and already my year differs from coming in as “fresh meat”.  You ready for the differences? Get prepared because I am about to SHOOT straight with you (follow the BULLET points…hehe):  

·      Think you’re busy as a freshman? When you’re a sophomore you’ll probably be involved in some sort of organization that wants to make the incoming freshmen feel welcome (News Flash: That includes ALL organizations). Yes, helping other people settle in is fun stuff, but you’ll be pulled in every direction possible.

·      Not as many free things for sophomores! I swear, the only time someone has actually realized I’m older than I look—I wanted a free t-shirt and the guy screeched “THEY ARE JUST FOR FRESHMEN!!!” Yeesh.

·      You have better room selection. My room is AMAZING J One girl walked by, poked her head in, and asked, “Are you all handicapped or something!?” We have a giant room.

·      You’ll notice that all the friends you have that are girls will no longer be buying the basic things while preparing for school—they will buy more decorative things for school! I already had all the basics from last year (bedding, fan, measuring tape, pens/pencils, ect.), so this year I got to bring a ton of pinterest projects and other decorations. You might do that, too, but I doubt it.

·      I’ve actually stopped taking general education classes, and have started on my major classes, which is a pretty great feeling. Technically I should have spread out those easy gen-ed classes between my hard major classes, but I didn’t understand that memo until too late. I think I’ll be alright though.

·      I’m not sure if this next point is due to the fact that I will see you all so many weekends in a row this semester (yay for weddings), or the fact that I have already done this once before, but moving in and saying goodbye this year was a lot easier. I didn’t even cry in the middle of Culvers. Can I get a woop woop?

Some things about this year have surprised me so far. There were several things I thought would be different this year than last year, but there are also several things that haven’t changed at all. For me, one of those things that has both changed and not changed this year has to do with friendships and relationships. Honestly, I know a lot more people on campus this year, but not nearly as many as I would like to know.

I don’t tell many people this, but when I am walking down a busy hall or place where I should know a bunch of people (I used to do this all the time in high school) I like to play a game with myself. I count all of the people who pass by me, and while I’m counting I check and see if I know their name (not just know their face, I HAVE to know their name). The goal is to see if I can know the name of at least one in every ten people. By my senior year at Ravenwood, I could usually do one in every four pretty consistently.

On my way to class this morning I was trying to play this game—thinking that I knew a ton of the new freshmen’s names, the names of people in several organizations I’m involved with, and really just thinking the game wouldn’t be very difficult today. So, I started counting and by the time I got to ten I was a bit sad I hadn’t seen anyone so far, but I continued to count more faces and more faces and more…

I made it all the way to 92 before I saw my friend Brittany. NINETY-TWO.  That’s pretty much the highest number I’ve ever gotten to in my own little game. And this is not basketball-style. This is golf-style. (Do you like my sports references? Why, yes thank you, I AM dating the sports editor) I was really disappointed in myself—I mean, seriously, why doesn't Murray have a path solely for the people I know!? Really though, 92 unknown names is a terrible record.

I’ve decided I really need to get to work on meeting more people on campus this year. Last year, my goal was to get settled, to figure campus out, and to try not to get lost along the way. I sort of just planted myself on campus last year. Yes, I attended Murray State University. And yes, I met people all over campus in the various organizations I participated in. Maybe that was good enough for my freshman year, but this year I want to really get to know more faces and more names and more stories.  This year I don’t want to just settle into campus. I want to grab ahold of friends and make ties/connections/roots on the Murray State campus. I know I can’t get to know all 12,000 stories, but I’d at least like to get started on the faces. Like I learned from your freshman ADS speech, a smile and a “hey Josh” is much better than a “Hey jen—sal—lucy—umm…hey Friend!”.

Anyway, I’m telling you my goal for the year so that I can be reminded of it, but also to encourage you to try the same thing in Ravenwood. I mean, maybe at the end of the year we can compare notes. Although there are a lot more MSU students than RHS students, so I better get started.

