A New Direction: Rae Goes Away

My name is Raelynn and it has been over 1 year since I've last blogged.

A YEAR! Can you believe it?! Last I was here, I was a Sophomore English major on track to study abroad in Ireland, go into the Peace Corps, and head off to grad school for Linguistics. My how a year changes things. Here are some major points:

• I'm now a Sociology Major, with a focus on Social Work and a minor in Nonprofit Administration.
• While I still hope to go abroad, I'm looking more into internships in global aid.
• Peace Corps is not out of the question, but it seems a little impractical by the time I'll finally finish my undergrad. I have 6 semesters left...
• I hope to go to Grad School for Counseling. I still love linguistics and study it independently, my heart really lies in helping others however I can. I'd love to work the "messy" cases most people don't want to know exist. I want to help the rape victims, the violence victims, those with mental illnesses, and, should I have the opportunity, genocide survivors, political refugees, and the like.
• I'm still writing. I'm beginning my second book next month and another in November. I've not yet approached any agents though, I want to flesh out the entire world to present, not just one novel.
• I have a new boyfriend. See here: Hiatus: Wii Unboxing! "(aka This is Keith)
• AND CHECK IT! NEW BLOG NAME!! LIFEDUCKS = RAE GOES AWAY! (I call that fair warning I will most likely disappear again.)

I guess those are the things that were before and now are changing, but a lot of entirely new things are happening too! Here, have another bulleted list:

• I'M MOVING OUT! As soon as Keith can find a job and we save the money we'll be getting our own place! I'm crazy excited about that, so be prepared for weird posts about moving and decor.
• I'm interning with a local nonprofit called PEP! (The Pet Education Project!).
• Keith and I are opening a nonprofit... in the future. That sounds a little weird and sketchy but it's happening and I will undoubtably say something about it eventually.

So, if you were wondering, life's good. I'm really wanting to get back into blogging and vlogging and everything I really enjoyed doing online. With school and work and interning and life it'll be hard, but I really do love it so hopefully some of you lovely readers will stick around?

That being said, since my life has changed so much my blogging will, inevitably, as well. If you didn't notice, last year, in general, my blogging was less about books I'd read and more just about books in general. I simply don't have the time to read like I used to. And what I do read I don't think anyone will be interested in. So, I think the biggest change to my blogging content will be the lessening of book talk. I still love to read and to buy books for those far off times when I will have time to read, but books take up far less of my life than they once did. Instead, I'll be posting more about my life and things I think about and do. Expect travel pieces, expect rants, expect introspection, expect DIYs and [failed] DIYs, expect recipes, expect anything. 

Basically, what I'm trying to say is I'm really going to try to dedicate myself to blogging again and that this isn't "Lifeducks" as you knew it (or didn't know it). Rae Goes Away is a just another lifestyle blog about random things in the life of a random girl somewhere in the world doing random things like someone cares. I hope you'll stick around.

Coming Home

As finals week wound down last week, I started moving my things home. I only live thirty minutes from campus, so it wasn't much of a move. Sometime before Friday (Tuesday I think, but maybe not), My mother and I discussed and I finally decided that this move home would be my last for a while. I'll be living at home with my mother and the bunnies this coming semester. I'm almost sad to leave the dorms, but I'm glad to be saving money now.

Moving home also means moving back into my old room. Thankfully, my "old" room isn't actually that old, so there's no Barney or butterflies to paint over on the walls. The big problem is that this room is much smaller than my dorm room and, obviously, a lot smaller than the two rooms I used to live in, so everything is so cluttered and I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

What, over the summer, was my desk is now cluttered with odds and ends and things I'm not really sure what yo do with. My shoes are piled, horribly, in a box. Clothes on hangers lay all over, mostly draped over boxes and such as I try to sort out what to keep and what to put in storage to donate. I'm really a clothes hoarder. I'm the worst with tee shirts. I really should make a tee shirt blanket, but I can't bear to cut the shirts anymore than I can get rid of them! Maybe I'll take a walk down memory lane and show you all some of my favorite "memory tees."

