Taste of Pain: Day Two

It's now day two of my wisdom teeth recovery, and it looks like someone sucker-punched me about seven times. Minus the bruising. My cheeks are huge, which is weird because they weren't too bad yesterday and it seems like overnight they just ballooned up.

Luckily the pain still isn't too bad. I've taken less medication today than I did yesterday, so the fact that I feel less pain with less medication is a good thing. I'm hoping to be pain free by Saturday. The only thing left to deal with then would be the swelling. I keep putting ice on them to try and cut it down a little bit, but it's just not working.

Two things I really, really want to do though: (1) eat solid food and (2) leave my house. I've already made it past the 24 hour mark on my lock-down, but I don't know how much longer I'm going to be stuck in the house and it's killing me. It's been nothing but soup, juice, and sweatpants since I got home after surgery, and I need a change of pace. Stat.

Removal of Wisdom: Day One

The title is kind of tricky: I didn't have any wisdom removed. The only wisdom that was taken away from me was in the from of teeth; I had my wisdom teeth pulled this morning, and let me tell you, it is not a fun experience.

You can't eat or drink anything within eight hours of the surgery, which would be fine if you could actually eat something afterwards - the pain is excruciating, and it hurts so bad that it makes me nauseous some times. Luckily they give you some pretty sweet pain killers, otherwise I would be passed out on the floor. The swelling isn't too bad yet, and I've been keeping an ice pack on my cheeks to keep the swelling down. My mom has been a complete champ though. She makes me soup and brings me water and juice and my pills. Thank god she has tomorrow off too so she can take care of me again :)

I'd never had surgery before, so I didn't know what to expect. I've heard numerous horror stories, and so far they're slowly becoming true. I just hope I can heal up quickly before I start getting super grumpy. It that case, my mom won't like me very much anymore...

Will I Always Be Sick on Christmas?

I think at this point I just need to accept that I'm always going to be sick on Christmas. Last year was probably the worst Christmas of my life - I had gotten a migraine early that morning, and then once it was finally starting to let up another wave of headache of nausea hit. Even I thought that it was impossible to get two migraines in one day. Apparently not so. And this year? Well this year was another story:

Thursday I woke up with my tonsils all swollen, a runny nose, a fever, and a headache. It hurt to swallow, it hurt to stand up, I was always dizzy. Pretty much the greatest combination ever... but I went to work anyway, and went to my grandmother's house (like always) for Christmas Eve dinner. So I woke up yesterday morning and felt even worse. I started to look up my symptoms and the first thing that pops up on WedMD is Strep Throat. I started get a little nervous - I had the headaches and the loss of appetite and the swollen tonsils that had white patches on them (yeah it's a little gross but try living with it before you get all grossed out; it's far worse to see in person) and my throat was all red. So my self-diagnosis was strep. I felt fine during the day because I was hopped-up on Tylenol and cough medicine, but once night came around I was feeling pretty shitty again. Once again, another Christmas spent being sick.

And then my parents dragged me to the doctors today. The verdict: not strep throat, but still some sort of infection. They didn't put me on an antibiotic so I'm still contagious even though I feel a lot better already, and they had to send a culture to the lab for testing. I should get the results by Wednesday.

The only good thing to come out of this? I have to reschedule my wisdom teeth! The doctor said it wouldn't be wise to still get my wisdom teeth out Tuesday morning, because the infection could be viral (and not just bacterial like she hopes it is) and it would spread through my entire body. And that wouldn't be good. So all I'm required to do for the rest of the day is rest and drink a lot of water and just relax so I'll feel well enough to go back to work tomorrow. Too bad I have no idea how to relax. This should be interesting....

I Might Be a Complete Fatass, But....

I might be a complete fatass, but even my arteries were clogging today when I was watching Paula's Home Cooking on Food Network.

I was watching Food network today, which I do on a regular basis, and Paula's Home Cooking with Paula Deen came on. Now I normally don't watch this show because her southern accent bugs the shit out of me, but I was busy doing something else so I wasn't paying attention. That is, until she said she was making Macaroni and Cheese. It's no secret that I love Macaroni and Cheese, so it definitely caught my attention. Until, however, I saw her actually make it. Now let me take you through this step by step, because you will probably throw up yourself once you hear what is in it:

So this is what it looks like. Doesn't look too bad, now does it? WRONG. To start, you melt a half a stick of butter and two-and-half cups of shredded cheddar cheese together. After it looks like a giant melty heart-attack, you stir in sour cream, whole milk, the macaroni, three eggs (because Southern people like eggs in their macaroni and cheese? I don't know, it boggles my mind), some salt and pepper, and a can of condensed cheese soup. You bake it in a crock pot for two-and-half hours before you take the lid off, sprinkle another half-inch layer of cheese on it, then bake if for another half hour. As if there isn't enough calories in the thing from the cheese alone, you need to add the eggs and all of the sodium of the cheese soup. I literally almost threw up in my mouth when I watched her take a bite.

I try to eat healthy, I really do. I splurge every once in a while, just like any normal person, but I would honestly never make anything that even closely resembled that. There are over 1,000 calories in the shredded cheese alone. Could you imagine? Eating one serving of that and you go over what would be considered an entire day's worth of calories!

Blogger's Block

It's been a week since my last post, but I've had absolutely nothing to write about. I'll get an idea of something to write about while I'm at work (which is where I've spent most of my time over the past week), and if I don't forget the idea altogether, I'll go to write about it and realize that it's the dumbest thing ever and have nothing to say about it anymore!

I've decided I'm calling this lull in ideas my period of blogger's block. Writers have writer's block, why can't bloggers have there own thing? I'm fresh out of ideas for right now, and I have no idea when some more are going to hit me. I probably won't have anything interesting until spring semester - for some reason a lot of crazy shit happens at Penn State. There's usually a lot to talk about when I'm at school. Whether that's always a good thing is another story....

I'm knee deep into break now, though, and I can't say it's been the most interesting. Working in retail for holiday is the most frustrating thing in the world. Every customer decides that they're going to yell at you, even though you don't work for corporate and you don't make the clothes or decide what clothes are going to be in the store or whether or not the store has the size they're looking for or if the store has boxes that we give away for free (which don't ever go into Gap and bitch that there are no gift boxes left - we give them out for free when most stores charge you for them; that's why most stores have them and we don't because everyone takes them from us!).

