Bookstore Woes

There is a lovely used bookstore in downtown Pullman, perfect walking distance from my summer apartment, or so I discovered yesterday. I decided to head back this morning to do some purchasing instead of just browsing. I thought the store opened at 11 and arrived promptly at said time. The store actually opens at noon.

What to do in downtown Pullman on a Sunday morning during summer? I couldn't come up with anything, but I didn't want to walk back to my apartment and then back downtown again. I spent a good 20 minutes trying to write a post for the blog from my phone while sitting on a bench, but I failed. It would not work. I spent the rest of the time circling around the block with the bookstore over and over again. That's right, a half hour walking in circles.

And this is only week one of my summer in Pullman. O what joys future weeks must hold.

I'm glad to be returning to work tomorrow because I'll have something to do.

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.

Chance of a lifetime

Many of the players on the WSU basketball team are tall. One is particularly so. I have long desired to stand next to him to see just how tall he is. Lisa, her brother, and I went to watch basketball practice today. The last home game of the season is on Saturday and then the seniors will graduate. I mistakenly thought the very tall player was graduating, and the thought that I would never have the opportunity to ask again, gave me to courage to request a picture with him. Thankfully, Lisa takes her camera everywhere with her.


It made my day and I was so happy to get what I've wanted for some time. I couldn't stop smiling I was so pleased. I also got to shake hands with Tony Bennet.

Once I returned to the newsroom, I realized he is only a junior and not graduating. He did not correct me though, which was kind of him.

Best Presidents' Day by far

Over 800 miles in four days
In a wet and moldy car
With a friend I see every day
To visit a friend we haven't seen in a while

The CD player was annoying
Lisa read aloud from Unreasonable Behaviour
I tried to turn up her volume
It did not work

I had Irish cream
But not in coffee
To celebrate St. Paddy's Day
He is better than St. Valentine

After grilled cheese, we visited the ocean
Played in the waves and on the rocks
Then looked at Tom Cruise while eating burritos
Before learning where the blood will be

We ate ice cream at Billy's
And felt like small children
But we beat Oregon
And later mocked a stupid truck

I visited home
To de-mold my car
So my friends could visit my farm
Where a goat skull greeted us

Later there were guns and a goose
Thumbless emus and a green egg
We visited the bone yard
My father offered Jacob a cow pelvis

We began our return early
Got giant pancakes at The Rusty Tractor
Lisa took someone's drink (by accident)
Adventure over, we made it back in time for work

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

My chemistry professor looks just like Mr.Rogers. He talks similarly, he wears the sweaters, it's weird. However, based on the strange stories he's told us about the chemistry experiments he's done I would definitely not want to be his neighbor. Here's a story to better illustrate my point.

He used live in Colorado and his drive way would freeze in the winter making it impossible to drive on. So, he decided that the logical way to get rid of the ice would be to pour gasoline on it and set it on fire because gas burns and fire is hot thus the ice would melt. Well, he lit his drive way on fire but the ice didn't melt. Know why? Because heat goes up not down. Apparently it was cool though. I'm sure, but I still don't want to be his neighbor.

The Man on the Bus

The man on the bus was asleep.
I didn't know he was asleep.
Then he started to snore.
His arm was wrapped around the back of the seat.
He did not want to fall.
He snored again.
The bus when over a bump.
Still he slept.
"Buchanan Towers," the bus driver said.
The man woke up.
He looked around.
Went back to sleep.
"Seahome High," the bus driver said.
The man woke up.
He looked around.
He grabbed his sack.
Full of prescription pills.
He tried to put his arm back behind.
He touched me.
It scared him.
It scared me.
"Oh, sorry," said the man.
I nodded.
"Birnam Wood," said the bus driver.
The man went back to sleep.
I got off the bus.

