Step 27: Laugh at all Your Friends who Have to go Back to School

To all my Woodsie friends out there - Happy First Monday!

I thought it would feel strange not going back to school. That's when I was told that the shock of having actually graduated would hit me - when all my friends went back to school while I stayed at home. But really, my home friends and my school friends were always two separate groups, and though it's true that a lot of my home friends are going back to school this month it's still not that lonely because a lot of them were busy during the summer with extra classes or work. And I tried really hard to spend time with some of my school friends this summer (not to mention going to their weddings!). Maybe it'll hit me when everyone gets farther into the semester and are enjoying cramming for exams while I'm busy picking up dog poop (that's my new job, if you missed the post in How to Survive the Animals After College - working at a doggie daycare).

So my question to you: What do you miss most about college?
And my challenge to you (especially those going back to school):

Step 26: Go on a Final Summer Trip

Before you head back to your institution of choice (full time career, part time job, school, prison, ect.) you've got to go on one last adventure. And who would have thought my last adventure for the summer would have been a day trip up to Michigan? Lacking in the intense fear factor that can be found at Six Flags and the emotional experiences of two weddings, Michigan doesn't seem like it'd be all that fun as a final hurrah.

But you'd be surprised at how much fun you can have going on a car trip with your mom.

First off, I'm a terrible navigator. We didn't realize we had missed out exit until we were about 12 exits past. But because of my ineptitude at spotting the correct turn, we found a cute little place called The Chocolate Garden. Now, I'm a little let down when the flowers weren't made out of chocolate, but what we get is still pretty dang cool. They sell homemade truffles that are unlike any other truffles because they lack a hard chocolate coat. Mama bought a package of four: a white chocolate, a milk chocolate, a dark chocolate, and a darkest chocolate. Her and I split the darkest chocolate and milk chocolate, and some how we managed to go an entire week without eating the last two so that we could give them to my grandma for her Birthday.

After eating our desert, we finally got to our picnic spot on the shore of Lake Michigan at Warren Dunes State Park. We ate our lunches and then people watched for a while (despite the lack of people in this picture, the beach was actually pretty full farther down - Mama and I had a pretty nice view of some good looking young men. ;) ).

And we also had a pretty good view of all the doggies since we were on the dog beach. :3

After eating, I had to work off all those calories, so I climbed the dune behind me (it might not look that big in this picture, but you'll see in the next picture that it's no easy climb). It got to the point that I would take a step and sink back half the distance I'd just come. :P

This picture is proof of two things: 1) I indeed am still running and ran down that dune and 2) If you observe the young man behind me, he and his team (I'm guessing cross country, but I didn't ask) had been going up and down that hill for a while now - he's only at the base of the sand dune and he's already stopping to catch his breath. Proof that the hill was as big as I said it was!

After running off my lunch, it was only appropriate that my mom and I stop at the legendary Redamak's to get a burger. It was pretty good, but for a place that supposedly made Buffalo, Michigan famous, I was expecting a little more.

Then it was a clear shot to The Silver Dipper ice cream shop. Wow... this trip involved a lot of food. :) But we just had to stop there - they have this delicious ice cream made with Zanzibar chocolate and oreos called Zoreo. It's the only ice cream shop near my house that sells the stuff, but it's all the way up in Lafayette, so anytime I'm up at Wolf Park or going past the city, it's a law that I must stop.

Our final stop was back at home, and as much as I'd love to tell you that we ate some more when we got home, we were so full and tired from our long day that we went straight to bed.

So my question to you: Where's your favorite place to go on a day trip?

And my challenge to you: If you haven't been up to Warren Dunes State Park, check it out sometime - it's a very relaxing beach

Oh, and for all of you LOST fans out there - the town that Warren Dunes State Park is in is called Sawyer. ^_^

Step 25: Get a Job

Wow - it takes 25 steps just to get a job. And it's not even a job in my career field. And technically speaking, there are some other steps that should have gone before (go on a final summer trip, walk into potential job sites, get a LinkedIn account, etc) but I haven't had the time to write about them since I got the job (which I actually got last Thursday - today was my third day).

And I bet you're wondering what kind of job it is? Well, you'll just have to check out my How to Survive the Animals After College blog post tomorrow, 'Cause I'm exhausted!

So my question to you: What was your first ever job. Mine was working at a movie theater. There are some good stories there. :)
And my challenge to you: Get at least 8 hours of sleep before you go into work!

