LONDON!

in three(3) days i leave for a semester abroad in London England! i am living in Notting Hill and going to Birkbeck College, a division of the University of London! I can't wai to leave... my family went together to get me a new digital camera, so i will be opening a flickr account for you guys to see where i have been! Europe, here I come!

i'm confused...

because when a crew coach says see you at practice monday and you expect everyone to be waiting for the crew bus at the school fieldhouse like always and no one is there and there is no email telling you to be somewhere else, you would be confused too... i mean i know we are moving inside but a little notice would have been nice... on a better note- I AM GOING TO LONDON NEXT SEMESTER! i finally got my official acceptance- which by the way for all of you who were like yeah whatever we already knew you were going to get in, is a big freaking deal! also, the letters were all like three weeks late for the whole program because the london contact who usually deals with the US program administrator was on sabbatical so someone else had to do it... BUT I AM GOING TO LONDON FOR LIKE FOUR MONTHS! AND I LEAVE IN LESS THAN TWO MONTHS! OH MY GOD THIS IS SO AWESOME!

elections and memories...

i will remember november 4, 2008 for many reasons... we elected Barack Hussein Obama president of the united states for one...and my sister took a picture of her daughter, almost 10 months, with an "I VOTED" sticker on her forehead... i swear, that child has more pictures that could be submitted to "stuff on my kid"... she's gonna be traumatized forever...

YES WE DID!

i am proud that we elected barack obama persident-elect of the united states of america... change is coming! yay!

VOTE!

ok, i don't care whether you are for obama/biden or mccain/palin, but go out and VOTE tomorrow! I don't know if there will be an election that is as critical as this one again in my lifetime and it is so important for people to get out and vote!

six flags and navy day...

so tomorrow i am going to six flags... FOR FREE! somehow my school is sponsoring this so all we had to do was put in a deposit, which we will get back... it is going to be so much fun! and then saturday is the navy day regatta! which will also be awesome because our boats have been improving exponentially since the last race and also this time we will have three freshmen boats instead of just one- and i get to race again! then i will sleep all day sunday having gotten no sleep all the rest of the weekend...

just can't do it...

i can not get my life to take on a pattern and a routine... every time i try- like quitting my two jobs that took all my time and getting a new, more flexible one- something else comes up! anyone got any suggestions? i realize this is a weird question...

today...

since 7 AM i have walked the two miles to campus, driven to baltimore with the crew team, helped rig two boats, rowed about ten miles, derigged a boat, driven back to philly, helped rig and carry four boats, and gotten back to my apartment.... with ten monster blisters... and now i am going to college day on the parkway... ugh...

rowing... again...

is kicking my ass... though i do have the strongest stroke of the novices...

rowing....

so i decided i wanted to do something new this year- last semester i had way too much time on my hands and i got bored a lot... i was thinking about cap and bells, our school theater society, when i saw a poster for rowing.... which sounded cool, so i am going out for rowing- which is a lot harder to do properly than it looks... i should feel the erg in my legs, but i feel it in my back... i should be steady on the machine but i am constantly in danger of throwing myself off the end... you'd think rafting and kayaking would prepare me more for this, but its way hard... tomorrow i get on the water for the first time and hopefully i will be able to coordinate the whole thing better... but its way fun! even if i am the oldest novice...

school...

i am officially back at school and all moved in! i have a whole apartment to myself, provided by wonderful college... and now i have finally started classes... YAY!

one is disturbed...

because i just learned that the video for Metro Station's Song "Shake It" was based on the movie the warriors... which is just weird considering that was a weirdly trippy movie from like the 1970s about a group of greek warriors trying to get home across enemy territories- which in itself is fine, except for the fact that each group of warriors- friend and foe alike- are represented by gangs, each of which has a theme, like baseball and scottish... so it is very disturbing to hear that anyone other than me has actually heard, let alone watched the stupid movie...

so cool...

so SWMBO and the cuteness went to see YarnHarlot when she visited Minnesota... And they got their picture on YarnHarlot's blog! and, doubleplusbonus, the blanket i made for the cuteness made it in the picture too! so very cool...
here is the link:

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2008/04/14/
up_down_up_down.html

(the address is all one, but refuses to show up that way)
the picture is a little way down under "Kate and Veronica"

ummm...

when is mother's day?

things that annoy me...

teachers who insinuate at every turn that you are stupid because the school that you go to isn't as expensive as some others and because one kid's friend goes to one of the said more expensive schools has a little more work one semester and the kid's schedule is easy because he is a business major... makes the day wonderful i can tell you!

On another note, people from our school have gone into every profession and are in every branch of the government... we are also one of the oldest schools in the area... so no, just because we aren't (insert expensive school name) doesn't mean that we will get passed over for oppurtunities or that our courseload is any less weighty... actually, our school has a much more rigorous curriculum than most other schools... argh...

