Legally recognized member of the Bible Belt.

I finally had to break down and get a Tennessee driver's license today, mostly under the assumption that I may keep the points from following (that I just earned via a speeding ticket) because it's not been processed yet. We'll see about that. 

I like to think most times that I'm pretty intelligent. I have my moments of blatant stupidity, sometimes concerning specific parts of my life, but overall I do ok for myself. Right now I know there is a lot of underlying stress that I'm feeling regarding school and my impending field placement that starts next week. On top of that we all have social obligations as well which is supposed to be fun but can also add an element of stress as well. It's times like these that part of my brain shuts down and doesn't allow me to feel that stress. Part of me is very thankful, the other part of me tries to figure out why I'm feeling lethargic and moody. Well, duh, I'm overwhelmed. So this is when I make an effort to put things into perspective. I try to find reasons to laugh, reasons to be thankful and ways to have unadulterated fun.

 It's harder to do those things when I'm seeing people that I love struggle. And then I feel guilty for having it easier than them. Four people are some of the most important people to me are dealing with less than ideal situations, everything from medical issues to money trouble and relationship issues. The only thing I want to do is make things better for them. I want a magic wand to make all their troubles go away. Instead I sit here thinking about how fortunate I am. Rawr. Thankfully most of their issues are fixable, it's just going to take time or effort or sacrifice. Thankfully they aren't dealing with some of the situations that the rest of America is dealing with like persistent unemployment, or dealing with issues like those in 'undeveloped' countries where people are attempting to escape persecution and genocide. A woman in Saudi Arabia is going to receive 10 lashes for driving a car since it is still illegal for women to do so there. They may get the right to vote in 2015, baby steps I suppose. 

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, for as much as I wish I could fix everything for everyone that I love, sometimes you just have to watch people struggle once you've exhausted all of your ability to be helpful. That's something that I will also need to keep in mind for the future in my line of work. That doesn't mean that I won't keep trying. 

My reason for laughing today was getting sexually harassed at the Cafe by a man that eluded to ejaculating on me. He was a classy man smoking a cigar and after asking if it was ok to smoke his cigar near me he then suggested that he just blow it on me and told me to 'take that however I wanted." I don't want to take that at all, sir, but thank you.

Reason for being thankful. There were people at the DMV waiting for 3 hours to get processed when my wait was only just over an hour. 

My unadulterated fun: In 30 minutes I'll be heading to the Wild Horse to go see Hanson perform, with reserved seating of course. If that's not a blast from the past I don't know what is. I saw them the last time at the ripe old age of thirteen. Awesome. 

So intense. Actually I hear they are pretty damn talented. It's something to do on a Thursday night. And they love Jesus so what better way to celebrate my new resident status than with some bible thumping boys. 

I walked into a church and wasn't struck by lightning.

I'm currently at the cafe and there is a man dressed in drag with angel wings on. Just another Monday in West End I suppose. People in white tee shirts are congregating as well and I am pretty sure I need to leave soon before I get distracted by all of the people watching, but first things first, blog.
This past week was a hair busy. I have three papers due this week, one of them I was finishing up this morning an hour before it was due, oops. APA citation can suck it. I completed the easy one last week and finished up the third this evening. That doesn't include the reading I'm supposed to be doing that was neglected over the weekend. I was too busy doing sweet things like dancing to Kesha and getting a speeding ticket....ugh.
I headed to Louisville on Thursday after spending a mere 3 full days in Nashville since the last trip. I fail at being a resident of Tennessee lately. JW and I spent Thursday and Friday night in Louisville hanging with his friends and being lazy at home. We abuse the usage of netflix and his couch to an extreme when we are at his house. Oh well. Saturday morning we packed up the car and drove 3 and 1/2 hours to Columbus, OH. Full of Buckeyes and college football enthusiasts. While driving we also came across a festival for dogs...not sure what's involved there but I'd hate to be the one to clean up after that celebration.  We were running a bit behind so there was a lot of speeding in the rental car, I didn't drive on the way there but I did see some of the same 'you're going to hell' billboards in Ohio. When we got to the hotel and checked in we met up with his friends after changing into wedding appropriate clothes. I got to wear the gray dress, woot. The ceremony was at a church, of course and I was uncomfortable, naturally. The words to the hymn that was sang must have escaped me. I also realized that I'm not the only person watching people after the pastor says, 'let us pray.' Yeah I caught you not praying two-year-old toddler.
After the ceremony and making idle conversation with strangers we headed to the reception. Open bar. Sub-par D.J. Open bar. Dancing. 
The wedding and reception made me think about the whole idea of marriage. The pastor said some pretty insightful things about marriage and it just made me wonder why people do it. Not committing to someone for the rest of your life but the whole circus that surrounds it. From what I understand it's a pretty stressful thing to plan a wedding, it's insanely expensive and it lasts just a few hours. When I was 11 I decided I wanted to get married in a field, barefoot. I don't think my mind has been changed. I also want an ice cream cake which I've been told would be a logistical nightmare. Pssh. I want what I want. 
On the way back from Columbus I was tired and was speeding heavily so we could just get back. Mistake. I had to wake J up to tell him we were getting pulled over. No mercy on that ticket and I will be contacting the Circuit court so I can take a driving class to hopefully not get the full 3 points. On top of that I'm supposed to be getting a TN drivers license in a month. Crap. After being pulled over I drove to the nearest gas station, cried for about two minutes and J took the keys so I didn't have to drive anymore. Thankfully. It was also decided that I didn't need to drive another 2.5 hours back to Nashville so I stayed the night. We went to a potluck at his friends and it made me miss that sense of community I used to have in Michigan. I have friends here but it appears that some of us are being pulled apart by schedules and Jesus. Oi.
So here goes the next week, it has already begun and there is much to do. Next Tuesday I will begin my field placement and things will likely become hectic. Welcome to grad school.
Have a lovely week, I hope I will. 