But honestly, this break hasn't been completely terrible. Yes, I've worked a lot, but the money will be great when I finally get paid. Plus, it's been a distraction from me worrying about my grades all week; which I finally got and I had nothing to be worried about. I actually brought my grades back up (after a depressing last semester) and now I'm finally happy with my grades again! I also got to see the bffs Saturday night for the first time in months, which is always amazing. And we had a little musical experience that was awesome: I've been arranging "The Chain" by Ingrid Michaelson for my friend's a cappella group at Penn State, and Saturday we did a little impromptu recording of it on Garage Band. It was awesome, I honestly didn't want to show them the arrangement yet because it isn't perfect but it was totally worth doing because now I can make it completely perfect.

That was a lot more than I ever expected to post... which is weird because it was supposed to be a post about how I have nothing to blog about? Weird.

The Final Push

Word of advice: if you get to what I call "The Final Push," or the last few days before all of your papers are due, make sure you've actually written said papers. Don't wait until the last few days you have left to start them, because you will lose sleep and you will go mentally insane.

The past few days have probably been the roughest of the semester. Like I said before, I had my Western Civ exam Friday morning (which went really well by the way; I haven't gotten my grade yet, but I'm expecting good things to come out of it), and ever since then I've been consumed in writing my papers. Well, aside from our surprise birthday dinner for our friend Brandi, which has been the only distraction this entire weekend. That and me being sick... but that's a different story. And honestly, it's a very short one: I've been feeling kind of sick since Thursday night, but it's starting to go away so I should be okay soon enough. Might just be all the stress.

But I think I might have prioritized things incorrectly: my Western Lit paper is due Tuesday, so I decided to write that before my English paper which is due by 5:00 PM today. Yeah, wrong idea. And now all I have to write is a fricken novel on slave women in the Antebellum South. Can't wait to jump on that. The only bad part is I haven't done all of the readings for it, and I need to turn it in before I leave Tuesday morning. Problem: I'll probably be pulling an all-nighter Monday night then, and I need to drive for five hours Tuesday morning and then go to work for 9 hours. Anyone else see the problem with that? Good.

If I can just pull my shit together and sit down and write my paper, though, I can probably bang it out in a few hours. Hopefully. If not, looks like I'm failing HIST 020 this semester, which sucks because I need it for my major. And I definitely don't want to have to take this class again. Why have I been slacking so much this semester!?!

How Did Finals Creep Up So Fast?

So I'm writing this post in the library because finals start Monday and I have so much left to do. It's a little ridiculous. How did finals creep up so fast? It seems like we just got back from Thanksgiving break, but apparently it's been almost two weeks since break! That's nutty!

I have an exam tomorrow and I can't wait for it to be over - studying for that has taken up all my time. Time that I could be using to write my papers/take-home exams that are all due Monday!

The game plan is finish up my studying early tonight and then start my take-home essay for Western Lit. If I can get that done tonight or early tomorrow, I can finish my English paper tomorrow and then have Saturday and Sunday to write my ridiculously long U.S. History paper.

Then it's just a French final Monday and a five-hour-long car ride on Tuesday until Fall Semester is officially over! Break can't come soon enough; I seriously need a break....

What a Crazy Weekend

This weekend has been pretty crazy so far: last night I went to Hershey with my roommates to see Dane Cook perform, then today was my friend Brandi's a cappella concert, and then I found out that they would like me to arrange The Chain by Ingrid Michaelson for them for their Spring concert. So let's break it down, shall we?

Yesterday was Dane Cook and it was awesome. We left school at around 5:00, and after getting stuck in traffic and eating Subway and getting stuck in traffic (again) in the parking lot, we got into the Giant Center at about 7:45. The show was supposed to start at 8:00 and we were all the way up in Row S, which was extremely far away from the stage. Until the greatest thing ever happened: an old man that worked at the Center came up to us and asked if we wanted to get upgraded, for free, to be about 30 feet away from the stage. They hadn't sold all of the tickets that were close down to the floor so were moved from the middle-of-west-bejesus to right down in front! It was amazing! The show was great, he was hilarious, as always, and then we drove back to school (after stopping at Sheetz for slushies, obviously).

Then I woke up sort of bright and early (I don't know, does 10:00 really count as early anymore?) and started working on my English paper that is due Monday. Actually, let's rephrase that: I took out my stuff to work on my paper at 10:00, but I decided not to work on it until 1:00 PM, at which time I wrote two pages, stopped working on it, and took a "break" which lasted for about an hour and half. Yeah, there's that motivation for you.

Then it was time for Brandi's concert. It was pretty long, but it was free and amazing, so who could complain? They were much better than they were last semester, and they sound awesome. We were talking for a little bit about how they should sing Ingrid Michaelson for their next concert, which ended up turning into me volunteering to arrange The Chain for them, which ended up being me being told by the director that I should definitely arrange it and they'll probably sing it for their concert in the Spring. That's pretty ridiculous, if you ask me.

So when I got back to my room I decided that working on arranging that was much more important than working on my paper. So now I'm almost three-quarters of the way through the arrangement, and they don't even need it for another month and a half. Sweet. How much of my paper have I gotten done since what I worked on this morning? None of it. It's exactly as long as it was this afternoon when I stopped. Problem: it's not even halfway done. Can we say I'm screwed? I have dress rehearsal tomorrow night, which cuts into the amount of time I have to work on my paper and it's due Monday afternoon. Hopefully I can get it done.... maybe I shouldn't have blogged then.... oh well, too late now! I would promise to crack down and start working on my paper again, but that would be lying. I know as soon as I'm done posting this I'll be on Facebook or I'll go back to arranging that song. Why am I so unmotivated?!?

End Of the Semester Slump

Now that we're halfway through the first week back from Thanksgiving break, the end-of-the-semester-slump is finally starting to set in. There's only two weeks of classes and one week of finals standing in the way now. And it's killing me. I have an oral quiz tomorrow, a paper due Monday, an exam next Friday, three papers and a take-home exam due the following Monday (December 14th), and a French final that same day.

All I want to do is sleep; I wish my papers would write themselves; my brain is already starting to move into winter break-mode. All motivation is gone, attempting work is hopeless. I'm in the same situation as I was a year ago: I'm so close to the end that I just want it to be over with, without actually doing any of the work.

