| 10/28/04 What is AWESOME right now: 1. I'm a Newspaper major in Grady. Finally. 2. I'm a History minor! 3. I'm on track to graduate in May 2006! No extra semesters! 4. I can graduate on time without taking summer school. Ever. None. 5. I'm not going to have any classes next semester on Tues/Thurs. 6. See #4 10/29/04 I sent this email to my dad. Its subject line was "I, for one, paid attention in history class." Did our President?,,,, And I was thinking... I know I can't change your vote from Bush. I know you're more of a Republican than you are a Democrat, but I just wanted you to know how scared I am for my rights as a woman if Bush is elected. I certainly don't plan on getting pregnant before I'm married, but I believe it is my right as a woman to choose whether or not I should be able to get an abortion. I don't believe that old men (and women) on capital hill have a right to tell me what to do with my reproductive system, especially out of religious beliefs. What if, by the time I have a daughter, she has to use a coat hanger again? Why should we revert to dangerous practices used a half century ago? I believe that Bush is leading our country down the wrong path. In short, he's bad PR. I think it's a crop of lies to tell us that we're going to Iraq to liberate the people. Sure, Saddam was bad. But we just wanted to ensure that the Iraqi government would be pro-US. We wanted to make sure we could still retain a market there. We wanted to "free" the people in order that they can be more like us, and therefore our governments and economic systems can be more compatible. The same thing happened when African countries like Ghana were gaining independence from colonial powers after WWII. Yes, I believe that a President should act in the best interest of his country and his people. But how far can that realistically go? Far enough to kill civilians? That's what SOMEONE did to us. But that SOMEONE wasn't Iraq. That's all, I guess. I just got to thinking about it on the car ride home. love you love c Ok, look. Georgia is pretty much a Bush-safe state, but I still feel like our opinions matter here. I don't want to see things happening in my country because we have some backwards hyper-Christian cowboy president. I don't want to see wars being fought because they benefit companies run by friends of the Bush clan. This "conservative" man is spending billions of dollars in an ill-reasoned war and supported legislation like the Patriot Act that cuts just a little too closely into the lives of his citizens. Nolan and I were discussing the other day how we didn't understand how anyone with an education past the high school level could honestly, in good conscience, vote for Bush. I still don't understand. You're going to criticize Kerry for protesting Vietnam? At least he went. At least he went and saw what our country was doing and came back and DID something about it. I'm not a religious person, but god help us is Bush is reelected. 11/2/04 oooowwwwwwww. ow. owowowow. i just wiped out hardcore right outside the journalism building. damn wet leaves. good thing i was RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET. i guess this means it's time to retire the flip-flops for another year. i'd been thinking 'ok careful, don't slip, you're gonna slip, don't slip' and then i slipped. i just got out of my first class and don't have another one until 2. i'd planned to get a dr appt for this nice chunk of a time slot, but they couldn't fit me in. i've got just enough to get done that it would be pointless to drive home and come back. i'm wearing my "KILROY: FAT AND NORMAL" shirt that i made last night before nolan and i went to tasty world. The back says Mike Perkins for President 2004. Personally, i'd rather have mike for president than bush OR kerry. and speaking of that....look, reproductive rights are NOT the same thing as taxes. You need my taxes to run the country. you don't need to worry yourself with my uterus and ovaries. If you vote(d) for bush and you think that's right, and you think your reasons for voting for him are more valid than mine for NOT voting for him, fine. but no one can change my mind in thinking that the current war is wrong, that it was represented as being something it's not, that bush should have just told us he was going to war for the resources available. just as bush fans are proud they voted for him, I AM PROUD I DID NOT. 11/18/04 Screw "abscence makes the heart grow fonder." Abscence makes the heart grow lonely and uncertain, is what it does... 12/2/04 Something happened. Something....umm....I'm not sure what, exactly. Something snapped (for the better), and maybe it had to do with getting past all the research paper shit (pardon), but i'm not sure about that either. Could be how pretty it's been outside, but whatever it is, all of a sudden I'm feeling really happy -- which points to the obvious fact that I must not have been very happy before...and that's news to me. This one kid, for instance, was calling all the time and it was really bothersome, mainly because I thought he had a thing for me and I didn't feel that way in return, but then I realized it's not him, it's me. All I had to do was decide to stop being annoyed and just be friends with him. Once I decided that, I wasn't annoyed by him anymore. And I don't know what that really illustrates other than I can be a real jerk. I was never mean to the kid, I just...whatever. Maybe it's having turned 21. I just feel a lot better since Sunday, like things are more open to me, which is stupid, considering nothing was really closed to me in the first place...i think i'm delerious. I just really decided to stop freaking out and stop holding onto certain perceptions of certain people and accept those who cross my path. i still hate those two kids in my foreign policy class, though. i'm not THAT delerious. 