1 down, 3 to go

But more important than finals:

1. Sam Bradford ("my boyfriend"--I wish) won the Heisman. BOOMER SOONER!
2. The same night he did that, I saw the play "Dog Sees God," a parody of sorts on Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comics. The premise behind the play is "what if the characters grew up and went to high school?" I had seen bits of it used before as a speech piece, but the show as a whole is definitely worth seeing. By the end, I was crying my eyes out, hugging the friends I was with, and in a general "I love you, everybody!" type mood. Alice actually acted on that and texted "I love you" to everyone in her cell phone (including her ex-boyfriend, someone who she doesn't know, and Kate and me, who were sitting at the table with her at the time). It deals with serious issues, but it's also comedic. Moreover, the acting was phenomenal. Nothing was overdone, nothing seemed forced. It was pretty much perfect--impressive, considering this was actually just a play being put on by one of the freshman-level acting classes.

Finally, finals. I took my German final this morning, finished in less than an hour. I think it went well. I know I missed one grammar thing and one or two questions based on our readings, but otherwise I think I did well. Chem tonight, Calc tomorrow morning, Music Thursday. Time to study!

Finals Time

Ew.

I could end the post there, but I won't.

I am currently in the middle of Dead Week, the week before finals. To my knowledge, OU does not officially recognize Dead Week. Some schools will give you the week off of classes so you can study for finals. Others will at least give you the last Thursday and Friday before finals off. I heard rumor that OU has a policy that no assignment or test or anything worth more than 5% of your total grade will be given during the course of the week. But I've also had friends who have had to turn in major papers this week, so that rumor may have no truth to it whatsoever.

In order to deprive myself of potential distractions, I asked Shannon to change my facebook password for me for the next two weeks. She's on strict orders to log me in if I ask her to, but since I am always afraid of being an annoyance, I don't ask often. Even so, she sometimes refuses to log me in, probably for the best of all possible reasons.

My finals schedule goes like this:
Monday 8:00-10:00 AM German (this final is cumulative, and I'm somewhat worried about it--10% of our final grade)
Monday 7:30-9:30 PM Chemistry (Not cumulative, but essentially it covers the entire second half of the semester. I'm not entirely worried, but I definitely need to study)
Tuesday 8:00-10:00 AM Calc (Ew. Just... ew. Cumulative, extremely important. Rather worried, especially since I won't have much time to study between Chem and Calc)
Thursday 8:00-10:00 AM Understanding Music (I'm not really worried about it. Not cumulative. But I definitely need to review my notes and read the assigned pages in the book)

As far as I can tell, I'll be leaving OU late Friday morning, but I'm not absolutely sure. It might turn into early afternoon. All I know is that I don't have a final that morning but the person I'm riding with does. I know also that I need to pick up my check from work before I leave. Fortunately, our winter schedule (which I am not on, seeing as I'll be out of town) starts that week, so I won't have to work in between finals. Lots of studying. Yay, I guess.

Thursday afternoon-night I guess I'll be packing and cleaning up the RSA office. Yay. Not a whole lot of fun, but it needs to be done. I'm still trying to figure out what I'll need to bring home. And I'm worried about all my food going bad. I have way too much food in this room. It may be a problem.

It will be less of a problem after break, though, because Shannon will be moving in, and then I'll have a roommate to help me eat all my food. And then I'll have a roommate to do Hip-Hop Abs with.

Welcome Home

Being back in Minnesota was a nice change of pace, but I'm really glad to be back. Well, except for the fact that I'm all alone.

I arrived back in Minnesota on Tuesday night, right on schedule. I made my way through the airport, debated picking up Caribou in the airport, decided against it, went to the car. From there, I greeted Akshatha and my father, and then got Caribou in Apple Valley. We dropped Akshatha at her house briefly so I could get all my stuff out of the car and settle in at home a bit, then made our way to Perkins for a get-together with a few friends. In total, there were eight of us and, well, I tried. I tried to help everyone get along. I tried to make it a fun night for all involved. Inevitably, though, there was some awkwardness, because the people there represented four different groups I hang out with.

After dinner, April drove me home and we hung out in the driveway for a while, just chatting. I filled her in on the goings-on at OU, the experiences I've had, the friends I've made, the groups I've joined. She filled me in on everything that she is still up to. It was really nice; we connected just like the old days. We had kind of stopped hanging out in the later years of high school, mostly because she went to SES and simply wasn't around as much. Still, we seemed to pick up almost exactly where we left off.

Wednesday I visited the high school with Akshatha. We got to see a lot of our old teachers, although I can think of at least two that we missed, and that made me quite sad. After that, I had a dentist appointment, was warned to floss more (and I have since then, but we'll see how long it lasts).

Thursday we cooked food and ate food and enjoyed food and each other's company as a family: my mother and father, my sister and her husband, and me. Things went mostly smoothly, I think. Around 6 p.m. I fell asleep for about an hour on the loveseat. When I woke up, I decided to just go to bed--Big shopping plans for the morning. Unfortunately, I was unable to get myself back to sleep. I finished the book I was reading (very good), took a shower, and dinked around on the computer until about 2 a.m. By 3:40 I was up, dressed, in the car, and in the Kohl's parking lot, gawking at the length of the line. It was my first Black Friday shopping experience (and you never forget your first time).

We made it out of Kohl's by 5:30. At least half the time spent in that store was spent standing in line to check out. After that, Akshatha and I went to the Mall of America. It was shockingly slow there at that hour. I suppose there were a ton of people, but we were all so spread out that it didn't seem very busy at all. I took a bunch of pictures and acted like a tourist so that all my friends back in Oklahoma would get to see what the mall is like. I hope they are pleased. I also hope everyone is pleased by their amazing Christmas presents! I'm almost halfway done with that part of shopping now, and I have probably increased my own wardrobe by 50%. Not that that takes much, given how small my wardrobe is. Furthermore, I know Akshatha is pleased, because I introduced her to her new favorite store, Charlotte Russe. We both picked up applications in hopes of working there this summer or winter or something. After a full day of exhausting, painful shopping, we left the mall at about 2:00.

Saturday was a family gathering. There was a lot of prep involved, but we got it done, and that's all that really matters. I also got my Raspberry Mountain Dew from Kwik Trip, so it can't have been a total failure of a day.

At 1 on Sunday morning, I got together with Nyssa and David. Nyssa transferred me a bunch of music as well as D&D books, which makes me very happy. What does not make me happy is the fact that NONE of the Kate Nash music worked... :( It may not be a complete dead end. Perhaps it just needs to be converted or something. Then we went to Denny's, laughed a bunch, ran to Walmart and picked up a $6 swimsuit with the intentions of hitting the hot tub. That plan fell apart when Nyssa and I realized that we were dead tired and it was 4 a.m.

10 a.m. brunch with the direct family plus my aunt and uncle. 1 p.m. departure from the MSP airport to OKC. The plane coming back was nicer than the first one, and I got a window seat. Yay. A friend gave me a ride back to campus, because he was driving back from his house after break and the airport was basically on the way. It turns out that he and I are closer friends than I would have originally thought, and that's nice. I spent the rest of this evening napping instead of going to the concert I was supposed to go to. This leaves me a two options: 1. see if Shannon or Eddie or Thom has an extra program around from Eddie's concert and look the songs up on YouTube, or 2. Go to the concert tomorrow night at 8 p.m., which would mean biking straight from General Council to Catlett in quite a hurry and missing the RSA meeting. I don't know. The meeting might be important, since there's an event Tuesday night and we still need to make/hang publicity.

One last fun tidbit about the weekend: one friend specifically mentioned to me that she liked how "passionate" I am about everything, while another informed me that someone had referred to me as a "sheep," just a follower of the crowd. I don't particularly agree with either, though there may be truths to both, but I find the contrast very interesting. We see people how we want to see them.

Another change in plans?

Maybe I will be getting a roommate after all, but this time there's really no anxiety involved in the change. Shannon and roommate are having serious issues. I will detail those at a later date, because right now I kind of want to sleep, but basically it will come down to one of them moving out. If that one happens to be Alicia, fine. That means Shannon and I will both have singles. If it's Shannon, she's coming to join me. I know that will work out because we're basically best friends, we have the same sleep schedules, the same friends, the same shoe size, the same Blue Man Group t-shirt, had the same job at Papa Murphy's... It will work out. I just don't want to see her in the kind of emotional turmoil Alicia puts her through. It really hurts me to see her so upset.

Perhaps I sympathize too strongly.

Sleep=fail

I probably will not sleep properly for the next several days.

Friday night: Work, RSA Event (Bring Your Own Game Night)
Saturday: Work, hanging out with Alice and Shannon
Wee hours of Sunday morning: Taking Alice to the airport so she can go home to New Jersey. Walmart run?
Sunday: Maybe I'll sleep a little, but I imagine I'll try to get homework done as well. Then, a concert so I can do a concert report for Understanding Music.
Monday: Classes, more classes, meetings, more meetings, Thanksgiving event for RSA (Gobblin' Good Time!)
Tuesday: Math, then to the airport a bit early so Kate can catch her 4:00 flight home to CT. My flight leaves at 5:47, and I'll be home around 7:57, I think.

Hopefully I'll manage to get several hours of sleep on the two-hour flight, because I don't really intend to sleep over break either, sadly. As it turns out, I want to spend every waking moment visitng people, but there just aren't enough waking moments in days when you waste 8 hours sleeping.

