and when its party time...i party by myself because i'm such a special guy

options i considered for my new year's eve:

plan one: watch the fireworks in baltimore over the chesapeake bay

plan two: go to NYC with friends

plan three: go to NJ with my 95 year old grandma to keep her company

plan four: sit around my house in TN with my parents bc i was forced to return to TN instead of staying in the northeast bc i passed out in a museum & felt like crap for 3 days. going out in k-town wasn't an option b/c
a) there is nothing to do here anyway
b) when i went to the store alone today my mom interrogated me on how much food i'd eaten and forced me to take snacks & water with me for a 1 hour trip - apparently anytime i leave the house i might just keel over

guess which one i ending up doing?

a recipe for pain

1 particularly virulent norovirus strain

18 hours without food due to said virus

4 hours sleep deprivation thanks to a certain 2 year old whom today woke the entire house at 5am by pounding on her door & screaming, which only ended when her mother opened the door & loudly said,"WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?"

5 oz. of wanting to spend quality time with Boy before he leaves for Albania


combining these factors will result in:
1 fainting incident at the National Crime & Punishment Museum
2 cut lips from hitting the floor pretty hard
1 little brother who thought i was dead from a brain aneurysm

lesson learned: even if your brother really wants to go to a museum, if you are that sick, he'll probably have more fun without you

A Tennessee Christmas

last saturday my family went to get our chirstmas tree. lately we've been getting our tree from this little farm in fall branch, tn (population: 1,300). i've never been before bc they usually get it before i come home. it was a very southern experience.

after picking out the tree we wanted, two monosyllabic teenagers came to cut it down for us. they put it on a sled and dragged it behind a tractor up to the prep site. first they propped the tree in this thing that shakes all loose needles and branches off. the boys couldn't do it themselves so they enlisted the help of a classic east tennessean - old man, gray beard, camo hat, lacking a few teeth, distinct accent. a few minutes later the owner of the farm showed up & started chatting with me. upon discovering i study public health he responded, "did you see my mississippi outhouse in the front yard?" i hadn't noticed it so he showed it to me, including the outdoor shower. not that any of it was functioning; no, it was just for decoration. bc nothing says classy like an outhouse in your frontyard.

a quick learner

i've been to a lot of holiday parties in the past few weeks. some form of beef has been served at almost all of them. i'm not sure what possessed me to eat the beef, but i did. maybe it was the peer pressure. one would think i would have stopped after getting sick the 1st time. or the 2nd. or the 3rd. but, no, there is still some leftover beef in my fridge from my latest social venture and i intend to eat it tomorrow.

personality tests

last night i had a few friends over & we got to talking about personality tests. i love personality tests bc i don't have to waste time getting to know people before deciding that i don't like them ("you're a white/red? oh, ummm, i have to go...")

in the color code test, i am a red with blue & yellow tied for 2nd. while i like the color code, it is a bit simplistic. i prefer the myers-briggs test, which describes you with 4 letters (2 options for each one). i often find it scarily accurate, but don't agree with everything. here are some highlights from my MBTI:

ESFJ (extroverted, sensing, feeling, judging)

interested in others
have a strong desire to be liked/need approval from others to feel good about themselves
take responsibilities seriously
value security, stability, & details
have very well-formed ideas about the way things should be & freely express them
driven to control & manipulate
respect laws/rules & believe other should as well
traditional
like structured/organized environments

i just got lost...i'm just waiting till the shine wears off

every time i've driven somewhere for the past two days i've gone the wrong way: turned the wrong way, taken the wrong exit (twice), gone south instead of north on the freeway (also twice), and so on. on the way to church, RationalThought's house, other friends' homes, to my own house...without fail, i have gone the wrong way.

i either have too much on my mind or have been in a drunken stupor for way too long.

family fun

i got a lot of quality family time in november. it was surprisingly nice. my niece, of course, demanded to be the constant center of attention.

Boy wants to take a nap, but apparently it is his birthday:

the siblings. OlderSister is hiding her twin-filled belly:

we played dress-up in grandma's clothes. Babes looks particularly awesome:

i wish Boy knew how to take a picture that was actually in focus:

why is she topless? i do not know. she just took her shirt off & than ran away yelling "i want to be naked!" so i gave her some candy.

thanksgiving

thanksgiving was good this year. the best i've had in a while. probably bc i didn't bring any boys home this year so it was relatively stress-free. unlike PopularBloggingFriend, my parents are totally fine with me not bring boys home. they aren't too concerned with matrimony. instead, i disappoint them with my lack of education (a masters from a prestigious university is not adequate). my dad & i had a long talk over the holiday that went something like this:

why don't you go to med school?
b/c i want to be an epidemiologist
but you like medicine right?
well, i like infectious diseases, but i also like the statistics part
if you like math you could get a PhD in BioStatistics
yeah, i've thought about that, but i like the health aspect of epi
why don't you go to med school?
i don't want to be a clinician
well, you then need to get a PhD. in BioStats.

the leaves are falling down, such a beautiful sound

a few days ago i was enjoying the fall colors and pondering how i love autumn even though it is essentially the time when everything dies. as i thought about leaves dying, i realized that i usually enjoy it when things end. i find great pleasure in finishing off a bottle of shampoo or changing the month of my calendar. i haven't yet decided whether i enjoy the actual death or being able to start anew. i'll have to see how i feel in the spring.

election night

all i have to say is: THANK GOD

election day

it is finally here! i am so happy that the years of political warfare are drawing to a close. most of all though, i am SO impressed with the dedication of the people in my state to participate in the democratic process. our voter turn out is unprecedented in state history. we had over 2 million people vote in early voting despite waits up to 7 hours long. some people were standing out in the cold waiting to vote till 11pm last week.

in 2004 we had 3.3 million total voters so i am expecting a big turnout today. it looks like i won't be disappointed. people began arriving at the polls between 4 & 5 am here to ensure they would be able to vote. the picture to the left was taken at 6:30am and the line already goes until you can't see it anymore. to some extent i interpret these long lines as the Sec. of State's ineptitude, but mostly it is a testament to the determination of these voters to exercise their right to vote. i am especially happy to see many people who have never voted before getting energized about politics & participating in the process! good job, georgia.

awkward things guys said to me last week

i could not make these up...

the gas station attendant:
the machine didn't print out a receipt. can i get one from you? pump 4.
when you talk its like music. i like it.
ummmmm, thanks?

the socially-awkward hotel clerk:
now, do you need a wake-up call?
no, i'm fine, thanks.
i know you're fine. do you need a wake-up call?
uh, no.

a present for PopularBloggingFriend

dear PBF,

i read this poem in a book about the ancient Americas. it is an Aztec poem that reminded me of you. enjoy!

