Best. Package. Ever. October 28, 2010

This is just a quick post because I am so damn elated right now.
I was waiting for a book I ordered online to come in the mail, so I wasn’t surprised when Margaret the building manager came and said there was a package waiting for me in the office. But when I got there, not only was a box from Amazon there for me, but there was another package, covered in silver duct tape and scribbles that were unmistakably done by my litter sister.
That right there was enough to send me over the moon, but I didn’t have any idea what it could be that she and my stepdad had sent me. And you know what it was?
Kethup packets. Specifically, 204 Heinze ketchup packets because apparently my complaints about the ketchup here left enough of a mark.
I’m still laughing.

This blog is going to become my Lazarus. October 24, 2010

I would say Jesus, but I feel that would be blasphemous.

However, it’s been some 7 or 8 months since I’ve last updated, and I’d like to get back into the swing of blogging.

And that’s not to say I’ve been doing nothing this whole time.  I have an exceptionally active blog on Tumblr (although that’s mostly reblogging pictures and whatnot), and I still like to whip out the pen and diary for special occassions, or when I’m traveling.

On that note, I’ve been doing much of that.  I mean, after last spring semester finished, I had to contend with moving from my stepdad’s house in Worcester to my father’s in Brighton (since my mom is not officially with her sister in Rhode Island) which was obnoxious, and then I was at camp in Spencer for the summer (which was equal parts SO MUCH FUN and overly dramatic), and now I’ve been in Cork, Ireland since mid-August (resulting in some trips around here, a weekend jaunt to Scotland, and an upcoming trip to London).

I also have plans to participate in NaNoWriMo next month, which will probably be dominating my writing time, but I still want to poke around here a bit more.

There’s so much to cover, and my natural instinct is to do a total step-by-step recap of it all, but I’m trying to be a little more relaxed in my writing methods.  Not the in the frequency, but in the way I flow from topic to topic.  I want to be less focused on my rigid, chronological structure and more on connecting the memories and events thematically.  I’m hopeful it’ll go a little better.

But till it is time for me to leave another post, I leave you with one of my quotes taped up on my wall:

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

-Mark Twain

Again, today. February 12, 2010

1. Slept in late when I shouldn’t have.
2. Half-assed my homework.
3. Tried not to murder the kid behind me in Irish Lit who was breathing heavy.  I don’t even care if he was sick, it was so obnoxious all the sounds he was making.
4. Watched a movie in Politics of Northern Ireland about the IRA.
5. Took an essay test about The Republic by Plato in my Fundamentals of Politics class.  I hate Plato, but I know all the stuff I put down was correct, the problem was that I was using all the stuff I remember from Philosophy last year as opposed to anything based on Political Science because God knows the teacher didn’t actually teach us the book.  She just gave us anecdotes.
6. Got dinner at Lower.  Stuffed shells.  Not my favorite, but perfectly acceptable.
7. Went to my Intervarsity fellowship meeting.  I like everyone there, but I miss when it was a Bible study as opposed to constantly planning new events that I probably won’t be able to make it to.  Although a couple of us are actually starting a book club in the next couple weeks, so I’m kind of excited for that.
8. Stopped at Lower again and got milk for my cereal tomorrow and Chocolate Cookies n’ Cream Collision ice cream.
9. Came back to my room, ate aforementioned ice cream, and watched The Office (which I thought was a really good episode.  Andy is adorable and I am so excited to see more Jim/Dwight shenanigans, especially with Pam right there).
10. I am now pretending to do my Spanish homework.

Today. February 10, 2010

1. I had to get up heinously early to drop my father off at the hospital and then pick him up after Spanish class.  He had a colonoscopy and wasn’t allowed to drive because of the anaesthesia.  But in the process I also got in a fight with his new TomTom, so if you were on Route 9 in the Newton/Boston-ish area this morning, you might have seen me clutching it in my hand and swearing at it while I drove.  I tend to repel technology.
2. I was still angry about the false alarm snow day screw up that BC had last night, and it was so much worse because I know I did terrible on my Spanish test this morning.
3. Despite wearing my awesome new winter boots and obnoxiously plaid, but warm, winter jacket, the snow is too wet to be fun, and instead it just gets into my hood and soaks my glasses.
4. I have an academic girl crush on the teacher of my Narrative class, so I actually didn’t mind going.  Although that one girl I hate who happens to be in that class and thinks she’s the shit needs to stop talking.
5. My roommate is making really loud slurping/swallowing sounds because of the soup she’s eating, and it really bothers me.  So I’m eating Wheat Thins and listening to Taylor Swift to block it out.
6. I haven’t showered yet, and probably won’t.
7. I have to study for a lot of things tomorrow, which won’t be fun, but I think American Idol is on, and I’m also going to try and talk my suitemates into watching The Swan Princess after dinner.

