Academic Infidelity

I feel like I have a mistress. I am married to Sociology. This is the major I have chosen, the major I have gone through college with, telling everyone I love and care for. I've put so much time into my marriage with Sociology (time, but not really a whole lot of effort) that I don't want to quit now. But I've fallen out of love with Sociology. I'm not even sure I ever loved her to begin with.

Internet, please don't tell Sociology, but I've been seeing someone else, almost from the very beginning. I love English. I love English so much more than Sociology. When I have rough times, I run to English for comfort. She understands me in a way that Sociology never will, and since I'm not married to her, our relationship causes little to no stress in my life. Everything comes so much more naturally with English.

I don't know what to do; I love English, and want to be with her, but it is so much simpler to maintain the status quo. I'm not sure I want to rock the boat, and I don't think that Sociology suspects a thing. But isn't that even worse? I'm not doing right by Sociology or English: lying to Sociology, and not admitting my true love of English. I feel so guilty, knowing that no matter what I do, I can't have both ease and happiness.

If I switch to English now, it will mean another year of school, another year of tuition. If I stay with Sociology, I'll have to deal with getting a degree in something that I don't really like as much as I thought I would when I declared my major. Should I be happy with finishing school as quickly as possible, with a Sociology degree and minor in English, or should I switch them around, getting an English degree that takes longer but is more fulfilling, and minoring in Sociology? Any advice is welcome.

Academic Infidelity

I feel like I have a mistress. I am married to Sociology. This is the major I have chosen, the major I have gone through college with, telling everyone I love and care for. I've put so much time into my marriage with Sociology (time, but not really a whole lot of effort) that I don't want to quit now. But I've fallen out of love with Sociology. I'm not even sure I ever loved her to begin with.

Internet, please don't tell Sociology, but I've been seeing someone else, almost from the very beginning. I love English. I love English so much more than Sociology. When I have rough times, I run to English for comfort. She understands me in a way that Sociology never will, and since I'm not married to her, our relationship causes little to no stress in my life. Everything comes so much more naturally with English.

I don't know what to do; I love English, and want to be with her, but it is so much simpler to maintain the status quo. I'm not sure I want to rock the boat, and I don't think that Sociology suspects a thing. But isn't that even worse? I'm not doing right by Sociology or English: lying to Sociology, and not admitting my true love of English. I feel so guilty, knowing that no matter what I do, I can't have both ease and happiness.

If I switch to English now, it will mean another year of school, another year of tuition. If I stay with Sociology, I'll have to deal with getting a degree in something that I don't really like as much as I thought I would when I declared my major. Should I be happy with finishing school as quickly as possible, with a Sociology degree and minor in English, or should I switch them around, getting an English degree that takes longer but is more fulfilling, and minoring in Sociology? Any advice is welcome.

Total Greatness

Uffish's good mood from yesterday magically switched over to me today. Not only am I still excited about having skates, but I also had lots of fun in badminton today, where we played silly games, like "badminton volleyball," and sillier games, like, "I'ma dump like 20 birdies on the court, and give you like three minutes in which to hit them. Whoever has the least birdies on their side of the court at the end, wins." We've only had three classes so far in the course, but I already feel an improvement in my ability to hit the birdie where I want it to go, and more importantly, in being able to hit the birdie at all.

Beyond badminton, I enjoyed my dance class as well. I finally found a suitable pair of shoes for the class (knock-off walmart Keds for like $4), so I didn't have to dance in socks today. We're putting the finishing touches on our group projects (make your own line dance!), and will present on Wednesday. Hooray for not feeling nearly as clumsy as I imagined I would!

I amazingly got my reading and writing done for my monday afternoon sociology class, and I went to my poetry class where I totally rocked all the professor's leading questions (what do you think the field and single tree could represent in Wordsworth's Intimations on Immortality? :the garden of Eden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, duh!). I'm rapidly pulling away from the rest of the class, who only could muster the "duh" part of my answer. Hooray for growing up in a religious atmosphere, as well as an intelligent atmosphere. Who knew those things would come in handy in a poetry class? :P

Hmm... what else good happened today? Sociology was pretty boring, and I made the mistake of eating a fruity snack before, instead of during class, and therefore had a giant blood sugar drop in the middle of class and nearly fell off my chair in sleepiness.

OH! OH! I just remembered why I started this post to begin with! As I was leaving my soc class, I saw a bunch of boxes sitting on the floor outside the map library, with a sign taped above them that said, "Students, feel free to take these." I totally felt free to the amount of five cute little book things. The insides are full of boring words and stuff, but the covers are sweet and green with nifty little pictures on them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I know they'll come in handy for something. Better safe and possessing a bunch of fun little books than sorry, I always say.

Guess what I'm wearing!

Ok, you'll never guess, so I'll tell you. I'm wearing my argyle tights, a pink tank top, some light blue seersucker shorts, and an old pair of ice skates, borrowed from a friend of a friend. Any time I tell you I'm excited about what I'm wearing, it's a good possibility that I'm wearing my argyle tights. They make every outfit more charming. Having reported that I have ice skates in my possession, let the nonstop prayers (protecting me from my dangerous activities) of my mother begin!

In other news, today at church, the Mathematical Knight taught me how to solve a rubix cube. Hooray! One of my life goals has been accomplished. It's surprisingly easy: he taught me the various steps in probably about a half hour, and I solved it twice in the next 15-20 minutes. Hah! I am a master.

YO-GA! YO-GA!

I'm taking some activity courses this semester. I'm taking badminton early in the morning, then after that I go directly to a dance class. This makes my life somewhat difficult- I need to be able to run around and be all exercise-y in badminton, so I would like to wear shorts. But I would feel dumb going to dance in shorts. I have therefore gone on a little shopping spree, and purchased 3 pairs of yoga pants. They're perfect, cause I can exercise in them like shorts, they are totally comfortable, and they look good so I'm not embarrassed of them in dance class. I'm also eager to wear them to the gym- they won't ride up like shorts do on the treadmill, and they're not as hot or ugly as sweatpants. Last night, I even wore them around the apartment to watch a movie in. They're THAT wonderful.

I never knew I was an emotional person

I've never been one to cry in public about things that are beautiful, or moving, or whatever. Usually when I cry it's because I'm mad, or feel insulted or embarrassed or something. I pride myself on being an oversensitive baby, not on being an emotional blubberer.

I now know what it is that can turn me into the second type of person: sports. I know, you're thinking, "huh?"

During the Olympics, I got all misty at least three times, as teams won hard-fought games, as an exhausted cross country skier's little daughter ran through the snow to hug her after she won gold, etc, etc.

I'm not sure where I was going with this train of thought. I have no pithy statement to make at the end of this post, no punchline. Sorry.

Stupid Idea #37

Stay up till all hours of the morning watching movies at a friend's house: watch a funny one first, then end the evening with the 6th Sense. Proceed to go home at 3:30 in the morning in the dark, and walk through a big open snowy area with previously mentioned giant snowmonster rabbits lurking nearby. Startle the rabbits into jumping out from their sneaky little hidey places, which in turn startles you when you jump to the conclusion that they're scary dead girls running to vomit on you.

Stupid M. Night Shamalama-ding-dong.

Oh, those Crazy Canucks

Leave it to them to serve you a dish that looks like enchiladas, but tastes funny and includes parsley and miracle whip, then call it fajitas, but pronounce the word as "fee-adas."

I sure love these people. Their ignorance in the realm of mexican food is kind of endearing. The lack of any corn tortillas in the entire province, however, is not endearing. How am I supposed to make real enchiladas?

What do you do when your wife is in love with a priest?

This evening I went over to a friend's house to watch movies. Which friend, you may ask? You know that guy that I haven't been able to come up with a suitable 'nym for yet? Yeah, it's that guy. Tonight I found out one more thing that he isn't, and a few more things that he is, but none of those things would be good for making up a name. Well, one would be, except I might someday want to tell him about the site, and I'm not sure he would be flattered by the name. Perhaps I'll just call him Nameless Joe for now.

So Nameless Joe, one of the short Christian girls, and I watched movies tonight- one was What To Do In Case of Fire, a German film about a group of anarchists who grow up and sell out, then have to get back together when one of their unexploded bombs suddenly explodes unexpectedly. Very funny, pretty interesting. The other movie was I Confess, an older Hitchcock movie that I'd never heard of. You've probably never heard of it, either, and for a good reason: it's not that great of a movie. It wasn't a bad movie- while I was watching it, I found it pretty gripping and interesting, but when it had finished, I felt strangely unsatisfied. Kind of jipped, you know? Like I had been tricked into watching something that wasn't quite right.

The evening as a whole was entertaining, enlightening, and enrapturing. Ok, not really enrapturing. I just wanted something to round out my alliterative phrase. I learned much about my host, a fair deal about the other guest, and a good bit about fun, fun music.

Ra, ra, Rasputin!

Man oh man

Okay. I'm pretty sure you all need to go over to Albino Blacksheep (there's a link on the left) and take a look at Brokeback to the Future. It's about the funniest thing I've seen for... well, for an hour. But that's only because I just heard a guy describe himself as having "washboard abs," then amend it by saying that there's "a load in the wash."

Anyway. Go see Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd in the roles they were truly meant to play.

What I did over my summer vacation, I mean this weekend

I'm back! The trip was very fun, and I'm sad that we couldn't have stayed longer. As it is, though, I got to see the city, meet new friends, go sledding and geocaching, get lost, get unlost, eat at a fun health-food restaurant, and nearly freeze to death taking pictures at the border in what must have been minus 40 weather and wind (oh, how windy it was!).

