Last Day

Today's the last day of classes! One more week left and no more studying, papers, and early morning classes!

Lions Pride Sports, Lindenwood Womens B-Ball vs CMU

School...

School is stressing me out! I cannot wait for finals to be done with so I can finally relax. I'm sure everyone feels the way I do so everyone already knows how stressful it is. Thanks for listening to me complain...

Clear text

This is a paper I turned in for my PR class. All the info in it is true so read about it because it will effect everyone next year.


Lindenwood University will begin a plan with Clear Text starting in the fall. Clear Text is a company that distributes text messages to a large quantity of people at one time.
The contract will allow LU to send mass text messages out to students in case of an emergency or other notifications. LU, along with other colleges in the area, thought this necessary especially after the Virginia Tech tragedy. The university is hoping that they will be able to send out these texts to inform students of an emergency as soon as it happens.
“I pray that at least one person in each class will sneak down to look at it,” said the Director of Communications at LU, Scott Queen.
Queen had discussed using Clear Text back in November. This will cost the university approximately $5,000 a year.
Students will be given the opportunity to choose if they would like to sign up for the service. A letter will be sent out during the summer to inform the returning LU students about the new system. On registration days in the summer, students will be asked if they would like to be a part of the service. Students, as well as teachers, will be asked for their cell phone number, provider, and other questions such as what year they are or what residence hall are they living in. These questions will be asked so the university can send the proper messages to the proper groups. LU is discussing sending messages that may include class cancellations, Internet outages, senior announcements, emergencies, and other announcements that will benefit students to know as soon as possible. LU does not plan on making these text messages a consistent thing. They only want to use it when they have to.

Bad Luck

On Friday, I was driving to work on I-170 where there are only two lanes because of construction. I was on my way to work and I see a black thing in the road but by the time I noticed it, it was too late to swerve around it so I ended up running over it. Right when I hit this thing, I knew it did damage. I pulled over to the next exit and saw that my tire was completely flat and the rim was dented and cracked. I finally got my car back today so I am excited about that but replacing the tire was pricey!

Desperate Housewives

Desperate Housewives was awesome tonight! That is the only TV show I actually make a point of watching. It always puts me in a good mood! I can't wait till next week. I think it is the season finale.

Spiderman 3

I saw the 12:00 showing of Spider-man 3 last night and it was awesome. They have new villains which are probably the best! Definitely a must-see!

Babysitting

My boyfriend and I babysit his coach's son, Necho. He's the cutest boy and he is so much fun!

Capote

I am reading a book called "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. I started reading this book in the beginning of the school semester when I was taking a feature writing class. The journalism of Capote is wonderful. The way he wrote the book keeps readers interested and so far, it is a great book. The book is a true story about a family that was murdered in their home. This is a great mystery and I definitely recommend it!

My dogs

This is a picture of my dogs Roscoe and Roxi. Roxi is a puppy here but she is much bigger now. Roscoe is the Siberian Husky. He's my favorite!

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

This is hilarious!

Fresh Prince - Jump On It

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is my all time favorite show!

NBA BASKETBALL SLAM DUNK CONTEST 2006

I rolled my ankle yesterday playing scrimmage with some of the girls on the basketball team. It hurt really bad and it's extremely swollen today. I had to call my job and request off because it hurt so bad. I should feel better by next week.

