And Now That Christmas is Over, Easter Can Begin!!

*gag* I almost lost it when I walked into a store the other day and saw EASTER decorations out on the shelves. Sigh. He was just born and we're already ready to kill him again. Poor Jesus.
So what did you get for christmas? And was it appreciated?? Good then, on to more important matter....
So a terrorist tried to take down a plane on Christmas day...and failed. Epically.
I am ready to return to classes, I miss my English teacher's random rants about authors she hates. lol.
I am, however, very glad that I did not have to return any gifts this year. The week between Christmas and New Year's is like an extended edition of Black Friday...only people are, I like to believe, less pissed off than they are when purchasing gifts. Instead they are getting crap they really want or getting money, which makes the world alllll better, right?
So over the holidays, my boyfriend received all the seasons of Lost and so, mostly to humor myself, I began watching the series from the beginning, and, just like my most beloved Twilight, I am now...*sigh* addicted. Yeah. At least it, again like Twilight, was at a good time! = /

When I read Twilight, the first movie had just come out and I ended up reading the entire series within only about 4 weeks. So far in Lost, I'm almost through with the 3rd season and the reason this is so convenient is due to the fact that the last season of Lost will begin showing on ABC in oh...about a month. Yeah. Good timing indeed.
I'm kind of glad that 2009 is gone, but it is hard to believe that the first decade of the 21st century, and the decade that saw the largest growth in me as a person, is over. I am now approaching 20 at an alarming rate (August will be here far too soon!)
Oh well, thus is life.
Happy New Year everyone!

Traveling Over the Holidays

Ahh Christmastime...and the traveling associated with it. Every year millions of Americans pile themselves like sardines into their car, trucks, and gas-chugging SUVs and head onto the open road to see relatives that, many times, they really could live without seeing. But nonetheless, they arrive at their destinations after many grueling hours in traffic on the insterstate highways, nearly being completely driven insane by the 20 people they are sharing a vehicle with or being side-swiped by a tractor trailer driver trying to make it home by Christmas morning himself. Once at their destination, hugs are spread like hot butter on bread and everyone, for an hour or so, is joyful and so very glad that they came. Then they realize that they are stuck in this level of hell for the next 1-5 days. Usually they don't realize what they've gotten into until the children start wailing, someone burns something in the kitchen, or the house they're sharing with their 200 relatives suddenly becomes like a cardboard box with no airholes. Closterphobia sets in and the REAL fun begins: trying to figure out what to do to pass the time until this horrible event is over with.
Now don't get me wrong, I adore the holiday season, and Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, I just don't go and visit any relatives during this most joyous season because...well, I know that I'd be thrusting myself into a whole nother level of hell and I choose to save myself the agony of spending so much time cramped up in a small house with allllllllll my family. I love them and I'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much.
But as I was saying, usually board games that haven't seen the light of day in 30-40 years are brought down from the attic or up from the basement, smelling like only retro-items can. The younger generation is in awe of some of these games that they thought had only been invented in their lifetimes (Monopoly anyone?) All crowd around a table and the games begin. Usually at some point alcohol makes its way around this table and the adults think "well as long as the kids stay in the house, a little alcohol won't hurt them..."They are ALWAYS wrong. The kids COMEPLTELY LOSE THEIR MINDS!!!!! They end up bouncing off the walls (sometimes literally) and running about the already-cramped house like it was a gymnasium. The adults become stressed and start the yelling, kids get hurt and cry, and when an unsuspecting neighbor comes by, they open the door to nothing less than utter chaos. Hopefully, if said neighbor is smart, they will quickly run back to their house, lock the doors and windows, and watch from a safe distance next door. Things get broken in the house as the kids just won't quit because they don't know how to handle alcohol and if the weapon isn't alcohol, folks, its definitely sugar. I think that to children, sugar is alcohol. Inevitably someone will find the stash of chocolates, hard candies, etc. and the kids will eat nothing but the sweets for hours on end. If eaten enough, they get sick and then the adults get to clean up and smell the vomit for the rest of the blessed visit with those they hold so dear to their knives hearts.
This all before Christmas morning has even arrived!
Each night in this choas house as it is, sleep is rare and usually interrupted by crying, someone breaking something in the darkness trying to find the bathroom, and worst of all, the sounds sometimes known to come out of the bathroom late at night...you know what I'm talking about...the toilet monster. Yeah. By Christmas morning the adults just want their kids to shut up so they let them open their presents only to realize that it's 8am and they're stuck in this hell for at least another day, if they're lucky, the kids will be entertained by their newly received gifts until noon-ish and then they'll become bored again, the pattern of sugar and craziness continues over and over again until slowly, oh so painfully slowly, the relatives begin to leave and head back out onto the open road back home in the same traffic they arrived in with the same dangers only now they all almost wish for the tractor trailer to hit them and end the now much more miserable ride. Everyone is sick of each other and when the people whose house, by this point, is nothing but a shell of its former glory are left to themselves, some cry, some just silently clean up, most just go back to bed and try to sleep it off. In the end though, a few months later everyone is re-energized and the visiting can resume. The next year, however, said hosts make sure the whole gang goes to someone else's house for the holiday season.

