THE last pre-California post!

Whoohoo! classes are done, the day is beautiful (except the wind), and its even been a pretty interesting day so far. This morning, I booked it over to ECS (English and Counseling Services building) to turn in the fun take home test that I spent SEVEN HOURS ON *pause to compose self* and as I was walking out, noticed a guy with a camera following a professor-looking man. I think perhaps it has something to do with the media coverage on the Murray trial (that English professor just convicted for his wife's murder, exciting, huh) SO, if you see anything on TV about the trial, pay attention to the background person, and it just might be me!

Then I got to go to fabulous Earth in Action, where I learned that radioactive Bob wanders around the documents section in the library (second floor), and he really had fun with "BIGGER!" resuming his yelling concurrent with footstomps and hand gestures.

Well, its back to packing. I am so stoked for spring break! It is gonna be so fun! Oh, and I gave in and took allergy medicine... lets hope I don't get high again! Have a wonderful week, and there will most likely be a very lengthy post narrating the entire trip, a few days after we get back!

*EDIT* So, I just got the second best serenade of my life (second only to Ian's serenade, not like I get serenaded alot, but if I did, they'd still be the top two)! My bro is the bestest! :D And honestly, he's gonna be the next Elton John, and he's like... wow... yeah, so good, and I love Your Song!

Procrastination and Sexed Up TV

So today's been a pretty good day. Getting up for class was a bit difficult, but well worth it, because when I got to my first class, I found out that I got a wonderful present, our teacher is giving us Friday off, AND a homework postponement because "you should have to do any homework over spring break!" French wasn't too terribly bad... but that's skipping over Earth in Action. We discussed about meanders, oxbow lakes, natural levees, and learned a valuable lesson... "Head to high ground when the dam breakage sirens go off." "but we'll talk about that in a second, okay, the second's up." Ahhh, isn't Radioactive Bob fun! And Anna is lucky and got to run errands for her scholarship application, AND work on a take home test for 2 hours, and she isn't even halfway done. whoohoo for school... but she is taking a break now (code name for procrastinating), because she is stressed... you can tell because she's talking in third person. Okay, not really, she just likes third person. And watching LOST, where two people are swimming to the bottom of the lake and swiping loot from the creepy submerged dead people.

This television watching I just mentioned, in combination with Lindsey's post yesterday, has prodded me into pulling out my soapbox once again. I shall refer to the problem as sexed up tv. This evening's encounter began the moment I turned on the TV to program the VCR to record my usual Wednesday night programming. But that was to be expected, after all, ET is all about Hollywood, which is sexed up anyway. I didn't begin to get riled up until I saw the Victoria's Secret commercial. at seven. SEVEN. The time when little kiddies are still up and can see the TV. This was followed by a chick on LOST sunbathing in a string bikini... then a little less when she decided against tan lines on her back, followed by an extended conversation with someone while sitting up, and covering what was necessary with a towel. This was followed by a Burger King commercial (BURGER KING!!) for the "tender crispy bacon cheddar ranch" burger, complete with scantily clad cowgirls seductively singing and eating the sandwich. This was followed by a commercial for the new show "Grey's Anatomy" which had a ridiculous amount of references to sex for just a 30 second commercial. I could go on, but I don't think I need to. It's pathetic, and scary. The next thing you know, these images will be incorporated into Sesame Street and Saturday morning cartoons. And its not just kids that are affected. This severely messes with a girl's self confidence, and puts expectations into a guy's mind. From skanky girls on campus, to tv, to music, to movies... when will America finally get rid of its trash?

Ian

My boyfriend is weird: he talks to himself over msn using my msn. But I love him dearly, especially because I know I'm just as weird. (haha, and you thought I wasn't actually going to do it!)

Now back to lovely homework, scholarship stuff, and a take home test. Have a wonderful day!

