It was a great weekend, y'all

Everytime I visit a Southern state I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about Southern Drawl. I love it. I don't really know why, I just know that I do. I went to Huntington, West Virgina this weekend, and when we sat down for dinner last night my friend said, "This isn't the South. We're too far North."

But I disagree. And here are the reasons why Huntington, WV, is in fact Far Enough South.

1. At both restaurants where we ate, our waitresses (who had Southern accents) didn't say "what can I get you guys to drink?." They said, "Can I get y'all a lemonade or sweet tea?"
2. The sweet tea? It was REALLY sweet.
3. Everything was sort of...dirty.
   
4. Everything was sooooo muuuuuch sloooooower. Especially the service at our restaurants.
5. Although I didn't try it out, I'm sure no one would have minded if I'd said "y'all."
6. There were weird signs. Things like "Unique Health Care Center: Legitimate Health Care Services" and "[Restaurant name I forget]: Home of the famous Mo."

What is a Mo? Why would you want your health care to be unique? Why do these people live so close to me, yet still require more sugar than tea in their beverages? And perhaps most importantly, why do I secretly love it?

Once someone said I look like Mariah Carey

First: is the orange too much? I'm afraid it's too much. But for some reason, I like it.

Second: I saw Brokeback Mountain this weekend with 5 other people, and when we were walking out of the theater one of my friends said, "You look like that girl who played Heath Ledger's wife." And I was like, "Are you kidding me?" And she said, "No! Especially when you smile!" But I thought she was crazy because Michelle Williams is quite pretty.

Behold:


I had sort of forgotten about the whole thing, but then we went to dinner and I heard my friends sitting across from me saying that I looked like "the wife in the movie." And I thought that was funny. So that's not so bad. Some people say Christina looks like Sigourney Weaver.

On starting a paper way too late

(I'm all about the lists lately)

• It is never a good sign when you're typing the date due at the top of the paper and it's the date that Word automatically wants to put in for you, because that means your paper is due sometime in the next 24 hours.
• This is the first paper I've written since my freshman intro courses that hasn't given me a solid structure to work with.
• I realize that I am a big girl now and it's time for me to come up with my own structure.
• I juuuust dooooon't waaaaaaaant tooooooooo.
  
• When I "only have to bring in a draft" I never do my best work.
• Right now I am procrastinating.
• If I just read three essays on the history of technical writing (YAWN! And it's my MAJOR!), why do I have to write another one that simply moves their words around? It makes very little sense.
• This being my "Capstone" class, and being taught by the head of my department, I get a little nervous. Call it performance anxiety. So I've got writer's block.
• I've run out of things to say, so I'm going to go find some other way to procrastinate and avoid, then another, and ultimately write this paper at about 2 or 3 am.
  

List: things that have nothing to do with each other (except 5, 6, & 7)

I really want to update but I don't have much to say. So you get a list:

1. I have decided that for the rest of the winter, I will be riding in Christina's 4-wheel drive Xterra. Snow does not mix well with my tiny car or drivers not accustomed to snow.

2. I'm in a journalism class right now. It's a fun class, but it's required for my major. However, if I wanted to write news articles, I'd be a JOURNALISM MAJOR. I don't want to write news articles, and I have known this for many, many years. (Five. At least.) So why am I required to take this class? I don't understand. But I'll grin and bear it.

3. People keep getting robbed, kidnapped (kidnapped! Seriously!), and attacked in Oxford. This is scary. But, don't worry, we're being careful and I only walk by myself when it's really late at night and no one can come pick me up.

Actually, I'm a big chicken and I just drive myself everywhere.

4. I'm driving to West Virginia in two weeks and I'm excited. Which is funny to me, being excited about West Virginia, you know? But we're going to another college campus so it should be fun.

5. My first class was cancelled today! Which is why I'm writing this and not sitting in a Political Science class. Between that and the journalism (where she flings candy at you if you know your current events), I may have to turn this into a political rants blog.

6. Speaking of which, whenever I come home for lunch at 12 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I turn on the tv and while flipping channels to get to CNN and be prepared for class the next day, I inevitably get stuck on ABC Family's reruns of Full House. Every. Single. Time. I'm almost embarrassed about that.

7. And speaking of Full House, the third season comes out April 4. I don't really deserve any presents in April but if you're feeling generous it'll be over there on my Amazon wish list until it's sitting on the shelf with my first two seasons.

8. I watched American Idol for the first time last night. I don't really get it.

9. Funny story: I wore this jacket home on Friday that I hardly ever wear and when I stopped and got gas I put my ATM card in the pocket and said to myself, "I really ought to just put this back in my purse so I don't lose it" but then didn't for some reason. Now, I can't find it. Sometimes it astonishes me that the words "responsible" and "Loren is" are ever spoken in the same sentence.

