Common Scents

You know that feeling you get when you wake up in the morning and have something to look forward to? In high school, I would come up with a reason to get out of bed every morning; something to keep me going that day. That stuff is important when the alarm goes off at 6 am. Now I get to sleep in so thats reason enough to wake up happy. But sometimes, I need that extra push. Today was one of those days. I had 75 minutes of hell in the form of a singing class ahead of me, it was freezing, and somehow IT IS ONLY WEDNESDAY. This week could not be going by more slowly (slowerly?). So at 9:00 this morning, as the Kane show was telling me of spin-offs of the Jersey Shore that are coming up (Boston's Wicked Summah? I'm there), I really needed this motivation.

I rolled over, entangling myself even more in my blanket (fun fact: i have not slept with a sheet this entire semester. i don't like sheets. the ones that go over you. i like sleeping on sheets. not on bare mattresses. alas, i digress) which was not helpful because then i really didnt want to leave my deep sea of blankets. But then I thought of it--the one thing that would make this morning not so bad. So I schlepped (I hang out with too many Jews) myself out of bed, turned my swag on, looked in the mirror, said whats up, and finally it was time. New deodorant. It's like getting a new air freshener for your car; you've gotten so used to the old scent that you don't notice it and then when that new dolphin or christmas tree or whatever your preferred shape is shows up, it's a whole new driving experience. That's how I felt today. A whole new walking experience. It was like I had a secret that no one else knew and just kept a coy little smile on my face all day. Yeah, it was a good day.

Moral of the day, folks: Don't take yourself too seriously. It's more fun this way.

Counting Sheep

It is 11:03 pm. I only want to go to bed. There are still 31 minutes on my dryer cycle. Therefore, I shall make a list of all the things I am thinking about right now.

1. In the Dashboard Confessional song "Vindicated," he says: so turn up the corners of your lips, part them and feel my finger tips.

....what lips is he talking about here? I'm confused as to why he is putting his fingers in someone's mouth. But I don't want to think about anything else. Man I really wish I hadn't thought of that.

2. I have been living in a dark world for 5 days now. No, this is not some emo metaphor. The lights in my room do not work. It is literally...dark. Well, for the many hours when the sun is out, it is okay. But then nightfall comes aaaand... I'm like a bear in a cave. We sent in to get them fixed sometime earlier last week and a very large man showed up promptly at our door. Despite the fact that I'm pretty sure he said "youre under arrest" when he knocked on the door, he assessed the issue and went to get some back-up...or tools...or something.... the world may never know because then he never returned.... sooo here we are. still in the dark.

3. I really wish Michael Bublé would work on his song openings. As much as I love him, some of those songs are just ridiculous. The intro to "Dream of You" belongs on Sesame Street and the beginning to "Coming Home" sounds like an N*Sync Christmas special. And why does he have a chorus line yelling to him observations to start off "I've Got the World on a String?" i just dont understandddd. stop it.

4. 12 more minutes.

5. I got nothin'. Although the coat of nail polish I just put on looks extra glossy. It'll be gone by the morning. damn sheet imprints.

6. DONE. (yes, it took me over 12 minutes to get from number 4 to here. i was thinking very hard.) aaaaaand goodnight.

and good luck.

Remote Controlled

A few weeks ago, I had the greatest idea. Now, when I say "greatest idea," I'm not going by the Alexander-Graham-Bell-inventing-the-telegraph or Lincoln-freeing-the-slaves kind of great idea. Its more of a, this-seems-to-solve-my-current-predicament-or-entertain-a-fun-idea-for-now kinda thing. Past "greatest ideas" i've had?

Having a scheduled once a week Skype date with my best friend because I felt I never got to talk to her. (It never happened; we decided to just pick up our phones more often.)

Take my roommate home for Easter so she could meet my friends. (She decided she'd rather stay in DC).

Put up motivational quotes all over my room to get me pumped up for life. (I guess I got too lazy... ironic.)

