I'm Sorry

So, I realized I haven't written in forever. I guess this means that I am going to have to close my blog for good until further notice. I truly do not have the time. But if you do want something cool to look at, go to cavalierdaily.com. Its the newspaper at school i work for, and every thursday the arts and entertainment section comes out (called tableau), and I design it, so take a look at it. I miss you all, and i'm sorry for being so bad about this blog thing, but until i can really spend time on it, i'm not going to throw up half hearted posts.

God bless!

beat tech...bleh.

yeah, so michael jackson has screwed up big time. but that doesn't mean that the man can't lay down a sweet track. i mean, i'm listening to man in the mirror right now, and this thing rocks. (just ask my sister sometime how much it rocks...she used to sing it really well...:)

So i just finished two papers. It's so unfortunate that one of them is worth a third of my grade. I have no idea if this guy even likes the way i write or not. well, yes i do. and the answer is: he doesn't. alas. thanks to all for your helpful comments about how to write as though i'm 'in' the painting...i wound up just talking about the 'noise' and 'loudness' of the painting (and if you want to read that fantastic morsel of literary genius, i can email it to you.) so i'm sorry that my grammar and capitalization is going to be erratic this post, but i'm tired of editing (which, looking back at my other posts, seems to be a pattern).

i have a big decision to make: to tech or not to tech. this weekend is the big game between UVA and tech, and its at uva. its on saturday. i could come home friday afternoon and be home for over a week for thanksgiving, or i could stay, fight the crowds and drunkenness, and be a real college student. decisions, decisions. i think i'm actually going to stay, even though i really don't like football. i just think i'll regret it if i don't go. its so funny to me how we have so many weird things that we feel like we 'must' do. i mean, if you would have asked me if i thought going to a football game was important like, uh, six months ago, i would have given a definite no. but now i'm giving into peer pressure and feeling the 'mustness' of going. i mean, it probably will be fun. people have already started camping out by the stadium so that they can get good seats on saturday. they started yesterday. these people are insane. i mean, i don't mean to be sacreligious, but we're probably going to lose. and i don't want to be the girl in full paint waving my orange fever shirt loud and proud in front of a stadium full of fans of the winning team. i just hope no fights break out...although it might be interesting. the tech people will try to figure out the trajectory of a drunken punch (or tobacco spit) while the uva kids will have a debate about how much it is going to hurt, yelling insults about the tech kids' unfamiliarity with such amazing politicians like thomas jefferson and asking whether or not tech's cows have produced any important agricultural finds of late. i'm just glad i have a friend who's a football player; maybe he can protect me in a fight. however, i did live in texas for a year; if i can fight off a cowboy, i can fight off anybody. but in regards to this football player: he really isn't my friend. or, i'm not sure if he is. he's in one of my classes, and i like to look at him (he's attractive, ok?), but I don't know if that's friendship or more stalkership. i mean, i'd like to be friends with him, but i would only be interested in him for his jersey. it is pretty cool to tell everyone you're friends with a football player, especially a good looking one, even if your team isn't all that good. so, i'll just say he's my friend, and hopefully you'll never meet him to ask him. oh yeah, and ask him to say his name if you do meet him...i called him by the wrong name for about, uh, two months before i looked in the uva football program and saw his real name, but i'm still not sure how to pronounce it. So, i just try to make eye contact and say hi. now he thinks i'm a stalker that i'm stupid, but good in italian. (maybe that will impress him. i'll just whisper sweet italian nothings in his ear.)

Enough of my love life (considering this is what it consists of...dreaming about italian classmates). its sad when it consists of so little information that what it does entail can be posted on the internet. sigh. at least i have my dreams, right? and i can watch him on the field and yell after him, acting like we're all buddy-buddy. if the kids next to me haven't consumed their 'fourth-year fifth' yet, maybe they'll actually be impressed. otherwise, they might just puke on my shoes. i just hope it doesn't wash off any of the orange and blue body paint.

by the way...blogger obviously supports the cavs...considering the 'save as draft' and 'publish post' buttons are orange and blue. and thank YOU, blogger.com.

i will see you all soon, hopefully, if i actually can get home from the game in time for thanksgiving. i think all of northern virginia will be returning at 4 on saturday. just say a little prayer for me...and the cars that cut me off (whoa there, road rage.)

goodnight and god bless :)

lord i was born a ramblin' (wo)man

Sorry its been a while since I've written. I've mostly been spending my time reading...or at least complaining about reading, which I found is a lot less productive but much more cathartic. Now if only I could find away to get my reading done while complaining...but I'm no multi-tasker, that's for sure. If you find a way, just lemme know.

