It smells like chocolate outside. And no, I'm not going crazy, you can ask Jenny!

Today, we learned how to die opera-style. It includes getting stabbed, and then singing about it. Both parties have to sing. Today's opera death will be acted by Tom & Buddy. Please note that all of the parts are sung.

--Buddy stabs Tom--
Tom: He stabbed me!!!
Buddy: I stabbed him!!
Tom: He stabbed me!!
--Tom stumbles around, and falls on the ground--
Tom: He stabbed me and I'm dying!!
Buddy: I stabbed him and he's dying!!
--Tom gets up again, drags himself around--
Tom: He stabbed me and I'm dying!!! I'm dying!!!
Buddy: I stabbed him!!

--the same dialogue is repeated--

Tom (ten minutes later): I'm dying! I'm dead!!
--Tom falls to the ground, dead.--
Buddy: I killed him!!!
--Buddy stabs himself--
Buddy: I killed Tom and I stabbed myself!!
--Buddy sings aria about killing Tom due to his unrequited love--
--Buddy falls to the ground--
Buddy: I'm dying!! I'm dying!! I'm dead!!
--end of opera--

I should get into the opera-writing business, I think I'd rule.
- posted by L. @ 3:05 PM

 
Newsflash!
Housework reduces risk of a certain form of uterine cancer in women!
Yeah, right.
Somehow, despite the article about it, I'm guessing this was just a conspiracy by a bunch of male chauvanist pigs who happened to want to get out of doing housework. So, yeah, pretty sure I don't buy it!!

You Won't Believe What Prevents Cancer

You may hate to vacuum, dust, and clean the bathrooms, but guess what? Housework may lower a woman's risk of a certain form of uterine cancer, according to a report published by an international team of researchers. Here's the gotcha: You have to do about four hours of housework a day, as well as walk for 60 minutes, to reap the biggest benefits.

The research team from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee and the Shanghai Cancer Institute in China found that exercise in adulthood provided women with as much as a 30 percent reduction in endometrial cancer risk. "Our results support the idea that the risk of cancer can be reduced by maintaining an active lifestyle," lead study author Charles Matthews of Vanderbilt told Reuters.

The study: 974 women in Shanghai ages 30 to 69 were asked about their current level of exercise, as well as how much they exercised as teenagers.

If you walk briskly for 30 minutes a day, it's very likely you'll never gain another pound. Ever.

The results: Women who walked more than 60 minutes a day and who did four or more hours of housework a day had a 30 percent lower risk of developing endometrial cancer, a cancer of the lining of the uterus, reports Reuters. "In recent years, we have accumulated strong evidence that an active lifestyle can reduce the risk of colon and breast cancer. Now we are finding that physical activity may also reduce risk of endometrial cancer," Matthews said. The study findings were presented to the American Association for Cancer Research in Orlando, Florida.


Interesting, eh? The lead researcher in this team was a guy. Huh.
- posted by L. @ 12:17 PM

 
Why don't people get it?? I'm tired of this bullshit. I'm tired of being in this fucking miserable hellhole. Everyone always told me that college would be fucking better than high school. Yeah, I guess it's better - or not. I spent all of high school waiting for college, but seriously, what was the fucking point?? Going to a small, liberal arts college means you're just in for another four fucking miserable years of high school, except it's worse, because you can't say "fuck it," and go home at the end of the day. If I could do one day of my life differently, it would be the fucking day that I picked to go here, because I should have fucking going to Milwaukee. At least there, it'd be a big school, and nobody would notice if I was around or not. Wait, nobody here notices either.
- posted by L. @ 9:54 PM

 
Sometimes, things don't really get easy as time wears away....
Tonight, I headed to the Terrace with Maureen & Beth to see Ellis (hurrah!). I'd been looking forward to this like, all week, since I missed Ellis when she was here last year, due to a temporary case of death. The prospect of seeing Ellis was quite exciting...but yeah.
I forgot how much I actually despise cliques. I was there, talking & hanging out, but it hurt like all hell to see all of my former friends there too, without any acknowledgement of my existance. I have given up talking to them, at least when they're all together, because they gave up talking to me last year. It's been over a fucking year since they started excluding me, and almost a year since I found out WHY, but it still fucking hurts!!!! Of the five (one no longer goes here), I still care about 4 of them. What happened didn't change the fact that I still care about them, and that I would be there for them if they needed me. Nothing changes that fact. The other person, on the contrary, I wouldn't do anything for them. I have no desire whatsoever to ever acknowledge her existance again. I have no desire to ever speak to her again. I never considered her a friend ever. The loss of her as a friend meant nothing to me. It was like "eh, whatever. It's not like she had a great impact on my life. The only impact she made on my life was negative." But the loss of everyone else, the loss of the camaraderie, the memories, the fun we had, that's what hurts. It hurt a year ago, and it hurts just as much now.
- posted by L. @ 11:26 PM

