Sigma Kappa sisters are REAL.

These two pictures are of my pledge class in Sigma Kappa. The first is us being crazy on bid day and the second is from a formal photoshoot we did around town (photo #2 credit to Britney and Brandi Smith, Sigma Kappa alums).

I never thought I would be a part of something so amazing, but yet here I am. This sorority has gone above and beyond my expectations about what a group of women could be. I wouldn't be anything else but a Sigma Kappa for the world.

That being said, I made my little announcement about the Great Strides walk at meeting last night. I was shaking. My heart was pounding. It felt like the room was 130 degrees, even though I was cold just a few minutes prior. I made my announcement (with the help of notes!) and even included WHY this walk was so important to me, even if only so briefly. Nobody scooted away from me like I was contagious. There was no sudden gasp that resounded through the quiet meeting room. No whispers once I was finished talking. Nobody stared at me like I was now something to be feared/studied/avoided. The meeting simply continued, and a friend close to me both physically and at heart leaned in and told me I did a good job. She knew I was terrified. Before the next announcement in the meeting, a comment was made by our Vice President: "support your sisters". The next announcement was from another close friend. It was about supporting me [and the walk] monetarily if they were unable to go with me. These girls went above and beyond what I had expected as a result. I tend to fear the worst, and was more than pleasantly surprised when none of my fears came true. Immediately girls leaned over to me and told me that they would be there for sure. Others came to me after meeting and wanted to know how they could help if they were unable to come. The sisterhood that Sigma talks about is REAL. These girls really and truly care about me, my well-being, and want to support me in everything I do. I thank God for my sisters in Sigma Kappa.

-Andrea

A little of this... a little of that...

My mind has been going 1000 different ways at once all week. I still don't have much of anything to post about to take up a whole post, so I'll carry on about a few different things. I'll even number them for pure entertainment.

1. Guys rush is over!! No more late nights cooking food in mass quantities. Thank goodness.
2. I found out I cook a mean sheep dip. Don't google "sheep dip" because what I cooked is not what you will find. What sheep dip is in my family = meaty cheese dip in everyone else's. No one is completely sure where our term for it came, but it still stands.
3. I'm tired of people pointing out that I cough. Thanks, but I'm pretty well aware of it. Mind your own business.
4. Tonight is Sunday Night Soccer again! My legs hurt just thinking about it. It's gonna be fun, but I still won't be able to hang with the guys for very long. I get so winded...
5. Doctor's appointment quickly approaching... really nervous about that. I know I always say I have a bad feeling about the PFT results, but I do this time too. aaaahhhhhhhh!
6. I studied way too long for a test I didn't do nearly as good on as I had hoped. *frustrated*
7. Went back to my college-town church today and was reminded of how much I love it!
8. Great Strides is Oct. 9. This evening at meeting I'm going to get up the courage to ask my sorority to walk it with me. I'm terrified.

That's all for now.

-Annie

Everything huuurrrttsss

Central location of pain ATM: my right shin. Playing soccer at night with no lights with college guys and without shin guards, yet not backing down from any tackle because that's not my style results in a skin colliding VERY hard with a knee or foot or whatever that was. Thought I broke it at first, but apparently I just can't break my own bones (knock on wood!) so thankfully it's just a big ol' bruise. But, because it's never fair, you can't see my big ol' bruise! It's hidden, but hurts like crazy!!

Whoa, rewind. Yeah, that's right. I played soccer tonight. It was so much fun. As one of the few girls playing, I have to earn my respect. Working on it.

Seriously? About 2 weeks until my next doctor appointment? Didn't I just go?! Awesome...

I'm so tired. It's time for bed. Gnight.

I feel terrible.

-Annie

Oh, hang on. Graffiti party was epic. 100000x better than last year, and I loved it last year. I got there around 10:30 (started at 10) and the place was already packed out. I was there from 10:30 until 1 when the cops shut it down for noise. I mean, 800+ people, of course it's going to be noisy. So much fun. I bloodied up my foot though, but it's ok. It started hurting again about an hour into the soccer tonight. Happens. My shin welp still isn't visible but it hurts and it's really hot. Weird. NOW it's time to go to sleep.

Skin irritation...

So long story short, I have very itchy bumps around both of my eyes... NOT COOL. They have been bothering me since yesterday. I believe the culprit is my makeup.... it's probably just barely "too old" and needed replacing. I only put the base right around my eye, where I don't have any colour naturally, so I don't look like I have white raccoon rings. I tried to get a picture for you, but it's hard to do. They are faint, yet you can kinda tell something is off. Not to mention I haven't put much/any makeup over that area so I look ghastly. I just put a dab of cortizone itch cream hoping it would soothe... so far nothing. I'm just going to buy a new compact of my makeup and wait for the irritation to go down, and hopefully not get worse!

