No, I Don't Want a Gun

When I decided to start keeping this blog, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with it. I figured it would be a good way for me to let people know what is going on here at Catholic and for me to vent to something (since Liz went off to Europe). I wondered if I would come up with anything to blog about or if anyone would find it at all interesting. I guess I was more concerned with the former than I was with the latter, but I still questioned. I didn't want this to be something I do for three days and then never use again. I also didn't want it to turn into something where I feel like I have to post even if there is nothing remotely interesting happening. After tonight, however, I realized the full purpose of this blog is so that I can recount and talk about my weekends to those who aren't here at school. Tonight was one of those nights...
So my evening started off pretty boring. I got to talk to Liz (which wasn't the boring part). She called me from Croatia and told me about the program so far and all the people she's there with. We talked about the summer and I filled her in on what was going on here. After that I made dinner, had a drink and headed over to Trailer 15 to see what the guys were up to tonight. Molly was at a mission jamaica meeting and I didn't feel like sitting alone. So I went over there and found Karl, Fid, Nick and his roommate Jason hanging out. We talked for a bit, Erin came over and Karl went home for the weekend. Fid played and beat each of us in chess and, afterwards, Erin, Nick and I came back to my trailer to hang out.
This is where it gets interesting. Nick got wasted. Really wasted. In about two hours. Maybe less. Erin was sober and I'd had one drink. Nick then proceeded to spend the rest of the night hitting on me, no matter how many times I tried to show him I wasn't really interested. The guy couldn't take a hint. He was smacking my arm and joking with me. I think he whined at one point and said "but I wanted to hang out with you". It was getting a little ridiculous since he showed no sign of stopping even though I was doing nothing to encourage him. Finally after an hour or so of this, Erin and I decided it would be a good idea to go see if Chris and co. were back from their friend's house. We figured that if there were more people around he would leave me alone. This, however, was not the case.
We go back over to Trailer 15. Steve is putting on music, Kenny is relaxing, their weird friend and his gf were on the couch and Chris was sick. It was a real party atmosphere, let me tell you. When Steve realizes he left his Chinese food at his friend's house, Erin says she'll drive him back there in Kenny's car. So, Erin, Steve, his friend and gf all leave. That leaves Nick, Kenny, me and Chris, who is still in the bathroom. I figured I'd be safe since Kenny was around and I could get him to tell Nick to knock it off if he started up again. Well, low and behold, next thing I know I'm pinned between Nick and the end of the couch. He throws his arm around me and starts yelling at me about how I need to buy a gun because Obama's police are going to hurt me. I told him I don't want a gun. Other people can own them, but I have no desire to. He became pretty insistent that I buy a gun and started yelling about prices and German handguns and learning to shoot. No matter how often I told him I didn't want a gun, he wouldn't listen. Finally I turned to Kenny and said "a little help here. Can you tell Nick I don't want a gun?" His response? "She doesn't need a gun as long as people like me have guns." Thanks, Kenny. That really helped. I was hoping for more of a "leave her alone" type answer, but beggars can't really be choosers, can they?
After this proceeds on for about 10 minutes (with me now practically hanging over the edge of the couch while Nick yells on about Obama and guns), Laura and Fid show up. At Last!! People who will help me!! I give Laura a pleading "Help Me!" look and she comes over and tries to talk to us and calm Nick down. After a minute Fid asks if there is any beer. I immediately jumped up and told him there was some in my trailer and we should go get it. So Fid, Laura and I peaced out and came back to my trailer. We hung out for a while and Erin showed back up, at which point we had a drink and the two of us filled Laura and Fid in on what had been going on all night. They thought it was insane, but we all got a good laugh out of it.
So that was my night. Kinda crazy. I don't know where any of that came from, but sometimes you really gotta just learn to take a hint. I mean, at one point in Chris' trailer Nick actually asked me "if I get sick will you take care of me" to which I responded "No". Kenny thought that was hysterical, and it was. You would think at that point a guy would get a clue. But no. That happened before the gun fiasco even started. I don't get it. How the hell do I end up in these situations? I never cease to amaze myself.

Pop Quiz Thursday

On Tuesdays and Thursdays my schedule goes like this: 11:00-12:25 media class on the documentary, sprint across campus for 12:35-1:5o world politics in the media and round it all out with 2:10-3:25 history of colonial america. It's not a terrible schedule and it's all within my "window of effectiveness", which is the couple hours during the day when I know I'll be able to function in a classroom setting (usually from about 10-3:30).
So, being a Thursday, I headed off to my media class this morning. The first thing the prof tells us when she gets there is that we will be having a pop quiz to see if we actually watched the assigned movie. Not a big deal because, as bad as "Triumph of the Will" was, I forced myself to sit through it last night. We take our quiz and proceed to watch clips of the movie and discuss them. After class I make my twice weekly sprint from Marist to 2nd floor Maloney and we begin our politics, where the prof lectures on about Hitler and Lenin's effective uses of media to achieve there goals. Um, hello, "Triumph" movie I just talked about in Marist. I was begining to feel like I was in a "Twilight Zone" episode where I'd be forced to talk about Hitler constantly. Where are my "Band of Brothers" dvds when I need them? We get almost the whole way through class when, with 10 minutes left, the prof tells us to put our books away because he has decided it would be a good idea to have a pop quiz so he can tell if we've been reviewing our notes. What is this guy, nuts? Of course we haven't reviewed our notes! We won't look over our notes until the night before the midterm. Hell, maybe not till an hour before the midterm. Needless to say, I went to my history class fully prepared for the words "we're going to have a pop quiz now". I didn't have one there though. Thank God! I may have lost it if I did. I think my profs were all conspiring against me today.
Well, now I'm sitting in my room listening to Coldplay and trying to not make too much nosie because Molly has apparently decided its a good idea to take naps on the couch when you have a headache. I told her she should sleep in her room but she doesn't think she'll get up if she does that. I don't really understand the reasoning, but whatever. I'm just confined to my room like usual. Although, I did buy two new posters at the poster sale today and I'm convinced they're basically amazing. One is a verticle black and white Coldplay poster that says "Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends" on the bottom. Purely awesome! The other is a horizontal shot of the park that surrounds the base of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Also pretty cool. My walls were looking a little empty because I have the room to myself now and twice as much space to cover.
Ok, laundry time before Private Practice tonight.

Triumph of the Will

I think my media prof is a socialist. No, I'm not kidding. I really think she is. She emailed us this movie and told us we had to watch it before class tomorrow. Which is fine and no big deal really. But that movie was "Triumph of the Will", the Nazi-made propaganda film from 1935. It was 1 hour 45 minutes long and I think about an hour of it was just watching Nazi soldiers march around and yell "heil Hitler". I felt like looking up "Yankee Doodle Dandy" afterwards and watching the soldiers march off singing "Over There" while James Cagney tries to sign up to kill Germans. It just seemed wrong to have to sit and watch Hitler preach about all the good things he was going to do for Germany when we all know how it ends up.
When I'm bored and have nothing else to do (like when watching pro-Nazi movies) I have this tendency to make plans for the far off future. And by far off I mean about two years. Like, last summer I would get bored and plan out how I was going to live in DC after I graduate. I'm not like some people (who shall remain nameless) who plan out there entire life and then expect it to all work out that way. It's more of like a "gee I wish I could..." type thing to keep myself entertained. Well, while watching "Triumph of the Will" I had another one of these planning sessions and I actually think I may try and follow through this time. I've decided that when my sister finishes high school I'm going to take her to Europe as a graduation present. Either London or Paris, I think. Maybe both, what with the Chunnel and all. I'll be out of college and, in my mind at least, I'll be able to afford it. It would be a good bonding thing for us to do before she goes away to college. So that's my "gee I wish I could..." for the day. Completely unrealistic and unatainable, but it kept me entertained during my 2 hour dose of 1930's socialism.
I should get to bed because it's 1:30 in the morning and God knows we'll be the only school on the entire east coast with class tomorrow. Its not like Catholic would give us a day off because of dangerous ice and snow conditions. And its not like every other school from DC to Boston had off today. Damn you Victor Nakas!!

Say It With Me Now: "Floor... Seats..."

The Gods love me. There have been times when I've questioned whether or not that's true, but after today it is abundantly clear. I should fully explain how I came to this conclusion.
So I skipped Media class this morning. It was a shortened class because of the Mass of the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas (gotta love Catholics) so I really only missed 45 minutes. But I didn't just not feel like going to class. This morning was the beginning of the pre-sale for tickets to see Kenny Chesney in Philly this summer. And it's not just Kenny Chesney who is playing either (although he's enough for me). It's an all day concert that is also going to have performances from Sugarland, Montgomery Gentry and Lady Antebellum. Basically it's going to be a kick ass day! So Liz and I wanted to go and, since she's in Eastern Europe, I was in charge of securing the tickets. Therefore, I skipped class.
I sat at my computer all morning refreshing the ticketmaster site and, at exactly 12:00, the page popped up. Like any other person trying to buy tickets online, I rushed through the steps as fast as possible so they wouldn't sell out before I got some. I've learned that the smaller your ticket request, the better your seats. But I also knew that this was a stadium show and 90% of the seats at those concerts are bad because you're high up and/or far away. If I had gotten something mildly better than the last row at the opposite side of the stadium I would have been happy. I got my two tickets and (fearful of trying to search again and them selling out) proceeded right to checkout.
Well, I didn't really pay too much attention to the secion the tickets were in until I had finished paying and was looking at my e-reciept. That's when I realized that my ticket section was listed as F9, Row 12 which didn't sound like something you would find in a stadium. Upon further review of the concert seating chart I realized that I had somehow been blessed with FLOOR SEATS for this concert!!! I don't know how it happened, but I nearly fell over dead when it hit me that I was going to have such amazing seats in that huge stadium. Seriously, I was speechless for a good five minutes. Which was fine because no one else was in the trailer with me. Needless to say, but when I recovered my first act was to put on my Kenny Chesney Live cd, turn the volume up and dance around the trailer.
After I had finished dancing I had an epiphany. It hit me that this is a sign. It's a sign that this summer is going to be a million times better than last summer. These were officially my first confirmed plans for the summer and they turned out better than I could have imagined, so I don't see how things can possibly go wrong when I'm planning the rest of my "flip flop summer" (K.C. song). So, I don't get to check anything off my list of goals for the semester, but I'm going to think of this as the beginning of a check. It's a sign of good things to come

The Calm After the Storm

Well, this is my first post. I've decided to start keeping a blog so that everyone who went abroad this semester will still be able to know what is going on here at The Catholic University of America and mainly what is happening in my very boring life.
I think this is shaping up to be a very interesting semester and it is going to be one that changes a lot of people. As second semester juniors in college, we are all starting to look towards life after college. For some, the vision of what they will be doing is crystal clear. For others, it is a blurry, hazy picture. I tend to find myself in the second category. Sometimes that can be a little frightening, but I try to roll with the punches and hold out hope that it will all work out in the end. I don't know how I can be worried about what I'll be doing a year or two from know when I've got a history test and a paper to deal with this week.
It seems that maybe the best way to set up this blog is to lay out my goals and plans for the semester and track whether or not I accomplish them. So here they are (in a somewhat, but really no, particular order).

First, I need to find a job. I need something almost immediately, most likely on campus, to deal with my extreme shortage of cash. The money supply needs to be increased since I spent half of Christmas break in Boston not making money. Hopefully, later in the semester I'll be able to find a job off campus that can get me some actual experience doing something. The ideal situation would be that this turns into a summer job or proves to be a segway into a summer job. This leads me to...

Second, find a way to stay in DC this summer. This will obviously require a decent paying job because I will have to pay to live on campus, as well as buy food and pay for transportation (hopefully through my car). Last summer I stayed home, babysat my cousin and worked in my uncle's liquor store. Working in a liquor store is cool... for the first week. But I've been working at Harry's since I was in high school. Only one girl has worked there longer than me and I'm pretty sure I've trained every one of the current employees other than Erin (the one there longer). I make peanuts working for my uncle. Minimum wage. Which is fine for a high schooler, but that barely covers my alcohol costs for a month once I get back to school. I was miserable last summer. Seriously, I hated being home. So this summer I want to stay in DC and work. Most of my friends are going to be down here for the summer and I can't imagine I would have a bad time here. Liz and I are planning to live on campus and have a freaking awesome time, including a kick ass Kenny Chesney concert in Philly. There is also the outside chance that a group of us may road trip to New Orleans for a weekend, but that is still very much up in the air. Basically, I'm dead set on having a better summer this year than I did last year.