The insane-ness of the week and St. Patrick

Its been exactly one week (give or take an hour) since my last post, and I feel like a complete slacker. But then I realized that honestly, not that many people, if any, really read this on a regular basis, if at all, so my posting indiscretion has probably gone unnoticed... and there is a high probability that I could post a ranting on *insert strangest thing you can think of* and no one would ever know. After pondering this depressing realization for a while, I decided that I still get personal satisfaction from churning out lengthy, irrational strings of words, and so I shall commence my overview of this past week.

Honestly, its been insane... I said my last weekend was one of my busiest weekends in recent memory, and this past week and most recent weekend have been equally crazy. But through it all, God has really shown me His grace, love, and support. I am so amazed at the way He has met every single need I have had in the most perfect way possible, and I am so thankful! God is good! And also because of the insane-ness, I now have another reason to look forward to spring break... not only will I be in sunny Southern California, with awesome friends, and get to do really fun things, but I can sleep on the plane! whoohoo!

So what is the insane-ness to which I have referred?

The beginning of the week started out in one of the strangest ways imaginable. I woke up Monday morning and groggily traversed the short distance to the bathroom, toothbrush in hand, to be greeted by the sight of a uniformed officer and the complex director standing in the hallway. Needless to say, I was a little weirded out. As the week progressed, we learned there was an "incident" in my wing, which involved a non-resident of the hall entering the building and someone's room, and said intruder being discovered by one of the room's occupants. No further information could be revealed, due to the fact that it is an ongoing investigation, as well as various privacy issues. Rumor has it though, that it was a pantie raid gone awry.

Which brings me to Thursday, THE PRAGUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA! whoohoo! Ian and I got all dressed up, and Craig and Vanessa played mom and dad and took pictures for us (when I finally get all my pictures developed, they will most definitely be up on my website). We went to Sonic for supper, where were were questioned "so, is there a prom going on or something?" And after a delectable meal, went to McCain, and it was amazing... *sigh of contentment* And afterwards, we went to Radina's, where we were complimented on how nice we looked, and I was nearly killed by a vicious cup of chai that attacked my lungs... charges against the chai pending investigation. I would definitely say that this evening was one of the high points in my life to date. Plus, I got to show off my excellent job on my hair to Britni, and we girltalked, while I intermittently sniffed Ian's wonderful smelling jacket.

Friday involved a nasty Earth in Action test (and we found out our grades today, and I say Andrew stinks, but he is SO my new geology tutor), and plenty of sleep before a fun dodgeball tournament. And I have a great admiration for the sport now. I think every single person that played was sore for at least two days. Who woulda thunk? And The Manchurian Candidate is a good movie, and Brit and I girltalked again, and watched American Outlaws, and cuddled... *teehee*

Saturday was shopping day, and Britni and I really went to town... but its justifiable, it's for spring break, and it was all on sale. We concluded the afternoon with a celebratory cup of coldstone cake batter ice cream with cookie dough bits, and then got into Brit's car to head back. While still in Aggieville (which, before 6 pm, was filled with a plethora of drunks, all wearing green, due to the St. Patrick's Day festivities... I shall continue this thought in a few moments) something went seriously wrong with her car, and JB came to the rescue and put back the belt that fell off. We drove happily off, only to hear a wicked ka-CHUNK-chunk-chunk a few blocks down 11th (it was definitely a God thing that Brit drove straight down 11th instead of turning onto much-busier Bluemont). We pulled over and called JB again... this time, a part had actually fallen out of the car and into the middle of the street! I ran back and got it (JB said it was the funniest thing to see me running with the part on a stick, since it was too toasty to hold). It was FUN. Gotta love crazy car stories.

