Sorority houses are illegal in Tennessee because they would be considered a brothel.

I took a vacation to Memphis, Tennessee with my best friend for spring break. We originally wanted to go to the beach, but for some reason we decided to go to school in Missouri and the nearest beach is over 12 hours away, and that was too far and expensive for everyone. We went through our options for other vacation destinations, and there are a surprisingly limited amount of places to go here in the midwest. My best friend is a huge Elvis fan, so we decided Memphis!

On the car ride there, my friend was reading her Twitter and saw that the PostSecret Live Tour was going to be at the University of Memphis that evening, so we decided we'd go. We got to the University of Memphis (which is a really pretty campus), and had no idea where the presentation was, so we walked into some building and asked the students sitting at the information desk.

At first they had no idea what we were talking about, but then it clicked and they gave us directions to the Rose Theater. We also asked where their Greek town was, and they didn't know what we were talking about then, either. The University of Memphis should really reevaluate who they are hiring to sit at their information desks. But it registered for one guy, and he was like, "Oh you mean fraternities? They're all on that street over there," and he said something about the sororities being in some residential hall on campus somewhere. Then the girl at the desk asks him if he knew why they didn't have sorority houses. He didn't know, so she tells us that they're illegal in the state because it's considered a brothel if more than 9 women live together.

But further investigation into the issue reveals it might be just a rumor. In the words of wikipedia, under the 'Dumb Laws' page:

The law that claims that "sorority houses are illegal since more than a certain number of single females living together constitutes a brothel" has been debunked as fake.

The girl at the desk seemed pretty sure of herself when she said it. We also asked her if there was anything to do around here, since we had no plans after the Post Secret presentation was over, and she tells us, "Frat boys."

The PostSecret Live Tour was pretty awesome, and afterwards Frank Warren, the founder of Post Secret signed books. For the rest of the vacation, my friend and I toured Graceland, laid out by the pool and slept a lot.

I don't get enough sleep.

I came to this realization when I was falling asleep at work while drinking a Red Bull after finishing my coffee just two hours before. I think it's probably a bad sign when I need coffee and an energy drink to stay awake... and still find myself falling asleep. Then I did research to make sure that I'm scientifically not getting enough sleep, rather than just feeling lazy and wanting to sleep instead of working/studying/going to class.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, there isn't a 'magic number' for how much sleep you should get.

Not only do different age groups need different amounts of sleep, but sleep needs are also individual. Just like any other characteristics you are born with, the amount of sleep you need to function best may be different for you than for someone who is of the same age and gender.

Another reason there is "no magic number" for your sleep results from two different factors that researchers are learning about: a person’s basal sleep need – the amount of sleep our bodies need on a regular basis for optimal performance – and sleep debt, the accumulated sleep that is lost to poor sleep habits, sickness, awakenings due to environmental factors or other causes. Two studies suggest that healthy adults have a basal sleep need of seven to eight hours every night, but where things get complicated is the interaction between the basal need and sleep debt. 

According to WebMD, teenagers need about 9 hours and adults need 7 or 8. And Mayo Clinic - which I've never heard of, but their website says, "We comply with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information" so I'm assuming it's legitimate - says adults need 7 to 9 hours. Both also talk about sleep debt.

My conclusion is that I should get around 8 hours of sleep each night, and anything less contributes to my sleep debt while anything more will add to it. It's like the bank of sleep.

Lucky for me, I have this awesome application on my phone that tracks my sleep. It's the only app I've ever paid for and it was totally worth it. Basically, it tracks your sleep cycle every night and tries to wake you up at the end of a sleep cycle so you feel more rested. You put your phone on your bed every night when you go to sleep, set the alarm, and the sensors in the phone track your movement. I don't know how accurately it tracks movement, though. I've put my phone on my nightstand before (a solid, non-moving surface) and it's produced a graph. I've also woken up in the middle of the night and moved around and the graph will clearly show that I was moving around. Anyway, the more you're moving around, the less deep of a sleep you are in. You can set the alarm to go off in a window of 30, 20 or 10 minutes, but no matter what it will go off by the time you set the alarm for. For example, if you set your alarm for 7:30 a.m. and it senses you moving around in your sleep at 7:07, it will wake you up (in which case you can snooze until 7:30).

