Tyler

Oh, did I mention I am growing up and taking real classes this year with tons of homework and real finals. Classes, homework, rehearsal, study, sleep… and repeat. And I thought I was busy last year with a lot more school and dance work, but sophomore year is definitely way more crazy! My classes are definitely keeping me busy, and my life is soon to only consist of human anatomy. Even though I am completely stressed out with homework, I might actually enjoy it. I know it sounds crazy, but I am actually learning to love learning (this sounds silly, but it’s true). It is about time I learn to enjoy my academics. It took me 12 years, but I am finally becoming interested in my classes. For example, I am now taking the prerequisites for the journalism major, and I am enjoying sitting in lecture because the information actually is interesting to me. I think that is a good sign, because I am planning on double majoring in journalism. So I am slowly getting my academics in check. My dance major is going great on the other hand! Dance Gala is right around the corner, and I am positive it will be another great show (October 25-28 and November 1-4). All the dancers are amazing, and I am looking forward to seeing all the other pieces involved in the show.

Oh, and football season has started too! It is so great to be back in Kinnick with my fellow Hawkeyes screaming for a touchdown. Though, I did skip this past game because I just had too much homework and not enough time. But next Saturday I will be back in the stands rooting for my team.

I love a great football game!

And Fall is on its way… Iowa is so pretty during this season. I love walking to class with a cup of coffee while snuggled in a sweater, scarf, and boots. Not much is happening in my life besides dancing and studying, but I got an A on my first Statistics exam, so the hard work is paying off.

It is good to be back, despite the terrible heat and lack of air conditioning in my apartment and in Halsey Hall (dance department building). When I am not constantly sweaty, I am enjoying every second of my sophomore year. I guess that is just the perks of being a dance major… But seriously, I missed Iowa City! This year I moved  into a cute little apartment with my two best friends, who are also dance majors! The decorating is going pretty well, and it is already feeling like my home. Considering this is most likely where I will be living for the next 3 years until I graduate, I am so happy. I love the place and my roomies!

My two first weeks of my sophomore year have involved a lot of dancing, catching up with all my friends, and homework. I already have my first Anatomy exam on Tuesday …ahh! So this semester is definitely going to keep me on my toes. With 17 credit hours, plus rehearsal I will be quite the busy girl. Even though I am loving not being a freshmen, me and room mates had to crash the Smash Bros concert in Hubbard Park the first weekend. We headed over there in our gym shorts and sneakers, and we were ready to bust of move. Naturally, being dance majors, we made quite a spectacle. We love any excuse to break out a few of our favorite moves!

I am looking forward to this heat going away, so I can break out the boots, sweaters, and scarves. Fall will be here before I know it 🙂 And did I mention I am SO excited for the first home football game Saturday! Let’s hope this is another great year at Iowa!!

In one week I will be back in Iowa City, as a sophomore. This past year has gone by so fast, and so much has changed. I am so ready to move in to my new apartment with my two best friends, but I have a ton of stuff to do until I do. I literally just got back from an AMAZING vacation on Amelia Island, Florida. Where the sun is always shining, the jellyfish are always stinging, and the food is fried and delicious! Well the sun shined almost all the time, except for your daily afternoon storm, but lucky for my family we were able to go see the Dark Knight Rises on one of the rainy days. There is nothing like a good ole tiny movie theater on an island in a thunderstorm…the power was going on and off and the movie before us stopped playing all together. Fortunately, we got to see the awesome movie without any interruptions. Though during the days, it was absolutely beautiful. Almost too sunny, so I was always going into the ocean. I am not the best swimmer, so rarely do I go in the ocean alone… except for this one time… and I got stung by  a jellyfish!! It hurt and now it is super itchy, and I still have bumps all over my foot. Perfect. When we weren’t dodging jellyfish and swimming around jumping fish, we were usually eating! I am not a big fan of seafood, but the rest of my family loves it! So it was pretty fun going to a couple of new restaurants for dinner! My favorite restaurant was the one we saved for our last night on the island, 29 South! We ate our meal, and still had room for dessert! My mom and I shared coffee and donuts, but they are not what you would have imagined. It was mocha ice cream, with like a bread pudding, and some other tasty things in a mug that the waitress poured onto a plate. It looked a little bit like vomit, but it was so tasty. Yum yum yum. The next day we packed up the car and drove 15 hours straight, and now the summer is practically over! I would say this summer was a very successful one. I did everything I wanted to do, but I do wish I was able to take more dance classes. I didn’t realize how much I would miss it, but not being able to take as many classes as I do in Iowa it was definitely something I missed terribly. Soon enough I will be back in Halsey Hall with the rest of my dancers, sweating my butt off…. Can’t wait!

