Still alive.
So I haven't posted in ages... so I figured I should. *nods* I am still alive... and very busy. My education clinicals started last week... which means that from 7:30-10am on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm at Ellen Hopkins Elementary School playing with little children that can't read English because it's their second language. They're adorable.... I love them... I just hate that I have to wake up that early. Oh! I made the Dean's List for first semester. That -almost- makes staying up til 5 finishing papers worth it. Band leaves on tour next Tuesday (the 6th) we're going to Decorah, IA (Luther College), Cedar Rapids, IA, Des Moines, IA, Stillwater, MN and Minneapolis before the home concert on the 11th. So looking forward to that concert. I can't actually describe it to you. *nods* I'm staying with my parents on Saturday night and with Logan and Jann on Sunday night into Monday morning (yay for skipping my 8 o'clock Oral Comm class.... ooops......)(oh wait, that's right, that class is pointless... I don't care.) but yeah. I've been sleeping more this semester, and I even eat 2 meals a day now. (or at least usually. sometimes I'm not hungry for lunch) I've also started practicing a half hour a day, and occasionally going running (about three times/week). I've pretty much stopped drinking soda, and I've also stopped eating at the Norm. aka, this semester I've vowed to take better care of myself. Where has this gotten me? I got burned at work twice, but my finger today, and I've been sick for two weeks. My plan to better myself is -obviously- working wonderfully. *grumbles to self* but anyway, I'm going to go work on some homework for lack of anything much better to do. So, to all, I hope that your tomorrow is better than your yesterday.
Over the top? I don't think so.
So I was celebrating Christmas with my godparents on Wednesday (a little late, I know, but whatever) and we started playing this game called ImagineIf. You roll a die, and then read a card inserting the corresponding person's name. On someone's turn, my name came up, and the card read as follows:
Imagine if Rianna found out one of her friends was cheating on their spouse. What would she do?:
1. Tell the spouse
2. Counsel the friend
3. Gossip
4. Ask the friend out
5. Tell the affair
6. Blackmail
I said none of the above. Why? They missed
this option.
On a different note, Steph's "Notabirthdayparty" is tonight, so that should be super fun. I'm excited. Tomorrow I'm going to my step-brother's Honor's Band concert. I haven't been to a band concert in ages, so that should be fun. I wanted to rent the PBS version of Pride and Prejudice to watch with my sister, but unfortunately, Movie Gallery doesn't have it anymore. In fact, the only version they have is newest version. That makes me sad. There's so much more to that book than what that movie reduced it to. That PBS version was so much better. Oh well. Happy weekend everybody!
In Canada they don't play with a regulation basketball, they ball up gophers and throw them through holes in the ice. ~Stephen Colbert
College :)
Now we all know that Fidel Castro dressed up like Marilyn Monroe and gave JFK a case of syphilis so bad it eventually blew out the back of his head.
Source
For the past several weeks, I've been waiting for my letter from the University of Minnesota to tell me that I can in fact come and attend next fall. As the February 1 date kept creeping closer, I had to admit that I
might have to apply to NDSU just to make sure that I could go to college
somewhere. This was only a problem as I had stupidly not applied to the University of Minnesota until late-ish November.
I walked in today talking to Crystal after school and my mother came to find me and said you have a letter
and your passport. (Also a good thing, as Wiger asked if I had it yesterday). So I kept Crystal on the phone and went up to see this letter.
Sure enough, I had an envelop from the University of Minnesota's IT Department sitting there. The first word I read was Congratulations! I am officially a member of the U's 2011 class if I so choose. Sweet. I can go to school now.
I won't have to join the National Guard as myself or any of my many aliases as I also received mail for myself, my Last Name then my First then my Middle and the classic reverse of my name from the National Guard. I'm used to the switch of my first and last name; the middle example was something completely new however.
All that being said, I've been accepted into college. It's probably a good thing I don't have any homework tonight.
