The Birthday Day

So, because Shalane, Amanda, and Lauren all have birthdays in May, and my birthday is in July, when we will obviously not be here together, we elected yesterday as 'the Birthday Day'. It was a day of joyous celebration and exchanging of gifts. A little like Christmas, but in April. With only four people getting presents.

Before the party started, I was curled up in bed relaxing, and Lauren felt the need to jump in with me. Shalane took a picture. That big long lump is me, and I'm probably saying something like 'Help, Help, Lauren is molesting me in my bed.'


Help, Help, Lauren is Molesting Me in my Bed

Anyway, Lauren made us some delicious yellow cupcakes with brown icing and Lauren, Shalane, Amanda, Kasie, and I all congregated in Shalane's and my room to open presents. Lots of good presents were given and received!

Shalane got a gift card to B&N from Amanda, two DVDs from Lauren (Double Jeopardy and Taking Lives), a DVD from Kasie (Dawn of the Dead), and a Pound Puppy and wolf book with lovely pictures from me.

Lauren got a dvd from Kasie (10 Things I Hate About You), two French poetry books from Shalane, a dessert cookbook and a French movie from Amanda, and Littlest Pet Shop turtles and a healthy cookbook from me.

Amanda got a DVD from Lauren (Interview with a Vampire), a wheel of sympoms and what they mean you have (in a 'you are going to die' attitude) and (some movie) from Kasie, two gay porn books from Shalane, and a peppermint My Little Pony, glitter gel pens, and Magnetic Poetry: Put Downs, from me.


Minty the Identity-Crisis Butterfly/Pony

I got a belly dancing kit (DVD, book, finger chimes, music) and a *purple* My Little Pony from Lauren, two Kurt Vonnegut books (Breakfast of Champions & Cat's Cradle) from Amanda, Kill Bill Volume 1 (the one I like more) from Kasie, and Mosby's Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Dictionary Sixth Edition (revised for 2005) from Shalane.

Oh such lovely presents! There was much fun and happiness, and laughing, and I read everybody little tidbits from my dictionary, like 'infected abortion' and 'rectal prolapse'.

Then, we picked up Caroline down-the-hall (not Lauren's Caroline, the weirdo), and piled into two cars (Lauren's and Amanda's) and set out to Macaroni Grill. I took my my little pony, because it's purple, and on the way Caroline helped me name her. Her name on the box is 'Fizzy-Pop', but everyone knows this is a stupid name. So I renamed her Noodle, but then the picture on her butt didn't match her name. So I decided she must be schizophrenic and have multiple-personalities. Then Caroline came up with the perfect name for her: Skitzy-Pop.


Skitzy-Pop the Schizophrenic Pony

We arrived at Macaroni Grill, where the waitress has to ask me if it was ok to move my pony to put the bread down, which it was, of course. Of course, everyone else thought this was hilarious. I always seem to be labeled weird at Macaroni Grill, for poking people with knives, or asking for cake with half of the whipped cream, or whatever. We all had good meals, the leftovers of mine I ate for breakfast/lunch this morning. Yum! We headed back to the dorm, then.

On the way back, Lauren, Caroline, and I (all in Lauren's car) started singing Disney songs, and sang them all the way back to the dorm, then went into Shalane's and my room, and printed out words, and sang them more. Chez-nek (Chesney) came over and joined us, and we all ate Lauren's delicious cupcakes, sang songs, and watched funny flash animations on my computer.

What a fun day! There was much laughing and happiness. I'll leave you with this picture of me, dressed up as a present.



Some days you just have to be silly.

I Hope You're Happy Now

This week sucks so much. So much work, so much getting ready for finals. I am exhausted, and see no point in doing anything. I lack the motivation to do anything. I wouldn't be breathing if it wasnt automatic. Today I slept 5 hours randomly. As in, I fell asleep randomly and then just slept 5 hours, though I didn't even know I was tired. Now it's only been 2 hours since I woke up, but I already feel exhausted and am ready to go back to sleep, regardless of the fact that I haven't gotten anything done.

