Fantastic Realities

I'm Halfway There

2009-05-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

So, as of May 14, I'm officially halfway done with my college education. I can't believe it: two years from now I'll be looking for my first out-of-college job, presumably as an English teacher in grades 4-8. All I can say is wow. Two years down, two years to go.

This past semester was... er, eventful. Still, despite the shitty roommates, I felt like I had a good semester all in all. I got the opportunity to really start to understand the English language and all of its complexities. It never ceases to amaze me just how much you can learn about something you've been using your entire life. It's like learning some new technique of walking! Oh wait, I did that with marching band already. ;) Anyway, I really think I've got a better grasp of English grammar than I did at the beginning of the semester, which is, naturally, the intent of such a class. I walked away from that class able to diagram most any sentence and identify any and all of the parts of speech in a sentence. All I have to say is that native speakers do some screwy stuff with the language when we speak.

What else, what else? Oh, yes: I start work next Wednesday. I've decided to take back my job from last summer at the kennel, seeing as how the other place I used to work at is now closed. Sad day! The good news is that my boss said, when I went into work on a random day at the end of Spring Break, that he had fixed the air conditioner in the back. Maybe now the kennel work won't be quite so oppressive!! Of course, there's always cleaning up messes left by dogs, but since I had to clean that grody bathtub that my roommate refused to clean, I think some dog messes won't be quite so bad. I'm still gonna have to grin and bear it when it comes to giving out medication to the dogs, as that involves large globs of wet dog food in the palm of my hand and burying pills within. It's McGross, for sure. The good thing is that this year, I'll be starting with days on reception within my second week of being at work! Yay!! I love the thrill of the reception desk: the constant calls and the computer... oh, it's lovely. I'm a little worried that I've kinda forgotten the system, but I'm hoping that a brief review of the policies and procedures packet will serve to adequately refresh me.

This job will kinda be sucking up my summer, I'm afraid. It's kinda looking like I'll be working 4-5 days a week. At 9-10 hour days, it's looking like I may have a 40-50 hour week. At least I know that the money's going to be real good. I got bumped up to $9.25 an hour, which is INSANE for a summer job. This summer's going to be real good for racking up a generous savings account, which will be helpful for when my job is no longer quite as lucrative as this one, i.e. when I'm teaching. So, if nobody sees me quite as much this summer, this is why.

Oh well! At least I have a really good weekend ahead of me. Memorial Day weekend is looking like it's going to be splendiforous. There's supposed to be a Civil War re-enactment happening in the historical district of town on Saturday and Sunday, which I'm pretty excited about. All of the people involved are real enthusiasts, and they're supposed to know their stuff. It's so exciting to be around people who are just as nerdy about history as I am, although I will admit that my expertise doesn't lie in the actual battles and whatnot of the Civil War. Really, I'm more of a "culture of the time" type of person. What can I say? Gone with the Wind really intrigued me!

Then Sunday or Monday the family is going to go and do Renaissance festival. I'm so excited!! I've been sewing furiously for the past week, putting all the finishing touches on my dress. I'm just hoping and praying for good weather, especially for it to be not so hot. The fact that the dress is primarily home decorator weight fabric (aka HEAVY), I'm going to be wilting by mid-morning if the weather doesn't cooperate. That would be sad after all the work that's gone into this thing! Oh well: guess there's only one thing to do, and that's to wait and see. Surely things will all work out! :)

Well, that's about it, really. Hopefully I'll update again soon with some sort of crazy work story! :)

~Rachel

Two Decades

2009-04-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

So, April the seventh came and passed, and here I am, twenty years old now. Strange. I'm two decades old now. Frankly, I can't say that the view from twenty is any different than the view from nineteen, but I figure it's a good time for reflection. So I'm going to go through google and try to figure out what it was that I all lived through.

Enjoy.

-Tienanmen Square Riots
-The Fall of the Berlin Wall
-The Inauguration of 3 (different) Presidents
-Attack on the World Trade Center (which I remember vividly)
-Surviving a flood in Houston
-Hurricane Ike
-War on Terror
-O.J. Simpson murder case
-Clinton is impeached (but not removed....)
-Gulf War
-Introduction of the iPod
-Popularization of the cell phone
-DVDs replace VHS tapes
-Dolly the sheep is the first cloned animal
-Death of Princess Diana
-Release of "Titanic"
-Oklahoma City bombings
-Columbine HS shootings
-"You've got Mail" with the World Wide Web
-Space shuttle Columbia is destroyed upon re-entry
-Pope John Paul II dies, and is succeeded by Pope Benedict XVI
-Everybody survived the change to the year 2000. Whoa!
-Barbie changes into a tramp
-All the most amazing Disney movies are released (i.e. Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, etc.)
-"Friends" has its series finale
-Rachel grew up. :P

It's Spring!

2009-03-17T18:21:00.001-07:00

...well, okay, maybe not technically. But considering that we've had a collective week of days above 70 in the past 3 weeks, I'm gonna say that we're a heck of a lot closer than we were before. :) Besides, a lot of cool stuff comes in spring. Like a lot of my friends birthdays. And Easter. And my birthday. And Easter.

Oh yeah.... then there's this little thing called Spring Break.

I'm just going to come right out and say it- I love that I get a week in the spring to kind of relax and chill. The later part of last week was beyond stressful for me, because this semester all of my professors, it seems, decided to give midterms. Let it be known that I, Rachel, HATE midterms. One of my midterms (the english one) counted for 25% of my total grade. Talk about pressure, eh? It sort of helped that my music for children professor abruptly moved our "midterm" (and I do use the term loosely) up to Tuesday rather than on Thursday, meaning that I got all of Thursday morning to devote to studying for the massive Music Lit test that I had at 12:30. My brain was hurting by Wednesday night. I read over a 100 pages in my text over the course of two evenings, and that's not even counting the number of times I had to go over the pages of handwritten notes that I had taken. My head was so full of Bach and Beethoven, Handel and Haydn that I thought I would explode by the time I walked into my test. Of course, it didn't help that there seemed to be a thousand and one distractions for me that morning that I had to fight through in order to get my last minute cramming done.

Of course, after that test was done, I felt compelled to immediately bring out my English textbook. I'm not going to lie: as nerdy as it is, I really have come to enjoy English grammar. There's so many nuances and little things to know about it, it's like breaking some complex code. When you get it, it's like you're joining an elite bunch of people who know the rules of grammar and how to dispel any ambiguity (a key word, don't ya know?). Of course, that's not to say that I didn't almost rip out all my hair when I couldn't seem to remember how the heck I was supposed to diagram an adjective or which type of clause was an adverbial and which was an adjectival. (Just so you know, relative means adjectival, subordinate is adverbial.) Then the diagrams of said things were insane. Grr... suffice to say I went a wee bit bananas with that.

There's a happy ending, though: a 99 on my English midterm! YAY!! I was so excited when I saw that, I nearly started dancing for joy. I still don't know how I did on the Music Lit test, since the listening portion was more than a little sketchy for me, but that will come in time.

Beyond that, my band director is once again being difficult in regards to family obligations. My brother's Confirmation (one of the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic church) is on the same weekend as our last (albeit very INFORMAL) concert in May. It really pisses me off that these little conflicts never cease to crop up. Anyway, in explaining this to my band director, he still was floundering and saying that while he wouldn't just say 'no', he also wasn't going to say yes. I understand that it's a big deal to miss a concert, but this is a pretty legit excuse: it's my brother's Confirmation, for the love! Yet for my school, a religious commitment doesn't really seem to carry much weight. Now I'm (once again) going to have to enter into negotiations so that I can at least enjoy my grandparents' company for a couple of days before I have to whisk myself off to school for Dead Week and finals. It kinda stinks that I'm going to have to stay up there clear until Thursday to finish up with my last finals, but I'll get over it, I know. If nothing else, it's more time to pack. Seeing all the stuff I have in my apartment, it's going to take from when I get back from Easter to when I go home for summer to get all that stuff somehow packed away into a semblance of order.

Anyway, I think this post is long enough for now. Until later!
~r

2009-02-22T14:50:00.001-08:00

The little survey Fluff sent me...

2009-02-11T16:34:00.000-08:00

So you're supposed to put a little 'X' beside the ones you've done. Here we go!

( ) Been to Europe

( ) Been on a cruise

( ) Gone on a blind date

(X) Skipped school - Only so I could eat an Easter dinner with my family...

( ) Watched someone die

( ) Been to Canada

( ) Been to Mexico

( ) Been to Florida

(X) Been on a Plane - starting when I was 8 weeks old!

(X) Been lost - profoundly

(X) Been on the opposite side of the country - opposite both ways: to both Minnesota and California. Ha.

( ) Gone to Washington , DC- I wish

( ) Been to Vegas

( ) Climbed a lighthouse - Maybe? I don't know...

(X) Swam in the ocean - I'm pretty sure I did in North Carolina.

(X) Cried yourself to sleep

( ) Seen the Cherry Blossoms in Washington , D.C.

(X) Played cops and robbers -I think?

( ) Owned a boat -My grandparents did. Does that count?

( ) Watched grandchildren grow - I'd have to have kids first, wouldn't I?

