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I'm sitting in one of the windowsills in Hagerty. I always see people doing that when I walked by, and now I finally had the time to try it. I feel weird and indie, and I forgot my earbuds at home. And I definitely need them, because I shall not dare playing the song that's currently stuck in my head out loud.
The listening part on the German test I just took was ridiculous. It was so fast and completely incomprehensible. I actually had to fight laughter in the midst of a completely silent and serious classroom. It was so ridiculous. Ridiculous. I can't think of any other word to describe it. Anyway, I ended up guessing on most of the listening questions. I kind of had to. But the rest of the test went ok, so I feel safe.
It was really hot at Oxley's today. Which was surprising since it's kind of chilly outside. I was sweating the whole time I worked. I made the chicken salad today, so if you eat some, you just injested my work.
I was really excited to pick up a copy of The Lantern today because I was hoping my article would be in it. It wasn't. I wasn't given an exact date of publication beyond "sometime this week." My story probably feels sad and alone sitting somewhere in a lonely folder called "Banked Stories." I feel bad for it.
This quarter is stressful. Let me catch you up on what's going on with me:
I got the opportunity to interview the vice president and president of Wendy's in the past few days. I still have both their cell phone numbers on my phone. Crazy, right? Well, the vice president of Wendy's—Denny Lynch—is an OSU alumnus and he was chosen as our School of Communication's 2008 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year. (I hope I never have to type that phrase again. I'm going insane.)
So one of my professors asked if I'd like to write the story for the alumni newsletter. Sure, why not. But things got even crazier when The Lantern got involved. The Lantern always makes things more intense. But I've been guaranteed by many people that it's experience that I will look back on fondly, so I took it. And now I'm struggling through sleep deprivation to get this article done by tomorrow's deadline on top of work I have for class. Ugh.
I can't really process thoughts right now, and this is the only thing I'm really about to think about, so I don't think I can write more right now. But hang on a day or two until things cool down and I'll write more. Unless I die. Kidding. I hope.
All I did over break was go the dentist. Really, my spring break was horribly anticlimactic. At least I didn't have any cavities.
I hated both my classes today. Ok, maybe "hate" is a bit strong, but I really wanted to just leave. I had German 104 first, and I generally like German so I was looking forward to it. No complaints about my professor, but the class is all about German culture and oh-too difficult vocabulary. I did discover that I have a latent talent for Swiss geography, however. German geography? Not so much.
My next class was in the same building, Hagerty, which also happens to be the most difficult building on campus to navigate. Seriously, the place is a labyrinth. I have yet to figure out how the ordering of the room numbers was logical in any way, but I was able to find both my classes (after two passes through the building). The cool thing about Hagerty is it has its own café inside, so I can grab coffee or whatever before my comparative studies H367 class.
The professor is kind of fascinating to listen to. He speaks with a British accent and says things with such deliberance. It's kind of refreshing. But he also talks way too much. It took an hour to go over the syllabus. Thank God I had my BlackBerry that I'm so devotedly addicted to. Anyway, the class is a writing class which I thought was going to be about technology in America. Instead, it looks like the theme of the course is "what is life?" I'm not sure how I feel about that yet.
I was also looking forward to going back to work at Oxley's this quarter. Unfortunately my first shift of the week is a closing shift, and I hate closing. It's a horrible punishment that I do not get paid enough for, but the good days outweigh the bad days for sure. I was so relieved to get out of there around quarter till 8, though, because I really had to get back and do laundry.
And that's where the story ends. Oh, and I also got (re)addicted to Pokemon a few days ago so it's also been consuming my thought process and actions throughout the day. I decided to spare you the details, but let's just say a lot of words in my German class reminded me of Pokemon names.
It's been about a month since I last posted, and I can explain: I'm lazy.
You see, the thing with college is that it becomes a routine. Every week is the same. I guess you could say the same for anything else in life, but I've really never felt more bounded by the calendar than I do now.
Tuesdays are the worst. Work in the morning, class, nap, meetings, sleep. Notice how homework is missing. Homework hasn't been part of my routine for about as long as I haven't posted, and with the end of the quarter coming up next week, I'm getting more terrified of starting it.
I got a piercing last week! How's that for breaking the routine? It wasn't a completely impulsive decision. I had actually been entertaining the idea for a few weeks, and I finally built up the courage/motivation/proximity to a piercing salon to get it done. It happened Tuesday; I went to Fat Lip on 8th and High and get a helix piercing—a hoop, to be more precise.
I was really happy with it; my mom hoped I was kidding when I told her. Apparently no one will want to hire me now. Maybe she's right, but I'm not totally sure I'd want to work someplace where one innocuous piercing is the deal-breaker.
Anyway, all was good until yesterday. The swelling and redness began. And I'm pretty sure it was radiating heat. I decided it was just part of the healing process. And then I woke up today and it still hurt and it was considerably more swollen and red. I was sure infection had set in. All of the sudden all the stories I've heard about people losing half their ears came rushing at me. *Eek* I had to open today at Oxley's, so I left for work early and decided that I'd go to the piercer as soon as I got off to get it checked out.