"Like a painting, we will be erased.
Like a flower, we will dry up here on earth.
Like plumed vestments of the precious bird,
That precious bird with the agile neck,
We will come to an end"

Tag #1

ChurchGirl virtually tagged me in some bizarre internet game. since i like her, i decided to play along. so this is the 4th picture in the 4th folder of my pictures like she said.

this is me in Nairobi with my friend Sam the day before i left Kenya. he was the chief (ie, mayor) of the village i lived in, Kona Mbya ("Bad Corner"). we were in his brother's house chilling for a few hours before heading to the airport. i loved sam b/c he pretty much did everything for us when we first arrived & were helpless Americans. he also had the most adorable little boy i've ever seen, Sammy. i love this picture b/c Sam looks like a total bad-A even though he is the nicest guy ever.

random stuff i did this fall

Some friends & I went to a baseball game together last month. we took pictures with a giant baseball to express our feelings about being at a baseball game:

PC loves baseball

i'm not so thrilled

I went to a day at the lake with school friends. It was fabulous.

The boys are attacking an unsuspecting Zinzi

Apple Bobbing at a fall party


i went to NYC for the weekend with Boy. i didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few:

the NYC public library

random paper statue

hilarious t-shirt in the japanese paper store

Boy pretending to read a japanese magazine

lost in the dangling conversations

i love texting/online chatting. lately, i've had some particularly hilarious conversations using these methods of communication. here are a few samples with various friends:

why don't you ever text me back?
because

check out all those bows
that is quiet dignity out of control
heck yes it is!

what will she do with 3 girls? yikes!
i'm more worried about my brother-in-law - i was like "good luck when they are all teenagers!"
yeah, that is beyond frightening. just think of the tampon costs

and my favorite conversation of the week:

i couldn't get over her face. i mean, it looked like she'd had a lot of work done. her face did NOT match her neck!
...she was surprisingly wrinkle free
I KNOW! her eyebrows NEVER MOVED. she had no forehead lines...i just couldn't get past her face.
i couldn't get past the fact that she made her counselors hike up a hill & wave a piece of fabric around
and brought a professional photographer! ... EVERYBODY, SEE HOW GREAT WE ARE?!
...i think i'm going to hell with you now.

Ugly Shoe Day

i was only at school for 3 hours yesterday, but in that time i saw a rash of truly hideous shoes:

Act 1) lavender suede Ugg boots. that matched her lavender shirt. when it was 78 degrees.
Act 2) bronze Crocs, which are always hideous. with socks.
Act 3) tan moccasins with little eagles embroidered on the toes

so gross...

thai food

yesterday i sent the following email to ChurchGirl & PopularBloggingFriend:

so lately i've been thinking about thai food night when you guys would cook thai food & i would come home & eat it. those were good times. i wish i had people that cooked me thai food here. my friends here are so lazy.

PopularBloggingFriend said I needed new friends (the ones i have obviously don't love me). But I thought of a better solution: When I finish school, I'll go live in PopularBloggingFriend's basement. I'll get fed & she can feel good about herself again b/c at least she'll be less of a loser than me.

there is a numbness in your heart & it's growing

update on my hilarious dating life:

option #1: lets call him RG. we started hanging out a bit last spring, i went to africa, realized we had wildly different world views & lost any semblance of interest. he asked me on a date last week. ironic?

option #2: lets call him IG. i may or may not have slightly led him on for my own perverse amusement. i started retreating this past week when i was talking to him & got that panicked "oh, no, he is about to ask me out. abort conversation. abort! abort!" feeling. perhaps i'd already gone too far, as he called me today to see if we could do something. luckily, i make my weekend plans early & was happily busy.

option #3: lets call him VG. we're friends, but if things progressed, this would be, in the words of dwight shrute, "purely carnal & that's all you need to know". also, allowing things to move along in any way would be incredibly emotionally destructive for me. of course, i have spent the most time with him in the past few weeks. i'm just smart like that.

option #4: he is called PC. my mother is in love with him. i'm not.

so many options, so little interest in any of them... *sigh*

running down a dream

it seems that every fall atlanta goes through a liquid crisis. last year it was a water shortage and our days were numbered. then, a bunch of hurricanes dumped us with rain and a new crisis...gasoline. that's right, the city of atlanta has no gasoline. the refineries in the gulf coast shut down b/c of hurricanes & atlanta has stricter purity requirements than most cities (one of the reasons our car-loivng city is surprisingly smog-free). as you can imagine, in a city of 5 million car addicts, people going a bit crazy. luckily, i bike to school, ride MARTA a lot, & only drive to church (if i can't hitch a ride with someone). so i'm just laughing & hoping maybe this will help some atlantans learn that cars aren't the only way around town.

tree hugging, peace loving... hippies like me

i spent some time registering people to vote on campus today. it was actually pretty fun. we had a decent turn out & pretty much everyone that registered was clearly voting for Obama. just how i like it...

georgia's race has been getting increasingly tighter & i actually have a bit of hope for the normally blood red state. most students were switching b/c they knew their vote wouldn't change things in their home states (utah, massachusetts, california, etc.) but it could actually make a difference here.

anyway, my friend & i set up shop next to the on-campus farmer's market and started chatting with the farmer next to us. he was a big Obama supporter & since we were "doing a public service" he gave us free apples. then, when he was closing up shop, he left us each with eggplants, several tomatoes, and 2 huge bunches of basil. i'm going to have to be politically active more often!

come on, hide you lovers....lies, lies

lets all remember how in the past few months my mother has had some personal revelations as to my future husband. her stupendously botched 'subtle' attempts at hints showed her hand a long time ago. however, if any of us were still in doubt as to her desires, Boy reported this conversation to me when i went to k-town last weekend:

Mom: now that you are going on you mission to Albania, we'll have so many languages spoken in our family. Albanian, French, Spanish, German, Swahili, Chinese, Arabic -
Boy: ummmm, no one in our family speaks Chinese, mom
Mom: well, you know PC, if brooke & he...
Boy: mom, they aren't married. they aren't engaged. they are not even dating! they are JUST FRIENDS
Mom: well.....we'll see (in her 'i'm still right' voice)
Boy: yeah, i guess we will (in his 'you are completely insane' voice)

playing catch-up

things have been crazy busy since school started. everyday when i get home i pretty much just eat & go to bed. so i've been slacking on the blogging. here's some random events from the past few weeks:

* had a birthday party with the Manorexic. he doubted my abilities to throw a good party, but, once again, he was proven wrong

* got in a fight with my main adviser. not such a good experience. met with other thesis adviser, who offered to take me on vacation with him & his partner. decided that main adviser is crazy, not me.

