Down with the Counter!

I don't like the counter on the Artichoke. I have some issues with it. All it does is upset Kessel, because he can never nab the number he wants, and makes me feel like a creep! Matt can look at it to see who is reading it and when... and all THAT does is make me look like a creep! Ok, so I go there like 392,382,649,087,548,163,735 times a day, but that's because I use it as a vehicle to get to the other blogs! (not to say i don't send up a little prayer that there is a new post, but c'mon!)

Matt, I am not obsessed with the blog, and I hope you don't get creeped out when you see that somebody from Chicago 60611 looked at The Artichoke 13 times in the last three hours.

Whatever.

Peace, love, and ponies.

"No bunny at all! Always no bunny at all!"
Chandler, Friends

Add another one to The List

Of Things I Want To Do Before I Have To Grow Up:

This list as it currently stands:
1) Graduate
2) Teach for America in rural North Carolina
3) Write a book
4) Live in France for a bit
5) Live in Miami for a bit
6) Own a Harley
7) Buy a pair of real, bigass diamong earrings

and my addition as of today:
8) Be a bartender at Coyote Ugly

Peace, love, and ponies.

"She's such a snot!"
Adriana, on Tyra Banks

I miss HER

I miss this Emily:




I miss when this was a funny idea/joke:



Come back to me!

Peace, love, and ponies.

“It is great to be a blonde. With low expectations it's very easy to surprise people.”
-Pamela Anderson

Update

I wish I had something to tell you about. But I don't. So here are a few updates:

1. My semester is over in 31 days.
2. It is hot and sunny in Chicago- people went to the beach today- I did not because I am ill, somehow.
3. I have given up alcohol until the semester ends
4. I am on the lookout for a bunny- I need one at the ranch
5. Do I have a boss yet?
6. I am now walking to Ghiradelli for some mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Peace, love, and ponies.

"March heatwaves bring proof of global warming."

FCUK

You know what I'm talking about. All those shirts people have with witty things like "FCUK in Chicago," "Too busy to FCUK," and "Take time to FCUK," or just plain 'ole, "FCUK?" Well, today I was walking down the avenue and I passed a guy with a zip-up hoodie that said, "FCUK" in huge red letters. Then I did a double-take and realized that it really just said, "FUCK." I chuckled a little bit, and then felt for all the small children who were a little less innocent because of his clothing.

Peace, love, and ponies.

"Well I never seem to do it like anybody else,
Maybe someday, someday I'm gunna settle down,
If you ever want to find me I can still be found
Taking the long way, taking the long way around."
-Dixie Chicks, "The Long Way Around"

She speaks words of gold

"The acoustics of my dad's toilet are not very good. Youll have to come over sometime to expereince it. its quite funny."

"I like the kids menu! It's perfectly proportioned, it's cheap, and it comes with crayons!"

-Emily C. Lawrence

Peace, love, and ponies.

"Japanese internment camps, the Korean War, and Crocs; the worst things to come out of this country in the past few decades." -George McGraw

My Journey to the Mecca

The delay in my response in the ultimate pious experience of my lifetime is due to my need to sort out all of the complex emotions that go along with it.

After the opportunity slipped through my fingers several times, turning me into an emotional wreck, the planets finally aligned and I was able to purchase tickets to see Bob Seger in concert; his last concert, the third concert of a three concert addition he added onto the end of his final tour just weeks before it ended. When my mom told me that he was returning to Detroit and that we could get tickets, I cried.

It's hard to put into words what Bob Seger means to me; he is the first musician I have memories of listening to. When my family went on roadtrips to Florida when I was little, Seger was always in the cassette or CD player. Hearing just one note of his music takes me back to the backseat of my mom's white Lumina, staring out the window at the green backdrop of Tennessee and Kentucky, the rocky cliffs that the highway runs through, or the underground highways in Atlanta. Bob Seger is, without a doubt, the strongest tradition that my family has.

At the concert, my eyes welled up during the first song; his music runs through me deeper than anything else. I was in awe. I sang, I screamed, I danced, I held up my lighter, and I was completed as a person.

Peace, love, and ponies.

"Against the wind,
We were running against the wind.
We were young and stong,
We were running against the wind"
- Bob Seger, "Against the Wind"

Story of my life

Ok, I'm sorry but I have to post this so that when I am bored in 14 weeks I can look back and have a giggle.

I was talking to my mom on AIM (yeah, she learned how to use it when I moved out. Perfect), freaking out about one of my many less-than-desireable life situations, spouting off about how there are no thoughts in my brain when she said, "You have thoughts... crazy execution sometimes, knee-jerk reactions, but there are thoughts in there."

And she pretty much summed up my entire being in 15 words.

Peace, love, and ponies.

"I believe we write our own stories. And each time we think we know the end - we don't. Perhaps luck exists somewhere between the world of planning, the world of chance, and in peace that comes from knowing that you just can't know it all. You know, life's funny that way. Once you let go of the wheel, you might end up right where you belong."
- Wish I knew who to credit this to.