place in car missing part

JB holding part missing from car

But back to St. Patrick (since no one reads this anyway, I can make it as long as I want. There's a silver lining to everything!). As part of the town's St. Patrick's Day celebration, the bars opened at 6am, or so I heard, and as of around 6pm, just about everyone you saw in Aggieville between the ages of 18 and 50 were pretty plastered. Now, I enjoy watching a funny drunk as much as the next sober person, but I began to think on this. Universally, or at least United States-ally, St. Patrick's Day has turned into a giant drinking fest, due to the stereotype of the Irish in regards to drinking. But this greatly sads me, knowing who St. Patrick was. Any quick google search will reveal that he was an amazing man of faith and was used by God to show the Irish people the truth, and that their faith in Druidism was wrong. And he was willing to go back to Ireland, even though he was violently ripped away from his family and cushy life by Irish mauraders and sold into slavery there, all at the young age of sixteen. Now, I don't know about you, but after this less than friendly treatment, I wouldn't be jumping at the chance to really love on these people, but Patrick did, and God used him in great ways to reach the Irish for Him. With this thought, it is completely appalling to me that anyone would celebrate this man's life by going out, partying, and getting trashed, which coincidentally, is often part of celebrations of the pagan sort. And taking after T (although this is definitely not nearly as good as any of his posts) I decided to use illustrations of saints! I don't think that he (he referring back to St. Patrick, not T, in this particular instance) really looks like the sort of person you want to infuriate by desecrating his special day...

image from Samurai Appliance Repair Man on Flickr

So anyhoo, kudos to you if you've managed to pay attention enough to catch even half of this enormous post... actually, kudos to you if you even bothered to scroll down this far! I hope you all have a wonderful day/week, and God bless!

The crazy weekend and flying snails

So, after all that talk of going to bed early and such, I embarked on a ridiculously crazy/busy/fun weekend... A little after my post Friday, Andrew called to inform me of a Butterfly Effect viewing over at Farmhouse... and as since I hadn't heard back from my French 2 partner about working on our project that evening, I thought, ahhh, what the heck, I really wanna see that movie, and told Andrew as much. With instructions to bring along all the ladies along that I could, I called everyone and their dog, but mostly they were all busy with homework, birthday parties, swing dancing in KC, work... so it ended up being just me and Chandra (who had a lovely time parking... but sometimes two blocks away in front of Kappa Sig is fun!) and we (along with a larger amount of people that showed up) viewed the psychotic gloriousness that is known as The Butterfly Effect. I was quite impressed, although my nails probably are still protesting, as they kind of disappeared as I watched. I've decided nail biting is like alcoholism... you quit, and you're fine, but once you cave just that tiniest bit, you are GONE. At any rate, after the movie, Chandra and I stayed a while longer, talking to one of her FH friends, before finally trudging back to her vehicular and heading back to the dorms.

The following morning, I arose at the bright and chipper hour of 9:30, and worked on French until Ian came by so we could go to the basketball game, which was absolutely fantastic, as we finally dished out a marvelous thrashing, to Nebraska, no less, with a small mob of red-clad cheering robots present. After making a pizza run and watching some golf, Ian headed back to studio and I got to work on homework, until it was time to head over to the Thurston house for a nice game of celebrities. To start off the evening, however, we played a fun game of nertz, and I'd like to interject here, I soundly beat Britni for the first time EVER (which is a big deal, b/c I consider her one of the goddesses of nertz) although I still only got 3rd, losing to Josh and Phil. And celebrities was a riot, as always. Although this time around, there were more phones involved. Say, Britni answering "hello?" *BENEDICT ARNOLD* "hey, he hung up on me!" or Josh in round two answering the phone during his turn, only to decide it wasn't worth it, and tossing the phone onto the recliner before proceeding to yell more hints. And Mike is amazing at the charades round... I'm pretty sure he got 9 in one turn, even though it wasn't enough to help our "Awesome Team" beat the "Not Quite As Awesome Team." After the lovely game sadly drew to a close, Ian and I watched Zoolander on the big screen, and for the rest of the weekend, had the word "you-google-ee" stuck in my head. Sunday consisted of church, lunch at the derb, and a mall run, before sitting down to do homework from 2:30-11:30 straight (with two exceptions... a dinner break, and a 15 minute accidental power nap).

