Well, I got mono.
But I graduated.
I probably have a lot to say.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Fine. I'll give you a freaking personal one.
So my 40 pages are due tomorrow, and I am very happy to say that (at this moment), 29 are completly finished and fully edited.... I'm just trying to figure out how to end the thing. See, through this whole memoir process, I was kind of freaked out about the page length... what story could I tell for that long? Now that I've worked it to death, I've realized that I have a lot more than 40 pages (trust me, I look through at least 20 additional pages that I don't want to throw away every couple of hours). So maybe, juuust maybe, this is just some sort of beginning to something bigger. Maybe I'll work on completing it after this class ends... who knows?
I need to finish that guy up, like right now, but I've been planning on posting this story all week: it's pretty light-hearted, but it is something more personal than I'd ever consider blogging about.
So here it is. How I met my first best friend at UMass. . . (anyone else been on nostalgia overload lately? I'm not fully there, but I can feel it coming... hfhflsfjsl).
I remember sitting in my Intro to Logic class (I thought Philosophy 110 would involve discussion not formulas). I am looking particularly cute this day because I had no classes prior to one o’clock on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This gave me time to sleep in, take a shower, and eat lunch. Life was good on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I sat in the 100-seat lecture room, always at least ten minutes early because being late for anything drives me insane. A guy sat down next to me, and I felt that he had to talk to me. I just knew. But, he wouldn’t even look at me! For an hour and fifteen minutes, we sat next to each other, not listening to the same lecture, and he couldn’t even give me a smile.
I walked into my next class, Intro to Personal Communication (possibly taught by the lamest professor in the world). I am sitting next to my new friend, Derek, when he walks in! The guy from my Logic class!
I tap Derek, “You see that kid right there?”
Derek looks at the kid walking across a row of the 400-seat lecture hall. “Yeah.” He seems uninterested.
“Well I hate him!”
This perks him up a bit. “Really?”
Not even a why? Just a really? I explain to him that I sat next to him, no, that he sat next to me in the class before this one, and he didn’t even look at me! Derek laughs, but I stay half-serious before falling into a class coma.
Two days later, Thursday, that kid sits next to me again! Ten minutes before class. I’m not looking too bad today either. Ten minutes before class I ask him: “So are you going to at least talk to me today?” His genuine shock is something I’ll never forget.
“Oh, uh, yeah…” he says.
Our conversation stayed on the surface: names, hometowns, dormitories (he actually lived in the same area as I). Dan and I became great friends during our first semester freshman year, and he is still one of my bests at the university four years later. We tell the story because it makes us giggle; our lives would have been drastically different if it wasn’t for that day (especially considering we shared a room for a semester). But it is only now that I question myself: where did I get that confidence? How was I so ballsy to think that this stranger needed to talk to me? Intuition? ESP?
I need to finish that guy up, like right now, but I've been planning on posting this story all week: it's pretty light-hearted, but it is something more personal than I'd ever consider blogging about.
So here it is. How I met my first best friend at UMass. . . (anyone else been on nostalgia overload lately? I'm not fully there, but I can feel it coming... hfhflsfjsl).
I remember sitting in my Intro to Logic class (I thought Philosophy 110 would involve discussion not formulas). I am looking particularly cute this day because I had no classes prior to one o’clock on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This gave me time to sleep in, take a shower, and eat lunch. Life was good on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I sat in the 100-seat lecture room, always at least ten minutes early because being late for anything drives me insane. A guy sat down next to me, and I felt that he had to talk to me. I just knew. But, he wouldn’t even look at me! For an hour and fifteen minutes, we sat next to each other, not listening to the same lecture, and he couldn’t even give me a smile.
I walked into my next class, Intro to Personal Communication (possibly taught by the lamest professor in the world). I am sitting next to my new friend, Derek, when he walks in! The guy from my Logic class!
I tap Derek, “You see that kid right there?”
Derek looks at the kid walking across a row of the 400-seat lecture hall. “Yeah.” He seems uninterested.
“Well I hate him!”
This perks him up a bit. “Really?”
Not even a why? Just a really? I explain to him that I sat next to him, no, that he sat next to me in the class before this one, and he didn’t even look at me! Derek laughs, but I stay half-serious before falling into a class coma.
Two days later, Thursday, that kid sits next to me again! Ten minutes before class. I’m not looking too bad today either. Ten minutes before class I ask him: “So are you going to at least talk to me today?” His genuine shock is something I’ll never forget.
“Oh, uh, yeah…” he says.
Our conversation stayed on the surface: names, hometowns, dormitories (he actually lived in the same area as I). Dan and I became great friends during our first semester freshman year, and he is still one of my bests at the university four years later. We tell the story because it makes us giggle; our lives would have been drastically different if it wasn’t for that day (especially considering we shared a room for a semester). But it is only now that I question myself: where did I get that confidence? How was I so ballsy to think that this stranger needed to talk to me? Intuition? ESP?
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Response to Brett's Comment (see last blog)
Dear Brett,
I'm sure you're friend had more than 1 weekend to write 100 pages about facts.... facts that he or she probably should have been researching for a while...
I'm not bitching, but for me, it's way harder to write 40 decent pages about myself and a topic like race than it would be to write a science thesis where you just write and interpret the facts.
There's nothing really creative about a science thesis-- I'm sure you're friend isn't worried about the fact that people are going to be knowing all about her and her life... no one exposes their secrets in a science thesis. When your friend's paper gets published... his or her feelings are going to be slightly different than mine.
So thanks for your comment, but you just don't get it.
Love,
Kristi
ps- how's that for blog drama?? :)
pps- that's what you get for not asking me to your formal, jerk.
I'm sure you're friend had more than 1 weekend to write 100 pages about facts.... facts that he or she probably should have been researching for a while...
I'm not bitching, but for me, it's way harder to write 40 decent pages about myself and a topic like race than it would be to write a science thesis where you just write and interpret the facts.
There's nothing really creative about a science thesis-- I'm sure you're friend isn't worried about the fact that people are going to be knowing all about her and her life... no one exposes their secrets in a science thesis. When your friend's paper gets published... his or her feelings are going to be slightly different than mine.
So thanks for your comment, but you just don't get it.
Love,
Kristi
ps- how's that for blog drama?? :)
pps- that's what you get for not asking me to your formal, jerk.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
The Kind of Person I Am
So I've been having a hard time being inspired to blog. Earlier in the semester, it was just a lot easier to fall into this "Ludakristi"/That's What She Said persona... but now that I am actually working on important things (haha no offense Bloggers), I don't have time for me. And my Snoop Bloggie Blogg.
I am sending out my Costa Rica application tomorrow. Everything is all set. I don't know what else to say about it.
I have 11/40 pages of my memoir... which is due in a week... so that's what I've been really working on. I'm trying to complete the 2 and a half pages I am going to be reading at Food For Thought on Thursday evening, but I usually just stare at them for a long time. I need to get those done today/night. Because I need to practice them tomorrow. And I need to blow everyone away on Thursday. I don't know how it's going to go, and I've never done a reading like this.
In blog class, I always say how my blog is personal, so a lot of questions that come up about the Blogosphere apply to me in different ways. But, the truth is, my blog isn't personal at all. I started writing for an audience as soon as a girl asked about "the Wink guy." I pull away from my blog by posting about cooking things and singing karaoke.
The stuff I am writing about for my memoir class... that's personal. That's going to be public, and that scares me. The Blogosphere means nothing to me compared to the manuscript I will have produced in a week. Once it's done, it's going to be accessible to family, friends, and strangers. Kind of like my blog. Rarrrhkjdfhlsd.... stressed.
Anyway. I brought my old journal to campus today because I am trying to get inspired to write 29 more pages worth of stories about me. I started the journal in 6th grade, and I was trying to write at least a little everyday, so the first entries are all like, "Today I ate spagetti. It was good. I like Titanic. It's an awesome movie." But then it gets into the boy crazy stage of my life, I guess. And there's some stuff in there that's worth expanding upon. All I can see now, however, is how much I censored myself... to myself. And I don't think I was just being cryptic in case someone started reading it. I can remember the feelings that accompanied certain events, but I just chose not to share them. Only towards the end is there any reflection... but I still think I censored myself a lot... and I have to question why. I don't know if I'll ever write in a journal again. It's scary now.
This post is full of "I don't knows" but whatever. I don't know why I am rambling in my blog instead of working on my memoir. But as I was reading my journal today, I came across a bunch of entries about the loves of my middle school life (who are kids I am all friends with to this day)... so I started sending out confessional text messages:
I'm reading my old journal and apparently I put frosting all over your face at my 13th birthday party. . . sorry for that but you should know that I thought you were SOOOO HOTT hahaha
CB: 508-___-____
To: Josh Connor
Sent: May 1, 11:36 am
Dave. I am reading my old journal and on November 4, 1998 I was totally in love with you. . . just thought that you should know. ;)*
CB: 508-___-____
To: Davisboy
Sent: May 1, 11:42 am
* I sent a similar text to Corey, but the date was September 30, 1999.