( ) Recently colored with crayons--. -The fact that this isn't 'x'd is sad.

( ) Been to the Kentucky Derby

( ) Been to Key West

(X) Been to a rodeo--

(X) Sang Karaoke – .

(X) Paid for a meal with coins only? -Does Sonic happy hour count?

(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? -Again, who hasn't?

(X) Made prank phone calls - Unsuccessfully, but yes.

(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose -Diet Coke or carbonated beverages hurt coming out of your nose.

(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue

(X) Danced in the rain -I've also marched in the rain.

(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus

( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe

(X) Watched the sunrise with someone -Try 400 other someones. Oh marching band.

( ) Seen the green flash at sunset (This seriously exists? It's not just on POTC?)

(X) Blown bubbles - Oh blowing bubbles on the bus. Good times.

(X) Gone ice-skating - I failed miserably.

(X) Gone to the movies -Er, yeah.

( ) Owned a convertible

1. Any nickname? Ray Ray and Rewind

2. Mother's name? Elizabeth. We're facebook friends. ;)

3. Favorite Beverage? Diet Coke, sometimes Vanilla Coke Zero

4. Body Piercing? Just the hole in each ear.

5. How much do you love your job? How much? We'll go with 60-80% depending on the day, who I'm working with, and if I have homework.

<6>

7. Hawaii? What about it?

8. Ever been to Africa? Nope

9. Ever eaten just cookies for dinner? Potentially, although I can't really recall if I have or not.

10. Ever been on TV? If you count being in the Rose Parade

11.. Ever steal any traffic sign? Nope- I lack the nefarious mind to think to do that sort of stuff.

12. Ever been in a car accident? Not a real one: just a couple parking lot altercations

13. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? Mildred's got 4 doors.

15. Favorite number? Haven't got one

16. Favorite movie? I can't really say- I don't know if I really have one.

<17>

18. Favorite dessert? Er... well, something sweet is always nice. I like ice cream a lot, especially when it has M&Ms mixed in and it's put in a waffle cone. Mmm.

19. Favorite food? Mexican and Italian. Not together- it's just a tie. ;)

20. Favorite day of the week? Er, Friday?

23. Favorite smell? Vanilla

24. How do you relax? A lot of different ways. Watch tv. Hang with friends. Read. Write. Play Sims 2. It's all good.

25. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Teaching. I'd love to be married by then, but some guy will have to get off his posterior and ask me out before that could happen.

26. Furthest place you will send this message? I'm not *sending* it anywhere, but given that it's going out to the web at large... I don't know. Someone let me know how far this travels, k?

27. Who will respond to this the fastest? Nobody will respond since I'm not emailing it.

28. What was the job you liked best? Working at the front desk at the vet clinic.

29. What is the weirdest animal you have ridden? Ooh! I think a camel at the zoo. Or maybe an elephant. They're pretty traditional riding animals, but I think they're about as 'strange' as I've gotten.

Since I'm bored...

2009-01-25T08:30:00.000-08:00

I'll update my blog! We'll just make this a productive time after all! :)

Anyway, not much of note happened this week, except for starting classes. I went and bought my books on Tuesday, and subsequently parted with $390- a lot more than last semester. It seems that all my classes this semester required at least one book, and that even getting them used didn't seem to help: the bookstores still slapped me in the face with prices. Guh.

I'm only taking 16 hours this semester, and I can already tell that I'll be bored a great deal of the time. MWF only has 2 classes: Structures of English at 9, and band at noon. Tuesday/Thursday, on the other hand, is craziness on a stick: I go almost non-stop from 8am til 2pm. Can you say eew? I do have a half hour that I can eat lunch (although not in the cafeteria), so I packed myself a peanut butter sandwich and some tortilla chips to eat, but stupidly forgot a drink, so I ended up getting a strawberry banana smoothie in the student center. The smoothie, I must say, was the best part, although for almost $4.50, I was a little disappointed with how very icy it was. Memo to smoothie people: less ice, more fruit/yogurt combo. The lady who made my smoothie (who I think transferred down there from Starbucks) had to spoon it out of the blender, so I guess I knew I was in for a pretty thick beverage. Oh, and there were a bunch of munchkins, probably about 5th grade, who were visiting campus for some event or another (I can't keep track of how many times I see children wandering about the student center in nice clothing and nametags...), and so this little boy who was waiting for some ice cream at the same place I was getting my smoothie at decided to strike up a conversation with me about just how nasty the sushi he tried (presumably at the neighboring place) was. I just kinda smiled and nodded, and tried to be a good person by acknowledging him and even engaging a bit in a conversation. I was a little surprised that he would talk to me, but whatever floats his boat, I guess!

Friday was uneventful for the most part. I only had the 2 classes again, and in English I was one of only a handful who were able to successfully diagram a sentence on a diagnostic quiz that we took. My 8th grade grammar teachers would be proud that I managed to dig all that nonsense up. Frankly, I didn't see what the huge deal was: I mostly figured the little sentence diagram (which was fill in the blank) out by looking at the different marks. Lines to separate nouns from verbs from direct objects, little tails to put adjectives and adverbs on. Yet there were people who had no idea what was going on. Oh well- guess that's why you take the class, eh? My friends and I went to go see HSM3 that night at the student theater that night, and I realized how much I missed the dollar movies. I frankly don't know what I'll do after college, since I always put off seeing movies until they come here so I don't have to spend the $7.50 for a movie in the regular theater.

Other than that, I was up half the night on Friday for various reasons, but I'm trying to move beyond that so I won't go in to detail. Saturday morning I woke up, called my mom, and then one of my friends called asking if I wouldn't come help them move. Facility transfers were moved up to Friday, and so both of my friends transferred into the same complex as me. We spent most all of yesterday just loading up cars (since their old rooms had to be completely empty before they could check out- eew), then subsequently unloading the cars into their new rooms. It took awhile, but overall I think we made good time: we got 2 people moved out and in in about 4-5 hours, which is not bad at all, considering it took the better part of days to move another one of my friends out last semester. In gratitude for our help, Liliana took Meghan and I to Zest-e-Burger. Zest-e is this little hole in the wall burger stand kinda on the outskirts of town, and our band director will never shut up about it. So, since neither Meghan or I had ever gone, we decided to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out that Campo knew what he was talking about, since they were actually really good burgers. Everything was wrapped in wax paper, which was such a refreshing change from the normal paper that you get at most fast food places. The burgers were pretty juicy, too, and their meals were like $3.50 for a burger, fries, and drink. Can't beat that!

I worked last night for the finals of the Schmitbaur (sp?) Competition. It was, according to one of my co-workers who sat in on it, really good: the performers were the finalists of the junior division and from what I heard from the lobby, could really perform their pieces. It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid people can be when it comes to recital etiquette: I must've had 3 people ask me, after they arrived late, if we would seat between movements. Even if it wasn't common sense, there was this huge (and I mean prominent) sign that detailed the etiquette expected of all concert-goers, which clearly stated that you could only enter/exit when a performer was done. *shakes head* Then came the catering thing. Apparently the Friends of Music (or somebody) hired catering to come and do a little reception afterwards. The music secretary, Missy, had been selling tickets and left after the first performer was done playing their two pieces. I totally could understand her logic: no point in her sticking around when there wasn't a whole lot of call for tickets 20 minutes into the concert. Anyway, she tells me on her way out that if catering asks, tell them to set up in the main lobby of the concert hall, not in the lobby in the main music building. Alrighty- sounds simple. So when catering showed up, trundling in with their carts, they looked at me and my co-worker and asked where to set up, which I was able to answer. They then looked around and then wanted to know where the tables were. Tables? What tables?! I honestly told them I had no idea, I was simply told that they were to set up in that lobby area. The girl kinda rolled her eyes at it all (you could tell she was not pleased to be doing this on a Saturday night) and dragged her fellow workers to find them. About 10 minutes in, this other older guy comes and kinda guides them in the task at hand. Meanwhile, they're making a tremendous ruckus and my co-worker and I are exchanging these looks like "Er, hello-there's kinda a concert going on inside, and these walls are far from soundproof. Maybe it's not that cool to be talking loudly and setting up/knocking down tables in here." Then, this frazzled older lady comes out, mumbles something about flowers as she walks past me and out to the lobby, and there's another exchange of looks. The lady returns with this, no joke, HUGE flower arrangement and looks helplessly at the yet-to-be set up tables and decides to put the arrangement on the bench, instructing me that the flowers should go in the center of the table. Er, alright: so now I'm an events director? *raised eyebrow* So, after overseeing that the table is put together (which mostly meant that I stood around and watched as the catering people did their thing), the catering folks cleared off, and I was left eyeing the sheet cake that they had put out. It looked so yummy, and I could've used the sugar, given that I only had what amounted to a couple handfuls of popcorn for dinner. But just as I was eyeing the other little sweets they had put out, out comes one of the other recital crew people asking if I had seen "Kevin". I don't know who Kevin is, why he'd be important, and certainly don't know why this girl would need to find him so desperately. I reply in the negative, and this poor girl goes running off to find Kevin, who is apparently one of the performers and actually won the competition. Smooth. Add person finder to the long list of things that we do that aren't in our job description. Anyway, she ended up finding him and the concert ended at about 9, which was nice. I hopped into my car and came home, stopping by a friend's room for a little while before crashing in my quiet bed.

