My Bucket List

My Bucket List

*As of 6-11-12 so more shit can definitely be added onto it

1) Play a really good prank on someone

2) Run a 10k

3) Go zip-lining

4) Read "Le Petit Prince" and understand it

5) Watch all the Harry Potter films in a row without stopping

6) Meet (*cough*marry*cough*) Charlie McDonnell

7) Knit a blanket

8) Learn to crochet

9) Hike the whole Appalachian Trail

10) Build an igloo out of snow for my children to play in

11) Grow a vegetable garden and eat what I grow

12) Go to...
-Italy
-Paris
-The Great Wall of China
-The gum wall in Seattle
-Disneyland
-Japan
-Antartica
-Yellowstone Park
-King's Cross Station
-India
-The Outback
-London
-Belgium
-Greece
-New Zealand

13) Sing kareoke in a bar where people can hear me

14) Hike El Camino De Santiago again without any taxis or hotels

15) Marry someone I love

16) Go skinny-dipping

17) Finish a book, even if it never gets published

18) Have someone recognize me on the street for something I've done

19) Voice a character in a Disney movie

20) Learn to ice skate backwards

21) Memorize the song "Nations of the World" from the Animaniacs

22) Graduate cum laude

23) See the lights in Alaska

24) Feel proficient enough to confidently put "speaks Italian" on Facebook

25) Don't let Facebook run my life

26) Teach a puppy tricks

27) Appear on a game show

28) Never say "I hate you"

29) Give a mouse a cookie

30) Get my palm read

31) Stop biting my nails

32) Ride on the back of a motorcycle (but not on the highway)

33) Meet Darren Criss in Harry Potter World

34) Eat food that I am scared to try

Guy Who Can't Take A Hint

I pretty much fail at male-female interactions. For some reason, none of the boys I find cute or funny or smart ever seem to like me, whereas the creepers are all up on this. But I'm not here to rant about my lack-of-a-dating-life as a whole, but rather about one individual guy. The Asian.

Our neighbors were having an end of the year party before exams last semester, so we went over. We'd been to a few parties there before and recognized a lot of the faces so it was a pretty relaxed environment. But there were still a couple of people I didn't know, such as The Asian.

I didn't think anything of him. Honestly. I wasn't attracted to him, but he seemed friendly enough and joined into our conversations, but I didn't pay him any mind except to note that he was the only Asian at the party. 

(As an aside here I think I should mention that for some reason Asian unnerve me. And I mean that in the least racist way possible. I don't think Asians are weird or that they are beneath me--I love them! I want to go to Japan more than I want to go to Ireland! But they still unnerve me. If I wanted to be analytical, I would say it had something to do with my Catholic school education until 8th grade, which meant that I never met an Asian until high school. But I don't want to be analytical.)

Anyway, I hardly even noticed The Asian. He was so under my radar, in fact, that "The Asian" isn't a psuedonym. I really can't remember his name. But I that doesn't mean he didn't notice me, cause he did. Quite a lot.

He spent the whole night trying to strike up a one-on-one conversation with me, which I politely deflected hoping he'd take the hint. He didn't, but I chocked that up to alcohol and moved on. Then he made me his "date" in Kings (Paste Spiel About The Dangers Of Underage Drinking Here). Okay, whatever. Then he started going on and on about how much I was drinking and how I was drinking him under the table. 

Just to clarify, I don't drink that much. I hardly ever go to parties; I only went to 6 parties my whole sophomore year--they're just not my thing. Especially because I don't like beer or shots. I pretty much only do mixed drinks, so I'm a kind of high-maintenance drinker. I usually have 3-4 mixed drinks a night and I've never woke up hungover from it. So I'm not exactly Ms. Alcoholic, but I'm not a lightweight either. 

The punch at this party was weak. I mean, really weak. So instead of having 3-4 drinks I had more like 5-6. The Asian kept talking about how I must drink all the time and that I'm probably a partier and that I'm drinking him under the table and that I can really hold my own and what's my gpa?

Are you kidding me? Not only is it a bummer to have this guy constantly telling me I'm practically an alcoholic, but he wants to talk about my GPA? At a party? Where I'm trying to relax before exam week and the last thing I want on my mind is my fucking GPA? And seriously, it's not my fault that he's such a lightweight he's drunk after 3 cups of the weakest party juice I've ever tasted. What a pansy.

