Splinterheads

    A few days ago, I actually watched an entire movie intentionally and not for a class. Crazy, right? I bookmarked movies from the Quirky and Witty sections of Netflix so that the titles don't show up and I can pick one at random whenever I feel that weird urge to watch a movie. My most recent choice was Splinterheads. It's a little indie, and it definitely has an offbeat feel, which I love. Also, two of the main things in this movie are carnivals and geocaching (like modern day treasure hunting). How cool is that?

     This movie is indie until the end, which pans out a little too awkwardly for my taste. However, the scenery was nicely done, and the plot has a slight Hangover feel if you're into that. It was not one of my favorites, but its discussion of geocaching was intriguing and original. Basically, I'd want to live in this movie as opposed to watching it again (especially since Rachel Taylor and Thomas Middleditch, the main actors, are flawless).

Fun with Thoreau

Twitter Crushes

My college has this super cool Twitter thing where people can call out their crushes, and I may have received a shout out on it. Life is swell.

Charlie Bartlett

In my popular film class, we were told to write a ten page analysis paper on our favorite movie. I chose Charlie Bartlett, because it is one of the few movies that I can stand to watch more than once. While I will not go in depth about it here (since I already wrote ten pages about the film), I will just say that it is incredible, and that you should all watch it. 

Here a few reason that you should definitely see this movie...

 It speaks directly to my soul.

Kat Dennings is in it.

 

The positive messages interwoven throughout this movie, and the witty ways that they are said/shown.

So many oldish Degrassi characters.

This scene.

""Hello. My name is Charlie Bartlett. If there's anything I want you to remember tonight, it's that you are not alone."

Thailand and Things

Last weekend, my future educators learning community held huge conference at my college. During this conference, a ton of people from my learning community were given the chance to give presentations on their ideas for education reform, teaching tactics, and basically anything dealing with schools and how people learn.

Due to my extreme love for camp and angst towards my parents (for not being as supportive of my camps dilemmas as I would like them to be, as whiny as that sounds), I presented on how skills that I gained as a camp counselor have translated into the classrooms that I have assisted in. It went super well.

At the end, this professor guy who had watched my presentation raised his hand. I was super intimidated, since he previous questions had been a little lofty and difficult for me to understand.

"So, I am taking students to Thailand next December during winter break to look at, and hopefully participate in learning camps. Would you like to help me with that and be one of the students who goes on it?"

How many words are there for yes?

Apparently, this was the first time he had brought up this idea, which makes the fact that I was asked even more fantastic! I could not be more excited! Dreams really do come true, fill in this paragraph with more cliches about how awesome life is.

Also, my campus apparently had its unofficial campuswide Nerd Weekend. We had Animarathon, Quidditch, and LARPing out and about, as well as our zombie nerfgun wars.

(Tommy and I with someone dressed up for Animarathon)

Tea-Shirts

Procrastinating with Photography

Instead of doing the three papers that I have to turn in tomorrow, I have decided to look through my photo library (pictures from random places that I save for this blog, to print for things, for future apartment decorations, etc.). My surreal pictures caught my eye today, so I figured that I'd share them with you. They are a little darker, but I love their mysterious edge. According to Shalora, a conceptual gallery manager,

"Surreal photography would be more about creating a world or image which goes beyond the physical world as we know it. It usually shows something which would be impossible in real life or tampers with the line defining what is real and what is imaginary. Surreal = beyond the real."  

 (Disclaimer, I did not take a single one of these. Credits to the photographers, they are amazing.)

You Don't Know What You've Got 'Till It's Gone

After retrieving my wallet from a rather seedy location this morning, I took a moment to be thankful the fact that no one stole anything out of it. My school ID, driver's license, debit card, Panera gift card (because who doesn't love Panera?), and a single crinkly dollar were all exactly where I had left them.

Thankfully.

I can't say that I have ever taken time out of my day to appreciate my wallet. But at that moment, it was one of the most important things in my life, as crazy as that sounds. We never seem to take the time to feel grateful for things until they are gone. Because I think that is kind of sad, I am now taking the time to compose a list of the things that I have that I don't usually think about. (Disclaimer: I am sorry if you don't have some of these things. If this is the case, think of other things that you have, but take for granted).

1. The ability to breathe through my nose- If you aren't sick, take a moment to breathe through your nose. Remember how amazing this feels when you have a cold.

