finally...

i've reconnected with my pre-junior year school standards, and it was about time.

Fact: I began my junior year with a gpa of 3.73 and began my senior year with a gpa of 3.44.

Fact: My sophomore year I made only one B out of 31 hours of classes, and the rest A's. My junior year I made no A's and 2 C's. The only plus side is that I only took 18 hours the whole year. In my small defense, I had taken 6 hours the summer before.

Fact: I withdrew from Comparative Literature twice last year, and not during drop/add. Both times I withdrew at 8 a.m. the morning of the mid-term.

Fact: We had 3 tests in HACE2100 my first semester of junior year and I went out every night before a test.

Fact: I got a C in a class that offered every test online. The lowest grade I ever got on a test was a 95. There was an 8 a.m. lab once a week that counted for a large portion of our grade, and I went twice. Out of curiosity, I decided to look at the key after the semester was over and out of about 200 students there was about 70 percent A's, 28% B's, and 2 % C's.

Fact: None of the aforementioned facts bothered me in the least.

By the beginning of my senior year, I had gotten my head together again and was ready to do well. I thought that since I had about 15 years of successful schooling under my belt, it would be easy to bounce back from one off year. Well, it was a lot harder than I thought. I did finally get the A I had so desperately missed and thankfully no C's showed up on my transcripts, but I had anticipated all A's or at least a shout out from the dean and I accomplished neither. My spirits were a little low, but I convinced myself that it was just going to be harder to get back on track than I thought and I was at least on the right course.

Well, I had a paper due in comparative literature (yes, I'm taking it for a third time, because contrary to what my 2 W's seem to convey, I really do like it) and I got it back today (oh, and this was after I turned in my midterm!) AND I got an A. My professor is pretty intense and after seeing the reactions of my classmates I figured I got a B at best. I was prepared to tell him what one of my friends told me to say: I may not write papers well, but I can write an entertaining blog or two. Thankfully I did do well and therefore didn't have to lie to him.

I was so surprised when I saw my grade that I realized it has been almost two years since I've gotten any sort of excitement from a grade. He wrote on it that it was moving and thoughtful. I blushed in the SLC hallway. He liked my intro a lot too, but offered this critique that I'm sure none of you will agree with: "You might want to rethink your comma use." I laughed in the SLC hallway.

Although I was brilliant enough to somehow manage to stretch my college career out for longer than 4 years, I am still feeling the pangs of graduation sadness approaching because some of my friends were not as smart as me. I dont understand why everyone can't stay at least an extra semester. Luckily, ashlee, kelly, caroline, whitney, mot, sallie, kelly, and katie ramsey are all still going to be here. Lucky for me, too, that I have a special place in my heart for younger boys. But, still, some of my best friends are going to be packing up in May and moving to their respective cities and I am going to be really sad.

And the worst part of the situation is that everyday I am reminded of their up and coming departures. It's like we can't even enjoy the last 2 full months that they have left in the best city on Earth. I mean I called my friend Erin the other day to ask her a simple question, it had nothing to do with May, nothing to do with caps or gowns and nothing to do with departures: I needed to know if she was switching out with ashlee at 12: 05. She didn't answer and I was preparing myself to leave her a message. Out of nowhere I hear, "Hi, you have reached the voicemail of Erin Jackson. I am unable to answer your call, so please leave your name, number and brief message and I will call you back" What happened to "Hey, it's Erin. Leave a message"? Of course I know what happened to it: graduation. We all need professional answering machines now. Ugh.

Because I was deathly ill today and there were new episodes of Entourage just released OnDemand, Ashlee and I decided to waste the day on the couch. I have spent countless days of my college career doing this same thing. Again, out of nowhere, in walks Kelly in a business suit complaining about the career fair and how she didn't give her resume out to anyone. I almost felt relieved. Good, she's no closer to getting a job, which means she's not closer to leaving us for a different life. Of course, I would be happy for her to have had a successful trip, but I take any sort of relief I can get.