FANTASY CONGRESS!!!
Starting up the friendly rivalry, again. New league, with exlusive draft picks!!
league name: Bow to the Masterminds
password: kararules
enjoy ;-)
Update
So, I called Hannah's Aunt Sharon. She said that my voice mail says "Hannah." You all have called my cell phone at one point or another. It says "Rianna." These people are dense! She said she would call her mother and tell her Hannah got a new number. Hopefully that works. If it doesn't, I give up. I'm taking Sara's suggestion and pretending to be Hannah.
Random Comments
Hi all!
I've been absent from the blogging world for a while, and felt it time to make a re-appearance. Basically, I'm still on break, and haven't been doing a whole heck of a lot, so there wasn't much to tell. Now there is, however, so I shall post. Ready? Here we go.
So I went with to sections and state for LD. Highlights (no particular order):
1. Steph debating in jeans at sections after finding out Sonya had a kidney infection. Bigger plus: she was only 3.2 speaker points behind Katlyn Korynta, and almost made it to state.
2. Brian making it to state as a freshman. Awesome? Yes.
3. Making t-shirts with Brian's picture on them for the state tournament. Basically, everyone from Brainerd had one. It rocked.
4. Playing Rummy during down time, and scaring the crap out of the two Alex debaters. Apparently they don't tell their coach he sucks for picking up the card they need. Who knew?
5. Korynta saying that giving women the right to vote caused the Great Depression. Wow.
6. Steph telling me a line of questioning that took out the state champ's criterion. People had better watch out. If she uses her powers for evil, we're all screwed. Well, maybe I'm not, but I don't want to be her first ex-boyfriend...
7. ...who, according to some old guy who hit on her at the pool in the hotel, is Brian. "You're one lucky man," he told Brian. To which Brian replied, "Oh look! Pizza's here!" and the two of them nearly ran out of the pool area.
Random other highlights of my last week or so:
1. Buying a leather jacket with a quilted lining yesterday at Target. Original price: $120. Rianna paid: $30. That's right. I got a leather jacket for $30. And it's adorable.
2. Finishing the drop stitch scarf I was knitting for my aunt. One more hat, and my mom and I have gifts for their whole family. Which is good, because we're meeting themon Wednesday.
3. Hamline getting my tuition check, which means I did not get dinged roughly $500. That's always a plus.
4. Discovering the wonderful music of Chris Daughtry. Why did no one tell me he existed sooner? I'm pretty much in love with the song "Over You." Go to youtube and find it. It's amazing.
5. Buying a MN lottery ticket with my mom on Saturday. We didn't win, but it was the first time either of us had played the lottery. Are you happy Kubas? I gambled!
Random creepy thing: This lady keeps calling my phone asking for her grandaughter Hannah. I've tried everything to get it through her head that my cell is not her grandaughter's number, but she just doesn't get it. One time she left her e-mail address on my voice mail, so I even e-mailed her, and she just keeps calling back. The problem: she's getting increasingly pissed off at Hannah for not calling her back. She even gave the number to Hannah's aunt, and I got a stern message from her on my voice mail last night. I'm going to call her tonight and see if she can talk to grandma. Poor Hannah is going to get chewed out for something she probably didn't do.
I'm think that's about all. I go back to school next week Monday, where I start an awesome class load. Other than that, I've been chillin out with the dog and knitting.
Happy Monday everyone!
Serena: Oh my God! I almost forgot to tell you!
Elle: What?
Serena: I got bangs! My hair is so now!
Here's a picture:
Picture courtesy of Kara. Thanks Kara!
Psych is done!!
They're all cult of personality, ... People don't come there for news. They come there for that guy's take on it. It's an editorial. Aaron Brown loves the sound of his voice. He sucks the flavor out of every sentence.