2. My senses- The fact that I can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell is fantastic. The Ultra Music Festival live stream that is playing in the background as I type this, the dim lighting from the melty-crayon lamp in my dorm room, the stale dorm air, and the tea that I am currently drinking; none of this would be possible without senses.

3. All of my friends- Self-explanatory. I love them to death, but I definitely take them for granted at times.



So take a moment, right now, and think about everything that you have. It will make your day a million times more fantastic, I promise you.

My Attraction Theory (Three COMM classes and Suddenly I'm an Expert)

I would like to propose a theory on how to attract males (I am going to say males because that's how I roll, but feel free to fill in if females are your thing).

Don't want a relationship. Don't want involvement from the opposite/same sex. Or, at least tell yourself that enough times until you believe it.

Apparently, it's that simple. Or at least, it is for me. Over the past two days, I have had about four guys either hit on me or tell me they like me, which is crazy (I swear, I am not that cool.). For various reasons and gut feelings, all of these men have been or will be turned down. But, why do they like me?

The answer is not a complicated one. Because I am not into them and because I am awesome. Since I am not into them, I can say whatever I feel like saying without caring all that much about what they think. When I am with Henry, I feel the need to watch myself, and make sure that every single move I make is "cool" enough. With these other guys, I already feel good enough, which gives me room to just be myself, whoever that is. Also, I am the best of both worlds; I like someone enough to appear committed (people are often attracted to people in relationships because they are unattainable and more at ease with themselves), but in reality, I am still single.

I cannot really be in a relationship right now. Spring semester of college is almost over, and I am hopefully heading over to the east coast to work at camp this summer. I also need to work out my love affair with drama that I discussed in my previous post before I can navigate a relationship.







Disclaimer: I would just like to say that I know that this post sounds super cocky, and it totally is, sorry. This does not happen to me on a regular basis, and I am still kind of amazed by it. Also, I am super flattered by all of the guys, and am doing my best to not lead them on, because that would be super super mean.

Disney Princesses After the Ever After

I am constantly amazed by the creativity and talent of others. Here is one of those individuals. John Cozart, aka Paint. As someone who is too much of a realist to be a true Disney fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Have a fantastic day!

Jerk It Out

So... I think you need to dance. Insert scientific facts about how dancing around like an idiot makes everything better.

Just do it, it'll make your life fun.

So Melodramatic But it Turns Me On

Alex: ... And you love it. You love it because you feed off that drama. You all love that drama.
Gigi: I don't.
Alex: Oh really? So you never wait until the last minute on a deadline or phone bill because secretly you kind of love the drama of not knowing whether or not you're going to make it?
Gigi: May...be?
Alex: And let me guess. When you were stalking Conor the other night, were you obsessing about him calling, constantly pacing back and forth and staring at your phone for days even though the date was just kind of mediocre?
Gigi: Ha. Okay, yeah?
Alex: Because you all thrive on the drama! But you've got to be more like me. If a girl likes me, great. But if not, there are plenty more out there like her.

 -He's Just Not That Into You

 You know that your life is a sad sad place when you can relate to something said in a chick flick. But honestly, this quote has been stuck in my head long after watching He's Just Not That Into You a few weeks ago. Because it's true, I love drama. And while Alex wasn't talking to me (because he is a character in a movie and has no clue who I am), he makes a valid point that relates directly to my life.

Readers, I am a drama addict.

This is an overdue realization, but it was definitely needed. I thrive on drama. As much as I like to hide it and say that "I do things for the stories", that's just a cover.  When life gets stale, I feel compelled to find ways to make it interesting, whether that be to break up with a boyfriend, talk to strangers, or drink way too much caffeine and call up Henry (who, I am pretty sure is attempting to friendzone me). Not even going into everything with Henry, that kid is like Hurricane Drama.

Sometimes, this can be a great thing. I refuse to let life bore me, and when I'm down, I look for interesting ways to cope, which oftentimes lead me to some amazing opportunities. 

However, sometimes it would be nice to just be okay with regularity.

But hey, that's what keeps life interesting.

