The Phonebooks

Over the weekend, I celebrated my 21st birthday. I spent the evening in the city with my best friend and a few of her friends. It was a great time. Instead of going from bar to bar, we spent our night at an Irish pub. There was even a band playing live music. As fun as that was, the real shenanigans didn't begin until after bar close.


As anyone who has been with Alicia and I after we have been drinking, we pretty much turn into Beavis and Butthead. It is always "dumbest idea wins", and it is always the best time. We were walking back to her apartment, and in the enterance, there was a pile of phonebooks. We decided that we needed to take them all. It took us at least three trips to haul them all up to the third floor. It didn't help that we had difficulties walking.


In the apartment, we listened to all of the songs we loved years ago, and talked about people we were friends with in those times. I, of course, needed to call and text these people and tell them that I missed them. We designated the song "How Soon is Now" by the Smiths, as the theme song for the evening. It had nothing to do with anything we did, but it is one of my favourite songs.


At some point in the evening, we decided that we needed confetti. So, we ripped pages from the phonebooks and threw them in the air. This is how things looked the next morning:

Why we decided this was a great idea, I do not know. But it was a great time. In most of the pictures taken that evening, we were on the floor. standing was far too great of a task for us. I realise that this is one of those instances where you had to be there to really appreciate the rediculinity of the night, but it was a wonderful time.

Surprisingly, the mess wasn't too terrible to clean up. It was clean before we all went out to brunch at Beans and Barley. Everyone else had breakfast, but I had a gigantic burrito. What I really craved was the food that would clog my arteries and give me a heart attack. We went to the wrong restaurant for that. The burrito was among the most unhealthy things on the menu. It was delicious.

Nothing Alicia and I do ever makes much sense, especially after drinks, but it is always the best time ever. I don't think I could have had a more fun birthday.

No more Black Fridays

I hate Black Friday. This year, I waited outside of Best Buy in the freezing cold for over ten hours with Andrew, Thompson and Thompson's little cousin. It may have been the dumbest thing that I have ever done.

There were laptops normally priced at $1100 for $400. Our computer is in the process of taking a gigantic shit, so Andrew and I were there for a new computer. Thompson's cousin wanted an X-Box, and Thompson didn't know what he wanted. None of us had any idea just how bad it would be to camp outside of a store overnight in the cold Wisconsin winter.

We got there at 6:30 p.m. There were already a bunch of people in front of us. We had to wait until 3 a.m. for the employees to hand out reservation tickets for certain limited sales, like our computers. That wait was one of the longest of my life. I used to think insanely long car rides, like the one to Kansas City, were bad, but at least a car is warm and I could sleep if I wanted to.

I tried to be prepared for the cold. I put on six shirts, a sweatshirt, two winter jackets, four pairs of pants, three pairs of socks, two pairs of gloves, a scarf and a hat. That wasn't good enough. I was still frozen after spending the night outside. We had thick, heavy blankets, but they were basically useless.

After seemingly endless waiting, 3 a.m. finally came. The laptop reservation tickets didn't even get anywhere near us. A bunch of fat, smelly, useless assholes at the front took them all, in addition to one of every other computer that was on reserve. Had they allowed more than one per person, I'll bet they would have taken them all. I can't imagine how much that much have cost, which raised the question of how they got the money to pay for it. These people didn't look rich by any means.

They ended up in front of us in the endless line in the store. I could hear them talking about how they got there at 10:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving day. Who does that? I thought getting there at 6:30 was really bad. There was another laptop on reservation that was almost as cool as the one that we originally wanted. We ended up getting those, so I have a new computer. Yay! That's my birthday and Christmas present to myself for this year.

The doors opened at 5. That was another terrible wait. As soon as the doors opened, it was actually as large of a mob scene that I had envisioned. There were no fights or stampedes. The line inside was also endless, but at least it was warm. We finally left the store at about 6 a.m. I was never so glad to be home and sleep in my soft bed under warm blankets.

Although I got something pretty cool, I don't think that I will ever do the Black Friday shopping thing again.

Kansas City and other nouns I dislike

So, the trip to Kansas City was quite uneventful. It was nice to not have to go to school and work and all that other fun stuff, but I wish the city would have been more exciting. The highlight of the trip was all of the food that I ate, but I could have done that here.

While Andrew and Amanda were at their concert, Thompson and I drove around for an hour or two looking for a mall, movie theatre, or something else to pass the time. Our search proved fruitless, so we went back to the hotel to watch crappy cable sitcoms and take naps. The pattern of looking for something, finding nothing and hanging out at the hotel pretty much described our time in KC.

Today was the day that A-town saw it's first snow. It wasn't much snow, but it was enough to make the roads slippery and me depressed. The only time snow is appropriate is for the few days surrounding Christmas. Other than that, I hate it.

It's official that winter is here. Yuck. The holidays are nice, but after January 2nd, it is time for the snow to melt and the temperatures to warm up. Sadly, this is Wisconsin, so there is no snow-free warm weather till about June. After I graduate, I'm moving somewhere warm. I don't care if I don't have a white Christmas. I can't deal with this winter business.

Portraits are not my strong point

This is another photo class picture I'm particularily proud of. We had to take a portrait of someone. The assignment was due the next day and I was getting quite desperate. I made Andrew play guitar while I took pictures. Sometimes desperation makes for great photos. I hate taking portraits. They always seem so posed and fake. I would much rather sneak up on someone and take a picture when they aren't paying attention. I ended up with a B for a grade, but I'm pretty sure that was because my photo-editing skills were lacking. This version is a re-edited one. I'm sure if I turned it in again, my grade would improve.

I love photography. I'm excited to see what photos my Kansas City trip will create.

No mas escuela!

I really should have been an English major. The subject comes so easily to me. I can get an A with minimal effort. Oh well. Instead, I chose the subjects that I thought I enjoyed: journalism and political science. I've grown to detest both of them now. Then again, everyone I've ever spoken to who has graduated from college says that there's something wrong if I don't hate my major by the time I'm a junior/senior.

I've also reached the conclusion that college is nothing but a 4+ year anxiety attack. I get panicked so easily when it comes to tests, papers, etc. I never used to be like that. As long as I got at least a B, I was fine. Now, I feel like I need to get that A, and if I don't, I might as well drop out of school, because I've basically failed. I have only a year and a half until I (hopefully!) graduate, and I'm really starting to panic. I feel as though my grades aren't good enough, and I'll never be able to bring them up, regardless of how hard I try.

There's also the question of what I'm going to do after I graduate. Honestly, I really don't know. I don't really want to work for a newspaper, there isn't much to do with political science, unless I go to grad school. The idea of the future scares the hell out of me. I like to joke that I will just continue to go to school for the rest of my life, just because I don't know what else to do.

I also think that I don't like writing as much as I thought that I did. I would much rather take pictures to tell the story of whatever I feel like saying or doing. When it comes to the things that happen in my life, it's easier to show someone than it is to tell.

Tomorrow I leave for Kansas City. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do there, but it will be nice to take a break from the insanity that is my life. I'm going with Andrew, his sister Amanda, and Thompson. The purpose of the trip is for a country music concert, but I'm not going to that. It should be interesting. I'll post photos when I get back.