Not my words

I tend to think that most of what old KV wrote was wonderful and prophetic...so for me to lay out some lengthy paragraph about it is lame...here's an article I unearthed from the ever-loving www. ******* Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace. But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas. ————————————- When you get to my age, if you get to my age, which is 81, and if you have reproduced, you will find yourself asking your own children, who are themselves middle-aged, what life is all about. I have seven kids, four of them adopted. Many of you reading this are probably the same age as my grandchildren. They, like you, are being royally shafted and lied to by our Baby Boomer corporations and government. I put my big question about life to my biological son Mark. Mark is a pediatrician, and author of a memoir, The Eden Express. It is about his crackup, straightjacket and padded cell stuff, from which he recovered sufficiently to graduate from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Vonnegut said this to his doddering old dad: “Father, we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.” So I pass that on to you. Write it down, and put it in your computer, so you can forget it. I have to say that’s a pretty good sound bite, almost as good as, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A lot of people think Jesus said that, because it is so much the sort of thing Jesus liked to say. But it was actually said by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, 500 years before there was that greatest and most humane of human beings, named Jesus Christ. The Chinese also gave us, via Marco Polo, pasta and the formula for gunpowder. The Chinese were so dumb they only used gunpowder for fireworks. And everybody was so dumb back then that nobody in either hemisphere even knew that there was another one. But back to people, like Confucius and Jesus and my son the doctor, Mark, who’ve said how we could behave more humanely, and maybe make the world a less painful place. One of my favorites is Eugene Debs, from Terre Haute in my native state of Indiana. Get a load of this: Eugene Debs, who died back in 1926, when I was only 4, ran 5 times as the Socialist Party candidate for president, winning 900,000 votes, 6 percent of the popular vote, in 1912, if you can imagine such a ballot. He had this to say while campaigning: As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I’m of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free. Doesn’t anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools or health insurance for all? How about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes? Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. … And so on. Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney stuff. For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. “Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break! ————————————- There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president. But, when you stop to think about it, only a nut case would want to be a human being, if he or she had a choice. Such treacherous, untrustworthy, lying and greedy animals we are! I was born a human being in 1922 A.D. What does “A.D.” signify? That commemorates an inmate of this lunatic asylum we call Earth who was nailed to a wooden cross by a bunch of other inmates. With him still conscious, they hammered spikes through his wrists and insteps, and into the wood. Then they set the cross upright, so he dangled up there where even the shortest person in the crowd could see him writhing this way and that. Can you imagine people doing such a thing to a person? No problem. That’s entertainment. Ask the devout Roman Catholic Mel Gibson, who, as an act of piety, has just made a fortune with a movie about how Jesus was tortured. Never mind what Jesus said. During the reign of King Henry the Eighth, founder of the Church of England, he had a counterfeiter boiled alive in public. Show biz again. Mel Gibson’s next movie should be The Counterfeiter. Box office records will again be broken. One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us. ————————————- And what did the great British historian Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794 A.D., have to say about the human record so far? He said, “History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.” The same can be said about this morning’s edition of the New York Times. The French-Algerian writer Albert Camus, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, wrote, “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” So there’s another barrel of laughs from literature. Camus died in an automobile accident. His dates? 1913-1960 A.D. Listen. All great literature is about what a bummer it is to be a human being: Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, The Red Badge of Courage, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Crime and Punishment, the Bible and The Charge of the Light Brigade. But I have to say this in defense of humankind: No matter in what era in history, including the Garden of Eden, everybody just got there. And, except for the Garden of Eden, there were already all these crazy games going on, which could make you act crazy, even if you weren’t crazy to begin with. Some of the games that were already going on when you got here were love and hate, liberalism and conservatism, automobiles and credit cards, golf and girls’ basketball. Even crazier than golf, though, is modern American politics, where, thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative. Actually, this same sort of thing happened to the people of England generations ago, and Sir William Gilbert, of the radical team of Gilbert and Sullivan, wrote these words for a song about it back then: I often think it’s comical How nature always does contrive That every boy and every gal That’s born into the world alive Is either a little Liberal Or else a little Conservative. Which one are you in this country? It’s practically a law of life that you have to be one or the other? If you aren’t one or the other, you might as well be a doughnut. If some of you still haven’t decided, I’ll make it easy for you. If you want to take my guns away from me, and you’re all for murdering fetuses, and love it when homosexuals marry each other, and want to give them kitchen appliances at their showers, and you’re for the poor, you’re a liberal. If you are against those perversions and for the rich, you’re a conservative. What could be simpler? ————————————- My government’s got a war on drugs. But get this: The two most widely abused and addictive and destructive of all substances are both perfectly legal. One, of course, is ethyl alcohol. And President George W. Bush, no less, and by his own admission, was smashed or tiddley-poo or four sheets to the wind a good deal of the time from when he was 16 until he was 41. When he was 41, he says, Jesus appeared to him and made him knock off the sauce, stop gargling nose paint. Other drunks have seen pink elephants. And do you know why I think he is so pissed off at Arabs? They invented algebra. Arabs also invented the numbers we use, including a symbol for nothing, which nobody else had ever had before. You think Arabs are dumb? Try doing long division with Roman numerals. We’re spreading democracy, are we? Same way European explorers brought Christianity to the Indians, what we now call “Native Americans.” How ungrateful they were! How ungrateful are the people of Baghdad today. So let’s give another big tax cut to the super-rich. That’ll teach bin Laden a lesson he won’t soon forget. Hail to the Chief. That chief and his cohorts have as little to do with Democracy as the Europeans had to do with Christianity. We the people have absolutely no say in whatever they choose to do next. In case you haven’t noticed, they’ve already cleaned out the treasury, passing it out to pals in the war and national security rackets, leaving your generation and the next one with a perfectly enormous debt that you’ll be asked to repay. Nobody let out a peep when they did that to you, because they have disconnected every burglar alarm in the Constitution: The House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the FBI, the free press (which, having been embedded, has forsaken the First Amendment) and We the People. About my own history of foreign substance abuse. I’ve been a coward about heroin and cocaine and LSD and so on, afraid they might put me over the edge. I did smoke a joint of marijuana one time with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, just to be sociable. It didn’t seem to do anything to me, one way or the other, so I never did it again. And by the grace of God, or whatever, I am not an alcoholic, largely a matter of genes. I take a couple of drinks now and then, and will do it again tonight. But two is my limit. No problem. I am of course notoriously hooked on cigarettes. I keep hoping the things will kill me. A fire at one end and a fool at the other. But I’ll tell you one thing: I once had a high that not even crack cocaine could match. That was when I got my first driver’s license! Look out, world, here comes Kurt Vonnegut. And my car back then, a Studebaker, as I recall, was powered, as are almost all means of transportation and other machinery today, and electric power plants and furnaces, by the most abused and addictive and destructive drugs of all: fossil fuels. When you got here, even when I got here, the industrialized world was already hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels, and very soon now there won’t be any more of those. Cold turkey. Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn’t like TV news, is it? Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.