I think that about wraps the week. I have work today at 2:30 (which means I need to be there at 1:45), and after that I'm free to peruse my English book and hang out with my friends.

Until next week,
~r

I'm on a roll!

2009-01-19T04:54:00.001-08:00

This looked interesting, so I'll fill it out and let you read it!

Name: Rachel!
Eye Color: Not sure: my driver's license says hazel if that helps, but a lot of times they look more blue/green nowadays.
Shoe size: Either a ten or eleven, depending on the brand- for example, the Nine West pumps I bought yesterday were 10.
Height: I'd say 5'8" on a good day. Don't ask me what it could be on a bad day.
What brands are you wearing right now? Brands? Like clothing? I'm wearing my Allen Animal Shelter shirt and some Access 9 capri pj bottoms from kohls. I also have a Dell laptop sitting on my lap, if that counts.
Favorite Number: See last post- I don't have one!
Favorite drink: Diet Coke or Diet Citrus Green Tea
Favorite Month: November (but not for Thanksgiving- just because it's a cool month)
Favorite Breakfast: Toast, with butter. And a Diet Coke. Or, occasionally, Starbucks. Mmm.
***********Have You Ever*****************
Love/Liked someone so much it made you cry? Negative.
Been in a police car: Not in my memory.
Came close to dying: Yes! That car swinging out of the Chick-fil-a parking lot onto North Street into my lane... *shudder* But I came close to dying with a carload of friends, so it's all good.
Been in a hot tub: I think I have, actually.
Fallen asleep in school: Yes: back in the day, we called it nap time.
Broken someone's heart: If I have, it's news to me.
Cried when someone died: Are you kidding? I cry when a fictional character dies...
Fell off your chair: *twitches* Yes... although "fell" really should be changed to "fallen"
Saved e-mails: Gmail saves all of me emails. HA!
Ever been cheated on?: For that to happen, I would need a significant other...
***********What is-****************
Your room like: Which one? The one at home? Or the one at school? How about we describe both! Home- bright green, a bit messy, with blue and white curtains. Quite empty given my absence at school, but currently full of things I need to put in the car. School- clean, cold, tastefully decorated, and homey.
Last thing you ate? Dinner last night was amazing hamburgers my dad grilled, on onion rolls and with sharp cheddar cheese. Waffle fries with it.
--------------------------Ever Had- -------------------------------
Chicken pox: Yup, second grade. All I can remember is being itchy and oatmeal baths.
Sore throat: Uhm, yeah, I think everybody has: mine always came from yelling too much at the football games.
Stitches: Nope.
-------------------------Do You------------------------------------
Believe in love at first sight? *shrug* It sounds nice...
Like picnics? Not particularly- something about eating outside on the ground seems a little... *shudder*
Like school? I can't give you an objective answer on that... I have conflicts of interest.
-----------------------Questions-----------------------------------
Who was the last person you danced with? Uhm- probably my friends at college.
Who makes you smile? My family and my friends.
------------------Who---------------------------------
Did you last yell at? LOL- my brother
Do you wear contact lenses or glasses? Both, though I've been wearing my glasses a lot more than I used to.
Do you like yourself? Eh, most days I do.
---------------------Final Questions---------------------------
Favorite song? It changes too much.
What did you do today? Er... got up. Oh, and I checked my email and forums. It's 7:50- what do you expect?!
----------------------RANDOM--------------------------------
Hate someone in your family? I supremely dislike, sometimes, but probably not hate.By the by, this quiz lies- the last section said final questions.
Good singer? Am I a good singer? Ha! Suffice to say there was a reason I opted for band over choir.
Diamond or pearl? Diamond's my birthstone, pearls are less ostentatious.
Are you oldest? Of my siblings? Yes. Of other things, no.
Indoors or outdoors? In, most days.
----------------------------Today did you------------------------------
Talk to someone you like? I talked to my mommy.
Get sick? I hope not... that's the last thing I want. I'm attributing a icky stomach to the fact that I don't like leaving to go back to school, even though I always like it when I get there.
Sing? Not yet- although given that I'll be driving for 3 and a half hours, I imagine that I'll sing at least once.
Talked to an ex: Don't have any except for ex-roommates, two of which I'm not really on speaking terms with.
Miss someone: I imagine I'll miss my family when I get to Nac.
Tell someone you loved them? Yup- my daddy before he left for work.
----------------------------Last person who---------------------------
You talked to on the phone? Uh... good question. Not a lot of phone communication going on.
Drove in the car with you? My mom.
Went to the movies with you? My family. We saw Yes Man.
----------------------------HAVE YOU-------------------------------------------
Been to Mexico: N'ole.
Been to Canada: Negative, eh?
Been to Africa: Er, no. Although I know someone who has and I've seen the pictures.
----------------Random-----------------------
Do you have a crush on someone: Fictional characters if anyone.
What books are you reading right now? Well, I just finished my mom's class book "A Paradise Called Texas", and I've been re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia.
Best feeling in the world: I imagine it depends on the person.
Future kids names? No idea: kids won't be coming for a long while.
Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Of course!
What's under your bed? Bed at home? Lots of crap, dust, and perhaps a cat sleeping.
Who do you really hate? Hate? I don't think I hate anybody.
Do you have a job: Yup! I babysit music students and reinforce how they're supposed to act in a concert. It's technically called recital crew, but I think it's a bit of teacher training, too.
Ever liked someone you didn't have a chance with? Fictional characters are so hard to pin down... ;)
Are you lonely right now: Not really- I've got animals and an obnoxious little bro to keep me company.

Yes, another list

2009-01-18T19:33:00.000-08:00

So, since I seem to be incapable of writing paragraph statements of what occurs in my life, I shall resort to this old standby of a list sort of setting. Today's list is entitled "Things I've noticed about myself." Enjoy.

1. Spelling comes as a hit or a miss for me. Seeing as how I'm looking to teach language arts, this is somewhat worrying to me.
2. I worry incessantly about things that really shouldn't matter. Memo to me: stop doing that.
3. As much as I love the friends I've made in college, I'm still giddy about the fact that I'm almost to the halfway point in my college sentence. Yay!
4. I seem to be the golden child of the family.
5. No matter how hard I try, I will most times cry when a fictional character dies: even if it's been building up for most of the book.
6. I'm a critical person, most of all on myself.
7. Decision making does not come easily to me, especially when it comes to spending money.
8. If I had been born in any past century, I would've been quite the norm of a woman with the skill set I seem to be acquiring. As it stands, I'm just looked at as the crazy girl who probably will end up with a million cats and unmarried when I'm 50.
9. My eyes are more blue/green now than they were five years ago.
10. Although I'm 19, I've gotten into the habit of introducing myself as 'almost 20', as though to emphasize the fact that I'm getting increasingly old.
11. I write lots of lists, particularly of things that I need to remember to pack. Said lists could easily take up a notebook on their own, had they not been so scattered.
12. I write a lot at night for some reason. Strange, eh?
13. My right foot is slightly larger than my left.
14. I don't have any particular favorite number.
15. It amuses me that I'll be done with both high school and college before my little brother even graduates high school.
16. I play by the book: this is especially true in recipes. That tablespoon had better be a *level* tablespoon, bucko!

Anyway, that's it for now. Since this is not the official start to the semester (which, by the way, starts for me on Wednesday), I don't find my promise fulfilled, so I shall have to post again once I get back to Nac and manage to haul all my stuff it.

Ciao for now!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-06T19:00:00.000-08:00

Given that it's a new year, I figure it's about time that I updated this blog. I could throw a thousand excuses out there for why I don't update it more often, but in the end it comes down to the fact that by the time I think about writing, I'm much more inclined to do some creative writing than write about the mundane things that are happening to me in day to day life.

So here we are: semester in review. Here's what I managed to get accomplished:
-took 17 hours of credit
-kept my spot on the President's List (4.0)
-joined Kappa Delta Pi, an education honor society
-got accepted into teacher education
-started music classes for my minor
-finally figured out how to sing in a minor key
-had a not so great roommate and let the police into my room where they found drug paraphernalia
-got into a better living situation
-had my doubts but learned to overcome them
-survived a hurricane
-had my last ever performance on a marching field.

Overall, not a bad semester, all told. The holiday season went pretty well, too. Thanksgiving was rather frustrating, mostly for the conflicts in scheduling that kept popping up. I only got home a couple times this semester, which was kinda weird, but given how it flew by, I didn't seem to mind it as much as I thought I would. Maybe I'm finally growing up- strange thought.

The one thing I didn't accomplish was coming to terms with the fact that I'm turning twenty this year. I know it doesn't seem huge, but to me, putting that '2' in the tens place kinda is freaky. I mean, I have plenty of friends who've survived twenty, but I just can't believe that I'll be twenty years old come April! I guess it makes sense: I'm living away from home for the majority of the year, have what amounts to an on-campus apartment, have a job at school and worked two jobs this past summer... in that sense, I'm an adult. Legally I've been one for two years now. But it's still kinda crazy to think about, especially when it doesn't seem so long ago that I was in high school.

