Thankful Thursday: Carpool

One of the best things about yesterday's orientation meetings was getting to meet a few of the people who are starting the same program as me. It turns out that one of them actually lives in the same small town I do, which is almost unbelievable, especially considering that home is 50 miles from campus. What makes this more unbelievable is that we are registered for two of the same classes, and have already discussed the possibility of carpooling one day a week. An auspicious meeting to be sure. Saving 100 miles (and three gallons of gas) every other week is definitely something to be thankful for.

What a Day

Long.
Good.
Informative.
Overwhelming.
Invigorating.
Daunting.
Challenging.
Helpful.
Exciting.
Successful.
Expensive.
Detailed.
New.
Familiar.

[Orientation today. Not the first day of school, but kind of felt like it. It was all of the above and more. Tons of information that is both helpful and a foreshadow of the big challenge that is about to begin. College textbooks that cost more than my new iPod. (Holy $$$!!!) More decisions to consider about the specifics of my program. Trying to get my head around the critical factors with limited understanding. Suggestions for numerous things to do, associations to join, departments to visit right away to maximize the grad school experience. Did I mention "Overwhelming"?]

Over.
And just beginning.

Great Gift Wrap Idea

If there is one thing in this world I will probably never run out of, it is greeting cards and scrapbook paper. I don't know what possesses me when I am in the stationery section of the store, I am seduced by the beautiful color graphics and colors, and usually something comes home with me. On my last trip, I managed to bring home only four sheets of scrapbook paper, but they are for a specific project, I promise.

So anyway, I have all this scrapbook paper and I've been using it up quite a lot lately by re-purposing it into gift wrap. A 12x12 sheet is the perfect size to wrap a small gift, and these gifts always get comments about how pretty they are. So I thought I'd share my idea just in case there are any other paper-holics out there.

The trick is to place your item diagonally on the scrapbook paper, and fold each corner over on the back.

Then I take a strip of a contrasting paper to make a band around the package, add an embellishment or gift tag, and it's done. For this one, I used paper punches and layered the shapes, drawing the first letter of the recipient's name on the top one, monogram style. This little package contains a men's t-shirt, carefully folded. Since it's for a guy, it's rather masculine, but the gifts I've wrapped for girlfriends are much prettier.

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8/29/08

I just did another one of these, and it falls into the cutesy category, so I thought I'd add it.

My Summer Olympics: Results

The closing ceremonies are over, and the Summer Olympics are done for four more years. One of my favorite bloggers threw out a challenge to readers to create their own Olympic events. I took full advantage of the opportunity to set some goals, and here are the results!

Event: GIFT-MAKING CRAFTATHON

Results: GOLD
I made a substitution on one project, but actually completed at least 10 instead of the original 9.

Event: HEALTHY LIVING MARATHON

Results: BRONZE
A bronze in this event represented maintaining my normal level of exercise and activity. That bum knee I've had kept me from stretching to reach a higher level. There's always 2012!

The Honeymoon is Over

Well, for literally months I've been completely enamored with Facebook, keeping in touch with far-away relatives, reconnecting with old friends, and spending spare hours playing word games. I considered it a good goal (why???) to reach 100 friends this year. Conveniently I have a lot of relatives, so that boosted my count quite a bit. I'm there now, no longer sure why that was important to me.

Now, I'm not so sure about this whole social networking thing. I mean really, there are some people for whom I'm perfectly content to wonder - or not - "what ever happened to them?" without ever needing an answer.

Probably we weren't ever that great of friends anyway. Or we happened to walk the halls at the same high school, but because you dated someone for a while 15 years ago that I'm still actually friends with, does not make you my friend. Being an ex-boyfriend... well, if we had pulled off "let's be friends," I wouldn't need Facebook to tell me that. Being a friend-of-a-friend that I met once 4 years ago does not make you my friend.

So if you are already my friend on Facebook, that means I am actually interested in knowing what's happening in your world. If it's been a long time, I regret not having been in touch. I am grateful for your friendship during a phase in my life, however brief or long ago, and hope that just maybe we'll be able to keep in touch better now. So I don't regret hopping on the bandwagon. It has been a lot of fun. Maybe I've reconnected with you there. And that was definitely worth it.