I am so entirely fed up with being sick. Especially this nagging cold/allergy crap. If I'm gonna be sick I'd rather it be like last week where it was all out fever dizziness upset stomach etc. Since Wednesday afternoon I've had this nagging sinus crap that's fogging up my head more and more every day. Oh and then there's the lovely cough that comes between 9pm and 9am, wonderful conducive to sleeping. Everyday for the past 4 days I wake up and I can barely breathe because I'm stuffed up, or my nose is running like a sieve. I'd rather the runny nose today but no, I get the stuffed up head to such an extent that I can barely think straight and have absolutely no motivation to do anything productive.The only good thing is that my wretched sore throat has passed. I wish I could take my friend up on her offer and just go lay out in the sun or do hw outside. Unfortunately I have a paper to write that's due tomorrow and that necessitates my computer. Seeing as said paper will most likely consume most or all of my afternoon, evening, and night (here's hoping I make it to bed at a decent hour) I can't work outside because there is nowhere to plug in my computer. I would love to be outside on a beautiful day but being outside would probably make my head worse anyhow. Acetaminophen and Sudafed take the edge off the sinus misery but only for so long. I can only take them every four hours but of course they wear off after about two hours. To add to all this, I'm cold. It's something like 68 degrees outside and 75 degrees in my room yet here I sit in a fleece robe, fuzzy socks, and my favorite slippers (which just so happen to be falling apart). I don't think I have a fever, it doesn't really feel like I do. Even if I did, the acetaminophen should knock it down. I hate this so much! I wish I could snap my fingers and make it all go away. I'm concerned about this week. It's the last week of classes, and if this rotten head fogginess keeps up, my concentration levels will be even less than usual, when i need to concentrate more. Joy...*whines* ugh I have no motivation to do my paper or clean my room, both of which are high priorities. My room is a disaster and the paper is due tomorrow. I can't skip my morning classes to finish it because I skipped last week due to being sick. I'm sure my dance teacher loves me for skipping three classes in a row, two because i was sick, which hopefully she's leaning towards as an explanation in her head. I don't generally skip twice in a row, much less three times. *sigh* all I want to do right now is sleep, to escape this miserable cold or allergies or whatever the hell it is. Alas, a messy room and a paper command my attention, however disoriented I may be. Maybe I'll make some tea or hot cocoa. For now, I'm hungry, and need to get going on being one day closer to the end of school.
Peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: when you know you're sick, and may be sick for a while, buy more than one box of tissues. Cough syrup and tissues may necessitate a trip to rite aid.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
QUADMANIA Review
Sooo last weekend was QUADMANIA, or rather "Parking Lot 17 Mania". UMBC didn't want to mess up the pretty grass in the quad, so the carnival and live music was held in a parking lot on the outskirts of campus. Convenient for my dorm and the two dorms near me, but that's about it. If you didn't know it was going on, you probably would never know. Anywho...I had alot of fun. I had a perfect view of the setup a few days in advance from the window in my room, and I was very excited. On Saturday morning, I woke up to some of the music (nice day so window was open) and got to listen to it as I was straightening the room and getting ready for the day.
The Rides...Some people complained about how the carnival seemed to cater more to the local elementary and middle schools, but I love carnival rides so it didn't matter to me. If you went at night, there were less rugrats and shorter lines for the rides. $10 per day was, in my estimation, a tad pricey but I understand that SEB (the people responsible for the fun times) have costs to pay. The swings were fun, but a tad nauseating after a while. The tilt a whirl was tilting and whirling as one would presume, but there wasn't much cushioning so I got a little beat up. It was still fun, it would whirl you around and you would feel like you were going to fly out into the middle of the carnival full of people. The spaceship ride next to the tilt a whirl was tons of fun. It started out nicely just going around, getting a little bit higher with every rotation, then it picked up speed and used pressurized cables and springs to straighten the rods attached to the spaceship cars (kinda like pinkish purple versions of the Space Mountain ride at Disney World Magic Kingdom) which would throw the cars even higher suddenly. It got going fast enough that I almost lost my sunglasses, and had to take them off while trying to hold on as the ride was spinning around. Woohoo! The ride I went on the most was the parachute ride where it went up and around at an angle at a nice speed and gave you a little dip in your stomach right as it started going down (I can almost feel like I'm on it now :p). I went on that three or four times and had lots of fun.
Finally, the ultimate ride...the Zipper! This was very scary to look at, because it looked like it would break at any moment. Rusty metal cages attached to a long rotating vertical machine that was also rusty. You half stand half sit in this little cage, the only thing holding you in is the support bar attached to the door. If you wanted to live you held on to hand bars attached to the inside of the cage door. When this machine started going, it rotated 180 degrees and brought you up to the top (kinda like a ferris wheel) then would spin around and around. Meanwhile as this machine is flipping, your cage is also flipping. The first time I went on, I was petrified. My friend Caitlyn and I were going on it for the first time together, and she was excited. I was very scared, which is odd, because I love thrill rides/rollercoasters, etc and they rarely scare me. I've been riding rollercoasters and such since I was about 8 years old, props to Daddy for getting me hooked on them early. Maybe it was just the insecurity of the whole thing. So after we got off, I was ok, and then my friend DK finally showed up (after I called and texted him multiple times hassling him to get down there). He wanted to ride it and made me go with him. I had much more fun the second time (although I spent the first few minutes telling him to hold on because I wasn't bringing his dead body back to his girlfriend). After twice around the Zipper on a stomach full of cotton candy and kettle corn, I was a bit disoriented and took a break from rides for a while.
The Music...I saw a number of the performers, and enjoyed most of them, although Dan Deacon's antics were partially responsible for getting my friend thrown out of quadmania. Shoutout to Mother Nature's Recipe! These guys were great!! My friend Ben plays the keyboard and he and the rest of his band members were definitely one of the best acts at the whole weekend. They played a swing number toward the end, during which vocalist Leif came down and started dancing with a girl in the crowd. I had to laugh as I watched my friends Julian and Alli dancing as well. Julian was having fun, and I think Alli was too, but I could tell she was a bit "omg why am i doing this?" about the whole thing. Speaking of dancing, on Friday evening, me and my friend Rachel had tons of fun dancing to the closing act of the evening, a cool rock band. There weren't too many people around by that point so we had some space to just kinda do our own thing.
