I'm going to run in (the half-marathon version of) this someday.
http://www.runtherock.com/
Totally cheesy "they helped me when I was younger, and now I"m going to run a half-marathon to benefit them" thing, but there you have it.
posted by K @ 8:49 AM
0 comments
"We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the University of Texas at Austin. It is recommended that you contact your graduate adviser as soon as possible. It is a pleasure to welcome you as a graduate student. "
Translation:
"We are annoyed to inform you that you have been accepted to the University of Texas at Austin. To be honest, we wanted to reject you, but you had strong recommendations from two well-respected faculty members, and no one wanted to have to deal with their questions. We're only telling you to contact your academic advisor out of obligation, because we'd love it if you didn't, and we didn't have to hold a space for you. For crying out loud, you graduated in May--why are we having to welcome you again?"
Hee.
posted by K @ 9:46 PM
1 comments
Ten random things about me
01. My right leg is 1.25" longer than my left. I often use this to justify my frequent stumbles over nothing.
02. I did not get my 12-year molars until I was 16.
03. My mother wanted to name me Mavournin. Thank God my father was present. And sane.
04. If I was taller, I would have a second sibling.
05. I am lactose-intolerant. Farewell, ice cream. And Lactaid is too expensive, before you suggest it.
06. I live for breakfast tacos.
07. Leslie Nielsen told my mother that I was a cute baby on a plane.
08. I have godawful motion sickness. However, this does grandfather me into the front seat on road trips.
09. I am a National Merit Commended Scholar. When my guidance counselor brought the letter to my pre-cal class, my teacher didn't believe her.
10. I threw my back out while watching The Fugitive. (I was alone. SHUT UP)
nine places i've visited
01. Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas
02. Chicago
03. Juarez, Mexico
04. Pasadena/Burbank/Los Angeles (yay Rose Bowl)
05. New York City
06. Washington, D.C.
07. Savannah
08. Portsmouth, New Hampshire
09. Boston
eight things I want to do before I die
01. Go to Europe
02. Live in Chicago
03. Work on a presidential campaign
04. Make a difference in someone's life
05. Be a foster parent
06. Run a marathon
07. Buy a Land Rover (hey, there had to be one materialistic thing)
08. Run a restaurant in the Caribbean
seven things to win my heart
01. Rub my forehead and play with my hair
02. Kiss my forehead every night before we go to sleep
03. Take me to a baseball game
04. Call me just to say you were thinking of me
05. Make me laugh
06. Buy me good-smelling candles
07. Give me a back massage. A good one.
six things I believe in
01. Happiness
02. That people are inherently good
03. myself.
04. That you know yourself better than anyone else does.
05. God
06. smiling
five things I'm afraid of
01. tornados
02. dying
03. snakes
04. fat
05. flying
four favorite items in my bedroom
01. Cooler & my baby blanket
02. My down comforter
03. My favorite pillow
04. cable TV
three things I do everyday
01. drink Coke
02. brush my teeth
03. hate driving
two things I'm trying not to do right now
01. think about the drive to work tomorrow
02. get my hopes up about Austin (and failing miserably)
one person I want to see right now
01. Not telling.
posted by K @ 7:22 PM
2 comments
I have a fantasy of sorts. I've never really even admitted it to myself.
It is unbelievably cliche, but that doesn't make me want to do it any less.
I want to drive cross-country, to California, in a car. It will be an old convertible, top down. It will be sunset 24 hours per day. The weather will be warm--maybe 80 degrees--with just the slightest warm breeze. I'll be wearing sunglasses, sitting in the passenger seat. I'm not sure who is driving, but you're making me smile and laugh while I rest my right arm on the door, weaving my hand in and out of the wind.
Howie Day is playing on the stereo--is there really anything more perfect for that kind of feeling, that kind of moment, than songs like Collide? (for the record, I've liked Howie Day for quite a while, and while I'm excited that he's becoming popular, I'm sad it had to be with Collide. Somehow cheapens it for me).
There's no real purpose to our journey. It wasn't planned. One afternoon, we were sitting around, trying to find something to do. And you said "Let's drive to California". Maybe you were joking at first, but I said "OK" and took you seriously, just for a second. And then you took yourself seriously. And we grinned at each other, packed a few bags, and threw them in the trunk. We bought a map of the country at 7-11 and planned our route over cheese fries at a diner, highlighting the roads we would travel.
We only stopped in cities where we knew no one along the way. This trip wasn't meant to be shared with anyone else, even if it was just seeing old friends and having a place to rest for the night.
The funny thing is that the fantasy doesn't include actually reaching the Pacific Ocean. Somehow, the trip there is the important part.
The dawn is breaking
a light shining through
You're barely waking
and I'm tangled up in you
posted by K @ 10:22 PM
0 comments
It has a nice ring to it, huh?