Besides, if I don’t do that, then no one will be able to ask you, “Hey! Aren’t you Maddie Mucci’s brother?” and where would be the fun in that!?

Love,

Maddie “Friend” Mucci

Crazy Tidbits of College

Dear Josh,

            I am writing this letter to give you a sense of (1) how crazy busy college really can be, (2) what it is like at the beginning of second semester, and (3) keep you updated on everything that has happened since I left home. It might be a bit of a detailed letter, but I know you love me enough to read it all the way through (Right, Josh? Righhht? RIghht? *Think of those “rights” in the tone of Nick making sure the family was agreeing with him when he was little*). Another point that will probably go into it, but that I want to highlight here is that Murray State is awesome, and you should come here. I have a few other letters I have written more specifically on that, but I think you should get this one first J Alright. HERE! WE! GOOOOOOOOOOO!

I came back to campus about three weeks ago, and BOY has it been different than last semester. I’ll start at the beginning so you don’t get confuzzled.  I came back the weekend after mom and dad had been gone, you were at Thespian Conference or something, and I had just had a pretty awesome weekend with Max and Nick. That meant I hadn’t been annoyed enough into actually WANTING to come back. So when I came up by myself that Monday morning (well, Jonathan and his family came, but I was the only Mucci), I was a little sadder to leave then I would have thought.

Luckily, I already had all of my things in place in ole floor eight of Regents! However, I stepped in the dorm room and STUFF WAS EVERYWHERE. My new roommate (all the way from floor nine!) had already semi-moved down, and that added plenty of excitement. I think I told you, but I’m not sure you were listening, so I will tell you again. Katelyn, my first semester roommate became a Residential Advisor (Typically abbreviated “RA” and given a room to themselves), so a girl I “knew of” from HIGH SCHOOL Freshmen year back in Edwardsville named Demi moved down to be my roommate. I am SO very glad that she agreed to put up with my living conditions and tendency to ramble until she turns off the light because I like her SO VERY MUCH. We both are organized and a little bit messy (she is more of the organized and the little bit, I am more of the messy), we both like to share some things and keep some things to ourselves (we share a microwave, television, refrigerator, calendar, and secrets. We keep our beds, *teddy*bears, and books for school to ourselves), and we are both pretty good at talking and both pretty good at listening (She even laughs at my jokes!). Even four weeks later, I love having Demi as a roommate! The lovely Katelyn and I even have a class together, so I still get to hear about her life!

So, anyway, I got a new roommate, new (harder) classes, and I have started my work with some new clubs. I joined the Student Alumni Board—a group of students that makes connections between incoming students, current students, and former students! As of now, it pretty much seems like a gig where I get to eat good food with important people J I joined and quit the forensics team within one week—It was awesome, I just had zero time to commit to it. Sad day. I began my term as Fundraising Chair at the Wesley Foundation. I’ve already begun planning an AMAZING fundraiser, but more on that later! I decided to join five other freshmen honors program peeps, and REPRESENT by becoming a Freshmen Representative for the Honors Program. I think there are a few other things I am doing, but this gives you a whiff of what I am doing. Needless to say, things are getting a little bit crazy all up in Murray.  

On top of all of that, Demi and I moved to RICHMOND the Monday after we had gotten settled. A room opened up, so we headed over! It was crazy trying to get all our stuff across campus, but with the help of our friends Jonathan and Laura we made it in J Our new room is spacious and clean and generally two thumbs up. The second “thumbs up” comes solely from having a huge bathroom for just the two of us. I would say the only really sad thing about leaving Regents would be not getting to see some of the awesome people that lived there everyday. There were so many nice people there.

Well, I feel like I’ve done enough rambling, and enough describing my boring semester to give you a good long snoozefest—so, I will save the other random thoughts for a later date.

Keep it RACERiffic, bro.

Love,

 Magnificent Maddie

(Please refer to me as this from now on)

Which four letter word is YOUR favorite?