Update. February 9, 2010

God I am really bad at keeping up with this blog.  I just keep getting distracted by other things and pretending to do homework.

Anway, it’s been about a week since I last posted, so I figured I’d briefly cover what’s been going on.

Last Friday my roommates and I finally got to play Office Clue, even though it was a bit of a fail.  We all were so excited about it, but we kind of forgot the rules to regular Clue so it took us a while to get started.  Plus, one of my suitemates had a friend over from home who played, and even though she was nice, she messed up and we had to end the game early because she didn’t tell someone the card she actually had.  I had the purple Stanley playing piece, by the way.  Hopefully we’ll be able to play another time and be more successful.

Saturday was really quiet and I just sat around reading (and it actually was for homework), but then my roommate and I had to go to work, the Late Night shift at the dining hall.  And it sucked.  Unlike the forst night I had worked, we had a different student manager who was not fun like the first one.  Plus we didn’t have any music playing and it was really boring.  And the drunk people were so much worse.  Like everyone who came after midnight pretty much made it onto the boat (which I will have to explain another time).

There was the guy who kept cutting the line because it was too long and expecting us to still serve him.  There was the guy who stuck his hand under the glass divider and grabbed a handful of fries to eat, making us have to throw away the rest of the fries because of germs.  Then there was the guy who freaked out and didn’t believe us that we’d run out of mozzarella stickes and chicken wings (though he at least calmed down after a few seconds and apologized).  Then there was this other guy with two bitches (for lack of a better word) who also couldn’t understand that we’d run out of what he wanted even though it was after 1 o’ clock but was at least not obnoxious till one of the girls he was with started demanding that I get them hot sauce or ranch, even though we didn’t have any and then finally started tossing the little sauce cups at me demanding I drag it through the tray with the left over dregs of buffalo chicken sauce for them (even though it was gross and smelled bad).  I had to do it to get rid of them and it took every ounce of strength in me to not throw something at the girl when I saw her on campus yesterday.  But my favorite was the girl who when I looked over, took a chicken finger and dipped her arm into the pot of marinara sauce that I’d just refilled to prevent a riot from breaking out.  I was so pissed, and as soon as she saw me, she booked it, because I had to come over and get of the still pretty full bucket of sauce.  It was one of the worst nights for me ever.

Sunday was at least quiet for me, even though I didn’t get to sleep as long as I wanted.  But I did manage to get some more homework done, and then I watched the Superbowl.  Obviously I’d have prefered seeing the Patriots play, but it was still good seeing the Saints beat the Colts.  I’m really glad because I’m going to New Orleans in a couple weeks for a service trip over spring break and it’ll be exciting if the city is happy.  Although today I read this article about how Peyton Manning didn’t shake hands with Drew Brees after losing and I was fully expecting to hear someone  cut him down for it, but instead it basically praised him because it “just showed how much he cared about winning.”  So rather than calling him out for poor sportsmanship, which that move was, I had to read another article about how wonderful Manning is.  Do people not realize his shit stinks too?  Because if it was anyone else, it would be a character fault.  God knows if it was Tom Brady, they’d rip him to shreds and feed him to sharks, then throw the left over pieces at Bill Belichick.

And yeah, Monday wasn’t too bad.  I will always hate Spanish, but at least Narrative is entertaining…until THAT GIRL WHOM I REFUSE TO NAME BECAUSE I DISLIKE HER SO MUCH tried to school the class on Harry Potter, but she was so wrong.  We were making various analogies about the Sherlock Holmes story we’d read, and then she whipped out “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” which you can’t use unless you live in England.  Plus several of her plot points were wrong.  So to make up for it, I made a sign up sheet that said “Dumbledore’s Army” and hung it up in one of the elevators in my building, and even though it got taken down before I could see it, apparently severla people actually signed it, which makes my life so much better (especially because they used names like Ginny Weasley and Voldemort).

But now I actually have to go get ready for class…

Breakfast for dinner. February 4, 2010

It’s like a holiday in my dorm room.  We’ve had it planned for a week to be here by 7 pm and we were all assigned to make different things.