It's party time again! Graffiti party! I went last year and had fun and it's going to be even better this year! I've got my white shirt on and I'm going to be picking up my heart sis in just a few minutes to go! Can't wait!

In case you don't remember (or I didn't mention), a graffiti party is where everyone wears white shirts, the house is blacklighted, and everyone walks around writing on each other with highlighters so it glows. There's music too of course. When put into words, it doesn't sound nearly as awesome as it is in real life, haha! So pumped!

-Annie

Picture sums up my evening

This one picture sums up my evening. This, and a picture of Sewer, the Rat, that I held, but I didn't get a picture with her. It was a fun evening!

(Disclaimer, this is not my pet. Her name is Frances)

Update + meltdown

So I moved back to college and started work week for rush almost immediately. Work week has long hours but it so much fun! I really got closer to my sisters! Following work week was rush, which was even longer hours, but was a huge success! (Rush, for those who don't know, is a term for formal recruitment for the sororities/fraternities on campus). Rush and school started on the same day, so that made the long hours even longer. It's been neat to see my new sisters in my classes. Like in my anatomy class, we have a group of about 10 of us, which is awesome!

I'm still trying to recover from those two weeks. It's really hard to catch up, but I'm trying. This weekend is going to be fun too though! Football, parties, and bringing so of my freshman friends to my church! Just wish I could catch up on sleep somewhere in there... haha!

So opening up socially about having CF is having some repercussions I didn't expect... like people trying to baby me or mother me. No details, but one incident left me in tears. She meant well, 100%, and she had no idea that it would affect me, but it did. Another scenario, which is occurring more often, has me on the edge of anger plus tears too. This is not exactly what I had hoped would happen. This is actually my worst fear. I'm being labelled by my disease. How could I let this happen?? I want to fix it but I don't know how. Part of me wants to just stop mentioning CF completely and pray they forget. But what if I have to go to the hospital for something? They won't forget that. But I don't want to submerse myself in it because I don't want them to think I'm fragile, which is what it has come to. .........................

Running errands today then hanging with my sisters tonight. Gonna be fun!

-Annie

RUSH!

Hey! Rush just ended tonight. I had temporarily donated my computer to Sigma Kappa for recruitment so I didn't have one! SORRY for the absence! I'll update again soon with more info! But right now, I have homework!

-Annie

Good Time Management

Quick post/story about today

My schedule today was church, mock recruitment, and go home. The times were as follows:

Church- 9am to 10am

Be back at the Sigma house at 11:30

Mock Recruitment from 1:30-3:30ish

Workshop from 3:30-6

Skit rehearsal 6-we're done.

AHHH!!!

Somehow I had to fit in Cayston, which needs to be 4 hours apart, in there! How did I do it?? Good time management..........

..............in other words..........

I woke up at 5am to do Albuterol (fell back asleep whoops!) and did Cayston at 6am. I went back to sleep (on purpose this time!) until 7:something so I could then get ready for church. Then, between church and being at the Sigma Kappa house, I fit in my afternoon Cayston!! That was at almost 11am. That's 5 hours!!! WOO!! But if I hadn't planned out my day ahead of time, knowing how it was going to go, and then getting up early enough to get it done, my day would have gone very differently.

Mind you, if I had told our advisors/rush chairman that I needed to run back to the apartment to do some medicines, they would have let me go without any problem. But I didn't want to do that! I want to be THERE spending time with my sisters and singing the songs for the 1,395,599th time this week! I don't want to have to excuse myself from my LIFE because of CF unless I really need to. And today, it was fixable and I went very out of my way to fix it so I could be there when I needed/wanted to be.

Now, it's time for the evening dose of Cayston before I finish this round tomorrow afternoon!! Get excited, I know I AM! Just in time for Rush!!

-Annie

ps: I'm so glad my aunt and my sis-in-law got to come today! It made it even more special to me that you two came! THANK YOU!!

Rush Workshop: sick day

Yesterday I didn't attend the morning workshop because I was curled up in a little ball on my bed unable to move. Awesome. I showed up for the second half of workshop (after lunch) when I felt just a little bit better. Every girl I talked to told me to go back to bed. "This week doesn't matter as much as next week when we'll really need you!! Take care of yourself now!" So, I followed my sisters' advice and stayed in bed/on the couch all day yesterday. I hated missing workshop, but they were right. And I feel a lot better today! And, just to show another reason why I love my sisters, they made me a get well card! A lot of the girls signed it and it really did brighten my sad, sick day and made me feel better. I love these girls.

My voice is lost every day of workshop and comes back the next morning. Current voice status: shaky. But I need it for tonight because it's FOOTBALL GAME NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

Still super busy. I get a break in a few days. Sorta.

-Annie