Eve of New Year's Eve

Been a While

I have now realized that I have not updated my blog in about two and a half months! So, in that time, I have finished my semester and am awaiting my grades, I have bought Christmas presents for my parents, friends, and brother. Since none of them know that I have a blog, I think that I can say what I got them:

Dad- assorted teas, chocolate orange

Mom- composition book, DVD

My brother, John- Rock Em Sock Em Robots

My friend, Jen- candy, Chipotle gift card, bottle of Johnny Walker (Black Label)

See, I try to buy stuff that I like, so if they don't want it, they can give to back to me! That's kind of wrong, but I take their likes and dislikes into consideration because I actually listen and pay attention. My mom says I don't, but I really do. Tomorrow, my brother, my best friend (Joey) and I are going to the movies, I think that we're going to see The Spirit. It promises to be a ripping good movie, and it will be a lot of fun because I'll be hanging out. 

I wonder what I got for Christmas. Presents are cool, but mostly, I like getting presents for other people. The look on their faces is very satisfying, unless they don't like what you got for them, then it sucks. 

Change of Season, Change of Pace

Today, at 11:44 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the autumnal equinox happened. So, it is officially fall, and the cool breezes and crunchy leaf piles that come along with the change of the season await! Fall is one of my favourite seasons, summer being the other one, and the excitement of wearing sweaters, cuddling up in a ball underneath big comforters, and watching the treetops change from green to red, orange, and brown is bubbling inside me. But, school has dampened my spirits of enjoying all of these things that I love about fall. 

As the semester gears up to be quite a challenge, with more reading and assignments than I had anticipated, I will have to hustle and get out of my summer state of mind. The sloth, lethargy, and general laziness that I am experiencing will have to be replaced by a very focused and energetic student that I know that I can be. I am able to get some work done, but I always seem to be missing assignments or forgetting to complete some task. 

In good news, my friends are going to have an election day party. Shots for every swing state that Obama wins, and general hullabaloo. Obama `08!

Stat, Sarah Palin, and other craziness

I have not sent my news out on the internets for a while, and thought that I should. There is a lot of hub-bub surrounding John McCain's vice presidential nominee, Sara Palin. She looks like Tina Fey, and Ms. Fey did a very good job imitating her on Saturday Night Live. After eight years of gut checks and their disastrous results, I think that there should be "safer" choices and more aforethought. 

I am NOT being sexist. As a young woman, it scares me to see a woman who threatens to usurp rights availed to women through great sacrifice and effort. Mrs. Palin has experience as a mayor, governor, mother and wife, but I do not think that those experiences lend themselves to qualifications to become president (if required to do so) It has been revealed that John McCain has spoken, in the past that he "was not a governor for a short time, or a mayor for a short time" That means, he assumes that the relative inexperience of Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in those capacities do not lend themselves to qualifications for president. 

My dad says not to sweat her because she is the vice presidential candidate, but with the chance of John McCain dying while in office (assuming he gets elected) because of his on-going battle with cancer, that will put her in the hot-seat. Meh, I'm voting for Obama anyways. 

Yesterday, I had a very relaxing Sunday full of awkward conversations with my parents about my future, procrastinating, and smoking weed. But, I eventually got around to do my statistics homework, and tomorrow I'll have to read for my labour economics class. Somehow, I forget to check updates for my classes on my computer while I'm in front of it. Interesting how people can avoid work while they're on a machine that helps them with it. Yay! Class doesn't start until 12:30 tomorrow, and I get to play soccer at 6. 

Moving on, Obama gets the nomination

Fuck my Life

Pizza and concrete

Hey internets

Yesterday started out well. I studied for my commercial driver's license permit test, which I did not do well on. I have to go back to re-take the exam next week. I made pizza for my brother, one of his friends, and myself. Then, on a major highway near my house, there were quite a few accidents. One car slammed into a concrete divider, it spewed concrete chunks across the highway, and I happened to drive over one of the pieces. My little Honda that lies low to the ground stood no chance against a 55 pound piece of industrial strength concrete, the radiator was lacerated by the impact of the jagged piece. Luckily, one of my brother's friends who was much calmer than I was there. We pulled over as soon as we could, and contacted his dad. I had to get my car towed back to my house, just the way to end my day. 

But, I still have dough from yesterday when I made pizza yesterday. That means that I am able to make more today. I like pizza.... a lot! The good thing is that I am safe, and that nothing too bad happened, life is good and I should try to remember that. 

Back from Camp

So, I am done with this gig, being a camp counselor. It went well, everybody ended up getting close over the course of the week. In my attempt to be a "cool" counselor, I ostracized my fellow female counselor, which was not the right way to do things. I ended up getting chewed out, and in the end, we got to be closer friends. When people had to go home to their respective places across the United States, there was a lot of crying and hugging. I'm glad that all of us were able to get along and become good friends in only seven days. These types of experiences are quite amazing, and it makes me think that life can be good.

Weird thing was that I am now covered with red bumps all over my body, but nobody else (counselors, campers, staff, etc.) had them. There was a theory of bedbugs, so my roommate and I moved rooms, but then it continued. Next was the thought that I was allergic to the detergent that the sheets on the bed are washed in, either way, it sucks. Good news includes my grade from the math class, a B-. YAY! I thought that I was going to fail, some act of God must have lifted my grade to something decent... or I rocked the final exam. Either way, I have owned this class from hell. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Something unexpected also happened, the apartment that I was going to have with two of my friends is not coming to pass. There is only room for two tenants, so there is no room for me, sucks! Now, my parents are helping me to find a place to live near my college, so that, you know I don't have to drive 30 minutes to two and a half hours each day from my house. Other than that, I have learned that:

1. Benadryl makes me angry and confused

2. Oatmeal baths are very relaxing

3. British accents are hot

4. Soft serve ice cream is a gift from above

5. The state of Oklahoma should not be overlooked, they have contributed many things to our society

a. the shopping cart

b. musical of the same name as the state

c. Sonic, America's drive-in

d. many hot, famous people (Brad Pitt, Garth Brooks, Kristen Chenoweth, Flaming Lips, etc.)

