And so it begins...

Tomorrow! The day I've been waiting for since March and the heartbreaking one point loss to Marquette in the first round of the NCAA. You know what it is...AGGIE BASKETBALL STARTS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow is the Blue and White Scrimmage game and then Fridays is our first game (exhibition) against the Northwest Nazarene (who are apparently from Nampa, Idaho...never heard of them). Oh my. I am sooo excited for this year! I know I've already mentioned it but I get front row this year! FRONT ROW! Not only has it taken us two years to work our way up to the front, but girls are never, ever allowed to sit on the front row. Well we'll show them. We've totally earned our spots and it's the best seat in the house!

Let's talk a little bit about facts regarding Aggie Men's Basketball. This is the program's 105th season! For the past 39 years, Utah State has called the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum home and has won 81 percent of its games in the building with an impressive 453-105 (.812) record, including a 159-12 (.930) mark under head coach Stew Morrill. Utah State is currently picked by both the Coach's Poll and the Media Poll to win the WAC Championship again. It's gonna be a fantastic season for the Aggies!!!

p.s. when I get home (because I'm currently at work) I'll put up some pics to go along with this post. because I should start doing that more. everyone likes to look at pictures!

Basketball and Cadavers...not together

Not counting today (since there are only two hours left of today), there are 9 days til Basketball season starts again!!!! That's single digits people! WOOT! In case you didn't notice, I am sooo excited! As I'm sure I already mentioned, I get front row starting this year, so the games are going to be better than ever. One game that I am particularly excited for is the BYU game. We are going to eat them alive! Why you ask? Besides the obvious reason that, well, it's BYU. What's not to hate? Last year, they refused to play us up here in Logan because we are an "unwholesome environment" for their poor players. Boo freakin hoo! So we played them on a "neutral" court in Salt Lake at the Energy Solutions Arena. It was ridiculous. So now that we have them back in our territory, they are going to get the butt kicking they deserve. The only thing I dislike about this year (besides that MVP Gary Wilkinson will be sorely missed!) is that the WAC Tournament does not fall on our Spring Break as it did last year. So I can't go. It's soo sad!

So this semester, I am taking Human Anatomy. Yes, again. But I am happy to report that I am doing much better and am loving the class!!! So as part of the class, I have to take a cadaver lab. As this is not my first cadaver lab, I was actually able to adjust to it pretty easily. A huge relief since the first time I ever had a cadaver lab, I went home determined to drop the class, change my major and find a new purpose in life. Now, the cadaver lab in Brigham City, where I take my class, is a little more intense than the one in Logan. We are required to wear aprons, goggles, and gloves at all times (sickeningly enough, not a requirement in the Logan one) and they are much more comfortable moving the bodies around. The last part scares me a little sometimes. haha Since we're not allowed to take pictures with the actual bodies (or technically in the labs at all) I just got a picture of my roommate Morgan and me all ready to play...I mean learn! Note: we are wearing sweaters because the lab actually gets kinda chilly. And I am not that chubby. The sweater under the apron just gives that appearance. Also! If you look closely in the bottom left corner, you will see a bucket with intestines in it. Yum! not.

Reach My Goal!

Ok, so goals are something that I usually have a hard time sticking to. Goals to work out more - never happen unless I sign up for a class that makes me be there. New Years Resolutions - don't believe in them. Eat healthier - occasionally...I am doing a lot better on that than I did my Freshman year. That was a health train wreck. But this semester I made the goal to get a 4.0. When I first came to college my GPA took a hit thanks mostly to one lovely class that I am now having the pleasure of taking for the third time (count 'em...1.2.3!) among a couple others that I could have done a lot better in had I put in the time and effort the classes required. Basically, I've been lazy. But not anymore! No sir!!! This is not me! This is not the Alyssa that cried in the 9th grade when she received her first A-. This is not the Alyssa that got over the A- and learned to accept even a B+ or two on her report card but still expected high performance and did hours of homework every day after school. And this is most certainly not the Alyssa that graduated from high school with a 3.9 GPA and got the honor of Cum Laude, graduating in the top 8% of her class. No no no! I was tired of not having it together and I was tired of feeling discouraged and frustrated every time I looked at my GPA and feeling like graduate school was becoming more and more unobtainable. I am incredibly pleased to report that so far, I have kept up with my goal! I currently have 90% or high in every class and am hoping to be able to keep it up for the rest of the semester. Midterms are going on right now, so it's very promising. I figure if I can do it for one half, I can do it for the other half of the semester. I am going to get a 4.0, I am going to watch my GPA jump to heights it hasn't seen since high school and I am going to go back to being a confident student who likes her grades and knows that she can be a competitive applicant to almost any graduate schools she chooses. That is the goal! and gosh darn it I am going to reach it!!!

60 emails+4.5 hours= Tired Alyssa

I have just now completed sending out around 60 individual emails to my Connections students. My brain is fried, I feel like a fake (because I pretty much said the same thing to each one. I really do care though!) and I'm just glad it's over. This is one of the only things I dread about doing A-Team. It's fun when they write you back but the process of writing the emails is kinda long. It took around 4 1/2 hours to complete. Wow. Hopefully most of them will write me back. Hopefully...haha

Who'da thunk?!