Congrats on your boyfriend not being dead.

Oh what a week it was. I've got class in a few hours so I figured I'd get this in now because the way this week is looking I'm not going to have much time for anything but writing papers for the next week. Rawr.
This week started off with a massive amount of annoyance on Monday from my Social, Economics and Political Environments (512) instructor. We were assigned to take an online quiz over the last 4 weeks of reading and were given a 12 hour window to take it. Not a huge deal, until I started the quiz and realized that the 8 chapters and 10 articles that we were assigned over the last four weeks were expected to be read in such great detail that I was supposed to remember minute facts about all of it. Ok, ok, I get that you want us to read, and I do, but asking us about tiny details from stuff I read four weeks ago seems a little ridiculous. On top of that one of the questions wasn't a complete sentence, one of the questions was from an article that we weren't supplied with and another question was based off of reading that is assigned for next week. What the hell? Please look over your quiz before you make me take it so you know it makes sense. I am ultra-paranoid about my grades and I bombed the quiz. So after taking the quiz I couldn't concentrate and could feel my anxiety sky-rocketing. I went for a run to relax and then talked with some of my classmates the next day all of whom had the same concerns. Blah. So Tuesday my class was canceled but I didn't figure that out until I was already there. My friend and I met for lunch before class and had amazing Thai and headed over together. I think we did a little dance when we realized we didn't have class. It's the little things.
Tuesday evening I got a phone call from my boyfriend after not hearing anything from him all day. At 5p.m. he had just woken up because he was in the emergency room until 7 a.m. I had a mild coronary and found out he had gotten in an accident on his moped. Concussion and sprained shoulder. Yikes. It was decided almost immediately that I would head to Louisville as soon as I was done with classes on Wednesday. After getting there Wednesday night I got to hear him recall the accident with the kids he was in it with and the rest of his gang. From what everyone could gather they were going about 30-35 mph and hit a downed tree and went over their handle bars. All of them were wearing helmets and the guy that came to rescue them said by the looks of their bikes they were lucky to be alive. He then congratulated me on having a boyfriend that was still alive. I was thankful too.
So the rest of the weekend I stayed in Louisville to help Jason with stuff around the house and trying to make sure he was taking it easy. Thankfully by Wednesday he was at least able to put on a shirt and leave the house, baby steps. We spent a lot of the weekend on school work and the other parts being lazy. When I'm in Louisville is the only time I will nap. We also went to the Drive-In, which is one of my favorite things to do together. Drive (with Ryan Gosling) and Horrible Bosses were playing. Drive was pretty amazing especially considering how low my expectations were. It didn't hurt that Christina Hendricks was in it for a bit and I have a massive girl crush on her. It also helped to have homemade slushies yet again. They weren't too slushy by the time we got there but it's the thought that counts. Pretty much my boyfriend is awesome.
Overall, great weekend considering the circumstances. I now have two papers to write and a wedding to go to this coming weekend...bad. I'll figure it out.
Have a great week!