The Food...cotton candy and kettle corn kept me alive all weekend (temporarily lost my redcard so I spent all my money on carnival food). I couldn't bring myself to pay for the drinks when I had plenty in my room to drink, water, soda, juice, etc. I wanted funnel cake, but the line was always ridiculously long whenever I tried to buy some, and it wasn't worth it.
The Games and other stuff...I tried to win some stuffed animals, the shooting game, the basketball game. They were only three bucks so I figured why not give it a shot. Close but no cigar. Contemplated trying to win a fish, but carnival fish generally have a very short lifespan so I decided I'd get a healthier one over the summer. The trampoline things where you could bouncey bouncey bouncey and do flips were fun!!! Granted I have some bruises from the harness, but still fun. While I was on the trampoline thingy I got to see a step show put on by some fraternities and sororities from the National Pan Hellenic Council. Although the girl who was introducing the students was slightly irritating, it was still a cool show. One of those things I've kinda always wanted to try...till I remember I'm a skinny white girl. Yeah I think I'll stick to my ballet. The two things I didn't get to try was the blow up slide/obstacle course thing and the rock wall. Rachel and I were supposed to do the slide after the TPain concert, but the carnival closed an hour before we were told it would, so that didn't happen. I really wanted to do the rock wall, but refrained. Having dislocated my elbow twice back in January, the ligaments aren't quite strong enough to support that kind of tension/weight yet. Yes you're supposed to use your legs more than your arms, and yes I probably would have been fine with the short 20 foot rockwall, but no use risking it and ruining my weekend (and the next 3 weeks of my life) by injuring it again.
The T-Pain Concert...waste of $15 and two hours of my life. Seriously. Doors opened 20 mins late, show started 2o mins late, the opening act got old after 5 minutes. DJ for 25 mins after the opening act was cool but after a while the general vibe was "bring out T-Pain or someone we came to see please". Finally Jay Lyric and Tay Dizm came out, danced/sang/talked for a bit, and brought out a giant baby blue teddy bear with dreads and a tophat, claiming it was T-Pain's cousin. Shortly after, T-Pain decides to grace us with his presence. If you subtract the opening act, the DJ, the time they all spent talking/walking around the stage doing not much of anything, all the time he spent trying on his 10 different grills (cuz we all just really want to know how rich he is and how much they all cost) and the time T-Pain spent introducing all the people on his record label, he only performed for a grand total of about 40 mins. 40 mins out of 2 hours...NOT WORTH IT! Turns out that due to copyright etc, he couldn't even sing most of the songs all the way through because he only does part of it. The most ridiculous part of the entire thing was when T-Pain and his fellow rappers came strutting out on stage with their pants around their ankles, and boxer briefs showing the world everything we never wanted to see. Then they just had to shake it in our faces because "this is for the ladies". My friends and I examined the floor and each other's makeup during this little interlude. Oh and then T-Pain starts going off on how guys shouldn't act all ashamed to look, because "if you never looked at another guy's, you don't know how small yours is". Yeah...umm...how about no. So T-Pain, being the sensitive guy that he is, decides to do a moment of silence in memory of the VTech shootings. Legit, since the 1yr aniv had been that week. Then he extends it to all the people who are "dying for no reason". He lists examples like other school shootings, 9/11, urban crime, and then starts getting political with the Iraq war and just random "people who are dying". He of course exits the stage with an unoriginal comment on how much George Bush hates black people. I hate when rising celebrities start politicizing and just making random comments with nothing to back them up. Seriously, we didn't come here to hear you mouth off about your opinions on the war and the gov't...we came to see you try to rap/sing. So that was that.
Overall Quadmania was lots of fun. I got a pretty purple flowering plant and two henna tattoos, a purple lei and the beginnings of a tan. Not too much burn, thanks to Rachel H for the sunscreen :). I got to hang out with some really cool people, including a girl who I later discovered was the niece of my highschool history teacher...small world. The hype and my excitement were justified. Haters aside, I love carnivals. I can't wait till the moco fair this August!
Part two: "adventures after the concert" soon to come. Sleep now.
peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: don't break in new shoes in bare feet...blisters anyone?
The Rides...Some people complained about how the carnival seemed to cater more to the local elementary and middle schools, but I love carnival rides so it didn't matter to me. If you went at night, there were less rugrats and shorter lines for the rides. $10 per day was, in my estimation, a tad pricey but I understand that SEB (the people responsible for the fun times) have costs to pay. The swings were fun, but a tad nauseating after a while. The tilt a whirl was tilting and whirling as one would presume, but there wasn't much cushioning so I got a little beat up. It was still fun, it would whirl you around and you would feel like you were going to fly out into the middle of the carnival full of people. The spaceship ride next to the tilt a whirl was tons of fun. It started out nicely just going around, getting a little bit higher with every rotation, then it picked up speed and used pressurized cables and springs to straighten the rods attached to the spaceship cars (kinda like pinkish purple versions of the Space Mountain ride at Disney World Magic Kingdom) which would throw the cars even higher suddenly. It got going fast enough that I almost lost my sunglasses, and had to take them off while trying to hold on as the ride was spinning around. Woohoo! The ride I went on the most was the parachute ride where it went up and around at an angle at a nice speed and gave you a little dip in your stomach right as it started going down (I can almost feel like I'm on it now :p). I went on that three or four times and had lots of fun.
Finally, the ultimate ride...the Zipper! This was very scary to look at, because it looked like it would break at any moment. Rusty metal cages attached to a long rotating vertical machine that was also rusty. You half stand half sit in this little cage, the only thing holding you in is the support bar attached to the door. If you wanted to live you held on to hand bars attached to the inside of the cage door. When this machine started going, it rotated 180 degrees and brought you up to the top (kinda like a ferris wheel) then would spin around and around. Meanwhile as this machine is flipping, your cage is also flipping. The first time I went on, I was petrified. My friend Caitlyn and I were going on it for the first time together, and she was excited. I was very scared, which is odd, because I love thrill rides/rollercoasters, etc and they rarely scare me. I've been riding rollercoasters and such since I was about 8 years old, props to Daddy for getting me hooked on them early. Maybe it was just the insecurity of the whole thing. So after we got off, I was ok, and then my friend DK finally showed up (after I called and texted him multiple times hassling him to get down there). He wanted to ride it and made me go with him. I had much more fun the second time (although I spent the first few minutes telling him to hold on because I wasn't bringing his dead body back to his girlfriend). After twice around the Zipper on a stomach full of cotton candy and kettle corn, I was a bit disoriented and took a break from rides for a while.
