Hipster Olympics

Changes come

I knew that I shouldn't have posted my schedule. As soon as you post your schedule, something shifts within you and you suddenly realize... you need to change everything. So I did.

I'm now, as most of you probably already know, graduating in December.

Mad props for me for changing my major seven times and graduating early. It makes me feel like kind of a rockstar. Like I cheated the system or something.

But it also makes me really sad to be leaving without my full four years. I know that I have grad school. And I know that K-State isn't home to me anymore. I know where I need to be, but then there are moments, when I'm hanging out in my beautiful room that I just finished decorating, or laughing with Hailey and Beau in the living room, or going to buy eggrolls in the middle of the night with Rachael... that I realize how much I will miss it here too.

Mostly I'm excited to graduate. Excited that it snuck up on me and that I get to take all the classes I've been wanting to take in one semester and that I now have an excuse not to work 30 hours a week. So far, everything has been working out, and I just keep relying on the signs to remind me that I'm making the right decision. And really, who needs a sign when my fortune cookie yesterday said this:

"Going with the flow will make your transition ever so much easier."

I'm coming home.

The beginning of the end

Here is my schedule for the first semester of my senior year.

Monday:

11:30- Realism and Sentimentalism in American Literature
5:30-8- Family Relationships & Gender Roles

Tuesday:

9:30-10:45- Professional Writing

Wednesday/Friday:

11:30- Realism and Sentimentalism in American Lit

Thursday:

9:30- Professional Writing
7-10- Adv. Fiction Writing

It is pretty much the best semester ever. I dropped Intro to creative non-fiction writing after the first day because it was a joke, and every annoying english major that I had ever encountered previously was in the class, so I got out quickly. Which turned out to be a blessing, because I discovered Professional Writing which will be much more beneficial.

Currently, for my lit class we're reading "Charlotte Temple." It's some of the most beautiful writing I've read in a long time.

"True, and painful as these feelings are, I would not exchange them for that torpor which the stoic mistakes for philosophy. Then let us, my friend, take the cup of life as it is presented to us, tempered by the hand of a wise Providence; be thankful for the good, be patient under the evil, and presume not to inquire why the latter predominates."

So many times in my stories, and in life, I have attempted to articulate that very argument, but never quite as clearly as that. It's a beautiful and heart wrenching book. I'm not sure if I recommend it yet, but I think it would be wise to make your daughters read it before they enter high school/college.

So far, this semester, I have rediscovered the joy of being an english major. Hailey has labs and has to study pages of notes and boring textbooks, and I get to read novels and write stories. I'm going to miss it.

Also, I'm already sick. Apparently my immune system isn't used to being on a schedule and staying productive. It's ridiculous. I am also still looking for a second job. Currently I have applied at People's Grocery, iTAC help desk, Dusty Bookshelf, Motel 6, Hastings, Stickel's Dry Cleaning, Four Olives, Hobby Lobby, Planet Sub and Curbside Recycling. You'd think that someone, eventually will call me back and offer me a job. Surely. I'm getting a little bit frustrated with all this free time.

Oops

Tonight, I accidentally dyed my hair black.

It's going to be a great senior year.

The stress of being a spaz

I'm back in Manhattan. So far so good. But there have been a few stumbles.

Yesterday I had a really bad headache, so after the eating of food and excedrin migraine didn't help, I figured it was time for a little physical activity. So I left my house to go for a run in the park. At 4 in the afternoon. The problem with living at home all summer in a house without air conditioning is that when you leave and come to a house WITH air conditioning, you forget that the temperature isn't the same inside and out. I ran about a mile before my fingers started tingling. I figured I was just out of shape, that I just needed to push through. After another half mile my fingers were completely numb. So I decided okay, I'll just walk a couple of miles and then head home. But by that point, I started to notice the sun. And the fact that there were no other people in the park. And the amount of sweating that I was doing. By the time I got home, I couldn't even bend my fingers to hold the key to get in the door. It took three bottles of water and thirty minutes spent gasping on the floor in front of my fan to return to my normal condition.

Then came stumble two. I have been searching high and low for a second job. And every time I call back, or request an application, they let me know that I have *just* missed the deadline. Perfect. So today I got a call from my friend Jimmy letting me know that iTAC was hiring. (The tech help desk in the library) So I scoot on over to the library, park illegally, because of course- all the metered spots in front of the union are gone because of the stupid ugly parking garage construction. Anyway, I get in the library, all sweaty and out of breath, fill out the 6 page application, which has a whole page devoted to different computer programming language and jargon that I'm supposed to describe and of course... I have no idea. So anyway, get that done, and then it turns out that I'm supposed to make three copies of the application. Fine, I find a copier, and then can't figure out how to make double sided copies. So I ask someone, and then a guy comes out to help me, and I admit to him that I don't want to go back and ask IT, because it's their application. He looks at me funny and I realize... of course... HE is an iTAC person, probably the one who is shredding my application as we speak. But he couldn't figure out the copier either, so I make the copies and turn it back in, and am ready to go out and face the many parking tickets that are sure to be on my windshield. But alas, I get to the car, beam at the empty windshield and discover... I've lost my phone. I know that I had it in the library, because I used it to fill out my references, but I don't have it anymore.

So I go ask the circulation desk- nada. I ask the guy sitting at my computer- nada. I look all around the copier. I freak out, instead of going back to iTAC again, I rush out and drive like a mad woman to alltel to see how much a new phone will be. I need this phone. And I need the same number because I've just filled out 15 job applications in the last 3 days with that number all over it. And, more importantly, Amanda and I had a Chipotle dinner date that she was supposed to be calling me about in the next 30 minutes. So I rush across town, realize that 100 people are crammed into the store and wait until finally a grumpy woman with a clipboard approaches me.

Grumpy Lady: "What do you need?"
Me: "A new phone. I just lost mine."
GL: "Have you filled out a police report?"
Me: "No."
GL: "Do you expect to file an insurance claim today?"
Me: "Wha? I need a new phone. I lost mine."
GL: "Well you can't have it before you fill out a police report. But I guess we can get someone to talk to you. What's your name?"
Me: "Susan Al..."
GL: "Sit down. We'll get to you."

I sat for maybe two minutes, decided it was stupid, and left. Drove back across town, back to the library, sweating like a yucky lady and went back to iTAC where, thank goodness, a new shift had started. But they didn't have my phone. So I tried the information desk, and there, the blessed blessed exchange student from Zaire gave me my silver and black kyocera and a smile. I have never wanted her job more.

So I don't think I got the iTAC job. I know I didn't get the Dusty Bookshelf job because they hired everyone back in July. And neither of the libraries are hiring, and People's hasn't called me back yet and I fear that I'm going to have to go back to Pita Pit. If anyone has any other fantastic ideas... please please share. I'm out of ideas.

Beautiful day!

Oh my goodness.

Follow this link: http://www.myspace.com/scratchtrack

and listen to "All Night".

If it doesn't make you get up and dance, you just might be dead.