 
Well, well.
The weirdest thing happened last night. Throughout the middle of the night, I managed to consume about half a gallon or so of apple juice. There is no rest for the thirsty. Hmm. I can't even tell you how many times I got up due to extreme thirst. And of course there was no water in the fridge, and there was no way in hell I was venturing out of the room to get water (eww...yuck. There's probably large quantities of lead in those pipes. Nasty!)...so had to make due. The choices were an unopened can of pineapple juice, apple juice, smirnoff raspberry twisted, fuzzy naval boone's farm (the thought was tempting, but...no), and diet coke/orange slice. Hmm.
Probably due to the too many times I woke up during the night to get liquid, I overslept, was slightly late to my piano lesson, and then scheduled a nap from 1:00-3:00 this afternoon. After deliberating for a while, I realized this was just not possible, spend 2 hours on my resume, then procrastinated on studying from about 5:00 until 7:00...went to orchestra, and did more procras- er, studying. Now I really want to go to bed (it's almost 11!! whine, whine)....but, ugh, more studying. And a shower. Which hopefully the water won't be negative degrees today. Yeah. Sigh. Can't WAIT until the weekend. :)

Current Music: Cantique de Jean Racine - Gabriel Faure
Hungarian Dances 5-7 - Johannes Brahms
(Speaking of Brahms, I'm going to go watch Pigs in a Polka - otherwise known as the Three Little Pigs set to the Hungarian Dances, which makes me laugh so hard I cry, only because every action of the pigs/big bad wolf is set to the music exactly. It's hilarious. God, I'm a music nerd. :))
- posted by L. @ 10:57 PM

 
Yeah, thanks Paul:

Auto-response from Paul: Running a couple of errands. Lauren, stop sniffing the nail polish, it kills brains cells. ;-)

In my defense, I live in the middle of nowhere. Doesn't that kill brain cells too??? LoL!
- posted by L. @ 3:12 PM

 
I SHOULD be doing my journals for Music 300.02, but hell, I figure since they were already due 11 days ago, what's the difference if I put them off a little bit longer, eh?? (the influence of Canadian on my daily vocabulary).
I picked out my classes for next semester, I am carrying a whopping 16 credits. Woohoo! The sad thing is, that 15 credits is still going to be as much or more than a non-music senior student will be taking, and I'm viewing the credit load as "light". Wow, what a weird life I lead...
Anyway, I'm taking exciting classes such as Astronomy! Yeah! The ultimate slacker science class for non-science oriented people!Woohoo! I'm also taking the typical band, orchestra, private lessons, and then two history classes, neither of which I'm particularly interested in, but hey, gotta take SOME classes: Immigration & Ethnicity in American History, and Constructing American Lives. Wow, exciting. Actually, I don't think it's so exciting, but hey, I have the perfect slacker schedule to go along with the pointless classes - nothing on Monday & Wednesday before 2:30 (and still no Monday night class!), Tuesdays I have only 8am-10am, and then 2:10-3:45 (and then I'm done), and then Thursdays is the same (plus orchestra at 7pm...WHOA A BUSY DAY!), and oh yeah, three-day weekends every week! No class on Friday! So hopefully I'll have a car, so then I can go visit my baby, wherever he may be. Or at least go visit such places as Marquette or Beloit or something.
Speaking of going places, in the tradition of me never having anything on Tuesdays, I slept till 11, and then went to Appleton, had to go to the bank. Going to the bank also means lunch at Jimmy Johns, then going to the mall (to get stuff I don't need...actually I got stuff I did need, like nail polish remover). Hooray for that!
I'm currently in the process of getting high of nail polish, so I'll catch ya later.
- posted by L. @ 9:28 PM

 
As promised, a tribute to my sister. This speaks for itself.