OMG THE CUTENESS!

so a couple of weeks ago i visited my sister and brother-in-law who live in minnesota and have recently had a baby girl... the CUTEST LITTLE BABY IN THE WORLD! she is just so adorable and happy and fascinated by absolutely everything! even when she fusses or cries it is quieter than most other babies! wow, that is a lot of exclamation points... i also visited so i could give the little one the blanket i had been working on for months (mostly because i am in college and there were big blocks of time when i couldn't work on it) which, according to my sister, she seems to really like... according to my sister it is a "magic blanket" which keeps the little person asleep longer... but she is just so cute and absolutely loves to smile! and double plus bonus, they asked me to be her godmother! yay! apparently i said yes so fast they thought i had heard them over the baby monitor... it was such a great trip! though i am sure they were unhappy when it snowed like 8 inches...

APPALACHIA!

so i went on a spring break alternative last week- a week-long combination of service and a lot of goofing off... my groups was great and most of the people were fantastic! i can't wait to see them all again this weekend!

bad name of the day...

isaac cox...

most busy i think i have ever been...

i do not think that i have evr been as busy as i have been/am going to be lately... two weeks ago i went skiing, last week i had a test, this week i had a test and then this weekend i leave for a service trip my school runs, then i come back, write a paper, have a test, have a movie night, do the annual easter egg hunt with the fam, then go on a three day trip to visit my niece, then come back home for easter... then attempt to catch up on homework/ actually sleep at all... ugg...

acting... maybe...

i am thinking about going out for a play next semester... but am a wuss so i need to convince myself to do it... argh...

must i say this again?

ok, for the last time... LEGGINGS DO NOT EQUAL PANTS! really, they do look silly... yes your butt looks big... no, you can only wear them under dresses that are actually dresses... oh just STEP AWAY from the damn leggings! sadly, there is an even more disturbing trend going around my campus- wearing opaque tights as pants with a long-ish shirt... which is just so disturbing and wrong... because they look even worse than the leggings...

apparently pennsylvania is an international border now...

so i am on the shuttle on my way to class and as we pull into the parking lot where we are to be let off, we pass a US customs vehicle parked on campus... so apparently my school is now an international border...

and, since i am in the mood to rant, i will... i work at a place where we call phone numbers to determine whether they are businesses or residences and in doing that i have ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL over what number i dial... we have a random number generator... so people who i call, please do not ask what number i dialed- because i have NO IDEA! keep your stupid questions to yourself along with that annoyed-patronizing tone of voice! if i could screen you i would!

end rant...that is all...

AWESOMENESS!

um, so gofugyourself.com now has a store, which is awesome in and of itself, but in that store they have a shirt full of awesomeness... it is a dark blue background and all it says in "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN"...

confusion...

where did the phrase "pie in the sky" come from? it has always seemed weird to me...

WE BEAT NOVA!

last night was the holy war, the basketball game between my university, St. Joseph's University, and our big rivals, Villanova University... AND WE TOTALLY TROUNCED THEM! the final score was 77-55 and SJU never trailed nova, not even once... it was one of the most awesome games i have ever been to, especially because the Palestra was packed to the gills- primarily with SJU supporters... nova's cheering section was pathetic compared to the couple thousand SJU supporters... it was an amazing game...

amusement...

i am kind of amused that since my sister had her baby, while she obviously has not had time to post, everyone else except matter eater lad has just stopped dead posting... all the people in our fam that is... just thought that was odd...

on a related note, my niece is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE! i keep going on my sister's flickr account and checking for pistures, which are of course not appearing fast enough, but since that couldn't possibly happen, i have no one to blame but myself and my own damn impatience...

new tiny person!

i am happy to announce that i am officially an aunt to a beautiful baby girl- my sister had her baby today! yay!

avoid any and all yellow snow...

so, the salt or whatever that my university puts down in the parking lots and sidewalks somehow turns snow yellow... that is just gross...

weird things

many weird things tend to happen in the beginning of a new semester before you get into a routine... but in the last 24 hours i have seen/experienced two of the weirder ones i have ever heard of, though one might seem quite mundane... i was getting ready to go to bed last night when there was a small knock on my door, which means it is my RA wanting something... i open the door and she looks at me sheepishly and says what she is about to ask will seem random and strange but she had to ask every girl in fairness... then she asked me if i had brought back a cat to my apartment when i came back from the holidays... a CAT of all things... then today when i was getting ripped off for $200 on a single computer program (bitter much?), i was in line and looking at some of the still half empty shelves, one of which contained what looked like jelly beans... i looked closer and discovered that they were called "Sports Beans" which is weird in and of itself, but i looked at the description of said product and discovered that they were fluorescent colored energy jelly beans for use when exercising or doing sports... and these two bunches of jelly beans were the only thing on the one rack... very strange...