A Very Lucky Girl

I hope you sang the title in your best "no one on the corner has swagga like us" rendition. I love my class schedule! Oh, pardon me, my module schedule. Classes are modules here and a major is your course of study. Slowly learning the lingo. On Mondays, Daniel teaches Scottish Literature from 1-3 pm in Dalhousie. And I am telling you right now that I will not miss a single class. For one, there are only 11 weeks of module instruction! Therefore, I only have 9 more of those classes! Tragedy. I could listen to his accent for an entire day. Weeks. But I'll take the two hours I get every Monday. I find it infinitely easier to pay attention to what is being taught when it is pleasant to listen to. Also occurring on a weekly Monday morning basis is the fire alarm for Belmont Flats. Similar to how the tornado siren is tested every Saturday at noon in Oklahoma, someone tests the fire alarm at 11 am every Monday. I expect Nat to remind me every week so that I don't pee my f...

Usually, as the semester draws to a close, I am giddy in anticipation of completing my courses.  This is mostly true for my Fall 2013 schedule, but there is one class in particular I am going to miss. It's become my favorite class, perhaps that I've ever taken.  Women and Film, taught at the University of Oklahoma by Professor Joanna Rapf, was the first film class for me. I didn't know what to expect. At first I was put off by the 90 minute long Tuesday/Thursday class times with an extra 2 hours on Tuesday nights for mandatory film viewing.  But under the direction of Joanna, I fell in love with the times I had in that third floor Gittinger classroom.  We watched movies dealing with the male gaze, female bonding, violence, lesbianism, and silence, to name just a few of our discussion topics. The patriarchy was the enemy and Joanna voiced her strong opinions, just as everyone else in the class did. Respectfully, of course. She sent her final thoughts on the course...

I'm on a break from work. And it's glorious. We're happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time. It's miserable and magical, oh yeah. Miserable meaning my income has significantly decreased. To about zero. But being free from most obligations and being 21 is a magical time. So much so that I'm not sure how much I'll be updating A Very Lucky Girl. I hate to stop completely, but I cannot promise consistent posts for the next week or two. I will be traveling and starting my second online course of the summer.  I can, however, promise to provide a wonderful recap for The Bachelorette next week. Tyler has graciously volunteered to watch on my behalf and write a review using his uncensored thoughts. I am just as excited to read it as the rest of you.  Also coming soon, when I have a few spare seconds to write, a full report of my 21st birthday and one of my favorite habits I've instituted since last October/November-ish.  A Very Lucky Girl is taking a br...

The infamous Miss Johnson I had quite a tumultuous education growing up. I started Kindergarden at New Hope Academy and completed third grade with the wonderful teaching of Mrs. Utley, Mrs. Fontenot, Miss Johnson, and Mrs. Peabody. I couldn't ask for a better beginning of school. From there I attended fourth grade through ninth grade at St. David's School. I learned Latin from the legendary Mr. Davis and labeled the African countries in Ms. Newsome's class. Mrs. Crutchley aided my seventh grade heart and placed me next to my crush in her assigned seating chart. Mrs. Purvis instilled basic grammar rules into my fifth grade brain and Mrs. Durham endured my crying fits in math class. LETTERS DON'T BELONG IN MATH. It's a disgrace to the alphabet. Sophomore and junior year were spent at Legacy Christian Academy in the presence of educators like Mrs. Maxey and Mrs. Brunson. I learned extensive amounts of European history and American Government from Dr. Hamel and Dr. ...

I crawled out of bed on a Tuesday morning over Christmas Break at 5 am to accompany Sharbear to her 5:30 am kickboxing class. I have never boxed in my life, kick or otherwise. I felt EXTRA uncoordinated. That's another plus to running: the clumsiest person can do it with little ill effects. Nevertheless, I persevered through the class, pausing to gulp water only 3 times.  Sharbear is member at a small gym, the class had maybe 9 participants (the time likely drives everyone away) and had your stereotypical bouncy, overly energetic blonde who no doubt was headed to pilates upon completion of the class, the front row mom who did the opposite of whichever side the instructor commanded, the lone middle-aged man who reminisced about his old boxing coach before class began, and the obnoxious girl to my left who sang along to every. single. song. Honey, you aren't kicking hard enough! I really enjoyed the group aspect and the coach dynamic of the gathering. It felt vaguely li...

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...

As if I already wasn't 1000% positive that I never want to work in the medical field...Health and Exercise Science is only confirming my negative position towards the intricate workings of the human body. It is going to be my cross to bear this semester.  Test One is coming up on Monday and I'm in over my head with the cardiovascular system, pulmonary system, asthma, cancer, sleep apnea, ischemia, myocardial infarctions (fancy word for heart attacks), and hypertension.  When my Venezuelan professor (reason number zillion why it's hard to understand this class...it's taught in an interesting variation of my first language) tells us to remember the difference between the right and left sides of the heart, this is what I think: left side right side Unfortunately, I don't think that's the diagram she will be checking for on the exam.  Based on the amount of time she has spent espousing the dangers of smoking, you'd think cigarettes are the pitfall of...

