My epic battle with the shower head.

The day after Christmas, I moved into my new apartment. It is a small efficiency, but it is plenty of room for a girl that has spent the last four years of her life sharing a space half that size with a roommate.

One drawback: the apartment is handicap accessible. This means that all of the light switches are lower (stand up with your arms limp by your side: where your hands fall is about the height of all of them, unless you are a legal midget, in which case look straight ahead and pretend your face is your hand)

More evidence of the handicap friendly environment: a shower head that is a full foot shorter than I am. I'm not even that tall of a person, but I can very easily see the wall about the shower head while looking straight ahead.

The simple solution to this issue was buying one of those handheld shower heads that are always a bit higher than the ones normally mounted on the wall. I went, I bought, I felt accomplished.

Attempt to change the shower head #1: I grabbed the six inch wrench from the toolkit my dad gave me for Christmas. It was too small. I tried several times to untwist the shower head with just my hands. No luck.

Attempt to change the shower head #2: I went to a store that shall remain nameless *cough Walmart cough* because I had a giftcard to use only to find out that the only wrench they have besides a 6 inch one is a huge pipe wrench costing $26.99 (more than my giftcard). The nice man behind the counter tells me to just buy the pliers, it would surely give me the grip I need and allow me to untwist whatever may come my way.

I listened to him. Dear god, what was I thinking?

I went home to find out that my hand is not physically strong enough nor large enough to squeeze the pliers and turn them at the same time. DAMN YOU GIRLY HANDS.

Attempt to change the shower head #3: I went to the hardware store. They had the wrench I needed and now I have a shower head that is still too short, but at least I can lift it off and rinse my hair without having to attempt to bend my body like a contortionist. I probably terrified my new neighbors when I finally got the shower head off of the pipe because I let out this war chant: "AHAHAHAH. TAKE THAT YOU CHEAP PIECE OF METAL THAT WILL NEVER FULFILL YOUR DREAMS OF BECOMING A FIRE HYDRANT"

I can only imagine that all shower heads would have to dream about, were they sentient beings, would becoming a fire hydrant. I mean, really, where else is there to go when all you have ever done and will ever do is squirt out water?

7 Things I Learned This Week #12 (Holiday edition!)

1. The candles on the Kinara represent things by color: black for the African race, red for African blood shed, and green for African land. My fourth grade teacher brought in a Kinara once and explained the holiday to us, but I don't recall her explaining what the candles represented. I always thought each individual candle stood for its own ideal or value. Instead, each day of Kwanzaa represents one of the seven values honored with the holiday.
2. The twelve days of Christmas actually fall after Christmas and go through January 6th. 
3. President Truman received a Menorah from the Prime Minister of Israel in 1951, the first link between the White House and Hanukkah. 
4. Freezingman is a winter art and music festival held in Colorado in January as a winter counterpart to Burning Man.
5. "Holiday Heart Syndrome" refers to an irregular heart beat, normally appearing after vacation or time off from work (generally associated wit binge drinking).
6. Boxing Day is kind of the equivalent of Black Friday for the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and parts of Australia. It tends to be the highest day of revenue for commercial stores.
7. Some people believe the 25th of December falls about 9 months after the Annunciation (when the archangel Gabrial informed Mary she would give birth to God's son). Annunciation is celebrated March 25th. So it lines up. (I put my money on the theory that the day was chosen because of the overhaul of significant dates in other religions)


There you have it. Happy Chrismahanukwanzadan.(even though Hanukkah and Ramadan are over. I hope they were happy for you)
Have a safe and happy holiday season. :-)

7 Things I Learned This Week (month) #11

I don't have consistent internet access, as Knox has let out for winter break and that is normally where I go for internet. But between that, holidays, moving/not really moving yet (but will be soon!), visiting the boy (and meeting his parents in Washington DC), and lots and lots of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it is safe to say that I haven't exactly been a reliable blogger. Though, when have I ever really been that consistent with stuff like this? You should see the diaries I have started, the knitting projects left un-knitted, and the NaNoWriMo novel I got 400 words into before I realized that I had to study for the GRE for the first week-and-a-half of November. 