* went home for the weekend & remembered how utterly delusional my mother is. more on that later

iAnnoyed

That's right, ChurchGirl. I'm stealing your naming scheme. Deal with it.

So, I've been needing a new cell phone for a while. Mine has begun ending calls by itself or turning itself off (not b/c the battery is dead, just b/c it wants to be off i suppose). I thought for a long time about switching from Verizon to AT&T b/c I really covet the iPhone. My entire family has Verizon though & forced me to get it a few years ago. And the iPhone is $$$ and I am morally opposed to AT&T's thinly veiled communication monopoly. After much agnozing debate in my head, I decided to appease my family & stick with Verizon. On Monday I was near a Verizon store so I went in, pursued the phone selections, chose the one I wanted, & then spoke to the sales agent. After beeping around on his computer for a bit, he said "Our computer network is down so we can't upgrade you right now".

Anyway, today I decided to try again. I looked up the closest store to my house & headed out in my car. About 1 mile down the road I saw a Verizon store, which hadn't been on the website. So I swerved into the parking garage next to it wishing that I had just ridden my bike instead of paying for parking. Inside the store I told the man what kind of phone I wanted. They didn't have them in stock. Furthermore, they never would b/c there Verizon just annouced a new version of the phone (which I don't want) so they won't sell the old one in the stores.

Two trips to Verizon stores. No new phone. Maybe I should have gone with AT&T afterall.

ritalin, ritlan...anyone? ritalin?

i think i developed ADD over the summer. yesterday was my 1st day of class at emory. it started off well since i saw one of my best friends right as i walked in the door. we went to our 1st class together: behavioral epidemiology, which is an interesting class. however, about 15 minutes into the class i was fidgeting, making to-do lists, drawing pictures - doing everything put patiently listen & take notes. i looked at another friend next to me. she too was halfway done with a to-do list. (epidemiologists love lists. i've never met one that doesn't). after the 3 hour lecture finally ended, my original friend said "was i distracting you with all my moving around? i just couldn't keep still!"

in the afternoon i had an epi modeling class. about 20 minutes in the girl next to me pulled out some playdough. she divided between herself, me, & another friend and that kept us pretty well occupied for the next hour. when i started to get bored, i took a nap. i guess i still need to work on building up that elusive attention span.

she'll have a perfect day

i had a good morning today. while i was eating breakfast i noticed my bike on my front porch. last time i saw it, it was in pieces with a rusty chain in the Manorexic's driveway. he had put it all together, got a new chain, & left it for me. then, when i went out to get it, i found a package from one of my favorite mission companions with eco-themed presents inside. i feel so loved!

hello, good-bye, higher you fly

i like to travel. this summer, however, i think i reached new highs. in the past 4 months i've flown:
1. Atl to NJ (& back)
2. Atl to London to South Africa to Zambia
3. Zambia to London to NYC to Atl
4. North Carolina to SLC (& back)
5. Atl to DC (& back)

most of my plane rides were safer than this one

total miles flown: 22,437

if this doesn't get me a free ticket to California for winter break, i don't know what will

birthday trip

i went to savannah, ga for my birthday. it is a cute little southern town on the georgia coast. Boy used his sweet business connections to get us a fancy hotel downtown with a $130 per night discount. so you can just imagine how much it usually costs... the 1st day we were there it rained so we explored the city & played frisbee golf. the rest of the time we hung out at the beach & ate lots of tasty southern food. it was awesome.

savannah has lots of old southern houses

the beach

me washing off my foot in the rain after it got dirty in a puddle. it was raining, but Boy didn't have an umbrella so i had to share my tiny one. was he grateful for my magnanimous gesture? no. he said, "this sucks. i have to touch you"

Boy reading his BOM at the beach to be seen of men

i could tell they were gay from their haircuts

this past sunday i went back to my atl ward for the 1st time since leaving for africa. one reason i like my ward is the noticeable lack of PDA. compared to a BYU ward it is almost paradisaical. yesterday, however, i noticed 2 guys about 3 rows ahead of me. they were obviously from utah & only here for the summer. and one of the guys was gently stroking the other guy's back with his fingertips. and i was a little disgusted.

a full day's work

this past saturday was an awesome day. by 3pm the only productive thing i had done was take a shower. by 9pm i had also been to the grocery store & put away my vegetables. i didn't even cook myself food - i ate leftover pizza cold for both my meals. i wouldn't want to overexert myself.

my proudest moments

i was helping my little sister do her hair for her 1st day of school on monday night & she told me that the school was going to start an eco-club. when i told her she should join it, she informed me that it had been her idea & she was the one that suggested it to a teacher who agreed to be the adviser.

then, i came into the office tonight to find her looking at McCain's wesite. when i asked her why, she said she was researching his positions so she could tell all the kids in her government class why they were wrong & that they should support Obama instead.

i'm so proud of you, Babes!

welcome home. now get married.

i got back from africa about a week ago. even though my mother has been busy with work, her church calling, her current missionary project, a broken washing machine, & coordinating a trip to utah this past weekend, she has found a new hobby as well. it is called "encouraging my daughter to get married" - but not to just anyone. she has a specific boy in mind and his name here is PC. she has met him only once & it was 8 months ago so i'm not sure what has brought on this sudden rush of affection for him as a future son-in-law. here are a few examples of her not-so-subtle hints:

1. she saved me some national geographic issues while i was in zambia. one was on africa. the other was on the country PC spent his summer in. 

me: why would i want that one?

mom: well, PC was there this summer...

me: yeah, mom. not me. don't care

mom: okay, i just thought you might be interested...

me: i'm not

2. i went to lunch with PC while in utah. she was very keen on having my father drive me up to his house rather than my older sister. when i told her Older Sister was taking me-

mom: i was hoping your father could drive you up. then he could meet PC

me: why does he need to meet him?

mom: i just think it would be nice...

me: right. sure, mom.