A Tired Look

As I was leaving my residence hall this morning, someone else was trying to enter. He was on the phone so I paid him no mind. I opened the door and exited, but then I heard, "You look tired." I thought he must be talking to the person on the phone. He was a complete stranger I had never even seen before. He couldn't possibly be talking to me. Still the sound of his voice made me look up. His phone was off to the side of his face. He had indeed been talking to me.

I was tired. Former editors can into town Wednesday so a group of us stayed up rather late catching up with them. I then got up and went to class at 9:00. Yesterday night was the Evergreen Christmas Party so I was up late again. I woke up this morning feeling tired, it's true. But I don't want to be told I look it, especially by a stranger.

Because I was in fact quite tired, I was more appalled than I would have been otherwise. I turned and just stared at this mouthy stranger. After a few seconds, "What," he sheepishly asked. "I was just making an observation."

I turned and left. But who does that? Why would you tell a stranger they look tired?

When Taken Out of Context...

"You should be flattered I ripped your clothes off!" ~Kyndra

I've decided not to tell the story and just to leave it at that.

One of those days

It's going to be one of those days.

First, I slept and hour later than I would have liked leaving me less time to study for my Philosophy test before class.

Then, as I was getting ready, I completely missed my eyelashes and put mascara directly into my eye. It stopped watering and I expect the redness to go away soon.

One of my previous writers who I kind of fired but not really because I simply haven't spoken to him in many weeks, is working at the dining center. I know this and usually just try to avoid him, but today he stood between me and breakfast.

O, and remember how there are two main doors into the newsroom, but one was closed due to asbestos? Well now the other door is closed for the same reason. First door has reopened though.

Maybe it will just be one of those mornings and not the whole day.

The difference between a T and F

I did not want to pay attention in Philosophy on Thursday. I wanted to read the paper. I don't like to be rude and read the paper right in front of the teacher, so I sat in the back, something I rarely do. But, as is often the case in my stories, I forgot one crucial detail during my decision making process. I was wearing my glasses which don't have my updated prescription.

It just so happened that in class that day we were working on truth tables. The entire board become covered with Ts and Fs, letters which with my poor vision, I could not distinguish. The Ps and Qs were a little easier to see, but the Os, Cs, and Ds blended together.

I can't decide if the moral of the story is don't read the paper during class or always get your glasses prescription updated.

An Adventurous Night Strait From A Movie

Saturday was quite a day for Kyndra and I. It included shopping at Target for Josh and JoAnn's for flowers and Rite Aid for Neosporin, exploring, eating, hockey, soccer, then no soccer, and a train. Yeah, a train.

After the hockey game (which we won) we were driving back to campus and decided to do some late night exploring. The night was still young and there weren't very many other cars about even though it was a Saturday night. We ended up in Fairhaven and decided to drive down to the water to get some photos of the brilliantly lit bay. We pulled into the public boat launch and parked in the lot. We carefully crossed the two sets of train tracks that lay just before the boat launch. "I hope this isn't illegal," I said, then proceeded to the water's edge. Two Coast Guard boats were docked nearby, glowing of yellow and red lights. We snapped a few pictures when suddenly we heard a train coming quickly towards us.

"Crap the train," I exclaimed. Then I hurried across the tracks so as not to get stuck on the other side in case the train was a long one. I hopped over both sets of tracks being silly because this was something I would normally never do. The I heard behind me "oh sh-! ARIEL!" I turned around and saw Kyndra sprawled across the tracks. A little stunned that she had actually fallen down when a high speed train was coming towards us, I managed to say "Get up!" She got up and ran to me and the car. About a minute late the train flew by. I, shocked at the situation, looked at her and said "what happened?" Then we started giggling.

"I fell down."
"Yeah! But how?"
"I tripped."
"Well DUH! What did you trip on?"
"THE TRACKS! IT'S PITCH BLACK OUT HERE!"
"Oh...jeeze look at your shirt! and your pants!"
She had dirt all over her sweat shirt, pants, and face. Then we got in the car and fled the scene...a few blocks up Kyndra pulled over.
"Are you okay," I asked mid-laugh.
"I think so," she replied laughing also as she pulled up her pant leg to check out her knee, which was completely skinned.
"I didn't realize you fell so hard."
"DUDE! I totally biffed it at full speed!"
Then my laughing became uncontrollable and I exclaimed "GOOD THING YOU GOT NEOSPORIN!" Then we just sat there for about 5 minutes laughing so hard it hurt.

