An Almost Not Done Blog Update

It's almost 9:30 on Sunday night and I'm still not completely sure what will all be in this blog. To be honest, I debated on not blogging this week, but then I decided against it. I figured I could come up with something for those of you reading this.

I guess, for this post, I will merely give you a list of the highlights of my week. I was on Thanksgiving break from the 20th to the 25th, and it has been the best break I have had since starting college. Why is this, you may ask. Simply because my family wasn't rushing about. The only thing on our agendas was to spend time together. It was great. Without blabbing on more, here's some of the events that took place of my break:

1. I got to see my grandma again, who I haven't seen in person since the end of July.

2. I helped my family decorate for Christmas.

3. I was granted some much needed sibling time and was able to talk to each of them individually. This was a main highlight.

4. I baked a lot with my mom.

5. I had interesting conversations with each of my family members.

6. I listened to a small child tell me the Christmas story as we put up a nativity scene at our church.

That last one is something I wish to expand upon in a later blog post. If I remember, I shall write up a story based upon it and share it with you. For now, I'm tired from being in a car all day and wish to enter dream land. Therefore, this is all you get tonight. I shall write again soon though :)

Have a blessed night!

The Ramblings of a Procrastinating College Student

My thoughts are a mess right now, scattered all over the place, so I apologize if this post makes little to no sense. Today has been one of those days...no, scratch that, one of those weeks where I've gotten lost in the cares of the world. My patience is running thin, my ear-buds are experiencing a slow death from the loud screams of rock angels that I've been blasting through them, and my sketch book is quickly acquiring new drawings of Meep (a character I tend to draw when reaching emotional highs or lows). On top of those, my supply of note cards and snacks is depleting quickly.

In all honesty, I've been making a list of things to blog about this week...and I just threw it away. Not literally  for it is impossible to literally through away a list that never made it from the mental state to the one of being written on paper. Whatever, though. I can't seem to bring myself to care at the moment.

So, what is the purpose of this post? I guess there really is no purpose, except that it gets me a grade for one of my classes. It's just the ramblings of a college junior who's tired of working on a particular evil research paper and using this blog as an excuse to take a break. Yes, the paper's evil. Any argument you have will be considered invalid for, as I have stated, I am not in a mood to care... about logic or anything. I am...how shall I put this? Tired? Exhausted? Ready for the break that's just around the corner? I suppose all three of those work.

Since I mentally tore up my metal list of blog topics, ran it through a shredder, set it on fire, gathered up it's ashes, and then held a funeral for it at sea, allow me to sum up the contents of said list in another list about my week. How's that sound? Why am I even asking you that? It's not like if you said, "That sounds awful," I'd decided not to write the list. If you like it or not, I'm still writing it...aren't I so nice? :)

So, without further ado, here's the events of my week that I was originally going to blog about...and am technically still blogging about by writing them in this post.

1. I made a spork into Batman...it was epic. He is now chilling beneath the Eiffel tower note-card holder on my desk, soaking up rays from the harsh florescent light of my dorm room.

2. I've felt like Mrs. Who from A Wrinkle in Time this week. If you don't know who she is, she's a character that speaks in quotes made by other people. Why have I felt this way? Because I've been quoting so much stuff lately (In an American Literature class, papers, and conversations) that I feel like I'm her...unable of communicating except through quotes.

3. I've decided that television is my least favorite invention...though I knew this before, I've recently been forced to remember exactly why I dubbed it the invention I most dislike.

4. I've been tempted to hide a building-mate's clothing because their owner was kind enough to pull my bedding out of the dryer only a few minutes into it's drying cycle, and then to put her own clothing in the dryer and keep them drying all night long...making it where I had to sleep on wet bedding. Yeah, thank you for that. Whoever you were. I just loved sleeping under wet blankets all night :D You're really a doll.

5. My roommate and I decided we should be nocturnal because we are unable to sleep at night and tired all day. We also discussed how vampire like we are...concerning sleeping patterns and the drinking of red liquid (Code Red Mountain Dew and juice).

6. I got in a fight with my Ipod and am not sure who won. It kept turning on all night, no matter how many times I shut it off, so it ended up drained of battery and I ended up not being able to listen to it for a day.

7.  I failed a final for a class that I was on the boarder line of failing or passing...but I got a hundred on both of the papers I turned in for it...which ended up helping me pass the class. Seriously, I can't even begin to explain how excited I was when I saw that I had passed that class.

8......well, 8 is simple, I'm writing this list. Haha, but really, I'm currently still writing this blog post just so I don't have to go back to writing my research paper. Procrastinating is useless though, it only gets me less sleep. I suppose I should get back to that paper...but I don't want to...but I should...but I really don't want to...but I need to...but I don't wanna...okay, okay, it has to be done.