And now for my fast-becoming-a-habit update on the fantastic class known as Earth in Action. The bunnies have been replaced. As radioactive Bob was discussing types of deposition in deserts, I learned that a loess is composed of small angular minerals, and wind-deposited, air breathing snails. No one in the class really understood that little bit of randomness, but I couldn't stop laughing as I imagined tiny snails hurling through the air. Needless to say, this inhibited my note taking, because my nervous system is weird, and whenever I laugh with more than a chuckle, my left thumb loses half of its capacity to function, and my ability to write rapidly is completely ineffectual. I also learned that the definition of sand deposits is: "deserts are not all sand - some are and some are not" Who knew!

Anyway, I do believe that's enough rambling for the day. I've got homework to finish, and after this weekend, I really could use an early bedtime tonight. Have a wonderful day, and if you get down, just picture tiny snails whizzing past you in breeze, and you'll cheer right up!

Happy Friday!

I'm pleased to announce that I have completely recovered from my drug-induced alternately semi-comatose/spacey and wacko state of being yesterday. But, writing in my stupor, I completely failed to mention the fact that Brit and Linds and I signed for the house on Tuesday afternoon! Whoohoo! Its so cute, and it will be so fun, I can't wait to go shopping for house stuff! And even if the guys aren't gonna be living next door, I love them dearly, and they can definitely come visit anytime they want! So I'm incredibly tired and sore, and I'm not sure why (*jedi mind trick* I could really use a backrub rights about now). Maybe its because I sat in the wind for 2.5 hours watching our baseball team kick some serious bum! And I found ten dollars... seriously... at the game, blowing around. But anyhoo, pretty sure it's gonna be an early evening for Anna. Ahhh, the exciting Friday evening activities of a college student. Sidenote, Less than Perfect on ABC is a pretty funny show! And I'm very jealous of Claude's gorgeous long red hair. Anyway, I'll keep this short, to make up for the past three extensive posts. Have a wonderful weekend!

*singing* It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away...

Before I get started my readership should know, I think I'm high. Anna? high? C'est possible???? If I am, it would be the second time, the first being on the Arizona missions trip when I inadvertently sat next to an open can of deck stain for two hours. But at any rate, I shall explain today's chain of events leading up to my conclusion.

I woke up this morning at 8:30 so I could continue studying for my French test, but there was a slight throbbing in my head, and a pressure in my nasal passages. I put two and two together. cold or allergies. Either way, a cold-type medicine with pain killer should do the trick. Learning from previous mistakes (bad things happen when you take medicine on an empty stomach), I took my self-perscribed OTC medicine with a McDonald's apple pie chaser (courtesy my amazing boyfriend, and he was right, they are good for breakfast!). This taken care of, I began to study until sometime between 10:30 and 11. I decided that if I looked at another French word or grammar rule, my head was going to explode, so I laid down on the floor, and at precisely 11:08:24-ish, I began to feel a little woozy, and like my head was floating away (think Pedro on this one, but no, I did not proceed to then shave my head and skip school from the shame, before finding a friend with a supply of wigs).

Slightly concerned, I laid down on Chandra's bed until 11:15, when I decided that, given my current state, I should leave for the test a little early, allowing extra time to walk to Eisenhower, on account of my spacey-ness. I got to good ol' 124, and sat down, fully prepared to take the test. After all, I thought, the last time I took a French test doped up on cold medicine with un-diagnosed pneumonia and a ridiculously high fever, I got an A (granted, I don't remember the test, but the grade is what counts, right?), so perhaps I'm better at French in a, umm... shall we say, slightly elevated, state of mind. While checking to see if my hand was shaking, my vision did seem rather beginning-of-Moulin-Rouge-ish for a few seconds, but other than that, I was fine, and made it through the test wonderfully well, I think. Except I couldn't remember the French word for highway... l'autoroute... *sigh* oh well.

