Website

Oh yes, I almost forgot, I have a website and it's up and running and if I do say so myself, it's awesome! Of course, I'm bias... so you should check it out. It's saraschram.com (cool huh?). I love it so far, and it's just getting started. Ideally this will serve as my final portfolio for graduation, so I really want it to be awesome and polished up.

I'll just go over some basic features right now. I have a slideshow (which took me a while to get it to work) on every page with photos from Spain that I edited in Photoshop (which was cool in itself because I got to learn more about the software). Then on the contact page I have a form! This is exciting too. Having my own website I've realized a lot more about how much work goes into the different functions. It's really cool to see the endless possibilities.

I want my website to be more interactive, so in the future I want to try and incorporate a "contest" for my photography webpage. I'm going to post hmm, let's say four photos each month and have people vote for which is their favorite. Then at the top of the page will be the previous month's winner. Obviously I don't know how to code this yet, but I will figure it out!

I think I might want to play around with fonts in the future too, but since that's something that works and looks decent, I might put that on the back burner for now. I'm thinking about adding a graphic to each page too, or at least some, like the portfolio page. It seems (like some other pages) a bit bland right now, so I want to amp it up and pop some color in there!

In the near future I want to link this blog to my social networking page. I think it'll help add a new dimension to the site and give people a reason to keep coming back, along with my photo contest. I think for my resume page I'm gonna switch it up again. I might put the photo of the PDF for my resume there instead of everything typed out. It kind of looks messy right now.

I also want to outline my signature logo at the top, and work on the argyle pattern I created for the head bar. Maybe fade it out a bit so it's more of an accent as opposed to in-your-face? Well, I've got lots of ideas for it!

Whew!

This semester has been a whirlwind of excitement and busy, busy days. I'm going to try and keep up again, but like I mentioned the last time, it's hard with so much else going on. So what's new with me and my life?

Well, let's start with school, shall we? Classes have been going well. I ended last semester on dean's list! Woo, all the hard work I did paid off. This semester, I'm taking a lot of classes that I like. Digital Rhetorics is one of my favorites. This is the first time it's being taught, so we're like the guinea pigs. Wendy KZ Anderson is the professor though, and there's only four students in the class. It's really interesting. I like how she actually pushes us to do our best, as opposed to the minimum required. What else, my editing class has been interesting so far. I like looking through and correcting errors - it makes me feel important. Then my MIS class is going well, though java still frustrates me like no other. This class is much slower paced than CS 1121 though, so it's easier to follow. Plus when I write an executable code I kind of feel like a computer science ninja!

Moving on to work, all three jobs are going well. The Lode (for which I work as a designer) has been a lot of fun so far! I get to use Adobe InDesign to arrange the stories and photos on the pages for print. It's really cool to start with a blank page and then see everything come together. My job at the HDMZ (Humanities Digital Media Zone) in Walker has been going well too. Today, actually, was a really busy day! Right when I got there there was a question about the scanner, then while we were working on that, there was another issue with a student that couldn't print. It was a busy start, but it slowed down. Overall I like working that job. I'm excited to continue working it, because I'm learning a lot. My big job, my internship, has also been going well. I talked to Cat and talked about the summer with her and she said she could extend my stay until the end of May. Wooooo!! That's super exciting because now I don't need to find something for May when I'm up here.

Most of my summer is planned out though. I'm going to (hopefully) live in the AGD house for May and the beginning of June while taking track A courses, then move into the dorms for my job as a residence counselor for Tech's Summer Youth Programs. I'm really excited about this job because it sounds like a TON of fun! Plus Monica (my AGD sister-daughter) was hired too, so we get to do it together. So I'll do that until the beginning of August, and then move back into the AGD house to finish up track B classes. I love when things are planned out. So I'm excited for this semester to wrap up.

