Where's that Silence in the Library?

Today, my day consisted of four things:  Spanish, the library, homework, and crayons.

I woke up to my usual Here Comes the Sun 8:13 alarm clock and thought to myself, "It's cold and Spanish is dumb, so I should go back to bed".  Of course, after having one of those in your head arguments, I realized this was an invalid case and got up for the typical morning routine of teeth brushing and cereal eating before the next two hours of Español.  I was lucky, because I knew I didn't have to go to Spanish Lunch Tables for an hour after class with the amount of Othello work I had to do.  

My luck soon ran out.

On the way back from class, I battled the winds of A-squared and headed for the Ugli.  I made my way up the stairs like a popsicle, and headed to Askwith for the three and a half hour version of Othello I had to watch before writing my two page paper due tomorrow.  You're thinking "woah that's a lot of Shakespeare", and I agree. But honestly, three and a half hours is one of the short ones.  And I only had one video to watch this week.  I'd say that's nice.  Anyways, I go up to the guy working the media library and ask for the Ian McKellen version of Othello.  I give him all the information I had on the film (year, actors, directors, anything I could find) and what class it was for, and waited for him to quickly grab the dvd and let me leave and watch.  My teacher has this nasty habit of choosing the most obscure versions of each play, so they are hardly ever online. What a bummer.  So the guy at the desk says, "uh, I'm not sure if we have that."  I say "can you check?" "Oh yeah okay" (uh duh).  Then he asks me to repeat the information again and decides that they have a version to watch in the library, but that it is being watched already by three people.  I didn't care, I didn't want to have to sit there and watch anyways.  So I awaited the time when he would realize that they must have another copy for me to take back to my dorm room and watch in my bed with animal crackers and snapple.  After a lot of back-and-forths of me asking him to check and him realizing that, yeah, that's a thing, he comes back with a yellow case reading Othello Abridged.  My heart sank.  I knew this couldn't be it.  It was only 62 minutes.  There was no way.  Then I had that other thought.  "What if it was it?! What if I read the wrong one online?! He looked it up, he says its right!" So I grabbed the disk, said thank you, and headed out into the frozen tundra that was my campus.  I got back to my room, put the disk in my computer, and saw that it was in fact the wrong version.  I knew it, I just didn't want to believe it.  So after waiting twenty minutes, hoping the dvd would miraculously appear in my room, I headed back to the Ugli.  Back up the stairs like a popsicle, and into Askwith.  The guy at the desk looked at me more confused than a pig in Alaska, and took the dvd back.  He told me the one to watch there would be done in a few minutes, and I told him I'd wait. 

Thirty minutes later, I was still waiting when someone from my class came in.  He asked for Othello, and was told to join the club.  One of the girls watching came out to say they were almost done, and I went back to waiting, this time with a partner.  After five minutes, we decided to go back and see just how far they were in the film.  They had just reached Act Five! He left, and I was all alone again.  Then another girl came and we waited to watch together.  Thank goodness.  After another ten minutes, the three who had been watching came out shaking their heads.  The film was long, and they didn't even bother finishing it.  Guess who was excited?  So we sit down to watch and are soon joined by another classmate.  Clearly, we only sort of watched, sort of browsed the wonders of the internet, and really talked.  A lot.  We came up with our ideas for our paper, and finally finished.  I'm not one to cut corners on an assignment, but I have to admit, I skipped to the good parts and got out of there as fast as possible and headed through the wind tunnel to my room to write my paper.

An hour and a half later I had finished the world's most awful paper.  It was so full of singing in the shower that I felt ashamed to be writing it, but it had to be done.  I finished just in time for ,y semi-mandatory Spanish tutoring.  My brain was dead, but down the steps I went to hablo español.  

After tutoring, I talked to my cousin.  She's been asking me to go to the library with her since classes started, but it never worked out.  I figured I'd spent most of my day in the library already, why not make  it all of my day.  So I headed out to the Ugli once again.  I sat down, and realized how loud it was.  I was caught in this awkward state of semi-attention to everything.  My homework, other people's conversations.  Everything.  Of course I was surrounded by a calculus group (ah) and a group working on some Hamlet project (figures).  At the mention of Horatio's name, my ears perked up like a puppy when the treat bag shakes.  I was anything but productive.  Oh, did I mention I forgot half of my homework in my room anyways?  The sensory overload and lack of homework resulted in my leaving the library. 