I'm reading my old journal and sending text messages with specific dates to let the boys know when I was in love with them. I got a couple I could things I could send you tooo!
CB: 508-___-____
To: Lo
Sent: May 1, 12:05 pm
Well on April 8th, 2000 I ended an entry with: Lolo and I are incredibley good friends now. It's creepy-- we know what the other one is saying without having to say it. (Lolo just called, how creepy is that?)
CB: 508-___-____
To: Lo
Sent: May 1, 12:10 pm
There's a few more good ones, and the responses are even better. But I don't want to blog anymore. Sorry Bloggie.
I am sending out my Costa Rica application tomorrow. Everything is all set. I don't know what else to say about it.
I have 11/40 pages of my memoir... which is due in a week... so that's what I've been really working on. I'm trying to complete the 2 and a half pages I am going to be reading at Food For Thought on Thursday evening, but I usually just stare at them for a long time. I need to get those done today/night. Because I need to practice them tomorrow. And I need to blow everyone away on Thursday. I don't know how it's going to go, and I've never done a reading like this.
In blog class, I always say how my blog is personal, so a lot of questions that come up about the Blogosphere apply to me in different ways. But, the truth is, my blog isn't personal at all. I started writing for an audience as soon as a girl asked about "the Wink guy." I pull away from my blog by posting about cooking things and singing karaoke.
The stuff I am writing about for my memoir class... that's personal. That's going to be public, and that scares me. The Blogosphere means nothing to me compared to the manuscript I will have produced in a week. Once it's done, it's going to be accessible to family, friends, and strangers. Kind of like my blog. Rarrrhkjdfhlsd.... stressed.
Anyway. I brought my old journal to campus today because I am trying to get inspired to write 29 more pages worth of stories about me. I started the journal in 6th grade, and I was trying to write at least a little everyday, so the first entries are all like, "Today I ate spagetti. It was good. I like Titanic. It's an awesome movie." But then it gets into the boy crazy stage of my life, I guess. And there's some stuff in there that's worth expanding upon. All I can see now, however, is how much I censored myself... to myself. And I don't think I was just being cryptic in case someone started reading it. I can remember the feelings that accompanied certain events, but I just chose not to share them. Only towards the end is there any reflection... but I still think I censored myself a lot... and I have to question why. I don't know if I'll ever write in a journal again. It's scary now.
This post is full of "I don't knows" but whatever. I don't know why I am rambling in my blog instead of working on my memoir. But as I was reading my journal today, I came across a bunch of entries about the loves of my middle school life (who are kids I am all friends with to this day)... so I started sending out confessional text messages:
I'm reading my old journal and apparently I put frosting all over your face at my 13th birthday party. . . sorry for that but you should know that I thought you were SOOOO HOTT hahaha
CB: 508-___-____
To: Josh Connor
Sent: May 1, 11:36 am
Dave. I am reading my old journal and on November 4, 1998 I was totally in love with you. . . just thought that you should know. ;)*
CB: 508-___-____
To: Davisboy
Sent: May 1, 11:42 am
* I sent a similar text to Corey, but the date was September 30, 1999.
I'm reading my old journal and sending text messages with specific dates to let the boys know when I was in love with them. I got a couple I could things I could send you tooo!
CB: 508-___-____
To: Lo
Sent: May 1, 12:05 pm
Well on April 8th, 2000 I ended an entry with: Lolo and I are incredibley good friends now. It's creepy-- we know what the other one is saying without having to say it. (Lolo just called, how creepy is that?)
CB: 508-___-____
To: Lo
Sent: May 1, 12:10 pm
There's a few more good ones, and the responses are even better. But I don't want to blog anymore. Sorry Bloggie.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Prejudice
Maybe it's because I live in a really liberal place, but the fact that racial segregation still exists in our country still shocks me everytime I think about it. I was just reading through the AOL news and this story came up: Georigia School Holds First Integrated Prom. I know it's completly naive to think that desegregation was over and done with 50 years ago, but still...
This school usually had two different proms, but this guy (Senior class president James Hall) "led the charge" for having one intergrated prom.
