Summer

I feel like I should blog just based on the momentousness of the occasion, but I really have nothing interesting to say. Other than I just finished my final final of my CC career, and am officially unenrolled in said college, despite the fact that I am not yet moved out of my tiny weeny dorm room and I got a letter today "rewarding" me $1000 financial aid for next year at CC. (woot woot?) Anyways, beside the point. I have officially began my summer months of vaca and relaxation, which for me, always translates into a lot of travel, sleeping, and driving around, with the occasional day of work. Hooray! I think I'm going to work more than usual this summer...but we shall see how that actually works out. hooray! gracias y adios!

Obama!

Videos like this scare me.


And videos like this make me laugh.

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

Drive Back

I talked to SEK once about driving back to school from home (or a home-like place...aka R&Js). We agreed it's one of the hardest things to do....EVER. For one thing, you just left home, a place where you KNOW you're loved and cared for and you have concrete evidence that SOMEONE cares what happens to you. And you're going to a place where everything's an uncertainty, and everything's not as clean, and you have to make an effort and care what people are thinking, and the list just goes on and on! Anyways, I drove back to school last night, listening to a mix made for me by HL, and this song came on...one that always makes me unbelievably sad, but heartened and strengthened at the same time... mostly focus on the chorus:

Strange how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds...
But I'm holding on underneath this shroud
Praying.



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Immediately after this song, on the mix, is this one. And for the first time, I appreciated the position of the songs, and realized that the world is funny like that sometimes, whether on purpose or not. and you've just gotta take the shitty with the hilarious, and make your own happy. what a revelation huh?! haha

Breaks from Chemistry

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Poem in Thanks

Thomas Lux

Lord Whoever, thank you for this air
I'm about to in- and exhale, this hutch
in the woods, the wood for fire,
the light-both lamp and the natural stuff
of leaf-back, fern, and wing.
For the piano, the shovel
for ashes, the moth-gnawed
blankets, the stone-cold water
stone-cold: thank you.
Thank you, Lord, coming for
to carry me here- where I'll gnash
it out, Lord, where I'll calm
and work, Lord, thank you
for the goddamn birds singing!



Poem in Thanks (2.0)

Kate S

Lord Whoever, thank you for this Oxygen gas
I'm about to chemically react to create carbon dioxide, this basement
classroom in the science building, the gas for the bunsen burner,
the match- both chemical and physical properties of
gaseous state, combustion, and heat of formation.
For the text book, the scientific calculator
for equations, the cracked and broken
test tubes, the 10.0 molarity Hydrochloric acid
ionized: thank you.
Thank you, Lord, coming for
to carry me to Chem 107, where I'll gnash
it out, Lord, where I'll suck it up
and do it, Lord, thank you
for the goddamn Hydrogen-bond molecular birds singing!

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I have had a huge number of INCREDIBLE 'that's what she said's lately. I'm so proud of myself.

Hoppy Easter!

What a fantastic weekend.

I made a spontaneous decision to go up to see Kels instead of heading to FC, and while I'm sure I would've loved that too...it was so great to see Kels and I had the greatest Easter. We had a 10 course gourmet dinner at her friend's house, I got to sleep in til 10:35 and not be woken up by slamming doors and obnoxious yelling, I got a little bit of Chem done of Saturday, got to hang out with Kels again Saturday night, went to Easter vigil (which was awesome!), then church again this morning! Sorry that was basically one huge run on sentence, but I thought just listing stuff off would be faster than writing it all out!

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The church service this morning was really awesome. Kels found this ELCA church in Glenwood, and the people there truly amazed me with how welcoming and kind they all were to both of us. The music was good, the pastor had a funny, entertaining, AND thought-provoking Easter sermon involving Monty Python and Cookie-Monster and Jesus "gettin' up in your grill."

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Kels and I both commented on how this was our first time not having Easter with the whole family. No big Easter brunch, with delicious food and lots of people. Just the two of us, at McDonalds, with small coffees, hashbrowns, and McMuffins. It's going to be one of my most favorite Easters ever, I think.

Granny

I realized today that I think I'm going to be a great grandma/granny. I mean really, I already like all the things grandma's supposedly do. For example, I like:

-Books and talking about them
-Reading the newspaper
-Crocheting/Knitting
-Sending people cards in the mail
-Spoiling little kids rotten
-Visiting with family
-Sewing
-Cardigans and sweaters
-House shoes

The only thing I really don't like that most granny's like is cooking.But I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before I like doing that too! A shout-out to my Grannys/Grandmas, for being so fantastic!