We also spent about 45 minutes in a cool indoor market that reminded me of the farmer's market in LA, then out to run around a few hundred yards east of there where people were playing hockey on the river, and there was an ice skating path on the pedestrian bridge that went over the lake. We didn't have any skates, but we had fun sliding around on the slick ice, and scurrying out of the way when we saw somebody skating towards us at high velocity.

We mostly hung out with a cute semi-newly married couple, who live in a cute brown house in the cute French area of town, right near downtown, convenient to everything. They enjoyed going caching with us, and the husband and the guy we came with had fun racing each other through the park to where they thought the cache was, then back through the park to the car, making their way through knee-high snow, leaping down into the streambed and climbing back up the other side. Us ladies took it a little slower :).

It seemed like everywhere we drove in the city, there were these huge snow sculptures that people had made; not like snowmen, but like things that could easily have been permanent granite statues and works of public art. I believe there's a bunch in the downtown here in Parts Unknown, and since I have the week off, probably I'll go and take a look at them today or tomorrow.

It was a great weekend, kind of a whirlwind trip. For awhile I considered staying for a day or two in Parts Moreknown, where I dropped off my travelling companions, before heading back home, but by the time we got there, I was ready to sleep in my own bed, bathe in my own shower, and eat more normal, non-trip food. I made my way home therefore, and the trip seemed to go by really quickly, even though it was a 2 1/2 hour drive. I played music and sang along really loud, and stuffed fig newtons down my throat to keep myself awake. The fig newtons and singing seemed to work very well, as I didn't really feel tired until I got out of my car and started the long trek from the parking lot to my apartment.

I now have had my share of fun and adventure for this week, and can spend the next 7 days doing homework and getting prepared for the rest of the semester. Hooray! I guess a fast and short trip was the best thing all around, giving me time to have fun and time to do work.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Or rather, leavin' in my car. With a couple of friends. On a spur of the moment (alright, planned two days ahead) trip.

This will be the most spontaneous thing I've done so far... in my life. I guess. Well, I guess coming to Parts Unknown was a spontaneous decision, but after the decision, I still had like 6 months to prepare. Anyway. We drive East on Friday. With the wind.

Perhaps I should start packing.

Happy St Valentine's Day!

I will be celebrating by going to the gym and getting sweaty, then coming home and studying for awhile, then to top it all off, I'm going to go compare prices on printers!

I hope you all have days as wonderful as mine will be.

My final final

Yup, I'll be done with worrisome tasks on April 21. Just so you know. In case you wanted to, you know, fly up here and have a road trip with me.

I think I just electrocuted my lips

I have this bad habit of putting things into my mouth. Things like small toys, pencils, my fingers, and anything else that is smooth or brightly colored.

I now know one more thing that I shouldn't put in my mouth or on my lips: the firewire cord for my iPod when it's plugged into my computer.

No, Mom, I'm not damaged. Neither is my computer. Nothing exciting happened, I just brushed it against my lips and felt heat, kind of a popping like if you spread pop rocks on your lips. And now that I know what it does, I will not do it again.

I am a human being, and I learn from my mistakes.

Sweat is apparently a good thing.

What a wonderful feeling it is when you come home from the gym in the evening, and talk to your roommate, who tells you "Good Job!"

That feeling is topped, however, when that roommate continues, saying that her mom (who was over a few days before) asked if you had lost weight. Yes, people, the change is significant enough for my roommate's mom to notice.

I think I'll strut around the apartment with my fists on my hips, looking proud.

More details to come, when I'm less tired

remind me to tell you guys about the escapade the LHC and I had tonight. Hint: it involves snow.

What kind of socks do pirates wear? :arrrrrgyle!

I’ve got these two friends at church, who for some reason, think I’m the funniest person on the planet. I therefore feel encouraged to be funny, and say things that I usually only let myself think. Today I had to go out, but all of my jeans were dirty, so I instead wore my only other pair of pants, some orange plaid capris that I think are pretty snazzy. However, since it was snowing, I thought it best to wear something to cover the rest of my leg, as well. When you’re wearing orange plaid pants, you can’t try to look normal, so I figured it’d be best if I went with the feeling, so I wore a green robot tshirt, and pink white and blue argyle tights under my pants. And some white tennies with blue stripes. The ensemble was pretty striking, and I put my hair up into two buns, like you might see on a sailor moon character. When my two friends saw me, they both started laughing, and told me how cool I looked. And they really thought I looked cool. As they remarked on my clothing, I simply said to them, “Happy Laundry Day!” My little holiday caused quite the stir, and several people came up and told me how much they liked my outfit, &c. Not sure how many really enjoyed it, and how many were just trying to be free and accepting of my weirdness in order to look Hip and With It. At any rate, I completely stole the evening, and my two friends were pretty much hysterical for about ten minutes, not because I said anything particularly funny, but because they expected everything I said to be funny, and therefore found it that way. It makes me happy to be so entertaining to my friends.

I’m going to have to declare Laundry Day more often.

We're not that close

My roommate and I both walk out of our rooms at the same time, preparing to go to bed. She's in her pink bathrobe with a towel in her hair, and I'm in a tshirt and pj bottoms. We stand at opposite ends of the hallway, facing each other, and silently wave.

"How're you doing over there?"
'Good. I'm putting this stuff on my knuckles because they're all cracked and dry.'
"...what?"
'My knuckles' (I hold my hand up, to illustrate). 'They're really dry.'
"You don't even want to know what I thought you said just now."
'Do you really think that's something I would even say out loud?'
"...well, you ARE getting more comfortable around us..."
'Not that comfortable.'

In this city, "east" pretty much means "south"

After a couple of hours of do-gooding at the local rescue mission, we were to go to a supposedly great toboganning hill on the north side of town. Being unfamiliar with the north side of town, I got directions from a girl who lives up there on how to get to the hill. I must have missed something she said, because we drove straight out of town, and were pretty much headed for the north pole before we realized, hey, it's really foggy out, and it doesn't look like we're in the civilized world anymore. We turned around, and headed back towards town. During this little trip, I learned that turning your brights on in fog actually makes it harder to see, not easier. Good thing there wasn't anyone else on the road for miles and miles for me to run into.

We finally found our own way to the hill, and being unfamiliar with the park it's in, we parked on the wrong side of the hill, and it was a mighty hike to get to the top. It was worth it, though. There's something beautiful about going sledding with a group of people, with no one else there, on a lovely foggy night. Especially when the fog intermittantly turns to cute snow. We had fun, and I got to experience going on a long sled, with like four other people on it. They all said that the best seat is in the front, but I've decided the best seat is in the middle, because in the front, you can't hear what anyone is saying, and you feel responsible if the sled turns sideways.

The evening culminated at a friend's house, where we drank hot chocolate and played mafia till about two in the morning. It took a surprisingly long time- we played twice, and it took two hours. Perhaps it was just because most of the people hadn't played before. Anyway, it was a grand evening with the Long Haired Christian, and the guy who still has no name, because I still haven't decided on a suitable 'nym. As well as several other fun people who I know even less well.

Broketoe Mountain

I think I broke my toe. This isn't a statement made lightly or capriciously. This is a statement made with about three months' proof behind it. My toe (the middle one on the left foot) never used to hurt when I went to crack it. I generally crack my fingers two times a day, and my toes once a day, and my shoulder any number of times a day. I always do it in the same pattern, starting with the first toe (like the pointer finger), then move down the line to the pinky toe (or "the tiny one," as my mom likes to remind me I used to call it), and finally ending with the big toe, since it has the most satisfying crack.

Anyway, to get to the meat of the story, for the past three months, when I try to crack my middle toe, it hurts, and it won't crack. Not just that it hurts too much to bend it far enough to crack, though; I ignore the pain and bend it as far as it will physically go, and still it doesn't crack. I must conclude, therefore, that my toe is broken, and never will crack again. Le sigh.

I feel so righteous

I love the feeling that you get when you go to your classes and turn in your writing assignments, and the professor approves of the approach you took in your assignment when you explain it during class. It makes me feel so.... free. So non-guilty. So righteous.

If I can finish reading As You Like It before 11 tomorrow morning, I'll be able to continue my righteous feeling another day!

Winter isn't all fun and games

So I learned one of the harsh realities of life today: snow isn't soft. At least, old snow that's melted and refrozen several times isn't soft.

The Long Haired Christian and I went sledding last saturday, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. It's like, you're sliding down a hill, really fast! So cool! So we decided that we should go every saturday. So we went today, even though it hasn't snowed for more than a week now, and the snow on the ground is not so thick and not so fresh anymore.

We stood at the top of the hill and looked down for a few minutes, then LHC went down first. She seemed to do alright, and then disappeared beyond the crest of the hill. I decided to go down after her, before she climbed back up to the top of the hill. As I was sliding in a generally downward direction, I thought to myself, "self, it seems a little faster than last week." And so it was, because the entire hill was slick with refrozen snow. I zoomed past LHC, who was starting back up the hill, then realized I was heading for the trees, and at that point I decided to try and slow down. Apparently, my body's instinctive reflex was to throw myself backwards (but in the same direction as I was sliding in, since I had gotten turned around) off the slidey-disc, and land on my head.

I always listen to my instincts, so I went ahead and landed on the back of my head, making snow shoot down the back of my shirt, and simultaneously making my skull slightly throb in pain. Turns out that LHC had similarly landed on her head, and after that first run, we decided to find a smaller hill. Too bad all the smaller hills were covered in smaller people. Not wanting to look like losers sledding with all the 5-year-olds, we went and visited LHC's sister and her fiance instead. We played cribbage, and I lost. Thus ends my story, with a moral: don't hit the back of your head on the snow, because even though it looks soft and cushy, it's really hard, and will make you cold and wet as well.