As one friend put it:

basically you can never have enough time to do the things you want to do

but some things are more important then others

and for us...sleep is not that important

Good day

1) No new roommate. I was supposed to be getting one over the weekend, but she never came. I now have official word from my RA that she will not be coming. Something has changed (I don't know what or why). Whatever, that's fine by me. And once again, I probably won't be getting a new roommate at least until next semester. I could set up the guest bed again!

2) I've only gone to one class so far this week, but I don't think there will be any repercussions for it. I missed German, Understanding Music, and Chem lecture on Monday. The only one that isn't a giant lecture is German, but I e-mailed the teacher and she was very understanding. I explained (truthfully) that I was sick and didn't think it a good idea to attend class that morning. I didn't go to Goddard, but I am feeling much better now, so I'm not going to worry about it. Then today (yesterday, technically) I didn't go to math, once again because I woke up feeling somewhat ill (and also extremely tired). Then I got up later and headed to my chem recitation, but I arrived ten minutes late and class was already out. Nobody was left in the classroom. I called my lab partner; I had missed a bunch of exciting announcements that can basically be summed up by saying that the only class we have for the next three weeks is to check out of the lab. Awesome. So that's all good.

3) I made Akshatha extremely jealous, and every single one of you should be jealous as well: PostSecret's Frank Warren is coming to OU December 3rd! Squee! I'll definitely be attending and hopefully be getting my PostSecret book signed. Also, over break I'm going to go to the Minneapolis Public Library with Akshatha, because there's a PostSecret exhibit going on there through November 30th. Once again, squee!

4) Indian music! After my brief re-exposure to Indian music in Texas, I needed more so a friend of Akshatha's e-mailed me some, and now I have 6 songs or something. When I get home for Thanksgiving, I expect that collection to expand about 6 times over, at least.

5) Spaghettios, Grape Pop, Pizza Rolls, StumbleUpon. (One of these things is not quite like the others. Also, far more addicting)

Let's hope this all lasts.

Texas

Did you know...

In Texas, the state flag is allowed to be flown higher than the U.S. flag? And quite often it is. The biggest thing I've noticed about Texas is that the people there have a lot of pride in their state. "Don't Mess With Texas" bumper stickers, the flag everywhere (a giant one was stretched across the visitors' side of the stadium at the drumline competition we went to), just... everywhere. Every bank had the word "Texas" in its name. So you'll never be in Texas without knowing it.

Anyway, I enjoyed Texas. Number one favorite thing: the Indian radio station. <3 Yay, Hindi music! It made me so happy. The only problem was that they didn't actually play as much music as I'd have liked. Lots and lots of talking. Oh, well. The other unfortunate bit was that my MP3 player couldn't pick it up, so I couldn't listen to it at night and stuff. Oh, well.

So, Saturday night we went to a drumline competition. I had a ton of fun, even though we actually didn't stay for much of it. It was kind of cold out, only about 40 degrees (reminded me of marching band season at home). I started reminiscing about pit. I miss it, but I'm still glad I switced to sax. Still, if our school had winter drumline, I'd have done it. We left after seeing only a few drumlines perform, though, because Shannon (Texan) and Richard (Californian) were cold. I'll post pictures, maybe, if I feel like it.

That's how rumors get started

Haven't updated in more than a week--that's got to be a new record! Basically it comes down to the fact that things have been really odd lately, and I wanted to get them sorted out before telling too much about the details. I wasn't really sure where things were going or what was happening, but now I know, and now y'all (I still laugh at that word) will, too.

The real source of confusion and mayhem was, naturally, boys. Kingsley and I were getting along very well, even though we didn't exactly see each other very often over the last week. That may have something to do with the fact that I was avoiding him, I guess. Well, we kissed. That's as much I'm saying on that matter. Eventually, though, I stopped and asked where, exactly, it was going. After a whole lot of beating around the bush, he said "We can start dating, if that's what you want." Well, I thought it was. And then two days later I realized that I enjoyed his attention more than his actual company, and I avoided him for a while and then talked to him in private and told him that. He only said "Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me," and walked away. Alright, well, it was over with, and so I was relieved, and that's all that really mattered. Oh, wait. It's never that simple. So the next day he start chatting with me online and said it was his turn to talk. I agreed to meet with him, because I felt like that was only fair. I had a pretty sudden change in attitude and he hadn't asked me to elaborate before at all. So I kind of avoided him for a while, but in a relatively cooperative way. I texted him when I was done with class. He didn't respond, so I went out with Shannon and then he texted me while I was with her, and I told him I'd text on my way back, and he didn't really say much in response and then I had a chem test and, long story short, we didn't actually end up talking until about 12 am Thursday night.

In our talk we ended up discussing the fact that, yes, I am looking for a relationship, but that neither of us actually felt much of a "spark." To him, that doesn't matter, apparently. I won't divulge too much (not my stories to tell), but basically he has a bunch of messed up relationships in his past and he no longer has any motivation to get into a long-term relationship. That, however, is exactly what I'm going for. I want the kind of relationship... well, the kind that could eventually lead to heartbreak. Not that I want that pain, by any means, but I want to care about someone that much and to be that close to them. He mostly just wants a warm body to snuggle up against. So we came to the agreement that everything was probably for the best if we didn't get involved any further and that's that. Friends, I guess.

Hardly of any importance now, though. I'm in Texas! Richard and I accompanied Shannon home this weekend, to Grapevine, and that is where I am typing to you from now. But details on that tomorrow, I think, while I'm avoiding homework. In the meantime, movie!

Bitter

I should be in Arkansas right now. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to my weekend of hanging out and watching chick flicks with Shannon, but I should be there. It doesn't make any sense.

This weekend is SWACURH (Southwest Association of College and University Residence Halls). It's a leadership conference-type thing, and it's bound to be amazing and a ton of fun, and useful for anyone who intends to run for an HCSA office next year (yes, that includes me). But you could only go, to represent OU, by application. Richard had all of the Adams RSA execs fill out the apps--Alice, Eddie, Chelsey, and myself. A few other people from Adams filled it out too. I'm the only one of the execs, though, who isn't going. I was chosen as a "delegate alternate" rather than a delegate. So... what makes Alice and Chelsey more worthy of going than myself? Especially since Richard told me to list "lead executive member" on my application rather than just "executive member" like the other two girls... It doesn't make any sense. So I e-mailed Deb, the HCSA official who got the privilege of sending out the notifications to everyone, and asked her, for future reference, what things on my application could have made the difference. After a few days, she talked to the committee and got back to me.

GPA.

WTF?! With a high school GPA of 3.8 and 22 credits from the University of Minnesota totaling a GPA of 3.57, you'd think that pretty much beats out the other freshwomen who applied (only comparing myself to the women because they intentionally chose 4 men, 4 women). I talked to Alice-both of those are higher than the GPA she listed. This makes no sense. Honestly, I felt really confident with my application. My answers to the questions were sincere and still contained the information it seemed like they were looking for. Furthermore, Richard reviewed all of our applications before we turned them in, and he was confident that I would make it (less confident in Alice).

I feel like a bitch. Alice is a good person. She deserves to go. But I'm trying to be objective and she's the only one I have to compare this to, because I don't know about Chelsey's GPA or anything, and I don't know anything about the two Michelles who are also going except that they're upperclassmen.

I should be there, though.

And the worst part is that this whole thing feels just like high school all over again. Repeatedly, I applied for all sorts of leadership positions. I tried out for Drum Major three years in a row. I applied for a section leader position my senior year. I applied to be a speech captain twice (and then we ended up with Kate? Seriously, Kate?). It's just so frustrating.

I should be in Arkansas. Instead, I'm sitting all alone in the empty RSA office. Not a single person has come in all night, because it's Thirsty Thursday and theyr'e all out partying. Everyone is out of town except Shannon, who has class until 9:20. And... and I should be in Arkansas.

And more weather and lolz

Storm clouds looming overhead, severe weather watch, tornado watch. None of this would shock me; it's Oklahoma, after all. But seriously, NOVEMBER. What part of late autumn does Mother Nature not understand? And why does she only have trouble understanding it in terms of its application to this area? Not that I mind. Storms are good. Fun to look at, fun to keep track of. Which is exactly what I'm doing. I tried to find a good spot on the main part of campus to observe from, but failed miserably at that, so instead I am in the library.

Reminder: the people here are great.

Walking to the computer I am now sitting at I passed a kid with the radar up (not surprising, but still interesting). Yeah, I'll be bringing up the radar on my own computer in a minute. Or right now, actually. Multiple radars. Anyway, the next computer I noticed had a scholarly article up on it. I will probably try to find it and link it here eventually, because I am that amused by the title.

"Can you hear me now? The impact of voice on an online gaming community."

lol.

Weather and Guys...

As promised in my last post...

The weather here is ridiculously warm. I was severely disappointed last week when I missed the first snow at home. I'm still not sure how much snow there was back there, but it was in the 70s here, so I didn't feel any of it. Today it's supposed to be in the high 70s as well. It's ridiculous. I just want to scream "C'MON OKLAHOMA! IT'S NOVEMBER!" But Oklahoma won't listen anyway, and it would embarrass my friends.

