It never fails.

Asians always make me smile.

Today an Asian man was riding his bike down the sidewalk I was walking on. He rode right past me with his beige trench coat flapping behind him and he gave me a subtle nod and a big friendly smile. It easily made my day.

What's better than writing a research paper?

Anything.

So here I am to update you on my thrill of a life which I'm sure everyone is interested in.

Last weekend I was in Illinois with my fellow Landscape Management majors for a competition. In case you were unaware and you actually care, here is the kind of stuff that goes on at a landscaping competition:

Paver Installation

Wood Construction

 Plant Installation

And a ton of other events that I didn't get pictures of.

Besides that, this trip included

a visit to Downtown Chicago,

indulging in real Chicago style pizza,

discovery of a Wendy's that didn't disappoint me,

and most importantly, taking first place at our competition!

Now I get that most people don't share my passion for the landscaping field but taking first place at a national competition among around 60 universities for the first time since 2006 doesn't suck.

Being a ripe, inexperienced young freshman, I did not compete, but I am so glad I had the opportunity to go on this trip. I am so proud of my school and my peers and I can't wait to participate next year!!

Now I have to catch up on all the class that I missed during the 5 days I was out of town, and with the year coming to a close I already have a to-do list as long as my forearm (and that's 10 pt font!!!! Haha just exaggerating. But for real I have a ton of due dates coming up). So naturally I spend my time blogging. That's the kind of girl I am.
In conclusion, I want to leave you with a little pick-me-up. Caroline introduced me to this silly obnoxious youtuber and I just can't really express how much I love him.

I could not be happier (:

This weekend has been positively spectacular. Thursday I took all my friday tests and classes in advance so that I could start my weekend early, and it was completely worth it. Thursday night through Monday morning was designated for Deer Valley with my wonderful friends slash future roommates, Caroline, Hailey, Katie, and Megan. (Megan doesn't know it yet, but she is definitely included in the future roommate category.) Here's a snapshot of what next year is gonna look like.

The weekend has been spent cooking (and eating entirely too much of nothing with any nutritional value at all, naturally), swimming, frolicking in the snow, watching bad chick flicks, shopping, getting checked out, and doing things that I'm probably better off not documenting publicly. I have fallen absolutely in love with these gorgeous, hilarious ladies and I could not be more excited to share a home with them next year.

And now, meet my new neice!

My best friend, Torre, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl this morning at 12:13 A.M. and I am absolutely thrilled!! She is going to be so loved and I can't wait to meet her. Unfortunately that won't be until June when I go back to Colorado :( But the way I see it I still have my whole life to spoil her rotten!

IMHO..

Technology is getting a little extraneous. I myself desperately hope that in 15 years I will not have to throw away all my regular DVDs and be limited to blu-ray because it just looks so weird to me. I feel like the movements are all jumpy and I really don't find it necessary to see the pores on Megan Fox's face when I'm watching Transformers. In fact, quite frankly that takes away from the experience for me because my perception of Megan Fox being too physically flawless to have pores is one of the few things that makes up for her mediocre acting abilities. If I can tell she has pores, the movie goes from 4 stars to a solid 2.5.

Honestly though, why are we squandering money developing technology to heighten our entertainment experience? Our lives aren't cushy enough? Is it really so much more important for us to feel like we could shake hands with the characters on our TV screen than making something that might actually enrich the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves? I think our priorities are just a liiiiiitle backwards.