Regional convention, Inside Out, and Arcade Games

"God tell us the reason youth is wasted on the young..."

~Lost Stars, Keira Knightley (Begin Again)

Hello!

It's been a while since the blog here was updated, so here we go with some life updates! 

I'm going to start by talking about the Phi Theta Kappa Illinois Regional Convention! This was a convention that was similar to the International Convention in April, except a lot smaller and only including community colleges in Illinois. It took place in the middle of nowhere Mt. Vernon, Illinois and a tiny college that was about 45 minutes from our hotel (it was truly the middle of nowhere...that was the closest hotel to the school!). We left on Friday, June 5 for our 5 hour drive in our little coach bus driven by our advisor. There were only 3 students who could go (me, Adrian, and Kayla), but it was pretty fun with such a small group! I feel a lot closer to them after this trip!

Kayla, me, and Adrian on our way to regional Convention!

Fun story from the way there: While we were driving, about 25 minutes into the drive, this man in a little white car zoomed in front of us while making frantic gestures, and we all assumed he was flipping us off! Our advisor, Heidi, waved to him, thinking he was just being a jerk. Later down the road, we saw the same guy pulled over on the side of the road, and as we passed, he continued with the crazy gestures! The four of us complained, wondering why he was picking us out! However, even later, the same guy was driving alongside us, gesturing for Heidi to roll down the window... when she did, he yelled, "Your back door is open!"

...We were all shocked. He wasn't trying to be rude to us. It was quite the opposite...he had followed us for so long to tell us the back cargo door was open. Heidi flipped out, pulled over, and checked the back. Everything looked okay, except Adrian's luggage had fallen out of the bus! We didn't know exactly what to do; the only thing we thought of was to turn around and see if we could find the luggage on the road.

However! Right as we were pulled over discussing what to do, I started getting a call from Adrian's brother Andrew. Andrew told me that some guy had called their house saying he found Adrian's luggage in the road! We were so relieved! The guy (whose name was Curt) picked up the luggage and met Andrew at our college, declined a money reward, and went on his way to work. What a great guy! It's nice to know that there are such caring people out there who are willing to go out of their way for others (I mean, he could have just swerved around the luggage like everyone else on the road...but he stopped!). After we heard that, we turned around and met Andrew and their mom at a nearby McDonald's to get the luggage back. What a relief! This situation could have been A LOT worse.

Of course, the whole thing was documented on Snapchat...

Just chillin in a random McDonald's parking lot.

After that whole fiasco, we got back on the road. Five hours later, we arrived at our hotel and got ready for the first general session. All of the chapters met in the hotel banquet hall for a speaker who spoke about success and did some magic tricks. It was pretty entertaining!

First day of the convention!

When you look terrifying af, but you're really just drawing a house on your head.

That night, the three of us chilled in mine and Kayla's hotel room for a bit and I played a bit of uke (Kayla thought I had been playing for a long time...it's only been about a few weeks! How sweet!).

Saturday was the big day of the convention. We got up early for breakfast and then headed to the school that the educational forums would be held at.

Selfie with Adrian in this warehouse that was actually a school...

We started with another general session where one of the old International Officers gave a great speech with some great advice. We then went to our educational forums (I went to one about social media and another about conflict resolution...they weren't that exciting, but they could have been a lot worse!). We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the banquet and award ceremonies that night! This was the best part because we got to dress all classy!

Aren't we a classy bunch?? Gotta love the cute clothes and shoes you can find at thrift stores!

The banquet was pretty tasty, and we shared a table with some people from another chapter and they were all really nice! 

After we ate, the award ceremony was held, and our chapter got quite a few awards! Although Adrian, Kayla, and I are new in the group, we got to accept the awards because we were the only people from our chapter in attendance.

Our beautiful, shiny awards!

The festivities after the awards were pretty much just a dance, but it really looked lame and small, so we decided to opt out. Instead, we met up with the three girls from our banquet table along with two others from another school who also thought the dance looked lame, and we all played cards! I taught them all how to play Mau, and then we brought out Quelf and played that. It was a ton of fun! We all later added each other on Facebook and took a cute elevator selfie (with most of them, not everyone)

weird sign hanging in the hotel hallway...there were some weirdos there.

The next day, we just ate some breakfast, ended the convention, and headed back home. Thankfully we made it back without losing anyone's luggage! Also, something really weird happened on Yik Yak! At international in April, someone had posted about PTK, and I, along with a few other strangers, commented on it, and ever since then, we've all been commenting on it and conversing! Another person said they were going to the Illinois regional convention, and we decided we'd try to find each other. Unfortunately, we didn't get to meet in person because their chapter left early, but I later found out that the mysterious person was the International officer that gave the speech on Saturday! I was so surprised because I actually knew who he was and thought his presentation was amazing! Too bad we didn't get to meet in person, but now we do chat on snapchat occasionally. 

My lovely friend Brittney at her grad party

Some other things occurring in my life: Tis the season for graduation parties! A lot of my friends graduated from high school and college, so I've been to quite a few grad parties, and have more coming up. Also, I've been seeing a lot of my friends this summer and spending time with them at every opportunity! I got to see Cecilia for a bit before she left for her job, and we got to pet puppies again, so that was fun!

Cecilia and cute dachshund puppy!

Partying with Erika at Target

Been playing tons of video games lately

Honors in Action meeting for PTK, featuring Kayla, Adrian, and JT's hand

Other than that, I've been spending my time practicing ukulele and working. I really love having the uke because I've really missed playing music. I played flute for ten years, and dropped it this past school year because our school's band program is actually terrible. Also, I love my job at Bath and Body Works! Right now is the Semi-annual sale, so we've been kind of busy, but I really love working with people and my coworkers are all really cool! I feel really lucky to have landed such an amazing part-time job!

Playin uke in mysterious snapchat

First day of work selfie!

ALSO! This past Tuesday, I went to see Inside Out! I've been waiting for this movie for about a year, and it's finally here! I went with my friends Marli and Rami to this Insider Access thing where we got to see the film three days before it opened, and we got lanyards and quality posters, and got to see a tour of Pixar studios, as well as an interview with Amy Poehler and Pete Docter! It was absolutely amazing, and there were very few people there, so it was even better, and because the interview part had some technical difficulties (the video wasn't working, but the audio was...), we each got two readmission tickets for sticking through it! Anyway, besides that great experience, the movie itself as absolutely beautiful! Pixar never disappoints, and Inside Out really proved that once again. Such a cute, emotional film in which everything is just so clever! I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that everything is so clever and it's adorable and relatable, and the music is phenomenal!

my drawing of the emotions in the film

One last thing in this insanely long post! This past Thursday was my dad's birthday, and we went to Level 257 to celebrate. Level 257 is a restaurant owned by Namco, so everything is Pac-Man themed! We didn't eat there, but there is a large arcade with old video games in it, and we spent a long time there just playing games. I love that place and the whole atmosphere! They have 80s memorabilia all around and play 80s music, and the arcade games are amazing, of course. My mom got mad at me because I beat her Galaga high score twice! My second score was unbeatable by everyone in my family who played after me though ;)

Dig Dug!

Versing my mom in Donkey Kong

 

Versing my sister in Pengo

Well yeah! Sorry this post is so long, but I just haven't updated in a while! I'll try to get back on it! Here's to a great Father's day and rest of June!

With love,

Olivia