I Hope I Can Change This Later

Restored

2008-10-02T20:38:00.002-05:00

I was without power for a week. That was a long week... but it is already over and feels like a distant memory.

Now I am using my tivo, tv, and computer all at once to watch the VP debates and chime in on Twitter. Best moment so far: Palin calling her opponent "Obiden."

On Being Powerless

2008-09-18T19:43:00.002-05:00

It has been a trying few days. As my blog name implies I am in Houston, the country’s most recent site of a national disaster. I am lucky that there are a good number of miles between myself and the coast, because without that buffer my story of Hurricane Ike would probably be drastically different. I am sorry that Galveston has been so horribly damaged and that so many people will have their lives changed forever. My story is merely one of inconvenience and emotional turmoil… I am thankful that my situation is temporary.

It’s strange to comprehend that this storm actually hit and that there will be repercussions on my area for weeks and months to come. I was here for Rita in 2005 and short of a lot of nervousness and temporary displacement (we slept in the dining hall at Jones) nothing really came of it. I knew that areas to the east were affected, mostly because of a friend from Beaumont, but Houston clearly got off easy.

I was nervous last Thursday, but panic never set in. I considered my options, and my previous experience with Rita helped me understand that a hurricane is not the end of the world. I prepared. I waited.

Sleeping on the floor of Tom’s room, there was a moment when I was truly terrified. I heard some kind of knocking, like the blinds on the window in the kitchen were rattling on the inside. I couldn’t figure out how that was happening, and had to convince myself to stay put. I put on my Ipod and eventually drifted off to sleep. I woke up several times in the night, stiff from sleeping on the floor and uncomfortable from the lack of air conditioning, but in those moments that I was awake the terror had passed.

I checked my Ipod to find that it was already 8:30. The four of us had been sleeping for 9 or 10 hours, the darkness outside confusing the hour. I got up, knowing the worst of the storm had passed us, and looked outside. The street outside looked damp, and the sky was cloudy but not ominous. I was suddenly cheerful… we made it through the storm, none of my windows had broken. We were all okay! My conclusions changed as I got a wider scope on the situation.
As everyone else started to wake up and circulate through the apartment, we chatted and snacked, and waited. What do you do after a hurricane?

Sofia and Tom wanted to check on their cars, they had parked them at the building next door. Tired of staying inside, we all went to see. What we found was the first sign that things would be just slightly messed up for days to come.

The ceiling had come down on Sofia and Tom’s cars. Large ceiling tiles, metal scraps, and insulation had rained down with varying results. Tom’s car looked dirty but relatively unharmed. Little Red (Sofia’s car) had suffered cracks in the windshield and a major dent. By many accounts they both were lucky, but nevertheless the hurricane had left its mark.
Back at our apartment, I realized my own car had been narrowly spared. A fence had come down where I park, luckily the SUV and minivan on my right and left were high up and protected my car from impact.

After processing our car situation, we loaded up in Little Red to see what had happened at Sofia and Terri’s place. This trip, and further investigation over the next few days helped me to realize the actual impact of Hurricane Ike. The top of a gas station ripped off and crumbled nearby, on top of a van. Traffic lights sitting on intersection medians. Trees split in half. Brick siding blown off buildings. The damage was unreal.

When we got to Terri and Sofia’s we noticed the wet carpet before we saw what the real problem was. Inside they poke around, noticing strange wet spots in their bedrooms, living room, and bathroom. They also realized they had power!

The wetness was a mystery we preferred to leave unsolved in light of the humidity and heat, so we hauled food and clothes and computers over to their house to set up yet another hurricane sleepover. It was later in the day that we figured out what exactly had happened to let water into their house.

The smokestack of the chimney on their building had been ripped off leaving a gaping hole in the roof. The rainwater had gotten into the unit above them, and slowly seeped down into their unit.
We got to see the leaking in action the following morning when more rain let more water in. In case you were wondering, water that soaks through carpet, insulation, flooring/walls drips down a disgusting brown color. We could see it collected in pots and trashcans.

Also their electricity went out in the middle of the night.

So we were on the move again. Back to my apartment this time abandoning the contents of the fridge, giving up on hundreds of dollars of food, like so many others.

And the situation hasn’t changed much since then. My apartment has been without power since 9:30pm on Friday. Tonight will be six days, tomorrow a whole week without power. And the pun I intended with my blog title is only too fitting. There is nothing to do but wait. Every night I resign myself to go home and sit in the dark. Every morning I flip my bathroom light with the half-optimistic, half-desperate thought that maybe something is different.

