Ooo Shiny!

So here's an honesty hour post.

You know I just don't want to do anything right now. Well that's wrong I do want to lay in bed, eat ice cream and ramen, and watch Netflix all night. What I really don't want to do right now is homework, specifically this paper I have yet to start and it is due tomorrow.

Now you are probably saying right now, "What are you doing right now Zoe! You should be writing your paper instead of blogging!"

This is true but this is honesty hour and I will now tell you WHY I don't want to do this paper.

I am a pretty fast paper writer. I don't like to work on papers ahead of time. I always wait till the night before and crank them out and I do awesome at them. This is one of those weird things that I'm really good at no matter how much time I'm given. Now not every paper is done like this but let's say about 95% of my papers are done the night before they are due, does not matter the page length or work count. This drives my friends nuts and my dad crazy (he is usually the one who edits my papers for me). 

This paper is one that I just don't want to write at all. The class this paper is due for sucks. I am not a fan of the teacher, his teaching style, or how he decides to throw things on us. I have only missed this class once and I have no idea what I have learned. He is so confusing and the textbooks we use are just as confusing. 

This paper makes no sense to me, is super open-ended, and he didn't really talk to much about it.

Yikes! 

Luckily I'm not the only one in this situation but let's hope that whatever I come up with works and he likes. I'm freaking out about this plus many other things. My life right now is one big huge ball of stress.

Have you ever felt this overwhelmed? Have you ever been in a situation like this in school? Any tips?

XOXO

ZMH 

Not Everything is Peaches and Cream

Life can be difficult, especially in college. There is so much going with extra-curriculars, friends, school work, and a job. The thing that really takes the cake on all of those difficult things are relationships.

Having a boyfriend is wonderful. They can be supportive, an ear to listen, or just an extra someone to hang out with. Most people by the time they get to college have had a boyfriend or two briefly or for a really long time. Sometimes you get to college not having dated anyone and use this time to change that. Now relationships can be wonderful and really nice but they also come with some work. You know a flower never grows unless you put a little work into taking care of it. 

R and I have been together for about four and a half years. A really long time to be in a relationship for people so young (we get that a lot). Now not saying everything was flawless and happy but it was a pretty easy relationship for us. Recently though I had been starting to have some doubts about our relationship (I think I have mentioned this before). I Called R up on Friday and we talked and cried and got frustrated at each other. What we have come to right now is that we are on a break.

I still wanted him to come to my sororities date night so we decided to take these next two weeks to think about us. We decided we would text each other once in a while letting each other know what we appreciate from the other in the past. So far it's nice to see what we think of each other, the good things. The thing that is worrying me is that this may not work.

I see him as "the one". I can see myself having a very happy future with him. We both see our relationship has great potential and promise but maybe right now to help save that is to take more then a break. At the moment I am trying and thinking about us. It's hard because I'm confused on how to express how I'm feeling. My biggest fear though is that if we do end up ending our relationship that he will get so mad at me that if there is a chance for us to get back together he won't take it.

So besides having to stress out and think about school, friends, work, and my social life, I also have to keep this in mind. For now I have great friends who are supporting me and being awesome sounding boards. I will keep you all updated on how everything pans out.

Have you ever had a tough relationship like this? Do you have any advice that might help? 

XOXO

ZMH

It So Is a Neutral

First of all let me apologize for the late post today. Ny next two days are packed with meetings, appointments, work, and school. But let's move on from those stressful things and have a (somewhat) serious conversation.

Today I had to take a trip up to Grand Rapids to the Apple store (bright and early morning) so that they could look at my phone. I have been having issues with it freezing and being all wonky. Luckily they kind of fixed it, it will survive until my upgrade in December. ANYWAY...

That's not what this post is about. After my trip to the Genius bar I stopped by the Gap in Holland. Now it was just my birthday and my Aunt's spoiled me with gift cards and money with the note of "Go buy yourself something nice!". Well you don't have to tell me twice to go shopping! While I was in Gap I was lusting over all the beautiful cardigans because well I'm a sucker for a bright colored cardigan. Unfortunately I did not walk out with one but I found a nice light weight knit sweater in a really pretty steel grey color.

