Skirts with Pockets

Driving is not very difficult to do, yet I encounter people everyday who really do not belong on the roads.  I’ve noticed they tend to do the following things that tend to put others in danger or seriously back up traffic (“destroy” traffic, if you will).  This may or may not just be me ranting via a list of things that really annoy me.

Lack of Turn Signal

I am amazed when people switch lanes right in front of me and do not use their turn signals.  Are you really that lazy?  Or do you just believe you are above the use of the turn signal?  It is one of the easiest things to do in a car.  Just flip the knob.  It will literally take you a second.

Driving at or Below the Speed Limit in the Left Lane

The left lane on the expressway is widely known as the lane for those who are traveling at a higher speed than most.  In fact, it is really only supposed to be used as a passing lane.  You really shouldn’t linger in the left lane unless you are passing someone.  You would be amazed how much traffic is actually backed up from one slow driver in the left lane.  I can’t give you facts supported by evidence right now as I am crunched for time, but trust me; it’s ridiculous.  The thing that bothers me the most are those who hang out in the left lane with no one preventing them from moving over to the right, and they just sit there while cars accumulate behind them.  I could go on and on about this one, but I’ll stop here.

Drunk Drivers

This should really just be common sense.  For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone ever gets behind the wheel after imbibing.  You have to know that it’s not a good idea.  So many people have been injured or killed due to drunk driving accidents, and it keeps happening.  It’s simple really.  If you know you’re going to be drinking, then have a plan before you even go out.  Think about how you’ll get home before even leaving.  If worse comes to worse, call a taxi.  It may be expensive, but you won’t end up putting the lives of others in danger.

That’s all I’ve got for now on this topic.  Drive safe!

With this topic, I am supposed to choose one single memory to focus on.  I’m going to bend the rules slightly, and I am going to focus on one person rather than one memory…because whenever I think of my childhood, I think of my sister.  Erin and I are less than 2 years apart, and we were constantly together when we were young.  We have two brothers as well, but they are 5 and 8 years younger than me (which is a lot when you’re a kid).  That was just the natural breakdown of things.  My sister and I did our thing while our brothers did theirs.

We actually did not have very much in common, but we had each other and we were kind enough to entertain each others’ interests.  We took turns deciding what we were going to play.  I always wanted to hold a Miss America pageant with our myriad of barbies.  When it was my turn, we turned the lights off and shined a spotlight on the step in the bathroom that was our stage.  We picked a song by Mariah Carey or Ace of Base and put it on the boom box, pretending it was Barbie singing for the talent portion of the competition.  It’s funny to me how completely opposite I am today from being into that sort of thing, the superficial nature of those pageants.  Anyway, I digress…

Whenever it was Erin’s turn to choose, we unrolled the mat depicting various places in a community and played with her many matchbox cars.  I can’t tell you how much time we spent pushing those cars along the roads, parking them at different places at the mat, and producing some sort of story line.  I’m sure there was much more to this game than I remember, but then again this was my sister’s choice of entertainment.  I played to appease her after she had put on a smile for my ridiculous Miss America pageant.

Erin and I shared a bedroom until we moved out of our tiny house when I was 16.  When we were little and scared of what might be hiding under the beds, we pushed them together and built a wall of blankets around us.  We placed stuffed animals on guard hoping that if the monsters reached up from under the bed to grab us, they would grab the stuffed animals instead and be satisfied.

We have had our own rooms for a long time now.  We have grown up, grown apart, and grown closer again.  I don’t get to see her as much as I would like to because she is currently living three hours away, but we do what we can.  I have many fond memories of my childhood, and I am very grateful for the relationship I have with her.

After using up 18 minutes of my hour to desperately think of something to write for this topic, I have decided to write descriptions of funny moments for which I have photographic evidence.  I will begin with a story from my trip to Russia…

I was in Russia for 3 weeks in the summer of 2009 for a study abroad trip.  We stayed in a hostel, and we had to ring a buzzer whenever we wanted to enter.  One day, this buzzer was broken, and we were locked out.  Right next to our hostel was a very tall very locked gate.  On the other side of this gate was another entrance to the hostel.  Do you see where this is going?  In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I scaled the gate.  I looked pretty ridiculous doing it, but I succeeded.  I like to think the sign says, “Keep off the gate.”  Fun fact:  As soon as I got over the gate, someone else opened the front door with the broken buzzer for my patiently waiting roommates.  Climbing the gate turned out to be wasted, but funny nonetheless.