Ho hum. So life is pointless, what's new? Apart from my grades slowly slip-sliding down towards D's and F's, I can't think of an end to this sentance.

I drank a container of chocolate milk far too fast, and now I think I'm going to throw up. Oh isn't life fun?

Nous sommes les amandes.



EDIT:
You're welcome to look at my fem studies site if you want, it's here:
http://www.southwestern.edu/~hodcrofe/fem/index.shtml
or
www.WhatNowAdvice.tk
Either works.
(PS - It doesn't look wonderful in IE, but does in Firefox and later versions of Netscape. I have no idea how it looks in Safari)
I am pretty proud of it, I learned a lot of things while working on it, and it took a fair amount of work, but I'm sure to many of you it's pretty crappy and you could have done it with your eyes closed, but I don't care.

What is it Like to go to Sleep and Think: "I am so Totally the Pope"?

This morning when I walked to breakfast it was grey and overcast, with the lightest sprinkling of a mist in the air. It smelled smokey and wet outside, and I enjoyed every second of my short walk. It reminded me, as so many things do that I post about on this site, of Britain. It's often about the same weather when we go hiking up hills or on walks. It's still the same way outside, and I'm still loving every second of it. It's so cozy.

At breakfast they played 'Danger Zone,' which, though definitely far from my favorite song, is one of those songs that when you hear it you can't help but smile at the cheesiness of the song and the movie 'Top Gun'. So it put a smile on my face.

Then they played another song that, I swear, had lyrics along the lines of:
"She was drawn towards the light
But captured by a douche faster than..."
Yes.. douche. As in 'douche-bag'. Maybe I was majorly mishearing and the guy meant to sing... uh... well, I'm sure there's some other word out there that makes sense and sounds like 'douche'.

Here's another amusing story from the BBC.

I finished the infamous website I've been slaving over for the last 36 hours due to my group not giving me their articles till then.. maybe if I feel confident enough in it later I'll post a link, but I don't right now, so I'm not going to.

Now it's my time to curl up in my bed and take a long nap in the faint grey glow of today, with the mist slowly blurring the picture out my window...

Emma Goes Slowly Insane

Today I:
- nearly got into the backseat of my own car
- had four six stomachaches
- drove on the wrong side of the road
- almost drove 'back' to the house we haven't yet bought (instead of to my dorm)

Emma's View of the World

What happened: (over school-wide emails)
Emma: SU webspace isn't working. I can't access any teacher's pages or mine. Why?
Person: Try using the teacher's subdomain
Emma: Yes, I tried, but students don't have a subdomain, so how do I get to my own site/files?

What Emma says happened: (actual conversation)
Emma: so this smart guy emails me bak and he's like
Emma: 'try your teachers subdomain idiot'
Emma: and i'm like 'yea but students dont have subdomains bastard, how do i get to my own site, mofo'
Emma: and he's like 'you're going down biznatch!
Emma: and i'm like 'oh fuck that nigger'
Emma: and he's like 'west side yo!'
Emma: and i'm like 'i'm a bust a can o whoop ass cracker!'
Emma: and then i shot him full of lead

PS - I know I am a little white girl, and none of the above language makes any sense at all coming from my little white girl mouth. Fuck off.

PPS - This is why various images on my site are not working. Don't worry, I'm still attacking people with school-wide emails, and will fix the problem soon. Somehow. Even if it means pumping some bastard full of lead.

Me So Crazy

I'm sad I didnt turn out more abnormal.

You Are 40% Normal (Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

My Brain is the Colour of Aggravated Saran Wrap

Ever wanted to know what it's like to be inside Em's head? Wonder what genious thoughts cross her mind throughout her most glorious epiphanies? Well go read the title again. This is an actual statement that crossed my mind while putting my contacts in. It came in the same tone one might think 'God, the circles under my eyes are like saddlebags' or 'My hair is the same texture as slightly toasted steel wool'. That thought was followed by 'Hm.. yes, it probably is.' It was only for some odd reason that I even noticed this exchange, because the truth is.. well.. things like this cross my mind all day long. My brain seems to enjoy stringing together words, which I then tell myself, and agree with myself about, rarely paying enough attention to think 'Wait, Saran Wrap is clear'. This is probably the reason why I have such problems with the English language, coming up with such creative phrases as: 'One ear in in, out right other.'