Why I love Gmail

Because when you go to your spam mailbox, at the top of the page, it gives you links to recipes for things like "Spam and Linguini" or "Ginger Spam Salad." That feature alone makes it ten times better than any other email service.

As far as I know, this isn't going to become a workout blog.

This whole "being a responsible adult" thing is totally a drag. Like, I'm supposed to be awake every day before noon? And during the wee morning hour of 8:30 I have to be at the gym? Expending energy? Ugh.

Well. I've made it the past three weeks, working out at least 3 times each week. I haven't died or fainted or broken any machines yet, and it seems to be getting a little easier to work out for an hour straight than it was three weeks ago, so I guess that's a good thing. I need to up the frequency of my workouts to every day, though. That's my current goal, which will probably take another three weeks to fulfill. After that I'll probably try out for the Olympics or something. You know, just to keep myself going.

Oh yeah, you know the other thing I don't like about being responsible? Reading stuff and being ready for classes. Also going to classes isn't fun. Well, I guess it IS fun, just, it isn't fun to decide to go. Pretty much anything that's good for me, it takes me like ALL of my willpower to get up and go do it. Like, I can be sitting in my room, thinking, "I can't possibly go to the gym today. I'm way too asleep and don't have enough time," but as long as I get shoved out the door by one of my roommates or by my guilt, I have a great time, not tired at all, completely fine with working out for an hour. Same with going to class or church or grocery shopping. Except for my class last night. I really was too tired for that, as I found out when I had the hardest time sitting upright in my chair for that hour and a half. Ugh.

And I guess that's why they call it the blues

I just spent three hours sitting on the couch, watching some PBS shows on the Blues. It was truly fascinating stuff, and I enjoyed it, but I found something odd about it. During one of the shows, they had various current musicians playing old songs by old musicians- they would show the current person singing and playing for a good thirty seconds, then their name and the name of the song would pop up on the screen. Anyway, as I was sitting there watching, they showed an older, red-haired woman singing. I looked at her, and thought to myself, "that's Bonnie Raitt." Turns out, hey, I was right! The odd thing is, I don't really know who Bonnie Raitt is. I don't know what kind of music she generally plays, I don't know what her voice sounds like. I have no idea how it is I recognize her face and place her name with it, when I know absolutely nothing about her. And that, my friends, is my slightly interesting story for the day.

You learn something new every day

Really, you do. My roommates and I are always getting into conversations that lead us to discover some fun difference or other about our cultures. My Fun Fact For the Day has to do with climate, rather than culture: it gets colder when it's sunny out, and warmer when it's cloudy and snowy. This is because the clouds help insulate everything and keep the warm air close to the ground, and when there's no clouds, the warm air just shoots up into space, making us cold. I also note that it was like thirteen degrees colder today at noon than it is right now, at midnight. For a person raised in the southwest states, this is confusing beyond belief.

Also? I check beneath my window every night, and there's an increasing amount of snowmonster bunny tracks in the snow around the plants. I keep a careful eye out, but have yet to observe the snowmonster bunnies in action. Rest assured, though, that if I do see them, you, the internet, will be the first to know. I've sometimes been accused of sticking commas into places where they don't belong. I think the fact that I just used 5 in one sentence may prove my guilt. My name is Violasaint, and I'm a Commaholic.

Hey, that makes me think- WHY, if it's called "Alcoholics Anonymous," does everybody get up and the first thing they say is their name? I guess they don't say their last name, but still. Let's keep it anonymous, folks.

Horror of Horrors!

I had a terrible nightmare last night. I actually had several interesting dreams last night, but I only remember this one in such vivid detail because it was so disturbing. I dreamt I was in a backyard, just kind of sitting around doing nothing, and I fell asleep out there. As I fell asleep, I vaguely saw a ladybug land on the ground in front of me, towards my right.

When I woke up in the yard, I saw with my sleepy, foggy eyes a moving red blob. Focusing my eyes on the blob, I realized that the ladybug had multiplied, and there were thousands of ladybugs in a horrible, writhing mass! As if this wasn't awful enough, there were several of these masses all around the yard, most of them centered around some small, defenseless plant.

The most truly horrific part of the dream was as I turned away from this undulating scene of chaos. It was at this point that I noticed one more group of ladybugs around a bean plant I had apparently grown with love and care. The beans were eaten through, and had fallen on the ground. The ladybugs were HUGE. Huge, and spotless. As in, they didn't have any spots- they were pure red and pure evil. Evil ladybugs as big as your head. I turned and ran.

I awoke in my bed, sweating and breathing hard. Man, I am so glad that was only a dream.

Ell-oh-ell, man. Ell-oh-ell.

I went to the grocery store today with my roommates. We bought $200 worth of food, which is going to have to go for a long time, for how much it cost. Anyway, that isn't what I meant to talk about at all. What I meant to tell you is that when we were walking down the aisle, there was like a row of ketchup, and (really, I actually thought this, and meant it completely seriously) I thought to myself, "why in the world would people buy ketchup from the store, when they can get it from the hermit? I mean, come on! At the mall, it costs like 100 meat, while a hermit permit is only 30 meat! What a bargain!"

Then I stopped, and realized that I've been playing like WAY too much KoL.

This is for you, Uffish.

Here I am, updating my blog instead of packing. Just to make you happy. I am sad that I couldn't go spelunking with you this christmas, and I am also sad that we couldn't go see Pride and Prejudice. Sigh. On the other hand, I'm very much looking forward to my next semester at the University of Parts Unknown, and hoping it doesn't go as fast as the first semester did. If it does, I'll be back home in like, a week, and I really want to enjoy a longer-feeling time there. Because it's fun and nice there. I especially like it there because there is snow, and as you may have noticed, I enjoy playing in the snow. In fact, I plan to do fun snow activities the first weekend back. Tonight is my last night at home, and we're going to make casts of our hands, and go out to dinner, and my sister's going to come. I'm going to steal mass quantities of music from her, and mass quantities of recipes from my mom. Happy New Year, and I'll see you maybe sometime this summer, depending on both of our schedules.

Uh, weird.

I was just looking through my old yearbooks, because I told my roommates I'd bring one to show them what my high school was like. I just noticed something: Molly and Will from my italian class a few semesters ago, who I think are so fun and interesting, went to my high school. (!!!!!!!!)

How messed up is it that my school was so big that I don't even recognize the faces of the people in my own graduating class? I find it truly fascinating that we sat together and did several projects together, and never figured this out. I'm sure they knew each other, but I don't think they knew that I went to the same school as them, either. Huh.

Home for the Holidays

It's good to be home. I love Parts Unknown, but I love home, too. And I feel so loved every time I run into someone I know- they're all happy to see me, and excited to hear how my life's been going the past few months. So if you're from home, gimme a call. I want to hear from you. If you're from Parts Unknown, don't worry! I'll be back there in January, and we can have a whole nother fun semester of hanging out and running around in the snow and stuff. Yes, I know you guys don't find the snow as fascinating as I do, but still. I need to go toboganning (sp?) and snowboarding and icefishing yet. Oh yes, and skating on the lake. We mustn't forget that one. I may or may not post again while I'm home, so if I don't, I wish you all the best of Christmases, and safe and happy New Years.

2 Reasons why I'm royally pissed off at Cory

1. He broke my speakers for my iPod. My roommate's iPod was on it, and he had it turned up really loud, and the phone rang. Instead of turning the music off, he forcibly ripped the iPod off of the dock so he could speak on the phone without background noise. This didn't completely ruin the speakers. They still play music, but they don't charge the iPod, and that's one of the things I love about my speakers. And now they don't do it! Frickin want to throw my shoe at him.

2. He made me get mad for the first time in four months. I haven't had a truly bad day in four months, and he ruined my happy streak. For this, I want to throw my other shoe at him. Preferably, a pair of steel-toed doc martens. Thank you, Cory, for making me mad. This is totally the week when I want something more to go wrong, right when I'm stressed about doing finals and getting everything done and figuring out how to get through customs and three airports to get home. I need to go to bed, because writing this blog is not cathartic. It instead is making me more angry and more wanting to do something harmful to him.

Good night, internet. Don't worry too much about me. This is really going to be a good week- I've got fun stuff I'm doing after my finals, and I'm going home soon, so just talk to me in a few days once I'm done stressing and beginning to enjoy my Christmas break.

Wow.

I'm pretty amazed. I never knew that drunk people could articulate words in song so quickly.

In other news, the snow continues to fall, and I continue to like it. I'm going to send out Christmas cards on monday. Christmas cards, like snow, make me happy.

Why I love Parts Unknown

Because I just spent an afternoon walking around downtown, shopping. I went with one of my roommates, and we spent a long time in a record/movie/book store, and we bought some hot chocolate, and we window shopped and bought christmas presents and got some dinner and then went exhaustedly to walmart for some groceries. I love it here because you can spend a wonderfully cold day just going around doing nothing, and not knowing what time it is, and feeling your nosehairs freeze, watching your breath rise above you, and then go home to be warm in pj's and watch a movie. That's what I'm going to do right now. I hope you all have as good of a day as I am having.

