Summertime and the living is easy...

Finished my last final of Junior year today...soooo that technically means I am now a senior in college!

Wow...when did that happen?

Techincally I still have one more assignment that I'm finishing tomorrow, but I definitely had celebratory margaritas and Mr. Softee today! :)

So now it's the long-awaited SUMMER VACATION!! I'm spending the summer in my hometown, hopefully working A LOT and making a lot of MONEY!  That's the goal anyways...

Hopefully the summer will be filled with tons of DC/VA happenings to blog about!  I'm excited and ready!

This is kinda how the end of the school year feels...

Sit around and watch the tube,but nothing's on
Change the channels for an hour or two
Twiddle my thumbs just for a bit
I'm sick of all the same old shit
In a house with unlocked doors
And I'm fucking lazy

Bite my lip and close my eyes
Take me away to paradise
I'm so damn bored I'm going blind
And I smell like shit

Peel me off this velcro seat and get me moving
I sure as hell can't do it by myself
I'm feeling like a dog in heat
Barred indoors from the summer street
I locked the door to my own cell
And I lost the key

Bite my lip and close my eyes
Take me away to paradise
I'm so damn bored I'm going blind
And I smell like shit

I got no motivation
Where is my motivation?
No time for the motivation
Smoking my inspiration

Sit around and watch the phone, but no one's calling
Call me pathetic, call me what you will
My mother says to get a job
But she don't like the one she's got
When masturbation's lost its fun
You're fucking breaking

Bite my lip and close my eyes
Take me away to paradise
I'm so damn bored
I'm going blind
And loneliness has to suffice
Bite my lip and close my eyes
I was slipping away to paradise
Some say,"Quit or I'll go blind."
But it's just a myth

Time Flies

This fact is just starting to sink into my head...

I am going to be a senior in college this fall.

This is my last year in college.

I am technically an adult now.

Wow.

Weird.

We've come a long way baby...

"Failure"

Yup, it's official!

I got my first "F".

I mean, to be honest, it is completely my fault and not my professor's. I'm not going to play the blame game and accuse everybody but myself, because it's totally clear that it's my own damn fault.

(That doesn't mean I'm happy about it or proud of it...at all!)

My professor gave me an "Incomplete", which is exactly what it sounds like, but I didn't realize that there was a time limit on how long you could take to finish it. So I just so happened to check my grades from last semester for a different class, and what do you know, my "I" was now a big, fat, epic fail "F".

Ironically, I discovered my "F" while sitting in the library, trying to write this seven page paper that has been eluding me for so very long.

I mean, I'm still going to try and write this damn paper within the next few days, and I'm still going to turn it in, and maybe she will have mercy on me and at least give me a "D" or something...but she was a very "by the book" professor, so probably not.

Another fun fact, my first "F" in high school was also in my junior year, but I went to summer school and it was replaced with a nice, happy "A+". What's different now? I am NOT retaking that class again! You couldn't pay me enough!

Sigh. We'll see what happens I guess.

Back to the Ol' Grindstone

Classes start tomorrow...
Did I really just have a month off? Sure doesn't seem like it!

Unnecessary Violence

There was a shooting at Radford University in Virginia today at about 9pm EST. This is obviously an on-going story, but being from Virginia (and unfortunately this is not the first University shooting that has occurred recently in VA), the initial panic that rocks your body when you think of your friends/acquaintances possibly being shot to death is not fun! Fortunately, there has only been one victim so far, compared to Virginia Tech's 30-something, but they have not caught the gunman and he is considered "armed and dangerous", so Radford is on lock-down. Luckily, I've contacted the majority of my friends who go to Radford and have confirmed their safety (thanks Facebook!).

I don't know why all these VA kids are snapping and going on crazy shooting rampages, but this unnecessary violence really needs to stop! It's really unfortunate that these college kids, who have their whole future in front of them, feel that they have to kill and take innocent lives (other college kids who have their whole lives ahead of them too!). Obviously, we don't really know what's going on in these poor people's heads, but I feel like college campuses should take a greater interest in their student's mental health and have plenty of resources available to students who may need counseling.