And I know too well that I am lucky, but living without electricity in an apartment completely centered on that exact resource is nothing short of miserable. Someone hit the pause button and crippled my ability to live my life the way I would like to.

CenterPoint is working tirelessly to get the lights on all over Houston, and I can only assume that eventually I will have power once again… but not knowing and being entirely unable to do anything about the situation is maddening.

I need to be thankful when I have electricity, because it is something that I absolutely took for granted. There are so many conveniences in my life that I expect, and hardly acknowledge. A refrigerator, traffic lights, fully stocked grocery stores, accessible gasoline. All of these things have been disrupted in Houston, and I am trying my best to wait it out, realize it is temporary, and continue on until things are back to normal.

Separation Anxiety

2008-07-20T14:26:00.002-05:00

My dad came this weekend and took care of a wonderful list of things that it seems only dads can handle. First, he drove over 1,000 miles from Chicago to Houston to bring me my new car. If that weren't amazing enough, he also installed a new showerhead, replaced more bulbs around the apartment with CFLs, and listened to me blather about my life and everything over fajitas and Coronas. He yelled at a mechanic who was probably trying to rip us off, and took care of a couple other automotive things (at a different garage). We got new tires, and a full service car wash. I can hardly express how great it was for my dad to get these things in order. He's at the airport, flying back to SC today... I got to see him for roughly 24 hours, but I was grateful for his visit.

Now that he's leaving I'm more than a little bummed. I feel homesick. I was just in SC in May, and it's not really a place I ever considered home, but I guess it snuck up on me. I can't deny that it's where I go for holidays, to be with my family. I didn't grow up there but it's still home, and I miss it. I won't be back until December and while the last few months have sped by, December feels like an incredibly long way off.

I'm trying to pinpoint what is making me sad. Obviously it's fine to miss my dad, but this is just a bit much. Of course it's a mixture of things. Yesterday was hectic and the visit was rushed. I'm dealing with a brutal headache that I woke up with, so that has put a damper on the morning and afternoon. But I wonder if my dad's visit was a much needed relief... a hiatus from taking care of myself. At this point in my life, when everything is a giant question mark and the reality and responsibility of adulthood is starting to take hold, it was nice to have a day when I could let someone else figure it all out. My dad confidently and happily took care of everything, and perhaps that is what I don't want to assume that responsibility again.

There's a lot to parse out here, because I am no stranger to taking care of myself. If I consider going away to school as the start of my independence, then I've been partially on my own since 2001, and jeez was that a frickin' long time ago... But high school and college don't really count because there's always been an assumed and real reliance on my parents in that time. What's silly is that I will never really lose that support. Graduation wasn't a complete cut-off, but my parents do have certain expectations for how our relationship will change (as it should).

I have to start making decisions for myself and there's no plotted course. I have all the necessary resources, but that in some ways compounds my frustration. Everything has been positioned to allow for my success and yet I feel like I'm failing.

On Apartment Hunting in Houston

2008-06-18T20:01:00.003-05:00

So I spent a lot of time searching for housing. A lot, a lot. What was hard was that aside from personal recommendations, the Rice OC housing guide, and the regular Houston housing guide, I didn't have much to go on. (That might sound like a lot, but it wasn't enough). Over time I pulled together what I needed and eventually found a great place! Below I've edited an email I sent to a friend that has some of what I found and some helpful links.

Here are a few websites mostly for houses and townhouses: www.greatlandlords.com and www.har.com.

The apartment I'm renting is a two bedroom condo and I found it on www.har.com (it's the Houston Association of Realtors). It's mostly properties for sale, but also a few for lease. You can also use real estate websites (like remax.com) to look for lease listings as well.

Other than that www.apartments.com and www.apartmentratings.com are solid sites for rent info, floor plans, and reviews.

www.everyaptmapped.com is pretty handy, less for the rent info (which appears to be outdated) but more for the ability to see where ALL the apartment complexes are in an area.

Finally, browsing www.craigslist.com is tedious but might eventually show something worthwhile.

A few complexes that have three bedrooms and might work for you guys: Brompton Court, The Maroneal, The Providence, or the Promenade.