But whatever. It gets late, my roomies and I stumble next door to go to bed. I've changed into my pajamas and am brushing my teeth when someone knocks on the door. Whitney goes to answer it and then comes back holding in laughter (really hard when you're drunk, btw) and says that The Asian and our friend Phil are at the door and they want to talk to me. Julia immediately falls to the floor laughing while I try and spit my toothpaste in the sink instead of letting it dribble down my shirt. I don't succeed.

So I go to the door in my snowflake-pajama bottoms and humongous t-shirt. The boys say hello, and then Phil asks if The Asian can have my number.

Whatthefuck.

He can't even ask me himself? He has to get his friend to ask? There is an audience? A combination of booze-impaired judgement and Phil's presence has me giving him my number. Then it gets awkward. Phil comes forward and gives me a hug goodnight and then I shut the door, punch Whitney for not saying I was already asleep, and go to bed. It wasn't until the next morning that I realized The Asian probably wanted a hug too and that I basically just slammed the door in their faces, but whatever. I figured that was the end of it. He was so drunk it wasn't likely he would text me anyway, right?

WRONG

Two nights later at four o'clock in the morning he texts: heyeyyy

I don't respond, and the next morning he texts again and apologizes. I text back "it's fine"

Now, let's have an exercise, shall we? Come on, it'll be fun. I'm going to put below the basics of how our conversation went down, and I want you to tell me how many times this guy was dropped on his head as a baby.

The Asian: Hey, sorry I texted you so late last night lol how're you? 

Me: It's fine

The Asian: Ok haha how are you? you didn't come over for breakfast after the party, were you

hungover?

Me: No

The Asian: haha wow I'm impressed you can really hold your own lol I'm not gonna lie Phil pretty much had to babysit me the next morning lol

Me: NO RESPONSE

THE NEXT DAY

The Asian: Hey! How are you? lol lol

Me: fine

REPEAT FOR SEVERAL DAYS

The Asian: Hey haha we should grab lunch or something hahaha

Me: I'm actually pretty busy with exams coming up

The Asian: Haha okay okay I totally understand that is stressful what about after exams are finished lol we could eat 

Me: Thank you, but I'm leaving on Wednesday right after my last exam

The Asian: Aww bummer lol I guess the plan from here would be to stay in touch over the summer and hang out next semester. lol I hope you have a great summer and I'll talk to you soon!!!

Me: Thank you, have a good summer too.

I know that I come off as slightly bitchy in these text message convos, but with exams and my internship messing up and planning for studying abroad next semester I didn't have time to deal with tip-toeing around his feelings.

Now, I don't know about y'all, but what I took away from that was that I was not interested. I was very curt in my replies, didn't continue the conversation if there was a way out, and politely excused myself from his date offer. I expected him to save his pride and drop it, never to hear from him again.

Summer starts and I get a new phone. Rather than going to Verizon to get my contacts transferred, I like to do it manually because it gives me a chance to delete all the unimportant/old numbers that I never use anymore. His was one of the ones to go.

I get a text "hey" from a number with a Clemson area code. I ignore it, because I figure if they really want to talk to me they'll text me again and then I'll worry about asking who they are and putting them in my new phone. Two days later they text again saying "hey there :)" I respond with "Hello, I recently got a new phone, who is this?" Guess who it is.

I didn't respond again after that and finally expected him to drop it. I'm starting to think I expect to much of him. Here's how it went down. These texts are word-for-word with the exception of his name.

The Asian: Hey

TWO DAYS LATER

The Asian: Hey there :)

Me: Hello. I recently got a new phone, who is this?

The Asian: Oh ha its no prob im sorry. Its Jake, Asian guy ha

TWO DAYS LATER

The Asian: This is Trudy right?

TWO DAYS LATER

The Asian: Hey

The Asian: Hey there

FOUR DAYS LATER

The Asian: Hey

If he texts me again I'm just going to have to be brutally straight with him, cause this is ridiculous. You think I'm being obvious, right? I'm not leading him on--or at least I haven't since that initial giving him my number thing. Any advice on how to say a straight "I'm not interested" without sounding like a complete bitch?

But on the other hand, who cares? I'm going to Italy next semester. It's not like Im gonna see him again, right? Right? Please say I'm right.