(The 'Rents did end up driving me b/c Older Sister was tired. Mom was probably thrilled out of her mind & insisted on everyone getting out of the car so they could all say hello. yay.)

i figure i let her continue her awkward attempts of matrimonially encouragement for a few more weeks before i burst her bubble. or maybe i'll just lead her on for a while. it is pretty hilarious to watch.

okay, okay, you were right...

I was sad that my grandma died while I was in Africa. And I was a bit pissed at God for the really atrocious timing. But, its actually turned out to be a good thing in some ways. I found out that my dad would actually pay for me to fly home early & for us all to go to the funeral in Utah this coming week. In fact, he was fairly insistent that I return to TN as quickly as I could. Since he isn't the most sentimental man, this surprised me a bit. And it made me happy.
And, I get more time at home with the family, which is usually a good thing. And I get to go to Utah & see some old friends. Yay!

true confessions of a bored mind

when i was bored in lusaka, i should have thought about life in k-town & then it would have seemed a lot more exciting.

everytime i come home, my family leaves me home alone for hours. today they are all at work or band camp (ha ha, Babes!). and last night, my 1st night back home since April, my mom went over to her friend's house to visit & left me at home alone. wow, mom, i feel so loved right now.

a bitter irony

Before I left for Africa I went to visit my New Jersey grandparents. They are both 95 years old, and every time I've visited them in the last 5 years I think they will die before I see them again. So I try to visit them often & write them letters, etc.

My Utah grandma is almost 87. Since she is younger & has usually been healthier than G&G in NJ, I didn't' really think about her health.

But, since beginning this post 20 minutes ago, I got an email saying my Utah grandma has died. And I'm a million miles away with little hope of getting home for the funeral. I'm really sad.

themes

i hadn't looked at this blog in like, a month since i am mostly into my africa one right now. (don't worry, this one will resume full force in september).
i glanced back through it today & noticed some recent themes.

1) saving the planet
2) feminism
3) boys

hmmmm, i think i need to bring back "things i've learned" b/c i haven't had any random health facts in a while. i'll get on that

yes, i'm a girl

my first serious boyfriend is getting married. he is marrying a girl i have know since i was 18 & think is fabulous. and i think they would be an awesome couple & hope they are super happy forever. and i was the one with a new boyfriend, life, & interests when he came back from his mission. and i've had ex-boyfriends get married before & not cared. but with this one, i'm kinda sad.

the complexities of my refuse system

now that i live in decatur a whole new world of eco-friendliness has opened up. decatur has curbside recycling for things other than just plastic & aluminum (they also take stuff like cereal boxes, paper, etc.). they also charge you for trash by volume so it is wise to recycle as much as possible. as i've been moving in i've generated a fair amount of refuse to dispose of. so far i've sorted it all into 5 different piles.

target bag: plastic bags to recycle at kroger (note cool new canvas shopping bags in background to prevent future plastic bag usage)
kroger bag: actual trash for the garbage truck

blue bag: curbside recycling
box: recycling to be dropped off at whole foods (cardboard, type 4&5 plastics)

compost for my compost bin in my backyard

who knew throwing things away could get so complicated?

girl power, episode 2

my bishopric either thinks the girls in our ward have severely low self-esteem or the guys are all misogynists. that's right - we had another sacrament meeting focused on girl power. the talks were actually really good this week. they were:

1) "The Joy of Womanhood"
2) "The Savior Desires Mothers & Fathers to Help One Another as Equal Partners"
3) Our Sacred Duty to Honor Women"

i'm going to go with the misogynist argument since during the vast majority of these talks the guys i was sitting with where drawing pictures of animals eating each other. then after church when i told them they should honor me by cooking me dinner, they just laughed at me. they clearly hate women.

a typical conversation with my grandmother

My grandparents live about 10 minutes from the Jersey shore so I decided to hit the beach yesterday. When I told my grandmother about my plans, she immediately began worrying about my safety (worrying is her favorite hobby). Even after discussing my successful international travels & consequent ability to go to the beach alone, we had this conversation:

Do you have enough gas?
Yes, Grandma.
Now when you are at the beach, don’t talk to strange men you don’t know. They may want to hurt you or rob you.
Ok, Grandma. I think I’ll be alright.
Now, you have a cell phone, right? If something happens to you, use your phone to call 911.
Ok, Grandma.
When you leave the car, make sure to thoroughly lock all the doors of the car. And make sure the trunk is locked too.
Ok, Grandma. (thinking: No one is going to break into your 1992 Ford Taurus)
Do you know how to get to the shore? Do you need a map?
I know how to get there, Grandma. I’ll be fine.
You can just take 36 all the way to the ocean.
Ok, Grandma.
Call us if you have any problems. Do you have our phone number?
Yes, Grandma.
Grandpa pipes in: "Meda, she'll be fine. Just let her go"
Ok, well, after you get the car from the garage, honk as you drive by the house to let me know you are leaving.
Ok, Grandma. Bye, Grandma.

i love my grandparents

my grandparents are awesome. they are going to 95 this year & still live in the house they bought before my mother was born. they've been a huge influence on my life - my liberal views certainly didn't come from my father. i don't talk to them on the phone very often, but i write them letters about twice a month (my grandfather seems to think the postal service is superior the the telephone) and try to visit at least once a year. one of my favorite visits was this past december. although i had told them Boy & I were coming, they had forgotten. their normal housekeeper had some emergency that day so when Boy & I showed up that afternoon, my grandmother was convinced that our mom had sent us to "rescue them" - ie, cook them supper. i don't think she ever realized that it had all be planned months in advance.

i just had lunch with my grandfather during which we discussed various tropical fruits, the effect of fish oil on his loosened sphincter muscles, & taenia cases (a parasite found in beef & pork - as we ate roast beef & salami). i love talking to my grandfather about health stuff, because he knows so much about diseases that aren't really issues these days. he was a doctor on St.Croix during the 1940s for the Public Health Service and saw some interesting things. last time i was here he busted out his pictures from the leper colony he oversaw & pictures of his patients with lymphatic filariasis (the elephant-man disease). they were disgustingly awesome.