Third, get back into shape. When I was in high school, I played a varsity level sport for 11 months out of the year. It means I was in fantastic shape for almost my entire HFA career.... Then I came to college. The freshman fifteen (or the freshman thirty as they're starting to be called) are NOT COOL in any way, shape or form. So this semester I am trying to get back in shape. I realize I probably won't get back to where I was my senior year, but I want to try and get as close as possible. I have a schedule this semester that allows me to go to the gym three days a week, which is a good start. I'm also trying to be more conscious of what I eat. I want to set a realistic goal of being in pretty decent shape by the end of the semester and good shape by the time of the Kenny Chesney concert/4th of July. I think this will be the thing I have the toughest time with, but I'm pretty motivated.

Fourth, get my car down here with me at school. My mom has this fear of letting me bring my car to school. I'm not entirely sure why, but she thinks I'll want to go "joy riding" in downtown DC. That's ridiculous. I try explaining to her that I want my car so that I can drive to 7-11, or the supermarket or Target. OR, drive home and save a ton of money on travel. If I was able to drive back and forth to school, it would save a ton of money on bus, train and plane tickets. My car gets great gas mileage and I can drive from Bayonne to DC and back into New Jersey on a tank of gas. I can literally drive to school and home while never having to pump my own gas. Now, if I had it down here consistently I would probably have to pump gas at some time, but that's not the point. I've talked to my dad about it and he seems to think he may be able to convince my mom to let me bring it back to school after spring break. That way at Easter I could bring some stuff home and at the end of the semester, I could pack my car and go home without having to be picked up. I really just think my dad doesn't want to have to drive down here and pick me up but, hey, that works for me. Also, I want to have my car here over the summer. I'm going to need to bring my things here when I come down. I'm going to need to get to the store and buy groceries. And, hello, Liz and I need to go to Philly for a concert. Never mind if a group of us decided we wanted to go to the beach for the day. It's the most realistic option and I just need to approach my parents from an economic standpoint and show home much money it would save.

Fifth, make the Dean's List again this semester. Last semester, with six classes and a lot of outside, extenuating circumstances working against me, I was able to make the Dean's List. I know most of my friends have made it before, but I was always kept just short of it because of my Latin grade. It wasn't terrible, just not high enough to get me there. Seriously, I would miss it by the skin of my teeth every semester. So in December when I found out I had made it, I was beyond happy. Hopefully this semester will be less stressful, and the smaller course load will allow me to make the Dean's List again. I'm pretty sure I can do this.

And finally, not go completely and totally insane. Last semester was a roller coaster ride. It had some extreme lows (which some people know of) as well as extreme highs (a couple nights I won't mention, but one involved some Scarlet Ladies). When I look back on it, I don't really think there is anything I would do differently. There are things I would like to have changed, but they are not within my control, so I tried to handle them as best I could. I had a couple of fantastic friends who helped me get through it and some of them could completely relate to what I was going through. That helped and I'm very lucky that I have those people who I can count on. Unfortunately, two of my closest friends, Liz and Matt, are abroad this semester. That's not to say I don't have other people to hang out with, freak out to and play beer pong with. I do. But its going to be different without them. I think the best way to get through the semester is to hole myself up in my room with my headphones on during the week, and just get really drunk with the boys on the weekends. It's been two and a half years and that system hasn't failed me yet. Why mess with a good thing?

So these are my goals for the semester. Get my car, get in shape, get a job, get good grades, plan an awesome summer and make it through the semester. If I could accomplish all of these things then I would be completely thrilled with myself. I'll update this blog as I become able to check things off my list. Also, I'll keep it updated on any interesting (or not so interesting) things that happen here at CUA. Maybe I'll even post a picture or two.

Until next time...