Fall Breaking In Iowa! Where Are you...?

Hello There!

My, it has been a while, hasn’t it? Seeing as my last update was in June, I’m sure stuff has happened in-between. Hmmmm, let me think for a moment….

Well, July was pretty quite—housesat for 2 weeks for the Hogans and continued training for my second triathlon. Worked for Grovespring and tried to do some work on my on-line course, but that didn’t really happen…which meant that after my triathlon (on August 1st—a whole15 minutes faster than last year!), I spent the next two weeks crunching to get all of my Biblical Literature homework in on time. There were many late nights in those weeks and much help from mom (Thanks mom!). I somehow managed to get it all turned in, and after housesitting for another week for my boss, mom and I made a weekend trip to NYC! That was amazing and we were able to visit Zach and share a pizza with him. We also got to go to Ellis Island AND see the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. So incredible. That was probably my favorite part. After a short week back home, I packed up and took a plane to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where my roommate, Nicole, picked me up. We made it to Taylor and unpacked our room (which feels pretty “cultured”—I think we have every continent represented in there…). We then started year 2 (or for me, 2 and ½) in Upland, IN!

My normal M/W/F looks like this:

8:00-World Literature
9:00-Breakfast
10:00-Chaps
11:00-Foundations of Psychology
12:00-Life Span Development
1:00-Lunch
2:00-Intermedite Spanish

(P.S. Officially changed my major to Psychology and minor to Political Science. That was such a good move—and my advisor is V. Maloney. He brings in M&M’s to class. That’s why we love him!)

I also work on Monday and Tuesday nights (at the Writing Center) and have my lesson (I’m on the equestrian team!) on Monday nights. Furthermore, I have a Lifeguard Training class at 6:30 a.m. (That’s right—in the morning!!) on Tuesdays.

It’s been good and crazy busy with Airband practices (2:00 a.m. to get a chance to practice on-stage?!), but now that that’s over, we’re all breathing a sigh of relief. While I’m thinking about it, youtube “Taylor University Ariband 2010 Hey Hey”. That was the song (by Superchic[k]) that my wing performed. But now that Airband and homecoming are over, we have a semi-normal schedule again.

Exciting things coming up…Our Hick-A-Date next Saturday! The boy I asked works with me in the Writing Center, so I figured I should ask him in a clever way—here’s what I did: I wrote him a (short) paper about why he should go with me. Yeah…It was tacky, but I did it and I’m proud of my work. I actually don’t really know him, but some girls on my wing do and they told me he’d be a great conversationalist. I knew he was working last Wednesday night, so I purposefully took that shift with him to catch him before he left. As he was getting ready to leave, I stopped him and asked him to edit this paper for me when he got the chance. I don’t think he had a clue as to what it really was. My paper had a heading “Erin Flathers, Creative Writing, 10/6/10, Paper One—Rough Draft”…and then the paragraph had all the details about the pick-a-date (pumpkin carving, pumpkin shooting, hayrides, horseback rides, corn hole, volleyball, etc). I didn’t give him a date to return it by, so this last week was…exciting, to say the least, while waiting for the news. Well, this past Wednesday I saw him at dinner and he told me that he had finished going over my paper and that he had put it back in my folder at the Writing Center. I high-tailed it to the library and checked my folder, where, lo and behold, my paper had been returned with edit marks and notes in the margins about where to use a word only once and so on. On the bottom of the paper he left a note about the paper overall (saying it was well written) and then at the very bottom of the paper, he drew a little arrow, indicating more on the back of the paper…which was his answer (yes!). Anyway, I think we’ll have a blast and I’m looking forward to shooting these pumpkins.

I’ve got some field trips and horse shows coming up that I’m also looking forward to, as well as real food at Thanksgiving break! This semester has flown by and it’s hard to believe it’s halfway through October! Some days fly by faster than others, and occasionally I just have to remind myself that it’s one foot in front of the other…but I always make it in the end.

I’m writing this from a farm in Iowa on fall break (although I have a test Monday I should really be studying for….). I went home with Brit (her farm, used to live on my wing), Carol (Brit’s roommate), and Meagan (My PA in Olson). We spent all yesterday roaming around the farm—racing over round bales, riding horses, wrestling hogs, driving the gator (and getting it stuck!), eating good food, and going to a local concert venue yester-evening (at the Stockyards!). Today we made 50 apple pies and drove over some of the property to take pictures (And I lost my camera—sad day!). We’ll had back to school tomorrow (6 ½ hour drive) after lunch to continue furthering our education! Ha…but really, we’ll work hard.

All my love!
-Rinny