Seriously, thanks for taking time for reading this weird blog post...which was obviously written in a stream-of-consciousness way and used way too many, "...."'s.  Have a great night/day and try to be productive.  

My Thoughts On...Being an Introvert

The internet is a marvelous thing, is it not? It enables us to find all sorts of information. Have a question? Google it. Have a witty comment? Post it on a social page. There are so many websites out there for us to partake in. It was while browsing through one of the sites that I'm often on -Pintrest -that I came across this picture: 

"How to Care for Introverts." I'll admit, it was the title that caught my eye. After reading the picture, I -who am an introvert -had to admit that many of the 'rules' on it were valid. Honestly, I wish more people would follow them. If they did, I probably would talk to more people.  Let's break this list down, shall we? I'll write the rule and then give you my personal opinion on it. How's that sound? 

Rule #1: Respect their need for privacy.

This one is a must with me. I hate it when people look over my shoulder when I'm working on something or texting someone, when people go through my text messages (Don't touch my phone), when people mess with my laptop without my permission (Don't you dare touch my laptop), and when they go through my note books (You touch my journal you better run...fast). I get that people want to get to know me, but all you have to do is ask. If you ask, and I tell you that I'd rather not talk about the subject you ask about, then don't push the mater. We introverts like our privacy.  

Rule #2: Never embarrass them in pubic. 

I have only one thing to say about this one. Do it and I'll never speak to you again. Seriously, you embarrass me in public, especially if it's on purpose, and I will avoid you like the plague. After time, I may start speaking to you again but  never expect me to fully trust you. I'll keep my distance from you.

Rule #3: Let them observe first in new situations.

I don't know if this is the same for all introverts, but, for me, it's easier to learn by observing. Observing is my tool to figuring out people, places, situations, and new tasks.  

Rule #4:  Give them time to think. Don't demand instant answers. 

This is one that I really wish more people would do, especially a couple of my professors. When you ask me something, or say something to me, it's not uncommon for me to not respond right away. I'm not hesitating because I'm lying, I'm not trying to come up with a good excuse, I'm merely processing your words and attempting to find the ones I need to say exactly what I'm thinking. If you rush me, as one of my professors tends to do, you get crappy answers that are full of stuttering and unsurness...even though I know what I want to say, I have to have time to figure out how to say it. 

Rule#5: Don't interrupt them. 

This was a big problem for me freshman year of college and still gets on my nerves now. If you're trying to have a conversation with me then don't interrupt my part of the conversation because, if you do, my attention will soon shift from you to whatever the nearest shiny object is. It makes me feel like you really don't care what I have to say and, therefore, I will not say anything at all...hence why I tend to give a lot of short, generic answers (such as yeah, cool, okay, sweet...etc...) to my friends.  

Rule #6: Give them advance notice of expected changes in their lives.

If life worked that way, it'd be great. As an introvert, I do this thing where I have to talk myself into changes. I get anxious about changes and, if I'm not given a decent amount of time to prepare myself for them, I could react badly. I could go into what I call 'shut-down mode'. Which is basically when I block out the world, aim to be invisible, and go through the day as silent as a shadow. 

Rule #7: Give them 15min warnings to finish whatever they are doing.

This one pretty much relates to the last one. 

Rule #8:  Reprimand them privately. 

If I've done something to insult you, or screwed up on something, don't make a scene about it. You do and we're back to the outcome of rule #2. Things like this affect introvert's insecurities and one of the introvert's worst fears is having the world see them when they're insecure. So no public reprimands.

Rule #9: Teach them new skills privately. 

When taught new things in public, introverts get nervous...which can often lead to them screwing up on the new skill and them feeling like a failure because their peers saw them mess up. 

Rule #10:  Enable them to fine one best friend who has similar interests and abilities. 

Let's be honest. Us introverts don't have many close friends. We may have groups of friends we hang out with, and many people we can comfortably talk with, but normally we only have one or two people who we consider close enough friends to share our true opinions with. 

Hm, okay, I don't really like how I worded that. This one's sort of hard to explain. 

Rule #11: Don't push them to make lots of friends.

We're introverts, not extroverts. We're loners, not social-butterflies. Don't push us to be something we're not. 

Rule #12: Respect their introversion. Don't try to remake them into extroverts. 

Chances are, if you accept our quietness, our wishes to observe rather to participate, our need to think through things, and don't publicly humiliate us, we can be great friends with you. Yet, going back to rule #11, don't make us something we aren't. 

Another thing about us introverts, we tend to be rather good listeners. We are wallflowers. As Stephen Chbolysky said in his book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, we see things and we understand them. It's part of our observational skills. Just because we aren't talking, just because we aren't telling secrets, just because we aren't participating in gossip, doesn't mean we don't know what's going on. What it does mean is that we are aware of the situations around us and we understand the impact each one has on the lives of those involved in them. 

I suppose that is it for this blog post. I hope all who read this have a good day/night.