Obligatory and Exhausted Post

Quick Update:

• The internship is going...okay. It is kind of boring so far, and all of the interesting information is Top Secret so I'm not learning anything juicy. But I'm being paid. I'm being paid. Repeating that to myself makes the 10 hour days go faster.
• There is a man at work who is quickly becoming my self-appointed mentor/work father. That or he's flirting with me--I'll keep you posted. Either way I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm an idiot. He talks to me like I'm three. I do not appreciate it. I'm being paid. I'm being paid.
• I've gotten no less than three separate tours of the facility in the past three days.
• I have finished Sherlock and Downton Abbey (more on both to come) and am now watching Heroes.
• I have to drive myself to work tomorrow for the first time--wish me luck. This would make a lot more sense if you knew how terrifying driving is for me. 
• See you Friday, because I am totally getting back on a schedule now. Trust me.

The Lost Gate

I was at a library book sale when I happened upon this book. I'd read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and the sequel Speaker for the Dead last year and loved them both, so I decided to give this one a try. Hey, it's only a dollar, right?

Don't pay more than a dollar for this. Maybe it's just because I loved Ender's Game so much, but The Lost Gate did not meet my expectations. 

Fair warning, this review has SPOILERS

The book is about Danny North, a thirteen-year-old boy who is--you guessed it--different, special, unique. He is a member of the North family, one of several families on Earth that originated from a magical-alien-god race from another planet called Westil. Long ago, the people of Westil came through gates (kind of like portals) created by the rare gatemages and frolicked among us. You probably know them better as every god you've ever heard of, such as Zeus etc. 

The idea of the gods of long ago still being around today isn't exactly unique nowadays. Off the top of my head I can think of American Gods by Neil Gaiman (which blows this shit out of the water) and the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. In fact, the whole book is very un-unique if you ask me. The beginning especially reminded me of a YA book called Graceling by Kristen Cashore. In that book there are also people who have special powers or talents, made distinguishable by the fact that they have different colored eyes. The protagonist of the book is thought to have a killing Grace and is despised (much like Danny is despised for being drekka) but in the end it turns out she had a survival Grace, which is a supremely awesome thing. Read The Lost Gate and you will find very similar ideas.

Anyway, as long as the magical-alien-gods in The Lost Gate had a way back to Westil, they remained powerful. But a gatemage, Loki, mysteriously closed off all the gates leading back to Westil, stranding everyone and weakening their powers over time. Ever since then, the families have promised to kill any gatemages they come across to prevent further disaster.

Danny is a smart, precocious, and seemingly useless boy. He is the only son of the two leaders of the North family, but rather than being a great mage like his parents, he isn't even able to make a clant. (You are probably wondering what a clant is. To answer your question, as far as I can tell it is a golem. If you are wondering what a golem is, you should google it.) Everyone looks down on him because they assume he is a drekka (someone without mage capabilities), but oh-so-conveniently forget that one of the signs of a gatemage is that they are unable to produce a clant. They also show a great affinity for languages (which Danny has demonstrated by showing off in school) and like to play pranks (again, Danny has made this obvious). So I don't really understand why it comes as such a surprise that Danny is a gatemage, but whatevs.

Anyway, Danny flees, and the book basically tells the story of how he comes to learn about and control his gatemagery while on the run from his apparently brutal family. He meets friends and enemies, but mostly friends. Actually, one of my main problems with the book is the marked lack of trouble for Danny. Sure, he keeps thinking about the constant threat of his family finding and killing him, but they never do. Not even close. Years pass and he has no encounters with his family. Plenty of other people find him, sure, but they miraculously don't want to kill him. They followed him to help him. I think my English teacher would call this a lack of stakes.

The book as a whole feels rushed. The layout is odd, in that we pass so much time with Danny, actual time, like years, that aren't covered in scene in the book. Maybe it's just me, but because so much of Danny's life was in summary, I didn't get to see him interact enough with people. Or at least I wanted more interactions, because that's where I really learn about the characters. Instead we just get a sentence like: "Danny trained with the Silverman's for three years without getting anywhere." And then the Silverman duo go from contemplating whether or not to kill him to getting teary-eyed when he calls them "mom" and "dad." That was just one example of where the passage of time was too much of a leap for me. Was that a pun? Almost, right? hahaha I'm so punny.

I didn't much care for the protagonist, Danny North/Silverman/Stone. Most of the time his jokes and smart-mouth came off as obnoxious (which Card does point out, so I guess I can't really blame him for) instead of funny. Like that kid in the back of the class you is always cracking jokes when you just want to punch him so he'll shut up and let the teacher talk already. I would say he is funny about 20% of the time. But when I did find him funny, I cracked up, man. Lemme tell ya. My favorite line in the book was probably:

"I don't want to go to high school for the classes, I want to go to high school because that's where they keep the girls."

