happenings

holy cow. it appears i haven't updated this thing in four months and one day exactly. since my last post, i've graduated. worked a lot. quit my job. read. played the piano. spent tons of time with family and friends. cleaned my house. etc etc. nothing too horribly exciting. i do, however, have some new news on the kerry college front.

i will be going to paul smith's college of the adirondacks this fall instead of UT. it's a small, private, liberal arts type of school located in the middle of the adirondack state park. it's roughly an 11 hour drive from toledo, and about a half hour away from lake placid in NY. why paul smith's, you ask? for their RATE program (recreation, adventure travel, and ecotourism).





a very brief description offered by psc themselves..
http://www.paulsmiths.edu/forestry/rate.php
and if you're wondering what in the world ecotourism is..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotourism.

basically, this has all happened very fast, and i am really excited. i applied about 3 weeks ago, and i was informed just this past monday that not only have i been accepted, but i am receiving the presidential's scholarship ($12,000 a year)!! we're going up to visit the campus for their open house this weekend, and i can't wait. this is by far one of the biggest decisions i've had to make in all of my 18 years, but i really feel that i'm making the right one.

i don't have much else to say at this point. but i am very happy. i plan on taking a lot of pictures this weekend to share with you all, so stay tuned. i guess. ha.

ugg..no, really.

today marks my first full week of being a shoe saleswoman. it's inside the mall, and there are really no words to describe it. the crap i've been trying to get away from is now what i promote. from what i've seen so far, it's a lot of teenage girls, and black women, and weirdo, uptight moms buying these awful, expensive shoes (way to be stereotypical, ha). i should not be working in a shoe store, considering i have only about two pairs of shoes i wear on a regular basis (old man moccasins from the kmart slipper section, and some pretty beat up chucks), but you won't be catching me in sparkly purple leather diamond encrusted $190 heels any time soon. i got in trouble yesterday because flannel and boy pants and my poor moccasins 'do NOT represent our store and it's mission'. i'm not trying to be an indignant jerk, but give me a break. i enjoy playing with the little kids who get dragged in while their mothers try on countless pairs of shoes. i also like to stand at the front of the store and make up ridiculous stories in my head about everyone who walks past (i have a good imagination). the best thing about my job however, is putting away shoes in the stockroom. i'm usually by myself back there, which makes it a great time to just think and reflect. the majority of the time i'm cursing myself for being in this situation, but i know there is a lesson to be learned amongst all of these thigh-high boots. well, hopefully.

sususudio

i got into a heated discussion this past week with a few classmates of mine. i didn't realize i was the only person i knew who appreciates the fine musical stylings of phil collins. they don't know what they are missing:



against all odds, without a doubt, is one of my favorite songs of all time. weird, i know, and i admit i'm partial to the postal service's cover of it, but still. it's a wonderful love song.. who hasn't felt like that at one point or another? i was inspired, and not entirely out of spite, to learn how to play it on the piano, and have been pounding it out quite passionately for the better part of this evening.

i wish i was a foodie, because then i could be friends with anthony bourdain. if you looked up COOL GUY in the dictionary, i am pretty sure his picture would be there. i finally checked out a few of his books from the library recently, and i'm a little angry with myself for not doing it sooner. although i have no idea what the heck kuzu tagliatelle with ginger is, he is hilarious, the pictures are beautiful, and he is a great writer. in fact, i even asked santa for my own copies of his books. now if only i could get a full sized poster...

i've been holed up the majority of this weekend listening to animal collective. they are one of my very favorite bands, and i managed to get my paws on a leaked version of their new EP 'fall be kind'. it is so good. 'what would i want? sky' has been playing in my head nonstop, and i wish i could post the mp3 of it on here, but i'm not very savvy at all. they're an acquired taste, i admit, but if i've piqued your interest, i think 'fall be kind' is a great starting point for all you first-timers out there.

unfortunately, PSO is a no go. interested students were supposed to attend a meeting in march about doing it. drat.

getting introspective, part 2

another perk of graduating early..
i feel bad for saying this, but i can't help but feel a little resentment towards my friends and my 'high school' life. i mean they're all nice people, no doubt, but unfortunately they're not the people who stimulate me intellectually at ALL or inspire me to become a better, smarter person. i don't know. i guess what i'm saying is that the person i want to become isn't 'cool' because they were up for homecoming queen, or were named the class clown, or had a ton of friends, or clothes, or boyfriends, whatever. although i'm grateful to have had a bunch of close friends the past four years (and i have had a lot of fun with them!), i am really beginning to dislike the way some of those people choose to act, and i don't want to fall into one of those traps. without trying to sound like a superior ass, i would be lying if i said i wasn't looking forward to getting away from all that junk and 'bad' influence. this is tough. i sound like a total pessimist; i defnitely have faith in mankind, i just think teenagers are impressionable idiots (myself included sometimes). ha.

