What is this world coming to???? SERIOUSLY!!!
Today, I was looking online at the Appleton Post-Crescent front page. This may have insulted my intelligence. Actually, it did. I am now dumber for reading the headlines.
The top headline in the Post-Crescent is:
Leap year gives little extra back!!
This article is about a mother and daughter who are both celebrating their ninth birthdays due to February 29. Aww, how sweet. A mother and daughter both turn nine this year!! That's so nice of the Post-Crescent to make this the TOP HEADLINE OF THE DAY!!!
Why is this insulting?? Oh, I don't know...maybe because a lesser headline is this:
Seymour standoff ends as man takes own life
Okay. So this guy KILLED HIMSELF AFTER A STANDOFF, BUT IT'S LESS IMPORTANT THAN THE STUPID BIRTHDAYS OF SOME STUPID PEOPLE! The moral of today is this:
Birthdays are more important than death.
Fuck you, Post-Crescent. :)
(P.S. as long as it's still Saturday, check it out for yourself: http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/index.shtml)
- posted by L. @ 1:21 PM

 
There are two things in life that I reeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllly hate.
One of them is tests.
And the other is stupid people.
At the possible risk of offending everyone, I may or may not have a blog posting tomorrow about one of the above things I hate. But definitely expect one on the other, after I survive those fabulous things called tests tomorrow. Hell, it's only 2:30 in the morning, I'll be getting a good 4.5 to 5 hours of sleep before my 8am test tomorrow. That I gave up on studying for about 4 hours ago. :)
- posted by L. @ 2:25 AM

 
Ooooooooooookay. So life is getting friggin' complicated!!!! I went to the mailroom yet again today to discover that my book is (whoa, surprisingly) not here. But the seller told me it was. I'm thinking it's NOT! I'm getting a lot more than a little irked about that...
So I didn't go to class all day on Monday...woot. But then I found out that there was a quiz in my Women in Music class today (which I studied like, 2.5 hours for yesterday, so I'm all good), and a test in my Jazz History class on Friday, and a test/listening quiz in 19th century musical styles on Friday. But then I found out the test in 19th century was moved to Monday, and the listening quiz is Wednesday (woohoo!)....so I thought I only had one test on Friday. But that is not so. Since I missed my Modern Germany class on Monday, and neglected to read the syllabus, I didn't know we had a test on Friday in that class ... until I got to class. I still don't have my fucking textbook, and I don't know what exactly is going to be on the test. There's going to be short answer and long essay questions. Yeah. Thanks. Go specifics! And it might be hard to study without my textbook. But the textbook is already here. Except I haven't gotten it. Fucking seller. It's now been 36 days since I ordered my textbook. But it's here. That is, according to the seller. But I'm pretty sure the seller is not here. (Insert multiple expletives here).
Then again, I'm skipping band again, but it's Ash Wednesday. So I'm justified. Yay! But then again, after church (and probably before) I'll be studying. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!
Time for house!
- posted by L. @ 4:09 PM

 
As was stated earlier, I checked my mail today and found out that, surprise, surprise, my textbook wasn't there. Then I checked the site, and checked all the feedback for my seller, and the seller told me that according to their tracking, my textbook has been delivered. Well, it hasn't. Someone's lying to me....fucking seller.
- posted by L. @ 6:00 PM

 
It's now Tuesday, but the weekend hasn't ended (at least for me) yet! Only because I played hooky all day yesterday (didn't mean to, i swear!!), and Tuesdays are my free day, so this really makes this week a three-day week! There ought to be more of those, really, three-day weeks are good. Especially when one of those days is Thursday, which consists of a mere 3.5 hours of class anyway. Actually not even 3.5, since my hour long oboe lesson is really 50 minutes. Not that I care, because I like to get out of there as fast as possible anyway.
And I went to the mailroom today and my textbook still isn't here. It has now been 35 days since I ordered my textbook, this is getting a little ridiculous!
- posted by L. @ 1:24 PM

