There and Back Again

I meant to post this a while ago but didn't get around to it.  If you're as big a nerd as me, then you're not gonna be able to stop smiling while watching this Hobbit film production video.  Can't wait until Peter Jackson posts another one!

http://the-hobbit-movie.com/2011/07/21/the-hobbit-production-video-3/

or this link from the official blog (yes, I do follow it)

http://www.thehobbitblog.com/?p=3133

The Graduate

Why hello...long time no blog.  I feel like the majority of my posts are beginning more and more like this.  I really should update more often but it seems kind of silly to promise that, so instead I will say unto you few readers that I shall try to update more often. Try not. Do or do not.  There is no try.- Yoda.  Yes, my mind automatically went there.

So for the majority of the summer I've been trying to gain a greater understanding of how to successfully bridge the gap between being a college a student and being a real person.  Some people bridged this gap by immediately starting jobs and creating a new life which revolves around their office lives.  Pretty intelligent.  They've immersed themselves into a new culture at an early age and therefore gain an advantage over the rest of us who have yet to really start into the workforce.  I admire and respect these people greatly.  Its a terrifying thing to delve into a new culture, especially after being thrust from your previous one with the graduation ceremonies.  Others have dealt with the transition by not dealing with the transition at all and have rather remained in school.  Personally thats the choice that I wish that I had chosen.  Its simpler and retains a semblance of constancy which seems somewhat nonexistent when starting a "career."  Ok, that last part came out wrong.  Those people aren't wimps by any stretch of the imagination.  I actually think that it is just as difficult to start at a new academic institute as it is to start a new job.  

Well, you're probably asking, why the hell did you just write that.  Why did you just waste 30 seconds of my reading time with that?  The answer is: I once again don't really fit into any of those categories.  I have yet to start to work and in order to get my school fix I decided to volunteer with my high school's marching band.  Yep, I'm that person and I'm proud of it.  It has definitely been one of the best decisions I've made this year.  You'd think after 8 years of marching that teaching and helping out with a marching band would be a piece of cake...well you're wrong.  It is probably one of the most difficult things I've done in a long time.  First off, I completely forgot just how awkward high school was.  I think my brain did me a favor by blocking out the majority of my awkward memories, but there are some that just never seem to go away...yeah, if you were an awkward kid like me, and lets be real, who wasn't, then you know what kind of memories I'm talking about.  You know, the ones that involve the ridiculously awkward conversation about something that you think that you understand, only to later realize that you had no idea what the hell you were talking about.  Or the ones that involve you word-vomiting all over yourself.  Or the ones that involve you having an out of body experience...when you look at yourself and are screaming to yourself to just run away and lock yourself in a dark room before you say or do the stupid thing that you're inevitably going to do.  Well, good thing the majority of us didn't have Facebook during my high school years...and those that did, well we didn't really know what to do with it...thank goodness.  Truly, I think some high schoolers are so much tamer because they fear that whatever they do will end up on Facebook or twitter or youtube...a respectable fear.  Ok quick question: can someone please explain to me guys obsession with cross-dressing and why they think its funny.  Honestly, its so gross.  I don't want to see girls in tight skirts and jeans so what makes you think that I want to see you with your junk hanging out of those same tight skirts and jeans...its just not attractive.  But all in all, its quite an amazing learning experience and I have enjoyed every moment of it.  Who woulda guessed that I'd be the one going back to volunteer?  So this post wasn't as awesome as some of my others but I'm trying to get back into the swing of it so please keep with me as I attempt to locate my voice once again.

Oh, btw, Sweet Frogs.  The pink and green.  I feel like if my sorority wasn't an animal house that thats what it would look like.  Seriously, you puked Delta Zeta and Lily Pulitzer.  Ew.  Why?  Just...why?  Do us all a favor, please refrain from your outlandish obsession with those two colors.  You are giving the combination a bad name and for those of us who have only recently accepted the beauty of the pink and green color combination, you are forcing us back to our original love of non-feminine color combinations.  Help future Delta Zetas and Lily Pulitzer lovers out there and stop using pink and green in such an atrocious manner.  

Sincerely,

A lover of the ridiculous amounts of yogurt toppings you offer

P.S.  Can you please have scales so I can know before I pay if I'm eating and paying for my weight in yogurt and yogurt toppings.  Much appreciated.

My life as a former college student

My life is basically in limbo right now.  I'm not a college student, I'm kind of employed, and its the summer and I'm just kind of chilling but I'm not technically on summer break.  So I'm kind of in this bizarre place of not really knowing where I am.  As one of my childhood friends put it, "I basically feel like I'm retired."  A very odd feeling.  Nor have I completed a third of what I set out to do.  Oh procrastination, how you've come back to haunt me.

Right now I am attempting to turn my childhood bedroom into something more acceptable for a 22 year old adult.  The merging of my college room and my childhood bedroom is not going as smoothly as I had tricked myself into believing  hoped.  Right now I'm working on the disaster that is my bookshelves.  I realized just how obsessed I am with my books and more interestingly, my notebooks from school, that I cannot rationalize getting rid of any of them.  Ok thats a lie.  There are some books that I absolutely have no problem getting rid of (Sabato, cough).  I managed to clean out one room of my crap and now its all sitting on my floor.

Oh bookshelves why does your clutter and ability to stump me seem to define my life at the moment.

And It Follows Me

And I thought that this only happened to me in Charlottesville.  Well folks, I'm sitting in Starbucks in Northern Virginia and once again people, weird, odd people, feel the need to sit on top of me.  Although the Starbucks is relatively full, there are multiple large tables empty...away from me.