Oh well: in the end, it's just one of those things that ends up happening. The good news is that every year that passes means I'm just that much closer to becoming a teacher. I'm still clinging to the idea that I can be a really good teacher one day: I'm making 'A's in all the classes, and I seem to take the ones related to my subject more seriously than most people do. I know that being smart is only one part of the job, but I can't help but hope that genuinely knowing what I'm talking about will make a difference. I have all these ideas and dreams about these lessons I could be doing with my class, and I can't wait to implement them in a classroom of my own, but I'm always having to remind myself it won't be all rainbows and unicorns: more like anemic stormclouds and dirty white horses. *shrug* I suppose it will come soon enough, but I'm still excited that by the end of this semester, I'll be officially halfway through college. Yay!

What else... Oh, I didn't bother to call the kennel where I worked this summer to see if I could pick up some hours this week and next, so I'm spending the rest of my long winter break just lounging around the house. Yesterday I didn't even bother to do anything: I spent all day in sweats, watching a new series I found on Hulu called Legend of the Seeker. It's fantasy (and so yes, rather nerdy), but I enjoyed it. It'll no doubt be added to the already lengthy list of television shows I insist upon keeping up with, although without Pushing Daisies on Wednesdays, those are beginning to look just about as dismal as Mondays.

Today I sewed more of my Renaissance dress. I shocked even myself with how well it seems to have come out. It actually looks like a real dress now, rather than yards of folded material. I have to admit, I'm rather proud of the domestic diva that I've become. Not only can I decorate a sugar cookie like Martha Stewart, I can bake any variety of items, cook reasonably well, dress myself in a way that gets compliments, clean an apartment top to bottom (with some much-needed breaks for television, of course), and now sew actual items! I know- it's only a pity that I was born in this century. Any other and I would be looked upon as a very eligible young lady. Nowadays, not so much.

Anyway, on that happy note, I'll wrap this entry up. I'd say that I'll be trying to make an effort to post on a more consistent basis, but until the semester begins in force, I can't make any promises. My goal will be at least one post during the semester: sound good? I thought so too. ;)

Happy 2009!
~r

End of Ze World

2008-10-15T10:56:00.001-07:00

So... I've really got to stop watching so much history channel. For real- all I keep happening on is all this stuff about how the world is going to end within our lifetime. The Mayans put a date on it- 2012, and there's been other prophets who have said the same. So, I'll just say it: the fact that the world may end in my lifetime is scaring the crap out of me. No joke. I know the Bible says that the rapture will occur and that Jesus will return to take all the faithful to heaven, but that just opens up another can of worms. Would I be good enough to go to heaven? Have I done enough good in my life? Would the fact that I rarely go to church on Sundays be an issue, or as long as I'm praying to God on a regular basis, would it be alright? It's just something totally creepy to think about. I don't want to see our race be destroyed, and it's sad in a way to think that people have made predictions that I won't be living to see the age of 30.

I know that God says to put faith in Him, and to trust Him in all things, yet I find it hard to let go of the fear that something will happen and place it in His hands. It's kinda neurotic, I know, but this whole idea is freaking me out. If this post has made you freak too, I apologize, but I had to get it out.

~r

October Already??

2008-10-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

So, I sat down the other day, took a gander at the calendar, and realized that this week, it turned to October. I was astounded- where did September go? Or August, for that matter? The days really seemed to go by fast September, which was both a blessing and a curse all at once: less time til the end of another semester, and it's closer to Christmas, but you also have all these little deadlines coming to bite you in the posterier. Granted, there's considerably fewer deadlines for me this semester, but there is the pressure of it all the same. Just having the deadlines hanging over your head of projects and quizes and tests too numerous to count... ugh. It's a mess.

So, I think I'm officially through the first round of tests- I've had a test in every class (except reading, which I've had a quiz in), and managed to figure out what those are like. Overall, I was pretty impressed with myself. I got a 97 on the Sight Singing test: I basically blurted out to the teacher that I don't know how I do that, since I certainly don't think I'm any great shakes at sight singing, to which she laughed and said I must be since she didn't see anything wrong with it, nor did the AP Theory graders. *shrug* I was disapointed about my chem/phys test- I got like a 83 on it, which is entirely UNacceptable. What threw me off is the inconsistancies in the professor's teaching: in class, they'll tell us to round until the cows come home, but on their freaking tests, they want all the digits there. So, yeah, I got screwed on that one: hopefully I'll be able to turn that grade around to the A it should be. :P

What else. I suppose the collasal news around Nac is winning this week's football game. I know: a Lumberjack victory? Is that even possible? Apparently so, folks. 48-45; like the week before, most all of the good plays were in the 4th quarter. No wonder I was nearly falling asleep out of exhaustion and hunger after halftime! I do have to admit, I'm still not quite used to the fact that we're able to get up and get food/beverage from the concession stand at will. Coming from high school where even certain candies were forbidden in the stands, much less a plate full of nachos, it still is a bit shocking to me to watch a color guard member come down the steps with a big old boat of chili cheese nachos, or watch a trumpet player eat sausage on a stick between playing shorties. Funny stuff. I get the impression the football team was beyond pleased. Coming off of last week's game, where we lost to South Dakota by a mere 2 points in the last 2.6 seconds (no joke) of the game, I don't blame them. Had I been a bit more invested in the football team's success, no doubt I would've been a great deal more excited. As it is, though, I secretly harbour the hope that they won't do well enough to warrent playoff games. Seeing as how our university thinks it's perfectly acceptable to be sending the band galivaning off to away games as a kind of pick-me-up for the football team, I have this feeling that were we to get into the playoffs, that would be the time when they *certainly* wouldn't let us off the hook in terms of traveling. On the surface, I wouldn't have a problem with traveling- I mean, heck, it's free food, free fun, free lodgings- good times, right? But it's also a Saturday on the road, on a bumpy charter bus that's near impossible to get anything accomplished homework-wise on, lunch at shady fast food joints on the road, all of which are over-run by your fellow band members, and then exhausting games and an equally un-productive bus ride home. You have no weekend whatsoever, and basically it's a big hassel. I don't like it well at all. When I was talking to my mom earlier this week, she mentioned coming up to visit me some weekend, to which I was all for: to date, my mom still hasn't even seen my dorm room, which kinda makes me sad. It just kinda seems like the thing a mom should see- her daughter's first pseudo-apartment and all that jazz. I would like nothing better than to spend a frenzied day of cleaning so I could proudly show my parents about and prove I'm capable of living independently. But anyway- Mom was asking if I had any weekend when I wouldn't be busy, to which I just laughed and said I had a game every weekend. My mom just kinda did a little 'psh' and so I began explaining what having a game means. Game days mean Saturday morning practice for 2 hours, a hurried brunch in the crapateria, followed by an awkward span of time where you make the decision to either shower or just go stinky to the game (because you're kinda nasty from practice), and then don the uniform and go over to the colleseum by 4:30 for a 6:00 kick off. Yes- it makes so much sense, doesn't it? Of course, my mom was complaining that if the family comes over here, they wouldn't really want to be spending time watching me rehearse, but rather spend time with me. I agree: it makes no sense for them to stay and watch me do what I'd do any weekend, right? But at the same time, I had no other option for her. That's the crap that they were subjecting me to when they convinced me that marching band for another year wouldn't be "that bad". Now, I guess, we all get to reap the wonderful consequences of that decision. Not cool indeed.

Anyway... moving on from that little whine-fest. This weekend was so nice and relaxing. Started off really nice on Friday by going off to Lufkin- yay! That's the first time I've been to Lufkin this semester, which is almost sad in a way. I've been here almost 6 weeks and hadn't left Nac but to go home. Wow. Anyway, we went to the usual places: Target (yay), the Lufkin Mall, Old Navy, Rue 21, Best Buy. Rounding out the day we went to Olive Garden. Mmm- I got their "Never-Ending Pasta Bowl", which was amazing. Being the devious little person I am, though, I polished off the first bowl (how, I don't know, since it was a really big bowl. Guess I was just hungry.) and then ask for another, which I manage one bite of and promptly stuff in a to-go container. Ha. Take *that* corporate America. Only problem with my plan is that they twarted me by bringing out a considerably smaller portion the second time. I guess it makes sense- you probably wouldn't want to eat as much the second round, but still, it kinda miffed me. I should've, in my mind, been able to have as much as I wanted for my $8.99, but oh well. It made for some yummy dinner on Sunday night. :) Back to my linear progression of time: Saturday I relaxed in my room for a good chunk of the day. My roommate went home, so I had the place to myself, enabling me to go out to the living room with my big wonderful comforter and hunker down with my laptop and the tv. It was great- I didn't move much until about noon, when I met up with Meghan to go to the East College caf, all the way across campus. So not cool. So, we drive over, barely catch the end of "brunch", and I ended up having the worst hamburger I've ever had. It was kinda crispy and burnt on the edges, the tomatoes were terrible, and the cheese was a mess. Not good times at all. At least the french fries were for the most part palatble, otherwise I wouldn't have been very happy at all. As it was, the cookies were off, too, so not even a good desert made it better! So, I went back, watched Once Upon a Matteress with Shannon and Meghan, then moseyed up to my room to get ready. I left about 10 minutes before my carpool was supposed to leave, got three quarters of the way there, and realized I had forgotten my hat and gloves. Lovely. So I had to turn a to the rear and kinda jog back to my dorm, up the stairs, and grab the hat in frustration, along with the gloves, and run back down, hoping I wouldn't make my friends late. Turns out it was not a problem, since other people waylayed us much more than I did, but whatever. We had the game (see above), and afterwards Meghan and I went off to Bueno for some post-game food. It was amazing- I love Bueno. Most every week there's a $4.52 charge on my bank account from them (MexiDips and Chips with a Medium Diet Coke), and that's the only way I'd have it. After that, it was like 11 or something, so after a few minutes of the history channel, I just gave up and crawled into bed.

