Dork Day

Mine is today. Watch out.

Have you ever had a dork day? Mine are actually pretty frequent and usually pretty funny.

Go cry about it

Have you ever felt like you needed to have a good long cry, but couldn't because there's nothing to cry about? Maybe it's just a girl thing...maybe it's just an Ariel thing.

Always with the changes

We're almost done, done with the last issue of the semester. While waiting for my last stories as News editor to come in and avoiding my poli sci paper due tomorrow, I cheated and read the senior columns in jetset. Individually, none of them really got to me, but collectively, they made me feel sad. I know it's probably much harder on the seniors, since they're the ones actually leaving, but I too am sad to see them go.

I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm worried about being lost without their guidance. I'm scared about not being ready to fill the shoes they're leaving. And most of all, I'm concerned about how much I'm going to miss them. And worst of all, there's nothing I can do about it.

This is why I hate change.

Finally some summer plans

I'm staying in Pullman over the summer. After a month of not knowing what I was doing this summer, the decision was essentially made for me in two days. I called Ferdinand's to see if they had any job openings, they called me for an interview the following day, and yesterday they called and offered me the job.

It was either serving ice cream or going back to the plywood plant. While I think last summer's job was a valuable life experience, the idea of experiencing it again isn't entirely appealing.

So I'm staying here. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this turn of events, but it's how it's going to be. I've already found housing via subleasing from a fellow co-worker, thankfully. It will be hard not to see my family this summer. That's the biggest down side. I haven't seen them since spring break and with my youngest sister entering high school in the fall, I wish I could be there for her.

Things at home have been a little rough and I feel guilty for not being there to help. My father has accepted the new arrangement and is supportive as always.

I sign paperwork on Tuesday. My finals should be finished by then so I may start right away.

Who needs some funny quotes? You do.

I've got some good ones folks! Are you ready? Here we go.

Mom [in response to one of my dumb questions]: "Does a bear shit in the woods?"

Ali:"That frickin' hurt!"
Me:"What?"
Ali:"I kicked that cookie!"

Me [about my crush on "Hot Biology Guy"]: "It's about time it was with a real guy."

Ali [in response to me laughing at the above quotation]: "Shit I'm funny."

Ali: "It's either the $24 hat or the $12 in cash. So, basically I'm buying my own birthday present."

Me [in church]: "Mommy...I'm choking on Jesus!"

Father Dave: "Our mass has ended. Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord."
Church People: "Thanks be to God."
Me:"It's like we're thanking God for ending mass."
Mom: "I don't think that's the intent."

Bio Prof: "endoplasmic reticulums are fun but genomes are funner."

Bio Prof: "Cells are much smarter than that."
Me: "Yeah, I don't give my cells enough credit. Good work boys [cells]."

Bio Prof: "...Bubbling mud pot..." <--my new favorite insult

Maggie: "What happened here?"
Me: "Basically...I'm just a big fat dork."

Anth Prof: "We'll have a movie about chimpanzees, everything you ever wanted to know about chimpanzees. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll probably have to leave to go to the bathroom...I guarantee at least one but probably all three of those things will happen to you."

Lab Partner: "Where's your bump man?"

Anth Prof: "It's just...it's total bullshit."

Anth Prof: "So short people don't get any love basically."

Chem Prof: "I think I was making up crazy chemistry in my head."

Chem Prof: "water can be an acid and a base at the same time! WOAH huh?!"

Chem Prof: "Let me take a deep breath here...pheeeeew inner peace..."

Chem Prof: "Buffers are fuuuuuuuun!"

Something for my personal ad

Todd says:
you attract drama like nobody ive ever seen
Ariel says:
I KNOW!!!!!


Fair Warning.

Song of Day

"Breakaway" by Kelly Clarkson

Ch-Ch-Changes

Have you ever felt desperate for a change (positive change) in your personal life? Maybe you're tired of being single (or not single), of being around the same few people day in and day out, of your hair, of your clothes, of your location, or all of the above.

