"I see!" said the blind man....

I figured I should update. Since I haven't in a while.

Had a party last weekend. It was a blast; thanks to those who came. It was wonderful to see great friends of mine again.

I'm searching for a job. This, my friends, sucks.

I am cleaning my room. Both of them. They must be clean. And it must be fast. I must have clean rooms and I must have them now. They must be unpacked and organized. This is blackmail.

Blackmail, you ask? Yes, blackmail. I can't have rats until both rooms are perfectly clean. Evil, legitimate blackmail.

I have new eyes. Well. Not really. But I do have contacts now. I got them on Thursday and I've been getting used to them. I think I shall get more used to them than I ever was after a year of wearing hard contacts a few years ago. (A few meaning about 8-9 years ago...) They're soft contacts. Newer technology has made them much more bearable than they used to be. Unfortunately, atm, my right one is causing my problems. I doubt it'll take them long to fix, though.

The boys are doing well. So are the cats and the dog. And the hermit crabs. And the fish. And my parents. We're all dandy.

Till next time....

Love & Honor

Fight Song

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

Long time no chat. I come to you an alumna of Miami University.

I currently have mixed feelings. Actually, not really. I don't want to be a graduate. I don't want to be an adult. I don't want to look for a job, or GET a job. I don't want to think about the fact I'm not returning to Oxford in the fall. I don't like not knowing what's next. I don't like the realization that I'm 22 years old. I don't like that I'm not going to grad school. I really hate being a graduate. So yeah, don't repeatedly ask me "how's it feel!?" to be a graduate. It sucks. And more or less, I'm sick of that question. Though most of you already know that. And know my feelings on the subject.

Most people I graduated with went "HELL YEAH MIAMI, I AM SO OUT OF HERE!". I was not one of them. And although I wasn't in the majority, I was not alone. Which reassures me. A very little bit.

The commencement cermonies were embarassing. My classmates were stupid. They walked out before bloody Commissioning for goodness sake! You had programs, you idiots! Our keynote speaker, Robin Roberts (Good Morning America and used to be on ESPN sports) was absolutely amazing. It was the only time all day you could hear a pin drop during a speech. Or in general, really. I didn't want her to stop talking. I loved her. Then we went through the yadda yadda of "I now pronounce you a graduate of Miami" or whatever. Though I'm sure it was stated differently. Then for some strange reason they made all x-thousand of us get up and walk across the stage for no reason. At which point 3/4 of the crowd and students left. BEFORE COMMISSIONING! IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR GRADUATION! Rawr. Very rawr. (I also got sunburned during this. I am now peeling dead skin off my face. In case you were curious. ;))

Second ceremony, we had a great lecturer that was a physics student, followed by one of the worst lecturers I'd ever heard. I didn't pay attention (no one did) but when he said "And In Conclusion" (the words of death for a speech btw) half the crowd stood and applauded. HE WASN'T EVEN DONE SPEAKING. Yes, he sucked. No, I didn't listen. But he didn't deserve that. That was plain rude. Jerks.

They need to send out etiquitte guides to people before they graduate. Seriously. These people need help.

My lovely grandparents came up for the ceremonies and all, and we had dinner at Martin. Catered. And after it all, I had to finish moving out.

I had two moments where reality hit me:

1. Commissioning. I realized I was graduating. My friends were now 2d and 2nd Lieutenants in the USAF and USMC (respectively) and Ensigns in the USN. I was now a graduate of Miami University.

2. That echo-y click of the lock on my dorm door. When everything was empty. And the walls were bare. And the floors were bare. And it echoed through the hall. Which was silent. Dead silent. Not a soul there at 11pm at night two days after moveout. And it hit home that I wasn't returning in three months to my home. It really hit home that I wasn't coming back. No more walks at 3 am with Jordan (or Steph, if she had been able to stasy) to the Formal Gardens, no more 15 minute walks to class in the rain, no more random hanging out with my suitemates, no more drop-dead-gorgeous springs or falls, no more Miami. Worst of all, no more Flower. I sobbed for about 15 minutes as I sat against my locked room before heading out to my car where Mom was waiting, and crying another half hour or so. Major major breakdown. And I'm still depressed as hell. And even as I think about it I'm crying. I love Miami. I never thought I'd say that, but it's true. I love Miami. For all its faults and issues, I loved it. I think I always will. I'm still incredibly depressed. For as busy as I've been, I'm very very depressed right now. Which goes back to the question of "How's it feel to graduate?!?" It sucks.


On a better note, I'm returning tomorrow to pick up my cake and a banner that'll be at my party Saturday.

