Already Day 30!

Day 30: Thurs, Feb. 28

Improvement: Philanthropic continued. You can never really volunteer enough. Today I helped clean the Lawrence Homeless Shelter. I was bleaching walls, scrubbing vents and getting down n dirty with the homeless. It was great to see our hard work make a big difference.

Day 29: Saturday, Feb. 27

Improvement: camaraderie . I had some of my lovely Theta sisters over to my parents' house. It was a fun girls' night and I am so thankful to have wonderful sisters.

Day 28: Fri, Feb. 26

Improvement: A whole day full of volunteering. I woke up early to proctor a journalism competition on campus. After volunteering for KSPA, I donated blood. This was on my bucket list! However, the experience was horrible.

I waited in line for nearly two hours to donate. Then, my body did not like having a pint of blood taken out of it. I nearly fainted twice. The boy donating across from me had to nearly yelled for help, "She doesn't look okay," he said. It was quite the ordeal. I hope my blood goes to a person in need because the experience was very unpleasant. I did however meet a cute boy at the blood drive. I know, I know, only I would meet a boy at a blood drive. If he ever reads this, you should call me blood drive boy- you were cute and nice.

Then late Friday night into the wee hours of the morn I was driving some intoxicated people home being a good ol' DD. Then a lonley straggler was walking the streets of Lawrence. Being the great person that I am, I gave the poor boy a ride home. Yes, I picked up a rando off the streets. Goodness, I was really feeling philanthropic Friday.

Day 27: Thurs, Feb. 25

Improvement: Biblical Knowledge. I attended the Theta bible study again. I also invited friends! It was a good night full of funny conversation and some serious stuff, too. Thank you Theta girls for being so great.

Improvements continue

Day 26: Wednesday, Feb. 24

Improvement: Drinking Water. You could basically call me a fish today because I've been drinking water all day. My goal was to not drink anything but water. This was easy because I already don't drink anything carbonated, but I did want juice this morning. However, I need this 100 Day Challenge to be exactly that - challenging. Thus, I woke up this morning with a challenge in mind - drink more water. I did just that today.

Day 25: Tuesday, Feb. 23

Improvement: Being Girly. It may come as surprise to you, but I never paint my nails. I bite them and I have poor hand-eye coordination. Thus, I rarely ever paint my nails. Today I did and they look nice.

Day 24: Monday, Feb. 22

Improvement: Silenced my inner devil. I wanted to skip class more than anything, but I was good and went. Pat on the back.

C words: CDs and coloring books

Day 23: Sunday, Feb. 21

Improvement: My CD collection.

After Walmart didn't have Ke$ha's new album Animal, I was extremely bummed. Thankfully Best Buy had it beacause Ann Kincaid, Anna Krattli and I rocked out to it today in the car. Now, we know to brush our teeth a bottle of Jack Daniels and dance until our pants fall off. Yes, I love Kesha.

The last CD I bought was seven plus years ago. I am almost positive it was Blink 182's "Take Your Pants Off and Jacket." It was my favorite CD back then and still is on my top ten nearly a decade later.

Day 22: Saturday, Feb. 20

Improvement: Being a child again

My friend Matt and I spent an afternoon at Border's Bookstore. I read Shel Silverstien's The Giving Tree in my teacher voice to him.

It is a good book, but check out this guy. He must have really liked the book. (Photo courtesy of Hubpages.com).

On top of a day spent at the bookstore, Matt, Ann Kincaid and I went to three different stores in search of the perfect coloring book, which we found no worries. As we cheered the Jayhawks onto victory over Colorado, we colored beautiful pictures to relive our childhood.

Being childish is a speciality of mine. There is something about the 96 box of Crayola crayons that brings me pure joy.

Day 21: Friday, Feb. 19

Improvement: My party guest etiquette.

I made sure to be a good party guest at Craig Dawson's housewarming party. It was a blast. I brought some delicious dip and beverages. Nothing is quite like a house party, and I am so glad to have fun friends to spend a Friday night with. Oh and I just also taught myself how to spell 'etiquette' correctly. Go me.

Day 20: Thursday, Feb. 18

Improvement: Being a caregiver

I have to say I love my job as a nanny for the four-month-old Livia. It is the part of my day where I can talk to someone and not worry about them judging me or talking back (at all). Haha. Thanks, Livia.