Anyway, so nothing all that funny has really happened to me in the past few weeks. School's starting to get really serious...I mean, around here it always is pretty serious. Between kids taking themselves WAAAAY too seriously, and professors taking themselves too seriously, things are pretty much pompous all the time. But now that midterms have passed and papers are due before Thanksgiving break, there is a general underlying freaking-out anxiety around campus. I have five pages to write, and I can't get myself to do them. Yes, five pages. And that's two papers. One paper is 2 pages and a third of my grade. Some of my classmates probably can't even fit their name into two pages. I shouldn't be worried, but since my professor is of the mindset that no matter what you do or how much time you spend on work, he's gonna give you the grade he wants to give you, its hard to motivate myself. At least my mom is coming this weekend so she can kick me around and get me to do it. (Side note: If any of you know how to write a paper as though you are "in" the painting, please let me know.)

I think what's been so funny about this semester is the general lack of caring that i've been exhibiting. If you know me, which many of you do, you know that the words "jessica" and "laid back" really don't ever belong in the same sentence; one cancels the other out...they repel each other they are so incongruous. But this semester has been really different. Since I don't have a boyfriend, I'm really enjoying this whole single life kick I'm on right now. I mean, I can do whatever I want whenever I want to. Its a struggle, since I've discovered I'm a caregiver, and that can be both positive and negative. So I miss caring for people and taking care of them, but I don't miss enabling them. So I'm just taking care of myself and enabling myself. And its working out quite wonderfully. I am taking care of myself by working out, but enabling my unmotivatedness so I procrastinate. But that's what college is for, right? To learn how long you can wait before something is due and still get it done on time? For real, though, I've never been this laid back in my life. I still have my struggles with being controlling and obsessive, but for the most part, I'm just going with the flow. And as weird as it seems, this no boyfriend thing is fantastic. I mean, I hope someday to get married and have kids and stuff, but right now that's the last thing on my mind. And it is definitely on the mind of a lot of my friends. I guess since I've been there, done that, I don't feel the need to try to find someone right this minute, while my friends that haven't really dated feel the need to find somebody right now. I like being able to plan out my life by myself and know that I'm handling my life ok without anyone else. I think its been a long time since I truly trusted myself and believed 100 percent that I could take care of my own life. But I'm doing it...and it feels really good. I always thought I depended on people for certain things, and I may still, cause I know a lot of you out there are supporting me. But I'm doing a lot on my own that I never thought I would, and I'm making friends on my own (even though I meet them in weird ways...like reversing down an interstate...cough...) and doing all these things I want to do. I'm so selfish. However, I'm loving the selfishness right now, and I know that God can definitely use me now in ways I haven't let Him before.

So this was really serious, and I'm sorry, I guess I'm just uninspired. Hopefully something funny will come along...I kind of could use it. Not that Process and Conceptual art of the 1960s and 70s isn't fastinating, but somehow "Box with the sound of its own making" leaves something to be desired. Of course, Beuys, a fluxus/psycho artist did make a work where he put honey all over his head and then gold leafed himself. He sat in a chair holding a dead rabbit and talked to it for a long period of time. The name of the work: how to explain painting to a dead hare. I kid you not. I mean, I realize that people tripped a lot during the 1970s, but its amazing this guy remembered to put his pants on in the morning (and in some works of art, I'm not sure that he did.) And in another work he locked himself in a room with a coyote for a couple of days, (entitled, surprisingly, 'Coyote') and wrapped himself in fat and felt and stuck a staff out of the top of the teepee like covering, using it as an antenna to communicate with nature. Wow. Hopefully that was funny enough to make this post worthwhile.

Wow.

Goodnight and god bless!

scootin' like a maniac

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the comedian has returned. Now you all can continue with your lives.

Again, sorry for not writing for a while, but the flu just killed me. The irony of it all is right before I got sick, a friend asked, "are you going to get a flu shot?" and I, being the stubborn (yet lovable) person that I am, quickly replied "No, of course not. That's only for old people." Well, apparently I aged sixty years in those two days between that conversation and when I got sick. Just hand me my walker, please, so that way I can stand up in line at the Free Flu Vaccination line at the nearest Wal-mart. I'll definitely be watching those Scooter Store commercials now.

