http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/28/academic.freedom.ap/index.html

Makes me want to vomit.... so much so that I couldn't even read the whole article...

Good times were had

Laughed my arse off to Bill Cosby Himself tonight. (this is the old-school Cosby, from the early 80's or whatnot) Damn good stuff! Santa brought it to us, and he's such a sweet guy. I realized, watching it tonight, that Cosby may actually have been the trigger to my decision to not procreate. Now, before you get all huffy and offended, read on....

He talks about children and the choice to have them. It's something about, 'my wife and I were intellectual people, until we had children'. He goes on to elaborate on all the ways children make you awful, hated by others, and so on. It's awful! Damn hilarious, of course, but awful!! I don't want that!

So, the choice stands: no children, more Cosby. :)

Jiggity, Jig

Home. For real. Not vacation. For ... I don't know how long. It's weird... I'm so used to coming home for C-mas break and going back to school, I'm not really in the right mindset to not go back. I'm not totally believing that I won't be going back. So, as one might imagine, the adjustment to actually living here has been awkward.

Likewise, the feline has been having difficulties adjusting to home. She gets around the other kitty and hisses and curses like a bad, bad girl. She hisses at anyone who smells like the other kitty. tsk tsk tsk!

btw: watching a documentary on Jenna Jameson, a (former?) pornstar. It's weirdly sick, but interesting.

I'm Home!

Guess what? I'm home. Took some time, sleeping over in a hotel (with a heated pool and sauna and hot tub), and leaving again in the a.m. Major white-outs all over the UP -it was great. BUT -now I am hheeeeere.

Cheers!

I am happy to announce, I am now officially an alumni of NMU! Hoorah! AND: I made it across the stage (first) successfully and without tripping, falling, or otherwise making an ass of myself. (yippee!).

The ceremony was delightfully short, at about an hour and a half. The speakers were good, especially the keynote gal, who had a very long, but sentimental speech. My dearest girl came all the way from the Land O Lakes to see me, which was spectacular. I'm quite sad we never got to create Peni-ville, as planned. *sigh* dammed weather. M&D, Brother and Girlfriend came as well, which was nice. I feel justified, now, for them having experienced a winter in the Great White North. I wasn't making this up!! I wasn't exaggerating!! And, keep in mind, it is only December!!!!!!

Thursday was Sr. Crawl, which I didn't do as well (or did I do it better?) as in May. There were some complications, and I only got to 3 bars and had 4 (non-standard) drinks. BUT -I didn't poison a flowerbed or have to hold the wall to keep the room from spinning. And, I know exactly how many drinks I had. Friday night, we shook booty to some good tunes while trying to avoid picking up chicks for my cowardly-yet-adorable pal. Saturday I gradimatated, gave a tour, and braved a near-blizzard to bid a fond farewell to the sturdiest of friends.

I am yawning through my very last night of work right now. I've had far too little sleep and WAY too much stress in the last week for this. I may let M&D do all the driving tomorrow, after all........

J.L.B., M.T.Y., & J.dB.: Above and Beyond, the True Meaning, my Shoulders. You made it amazing, and I will love you forever for it.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

SNOW DAY!! SNOW DAY!! WE GOT A SNOW DAY!!

Just for fun: I'm watching TV6 tonight, and they start talking about flu shots... up pops a picture of some needles and a giant marijuana leaf with the word "drugs". Interesting! I had no idea marijuana helped prevent flu!

The bald man on TV just said that we got 10.5" here last night. YOW!!

Whew!

Wow.

So... I've been getting calls this week, urgent calls, scary-voiced calls, telling me that I needed to call the audit department IMMEDIATELY. As the week went on, the calls got more urgent, more scary... the roommate even said the lady this morning sounded possessed. Unfortunately, that was true!

Now, I would have been a good person and called back right away, except for one thing... Dear, dear MC got a call from those same people telling her she wasn't actually eligible for graduation. She spent a day or so panicking before they told her, "oops, we were looking at the wrong file." I didn't want to hear that! I didn't want to have to fight! ...i'm just too tired...

This morning's call was the demonic one, so I decided to tough up and call them back. Roomie offered to do it for me, just to buffer the bad news. Sweet, eh? The lady on the other end was SOOO happy when I told her who I was. [she told me she was sooooo happy, I didn't infer it or make it up] The issue? I had put restrictions on my info, trying to protect my privacy. The problem with that is then they can't put my name in the program, let me walk OR tell anyone they have ever even heard of me. eek! I had to go sign a release, no problemo.

They had called me many times, called my home and woke my poor, dear Papa (sorry!!) and were about to mail a certified letter to the house. Is that love or what?

Oh, the other scary thing... So, I get my seating card for graduation and I see A3. Hmm, seems I'll be early in the program. Yea. Try FIRST. Nervous little me will be the FIRST person/student/graduate to march across that stage, get lost, get confused, shake the wrong man's hand while drooling and stumbling. Holy balls.

Holy Balls.