I am so very Not Happy

I guess it's kind of my fault. I always had to plug in my computer in a plug further to the left of where I was sitting. If I had plugged it into a socket to my right, this never would have happened. Or maybe it's Apple's fault. Why did you put the power cord thingy coming out of the right hand side of the iBook? And come to think of it, why is the usb and firewire port and everything else on the left hand side? Kay, think about it. Most people are used to using their right hand for the mouse. But having the usb on the left side makes mousing all obnoxiously problematic, cause you have to find a cord long enough to go around the back of your computer. But a cord that long makes it tough to keep tidy and un-cordy. Alright, Apple, it's totally your fault. You need to put all the usb and crap on the right side, and the power on the left, and then I could mouse happily and my frickin power cord wouldn't have to perpetually bend in the same spot to the point of breaking the casing open, exposing the wires, and eventually becoming totally nonfunctional. Why, Steve Jobs, why? Why did you have to put the usb on the left hand side? While I'm berating you, why don't you have an apple store in every capital city in North America? Cause if you did, my life would totally suck less right now when I have to use these nasty Old Dells in the computer room to write my term papers. Not that I'm writing them anyway, cause I'm too bitter and annoyed and I need to tell the internet about how annoying my life is. Two weeks until I go home; two weeks until I can get to an apple store and get a new power cord. Two weeks of PC torture.

57 Bobby Pins

And when you're picking them out of sticky, day-old hairsprayed hair, that's all noodly and confusing, it takes you a dang long time. It was still worth it.

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder

This was my favorite quote from this evening. No, I didn't drink any, although I smelled it. It smelled like Listerene, and from what I heard, it tasted like it, too. Anyway. The evening was perfect in its imperfections. Main imperfection: my dress never arrived in the mail. Go figure. Stupid postal service hates me and doesn't want me to go to masquerades. So today was a fun rush to borrow a dressy skirt, and a quick (amazingly quick) trip to purchase a dressy shirt, shrug, nylons and shoes (I bought shoes, mom! Pretty ones, that make me look good! Aren't you proud of me?). I ended up looking a whole lot nicer than I expected to, and my roommates did my hair to make me look like... fancy. They did my hair, then "booted 'er outta there" to get home for the weekend, leaving me with the task of getting dressed and makeuped on my own. I never thought I was good at doing makeup, but I looked prooty hot tonight. I was actually sad that I was going to wear a mask, because my face looked so nice! But the mask made the whole outfit that much more fun, and I did spend a good portion of the evening with the mask pushed up to the top of my forehead so I could see.

We had a lovely formal dinner, a fun speaker who gave a witty account of Edgar Allen Poe's life (the evening was called the Masque of the Red Death), door prizes (none of our party won anything), and great "19th century games," such as charades and do you love your neighbor. I didn't know that those games were such classical things, but we had good fun playing. The Outgoing Mexican lost another earring tonight, for which we are sad, but other than that and the fact that I was in an unexpected outfit, the night went perfectly. Once we got tired of the masquerade, we ran back to my car ("oh, it's not that cold out here..." *wind* "oooh, now it is- run, run!") and drove home to watch the Princess Bride up in my apartment. After the movie, the Outgoing Mexican realized that her earring was lost, and we went back to my car to look for it, to no avail. And now I'm writing about it all at 3:30 in the morning, with my hair all still done up and makeup clinging to my face. I'm too tired to undo it all, so I fear that I'll just have to go to bed like this, and wash the makeup and hairspray off my pillowcase in the morning.

Thanksgiving will be excellent

The picture, so you all know, is taken from the driveway of the house I stay at when I'm in Parts Moreknown. It was a really nice weekend- barely cold at all, no snow, sunny the whole time.

I'm gearing up to give my roommates and some other friends a great thanksgiving. I'm still waiting on how to make gravy from my mom, but other than that I've got everything covered. Trying to gather everything up and get organized so that when I start cooking, I know what all I have to do, and not forget anything or whatever. I'm mad at iTunes, though. I'm trying to buy Alice's Restaurant, because thanksgiving isn't complete without it, but it won't let me purchase it, and it's really starting to make me annoyed. Happy tuesday, everybody! Maybe I'll go watch Harry Potter tonight. Seems like the whole world has already seen it. I'm already mad at one roommate, three friends, and the entire city of Parts Unknown for seeing it without me. Anybody else seen it yet? Can I be mad at you too?

Oh- Mom and Dad, I've made something of a christmas list. I'm going to try and get it to you tonight or tomorrow. We've been decorating our apartment in christmas stuff. Last night we painted christmas tree balls, and today we're making a tree out of clothes hangers, and my one roommate and I are going to do a library class where you decorate a frosted ornament. Oh yeah! I got a library card! I'm so excited! I even checked two movies out yesterday. I already watched them, too. Very fun.

Yay!

When I went to Parts Moreknown a while ago, it was an Expedition. This weekend I went again, and this time it was a Visit. You have no idea how happy that makes me. I have friends in a city I've never lived in! And they're awesome friends. We had a party and a bunch of people came and we played games and talked and stayed up till all hours of the night. After most of the people had left, those of us who remained went upstairs and did a group scripture study that was pretty amazing.

The first time I went to that city, I saw this cool ad for 7up painted on the brick wall of a building, all old and faded and stuff. I vowed to take a picture of it the next time I went there. I didn't take the picture this time. Even though we drove by it like three times. You know what this means? I'm going to have to go again in like three weeks. That's what it means. Plus, I want to do some Christmas shopping up there, and my friend from Parts Unknown wants to show me Faraway Parts, the city she lived in about a year ago, which is about an hour and a half north of Parts Moreknown. Am I confusing you yet? Good. Anyway. We're going to try and bring the Outgoing Mexican along with us this next time, because she still hasn't been to Parts Moreknown.

And now, I have to hit the showers before it's time to go to class again. Cause my hair seriously needs some washing.

I've almost mastered the art of bubblegum bubble blowing

What I have not mastered at all, however, is how to not get sticky gum-film all over the outside of my mouth, nose and chin. Seriously unpleasant.


Now for the cool part of the post. So I've spent about 20 hours during the last two weeks in the library and the study room. I go to these places because it's harder to get distracted there, and I had two 10-page papers to write. These were hard papers. Research papers. I had to like, read these academic books that were written by sociologists 100 years ago. Like 15 of these type of books, all told. So I spent some major time studying. And writing. I found that it's better to read in the library, and write in the study room. The library is comfy and stylish and book-smelling. I sit on the 6th floor, which has a great view of the lake, and it's fun to look out the window while it's snowing. It also has these couches. Are they not so modern and 50's looking? It's like the breakroom on the starship Enterprise, or something. In other words, the sixth floor of the library is the most wonderful place on earth to sit and read for hours on end. But it's too stimulating to try and think up my own thoughts in. So when it's time to write, I go back to my apartment building, up to the fourth floor where the most boring room in the world exists: the study room. It's a room with tile floors and hard chairs and some boring tables and white walls. You sit there, and your options are 1. writing your paper and 2. staring at the wall. So you write your paper, and it gets done in maybe like five hours instead of like ten or fifteen hours.

Now that the past two weeks are done, I'm feeling excited and happy. They were my school-dominated weeks, and the next two weeks are going to be my social-dominated weeks. I'm doing fun things all the next week, and then the week after, I'm going to throw a Thanksgiving for my roommates and some other friends. I'm very excited. I can't wait to make pies, and do a turkey, and eat stuffing. Roommate #1 and Semi-Roomie are making fun of me for wanting to make a pie and stuffing and mashed potatoes from scratch. They say that here in Parts Unknown, you buy the pie, and you use StoveTop stuffing. Fortunately for me, the evening is being billed as my American Thanksgiving, so what I say goes. Why would you buy a crappy store-made pumpkin pie? I may opt for the stovetop stuffing just for simplicity and cost effectiveness. But definately a homemade pie.

You know your life has changed for the better when...

You spend two nights in a row playing board games with two different groups of people in parties that don't break up till two in the morning. And you eat enchiladas on the second day.

Tonight I played games with the Christians at the house of (holding out on a name for this one: the jury's still out on his character, personality and outstanding features). Very nice house, though. And tonight, I became a man (in a coming-of-age sort of way, not in a sex-change sort of way). Or rather, I finally played Settlers of Catan. The guys used to always play it when they came for game night in my old apartment back home, but I was always too interested in playing boggle or uno or whatever to try. Plus, I was afraid it'd be confusing or stupid or something. I was wrong. It's a pretty fun game- it's a good bit like monopoly, only more interesting and not as long, a bit like risk, something like pit, and all kinds of cool. I plan on involving myself in more games of Settlers, whenever it's convenient. It's also safer feeling- games like Taboo are loud and fun and great for bunches of people, but I kind of like the non-frantic, slow paced, very limited group you get with Settlers. Nice way to spend an hour with three other people. Oh, and I lost, but only because I opened my big mouth a round before I would have won. Anyway. It's time for me to go to bed, if i'm going to be awake for any of the morning hours tomorrow. Or I could just sleep till noon again like I did today. I love this whole not-having-a-job thing, because it means that weekends are really times when I can relax and do not much.

Photos are working again

Today it is completely clear and sunny, and dry, and not really cold at all. But Tuesday, it snowed. And Outgoing Mexican and I had a snowball fight, and made snow angels, and made a snowman (he's the one in the middle). Now, when I proudly showed this picture to my roommates, they laughed at me: "Snowmen are supposed to be three balls, not a big lump!" Well, excuuuuuse me. I thought he was pretty darn cool. We even gave him coin eyes and a pinecone nose. Not to mention a hat and scarf and gloves.

While we were making the snowman, two other Mexicans joined us. Why have I never met them before? Why have I not even heard about them? Kind of like how I learned of a few English people lately, too. It's sad that they don't come to all the fun stuff with us when we go places or have parties or what have you. Anyway. So when the two Lesser Mssrs joined us, we decided to throw some more snowballs, since it's more fun when you have more choices of who to hit. So we had a somewhat larger snowfight, then realized that half of us couldn't feel our fingers (I was wearing gloves, and was quite comfortable). So we all trooped up to my apartment and had hot chocolate. It was a fun night.