Sunday was a royal lazy-fest. The laptop was already situated in the living room, so I only added my big fluffy comforter and a pillow to it. TV, goldfish, and diet pepsi rounded out the equation. Yeah- I plugged in the sims, turned on the history channel, and promptly went about wasting my day. I didn't end up leaving the room until 6:30 that night, when I went to go wee Wall-E at the student theater with my friends. Wall-e, by the way, was amazing: you really got attached to the little robot, and I thought it was really cute, though somewhat disturbing that humans could ever turn in to that mess of blobs that we were. The end credits, though, were wonderful- I don't know what kind of animation it is, but they did some method that looks like it's a painting moving, and I really liked it a lot. Showing how people survived- ahh! Anyway. It was cute, and if you haven't seen it, you should. The end. After Wall-E it was time for some Amazing Race, then bed. Yes, sleep! As it was, the alarm went off entirely too early this morning. Gah.

Anyway, that's all for now. Aural Skills is in 20 minutes, and I have to get goin for that. :) Until later,
~r

10 Minutes (to save the world)

2008-09-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

Well, not really to save the world... but writing 10 minutes made me think of Madonna's '4 Minutes (To Save the World)". So, now you know what's obnoxiously running through my head now!

Anyway, there's 10 minutes before I have to run off to my 8:00 class this morning (Aural Skills 1- gotta love it), and I figured that I ought to post. There's not really time to go into big detail about my past week, but in a nutshell, here's what happened:

-Monday was a free day. We went to see the big houses (the Mansions of Nac) and saw the tremendous wind damage. Ahh!
-Tuesday = classes. The good part was, my test in math got postponed to this week. Good times.
-Wednesday brought, surprise, more classes! I don't think anything of particular note happened on hump day last week... sad day. Oh, wait! I went to a trim and tone workout class on Wednesday night, which was actually kinda fun. The instructor was evil, and my knees were shaking afterwards, but it was good. I felt accomplished. Oh, and I saw a kitty and petted it after the class on my way back to the dorms. :)
-Thursday was classes again, and then a lot of prep for going home this weekend. Most every person in band that I knew was hitting the road last weekend to go home, considering that last weekend was the last time that we had a free weekend (without a game) until Thanksgiving. Yes, you heard me, Thanksgiving. It sucks.
-Friday was an interesting day. I first drove over to the music building, only to find that there is no student parking in the little loop that goes by the music building, so I parked by my old dorms. I go to class, practically run at breakneck speed over to my car so I can hit the road, only to sit in the car and discover the keys won't turn. Special. I call my dad, who says he thinks the steering wheel locked, so I spend the next 5 minutes throwing all my body weight into the thing to make it move. After being on the phone with AAA for a few minutes, the car miraculously works. Oh Mildred... what shall I do with you? Drove home, got home early, and saw my mom in action at school, teaching in her new classroom (which still has a lot of the old teacher in it... I'll have to work to change that). Dentist appointment followed (yay for no more stains on my teeth!), then the football game- Allen v. Euless Trinity. We lost (sad day), but at least we managed to score a little, and this was the #1 nationally ranked team, so I don't feel quite so bad.
- Saturday was at home, and I did home stuff. (1 minute left!!)
-Sunday I drove home, got lost in Kilgore, got my bearings again, and ate leftover spaghetti from my fridge.

HA! I did it. Okay, so the weekend's details are a bit sketchy, but you get the picture. If you *really* want to know what happened, just ask.

It's now 7:40, and I shall post and trot off to class. Maybe later I'll post some more!
~r

Trees were a' blowin

2008-09-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

So... congratulate me, guys! I've officially survived Hurricane Ike. The storm blew through Saturday, with wind gusts around 60 mph according to the weather channel. Amazingly enough, I didn't loose power in my dorm the entire time, praise be. There was just a ton of wind. Rain really wasn't the issue at all!

Anyway, let's go back to Thursday. Thursday we're starting to get all sorts of warnings about Ike. Of course, those of us who were even halfway cognisant of our surroundings knew that there was a hurricane in the Gulf and it was headed towards the Texas coast. Now, given Gustav's projected path, we kinda suspect that Ike can hit us. Ding ding ding! We have a winner! The projected path of Ike began calling for it to kinda graze by East Texas and then continue up into the midwest. As the day progresses, though, the little hook that Ike was making gets steeper and steeper, until Nacogdo is totally in the red zone. Red isn't a good color in weather- green means rain, yellow means heavy rain, red means you'd best be building an ark because that's the only way you're getting out of it. Now, devil's advocate that I occasionally am, I was downright giddy as we watched Ike's path creep towards us on Thursday evening.

They cancelled classes beginning at noon on Friday due to Ike's lumbering (haha- lumbering) path towards Nacogdoches, and even the weather channel, between being gusted away in Galveston were able to mention Lufkin (the next city over, also the location of the nearest Target to Nac) as 'in danger'. Kinda creepy. So, yeah, I went to class on Friday morning, 8am, and only about half the class showed. I was just like 'really people? Seriously? Classes don't stop til noon, tards." After what can only be called an abbreviated class (remember- only half the class showed up, though whether it was because of the storm or the quiz on tri-tones/major sevenths/minor sevenths could be debated), I headed over to the cafeteria to grab some food. Normally breakfast, while arguably the best meal the caf serves, has a pretty low attendance due to the times which it is offered- nobody can really stand to get out of bed early to go eat, so they just skip and go to class. If I didn't have a really awkward break between classes, I wouldn't eat breakfast half so much as I do. Anyway- back to my story. We get to the cafeteria only to find it as busy as it is at lunchtime! What the heck?! The omlette line was jam packed with these confused looking Indian (no, not native american, people from India) guys who were speaking in their native tongue, and there's just a whole slew of people nobody had ever seen before. I'm going about getting various breakfast foods when I finally figure out who these people are. I had gotten emails that we (SFA) would be hosting evacuees from Lamar College (presumably in Lamar), who were evacuated because of Ike and being kept in the HPE. Ah, I think, these must be our visitors. Sure enough, one of their shirts says 'Lamar'. Interesting indeed.

After breakfast I go back to my room and watch online episodes and start trying to figure out what I need to do about my job and getting my degree plan all situated as it's supposed to be. That honors english class I took is such a freakin pain in the rear, because nobody knows anything about it! My degree plan only has it counting for 3 hours of lower level english credit, when it ought to count for 6, but of course I can find no proof of that, so I was relegated to spending over an hour on Thursday traipsing all about the Liberal Arts buildings asking for this fabled letter which would explain the course, asking the honors college people... oh, it was a mess. Anyway, Friday I dropped off my appeal to the people in the COE (College of Education), and went to go sign a new contract for my job. Thee people running concert manager this year don't seem to be totally on top of things, considering that I almost didn't have a job because of their boo-boo. Anyway- that's a story for another time. I have a job now, signed my contract, got my raise, and work a grand total of once in the month of September. Good times indeed.

Back to Friday- at lunch one of my friends invites me to a girl's night at her house that night, arguably to celebrate Ike and whatnot. Hmm- gale force winds and you want me to drive? Doesn't sound like the safest thing in the world, but thanks anyway. I'll check the weather and decide later, I say, and I can tell my friend is put out. Oh well. A few hours later, I go to see a couple movies with Shannon and Meghan- Burn After Reading and Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys. In short, Burn After Reading was plain ridiculous, and the Tyler Perry movie was very well done.

On our way back to campus, I'm kinda noticing the wind picking up. Aha- here comes Ike. I get back to find that the res hall has all the glass doors and windows taped with masking tape to prevent shattering, and I go back to my room to watch more weather channel and prep for the next day. On Saturday I woke up about 7:45, look outside, and really don't see a lot aside from the trees blowin in the wind. I set up what I fondly referred to as "Camp Ike" out in the living room, plugged my computer into the internet and set about "hunkering down", to steal a phrase from the mayor of Houston. I watched the weather channel until about 11, when I couldn't take it any more and just flipped on Disney. I watched a ton of TV on Saturday. I kept getting all these email alerts from campus police about the weather conditions outside, advising us to stay indoors. Really? I thought it'd be fun to go out and frolic in a hurricane! *eye roll* Yeah. At about 12, a CA comes to the door and tells me that they don't want anybody leaving the building. Alrighty... that's fine with me. I continue my hunkering in Camp Ike and just leave it be as I watched the trees outside. Now, during all this I had begun getting txts from my friends living off campus saying that they had no power, and could I please tell them what was happening or at least alert them if sirens started going. Sure, I reply, and I do just that. Yup. About 4, the storm seems to be letting up a little, and while it's windy, the trees don't appear to be bending as violently as they had been before. Good times! Around 3:45, they send out an email saying the cafeterias are open, but use extreme caution when you decide to leave. So, about 6-ish, I make some calls, grab my poncho and rainboots, and start marching towards dinner at the caf.