. . . like a ROCK Star!

Weekend Events:

Friday --> Drag show on campus. It was fabulous!! Packed with people, the lighting was lacking, but the decorations were great -like a high school dance! The ladies all looked fantastic, of course. A few highlights: 1. the gal who synced "Barbie Girl" while dancing all stiff like a Barbie doll, wearing a horrid 80s gown and a wig sprayed to get amazing hight and width. 2. Mimi. YOW. Voted the world's most beautiful transsexual and they weren't kidding!! I'd freakin' LUV to have a bod like hers. 3. Audience participation -Spencer getting a standing 'lap'-dance from a queen in clear plastic clothing; Rach and I doing backup for Cher; the guy who got straddled.

Saturday --> Grinder, the band that Darren McCarty (dude, he's a RedWing. sheesh) is lead singer for. The bar was just PACKED with people, a mostly older crowd, but a sick amount of people. Beer was cheap, so we had many. The crowd was sooo bad that my girl and I had to hop the rail to get down on the dance floor. The bouncers were attempting to restrict access, saying it was too crowded. wtf. Good thing I have the type of bro who has taught me you do what you need to do to get a good view. I tried getting some other people to help me rush, but they were wimpy. So, we just climbed on in!

While we were shaking our thang, some thug guy waved me over (shit! security!) and asks 'how many are in my party?' 2 (shit! I shouldn't be telling him anything! Shut up!). Well, I'm security for the band -are you interested in partying with us afterward? Um. Yes. So, after the show, we got talking to some of the guys in the lobby, went upstairs to a psuedo-party room (I now know the secret code -oh yea!), drank free beer and chummed with the fellas, went out to the parking lot where their huge RV was parked and kept on partying. It was EXTREMELY interesting! Finally left at 5 to go home and c.r.a.s.h.

Sunday --> Hung. Over.

JANUARY 20 in WASHINGTON, D.C.

www.TurnYourBackonBush.org

Demand REAL Sexuality Education!!!!!!!!

I hope you all have been paying attention to the news this week. We finally had someone in the government come forward and declare publicly and loudly that Shrubby's form of abstinence-only sex education is not only detrimental to our children -studies have shown that this simply doesn't work- but also FULL of lies and misinformation.

Please see the article in the Washington Post for more info: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26623-2004Dec1.html?referrer=emailarticlepg

Amongst the other lies we have to tell our children now, the one that stands out the most with me is Shrub's insistence that condoms fail to prevent the transmission of HIV. I've heard some people say that latex condoms don't protect because latex is too porous. Yea? Well, why do doctors and surgeons and EMTs all wear latex gloves when working on injured and bleeding people? To protect themselves from HIV. Does it work? YOU BETCHA. By telling our children that condoms won't protect them, we are telling them it is okay to not use a condom when having sex. What's the point, if they don't work anyway?

PLEASE take action on this issue. PLEASE. If you are pro-choice, you understand that part of making an educated choice comes with being properly educated. If you are anti-choice -ahem, sorry, "Pro-Life", then you must understand that the best way to stop abortions is to stop unwanted/unplanned pregnancies. Visit www.ppfa.org and get in to the action network. This will allow you to send a letter to your reps urging them to fight against abstinence only sex ed.

And no matter what, we are all human and must care for our sisters around the world. We have to start telling the truth. We HAVE to stop the spread of AIDS.

22 all over again

To all my devoted fans:

I have decided that this year, I will be celebrating my 22nd birthday for the second time. This is not an attempt at vanity, as I will go on to celebrate my 24th year of life next year. We are just going to skip over 23. As Blink 182 so eloquently said, 'no one likes you when your 23.'

Really, though, your 23rd year is like being a sophomore in high school. It's a space filler, just taking up time in between 22 (young) and 24 (mid-twenties, grown-up, getting old). You're invisible, you don't really count for much, it's just gonna be a painful and akward year.

So, I'm not going to participate. I will be 22 for another year, and it will be goooooood.

FRUSTRATION

I am SO frustrated!!!!!! I want to SCREAM!

I. Am. Sick. Again!! Aren't I always sick? Yes, it sure feels that way. This time: chest congestion, a sore throat and it positively kills to cough. *ouch* I got lucky and found some old cough syrup in the cabinet, but now that's all gone...

Also, I set a goal to write my essays and finish my Peace Corps application this week. I want it ready to be mailed Monday or Tuesday. Yea, well... the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, or something like that. These damned essays are hard! Well... challenging. The bigger issue is how my writing skills seem to have abandoned me. I'm imcompetant! (i can't even spell)

All the beautiful snow melted away today. Rain, rain, rain.... it is just wet and slushy out there, but no more snow. What is this, May? C'mon Momma! Make up your mind already!! It's winter or it's not, but you Have To Choose!!

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hippopotomi Lover 

T-Day

I woke up on T-Day to a Fabulous, thick layer of snow all around (outside, not in). Just enough to make a postcard, but not so much to make you hate Mamma N. It snowed on and off all day, but quit in time for me to drive out to Harvey. I got to Em's house, excited to see her land all covered in snow and . . . nothing! There was a shading of white in the corners, but, overall -nada. How sad!

