The Rescuers!

R-E-S-C-U-E

Rescue Aid Society

Heads held high

Touch the sky

You mean everything to me

In a fix, in a bind

Call on us anytime

We'll appear from nowhere

Mighty are we

R-E-S-C-U-E

Rescue Aid Society

Honesty, loyalty

We pledge to thee

R-E-S-C-U-E

Rescue Aid Society

Heads held high

Touch the sky

You mean everything to me

In a jam, in a scrape

And you think 'no scape'

Do not fear, we'll be here

Courageous are we

R-E-S-C-U-E

Rescue Aid Society

Heads held high

Touch the sky

Our hearts we pledge to thee

Man I love this movie!! The good characters are so GOOD, and the evil characters are so EVIL, and the dragonfly's so CUTE! Oh, and as an adult I love all the stereotypes that fly around. The moonshine drinking lazy southerners, especially.

Guideposts: 5 Secrets to MORE POWERFUL Prayers!

Spring Break!?!

Well, last night I wrote my paper for Devlopmental Psychology (on how gender stereotyping in the media influences children), and finished up a research methods and statistics lab assignment. Yay!! Now that those brilliantly crafted pieces of procrastination are finished, I feel light and worry-free, because....

Spring break is here!!!

Confused? Late February isn't spring-y enough for you? Too much snow on the ground? Well, early spring breaks are what you get when your last final is on April 25th. Oh! Yes!

Remember how I was all excited about tiling the countertops over spring break? Well, unfortunately, the tile order isn't expected to arrive until too late, so I guess that means no tiling for me. :( Instead, I'll laze around trying on all the new clothes that will be arriving in the mail (from that indulgent shopping spree last week).

Time to depart for Saint John, and from there to Calais tomorrow afternoon.

Coffee + more

There's a little hole in the wall in the academic building in which I spend almost all of my time. This hole in the wall serves a soup, sandwiches, muffins, bagels, cold drinks, and coffee. It's really convenient and almost once a day I'll stop between classes and get a small coffee and a muffin. Coffee's the cheapest drink there, and they have a couple of options. That's how I discovered that I think amaretto is repulsive, as well as hazelnut whatever, and Columbian's fine. What I like is Irish Cream coffee.

As Sam can testify to, this coffee is not exactly good. It has a pretty fast turnover rate, but it's still almost always pretty burnt. In fact, I didn't even realize how bad the coffee was until---today! I'm sitting here with a cup of Irish Cream coffee that isn't burnt. It tastes really really good.

I suppose I should mention that I don't actually drink coffee. I drink milk with a lot of sugar and a liiiiittle bit of coffee in there somewhere. So, that was my pleasant coffee surprise today. I suppose I should start reading my textbook for tomorrow's midterm...shucks.

Edit:
All the rooms in Nicholson Hall (the building where almost all of my classes are) are set up lecture-style. The basic room slopes from the front up to the back, and professors stand at the front with a little podium on a desk and lecture. The chairs have those itty bitty attached desks and are placed so closely together that you touch elbows with your neighbor, and can't walk down teh row without your butt inevitably hitting someone in front of you in the head. I'd say these rooms can accomodate about....40-60 people. So far, each of my classes has been in one of these rooms (with the exception of art, of course, where there are only 12 or so people). It's rare for a science course to be in one of these classrooms. There are three large lecture halls, where arts classes are never held, and they can hold 100+ students. There's such beautiful anonymity in those huge lecture halls. Sometimes I sit in on classes there just for fun. Go genetics! Aaaanyways. I'm in the medium-sized, packed like sardines lecture hall. And I'm excited for 3rd and 4th year, because as my psychology courses grow increasingly specialized, I should inevitably end up in one of the small rooms in Nicholson. These are rooms where there are three tiers in a u-shape around where the prof stands. On the tiers are really big desks, and there are no more than 15-20 people in a class. I can't wait to have a class in here and spread out my texts and notebooks across them, and rest my elbows on it while I listen. Is that sad? For now, I'm satisfied as long as someone doesn't sit next to me, so I can put my backpack in the seat and not on the ground.

Wisdom Teeth

Hedgehogs have quills, but they're not spiky, they're just firm. And most of the time (unless they're afraid of you) their quills are lying down flat along their back, and you can pet them. So don't let those quills deter you from their cute and cuddliness, though they're not exactly fluffy.

About...a little over four years ago, I was told by my dentist to have my wisdom teeth removed. Then the move to Maine happened, and wisdom teeth got lost in the shuffle. Anne had a pretty good wisdom teeth removal experience. Unfortunately, she didn't act weird from the pain medication, so no great stories there. She just walked around with puffy cheeks for a day or two. Very chipmunkesque. So, there's an in-family success story for you, Brad!