The Music...I saw a number of the performers, and enjoyed most of them, although Dan Deacon's antics were partially responsible for getting my friend thrown out of quadmania. Shoutout to Mother Nature's Recipe! These guys were great!! My friend Ben plays the keyboard and he and the rest of his band members were definitely one of the best acts at the whole weekend. They played a swing number toward the end, during which vocalist Leif came down and started dancing with a girl in the crowd. I had to laugh as I watched my friends Julian and Alli dancing as well. Julian was having fun, and I think Alli was too, but I could tell she was a bit "omg why am i doing this?" about the whole thing. Speaking of dancing, on Friday evening, me and my friend Rachel had tons of fun dancing to the closing act of the evening, a cool rock band. There weren't too many people around by that point so we had some space to just kinda do our own thing.
The Food...cotton candy and kettle corn kept me alive all weekend (temporarily lost my redcard so I spent all my money on carnival food). I couldn't bring myself to pay for the drinks when I had plenty in my room to drink, water, soda, juice, etc. I wanted funnel cake, but the line was always ridiculously long whenever I tried to buy some, and it wasn't worth it.
The Games and other stuff...I tried to win some stuffed animals, the shooting game, the basketball game. They were only three bucks so I figured why not give it a shot. Close but no cigar. Contemplated trying to win a fish, but carnival fish generally have a very short lifespan so I decided I'd get a healthier one over the summer. The trampoline things where you could bouncey bouncey bouncey and do flips were fun!!! Granted I have some bruises from the harness, but still fun. While I was on the trampoline thingy I got to see a step show put on by some fraternities and sororities from the National Pan Hellenic Council. Although the girl who was introducing the students was slightly irritating, it was still a cool show. One of those things I've kinda always wanted to try...till I remember I'm a skinny white girl. Yeah I think I'll stick to my ballet. The two things I didn't get to try was the blow up slide/obstacle course thing and the rock wall. Rachel and I were supposed to do the slide after the TPain concert, but the carnival closed an hour before we were told it would, so that didn't happen. I really wanted to do the rock wall, but refrained. Having dislocated my elbow twice back in January, the ligaments aren't quite strong enough to support that kind of tension/weight yet. Yes you're supposed to use your legs more than your arms, and yes I probably would have been fine with the short 20 foot rockwall, but no use risking it and ruining my weekend (and the next 3 weeks of my life) by injuring it again.
The T-Pain Concert...waste of $15 and two hours of my life. Seriously. Doors opened 20 mins late, show started 2o mins late, the opening act got old after 5 minutes. DJ for 25 mins after the opening act was cool but after a while the general vibe was "bring out T-Pain or someone we came to see please".
Overall Quadmania was lots of fun. I got a pretty purple flowering plant and two henna tattoos, a purple lei and the beginnings of a tan. Not too much burn, thanks to Rachel H for the sunscreen :). I got to hang out with some really cool people, including a girl who I later discovered was the niece of my highschool history teacher...small world. The hype and my excitement were justified. Haters aside, I love carnivals. I can't wait till the moco fair this August!
Part two: "adventures after the concert" soon to come. Sleep now.
peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: don't break in new shoes in bare feet...blisters anyone?
Monday, April 14, 2008
we all do dumb things...and then there's me
I love how just when life seems to be going along nicely and nothing is terribly bothersome, God sends me these little messages or allows me to do really dumb things to humble me and remind me of my own imperfections.
So I was having a lovely Friday night. Went to a campaign meeting, had productive fun times there. After I went and chilled with my apartment friends for a bit. Interesting side note, when I arrived, it was dry outside. Shortly after I got there, it started pouring, seemingly out of nowhere. Right around the time I left, it was slowing to a light sprinkle. Scattered showers I guess. Anywho...left there and went to play pool with some friends from the dorm. After the gameroom closed, we were looking for a bit more entertainment and food. One of the guys randomly decides he wants Smirnoff Ice, and another one wants peach iced tea. So we go riding around at 1230 am on Friday nite/Saturday morning looking for peach tea and an open liquor store. Thanks to Baltimore County's blue laws, this took a bit of time. We finally found a packaged goods store about 5 mins off campus (after driving around for half an hour or so). No smirnoff Ice, so we substitue Mike's hard cranberry lemondade. We go back to the dorm, chill in the room of the guy who's 21, and turns out I'm the only one drinking the Mike's, the other guys are drinking other lovely things as we watch superbad (not my favorite movie, but the ending is good). I had four to be precise. By the time the movie is over it's about 430am, and most of us, myself included are at least tipsy. After I got back to my room, I decided, in my rather tipsy state, that it was a good time to go leave comments on my friend SteelWolf's blog, jokingly referencing a disdain for Greek Life and mistakingly making his VP-nominee the author of a quote I inserted. (background: he's running for SGA pres and really working on getting the Greeks to support him). Little did I realize that this would proceed to blow up in my face, as people then start leaving angry comments on his personal blog and his campaign blog site as well. This I discover at around 330 Saturday nite/Sunday morning. Open mouth (or rather keyboard) and insert foot. I quickly deleted the original comment, and posted a follow up comment on both blog sites explaining that I commented solely in jest, taking responsibility for the seemingly anti-Greek life comment, and apologizing for my comment giving the impression that the SteelWolf campaign did not support Greek Life when in fact they very much do. I also shot off an email to the campaign email address apologizing profusely for the negative backlash caused by my lack of judgement and making it clear (as I did in my follow up blog comments) that although I was not entirely coherent, it was still no excuse for my lack of judgement and insensitive, possibly campaign damaging comments. Yeah...I'm an idiot.I felt horrible and still do. I'm praying that people accept my apology and ruffled feathers are quickly settled.