You get the idea. The ideas are not only not so great, but also usually disappointing fails. So this time, the idea was that Facebook should make a setting where you put in a time limit, and you can't log in for that amount of time. For purposes of doing homework, having a life, whatever it may be. Now I don't know why Facebook (I speak about it as if it is an actual entity capable of making anything) would want to create something that kept people OFF their website, but at the time, it was a great idea. AGAIN, DISAPPOINTMENT.

Apparently, someone else had this great idea before me, as something of this nature already exists. And not only for Facebook, for any website you choose. It's a downloadable program in which you input the websites that you wish to stay off of and an amount of time, and until that time runs out, your internet browser is unable to reach those sites. Doesn't matter if you turn your computer off, shut down the browser, anything. You're not getting on. And here's the kicker--it's called Self Control.

Again, the irony. Clearly if someone is using this program (as I did all afternoon, in an attempt to complete my research paper... in Spanish), they have no self control. Because clearly they cannot just stay away, they need a computer to make it physically impossible. But hey, someone (or thing) has to do it, right? Why not get computers to do everything for us? Sounds like someone pulled a Jonas Brothers and jumped to the year 3000. now all we need is to live underwater. and a great-great-great granddaughter. to be doing fine. okay. too far.

*authors note: please excuse the excessive use of parentheses in this post. i don't know whats gotten into me.

a SafeHaven

I walked through the gates of heaven today. Well, it was more of an automatic door. And it led to Safeway....a grocery store. But I imagine the feeling was similar.

Last semester I did my shopping at Whole Foods, which I now realize is sort of like the Nordstrom of food stores. There is a lot of high end stuff that I know should be appealing but I just can't really imagine myself buying. Where was the Kohl's I was used to? And end up spending $98.49....on each item. But today I ventured down Davenport Avenue and found the diamond in the rough that I had only heard rumors of... Safeway. Finally there were things I was used to, and was comfortable with! I was able to buy my plain old jeans and t-shirts (and by that i mean Arizona Iced Tea and non-organic fruits...remember the clothing store analogy?...forget about it.)

And to top it all off, even the cashiers and patrons were hometown friendly! The lovely 7-month pregnant woman who rang me up asked about approximately 12 different card or coupons I might have that would save me money, until she found one. Apparently they understand the whole "poor college kid" thing, and i saved 30% just for going to school here! How very sympathetic of them. But when the girl behind me in line asked if I was a dancer because of the way my feet were placed in 3rd position, I simply smiled and politely shook my head... I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was actually just crossing my legs because I really had to pee.

Classy, right? Good thing I got out of Whole Foods.

Life in the Fast Lane

I always said I could never live in a city. My dream town is a small one, where everyone knows everyone and everything about each other. Think Gilmore Girls here. I wanted a Miss Patty at my door everyday, with a Luke's to go to when life got too crazy. So, when I applied to school, I knew thats what I was looking for. A school in, maybe not the middle of nowhere, but secluded and quiet.

Well, here I am in DC. When I chose to go to school here, I talked myself into wanting to live in a city. The opportunities are endless, the nightlife is hopping, the culture is abundant. While these may be true, I now remember why I never wanted to live in a city.

The Metro confuses me. How do the stops work? Is it the same taking the subway as the buses? Can you get on a bus going the wrong direction, or do they all make loops? Why can't I just take my little black bug and mapquest where I need to go? And why do people give me such weird looks when I call it the T? Haven't you heard of that thing?

There are too many options. Being one who could never really make decisions, what makes one restaurant more appealing and worthy to eat at than the one next door? It stresses me out and I will probably just end up coming back to my room and having a lunch of Swedish Fish and Goldfish. That'll fend off the Freshman 15, right?

Most rules are unwritten. People on escalators stand on the right and walk on the left. Don't be an escaleftor and stand on the left. You WILL get bowled over. It's okay to walk across a street even if it says don't walk, if someone on the other side of the road is walking across. Let's hope they get hit first.

So while this great big world is crazy and different, I think I can do it. It'll take some getting used to, but soon enough, those stairs at Dupont Circle won't cause cardiac arrest, and I'll know that my SmarTrip card worked without having to run through the detector hoping it caught the sensor. Someday, I hope that the size of my fish will fit the size of this pond, and I can't wait to see how I get there.