So with one week left, my family and I are scrambling around trying to get me ready for school. We just ordered a bed for me, so at least I won’t be sleeping on the floor! See you soon Iowa City 🙂

Here is our tree in our backyard. The wind just blew it out of the ground!

Alright, it has been about a month since my last blog, but I have a good excuse for that, I believe. I have been quite busy with work. I’ve got to keep the cash rolling in, because before I know it I will be back at Iowa being a poor college student (21 days till I will  be in Iowa City!!). The jobs are definitely keeping me busy, and I am meeting so many interesting people every time I work. Not only are my coworkers all pretty awesome, but some of the customers are so interesting. I love it! We also had some crazy storms here in Indiana, and my house lost power for two days. Some neighborhoods did not get their power turned on for an entire week, so I was pretty lucky! We lost a ton of huge branches, our neighbor’s tree fell and landed on our yard and crushed our fence, and one of our trees completely fell over and all the roots came out of the ground too. The amount of trees the city lost was incredible. Streets were closed and power lines were down! It definitely opened to my eyes, and made me very thankful that no one was hurt in any of this craziness.

I also have been spending all my spare time hanging out with the family! My little sister and I have become almost attached at the hip because when both parents are working I get to be in charge. So we have been trying to find fun things to do in Fort Wayne to ease some boredom. We got some Froyo the other day which was delicious. My sister got almost every topping imaginable, gummy worms, gummy bears, sprinkles, cookie dough, snickers, and a cherry on top! YUMM

Oh, and did I mention that in 7 days I will be in Florida at Amelia Island for a family vacation! I have been waiting all summer for this! It is about time I get some beach quality time in… Because my summer tan is, well, it’s not existent at this point, but give me two weeks and I’ll be golden. While we are down there we are going to go kayaking, which I am looking forward to. I am even excited for waking up early and going for a run before it is blazing hot! Call me crazy, but I can never sleep in late on vacations! So needless to say… I am soooooo excited. Watch out Florida, the Clark family is coming!

My sister (Grady) and I! She is too cute..

Alright so the title of this blog is a little goofy, but so is my life right now. And no, I still cannot juggle multiple balls or bowling pins. But I am getting quite good at juggling my life contents. All this multitasking of jobs, family, working out, and friends are making my summer fly by. It is ALMOST July!!! I love being busy and more importantly I love making money, so I am not complaining by any means…

Only a few weeks ago I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find a summer job at all, and now I have three! I am working at Justice, which is a young girl’s heaven. The shelves are stocked with attire decked out in glitter, sequins, zebra print, and all colors of the rainbow. My next job is the complete opposite shopper because it is at the Coach store. I will be selling luxury handbags and accessories to both  men and women. Whether it is their first Coach handbag or just another one for their collection, this job will definitely be keeping me on my toes. The store isn’t opening until this Friday, so until then we are stocking up the store.  But I can’t wait for the grand opening!! And my third job may be my favorite one. I am teaching ballet class a few times this summer. The dancers are about 12 years old in age, and there are some characters in the class. Dancers are definitely performers too, so I have my fair share of hams trying to steal the attention in class.

I was able to get time off from work, and go visit Katie at her friend’s lake! It was great to meet her halfway and spend some time on Lake Michigan. It was absolutely beautiful for the two days I was there. We are hoping to make another trip back up to Indiana Dunes in the near future, and I really hope we do. I need to get my summer tan started before my family’s vacation at the end of July. If not I will be looking like a lobster for the first couple of days…ouch!!!

I am trying something new this summer. It’s called being productive. It’s only been about one week of summer, but so far so good. Except for yesterday where I laid on the couch and watched three episodes of CSI: NY. But besides that I would say I have been doing great. I have a little less than three months to make things happen.

My summer goals include:

Me and my puppy, Leo!

1. Find a summer job and make $$$$. Well over spring break I emailed some local dance studios to see if they needed any part time teachers this summer, and I actually heard back from two or three of them. Luckily, I scored a job with one of the studios, and I will be teaching ballet to a bunch of young girls. On the downside, I am only teaching about 6 classes. So this left me to the challenge of finding another job! I spent my first week back in Indiana filling out job application after job application. Just when I was about to give up hope, I got three phone calls within two days asking for an interview. Someone must have been looking out for me. Two of the interviews were today, and I scored one job at a young kids clothing store, and the second job said they will call me back for a second interview in a week or so! So finding a job was a success, so bring in the cash!
2. Get Healthy! I figured if I am not going to be dancing enough, I should start changing my eating habits! Not that I eat fast food and potato chips everyday, but I just wanted to be in great shape and feeling good about myself. Starting this past Monday, I gave up eating  bread and pasta. It was more of just a challenge to see if I could do it. And it has only been two days, but I already feel better. I have been loading up on fruits, salads, and scrambled eggs! It is kind of fun cooking all these healthy foods. Every morning I wake up and make some eggs, and a tasty salad with grilled chicken for lunch, and then I will eat a smoothie for a snack! I have been going to the YMCA almost everyday and taking my two lovely dogs for a walk! It’s great exercise and I love the endorphins!
3. Get a great tan. This I haven’t had so much progress yet. It is not my fault that I am locked up in a dance studio for most of my life! My skin barely sees the sun! I have been spending time outside with my two dogs, playing fetch and reading a book, and I have actually gotten some good color! By the time I go back to Iowa I will be brown as a berry!