Caffeine and Things like That

It is now 1:00am, which is most certainly past my bedtime. Still wired. Still so so wired.
Probably should not have drank much that much caffeine.
Two large mugfuls is apparently one large mugful too many.
I don't know why, but tonight I'll be writing in lines.
Henry and Matt accompanied me on tonight's adventures
a pool game that took too long to win to the sound of Matt
playing piano. An adventure
which included an extreme round of hide-and-go-seek/try
not to get mugged in my case (sexism at its finest).
We stopped by an over a store apartment and did over a store apartment things
Shapie-ing Henry's head, sitting on bean bag's, and reading
a book entitled How to Talk to Girls written by an eight year
old.
A horse mask fell into the mixing pot somewhere towards the end.
Walking walking walking back and stairs and high fives and scratched promises
to hang out and bad lines written about those scratched promises and
the excessive use of the word and.
Stream of conscious writing is a terrible idea, you should try
it sometime. Just break up the lines and pretend
that it looks deep. Yeah. Yeah Yeah yeah.. I need
to fall out of love with drama and stories. And leave Henry alone.
And find motivation.

Even Especially if you suck, writing everything you think as you think it is really entertaining. Try it sometime, it can't be as terrible as what you just read.

@4#*$!

As many of my friends will tell you, I love profanity. I curse like a sailor. In fact, pirates have nothing on me. Here's the reason, I genuinely love cursing. As an English major, I am in a constant love affair with words, from poetry and 'high-brow" literature to dialects and made-up words (aka real words that Webster hasn't approved of yet, such as puddlejumpers (rain boots).

A lot of people tell me that using profanity makes me sound ignorant and tacky. Maybe it does. Whatever. I am capable of employing scholarly diction alongside the educated individuals of modern day civilization/society. It's not difficult to crack open a thesaurus. However, it takes a true word lover to pull off cussing.

My favorite word in the English language is the F-bomb. (Unfortunately, I gave up all of these words as a part of Lent, a religious custom that I celebrate, so I will only be alluding to them in this post) It can be used as any part of speech, the best a word chameleon. Amazing. ****ing amzing. Everything sounds more powerful with a nice F bomb in front of it.  And sometimes, when you stub your toe or spill coffee on your laptop (like I just did), a perfectly uttered/scoffed piece of profanity can be a beautiful thing. Deep down, I truly believe that swearing upon one of these instances can decrease the pain of the event.

Basically, as long as you use these words in their proper context (i.e. not in front of an employer or young child), and not to hurt anyone else, I say, go for it (Unless, of course, someone really screws you over. In that case, release the cursing kraken!).

Thankfully, at the end of March, I will once again regain my ability to use the amazing words as often as I please and the situation will allow.

Have a *$&#@ awesome day!

Hot Teen Slut

     After adventuring off and around campus with my adventure friend, Henry, and our other friend, Davey,  I ended up collecting all of the library books that I had on hold. I am currently making my way through as much of Write Bloody Publishing's author line-up as I can get my hands on without paying money, something I do not have much of at the moment. 

My first read was Hot Teen Slut by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz. It's a story in poetry form. Kind of. I know that a lot of you picture this when you think of poetry.

 Before you all go getting your literary panties in a metaphorical bunch, I would just like to say that the idea of poetry freaks me out a little as well. However, this isn't that kind of poetry. It's the awesome kind when Cristin describes her job as an editor for PORN WEBSITES... you read that right. 

It was a short read, less than 100 pages, and quite the page turner. It also made me super excited for the other ten books from Write Bloody, especially since two of them are by Cristin.

Poetry doesn't have to be scary. It can be its own weird kind of awesome (just like you).  

Burned Out: It gets you down, we've all been there sometimes, but tonight, I'll make you feel beautiful once again

     Everyone (or at least most people) feels burned out at some point in their lives. I have been through this multiple times during various points in my life. Now is definitely one of those times. Dictionary.com defines burned out as exhausted or made listless through overwork, stress, or intemperance. 

It's easy to feel listless, restless, and useless. It'd be all too easy to lay on my couch (to climb onto my bed would require motivation), skip all of my classes, and binge on ice cream and candy. I have definitely debated doing that.

However, I have found that there are benefits to burn out, if one manipulates it correctly. As you guys have noticed by the extensive quantity of poetry review posts, I have been exploring my interest in modern poetry, from Andrea Gibson to "children's" poems to anything that catches my eye. I have also agreed to participate in more things that are outside of my comfort zone (raves, coffee, all-nighters, etc.)

Burn out is a fantastic reason to look into other hobbies. In order to not go completely crazy from stress (my tenth interview of the semester is next week, along with classes, and other stressors), I realized that I have to pick up other hobbies. 

Can't think of something to be interested in? Look around, check your Pinterest boards, ask your friends, or look up a list of hobbies, attach them to a dartboard, and then try the interest that you hit. Go with someone to an out-of-your-regular-routine activity. The possibilities are endless.