I never fancied myself an elitist academic snob, but my God, I cannot WAIT to use those last two letters when I feel the need to impress people. I think I'm as in love with the idea of completing post-graduate studies as I am with the career path I'll be taking at that point.
I'm even excited about my thesis, and I don't think I've ever looked forward to required writing in my LIFE.
And I'm also feeling entitled because they wanted ME. Me. Because, you see, I was technically not qualified for admission to the graduate school. They require a 3.0 GPA in upper-division coursework, as well as a UT-minimum of a 1000 on the GRE. Obviously, some programs require more than the 1000 minimum (the advertising program's average is an 1110), but as a whole, they need a 1000 so as to keep their stats up.
I had an 1160 on the GRE. No problem there.
However, I had a 2.78 upper-division GPA (don't ever take 18 hours, 15 of which are upper-division ad classes in one semester), thus meaning that if they hadn't actually wanted me, my recommendations from faculty/advisers, my statement of purpose, my resume, they could easily have rejected me as soon as they looked at my GPA.
And I'm aware that sounds completely egotistical, but I don't so much give a shit :)
So needless to say I'm odds and ends
But that's me, stumbling away
slowly learning that life is OK
Say after me
it's no better to be safe than sorry
posted by K @ 5:56 PM
0 comments
Get over yourself.
Yes, you.
You are an arrogant ass that is making more enemies than anyone should manage to make in a three week period.
You are not the be-all, end-all of life.
Your ideas aren't even that good. At best, they're mediocre. It's other peoples' suggestions about those ideas that makes them great. But do you give credit where credit is due? Nope.
You like to talk a good game, but in reality, there's nothing there. It's all surface. Don't get me wrong--you'd be an amazing actor, because you've somehow managed to convince a LOT of people that you actually have substance.
That, or everyone you hang out with has as much depth as you do.
I feel better now.
posted by K @ 10:52 PM
1 comments
I'm one of those people who strongly associates music with my life. When I hear a song (specific song--I know that for some, it's albums) I am immediately taken back to where I was, how I felt, and who I was. Though sometimes it's just an artist in general...
For instance, Collide by Howie Day takes me back to leaving Austin. That afternoon, as I drove out of town (crying the entire way), that's what I was listening to. I remember the afternoon sun, the snapshots of scenes I passed on Mopac, then 183, then I 35 as I drove north towards Dallas. I remember the ache I felt inside as I left the city I love for a city I... well, hate.
Why Georgia by John Mayer is junior year of college. It's driving back and forth on 35 between my place and my friend's apartment in South Austin. It's Mozart's and cats and an ugly brown loveseat. It's hitting the 290 overpass on my way back into Austin from College Station early in the morning.
OAR in general is my Austin theme. There's nothing else I associate more strongly with the city... in particular one song. Night Shift... Stir it Up IS Austin for me. It's cruising southward on 35, windows down, sun in my face, friends in the car, on the way to float the river. It's a hot summer night on my way downtown. It's friends, it's good times, it's Starbucks study sessions, it's standing on my apartment's porch while the rain pours down and I talk to my best friend in Paris, trying to cram 2 weeks of our lives into a 30 minute conversation while my bare feet get wet from the splashing rain.
Patio by Nine Mile. It's spring semester of freshman year. It's a snapshot in my mind of sitting at the intersection of 24th and San Antonio, on the way back from TCBY and a drive down 2222 to look at the scenery. It's napping at Zilker Park on a gorgeous day with friends. It's Goldschlager and Jester and parties at the Beta house and that last bit of life where you're caught in limbo between who you were in high school and who you're going to be in college. Phish's version of Gin and Juice is a darker view of that year, I suppose. It's drinking and late nights and the couch in my friends' apartment and that fuzzy orange fleece blanket. It's laying on the pavement outside of Jester, waiting for friends. It's that the first shot I ever took was Seagram's Gin.
There are more, of course. But there's a few, just for an idea.
One good thing about music
When it hits you, you feel no pain
posted by K @ 11:52 PM
0 comments
I don't do well with change.
Well, not quite. I don't welcome change. Once it happens, I deal, and I'm usually fine with it. But the initial process to begin the change?
Freaks my shit out.
I need to work on that.
posted by K @ 6:14 PM
0 comments
You know, I am notorious for something.
Well, a few somethings.
One is that I am painfully un-female. I have a tangent to go off on for that thought, but I'll save it. Mental note: don't forget said tangent. OK. Moving on.
Another is that I am a horribly impatient driver. I scream at cars. I beat the steering wheel (but mind you, I do not beat the part with the airbag. Just the rim. Who wants to be my emergency contact when I break a hand one of these days?). I honk. My mother swears that I am going to be shot from doing all of this while living in Dallas. I think it's far more likely that anyone who actually sees me is so stunned at the sight of a small blonde girl screaming her lungs out while Vanessa Carlton plays in the background that they can't even find the glove compartment with their free hand.
And finally, perhaps my favorite piece of notoriety, I hate people.