 
Anyway, happy Sunday! Well, happy being a relative term...I went to the see the Florentine Opera (Milwaukee)'s production of Tristan und Isolde. Yeah. I hate that opera. I think I hate it more from seeing it today. Bad costumes, bad set, too much German singing, yeah. I'm not completely anti-opera though, just anti-Tristan und Isolde in an avant-garde type style. Did they mean to make Isolde look fat? Because they did a good job of it. I know operas typically require fat ladies singing, but I think Isolde would have been better had she not been fat. And please, don't throw around any more chairs!
All in all, I have to say the death scenes were far better than the death scene at the end of Un ballo in maschera (The Masked Ball) that I saw at the Civic Opera in Chicago last year. At the end of the opera, the king dies (duh, someone always has to die in an opera, at least in an opera seria, for you non-music people, a serious opera). So someone on stage shot the king, and when you get shot, don't you die? Well this guy didn't, he got up and sang. For TEN MINUTES. And he walked around stage, dying and singing all at the same time. I'm surprised one of the chorus members didn't just shoot him again and put both him and the audience out of their misery. It was the worst death I've ever seen. Never again...
Anyway, so at the end Tristan und Isolde, Tristan rips off his bandages (at least that's what the opera synopsis said in the program, but in reality he ripped off his shirt), and as soon as the "bandages" came off, and he was shirtless, Buddy immediately had to check him out through the opera glasses. Yeah. Freak. :)
Anyway, so I'm standing in the lobby of the opera, waiting for half our class to show up, and who should walk in but my friend Miriam, who has been living in Germany since last July, and who I haven't seen since the end of freshman year! Needless to say, it was a happy surprise, and being that someone in our party didn't show up for the opera, Professor D sold Miriam our extra ticket, and she got to sit with us! Woohoo!! For anyone who didn't know, Miriam was one of my best friends in high school, so it was super exciting. So that made that part of the opera good! Yea!
Tomorrow starts another exciting Monday. I'm hoping that maybe I can get to the library before class (ha) to see if this book works for my book review in my Modern Germany history class. All of the potential book review books are listed in the ends of the chapters in the textbook I don't have yet because it still hasn't gotten here! Stupid textbook. Yeah. So I'm making it up. Who cares? It's not like I have only three weeks to read and review the book. Well hell! I can do it! This summer, for my Latin American history class, we had six weeks to read and review a book so I though, hell, why not get a head start, and went to the library in the first few days of class to get my book! Being smart, I decided to pick a historical fiction book, because I like reading historical fiction anyway, and I figured it'd be easier to read. So I picked "The General and His Labyrinth" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, because hey, it was historical fiction and someone else had claimed the "House of Spirits" by Isabella Allende (an author I was familiar with, and even, to some extent, liked!). Well picking that book was a terrible idea, because I thought it was a terrible book. So I put it off and put it off and put it off, and suddenly it was the day before the book review was due and I had like, 200 pages left (of like, 300!) to read...after trying just about every single method of reading possible (I even tried being artsy and went to a coffeeshop!), I just was faced with having to read the worst book in the history of humankind. After reading, naturally, I took off about two hours and jabbed on the phone. Then I sat around for another two hours in front of the computer, before finally leaping up and writing the review. I was done by 4am. Bad idea. Very bad idea. I am now determined not to let this happen again, even though it probably will! But then again, I wouldn't be Lauren if I didn't procrastinate!!

- posted by L. @ 10:47 PM

 
Okay, pictures gone, sorry! For those of you who didn't catch it, I took the country quiz, and ended up being Liechtenstein, and took the book quiz and ended up being Susan D. Moeller's Compassion Fatigue (which I've never heard of). Oh well. Too bad I wasn't Kazakhstan for my country!!
- posted by L. @ 12:13 AM

 
Oh boy, oh boy, it's Friday! But that means homework, and lots of it. And Sunday is completely out for the homework, so that limits it to today and tomorrow, and gives no time for a social life. Fuck, I want to go home!!!! I wasted my entire afternoon on nothing today, so I'm a little pissed off. Then I went to the mailroom, and discovered that my textbook still hasn't gotten here. So I'm really kinda pissed, because I need that book so I can figure out what book to read and review (oh boy, it's like this summer! but hopefully I won't pick a SUCKY BOOK THIS TIME!) since I need to turn in said title by um, MONDAY. And all of said titles are, yup, you guessed it, in the textbook. Whoever sold me their textbook should die, since they have my money, and I have no book! And then, to top it off, I got an email from half yesterday, asking if I wanted to sell the textbook back again! Well...since I haven't GOTTEN it yet, that'd be kinda hard, now, wouldn't it? It's not like I'm actually going to read the textbook once I get it, but it'd be nice to be able to stop taking so many damn notes in class!
Anyway, I found out I have, like, three tests next week, all involving listening. So much for having a social life, if you need me, I'll be in the music building. Ugh.
My plan for tonight was one thing, but it has been changed, as I don't want to wait around for someone. I did that this afternoon, and, well, we all saw how that turned out! Anyway...I think I'll finish cleaning, maybe do some organization, and I'd LOVE to go down to storage, but someone came and took the storage key from me, and now they're in Chicago. Oh well. Maybe on Tuesday I can take this ugly green hunk of chair down to storage where it belongs.
In the meantime, I'm kinda looking forward to tonight. I'm pathetic, I know. C'est la vie.
- posted by L. @ 5:49 PM