Also, I believe whole-heartedly in the clean air act.  Really, I do.  I believe that it is a great cause that I believe many people do not fully appreciate.  So, to the extraordinarily smelly man sitting next to me.  Please, do us all a favor, and take a shower.  You are carrying an Italian briefcase.  You can afford to take a shower.  So please, enforce the clean air act and help America smell more beautiful.  But really, I came in here because I like the smell of coffee...not your BO.

Oh, and also to Mr Odorman, just in case you didn't notice, the man sitting across from you is not wearing a hearing aid...so currently he's not hard of hearing, but let me tell you something: after you've screamed in his face for about twenty minutes, he will be.  So here's a tip when you're trying to gain a new client: take a shower and stop screaming in the poor man's face.  You will truly enhance your life.  Best of luck to you Mr Odorman.

P.S. You should enact upon these new concepts immediately.  No, but really, you should want to make your life better as soon as possible...like now.  kthanx.

Hello From a New Location

Hello all!  So here's basically the breakdown of my life in the last couple of weeks: I graduated from the University of Virginia, went to Maine, came back, and now I'm chilling at home in Northern Virginia trying to get my life together.  Oh, and I basically deactivated facebook.  I'm thinking about only using it to show people that I've updated my blog but we'll see.

So for the last few weeks, I've been trying to figure out a possible location to people watch from and at first I really wasn't coming up with anything.  Today I arrived at my local Starbucks and boom, found the perfect location.  This place is absolutely jammed and I've been here for about an hour already.  Its filled with college-aged students, stay-at-home moms, computer geek dads, random out of work people, and an assortment of the local flavor.  Can't wait for the high schoolers to walk in after 2:30.  Starbucks is seriously the new fourth floor of Clemons...or perhaps the fourth floor of Clemons copied Starbucks...?  No idea.  Anyways, I found my new location so be ready NoVA.  You're about to be watched. :)

Who's an Orc?

Yes I am updating twice in one day.  No, that is not why this post is titled "Pure Evil."  I will get to that in a moment.  First, I would like to do my customary rant about people and this in the library.  First to the girl in the cute sweater that was at one point sitting across from me.  Now, as many of you know, I do not normally appreciate people sitting across from me and normally all I do is rant and complain about just how annoying and ridiculous they are.  This is usually the case, but this girl was actually quite pleasant to sit across from.  She kept her space, she had on a cute outfit, and she smelled nice.  A+ in my book.  Then she moved seats.  To the back of the room.  Say whaaat???  Did I do something this time? That thought lasted one second.  She sat in the back for a bit and then proceeded to move to the front of the room?  I would say its because she needed an outlet, but she's reading a book...and the chairs are all exactly the same.  Truly a puzzling case.  Second, Greenberrys, I do not appreciate the fact that you increased your coffee prices.  Don't think I didn't notice.  You are manipulating the fact that we, the poor college students of whom your continued existence is based upon, need to spend obnoxious amounts of time in the library in order to pass our strenuous and awful exams.  I feel that I have been wronged in a serious manner.  This is not ok and I have thus decided to boycott you for the next two days that I am here in Charlottesville.  It will make a huge difference.  You wait and see.

Now, the reason that I feel the need to entitle this blog post "Pure Evil" is because I have just been privy to the most heinous form of treachery.  My dear friend who read my previous blog post has decided that it would be a terrific idea to watch all of the Lord of the Rings movies.  I applaud her for her excellent selection in movies, but then she proceeded to tell me this information.  While I'm stuck in the library.  Staring at my computer screen.  Not writing my final undergraduate paper (I'm in denial on that btw).  True.treachery.Pure.Evil.  There is nothing I want more in the world than to watch LOTR and read The Hobbit.  Now I get to imagine her watching the movies.  Enjoying it.  Laughing.  Crying.  The full range of emotions.  Truly, this is akin to Bilbo trying to trick Smaug into letting him into his lair to steal his treasure; or Bilbo tricking Gollum so that he could have the One Ring.  Wow, Bilbo, you really became quite the liar during that book.  Anyways, happiness was stolen from those poor, misunderstood characters.  (ok Smaug was not poor, get over it)  I would throw an orc at her if she were nearby.  Maybe a goblin.  Goblins are lighter.  Yeah definitely a goblin.  ANYWAYS, something ugly and evil would be thrown and it would be epic.  Picture that.  Me with goblin hurling it across the room where it hits its target Legolas style.  A truly fantastic image.  Keep that with you always.

Damn you paper.  I shall vanquish you.  You shall not defeat me.  I am the master of my fate.  I am the captain of my soul.

Btw this is much more enjoyable than actually writing my paper.  If my paper goes according to plan (which means that I shall probably not start writing it until later today), then I shall be able to write a tremendous paper on how Spanish identity reminds me of Gollum and other Lord of the Rings type things.  Or perhaps Star Wars or Harry Potter.  Have no fear, it will not be about Spain.

P.S.
An orc is an elf turned evil.  Take that as you will.

Oops

Oops, I haven't updated in forever.  I apologize.  Have no fear, I am currently unemployed and will therefore probably have nothing better to do with my time after college than update my blog.  Beware if you live in Fairfax, if I catch you doing anything odd, I shall probably write about you.  :)

Now, as the title of my blog indicates, I am truly a contradiction (but really, who isn't?).  I judge people on my blog for not following social etiquette and yet I rarely follow my own advice.

Here is an example of my contradictory self.  While "writing" a paper on Spanish identity as "schizophrenic," (a term I personally dislike to the fullest), I decided that I should focus my attention on emphasizing a part of my own personal identity that has gone by the wayside since I've been in college.  Now, if you knew me in high school, then this will not surprise you at all.  Yes, I did actually cry in my room when I watched this because I was so happy and so excited.  If you don't feel that way, you are an orc.  Really.

The Hobbit.  My favorite book of all time.  : )