Our website was in shambles...until Amelia

Everything is starting to wind down and my brain is already on Christmas break mode. Which is fine, I just have one more final to get through, but I’ve had about a week to study. Which means I have read the entire textbook so that I don’t miss anything on this cumulative final. 

Also, why are finals cumulative? Like, I understand the professors want to test our knowledge, including knowledge on topics we learned at the beginning of the year, but we’ve already been tested on that. I have learned and remembered the parts of those topics that I need to, but I find it unnecessary to test on little parts of knowledge from the first week of class. Maybe I’m just complaining because I’m tired of studying. 

Apart from hitting the books, I have been working on updating the Pioneer website! I had seen that it was falling behind a bit, and I understand that the Pioneer office, and everyone working in the office, is very busy, so I offered to help as study breaks. Weirdly, I find updating the website to be very satisfying. It’s like going through the newspaper and checking things off one by one. This story is done, and this one, and that column is posted - check, check, check. 

Sometimes I will stop to read a story or a column and catch up a little from all the Waseca County happenings we wrote about while I was doing other things. Sadly, I never find it a priority to read the news about something that seems so far away at the moment. But I promise, I do care. 

Some of the stories that caught my eye while updating all the stories from the last couple months were the cancer survivor stories, the teacher of the year award for my previous teacher, and seeing all the fun homecoming activities with students who I still recognize from my time in high school, which weirdly already seems so long ago. 

And then the columns. I don’t know about other readers, but I enjoy reading the columns of Eli, Deb, and Dave Zika because I know them - I’ve talked with them, worked with them. I know how they sound and sometimes I believe I know how they think, so it’s always fun reading their columns. Except, as expert writers, they make their columns majestic, poetic, like something out of a published book. I do not believe mine are poetic, but that’s fine. My columns are more of a flow of consciousness into text, all my thoughts and worries of the moment put into this column for anyone who wants to read them. 

I am currently writing this in Caribou so I’m going to plug them real quick. I don’t know why, but I love their beverages. My roommate and best friend works at a Caribou, so she knows all the secrets and has put me onto some delicious coffees. Also, we splurged last year and bought a Caribou growler so that we could continually have cold brew in our fridge. I rank that as one of the smartest things we have ever done. For some reason, I find Caribou to be vastly superior to Starbucks. I wonder whether any part of it is the sort of “conceited” attitude I perceive about the store or its customers. But if anyone is ever looking for a delicious coffee place, I highly recommend Caribou and their “nitro turtle mocha.” Or if you prefer carmel, get the “high rise.” 

My Determination: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything other than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice