Back from break!

Well, it looks like it's been a month since my last post. That means that this post should be incredibly long, but I'm going to skip a lot of things.

I finally hooked up my antenna and digital converter box. Thus, I am ready for the DTV Transition on Feb. 17th. Exciting. It's only taken me an entire semester.

I went to a Group X class yesterday: Power Flow. It was a combination of Yoga and Pilates, but it was just okay. I really love Core Crunch but I can't go to it because of my schedule. So I decided that I will probably go to the classes I can fit into my schedule on the weekends and at night, but I will spend my mornings at the Shell. They have open ice skating on Mondays and Wednesday nights, but with APO I'll probably make it a once a week thing on Wednesdays.

Wyatt asked an interesting question the other day. He picked up a ridgy yellow gourd and wanted to know if it is still alive. It wasn't moldy, but I didn't know what to say so I looked to Liz and Beth to help me out. We got into technicalities and even Cait offered up an opinion. I guess the big question is at what point is something considered dead? Just something to think about, since it can have implications for people who are in the hospital and can't take care of themselves and are completely on life support. When those people are unhooked from the machines which keep them alive, when are their lives officially over, assuming they can't breathe on their own? Interesting.

I have to go to class! (Click below for my fantastic school schedule)

My life as a 21 year old (thus far)

Well, not much has actually changed, so I apologize for giving this post a title that is misleading. I've managed to go to only a handful of the bars in Madison thus far, though when I went out it was with great people who I haven't seen in a good while.

For my birthday about nine of us met at Porta Bella for dinner. I felt awful that Liz couldn't come because she had an exam (not even a final, a third exam). Either way, it ended up being Beth, Cait, Ace, Paul, Blaise, Ashley, Eric, and Drew and we enjoyed a fun, if not slightly awkward, meal together in celebration of my birth. When it came time to go out, everyone was either underage or unable to go out, so Beth came out with me, despite having come out that morning to celebrate my 21st at Lucky's. I don't know if she actually wanted to come out since she had so much to do, but it was extremely nice and she even bought me a drink! What a lady. We hit up Wando's and got free shots, the Nitty and got free beer, and then Brats where I kissed the nasty bull and got a free shot. Yay for free.

I forgot to mention that Beth and Mark, as well as (as best I can remember) Sam, Katie, some guy named Eric who is also from Franklin, perhaps Ryan, and probably a bunch of other people who I am forgetting, went out to Lucky's the morning of my birthday. The bartender was awful but I had a lot of fun. Beth and I even played shuffledboard! It was definitely a fun night despite being a Monday night/Tuesday morning.

Finally, I went out with Kimi last Friday. We have been talking about going out with Kel since the beginning of the semester when I was still underage, and we finally did it, except that Kelly couldn't come. So it goes. We had "pre-drink" at Kimi's which included watching the Bourne Ultimatum and drinking Bailey's. We then took the 82 to State from Kimi's (we only had to walk one house down to catch it and it dropped us off at the bar) to Brats where we met up with Kevin, Mark, Ryan, Katie, and um...other KHK people? It ended up being a New Year's Eve celebration so we got free champagne at midnight, 12:45 am, and around 1:15 am. It was my lucky day since I love champagne and free things. Delicious. We got wristbands for a free limo ride home but ultimately Bethy picked us up from Wando's (I was only there a few minutes since I got stuck back at Brats with Kevin saying goodbye to his fans). While we were at Brats Kimi and I left so she could show me the "naked lady game" at City Bar. I have to admit that it was quite fun and I would like to play it again, though she is leaving for Florida soon and it won't be the same without her! Anyway, Beth picked us up and took us through the drive-thru at McDonalds which was nice of her. And that was that. I went home and went to sleep.

I think that my alcholic beverage of choice is Bailey's. It is actually yummy and I actually desire to drink it sometimes. Crazy.

Things I've Neglected to Add

I went to Five Guys for lunch and I saw that all of the good seats near the window were taken. Who took them? Firefighters. No big deal, right? Wrong - look what they drove to get there. Ridic!




I took a picture of the gas station sign because I was so happy about the gas prices, but now I am sad because they are much lower ($1.69 today). womp womp.




This is why pedestrians in Madison have a bad reputation....you should have seen the two people who climbed under this train before I got my camera out.

I am on a Mac....right now :(

Random tidbits

Today I enjoyed a delicious lunch at Five Guys which featured potatoes from Sugar City, Idaho. These potatoes yielded perhaps the most delicious batch of fries yet. Anyway, I noticed that all of the "window seats" were taken by firefighters. Guess what they drove to get to lunch? The fire truck! It was parked outside as these men consumed oversized portions of heaven proceeded by gulps of delicious Pepsi, or "nectar," as my dad calls it. I'll add the picture I took later this week. Yeah, I know, I'm a creeper.

Whilst at Memorial Library I decided to rent a laptop so that I could go up to my tower and work without the sound of keys clicking around me and phones vibrating against the desks. They only had one available, a *gasp* Mac. I'll give it a try. I'm still using a desktop since the laptop was just returned. But in 11 minutes, it will be mine. All mine...for three days.

