Hodge Podge: Fish, Tornado, Coupons

Greetings,

I have an exciting announcement. The boyfriend showed me how to fish, and after a couple of minutes I caught my first fish! I'm sorry, that's not terribly exciting, but I was ecstatic because the boyfriend and his dad fish all the time and win competitions and stuff. Now I can say that I fish too. I'm practically a pro. I still won't touch the fish after I catch them, though. Slimy things with beady little eyes make me skittish.
I also caught a branch, but it wasn't as impressive.

Stream of consciousness, GOOO: A tornado rudely slashed through my town last week. Crazy stuff. The last storm (which was about two weeks ago) brought about a tornado that did not touch down, but it did rip through my neighborhood and dump a tree on my house (minor damage, no one was hurt). The more recent storm sent a massive tornado about ten miles from my house, and it leveled a huge part of this town (we could see it from my house. My mom went upstairs to watch it from my brother's window. Best place during a tornado? Not upstairs or by a window). We are in a major college town in Alabama and we received an insane amount of damage, so the media has gone crazy over covering the story. It's kind of annoying, actually. My Facebook exploded with a bunch of statuses about how everyone was volunteering and donating. Just a tip, self-promoting the fact that you volunteered or donated is super irritating. To me, at least. I could just stay off Facebook since it gets on my nerves so badly, right? WRONG. Facebook has wrapped my little attention span around it's finger and won't let go unless I promise it my first born child. I would, but I've already promised it to the oil industry.
Wow. Somebody's got a bunch of built up ill-feelings. I didn't mean for that rant to be so long, and in fact, I have more to say on that subject, but I'll close the lid on the matter.

Have you seen Extreme Couponing? It's my guilty pleasure show, and I'm falling victim to couponing. It requires the perfect amount of detailed obsession and a fine-toothed comb of iron. Most people would cringe at the thought of clipping, sorting, making lists, checking them twice, stockpiling, etc, but I'm just the uptight white girl for the job.

I'm definitely working on not being so uptight. Since I finished school (first year of college down for the count, babyyyy), I have embraced this notion of "nothing to do" and have tried my hand at fun things. It's been quite a long time since I've done nothing but unproductive, yet fun, things.

So, I've taken a look at the blogs of those of you who have so kindly commented, and I'm loving all of these thoughts and poems that are being produced. I've also noticed that many people are new bloggers and, generally, about to start or have recently started college. If you guys have any questions about blogging and/or/but not limited to college, definitely throw them my way. I can't give a supreme answer over all other answers and reveal hidden insights about life, but I can surely give my opinion and share with you how I deal/dealt with things. And, if it's pretty applicable to most people, I just might incorporate it in a blogpost.

Now go and hug yo mamma and tell her happy mamma's day. Or, go hug someon else's mamma and tell them that they are the best someone else's mamma ever.

Devestation and Reform

I've learned so much lately about life. These things just hit me like a ton of bricks, it seems.
First off, I can't even begin to explain the dynamics of my family because we'd be here for several hours, but I can say that the past's events left me with ill feelings toward my dad. Holding a grudge, they say, is harmful to the soul. But how can you forgive someone who doesn't even understand that they've hurt you? Like they filter out what they don't want to hear. What if that person is your father, and you can't just purge your life of him because he's bad for you. What's harder, in my case, is that all of this is unspoken. There is an elephant in the room, so to speak, every time we are in the same room. Neither of us speak of it.
But I've discovered an explanation for the way he is, and why he acts the way he does, and it is that he can't understand. He's not a cold-hearted person who can't see that he's pushing away the people that love him most in this world. He's simply incapable of making that connection. There are psychological labels for it, but I'm going to leave it at that. By coming to this realization, I am more willing to give him a chance. More willing to actually hang out with him. It's just kind of sad that that is all it will ever be. Hanging out. The role of a "father" is somewhat void in my life.
But that's where I let go of the past and look at what I have right now in the present moment. I have a Father that answers me. Like, seriously answers me. If you're turned off to this because it sounds cliche, I don't blame you, but know that I don't write hokey crap just because it sounds nice. I asked God to show me some things recently, and he immediantly gave me an answer that I could not attribute to anything but Him. I know that my healing, physically and emotionally, is going to only come from Him. I just have to learn that I can't control my own healing process. He's already planned it for me. Sucks for an uptight worrier like me, but I'm sure it won't suck for long.
I'll save some of the other things for another time. I'm supposed to be finishing an essay that is due in 45 minutes (that I've had all week to do). STUPID END OF THE SEMESTERR.


Cheers,
Dani

PS. What's new with all of you? Tell me about stuff.

Attractive Legs.. for Ants

Today I asked my mom to pick me up some lemon juice from Walmart while she got groceries. She asked me why I needed lemon juice. I told her not to worry about it, but she wouldn't let it go, so I told her it was for a cosmetic experiment and not to judge me and to get me my freakin' lemon juice (I was kinder than that, though).
She knows I'm a product junky, and she also knows that I like to try unconventional beauty treatments. I recently learned about "sugaring" for hair removal, and when I saw that you could do it at home, there was no way I was going to not try it. The recipe called for sugar, water, and lemon juice. That's it. And I looked up the tecnique on youtube and decided it didn't look that hard. I could do that too. No sweat.
I mixed the sugar paste (which entails heating the ingredients on the stove until the mixture is dark brown). Then I let it cool, poured it into a container, and followed the directions for application.
You have to grab a glob of this sticky stuff with your hands, roll it into a ball, smooth it on with pressure against the grain of your hair growth, and then pull it off little by little and quickly with the growth of your hair. It was not by any means as easy as I thought it would be. My mixture was perfect, and I applied it correctly, but my hairs got together and decided they weren't going to go without a fight. Just before I swiped the sugar off, one yelled, "HOLD, brothers!" Two were sleeping, so they came out, but the others were on their game.
I love personifying random, non-living things :]

So, about that last post, it was a bit random, I know. Totally unlike what I usually write. Yes, it was about apples; yes, my grandmother really had an apple tree with nasty apples on it; yes, there is some subtext in there. Just kinda felt like writing it.

