After viewing the second Lord of the Rings, a.k.a. the Two Towers, and some careful consideration, Rob and I have both determined that if we had to be any Middle Earth character, we would both like to be elves.

I hate everything. Have a nice night.

"Because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn burn burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centrelight pop and everybody goes "Awww!".
- Jack Kerouac from "On The Road"

Whole world= meanies

Do you want to know what I think?
THEN GET OFF MY SITE!
ha:) nah, just kiddin
I think that no one in the world does something nice for anyone anymore. Everyone is self-absorbed. Seriously, no one goes out of their way for someone else or just tries to do something to help someone out for the sheer fact that it will make their day. Im not saying im any better, Im sure I do the same thing, but I think everyone needs to stop. Everyone goes about their day and cant do anything to help anyone out or think of anyone else, because they're so busy with their own lives... Well guess what, in another 40 years you're going to be an old retired person and no one is going to give a shit if you finished the last chapter of your economics book or whatever, and you totally missed your chance to make someones life better and no one is going to have time for you just like you didnt have any time for them.Go figure out something really nice that you can do for two people, right now. I dont care, go buy them a Krispy Kreme donut or something, Sweetwaters is open 24 hours. If you have to go out of your way to do it or inconvienience yourself .. EVEN BETTER.
GO. NOW. STOP READING THIS.

BLAH

Wednesday.
*sigh* I just had a wine cooler and it relaxed about 90% of my stressed out muscles. Nice.
Im about to show the pictures I took to the family that hired me to do their family picture, so hopefully they'll like them. Im really happy with them, actually, I think they look pretty good.
Today in American Lit we were talking about this piece of writing and the professor was explaining that what the author was trying to say was that people corrupt their minds with total crap media and tv and how the the mind is supposed to be a sacred place for thought. Now, while im not sure that I agree to that degree,... I still feel bad for watching the Real World last night (ooooh! they think Trishelle has an eating disorder!!... I mean... nevermind.)
The countdown has begun!! 3 more Geos labs and I am free forever of the hell that is rocks.
I am in love with Dr. Mario and my Nintendo is broken. This is the worst kind of torture. Okay, not the WORST, but you know...
I 'borrowed' the John Mayer CD from the darkroom to make some copies, and I think its a really really good CD. I must admit, in the beginning, I was not a John Mayer fan, I totally made fun of that song which I now like.. but i have turned over a new leaf!!
Rob is making me Indian Chicken Curry for dinner. Yum. I have been looking forward to this all day.

A few more points of note..
*Tomorrow is Halloween! yeah, thats not actually that exciting. Rob and I are going to my house (home home, not apartment home), originally we were going to take my niece trick-or-treating, but no longer, now we are just handing out candy. But we will make them work for their candy, oh yes, there will be no easy getting-of-the-candy from me, nor from Rob (but this is not unusal, you dont get anything out of Rob without a fight)... there will be much recitation from the kids. The Declaration of Independence, The Gettysburg Address, Indecipherable Pearl Jam Lyrics, possibly "The Raven".... no child will leave with a treat without some intellectual collateral...
*Secondly, the deadline for the Laureate is Friday, so get your stuff in, or else. Up until today, we had a total of 8 submissions, and then we went in today and all the sudden we had 43 submissions. This is a gigantic relief. I was considering submitting pieces under pen names just to fill the damn thing up, but no longer necessary...
*Third, a small internal battle. I consider myself to be at least reasonably intelligent. Im opinionated, I do my best to read a lot, be up to date on things. So why, in total antithesis to this, do I have an unsatiated love for trashy television?? Now I dont watch television often, but when I do, do you know what I watch? Well here is a little rundown on this weeks television watching schedule for you...
Monday night... joined my roommate for a little viewing of "P. Diddy, MTV's making of the band"
Tuesday night... The Real World, in which one cast member starts a career as a Go Go Dancer, and the another has a one night stand with a girl in the community hot tub.
Currently I am on my way over to a friends house to watch The Bachelor. Trash! Complete Trash! And I relish every moment of it...
*Fourth- My term paper for American Lit is "Who do you think (pick an author) has answered the call to create a writing style/novel/attitude that is unique to the American Experience?" any ideas?? let me know... right now Im thinking Salinger
*Fifth- my roommate has abandoned me, Its 9 pm and I cant find her anywhere. SARA! WHERE ARE YOU?!? COME BACK, ILL BE BETTER, I PROMISE!!! :)
*Sixth- A nice quote, and goodnight all...
"Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker"- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Its almost Christmas!
Yeah, okay, thats a lie...
Me and Sara are putting up our Christmas tree next friday (we feel that anything after Halloween could reasonably be considered the Christmas season...) Seriously though, although I completely love fall, there is a bit of a lack of things to look forward to in the September/October months. Finally at the END of October you get Halloween, but that isnt terribly exciting. Then you get Thanksgiving which I love, and Christmas, but usually Im in a pretty positive mood for most of those two months because you put up decorations and it snows and you listen to Christmas music and make cookies and go home and see your family and its actually almost sad when you actually get to Christmas, because the season is more fun than the actual day. And two weeks after Christmas is my birthday, which is good, except that ill be 22 and that will make me feel unbelievably old.
In case you havent noticed, I have a bit of a lack of things to talk about lately, so im skipping from topic to topic.
The soup at work tonight was Spicy Thai Peanut and it was UNBELIEVABLYgood, so ive been looking for a recipie for it online. If you have a recipie for Spicy Thai Peanut soup, please send that my way.
Rob is working late and I was trying to wait up for him but its only 1:30, and he probably wont be here till 3. He is the cutest boy alive. We're carving pumpkins tomorrow. Im going to get a tiny little one for Me and Sara's cat (Catboy) and Im going to carve a little cat face into it. Then again, he's a psycho cat and he'll probably gnaw the entire face off of the pumpkin the minute Im not looking...
I can recognize my rambling when I see it, I will stop posting now... but on a final note, a great quote from the book Im reading right now-
"There are years that ask questions and years that answer."- Zora Neale Hurston

