Ouch... at least it's funny

The Onion, that lovely satirical news agency, added its two cents about ND's football program.

U.S. Military Wasting All Its Victories On Notre Dame

WASHINGTON, DC—As combined American forces celebrate two consecutive football wins against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish while simultaneously marking the loss of the 3,150th soldier to hostile action in Iraq, many are left wondering if the...

Dreams

In the course of filling out my study abroad application (turned in today, thanktheLord), I was asked to give thought to my future career plans. This is sort of a normal occurrence around here, even though I am not a card-carrying member of the resume-building, career fair-attending, briefcase-toting segment of the population.

Anyway, a catch phrase in the peace studies department is "scholar-practitioner." Mainly used to refer to the masters students, who spend their second year in the program abroad in an internship actually working to create peace, this term has come to describe exactly what I want from a job. I am coming to adore research this semester, more than I ever thought possible. But it's not enough for me to be an academic for the rest of my life; I have to have a direct service component to whatever I do. I discovered that this summer, and the current lack of service in my life is a deeply-felt void. And I want to be home with my kids for a good percentage of the time.

Therefore, here's my perfect job:
First of all, I want to work for an organization trying to better the world in ways I agree with. Also, I would love to research from home in the mornings most of the week, while a babysitter watches my little ones, leaving my afternoons and evenings free for mommy time. A couple of days a week would need to be spent in service in the community, perhaps with my kids in tow when they're older. Now that's what I call education. And I would be ok with needing to work in the office of whatever org I'm at once in a while for meetings and such. It doesn't even have to be an exclusively research job; I could deal with writing grant proposals and such (I just wrote my first one tonight! I'm proud of me). Mainly, I'm looking for flexibility and the crucial help the world factor.
Pre-kids, I want to be as involved as I can with the dirty, nitty-gritty stuff in running an organization. Grass roots, on the ground, in the streets, in the government social change. I want to live inside D.C. in what will probably be a tiny and overpriced apartment, soaking it all up and gaining experience. Then I can morph into this scholar-practitioner person later. Yeah. That's a plan.

Grumble.

You know what really bothers me? I just finished a 14-page report on external actors in Guatemala. When put together with the rest of my group's research, our report will easily top 70-80 pages, not counting our most likely ginormous annotated bibliography. It took SO MUCH WORK to consolidate so much research in one place, but no one will ever use it. Our professor will grade it, and that will be it. No one researching Guatemala will ever use this as a resource. Three similar reports are being produced by the rest of the class, and those will never be used either. We pulled all this together for one grade. I want it published! I want it online somewhere so that the world can USE it! But who would I send it to so that people could find it? It's too big and complicated for wikipedia, and not officially scholarly enough (we're just undergrads) for more prestigious sites.

Grumble grumble. I guess this is how people feel after writing theses. So much work... no real contribution to the academic community. It's like running on a treadmill or walking up the down escalator. You're not going anywhere so it's pretty much pointless, despite how hard you're working.

What it takes

I'm pretty picky when it comes to music, but for weird reasons. I adore hard rock (some would say metal) bands, alternative, pop, and world music bands alike as long as they meet the following rules:

1. Audible and intelligible lyrics (I get quite annoyed by songs that aren't articulate enough for me to hear the lyrics, forcing me to go look lyrics up online)
2. Lyrics that I relate to and/or are fantastic pieces of poetry that truly capture what they're trying to get across (examples: Once soundtrack, Aqualung's first CD, Relient K's MmHmm, Simon and Garfunkel)
   
3. No long solos. OAR and jam bands are not my style.
   
4. Sometimes catchiness and beat, but not necessarily. This is lower on the priority list than lyrics, but if a song has can't get it out of your head catchiness or an awesome beat I sometimes make an exception from the lyrics rules.
5. If I already love a band, and a song on their new CD has unintelligible lyrics, I will be disappointed, but still love the band. If, however, their once-poetic lyrics are now all cliches, I show no mercy. (i.e. the new Aqualung CD... a couple good songs but mostly eww)
6. Very little swearing. It's not that it offends me, it's just that it makes the song seem less like a work of art and more vulgar and ugly.

