Luke Bryan and Pearls

I’m going by saying something I always assumed I wouldn’t have to explain- I am not ‘country’.   I wear pearls earrings everyday, am in a committed relationship to Essie nail polish, Audrey Hepburn and Mindy Kaling are my idols, I have a weakness for chevron. I analyze the J-Crew catalogue with the same devotion and faithfulness as some hold the bible to.

But the other day, while M was over and we were singing the “dumb-de-de-dumb, de-de-dumbde-dumb-de-daa-daaaaaa’s” of ‘Save a horse [ride a cowboy] and declaring, “Rain is a goooddd thannngggg” (completely in key, of course.) She looked up and told me that her boyfriend T had said, “Katie is way more *insert favorite swear word here* country than J.” I almost died laughing at the idea. 

When I first met T, I was in awe of his truck, and told him so. M has a massive Chevy built for a 2500 engine, with a 3500 engine. T’s truck, on the other hand is an older truck with stacks in the back.

Here at R.U, there’s a weird blend of the uber preppy, down home rednecks, and those who are a little of one or the other. I fall into the last group.

Wait.. what?! Yeah I know. It doesn’t make sense. But it does at the same time. Whenever anyone mentions summer, I’m transported to the best place on earth, Lake View, Iowa. I can instantly smell the mix of salt water, gas and just a hint of mold. I can hear the squeals of my cousins and siblings jumping into the lake, and the roar of boats and jet skis being started. Lake View is a small town 3 hours outside of Des Moines (da- moin) and 40 minutes from the next ‘big towns’, Carroll and Storm Lake.

The cabin has an always-damp astro turf floored- screened in porch, which leads to the kitchen, dining room, and living room. There’s 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, a porch and steep concrete steps that lead down to the splintered wooden dock and the boat lift, power boat, and jet skis.

 Me, Pa, Caleb and Josh, at the cabin. (note the John Deere hats.)

I’ve been out at  the old, dusty corn  cribs and been banished from ever going back to the corn fields (apparently I hated it when I was 5), I learned how to drive in our corn fields and on dirt roads, I’ve gotten pulled over by the boat patrol (you have to have a boating license to operate a jet ski if you’re under 18.), I’ve played mud volleyball at the annual water carnival- it’s possibly one of the grossest experiences ever, yet is so much fun. I’ve gone mudding, I own more “take a break at the lake” apparel than I care to admit. Same goes for John Deere. I know which Sparky’s stays open later and still lets you fill the drink cups with soft serve and charges you for a .99 cent cup. I know to ignore anything Corey Webber says. I survived the summer of the fish kill- a local farm’s run off killed off almost all the fish in Black Hawk lake, which caused the water to be tinted with a lovely deep green, foul smelling algae which only added to the beautiful sight of the fish popping out of the water and floating dead on the surface. And I’ve been frogging. Frog legs taste like chicken.

Stock Popcorn- My Pa's popcorn company! 

            I’ve been reminded that you never know how people will perceive you. And that however they do, it doesn’t matter. 

That awkward moment when you no longer have a roommate

            Before I came here, it seemed like all of my relatives had a bad roommate story to tell me. My mom’s first year roommate who was depressed and went home every weekend until she then became friends with another depressed girl down their hall and the two would skip classes and watch soap operas and be depressed together. It worked out because my Mom was a friend with depressed girl #2’s roommate and they swapped roommates. My brother and his roommate would go for days only saying hi to each other. My uncle was in a triple with other guys on the soccer team who went out every night. I never thought that I would have my own bad roommate story, but now do. 