Nothing To Post...

WHAT AM I GOING TO BE FOR HALLOWEEN?!?!
Had some milk supersaturated with Hershey's Chocolate syrup with my lunch.
Reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God".. its really good...
my niece is going to be a ladybug for Halloween.
Have geology lab in approximately 1 hour 10 min.
Currently dont give a f@#* about rocks.
Hate my neighbors because they stole our doormat. Must be nice being ghetto-fabulous, Ill have to ask them about it.
Tennis Shoes are falling apart, could be hazardous, good reason not to workout (beyond my control, obviously a sign from God.)
I dont know how and I dont know when, but Im certain that someday my unhealthy obsession with cheese will lead to my downfall.
Missed the lastest episode of the soft-porn season of Real World last night. Bummer.
Thats all I got kids.

Choice.
You know what I love? Weekend Update on SNL. I think Tina Faye and Jimmy Fallon, especially together, are quite possibly the funniest thing ever.

Trees

So about my sweet Counting Crows concert last night. They have these causes that they try to endorse, and in every town they go to they invite an organization thats related to that cause (i.e., domestic violence, the environment) to hand out info in the lobby. So Adam gets up there and hes announcing that some kind of Detroit Tree-Planting group is out in the lobby and hes like "Yeah, go check them out cause, lets face it, your city could use some fuckin trees"
funniest ever.
in honor of a really good concert, tonights quote will be from them.. this is from "Up All Night" off of their new CD. In some odd offbeat way, I find it to be really romantic..:)
"Fix you're hair just right, put your jeans on tight
Wear a dress so I can get it off real easy.
Cause Ive been thinkin I'd
Like to see your eyes
Open up real wide
The minute that you see me...." -Counting Crows

Monday Morning

I was home (like, home home, parents home) Sunday and I set the alarm, and when it went off Monday morning, I totally wasnt used to it and it scared the hell out of me and I fell out of bed. At this point in time I am sitting on the floor and I realize that I had slept with one leg over the other, so one of my legs was completely asleep, so I couldnt get up, I had to wait for my leg to wake up. If you could have seen me sitting there on the floor, unable to get up after falling out of bed.. I swear to you, it was the most pathetic image ever.

A Couple Things of Note
After my insistant scramble to get tickets to the only Counting Crows show that they are playing in Michigan, they add another show in East Lansing. *sigh*
I took this test last week in my US 1940-1960 history class. I got done with the test and was literally laughing as I told someone how badly I bombed it. See, the thing was, it was completely my fault, because I didnt get around to reading 300 of the 400 pages of the reading that the test was over. Usually, Im a pretty good BS'er, but this time, I didnt even know enough to BS. And you know what I got on this test? Freaking 82%. I dont deserve anywhere near that. Its not because I did a good job of BSing, I think this guy just got sick of reading essays and gave me a good grade. For example, I will include a short essay.
the question was "What was the controversey surrounding the use of the Atomic Bomb in World War II?"
This is my answer, verbatim, off of my test paper that was handed back-
"The atomic bomb controversey was centered around the complete destruction it would cause. O'Neill understands the complete horror that it caused, the reason he named the last chapters of his book 'Reckoning.' I believe O'Neill saw this as a very final and thorough end to the war, however. Much of America was torn between these two points in relation to the A-bomb."
Now, when I read that, it is very VERY apparent to me that I havent read the book. Do you know what I got for that little gem of knowledge? 9 out of 12 points.
And lastly, I heard this on the news this morning. So theres this family in Georgia (?), and on Sunday they get in their car with their son to go to church, and as they're pulling out of the driveway, their entire house blows up in front of them. I guess it was some kind of gas leak. Can you even imagine? What if they decided that they were too tired to go to church that morning? unreal.

My Pathetic Financial State
I just went to pick up toilet paper, 3 potatoes, and I saw grapes, and I love grapes, so Im like, sweet, grapes, picked those up. It came to $5.99. I had $5.60 to my name. I had to put the grapes back.