biological warfare

i should really start posting on here more often! it's not that i don't make the effort to write, i really do. in fact, in between each of my postings, i probably sit down at least 2 or 3 times to try and write something new and interesting and witty, but then.. nothing! i'm not sure why i'm such a self conscious writer. probably because it's one of the few things i am a perfectionist about (the other being piano).. it's the same way in my creative writing class. i'll come up an interesting idea or sentence or whatever in my mind, but when i try to to put it on paper, it fails! my teacher seems to like my work, but i don't feel satisfied with any of my finished pieces. perhaps the next time i can get it together and write something i'm okay with, i will post it on here. writing about writer's block?! good grief. now that that is out of my system..

some interesting things on the kerry front. my immune system has failed me once again. my glands are taking over my throat as we speak! i was prescribed tamiflu, the swine flu medicine, but we're not really sure if i have it? oh dr. abaza, you sly fox. i mean, it's probable that i have a kiss of the h1n1, but nothing to get worked up over. on the bright side, i woke up this morning with pink eye in both eyes, but i was able to 'cure' it enough to go to school. probably not the smartest move for my health and the well being of everyone, but i am a nerd, and missing more than two days of school in a row is simply too much for this red head. this sounds pretty disgusting i realize, but i am just a sickly type, so don't judge me. please. ha.

i've made the decision to graduate high school in january. why, you're probably asking yourself? why not! the kel is okay with it, i'm okay with it, just gotta make sure my dreaded counselor is okay with it, and we're in the clear! i still have every intention of going to UT in the fall.. but by graduating early, i can get a full time job (don't laugh, minimum wage jobs are plenty available), start saving up, maybe get an apartment (perhaps this is wishful thinking, but a girl can dream!), whatever. OR i can do full time PSO at UT after january, or take just a few classes, or even start college in the summer. so many options! although i am quite sure i don't want to go into health care, i think i might put all of my nursing home experience to good use and work as a nurse aid till i start college, even if i really hated it (the care that patients in nursing homes receive make me ill). i don't want to get to ahead of myself, considering that tomorrow is when i go meet with some higher ups at my escuela to talk about it.. keep your fingers crossed for me!

an empowered and informed member of society

i have a theory. if you buy overpriced spirit wear from a college bookstore after being instantly accepted (what a feat) at their campus preview day, you will end up going there. there is simply no way around this, and that's the only way i'm able to explain my enrollment to UT next fall. going there and living at home is absolutely positively not what i had planned for myself, but it feels like that is my only option. the UT guarantee is a bit of a joke the way it's advertised; i won't be a rocket for free, but i wouldn't be a buckeye free of charge either. while i am majorly disappointed and can't stop the 'if only i was smarter/richer/poorer/more athletic' mantra running through my brain, i am working on seeing the bright side of this situation... as soon as i get over being (almost) 18 and needing to get the hell out of dodge.

while on the subject of school.. i imagine humanities courses in college to be interesting and stimulating. my watered down high school one is anything but. it's so aggravating to me that our teacher won't commit and sit down and hit us in the head with some real philosophical concepts and ideas.. instead she shows us a million episodes of scrubs and lets that 'stew' inside of us. every once in a while we'll have a class discussion, but somehow the prompt 'why are we here? what is our purpose? do we even have one?' gets changed to how jay z probably worships the devil. maybe i'm just missing the point. i was really hoping that this class would teach me more and help me expand on my own personal philosophies, but i think i'm gonna have to keep on relying on wikipedia.
although my humanities class kinda bites, i have an awesome psychology teacher. that class is the one i count on to get me thinking, and to keep me thinking. after watching the intro to 'dreamworlds 3: desire, sex, and power in music video' in class, i went home and decided to check it out. it's about the humongous influence the media, especially music videos, has on sexualizing our youth and it's manipulation of our general ideas about genders roles in society.. i think that this is an issue that young people should know about and be aware of, and not fall prey to. while i enjoyed it, i'm not willing to get up on my soap box and wholeheartedly preach everything that sut jhally is saying... i don't care for the whole pretentious social activist thing one bit. i guess i just appreciate the fact that i have a teacher who is presenting ideas like this to students who otherwise might not care, might not know about, might not have access to.

flapjacks

what's with the cold weather all of a sudden?! the bottom of my SWEATSHIRT is soaking wet from washing dishes. for some reason i always tell people i like cold weather, although when i'm actually experiencing it, i despise it. i guess i just use my 'liking' it as an excuse to stay inside and read and just be a lazy nerd.

today was lumberjack day at school for spirit week. unfortunately, only a select few students really got the lumberjack look down; the rest were mostly just girls trying to be cute with their dad's flannel tied up, bleh. tomorrow is denim day, but i will be wearing my powderpuff football jersey! despite my extensive knowledge of UT football, i am not so swift with a pigskin. i feel that i have the most terrifying position: lineman. although my ribs feel a little sore from getting pummeled by crazy 5'2, 110lb girls, i am ready to cream some underclassmen (maybe).

on friday, i finally saw sufjan stevens in concert. although my accompaniaments weren't as thrilled as i with the performance overall, i sure was! it felt a little short, but i was 50 ft from one of my absolute favorite musicians ever, so who am i to complain? i am still in happy shock over the setlist.. what! detroit, lift up your weary head?! cool!