Dinner was very nice. Em & I made cranberry sauce, played Chinese Checkers, talked, finished the oven-shuffle to get dinner done (okay, okay, she did all the work, but I monitored the checker board for safety!), and then we all sat down to a very nice meal. The only meat was ham, and it was minimal, so that was a nice feature. Em's family is really nice, and this was the second time meeting her lil bro. What a weirdo. One of the tubes of crossaints was cut wrong, so lil bro got at it and tried to roll it out new. Well, it didn't really want to roll out and he had no clue, so he put cinnamon and sugar and a poppyseed spread in it, folded it over and cooked it. 30 minutes later.... it was weird. He kept eating it half-cooked, and commenting on how it weighed a pound. Yikes!

After dinner, they taught me how to play Spades and lil bro and I teamed up to whoop some butt! Hell yea!! All those years of euchre (sp?) training finally came in handy -I had some concept of strategy, which I am sure helped. Too bad I never was able to apply it to euchre. Oh well!

Lazy, part 2

Been a lazy, laid back weekend. After working my 3 night shifts this last week, I was REALLY pleased to have an easy Thursday and Friday. Mmmmm Sleeeeeeeeep. I spent most of Friday laying on the couch, half awake, watching Sex and the City. Truly, that has to be the most pleasurable activity in the world. It's the greatest show; it makes me happy, makes me laugh, makes me sappy, all those good things TV intends to do. (insert gooey emotions here)

Friday night a bunches of us were going to play Drunken' Clue at the Ohio house, but we got distracted by each other and the fact that the lot of us haven't hung out in a long time. It was nice to just catch up, be cool, and not deal with a smokey bar and pricey drinks. Muy divertido!

We drunk dialed Jeffner, too, cause it seems the whole world has a cell phone BUT ME, and part of having the cell is having free weekends and nights and all that. So... 3 hours later... We had her on speaker phone for a while, we were passing her around, stealing her, . . . good times. I miss that girl.

Tonight... dunno. We were planning on the concert at 231, but MC heard it is sucking, so probably not. We are trying out alternatives, including pool at the Shaft and bowling. Not much to do in this town without the 21+ Membership Card.

What a bitch...

I am such a bitch. I feel really horrible. It's all because of my goldfish memory... Mom, did you drop me on my head a lot or what? Cause seriously, I'd forget my own name if it wasn't written on all my stuff, like it is.

So, I'm sitting in Border Grill having finished my dinner but still having 40 minutes before work, so I was loitering and reading the paper. In walks this gal - I know her - and she smiles, says hi, how are you, all those polite things, and I am so stumped at what her name is, where I know her from, anything at all, that I grunt a response, like an idiot. So, now she's uncomfortable that I don't remember her (when I should. I know I know her, I know I like her, but damned if I know how I know her or who she is!!), and I'm uncomfortable that I did the wrong thing. We each sat akwardly for a while, until I finally got up and left. I feel like such a schmuck.

I didn't know what to do for that last 30 minutes or so, so I drove in circles and then went to work early. Ugh... How could I be so rude??

Home of the Parents

Stage One of Parental Home Infiltration has begun...

I arrived in the dead of the night, rousing no one as I stealthily broke into the compound. All was dark and quiet, save the sounds of slumber eminating from the master bedroom. Today, the residents have fled, leaving me to my own abandon. I've moved in a large quantity of supplies; there will be no need to leave for rations for months.

I am prepared for battle. I will fight to defend my newly-won fortress here on the island. My vantage point is excellent -I will spot their arrival far in advance, while they will have no knowledge of my whereabouts. I've stationed a fierce tiger in the back, standing guard over the forest. She is dark coloured, to blend; bred stong, to defend. The moat along the weaker, north face of the fortress has been freshly stocked with pirhanas, much to my delight.

Inside, I've readied my technologies, the final and most effective part of my defenses. This shall be my connection to the armies on the mainland. We stand ready.

Bring it on, bitches!!!!!!!!!!!

grrrr..

It. Snowed.

I'm not ready yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happiness is...

-a day on the farm, with horses that follow you like puppies, crazy-bright pheasants, bonfires, good converstations and, of course, girl friends

-new experiences, new cultures, new music, new friends, and new views on old friends

-free things (thanks Bogie)

-spending the day in bed, guilt-free

-not having a roommate, if only for a short while

-a perfect autumn day

-everywhere, if you know how to see it. Go. Look. Let me know what you find.

Pack your bags, it't time to head out back...

O Canada! Our home and native land! True patriot love in all thy sons command. With glowing hearts we see thee rise,The True North strong and free! From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free! O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee...

I gotta learn these words... I bet it's on the entrance exam...

I am extremely disapointed with my state and with my country...

Shame, SHAME, on you.

Be very ashamed for what you've done.