When you get to this point what do you do? I usually just wait until the feeling passes. I'm not one to be impulsive. But some people can just go out and get a tattoo, or a piercing, or dye their hair, or pack up all their stuff and move across the country. There must be a way to induce change without going to any of those extremes. What is it?

Another series of fires

It is frustrating being a student journalist. This is something I've pointed out before. I mention it again because it continues to be true. Remember the fires in Pullman last November? I got an early morning phone call about the fire, skipped my first class, and spent the morning covering the fire with Lisa and Victor.

Last night, or early this morning if you prefer, I got a phone call from a photographer at 2 a.m. Apparently, a series of small fires had been set around campus. I got out of bed, don't even change out of my pajamas, and headed to the largest residence hall on campus, which had been evacuated. On the way I call Lisa and Victor and they head to campus to help.

I needed to find out what happened exactly, but the firefighters were busy. Unwilling to give up, I waited outside the residence hall until 3:30 to speak to the Fire Captain on the scene. I got my information, went back to the office, wrote an online story which went up at 4:11 a.m. and returned to my bed by 4:30. I spent the next hour lying awake trying to thaw from my exposure to the elements.

I share all this not to complain. Sure it was difficult, but breaking news is the kind of stuff journalists live for. I was simply disappointed because all my effort wasn't enough. I came into the office this morning at around 8:30 only to discover that an arrest in relation to the fires had been made. A couple hours sleep and we were already behind on the story again, and rather than updating the web version, I had to go to class. There was no skipping possibility this time.

Luckily, Lisa was able to work on the story all day. In the end, I think we made up for the late morning update, but I still wish we hadn't had the gap in our coverage. I ended up having to cancel my news meeting in the afternoon so I could go to the courthouse for the first court appearance of the suspects.

Lisa and I shared a byline for the November fire article and we'll share another in tomorrow's paper. Victor has also been on scene with us both times. He's great for moral support and is always a back up notetaker and helps edit online updates. Apparently we have become quite the reporting trio when it comes to arson coverage.

Your own personal ad

A couple days ago my friends jokingly made a personal ad for me on Craig's List. At first it was a little funny because I knew they weren't being serious, but after I read it I was a little disappointed. Even though I knew their description of me was only half serious I really hoped that the way they wrote me wasn't they way they actually saw me.

I was a little annoyed because I would never put any of the things they included on my person ad. Which led to this thought, "What would I put on my ad?" Then this, "What aspects of my personality would I want someone to respond to? I mean I can't put everything about myself on an ad, that would be like writing a book and would require too much explanation. What about me do I want men to be attracted to? What kind of men do I want to attract?"

Having never actually written a personal ad I spent a great deal of time thinking this over and still I only have a little bit of an idea of what I would say.

That's a man

Thanks to an excellent IB history series and a collection of political science courses at WSU, I consider myself fairly well versed in America's 20th Century history. But despite the many courses, somehow I have never learned very much about President Eisenhower. He was casually mentioned in two of my courses this semester and he piqued my interest. I'm looking at his 1952 campaign strategies for one of my final projects. He is quickly becoming my favorite president. Below are the passages that began my fascination.

The first that struck me:

"Upon first encounter," one observer noted, "the man instantly conveyed one quality – strength. ... There was one feature of his face impossible to ignore or to forget – the blue eyes of a force and intensity singularly deep, almost disturbing, above all commanding. ... Always they would speak of the moment and the mood: icy with anger, warm with satisfaction, sharp with concern, glazed with boredom. And always somehow – was it their eloquent explicitness of feeling? – they conveyed an image and a sense of strength."

Then this passage in a different book for a different course a couple days later:

Eisenhower was extremely confident of his own expertise compared to that of Dulles, a point he noted during an interview, commenting: "The fact remains that (Dulles) just knows more about foreign affairs than anybody I know. In fact, I'll be immodest and say that there's only one man I know who has seen more of the world and talked with more people and knows more than he does – and that's me."