Anyway, without further adieu: 
Seven Things I Learned This Week:
1. Philadelphia is the fourth largest city in the United States. 
2. Jon Stewart was born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz.
3. Don Henley was inspired to write the song Witchy Woman while he had a high fever and was reading a book about Zelda Fitzgerald.
4. Snapple fact #658: New York City is made up of 50 islands.
5. Joe Louis used to drink cow blood fresh from slaughterhouses right before big boxing matches.
6. Zorillas are the smelliest animals in the world.
7. George Washington University has a "J" street in their student union, thus making up for the fact that Washington D.C. does not have a "J" Street. Sesame Street would be proud. 


Bonus Fact: Otters are very sensitive about their fluff bedding and where it goes. I personally saw some of them fight over where to put it in their habitat at the National Zoo. 


Tada! Learny things! Isn't it wonderful?

Things I Learned This Week #10 ...?

I think it's ten, at least. It's been a couple weeks. I have excuses! I swear!
I had to move my parents two weekends ago, which culminated in taking the GRE that Monday. Yeah, my life sucked that week. And last week I was sick.
See, I have reasons!
And I have lessons!
1. The phrase "had issue" means that a couple (normally of royal or some other official entitlement) had children.
2. Netflix has interesting genres, including "Dramas about Royalty based on Real life" and "Cartoons for Grown-ups."
3. NaNoWriMo is impossible to catch up on once you skipped the first week to study for the GRE.
4. The computer-based GRE is one of those predictive tests that gives the test taker the next question based on whether or not he or she answered the last question correctly and predicts your score based on that.
5. Washington D.C. is exactly 854 miles from Galesburg.
6. Facebook has freindship pages outlining as much of a relationship as possible through facebook. Kind of creepy...It's like Facebook decided to start scrap-booking for all of us.
7. The BNSF railroad was Burlington North and Santa Fe before they merged. They only crossed in Galesburg, Illinois.

Seven Things I Learned This Week #8/9

1. Rod Stewart had a daughter (more, his girlfriend at the time did) he (and she) put up for adoption when he was 18. 
2. Rod Stewart is now preparing for another child at age 65.
3. There has never been a panda born in the United States. The Atlanta Zoo is preparing for the first.
4. Myanmar has adopted a new flag. 
5. 85% of women who received the birds and the bees talk from their mother or grandmother wishes they had received said talk from their father.
6. Related: Over half of the women in a study that had the same talk with their fathers were likely to have had less sexual partners, have waited longer to lose their virginity, and were significantly less likely to have a marriage end in divorce.
7. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.


#9 (#9...#9...Yes, I have waited to do that Beatles joke for nine weeks.)
8/1. The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
9/2.The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.
10/3. Snapple fact #35: Elephants only sleep two hours a day.
11/4. Snapple fact #300 Pennsylvania is misspelled on the Liberty Bell.
12/5. The fist product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum.
13/6. Lip impressions are like fingerprints: no two are the same.
14/7. The unofficial mascot of George Washington University is the hippo. I kind of sort of really want to be a hippo.

Seven Things I Learned This Week (belated and not really learny things)

1. I am very sleepy the day after driving to and from Chicago and not getting home until 2:30 in-the-morning.
2. When I am as sleepy as I am now, I make up words like learny.
3. Goldfish are not a breakfast food, but they sure do entertain me when I am tired.
4. I can't count or deal with the caps lock key when I am tired.
5. My hands are cold.
6. Grad school is a terrifying concept.
7. I will be doubling up 7TILTW for next week. As I have learned lots of things, but can not put them into coherent and non-stupid sounding phrases and what-not.

Seven Things I Learned This Week #7

1. You are more likely to hit a deer while driving in West Virginia than in any other state.
2. It took Germany a full 92 years to pay off the reparations from World War I, which they just paid off last week.
3. Snapple Fact #855: Vultures can fly for six hours without flapping their wings.
4. Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving Day on Columbus Day.
5. Jackie Kennedy did her Under-grad at George Washington University.
6. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader and senior Senator from Nevada, went to George Washington University for law school (can you tell I'm researching grad school?)
7. Norway is ranked as the most developed country in the world by the United Nations.