So I've mowed twice since I've gotten home (Monday and Today) and I'm soo sore. Been trying to move back into a house where I don't need half the stuff I had in the dorm, and the rest won't fit into my rooms. >.< Also been cleaning house for the party, cooking for the party (I just spent four hours making little mints for the party. And I am SO very sore.), and stuff of the same general nature.

I am also being blackmailed. No rat allowed until both rooms are clean. -_- *grumble grumble* I want a rat! I miss having ratties to sit on my shoulder. And chew on my clothes. And give me little scratches. I miss em.

I'm also looking at jobs. Which also sucks. Not quite sure how that will turn out, but we shall see.

OH! And there were baby ducks outside today. Four little fuzzies and one mama. I stopped mowing to watch them. Then I realized that I couldn't watch for long because the rain was about to hit, so I needed to finish the lawn. I ended just as it began to rain. Nice timing, eh?

Other news:

Mike: Congrats on graduating! Boo on you not even sticking around enough to say bye. But I hope you had a safe trip home.

Steph: MISS YOU!

Leigh: Sorry I've not been able to chat when you've been online. :-\

Beth and Nick: YAY FOR YOU COMING TO VISIT SATURDAY!

CRISTINA: YOU ARE NOW A 2ND LT! CONGRATS! A newly minted nurse and a newly pinned 2nd LT! YAYYY! You're my hero! I miss you! *hug*

And I shall post graduation pictures. Soon. Once I get around to DLing them. ;)

Alma Mater

Old Miami from thy hillcrest,
Thou hast watched the decades roll,
While thy sons have quested from thee,
Sturdy hearted, pure of soul.

Aging in thy simple splendor,
Thou the calm and they the storm;
Thou didst give them joy in conquest,
Strength from thee sustained their arm.

Now of late thyself envigored,
Larger usefulness awaits;
Hosts assemble for thy blessing,
Youth and maiden throng thy gate.

Thou shalt stand a constant beacon,
Crimson tow'rs against the sky;
Men shall ever seek thy guiding,
Pow'r like thine shall never die.

Chorus (between each verse and at end)
Old Miami! New Miami!
Days of old and days to be;
Weave the story of thy glory,
Our Miami, here's to thee!

Our Miami, alma mater,
Ages old yet ever new;
Sons and daughters from your hillcrest,
Roam the world, yet ne'er leave you.

You've embraced the generations,
Men and women, young and old,
Of all races, from all nations,
And your glory will be told.

Though the years may bring their changes,
Your bright lamp will ever burn,
Giving wisdom, truth, and knowledge
To each one who comes to learn.

Our Miami, you were founded
In our nation's early days;
Now we join with generations
In this song of love and praise.

The beginning of the end:

Today was the last day of classes for me. Monday I have three finals, Tuesday I have one, then I have an essay to write and an online exam. But today I had my last classroom class for a while, if not forever. Very bittersweet.

Now, to study till the end of time.

After two youtube movies that is.


An addictive tv commercial:





A hilarious mockumentary. Though I'm sure I'm the only one who will think so. It's John Adams and Thomas Jefferson experiencing the drive through. We watched it at the beginning of my history class today. :P

A rather fitting song...

One more day of undergraduate classes tomorrow. Perhaps I will go to school again, but never again as an undergrad. Rather depressing. I'm gonna miss this.


One Day More
Les Miserables


VALJEAN
One day more!
Another day, another destiny.
This never-ending road to Calvary;
These men who seem to know my crime
Will surely come a second time.
One day more!

MARIUS
I did not live until today.
How can I live when we are parted?

VALJEAN
One day more.

MARIUS & COSETTE
Tomorrow you'll be worlds away
And yet with you, my world has started!

EPONINE
One more day all on my own.

MARIUS & COSETTE
Will we ever meet again?

EPONINE
One more day with him not caring.

MARIUS & COSETTE
I was born to be with you.

EPONINE
What a life I might have known.

MARIUS & COSETTE
And I swear I will be true!

EPONINE
But he never saw me there!

ENJOLRAS
One more day before the storm!

MARIUS
Do I follow where she goes?

ENJOLRAS
At the barricades of freedom.

MARIUS
Shall I join my brothers there?

ENJOLRAS
When our ranks begin to form

MARIUS
Do I stay; and do I dare?

ENJOLRAS
Will you take your place with me?

ALL
The time is now, the day is here

VALJEAN
One day more!

JAVERT
One more day to revolution,
We will nip it in the bud!
We'll be ready for these schoolboys,
They will wet themselves with blood!

VALJEAN
One day more!

M. & MME. THENARDIER
Watch 'em run amuck,
Catch 'em as they fall,
Never know your luck
When there's a free for all,
Here a little `dip'
There a little `touch'
Most of them are goners
So they won't miss much!

Students (2 Groups)
1: One day to a new beginning

2: Raise the flag of freedom high!