And thus ends my crazy post for today. I need to be focusing on the two essays I have to write this weekend.

Arrivedercci!

Potpourri

I haven't posted anything in foreverrrrrrrr, so this may be a long post, but I'm going to try to keep it short and sweet for those of you, like me, have little patience/short attention spans. Just want to give a little update on what I've been up to. I'll keep the ranting to a minimum.

So college is off to a busy start and has unrelentlessly consumed my thoughts, schedule, conversations, and now my social networking. Cheyeah. It's that bad.
I'm finally feeling like a part of the UA scene. I've lived about fifteen minutes from campus for twelve years and have not once felt comfortable walking around campus up until this point. Now I feel a stronger sense of "we're all in the same boat, just trying to make it to class on time" instead of "I bet they can all tell I'm an underclassman." I've made immense progress with my anxiety since starting college. Big places with lots of people used to intimidate me, but I'm coping with those circumstances more frequently now and trying new things.
Speaking of anxiety, it's getting better, but I'm still working on it. I haven't tried the West Side Story or Inuit Relaxation techniques yet, though. My counselor tells me over and over that anxiety is and will always be a part of my life, so I have to make friends with it and accommodate accordingly when I know I'll have to face a stressful situation. I'd like to commence this new friendship with a swift kick to the balls, but that might make the relationship a little tense in the future.
My new job is a total God-send. I work 8+ hours twice a week which gives me time to get some homework done and make a little cashhmoneyy at the same time. Plus, my boss has given me a task which requires me to organize data from one system and transfer it to another for event/class room reservations. It's right up my alley! I love making lists and compiling data (I used to play a game with my cousin where he was the big CEO of a publishing company, and I was the secretary that reviewed emails of authors and who transcribed letters for him. Oh my gosh, that sounds so totally psycho. We were weird, okay?).

There's so much going on at once these days, but I'm guessing that it will level out soon. I'll write more as my thoughts become less jumbled.

Peace, Love, and Hugs,


Dani

Death to Facebook

I HATE FACEBOOK.


I hate facebook. I hate facebook. I hate facebook. I hate facebook.


But I can't leave it! I'm not strong enoughhhh. It's cast me under it's spell.


Le sigh.

Dear Saturday

Dear Saturday,

I have been a loyal patron for eighteen years now and generally have little to know complaints. However, it seems to me that your services have become ineffective, to be quite honest. You promise relaxation, sleeping in until lunch, and going out with friends, but lately I have found myself unable to stay asleep, unable to go out and enjoy myself, and unable to forget about the week. Frankly, my nerves are shot, and my head feels as though a someone took a sledge hammer to it. Please, please, reestablish my faith in you and your corporation. See to it that I recieve the peace and quite that you have vowed in your mission statement.

Thank you for your time.

Dani

DIY and PSYCH

I've been on a DIY kick lately. The thought of making something with my own two hands that is useful and visually attractive excites me. Of course, I'm not very good at finishing projects, so I don't want to waste a bunch of energy and money on something I won't complete. For example, my sewing skills are very basic, but I've always wanted to make some cute dresses (like the fabulous ones at ModCloth, which are too expensive for my taste). But my concern with sewing is the technicality of it all and the likelihood that it will look painfully homemade.

Speaking of DIY, take a look at this site, KnittaPlease. Knitting graffiti??? Oh, heckk yeahh. Adding cuddly goodness to a world of concrete and metal -- sooo right up my ally.
With the craziness of starting college classes and quitting my job, my stress level hasn't exactly improved lately. In fact, I'm chewing on my nails right now. Stopppp ittt, Daniiii. I need to try a few minutes of relaxation a day. Do a little stretching, a little clearing of my mind  ...We'll see how that goes.

My psych teacher makes me want to smash my face onto the desk repeatedly. Please allow me to rant for a moment. Reasons she works my nerves:
1. She reiterates everything. No, please continue defining adolescence for the next ten minutes since none of us here have experienced it yet.
2. She misuses words by replacing them with a similar sounding, but completely different word. For example, today maturation became masturation, autonomy became anatomy, and egocentrism became egocetracitosmistical.....umm...egocet....
3. She says "um" so often that I can't focus on what she is trying to teach. I know you know what I'm talking about. When someone uses "like" or "um" after every other word, all you hear is "like" or "um."
4. She showed a movie in a collegiate class. A movie. Not a documentary. Not an educational visual aid. Not even Magic School Bus. She showed The Notebook. You know the one that everyone has either seen a thousand times or has vowed never to watch because it's so cheesy...or too scary?? (I used to be a fan of the movie, but after watching it a few times, it gets annoying). Her justification for the movie was the fact that "Allie" has Alzheimer's disease. If you have seen the movie you know that it does not go into enough detail to deem the movie educational.

Forgive my harsh words and pointless whining. Just thought I'd share that tidbit.

Before I close this post, here's a quick promo:
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Peace, Love, & Hugs,

DB