An hour later I finished my Spanish homework with just enough time to go to the crayon art event!  I bundled back up, and headed across the howling courtyard to glue crayons on canvas and blow dry them to melt.  It was so nice to be sitting on the floor surrounded by crayons, and not noisy library folk. My crayon art came out wonderisly as well.  No that was not a typo. (I sort of copied another kids, but his was cool so I think it's okay.)

I know this story was kind of ridiculous and super long, but I don't care.  I even had a request to write all about my library adventures.  Hey, you're the one who decided to read it!  

Oh and a little advice: next time you want to study or do any homework, the library (the Ugli at least) is not the place to go.  Ever.  

I'm a Geek With a Pumpkin

It's that special time of year.  The time when stores go from Halloween, to Thanksgiving, to Christmas (Hanukkah-ehh), to New Years sales in less than 30 days.  The time when the radio plays the monster mash on one station and sleigh bells on another.  The time when empty lots become pumpkin patches or forests of evergreens ready for tinsel.  The time when that one store that never has anything in it suddenly is full of costumes for that candy filled haunted night in October, and then left hollowed out like the Jack-O-Lantern on the porch.  

Jack-O-Lanterns-- This brings me to a very important part of this special time of year: carving pumpkins.  

I've been carving pumpkins since before the days of daddy-daughter pumpkin carving.  Every year, it is one of my favorite things to do in fall.  I love going to the pumpkin patch, or that empty lot with the pumpkins on the tables and choosing the one with the most character.  I am partial to the ones with a nice stem (in case I want to use it for a nose) and a very fat, plump round body or a tall and skinny thing.  Usually some crooked face gets etched into my orange gourd, but this year, my cousin Z wouldn't allow just some silly face. She's a stencil user you see, and two triangular eyes and a three toothed smile just wouldn't cut it.  As I stared at the taped picture of a cat glued to her globe, I realized that I had no idea what to carve into my pumpkin.  If I was going to go all out and use a stencil, it was gonna mean something!  Everyone was carving things that had to do with their costumes, spiders and cats, but somehow the Tardis didn't seem to work well on my pumpkin.  So I searched the web... and found nothing acceptable.  (How do you use ellipses guys?)  Then I searched my brain.  What was meaningful to me that would look good on a tall, skinny pumpkin?  Then it came to me in a fit of geeky-ness!  I was going to carve the most absurd thing I had ever carved into a pumpkin.  

In honor of my good friend William Shakespeare, and my professor who thinks Hamlet should be learned over five weeks even though Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, and every other play only gets one week, and the teacher who first taught me Hamlet, I carved (drum roll please!!) Act Five scene one!  That's right. The gravedigger scene. You know, "Alas poor Yorick!" Because yeah, I am that much of a geek.  

Im a geek with a pumpkin and I'm proud of it!  

Happy carving! Happy candy eating! Happy Halloween!!!!

I Think You Need a Doctor

I guess given my family history it would make a lot of sense that I fall in love with a doctor.  Unfortunately, my doctor is not just any old doctor.  He is The Doctor.  It's more of a name than a title really.  Someone I will never be able to be with.  The age difference is too great, and the fact that I'm not British is a definite turn off for him.  Who is he you may ask?  If you don't know, I'm sorry that you have yet to be infected.  

Don't worry, your time will come.  

Right...

Now!

Take your mouse immediately and open a new tab.  Go to Netflix.  If you don't have a Netflix, buy one (or borrow someone else's.  That's what real people do anyways).  Go to the search box.  Type in Doctor Who and play the first episode.  It's called Rose, or something, and it is fantastic.  Now enjoy the rest of your life.  It will be about a bagillion times better.

This is all being said after five days of watching by the way.  So you know this is legit.  I'm already on Season 3.  It's a problem I'm proud of.  I was just recently cursed with the good television infection, but I am so very thankful that I was.  In honor of that gratefulness, I would like to publicly announce my gratitude to the universe and all the different worlds inside it.  Thank you AGS.  You have enlightened me to the world of the Whovians.  I am glad to be here.  

