I should be doing my math homework or writing my biology notes right now those can wait. "Everyone and their dog," (credits to Allie Winter for the quote) has a blog, so I figured I should just resurrect this one after creating it in high school but never ever posting on it, go Caitie. And I have had this post sitting in my drafts for like a week and a half because I am super busy and keep starting but never finishing the post, go Caitie again. This is going to be a long post, like a really, really long post, so just brace yourself or close out of the window and run away while you can. I promise my posts won't usually ever be this long, but I have like an entire month of my life to tell you about. And it's way exciting. Not really but whatever. Here we go. Okay, so obviously I'm Caitie and I am a freshman pre-nursing student at Utah State University and I absolutely LOVE Utah State and everything about it. My family left me here August 22nd 2015 with three other girls that I had never met in my life but hey whatever (our other two roomies were moving up a couple of days later). After my family left, Abbey, Ashly, Allie, and I (I think I should change to an 'A' name too just saying) went to a place in Logan called Fizz & Fries that makes really yummy sodas and brownies and fries and waffles and we have been there like once a week ever since then because it's freaking amazing. PSA: my bed at USU is like the comfiest thing ever so it actually wasn't that bad of a transition.
Here's some pictures so this doesn't turn into a huge essay post.
Abbey, Allie, Ashly, and I at our Snow Hall fire pit on the second night. We tried to roast marshmallows but the fire pit was too hot and we didn't have any roasting sticks. So it basically resulted in all the talented musical kids singing to us and strumming their guitars but "not even mad though," (Ashly Mills quote everyone).
Laura, Abbey, and I on our "first day" of school/Freshman Connections. We hadn't figured out the Aggie Shuttle yet so we seriously walked everywhere the first few weeks of school. Because Snow Hall is the north-most point of campus, my FitBit step count was so high that I had to up my daily step goal to 12,000 steps (and still beat it every day) so we should for sure be friends on FitBit too. And you should also follow me on Twitter (@caitiedun) because #abbeywords is probably the greatest hashtag stream you will ever read, credits to Abbey Spencer for all those.
On the night before school "officially" started, Ashly and I decided to drive up through Logan Canyon and after we had been going and going and going, we randomly pulled into this sketchy pull out spot and took a picture really fast before jumping back into my car, just to prove we were adventurous even though I was scared to death that a mountain lion was watching us. Don't worry, we made it out alive.
During Week of Welcome at USU, they were having a "Blood Battle" against all of the other colleges in Utah to see who could donate the most blood in a week. Honestly, I mostly did it because I really want to know my blood type and because none of my roomies would do it with me, I made Edwin do it. The only way that I convinced Edwin to donate blood was to buy him Costa Vida afterwords and the whole time he was squirming and squealing around in his chair like calm down, it's just blood boy. But don't worry, he did get a Costa meal afterwords, and saved some lives too so that's a plus.
First USU home game against SUU (end score: 12-9, go Aggies)
Snow #208 loves Chuckie Keeton- especially Abbey.
Over Labor Day weekend, Ashly had a condo up at Bear Lake so she, Abbey, and I and a bunch of Ashly's friends went up there and despite the fact that it was freezing the entire time, we did get raspberry shakes from Zipz so I've officially been to Bear Lake now. I did take other pictures on my real camera from our Bear Lake trip but I feel like this one really captures the whole trip in a photo (jk, I'm just not in the other ones because I was taking them (sounds like my mom)).