What makes music "good" for you?
Mychal will now respond with a six-page essay, and that will just be the abstract for his thesis someday.

We won for once!

In basketball. Tonight was the season opener, and since Joey talked me into purchasing season tickets with him, off we took ourselves to the game. They properly creamed Long Island University, aka "the Blackbirds." Fighting Irish so trumps blackbirds. Anyway, my attention is not hugely captivated by basketball, so I spent the time supplying helpful (or at least interesting) commentary to my patient boyfriend. For example:

"Those coaches' suits must be so sweaty by the end of the game with all of that arm-flailing and random squatting. You would think they would be so uncomfortable."
"You know the teenage son in Little Miss Sunshine? He so reminds me of that kid from high school!"
"That one kid on their team has really baggy shorts. It makes him look even shorter than he already is."
"Look at the band! I LOVE the band!" (accompanied by arm clutching and desperate pointing)

Poor Joey. Good times, though. And I got to wear my snazzy student section t-shirt. Some soda-like product found it fitting to soak my reclining bookbag and its contents while we watched the game; I'm not a fan, soda-like product. Not a fan. But such is life. I'll take cheering my heart out in a basketball game over homework any day.

Storytime

Nothing interesting happened today- slept in, slogged through unending assignments, gave up for the night. No one's interested in that, and I'm not interested in complaining about it. Thus: storytime.

Once upon a time, Laura was a little tot. She traveled on a big plane with her parents to see her aunt, uncle, and cousins out west. They went to the mountains, and it was the first time little Laura had seen Big Snow. She was so bundled up that she could scarcely move, but when she found a snowball sitting on the ground, it was necessary to throw it at her mother. It hit above her right eye- perfect shot! However, the snowball was actually made of ice, a concept foreign to little Laura, and she was banned from throwing any more "snowballs," for fear of giving an unsuspecting cousin a concussion. Poor mommy. The end.

Seemed appropriate with snow just around the corner here in Indiana. Right now we're still in the miserable cold dampness phase, just above freezing, but snow is coming soon. I can feel it.

Comfort blanket

Painful defeats seem to sap my energy. I've spent the last couple of hours cuddling with my down-filled satin-lined blanket and laptop. I watched another episode of Heroes- which I've decided is mediocre, but I don't have anything better to watch. Also, I drooled over this jacket, on sale at oldnavy.com right now-


I adore it, which means I'll probably end up buying it, after the requisite amount of time has passed so that I know I actually love it. Same process as trying it on in a store, leaving to eat lunch, and coming back to buy it, except more cozy and with shipping costs.

Tonight I also discovered a recording of the band's halftime show on NBC.com, much to my excitement. Our student section seats are in the corner of the field, so it's hard to tell what the band formations are from such a diagonal angle. Today they played OK Go's "Here It Goes Again" made famous by youtube (go watch the video if you haven't seen it, it's amazing). The band formed stick figures running on treadmills! How cool is that? Then they played Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting", created Chinese characters and spelled out Kung Fu. They also broke wooden boards :-). I love our band so so much. They are pretty much the most amazing thing ever. No offense to Georgia Tech's band ;-)

I meant to do homework tonight. Then I was lazy. Oops.

As a side note, the whole begging for comments paragraph recently was meant to be in jest. My ego is not suffering for lack of comment love. Heaven knows how much I suck at commenting on blogs, even though I faithfully read them. Don't worry, my biological and non-biological mothers who read this, all is well. Silly gooses.

Athens, here I come

Now that I've moved from indecision to passion about the whole study abroad thing, there are SO MANY hurdles to jump through. I have asked for (and received) two professor recommendations, approval from the Arts and Letters department and the Political Science department, and a rector recommendation. All I have left in that regard is a peace studies appointment next week so I can log their approval too. This is all in addition to my application, which is sorta done but needs to be tweaked. My essay needs a lot of work. After so much effort, I had better get accepted, because now I'm excited. Darn it. I really want to go.

