I am a negative.

Ellie would sacrifice toddlers. Jenny would push me in front of a big bus. And apparently I'm the one who's completely demented and insane. Heh. No, actually I am quite strange... I don't deny it.

Today Tina and I went into the Grad Library. We went to the third floor where there were a ton of books about German. Ahh, it was like heaven. It was the first time that I had checked out books and I checked out seven. Six of them were for my research paper and one was just for fun. So I've been reading a lot about the history of the German language and related things. It's actually very interesting.

Sadly, I found out that I have to go to my German class on Friday even though the professor isn't going to be there. That's just mean. I don't think any professor is going to be there. But, including that class, four of my class have been canceled in the span of seven days: one on Tuesday (German syntax), one on Friday (German), and two on Monday (German, Ling 317). Awesome, I know.

My most recent German paper was a load of crap. I seriuosly BSed at least 75% of it. The title was (translated) "Heroes? Only in Your Dreams". The page requirement was two pages minimum, and I may have gotten that much... but maybe not. We'll see what he rules on that one.

Well, well, well.

Bersaglia was funny tonight. It might be a little sad when band is over. I don't know if I'll ever be in a band again. :(

Words to the Wind

Just so you know, this post is more boring than usual.

I got my blood donor card in the mail. Guess what my blood type is. A negative.

It's a little pathetic that I have so little to say after five days. I spent Saturday doing a linguistics exam... Friday I went to class and to office hours... Thursday contained nothing that I remember.

Friday night was interesting, but I'll leave it at that.

In all actuality, I have a ton to say but I can't say it on here. It's all too... too something.

My foot is getting better, I think. It's still weird and bruised, but it definitely feels better.

What do the words 'Florian', 'crazy', and 'und' have in common? ...They were the only things I said during my German class Wednesday. And then I skipped one of my linguistics classes because I felt sick. Yeah... quality.

On Wednesday, I found an awesome song. I really like it... it's really pretty. It's called "The Rest of My Life" by Blessid Union of Souls. I really like it. And I've also found some other good songs through Lauchcast (which I knew about before Yahoo took it over).

"Cold" by Crossfade

Looking back at me I see that I never really got it right
I never stopped to think of you
I'm always wrapped up in things I cannot win
You are the antidote that gets me by
Something strong like a drug that gets me high

What I really meant to say is I'm sorry for the way I am
I never meant to be so cold

I'm sorry about all the lies. Maybe in a different light
you could see me stand on my own again
Cause now i can see
You were the antidote that got me by
Something strong like a drug that got me high

I never meant to be so cold

I never really wanted you to see
The screwed up side of me that I keep
Locked inside of me so deep
It always seems to get to me
I never really wanted you to go
So many things you should have known
I guess for me theres just no hope
I never meant to be so cold

The Sunflower

What should I write here? I don't know.

Today was a monumentous day because I finished a hard sudoku! Yay! :D It made me happy, what can I say... I had started it yesterday during one of my linguistics classes and I finished it today during my German syntax class.

In German yesterday morning the professor gave me a sudoku to do during the quiz. That was fun. I had actually planned to do a sudoku later in the day.

Yesterday afternoon I went to UHS to see about my foot. I didn't actually think it was broken, but it hurt a lot and the possibility of seeing my screws again was appealing. So yeah, it's not broken, but it's swollen and "crunchy" and he said something about tissue and tendons/ligaments. I have to ice it twice a day, keep it elevated when I sleep, and avoid running and dancing. And I did get to see my screws. :D It seems to be more tender right after I ice it.

Yeah, I don't have much to say. Here's my foot bruise:

The Days of (mis)Adventure

Ok, so these aren't very exciting or real adventures, but whatever.

Thursday night, Jaye P and I went to Canada. That was fun. ;) We (almost) got lost a few times... at least once in Detroit and we never really knew where we were going in Windsor. But it was definitely fun. I liked the tunnel. We ate at La Bamba's (or something like that). It was a burrito place and it was pretty good. Then when we were walking down the street, some guys offered to buy us drinks at Starbucks. They were weird and a little creepy. The Canada border people barely asked anything and didn't ask to see our ID, but the US border people asked a ton of questions and checked our passports and our picture was taken as drove up. And to our right, someone was having their car searched.