Still not the part of the post I want to get to. Besides this sweater I walked out with the cutest and most comfortable pair of shoes I think I have ever owned. They are smoking slippers in a beautiful leopard print and they are fuzzy/hairy (do I have to brush my shoes everyday now?). 

For as long as I can remember leopard print has been one print I am always drawn to. Now when I was little I obvious had those tacky child clothing pieces with weird funky colored leopard print on them. Besides that I haven't owned anything leopard, I have always admired it from afar. 

Lately a lot of my favorite bloggers, my friends, and family members have been having the argument as to wether leopard is a neutral. My stance? YES! It is such a neutral it's crazy. I feel like you really can't pair it with anything bad. The tans and blacks in the print are really settle and alone those colors would go with anything. Many friends of mine argue this point but now that I own a leopard print piece I can finally prove them wrong. Needless to say these shoes are not leaving my feet (until it starts snowing). 

What are your thoughts on leopard print? Are you a fan? Do you think it's a neutral? 

XOXO

ZMH

My lovely shoes

The Shenanigans of Rachel and Zoe

So one of my housemates is Rachel and she is a great friend of mine. We haven't known each other very long but it feels like we are old friends. Rachel and I have a great time together mostly because we are both very dysfunctional. 

Both of us just love to laugh, distract each other, and eat. A habit of ours it to starting YouTube hopping around funny videos laughing our butts off and putting off homework until we absolutely have to do it. This was the case just recently. The other night I was laying in bed signing off of my phone but I got distracted by a BuzzFeed video. It's title was "Grown Men Get Scared At A Haunted House". I LOVE these videos because peoples reactions are hilarious (if I was in their situation though I would be curled up in a ball crying asking to leave). So there I am laying in bed around 1am laughing my butt off at this video (also you hear some guy fart and I found that great as well). 

Rachel from downstairs texts me "What are you laughing at?".  I quickly post the video on Facebook and text her back telling her to watch it. Several seconds later I can hear her downstairs laughing. Once I got all my giggles out from the video and hearing Rachel laugh I fell asleep.

Fast forward to the next afternoon. I came home from work and asked her how she liked the video. She immediately started laughing. We then continued to put off our piles of homework and errands we needed to do to search on YouTube for funny scared reactions in haunted houses. Needless to say about an hour and a half passed before we had to quite because our stomachs hurt from laughing to much. Oh boy.

I love my friend Rachel because she is a gem and makes me happy. 

I put some of the videos we thought were hilarious down below. Tell me which ones you like or let me know if there's a funny video you like (I also personally love parodies). 

BuzzFeed's video "Grown Men Get Scared At A Haunted House"

I love Ellen so much, this is another one of my favorites

And of course she decides to send Amy in a house with Andy

XOXO

ZMH

P.S.

I will hopefully continue this post as a re-occurring thing to keep you updated on Rachel and I's shenanigans

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

No this post isn't about Christmas, or the fall, or summer vacation. This post is about something not a lot of people know about but everyone should because well, it's the most wonderful time to of the year.

Here at Hope College we are known for two very old traditions that make us really special. The first is The Pull. That tradition is the oldest college tradition in the nation and if you Google it you will have no problems finding out about it (TFM even wrote an article about it). Now that tradition is fabulous, I love it a lot but I'm not here to talk about that one.

I am here to talk about Nykerk! I LOVE Nykerk so much. It is amazing and being an alumni of the tradition makes me love it more because as alumni I get to enjoy watching it this year, even though I'm dying to be participating in it again.

Let's break Nykerk down. So this tradition is made for the women of Hope College. It is a competition involving song, play, and oration against odd and even year or freshmen and sophomores. The boys participate as being morale boys by giving the girls encouraging words, gifts, making the girls laugh, and building sets for play. 