I really like the Maroneal. It's a very nice complex that I can't afford as a two bedroom. A three bedroom is somewhere between 1745-1785, or a little less than 600 per person. But for a washer and dryer in the apartment, a pool with wi-fi, and a fitness center it seems like a good deal.

Park Lakes and Meyergrove (or Meyer Oaks) are further away but less expensive. That's the usual trade off. I also know that the AMLI Medical Center and the Archstone Medical Center have three bedrooms that are more economical, but I wouldn't live at either of them since I didn't really want to be that close to Reliant and I've heard about safety problems.

I also have a really nice realtor helping me lease the condo and if you'd like I could give you her info but she would look more for houses, townhomes and condos, not apartments. (Using a realtor is a service free to you.)

Renting Books

2008-06-18T19:57:00.003-05:00

Things are going well. I'm still sifting through a lot of thoughts and feelings, and I'm pretty sure the angst of being directionless in my twenties will take a few years (perhaps until my thirties?) to subside. But I'm going to go ahead and say that I like how things are going. This is not an open invitation to God/fate/aliens to totally screw everything up... but I'm working with what I've got.

The economy, to put it shortly, is not good... the cost of gas is up, consumer spending is down. Complete financial ruin for the country is imminent (or so CNN would have me believe). I listen and read enough news to get the general gist of our troubles (and wish I had suffered through an Econ class at Rice). In spite of these problems I think I'm going to be okay. I'm trying to think of things that make me happy, which are free.

This brings me to renting books. One unfortunate soul seems to have never been exposed to the joys of a library. I, on the other hand, having been raised by a book-slave, am in some ways drawn to libraries. (Yes, it is on the shortlist for potential long-term careers, along with author, editor, and Mary Poppins).

Last summer, in search of cookbooks, I got a Houston Public Library card and used it sporadically. Still flush with cash from babysitting and working, I had no problem dropping $30 at Borders every few weeks to expand my personal library. This summer, with bills, bills, BILLS, and you know... eating, I have less money to throw at books. I've returned to the HPL with a new sense of vigor (read:desperation). But the best part is, I'm really impressed and satisfied with the system. The library's collection is extensive and through their website it's easy to put books on hold. You can even select the location where you'd like to pick up the books. There's a library up the street from my office, and it makes book pickup a convenient stop on my way home from work.

I'm mostly a fiction-reader. So I'm drawn to a variety of novels, some popular, some more "literary," but a lot of the books I'm checking out from the library at the moment are non-fiction. Maybe I'm subconciously trying to create a readinglist for a course titled: Adult Life, or maybe I just don't invest money in non-fiction because I don't feel I'm as likely to re-read it. Anyway here's a list of the books I have checked out at the moment:

The Great Derangement by Matt Taibbi (interviewed on the Daily Show)

Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan (in lieu of Econ 211)

20 something, 20 everything by Christine Hassler (ok... this is kind of self-helpy, but this is my quarter-life crisis! I can read a book (or two) that helps me release my inner butterfly if I want.)

And books that are on hold, and will eventually be delievered to the library down the street from my office:

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (Jenny recommended this two years ago)

Quiet, Please by Scott Douglas (Librarian memoir, to help solidify the aforementioned short-list)

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (This is a YA series that I love and I'm proud of this hold because I'm number 12 on the list so when it's released in August I will get it just about as soon as if I were to buy it for myself.)

Enough for now. Time to read a book.

The Angst

2008-06-07T10:31:00.002-05:00

Here I am. I made it to the other side. I haven't done much writing of any kind lately, just because I feel like I've hardly been sitting still. Graduation was four weeks and a lifetime ago. In roughly a month I was in Chicago, Seattle, and South Carolina. The trips were all good, but they made last month go by swiftly.

Now I'm in my new apartment, with a "new" roommate and working my "new" job. Although totally unprepared to start an adult schedule, I got up successfully every morning this week. After several trips to Target, a couple lucky furniture acquisitions, and lots of unpacking I'm pretty well settled into my apartment.

Objectively, I recognize that things are going well. My ducks are more or less in a row. I'll even be getting a new car fairly soon. Food, shelter, gainful employment, friends... all those bases are covered. And yet, I can't shake the angst.

The mother of one family I babysit for recently quit her job to stay home full-time. She had previously worked from a home office, but when I saw her last week she had just mailed back her work computer and was officially unemployed. She spoke to me about how the change had caught her off guard. The phone didn't ring as much, her list of things to do had significantly shrunk. The changes had left her feeling agitated and aimless.