Now, I've never had my wisdom teeth removed, but I did have ten baby teeth pulled at once. It resulted in only my front teeth being visible, with gaping black spaces where the rest of my teeth should have been. Haha, it freaked Jaime out so much whenever I smiled. Anyways. My favorite foods to eat were cinnamon applesauce, chocolate pudding, ice cream, and smoothies. Consider those in addition to soup, Bradford Daniel. Or, you know, just drink Pepsi for a week. :)

Hedgies

I want a hedgehog! Hedgehogs have held a certain amount of fascination for me for years. Maybe it's the little ball they curl up into, I don't know. Conveniently, there are hedgehog "rescues" in both Santa Fe and Columbus. I think I'm kind of sold on the idea of actually getting one. All those horrified at the idea of me owning a pet speak now.

But seriously. Here are my thoughts.

Housing:
-aquarium (I could build him something so much cuter)
-wood chips
-maybe a little wheel
-9"x6" litter box (easy scoop cleanup!)

Food:
-dry cat food
-occasional cricket or earthworm treat (I might have some qualms about feeding him a worm. I love those guys)
-occasional veggie or cooked meat treat

There don't seem to be vaccinations and lots of expensive stuff like cats and dogs need. And I think that if I took it to a vet and got a permit to bring it across, the Canadian and US border would be fine. That's really the only reason why I wouldn't get a pet right now. That stupid border. Maybe I could smuggle him back and forth. They're pretty small.

Look at that face. Adorable!

Materialistic Me Part II

I got this one (above) in a different color

Materialistic Me Part I

I was at americanfurnishings.com (where Julie worked), and fell in love with this bed. I've never fallen in love with a bed before, so this is a new experience for me. It's made of metal, which I'm willing to accept. But it's so BEAUTIFUL.

You know how whenever you're given money for Christmas, inevitably it ends up being spent on food? Well, I took my Christmas gift money and actually spent it on pointless things--clothes!!

So, this was an UrbanOutfitter's frenzy. I really love that grey flowery shirt. Sorry about the unorganized photos. :-P

OH MY GOODNESS!!

Peekvid is back up and working!!!! Time for some House MADNESS!

Quickly

Class starts in thirty minutes. I hate when you have hot food AND a hot drink. And you just want to cool your mouth down, but you CAN'T! There's nothing but heat.

I'm eating chicken noodle soup, and it's flavorless. It's so flavorless, in fact, that the only taste it has is the chap stick that the soup hits on my lips on the way into my mouth. Now that is sad. Chap stick flavored soup isn't so good. And I think that the vegetables are either so fake or so overcooked, that they're actually transparent. I would also like to find fault with there being no chicken in my chicken noodle soup.

You can't tell, but I'm actually in a really good mood. Today, the temperature was above freezing!

I hate when you're in a forum, and the list of threads goes like this, with most recent at the top:

• WTB: XBox360
• FS: XBox360!
• Selling: XBox360

• Looking for 2 bedroom apartment
• 2 bedroom apartment for rent

I just wonder what sort of laziness is going through that person's head. "Oh, there are already 2+ threads from people with XBox360s to sell, but I don't feel like writing in their topic, I'm going to start my own and see if they write in mine." What?! Grrrr.

The time has come...for class....and I have coffee breath now.

Wow, the words gross chicken noodle soup, without any quotations, didn't turn up one image on Google Image Search.

Mac PC commercial

"You are coming to a sad realization. Cancel or allow?"

"Allow."

Mmm...splurge

Today, I splurged in the school clothing store and bookstore. I bought a long sleeve t-shirt and a sweatshirt. Now, finally, I can obnoxiously display my school's name like other university students.

My other purchases were a notebook for classes and a GRE prep book. What's the best way to prepare for the GRE? The book I got is by Kaplan and has two practice tests. I really want to get in to a pretty kickass( for psychology) graduate school. When it came to applying for undergraduate, I was pretty laid back. I figured that I'd probably be happy almost anywhere I ended up. Now, though, I feel fairly goal-oriented. I know that there are some GRE classes that you can take, but I'm preeeetty certain that there aren't any of those offered in my area. I think that the UofMich is my reach school. Their GRE averages are 650 for verbal and 730 for quantitative, with a 5.3 or something on the analytical. Is this realistic for me? Also, all GREs are computerized now. I don't know how I feel about that. I expect feedback from everyone who has taken the GRE (Ben I, Brad, Andy, ...Sam?, Jennie?) and people I don't know are welcome as well, of course! If you happen to read this one time, and have some words of wisdom, write them in a comment. I'm all ears. :)

And I know, I think I'm probably starting the GRE planning stress a liiiittle bit early, since it's only my sophomore year. Considering, however, that I want to own it, and I have so much work to do to reach that point, I think this is pretty reasonable. Plus, I need to take the psychology subject test. Which I actually feel much better about than the basic GRE.

