Spring Break and Other Adventures

So spring break was pretty great actually. I shall expound in haiku form.

Short flight to San Fran
Lost my iPod, woe is me
Alas, no more tunes.

Walked around city
Sea lions swam, basked in sun
Chowder in bread bowl.

Breathtaking landscape
Walked dog around park, up hills
Exhausted dog, me.

Took Old Time Picture
in Old-Town Sacramento
Saw Arnold's Office.

Read books - vampires,
wizards, and funny memoirs
Relaxing, restful.

Flight back, late at night
boring without my iPod
Home sweet home, Tempe.

And now Maggie is here and taking up all of my free time and apartment space. I tend to keep my apartment fairly tidy - I make an effort to do dishes every day, keep my junk from piling up, etc. But now that she's here her stuff has exploded ALL OVER and it is making me really anxious. She doesn't do her own dishes, her clothes have taken up my entire side of the room, and she's always around. And I love her to death, but she's driving me bonkers. 10 days is WAY too long to spend on vacation, especially in a small, one-bedroom apartment. I have no private time and I'm pretty sure Michelle is going crazy too. Blerg.

I just realized that in my last stanza of the haiku, I referred to Tempe as home sweet home. And really, that's kind of how I feel about it. I love Wisconsin, but against my wishes, I now have a second home. I've become accustomed to warm weather in March, with nary a cloud in the sky. I've grown to love the smell of orange blossoms in the spring, and the smell of the dust mixing with the rain after a storm. So I'm sorry my Appleton friends, but Tempe is my home now too. And I don't know how I'm going to deal with that in two years.

Seriously?

So here I am in my three hour lecture. It's a pretty big class. We go over the syllabus, check out the calendar, discuss assignments, and then my professor sits down at her desk, crosses her arms and says "So. Tell me about yourselves."

Seriously? We're really going to waste my valuable time/money on juvenile getting to know you crap? We're not in high school anymore, and I expected that these silly rituals would be left behind.

Lame.

Classes, Schmlasses, lets watch TV!

I think that I am going to be either one of two things this year - either really bored or REALLY BUSY. I'm leaning towards really bored right now, considering that the first day of my supposedly really difficult lab covered things that we covered in Sophomore biology in high school. I mean really, Punnet Squares? Those are super easy. And who doesn't know what the patellar region is? (That one was a joke). Anyway, in light of this imminent boredom, my plan is this - to try and study as much as possible! AHAHAHAHAHAHA, just kidding. Watch more tv. And BLOG about it! You won't have to watch TV anymore because I have decided that along with posting a link to a comprehensive recap of the show at Television Without Pity, I will provide my own commentary on the happenings of my favorite shows!

Let's start out with the newest addition to my lineup of must see tv - Veronica Mars! I have resisted watching this for a while, simply because it was on UPN and honestly, that's where television shows go to die. But amid much praise from people whose opinions I actually care about, I decided to give it a go (also because it's only three seasons and it's off the air, so it's something I can watch when I want to, not obsessively because I have to see the episode before the next airs). Anyway. This gem of a show follows the show's namesake, one 17-year-old private eye who helps her father, the disenfranchised former sheriff of the small town in which the live, to solve cases for his numerous clients, all while navigating the perilous straits of high school unpopularity. Now while this all sounds vaguely cheesy and cliched, the show pulls it off with flair! I'm three episodes in, and I'm hooked! So there you go, more commentary to follow.

Also...Docotr Who is pretty much monopolizing my thoughts recently. It's a smart, funny sci-fi based show (but not weird in the way that many are) and frought with British accents (because the show airs in the UK on BBC). But not only is it funny, it is poignant and occasionally heart-wrenching, and at this present moment, my heart is decidedly wrenched. Practically in two. I'm desperate to move on to series three, because right now the thought of the second season finale threatens to reduce me to a wailing, bawling baby.

Anyway, guess I ought to be off, this is rather a lot for one post...

Fill the spaces with wood in places to make it feel like home

So here I am at ASU. It's about a bajillion degrees out and I've already sweated through two outfits. I've lugged my duffel and backpack halfway across campus, then lugged 50 pounds of boxes (at the same time I might add) up to my seventh floor room, then did what I could to spruce up this place. It's actualy quite cute, and what I'm sure a realtor would call "charming" (read: tiny). I'd love to take a shower, but that's kind of an impossibility due to the astonishing lack of a shower curtain (didn't even think about that one). Also, the walls look rather naked. If you love me, you could send me a poster to make them less boring.

So in a rather geeky turn of events, I've accidentally been pulled back into fandom, at least partially. Now, I have no plans whatsoever to start reading/writing fanfic again, but I do rather enjoy watching the comms. I've always been more of a lurker than an active participant, however, I do know that my OTP is definitely Sydney/Vaughn. Easily. By a mile. Their love story can still make me catch my breath and sigh.

That being said, I recently started two new shows, Entourage and Doctor Who (the 2005 version). While I am less than impressed with Entourage (I guess I just don't relate to the lifestyle...) I'm incredibly hooked on Doctor Who. It's pretty much the best sci-fi show I've ever seen (this does not count Alias or Supernatural, those are spy-fi and horror-style-buddy-drama, respectively). It's funny and entertaining, and I highly recommend it. Oh, and British accents. Delightful.

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you

So I'm packing. It's kind of a breeze, actually, which I was not expecting. I didn't realize how little I brought home. Really all I have to bring back with me is clothes and electronics, and a few dvds.

Packing is actually getting me a little excited to go back to school. I mean, I'd love to stay in WI for the rest of my life, but back at school there's a faster internet connection, classes (yeah, I'm a dork), and Pitchforks. So...there are exactly three things about ASU that don't exist here. Hopefully these three will be enough to get me through the semester.

Somehow I doubt it.

P.S. The title is a line from Africa, by Toto

Obligatory End-of-School List-type-thing

Despite all of my efforts to avoid the typical end-of-year nostalgia, it has quietly, carefully, sneakily crept up on me and grabbed me firmly in its clutches. I think that it is human nature to feel a bit of regret any time something comes to an end, no matter how awful or wonderful or scary or new or boring or exciting it is. Human beings are creatures of habit - we like to have things stay the same, to remain static, to change as little as possible (or perhaps that's just me). And though I'll be glad to leave this place behind, to move out of the 225 or so square feet that I have called my own for the last nine months, I feel...not sad, not unhappy, not like I'll miss it terribly, but something kind of other. Wistful is close, but I'm not sure that that captures it either. Whatever it is, it demands that I make a list of things that I've learned. So, here goes.

-Living with someone is like being in a relationship - there's a give and take (and a give me back my stuff) and you have to pick your battles.
-Although solitude is nice, people really do need other people. Being alone all the time really is not good for a person.
-There are 10x more bacterial cells in/on your body than your actual body cells. EW.
-Drunk people are not as entertaining in real life as they are in the movies.
-It is impossible to write something that hasn't been written before.
-Money actually doesn't grow on trees, and you never need it more than when you don't have it.
-Eating healthily and living in a dorm are mutually exclusive.
-Although women are more likely than men to admit to being attracted to people of the same gender, men are more likely to have actually had a homosexual experience. Makes you wonder about boy scout camp.
-Boys are incredibly focused on appearance and will judge you very harshly. No matter what you look like, they will find a flaw (and it doesn't matter what they look like either - a fat kid is just as likely - if not more - to judge a girl for being chubby).
-As much as it is fun to be with people, you also always need time to regroup alone.
-It is impossible to get through a Monday morning without Starbucks.

Goodbye, ASU. See you in four months.

This Week the Trend

I'm back in AZ. Not incredibly exciting, but at least it's warmer than at home. I honestly feel as though when I'm here, I'm just going though the motions - my day falls into a routine that I mindlessly keep to. I don't have a choice. My activities and classes and tv shows dictate when I come and go and eat and sleep. If it keeps going like this, the next month and a half are going to pass by pretty quickly.

I finally changed my major - I'm now officially a nursing student at the College of Nursing and Health Care Innovation. Doesn't that sound spiffy? One hitch though - residential life has a new policy that if you're going to live on campus, you have to live on the campus where your degree is located. For me, that's Downtown Phoenix. And considering that I currently have plans to live on the Tempe campus...that's an issue. I spoke to my advisor about it though, and we can play beaurocratic games so that I'm where I want to be. Honest it is not, but successful it will be. (can you hear the yoda coming out in my voice?)

Read Darkly Dreaming Dexter today (thanks to betsy), and it was surprisingly not as good as the tv show. The tv show really brought more exposition to the table and explained motives and motivations and backstory a lot better. Although, I suppose that is to be expected, considering that the book had about 200 pages and the tv show was about 12 hours...Anyway, you should read the book and then watch the show. It was a thrilling experience.

Anyone want to go for ice cream with me?

Muffins has MRSA?

I feel like a death row prisoner who only has a few more days until his meeting with the electric chair. Except that in my case, the electric chair is the plane back to AZ. There's really nothing for me to do right now except sit at home wallowing in my dread. Much as I've been bored out of my skull the past week, I really have enjoyed being home where all of the streets are familiar, where the food is legitimately food and having enough time to do what I want to. There's just something about being able to sleep in my own bed (and have it not be a million feet off the floor) that is incredibly comforting. I also very much like this whole no classes thing.

So this morning I logged onto the upstairs computer and looked through all of my files - music, old essays, pictures, fanfic (ugh), poems, stories, all of it. And I floored by what has changed and what has not. I've been writing poems on that computer since eighth grade, and I don't hate the poems I read (the short stories were a different matter...I shudder to think that I thought they were good...). But holy cow, was I prolific. I had over 40 bits of ficion, poetry, fanfic, etc. And even though they weren't all good, I miss being at a place in my life where I could just sit down at a computer and pour my heart out and have it turn into poetry. I really miss that.

So guess what - you could be in danger of getting a horrible disease from your cat. No, not the dreaded cat flu (does that even exist?) but something infinitely more worrisome and deadly - MRSA. That's right. Your trusty puddle of fluff may be harboring a methicillin resistant strain of staphylococcus aureus. Now that's something to make you a little bit wary.