Oh mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law

I'm normal. Like other sane people, I have pet peeves -those little, would-be insignificant things that some people do that irritate me to no end. That funny noise people make with their mouths when they are "chewing" without anything in their mouth -yea that's one of them. Another? On a narrow path, if someone is coming toward you, just move over to the right for crying out loud. Don't be a hog, don't force the other person off the path -share the pavement. Especially, especially if you're walking with someone else -just because there are two of you and only one of me, that doesn't give you automatic right to take up the entire walkway. Walk single file for five stinkin' feet -I promise, it won't harm you in any way. I can't be the only one who finds these little every day occurrences annoying, can I? Probably. Bahh.

So the weeks are practically flying by right now. It's only the end of school-week four, and I can't believe it's already another weekend. I think it helps that I don't have any classes on Fridays, so my work week pretty much ends Thursday night after my WH night class. So far I've managed to scoot by only working and studying on a weekly need. Now that February is in full force, I should probably shift my focus more toward the future and see what homework/papers/hand-ins I can complete now, ahead of time, in order to clear my schedule for studying -err, *ahem* fun things...- in the future. See, I come up with some fantastic scheduling plans and ideas, and I do really well implementing them for a little while, but after a few days I always, always end up missing something -and it's really hard to reschedule something when the schedule's already set, y'know? For example, this weekend I have plans to finish some of next week's homework early because of Disney week (I'll explain in a minute), but something will inevitably come up and I'll not finish as much as I would have hoped to. As you can imagine, this makes it extremely difficult when multiple assignments are due back to back or on the same day. Bahh, I really need to pray for some diligence.

Here at the college, every year they host a Disney week, kind of the fun, let-your-immature-side-out kinda event. From Monday to Friday there are multiple games, events, prize drawings, and such all in the them of Disney, and on Friday night the cafeteria gets decked out to look like a scene of some Disney movie and the theme continues when we pack into the lounge of one of the dorms and watch the Disney movie that corresponds with the theme. In that past, they've done Aladdin and The Lion King -as a major kid-at-heart type, I have got to say it was pretty epic. The ASBers do such a splendid job with the caf, and the trivia for free Disney memorabilia is fun. Not to mention the Mickey Hunt during the week that awards the top two winners a free ticket to Disney. Oh yea, Saturday is the main event: a large number of the student populous carpools down to Anaheim and we spend the day acting fools in Disneyland itself. Tell me, does it really get any better? I think not. This whole event comes a month or so into the semester and a few weeks a month -ish before Spring break, so even though we don't get classes off it's still a fun in-between 'break' just when crunch time sets in. I, being the Disney fool I am, can't pass up the opportunity to participate every year. Especially since the school is able to sell us the DLR tickets for $35, $10 of which will go toward Disney dollars for a meal in the park. It's irresistible, f'reals. Don't judge me. hah.

Ohh I can't believe it took me this long to remember to mention this, but after very much deliberation and the general consensus that a new one was needed, I finally upgraded my iPod. That is to say, I've retired my poor, 5-year-old 2 gig nano and I am now a proud owner of a 32 gig iTouch 4gen ! This is a big thing for me. Being a December baby, all my Christmas-slash-birthday money gets spent on gifts for others, and the leftovers I put aside in my account for groceries and dorm necessities when I move back on campus just after the holidays. This is the first big-ticket item I've bought for myself since the digital camera in 1999 that has been outdated since 2000. hah. So anywho, I practically drove myself insane deciding to spend that much money on one item, but now that I have it I'm glad I caved. Now, dislike the iPhone -I think it has too many unnecessary features- and I still primarily needed a new iPod for musical pleasure, so it's been argued that maybe I should have gone for the classic instead. Well, originally that was my plan. I was going to find an old classic, like 5th gen or so, and just buy a gently used one for maximum song storage. But after some searching and finding out that even used classic's are still quite expensive, I just decided to splurge for once. I also was determined to get a Psych hard case, identical to the case Shawn has for his iPhone on Psych. But the USA network has yet to make one for the iTouch, and the iPhone one was overpriced anyway, so instead I bought a bright green case and I'll just make a custom Psych logo sticker to paste to the back when I get some free time. It won't have the black bottom 1/3 unless I can find a way to paint it, but I'm quite all right with just the green. It's very pretty by itself. =]

As an ending note, I'm extremely desperate to get to a concert soon. I haven't had the opportunity to go to one in months (aside from a small in-house concert back in January...but it doesn't count). A friend of mine just went to a Styxx concert. STYXX. I'm still insanely jealous. I should check out who'll be in Arizona during my Spring break, and Coles and I can roadtrip it out there. That'd be super.

Time to trek it back up the hill to C-dub hall. Stay sharp, y'all.

Going, going, I'm gone away,

Jess

I can go anyway, I can live anyhow, I can go anywhere

So the semester is in full swing now, with week two coming to an end, and I'm once again finding I have less and less time to do the fun things I want to. Now, the afternoons that I'm not in class are spent up in my dormroom doing homework and the evenings after dinner are spent reading textbooks. Fun stuff, no? There is actually one exception, though. See I'm taking an English class all about studying Jane Austen's works, so luckily that means that some of that reading I have to do isn't from textbooks, but rather classic novels like Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. This makes me pretty happy, not gonna lie. Unfortunately the issue becomes putting an Austen book down to start reading for another class, heh.