Nykerk song, the event I participated in both as a freshmen and sophomore, is the most popular portion. Most of the girl participate in song because you don't have to be a fabulous singer and everyone gets in. As a freshmen in song you learn a song that's roughly 3 minutes long. Along with this you learn crispy hand motions to go along with the lyrics. For the sophomores in song they get to do a medley. This is under 10 minutes and follows whatever theme the coaches decide on. Nykerk play is for the out going, goofy, and hilarious girls. Play consists of about 10-12 girls depending on the script that year. The play lasts 15 minutes and contains inside jokes about Hope and just funny costumes. For this you need to go through an audition process. I tried out one year but I'm just not the on demand funny type of girl, my funny just kinda happens when I least expect it. Nykerk oration is one girl. This girl auditioned and now gets to stand in front of the audience and judges and say a memorized 8 minute speech that she wrote. She is full of poise, grace, and smarts. 

The whole of Nykerk is judged by local people from Holland and professor from Hope's campus. Now you may think why are only freshmen and sophomores allowed in? Well wrong! The juniors and seniors can apply to be on the Nykerk executive board as well as apply to be coaches for the moral boys, song girls, play girls, and orators. 

Overall Nykerk is a great thing and I'm so glad it's Nykerk season. Here are some photos and videos to show you a little more about it.

My freshmen year with my roommate

Freshmen year

Sophomore year song girls, morale boys, and the coaches

Sophomore song girls get to let out their stress by pie-ing their moral boys, we love you!

Our freshmen song "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrrrYJ6-qfE

Our sophomore medley of Disney songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk5es4kW0N8

XOXO

ZMH

Just Three Little Letters

So I don't know if you could tell but I love my sorority and my sisters so much. I haven't known many of them for long but it feels like they have been apart of my life for forever. 

The last couple days we have been really busy with getting service events into our schedules, planning rush, and getting ready for homecoming.

We are all insanely busy and so getting everything organized and going has been kind of a challenge. Luckily we have an amazing president and vice president to help us achieve all of our goals and get things done. 

I'm so happy that I went greek last winter and it kind of makes me wish I rushed as a freshmen so I had more time with these girls but everything just seemed to line up better sophomore year. I'm proud to be an alpha gamma phi sister and carry on our traditions and legacy.

Can you tell we are in the same family line

My sister B and I at the Alzheimer's 5k walk

Our information table during Homecoming weekend

XOXO

ZMH

Not really the Windy City

Okay so fall break was at the beginning of October. Hope College this is our first break of the fall semester. No we do not get Labor Day off because rumor has it the college was having problems where they would loose a ton of freshmen after that break. Hope starts classes maybe not even a week before Labor Day so freshmen were not getting much of an experience of college and just becoming very homesick. This break wasn't working so they changed it so that we would still have class on Labor Day.

Well when fall break comes everyone gets super duper excited. It's just a 5 day weekend but it's nice to have a little break before we have to make the next stretch to Thanksgiving break. 

For fall break I generally stay in Holland and hang out at home and try to get ahead in my classes. Not this fall break. It had been about a good 3 months since I last saw my boyfriend R in person, that was before school started!!! So I bought train tickets and called him up and said I was coming down to Chicago for several days to see him. Needless to say he was enthralled and could not wait.

Now generally when I come down we do the same things. We go eat at the same resturants, see the same things, and shop in the same places. Now the places we normally go are fantastic but it gets boring after a while. So this time I told him we were going to throw in some new adventures this time, once he heard that he went right into researching things and planning surprises. 

We of course went to a couple of our favorite food spots, made a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago, and popped our heads into our favorite shops. But the news things we added were AWESOME! My dad suggested we go to the Modern Contemporary Art Museum to see the David Bowie is Now exhibit. Let me tell you it was freaking awesome! If you have a chance go to it, it is totally worth the money and time. Of course you couldn't take pictures in the exhibit because of copyright issues but man it was killer. Besides that we wondered into a few new eateries that exceeded our expectations.

