A Very Lucky Girl

I am a total nerd. I love school supplies. I love organizing for a new year. I make color-coded file folders on my computer. I get excited when I enroll for the next semester. And this year is no exception. Fall 2013 is going to be legen...waitforit...DARY. I'm going to be in class 19 hours every week...but I think I'll love every second. Women&Film, Native American Literature, Sociology of Deviance, Religion&Society, my LAST semester of French, and teacher assisting for Gateway will rule my weeks. Reading and writing and thinking about people are some of my favorite activities. I wonder if I'll even feel like I'm in school.  But you know what I love even more than school? Getting mail. So, y'all get to writin' cuz I know A Very Lucky Girl is worth 46 cents for postage.  316 Cate Center Drive Box 5012 Norman, OK 73072

I moved into room 35 Jordan Hall of Cate Center in Norman today. I packed up all of my belongings and stowed them in Carson, my Matrix, much to the dismay of Beignet. She pranced around the car this morning as I loaded last minute items, searching for a place to wedge herself. She wanted to come with me and I wanted her to come terribly.  Good riddance Thorn Ridge, hello Norman and Houston. My new homes.  I've never felt so at home in a dorm. For one, it's a single. No roommates, a space all to myself. And the best part of living in Jordan is the theme of the residence hall.  YES. IT'S FRIENDS. I inwardly screamed when I saw the familiar skyline and faces on the doors, the pivot sign in the stairwell, and a "how you doin'" in the lobby. I may have a third floor room in a creepy corner with a crappy view, but my Friends DVD collection and I have never felt so at home. A Very Lucky Girl belongs here. 

First. Finest. Forever. I cannot count how many times I've been asked "are you in a sorority?" since continuing school at OU instead of TCU. Yes. But it's complicated.  I went through rush during my freshman fall semester at TCU. I wore the dresses, pulled at my strapless bra, and sweated through my perfume as we rushees waited to file into each house. I sipped the cucumber water and discreetly licked the sugar rim from the glass on the fancy lemonade day. I spilled my drink TWICE at the same house. They didn't ask me back after the second accident. I don't blame them.  On Pref night I had two houses left: Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Delta Pi. Both had beautiful pref night ceremonies, but I felt most at home in Alpha Delta Pi. They presented each girl with a giant fake diamond that represented something about her the chapter valued. I don't remember a whole lot about my TCU semester, but I remember my trait being "independence." The fact t...

I met Natasha Adler my freshman year at OU. She lived down the hall from me and we were only acquaintances during the first semester. January brought my roommate's birthday and I decided to blow up hundreds of balloons to spice up our room for her day. I enlisted Natasha's help and together we inflated almost 200 balloons, driving her to comment, "All I can taste is latex and it smells like condoms in here!"  From there our friendship blossomed and she was unquestionably there with wine and John Tucker Must Die  when ED crushed me in February 2012.  I went sprinting down the hall to her room when I received the first email from Tyler. Being my least embarrassed friend, she had no qualms about shouting across the French class room asking him for a pencil the very next week. Luckily, he didn't scare easy or I would have had to kill her.  Our schedules sophomore year were always at odds which made spending lots of time together nearly impossible. She also had cats...

And fortunately, so do all bad things. This semester reigns as the worst semester of my college career. Too many emotions for one 20 year old girl to handle with aplomb. Dead week is almost over and finals finally begin next week. I'll be OKC bound for the summer on Tuesday. 6 more nights.  To wrap up this academic semester, I had a few thoughts. First and foremost, S/O to everyone who thinks their major is harder than everyone else's. Everybody is busy. Especially this time of year. Your busyness is not special. I'll be happy to empathize with anyone, but don't expect sympathy from me. Prioritize your time; it will amaze you how you can fit school AND play into your schedule. #mindblown. I've heard dead week referred to as "I wish I was dead week," but I personally have had an excellent past few days.  Puppies visited the South Oval. There was a crowd around them all day long, but I managed to cuddle with two precious babies. I now have a serious case...

Successfully completed the first week of the 2013 spring semester--HOLLA ATCHUR GURL. 15 weeks to go. It's like I'm counting down a pregnancy, except you know, not at all. 2013 is turning out to be a bit more challenging than I originally bargained for. My life seems to be spinning out of control; but I recently realized that I completely control my academic success. So, long story short, my classes aren't going to know what hit them when I'm done in May. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday I kick off the morning with a nice dose of Introduction to Logic at 9:30 AM. This is the class that I had to take the math placement exam in order to get permission to solve word problems at the University of Oklahoma. Professor Dan Cheon seems nice enough. He doesn't bother with an attendance policy and all of his quizzes are announced and clearly assigned on the syllabus. The downside is that logic is still in the math family, just heavier on the words side. I saw "proofs...