Dear Brother of Mine,

I am lying in my bed, nearly asleep, when I started thinking about something and I just had to reach down, grab my laptop, open to squint at the bright, bright screen, and share this with you. As you probably know from the matchmaker quizzes that have passed around school or an excessive amount of pink/red/stuffed things in stores, this is the month of love. “February, the month of love.” Come on, Hallmark, you know you need a bright, young, freckle-faced gal to help you out. Well, February has had the underlying theme of love for me, anyway. How could it not when my month looks like this: Jonathan and I have been dating for a year and a half this month, I have been in The Vagina Monologues/A Memory, Monologue, Rant and a Prayer (dramatic readings/plays that represent loving yourself and loving women), My family (that’s you!) have been out to support and love on me for these shows this month, the sermons at this wonderful church have been on love, and I have been beginning to understand communication research with my advisor whose main research was on “the communication between parents and children about sex and love”. 

All of that lovey-dovey-shmovey stuff, but especially the research I have been looking at, have really made me stop and think about what our parents taught us about that crazy, four-letter word. This letter is going to be about that four-letter word in a sense of my family, in a sense of significant others, in a sense of my friends, and in a sense of God. I really feel that it can be applied anywhere, or at least that is what I have been taught. 

College people teach you A TON of four-letter words; however, I already knew a solid foundation on one word coming in.  Growing up in the organized chaos that many refer to as “the Mucci house”, the word “love” easily associates with the word “choice” for me. I think that stems off in a few directions—(1) you choose your loves first, and (2) you choose to love. 

This lent season I am putting into practice my belief that love means choosing your “valentine” first. That means that time with God has got to come before time with my pillow, my friends Claire and Phil Dunphy, and the sixteen-slot-fruity-pebbles-holding-reeses-puffs-dispensing-cereal-haven. Trust me. That is not always an easy task in the crazy college life, but it’s a much easier task than giving up my only son (don’t worry, I don’t have any sons) or dying on a cross. It’s interesting to think how I could have gotten this idea that love is choosing the loved one first. Spotlight the parentals! Remember when we moved? I sometimes think about how much mom loved her job, her coworkers/best friends/goofy sociology-like people, living so close to work, and all those other crazy awesome benefits she had back in Illinois. I remember how much fun you had with twins down the street, how Nick was making really good friends with some kids, and how fantastic Miss Jeanie’s extra cake slices and mostaccioli were when we lived on Sierra. Then I think how MUCH we loved dad. How we had a choice: support him in his desire for a job that would make him happier or don’t support him in that desire. Mom chose him first because she loves him so much. Grandmas and Grandpas supported us because they love us. You boys chose to move on with your whole hearts because you love dad. Whether or not it was conscious? We all chose our valentine first because that IS love. Remember how much dad loves hockey and coaching hockey despite the amount of time it takes away from his already busy schedule? Well, he CHOSE to give up coaching hockey when asked because he absolutely loves mom. It makes me so proud to be in a family that shows me every day how important it is to choose each other first, and how that choice is love in itself. 

I’ve seen quite a few chick flicks this Valentine season, and in addition to the shows they air on television, ANYONE could gather an extremely skewed version of love. The media portrays this whirlwind, perfect, extremely adorable, hallmark card puked version of love. And I’m sure it can be that way the first two weeks, the first two months, or for some just the first date, for others, maybe the first two years. However, people don’t just fit perfectly together with perfect-magazine-tied-bows on top. My tiny bit of actual experience, my large amount of observational experience, and my analysis of the differences between reality and “The Notebook” have led me to thoughts of a night sitting with mom a little over a year ago. We had just finished talking about 1 Corinthians 13 in youth group and my thoughts brought me to tears. I’m not patient. I’m not always kind (or smart, or important). I’m sometimes proud or envious or boastful or rude or self-seeking. I’m easily angered and I keep record of wrongs occasionally, I mean, I deal with three brothers a lot of the time. I don’t always protect and trust, and I fail ALL THE TIME! Is it just me? Or has anyone else ever looked at that list in the bible and thought “holy crap! That is a lot of freaking things…there is no way I can do all that”?  