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Psychology is done! I think I should celebrate with a party of some kind. Pretty much, the evil part of my day is officially done, and it's smooth sailing from here. Its replacement is not a thing like it: Human Geo - sweet. An improvement for several reasons: Deebs over Peterson; actual knowledge going into the subject; did I mention no more Peterson twice a day? Peterson once a day will be fine; it was the second time that killed me. Oh, and Deebs.
Last weekend with my little novi; ah, how I'm going to miss them so much. And Rianna came again! It was so much fun! Oh well, I'll have to come and watch them next year, because they'll be awesome. The highlight was without a doubt the seven person game of rummy with one deck of cards including the two Alex debaters.
I should work on that essay Niemi gave us, and I probably will... tomorrow when I'm not kind of floating since I haven't slept since about Tuesday night. Oh, and I'm reading
The Handmaiden's Tale, which is quite a disturbing read, good but disturbing.
Oh! And when I go visit Crystal in a couple weekends we get to go shopping. Yay!
More Jibberish
So after having a long discussion with James and really thinking about things I wrote this...well...sorry if it rambles...ok eliminate the if. Sorry it's long...if you don't want to read...that's fine...it consists of some thoughts...that's all. I'd love to hear your opinion as long as you are only constructively critical and not downright malicious.
A Peaceful World
Imagine a peaceful world. What would it be like? Surely nothing like today’s society. Democratic nations are supposedly meant to create equality and bring about peace, but really this can never happen. Equality. Equality. What does it really mean? Inherently we are all equal. A government which reinforces this would be a good government, but too perfect. If we allow everyone freedomto do as they please as long as it does not interfere with another person’s rights and freedoms, we have a problem.
A government which seeks to allow religious freedom is particularily interesting. Such a government must remain unattached from any type of religion so that all religions are held on the same level, none favored. However, this is quite impossible. By remaining indifferent to all religions, the government can actually infringe upon religious views. For example the banning of the hijab in France has caused Muslim woment to shed their headscarves (part of their moral code) in order to attend public school. Muslim women must compromise part of their religious views in order to receive free public education. The government is now infringing upon their religious views by trying to create equality among all religions and become nonsecular. As such, religion is being restricted little by little within the scope of government for the sake of “equality.”
Religion cannot be completely removed. Most laws are based upon morals, a sense of right and wrong. For example, killing is wrong because it infringes upon another person’s right to life. Many world religions teach that murder is wrong. Most religions happen to be based on the respect for other’s lives. However, not all religions consider everyone equal or consider all lives to be equally precious. As such, the world can never live in peace because there are conflicting views. Someone must be right, someone must be wrong. It can’t be both because they are in direct opposition. Everyone’s religious views cannot be respected because they conflict. Since they conflict, no law can allow for every religious view to be satisfied. As such laws are created in other countries based upon the prevalent religious views of that society. Democratic values of equality may not be cohesive in every society. Some may believe that men should hold more power than women or vice versa. Some may believe that murder is fine as long as it is done to defend someone’s honor.
So who is right and who is wrong? Must we all live under separate governments, never fully united because of our differences? Surely we can find common ground. Surely we can learn to respect one another.
Call me! NOT!!!
Well...I would love a phone call. Really I would. However, my phone is currently out of service. Uh oh. No it's a good thing...really it is. I am getting a new phone so my current one has been disabled. I will have the same phone number and everything, but a new phone and phone plan. Yay! If you want to call me...please call my dorm. So what does this make my post...a public service announcement? Jeez I hope I'm not that pathetic.