In the water, he was beautiful...

Well folks, the world is a little more real today, since we've lost old Kurt to the aliens of Trafalmador or the hostesses at the Monkey House. I woke this moring to a text from Positive T...our good buddy Vonnegut is dead at the grand old age of 84. I was kind of determined not to be sad...and I succeeded until about 11:50 AM...the sky was a "scrubbed grey" and it was sort-of raining...I had a headache from too much coffee and then I got on the bus...everything was muted and fuzzy, and I wondered who would ever poke fun at the world now?

.....no words....

Picture pages...

A few shots of campus lately, and even fewer words... Love Ninj

[insert clever title here]

I should put out a 'zine...I kind of think i know what it is I want to focus on in this here academic setting, and it's creative writing. I think that I know what it is I want to pursue, and it's publishing and editing...I think I know how much money I want to make and it's a whole bunch. The things I'm not sure about? What to have for lunch, where to live in 5 weeks...where to work in the meantime. All of you are free to give me your critical feedback of these plans...Someone said once that I was a good writer, but they wanted to sleep with me, so I'm not sure how much I trust them...and looking critically at my own 43 posts, I'm not sure I can say that they are totally fantastically riviting...but I like reading them...So I'm going to my advisor today and I am bringing this revalation to her attention, and I'll probably have to sign up for poetry class (gag) and perhaps a critical analysis seminar (yawn) but it sure beats physics!