Everyone should have a baby that they get to talk to, play with, hold, let fall asleep in their arms, and even change their dirty diapers. It is quite a rewarding experience. (Note: it can be someone else's precious baby. I am by no means wanting to increase the number of people knocked up around here).

They think of everything.

Sick of cumbersome books? You now can have Amazon's Kindle on your BlackBerry.

Amazon's competitors are also trying to combat Kindle's popularity with other eBook options. Apple's new iPad is going to change the way we read regardless if we like it or not.

Don't know much about the iPad? Get ready for it. Check out this video of what Sports Illustrated has in mind with the tablet. This gadget will change publications as we know it.

Photo courtesy of google images.

Days 17-19

Day 19: Wednesday, Feb. 17

Improvement: Feeling beautiful

I told this week that I am beautiful and deserve to feel that way. No, I don't literally look in the mirror and tell my something that, but I did spend time beautifying as well as some hard earned cash to get things like nail polish and a tanning package. You do not have to agree with my decision to tan, but here me when I say, "You need to feel beautiful,too." Do something today that makes you smile and feel pretty. Boys, you can feel pretty, too.

Day 18: Tuesday, Feb. 16

Improvement: Knowledge on foreign politics and history of wars.

This semester I am learning one lecture at a time how much I don't know about the world wars, the cold war and other important political events. It is important for me to become educated on world history, as well as political matters and today I did just that.

It might be a cop out, but I had a huge test the next day in International Politics. I managed to learn a whole month of readings in a few hours without actually doing the readings. It was good for me to learn and good to clock in some library hours. Hopefully I aced my test in POLS!

Day 17: Monday, Feb. 15

Improvement: Showing my appreciation and love

I wrote a few letters today including some much needed than you letters. I am thankful to have the life I have and the people I have in it. I need to always be reminding the people I love of my appreciation. The letters I sent out today are hopefully just the beginning of showing my loved ones how much I appreciate them.

Day 13-16 of 100

Day 16: Today I improved my driving skills. I drove Miss Katelyn Schultze all over town trying to get to the airport. Highway after highway were closed today due to a weird winter burst and a collection of bad drivers. It was an adventure, and it was wonderful to spend time with Kate.

Sunday, February 14, a day of love. Ahh, Valentine’s Day-Gage me. No no, I’m not yet another bitter woman today—made sad because of a day in February. I am happy to be me and alone, oh so very alone. Once again, I am only kidding-Life is great.

Day 15: Saturday was a night of babysitting as usual. Making the big bucks is yet another improvement. Although after a weekend of wedding shopping, I plan on buying a few things for myself this weekend. Watch out Mass Street and Amazon.com, I’m going to town.

Day 14: Friday’s improvement: being a good cousin. My lovely cousin, Alex, is getting married in May. This weekend was all about her and getting ready for the event. I tagged along to store after store to witness the madness known as wedding preparation. Everything is lovely, and I am excited to celebrate their marriage on May 29^th. With that said, I want to postpone any engagements for myself because shopping for her wedding was stressful enough!

Day 13: Thursday, I improved my confidence in my major. I made improvements of my journalistic skills. Although I simply completed a homework assignment by writing a news story. A good news story? Now, that’s to be decided. It felt good to be writing again. I realized I have not written news in ages and that I like writing, which is a good thing to learn considering I’m paying big bucks to get a journalism degree.

What do you want to do before you die?

Day 12: Improve my people skills. Today I had to interview people at my University's Career Fair. I have conducted a few interviews in my day including teachers, principals, students, even the mayor, but today I interviewed employers. Although I was simply doing my journalism homework, I was practicing people skills and being confident. It was a good experience regardless of how trivial it might have been.

Project Happiness: I watched an episode of The Buried Life, a new series on MTV. The show is named after a poem by Matthew Arnold, called "The Buried Life." Unlike the other reality shows on MTV full of promiscuous, problemed people, this show focuses on four guys checking off items on their list of things to do before they die. The show is funny and light-hearted while being serious and touching. At the end of every show, they ask "What do you want to do before you die?"

Answer this for me. Send it to me or don't. Doesn't matter to me even though I'd love to know. What matters is that you live your life like you were dying.

"It is important to think about life and death because it changes your prospective," Duncan said from 'The Buried Life.' Pictured about are the boys from the show. Photo courtesy of MTV.com

The 100 Day Challenge becomes challenging.

