Well this is it! It is now technically Wednesday of exam week for the S109 semester. I am still awake because I have been spending the past couple hours going through old papers from the semester and beginning to set things up for next semester. I fortunately do not have anything to study this week because I have no scheduled exams so this is my way of preparing to finish the term papers that i have to write. this paper work though has been on my mind for weeks and as i've always said, i need organizaion in order to truly finish anything off. so now that i'm physically and mentally prepared i can focuse on doing my best job with finishing the term papers. tonight was the exam jam, so it was able to set me off in that great mood. i spent time with some good friends just relaxing and having fun. I was able to eat some free food which was served by the teachers, get a free AMAZING back massage, attend a session of 'blessing of the brains' from campus ministry in which you could join in meditation through prayer, and also we were given the opportunity to pie some of the RAs in the face. that was definitely amusing! oh and how can i forget the kareoke. i was able to witness some very interesting performances from some of my friends as they attempted to ...i believe sing... is the word several popular songs from the ages. it was definitely a fun night. and come saturday i will be able to travel home, again through the megabus, for just less than a month. i am hoping to work A LOT at home with my lovely ladies at Hallmark and to build closer relationships with my family! i've realized a lot this year how much i really would like to bond with my family more. i don't want to be cheesey, as some might think. but really, i do love my family. of course we fight and bicker and tease each other and oh my gosh do we get on each others nerves sometimes. but i love them. hey, family is the one thing that will always be there anyway! so whether i like them or not. i'm stuck. but i'm glad i'm stuck with this family. a big irish family in the southside of chicago is one of the greatest things ever known. i'm glad i'm a part of such a community!

 oh and i want an ipod and the twilight series for christmas ;)

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! It's been a great semester!!!

well its coming down to it! there is less than two weeks left of this semester and i'm ready for it to be finalized! i don't know how i managed it but i have not had one test all semester and I have no schedulded exam to take. I have one final project, 2 final papers, and 2 more concerts, and then i'm done! my last event for campus minisitry was last night. I also had my first concert for college chorale last night. our final concert is tonight in the mater dei chapel at 7:30. we had our concert for mount singers on the wednesday before thanksgiving break and our final show will be next friday after the semester is over when we perform at the festival of lights. my final project is for my flameworking class and oh my goodness i am ready to finish it! i'll have a picture of it on here SOON! My final papers are for Ethics and Religion and they are both on their way to be done! I've got these next two weeks to focus on preparing myself for next semester: i can set time away for work, homework, exercise, sleep if need be, and clubs/organizations. I'm ready to start the next semester. I'm ready to take on new challenges. I'm ready to learn new material. I'm ready to further my education. I'm ready!

This winter break is going to be awesome! when i was home for thanksgiving break i was able to go in to my work at Hallmark from the summer and tell my manager about my availability for the winter break and she told me my name is still in the system! i'm happy! I need that job!

 only two more weeks left - I'm making it work!!!!

Hey guys!

I just got back to my house from the Mount’s first home wrestling match.  The match was against Ohio Northern University, who we just wrestled last week at a dual tournament in Michigan.  We didn’t wrestle well last week; we fell to ONU 24-11. So we were lookin for a little revenge tonight.  I’m sad to say that we didn’t get a chance to take that revenge. We fell again tonight 22-16.

The overall match was a lot better tonight than last weekend.  Every wrestler on our team improved on some aspect of their match and I was impressed at how much heart was shown on the mat.  Guys who lost last week stepped it up and either won, or cut the matches to tighter scores. Guys that won last week also stepped up and won by greater margins, which helped keep the overall team score closer. 

For those of you who don’t know, team points are scored by how the winner wins a match. For example, a pin is worth 6 team points.  A win with a point margin of 15 or more is worth 5 team points. A margin of 8 points is worth 4 team points, and a margin of 7 or less is worth 3 team points. 

We only gave up one pin, which was made up by our 149 pounder who pinned his guy. But we only won 4 out of the 10 matches so we fell too far behind.

The match was a good experience; it’s always nice to wrestle at home.  We have two more home matches this season; hopefully they’ll have better outcomes than tonight.  And thanks to all of you that came to support us tonight! It was nice to see the stands as full as they were.