One escape I can afford during the school months comes by way of music. I'm one of those non-committal, indecisive types who says they like all genres of music and don't have a singular favorite artist, except in my case it's really true. I can name multiple favorite artists by genre and/or decade, and my playlists are always extremely diverse. But if you asked me what my favorite songs are, even by category, I'd be lost for an answer -or if I did give an answer, it'd probably change by the next morning. In retrospect, I don't think I really have favorite artists in the true sense of the term...That is to say, if I told you one of my favorite bands is Band of Horses, that doesn't mean that I know allll their songs, it basically means I recognize and enjoy their personal style of music. Of course there are some others, like The Who for instance (I sincerely love The Who), who have so many great songs that I do happen to know a great deal of them (I won't say all, just in case). That being said, I have no personal problem with any specific artists -it annoys me to no end whenever I hear someone bashing an artist, someone whom they have no personal connection and can't possibly know their personal life and likely get their information from tabloids (coincidently I also think tabloids are pointless and crappy, and I never trust a word printed in them). Most of Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus' songs would very likely not make it on any of my playlists, but I don't profess that they are terrible or that I hate them/their music. What's the point in that? I don't like any of their songs particularly, so I don't listen to them. Bashing them publicly does nothing for me. I just figure most people need to hate on those whose names are more famous than their own in order to feel better about themselves. Poor chaps need a self-confidence course, seriously.

That was a bit of a long rant, my badness. So now a bit of sad news. It has been a bit over a week since my last post, so I haven't been able to share this yet, but last week I found out that the mission trip to Northern Ireland that I was trying to get on filled up its limit for girls, so I won't be able to go. Depressing, eh? I was sincerely looking forward to my first overseas trip. And it was to IRELAND. Pity. I've come to terms with it and all, anyhow. Oh well. I'll get there eventually, so look out world. =]

So one of those fun things I haven't had a chance to do lately is re-color my hair. Now, I am thoroughly decided against dying my pretty blonde hair; I'm quite partial to its color, and I wouldn't want to lighten it or go brunette or anything. But I do believe in having some fun; a few days before returning to campus (now just over two weeks ago) I dyed a bright blue peek-a-boo patch, and it's begun to fade to an icy blue instead of the electric blue it originally was. I've been meaning to brighten it up, but that takes a lot of free time (well, not a lot a lot, but I'm doing it myself and it's bound to take some time) and since I have three night classes in the week, along with working kid care one night, I find my nights are kinda busy. Blah. Hopefully I can manage enough time to knock it out Friday night.

Speaking of kids care -one more thing before I sign off- can I just say I lovelovelove working with little kids. They're so much fun ! I can color with them, or read silly kids books, or sing with them, or play with puzzles, and they're fascinated with whatever we decide to do. On Wednesday nights I take over nursery duty for a couple hours for parents who attend a growth group at the church I attend while at the college, so every Wednesday night I get to be a little immature -it's the perfect job for me, hahah.

Well, I think I've taken too much time from my reading. Time to finish the requirements for tonight, joyy. I shall return to ramble my nonsense again one day. For now, I entrust you with the task of listening to at least one full album of The Who's. I dare you not to love them.

Gung hay fat choy !

Jess

Pull out your wallet, put it in the air and sing..

Success ! I am pleased with myself for remembering my new duties of writing here. You may think this a minor achievement...don't judge me, I find happiness in the little things. hahah

So I'm currently sitting in my dorm room with my course schedule laid out in front of me, trying to tally up how many arms textbooks are gonna cost me this semester. Can I just say, I know everyone complains about how expensive they are, and I'm right there with them, but how come nobody ever does anything about it? I would much rather be spending all this money on some books down at Barnes &Noble or something; with all the money I've spent on textbooks in my college years, I could've thoroughly stocked myself a nice size quality personal library. I very much enjoy reading, and yet I have to spend my small fortune -actually, fortune is the wrong word...- on textbooks that I'm not likely to read through more than once, and sometimes less than that. Ugh. I'm super close to ordering the Leatherbound Classics Jane Austen collection instead of Penguin's Atlas...

But I think what irks me more was what I heard at the booth behind me while I was sitting in the Student Center this afternoon. I'd been there reading for about an hour (I'm trying to finish Memoirs of a Geisha before I lose all my free time to homework) and a group of four or five girls take their seats in the booth at my back -one of them setting down her Coach bag, another unloading her iPad, iPhone, and mac laptop (gag)- and the first conversation they strike up consists of their mutual dislike that one of the girls' J. Crew orders (yes, orderS -plural) hadn't arrived yet; another's mother has not transferred enough money to her student account so she can go shopping in the bookstore for clothes; and a third girl wants to give her $150 flexmeal account balance to someone else because she decided her parents gave her too much and she didn't need the "extra money". After this, one of the girls casually commented that she felt like she "owned this school". Really? Really. It always bothers me that there really are people like this in the world- and I think most of them go to my college. Blahh.