 
Could this week BE any more slow?? Seriously?? It's Thursday, but it seems like it should be, oh, I dunno, next Tuesday? At least. Today my piano teacher was telling me how she thought the semester was going fast...uhhhh....
And yeah, still made about the 58 bucks I spent on my German history textbook that's STILL NOT HERE YET!!! But on the plus side, I'm trying to rid myself of my Latin America textbooks, huzzah!!! I don't know who'd want them...but it's worth a shot. I'm never going to read them, except that one book, but I'm not selling that one.
Anyway.
My room looks like it exploded, so my quest for the day is to clean it, bleh. I hate cleaning. But I might bring some stuff up from/down to storage today, and rid myself of clutter! Wait, that'll never happen. Oh well.
Anyway, off to do some cleaning! Mission number one: My desk. First, I must locate some cleaning music. If that's possible. Hmmmm...
- posted by L. @ 1:40 PM

 
NO MORE DRAMA! PLEASE!
Oh yeah, and happy birthday to my little sister, who's actually 18. Yikes.
- posted by L. @ 8:30 PM

 
I hate Mondays...then again I hate most days of the week, especially Mondays. I started the sort-of South Beach diet today - and failed miserably. I like food too much. It's really too bad that I gouged so terribly this weekend...damn good food! I wanna go home again...
Anyway, tomorrow I got nothing to do, so maybe I'll clean my room. It looks like a tornado hit it, after all. And I have that chair courtesy of the college that I want to get rid of, since it just takes up space. Maybe without an outlet to throw all my shit, I won't throw my shit around. But then again, I probably will. Sigh. Anyway, tomorrow's agenda will be cleaning, and starving myself. Thank you Sodexho for being South Beach friendly...wait....:)
- posted by L. @ 12:00 AM

 
And the weekend is over. Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. I don't have another weekend such as this until probably next year, which is a bummer!! Boo on having to do things!
Valentine's Day was fabulous, I'm not going to complain about how it's an overrated Hallmark-esque holiday that no longer has meaning. I spent four long years being bitter about Valentine's Day either because I was with someone I didn't want to be with, or wasn't with anyone at all! It's now time for me to kick back and enjoy the chocolate (as well as other things) for the 2nd year in a row!! Besides, I got food. And good food. Which is good, since I'm starting a diet of doom tomorrow. I really don't need to, but I'm helping my boy. Either way, I have to stop eating carbs. And sugar. But most likely it'll only be for a month, and by the time spring break rolls around, I'll be all set to pig out with everyone else! Can't wait till spring break!!!! Only about a month.....
- posted by L. @ 6:23 PM

 
Holy Wind, Batman!
The wind out there is so strong that I think if I didn't have a five million pound backpack and heavy wool coat, I probably could have put my arms out and flown back to Johnson from Rodman. Woohoo!
- posted by L. @ 2:40 PM

 
WOOHOO! The weekend is almost here! I don't think I could have stood for any more drama filled days here at school before the weekend. Now all I have to do is kick back, sit through three more classes, go out to lunch, and then "On the road again...Just can't wait to get on the road again...The life I love is makin' music with my friends...And I can't wait to get on the road again...On the road again...Goin' places that I've never been...Seein' things that I may never see again...And I can't wait to get on the road again." (This song courtesy of sing365.com and Willie Nelson). Anyway, TGIF! Speaking of TGIF, I think they should run the show Perfect Strangers more often. They play Family Matters all the time, as well as Step By Step, and that super OBNOXIOUS show Full House...which should be outlawed. But then again, THAT lineup of TGIF is the only thing that can ever be synonomous with TGIF...do they even have that anymore? If so, what's on it? And can it be outlawed?
Anyway, off to my last three (out of four...sigh) classes of the day! And then late lunch, and then "on the road again..."
- posted by L. @ 9:49 AM