"To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go."
-Mary Oliver from "In Blackwater Woods"

Nice

It's nice to have a job that you like. Its nice to have a job that, for the first time for as long as I can remember, I dont dread going to every time. Its nice to have a job that I have fun at. Nice.
Rob, for our 3 year anniversary, or for the next special occasion that comes along, we should go out for dinner and by a bottle of wine. There is something romantic about drinking out of wine glasses, I think. "But Lola", you're thinking, "you hate wine." Yes, I thought of that too. But there is the perfect solution. Riesling. Its the wine equivelant of frufru drinks. It actually kind of tastes like wine coolers. And its not expensive at all, maybe $20 for the bottle...

"The earth is so small and so fragile and such a precious little spot in the universe that you can block it out with your thumb, and you realize that on that small spot, that little blue and white thing, is everything that means anything to you- all of history and music and poetry and art and death and birth and love."- anonymous

To Dorothy
by Marvin Bell

You are not beautiful, exactly.
You are beautiful, inexactly.
You let the weed grow by the mulberry
And the mulberry grow by the house.
So close, in the personal quiet
of a windy night, it brushes the wall
And sweeps away the day till we sleep.

A child said it and it seemed true:
'Things that are lost are all equal'
But it isn't true. If I lost you,
The air wouldn't move, nor the tree grow.
Someone would pull the weed, my flower.
The quiet wouldn't be yours. If I lost you,
I'd have to ask the grass to let me sleep.

What, pray tell, is the internal atom structure of Quartz? or WHO THE HELL CARES

I'm pissed. I took my first geology test today. Let me preface this by saying that, I know I suck at science, and so I read and took notes on EVERY SINGLE WORD in EVERY CHAPTER for this test. I even did those review questions at the end of the chapter. Needless to say, this is FAR more effort than I usually put into a class. Do you know what this man asked me on the test? SEVERAL questions were as follows
"What is the internal atom structure of Quartz", feldspar, blah blah blah.
140 pages of geological stuff and you think im going to remember the fricking internal atom structure of ONE SPECIFIC MINERAL? lets get real. I know how volcanoes form, I know what a ferromagnesian mineral is, I know all about the Ring of Fire. But oh no, you dont want to ask me about those. You want to know what shape little particles I CANT EVEN SEE are in, in one in FIVE MILLION DIFFERENT TYPES OF ROCKS. Man, you suck.

One-Upped

So I make this 80's post, which Jon countered. Every one of those things you listed I could ignore, like, yah that was good, but not worthy of a decade. Except. Then you brought the A-Team into it. Ouch. God that was a great freakin show. Im humming the theme music as I type this. You did forger MacGuyver though.. that was sweet too. So my post is this.. I amend my statement to say "The vast majority of media (music, television, etc.) that came out of the 80's was obnoxious and embarrassing.. But then theres the A-Team." Oh. And yes, Robaroo's birth was also good..:) He was born June 8th, which makes his conception in 1979 though.. (just cause you were wondering, Jon)

Ha. :)

Me and my roommate were going through MP3's tonight listening to songs that were popular way back when we were in high school. Do you remember that song "Freak Me" by Silk?
Here is the first lyric.
"Baby don't you understand
I want to be your nasty man."
Ha! hahahahahaha
I dont even need to make a comment, that one speaks for itself...

Declaration.

I stand by my assertation that The Breakfast Club was the only worthwhile thing to come out of the 80's, and without it the entire decade could be wiped out. Except for my birth.

Laureate

So Im the Assistant Editor for the Laureate, Western's undergraduate literary journal. Submit things!! You can submit up to 3 pages of poetry or 1500 words of fiction and it's due by November 1st. We also need cover art, so if you paint or do photography or anything like that, you can submit that too... you turn everything in to the front desk of Lee Honors College (you dont have to be in the Honors College to submit, though).

Freudian slip?

So I'm at work tonight, and Im at my table,and Im getting a drink order. If you've ever been a server, you know that you kind of have an order that you repeat things in, just because its easier to remember everything that way. So mine is "I have six local beers on tap, a full bar, wine list, ice tea, lemonade and pepsi products." So I start to say this to my table and I say "I have six local beers on tap, a full bar, wine list, ice tea, le-" and I get the "le", but I cant for the life of me remember "monade", all i can think is "le-sbian". But I know that thats not what I mean so I just stop and stand there and think really hard and start cracking up.
My table is like.. "umm.. okay."
In other positive news, someone in my apartment complex is blasting Tupac and Im loving it. How they are getting away with it in my riot-prone, heavily police-surveillanced neighborhood, I have not a clue, but Im loving it... Speaking of which, when I pulled onto my street there were four police cruisers hanging out, surveilling or something. I just get this awful feeling that somewhere in this city someone is getting mugged or a store is getting robbed, all while four cruisers are chilling in the parking lot of Jimmy Johns, making sure that no one is playing music too loudly..

Some Nice Thoughts...

"Earth is a dynamic planet!"- my geology book (hee hee)

"The highest compliment one can be paid by another human being is to be told "because of what you are, you are essential to my happiness"- Nathaniel Brandon

A Couple of Things...