Ooh! Ooh! So they have this thing called Remembrance Day here. It's like Veteren's Day back home, only here they have like services and stuff, and the whole week before, everybody walks around wearing these fake red flowers (Poppies- you know, like "in Flanders fields the poppies grow...") pinned to their jackets and stuff. I went and gave a donation and got my poppy yesterday. I feel so patriotic, or something. I'm glad I did it. So also today we have no school, which is good because there was a planned power outage this morning that I forgot about when setting my alarm clock last night, and I didn't wake up until noon, since I didn't go to bed till about 3.

Last night I had some friends over. (I have friends! And I invited them over! And they came!) We played a whole lot of Uno, and I made a cake, and we talked, and I introduced people around, and we ended up watching a movie at the end of the night. Then my roommate came home with one of her friends (one of our two semi-roommates), and most everybody left except the Long Haired Christian (I sure do love making up names for people. Is that one ok, LHC?). Me and Roomie #1 and Semi-Roomie and LHC stayed up and colored coloring pages that they printed out. I colored a ninja turtle, and a cinderella, and a smurfette. And I learned that colored pencils are not colored pencils, but pencil-crayons. We had a fight about which was the most appropriate name for them. The fight ended when they pointed out that I chose to live here, so I have to assimilate into their culture.

Oh, and by the way, there was a reason for the coloring pages. Semi-Roomie's birthday is coming up, and they're going to make invitation cards with a colored page on each. I think it's a fun idea.

Blogger hates me

Ok, so I don't post that often. The one time I've got something I really want to talk about, and show you, blogger gets all stupid about the photo thing, and won't upload my picture. The whole post is pretty much worthless without the picture. So you guys get nothing. Really. I was actually going to write out a fun story, and tell you all kinds of cool stuff, and make my post more than a sentence long, but no. Maybe I'll still feel like talking later when blogger feels like cooperating. Maybe.

Holy It's Still Snowing, Batman!

I'm not used to precipitation that hangs around and keeps going for hours on end. I'm used to rain that comes for maybe fifteen minutes, then moves on and you don't get rain again for a month. This is insane and cool. Today I walked outside into the snow. It was so cute! Like down feathers, or powdered sugar or something. I will admit, though, that when it's windy, a snowflake in the eye is fairly unpleasant. Not that it's cold or anything, just that you can't see very well. It's like a bug in the eye, only gentler and it doesn't leave bug guts in your eye. Also, thanks mom and dad for the scarf. I still haven't had time to knit one for myself (I just finished the one for the underpriveledged children), so this'll be good to have between now and when I make my own. When I got the package, I thought mom had accidentally mailed me an empty box, cause the fleece is so light. I was about to laugh, when I opened it and saw the scarf.

Holy SNOW, Batman!

Yes, it has happened.

Brief Interlude

I'm partway through writing a hugely long paper, and just thought I'd show you all what I saw when I looked out my bedroom window this morning. Yes, folks, the trees, they were white. So was the grass, and so were the edges of the leaves on the cute little bushes that have big red berry things. No, it wasn't snow (although I hear it has snowed in Parts Moreknown this morning, so it's only a matter of time. Short time, I hope). It was frost. And isn't it the prettiest thing ever? On the downside, when I went to my car last night to drive to the movies, I was required to borrow an ice scraper to make my windows see-throughable. Guess I need to go buy one of my own, in case there isn't someone around to lend me one next time.

Huh.

I went to a Halloween party tonight with my Mexican friend. It was put on by the Intervarsity Fellowship for Christian Students and Other People and What Have You. You know what I'm talking about. I really don't know what this particular one is called, but it was interesting. Those people that go to them, they're like church people, only they're a little more normal. And by normal, I mean that after the party in a room at school where we had a Napolean Dynamite Dance-Off, we all trooped over to this one guy's house and played cards and laughed and ate cheese dip and watched Shaolin (or something like that) and I made friends. The Outgoing Mexican has done amazing things for my life. Really. She got me to speak up and enjoy myself with the other exchange students, she got me to exercise most every weekday in the morning, and thusly got me to go to my morning class more regularly, she's introduced me to various individuals, she got me inadvertantly wrapped up in this Christian group that is actually a bunch of people I really enjoy being around. What will she do to make my life better tomorrow? Cause seriously, since I've known her, my life has improved pretty much daily. Outgoing Mexican, you are the best. You seriously rawk.

And I was Robin Hood. All I had to do was buy some yellow felt and sew two triangles together to make a hat (a Rather Dashing Hat, at that), and wear my green hooded tshirt. Also some pants, and my brown scarf wrapped rougishly around my torso. Easiest and cheapest costume ever, excluding the Girl-With-a-Worm-on-her-shoulder, which only required one gummi worm. But yeah, I'd say that $1.93 for some felt was a great investment for how surprisingly well my costume turned out. I was totally recognizable.

And as we were driving home around 2:00, it was all dark and stuff. It had rained in the afternoon, and there was all kind of misty-foggy stuff happening. It was so cool- Outgoing Mexican and I were in raptures, pointing and giggling, while the guy we were driving home inwardly laughed at us for being so stupid. Well, he probably has seen this several times a year for the past ten years, while for us it's a completely new and foreign concept. Outgoing Mexican and I hope for (and expect) snow in the next week or so. Hopefully. We have our fingers crossed.

Good Day

I've decided that I like tuesdays and thursdays. I get up at 7:00, work out from 7:30-8:30, then go back home and sleep till 11:00. Then I take a shower (sometimes I take a shower before falling back asleep. It depends) and eat fun things for lunch. Like today, I'm having leftover macaroni and cheese and some peach yogurt. Then I fiddle around, checking email and listening to music till quarter to one, when I get to go to my Power and Justice class. Then I'm done! Thursdays are especially good, because I have the knitting group in the evening, where we sit around and knit scarves for less-fortunate kids. I'm almost done with my scarf, and when I am, I'm going to make myself a touque (this is a fun word, and you pronounce it like TOOK. Except you'll still get it wrong, cause it's not like the word took so much as it is lik the word Ook. Like, ooky stuff on your shoe, or like spook). Anyway. I'm going to make myself a touque so my head doesn't freeze in the winter. Because touque is just a great way to say beanie with little ear flaps and ties. Maybe a pom pom on the top, too. We'll see.

Ugh. I know working out is supposed to be good for you, and build muscles and stuff, but does it have to be so hard? Today we did elliptical for 35 minutes, then spent the rest of the hour doing various abdominal-working exercises. It was tough. Which reminds me of the first day I worked out with my current workout buddy- she made me do all of these arm-working exercises that day, which made me realize that just as "chicken wings are not for flying," "people wings are not for lifting all kind of heavy barbells and stuff." But maybe they will be, if I just work out more.

This is my 165th post

It's been a good weekend. Went to a party on Friday night, then out for food around 11 oclock, then back home where I had some friends stay over since all of my roommates were gone. We sat around talking and eating ice cream in our pajamas. It was fun. Yesterday we went to the Science Center, which was a bit like the most wonderful Exploratorium in (San Francisco? I don't remember anymore). This one not only has the fun hands-on exhibit things, but it also has an Imax theatre and a climbing wall and a gyroscope. We tested out each of these factors, and pronounce them all Very Fun. However, since I always wear flipflops wherever I go, I had to rock climb barefoot. This made it a little tougher to do, also a little more painful. It also made my feet very dirty. I'll need to remember to wash them extra carefully today, so I don't look like a homeless person when I go to church.


***News break: I was just reading over what I wrote, and I noticed something that's very odd for me. I have friends! I moved here less than two months ago, knowing not a soul, and I already have friends! This is truly amazing.***

Why?

Why do i find money in my bathroom? Seems like every time i go in there, there's a quarter or loonie on the floor. Are people using my bathroom and leaving me money in gratitude? I've secretly claimed ownership of all money i find on the floor in there. I should keep a jar just for bathroom money. I could use it to buy toiletpaper, or something. I know that the money doesn't belong to my roommate, because she hasn't used the bathroom between when i used it last and when i found the money. Really, it could be anyone, with how many people come and go through here. Mmm. Bathroom money.

Lovely

It's raining today. And it's completely overcast. I love that. Love the rain, love not even imagining that you could see the sun. I wish it were like this every day. I'm so glad I took a shower last night. My hair is therefore already done, and dry, and I can get ready without getting too hot or too cold, and I can feel perfectly comfortable and warm while walking through the rain on my way to class. You have no idea how happy a good rainy day can make me.

If you look in the mirror, it's your father's face

I can't seem to remember what made the weekend so fun. I guess just being out there, bonding with people who are so different from me, yet so much the same. Being semi-camping, in the cold (oh, the bitter cold, that mocked me for leaving my mittens and jacket at home), kind of uncomfortable and dirty. I love that feeling. I enjoy things so much more when they're not perfectly right. A smelly cabin with no sheets on the bed and a picnic table outside with freezing rain and wind is so much more cozy and appealing to me than a lush, warm, hotel would be. It's more fun to go canoeing in the rain without a coat, and then get so sandy and wet that you need to take a shower in a horrible stall that's about a foot squared in area, passing the soap between three stalls. I made new friends this weekend. I realized that some of the people that I feared before are actually not so bad as they previously seemed. They just needed to be in a less formal situation for them to become friendly and real people. I was so tired the day after we got back, really exhausted, although I can't really think what I did to make me so tired. But it's fun to have a good time with new friends, and start the week tired. I've spent too many weekends doing nothing and starting the next monday tired from nothing, or even worse, not tired. The activity broke up the monotony of mid-semester langour that hangs on you for weeks on end. And today, I feel almost refreshed! I even took a midterm today, and I think I did okay on it. I feel justified in sitting around tonight, playing on the internet, talking to friends I haven't spoken with in awhile. Maybe I'll watch a movie tonight. Maybe I'll just go to be early. Maybe I'll eat cookies and listen to music while I knit. The thing is, I'd be happy with any of those options. Usually I just want to sit around doing nothing for hours on end, until it's two in the morning and I'm dissatisfied with myself and the world. Tonight I will do something to make myself happy.