Other dumbness, but not to the same degree...went to dinner last nite with some friends from College Republicans after our convention. Found out when I got back that I left my phone at the restaurant. Joy. Of course the only way I find out is when my friend tries to call me and my phone is answered by a waiter or maitre'd. He then dropped by my room to tell me that my phone was at the restaurant and kindly offered to drive me up to the Inner Harbor to get my phone back. So that's what I'll be doing after classes tonite. Thankfully it was at the restaurant and not on a street somewhere or in a parking garage.
Well that was my lovely story for the day, time to go to class. Birthday shout outs to my wonderful suitemate Katrina and my friend Rachel W. God Bless girls!
peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson #2 for the week: 430 am and tipsy is not a good time to be posting comments on friends blogs...yeah...
So I was having a lovely Friday night. Went to a campaign meeting, had productive fun times there. After I went and chilled with my apartment friends for a bit. Interesting side note, when I arrived, it was dry outside. Shortly after I got there, it started pouring, seemingly out of nowhere. Right around the time I left, it was slowing to a light sprinkle. Scattered showers I guess. Anywho...left there and went to play pool with some friends from the dorm. After the gameroom closed, we were looking for a bit more entertainment and food. One of the guys randomly decides he wants Smirnoff Ice, and another one wants peach iced tea. So we go riding around at 1230 am on Friday nite/Saturday morning looking for peach tea and an open liquor store. Thanks to Baltimore County's blue laws, this took a bit of time. We finally found a packaged goods store about 5 mins off campus (after driving around for half an hour or so). No smirnoff Ice, so we substitue Mike's hard cranberry lemondade. We go back to the dorm, chill in the room of the guy who's 21, and turns out I'm the only one drinking the Mike's, the other guys are drinking other lovely things as we watch superbad (not my favorite movie, but the ending is good). I had four to be precise. By the time the movie is over it's about 430am, and most of us, myself included are at least tipsy. After I got back to my room, I decided, in my rather tipsy state, that it was a good time to go leave comments on my friend SteelWolf's blog, jokingly referencing a disdain for Greek Life and mistakingly making his VP-nominee the author of a quote I inserted. (background: he's running for SGA pres and really working on getting the Greeks to support him). Little did I realize that this would proceed to blow up in my face, as people then start leaving angry comments on his personal blog and his campaign blog site as well. This I discover at around 330 Saturday nite/Sunday morning. Open mouth (or rather keyboard) and insert foot. I quickly deleted the original comment, and posted a follow up comment on both blog sites explaining that I commented solely in jest, taking responsibility for the seemingly anti-Greek life comment, and apologizing for my comment giving the impression that the SteelWolf campaign did not support Greek Life when in fact they very much do. I also shot off an email to the campaign email address apologizing profusely for the negative backlash caused by my lack of judgement and making it clear (as I did in my follow up blog comments) that although I was not entirely coherent, it was still no excuse for my lack of judgement and insensitive, possibly campaign damaging comments. Yeah...I'm an idiot.I felt horrible and still do. I'm praying that people accept my apology and ruffled feathers are quickly settled.
Other dumbness, but not to the same degree...went to dinner last nite with some friends from College Republicans after our convention. Found out when I got back that I left my phone at the restaurant. Joy. Of course the only way I find out is when my friend tries to call me and my phone is answered by a waiter or maitre'd. He then dropped by my room to tell me that my phone was at the restaurant and kindly offered to drive me up to the Inner Harbor to get my phone back. So that's what I'll be doing after classes tonite. Thankfully it was at the restaurant and not on a street somewhere or in a parking garage.
Well that was my lovely story for the day, time to go to class. Birthday shout outs to my wonderful suitemate Katrina and my friend Rachel W. God Bless girls!
peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson #2 for the week: 430 am and tipsy is not a good time to be posting comments on friends blogs...yeah...
Saturday, April 12, 2008
SPRING IS HERE!!!!
I love spring so much!!! Warm weather, short sleeves, sunshine, flowers and trees, waking up to the smell of fresh cut grass...*sigh* yay! Finally finally finally spring is here :) I've had lots of fun over the last couple of weeks getting involved with my friend SteelWolf's campaign for Student Government President. I've learned alot about SGA and what it does and what it has the potential to do. Enough so to get me thinking about running for an SGA position next year. I've also learned how the internet provides a great forum for anonymous haters who won't back up what they say.
It's also baseball season...GO YANKEES!!!!! Life's gonna get crazy soon. Finals are coming up fast, I've got a couple of make or break your grades polisci papers due in the next three weeks (ack!) and I'm trying to figure out scheduling crap for next semester. Gotta love that my dance class is at 830 again ugh.
Got all sorts of ideas goin round in my head for summer...concerts, road trips, parties (my bday party is going to be absolutely amazing), work (yay money!), tanning, clubbing?, warm weather! I can't waaaiiiitttt. Also more time with the family. Miss them. Speaking of good times, next weekend is Quadmania---carnival, rockclimbing, food, T-Pain, a good time to be had by all :) O shoot I gotta make sure my friends have somewhere to stay the night of the concert...hmm gotta work on that.
I feel like writing tonite, so I'll probly edit this sometime in the next couple of days, or just post again, depending on how long it ends up being.
Peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: When your friend randomly decides he wants Smirnoff Ice at 1230am, be sure you know where to find the nearest open liquor store. Fun times...
It's also baseball season...GO YANKEES!!!!! Life's gonna get crazy soon. Finals are coming up fast, I've got a couple of make or break your grades polisci papers due in the next three weeks (ack!) and I'm trying to figure out scheduling crap for next semester. Gotta love that my dance class is at 830 again ugh.
Got all sorts of ideas goin round in my head for summer...concerts, road trips, parties (my bday party is going to be absolutely amazing), work (yay money!), tanning, clubbing?, warm weather! I can't waaaiiiitttt. Also more time with the family. Miss them. Speaking of good times, next weekend is Quadmania---carnival, rockclimbing, food, T-Pain, a good time to be had by all :) O shoot I gotta make sure my friends have somewhere to stay the night of the concert...hmm gotta work on that.