It all started when I was at mill mountain coffee studying with my friend V, I heard my phone have a spazz attack and I looked down on the slightly sticky table to find novel sized texts lighting up the screen, as my phone inched scarily close to my melted iced coffee.  It was my roommate saying how sorry she was and that she wouldn’t be coming back to RU because she felt that she didn’t fit in and was depressed and overwhelmed. I was really surprised but  I added everything up, and it made sense. Her mom was here all week so I’d hardly seen J. I can’t count the number of times I’d invited her along to whatever we were going to do and her response was “Thanks, but I’m fine. You go have fun.” Or the number of times I’d get back from my 1:10 class and she’d be under the covers of her bed and be on her laptop watching videos or looking at old pictures on instagram. I’m sad about this of course because we were friends and had gotten along really well until a week or so ago when she just became a permanent fixture in the room. Also I no longer have a roommate with a massive truck for Wal-Mart runs. I talked to my RA and she told me that I’ll be assigned a random person who is on a waiting list. I wish J all the best and I really, really hope my new roommate is well adjusted and willing to leave the room. And if she has a car, that’d be nice too…… 

easily distracted

In a hurry to meet M, I grabbed my phone, slid my feet into my flip-flops and yanked the door shut. The loud thud echoed down the hall as I kept on walking. I was just about to pull open the door to the stairs when I hastily spun around and realized the mistake- I’d left my keys. In the room. Which was now locked. J was at the barn with her horse and our R.A’s; board indicated she was “Off campus!” I was locked out of my room. I decided to wait until J got back and went to go study Spanish with M. Luckily, while we were in their room, tech support had to hook up their cable and kindly let me back into my room.

This is the second (and hopefully last) time that I’ve been locked out of my room, but this kind of this happens to me all the time. I am an extremely distractible person. I have the attention span of a fruit fly, but I’ve gotten a lot better at being able to focus and get my work done. However, this week has been horrible. I haven’t slacked so much since my freshmen year at THS. Last week everyone was so stressed about the workload and I didn’t think it was that bad and was glad that I was doing well in my classes. This week, I underestimated the amount of effort I needed to put into my classes. Before I came to R.U, everyone warned me about the constant distractions I’d have to face in college. I wish I had listened. On Tuesday, T came over and we watched the ‘Little Couple’ on TLC instead of starting Spanish. On Wednesday, I went rock climbing with C, A and W. And yesterday I went to CVS with E and M and watched four weddings while debating on whether or not to pain my nails.

From now on, I’m making to different to-do lists- one for homework and one for everything else. And it’ll all be fine- as long as I remember to look at the lists. 

                                                               Just a few distractions.... 

New found obsession

            I love smoothies. As a kid my older brother Josh and I had a routine on Saturday mornings, smoothies and cartoons. Josh was put in charge of the blender after the infamous blender of ’99- (this is relevant, I promise). R.U requires freshmen to have the 18-meal plan for the dining hall. For most people this isn’t a problem what so ever, for me, it’s becoming a dilemma. This week I’ve used my red card in the commons five times. So as of Friday, I have 13 meals left. Why? Well there are a couple of reasons for that. In high school I became use to not eating lunch after I had lunch at 10:30 freshmen year and at 1:30 sophomore year. Add in the fact that I have morning classes and pop tarts conveniently located in my room breakfast never really happens either. My Mom makes pasta fagioli (a pasta dish) that makes the commons’ pasta bar look like craft, always buys Organic produce and recently took up the Paelo diet.  Adjusting to the workload after a relatively easy senior year doesn’t help much either. The real reason, however, is Elderberry’s. Elderberry’s is a local smoothie/wrap shop- that is now located on campus! It’s an understatement to say that we have an addiction to Elderberry smoothies. They make the smoothies right after you order and you get to see all the ingredients that are going into your drink- and they use real fruit, not fruit juice like most stores.The only downside is the store’s hours. Elderberry’s doesn’t open until 11; so if you want to grab a perkilator on the way to an am classes- forget it. So what do we get instead of using our meal plan? J always gets a Mad’s Mango, M is in love with the Tomato Basil wraps and the Maroon Berry, S gets the Colada or an Orange Berry and I like the Really Raspberry. We all agree that if you need to stay up all night, the perkilator is the best way to go.