My Obsession With Ellen

For anyone who knows me, you probably know that I absolutely adore Ellen DeGeneres. I watch her show whenever I can because it's so funny and positive, which is a hard combination to find in a show these days. My favorite book is her "Seriously... I'm Kidding", which I think everyone should read because it's absolutely hilarious. This may not seem that exciting, but my love for Ellen gets a little more interesting. In October of 2012, I spent more than 4 hours over a period of 2 days standing on the side of a busy street in my hometown of Columbus holding a sign that read "Ellen DeGeneres for President". About 10,000 people passed me while I was doing this, and about 200 of those people parked in the Walgreen's parking lot behind me to come talk to me and take my picture. Many more people took my picture while they were passing as well. A majority of the people who passed me honked and gave me a thumbs-up, or rolled down their car windows and cheered. There were a couple people who weren't as happy with my endeavor, as I was given the middle finger a couple of times and someone even yelled at me to "get a life". The positive reactions far outnumbered the negative, as I was able to make almost everyone who passed me smile or laugh, just by simply holding a sign that voiced my opinion. To this day, I count this as the coolest experience I've ever had.
This isn't the only thing I've done to creatively show my love for Ellen. Last year, I got some of my senior pictures taken of me wearing my Ellen shirt and holding her book. Also, my mom got me a pair of the famous Ellen underwear two Christmases ago and I have yet to take them out of the bag. My dream is to meet Ellen and have her sign the underwear and then I'll have them framed.

A lot of people think that I should've been on the Ellen show for all the stuff I've done, but I still haven't. She has a place on her website where you can say why you think you're her biggest fan and she might have you on the show, and I've filled this out probably 1,000 times and still haven't made it on the show. If you don't think I'm completely insane after having read this post and want to shoot Ellen an email telling her why you think I should be on the show, follow this link http://www.ellentv.com/be-on-the-show/10/ Thanks!

Spring (Not Really) Semester

I've now finished two full weeks of my second semester of college. Supposedly, it's spring semester, but with the amount of snow we've gotten the past couple of weeks, I'd beg to differ. I don't know what's more annoying about the snow- the fact that it keeps coming, or all the cliche jokes and complaints about having to go to class when it snows.
I'm pretty excited about most of my classes this semester because I have less general courses and more that are geared toward my major. The only classes I'm taking that aren't communications courses are my three honors courses, one of which is an independent study and another that I only have once every other week. All in all, I'm really looking forward to the rest of this semester.
This past week has been extremely busy. I spent 10-12 hours between Tuesday and Friday working with some of my friends to make jars for a Valentines Banquet radio fundraiser that we had to work Friday night. Then, I spent over 4 hours Thursday night making flowers and bouquets out of Hershey's Kisses that we sold as a fundraiser for class council. On top of all this, I had my normal homework, including three 1-hour radio shifts throughout the week, plus a speech Friday. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the end of the week, which is probably why I didn't fully wake up and get out of bed until 1:30 in the afternoon today.
Thankfully, my mother is a saint and sent me a few random surprises, which really helped to make me a little less stressed. On Thursday, I got a small package from her that I thought was just going to have a couple pieces of clothing that I forgot at home over January break, but she had also put in a box of Peeps and some dark chocolate covered raisins. Then on Friday, I got a large iced chocolate chip cookie that she had ordered to be delivered to me, as well as a poster of Rob Lowe (she supports my obsession). Even though I've been extremely busy, I'm still really thankful that I have the opportunity to do the things I get to do.

Struggles of an Emblem

Some of you may know that I have an obsession with certain boy bands, particularly One Direction. Well, my second favorite group is Emblem3 (Emblems are their fan base name). I've already seen them in concert once, back in September when I volunteered at the New Albany Classic. Their next tour, the #BandLife tour, kicks off in about a little less than two weeks. Unfortunately, the tour is not coming to Ohio. Normally, I would be okay with driving three hours to Indianapolis to see them, especially since I'm driving more than twice that to see One Direction in Nashville later this year. The concert, which is general admission standing, is at 7pm on a Sunday, which means we'll have plenty of time to get there and wait to get a good spot in relation to the stage. And the ticket prices just got lowered from $35 to $27.75 when you buy them in increments of four. The only problem with this is that I have to get up at 8:30 for class the following morning. Assuming the concert goes until 11, we probably wouldn't be able to get out of the venue until at least 11:30, then it would take 3 hours to drive back to Columbus to drop off my friend(s) and/or sister (dropping them off would probably take at least 15 minutes, setting us at 2:45). Then, I would have to drive another hour back to campus, meaning that I would get there at 3:45, assuming that the entire trip goes smoothly and the concert finishes by 11. By the time I get inside the dorm and shower, I wouldn't be going to bed until after 4am. Therefore, I'd only be getting a little over four hours of sleep before I have to get up and sit through classes the next morning. And I'd be spending around $60 in gas for the whole trip, unless I make the other people I take chip in. I keep debating with myself over whether or not it's worth it, especially since my step-dad told me a couple months ago that I need to go to as many concerts and stuff like that as I can while I'm still young and have the time and energy to go. I just still can't decide if it's worth it or not. Through this whole thing, I've discovered that one of the hardest things about being an adult is having to make your own choices.