 
I have my bitterness out and reflected in said prior posting, huzzah for lack of bitterness! Anyway, today's Thursday, woot! That means that the weekend is almost here, and all I have to do tomorrow is go to four classes and lunch with my boyfriend and his mom, and then I get to go home!!!!! Wow, it's a sad day indeed when I'm excited about going home, as I usually tend to dread it. Nonetheless, should be an interesting time, should find out what's going down. Plus, now my chances of acquiring a vehicle are getting greater (good lord, am I a selfish little bitch or what?? ha)! So can't complain too much about that! Mwa! Not to mention there's only about a month until spring break, one more month, one more month, one more month...I can survive a month! And then the semester will be half over! YAY!
So I trecked over to Bartlett this afternoon to get an add/drop slip only to find out that the College is not economically friendly and I have to get ANOTHER sheet so I can drop my Anthro class (because the add/drop sheet is for one or the other, and to do both, it requires two sheets. I'm sure my advisors will like that. Hey, you get to sign the same thing on two sheets!)...stupid process. Then again, it doesn't surprise me.
Ahh well. I just remembered that I have nine journal entries due tomorrow. Surprisingly enough, I haven't started them! But then again, this is ME we're talking about. And I should start them now, but I should do some other stuff too. Like, writing journals. And dropping classes. Hrmmm...
If I go to the registrar tomorrow after my 8am, then go to West Hall to get my Anthro professor to sign the drop sheet, and then go down to Rodman, and have my advisor and Music professor sign the add sheets, and then go to Bartlett after my 1:05 class, I should be good. And then I won't get an asterick. And I'll be able to add the other class. Too much work. Bah to procrastination!
Anyway, speaking of procrastination, time to go make up some bogus to put in my journals!
- posted by L. @ 3:09 PM

 
Today's topic: The use of e-mail as a communication device.
The Internet (invented by Al Gore, right?) has provided society with a fabulous way of communication that sends an electronic message (e-mail) to a recipient within the blink of an eye. This is quite the technological advance considering that the horse and buggy that was supposed to deliver my textbook about a month ago must have gotten caught in a blizzard somewhere and is stuck until the snow melts in april. If only we could send entire textbooks over the Internet (NOT in Adobe format).
But I digress.
E-mail, as well as the use of online messaging (AOL, Yahoo! MSN Messenger), has become quite the fad these days. In fact, it's such a fad that nobody bothers to talk to each other face to face anymore. I have noticed this unreal phenomenon more of late, but it really started a long time ago.
Once upon a time, I figured out that it would be a great deal easier to break up with someone if I sent them an email (bad idea, kiddies, it always comes back to bite you in the ass). That sent, the relationship was over, and things seemed to be simple. Then a few months later, I got what was coming, and someone (albeit someone else) broke up with me via email (I harbor no resentments, this was all FOUR YEARS AGO). Since then, emails that come in are sometimes dreaded. Later, one of my friends told me he didn't want to be friends with me over an email. That ended that friendship. It keeps going...after a bad one-night stand, the other party emailed me to let me know it was a mistake, after a date from heaven the other party IMed me to let me know it was over, etc, etc....
Finally I resorted to using email to the same low standards as everyone else. Once I got to college, I did (in no uncertain terms) let another person know exactly why it was that I hated them, and (go figure) let them know that I was changing my screen name solely so they wouldn't talk to me ever again.
I'm not saying email is all bad. But the point of this has yet to surface.
In the recent past, I've noticed a trend in emails. They are good for making announcements, or to bitch at people because it's easier than getting up the nerve to say it to their face. I was sent a mass email sometime after Thanksgiving to let me know that my former best friend was engaged. If we were, say, best friends, you'd think they'd send me an IM, at least? Since when do we stoop to announcing engagments in mass emails?? At least send individual ones. If you send them at all. I'd just like to state that I understand if maybe you're in a foreign country, then mass email is probably a better idea, because for goodness sake, if you're halfway across the ocean, it might get a little costly to be calling everyone to let them know, and a little time-consuming to email everyone individually since there are probably more people that you don't see than people that you do.
Another trend I've noticed is to send BAD NEWS via instant messenger! Like, oh by the way, here's some bad news for you, hope your computer doesn't shut down in the 12 hours between when I send it to you and you actually go back to your room to read it? For example, my family decided to tell me that my grandparents are at my house for a while (it's a long story, if you know me, you'll understand, or at least ask me later for details if you feel so inclined) over IM?? That is after I found out secondhand from someone else's computer. I would have liked to have been the first to find out, given the choice between my boyfriend and myself. However, that doesn't work. What if my computer had shut down? What if I got home in a few days and "surprise! oops, you didn't get my IM??" Yeah. Not cool. That kind of news should be addressed in, the very least, a phone message. I check messages compulsively, since nobody ever calls me, not to mention I have two phone lines to be reached by (in Ripon even, wow)...so really, there's no excuse.
The bottom line is, if you have something to say, say it. Don't resort to emails or IMs, at the very least an individual email is better than a mass one, and a phone message is overall better than an IM. Besides, with the other technological breakthrough known as the cell phone, you never know exactly when it is that I'll have my cell phone with me. It's probably more often than you think.
(Irony: All of this is in a weblog. Go figure).
- posted by L. @ 4:03 PM