7 Things I Learned This Week #6

1. Apparently, if female frogs are pregnant, you can squeeze the eggs out of them if you want to. (there was more to this one, but Sam was explaining it really late last night and there was a train going by so I couldn't really hear him. But what I did hear was very interesting (read: gross))
2. Snapple Fact #772: Male moose shed their antlers every winter and grow a new pair the next year.
3. Today is the 20 year anniversary of Germany becoming a fully united state for the first time since World War 2. I knew this one before, but I think it is super cool.
4. There is contention regarding which river is the world's shortest: the D River in Oregon or the Roe River in Montana. Apparently the D River changes with the tide and can be measured at different lengths throughout the year, but at its shortest it is 120 feet long. The Roe River is consistently 200 feet long.
5. The woman that currently holds the record for the world's largest breasts (cup size M) might lose her title because her last breast implant surgery gave her a staff infection and she had to have the implants removed. She's getting them put back in ASAP, though, so she can keep her title.
6. The cartoon show Inspector Gadget only ran for 2 seasons. It felt like way more.
7. Ginko trees are on the endangered species list.
BONUS! Frontierville is a very addictive facebook game. I can't stop playing.

My insanity...

On Chat
Me: If I turn into a vampire and start to get super jealous but you don't know that I am a vampire and I can't tell you do you promise not to break up with me because of the drama it causes?
Him: ......what?
Later...
E-mail
Subject: Also!
MeIf you get mugged in Prague and wind up shot and some french girl nurses you back to health do you promise not to lie to her about your identity and pretend like you are dead to everyone else?
HimI really don't understand.
Me: ...It happened on Gossip Girl...


Curse you, CW! Curse you and your hip, trendy shows!

7 Things I Learned This Week #5

1. 1 in 4 senior citizens use social networking sites specifically to hook up with other senior citizens. I didn't realize that 1 in 4 seniors knew how to use social networking sites.
2. You will spend 6 months of your life stopped at red lights.
3. Only one cast member from Gilligan's island gets residual payments for every episode aired. Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) had the only agent that actually read the section of the contract saying that actors were to receive compensation for only the first four airing of any episode.
4. Snapple fact #867: Franklin Roosevelt was related to 5 U.S. presidents by blood and 6 by marriage.
5. The average bagel actually has 50-100% more calories than a standard glazed donut.
6. Locusts are actually a species of grasshopper.
7. No one crossed the Atlantic in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon until 2003.

Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive

That's right. We are putting together a car or two to go to DC to march/rally with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
As an added bonus, I will get to see my boyfriend.
This is going to be the best Halloween weekend ever.

7 Things I learned this week #4

1. (Julia posted this on facebook and it came up in my feed) Babies pick up their parents' accents from the womb, and infants are born crying in their native dialect. Researchers found that French newborns cry in a rising French accent, and German babies cry with a characteristic falling inflection.
2. Russian troops didn't leave Poland until 1993.
3. Lead poisoning isn't only a threat to children. Women of childbearing age with high lead levels are more prone to miscarriages, premature birth, birth defects, and developmental problems. (I learned way more about lead poisoning, but this was the most interesting to me.)
4. Only male fireflies can fly.
5. Snapple Fact #870: President Warren G. Harding once lost White House China in a poker game.
6. You can walk roughly six miles inside of Walmart if you go up and down every single aisle once and then do your grocery shopping.
7. Hillary Duff still acts. And she acts in exactly the same fashion as she did in Lizzie McGuire on the Disney Channel. (she made guest appearances in a few episodes of Gossip Girl)


Bonus! Someone tipped my cow this weekend. I suspect the ladybug.

