i have a future in the moving business

Well, it turns out that our brief stint over in building number four is coming to a close. I received a call from the apartment manager telling us that our original apartment is all ready for us to move in again! That is good news! The only problem is we have to pack up all our stuff, haul it across the parking lot, and unpack and re-organize…again. I am getting pretty good at shoving crap into boxes! It will be nice to get back to our old routine again and settle back down for good. Well, until August 8th when our lease is up I guess! Next year, it is safe to say, we are no longer living in these apartments. Or any apartments for that matter! I am looking into houses with 4 other people I believe. Gotta try everything out, see what I like I guess as far as living arrangements go!

I cannot wait for baseball season to start! April 2nd will not come soon enough! I am in love with the Minnesota Twins. Every single member of that team is held in a special little corner of my heart. I don’t even know how, or why, or even when exactly this happened. Sometime in September of last year is all I know! My roommate and I are planning on 5 games in the first 2 weeks! Excessive? No, enthusiastic is more like it! I have officially dubbed the year 007 the year of the Twins. It will be my very first entire season that I am a mega-fan, and it will be awesome. Especially since I will be bumming around the cities this summer!

Every now and then, I get terrified of graduating. I think about the future and all, but when you get down to it, the very thought of leaving the protective walls of college behind are daunting. Somehow, the actual realization that all my foes were right, and my major is in fact useless, scares the hell out of me. I know that one day it will all make sense and everything will fall into place. I keep telling myself that doing what I love is most important. “Do what you love and the money will follow,” is a phrase I often quote when asked about what I will do with English if (gasp) I have no intention of teaching. A writer is what I am, and a writer I will be. I don’t need a business or engineering degree to have a good life. Chances are I won’t make as much money as they do, but I am confident that my work will make me proud at least. (And hey, maybe even my parents!)

My friends are in for a treat…I said that once we move back into our old apartment I would make cookies again. This weekend it is going to be in the negatives for the highs, temperature wise, so I am thinking that staying in is the best option. Bring on the chocolate chips!

Ah, yes…this is why I love college!

Now I remember why I never want to stop attending college. Classes for the spring semester began today. So far, so good. I had a Shakespeare class and a Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature class called Music as Discourse. Both I am enjoying thus far. I found an excellent study spot for between my classes. But where? I’ll never tell… I resolved to write for myself every day. This does not include school work, emails, letters, or wall posts. No, this is journaling, story writing, or I suppose blogging. I also decided that I must talk to my mother every day. It doesn’t have to be for very long, but I miss her.

Big news! (for myself, anyway.) Barack Obama is officially starting a Presidential Exploratory Committee!!!! He’s the candidate for me so far. I will do some research on the other Dems, but I have a good feeling about Barack. He could potentially turn this country towards better days.

Sad news, however, my beloved show, The Office was ROBBED at the Globes last night. Alas, I suppose Ugly Betty is a great show as well, but as it is on the same time as my favorite, I may not see it for awhile. Hooray for Grey’s Anatomy, America Ferrara, and Jennifer Hudson!!

Breaking news…Bill O’Reilly is on The Colbert Report Thursday night. Should be a great interview, I can’t wait!

I have decided that I might as well start my day at 8 or 9 every morning and be a grown up. No more waiting around till 11. I am up earlier anyway.

The apartment could be fixed by the end of the month? What? Yeah, and that is great news, especially since I am all settled in over here. It’ll be nice to get back to the same routine in the old one I guess.

Opening day, April 2nd…less that three months now!!! Who can’t wait? And is counting down the days? Yeah, that would be…Christina and I. We’re pretty much obsessed, but in a good way. It’s healthy to be a sports fan. Who knew?

Have you ever had a time in your life when nothing seems to be going right?

I believe that everything happens in life for a specific reason. Each little thing that one encounters each day all adds up in the end. Right now I am trying really hard to keep believing my own sentiments.

A week and a half ago I received a phone call at home from the apartment complex I currently occupy. They told me that unfortunately, the workers in the building were installing dry wall on the third floor above our apartment and dropped a piece on a water pipe. It only makes sense that the contractors hired to fix the building just made everything worse, right? And our apartment wasn’t even that bad the first time around. They just had to even it all out I guess. So, needless to say we had to move out. I returned this past Wednesday and moved into a different apartment with two new roommates. It will be okay. Eventually. It really isn’t as bad as I once thought and I will get through it.