Concert

I went to the Street Dreamz Tour concert on Saturday night with my boyfriend, Antonio. Lil' Wayne, Young Jeezy, Jim Jones, Rich Boy, and other rappers performed at the Scotts Trade Center. The concert was fun but a little disappointing. The concert ticket said that it would start at 7:30, but it definitely didn't. Now, I have been to plenty of concerts and I understand that they hardly ever start on time, but this one was really bad. We got there right at 7:30, knowing that we would have to sit through the starting acts before we saw any of the main ones. Well the beginning performers didn't start until 8:30 and they weren't even part of the tour. They were just independent acts that took up time. About four independent artists from St. Louis came out, and each rapped about two songs. The radio station 100.3 the Beat was hosting the concert, so I assume they arranged for the local artists to come on stage, which I am totally for and I actually knew two of the rap groups, Luny and the Bangers. After we watched the local artists, the warm up groups for the tour came on around 9:30. They only came on for about 10 minutes apiece and then Rich Boy came out. He played about three songs but was still very entertaining. After Rich Boy, things didn't go so well. The crowd waited another hour and a half for Jim Jones to appear. The actual concert did not start until about 11:30! I was upset because we waited four hours to see the artists we really came for. The crowd was so upset and booed constantly while DJ's from The Beat tried to keep the crowd calmed. Antonio and I got to the point that we were thinking about leaving but I paid way too much money to just leave.
The concert actually turned out pretty fun because as soon as Jim Jones came on stage people in the higher seats all got on the floor. Of course we took advantage of this, and we ended up getting about sixth row. Security gave up on making people go back to their seats because there were too many people to hold back. We got some really good pictures! It ended up being a good night.

It's Friday the 13th!

Frustrated

So I have been searching and searching for my cord that transfers my pictures off my camera and on to my computer. My camera's memory is full and I want to empty the memory on to my computer. Well I finally found it last night. I placed it on my bed for a minute and left the room. My boyfriend was in there and was cutting the sleeves off one of his shirts and cut right through my cord! I wasn't even upset. Things like this tend to happen to me a lot.

I blew it...

So I wrote the previous blog "What Should I Do..." but just disregard that because I blew the surprise already. I'm really upset at myself because I accidentally let it slip while me and my boyfriend were having a conversation. It was one of those "I can't believe I just did that" moments. I feet like a complete blond. I'm so embarrassed by it, I'm not even going to tell anyone how I let it slip. Sorry. But on the bright side he is really excited about it and said it was the best present any one's ever gave him. That made me feel better!

What Should I Do...

I have a surprise for my boyfriend but I am horrible at keeping secrets, especially from him! I really want this to be a surprise. I bought us concert tickets for this Saturday night to a concert he really wants to go to(He never reads my blog so he won't find out through this.). The problem is I just found out that he has to work Saturday night until 7 but the concert starts at 7:30 so I don't know what to tell him because I want him to get off work early so we can get a decent parking spot downtown(which I hate driving in the city as it is! I always get lost or get pulled over!). He's never been to a concert either so I want to make sure we get there in time so he doesn't miss anything. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions?? I've already asked him to try to get off early because I wanted to go out to eat but that didn't really work. I really want this to be a surprise for him because he never thinks I can pull off surprises! If anyone has a really good idea, let me know! I would really appreciate it!

My New Job

I got a job at Victoria's Secret about two weeks ago. The atmosphere is very different then any job I've worked at. I have previously worked at Johnny Mac's Sporting Goods for three years and St. Louis Country Club for one year. I really like working at VS. Besides the discounted stuff the employees get, everyone that works there is very upbeat. We are encouraged to be very customer oriented. I like this part of my job because I really like helping people. Most of our customers are women which has it's ups and downs. Some women can get pretty snappy at the employees if we are not giving them what they want. I've dealt with some difficult women already but if you find them something they like, then their attitude usually changes. The majority of the time, I come home from work in a really good mood, besides my feet throbbing because I've been standing all day. I feel that my new job has made me a friendlier person. I've been working a lot so I really can't wait for my paycheck!

Cold Weather

The weather in Missouri is getting on my nerves. I LOVE warm weather. I was really looking forward to wearing sandals and shorts but then a cold front came....in April! I really shouldn't be surprised that the weather changed because I have been living in St. Louis my whole life, but that doesn't mean I can't complain about it. I looked at the ten day forecast and it won't get back into the 60s until next Sunday and it looks like it will stay in the 60s the rest of the week...I hope.