Last night, I was standing on my chair putting something on my shelf and I totally fell off my chair. It was actually fairly painful. I think as I was falling I was worried about my well-being, but after the fall was over, I didn't think about the intense pain in my right foot and shin but instead about whether anything had fallen on my computer. I have a huge bruise on my foot. I showed up about an hour after the fall. There's a bruise on my shin too, but it was never as pronounced. They both hurt still. If I can get a good picture, I'll post it.

Thursday afternoon I was 20 minutes late to my GeoSci lecture. I got there around 3:30 and it's from 3-4 (it starts at 3:10 actually... "Michigan time"). The professor just kind of looked at me and smiled when I walked in. I was late because I had gone to my German professor's office hours to ask questions about my essay. I thought that I had gotten there early enough to make it to my class in time, but obviously I was wrong. There wasn't much of a wait to talk to the German professor and I think it was my turn around 2:20. So yeah... an hour later... We talked about my essay, my participation, writing emails in German, and some other stuff. But yeah, that was the latest that I have been to a class in a while. I'm usually not late and I usually don't skip.

I'm fish-sitting for Ron and Harry! They are Erin's little fish... one is orange and the other is gray. I enjoy them. They kind of smell, but it's not bad. She's supposed to come and get them tonight.

Ellie, Jenny, and I went to Meijer today. I got Pirates of the Caribbean cereal, a hairbrush, medicated chapstick, and hot chocolate with marshmallows. We were behind Jeremy on the way there.

Yeserday I watched the entire first season of Grey's Anatomy and I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Yeah, it was a productive day. Then I got a headache.

I didn't go to bed last night until after 1:30 and then after less than 2 hours of sleep, the idiots above me woke me up with their music. And so I got up, checked my email, put my AIM away message as 'homicide is in the air', and 40 minutes later they were quieter and I went back to sleep.

Tonight after doing some homework, we ordered a pizza and watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This was my favorite quote.
Remus: Severus! Don't be a fool!
Sirius: He can't help it. It's habit by now.

Conversation is more interesting than homework.

Who is your hero? Do you have any heroes? That first question was asked in German on Monday. Who are my heroes? I don't know. Heroes? What's a hero? Family? Friends? Famous people? Princess Diana isn't my hero. Neither is Ghandi or Pope John Paul. And friends don't usually crossover into the hero category. Then what about family? Although I love my family, I don't see them as my heroes. Maybe Micah is my hero. He was my hero, but is he still? Kevin, Angie, Bonnie, Doc? ?????

Sunday was quite warm: 65 degrees. Ah, it was nice. Monday was even warmer (70 degrees) but there was a really strong wind. And today it is freezing. It was snowing (just flurries) this morning and the wind was quite chilly. A warm front from Saskatchewan?

So this morning around 11:40 I was walking back to south quad from my class in the MLB, and out of nowhere someone said "hi". I looked to be sure that they were talking to me and saw that it was 'Joe', whom I had met through Cru (his name isn't really 'Joe', but he goes by that because that's what his last name sounds like). We walked down the street and talked and eventually decided to get lunch at a Chinese restaurant on Liberty. Lunch was good and the conversation was definitely interesting. Joe is really nice. But, I don't know, it was just pretty much the last thing that I had expected to happen today. It was so completely out of the blue, but it was definitely a welcomed change.

GeoSci was odd today. The prof is just a little bit weird. He asked a question and then a second later he said, "everyone look down at your shirts... anyone with stripes raise your hand." And people did and he called on someone who had raised their hand and made them answer his previous question. And then there was the quiz. It was two questions and multiple choice. He first read question 1 and and the choices out loud. After he read choice A he said, "that's a stupid answer". Then for question 2, he read it out loud and after giving clues, he went back to the slide with the answer on it because "some people looked confused". Needless to say, that was an easy quiz.