It was funny to talk to her about it, because although our situations are essentially reversed, I've been going through the same feelings. Without school, work, babysitting, and Jones combined my life has this eerie calm to it these days. It's boiled down to just work and babysitting, and without homework those things are pretty manageable on their own. The challenges of adulthood, like the endless paperwork, including bills, are definitely present in my life, but the immediate affect to my stress level doesn't compare to my student days.

So now I have leftover anxiety with nowhere to focus it. In the past few weeks I have found myself overreacting countless times. (Some people could argue I tend to overreact anyway, but to me there is a noticeable difference).

I crave a schedule and take that whole "creature of habit" thing to a boring degree, so I'm just waiting for now to become the new normal. And now has a lot of good things. I have free time! I have a kitchen where I cook! I have friends who also have free time! Presumably in a few weeks I will be paid with money! I read things because I want to!

I have a few aspirations for what the next weeks and months will hold for me. The long term has yet to come into focus but surprisingly I'm not worried about it at the moment.

Stop Copying Me, World!

2008-05-29T19:11:00.003-05:00

I liked pomegranates first. Step-off.

Quotes, etc.

2008-05-19T21:56:00.001-05:00

this is how it works
you're young until you're not
you love until you don't
you try until you can't
you laugh until you cry
you cry until you laugh
and everyone must breathe
until their dying breath
-On the Radio, Regina Spektor

Becky: Yeah, after I finished Harry Potter... I just wanted to have a baby!

Sof: So guys... it blew my mind. Babies may be small, but they cost a lot of money.

Ryan: Oh my god, I love your bed!

Tom after I pretended to slap him:
Ha! That wasn't a bitch-slap! That was a bitch-clap... oh!!

Holey Jam-pants Batman!

Sof: Crack is Whack? Worst. Tattoo. Ever.

Once, during a small social gathering of friends, I lost the cap to my pen. I think that my response to this may provide some insight to my personality:

"WHERE'S MY PEN CAP. STOP EVERYTHING. I NEED MY PEN CAP."

Teach Your Children Well

2008-04-21T20:32:00.006-05:00

I love my parents. Really I do. I tell them this frequently in the rote way many children say "I love you" to their parents. I've also taken time to talk to them about my true appreciation. After spending time working closely in families as a babysitter I've been able to preview parenthood and now have a better understanding of the dedication my parents had in raising us. My parents supported me in numerous ways growing up. They let me try every activity my young heart desired. They praised me in my success at school. They shuttled me around to my friends' houses. My dad made the drive to and from my high school (an hour each way) every week for three years so I could spend my weekends at home.

It's interesting to sit and think about my childhood now, because as an adult (I guess?) I'm starting to gain perspective and think about the way things influenced me. Even now I look to my parents frequently for guidance and advice. I'll usually consult with both of them on most issues, but I have a tendency to look to my father for things regarding work and money and my mother for issues more related to my personal and emotional life. What I find strange is that I can't trust that information will reliably get from one parent to the other. I'll realize my dad never mentioned something to my mom or vice versa. Here I thought I'd be the logical topic of conversation and I wouldn't have to repeat myself...

There are a handful of "lessons" or traditions that come to mind when I think about my parents. Here are a few for now, perhaps more will surface in time:

The Power of Positive Thinking
My father is a salesman by trade, and unsurprisingly his profession really infiltrates his personality (or maybe he's a good salesman because of his good-natured personality...). I don't mean this as a criticism, he's not a used car salesman type guy, but he could talk to anyone, gets things done, and knows how to evaluate situations objectively (perhaps with the bottom line in mind). His motto in life and what he has imparted to me (ad nauseum) is that you can get anything in life with the power of positive thinking. Or maybe more accurately the one thing you can control in life is how you react to circumstances, so for the best outcome you need to have a positive outlook. Now this kind of mentality was annoying when I was a seven-year-old with a problem or a third grader with a problem and to be honest it was still annoying even in high school. But I can't honestly discredit what he's saying. In fact, I think having a positive attitude in life is perhaps the best talisman a person can have against disappointment and adversity. So no matter how many times I was tempted to tell my dad to "shut it" when he would casually mention TPOPT, now all I can say is "thanks." Because even if I'm really really bad at optimism, and incredibly prone to nervousness, worry, and disaster thinking. I have nervous mental tick that occasionally chimes in reminding me of.... TPOPT.

