In Which I Apologize Profusely for having been Absent from the Blogosphere

Seeing as how I have once again been MIA from my blog for awhile, I thought I’d ease us all back into things. Slow and steady, no? So we’re just going to play catch-up. Last I posted, I wrote about my time in Dublin. Wow, that seems like forever ago. So much has happened over the last two and a half months (has it really been that long since I’ve posted? I’m the worst), so here’s the quick and dirty:

December:

• I returned to the States! I finished my time abroad and flew into DC to hang out with my friends at GW during their reading week. This was really important to me since a lot of my friends are now abroad. Visiting in December was my only real opportunity to see them before our Senior Year started. Waiting that long to see all of my wonderful friends just wasn’t going to cut it so I did what made sense – I came to DC for a visit. We watched the requisite winter movie Love, Actually. We watched political debates. We ate peppermint bark. We went out to dinner. We reconnected.
• I visited family. No matter what, winter break is a time for me to visit family. I managed to squeeze trips to both Michigan and New York out of my four week break. I hung out with my cousins, ate amazing Polish food, hit the outlet malls, cleaned out my grandparent’s kitchen, drove through Allegheny National Forest. It was a grand ole time.

January:

• I watched my beloved Alabama Crimson Tide trounce LSU. I made caramel corn during half time and wore my Roll Tide t-shirt.
• I moved back to DC and into my new dorm. I’ve been really busy with school and work, and spending time with my friends (none of whom live in the same building as myself) but I like my room well enough. It’s tiny and doesn’t have enough storage space, but it’ll do for a home away from home until May.
• I celebrated a birthday! It was really low-key, but I was with my friends, and that’s all that matters. We ate chocolate-covered cheesecake. Need I say more?
• Band started up again! I basically spend all of my time with them, bouncing between Symphonic Band and pep band rehearsals and basketball games, but it’s always fun. We have traditions and inside jokes and a lot of love for each other. It’s wonderful.

February:

• Celebrated the first annual Alan Rickmas. What is that, you may ask? The Sunday before Alan Rickman’s birthday you get together with a bunch of your friends and day-drink while watching Alan Rickman movies. This year we watched Nobel Son, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Galaxy Quest, Love Actually, and Die Hard. It’s a grand day that we hope to replicate for years to come.

Can’t you see I’ve been super busy? I hope y’all understand why I haven’t been posting. I’m also taking a creative writing class this semester which is taking a lot of writing focus. So is my recapping duty over at Off Color TV for Parks and Recreations. You can find my posts here.

In my free time (when not hanging out with friends, obviously) I’ve been trying to catch up on all of my TV watching. I’m floundering to keep up with my regular shows week-to-week, but I’ve managed to watch all of Party Down (loved it so much; can’t wait for the movie), and have worked my way into season 4 of Supernatural (enjoying it a lot).

Trying to spend more time reading because I feel like I’ve been neglecting my books. I’m halfway through the third Hitchhiker’s Guide book. I finished Downtown Owl, finally. I just purchased Bossypants and The Hunger Games to reread over spring break and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? because I love and admire Mindy Kaling.

Nothing too exciting is in my near future. I’ve been applying to summer jobs/internships so that I can (hopefully) stay in DC over the summer. I’m impatiently awaiting March 23rd because I just want to see the Hunger Games already and… Guys. I have a lot of feelings about this book. Expect a post about it in the near future. Suffice it to say for the time being that I’m in need of a good cry and the dam’s going to break when I see that movie. I’ve already warned the friends I’m going to see it with (midnight premiere, what-what?). I plan on packing lots and lots of tissues.

Have a listen to one of my favorite songs from Brighton, which I’ve been told is finally starting to be popular Stateside. Just remember, I heard/liked it first.

I don’t go to College, I go to Uni

Once again, I’ve neglected my blog. Which makes me, to quote Liz Lemon, the worst. I don’t have anything topical to discuss or rant about or write a poignant essay about. For now I’m just going to play catch-up and ramble about what I’ve been up to lately.

But, hey, remember when I was all “I’ll never have the perfect college experience?” and went on whinging about that for an entire blog post? Yeah, well I apologize and am currently retracting that statement. Kind of.