My sister the thief

So here's the thing. When given the choice between doing my laundry in Oxford or at home, I will always choose home. However, after leaving about a load and a half of clothes at home after Christmas, I've realized that it might be better to keep my clothes in one place, that place being MY CLOSET IN OXFORD and not MY SISTER'S GRUBBY, CLOTHES-STEALING HANDS. I just stole back a pair of socks, 2 shirts, and a pair of underwear. Underwear? you ask. Yes. And no, I don't get it either.

At any rate, two lessons here are
1. Keep all your clothes consolidated to prevent losses
and
2. Watch out for sneaky family members stealing your clothing under the guise of, "well Mom put it with my laundry so that means it belongs to me" because that is the WORST piece of reasoning EVER GIVEN.

Now if you'll excuse me I have another shirt to steal back.

One of these quotes is funny because it's Miami and the other is funny because I love Six Feet Under

During a Political Science discussion about the family edition International Harvesters being a symbol of American lifestyle because everyone wants to have the biggest and best:
"But how many people can afford a $115,000 truck?"
"Yeah, like, only rednecks would want to buy a truck like that."

And in Religion 101:
"What are some rituals that mark changes in our lives?"
"Funerals?"
"Yes! We ritualize funerals to death, so to speak."

Sing and you will pass. Hopefully.

So, um, thanks for all the advice, guys. Anyway:

I had my first Italian 202 class today. I hadn't opened the book yet, but when we got there we started going through the exercises together. First, we read (in Italian, of course) the bio of some Italian who put nursery rhymes to music in the 60's and 70's. On the next page, we read some lyrics. Then, my professor pulled out a cd player.

And we listened to this guy sing with a bunch of little kids. Which was a little weird, sitting in a classroom listening to a song about how to have an apple you need a tree and to have a tree you need seeds. But then we realized that our professor was singing along.

And that she wanted us to sing along, too.

So we did, halfheartedly, a little embarrassed by the fact that she actually thought we were actually learning Italian through nursery rhymes and a little in shock that in a 200-level course we were singing children's songs.

After that was over we did some more exercises and although we thought we were in the clear, later she made us sing it without the aid of the cd in the backround. It was pitiful.

So it should be an interesting semester. Each section in our book is accompanied by a song just like the one we sang today, and even though I'm sure the discomfort of today will wear off, I don't think we're Glee Club material.

Let me be honest: I've only ever been able to speak one language and you're reading it right now. I'm not looking forward to struggling through ANOTHER semester of Italian. This is my fourth. However, the title of our book is Canta Che Ti Passa, which means "sing and it will pass." So I'm going to be optimistic and hope that I will pass because I can sing in any language. Even if I don't know what I'm talking about.

Going on one month of untreatable insomnia

I know it's a problem. I just can't seem to get over it.

Leave me a comment: what's the best way to get myself to sleep?

THE TYLENOL PM ISN'T EVEN WORKING. WHAT AM I TO DO???

Let's do the time warp again

I'm back in Oxford early (the steel band is recording a cd, so I'm here) and although I celebrated the beginning of a new year on Saturday night, when I woke up yesterday I was a little freaked out. I had no voice. I had no internet. I was in my house with no other roommates. It was warm enough to thunderstorm. The only things I had to drink were Diet Cherry Coke and milk. It was just. like. last. summer. So that was weird. Then I got over it, but I just thought I'd share it with all of you.

I suppose I am supposed to do some sort of gratuitous year-in-review/resolutions post, but I'm not going to. I kept thinking about it (I've been thinking about it since December 30th) and today I decided I didn't want to. Which is a bummer because I made a list of movies I went to see (26) and books I read (12) with the sole purpose of sharing said lists here. But, no, I don't feel like listing and besides when it comes down to it, a list of movies just isn't that fun to read and neither is a list of books. And as for the resolutions: well, aren't they the same every year? Am I the only one who never meets her resolutions and is forced to try again? Once I made my resolutions and then found the exact same ones written down from two years before (they were mostly cliche but then there was, "take good care of my fingernails." What the heck?). I don't know if that is funny or just a blatant display of my lack of stick-to-it abilities. Maybe both?

At any rate, here's to hoping 2006 is better than 2005 was. Not that it was bad, I mean, 2003 was kind of THE WORST YEAR OF MY LIFE EVER, so my life has gotten exponentially better over the last two years. I'm just saying, I hope that keeps on happening.

Wondering

how many people drive to White Castle after watching this movie. Because we definitely did.