The End of One Stress and Beginning of Another...

So as yet another semester grinds to a close, and the stress of Finals begins to fade, I find myself relieved that the classes are over. But then I realize I must now go on to the task of finding my textbooks for next semester...and there's the stress once again. It seems like the only place around that carries cheap textbooks never has the books I need for my classes, what irony. So I'm left to either going onto Barnes & Noble.com and hopefully finding them there, or giving in completely and selling my soul to the campus bookstore. How uncool of the makers of these texts to charge already poor college kids and their families so unbelievably much for textbooks that will only be in use by the student for 4-6 months. I'm looking at roughly $600 for only 5 classes. See, my theory on the way they get you is by making professors use the newest textbooks possible so that they can charge you full price for a brand-spanking-new book that you have no choice but to purchase. I buy as many Used books as I can but still, the bill at the end of the day of buying books burns me like a stove eye.

Deck the Halls with the Mart of Wall....

So in one of my last Political Science classes, we devoted a whole hour to the wonders of Walmart and how it's effected the local economies where one has been placed. Truthfully, I love walmart's prices, but not the ridiculous lines at the cash registers at my Walmart. I do have to admit that Walmart has by itself pretty much devastated local economies. Mom-and-Pop shops cannot compete with Walmart and it's brand name low-priced goods. People would much rather go to one place and get everything, and I mean EVERYTHING than go from one locally owned place to another. I think that this is a sad turn of events in the 21st century. Perhaps Americans will get lucky and Walmart will go bankrupt and we'll be forced to go back to the good ol days when the locally owned mom-and-pop shops were "in". Wishful thinking, I know.
In the mean time, please feel free to enjoy the image at right...it's true you know. Most Americans' souls are made of money...and Walmart wants your money. What Walmart wants, Walmart gets.

Oink Oink

So, I've been knocked on my butt with some mysterious cold-like illness...I am soooo hoping it is not Swine Flu... So far no urges to oink and no sign or a snout or a squiggle tail. Only coughing, fever, achiness, and complete exhaustion. Now, I think I may have asked for the Swine Flu because ever since the outbreak, I've made fun of what I'd do if I got it and have felt no fear from it. If I've got it now, I've felt worse...Mono blows, folks. Alas, I missed all my classes today including 3 quizes and a presentation...this part may take a while to sort out...*crosses fingers*. I felt fine Tuesday night, woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat and almost no voice. I woke up this morning minus the sore throat and most of my voice back but now its all migrated to my lungs and just chest area. Bleck.

Perhaps this is what they were talking about in He Is Legend. The whole world is going to be wiped out by the Swine Flu and we'll all turn into zombie pigs feeding on the brains of those who were immune...there ya go. That, ladies and gents, is the REAL story. Be prepared. Pigs may fly but Swine Flu...haha.