I’m 3000 miles from home and I found what I was looking for. When I was but an ideological high-schooler, dreaming of the perfect college  I pictured sprawling rural campus. I ended up in the middle of a city. Whatever, you know all this. But do you know how perfect the Sussex Uni campus is? It’s exactly what 16-year old me envisaged. Green everywhere, enclosed so you still have a campus feel but surrounded by bountiful (and beautiful) parkland. 20,000 students, but only about a third (all first years) live on campus.  The classrooms are mostly lecture halls, but instead of individual desks, they’re elongated and look like this picture, which I absolutely adore. And, AND, there are two pubs on campus. Yes, two. So close, so convenient, so deliciously cheap. So, no, I’m still not getting to tailgate, or go to football games, or whatever, but I actually feel like a college student. Going to lecture, taking notes in a notebook (not that many students use laptops in class), writing essays, and going out on the weekends! Unlike the States, where I can’t go out to bars or clubs and drink, I can do that here. I can, and do, go on pub crawls. I can now say that I’ve been to a house party. I’m meeting people! I’m getting drunk and attempting to navigate the bus system! And it’s legal! For the first time ever, I’ve been to a bar and had a cute guy buy me a drink (my tiny triumph of last weekend). So, despite the fact that I’m really looking forward to getting back to GW, I’m absolutely loving my time here. I’m really finding myself, getting comfortable in my own skin and just having fun.

Other little things:

• I saw a fox! On campus! On the way to a bar! Everything about those statements makes me giddy. Foxes are my favorite animal. The fact that they run around campus just thrills me to death. It was a fun little surprise passing one on the way to Falmer Bar last weekend.
• I got a job! Okay, to be technical, an unpaid position. But I’m writing recaps/reviews of one of my absolute favorite shows, Parks & Recreation. I adore both the show and the site that I’m writing them for, Off Color TV. It’s a really fun site to troll. I’m now a frequent reader and commenter. Everyone should definitely go and check it out. For those of you who know how much I love tv and recaps, you should know that I’m over the moon about doing this. Unfortunately there wasn’t a new Parks & Rec last night, but there will be a nice new post (by me) next Friday. I urge you all to read and comment on it.
• This one’s a little old, but I organized a beer pong tournament on campus a couple weeks ago. I imagined we’d have ten people show up, but around 30 exchange students packed into one of the dorm kitchens and hung around for a few hours. Not too shabby.
• I’m taking an archery class! That puts me one step closer to becoming Katniss Everdeen. 
• You might’ve noticed that I posted a recap of the season premiere of “The League”. I’ll be doing that weekly. They may be a little late, but they’ll get posted, regardless. It’s just a little something I’m doing to contribute to my family’s fantasy football newsletter. Whatever keeps me writing.
• I’ve been attempting (and mostly succeeding) to keep up with US television shows. Despite the fact that I have to watch them next-day (and avoid spoilers on Twitter) it’s been working out. I figure it’s acceptable since I’m still a social creature and not a complete recluse. Right?

Normal: What even is that?

I don’t think I’ll ever have the “quintessential college experience” whatever that may be. It just won’t happen. I’ve had the startling realization and have come to terms with it. It’s fine. Kind of. Sort of. Maybe?

I’m into my third year of college. I am now a junior in college. What even is that? When did this happen? Who decided I was old enough / mature enough / smart enough to get this far? I want to go back to elementary school with its coloring, its book reports, its multiplication tables. Instead I have to endure digital media projects, analytical essays, and statistics. Not fair.

But I have noticed, of late, that my college experience isn’t on par with those of most of my friends from home. Is it because I went out of state? I went to a private school? I’m on an urban campus? I didn’t rush? I don’t know if I’ll ever be certain, but I know some of what I’m missing.

I’ll never go to a college football game because my school doesn’t have a football team. I won’t get to tailgate outside our stadium, because we don’t have a stadium, let alone cars. I’ll never get to enjoy porch drinking, because there are no houses on campus, excluding the tiny town-houses that have no porches – just stoops. I’ll never attend, at least as an undergrad, a university with a male population of which the majority are heterosexual. (Yes, I’m including my study abroad university in that. That’s one thing they don’t advertise that in the guidebooks, let me tell you.)

But it’s more than that. It’s also the fact that I didn’t get to drink PBR or play beer pong until I was hanging out with my brother over summer vacation. Whether that’s because there doesn’t seem to be room for beer pong at school or kids tend to drink liquor, I can’t be certain. I never shotgunned a beer until hanging out with my summer coworkers because, on the off chance we have beer at school, it sure as hell doesn’t come from a can.

What else am I missing out on? Is it because of where I go, or because of who I am and whom I chose to hang out with? If you have any insights, send ‘em my way.