My student organizations have been pretty good as well. Order of Omega just finished up Greek Week, which was kind of a mess, but turned out okay. I'm glad I made it through in one piece, and people are still telling me good job. Whew! Major weight off my shoulders  Now I need to figure out what the next step for the STC Student Chapter is, and then Greek New Member Orientation, and then Greek Awards. Yikes... I guess there's time for sleep when I'm dead, yeah? Or when I'm old and boring. Whichever comes first I suppose. Now I gotta get back to doing some homework. Which reminds me that Spring Break starts next week! A whole week of zero responsibilities. It sounds too good to be true, actually. I'm looking to get caught up/ahead in my school work, but I also want to do some art too. We shall see.

Yikes

Has it really been so long since my last post?? Yikes, time really does fly by. Anyway, back to my rundown. Sunday I had the External Greek Review, which was a large discussion retreat for the executive councils of each Greek organization on campus. I had to facilitate a session as an executive member of Order of Omega, and that was scary. It wasn't bad, and I got to do it with Sushi, who's Brandon's little. That was pretty cool. Then I ate chapter dinner. It was pretty yummy. It was Halloween themed food, so for an appetizer, they made apple slices and shoved pretzel sticks into the slice, and then put marshmallows onto the sticks for eyeballs. Well, I don't really like marshmallows so I took them off. Then for dessert they made dirt dessert, pudding that looks like dirt. Well, they put gummy bears in it to say it was a gummy bear graveyard. Well, I don't really like gummy bears and chocolate together, so I picked out the gummy bears. Monica (my new child) was sitting next to me. When we were all done eating, one of the other sisters laughed at us because I had marshmallows and gummy bears on my plate, and Monica had marshmallows and gummy bears on her plate! It was pretty funny.

Monday I went to work (both the bookstore and HR) and classes. Then I had meeting and laundry. Tuesday I went to HR work, and then went to a LEAN thinking presentation for work. It's pretty interesting, and I'm really excited as this job progresses. Then I went to classes, and then work at the Bookstore since they were short staffed. After that I went to a HuskyLead, which was really fun since it was about marketing and how to better present your organizations. Then I had an Order of Omega meeting. When I got home, I did my dish day and cleaned up the kitchen. Wednesday I went to classes and then came home and slept. It wasn't a very good day. Then I woke up to register. I'm really excited about my schedule for next semester. Thursday I went to work and then classes. After classes I had an Order of Omega meeting again, and then after that I went to the house for an Alph Gam function.

Friday I only had classes. Then at six I went with my sisters to Sigma Rho, one of the fraternities, for a dinner they made us. I guess one of our sisters has a resident who's pledging to their fraternity and decided that it would be fun or something. But we had lasagna and it was good. Then I came back and sat around. Saturday I had work, at which I did some homework. Shh. Then after that I went to Walmart with Taylor and Monica to pick out fabric for family letters. It took us an hour. Haha but we also made dinner when we got back, spaghetti... yum! It was a lot of fun. Sunday I had to help facilitate the Greek New Member Orientation. I think it went really well, though none of the new members particularly looked happy or thrilled haha. We hadn't expected them to be very happy or enthusiastic though. After that Alph Gams started I-week, a week of rituals to initiate our new members into our fraternity. Monday I went to work at the Bookstore and then classes. After institutions I came home, ate something quick, and then headed to my HR job. Then we had meeting and I had laundry. Then more Alph Gam stuff at night.

Tuesday, yesterday  I went to work in the morning. I met the other woman that I'll be working with/for too. Then I went to classes. After classes I hung out on campus, studying for my institutions exam. At six, I went to an STC speaker series in Walker. It was a speaker who spoke about internships. It was really interesting, and I got a lot out of it. At that presentation, I set up a time to meet with him today. After that presentation, I had an Order of Omega meeting again. We opened nominations for next year's e-board and chose new members. I am nominated for president. Yikes! Then I came home and hung out with Monica for a bit, since she had gotten out of her new member meeting. Then I studied for an hour for my exam.

Today, I'll talk about later.