Insurance

I had strep throat a while ago and went to the student health clinic on campus for some drugs. I just got the insurance paperwork in the mail the other day. On the front it says:

Important Papers Enclosed:
1. Open Immediately
2. Read
3. Send Home To Parents

I laughed out loud. Opened it, read it, and fully intend on bringing it home with me and sending it over to my parents. I wish all of my papers could be handled (and instructed) so perfectly. I'm guessing after college they stop putting that on your insurance paperwork though. That's too bad.

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I have an iGoogle homepage, and a little part of it has 3 quotes of the day. All three of them today made me laugh and/or appreciate their wittiness.

Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better.
- Anonymous
Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius. A genius is somebody like Norman Einstein.
- Joe Theismann
Don't you wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence? There's one marked 'Brightness,' but it doesn't work.
- Gallagher

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I love Ray Charles. He calms me down like nothing else when I'm feeling anxious or stressed or generally upset.
One of my favorite songs--
This is a great video. The caption reads: A very rare 1963 performance by Ray Charles in São Paulo, Brazil, recorded one day before his 33rd birthday. This set is a remarkable find. Beyond its historical significance, the video provides enormous pleasure: We get to see and hear Ray, The Genius at his absolute best, exactly as it was show then...



this one too:


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I'm reading Ahab's Wife right now...and MAN is it EPIC. I'm not going to divulge details, cuz I think if you have some free brain cells and a bit of time, you should read it. But it's been 400 pages of swash-buckling, Kentucky-wintering, lighthouse-climbing epicness. It's exhaustive. But a good read.

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MT introduced me to this comedian and I think he's just awesome. He just kills me, and I think I was in the right goofy mood to appreciate the first time I watched it, so it was all especially hilarious. Enjoy the one liners and nice background music--

Books

I love books. And, not to brag, it's just a fact, I read a lot of them. I read a lot of bad books, but I also read a remarkable number of good ones. And there is no doubt in my mind that I would not be sane today, after going through high school, South America, and now college, without books. And so, on this dreary Monday, some of my favorites-

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
The Red Tent- Anita Diamant
The Awakening- Kate Chopin
The Scarlet Pimpernel- Baroness Orczy
The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven, The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver
Anna Karenina- Tolstoy
The Catcher in the Rye- Salinger
Flowers for Algernon- Keyes
Pride and Prejudice- Austen
The Things They Carried- Tim O'Brien
The Life of Pi- Yann Martel
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
The Davinci Code, Angels and Demons- Dan Brown
Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress- Dai Sijie
Gathering Blue- Lois Lowery
Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
House of Spirits, Eva Luna- Isabel Allende
Fight Club- Chuck Palahniuk


Obviously not completely thorough, and I seriously hesitated on Fight Club, but it's a general overview of all my favs that come to mind. Please comment and add your own favorites! I'm going through books like wildfire and will need something else to read soon!

If I haven't already raved to you about it yet...my new fav. website (after f-book of course) www.booksidoneread.blogspot.com ~~do it!

Gen Chem

I switched my class this block from Environmental Sociology to General Chemistry 107. yay...

No, actually, I'm really excited about it. the yay was for dramatic effect. I went to my sociology class first, and got the whole shpeel about syllabus and course work and how 80% of our grade was participation (in class, with 27 other people...not exactly my strength) and decided it was not going to be a super ton of fun and what I need right now.SO! I went down to registration. Figured out where Chem 1 is, and proceeded promptly to Olin Rm. 185 (which is freaking hard to find.) I need a class with some answers right now. before diving into Intro to Psych next block. and it turns out Chemistry has LOTS of answers. hooray! and also lots of Labs, and quizzes, and exams, and problems, and yikes! no social life for 3 weeks!

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www.isittuesday.com

genius.

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Adjectives for Spring Break: exhausting, rejuvenating, warm, sunny, nostalgic, friendly, snowy and slushy, loving, short, full, interesting, and illuminating

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heads up. F-bomb....

www.thefuckingweather.com

useful genius.

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I love my family.

Flying Home

Yay! It has been 9 hours since I finished my oral final exam for my FYE history class, Civilizations in the Middle East. What a fantastic 9 hours. My final went well, and I feel like overall the class was pretty good. But Seriously, I was so ready to be done with that class. Adios Islam! Hooray!