I feel like writing tonite, so I'll probly edit this sometime in the next couple of days, or just post again, depending on how long it ends up being.
Peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: When your friend randomly decides he wants Smirnoff Ice at 1230am, be sure you know where to find the nearest open liquor store. Fun times...
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
this crazy world we call life
Sooo life is interesting no? The days seem to alternate between dragging on and going by too fast. Soon it will be summer...
Calculus is evil evil evil. It doesn't like me. I have an exam in two days. I should be studying. I am missing my original notebook with all my notes from the beginning of the year...not good. I can manage for this test, but if I don't find it by finals then...yikes. Here's hoping I pull off a decent grade on the exam and start understanding or at least memorize enough to get by.
Politics is a dirty business. I love it but it's full of backstabbing and trash talking and mud slinging. Everyone is just peachy until they're against each other competing for a position. Then it gets ugly. I'm not just talking national politics either. One of my friends is running for Student Government President and I'm learning a lot about the Student Government, how it works, what it does for us, and just how nasty people can be. It's interesting to see it all play out from a closer standpoint.
Yay for closure. Hooray for finally being free of emotional entanglements that have haunted me for the past three months. I feel like a huge burden has been removed; I have my life back! I can focus on the future and stop living in the past. The past week has seen me much more content and in overall better spirits.
Despite the wonderful emotional solutions, the physical problems come back to bite me. It's spring so sinus headaches abound. The past couple weeks my headaches have been worse then usual, some bad enough to the point where I skip class. Not so fun. Yay for meds but they only work for so long. I'm praying they ease up or else the rest of this semester will be not so fun. I don't want to have to go to the doctor either.
April fools is a fun day. I tinfoiled my suitemate's mirror and computer...she was so confused. The look on her face was priceless. She still doesn't know it was me, and I'll keep it that way for now :). I also had one of my skater friends believing that the university cops were gonna crack down on the no skateboarding policy and start giving tickets and fines. He was pissed. I was highly amused. I told him April Fools eventually, he was even more pissed. Fun times...
So ironically enough, just when I get free of the emotional entanglements, more options start presenting themselves. This frustrates me. On the one hand it's like why not see what might come of it. On the other hand it's like I finally have the peace and freedom I've been wanting for the past 3 months, though it seems longer. I don't really want to get emotionally attached/involved again so soon. Then there's always the likelihood that I'm completely over thinking things. I tend to do that a lot, too much for my own good. *sigh* at this point I'm just gonna chill out about it. I have bigger things to worry about, such as passing calculus with a C or better.
Anywho on to more internet surfing or piano playing.
Time to make a phone call to the best friend...miss her like crazy :)
Peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: when using your campus card to pay for the gameroom, make sure you have enough $$ on your card. Fun times
Calculus is evil evil evil. It doesn't like me. I have an exam in two days. I should be studying. I am missing my original notebook with all my notes from the beginning of the year...not good. I can manage for this test, but if I don't find it by finals then...yikes. Here's hoping I pull off a decent grade on the exam and start understanding or at least memorize enough to get by.
Politics is a dirty business. I love it but it's full of backstabbing and trash talking and mud slinging. Everyone is just peachy until they're against each other competing for a position. Then it gets ugly. I'm not just talking national politics either. One of my friends is running for Student Government President and I'm learning a lot about the Student Government, how it works, what it does for us, and just how nasty people can be. It's interesting to see it all play out from a closer standpoint.
Yay for closure. Hooray for finally being free of emotional entanglements that have haunted me for the past three months. I feel like a huge burden has been removed; I have my life back! I can focus on the future and stop living in the past. The past week has seen me much more content and in overall better spirits.
Despite the wonderful emotional solutions, the physical problems come back to bite me. It's spring so sinus headaches abound. The past couple weeks my headaches have been worse then usual, some bad enough to the point where I skip class. Not so fun. Yay for meds but they only work for so long. I'm praying they ease up or else the rest of this semester will be not so fun. I don't want to have to go to the doctor either.
April fools is a fun day. I tinfoiled my suitemate's mirror and computer...she was so confused. The look on her face was priceless. She still doesn't know it was me, and I'll keep it that way for now :). I also had one of my skater friends believing that the university cops were gonna crack down on the no skateboarding policy and start giving tickets and fines. He was pissed. I was highly amused. I told him April Fools eventually, he was even more pissed. Fun times...
So ironically enough, just when I get free of the emotional entanglements, more options start presenting themselves. This frustrates me. On the one hand it's like why not see what might come of it. On the other hand it's like I finally have the peace and freedom I've been wanting for the past 3 months, though it seems longer. I don't really want to get emotionally attached/involved again so soon. Then there's always the likelihood that I'm completely over thinking things. I tend to do that a lot, too much for my own good. *sigh* at this point I'm just gonna chill out about it. I have bigger things to worry about, such as passing calculus with a C or better.
Anywho on to more internet surfing or piano playing.
Time to make a phone call to the best friend...miss her like crazy :)
Peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: when using your campus card to pay for the gameroom, make sure you have enough $$ on your card. Fun times
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
spring break and back to school
So here I am skipping Spanish class once again...yes I know I'm a horrible child. I can only do this so frequently becuaswe it's a pointlessly easy class, despite being a 202 class. I feel bad because I told Maya I would actually go to class today...but it didn't happen. I do need to talk with my profesora at some point today or soon becuase she has yet to respond to my emails regarding making up the midterm. One would think that sending an email to both her email addresses explaining why I missed the exam (sick/fainting) and asking when I could make it up, both emails sent before or during break, would get at least a courtesy response. Then again, she is also very scatterbrained and most likely ADD to some extent.