Today

Well, let's see. Monday I went to work, then classes, and then Alph Gam meeting. We got our Alph Gam cards, which have discounts to local restaurants. Each of us has to sell thirty. I went over to the DU house and sold a lot. Then I walked around with Margaret to a few other Greek houses. We sold several. After that I did some laundry. Tuesday I went into my new job! It was so exciting, I was introduced around and showed around. Then Cat and I talked more about what was expected of me and stuff. Then after that I came home, ate lunch, and then went to classes. After classes I had a meeting for Order of Omega. Then I came home. I walked around with Beka to yet more Greek houses. Wednesday I went to work and then classes. At noon I had a study date with my child. Then I went to class. I didn't feel well, so I went home and slept the day away after that.

Thursday was a pretty good day. I went to HR work and had my first "real" day. I got to research a bunch of websites for other schools and compare them to one of our pages. Then I went to campus. I stopped by Subway on my way to campus and got a sub. I didn't get to eat it until after my meeting though. I met with the advisor for Panhel with my group to discuss our plans for the external Greek review on Sunday. I ate my sub afterward and then went to classes. Then I went home and tried to sleep. I couldn't fall asleep. Then we had Meet the Greeks for my kid's class. It was fun. We ended up at DU playing charades. It was a lot of fun.

Friday I woke up and went to work. Then class, then I sat in Fisher for an hour, and then went to my Institutions class. We watched a short movie that was pretty funny. It was an old tv ad for kitchen appliances. After that I headed to Subway again to eat lunch/dinner. I got a spicy Italian sub this time, with lettuce, onion, green pepper, and banana pepper! It wasn't bad either. I liked the pepperoni. Then I headed to HR work. I finished up the website research and made some mock-up designs for the new one. When I came home I did Fran's dish day, since we switched this week. She went out of town this weekend, so she did mine on Tuesday. Then I was texting Brandon and texting/talking to my mom for a few hours. The result, I HAVE A CAR :) It was really exciting. It's a Subaru Legacy, so it's pretty and it's a good, reliable car. After that I didn't do much, hung out and then went to bed. Today I have done laundry. That is it.

A Bit Behind

Alright so I'm way behind! Life has been a roller coaster of slow, relaxing moments and lots of frantic ones. Finally, though, here's another post.

Lets see, I'm just going to give a general overview of the big events. So the weekend after the last post. Saturday I went in to work and got to leave early since we were so slow. It wasn't too happy though, because I ended up going to the ER to have my spleen checked out and make sure the pain I was having wasn't my spleen leaking. It turns out I'm fine. Then Sunday we (Alph Gams) had our Preference Party. It was pretty good, there were 3 girls that came. No one almost fainted haha. Then right after that we went to hand out bids. After that I had our executive council meeting, during which one of the girls accepted their bid! That was exciting. After that meeting I met with the e-boards of Panhel and IFC, the two governing boards of Greek Life, female and male, respectively. Then I had chapter dinner. We did a taco salad bar. It wasn't too bad, I only had to help clean up since I hadn't been back from my meeting in time to help cook. It was sometime during the course of the day that our second girl accepted her bid, so we officially had a pledge class!

The week after that was pretty normal (ish). Monday I went to work, then class, then I had a meeting with the Order of Omega e-board before my Alph Gam meeting. After both, I did my laundry. Yay clean clothes! Tuesday I met with our advisor to talk about potential job opportunities. It was really helpful. She said she'd forward my resume and cover letter on to the Cognitive and Learning Sciences department, which is where I had applied for a job. Then I went to class. I had an e-board meeting for Order of Omega at 6, then an all-member meeting at 7. Wednesday I went to work and then class and then work again, since it was Grad Fest. It wasn't too bad, not as bad as normal. Then I went to my enterprise meeting and then home. We had our pinning ceremony, where we pinned two new members of AGD, one of which I am a sister-mother for. So I now have two kids; Taylor and Monica. Monica is a first year STC student, which was exciting for me because I'm not alone anymore! Plus she's a lot like me. There will be times when she does something and one of the sisters notices and tells me or her. It's fun.

