Tuesday, September 29, 2009

"Aren't Hufflepuffs just the happy dumb ones?"

aww, what a delightful way to begin an entry. Those are the words of Jessica, who knows little about Harry Potter, from a few days ago at Country Diner. Andrew is astonished that he would be a Hufflepuff, but everyone agrees. As a sidenote, no where in the books does it say that hufflepuffs are "happy and dumb," they are good friends. Friendship is their main trait. Just because they don't get to be cunning, chivalrous, pure-blood, brave, evil, or studious...that doesn't mean they're dumb :)

Speaking of Country Diner, I need to find someone who is good at claw machine. There are pokemon toys in it, and I need to win one before Andrew or Kat does to make them jealous.

My life lately has been super busy, and it shows no signs of stopping soon. I have 2 jobs, lots of homework, circle k, and now we'll add in field experiences for classes and getting around to writing that honors project proposal. My to do list is massive.

On a happy note, I met a boy I like. Here's hoping I won't scare him away.

On a more serious note, the Into the Light Walk was this past sunday. The walk is for suicide prevention and is run by a group called Suicide Prevention Education Alliance. It's a pretty cool organization because it's one of the few that I know of that focuses on curing/treating mental illnesses. It also focuses heavily on educating high school students, which I think is great. So many high school students have problems with depression and they never get help because they think it's normal, no listens to them, or the people who do listen say that they are just being dramatic. With all that said, I'm a big fan of the organization, and the walk they put on every year.

I have to say, though, it let me down on Sunday, and I'll tell you why. Circle K was being flashlight holders at the walk like we usually do (there are few lights in the zoo since it would confuse the animals, so we are there to direct walkers since the walk happens in the dark). My one friend, who has been effected by suicide more than anyone should have to be, decided to actually raise money and participate in the walk. The whole club was a huge support, and I'm really proud she did the walk. Anyway, as a flashlight holder, we had to go to our stations before the actual walk began. Before the walkers started off, I got a text from my friend saying she'd like someone to walk with. Of course, I was more than willing. I left my buddy at the flashlight spot, and ran back to the pavillion.

When I got there, my friend was sitting on a bench alone, looking obviously upset. Around her were all these people setting up for the end of the walk (where they put candles in bags with people's names on them) and others were cleaning up the food and things from the opening session. When I found my friend, she mentioned that the only person who had asked her if she was ok was a zoo employee. I'm still a little bothered by this. There were a lot of volunteers around, people who are trained to hear stories and help people dealing with bad situations, but they didn't seem to notice when someone was upset. Maybe they figured it was ok to be upset at an event like this? I don't know. I'm just really happy the zoo employee stopped to help. There are good people out there :)


Well, that's it for now. This was a small break between studying and class. After class there is more homework, Circle K, then more homework, sleep, then do it all again. Friday isn't coming fast enough this week...

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Like Mountains in the Midwest

Let's just say I can't wait until next week when tutoring starts up! I'm so bored in between my classes on Tuesday's and Thursday's. Two hours in between!

So, I've made a recent discovery of the band "Owl City." I've been thinking forever that I need a new band to listen to, and the past couple times I've been in Andrew's car, he's played this one song (Designer Skyline) that I really like. Then I remembered all of Jen's away messages about Owl City, so I have youtubed them, and I am liking what I hear. Yay new music choices.

So, I've written a lot about this topic: what music will be oldies when we're old? I've decided that if nothing else, the following songs have staying power. Feel free to disagree: "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls, "How to Save a Life" and "Over my Head" by the Fray, "American Baby" by Dave Matthews Band, and I think "Vindicated" by Dashboard Confessional might have a chance. Also, at least one Creed song is going to make it, but I can't decide which one. I'm on the edge with the s0ng "All the Small Things" by Blink 182. Obviously it is not a *good* song, meaning it is clearly not a song of incredible depth or musical greatness, but I would bet 9 out of 10 people know it.

Speaking of music, yesterday I said something that I don't remember (which, in relation to this story is not important anyway) to which Andrew replied "I just learned what the song Skater Boy was really about!" I asked him to explain, worried that I've been misinterpreting the song for all these years (was there a hidden meaning no one ever told me? That's on my playlists for camp...should I take it off? Is it secretly innappropriate? These were the thoughts running through my head...) Andrew goes on to explain "So there was this skater boy, and this girl liked him but thought he wasn't good enough for her..." He went on to explain the entire song the way I (and everyone else in the world) has always understood it. It made my day. Oh, I heart my housemates.

I am happy to say that my two lovely Betta fish, Atticus and Scout, are still alive. I never really thought fish could be an entertaining pet, but they are making me laugh quite a bit. They have a divider between them (you know, so they don't eat each other which I hear Betta fish sometimes do). Well, this morning, I fed them and one of the food pellets on Scout's side stuck up against the divider. Atticus thought the food was on his side, so he spent about 3 minutes trying to eat it (and running into the divider trying to get it). I'm sure it would have gone on longer, but I didn't want him to hurt himself so I moved the piece of food closer to Scout. yay fish.

I have to say, the worst part about my class schedule is I don't know when to eat! I have a lunch and I want to eat it now, but it's only 10:15. I have class at 12 to 1:30, then again from 3:00-4:30. It's hard to decide which gap to eat in.

Speaking of food, I'm trying to see how long I can not eat meat. I've always wanted to try to be a vegetarian, so why not try now? I'm going to finish up the meat food I have at home already, but after that I doubt I'll buy any more meat products for a while.

I've been breaking out the old school game boy a lot with Pokemon blue. I am so frustrated with the tunnel to Cerulean City-I just can't seem to get through it! I can't beat Rocket! aghhhh! Obviously, getting Ivysaur to beat Rocket is the biggest problem in my life right now.