CLUELESS - A Scene

OPERATOR
Valley information.

CHER
Yeah, do you have the number of a cab company?

OPERATOR
Which one?

CHER
I don't know which one. What do you have out here?

OPERATOR
We have Valley Cabs...

ROBBER
Hand it over.

(Cher squeals/moans)

Give me the phone.

(Cher complies)

OK. Bag, too. C'mon! Alright, now, uh, get down on the ground. Face down. C'mon!

CHER
Oh, no. You don't understand, this is an Alaia.

ROBBER
An a-what-a?

CHER
It's like a totally important designer.

ROBBER
And I will totally shoot you in the head. Get down!

(Cher whimpers as she lies down on the pavement)

Alright, um, count to a hundred. Thank you.

CHER
One, two...

CHER V.O.
The evening had turned into a royal mess. Sexually harrassed, robbed. I didn't know the number of the party, so I couldn't call Dionne, and Daddy would kill me if he knew where I was. There was just one person left to call, and I really, really didn't want to call him.


Yeah. That fits. :)

- posted by L. @ 12:35 AM

 
I'm trying to post a tribute to my little sister Katie, but the website with the script to Clueless won't load for me. So check back periodically while I wait for the website to load, so that I can post my tribute to Katoche. :)
- posted by L. @ 7:51 PM

 
So last night I was actually watching 60 Minutes, and I have to applaud Andy Rooney for his take on the whole gay marriage issue. For those of you (probably the vast majority) who missed it, here's a reprint of what Andy Rooney had to say about gay marriage (and, for that matter, marriage in general).

It's hard to guess what the issues are going to be in an election year. Who would have thought a year ago, that we'd be arguing over gay marriages?

President Bush has his solution: “Today, I call upon the Congress to promptly pass and to send to the states for ratification an
amendment to our constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and woman, as husband and wife.”

I don't know about that. Most Americans disapprove of gay marriage, but if Congress gets into the marriage business, it better look into all marriages --not just gay ones, because marriage is in big trouble.

More than half of all marriages in the United States are ending in divorce these days. In some states, it's even higher. In the year 2000, 71 percent of all married people in Oklahoma got divorced.

There are so many divorces that they make the wedding business look
ridiculous: the organ music, the vow ‘'Til death do us part,' the
announcement in the newspaper, the bridal gown.

Where are the divorce announcements in the paper? How come a woman
getting divorced doesn't wear a gown and have a party with a cake? Where's the church - the minister, the priest - in a divorce?

So forget making gay weddings illegal, Mr. President. If you want to make marriage more stable, make divorce illegal. If people knew they couldn't get out of it, they'd be more careful getting into it.

A man who leaves his wife with kids to take care of, so she has to go on welfare, would be required to undergo an unpleasant operation to make sure it never happens again.

If prohibiting divorce is impractical, which I agree it probably is, at least make it harder for two people to get married in the first place. No one can get a driver's license or fly an airplane without taking a test. A man and a woman would have to take a test to prove that they knew how before they were given a license to marry. Some people should never be given a license -- especially in Oklahoma.

Another possibility would be to put a time limit on marriage. Two people wouldn't be married permanently; they'd get a permit good for maybe 5 or 10 years. At the end of that time, married couples would have to apply for an extension.

Just trying to help, Mr. President. Most of us like your idea of supporting marriage as an institution. The question is whether a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is the best way to do it.