Step 24: Complete Your First Ridiculously Rough Draft

>>This post is geared more towards the writers out there, but if you can find a way to work it into your own life, more power to ya!<<

Rough drafts are like roller coasters. When you first get the idea for a story, you jump right on in that line regardless of how long the wait time is. You race between the metal bars, writing everything in your brain down as quickly as you can, thinking that things are going to go smoothly and you'll have an awesome experience in no time. Eventually though, you hit that wall, that end of the line, and you're stuck thinking and thinking and thinking, until finally the line moves a couple feet. You know what you want to write, and you scurry to write it down. Then you're stopped again, waiting and thinking.

Finally, you're up on the platform - you're next in line to get on the roller coaster. You can actually see the shape that your story's going to take, and it looks terrifying. There's a huge drop, twists and turns, parts where everything gets turned up side down and nothing makes sense anymore. Suddenly, you want out of that line, want to walk right on through when the gates swing forward and usher you to your designated seat. You don't want to get on that ride anymore - what if something malfunctions, and your story's not as good as you thought it was?

But your friends and family are dragging you onto the ride, some calling you chicken, others trying to convince you that you're more likely to be in a car accident than to die in an amusement park. The lap bar comes down, and now you're stuck with what you're doing.

Rereading that first ridiculously rough draft that you worked on while waiting in line - that's the part when you're going up that first big hill. It's horrible. You want to bail, but you can't, so you just keep reading. But that moment when the coaster slows for just a millisecond at the top as it crests the hill, in that moment you can see everything that your story could be. It's terrifying, but at the same time exhilarating.

I haven't started revising my own story yet, but I think it's going to be the fun part of the roller coaster (which is incidentally the things that terrify you from the platform - the drops, the twists and turns, the loop-de-loop). It'll be crazy, and parts of it you won't be able to remember, but in the end nothing will malfunction, and you'll hop off that roller coaster with a completed story and an itch to do it all over again.

So my question to you: How do you write stories? I've never done a ridiculously rough first draft before - I'm usually one of those perfectionists who makes sure the first paragraph is the best that it can be before moving on, so this go around I tried writing my rough draft like all of my creative writing teachers told me to.
And my challenge to you: If you've never done a ridiculously rough draft before, try it. It's horrible and I hated doing it, but I did feel good being able to say that I had the complete story basically done.

Step 23: Go to the Children's Museuem

With your little cousins, of course, not because you want to see the giant Bubmblebee statue that was actually used in the original Transformers movie or the new Avatar exhibit they just put in....

Seriously, though, the Indianapolis Children's Museum is a great place for kids and adults. My 17-year-old-cousin and I took the two oldest of our batch of younger cousins as a Birthday present to the oldest (trust me, we tried taking all four to Chuck-E-Cheese a few years back, and though the kids will tell you they had a great time, it was ridiculously tiring for us, so stick to taking children in pairs if you're in the high school/college age range yourself). It was pretty fun. The boys loved the science/water world on the top floor (what kid doesn't) and even got into a couple exhibits that I honestly didn't think would keep a 9- and 10-year-old's attention (apparently serving the older cousins plastic fruit in an Egyptian marketplace is exciting stuff now-a-days). It made me feel good to see them get into something other than videos games (though be careful because there's an exhibit that has old-school games, and apparently I'm old-school now because they had a few PS2s there that the kids could play demo games on), and it was nice to see them interacting well with one another and the other kids (granted, they're little kids, so there's going to be squabbles here and there).

So my question to you: What's your favorite exhibit at the Children's Museum. I thought it was pretty cool seeing Bumblebee. :)
And my challenge to you: If you've got younger cousins or little siblings, take them somewhere fun. They may not express in words how grateful they are that you spent the day with them, but through their actions you'll see how much fun they have and how much the day means to them.

Step 22: Get Stuck on a Roller Coaster!

Another amazing thing that I did instead of writing the past two weeks was get stuck on this bad boy!

As the coaster came to a jerky stop with half of the train still outside of the loading station and the smell of something burning, I saw my life flash before my eyes...

...actually, I saw my lil sis trying to see how far she could wiggle out of the harness, the whole of her left arm waving to the attendants. Laughing, I told her if the ride did go up in flames she'd have the best chance of getting free. We sat there swinging our legs and talking to cute ride attendant. He wouldn't tell us what had happened, but I'm pretty sure we broke the ride. We didn't see it run for the rest of the afternoon. And when I say we, I blame my lil sis - she was the one who's harness didn't fit quite right. ;)

We were only stuck there for maybe five minutes, but it was fun to finally hop off once maintenance got there and say we survived being stuck on a roller coaster. And it was even better when we got coupons good for a free drink! Six Flags Great America really knows how to handle tricky situations.