I did want to show this though. No, not my mismatched bedding, though the actual sheets are too cute and I'm really happy with them. Even the random comforter I found isn't as bad. My dorm bedding matched the purple pillow there. It looked horrible with my princess-style day bed and pretty pink everything else. Anyway, I'm currently reading Mockingjay and I'm so happy to be home for this part, specifically. Anytime I'm home, I seem to find or make time to read a lot more than I do in Arkansas with family/friends or at the dorms. I'm much less prone to lay, well, prone (ah good old Rifle Team terms leaking into my life again). I don't spend as much time laying around dreading doing anything. Instead I find I read a lot more, write a lot more, and blog a lot more.

I think this move will be good for my grades and mental health. It also puts me spending more time with my mom, which i a big deal to me if I'm hoping to study abroad soon. ;)

How did your finals go? Any big changes set for your December? What are you reading?

A Little Life Planning

At the end of last week, I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and glance through my archives here at Life Ducks. What I found was a lost of book reviews and one little post called The Question. Way back before the name Life Ducks had found me, particularly in May of 2011, I was nervous and excited to graduate high school. When I wrote this post I had just finished watching Eat. Pray. Love., a lovely movie (one of my favorites) about a woman who explores the world for a year. In the terror and confusion that was leaving the only world I'd ever known, pre-college school days, I started to think about what I wanted from life versus what I was actually working to achieve. Surprise, surprise, they didn't match up! I tell you all this as a way of explaining this post. Today I thought I'd share a little with you all about what I want and plan to do with my life, in a much less poetic way than the original post.

photocredit/photocredit
I still think this photo sums up my life dreams.

So what do I want to do? I'm currently in an undergraduate program working towards my English major with a focus on Creative Writing. What does that have to do with anything? Well, as you know I'm working on a novel at this very moment. Yes, I hope to be an accomplished author, but there's so much more to it than that.

Another thing I want for my life is to travel, a lot. That began with my first major trip the summer of 2010 when I went to Europe for the first time. This is going to continue with a study abroad program. I'm so excited that I can't even handle it. I'm not sure where I'm going yet, but I will be studying abroad. My first choice is Ireland, my second is Hong Kong. The program with which I'd go to Ireland is very prestigious  so, while I think I'll be accepted, I really need my back up plan. Either place I go, I hope to study culture and languages (especially Irish Gaelic).

After my undergraduate degree is earned, I plan to enlist in the Peace Corps. With the Peace Corps I will get formal training in a language and placed somewhere that I can truly help and make a difference in peoples' lives. My dream would be to be placed somewhere in the south Pacific or near the Indian Subcontinent. The languages there fascinate me and I hope to spend my life there.

But what can I do in the south pacific? Well, after my 27 month in the Peace Corps, I plan to attend graduate school in either London or Hawai'i. Hawai'i is actually my first choice. There I hope to study Linguistics, focusing specifically on documentation and conservation of endangered languages. And that's what I want to do as my career, study, document, and conserve endangered and dying languages around the globe, specifically in the South Pacific. 

To sum it up, my life plan is as follows:

1. Study abroad
2. Publish a novel
3. Finish my BA in English
4. Peace Corps
5. Graduate School
6. Research and conserve languages for the rest of ever.

Do you know what you want to do with your life? What are your wildest dreams?

Letters and Solitude

I do now, and always have, adored written communication. In school we wrote notes and now notes have turned to letters. Sadly, my old penpals and I have lost touch, so I look for new penpals! That's what I've been doing recently, searching and messaging new potential penpals! I am so excited to get back into letter writing with lovely people from around the globe!
I've always thought there was something wonderful about handwritten letters. I love knowing that someone spent the time and energy to find a pen and paper, sit down, and write out their thoughts specifically to send to me, and that I've done the same in return.
I really hope I find some amazing penpals again and that we can keep in touch for several years to come!

Interested in writing me? email me at lifeducks (at) gmail (dot) com and maybe we can work out something out!

