A Day In Hailley's Life

Hello readers!

This post is somewhat out of the blue, but I just had to share today with you. I guess I'm feeling a little nostalgic for Coe, in the sense that I would have hundred of days just like this one in the future. Unfortunately, I won't since graduation is quickly approaching.

But I digress.

Wild About...

This past week was excellent/awesome/amazing in every aspect. Classes went well and I lucked out with a great schedule. With my bookshelf full of new books and folders with fresh syllabi, I've got much to look forward to.

My Friday afternoon ended after working in Admissions with a visit from Millie. We drank hot chocolate (it was pretty chilly in Cedar Rapids) and talked about our week.

All warm and cozy in our sweaters

Saturday was also an excellent day. After working out and doing a bit of homework, Millie and I went on a thrifting adventure. We were in search of a side table/stool/bench of sorts for my room, but we didn't find anything that particularly caught our eye. Instead, we found some other neat stuff including a great book about muffins.

Yes. Muffins.

Let me explain. An inside joke Millie and I have centers around muffins and our love for them. So to find this, let's say, "classic," book all about muffins was like hitting the jackpot. 

We are indeed "wild" about muffins

With this book in our possession, the only sensible thing to do was make muffins. Our choice was a mocha almond muffin, which didn't turn out too bad.

Millie and our muffins

We have much to learn about the art of making muffins; lucky for us there are lots of recipes in the book. Our plan (which is subject to change) is to attempt a new muffin recipe each week. It will be our chance to destress and work on our cooking skills. Needless to say, we are "wild" about this new adventure. And of course, this blog will be updated with our muffin escapades.

On top of muffins, we made some cookies (just to double check our oven is fully functioning) and then did some homework. By this point, our friend Chloe had also joined our adventure. And luck has it, the three of us are in the same English seminar class. The topic of this class is Manners and Marriage and our first book is Jane Austen's Emma. And what better way to think about the book but watch a cultural adaptation...aka Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd? 

Essentially, we ended our night perfectly. 

Today was filled with homework. Since we have no class tomorrow for Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, my schedule looks pretty light. If this is what week one looked like, I cannot wait for the other 13 weeks of this final semester.

Last First Day of My Undergraduate Career

I'm back on campus! I arrived last night and boy, was it good to be back. I spent Sunday night catching up with my friends and being reunited with Millie (woot!). It was so good to see her and we had lots of stories to share.

Today, I woke up bright and early, ready to conquer the day. Not only did I run a variety of errands, worked in Admissions, and attended class, I also caught up with several professors and friends. Luckily, my Mondays are not nearly as busy this semester as they were last semester (I have some time to breathe and relax instead of go! go! go! ).

As I walked about campus today, while it was hard to believe I am starting my last semester, I also had the overwhelming happy feeling of belonging and being at home. This great mood was probably enhanced by the atypical January Midwestern weather (thanks Polar Vortex?!). I don't think I'm going to say anymore on this, because I feel that whatever I say will sound like a giant cliche. But trust me, it was a feeling people yearn for.

A day like this can only be a good omen for an absolutely amazing semester. Cross your fingers for me!

This blogger just can't stop!

This probably goes without saying, but I like to stay busy. Even if I'm on break. While I've been up to all sorts of things the past three weeks (from caroling and rock climbing with the Boy Scout troop my dad is a Scoutmaster for, to seeing family and friends, to exploring the new central branch of the Madison Public Library), I've also been blogging.

Well, yeah, duh, this blog, right? 

Okay, you're partially right. This blog (I've written some pretty neat posts recently if I do say so myself) along with two others.

What? Two other blogs? Are you crazy?

Not crazy, just...a girl who...who can't stop blogging! These other two blogs are Coe affiliated. As someone who knows her way around Blogger and Wordpress (another blog platform) when I've involved in a group with a blog, I'm sort of the de facto head blogger. And that's fine by me.

The first blog I worked on over break was our Writing Center Blog (yeah, go check it out). This has been a tricky blog, mainly because the audience is so wide. In an ideal world, this blog should appeal to current consultants, past consultants, potential future consultants, and anyone else that somehow ends up on our site. There has been many brainstorming sessions and a super helpful session at the writing center conference in Tampa, led by the Berkeley Preparatory Writing Center and one of their alums, Talie Tebbi. After that session, I got to speak with Talie one-on-one and she helped brainstorm ways to improve our blog. I was so thankful for her helping us and I think that this break gave me just enough time to come up with a blog plan for 2014! I finally figured out the blog is a sneak peak into the Coe College Writing Center culture, and when you think about it that way, lots of potential blog posts come to mind and you also reach the audiences you are interested in reaching.

On top of that, you should check out the Writing Center blog because fellow Wisconsinite, Brittney, is currently live-blogging her experience from Tybee Island. Dr. Bob has a tradition of taking a group of students to Tybee Island (in Georgia, right near Savannah) for an intensive, week-long staff development class (aka the semester long Topics in Composition adapted for beautiful Georgia weather and condensed into a week). All consultants I've talked to who had done the class have said it's some of their fondest Writing Center memories.

The second blog I've been managing is a bit more complicated just because we are trying to figure out the most efficient layout. It's for the Coe Review and has become more of a blog/website/archive of past issues. We finally got our newest poetry issue online and also a pretty neat photo gallery of pictures taken at our publication release at the end of the semester (a shout-out to my dear friend, Haley, for her rad photography skills). I think I'm finally ready to move from this past poetry issue into planning for our upcoming fiction issue!

I feel like I need to blame someone for this blogging obsession, but it doesn't really feel like work for me. It allows me to write (which I love) and on a platform where lots of people can see it. I'm proud of all three blogs and have high hopes for them in 2014.