I don't understand...

My head is muddled with all sorts of information that I can't seem to keep straight...Average Total Cost, how to spell the name Hepzibah, how to tell a Suni from a Shia, what to eat for a midnight snack...I blame the fact that the computer lab smells like a hotel room...over laundered sheets and towels and air conditioning...with no circulation...oddly enough, it's not a bad smell, and makes me think of being with him that last night...and what could have been...damn the way the heart can turn with just a phone call!

Remind me to tell you about Mike sometime...

He called me tonight...after a reconciliation three months (or more) overdue...for both of us...finally, we have broken though our mutual bullshit...or at least decided to get over it...we've grown up enough to finally call each other to talk about cartoons and more cartoons and then onto serious topics like houses and word choice...this is a short post, due to the economics homework burning a hole in my backpack...but oh man am I glad he called me back.

Strictly for my Ninjas

It's great when you have to look down at your t-shirt to find out how to spell a word. Last night was ok...I saw some good guys, and had some stiff drinks...who knew that I liked Vodka and Cranberry juice? (not me). I ran into Werner, who spent the first half of the evening keeping away from me, and the last half cornering me. My dad showed up for a moment to join us for a drink, and I was so happy to have dad-o help me turn my back to Werner. Later, drunker...I needed a ride home, so Werner took me, and then we talked for the better part of an hour about our potential friendship. Have you ever read a Janne Austen novel, seen a britsh movie, or heard Eddie Izzard's stand-up routine about either? Crushes are like those three things...a glance, a meaningful word, an accidental bump down a corridor, a 2 minute dance at a ball...and suddenly you're entranced with someone...do they know how you feel? Do you know how you feel? You wait for a letter, a second glance, a bit of gossip...and all the while, social propriety stops you from marching over to the person and making like third-graders..."I like you, do you like me?" But when you cross that line...you have left yourself open for the most crushing attack..."No...I don't."...That's why I've been all about the secret crush...living my life pretending I wasn't in love with the boys that I so desperately wanted to smooch...some, it may have worked out...some I know it would have exploded in a stinky mess...and all in all, I'm glad I didn't make that move, but in at the time, I wish I'd had the guts...so in that respect, I'm glad that Werner can be so honest with his feelings and desires...he wants to be my boy, and he doesn't let me forget it...but I tell you true...it's not happening. Sorry W. I hate the idea of turning down a chance to be desired...but at what cost? I'm not dealing with this nonsense right now...it was nice and fun while it lasted, but it's time to let go. Perhpas I'm shooting myself in the foot...turning down my last chance at happiness...(Jinx's snorts with laughter at this point...so does Ninja's inner Tricky...) I'm not gonna just take what I can get, love-wise. I may not know the love of my life yet...and I sure don't think that I met him last night (although there were some hotties there) and it's real nice to feel eyes on you from across the room...but those eyes can be an admirier or a stalker...and one is definately different from the other.

But it feels so right...

Is it wrong to leave class and hide in the ladies room texting a boy? Is it wrong to talk to someone that hasn't shown any interest in me? Is it wrong to tell someone to "shut the fuck up"? Is it wrong to want to be rich (I mean, like, 1920's Vanderbilt rich, accounting for inflation)? Is it wrong to talk to a little kid at the bus stop, even though her mom probably told her NOT to talk to strangers? Is it wrong to hold a kid's hand while they step down from the bus? Is it wrong to watch three movies in a day, on a school night? Is it wrong to like Everclear (the old 90's band, not the slammin' beverage)? Is it wrong to tag along with my sister's friends to go bowling? Do my jeans smell? Did I forget to wear a bra? My dad and I are going to the same nice restaurant tonight for dinner, with different groups and under different circumstances...but it makes me feel like I'm a little better off then I think...is that wrong?

knowing my coffee order...