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On an entirely separate note, I'm moving into my own room! Yes, I'm still living in the dorms, but soon I'll be moving into a single room, meaning I will have two beds and so much more room! I'm extremely excited! I think having a room to myself and more room to spread out will help me study and do better in my classes. 

Above is the outside of the beautiful dormitory in which I live. The rooms in this dorm are huge for dorm rooms! I certainly hope everything will be better when I don't have a roommate. Not that I don't love my roommate, I just can't handle the stress of my heavier course schedule and sharing space anymore. I still love my roommate, she's one of my good friends and one of my sorority sisters, but I need my own space. 

You all should certainly be looking forward to a tour of my room when I get settled in!

Have you ever lived in a dorm? Did you like it? What are some of your best study tips for hard course work? 

A Catch-Up Post

Goodness it's been so long! School started and everything went crazy! I haven't been here in weeks and I haven't been on Twitter for about as long! It's crazy! Here on campus I don't have a computer in my room and I certainly don't have a private computer, so it makes anything I can't do from my phone rather difficult. Here we go now, I'm going to try to catch y'all up on this thing that is my life.

1. Classes are.... classes. There is a lot of reading in my classes this year. We just finished one novel in my English class, The American by Henry James, and we've started another, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I probably won't review the first, I was unimpressed. I adore Henry James and I felt that novel was such a let down from the short stories I love.
   My french class is insanely difficult. We have a student who is fluent and from Togo, a French speaking country, and he gets as many things wrong as the American students do!
   History is not what I hoped it would be. I really need to read the course descriptions better! I hoped to study the great Kings and Queens of England (ie. Henry VIII, Elizabeth, William & Mary, etc.), but instead we're studying more about the uniting of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Empire! Such a let down!
   Script writing is amazing! It's a seminar style and I really love that. Each week about 4 people have 4-5 pages of a script they wrote read. Mine is being read today! I'm so excited! I've also got almost 20 pages of my script written. Perhaps I'll turn it into a short-ish film some day!
2. Joined the fencing team. This is actually a really new thing. I joined last Tuesday and had private training that day, then went to bouts on Thursday, and have private training again tomorrow! I really love fencing so I'm excite to learn more and compete for the first time in December!
3. Roommate is awesome! She's one of my sorority sisters and our room is amazing! We took away the whole dividing-the-room-between-rommies thing and made it one big room of sharedness. It's also covered in my photography and her art!
4. My sorority is great! We just got a new pledge class of really lovely, awesome girls! I'm extremely happy to see my sisterhood grow and I can't wait to get to know my new sisters more!
5. Grad school is in the works. I've picked out my top two Grad Schools (SOAS, University of London, or University of Hawaii, Manoa).
6. Doctor Who is.... GAH! I adore this show so much! I'm currently on the two part special that is the last with the Tenth Doctor and it's so sad! I don't want to see Ten go, but I'm interested to meet this Amy Pond that everyone is obsesed with!

I think that about sums up my life since we last spoke: Dorm, Class, Sorority, Fencing, Doctor Who. Yep, that's my life. I hope to be able to get back to posting regularly, but please excuse any college kid slacking I do.

How have you all been?

Life? When did that happen?

When I concluded people, my friends and sister, may actually want to be around me! It's been really great recently! I've spent a lot of time with friends/sister. I've never been more thankful for my sisters and my sorority than I am right now, but I'll get back to that in a bit.

The other night I went to hang out with my grandbig for one of the first few times. It was so great to see her and just to chat about stuff. We also watched the above movie, Sydney White, which I may review sometime soon.

Then last night, I house sat for my grandmother and invited one of my high school friends over. We hadn't spoken since Freshman year, so about 4 years apart, but she is transferring into my current university, so we got reconnected. Here's the awesome part, though: At her old university, she joined a sorority, my sorority. Now that she's transferring she's meeting the sisters here and I'm so grateful! We may have never been reconnected if it weren't for our sorority. I'm so so grateful. We were good friends in high school, and having spent over 24 hours together, nothing has changed. We're still awesome friends and I love this girl so much!

