Boots doesn't open until 9 a.m.

It started out like any other morning; my alarm went off too early, I snoozed an extra 15 minutes, I finally dragged myself out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. I pumped myself up to get in the shower and experience the absolute worst five seconds of my day.

The shower in my flat points directly at the shower door, so you have to be in the shower with the door closed when it starts or else it will spray water all over the floor. Like any other shower, the water starts out freezing cold. There is nowhere to hide and escape the water. Every morning I have to count myself down and prepare myself to turn on the water and get blasted by ice for a good five seconds before the water warms up. It's easily the worst part of my day. Good thing I shower in the morning, then, because it can only get better from there, right?

Wrong. This morning continued like normal until I was ready to dry my hair. I let most of my hair air dry, but I have to blow dry my bangs because I straighten them (and they need to be complete dry for that). If I don't straighten them, they become a weird curly mess on my forehead. I turn to my roommate's desk where we keep our shared hair dryer, and it's not there. I look around the room a little bit and it's still nowhere to be found. I go into problem solving mode.

My roommate left for work before me, so if she used the blow dryer she would have done it outside of our room. I go check in all the bathrooms. It's not in any of them. I check the kitchen and living room. No luck. I check our room again. It's gone. Unfortunately for me, none of the other 10 girls I live with are awake yet, so I can't just go borrow their hair dryers.

By this time, I should be leaving my flat to get to work on time. I opt for plan B; I'll run to Boots (the U.K.'s Walgreens equivalent) and get a bobby pin to pin my hair back. Boots is in the train station, so I won't be late. I gather up my stuff and head out the door!

I get there and it's closed. Unlike Walgreens, which is open 24 hours, Boots operates normal ours and doesn't open until 9, which is when I need to be at work. I run back home, and by the time I get there my bangs are dry so I just straighten them. Hair disaster averted, but now I'm going to be about 15 minutes late for work.

I use the tube station across the river when I go to work, because I can take one train the whole way there. If I get on at the station closer to me (the one with Boots in it) I have to transfer lines. I take off across the river, and when I get to the station it's closed. The universe is just not on my side this morning. I head back to the other station, and by the time I get there it's 9 o'clock. I should be arriving at work.

I ended up being nearly an hour late, and my hair didn't even look that good. As for the mystery of the disappearing hair dryer, it turns out one of my flatmates borrowed it last night and never returned it.

Xerox machines can sort papers.

It was day 2 of my internship, so I got to do really cool things like make copies.

I spend all my time in school in rigorous classes learning how to be a good journalist, write in-depth research papers, memorize useless facts out of textbooks and do other pretty challenging things, so my skill set exceeds basic office skills. These skills include things like using the expresso machine (I thought it was as easy has pressing a button, but it's really not), answering/making phone calls (I can never figure it out unless it's my cell phone), and making copies.

The assignment was to make 10 copies of this Jubilee guide for the staff that's like 20 pages long. So that's about 200 copies. Kind of a big responsibility and this internship is kind of a big deal, so I don't really want to mess it up. Or sound stupid and ask someone how to make a copy.

I spent several minutes staring at the Xerox playing with all the settings. I finally get it right and start copying. After awhile I start realizing that this is a TON of paper. Some of the sheets are front and back, so I decide to figure out how to do double sided copies. That only took about four tries, but I did it!

Once all the copies are made, I have about 200 pieces of paper I need to sort into ten separate booklets. I head over to the table in the break room and I start laying them all out. I'm about half way through sorting them and some guy walks in, looks at me, registers what I'm doing and says, "I think the machine can do that for you."

I consider this for a moment. It is a pretty fancy machine. So I just shrug and say probably. It's too late now anyway.

Then the receptionist walks in. Her entire job is basic office skills 101, so she's all, "Oh no!! The machine can do that for you!! It can do everything! It can punch holes, staple, sort, blah, blah, blah, blah," Then she says next time I should ask her. Whoops!

But it's okay, because it wasn't really challenging and I would have had to double check all the pages anyway and the alternative was doing nothing.

