The Calm Before The Storm

This past week was my last "fun" week before school really starts to hit me hard. But it was the perfect last fun week to keep me going for the rest of the semester.

Monday November 21

Monday was rather a crazy day. I had a loot to do and not enough time to do all of it. I had work in the morning but I also needed to crank out a rough draft before my 1 pm class. And rough drafts in journalism really aren't rough drafts... they pretty much want you to be completely done and then tweak it. Somehow I managed to write 900 words (final has to be around 1200) about something I reported on two months ago... it was a miracle... it wasn't a very good article, but a miracle nonetheless. 

Next thing I needed to do was take one of Steph's education friends' senior photos. Steph has brought in all my clients this semester and mo money. Peyton is pretty much a model so she made my job really easy, and her mom had a million poses that she wanted her to do, which made my job even easier. I wanted to be done in a half hour so I could try to make a town hall meeting for my final project in my RPA class, but there were just so many different things to do and it was all too exciting that it lasted almost an hour.

By the time I got to my car the town hall meeting had already started, but I thought maybe I will just go and it will be a long meeting.... but that would mean I would have to ditch my Monday night class, so I emailed my professor saying I couldn't make it and then I started driving... and the traffic was so horrible that there was no way I could have made it in an appropriate amount of time, so I just ended up going to class instead. Good thing I did too because I have already missed too many of the classes that if I missed one more I could technically be dropped from the class.  But I do regret that I wasn't able to make it to the town hall.

Class went by pretty quick and so I was able to make it to the basketball game before it started. Abby and Derrick were the bees knees and saved Andrew and I seats since we were both going to be late. This was my first real basketball game of the semester, and it was awesome. I love basketball, especially UA basketball. 

Oh and also somewhere in between all these other things I was doing I also did all my work for the Wildcat. A crazy Monday, that's for sure.

Tuesday November 22

Tuesday I worked in the morning with Tristan, he's always really chill so it's a good time with him. 

After I work I went to the newsroom to meet Chastity and we went to lunch at Smashburger, which is always the best. It also counted as my birthday meal since we weren't able to make it work before my birthday. Chastity is just the best, that's all I'm saying, she's eternally my favorite person in the J School.

After lunch I dropped Chastity off at the Wildcat and headed to the City Council Meeting for RPA that was supposed to start at 2 pm. I was about a half hour early, but I found a spot in the parking garage so it didn't really matter (although the parking garage is terrifying and I think my car is going to implode whenever I'm in there). Once I got to City Hall I was told that the meeting was postponed until 3 pm... great. I decided that I didn't want to pay for parking for more than two hours, so I left hoping that since I had been in there for under an hour I would get away free... I didn't. So I decided to go back to the Wildcat to do some work before I went back to City Hall, but I didn't feel like parking at the institute on the other side of the campus, so I just paid for 30 minutes of parking near the Wildcat. Then my meter ran out so I decided that I deserved some caffeine and went to Taco Bell to get a medium Baja Blast, the woman gave it to me for free.. so that makes up for all the parking I had to pay for. Then I finally went back to town hall, parked at one of the meter spots which already had an hour paid for on it (my lucky day) and then went inside. The stupidest thing about City Council meetings is that although it starts at 3 pm, there's an executive session where the mayor and council go consult with a lawyer for 45 minutes about an issue and the public is not welcome to that. SOo even though it started at 3, I couldn't do anything until nearly 4. A lot of my classmates that were there were quite peeved about the matter so they went to a bar while we waited. THEN the first item on the agenda once the mayor and council got back was a reflection of the budget this last year, which really isn't something I could write a story about, so I didn't want to waste my storage recording it... but then out of the blue a councilmember starts feeding us reporters great news about the golf courses in Tucson and I started recording all too late, but with teamwork I was able to get all the information I needed. 

After going to City Council I spent the rest of my evening at the Wildcat working, at the photo meeting and just hanging out.. that's right people I just hung out at the Wildcat.

Wednesday November 23

All my roommates had left me by Wednesday morning... including my sister. So I packed up most of my stuff, went to work, went back home to finish packing and then made my way to Mesa for Thanksgiving weekend!

In Mesa I watched Rise of the Guardians and Ghostbusters with Avery, and Zach came to party with us too. 

After watching the movies Zach and I went to the Riparian with his brothers and Nate to play some Pokemon. Zach is just a fresh Pokemon trainer so pretty much every catch or gym battle is exciting for him... but it's much less exciting for me. But we ended our adventure with something very exciting, we found a ditto... only the dream of my life. 

After playing Pokemon we went to Sadie and Parker's house to watch Finding Dory with the fam. Unfortunately none of us already owned the movie, and as a condition of us watching it at Pardie's I needed to bring ice cream, so I ran to WalMart right before to buy the movie and some delicious ice cream, completely worth it. It's seriously so wonderful knowing the fam is only getting bigger from here on out, no more sending people off on missions... unless I decided to go, which is 100% very unlikely.