I haven't posted in a long time, because I havent really had anything much to talk about. But now I do. I realized just now that I only post when Im pissed off about something. Therefore, at the end of the post, I will make a conscious effort to be positive. But for now, heres what pissed me off today...
So Im coming home from my photography class, and im all in a good mood, because the pictures I took this afternoon turned out really good. And then the top 5 countdown comes on. Most people, when they hear a song with stupid lyrics, they laugh. Not so much me. I feel genuine rage when I hear people on the radio with retarded lyrics, because I know that there are a million struggling people out there with good lyrics that write their own songs, who are waiting to get a record deal, probably playing in little clubs every night of the week, working as a waiter/waitress to pay the bills.. (digression..) In addition, I feel great rage knowing that Im going to have to sit through this song everytime I get in the car and turn on the radio.
Any how, here were the lyrics to the song I heard...
"Oh-my- starry-eyed surprise
sun down to sunrise
were going to dance all night to this DJ
dance all night to this DJ"
First of all, who the f@#k uses phrases like "starry eyed surprise"? wouldnt you just laugh at yourself if you said something like that?
Ignoring, for the sake of argument, that that is the dumbest phrase Ive ever heard, WHERE in the song is this 'starry eyed surprise'?
there is no follow up.
is the starry-eyed surprise the fact that they're going to dance from sundown to sunrise? Oh, big freakin surprise. Call the newspapers on that one...
I think the real starry-eyed surprise is that anyone gave those people a record deal.
Im getting all pissed off just thinking about it. And its one of the top 5 requested songs!! Granted, I was listening to the corny station, but nonetheless, who called in and requested that?
But now, for something happy.
I had a vegetarian sandwich from Schlotzskys Deli tonight. It was so good. I love vegetarian stuff. I have no money, so Im hoping that my boyfriend will buy me a lemonade at OP tonight. Hopefully he's reading this so he'll offer without me even asking.
In additional happy news, Im going to the apple orchard with my sister, brother-in-law, niece and my mom this weekend for a little hayride/apple picking thing. That will be great fun, my family is really cool.
Have a nice night everyone, despite my incessant bitching...

My Feelings on Rocks

Id like to take a minute to let you know what I think about rocks. I hate rocks. "What", you ask, "have rocks ever done to you?" Its not what rocks have done, but rather what the University has done. I have to take a science class with a lab for my gen ed 7 area, and so I spent two hours yesterday in a lab identifying different kinds of rocks. Just for the record, yes, I am being narrow minded about this. Im like the high school kid who says "why the hell do I need math?" and then goes bankrupt because he cant balance his checkbook. Math I can understand as being necessary. I suck at math, but I took it for my gen ed area without complaining, Id even say I kind of liked it. But rocks. If you can come up with a reason that I, in my anticipated life as a fiction writer and Creative Writing Professor will need to know that Flourite cleaves in four directions at 90 degree angles.. I will shut up. Email me with just one good reason, and I swear I will shut up, but Ive got to tell you , I just dont see one...

Rant or WHERE IS YOUR EMPATHY?