7 Things I Learned This Week #3

1. Darth Vader needs to switch to Gmail, if only for the spam control. (hint: click the link. It doesn't work if you don't click the link)
2. If you play the game Diplomacy and France decides to just let you take over her territories so she can go play Zelda, make sure she doesn't write "France does whatever Germany says" as her military orders. it's a good way to turn Russia, Great Britain (your boyfriend with whom you were going to share France with anyway), and Austria-Hungary against you.
3. There are two Bronze Turkeys (the travelling trophy up for grabs in the Turkey Bowl between Knox College and Monmouth College every year): the original one from the late 1800s and a replica because the old one has not aged gracefully over the years.
4. If there is radiation or a nuclear attack, I can go to my friendly neighboorhood post office for access to a fallout shelter.
5. Snapple fact #855: Oregon has more ghost towns than any other state.
6. September 11 is an actual national holiday called "Patriot Day." There is a designated moment of silence at 8:46 A.M. to commemorate the victims who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks.
7. There is also a holiday in the spring called "Patriots' Day" to commemorate the first anniversary of the Revolutionary War. It was on this holiday that the Oklahoma City Bombing happened.

I got shot. Twice.

I just got two shots, one in each arm.
I shouldn't be dying of tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, mumps, or rubella any time soon.
Our staff nurse here at the health department was very excited to shoot us all up. I think it is her secret plan to be able to take over the health department and rule Warren County.
If I die from some mysterious poison or something, it was her.

Golden booties!

I am participating in this walking competition for Warren County through the health department where I work, and I was the top walker this week with 168,000+ steps.


For weeks I have coveted the traveling trophy golden shoes. I have seen them pass hands from one person to the next. Even one of my teammates got to call them hers for a week.

And now they are mine. MINE! (insert maniacal laughter here). I have big plans for these little shoes…

They will sit on my desk between the cow and the kung fu troll in all their golden glory.

Seven Things I Learned This Week #2

1. Opossum and possum are both correct spellings for the same animal. The "o" is to indicate that the animal being referred to is from the western hemisphere.
2. Groundhogs are the same as woodchucks. And apparently people also call them whistle pigs because of a high-pitched whistle they make. (I vote we call February 2 Whistle Pig Day)
I swear this isn't just going to be about rodents (are possums rodents?
3. Dendrophobia is the technical name for fear of trees
4. All toys are ninjas (see Toy Story 3 and you will understand)
5. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, but your odds of surviving it are much higher. So while the sun can be just as dangerous as cigarettes, it's not quite as deadly if you get treatment.
6. September 4th is Newspaper Carrier Day, the day all paper boys are celebrated for delivering the news. 
7. Pit Bulls and Chihuahuas can cross breed to have a puppy. That poor Chihuahua. (what to call them? Pithuahuas or chihuabulls? 

New thing to make me blog every week!

So I haven't blogged in a long time as a result of a few things including:
working 40 hours a week (for less than minimum wage)
a certain boy being in town for a relatively short period of time
a new addiction to Fable 2 on said boy's Xbox 360
and studying for the GRE

Okay, so more the first three things than the last one, even though studying for the GRE needs to not be so low on my list of priorities seeing as how the test is coming up fairly quickly for me. But so that I blog more often, I have decided to steal an idea from one of my old friends.
So here goes:
7 things I learned this week #1
1. Facebook has added a "places" function. Who really needs to know where I am when I update my Facebook status on the rare occasion that I do?
2. Rice is prepared very differently all across the world. In the ESL class I volunteer in twice a week, we had a discussion about rice that resembled a Disney "Pass the Plate" commercial about how everyone in the class is used to preparing rice. Most of our students are from Mexico and Central America, but we also have students from Japan, Tanzania, Thailand, and India. So hearing about how people in Tanzania put bananas and pineapple along with sweet potatoes in rice kind of surprised me.
3. I learned the actual story of Joan of Arc and that she was reclaiming her homeland, only to be killed for it. I always thought she was just punished for cross-dressing.
4. It's been 5 years since Hurricane Katrina. Okay, so this isn't so much something I learned, but it surprised me. I went on my first college visit while the Katrina was starting/happening. It doesn't seem like five years ago. And you would think that in five years they would have gotten more done to help Louisiana.
5. Ramadan is the ninth month on the Islamic calender. I never put it together that Islam had its own calender and that Ramadan wasn't just September.
6. Gallimaufry means both a confused jumble or medley of things and a hash made from diced or minced meat. English and our definitions. Go figure.
7. France beheaded people until 1977. Thank you Hank Green for sharing that terrifying information on Truth or Fail on Youtube.