Not that I don’t enjoy my college experience; I do. For the most part. GW has its positives: the DC location, dorms down the street from the White House, school-year internships on the Hill, awesome authors and press secretaries and politicians that speak on campus. It can be wonderful, of course, it just doesn’t strike me as conventional, typical, or dare I say it, normal. Maybe when I get back to GW I’ll found a beer-pong league and sponsored flip-cup tournaments? At the very least I’ll take a road trip to Athens, Ohio to enjoy the Spring festivals. I’ll take normalcy, whatever that may be, wherever I can get it.

Look at Your Life, Look at Your Choices

Poor Roommate probably has to deal with my bursting into her room once every two weeks to listen to a rant about how I’ve abandoned all of my hopes and dreams for a new career path. Well, not all my hopes and dreams, but a significant portion nonetheless. Some things, like my excitement to study abroad and explore Brighton, the UK and the rest of Europe (5 months and counting!), will never change. But I’d say that I reconsider my education and career paths at least twice a month.

At its base, planning for the future is my inherent form of procrastination. And let me tell you, since the beginning of this school year I’ve turned it into an art form. I vacillate between post-graduate plans like a four-year-old trying to decide which type of candy bar to buy at the grocery store. So far I’ve switched between wanting to go to grad school for a Master’s in public policy to just going to law school. Then I made the brilliant cognitive leap that I could enroll in a dual-degree program – two birds, one stone! But, hmm, I thought. That may be a little time-consuming. (Not to mention expensive.) Besides, what would I even do with a law degree? Open a bowling alley?

Then I thought – what do I love more than anything? The immediate answer was writing. But, see, I have this crippling fear (which is probably fairly accurate) that I’m really not all that creative. Or funny. Also, if you’ve ever met me, you know that I can’t tell a story to save my life. Granted I’m better with a pen and paper than verbally, but no matter; I can’t imagine myself completely losing my joy for writing. The logical conclusion was “Oh, I should get a degree in creative writing.” But that begs the question: What the hell would I do with that? Apparently there are also degrees in Professional Writing. That at least sounds like a degree with which I could potentially, maybe, once-the-economy-turns-around, eventually swindle some sap into giving me a job. Also, there are some fantastic universities in England which offer those kinds of degrees. Yes, please?

Last week Roommate had to deal with yet another flip-flop. As much as I would love to write for a television show, I cannot fathom how I could ever possibly find a job. That doesn’t mean I won’t necessarily try, just that I have absolutely no clue where to begin. I have realized, though, that I am fairly limit-less when it comes to genres; I have a working knowledge of every stylistic show, except, perhaps reality. I think that I would make a fantastic continuity editor. Seriously, I already watch tv like it’s my job. You know what else I love? Taking notes. Why not combine the two and actually make a job out of it?

At times I question whether I would find a career in television fulfilling. Could I do something like that every day for the rest of my life and feel like I’ve made a significant impact on society? Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, what are my chances of accomplishing that in any given profession? Slim to none. No matter what, I hope I’ll look back more fondly on my career decisions than some of these guys.

Here’s a song from one of my favorite shows – Veronica Mars.

Donde esta la biblioteca?

Borders is broke and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, that may be one less bookstore to go to. On the other, another reason for me to get a Kindle. It’s not that we need fewer bookstores, it’s just that Borders is a small, independent bookstore killer. And I, for one, love small bookstores. One of my favorites is just across town. It’s so picturesque:

It’s actually difficult to navigate the inside of the store. Even the stairwell is lined with stacks of books. And yet, chaotic as it seems, it’s organized. I found just what I was looking for my last visit. I managed to pick my dad up a first edition of one of my favorite books. It’s the kind of place where, if a purchase comes to $27.13, they’ll waive the change if you don’t have the pennies. You can have a conversation with the owner and get lost in the stacks.

Borders kind of kills that feeling. I try and only go to Borders when they’re a last resort. I’d much rather stop by Half-Price Books. Borders tend to be loud, bright, and smell of coffee. Which, while not wholly unpleasant, is not what I want from my bookstore experience.

Nonetheless, everyone has gotten much lazier when it comes to books and reading in general. It’s much easier to log onto the internet and pull up the New York Times home page than it is to stop by a newspaper stand (they still exist!) or get a subscription. I feel like fewer people are utilizing libraries, too. I already have a request list of books I want from my hometown library for when Spring Break rolls around (23 days left). iPads, Nooks, eReaders, and Kindles have all blossomed into popularity. How can you not want one with an ad like this:

Independent bookstores also tend to be more expensive. But, as one with the retirement dream of owning a small, independent bookstore (here’s looking at you Books & Pies!), I really hope people don’t fall out of love with books. Just think about how powerful the imagery of Gatsby’s library is… that’s more like it.