 I was also able to drop into a ballet class at the Joffery Ballet on the Sunday that I was in Chicago. I have been wanting to do this for a very long time and I finally had the time and chance to do so. The class was a beginning ballet class but that was fine with me, I was able to really focus and work on my technique. I woke up the next morning so sore it took me 15 minutes to get out of bed, that is a sign I worked super hard!

The one big surprise R had for me that weekend was that he took me to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was so incredible. It was both our first time there and now I know it won't be our last. It is the last and largest free zoo in the country and it did not disappoint. The animals were lively and looked happy as clams (there were no clams). We spent the WHOLE day there and I wish we had had more time. After that we wondered over to the Botanical Garden which was right next to the Zoo. So many pretty plants and such a pretty building. 

Well that's enough of me jabbering. I'll leave you with some photos I took from that weekend and maybe I'll share more stories later on! 

I was maybe just a *little* excited

R and I have always seen this resturaunt from the street, it's on the second floor of a building, and we finally found the enterence and tried it out. So good! 

The Grand Lux Cafe

Saul Steinburg

It returned after being gone for 2 years

One of my favorite paintings

The sketch/rough draft for it

Monet's bedroom

Oh hey there hay stacks

Cubism?

Hey Picasso, always good to see you

Uh, I think that is a pipe

I understand it

A picture of my in front of a Pollock for my dad

A little panoramic photo from the bridge that connects the Art Institute to Millennium Park

First time at the Rainforest Cafe, the gorilla scared me a bit

Hi flamingos! 

Tiny tiger walking into my ear

HUMP DAY!

Is it white with black stripes or black with white stripes?

Some long necked horses

Dancing in gardens is always fun

I'm trying to touch the light, so close!

Hark! We've stopped a wild Z-girl

Sprinkles cupcakes: mocha, cinnamon sugar (with frosting, duh), toasted marshmallow, and apple cinder

XOXO

ZMH

I'm Sorry, Please Don't Hate Me

Hello to anyone who follows my posts!

I am so sorry for not updating you all in forever. My last couple weeks, yes it has been some time, have been super chaotic and busy. Things just keep popping up for me and then once I'm done I just crash and go to bed. 

School has been crazy with papers, projects, and trying to stay on time with everything. I feel like time just slips through my fingers now a days. I have also been having a lot of events going on with Alpha Gamma Phi. We have had several service events, meetings, parties, and let's not forget about homecoming weekend. Besides those two things I have been working a lot! I love to go to work because I love to make money so that I can go and enjoy doing things with my friends and sisters.

But any-who let me give you a quick run down of what has been happening in my life lately. 

Hope College had fall break at the beginning of the month and I went to stay the long weekend at my boyfriends in Chicago. We had so much fun that weekend doing new things and visiting old places.  We ate SO much food, saw a ton of great art, visited an amazing zoo, and I even got to take a class at the Joffery Ballet.

After that I came back to school and went right back to hitting the ground running. I had many meetings for random things and trying to figure out housing for next year, yikes so far away but so close! This weekend was homecoming at Hope and so that came with many events that I had to participate in for the sorority. It was all fun and games but boy am I glad it's over... I'm exhausted.

Oh and let's not forget I turned 21 this past Monday! I did not do anything that I normally don't do on a Monday. Except my dad did take me out to eat that evening to one of our favorite delis in Grand Rapids. That day though I did feel older. It's weird being 21, it just feels different.

So there's a quick recap of what I have been doing. I will try to update you all on a more regular basis. I would love to update you all everyday but I'm just starting out with this whole blogging thing and trying to figure out what to do. If you have any simple helpful tips feel free to let me know! I will try to squeeze in some time in the next couple of days to queue up a few posts to give you more details about what you've missed. I feel like that is a solid first step to getting this blogging thing down.

Well that is it and I will just leave you with that. Sorry this post wasn't more exciting.

Thanks for all of your patience and support.

Love you.

XOXO

ZMH