The wind damage, though, was enormous. First, there were branches literally everywhere, with so many trees it looked like fall had come waay early. Some of the branches were quite huge, really, and entire limbs were torn off of trees. Power lines were down, and outside one of the halls, a part of a tree had literally fallen on top of a car. Holy cravitz. Some of these massive trees had been totally uprooted around campus, and as we walked in the wind and rain, it was really kinda scary. The cafeteria was, again, a great deal busier than I would've guessed, and had a lot of Nacogdoches residents trying to get food since the power was out. Wow.

I get back to my room and am chilling when I get a call from my roomie from last semester, Stacy. She moved off campus, and had been one of the people who told me that they were quite without power. She asked me, rather pathetically, if she couldn't please come sleep at my place tonight, since I at least had electricity: of course, I said she was more than welcome. So, she came, along with stories of the damage and how Nac was literally shutting down. Places open 24 hours like IHOP were closing, and there were police directing traffic at McDonalds. I heard later that there was something like a 2 hour wait to get food there, but people couldn't cook without electricity. Campus and the immediate areas around it were about the only parts of town to maintain power the entire storm.

Sunday Stacy and I went in search of food. Our first stop was IHOP, which had a line coming out the door and snaking around the building, which was pretty much the case at any open food place. "Let's go to WalMart," Stacy suggests. "As nasty as it sounds, maybe we can get McDonalds from there." I turned Milly towards Wally and off we went, surveying the damage all the while. We turned into WalMart and start towards a parking spot when we see a line coming out of Wal-Mart. Yes, on a day nowhere near Christmas, there was a line to get into WalMart, and people at the door who would only let in someone when someone else came out. It was insane. I shared a look with Stacy and we decided that it may be best just to try cafeteria food, and head back to campus.

Parts of Nac, including Stacy's place, did get power back by about 2 on Sunday, which was nice, although a very selfish part of me (and I believe many people) hoped it would stay out long enough to provide reason to cancel classes for Monday. Apparently, it did- we had no classes yesterday so that the campus could at least start the clean up efforts. In my opinion, there's too much debris to be cleaned up within a week, since there's some big trees that will have to be removed now. When you walk around campus now, you just see workers gathering up branches or cutting off precariously hanging limbs from the trees. Yeah- crazy.

Classes resumed today, which on the one hand was kinda sad, but on the other hand a good sign. I was impressed by the professors today, a lot of whom didn't have power at their homes but still showed up for work. Good for them- they get kudos for that one. Personally, I would've been a little less than eager to get up and go to work when I had to shower in the dark and leave kids home without even a television to entertain them, since the local school districts have been closed mostly for the rest of the week while power companies work to restore electricity.

So yeah- that was my weekend. My thoughts are with those in the hardest hit areas in Galveston and Houston.

Oh, and another little side-note: Don't get a Dell laptop. Like, just don't do it. Now, to add to the laundry list of problems I've been having with it, keys keep popping off or breaking, or both. My 'e' key is totally broken off, and my 'g' and 'd' keep popping off. *sigh* Stupid technology.

~r

The Light Shining Into My Window

2008-08-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

Ah, another milestone has passed- I've begun my second year at university. The intensive summer band camp began last Monday (not the one two days ago, but the one a week and two days ago), and was heralded by rain. Lots of rain. It was kinda strange packing everything up again and moving out. Over the summer I had gotten so used to being back home- it was almost like I had never left. I managed to get my jobs, see my friends (although I'm sad it was only twice), and co-exist somewhat peacably with my family: pretty much like it was in high school, only not. It was kinda strange this year moving back in: it was just my dad helping me with my massive amount of stuff (and when I say massive, I do mean massive- 2 cars full!). My mom was at work all day and couldn't join us, which was kinda really sad. That probably also could be the reason that I didn't have sheets on my bed until roughly 11 that night, but in any case.

I have got to admit, this being my second year makes such a huge difference. For all that my credit hours made me a sophomore last semester, I've only begun to feel the changes of being a sophomore now. I feel older and wiser, and it makes me laugh to see the new freshmen making the same mistakes and errors in judgement that I did. That, and the fact that in every one of my classes, save one, I know somebody in it. Can you say yay? It makes it all the more compelling to go to class (as though skipping were an actual option for me). I now live in the top notch of housing, with my own bedroom with a locking door, and a full fridge and microwave- quite an improvement from my tiny mini fridge, community bathrooms, and a microwave down the long long hallway that I had last year!

So, I appologize in advance, but I MUST rant somewhere about the stupidity of some of my classes. That is to say, one in particular: teacher math. Math 128 is interim math for teachers, and supposedly should teach you how to teach math. Great, fine- whatever. I fully admit, there's been some new termanology added to the curriculum since I sat in the little student desks. It's great to learn something like lattice multiplication, which obviously helps the kids! However, what's not cool is learning the same stuff that my brother, a freshman in high school, is learning, only slower and a bit more dumbed down. Friends, I wanted to dig my brain out with a spork. Thinking about that class and sitting through an hour and a half of it makes me want to start the process even now! Near the end I was doing worksheets (which, by the way, were printed off a website geared for supplying teachers with worksheets to give to their elementary school students) that had no purpose, just so I didn't have to listen to the professor read the notes she had typed out from the book to the class. It astounds me just how little some people know, too. I know, I'm far from the norm around here: going from AP Calculus in my senior year to teacher math 2 is a bit of a jump in the wrong direction, according to most. But still... there were girls in my class utterly bewildered with the basic concepts of geometry that my teacher attempted to teach us. Terrible.

Anyway, i don't think I have much energy left to post more, so I'll say sionara for tonight. :)
~r

Where does all this time go?

2008-08-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

Today's theme, I think, is time and its passage. I've been thinking a lot about it recently, what with my second year of college coming up and my little brother starting marching band. It's rather funny how you wake up one day and BAM it hits you: you're no longer an eight year old kid whose primary concern is learning your times tables and trying to earn your allowance. Freaky how it doesn't seem like that was all that long ago.

I just remember how, when I was a little kid, things like going to college seemed always expected but so far away it was hardly worth your while thinking about it. A third grader will bubble on how they want to go to Baylor or UT, just like mom and dad, but do they really know anything about what that means? Obviously, they really didn't. It's just like how girls sit at the lunch table with their best friends daydreaming about marrying the cutest boy in their class, planning their weddings and doling out positions of bridesmaids to all her friends. I still remember all of that, but it's all crazy how it's now happening. About a week ago, my best friend from third grade got married. Married. How did all that time pass between us just talking in her bedroom to her getting married to a man she plans to spend her life with? She was the first, and two days ago the second girl who I graduated with, knew for four years in band, got married to a guy she met her first year at college. I was kinda reeling from it for awhile- these are ladies not even old enough to legally drink at their own wedding, yet they're getting married. The third girl I know of is getting married in a couple weeks. Crazy.

Yet as I was sitting there thinking about this, I kinda took a step back and realized that I'm nineteen now. Nineteen years old- eight months from now, I'll be leaving the teens behind and turning twenty. Twenty! I mean, I know it's just another birthday like any other, really, but beneath all that I'm just in a state of disbelief that I'll be twenty years old. That just seems so... so old. I'm talking about moving off campus, cooking my own meals, having my own pet, paying bills... and all I can think is "How did that happen??"

It's crazy, now that I think about it, that I haven't had closer reflections on time before. Given my utter fascination with history, you'd have thought that I would be a sight more insightful into the passage of time. I spend so much time reading about people who lived over four hundred years ago, studying their names, their personalities, their habits and how they lived. Yet (and I'll go and regurgitate what you've probably heard from every history teacher you've ever had has said) what strikes me is that things haven't changed all that much. I think that's one of the greatest things about history: even though fashions and names and lifestyles have changed, other things, like personalities and behaviors haven't. Crazy, right? I feel comfortable writing a piece of historical fiction about a woman who lived around the mid 1500s because, all in all, we're not all that different.

I'll end with this: walking around these historic homes in New Orleans on vacation, and seeing the homes of plantation owners around the Mississippi River really made me think just how much we could probably learn if we looked to the past. Technology is great, but they were pretty dang resourceful back in the day. Maybe we shouldn't so quickly ignore what's behind us and rather take from it some knowledge and a little appreciation for what our ancestors did.

-r

Workin

2008-07-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

So it feels like all I've been doing lately is working, in one capacity or another. While the money certainly is welcome, it sometimes seems a little overmuch... but oh well. Soon I'll be going back to school (which I honestly have mixed feelings about) and there will be no more work except for the recital crew at school, which will be just enough to kill social plans about 2 nights a week. *shrug* Big deal.

