One of the things that I really appreciate about the University of Arizona is the fact that they are almost paperless. Advisers, recruiters, and professors alike tout, “Sorry, you can’t use a pen to fill out that form. We’re paperless.” Being paperless has really helped me out a lot.

Every student gets access to their very own Student Link. It has everything on there. Class registration, book buying, what forms you need to fill out and where to find them, just to name a couple things. My class schedule for this fall is on there.

Now that may look confusing, and it is. Thankfully they provide an alternate view.

Much better. Now, to find where the classes are located on campus, Google maps is integrated into the schedule.

I don’t think that it could get any easier.

Over the weekend I went shopping for supplies that I will need for my apartment this fall. I’m mostly done… except for buying perishable foods, a trash can, and cleaning supplies. Some things I didn’t have to buy. These mugs, plates, bowls, and ice cube trays are things that my family already had and didn’t use.

These bowls have different backgrounds. The top three are from when my parents were first married. I remember being 3 years old and eating Cherios out of them. As for the gray ones - my mom said that they were my dad’s when he lived in an apartment with a couple other guys (mid 1980’s). That was before I was born.

Here is one box full of stuff. To move all my stuff, I think I’ll only need 4 boxes total.

(This photo has notes.)  Packed up nicely in the box are pots and pans, a cookie sheet, a teapot, a 12 piece drinking glasses set, cooking spoons, a cheese grater, and a can opener.

It’s surprising how many things you need just for one person.  Because even for one person, you still have to have at least one of everything.

Yesterday at the City Hall where I work, I was outside taking photos of the building for a powerpoint. A black man, about 50 years old, was riding past on his bike. He rode past me, slammed on his breaks, and did a 180.

“You’re that girl from that movie, ain’t ya!”

“No, I’m not.”

“I won’t hurt you. You can tell me! You’re that girl from the movies!”

“No, I swear I’m not. I promise. I’m not Julia Styles.”

“You can tell me! It’s okay!”

So there we were, arguing about who I may or may not be in 115 degree heat. It is the middle of summer in Arizona, after all.

“I have that movie in my house! You’re in that dancing movie!”

I pulled out my driver’s license. “Look,” I said, “My name’s Alisa. I live in this town. I’ve never been in a movie before. I promise I’m not anyone famous, and you won’t want my autograph.”

“You sure you not the girl in that movie?”

“I’m sure.”

Then he rode off, muttering to himself and shaking his head. I get that a lot. People saying that I look like Julia Styles, or that I look, “Really, really familiar.” I’ve never had anyone argue with me about it though. I almost regret not agreeing with that man. Think how happy he would have been if I had said, “Yes, I’m Julia Styles. I’m visiting my cousin who lives here in Arizona for some rest between acting jobs.” I could have made his day.

I forgot to mention when I said that Mark and Brett, two lawyers that I work for, were making fun of me, they were both wearing ASU shirts.

My response:

If you have visited this site more than once, you are probably aware of the ever changing theme. Truth be told, I’m not really sure about what I’m looking for, and I have a hard time making up my mind about these types of things anyways. I’ve tried out so many themes that I’ve lost track of where I got them and why I even liked them in the first place. A word to the wise: not keeping track of these things is not good practice in life.

So today I went to Barnes & Noble and looked in the CSS Design section. There isn’t a whole lot of (Holy crap! I’m hearing gunshots! I love living in the ghetto…) good material out there. What I did find led me to the CSS Zen Garden. Tonight I looked at every single design that the Zen Garden has to offer. I gathered a lot of ideas, and now I have to sift them together to do what I want.

For a long time now I’ve known enough about CSS and HTML to let me tweak the code to do things that I want it to do. I’ve never known enough to make something, say a Wordpress theme, from scratch. I guess I’ll make that my summer goal.

To do:

• Learn more about CSS so that I can make beautiful Wordpress themes.

I’d also like to learn more about graphic design, but that’s something that I need to learn at the University.

Usually, I do all of this thinking and saying, but I don’t ever follow through with it. To get myself to follow through, I will be using this theme (I guess) until I make myself something that I am satisfied with.

Let the summer goal reaching begin!