On my way to GeoSci, I saw and briefly talked to one of Rebecca's (last year's roommate) friends on the Diag. I still haven't seen Rebecca this year.

Today was a really long day, I guess. I was reading these past paragraphs (which I had typed earlier) and I thought, 'whoops, I have to change today to yesterday because that stuff didn't happen today... it feels like it happened a long time ago'. But then I stopped and realized that it was today. The GeoSci thing, syntax this morning... wow, I'm so messed up right now.

Of Past Regret and Future Fear

When I'm at band, my eyes/contacts get really dry because I don't blink when we're playing a piece of music. And after I've done something for a while (play a video game, play spider solitaire), I see it every time I close my eyes.

Video games tend to neutralize any strong negative emotions when I have them... shooting games and driving games in particular.

Today was a very beautiful day. The temperature got up to 65 degrees and there was a cool breeze and warm sunlight coming in through our window. It was really nice.

Nothing interesting has happened.

A Day's Journey

In the morning:
Good morning, one and all... although I have yet to figure out what's good about it. I've decided to try something new. You see, I think a lot and I thought that I'd try typing a 'train of thought' post as opposed where I actually try to put things in some meaningful order with a little organization too. But no, not today. Of course naturally as soon as I'd start typing, my mind would go completely blank and I'd have nothing to say. Of course. Stuff like that always happens. I had a weird dream last night but I'm not sure what it was about. It had something to do with my aunt's pool. Yeah... anyway.

I have a quiz in my German syntax class in about 30 minutes (it's 9:30am at the moment). Erin and I 'studied' for about 1 hour and 40 minutes last night, but it was actually mostly talking (about the people in the German department or about Erin's little sister or about classes and what not). I wish this class was more about German and less about syntax... so does Erin. I wish the people in the class weren't so much more advanced than I am. The same goes for my other German class. I hate talking in that class because I feel so inferior. Interestingly, I don't really have a problem talking in other classes. I mean, I don't really want to give presentations or anything, but just answering a question or asking a question isn't a big deal unless it's in German. I don't know why. I do feel inferior in German classes but also I don't like to say anything unless it comes out correctly. Yesterday in my language and history class, I answered a question about the Jewish day. It starts at sunset/sundown.

Well, I have to go blow-dry my hair now. And then I must go to class.

11:53 a.m.
That quiz was dumb. I just made up stuff. Bah. The end of the class was quite entertaining though because Mike (the prof) was telling us about hick/hillbilly/white trash speech. He grew up in Kansas and at one point he said, "Does anyone else say that, or an I just doomed to be white trash?" Some of the things he mentioned were 'whopper-jawed', 'this here book and that there book', and 'red up' as in "I have to red up my room before the visitors come" (meaning to clean up or clean off). It was decided that this came from 'to get ready'. And it was really funny because the one guy in the class was so amazed at these phrases and words. Now I'm wondering about the "you'ns" from Elaine...

"That place is hell with the lid off."
-Mike

4:19 p.m.
I got to walk back from my last class in the rain. I kind of liked it... the rain, that is. The class on the other hand could be more interesting. It's called "Climate and Mankind" and it's somewhat interesting but mostly just ok. The prof is fairly fun though (and rather cute).

My iTunes makes me angry. It's so stupid.

You know... I think that I'm dense, I have a thick skull, I'm a slow processor. I just don't get things. The processing unit in my brain was overloaded and then it crashed and now it's broken.

Crazy Taxi, here I come.

11:57 p.m.
Jenny's going to go to bed soon. I'm not actually very tired, but I'll go to bed before 12:30 or by then at least. Being nervous is annoying. I don't like it. Ugh, compulsive email checking. I should just quit sending emails and then I wouldn't have to check my email every 5 seconds. Arg. I got up to class C on Crazy Taxi today. Woo-flipping-hoo. I like it, but Axel's car is annoying and Gena's repeated phrase is annoying. I wanted to play Medal of Honor but I never got around to it.