I was going to write about my weekend, but...

I'm too unhappy. Well, not unhappy per se, rather, I'm lacking that happiness that is required to write about such a fun time. I watched a tv show this evening that brought up some sad memories, and then I read some friend-of-a-friend's blog, and her bitchiness really made me mad. I've never met her, I've never heard what my friend has to say about her, but the things she writes make me want to slap her. Plus, I've got a midterm tomorrow that I need to study for. So you'll have to wait yet longer for the wonderful recap. At least you get this nice picture.

Finest Paris Lumps

This is a warning: I'll soon be posting about the most fun weekend i've had since two weekends ago. Get ready: it was good.

Cried the Dust Speck

Just thought I'd take a moment to let you all know I'm here. I've been checking my email all day, but to no avail. I'm waiting for a message from someone to tell me where I'm supposed to be when for this weekend's adventure (more on that later), and it's getting a little close to the day. Hopefully he'll tell me soon, so I can make it. Also, I've felt a little disconnected from my internet people. Hello, internet people! I am significant! Look at me!

On the whole, though, I'm good. No longer sick. Went to my classes. Participated a lot in my Jane Austen class; the professor knows my name, and begins to look for my hand when she asks questions of the class. This is a good thing. I stayed after institute tonight and played a little foosball with some guys- I didn't do very well altogether, but I made three or four rather excellent, high-five worthy goals, so they thought I was better than I really was. Which made me feel good. I even wore my robot shirt today, now that it finally came. Now I think I'll go and read some Pride and Prejudice. It's homework! How lucky am I that my homework for a quarter of my classes is to read Jane Austen novels to my little heart's content?

Nothing helps your self esteem like good cooking

I was just sitting around, feeling stomach-achy and gross, reading. I'm thinking I must've gotten a mild case of food poisoning from the dinner I had yesterday with a bunch of people from residence. Food made ahead of time for masses of people, and all that. Anyway, I didn't feel good, but I felt like eating something. I got up, stuck my head in the fridge, and saw two eggs. I proceeded to make a cute little omelette, which folded perfectly, and was just the right size to make me not hungry anymore without upsetting my stomach further. I know, I know. I've taken two years of culinary arts, and I've made much more detailed, lovely things in my time. I've made a Thanksgiving turkey or two. But something about this omelette just reassured me, telling me that yes, I can live on my own, I'm capable, even when I'm not feeling well. Now I think I'll go back to lying on my bed and reading.

O happy day!

Has anyone else noticed anything unusual about today? Like perhaps, how amazingly lovely and delicious it is outside? I picked a good day to decide to walk around the lake. I'm going to go in a little bit, with my roommate that came home earlier than I was expecting her today. And it will be great. Exercise without getting nasty and gross like I would if I went to the gym. Plus, it will be fun to see the lake right now- there's all kind of geese and ducks and stuff sitting around. Often I'll be walking outside, and look up and there's a nice little formation of geese flying, making their cute little goose noises. I hope this beautiful weather and good feeling lasts.

Just shoot me now, please

I never thought this day would come. I thought I was above all this. But, I don't know. Working at Taco Bell for so long, it was just bound to happen, especially with all of those late nights with just me, a couple of coworkers, and the Muzak. The very thought brings me such shame, such anguish. I'm just going to lay it out for the entire world to see: I like Hanson. I don't know how it happened. First, I would mock them when their music came on while I was mopping the lobby, then as it got more familiar, I'd hum along. I've been away from Taco Bell for almost two months now, and just yesterday I.... purchased "Penny & Me" from iTunes. There. It's been said. I feel like a guilty weight has been lifted from my shoulders. But parents, tell your children: Just say No to crappy Teeny-bopper music. You can use me as an example- "do you want to wind up like her? I'm going to stop typing now, and play the song. I need my fix.

So excited.

I've come up with a killer plan. I'm going to do something really fun and cool for spring break this year. I'm not going to tell you what it is, because that would ruin the surprise, especially since I just barely thought of it, and spring break isn't for several months yet. But rest assured, it's the Best Plan Ever. Well, not the best one ever, but really pretty good considering my circumstances- where I am, how much money I have, and how much time I'll have. It's such an exciting plan, though, that I want to run around screaming with my hands flailing above my head. I can't wait till spring semester comes. I'll be doing some fun stuff. Any other suggestions for when I drive back home this spring after school gets out? I've got the germ of a plan for that, too, but other opinions are welcome. I've got plenty of time to think about it.

You know...

If the whole like, eight of you that read my blog click on the link to threadless and buy a shirt each, you'll earn me enough streetteam points for me to get a shirt free. And we all know how much I like free stuff. And like three of the new shirts for the week are awesome. Do it... for the good of the country.

Ping Pong

Don't ask what the image has to do with today's post; you'll only be disappointed. What I'm going to talk about tonight is.... umm, ping pong. And by ping pong, I mean, how it's nice to have roommates that are weird. I initially wasn't sure I would like my roommates. They seemed cliqueish, and they all knew each other from high school. They're younger than me, and are way more outgoing and college-y than me. However, they are also mighty dorky and fun. We're getting along very well. We're friends, and we like to cook dinner and eat together, and watch movies and play games. They invite me into their lives, but they don't force stuff on me that I'm not interested in. Last night we played Pretty Pretty Princess. I won. We have an Almost Roommate, who actually lives in a different building, but is around all the time- she makes dinner sometimes, and she always helps with the dishes. She drives us to the movies, and we hang out and talk. She likes me, too. She's like a warped version of Carrottop, which makes me happy, and she thinks I'm smart and wonderful (this also makes me happy). Tonight we played ping pong, but mostly played Hit the Ball and then Chase it Down the Hall. They are fun- they ask if I will be their friend forever, and invite them to my wedding, and they laugh at the story of how I got hit by a car while I was on my bike. I'm glad I got put in this suite- my roommates are the best.

*melts*

This is one of many pictures I took while in Parts MoreKnown this weekend (a few hours north of Parts Unknown). I love love love that city. Look at it! There's a river! and bridges! and all kind of foliage! Apparently Parts MoreKnown isn't even as beautiful as some other cities around here. I found it to be big enough to not be claustrophobic, but small and well-designed enough to be cozy. Also it had a more fun and eclectic culture than Parts Unknown, which made me feel a little more at home. I spent a few hours by myself (while my guide was at a meeting), just driving around and finding things that needed to be photographed. I also went walking along the river after dark (which is safe to do round here) with my guide, and we looked at how cool the water looked with all the pretty city lights reflecting off it. Unfortunately I had left my camera in the car so I couldn't document the cool-looking nighttime.

Yo

:Hello?
-Hi
:Hi
-This isn't Sarah or Jane*, is it?
:No, it's not.
-Oh. Well, how are you?
:I'm pretty good. How are you?
-Alright. Whatcha doing?
:I'm watching a movie.
-Watching a movie? Man, it's friday night! Listen, are they home?
:No, they're not.
-Oh. Well, when they get back, could you tell them to call Steve, Joseph, Michael and Alice? They've got some serious boozing it up to do.
:Kay.
-You're not one of their moms, are you?
:No. I'm their roommate. (nice to know i sound like a mom)
-Oh, ok. I didn't want to be talking to a mom about that.
:Ah.
-So you'll tell them we called?
:Yes.
-And when you're done with your movie, you can come up, too. Party a little.
:Yeah, ok.
-Alright, bye. Wait, do you want our number?
:No.
-Oh, I see how it is. Bye.


*names changed to protect the innocent. and the guilty.

You and your racist friends

My roommates are having a party. Actually, they WERE having a party, and now there's just a few people left hanging around, oblivious to the fact that everybody else has left, and they're no longer having fun. Why stick around? You're just sitting around my kitchen, talking loudly and not saying anything interesting or worthwhile. Go home. You've got school in the morning.

Anyway, I just heard the most embarrassing thing come out of the living room. I'm blushing, and I'm just sitting in my room by myself with my door closed. This girl, (I think she's the same loudly drunk girl that came over a week or so ago and was obnoxious then, too) is talking about her roommates from last year in residence. "Yeah, I walked in the first day, and this girl opens the door, and her name's like Chin-Min-Young-Soon-Freakin-Sing, and I just wanted to burst out crying. And then my other roommate is from like Africa, and she's like blacker than black, and I'm like the whitest person in my apartment, and I just cried for two days straight, till I realized that I could switch rooms."

Loudly Drunk Girl, what is wrong with you? You cry for two days because your roommates aren't just like you? You are upset by this? You switch rooms to get away from people that you've barely even met? I weep for you.

'This is where the party ends; I can't stand here listening to you and your racist friends." Never thought that song would have such meaning in my life.

