Tuesday, November 27, 2007

A Spanish Lesson

Ramos Robles Ruiz es programador. Su esposa Rosaura es artista.

What an unfortunately named guy. Since he is so discouraged by his name he sits in front of computers all day installing Microsoft Word on Mac's. Rosaura hates Mac's, but loves her slacker husband, so she paints pictures of him in front of the computer.

A Rosaura Robles le encanta regatear en el mercado.

Rosaura likes to shop at thrift stores for half-priced merchandise.

Ramon nunca regatea...le aburre regatear.

Ramon never buys things on sale. Like a typical guy, he walks in and pays full price for useless items. Like a burrito regulator.

Rosaura siempre compra cosas baratas.

Rosaura likes to paint in a baret, so she likes to haggle the salesperson to give her the faux-French hat at a discount. Also, a Coca Cola sounds nice right now.

Ramon no es rico pero prefiere comprar cosas muy caras.

Ramon is not careful with money and prefers to buy gold instead of food for his beautiful, artistic, unfortunately named wife. Because of that, he has to sleep on the couch.

(upside down exclamation point)El martes Ramon compro un carro nuevo!

Ramon's back was hurting, so on Tuesday he went and bought a brand new car. His wife sold her first painting and served him divorce papers through the broken windshield.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

These are a few of my favorite things (part one)
Current mood: long-winded

So, these are a few of my favorite things (part one...maybe):

1. Making lists.
2. My family
3. The Office. Everything about The Office. EVERYTHING! I think this is the first television show that I have actually been obsessed with.















4. Movies with big song-and-dance numbers
5. Cupcakes with cute decorations
6. Semicolons
7. Penguins
8. God
9. Thanksgiving
10. Sugared cereals
11. Blue Bell ice cream (all flavors! and found only in Texas...I think)




















12. Socks
13. Zombies
14. Board games
15. My allergy medicine
16. When I pay my rent and I still have money in my account. (This month I had two dollars! Wooo!)
17. Saying "y'all"
18. Shopping at Target
19. Little kids with British accents
20. People who think I'm funny
21. The sunrises in Japan. I took this picture when I was there this summer:

22. P.G. Wodehouse. I am still upset they took the butler Jeeves off of the ask.com website.
23. iTunes
24. Flavored cream cheese
25. Movie theatre popcorn
26. Cute shoes
27. Plastic sushi displays in Japanese restaurants. And sushi
28. The Toy Story poster I got in Japan
29. Things that are on sale
30. The awesomeness that is Friday Night Lights
31. The sun shining on my face
32. Singing
33. Lefties
34. Brocolli
35. Mexican food
36. This picture still makes me laugh. Our class took all the trophies and placed them on Mr. John Wayne Head to see who would notice. Then we moved them into the auditorium. Awesome.
37. Thrift shopping
38. Cashews
39. Staying home and skipping chapel
40. Grilled cheese sandwiches
41. Cheese
42. Music of all kinds...except rap. Mostly
43. Crazy people
44. Pygmy hippos and baby hippos. They are still scary. They can still kill me.
45. Writing
46. Hoodies
47. Boggle
48. DVD extras
49. Singing
50. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
51. The dollar bins at Target
52. Laundry detergent
53. Nice dogs
54. Silver colored metals
55. Little Miss Sunshine
56. This dude from Pan's Labyrinth or El Laberinto del Fauno

57. Sleeping late
58. Monkeys
59. Original Chapstick
60. My ten year old piece of crap car
61. Languages
62. The moment the lights go down in the movies
63. When I take a drink of an ice cold Coca-Cola and I can feel it in my stomach
64. Converse shoes
65. That scene in Rocky III where Rocky is wearing short-shorts and racing Apollo Creed on the beach in slow motion
66. Babies
67. Fisher Price toys. Three reasons: 1) If it weren't for these toys the kids I look after would have nothing to do. 2) They contain no lead or any part of the date rape drug. 3) They are still fun for big kids to play with
68. Sharks
69. Silver colored metals
70. Meerkats

71. Modesty
72. Introverts
73. Pancakes
74. Taking pictures
75. The 'snooze' button
76. Analyzing the differences in literature and film
77. Swimming
78. John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer (Jim and Pam from The Office) Teh cute!