My New Obsession

Last night, my friends and I watched The Outsiders for the first time. It has already become my favorite movie. If you don't know what the Outsiders is, you really need to watch it. It's based on a book with the same title and is the classic story of the battle versus social classes. And almost all of the main characters are extremely attractive. Especially Sodapop, who is played by Rob Lowe. Since watching the movie, Rob Lowe in the 80s has become my new obsession. My friends and I have decided we're going to watch all of his movies as soon as possible because of how obsessed we are with him. I actually think we may have a serious problem... Another one of the main characters, Ponyboy, looks almost exactly like One Direction member, Harry Styles. Even the way he carries himself and his speech patterns are creepily similar to those of Harry Styles. We have come to the conclusion that Harry Styles traveled back in time to film this movie. Overall, the Outsiders is a great movie, with a great storyline, and some great looking characters.

My Hatred Of Philosophy

I'm typing this as I sit in my Philosophy class because I honestly just don't care about it anymore. I'm already mad enough that I have to take Philosophy in the first place. I'm a Journalism and Media Production major, why the heck do I need to take a Philosophy course?! Oh yeah, because it's a required general education course that everyone has to take, which leads me to my next point: Why the heck do I have to take general education courses in college?! That's what high school was for! But these aren't the only things that I dislike about being in the class. It's a 2-hour and 10 minute long class that I have everyday of the week for the whole month of January. And it starts at 8 am, which means I have to wake up by 7:10 at the latest if I want to eat breakfast before the class. That's way too early for me. The thing that really frustrates me about this course is that the professor is, in my opinion, terrible. I never understand anything he is talking about and he does a very poor job of teaching the material. 90% of the class is him trying to relate random stories about his life to random philosophical terms and theories that nobody understands. Our first exam was today and he gave us half of class to take the exam, and now we have to listen to him lecture for the rest of the time instead of getting to leave when we were finished with the test, so I'm writing this instead of paying attention due to the fact that I am the definition of a rebel (not really...). I'm running on about 2 hours of sleep because I stayed up most of the night with one of my friends attempting to decode the notes from the class and study. The study guide pretty much told us that we needed to know almost every single power point slide from the course thus far, so studying was quite the challenge, especially when we didn't understand any of the material to begin with. I've come to the conclusion that the rest of this course is going to end up being completely self-taught. I'm also happy that I only have 9 more days of this class until I'm done with it forever, but that also means I have 2 more exams, 4 more short (300-word) essays, and a long essay due in the next 9 days. Ugh, it's gonna be a long 9 days....

DIY Scrabble Names Frame

Here's another DIY project I made as a Christmas gift. I took Scrabble tiles and put my cousins, siblings, and my name together in a frame to give to my grandma. This is another really simple project. You need glue, a picture frame (make sure it's deep enough to fit the tiles inside), 1 piece of scrapbook paper, scissors, and Scrabble tiles (I got a full set of tiles from Amazon for around $6).
Step 1: Take the back off of the frame and put glue around the perimeter of it. Lay the scrapbook paper on top of it and press it until the glue starts to dry. Then, flip the back of the frame over and trim the excess paper from around the edges.
Step 2: Lay the tiles out on top of the back of the frame, making sure that your design will fit. Once you have them put where you want them, carefully put glue on the back of each tile until you have glued all the pieces down. Let it dry, then attach the front of the frame to the back.

Finished Product (it looks kind of lumpy, but when it dried completely, it flattened out)

DIY Custom Ornaments

So, I know it's after Christmas, but I decided I'd go ahead and share one of my DIY projects that I gave out as Christmas gifts. These really don't have to be just for Christmas, I gave them to my friends in my dorm hall and some of them have them hanging in their rooms and pinned to bulletin boards. This is a really simple craft and all you need is ornaments (I got a 10-pack for $3 at the local craft store, Pat Catan's), Mod Podge, a paintbrush, ribbon, scissors, and printed out pictures. If you don't have pictures you want to print out or access to a printer, you can cut quotes or pictures out of magazines to use.
Step 1: Print and cut out whatever picture you want to put on the ornament. Make sure it isn't too big compared to the ornament, especially because it will bend when you wrap it around the curved surface.
Step 2: Put a little bit of Mod Podge on the back of the picture before putting it on the ornament, just to make sure it stays in place. Then, paint over the picture with Mod Podge so that it's sealed onto the ornament.

Step 3: Cut the ribbon, loop it through the top of the ornament, and tie it in a bow (double-knotted to make sure it stays).

Finished Product