Graduating

I spent today at my cousin Anna's graduation party. I had a good time, talking with my family, playing DDR (oh, that deserves another blog entry to itself), and seeing all of my cousin's accomplishments. It reminded me of my own graduation party last year, and how far I have come since then.

Last year, I was minus my amazing grandma. Minus my high school. I was less than a month away from being minus my boyfriend of a year and a half. I was minus all the security I had ever had. It was scary.

But then, I was also minus a whole lot of great things: trips to New York City, Mobile, and Colorado Springs. Episodes with boys whose names start with K. All the self-reliance I'd had as a sophomore in high school that I'd let myself give up--I got that back. I was minus a great relationship with my brother and lots of great friends that I'd never want to give up. I was even minus the ability to skillfully drive on a 4-lane highway.

So, to those of you who are graduating: it's kind of like that saying, "When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened." Go out and experience what life has to offer for you in the next year (and beyond). Be brave, be yourself. Be positive. And remember that like I always say, everything happens for a reason. Good luck.

How would you like that cooked?

When I was younger, I had great aspirations to become a psychologist. In one of my greater schemes as to how I was going to become famous in my field, I planned out a personality test: How do the things you do in everyday life pertain to the things you do in your relationships with others? Of the questions, the only one I remember really liking was this: When a song comes on the radio that you don't like, what do you do? Change the station, wait it out, turn off the radio completely, learn to like it...I thought all of those answers spoke to some basics in dealing with others. I just never went ahead and gave anyone the test.

Recently, I discovered that you can tell a lot about people by the way they like their steak cooked. There are exceptions, I'm sure, but for the most part, it's a good indicator of personality. What kind of person are you: pink in the middle? burnt to a crisp? "just slapped on the grill hard enough to bruise it"? Or are you someone who doesn't even like steak at all?
I'm not going to go into my explaination of why I think this matters, because no one believes me until they've seen it. I will tell you, though, that I'm a medium rare kind of girl.

go see annetaintor.com

Just call me Pressure Washer Woman

Because that is what I did all day. I started work at the State Park campgrounds as a lifeguard. Actually, the pool hasn't opened yet and actually, no one else had really done any work on it until today when I, the only person working there who has graduated, got there. That means that I spent the day by myself, single-handedly preparing the pool deck for the summer.
I began my day by waiting for my boss to get there. That's right, I was there at 8 am (actually 10 till) and he got there at 8:22. Wonderful. Then, I was told that he'd be back in a while with a radio in case I needed anything and that I would be cleaning the lounge chairs and pressure washing the deck. Okay. He left, I cleaned all of the chairs, put them in the grass where he told me to...and he still hadn't come back. I looked at the pressure washer and knew that me turning it on was just not going to happen.

So I waited, and waited and waited...and I know that it's often said that state workers just stand around all day anyway, but I didn't want this to turn into one of those situations. So I finally pull out my cell phone and call the guy, who comes, although without a radio. Whatever. I pressure wash about half the deck, and if you think about it, I'm sure you'll find it funny to picture me wrestling with a pressure washer. Anyway, the damn thing runs out of gas about an hour and a half into my project, and I decide to call the guy on my phone AGAIN; however, this time, he is not there and I realize that this is because every single campground worker--except me, ironically--goes to lunch from 12-1. Great. I was stuck there until about 12:30 when one of the other guys I'd met this morning showed up and said that I ought to go have some lunch. I came home and changed out of my sweaty clothes, had a glass of orange juice, and went back. I finished pressure washing the deck, but not before I managed to accidentaly pressure-wash one of my sandals right into the pool. That was fun. Especially since we had to get one of those really long poles to get it out of the middle.

I dragged the chairs to their actual spots around the pool and then with a sunburn and a headache I told this other guy that I was just going to head home. But first, I had to stop out at the office building because I couldn't tell my boss the days I needed off because HE NEVER BROUGHT ME THE RADIO HE'D PROMISED. Then I finally got to come home. Yay for first days of work. Especially when you're all alone and get forgotten by everyone you work for.
Oh Colorado, I miss you and your thin air and mountains so much...

The Colorado Adventure

This is not a postcard. I took this picture.

Well, I know you're all very excited to know how much fun I had in Colorado Springs. I had a lot of fun, actually, and am a little sad to be back. I can't believe Christina left that place to come to school in Ohio. But, what do I know. Anyway, here are some things I learned on my 11-day trip, and if you want the details, I'll give them to you in person. If I wrote everything, you'd get bored and I'd get tired of typing.

1. Indiana is kind of a stupid state: too many bugs and bad state highway patrolmen, among other things led me to believe that if we ranked the states from 1 to 50, it would be 50th.

2. You know on the computer game Oregon Trail, there's that place you stop called Fort Kearney? I always thought it was pronounced Fort KEE-ar-nee, but it isn't. It actually sounds like Fort CAR-nee. Who knew?

3. People in every state use this extremely irritating phrase: "Just remember, if you don't like (insert state name here) weather, just wait until tomorrow!"

4. It is not a good idea to go hiking at 11:30 at night while leaving your car parked beside the road. Police officers will believe it is abandoned. This is generally a bad thing.

5. Flat tires, while definitely a pain, are not too hard to change if you are a person who knows what's going on. Now, I am one of those people. It feels good.

6. Fortune cookies have amazing insight, as long as you are willing to twist their meanings and the significance of the things that happen to you.

7. Certain types of video games are addictive and should be avoided at all costs.

8. At higher altitude, the thin air makes it more likely that you will become dehydrated. Take that for what you will.

9. Troy is not a very good movie. I recommend waiting to rent it, because although the movie itself is very, very bad, Brad Pitt is very, very good.

10. Loudonville is missing out because it has no used book stores. I know we have Books, Baubles, and Brew but I mean a real one.