And then there's my homework... riiiiiiiiiight. Who does homework anyway? Well, truth be told, I do. Yeah, it's true (for the most part, at least). Tomorrow is Friday.

Wow, I just got really tired. ...And now I have to read my email. I'm scared to. But maybe it'll be ok, just maybe.

Simple Gifts

Ross, Jake, and I played some hot Harry Potter Scene It on Saturday. It was an intense battle between me and Jake (very literally at some points), but in the end Jake came out on top. Ross was way behind until he started getting the follow the sword in the hat questions and he ended a close third.

That same night, I got a call from Mrs. Gordon on Ryan's phone. It was very confusing at first... I couldn't figure out what was going on. But everything was ok once I got my bearings. The purpose of the phone call was to formally invite me to be in the summer jazz band this summer. Blame Ben.

I wish I had something interesting to tell. Sadly, there is nothing. I slept on the way back to Ann Arbor and bought some new pants. Pride and Prejudice is a good movie. I was completely exhausted last night. I got a 90 on my phonetics midterm (the average was a 75 and the prof said 'good job' when he handed it to me) and I got an A/A- on my other linguistics midterm. But sadly I got an 80 on my German quiz. That was a bit disappointing. Today I spent 80 minutes talking to one of my professors and then I worked on my German paper. Yup, yup... good times.

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.

Refrain: When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.
To turn, turn will be our delight,
'Til by turning, turning we come round right

'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of others what we try to live each day,
Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say,

Refrain

'Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,
'Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of "me",
And when we hear what others really think and really feel,
Then we'll all live together with a love that is real.

Concert band songs with words... that's a bit odd...

Marches aren't that bad...

I was supposed to be productive this week. I was supposed to get things done. I was supposed to not sit around all day and do nothing. And, well, it started ok. I read my German stuff sometime over the weekend. On Monday I read a chapter from my syntax book and started writing my German essay. I Tuesday I read a chapter from my phonology book. And it all went downhill from there. I don’t remember what I did Wednesday, but it wasn’t homework. I think I read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and that took up most of my “free” time. Yesterday I had planned on doing homework, but then Ross called and the day was pretty much gone after that. There was an adventure that night, but I’ll tell that later. So pretty much all I’ve done all week is a little bit of homework, read some books, and watch movies. Productive, yes I know. I did read for fun though and it was nice to be able to do that again. After I finished The Two Towers, I read The Magician’s Nephew, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I would still like to read the last two in The Chronicles of Narnia. I’ve read them before, but not for a long time.

The rest of my birthday present came in the mail yesterday. Altogether, it was a PS2 game, a DVD, two books, and a CD. Quite enjoyable indeed.

It’s pretty pathetic when you’re trying to find a word to fit and you can only think of the German one and not the English. Yeah, I just did that and I had to go to a German/English dictionary to find the English word.

Last night as I went to leave Ross’s, but when I got in my car (and started it), I noticed that the windshield was iced over. At that moment, Jake walked out of their shed thing and I waved him over. He, being the one with gloves, tried to scrape off the ice but the scraper broke. Then I asked him to wipe off the snow, but that didn’t help much. As a last resort, I asked him to see if he could get my windshield wipers free from the ice. Nothing. I couldn’t just sit there and wait for the windshield to defrost because my quality car no longer has the ability to blow air, heated or otherwise. And so I drove away with my seatbelt not working and with a clear about 8 inches in diameter on my windshield (I almost said centimeters… what am I, Canadian?).

I started packing today. We’ll probably leave Sunday afternoon and get there just in time for the rush. There are a couple reasons that I don’t want to go back and they are 1) I’ll have to make a decision about study abroad and 2) I’ll have to start working on my stupid term paper.

Speaking of papers, I have to write an essay for German about my favorite object and I have chosen my contacts. What should I put in the essay? What should I say? What should my content be? Seriously, I need some input here. I have next to nothing.

Ben still has my Pirates of the Caribbean DVD. I'll have to get that.