I'm well into the second step of preparing to study abroad, which in my case is saving, saving, saving. I met with a study abroad advisor a few weeks ago to discuss destination options and we came up with three different ideas. Reading, England. Dundee, Scotland. Hertfordshire, England. I'm already in love with the idea and opportunities that Dundee has to offer. I still need to wade through the process of selecting which courses I could take that would match what OU offers for my major. The worst case scenario would be to come back from a life-changing journey, only to discover that my credits won't transfer. I am determined to graduate in 4 years, after all.  That is one daunting sheet of financial math. And unfortunately, I did all of my math right for once. So I have a question for all of those that have traveled and studied abroad. Is this an accurate assessment of cost? What would cut back on expenditures? Obviously, keeping outside travel to a minimum would s...

Last Thursday morning I was accosted by a startling headline in the Oklahoma Daily: "Armed man apprehended by OUPD." Talk about disturbing! I rescrolled through my OU email account and checked my phone for any missed OUAlerts. Nada.  According to the Oklahoma Daily , "University police failed to inform students of a man, who said he was armed, on campus last week." From what I understood from the paper, an expelled student, Naasik Ferdous, threatened to murder OU women's soccer goalie, Kelsey Devonshire, for reasons unexplained. Devonshire requested and received extra protection when the threat was realized, but although the almost assailant was spotted "in the Oklahoma Memorial Union on the morning of October 17th", no other students were notified of the potential danger.  OUPD explained their apparent negligence in not using any alert protocol because "the emergeny system to notify students via test there was a potentially armed man on campu...

My competitiveness brings an interesting dynamic to relationships. Especially the one I have with Tyler. I've recently been paying more attention to my dictionary word-of-the-day notifications and tweeting a sentence a day using the new syllable(s). Today's word was "hamartia", a noun meaning "tragic flaw". It's hard to narrow it down when you have lots, but my tweet today read: "I have countless imperfections, but one glaring #hamartia is my extreme competitiveness when it matters least. #wordoftheday"-@AVeryLuckyGirl   It all started a few weeks ago with a trip to OKC to see my family one Sunday. I challenged Tyler to a game of Battleship. He was convinced that he could probably beat me. False. From the bonus room emitted a symphony of "hit"'s from Tyler and "miss"'s from me, followed by a few muffled choice words as Tyler realized he was losing to the Battleship Queen. I sank all of his ships with only minor s...

On May 8th I started officially dating one of the greatest guys I've ever known. But I want to share some background story. Because we are pretty freakin' cute.  I sat in the "cool corner" of our Beginning French class with my friend Natasha. The boy in question perched diagonally across from me, conveniently located beneath the clock for easy glance-stealing access. During one of Natasha and I's many discussions about the male species, I piped up, "Hey you know who's pretty cute? That guy across from us in French!" She stared at me, mouth agape, "He's gay." "No! Not him. NEXT to him."  During our next class she nudged me, "yeah, you're right. You should ask him out!" HAHAHAHA since when has that ever been Taylor Arceneaux's style? If you guessed never then go get yourself a cookie. You deserve one. I responded with an "are you dumb?" eye roll. She picked up on it and whisper-yelled (did I menti...

"I'm a freshmen-lover...in an extremely appropriate way" said I as I lounged across the couch in Savannah's triangular office on Monday. I couldn't contain my excitement about the relationships I get to build with new students. Hi guyz, my name is Taylor and I'm obsessed with this year's freshmen class at OU. I love being able to be a mentor of sorts: to my Gateway class, my freshmen friends, and strangers that I meet at the Caf or the Union. I remember my dad telling me, "the best way to have a conversation is to ask someone about themselves. People love to talk about themselves, it's human nature." Paul never ceases to be right. Except for, of course, when he's wrong. I applied to be a TA for the next two semesters and I am absolutely adoring every second of it so far. My class is so great, especially considering that it's at 8:30 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thankfully, it's full of morning people (or people that are rea...

bathroom pics Jew party, what? College is the single best thing to have ever happened to me. I am SO blessed with parents that work hard to make an excellent education accessible for me. I wish college was a full-time job, I love everything about it. I love my classes, I love meeting new people everyday, and I especially love this environment of striving for success.  Febreeze wars gingerbread house party Hey, mom and dad, this is my official thank-you. It means a lot that you would invest so much in my dreams.  Horned Frog dance parties roommates boomer sooner football birthdays Remember wanting high school to fly by? My opinion of college is vastly different. I want these next 3 years to slow down and take their time.  general silliness sisters <> I used to hate being a part of the class of 2015 instead of my original status in the graduating class of 2014, but I wouldn't be ready to leave here in 2 years. I need t...