Tada! Something learned for each day of the week :)

I really want to wish you a happy birthday, but...

You know how actions have consequences? It is rare that we actually predict those consequences accurately. These consequences are inevitably present, whether good or bad. There is no stopping them.


I have decided to create world without consequences. Capitalism would cease to exist. There would be no more economic crisis. No one would ever get cancer, or gain weight. No one would have anyone dislike them. Grades would be long gone. One could never be fired for making a bad call. Hell, no one would even have to have a job for that matter.

We will all be able to have whatever animals for pets we would like. And when that Koala next door attacks me, there will be no insurance claim the neighbor needs to worry about. And my poor Corgi would want to retaliate, but that would be a consequence the Koala would be suffering, so it wouldn’t happen.

No writers would receive credit for any of their work, because plagiarism wouldn’t be a problem anymore, as it is only a consequence. So really, we would all become infinitely more intelligent because the knowledge of the greats could be claimed as our own. Or I could pretence like I wrote Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling would know, but she couldn’t enforce any kind of consequences upon me. But I also would reap any benefits, as those are consequences, simply with a positive connotation.

And I would be able to wish someone a happy birthday despite my previous actions. Because my previous actions were consequences of his actions. Therefore, my actions never would have existed in the first place.

And the world of this kind of anarchy would have ceased to exist centuries ago. So I will go and eat an entire pan of brownies all by myself, gain ten pounds while not having a Corgi by my side to protect me from the Koala the next door that the neighbors aren’t allowed to have because it is against the law and not collect royalties because I didn’t pretend to write Harry Potter because I would have been sued so bad that my debt from that court case would have exceeded that of my college education.

And I won’t tell you happy birthday.

A lilac by any other name...

I meant to write this over the weekend. And then I didn't.
Anywho, first forty-hour work done. 51 (among countless others, but I am thinking the short term here) to go. I already hate Mondays sufficiently more than I did in college. And I really, REALLY, hated Mondays when I was in college. (It's very strange to say that. "When I was in college...When I was in college...I feel old.)
My room (read, Andrew's room) smells like lilacs right now. This candle has turned boy territory into a delightful spring walk. Kudos to the candle and soap shop where my grandma works for producing such a powerful, yet pretty, piece of craftsmanship. Bonus points for the fact that there is glitter that will forever be a part of Andrew's room. Muah hahaha.
On an entirely unrelated note, I started character sketches for NaNoWriMo. I have my two main characters formulating and the third in the beginnings. I also have a kind of working plot in mind. I'm very excited for November.
However, before November comes the GRE. So I need to start working on that little bundle of joy that will enter my life in the end of October, preceded by months of preparation and a financial hit of $160.

Forms! Forms!

I was sorting through forms from the most recent swine flu vaccine the Health Department had, and as I was going through I found quite a few interesting takes on how to fill out a form.
1. For children: when it came to the box that said "age," you'd be surprised the number of parents that put their own age in the box out of habit. And some that put the wrong ages. I can only hope they have a few kids and just forgot which form they were filling out at the moment.
2. Lots of people over the age of 70 didn't bother putting their age in the box. I think they may have lost count over the years. I know I wouldn't bother doing the math anymore. My grandpa turned 93 yesterday. I asked him how old he was and he asked me if I had a calculator so I could tell him.
3. One lady was 102. When she wrote her birthday in, she put 01-01- (19)07. I hope when I am 102 I have the awareness to make sure people realize I am not only two years old by adding the century to my birthyear. If I make it to 102, that is. I could just see myself in 2090 being mistaken for a two-year-old because all that someone knows about me is from that form.
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I learn so much in different environments

I've officially started my first day of service as an Americorps Volunteer at the Warren County Health Department.
Things I have learned so far:
1. There is a drawer containing one thousand, literally 1,000, condoms in my office. We hand out free condoms, no questions asked, and this morning a couple of kids (estimated to be around 12, 13 max) came in for some condoms. The public nurse came in to my office and explained the system and where stuff is. Apparently there are a few more thousand floating around the building hidden in different storage areas. I have never seen so many condoms in my life.
2. I, too, can quit smoking. The brochure was very thorough about how there is nothing wrong with me, just that I am not to be controlled  by my habit. I wasn't sure how to break it to the pamphlet that its words were being wasted on a non-smoker.
3. My laptop has Windows XP, which had some way cooler games than Vista does. I really miss that old pinball flash game I used to play all of the time. But I am still pretty good at it.