 
I have internet! Leave me comments!
- posted by L. @ 1:38 PM

 
Dear Kemper-
Why in the blue fuck does it take you forever and a half to turn on one lousy computer port?? Hello?? I emailed you Friday, and it's now Monday, without internet in my room. I know there was a weekend in there, but what do you do during the day? Sit around and twiddle your fingers? Luckily I found another "in" (as Emily no longer is a Kemper employee), and hopefully my port will be turned on by Wednesday. Thursday, at the latest, otherwise heads will roll. :)

As is typical, life in Ripon is uber boring! But this weekend (only 4 days, only 4 days) is great excitement! First off, possible excursions to unmentioned cities (yes! real cities! with lots of people! and bus stops!) on Friday, and then another excursion to another city (a smaller one, but nevertheless a city! with people! and bus stops!)! And then Sunday should be a day of rest. Rest meaning NOTHING. Except maybe being the piano virtuosa that I'm not. Did that make sense? Yeah, I'm not sure, but Sunday seems to be the only day that the choir room is open to practice. If I'm STILL this ambitious next year, there should be two Lauren recitals! That might just make Ripon worthwhile for my senior year, as there will be a lack of boyfriend. Sad. But then again, when I'll be holed up in Rodman for all free hours of the day and night, there will be some damn good recitals!! Yeah!
Anywho...that's all for tonight, I'm going on the South Beach diet starting Monday, so I'm going to stock up on all the carbs I can get. That means eating the turkey sub that's waiting for me. Stupid South Beach. And to those of you who think I'm thin, shut up. I'm not doing this for myself, I'm doing it to help out someone else. And I should be done fairly quickly. Now just to keep the excess off after said diet is over....
Oh, P.S. if you saw my aim, I (unfortunately) have NOT being spending quality time with my boy for over 11 hours!!!
- posted by L. @ 11:21 PM

 
Still a negative on the Internet so far...but maybe that's because I didn't actually email them until today. Whoops.
Anyway, so I have a gripe for today. Who the fuck drives down the path to Rodman (aka Linley Lane aka Ho Chi Minh Trail) in a pickup truck??? A PICK-UP TRUCK?? On a WALKING PATH?? WTF?? And don't tell me it was plant department, because I don't think plant owns any purple trucks. Correct me if I'm wrong, however. Not to mention plant is usually considerate, and moves to the side for, um, PEDESTRIANS? Yeah. Stupid fuckers in purple pickup trucks. Maybe I'm just bitter due to my lack of car.
And the snow needs to stop. Now.
- posted by L. @ 11:02 PM

 
Hey guess what? I found out that I don't have to go to Kemper to register for my internet! Yay! I just have to email them my name, room number, hall, and port number. Which is funny, because how do you email from a computer that has no internet? Hahaha, just kidding. Anyway, I'll go down the hall to someone's room, either Schoofs or Beth or Emily or someone, and email from there. And then hopefully my port will be turned on, and I can have internet again! Woohoo! Which means then the blog will be more exciting, and you can leave comments! Hint, hint...
I was going to go to lunch today, but as usual that fell through because just as I was going to get up and go to lunch, the crazy cleaning lady on third Brockway was out in the hall, and rather than having a conversation with her, I decided to postpone my leaving Brockway, and so now I'm sitting here at almost noon, but I still have to shower. Oh well. It's better than making conversation with the cleaning lady!
Upcoming excitement, an LDA and Delta Psi mixer night that will actually be planned this time. And maybe more than 4 of our girls will be there. Crazy.
- posted by L. @ 11:54 AM

 
I hate this weather! Welcome to Wisconsin, where we get to have some fabulous below zero temperatures for a WHOLE WEEK STRAIGHT! Not to mention the fact that some of us who are here in Ripon had parental units who went on a CRUISE last week...boo! Stupid parents. Stupid cruises. I wanna go on vacation! :)
Temperatures today are quite tropical, with the highs being around 20 degrees, rather than 40 million below. However I hear a rumor it's supposed to drop in the next few days. Sigh.
- posted by L. @ 2:41 PM