Things This Awesome Never Happen to People Like Me
Yes it’s only Thursday. Yes I’m probably jinxing it all by posting this. But, hey. I don’t really care! I’m having one of the greatest weeks ever!
But let’s go over what has happened so far:
Monday
- Got my mid-term back in self defense (Yes, we had a written midterm. It was on the science behind it, which is my jam): 90%!
- Found out that we’re starting a unit on mental disorders in General Psychology on Wednesday (one of my favorite topics)
Tuesday
- Registered for classes. Got almost everything I wanted, and the class I couldn’t get actually allowed me to take a class that sounds much more interesting.
- Got a quiz back in Latin that I thought I didn’t do well on but actually did super-well on 🙂
- Was able to get approval to take concert band for credit next semester (I haven’t been in an ensemble since high school and I miss it so much)
- Got a call from my dad that I won a $3500 scholarship for second semester. That will cover anything I had to pay out of pocket with (I think) some left over!
Wednesday
- Started talking about mental disorders in Psych. So much fun (for me. Not for those diagnosed).
- Had an interview for a volunteer program I want to do next semester. I think I did well, but I’ll know next week!
- Got a couple questions right in quiz team 🙂
Thursday (So Far):
- My afternoon class is canceled.
- I start concert band tonight 😀
Here’s hoping that my luck continues until tomorrow, when I find out whether or not I get a different volunteer position for this upcoming summer!
A Few Of My Favorite Things pt. 2: Films
Look, Ma! I’m actually attempting to keep up with a series I’m starting!
Today I figured I’d do a nice transition from music into movies. Shall we begin?
Last movie I watched: Technically, it was The Rocky Horror Picture Show since one of our campus theater groups did a version where they acted it out while the actual movie was projected behind them (it was a phenomenal performance). But the last movie I actually sat down and watched was part of Inglorious Basterds. We didn’t finish it (it’s on my to-do list), but what we saw was very good.
What I desperately want to watch: This list is embarrassingly long. But my top two three four right now are Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Fifth Estate, Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World. I am a huge sci-fi geek (hence STID), and I just thought TFE looked really good. As for IM3 and Thor, I absolutely LOVE comic book movies, and these are the first Marvel movies that I haven’t seen in theaters.
What I can’t wait to see once it comes out: Sticking with my love of comic books, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is near the top of the list. As is the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who, The Day of the Doctor, which I am deeming as a movie just because it’s over an hour and will be shown in theaters.
All-Time Favorite Movie. Ever. Ever. EVER.: Without a doubt, my favorite movie that I bought specifically to bring with me to college, is Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Why? BECAUSE IT’S MONTY PYTHON! Who doesn’t love British humor? Plus, you can quote it in so many situations! Person ticks you off? “Your mother was a hamster and your father smells like elderberries!” Disgusting bug in the bathroom? “Fetch the holy hand grenade!!” You get hurt doing something? “It’s only a flesh wound!” AND PEOPLE WILL UNDERSTAND THE REFERENCES!
So, does anyone out there in internet-land have any other movie suggestions?
What Ever Happened to Saturday Night? (or “how to have fun in college without alcohol”)
I don’t drink. The only alcohol I’ve ever had was communion wine, which doesn’t count because ours was diluted with water and we dipped the wafer in, which gave me less than an ounce of liquid. I have no intention to drink until I am 21. For me, if I get caught, all dreams of medical school basically go out the window, and I would have spent almost 14 years working towards something I could not ever have. Plus, since I have no clue how I react with alcohol, I have this feeling that I might drink too much and make some really regrettable decisions that I would rather not have to deal with.
So, you may ask, what can I do if I don’t want to go to a party and get drunker than drunk? Answer: A lot of things! Here are a couple of my personal favorites:
1. Catch a movie/concert/theater performance
Yes, this seems like something you would do in high school. But it’s still a lot of fun, and can be cheap (which is nice if you’re on a budget like I am). Lots of schools occasionally offer free movie screenings (we showed Anchorman a couple of weeks ago and Hocus Pocus on Halloween), and local theaters may offer student discounts or student rush tickets for live shows. School-affiliated performing arts groups also offer reasonably-priced or free tickets (i.e. $5 for a midnight showing of our one theater group’s performance of Rocky Horror Picture Show, complete with audience participation), and it gives you an opportunity to see the talent of your fellow classmates. Also be on the lookout for special programs within venues that offer free tickets in exchange for volunteer work. For example, I get free tickets to our one auditorium, and all I have to do is live tweet the event!