Spring break review...break was nice, it could have been longer, but I enjoyed it. Monday was my sleep in/lay around/be a bum day. Tuesday was hair and nails and misc errands with mom. Wednesday I tagged along with my brother's field trip to the Smithsonian art museum. I half jokingly commented that I wanted to go, and surpisingly enough, he quickly agreed, inviting me to come along. Not that he payed much attention to me, seeing as his attention was focused mostly on another young lady :p (so cute tho). I love French Impressionist art, and wandering around the art museum trying to navigate closed staircases and cramming 13 people into 5 person elevators was fun. Thursday was shopping with my girl yay :) For the record, the DSW on Democracy ave in Bethesda is amazing! It's two floors! Two floors of shoes! Then to Montgomery mall for a bit, then over to Montgomery College to watch my friend's sisters' softball team scrimmage the MC girls softball. That was cold, but fun. Friday was originally supposed to be art museum with my girl then somewhere to watch the UMBC-Georgetown game. Due to leaving about an hour later than planned, it ended up being her going to the art museum for a bit, while I called my dad to get me directions to the JW Marriott hotel where I could watch the game. She caught up to me later and finished watching the game with me then we went back to her house for dinner and a movie. Enchanted is a very dumb but very cute movie. Saturday was time with the family, then Sunday was EASTER!!! Daddy and I sang in the choir at church per usual and then we had Easter dinner with just our family and Gram (who was in town for the week) which was comical but a very nice way to end the week.
Back to school...seeing as all good things must come to an end, I finished my Easter Sunday by coming back to school (lame...). After much thought and debate, I dropped my Human Genetics class. My interest in the subject was rapidly waning in the face of quizzes and assignments covering material not yet taught, and a professor who taught a non-major class as if it was for majors. This means good things because it's no longer bringing down my GPA, but it also means I'll finish out the semester with only 29 cumulative credits. That means I'll have to take a summer class in order to earn sophmore standing, but I was planning on taking another science class over the summer anyhow to make up for dropping the class. The credit thing just makes it more of a necessity than an option. I also signed myself up for calculus tutoring seeing as calculus and my brain don't seem to want to get along well.
Now that basketball season is over, I'll have to find some other way to occupy my weekends. Saw something about 80's prom this weekend, we'll see if I feel like going to that. I can't believe that I'm 3/4 of the way through the year already. Where does the time go? In 9 weeks I will be done with my first year of college. Ack! Where is my life going?! God is good though, and I have very little worth complaining over. I can't wait until the warm weather is here. Warm sunny days laying out by the pool with country radio and peach iced tea, or frantically rushing around at work trying to keep up with the lunch rush or the dinner rush or the evening beer rush. Or riding around on the beverage cart trying to communicate to this one group of asian golfers that no they can't take 12 beers when they only payed for 8. That's a ways away though. Closer are the days where I'll be able to sit outside and study in the sun, and I'll be complaining because the lecture halls crank the airconditioning to about 50 degrees when its only 70 degrees outside. Flowers and sun and flip flops...come quickly!
Well off to be a good little student and make the best of my week.
Peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: when posting web links for the use of the general public, make sure they work properly (this I learn from a friend on whose website I caught a couple of bad links :p )
Spring break review...break was nice, it could have been longer, but I enjoyed it. Monday was my sleep in/lay around/be a bum day. Tuesday was hair and nails and misc errands with mom. Wednesday I tagged along with my brother's field trip to the Smithsonian art museum. I half jokingly commented that I wanted to go, and surpisingly enough, he quickly agreed, inviting me to come along. Not that he payed much attention to me, seeing as his attention was focused mostly on another young lady :p (so cute tho). I love French Impressionist art, and wandering around the art museum trying to navigate closed staircases and cramming 13 people into 5 person elevators was fun. Thursday was shopping with my girl yay :) For the record, the DSW on Democracy ave in Bethesda is amazing! It's two floors! Two floors of shoes! Then to Montgomery mall for a bit, then over to Montgomery College to watch my friend's sisters' softball team scrimmage the MC girls softball. That was cold, but fun. Friday was originally supposed to be art museum with my girl then somewhere to watch the UMBC-Georgetown game. Due to leaving about an hour later than planned, it ended up being her going to the art museum for a bit, while I called my dad to get me directions to the JW Marriott hotel where I could watch the game. She caught up to me later and finished watching the game with me then we went back to her house for dinner and a movie. Enchanted is a very dumb but very cute movie. Saturday was time with the family, then Sunday was EASTER!!! Daddy and I sang in the choir at church per usual and then we had Easter dinner with just our family and Gram (who was in town for the week) which was comical but a very nice way to end the week.
Back to school...seeing as all good things must come to an end, I finished my Easter Sunday by coming back to school (lame...). After much thought and debate, I dropped my Human Genetics class. My interest in the subject was rapidly waning in the face of quizzes and assignments covering material not yet taught, and a professor who taught a non-major class as if it was for majors. This means good things because it's no longer bringing down my GPA, but it also means I'll finish out the semester with only 29 cumulative credits. That means I'll have to take a summer class in order to earn sophmore standing, but I was planning on taking another science class over the summer anyhow to make up for dropping the class. The credit thing just makes it more of a necessity than an option. I also signed myself up for calculus tutoring seeing as calculus and my brain don't seem to want to get along well.
Now that basketball season is over, I'll have to find some other way to occupy my weekends. Saw something about 80's prom this weekend, we'll see if I feel like going to that. I can't believe that I'm 3/4 of the way through the year already. Where does the time go? In 9 weeks I will be done with my first year of college. Ack! Where is my life going?! God is good though, and I have very little worth complaining over. I can't wait until the warm weather is here. Warm sunny days laying out by the pool with country radio and peach iced tea, or frantically rushing around at work trying to keep up with the lunch rush or the dinner rush or the evening beer rush. Or riding around on the beverage cart trying to communicate to this one group of asian golfers that no they can't take 12 beers when they only payed for 8. That's a ways away though. Closer are the days where I'll be able to sit outside and study in the sun, and I'll be complaining because the lecture halls crank the airconditioning to about 50 degrees when its only 70 degrees outside. Flowers and sun and flip flops...come quickly!
Well off to be a good little student and make the best of my week.
Peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: when posting web links for the use of the general public, make sure they work properly (this I learn from a friend on whose website I caught a couple of bad links :p )
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tales from the America East Championship
UM-BC UM-BC UM-BC 1-2-3 GO BIG DAWGS! WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF! So as most of you know, the UMBC Retrievers clinched the America East Conference championship this past Saturday with an 82-65 win over the Hartford Hawks. It was a sold out game, televised on ESPN2. The RAC was packed full of cheering fans, all waiting to see their Dawgs/Dogs make it to the Big Dance...the NCAA tournament. THEY DID IT!!! What an amazing game.