So, after explaining to mom that I haven’t quite mastered 1 Corinthians 13, she gave me a bit of advice that helps every single day. She said, “We have to choose to love every day. Some days they’ll make it easy, some days they’ll make it difficult, but either way we still have that choice.” From that day forward, I have tried to choose love, despite my failure to succeed at this a lot of the time. I may be irritated at the rain, but I can still choose to show love to the cashier at Winslow. I may be crabby about the amount of homework I have, but I can still choose to write you to tell you “I love you, thanks for making me laugh”.  I may be ticked off that we couldn’t go on a date we had planned, but I can still choose to show my love to Jonathan. 

Love isn’t just a flimsy feeling. It is a powerful action. I absolutely love when 1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love”. Isn’t it great? I think so. Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say to you in this letter, Josh, is not to take love for granted. Throughout high school and college and LIFE, you’ll have to choose between love and something that isn’t love. You’ll get the chance to choose activities or meaningless things over the people you love. You will receive opportunities to stay angry at mom and dad and Nick and Max instead of choosing to let the little things go for love. You’ll have so many opportunities to choose, and I am just giving you my two cents that have that solid four-letter word written all over them.  I give you those coins because I love you. 

Always,

Your Favorite Sister

5...4...3...2...1....Continue Your Christmas Lists!

Dear Josh,

You know how you are counting down until Christmas and it is coming up SO SOON? Well, I have fantastic news. You SHOULD be counting down the days until I get home because THAT is even sooner J Just five more days (not counting today) until I am done with all of this school stuff, just five more days until I can relax for an entire month, and just five more days until I am officially one eighth of the way through my college career. I am almost done with my first college semester, and, OH LORDY, did it go by fast. 

Though that is exciting news that is NOT what I was going to talk about during this letter. Contrary to popular belief (It isn’t really popular belief…I just wanted to use that phrase) this blog is going to cover Thanksgiving fantasticalness, and though it is past Thanksgiving I believe it is still considered the time of the year to be EXTRA thankful about how blessed we are. So, I have been compiling a list of things I have become extra thankful for since I’ve moved to Murray (you should be appreciating these things all you can while you are home).

List Item #1: I am putting this first because it is the most noticeable. Dishwashers. I am SOOO VERY THANKFUL for dishwashers. It is not like I have moved to college and taken on a dishwashing fetish, nor would I like to own more than one dishwasher (although the picture of me sitting in a room filled with shining dishwashers is quite a humorous one…just picture it—you’re a dirty dish if you don’t laugh a little). Through college dorm rooms, however, I have decided that I HATE washing dishes by hand. That means that sometimes I would rather just throw away a cup than scrub it with soap. Lazy? I know. So, dishwashers are a blessing.

List Item #2: This is the typical “college student answer” when I say laundry machines. Trust me, there have been several times when I haven’t worn socks because, well, clean socks are hard to come by. And I can say without blushing that I have driven home in my very last pair of underwear after three weeks of classes just to do laundry. I mean, to see YOU of course. J J J Anyway, laundry machines across the hall from my room that cost exactly zero dollars? THOSE are the blessing, or maybe the fact that I have enough underwear to last three weeks.

List Item #3: While I’m giving “college student answers”, I should go ahead and highlight how great momma cooked food is! Winslow dining hall serves a wide variety of good food, but I’ve been craving pasta fazooil and rosemary bread and puppy chow. Also, in this home-type category I would like to list fireplaces (it has gotten very cold here at MSU and we do not have a fireplace), hugs from my brothers—you included (Please enter the phrase “contrary to popular belief” here, too), life chats with the parentals, and a nice church that has second Sunday breakfast.