Crazy, right? Who knew there was a bonus to burn out?

So, next time you sigh the exasperated-burn-out sigh (you know the one),  just know that you are not alone, and might, in fact, be about to acquire a new interest.

Happy Soul Searching! 

 

Shel Silverstein

As someone who enjoys reading ( as you can most likely tell from the amount of books I talk about), I like to pretend that I read everything, no discrimination, equal opportunity literature enthusiast. But that really isn't the case.

One genre that I continually avoid is children's books. I associate them with small children, something that I am not, and avoid them like the ten page paper I should be working on right now. However, there are many things to be learned from children's literature. Today, I have pulled from Shel Silverstein, whose poems are extraordinarily deep yet simple at the same time. Take a look.

 

It's Not Even My Birthday

After stepping outside of my dorm today and not being able to see my own breath, I realized that spring was (almost kind of) here! Besides the amazing weather and dramatic increase in the amount of time everyone spends outside, the best part about the beginning of spring is that it means my birthday is coming!

Birthdays are the best. Without fail. Since I am still at the age where growing old is cool, I see birthdays as a fun way to celebrate life, while acquiring free things, eating fancy people food, and hanging out with friends, whether it's my birthday or someone else's.

Every year for my birthday, I like to listen to songs that have my age in them. Here are some of those songs (I genre-hop for these, since it's usually the poppier songs that mention ages)

15. (Fifteen-Taylor Swift)

16. (You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful and You're Mine)-Ringo Starr)

17. (Edge of Seventeen- Stevie Nicks)

 18. (Soco Amaretto Lime- Brand New)

19. (Nineteen-Teegan and Sara)

Etc. I have probably missed tons of songs, feel free to add any in the comments! Also, if it's your birthday or near your birthday, Happy Birthday! (If it's not, Happy Un-Birthday!)

So, Camp...

After interviewing with the art director of my first choice camp, I received a phone call today.

I ended up talking with one of the people I interviewed with, who started off the conversation by saying "Unfortunately... you're going to have to turn down all of your other camp job offers, because we really want you!"

Life is a swell, swell place. Everything is excellent and nothing hurts. Except for the fact that my parents want me to stay close to my hometown (ew). But whatever, still awesome!

So this makes two job offers. Although it's going to be difficult to choose, I feel so blessed/lucky to have such amazing choices.

Home Sweet Homes

As much as I love visiting my family, I am super excited to finally return back to my school and friends. I want to say that I am going "home", but, with all of the moves that I go through, I can never really place where that is. Is it possible to have multiple homes?

For the past two years (aka since I've started college), I haven't stayed in one place for longer than two months. At camp last summer, I moved cabins once or twice a week, and then after camp, it's school to my hometown and back again over and over. And I love it, I really do. It's taught me a lot of things like proper packing skills, long distance communication, living in the moment, and to rid myself of things that I don't need (I have a little trouble sticking with that last one). The idea of home has been screwed up for these past two years, since I can never pick one solid location.

However, the cliche still remains true I guess, home is where your family is. Here are a few of my families.

 (My camp family performing one of our favorite skits)

 (My college family after attending Day-Glow)

(My extended "biological" family on one of our annual vacations to the ocean)

"We were part of something ours and ours alone,

anywhere was home, we're almost here again"- The Academy Is...

Ed Sheeran: Making My Day, One Cover at a Time

Ed Sheeran (with Passenger) performing "No Diggity" and "Thrift Shop" Mashup

Interviews

I have been through six interviews this semester (not counting the one I have on Monday). Mainly for camps, but also (2) for the resident adviser process. Along the way, I have hopefully learned a thing or two about interviews.

Here is what I have for you (I am trying so very hard not to use the cliche tips, sorry if I do):

If it's a phone interview, have your laptop in front of you, with the employer's website pulled up- This has saved me many a time. If you blank on something, instead of freaking out about it, you can just go through the website. Also, a woman I was interviewing with yesterday (about an art's position at a camp) asked me to look through her Pinterest and discuss the crafts I have done/want to do at camp. I was able to pull up Pinterest quickly and continue on interviewing.

Tell stories- "What is your strength?" is an interview question that I hear over and over (mainly because it really is super insightful). The best way to spice up questions and highlight your extensive knowledge of whatever field you want to be in is to tell a story.