And, before I move on to the "guys" part, I have an announcement, for those who have not heard already. I dyed my hair! It's reddish, on the strawberry side of strawberry blonde. E-mail me for pictures!

And now back to your regularly scheduled drama.

Last weekend (Saturday, 25 October, I believe), I went dancing again with the usual crowd plus Hannah (a sophomore friend from RSA/hcsa and MN), Alan (an awkward Asian kid who wrote in a facebook note that he was "only there for research"), Kingsley (who lives across the hall from Richard and whom I had never met before), and Brittany (Britney? No idea. A random friend of Alicia's). There wasn't a whole lot of dancing with strangers this time. At the beginning of the night I was dancing with Hannah. Some guy randomly came up to us said his two friends just came from Brazil and they don't know how to dance, would we teach them? Yeah, not that gullible, but all for dancing. Unfortunately, Hannah, the more outgoing dancer between the two of us, got paired up with apparently the more outgoing guy, so my dance didn't last very long. But then Kingsley came over and we were basically dancing together all night. Like, I honestly didn't dance with anyone else (excluding the moments with Alicia, while I was trying to pull her away from the guy who bought her two drinks). More interesting events during the night, but basically the short version of it all is this: Kingsley.

So now I have issues again. Kingsley very clearly likes me. He goes out of his way to come visit me. He dragged me off alone one night to Crossroads. And everyone else seems to want this relationship to happen: Richard won't let it go, Shannon thinks it's a good idea, Alice practically already considers us a couple (saying she feels like she's the only non-couple one because her boyfriend is still in NJ). But I'm not so sure. Part of me says, "Go for it Sarah, it's a great opportunity. He's a nice guy" (Shannon agrees with this part). But the other part of me is nearly positive that I'm not really interested in him, just enjoying the attention, which means it's wrong for me to lead him on (Alice is leaning towards this side). I seem to have done that once before, kind of, and it ended, on my part anyway, awkwardly. He's a nice guy, and I could see us being good friends, but I just don't think I have the right reasons, as usual. Screw reason. Reason isn't a whole lot of fun.

Any tips?

HAPPY PUMPKIN DAY!

Halloween isn't until Friday, but I'm doing all of my celebrating tonight. Adams RSA is responsible for putting on the Safe Trick-Or-Treat program for the Norman community. Kids from around Norman come and trick-or-treat up and down the dorm towers. There's also a haunted house in the RSA office, a carnival in the Walker-Adams Mall (put on by one of the other centers), and a lounge for the parents whose children are old enough to wander by themselves.

We have put so much time into this event, it's unbelievable. Richard, I know, has been working non-stop. The event is tonight, and I don't think he's slept more than 5 hours over the last three days. It can't be good for him. Or for the rest of us. Way too many late nights going on. Nonetheless, I've never been more excited about Halloween. Safe Trick-Or-Treat has taken over my life for now. That pumpkin has the HCSA logo on it. I think I worked on it for nearly two hours. And it's not that I was distracted. Quite to the contrary, I was incredibly focused and being an insane perfectionist.

I can't imagine life without RSA. There are a few kinks in the system right now regarding hcsa/rsa elections, but I may actually run to be Adams Center President for next year. The biggest detail that makes a difference in that is whether or not Richard decides to run. If he's running for Adams RSA pres, it's his; he deserves it, and he knows what he's doing. Otherwise, I think it will be me vs. Eddie, and that could be a close race.

In the background of all this holiday hustle and bustle, there's been some personal drama. Not "personal" as in "my own," but just... stuff. Stuff to do with Shannon and her roommate. And I may give details out on an individual basis, but it's not entirely my story to tell (though I am involved somewhat). As a result of this drama, Shannon ended up sleeping in my room the other night, and I have decided to semi-permanently convert the other bed in here to a guest bed. I have my extra pair of sheets on it, a blanket Alice left in here one night, and a fleece throw I picked up at Walmart last night for $3.97.

Speaking of insanely cheap things: gas! $1.97 the other day at Walmart. $2.01 at a few other places.

And there's also cool stuff to say about weather and guys, but now is not the time because I think we're doing some more decorating soon!

Guilt

Every time I talk to a guy (or dance with a guy, or whatever), Richard turns his head to smile at me. In a way, it feels mocking. Maybe part of it is. After all, I basically portray myself as being only half a step away from asexual. But I brought it up with Shannon this morning, and she said it's because "He feels bad. We both do." For those interested, Shannon and Richard are now an official couple. So official, in fact, that they've updated their facebooks.

"We just want you to be happy," she said. I've been hearing a lot of that lately. Last night, my drunken friend was praying out loud and she asked God to bring a Caribou Coffee to campus for me so that I could be happy. She has mentioned, sober even, that I tend to be willing to give up my own happiness for the happiness and well-being of my friends. But all of these things she's said I've done have seemed like no-brainers to me. Last night, I slept in a "bathtub" made by pushing two armchairs together so I could take care of her while she was sick: I can survive without catching up on my sleep for one more night. I back off so two of my friends can start dating: other guys will come along, and my friendships with either of them mean more to me than a one-sided attraction that never would have gone anywhere.

Any time Shannon's guilt of nearly Catholic proportions comes up, I remind her (and myself) that neither of them have done anything wrong. We can't help who we are attracted to.

Learning experiences

I swear, I was going to go to bed. I stopped playing video games abruptly at 1:30, but just as I was unplugging the NES from the lobby TV, a friend (remaining unnamed because she does not deserve to be judged by this one incident) came through the west doors of the building with another mutual friend. Both are laughing, and I call out to them by name. "Who is that?!" she shouts across the lobby. It's not long before I realize that this friend is completely and totally wasted. Richard comes over to help (he was playing Halo on the other TV), and he brings the friend to the office, tells her to lie down, and sets a garbage can next to the couch. I finish packing up my games and then go in to check on the friend. Other friends have set her up with a water bottle and a piece of bread, which she is only barely able to eat. Clumsy, entirely candid, she spouts every thought that comes to mind. And then she pukes a little bit, and it smells of "vodkarita." I started to gag but got my mind away from the smell and the mental image fast enough to maintain my composure.

Almost two hours later, she and I are still in the office. She has fallen asleep, so I am staying down here with her for the night to make sure she doesn't end up choking on her vomit or something. I have class at 9. It's "International Talk Like Sarah Palin Day." She doesn't have class until 4, probably a very good thing, since she will, almost without a doubt, have a hangover.

The moral of the story (one I already knew, actually): vodka takes a while to have its effect. Drink vodka slowly so you know how drunk you are. You'll go from sober to wasted really fast otherwise, with no "slightly buzzed" in between.

The other lesson: the gods of sleep (Hypnos in Greek, Somnus from Roman myth) hate me. I was trying. Really, I was.

I'm calling this a good week

I'm not sure what a normal person's "good week" feels like, but I'm definitely happy with the way this week has gone for me.

I've managed to be awake for German every day. That's good, for obvious reasons. I was also on time every day this week, unlike last week. This morning (I say that, but it's Saturday now, so I mean Friday morning) I woke up 10 minutes before class started, got ready in three, and ran all the way to class. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, because I had somehow made it on time, but when I walked into class, we had a sub, so it ended up not mattering. Oh, well. The sub was a much better teacher than our normal professor, which is a bit frustrating, in the long run, but I got over it.

In Understanding Music, we had a review day for the test on Monday (we also have a German test on Monday, but I've talked to the Music teacher about the possibility that I will be late to class and he said it's not an issue). I took very careful notes and should be able to study over the weekend, probably primarily Sunday night.

There was no chem today, because we had a test Thursday night on units 3 and 4. I got a combined total of 80%, but the unit 4 grade was only 70%, so I may opt for the retake on that one, depending on what my grade looks like at the time it comes up.

Instead of chem, I went to lunch at Cate, where I ran into some meteorology friends. We ate, talked, and I made plans with Sadi to work on math homework together tonight. Before that, though, we're going to go to Which Wich for supper, because I've never been there, along with Megan, a mutual friend. I think they're going to meet me at my work when I get off (6:00) because Which Wich is on Campus Corner, as is JJ's. Excellent. I've invited a few more people along for the sandwiches because it sounds like fun, but I'm not really sure who's coming and who's not.

After lunch and making all these plans, I came back to the dorm and slept until about 14 minutes before I had to be at work. I quickly gathered my things, hopped on my bike, and made it to the shop, where I was greeted with two lovely deliveries to make. The first was pretty close, and I got a $3 tip. The second was 1.7 miles away, a large stretch of that being on busy roads with no sidewalks, and then I had trouble finding the address, and then there was a suite involved because the address referred to an entire strip of little businesses. But I got another $4.50 in tips, so that definitely made up for it. Also, these two adventures took up almost the first hour of my three-hour shift. I call it a productive day when I earn 33% above my expected wages.

After I came back to the dorm, I had plans to go with Alice to the concert happening on the Walker-Adams Mall at 9, but I was napping again until about 10. Alice never called me, and she said it was no big deal, so I guess I'm alright with that. I went up and visited her at her new job, monitoring the 24-hour quiet study area on the 12th floor of Walker, tonight from 10 pm-6 am. Icky. But we hung out, and then Kate came up, since she lives in Walker anyway. Overall, it was a fun night.