"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...

I complained and complained about reading Beowulf last the weekend. And complained. To anyone and everyone that would listen. Or maybe they didn't listen. I'm not a Beowulf kind of girl. It felt like reading the Lord of the Rings in poetry form. I barely made it through the Hobbit with the my love of reading intact. Conner teased me about the love lost between me and the story about dragons. (seriously, dragons? My favorite book is Little Women...)  Boys are stupid. Except for this next one. He knew how much I was HATING my sojourn through the thin pages of the Norton Anthology of English Literature and brought me sour patch kids and an ice cold water (these are a few of my favorite things...Sound of Music reference anyone?) on his way home from work on Sunday night. Life, in general, is better with an orange or green sour patch kid in your mouth. The reds are still in my room. Any takers? Even after discussing the text in class, Beowulf is still not a hero I will plast...

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...

I'm relying on my memory of this episode because I just do not have time to rewatch and take notes. Especially if I want this recap debuting before next Monday night.  Ricki is going to be one of the most well-traveled six year olds in Charlotte, NC by the time this show is over. From Bermuda, she and mom jet off to London (probably in a helicopter). Sean receives date card number one and wanders around London with Emily. They are obnoxious tourists, probably even more so with the camera crew following every move, and likely ended up alienating any pro-American sentiment with Sean's impromptu speech on Speaker's Corner. He rambles on for several agonizing minutes about love, which translated to a giant ticking biological clock in Emily's mind for she immediately brings up her love of brats at the dinner table. C'mon Emily, let's be a lady and save that talk for never? You've made your point. Your uterus is apparently starving.  The group date mercifully ...

Have I mentioned before that my math skills are sadly lacking? I am trying to take College Algebra at Oklahoma City Community College this summer. Key word being "trying." You see, when I took the math placement test at OU I only received a high enough score for remedial math. Which means that I would have to pay to take two insignificant classes that I would not receive credit for before I could attend the actual class that would count towards my degree. Incredibly frustrated, I assumed OCCC wouldn't subject me to a placement test. But since my SAT scores are so out of date (Never thought I would say that...I feel extra old), I was ushered into a torture chamber, also known as a testing room, and handed one of my least favorite technological devices: the calculator. I struggled through the questions and ended up with the same results I had at OU.  Unlike at OU, I have the opportunity to take the test again on Tuesday. So I've been trying to study. But since our Int...

I mentioned in a prior post that a guilty pleasure includes parenting a miniature family within the mechanical recesses of my phone. The app is called Virtual Families and I go through phases of attentiveness, sometimes opening the app to find a morbid scene of the family members all peacefully dead on the master bed. The start over button is pretty handy. When I pay attention to this game, I'm really good at it. And by that I mean I can type "virtual family cheats" into google. Thanks to a random computer nerd that did the dirty work for me, I clicked some buttons a few days ago and added $100,000 to the bank account. With that money I purchased a treadmill, pinball machine, grill, and a remodeled kitchen, office, and workshop. I stocked the pantry with 1600 available food items. The character, Dynamite, should have had "elated" stamped across his mood status. Instead, it read, "a bit blue"(maybe his name was part of the problem, unfortunately I don...

On Friday night I joined the masses at Quail Springs Mall to watch the timeless tragedy, Titanic. Both the film and the actual history have always gripped me and James Cameron excels at portraying such an historical event in an increasingly relatable way. I looked forward to the movie for several reasons: 1) I got to spend time with some of my favorite people; 2) I'm pretty sure the last 3D movie I watched was Spy Kids; and 3) Leonardo DiCaprio in 3D is absolute perfection. Leo in any dimension is spectacular. The only thing I was worried about was the topless scene. Boobs in 2D are pretty awkward. Adding a dimension didn't exactly increase my comfort level. I was very surprised that the movie was only rated PG13. I think that much nudity, foul language, and violence merited an R warning.  The division of the classes on the boat always has me on the edge of my seat in outrage. First class life is not more valuable than saved steerage (but at the same time I'm not so sur...

I'm so punny. I'm taking a break from geology. I literally can't look at another rock. Unless it looks something more like this... Now THAT is something I could study all night long. Unfortunately...my rocks are currently looking like this... #gag. In case you were curious, that is (in order of appearance) chert, gneiss, and halite. Halite is also known as rock salt. It tastes salty. Yeah, I had to lick it in lab. Easily the most disgusting thing to ever touch my tongue.  Needless to say, I despise lab. I dread it every single week. Not only is it the last class in the block of time that I sit at a desk from 8:30 until 1:15, it is also something that the devil invented to test my patience. I don't have much.  My TA is really really pretty. Like ohh sooo pretty. I made eye contact with him at the gym the other day... 2 seconds later and I was planning our wedding. It's going to be in the fall. You are all invited.  But that is where the attraction...