No wait.
OK, part I of my last bit of notoriety is that I hate people.
Part II is that I enjoy nothing more than keeping up a running commentary about the people I see, and immediately hate.
My friend Kate's favorite thing to do when we went out to bars was stand next to me. You see, my running commentary is very exclusive. Most of the time I'm saying things while standing mere feet away from the subject of the disparagement, so it has to be very hush-hush. If you're not standing next to me, you'll have to rely on the person who does catch it to relay it to you--and we all know that secondhand snarkiness is SO not as good as the original form.
I need to get the snarkiness going again. I have been given the gift of keen observation and biting sarcasm--must combine them more often.
I feel as though I should include something I'm notorious for that's NICE. Because I am a nice person--I swear. I just seem short and bitter. My personality doesn't really match my outward appearance, does it? I'm all blonde and short and smiley and shit, and inside I'm this shrively, bitter, impossible to understand hag. Moving on.
My nice trait that I'm known for: I can listen. I can also give really, really kickass advice, but I don't do that unless it's asked for. I find that most of the time when someone says "I need advice about XYZ", they really mean "I need to talk this out with myself, but I need to do it out loud, and I need someone to listen to me so that I'm not that psycho talking to himself". If they talk it through, then ask for advice, they probably already know what they should do (and what I'm going to tell them), but they just don't want to do it.
Oh, and the tangent. What was it? *scrolls upward*
Oh, right. Me not being a girl.
See, just because I don't like flowers and I can't remember anniversaries and I'm not a fan of dressing up and stuff doesn't mean I don't appreciate special gestures.
Let's say that you're going to do something special for your girlfriend. If your girlfriend is any other female in the world that's not me, you'll probably buy her roses, maybe some chocolates, have her dress up for a fancy dinner, maybe take her dancing. There's probably a sunset involved, and you opening her door for her, and holding her hand across the table, blah blah blah. That's really, really cool of you. I support nice, romantic gestures. She'll appreciate it too, and you'll probably get laid. Several times, depending on how you play your cards.
Now, here's the thing. I don't like roses, I hate chocolate 98% of the time, and fancy dinners mean I can't wear my flip flops. Oh, and guys opening and closing car doors for me is creepy. Regular doors are cool. Car doors--eh.
However, that doesn't mean that I don't want you to do nice, romantic things for me. Instead, I like things like you surprising me at work with sandwiches and tickets to one of the Concerts in the Garden. Or a pair of seats to a Rangers game. Or maybe it's Friday afternoon, and you show up at my apartment with the car full of camping equipment and a weekend just for us. Or maybe you've picked up a six-pack of Corona Light (my favorite, for those keeping score at home. And no, the light is not because I'm counting calories--it's less filling. Or is that Miller Light?), and there's a big game on TV, and we're going to wear sweats and sprawl on the couch and snuggle.
*sidenote: I'm discovering that I like snuggling. SHUT UP.*
The whole point of this is that just because a girl isn't a conventional girl doesn't mean she still doesn't want to feel special and appreciated and flattered and all of that.
Yeah.
Signing off now.
Sometimes I lie awake, night after night
Coming apart at the seams
Eager to please, ready to fight
Why do I go to extremes?
posted by K @ 8:03 PM
2 comments
The sky is falling.
Well, the ceiling. And some walls. And pipes. And did I mention the particles of insulation flying everywhere?
Anyway.
I was in a conference room on the second floor for a meeting with the account service team. I have to do a little description of the agency for this to make sense. The whole thing is 3 stories, and all 3 open to a huge atrium (that's actually 4 stories tall) in the center. The ceilings are the industrial, exposed type--pipes running everywhere, etc. However, in some sections, there are "rooms"--places where they've created walls and a second pseudo-ceiling to close it off a bit.
Just to the left of the conference room we were in was one such area.
Picture it--the 5 of us sitting around the table, talking about insurance. Suddenly, there's a HUGE crash... and another, and it lasts about 10 seconds.
The 5 of us freeze, stare at each other, and then leap up and run to see what had happened (and how much does it say for us that the first thing we do is run TOWARDS the problem?).
One of the pseudo-rooms had collapsed. The framing for the ceiling buckled in one spot, which brought the whole thing down. Walls were cracked, pipes were dangling, insulation was falling out. Luckily, no one was hurt (save a guy who banged his knee on a trash can). Apparently it started shaking and everyone got out before it actually collapsed.
In other luck, the sprinkler head was not damaged, so the building isn't flooding at the moment.
This, however, does not make me feel warm and fuzzy about hte structure of this place. I imagine there'll be some lawsuit filing going on over this for the faulty construction. One would also hope that they'll be inspecting the rest of the building to make sure that it is structurally sound.
Is it bad if I hope they do it on a weekday so that we get a day off?
These walls are crumblin' down around me
We've never got any money
posted by K @ 12:54 PM
1 comments