Thursday morning I got a call for a job offer! It was from Cat, our chapter advisor to be a technical writer/web developer. I'm so excited, I really hope it works out. It's more hours than the bookstore, it pays more, I won't have to lift heavy boxes, it's within my field of study, the hours are scheduled around my schedule, perfect! Then I went to classes in a good mood. I had another meeting with Order of Omega, and then I had a meeting with my STC student chapter. We had a guest speaker come in and talk, and I got a lot out of it! She talked a lot about jobs, being/getting hired and the internet. It was well worth going. Monica went too, so that was our first mother-daughter date! Friday I went to work an hour early to work the register, then I went to classes. After my last class (which I had an exam in), I came home and packed for the weekend. Momma came up with Aunt Mona and we all went to Marquette for the weekend. It was wonderful. I really wished it would have lasted longer though. I didn't get to spend much time with either of them, since I was scrapbooking. We did go shopping though, which was really nice. I came home Sunday and said my goodbyes. Then I cleaned up after chapter dinner and went to bed!

Monday I went in to work and then classes. I met with one of our new members to get to know her, and then I met with another new member an hour later. Then I had my AGD meeting and did my laundry after. Tuesday I went to classes and came home. It was my kid's first meeting, so I talked with her when she got out and gave her a gift! She seemed to like it. Then that night was squirrel night, which was fun. I went to bed before it was over though, I was so tired! Wednesday I talked to Beckie at work and let her know about my new job. I then went to classes and came home. Thursday I met with our Leadership Consultant who got into town on Wednesday. We talked about recruitment for a while. Then I headed to classes. After that, I had my date with Monica again. We sat in the cafe in the library and she bought me a hot chocolate. It was wonderful. I just keep finding out things about her that we have in common and it's kind of weird! But awesome :) Then after that I FINALLY met up with my marketing team for class. It took me about a week and a half of email to get half of our team to show up.

Friday I went to work and then class. I then sold Alph Gam cards (discount cards to restaurants in the community). Then after that I met with my academic advisor to plan out my schedule for the spring semester. It seems pretty decent, and I found out I’m in pretty good shape for graduation! Yay! Later that night I participated in Movie Night with Sigma Tau Gamma, a fraternity across the street that also has a leadership consultant now. We watched Hocus Pocus and it was pretty fun. Saturday I did Make a Difference Day with Beka, Katelyn, and Monica. Bethany was supposed to go too, but she rolled her ankle pretty bad and was having troubles walking. Sonya was supposed to go, but she was totally MIA. So we gave her t-shirt to Monica, since she hadn’t registered but was helping us. We raked leaves. After we ran out of bags, we went to lunch at the Abassador. I got a burrito, and it was pretty darn yummy! Yesterday we had our Winter Carnival meeting, where we figured out a lot of stuff about this year’s carnival. Then we had Fall Clean-up. I got to hold leaf bags open, which was all I did Saturday. I don’t want to do anything too physically challenging for a while. Then my job was to sweep and mop the stairs. Super easy! Then I met with two people on Panhel and IFC to discuss plans for the Greek External Review. It was pretty productive. After that I went home and did some homework in the chapter room with sisters, and then ate chapter dinner. After dinner I met with another one of our new members. I only have one more I haven’t met with! So that’s my past few weeks in a nutshell!

Squeaking Through

It's been a week since my last post, to keep up with my goal of once a week I must write!

So let's see, last Wednesday is where I left off. I woke up, went to work, then class. I also brought my camera to campus, since the colors on the trees was beautiful! And in it's peak. So after Marketing, before Institutions, I walked all the way around campus, taking about 150 photos of the trees and leaves. It was a lot of fun, and I got to use my camera some more. I now have documentation of the beautiful campus I have! I went to Institutions after that and surprise, it was boring and unhelpful. After that I headed home and napped. Then I showered when I woke up, and did my house job, since Pinning was Wednesday night. I actually straightened my hair too, I was in a good mood. I used my camera that night too, I took a lot of photos, but the girls will have photo memories forever now.