2. Hallway Jam Session
At least in my corner of the dorm building, we have a lot of guitar players. Occasionally, one of them will break out their guitar, and we all will begin to sing along with whatever song is playing. This is how I got to know a couple of my really good friends, and I love listening to them play while my door is propped open and I’m working on homework.
3. Pay Attention to On-Campus Activities
Yeah yeah yeah… I know. I sound like someone who works with freshmen at the school. But really, do pay attention to what’s going on. We get an email every week about campus activities, and a lot of them are a lot of fun. A group of us went to a Great Gatsby-themed party earlier tonight and had a blast! Everyone was dressed up (I was in my favorite heels), and everyone had a wonderful time. The best part was that it was completely free and I didn’t have to go trek throughout the city in order to find the location (since it was right on campus)! Activities can range from dances to spelling bees to volunteer opportunities, and they’re great chances to get to know new people.
4. Call it a night in!
Really, who doesn’t enjoy an evening with your roommate(s) where you wear sweats, order food to be delivered, and just chill in the room?! You can watch a movie, make paper snowflakes (if it’s close to Christmas), and just have fun! Plus, you don’t have to dress up and act like you have to impress anyone!
Until next time 🙂
Blog Buddies: L…
Blog Buddies: Like Bubble Buddies, but better!
So my best friend (who also has a blog) and I were talking, and I said we were blog buddies. This was her response.
So, people of the interwebs, introduce yourselves to me! What do you like? What do you hate? What do you want me to post about? What do you think I should do more of on here? What do you think the meaning of life is?
Let’s all be blog buddies! (Ok. That sounded a lot better in my head)
I Have Guy Issues. But That’s Not New.
So this is another one of my “I’m going to rant about my insecurities and lack of guts” posts. So feel free to keep scrolling past. I won’t be offended.
This Saturday, we’re having a Gatsby-themed dance on campus. Guess who has two thumbs and doesn’t have a date? THIS GIRL! *points at self* That puts the total at 5 dances that I haven’t had a date to, plus countless other events I haven’t gone with a guy to.
It’s not like I don’t TRY to get to know the guys I find myself falling for. Like the song says, “Breaking my back just to know your name.” I attempt to start conversations with them, whether it be in person (when I actually see them) or on Facebook (when you can’t talk to them in person, like what happened with me this summer. I’ll vent about this story then). But, just my luck, I never see the guy(s) I like (so I can’t talk face to face) and, if I try to talk to them over the internet, they rarely respond! It’s aggravating!
Want proof of my luck? Take the guy I fell for at orientation: I met him at the first event. He was literally the first guy I met (I had already met a couple of girls). We were in the same small group, and, just because I knew nobody, I sat down next to him. We chatted about the stereotypical small-talk topics, and, when the actual thing started, they had us stand up. First words out of my mouth: “HOLY CRAP YOU’RE TALL!” He was over 6′ tall, and I was just there, me and all of my 5′ 5″ shortness. So, we got to know each other over the next 3 days, and I found out that we liked a lot of the same things (he was into musicals and a lot of the same bands as me, even some of the ones nobody at home had ever heard of). When we left for the summer, we friended each other on Facebook and I started talking to him the one night online (since we weren’t going to be seeing each other again until move-in at the end of August). We had a really good conversation, and I thought “Hey, I might be able to keep chatting and hang out with him once we’re both in school.” Well, that idea kinda died after that conversation. I messaged him a couple days later when it appeared he was on, and no response. Tried again a couple weeks later: nothing. Tried once again closer to move-in: A response filled with a whole lot of NOTHING. Then, we moved in, and I figured “Hey. We’re in the same dorm building, I’ll be bound to see him and chat with him!”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no. Between the end of August and about mid-October, I could have probably counted the days I had seen him on one hand. And it gets better! One time, I was getting over a stomach bug, so I looked like death walking. A couple of the times, I just looked unattractive from coming straight home from my self-defense class. I just have not been able to talk to him in a normal context since orientation.