So I did.
This time I went to Evolved on High. So much better. The employees seemed much more knowledgeable, the place was clean and they offered me advice that Fat Lip didn't. Apparently it's bad to get pierced with a hoop—I guess it interferes with the healing process. They offered to pierce it with a barbell instead—for a cost. Sure, why not. So I paid the $25 and waited for the equipment to be sterilized.
Ten minutes went by and I was led back to the piercing room where I lay down on the table. I was kind of terrified. I hate needles and I figured it'd hurt even worse this time because of how irritated my ear already was. The piercer was talking to me as he did his job. But I couldn't even listen to whatever he was saying because it was kind of painful. But it lasted a minute—maybe less. He gave me cleaning advice and I left.
This one better heal better than the hoop did. But I'm pretty sure my ear hates me for putting it through all this in only one short week. My ear liked my old routine better.
In other news, the new "sync" Vitamin Water is really good. We got it at Oxley's a few days ago and it's now easily my favorite.
Speaking of Oxley's, here's my plug for working in campus dining: Do it. It's minimum wage, sure, and it can get a little rough at times, but it really is a lot of fun. For the Thursday opening shift at Oxley's, my friend Alecia and I collaborated on a playlist with pretty sweet music that makes everyone a little happier to be making parfaits and bagel sandwiches at 7 in the morning. And I also added some excitement to the start of the lunch shift: We places guesses on which sandwich will be the first ordered at the start of lunch, 10:30. For the past few days it's been the Southwest Chicken sandwich. But I'm sticking with our Stacked Grilled Cheese until it wins. Somebody, please, be the first in line for lunch and order a grilled cheese. I would very much appreciate it. Thank you.
My roommate and I found a place to live next year! It's way on north campus, but it's a really nice place and it's cheaper than Harrison, where I live now.
I bleached my hair blond today. My friend Jenna and I were both bored and just rode the COTA #2 back from Mongolian Barbecue in the Arena District. So good. You need to eat 400 of the apple cobbler dessert things. They're so good. But anyway, we stopped at CVS on the way back randomly and decided to dye our hair. She picked caramel highlights. I chose the only box with a guy on it...which happened to be bleaching solution. I've never dyed my hair before, so it was kind of fun. Jenna made me go back to CVS right after so we could get her natural color and dye it back. I decided to stick with mine, even though it looks pretty awful. It's something new.
Econ 515 is the easiest class ever. Everything's online, and I just looked at the review sheet for the midterm next week and it looks like cake. My greek mythology midterm on the other hand...well that probably didn't go so well. Ugh. Why did I have to remind myself of that.
My font poem for my comm 311 class is effin' sweet. I chose the final words from House of Leaves and used only Helvetica, the sweetest typeface ever.
What miracle is this? This giant tree.
It stands ten thousand feet high
But doesn't reach the ground. Still it stands.
Its roots must hold the sky.
It's really sunny outside. The only reason I'm blogging right now is because there's a huge glare on the TV and I can't watch Kathy Griffin. Also, I'm far too lazy to close the blinds.
Today is the first day of classes. I haven't slept yet. That's probably a good thing because my sleeping patterns need a serious reset. I'm hoping forcing them to emulate a real day is the best way. But I'm no expert. I need caffeine.
I just added another class a few hours ago—German. I'm actually really excited for it. This makes five classes this quarter: German 103.01, Classics H222, Comm 240, Comm 311 and Econ 515. And all this on top of working 19-hour weeks at Oxley's. I decided it's probably best to start cramming if I want to graduate on time with a business-communication double major.
I had a really good break. After the whole Thanksgiving home-hating thing, I thought I'd never want to come back. But I was home for over two weeks and I kind of wish I could have stayed longer. I miss having a car. The only downside of this break was that I was unable to find a pair of jeans I liked. Let me rephrase: I was unable to find a pair of jeans I liked enough to justify their price. I'm sorry, but $135 is a lot, even if those jeans were freaking sweet. So this all means that I only have one pair of jeans that I like. They are kind of falling apart, too. But not as badly as my shoes...that I've had for over two years. I really need new things in my life, but first I have to stop being so picky.
It's been a while since I've written. I've been generally neglectful lately. I'm still afraid of my inbox. Every email equals another thing I have to do. But I made a promise to myself that I'll have it all cleared out before I go back to school. Keep posted.
Nothing much has changed with me. I still have no idea who I am or what I want to be. That goes double for my major. I keep jumping all over the place—and it's getting kind of late to be doing that. I'm going into the second quarter of my sophomore year and I'm still a communication major. I seriously don't think I'm going to get a job. I feel like OSU just threw the communication major together for people who don't have any real life goals so they could make money off teaching people nothing and give them a degree for it.
I've taken enough communication classes by now to know that it's a joke. All we really do is watch commercials.
In comm 200 we learn about completely ridiculous communication theories that are nothing more than someone's attempt to earn a PhD. The theories try to make a science out of something that can't be broken down into formulas. I did learn some cool words though—hedonic valence, anyone?—but I left class every day a very bitter person. I'm pretty sure even the professor knew how impractical the material was. I got a B+.