To change tones entirely (sorry, I don't want to be emo, but it happens), I've concluded that hope can hurt a lot. I think that's part of why I've been having so much trouble dealing with this Richard stuff. I really do think that all I need, or really really want, anyway, is a guy. I want someone to cuddle with and someone to hold hands with and someone to kiss (ew... cooties!). And when Alice was telling me she thought he might like me back, I got my hopes up. I thought that could be him. And now I am somewhat jealous because Shannon is getting that instead of me. But it doesn't need to be him. I know that I don't convey this very well, but I am fine just being friends with Richard. He's still a good person, fun to be around, and y'know, it's easier when I don't feel like I need to try to impress him. But I just wish I had someone, and since he was the latest someone on my mind, he's kind of stuck there until I come across someone new.

I really want to say that a few good nights' sleep will help me stop being so weird and emotional, but I'm not sure I'll ever find out at this rate. Ugh. My back hurts. Dorm mattresses=t3h suXx0rz!

Not really feeling like myself today

I went to bed at about 5 am this morning. By 8:30, I was awake, dressed, spreading cream cheese on my bagel, and in a relatively good mood. By 9:30, I was in German, scaring my classmates a little bit. I think it's about the second time they've seen me fully awake in that class, so it came as a bit of a shock to them. My best guess as to the cause of my good mood is that I dressed up. Yesterday I went shopping with Shannon and Kate. I bought some cute new T-shirts and a pair of grey Converse Hi-tops that I didn't take off from BEFORE I bought them until about 1 in the morning. Today I wore the new shoes, a new shirt, and, for maybe the second time since I've been on campus, earrings (not new). I was awake in class and it impressed the teacher and it scared my classmates and it kind of surprised me. Of course, I'm exhausted now, but that's not a big deal, because I'm just in chem.

Between Understanding Music (10:30-11:20) and now, I stopped in the library for a break and a snooze and a drink from the cafe. After checking all the staples of my internet diet, I decided it would be a good time to just relax on one of the giant, fluffy, cozy leather chairs. I pulled out the third book in the Twilight series, which I've borrowed from Alicia (fictional men make a great distraction from real ones), and settled down. 12:40, and I was half-asleep reading. I had planned for this; my cell phone alarm was set to wake me up before chem at 1:30. But before that even had a chance to go off, I was awoken from my near slumber by a tap on my shoulder. I turned my head to find... some guy. I don't remember his name, and for that I feel like an idiot. I actually met him about two weeks ago on the way back from a general council meeting. Apparently, we passed each other near the dorms several times a week, so he decided one day to say hi. I decided we should introduce ourselves properly so we would be ready next time we saw each other (although I actually hadn't noticed him before). I think he said his name was Andrew, but I'm not sure at all. But anyway, he woke me up from my half-nap to say hi and comment on the fact that he hadn't seen me since the time we introduced ourselves, at least two weeks ago. And then he continued to the coffee shop and I continued with my nap.

That was fast...

"Shannon isn't interested, though. She's really not."

My bad. And I will explain that from the very beginning.

I slept Monday night, as planned. I woke up at an okay hour on Tuesday, went to my math class, was exhausted by the time chem discussion rolled around. Tuesday night I tried to do homework. I actually stopped myself from going to the RSA office, until about 10, because at that point I needed Eddie's help for chem, and he helped me, and I got my chem mostly done. And then, naturally, I stayed in the office and didn't do much more homework. I still had German and Understanding Music to do, so I worked on it for a while in the office, then in my room, and Alice came up to my room. And we ended up swinging on the swingset at 2 in the morning because it hit 50 degrees (actually, 48 by the time we got back in the room!). And then I worked on homework some more, and I think Alice did, too, and then Alice, Shannon, Alicia, and I went on a 4 am photo shoot. Brilliant. There are lots of awesome pictures, and I will e-mail them to those interested. Many (but not all) of them will also show up on facebook in the near future. Well, we finished the night by talking. Shannon explained to me that she does like Richard, but she pushed him away because she didn't want to hurt our friendship, which she values more than some guy. I appreciate that, and I also feel like a bitch for making her choose to do that. The discussion continued and it turns out that... he knows I like him.

And that was the first step to recovery. My infatuation has faded faster than some Joe Six-Pack's beer playing the "maverick" drinking game during the VP debate. But the last few drops are still at the bottom of the can. Honestly, I'm over him. I mean, he's still a good person, fun to be around, and I'm still impressed by him on a regular basis, but I realize that, well, I was being ridiculous, and I'm done with that. Right now it's the little things that get me. There's a silly little game where you tie a straw wrapper in a knot and think of someone. Then, when you pull on the ends of the wrapper, if the knot is gone, they're thinking of you, too. I don't have anyone else to think of. I default back to him.

Tonight (Friday night, that is) we went dancing again. I'm not much of a dancer, so I was standing around feeling awkward. Jay danced with his girlfriend, Richard danced with Shannon, Sarah... wiggled her knees leaning against a wall. Shannon and I talked in the bathroom. She told me to dance with her. I told her she had my blessing to dance or do whatever she wanted with Richard. At this point in the night, Shannon and I also decided to keep count of who more guys tried to dance with: her, me, or Jay's hot girlfriend Cari. When I tried to dance with Shannon, though, Richard kept pulling her back to him. So... awkward Sarah resumes her little wall dance.

I won. I won the game. Cari only had one guy try to dance with her, not counting Richard, because, while Jay can't dance, he was being very... possessive/protective/whatever. It was cute. It made us all laugh a little bit, and laughing at Jay was a large part of the reason I paid $10 to get in. Seriously. Shannon's magic number was 2, and one of them was really really drunk and on his way out, so I'm not sure if he counts. Mine... Mine was 4. FOUR GUYS. I'm not sure how old the first one was, 'cause I couldn't see his face that well. It kind of creeper me out. The second one was really tall, actually talked to me. He's a former meteorology major, named Jonathan. He taught me the Cuban Shuffle. The next one was pushed over to me by his friends. Reasonably good looking. The fourth... was dancing with me at the same time. Damn straight, Sarah was in a Sarah sandwich! And I'm okay with that. Shocked, certainly, but okay. I had fun. I danced. I danced with strangers. I danced with strangers in a club. I danced with strangers in a club while sober.

We came back around 1:15. We went to the RSA office and put in a movie. I fell asleep with my head on Shannon's lap right away, and woke up 15 minutes into the movie. I didn't figure I would make it through the movie, so I wished everyone a good night and left. I was actually in bed, sleeping, by 2:30 am. That's progress, sadly enough. Around 4:30, I got a drunk phone call from a friend. Not going into details on that, because it's not important and they're not necessarily my details to give out. And I couldn't fall back to sleep because, as dicussed... fucked up sleep schedule. Around 5, I heard the doors to my hall open. I figured that meant Shannon was back and I was going to ask her if she had a good night or whatever. Well, the answer went without saying. I looked through my peep hole and saw Shannon and Richard kissing. Nay, making out. Well, alright then. She has my blessing.

However, this being the weekend that it is, all of that takes a backseat to my final message:
BOOMER SOONER! sɐxǝʇ SUCKS!

Parli Pro!

"I move for strippers!"
"Second!"
"I move to lay the motion on the table."
"I move to take the motion from the table."
"I move for further investigation of the motion."

This is the kind of thing we accomplish in Bylaws Committee meetings. Yay for parliamentary procedure.

Intense

This week has been kind of intense. Several times I have considered posting with a bunch of day-to-day details, but I'm not sure what would get me in trouble and what would just be stupid and mundane. I've probably told most of you everything that's been going on anyway, and if you want some more details, you can call me sometime or send me an e-mail.

Here is the short version:
My sleep schedule is ruined. I'm trying to reset it tonight, which is why I'm up right now, typing this. I went to the Health Center on Friday and got some meds, but I haven't taken any of them yet. My cold seems to be getting better. But I swear I'll take the meds tomorrow night. As a matter of fact, I'll take the antibiotic later this morning. Umm... I've been contemplating dropping my calc class while I could still get a "W" for withdrawing instead of an F or whatever, but my math teacher talked me out of it. Apparently 53/100 was actually a relatively high score on that test, and I'd rather stay as far ahead as possible. I think I'll still be able to maintain my scholarships, but I guess it's not a sure thing until the end of the semester, because he said he'll put it on a curve then. Other classes are going fine.

The social side of college life is actually the part that's made the last week so intense. I've spent a lot of time with all of my friends--Shannon, Richard, and Alice especially. But on Tuesday Richard and Shannon started getting to know each other and Richard very obviously started liking Shannon. Shannon, Richard, Jay, and I all went to a club on Friday night; Richard danced only with her. There's more, but I'm not going to bitch about that now because I've been bitching all weekend to everyone already. Shannon isn't interested, though. She's really not. She was kind of enjoying the attention, just because it's attention, and it's from a guy. I can understand that. I'd probably do the same thing. But she's apologized to me a lot and she's talked to him and told him that she just wants to be friends, so I think it's all good. The unfortunate thing in all this is that I haven't learned my lesson. I'm a fool and I'm still infatuated. As a drunken Alicia said earlier tonight, "Being a girl sucks, because we have emotions." Yeah, we all had fun laughing at Alicia. That's mean, but it's true. She's a kind of silly drunk. She's not the only one (and with that I apologize for all my previous rantings against drunk people).

And the winner is...!