Jaclyn made the toast, Monique cooked the bacon and tofu sausage things, Eileen made the scrambled eggs, and I was in charge of the waffles.

It was basically delicious and we were all giddily excited for it all day.  It’s totally going to be happening again in a few weeks, and we’ll be able to have hash browns then.

The only thing that would make tonight better is if we could play The Office verison of Clue, but everyone has homework or meetings to do, except for me since I’ve pretty much abandoned doing any work this semester, and it’s only the 3rd week.

My childhood is over. February 3, 2010

My grandparents just sold the family condo in Bretton Woods, NH.

We’ve had that place since 1972.  My father and his siblings spent a ton of time up there.  Both my aunts got married up there.  Some of my earliest memories are there.  I’ve spent numerous holidays and weekends and birthdays up there.  I’ve never gone skiing anywhere else.  Half my collection of childhood books is up there, and I can’t convey how incredible it is to see 4th of July fireworks set off at the hotel and feel them echo off the mountains.

I remember when one of my uncles built a loft for extra room, and how I pretty much took over it.  I remember the numerous times I flipped over the “Big Bird” chair because I was so excited.  I remember my grandfather’s 70th birthday party a couple years a go when the whole family got trashed and I was reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and my uncle and I were sent into the rain to get the beer out of the car so we used a plastic sled as a double umbrella.  I remember when I was learning to ski and I went to the Hobbit Ski School for kids and being so excited to show everyone my skills on the slopes.

Even though I’m in like tears now, realistically, I know it was getting to be too much of a burden.  My grandparents are in North Carolina now, and it costs a lot for my father and his siblings to pay so much for it when we don’t get to go up there as often.  I’ve only gone skiing twice in the past 3 season, and the prices are pretty awful.  And all the perks we used to get at the Mt. Washington Hotel have pretty much been taken away.  I guess it was inevitable, but it sucks.

A reason to love my teacher. January 29, 2010

So I’m in this class called Narrative & Interpretation because it’s a requirement for an English major.  I figured I’d just deal with it for the semester and be done.  But I kind of have a cool professor.

First off, she has us reading fairy tales, which I love and she seems very excited about.  They’ve all been variation on the Little Red Riding Hood story, the ones by Charles Perrault, the Grimm Brothers, and two by Angela Carter called “The Werewolf” and “The Company of Wolves,” and they were all pretty interesting to talk about.

Secondly, she has this crazy curly hair that she ties back but looks like it’s about to jump out and sing.  Not that this has any real bearing on her or the class, but it gives this eccentric yet endearing look to her so I’m not worried about having to go to her office hours.

Finally today, she and this kid in class had what I considered to be an absolutely hysterical exchange, which I shall put down for you.  He just burst out with this question, interrupting her while she was talking and handing out papers, and she calmly answered him and continued on.

• Kid: “Is your shirt a bomber dropping muffins?”
• Teacher: “Actually, they’re cupcakes, just to clarify the pastries, but yes they’re being dropped by a bomber.”

And that was it.  But it was awesome.

Oops. January 29, 2010

So basically, I’ve hideously abandoned this blog, for which I am sorry.  I couldn’t get on during break, and I’ve been ridiculously busy since semester started, sooo yeah.

I’m going to try to be better with updating this semester, but as it is I’m going to be off to a rough start.  This weekend is going to be crazy.

Tonight I’m starting my new job, working in the dining hall.  I’m going to have the late night shift at Lower, from 8 pm to 3 am.  I’d take a nap beforehand to be rested, but that usually gives me headaches, and I won’t even be able to spend all my Saturday sleeping it off because my friend Ali from camp is coming over.  We’re actually going to the Martina McBride and Trace Adkins concert in Worcester, MA for their Shine All Night tour, which is going to be freaking amazing, but going to keep us up late.  And then on Sunday the two of us are going out to camp for our staff interviews.  Not that we need them because we’re going to get rehired anyway, but it’s still part of the process.  And then Sunday night is the Grammys, and I have to stay up to watch because I’m addicted to award shows, and I really want to see Taylor Swift win something.

So maybe if I’m not too much of a zombie next week, I’ll be able to give a nice recap.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. December 19, 2009

Basically it’s amazing. One of my roommates gave it to me for Christmas and I absolutely adore it. It’s a little gory, but so funny. When I’m done I’ll have to give a full review.