What is with all of the anti-September 11th memorial stuff lately?? There have been two articles in the Herald in the past two days about how the memorials are ridiculous and more or less self-indulgent, and how the US has killed as many people as were killed in the WTC, how can we say its so sad
. You know what, I bet that is true. But that isnt the POINT of the memorials. I am going to a memorial tonight, not because I think the government is so great and we've been oh-so-wronged. Im going because there are over 3,000 families in the US who have SUDDENLY and VIOLENTLY lost someone that they loved, and they had to sit there and watch the buildings collapse on TV that they knew their loved ones were trapped in. Now, that should make you stop and think about how unbelievably sad that is and how you should think about your own life.
It's not like youre going to be like "Oh, we killed your people, you killed ours, I guess we're even and we deserved it." Deserve it? Are YOU willing to lose YOUR life for a bad decision that your government made? Do you DESERVE it? Maybe America the government deserved it but the American people in that building did not. No. Matter of fact, if you've got that view, than you're part of the problem that is exacerbating this entire thing. We dont see it the same way as Muslim extremists, they dont see it the same way as us, so we kill each other. Whats the problem, they did it to us they deserve it, right? We did it to them, we deserve it right? Eye for an eye. Except that its REAL PEOPLE that are getting used as bargaining chips, that are paying for what we "deserve". Im pretty sure no one agreed to that. The people that jumped out of that building weren't the ones that said "well gosh, how about we kill poeple in other countries to get good gas prices" No. They went to work every day and did their job, and were thinking about how they had to pick up milk on the way home when a plane crashed into their building and they had to jump from the 110th floor because they had no hope of getting out.
And you know what, its true, we killed people in Afghanistan, and we are wrong, wrong, wrong for it, I totally agree with that. But I tell you what, I bet they are memorializing their people too. I hope they are, because that means that they are understanding the human aspect of the whole thing. Because anyone who is looking at the big picture of "We kill, we get killed back, we deserve it" is missing the same point as the terrorists and the american government are which is, THOSE ARE PEOPLE. There is no
"fairness" or "were even" or "eye for an eye" - its HUMAN LIFE.
Now I know that people are going to say things like Americans are spoiled, we bitch about, for instance low gas prices, and so our government does what it has to get the low gas prices to get re-elected. You know though, do you really think that people are aware of whats going on so that they can have gas 2 cents cheaper? Because I am with Anne Frank, I think that people are basically good at heart, and they dont know whats going on. So yes, as Americans we are rather uninformed. Thats not good. But does it warrant dying in a collapsing building? No. You know who IS responsible for that? The person that MADE the decision to kill people for low gas prices, and the complete lack of morals. I try to stay well informed, i read papers, take classes on current events, try to understand whats going on, but Ive got to tell you, I work 20 hours a week, take 15 credit hours semester, take photography classes, eat, sleep, have meaningful relationships with friends, and I have to do my laundry in there somewhere, and I may have, somewhere along the way, bought a can of tuna that wasnt dolphin-safe, but really, I dont think that I deserve to die for that.
NO ONE can be aware of EVERYTHING thats going on, NO ONE can be 100% sure that every company they buy from is upstanding and moral, that every American policy thats passed isnt harming other people, thats why we elect people to make it their JOB to know.
WHY cant we rely on the people we elect to make the best decisions?? There's the real problem.
What all of this comes down to is that those people were innocent and deserve memorials. In addition to that, dont you think that its good for people to take time out for a reality check and say, 'hey, wow, this kind of thing can happen, and I should think about my own life, and I should kiss my wife when I leave in the morning, cause I might never see her again." Go to a memorial and think about all of the people out there who are exactly like you, who loved things and wanted to go places and had families and think about the unbelievably tragedy that they lost that.
My favorite quote from one of those anti-memorial articles was "am I supposed to cry for these people that I didnt even know?" (sorry, thats not a direct quote, but you get the idea). Yeah. That kind of attitude is the same kind of attitude that the writer said he hated in Americans, the "I dont care as long as it isnt me". Not only that, but its unbelievably sad and inhuman. And thats exactly what terrorists were thinking when they slammed into those buildings, as Americans as a large chunk of people to hate, not as individuals with families and lives like their own
In conclusion, even if you think that the government was wrong and we had it coming, that isnt what the memorials are about, you should be able to empathize as a human with the tremendous loss of life and the unbelievable pain that the families of those people are dealing with. Maybe if everyone can think of each other as humans and give up the hatred and retribution bullshit this wont happen again..

Read this story, worth your time
Flight 93
And for Joe, here's a link you'll like

"So what is love then, is it dictated or chosen?
Does it sing like the hymns of a thousand years,
or is it just pop emotion?
And if it ever was there and it left, does that mean it was never true?
And to exist it must elude,
is that why I think these things of you?"
-Indigo Girls from "Mystery"

Upon Waking
by Denis Johnson

At the far edge of Earth, night
is going away. another
poem begins. slumped over

the typewriter I must get this
exactly, I want to make it
clear this morning that your

face, as it opens
from it's shadow, is more
perfect than yesterday; and

that the light, as it
hesitates over the approach
of your smile, has given this

aching bed more than warmth,
more than poems; someway

a generous rose, or a a very
delicate arrangement of sounds,
has come to peace in this new room

Lost Patience
I did something mean today. I was at Target, which is having its parking lot repaved, so there is only like two rows for parking, and they dont have any lines, so everyone kind of parked cockeyed... fine.. it was pretty much everyone parking next to each other except for this ONE lady who parked out in the MIDDLE of the driving lane, so cars could barely fit through and the trucks had to back up because they couldnt get through. HELLO? I got paper out of my car and wrote "You park like a fuckwit" and put it on her windshield. A little harsh? nah...

Some thoughts on fall semester...
I am now aware of what people are talking about when they say its different when you live in your college town year round. Last year Jenn stayed all year and she thought it was so wierd when people started coming back, and im like "why?" Yes, now I see. It is a drastic change to have everyone back here.. I dont know if its the large packs of girls in high heels walking down the street or the fact that everyone's couches are now on their front lawns... I feel like my town got invaded. I am now a college summer snob. Dont get me wrong, Im generally all about the college thing, I love that everyone in this town is up at all hours of the night. This is my problem. I live in an area very heavily populated with students. This is what it sounds like outside my apartment at night now. Cicadas, cicadas, cicadas, random "WHOO HOO! YEAH!", cicadas. Its not that the noise bugs me, not in the least. Its just that, come on people, you're fucking retarded. I go out with friends a lot. I have a really good time. At no point in time do I feel the need to scream at the top of my lungs "whoo hoo yeah." And the fact is, I can see you out of my sliding glass door. You're sitting on your lawn drinking beer. That is hardly something to "whoo hoo" about. So, If you get my point, the fact of the matter is Im annoyed by you only because you are making a complete ass of yourself and its hard for me to watch.

I need aggression therapy.