But as I think about it, I'm miles away from where I was a year ago. First off, I'm happy; this semester has been great to me. I get along with my roommates, I've gotten a lot accomplished, I'm taking classes I like, I finally love it here. I wish I still had my blog that I started a year ago just so I could read it and compare the posts from that to the posts from this. I know there used to be a lot of complaining, a lot woe-is-me, a lot of hatred for my roommate and for Penn State in general. But all that's changed. And to think I almost transferred....

None of that matters now though. I don't have anything to complain about now accept for the amount of stuff I have to do. It also doesn't help that I have a dress rehearsal Sunday/a band concert Monday and that I'm seeing Dane Cook Friday night in Hershey with my roommates. Yeah, it's cool you can be jealous, it's fine. So pretty much I don't want to do anything because I'm so excited about that. But once it's over, I'm going to spend all day Saturday in the library writing papers and studying for exams. That'll be a blast.....

I can't believe how fast this semester has flown. It seems like I was just moving in a few weeks ago, but it's already months. So much has happened this semester, I can't even begin to talk about it all right now. I just need to get focused; two weeks (well, one and a half now) and a final and then I have three weeks off with no homework. I can't wait. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is getting my wisdom teeth out after Christmas... shoot me now please.

Tik Tok, On The Clock

This music video is trashy, and it's one of my new obsessions. Well, I'm addicted to the song, not so much on the video. It's Tik Tok by Ke$ha. And yes, the 's' is actually a '$' which makes it so much classier, don't you think? When did trashy-pop become so awesome?

My First Black Friday

Yesterday was my first official Black Friday working in retail. In fact it's my first Black Friday ever. I've never gone shopping on Black Friday; I've always been paranoid about going and being trampled by all the crazy ladies out bargain-shopping. But honestly, it wasn't that bad, and I even learned a few things:

1. When the economy is in recession, you don't have to leave your house an extra half an hour early just so you can get a parking space at the mall. I left way earlier than necessary because I figured it was going to be impossible to find a space at the mall. It wasn't; I got a parking spot within five minutes. So I ended up getting there wicked early for no reason at all. I figured the mall expansion (which cut down a huge portion of the parking!) would have affected it too. But I was wrong.

2. The sales on Black Friday aren't really that great. I know that at Gap we were running the same promotions on Friday that we ran on Wednesday. So what's the big deal? Are you really going to be saving that much money if you get up at 3:00 AM so you can get to the mall and buy stuff that was already on promotion two days prior to the fact.... No, no you won't.

3. Canadian shoppers are ruthless. I don't know why, but all of the Canadians come to Syracuse to shop (which I learned over the summer)! We really aren't that close to the border; we're close enough, but Buffalo is much closer and they have a way better mall. But what I realized yesterday while I was folding down stacks of shirts and sweaters and pants, was that Canadian shoppers are much worse than American shoppers: they love to pick up everything, even if they don't plan on buying it; they'll transport things all over the store and then just randomly decide that they don't want it anymore and just drop it on some random table; they will drag you through the store asking you questions that make no sense whatsoever and, even when the promotions are crystal clear as to what count and what doesn't, will ask you about every single fricken thing in the store. Canadians are just insane. But they love our sales and spend there money here so it doesn't matter too much.

4. The idea of speaking French fluently scares the living daylight out of me. First off, yes I just used the phrase "the living daylight," and second, no, it hasn't been used since 1976. Now then, back to the point. Yesterday, I helped out these three guys from Montreal speaking nothing but French. And to be honest, it was a little weird, and a little scary. I don't know how I managed to pull it off, but I was able to ask them questions and help them out for about 10 minutes. And it made me realize something: the idea of being fluent in another language scares me to death. I don't know why, but thinking about living in France and speaking French on a regular basis scares me. I love everything about France: the food, the language, the people, the art, the museums, the cafes, the fashion, the history, the culture; it's been my dream to live in France for as long as I can remember, but now that there is actually a possibility that I can speak the language, I'm afraid of it. Maybe because I'm actually growing up and that scares the sh*t out of me? I don't know, but the idea of being fluent in French is really starting to creep my out.

I'm sure I learned more than that, but for now that's all I can really think of. I'm really tired, and break is almost over, and it's the first time I've actually blogged in a week. Pretty weird... but I've been super busy with work this week. And not homework work, but work work. Which is pretty lame. So now I have a ton to do tomorrow night when I get back to school. Lame.

Obsession

It's no secret that I'm completely obsessed with Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles, so last year when I found out that they released a song together, I was completely thrilled. The sad thing? I'm still completely obsessed with this song, especially every video of them performing it live. But my favorite version (aside from the original recorded version) is the one I'm going to post below from their performance on the Tonight Show. Take a look, it's pretty fantastic:

Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson "Winter Song" Live on Jay Leno 12/9/08 from m2newyork.com on Vimeo.

Hey, Thanks For Those Directions. They Didn't Help...

Have you ever been driving somewhere and gotten completely lost, so you decided to stop and ask for directions? If you have, did those directions help? Did they just get you even more lost? Have you ever wished that you could go back to that person later and thank them (or yell at them for their shitty, shitty directions) for helping you? Well, that happened today on my way back home.

Now for the long boring background story: today was the start of Thanksgiving break! So I packed up my car after my history exam and started the long trek back home. I never had a chance to eat lunch before I left, so I was starving by the time I made it to Corning.

If you know me at all, then you know that I'm not much of a fast-food person (I used to be a few years ago but one day it just clicked that that kind of stuff is disgusting and bad for you so I try to limit how much of it I actually eat), but there are three things that I will eat that's fast-food:

1. Wendy's chicken nuggets
2. Beef and Cheddars from Arby's
3. Whoppers from Burger King

I've never really been to Corning before, like I've been to the Corning Museum of Glass but that isn't in the actual city, so I was surprised to see a sign for Burger King when I was driving past (just a little side-note: it doesn't matter where you're driving, you can always find a McDonald's, but you can almost never find a Burger King, and I'd been craving a fake cheeseburger so that's why I was shocked) and so I decided to take a little detour into Corning. Because honestly, who wouldn't?

