So remember how I was saying how boring my life has been? Well I must apologize for that because I lied. I lied big time. Maybe not, it was boring up until today but today definitely took a turn back towards my usual chaos. Story time:

I awoke this morning as usual: regretting ever deciding to do anything but live in my parents basement, eat potato chips, and sleep. But Educational Media for Educators was calling my name so I dragged my  butt out of bed and got ready. Following my usual routine I dressed, brushed my teeth, cooed "good morning" to Dobby (my double tailed, green betta), grabbed my backpack, went into the kitchen, reminded myself for the fourth time this week that I have got to get granola bars, cooed "morning buddy" to Draco (the kitchen fish - yes, I'm a crazy fish lady) and left the apartment.
 I was just thinking to myself that I could take my sweet time getting to class when I noticed a lump on the sidewalk. With piqued curiosity I advanced towards the lump to discover a baby squirrel. The poor thing was covered in fire ants and making the most pitiful noises I have ever heard. Without thinking I scooped it up and attempted to clear all the fire ants off - while sustaining quite a few bites. Shivering, the little fur ball started trying to bury itself into my shirt. Once I overcame how stinking cute it was and how sad the situation was I began to panic. I had to go to class but was standing with a baby squirrel in hand! Grabbing my cell I dialed my pre-vet friend who advised me to leave the squirrel alone because if the mom came back and smelled my scent then she might not take the baby back (whoops!) but that if it was still there a few hours later then I should do something about it. Not knowing what else to do, I tucked the baby into some leaves at the base of a nearby tree and set off for class. All morning I was a nervy spaz. First the realization hit me that I had just handled a wild animal - what if it had a disease?? Like rabies?? And you know how whenever you have something on your fingers suddenly everything starts to itch? Well I had that, especially on my face, but was trying so so hard not to touch anything with my squirrel fingers. When I finally made it to Haley I immediately dashed into the bathroom to sanitize. For my entire three hour class my stomach was in knots - what if it died while I was gone? What if a dog ate it? Or a hawk? For the first time ever my class went the full three hours but as soon as the teacher dismissed us I was out of my seat like a rocket. I power walked all the way back to where I had left the baby squirrel, praying that it's mommy had come back for it or at least that it wasn't dead.
Sure enough, there it was, still curled up under the tree. Scooping it's little form into my hands I did a really attractive backpack jog back to the apartment.
By now I have become pretty attached to this furry little creature and obviously have named it, so going forward it will be referred to as Squirrel Face.
During class I read online that you have to keep orphaned squirrels warm so at first I was so red-headed from my power walk/jog my own body heat sufficed for keeping both of us pretty toasty. But then I heated up some water to and put it in a Ziplock bag, covered it with a t shirt and snuggled little Squirrel Face into a mixing bowl nest. Following directions off of a website I found I mixed some salt and sugar with water to make a rehydration fluid, but Squirrel Face would have none of that. She's kind of a diva. Meanwhile my roommate came through the door - "Surprise! I have a squirrel!" I think just tried to ignore my frenzy.
From there I called my boss to tell her I'd be late to work, my mother, and then Animal Control. Luckily, Animal Control advised me to take my little guy to the Auburn Raptor Center - apparently they're big on rehabilitating all animals. I grabbed Squirrel Face and tucked her cautiously into the passenger seat. Never ever have I been so aware that my car vibrates so violently, also never in my life have I driven so carefully.
We both made it to the Raptor Center in one piece and I handed her over to my new best friend Mary Ann who promised that she would give my Squirrel Face a flea bath and get her restored to full health.

And that's the story of Squirrel Face - I quite miss that fuzzy stinker, even though she gave me quite the heart attack this morning. My mom says that someday I'll be reading a book out on the back porch and out of nowhere a squirrel will drop into my lap and cozy up to me. It'll be Squirrel Face coming home. One can only dream.

sleepy little squirrel in her t-shirt nest

isn't she the cutest?

miss my Squirrel Face

Sometimes I think that if anyone read this blog they would probably fall asleep midway through the first post and would never reawaken from their boredom coma. I swear to you that most of the time I lead a fairly entertaining existence, most of the instances just don't really translate to what normal people consider amusing and/or normal. For instance, my insistence on wearing my sunglasses while making lunch yesterday or standing on the couch and making dinosaur noises at my roommates. Caitlin brain has a good laugh while my roommates probably are thinking about how soon they can take my name off the lease. It happens. I know deep deep deep down they secretly find me hilarious... hopefully. 