Giant Dollar Dino

As a lead-in to this post, Id just like to say that from time to time I feel bad about the complete lack of content in my journal/blogger/site thing. I just read Jon's, and he was talking about human rights/human needs etc., which makes me feel badly only because I am about to talk about a inflatable dinosaur.
Speaking of Jon, I bought you a little present today!
On to the dinosaur. So I'm out shopping with Sara and Rirruto today, and we stop into the dollar store, where I think that I have just found the best bargain of my life when I spot a 36" inflatable dinosaur for the low low price of one dollar. I'm like " 36"?! thats three feet! I am going to buy this awesome three foot inflatable dinosaur, blow it up and put it in my living room!" This is the kind of random nonesense that makes life worthwhile for me. So I buy the dinosaur and we're in the car and Sar and Rirruto are like "Blow it up, Laura" and I'm like "No, its three feet tall, if I blow it up, I wont be able to get it out of the car.". But I do it anyhow. So I rip open the package, take it out, and start laughing so hard I can't breathe. The dinosaur is less than a foot tall. Apparently the thirty six inches was a horizontal measurement, not a vertical. But come to think of it, its not even that long, its probably less than two feet long. If you saw the package it came in you would be so disgusted. The picture on the front makes this dinosaur look gigantic. Nonetheless, it was the funniest thing of all time, and now the dinosaur is sitting on top of my TV. By the way, it has no face. Yup, they couldnt take two seconds and half of a penny to put a face on it. Im going to have to go draw a face on my midget dino now.

Yes, I know, it has been an entire week since I've posted anything, primarily due to the fact that im too lazy to come up with anything to say. I think I just recently realized how much I have to do in a very small amount of time. I graduate in april and then im going to grad school the following fall. this plan requires that I do the following, very, VERY soon...
1. find a place to take the GRE
2. study for the GRE
3. take the GRE
4. Since I am a creative writing major, I have to put together a portfolio-type thing to apply to grad school, and it needs to be really really good.
5. apply to grad school.
6. get my audit done so i can graduate in the first place.
All of this should be accomplished in about the next two months or so, I think. On top of this, my entire apartment is once again in shambles. We are moving stuff in and theres so much stuff we dont know where to put it, so its just sitting in big heaping piles everywhere, and i dont even want to begin to start going through it. Like an hour ago I was in a really really good mood, and now I am depressed or something.
Tomorrow Im supposed to go help "reorganize" the preschool that I work at (the kids arent there, its clean up week). Its my very last day working there. I think that it would make my day about 900% better if I didnt have to go in and Id be in a much better mood. On the other hand, its really rude to just not show up. The moral dilemma, the moral dilemma. Make myself happy or do what is responsible. Email me and tell me that it would be better if I didnt go in...

Ha!

Today's quote of the day comes from some guy in a bar. So I'm sitting at OP last night, complaining to Joe about some people. There's this guy who's sitting at our table, who I kind of know just because I've seen him at OP a lot, but dont really know. So I'm all complaining about these people when out of nowhere he turns to me and says
"You know what you should do? You should wait until they have children. And then... you should steal them!"
It was the most random hilarious thing ever...

Blah Blah Blah

To begin with, I have absolutely nothing to say today,but I haven't written anything in a while, so I feel like I should, even if its a bit of mindless chatter. My apartment is in ruins. Two of my four roommates moved out this past weekend. You would think "Oh, that's not as bad as moving into a new place, all you have to do is reorganize. No, this is not the case. I think it's more of a mess, seeing as some key furniture items belonged to the other roommates. For instance, the TV stand. My TV is now sitting on the floor, surrounded by a million and ten videos. I am eating my lunch at the computer desk, because the dining room table is no longer. I made pasta for lunch, only to go looking for the collander and remember that it belonged to one of the other roommates. On a brighter note, I am redecorating everything, and thats exciting. On a sadder note, I came home this afternoon to find that sometime after I fell asleep last night my evil boyfriend drank approximately half of the cans of Squirt I had in my fridge. He will be scolded next time I talk to him. And on my very last note of randomness, I'd like to mention that I think that Expresso cups are really neat little minature cups. I dont drink coffee, so I've never drank out of one, but I think I would feel a little ridiculous drinking out of one, kind of like I was at a little kid's tea party. This has been on my mind for a while now.

I seem to have offended someone with my statements about Food TV. However, I think that I have been misinterpreted, because what I said was, that though watching Food TV is all fine and good, I don't think that the gym and vigorous exercise is an environment that matches with Food TV. I think exercise and TV and I think, a comedy or MTV or a sitcom, whatever. I, for one, have to have something either upbeat or extremely entertaining to watch/listen to while I'm working out or I will remember that Im working out, realize how much I really dont want to, and stop. Food TV just is not something that keeps me going while Im working out. Again, when I'm hanging out at my house, I wouldnt have a problem with sitting on the couch, watching some Food TV and writing down the recipies (if I actually cooked..), but I think that working out and watching Food TV is the equivalent of working out and listening to Sade (yes, Sade, can you think of anyone more lo-key than that?). So there you go. I would like to comment that I greatly enjoy Jon's (whom I offended) cooking, and dont wish to discourage him from watching the Food Network, because he made me some really good wine/veggie/spices chicken.