- posted by L. @ 3:33 PM

 
As promised, a new blog!
I knew that in my procrastination of this evening, I would have a new blog posting. However, unlike my promise, this isn't going to be funny. This isn't going to be cute. This isn't looking where it should look, not to the future, but rather to the past.
I'm lamenting something beyond my control.
Is it possible to have so much anger built up towards one person and one event, that it can just make you want to break down and sob?
Because of that one person and one event, I've lost one of my best friends. Maybe not best friends in the sense of we can tell each other everything, but best friends in the sense that we've known each other for more or less our whole lives. He's 21 now, and I'm 20, and for most of that time we've been friends. It wasn't until the last year, maybe two years, that I've lost touch. And college has nothing to do with it. So I'm lamenting that. But it's something I'm lamenting, and something I'll never do anything about.
To that person (who will never read this): Fuck you. Fuck you for making me feel like crap over a mistake I made four years ago. Fuck it, it's over four years ago now, it's pushing five years. I'm over it, you should be too. It did not concern you. It concerned me. It concerned the other person involved. That other person involved hurt me too. So why am I the only one who is made out to be a horrible person? It's like I don't believe in hurting someone because they hurt me, but sometimes it's inevitable. That was inevitable. It would have ended someday. You can doubt this all you want, but there were days when I regretted my decision so badly I wanted to reverse it, but I never did. I'm better off for never having done that. I'm stuck in a rut here, but if I had never done that, then who knows what might have happened. I might have put off my life plans for someone else. I'm making plans right now, so what if they change every day? I'm not putting my life on hold.
I was looking through my computer files while I was procrastinating, and stumbled across something else I shouldn't have found. And I read it, and cried. I'm mad, livid beyond all point of control. I'm mad at me, I'm mad at my lack of good decision-making, I'm mad at the fact that I get reminded of it every time I look at the other person involved (which is, thankfully, narrowing down to only a couple times each year, a few weekends and holidays a year), I'm mad at the other person for treating me the way he did. And I'm mad that I'm still angry about it.
How can someone you care about so deeply hurt you so damn much?? I wanted to close this up this summer. I wanted to forget it. But somehow I remembered. I remembered the good times we had. It's sad when the bad can overshadow the good. It's bad when you can sit there and say "we had fun when we went camping," but then be forced to say "but he was a prick. look what he did to you a few years later."
Sigh.
It's not supposed to be that way.
Or is it?
Is that all we have to look forward to?
It makes me nervous.
Especially since I've fallen in love. With someone else, naturally.
But then things come up, and I say that he's going to hurt me just as much. And my natural instinct is to push him away. And then he'll say that he won't hurt me, but I won't believe him. And I want to stop doing that. And I want to stop lamenting other things beyond my control. I want to stop lamenting this. I want to stop regretting what I did and didn't do. I want to stop wishing I had a rewind button on life. But I also want to look ahead. And I want to get out of the now.
I can't exactly express my feelings. They're mixed up and confused. And there's still an element of hurt involved. But the hurt really is only anger. And I'm not exactly sure who or what the anger is directed at. I suppose it's mostly at myself.

Current music: Everything You Want - Vertical Horizon
- posted by L. @ 9:56 PM

 
Quote of the day:

Boyfriend: I had a dream I was talking to Jay Leno last night.
Me: I thought you were dreaming about sex.
Boyfriend: Well, that too.
- posted by L. @ 4:20 PM

 
Hokay. So.
Spring break is almost over, weekend is almost over...saaaaaaaaaad.
Anywho.
So, highlight of the weekend: awkward moment!
So I'm asking to look at the pictures of pyramids that my bf has (now that I've completed Latin American history - albeit that was eight months ago), being that they might be slightly more interesting than they were a year ago when I saw them, despite the fact that I probably saw about 40 million slides of the same pyramids during Professor El-Blake-o's class, but yeah whatever. Back on the subject...so then we're looking through a bunch of the boy's other pictures, and aside from noticing that someone in the pictures dressed the same as I did (yuck, yuck, yuck!!!), there were a bunch of pics from prom & summer & such, yeah. The boy's parents were also looking at said pictures, and it was like "awww, look at [insert name here]...can you believe it? she's married, and has a kid! Awww!"
(My thought process: EW)
Okay, wow. Talk about awkward.
That's the only harbored bitterness I have from the weekend...either way. Yuck. :)
- posted by L. @ 3:51 PM

 
Spring break - Wait, tomorrow's the last day. Sigh...
Well, the past three days were fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. After being whisked away to an unnamed location with an unnamed party, I was able to completely relax and enjoy myself. I have to admit to even being a good cook for the night! Woohoo to me!!!!
Anyway, then I was gone again, until this afternoon, a good time, but I got up at about 5:15 and didn't fall asleep until about 3:00...3:30....yeah. It was a looooooooong day, and needless to say, I wasn't awake for very long after watching the b-ball game. Oh well.
Go Badgers! Woohoo!!!
Anyway, I'm off.