Well, that was a bad idea - going into Corning took me way off from where I was going and I had absolutely no idea how to get back to where I was supposed to go. So I asked one of the workers who was on a smoke-break outside of Burger King if she knew how to get back to 15N. Bad life decision - the directions she gave me sent me into the middle of west-bejesus and so I was going in the wrong direction for about 15 minutes, making me turn back. So I pretty much wasted a half hour for no reason. And now I just want to go back to the Burger King in Corning so I can tell that girl that she sent me in the wrong direction!

Now on a completely different topic: break! I'm really excited to be home for a week, but I don't get to relax the whole time. I have a ton of work to get done and I'm actually working this week at Gap, and I'm scheduled for over 40 hours. Sweet. But money is money, and who wouldn't want that type of paycheck just for one week?

I also brought my sneakers home with me and all of my running clothes so I can go running, but I realized when I was about halfway home that I forgot the Nike+ sensor (the one that you plug into your iPod) back at school on my desk. Rude. Now I'm going to go running and it won't even count on my Nike+ account. That's pretty unfair if you ask me!

The Weekend From Hell

Thank god that last weekend is finally over, because it was literally the weekend from Hell. It seemed like nothing I did would work out in my favor and just one thing after another after another just made it worse and worse.

Friday: to start the weekend off on the right foot, my computer got a virus from downloading music and I had to wipe to the entire thing and reinstall all of my programs. It took hours upon hours to restore the thing back to its factory settings and then go through all of my music (that my roommate luckily backed-up for me) and put it back onto iTunes and then download programs and updates and just restore my laptop back to what it used to be. Needless to say, it wasn't a great start.

Saturday: now Saturday actually started off as being somewhat decent, but it took a turn for the worse around 3:30. I woke up a pretty decent hour (for a Saturday) and I went down to the commons to use wireless so I could download programs and music without using up my bandwidth limit. I couldn't get half of what I wanted before I had to leave to get ready for a tailgate, and the day just went completely downhill from there: I put my contacts in the wrong eyes (and discovered that I had been wearing them in the wrong eyes all week, which was why I had been having headaches all day every day) and then after I switched them to the correct eyes, and when I went to put eye drops in to re-wet them I mistakenly put ear drops into my eyes.

Now, it you've never had problems with your ears, you probably have no idea what I mean by ear drops, but there are these drops that you can buy if your ear is feeling really clogged up and it will loosen up the build-up (yeah, it's pretty disgusting, I know, but if you're sick they help a lot) and then you can flush it out.

Well, those drops are meant for ears, not for your eyes. So you can only imagine the pain I felt when my eye felt like it was on fire, even after rinsing it out for a good five minutes. The pain in my eye than transferred to being a headache, which then escalated into a full-blown migraine, the first one I've had since the end of last semester. Needless to say, Saturday was one of the worst days I've had in quite some time.

Sunday: yesterday, on the other hand, was not that bad. It was only bad because I had to read all day. I had to read documents for Western Civ and take a quiz on them; I had to read two more short stories for English; I had to read a 120 page play for Western Lit and then take a quiz on it. So yeah, you can imagine how boring yesterday was.

But now it's Monday, and a new week is starting. And not just any week, but the last week before Thanksgiving break! Plus, since I did all of my readings yesterday, I was able to get all caught up (and I'm actually a little ahead now) on my work so now all I have to worry about is studying for my French and history exams that I have on Thursday and Friday, respectively. That means less stress for the week, which means I can go home and relax. And by relax I mean work hours on end at Gap and do more homework. What a great way to spend break....

Lady Gaga = Love

So technically Lady Gaga released the video for her new song Bad Romance yesterday on the tenth, but it took me about a day to process the awesomeness that is her new video. I'm not going to say much about it, I think it speaks for itself:

Just a Bunch of Randomness

So if you're looking for something enlightening or smart or witty, you should probably go somewhere else because there is going to be no intelligence exuding from this post. Especially the first thing I have to say:

Last night, instead of reading for a mid-term (because who honestly studies anymore? That was so Fall 2008) I was sitting in front of my laptop watching videos of Chelsea Lately on Eonline, and came across this little gem right here:



Honestly, who is that stupid? I could understand a little weight gain, but there is a fricken human being inside of you! You gain like 100 pounds! How could you not know you were pregnant!? AND by the off-chance that you couldn't figure it out on your own, wouldn't you want to go to the doctors just to check out why you were having ridiculous cravings and were gaining weight so rapidly that it's like you gained a small person? Oh wait, you did just gain a small person. It's called a baby!

Next point: I'm lazy and need to stop it right now! I went running last night for the first time in like a month (and I mean running outdoors on sidewalks and up hills and through people smoking cigarettes, not inside of a gym on a treadmill watching CNN or MTVU) and I only made it a mile before I felt like I was going to pass out. The worst part? I wasn't even running that fast - it was only like an 8:50 mile. That's terrible. So I'm going again tonight, and hopefully I don't die this time.

And lastly, I'm beginning to question why I even have this blog. I barely update it, and when I do finally decide to update it I don't really have much to say (case in point, this entire post). I think I just wanted to write my thoughts and ideas down somewhere, which I had done last semester with my old blog, and I missed the outlet of having a blog but I think there is another underlying reason: I want people to actually read this and know me. I've always tried to be reserved and never really divulged any personal information, save to a few people. Granted, the things I talk about aren't always personal, but putting anything out there is more than I used to do over a year ago. Plus, I read other people's blogs, blogs that have been out there for a few years now and that people actually follow, and I want that! I want to have people think I'm cooler than I actually am (because I think I'm one of the weirdest, most awkward people to have ever lived but my friends tell me otherwise)! I want people to read what I say and think about it and comment on my posts and just interact with my blog. I don't know how well that would work with most of the crap I put out there, but here's hoping!

And now that I've probably confused everyone severely, I should probably get back to studying. Rome wasn't built in a day, and I'm definitely not going to learn all of this pointless United States history in a day too. Wrong application of that saying? I thought so....

Lack of Motivation? Definitely.

Since November started on a Sunday, I concocted this big plan at the end of October to start working out again on the 1st of the month, and then continue workout hardcore until Christmas break.

Somewhere along the way I lost that motivation, and I actually haven't been to the gym in weeks. Probably somewhere close to a month ago. Hopefully it hasn't been that long, but I honestly can't remember the last time I went to the gym! That's really sad....

