It's that time of year again...

And this time I do mean the holiday season!! Now usually, when I get into the holiday season, I push Thanksgiving out of my mind and move straight onto the Christmas movies... this year is no exception!

It all began about two weeks ago with Chris in Walmart. We wandered about the Christmas tree section... but my Christmas fever had not begun, mostly because of one Santa hat. It was heavy so I was intrigued and put it on my head. I pushed the button on the side and the hat began to sing and dance with such enthusiasm that I got whipped in the eye with a bell on the point of the hat. That ruined my Christmas joy...

But then, last night at my sister's, I had to hold myself back from watching Love Actually, one of my favorite Christmas movies. I decided I would not watch my first Christmas movie of the season alone, baby sitting a sleeping Jack, while my sister was out watching Harry Potter (which was excellent).

Tonight however, I could not escape Christmas. Elf, a movie I never appreciated until now, came onto USA and I could not resist the pull of Christmas joy. So I got right into it, taking a Facebook quiz which decided my soul's Christmas song is Jingle Bells. I can't wait to get home for Thanksgiving where I will have a plethora of movies to watch.

But onto Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1. It was the best Harry Potter movie to date. I loved it, they stuck right to the books and ignored those plots holes they created for themselves in the last couple movies. I can't wait to see it again with Kevin!!

It's that time of year again...

No, I don't mean the holiday season (although we're almost getting there), I'm talking about the time of year when we talk about slavery in my history class. It happens every year, in every history class. There is something refreshing about American slavery though.

Americans will have you all believe that slavery ended with Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, but I would like to argue otherwise. Is working for someone not slavery? I'd like to point out, that if you have a "boss" you are enslaved.

Sure, traditional African slaves did not get paid for their work, and had to live in terrible conditions and got whipped and things; but they had a place to live and were given food, which is much more than a lot of people have today. What more could you ask for? It's nice to say you are "free" and whatever, but freedom isn't all it's cracked up to be. People today work to make money to buy food and housing- so how is that any different? Especially when we look at the not so distant past in the United States of industrialization and the massive influx of European immigrants.

There were some immigrants who made it all work for them and were very successful, but the majority worked in factories being paid hardly anything and living in poverty. And they had a good chance of getting limps cut off in one of those sketchy machines they worked with. I, personally, would rather be whipped that have my hand taken off by a dirty, probably rather blunt, machine- especially since doctors were not very good back then. That's just me though.

I truly do sympathize with slaves. I will eventually become one of them. I will probably graduate college and go on to work for some white man who will punish me if I do something wrong. Sure he probably won't whip me, but he could fire me. Which is worse- being whipped, or losing your livelihood? I just wonder if being ginger puts me at risk for racial discrimination...

So interesting (yet bleak) thought today...

In my Contemporary Biology class we are assigned to read certain chapters out of Matt Ridley's book Genome:The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. The book is extremely interesting and informative, I suggest it to anyone who wants to know more about biology in a more relaxed way. Some of Ridley's chapters, however, are just a bummer. On Monday we were assigned to read the chapter entitled "Death."

In short, the chapter- no the entire book- is about death, everybody dies and our cells are constantly dying. I am becoming more of the mind that thinks- "why worry about it?" Why worry about what is going to kill us? It could be a car, it could be a disease, it could be anything. People worry and worry about how and when they are going to die, which is ridiculous. When people close to you die, it is devastating- I get that. It happens.

I'm not trying to be unsympathetic. Death is scary. The stress of worry about diseases and things is just too much to bear. I'm trying to say that people should just worry about what they are doing in the present time, not what will happen in the future. Don't nit pick you're health and say: What cancer does this food product cause? Nit pick your health and say: Will this make me feel good?

On that note, I will never be a scientist. It is far to much to think about. Especially on the cellular level. It ruins all the mystery.

My favorite kind of shopping...

I have never had a lot of money to shop with. I can't really afford nice clothes (or at least not to buy a lot of clothes all at once). One thing I can go on shopping sprees for is cards. Birthday cards, post cards, "just thinking about you" cards- I love them. I could spend hours in the card section at CVS, or the grocery store or the Hallmark store. I absolutely love it. Today, I got to partake in my favorite activity double. One, because it is my brother's birthday today- so I got him a card; two, because it is Kevin and my anniversary next Wednesday. I am cheap and currently unemployed (pretty much) so I can't afford to buy real gifts for people, so my go-to is cards.

A card says more than a gift can, it says- see this adorable kitten on the front? it reminds me of you. Or see how funny I am, because I picked out this mass-produced Hallmark card from the "Happy Birthday: Funny" section at CVS? That's how funny I am, because I had the sense to pick it up. One of my favorite inventions (possibly the only piece of technology I am thankful for) is the singing cards. They fit so many different types of people, and always bring a smile.

Post cards however, are my absolute favorite kind of card. I love getting postcards, I love sending postcards, but most of all- I love sending myself postcards. Today, one of my professors returned from Japan and brought everyone in my class a post card. It was sweet and said to us all "I wish you were here" and any good post card does. It really made me respect my professor. Kevin sent me a postcard once, it was lovely. 

So my advice, don't buy people expensive gifts, definitely not technology that will undoubtedly fail them, because who wants a gift that will break? Buying someone something perishable is like saying "I care about you... to a certain point." A card is something someone can keep and open and remember "this person cares enough about me to remember those important things in life." Thank you Hallmark. 

I should have been Amish.

So, I've had a series of events that make me believe I was always supposed to belong to an Amish community, or in the 19th century. Seemingly, technology either hates me, or God is smiting me for my sins by destroying all my most expensive belongings.