Look at Jesus for example. Regardless of whether or not you believe in him religiously, his public speaking skills were through the roof (Bible pun, sorry), mainly because he told stories/parables. The story will stick with the interviewer because it's new to them, and humans are hard wired to remember stories better than plain information. Plus, it adds a layer of believability, since it's more difficult to make up a story vs. lie about a weakness.

(Look at those captivated faces.)


Have Experiences-You can't tell stories without experiences. A lot of people who are looking for their first job complain that no one will hire them due to their lack of experience, which keeps them from gaining experience. Volunteer. Do things informally. Say yes to new experiences. Presto! You have experiences that an employer wants to hear about!

I volunteered as a tour guide for my residence hall when no one else really wanted to, which helped me land my job as a tour guide which helped me landed my job as a "communications specialist". All because I volunteered (and also because I studied up on interview tactics).

Even if you don't want the job, interview for it anyway- I have applied for so many camp jobs I can barely keep track of them. A trekking camp out west (my #2 choice for camps) started my interview off by explaining that, since I was under twenty-one, this would be an internship, and I would only be paid a $500 stipend for the whole summer. Camp jobs pay next to nothing to begin with (especially since counselors are on-call 24/7), but I am used to being paid a certain amount each week, especially with my previous camp experience.I am most likely not going to take this job.

But I continued to interview for it anyway, to practice my interview skills. I wanted to see if I could act like I still wanted it. It was also super helpful/useful to see the kinds of questions she threw out, which included "Tell me a joke" (camp folk are odd folk).

Happy interviewing! You are awesome at life!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

     As you can probably guess by the title of this post, I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind today. I have had this movie in my Netflix queue for forever, but due to my short attention span, I hadn't watched it until now (I am not really a huge movie person).

     I was a little wary of the cast line up, since I am used to seeing Jim Carey as more a a comedy actor, and a lot of the actors are familiar faces (something that weirds me out since I see them as the actor and less as the character). However, the movie was amazing. Everything was beautifully done, and all of the back stories came together in such a stunning way (especially Kirsten Dunst's plotline, did not see that one coming).

     Basically, Clementine and Joel (Kate Winslet and Jim Carey) start the film broken up and hating each other, to the point where they were both using a memory-eraser in order to forget about each other. But as the memory-eraser-people erase Joel's memories, forcing him to relive them (while they get shwasted and high), he ends up wanting Clementine back. Crazy stuff.

It's an interesting concept, forgetting someone that broke your heart in any way, one that I am sure most of us (myself included) have though about at some point or another.

My English teacher in high school said that all forms of literary expression (books, movies, etc.) have two purposes: two inform, and entertain. Too often, movies only entertain. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind does both. It made me think.

My second favorite scene barely lasts five seconds, but it involves this little old lady having memories of her dead husband removed. She is bawling, and my heart breaks for her. partly because she reminds me of my Oma (after my Opa died), and partly because it's an intense scene.

     The ending was by far the the part of this movie that made it the amazing picture that it is to me. When couples are broken up in most movies, they will be happily reunited like nothing happened, even if their problems aren't actually solved. Without spoiling the ending for you guys, this doesn't happen, making this piece a lot more honest.



If you could forget someone who broke your heart, even if they were a huge part of your life, would you?

The Madness Vase

     I swear, I am normal on occasion. However, tonight is just not one of those nights. After hanging out with my Oma, I stopped in to visit my friend Kristen, and I ended up reading. Yes, you read that right, reading.

Wow. Even I am amazed at the new level of nerd that I have just reached. And no, it wasn't because Kristen is boring (in fact, her life is super entertaining. She usually does most of the talking when we hang out because I just love her stories that much).

She showed me her latest book buys Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathon Safran Foer and The Madness Vase by Andrea Gibson. I didn't have a positive experience with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but since The Madness Vase is a collection of poems, I figured that it'd be easy to read (and keep conversation).

And it was quite amazing. Haunting, in the most beautiful way. I only made it halfway through, so my new mission is finding this book and making it my own.

Here is an excerpt from her poem entitled "Sleeping"

 I’m exactly like him
We both have wrinkles around our eyes, a hundred years older than our ages
We both carry ourselves like ambulances with someone dead inside
hoping we’ll get there in time.
I didn’t get here in time.


And here is a link to the preview of these poems.

You're welcome (they are that good).

Soco Amaretto Lime

For some reason, whenever I come home, I end up looking through my old journals and mementos. It's weirdly fun, but I have never really been the nostalgic type. Until "Soco Amaretto Lime" by Brand New came on. Never have I wanted to be eighteen more in my life.