First day of classes has been conquered. And I'm utterly exhausted. I fell into bed around 10:30 pm last night and awoke before my alarm at 7:00 am. Since I was awake I decided to get a jump-start on my workout and headed to the Huff for my daily treadmill/abs/squats routine. I was school-ready by 9:00 and didn't know what to do with my time until Megan met me at Cate Main to catch up on life.  From there I headed to French, arriving 24 minutes early for old times' sake (I used to get there early in hopes of seeing Tyler). Tyler and I placed bets on whether Natasha would make it to class. We were allowed 6 unexcused absences in that class and Natasha had a grand total of 17 at the end of last semester. She made it with about 30 seconds to spare. Final verdict on French class: The teacher seems relaxed and not hardcore about speaking the language all the time. And I have the most attractive partner for speaking activities in the room ;) Next up: Health and Exercise Scie...

"Attention! Attention! Attention! A severe weather storm has been reported. All occupants walk to the nearest recommended severe storm refuge area. Do not use the elevator. Walk to the recommended severe storm refuge area." This was the soundtrack to McCurtain, Cate Center yesterday afternoon. And probably echoing around campus. However, this message didn't really apply to us because Cate Center is way too ghetto to house elevators. The emergency message was clearly directed toward those that pay more to live here. I am comforted by the fact that the top 6 floors of the highly prized towers are designed to fly off in inclement weather like what we were experiencing and what is expected to continue throughout the weekend. Cate Center has been standing relatively steady since approximately the 1930s. I'm fairly certain it can withstand a few more gusts of wind. We also don't have refuge areas. We just piled into the hallway. It sucked. It was smelly. It was 8000 d...

Friday. Just savor that word. Let it melt on your tongue. Friday. I am so guilty of favoritism towards Fridays. Don't get me wrong, I'd be upset if someone took my Saturdays away, but there is something about a Friday. L.M. Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables  and complete genius) said it best when she penned, " You mayn't get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them." Even if Saturday never came, I have all of Friday to think about what to do with that free time. The promise of a Saturday is, to me, more tantalizing than the day itself.  I dare Saturday to compete with my current Friday. Done with class at 11:15, finished at the gym by 12:30, TA application completed and turned in (in a manila folder-I've never felt so grown up!), well nourished by flank steak at the caf (one of the best meals I've had at OU), and in sweatpants, blogging, by 2:30 (oh wait-you mean other people DON'T o...

I'm currently taking my first major class, Critical Reading and Writing, and we have written one paper so far. English professors are notorious for lag-time on returning graded assignments so I'm still biting my nails over here as I wait for the final verdict on my first piece of prose for Dr. Anderson.  On Tuesday our class had a very interesting and rousing discussion about the general education requirements at OU. So rousing, in fact, that we spent a solid 45 minutes expositing the pros and cons (of course, this was also a clever ruse to delay our inevitable discourse about Flannery O'Connor's tragic tales like Good Country People  and A Good Man is Hard to Find ).  Nevertheless, several of my classmates had good points. OU requires several hours of history and government, two sciences (natural and physical, one with a lab and one without), two semesters of English, and 3 hours of math, regardless of your declared major. Most of us in the CRW class agreed that as...

Okay so you've heard that song right? If not, let me introduce you.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgEixhE3Oms&ob=av2e It's a little bit totes inappropes...but never fear, I've changed the lyrics: lately I've been peeing in the dark because McCurtain has an energy conservationist on the loose. Let me provide some background on Creepy Shower Girl. This is what my roommate dubbed her from Day One, although I think her real name is Sara. She earned her moniker because of her unfortunate lack of social skills and being unable to read body language.  McCurtain is located in Cate Center (affectionately known as Cate the Crackhouse, people often ask, "oh you live in Cate? What is poverty like?") and so naturally, we have community style bathrooms. Originally I wasn't too worried about those. Those were the conditions at TCU and although it was inconvenient, I didn't despise the ordeal that came with the call to hygiene. However, at TCU, you paid ...