Which brings me to an interesting point...I've actually always wanted one of those scooters. I mean, how awesome would that be? I am in no way trying to offend anyone that needs them. I'm specifically talking about the scooter industry and the vast amount of potential it has. It promises so much more than the 'people-moover' craze of the late nineties. At least you look awesome on a scooter, all pimped out and chill...leanin' back into the lumbar-supporting, cushy, faux leather seat, driving with your eyes half-open as you sip a glass of port with one hand and steer with the heel of your other hand, ice gleamin' and pimpness flowin'. What a way to roll (literally). And you could definitely do a lot to the thing, too, man. Put some dubs up on there so you could ride lifted, running over any whippersnappers in your way...with some tight rims, juiced-up motor, a sweet paint job with racing stripes, and a mac truck horn, that thing would be the scooter to end all scooters. I mean, the whole LA Lights shoe idea definitely improved on pedestrian accoutrements, but the scooter takes it to a whole other level...and to top it off: you don't have to walk. Anywhere.

I was disappointed that the whole 'people mover' deal didn't really take off like it promised to. I think it's because people look ridiculous riding that around. I mean, you pretty much look like a giant tool. Again, since they promote laziness, I am a hundred precent behind them. But not so much aesthetically. Maybe its because you have to lean in the direction you want to go, so you look like you're 1. drunk, or 2. a person that loves to invade other people's personal space. I mean, if you were to really ride one of those things on a crowded street, just think about how you would look leaning forward, like you were charging ahead into battle, guns ablazing. (Though I think a sword may be more applicable in this situation...kind of like Washington Crossing the Delaware or something. Which, by the way, is from a period of art that I DETEST.) This is the problem with the people-mover...it is incredibly expensive to begin with, then, since you already look like a tool but have to act totally commited because of the ridiculous amount of money you just spent on something useless, you have to go out and buy pistols (or swords, if you prefer) and a tricorner hat complete with feather. And we all know those things really aren't that easy to find (or at least without some kind of permit). So now you're 'people-moving' yourself from store to store trying to find a tricorner hat, refering to your friends as "lassies" and making the people you lean into on the street address you as "Cap'n." Then you have to a place to put all your fly gear when you get somewhere...you just can't pull off a tricorner hat without the whole ensemble.

I think that they could definitely improve on the people mover idea...it just should look way cooler and make you look cooler when you're on it. Like, if they had included a set of speakers in it, so you could lean your way to work listenin' to some fly music or something. But then everyone would know what kind of music you listen to, and as we all know, everyone of us listens to something that we're embarrassed about. Even the coolest of us. (Ahem, Sammy.) Like, it would not make you look cooler if you were blaring Journey or Twisted Sister or something. All these problems do not arise with a scooter...because you already look so pimp when you're on it. Maybe they even have adjustable seats so you can lean waaaaay back. Tight, for real. So my conclusion: scooter wins. And now that i'm eighty, I'm going to look into one. (Although it is a little disheartening to know that you can 'finance' a scooter...how much does this thing cost to warrant 'financing'?)

So, I hope this discursion into the world of geriatric transportation has helped you all with those burning questions in your hearts. God bless you, you scooter-riding crowd. I will be joining you soon.

Good night and god bless :)

god bless you all

now i officially feel loved. i will post later today...i promise. :)

oh, midterms

so i apologize for not having posted in forever. i have had numerous midterms, and when they were finally over, i got sick. i will post soon...that is, if anyone even reads this anymore. if you do, just leave me a comment so i can see if keeping this thing up is worth it:)

have a great day,
jessica

flip it and reverse it (ti esrever dna ti pilf)

Well, I apologize for not posting yesterday. (Forgive me Shayna!) I actually was trying to get some work done...figures, right? At least I think I did work...I really can't remember much. But I did watch Life is Beautifull (La Vita E Bello) which is great, if you haven't seen it. I now own it, if you want to borrow it. Cried like a baby. But of course, freakin' What About Bob pretty much made me teary-eyed. So much for being tough.