I know nothing about British history.

I'm studying abroad in London this summer, and good thing because I really know nothing about their history over here.

One of the classes I'm taking is British Life and Culture, and so far it's turning out to be awesome. In the most recent class, we had a pub quiz (which is a legit thing, I actually looked it up because I actually thought the professor was making it up) about this reading that no one did. Maybe we should have though, because I'm sure all the questions could be easily answered by any British 7-year-old. Thankfully it wasn't for a grade and I actually really learned a lot.

For example, one of the questions was what elements make up the British flag (commonly known as Union Jack -- didn't know that!)?

English Flag   +

Scottish Flag

Ireland's St. Patrick's Cross   +

= UK Flag!
...and poor Wales is left out.

Also, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament were established in 1999. I was alive then. Why didn't I ever learn about that in school??

Apparently Ireland has been having problems, too. In just 1921 (which is relatively recent in history terms) Ireland was granted independence and only Northern Ireland is a part of the UK. The only thing I ever knew about Ireland's history was the potato famine (which I also learned they never really recovered from the population loss).

I learned about their government as well. It's made up of the House of Lords, Monarchy and House of Parliament. I learned about what they each do and how many people are in each and how they get appointed or elected. I also learned that the Queen is basically the PR person for the UK.

Also I learned all about the Royal Family and I may be obsessed. Apparently, William was just given the title Duke of Cambridge just because Kate (a commoner!) needed a title (Duchess of Cambridge) when they got married. And when queens get married their husbands don't become king, but rather stay a prince (but king's wives would become queen) because a king outranks a queen and that can't happen.

So much knowledge!!!

Spiders are too sneaky.

I was being a responsible student and peacefully studying for my upcoming test in the living room the other night. I was sitting on the floor leaning against the couch and using the coffee table to study on, like I normally do. My roommate was in the kitchen trying to make a snack. It was a very peaceful and normal night. Then, I see something out of the corner of my eye and turn my head to look at my arm and there is this huge spider on me.

There are few things in this world that are scarier than spiders. Like giant squids, or getting trapped in the middle of the ocean. Each of which would probably cause death and you'd have to be in the middle of the ocean to encounter them, but spiders can also cause death and they can be anywhere at anytime.

You can have a free meal (nearly) every day in college.

I was enjoying a free lunch one afternoon with my friend when she said to me, "You know, I bet you could get a free meal every day if you really paid attention to all the events on campus." And I was like, "You're probably right." So here it goes:


Monday April 16:
- Business Week Picnic - Free lunch on Carnahan Quad from 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Tuesday April 17:
- No free food?!

Wednesday April 18:
- Mizzou Student Veteran Association and Department of Student Life's Operation Free Lunch - Hot dogs, burgers, chips and beverages on Lowry Mall from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
- Mizzou Triple A had free Asian food in The Shack at 7 p.m, followed by a free concert by Tim Be Told.

Thursday April 19:
- Today, we starve.

Friday April 20:
- I couldn't find an event, but it's Friday night... find someone to buy you dinner!

Monday April 23:
- China Open 2012 Info Session - from 5 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. in Gannet 85. There's free pizza!
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - Artist Reception with Essex Gardner at 5:30 p.m. in the BCC. Free refreshments!

Tuesday April 24:
- Sustain Mizzou is hosting Energy Speed Dating on Lowry Mall as part of Sustainability Week. It's from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and you get a free scoop of ice cream!
- MSA's annual Safety Walk - Starts at 7 p.m. and there is free food afterwards.
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - Black Cinema Movie Night at 7 p.m. in the BCC. Free refreshments!

Wednesday April 25:
- Total Cereal is sponsoring a free breakfast at Flat Branch Park from 6 a.m. - 10 a.m. because Columbia was chosen as America's hardest working town!
- True Tiger membership renewal lunch - Free pizza! From 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. in Speaker's Circle and the Student Center.
- Journalism Week Franks with the Faculty - Free hot dog lunch on the J-School lawn from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - The Transformative Possibilities of Black Poetry at 7 p.m. in the BCC. Free refreshments!