In fact, the whole concept of Danny wanting to go to high school was one of the most interesting aspects of the book for me, and I wish it was explored more. It could have taken up its own book in this series, rather than all the awkward time jumps happening--but whatever. I found it especially charming that Danny prepared for high school by ready YA fantasy lit. I did not like how Danny handled high school. He promises himself he is going to keep his head down and just get a normal, high school experience, and then creates a gate his very first day that heals people's acne and bullshit like that. Not exactly subtle, Dan.

I admire and enjoy reading about uber-intelligent and analytical characters, such as Andrew "Ender" Wiggen and Lisbeth Salander. But Danny's intelligence combined with his sense of superiority and obnoxious sense of humor that often ignored people's feelings was the opposite of endearing.

This was so frustrating because I know that Card can write. Ender's Game was fantastic, and the protagonist, Ender, was a precocious, intelligent, analytical child just like Danny, except he was actually likeable. I don't know here Card went wrong with this one, because I know he can do better.

The ending is a great example of how Card could have done better. In the last chapter, after Danny has managed to create a Great Gate and defeat the Gate Thief, there is a reunion between Danny and the North family, where we see his parents for the first time. I think Card should have left this encounter to a later book. Well, what he really should have done is introduce us to the parents before Danny ran away so we can actually form an unbiased opinion of them and see how dangerous they are instead of just hearing it secondhand. Then he should have given us a confrontation earlier in the book where Danny had to escape from the North family scouts that finally caught up with him, and the final encounter should have been saved for a sequel.

I think one of the main problems that doesn't work for the book is how powerful Danny is. He has this superpower so that if he ever needs to escape someone he just pops somewhere else and locks the gate so nobody can follow. He has a natural affinity for languages so he can understand ancient texts and speak to everybody in their native tongue. He can heal himself every time he goes through a gate. He is extraordinarily intelligent. And, for some unexplained reason, he is the most powerful gatemage ever heard of. He can create so many more gates than normal people, and without breaking a sweat. Why is he so powerful when the magical-alien-god race is supposed to be weakening? Who knows.

The Lost Gate was also predictable. I guessed that the Greek Girl (Hermia) was good and powerful from the moment we saw her. I guessed who Wad was. All in all, not many surprises to be had.

I would not recommend this book. If I find the sequel at another booksale for a dollar, I'll probably buy it, but not before trying to haggle the price down to 50 cents.

The Millennium Trilogy

I recently read the Millennium Trilogy and would like to inform y'all that I very much enjoyed all three books and would highly recommend them. Seriously, five stars. Go to your nearest library or bookstore or neighbor's house and find these books, because they are captivating and oh so good. I know I'm a bit late to the boat as far as this trilogy is concerned. My mother read the series when they first came out and loved them, but I have some problems with reading books that my mother read first. Especially if sex is mentioned AT ALL. It's just...icky. But I finally caved and I'm so glad I did!

I'm going to try and do this review Spoiler-Free in part because it's hard for me to wrap my head around the scope of these novels at the moment (who needs sleep?) and also because I know there are still plenty of people out there who are planning on reading them, and I don't want to ruin the surprise.

I would like to start off by saying how surprising it is that I like these books, because Larsson has a...unique, style of writing. Let's call it unique. For some reason, he feels the need to be super detail-oriented, going as far as to name what kind of cell-phone people have and mentioning every time someone has a cigarette. I was able to look past it.

So, book one, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I'm not going to lie to you, the book starts out slowly. One of the hardest parts of the first book for me was that Larrsson introduced me to Lisbeth Salander, gave me just enough of her quirky-yet-lovable personality to get me hooked, and then focused on this Blomkvist character a lot. And I hadn't developed any warm fuzzy feelings towards Blomkvist yet. To be honest, he's still not my favorite character, but I've grown to tolerate him more, you could say. It took me until literally half-way through the book until I started enjoying it. I usually don't persevere that much, but I just kept thinking that a book this famous, a book that my voracious-reader mother had recommended, just had to get better. And it did. The suspense (and presence of Lisbeth Salander) in the second half of the novel really brought the book to life for me.