My day started bright and early. After getting two hours of sleep, I headed over to the RAC at 7am to hang with the pep band as they did two morning news spots courtesy of channel 13 at 7:15 and 7:45. I heard about this news spot via UMBC Underground, which had encouraged people to show up and cheer with the pep band. I showed up, as did five others, including Spirit Czar and True Grit. It was a tad chilly, but it was fun. After those festivities were over, I went to breakfast with some of the pep band (kudos to Jon for inviting me). Have any of you ever ridden in a car with someone who is just learning to drive stick? Thank God for seatbelts! Actually Jon did a pretty good job all things considered. Upon getting back to campus, I quickly consumed my eggs and pancakes, picked my seat (the good thing about getting there early...you get the seat you want), and helped spread Growl Towels throughout the student sections. By this time it's around 930...facepaint time!! A black paw on my left cheek and UMBC in alternating black and gold letters on the right. Props to the girls who were helping me with this...not sure who they are but after a couple of attempts, we got the UMBC worked out.
10am...students are lined up outside the entrance to the court, cheers of "UM-BC!" can be heard, growing ever more enthusiastic as the Retriever fever builds. Once they're let in, the students swarmed the seating areas, everybody figuring out where the different seating sections were, and trying to find their friends. It appeared as though the first 1000 maybe 1500 people in got free tshirts. Let the school spirit commence! Growl Towels and "Go Retrievers" foam sticks were provided. Face paint and body paint abounded, and there was plenty on hand for those who didn't show up painted. I caught up with my friend Caitlyn, painted her face (half gold and half black, with the opposite paw color on each cheek) then we proceeded to paint most of the people around us. It started small, coercing a few people into getting facepaint, but soon people were lining up, all with different requests for painting. I lost track of how many people we painted. As the seats began to fill up, and people were hesitant to leave their seats for fear of losing them, we moved throughout the bleachers on our side of the room, painting faces, arms, hands, etc. Armed with black and gold paint andGrowl Towels for wiping our hands between colors, we spread school spirit. The paws were the most popular, then half and half faces. It was easy to tell the people who hadn't done facepaint before...they were nervous but eager, asking for just something small. Many times they did it because their friends told them to, even though they were hesitant. We reassured them that it would easily wash off with soap and water.
Some students were willing to go all out and paint their whole face to show support for their retrievers, people like Brian D, Caitlyn, and others who came looking for facepaint. Others like myself and Michelle were a bit more conservative, but still joining the fun. Some people asked to get their arms or hands painted, generally under the excuse "I have to go somewhere after this" or "I have to go out tonight". Then there were those who, although sitting in student sections, had the audacity to show up displaying very little school spirit. *cough Brian O, Eric cough* These folks soon they weren't going to get away with that. I quickly demanded they submit themselves to my wonderful facepainting skills, and they wisely acquiesced. The most interesting part of facepainting was when an older gentleman asked me to paint a paw on top of his bald head. It made me laugh when one kid asked us if we were facepainting for free, and then almost kissed me on the cheek when I was done with him, he was so excited. (The kiss was a cultural thing, I'm familiar with it from visiting my friends in Mexico).
Let the games begin! The players were introduced, we cheered for our starting lineup, and the ref tossed the ball. Hartford got possession after tipoff, and made the first shot. We quickly answered with a three pointer, Hartford made another two, and that was the last time they would see themselves in the lead. After the first five minutes, it was clear that UMBC was there to show Hartford how the Retrievers play basketball. For the rest of the game, UMBC's lead never went below nine points. The fans were incredibly excited, cheering our hearts out and killing our voices in support of our Dawgs/Dogs. By the last six minutes of the game, we were shouting "NCAA!" , "Warm up the bus!" and singing "Na-Na-Goodbye" to the Hartford fans. They had been less then enthusiastic throughout most of the game, but I guess when your team is down by an avg of 13 points for most of the game, it's hard to cheer with any real hope.
Around the three minute mark, fans in the bleachers started moving down onto the track and into the lower student section in preparation for rushing the court at game's end. It was obvious that the game was ours, and we were simply playing for kicks and giggles at that point. As the game was ending, and the clock was expiring, the fans started running out onto the court...but wait! There's 0.7 seconds left! Get off the court! I wonder if they did it on purpose...Once the clock officially ran out, we rushed the court and the excitement was uncontainable. They played "Alma Matter" but of course noone knew most of the words, and for some reason they didn't put the lyrics up on the information board. The cheers of the fans so were loud they barely heard the announcer say "Please clear the court" so they could do closing ceremonies. I joined with some of the Mama's Boys in singing "We are the Champions" and spreading it through the crowd. Back up on the track, we watched the Retrievers cut down the net, and cheered as our boys were named allstars.
After the game, I caught up with Ryan and Elise and we talked about how exciting it was that UMBC was going to the NCAA and Maryland wasn't, also what an exciting opportunity it was for the seniors on the team. As everyone cleared out, I grabbed my bags and went outside to soak up the sun. Hey look, the pep band has CD's on sale. I'd been meaning to get one for a while, but wait, I don't have any $$ on me. Time to run down to the commons and hit up the ATM. After asking a nice older lady with a Hartford shirt on to watch my stuff, I went down to the commons and flashed a cute smile to gain entrance (only VIPs for the reception were supposed to be going in and out). I let a couple other kids in behind me who were looking to get into the bookstore, ran up to the ATM, then went back over to the RAC and picked up my copy of the Down and Dirty Dawg Band's first CD, then thanked the Hartford lady for watching my bags. I put the CD away, called my dad to tell him where he would find me when he picked me up, and then draped myself across my bags. Towel over my eyes, I relaxed and dozed in the sun until it was time to go home.