After hanging out at Pardie's for a little bit after the movie, we decided to call it a night. I thought I had more hang out in me to go to Zach's house, but I ended up falling asleep during the first 10 minutes of Grey's Anatomy... I'm a party animal for sure.

Thursday November 24

Happy Thanksgiving!

As per tradition my family went to Avondale at my Aunt and Uncle's house for Thanksgiving. The Richardson's come all decked out in Arizona gear and the Price's come decked out in Arizona State gear. My cousin Brooklyn started college at BYUI this semester, so she repped BYU rather than any Arizona team. And then the Price's Bishop and family came as well and they are all Utah fans, so they came decked out in their Utes gear.

Like every year the food was amazing, and like every year all the awkward questions are asked. And just like every year in the past the Richardson's failed miserably at cornhole. I hate the way the scoring is in cornhole because the final score does not reflect the amount of bean bags I got in the hole or on the board... so when I come out with a final score of 21-8 it makes it seem like I did a whole lot worse than I actually did, because in reality the other team usually just got one more point than mine each round. Only a little salty. But such is life, we will get them next year... except probably not. 

After the Thanksgiving lunch and all the cornhole games, we made our way back to Mesa did our final look through of ads and then started our Black Friday shopping. This years Black Friday crew consisted of me, Zach, McKenzie and my mom. There wasn't a whole lot that I wanted but I did decide last minute that I was going to go to Target for their iPhone 7 deal. It was my understanding of the deal that if you activated a new iPhone 7 at Target then you would receive a $250 gift card. It turns out that the ads mislead me quite a bit, and I did not qualify for the $250 gift card. I found this out once I got to the front of the line where only one person was checking out all the iPhones. I was probably the 15th person in line but it took me nearly 2 hours to get to the front. So I had waited two hours already, so I decided to just buy the phone even though I wouldn't qualify for the gift card (even though the website said I did... smh). So I check out my new phone and just as the nice Target man clicks activate on the computer... it doesn't let me. So he calls the Verizon Store and said they would be able to get that fixed real fast... well it's Black Friday so Verizon was quite busy and had us on hold for about 20 minutes before I said the nice Target man should start checking out other people while we were on hold. Another 20 minutes go by and we find out that the Verizon system had crashed and that's why it wouldn't activate my phone. So I returned in the phone.... and left Target without an iPhone 7. Not the greatest of nights but I just felt so bad for all the other people in line and the nice Target worker, I really wasn't that salty at all.

After Target we went to Wal Mart for some shopping for Avery and then we made our way to Chandler Mall. There was nothing I really wanted to buy so I was just there to be a support to my mother. After we went to Chandler we went to Old Navy and Ulta, and by this point, I was very exhausted so I really had no motivation to do anything. Luckily we only had one more stop at Kohls for the night, and I was able to survive that and then go right home to sleep.

Friday November 25

I took Friday as an opportunity to sleep in. My mom is a brave soul and went out at 6 am after not getting home until 1 am... she's the Black Friday queen. Later in the morning I ended up going with Zach to Arizona Mills to buy him some new shoes and we ran into my mom at the Vans store, how crazy! We spent a lot of time in the Vans store contemplating the right shoes to get, but Zach did eventually walk out of the store with two new sharp pairs of shoes (as my Mom would say).

After shopping we went to his house so I could say hi to his grandparents, cousins, and aunt and uncle who were all there for Thanksgiving. I got to meet the new baby Dylan, who is such a happy little baby. I also became best friends with James, Zach's 4 year old cousin, who may or may not want to steal me from Zach hahah. 

After hanging out with them for a little bit, McKenzie came to pick me up and then we picked up Andrew and Derrick to go to the UA vs ASU game in Tucson. I wasn't too hopeful that we were going to win this game, but I figured since both our teams suck, that it would be a leveled playing field. BUT WOW what a game.... and really what an EMBARRASSING game for ASU. It was such a fun game to watch... so much rushing over and over and over. There's really nothing like destroying a rivalry team doing the same move over and over and over again. Just so good. I am a little bit (a lot bit) peeved that we couldn't storm the field. I know that you're really only supposed to do that if you beat a ranked team... but still we are rivals, we should be allowed to storm. PLUS I have stormed every other year of my college career, and this would have been the only opportunity for me to do it this football season... so much disappointment. But nonetheless happy to have the territorial cup back in Tucson. 

Being the crazy people that we are, Derrick, Kenzie and I drove back to the valley after the game. I told them that they had to stay awake to keep me awake while I was driving. Derrick did a good job to keep me awake... but McKenzie fell asleep. Regardless of her inability to keep us safe, we made it home safely around 2 am... so dang late.