Anyway- I don't feel like writing a terribly great deal of an update (my apologies), but I feel as though I owe it to you few readers to let you know exactly what's been up in Rachel-land. Like I said before, alot of work lately. I don't think I've had a day off where I'm not working in one capacity or another for an entire day for over a week now. Last week I was either working up at the kennel, tutoring, and then ended the week babysitting. Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment. Although, talking about punishment and babysitting, traffic going up Stacy Rd. is terrible- for any local readers, avoid that little stretch at all costs if it's not like 7:00 AM. Even then it's still not the best, but my house's proximity to that road makes it the most viable option. Still, it probably took me 15 minutes alone on Friday to get down that little stretch of road between Greenville and 75- no joke. It. Was. A. Mess. Actually, that whole evening was somewhat of a mess, since I ended up being 20 minutes late to babysitting and was unable to go in and talk to my boss at the kennel since I was so late. Sad day.

Saturday, though, takes the cake for worst days. I got up to the alarm, got ready, headed out to the car and was cruisin down the street when two pit lookin' puppies ran out into the road. There's not a happy ending here: I braked but it wasn't enough, and even had I swerved, at least one of the puppies would have been injured. As it was, I ran over a puppy, had the most terrible feeling in the world as I looked behind me to see that poor thing lying in the road, and probably came the closest I've ever been to having heart-related issues. It was terrible: I was calling on God and my mother to come help me that whole time. The puppy didn't survive- there was too much blood lost, and likely a few bones broken. The terrible thing, though, was that the puppy's owners didn't seem all that upset- I think I was more broken up about it than they were. All I could do was keep apologizing to them, meanwhile becoming late to work (again). I had to cut apologies short so I could go, and on the verge of tears I drove to work as usual.

The morning went alright- took us something like 3 hours to get the morning cleaning/dog let out done, which is a bit absurd, but there were a lot of dogs. I was rather excited to finally be going to lunch, because I was going to meet Alex at OTB for lunch. We met, had some good guacamole, were nearly forgotten by the waiter, and finally parted so I could get back to work by 3. Then, terrible thing #2: as I'm slowly backing out of the parking spot, this lady in a Caddilac comes in out of my range of vision, and so I manage to back into her. Freakin. Fantastic. So I just feel my heart sink to my toes as I pull the four inches back into my spot, and am seriously about ready to throw my car keys into the nearest trash receptacle and buy a horse, since I was doubting if I should be allowed to drive a car anymore. The lady, unfortunately, was kind of a brusque and not-understanding sort of person, and was adamant that she got every relevant detail off of me so that her precious Caddy could get back to its ugly gold glory. Meanwhile, I'm feeling worse and worse, and can practically see my self-esteem meter plummeting into the ground. Alex, thank heavens, stayed with me, and I'm pleased to say I was able to keep my composure up until my parents finally arrived. By the by, for any of you who haven't had to make that phone call to your parents informing them you've had an accident, I can tell you that it is one of the worst phone calls to make, because you just know that they'll be either angry or at minimum disappointed. *sigh* It wasn't good times. After dinking around with this accident thing for like 20 minutes, my parents showed up and I made my mom drive me back up to work (since I couldn't, of course, get through on the phones since the office was closed), where I promptly went in, told my boss I needed the rest of the day off to "deal with all this accident/insurance crap", and left work. I was such a mess- I'm still not quite over it, to tell the truth, but I'm trying not to think about that much anymore.

Anyway, I also had to work Sunday and yesterday at the kennel, and then today I went over to help with the Allen flute camp, which was actually a lot of fun. :) I played a page of my solo from last semester (which, by the by, isn't such a hot idea when you haven't picked up your instrument all summer...), and got to help out some middle schoolers with their duets, which was really fun. I could totally see myself teaching flute lessons one day, but that will probably be a ways off- I've got a lot to learn between now and then. It was a really fun experience to be able to do that and help these girls (and boy), although I was rather shocked when one girl I was working with told me she had never learned/played an E flat scale. It's the freakin' band scale, the one you play so much you can do it in your sleep: but she had never played it in her life. Oh. Me. Aside from that, though, I'm fairly confident that the flute studio of Allen is fairly well established and definitely has potential.

After that I motored off to work at the tutoring center, which wasn't bad. I gave a test to a first grader, helped a girl with her crazy high school math on NovaNet (which, by the by, is the stupidest thing in the history of ever), and ran to the convenience store at the other end of the shopping center in order to pick up a non-nutritious pseudo-lunch of a diet cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper and a bag of Ritz bits peanut butter sandwiches. Filled me up right, I daresay, especially since I didn't exactly eat lunch.

In other news, I was struck by inspiration and finally have an idea for a potential full-length book. It's about (what else) Tudor England, told from the perspective of Catherine Carey. Since I doubt anyone's ever heard of her, she's the eldest daughter of Mary Boleyn (yes, she was related to Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, and consequently was beheaded). Funnily (yes, it is a word) enough, a lot of people claimed Catherine and her brother Henry were both bastards (yes, I said it- its got historical context!) of King Henry VIII, seeing as their mother was the King's mistress for a number of years. Special, really, when you think that Henry married Mary's sister about 10 years later. Anyway, this little idea has spawned 3 pages on Word of drivel, and then another 5 which is simply a catalogue of all the dates I could possibly need for any of the characters in this story; it's still not done. Lots of research will have to be done, I think, and unfortunately, when it comes to non-fiction, Allen's library sucks, so I'll have to wait until I get to SFA again for some of these books (which their library *has*).

Anyway, it's high time I get off and get to sleep. The alarm goes off at 6:15, which is always a couple hours too early for my liking. Until later,

~r

I have bruises

2008-07-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, so most of you who know me would know by now that bruises aren't that uncommon for me. Due to my normally klutzy nature, a new one always seems to pop up every week or so, most often on my shin, although it should be noted that somehow I managed to bruise BOTH my big toes (so much so that the toenail fell off on my left foot- whoops).

But enough about bruises. They're relevant, but not for a little bit here. So- work! Yes, I worked my traditional 10 hour shift yesterday at the kennel. I was terribly tired yesterday for some reason, so before noon I was already into my second can of diet coke of the morning. Yesterday was one of those lovely days that I was called to work up at the front desk- Yay!!! It's far more enjoyable than doing battle with laundry or bathing dogs and ending up soaked. I found out yesterday that one of my co-workers had to give one particularly hyperactive dog a bath and came out soaked. Being the nice person I am, I simply laughed and told the person who told me that I would've paid someone just so I got out of giving that crazy dog a bath. But anyway- desk. So there's a crew of about 4 receptionists that work up at the front routinely, and yesterday morning I had the distinct *pleasure* of working with the one who considers me fairly much inept. Of course, it didn't help that all the calls I answered, it seemed, were from clients who wanted outlandish things like info if a dog had any labwork done within the past year, or wanted to get their kitten declawed and neutered and get all the shots involved... Ugh, it was a mess, and I felt inept by the time that lady left, since she was always wanting to check over my work. *sigh* The afternoon perked up, though, when the other receptionist took over for the AM one, and since I really like working with the afternoon receptionist a great deal better, it was all good.

The only real headache that I ever encounter up front is when the pet owners are inept. Just like you see people in the grocery who's kid is just hollering and banging their fists in agitation against their mom's shoulder screaming that they want those cookies NOW and that she'd better buy them... well, you get the picture, but anyway, just like some people do not need to be parents, some people really shouldn't be pet owners. I had to deal with this family who wanted to board their three dogs, none of which appeared to be current on vaccinations, then cancelled a reservation for one of their dogs then wanted to reschedule that one dog... Ugh, suffice to say it was a mess. Anyway, I must've spent half my time up at the desk calling two different animal hospitals trying to get shot records (since heaven forbid you take all your dogs to the same freakin' clinic), finding out that one of the dogs was in the system under a different last name, calling the owners who say that, oh yes, all our dogs are quite up to date on their shots, fielding calls from the owners (where, by the way, the husband apparently didn't ever tell the wife what the heck he was doing about all this, and vice versa), listening to their crazy household going on behind them, hearing about how this family couldn't come to a conclusive decision about how best to get the dogs vaccinated, and what they should do, and everyone's got an opinion on what's supposed to be done...

In short: utter. chaos.

In the end, I left the desk around 4 to help in the back again, doing the closing stuff for the kennel area, and these people were still not in the system, although I had started them around 10:45 that morning. Sad.

So, as I go into the back, I'm pretty carefree. Take out dogs, oversee things: shouldn't be bad, right? I totally forget how one of the vet techs had come up front to regale us with the story of how difficult one of the dogs was to get into his cage after getting the nasal bordatella vaccine. But don't worry: I'm soon reminded. We let out our big group, and as they're all coming back in, it's me and the new kennel worker who are scrambling about, trying to herd these big dogs back into their runs and shut the door in time so they don't get back out. Usually you have maybe one challenging dog that you have to kind of shove inside and close the door really quickly on, but it's not so bad.

And then, there was Kobe.