79. Cranberry juice
80. Red buttons
81. Pretending I can play the guitar
82. Fine Japanese cuisine. Including sushi. Again.
83. Any music by John Mayer; Jon McLaughlin; John Legend; Johnny Cash; and John, Elton
84. Also, Johnny Depp
85. Sandwiches
86. The fact that I finally live someplace that actually will deliver a pizza
87. The cotton fields this time of the year. Beautiful.
88. Mustard
89. Puppies
90. Iced tea
91. Tina Fey and the amazing 30 Rock

92. Japan, and all things Japan
93. Sleeping.
94. Sleeping in
95. The Godfather Pigeons
96. Walking each day without falling
97. Thrift shopping
98. Cold Weather
99. Pulling pranks on Dr. Klein
100. These people and my summer in Japan. This was taken inside the Tokyo Tower elevator

So, this is quite an extensive list, but it is my list. Feel free to take and add. Let me know what I forgot and what I was stupid to put up there. These are in no order, so know that.

Mantanay! (See you in Japanese)

Currently listening :
Wincing the Night Away
By The Shins
Release date: 23 January, 2007

Friday, November 09, 2007

I'm hungry

So, my mom called me the other day to go and eat dinner with her. Since I had been living off of yogurt and water, I immediately said yes. I got into my tiny car I made my way to the Loop.

The Loop is under a lot of construction due to the useless Marsha Sharp Freeway. I saw the 50th street exit in sight and noticed that some dudes were painting or welding the overpass. I took the exit and all of a sudden I see one of the dudes fall! He continued to fall and landed on my car!!! OH MY GOD! I screamed. "What the hel..." And then I woke up.

"Du du du du du du du du du du, du du du..." the sweet sounds of Beethoven's "Fur Elise" shook me awake. "Hello?" "Hey lady bug, wanna get dinner?" It was mom, and she wanted to go eat. I of course said yes and made my way to the Loop. Deja Vu anyone? Luckily the 50th street exit was closed, so I knew it was just a nightmare.

Wait, since it happened in the day, is it considered a daymare? Is having a Beethoven ringtone too pretentious? Please answer my questions! I am so lost!

Freaky!

Something happened Monday, and it was awesome. I got an email asking if I wanted to go to the Colin Powell dinner on Tuesday, sit with the media, and cover the event. I immediately responded "YES!" until I realized that I had to work Tuesday night. I contacted the rest of the writers, and Melissa was the only one that also wanted to go.

Kelly, the guy from the email, said he could not get us into the banquet, but only into the lecture. Who cares about fancy food and lots of forks? Not me! I was able to get off of work and get all fancy, yet I still felt under dressed. We had to be there at 6:45 and I figured the General was going to be speaking about 7. Nope! The dinner started at 7, Kelly managed to get us tickets to eat with the media! Awesome!

Melissa and I were escorted to our table and when we took our seats we were greated with the rest of our table: "Even Onstot, KLBK 13, Lubbock." "James, KLBK 13, Lubbock." "Some Chick From Some Paper in New Mexico." "Some Other Chick Who Was Not From Around Here." I looked at them and said "Jordan Williams, Lubbock Christian University." So, I do not belong to some prestigious paper, or work for CBS, but still. James, I think was his name, remarked that he was waiting for some random blogger to show up and sit at the media table. Wait, was that a jab at me? Couldn't tell.

Melissa and I sat down and there was some sort of salad in front of us. It was a piece of lettuce, some feta cheese, tomatoes and some sort of balsamic vinegar dressing. It was not too bad.
It was weird sitting at that table. It was almost like some sort of power play. Evan began every conversation with "Oh, I graduated from Mizzou and worked in the St. Louis market for a few years." Chick: "I graduated from Penn State." Maybe James: "Montana is great!" Me: "I go to LCU." Blah blah blah fishcakes. The guys were kinda arrogant and I did not like being in their company.