The Art of Losing

What do you say to someone who has just lost a great friend, relative, acquaintance?  Nothing sounds right.  Nothing is right.  Condolences are never enough.  Thoughts. Prayers.  They seem insignificant.  

I've known too many people who have lost someone they cared about.  I've seen too many people who have had to stand up and lend a shoulder when they are grieving just as equally.  Each relationship, each connection, leads to sadness in the case of a loss.  

This is a post for anyone who has felt helpless.  Anyone who has felt sad.  Anyone who needs a hug right now, or a shoulder to cry on.  Anyone who doesn't even know what to do with themselves because they are far too upset to think straight. This is a post for anyone who has felt the grief associated with losing an amazing person.  This is for you.  

Know that the people who know you, those people care, and they are all here for you.  Always.    

But How Big is Your Flag Pin?

So being 18 for a presidential election is a pretty big deal right? I can vote! I can have an opinion and make it count (sort of)! I can... be really, really confused.  

Tonight was the first presidential candidate debate.  I was fortunate enough to watch with two friends in my room while drinking a tall glass of milk with two double stuffed Oreos.  Sounds perfect right?  Not really.  

Frankly, I do not understand politicians.  The debate cleared up almost nothing.  I don't understand who is really the "better" candidate. Don't they both have good aspects and bad? They both do what they think is the best for our country in their eyes? I know everyone has an opinion on this.  My family is so polar-ly opposite they are freezing to death. So which is right?  Who am I supposed to vote for and feel confident about my decision?  It was all just talk?  Or at least it seemed like it.  And honestly, all I could think about the whole time was how someone out there was probably commenting on the color of Mitt's tie versus Obama's, and the size of their flag pins.  I guess some people are just more patriotic than others *she said sarcastically*.  Also, how do they remember all those numbers?  40% of this did that?  I tried to check the facts on my computer, but why aren't they on the screen during the debate?  That would certainly help a lot of people wouldn't it?  Also, the amount of times the candidates strayed from the actual questions was astounding, and yet not at all surprising.  How much of what they said is a campaign promise, and how much will actually change?  Why do they have to interrupt each other to make a point.  That seems rude?  Also, what is with the smiling?  No need to smile as the other candidate talks just to prove how silly you think what they are saying is. 

The debate reminded me of visiting the Kennedy museum.  Walking along the water, all the way to being inside the library, my dad couldn't stop talking about how, for the Nixon versus Kennedy debate, people watching on t.v. thought differently about the debate than people listening on the radio.  Listeners felt that one person "won", while viewers thought the opposite.  Was this debate the same? My friend continuously commented on how great Romney was coming off, even though she doesn't agree with his policies.  Did he sound better? Or did he just look better?  I tried to close my eyes, but that didn't really help.  

Let's be honest.  I think Michelle Obama should run for president.  Maybe it would strip Barack of his masculinity, and maybe some people (ignorant idiots) would think a woman cannot be president, but she seems pretty good.  She is smart and I like her ideas. What could be bad about that?  Plus maybe that is just the amount of change this country needs to be better than it ever was.  

We don't need to compete with every other country.  We need to compete with what we think the best we can be is, and be better.  I don't know which candidate will do that.  Hopefully that will become clearer over the coming month.  Hopefully.

Oh, my friend sent me this link to help clear some things up. He says it's not biased, but I'm pretty sure everything is.  It may just be facts, but someone with an opinion wrote down those facts, and presented them in the way they wanted to.  Everything has an influence on someone. 
Here is the link if you want though.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/01/4456551/obama-vs-romney-where-they-stand.html

My mom's idea: Reform the way we vote! Vote for a president and test him out for a year.  If the people vote that they like him, he can have four more years.  If they don't, the other candidate can have a trial year. If the people liked him, then he could get four more years.  If we don't like him either, there would be an entirely new election with entirely new candidates.  Or... Have each elected president be in office for six years with no reelection possibilities.  Pretty good ideas if you ask me. 

Basically, I think something needs to change.  America can do better than this.  There are more important things to worry about.