List Item #4: Full sized beds. Sleeping on a twin? Not fun. Rolling over in a twin? Not possible.

List Item #5: Being around kids. Seriously! I forgot that going to college would mean that I was around people that were generally the same age as me all the time. There is practically ZERO variety. I like to hold a baby whenever I get a chance; however, it is frowned upon to ask strangers if you can hold their baby.

List Item #6: Close long-time friends. It’s amazing how much you can come to miss someone in such a short amount of time. Since you are a theater kid, as well, you should know what it is like to quote a play, a musical, a random kids forensics piece, or some other tidbit, and have people around you laugh. Murray State Kids just don’t get my Boys Next Door, 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Musical lyrics, and other random references. I know you’ve got to branch out sometime for friends, but I wish they came preloaded with knowledge of your goofy references. Brian Regan quotes anyone? GRAPE!

Although that is not the complete and full list of items that I am thankful of this holiday season, it sort of gives you an idea of the things to start appreciating. That means you should hop up right now, run to load the dishwasher and laundry machine, ask mom to make soup and bread for dinner, drag your full-sized bed in front of the fireplace, grab Max and Nick and anyone who can quote your latest forensics piece, and everyone take a nap! You may have to ask everyone else to sleep on the floor to get the full effect of the full-sized bed, but it’s your call!

Happy Holidays,

Moving Back Home for a Month Maddie

Ramblin' College Girl

Dear Josh,

Alright, do you remember when we were younger and used to play that karaoke game on the ps2? There was one song that went on and on forever, it was completely pointless, and we could never get any points on it because you would have me laughing so hard that I couldn’t sing any of the notes. Well, it was that rambling song. It was seriously called something like that, rambling guy or something, so the title really fit the song. That is why I named my post “Ramblin’ College Girl”, I figure THAT way the title of the post will really fit the post. It’s like your warning that this post is going to be about nothing. So, since I warned you there will be no tolerance for complaining at the end. With that said, let’s begin!

Let me tell you about the best feeling in the world that I am having today. Okay, here is the formula. Have GINORMOUS test in Social Sciences on a Tuesday + Finish the test and all of your Social Sciences homework for the week + Wake up early on Wednesday and finish your homework for your other classes + Stand up to get ready for your 9:30 class just as you get an email + The email says CLASS IS CANCELED FOR TODAY, WEDNESDAY + Lounge around the rest of the morning = BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD.

Basically I just wanted to write and tell you how lovely it is when class is canceled. This is the first time that has actually happened to me. Once or twice I have canceled it for just myself, but everyone else still goes to class. I think that is called skipping though, not canceled class; therefore, it does not go under the best feeling in the world category.

Here is what you can get done when class is canceled:

1.      Watch random videos
2.      Play around with music and finding the perfect “best feeling ever” song
3.      Put away all of your laundry
4.      Fix fish tank with filter because it was kind of pee-colored. 
5.      Clean all of your random dishes (Yay! I have clean cups now!)
6.      Take out the trash, sweep the floor, windex the mirrors and windows, clean the sink, organize the closet, and other clean-like tasks.
7.      Watch more random videos
8.      Surf Facebook
9.      Begin reading boring book for the paper that is due in Social Sciences in two weeks
10.      Write really boring, pointless blog!! 

All of this and it isn’t even noon yet!  I have also spent this time observing my fish to see what they like to do when I am typically in math class. (I know, I have such an interesting not-in-class life). Well, I would like to report that they act just like they do when I am not in math class. I really think my fish are kind of nuts. They swim like they are being attacked all of the time. Personally, I think they are searching for the disappearing fish. I mentioned that I have five fish before? Well, one of them likes to leave and come back whenever it pleases. I’m not sure how because there really is nowhere to hide in my tank.

Dad said that he misses knowing simple things about like what I am doing  and just that kind of thing. I miss that, too. I always want to know what you are having for dinner and stuff like that. Today I am going to probably have what I usually have for lunch—a chicken wrap on jalapeno tortilla J It’s pretty good. Yesterday they had TUNA MELT J J J Mmm…that is one of my favorite lunch days, along with nacho day! I wonder what today will be! I will probably just eat a wrap anyway.