Movies

I went to see "Wild Hogs" about a week ago and found it hilarious. From the start, the movie already won me over with the cast of stars. I am a big fan of old John Travolta movies and while growing up, I loved Tim Allen. I was really excited when a movie came out staring both of the actors and on top of that Martin Lawrence was in it who plays in one of my all time favorite comedy, "Blue Streak". William H. Macy played an unusual role for him as the clumsy, goofy friend. It took me awhile to get use to him playing that role but it started to grow on me. Some scenes seemed like they were trying too hard to get a laugh from the audience but I really enjoyed the storyline. Overall, it was a good comedy. I would definitely recommend it!

The Special Olympics

On Saturday, the LU girls basketball team held a fundraiser at Fort Zumwalt West HS. We were working the concession stand for the Special Olympics. All the participants were playing basketball and competing to get the gold medal. The teams were from different cities in Missouri, like Lebanon, Jefferson City, and St. Charles. This was really fun for me. Everyone I talked to was so nice and they were so funny. One boy kept coming up to our table and telling us jokes. This was a really great experience. I hope I will get another chance to help out again.

Safety at Lindenwood

I live in the women's housing at LU and lately, I have felt very unsafe. If anyone hasn't heard, a girl that lives in housing was mugged and cut in the face about a month. The man even mugged her with two of her girl friends there. After this incident, I started noticing a lot of flaws that living in girls housing comes with. First of all, if you don't live on a main street, like Droste, there are no street lights which makes it very unsafe for the girls to walk from their car to their house. Another problem is how old the doors are in the houses. The house I live in has one lock on the door, which I'm sure anyone could brake into, and has a big crack in it with a very unsteady frame. The third problem was brought up to a friend of mine by an officer the night the student got mugged. He said that girl's housing at LU is targeted for more crimes than any other neighborhood in the area. Why? Because everyone knows it is strictly girls. Criminals know that if they need an easy way to mug someone without any trouble, they will just look around at girls housing because they know they will not run into a guy there. This brings up another point which I still don't understand. Why can't we have visitation?

LU Basketball

The women's basketball season ended about two weeks ago when we lost to William Jewel in the first round of playoffs. It was a sad game because we had three seniors that really helped the team out. It hit me today that they are really gone because we just started post-season with the players returning for next year. It's different to see our new team but I think it will be an interesting season.

Who Knew?

In my PR class last Wednesday I found out that Lindenwood actually has plans if something was to happen to our school and we would all have to evacuate. Everyone that isn't able to drive to a love one's house is able to stay at the Family Arena which will be available for the students to spend the night, or nights. I thought this was good planning because who knows when some crazy decides to say they are making a bomb, like what happened in Rolla, and the whole school would have to be evacuated. We wouldn't be just left out in the cold. And, LU already set up a food service too. Good planning LU.

"Dancing with the Stars"

This is an article that I recently turned in for my PR class.

“Dancing with the Stars” Brings in a Familiar Face to Missourians
Miss USA 2004, Shandi Finnessey, will be on the fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars” which begins Monday, March 19 at 7 pm on ABC.
Finnessey grew up in Florissant, MO and went to high school at Incarnate Word Academy. She is Lindenwood University’s claim to fame when she graduated in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology which took her only three and a half years to complete. She began a masters degree in counseling at LU but took some time off for Miss USA. She was the first Miss Missouri USA to ever be crowned Miss USA.
She is currently on the cable television channel Game Show Network as the host of “Lingo” and “Playmania.” She has written a children’s book, “The Furrtails” and recently published another called “Suzanna the Banana.” Finnessey also supports many charities including the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
On “Dancing with the Stars,” Finnessey will be partnered with the professional dancer, Brian Fortuna, who is a newcomer to the show. Other stars that will be featured on the program include Joey Fatone, musician/actor/Broadway star; Billy Ray Cyrus, singer/songwriter/actor; Laila Ali, Muhammad Ali’s daughter/undefeated world champion female boxer; Paulina Porizkova, supermodel and many others.