And my "creative message writing" class. I didn't miss a single point the whole quarter except on the open book final. That's right—open book. All the questions on the test were taken verbatim from the book. I just didn't want to waste my time looking for answers when it wasn't going to affect my grade anyway. I got an A.
In my advertising class, we really did only watch commercials. We had this massive course book too that we were supposed to read articles from, but I didn't. I learned nothing useful, except that Apple's 1984 commercial is supposedly the best commercial ever. I didn't study for the midterm and got the highest score in the class. I laughed at that one. I must have bombed the final though because I ended up with an A- in the class.
And let's not forget the basic strategic communication class. It focused almost entirely on advertising. I don't care much for advertising, and I really don't think it should have been the focus of the class. I got an A.
It's 8 a.m. and I haven't slept yet. And now I'm getting mad again about my non-A grades. Gr.
I've been putting off all my work for Fisher Ink. I'm the editor-in-chief, so I really should be putting together the content. But, honestly, I haven't done anything. I've been very unreliable these past few weeks. It's going to need to stop. I decided I'm going to learn web design/development. Let's make that my New Year's resolution—along with cleaning out my inbox.
Well, I pulled that all-nighter. And now I'm feeling the effects. I just got off a six-hour shift at work that killed my soul. Especially near the end when we got super busy and there was this really rude chick.
I'm the kind of tired where I want to walk barefoot on carpet and try to burrow my toes in the fibers because it feels really really good. I'm the kind of tired where my joints are like cushions because they've been overworked without rest and they can't stand up to the pressure anymore. I just want to sink into the background of wherever I am and sleep.
I brought a cheap cappuccino into my comm 200 class. Even though the sign on the door says "no food or drinks in this room." Plus I have horrible luck with drinks in this room. The last time I brought a drink—a vanilla Coke—to this class, I ended up having it explode all over myself. It was awkward and it soaked through. I had to leave, and I missed the pop quiz.
I'm going home today. I packed five outfits before I came to this class. I thought it'd be difficult to pick them out because I'm way too into the clothes I wear to make any sort of progress with packing. But I did it. I overdid it, but I still did it. I can't wait to wear them all.
Don't let me forget my cologne and extra contacts and my comm 200 book. I feel like I'm going to forget. I sent myself a text message to remind myself, but I don't think I'm likely to go back through my text inbox before I leave. I wish I had Post-it notes.
We're learning about the "Cultural Indications Approach" today in comm 200. It has something to do with media, and that's about all I can tell from the first slide of the PowerPoint. I hate this class. All these theories are useless and impractical and the people in this class need to not ask stupid questions or try to apply these theories to their lives or share stories that have nothing to do with anything. This class makes me bitter. Almost as bitter as I get when people get on the elevator on floor three. Or two. God help them if they get on at floor two.
I'm having a serious fear that the lid of my cheap cappuccino is going to fall off when I'm trying to sip it and it's going to spill all over me and I'm going to yelp or something and I'm going to have to leave. Plus this is a brand new shirt. Maybe I'll just not try to drink it. Or maybe I'll take the lid off.
I decided to just hold the lid tightly when I drink it. Sure, it looks a bit strange to the people around me, but I'm tired and I love how I don't care right now.
"Commercial TV carries a common underlying message despite variations in genre." That's what's on the slide right now. And under it, it says that "owners want to make money" and that the "way to make $ is to appeal to mass audience." I don't know what any of that means, but I'm pretty sure I know exactly what it means. But only in a way that actually makes sense. Now he's telling us that we need to choose the least expensive content because that's how we maximize profit. What's even worse is that people are frantically writing all this down. Ugh.
I really should be going over my comm 634 assignment. I need to turn it in after this class, and I'm still afraid to look at it. I know it's bad—not terrible, but still bad. I need to proof it, but I can't bear to open up the Word document. I just know I'm going to want to change everything and I don't have the time. Or the energy. Or the mood, thanks to comm 200.
This is my first official all-nighter of this school year. I can't believe it's been almost a full quarter and this is only my first attempt at it. What I do is stock up on Rockstars, start out the evening watching Gilmore Girls with a friend, and then procrastinate and drink Rockstar and procrastinate until I have no choice but to do my homework at 2 in the morning. Completely wired.
It's 4 a.m. now and I think I'm done. I'm not really done though. I'm never really done with this kind of assignment. I have to write a newsletter article and write copy for a brochure for an imaginary company sponsoring an imaginary 5K. It's for my creative message writing class, which is definitely my favorite (and most useful) class.
I haven't missed a point in the class yet. But this assignment is worth a lot of points, and here I am struggling through it with half my mind, half my sanity and synthetic energy—courtesy of Rockstar. (If you haven't noticed, I stopped using Oxford commas. You probably didn't, but just in case, I did it because AP style is now my thing.)
I'm trying to find a song that kind of conveys how I'm feeling right now…and I think I just found it: Time to Pretend, MGMT.
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