cheese and cows

To be honest, I never realized that California produced cheese. I was quite surprised that happy cows come from California. But obviously, they do. My friends and I got into a debate about Wisconsin versus California cheese. Frankly, I don't care where the cheese comes from. Just like I don't care where the oranges in my orange juice come from. But considering California is not Wisconsin and is not in the Midwest, I figure California cows are happier. It's warm there, after all. There's no snow to speak of and the sun shines a lot more. And its scientifically proven that sun makes you happy, so why wouldn't cows from Cali be happier? That doesn't mean they produce better cheese. But they might. I don't really notice the differences in cheese. Wherever they get the cows that make the Kraft Singles, those are my cows.

...

Is it customary for a college almost graduate to feel as if she is just going through the motions of school? In a daze. And she never realizes how she gets the work done, she just does? And is it normal to not want to write any papers even though writing is what you do best? Or at least, what you like to do.

when i listen to music

In the mornings, I've discovered I prefer to listen to rap music, or in other words, horrible mainstream popular rap music. I don't know if it's just because they are usually "upbeat" or because I don't have to think about what they are saying. It's important to get pumped up when you're tired in the morning and drinking your coffee. Even if the rap music is essentially not the best intellectual music, it gets me going in the morning.

By time I walk out the door and onto the city streets, I'm usually listening to indie music that makes me think about feelings and the world around me. I feel all movie scene-like when I listen to indie music and wait for the "don't walk" sign to turn to the "walk" sign.

When I'm in a hurry and walking to class, I usually try to listen to music that makes me feel hardcore, like Joan Jett. She's pretty hardcore. Or Muse, also pretty hardcore. It makes me walk faster when I listen to rock music. And I always feel like I'm taking the world head on.

Skokie

I went on a Skokie adventure today and here is what I learned:

• Some CTA bus drivers need personality adjustments. Just because I'm riding public transportation doesn't mean I know where bus 97 actually goes.
• Russian people typically live with their parents until they get married.
• Jewish people are buried in "Kosher coffins," meaning they are coffins made out of wood.
• Jewish people are not typically embalmed because it is against their religion.
• McDonald's has pretty decent tasting Iced Mochas.
• Subways should have restrooms on the actual train.

I do this to avoid physical geography. . .

spitters

I was walking down Congress Parkway tonight. There was a guy in front of me that we'll say was meaty, and he walked like he had a hitch in his giddy up. I'm not sure if he was trying to look like a badass or if he was trying to keep his pants up. Whatever it was, he looked like he was escaping a hot stove. Every few feet or so this boy would spit. I'm not talking just like a little Leo DiCaprio spit on Titanic. I'm talking the type of spit where I could hear it splattering onto the ground, despite the city moving about me. And it was like a puddle when I passed it.

Do boys produce more spit that girls and therefore, find that they need to dispose of it on the city sidewalks? Why can't they just swallow it like the normal people? I understand why smokers do it, but why do the non smoker boys do it? Especially when it could possibly fly back and hit me in the face?

People need to think before spitting.

agua

Note to self: drink 4 bottles of water in 5 hours, be prepared to pee a lot.

being digital

I'm currently reading this book called "Being Digital" because I have to. Not because I want to. (Oddly enough, the South Bend Tribune is quoted as a paper that reviewed it when it came out, which I think was like '92. WEEEIRD) Technology is way over my head and I don't really like it. I don't like thinking about bits and electrons and whatever else technology runs on. My mind doesn't comprehend any of it anyways.

I finally have cable again. Which means I finally am watching Ellen. Good days.

new semesta'

Journalism can feel like the absolute death of me, while at the same time feel like my saving grace. I love the feeling I get when I finish a story or interview someone successfully. I love knowing the "AP style rules" and feeling like I know what I'm talking about. But at the beginning of the semester, when we have to come up with potential story ideas and sources, I freak out. My mind goes numb and blank. Last semester in news reporting, my "beat" worked out spectacularly and I got all stressed about it for no reason. This semester I have literary journalism and I have to find 3 different topics to write a narrative on. So far, my only idea is to follow around a funeral director and talk about what they do on a daily basis. Let's face it, that's a very awkward job to have. I enjoy knowing why someone would want to be so involved in death as a career. That's all I've got though and the ideas are slim to none. I need assistance to get my mind going on potential ideas. And that makes me feel somewhat like a failure. My other class will be doing an entire semester focusing on homelessness in Chicago. I've always wanted to have a homeless friend, like the guy that sits by Dunkin' Donuts on Michigan Ave and once called me his girlfriend. But how do I convince someone starving and freezing on the street to talk to me about how hard it is to be starving and freezing on the street? I'm excited about the subject, but wondering how stories will present themselves or HOW I'll find the stories.