The 100 Day Challenge becomes challenging- what a concept. The improvements have become harder to

A) think of

B) accept

C) execute.

I must think harder to find good ways to improve my life and myself. Once I think of ways to improve myself, and trust me, there are a lot of ways I could. The second part is actually making the improvements and that has become the difficult part. I say all of this with a slight smirk and a bit of sarcasm. The 100 Day Challenge is named just so to be exactly that - challenging.

Day 11: Improvement my mood. Today has been stressful; I had a two-page Italian paper due at one o'clock. I procrastinated. Now, that's something I need to improve over the next 100 days. I think this weekend I have found some good improvements to work on. These finding probably lead to my bad mood today and the weather. Yes, last Friday, my day's improvement was about my attitude towards the weather, but sadly, that improvement was a one day thing.

Day 10: Improve my bank account. Mondays are full of babysitting for me now a days. That means I am getting closer to my goal of actually having some money at the end of these 100 days. Although, I now I am babysitting too much. Basically, I'm awful at saying no. It's not that I don't want to babysit because I do. I enjoy it and I love the money. I simply need to know that it's okay to say no and remember that I am a college student first and babysitter second. However, I will never say no to babysitting Livia, the cutest three-month-old baby ever. Babysitting her is the one calm part of my day, where all I think about is making sure this precious three-month-old baby is as happy as can be.

Day 9: Improve relationship with my Baby Brother. On Sunday, I was lucky enough to spend time with my beloved baby brother. He is too funny. Seriously, too funny. We simply went to the library and the supermarket, and I had a great time. I am glad my little brother is just as fun as my mom and, most importantly, me.

Day 8: Improve relationship with my Mom. On Saturday, I went home to babysit (something I do almost every weekend now). I spent the day with my lovely mother. We saw a film at the theater and laughed a lot. The time I spend with my mom is precious to me because its the one time in my week I don't find myself working super hard to impress someone. When I am with my mom, I am me. The laughter is real and the good times are very real. Thanks, Mom.

Day Six and Seven

Day Seven Friday, Feb. 5, 2010

Improvement: my attitude towards the snow.

It helps that I don't have Friday classes, but I did leave the warmth of Theta today for a meeting on campus. (Click on this link to see beautiful winter photos of campus). Not only did I not complain about the recent downfall of snow, I said something positive. I mean it is pretty 'n all.

Day Six Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010

Improvement: Going out of my comfort zone. I was invited to Young Life College, which would usually be something I'd go to without convincing, but lately I have just been in this mood that has made it hard for me to get out of the house. Sadly, I was just in a mood where I didn't want to do anything anytime. I have avoided getting dolled up and going out. Thankfully I have wonderful friends that told me to go and how much fun it was going to be. One friend went over and beyond an invitation; Maria Zielinski said she would swing by and pick me up (with Starbucks in hand to boot). This made my evening and got me out of room and out into the real world. Thank you, Maria. After that I was invited to a Theta Bible Study and I hit up that, too. I was all over town at this point. Friends picked me up and we hit up the dorms for some game playing and good laughs. The night ended with a sweet as documentary and good friends.

Project Happiness: I played a new game called Things with new friends. The game ended with some outrageous laughs. I also watched a wake boarding documentary, which I thought would be interesting, but had no idea how much I would love it. It was about Parks Bonifay, who is an incredible wakeboarder that started skiing at a world record age of six months old. Sounds like a hoax, but it's not. Check it out! Click on any of those links to see more about the game or Bonifay.

F is for F@@*

Day Five: Improvement: today is about the other F word. No not F@#*, people come on. Today I am talking about food. [Insert deep saddening sigh here]. Food is my weakness. Obviously, has anyone seen in me a swimsuit lately? Exactly; that’s why I am having less of this F word too.

Like yesterday’s facebook improvements, I am not putting a limit on my food intake per say, but finding ways to have less of it. First of all, I have started a food journal. For the last three days I have written everything I have consumed – food or beverage. Writing everything down has kept me from having a second helping of rice or even touching sweets. The guilt I feel writing down that I had spinach dip with my healthy carrots is reason enough for me to stay clear of fatty foods for now.

