Phew. October went by fast. As promised, here’s my monthly recap.

October started with a bang. I woke up, like clockwork, on Oct. 1, feeling like garbage. I got up and powered through it, considering I had a busy day scheduled. I had a presentation in Ethics, an appointment with a professor, a paper to turn in and men’s basketball media day. Luckily for me, that day became even more hectic.

As I was sitting in my professor’s office, the lights went out. But it wasn’t just the lights. It was everything. All the power, in Stauffer-Flint at least, had gone out. I, of course, hopped on social media and found out that the power had gone out all over campus. I headed to the newsroom to see what was going on… and volunteered to run all over campus to figure out where the power was on and where it was not.

I went to Haworth, Malott, Summerfield, Murphy, Military Sciences, Anschutz, Robinson, Watkins, the Rec and Wescoe before I was alerted to something else. One of my sisters posted in the our group message that one of the buildings I was headed to next (Snow) was being evacuated due to smoke. I sprinted up the hill and got to Snow just as four firetrucks and several other emergency vehicles were arriving. For a while, no one knew anything, but it was found out that the emergency generator kicked on when the power went out and started producing smoke that went into the air vents.That was all before 1:00. The rest of the day went smoother. I interviewed a lot of men’s basketball players and coaches and went to the doctor. I had a upper respiratory virus that was mimicking Strep. Lovely. Apparently it was incredibly common and there really wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it.

When I got home, I cleaned my room and my bathroom. [Yep. I even vacuumed and made my bed. (Mom, be proud of me.)] I also did a ton of laundry because I had been too busy. And Day 1 of October was officially over. That was probably one of the craziest days I’d had since stepping on to KU’s campus.

But after that, the rest of the month was a blur until the very end.

Mom and I went to California from Oct. 22 to Oct. 26 so I could accept my award from the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation.

It was so much fun. We toured Santa Anita Park and the Rose Bowl while we were there, as well as had In-N-Out Burger and some more upscale meals than that.

During the banquet, I pulled a total Amie.

Everyone who knows me knows I love pasta more than life itself. Everyone know knows me also knows that I’m incredibly clumsy at times. Well, the two went together like ice cream and apple pie.

I’m not sure exactly how the logistics of it all went down, but I ended up with pasta all over my blouse and in my hair…. 15 minutes or so before I’m to be recognized. So, my mom and I head upstairs to the bathroom and determine that my blouse is not salvageable, so it’s tossed. I’m left with my stained white camisole and my perfectly untouched pencil skirt. One of the other award winner’s moms happened to have perfect timing and came into the bathroom as my mom and I are trying to figure this out. She, bless Mrs. Scherer, came up with the idea to use my mom’s sweater as a top. It worked. Most people couldn’t even tell I changed clothes.

When I got back to Kansas a few days later, I thought that life would go back to normal. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

On that Wednesday, just two days after we returned, I called my mom. I knew she had some test results coming back, but I wasn’t too horribly worried, but I waited until I was walking home.

She dropped a bomb on me. It was definitely something I didn’t expect.

“It’s cancer,” she said.

I’m still trying to process everything. I’m still not exactly sure what’s going on. Right now, I’m not good at coming up with words to say about it. I’m going to try to blog it out here soon.

October Articles:

• Oct. 1: STORIFY: What you need to know about Thursday’s power outage
• Oct. 2: Haley Bishop shines at KU swim’s version of “Late Night in the Phog”
• Oct. 3: No. 12 Kansas volleyball cruises to 15th straight win
• Oct. 4: Chiefs QB Alex Smith’s sack number dominates conversation in Week 4 lows
• Oct. 5: JUST VERDICT: Chiefs QB Alex Smith on record-breaking pace for times sacked
• Oct. 6: KU volleyball jumps to No. 10 in national rankings
• Oct. 7: Sweet 16: KU volleyball surpasses program win record with victory over Texas Tech
• Oct. 8: Jayhawks continue quarterback turnover as Baylor looms
• Oct. 9: No. 10 KU volleyball to take on conference rival Iowa State
• Oct. 10: Jayhawks drubbed by No. 3 Baylor 66-7 to remain winless
• Oct. 10: COLUMN: How far can Kansas volleyball go?
• Oct. 11: Jamaal Charles’ possible ACL tear focal point of Week 5 lows
• Oct. 12: JUST VERDICT: Jamaal Charles faces another long road to recovery with ACL tear
• Oct. 12: Kansas volleyball jumps one spot to No. 9 in latest AVCA rankings
• Oct. 14: In lost season, Jayhawks focus on developing freshmen
• Oct. 14: Kansas volleyball extends win streak to 18-0 in win over Baylor
• Oct. 17: Texas Tech holds off Kansas 30-20
• Oct. 17: Kansas still winless after falling to Texas Tech 30-20
• Oct. 18: Penalties dominate lows from Chiefs’ fifth straight loss
• Oct. 19: JUST VERDICT: Injuries, regardless of severity, plaguing 1-5 Chiefs
• Oct. 19: Undefeated Kansas volleyball moves up to No. 7 in latest AVCA poll
• Oct. 20: Kansas QB Cummings unlikely to get sixth year of eligibility
• Oct. 21: Kansas volleyball to face trial by fire in matchup with No. 2 Texas
• Oct. 25: Defensive effort headlines highs in Chiefs’ win over Steelers
• Oct. 26: JUST VERDICT: How do the Chiefs stack up to their Royals counterparts?
• Oct. 27: Blog: KU swimming and diving worth the trek to Robinson
• Oct. 31: Kansas gets blown out by Oklahoma 62-7