Current Music: Not listening to any, but hey, the last thing I was listening to was a CD of 80s music, so the last songs I heard were 99 Luftballons and Come On Eileen. Good stuff, yo!
- posted by L. @ 9:12 PM

 
Spring break - Day 5...
I am, in a few minutes, going to actually head out and do some real work, not this phony work that has included me sitting around on my ass for a few days.
I have made it my goal to practice, and do either some work or homework down in the resource center, and then do some more work or homework tomorrow. Hurray for me! I rule! Okay, no I don't, not yet anyway, since I haven't accomplished anything. But next week! Next week, I will be able to accomplish even more! Woohoo!!!!

Current Music: Gabriel Faure - Requiem and Cantique de Jean Racine
Frederic Chopin - Etude, Op. 10, no 12
(woohoo music nerd!)
- posted by L. @ 3:52 PM

 
Merf!!!
Yeah, has been one of THOSE days....
- posted by L. @ 9:44 PM

 
Spring break - Day 4...
I have accomplished nothing since getting back to Ripon. Hurray for me!
Anyway, I should be doing homework, piles of reading to do yet, as well as my journals that were due a few days ago. And I wanted to practice, but that has not happened either. Boo to being lazy, but on the other hand...
Went shopping yesterday, w00t! Lots of food now, and some Mackinac Island Fudge Cedar Crest ice cream, life really doesn't get much better. And tonight is going to be fun. Or at least it should be, provided I don't have to take care of anyone *ackhem*.
Maybe spring break - day 5 will have me being productive. Or at least getting up before noon.
- posted by L. @ 6:46 PM

 
Yay for spring break!!!!!!!
And for doing nothing.
At least not today, anyway.
I went home on Saturday, hung out with the fam, played my oboe at church, hung out with the fam some more, came back here. It was a blast. Except we did go to Pitches, I finally got rid of the Pjs I got for Christmas (they were super cute, but super too big), then went to Pitches. Pitches is SUPER F***ING GOOD! Booyah!
Sunday was somewhat interesting, yay for getting up at the buttcrack of dawn. I didn't crash & burn during my playing at church, so that was good. And there was some interesting tension, but eh, it happens.
Then I got new jeans, and new shorts! w00t!


Happy Eighteen Months (year and a half) to my baby (as of Friday)!!!! :)
- posted by L. @ 8:10 PM

 
Wow, three postings!
I can't pass this up.
Some reasons I miss work! (Note: SOME. I don't want to go back there even if my summer salary ends up being somewhere in the five figures, preferably beginning with the number 3. Even then I'd still be hesitant. Yeah, I'd say I don't like my job much).
Some of the more fun moments (those which can be outlined by quotes) from summer slavery!

Lauren: Are those fries for a customer??
Justin: Yes, of course! It's a life-and-death situation.
Maggie: Justin, when was the last time you actually served a patient??
Justin: today! *runs away*
later...
Lauren: So how did the life-and-death situation play out? Did the patient get his fries?
Justin: No, he died. But he said his last wish was for me to eat his fries.

Lauren: And let me guess again, if this guy dies, his last wish will be for you to eat that as well.
Justin: Yup, it's tradition. Can't fight tradition. How do you think I get my meals?

Field: Here ya go.
Lauren: Oh gee, and I didn't get you anything.
Field: Hey, some guys give flowers, I give tartar sauce!

Maggie: How about marma-mama?
Shelley: Now you're pushing it. You're gonna be a marma-idiot in a few minutes!

Alright, this one's not ACTUALLY from work, but rather is a typical conversation between me & my sister during the summer.
Katie: Okay, I'm leaving.
Lauren: Don't come home drunk.



- posted by L. @ 1:33 AM

 
So, today, I was able to accomplish something great.
Yes, I was able to write a book review for class on a book I didn't actually read. Go me. This should make it rather obvious how much I adore my German history class. Actually, I got the same grade on my German history test as I did on my jazz test. The difference? I studied for two days for the jazz test, and studied for, um, 10 minutes before I gave up on the German history. Go figure, eh?

