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

SNOW DAYS!

I arrived back on campus early Sunday evening (I had a mandatory radio meeting at 7, so I had to be back before that) and had to pretty much move completely back into my dorm (I took a lot of stuff home for break). I was kind of sad to come back to campus, only because returning meant that I had to get up at 7 am every morning for my class at 8 am that is 2 hours and 10 minutes long (gross, right?), but I was excited to get to see all my friends again. And not have to sleep on my sister's floor... Early Monday morning, I awoke to find an email saying that classes had been cancelled that day due to the fact that it was -10000 degrees (slight exaggeration). It was a pleasant surprise that I could sleep in, but it was also kind of boring not really having anything to do all day. Around noon, another email came saying classes were also cancelled for Tuesday, so some of my friends made the decision to stay up all night (that didn't end up happening- everyone was in bed by 3-3:30). We were also told about a "Pancake Palooza" that would be taking place Tuesday morning in our dorm hall. The amount of pancakes was quite disappointing for an event with such a name. Throughout the 2 snow days, I colored 50 pages in one of the coloring books I got for Christmas, leaving only 46 pages uncolored (one of my bucket list items is to finish an entire coloring book). I also decided I wanted to learn how to break dance and looked up a YouTube tutorial. After watching the video multiple times, I finally mastered the one move it explained (that sounds even more pathetic when it's typed out). Other than that, we all pretty much just sat around doing nothing all day, which is what it seems like is going to happen all month, since we all only have 1 or 2 classes in J-term. I finally made an account on Vine though, so hopefully that will keep me somewhat entertained.
Also, yesterday I had my first ever on-air radio shift. I was crazy nervous, but it ended up going pretty well. I have to do multiple shifts a week (including 3-hour long weekend ones), so hopefully the rest also go well. Overall, it's been a good last couple of days, although I'm pretty sure everyone can agree that snow days in college are super boring.

Happy New Year

It's so crazy that it's already 2014! I haven't blogged since November because I was crazy busy over Thanksgiving break and then right after break was finals, and then right after that Christmas break started, which has also been extremely busy. I'm not going to recap on everything that's happened since my last post, because I'd probably be here typing forever. To sum it up, I've gotten to spend a lot of time with my really close friends and have also had the chance to catch up with some of my friends I graduated with. Overall, it's been a really fun past couple of months and I'm looking forward to having a lot more fun this year.
Since it's the first of the year and this is normally when people start 365-day projects, I have decided I'm going to attempt to do two different ones that are on my bucket list- 1) take a picture everyday for a year and 2) write a letter to a different person everyday for a year (my full bucket list is in a previous post). I'm going to try and post as many of the 365 pictures on Instagram that I can, so if you'd like to stay updated on that, follow @jesspaige5. Also, I am starting my Wreck This Journal today that I got for Christmas and am hoping to finish it by the end of the year.
I hope everyone has a wonderful year and I'm looking forward to sharing more of my journey through life with you.