Happy Pre-Leap Day Friday

It’s a Leap Year everyone.  On Wednesday, we are getting the “gift” of an extra 24 hours this year.  It sounds like something amazing and lovely and… gift-y.  But reeeeeeeeeally, it’s because when they made our calendar and broke it into 24 hour days and 365 of them in a year, it didn’t break down evenly, so every so often we have to make up for it with an extra day in order to avoid having our calendar “drift”.  Questionable math and planning skills I think.

HOWEVER.

It has me thinking about what I would like to do with an extra 24 hours.  I know that I should plan on doing something like this.  But if I’m honest, I’d rather play this videogame for hours with my roommate while we drink Diet Dr. Pepper and eat popcorn or Baked Ruffles.

Image from here.

Happy Presidents' Day Friday

Really it’s Monday, I know, but this year I actually have something to say about Presidents’ Day.  Apparently, the holiday used to be only about George Washington but is now meant in some states to celebrate multiple presidents.  So I’m going with that definition.

I went to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana for college.  I love my university.  I love being a Fighting Illini and I still bleed orange and blue.  U of I was big and noisy and full of Midwestern behaviors that are odd to me now.  Because Illinois is the “Land of Lincoln,” we had a lot of Lincoln-themed locations on campus.

The one that stands out the most though is Lincoln Hall on the Main Quad.  When you would walk in the front doors, there he was, his skinny, beardy face peering at you from in between a split staircase leading up to the main auditorium.

We took a lot of final exams in Lincoln Hall and would rub his nose for luck as we walked up the worn marble staircases into the auditorium.

Whether his nose was really good luck for us, I don’t know.  I must admit I am a bit superstitious, so I probably would have rubbed his nose anyway.

So for Presidents’ Day, I’d like to say: thank you, Mr. Lincoln, for helping me get solid grades on my Women’s Studies 200 and Survey of American Literature Pre World War I finals sophomore year!

Image from here.

Happy (pre) Valentine's Day Friday

Hello Friday-ers!

Do you remember those silly/sad valentines that you would buy in a box to hand out to all of your classmates in grade school?  The ones you’d tape to boxes of chalky conversation hearts or pieces of off brand chocolates?  I remember having to give one to every kid in class, even the weird kid and the boy who threw rocks.  They got the ugliest valentines from the box though.

I don’t know about you all, but I spent one year trying to make my valentines by hand.  And when I say “by hand,” I mean glue-sticking ugly doilies to red and pink paper, then coloring them in.  Don’t ask me why I had doilies.  I’m sure they belonged to my mother.

Sadly, these were not a hit, nor were they worth the time I spent on them, so from that point on, my classmates got valentines that were mostly Disney or Batman themed.

Happy Valentine’s Day my Friday Friends, from the bottom of my secretly 8 year old heart.

Images from here and here.