Once I Flew

The past couple of days have been good days. I've been going to classes, and feeling happy about them, and I've been sleeping, and eating, and spending some time with my roommates. And I'm just feeling ecstatic about how comfortable I feel in Parts Unknown. It's good. My room is generally kept clean and pretty looking, the campus is cozy and nice, the town is lovely right now. They have seasons here, like, where the leaves on the trees turn colors, and fall off. It's so pretty to see the carpet of dead leaves on the ground. Probably I wouldn't think they were so pretty if I had to take care of a yard and rake them up and stuff, but just to look at them is so gorgeous. This weekend I'm going to go and see another city somewhat north of here, which is apparently even lovelier than here. And I might be going to my roommates' hometown for Thanksgiving, which should be interesting. Or I may just stay here and be lonesome by myself. We'll see. But autumn is my favorite season right now. All pretty and brisk-feeling.

Willoughby was a Player

I was going to put up a picture of the candy cane trees from the park, but blogger is again hating me and my photography. So all you get today are words. I went to a dance the other night, where I danced like a Dancing Fool. So much like one, in fact, that some people believed I was one. Towards the end of the dance, I decided that everyone would profit by my sitting down and observing for a while. The last song they played, they ordered the young men to go and find someone who wasn't dancing, and make them dance just this one time during the night. So I was asked by one of the three brothers who are incredibly self-assured. They are very friendly to everyone, but at the same time, are very pleased with themselves and their coolness. I don't mind these type of people, as long as they are sufficiently charming, which these brothers are. So I danced with this guy, and during the song, the three brothers and their partners maneuvred towards each other, and decided to have a "dipping contest:" whichever brother could dip his partner the lowest, or with the most grace, won. The first girl got confused as to which way she was being dipped, and they didn't do so hot. My partner gave me a little better direction- "I want you to just fall back, and don't worry, I won't drop you." He spun me around first, with great flourish, and I did my stuff. Or rather, I fell back, and let him do his stuff. I must say I've never felt as graceful as I did just then; I went so low, I even pointed one leg out rather stylishly. I think I could have lived my life happily without ever being dipped, but I'm not going to say I didn't enjoy that moment. The moment was hilariously ruined a few minutes later, when the brothers stopped dancing in order to stand together and sing the closing lines of the song in perfect harmony. Well sung, but still rather silly and foppish.

Barbeque

I know you've all heard of the Trojan Horse, but did you know that there is also a Trojan Goose? I didn't know, either, until yesterday afternoon. We had a day full of fun that started in this park on the lake. The playground was all kinds of cool- besides the goose, which is actually a slide(!), there are fun things to jump on, and a tube to crawl through, and these weird candy cane-looking tree trunk things. I don't know what they're for, but they're like something you'd see in a Dr Seuss book, and they make me happy. Every town should have a Dr Seuss park. Our children would be happier, and our criminals would be more inventive.

Anyway. The barbeque was fun, we had all kinds of hamburgers and chicken and hot dogs, and we played games, and I was able to meet some more fun people. The last activity of the barbeque was a game of mass-disorganized-football, and as I was too wimpy to play, I sat on the grass and felt the sun on my back and took pictures. I'd say it was my favorite weekend I've had since I got here. Here's to hoping the weekends get even better!

Brrr

I got home around midnight last night, and got on the computer to talk to check my email, etc. I went to bed around 1:30, feeling tired and happy, snuggled into my covers. At around 4:00, I was jolted awake by a loud noise. What was it? Were my roommates home early? Did something go wrong with my alarm clock? I stumbled around the apartment, trying to turn off whatever this loud noise was, because it was probably waking up the whole building. Somehow, I figured out that it was SUPPOSED to wake the whole building, because that's what fire alarms do. While I was still half unconcious, I returned to my bedroom and changed my pants. I don't know why I did that, because I was still very much groggy. I think I may have fallen over in the process; I don't remember. Then I searched for my keys- I looked in my backpack, on the kitchen table, on my dresser, then finally found them on my desk, next to my computer. Duh. I was almost out the door, when I remembered a friend retelling the story of the fire alarm going off in HER building last week, and how it took them an hour to check every room before they could go back inside, and how she was just wearing her pajamas, and nearly froze to death. So I lunged drunkenly back into my room and grabbed my sweatshirt, then high-tailed it out of there. I was probably one of the first twenty to get outside, since I'm only on the second floor, and the stairs are right next to my apartment. We stood outside for probably twenty minutes, feeling tired and cold. Even with my sweatshirt and jeans on, I was shivering like nobody's business. I don't know how the people in their pajamas must've felt. Cold, probably. After the fire trucks arrived, somebody realized that this was going to take a while, and trotted over to the kinesiology building closeby. This started a mass migration of all the residents of the two towers into the big hallway of that building. We camped out there for maybe another 45 minutes, mingling and sleeping and being a little warmer than we were outside. I grabbed a spot on the far side of a big column from the rows of glass doors, which protected me from some of the radiant chilliness, and tried to relax and be drowsy, so that I could fall asleep again once we were allowed back inside. People were there in every degree of dress and undress you can imagine: many were in pajamas, with bare feet, many in flip-flops and pajamas with a coat on, some were fully dressed like myself, some were even more fully dressed, wearing scarves and coats and mittens, there was one guy wearing socks but no shoes, one guy wearing only a pair of shorts, some people were wrapped in fleece blankets, one guy had an entire comfortor draped over his head and body, and one girl was wearing only an overcoat. It was interesting to see how many people chose warmth over a quick exit, and how many people left so fast they didn't even think to put shoes on. I pity the people who live on the twelfth floor, or even the fifth floor, because you know there must have been a giant mass of people trying to get into the elevator when we came back inside, and they couldn't very well go up all those stairs happily. Fortunately, I only had one set of stairs to go up, so I didn't have to wait in line for the elevator. I went back to bed around 5:15, with a huge stomach-ache and shivering legs. And I think I'll go back to bed again, since I don't have anywhere to be for a few hours yet.

Site Revamp

As you may have noticed, things are a little different here. I'd like you all to know that that was ALL ME. Well, really, I used the old template, and fiddled around with the colors and fonts and other settings. But for me, that's a big accomplishment. I will say that it took me a fair... uh, five hours from conception of idea to finishment of task. Now that I think of it, that's a little embarrassing. But when you take into account the fact that I knew absolutely NOTHING about html when I woke up this morning, it makes sense that I would have to google "hex colors" and "font families" and read through some stuff before even starting on what I wanted it to look like. Basically, I just went through the template, googling stuff that looked important, and changing colors of various commands to figure out what that line was in control of. So it took me a while. While I am proud of my work, I know that it's nowhere near perfect. You'll just have to live with that; I am. Please enjoy the new look, and I'll see you again when I have something real to say.

Sometimes you must listen to Crappy Johnny Cash Music

I finally got my film developed from the week before I left home, and from the trip up here to Parts Unknown. It was kind of hard, because I just wanted cd's, without prints, and cd's made in photo places don't usually play nice with my Mac. It took some doing, but I got the pictures into my Giant File Of Photos. So now I'll be posting some of those pictures here. Maybe I'll do something of a photoblog. I'll pick one picture per day, and talk about it; that way I'll actually post regularly, and there will maybe be something interesting for you guys to read. Today's picture:

This is what looks interesting if you live in Wyoming.

When does it rain?

Seriously, I'll be sitting at my desk, reading or whatever, I'll get up and look out the window, It's completely dry and cloudless. I'll sit back down again for awhile, get up again and look out the window, and the ground is all wet and it's cloudy. What gives? Why don't I notice the water falling out of the sky? It's not like I close my shades or anything. I really love to watch rain fall. I hate seeing the evidence of rain that's passed. It's depressing; I'd much rather see it happening, and I keep on missing it! I'll just have to sit outside ALL DAY EVERY DAY so I can experience the rain.

THE WORLD MUST BE PEOPLED!

That is one of my top ten favorite movie quotes. That, along with many others, like "'I love you.' 'I know.'" And, "Should you be drinking alcohol when you don't have a liver?" And some other ones that I can't remember right now. Oh! Like, "HERE is where the birds sing! HERE is where the sky is blue!" THAT one is my very favorite of all. But you must jab yourself with a fork while saying it. Anyway. What was I talking about? Oh, right. Why do my hands smell like onions? No, that's not what I was talking about... Ok, I've forgotten the real point of this post, so I'll just conclude with one more quote, that I believe sums up all that is important in the world (and I'm not even joking): "Candy doesn't have to have a point. That's why it's candy."

five shillings to anyone who remembers where all those quotes come from.

Subcutaneous Phat

This is because I know you all want to see what my desk looks like right now. As in, I took the picture thirty seconds ago. You can also be assured that my left foot is perfectly healthy, as shown in the picture. My digital camera works sporadically, so I have to take advantage of it when I can, whether or not anything worthy of being photographed is happening.

I was just sitting today, thinking, and watching TV. A couple of things caught my attention during this activity. The first was that I already am familiar with the station jingle of a previously unknown channel. I've only lived here for... two weeks and a half, and I already have memorized commercials, jingles, etc. I don't even watch that much tv. Just goes to show you how powerful advertising is. The second, and more funny thing, was a commercial that I wasn't familiar with, that showed maybe 3 seconds of some kid playing the bagpipes. This reminded me not of one, not two, but three personal memories that involve bagpipes.

Memory the first: I was maybe fourteen, and we were visiting my grandma. We found the old set of bagpipes that had belonged to some ancestor, and had fun watching my younger cousins try to play them, resulting in some pretty awful and frightening noises.

Memory the second: I was at a youth conference when I was about 17, at which we had something of a battle of the bands. Imagine six bands of fairly untalented 16-year olds, doing covers of Weezer songs, or even worse, singing their own original songs. One band had a guy who played the bagpipes. He was actually pretty good, and I had a total crush on him for the rest of the night.