12/13/04 Hellooooo. It's finals time, kids, and you know what that means!...actually...it really doesn't mean much, does it? i just got back from studying my butt off at the slc for a few hours...I don't know how some people can stay there for like 24 hours solid. my brain starts to hurt too much, not to mention my ears, for wearing my headphones for too long. i went through 4 cds today. FOUR! that's a lot of music. I also turned in that godforsaken paper for my foreign policy class. HURRAY! never again...NEVER AGAIN will i have to listen to that snaggletoothed mofo go on and on without one shred of a sense of humor. NEVER AGAIN will i have to listen to hugh & gabriel lecture the rest of the class and sound like gigantic douchebags. i feel bad tho, i ran into a really nice guy from that class at the slc last night after 3 hours of studying french...needless to say, i was completely unable to form coherent sentences. ah yes. the end of the semester. i think i'm going to apply to the cannes film festival study abroad thing. i'd hate for all this french to go to waste in my brain. that leaves the question of what i'll do about an internship for this summer. *heavy sigh* lexi offered to sublease her room in ann arbor, and i could work at a paper up there for the summer -- hey, it's better than being in marietta for that whole time. it'd be pretty interesting i think. a change of scenery. the party on saturday was awesome. a good mix of people, and everybody got along and the bonfire was a hit and everyone left happy. man...i wish i had food. my whole life revolves around food and i'm really sad when i don't have any. not to mention i get really cranky. wanna be my best friend and bring me some? *whiiiiiine* 1/2/05 Happy New Year, darlings! I pried myself off the couch long enough to get online, so here i am, nearly fully recovered from the trip to NYC. we left atlanta the 29th and proceeded to get zero sleep and little food, while walking 1000 miles a day. and watching bend it like beckham, but nevermind that part. spent 7 hours standing in times square with a MILLION people and almost as many cops, slept in an insanely huge bathtub our last night, got drunk in an authentic and 150 year old irish pub, saw the blue man group, ate some amazing canolis, got yelled at by old irish men, ate in a basement chinese restaurant called Wo Hop (that, it turns out, is NOTHING like IHOP), saw ground zero, got bird poop on my coat, set a new record for the time it takes to shower, get dressed, blow dry hair and apply makeup (20 minutes), saw my lovely friend emily, and flew home in first class. i'm sure some other stuff happened too, but the whole thing was mainly a blur. i think i want my next nyc trip to be museums and shopping, neither of which i've done in my last two trips there. well happy new year everybody. i hope you didn't bother yourself with any resolutions, they're quite the waste of time. instead, why don't you just go ahead and send money for tsunami relief? it'll help balance out the bad karma of everything you did over xmas break - and they need help a lot more than you do right now. 1/17/05 As I was leaving the Red & Black office this afternoon, I couldn't believe how happy I was. I'm gonna do this for a living! My job will be writing and calling people to ask them questions. I will be making MONEY doing that. That's awesome. 2/13/05 It's been a while. I'm not really that interested in keeping up with these posts anymore, so we'll see how much longer all this lasts. but in the meantime, here's a new one.. this weekend was great. friday we went to the delta campus movie fest at the classic center. last night aaron and i got some sushi (mmmmm 3 times a week...yesss), then went to DT's to see mike's band play. they sounded awesome, and i've never seen the audience so excited. we hit up the globe afterwards, which is always fun. i think one of the highlights of last night, however, would have to be running into this kid from my foreign relations class from last semester. "this kid" being one of the ones i hated with a passion. he was trashed, telling me that his professor told him to stop talking so much (had to keep from laughing here, as he did nothing but say stupid crap all the time in our class); he then went on to tell me, mid-sentence, that he thinks i'm beautiful and that all last semester he kept