To my credit, I tried to update this weekend but sadly I forgot to bring home my camera cord with me. So here I am, updating on a Sunday night while sitting in my dorm room.

11/16/2010

This is Emily, trying to make me laugh at nearly 1 in the morning by showing me her cheerleading/gymnastics skills. We get a little crazy after about 11 pm.

11/17/2010

I thought this was a really cool picture with the sun behind the red tree and all the pretty leaves on the ground. I also love the old building in the background.

11/18/2010

Sadly, I skipped today...not on purpose, I even had a photo in mind to take but for whatever reason, it slipped my mind.  That day was not the best day for me (not to make excuses) since I had a midterm and two quizzes and I was pretty stressed out. Once the day was over, I was drained. :( So sad.

11/19/2010

My dad brought me a set of stickers quoting Henry David Thoreau when he came to visit me on the 17th. I put them above my bed. I love how it looks!

My friend Anna, Emily, our friend Mirko and I all went to my (former) diner of employment on campus, Sloopy's, to indulge in some greasy food and rich chocolate cake, pictured above. YUM.

11/20/2010

This is the walkway between the Wexner Center for the Arts on campus and Mershon Auditorium. I went with Anna to see our friend Ian (I've mentioned his blog before, check out the links on the side, his is Sweet Nothings) perform in OSU's latest musical production, Opera Scenes. He did great! His sister and our friend Cierra were also in the performance and they did great as well. I was fascinated with this walkway pictured above because the lights would change in color as they moved down the walkway. Psychedelic. 

This is also a pretty terrible quality (poo) picture of Ian during his performance. Very impressive!

11/21/2010

This is the HUGE iguana that is at the Dublin Winking Lizard (very close to Columbus). Emily was kind enough to invite me to have lunch with her and her family on Sunday. I had a really good time and enjoyed being away from the dorm for a bit.

After lunch, she took me back to her house to meet her pets (yay!). She has two kitties, an adorable dog and a hedgehog.  This is one of her kitties, Smokey, who is really sweet. She was hooked onto and wrapping her paws around Emily's arm. Sooo cute!

11/22/2010

Kind of a boring picture, I know. This is a picture of the gazebo and part of the gardens on Ag campus that I took while waiting for my environmental science class to start.

11/23/2010

Sitting at the fireplace at the Ohio Union for a few minutes of me-time (the only me-time I got that Tuesday since I had classes all day, a chemistry lab, meeting with my advisor, was packing for Thanksgiving break, and preparing for my 7:30 a.m. calc midterm the next day). I love fires; they are so relaxing.

11/24/2010

HOME! One of the first places I went after arriving home around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning (my dad picked me up in Columbus to drive up to Akron at 8:30 a.m. after my calculus midterm). I love me some Krispy Kreme donuts, one of the finer aspects of Akron, OH. :) They even had a glazed pumpkin spice donut - delicious.

11/25/2010

Happy Thanksgiving! My mom and I cooked our own meal as we usually do and ate around noon. It was very good. I made the green been casserole, yams, and pumpkin pie - very good if I do say so myself! My mom made her famous cornbread, stuffing and stuffed acorn squash (our delicious vegetarian main dish substitute) and cranberry sauce, also very good. I had a yummy meal later on that evening at my dad's house. Two meals on one Thanksgiving? Boy, am I lucky.

11/26/2010

Merry Christmas! While I was home, Zack and I went to the John S. Knight Center Holiday Tree Festival. It's a great festival every year that includes various organizations and citizens decorating and donating trees to be auctioned off. The proceeds go to Akron Children's Hospital. It's a great program and I love seeing the trees; they are always so unique and festive. There were two OSU themed trees but this was my favorite of the two. GO BUCKS! (and *ahem*, we did beat Michigan - AGAIN)

11/27/2010

I took this picture right before I went to sleep when Freddy was curled up in bed with me. He looks so cuuute (and sleepy)!

Hahahahah - this photo makes me laugh so much. He was mid-motion in that kitty pose that cats do when they are licking their chops (I had just given him a small piece of cheese). Somehow I caught him in the funniest picture ever - he looks so ferocious!

11/28/2010

I am in love with this picture - cutest picture ever. The bottom is Ginger and Fred is at the top, sound asleep. They are brothers and I think it's adorable how Ginger is looking so lovingly right up at Fred. They love each other. :)

My dad and I went hiking at Goodyear Heights Metro Park (my dad finished his hiking spree!) today before I left to come back down to OSU. We stopped to look at Alder Pond and noticed it was partially frozen, but the ice was more like slush and it was sort of undulating on top of the water. This picture makes the lake look very wintry - but it actually was in the upper 30s today and sunny. I took this because you can faintly see bright red leaves or berries near the reeds on the edge of the lake in the middle of the picture - my dad and I could not figure out what they were. Strange.

11/13/2010

I was in downtown Columbus on Saturday to meet Zack for when he arrived in town to visit me and in walking around I came upon these holiday decorations on the Ohio Theater. It was rather odd to see these pretty Christmas trees on such a warm and sunny day (high 60's) but at the same time, it made me happy to see them. I absolutely love Christmas! From the little bit of downtown that I saw in walking around, all the traditional decorations are going up - decorated trees on the sides of the streets, lights on buildings and things such as the above. Ah, can't wait for the holidays.

11/14/2010

I'll admit that this picture is the result of yet another day of being uninspired to take pictures. Yesterday I was stressed about my chemistry midterm (which I just got back from taking - whew, weight off my shoulders) and was too busy studying and cleaning my room to find something more interesting to take a picture of. I got this little cow at an Agricultural Job Fair I was required to attend by my freshman survey class on Ag campus. The job fair was boring since no one wanted to talk to freshmen (we had to go for "practice") but at least I got a cute toy out of it.