"That was like a scene from a movie gone wrong," I said when we started driving again.
"You mom's going to hear about this tomorrow isn't she?"
"YUP!"
"Don't tell her the train was coming..."

"I hope this isn't illegal."

Coast Guard Boats

Kyndra's knee

The trouble with doors

While my counter-part appreciates their efforts, I find their antics sometimes complicate the simple matter of passing through a door.

On my way to class today I was trying to leave a building just as someone else was trying to come in. He opened the door, but neither of us could pass because we stood on either side of the threshold. I would have preferred to simply step aside, let him through, and then operate the door myself for my exit, but it would not be. He gripped the door up higher and stepped aside so that I had to pass underneath his outstretched arm. I'm short, but not that short, so I still had to duck down. It was awkward. I do not like awkwardness.

Moments later, another fellow and I sought to enter a building at the same time. Again, the number of options complicated the simple task. I could wait expectantly for him to open the door and let me pass, open the door myself and let him go through first, or do what I did and open the door myself and go through, then kind of toss it back so it remained open for him to pass through. I felt rude for not allowing him to go first, but it would have been a role-reversal if he had gone first and just as awkward. Still, I was embarrassed by the escapade so I hurried away as quickly as I could. Just inside the doors was a flight of stairs. I scurried up them a bit too quickly for someone wearing nylons, so of course, my shoe slipped off.

I had succeeded in making a perfectly ordinary situation awkward and then even more so. I kept my head down, retrieved my shoe, and decided in the future I would try to strategically time my arrival at doors so there is no competition for passage.

Classes - Fall 2007

Classes have begun. I had one yesterday and four today.

1) Criminal Law - This class has great potential to be interesting. I hope it lives up to it. Two other Evergreen editors are in the class also.

2) International Relations (a.k.a. Pol S 103) - The instructor is fascinating. Unfortunately, I spent the first class period sandwiched between two frat boys who used the hour and 15 minutes to catch up on summer doings. Phrases like "Yo, dude" and "Way, cool," and "O, I was blacked out that night," floated back and forth above my head the entire class.

3) Logic and Reasoning - Picture a short, nearly bald man with thick glasses. Imagine him speaking like the teacher from Charlie Brown except, every few minutes, insert "Conversely," into the mwah mwahmp mwah.

4) Communicantion and Technology - This course is lab and lecture with the lab being today. It is my TA's first time being a TA. I have a horrible time understanding accents and he is Korean. To make matters worse, he was confused about the attendence sheet and read off first and middle names instead of first and last.

5) Language and Behavior - The instructor is very enthusiastic. I enjoyed his lecture, and found him funny. But not as funny as he found himself.

I haven't really given much thought to classes so far because I've been focused on the semester. All of my classes are required but I am excited about 1,2, and 5. I don't think the semester will be unsatisfactory.

In Bad Taste

The Renaissance fair, as always, was quite the experience. It is one of the few gatherings (beside family reunions) where the odd ones seem to outnumber the normal ones. While the hired actors and costumes and the lady selling ice-cold pickles for $1 were all very entertaining, there were a few things in bad taste this year. In no particular order:

1) There was a young man who painted himself dark brown in an attempt to look like an African-American. Why? I have absolutely no idea. There appeared to be no purpose, unless it was simply to wear large amounts of body paint and little clothing.

2) There was an unfortunate amount of busting bosoms. I understand that much of the dress of the time involved corsets, but it was really quite ridiculous. I don't think they were supposed to be pulled quite that tight. One got sympathy pains merely by looking at these women.