How has the start of your weekend been?

A Haul Of Sorts

Friday of last week I went into town. But that's for later. First, I want to show you guys something I made that I think is pretty killer.

The above is a photo of this case I made for a Nook Color. I really like the colours grey and pink together. The front has an iPhone holder as well, and the bow is a nice touch.... But wait. Why would I, the girl who obsessively reads print books and does not own an e-reader, make a Nook Color cover?

Yes. I got a Nook.

And I love it! It's so fantastic and convenient. I still love my print books as well, but I love the notes and highlight feature of my new Nook. On a similar note, I was contact for a review and was given the e-book copy. Having the Nook makes it so much easier for me to read and make notes and highlight quotes. No more shall I forget a major or minor flaw, nor shall I ever forget to mention the best parts ever again! Nook, I love you. Books, I still love you too.

Now that book I mentioned before, the above is the cover. It's called Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft by Jody Gehrman. I am currently 5 chapters in, should be about 23 or so Chapters in, and I'm actually quite liking it. There are a few stylistic things I have problems with, but they are very minor and after the first couple of chapters I stopped focusing on the and began focusing on the story instead. As it stands as I am on Chapter 5, I'm liking two of the major characters... but not so much the main character. She just isn't a kind of person I would like to hang with, but I have no real complaints with her. I hope to have the review up by Friday. Breaking the Monday Book Review Streak? Yes. But as I was approached for this one, I want the quickest turn around possible. So be looking forward to the book review and a special surprise along with it!

Now, let's try this again.  Friday of last week I went into town to buy a Nook. I came home with two things I just love and hold very precious. The first, of course, being my Nook. The second is much much more something I'd die without (figuratively). This is Audrey: A Life in Pictures, an amazing picto-biography of the actresses's life.

For any of you who know me well, you know Audrey is my absolute idol. (And for those who don't check out my inspiration post about Audrey).She is everything I hope to be. She was beautiful, successful, elegant, humble, and a humanitarian. She embodies class and elegance while she practiced a life long service to the world. I adore her and this book means the world to me! Plus, it was on sell for $7!

And that's all I have for you guys today. I hope you enjoyed this post!

Have you gotten anything interesting recently? Do you have an e-reader? What do you think of it?

A Friday of Fun: A Wrap Up Post

This week I've been fairly busying getting everything settled back in after my extended vacation, so I've been a bit absent around these parts. Despite the chaos and the fun, I managed to get you guys a couple of posts.

On Monday we had yet another book review. This week I reviewed Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with a sad 2 duck rating.

And on Wednesday I introduced a new feature called Pinning Sweetly. This feature is simply for me to show off a few of the lovely and/or useful things I find on Pinterest.

Also on the blog I've rearranged the sidebar a bit. I joined a group of bloggers who are all active in or are alumni of female Greek organizations called Being Greek and added the cute button to the right. I found it really interesting to see what some of my sorority sisters from around the country were blogging about and added my own blog to the list.

I also added my twitter feed to the sidebar. I'm usually very active on twitter and it's a great way to keep up with what my friends are doing. Follow me if you'd like to keep up with my day to day life!

Outside of the internet, I've had a pretty great week. On Wednesday night, my sister Marilyn, came over for a night of crafting for our future littles. It was so great to see her and to share supplies and ideas with a fellow crafter and sister!

Then last night, I had Marilyn and our friend Jacob over for a night of Dr. Who. We watched the first several episodes of the 2005 season. As unpopular as this statement may be, I do not yet find myself obsessed or even loving Dr. Who just yet. Perhaps with the next Doctor (the most popular Doctor), I'll develop a love like most of my friends to. No matter my opinions of the show, I had a great time laughing and slaughtering the English language with my sister and fellow English major. It was a great night!

Finally, today I finished the book Choker by Elizabeth Woods. I don't want to say too much, as I will be reviewing the book soon, but it was a wonderfully surprising book! I also typed up my review of The Espressologist by Kristina Springer. That review will be up 8am Monday.