I have a lot of math reviewing to do. :-P

My Developmental Psychology professor, Dr. Bigelow, cannot spell. I mean, she even takes her pages of notes to the blackboard with her, looks at it, and misspells the word. I didn't think that catharsis had an extra r in it--cartharsis. That was just today's example, but I'd say that she misspells an average-difficulty word about once a week, even while she gives it a lot of thought. She's a really sharp professor, too. I guess spelling just isn't her forte, though she certainly has everything developmental down cold. :)

Anne, I'm so proud of you!!! Everyone should go look at Anne's senior essay pictures on Facebook. Picture 14 is adorable of Anne and Ben H together. I love the gong, and everyone standing around holding stacks of their essays. What was that black thing that it looked like you and Ben were about to slide down on?

So, the peekvid site appears to be up and running. But it's giving me SO much trouble. I know, I know. It's beta. But still! I haven't been able to watch a single episode of House yet. :( Jaime's entry with Valley Girl House clips has me so sad yet laughing.

Give Me Your Vote!

Jenny Schumacher (awesome friend from high school, beautiful long blonde hair, violin) haunts qvc.com and ebay for steals. After my one blog entry, she showed me the RLM version of the Tiffany earrings on QVC. Only $48. How great is that? Too bad I never actually buy things.

I have fond memories of sitting around...some computer, with the Jones boys, Ben K, and Anne, playing Scorched Earth. Passing the mouse from one person to another on a book. They've made a ton of updated versions since then, but I found the oldschool DOS style one, and started playing it again today. It's SO slow, though! But I love it.

Okay, I need some feedback. I want a comfortable, attractive boot that I can wear with jeans, pants, and skirts. Casual and fairly formal. I also don't want the cost of this boot to exceed $150 (hopefully). Do I ask for too much? Perhaps I do. I have thick calves, so I doubt that I'd do well trying to fit into this suede one...but I'd still try. It makes ankle boots more ideal, though. These two boots are from dansko, a company that's all about comfort and quality, so that shouldn't be an issue. So what do you think? And if you don't like either of these, do you have a better one to recommend?

Cape Breton!...and shoes

I've realized that basically every one of my posts is just total rambling, so I'll stop naming them Ramblings. 'Cause that's basically all you're gonna get.

About a half an hour drive further East (yes, there is more land East of me, for those of you who haven't looked at a map of the Maritimes in a while) is Cape Breton. Surprising to many people is that I hadn't been there before today. Yesterday, Tim's parents called and said that they were heading out to his Aunt and Uncle's house in Cape Breton. They wanted us to drive up today and have lunch with all of them. Tim's cousin (Rod) also goes to StFX, so we picked him up and took him with us so he could have a couple of hours at home.

...I was too tired to finish this yesterday. So the thrilling tale is being continued today, Sunday!

This of course meant: road trip!! Yay! It was about an hour and a half drive to Rod's house, and I saw some fun stuff along the way, like a one-lane bridge. It didn't go over a river, though, it went over a canal. Like, an old-school 15 Miles on the Erie Canal canal. I thought that was pretty cool.Rod's house is on what used to be an old army base. About three feet from his house there's an old armory that they use for storage. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of that. The hour and a half car ride felt surprisingly long, so I was happy when we arrived. Rod's mom, Betty (Tim's Dad's sister), hooked us up with bottled water, Triscuits, and some insanely good cheesy avocado dip. After eating far too many Triscuits, I found Tim and his cousin Michael playing Halo 2 in the basement (big surprise). The basement was really warm, and the couch was comfy...I think I dozed off at some point.

For lunch, Betty made a huge production. A gigantic roast beef, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, gravy, some sort of broccoli cheesy quiche type thing, and Yorkshire puddings. Needless to say, I ate too much. Then we had coffee, and she'd made a delicious lemon custard that I simply couldn't not eat, as well as some cookies that were really perfect for dipping.