This is how I feel like it’s been for EVERY guy I have ever liked. Meet them. Fall for them. Get to know them. Try to talk to them. Never hear from them. Feel alone.
Sigh. Sorry for unloading this all on y’all. I just don’t know what to do anymore. I feel like I keep going through the same hoops, and I never get anywhere. I’m also starting to kinda fall for another guy, and I really don’t want to keep this trend up. If anyone out there has any advice, I would love to hear it!
Thanks, everyone.
A Few of My Favorite Things Pt. 1: Jams
Well. It’s November, which means that stores officially have crossed over to Christmas territory. So, in order to celebrate the occasion, I figured I’d start a series where maybe once a week I’ll share some of my favorite things.
Today’s topic: Music. I have a very, um, interesting array of musical tastes, so let’s go!
What I’m listening to now: Adagio for Tron by Daft Punk (because I have a weakness for movie scores)
Most Played Song on my iTunes: Love Interruption by James Wolpert (yes, this was originally recorded by Jack White, but I love this version so much more. Plus, James is from the area I grew up in, and I actually saw him in a community theater show when he was in high school)
Favorite Album: This is tough, but I love American Idiot by Green Day (because, well, it’s Green Day! They were supposed to have been my first big rock concert, but Billie Joe went to rehab and my show got canceled)
Favorite Playlist: The 2013 Doctor Who Prom as performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (again, going back to my love of film and tv scores. Fun Fact: I listened to this live on the radio while mowing the lawn because I thought they were announcing the new doctor that night. They didn’t, but now I have a dream to go see one of the Proms live (either DW or Sherlock, if they ever decide that it’s prom-worthy)
Favorite Song To Belt At Random Times Just Because I Can: This changes all the time. I have been known to attempt to sing instrumental music (it’s not pretty). But my all-time belting song would probably have to be this. Admit it. You know you have to sing ALL of the parts to this. I don’t think it’s healthy to not feel that need.
So, what about y’all? Comment down there with your favorite songs!
Mid-Semester Update #1: At Least I Know Where I’m Going… Kind Of…
Happy Almost-Halloween! I figured that, since midterms are wrapping up for everyone here, I would share some things that I have learned from my first 2 months of college!
1. MapQuest and iMaps can, and will be, your best friends the first couple of weeks.
Ok this seems kinda simple. But, if you are like me and get lost walking in a straight line are directionally challenged, then the walking directions from MapQuest or whatever map site you use will be your saving grace when navigating around a big campus for the first time. Plus, you can send MapQuest directions to your phone and save a tree or 2!
2. Don’t be afraid to try new things!
This has probably been said on every college tour/presentation/anything, but it’s true! You never know what you’ll end up liking. For instance, I thought it would be a smart idea to take a self-defense course since I’m living in a big city, and I would prefer not to get attacked by some creep. I have never been athletic or violent, so I thought that I might end up hating it since I would feel stupid. Right now, it’s one of my favorite classes and I have met 2 of my good friends through it. College is all about finding who you are, so don’t be afraid to try something you wouldn’t have touched with a 10-foot pole before!
3. Open dorm doors will attract people. But that’s ok. You’ll most likely become best friends with them.
This might have only happened to me, but, by opening my door, I actually met the people who live across the hall and down the hall from me. It’s cool because, if one of us has the door to our living area open (our dorms are kinda like mini-apartments for 4 people. It’s quite nice), we’ll yell stuff at each other when we’re entering or leaving our own rooms. We’ve gone and ended up doing our homework or folded our laundry that we just pulled out of the dryer in each others’ rooms. It’s so much fun, and it’s one of my favorite things about my dorm building 🙂