6. I am good at math

7. Strongbow is a delicious hard cider from England

Last day of summer... classes

Good News

This is the start of something good

Stickshifts and Safetybelts

Today, I got amazing news, I got a job! I will be driving a bus for my university's Department of Transportation Services (DOTS) I do enjoy driving, and I thought that providing my driving savvy to my college could help with the deficit of drivers, plus, I'd get paid. Then, I got thinking of a Cake song, Stick Shifts and Safety Belts. For those of you who don't know the lyrics, I do. So, courtesy of a globe trotting 20 something, I present you cake's Stick Shifts and Safety Belts from the Fashion Nugget album:

Stick Shifts and Safety Belts, bucket seats have all got to go, when we're driving in the car, it makes my baby seem so far. I need you here with me, not way over in a bucket seat. I need you to be here with me, not way over in a bucket seat. But when we're driving in my Malibu, it's easy to get right next to you. I say "Baby, scoot over please", and then she's right there next to me. I need you here with me, not way over in a bucket seat. I need you to be here with me, not way over in a bucket seat. Well, a lot of good cars are Japanese, yeah, but when we're driving far, I need my baby, I need my baby next to me. Well, stickshifts and safetybelts, bucket seats have all got to go. When we're driving in the car, it makes my baby seem so far. I need you to be here with me, not way over in a bucket seat. I need you to be here with me, not way over in a bucket seat. 

Then I realized that buses have an automatic transmission, and safety belts for the driver only. But, still I'm excited! Another day has passed with math at 8 a.m. and a professor who doesn't understand that kids my age don't function at 100% at that time of the day. But, I am looking forward to the end of this class on July 25th, in fact, there are plans to paint the town red with some of the friends that I have made. Later that day, I will be employed for about a week with some interfaith camp. Ugh, this could be bad or this could be good... let's hope for the latter. Or is it the former? I always avoided using that phrase, it sounds contrived. Also, I don't know how to use it properly. But, the rest of my summer will be fun. I'm going to move out of my parent's house with two of my friends into an apartment of our own! We're going to be near campus, and I'll be independent!

But, I hope that I finish my training for the bus driving before school starts because my semester schedule has me in class for most of the afternoon, when I was planning on doing the training behind the wheel. My semester starts in September, which is sweet. This does give me more time to not work on academics, and have some fun for once. I'll be taking 15 or 18 credits, they are kind of random classes because I didn't register on time. Three economics classes (intermediate macroeconomics, labour economics, and statistics), a seminar on Latin immigrants' family structures, and agricultural economics. I think that this should be a good semester, the classes will be a lot of work, but I think that I have the motivation to do well in all of them. 

The gears in my head are turning faster than I keep track of. My mind is trying to stay on the task at hand, doing well in this class, but there are so many more interesting issues. Getting hired, moving out, working on school work for the upcoming semester, my friends here and abroad, and last, but not least, my trip in the winter. If anyone out there has ideas about romantic surprises for my special someone in Egypt, post a comment. I was throwing out some ideas with my friends earlier, one is to go to their job, another was to blast my radio outside their apartment building, but I don't know how feasible any of them are. We'll see, there are five more months for me to work out the details. It seems like so long, maybe because it is!

The Misadventures of My Life

You Never Forget your First!

Hello, and welcome to the blog, Live from Suburbia. There has been a lot going on in the past year that has not been on the blog. I have returned from an amazing trip to Egypt, where I studied at the American University in Cairo for a year. The rundown is as follows:

- arrived in Egypt with high hopes of learning a lot about how other people live, and how that affects the world that I live in

- made friends first semester

- traveled around (Greece, Turkey, and other places in Egypt)

- friends left at the end of their semester away

- got homesick

- became very depressed

- got kicked out of an apartment because of my risky behaviour (actions taken while depressed)

- made some amazing friends, but had to leave because I had to go to back to America

My god! Looking back, since I am back in the States, this experience was even more amazing than I thought. Being surrounded by a different culture, and having to interact with so many people from so many different backgrounds was something that many people may not be able to ever have. For anyone who is thinking about traveling around for academic or other reasons, I say "go for it!" No matter how long or short the time that you have, you will change your outlook on the world that we live in and share. The sad part is that I realise that I will never have an experience like that again, but I am so glad that I took this chance. Don't come in with any expectations of how things will be, who you will encounter, and what will happen to you while in the country of destination, and how you will react to returning to your home country. For me, I thought that I would be completely ecstatic to come back to America, but I am attempting to save money for a trip to visit my friends in Egypt for my winter vacation.

 My life in America is at a crossroads because of my age (21), my sexual orientation, my choice to vacation destinations (Middle East, southern and eastern Europe), my experience, my ambitions (graduating college, working overseas, being happy wherever I may be), my family (caring parents who don't realise my desire to be more independent), and finally, my desire ( to continue a relationship cut short because of my return to the States with someone in Egypt) To fulfill all of these goals, I have to become more assertive and demanding of myself and the people that I choose to surround myself with. It's a long and slow process, but I will have to do it for my own well being, if I am to be taken seriously and not taken advantage of. Thanks for listening to the rants of a confused, young, ambitious 20-something.