*deep breath*
I moved to Wordpress.
I know, I know! I've been on blogger forever. It interfaces so nicely with all my google stuff.
But... wordpress is just so much better. Plus it is SO easy to transition- I carried all my posts, comments, and widgets with me. Go check out my new home.

http://bronzedshoe.wordpress.com/

Dear Team

Irish:
Here's the deal. You have broken my heart far too many times this season.
In the words of Vivian of Pretty Woman,
Don't do it again.
Go Irish, beat Navy.

xoxo, Laura

P.S. In case we lose, I might be renting Pretty Woman for some quality escape-from-agony time. Darn good movie.
Old Lady at Opera: Did you like the opera, dear?
Vivian: It was so good, I almost peed my pants!
Edward: She said she liked it better than Pirates of Penzance.

Blasphemy

I need to get this out there.

I am SO OVER this election.

But Laura! You are a polisci student! You are in college and should be in the prime of your activist years! Where is your passion??

This is what killed it for me:

1. More than anything, I hate the negativity. Could somebody (for once) do a commercial where they just talk about what they're going to do for the good of America, and NOT what the other guy can't/won't/doesn't do?? Please? That would be great. I don't want to vote for ANYBODY now because you're all so freaking horrible to each other. I look for other qualities in a president than Expert Insult Thrower.
   
2. We have been campaigning for what, a year? More than that? I don't know, but it's been way too freaking long. Seriously. Enough already.
3. Sarah Palin. WTF. McCain might make a great president- what do I know- but he had better not effing die.
   
4. The total lack of vocabulary in either campaign. I want to rip my hair out whenever I hear the m-word.
   

I cannot wait to vote early when I'm home next week, get it over with, and stop up my ears until this time next month.

A rant

Friends, today is a sad day under the Dome. Today I witnessed an unparalleled feat of incompetence.

Everything was merry and bright as I strolled over to the laundry room in my dorm. Disaster. Bags of laundry everywhere, socks on most surfaces, distressed chicks by the bucketful. I waited patiently for my turn at a washer, put in one load instead of the two I had been hoping for, and returned to my room until it was time to put my laundry into the dryer. The laundry room had, if possible, deteriorated even further. Girls were in tears. I kid you not. Soon, it became apparent that my soaked laundry would need to sit for half an hour before a dryer would be available. ARGH! I screamed in my head, but outside I smiled nicely. These things happen when living in such a big community. Sometimes all of us decide to do our laundry at the same time.

But I was so wrong, friends. This incident was not explainable by laundry fever taking the dorm by storm. No, the reason the laundry room was in chaos was one girl. One. Who, by the looks of it, had not done laundry in a whole semester. Friends, we have six washers and eight dryers. Her stuff was in at least half of them. This is bad enough and worthy of a glare, because when you live in community you ought to respect the needs of others. But was the girl to be found to glare at? NO! She never graced us with her presence. It was her MOTHER, presumably up for Parents' Football Weekend, doing all of her laundry. Hauling bag after bag around and standing patiently by the dryers waiting for them to finish. I waited my half hour for my dryer, put my stuff in, and departed as the poor mother was putting another load in my recently vacated washer. For shame, anonymous dorm mate. For shame.

Photoblogging the ND bookstore

These uber wide-brimmed hats with the ND monogram make me laugh. For the ND fan who also finds himself trekking through the jungle.

We start 'em young. That helmet will fit him someday.

Cake-topper? That would be so flipping sweet...

This one made me laugh the most, because whenever Notre Dame gets excited about something, merchandise is sure to follow. Coming off the Forum on Energy and Sustainability, then, I guess this was inevitable...

Oh Notre Dame.

Hephelumps

A remarkable elephantine solution for the problem of a runny nosey
while trying to sleep.

Owie

Pretty impressive how much I photoblog now that I can do it instantly.
Anyway, behold, my first bee sting. Wasp, actually. There was a fun
moment when I was unsure whether I was dying from allergic reaction.
The good news is I'm not allergic! The bad news is this hurts. Like.
Hell.

update

• Joey wins the Sweetheart award today. See, we made sweet tea yesterday, but since the pitcher resides in his fridge, he ends up drinking much more of it than I get to. To remedy this, he brought me a cup of tea all the way from his dorm to the student center (probably about a mile apart), in the dark, despite the danger of malevolent sprinkler systems AND the fact he was running late for work. What a cutie. This is why my parents pay him the big bucks to stick around.
• Also, Joey got me a pretty rockin card today. Parentals, remember the awkward dinner conversation when a certain godmother proposed we add "in bed" to the ends of our fortune cookie fortunes? Yeah, the card's about that game. Apparently this is more widespread than we thought.
  
• The classic Dillon pep rally has been CANCELED. They always do their dorm pep rally/ stand up comedy routine the night before the first home game. It's a major tradition. Maybe the admins thought it was getting too rowdy. Dillon's the biggest dorm on campus, though, so they better be prepared for armed insurrection.
• I'm working 10 hours a week sorting and delivering mail. The mail delivery today was hugemongous, to use a Lindaism.
  
• I dropped my first class EVER today. I just had too much on my plate and what's the point of running around like a crazy person just because I can? Of course, it will probably be replaced with another in short order.
  
• Today was the biannual meal with academic adviser/ stroking of Laura's ego session. Never a bad thing. Hopefully he's not just getting my hopes up.
• The medical mission trip I'm helping to organize (but no longer going on) is now going to Ecuador. This is our third change of national venue, for those of you keeping track at home.
• Boo visa forms.
• Hooray cotton skirts on 90 degree days!
• Also: go to http://www.zooatlanta.org/videos/pandabirth083008.htm and watch the Atlanta panda mommy give birth to the new cub. It's not gross or anything- it's actually really funny. Moan- moan- puzzled look at abdomen- baby! Mom thinks it must have been the sugar cane.