So right now I'm sitting at my desk in my room, staring at my computer screen waiting for god knows what to pop up, with my United States history textbook open to a page about the Adams Administration and the XYZ Affair getting absolutely nothing done even though I have my second midterm in the class next Friday (and yes, that is the Friday right before Thanksgiving break) and I've learned absolutely nothing in that class this semester considering I never go to lecture! But I started reading the chapters that are going to be covered on the exam and I'm even taking notes on it. Hopefully it all pays off but I'm not too sure it actually will. But for once I would actually like to go to the gym because anything would be better than reading this but there is nothing on TV and surprise, surprise: the gym closes at midnight and it's already 11:35.

Cool. Glad I have everything going for me right now.

On top of that I need to start writing my papers for finals but have absolutely no idea what I'm going to write about. Looks like I'll be going to office hours this week!

So moral of the story: I need to stop being lazy (even though I got a ton of work done today) and need to keep studying slash I need to start going to the gym (or go running) again. Hopefully I'll accomplish both this week. Cross your fingers!!

Ingrid Michaelson Makes Life Happy

Last night was the Ingrid Michaelson concert and it was beyond amazing. It was the last stop on her 47 show Everybody Tour, and she didn't disappoint, even if though it was the last show of a two month long tour. She played a lot of the songs off of her new album, including her new single, Maybe, and a few from her other albums.

Luckily my camera decided it was going to stay alive, unlike when we went to go see The Fray, so I actually got some awesome videos:







So now that I actually uploaded some videos onto YouTube, I'll finally add a link to the right of the posts for my YouTube channel. This way, if you want to watch the videos again later, you can just go onto the channel and not have to search for this post!

I know I barely said anything about the show, but words can't describe how amazing she was. My favorite part about Ingrid is that she sounds exactly the same live as she does on her records. I was lucky enough to find someone who did a review of the show (which is weird, considering it was such a small show?) and they had a set list of the performance:

Soldier
Die Alone
Once Was Love
The Hat
Be O.K.
You and I
The Chain
New Song (Untitled)
Duet with Greg Laswell (Untitled)
Giving Up
Mountain And The Sea
Maybe
Keep Breathing
Locked Up
The Way I Am
Maybe (Mexican Food Mix) – Encore 1
Far Away – Encore 2

And by Maybe (Mexican Food Mix) that's what they mean - Ingrid announced that they were going to be doing a song about how much they love Mexican food, and they literally sang a song all about Mexican food to the tune of "Maybe." It was hilarious.

Don't you love how I just refer to her as Ingrid, and not Ingrid Michaelson, like we're long lost best friends (I WISH!) and we're on a first-name basis? If only....

I also put a bunch of photos up on my facebook account, but I'm thinking of finally starting up a Flickr account, so I'll upload them onto Flickr as well and then finally add a link to that on the side too.

Two More Days!

So first off, Ingrid Michaelson is in two days. Just two. That's bananas! Or, in the phrasing of Rachel Zoe "That's ba, nanas." But seriously, I'm way too excited, I need to calm down or I'll kill Jess and I on the way to Pittsburgh. And that wouldn't be good....

But honestly I don't have much else to say.... I was going to try and move my blog to another site so I could use WordPress but it didn't work out to well. If you've never heard of WordPress, it's a free "software" that you download and then upload onto a site so you can use it to manage blog themes and posts, and it just makes everything more streamline and you can make some stuff that looks awesome. I put software in quotes because it isn't really software but I didn't know what else to say... maybe platform? I don't know. But if you haven't heard of it or have never seen any examples of it, look it up (wordpress.org), I think you'll be impressed.

Just a random thought for the day: have you ever gone to make tea, and looked at the water as the flavor of the tea begins to seep into it? If you pour the hot water over the teabag, the tea starts to activate and the color of the tea swirls into the clear water and it's really fascinating. The way the colors move reminds me of how smoke moves through the air. It's fluid and random and beautiful to watch. So try it: make tea and sit there and watch the tea steep (it works best with a white mug!) it might surprise you!

The Final Countdown Has Begun

3 More Days Until Ingrid Michaelson

That's right, only three more days until I get to see Ingrid Michaelson in Pittsburgh! And I'm so excited, it's ridiculous!

But I still have to wait until Thursday... no matter how much that sucks.

This past weekend was fun though. I went home to Allentown,PA with Brandi for the weekend, and all I really have to say is that Allentown reminds me a lot of Syracuse. It's a really nice city, and we had a really relaxing weekend, which was highly needed after my two exams last week and then the one exam I had this morning.

And in honor of Ingrid being on Thursday I'm going to add some more Ingrid songs to the playlist. Hopefully if my camera decides it likes me Thursday night I can take a bunch of pictures and some videos and put them up in a post? Cross your fingers, I know I will be!

Je déteste les examens!

I hate having exams: the entire week before all you do is study, study, study. And having two exams in one week, one day after another, sucks hardcore.

And going home the weekend before the week of exams doesn't really help.

Mind you, I did have an awesome weekend. Friday night I went to see Where the Wild Things Are with DiBart and Jess, and it was fan-freakin'-tastic. Saturday I just relaxed all day; went to the mall to go talk to my boss about working over break but she apparently she decided to take a vacation and wasn't there so I just talked to the only employees I actually knew (AKA only two of them). Then Sunday morning I went over to Anne's house and had breakfast slash watched her fix her lawnmower with her mother? Yeah it was pretty entertaining.

The worst part of my weekend? Getting lost in Pennsylvania and having to take a different route up into Elmira, NY instead of bypassing Elmira and going towards Corning. Yeah, that was really fun. Not. But after that little incident I got to relax, so it was all good.

And now? Well, now I'm pretty much behind on my work because I decided not to do any this weekend. Perfect. I just need to survive until 2:15 PM on Thursday and then I'll have the weekend.

This weekend I get to go to Allentown, PA for Halloween. Then next week is Ingrid Michaelson!!! I'm so fricken pumped, it's ridiculous! I can't wait any longer!!!

Schfourteen-teen More Days

In schfourteen-teen more days, I get to see Ingrid Michaelson, live in concert, in Pittsburgh. And I cannot wait!
If you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about with schfourteen-teen, please go to Youtube right now and search for Schfifty Five, and all of life's mysteries will be explained to you. But not really.

And back to the important topic: Ingrid Michaelson.