1: Every man will be a king

2: Every man will be a king

1: There's a new world for the winning

2: There's a new world to be won

ALL
Do you hear the people sing?

MARIUS
My place is here, I fight with you!

VALJEAN
One day more!

MARIUS & COSETTE
I did not live until today.

EPONINE
One more day all on my own!

MARIUS & COSETTE
How can I live when we are parted?

JAVERT(overlapping)
I will join these people's heros
I will follow where they go
I will learn their little Secrets,
I will know the things they know.

VALJEAN
One day more!

MARIUS & COSETTE
Tomorrow you'll be worlds away

EPONINE
What a life I might have known!

MARIUS & COSETTE
And yet with you my world has started

JAVERT(overlapping)
One more day to revolution
We will nip it in the bud
We'll be ready for these

Schoolboys

THENARDIERS(overlapping)
Watch 'em run amok
Catch 'em as they fall
Never know your luck
When there's a free-for-all!

VALJEAN
Tomorrow we'll be far away,
Tomorrow is the judgement day

ALL
Tomorrow we'll discover
What our God in Heaven has in store!
One more dawn
One more day
One day more!

More lyrics & misc stuff

• Got a full ride to Uni. of Maine. Not taking it. Therefore, 99% chance I need to find a job.
• Looking for jobs at Wright Patterson AFB. This includes possible intel or history jobs.
• My thumb still has gills on it. ^_^
• Most likely having four out of five finals on Monday. Go me.
• Music is my life, my soul, my everything. It makes me so happy. I hope I never go deaf; I love music too much.
• Took down my pirate exhibit. 8.5 hours (510 minutes) to put it up. 20 min or so to take it down.
• I'm graduating. Not that this is any big suprise.
  
• I am so happy Leigh and Steph are my friends. Even if they do live an ungodly distance away in different countries that would make me pay lots of money to call them. :-P
• The above statement is a testament to how much I love the internet. And being able to call a computer and chat in realtime without phone fees.
• I love my gerbils.
• Nick and Beth want to give me their baby rats. :-p
• I really really want to find a breeder of dumbo rats. No offense to the feeders, but I promised myself to get a dumbo rat. Preferably with a rex coat and black fur. ^_^
• I don't want to leave Miami.
• I don't want to graduate.
• I don't want to have to find a job.
• I DO hope that if I get a job, it's at Wright Patt, and either in Intel or History.
• Move-out is depressing.
• I hope my suitemates and I will get together over summer to hang out.
• I hope lots of people come to my party.
• I'm not expecting people to come to my party.
• I HOPE lots of people will come anyways and pleasantly suprise me.
• I am ready for an amazing volleyball game in the backyard.
• I either don't want the week to end, or for finals to be over already. But where I am right now is kinda ugly.
• Earthquakes are cool, if you're not too close.
• I have my class ring. It's pretty. I'll post pictures when I take them.
• My Poly Sci prof is having me help her with her website and html stuff.
• I therefore feel useful. I can help my teacher with her website! Yay!
• I need to study.
• End of rambling.

I lied. One more ramble.

• My daddy loves me. ^_^ So's my mama. I got a full package of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended edition. And it comes with lotsa other stuff. Including Adobe Pro, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc. Stuff I already own, but stuff that isn't 5 years old. ^_^ Mah daddy loooooves me. hehe. I can't play with it till after finals though.
  

~*~*~*~*~*~

Josh Groban
So She Dances

A waltz when she walks in the room
She pulls back the hair from her face
She turns to the window to sway in the moonlight
Even her shadow has grace
A waltz for the girl out of reach
She lifts her hands up to the sky
She moves with the music
The song is her lover
The melody's making her cry
So she dances
In and out of the crowd like a glance
This romance is
From afar calling me silently

A waltz for the chance I should take
But how will I know where to start?
She's spinning between constellations and dreams
Her rhythm is my beating heart

So she dances
In and out of the crowd like a glance
This romance is
From afar calling me silently

I can't keep on watching forever
I give up this view just to tell her

When I close my eyes I can see
The spotlights are bright on you and me
We've got the floor
And you're in my arms
How could I ask for more?

So she dances
In and out of the crowd like a glance
This romance is
From afar calling me silently

I can't keep on watching forever
And I'm givin' up this view just to tell her


~*~*~*~*~*~


Josh Groban
In Her Eyes


She stares through my shadow
She sees something more
Believes there's a light in me
She is sure
And her truth makes me stronger
Does she realize
I awake every morning
With her strength by my side

I am not a hero
I am not an angel
I am just a man
Man who's trying to love her
Unlike any other
In her eyes I am

This world keeps on spinning
Only she stills my heart
She's my inspiration
She's my northern star
I don't count my possession
All I call mine
I will give her completely
To the end of all time

I am not a hero
I am not an angel
I am just a man
Man who's trying to love her
Unlike any other
In her eyes I am

In her eyes I see the sky and all I'll ever need
In her eyes time passes by and she is with me

I am not a hero
I am not an angel
I am just a man
Man who's trying to love her
Unlike any other
In her eyes I am
In her eyes I am

To Dream The Impossible Dream

Man of La Mancha

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star




~*~*~*~*~*~

I love this commercial. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And happy. And imaginative.