Good grief, I have so much writing to get done this weekend. Let's count:

1. Study abroad app essay
2. Grant proposal draft for funding so I can go to Germany, etc next semester
3. I need to FINALLY finish my Guatemala paper. The problem with thorough outlines is I entirely lose patience when it comes to writing the paper. Ick.
4. Outline of Veritatis Splendor (the encyclical)
   
5. Take home essay test for my nonviolence class

That was depressing. Um, yay for weekends...

Methinks earthworms have more interesting lives

Quote of the night: "You're so evil." (Joey)

This was in response to my convoluted plot to bypass college, which involved suing his chemistry book publishers for gender discrimination and making millions, thus making it irrelevant whether I passed chemistry or not.

Yeah. It's a slow night. I'm studying for a Spanish test on the subjunctive case, which, trust me, is wildly entertaining.

However, I did get paid for my research job today, in the form of a personal check from the professor in question. Sketchy much? At least I don't have to pay taxes now. Another piece of good news- the presentation for my hugelyginormous semester-long group project on the peace process in Guatemala was today, and it went well. Best moment:
Professor- "Who was the UN negotiator?"
Me, quickly- "Jean Arnault."
Professor- "That was intended to be a tricky question."
I like being a goody two shoes. By the way, can someone please explain the etymology of that phrase? I have no idea what it means. Thanks.

Joey just performed the N'Sync "Bye Bye Bye" dance. I think we spend too much time studying.

House

Since the demise of Star Trek, House is the only TV show I will watch live every week. I get way too fed up with commercials with other shows, and I just catch them later online. But I can't imagine postponing watching a new episode of House. I must see it as soon as possible! Which means watching it on TV like everyone else.

But this show is worth it. Witty banter, ethical dilemmas for Joey and I to debate later, even the occasional CIA intervention or love triangle. Oh yeah, and awesome abnormal medicine. I love how I'm able to predict what's going to happen once in a while- I feel like I have actual medical knowledge. I don't. But I do generally recognize the signs of a stroke now. That could be useful. This is how I justify how I spend the nine oclock hour on Tuesday nights.

Plus, there's a great site that analyzes the medical truth behind the show- http://www.politedissent.com/house_pd.html . Joey used to read it out loud to me before my bad listening skills made him think I didn't care. But it's really quite interesting when I'm not in the middle of something (namely, reading other people's blogs). Good times.

Still- there's no replacing Star Trek. Television's zenith passed with the finale of Star Trek: Voyager.

Notes

I thought that writing a post a day would, you know, give people plenty of opportunities to comment. But I haven't gotten a single comment since I started this NaBloPoMo thing. Maybe the blog community is boycotting my bad and uninteresting writing? Sucks for you. I'm going to write anyway, so there. :-P

Today's weather says here comes winter. Gray and windy and occasionally sprinkling cold rain. Groan. Time to break out the outerwear from their rubbermaid containers by my bed. I think my cotton summer skirts and lovely sandals need to be retired for the year. On a happier note: the Starbucks I'm sitting in right now is decorated for Christmas, and my heart is full of joyful excitement. I'm not usually a huge Christmas person, but I'm feeling the spirit this year. We'll see if that lasts until a week after Thanksgiving, by which point I am usually tired of pop-ified Christmas carols and the color red.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm not going home this year. Gasp! This has caused consternation back home, but we only get Thursday and Friday off, so I would have to skip Wednesday classes to make it home in time, plus my parents are working a fair amount. I'm going to stay here and write papers so that the NEXT weekend, I can fly down to Birmingham and go to my cousin's wedding reception. He's getting married on a cruise over Thanksgiving, which is out of the question for my family, but we're going to his reception. He's the first of my cousins to get married. Scary. He's a Marine and is on leave from Iraq for this whole wedding deal, so I figure that he deserves my presence. If he's going to fly out from Iraq, I'll fly out from Indiana. Should be an interesting occasion family-drama-wise; I might finally get to meet my godfather's new wife. Sweet.

And now, I must return to working on a paper on Guatemala. Specifically, foreign involvement in the Guatemalan peace process. Dude, the UN totally rocked the negotiations. Human rights mission before there's even a formal ceasefire? Risky but so brilliant. And thank God for Norway. Seriously, what would world peace do without Norway? I shudder to think of it.

I'm such a peace nerd.