my grandfather is also very socially conscious. when i was a kid, we were always getting things from organizations such as the WWF (world wildlife fund) and UNICEF from them. yesterday i went through his desk drawer & made a list of organizations in which he holds a current membership card:

ACLU
Americans United for Separation of Church & State
People for the American Way
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Concord Coalition
International Rescue Committee
Techno Serve (a micro-finance group)
American Medical Association
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Drug Policy Alliance (which supports, among other things, the legalization of medicinal marijuana)
Oxfam
2 different public TV stations (PBS stuff)
League of Conservation Voters
National Wildlife Federation
Rainforest Alliance
American Rivers
Earth Justice
Nature Conservancy
Defenders of Wildlife
Sierra Club
Cornell Plantations

(if you are still wondering where i get my eco-friendly leanings, note the 9 eco-centered groups above...)

types of transportation i used yesterday

i came to visit my grandparents in NJ for a few days before i go to zambia. here's how i got to their house:

1) Walked to MARTA
2) MARTA to airport (MARTA=subway)
3) Airplane to Newark Airport
4) Airport Monorail to train station
5) NJ Transit train to the city of Red Bank
6) Taxi from Red Bank to Eatontown (cost $10.50 - dang good price for driving 2 boroughs away!)

i only wish i could have gotten biking in there somewhere.

my work here is done

a few days ago i took out the recycling & forgot to put out a new bag. when i cam home the next day, my roommate had not only put out a new bag, but it was also full of plastic bottles. she even remembered her yogurt cup could be recycled. i'm so proud

finals week

wednesday:
studied all day
one epi final

thursday:
$100 on clothes & shoes (2 skirts, 2 pairs of shoes)
$10 lunch
$10 "end of finals" dinner with the boys (they were all done...i had 2 left)
home at 12:30am

friday:
$10 ethiopian lunch with GH lab group
$20 trivia night with church friends
one-half of an epi final
home at 3am

saturday:
trip to the art museum to see a georgia o'keefe show with relief society
$50 dinner with best emory friend
$10 movie (Ironman - crap) with mormons
home at 1am

sunday:
refrained from going out to eat & staying out past 9pm
second half of epi final

monday:
HIV final
$25 on polo shirts at old navy
$10 Cinco de Mayo dinner at a fabulous Cuban place with church friends
hookah & drinks on emory friend's porch (i partook only in the conversation)
home at midnight

one of my most expensive, but most enjoyable finals weeks ever!

i'm a wheel - i will turn on you

i've been having a lot of weird dreams lately. first, i dreamt about cats 2 nights in row. i thought it was b/c my roommate's cat & i are in a fight (she thinks my clean towels are a good place for her to sit. i disagree), but, according to the dream dictionaries i found online, cats symbolize bad omens & betrayal. then i dreamt a good friend from school broke into my car & stole a bunch of stuff. and last night i dreamt that another friend was making up all these lies. dreams with betrayal themes 4 nights in a row...is God trying to prepare me for something?

self-esteem sunday

this past sunday the theme in sacrament meeting was "women should feel good about themselves". we had 2 talks on feeling God's love and 1 on the divine role of women. i am impressed with our progressive bishopric for even thinking to assign a talk about women, but the poor awkward boy they chose to give it made it all the better. he is an 18 year old guy going to GA Tech (all guys at GA Tech have meager social skills at best). he was extremely nervous & it was easy to see that he really did love his mom & sisters and wanted women to feel good about themselves, but just didn't quite know how to get that across.

so he started out talking about "gender equality". i perked up at those words and started poking PC (despite his best efforts to be pro-woman, i am convinced he has sexist feelings toward Hillary Clinton). the guy giving the talk was trying to make the point that men & women should be unified; however, instead of using a scripture like "neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord" (1stCor11:11), he busted out with "the head of every woman is the man"(1stCor11:3) .....i'm still not sure how that supports gender equality, but most of the girls in the ward had a good laugh about it later.

he then moved on to modesty. it actually really annoys me that every talk that has anything to do with women always includes modesty. i like to think that womanhood has more complex & relevant issues to discuss that why showing our shoulders is sinful. *sigh*

anyway, at least he had a slightly original take, which was mostly marveling at how girls are so good at altering their clothes to make them modest: "...i mean, you can just add a t-shirt *laughter in the congregation* , um, that is not exactly what i meant, i meant that - well, i know my sisters have a hard time finding modest clothes and they can change clothes and make them modest & the guys should tell the girls they appreciate all the effort the girls do to make their clothes modest because it is hard..." he finished up by talking about how great the women in his family were & how his family would not be as unified without them.

overall, it was a sweet attempt to make girls feel good & i'm glad it was given by such a self-conscious kid. it made it harder for me to be offended :)

i used to sneak in, into your room

Boy came to visit last weekend for a few days. We had a fabulous time seeing the sights of Atlanta & just sitting around. Here are some of the highlights:

The Coke museum - in the tasting room. My favorites were the pineapple drink from South Africa & the green apple soda from Hong Kong.

Boy in the Botanical Gardens. He is even mean to baby frog statues. What a horrible person.

Me riding a sheep in the children's garden.

Maybe next year he'll make it to the 4 foot mark

my first ever purchase of beef

i was finally victorious in the meat section of the supermarket! last week i purchased some kind of raw beef steak thing. Boy, who was visiting for a few days, actually picked them out & cooked them, but it still counts.