Back home I said hi to the family, got cleaned up (I looked like hell by this point, having barely slept all week, much less the night before) and flopped down on my queen sized bed for a much needed nap. I finished out the evening by going out for dinner and a movie with my brother who I hadn't seen or talked to in about a month. We bumped into a friend of mine who goes to Maryland and quickly exercised bragging rights. After getting home and falling into bed exhausted from all the adventures of the day ( I was running on adrenaline all day), I woke up the next morning very pleased to discover my parents had opted to go to the later service at church, partially for my sake.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!! Watch for us Friday as we play American University in round one of the NCAA at 230pm EST. LET'S GO RETRIEVERS!!!
peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: When there's only a limited amount of cheaper tix for the game, get them the first day they go on sale. Don't wait a day and a half only to find out you now have to pay for the more expensive tix because all the cheap ones are sold out.
10am...students are lined up outside the entrance to the court, cheers of "UM-BC!" can be heard, growing ever more enthusiastic as the Retriever fever builds. Once they're let in, the students swarmed the seating areas, everybody figuring out where the different seating sections were, and trying to find their friends. It appeared as though the first 1000 maybe 1500 people in got free tshirts. Let the school spirit commence! Growl Towels and "Go Retrievers" foam sticks were provided. Face paint and body paint abounded, and there was plenty on hand for those who didn't show up painted. I caught up with my friend Caitlyn, painted her face (half gold and half black, with the opposite paw color on each cheek) then we proceeded to paint most of the people around us. It started small, coercing a few people into getting facepaint, but soon people were lining up, all with different requests for painting. I lost track of how many people we painted. As the seats began to fill up, and people were hesitant to leave their seats for fear of losing them, we moved throughout the bleachers on our side of the room, painting faces, arms, hands, etc. Armed with black and gold paint andGrowl Towels for wiping our hands between colors, we spread school spirit. The paws were the most popular, then half and half faces. It was easy to tell the people who hadn't done facepaint before...they were nervous but eager, asking for just something small. Many times they did it because their friends told them to, even though they were hesitant. We reassured them that it would easily wash off with soap and water.
Some students were willing to go all out and paint their whole face to show support for their retrievers, people like Brian D, Caitlyn, and others who came looking for facepaint. Others like myself and Michelle were a bit more conservative, but still joining the fun. Some people asked to get their arms or hands painted, generally under the excuse "I have to go somewhere after this" or "I have to go out tonight". Then there were those who, although sitting in student sections, had the audacity to show up displaying very little school spirit. *cough Brian O, Eric cough* These folks soon they weren't going to get away with that. I quickly demanded they submit themselves to my wonderful facepainting skills, and they wisely acquiesced. The most interesting part of facepainting was when an older gentleman asked me to paint a paw on top of his bald head. It made me laugh when one kid asked us if we were facepainting for free, and then almost kissed me on the cheek when I was done with him, he was so excited. (The kiss was a cultural thing, I'm familiar with it from visiting my friends in Mexico).
Let the games begin! The players were introduced, we cheered for our starting lineup, and the ref tossed the ball. Hartford got possession after tipoff, and made the first shot. We quickly answered with a three pointer, Hartford made another two, and that was the last time they would see themselves in the lead. After the first five minutes, it was clear that UMBC was there to show Hartford how the Retrievers play basketball. For the rest of the game, UMBC's lead never went below nine points. The fans were incredibly excited, cheering our hearts out and killing our voices in support of our Dawgs/Dogs. By the last six minutes of the game, we were shouting "NCAA!" , "Warm up the bus!" and singing "Na-Na-Goodbye" to the Hartford fans. They had been less then enthusiastic throughout most of the game, but I guess when your team is down by an avg of 13 points for most of the game, it's hard to cheer with any real hope.
Around the three minute mark, fans in the bleachers started moving down onto the track and into the lower student section in preparation for rushing the court at game's end. It was obvious that the game was ours, and we were simply playing for kicks and giggles at that point. As the game was ending, and the clock was expiring, the fans started running out onto the court...but wait! There's 0.7 seconds left! Get off the court! I wonder if they did it on purpose...Once the clock officially ran out, we rushed the court and the excitement was uncontainable. They played "Alma Matter" but of course noone knew most of the words, and for some reason they didn't put the lyrics up on the information board. The cheers of the fans so were loud they barely heard the announcer say "Please clear the court" so they could do closing ceremonies. I joined with some of the Mama's Boys in singing "We are the Champions" and spreading it through the crowd. Back up on the track, we watched the Retrievers cut down the net, and cheered as our boys were named allstars.
After the game, I caught up with Ryan and Elise and we talked about how exciting it was that UMBC was going to the NCAA and Maryland wasn't, also what an exciting opportunity it was for the seniors on the team. As everyone cleared out, I grabbed my bags and went outside to soak up the sun. Hey look, the pep band has CD's on sale. I'd been meaning to get one for a while, but wait, I don't have any $$ on me. Time to run down to the commons and hit up the ATM. After asking a nice older lady with a Hartford shirt on to watch my stuff, I went down to the commons and flashed a cute smile to gain entrance (only VIPs for the reception were supposed to be going in and out). I let a couple other kids in behind me who were looking to get into the bookstore, ran up to the ATM, then went back over to the RAC and picked up my copy of the Down and Dirty Dawg Band's first CD, then thanked the Hartford lady for watching my bags. I put the CD away, called my dad to tell him where he would find me when he picked me up, and then draped myself across my bags. Towel over my eyes, I relaxed and dozed in the sun until it was time to go home.
Back home I said hi to the family, got cleaned up (I looked like hell by this point, having barely slept all week, much less the night before) and flopped down on my queen sized bed for a much needed nap. I finished out the evening by going out for dinner and a movie with my brother who I hadn't seen or talked to in about a month. We bumped into a friend of mine who goes to Maryland and quickly exercised bragging rights. After getting home and falling into bed exhausted from all the adventures of the day ( I was running on adrenaline all day), I woke up the next morning very pleased to discover my parents had opted to go to the later service at church, partially for my sake.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!! Watch for us Friday as we play American University in round one of the NCAA at 230pm EST. LET'S GO RETRIEVERS!!!
peace y'all
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: When there's only a limited amount of cheaper tix for the game, get them the first day they go on sale. Don't wait a day and a half only to find out you now have to pay for the more expensive tix because all the cheap ones are sold out.
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