Dynamite

It's been a whopper of a week. Think of those huge groupers with the massive bodies and really ugly faces- that's been this week. Well, actually, not at all. Bad analogy. While this week was at times quite ugly, I think I learned a lot too.

I don't really want to go into details, but I guess I have to say something about what's going on after Joey said, "With everything that's happened, you post about makeup?" It's hard to know how to write about the not-so-happy times, because while I know my friends and family back home want to hear about the events of my life, good and bad, I also don't want to whine or worry everyone.

Just get it out, already. This week our (as in mine and Joey's) two year anniversary almost didn't happen. TWICE. You would think that after two years together we would see such landmines coming, or even prevent their existence, but I guess (relatively speaking) we're still new to this. Two years isn't that long in the grand scheme of things. It takes a lot to shake us- in fact, I don't think we've ever come so close to calling it quits, not even in the midst of figuring out how to manage a relationship in college during freshman year. Suddenly a cornerstone of your relationship can be wiped away with one blast of dynamite and then you find yourself back at square one. It doesn't have to mean that it's the end- but lots of work is in store if you keep going. We decided to keep going, and we'll rebuild. Right now we're just relieved that despite everything, we're still together. I adore this boy and he's pretty smitten with me, so I'm pretty sure you haven't seen the last of us yet.

At least my parents got their money's worth

Triple overtime = extra hour or so of gametime. Most cost-effective game all year :-)

I can't help but be happy for Navy. I can vaguely imagine the ecstasy of joy they must be in right now, and if we had to lose like that, I'm glad it was to a team and school I respect and admire. Way to go guys.

The worst part of the game was the booing by the student section (and probably other parts of the stadium too) of Coach Weis after the game. For at least this season, he's our coach, and I support him as much as I support the team. What do I know about football to argue his play calls? There are many legitimate criticisms to be made, I'm sure, but as a member of the student body, not a sports analyst, I refuse to boo anyone on my team. Whether or not he should be replaced is not my call to make, and I don't feel any better about our season by laying all the blame on him and casting him out for not doing a better job. I stand by my team, coaching staff included, and let the people who know best make the decisions. I don't think they care what my expert opinion is anyway.

A Day for Celebrating

My family is here. I just drank sparkling grape juice champagne with my boyfriend to celebrate our two year anniversary today. Life is good, and I am very tired.

Makeup Complaints Issues

(Possibly the most shallow post of my life lies ahead. Just a warning)

Makeup and I are not friends, and never have been. This is bad, because I have a theory that Notre Dame girls were taught from age 5 how to apply eyeliner. Maybe it's a legacy thing. Even girls who come to class in PJs or sweats make time for their morning makeup ritual. Now me, on the other hand- I consistently find myself in a cycle of experiment-- daily application-- disillusionment--- disgust. No matter how hard I try to break the cycle, I just can't seem to discover how to successfully integrate makeup into my life.

To start off with, I have a lot working against me. Pale skin + shadowed, recessed eyes = my eye makeup easily looks gothic. I wear mostly brown, not black mascara and eyeliner, but even the thinnest of eyeliner lines and the sparest of mascara coats cause problems. Also, I have so many lines under my eyes (it's a genetic thing- my mom gave me my eye shape) that inevitably eyeliner and mascara dust settles in the creases under my eyes, leaving me looking haggard and exhausted by an hour after application. When wearing eye makeup, I have to remember to frequently check these under-eye creases for makeup debris and wipe it off, although that also wipes off my concealer which must be reapplied, etc etc. I keep trying, though, because I love how most redheads make their eyes look gorgeous against their pretty pale faces.

Another major issue is patience. I am much more dedicated to sleep than looks. I will not sacrifice fifteen minutes of sleep for a morning cleansing face scrub/ multilayer makeup application. My makeup routine, when it exists, is quick eye makeup and tinted lip balm. I don't own foundation (why wear makeup that matches the color of your skin?) and my facial cleansers sit dusty and unused, even the one with "morning burst beads" that claim to wake you up as you lather. Essentially, my dedication level is low.