See ya!

>Eric M.

So Thanksgiving break went by in the blink of an eye. Before I knew, I was sleeping in my bed at the dorms and I was preparing for the torturous Monday that I just encountered. 

But my break wasn’t all that bad, but I’m certain I’ve had better. I went home Tuesday night after my ASL class and slept at home that night. Then Wednesday morning at 6:30 AM, my mom and I made the 4 ½ hour drive to Pigeon Forge, TN, to meet up with some of her friends to hang out for a bit. We shopped, went out, and just had some good general girl fun (say that ten times fast lol). They ended up going home on Wednesday night but Mom and I spent the night in Tennessee. Then on Thursday morning, Thanksgiving, we went up through Gatlinburg, surprised there were people out and shops were open, but we went up into the mountains to Cade’s Cove and drove around on the path up there observing the natural scenery. It took three hours to drive the 25 miles up the mountains, the 11 mile trail, and the 25 miles back into Gatlinburg. It was excruciatingly slow but my mom and I had fun in the car making fun of all the other holiday drivers. ;) We ended up leaving for home at 2:30 PM and got to my aunt’s house at 7 PM. We were tired, I was hungry, and I was exhausted from driving in the car for almost 8 hours (Cade’s Cove trip + the drive home). The Thanksgiving meal at my aunt’s was good and we had fun hanging out and just being goofy. For example, my uncle had my two younger cousins, Lexie who is 8 and Jake who is 4, put on a circus and do acrobatic tricks for us in the middle of the living room. Of course, my other cousin, Sean who is 1, wanted to join in and he tried doing his own flips, unsuccessfully might I add.  

Friday was Black Friday and my mom and I went out again and shopped till my feet just about fell off my legs. It was fun though and I got some gifts for people crossed off my list so it was productive to say the least. Then on Saturday my brother and I spent 4 hours raking leaves for my mom (she’s showing up a lot in this isn’t she? Wow… lol). Of course, on Sunday we were looking out into the expansive backyard and my mom said, “Wow… it looks…” and I said, “Desolate.” And she said, “No. I was gonna say pristine.” Lol But later she did say it looked a bit desolate so ha! She agreed with me! Lol I like the leaves on the ground, just as much as I like snow on the ground. I just don’t like to clean either of them up, but again, who does? J 

Sunday I spent the day watching the Bengals lose again, but what else is new? I also watched the Steelers-Patriots game so that was fun. I like both teams so I didn’t care who’d win (I’ll prolly get flack for that later but oh well). Then I came back to school for school this week and the exams are next week so… 

Only four more full school days left and four exam days and then break! I’m going on vacation with three of my girl friends from Friday, Dec. 12^th-Sunday, Dec. 14^th, so I am really looking forward to that! But it’s getting down to the wire and I am stressed beyond belief but I really don’t have that much to do. I just need to calm down and breathe and I’ll be fine. That is some good advice for everyone though. J Until next time, breathe evenly and deep and all will be fine… J Now, if I can just remember that for myself… ;)

            So CAB had an event on Tuesday night in which we invited Nick Motil, an acoustic musician, to come play at the Mount! It was a really awesome mini-concert! We had a meet-and-greet as part of the CAB executive board (I'm the publicity chair) and I got there late. I had class at 6 and supposedly it was supposed to go until 8:30 but we got out at 7 so I went with Nicole (the treasurer) to the meet-and-greet for an hour and then we stayed for the concert at 8. It lasted until 9:30ish and it was some really great music. He plays acoustically and it's like indie rock/folk rock so it's really good. He played songs off his three albums, One of These Days (2005), Live from the Black Box (2007), and Everything's Alright (2008). He is well-known for often playing without wearing any shoes and his song, "One of These Days," is one of his most popular and recognizable songs.

            He played for an hour and a half for about 35 people in the Corona Room and he infused comedy into his set list which was quite a treat most were not expecting. With stupid stories (in his opinion), such as about a fan while he was on tour who requested “Free Bird” while being drunk or how free brownies make an awesome day-maker, and his other silly anecdotes, such as how he met his best friend and  his fiancée, the show was quite a success.             He was also here last year and was a success then so he was brought back again this year for a repeat performance. Hopefully he’ll be back again next year and more people will be able to enjoy his music.