I know this is a somber post, but I do feel like the mental health of college students is an important issue! College is a stressful time, but it shouldn't come down to school shootings and people taking their frustrations out on innocent people (and all of the family and friends that their deaths effect).

I hope that everybody at Radford is safe in their dorms and that the shooter is apprehended before he can hurt anyone else!

Romantic?

So I'm taking this class called Romanticism & the Modern World, and its taught by the head of the English Department at my school (whom I LOVE!) and basically, thus far, we've read and discussed the "Big Six" Romantic English poets--Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Keats, Byron, and Shelley.

Now, I grew up in the suburbs of Northern Virginia, literally walking distance from Algonkian Park, a car ride away from the Skyline Drive, the Shenandoah Mts/Valley/River, the Blue Ridge Mts (my fav growing up), and all of the parks and monuments of Washington DC. I think it's safe to say that I've had my fair share of nature. My dad used to take us camping, hiking, exploring, and at one point, we even had a cabin ON the Shenandoah River. I always considered myself to be a "city girl"...and hey, look at me now! :)

But here's where I start to stray...when forced on these nature outings, I always resented them. Whether I was just being a 13 year old girl, or because I wasn't getting along with my dad (or his gf at the time), or because I actually DID NOT enjoy myself--I'm not sure, it was probably a combination of the three. But recently, probably now that I'm living in New York City where City Hall Park and Battery Park are the only types of "nature" that are within walking distance of my building, I'm beginning to WANT to be in nature?

When I go home (and even during my senior year), whenever I wanted to retreat somewhere, AWAY from people, I would go to Algonkian Park and just sit in my car or on the benches and think. It was quiet, depending on the time of day, there weren't too many people there, you could usually find a deer or two grazing around the fields--it was really peaceful. When I went home after Tia passed away in September, I found myself spending more and more time on this dirty little bench, just watching the river...for those of you who know me, that is kind of out-of-the-ordinary.

While I'm thinking of it, I admire my cousin Brian SO MUCH! He lives in California and before he got a Facebook earlier this month, I probably talked to him about once a year on the phone, and saw him in person about 3-4 years ago! EEK! I almost began feeling like he was this estranged, mysterious person whose life I only imagined. After being his Facebook friend, I finally feel as though I've solved the mystery and now I'm DYING to be part of his almost picturesque, Romantic life. He spends his free-time climbing mountains, exploring deserts, and learning how to conduct mountain rescues for hikers, etc. I feel as though he is living this peaceful, happy, lets-go-commune-with-Nature, Romantic lifestyle and compared to my micro-managed, NYC, go-Go-GO, superficial, theatrical lifestyle...well, it's something that I really want to experience and share with him!

Anyways, whether I'm on some pantheistic kick right now, I don't know...but here are (what I think are) the reasons why all of a sudden I want to pack up my suitcase, jump in a car and "be 'On The Road' like Jack Kerouac":

-LIT212R: Romanticism & the Modern World

-Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (I read the book AND watched the movie)

-Twilight series (odd, but it takes place in the Pacific Northwest)

-My cousin Brian (an all-around outdoorsmen...I think the ONLY ONE in our family)

-My aunt Kristin (from Portland, OR/also runs along the Twilight vein)

-Life/College/Stress (who doesn't just want to pack up their shit and hit the road at 20 years old?)

-Dorm Room--Maybe I just need to live in a room that GETS SOME SUNLIGHT! :/

Well, whatever it is, I unfortunately must conclude, because it is 3:45am and I have work in the morning (Why must I get philosophical late at night?) but yeah...who's up for a roadtrip across the Continental US??

Sooo true!

One of my friends just posted this link as their Facebook status!  I read it, found it scarily TRUE and hilarious!!

Click here!

Enjoy!