Passed out on the overpass
Sunday best and broken glass
Broken down from the bikes
And bars Suspended like spirits

Over speeding cars
You and me were kings over the
Parkway tonight
And tonight will go on forever

While we walk around this town
Like we own the streets
And stay awake through summer
Like we own the heat

Singing "everybody wake up(wake
Up)it's time to get down"
(everybody, everybody wake up
It's time to get down

And when I pass the bottle back
To Pete on the overpass tonight,
I bet we laugh

I'm gonna stay eighteen forever
(cut me open)
So we can stay like this forever
(sun poisoned)

And we'll never miss a party
(this offer stands forever)
'Cause we keep them going constantly
And we'll never have to listen

(new haircut)
To anyone about anything
(new bracelet)
'Cause it's all been done and

It's all been said
(eyeliner)
We're the coolest kids and we
Take what we can get

Got Postcards From a Former Self Saying "Howya been?"

I have a weird love of writing things to myself. Letters, journals, blog posts, etc. I just love the idea of being able to look back on my life, whether I am laughing at myself, wishing I could tell myself what I know now, or looking at the things that have happened to me in a new way. Since I am in my hometown for Spring Break, I have the time to reread a lot of my writings and cringe at my awkwardness on paper.

Here are a few of the types of things I write to myself

Birthday letters- I love to make bets with myself on my future and see if they come true. It's also nice, when I am in a low place in life, to think about a future where things will improve (because I am an optimist and heart and also because I have a spring birthday, and everything is perfect in the spring).

Wills- It's super morbid, and I usually try to listen to happy music when I write it because it creeps me out, but I feel like it's necessary. You never know when you are going to be eating dirt sandwiches (Stephen King's words, not mine), and I would like to be prepared so that the few things I have won't just sit around in my room collecting dust.

Letters for when I am 46- When I was 16, I was talking to my dad about his life, and he said that it would have been interesting for him to remember what he wanted his life to be like by the time he was 46. Inspiration hit, and now, every so often I write myself a letter predicting what my 46 year old self will be like.

A "must read" books list- This list is so ridiculously extensive, and it keeps getting longer. For every book I cross off, I feel as though I add five more. This is especially true since I just discovered Write Bloody, a publishing company that puts out amazing works of poetry/short fiction/etc. ( I just put like eleven of their books on hold at the library).

This blog- As much as I am writing this for an audience, I also write this for myself to a certain extent. I like looking back at the things that I write in order to see how I can improve, and how I have grown, as a blogger and as a person.

You don't even have to be a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist in order to write things to yourself. It's awesome!

We're Happy, Free, Confused, and Lonely in the Best Way

Do you ever just have those times where you are so burned out on life and you just want to do all of these crazy things in exotic places and cry and drink coffee and scream and make things and sign up for everything?

That is how I feel right about now. Maybe this is just a part of growing up, maybe this is just the grungy weather that is happening in my part of the globe, or maybe this is just me taking a Pocahontas dive off of the mental cliff.

 As much as I love my major, I just don't feel like teaching is where I belong in the world (sorry to get all Kumbaya on you guys). There are so many other things that I could be doing and loving more. Plus, every teacher that I have shadowed (at least ten) are super burned out, even some of the newer teachers.

As someone who is used to loving school, it has been extremely difficult for me to enjoy my classes this semester, which saddens me in a weird way.

And don't even get me started on the guy front...

Plus, I am doing an essay (for queer lit) on HOW LIFE IS CONFUSING...sometimes, literature has an uncanny ability to relate to my life.

So if you are confused or alone or burned out, never fear! You can, at the very least, eliminate alone from that list since I am right there with you.

Here's to hoping we all figure things out!

Hometown Bound

This week is Spring Break for my college, which means that I can visit my family for the week. I am super excited, since I have been homesick (which is weird, since I am rarely homesick) for my family for most of February.

(From the left: My little sister Courtney, my older sister Karina, my dad, my mom, and me, allly  decked out in our Easter best, florals and pastels)

I am am only child today, because both of my sisters are gone.

Fortunately, Courtney comes back from her track and field trip tomorrow, and then my mom, Courtney, and I are off to see my older sister at college. I could not be more excited.

I also get to hang out with my Oma today, which is awesome since I haven't seen her (or anyone in my family for that matter) in over two months. Crazy.


If you have a spring break, I hope that you are enjoying it, wherever you are!