I have a regular coffee shop...awakenings...i have developed an affinity for espresso shots, which they pour to taste like caramel, and I down with one or two gulps...I know it's uncooth, but I'm in Ohio...where it's still pronounced EX-presso. Anyway, I go in almost every morning, as it is right down the block from work, and frankly, it's the only time I can get a decent cuppa. There are the various assortment of barista boys...I only know two by name and while neither of them are crushable (to me), they sometimes upgrade my drink order to double shots, and never charge me for soymilk. Anyway, today...the "other" barista...the part-time graphic designer...was behind the counter, and called out my order before I could...it's the little things like that, on a chilly spring morning that kind of feel like a hug and a smooch. Tonight I am invited to an "evening" at a fancy restaurant by the bachelors of cincinnati...and I'm going, even though it might be a farce...I have the VCR set to tape The Office, and my roommates are advising me on make-up tips and clothing...and I just hope there's someone there worth talking to. And I hope there's a decent meal...cafeteria food sits kinda heavy, you know?

Mt. Everest

Last night, I spoke with my dear friend Angela, whom I miss very much...and I was happy to talk to her and hear her musical laugh in my ear and think of her in her cute apartment, snug as a bug under a blanket...this morning I woke to the smell of spring and freshly washed hair and the sight of budding daffodills, a letter from my dad including an article about Burlington Vermont and a horoscope that said it's time for forgive and move on...I'm choosing life today. I am being too hard on myself and the world right now, and I'm going to try and stop doing that. I'm going to listen to my favorite songs and walk outside as much as I can and revel in my 4th A+ paper (whoo-hoo!)...read the article my dad sent me and remember the beauty. This life is mine...I chose to do it and I choose to like it or hate it. Getting drunk doesn't help...watching 5 hours of TV doesn't help...and being all weepy doesn't help. G-lo gave me some good advice, and by gum, I'm gonna do it. I miss hugs and smooching with friends who walked into my life...but it'll come back...plus...at least I'm wearing my favorite t-shirt. Smile, dudes...I'm eating chili fries.

Just...breathe

Panic crisis over...or abated anyways. The sun is out, the snadals are on...and I had an actual full night of sleep last night, due to the fact that I have decided to sleep on the couch for the rest of my time here in "roommate hell". Plus, four of my very dear friends became parents in the last 8 days!! We welcome to the world Alexander Matthew Taber and Lily Jane Larson...the new lights of the world! My nerdy friends have babies!! The boys that I grew up with, drank too much with and (ahem) other assorted debauchery are now sleepless dads...with groggy wives who are real troopers and will make the most wonderful moms. There's nothing like babies to turn frowns upside down...and as an added bonus, I recieved multiple pictures of the new babes and my three girls from VT...Mo, Bev and C-ya are three sisters with whom I have an unabashed crush on...I've known Mo since she was in the womb...and loved the family since I first set eyes on them. C-ya will turn one year old in a matter of weeks...and she is climbing the stairs and making lots of noise each time I call. Middle sis Bev is cute as ever, with more and more of here dad's family coming out in her features...Oh, my babies...I did wake up to the startling news that I have a test today...a test I could have been studying for the entire spring break...but now have 4 hours to prepare...I called off work in the interest of maintianing my GPA...I wish I could maintain my bank account and still ace this theology exam...but choices must be made. After the test, I'll have the afternoon off and I'm not sure what to do about that...you know what I need...a good solid crush...on a boy...

That's the Cincinnati way!

Here's what you do if you're really from the 'nati...after a rant...after you've blown your top and been really honest...or even beyond honest...and used too many swear words...you apologise...and that's what I'm going to do...I'm sorry dear reader...I'm sorry I can't turn this frown upside down...I'm sorry I can't seem to remain positive even as the temps rise (thank god...I'm not wearing a jacket!) and I'm sorry I'm such a goddamn pill when I don't get my way. I'm sorry that I place such am importance on being special in someone else's eyes. I'm sorry I look a gift horse like a free haircut and dinner out in the mouth. I'm sorry that I wasted even one minute of one day of my break...although I did spend a great deal of time on the couch watching "crappy" movies that I laughed at often. I'm sorry I drink too much and I'm sorry I forgot how to rock. I want a good job...I want to make a decent even great paycheck that will allow me to take a vacation in a place other then my parent's house. I want a boyfriend. I want to go to a rock show and sit in the front row. I want my own bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. I want another weekend with my brothers' girlfriends and I want them to want to impress me. I want to be worth more than just a diploma with Bachelors of _______ written on it. I want a pretty new dress and fancy shoes. I want to smile again and mean it. I want to feel less like a reject on the sidewalk and more like a hand painted porcelin urn for $2500. I want you to want me. I need you to need me...Id' love you to love me...and yes, you did see me cryin'...but not for fucking long.