So I've been doing all of my exercising at the Y lately because 1) I get a free membership because I work in the preschool 2) I'm not taking summer classes, so I can't work out at the Rec Center. However, this has no connection to the story.. The story is the fact that EVERY time I go in there to run on the treadmill, two of the three TV's set up in front of the equipment are on food channels. Today it was like the Food Network, and another show that was making banana creme pie. Why would you torture yourself like that? I can hear the people thinking "Wow, that looks really good. No! I cant have that. Thats why Im here in the first place." They're like drooling all over the machines. Secondly, can you think of anything less entertaining than watching the food channel? Okay, I can understand if you're sitting down in front of it, writing down the recipie (sp?), but to just be like, 'hey, lets watch people make food'. I just dont understand.

Have you noticed that it is completely perfect outside tonight? Why are you inside reading this? go outside!!

Today's Quote:
(once again, from rob.)
"Well, I don't really know what constitutes a good movie. I mean, I liked 'Viva, Rock Vegas' "
See, this is why I like my boyfriend. He has an appreciation for all things retarded. This makes him highly compatible with me.

Go Home, Freshman!

This is my problem. I want to get into Psychology 100. It fills my last gen ed credit, but the real reason is that it fits PERFECTLY between two of my other classes, which means I take care of three of my four classes on tuesday and thursday from 11-3, allowing me to have much longer stretches of time during the week when I will sit around and do absolutely nothing. Why, when there are 1800 seats available for Psychology 100 in the fall term, can I not get just 1 of those seats? Because the freshman have once again invaded the campus. I am going to pinpoint one and harass them until they agree to drop the class.

Do you know what an Heirloom Tomato is? They're these tomatoes that are grown using the same seeds over and over, and they turn out to be all different shapes and sizes and colors. I think that's cool ! Although, I don't exactly understand why they turn out to be different colors.. Go here and read about it, and let me know if you figure out why...
Why am I looking up tomatoes? I have a new job working at this really cool little restaurant that is all about the natural food, and Heirloom tomato salad is one of the features for this week...

*sigh* im sleeping in tomorrow...
counting crows were just on the Jay Leno show. I dont have their new album because I am too broke to buy it. I am their number one fan and I can't spend fifteen dollars on a CD. I tell you what.. If there are fifteen people out there who read this site, why dont each of you throw a dollar in an envelope and send it my way. Yes? Yes? No...
Im going to start reading "The Art of Happiness" tonight.. I let you know what it is when I finish. On a positive note, a list of eight things that make me happy.
1.The opening credits for "The Wonder Years" ("What.. would you dooooo.. if I sang.. out of tune?")
2.canned pear halves in extra light syrup
3.bubblewrap
4.getting out of work and having voice mail messages on my cell phone
5.The book "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers
6.Tetris. Tetris Tetris Tetris.
7.The smell of grass. And the color for that matter. Green is by far the superior color.
8.Hammocks. I don't have one, but I think if I did, it would make me happy.
Time for sleep now...:)

I think that the kind of day I had today is best described by something Rob said to me when we were out to lunch today..
"Um, you need to find your zen or something and calm down, cause you are flippin out today."

Another thing...

So a few nights ago I was parked in the parking lot of this bar. Someone comes in and says that a blue accord was hit in the parking lot and the guy drove away. Of course this is my car. So I go outside, and my car is across the damn parking lot from where I was parked, rammed into the back of another car. This, to understate, is just plain rude. There was close to zero damage (dont ask me why, long story..), if the guy had just come in and been like, 'hey, so i accidently hit your car', and then I had seen there was no damage, I probably would have been like 'hey, no problem'. I doubt I would have even taken his information. But to leave someones car across the parking lot rammed into another car, thats just big time rude. Thats fine though, karma comes back around...

Married by Jack Gilbert

I came back from the funeral and crawled
around the apartment, crying hard,
searching for my wife's hair.
For two months got them from the refrigerator,
and off the clothes in the closet.
But after other Japanese women came,
there was no way to be sure which were
hers and I stopped. A year later,
repotting Michiko's avocado, I find
A long black hair tangled in the dirt.

I don't want to be a creepy!!

So something unsettling occured to me last night. Rob and I were at a comedy club, and the comedian was talking about how you can use a magnifying glass and direct sunlight to burn holes in things. What's unsettling is, I distinctly remember doing this as a child. I have this picture of myself, all alone, in the backyard burning holes into newspaper with a magnifying glass. What's more, I'd like to think that this isnt true, but I think I was using the magnifying glass to burn faces out of the newspapers so there were just little newspaper picture people with bodies and a hole for a head. Furthermore, I know that I burned a few slow-moving ants in this time. I think that until this time I have blocked these images out due to their incredibly disturbing nature. Was I a creepy kid?!?! All this time, I thought I had this great well-adjusted childhood, come to find out... I mean, I always had a lot of friends as a kid and I played sports and I was happy and all that, but there I was when no one was looking, in the backyard burning holes... I was like a closet creepy. If one of you guys who knew me at that time would like to email me and tell me that I was a happy and well-adjusted, please, do so...