If a year ago you had told me that I would be in a sorority in college, I would have thought you were kidding. But guess what? You would've been right. I'm in a sorority now. And I love it. Honestly, up until Rush Week, I had based my ideas of a sorority life completely off of movies like Legally Blonde and Sydney White. Which made the idea of me rushing sound completely insane; I know. There are only three sororities here at Utah State University; Kappa Delta, Alpha Chi Omega, and Theta Nu Xi (not housed, but still counts). Luckily, Rush Week isn't as insane as it is on college campuses in the South because I think that I would have had an anxiety attack there. On Monday of Rush, there was an open house where we registered for the week and drank pink lemonade out of cute little tea cups. I had to go all by myself because none of my roomies wanted to rush too, so that was really freaky because I had to be brave and alone. On Tuesday we had House Tours of both Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Delta. Kappa Delta was the first house that I went into and I instantly fell in love with it. Maybe it was The Beatles music playing in the background, or the bright yellow sunflowers on the living room coffee table, but I think it was the fact that the whole house was filled with love. It wrapped me right up and I just knew that I wanted to be a KD. The Alpha Chi Omega house was way cool too, don't get me wrong but I couldn't stop thinking about KD. Wednesday night was Philanthropy Night and the Philanthropy of KD works with the Girl Scouts. Girl Scout cookies? Heck yeah, count me in! Then on Thursday night it was invite-only Pref Night and so I had to stress out all day until 2pm when the invites were emailed out. GOT ONE!! Woo, blessed. So for Pref Night, it was our last time to go through the houses and talk to the sisters before making a final decision on what sorority we wanted to pref for. I got a bid for both KD and Alpha Chi Omega so I had to choose between both of them which was really hard because I absolutely hate making decisions. Then when we all went back to the Ballroom to write out our prefs, my heart was beating like a million miles a minute because this was a really big decision that would affect me for the rest of my life. The next day, all of the PNMs met out on the lawn and circled up. We were told to put our hands behind our backs and then were each handed an envelope that had our bids in them. On the count of three we all ripped our envelopes open and there was a huge roar of screaming girls (I am sure that all of the people walking by were terrified of what was going on/got some great Snapchat footage). I'M KAPPA DELTA and I am so stoked because my Rush Week buddy, Jackie Dean is too!
We got really cute baseball shirts and hats and the whole theme of KD Bid Day was America so yeah of course, I was really, really, really excited. We went back to the KD house and had a BBQ and dance party then played games and lit sparklers out on The Quad that night. I am so excited for this new part of my adventure and mostly excited that I have 123 new sisters that get to be a part of it!
ΚΔ Pledge Class of Fall 2015
The Saturday after Bid Day, Hannah Jane had a home swim meet and so I rolled out of my bed early Saturday morning in Logan and got in my car to drive home to Jackson Hole and surprise my family for the 10am swim meet. Luckily, I had Grace there to escort me and film me walking into the pool where my mom yelled, "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!" and then hugged me so tight I stopped breathing (stalk my Facebook for the video proof). Then Hannah Jane and my dad ran over to hug me and then Max and my Grandma Charlotte walked in and Max's facial reaction was definitely the best. And my family and I went out to lunch at Merry Piglets where I got to eat like a FULL meal which was really weird because I haven't eaten a meal like that since my family dropped me off at USU, I think my stomach shrank. It was so good to be home even though it was only for less than twenty-four hours because I had to make it back to USU on Sunday for KD.
Allie's mom got Allie, Ashly, and I tickets to go and see the General Women's Meeting in Salt Lake on Saturday which was a super cool experience. I am so grateful for the gospel and the influence that it has in my life and the way that it has helped lead and guide me through both tough times and really good times in my life. I loved President Uchtdorf's talk about Great Aunt Rose (read it right here) and the painting of the little girl happily skipping along on the path of life. I think that sometimes we just get so overwhelmed with check lists and due dates and all the things that we need to get done that sometimes we forget that that is not what life is all about.
After the conference, we decided that we didn't want to drive all the way back to Logan so we went to Ashly's house in Pleasant Grove and stayed there for the night. PSA: the Grasshopper milkshakes at JCW's are so, so, so amazing. It's like worth the drive to get one. And we were not planning on staying overnight so we had to hit up the clearance rack at some random Walmart resulting in really cute matching shirts and some way comfy sweatpants.
So for now, that's pretty much everything I have to tell you. I'll just be on the third floor of the library for the rest of my life if you ever need me or like want to bring me food because that would be cool too.
Have fun out there & don't forget to be awesome.
Love, Caitie
