Monday, November 16, 2009

Minty Nuts...Say What?

The past week I've been on the case of the Minty Nuts. I usually pack a lunch whenever I have class all day that way I don't have to waste gas driving back home for food. Well, lately I've been keeping a small ziplock bag of mixed nuts in my backpack for munching between class. For the past week or so I couldn't figure out why the nuts taste minty (god that sounds so dirty). I thought at first that it was just me, because I grabbed the tin they came in and tried a few out of there and they tasted fine.

So, just to be safe, I threw that bag out thinking maybe they were going bad or something and filled a new bag and put them in my backpack. Once again, same problem. I was starting to get mad because I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on.

Then, finally, as I was walking to class I reached into my backpack to grab a piece of gum, it hit me. The gum I chew is this super minty kind by 5. I had forgotten I put the gum in my backpack and I guess the bag of nuts were absorbing the mintiness of the gum from sitting too close together in my bag. That's the only thing I could come up with and since I took the gum out of my backpack there hasn't been any more minty nuttiness going around.

Bravo, Watson! Consider the case of the Minty Nuts solved!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Write Blog Post...Check.

Tune Wedgie: "All My Loving" by The Beatles

Sorry for the slight hiatus, things have been busy since I went to the PostSecret event. I volunteered to take photos for this club and that was long and boring for the most part, but it's always good to volunteer. Along with that I've had piles of homework and studying to do. It's a conspiracy, I think all the Professors get together and pick the same day to slam their students with work and then after that they decide to have their tests all at the same time to make us pull our hair out. It's ridonkulous.

I think I mentioned this before, but I've been going through a Buffy marathon with my Netflix. Today I just watched the episode "Once More, With Feeling" and I would just like to say, that episode is pure genius. I could watch that one over and over, which I have as a matter of fact.

Sigh, I really just need to break down and buy the entire series, I love it that much, I just don't have the money to throw away on that right now. I have to be the responsible student and save my pennies for school and this internship I'm trying to workout for this summer in Canada.

Man, I just re-read this post and I noticed it's REALLY boring. Ugh, I think all I talk about is school and work and work and school. Blah. I have no life!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

PostSecret Aftermath

Last night's PostSecret event was just amazing. Frank Warren is such a great speaker, he ended up sharing secrets that were banned from the books that have been published, and telling us a little about how PostSecret got started. Some of what he shared was funny, some of it was sad when he talked about coming from a broken home and dealing with bouts of depression in his own life, but most of it was hopeful. Frank talked about how out of all the secrets he gets so many of them deal with suicide and self harm. He shared a few ways to help friends dealing with depression and suicide along with telling us some of the work he has done with Hopeline.

My cousin and I both really enjoyed the event. I think the most memorable thing about last night was when people from the audience walked up to the microphones and shared their own personal secrets. That takes a lot of courage and some of them were so moving that I could feel my throat pull tight with emotion as my eyes began to tingle. One gentleman got up to the mic and talked about how the woman he loved most in the world, his ex-girlfriend, was at the event with someone else and he hoped that guy realized how wonderful of a person she is. Hearing the emotion in his voice was incredibly moving, even though it was such a sad thing to share. And I'll never forget how, as he turned to walk away from the mic back to his seat, one of the ushers patted him on the back when he walked by. To me, that single moment of connection and caring was remarkable. The entire night will be a good memory that I'm able to share with my cousin.

After the event was over, my cousin and I stood in line so I could have my book signed and since I knew she wouldn't buy a book for herself, I bought her one to have signed as well. She cracked me up because she didn't want me blowing money on a book for her saying "We're college students, we're poor, we can't afford $20 for a book." Then when I bought the book anyway she threatened to beat me up and lock me away, which was even more hilarious because she weighs like 95lbs soaking wet and couldn't throw a real punch if her life depended on it.

So all in all it was a good night, I got to share some quality time with my cousin and left with some great memories in my pocket.