Amazing Cheese Pizza and Overalls

First off, I will of course mention that I am blatantly and shamelessly copying Jon in making little bold titles for my entries. It's cool, I'm a copycat, I can deal with that. Anyhow.. I just got back from a little excursion to Prague, and here are two little stories that in some round-about, completely random way, are connected to it. First of all, I think that Prague should be given the distinct honor of be named "Overalls Capital of the World". Now granted, I have not checked out the overalls-wearing population all over the world, but I have a feeling that Prague is right up there. I have never seen so many men wearing overalls in my life. And not jean overalls. No, no, BRIGHT blue overalls. I think that this is like the standard uniform for construction workers or city workers over there, but I never quite figured it out. Do you remember the video for that song from the 80's "Come On Eileen"? Well, the band in the video is walking around in these stupid looking overalls the entire time and, maybe because I am unaccustomed to seeing men wearing overalls, this is what I associate the men in Prague with. I would see the men and then I would walk around singing that stupid song for the rest of the day.
Secondly, A little story about cheese pizza. So I'm on the flight home and it's lunch time, and I am starving. The choices are turkey or salmon. It might help to mention that I am in the very last row of the plane. When they get to me all they have left is salmon. Fish sicks me out. So I have nothing to eat. 7 hours later, I am DELIRIOUS with bordem and hunger, ready to smother myself with the in-flight pillow, when they decide to serve a snack before we land. A little, tiny, coaster-sized cheese pizza. I have never appreciated pizza so much in my life. It was a gift from god. It was also the greasiest pizza Ive ever encountered and my stomach was upset for the rest of the night, but it was the most amazing pizza of my life. Appreciate your pizza, boys and girls, because someday there will be only salmon.

Today was... a challenge. I am back to having two jobs, for the next six weeks. I waitress and I teach at a preschool. In four weeks I wont be working thirteen hour days anymore and I may possibly be able to have a life again. Today though.. oh, today was worse than most days. First of all, I was late for work this morning.. I was supposed to work at 8am, but... I woke up at 8am. And Im rushing to get ready until I stop and say 'screw it. I want to wash my hair. I wont have time to wash my hair at any other time today. ' and so I was an hour late for work because I washed my hair. Now that may seem a bit petty, but I think we should look at the big picture here, which is, when its a luxury for you to wash your hair, you know you're too damn busy. So the first half of the day goes fine, I go on my afternoon break, come back.. and two of the preschoolers have flushed their underwear, shorts,shoes and some paintbrushes down the toilet. And the underwear and paintbrushes are stuck in the plumbing. I am not paid enough to deal with this.

Iceberg lettuce. This is a ongoing fight between me and my boyfriend. I say, iceberg lettuce should be stricken from everyone's diet, due to these three points.
#1- it has NO TASTE
#2- it has a very very low nutritional value, especially compared to other green salad-type things
#3- it has almost no calories, and is therefore not giving much energy
It is basically the equivelant (sp?) of eating air. PLUS, when you think about the fact that you put salad dressing on it, you are gaining fat from the salad dressing without actually aquiring many nutrients from said lettuce. This is why everyone should eat Romaine lettuce or Endive or whatever leafy green you so desire. My boyfriend, however, says that why shouldnt you eat it, because though you aren't gaining much of anything from it, you're not doing anything bad to yourself by eating it. Sure, i would agree with this IF it had some form of taste, so that you were getting some kind of enjoyment out of it, but it doesn't!! So if it doesn't taste and it doesn't give you many nutrients, WHY WOULD YOU EAT IT? Eat something like Romaine or Spinach, that have taste and are good for you. If you would like to tell him that you agree with me and iceberg lettuce is completely useless, click on the link to his blogspot here.

Let's talk about my pet peeves. Today I was in line at a little cafe-type thing waiting to get a pop. The person in front of me was ordering a slice of pizza and says to the cashier 'Um, give me one of those." Um, no. I cannot think of a single instance where it is appropriate to say 'gimme' to someone that you don't know. Now, if you are among friends and want to say 'hey, will you give me that ..(insert word here)", fine, that's different. At a restaurant/store/etc., you say "Can I please have..". This all goes back to my theory that EVERYONE in the entire world should spend at LEAST a year working in some form of service profession, particularly food service, but any service will do. Reason being, if you are on the recieving end of "Gimme that", you will NEVER, EVER say it to someone else. The world would be a better place if everyone was did their time in the drive-thru.

So today I was listening to the radio at noon, which automatically means that every station is playing those 'retro lunch' programs that grate at my nerves and make me want to pop my own ear drums. But nonetheless.. so they start playing this mix of songs from 'Grease' , and I'm all singing along and thinking to myself, ' wow, Grease, what a great musical, I really like Grease'. And then I start thinking about it a little too hard. Do you remember this musical? this really nice girl moves to this school where everyone is a delinquent, and the guy she likes wont pay any attention to her because he's too cool for her. So what does she do, realize that she shouldn't change herself for some guy? NO!! SHE CHANGES TO BE COOL! and then everyone likes her. WHAT THE HELL?? THATS NOT HOW ITS SUPPOSED TO WORK. How did this never occur to me before in the thousands of times I watched this? I am now boycotting Grease..

Yay, first post.