Kobe is this massive yellow lab, who you'd swear is related to some sort of tank, except for the fact that he slobbers EVERYWHERE! He had just come in that morning, so none of us really knew what he was like, especially not me, and so I go grab him by the collar and start to bring him towards his cage like I do for every other dog. Except this is Kobe, and about 5 feet from his cage door, he plants his butt on the concrete floor (which, thank the lord, is the smooth and somewhat slippery stuff) and refuses to budge. Okay, fine: some dogs are difficult, and this is his first night here, I reason. Sure- fine. I'm kinda frustrated with the dog, since there's like a scabillion other things that need doing and I really want to get going closer to 6 than 6:30 like what usually happens, and so I just gut it up and start pulling the dog to the cage. I fancy myself fairly strong, so I'm okay with dragging. We get into the cage, I let go, and he darts out the cage door. Damn it. Take 2: I hold onto his choke chain this time and attempt to maneuver my way out while another kennel staff holds the cage door this time, but this stupid dog will NOT stay in, and is pushing against me trying his hardest to get out. I can't hold on to his collar with more than one arm, since I'm rather flattening myself up against the wall to make myself as narrow as possible so I can squeeze out the gate, but with every inch I gained, he gained one, too. So I end up banging my shoulder into the gate as I try to get out, pushing the dog back all the while, whang my wrist in the process, all while realizing that this dog has slobbered all over my once dry pant leg. Obviously, I did get out, but not before hitting more parts of my body than I did when I fell down the stairs once. It. Was. Unfun.

Anyway, aside from all that, I have a relatively light day today. Just a 2 hour shift at the tutoring place in terms of work, and I'll be free until Saturday, when I work again. But I'm happy, at least I get tomorrow off, and I didn't have to work up there today: 22 dogs were supposed to be coming into the kennel today, which to give you a guide is probably more than we see come in in a week. Yup- people love their dogs, but not enough to take 'em with or get them home on time. I think I got 3 phone calls in 2 hours yesterday from the front saying "So-and-so's owner called, and so-and-so's gonna be staying with us another night." Seriously people: I understand, your flight gets delayed, it's gonna happen, but would you please dispense with this notion that we've got unlimited room??

Anyway, /endrant, and I'll go toddle away to retrieve my freshly ironed pattern pieces. (Check the other blog for an idea of what the heck I'm talking about).

Cheers!
~r

Time for an update much?

2008-07-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

Ha: so, funny story....

Really, there isn't one. I've just been stupendously lazy and haven't updated at all. Go figure. Guess these old habits die hard: but to think, when I first got a blog like a year ago, that's all I seemed to do was post. Crazy. Well, I suppose I've become older and (somewhat) wiser, and have discovered the joys that are face to face or phone comunicado. Or IM: IM still is best.

So yeah! Onto an update of my life since mid-May. In short:

-Had a devil of a time finding a job. Nobody seemed to want to hire a college kid for summer employment! Geez! Here I was thinking I was a shoo in... guess not. I felt bad, because for awhile there I was sincerely thinking that I would have to just lie and say that I wasn't going to return to SFA in the fall just so they'd hire me and I could quit when I had to go back. But that would make me feel cravitzy and that's no good.
-Got Job 1: Tutoring Center. Great! The owner calls me back like three weeks after I had interviewed there and offers me 4 meager hours a week, 2 each on T/R. Okay, well, it's a start, I tell myself. At least it's semi-gainful employment. Plus, you can't beat the location: the place is literally less than 5 minutes away down Exchange. Yes!! So I take that, and so began my tutoring odyssey.
-I checked craigslist.org (which, by the way, is a fabulous site: if you haven't gone there yet, go now) like a madwoman just looking for any other jobs that I could take that would supplement the tutoring gig. I sent out entirely too many emails, copies of my resume, and burnt gas up just dropping off all these applications at what seemed like everywhere. I did get one interview for a night receptionist position, and drove all the way to Plano to interview only to be told that there was a mistake and they really were looking for someone on a more permanent basis. The lady who interviews me then wraps with something along the lines of "We'll call you if we can't find anybody better." Way to raise the ole' self-esteem meter, lady. Thanks a ton. Other than that interview, though, nobody responds.
-Then, I come across (on craigslist) a magical post: kennel assistant needed in Kinney. Great! I think- I worked for years at the Animal Shelter doing probably what these people would want me to do, and wasn't even paid for it! If I could get paid to do that, which I did enjoy doing, that would make my day! So I check, summer employment is just fine to this guy, and I email him a resume, and an interview and a few phone calls later, I've got Job #2 bagged. Yes. Not only that, but it's $9 an hour to take care of dogs! Woo!
-And that brings us up to now. I now juggle 2 jobs and in a normal week have *maybe* 2 days I don't have to work, which are usually not weekends. Days at the kennel are long (7:30am-6pm), but bearable if you can work 'em right. There's always massive amounts of laundry to be done there, it seems, and no matter how hard you try to work down the mountain of dirty towels and blankets, more seems to be manufactured by the hour! What's really crappy is the fact that the 2 dryers we have to work with don't do an exceptionally good job at drying stuff... so a lot of times you get the lovely leaning tower of wet towels stacked atop the dryer, waiting for their turn to go tumbling around the luke-warm basket. Anyway, enough about towels. Up at the kennel I also cross-train up at the front desk, which is really a lot of fun. I've made a couple mistakes (which was very disappointing to me for some reason), but I really love the thrill that front desk gives you: you get to meet all these new people, handle invoicing and large bills, plus people practically throw their credit card at you! Half the time I won't even have the total halfway out of my mouth before there's a shiny piece of plastic being proffered. *shrug* Well, good for them I guess. :) Anyway, yes, it's pretty enjoyable. The vet techs there, though, are the only drawback. They're paid lord knows what an hour to give shots, stick thermometers up a dog's rear, give vaccinations and, of course, stand around to chat, but heaven forbid kennel staff are caught sitting around not doing anything: we always get promptly yelled at to do something menial like windex a door or mop a floor that has already been mopped twice before (but not with any watter less than pristine!!!). That's the part I really don't appreciate, to be honest: that, and the fact that the a/c doesn't exactly work in the back. It's rather nasty work, all told, but I try to make it worth it.

So yeah! That's what's going on in the life right now. As far as I know, there's no plans for vacations. My grandparents already came and went at the beginning of June, and we begged off of visiting them this summer with the promise of coming up at Thanksgiving. I'm not sure how I feel about this, frankly, as it's going to mean missing 2 classes and also missing the last football game (which I'm not devastated about, really: I'm more freaked about what my band director's gonna say when he finds out!). Hopefully it will be worthwhile: not that spending time with family isn't, of course, but you know what I mean. I guess I won't die if I have to go spend one more week sleeping in the "finished" (note the quotes) basement of my grandparent's house while my parents and myself try every trick in the book to get my grandparents to move down to Texas already.

Well, that's it. I have a 6:20 alarm for tomorrow all set and ready to go, so all that's left now, really, is for me to toddle off to bed (or, rather, put my computer on the floor and go to sleep, since I'm currently in bed snuggled under all the lovely blankets!!)

Much love,
~r

New year, New Blog

2008-05-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, my friends- I've decided to create a new blog. There were quite a few reasons, of course, for this move... but mostly I just saw the trivialities that were so prevalent in the old one and was quite disgusted with myself. So- time for a new blog, with roughly the same name and the same intent.... to keep you lot informed of my happenings at school and otherwise.

Now, as it's summer, there's a great deal of things to be done, one of which includes getting a job. While my job as a music usher could hardly be called real true work, this summer shall truly be work. Thusfar I'm being terribly picky about where I even apply: I would really love to avoid the scourge that is 'mass retail', and certainly I don't wish to work in food industries of any sort, really. So, what does that leave me? Well, so far I've made application at a tutoring center and also will be applying at the local music store. I'm probably going to apply also for a summer receptionist position at the Lovejoy ISD, which could be fun- I always thought I'd make a good receptionist, seeing as how I already spend half the day on a computer as it is- may as well be paid to do it.

What else? Well, I suppose this inaugural (good word) post would be as good of time as any to introduce my next endeavor: we'll see if it ends up in a half-finished heap like all the rest! Anyway, most of you certainly know of my little (to put it lightly) obsession with the Renaissance, particularly Tudor England. As such, the Renaissance faire would be, of course, a natural delight for me. Normally I go to these events with only one thing in mind- to oggle at the lovely costumes and gowns that were in shops and on the actors/actresses. Now, this year I had it in mind to potentially rent a costume to wear, but the prices- $40-$60 for a day's use- were quite ridiculous in my mind. Why, for $40 or $60 I'm certain I could make something quite comparable... at least, it would be a start. Plus, it would be mine, to wear year after year with perhaps new sleeves or underskirt if it needs alteration. I purchased yesterday the most lovely feather fan that I would hope to one day use with any future dress: who knows, perhaps one day I'll actually do something with my passion and create something like those magnificent fans which I would one day sell.

Anyway, as I said, I intend to construct such a costume, and that will have it's own blog- My Lifelong Fantasy, as it is, after all, a fantasy of mine to own such garments. :)

Well then... I suppose I shall wrap up this post and continue with watching Jane Eyre. I made the lovely discovery the other day that we get wonderful free on demand movies with the free trials of various movie channels on our television, and this morning I've chosen to watch Jane Eyre (after barely making it through American Pie- I don't quite see what the fuss is about over that movie).

Plans are on for me and the gang to have dinner at OTB and bowling tonight- exciting! I can't wait to see Fluff and Sarah again, and of course to catch up further with Alex.

Cheers!
~r