A little drop of Rain

Ok, so I’ve always heard the stories of how poorly college students eat and how creative they become.  I think the grossest thing I’ve heard was having spaghetti and ketchup for lack of tomato sauce…

Fortunately I have been managing to stay afloat, thanks to my parents as my back up financers.  However, now and again I go a couple weeks too long without shopping and am left to the creative aspects of cooking.

My most recent invention was discovering that tortillas actually work decently as bread.  So…as weird as it sounds…I’ve been having PB&J tortialls.  Hey!  Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!  It’s actually surprisingly good.  I mean, you can’t really eat it open face because the bread-PBJ ratio wouldn’t be satisfactory, but when folded over or rolled up like a burrito, I must admit, it’s rather good.

Between that, my mashed potatoes, and the one rice a roni box…I can survive a-whole-nother day without shopping.  Possibly even two!  But that’s probably stretching it a bit too far…unless I eat on campus tonight…

I finally found a place where I can go when I am lost and there I’ll find me!
(Name that musical!)

Obviously I can’t reveal the location of my secret secret spot because that would defeat the purpose.  But what I will say is that FINALLY (maybe) I can actually have some peace when I eat on campus.

It’s just so annoying that I keep having people come up to me when I just want to be left alone.  Actually, it’s just annoying that a couple specific people keep finding me when I don’t want to be found – at least not by them.

It’s pretty much the perfect spot.  It’s pretty well secluded – though of course there’s hardly anywhere on campus that can truly be secluded…  It has sun and shade and I can be completely out of sight.

The only problem is that when people walk near it echoes which makes me a little paranoid that my secret is not so secret…but I really don’t think anyone would come disturb me.  Well, maybe some Quark Club kid hosting a floating RPG, but I think they have their own quiet basements for that.

K…maybe it’s not a Secret Secret…there was a girl who came and sat very near to my spot today…but…I think all in all it should serve my purposes.  If only I could stash a blanket there and have private picnics…

So as I was walking through the back ways of the Wilk, I noticed that they have basilisk detectors hanging up in each corner; an obvious precaution so you can peer around the corner to ensure there are no basilisks hanging out in the halls before accidentally running into one and dying.

I’m not sure if I should be happy or worried.

On one hand, the precaution is nice.  If a basilisk happened upon those halls, it would have a hard time killing people because they would be able to see it first and merely get turned to stone.  So I guess that’s a plus.  However on the other hand, why would we even need the precaution if there weren’t a reason to think we’d need it?

Basilisk detectors seem to give off the feeling that there have been basilisks there in the past or that there is a fear they might come.  I wouldn’t doubt that.  I mean, Utah never had a St. Patrick to run off all the snakes, and the Wilk seems as right a place as any to have mythical snake-like creatures slithering about.

(Actually, this also makes me wonder about the HFAC…but I’m not too worried there.  I mean, they already have a phantom [and according to Divine Commedy, a senior who got turned into Cosmo] roaming their halls.  I don’t think there’d be room for a basilisk, even if it DOES have those crazy tunnels and hallways.)

Ah well, I guess I can just avoid those back hallways of the Wilk and wait for the Daily Universe with a stoney student on the front page.

I just think all the hype about Valentine’s/Single Awareness Day is ridiculous.  Don’t get me wrong, I think any holiday with chocolate is good, but really, why is it such a big deal to have a date for this one night of the year?  People go to great lengths trying to secure a date – ANY date, doesn’t really matter who – for this one night just for the sake of having someone at their side.

Speaking as one who has never HAD a Valentine’s date before…maybe I just don’t understand what this day is all about.  Actually that’s true.  I’ve never really understood what the point of this day is or why it’s a holiday…

We don’t really know the origin of Valentine’s Day, except that there are tons of legends suggesting how it may have come about.  My personal favorite is how St. Valentine, upon being rejected from his mistress, cut out his own heart and sent it to her as a symbol of his undying love.  (What a shame HE died instead of his love for her…)

http://media.www.timesdelphic.com/media/storage/paper1086/news/2009/02/12/Features/A.Day.Of.Traditions-3625283.shtml?refsource=collegeheadlines

Another legend suggests Valentine performed illegal marriages for young people who were in love  Great.  Why are we celebrating a day of Romeos and Juliets getting together illegally?  (see the next link)

But this glorious holiday stems back to the pagan Roman holiday Lupercalia.  A day in which men would dip strips of goat skin in blood and go around slapping women with them to make them more fertile, and women would put their names into an urn and the men would chose their dates by lottery.

http://www.history.com/content/valentine/history-of-valentine-s-day

Why does it matter so much to get a date for this night?  Wouldn’t it be more fun to spend a holiday with people you care about?  Why is this the one holiday in which family and friends are not the central focus?  This is like the opposite of the other holidays – on Valentine’s you ditch your friends for a hot date (or else mope all alone to yourself).  Besides that, getting a date on Valentine’s has the additional pressure that makes people think the date “means something” when really most people just don’t want to be alone.

What I find to be even more ridiculous than those who scrounge around desperate for a date are those who have given up and spend a dejected Single Awareness Day by themselves.  Like I said, maybe I just don’t get this holiday, but I’ve never felt dejected by not having a date on Valentine’s…

I think the idea of a day full of love and chocolate is nice, but I think Valentine’s is more a day full of lust.  I’ve never thought much about this holiday and I don’t think people should stress about it – there are so many more important things to stress about.

Basically what I’m trying to say is:

(Except I don’t need the clause at the end.)

Today I taught my first private dance lesson.

wOOt!

I made an exchange with Theatre Guy 003 where he agreed to be my vocal coach if I would teach him dance. So much the fun. So much the awesomeness.

I was really at a loss because…well…I’ve never really taught anything before. I mean, yeah, I had to teach a Relief Society lesson in church once and I was on camp skills one year and had to teach knot tying. Actually I taught primary for about half a year, so that’s something. But teaching a skill is very different.

At first I really had no idea where to even begin. I even called my mom this morning and asked what she would teach in a first lesson. By the end however, I was really excited and now realize that I actually do have some – SOME – legit dance ability and can actually – HOPEFULLY – do some good with this exchange.

YAY! ^_^
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I thought I was un-legit. I thought I’d have to quit. But now I’m legit. TOO legit. So I CAN’T quit.

So I pretty much have no desire to carry on.  I just gave up around finals.  This semester was really hard on me and I knew early on that I wasn’t going to do well.  I feel like I’m just being dragged along.  Somehow my shoelace must have gotten caught, so when I tried to eject myself I could do nothing but hope the ride was short and I wouldn’t get cut too deeply.

Sorry to sound so emo.

I don’t regret the lessons I learned this semester.  I don’t regret the times I spent out with friends as opposed to studying.  The only thing I DO regret is that I wasn’t able to stand back up again and finish out the race like I always have managed to do in the past.  I have fallen too many times to spring right back up like I used to.

I found my limit.  I was looking for it, and now I know where it is.  Past it a quite a while ago.  I think I even broke it.  Now I just hope that I can fix it over the break and get back on that horse for winter semester…but I may have permanently damaged my spirit.

Don’t worry though!  I’m not this depressed.  It’s just been a long and rather bad day.  I just have no desire to try to be happy right now.

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How shall I regain the heart he has won from me?