May have just become snooty girl in class who sips Perrier and knows all the answers. FML.

I wish I hadn't read the Physician's Desk Reference in high school, because right not I'm convinced my strained chest/back muscles are really an aortic dissection. Be glad you aren't me.
 
I'm pretty sure if it was that, it would have killed me by now though, so that's a relief.

Every year it's the same thing. 84,000 people have birthdays in early July in my family. It's such a headache figuring out who's having a party what day and remembering if who you've already sent cards off  in the mail. It breaks down like this:
July 2: My uncle Dennis
July 5: My cousin Donnie
July 8: My grandma and my aunt Lisa
July 10: My cousin Leslie
July 12: Franklin
July 13: My cousin Layla
I think I missed someone.

So that's what, like 7 people within two weeks, not to mention non family members whose birthdays fall in that time frame. I guess a lot of people's parents were getting frisky in October.

Because of all this, my whole weekend is booked with parties and get togethers. And I thought I'd be able to take a break from all this school stuff. Silly me.

Today, I met my brother at school to help him get his financial aid stuff in order. We decided I'd just pick him up on my way to class so we both didn't have to waste gas getting there. Plus, he still needed my help filling a paper out. I swear, he's almost 19 and likes to act like a man all the time, but sometimes it's like he's still 7. Anyway, after that, we decided to drive by our cousin's apartment. We ended up waking him up at the early hour of 11:30. I guess when you're 15, it's still okay to sleep all day. We ended up taking him to the mall to hang out. We went to lunch at the Olive Garden, which was my brother's choice. It's far from the best, but I was craving soup, so it was good enough. Bohemian Rhapsody came on as we were driving and we all sang along. It kind of surprised me that all of us knew all the words to such a long song. It was like we had a bonding moment with Freddie Mercury.

We went to the mall and window shopped. I've been to at least half a dozen skate shops today full of hipster kids wearing skinny jeans that are sagging in the butt. I've had enough of the under 20 for today. It was nice though, hanging out with my brother and Josh. I get to be one of them instead of someone who's usually always been in charge of them in the past, always killing their fun.

I think I'll take them both to the county fair when I go, I got a sweet deal on a 4 pack of tickets plus a parking pass and drinks for just $25 bucks. I want to go see one of the concerts there, but the line up of acts is looking grim. I guess we'll see.

Right now, I'm looking at a small stack of books on my bedroom floor, none of which I've had the time or the energy to read. I checked them out of the school library the day I started summer session, and since then, have barely read a chapter into each of them. I feel kind of bad for not having read them, neglecting them, which makes no sense at all, since they're just books.

I used to read all the time as a kid. All the time. Long books, short books. Fiction, nonfiction. Whatever. If you had it, I'd read it, and usually pretty fast. I remember reading this National Geographic book about the history of the world and all the different civilizations of people that have existed. It was a pretty thick book, but I remember being eight or so and just getting lost in it, reading it for hours. It was great. My mom encouraged me to read, mostly because it was cheap and got me out of her hair, but also because I was learning.

In the past few years though, I've nearly stopped reading for pleasure all together. I think it probably happened during the later years of high school. I just had so much homework, so much reading that I had to do, I couldn't even fathom doing any extra for fun. I just wanted to get out and do stuff in my spare time, not stay in with my nose stuck in a book. Now it's gotten to the point where I don't want to read at all. I'd rather sit around bored than read, and I really don't know why.

When I do find myself reading these days, I'm usually reading a book I've had for years, one that I know inside and out. You'd think if I was going to read, I'd want to read something new and interesting, but I guess not. I've tried to sit down with these books and really get into them, but after a chapter or so, I find myself thinking about other things I'd rather be doing. And it's not that the books are boring, it's more like... I've adopted the attention span of a goldfish. I'm not able to focus anymore, at least on this type of thing, and that makes me a little sad.

I'll probably end up renewing these books in a week when they're due. I'll probably let them sit on the floor until they're due again, and then I'll take them in and give them back, feeling like I've failed in some way that only I know about.

This has been bugging me the last week and a half. It's my history professor. His lectures are so long, and so boring, I want to jam my pen in my eye, just because it would be more interesting than listening to him talk. I don't know if it's because I already know a lot of what he's talking about or the fact that his lectures and slides are just chapter summaries taken straight out of the book. His class is a waste of three hours of my time, three days a week.

And it's not just that. It's that he's teaching some kind of weird non linear history to us. He keeps jumping all around the mid to late 1800's and now even the very early 1900's. It's confusing. The dates of laws we're discussing  jump back and forth more than a game of Frogger. What the hell, dude. History is one of the subjects where a linear map of events is crucial if not absolutely neccessary. Also, he likes to say calvary when it's actually cavalry. It irritates me to no end, like when people say libary instead of library.

Also, today my speech partner presented his informative speech all about me. Lucky me, I get put with the foreign exchange student who asks me out while we were preparing our speeches and then goes on to tell the class I'm beautiful in his three minute speech, which of course prompted people to turn around and look at me, like all at once.

I've yet to stop blushing.

Seriously.

That is all.

My new icon is courtesy of a guy who I'm 90% sure sent me the link to it knowing full well I'd use it just so he could ogle it. Ogle away.

Yesterday I started the six week, condensed, hardcore summer session of school. It's proving to be more annoying than anything, although I know in the weeks to come it will become a source of constant stress, which should be wonderful.

The two classes I'm in are  daily four days of the week, and they're looong. I love history, but I don't love it three hours worth at a time. I actually haven't started that class, I'm going later today, but I'm not really looking forward to it. Surprising, I know, considering the content. I don't even need it, but I just thought the summer would be a perfect time to take it so I can gain a larger breadth of knowledge in my major. Knowledge is, after all, power. How cheesy am I?

I'm also taking a public speaking class, which I also don't need because I initally weasled my way out of it earlier in my college career. I took two classes instead of this one, just so I wouldn't have to get in front of the room and speak, and now here I am finding myself in the class after all. Sigh. I'm really just pushing myself to do it because I know eventually it'll make me a better teacher, and that's really the goal, isn't it? We've all had those teachers that really don't seem comfortable in their own classrooms and generally ill at ease in front of their students. I feel bad for them, and I really don't want to become that, so I'm going to power through all that and just do it. I wouldn't even be worrying about it if I was teaching little kids, but high school students are another story entirely, so I figure it'll help me be prepared.

On that note, the speech professor was 20 minutes late yesterday, and campus security had to let us into the classroom. She has a kid, so I understand that. She's pretty nice and easygoing, so I let it slide. But today she was late again, granted not by 20 minutes this time, but still. I was like, dude, seriously? She said she moved to Livermore, and I know it's a commute now, but the valley isn't that far away.

I have a three hour gap between my classes, which I guess is good in a way, it gives me time to get work done and study. I probably won't do that though, I'll probably spend the time reading back issues of Cosmo or something equallt stupid.  Those three hours are helpful, but it also means that I have to stay at school. I mean, yeah, I could go home. But it's a waste of gas and time and I don't really have either to be wasting. Not when gas is lingering juuuust barely under the three dollar line. So I guess I'll probably be writing here a lot more about my boring life and the weird shit I think about on a day to day basis. Look forward to that.