Because it's finally on youtube....

I love it. It makes me laugh.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v8CdcxxaWdQ

It's finally spring!

So. Only a few weeks left of my senior year. I really, really don't want to graduate. I will definately miss this place, for all that I gripe about it. It's home, and a beautiful, beautiful haven to retreat to.

Perhaps I'll reapply here next year or for my doctorate or something. Unfortunately, I think that will simply stay a dream.

I'm having a grad party the weekend after graduation. Hopefully people will come, and that the weather will hold out so that we can play volleyball in the back yard.

I'm also considering - CONSIDERING - and thinking about backpacking in the British Isles over summer, or something interesting like that. Only thing I'd really be freaked about is the plane trip both ways. Not worried about being in different countries, just worried about the plane trips. Go figure. Unfortunately it's not a good idea to do that by myself. Maybe I can convince dad to take me to Ireland or Scotland....

The weather has been gorgeous the last several days. I went kite flying on Sunday, and took pictures of rainbows in the fountain near the Formal Gardens on Saturday. Spent today talking to my professor about my test, and got more points back.

SOMETHING is going around campus. Everyone I know, including me, don't necessarily feel SICK but don't feel good. We're all tired, and have a bad case of just wanting to curl up in bed and sleep. It's not close enough to finals to be that. But even in hockey today, no one seemed to care. No one really played the game. The goalies didn't do much to stop the pucks. It was very strange. Kinda a twilight-zone-thing.

AND, in 45 minutes, a new Ghost Hunters will be on. AND it's about Wright-Patterson, which is just north of here in Dayton. As it stands we get Dayton channels, and all the ROTC people have to go up to Wright-Patt to get security clearances and move out information. And I was on base last year with the seniors to poke around. So I'm pretty excited about that episode. Hopefully it'll be a good one.

And now, for the results of a quiz Jordan sent me:

What type of hockey player are you?

My Results:



PLAY MAKER

You are a great passer and you know where your teammates are at all times.

Because I love being a goalie...

So perhaps it's an odd pasttime for a girl. I know I certainly never expected to do anything but figure skating, but now I've been a goalie for lacrosse AND for ice hockey. Below are pictures of me playing. Also of pretty sunsets. And flowers in my suitemates' room. But lots of hockey pictures. Because I like them. Therefore they will go online. (For reference, I'm on the black team.)

My gerbils wish to join the russian circus. They're learning to do flips against the cage's screen top. I think they should find a new profession. Like recyling.

My suitemates were soooo drunk Thursday and Friday nights. So drunk. Friday night I spent HOURS taking care of them. They don't remember half of it. Well, Jaysie wasn't drunk. Everyone else was. And they blacked out from it. *sigh*

And here's a million hugs to Cristina. She more than definately needs them. I wish I could be there. *hug hug hug* You're always welcome to call me. You know that.

Enjoy.


Sunset from my window:

Another view:

Practice before class:

Yes. I can skate. And not simply stand in one spot. However, this took several days to master with the goalie gear:



Once down, impossible to get up. But I saved it!

Halfway is a good place to be. It's comfortable there. Even if you can't get up.

Lookin' cool.

I'm short. And does all that padding make my butt look fat? ;)

Down. On me tush. So I kneel to stop the puck, then I fall over. Oops.

The huge ordeal of getting back up. This process takes forever. It really does.

Arrg. Tough girl.

REDSKINSSSSS!

Down. Again. BUT I SAVED THE PUCK! It's under the red glove.



More toughness. Take that!

Saved another one!

And, again, difficult to get up.

Is he about to crack open my skull with his hockey stick? Am I bowing in reverence? Are we playing leapfrog with hockey skates? Or do I simply have the puck and he wants it, whereas I refuse to give it up?

Aha. Captured the puck. Again.

And a save! Look! The puck's still there!



Nice action shot, if I may say so.

Unfortunately, I need to get up.

It's difficult.

Very difficult.

But possible.

Fear me. I am a brick wall of hockey kitten-ness.

Hoo-rah!

Pretty flowers belonging to my suitemates. The darkness of the room and the light on the flowers was too irresistable to pass up.

And, another sunset. :)

AHA!

I HAVE WIRED INTERNET AGAIN!

I got a new motherboard today. I have wired internet again. I am one very very happy woman.