Food! Steak and chicken! Wow, it was amazing. I had no clue which fork to use, so Melissa just told me to start with the outside and work my way in. Done! I scarfed down the food because I had not eaten all day, and it was delicious. There was also mashed potatoes, veggies, and a roll, and there was nothing left. Who cares if I looked like a pig, it was great.

Chocolate raspberry cake for dessert. Can I have some ice cream? Nope!

After dinner, the general spoke for an hour and it was amazing. Here is the article: http://media.www.lcudustertoday.com/media/storage/paper1194/news/2007/11/08/News/an.Evening.With.Colin.Powell-3089408.shtml. Check it out.

So, what a great evening. As soon as we left the Convention Center I had to call the sister and brag. I care nothing about being a broadcast journalist, but she does. I told her about the evening and all she said was "you suck." Yup, I do. I told her it is ok to be cool, but don't be arrogant. Preach it!

I love those Sonic commercials. They are so cheesy and great. The two original guys are great. Example dialogue:

"Who is Steve?"
"Steve is the guy that lives in your car."
"Oh."

I love the dashboard camera and the whole "real" feel about it. The husband and wife are pretty funny:

"I have a moustache!" (It is whipped cream)
"Oh honey, so in the sunlight...oh, you have a moustache...now...and only now. Hehe."

Ok, so they do not sound funny, but they are. Check these out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mtvvDQidGM&NR=1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu8HIlVRlCQ&NR=1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhB9q_WTMUYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in-bKq1vQQohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSdrQYpsBlQ

Ok, enough. Now I'm hungry and I have no money. Story of my life.

I hate the Campbell's soup commercials. He's an idiot.

Monday night we had Rally at the Rip and it was lame...I mean awesome. The best part: free pizza and a shirt. There was like 200 boxes of pizza. I tried to grab a whole box and take it to the stands (not just for me...) but they told me not to. I grabbed two pieces and went to get a coke, but I slipped on a piece of ice and dropped my pizza. Idiot! Plus, there were no napkins or plates, so my hands were all greasy. Grease is awesome! During the rally they threw out really cool black shirts. The guys get to our section and Becca and I stand up to get a shirt and it goes over our heads. The rest of our group easily sat down in their stadium seats (you know, the kind that fold up when you don't sit in them) without a problem. Becca and I go to sit down in our seats and "BAM!" I meet the concrete. Ouch. Becca fell as well. If someone had recorded it, it would have been in perfect unison. I helped her up and we rubbed our sore backs/butts.

I fall a lot. One time, when I was in first grade I was going down stairs for dinner when I slipped down the stairs. Next thing I remember there were french fries everywhere and two dudes in EMT uniforms looking over me. I was not hurt, just a little bruised, but it was a great way to get out of school and eat ice cream.

Back to the present day:

I did get a shirt, but it was the white ones they gave out a long time ago. Boo! The good thing: it was a small and I can now wear a small again! Yay!

It is so cold here in the mornings (high 30's, low 40's) and by noon it is 80 degrees. What? It is crazy. Monday the high was 73, Tuesday the high was 51 and Wednesday and today it was back in the 80's. I hate Lubbock weather. I just want it to get cold and stay cold.

I support the WGA strike. STRIKE, STRIKE, STRIKE! Guys, check it out. It is important and I completely stand for what they are fighting for.

Cultural Awareness Week is next week, and I only go for the free food. Ok, Irish? Really? Bagpipes and Braveheart? A mechanical bull for...America? Texas? I don't get it.

I love it when cell phones go off in chapel, interrupting the speaker. It's great guys. Let's do it all the time. So what if I have my iPod on?

I'm tired of the whole "Green Week" thing on NBC. I loved how 30 Rock made fun of it tonight. Sweet!

Dr. Klein gave us more writing prompts for Wednesday and the only stipulation is that we could not write about any violence, blood, or gore. Ok, that is like telling a little kid not to touch the stove because it is hot. I couldn't not write about that! I wrote about me punching a friend, who had become violent. Her nose got all bloody and it was all gory. The class laughed and the prof faked a laugh. I ended the story by stabbing people in the eyes. Hehe.

I'm pretty sure she hates me.

