Off for a month!

It was a tough semester but it's over! As of 8:00 this morning when I walked out of Phillips Hall after completing my Social Science final, I am free for a month. No homework, papers or exams for a month. I can read whatever I want! It's all very exciting! I did enjoy the classes I took this semester, excluding Social Science. One of the classes was about book production in the Middle Ages. It was just fascinating on how books used to be made all by hand. It was a slow process but the quality is beyond anything we have now a days. They were made on parchment which is basically indestructible, as long as it isn't attacked by bookworms or is in a fire. This class inspired me to take a book making class in the spring. I'm totally stoked about that because it's the first art class I've taken since high school!

Now that school is out of the way, I can look forward to the holidays. I have my shopping done and I just have to wrap a few more presents and send out cards. To be honest, I liked the holidays a lot more before I worked in retail but I've decided that no matter how rude or obnoxious the customers are the last couple of days leading up to Christmas, I'm not going to let it dampen my spirit. Earlier this week Kat and I went to the store and bought big lighted stars. We were going to hang them on our porch but then we discovered that we didn't have an outlet outside so Kat hang them up in our kitchen window so they can be seen outside. We also bought fake snow and stencils. We could never do that at home because we had cats. And we also have my scooby Christmas lights, that my mom bought me last year, in the living room and the wreath on the door. We are officially decorated for the Holidays!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Yeah to be Legal!

So, this weekend I turned 21 this weekend. I decided to celebrate this momentous occasion in LA. My best friend Lisa goes to school in the area so I stayed with her. She and her friends took me to this great bar on Sunset Blvd. called the Saddle Ranch. Maybe I over did it a bit but Hey! It was my 21! I think I can be forgiven this one time. In a way I really don't feel that different. The only difference between this week and last that now I can legally buy myself an alcoholic drink if I want too. Personally, I think it's a ridiculous law. According to the Government at 18 I am old enough to have a say in how our Government is run, serve in it's army and buy a pack of cigarettes (which last time I checked was also hazardous to one's health) but you are not old enough to buy a beer? I don't see the logic. It does not stop anyone from drinking and if anything it makes it almost the more attractive to drink because it's "forbidden". Oh well, that is all in the past now because I'm legal!

Back to the real world. I came home to 32 degree weather and right now we are in the middle of a "winter snow" It rained for most of the day and is snowing at the moment. The last report says we are going to get an inch but I've heard any where from an inch to 4-5. That isn't that bad but I'm a little concerned about the ice that might form. Ice is a bitch! You can't drive or walk on it and since it's the last week of classes I really can't afford to stay home because the bus isn't running. This is just another joy of having seasons, I guess.

Monday Night Football!

I'm not the biggest football fan. Why is it called football anyway? The only time that one's foot actually comes in contact with the ball is at kick-off, extra points, punts and field goals. For everything else, the foot has nothing really to do with the ball. Now, calling soccer football make sense and the rest of the world seems to understand but hey! I guess we have to be different. Ok, mini-rant over.

Despite the fact that I don't usually watch football, Kat and I have been meeting our two friends Andy and Nancy at a local sports bar to watch Monday Night Football. Of course we really don't watch too much of the game. We spend most of our time talking, mostly bitching about work or discussing current events or we are distracted by one of the smaller TV's that's showing that ESPN "reality show" of a bunch of models who fish or whatever. Anyway, so I really don't go to watch the game but I go to hang out with friends. I never thought that I would ever look forward to Monday Night Football but I really have. And I've actually enjoyed the little bit of the game that I actually saw and started to pay attention to what's going on in the sport. Football be my favorite sport but I think I finally understand it's appeal.

Fun in the Sun!

Why did I have to come home? It's cold!! This past weekend, my family and I was in beautiful Daytona, FL. It was sunny, warm and has an ocean! I could have done without all the nascar stuff. I know Daytona is the home of the biggest race of the year but it's a worthless sport. If I'm going to drive for 500 miles, I want to be almost to a coast and not in the same exact spot from where I started. That just sounds inefficient to me. But back to this weekend. My cousin Amanda looked absoutely gorgeous in her wedding dress. It was a beautiful ceremony, right next to the river under a tent. Even though there was like 150 people there, it was still was very intimate. If I ever get married, I think I will follow this example. Of course, I'm not getting married anytime soon, at this point I would settle for a date. Kat came to the realization that she and I are the oldest relatives in the family that are not married. Ok, that's not really true but after us the oldest kid is like 8, so really it's just us. Thank Goodness only a few people asked us when we were going to get married. We got the "When are moving down here?" more often. I like that question. And the answer. I soon as I graduate college I'll be on my way down. :D I can't wait to live some place warm and it's always nice to live near family. But since I still have at least another year to go before I get my BA, I have to deal with the cold winter weather. It's been a warm fall anyway, so I shouldn't complain to much about it but I'm cold!

Damn University!

Why do professors assign major papers due the same week? Or in the case of next week on the same day?! Are they are trying to stress out? Apparently. And why? I don't feel that I have been able to do my best work or devote the amount needed to do a good job on a paper when I have them due in such close proximity to each other. I guess, this is just another way to prepare us for the "real world" because isn't that what college is supposed to do? All I can say, is that I can't wait for this week to be over because that would mean, I have finished with my fifth paper and I'll be on a plane to Daytona Beach to go to my cousins wedding and then have a week off for Thanksgiving! Of course, then after Thanksgiving, I have left of school before finals but I rather not think about that now.

Tennis!