Why does the rhythm get me every time?

Sometimes I wonder if I have a strange sense of humor or if some people just lack one completely. I love college football. I love my Spartans. I was in a bar last night while the U of M/Notre Dame game was going on. There was some turd in a Michigan shirt singing the fight song after they scored. So I asked him, are you from Michigan? To which he replies, 'are you?' And as I am saying yes he high-fived me. That should have been the first sign he was a turd. I said, 'buuuuut, I am a State fan. We had a shut-out today, you guys seem to be struggling.' And I smiled and shook my head and 'tsk-tsked'. He appeared very offended by my ribbing, didn't say a word and turned his back toward me and faced the bar. What the hell? Really guy? You can't handle a little joking? Then I called some guy 'sir' when I was getting his attention to let him know he stole my friend's seat at the bar and he looked at me like I had two heads. Needless to say I wasn't making any friends last night. I mean aside from friend's of friends, I was a big hit with Jeff's friends apparently. I wasn't so popular with the straight patrons of the Melrose. 

Soooo, the week went kind of slow and looking back it doesn't feel like I was driving back from Louisville last Monday, it feels like weeks ago. Ugh. I spent a majority of the week studying and I got to hang with my sister for a few days. I finished unpacking my room and taking some things to storage. Boring things. I spent Friday night babysitting. Again, boring. Saturday I spent a majority of the day driving around East Nashville and West Nashville looking for a dress to wear to a wedding or two. After working on school stuff I met my friend and a few of his friends at the Belcourt Theatre to check out 'The Future' which is the new movie written, produced and starred in by Miranda July. The movie was lovely and I highly recommend it. She also did a questions session over skype live with the audience after the movie which was pretty cool. Drinks and my awkward interactions followed. I did find a dress however, which I was pretty excited about. The bad thing is that I have no friends here to shop with (my only girl friend in Nashville was out of town) so I ended up sending Jen pics of the dresses to get her opinion, gotta love technology. 

It looks like this:

I'm pretty psyched to wear it, it has pockets! Woot. If I ever have an excuse to wear a wedding dress, it will have pockets to keep tissues for the poor sucker agreeing to marry me. That's how much I like pockets in dresses. 

Anyway....Busy school week ahead, even busier one next week. I'm going to power through, hopefully have another fun and productive weekend and keep on trucking. Holy socks am I glad for Skype. Long distance can suck it.

homemade slushies rock my socks

Welp. I just saw a commercial for a TV show starring Zooey Deschanel. Guess I know what I'll be watching this Fall. I love her inappropriate amounts.
So anyway, this week was fantastic. I had class for three days, saw a naked man outside of my apartment, moved and then got to see my boyfriend for five days. Ok so not so much the first couple of things but Wednesday evening I was able to get out of Nashville and head up to Louisville for the long weekend.
Visits involved Ticket to Ride or train game (which I won, twice!), Mario Party on Wii (which I lost, twice-grr) and lots of time spent studying. It works out quite well that Jason and I are both in school because I don't have the self control to put studying time aside when I'm around people I want to spend time with and he's much more studious than I. We worked on a positive reward system. Study and then we get to go on a date. Study and then we go to 21C to check out the museum and Wet Willies (which was closed, damn it). Study and then go cuddle on the couch for hours watching episodes of LOST on netflix. It was a good system. Unfortunately our plans to go to the drive-in didn't work because of the rain but because I was super bummed that Wet Willie's was closed the amazing man made me slushies with his ice cream maker and vodka. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend without slowing down time. I left kind of down that the weekend was over and that we won't be seeing each other for another three weeks. ugh. I'll survive.
On the way home I called my Mom to chat. She had mentioned that her friends went to Detroit to see Obama today which then led to a conversation about politics then the social welfare system. I keep thinking that I am becoming more conservative in my views of the system. I don't know if its age or the things that I'm learning or I'm just finding it harder to fight for a system that has serious flaws in it. Shouldn't that make me want to fight harder to fix it? I'm getting frustrated with my going back and forth on the matter of my concentration. Clinical or Macro? Yeesh. I need to slow it down.
On a totally unrelated note; college football is back and it is officially Fall. YES!! Go green, go white, GO STATE!