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I'm sitting in the DIA, and I realize now that I picked a particularly bad spot to sit and eat my Panda Express. "Caution, the moving walk is nearing its end. Please watch your step. Thank you." Bose headphones time! and my new favorite song for the past few days/weeks (can't really keep track) but the music video is fantastic. I feel very politically active just listening to it.



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So, I know I talk a lot about the stuff I read, and I have the feeling I'm going to be quoting a lot of stuff in this blog. But it's what I do. I read. I read for class, read for pleasure, read to get tired, read to kill time, read to get through college, read to get more knowledge. You get the idea.

I've been reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson since December, and I just can't seem to get through it. It's interesting, but at the same time it's not. At times it's funny, and at times it's just a history of national parks and very dry...whatever. I can identify with a lot of the stuff he talks about though, and says, especially this last one. It made me laugh out loud on the plane because it is just SO true. And I whole-heartedly agree-
"If there is a greater reason for being grateful to be alive in the twentieth century than the joy of stepping from the dog's breath air of a really hot summer's day to the crisp, clean, surgical chill of an air conditioned establishment, then I really can't think of it."

Streamside

I went up to see R,J,C,J & C this weekend, and had an absolute blast. We did nothing in particular, besides go to the infamous Rio and watch copious amounts of movies(4 for me!) and sit around and visit, and I was the happiest and most content I've been in 3 weeks. 2 months, if you don't count my little jaunt to Aspen when I got to see KLS, my lovely primhermana for 3 days.

I was the happiest I've been in 2 months. Unbelievably more happy than I have been at school. There's something simultaneously very wonderful and very sad about that fact.

And now I have to go study, because spring break starts in 1 day, 15 hours, 30 minutes and 42 seconds, and I need to study for that final I have to take before I can go home.

Snow

Besides being the weather phenomenon we all know and love, Snow is also the title to the book I'm reading for my final symposium for my middle eastern history class. It's by a Turkish author named Orhan Pamuk, who's won the Nobel Prize in literature two or three times, once for this book. I'm a little over halfway through it right now, and it is fantastic. Even reading it at lightning speed (block plan), I totally understand the cultural context, social nuances, and personal issues going on at several levels. Snow's a recurring theme, obviously, and it's also very deep, but if you have some time and want a really good murder mystery meets sad love story meets social turmoil book, it's a keeper.

Here's two of my favorite excerpts from my reading today. I just love when authors get it exactly right at that exact moment in fictional time. Perfect:
"And how beautiful was the falling snow! How large the snowflakes were, and how decisive. It was as if they knew their silent procession would continue until the end of time. The wide avenue was buried knee-deep; it climbed up a slope to disappear into the night. How white and how mysterious!"

context-- sad, sorry, pathetic, but oddly courageous and charming man "Ka" is trying to win the heart of his long lost "love" (personally, I think he's delusional and should base is love on more than a first glance after 20 years of separation...but whateva. then it wouldn't be interesting.) anyways, this is his love's sister telling him what he needs to do to get the girl:
(Ka): "What do I have to do to convince her to trust me?"
"It may not happen in the first instant, but within ten minutes of meeting a man, a woman has a clear idea of who he is, or at least who he might be for her, and her heart of hearts has already told her whether or not she's going to fall in love with him. But her head needs time to understand what her heart has decided. If you ask me, there's very little a man can do at this point except wait for time to take its course. If you really love her, all you have to do is tell her all the beautiful things you feel about her; why you love her, why you want to marry her."

I don't necessarily agree with all that, but I think it's an interestingly beautiful idea. and in this story, it totally fits with the themes and ideals of the characters.

Hooray historical fiction and no more smelly, yucky, non-fiction essay crap!

Monday Monday...

I don't really know how that song goes, but I know it exists. and I know it talks about how much Mondays SUCK, and I would agree that as a day of the week, it is one of the worst, in general. Today, however, while it was by no means comparable to an uplifting Sunday afternoon, was alright. Here's my list for this Monday Monday; Things that made me smile:

~my talk on the phone with mama this afternoon
~the arrival of my new white linen pants in the mail
~70 degrees and sunny
~delicious foccacia bread and dipping oil at my new favorite coffee/book store combo place
~the wonders of modern medicine, specifically ibuprofen
~the gay couple cheerfully having a glass of wine at the table next to me in this coffee shop, in the middle of conservative Colorado Springs (which I understand is by no means an anomaly, but it still made me smile!)
~the prospect of going to R&J's in Ft. Collins this weekend, courtesy of the lovely CS and her "gramma" car
~my conversation with MT online, he always makes me smile
~the fact that HSM:3 is ready and waiting for me when I get home
~the realization that I only have 8 days left until spring break!
~it's 6 o'clock and I'm already almost done with my homework for this evening

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I really think I want to be a doctor. Or at least I'm thinking about it seriously.