If there were an award for the most desperate form of procrastination, I would have won it last night. It was 1:30 am, I had about an hour of German homework left to do, and I was scrubbing the bathtub. I mean... I guess it was productive procrastination in any case. Time spent scrubbing the tub is better than time spent perusing facebook.

Unrelatedly, I'm really glad the Starbucks in the Union has opened. The lines are much shorter now in the library's cafe while I'm waiting between Understanding Music and Chem.

Lovely side effects of being sick

Sunday, Richard took me to Walmart so I could find some cold medicine. The cold is his fault anyway, but he seemed happy to take me. He was a perfect gentleman, holding open doors and waiting patiently while I made my selections. And then we went to GameStop, because it's right across the parking lot from Walmart. He mentioned that he had a $5 gift card to a local frozen custard place and I thought he said "we should go" but he drove back to the dorms after GameStop, so I'm not sure if I misheard, or if he meant "another time" or what.

The drugs helped a lot, but just when I thought my cold was starting to go away, it seems to be getting worse again. I've been absolutely hacking all day, and it's gross and it hurts and I'm sick of being sick. I meant to go to Goddard (Health Center) this afternoon, but I fell asleep, and then when I woke up I had places to be, things to be fashionably late for (is there such thing as being fashionably late to a meeting of a by-laws committee?). But my day was otherwise fun. I went to my meeting, then I met Alice at her office hours and we chilled out for a while. Richard wasn't around most of the time, because he was taking a test, but he arrived later and we all chatted for a while before closing up the office. I think he was impressed by the fact that I can write in elvish (I had mentioned in the other night, but tonight I was actually writing something), but he tried to downplay it by telling us his father was fluent in Klingon. We closed up just about on time tonight, and I got teased again for the fact that I'm supposedly only in there once a week. Tomorrow is my actual night for office hours, though, so I've got an excuse for the next time.

Speaking of tomorrow: ugh. I have a big math test that I'm not looking forward to at all. Also, speaking of tomorrow: Go Twins! I am so excited! Some kid gave me his password to watch the game online, too, so I guess I know what I'll be doing during office hours (besides ogling).

Oh, and one more thing... Alice suspects he likes me back! (Wow, I feel so... middle school...)

Schedule Change!

Yay, I'm no longer working 21 hours/week! I've dropped my Sunday shift, so now I work Saturday 11-6, Tuesday 1-6, and Friday 3-6. However, I don't think they'll keep me at work the whole time tomorrow. First off, it's not a game day, so there won't be all that many people around that would go all the way up to Campus Corner. Second, I've got a kind of bad cold--lots of sniffling and a hacking cough. I don't imagine that will be very appetizing to customers.

Yeah, not working Sundays might be a good thing. Last weekend (after I chilled out in the RSA office until 3) I woke up at noon. I was supposed to start at 11. Whoops. Actually, I was the first person in other than the manager. It seems everyone overslept.

Yesterday was my day for RSA office hours. I've concluded that I spend way too much time in that office. After hours ended (11 p.m.) I stuck around for another hour and a half to help Richard reorganize everything. Well, almost everything. The office is split into three parts--the social area, the study office, and the... other room, which is basically storage right now. We completely cleaned out those first two rooms; rearranged furniture; emptied, sorted, and refilled shelves; DUSTED. Yeah... I spent an hour and a half (possibly more) cleaning a room I'm only supposed to see once per week. But the truth is that I go down there pretty much every time they're open. Usually there's someone there to hang out with, whether or not that includes Richard. On that topic, I got mentioned BY NAME in his facebook status afterwords (He [is stoked about how good his office looks now. Thanks [me]!"), and he also commented on my status (I "just spent an hour and a half cleaning a room [I] only see once a week." "You so see it more than once a week.") I think I need a new hobby. I also think I should work on keeping my own room that nice (both my room and home and my dorm here).

A word on work

I realized that I've been weird and mopey and lovey-dovey and just generally annoying for the past several posts, and I apologize for that. For a quick change of pace, I'm going to write about work instead.

Work is interesting. Actually, no. it's not. It's incredibly boring. In my previous job, you were expected to be busy at all times. The only times you could be sitting around were when you had just gone to get subway and needed to stop to eat it. Otherwise, there were make-lines to wipe, floors to sweep, dishes to clean, tiles to scrub, whatever. We don't really do those things at my new job. I know they mop the floors at some point, though I've never seen them doing it. Same goes with the bathrooms. But basically all we do is make sandwiches and slice sandwich toppings. I guess that's fine, but it means I have a lot of down time. Down time isn't always good. It makes me sleepy. But whatever. We sit around and eat sandwiches, and I study for classes I don't want to waste actual free time on. It's all good. Today, we were sitting around in the back office and someone else who was working asked me "Do you smoke pot?" And he meant it, too. Because that's what people normally have conversations about at my work--places they have purchased, smoked, and in some cases grown marijuana. After I told him I didn't, he said "Okay. Just checking, because I realized I hadn't actually asked you that. You're about the only one here who doesn't." That's right. I work with a bunch of potheads. The thing is, I relate to them better than I related to 90% of my high school graduating class, and better than at least 75% of the girls on my floor. They're all really nice people, and fun to talk to. And, no, it's not like they come into work stoned or anything. It's just something they all have in common.

As for the actual working part of work, it's going fine. Bicycle deliveries are great fun, and I'm learning the layout of the town a little bit more, which is kind of nice. Obviously it's still not downtown Norman or anything, but I'm getting an idea for the major local roads and things. The tips are nice. Basically I'm considering them spending money and I'm going to put everything else away in savings, for now anyway.

Plans for Wednesday:
9:30-German
10:30-Understanding Music TEST (Middle Ages and Renaissance)
Whenever I get out of the test-Study abroad informational session (counts as "cultural event" for German)
1:30-Chem lecture (test Thursday night, 7:00 pm)
5:30-Office hours for Calc Prof. That class is getting nasty, and I'm not sure why, especially since I'm pretty sure I've learned the material before.

I'm going to miss part of my RSA office hours on Thursday, and this makes me sad. Not just because of the president, but because all the people who work Thursday nights are really fun people. We bond over funny music (primarily risque showtunes) and procrastination.

I could have danced all night!

But I didn't. As a matter of fact, I never really started dancing.

Last night there was a watch party for the football game. At halftime there was a dance party, hosted by the Adams Center RSA, primarily Richard. So, naturally, I volunteered to come help. Well, there wasn't much helping for me to do. Actually, I ended up leaving the watch party and then coming back for halftime just to go to the dance party. I realized how stupid that was almost immediately, so instead of dancing, I played pool with some other guy who I don't really know. Our skill levels were about equal, as far as I could tell (but I would never recognize it if someone was letting me win). Well, we each had one ball left on the table, when Richard came over and literally pulled me away from the pool table by the arm and onto the dance floor. And then he went and danced with the group of people he was friends with, leaving me standing awkwardly on the dance floor. After maybe 20 minutes of trying to convince myself to let loose--and failing miserably--I sat down on a couch while everyone else danced or watched the football game. Another promise of the party, was video games. Video games I can do. Video games I can, at the very least, watch without feeling totally awkward.

So that's exaclty what I did. I watched video games, then I played video games. And when the party was over I helped Richard and the other RSA presidents clean up and we carried some equipment back to the RSA office in Adams. After that, we just hung out in the office for several hours. It was a lot of fun actually, and I think we bonded rather effectively. We even had a discussion about how neither of us was ever nerdy enough for the nerds or cool enough for the normal people. Now, if that's not meant to be, I don't know what is. Moreover, I found out the he occasionally DM's for D&D (his friends ask him to because apparently he's a dick about it and it's fun), and he doesn't like Macintosh at all, not even the iPod. Squee!

And then today I overslept and was an hour late to work. I came in the door, said "I overslept. Do I still have a job?" and the manager who was in at the time said it was no big deal; everyone who was supposed to come in had overslept. I was actually the first non-manager to make it into the store. But seriously... whoops!

Farmers' Market

Today OU hosted a great little farmers' market in honor of Green Week. It was supposed to be out in the Walker-Adams Mall, but it was moved inside because of, you guessed it, the rain. Nonetheless, it was quite lovely. A whole lot of locally grown foods. Delicious whole wheat cookies, gourmet cheeses, fresh cucumbers and pumpkins, and gallon jugs of honey. In the end the event was rather pointless, and I can't imagine it was too profitable for the sellers who set up booths. We are college students. We have meal plans, not kitchens. We aren't even allowed toasters, so we the honey was nearly made useless. I bought some anyway. Not a gallon, but a little bottle, though, trust me, I would have gone for the gallon instantly if I had $30 to just throw away. It would all be crystalized before I could use a quarter of it. Oh, and the cheese! They didnt' have anything extremely sharp, but it was still very tasty. I wanted to get some but I really don't have a good excuse to spend $8 for "about a pound." Maybe I'll get some tasty cheese on my next Target run.

At RSA we had a nice, long discussion about dialect. A few actual Oklahomans were with us, and one realized for the first time the ridiculousness of the phrase "fixin' to," as in "We're fixin' to go get supper." I picked on my own accent. It was all good fun. Oh, and we had an oddball music contest by hooking our computers up to the surround sound system in the office. It started out with mostly sex-related songs, but moved on to 90's pop and "Life's Gonna Suck" fast enough. And then right back to sex songs. Ah, what a great group.