Speaking of my liberal mind, Extravaganja isn't what everyone thinks/assumes it is. It's just kind of a large, peaceful protest with music and hippies and local vendors and, yeah, "pot heads," "stoners," and whatever else falls inbetween. I use these terms because I just read them in The Daily Collegian, and I don't know if the writer was trying to be funny or trying to "represent," but the whole article lacked that general objective feeling for me (I read it in the Arts & Living section). Matthew Cadwallader writes,
"As students poured out of the dorms to enjoy the gorgeous weather this weekend, they may have noticed something different in the air; a funny smell. The copious amounts of marijuana smoked over the weekend, here on campus and around the world, would certainly be to blame.
The weekend was one for the pot heads, starting with the stoner holiday of 4/20 on Friday and continuing with the Cannabis Reform Coalition's (CRC) 16th annual Extravaganja on Saturday. According to organizers, the latter event, hosted on the Amherst town common, drew over 2,000 people from around the Pioneer Valley for a celebration of all things marijuana."
I mean, the title of the article was "A day of baking in the Amherst sun," but I really thought it was going to be about the nice weather and Southwest Beach... haha. So the "funny smell" just surprised me-- I thought I was getting into something scientific... but nope, it's about "copious amounts of marijuana."
Now I'm not condoning or condemning someone's usage... but just because someone supports CRC or the decriminalization of marijuana doesn't make them a "pot head." I don't know; you can read the whole article here though and see if I am just reading it the wrong way. Something seems off about the article in general to me... maybe Cadwallader is just a freshman or something though... trying to come off as a cool dude instead of a journalist. There were a lot of interesting leads in this one small piece though.
Anyway, this how the CRC describes Extravaganja:
"A marijuana-freedom festival meant to raise awareness about the legalization of marijuana. Featuring live bands, guest speakers, and plenty of vendors on the Amherst Common from dawn till dusk."
I was there for a little bit. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people and dogs and music and fun. But then I left on a mission for a grill. But that's another story. Sorry Blogosphere, it's too warm out to continue writing.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Fundraising.
A huge part of getting the job in Costa Rica is going to be my interview. Because I haven't done a lot of volunteer work in my college career (I mean, I did lots in high school), I want to show them how serious I am. Because I am going to have to pay for some things (airfare and such add up even when it's volunteer based), having ideas of fundraising might be a "applicant-booster" (I imagine they are going to ask how I am going to pay for these fees during my interview).
I don't really like the idea of asking people I know for donations-- and I know my family is generous enough to help me out however they can. But I honestly like the idea of doing this all on my own. In high school, some of my friends and I were really into the local "scene," so we knew all these bands and would put on benefit shows a lot. I could probably swing something like that. Or, I think I could probably set up something at one of the bars in Amherst or Worcester... or maybe my mom will let me throw ragers in her backyard... haha. Or like, when we were in middle school, there were "town hall dances" thrown as fundraisers-- I wonder if people still do those things...
Or I could potentially make things so that people get something for donating to me. Like, I can crochet (oh great, now the world knows). I could do something simple like scarves (have the summer to work on them)... and then just have a sliding scale or something. I bet I could have a table at the Harvest Festival or the Apple Festival in my hometown because I used to volunteer at all those things when I was younger (did I already mention that I did TONS of stuff when I was in high school?).
Or maybe I should just send a letter to every person I have ever met... explaining my goals and... nah-- I'd rather offer some sort of incentive or product-- basically something fun.
I don't really like the idea of asking people I know for donations-- and I know my family is generous enough to help me out however they can. But I honestly like the idea of doing this all on my own. In high school, some of my friends and I were really into the local "scene," so we knew all these bands and would put on benefit shows a lot. I could probably swing something like that. Or, I think I could probably set up something at one of the bars in Amherst or Worcester... or maybe my mom will let me throw ragers in her backyard... haha. Or like, when we were in middle school, there were "town hall dances" thrown as fundraisers-- I wonder if people still do those things...
Or I could potentially make things so that people get something for donating to me. Like, I can crochet (oh great, now the world knows). I could do something simple like scarves (have the summer to work on them)... and then just have a sliding scale or something. I bet I could have a table at the Harvest Festival or the Apple Festival in my hometown because I used to volunteer at all those things when I was younger (did I already mention that I did TONS of stuff when I was in high school?).
Or maybe I should just send a letter to every person I have ever met... explaining my goals and... nah-- I'd rather offer some sort of incentive or product-- basically something fun.
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