Melanie wrote something about Al Gore, but since Gore was not allowed, she ended it. Abruptly. Awesome. I don't think I'm going to go tomorrow. Sorry, class.

That is all. I have a prospectus, abstract, and two journal reviews due on Thursday so I need to do some research. I'm thinking that my topic will be over Arthurian literature, and more specifically Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Awesome. Help??

Currently listening : Rockin’ the Suburbs By Ben Folds Release date: 11 September, 2001

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Pardon Me

This week was great! Truly great. Not great like a paid vacation, but great like eating for free all week. Anyway, onward!

Monday and Tuesday, some things happened. Can't really remember. I know I skipped chapel and a class (gasp, the horror!) and worked. Pretty much the usual.

Wednesday, which was Halloween! I went as a nerd (see previous post) and it was great. I was basically paid to hand out candy all night. Yay! Mike came in to watch the front while Melanie and I handed out 1,000 pieces of candy. We gave one piece to every kid, and ran out within an hour and a half. Wow. Yeah, we were busy. After work I had to get a few things so I ran to Wal Mart on my way home, still in my costume. Wasn't even thinking. Oh well, I looked like a nerd. Sweet!

Thursday was the best day of the week, and not because it is the day before Friday. Being an English major is great because all of my Tuesday/Thursday classes are Humanities classes. All the HUM professors went on some sort of retreat for the weekend and they left on Thursday. Nice! What a great day! First of all, who does that on a Thursday morning, knowing they have classes all day, and even more on Friday. I'm not complaining by any means. I would have paid big money to see the professors all chillin' at some camp site and trying to be all cool. An office retreat? Hmm. Interesting.

I picked up my eleventh chapel absense (tehehe) and slept until noon. Went to work at 2 and realized that I only had to work until 5. Dawsome! What a nice surprise. I got to watch The Office, and how great it was.

I got home and found a "Courtesty email" from the school. You see, I get 14 chapel absences a semester, and I just picked up my 11th. Three more I get fined, and one more after that I get on academic probation. Whatever. I love God, but hate chapel. Boring! The email was telling me of my "astounding" number of absences. Pfft. Delete!

Thursday was a great day because my questions over Samson Agonistes were originally due, but pushed back to Tuesday. That was great because I had not read the story yet. I love John Milton, but didn't want to read Samson just yet. Still haven't. Help?

Friday I had to be up early and attend out weekly Duster meeting. You see, we do ten stories a week, and we only have six writers. We REALLY need writers. Badly. If you know words, and with those words you can create sentences, then we need you. It is an exclusive club, and sort of awesome. I say sort of because we really don't do much. We meet once a week, go over story ideas for the following week, and that is all. Not much to it. If you are on staff for a year, then there is a scholarship with your name on it! Trust me, I know. So, basically, if you ask me personally to join, I will most likely wait 1.2 seconds and say, nay scream, "YES!" at you. I would probably then want to share germs and embrace you in a hug. Please do not be afraid.

Went to Spanish and laughed at the dorks in class. We celebrated Dia de los Muertos for a half a second. Senora Perez brought cookies! With pumpkins and spiders on them. Oishi...wait, that's Japanese...I'm so confused.

No Creative Writing Friday! I'm so sick of that class. The best part of Wednesday, was ironically her class. We had a few prompts to write about and I do believe that Alan had the best one. One prompt was: Smashing pumpkins! Someone is smashing pumpkins in your neighborhood. You stay up late one night and catch the culprit in the act. You are surprised to find out it is..." Alan's was awesome and he thought it was a Richard Nixon. A Nixon zombie. An articulate Nixon zombie. Awesome. Richard Nixon as a zombie...haha. I liked Kristy's as well. Especially when she referred to a bra as an "over the shoulder boler holder." HAHAHA! Awesome. I've heard it before, but in the context she used it--awesome. I used the prompt "deset island." Here it is: "You are stranded on a desert island with three items. What are they, and how do you use them?" I picked a bowling trophy, a vacuum cleaner and a Herman Munster bobble head. I ran out of time before I could figure out what to use them for.