Jared's getting acceptance letters from Law Schools, Ben just got into MCG, Emily has applied for two nursing jobs in Charleston, Mae has a dinner date with an accounting firm on Thursday, Bizzy is thinking of joining the Peace Corps, Elinor wants a job in magazine journalism in NYC, Paul Welch is going for his sixth interview with a real estate firm this weekend, Scott is thinking of entering into some program at Ga State in Atlanta, Erin hopefully has an interview in PR down in Jacksonville, Samantha will be hearing from Physical Therapy schools soon, and me....well, I am just concerned that 6 month leases will run out before we've had time to sign one.

adventures at the dmv

I was at the DMV today being a good citizen to my friend Heather and while I was there, the following happened:

1. I saw Hamza, our regular cab driver who i am sure has never seen me in the daylight. I was almost embarrassed that he noticed me, and i am pretty sure he laughed after he walked off.

2. A woman was yelling, breathing heavily and pacing back and forth all the while screaming that "there is no way I could have gotten pulled over for drunk driving in VIRGINIA!!!!!!!!!"

3. A man getting in a fight with someone who worked there because they refused to take his hospital birth certificate. The poor guy kept saying he "aint never got a birth certificate from the state!" I guess the woman was a life-ruiner because she said something along the lines of "well then the state doesn't recognize you as a person"

And the best thing that happened at the DMV........
A nice looking asian man approached Me and Heather as we were laughing hysterically about something (probably the lady who sounded like she was in labor, or the man who wanted to kill himself because hey! noone even knew he was alive). The man came up to me and said 'oh you look so excited ! did you just have 16th birthday?'

case in point!

Not only is my valentine's day not ruined because of unmet expectations, but it's actually better because of. Did I wake up this morning and think my sweet neighbor Christian is going to bring over a box of chocolates? Did I think when I get to work my favorite little boys in class will have a present for me? Did I think the love of my life Benton Johnson will send me a text asking if I'll be his Valentine? Or my long lost friend from Wake Forest would leave me a message asking if I could be his GA Valentine? Or that my brother would send me a text message saying "Happy Valentines Day Nigga?" That Charlie would bring over a bouquet of flowers and a card for the apartment? That the boys upstairs would get us flowers, too? That Towneclub would give us sour straws (in the shade of pink, of course)?

No, I did not. And that made it that much sweeter.

A-Town

I learned from the Red and Black today that Clarke County is the 5th poorest county in the nation.

I live in the 5th poorest county in the nation and yet, as i look outside my apartment window I can see 4 BMW's, a mercedes, 2 new tahoes, and several new SUV's. Maybe this is what attracts those friendly Athens visitors like Willy.

My random thought #1

I was just reading one of my favorite blogs,The Barely Legal Blog, and after reading one of their postings entitled "random thought" I decided I'm going to start copying them. They wrote about how great it is to watch an episode of Unsolved Mysteries and then find at the end of the episode that there is an update. I was thinking about how I always have these random thoughts and I always want to write about them, but more often than not I don't feel like I can make an entire blog out of it. Well, I'm just going to start randomly inserting some thoughts I have, when I have them instead of just waiting until I have something I can elaborate on. I'll start by this random thought I had the other day:

I hate opening gifts in front of people. It doesn't matter how much I love the gift I got, I can't seem to convey the appropriate excitedness through my facial expressions. My looks fall short, my words seem shallow and I generally look like I dislike every gift that comes my way. Or at least that is my fear. This is why I hate opening gifts in front of people. Well, you may not have a mutual dislike of gift-opening like me, but I can almost guarantee that, when opening gifts, this move always invokes embarrassment: Opening a gift that has been bagged (while your gift-giver is watching) and, after pulling out the gift and deciding there is surely more in the bag, you go for the double-reach, only to hear your gift-giver respond with a, ' that's all that's in there.'

SHE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU (especially when you use pick-up lines)

I was just sitting in my room, replaying highlights from our trip to NYC and, while reliving one particular memory, I realized I need to dedicate some space on my blog to helping inform guys on how not to act.

Ashlee, Hollie and I decide to check out the little dance club near our hotel. The ratio of guys to girls was probably 10 to 1, so as one guy put it, the guys around us were "like a pool of sharks." They each took their turns at an attempt to grab our attention for longer than a few seconds. Some of them were really good looking, but looks pale in comparison to smoothness. And it was smoothness that most of them lacked.