Yay, new friends, though. Alice, who hurt her hip and will be in a wheelchair for "a week or two" has dabbled in D&D, so it sounds like she and I are going to seek out a group so we have someone to play with. The new group of friends I was with also joined the crusade to get me on WoW. I just don't know if I have the free time for it to be worth $15/mo. We'll see.

Wet

I chose a good time to take the pictures off my cell phone, because now, just a few days later, it doesn't work. At all. It turned itself off without telling me and it won't turn on again. Therefore, please refrain from calling and especially texting until further notice (calls don't really matter, but I'd hate to pay for texts I'm never going to receive). My only suspicion as to what happened is that it might have gotten wet in the rain yesterday. Actually, I know it got wet in the rain yesterday, but it was working just fine while I was actually out in the rain, and for a few hours after that. Everything inside (well, the SIM card and the battery) seems dry, but who knows?

As I mentioned, though, rain. It's been really wet here the last few days. It's not bad. It's actually nice, warm rain. It's was pouring yesterday, but it still never got below 70. You know me: I dance in the rain, I walk in the rain. I love it. What I don't love is the way it affects the air inside buildings. It is so humid in my dorm that I put on a fresh pair of pants this morning and they were already cling-to-your-legs wet. It's so humid in the classrooms that the perforated edges on the notebook pages serve no purpose--the rest of the page rips just as easily. I don't mind rain outside, but inside, it's a bit of a nuisance.

Also, I took the pictures off my phone today, because I have way too many. Here's one that's kind of neat:




Those are the actresses from the TV Show Greek who play Rebecca Logan and Ashleigh [whatever her last name is]. They were here to get people registered to vote. They were also signing autographs, but I didn't have time to wait in line, because that was Tuesday, and I was working. Instead, I took a picture and left.



There is also, for those interested, a picture of me with a Barack Obama cardboard cutout. it's totally nerdy and I look like and idiot, but that's okay. E-mail me if you want to see that (I'm refraining from putting pictures of actual non-celebrity people in this blog, for privacy's sake)

A moment of regret

So far, I can name two regrets of college:
1) that I wasn't in Minnesota at the time of the RNC. Not that I care about the convention itself, but rather the protests that were happening at the time, which I would have participated in.
2) I didn't go to that party tonight. Richard was going to a friend's 21st birthday party. It was at a pub & grill and I got invited by Richard, as did the other girl who was hanging out at RSA tonight. But I didn't go because I was being responsible and doing my math homework and she did and he wrote on her wall on facebook about how much fun the party was. And then, on top of it all, we got an extension on the math homework, so I didn't need to do it anyway. I find this whole mess really frustrating. I think I've reached a point of desperateness (real word) at which I need to be slapped. Seriously, who needs guys? ... Oh, right. Me.

Well, I did most of my math homework anyway. I work tomorrow from 2-6. Then from 7-9 I'm going to the Academic Team practice to see what that's all about. I think tomorrow I'm going to ask at work about knocking off a few of my shifts, because, while the schedule is manageable and even maintainable, I just don't want to work that much. I want a social life. I want to have fun. But if you're wondering, no, I don't want to go to bed before 2:30.

Earlier today I had the required Alcohol Education course. It only took about half an hour. It was lame and most of it was stuff I already knew. My opinion on the matter is that alcohol typically tastes gross, so what's the point? I'd be happier with a Coke or a coffee. Plus, I don't know that I could trust myself drunk. I've done some pretty stupid stuff sober, and I don't think my judgment would improve under the influence. And that, ladies and gentlemen, makes me the 1 in 5 University students (at OU, but the national numbers are supposedly comparable) who does not drink. What a loser.

And then there was Caribou!

And it was amazing.

The other day Kate was walking around in Xcetera (the convenience store located on the first floor of Walker residence hall) and she found Caribou Coffee Iced Coffees. You know, the ones that come in the adorable metal bottles. I'm pretty sure I'm in heaven now, except for the fact that I probably don't have enough money to be buying a whole lot of those. Or do I? Today I made $17 in tips from deliveries. More than two hours' wages' worth. I'm awesome! Of course, that's probably going directly into my Sooner Sense card so I have laundry money, because the stupid machines here cost $1.25 and don't take quarters. Seriously, what kind of washing machines don't take quarters? Lame.

In other work-related news, I wiped out on my bike today. I'm kind of an idiot. As far as I know, I'm just fine. Basically I was trying to get onto a driveway so I could get from the road to the sidewalk, but the driveway I chose wasn't even with the road at all, so my tire wasn't able to make the jump and I skidded and fell. For the most part, I caught myself on my hands, but I also banged my chin kind of hard. That's the only injury I'm worried about, because my jaw is still kind of sore and one cheek is a little bit swollen(this happened at about 11:30 this morning). My plan is to wait and see if it gets better. If it is not better by Tuesday, or if it gets worse by tomorrow, I will go have it checked out. In the meantime, I'll try to talk it off.

Last night I had a laundry party with Alice from RSA. She's sweet. We sat around and waited for my laundry, drank some Coca-Cola, and bonded over the fact that both of our homes are hundreds of miles away and everything is weird here.

This week (evenings/extracurriculars):
Monday: METR 1111, Alcohol Education with my dorm floor, possibly Academic Team practice, RSA meeting
Tuesday: Work, Academic Team
Wednesday: Hmm... Do I not have anything going on Wednesday?
Thursday: RSA
Friday: Work
Saturday: Work
Sunday: Work

T.G.I.F.

I won't lie: it's been a kind of long week. At the same time, it's unbelievable to think that it's already September 5. I've gone through fully two weeks of classes and I'm starting to get used to it. That's nice.

However, I am beginning to worry that I'm overloading myself.
I am in or hope to be in the following:
-a job
-academic team
-debate
-RSA
-good academic standing
-a state of consciousness during daylight hours.
-young democrats/students for Obama
-Honors College
-various meteorology-related groups

And the job will probably be the first one I drop. Honestly, the only thing I'm worried about is that it will look good on future job applications. But... I am, first and foremost, a student, right? I was laughing at that the other day. Supposedly, one should study three hours outside of class each week for every credit hour the class is worth. This semester, that means I should be studying 45 hours a week, plus about 15 hours of actual classes. Way more than full time. Definitely not happening. So the job actually seems like a good thing to put away, at least for now. Honestly, just by making it through the next two weeks I'll earn over 200 dollars, if I work as scheduled. Mind, I'm already giving up 5 hours or so tomorrow, whether they like it or not. Who knows, it might be the shortest employment ever... (Not my fault. Football game is a required attendance event for National Merit Scholars and I talked to the manager who said "don't worry, we'll work it out"--very vaguely).

I will post more later tonight, probably, but I have to go to a movie now (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull--not to be confused with the beginning of "The Librarian II", which specifically mentions said skull, two years before this Indiana Jones came out), and I'm posting this now so that the title doesn't become irrelevant.

Things are getting better.
I'm giving my roommate another shot. Obviously I was upset at first and I'm willing to admit that I probably was being a bit... hasty to judge. She's been extremely friendly since she got back, and so I'm going to let that happen and try to return the gesture. My suitemates... well, I'll deal with them another day if necessary.
First day on the job wasn't bad. During a five-hour shift, I made one delivery and earned precisely $1.50 in tips. Yay, me! I got tips! My coworkers tell me I'm learning fast, but as with my last job, the first few days are kind of spent not having a clue what to do. As for the schedule, I've figured out that I can make it to the park where the School of Meteorology picnic is being held reasonably quickly from work on my bike. And for Saturday and the football game I should either be able to find a sub by the time I need to be at the game or I won't need to come in, because apparently game days are slow for business anyway.
And now I'm working on German. This is important. That is all. Bye!

I repeat:

I am sick of drunk people.
No matter what campus they're on.

Third post today, a new record!

So.... I may have messed up this employment thing already.
My work schedule looks like this:
Tuesday 1-6
Friday 3-6
Saturday 11-6
Sunday 11-6

My schedule of random stuff going on this week looks like this:
Tuesday 5:30-6:30, OU SCAMS meeting (OU Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society)
Friday 5-9, School of Meteorology Welcome (Back) Picnic
Saturday 1:15-whenever the football game ends, Football versus Cincinatti, a required appearance for all National Merit Scholars

I was kind of hoping to have this job for at least a week, so I'm trying to sort this stuff out. Tuesday's meeting I can miss. As a matter of fact, I could miss a whole semester's worth of Tuesday meetings, because the membership fee is semesterly. Friday, I could show up late, but I would have to figure out how to get to Lion's Park, where the picnic is being held. It's off campus, at least a mile, I think. Originally I had planned to carpool with someone, but I can't expect someone else to show up late just for me. Also, there may be important speakers whose speeches I shouldn't miss. Saturday, I just can't do anything about. I mentioned it to the guy who was setting up my schedule and he said I could probably just find a sub, so I guess I'm okay for that, except that I don't know anyone and everyone goes to football games here if they can, and so anyone who's not already working probably has season tickets and won't want to miss the game.

Roommate's not back yet. I also haven't talked to the RA yet, because I was right about to before I went to the interview, then I didn't think I would have time (it turns out I was right, because I initially took the wrong street to get to Jimmy John's and would have been late if I had left any later). By the time I got back, the RAs office hours were over.