Don't Say "Hate"
Sometimes I forget and slip up and say I hate Paris Hilton or I hate that Hillary Clinton is still running for president, or I hate when class stays over a few minutes or.... you get the idea. People say they hate lots of things. I probably do it too. But on a good day, when I'm tuned in to my upbringing, those days I do not say hate. My father would not accept the word. He felt that hate was a word used for wars and tragedies and prejudices too deep for an eight-year-old or an eighteen-year-old for that matter. In his presence I would have to quickly amend any hateful statement to say, "I really really dislike it when Amy turns the washing machine on when I'm taking a shower." And really, again, my father is right. Hate is something that has ruined lives, destroyed families, and continues to fester on the front page of the newspaper ever day. Nothing in my life really warrants such a word. I'll try to stick to dislike.

Family Breakfast
This is not wisdom imparted from my parents, but something that remains in the top three fixtures of my childhood. Ever weekend, usually Sundays, my mom and dad would wake us up with the smell of bacon and obnoxious music through the intercom system. We had a sizable house growing up with a intercom system that was rarely used for communication purposes, but often for horrific torture of Garth Brooks, Piano Forte, or Yanni early on a weekend morning. But it was nice to get downstairs, drink some juice and poke through the massive pile of newspaper covering the table. It was nice to have a kind of homebase growing up, a time and place where I could count on my family being together.

Always Have a Book
My mother is a librarian. Big surprise. It is part of the reason I am so bookish, though I can't blame it all on her, seeing as my sisters have not fallen victim to stacks of books the way I have. What her profession did do was give me amazing access to books growing up. It enabled my habit. I used to check out stacks of books and read through them continuously, only to return the next week and dig up more. I have this habit now, to always have some kind of reading material with me. At restaurants, doctor's offices, anywhere that I might have to wait, I instinctively need to have a book. Some might argue that this is anti-social, and it does get heavy (and difficult to store when I only bring a clutch), but it's how my brain was wired. I'm not sure at this point it can be undone.

Enough procrastination for now. Of course I am reviving my blogging when it is most necessary for me to do my work. Oh well, after I cleaned my room for judging for room awards I actually had some success at doing my work. Perhaps the productivity will continue...

Stasis and Momentum

2008-04-12T22:19:00.006-05:00

At this moment in time, my last month as an undergraduate, it's hard not to feel nostalgic. I don't want to spend all of my energy looking back, reminiscing and talking about what was, but that's what's currently occupying my head-space, so why resist?

In the last four years I have made a lot of bad decisions, and perhaps a few enemies. But I also think those decisions led to new opportunities, and enemies aside, I've made some phenomenal friends. There is no way I could have predicted how the last four years would have unfolded, and perhaps that's the best lesson to move forward with. Life is unpredictable, and it's best to just roll with it. I am more myself now than I ever thought possible. Does that sound weird? It's true. In the process of earning my degree I've earned the right to claim certain things about myself, to feel comfortable with who I am and with the uncertainty of my future.

I think that at some point this semester every senior I know who's graduating has hit a wall. I hit said wall early, and with great force. January rolled around and I was suddenly floored by my inability to conceptualize a future. Leaving an established path for one with no guarantees (and worse... numerous options) did just not appeal to me. It scared the crap out of me. First I was anxious and then I was angry. My worries were just like those of thousands of undergraduates transitioning from students into semi-adults. I hate to be one of the pack. I plan too much and worry too intensely to just be another soldier entering the real world fray.

But, big surprise, things got better. Everything has been going well at my part-time job, which bodes well for the time when it will be my full-time job. I will be living in an apartment (erm rented condo...) that fulfills my requirements (two bathrooms, washer & dryer, nice kitchen) for a rent amount that I think I can afford.

Now I am here anxious and terrified, bored and restless, trying not to burn out before the end of my last semester. There is work to be done, assignments to be turned in, but it all seems so trivial when I need to make a list of furniture to obtain for the apartment, when I must figure out how to turn on the electricity before May 11th... So here I sit, wishing desperately that my college days would last a bit longer, that the wonderful people I've become attached to won't scatter, but since I've gotten around the wall I also want to move forward. I'm more or less trying to sit still while racing forward. Lucky for me I have no real control over time or physics...

Jones Wins Again!