I think the first shark to approach me tried to work me by showing off his dancing skills. Although he got an A for originality, he failed miserably in winning my affection. The second guy that came up to me tried to win me over with played-out phrases and tired moves. I believe his opening line was something like, "I'm glad you woke up from my dreams. You're beautiful...I might be in love with you." I have a few problems with this: the first lies within the fact that he thought that line might actually work, which therefore means that he thought I was the kind of girl stupid enough to enjoy hearing it. My second problem is that not only did he use a pick-up line, he used a pick-up line that made no sense. He's glad I woke up from his dream? I wasn't the one asleep and dreaming. I think he would have been better off to stick with the "are you tired, because you've been running through my mind all day" line. He still wouldn't have passed, but at least it would have been an honest failure. The last problem is something I don't hold against him alone, but the male population in general. I am not going to try and speak for the entire female race, but I will speak for me and most of the girls I know when I say, it is not flattering to have a guy approach you in a dark bar and tell you that you're beautiful and he's in love with you. You're not in love, you're drunk. And I'm no more beautiful than anyone else here, I just happened to be the one who stumbled upon accidental eye contact with you. Needless to say, I was done with this guy before he got another sentence out. But, the one thing he had going for him was that he let me go without a fight. He either knew his pick-up line was a disaster, or more than likely he knew he needed to find a bigger idiot to use it on. The only guy in the group that had any appeal was the one friend of theirs standing back watching it all. He was the funniest of them all, the least desperate of them all, and, oddly enough, the least attractive of them all. He's also the only one in the bunch that got a kiss. And, no, it was not from me.

So, I was sitting in my room thinking about Tuesday night and the guys that were and I thought about those poor guys out there that have no idea how to pick up a girl. Of course I guess the first bit of advice would be to look for her anywhere other than a bar. But, the truth is that from about 18 to mid 20's, bars are where you meet a lot of the people you know. So, for all of the bar flies just looking to meet a nice girl, whether it be to really get to know her or just hoping to snag a kiss at the end of the night, here's what not to do:

1. I hope I covered this enough already, but don't use pick up lines...if you're being remotely serious. I didn't touch on using them when you're being funny. Mainly because all guys think they're funny and there is a fine, fine line. If you're sure that you're a funny person (this means that people other than you laugh at your jokes), then actually a pick-up line could be your ticket. Provided that the girl knows you're joking and that she has a sense of humor. Use your own discretion with this one.

2. Dont just walk up to a girl and start showering her with compliments. Aside from being unbelievably lame, this is insulting. She knows you feed every other girl who looks in your direction the same lines, and she probably almost feels bad about herself that you lumped her into the category of girls who are flattered by your tactics. Wait until she's engaged in the conversation to give her a compliment. But, it can't be too cheesy. Bad example: Whitney meets a boy in the bar who is funny, smart and cute. She's obviously into him, so he decides it's appropriate to kiss her. Well, it was appropriate until he talked for ten minutes about how soft her lips are. All he had to say (if anything at all) was something like you're a good kisser, period, the end.

3. Don't offer to buy her a drink within a few minutes of meeting her. Again, you're screaming desperate. Once I met this guy who came up to me, gave me the "you're so cute" line (which, actually, is much much better than beautiful...it doesn't share the sleaze factor). I was nice to him, but before I could even get out my last name he was asking me what I wanted to drink. Honestly, the first thing that crossed my mind was "how much money has this guy spent tonight buying girls drinks" It turns out that my instincts were right about this guy, as he was the same guy that had been calling and texting my roommate all night begging for a lunch or dinner date. Wait a while, make sure she's interested and that if she does get a drink she'll be drinking it next to you.

4. If you feel like the situation is inviting then go ahead and approach her. Hello works just fine. But, don't leech onto her once she starts enjoying you. this is actually the best time to say "well hey, I'm going to go over here for a little while, but I'll hopefully run into you again" You'll be amazed at how much her interest in you just multiplied.

5. I don't care how accepting this has recently become, and I may just be speaking for myself and this may change once I graduate, but do not hand me a business card. I think this is ridiculous. I realize it contains all of your vitals, but why do I need your number? Get mine and save the card for your customers.

Okay, that's all for now. I have a lot more and I will be adding on....I do realize we are an incredibly picky species. Don't hate on me for pointing out the obvious, just take my advice and enjoy.