Thursday was normal, I slept in, and then went to classes. Then I came home and napped. It was a rough day in that I was very tired. I also gathered leaves from the DU front yard before I headed to classes. We had a recruitment event Thursday; we made roses out of fall leaves. DU's tree had really, really red leaves. So I emailed Aaron (their president) and asked if I could take them. Of course, he said no problem. When I woke up from my nap later that night, I set stuff up and got all ready. The actual event went well. No one complained and we had a decent amount of sisters there for it not being mandatory. We also had four potential new members come. Four! I was a happy camper. I also really, really like one of them. Her name is Monica and she's a first year, wait for it... STC! Perfect! She seems really interested too, so I'm hopeful.

Friday I missed work because I was too tired to get out of bed. It's a problem. But I made it to my classes, and between the two classes, I met with Evie to go over my volunteering duties for Saturday for the open house. It was pretty simple. She also gave Sam and I (the other girl volunteering for our department) gift cards for the bookstore for volunteering! It was a wonderful surprise. Then since I hadn't made it in to work in the morning, I went in the afternoon. It worked out much better for me, and I got an extra hour! Score. Then I pretty much did nothing the entire night. It was nice.

Saturday I slept in and moseyed around a bit. Then I headed to the HDMZ to volunteer. My job was to give tours to anyone that looked like a prospective student and/or a parent. I was there from 12-3. I gave one tour. It wasn't too bad either. They came back an hour later to talk to Evie and Evie called me over to give a students view (since the prospective student is interested in STC). So I answered questions and then they left after about twenty minutes. Then I sat and talked with Evie. She said I did a really nice job talking to them, and I was proud of myself for that. Then we talked about internships and co-ops. It was fun, plus she gave me candy. So for three hours of sitting in the HDMZ and giving one tour, I got to get a LOT of homework done, a $20 gift card, free candy (Almond Joy, made me think of momma), AND I got to get on my advisor's radar and get to just sit and talk with her. It was nice. After that I headed home and did a bit more homework, then a whole lotta nothing. Relaxing is quite fun, I'm learning.

Sunday I had nothing planned until 7 pm, when I had a Blue Key meeting. I mostly hung around, did a bit of homework, spent time with sisters, etc. I also went to chapter dinner, which was chili and cornbread... yummy! Then when I got to campus, and was in the back of the room for the Blue Key meeting, I got an email that it was okay for me to step back. Yay! So now my Wednesday's are free again. Well, kinda.

Monday I dressed up for Alph Gams, and then headed to work. It was awful, as usual nowadays because I'm so tired. But I survived. Then I went to class, which was decent. Not much new there. Then I came home and dropped off my backpack, grabbed my padfolio with my resume and cover letter, switched into heels, and headed to the Harold Meese Center to drop off my job documents. I'm really hoping I get this job, so keep your fingers crossed for me! Then I came home and napped. Then ate dinner, and went to meeting. After meeting, I did my laundry and that was pretty much it. Another regular, uneventful day other than dropping off the resume and cover letter.

Tuesday I got up and headed for my two week check up at Portage Health. They did three more tests (including more blood work) to make sure my white blood cell count is good, and to see if my kidney was what was giving me pain. She also recommended that I have an ultrasound done to make sure my spleen isn't enlarged. So then I headed to class. Then my other class. After Tech Comm I talked to my professor for a good five minutes about my homework, which I wasn't sure about. I'm glad I did though, I fixed a lot of things so hopefully I'll get a better grade. After that I headed home. I took a short nap and then got ready for our recruitment event; sugar cookie decorating. I made the cookies and I was really frustrated. I didn't think I'd have enough time to cook them, the dough was too dry, we didn't have a heart shape cookie cutter. But it all ended up being okay. We had two girls come, and we all decorated a lot of squirrel and acorn shaped cookies. Then they stayed for Crazy, Stupid, Love, which we watched at eight. Monica, the pnm, asked what the next step in joining AGD is! I was so excited. Hopefully she keeps this enthusiasm through Sunday!