So, I'm a little bit of a tennis nerd. Ok, ok. I'm a big tennis nerd. I love to watch tennis. I find it fascinating! It's like a physical chess game. I suck at chess but I still think it's a good comparison. I've been working on a site for a tennis player Andy Roddick for over a year now. www.roddicknroll.com. It's absolutely wonderful sport that doesn't nearly get the respect it deserves but I digress. Anyway, the final tournament of the year is this week. The Masters Cup in Houston. The top eight players have one week to win over a million dollars. All-American Boy Roddick and the quiet Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero are battling it out for the title of the best player in the world! Now, the draw came out for the tournament and Andy got the better draw. He has Guillermo Coria of Argentina, Rainer Schuettler of Germany and Carlos Moya of Spain. JC has the Wimbledon Champ Roger Federer of Switzerland, Australian Open Andre Agassi of the US and Argentina's David Nalbandain. JC won the French. Now, all these conspiracy theorist are coming out of the woodwork saying the draw is a fix because Andy got the better draw. Is it too much to ask that people just leave it "the luck of the draw"? Do they have to make everything an American Conspiracy? I know our foreign policy doesn't make us the popular people in the world but can't we leave politics out of sports? I wish we could. As for the tennis, good draw or bad draw, ultimately the best man will win.

Watch the Masters Cup and see how exciting it really is!!

Random.

It's been raining all day. I guess I should be grateful that it isn't snowing because it is November 1 after all. The rain has been nice. It's been dry lately but it's just so gloomy outside. At least all the rain made it easy for us to stay in and relax.

We have new neighbors. Ok, they aren't that new, They moved in about two months ago but they have all ready worn out their welcome. They live their door open and have the TV loud to nascar. They leave their garbage on their porch. They have so many people going in and out of that apartment that I'm not even sure who lives there but I'm pretty sure that the pregnant woman lives there for sure. Random people knock on their door at random hours of the day. And on top of all of that, they have a cat! Our lease says we are not allowed to have pets but our building was bought by someone else about six months ago. So there are two scenarios here. 1) the new landlords are allowing new tenants to have pets or 2) these people are in breach of their lease by having a pet. Personally, I hope it's the former and not the latter because I really want a cat! I miss my cat Mittens!!

Halloween was Friday. I don't have any classes on Fridays because I usually work but I was able to get rid of my shift so I could have the day off. I'm glad I did because it was a fun filled day. It may not seem like much but Kat and I met our friend Anna for breakfast and then we all went to a second hand shop with our another friend Lisa. We went to see if we could find a Halloween costumes. Anna found a dress and she went as Lenore. A dead little girl from some graphic novel. Kat and I went home to have lunch with our parents and then went back home to see the Mittens. I miss that Cat! We hung out and watched a movie on TV. I didn't expect to stay for dinner but they ordered pizza. We watched as our dad handed our Halloween candy to the neighborhood kids. He got all dressed up in his karate outfit. What a nut that man is. *lol* We talked about going out to the bars for Halloween but decided it would be better if we rented scary movies and stayed in. We got Darkness Falls and 28 Days Later. Both did the trick. We were all quite freaked out. It was great Halloween! So Happy Belated Halloween!

Retail Sucks!

I have a part time job at bookstore at the local Mall. It's really not that bad of a job. It's not that hard, I like the people I work with and if it wasn't for the customers it would be a great! I firmly believe that everyone should work in retail once in their life. Then maybe people would be a little more understanding and not so rude and self-centered. One customer, today, got all upset because I told him that he had to go the end of the line because he came in the exit. It turned out that after he waited in line he just came back to my register. I joked with him, just to be friendly, that I sent him away just for him to come right back. His response was "I'm never coming back" What? Why? Because I didn't stop what I was doing right then and there. Tell the people that were able to read the signs and were waiting in line, that I can't wait on them until I check out this asshole that is just WAY to important to stand in line like the rest of them. And then he complained that we didn't have a music department. Well, sorry, the bookstore that I work for is not big enough to have a music department. There isn't anything I can do about that, except to stage a hostile take over of the PretzelMaker next door, they are just going to have buy what little music we have or go someplace else. There was also the usual stupid questions yesterday too. One women asked me where she would find the coffee. Silly me, I thought it would be pretty obvious that the Cafe is where the coffee would be at but I guess not. That was even the really stupid question of the day. Someone asked my friend Elizabeth how a bookmark worked? I am not kidding. It was a little stuff animal bookmark that has movable arms. I guess the customer that the arms had some exciting function but really it's just there for ascetic reasons. Of course what makes all of this worse is that it's only October 26. We haven't gotten to Halloween yet. It's going to 10 times worse by the time we get to Thanksgiving and don't even get me started on Crowds at Christmas! At least, I don't work in food service but then again I would get tips.

Hi, My name is Beth. I'm a history major at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now and finally had the courage to do it. I just hope that people don't find me to boring. *lol* I guess wanted to start something like this from a conversation I had with my sister Kat. She's into journaling and scrapbooking and I, not so much. I could never keep a diary going for more then two weeks when I was younger. It's kinda odd, when you think that I am a student of history and much of what I study is the documents that people leave behind. What do I have for future students and historians to read? What can I say about living in Iowa at the beginning of the 21st Century that will help future generations understand what it is like? I don't know. I don't even know that what I say is really all that important now, let alone will it be years later but then again it's not what you say in the present that is thought of to be important, right? Did Anne Frank know that her diary would be published and studied and still read by millions of school age kids more the 60 years after she died? Probably not. All we know of history is what we have been able to piece together from the documents that have been left behind. I doubt that this blog will be around long enough to make any historical impact but it's a start. I'm really not that sure what I want to do with this and what I want to write about but I hope it will be fun for me and for those of you who wondered over here. This should be quite the experience. :D

Beth