This is a picture of my book that I got signed and my ticket. I loved that Frank signed all of the books in silver sharpie. I always take a silver sharpie with me whenever I go to concerts and get stuff signed so I thought that was kind of neat he used one. Plus he also stamped every book with that quote there, it says "Free your secrets and become who you are."

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Post Secret Today!!!

Tune Wedgie of the Day: "Dirty Little Secret" by The All-American Rejects

I am totally stoked. Today I'm going to see Frank Warren speak at one of his PostSecret events. I have been looking forward to this for like the past 3 or 4 months now. I'm also excited because he's speaking at my cousin's university, so I'll be able to spend some time with her as well since I talked her into going with me. And luckily I bought our tickets way, way, way in advance so I have front row seats to the event, which just adds to my excitement, since I'll be like 3 ft. away from Mr. Warren. Man, that makes me sound like such a fan-girl, but I have so much respect for this guy and what he's done, that I can't help but be so excited.

I can't express enough how excited I am about this, I'm practically geeking out as I write this. I'm sure either later tonight or tomorrow morning I'll update on how the event went, but for now I'll just leave you with two of my favorite PostSecrets that I have read from Frank Warren's PostSecret website.


This first one I like so much because I want to know the story behind it. Most of the secrets I read on the site are interesting but this was the first one I had come across where I wanted to know more. Plus, I found the "You idiot" part to be very funny because it almost seems to be thrown in as an after thought. I don't know, my sense of humor is weird like that.

This second one I read while I was really struggling over the summer, and it essentially sums up my philosophy on life. You can't expect everything to be handed to you, you have to go out their and find it or create it yourself. It drives me nuts when people complain about how much their life sucks or how things aren't the way they wanted it. I just want to ask them, "Then why aren't you changing it? No one is going to fix it for you, if your life's a mess then fix it yourself, do what needs to be done to make yourself happy!" Which is where my complete dislike for "Fate" or "Destiny" comes in, I know it seems kind of contradictory since the previous secret talks about destiny, but that's another story for another post.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

My Granny

Bet you thought I wasn't going to update today? To be honest I thought I wasn't going to be able to either, but I figured I would take a moment before I crawl into bed to write a short post.

Today was a pretty busy day. I usually have class til about 4 p.m. and then I decided, since I really didn't have any homework that I needed to get done for tomorrow, I would go see my great-grandmother. She lives about 20 minutes or so away from me, and while that doesn't seem like very much distance, it's enough to where I can't just make a quick trip every week to go see her, what with work and everything else keeping me busy.

So whenever I find a gap in my day where I don't have anything I need to get done immediately I'll drive over to her house to spend some time with her. Usually, when I go over I'll try to bring something to cook for her that she can't normally make herself. My Granny is about 95% blind, where if you were to hold a dime between your thumb and index finger at arm length away, then turn everything black and white, that's about as much as she can see anymore. So it really limits what she can cook for herself.

My Gran is such a sweetheart, every time I make her dinner she always thanks me so much even though I tell her she doesn't have to, that it was my pleasure. Most of the time we both end up cooking anyway, because she'll hover around me while I'm cooking looking for something to do so I'll have her do little things to make the cooking process go a little faster, and whenever we're done she never lets me help her wash the dishes no matter how much I argue. It makes me smile just thinking about her 87-year-old self getting sassy with her great-granddaughter over who gets to do the dishes.

Well, tonight while we were cooking we had the news on and I was listening to it periodically while I was keeping an eye on the food in the oven, when something caught my attention. It was an interview that ABC did with Annise Parker who is trying to become the first elected openly gay mayor in Texas. So I took a moment to watch the interview and got pissed off when the reporter tried to pressure Ms. Parker into talking about being a lesbian when she said she was only going to talk about her policies.

Of course, me being me, I started to argue with the TV going on a rant about "What does talking about her being a lesbian have to do with her political policies?" "that's disrespectful" blah blah blah, I don't know what all I said because I was just mad at that point. As I walked back into the kitchen in a huff, my Gran goes "You're right, but some people aren't as open minded and just want to stir up drama." That completely caught my attention. While I know my Gran is a very sweet lady and always has her own opinion on things that matter, I never realized how open minded she is.