            I don’t have much to tell you since I came home this weekend, so I guess I will stop rambling on and on. I know that you are probably thinking you wish I was as witty and exciting as usual ( Don’t even pretend, I know you think that every day. Oh! My sister, Maddie, she is SO cool and SO funny and SO nice and I SHOULD GIVE HER ALL OF MY HALLOWEEN CANDY) , but this will have to do for now. In fact, this may be the last post for a while! My FYL (Freshmen Year Leader—Megan, she is awesome) told me that the next couple of weeks are crazy. Especially the week after Thanksgiving, that week is called “dead week” technically because professors aren’t supposed to give you assignments due that week or something. Megan said that it really is called “dead week” because you wish you were dead because they assign you so much. I think that is funnier, but I will let you know which one it is!

I love you so much dear brother,

Your Tuna-Melt-Loving-Sister

P.S. I made the post this lovely pinkish color, so that it would be more interesting :) MARKETING!

Time to "Cache" Up and Other Things

Dear Josh,

            I just looked at my last post to see where I placed the cliffhanger on my blog, and I CANNOT believe that over a month has passed already. I’m serious. Time absolutely FLIES when you’re in this world. Only about three weeks until I get to stuff my face with turkey, two weeks of school after that (one of those weeks is Finals week), and then this semester is OVER. Unbelievable. Remember that when you are in college for me, will you? Don’t let the days swallow you up. Anyway, that is not I even what I wanted to write about really—I wanted to tell you about something new!

You will never believe it. I am mastering the art of two new talents! Okay, talent number one? Accumulating a stack of homework SO high that I could call it “The Leaning Tower of Pizzo” (Note: Dr. Pizzo is my social sciences professor, he is great, but needless to say the homework load is knocking my head off my socks). Talent number two? Spontaneous weekend fun-having. I think both of those talents are necessary for every Mucci that goes to college, so I am going to give you a heads up on acquiring them.

            As for talent number one, that stack of homework is the central reason why you haven’t heard from me in quite some time. I’ve had tests, projects, quizzes, worksheets, and various other things to do for the school part. Plus, volunteering with the lovely forensics team at a local high school here in good ole’ Murray, attending two campus ministries regularly, going to meetings for my scholarship, keeping my fish alive, and trying to occasionally straighten up my room—to name a few things. This probably does not make college sound like the most exciting thing in the world, but mom sent me a text that said to “build in some crazy fun breaks”, so that is what I have been doing—especially on the weekends.

            And that brings me to talent number two! (Did you see how I transitioned there? Pretty good, eh? Can you tell I’ve been writing lots of papers?) The weekends here in Murray can be completely relaxing, boring, and chill. The weekends here in Murray can be crazy, fun, and packed. The weekends here in Murray can even qualify as crazy, fun, and relaxing! Personally, I have been picking door number three for the past couple of weekends; however, these are not simply weekends I plan. No, these are weekends that occur SPONTANEOUSLY, and spontaneity is the best part.

Freshly sliced strawberries, puff pastries,
milk chocolate chips, and marshmallow
cream. Can you say heaven? 

 Two weekends ago, my break started with a visit from mom for lunch, shopping, Footloose watching, dancing in empty theaters, and much-needed-chatting. From there Jonathan and I did the college kid thing and had a cheap date night--a night in. We played music, we brought frozen pizza, we borrowed the lovely Wesley campus ministry's kitchen, and we made THE MOST AMAZING DELICIOUS DESSERT EVER (without a recipe of course—we’re just THAT good). On Saturday, I woke up and helped judge a mock speech tournament and then went to help the group from the Wesley Foundation campus ministry prepare the lunch they were serving at a church the next morning. As soon as that wrapped up I ditched any inkling of an afternoon plan and headed to Paducah with my friends Tori, Jonathan, Meagan, and Craig.