This weekend I attended a retreat with a group I'm in at school. We went to Rockbridge, which is owned/operated by Young Life. Ok, so I realize that WAMAVA is definitely a camping site...more like roughing it than living in the lap of luxury (which must be a lap of a huge lady for how many people chill there), but this camp I went to was ridiculous. Hardwood floors in the dorms, hardwood closets, zip line, water slides, the blob (aka the movie Fat Camp or whatever it's called) and carpeted, beautiful, resort-style dining halls and meeting halls. It was spectacular. I'd like to say I felt closer to God because of the speaking, but I really think it was just the pure joy of going to a camp and not leaving with nine hundred bug bites (some by unidentifiable insects that take hunks of skin). But I did have a great time, and although I didn't necessarily accomplish the things I wanted to accomplish, I definitely grew a lot spiritually, which is exactly what I needed. God is good.

I realize that my posts of late have been about car troubles. Well, I have yet another interesting story to tell...but this one does not end in my car being damaged...it just ends in a story that probably shouldn't be public, but I'll go ahead and leave myself open for the mocking that is going to ensue. So...I drove to the retreat this weekend, even though I'd never been there and didn't know enough people to fit in my car. So I knew I'd be forging ahead into the unknown that is western Virginia. I was randomly assigned three lovely ladies to my car, with whom I ended rooming and getting to know very well. My (now) friend who is in ROTC took on the roll of navigator, which was great since I couldn't read directions and drive at the same time. We got to 64 west after 81 perfectly fine, stopped off in Lexington (So that's where W and L and VMI are!! The things you learn.) to eat at Burger king with my fellow Christian Campers. I got back onto 64 after eating fast food (which is soooo gross to me now after not eating it for a looooong time...I can't believe I actually thought french fries were good) and I managed to not spill my drink on the floormat while reversing out of the parking lot (that's why I get sprite now...an unfortunate accident with Dr. Pepper has left me embittered with dark colored soda). I was totally psyched about getting there since things had been going well so far. So ROTC-girl continues to play navigator, telling me that we need to get off on exit 43. Well, she stops paying attention to the exit signs. I don't know this, so I think she's going to catch it when we get up on it. (An assumption I won't make again.) So I see a sign I think may be 43, but my contacts and allergies don't mix so it looked like a number that morphed into an astigmatic blob. I get closer and closer...going 70...and I realize that it is exit 43. I have a decision to make right here. I could a) pass the exit, drive an indeterminate distance to another exit, drive another indeterminate distance to a town, turn around, and get back on and risk the chance of exit 43 only being on the West side of the road, or b) slam on the brakes and skid into the on ramp at 50 miles an hour, causing the two girls in the back to go flying into my headrest and/or windshield or c) pull the car over onto the shoulder beside the ramp and reverse it. Not being the most intelligent person in the world, I chose option C.

Now, I think that there have to be two main rules of driving that are not stated in Driver's Ed, and they are not mentioned because it should be glaringly obvious to any half-wit that a driver should never perform these stunts. These rules are:
1. Don't drive with your head out the window.
2. Don't ever put your car in reverse on a major interstate.

Well, if they did mention these rules, I was asleep (which did happen, actually, for 5 minutes...until my instructor yelled at me to wake up...he was so boring he took off points for falling asleep in class because it was such a common occurence). Or maybe they just assumed that I'd be smart enough not to try it. Well, no cars were coming, and I was able to stop only like 50 yards from the on ramp. So, I popped the baby in reverse, and backwards we went on a main interstate. Luckily there were no cars coming and I couldn't see anyone within miles. I backed up, put her in drive, and went along my merry way. I think I actually was freaking out more than the girls in my car, which was good considering they didin't know me from anyone, and here I am, a year older than them, apparently not able to drive a car, taking them to meet their Maker about 80 years too soon (hey, its just another kind of retreat...instead of talking about God, we'll just meet him!). But they didn't freak out, and actually calmed me down, so that was good. We got there safely, and had an event-free trip back to the 'Ville (or so I learned it is called). God is good.

I realize here that my parents probably having either epileptic seizures or heart failure at this point. Don't worry, guys, I haven't gotten a ticket yet. And that's what matters, right?

Have a great week everybody! Goodnight and God Bless!

comment nazi

hey, sorry that I didn't allow comments on my last post. I don't know what the heck happened...i probably just spazzed out and hit a wrong button. Anyway, feel free to leave some here if you've got any :) Miss you all :)