The Girl who Played with Fire was my favorite of the series. In this book, Lisbeth is accused of murder. While there is plenty of evidence against her, Blomkvist is unconvinced and starts his own investigation to prove her innocence. What made me enjoy this book so much was how fast-paced it was--I literally read it in a day. Also--no spoilers--but the ending was freaking fantastic.

I thought The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was interesting because, rather than having a completely different plot as in the first two books, the third installment deals with the aftereffects of book two. I've never read a John Grisham novel, but Hornet's Nest is what I imagine one reads like. It was essentially a courtroom drama--but a courtroom drama with super-hacker Lisbeth Salander kicking ass and taking names. This book is the main reason I've felt the desire to spy on everyone recently. I want to learn how to hack computers and tap phones and find out shit about people and you have no idea how much I want to tail somebody. Anybody, just give me someone to follow around sneakily. I had a similar desire after reading Harriet the Spy, but that's a story for another time.

I also found this book a little odd, because we already knew so much. Some characters would be completely confused about why something happened or how and I'd be sitting in my bed screaming "No! Talk to Bublanski! He found out about that last chapter!" There is a marked lack of communication between the characters in the book, marked by the fact that everybody feels the need to turn their cellphones off all the fucking time. By the time the trial rolls around at the end of the book, we already know everything both sides are going to present and can deduce how it'll all play out. Strange, yeah? I guess that's just an example of how these novels are so character driven as well as having engaging plots. It's Lisbeth I was reading for.

Lisbeth really is a fantastic character. She is a kick-ass girl who should be frightening but instead manages to be endearing. Despite her prickly personality, Lisbeth has managed to make many loyal friends--some of them in ridiculously high places, like Paolo Roberto, a famous boxer. Normally a character with multiple tattoos and a promiscuous sex life would make me uncomfortable, but it works for her. The sex life doesn't work for Michael Blomkvist. For some reason he just rubbed me the wrong way--probably because I was having protective feelings toward Lisbeth and her poor, broken heart.

Unfortunately, Stieg Larsson passed away shortly after the publication of the third book. This is especially disappointing because--get this--he was planning to write TEN BOOKS!!! Can you believe that? So much more was going to happen and we will never know what! I've had some time to cool down, but when I first found this out minutes after finished Hornet's Nest I was in a rage. But, big picture, the books are surprisingly well rounded off since there were more planned. The books left the characters in a good place, and all the strings from the 2nd and 3rd book story arc were tied up nicely--but not too nicely, as my English teachers would say.

It's harder to do this without spoilers than I thought, but I hope I was able to at least give you the impression that I loved them and think you should read them for yourself. That's what I was mainly going for.

In other news, I start my internship Monday. Wish me luck. I went to a pathetically small used book sale at a library today (a different library from my usual) and only came away with one book, which compelled me to buy more expensive books at a Books-A-Million later in the day. I can't wait until I'm making money.

Sitting in the Library

I'm back at the library again. There are people around and it's making me self-concious. People. Ugh.

I meant to work more on the Top Ten Disney Heroines list yesterday, but instead I spent the whole day (literally) reading The Girl who Played with Fire. I'm on The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest now, and liking it a lot. I expect I'll finish sometime tonight, but my cousin, Elizabeth, is coming into town tonight so I guess there's no guarantees. She is a year older than me, only a few months really, and we have been very close since childhood. She was supposed to come in last night but ended up having to work so she couldn't. She'll be here tonight though, and I'm looking forward to a break in the monotony of country living. She'll be someone good to talk to.

My cousin Erich's "band" came yesterday to practice. I didn't meet the boys, but according to Elizabeth they leave much to be desired. Their music is interesting, in that there are no lyrics and discernible beat. I spent the time watching the Legend of Korra episode that I had missed, and I think that it was time well spent.

I still haven't explored the library yet. The tables where I sit are right behind the magazines, a surprisingly small YA fiction section, and the manga racks. To the right looks to be a children's section. At least thats what I can gather from all the blonde mothers leading their squabbling children over there. I don't think I'll venture into the children's section--this library is much to busy for such an embarrassing action.

Across from me are movies and cds. No dvds. To the left are glass rooms with desks and I heard the woman at the information desk say the nonfiction section was that way.

From the look of the library you would think it would be two floors, but as far as I can tell it isn't. It makes me wonder what is happening beyond the ceiling above my head though. Is it just a vacuum of empty space? Storage for out of date books? The old, physical card catalogue system? The pickled corpses of unruly children? Who knows.