- posted by L. @ 12:57 AM

 
A funny thing happened in the mailroom today...
Wait, no. I didn't get my textbook. That's not funny, that's typical. If I HAD gotten my textbook, now, that would have been weird & unlikely. Yeah.
I did have quite a scare today, as I went to my mailbox and saw a little pink "package" slip. For a few brief seconds I had my hopes up, thinking that maybe that package was my textbook. However, it wasn't. It was my printer cartridge that I just ordered on Saturday, and just got a shipping confirmation email for yesterday. Sigh. It's now been 51 days since I ordered the damn book. Sigh.
I'm jealous of all the livejournal people who get to put "current music" in their postings. So I'm going to make up my own (it will probably show up for about a week, then disappear).
Current music: Carole King - Tapestry.
(Is this a surprise to anyone??)
- posted by L. @ 12:17 PM

 
That whole reed-making thing sort-of happened, but not really. Which just goes to show how much being an oboe player sucks!!!!! Well, maybe not being an oboe player in general, but rather being an oboe player here. There is a substantial difference.
Anyway, it's late (not exactly late, but late for someone with an 8am class! fuck that yo!), and I should be sleeping, but every time I get into bed, I suddenly have to think about everything (whether it be what I have to do tomorrow, from when I'm going to write all my journals for Music 300, to what I'm going to do this summer/next year/for the rest of my life, etc, etc...). It's SO ANNOYING! I WANT TO GO TO SLEEP! I have the temperature at about negative 30 in here, perfect for pulling the covers over my head and falling asleep, but no such. So if you see me hauling ass tomorrow, that would be why. Since I should have been asleep an hour ago. And my back hurts. A lot. Why isn't it spring break NOW?????????
- posted by L. @ 11:59 PM

 
I thought for sure there would be at least some comments on Carole King...but no such! Oh well.
Today I must make reeds. Or at least start some semblance of reeds. I was super excited yesterday in band because I found a reed in my reed case that actually worked and wasn't old and crappy! Huzzah! So now I have a reed to play on. I still have to break it in, but still.
Yesterday in my German history class we got to watch a Nazi propaganda film from the 1930s. It was interesting. Instead of writing a reaction paper on it, our professor just had us fill out a sheet as we went along. One of the questions was asking how the film appealed to the masses, and asked about crowds, MUSIC, etc. I said that if the background music wasn't Richard Wagner, it should have been. He was a fucking Nazi, but luckily, he died a few decades before Hitler. Either way, it would have made sense. Yeah, can we say Lauren is a music geek? I thought so too!
Speaking of German history, one of my books got here yesterday. I now have until Friday to read it. Unfortunately, it's not the one I've still been waiting for for the past, um...49 days.
- posted by L. @ 12:17 PM

 
And now, a continuation of Carole King...
Tapestry came out in 1971, roughly the time when my parents were my age (age 20). When my parents were 20 years old in the 1970s, they were listening to great music such as Carole King, the Beatles (i KNOW the Beatles had split by 1971 but that's besides the point), the Rolling Stones, etc...30 years later, when I'M 20 years old, what is the music that is gracing mainstream?? Rap. Lots of rap. There is nothing good out there on the mainstream music scene. Except maybe Rufus Wainwright, but he's not exactly mainstream. Anyway. Our generation got shafted!!! Start looking on the independent music scene, at least THERE you'll find some GOOD music, like Sam Shaber.
- posted by L. @ 2:11 PM

 
I am now the proud owner of quite simply the best album EVER: Carole King's Tapestry. I know that anyone over the age of probably 40 is now shaking their head and saying "wow, this girl is way behind the times," but yeah, there's a 20-30 year age gap between you & me...possibly more. I am well aware of the fact that Carole King has been popular, like, ever since she released her music. I am well aware of the fact that she was a 4 time Grammy winner, and I can even list them with the help of my CD (but after a while I should know them anyway, just because I'm a dork like that). And how many other singers can brag of having their album on the charts for SIX YEARS??? Pretty sure not that many. If you can list other artists, please let me know. :)
Anyway, so I'm not exactly behind the times, because pretty sure my mom has this album (and she's probably on her second copy, because isn't it standard for hippy-esque women from the 1970s to own this album?? and probably on record?? my mom has it on CD, but I'm guessing there must have been a record of this floating around at one point!), and I listen to it ALL THE TIME when I'm at home. And now I get to listen to it ALL THE TIME when I'm here too! YAY! I couldn't even think of stealing this one from home, because I think my parents would hunt me down at college to get it back.
And if you think I'm behind the times at all, you have to remember that this album was produced in 1971, and I wasn't even BORN until 1983, so already I've got 12 years against me.
This purchase of Tapestry is not COMPLETELY random. Now here at my college, they tend to announce just about everything that happens, from the showing up of Ben Stein last year to the fact that there is a runoff election for a trustee that requires top 19 lists in email...but they sadly forgot to inform the campus that Carole King (yes, THE Carole King) was coming to promote John Kerry. Don't you think that maybe SOMEONE would think to mention that Carole King is coming to our small town. But no. They neglected to mention it. I didn't even believe it when I got to work a few weeks ago (the day she was speaking). My initial reaction was "THE Carole King?? Why would she come HERE??" After all, we're a predominantly Republican town in Wisconsin...you'd think the Democrats and/or Kerry supporters would have been all over that.
The morale of today however, is that Carole King is a fucking goddess. And if I had been a 60s or 70s child, I would have been all over that sometime before the late 1990s. Though I can say that I have been aware of Carole King's music thanks to another strong female source: the 1992 movie A League of Our Own...which woohoo! features Now & Forever at the beginning of the film. Which, I'm sure has some romantic connotations to the song, but you know what? Whenever I hear that song, I think of my elementary school/middle school/high school friends...you know, the ones that have been around forever. Shoutouts to them!!! Even if two of them are in Europe right now (damn you - getting to be in Ireland & France!!!). :)
- posted by L. @ 1:40 AM