Then yesterday. Well, I woke up late and called the bookstore to ask if it was okay that I didn't come in. Then I slept. I slept til about 11:30, missing my first class. It didn't really matter to me though, I texted Beka and she said all he did was go over chapter 7, which I read. The rest of the day I spent doing homework. I cranked a lot of it out. Then I headed to campus around 3 to finish my homework, because our internet was down. Then I went to my enterprise class/meeting. It lasted a half hour. Then I went with Beka to pick up pnms for our rush yesterday. No one came, which was real depressing, but okay because I had time to eat dinner and relax. So it wasn't a bad day overall. 

So that's been my catch-up... stay tuned for more haha.

So Busy

So it's been more than a week since my last post, but less than two weeks, so I'm still on track. Thursday was normal with classes, then at 5 I volunteered through the STC chapter to work the registration table for the CPSTC conference, which is a conference held at MTU this year for professionals in the STC field. It was pretty fun, actually. I worked with one of the members who I went to Chicago with. Then I went home and made myself some dinner, and at 7 Alpha Gamma Delta hosted a movie night with two fraternities and a sorority (who couldn't make it). We watched UP. It was a pretty good movie, really sad when you thought about it though. Then I went to bed before they started the second movie.

Friday was normal, work, classes, free time. I actually went around campus with Beka and Kaitlyn to hand out invitations to our Preference party held on Saturday. It was pretty fun. We had to go back to several of the dorms several times because the girls weren't there in their rooms. We also drove out to Atlantic Mine, which is about twenty minutes outside Houghton. After that I made food and went to bed. I was so tired!

Saturday I helped set up for the party, and then headed to work. IT was crazy busy, and to make matters worse one of the girls I was supposed to work with called in sick, so Beckie came in and worked. But she wasn't allowed to work for me (not that I'd want her to). Right after work I headed up to the football field and tailgated with my sisters and advisor. It was pretty fun, I ate chili that was really good. Then I watched the game until halftime when I got a ride home with Bethany. They were losing anyway. That night I had traded safe drive with Beka (where we are the sister on call in case someone needs a ride home from a party), so I got to use her car. I dropped people off at a party in Hancock, and then stopped by Walmart to buy some foods that mom suggested for me. I also bought fleece. I spent the rest of the time eating healthy snacks and making my blanket. It was worth it, because it's super soft and it covers my feet!!

Sunday I had a meeting at three for Alph Gams, and then a meeting at 5:45 for Panhel and Alph Gams. We did the bid-matching and then I went back to the house for a chapter dinner. Monday I skipped classes and called in sick to work, because I was just exhausted and couldn't sleep at night for whatever reason. Then I headed to campus to officially drop my Spanish class to help free up some time to sleep. Then meeting was at 5 because bid night was at 6, which was where we (my sisters because I already knew from the meeting) found out who our new members were. Then we took them back to the house and celebrated.

Tuesday my first class was cancelled due to Career Fair, but I still went because my group met up (for our group project). It was kind of pointless. Then I went to my second class, which had almost no one there since it was Career Fair day. Then I headed to the library to do some homework. After that I headed to an informational meeting for LaFarge, one of the companies here for Career Fair. It was for my group project. Then I headed home and rested all night. Yesterday I went to work and class, and then instead of going to Spanish, I walked around campus taking photos of the fall colors. It was a lot of fun, and I got to use my camera some more! Then I went to my last class. From there I went home and napped. Then I ate when I woke up and showered, did some homework and emails. Then I got ready for our pinning ceremony, which is where the new members of AGD officially become new members. It was a lot of fun, I'm now a grandma! Taylor had a kid, Sophia, which was really exciting. I mentioned that to Michelle and she said she felt so old but proud.

I'll talk about today next post.