On another annoying note, it turns out that I absolutely NEED the 6th edition of my calc book, which means I have to go buy it tomorrow, hopefully sometime before my 9 am class so I can get my assignment done. That's just great.

Overall, today was not as fabulous as originally predicted.

Stupid Alanis Morrisette song...

Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?
I got a job on Labor Day. I start tomorrow. I don't work after 6:00 on any given day. I work 21 hours a week. And it all goes around the rest of my schedule. So, yeah. I'm awesome.

Well, it's not the Weather Center...

About an hour ago I got a phone call from the manager at Jimmy John's at Campus Corner. In about 10 minutes, I'm leaving for an interview. Yay, employment. Now I might be able to afford to stay at school here next semester! Plus, I can almost guarantee it pays more than my last job. As a matter of fact, if it doesn't, I'm turning it down. But it will. It said "reasonable pay" and my last job did not pay reasonably. If you're interested, I'll let you know how it goes.

All sorts of advice

The main issue for me right now is still the roommate thing. I know I've been whining to a lot of people lately, and the advice I've received has ranged from "wait it out" to "punch her out." The number one tip I've gotten is "talk to her," but that's made difficult by the fact that I am non-confrontational and she is not on campus. So, I've turned to the internet, which has suggested that I talk to the RA. And that has seemed like a logical choice from the beginning. I'd like to talk to the RA before Libby is back on campus, but the schedule she has posted is for a normal class week, so I don't know what hours she'll be around tomorrow. Oh, well. It's not like I have any big plans; I can wait around. And of course, there's the question of what time Libby will be coming back. She said probably around 9, but we'll see.

On a slightly more cheerful note, kind of, I realized this afternoon that Oklahoma weather is affected by hurricane season. I guess that should have been more obvious, but I didn't catch on until I saw on the news that we might actually get some rain from the extreme edges of Gustav. Weird. That kind of thing doesn't really happen at home.

Oklahoma

It's been almost two weeks since I've gotten a hug.
Also, I'm sick of drunk people.

If you're bothering to read this, I guess you deserve to be filled in

So, I'm kind of upset with my roommate and my suitemates. I'm just not sure how upset. When the event first happened, I was planning on requesting a room change. Now I'm just not sure.

Well, it was my roommate's b-day Thursday. Our suitemates came through the bathroom and left cupcakes on her bed. She went and thanked them, then later one of them poked her head in through the bathroom door and said I could come over to their room and hang out (Libby was still over there). I was on the phone with Akshatha at the time, but I said I'd come over shortly. I came through the hall door. I knocked. I heard a whole bunch of whispering, giggling, and scuffling, and then the sound of the bathroom door closing. One of the suitemates poked her head out, and they were both trying to look like they had settled down for the night.
"Oh, is the party over?" I asked.
They asked if I was looking for Libby. "I think she left, either she went back to your room or she just left."
"I heard the bathroom door."
"What are you talking about?"
"...Right, well, good night."
So I go back to my room, my roommate isn't there, but a few seconds later she pokes her head in from the bathroom and says "Were you looking for me?"
"No, not really." And she grabs her computer and goes back through the bathroom to their room.

And something about this series of events was just so... Middle school. And I thought I had gotten away from that when I left Scott Highlands. Or at least when I left Rosemount. I left my room without stopping to grab my shoes and didn't come back for two hours. When I came back, Libby explained that our suitemates had been drunk and they thought I would report them to the RA. She had tried to convince them that I'm not like that, but she played along anyway as they tried to hide the fact that even she was in there. If they didn't want me to hang out with them, that would be fine. That's what it's been like for the last two weeks. But to invite me over and then spurn me like that really hurt. And, yeah, they were drunk, but my roommate wasn't.

My roommate won't be around for the weekend, so I have some time to think about it. I guess I just expected that by getting out of the town, I wouldn't have to be around people who are so full of shit, especially in the place where I live.

I'll keep you updated on the situation.

EDIT: I originally had said "report them to the TA." That was supposed to say "RA," and I have changed that now.

High School Never Ends

A song by Bowling For Soup

4 Years you think for sure
That's all you've got to endure
All the (total dicks)
All the Stuck-up Chicks
So superficial, so immature

Then When you graduate,
Ya take a look around and you say "Hey Wait!"
This is the same as where I just came from,
I thought it was over, Aw that's just great.


Ch:
The Whole Damned World is just as obsessed
With who‘s the best dressed and (who's having sex)
Who‘s got the money. Who (gets the honeys)
Who‘s kinda cute and who‘s just a mess

And you still don't have the right look
And you don't have the right friends
Nothing changes but the faces, the names, and the trends

I'm not usually one to post lyrics, but seriously... Say it ain't so.

Bad night...

What matters now is that Leonard Bernstein, a Grande Amaretto Italian Soda-no whip, and a bagel with cream cheese can help put things in perspective. I have an hour before I have to go to class, and I should study now.

A bird shat on me.

Usually a bird crapping on someone's hair and chest would be an indicator of a bad day. But the bird poo was literally the worst of it.

The second worst was the weather. I guess it got up to about 98 today, and I was all the way across campus. Lots of walking. The rest of my day was brilliant, though!

I had my first chem lab today. Same old chem video that we watched in high school. "Don't let your modesty make your injuries worse!" And so the boy watches (with his head tilted slightly down) as the other boy tears off his clothes in the emergency shower. "Your teacher will get the other students out of the room." Except for your lab partner, apparently, who has to keep a CLOSE eye on you to make sure you're okay. So... yeah. The TA was out of the room and we MST'd the video. Well, the half of the room I was on did. And everyone seemed to enjoy my commentary (I was the most vocal), so I guess that means I wasn't just funny to me. Which is a first.

I've grown addicted to the Italian sodas at Starbucks. Well, I say at Starbucks, but I mean at the Bookmark Coffee Shop in the library, where they serve Starbucks. They are delicious and I will probably waste all my meal points there (but they don't take meal exchanges, so no harm done, really).

And finally, the part you've all been waiting for: my lovely night at the ice cream social. As I mentioned before, there were a whole lot of other people there. There were two other girls putting in their office hours at the time, and there were all the people coming to get ice cream. Well, obviously Richard was being nice to everyone. That's part of his job. And I get the feeling that he might be the kind of guy who flirts a little with everyone. Nonetheless, part of me (the optimistic, wishful, ridiculous part) felt like he was giving me a little bit of extra attention. That's what I get for being extremely enthusiastic. I should try doing that more often. Anyway, it turns out Richard is a bit of a bad-ass. He's pretty awesome, though. Apparently he gave a presentation to the school board when he was in 4th grade to get out of a suspension--he succeeded. He's also responsible, in large part, anyway, for the fact that we can use meal exchanges almost anywhere on campus, most of the day. So, yeah. I'm impressed. And I really enjoyed being in his company, which perhaps matters even more.

I'm not going to bother captioning these again. I'm just hoping they'll show up (by the way, my room is a bit cleaner now than it was when I took the pics).

Dangit!

Well, I'm stupid. What else is new?

I was obviously looking very forward to Thursday night, because I'm going to be opening and closing the RSA office and I'm going to be trained in and everything with the help of the insanely cute president. Well, it turns out tomorrow night is the ice cream social (that RSA is putting on) and therefore I don't think office hours are going to be the way they normally would. Sure, he'll be there most of the night, but it's certainly not one-on-one time. It'll be the whole group. There are probably about 20 of us. ...sigh...

On an unrelated note, I gave blood again today. They only had to stab me once, too! I have to say, I'm impressed by the work of the Oklahoma Blood Institute. Even though the name is more creepy-ominous than "American Red Cross." They missed the vein at first (it rolled out of the way), but someone else came over, got it in, and I filled up that blood bag in 15 minutes or less. I have to say, I'm impressed with myself.

Tomorrow: breakfast with Amy, dinner with Christie, ice cream social with Richard (and potentially hundreds of others). Sounds like a delicious day. Oh, and happy birthday to my roommate!

Lonely

I recently saw on facebook that one of the people I met at Camp Crimson "can't make friends at OU." She was in my family group and she was going to be my band buddy until I decided not to do band. Part of me feels guilty about this. I know I shouldn't, but I do. So, obviously I'm going to try my hardest to get together with her, but it turns out that her only free time before 6:00 is from 1:20-2:30, which is exactly when I have Chem. No good. Maybe dinner after or maybe something Thursday. I guess I'll have to look into it.
In the meantime, I actually seem to be getting along pretty well. I've been hanging out with people most of the day. Well, after I got out of class at NOON anyway (the scheduled end of that class is 12:50, but our TA didn't have much to say). I got lunch, tried to play Guitar Hero, but the lag from the Wii and the fact that the blue key wasn't working stopped me after only a few songs. Then I took a 2.5 hour nap. Yay, naps. It was quite lovely (word of the month, by the way). At about 4:20, I was going to try to go to the National Weather Center for an OWL (Oklahoma Weather Lab) meeting with Amy, but my bike lock was stuck shut. We wasted half an hour trying to get that open and by the time we did, we would have missed the entire meeting if we had tried to bike there. Not happenin'. So instead we went to the bookstore, I picked up my books, and then we found the Starbucks up on Campus Corner. I applied for a job at Jimmy John's, but I guess they were looking mostly for drivers, so I guess that closes off that option.
Right now I am... avoiding studying... avoiding cleaning... and that's about it, I guess.
Enjoy your night!