Saturday November 26

My mother, McKenzie, Avery, Zach and I went to go see Moana in the afternoon. I was so psyched to see this movie, I just knew it was going to be good. And I have a slight obsession with Lin Manuel-Miranda, so knowing he wrote the music for the movie, I knew it was going to be absolutely amazing. And I was certainly not disappointed at all. I laughed, I cried, I awed.... it was just so amazing. I HIGHLY recommend seeing it, I can't stop listening to the music. 

After the movie, Zach and I went to go pick up Steph and Jenny from the airport. Steph landed about 40 minutes earlier than Jenny, but they were in different terminals so we had an adventure going on the SkyTrain to pick them up.

After picking them up and driving home, they went out to get dinner and then went to the temple lights with some of the Tucson homies. Zach and I decided to do a session at the temple, we were able to make it in time for the very last session, so we lucked out. After our session we went and got dinner at Mod Pizza, and then hung out with his dad and Grandpa until I realized how early we had to wake up for Alec's homecoming talk the next morning. So Zach drove me home, and just as Zach was leaving, Alec pulled up to pick McKenzie up to hang out! This was actually my first time seeing Alec since he got back home, he kind of has this odd accent that I can't really describe but it was nothing like the accents my brothers had when they got home from Brazil (which is also where Alec served).

Sunday November 27

Zach picked me and Kenzie up bright and early in the morning to get to Alec's homecoming talk at 8 am... I struggled so hard to stay awake, but I was awake for all of Alec's talk, which was amazing. 

After his talk we went and chatted with him fro a hot second before Zach dropped me and Kenzie off back at home while he went to another homecoming talk. I used that time to watch the final two episodes of Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life. I don't think you guys realize how much I freaking love this show. I have memories of my mother and I watching the show together when it was actually running on cable... it's amazing. And I have been so psyched for this revival... but also rather nervous because sometimes revivals are just awful... like we can all admit now that we were disappointed with the Arrested Development revival. Jenny is a big fan of the show too and she had watched the first three episodes already, so we watched the fourth episode for the first time together. Pretty much everyone (in my family +Zach) was around for the final part of the last episode and HOLY CRAP what a cliff hanger... BUT I LOVED IT. A lot of people are angry about the ending, but I loved it so much... I also already know who the people are, so I don't feel any uncertainty with that. I seriously paced the room with Rory's last line... it was all too intense. 

For the rest of the day we all kind of just hung out at my house before Jenny, Kenzie and I made our way back to Tucson. Once we got to Tucson, Derrick, Jacob and Rory came to hang out with us. We watched Tangled, and then started Frozen, and then Iw as ready to call it a night because the weekend was finally over and I really needed to rest up for the insane school weeks ahead of me.

Monday November 28

I spent pretty much the entire day on campus on Monday. From 8 am-9pm I was on campus. 

I worked in the morning, then had institute and class. Then I finished my article for ASN, and went to lunch at Chipotle (thanks to Pam for the gift card) with Chastity to talk about her EIC interview with Eboard later that night. 

Although I am a member of the Eboard, it was likely that I wouldn't be able to make the EIC interviews because they started at 6:30 and I had a class from 6-8:30. But I really wanted to be there to hear Chastity and Sam's plans for the Wildcat next semester, so I asked my professor if I could leave early to be part of the interview. He was really chill about it because we were learning how to do cut outs in class that day and I am pretty much already a cut out pro. 

I did Eboard interviews for the new EIC last Spring, and the interviews didn't last longer than an hour for the both of them. This time around each interview lasted 40 minutes... which is really insane... I did not think it would go that late. And then on top of that I had to write down my opinions on the two people and their readiness to be EIC for the Wildcat. You see the EBoard doesn't actually choose the EIC for the next semester, the media board does, but we do preliminary interviews and write down what we think of the candidates to help the media board make their decisions. 

After I was done evaluating and writing out my thoughts on each candidate I still had to do Budget for Tuesday's production.... the day just never ended. But I did make it home eventually. 

Very unfortunately when I got home I could feel a sickness coming on... and I was hoping that if I just went to sleep then it would be better by the morning.... funny joke.

Tuesday November 29

I started the morning as anyone would want to start a morning during some of the most stressful weeks of school.... with some vomiting. After that cleared out my system I decided that I was okay enough to go to work, and I felt pretty good for most of the day... I was just so freezing cold all the time. By the time I was working at the Wildcat I really wasn't feeling well at all... I ached all over and was still so freezing and had an awful headache and an extremely sore throat. JUST HOW I WANT TO FEEL DURING MY STRESSFUL WEEK OF SCHOOL. I was able to get all my work done and I got home around 7:30 and just went straight to sleep. I was able to sleep through most of the night but I would go through phases of being extremely cold and then extremely hot... so that wasn't too fun. Luckily I woke up this morning feeling not tired and I popped some DayQuil, so hopefully today will be a better day!

Great news though people my grad announcements are in, and I figured my true friends are the ones that read my blog, so if you want a graduation announcement let me know!