Nothing terribly new here in Auu-burn, except for the occasional monsoon - thank you, now tropical storm, Isaac. The sweet little storm, he's so good about bringing on the downpour at really convenient times. Like, for instance, when you're trying to make it completely across campus and get to chapter on time. Plus you get the added bonus of power walking with the Hunchback of Notre Dome look (cue raincoat over very packed backpack) that's always attractive. Nothing quite says, "Get at me boys"quite like the Donatello look while you're huffing it across campus. And yes, I did just make both a Disney and Ninja Turtles reference. Whaddup. 

Since things are kind of slow I thought I'd entertain the masses (masses, yeah right) with some amusing pictures that I came across while trying to make some room on my hard drive. 

Sometimes it's really difficult being this good looking.
Christmas Cocktail freshman year -
 jiggly faces is possibly the greatest pastime for those
incredibly long pre-event picture parties 

This is me and my big.
I nominate her for every single sorority pageant and she rolls her eyes at me a lot.
Obviously it's love.  

The sign said "Please respect the history, do not touch"

Shenanigans. 

This is me and my little.
I lied all during big/little week.
When she saw me she started crying (tears of joy).
It was the best moment of my life 

What a whirlwind! The past week and a half have passed like a blur. The start of school has hit me like a freight train. Did you know that being junior means no more syllabus day? Well it was news to me. Syllabus day, also known as the best day of the school year, is the first day of class when the teacher reads the syllabus aloud then lets us go early. It's like class minus the learning. But apparently when you hit your third year of college teachers skip the fun part and go straight to assigning homework... whomp whomp. But, I'll get out of the waaaambulence and quit belly-aching because it's really not that bad. For the most part classes are interesting, even if I don't love the subject material. On a scale from can't wait to get there to constantly checking the clock my days go as follows:

British Literature 1 - absolute fave. I took the professor last semester for Renaissance English Literature and pretty much want to be her when I grow up. Plus the reading material is really engaging (even though I leave with the twitches every day from London withdrawal)
Studies in Poetry - my professor kind of looks like a bobble head, in an adorable way. Thus far we've been reading really different poetry which is kind of nice.
Utilization of Technology for Teachers - not the greatest class I've ever taken but we play with iPads all day. Also learned that kindergarten style crafting is not my strong suit in this class. I always thought I was a little crafty but our mini book project today would say otherwise. Hello disaster zone.
Language Studies for Teachers - kind of a snooze, but only fifty minutes long so sometimes it flies... and sometimes it doesn't. We've been going old school all over grammar, taking it back to second grade with classifying nouns and verbs.
Topics in Writing: Writing Center Theory & Practice - welcome to the time warp. Seconds turn into hours. I think I'm going to get whiplash from checking my watch so often. I took the class thinking that it's a writing class and I like to write, plus it might be nice to learn how to work one on one with students. Is that what we're doing? Of course not. Instead we've had to write about our first experience with literature then analyze it. As in analyze our personalities based on some story about reading one time then discuss with the class. Wildly. Uncomfortable. Personally, I'm not huge on sharing feelings or personal reflection but I really want to clam up when I have to share feelings or personal reflection with a room full of strangers. Here goes my mission to convince my teachers that I'm actually a mute.

There's a little recap of my classes. Outside of academia, life is going well. College of Ed. is getting ramped up for our big Scholarship Ceremony on Saturday so there's been a flurry of activity in the Office of Development. Exciting stuff all around.