I'm so happy with my week. I felt very productive and it was quite nice. Now I'm off to catch up on my YouTube subscriptions from the past two weeks and to play around online.

How was your week? Did you read anything interesting, make any interesting crafts, or do anything fun?

A Quick Post from a Computer That isn't Mine

Hey there guys! I just have a few moments to peck out this message. I'm still in Colorado, won't leave until Monday, and it's fantastic! I'm trying to take many many photos to share, but I'm so overwhelmed by the beauty I forget to sometimes!
Definitely check out my recent tweets, I've been live tweeting a large amount of my trip! @foreverraelynn
I hope everyone had a wonderful week and I will see you again soon!

This Week From Raelynn:

Princess Diaries: A Book Review - A positive, 4-duck review of Meg Cabot's well-known book The Princess Diaries.


Of Sisters, Food, and Explosives - A photo heavy post of my weekend with my wonderful sorority sisters!

A Change of Pace - A lengthy, text heavy post about my reasons for attempting to transfer and the reasons for this trip to Colorado!

The Great iPhone Clean Out - A very photo heavy post filled with all the photos off of my iPhone permanently  placed on the internet for all to see.

Finishing Friday - A post that didn't go as planned about the craft items I finished this week. The photo did not load as expected, but I will fix that the moment I get home!

The Great Iphone Clean Out

Before I left for Colorado, I wanted to clean out a lot of the pictures on my phone in order to have room for all new pictures and videos. But what to do with the pictures I didn't want to lose? So I thought, where can I put pictures where they will never go away? The Internet, of course! Once You put something online, you can't take it back no matter how hard you try! That sounded perfect to me for my beloved photos. And where better online than on my beloved, lovely blog? So without editing, here are a couple of photos from my phone, and the rest will be after the page cut. Please enjoy a peek into what I use my camera for!

What do you do with the photos you take on your phone/smartphone/iPod/etc. that you don't want to lose?

Of Sisters, Food, and Explosives

As promised Sunday, this is the continuation of the saga of my weekend. I'm leaving for Colorado tomorrow and cannot wait to see everyone and the fantastic state!

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After finishing all the baking I mentioned in An Adventure in Baking, I went to bed. The next morning, Saturday, I got up at 7:30am and began getting ready for the day. The morning was to be full of house and yard work, so I didn't snap a picture of my boring yard clothes. At 9:15 I left for the morning and hit the interstate towards the Sorority house. I got there and hung out with a few of my sisters until everyone else showed up and tasks were distributed. I actually enjoy cleaning the Sorority house, maybe it's the fact that everytime I'm there I'm surrounded by girls I love. After all our tasks, which ranged from stripping wallpaper to painting letters to dusting to weeding, we all took a break and headed out for an awesome lunch and some more bonding. 

After lunch, we all found our way back to the house and went over some awesome stuff for fall rush/recruitment, did a bit more cleaning, then broke for the afternoon.

Sorry for the horrible quality, I was in such a hurry, I had 15 minutes to shower, dress, and take this photo.

At 6pm, the real party started. It was so much fun being there with all the girls that I forgot to take pictures until things started exploding (more on that in a moment). It was a potluck, so there was plenty of wonderful food. While we ate, and after, we all sat around our main room and caught up on all the happenings of life. One thing that is never missing in our house is laughter, man did we laugh. A little later, we pulled out the board games, divided into teams, and played a rather competitive and hilarious game of Cranium. I loved seeing all my sisters' talents on display.

Finally, the sun started to set and we started lighting things on fire, or at least a couple of the girls did. Don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds. On of my sister's parents own a fireworks stand and she brought a wide array of flamables left over form the 4th of July! Okay, it was a little scary to think of these girls with explosives, but all turned out well. We watched sparkly lights, didn't get arrested, and got some amazing pictures.

I was so happy to see all the girls, especially my grand-big! This is her after catching a "parachute" from one of the fireworks.

It was such a wonderful night and day with my sisters. It makes me hate consindering tranferring to another school, and another chapter, but they've been supportive of my dreams and I feel confident I've got friends for a lifetime!