 
If I've never mentioned how much I hate this place, then obviously you haven't been spending any time with me at all. I wish I'd never complained about high school, because compared to college, high school was a picnic with lots of food and daisies.
Which isn't saying much, as I only had one good semester out of eight in high school. Then again, I've had six bad semesters out of six here, so the high school track record is better. Didn't I spend like, all of high school saying that college would be better?? Was that some sort of bad joke?? Maybe college would have been better if I'd gone to a REAL college. This college cannot be defined as a real college, it can simply be defined as a high school that we all happen to live at. I thought drama disappeared after high school, but I was wrong. Instead of going away, it got worse!!! Who knew??
I gotta get out of this whole "living in an all girls dorm" shit. It's driving me to the point of insanity. Then again, it might not just be j-hall that's driving to me insanity, but rather this college, town, general area. Yeah, I think that's it. Go bumblefuck. I gotta get out of here.
- posted by L. @ 11:06 PM

 
So yesterday after band, I came back to my room and was relaxing on my bed reading a book, while my boyfriend was at my computer and out of nowhere he's like "you got a message, your high school is on fire!"
Weird.
But true.
Alex informs me of this from out east, so how he came to be listening to the radio I'm not quite sure. After that, I get a message from someone on this campus, telling me to watch the news. After posting the SHS news in my away message (because if people really want to know, they'll ask...most people are happy to hear if their alma mater is burning!), the news spreads like, no pun intended, wildfire. A quick search at about 10:30 yields no articles about the fire (go figure) but it was on the news, so I guess it's okay. And important. And the students still have to go to school today. Suckers.
In honor of the burning, I have to draw my humor from Lizzie.

(to the tune of "London Bridge")
SHS is burning down, burning down, burning down, SHS is burning down b/c a fire started in the prop room
I have asbestos poisoning, asbestos poisoning, asbestos poisoning, I have asbestos poisoning cuz I lived there in High School
All my hard work went up in flames, what a shame up in flames, all my hard work went up in flames because of the fire in the prop room...

In order to find an article about this, you have to look carefully. It's two paragraphs long and in the news briefs of today's Journal Sentinel. Yikes. http://www.jsonline.com/news/gen/mar04/212091.asp
Happy Thursday!!! :)
- posted by L. @ 8:15 AM

 
Wow, so bitching I made a month ago has yet to make a dent (see archives, Feb. 11..topic: the use of email as a communication device). If the people that spend the most time with you don't get it, then nobody will. I don't think I'm ever going to read email again. Unless of course it's solicited, by me. And I'm not going to read anyone's away messages again either. If you're going to put news in your away message, then SEND ME A MESSAGE DAMNIT! I'm tired of finding out secondhand. You know who you are.
- posted by L. @ 5:27 PM

 
Aaaaaaaaaand further proof that some of my friends are NERDS!!!
Paul: I've decided that any word ending in -er, such as hoser, I'm going to start spelling as -re, for example: hosre, or theater...theatre. It just makes one seem of a higher class. and I will also be spelling anything ending in -or as -our. For example: color...colour; major...majour. very french, very trendy, very Wilburmeister. It only makes sense, does it not??
Paul: or should I say Wilburmeistre??
Lauren: wow, you're a nerd.