3) The illusion was destroyed several times for me throughout the day. Once, when I spotted the final Harry Potter book sitting under someone's chair and again when the traditional flasks on some of the costumes were replaced with traveling coffee mugs.

4) The gypsies. Never ever trust the gypsies. They are quite gifted at taking your money.

I do have to give special commendation to the man in the giant rabbit suit who simply refused to break character. While my family and I sat eating smoked chicken hinds, he munched on some raw cauliflower.

Until next year.

Our Friday Night: Part Two

I think it has something to do with the tartness, but grapes really do make my teeth ache. Also, whether green or some other color, I can only chew grapes on the right side of my mouth. Grapes are too cold for my left side. It is very odd.

We then headed over to the cashiers to check out, but as we got there, no one was manning their posts at the registers. Luckily, we spotted a little thing that said "Self-Checkout."

I told Ariel we should try it. "It'll be fun," I said. I was sadly mistaken. It looked simple enough. There was the little scanning place and a small monitor with push buttons. I pushed a button that said something along the lines of "Begin Check-out," thinking to myself how easy it would be.

"Please scan your first item," the machine yelled.

"Ariel, how do you turn it down," I asked.

I don't know why I was embarrassed. I think having a machine yell at me just made me flustered. Still, I continued. I scanned my first item, a magazine. "Four dollars and sixty-five cents. Please place item in bag." (I ignored the directions and simply set the magazine off to the side. I was only purchasing a few items and didn't need a bag.) I tried to scan a second magazine but nothing happened."Please place item in bag," the machine loudly directed. It repeated this every time I tried to scan the second magazine. I gave up and put the first one in a bag.

After this, the second magazine scanned just fine. "How did it know," I asked Ariel. She didn't know. By this point, I was thoroughly embarrassed and frustrated. I found it annoying that the scanner yelled out the price of each item as you scanned it, even though the price showed on the screen. And what if I didn't want to use a bag. I shouldn't have to. It was a very pushy obnoxious machine and I did not like it.

Our Friday Night: Part One

As I sat in my van on Aurora Ave. Friday afternoon reading the names of the numerous bars, pubs, and taverns, I saw one of them was named The Chupacabra. I had tried to remember this word a few weeks ago in a discussion I had with Christina and now that the word was fresh in my mind I decided to call and tell her. We chatted for about 10 minutes and I explained to her that we had been driving since 1:00PM and now were stuck in North Seattle trying to avoid the traffic on I-5. We finished up our conversation and I told her I would call her when we finally got home. My mom then asked if Christina and I had any plans for that night. I half chuckled and told her no. Mom asked me why I laughed and I replied "why would we have plans for tonight?" "Because it's Friday night." But Christina and I never do anything on Friday nights other than hang out at my house and watch a movie. We like our mellow nights.

When we finally got home after 7 hours of driving and for me 7 hours of nausea and headache, I called Christina back. We then decided to go to a late movie in Olympia to kill time until midnight when we would drive over to Barnes & Noble and pick up her reserved copy of Harry Potter. I was rather excited and said to mom "Yay! I guess I am doing something tonight!"


When Christina arrived, she stepped out of her car wearing the navy blue Evergreen Swim Club sweatshirt I "gave" to her. I looked at her and giggled "I should wear mine too!" She nodded and giggled with excitement. I ran and got my other matching sweatshirt and she excitedly explained how when we are standing in line we will have to stand next to each other so that together the sweatshirts read "Ariel VanZandt" (she has the "Ariel" one). No one else thought it was funny.

Our first stop was Top Foods as we were in need of sugar and drinks to get us through the night. As we entered we saw a line of Harry Potter freaks fans camping out by the flowers. Turns out even Top Foods was having a midnight release of the new book. We made our way to the back of the store to the candy area. After we had gotten our candy I realized that I really hadn't eaten much that day because of my car sickness and that I now was ready for some "real" food. We wandered over past the bread then into the produce discussing the different options. Christina tried to convince me that a $5.99 piece of tiramisu was "real" food and as tempting as it was I had to decline. I actually decided on some green grapes. As I was putting them into the bag Christina informed me that green grapes hurt her teeth.