2008-03-16T02:32:00.002-05:00

Beer Bike is something unique to Rice and difficult to describe to outsiders. Even if I cover the basics: early morning wake-up, Jones cheers, water-balloon fight, bike races, victory party..... there's still a certain element that is always beyond explanation. A certain Jones camaraderie that cannot be described fully. There are a lot of things I love about Rice, and a handful of things I am not crazy about, but Beer Bike (and so many other Rice specific experiences) have made the last four years wonderful.

I am bad at encapsulating my thoughts into a pithy title...

2008-03-13T16:55:00.003-05:00

I'm kind of tired of people telling me that I'm high stress. Guess what? I know. The stress is in my head. I have to live with it.

To some extent the way I react to the world is within my control, but I would venture to say a lot of my "stress" is unconscious. It's the first response I have to uncertainty or negativity. And I recognize that how I feel is then projected onto my friends by my mood and my actions, but I still think that pales in comparison to the stress I actually feel.

So I'm working on it. I'm trying to have faith that things in the world will work out. But seeing how the comfortable and straight forward path that my life has been set on will suddenly end in a few months I can't help but feel justified to stress about it.

Perhaps I need more patience. Maybe I need a stiff drink. I would like to let go of the tension and anxiety, but I can't imagine successfully doing that unless I feel like my future has some fixed truths.

I'm a control freak who worries a lot. Stop telling me to calm down. It's probably never going to happen when there's an excess of stress in my life.

Evaluation

2008-03-11T18:08:00.002-05:00

Today was a good day.

These are the kinds of sweeping generalizations that I make sometimes, whenever I have enough time to ruminate about the sum total of "good" or "bad" a day contains. I guess it's something that most people do, but it also strikes me as a little odd. When pushed further, I don't think I could pinpoint why today was "good" other than the weather was lovely and nothing deviated dramatically from my plans. There is still the nagging in the pit of my stomach of things not yet done, but aside from that, I'm content with today. There is a certain intangible quality about the sequence of events, my encounters, and my general mood that allows me to mark one more in the column under "good." How happy I am with life is very closely linked to the proportion of good to bad days.

I spend a lot of my time caught up in my own happiness, and while it might be pretty typical, I can't help but think it's self-absorbed and misguided. I would really like to switch my focus to evaluating how fulfilled I am with my life or satisfied with my occupation. Because really that's what tilts the scale in the favor of more good days. If things in life are solid, if I'm content with the way things are playing out, then the minor stuff shouldn't get to me as easily (in theory). Maybe I could also just stop thinking so much and do a little more... yeah, that's probably not going to happen.

I had a reassuring feeling at work today. Leaving college and settling into a job is a really daunting thing for me (and the other 3904803984 graduates enter the workforce in May), but when I was walking across my office today, where I work now and eventually will work full-time, I had this vivid memory of the first time I saw the publishing floor. Being in it all, seeing the production take shape, at that moment, I wanted to be a part of it. After a few months of dedication and work, I am. As of the March issue, my name came out on the masthead and that impulse, the desire to work on the magazine, came to life. More than just seeing my name in print, it means I have realized a goal that I'm not even sure I had completely recognized until today.

So I'm afraid I'm sounding like a blow-hard, and worried about how this will come across to my (non-existent) audience. Right now I'm just concerned with writing and hoping that everything else will shake out eventually.

Now Let's Hope I Don't Get Sick Of This Background Too Quickly

2008-03-09T22:58:00.002-05:00

Lately I've been entertaining the idea of blogging again. I'm not sure with what agenda or for what audience I'll be blogging, but that didn't seem to bother me before. When I was abroad, I had a clear topic for my writing, but now... there is very little in my life that I would deem "clear."

I struggled to come up with a new blog name, and settled on a rather boring one. It's much more exciting when the city in the title is outside of the United States. Who knows, maybe someday I'll be creating a new blog like Emily in Rio de Jainero or Sao Paulo. Yes, I am currently on a Brazilian kick, mostly because it would be nice to put my Portuguese to some kind of use.

This template is not one of the standard ones offered by blogger, and so it took me a little bit of time to figure out. My scant knowledge of html helped, but there seems to be a lot that has changed since I used to mess around with web pages in middle school. My mom unearthed some 3.5 inch floppy disks over Christmas break-- one was labeled "webpages." I didn't get around to opening them, but I'm sure that will be a fun activity.

Well it looks like spring break will officially be over in about 45 minutes. I'm going to go to bed without having accomplished anything during that time. I keep telling myself I'm a second-semester senior and I should be able to relax, but somehow the message never really sinks in...