Even if that data isn't the most accurate, it's still really cool. It offers much more peaceful alarm tones that fade in, so you're not just all of a sudden woken up by a "BEEP BEEP BEEP" every morning. It also records when you go to sleep and when you wake up, gives you the total time you slept, and collects that data and gives you an average sleep time.

I currently have 82 nights recorded, but rather than go through every single one of those, I'll just go through the last week.

This was over St. Patrick's day weekend, so I was in Chicago for a parade. We left Sunday afternoon (this is the night right before), so I actually got to sleep in (sort of) for the first time in forever. 

I got an extra 42 minutes over 8 hours, so my sleep bank is up 42 minutes!

Unfortunately, I had a test on Tuesday (which is the day after this), and since I spent the weekend away from school I stayed up late to study, and then had to get up for my 8 a.m. You might think 6 a.m. is super early to wake up for a class two hours after, but I have to catch the bus at 7:10, because the next one isn't until 7:40 and that's not enough time to get to class if there is traffic.

I'm down 3 hours and 30 minutes, so my sleep bank drops to negative 2 hours and 48 minutes.

This is the night right before my test, so I was up really late studying again. Unfortunately I have early classes every single day, so I had to be up for my 9 a.m.

I'm down 3 hours and 30 minutes this night as well, so my sleep bank is negative 6 hours and 18 minutes.

I was up late working on all the homework I had been putting off to study for my test, so I was up late yet again.

I'm only down 2 hours and 50 minutes, so my sleep bank is at negative 9 hours and 8 minutes. I'm down more than a full nights sleep... pretty unfortunate for me.

I went to a Breathe Carolina concert this night, so now I'm just making poor life decisions. It was really fun though, so I think it was worth it.

 I'm down 2 hours and 52 minutes, so my sleep bank falls to negative 12 hours.

This is where it gets really bad. I went to The Hunger Games midnight premiere, so I didn't get home until really late, and then had to wake up for my 8 a.m. The movie was SO good, though.

I'm down 5 hours and 1 minute, so my sleep bank plummets to negative 17 hours and 1 minute.

It's important to note, though, that the week before this looked about the same, so I didn't actually start the week with a 42 minute excess of sleep.

Good thing it's spring break next week. If I sleep through the entire week, maybe I'll have enough sleep in my sleep bank to carry me through the rest of this semester.

My future career depends on trivial things.

...like being able to talk.

I recently recovered from some sort of terrible illness. I'm not sure what it was and the doctors didn't know either. My current theory is that I just got a cold from that one time when I slept outside in the cold and rain, and then a series of poor life decisions and no sleep escalated the sickness to high levels of awful. But I WebMD'd it, and that said it could be throat cancer. So, who knows?

Anyway, it started out with just a sore throat in the middle of the week. I had been sneezing so I just brushed it off as the beginnings of a cold. Then I woke up on the weekend and I started to lose my voice. I went to bed early that night thinking a good nights rest would probably be the cure. No. I woke up the next day and I really couldn't talk at all. I went to Noodles for dinner with my friends and I had to whisper my order to the guy. He laughed at me.

This is where it started to get pretty bad, because I had to work a KOMU desk shift that night. My responsibilities include updating the website, Facebook and Twitter, checking emails, and answering the phone and making calls. That last part is a pretty big part of the job, and not being able to talk really inhibited my ability to do that. I had to give away my shift and instead spent the evening eating soup, drinking tea and trying to be quiet.

Then came the turning point when I decided I really needed to go to the doctor. I was working on a story for my journalism class, so I had to make phone calls and interview people for it. I'm frantically trying to call people to find a source and ask people important questions except I can't talk. Super annoying. I needed to be better right then. So I went to the doctor.

I told the doctor I was dying and he really didn't take me seriously. He asked me if I would make it through this visit. I said I hope so, and luckily I did. They did a bunch of tests and sent me off with a prescription for some steroids that would make my throat inflammation go down. He also said it would make my voice come back.

The medicine did make my throat hurt less, but I still really couldn't talk. The doctor also said they would call the next day when my test results came in, but they didn't. I called them back three days later to tell them I wasn't better, and the lady on the phone was looking at my test results and was like, "Umm, well it looks like all the tests came back negative... sooooo it might be a virus... so you can come back in and we can check you out again... or you can just wait a few days and see what happens..." My response was pretty much, "Awesome, thanks doctors. Let me just continue to be sick and dying and croak at the people I need to talk to."