So it's about time
It's about time that someone posted something on the blog...so here you go. New developments in my life: desire to quit working. Don't get me wrong...I love my job...really I do...it's just that without Lucy I must spend a total of over 2 hours riding Metro Area Transit buses to get to work, which don't run late enough into the night for me to get home and not on Sundays. I have to take a cab at night and mooch rides off of people on Sundays. Not fun. I hate mooching. Anyway...I desire to quit my job and so I called my manager today. I told him I needed to talk to him about my hours. So I did. I said I didn't want to work on Sundays...I expected him to be unreasonable. Unfortunately, he was not. He said I wouldn't have to work any more Sundays and I responded with a lame, "Well, ok then." Man. I have no courage, why can't I just do it? I'm so angry with myself...how am I suppose to bring up the subject again without looking really stupid? I already made it sound like transportation would be ok if I didn't have to work on Sundays, so complaining about long bus rides will just make me sound whiny. Arrrg. Someone give me some advice please.
Next semester...
My character is self-important, poorly informed, well-intentioned but an idiot, ... So we said, "Let's give him a promotion."
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I have "officially" five days left of the semester; however, if you include the finals schedule for next Wednesday and Thursday and the fact I'm at Debate for most of tomorrow, I only have three days left of the semester. All that being said, as much as I'm looking forward to the end of Psychology, I'm not sure I want my schedule to change. I really enjoy having sixth hour open, wandering in and talking to Linda, harassing the
stellar sixth hour Human Geo class and the way my day works.
Additionally, the end of Debate comes with the end of the semester. I have mixed feelings about this as well. I will now have weekends to myself, along with three nights a week. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this time (or in some cases
lack of time), but I'm going to miss my little prodigy children like crazy. Their adorableness is something that makes my day better.
All in all, it was a good semester, better than I was figuring starting out the year, but I think the whole immediacy of graduating will sink in once this one starts. So, my feelings are probably mostly built around this being my last year in high school and that stress.
Today was our first Knowledge Bowl meet. I forgot how enjoyable Knowledge Bowl is: no stress, no work, no effort, no anything except knowing things and hitting the buzzer. The amount of people there (that I knew) was a little strange for me, but otherwise it was great. Team Metallic placed first with 140 points, and if it hadn't dropped about fifteen degrees while we were competing, I probably wouldn't have minded walking back.
And Rianna's coming to Sections! Awesome! This could be the best news ever!
Break....
I guess not too many exciting things have happened to me. I will make this fairly short. I flew to Las Vegas, NV on the 28th to visit my Grandpa and Grandma and celebrate my Grandpa's 70th birthday. He does not seem that old...he's pretty in shape. I got up at about 5 or 5:30 in the morning 3 times during my stay to exercise with him. He was always able to keep going longer than I was. After about 5 days there my mom and I flew to Austin, TX to see who else but James. I got to see the LBJ library and James took me out to a wonderful dinner at Jazz's in downtown Austin. The food was really good. We didn't do too much else but hang out and make sushi...James did most of the work...but hey...I did help put the rice and veggies on them.
I am now back at school. I'm already tired of working and am very excited that I have this coming Monday off for MLK day. Anyway...I said I'd keep this short...so there you go...I just wanted to include one picture revealing the fun that James and I had in Austin (I do love plane rides):
Hey Kubas! Read This!
Okay, so I had this really wierd dream that reminded me of you, Kubas. I was at Hamline, and standing somewhere with my supervisor (who is a Soph at Hamline). She says, "Hey! Let's pull a prank and steal some folding chairs from Klas!" This is wierd on two levels. First, there are no folding chairs in Klas. Second, Shannon would never do that. Back to the dream. So, We're in theprocess of stealing these folding chairs, and someone sees us. To distract them, I tell them, (and this is where Kubas comes in) "Hey! There's some guy looking for you!" "What did he look like?" they say. "Well, he's a Gay, Jewish, Peurto Rican midget," I reply. They believe me, and take off looking for the gay, Jewish, Peurto Rican midget. We get the chairs back to Shannon's dorm, where I get a call from campus security asking me to return the chairs. I woke up right as Shannon was ditching me with seven folding chairs.
Anyone care to interperet?
Okay, okay, okay...geez!
