The most blog-worthy post I'll ever have.

I am currently living in temporary housing until I'm allowed to move back to Hessler. Not cool, but it has had its perks. I met awesome people, got to training in 2 seconds because I literally live next door, and got a nice view. The bad thing? THE BATHROOM. It's not clean. I've seen worse, but Hessler's communal bathroom is much more sanitary. This is locker room style: 4 stalls, followed by 3 showers. No changing room or anything. It's all in the open. Oh, did I mention it's co-ed? Now, I do not have a problem with gender neutral bathrooms. We have them in Hessler (with the exception of showers). But I don't know these people. They seem kind of obnoxious, actually.

Anyway, tonight, I go into the bathroom with all my stuff. I put my shampoo and everything in the shower and my towels on the chair right next to it. I decide I should pee because I think it's more hygienic to use the bathroom prior to showering. So after putting all my stuff down, like I said, I go into the stall. I hear someone come in the bathroom and start a shower. Earlier, my roommate told me how she had to awkwardly take a shower while a guy was too, and they came out at the same time. I was afraid this was going to happen to me.

It did not happen. Nope, not at all. I couldn't shower. Want to know why? HE TOOK MY SHOWER. My stuff was there! In the 30 seconds I went to pee from 2 feet away, someone took my shower! So I thought maybe he just thinks I left my stuff there, but that does not explain why my towels are there. Did he think I traveled naked to my room and he just missed it?! And even if I changed after my shower, it does not explain why the bottles are not wet. What if I was in the shower? Would he think I just forgot to turn the water off?

If I wanted to shower, but saw someone's bottles sitting there, even if there was a possibility that they left them there, I would wait to make sure they forgot them or just use another shower. But honestly...who does that?!

"Well I, I just wanna see the light. And I, I don't wanna lose my sight..."

Today in my POST (Peer Outreach Support Team) we did an exercise for self-awareness and illustration of maturation throughout college. At the end of my timeline, I ended with being denied from grad school. But then I announced that I have to end on a positive because that's just who I am. So I finished with "I still have hope."

Then at our break, Stacey came up to me and showed me a little medallion thing of hers. It's an angel and on the back it says "Never lose hope." She said she carries it with her. I briefly talked with her about it and how cool I thought it was. Then she said "How about you hold on to it for a bit? Then you can just give it back to me when you don't need it anymore. And if I never get it back, I know you needed it."

I think it is one of the sweetest things anyone has done for me. It helped so much. Thank you, Stacey Sparks.

Lessons from today

Lesson #1: Jelly DOES need fruit pectin.

The recipe called for it, but did we need it? Apparently so. Apple did not work. Maybe we need more? The jelly tastes good, but not like jelly. I think we should put it in the freezer for homemade fruit chillers!

Lesson #2: Pasta sauce does NOT double as pizza sauce, even if it has pizza seasonings in it.

Colleen even tried to thicken it. It did not work. It tasted like Italian sop on bread. UGH. The consistency did not match the really bready, not crispy, crust. Maybe measuring the yeast correctly too...

Lesson #3: Mozzarella cheese is not the correct cheese for pizza.

Next time, we will use pizza cheese. I think that is a combination of cheeses to give us the perfect blend of flavors.