Story time:

A few weeks ago, my roommate Ella and I were up late studying as usual, when I decided it was high time for meal number four. I stuck a bag of popcorn in the microwave and waited for a three second Legally Blonde in Downtown Greenvillepause between pops, then, after pulling out the bag, I ripped open with an Emeril-like “Bam,” expecting buttery perfection as usual. Much to my dismay, however, I found a smoking black clump of burnt kernels on top of my otherwise golden-delicious popcorn. So, with the intent of avoiding setting off the fire alarm, I ran out into the hall, waving the smoking bag in the air like a one of those mini 4^th of July flags. Alas, my attempt was futile, and a FUPO (Furman police) officer was in my room in a matter of minutes, shortly followed by the Duncan Chapel Fire Department (which I must commend for their speedy reaction time).

Lucky for me, the only punishment I’ve received is an official FUPO warning, along with several unnecessary snide comments from my peers concerning my cooking abilities. Unlike the fire alarm that went off at 4 AM the morning before the start of our first semester exams, our alarm only sounded in our room, so the only people we woke up were our neighbors across the hall.

A couple weekends ago, I went hiking up to Table Rock with my good friends Katie, Alexander, and Johnny. Katie, who’s an admissions ambassador, had to give a tour that morning, so we didn’t embark The One Mile Markon our journey until around 2 in the afternoon. By the time we got there, it was already 3:30, and the lady handing out the trail maps told us that the trail had closed at 1 to keep hikers from getting lost in the darkness. Well, we had driven an hour to make it all the way out there and we were not about to take the easy way out on one of those wimpy short trails, so we walked around the register without signing our names and took off practically running up the 3.25 mile, seemingly vertical climb. Katie led the way. I quickly found out that Katie has an incredible endurance for a former pageant girl half my size, and I almost stopped after the first half mile as a “safety precaution in case someone got lost or injured” (in other words, I was already past exhaustion and wanted to bail out).

Anyway, after a long couple hours, a few glorious water breaks, and several Embracing Deathfalse comments from hikers headed in the other direction that we were “almost there” (YEAH RIGHT), we finally reached the top. Now, I had been here before with the outdoors club, but the second time around didn’t make the view any less magnificent. It was beautiful, and I immediately wished I’d thought to bring a tent so that I could camp there forever. We ate the picnic we had packed and then hurried to make it down the mountain before the sun set. It wasn’t until we were back at Furman watching The Little Mermaid in Katie’s room that it grew dark outside (HA, grumpy trail-guide lady).

Katelyn, one of my other Furman best friends, is really involved with Habitat for Humanity. Specifically, she’s in charge of helping the lady receiving the new home to transition into a more stable life and to feel comfortable with the program itself. A couple weeks ago I went with her to help build. Although a lot of the people there were Furman students, there were also several community members, one of which who showed me how to put siding on the exterior walls. All in all, it was a really great experience, and I’m disappointed that I didn’t get involved earlier.