It's really only through other people I notice I'm a little left of center, when I'm by myself I consider myself completely normal, and thoughts like 'My brain is the colour of aggravated Saran Wrap' as completely reasonable.

A last little humourous quote quote from Shalane's Blog:

Anyway, I went to the Cove with Emma and Lauren after that and it started raining. Lauren and I missed the worst of it, but Emma left first and got drenched. That was mostly from standing outside to see the "fireworks," which is Emma-code for "lightening."

EDIT: I just had to add this little adventure from my family for posterity. Stuff like this happens to my dad all the time, they're out to get him, really.

Loweaugen: in other news, my dad and family managed to get into mexico illegally somehow
Loweaugen: they got off the plane, and apparently went the wrong way
Loweaugen: so they didnt go through the right customs
Loweaugen: so last i heard they were on mexican land in the airport without the right papers
Loweaugen: trying to get 'out' of mexican land in the airport onto 'international' land in the airport so they could get back into mexico legally, so they could catch their plane and leave mexico to go back to britain
Loweaugen: arent airports fun?

Happy Birthday Little Sis...

I've known Elizabeth Hodcr*ft longer than anybody else. Well, except my mom and dad. Sixteen years today, to be exact. Ahh, don't I remember when that bundle of joy got carried into the house and showed off to me, the new big sister? I hated her, really. At 3, I couldn't understand why such a noisy, annoying thing got so much damn attention. Loosing my status as 'only child' was far from painless to me then. When I think back over 16 years of travelling the world with the one and only person to stick by my side through it all, I have many fond memories. What else are sisters for, eh? Your parents can move onto different contients, but good luck ridding yourself of a travelling partner with the same parents as you! : )

So here are sixteen of the many memories that spring to mind.. condensed down to a short statement to avoid embarassment. Can you remember them all Libby?
1. "Put my down!"
2. "I'm not an old voman!"
3. Thank you for helping me loose three teeth.
4. Loose diper/nappy.. plop.. plop...
5. Don't laugh too hard while riding your bike...
6. Mandarin oranges, buggies, ropes, and fences...
7. Kiss, cuddle, or torture?
8. PLAYMOBIL!
9. Scooter riding/ice sliding contests Melissa and Lewis
10. Elizabeth.. why did you decide to go hopping around on the rocks?
11. Don't chase ducklings on wedding days..
12. No more bouncy castles... ever!
13. Nannys and shoplifting?!
14. Endless documentaries.
15. Golf balls and exhaust pipes don't mix..
16. Toby. Domino. Quarks!

In short...

HAPPY SWEET SIXTEEN, LIBBY!

Oh like I'd do anything other than a POTAYTO!

Days are Stupid

Our Algorithms class has been slowly shrinking since the beginning of the year, when we had about 12 people. Last week on the final withdraw date we dropped from 9 to 6, our current class population. But, as I'm sure is common in comp sci classes across the nation, many people are in the class, they just don't come. Today we hit a new low, with only 3 of us showing up. It was actually kind of neat, because, of the three missing two were the ones that do most of the talking in our class. The three of us present today are all about the same level and all about the same as far as talkitivity - not much. But with the absense of the talking people, we all spoke up, and that's always a good experience, having a good active class with people the same level as you, everyone talking. Both the guys are nice, one's from Nigeria or somewhere over there, I don't remember. The other guy is just some dude from Texas I assume. I don't know either of their names, and have never talked to either outside of class, nor do I plan to. I think they're both going away in a month (graduation).

Also, I've discovered that sleeping is wonderful, and I wish I could just sleep all the time. I am frustrated, and hate schoolwork.

In other news i smell potayto.

Me Run Lots, Have Good Time

So Saturday I ran Race for the Cure.