I bought tickets for this concert at the end of September, and I've been excited about it ever since. Every day I listen to her entire new CD (<--pictured to your left), in its entirity, at least twice. And I'm not even kidding. It's an amazing album, and if you haven't heard it yet, get a copy because it will change your life. Maybe not, but it's amazing.

In about an hour and a half I will be going to my second French class for the day AKA I hate Thursdays because I have French twice: once in the morning, and once in the afternoon (oh the joys of taking six-credit classes!). But today, since it's so nice out for once, we're going to sit outside and have a little French picnic with cheese and bread and desserts. I can't wait! Too bad we can't have wine with it... stupid drinking laws!

And lastly: Roller Coaster Tycoon Update!! Two of my roommates and I started playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 last night. And I am not winning this competition by any means. It's actually a lot harder than you would think! Just trying to make a profit is like pulling teeth: your rides always break, people get mad about how much things cost, people throw-up all over the place so you have to hire a million and one janitors just for the sack of sweeping everyone's puke; it's absolutely ridiculous. I was getting so mad and frustrated I just stopped playing after like five hours. I can't even believe I lasted that long!

But we're probably going to play again tonight. Which means I have to pick after French because I'm going home tomorrow for the weekend and I'm really excited and I'm leaving right after my class that ends at 1:10, so I have no time to pack tomorrow. And I get to see Where The Wild Things Are tomorrow night and I can't wait! I'll make sure to include it in my next update!

Puis-je aller en France maintenant, s'il vous plaît?

Can I please go to France now? I can't wait to try and study abroad anymore, I just want to hop on a plane and go back to France. What inspired this sudden urge to leave and go to France? Food.

This morning in French we started a new unit all about food. Seeing as our teacher is from southern France, she loves food (and honestly, who doesn't?), so this is her favorite unit. She had made an entire powerpoint about French cuisine and I just wanted to eat it all

Le bœuf bourguignon (beef bourguignon)

La salade niçoise


Le cassoulet

And honestly there were more than those but I'll refrain. All I want to do now is hop on a plane, and go to Europe for a month and just eat my entire weight in food every single day. All of the pasta, and cream, and butter, and delicious sauces; European food is wonderful.

Hungry now?

It's Been A While

And no, I'm not just titling this "It's been a while" because it's the opening line to Break The Ice by Britney Spears. But it definitely helps.

It's literally been a while since I posted - an entire week. And there are no excuses! I haven't been super busy, I just haven't been updating. To tell you the truth, not much has been going on!

I finished season five of The Office tonight though which is awesome - now I just need to catch up on the new season and I'll be all good! Which is ridiculous, considering I just started watching the show less than a month ago.... I really need to get a life.

And seriously, I need to get a life. I discovered this new game on facebook called Roller Coaster Kingdom and it is one of the most addicting facebook games ever. Like, worse than Farm Town.

The best part? Now all my roommates and I are going to start playing Roller Coaster Tycoon, and we're going to have a competition to see whose park is better. It was pretty much inspired by The Office (the episode where Jim is in Stamford and everyone in the office plays Call Of Duty as a "team-building" exercise).

So pretty much my life is going to be super nerdy. No big deal. I mean, I'm a huge nerd already, right?

Just Two Observations

I just have two things to post about today:

1. If you're sick with a really bad cold, don't go running
2. Classroom friendships are a little awkward but I love them

So what does this all mean? Don't worry, I'll explain

If you're sick with a really bad cold, don't go running: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. I've been really sick recently with a cold so I've been super congested with mucus (yeah, it's pretty disgusting, but just think of how my roommates feel about it, they have to live with it too) and so I've been super lazy and haven't tried to work out. Until last night. I went to the gym to go running on the treadmill, because it was cold outside and I figured that that compounded with the fact that I haven't gone running in over a week would kill me. Well, running on a treadmill killed me - after a mile, I was gasping for breath because all of the mucus was killing me.

Moral of story #1: If you're congested, don't be a moron and go running. The mucus will shift and suffocate you. You've been forewarned.

Classroom friendships are a little awkward but I love them: Now this one is a little different. I was sitting in English today, which is fairly large, and since I get there about 10 minutes early I just sit there awkwardly watching people come in, because there isn't a single person in that class that I talk to. I saw this one kid sit down next to a girl a few rows in front of me. Since I'm such a sketchy person, I know that these two aren't friends from before, and that they've actually just started talking to each other about two weeks ago. And that is what I mean by "classroom friendships."

To me, a classroom friendship is a friendship out of convenience; you never knew the person before taking the class, and the only reason you're talking to them now is because you've sat next to them for about a month and you feel obligated to say "hi" or "how's it going?" to them. Conversations are short, awkward, and not really meaningful - you wouldn't hang out with this person outside of class, and you definitely don't have any mutual friends so you barely have anything to talk about aside from the weather, Saturday's football game, or something you read in that morning's newspaper.

But I can't help but love them, I have a few classroom friendships myself. They're actually a nice little escape if you think about it: you don't know any of this person's friends and they don't know yours, so if you're having friendship drama here's one person that you can talk to and not have to bring it up; you can take about random things that don't mean anything, or you can make fun of your professor, or just make fun of people in your class. Plus, they're actually there; if you try to tell a story to your friends about something that happened in class you might think it's hilarious but they won't get it because they have no idea what or who you're talking about so it's one of those "I guess you had to have been there" types of stories, and don't we all hate those? Problem solved, this person was actually there; you can bring that story up again about two weeks later and you can sit there and laugh your ass off with this person that you barely know. It's actually really nice if you think about it.

Moral of story #2: make some classroom friendships. Even if it never turns into anything more than just a classroom friendship, at least you'll have some good memories and have a few good laughs during something that would otherwise be complete torture.

Good God I'm Lazy!

The title says it all: I'm a lazy, lazy person.

I haven't been to the gym in about a week.

I haven't gone on a run in almost 2 weeks.

I haven't been updating.

Pretty much all I've been doing with my life is homework. And being sick. And lazy.

I went to WalMart last night with my roommates, and we all bought Transformers toys. They were $10 and they're fricken sweet. Best investment of my life.

I also saw The Hangover last night, and it was ridiculous but I loved it.

One of my email addresses was hacked or something, because every time I try to sign in, it tells me I have the wrong password which is false - I haven't changed the password for that account in about 2 years. But why would someone want to hack into an email account? Especially that one, I don't do anything with it! I'm pretty ticked about it though.