11/15/2010

In the spirit of this week, Emily and I have made a countdown on our door until the weekend...we both have a really stressful few days in front of us with lots of things due and midterms and yuck. Can't wait til the weekend.

(And credit to Ian for saying he is the hottest and Zack for leaving me a little love note above our countdown.)

You thought I had stopped taking pictures, didn't you? :) Nope, just really behind on updating.

10/25/2010

Another picture from that Monday I updated last...I have little mini rubber duckies in my dorm that my Dad gave to me and Emily and I put one in Grumpy's tank and he freaked out! We just wanted him to have a new best friend. :(

10/26/2010

I thought the colors of the ivy growing on this building were really neat. It looks like a rainbow!

The same day I took the above ivy picture, a huge storm hit campus complete with tornado warnings and wind advisories. I happened to be trekking across the Oval right as it hit and could barely walk straight because of the wind. This picture does not do it justice!

10/27/2010

Emily and I got all dressed up early for Halloween! She got to practice her really cool superhero mask she was doing for her costume on Halloween weekend and I got to dress up for a bit since I was going home for Halloween. We paraded around our floor and showed the girls how snazzy we looked.

10/28/2010

This is the pumpkin that Emily and I carved for Halloween. He is overly happy. :)

10/29/2010

I took this picture out of the back window of the car on the way back home Friday night. Beautiful sunset and cool taillights.

10/30/2010

Baby goat! I loooove goats and Zack and I went to Walsh Farms to pick pumpkins and get apple cider and all those fun fall activities. They alway have a petting zoo and I look forward to seeing the goats because they're so adorable! They also had donkeys this year.

10/31/2010

The multi-colored view looking up into my tree-filled backyard. I missed seeing this every fall.

The leaf- and pumpkin-covered front steps. Ah, home sweet home.

11/1/2010

Back at OSU...I was bored and had my camera in my lap, playing with it, when I noticed how cool my belt looked when I took an up-close picture of it. I love the texture and the detail.

11/2/2010

I took this picture for my Mom so that she could help me identify what kind of tree this leaf was from. I knew it looked familiar and they are absolutely all over campus and as soon as I described the fan-like shape of the leaf to her she told me it must be a Ginkgo leaf. I feel silly for not knowing now! I love how they look in the fall when they turn all yellow.

11/3/2010

My Dad came to visit last Wednesday and we took a short drive to an apartment complex that Emily and I are going to live in next school year and the sunset was spectacular. I love the marbled texture of the clouds.

11/4/2010

While studying in the huge brand new Thompson Library, I realized how cool the stacks of books looked behind the glass walls they constructed. I guess the shelves are supposed to look like they are "floating." There are actually 11 floors (which I believe I have mentioned before and provided a picture looking out from the 11th) but this picture is from the ground floor looking up and I only got a few of the floors.

11/5/2010

I went home again last weekend and was treated to the first snow of the season Friday night in Akron! As soon as I arrived at 9 pm it was snowing lightly, but this picture was taken a few hours later after it had been snowing awhile and the flakes were bigger. I love snow. :)

11/6/2010

Saturday night at home Zack and I were bored with nothing to do so we decided to go to our local mall and look around at Christmas decorations (because of course they are already up). Macy's is always the best, with all its little trees and gift boxes. I love the holiday season.

11/7/2010

Sunday before I left to come back to Columbus, my mom and I enjoyed a relaxing few hours at home playing board games and lounging around. I thought this was a cute picture of our two older kitties, brothers Fred (front right) and Ginger (back left - and yes, Ginger is a boy.). My mom is doing her daily crossword at the kitchen table and the kitties always come and sit with her. How adorable!

11/8/2010

I found this cool leaf imprint on the sidewalk on Ag Campus. When I took this picture I thought it was imprinted by nature, you know, when wet leaves are moved and they leave a sort of stamp? But days later the print was still there and didn't look worn away at all. I suppose it is possible that it still was created naturally (because I don't know how else it would have been created) since it hasn't rained or anything, but who knows.

11/9/2010

Tuesday I went to tour the OSU Wetland Research Park and meet with a professor (and Director of the facility) named Dr. Mitsch. I have to interview faculty and decide who will be my undergraduate/honors advisor.  I really thought Dr. Mitsch would be a good fit and the Research Park is such a great facility that really coincides with my love of Environmental Sciences and water quality. This is a picture of one of the smaller man-made ponds that actually isn't used for research, but the other wetlands that data are taken from are huge and look very promising.

11/10/2010

When my mom came to campus Sunday to bring me back and grab a quick meal before she headed back home, she noted how huge this tree in the South Oval was! I felt silly for not really even noticing it very much before when I walk past it all the time. It really is huge, though - been there awhile. You can also see construction fences in the background. They are going to start working on a new system that is much more environmentally friendly for heating water for the south campus dorms (where I live). There is also construction right next to my hall - lovely.

11/11/2010

Happy Veteran's Day! We had no classes that day in observance and Emily and I took a walk through the student-filled oval (it was also a beautiful day to be outside) to get to the Thompson Library Cafe to get some food. I thought the way the sun was shining close to sunset was really cool and the trees cast beautiful shadows on the ground.

11/12/2010

Yesterday between classes, I took about a half hour to lay in the grass in the middle of the Oval (as many students do). It was sunny and in the lower 70s - basically, we are getting spoiled this week when it comes to November weather. I laid my camera in the grass and ground level and started snapping and thought the resulting image was neat. You can see the fall leaves in the grass and the bare tree in the background. 

Will post today's photo in next post!