Literary Theory Takes Revenge on the Capitol

Yup. I turned into that person. I read the entire day. Actually, I should be more specific. I read The Hunger Games all day. The good news? It's over. I finished it. The other good news? I now feel like I have an actual license to mock it. That must be encouraging right? For instance, I have decided to apply my English major to this work for kicks and giggles. Looking at this work through a similar lens as you would for Ayn Rand would be just so very interesting. Or simply comparing the two! Oo  just shivers of joy. Or, for the more creative and spontaneous of you, to think of it not as a simple book about games and warfare and love and all of that, but rather think of it as a porn film. No, seriously. Box office hit if I've ever heard of one.

I'm sorry that's all terribly offensive. So I'll try to redeem some of my classy points by telling you that I have finished season 2 of Downton Abbey. They're British, it makes them far classier than anything we could have futuristically staged in the nooks and crannies of the Rockies. Lesbereal. Whatever scandal falls on the house is really much classier than children being thrown into an arena like a gladiatorial match a la Hannah Montana.

Speaking of Hannah, I wonder if we could actually stage a Hunger Games, but bill it as the best of teen pop. Justin Bieber (Fever in deed....), Hannah Montana, Or they should just make the movie with the people playing themselves in the roles of the other tributes....  We'd have to pick someone really good to be Katniss and Peeta.  I'm voting Britney and Cee Lo, just to shake things up.  And whoever else is particularly annoying this week will have to go too.. That must mean that Rebecca Black is signed up 17 times.

Therefore it will begin on Friday.

Aren't you excited? I can't take all the credit for this idea, Amanda has given me plenty of fodder for discussion over long van rides. This one shall be the first on the docket in the fall.

In other news, made some delicious grilled cheese. I won't lie, my favorite is still the camenbert with spinach and apricot, but this one was pretty good. Here's the recipe for what I made this evening.. but I didn't make the spread with the kale and whatnot (it's enough of a struggle getting my father to eat the avocados...) and instead I added some apricot jam.  I might try some different variations of it, but it was good for the evening. I do know that finding the right brand of mozzarella is crucial. EUROPE! WHY HAVE YOU LEFT ME?!?!?!?!??!!?

Sorry I had to get that out of my system.

On a much happier note, I was notified that I am now the godmother of Rothko, Vanessa's new beta fish. I'm just thrilled. 

Weather... and other tales blown in from the recent past

"With the chance I've been given, I'm gonna be driven as hell!" -Legally Blonde the Musical
Well, there's that for a study night. Me. In the library. With a soundtrack. Nothing that different from normal. In all probability, it's a little different considering that I'm in the library, disrupting the majority of studying students with my dancing and sneezing. I'm not sure if I'm using this quotation as a sense of motivation for myself now that speech is done, that I identify with it, or that it's just freaking catchy. But regardless, I'm sticking with it now.

Oh yes, MN has caught up with the rest of the world, it's allergy season here and that means I'm probably the most worthless here pretty soon. The good news is that Voice Juries are done, and so is the Forensics showcase (Pictures? Some are really attractive, so be jealous: https://picasaweb.google.com/116804446869401815266/ForensicsShowcase?authuser=0&feat=directlink), so the meetings are wrapping up and so are my speaking obligations. That means that my semester is also getting progressively less fun. Instead of performing, talking, or having any kind of strange adventures, I'm stuck with the regular kinds of adventures you can have by making regular days awkward days around the people you don't know. Sound familiar? Need I remind you about all of the strange people I happen to wink at? Or the ones that "judge" (read: envy) me for dancing recklessly in the library? There are many of those occurrences.

Other things of interest as of late. Let me list them, everyone loves lists.

1) Dancing in the down pour of rain with Vanessa. I mean this was of biblical proportions. The kind that you envision flash flood warnings coming from. We got out there within the first 10 minutes of the rain starting and the drains were already over flowing, the puddles in the street over ankle deep, and people everywhere! So much splashing and being wonderful individuals. Needless to say, I have a few goals in life, and one is that when given the opportunity to dance in the rain: do so with glee.

2)Tornado watch at GAC. Silly Minnesotans. Rain does not equal deadly twister. And if it does, get me cell service and internet in whatever hovel of a basement of a building you are going to sequester me. Boo.

3) Found out some rooming things (not for sure, but it's gonna happen) for the summer. Ava, me, Mariecus, and Colleen. What a splendid group full of all kinds of amazing wonderful adventure potential.

4) Speaking of summer, if you are reading this and like to get letters, give me a holler and an address for the summer and we shall initiate Letter Leader Board Phase 2! I write letters like I listen to Ke$ha: all da time. And often her lyrics make an appearance in said letters. It's a good deal.

5) Choir tour. This actually happened before #1 over here, but it deserves mention. It was fun, we survived it. Saw some GAC history, laughed a little, met some good people, sang pretty. Yup.

6) OH (not Ohio, that was three weeks ago), last weekend (honors day and that stuff) there was this dance milieu that was the shit! Pardon my French, but seriously, the best. Props to all of you dancers out there who happen to read this. Our Place, In Place was super spectacular.  Gave me shivers every time.

7) Speech people are fascinating individuals who tend to make regular life more interesting just by using facial expressions that don't typically appear in daily conversation. I like that.