College is...work.

I had this realization a few days ago. College is not going to class for a little bit, hanging out, chilling, partying, sleeping 'til noon. NOT TRUE. It shouldn't be advertised as such either, by anybody. College is work. Getting up at 8:30 on a day you don't have class to get a head start on your essay and staying up 'til midnight because you have too much stuff to read WORK. oh well...that's why it costs so much, right?

Not that it's not interesting. I feel like a huge nerd in that sometimes I actually want to do my homework, read my book and everything. But at the same time, that's a good thing I guess.

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I had a meeting with my professor, JM, today, and it boosted my academic self-esteem, and personal ego in a serious way. She was meeting with everyone in our class today for 20 minutes about our essays due next week, and I was the last meeting for the morning. Right before me was the obnoxious know-it-all rich kid who drives everyone insane, including JM, and doesn't even realize it. She walks out into the hall, after he leaves, "Kate! (huge sigh of relief)" "long morning" "yes, but there's some interesting stuff here, so it'll get better."-- how's that for a compliment? I know out of context with who this woman is, it doesn't seem like much, but just the fact that she thinks its interesting, and doesn't rip it apart, is a good sign. woot woot!

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I'm giving up seconds a the cafeteria for lent. It's going to be rough. I considered giving up coffee for lent, but then realized that I don't really wake up until halfway through my mug in the mornings, and that would be bad for the last week and a half of classes.

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I've come to really appreciate my roommates this week. They're not loud, obnoxious, or smelly. Our room is possibly the cleanest in this whole school (they inspire me to organize, but don't pressure!). Our room is a designated "safe zone," which means after 12 o'clock, and even sooner on weekends, no booze, no boys, no noise. Which is lovely and means home is always home.

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It's Cupcake's birthday tomorrow, Feb. 26th. Shoot him a feliz cumpleaños!

A Productive Weekend

I love the Oscars. I love the dresses, whether they're awful or gorgeous. I love the musical performances and the little clips they make of movie snippets. The announcers and their lame and not so lame jokes. The way the camera Always looks at the other nominees after the winner is announced, but they try to make it look unintentional. And this year, some specific things I loved: **Sean Penn's speech and the writer's speech for Milk-- though I haven't seen the movie, I want to, and these two men drove home just what a political statement the Oscars can be sometimes. **how Slumdog Millionaire won 8/10 of the Oscars it was nominated for. If you haven't seen this movie yet, GO. It deserved every one, and it made me so happy to see the huge gathering of people on stage for the Best Picture presentation/speech. **Heath Ledger's mom, dad, and sister's acceptance of his Best Supporting Actor award. They didn't cry, but made everyone else cry. It was very dignified, but humble, and just the right amount of gratitude and statement. **the musical medley-- what the heck was Zac Effron doing on stage with Beyoncé and Hugh Jackman? **Hugh Jackman's monologue...of sorts.

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My weekend was so productive, I must say I thoroughly impressed myself. I wrote an 8 page research paper, finished a novel (of which I had 300 pages left on Friday), wrote an analysis of said novel, and I'm about to go finish up reading a book on the Ottomans. Like I said...I'm impressed with myself.

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On the other hand, I'm feeling a little like Meredith and Christina right now. And yes, I realize I just compared my real life problems to those of TV drama characters...but it's true! The first few seasons, when their characters were really developing, they established themselves as being "dark and twisty" as opposed to the "bright and shiny" Izzie. I kinda feel like that sometimes, I'm realizing. I wouldn't use "dark and twisty" as that infers some painful past secret that scarred me for life...maybe more like "gray and slightly curved." Or something like that. Somewhere in between that and bright and shiny. Sometimes, around all these happy hippies, I feel like a grump, but I know I'm not! I was even labeled by my roommate in a funny illustration on facebook as "the grumpy one." oh well...I feel like Meredith and Christina and I would be pretty good friends, so I guess I'm OK with that.