When I was in Worcester (Wooostah) my camera broke. I loved my camera, it is a Nikon Coolpix (pink) and I got it as a gift for my Christmas last year (Santa was good to me). I carried it with my every where and took great joy in snapping candid pictures of people; these pictures will one day serve as a photo journal of my life. But that journal will abruptly end once archeologists find my ruins, leading historians to believe I died a quick and sudden death at a youthful 18 years of age. This is because my camera broke, and it didn't just break- it spontaneously combusted- I didn't even do anything to it, I just gave it too much love I guess. Amish people, as many of you well know, are a pious bunch who don't use modern technology. If I were Amish, I would never have had a camera to begin with and therefore would have spend my time writing my memoirs in a novel type format, rather than using a fancy digital camera with the tendency to spontaneously combust.

My car is a much more worrying piece of technology that is a magnet for criminal activity and is starting to fall appart at it's meager age of 12. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my car possibly more than I loved my camera. It's a cute '98 VW Jetta, and I pimped it out with two German flags that are like socks covering my side mirrors. Unfortunately, it got broken into this week. It no longer has a radio (adding to it's ghettofabulous persona) and the window was completely smashed in the process. My front passenger window lost it's ability to move up from the down position quite a while ago BUT after the new glass was installed in my driver side window, the mechanic informed me, in broken English, that the window could not be put down anymore (for fear that it would not come back up). I don't know why the criminal who stole my radio so maliciously did not decide to steal the whole car. It would have relieved me of a burden that Amish will never have to experience.

I am not computer savy. I can use a computer, but somehow, no matter how good the computer, it always works a little bit slower for me. Maybe it's just my impatient personality, but honestly, computers are not my forte. Ask Kevin, Skype just does not work for me.  More than my inability to work skype- my internet is SO SLOW, and it doesn't even matter where I am getting the wireless internet from, it is just always slow! I think I need to take a computer course or something... OR I could be AMISH and never have this burden my mind again!!

So my solution: I am going to drop out of University and become Amish. I think Kevin and I would enjoy the quaint Amish life, producing hand crafted rocking chairs and wasting away on our porch swipping tea and reading the bible. He didn't seem really enthusiastic about the idea when I first introduced it, but I think in time it will grow on him, because- let's be honest- who doesn't want to travel back in time and produce offspring with extra fingers?

Girls Night (all day long)

So today I woke up and did my laundry and homework. Then I went to my sister's for a marathon event of chick flicks and general girly-ness.

We watched the entire first season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. It was pretty exciting/extremely entertaining. Now I know, I should be ashamed, but to be honest- sometimes I need a little mindless television. Who's to say that we need to follow a plot and figure out things. I don't want to be confused and thoughtful when I watch television (like when I watched Lost- I was "lost" hah). We just hung out talking about the lives of the Kardashians. It was nice.

Then for the main event- Twilight Saga: New Moon. It was awesome. I mean, the movies are terrible- the acting absolutely awful. However, they feature a strong ginger villain- Victoria. Her red hair really touches to my inner soul. And I think subconsciously- I watch it for the gingerness of it all. Plus all the characters are super pale, something I can really relate to. And sure, instead of sparkling in the sun I fry like a piece of bacon, but I'd light to think my pale skin is extremely irresistible like Edward Cullen. And it probably is, but I won't get too full of myself. I think Twilight does a good job of catering to the ginger audience (plus the gigantic teenage demographic).

I cannot, however, give an excuse for whats-her-face (butterface) who plays Bella. She is terrible, she can't speak, she sounds like she's constipated the entire movie. Sure maybe she's supposed to show her longing for Edwards body- but to be honest- he is not very attractive. In fact, their relationship is just a domestic violence issue that is too horrendous to describe- so they call it "love."

Lucky for Kevin, my vampire-esk pale skin does not come along with the desire to kill and eat him. Also, did you know Katherine Heigl is the Meg Ryan of our generation?

Just sitting here eating BlueBell

So today was a Monday. And by a Monday, I mean a Monday. I slept in, went to class, took a math test. My last class starts at 5:25 at night, which is pretty late in my opinion. I walk up to the science building with the endlessly long name I can never remember. A ray of sunshine: I see one of my classmates exiting the building to leave. "Did I miss class?" I ask myself, and look at my clock. Nope. "Is it cancelled??!!!" My heart starts pounding as I walk up to the building in excitement. Alas, my classmate informs me that she doesn't feel like going to class and if I could talk notes for her, that would be really great. Lame. If only I were less driven and more lazy, I would have never got up from my nap to go to class in the first place.

So I sit through over an hour of biology. On Wednesdays, I really enjoy this class- but on Mondays, it is close to torture. I exit the class and practically sprint out of the building, trying to distance myself quickly from my source of boredom. I meet up with Chris and Blake, they've already eaten, but Chris has a genius idea. We both buy a pint of ice cream. Now he wolfed his down, I don't blame him, but I saved mine for this very moment when I could safely engorge myself in the safety and seclusion of my room. Also, we went to the gym, so I don't feel that bad.

Anyway, lately I haven't had any ginger happenings. Except my BFF Mark informs me that in the next Spiderman movie they are getting rid of that horrible blonde woman and replacing her with a real redhead (the one from Easy A). I'm pretty excited about it, even though I don't particularly like the Spiderman movies. However, I have noticed that it is simply impossible to dye a non-redhead's hair red. It always just looks a little off. Perhaps that is why I don't like the Spiderman movies. It's not the bad acting, or the stupid plot structure, it's the fact that the woman who plays Mary Jane has a terrible dye job, and subconsciously- it offends me.

I think I will put it out of my mind, lest I upset myself again, and enjoy my ice cream in peace.