The cookie cake my Dad brought me.

I’m only a few days away from turning 21. Today, many students including my freshman brother Brett packed up to head home after their first year of college. It’s an important milestone and a day filled with lots of cleaning but also lots of joy as a result of  being done with classes for awhile. My dad drove up to help Brett transport all of his things home. He also dropped off some cookie cake for my birthday which was awesome! Tomorrow, I have to go coach four soccer games in the morning before I’m done with things for the day and can relax. Some of my friends from Sioux Falls are coming up for my birthday on Saturday and then leaving Sunday so I’m excited to spend some time with them up here in the Fargo Moorhead Area. We don’t really have anything planned once they get up here, but they haven’t ever been up here before so I’m sure we will find something to do. I’m also the last of us 4 friends that is turning 21, so it’s exciting that we are all 21 now. I’m excited to see what the weekend has in store for me and to start off the summer with some fun!

Our Netgear Nighthawk router in all of its glory.

In today’s world, wi-fi has become increasingly important and sought after. There are many whom are entirely too dependent on it and some who even feel they can’t live without it. At our house in Fargo, there are three of us roommates who have PlayStation 4’s and like to game. Having three PlayStation requires a pretty decent wifi connection, and our current set up wasn’t cutting it. We collectively knew very little about modems and routers and such, such looking at upgrading was very confusing. We did some research, and decided we would need a new router and need trade in our modem/router combo for just a modem. It’s typically better to have a separate modem and router if you are supposed so many devices as opposed to having one combo machine that does both. The first router we brought home was an Apple AirPort Extreme. The wi-fi worked well for about 30 minutes but then vanished. All devices said they were connected, but there was not service. We first called Apple, and they were unable to fix it and said things should be working. Then we called Midcontinent and they were unable to fix it and said things should be working. We took back the Apple router and picked up a Netgear Nighthawk router and so far it has been working great.

Excitement was in the air at Pepsi Complex.

Today is Cornstock, and many cobbers have full agendas for the day. For fellow roommate/blogger/coach Sage Thornbrugh and I, the day consisted largely of coaching 8 and 9 year old boys soccer games out at the Pepsi Complex in Fargo. We had three games that day, and our opponents were a variety of older boys and girls teams from the area. Coaching kids at such a young age is always a bit of a wildcard as far as what to expect. Today was no exception. One of the kids pulled a huge bag of fortune cookies out of his soccer backpack, which was strange enough as is. When I asked him where he got them, he said he got it for one dollar and twenty five cents but didn’t remember where he had gotten them. On the less fun end of the spectrum of unexpected happenings, one of the boys started to cry after a girl kicked him. He was upset that there wasn’t a foul called. Trying to reason with him, I asked him if the kick would have hurt less if it had been called a foul. He defiantly responded with a “Yes!” before going back to crying. Overall it was a very fun day of coaching! You never know what will happen when it’s gametime for the young boys.

My much more organized closet.

Today I did a little spring cleaning. This resulted largely due to my girlfriend forcing me to. Either way, I was very thankful for her help and feel good about all the cleaning we got done. I had gotten into a habit of leaving papers and things from class strewn about on the floor and the shelf in my closet. After two busy semesters, the stacks of papers had gotten pretty out of control so it was nice to finally get them taken care of. The whole process reminded me of cleaning out my dorm room in past years. It’s always surprising to see just how much trash and junk finds it way into your room in the duration of a full year. The difference with this year and previous years when I was cleaning my dorm, is that I will be staying and living in this room instead of moving out like with the dorm rooms. The weather is finally starting to make a turn for the better, and I can’t wait to get these last few days of school out of the way.  I am really craving some travel this summer and I’m looking forward to making that happen.

My new battery and the package it came in.

With only about two weeks classes left until summer, I ran into some unfortunate computer problems. The battery for my laptop apparently died or broke in some way, and as a result I could only use my laptop if it was plugged in. The computer would say “0% plugged in, not charging.” This isn’t great news obviously. So I ended up having to get a new battery shipped in to replace this old one if I wanted to use my laptop in a portable way at all as finals approach. This time of year is very stressful as students try and prepare for the inevitable onslaught that is finals week. With Summer so close, it’s hard to focus in and grind out the last of the schoolwork for the year. My laptop complications only added to procrastination. I would often not work on a paper of a project because I didn’t want to go through the hassle of having to plug my computer in. Today, my new battery finally came in the mail, and it feels glorious to have a properly functioning laptop again. Now I just need to stop procrastinating and  power out two papers and prepare for the one finals test I have. Summer is right around the corner and couldn’t come any sooner.