Things I have learned living with a house full of (mostly) boys:
They never flush. I feel like I am living in a house of sims that go to the bathroom on their own, which is great! But they don't flush. And might not wash their hands.
Gross.

I get old tomorrow...

I got a new layout for my blog. Pretty, huh?
I also screwed up one of my Sims' lives today. He was cheating on his wife, and he got caught. Granted, I had him in the hot tub with his mistress and had his wife right there to see them woo-hoo, but he was a dirty cheating dog to begin with, so it's not my fault. 
I can't wait to start my job. Too much free time leads to me trying (and succeeding) to dial people with my nose on the touch screen of my phone. 

I get these crazy ideas in my head...

So I have decided to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. During November, you write a 50,000 word novel.
I wasn't a creative writing major at Knox, nor have I ever written anything near 50,000 words long, much less something that demanded creativity. But I feel like I could produce a novel worth not showing to anyone, ever, and be able to say that I wrote a novel. Even if it is a really bad one.
And when I say really bad, I mean that it might be as bad or worse than Twilight.
But it won't be about vampires.
I promise.

My wrist still hates me for being a senior...

According to my site tracker, someone from Omaha, Nebraska, looked at my blog yesterday. Here's a shout out to you, Anna, because I know (read, hope) it was you. Otherwise I have a Nebraskian stalker. Anna, will you be my Nebraskian stalker? The title comes with a certificate!

In other news, in 24 hours, I graduate from Knox College.
In 24 hours, I am no longer a part of academia (until I go to grad school, that is (which I will be doing someday, despite the statistics not in favor of that)).
So what does someone staring real life in 24 hours do? Pack? Watch bad TV? Apparently another big thing is to be drunk?
That doesn't appeal to me. Instead, I am going to go and shake hands with everyone (that shows up) in my class in 30 minutes.
And by shake, I mean high five, because my right hand is still all "itis"-y and can not be shook.

I don't see what anyone can see in anyone else

I thought about going to dinner in the cafeteria, but then I decided not to. My primary reason: I didn't want to struggle with a fork left handed in such a public place.
Instead, I am sitting here, eating my mac 'n cheese, struggling to get the noodles to go on the fork and happy as a clam that I am not in the caf.
Also, writing a paper. Easier done here where my computer calls home.
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Oh I wonder wonder wonder wonder what's in a wonder ball?

I wonder what life would be like if I blogged when I have time to rather than during finals.
It would probably be the kind of place where grass grows purple, elephants weigh the same amount as cotton balls, and money grows on trees.
I need to write the other half of this term paper.

I have my last class of my undergraduate career today...

I feel like I should have some dignified response to this. Instead, all I can think to laugh. Not maniacally. Just laugh. Ha. Ha. Ha ha.
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Metaphors plague my mind.