Another gem from the Kingsport Times-News

Boy has kindly started cutting out the best of my hometown paper's editorials and saving them for me. i'm not sure if the polar bear letter can ever be topped, but this one is stiff competition. the last sentence says it all:






I write this letter to honor one of America's great men. More important to me, one of the South's greatest men. I am talking about Jefferson Davis. June 3 is his 200th birthday, born in 1808.
He was secretary of war for the USA, but like most wouldn't go against his beloved South. He became the president.
Davis was offered amnesty by Lincoln in 1864. When David heard of it he wrote back. "Amnesty, sir, applies to criminals. We have committed no crime. At your door lies all the misery and crime of this war. We are fighting for independence and that or extermination we will have. You may emancipate every Negro in the Confederacy, but we will be free, we will govern ourselves. If we have to see every Southern plantation sacked and every Southern city in flames."
These words make me proud to say I am a great-grandson of a Southern soldier, and I was born in the Confederate state of Tennessee. Remember one thing. Great people are in the eyes of the winner, though the loser may have greater people.

i am physically incapable of refusing free food

the Manorexic's father said that in sunday school once (i leave it to you to figure out the gospel application). i have to agree with him. this week i've brought in quite the haul from my school. it is national public health week so they are having lots of celebrations (& lots of free stuff for me!)

my spoils in the past 3 days:

muffins & fruit breakfast
bagged lunch (sandwich, chips, orange, cookies)
mexican food lunch
cookies
ice cream
bagel breakfast
local & organic foods picnic (pasta, beans, chicken, corn)
sorbet
pizza
brownies
a myriad of free drinks (beer, coffee, & others!)

4 canvas tote bags (2 blue, 2 green)
coffee cup
hand sanitizer
chapstick
t-shirt
reading light
a few pens
water bottle
2 eco-friendly light bulbs

supermarket, part II

i went back to the store today b/c i ran out of milk. i was tempted to look at the meat again. i almost made it to the meat case, but i was distracted by the ice cream. luckily.

global warming, part 2

i saw an interesting ad on television today. the theme was that america doesn't wait for others to save us. first they cited WWII (i think we did kinda wait a while on that one, but whatever), then the civil rights movement, & finally sending the man to the moon. it ended by saying we can't wait for others to fix climate change either. it was an interesting spin on global warming. as in, if you don't do something about climate change you're unpatriotic. very shrewd, i thought.

adventures in the supermarket

today i bought a 1 lb. box of honey nut cheerios for $2. they were on sale and i had a 75 cent coupon that i swiped from my neighbor's newspaper (they were out of town & had free samples of cereal & coupons in their paper. i couldn't just leave them there!) it was my proudest cereal buying moment ever.

i also spent about 10 minutes staring at the cuts of beef in the meat section. i almost got up my courage to purchase uncooked meat, but in the end i flaked out. i started remembering the things i read about the beef industry in "fast food nation" so i went and bought black beans instead.

movin on up

one of my goals this year was to be more independent. i've done decently well, but i still have a long ways to go. in my continual quest for personal growth, i decided to live alone next year. i felt a bit apprehensive about signing the lease, but the place was pretty much perfect. so i signed without even calling my mother so she could tell me to do it. (she had told me a month earlier to do it when i told her of the possibility, but that doesn't count, right?)
i'm slightly concerned that i might be lonely, go crazy, & start talking to my furniture or shampoo bottles. but, i figure i've made enough friends in atlanta that i'll be okay & i've always wanted to live alone, so i'm going to have a go of it. if my posts start talking about hair products too often though, someone should probably let me know.

sleeping lessons

generally i enjoy nature. but, i hate the birds that sit in the tree next to my window and start chirping away at 6am everyday. if i weren't so opposed to killing animals for sport i might borrow PC's roommate's gun to take care of the problem.

everybody's changing, but i don't feel the same

last week i turned over a new leaf. after the rather poor class attendance rates of late, i decided to see what it would be like to go to all of my classes in the same week. it took a lot of will power to make it to my 9am class on wednesday, but i attended every single lab, lecture, & small group session.
i also was a super-over-achiever at church. last week i attended FHE, institute, enrichment, a ward activity, & church. and i worked a 5 hour kitchen shift in a food kitchen in downtown Atlanta.
by the end of the week i was totally exhausted. going to all those classes & church things wore me out. so i decided to turn the leaf back over to where it was. i'm skipping class right now actually. its nice to be back to mediocrity.

wes anderson, part 2

i watched The Royal Tenenbaums on TV this morning before church (a good way to spend the Sabbath). if only it had been filmed in my house...

I like to dream yes, yes, right between my sound machine

last night i had a dream that my parents bought yet another house (i think they are collecting property). instead of a fancy new house they bought this weird old place. then wes anderson showed up & asked if he could film his next film in our new house. i was pretty stoked. the rest of my dream i kept trying to get ahold of PopularBloggingFriend so she could come over & meet wes. waking up was pretty depressing.

strange currencies

I met a few interesting people yesterday. The first was President Carter. I was standing in the lobby of my school talking to the TimeSucker. A bunch of men in suits got out of the elevator and walked over to us. Then I noticed that one of the men was Jimmy Carter. He said hello, shook our hands, & left. It was kinda random.

About 30 minutes later I was in the ladies loo before class. I heard a girl talking to another person, whom had a distinctly male voice. At first I thought "what is a guy doing in the ladies' loo?". Upon exiting my stall I quickly realized that the very masculine voice was coming from a tall blond lady. Apparently she is a transsexual who gives lectures at colleges & stuff about life as a transsexual. She seemed pretty cool.

I was pretty excited. I don't usually run into former presidents and transsexuals within the same hour. I guess Emory just brings people together.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag

Today is my mother's 60th birthday. To celebrate such a significant milestone I sprung for a more expensive card then normal. It was really pretty & made by a paper company, Papyrus, whose symbol is the hummingbird. Unfortunately, there was a little slip of paper included with the card with the following message on it:

Legends say that hummingbirds float free of time, carrying our hopes for love, joy and celebration. The hummingbird's delicate grace reminds us that life is rich, beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning and that laughter is life's sweetest creation.

someone was seriously paid to write that tripe. as lovely as the card was, i don't know if i can support this company anymore.

visiting friends

while i was in utah i saw a lot of people. when i visited some of my friends they told me about their woes - health problems, lack of suitors, crazy families & so on. with other friends we just talked about random fun stuff or i complained about my crazy family.

my favorite conversation was when i went to see the Manorexic. i walked into his room & promptly began commenting on things i found therein. after a few minutes he said, "is there anything else you want to mock before we go eat?" even though i was hungry, i found a few more things before we left. how could i resist when he makes it so easy?

a poster similar to the one on the Manorexic's wall. his is much larger & more complex though. for those of you who don't know already, it is a bunch of biochemical symbols. v. cool.

zion, vol.2

i spend my spring break in utah. my roommate's friends said "Utah?? Who goes to Utah for spring break?" answer: mormons.