And the most recent passage I like from a third book:

Eisenhower then told Brownell that he'd once met with Taft and assured him that he, Eisenhower, would not run for president in 1952 if Taft would support the internationalist view of NATO and the protection of Western Europe. Taft replied that, "in good conscience," he couldn't make such a deal. Eisenhower apparently did not know that as Taft left the meeting at the Pentagon, he told companions, "By God, that's a man."

Being perfectly honest, I think part of my fascination may come from the fact that I often find myself drawn to powerful, confident, blue-eyed males.

Portland Part Three

Sunday morning we returned to Pullman. The drive was long and Mother Nature apparently hates Washtucna. Snow/hail/sleet caused the car in front of us to spin off the road. Dan and Victor pushed the car back onto the road and the young driver followed behind us until the Colfax turn off. The rest of the highway 26 had similar bursts of awfulness followed by completely normal stretches.

We made it to Pullman in time for budget and worked to put out Monday's paper. After a couple hours at work, Pullman looked like it was December, not March.

I was going to take photos from my phone to document the trip, but I forgot. All I got was a photo of a dirty van at a rest stop, Victor driving, and a blurry train. I failed to get a photo of a sign for the town Rufus.

Portland Part Two

We woke up Saturday morning and Victor's adorable parents had prepared a breakfast spread for everyone. We returned to the conference, just missing the keynote speaker. Some of the sessions were good, others were boring and useless. One in particular, where the speaker and member of the audience bonded over having awful childhoods, was odd and uncomfortable. We spent the last session of the day sitting in the back of the room working on the Tony Bennett story. This post and this post were written during the session.

When the conference ended, the group of us sought food. While waiting to be seated, Mel and I went to the Nordstrom rack that was right across the street from the restaurant. We bought shoes, as did Dan, but they unfortunately gave him two right ones. Once fed, we returned to Victor's house and I tried to snuggle with his cat which would have none of it. But it adored Victor.

Portland Part One

One week ago today, a group of us at the Evergreen headed to Portland for the regional Society of Professional Journalists conference.

Part One: Friday

The journey began early in the morning with three staffers each in two cars. The drive was long and not particularly pleasant. I have nothing else to say about it.

The other car arrived at Victor's house (where we were staying) first. My driver got a bit lost and we arrived about a half an hour later. We changed our clothes and Brian hogged the iron. We then headed to the awards banquet. The Evergreen picked up seven awards, 3 for columns, 3 for photos, and one for breaking news reporting. Much my horror, The Daily from UW won best student newspaper.

Conference organizers tried to get the 30 people or so at the banquet to mingle, but we would have none of it. We left after the awards and walked to the mall so Melanie and I could take advantage of no sales tax. We both bought dresses. When the boys had enough, we returned to Victor's.

New Quarter

I'm back. Well, I never actually went anywhere, just home. Unfortunately our computer at home is beyond slow so writing one post takes hours. I'm back at school now and have started a new term. I am taking biology, chemistry, and biological anthropology. Yes, that also means I have three labs. Hopefully, when summer finally gets here I will still be alive and relatively sane.

I wanted to share with you a ridiculously cool video my biology professor showed us today. It was made by the crazy kids at Harvard and shows the inner happenings of a cell. Seriously rad.

More to come soon

Where have I been? Same old place, except for this weekend when I was in Portland, but I haven't felt like blogging lately. It's too bad because interesting things have occurred, like this and this.

I wrote a few blog posts out by hand during my classes, but then I never feel compelled to actually put them on my blog. I'd be better at keeping a diary than a blog, as Lisa pointed out, but that means little now.

Posts about Portland will be up shortly. I was going to put them up now, but just realized I forgot the notebook in my room. Photos from my phone will also be delayed because I hate technology and Bluetooth confuses me.