Just realized I should probably update the playlist on here - I haven't added anything to it since I started this thing up again... I'll add that to my "to-do" list. Right underneath "stop being such a lazy son-of-a-b***h" and yes I really did just censor that. Don't judge me.

Nothing to Post About

I went onto my blog early this morning and was thinking about how I needed to update it. I haven't been very active recently, especially since I've been swamped with work, so I felt that I really needed to update this!

But I had nothing to update. And I have nothing to update!

I've been walking around all day trying to think of something, hoping something would inspire me, hoping that the light would turn on upstairs and I would find something inspirational or hilarious to talk about. But now that I sit down to post, I've got nothing.

Maybe I shouldn't have update? Maybe I should have just left everything well enough alone? But I couldn't. Something told me to post. So I did.

Tomorrow is Thursday: one day before the end of the week; just one more day to squeeze in before seeing friends and relaxing. I've been so busy studying and being sick (I'm basically coughing up a lung while typing this) that I haven't gotten to spend much time with my friends! Hopefully tomorrow is a good day, nice and laid-back. Don't you just love days like that? I wish every day could be a relaxing, laid-back type of day. But then again, I wouldn't be in school if something wasn't stressing me out, right?

Luckily I'm not stressed about having nothing to say! Hopefully something with happen tomorrow or Friday, so that way I can have a great story to tell. If not, oh well, shit happens!

It's Finally Time to Relax

As of 1:00 PM EST this afternoon, I'm finally done with my exams. Well, for a few weeks. I pretty much created United States history today, but oh well, I'll still get some sort of credit.

But it isn't time to completely slack off - I can't fall behind again. About three weeks I was planning on getting really far ahead, but instead I fell almost a week behind in my reading. And now it's time to get ahead!

But my favorite artist of all times, Lights, is dropping her debut album tomorrow named The Listening, and luckily I was smart enough to pre-order it. Not only did she sign the album artwork but it came today, a day early! I have been listening to it non-stop since picking up the package from the commons. I'm obsessed.

If you have never heard of Lights before (which you should of, since I'm obsessed with her and always have her on my blogs), click here to go check out her Myspace. She has a really unique sound, she writes her own lyrics, and plays her own music. What else could you ask for? Honestly, not much.

And in other news I've decided to start watching The Office, because pretty much every one I know watches it and says I should too, because it's really funny. Plus I have a really awkward sense of humor, so apparently it would be perfect for me. I ordered the first season on Amazon (pretty much my favorite online-shopping site) because it was only $20, so it should be here tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait to get it so I can start watching it before I start getting busy again.

So that's all for now! I know I haven't been updating nearly enough, but literally life has been ridiculous. It's my own damn fault though, so I can't complain. I just need to focus on my work more and then I'll still have time to update more than once a month!

Au revoir, a demain!

Wow, I'm Really Bad At This

Okay, so I promise I'll post more often, but nothing interesting has been happening!

First off, I'm superrrrr busy with work and exams. I had my first (of four) exams Friday morning, and my next one is Tuesday afternoon, so I've studying like it's my job for the past few days, and it won't stop until Friday when I'm done with exams for a while.

Second, band and French have consumed my life a little more than expected? I have rehearsals for Concert Band Monday and Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:15, but then I have Brass Quintet rehearsals right after until 9:30. And taking a six credit French class on top of that isn't helping. I have intense amounts of work to do for that every day just to keep up, and I'm trying to get ahead so you could only imagine. Plus, my teacher realized I'm trying to pull off a double major with French and she's trying to get me to go to French Club and the French Film series, which is just more and more and more stuff to add! Gahhhh! (is what I want to scream some times)

Third I'm getting sick. Like real sick. For serious. I think I'm getting the flu but I don't know, and I'm praying to the Lord baby Jesus that I don't, because I really don't have the time to be sick. I'm trying to not let it interfere with my work, but I'm doing a pretty shetty job of that. And I haven't gone running in two days because I don't feel good, which makes me feel even worse because I know I need to run and stay in shape. It's pretty lame.

But that's enough to complaining for now. Actually, that's enough complaining for a lifetime. I'm just going to suck it up, and get all my work done because Friday I'm going to see Matt & Kim in Buffalo with my friend Marisa and I can't wait! It'll definitely be an amazing reward for a horribly difficult week!

Life is Craziness, But There's Always Time For Running

I realized today that I've been neglecting my blog! But life has been busy with work and concerts and football games. And slacking off. My work has been sneaking up on me and exams are starting soon for me, but I'm not really prepared. So this might be the only update for a little while.

Last night I went to see The Fray at school, and it was amazing! I admit I'm not their biggest fan but I do listen to their music from time to time and I think they put on an amazing performance. Plus, it was my friend Jess' birthday today, which is what the whole surprise was about: a few of us baked her a cake Saturday night, and while we brought her to the concert last night, her roommates decorated their room and we surprised her for her birthday! It was an all-around amazing night. (Happy 20th Birthday Jess!)

The best thing that's happened recently, though, is that I've started running again! I dipped into the money I earned this summer working at Gap and bought new Nike running shoes and the Nike+ system for my iPod. They came in the mail today, and I used them for the first time tonight. I love them. I bought the Nike Free that feel like you're running barefoot, but with the stability of actual shoes. The Nike+ has a little sensor that you put into your shoe so it can track your distance and your speed, then you go send the information to the Nike+ website and it will track your results. Plus, you can go on there and set goals for yourself to beat in a certain amount of time. I set my goal to be a reasonably short distance in a small amount of time in case I get really lazy. I don't want to disappoint myself. You can even create a Nike+ mini, which I did, and then post it onto your facebook or blog. Naturally, I added my mini as a widget on the sidebar underneath my "Follow Me" widget. I'll update my account every time I go running, so maybe putting my progress out there for everyone to see will make me a little more motivated. Probably not. I don't really care if people think I'm lazy.

Like I said, this might be my only update for a little while. My first big exam of the semester is on Friday, and then I have another one next week on Tuesday, so I will be studying, studying, and, you guessed it, studying. Hopefully I can take a break at some point soon to find something funny or really cool to post about. Plus, the Brothers & Sisters season premiere is on Sunday, so I will definitely be blogging about that.

Until next time, stay classy blog readers!

Shhh, It's a Secret!