Next up is the Murder Mystery Dinner I attended at Amanda Keene’s house.  Before I received my invitation and character assignment, apparently someone dropped out of the attending list.  This someone happened to be a male with a male role, so guess who took his place.  I opened up the email with my character assignment and found out I would be playing Rhett Bumbler, a hit man whose cover was a bumbling gambler.  At first, I was a little disappointed I would not be able to don a flapper dress, but I began to think about how fun it was going to be to portray a 20′s gangster (and how much money I was not going to have to spend on a costume and accessories because I already had everything I needed).  I put on my dress pants, vest, blazer, and fedora, and I was just about set.  I borrowed a tie from my dad and poker chips from my brother.  I spent the evening fiddling with the chips, fumbling a deck of cards, and chewing on a candy cigarette.  So thank you Amanda Keene for assigning me the role of Rhett Bumbler.  I had a fabulous time.

The last funny moment I would like to share with you is Robot Day.  In order to promote our upcoming auditions for Ad Liberation; Tim, Mike, Gooer, and I dressed up like robots and passed out fliers.  It was cold outside, but it was worth it.  We definitely got a lot of attention.  Some were quite amused; others thought we were just weird.  Either way, a fun time was had by all members of Ad Liberation.  Special thanks to Shauvon McGill for the robot picture.

The year 2010 was one of many ups and downs and inbetweens.  As I reflect on what I believe to be the best things to happen to me during the year, my mind keeps bringing me to the last few months of it.  I know it was rather recent, but the last few months of 2010 was a time that would seriously define who I am today.

In September, I became a part of Ad Liberation, a new improv comedy group.  My friends Gooer, Mike, and Tim had started this group, and I just so happened to be present at all of their practices.  After a couple months of practicing with them, I officially became a member of the group.  I have never thought of myself as particularly funny, and this is something I never pictured myself doing.  I’m doing it though, and it is so exhilarating.  I am working hard to improve, and I’m learning a lot.  We actually just had our first show last night, and it went great.  I know I was nowhere near perfect, but the few laughs I got felt amazing.  It feels so good to be a part of something like this, and I am incredibly grateful to Gooer, Mike, and Tim for all of their encouragement and support.  You guys are the best.

In October, the inevitable end of my three-year relationship came crashing down on me.  At the time, I couldn’t think of anything worse.  I was saying farewell to someone who I had grown very close to, and I could not imagine not having him in my life.  It may surprise you to find this included in my “best of” blog, and I definitely would not have included it had I written this three months ago.  However, I know this is one of the best things that could have possibly happened.  I will be the first to admit that I was not myself in my relationship.  I was so wrapped up in this person who could not be more wrong for me, and somewhere along the way, I lost myself.  I was allowing myself to be treated like I was worth absolutely nothing.  I have grown so much in the little time since our parting, and I am truly looking forward to a future in which I continue to grow.

The last thing that comes to mind when considering the best of 2010 is my graduation in December.  I graduated from Purdue on December 19 with a Bachelor of Arts in education.  This was one of the proudest moments of my life.  I worked so hard to get to this point.  I know the college of education has this reputation of being a blow off career path in which all you do is color and cut and glue, but it is actually a lot of work if you are doing it right and not relying on the good work ethic of partners you have in class.  I did not choose this degree because I thought it would be easy.  I chose it because I have been volunteering and working with children since I was 14 years old, and I know this is my passion.  I will tell you that I did have a brief stint in which I was slacking off and practicing typical college behavior, and I paid for it.  I received a letter my sophomore year informing me that I was no longer in the college of education due to my lacking GPA.  This was my wake up call.  I could have taken the credits I had and pursued an English degree, finishing school when I had originally planned…but this was not what I wanted to do with my life.  I worked very hard to earn my way back into the college of education, and I continued to work hard for the remainder of my college career.  At the risk of making myself sound a little pathetic, I cried when my degree came in the mail.  That piece of paper is a symbol to me of what I am truly capable of.

Well there you have it, my best of 2010.  I can’t wait to see all of the wonderful things that are in store for me in 2011.

Hey everyone.  Thanks for taking the time to check out my ramblings.  I have considered starting a blog for a long time, but I never really got around to it.  However, there is this awesome event going on with a group of my close friends today, and it has inspired me to finally get the ball rolling on this thing.  This is 24 Hour Blog Day, and how it works is simple.  We had several neutral parties write down 24 random topics for us.  We have not looked at any of this topics.  Beginning at 11:00 a.m. today, we will be drawing a new topic every hour, and we will each have exactly one hour to write a blog about said topic.  I’m really looking forward to seeing the different directions we each choose to go with each topic.  Anyway, I’ll be back to begin Blog Day soon!