One Poor Dog

A show was playing on the T.V. in the background while I was checking my email. After an in depth interview with Daniel Radcliffe about Harry Potter's first kiss, I tuned the show out while I did some facebooking. That was until a story came on that I simply could not ignore. It was a story about a dog that suffered an embolism and whose legs became paralyzed. It was one of those sad/heartwarming tales. They gave the dog a pair of wheels to make it mobile again. Since it was a happy ending, I feel slightly less cold-hearted by shining light on some of the dog owner's crazy comments.

When the dog didn't come home ...

"We weren't sure what had happened. We thought maybe he had been attacked by a cow."

(A cow?)

What did you do when you went to look for him?

"As I ran out the door I grabbed a handful of ice cream. It's his favorite food. I wasn't sure what I would find but I thought at least his final meal might be his favorite."

(Wouldn't her hand get cold? Isn't it bad to give a dog ice cream? At least admitting on T.V. that you give your dog ice cream has to be bad.)

"It's so sad. He could once run 17 mph. He was like the wind."

This merely makes me wonder how fast dogs actually do run. Is 17 mph fast or slow? Is it possible to check a dog's speed with a radar gun?

Update: Only minutes later as the show which came on next went to commercial, "Coming up next, the dog that hops around like a rabbit."

It was a sad day for dogs.

A Western Wedding

My grandparents are visiting from Wenatchee. They arrived Friday and were already at my house when I came home from work. They are staying until after our yearly Fourth of July bash.

On Saturday Ariel and I went to my cousin's Western themed wedding. As most of the family was busy or dressed up, it fell to Ariel and myself to catch the bride's horse for her to ride in on. We caught it ... and wearing heels. (Me, not the horse)

Today the groom came over to build a ramp onto our porch for my grandmother. I also went to church with my grandparents to make them happy. I haven't been in over a year and going today made me remember why. Some people are just crazy. Others are nice though and it was good seeing them. But the crazy ones ...

Creepy Crawlies

The bugs around this house have no respect for personal space, especially mine. The day before yesterday (Tuesday) I was sitting on the front porch reading and getting a tan, when my mother called. I answered the phone and we chatted for a few minutes. When I went to hang up the phone I looked down at it to press the off button and saw a big orange spider crawling across the screen of the phone. I freaked out and shook the phone to get it off and away from me. Naturally, it disappeared which continued to make me nervous, because I was sure it was in my hair or somewhere else I didn't want it to be. I jumped up and danced around trying to find the spider, but he was taking too long to come out of hiding, so I sat back down, paranoid, and with my book. But then I started to think, where did it come from? The phone was up to my ear and when I picked it up there was no spider on it, but when I hung it up there it was...does that mean it was already on me?! That gave me chills and I frantically started running my hands through my hair making sure there was nothing else and hoping to God I didn't actually touch anything. I calmed down and started reading again and my faithful dog (God bless him) came out the front door, which I had left open, every five minutes to check on me. He'd walk out, look around the yard, look at me, sigh, then go back into the house. Good boy.

And today I was enjoying a bubble bath, listening to Josh Groban, when a daddy long leg crawled past my arm and sent shivers down my spine. I just let him keep on going because I figured he would just climb up into his corner like daddy long legs are supposed to do, but no. We got down to where my feet were and tried to get down into my bubbles. Foolish little thing. Of course he started to struggle and I watched him hoping he would get out, which he did, but then he started to go back towards my bubbles and got in trouble again. I figured he was just trying to flirt with me, which was pointless because he definitely wasn't my type. But like always, I felt bad for him after he tried to hit on me and failed miserably, so I grabbed my mom's dry face wash bottle and helped him away from the bubbles and to the safety of the wall. After that he took the hint that I wasn't interested and just chilled in the corner like he should have done from the start.