Thrifty Relaxation

It was such a great relief to hear my mom offer to pay for me to get a massage sometime this week. As I look at the clock ticking away to the wee hours of the morning, I'm STILL sitting in Fondren studying as much as I can for my overhanging final exams and papers to hopefully ensure some high grades for the end of the semester. A massage would be a wonderful treat to help alleviate some of this horrible stress. Who doesn't enjoy a good spa treatment every now and then? 

While neither my mom, nor I, are frequent spa goers, we both know people that we can label as "spa junkies." They pay ridiculous amounts of money for extravagant treatments like chocolate body scrubs, and simply "can't live" without their weekly spa fix. With the recession having placed such a financial burden on most Americans, however, the number of spa junkies out there has hit rock bottom. Relaxation is just something that can so easily be cut out of a person's budget, and spas across America are definitely feeling the cutback. 

As I thumbed through the "Dallas Morning News," an article about this very topic caught my eye. It provides some great tips on how people can still pamper themselves every once in awhile while still pinching a few pennies. Okay, a $250 massage might be completely out of the question for someone trying to save money at this point, but not all treatments are that expensive. Perhaps a few thrifty spa treatments would help alleviate as much stress for financially burdened Americans as it hopefully will for me during this hectic finals week. Let's get the economy rolling. Check it out! --->

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/travel/thisweek/stories/DN-spasave_0503tra.State.Edition1.4ac7d4c.html

Almost a Sophomore

Wow, this year has come and gone in a flash. When I moved into my lovely closet-sized dorm room last August, it felt like the day would never come that I'd be packing it back up to end my freshman year. Now that the time has actually come around, that hectic and HOT move-in seems like it was just yesterday. 

Can you believe that we won't be the youngest batch of SMU kids anymore? It's going to be so different labeling ourselves as sophomores rather than the newbies. I bet it'll take a few tries for all of us to get the sophomore response down when the "what year are you" question is thrown out, but I can't wait to see all the incoming freshman during their first few weeks, nervously shuffling around campus like I remember so vividly doing myself. That may sound mean, but I only say it with the upmost excitement for them. Figuring out how to get around and live around campus was great fun. Just think, Facebooking while pretending to listen to professors in giant lectures, double swiping friends in at Umphrey Lee by slipping ID cards through the side window and wiping the X's off our hands at bars in an attempt to mask our under-21-ness are all phenomenal skills that they have yet to discover. 

Frankly, I'm a little saddened that I'll be moving out of my dorm next week, and jealous that two new girls will be living in the hall where I've made so many great memories. All of the girls on my hall have grown so close, and while we may have grunted the entire year about trying to fit our clothes in the closet, being able to walk right down the hall to hang out with one another at all times of the day and night is a practice that I'll greatly miss. 

It'll definitely be funny, too, to see all the new class of 2013 kids out at night. I remember how excited and scared I was walking into my first fraternity party with the handful of friends that I had just met. I was so cautious, as a girl who was interested in joining a sorority, to keep my behavior in check as I didn't want to anger the older, sorority girls who I figured were watching my every move. Now that I'm in a sorority, all of my older sisters tell me how ridiculous it is to see the new girls basically kissing up to them during the first semester in an attempt to form a good reputation for themselves, and I'm pretty interested to see how that actually plays out.  

I've loved and learned so much about SMU and myself throughout this first year. Looking back, my freshman year has lived up to everything that I had hoped for and expected. Evaluating everything from the academics to the social scene and the city of Dallas itself, I couldn't be happier here at SMU, and am hopeful that my remaining three years here will only get better.

Swine Flu Precautions are Legitimate!

I have commented on CC19's interesting idea that the Swine flu is nothing but a government conspiracy. CC19 thinks that the government has made up the disease in order to close schools and save money. While it's certainly a creative idea, I personally think the Swine flu is a true threat. Maybe I'm just a gullible germ-a-phob, but I've definitely been washing my hands more often than necessary, and would be more than happy to miss school for a few days for precautionary measures. 

Comment on "R U Really Reading?"

I choose to read "Online, R U Really Reading?" and commented on cec's blog post about it. She asked many thought-provoking questions about the article that made me think much more about my paper topic. 

Early Claim for Final Paper & Reason 1

Claim: Too often in their attempts to challenge students' reading abilities and preconceived values, professors' efforts are counterproductive.

Reason 1: Professors choose books that students are unable to relate to because the author's viewpoints are too foreign. By forcing adolescents to trudge through books that would never mirror their own lives, teachers and professors are decreasing the possibility of molding their students into life long readers because students begin to categorize reading as an unexciting task rather than a pleasurable activity. Louis Stover, Chair of the Education Department of the River Gazette, preaches that "...the texts we ask our students to read in school...undercut our efforts to develop [their] passion reading...If the goal is to...create a citizenry of life-long readers, we might be better served by asking students to read (gasp!) a Harry Potter novel. Through the Rawlings books, students can examine themselves and their relationships, learn to negotiate a world that is more often gray than black and white, and come to appreciate and understand the craft of the novel (Stover 9). Instead of trying to picture himself or herself arguing a topic that would only prove necessary in the 18th century, students can draw from their own real-life experiences to create a boost in class discussion with more solid opinions.

Realizing the Oddity of the Twilight Obsession

After reading Meghan's post about the world's new obsession with Twilight, I gained a new perspective on the whole phenomenon. She poses a good argument in question of our culture's new favorite series that really made me step back and think.

Love it, or Hate it, it's a Texas Obsession

When asked about their favorite genres of music, it seems that most people either absolutely love or absolutely hate country music. Here at SMU, it's mostly the costal (California or Florida-born) kids who seem to despise the twangy sound of country music at it's finest, and the southerners who swear by it. While many could argue that this claim is solely stereotypical, I can attest being born and raised in Florida that I definitely was not a fan of country music before coming here. All the songs that I had heard before moving to Texas just sounded so sappy and monotonous. My few friends who loved country at home warned that moving to Texas would make me become a country music lover, but I denied all such suspicions. How could my tastes change so much by simply moving to a different state? Well, they were right.

 

It must be something about living in a state that makes a person prideful of everything surrounding its culture. Having lived in Texas for almost a full year now, I love turning my radio to a country station every once and awhile (a practice I would have never done before). My car radio even has a numbered station set to country, and while it might be a few numbers behind my favorite pop, mix, and hip-hop stations, the fact that I even took the time to set a country station in my car is pretty astonishing. I'm just waiting for the huge "I told you so" grins that will surely appear on my friends' faces who just knew that once I heard more of it, I'd get hooked. 

Maybe I'm one of the only people who's take on country morphed from extreme dislike to moderate enjoyment, but I find that hard to believe. It's pretty difficult to escape the ever-presence of country music here in Texas, even as a stubborn college student. From football tailgates on the Boulevard to dancing the night away at SMU's most popular nightlife spots, country music always seems to be playing. For me, it was only a matter of time before the country songs I heard blaring through the loud speakers became committed to memory. Even though I haven't quite hit the level of obsession with country music that some people have, my new love for it has been a pretty lovely surprise.