Snow!

They've canceled classes for tomorrow! Here's why:







This is the first time in all my years at college that they've canceled classes. This is freakin' awesome!

Seven Weeks

In seven weeks, I'm going to Boston! I can't believe it's almost time to pack my bags, board the plane, and fly far, far away! It's all so terribly exciting.

However, before the fun can begin, I have loads of stuff to finish. How's about a list?

Jan 31 - presentation over Cisneros, Fiction Writing
Feb 6 - presentation over structuralism, Literary Theory
Feb 12 - first draft due, Fiction Writing (at least 15 pages)
Feb 22 - casebook due, Literary Theory
Feb 19-23 - test 1, Systems of Grammar
Mar 2 - paper due, Brit Lit
Mar 6 - midterm, British Literature
Mar 9 - paper due, Sociolinguistics

This does not take into account all the reading and everyday class stuff. I don't know if I'll make it. I may end up in jail if someone doesn't fix the darn malfunctioning fire alarm. I mean, seriously. Does it take a rocket scientist to fix a fire alarm? It has gone off at least one night each week since school began. It likes to go off around 4:30 in the morning, usually. Such a dear, that old fire alarm.

Awaiting Salvation

I've waited all my life for this.
I'm standing on the edge.
It's time for me to fly away
But there's just so much to fear.

Taking one lone flight out
With the world closing in.
Seeming like I'm all alone
Without a familiar face or friend.

It scares me when I think
I've been sent out just to fail.
I reach out blindly with my hands.
Someone save me from myself.

-tkra, 2002

Still Fighting It

I hate waiting.

I'm waiting for a few things to happen right now. Waiting to graduate. Waiting for my trip to Boston. Waiting for this cold to go away. Waiting to see if Emerson will have me. Waiting to be on my own. Waiting to get on with my life. Waiting for all kinds of other stuff to happen. I'm just waiting.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. In a perpetual state of limbo, unsure of the future.
Unsteady. Melancholy. Bored. Tired.

Is this all life is? A gigantic waiting game? It's like we're continually stuck in a large hospital waiting room, just waiting for our number to come up.

Everybody knows
It sucks to grow up
And everybody does.
It's weird to be back here.
Let me tell you what,
The years go on and
We're still fighting it, we're still fighting it
You'll try and try and one day you'll fly
Away from me
-Ben Folds

I can't wait to fly away from all this monotonous waiting.

Boston

In the light of the sun,
Is there anyone?
Oh it has begun.
Oh dear, you look so lost,
eyes are red
and tears are shed,
This world you must've crossed.
You said,

You don't know me,
And you don't even care, oh yeah,
She said,
You don't know me,
And you don't wear my chains, oh yeah

Essential yet appealed,
Carry all your thoughts
Across an open field,
When flowers gaze at you,
They're not the only ones
Who cry when they see you
You said,

You don't know me,
And you don't even care, oh yeah,
She said,
You don't know me,
And you don't wear my chains, oh yeah.

She said I think I'll go to Boston.
I think I'll start a new life.
I think I'll start it over, where no one knows my name.
I'll get out of California, I'm tired of the weather,
I think I'll get a lover and fly 'em out to Spain.
I think I'll go to Boston.
I think that I'm just tired.
I think I need a new town, to leave this all behind.
I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of Sunset,
I hear it's nice in the summer, some snow would be nice, oh yeah.

You don't know me,
And you don't even care, oh yeah,

Boston, where no one knows my name
where no one knows my name
where no one knows my name

Boston, where no one knows my name.

-Augustana

Adventures Thus Far

In my three days of being at school, the following adventures have occurred:

1. Near drowning on the drive and moving in process. See previous post.

2. Near frostbite from walking around campus and town -- it's freakin' freezing, people! Any body part that is not wrapped in clothing (like one's face) quickly becomes cold and red within two seconds of stepping outdoors.

3. Heater in my suite stopped working. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why every major appliance I'm around keeps breaking. It was maybe 20 degrees outside. Thank God for best friends and down comforters!

4. Fire alarm and subsequent evacuation at 2:42 in the morning. Some idiot pulled the fire alarm this morning. I don't know if it was by accident or done as a joke, but it wasn't funny either way. I pull myself out of bed and into the foyer of my suite, where I realize that my baby freshman in the room next to me are not emerging from their room! So, I knock and open the door. Two little faces are staring at me in the dark: "What's going on??" "Can we go back to sleep?" No, you may not go back to sleep. Put your shoes on and grab your coat. We've got to go outside.

Thankfully, they didn't make us go outside. Did I mention it was 20 degrees outside?

5. Switched from one section of a class to another section. My department head comes into my British Literature class this morning, demanding that some of us take the afternoon class. I didn't want to take the afternoon class because I had my classes scheduled together (8-9:20, then 9:30-10:50). I also knew that the other section is set to read Mrs. Dalloway, a book I have no desire to read. I actually tried to read it once two or three years ago. It was not cool. Then, Mr. Department Head announced that if no one would leave voluntarily, he'd look at our schedules and move us all around willy-nilly.

Well, I couldn't have that. So, now I'm taking British Literature from 2:30-3:50. At least I don't have to be up at the crack of dawn in frigid temperatures anymore.

So far, five adventures in under 3 days. That's got to be a record or something.

Water Water Everywhere

It has rained for three days straight. Not piddly, slower-than-molasses rain. We're talking hard-core, windshield-wipers-on-high-forever rain. Rain so hard that you're sure your windshield will shatter because of the immense sheets of rain continuously splattering against it. Rain so hard that you fear your little windshield wipers will give out because they're working double overtime. In short, massive amounts of rain.

It has rained so much that the little cow pasture across the street from my building is now a lake. I've taken pictures because whenever this has happened in the past, no one ever believes me. This campus is a flood mecca. It floods and floods and floods at the tiniest drop of rain. It's ridiculous.





See? Ridiculous!!!

Random Quotes

"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil." - James Allen

"To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do." - Kahlil Gibran

"Pain dies quickly, and lets her weary prisoners go; the fiercest agonies have shortest reign." - William Cullen Bryant

"Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they can talk sense." - Robert Frost

"When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds." - Henry David Thoreau

"Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything." - Mary Hemingway

"The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness." - Henry David Thoreau