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Speaking of Slumdog Millionaire, I just found out that the star, Dev Patel, is only 2 months younger than me...!!!! usually all those actors are at least mid-30s, but NO! Mr. Adorable was born in April of 1990...why can't guys I meet be that cute?

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I'm such a horrible daughter. I talked to Rando on the phone today for at least 10 minutes, complaining about my paper, telling him about my weekend, before asking how he life was, to which he replied "yeah, just got back from Mexico. It was fun." OOPS, sorry Rando.

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Overall, a good weekend. But tomorrow's Monday. We'll see how that goes.

a few fun websites

I was extremely productive/accomplished today. I got all my work done, then some, except for writing my next big paper, which isn't really due until Sunday ( i know, weird.). However! on my less productive days, I spend my time "studying" looking at websites and programs that sometimes interesting, sometimes funny, and often not super conducive to learning. Below is a short list of my favorite internet past times...

pandora.com-- make new stations by typing in random letters and picking the first artist/song that comes up

sadsteve.com-- free music. no seriously. free music. completely illegal. but still, free music.

steepandcheap.com and tramdock.com-- I've gotten better about not buying as much, but that doesn't keep me from checking them every 10 minutes!

FreeRice- they have subjects now!

Postsecret.blogspot.com-- changes every Sunday, super interesting and a great way to kill a bit of time

fmylife.com-- kind of depressing, but if you're feeling a little pissed off at the world, it'll let you see that you're life really isn't that bad.

cnn.com, bbc.com, npr.org-- read news. good for your brain. listen to npr morning edition at 11:20 at night, get a head start on the next day, and feel smart!

one last one...did you know that abc.com now has a full episode player of every show I watch! It's great. Grey's, Private Practice, and Bros&Sis...all right there. every Friday.

On a separate note, I wore my first official, completely hippie outfit today. my tie-dye shirt I made earlier this week (it turned out great!), jeans with holes, birkenstocks, a necklace made out of a tree nut, and a french braid. This inspired me to think about spring break, and how I should help all my state school/lutheran school friends in on the hippie fun over spring break...introducing--> hippie day! including tie-dye, simon & garfunkel, braiding hair, sunshine, and guitar jam sessions. I talked to SEK about it, and she agreed. most excellent! On the note of hippie-ness, here's my new favorite song for the week....no idea what they're saying.

Not a native...but I got here as fast as I could!

The url of this new blog, and the title of this post, comes from a bumper sticker I saw once on a subaru in CO. It was on one of those CO-license-plate-looking stickers, in response to the one that just says "Native." I thought it was super clever, and if anyone ever finds one of them, buy it and I'll reimburse you.

Besides just transplanting to CO though, at least for college, I feel like I'm not a native to any part of the lifestyle I'm living right now. Every day is full of brand new experiences and challenges, and, in the words of my prof. JM, "continuities and ruptures" with what I've done so far. But most of the time, I'm excited about them, and I really do feel like I've gotten to these points of rupture at just the right moment...basically as fast as I could!

As for the title of this blog...read this little bit from bible-history.com-->
"Jesus grew up in Nazareth, which was a very small village near the Plain of Esdralon in Galilee. After Jesus left Nazareth at the age of 30...There is no mention of Him ever returning back to His home town of Nazareth, but he was always identified with it (Matt 21:11), having been called a "Nazarene" which comes from the Hebrew root meaning "branch", in accordance with the promises made to David that King Messiah would be a descendant (branch) from the royal line of King David."
Right now, I'm taking a Middle Eastern history class, and one of the major things we looked at first block is social identity. It makes perfect sense to me that at that time, Jesus would be so clearly associated with his hometown, for all that he would come to be an international superstar son of God and everything. But at the same time, he didn't ever return there. He couldn't! He had too much work to do! I mean, I'm sure if he could've gotten a quick flight home for spring break or something he would've been all over that go to see father Joe, but it simply wasn't possible. He still loved home though, and nobody ever let him forget where he came from.

One of the last things my dad said to me before they left me at school, and for the first few times talking to my mom on the phone, they both said the same thing, seperately. "Don't forget who you are. Don't forget where you came from." That really struck home, as I feel like I've been tossed into this relatively small community full of people completely and utterly different than me. And not only that, whether it's a legit feeling or not, I feel like I'm a minority in a lot of ways of thinking and practices. So, I think I'm going to need some reminding of that idea of not forgetting where you came from while growing and changing at the same time...sheesh. That sounds freaking difficult. Wish me luck!