Memory the third: hmm. Can't seem to remember it anymore... oh yeah! When I went to BYU in March to visit my friend Carrottop, we were sliding down this long outdoor banister (which got my pants all rusty and brown. don't try to do it while wearing nice pants), when we saw this guy walking around on the street, playing the bagpipes, for no apparent reason. Probably cause he was Mormon and weird, and come to think of it, it was St. Patrick's day, or close to it. Scotland and Ireland are close enough in most people's minds that it could seem a reasonable idea. For whatever reason, he continued walking up the street, playing his song, and we paused to watch and laugh and enjoy the randomness.

Shopping Spree

Ok, not really. But I did buy some stuff to help me make it through winter here in Parts Unknown. I gots an orange sweater (wool!), a green, double-layer hoodie, and a scarf! A scarf! Can you believe that I've got one? It's all... black, and red, and beige. It's pretty cool. And by cool, I mean warm. And fun. And stylish. I'm all trying to remake myself, pretending that I always buy stylish things, that I just don't know how to dress in cold weather. I'm letting my style-concious roommates tell me what I should and shouldn't buy, and I'm actually halfway enjoying looking like I abide by some style rules when putting together an outfit. S'fun. Excuse me, I have to go and play with my new scarf.

Sometimes I touch my wall, just to see if you're there.

One of my roommates said that to one of my other roommates the other day. I don't know why she said it, but I think it's unbearably funny. I'm so enjoying this whole thing. I'm enjoying writing letters and buying stamps to send them with, I'm enjoying living with fun people that are including me more and more as we get comfortable with each other, I'm enjoying even walking out of class and being chilly and wrapping my sweater around me more tightly. I'm also enjoying my classes. Especially now that I've discovered that I'll be ok if I drop the stupidly hard and boring one. I got my first real piece of mail today, a card from my mom that said how much she missed me, and told me not to walk around at night, and to study, and to go to classes and stuff. I really loved the feeling of opening my little box and seeing an envelope in there. Please please send me letters. It makes me happy. I'm sending some out tonight, and it'd make me happy to have regular letter-writing back and forth. It's so much more satisfying than email. But it's actually kind of fun to be a little lonely, too. Makes me feel independant and brave, being in a foreign town with foreign people and foreign coldness. Parts Unknown seems to be a little small for my tastes, but it's still pretty cool.

Threadless, you know I love you...

But why didn't you tell me something went wrong when i ordered my shirts? I thought i purchased two shirts, but when they didn't come and didn't come, i finally checked my receipts in my email, and there was nothing saying that i ever ordered them. I know i selected them and gave my credit card info and stuff. Something weird must've happened, because threadless doesn't have any idea that i wanted those shirts. Now i am sad because i have lost my enthusiasm for one of the shirts, and have only ordered the other. I guess it's a good thing, and i'm actually saving money this way, but still.

Abote

Here I am, in the dorms at Parts Unknown University, laying down for my fourth night on a hard, hard mattress. It's like, foam. Hard foam. Hard, thin foam. But really, that (and the amazingly long line at the bookstore this afternoon) is the only thing I'm not enjoying abote my exchange. I say "abote" because that's how they say it here, and not "aboot," as I'd been led to believe. Anyway. My roommates, they are all from the same hometown, along with maybe a third of the university's population. They all went to the same highschool together, and have all kinds of inside jokes and history and stuff. They're nice to me, and friendly, when they think about it. But really, I can't blame them for hanging out with their friends all the time. I would, if I had friends around.

That's why today was so great. Today I went to the orientation and reception for exchange students. It was the most fun I've had for a long time, meeting people from Australia and Sweden and Mexico and Finland and Belgium and Brazil and stuff. Everybody had a different accent, everybody didn't really know anybody, but was anxious to get to know people and make friends. We all sat around and talked about our countries, and what languages we speak, and what we think of Parts Unknown so far, and why we came, and how worried we are about the winter and snow and stuff. It was excellent. We're all looking forward to doing stuff as a group, like skiing in november, and maybe having dinners together, and going to other cities to see the sights, and playing games and all kinds of stuff. We sat around, eating pizza and drinking tang and exchanging emails. I'm glad I've got that group to be with, because my roommates and other natives tend to be a little clique-ish, and not do much except sit around talking about the old times and going to the bar. Tomorrow I'll go to the rest of my classes, meet all my professors, and maybe get a little more shopping done. I keep thinking of things I need to buy, and I've been to the store like 6 times in the past four days. I'll try and keep you all posted with my comings and goings, if I'm not too busy having fun!

Dude.

I'm in South Dakota right now. About 2 miles from Mt Rushmore. Just thought I'd check in and tell you all that. Much as I'd like to speak at length about the past coupla days, nyquil makes me just a tad drowsy. Since I've read about the dangers of blogging while drunk, I think I'll leave it at that for tonight. See you in a couple of days, o internet people.

June, Leo, Quincy and Annie

Ugh. Maybe I should watch less Disney Channel. 'Cept I think the commercials are on all the channels. And I don't really watch Disney at all. But apparently there's some DVD called like Baby Einsteins, and the commercials for it drive me up the wall with annoyance and frustration. It's these four little cute cartoon kids. One likes to conduct, one likes to dance, one likes to sing, and one likes instruments. At the end of the commercial, the happy woman selling the dvd asks, "which baby einstein is YOUR child?"

I want to pull an elvis and shoot the screen out with a gun. Listen to me: not all children are geniuses. Not all geniuses are gifted in musical areas. Not all gifted people have such a focused strength in just one area. But really. Come on, people. Get over yourselves. Letting the TV babysit your kid isn't really the best way to nurture a young child, gifted or not. As Ian Holm's character in Chariots of Fire puts it, "you can't put in what God's left out." People expect children to become magically smarter if they listen to mozart. But there is WAY more that goes into a child's brain development than that. Music may stimulate the mind for a short period of time, but you can't play one song to a kid and then expect them to ace a history exam, or understand calculus. Learning takes work, folks, no matter whether you're Cameron Diaz or Albert Einstein or Joe Schmo. If you want to be smart, go out and study something. Be all that YOU can be, not all that someone else is (or was).

I am a Mouse Whore

No, mom, don't worry. It isn't anything morally wrong, I don't think. But really, I think I've got like five mice for my computer already, and I'm always on the lookout for another. Like seriously comparing features and prices and stuff. I've got one that's really tiny (REALLY tiny), with a retractable cord. I like that one for when I'm at school or somewhere where I can't really take a bunch of stuff with me, and can't use a whole lot of space up. It's portable, easy to use, and really cute. I've got a normal-sized mouse that I like to use at home. It's the closest thing I've got to a remote control for iTunes, being optical and wireless, so you can use it on any surface, like all the way across the room from my computer. Its usefulness is only limited by how far away I can be from my computer and still see the cursor. Also, the receiver is way too big, with like a three foot long cord. I've been seeing these newer mice that are smaller than my current wireless one, whose receivers are about the size of a thumb drive, and fit into the bottom of the mouse when not in use. That is what I really want. But I feel bad- I've almost purchased one several times, stopping short each time. I can't bring myself to buy something like that when I've already got several perfectly functional ones sitting at home. Plus, I just know that if I do buy one, the next week they'll come out with some amazing new one that is exactly what I want in a mouse and I'll have to buy that too, and I'll have an embarassingly large mouse graveyard in my desk drawer. Perhaps I should donate my extraneous mice to charity. But first I'll have to find one that is good for both traveling and staying at home, with all the features I've grown to love in all my other mice.

And, hooray! It's raining!

sigh.

you know that feeling where your plans for the evening fall through for the second night in a row, and you're looking all cute but have no one to show it to, so you decide to go shopping to make cupcakes, but you can't find those little paper umbrellas that you need for the cupcakes, so you spend an hour and a half looking for them at four different stores, finally find them, then come home and it's still only nine o'clock? that's how i feel right now.

Two reasons why ice skates are not to be trusted

Exhibit A: the blister from Hell. It's been almost a week, and it still hurts to walk on that foot.















Exhibit B: the bruise that is as big as my hand, and has since turned deep purple and green.




The rest of the night was just peachy, though. I had fun skating around, and I got pretty good at going fast without falling down. The only trouble with going fast is that if you don't know how to stop, you end up running into a wall at full speed. Which is what I did. Learn from my mistakes, children, and never, ever go skating in a place with walls. I vow not to go ice skating again till I'm in Canadia, where they can skate out in the open, and fall down onto the ground to stop. Or maybe I'll learn the real way to stop, and not have to fall down at all.

Today I'm packing up. Which is like, So Cool. Well, not really, because I'm packing up to move back to my parents' house for two weeks, but it's cool because it means I'm this close to leaving for school. Today begins my two-week preparation for the trip, and the year, and the rest of my life. I'm so excited that this whole exchange thing is actually happening, and that it's happening so soon I can smell it. But for now, I need to take a shower and finish boxing stuff up, so I'll be ready when my friend comes over with his truck to move stuff in a coupla hours. Maybe my next post will be a reflection on my few months in this apartment. Tune in next time to find out!

Bitter Much?

A certain roommate of mine is WAY better at the dvd game "Shout!" than I am. Perhaps I'd be better at it if I had actually seen a fair amount of movies, but I don't know. Probably not. Perhaps if I had been on her team, I would be rejoicing in this fact, rather than sullen and aggressive. As it is, we played Cranium later on tonight, and me and my teammate totally smoked the rest of the teams. Go us.