Hello little blog! I know it looks like I've forgotten you, but I swear I haven't. The past two weeks have been such a whirlwind that I just haven't had the time (or the internet connection) to sit down and write. I'll hit the rewind button [insert the whirr of a tape here] and go back to two weeks ago when my mom and I hopped in the car for a little road trip. This year my grandparents celebrated their 60th anniversary - d'awwww - so per their request, five rooms were rented out at the Anna Maria Island Resort for a little fam jam togetherness. By a great stroke of luck, all the cousins were able to make it at some point during the weekend. Which, with all of us spread out along the southeast and two with military obligations, is no small feat. Poor Anna Maria Island was soon overrun by the crazy Butler clan but a good time was had by all. Plus with hundred degree weather, an afternoon by the pool was exactly what my ghastly pale self needed to get back to a shade that won't blind people. 

Unfortunately, my family love fest did not last for long. Saturday morning I awoke at the crack of dawn to head back to Atlanta. My little white Honda and sorority Recruitment lay at the other end of my flight. Once I located my car (my dad and brother had left her at Hartsfield the day before) I cranked the engine and jumped on to 85 South - Auburn bound. Rolling in around noon, I made it just in time to hear earsplitting screams of What Makes You Beautiful crashing out from the Alpha Chi Omega chapter room. Oh Rush. Thus began one of the most unpleasant weeks of the year. It always amuses me that Rush  and Shark Week overlap - the worst and best week of the whole year. Now, let me explain my reasoning behind believing Rush to be the pits. Imagine forcing around two hundred girls into one room for hours on end - entire days even. Throw in having to be completely made up, screaming pop songs as loud as humanly possible, and having the same conversation anywhere from four to seventeen times a day. Oh, and after those conversations having to decide whether a practically complete stranger would make a good addition to your sorority. For a week straight. Needless to say, this estrogen ocean tends to bring out the very worst in people. It quickly becomes a girl eat girl situation... kind of similar to Shark Week actually. But at the end of the stress inducing, sleep deprived week our hard efforts are rewarded with sixty new, Baby Pearls. And let me tell you, seeing those girls run, screaming up to our chapter room makes all the catty spats and lingering injuries disappear. Because those girls are so, so, so worth the work. 

In the midst of this srat (like frat, but with sorority) fest, myself and my three roommates began moving into our brand new apartment. eek! So for the past few days we've been in a frenzy of decorating. I could describe it but I think a picture would do better justice: 

** okay, never mind on the pictures. my computer is being kind of a butt monkey. I swear I'll post them as soon as I get a better internet connection!** 

My final piece of the hectic mess that is my life was the beginning of my job in the College of Ed.'s Office of Development. In between catching up on sleep and hastily nailing things into the wall I've been reporting to the Haley Center every day. We're currently gearing up for the big COE Scholarship Ceremony so there's much to be done! 

That about gets me caught up. Classes start tomorrow which, in my book, officially makes me a college junior. yikes! 

Where Has the Summer Gone? 

It seems like just yesterday I was standing on the couch making my best dinosaur noises at my family to try and pass the time away until my next big adventure came. Oh wait, that was yesterday. I do love being home, who can argue with free food and sleeping all day? And being around my fam jam, they're pretty entertaining sometimes too. But with t-minus four days until my return to Auburn, I must say that those four days can't pass fast enough. I'm not quite sure how the summer whisked past me so quickly but I can't say that I'm totally sad to see it go. Although I don't know how I'm going to handle life without having London to look forward to, I do have high expectations for junior year (gah, I'm a junior in college. What the what??).
Sometimes I like to think that I'm like a shark. Not that I have a lot of sharp teeth or have a week dedicated to me, but if sharks stop swimming then they die. Now, I will not die if I stop moving, obviously, but sitting around the house waiting to 1. get over a sickness 2. go back to school, drives me nuts. So the glean of a full schedule on the horizon gets me pretty stoked.
Since the nightmare cough has been reduced to a mild hack under the strict inhaler regimen, I have crawled out of my crafting cave and back into the real world. Catching up with friends from high school has been a blast, but it just reminds me of how excited I am to see my friends at school. I have not seen my Little since her surprise visit to the ATL in May (yeah, I have the best Little ever) and it doesn't matter where you are, you'll probably be able to hear us screaming when we're finally reunited on Saturday.