            Music by Nick Motil is available for listening on iTunes, Rhapsody, MySpace, and his home page, http://www.nickmotil.com/. “No managers, no labels, no shoes…no problem!”

This semester has shown be a lot about work ethic. I've learned that no matter where life takes you, no matter what job you enquire, no matter what choices you make, no matter what team/company you work with/for, no matter who it is you are trying to impress - as long as YOU do YOUR best there will be good things to happen. I've said it many times before and i will say it many times again: EvErYtHiNg HaPpEnS fOr A rEaSoN!!!!!! there have been stages in my life where i have done a mediocre job and just got away with getting the work completed. and there have been times where i have done the absolute best i can possibly do and it has most definitely shown. and there are other times where i have done everything i need to do with the best of my ability and have completed additional jobs for other people when they cannot do their own - and it doesn't show at all. but no matter what, i have gained from it. i have learned that as long as i know i did my best that i will be okay.

as a part of homelessness awareness week with campus ministry, there was an event in which the leadership team had to prepare for a 'movie that matters' experience. the team got together, worked on getting the event ready, and made sure it was something to learn from. within the time of preparation, we communicated, researched, advertised, plus more, to make sure it would be best we can make it be. i know i did my best work with my job and i helped the very most that i could with my team members to make sure each job could be completed so that the experience would be very enjoyable. within the discussion part of the event, we had conversed about working for your place in the economic ladder. you must work your way to the top to show yourself what you are capable of. you cannot just do your job and expect everything to fall in to place. you have to work for your place and know that work ethic is crucial in surviving in such a world. things will get hard at times but as long as you work your hardest and keep communication with your team and do your research on your job to make sure you are fulfilling its potential, you will have success.

So Stress has been my best friend lately. I have so much to do and so little time to do it, it seems like! Ugh... its annoying! I had a presentation to do on Monday night in my CED class and I have to present again on Tuesday during my IDS class as a PL. Then I also have a research paper due at the end of the semester that I've yet to start along with two papers that serve as exams in my ENG and PHI classes and a paper in my ASL class. Along with my hectic schedules, it's getting to be a pain. This is my Tuesday this week: get up at 6:30 AM, baby-sit 7:30-8:30, class 10-11:15, my CAB meeting 11:30-12:30, class 12:45-2, class again 2:15-3:30, break, then class again 6-8:30... It's a non-stop day that I'm not sure if I'll have to breathe during but oh well... I thrive on fast pace days sometimes, but other times I don't... 

I went bowling last week which was a good stress reliever, though. On Thursday night, CAB and Lions for Life (our pro-life club) sponsored an event at Western Bowl and I bowled two games for free so that was awesome to smash some pins! lol :) Then on Saturday I went to the Bridge Bowl! It's the Mount versus Thomas More and this year it was played on their campus (last year it was here). We lost 19-0 but it was fun, I guess. It was raining but my mom and I had fun. Then we went shopping and I blew $100 on clothes so that was fun! lol :) Time to get in the winter season! Today is snowed most of the day even though none of it really stuck so that was no fun but at least it was the first snow of the year! I love snow! It is definitely my favorite time of the year!!! :D 

This coming weekend, my boyfriend comes home from school so I'll get to see him for a week so I'm happy about that! And next week we have two days of school and then we're out for Thanksgiving break! We get Wednesday-Friday off so I'm excited about getting some time off! I need a break... I also need time to get things done. Time is like money: we spend it, we save it, and we invest it, but once it's gone, we never get it back.

Hey everyone.  So I just wanted to give a little update on how the baseball team is doing these days.  We finished a productive fall season a few weeks ago, which is basically a months worth of practice, and just give the coaches an outlook of who is going to be on the team and who will play the majority of the time.