I ran across an update to Professor Hawk's blog that I like. Classicists will enjoy this more than everyone else, but have at it: Cicero.

The Wii interface reminds me of Macs. I do so enjoy the Wii, however, I don't think I'm ready to switch from a PC to a Mac, and I don't think I want to. I want to be able to play Age of Empires and Age of Mythology and avoid Safari. I am not a Mac person, which is why renting this laptop will be somewhat of an experiment. I'll let you know how it goes.

grammar

I was browsing a Facebook group that advertised use of good grammar. Of course, I checked it out and was saddened to find the following posts (click for a better image):

Wii FTW? Yes, FTW.

So, today I acquired a Wii. I know, I know, I said before that it was the one platform I was completely uninterested in. Well, I made a mistake. I love N64, and for me, the Wii is simply a newer version of my once-beloved N64. Mikel was amazing and sold me his Wii with two remotes and a nunchuck for $240, along with Wii Sports and Wii Play. Needless to say, I played it for several hours until my mom wanted to watch Judge Judy. In case you don't know, we only have one television at home with video game capabilities. Mikel even gave me two Gamecube games (yet another system I told myself I would never buy) but I lack a Gamecube memory card or controller to play them. I'll ask him about getting those later. For now, I'm plenty happy playing the same 14 mingames over and over. Though I do long for Super Mario Galaxy.....it reminds me of hooking up our N64 for the first time, and dreading how complicated the entire installation and interface would be since Sega was no walk in the park to hook up. Of course, N64 didn't require unhooking our TV antenna and there is no "lobby" area (Sega also lacked one, but we thought N64 might have one that would leave us confused for some reason). Funny story, when XBOX was the gift a few years ago, my dad, brother, and I saw my mom on TV buying the system at Wal-Mart. Fox 6 was showing how crazy stores were on Black Friday that year, and there was my mom, fighting off other moms, to buy us an XBOX. Of course, when she got home we made her give it to us right away so that we could play it. She was reluctant and denied even buying it, but they ran the story again that night and sure enough, there she was!

I went and saw Quantum of Solace with Yvonne yesterday, and have to admit that Daniel Craig is somewhat attractive for an old guy. I was disappointed that there was a general lack of cool objects used by 007, though I was impressed with the movie theater's popcorn. Delicious, as always.

I want to mention that while driving back home for Thanksgiving I saw a falling star. Not just a shooting star, but a falling star. It was definitely headed toward Earth. I love the annual meteor showers, but am not into them enough to bother becoming interested in astronomy; all I know is that the bigger ones are in December/January and August. This random little star was both cute and lovely.

If you love me, you will consider buying me one of these things for my 21st birthday, which is December 9th:

- Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
- Champagne (any variety)
- Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii)
- An iPod charger so I can charge it without my computer
- A real popcorn popper
- Books
- Anything romantic
- Cute earrings

This list (which may be added to as I think of new things) will also serve as my Christmas list, which will be reposted for Christmas once I can think of all the things I might desire for Jesus' birthday!

"Brain so good swore you went to college..."

I'm not going to lie, although terrible grammar irks me, I like T.I's newest single. yeah yeah.

My favorite song right now: Jackson 5

It seems that our Coastie party was a success! Last night we threw an impromptu party at our place because I felt like dancing and dressing like a coastie. So it happened. We dressed up like Coasties and had pomegranate martinis and invited the neighbors upstairs to this VIP event. It was excellent.

nom nom nom nom

The Boys Next Door - "Yeah Yeah!"

Well, it looks like I've neglected my blog for the past week. My bad. Below you will find the makings for a hilarious comedy that would receive two thumbs up.

Cait, Sam, Ed, and I ended up going to a Catholic mass that was completely in Spanish at Holy Redeemer on Johnson this morning. Needless to say, I'd never been to a Spanish church service, or a Catholic service for that matter. Haha I'm not going to pick on Catholics too much but that was a whole lot of kneeling, praying, standing, and sitting. I also didn't know that one shouldn't take communion unless they've confessed that week. Oops. But here's the best part of the whole thing: So, Caitlyn and I had an excellent time at the party upstairs writing "boobs" on Tony, Drew, and Cait's own chest. Since neither of us had time to shower in the morning before mass, she wore a cute scoop neck shirt (as did I) and we realized afterward that she received communion with "BOOBS" written across her chest and an arrow pointing to where they are located. HAHAHAHAHA Definitely the most hilarious thing ever this week. Ever. Even more hilarious is the story below.

Please tell me you noticed that the above two sentences were contradictory. If not, that means you aren't reading carefully enough. You know what really grinds my gears? I hate when people use "yeh" and "ya" instead of "yeah."

Moving on...so Friday night was Beth's 21st birthday party and fortunately there was a minimal number of random people. I had a lot of fun until Ronnie was brought up. I seriously do NOT want to talk about it. I have no idea what is going on between us. If I did, I would not be so frazzled. In the interest of having a good time, I proceeded to play beer pong and found that Eric and I make a wonderful team - especially since he drank all the cups once I ran out of delicious Asti to fill them with.