hoping i would sit next to him and talk to him. i never did, of course, because his very presence caused me pain. i got a big kick out of it all - what do you do when that happens? i just had to laugh, and was thankful when mike finally dragged me away. as for life....life is good. i had fun getting out of the house last night and hanging out with new people - who doesn't? there's something to be said for having your own crowd to run around with. jeff and i talked about this last night, and i definitely understand what he means about doing his own thing sometimes. as for other stuff, cobb wants to spend $70 million on laptops for students. give me a break. if there's one county that doesn't need to give students laptops, it's cobb. unless the assignment is TO STUDY EVOLUTION. *grumble rednecks grumble* 2/24/05 Earlier tonight, I came as close as ever to a nervous breakdown. For the past week or so, I've been spending an obscene amount of time looking for internships. I'd like a secure future, you know? simple request. So last night i found something perfect: a writing internship with Accuracy in Media, "a non-profit, grassroots citizens watchdog of the news media....." And it goes on. Perfect!!! I'd get to live and work in DC for a summer, working for my ideal type of organization, one that works to secure ethical, nonpartisan, unbiased journalism. I was excited. So, I set about crafting an eloquent-as-possible cover letter, read tons of information on how to make myself appear as competitive and hireable as possible....and found AIM's website so that I could get a feel for the type of things I might be writing. As I was reading, I got a really funny feeling. You know when you're eating something, and it just doesn't taste quite like what you expected? Same thing here. I bit into this sandwich expecting turkey and I got CONSERVATIVE BIAS. I felt sick to my stomach, understandably. It turns out that "Accuracy in Media" is a gross misnomer, a thorougly misleading title. The youthful, idealistic journalist in me was instantly attracted to what I thought was an opportunity to work under journalists who valued the same principles that I do. But instead, columns were written blasting the press for being too negative about the war in Iraq and condemning the "outing," so to speak, of "journalist" Jeff Gannon, aka James Guckert. Thinking that maybe I had just clicked on right-leaning columns by coincidence, I checked the links that aim.org provided, and they confirmed what I feared. I found links to American Conservative Union, the Christian Coalition, Gun Owners of America, Alliance for Marriage, and Conservatives Unite, among many others. Was this really happening? Had I really just spent hours crafting the perfect cover letter to submit to this not only biased, but strongly right-leaning organization? When Nolan came home, he found me with my head on my desk, my hands cupping my ears. 2/25/05 The Kansas Attorney General is demanding abortion records from local clinics. Why? He wants to investigate child rape "in order to protect Kansas children." Are you serious? Does anyone else think this seems faintly like using the victim in order to put a dent in abortion laws? If you get an abortion, do you want Big Brother banging down your door? "The records sought include the patient's name, medical history, details of her sex life, birth control practices and psychological profile." If you were raped and sought a subsequent abortion - even if you had the procedure done without being raped - you, as a woman from Kansas, will suddenly find your life made that much more miserable. I don't get it. I thought conservatives preferred a small government, one that stayed out of the lives of its citizens. How much more personal can you get than going through records of women who underwent abortions? 2/27/05 NEVER AGAIN will I leave the house without showering and putting on makeup because "I'm just going to run to the store." Because it is ALWAYS those days that I run into people I know, or random people who just start talking to me. I was walking down the street on my way to the ATM and this woman stops me and says "Are you from Charlevoix?!" (I was wearing my CVX sweatshirt) I said no, that I just go up there every summer. Turns out she's from Traverse City and is down here visiting her son. Well yeah so she just happened to have her HOT IN-GRAD-SCHOOL-FOR-SCULPTURE artist son with her...annnnd I had just rolled out of bed after a long night by the keg, no showering, no makeup, looking like trash....you can be politically aware and suffer from severe vanity at the same time, right? 