Also, can we talk about how nice it is to be in classes that A. seem like they will actually be useful B. you'll actually be good at C. you'll actually be interested in D. all of the above? I know that was a little bit of an ADD moment, but with taking about returning to school I started thinking about my classes and got really excited. I know it sounds nerdy but I am actually really pumped for my classes this semester since I am finally done with my core. Now that I'm in my major, I no longer look at my schedule with a pit in my stomach. Nothing is worse than walking into a class on the first day and having to acknowledge, "Well, shooting for a B here but really would be okay with just not failing." I know that seems kind of slacker of me but let's be real, everybody has their strengths and weaknesses. My weakness, for instance, lies in anything to do with numbers. Calculus? That's a joke. Economics? Please. Nineteenth-Century American Literature? Yes, ma'am!
Although, my lack of understanding in Economics might not entirely be my fault. For college Econ I had a brand new teacher who did not have a great comprehension of the English language and whose voice steadily increased in pitch during every sentence. Friends who took the class with me say that I do an excellent impression. When she wrote "giffen" on the board instead of "given" I kind of decided that my education in that class was going to be a wash anyway. But I'm sure Auburn anticipated students to come in with a fairly basic understanding of the subject from high school which I take full responsibility for not having. I mean, my three of my really close friends were in my high school Econ. class, what was I supposed to do? Pay attention? Yeah right. Like I was going to stop coloring in my princess coloring book or stop having Snack Pack Thursday to learn about supply and demand. Yes, Snack Pack Thursday was a real thing, every Thursday we brought in chocolate pudding and had a splendid time snacking and coloring. In my defense, my teacher did set a really bad precedent for goofing off. When I was diagnosed with mono that semester, he would make me yell "unclean!" every time I entered the room. Isn't public school education great?
This probably makes me sound like a horrible student, I really did do well in both my high school and college Economics classes. I just refuse to let school be totally boring.
Alrighty, I've jumped all over the place enough for one night. Hope it was entertaining nonetheless. With rush (sorority recruitment) and a week of living on my Big's couch on the horizon, I'm sure to have plenty of interesting stories in the next couple weeks so stay tuned.
Cheers!

The Worst Break Up - Ever 

Welcome to my new blog! I wanted to keep my last one purely travel related because, well, I'm sentimental like that. But here is the one that I'll use for everyday use since I got such a positive response from my London blogging. Anyway. Now on to the important stuff.

Have you ever had a really bad break up? Like not wanting to function in real life, can't do anything that doesn't remind you of that ex special someone, heart wrenching, want to curl up in a ball and look at pictures of the two of you together all day long? Well, right now London and I are going through one of those break ups. Something tells me that London probably hasn't even noticed that I'm gone except for the decrease in number of pedestrians almost getting hit by cars. But boy, have I noticed that I'm gone. After six weeks of studying abroad in that glorious country I am already making plans for how I'll work internationally so that I can permanently be overseas. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to be at home and I am quite excited about heading back to college but let's be real, London > Roswell/Auburn. No contest. It's taking every ounce of self control not to flip through my pictures over and over and over and over. And it really doesn't help that London's parting gift to me was a nice little case of bronchitis so everywhere I go I get to tote around a sweet inhaler. Please, men, I know that the hacking cough and interval hits on the inhaler are attractively overwhelming, but try to keep your hands to yourself.
To add insult to injury, tonight was the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Games. And where are they being held this year? London, of course. I thought my poor little heart was going to explode when the camera panned over all the places that I've been the past six weeks. That actually might have been the steroid I've been taking that made my heart feel like that, but I'm going to stick with it being the excitement/pride/longing evoked by viewing London's major landmarks.
Despite my heartbreak, the ceremonies were about the coolest thing I have ever seen. It makes me happy to be human when I see all the nations coming together like that. Alright, that's enough emotional chatter for one night. Here's some pictures of the Olympic stadium:

Stadium and viewing platform

Track field 

Full on Olympic Stadium 

Thanks for keeping up with me and my writing! Hopefully I'll have more readers than just my mother but if that's the case well then, hey mom.
Cheers and goodnight!