Thursday April 26:
- Grand Songkarn Festival - Thai food and other Thai stuff on Carnahan Quad from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
- Mizzou Mile - You have to pay $10 to run, but I don't know if you have to register to enjoy the free food and music in Tiger Plaza!
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - Evolution of Hip Hop at 7:00 in the BCC. Free refreshments!

Friday April 27:
- 2012 Black Arts Festival - Life Music Series at 7 p.m. in The Shack with free food!
- Mizzou After Dark's Retro Prom night - Always free for students, always includes food! Starts at 8 pm. in Memorial Union.

Monday April 30:
- It's almost the end of the semester, so find someone with a meal plan who needs to use up their swipes!

Tuesday May 1:
- Today, we starve.

Wednesday May 2:
- End-of-Year Student Life Appreciation Lunch from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the Student Center. Unfortunately for most people, this event is invite only.

Thursday May 3:
- Senior Send Off - Free food and beverages (with a driver's license). From 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. on Carnahan Quad. You have have to actually be a senior to get the free stuff, though.
- Spring Farewell - End of the semester celebration on Rollins Street from 7 p.m. - 11 p.m. So much free stuff!


9/14... not bad.

I have legal rights to my roommates things in my apartment.

Way back in November 2010 I signed a lease with my friend for the apartment I'm living in now. We signed for a three bedroom and we were just going to go random for a third. It started out okay when we all moved in, but now our third roommate hates us and I think she might be dead.

Really, though, I believe she is now living with her boyfriend. I haven't actually seen her in weeks and usually the only reason I know she's been home is she'll take her mail from her door.

Slowly, things have been disappearing. It started with the kitchen trashcan. She just took it one day (it was hers) and now we only have these little tiny trashcans that hold nothing. Then she took all of her dishes from the kitchen. With each thing that disappeared the frequency in which I would see her just kept going down. The last thing she took was the filter on our kitchen sink several weeks ago, and after that I've only seen her about twice.

My other roommate and I were discussing this in the MUTV office the other day, and the MUTV adviser chimed in about squatter's rights. He explained to us that if we used whatever thing a lot, and the roommate never did, we could actually claim rights to it. Now there are two very important questions: does our roommate know about this or does she just not want us to be able to use her things? And she has ice cream in the freezer, so if I ate it and she sued me, would this argument hold up in court?

The rafflesia is the largest single flower in the world.

My dad is a huge nerd. It was really helpful in middle school and high school because he would help me with my math and science homework (AP calculus, yay!), so it was like having my own tutor but way cheaper and he could help me at all hours of the day. But to give perspective on what kind of a nerd he really is, I will share this anecdote:

I'm in 7th grade, it's the beginning of the year and it's almost open house. My parents ask me what my locker number is so they can go look at it (I have no idea why they even cared, all the lockers look the exact same). I tell them it's number 2048. The very first thing my dad says is, "Oh, that's 2 to the 11th power!" What kind of person has that memorized? My dad. And now me.

Anyway, he always sends me these weird but super interesting links to the most random things. Like this article about The Tau Manifesto and how pi is actually wrong. The most recent link is much more exciting and interactive; The Scale of the Universe. It lists a whole bunch of things in the universe and shows the size of all of them relative to each other, from quantum foam (smaller than an atom), to humans, to states, to planets, all the way to the entire observable universe. I spent a significant amount of time looking at the entire thing.

One of the things it lists is some flower called the rafflesia. It's huge (but actually super tiny compared to the whole universe).

Photo credit: Troy Davis

It's found in southeastern asia and can weigh up to 22 pounds. Next Valentine's Day I would like someone to give me one of these.

It also had some thing called the Japanese spider crab. Ew.

Photo credit: The Conservation Report

There's also a bunch of nebulas which are huge, like 1,000,000,000,000,000-times-bigger-than-that-spider-crab huge. Nebulas are pretty cool things to look at.

Photo credit: Hubble Space Telescope