It was really amazing. I'm definitely doing it next year. I was up at 5:45am-ish, to leave at 6:30, to get there at 7, to meet my mom's group at 7:15-ish, and race at 8. My mom and I were there really early, so we got to look around all the booths and stalls and get free stuff (but I didn't get any head-poms... *sniff*) before she met up with her church group and I met up with Amanda. I registered as a 'competative' runner, so I could get a little time chip on my shoe (yey!) and get timed (I think we can get these times online somewhere..? I need to ask Amanda about that). Running the race itself was... suprisingly easy. I ran with Amanda until the second mile, and before we knew it some guy was yelling 'You're more than half-way!' And we were running past a sign that said '2 miles'. I was not having trouble by that point, so I sped up for the last mile and then sprinted the last bit of the last mile. I ran 3 miles in about 32 minutes, if I get get the exact time I'll post it.

It was beautiful weather, blue sky and sun. Before the race we were all kinda chilly because the wind whips around the skyscrapers in downtown Fort Worth and they cast big shadows, but once we'd started running we warmed up pretty quickly. It was a lovely run, a nice tour of downtown, going past lots of pretty buildings, including the Bass Performance Hall, one of my personal favorites. Running outside in the cool breeze is definitely a wonderful experience (up until now I've been doing all my training/running on an indoor track). So I'm going to have to start running outside some, now.

When you run or walk Race for the Cure, you can wear someone's (or some people's) name(s) on your back, either in memory of them, or in celebration of them (celebration being if they survived breast cancer or currently have it), and one of the most touching parts of the race was seeing people run past and walk around, and reading men with 'in memory of my mom', 'in celebration of: my wife, my two sisters' - imagine having all the most important women in your life affected by breast cancer - and little girls with 'in celebration of my mommy' on their backs. I ran with Mrs.Arvin (the English teacher at Lamar)'s name on my back, and I managed to find her at the race too. She was so happy to see me, and I was happy to see her. Lamar had a big team out running this year, organized by Mrs.Woods, with matching navy t-shirts with pink logos, while Mrs. Arvin had the inverse, a pink t-shirt with navy logos. It was great running along and seeing so many Lamar teachers around, all having a great time. Didn't see ol' J.J., though. Spoilsport. (I still think he needs to start a bbq... JJ's Barbeque!)

Not long after Amanda and I started running, we came across a man lying by the side of the road on his back, pointing with his arms, with a policeman next to him, and 3 other runners with him. We figured he'd probably started off too fast on the chilly morning, but hoped he'd be ok. My mom passed him a little while later, though, and they had an ambulance near him, and were doing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth, and were about to defibrillate him. I don't know anything more, if he was ok or not. I keep thinking of him. Imagine doing something to help out people with breast cancer, and having a heart attack. It's terrible, and horribly unfair. People shouldn't have heart attacks while doing good things, but I guess that's life. If anyone sees anything about a guy that might be him, please let me know, I'd really like to know if he's ok.

After the race my mom and I went to La Madeline's for some breakfast, and stood in a really really long line (loads of other Race-for-the-Cure-er's had had the same idea). Suddenly the lady in front of me turned around and asked my mom and I if we were from Arlington, we said yes, of course. Then she continued, 'Are you... Emma?' I'd never seen her before, but I said that yea, I was Emma. 'You know Gentry He*rn right?' Uh... getting a little weird, but yea, I know Gentry. Finally she introduced herself - it was Max Joplin's mom : ). I guess I've probably met her before at some time, but I didn't remember her. She sure remembered me though! She introduced me to the two ladies with her, and said they all were good friends of Suzie He*rn, Gentry's mom. We all found this quite amusing, it's funny how coincidences work out. As I said to my mom, "Gentry's like the internet." I can't seem to go for more than a few months before I run intooir meet someone who knows him also, through some weird connection or another. Anyway, that was amusing.

SO! I'm running in the Zoo Run April 23rd, because I had so much fun in this one. I'm proud of myself for being able to run 3 miles : ) YEY! I highly recommend everyone doing Race for the Cure next year, it's such an amazing atmosphere. Go go!