Life with Madi

Something I've struggled with a lot as a college student is the notion of going home for the weekend.  Social cues and media examples always show how teenagers are supposed to hate their parents and, once they fly the coop, never want to come home again.  This, I say, is ridiculous. 

I love my parents.  My sister is my best friend.  This is why last year, when I spent over three months at a time away from the people that I loved the most (I was in Colorado for school, my family in Texas- such is the life for any out-of-state student) it was a wake-up call for me, but a much needed one.  I learned how to live by myself and I made a few close friends and basically, just kept myself busy.  I got a job at the newspaper.  I got involved around campus.  I learned to love my school.

Now, though, it's so much different.  My parents are here, and the friends I choose to spend time with these days are few and far between (don't pity me- I'm not spending my nights curled up on my bed alone, crying myself to sleep out of loneliness.  I've got my people but just not as many as I would prefer).  My weekends are a little bare, so lately, I've been taking the 2 hour trip between FoCo and Parker and using the weekends to spend time with my family. 

I do this a lot, and one weekend, it really got to me.  I stayed in my apartment and when my mom urged me to come spend the day with her and the family just for a Sunday, I felt wrong.  I looked back on all the interactions I'd ever had with friends where they mentioned how terrible it was to constantly head home on the weekends, and what was 'normal' and 'right' and 'good'.  Needless to say, I got in my own head. 

This weekend, I may stay and I may go, the choice is kind of up in the air.  But the fact of the matter is- I realized that the only person who really cares how often I go home on the weekends or not is me.  I need to stop judging myself for things that, in the end, don't really matter at all.  So I want to spent time with my family.  Big whoop.  I may be lame and the most nontraditional college student in the world for that reason but honestly, I don't really care. 

This uncaring attitude of mine may not last for long and I may go back to my old ways of constantly self-judging, but the fact of the matter is is that right now I need to realize that nothing in today's society should be considered 'normal' or 'right'.  Everyone is different and no one has the exact same college experience.  Some people go home on the weekends, and some people party until their brain hurts. 

And you know what? I'm going to do both. 

Between balancing a video blog for my school newspaper, moving into my new apartment, packing for said apartment, and moving my sister to Colorado, it's been awfully hard to vlog lately.

I will tell you, it's been quite an eventful few weeks and I guarantee that the upcoming weeks will be just as stressful.  But stressful in a good way, if that makes any sense at all.  Stressful busy, stressful accomplished, stressful independent.

The only bad part of these last few weeks has been my lovable junk-heap of a car.  It was my first car, a lovely old 1990 Volvo, and I've had it for the past 3 years, driving it between states and to school and with my windows down with music blaring and up and fogging with the cold.  It's been good to me.

That is, except for lately.  It's been smelling of gas every time I drive it and last week, when I was nearly in the middle of an intersection, it shut off without any sort of warning, leaving me stranded in a turn lane.  This scares me, if you can imagine, mostly because my dad looked it over and thought he fixed the problem but the uncertainty carries between us both.

So, we thought it was fine, for now.  Then today, I try to turn it on and I discover the battery is flat dead.  No lights were left on, nothing was plugged in where it shouldn't have been, nada.  A mystery.  And this is the second time it's died in two weeks.

I'm nervous because if I get a job that's not walking distance from my apartment this semester, I'm going to have a big need for a car.  Especially since my parents live two hours away from campus and I tend to like to drive down to visit them.

UGH.  This car.  So lovable but so unreliable.

Check it out, friends.

First, a week of finals.
Now, a week of moving into our new house.  CRAZINESS.

I haven't even posted my latest vlog yet, y'all.  I'm crazy behind.
On the upside, I got good enough grades to keep my scholarship! YIPEEEEEE!

 Basically what happens is that Old Town Fort Collins becomes this music hub for two days, and 300+ bands come and play at different venues all over the city.  Me, the roomie, and some of her friends basically just hopped from place to place and caught about 4 or 5 bands last night.  It was so great.

There are a lot of things going through my head, and a lot of attractive college boys wandering through the halls of the library.

It's not my fault the internet works so well in here. And is so fast. And streams videos really quickly.

It's...not my fault.

Happy studying,

Cooper

When I wrote that title, I accidentally wrote 'Downton' instead of 'downtown'.  I've got Downton Abbey on the brain!  God, I can't wait for the Christmas special.

Yesterday, me and some friends went down to Horsetooth mountain to go hiking.  My car barely made it up the steep roads, but once we got up there it was so worth it- the weather was perfect and the views were absolutely breathtaking!! I think I have a new goal to climb a 'fourteener'- or a 14,000 foot high mountain.  It's intense and you have to wear helmets and go with a guide, but I think it would be so satisfying at the end of the day.  Here are some shots from our hike:

We had a freak snowstorm last night, and it's turned everything still and gorgeous....for example, take a look at the vid below (which is a complation of three vids I took: the first one is from last night, and the other two are from this morning.  I went a little crazy):



I love the snow. Can't you tell?

So I'm going to a murder mystery party on Friday, and we get to dress up.  There's actually a costume contest!  Because of this, me and my friends hit up the good ol' Goodwill and I found this little number:

I've noticed that I've been pretty scatterbrained recently...there's been so much going on that blogging has been pretty far down on my to-do list.  But right now it's one A.M., my roommate is gone, and I'm feeling like a late night.  Therefore, I shall blog!

I figure another installment of what I'm loving this week should brighten up Cooper Calamity's boring page.  Admittedly, it hasn't been too too bad, but I doubt you want to hear another rant about my homework or my week or anything like that.  In fact, let's just jump right in to what I'm loving.  Let's do that.

NUMERO UNO
This week's episode of Parks and Recreation.