So it has been a busy, busy weekend, but I can't really say much about it now because it was filled with secret missions for one of my friends. And I believe she might actually read this (like any good friend would) and I don't wan to ruin the surprise.

But I can say this: I went to the Penn State vs. Temple game yesterday morning and it was so boring. Temple is pretty awful so we were killing them before the first half was up. So we just left early and went to a tailgate. And I ate so much food I almost threw up twice, but it was so good I couldn't stop.

And we had a crazy two hour long trip to Walmart last night. Don't ask me why it lasted two hours, but I can't tell you what we go because, again, it would ruin the surprise.

Don't you just love surprises?

VH1 Divas 2009

Last night, VH1 aired "VH1 Divas 2009" live. The lineup? Kelly Clarkson, Adele, Leona Lewis, Jordin Sparks, Jennifer Hudson, and Miley Cyrus. Now, no offense VH1 but I would not consider a single one of those artists a "diva." When I hear diva, I think Whitney Houston, Cher, Celine Dion, Tina Turner - the original divas. Women that could belt out a song like it was nobody's business. I just don't see any of these women like this. Don't get me wrong, I love Kelly Clarkson, but I wouldn't consider her a diva. She has an amazing voice and she is down to earth, but she gained her fame from a television show. Sorry Kelly, I love you, but no, I wouldn't consider you a diva.

That aside, there were some fantastic performances last night. Kelly performed her new single "Already Gone," and she gave an amazing performance, as usual. Adele performed "Hometown Glory," which is by far my favorite Adele song, and she rocked it.

VH1 Divas | Divas Video

VH1 Divas | Divas Video

I'm not much of a fan of Leona Lewis, but her performance of "True Colors" with Cyndi Lauper was amazing. I think Cyndi is an amazing artist, and the best part of her duet with Leona was that she didn't outshine her. Leona held her own, and that really impressed me.

VH1 Divas | Divas Video

And Kelly's duet with Melissa Etheridge of "Bring Me Some Water" was pure perfection. I didn't know how I was going to feel about the pair, but it was an awesome pairing.

VH1 Divas | Divas Video

And then were some... not so impressive performances. Well, on the part of the "divas." Jordin Sparks performed "A Broken Wing" with Martina McBride, and Martina completely outshinned her. She literally stood there at the end and smiled just watching Martina completely kick her ass in the performance!

VH1 Divas | Divas Video

And then there is Miley Cyrus, who I can't stand. Granted, I think "Party in the U.S.A." is a really good song to dance to, but Miley just doesn't have the same performance value as say Kelly, or Adele, or Jennifer Hudson.

Such a Band Nerd

So I'm pretty much one of the biggest band nerds of all time. I was randomly recruited by the conductor of the Concert Band this semester to join, and I've fallen in love with it. The group is amazing, the conductor is hilarious, and we're playing some really great music.

Plus, tonight, I joined a random brass quintet that a few of the members were putting together. I know it's kind of lame, but oh well, I love it.

And then I found this video on YouTube:



And yes, I was looking up french horn music on YouTube. So what? I think this video is one of the coolest things ever, and if you don't watch it, you're pretty lame.

This guy arranged a "Tribute to John Williams" for a horn ensemble of 12 players, and then preceded to play each part and record it. He is fantastic. Some day that will be me. But probably not. I'm not that nerdy. Well, maybe I am. Anyways, watch that video! Now!

My Running Playlist

Randomly last week I decided I was going to start running again, especially since I was super lazy this summer and didn't work out at all. I love going running because all you focus on is what you're doing: running in a straight line. Well, that and not trying to trip and fall so you don't look like a total tool.

But anyway, I love listening to dance music or just any upbeat pop song while I'm running. I think it helps you keep up with a decent pace. I obviously run with my iPod, especially since I always have it with me, so I decided to make a playlist so I can just hit 'play' and run and not have to worry about if the next song in a shuffle is going to be one I want to listen to.

So here's a treat: I made a playlist of my playlist! Be forewarned: it's pretty much all Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson. But I think that's the best music to run to!

The only difference between that list and mine, is that mine has The Angry Kids FM Remix of Saviour. I tried to upload it to YouTube so I could use it in the playlist, but that site hates me and wouldn't let me upload it. Boo.

Now I'll probably change my own list some time soon because I'll start getting bored with this one pretty soon. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to update the list I just put up, but we'll see.

My Return to Blogging

I'm back blogging, what?

That's right: here is my second attempt at blogging. I started my first blog in November of 2008, and kept it until... April 2009? I have no idea when I deleted it, but after a short hiatus, I'm back! I realized how much I enjoyed writing down my random ideas and thoughts, and without a blog I had no outlet for my crazy, random thinking.

I titled this blog "Living the Nerdy Life" because that's what I do day by day. I call myself a nerd or a dork on a daily basis, and I'm not ashamed of my awkwardness. I do strange things, like breaking out into dance, or having what I call "song moments" (when something I say reminds me of song lyrics and I bust out into song, that's a song moment). I read a lot (which some people might find strange), I listen to a large assortment of music, and don't really have a set "style." I'll wear pretty much anything, even if it looks bad.

Last time I had a blog, I used it to complain. A lot. But I complain in real life so much, why should I complain online as well? So I'm not going to complain this time. I want this blog to be the least serious thing possible. It'll have its serious moments, but all-in-all I want it to be just whatever. Since school has started up again I want to use this as a place to just take my mind off of work. I want to fill it with music and pictures and videos and maybe, just maybe, some video blogs? You never know.

I sort of just threw this all together so don't be surprised if things start changing, it's all still a little rough right now. But I'll fix it and start posting random things as soon as possible.

If you want, follow me on Twitter! Please follow me, actually. I randomly update it while I'm in class via texting. There's a link right up at the top if you want to just click on that, but I'll probably be changing that soon so just look out for the link. Eventually I'll put up some videos on youtube so I'll put my youtube channel up there too.

With my last blog I tried to only update once a day, but that gets frustrating because more always happens after I blog, so there is no limit this time. I'll update whatever I want, whenever I want, and how many times I want.

But that's all for now. Check back soon, because I'll be adding some music onto this as soon as I can, and I'll update it with my favorite new songs so if you want some good music, you'll love the playlist. Also, comments and suggestions are appreciated! Interact as much as you want, because I would love it.