There is a toy from a happy meal that I distinctly remember: a princess Barbie. It was one of the old school ones they used to have at McDonald's. It had the blonde hair and the body that didn't move at all. But I got it when I was around 6 or so and had it for a very long time. The last time I remember seeing that Barbie was during my senior year of high school while unpacking to move into a new house. 
I haven't seen it since. I don't know where it went, what could have become of it. I may even have simply thrown it away or given it to my niece. Who knows?
I have no real need for it in my life. It's not like I have been desperately needing that piece of cheap plastic from the nineties. I get along fine without it.  
And even though there are no distinct memories I have of that toy, I remember the toy in and of itself distinctly. I don't recall having it during any defining moments, when I got it, or anything else. I just know that I had it. I enjoyed it. It was a comforting item to have in my life.
I am graduating from college in two weeks, and I can't stop thinking about that stupid little happy meal toy. Why is this? 
I don't remember exactly how I got to where I am. Every decision I have made, every person I have become friends with, every last detail of my life has led to me in this moment. There are the toys that I don't really recall being anything spectacular, but I remember them. There are the people in my life that I feel like I couldn't live without. There are people that I thought I couldn't live without, only to have lost them in one way or another and survived. I don't know whether or not this is for the best. I have lost some very good, or what I thought were very good, friends over the past few years. 
Don't get me wrong, there are reasons for this.  Reasons ranging from simply not having enough time for one another to major events taking place, whether misunderstood or just never confronted. There are those people that actively made the decision not to be in life life anymore, and those that passively just faded away. Then there are those people that I decided to cut out of my life for my own reasons.
But I am here on the brink of this major defining life moment, and all I can think about is how maybe I could have picked up the phone one night when I was bored to hang out with someone I genuinely care about but have lost touch with. Or maybe I could have convinced another person that being friends with me is worth it. Or maybe I could have owned up to it and dealt with the situation effectively, rather than being passive aggressive and petty. Or maybe I could have not done whatever it was that made the other person decide to end our friendship.
It's too late for all of that, but that is what is dominating my mind these days when I should be thinking about decision-making theory, Nazi film and propaganda, how interest groups utilize the internet, and the Peace Corps. application. 
This is why I should not be given time to think.

On the other hand, I am now officially in a real sorority. Alpha Sigma Alpha, Theta Nu Chapter, Knox College. Founded May 22, 2010. 
We have little phoenix pins to prove it. 
We rock.

But...It's pink...

Today, I had to use a very small sewing machine that was pink.
It made me think, "if Barbie were to have a sewing machine, I bet this would be it."
I felt very accomplished when I finished the very small sewing task I had set out to do.
It's the little things in life you have to appreciate.

My computer has returned!

The title of this entry makes it seem like my computer was off on some quest, but has returned to its home. It's kind of true. It was off slaying dragons in the medieval times (not the restaurant).
No wait! It had abandoned me to back pack around Europe!
NO! It had decided to go to the arctic tundra to make its fortune in ice sales!

Here's a surprise for you: none of those are true. I know, shocker, right? It was broken. That's all. But wouldn't it have been so exciting if it had been on a quest? I am just going to pretend like that is why I was computer-less and technologically alone for two weeks.

In other news, if it had wanted to go to the arctic tundra to sell ice, it could have just stayed here. But now the foot of ice between our feet and the snow is melting, so sales might have changed significantly over the past two weeks.

Official declaration:

How often do you wake up in the morning only to roll over and go back to sleep? How often are you late to class because of over sleeping? How often do you just skip class or meetings altogether purely for the reason that you don't want to get out of bed?
We need to wake up in the morning and face the day, head on. No more begrudgingly getting out of bed in the morning because we feel we have to! No more shall we suffer from the agony of having to part with that beloved piece of furniture.

How do we do this, you ask? By sleeping in more often, you hope? NO!

I hereby declare that beds are to be uncomfortable. If anything is ever going to get done in the world, it needs to be started. If it needs to be started, the day needs to begin. In order for the day to begin, we must get out of bed.
For too long now, we have succumb to the allure of comfortable beds and hit the snooze. We can not allow these warm, sinfull (yes, sinFULL. Full of sin) to contribute to our inefficiency as a species. We need to rise up and take our day back from the naps that go too long, the mornings that are difficult to handle, and the nights that come to early because our bed just looks too comfy.
If everyone bans together and shakes off the shackles our beds have on us, we can take the world back from these inanimate objects that dominate a large part of our life. Think about it: if you didn't want to stay in bed in the morning, if it was a very uncomfortable place to be, you could be writing the great American novel, climbing Mount Everest, or even CURING CANCER! (How can you be against CURING CANCER? If you are, you are a terrible person that doesn't deserve a bed anyway.)
Go out and find the most uncomfortable bed you can and make that a permanent fixture in your nightly routine. Take back your life. Take back your dignity.