I hope my summer is the best one yet! It’s great to be home, but I miss all my Iowa City friends! And I can’t wait to be back there for my sophomore year!!!

Summer is literally right around the corner, and I cannot wait! I only have two finals (interpretation of literature and human biology), and then I am all done with my first year at Iowa. Finals week is rough. Everyone is in a study daze all the time. The halls in Burge are eerily quiet, downtown on a Saturday night is a ghost town, and my twitter feed is full of students complaining about how much they are studying. Ahh it is crazy, and my concentration is dwindling as the night gets later. As I am trying to read the book Dracula, I probably fell asleep 12 times. If only my brain and body could stay awake long enough, so I could ace these tests! The weather is beautiful out, which is taking a toll of my concentration. I want to be laying in the Pentecrest or playing Frisbee in Hubbard Park…anywhere but my desk covered with my Dracula book and a thick stack of biology notes. I really should not be complaining… less than 72 hours I will probably already be home in Indiana for the summer! Well, I should probably get back to the books. Good luck to everyone taking finals this week!

Seriously where has the time gone. It feels like I just moved into my dorm room, and in thirteen days I will be packing everything up and moving out. It is crazy to think that I am almost done with my freshmen  year in college. I still feel like a baby! But before I can celebrate for the summer, I still have a lot of paper writing, studying, and dancing to do before it is time to head home to Indiana! This week has been bringing on the stress, and it doesn’t help that the weather has been rainy and chilly, considering it is almost May. Not only was this week stressful, but it was also pretty busy. President Obama came on Wednesday to speak at the Field House. Unfortunately, I was not able to go. I heard only great things from friends who went to hear him speak. A few of my friends even got a wave and a handshake from the President himself! How crazy is that!! I also had to schedule my classes for the next Fall semester, which is only making me more excited to finish up this year. Next Fall is going to be quite busy for me. I am taking less dance classes and more academic classes, so I need to prepare my brain over the summer months. But to end my stressful week, I had one of the best modern classes of my life! Our musician who usually plays during our class was not there, so we plugged in an IPod and listened to classic Michael Jackson instead. So for an hour and a half, the entire class danced, sang, and smiled our way through. Classes like this make me realize how happy I am that I choose to be a part of the department of dance at the University of Iowa. I am definitely going to miss it this summer, but come August I will be ready to make the 6 hour journey back to good old Iowa City! And this time I will be moving into an apartment with my two best friends! It doesn’t get much better than that!!!

The fourth annual Nearly Naked Mile run was this past Saturday at Gibson Square. Donate just one piece of clothing, preferably the shirt off your back, and run a mile…My friends and I decided to be overachievers and emptied out our closets of all the extra clothes we have and lugged a full garbage bag of clothes to donate for a good cause. The race last less than ten minutes, but it was such a fun experience! I can’t wait for next year, it is going to be a new Iowa tradition!

What's cookin good lookin 😉

I can not get over how green the grass is on campus. I noticed it when I was walking to rehearsal this evening. The sun was slowly setting in the background of the Iowa River, and there was a beautiful calmness in the air. I took the rest of my five minute walk to Hallsey to really take my surroundings in, and that is when I noticed the grass… it is the greenest green ever! And on top of that, all the trees and flowers are blooming. Spring in Iowa City is beautiful and I am so lucky to have at least three more years experiencing it.

The weather has been great this week and it will only be getting better for the weekend! Nothing too special is going on this weekend, but in the next month the Dance Department will be having multiple performances with all the wonderful Grad Student’s theses! These students have put so much work in to their choreography and it will really be an interesting seeing the many different theses… all of them are so widely different and I can’t wait.

Oh and for everyone who is going to see the Hunger Games this weekend, I am sooo jealous!!! I started the first book during Spring Break and I just finished the third and last book today. It is a really great trilogy and I am sure the movie will be just as good. I am hoping I get to see it soon.  I hope all ya’ll have a great weekend, “And may the odds be ever in your favor!” <—Hunger games quote 🙂