I did not have to work Friday night, but with the crazy weather we have been having my allergies were bugging me, so I skipped out on game night. Also, Saturday was ballin' because I did not have to work. Yay! What a great week.

I have the greatest job in the world. I get paid $10 an hour to hold a six month old and watch two two-year olds play. I occasionally have to change a diaper, but I also work with puppies, so it's all good. Plus, they cancelled church service tonight, so I got paid even though I didn't have to go. How great is that?

So, I now get paid to play with puppies, kittens and little kids. Jealous?

In my first, and main job, we have a fish room and on the entryway leading into the room there are big letters that spell FISH on the wall. The S is positioned the highest and I have never been able to jump and touch it. Not anymore! I touched the S so now I can die happy. Actually, I still want to ride in a hot air balloon...all in due time, I guess.

Rally at the RIP tomorrow night. Who can say no to free food and t-shirts, and games? Not me. You should join us.

Colin Powell will be speaking at LCU Tuesday. I wanted to go but the tickets are $100.00. Seriously, what college student can afford that? Not many. If you can, bless you. I would like to go, but I can't. Sigh. He's going to be speaking about the 50 years of LCU. Umm....he has never been here, so how is he qualified to make this speech? What? He used to be the Secretary of State? He's a general? Oh, ok, I guess that makes sense. Whatever. Drew writes for the paper and is working as a volunteer (ie serving food) but does not want to write an article about the event because he knows nothing about politics. Dude, neither do I. Still, it's cool.

I filled my car (not my cat, as I originally typed) with gas about three weeks ago and I am just now needing gas. Cool right? No, my car does not have outstanding gas mileage; I just don't go anywhere. It takes three minutes to get to school and six to get to work. My new job takes about 15. That is about the extent of my drive. Not much, guys.

The sister got a speeding ticket and also got a ticket for running a stop sign. Same time, two different offenses. Hahahaha. Sorry, had to laugh for a second. Ok, composure regained. She has to pay like $230 bucks and take defensive driving. If she does DD, then only one gets taken off her record. She was going 27 in a 25 zone. On campus. So, campus cops can give out real tickets now? I thought they were more like fake security guards. Not even worthy to carry a night stick. Whatever.

I was going to check my email the other day and I saw a picture of a one-eyed cat. I got to thinking about our old one-eyed cat, Tom. Tom turned out to be a girl, but whatever. Jacob found her in a tree once, and trapped her, tamed her, and she became a house cat. We also had Tac (get it, CAT backwards? Nevermind) and the two did not get along. Tom was an outside kitty. We were getting ready to move to West Texas one summer seven years ago, and of course we had to take Tom. Tac died because I'm sure she had too many kittens. We had two U-Hauls and our suburban. In one U-Haul we had Tom and in the other we had Bilbo, our Italian Greyhound. What a dumb, loveable dog. Tom spent the entire 500 plus miles on the seat with us and genuinelly loved the ride. She died a few years later of old age, and I was sad. I'm allergic to cats and am more of a dog person, but I loved Tom. She was the best cat. Ever. Sorry, I had reminisce about my one-eyed cat.

The sister and I hung out tonight for the first time in a while. She pinched my arm when I tried to sit on her. She called me weird. Yeah, we all knew that. She tried on aborable skirt/jacket combo and almost bought it. I told her to put it on hold so mom can buy it for her for Christmas. Deal! See what a good sister I am? She came over and criticized the placement of my dresser in my room. Whatever.

Why does my arm itch?

I need a topic to write for my Constitutional Law class (ugh). Hate that class. Who cares about the Constitution? I'm glad it works for me, but whatever. I'm thinking about doing something over the Miranda Rights. Easy as pi. I also need a topic for my British Literature class. I love John Milton, and Edmund Spenser, but I might do something over Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Great story. Both of these papers are due after Thanksgiving break.

16 days til Thanksgiving break. Can't wait. Still bummed that we don't get a full week off. La-ame!

I need a little more You in me. This, I can do.

The red extinguishes the hope that the green ignites.

I hate these consequences because I know I let You down.

I lift Your name on high.

Ok, that is enough. Gotta read Samson. Anybody got an audio tape? No? Man, you guys let me down.