And if only I could compile a list of the ends to WWII that Adam found out when he was studying for his WWII exam!! Did you know that, according to me, at the end of WWII, the USA ceased to exist, and Poland took over the world?? Yeah, it's true!

Ooh, and the days continue to pile up...43 days since I ordered my textbook and it's STILL NOT HERE!!!!
- posted by L. @ 3:59 PM

 
Does it ever feel like maybe something is spinning franticly out of your control, and, try as you might, there is no way to regain it? Yeah. That's how my life is going right now. Someone in my life is very important to me, but I feel distant from them. Too distant. And when I ask them if they feel the same, they look at me as if I'm crazy. Maybe I am crazy. But I know how I feel, and I know that things will happen, and there's no possible way that the other person can know how you're feeling inside. Scared, confused, frustrated. And there's no way to explain it. And you lie awake at 3 in the morning, pondering where you are and where your life is headed, and whether somethings are worth pursuing, while they lie beside you asleep, as if nothing can disrupt them at all. You feel like you're completely in their way, even if it is your room. You feel like you're a pain in their ass, that nothing you do can be so important, nothing you feel can make a dent. It's the worst feeling in the world.
Maybe it is because it's 3 in the morning, but I feel like I've been growing apart for a few days now, all because of something that happened to me a few days ago. Ever since then, things have changed. Maybe things have changed for the better, maybe not. Only time will tell.
- posted by L. @ 2:43 AM

 
Happy Tuesday! Wait..just kidding. Can I have Friday instead?? Then maybe I'll have gotten back all my tests and will be done with all this craaaaaaazy listening for styles. I'm still trying to decide whether or not I like Prof. D's listening quizzes or Mike Alexander's listening quizzes better. I guess it's a matter of whether you want to memorize titles and specific pieces, or memorize the styles of a particular composer. At least with the latter, there is room for getting an answer completely wrong, and still getting credit. Hmmm...
So the alarm was supposed to go off at 6-freaking-15 this morning, but instead there was some knocking on the door at 5-freaking-45 instead. That was pleasant. After seeing the boy off to class at 7:15, I promptly went back to bed, and slept all the way through 11:00. That was fabulous. At 11:00, I woke up, had a snack, and went back to sleep again until noon. Really, does life get much better? I'm thinking no. But now it's mid-afternoon, and I'm bored. You win some, you lose some, I guess...:)
- posted by L. @ 2:44 PM

 
Sorry about the temporary love for boy bands. Really, there's nothing wrong with a good boy band song every now and then, but yadda yadda. Anywho...
This week is not even remotely CLOSE to being over, but if Monday is any sort of gauge for the rest of the week, I'm doomed. Well, not exactly doomed, but I certainly feel doomed. On the plus side, I only have half a test to take! Yay! I hope there is no such thing in my life as midterms...
But I do have a book to read, and I hope it gets here soon rather than after the fact. That would suck, especially if I end up hating the book. I hate writing book reviews because I am doomed to pick shitty books. Anyway, it's only a few weeks until SPRING BREAK!!! Actually, there are only nine school days left. And two of those days I have no school. And two more of those days, I have very little school. So I guess that makes nine days left of school, minus two, making seven days, minus another two, so really I only have about five days left! WOOT!!!
Today, I got two of my three tests back, one to my great liking (WOOHOO! YEAH FOR GETTING AN A!!), and one to my great disliking (I'm not going to reveal said grade). I am just such a freaking classically trained musician that Jazz is so hard to comprehend. I think Buddy and/or Ryan is going to be my best friend come next test time. Sigh. I am not a fan of jazz tests.
So now I have to await the grades of my German history test (NOT looking forward to it), and deciding whether or not I am going to take the class pass/fail, and I have to study for my listening quiz (part B of my styles test. yay)...and await the grade of my styles written exams. Sigh. I hate test weeks. Boo.
- posted by L. @ 9:32 PM

 
Y'know, there's something about boy bands that's just freaking wonderful. I'm not sure what though. Maybe it's the influence of crazy high school friends that camped out in the rain waiting for 'N Sync tickets during senior year. Then again, maybe not. Anywho...
Shelby D. - you are quite possibly one of my favoritest people.
- posted by L. @ 12:21 AM