Now comes the hard part.  The winter months are the worst months for a baseball player.  Right now we are just lifting and conditioning three days a week.  Once we come back from fall break though, we will go straight into practice, and then what I like to call ultimate conditioning.  I'm actually really trying to bust my butt this year, because in past years I haven't dedicated myself in the offseason and it's just a lot harder to stay healthy when the season starts.  This is the hardest thing for me.  Baseball players naturally want to be where?  On the field, preferably outside.  Where are we?  In the gym, lifting weights and hitting off pitching machines.  The first day of spring when we actually get to go outside is the best day of the year, even if it's still freezing cold.  Anyway, being in shape is probably one of my biggest weaknesses as a baseball player right now.  I like to use the excuse that I have short legs, therefore I have to run further than the guys with long legs. 

Also, I would like to mention that the baseball team will be at the Motherhouse on December 6th to decorate for Christmas.  It's actually one of my favorite functions the team does.  We put up a bunch of Christmas trees and lights, and get to talk to all the sisters about what's going on with school.  Also, we receive a small payment of cookies and cider, which ironically will put me right back in the weight room to lose that weight.  Hope everyone is hanging in there as the semester gets close to the end.  See ya.

I have been awake since 6am this morning going through e-mails, papers, binders, folders, books, web-sites, phone conversations, and everything else possible! Lets start off with the first two hours of my day. I spent two hours this morning putting together information for an interview that I would have for Kiss 107 about my involvement through the Mount on www.collegeweeklive.com. I then got ready for the day and went to my 9am class. Afterwards I spoke with Cliff about the semester so far and picked up my the Flip Video Camera to start taking more footage for the video that will ...eventually... be up on this blog page. He also had mentioned some ideas for the phonathon job just so many hours later. I then had just enough time to stop up in my room to check e-mails again before my tutoring for ethics. My tutor helped me pitch some ideas for my last ethics paper for the semester. I finished tutoring and made my way up to the room to yet again CHECK MY E-MAIL for more updates for the day and this week. ((I feel like I get 10 e-mails every hour - I'm too involved.)) I then rushed my lunch in order to once again check my e-mail so I can be ready for another interview for the day. I was able to speak with Shane Fero for an hour today about glass art. He is the president of the Glass Art Society and has created some amazingly beautiful pieces and has been able to present, lecture, demonstrate, and teach the techniques of flameworking. I had this interview with him today because of a research paper that is due on Thursday for my flameworking course. We have to research the technique and history of the glasswork as well as an artist who uses the technique and their thoughts and experience with it. I chose Shane Fero because of his magnificent work but never expected to be given the opportunity to speak with him directly about his fabulous work! The best thing I got from the interview was this direct quote from him. His words are inspirational:

“Coming from a traditional background, you learn by practice. Somebody that is coming from a background doesn’t have to have huge skills to make something beautiful. You don’t have to have incredible flameworking skills to make incredible art.”

I've been in a great mood ever since! But still tired because there has been more to add on to the day. After the interview I had voice lessons and then had to rush up to the theatre lobby for the campus ministry leadership team bingo event. I was unaboule to stay for the whole thing however because of choir. Of course after choir, I went up to my room again to CHECK E-MAIL AGAIN before dinner in which i rush in order to get to work on time. Working the phonathon was of course slow tonight because its the last week of calling and we were calling some of the more difficult customers. We made it through though and ended up making it over our goal for the semester. So it overall was a big success. Well after work I had another meeting with campus ministry to talk about the bingo event earlier in the day, as well as the trick or treat for canned goods event. They were BOTH BIG SUCCESSES! We are really excited about it. We also began talking in to more details about upcoming events for the semester. This includes shanty town in which any of the mount students/faculty/staff etc. can build a place to stay for the night of november 19th out of cardboard boxes and sleep outside. it is a big part of our homelessness awareness week! we talked about more details within the week about movie events, speakers, and more. i'm really excited about it! we have more events coming up as well, including a night hike on december 2nd that is welcome to all. after the meeting i was finally able to come back to my room FOR THE NIGHT and get ready for bed. and so now i'm here. writing this blog, tired as can be, and still having to work on more homework, including that ten-page paper that my interview was for. thankfully i have more than enough information to feed off of. its just a matter of whether my brain is too fried to work on it much tonight before i sleep.

well either way, thanks for reading my blog again!