By this time I had been sick for an entire week and I was beginning to think I was never going to get my voice back. This would be a huge problem because I kind of want to be a TV reporter, which requires talking on television for quite a few people to listen. I'd have to change my entire major. I'd have to find something else I'm interested in. That would really, really suck.

Thankfully, I slowly began to recover. It only took about three weeks for my voice to fully come back. I can keep my major and still be a TV reporter.

Cookie sheets double as lids.

When it comes to cooking, my general philosophy is if it takes longer than five minutes to make, it's just really not worth it. I'd be completely content just living off of frozen dinners for the rest of my life, since they take a maximum of six minutes to cook and they're pretty healthy. But they get kind of pricey when you buy a bunch of them and I'm on a fixed income when it comes to groceries.

So, I'm forced to actually cook real food some of the time. I just cycle through the same recipes; BBQ biscuits (recipe courtesy of my mother), pasta, breakfast tacos and Hamburger Helper. That's about it. As I have pointed out before, I lack a lot of things normal people keep in their houses. As you will soon find out, I will go to extreme lengths to avoid buying these things.

To make Hamburger Helper, you mix all the stuff together in a pot and boil it, and once it's boiling you turn down the heat and cover it. Only one of my pots, which actually belongs to my roommate, has a lid. The pot is too small to hold the Hamburger Helper, so I always use my frying pan, which is the perfect size. Every single time (about once a month) I make Hamburger Helper I'm faced with the challenge of finding something to cover the pan with. I've tried using bowls, but they're all too small. I've tried using two bowls, but that leaves gaps that let out a lot of heat. My trial-and-error method has paid off, because I've found the perfect solution.

Cookie sheets. They are large enough to cover the whole pan and don't leave open gaps for heat to escape. They do take up a little more space than necessary, but it saves me approximately $10 and a trip to the store, so it's worth it.

The best thing about Hamburger Helper is that it's supposed to be for families, so the leftovers last me three or four days and it only takes about three minutes to heat up!

Even the most boring classes are useful.

I had History of American Journalism today. It's basically like death in the form of an hour and 15 minute lecture. I usually use this time constructively to check twitter, facebook and my email. Constantly. I circulate through them pretty much all class. It's kind of a battery drainer. I do tune in occasionally, though, so I heard the professor say 'gold rush.'

One of my favorite songs ever by one of the best bands ever, is Good To Go by Eye Alaska. I love it so much I usually play it on repeat in my car until I get to my destination and it has 341 plays in iTunes. Part of the lyrics are, "and if this was the gold rush, I would be caught up in the moment."

Naturally the very first thing that popped into my mind when my professor said gold rush was this song. Also, that's all I really retained. I have no idea what he was actually talking about. Since it was the most exciting thing that happened all day, I tweeted about it.

My friend Megan retweeted:

Roy English is the singer in Eye Alaska. His real name is actually Brandon Wronski. Eye Alaska broke up and he started a solo project where he changed his name to Roy English and basically changed his whole image. Megan has a great blog about it! Anyway, this is where it gets awesome...

He tweeted back at us!

I've never had a celebrity tweet at me before! Good thing I went to class today and tuned in to the second best thing my professor has ever said. First best is when he announced today he would give us the test essay question in advance.

Props to Megan on her blog about him as well, she tweeted the link at him and he answered!

Breakfast tacos are a Texas thing.

I stumbled upon this fact while chatting with a friend from Missouri one day. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I'm so hungry. I want a honey butter chicken biscuit. (From Whataburger, which is definitely a Texas thing, and arguably the most delicious meal ever.)
Me (being more realistic now): No, actually I want a breakfast taco.
Friend: What's that?
Me (this is actually what my face looked like):

Then the next day I was chatting with a different friend, also from Missouri. That conversation went something like this:
Me: Did you know our friend doesn't know what a breakfast taco is?!
Friend: What's a breakfast taco?

Me (again):

This is about when I started to realize that either breakfast tacos are a Texas thing or just not a Missouri thing. So I went into journalist mode and verified my facts with a friend from Illinois. This conversation went something like this:

Me: So... do you know what a breakfast taco is?