Betty and her husband, Wilf, surprised me. On one hand, they seemed quite straight-laced proper, but on the other hand, they kept repeating Ali G jokes about euthanasia and stuff and giggling like middle school girls. All in all, they seemed really really nice. After dinner, we all went on a walk. Sadly, I'd only brought a coat, so I stole Tim's hat, Tim stole a hat from the closet, and we set off.
Wilf likes to build things. This is a little cottage he built for their oldest, a daughter named Jean who's now married. There's a double bed inside, some little cabinets, an itty bitty loft with cute stairs/ladder going up to it, and a little woodstove surrounded on three sides by brick. For some reason, while I was standing in it, it reminded me of the grounds keeper's cabin in Lady Chatterly's Lover, even though his was undoubtedly a full-fledged English cottage with stone and everything. In this cottage, there's even a cute little stained glass window that I guess was taken from a church when they were replacing their windows.
Here's a gazebo that Wilf's in the middle of building. This is going to be beyond perfect in the summer, looking out over the water:At this point in the walk, I was quite content to go back to the house considering how cold I already was. But no, we hadn't gone down to the cove yet. So, away we went, and it was awesome. Near the shore, the water was an odd mix of partially frozen partially liquid. The waves still moved through it, but as you can see in the picture above, the texture of the waves changed to look really soft when it reached the partially icy section. Standing next to it and looking right down on it as the waves hit the shore, it looked like the water was a giant slushy machine. It was amazingly awesome, and amazingly cold.Pretty much just after this, we left to come back to StFX. Rod, Tim, and I were all really tired. Probably from the awesome lunch/dinner + the cold. We played 20 questions to amuse ourselves, and I learned that I suck at thinking of revealing questions. I was stuck, and asked things like, "Is it useful??"

So, that was my first trip to Cape Breton. It was as scenic and beautiful as so many touristy locations pretend to be.

Fun Canadian culturalism: When entering someone's house, always take your shoes off. When I first went over to Tim's house, it didn't occur to me. My shoes weren't dirty or anything, but as I was sitting on the couch, Tim would lean over to me and quietly point out that my shoes were still on. I looked at him, was like, "...okay...," went and took my shoes off. I tried to remember, but sometimes I forgot, and each time he'd remind me. I thought it was just his house. But this year in social psychology, my professor (who is an American in her second year teaching here in Canada) when discussing social norms, brought this up. She went over to a professor's house for a party over the summer, walked in the door, and saw everyone's shoes in a huge pile. "Okay," she thought, and took hers off as well. She asked some people here at StFX and back home if they would expect to take their shoes off. Her American friends said no, her Canadian friends said yes. So, mystery solved! It's a Canadian thing! I feel so Japanese.

Jewelry I'll Never Buy

For those times when all of you are sitting around thinking, "I'd really like to buy Mandy something. You know, just for fun. And I have a three hundred dollar budget to work with." Well, when that thought inevitably strikes you, I suggest you look no further.

I love the classic combination of pizza and pop. It's just so satisfying.

I know that torso-showing shirts are both so nineties and so unappealing, but can you imagine what it must be like to have the confidence to wear them? I can't imagine what that must be like, to be able to walk around and sit and eat with the whole world seeing your tummy...and not caring.

I had a shocking moment of non-procrastination today. Don't worry, though. It won't continue for long. :)

What I want to know is: What's the word on Pavel? What's going on with him?

I need some cereal.

Blood and Burmac!

Donating blood. As mentioned in previous posts, I think I've tried to donate at least seven or eight times, and only done it successfully once. Each time, my iron level is too low to donate. Yesterday, surprisingly, it wasn't. I sailed through iron levels, filled out my forms, had my blood pressure and temperature taken, asked about prostitution, coke, needle-related drugs, and Africa, and made it all the way to the lawn chairs. I had a very nice nurse helping me. Was swabbed with alcohol and iodine. And the needle went in. Alas, it didn't go into the vein. My nice nurse wiggled it around a little bit, withdrew and went back in, but couldn't seem to find a vein. "I'm sorry," she said as she eventually took the needle out. "But you have veins like spiderwebs. Thanks for trying." I still got to sit there for five minutes, for some reason, and I still got cookies. And I still got to walk around with a cotton swab band-aided to my arm and a pricked finger, looking like a good person. But once again, I didn't get to donate. At least I'm not O- or anything. Just A+. They probably have tons of A+ sitting around, and have to throw it out, and say, "Why do people with A+ even bother donating?? They're so regular. We need more O-!." So I guess I shouldn't feel bad, based on that incorrect and fictional A+/O- scenario.