8) Apparently one of my projects for the summer is going to be burning discs off of my hard drive...  My computer seems to think that it is full of pictures and music. How silly.

9) Cross words are fun and occasionally make you feel smart. Thanks Ch-low for that tip. I'll now sometimes feel smart while I am maintaining my A in Stats.

10) There may or may not be an escaped State Hospital patient running around on campus. We have had many alerts but I like to think of him meditating in the arb, or streaking the football field, or just watching the mysterious dial in Nobel, or climbing the art building. Mostly because those are the first things I'd do if I escaped the State Hospital in St. Peter. Chances are that he's hitched a ride someone, I would be hard pressed to climb a hill after working so hard to get outside walls.

You lucky mallards, two posts in a day. Dig it. Live it. Love it.

No Nay Never! [Clap Clap Clap Clap] Ireland Day 1

Triumphant music!!!!  I don't know how to spell that in phonetics, but that's what is playing in my head as I write this. And the important part is that I'm writing this instead of yet another paper!  Aren't you excited!?!?! You should be.

So basically to catch you up on my day that allows me to actually blog right now: I was supposed to be finished enough with one paper to allow me to present to the class, finished with another paper, and still attend all of my classes. Well, I asked for an extension on one, didn't hear back from the prof, didn't turn it in during class, then proceeded to enjoy the hilarious class (ok, I thought it was funny, I'm probably the only one really laughing... typical.) So after that class I grabbed some pizza (I do live in Italy) headed straight back to the same classroom where I began my paper since I hadn't heard back from her, wrote until I had to present and participate in class (maybe tomorrow I'll tell you another story about Charles, it's good). Then to the library to write, to class (writing), to the caf, kicked out of the caf (imagine my anger.  I'm not even kidding, there could have been blood) upstairs, FINISH THE PAPER, email it to prof. Now though the entire process took all day, I would like to say that my completed paper totally 5.5 pages of A4 paper (it's bigger than regular paper, believe me) in approximately 3.5 hours. I'm a stud, and you know it.

Alright! Now that you know my life, let me tell you about the things that you actually read my blog for! The incredible lyrical and poignant detail that I write about each of my life experiences. (A long shot, but that's what I'm working toward. Just nod your head and smile.) I know, I know, I'll tell you about Dublin and Edinburgh. You are just never satisfied with the average parts of my life. Boo.

DUBLIN!  If you do not immediately start singing the 'drinking song' from Whose Line Is It Anyway, we need to reconsider our friendship. Acceptable alternatives are other Irish diddies like Bonny Wood Green, the song we learned/sang at every pub (Wild Rover), and any Ke$ha song. The Ke$ha has nothing to do with it, but you may sing Ke$ha all the time. So I'll start from the beginning and try to keep my incessant prattle to a minimum because I'm going to get very sleepy writing this if I don't.

Got up at a reasonable hour (ie early) and made it to the airport. Unlike my other airport adventures, this one was quite prompt and I rather enjoyed my flight on Aerlingus minus the lack of free beverages. On this flight Erica and I planned bachelorette parties. Not because we have any to attend, or even any to think about attending or planning for, but we got a good laugh out of it. So that's worth it. The Dublin airport was spacious, modern, and silent. I've never seen an airport that quiet. Not even the Kansas City one (which we all know is tiny and not so bustling) was a comparison. I'm dead serious. It was nearly silent, like speak in whispers, you're too loud kind of quiet. Weird.

Get on the bus to the city center, wander around in the wind-tunnel/area for a bit before finding our hostel. Get checked in, then decide to go out and explore a bit. Now this is one of two times where I became incredibly anxious during the weekend. This first time was because we were waiting for Vanessa. Yes that's right, that Vanessa, the one that sends swell letters and kept up with me in Art of Interpretation last semester. Can. Not. Wait. So we walk around all of these festive streets strung with all kinds of Christmasy decorations and such. Yay! Christmas time!

Eventually we wandered into a grocery store. Now, I know what you're thinking. Grocery store? But seriously. I think we're justified in doing this though, we heard that there was Dr. Pepper in Ireland. And Erica probably would have sold her first born for a DP at this point. Not an underestimate. So we begin our adventure through the grocery store and find a pot of gold. No, literally, gold in the form of cheese. Now don't get me wrong, Italy has wonderful cheese, but no cheddar. None. Not a crumb, we've looked. CHEDDAR!!! And we simply couldn't pass up this opportunity. We also found the wonderful and magical Doritos (again, the cheese thing, can't help it). So we bought both. And one the way back to the hostel, we found a place with Dr. Pepper and Rootbeer AND Reeses. WINNER. So delicious. Anyway, so back to the hostel with the loot, find Vanessa (So much hugging and squealing) and head out to a wonderful dinner of fish and chips.

So after din din, we went to another pub (because there are other places to go in Ireland?) and listened to a guy who looked like Colin Firth play the guitar and sing classics. That repertoire list includes Train, Irish Folk music, Bob Marley, and even some Muse. Be envious of my life.

Then back to the hostel for some well deserved rest.

So I think I'm going to bed now (yes, now that I just really started to blog) and I will work on bringing you day two tomorrow. I'm sorry this is so delayed, I took pretty pictures for you to enjoy... oh yeah, I have to put those up here too. Ok, I'll work on it.