Final major complaint: I feel so much more tired when I wear eye makeup, because I can't rub my eyes. My eyes get all dry and all I want to do is close them for a long time. I rub my makeup off pretty quickly because staying awake in class trumps looks.

I've read online makeup guides. I've had my makeup done professionally (once... years ago), and I've watched friends who know what they're doing. I have a bulging makeup bag. And still, I find myself at war with makeup. It's a love-hate relationship, because it knows that I need it to look "nice" by social standards, and professors, etc appreciate it when you look nice. And of course I'd like to be able to handle makeup well. But I think that until I commit to making time for a makeup routine in the morning, it's not going to work. Maybe all of that cleansing and foundation and crap is necessary. And let's face it, I'm not THAT motivated. Sleep is so much more important. I will continue to be the frumpy-looking hoodie, jeans, and clogs girl, but I will have fifteen more minutes of sleep. I win.

Next time: my relationship with my hair, and why I am not just the makeupless girl, but also the pony-tail-sporting-non-long-silky-hair girl.
Just kidding. I won't put you through the torture of a post like this again for a while. :-)

New goal for November:
One (hopefully well-thought out) blog post a day.

This is part of my ongoing flip out less, love life more campaign. Shazaam.

In other news: my family is driving up to spend a whole weekend with me. *happily shifts weight from foot to foot while smiling extra big*

Also: a baby sheep is a sheepling. Awwww.

Lots of colons were harmed in the making of this blog entry. Not organs, punctuation marks.

Furthermore

I just figured out what classes I still need to take to graduate with a double major in political science and peace studies and a minor in Catholic social tradition. Guess what- out of the 25 class slots I have left (5 semesters at 5 classes/semester), only 17 or 18 have to be filled by requirements, depending on if I take another summer service class like I did last summer. I could go abroad for a semester and not take anything in any of my fields of study, and still have two free classes to spare. HUGE happy face. I love AP credit- I bypassed all those pesky university requirements that way.

Fall Break

The university (wisely) allows its students a week off after midterms week. I think that they didn't do this in the past, and there were mass suicides from stress, so they figured a week off is necessary for students to regroup (read: sleep). I couldn't agree more. I elected to stay on campus for fall break instead of traveling home, which has turned out to be one of my more brilliant ideas. Let me count the ways:

• I share the campus with perhaps twelve other students. I seriously doubt that there is another living soul in my dorm right now.
• Food for the week cost $15. Much cheaper than plane tickets. Just so no one worries about me starving to death, campus eateries (but not dining halls) are still open for limited hours every day.
• I didn't set an alarm clock last night. That hasn't happened in at least a year. Do you have any idea how beautiful it is to wake up when your body wants to, instead of your schedule?
  
• In my day off today, I watched lots of TV online (how have I missed out on how awesome Heroes is?) and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I got a little bit of work done, but I decided to spend most of my time chilling out.
• The rest of the week I intend to Get Things Done, such as summer program apps, study abroad apps, a couple of papers, research, and a couple books.
• Joey called tonight from D.C., where he's traveling with a class on Religion and Politics. He had gotten up early and spent most of his day at the Holocaust Museum, and as we talked he was rushing to the Jefferson Memorial. I perhaps envied him the company of like-minded friends, but definitely not the schedule. Hanging out in my room all day in PJs was exactly what the doctor ordered. I rush around all day in ordinary life; break life should be relaxed.
• When my family called last night, I didn't have to cut the conversation short because of some paper deadline or event. I can't remember the last time that's happened either.

I say all of this realizing that this time next semester, spring break, I will be in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic with a class on the Holocaust, keeping even crazier hours than I do during school. I won't have a break next semester (but I will have one heck of a trip). Thusly, I'm living it up while I have the chance. Yes, I said thusly.

Mind Fog

Story of my morning:
Skip class A to finish insane paper for class B. Finish paper, travel to classroom building to print said paper. Arrive at class B 15 minutes early; wait in hallway for previous class to let out. Girl from class B rushes past into theoretically occupied classroom. Realize that class B starts at 11, not 11:30, making me 15 minutes late instead of 15 minutes early.

Moral of the story:
My paper's done. Midterms week is over. Normal life can resume.

Peace & Quiet