Where in the world?

If you could wake up tomorrow in any country/city in the world, which would it be? You get to stay there for 6 months, all expenses paid.

I don't even know how to answer this... somewhere in France to perfect my French? Fiji? Iceland? Australia? Miami?

Hopefully you can be a bit more decisive.

Peace, love, and ponies.

"So if you think I'm gunna settle down, I've got news for you- I've still got a lot of leavin' left to do."
-Dierks Bentley

What's the budget?

We need more of these at camp. The kids could definitey handle them. I mean, just look how pretty.

Peace, love, and ponies.

"Did the universe explode?"
-Em, when I told her I accidentally typed "google" into my Google searchbar

Don't Boss Me Around!

I don't like bosses who are very willing to boss you around, but refuse to actually get their hands dirty with the project. I am sorry, but you are not above me. You are here to make sure I do my job right, so maybe you should try to put yourself in my position before reprimanding me for doing the best I can. I cannot do your projects when I do not have access to your "upper echelon" files or databases. Do not sigh and roll your eyes at me when I tell you I cannot do it because I am not authorized, and you know it.

I like bosses who prefer to work alongside me, as opposed to above me.

Peace, love, and ponies.

"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."
-Aristotle

Southside Chicago= WHOA

You may not know this, but the southside of Chicago is not a place you go unless you want to be mugged, robbed, held at gunpoint/shot or raped.

Unless it is the day of the Southside Irish Parade. Then everybody gets dressed up in the most ridiculous green garb on the face of the planet, and walking on the sidewalks with open beer cans in hand is completely ignored by the cops. Everybody is Irish (at least for the day) and watching the parade isn't so much the goal as getting "festive" and being "cheery."

Fast forward (because this could possibly be the LONGEST post ever, but as some of you don't understand the ins and outs of Chicago I will spare you the details) to the end of the parade, as we are walking back to our friend Tom's house, on the southside. Tom and I are walking together, and six of our other friends are walking about two blocks behind us. As we walk past an apartment complex on the sidewalk, a group of guys is walking toward us on the lawn, and they are obviously about to fight. This scares me frozen stiff, and Tom and I Iook in the direction they came, and notice a guy walking toward them with glistening blood spewing from his mouth, and I am sure he is swishing a few teeth around. Then we notice that he has a hammer in his hand, and is headed toward the brawl.

Insert panic here.

I cannot bear to see this, but also cannot look away. Tom (a Marine) starts to take off his backpack and take action, but I wouldn't let him. I'm still frozen, and as soon as punches are thrown, one guy makes contact with another's jaw, causing him to fall back into the brick building and slump down on his back with his legs at really awkward angles, and blood streaming from his mouth, completely knocked out. At this point, hammer guy still hasn't made a move, and Tom pushes me away from the fight- this was all about 10-15 feet away from us.

I begin with hysterical laughter, unable to process what is happening, and then begin to cry. I can't blame it on the beer, because I am no longer drunk, but I am also not a cryer. This just really got to me, and poor Tom had no idea what to do. Here he is, walking down a street in his childhood neighborhood, and I am full-force bawling (yes, that's how you spell it). He tried to comfort me by grabbing my hand with both of his and holding it up to his chest, and telling me I should be a Marine. My response?

"No. I wanna be a SEAL."

Fast forward again to our train ride home. I am half asleep and the train is absolutely packed to the brim with drunk parade-goers. My cell phone started to ring, and EVERYBODY started to sing along. And "sing" when you are drunk... well, you know what that translates to. About 15 minutes later, somebody started belting it out again, and was soon joined by the masses. The song?

"Take Me Home Country Roads."

Think about that for a bit.

Peace, love, and ponies.

"In Ireland the inevitable never happens and the unexpected constantly occurs."
-Sir John Pentland Mahaffy

Woman stomping grapes slips and falls

Does laughing at this make me a mean person?

Aaaaaaand I'm back

Hello blog community, oh, how I have missed you! I tried to visit every once in a while whilst in the FL, but I was a bit preoccupied with sand, sunshine, and sping break celebratory activities.

Here are the updates you should know about:

1. I have tanlines.

2. After I graduate, I want to Teach for America in North Carolina, and then move to Miami for a few years. Miami is amazing.

3. Chicago is warm and sunny.

4. I feel out of practice in terms of camp life. Today in Borders I heard a panicing kid yelling out for his dad, and I wanted nothing more than to comfort him.

5. Today I was walking around the city, slowy, just enjoying myself when I was passed by on elderly couple; they each went around different sides of me, and then met back up and held hands ahead of me. Eat that up.

Really, this is all the important stuff

Peace, love, and ponies.

"Life's unfairness is not irrevocable; we can help balance the scales for others, if not always for ourselves."
-Hubert Humphry