Break

I am still on vacation from college, and I am coming up to the last few classes in my undergraduate career! I just registered for the foreign service exam online, and am confused whether or not I actually am on the list... or whatever they use to know that I am interested in taking the exam. The foreign service exam seems pretty intense, perhaps I should have bought the study guide that is available on the website, how convenient. 

I am going to take some summer classes, so that I can graduate and get on with the rest of my life! It's not going to be just a few classes either, I have to take 4! Well, I should meet with my advisor to check my progress and make sure everything is alright. 

The inauguration is coming up, and as much as I would love to go and see it firsthand, DC is going to be packed and frigid. All the bridges leading into and out of the city are shut down on the day of and the days preceding the event, only available for foot traffic. Metro, which can only handle 125,000 people an hour is going to be inundated with millions of people (it is estimated) I'm going to pass on the chaos, though I have young, strong legs and a good bladder! 

I can bring snacks and be in a warm place at my house or go to my church if I want to socialize. Plus, I can see Obama close up!

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

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!