And that unique experience was only the best part of a pretty fun day. We went on a Tuesday, so the longest line that we had to wait in was about 45 minutes, and that was for the most popular roller coaster there; it was sunny, but there was a wonderful breeze so we didn't fry; and we arrived a half hour early because we forgot about the time change, but that ended up being a good thing because we hit traffic around Chicago.

My favorite ride of the day probably had to be the new X Flight (sorry, Batman: The Ride - even though you got me a free drink, I've never been on a roller coaster that has you hanging from the side of the track.... granted, I couldn't breath with the type of harnessing they used... but even at that, the Raging Bull would Still beat Batman, but only when sitting in the front seat where there's nothing blocking your view of that horrible first drop.... you're a close third, though Batman!).











So my question to you: What is your favorite roller coaster?
And my challenge to you: If you haven't been to an amusement park lately and you're within four hours of Six Flags Great America, take a trip up there!

Step 21: Be in Another Wedding!

One of the awesome things that I did during my writing hiatus that took place the past couple of weeks was celebrating the union of another dear friend.

I've known and ran with the bride since we were in eighth grade, but it wasn't until senior year of high school that we really started to connect. Our friendship truly blossomed  when we signed on for the first ever cross country team of our college, and since then we've pushed through some ruff races together. (And when I say together, I mean she was way ahead of me 'cause she's an amazing runner, but I always supported her and she always supported me.)

Well her she is, speeding towards the finish line of the single's race and about the enter the duathlon when things start to get rough (what good race doesn't have that "oh crap" moment?). It had started to storm, which in and of itself was a bit frustrating because the wedding was supposed to be outside, but they had a lovely banquet hall set up inside where the ceremony could take place, so we all were able to breath a little easier. The real tester, the moment where we all hit the wall and struggled, was when the power went out.

But this bride is a two-time USCAA National champ (not to mention second placer the two years before that), and her man's nothing to sneeze at in the running world either. They weren't going to let electricity beat them in their greatest race yet. So they crossed that beautiful naturally and candle lit finish/start line. They won their singles races and took the lead in the duathlon. And the bridesmaids and groomsmens and the families and friends all cheered as they sped past us.

So my question to you: Which side of the cake pictured below do you think I took a huge bite out of? :D
And my challenge to you: When you get married, if things don't go the way you planned, take it in strides and remember that you're not holding this ceremony to show off your decorating and planning skills - you're doing it because of the love that you share with your partner.

<3 Congratulations, you crazy squirrels! <3

Step 20: Fall off the Bandwagon, but get Right Back On

This blog post is really similar to "Step 11: Get Super Busy," except that I actually had excuses for not writing during that break. Granted, I had some really awesome things go on the past couple weeks (check out the next few blogs to hear about them), but there were several times that I thought "I should write a blog post" or "I should work on my story." Instead, I watched old cartoons I used to watch when I was kid.

Sometimes I get in funks like that, and if it happens towards the end of the month it can be really bad. Get your minds out of the gutters! It has nothing to do with me being a girl! It does, however, have everything to do with... well, not sure what you would call this: I have to start things at the beginning. 

It started out just with movies, tv shows, and books. I had to watch/read things in order. Heck, I couldn't even watch the original Star Wars movies until the three prequels came out so that I could see it all from  beginning to end (chronologically speaking). 
Then it went to homework - if I couldn't figure out the answer to question 1, there was no way I was moving on to question 2.
And now it's hit my entire life. If I wake up and am having a bad day, I really really really want to just go back to bed and wake up the next day and have a good morning that will lead to a good rest of the day. Sometimes it gets as bad as me waiting until the beginning of the next week to "hit the ground running," as my mom and I like to say. And in some worst case scenarios, I just throw away the last two weeks of a month, goof off, and tell myself that come the first of the next month I'll be productive and get stuff done just the way that I want to.

This method is all fine and dandy (as you can see, it's the beginning of the month and I'm back on the writing bandwagon), but I wasted a lot of time. So I'm going to try not to do that anymore. First off, I'm going to try not to fall of the bandwagon in the first place, but if I do, I'm going to try to hop right back on.

So my question to you: What do you do to get yourself back on the bandwagon?
And my challenge to you: If you are having a bad day (whether it's only that slight bad that's more annoying than sad or it's a truly awful day), try looking at the next day as a new, better day. You'll give yourself the rest of your bad day to sulk around, but then you'll have a fresh, productive start the next day.