At any rate, I returned to the dorms and had lunch with Ian on the basketball court, which was wonderful, since 1) it was lunch with Ian which is always fantastic, and 2) it is an absolutely gorgeous day out today. Then we traipsed around town in an attempt to track down studio supplies for Ian. And while scanning radio stations, found U2 (sounds like U2. nope. *scan* not U2 *scan* not U2 *scan* WHOA, FREAKY, its U2!) and their perfect song for today... Beautiful Day... nothing like driving around with the sun roof, windows down, listening to rock. The search for supplies was less successful however (the bookstore should really protest to their supplier about the limited availability of that board stuff in certain hues of the color palette, and the unpredictability in which said colors arrive), and he had to settle for a second rate color for his project (although it is an awesome design, and I'm sure that he'll do great despite the less than desirable shade).

After making the purchase, I was dropped off at my dorm with a suggestion from Ian that I take a nap, in hopes that it will help, as I think the drugs are still in effect, and I think I will have to follow through with that. But before I leave you for the afternoon, I would like to share three things.

1. I have a ginormous bruise on my right elbow from whacking a table on accident the other evening, and it is very painful.
2. I think that perhaps there is a conspiracy, and the drug company randomly slips illicit substances in their OTC medicine, in an attempt to get customers addicted and resultantly boost their black market operations.
3. This morning I discovered that my chapstick brand cold sore therapy stuff has amazing numbing properties, and I am seriously contemplating a liberal application of this to my entire lip region, in a scientific experiment to see if I would then commence involuntary drooling.

Having shared these thoughts, I am now at peace to go lay down on the floor to nap in an attempt to cure my drug induced state of incomprehensibility. Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the weather!

Bunnies

My first thought this morning was die alarm clock. Fortunately my amazingly sweet roommate turned it off for me before i was completely out from under the covers to get up and smack the snooze button myself. So I tossed and turned for another 15 minutes before finally forcing myself to roll out of bed (not literally, I think that might be verging on suicidal, as I'm on the loft, and the chairs below would probably sufficiently break my back as I landed so that I would face immediate death) So I brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes, grabbed my book bag, and booked it over to Blumont for class, where I learned about slang, cursing, and various American dialects. the f-word is the most versatile swear word, and American cursing is quite unique in the fact that it also includes expressions that are impossible to do (i.e." remove head from sphincter") and things that are pleasurable, feel free to use your imagination in figuring out which those are.

With swear words and non-rhotic (a.k.a. dropped r's as in New England dialects) pronunciations bouncing around in my head, I walked over to Earth in Action for the extreme pleasure of listening to radioactive Bob discuss mass wasting once again. I do believe his redundancy this class period was the highest this semester so far. I learned that generally rapid mass wasting includes falling and sliding. sub-point 1: rock or debris falls - rapid fall of the material. sub-point 2: rock or debris slide - fairly rapid slide downslope. And a slump creates a slump of material along the edge of a cliff.

Finally he switched to slides, and as I slipped into a comatose state as radioactive Bob waved his pool-stick-pointer around, gazing up and whacking various portions of the images while simultaneously revealing how the back of his head is beginning to have gollum-ish qualities in terms of wispy, disappearing hair, I realized that this class is causing me to enjoy certain morbid and disturbing thoughts. As I viewed the slides of mass wastings and rock layers, I could not help but laugh at the thought of little, cute, fuzzy bunnies mixed in among the debris, just waiting until thousands of years later, they could be reincarnated as a fuel source for environmentally detrimental gas guzzling SUV's. This realization has driven me to the conclusion that this class is evil. What kind of sick and twisted crazed teacher would put these mental images into the brains of his students? Alas, I am trapped in the course... apparently my contrapasso for something I have done, but as of the present, have not yet been able to determine.

At any rate, the need to study for my French test is looming before me and growing in urgency. Therefore, I leave you with a question. "Est-ce que vous mangez des spaghettis au petit dejeuner?