4. Don’t be ashamed of what you’re interested in. You’re almost guaranteed to find someone who likes the same things.
Where I grew up, everyone was kind of interested in the same types of things (Justin Bieber, mainstream pop culture, tv sitcoms, etc.). There’s nothing wrong with that, but I just wasn’t that into those types of things. I love British television (Sherlock and Doctor Who), love rock music (I’m listening to My Chemical Romance at the moment), and anything geeky (Bill Nye is my hero). When I came to college, I had no idea how easy it would be to find people who like the same things as me. As it turned out, my super-awesome RA is a huge geek (we constantly talk about Supernatural, even though she’s 2+ seasons ahead of me at the moment), one member of my quiz team likes Doctor Who, and my entire writing class is a member of one fandom or another. People who dig what you dig do exist, you just have to find them.
5. Do what you love, and love what you do. Just make sure you can find a job.
Fun fact: you do actually have to pay back your college loans! Shocker, right?! The truth is, you can go to school, and you can get a 4.0 and be super involved and have a kick-butt resume, but if you major in something like “Early Classical Interpretive Dance” (which I just made off the top of the head. If people actually study this, I want to meet them) where there is literally no job market, it’s all pointless. I’m not recommending majoring in, say, Chemistry, when you hate science with a burning passion and would much rather play the trumpet. But make sure that, while you’re investing your (or your parent’s) money into 4 years of education, make sure that it’s something that you can make money off of eventually. I’m fortunate that Biology and Medicine are both my passion and a booming job market, but I’m also passionate about music. I’m not majoring in it, but I’m still playing the sax and doing what I love.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment/drop me a question/send me a picture of your lunch/ whatever! I’d love to hear from the people who hear my ramblings!
Sciencey LOL of the Week
Oh science puns, you never fail to bring me joy on a regular basis…
A Little Bit of Hope
Sorry for the lack of posts recently. College has been, well, college. Homework, projects, and all sorts of fun stuff like that have officially taken over my life. But I have some time before my next class, so I figured I’d write a quick post 🙂
Disclaimer: This is going to be a giant fan girl moment. If you don’t care about my fangirl-ness, then don’t read. I won’t be offended.
Remember how I posted about sending surveys to celebrities involved with adaptations of Sherlock Holmes? Well, thanks to the magic of Tumblr and Twitter, I saw that someone who sent Andrew Scott (Moriarty on the BBC series) a somewhat similar survey got a response from him! She said that it took her between a month and 2 months to hear a response. Since today is the 2-week anniversary of me putting the letters in the mail, I hopefully may have a completed survey by the time I actually have to submit the final paper for a grade! Also, if Andrew is known to do these things, who’s to say that the other people I sent surveys to won’t?!
He also sent the girl an autograph, which, if I got one, would be my first non-musician autograph! (I have things signed by “Weird Al”, Fitz and the Tantrums, A Great Big World, and 2Cellos, and from parts of the Broadway casts of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and American Idiot, but nothing from any TV/Film actors).
So here’s hoping that maybe, just maybe, I will be able to throw in some first-hand quotes from the big names 😀
Nerves of Anything But Steel
Remember how I talked about those surveys I was sending out for my Sherlock Holmes project? Well, they’re in the mail now. I know I really shouldn’t be, but I’m nervous about them. I love how they turned out, and I’m proud to say that I did this, but that doesn’t help. I think it’s the fact that I can’t personally go and hand everyone a copy and say “hi I’m a student working on this project, and I would love it if you could fill this out for me” and then see if they’re interested.
Well, I could do that, but I’d go broke from the plane tickets, hotels, bail payments for alleged stalking, etc.
I think the part that bothers me the most is that everything’s out of my control.
I’m not a control freak or anything, but I like to know what’s going on.
I can’t even guarantee that over half of the people I sent surveys to will be able to send back the surveys, since apparently Americans can’t pre-pay for postage for something to be sent back from London (I included self-addressed envelopes with everything and, at least for the USA-bound ones, I pre-paid for return postage)! Gotta love living in America, where we currently have no government! But, that’s a rant for another day and another blog post…
So. Now the waiting game begins. Fingers crossed that I hear something and add that little bit of special-ness (is that a word?) to my paper.
Girl on the World 