I've never openly come out to her either, so I don't think she was just saying that to support me. Quite honestly, I don't think I need to come out to her, because one, she probably doesn't care (and besides who really wants to tell their great-grandmother "I like girls" which is inevitably translated to "I want to sleep with girls"? certainly not I) and two, I'm 21, I've never once brought home a "boyfriend", if she hasn't guessed by now, then who am I to burst her bubble? Especially when she has never asked if I even have a boyfriend. But my bet is on her already guessing, she's a sharp old lady and I wouldn't put it past her adding two and two together.

After dinner, I hung around for a couple of hours watching TV with her and just talking. The new show "V" premiered tonight and I had been wanting to catch that so I watched it and explained to her what was going on at the same time. It was a really nice relaxing way to end my day.

So that's my Granny for you, she's an awesome lady and I love her to bits and pieces.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Nightmares S.U.C.K.

You know you're seriously stressed out when you start having nightmares about failing a class. Seriously, that has got to be the dorkiest nightmare ever. Didn't they even have a Buffy episode where Willow dreamed about failing her Chem class or something like that? Yes? No? Complete figment of my imagination? Oh well, if they didn't have an episode like that then they totally should have because it would have been majorly hilarious.

Alyson Hannigan is my hero, bee tee dubya. Her acting in Buffy was awesome, she pulled nerdy off and made it very sexy.

Anyway, sorry for the side bar, every time I start talking about Buffy I could go on for hours. I love that show, it's just so awesome, Joss Whedon really is a genius for creating it, I mean come on, where would the lesbians in TV world be without Willow and Tara? Probably about 10 years back still trying to catch up with today's....you know what, I'm just going to stop right there. I can see I'm getting off track. Again. Damn you Buffy and your awesomeness!

Let's try this again, I can always tell when I'm stressing about school when I start having the nightmares that I'm going to fail my classes. And between school, work, and trying to find a way to rack up some volunteer hours while being recruited to take photos for my university's newspaper, I'm in slight panic mode. That's a lot to have on my plate at one time, but in order to beef up my profile for scholarships, it has to be done. Plus, my home situation is not helping things in the least. I love my grandmother (I live with my grandma) but she really can add to my stress level sometimes.

Luckily for me I know my cut off point, only two other times have I reached it, once when I was working 60+ hours a week, and then this summer. I know when I start having slight chest pains that my stress level is way too high and I need to back it off a notch.

So here's hoping that I'll be able to hold things together until summer break. It's a lot to juggle but I've done it before and I can do it again.

Tempus Fugit

Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday I couldn't believe it was October already and now it's November. It's strange to have time flying by so quickly. Before I know it finals are going to be here and I'll be freaking out over those while wondering how the end of the semester is already here.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Autumn

I love the changing of the seasons. The beginning of Fall is one of my favorite times of year because of all the new sights and smells. The leaves turning different colors is so pretty, especially with all the maple trees we have around here, they turn some very radiant shades of orange and red.

In the winter the light usually shines directly into my bedroom window and I first start to see that shift from summer to winter light as Fall begins. The other morning I was laying in bed, gradually waking up and debating about rolling over and sleeping a little while longer when I slowly cracked my eyes open and caught a glimpse of bright orange, before closing my eyes again. After a moment, it registered in my brain that my entire room was filled with a bright orange light and I opened my eyes wide this time to examine where the color was coming from since nothing in my room is that color. I realized it was the light shining through the leaves in the tree outside my bedroom window and into my room.

I took a moment to appreciate how pretty the color was before forcing myself out of bed to start my morning routine. While that memory only lasted a few minutes, it was the perfect example that Fall was here in full swing and winter will soon be on it's way. Since then, most of the leaves have fallen off the trees, but every morning, I still take a second to re-live the memory of waking up to that beautiful bright orange light filling my bedroom.