my favorite thing about utah is all the mormons and the hilarity that they produce:

case 1) i pull up to the visitor's parking gate at BYU & tell the guy i'm not a student. he clearly thinks i'm lying since the car i'm driving has BYU parking passes in the windshield. i tell him the car isn't mine (technically this is true) and i don't even live in utah. he looks at me with pity & kindly says, "really? you should. utah is wonderful!".......yeah, no thanks. i've done my time.

case 2) i go to a class with ChurchGirl. we start with a prayer from the infamous PrayerWhisperer. i immediately knew it was her, even before ChurchGirl told me. class goes on with phrases such as "it is incumbent upon us" being thrown around like ultra-righteous golden nuggets of wisdom.

case 3) as i cross a street in front of temple square i run into an elder from my mission. this is not the first time this has happened to me in SLC - the great gathering place of all mormons.

blowin in the wind

well the excitement never ends in atlanta. i came home just in time for some excessive turbulence on the flight in & a few tornadoes blowing through the town. yay.

ain't sayin she's a gold digger

while i was in Utah i ate lunch with a friend who recently got married. she has also became a vegetarian. apparently her husband has a crazy vegan millionaire aunt who has promised $250,00 to any vegetarian in the family in her will. the same day my friend discovered this clause she also discovered an aversion to meat. funny how that happens.

the land of zion

I'm in Zion this week. It has been quite surreal. Here are a few things I've noticed:

1) people here are aggressively friendly. it is kinda scary
2) mountains are big
3) BYU is seriously the PDA capital of the world
4) there are a lot of mormons here, hence a lot of weird mormon movies and books
5) all the billboards are about buying a more impressive house or improving physical appearance

the life of a dedicated student

one of my friends here told me today that i skip class more than anyone else she knows. this semester i am scheduled to be in class for 18 hours every week. as of tuesday evening, i've been to 1.5 hours of class. tomorrow I have some tests & a presentation so I have to be in the classroom for at least 4.5 hours. total: 6 hours of class. i think 33% of the time is pretty good, personally.

things i've learned 4

1. Even when I have multiple exams, papers, and presentations due in the next 24 hours, I can still find time to watch at least 2 episodes of Arrested Development

2. My attention span when studying maxes out at about 20 minutes

3. The dreariness of making study sheets for epidemiology is greatly improved when you can use the abbreviation "F-up" in your notes

this post was organically grown

i've be accused of being an earth-loving hippie more than once. in some ways it is accurate: i religiously recycle (including going through my kitchen trash daily to remove recyclables my roommate has carelessly thrown away & saving all my junk till i take it school to recycle in the paper bins), i bring my own bag to the grocery store, i started a garden, i take public transport to school, i try to conserve water, & i try to buy truly eco-friendly products (my shower curtain is bio-degradable!)

but when i start feeling good about my granola-y life, i pay my Canadian friend a visit to remind myself of the truth. last night she & her husband hosted a pizza party in their completely 2nd hand furnished apartment. not only was the whole wheat dough and sauce homemade, so was the cheese. all the vegetables were from the farmers market, as were the spices. of course there was no meat b/c the meat industry destroys the environment. even the cornmeal for the bottom of the crust was from the mexican grocery store. the only thing not bought at the local market was the beer, which was bought at the local package store from the local brewery. (it was the best pizza i've ever had)

at the end of the night my fake dolce&gabbana purse and i drove off in my infinti pondering what a corporate sellout i am. earth-loving hippie? maybe someday i'll really reach that level. until then i will continue to search through my kitchen trash & admire my truly earth-loving friends.

polar bears will do just fine

A recent letter to the editor from my home town's newspaper:

Although the polar bear is a symbol of the liberal deception known as global warming, it is perhaps the least plausible symbol. If all the ice in the Arctic were to melt, the polar bears would still survive long enough to find land since they are mostly aquatic. Those few pictures of polar bears sitting alone on ice floes are due to the quick finger of their photographers, because the next second after it was photographed, the bear most likely jumped off into the sea. Their scientific name translates as "bear of water." They are great swimmers, doing most of their hunting by diving into holes in the ice and killing the seals that happen to be swimming under the ice. They sleep on land most of the time, but if a man can sleep by floating on his back, then a polar bear can. You might assume that they couldn't possibly stay in the water for days on end, but as a matter of fact, the bears' black skin is completely covered with white fur except on their noses. Even the soles of its feet are covered in fur.

But, according to most scientists, the world is warming anyway, and that shouldn't be a problem. It turns out that the only thing a polar bear couldn't do in the water is give birth, because they dig tunnels in the snow to warm their newborn cubs. But, I'm sure the bears could make it to land long before their survival came down to the birth of their cubs.

The Arctic melt is not the fault of mankind. The last time Mount Pinatubo, an active volcano in the Philippines, erupted it emitted more than a thousand times the ozone-depleting chemicals than all the fluorocarbons manufactured by corporations in history. This volcano has been doing this for thousands of years - billions according to the old Earth mindset. Global warming is a natural process that can't be stopped or started by humans. It's egotistical to think that mankind, having been here a short time even by old Earth beliefs, could do as much damage as we are blamed for.


The best part: The guy who wrote this editorial is one of the assistant principles at my little sister's high school. I'm sure she's getting a great education....

thanks to Boy for cutting the letter out & showing it to me

recent accomplishments

last summer i had a conversation that made me think about how much i'd progressed as a person in the past few years. after the conversation ended i cried for a while & then sent an email to my mission companion about what a loser i was.

while i was on my mission i had my life figured out. i knew my role (slightly rebellious, but diligent missionary girl) & i was good at it. i usually felt confident and happy. but when i came home from my mission, i felt completely lost and surprisingly insecure. to deal with the lifestyle change & massive separation anxiety i had without a companion, i immediately threw myself back into school, work, & a relationship. i went through this process so quickly that i never figured out who i was or what i wanted to be as an individual. my entire last year at BYU i felt like i was in survival mode, barely scraping by. the last couple months i was in provo things started to stabilize, but i soon left for a transient summer. i had the aforementioned conversation at the end of the summer, a few days before i started grad school. at the time i felt like i hadn't changed since i was 20 & that my hobbies consisted of shopping & watching MTV dating shows.

maybe i needed a change of scenery or a new school, but now that i have been in atlanta for 6 months, i've realized that maybe i am not a total loser after all. and, i've stabilized enough to actually expand my life a bit. here is a list of my progress in the past 6 months:

* i learned how to knit & even though i'm not very good yet, i have grand ambitions
* i started running & hiking (and even the occasional rock climbing) again
* i started playing piano at least twice a week at the church and remembered that piano will always be my first love in hobby-land
* i planted a vegetable garden so i can grow my own produce
* i completely re-made my social circle and have friends ranging from uber-conservative mormons to hippie lesbians to elitist new yorkers, all whom i enjoy spending time with
* i got a student membership at the art museum & actually go to it
* most importantly, i've finally gotten over my psychotic need to always have someone with me and even voluntarily choose to be alone occasionally

and even though i spent an hour watching dating shows on MTV this evening, i finally feel like maybe i've started to grow up.

for a moment you're eyes open

yesterday was rather crappy:
*the train left 4 minutes earlier than scheduled so it took me almost 1.5 hrs to get to school b/c i missed it, thus just missing my bus
*it poured rain all day
*most annoying, i was trapped eating lunch with the TimeSucker (because the guys i'm actually friends with flaked) & remembered the many reasons i dislike him.

but then, as i actually made it home before dark for the 1st time this week, i noticed that all the redbud trees in my apartment complex are in bloom. there's nothing like little pink flowers blooming in February to make a girl feel happier.

you can fake it for a while, bite your tongue & smile...

back to speed dating: whoever invented it was actually fairly smart b/c in only 2 minutes per guy i figured out i have no interest in any mormon guy in atlanta. i saved so much time! actually i really enjoyed chatting with the guys i'm already friends with, which is probably why i am friends with them. unfortunately, i'd never met the majority of the guys there before & most of them were insanely dull:
*sooo, what do you like to do for fun?
i like to hike (really thinking:i like it when you get up & leave)
oh, me too. i love hiking
yeah, do you know any good hikes near atlanta?
ummmmmmm, no
oh (thinking: what an idiot. why didn't i just say, 'you creep me out. lets sit in silence for the next 1.95 minutes')

the last guy i was forced to talk to was by far the worst of the bunch. it was pretty much like speed dating Dwight from the office:
dogs or cats? (no hello, no introduction - this is literally the 1st thing he said to me. i'm sure he thinks he is very creative)
dogs, but i live with a cat. its my roommate's
if you killed it, you could have a dog
ummmm, nevermind, lets just say i hate all animals
books or movies?
it depends
no, you have to pick one (do i really have to, creepy bald man? i don't think so)
fine, movies, but only if they're good
you're awfully non-committal. but i agree, some movies are horrible. like ones from france. And italy.
i took a french & italian film class & loved it. french films are my favorite. (abort! abort! how do we still have 1.5 minutes left?)
[few seconds later]
i'm studying to be a chiropractor at life college (he then went on to bash doctors, pharmaceutical medicine, etc.)
both my parents are physicians & i study public health (meaning: i think you are a complete freak who knows little to nothing about how medicine works)
oh, look, time's up!

there were only 2 guys i found remotely interesting. one was an international broker & we bonded over a mutual love for eastern europe until he told me he wasn't actually in my ward (i suspect he is finishing up a divorce). the other interesting guy was super hot & we talked about music for a while, but once i realized he was still in undergrad i lost interest there as well. Boy tells me i am too picky but (unlike my bishop) i don't think i need to settle just yet.

*these conversations actually happend exactly as recorded

i have excellent news for myself

1. obama won va & md!
2. the writer's strike is over!!
3. the manorexic is coming to visit me in march!!!

has it really come to this?

i went speed dating on monday. what possesssed me to do this? mostly the need to go to costco, which required PC's membership & presence. after costco his car went to FHE & i was still inside it. there was nothing i could do. stupid tasty dried fruit mix....

the beat goes on

last sunday the bishop gave me a new calling. while he had me trapped in his office, he said, "you know, you are going to have to get married eventually". i mumbled some non-committal like "heh, yeah, maybe..." & he dropped it. in retrospect i should have said, "hey, i'm not opposed to it, but have you seen the options in this ward? no thanks for now." this is the 1st time a bishop has informed me that my biological clock is ticking. have i really reached the age where i am so old that i need to start throwing myself at anything with a Y-chromosome in hopes that i can get one to marry me? i don't think so, bishop.

hate to say i told you so

Mitt Romney (or, "Mittens" as a school friend likes to call him) dropped out of the Republican primary today. If you'll notice, my previous post predicted his demise. I'm always right.
Except when it comes to Huckabee - who saw that coming? I am ashamed to say both my home state & the one I currently reside in went to Huckabee. WTF? Just b/c he is 1) Southern and 2) a former preacher does NOT mean he would be a good president. But, that is all the people down here seem to care about. And we wonder why the rest of the country thinks Southerns are stupid...

it is almost over...

my poorly-researched opinions on the various presidential candidates:

1. Mitt - he's mormon so I expect him to have decent morals (i may be overestimating him). he was a good governor & i liked his healthcare plan there. he's also a xenophobe who said he'd like to double gitmo. i think he is dead in the water so it doesn't really matter either way

2. McCain - the only one i refer to by last name. maybe b/c of j.edwards. i wish with all my heart mccain had won the primary 8 years ago. (if he had i might still consider myself a conservative) *sigh* he's always been an independent thinker, but has been sucking up to the GOP the past few years. he's been a bit blasé about the torture issue, but he wore a grinch tie on a TV interview once & i've like him ever since. he'd be probably be okay if the GOP wins

3. Barack - his name is a derivative of the name "baraka" which means "blessings" in swahili. he seems like a decent option. his healthcare plan is also good. he is the only candidate that opposed the war from the beginning so he must be fairly intelligent & independently-minded. of all the candidates i think he'd be the best for foreign policy. old-white-man presidents from america haven't set a very good precedent lately & hillary could struggle in areas where women are not respected. but, more liberal than hillary & i prefer moderation.

4. Hillary - i simultaneous love & fear her. she is smart, fairly moderate, & a woman. has a lot of experience and has a more global view than some others. i do think her health plan is a bit overzealous. the biggest problem with hillary is that i think mccain could beat her - she is so vilified. i would hate to have another 4 yrs with the GOP running the country. people dislike her b/c they think she is power hungry. i think this is latent chauvinism, but will avoid a rant on that right now.