I haven’t been able to sleep well through the entire night since the calendar has read 2007. There are so many things going on in my life right now and things aren’t as happy as I once thought a few months ago even. It just goes to show how life is always changing and throwing obstacles in your way. I have been told that I am taking the whole apartment situation well. That is not necessarily true. I may look like I am doing fine on the surface, but in reality, the apartment flooding was just the icing on the cake. There are a couple other things I have been trying to cope with prior to this happening. Now I am just hoping that this is it for now, that everything else will come easier.

two-thousand seven

It hardly feels like the first day of the year. Normally, at least a foot of snow would blanket the ground. Often, sub-zero temperatures frost the windows. Many times, a church service would help ring in the new year. This year is different, I suppose. But all in all, a new year has begun.

Six years ago today my family and I arrived in this town of Marinette. I was terrified of going to school the next day in a strange place. I felt like an outsider, left out, and stupid, for I am afraid to admit–I got lost in the building. The rest of my eighth grade year followed and I was starting to understand the people and the surrounding area. It almost felt surreal the day we left Breckenridge. I didn’t shed a single tear. It wasn’t until later, after having been in school in Marinette for a month or two that I realized we had really left a lot of loved ones behind. I didn’t have any close friends I could count on those first six months. I wasn’t invited to go to movies, hang out at someones house, or anything like that. I witnessed plans being made, however, the people making them never invited me to join them. Even at the end of the year, when our class took a trip to Six Flags, I was still being left out. The girls I was with at first basically ditched me. I was a third wheel, let’s be honest. But I eventually ran into the best friends I could ever wish to have that day. The five of us were a group of our own all throughout high school. It is because of them that I stopped feeling sorry for myself, thinking I had no friends and everyone hated me. It sucks to move when you’re a child. Kids are mean. Even if they are unaware of doing so.

I am thankful this new year for all my friends. I have certainly been blessed in that area during my lifetime. Thanks to new technology, it is easier than ever to stay in touch and get back in touch with those far away. I may have one “Best Friend,” but I call many, many more the best group of friends I could ever know. It amazes me as we are all in college now and starting the paths to our futures at how different we all are and how much we have to look forward to. I am confident that every one of my close friends will be successful in life. And by successful, I don’t mean financially. I detest that definition of success. I am a firm believer of the mantra, do what you love and the money will follow. Just because we’re lib ed kids and aren’t pursuing a degree in “how to be an ass, 1001,” a.k.a., Business, doesn’t mean we’ll be destined for failure. We can do whatever the hell we want, and by choosing a true love for a major, we will want to keep going. I don’t want to get stuck in a dead-end middle-management office job for 40 years, only looking forward to retirement. I want to make a difference in the world I live in. I want to ride the wave of life doing what I love, and what I love happens to be what I do best.

My brothers both gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble for Christmas. I started to cry when I tried to explain to Patrick just how thankful I was. It means a lot to me. I love reading. It is because of this that I love to write. My greatest hope for the future is for me to become a published novelist. One of my relatives once told me, “It isn’t what you write, it is how you market it to make money.” He is completely wrong. That isn’t what it is all about. I hate how money rules the world. Sad, but true. I write because it is my first love. I love books, and cannot get enough of them. It disappoints me greatly to see or hear that another detests reading. I hope to write a work that will inspire more to read, and love doing so. (Rather than complaining through it or avoiding it altogether.) When I hear that others did just as well as me, even better sometimes, in high school English without reading I am disgusted. I read everything assigned not because I had to or wanted to do the homework, but because I love anything that is classified as literature. In my case, this is anything written for the sake of being read.

I have lofty dreams, yes. But nothing of substance was ever accomplished without an impossible dream. One day I will make a difference in someone else’s life. Even if I do something to affect just one person, I will think myself as successful. Money, my dears, really is not everything. When you’re dead and gone, that money will not go with you, but your reputation and legacy will live on forever.