11. Paradise by the Dashboard Light is, evidently, a midwest thing. Or maybe just a Loudonville, Ohio thing. All I know is, no one else knows it.

and let me finish with a serious one:
12. The more people you meet, the more you learn about yourself.

So that's my trip. I did the tourist stuff, Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, etc. and it was also fun to meet Christina's friends/family, who were all really nice and fun people.

I get the feeling that I might not have a whole lot to post until the pool opens on Memorial Day, so don't hold your breath for another post...

Home...again

Well. It seems that this week I spent in Colorado has continued without me. I promise I'll post tomorrow, but for right now let me marvel at a)how blogger has changed b)how much e-mail I have piled up from the past 11 days c)how humid it is here (as opposed to the mountains) and d)how many people have updated their blogs, making me feel even more behind. Hmm.

Home at Last

I am finally home, although there is a lot left to unpack--my computer is the only thing thus far that has found its permanent summer home. We're still in the process of putting together a room for me, but since I'm leaving in the morning I'm not too worried about it.
So here is my moving out/first night home story:
I got about 15 hours of sleep throughout the whole week of finals. Not because I was busy studying or anything, but because my insomnia kicked it into high gear and refused to give me any time to rest and relax. I stayed up all night on Thursday night, maybe falling asleep for about half an hour, and decided that at 5:50 I could get up and get ready for my 7:30 am final. (Cassie, I am so sorry for getting up and waking you up too.) I loaded up my car, went over my notes for a little while, and headed over to take my music history exam. It went pretty well, and I got back a report/debate grade which was a 100%, so I'm looking to have an A in that class. After the final, I headed home to lunch with Chad and a long wait at the state park office to fill out my working papers. I start the day after I get home from Colorado. Fun.
Kurtis came over then, and we unloaded my stuff and hung out till Christina got here. Christina and I took Erin to see 13 Going on 30, which was fun and resulted in many unsuccessful attempts at the Thriller dance. When we got home, Kurtis came over and after while we took Christina to visit Scotty and meet his parents. We had a good time, talking about prom and high school and all that good stuff. Then we came home and after kicking Kurt's butt, I got to fall asleep in my wonderful bed and actually got sleep.
And tomorrow, I'm leaving for Colorado! Life is good.

Last post from Miami...aren't you sad?

Well. This is my next-to-last night here, but I'm sending the computer home with dad tomorrow night, so this is my last night to sit on here and waste time. Let's see...here's an update on my finals week so far:
I spent Monday and Tuesday studying for bmz, which was this morning and went fairly well. I am so so SO glad to be finished with that class! So my stress level has gone down a little--I still have my music history final on Friday morning, so tomorrow is going to be some hard core studying because I have sort of dropped the ball on that one. Hopefully, it goes well. I should probably start listening to some Brahms or something tonight so I don't fail the listening part of the test.
I have developed severe insomnia. I know earlier I wrote about it, but it has worsened in the past few days. I didn't fall asleep until 3 this morning, which resulted in five hours sleep before my bmz final. It's been that way for a while, I don't know if it's just because of stress or what. Hopefully a nice trip to Colorado will solve that problem... :)
My room is looking pretty empty. I packed everything up and hid it out of the way in the closet, and now everything looks so empty. There are just a few more things left to pack--phone, computer, alarm clock, tv--and everything will be out. How sad.

And like I promised, here is my reflective, "what I learned as a freshman in college" blog (don't worry, I didn't include everything). Monica asked me to name something I learned this year, and I told her that everything happens for a reason. I already talked about this, although I think that was the biggest thing. Another thing about this year, though, is that I spent it by myself--single, in a new place without my family and childhood friends, and totally responsible for only me. It has been very enlightening. It has also been a lot easier. I guess I'm being selfish when I say that. Sure, there are times when I wish I could just go back to the way my life was in high school. Life was pretty good with my family and at LHS, I can't complain. But for the most part I am glad that things have gone the way they have for me. I think this year was much more condusive for me than if I had been closer to home or tied down by having a serious boyfriend (here or there). I learned a lot about being me, and who I really am when there are no pre-conceived expectations, opinions, or norms to follow. I like myself a lot better now, after a year of growing: It's easy to look back and think about how much more secure my life was in high school, but my self is more secure now. I think I like that better. (And thanks to Kurtis for pointing that out.)

A good question

As posed to me by a certain friend:
Are you willing to abandon your moral values to be happy?

It's not insomnia this time

I walked into my dorm building feeling a sort of guilty pleasure tonight, although it is probably more aptly described as this morning. Instead of staying in like I'm sure I was supposed to and studying (hence the 24-hour quiet hours that began on Friday), I just finished my last paper-writing marathon at Peabody: sitting in a random hallway, drinking bottled water and snacking on whatever random junk food is available, passing paper packets and a laptop computer back and forth, tossing around ideas and checking for the proper tense (tonight, present was the tense of choice. Never again!). The best papers I've ever had a hand in creating are, unfortunately, never my own: I'm simply there to correct grammar and aid in organization. Oh well. It's still fun, and it strikes me now that I won't be do that for the next few months.
Yes, I am sad to be leaving. Somehow, it doesn't seem so strange to stay up until 3 am here at school. I can listen outside my window, or even look on occasion, and find that there are others awake as well. It's not strange to meet up at 12 and start hanging out then. I'm sure I won't miss those papers, but I will miss the socializing, and living down the hall from friends rather than down the street, across the state, or across the country.
Anyway...I am going to go to bed. Not because I am tired, but because I have to meet a friend for lunch tomorrow, finish preparing for a final, stop making typing sounds that could wake up my roommate, and because I am probably boring you all with these non-interesting, serious, and reflective blogs. So I'm cutting this one short, because I think there could possibly be another this week. Good night.