f*cking f*ckity f*ck

Alrighty...that last few posts just seems pathetic...not so much the idea of clinging to the small things in life...but the dwelling on the even more insignificant crappy details. This was my spring break, goddammit...and I spent the whole break wanting just to be back at school, a welcome distraction from what I considered (in the 3AM of being drunk at my parents house) my crappy life. My life is not crappy...I know I know...but dammit...when is it going to feel as awesome as it used to? I have been back in O-Hi-O for less than 2 months, and I still get the thrill of seeing people with Bengals sweatshirts and Ohio plates on their cars: "hey...I'm from Hamilton County!...Wait...I'm IN Hamilton county" And yet I've been out of VT long enough to wonder if I ever really lived there. I'm serious...I wonder where that life went...where are the rock shows...the Long Trail (beer)...the delicious food? The people my own age?? This past week was spent working and dwelling...working at the shop, whose business is in the shitter...a shop where it's difficult to want to stay when you sell only $80 worth of merch per day...and then when I'm not working, I was volunteering...setting up a fund raiser for my brother's school and waiting for the weekend when my other brother's would be in town with their significant others...I had hoped the weekend would be a much needed relief from my doldrums...but can you honestly hang with 50 or so suburban moms and with their huge diamond rings and fancy cars and really feel like you're going to surpass their economic bracket...and if I do...what else would I have to spend my time and money on then my children...I know this shit doesn't make much sense...but trust me....the whole vibe in OH is different...it's like being in a Jane Austen novel...women get married and pop out babies and then take care of them...and if they don't, they are independently wealthy and they have lots of houses and perhaps a horse or a plane. I was trying to find someone at the fund raiser to speak to who had a child that dropped out of college...and it just isn't done here...the kids my age all finish school and walk down the aisle or into their dad's law firm...or out of their parents lives and are never spoken of again...me...I'm the random 30 year old that the parents all say it'll get better...but behind my back they warn their kids about me..."Do you want to end up like Ninja? Living with 19 year olds and working at a failing shop on the failing square? she can't even afford new clothes!" and I can't...I got a haircut this week...my parents paid for it...I had my makeup done for the event because I have broken out so much it's embarrassing...I went to a lovely restaurant...all on someone else's dime...because my dimes are actually pennies...but what am I bitching about!?!? I have a supportive family...a group of people that help me when I need it...I'm in a place with no chance of the heat or electricity getting turned off...I have buddies that remind me with comments on this here blog that I'm being listened to...what the f*ck is my problem?

The tiny list of things that are great

1. a clean kitchen and bathroom 2. a week of silence in my "house" 3. a new haircut 4. food in the pantry (including the ingredients to make "the meal that makes me feel rich") 5. Violent Femmes, Prodigy and Everclear coming on the radio at the most appropriate times

i know...i know...i'm not the best girlfriend ever

ok...so i thought that spring break would be a time that i could leisurely update the blog with pictures and all the diary entries I've been compiling...and no...I've been working and walking all over creation and riding the fucking bus with all sorts of god-knows-who...and I have been hit with the doldrums ever so hard. not even the doldrums...the depression. Yes...I'm unhappy. I hate to admist it, and perhaps that's why I'm staying away from the blog...but it's true...I'm not happy. Not so unhapy to know that moving wasn't the right desicision...but it's hard to be in a place with no friends. and I mean...no...friends...I'm technically on "spring break" and I was supposed to go away for a few days...but I'm too broke to leave Cincinnati...and all I can do is ride the bus from campus to work and back agan, and sometimes I can;t even afford to ride the bus, so I have to walk...to a campus where I've developed a tendancy to drink more bloody mary's than I should...or to a work that is doing less business per day than I get paid...and I wonder...will this ever get better?