So I know it's late but it's because I am currently working. I should be using this time to study for my two tests I have tomorrow but I have already been studying for three hours straight and my brain needs a little break.

I have decided to dedicate this blog entry to talking about my institute class I am taking this semester. I have never been one to take religious classes outside of church. I took one semester of seminary in 9th grade because it was the alternate to a class I couldn't get into and I went to maybe one week of early morning seminary after I moved to Texas. That's it. So when I came to college, I didn't even consider taking Institute. It just wasn't me.

But last year I started to get my foot in the door when I would go to something called "Religion in Life". It's a devotional type thing they have here every Friday morning and they bring in some really cool speaker and then have lunch for $1 afterward. It's great. I started thinking about taking an Institute class all last year but never really got around to it. Then this summer, I went once with one of my friends to his institute class and absolutely loved it! It was on World Religions but the lesson that day happened to be on Christianity and after that class I just knew I had to take Institute this semester. But of course, once school actually started, I kinda forgot about it. Then one day while sitting in class with my roommate Desiree, she all of a sudden just handed me an Institute class schedule. I realized I had a big break in my school schedule right after that class was over so I looked for an interesting class and looked for the teacher who had taught that one class I had attended during the summer because I had really enjoyed his teaching style. I picked "The New Testament: The Gospels" and after class I headed over to the Institute. All of a sudden I was super, super nervous and almost didn't go to class that day. But I got up my courage (because it was silly to be nervous about going to Institute!!!) and went to class and have LOVED it ever since!!! Unfortunately, I am only able to go once a week now because my new job conflicts with it one day a week. But I really look forward to going to class every Tuesday! It is seriously the spiritual high of my week. I feel the Spirit so strongly every time and I know that I was supposed to take that class. I love it and I am so glad that I had friends who helped me to get here. It enhances my life each and every time.

Whiny Whine Whine

Since working at The Olive Garden, I have decided that servers are the whiniest people on the face of this planet. All I hear at work are complaints are "this man didn't tip me well enough. I worked hard enough to make twice as much!", "that family is taking forever to order", "a table of 8 and all they want is water, soup and salad", blah blah blah!!! I understand that they depend on their tips to make a living since their hourly wage is next to nothing, but come on people! It is soo exhausting to listen to the complain during my entire shift. I rarely, if ever, hear something like "that table is so nice" or "they were easy to take care of". It's all complaints.

But as of yesterday, my days of listening to OG server complaining are number. I have quit the Olive Garden in order to take a new job offer that I received yesterday. I will be working as a Computer Lab Consultant on campus. This is one of the most sought after jobs on campus and I am very lucky to have gotten it. There were 90 applicants and 23 spots! Phew! So I have training tomorrow and I start on Monday! I am very excited for this job and hope to be able to keep it the rest of the time I'm here at USU, which is quite the load off my shoulders. Now just one more week of OG!

Aggie Athletics Rock My Socks

School has started again which means the beginning of...can you guess it??....AGGIE SPORTS!!! I am so excited for so many sports this year. Let me tell you why.

Gymnastics: Ever since I roomed with two and became friends with many of them, the Aggie Gymnasts have held a special place in my heart. This year my good friend Erica Huelsmann will be returning to the uneven bars after shoulder surgery our freshman year. While this is nerve wracking, it is also exciting and I am way excited to see how our Gymnasts do this year!

Women's Soccer: I've been to a few of these games before and always enjoyed them but now I know some of them, which makes it even more fun. On top of that, as a starter her freshman year is Natalie Norris, cousin to my long time friend Laura Damron. This last Sunday, she scored her first intercolligiate goal and was also the first freshman of the year to score. She is awesome both as a soccer player and an individual and I'm so excited to support her this season.

Football: If you haven't heard, we have a new head coach here at Utah State, Coach Gary Anderson, who I actually lived across the street from when I was 11. Anyway, Coach Anderson hails from the U, from where he brought with him assistant coaches and also recruits. He has enforced a lot more discipline and from what I've seen at scrimmages, it's already looking like a better season than the last two I've seen. This Thursday we have our first game of the year, ironically, against the U of U at Rice Eccles Stadium. While this is intense (and I have little hope of winning) I am very excited to see how the team holds up to them and to get a taste for what will hopefully be the best Aggie Football season in a long, long, long time. Woot!!!

Basketball: This goes without saying. I am ALWAYS excited for Aggie Men's Basketball and we (yes, Dad, we, as if I'm on the team) return to the Spectrum on OCTOBER 30TH for the first exhibition game, which in my eyes begins the season of long waits in line, racing down steep flights of stairs, lots of cheering, booing, chanting, and winning!!! I am even going to attach another video of the Spectrum to give you another taste of our awesome Aggie Basketball.

Others: But before I do that, I feel I should mention a couple more sports. Tonight I went to part of a Women's Volleyball game and it was actually really fun. I would not mind going to more of those games in the future. Also, this year I am finally going to go to an Aggie Hockey game. Although they are not a varsity sport up here (unfortunately), their games are very popularly attended and I hear I've been missing out on a lot of fun times.

So basically, I plan on having a very sports filled year and am very excited about it. So watch this video, get pumped and realize why I love Aggie Athletics. GO AGGIES!!!