Stuff it all together and a
mouthwatering, sticky dessert makes
date night a success! 

        To understand the next sentence completely and fully you must stop reading here, close your eyes, and imagine a world completely void of Chik-fil-a. Are you hyperventilating yet? Now, with Paducah housing the closest delicious chicken haven we had to make a beeline for the place as soon as we hit the city. From there we shopped around until these signs drew our attention. We should have just kept walking, but we stopped. These giant, monster-filled signs in the center of the mall called everyone to speed over to a place called Talon Falls for a good time. With the reactions from nervous (Tori and I) to pumped (Craig) the plans were made to brave the haunted property right after we looked for Halloween costumes.

"Find a Happy Place, Find a
Happy Place, Find a Happy Place...
THIS IS NOT A HAPPY PLACE"

            Obviously one twist in the day just wasn’t enough because that day was a day to make marks on the ever-growing bucket list. With only EIGHT of these currently around, we were in for such a treat. Get ready for it…prepare yourself…WE ENCOUNTERED THE…………WIENERMOBILE!! Ridiculous, huh? So, with that experience fresh under our belts we headed to the haunted house. For the sake of teaching you something, I will now quickly share how the haunted house went even though I have tried to remove it from my memory permanently. I was excited through all of the lines—not getting myself too worked up. The group chose the five-star house (one being the least scary—five being the worst) and I continued to try and relax. We finally got into the house, entered an elevator, and my nerves went through the roof. Let’s just say that if you thought you were crying at the thought of no chick-fil-a, well, this was worse. Ripping one hand off of Tori, one off of Jonathan, and the ears off of anyone within a ten-mile radius. Tori (who was walking in front of me) even started threatening the “scary people” and telling them to “please don’t scare her”. Jonathan talked in my right ear saying “It’s alright, you’re going to be fine, we’re almost done, we’re almost done, you’re going to be fine, ect”, and whichever mean killer guy we were passing would growl in my left ear “you’re not fine, you’re going to die, you’re not almost done, you’re not getting out of here, ect”. Thank GOODNESS Jonathan was the shoulder with the angel on it and we made it out of the haunted house alive (note that I am not saying safe and sound). If you ever see me step in a city with a haunted house, kindly send me in the opposite direction.

We SEE you...our first "cache"! :) 

It was camouflage,  good thing we
practiced seeing things that blend in!

            Although that was a traumatizing experience, I managed to make it all the way to “halloweekend” and have had yet another “door number three” time. I went to two Halloween parties on Friday dressed as a nerd (I know, I know. “Maddie, you’re supposed to DRESS UP for Halloween—NOT go as yourself” hardeee-har-harr). One of them was for the Honors Program and one was with the Wesley group. From there I watched the Cardinals win the World Series (YES J) and then went to Applebees to watch a Wesley friend turn 23. The next day Jonathan and I decided to take on Geocaching together. We are going to find every single one in the Murray area before this blog is over. You just wait. Anyway, we took a Subway Buffalo Chicken sandwich to a park in Cadiz near Murray and after Jonathan shoved his half of the sandwich in and then proceeded to impatiently push me to finish my half we began the search. The weather was absolutely perfect, and I was hoping to get a ton of great pictures but they won't all fit on the blog. We searched for three different caches just to get our feet wet, I can tell we're gonna have to work at the "gotta catch 'em all" thing. It It was SUCH a beautiful day and I found a good Sonic to top off the loveliness. After a long, long nap, I went to a scary movie marathon (I survived without damaging any eardrums) and managed to sleep through the night.

    Unfortunately we only found two out
    of three of the "caches". We did what
any college student would do, we
pouted. 