BURMAC= Burke (residence) + MacIsaac (residence) hockey game

Every year, residences compete with each other in a hockey game. There is a huge rivalry between my dorm from last year, MacIsaac, and Burke. Burke's smaller than MacIsaac. Each residence creates their teams from people living only in the residence. Tryouts start very early in the school year, practices occur all year, until February, when the action begins. Since Burke's smaller than MacIsaac, there are a certain number of positions that they're allowed to fill with players from other dorms, to even things out. Anyways. For this one game, there are new jerseys every year with the players names on the back and stuff (sounds very expensive to me), and a whole lot of pomp and circumstance. Oh, and the teams are coached by students in the respective dorms, too.

As many people will tell you, though, BurMac is an excuse for people from Burke and MacIsaac to get insanely drunk and throw things at each other. All year, each house plays pranks on the other, and has snowball fights with each other and stuff. There are some very unoriginal cheers that can be heard around campus all year.

***Warning, unedited profanity below. In case you care. :-P***

Some Mac cheers/taunts:

Burke is a pussy

Burke chicks have dicks

Party in Burke's mouth: Everybody's cumming

We're MacIsaac assholes

We're raiders of the night

We're dirty sons of bitches

We'd rather fuck than fight

We carry wooden nickles

And trojan condoms, too

We're MacIsaac assholes

So who the fuck are you?

4, 3, Double OT (score from two years ago)

6, 2, fuck you (score from last year)

Whalebone! Whalebone! Whalebone!

The whalebone is Mac's sort of...mascot. Burke's is the big stick. Accordingly, Mac has two big pieces of a whalebone (don't ask me where they came from, they look ancient), and Burke has some very large looking stick, painted orange (their colors are black, white, and orange) that I've never seen up close. Some other dorms have more normal-seeming mascots: the bulldogs, the panthers, ...but one of them is the Box. I have no idea what the Box is all about.

Anyways. So I went to Burmac last night. Last year, we fairly destroyed them, but I was drunk and don't really remember the game. This year, the game was awesome!! In the first period, Mac was down 0-2, and Burke was playing really well, while Mac was looking shamefully unimpressive. In the second period, Mac scored, and on the next drop of the puck, Burke came back to make it 1-3. We tied it up by the beginning of the third period, so it was 3-3!! Then, with 1:07 left in the third period, Mac scored. The next play, with one minute left, Mac scored again, making it 5-3.

Now, having seen a hockey game in person, I have much more respect for it. I've been watching a fair share of professional hockey games. After seeing how professional hockey players play, and then seeing very decent hockey players from our residences, I'm amazed by how much of a gap there is between skill levels. I mean, of course there should be a gap. But it's BIG. I was very impressed with how both Burmac teams played. I'm amazed with the speed that players have to change direction and stay standing with other players checking them. I'm also amazed with the speed that they crash into the walls, with other players flying straight into them. I'm impressed with how, even when a player is knocked to his knees, he can still continue forward handling the puck until he gets back onto his skates again. At one point, a Burke player checked a Mac player, both went down. They were sliding together towards this other Mac player, who at first didn't see them. At the last second, he saw them, and just jumped straight up into the air, they continued sliding by beneath him, he landed on the other side, and continued playing. It was insane!!

And the craziest part of hockey: It's all on ice!!

So, Burmac. It was good. and I had Subway afterwards, which made me very happy.

I'll finish writing this later (class is beginning) and will also add some silly, perhaps relevant, perhaps not, photos.

Hair Cut

Getting one's hair cut short seems to require that it actually be maintained. I don't want to just keep getting the same haircut, though. So, what do you think of these two options? The very layered one I would get a liiiitle bit longer. Who am I kidding. I'd never be able to go that blunt in bangs. Maybe some longer, layered bangs.

Okay, everyone give their opinion. I want to hear from eeeeverybody.

I ain't been droppin' no eaves, sir!

I know eavesdropping is bad. But when you're sitting somewhere, and others are sitting within four feet of you talking in perfectly audible voices, I have no shame. I'm just sitting there, bored, and see no reason to not entertain myself with their silly stories about the gym and their boyfriends. So that's right, I loove to eavesdrop. Today, I got so into it that I forgot I was even doing it, and felt like I'd had the whole conversation myself.
Wouldn't it be crazy if the president were actually as honest as that guy in 24?

I haven't been feeling very bloggerly lately. Every time I write something, I just delete it, 'cause it seems to be pointless.

I've been watching House a lot. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a tv show so much. It's so funny!! And I don't think I'll ever stop being impressed with Hugh Laurie's American accent. It's so good compared to...say...Ewan McGregor's in Black Hawk Down. That was just embarrassing.

I'm thinking...nap time.