Education is key, too. Educating myself about nutrition has been the second step to healthier eating habits. Finding fun facts about food and what I can or can’t eat to lose weight has been helpful. Please feel free to join me on my journey to a better me. Take a pledge to be healthy. Start a food journal, clean out your pantry, or visit a nutritionist. I am obviously no expert, but here is my declaration of a beginning. Today I begin to eat better, eat less and most importantly live a healthier lifestyle.

One less F word for me.

Happiness Factor

Now that I'm chronically hungry, it is a little harder to find happiness, but I do it everyday! To make me happy today I talked at the study abroad fair with Kate August, a fellow Theta who studied in Italy this past June with me. I love talking about Italy and today was about convincing others to embark on the same adventure I took. I couldn't rave about my experiences enough. Go study abroad, go do anything abroad! I loved it.

Kate and I by the statue of Benevenuto Cellini(June 2009)

Kate and I standing on the Ponte Vecchio.

Day Four of 100 Day Challenge

Today, Feb. 2, is Day Four and already today something major has happened.

Improvement of the Day: I have decided to use the F Word less.

No not F@#*-- the F word guys, Facebook. I use visit this site too often and precious moments of my life are wasted spent looking at pictures, profiles and people's status updates. I know for a fact I am not the only one would should use the F word less. This social network website has over 350 million users.

In numbers that means every person that lives in the United States, Canada and Australia have a Facebook (considering no one else in the world does, which obviously is not true). But take a moment and think about this, every single American, Canadian and Australian person having a Facebook. The reason I choose these countries is because first off, their populations added together nearly add up to exactly 350 million people, the same number of Facebook users. Secondly, being an American helps us wrap our minds around the numbers. Also, these three countries are the second, third and sixth largest countries (by size) in the world.Your welcome, you are now informed not only about the number of Facebook users, but also the population and size rankings of three wonderful countries.

Using Facebook less is today's improvement. I will be honest I'm not putting a limit on my facebook usage because that would be unrealistic. Instead I have taken steps to help myself use the F word less. The New York Times has replaced Facebook as my homepage on my Mac. Google has become my default browser on my Blackberry. Yes, facebook has been my default website on both my laptop and my smart phone for over a year now. It is time to realize that there is better things out there in the World Wide Web, and heck, maybe even the real world.

I wasn't kidding when I say everyone is on Facebook. Here is Facebook's oldest network user, Ivy Bean. She recently celebrated her 104th Birthday and posted about her party on Facebook. Thanks Google for the picture and information.

Here's to getting off Facebook and getting out into the real world. Life may too short to spend time too much time on a website, but I guess not for Ivy.

The 100 Day Challenge

Because I love countdowns I have decided to have a countdown until the end of my last final, on May 11th. On top of the countdown comes a challenge. I am challenging myself, you can accept to challenge yourself, too, I guess. The challenge is to improve myself for the next 100 days. Now I hope that after 100 days of focusing on it, I will forever for improving myself because everyone can use improvements, and in my case, I could use a boat-load. So here it begins, a semester of improvements.

On top of the improvements, I have to do something everyday that makes me happy because life is not worth living without happiness.

Day One and Day Two were this weekend, which I recently blogged about as being productive. I babysat and made money improving my bank account.

To Make Me Happy: On Saturday, I went to the public library and checked out some more travel books and two movies. The KU game also made me happy. Thanks, Sherron. On Sunday, I laid in my bed and watched a movie.

Day Three: I won't lie, I miscounted and thought today was Day Three of 100, but turns out its only 98 days until my last day of finals. Meaning Today, Monday, February First is Day Three of my 100 days. Today I babysat at 6AM and then again this afternoon, so I continue to improve my bank account. Today I improved my body by drinking more water and taking my all of my vitamins. Mom, I took all my Sudafed today. I have also started a food journal where I write down everything I eat and drink, including the sugar-free stick of gum today I had before class.

To make me happy: I sat in the travel section of Borders for an hour.

Speaking of travel section, I have a problem--a legitimate issue. I am obsessed with travel. Not that you didn't already know this, but I am finally realizing it as a problem. Spending all my time thinking about my next adventure, what ledge to jump off of, what country to enter, what item to check off my 'list.' I need to stop. Well, most likely I am not going to stop, but realizing you have a problem is the first step, right?

Now, I'm off to think of the improvement for Day Four. Any suggestions?