In the coming months I’m going to work on finding the perfect balance of book owning and technology using. Because, believe it or not, I’m not a Luddite. And, despite previously stated that I didn’t want a Kindle, I kind of do. I’ll still buy books – tangible, hard- and soft-cover, broken spined books – but I’ll buy some digital copies, too. My friend Rachel made the (valid) point that it’s just not realistic to study abroad and bring lots of books. And, in this instance, Kindle wins.

When I was just a little girl…

Well, consensus is that I’m finally growing up. Slowly, but surely. The list of things that scare the bejeezus out of me is slowly shortening and evolving towards a more adult mind-set. With the odd exception, of course. I feel that binders will be temporarily added to my list of fears – my pinky finger got caught in a binder snap this afternoon at work and I had to call a coworker over to help me out. My finger’s bruised and the nail has a little bit of a dent. I’ll suffer through it.

Some fears I find I am now ready to face, like Alice in Wonderland. While I have no desire to watch the remake, I think I’m ready to give the 1951 version another go-round. You see, when I was little the whole falling-down-the-rabbit-hole, back-and-forth shrinking-and-growing thing freaked me right out. But, as I re-watch the clip, I find similarities between other films which never bothered me.

For instance, when Alice first goes down the rabbit hole, her falling and shrinking reminds me of the Wizard of Oz – during the tornado, as Dorothy witnesses all of the objects and people whizzing by her window. The vibrant, strobe-light like colors remind me of the Aristocats (which didn’t bother me as a child because they creepy effects were put on cats, not humans). As the scene progresses, the surreal nature of the shrinking-doors remind me fondly (for the most part) of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

But, alas, some things never change. I have always, and always will be, terrified of “Pathways into Darkness”. It was a computer game from the early 1990s, and, after 15 years, it’s still the most petrifying game I’ve ever seen. See for yourself:

Told you.

I’m Terrible at Birthday Wishes

Mid-January is always a bit of a busy time for me. I have to readjust to life in DC, start all my classes, figure out my work schedule, celebrate my birthday, and this year go to GW basketball games as a member of the band. To make matters worse, this is a 17 credit semester. That’s the most you can take. I’m not complaining, I like all of my classes.

But. Anyway. January, right. Birthday-times. I’m now 20. I’m not sure how I feel about this. It’s kind of blowing my mind. I’m not a teenager anymore. I’ve officially embarked on the third decade of my life.

At the same time, 20 seems to be the most useless age I can imagine. 16′s cool because you get to drive. 17′s nice because it’s your last year at home, last year to pull shenanigans without the repercussion of being arrested and charged as an adult. 18 you get to vote!!! 19 is good for getting drunk in Canada. And everyone knows that at 21 you can drink. But at 20, well, there’s really nothing beneficial being thrown your way. It’s just a big milestone number with no milestones associated with it. At least I got a good birthday and two cakes out of the bargain.

I had a great time. I brought in my 20th birthday playing Mario Kart and Super Smash brothers with some friends and my “exuberant” RA. Then we watched Family Guy. When I woke up again after officially turning 20 (January 17, 10:01 am) I went to see my advisor to get the greenlight for my study abroad plans. Then Amanda and I played Mario Kart for a solid 4 hours before heading to dinner with a huge group at Fuddruckers, eating a special-made triple-layer heart-shaped chocolate chip cake with chocolate icing. It was heaven.

But maybe the best gift that could have been given me that day (aside from Anne’s wonderfully beautiful birthday card) was getting a happy birthday tweet from Joshua Malina. He has the same birthday as me, don’t ya know? (So do Muhammad Ali and Michelle Obama, but Josh Malina, guys!!!) I mean, Will Bailey himself tweeted me happy birthday.

Best day ever. Honestly, it was a great day. I even got to make ridiculous birthday demands and vetoes. For a person who doesn’t like the spotlight all that much, the power was kind of fun.

Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful day. Now, a gift for you:

I have big dreams for this year. Let’s hope that at least a few of them come true!

Casey Jones Might’ve been onto Something

Tired. I’m so very, very tired. To the point where I have a headache from not getting enough sleep. My parents will say that that’s crap since twice over break I slept in past 2pm. But that’s only because I was cramming friend time in until the wee hours of the morning.

And, although there’s no time-zone change-over between Cleveland and DC, the 30 plus hours of travel time logged over the course of 6 days will kind of do one in. That’s right. Of the 141 hours of my Thanksgiving break, 30 of them were spent traveling. That’s just over a fifth of my entire vacation. And now I’m feeling it.