Friend: Um, no?

Unless my very detailed and extensive research is incorrect, breakfast tacos are in fact a Texas thing. This is very unfortunate, because next to honey butter chicken biscuits, they are the best breakfast ever! They're also one of the few things I can actually make, and I will share the recipe so everyone can have the opportunity to enjoy the second best breakfast ever.

What you need:

• 1 Egg
• A little bit of milk (for scrambling the egg)
• Flour tortilla
• Shredded cheese
• Bacon (healthy option=turkey bacon), or ham, or sausage, or potato, or all four.

Step 1: Cook the bacon. (Or ham, or sausage, or potato.)

I cook four slices and put two in the breakfast taco and just eat the other two.

Step 2: While the bacon is cooking, scramble the egg. If you want more than one egg, you need to make another breakfast taco because only one egg will fit in the tortilla. Also, to make this step take one minute and 35 seconds, use the microwave (it works and the eggs are delicious).

Step 3: Put the scrambled egg and bacon (or ham, or sausage, or potato, or whatever) on the tortilla. Add some cheese.

Sorry about the missing piece of tortilla. I got hungry.

Step 4: Roll the tortilla!

Step 5: Eat and enjoy!

Camping is much more enjoyable with a tent.

The MU vs. kU basketball game is always a huge deal, but this year it was even bigger. Since we're moving the SEC, we'll no longer be in the same conference as kU and they won't play us anymore. So, this year was the last year in a long time that we'll play kU at home. On top of that, ESPN's College Gameday came out to cover our game.

People started lining up at Mizzou arena Wednesday night. The show didn't start until Saturday morning.

Disclaimer: This picture was actually taken Friday night, though most of these tents were up by Thursday morning

My friend and I arrived around 10 p.m. Friday night. We were nine hours early but still significantly far back in line. Our plan, which was decided way back in December, was to just wait around on the sidewalk until the show started. But then mother nature decided this would be a great time for a rainy weekend. Our new plan was now to just wait around on the sidewalk with umbrellas and ponchos. This worked out well for the first 15 minutes, but then we got tired and wanted to sit down. The ground was pretty wet, so we used our problem solving skills and set out a poncho to sit on.

This worked out great for the next 15 minutes until it started to rain again and the poncho got wet and the realization that we still had to wait around for eight hours sunk in. We put our problem solving skills to work again and decided the only way to survive was to go get a tent.

We got the people in line next to us to watch our spots and we loaded up into the car and drove to Walmart. It felt so great to be in a warm, dry environment. Once at Walmart, we headed back to the camping section and found the tents. Luckily for us, the cheapest one was an affordable $35. Except there were none on the shelf. The next cheapest tent was $70, which was way too expensive, so this $35 tent was really our only option. 

We asked the sales associate and she went into the back to look for the cheap tent. The two minutes she was in the back were excruciatingly suspenseful. If they didn't have one, we'd have to suffer in the rainy cold all night. Or drive to all the other Walmart's in town to find the tent.

It must have been our lucky day, because they had one! Several actually. She came back with quite a few boxes. We drove back to Mizzou Arena and pitched our tent in about 10 minutes.

Apparently everyone else had the same idea as us (except they didn't wait until they were already in line to go get one), because we were just one of about 13 identical $35 Walmart tents. The night got significantly better as we enjoyed camping inside of our nice, dry, semi-warm tent. We got delicious cheese pizza and even managed to get about an hour of sleep.

The morning (aka 5 a.m.) rolled around and it was finally almost time for Gameday! Someone, I'm assuming the coordinators of the event, came to knock on our tent and tell us to pack it up so we could actually stand in a real line, rather than a conglomeration of tents. 

My friend and I weren't going to the actual basketball game, so we got to line up in the line for people just wanting to attend Gameday. The other line was for students who wanted priority seating for the actual game as well as Gameday. My line was much, much, much shorter than the other line, since most students were going to actual game. Despite coming to wait in line 2 days later than most students, we got great seats! We were only about five seats from the center section, and only about four rows from the front.

Gameday was super fun, my sign made it on national television and we beat kU! All around great experience, and now I have a tent for the next time I camp out for something.