I'm posting! Stop harrasing me! Just kidding, I know it's been forever. Truth be told, there's not much to write that most ofyou don't already know. I've been in Brainerd since mid December, and will be until the end of January. Hence, I have watched a lot of TV, andhave done stuff I don't usually get to. My post today will be dedicated to that.
Let's start with TV. House. I love it. I've beencatching up on Gilmore Girls. It's on every day at 10. did anyone else know that? I didn't. Apparently Rory and Lorelai egged Jess's car. Who knew? Full House is on before Gilmore Girls. It's really kind of funny to see what they wore. Honestly, who approved hair 3 feet high? That should never have been allowed. There should be a law preventing it from ever happening again. I'm serious. This leads me to my next activity.
I've been catchingup on being a college girl (Gasp here). I went shopping. Twice. I bought 6 different shirts, a pair of gaucho pants, and a pair of high heeled boots (they're brown, and scrunch at the bottom. I love them. I can't wear them yet, but I love them.). I've been experimenting with hairstyles, and make-up. I'm considering bangs (thoughts? please discuss.). To top it all off, my sister has been filling me in on all the hot songs/artists/actors. Yep, I'm a little overloaded with girly-ness right now. To keep myself grounded, I've been doing intellectual stuff. Moving on.
I've been stopping in at debate practice. I love it. I'm still addicted. This may be a bit sick, but that's ok. This weekend, I may be going to sections. I hope I can, and if I do,I'll write about it. It's great to be on the coaching end of things. "Rianna," you ask. "What have you been doing to nurture the artisticside of your personality?" Well, let me tell you.
I knit. So far this break I've knit a hat, a pair of mittens, andI'm working on an illusion scarf. An alien illusion scarf. When you look at it strait on, it looks like a striped scarf. Tip it to the side, and an alien appears. It's super cool. I just found my passion for knitting recently, and now I'm obsessed. This counters my college girly-ness. Speaking of small children...
...I've been volunteering at Baxter Elementry. This is fun. One little girl I was working with stood up in the middle of math time, hitched up her pants and yelled, "Rianna! I'm skinny!" This is funny because she's a first grader and because she's a short, round, Hawaiian girl. She basically is Lilo. "Hey!" you're wondering. "Have you seen any good movies lately?"
No. Not new ones anyway.
Sarah, how was Vegas/Texas? How is James? Did you see LaShomb? How are you? I have your Christmas gift. I need to get it to you.
Sara, I'll see you at some point this week I'm sure!
Kara, I'll see you tomorrow.
Crystal, Hi! How's college?
Everyone else, leave me a note. Ask me a question. In my spare time I'll answer.
Not a neglected love fern
An attractive vessel through which the river of truth can flow.
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All right, harassment does work occasionally, and I don't want my blog to wither and die. Here is Kara's first post of the new year, and it's not terribly exciting. I spent Thursday night at Crystal's before heading off to Fargo with the intrepid young Debate team. I had hoped to be judging, instead I ended up being left to my own devices, so I watched three PF rounds and two LD rounds over the course of the two days. And read a majority of
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I think the thing that made me happiest was the down Deebs gave to the DGF girls on Saturday morning. I'm not bitter or anything over that loss, but that did in fact cheer me up for a good portion of the day. Steph is an awesome debater; seriously, she went 4-1 in novice LD, and I watched the round she lost - it was close. Personally, I think part of the reason she lost was because her opponent was a two year Watertown Policy veteran. He just spoke prettier. And you know, he was probably a junior in high school at the very least, and my awesome young eighth grader held her own. I love Steph. Brian didn't do as well (2-3 in Varsity LD), but I love him too.
I finally met the famous Watertown team, and after having the entire situation explained to me, it all makes sense. Having Debate as the ninth grade English class is ingenious. Not like I want to admit any part of South Dakota has something superior, but that does sound pretty amazing. Although, I was very glad I wasn't on that team because they had to take a bus back to Watertown. Suburban > bus, even if Deebs is driving the speed limit.
