It's Slacker Time!

Man, what is up with the end of the semester? It's like all of a sudden, one has a shift in all priorities. For three months straight it's nothing but school in the back of the brain, nagging at you, making you feel guilty that you aren't dedicated enough, hounding you in your sleep....Then, out of nowhere, you crest a mountain top that is the end of the semester!! It is elation by it's very definition. My brain is scattered b/c although I have two finals left, school is over. I have to convince my brain that it can't go on vacation just yet. This is very hard. The weather is beautiful, I already have final grades for two of my classes....can't it just be over??

WTF

You know what's funny? And I think most bloggers can attest to this as well. It seems that the more thought that one puts into a blog post, the less comments received. For me personally, the posts that I have spent a great deal of time on and feel are just super....I generally get only one comment and that comment is from the Kwickfish, bless his little heart :) But when I post about things like studying in the coffee shop or I write a completely random off the wall "poem" I get a good response. What is up with this?? What is the goings on? ;)

Sometimes I tend to get myself into debates with people that I probably shouldn't. Mostly it's just because I love to debate. I will even debate with someone that I totally agree with just because it's so fun. But I realize that some people are not able to come to that line that separates a debate from an argument, and not cross it. It's very easy for a simple conversation to escalate into a debate and then further escalate into a full blown argument. One person should probably recognize the volatility of exchange and stop it from going further but that might be like trying to stop a freight train with a cracker.

I was recently part of a lovely debate about marriage. The idea of marriage has always intrigued me because I find it difficult to justify marriage in any logical language. Why should a happy couple, living together with all the perks of a married couple, take the plunge? Why is having a husband so different than having a boyfriend? What is so significant about the contract of marriage? If you are in love with someone and they are in love with you, isn't that enough?

These are all questions that I have been asked in previous debates about marriage. Personally, I believe in marriage and hope to get married some day. Still, it is difficult for me to answer the questions above with any solid, concrete facts. I went to bed last night thinking about this and I think I may have come up with a reason that I can live with.

Dating is like going to the pound to pick out a dog. When you are at the pound you can peruse the dogs looking for the perfect one. If you think you've found the perfect one you can take him/her outside and spend sometime getting to know them. If, after spending some time with the dog you decide it probably wouldn't work out and it's just not the kind of dog you're looking for, you aren't obligated to adopt the dog. You can go back in and take out another dog or wait and come back another day. This, to me, is kind of like dating.

Marriage is the point at which you feel like you have found the right dog and are willing to commit to that dog through adoption. I think, even at this point, a lot of people don't feel obligated. They still feel that they are taking the dog home on a trial basis. They have not mentally committed to the relationship. Isn't this a lot like marriage? Suppose you get the dog home and it chews up your shoes, pees in the closet, gets into the trash, etc. Obviously, for a lot of people, taking the dog back seems like a great solution. But some people realize that when they brought this dog home, they made a commitment and they'll honor that commitment even though things are little different than they had hoped.

Anyways, I realize this is a terrible analogy and I deeply apologize. It was between this one and "dating is a lot like test driving a car" :) Either way, to me, marriage is the hand shake that seals the deal and I think that is as close as I am going to get to defining what it means to me.

I would welcome any other analogies you guys might have! :)

Yippy Skippy Spring is Here!
I think I'll have a beer
or two or three and play some ball
I sit around until I get the call

Some things about spring that I really like
Are all the flowers and the pike
Fishy fish swim in the lake
I don't have a bike so I guess I will skate

To the store to get some wheat thins
Because paul at them all last night
They are my favorite cracker being so thin
sometimes I give them to Zoe

Just a little rant

I used to absolutely hate riding the bus home from school because there were these two brothers that teased me the entire way. They knew that I was a bunny loving tree hugger and would torment me with stories about how they kicked their dogs and shot squirrels for fun. I used to get so mad that I would literally burst into tears and I remember thinking, why doesn't anyone else say something to these losers?

We watched a video today in my Ethics class called "The Peaceable Kingdom". It was a documentary on factory farming. After the lights were turned back on I looked around at the class and at least one half were crying including myself. I'd like to think that there is a consciousness building in our society about the little choices we make everyday and how these little choices have huge consequences. I think it's a little bit easier in Boulder because everywhere you look someone is trying to save the world in their own little way. I had no idea that purchasing a cup of coffee was contributing to demise of migratory song birds or that by drinking milk I am financially contributing to fuel that powers veal market.

I hate caring about these things. I think about them on my way to school, on my way home from school, when I'm at the grocery store, the gas station, the mall...when I watch T.V or go hiking and most annoyingly, when I am trying to go to sleep at night. I used to irritate myself because I would be so serious about this stuff all the time and my friends got really tired of it. So I quit and vowed to lighten up.

I guess my point, if I have one, is that sometimes it's just plain easier not to care and a lot of the time lately I wish I didn't care. But I cared on the bus in elementary school and I'll probably care on the next bus I get on.

I HAD a dream

My dream was weird and I woke up in a panic. I dreamed that I had died and was in a kind of line waiting to get into heaven. I noticed that everyone was carrying a bag. It was the same kind of bag everyone was carrying but some were really full and some really empty. My bag was really quite empty and I didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. As a approached what looked like a podeum and a man standing behind it, I noticed that he was checking everyones bag. Some people were allowed to pass and others were told to go another way based on the contents of their bags. I was a little worried at this point.

Once I arrived at the podium the man asked to look into my bag. As he did I felt my stomach (or what used to be my stomach) rise up into my throat. He said to me, "Do you know what this is?" I said, "No." He said, "These are all of the good things that you have done for others in your life." At that moment I felt really terrible. In all of my life the good things I had done couldn't even fill up a bag.

After this happened I woke up. I'm not sure I got into heaven but one thing is for sure. I have a lot of work to do :)

I have had a total of 8 speeding tickets in my life, three of which occured when I 16 years old. My parents.....not happy. I don't know why, maybe a lot of people are like this, but I feel that if I'm not going at least 5 over the limit I'm going way too slow. It is nearly impossible for me to stay at or below the speed limit. It's actually kind of annoying. Even when I know I'm going to get to school too early and have to wait around for class to start, I still can't stay in the slow lane. Every time a see highway patrol I get butterflies and quickly let off the gas b/c I just assume that I am most likely speeding....it's bit exhausting actually. It would be nice to see a cop once in a while and not feel that immediate sense of panic. O-well, maybe I can blame on my shoes, they're just really heavy officer.