For fun, we're having another party tonight. Luckily we met our neighbors in #1 and they're chill. I'd like to give a shout-out to myself:

• SO for going three for three this weekend - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.

Liz walked in a few minutes ago while Cait was giving me a massage and we were sitting practically on top of each other on the couch. We definitely thought she was one of the guys upstairs coming down to rain on our gossip parade so we both had a super guilty look on our faces. Needless to say, Liz thought she walked in on a lesbian moment. For the record, Caitlyn and I are not lesbians. I guess you had to be there.

I'm really sick of either the Badger Herald or the Daily Cardinal screwing up the crytoquip quotes. Seriously, they're annoying to begin with since they're so ridiculously easy, but when you start to write it out correctly and discover that a letter in the code was incorrect, it becomes irritating. It makes me irate and really grinds my gears.

How did I miss this??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGkxcY7YFU

Madison is my hot hot sex

Recently, things have been amazing! Since I'm helping out a MHR class at 11:30, I'm going to summarize why I've been so pleased:

• I feel like everyone at work is really starting to get how we do things. Leases seem to be running smoothly now, and my team is on top for the second week in a row!
• I am making bank with all of the leases I've gotten, despite showing a ton of properties on the east side :)
  
• Liz and I cleaned the common spaces (living room, kitchen, dining area) and it is a much more pleasant place to be.
• Someone put new batteries in the remote. Yay!
• I went to Wal-Mart with Liz and bought two movies for $5 each - Big Daddy and Along Came Polly, as well as a new package of socks, brake fluid, and plastic for the windows. mmmm....new socks....
• I nearly completed a crossword during class yesterday. The Herald features stumpers sometimes, and I rocked this one in the face.
• I put the plastic on my windows - energy savings here I come!
• I am making mashed potatoes for lunch
• I added brake fluid to my car all by myself in the dark!
• Beth's birthday is coming up
• I have no more exams until finals! And one of my finals is a take-home final!
  

And best of all....

• When I decided to watch Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, I noticed that this DVD, which I purchased at the DVD/Media Exchange store on State Street, had two discs: presumably a movie disc and a special features disc. I proceeded to place the disc which looked more like the actual movie into my PS2, though both had "Disc 1" printed on them. What happened? Well, it seems that my movie came with both the first AND second Pirates of the Carribean movies! Someone probably exchanged it and forgot to put the special features disc back in! Two movies in one case for $5 - amazing.
  

A wonderfully unexpected change of plans

So it turns out that next year Katie E is going to be living with us! I really miss seeing her and since she is going to be rooming with Liz next year, I'll get to see her every day of the week! Plus, that means we'll also get to see more of Wyatt and Finny.

I think I've decided to try my best to pursue a career in underwater archaeology. Hopefully I will get into a field school - I was really excited about the one in the Agora (in Athens) but it sounds really hard to get into. Now that I'm thinking about doing underwater archaeology, it would be nice to find an opportunity that would involve diving. Here are two other fieldschools I am looking at:

Greece - University of Montreal
Pylos -University of Missouri - St. Louis

I am really frustrated with Ronnie right now. If he doesn't want to call me back or talk to me that's fine: I can take a hint.

Oh, school newspapers...

The other day the Daily Cardinal ran an article about the play that I recently saw, "The Greeks." It was okay, and since it was only $14 I didn't feel so bad about spending the money to go out with various classics professors and other classics enthusiasts. Basically, it was a set of three different plays that were all related. I'll let you read the article: Madison going "Greek". I hate to be a Classics snob, but come on. Last I checked, Helen of Troy was not the mother of Achilles. Also, the play I saw was not as "riveting" as the one that Ms. Casarez saw since the acting was just okay and there is little action (I really mean it, a brief dance is all I recall).

Skipping class to blog

Well, it seems that I've missed Troy class today. Oops. To be honest, we took an exam last Thursday and I am not particularly tempted to go find out what my grade is. Considering that the final is not cumulative, resolving my errors will be of little help for the final in December. Thus, I have resolved to update my blog, which I have neglected.

On a happier note, Sneak-A-Peek is tonight! I'm really excited about it since it's a good trial run for all of the new people, who seem to be nervous. I hope my team wins tonight because then we each get $25. That would be nice since rent is due on Thursday!

I'm really excited to sign up for classes since my schedule is going to be awesome! I made a critical mistake and misread my registration time; it is a full day earlier than I had originally believed. If everything goes according to plan, I will have one to two classes a day that would end at noon, and on Wednesdays I would have three classes, with two being longer powerlectures (1.5 hours each).

• SO to finding a class schedule that rocks
• ASO to having to take an ethnic studies class that focuses on Native Americans...

Well, it's about time that I go to Sneak-A-Peek!

Halloween!

It's finally Halloween! My costume is ready, I've got shoes picked out, and I've found a purse to carry my things in. I'm really excited to go out tonight. I'm kind of bummed that Ronnie didn't want to come, but whatev. Steven and three of his Navy friends will be up, so that will be interesting.

I have a lot of homework to do, but Ronnie did direct me to Bob and Tyler's blog, which is hilarious: Bob and Tyler's Family Feed Bag. You should check it out.