How could I have possibly traveled that much in so little time? Let me paint you a picture:

1. An 11 hour train ride from DC to Cleveland, arriving in the Cle at 3 am.
2. One hour round trip from my house to Downtown Cleveland to help my dad decorate his office for the ArtCraft Holiday Show.
3. Driving with the family to Western New York accounted for 6 hours in the car, total.
4. Another hour was spent driving from my aunt & uncle’s house to the nursing home a couple cities over to pick up my Grandma from the nursing home.
5. Another joyous 11 hours on the train back to DC.

And, for those of you who don’t frequent the rails, train seats are not the most comfortable nor are they the easiest kind of seat to fall asleep in. Which is why I’m sitting at work, about to slump over onto the keyboard. Not much else is keeping me going but the promise of take-out and a movie upon my return to the dorm.

At least the otherwise unbearable monotony of the train was made tolerable by my pre-loading streaming episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on my laptop.

Now, as a holiday gift to you, the show that got me through Thanksgiving:

Clocks slay time… only when the clock stops does time come to life.

Another unproductive day. I woke up late and spent most of the time contemplating the dream I had last night and life at college. Sometimes it feels like I’m still waiting for the whole college experience to begin. It’s not that I’m not happy with my time at GW, it’s just that it doesn’t necessarily feel like the most typical, cliche version of events.

Anne and I bonded today, talking about our lives. It was a nice talk. I realized that I tend to be a pretty serious person. Not that I’m never goofy, but I don’t bring barrels of levity to every situation, either. I dearly love to laugh, but I don’t feel like I do it as often as I’d like. I’ve noticed in the last few weeks that I’m very fixated on my future instead of the now. I also tend to spend some time reminiscing. I don’t know how to better interact with the now, but it’s always going to be now, with my future passing by. Does that make any sense? I guess I need to work on seizing the day, taking the bull by the horns, carpe diem, yadda yadda yadda. My life just seems too busy to find time to change – what with classes, work and interning. But before I can change my habits, I need to figure out how. Next semester will be a more freeing time, what with no internship to contend with. On the whole, I’m content – I’m just not always happy. The spring will be a nice change of pace - I’ll have some more time for me.

The big issue I tend to wrestle with is finding my niche here at school. I have friends and I hang out with them a lot, but I still find it hard to beat my occasional reclusive behavior. I’m always harried by time. I feel like Quentin Compson, but, you know, without the incest and suicidal tendencies.

Maybe that’s the heart of the issue there. I don’t have my time to read – to completely absorb myself inside another life, to bear their burdens instead of mine for awhile. I’ll work on some homework, finish watching the Bama game, and give my current hero, Winston Smith some time to come alive. And maybe inspiration will strike and I’ll be able to work on my writing for a while. If only I had a fireplace or a beautiful old library…

The tastiest ice cream is the hardest to scoop.

I didn’t fall off the face of the earth, I just had to deal with summer. All those hazy, crazy, not-so-lazy days of summer. Although it’s not really true, it feels like all I did this summer was work. I split my time between the overheated, overcrowded, always humid town pool (more affectionately known as BVFAC [pronounced biv-fac]) and the chilly confines of Dennis Kucinich’s district office. Six days a week I worked – equating to a 40 hour work week. I only got paid for 24 of those hours. But, on the upside, my experiences reinforced the fact that I never wish to work for the food service industry after I have graduated from college (with the obvious exception of Books & Pies) nor do I want to work in a Congressional District office. While I genuinely liked the people I worked with, I learned that the overwhelming amount of casework and the focus on social work is really not for me.

But, alas, now I’m done with my vacation home and have settled, once again, into my collegiate life. I have said goodbye (for now) to BVFAC and the District Staff. But Molly, you may ask, won’t you miss BVFAC? Well, I must confess I will. Not the long, tedious hours or the squelching humidity, but I will miss our bees. That’s right: bees. We would capture them in clear plastic cups, give them a little bit of slushy mix to enjoy, punch a few airholes and KABLAM! BVFAC pets. They even got names. Let’s see: we had the Mowry siblings: Tia, Tamara [sic] and TJ, then we had the cast of Doug: Doug Funny, Patti Mayonaise, and Skeeter, then, to round it out, we had (Hey) Arnold, Helga, Spinelli, Zach Morris and Screech. It was a throwback to the 1990′s heyday of children’s television programming.

But now, at school, I have other, arguably more exciting, things to look forward to. I’m looking forward to seeing Jimmy Carter in September, have already purchased my ticket to see Jimmy Fallon in October, and absolutely cannot wait for Sarah Vowell to come to campus in November. There are lots of things to look forward to, I suppose.