            There you have it! Talent numbers one and two. Are you impressed? You should be. If THAT doesn’t impress you then pay close attention to my final thought before I have to get back to pounding the books. After I last wrote, one of my fish died and not wanting my sole-surviving fish to go crazy from being alone, I rushed to Walmart and picked up three more fish. The next day I had five fish. Woah! Hold up, WHAT? You had FIVE fish? One of your two fish died, so you had one fish. You went and bought three fish. You have five fish. One plus three equals five now? It’s pretty crazy—I ended up with five fish and I have no idea how! I am a fish breeder, a fish lover, a fish magician, a fish loser, a ghost-fish see-er, or maybe even a friend to imaginary fish. I am not sure which title I deserve, but I do know that I remember to feed them whether or not they are real.

Much Love,

Talented Maddie 

Meet my....Fish?

Josh-Josh-Josh-J-J-J-Joshhhhh (it’s a song),

            You may have already heard this directly from the source, but I am going to tell you anyway because I am EXCITED J J J Guess what? I got FISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, it is now officially a party on the eighth floor! If you didn’t know, mom got me a fish tank for my birthday. The rule in Regents is NO PETS except fish; therefore, I immediately wanted one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.

So, here is what we did! We went to Walmart (for the twenty eighth time that week) and bought a tank that has a changing colors light, some pink and blue rocks, some plants, an awesome/creepy/flirtatiously-winking starfish, a fish net, and some tropical fish flakes (they smell bad, don’t try to eat ‘em). I had to wait two whole days for the tank to be ready before I could go buy the fish, but when it was time I was EXTREMELY excited. After waiting for an incredibly long time, this tall, skinny guy who had never caught a fish in his life came over and I told him EXACTLY which tiny fish in the tank of 37 fish that I wanted. 45 fish-chasing minutes later, I left Walmart with three neon fish (pink=girl, orange=boy) and another bigger tetra fish. I gave them the Murray tour and let them loose into their brand new home.

Top to Bottom: Sam, Wythe, Unfortunate 1, Unfortunate 2

I named one of the neon orange fish “Sam” because it had a red face, so it looked kind of embarrassed. In Spanish, sometimes people accidentally use the word “embarazada” when trying to say they are embarrassed, but really it means pregnant. Sam is pregnant, so my fish was named “Sam”. It makes sense, I promise.

I named the larger tetra “Wythe” after George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson’s mentor. He was an incredibly intelligent man that mentored two presidents and a bunch of senators and famous people. We studied him in the Presidential Fellows meetings. I named the fish “Wythe” because he was bigger, therefore older and, obviously, wiser. Well, let’s just say, DON’T JUDGE A FISH BY THEIR WISENESS!

Poor Sam. This was the only good
picture I got before he was
swallowed!! Notice the rosy face.

I didn’t even get a chance to name the other two lovelies because Sam died! Just stopped moving! He was floating at the top of the tank with that awful dead fish look in less time than it takes to read the Sparknotes for Pride and Prejudice! So, I went to take out the trash, and when I came back? Sam was gone! Completely gone! And wise ‘ole Wythe was looking quite a bit chunkier.

NOT. COOL.

See? Pure evil. 

Well, with quite a bit of disbelief and shock that Wythe would do such a thing, I thought maybe Sam had just zapped away, but the next day? My other orange, nameless fish was gone, too! And that one had been alive!! So, I snatched Wythe out of the tank and took him back to Walmart. I told the lady that Wythe was a PESCETARIAN (she looked at me like I was nuts), and got two new fish in exchange for that hater. It all turned out alright though because the two new fish really got along with my other fish. They were three musketeers right off the bat.

Survivors! They did NOT get swallowed/
voted off the island. 

I am proud to say that two (ish) weeks later, I am the proud owner of two little glow neon fish. I feed them almost every day. I smile at them a lot. I trained them to follow my finger, and I think they really like me. We may have lost one or two or three or four fish in the process, but I think two fish is the perfect number for me!

Fish-lovingly yours,

Maddie 





P.S. Do you have any suggestions for names? My two little survivors are still nameless, and I don't think they appreciate it.