Are we there yet?

4.5 more classes, and then my college career is OVER!

ASU lost on Saturday, which was pretty depressing. I was really hoping to go for four. At least my toes will stay attached next weekend, but still. After ending the season at the championship game for the past three years, it was quite unpoetic to finish my marching band career with such a pathetic loss. Eh. So it goes. I was trying very hard not to care after the fourth interception.

My new fervent hope--please, please, not JMU...anyone but JMU...I just couldn't handle it.

On a completely different note...there was a span of time last week where I was completely bummed. It was a combination of weather and crap going on and everything else. I wasn't sure exactly why I was getting so down, so much more than I have this semester (especially since I've started dating Derek.) I took an afternoon to just relax and hang around Derek, and try to piece my brain back together. I finally figured out what it was that was getting me so down.

I started taking everything too seriously again, all this shit in university that doesn't matter. I forgot how absurd it all is, the hoops we have the jump through and the games we have to play to get the accreditation we need to have an affect on the world in the way we hope. Everything became so important again, the rubbish papers and the endless memorization.

As soon as we stop laughing at the ridiculous it holds power over us. When we don't recognize the insane we begin to think it holds credence. We have to always hold in our hearts what really matters--who we are, the people we love, centering on God, finding ourselves in the mess we have to wrap up in to get through this world. You have follow the rules of this world and keep it from touching you, play their games and don't let it in your soul.

So laugh at some authority figure, even while you're writing a paper. Celebrate that you see how inane the busywork is. This is your life, your soul. They can make you stay up all night studying. They can force you to piece together stuff you'll never use again.

But as long as you're laughing, they can't touch your heart.

Can't type. Fingers frozen.

I have been a bit slack on the blogging front, as my mother has noticed. (To which I say, "Do you comment?" "No..." "Then how the hell do I know anyone reads it?" "Um...")

Life is wonderful except when it's not. Snow is OK except when it isn't, like football games and marching band rehearsals. I am mostly over my devastating case of ANTHRAX, which basically kept me out of commission for a month. Sometimes I don't suck at trumpet.

However, I do have one question, administrators: exactly what that is covered in an hour or two class at university is more important than the safety and health of your students? Where do you draw the line between, "We keep school going when it snows!" and "The AppalCart can't get out of Mountaineer Village without sliding down the hill?"

Because seriously. This effing sucks and you don't give a damn about your students.

/end rant.

College Kid's Guide to Dirty Dishes, part deux

1. Say, "There is NO WAY I'm letting it get that bad again."

2. Clean dishes right when they get dirty.

3. Live in this delusion for approximately eight days.

4. Repeat previous entry.

Not exactly the plan, but OK...

Here's the pre-recital scene:

Somehow, because God likes to pick on Amanda when she's freaking out, the water main on River Street burst Sunday morning. There's no water in the music building at three. OK. No problem. I just hope no one who comes to my recital has to pee.

Three thirty.

We're all in our places with bright shining faces. Cheesecake has been brought in. Tracy and I are dressed, warmed up, and ready to go. I'm sounding really good. Parentals are all present and accounted for. The first wave of friends have begun to arrive. I'm standing in the hallway near the recital hall, chatting with Blake, Derek, and various company. All there is to do is wait for four PM to arrive.

BLAAAAAARRRRRREEEE.

The door I'm leaning against begins to close on me. Strobe lights are flashing.

Me: What the FUCK?

Yes. Twenty minutes before my recital, the freakin' FIRE ALARM GOES OFF.

We spend a solid three minutes not going outside, all kind of glancing at each other with stupid looks on our faces. Finally we all meander outside, standing just outside the doors, all forgetting our Elementary School Fire Drill Safety. (Fifty feet from the building, everyone!)

After awhile, we hear the sounds of the Fire Brigade coming to rescue us from the flaming (and when I say flaming I mean, "completely not on fire at ALL") music building. So they wander around in there for a few minutes, basically scratching their butts and mumbling into walkie-talkies. Finally one of them steps outside and says, "Does anyone know where room 119 A is?"

So here's the problem with having a boyfriend who is in the employ of the music building and is not an asshole. He says "Of course I do! Here, let me continue to freak out Amanda and go inside to find it for you!"

I would like to take this opportunity to summarize: It is now ten minutes before my recital is supposed to happen. It's freezing cold outside and my lips are slowly but surely drying out. The music building might be on fire, which would put our awesome cheesecake buffet in serious danger. To top that off, my boyfriend is going into the music building TOWARDS THE FIRE.

All in all, not one of Amanda's more calm, cool and collected moments.

Well, in the end, the water had cut back on, which for some reason made the music building shit itself and set off the fire alarm. So we went back inside and the recital went as planned.

But more importantly, the cheesecake was safe.

College Kid's Guide to Dirty Dishes

1. Walk in. Smell. Say, "I have to do the dishes TODAY."

2. Watch a movie.

3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for a week.

4. "OK, seriously, I have to do the dishes."

5. Have a beer.

6. Call Derek/S.O. of choice.

7. Watch House.

8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 at least 4 times, replacing "Derek" with "Mom," "Dad," "John," "Connie," or "Shirley."

9. "OK. No more procrastinating."

10. One more beer.

11. Empty the sink, moving all dirty dishes to the side.

12. Clean the mold out of the bottom of the sink.

13. Using the Sponge of Questionable Nobility, use cold water and destroy all ecosystems out of the first sinkful.

14. Once the chunks have washed away, use scalding hot water, the Most Honorable Sponge, and liberal amounts of Dawn to clean each plate, fork and spoon individually.

15. Repeat steps 13 & 14 until the hot water runs out.

As this was all happening, I kept thinking, "There has GOT to be an easier way to do this."

Oh, wait. Maybe...DO IT AS IT HAPPENS LIKE SHIRLEY HAS TOLD ME SINCE I WAS FOURTEEN.

Sigh...

I fail at this game.

Amanda's Brain: It was cold yesterday! I will prepare for today.

Amanda's Wardrobe: Sweater, Courderoy Jacket

Amanda's Marching Band Tempurature: 78 degrees.

FAIL.

In other news, I have been insanely busy of late. But I passed my recital jury, and didn't completely suck at the Wind Ensemble concert, so that's all going well.

Life is pretty fantastic right now, even if my internet time is currently "Check CNN...check BBC...go to class." So that kinda sucks, but the Parkway is amazing on clear early-autumn nights.

"You don't have to stretch before you do shit-ups!"

Wonderful accidental quotes from Amanda.

I'm trying to think of things amusing to write, but I'm severely sleep deprived and there's a Connie leaning on me. Which is awesome, but her left knee does somewhat impede typing.

Wow, I need to go to bed.

BUT, if you ever have burning questions about Literacy, and want to see John and Connie be famous, here's a happy video for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeR4yvnfOFA