3/27/05 UGH i'm TIRED of being single! this thought just occured to me about 10 minutes ago. It was brewing in my head all day long, from the moment i walked by this one guy at the gym. i didn't even notice him in particular, but how he smelled (not gross, he hadn't worked out or anything). it was that boy smell. i love boy smells. i miss boy smells. cologne mixed with regular boy smell. totally threw me for a loop. it's been so long (since august, to be precise) since i've had any sort of romance. for a while last semester i really just didn't want to date anyone, but now i'm more open to the idea i guess - but i just haven't been able to focus on anyone. i always manage to sabotage it in my head before it has a chance to go anywhere. at this point i feel like i should just tell every new guy i meet, "oh by the way, i've become a complete commitment-phobe, so it's not you, it's me." for too long i was thinking about something that was so far from even being a possibility that i just lost sight of anything here. you know that feeling of waking up from a nap all disoriented instead of rested? that's how i feel. i feel like i just woke up and it's already march and.....yeah ok this is NOT the forum for all these thoughts, is it? 4/3/05 What a weekend. I volunteered with Hands on Athens yesterday and today, and we fixed up this 90 year old blind and hard of hearing woman's house. new paint, plants, flowers, screen door, gutters, etc etc. i'm actually going to meet tim, our team leader, back at the house on thursday to finish the job. we just have to hang the door and the gutters and pour the cement for the ramp to the front door. on second thought, maybe i shouldn't have said 'just.' i'm hoping to recruit someone to help us, but we'll see. I love this stuff. I really do. if i had the time, i'd seriously volunteer for stuff like this just about every weekend. the people who were there all weekend with me were awesome. we weren't there for class credit or resume building or anything - we all wanted to help out this community in some fashion. if that means going from house to house with paint brushes, fine. It was just plain awesome to talk with the lady's grandson this morning - he was so happy, so excited about what we were doing for his grandmother, and he offered to help any way he could. the best feeling was stepping up onto the street at the end of the day today and taking it all in: it looked like a new house. driving up to the house saturday morning, i could barely believe that anyone actually lived inside. by the time we left earlier this evening, nothing looked unusual - it looked like someone should of course be living there. i hope everybody had as good a weekend as i did, but i hope none of you are as sore! 6/4/05 Why hello. It's been a while. Since I last updated, I finished spring semester with three As and one B (my professors liked me?), moved into the new house, went to Michigan for a few weeks, returned to Athens to start my job as summer Editor-in-Chief of the Red & Black, and have been sitting amid boxes and bags of stuff I can't put away yet since then. After a late night, I'm awake WAY too early this morning - possibly because it's about 300 degrees in my room. Woo! ceiling fans. Today I'll go over to the old house and clean my bathroom, then haul the cleaning supplies back to this house and clean THIS bathroom, which is gross. Deepa and I already talked about switching off weekly bathroom cleaning duties, so that's cool. She likes things clean, too, although I think I'm the more OCD of the two of us. Last night was a return to Red & Black happy hours at Transmet, which was fun. After a few hours there, we hit up Kroger, where, for some reason, it seemed like a really good idea to me to buy an extra large carton of goldfish, a bag of Mixers snack mix and a package of reduced fat oreos (got those because they were the only non-double stuff, not because i'm watching this precious figure of mine). Michigan was great. Just what I needed before I started this job in nasty-humid Georgia (today is the first sunny day in a week, and trust me: it's NASTY humid). It was 47 and rainy the first couple days we were there, so you would've been hard pressed to find me in anything less than pajamas, a sweatshirt, 3 blankets and curled up around a space heater. It did eventually turn gorgeous - that northern Michigan on-the-lake gorgeous, with water so blue you could cry - and friends did eventually show up, so it was perfect. I'm just depressed that I had to squeeze it in in May as opposed to July or August. I'm so used to the end of Sequanota signalling the end of summer, so I felt all discombobulated coming home and having June, July and August stretching out in front of me. I'm buying a baby pool, so that will make the days more bearable. I don't know what I'm gonna do about my workout routine. I was looking forward to getting a regular thing going, but there's no way in hell I'm getting up before work to go, and by the time i get OFF work, i'm hungry, exhausted and just want to go home and continue organizing and getting things out of boxes. So that leaves me with Saturday and Sunday, and I'm definitely not going today. *cue very valid excuses* I ordered this awesome rug from urban outfitters. ON SALE! woo. but 30 bucks for an overweight charge. I've also discovered I have bionic walls. That's right.I was trying to tack up some posters, and I literally had to hammer the tacks in because the wall is so...stupid. Ok well I'm going to go listen to this Diana Krall song that I can't get enough of, and we'll talk later. |