EDIT: By the way, things with my roommate seem to be improving. We talk to each other every once in a while. Still nothing deep, but I guess that's alright. I feel bad, though, because her classes don't start until 11:30 MWF and 1:30 TR, whereas mine are 9:30 and 9.

SECOND EDIT: We did not find a "Caribou" on Campus Corner. We went to Starbucks. That was a mis-type. I have corrected that now.

First day of classes!

This morning classes started for me at 9:30. It's not a bad schedule. Actually, I think that's a good starting time for me, because if I didn't have classes at least this early, I'd never be able to force myself to wake up and get things done. So I went to German. Not surprisingly, the teacher spoke German for all but a few sentences in the class. I managed to follow, but just barely. I suspect I'm just out of practice from the summer. I had only a ten-minute passing time to get across campus to Catlett. I made it with the help of a sophomore in my German class who was also heading to that building (Derrick, a music major). Understanding Music was fine, but I'm pretty sure I zoned out a few times, which won't be good for that class. The teacher was pretty clear when he said that ANYTHING that came up in class would be fair game for exams. After that I had two hours for lunch before my next class. I wasted a little bit of time in my dorm, ate alone in the caf (note to self: bring a book next time), and went to CHEM lecture. Huge class, but that's no surprise. It'll take some getting used to, but it won't be as hard as I originally anticipated, I don't think. Once again I had a few hours to waste before Orientation to Professional Meteorology. I dawdled in the dorm and then went to catch the bus, which was actually a trolley. The class ran over time, so we all missed the bus, but there were enough people that someone offered to carpool and I made it back to the dorm.
Now on to the more exciting things. Slightly, anyhow. Last night there was a floor meeting. Our RA asked for volunteers to be the floor president(s) of RSA (Resident Student Association). I didn't really know much about it, but I raised my hand anyway. So, at 7 tonight I had a meeting to go to for that. I think I zoned out again. But I got the gist of it. RSA sets up a lot of social events, particularly those that take place in or around the dorms. Ice cream socials, a haunted house on Halloween, and we rent out movies and recreation equipment (pool cues, ping-pong paddles). Well, not only did I sign up for office hours (a requirement), but I also signed up to be an exec, which means I will be working in the RSA office in my dorm building from 7-11 every Thursday night. It also means that I might get a free trip to Arizona in November! And a trip to Arkansas, I guess. It also means that I will probably get to spend a fair amount of time with the extremely good-looking Adams RSA President, Richard. Nice. Yeah, but basically I get to sit in the office and play video games and watch movies (and maybe study) for a few hours a week. Not a bad deal. And it looks really good should I apply to be an RA next year.

That's all for now.

Dorm Room Pics

Per my sister's request, I have pictures of my lovely, and messy, dorm room. I'm working on cleaning it up still...


I hope this one shows up as it gives the best idea of the layout. of the room. It was taken from the doorway. The desk in the picture is mine. My roommate's side of the room is off on the right. The program I'm using in this shot is Picasa2, from google. And the magnets covering the back of the desk are from Sam's Club. The open closet door is hers.








My bed. My Obama posters. The top drawers under the TV are mine. The bottom two are Libby's. Everything on the floor here is mine.










The door to our bathroom. A shirt drying on the closet door.





My bed again. It's covered in stuff from the day: text books, free stuff from the Involvement Fair earlier. And above it, my beloved Doctor Who and LOTR: ROTK posters. And, yes, there is a roll of toilet paper on the bed. It was free.






And that is the end of the tour. Be sure to check out our gift shop.

New friends! Hurrah!

New friend who likes Doctor Who, d20s, and free stuff as much as I do. Need I say more? Well, I suppose so, considering I promised a condom story.

Yesterday afternoon there was a "mandatory" picnic for all National Scholars. I had forgotten about it, but when I arrived half an hour late, I figured I would try to make the most of it. I saw a girl standing alone by a light pole, looking bored.
"Hi, I'm Sarah, and you look about as bored as I am," I said. She introduced herself as Kate, from CT, and we hung out and waited for the door prize winners to be drawn. I was drawn relatively early and won two weeks of free robotic exercises and two weeks of free tanning at Tan & Tone in OKC. So not only do I have no idea where it is, but also no idea what I won. Kate and I exchanged a few sarcastic remarks, and then she mentioned that she was thinking about leaving, because it didn't seem like the prizes were worth it anyway, and there was free stuff being handed out in the Walker/Adams Mall. Sure enough, she was the next name called, so she collected her gift certificate and we left to go collect free stuff.
Two laundry bags, a pound of free shampoo samples, 6 pens, a large navy t-shirt, and 2 plastic cups later, our bags were too full to continue carrying them around, so we split temporarily to go drop our crap off in our dorms. We met again and continued walking around the lawn.
Somewhere between the religious bookmarks and the local cable provider, we stopped at the table set up by Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma.
[time lapse]
After we picked up some free snow cones, we returned to my room to sort our loot (37 condoms, 3 things of flavored lube, and a latex dental dam, if you were wondering. And I'm pretty sure she had more than me). So we giggled, realizing that neither of us would probably ever use these things, other than to create a wall mural (oh, yes, it will happen).
Then she noticed my poster. My lovely poster that came with an issue of Doctor Who Magazine, a picture of David Tennant and Catherine Tate. And she stared at it with her mouth open and asked, "Where did you get that?" I explained and we bonded some more, because we were both thinking we were the only Doctor Who fans on campus.
I also found out that Kate is a geek, like me. She hasn't played WoW, but would given the opportunity. She hasn't played DnD, but also would, given the opportunity. I showed her my dice, she oohed and ahhed. And later we went to the free showing of Ironman at the Union.
Yay! Sarah has a buddy!

I'm not stupid.

But apparently I'm invisible. I suppose that's what I get for setting up my desk the way I did. I suspect that from the door I cannot be seen at all. My head leans against the bookshelf, which is stacked with books. Therefore when somebody asks my roommate, "How's your...?" in that tone of voice, I can guess what she means when my roommate responds, "..." (even though I couldn't actually see her gestures, I'd bet they were there) and the girl she was talking to says "Ohhh..."

New blog! Welcome!

I've been in OK for four days now. Move-in was Monday for me, but regular move-in was scheduled for today (well, yesterday, technically). The first few days, admittedly, were rather lonely. I'm refraining from the word "homesick" here intentionally. It's not homesickness. I haven't had serious problems with missing my family or anything like that. I've just missed having people I know to talk to. Loneliness. However, with more people on campus, this problem is resolving itself.
Today I made a lovely friend across the hall. She's quite nice. We have a lot in common. Actually, we basically introduced ourselves because we were, coincidentally, wearing the same t-shirt (the black Blue Man Group shirt where all you can see are the faces and hands). So Shannon (for that is her name) and I got to talking. She said she's from Texas, also on the quiet side, also on the good girl side, apparently. Like me, she feels that there are too many exciting options to choose just one major (she is, therefore, undeclared). As it turns out, she used to work at a Papa Murphy's too, but hers didn't suck quite as much as mine (if I haven't told you the story about how I might not have a job to come back to and you're interested, call and I'll explain). So Shannon and I took a quick adventure across campus to the Camp Crimson reunion. Then we left. Then we went back to Dale Hall for a movie, but decided there weren't enough people there for it to be worthwhile. So we came back to the dorm, chillaxed for a bit. She called up the older sister of a friend, who she also happens to be friends with, and we were both invited over to this older sister's off-campus apartment.
At this point, it is somewhat relevant to say that my parents added text-messaging to my cell phone plan, so I can now send/receive a total of 200 messages a month. Yay!
So then I get a text from Amy, my OU buddy from Lakeville. Amy and I have a fair amount in common, but she's a little more of a partier than me. Anyway, she invited me to go with her and some friends to a party at the [unnamed, because I won't be a rat, even though I probably should] House. Okay, whatever. Part of the reason I'm here is to try new things, as cliche as that sounds.
So I meet her by her dorm at about 11. She introduces me to her suitemate Shakara (or something--sorry I'm so bad with names), Shakara's boy friend Arsenio (I think), R.J., and Ryan. Amy is apparently carrying bottles for the rest of them in her ginormous purse. You can guess as well as I what was in them. Whatever.
We almost get lost on the way to the party. Actually, I think we do. But we find our way out of the lost place, and we eventually come to the house we're looking for. Very party-ish looking.
At this point I'm sure you're all in awe. Sarah, at a frat party?! You've got to be kidding! Or maybe, Sarah, at a frat party?! Oh, no! either way... I go into the house. Someone asks us, about 20 feet inside the door where we heard about the party. He had a kind of worried look on his face, but he let us through, so I paid him no mind. Farther into the house, it's exactly what you or I would expect. Beer, young lovers, more beer. We reach a courtyard in the center of the house, and I realize the group is turning around. Well, I'm definitely a follower in this situation, so it turns out we're being escorted out of the house. And when I say we, I don't mean Amy, Ryan, RJ, or myself. I mean Arsenio and Shakara. The two black people. And it was so blatant, it couldn't have been for any other reason. No one had said anything to anyone. We were seriously just walking around. Fine. We'll make our own party. Or not. Well, I get the impression that everyone else did, but I'd definitely exceeded my social quota for the night, so I headed back to the dorm, because I don't feel like getting drunk tonight.