Sunday bloody sunday...I wish

I had a good thing going for two weeks straight...a steady meeting with a non-XU-student...for interesting conversation and bloody mary's. I love a good bloody mary. Does anyone remember the Waiting Room...with the toothpick full of tomolives and cocktail onions...dang. I tried to get our on-campus bar to make me a bloody last night, but they didn't have the stuff to fix it...lacking the tomato juice. I debated just getting a "mary"...but I actually hate vodka when it's not clothed in horseradish laden tomato...so I opted for a beer...my first since Sunday, as I am trying to go back to the no-wheat no dairy eating habits. It's hard in the cafeteria setting...but it's given me one more thing to think about...like I need it! This week kind of kicked my ass with mid-terms. My Physics test was difficult, and so I studied extra special hard for the Econ midterm, which I went into feeling prepared, and left feeling like I did my best. Has anyone read Paradise Lost...I'm not a fan, and that's what we're reading in Lit. class this week. Milton uses seven words when 1 will do...like Dickens...I know it's a poem and the language is supposed to be flowery...but I've opted for the on-line study guide...whose music is a synthesized version of the Death Star theme from Star Wars. Somehow making P.L into a Star Wars parody makes it more palatable. I wonder if I can find an all-lego reenactment of the epic? (Paradise Lost...not Star Wars). It snowed again this weekend...but nothing like the snow in VT. I kind of wish I could be up there, seeing the 10ft snowbanks on Church Street and hosting a City Market Slumber Party at my old apartment...I thank all of you that have sent me pictures. Speaking of pictures...I have another installment of Lavatory Tour 2007...and more fun ice pictures...but I desperately need coffee, as my eyelids are heavy, and it's only 3PM! Have I mentioned the lack of decent coffee on campus...the cafeteria has decaf coffee...but vanilla flavored regular brew...and the on-campus coffee shop sucks worse than a gas station coffee shop. I want to jump over the counter and show them ow to make coffee. Plus, the only soy milk they have...vanilla...what is the deal with the kids and their vanilla coffee? Wierdly, the best coffee I can find...at Subway...yes...that Subway...the place where you can eat a huge sandwich and lose weight...also has the only decent cuppa in town. Can I get my mayo on the side,. please?

Celebrating 30 posts...and being with the family

Tonight, I sleep at home...in a nice bed in a room by myself and a house full of food and good booze. My sister and I went out for drinks tonight, to hang together and so she could flirt with this guy that we met a few weeks ago. It was awkward...but whatever...it was different and I'm off campus. Now I'm hanging with my brother...listening to Reel Big Fish and watching him make rollercoasters on rollercoaster tycoon, with the big tv (with cable!!) on in the background and blogging away on the other computer...I feel like I've made it!

More lavatories...

Is this weird...who cares! This is the bathroom at my apartment...technically not a public lav, as I have to share it with three other women as well as whomever they have over at the time. Last night, one of the boyfriends came over and used the facilities, and walked out without washing his hands...all I could think about was "what of mine will he touch and I have to disinfect?" I have gotten much more germaphobic since being in this new living situation...I can't belive that my roommate would let him touch her without washing his hands...but whatever. I love hand sanitizer! I can't make these children do what I want, that's for sure. the second picture is the Gallagher student center ladies room...ohhh tile floors! ooohhh wall paper! Ohhh...we aren't trusted to even turn the faucet water on ourselves...the only bathroom that is more automated is the science facilities...only because there are lots of students with lots of chemicals running around...and we can't cross-contaminate...getting back to the non-hand-washing-boyfriend...I mean, gross!

Day two of ice storm 2007

More pictures from the ice storm from last night...it's an ice palace outside...and the air is filled with the tinkling sounds of iced-over branches bouncing off each other. My parents have lost heat and power and have holed up in a hotel...while my apartment is warm and well-lit. School was cancelled last night at abouot 11:00 PM...and I'm actually a little bummed, just because I had a midterm scheduled for today, and I would much rather get it over with than have to wait until Friday. I studied most of the day and night yesterday...and I made over 50 flashcards of microeconomic terms...and I'm doing more practice tests today...while keeping up with the reading for my lit class and preparing my philosophy essay. I remember dropping out before I even considered doing all this multi-tasking 10 years ago...now I'm older and hopefully wiser...but I still feel like I'm just keeping my head above water. I'm about to go to the GSC public bathroom...so stay tuned for another edition of public loo tour 2007.