On a positive monetary note today, this morning the school announced it's involvement in a fundraiser partnered with the local pregnancy center in some form of abortion awareness and prevention campaign, so they passed out baby bottles to our entire student population for us each to use as money banks for our spare change, so that we can turn them in as a donation at the end of a month. It's slightly odd to have a baby bottle sitting on my desk, but I must admit it's an affective memory tool. Although, unfortunately, I think that if they simply asked each student for a one dollar donation, they might get more out of it -I've already heard a few people talking about tossing the bottles into the garbage. Sad day.

This post has been filled with monetary remarks or stories...That was unintentional, but when I sat down to type these were the first events of the day that popped into my head. It's not that I'm completely obsessed with it...much. hah. Anywho, shorter entry tonight because with today being the first day of classes I'm off to grab dinner and then head to a night class. Ciao !

Broke, and okay with it,

Jess

A second go. Err...okay, third.

G'd evening, ladies and germs~ Despite the little voices in my head screaming "you're going to get bored of this!" and "why do you bother, silly girl?", I am making a brand new attempt at picking up the habit of blogging. If you happened to know me at all, you'd have probably heard me say -on at least one occasion- that I think the majority of bloggers just want a little attention, but I am trying desperately to put all my previous ideas of blogging aside and start afresh and anew. I am by no means a gifted writer, nor do I have the ability to remember the few interesting things that would actually make for a good blog post, but I'd like to think that I have my own style and view to bring to this thingy and I shall try to remember to write often, to remember the fun things to write, and to not get frustrated and quit when I do forget to write for three weeks. I don't expect anyone to really take interest in this, even though I can be quite witty at times; if you happen to stumble upon my humble little blog and so happen to read the most recent post and laugh at some quirky line or two before leaving the page and thenceforth forget this blog in its entirety, well that is more than I would've expected anyway so, cheers =]

Enough with the chit chat, let's get down to introductions, shall we? My name is Jessica, and you will currently find me holed up in a dorm room at a college somewhere in southern California, about to begin the first semester of my senior year as an undergrad. This moment marks my age at twenty two years, one month, sixteen days, and a handful of hours. I am, fortunately, one of those smart blondes you always hear about but never see. Well, not necessarily *smart* smart, but intelligent enough to give directions and tie my own shoes and whatnot. hah. I very much enjoy laughing, and if at any point in a post I pause to laugh at something that amused me (at which point I'll probably enter a nice "hahah" or "heh", as above) it's just my way of acknowledging some amusing thing or another, so feel free to pass over it without much thought. You'll notice, if you read any length of post written by me, that three things I tend to do (even though it quite annoys some people) is to A)get off topic, sometimes forgetting to get back on, 2) I ramble quite a bit when I write for myself, so skim over it or bear through it if you please, and 3) I have random, sometimes lengthy moments where my thought is understood in totally different ways -I'm not sure how better to explain that, except to say that at one point my writing may come across as quite well-mannered and sophisticated, and lines later I'll use a slang quite uniquely my own. Again, it's probably best to just bear through it, unless it is a pet peeve of yours, in which case I suggest you put a stop to reading any further posts, just to be sure. =]

So I got quite off-topic up their towards the middle of that paragraph, but there's really not much else interesting and distinguishing enough to write about myself at the moment. Except maybe that my aforementioned (and, might I add, natural) blonde hair is currently sporting a bright, electric blue peek-a-boo style as of two nights ago. See, at the university I attend I am on what you'd call "contract" -we won't go into details, but one of the little squabbles they have is with dying ones hair any bright and/or unnatural colors, such as said electric blue. But all is not lost, for I have made use of a very handy loophole: no new colors may be acquired while on contract, it's true. But whilst home over holiday I was quite free to dye away; so long as I have the color before returning to contract, it's all right. Useful, i'n'it? The same said loophole works with the 'no new extravagant piercings' rule, as well. =] That isn't to say I've abused this lovely little friend, as I'm not very partial to facial piercings and I would never consider dying the entirety of my long luscious locks, but it's nice to be able to acquire a new cartilage piercing and some blue tips whilst home. =]

Sooo. Other than this superficial factoids pertaining to myself, I shall add these: I very much enjoy reading; I don't often turn down the opportunity for a good movie night, especially if the movie dates back at least thirty years before I was born; my taste in music is as varied as my socks -which, take my word, is very varied- and my personal 'policy', if you will, on music is to take each song I hear into consideration for liking, regardless of the artist, genre, or era; my close friends are quite humoring, I think, because they put up with me tirelessly, which is saying a whole lot; I lovelove quotes, and quoting movies/songs/books; and probably something that is more of a confession, but a fact nonetheless, is to say that although I am responsible enough to look after myself sufficiently, I very much enjoy acting immature -one such example, I have a beloved fish named Ferbius Amycus Sirius, Ferb in short. Enough said. =]

I think I have contained enough facts and random ramblings for one post. Something in my mind says this is about how a typical post shall be, as much as I dislike recounting my life like someone cares. Oh well. It shall be nice to vent, rant, and release, at least. Cheers, yo !

Ready, set,

~Jess