I feel like I could change the world. I just don't know how or where to find my mojo.

redneck appliances

That appliance within the red circle is a dryer. While touring Niles, one may find this sort of thing in a variety of backyards. Thank God we fit in better now.

ellen

I'd pimp out my dog in exchange for tickets to the Ellen show. If I would've just kept my hair blonde like it was last winter/spring and grew a couple of inches, I could've passed as Ellen's stage double and hosted the show myself. I've conducted interviews and I can dance just as well, if not better than her. I wanted to intern for her show. Lucky for her I go to school in Chicago and not L.A. I could intern for Oprah but I don't think I'm fierce enough for that job. For me, Ellen is Chicago and Oprah is New York, the big leagues. Not only that, but Ellen is funnier.

I have a really bad cowlick today. How'd I end up with boy hair?

burnin' down the house.

I've never been in a fire. But last night, I was afraid my house was going to burn down.

At 1 a.m. I came out of my room and I was overwhelmed by the smell of something burning. I thought it was the heat at first but the heat doesn't have the same smell. I woke up my mom and we went throughout the house and the smell was everywhere, and even worse outside. Our house is old so we thought maybe something electric had started in the walls and we just didn't know it. My mom called the fire department. The dispatcher told us to go outside and wait in the car just to be safe. Here are the things I grabbed before I went outside: my dog, my purse, my journal, my cell phone and a picture of my dad. Luckily, the firemen looked through the entire house with their fancy thermal imaging camera to look for hotspots. They didn't find anything. Evidently, somebody had been burning something outside. Or there's a meth lab down the street.

I've always wondered what I would grab if my house caught on fire and I had to make a quick escape. Now I know.

I just can't imagine losing all the stuff I didn't grab.

This is Lucy during our wait outside.

the menu

I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to eat when I'm out of school and not living in my mom's house. I do not like to cook, therefore, I need meals that won't really require much preparation, but most of all that don't require much cooking. Real cooking to me means boiling water. That's my limit.

So here's the menu I came up with:
Grilled Cheese.
Spaghetti o-like food.
Salads.
Frozen dinners.
Macaroni and cheese.
Hot pockets.
Lipton noodles.
Hot dogs.
Cereal.

Oy. I'm going to be a tank.

good movie

the curious case of benjamin button.
good movie.
go see it.
brad pitt is hott.

the end.

lucy the dog.

My dog Lucy is part Lhasa Apso and part Pomeranian, essentially an experiment led by two of my family members with the previously mentioned pups. When I said I wanted one of the puppies before they were even born, I was worried they would turn out a bit fugly looking. Luckily, I was wrong and the children turned out to be a pretty cute bunch of dogs. I picked one of the runts of the bunch and named her Lucille Ball, after one of the greatest commediennes of all time. She has proved to be just as fiery as the original.
She's cute, I admit it, but when she looks at me with her big brown puppy dog eyes, all I can focus on is her snaggle tooth. I'm not making this up- she has a tooth that for whatever reason, sticks outside of her mouth when her mouth is shut. I guess you'd call it an overbite. She just looks like a fool. I can't take her seriously. Granted, she's a dog and doesn't necessarily require me to take her seriously but when I try to discipline her, all I see is that stupid little tooth out of place.

Maybe that makes me shallow. It probably does.

thank you, youtube.

Thanks to YouTube sensations John and Hank green, also known as the vlogbrothers, (who I highly recommend) I learned something interesting, yet of no real importance, last night. Oddly enough, it involves the mating of giraffes. When giraffes are about to mate, John Green says the boy giraffe puts his head up against the female's "parts" and then as a reaction to this, the female pees. The boy then DRINKS the pee and somehow he can tell whether the girl is ovulating. Awkward? I think so. I'm just glad human mating doesn't involve such antics.

And who says you can't learn anything beneficial on YouTube?

This is John and Hank when I met them in Ann Arbor in November.

go 'head child.

I am twenty two, officially.

Here's my life:

No boyfriend.
No real job, unless you consider the admissions office a job.
Debt up the wazooo.
Good friends. No, great friends.
Good music.
That little internship thing, I do have.
Sweet new headphones.
And a graduation looming.

I am definitely lacking in the interesting category.