A family of geese is playing outside of the window I'm looking out of. How charming.

I'm afraid I don't really have much to say. I just wanted to let the world know that the Heroines List was coming soon. Thank you for your patience.

Let's Catch Up

I've been working on a Top Ten Disney Heroines post to get back in the swing of things, but I've decided to do an update-y type post first. I told myself when I started I'm Falling With Style that I wouldn't get to in depth in my personal life, but I think we can all agree that that has gone down the drain.

The Heroines list is taking much longer than I anticipated (How do you judge them, really? They're all so great!) and the fact that my summer abode is without wifi isn't making it go any faster. As I mentioned before I have an internship for the summer. I won't tell you doing what, except that it's for the government, which isn't nearly as exciting as it sounds. I'm living with my aunt and uncle for the summer in Middle of Nowhere, Virginia. I've never thought of myself as being much of a city girl--my biggest fear is crossing streets--but I will admit to being a little flummoxed out here in the country. There are cows everywhere.

Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful. There is so much green, and  I can see the mountains, and there are ever-present popcorn clouds in the sky. It's lovely. But I miss the water, the ocean, and I miss my family. I  won't see them again until August, and then that is only for a week before I go off to Italy. Is this adulthood?

I have about a week and a half before I start my internship, so for right now I'm just...chilling. My aunt works most of the time, my lovely cousin who is the same age as me is spending her summer taking classes at college, and the younger boy cousin is busy studying for his last week of exams as a high school student. My uncle works from home, so I constantly hear him talking about who knows what. Sometimes I think he sells cars, other times cds. I don't really know what he does. The gist is that I'm alone most of the day, which is fine. I'm a naturally introverted person, so I've actually been enjoying the rest. It does lead to awkward situations though.

My aunt worries that I'm bored. I don't know how to politely tell her that she doesn't need to worry and set up play dates and horseback riding lessons without straight up saying that I don't mind not being around people all the time.

Have you ever noticed that the first time you talk after an extended period of silence your voice is scratchy and unintelligible until you cough? Yeah, introvert problems.

So I've been doing a lot of reading. I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and have since moved on to The Girl who Played with Fire. My mom got me the trilogy for my birthday--20, don't you know. expect a more detailed post on the trilogy as a whole when I'm done, but for now just know that I'm reading them.

I'm at the library right now. I haven't ventured out of the house much, but I went to Walmart on Monday and the library today. It's a beautiful library.  I say that now, but I haven't even explored it yet. I just walked in, found a comfy chair by an open window facing a pond with an outlet close by, and sat. I'm in a corner right behind the magazines and the graphic novels--not much traffic. There's one man at a table close by to me, but he's working, Maybe studying as he's going back to school or something. I don't mind him, and the view is great.

So, what else have I been doing in my extended absence? The answer is: not much. But I've had fun. Here's a little bulleted list. Judge if you want; I'd judge me too.

• I watched seven seasons of The Office. I enjoyed it, but it rarely made me laugh out loud (lol) like Friends still does on the ninth go around. I mainly watched it to procrastinate studying for exams and to make use of my Netflix account. I don't think I'll bother to watch season 8 (not on Netflix) anytime soon.
• I've purged my closet. Half my clothes are now on their way to Goodwill in preparation to make room for more "business appropriate" attire. Am I...growing up?
• I had a lovely, quiet birthday spent mostly with a recalcitrant cat named Tiger.
• Our iguana, Marley, has passed. My father almost immediately replaced him with a ball python whose name is Monty Juan Carlos Javier. My little brother Andrew was in charge of naming him. I've held Monty, and he isn't as scary as you would think until you see him strangle his dinner to death.
• Grady Bubba (my turtle) has also passed. I left him with my roommate, Whitney, over spring break and he died. She replaced him, which I told her afterwards was unnecessary, but now I've grown rather fond of Sadie Lou. She's much more active that Grady ever was, and eats almost twice as much.
• I drove on the highway for the first time ever, and no one died, so I count that as an accomplishment. Driving scares me. Pretty much anything to do with cars scares me. If I wanted to be analytical, I would guess it had something to do with the minor car crash my family and I got in when I was younger. But I don't really want to be analytical.
• I am going to watch Downton Abbey next, followed by Sherlock. Any suggestions after that?
• I am watching The Legend of Korra, the Avatar sequel, as it airs, although I'm behind an episode now that I don't have wifi. I plan to write an in depth post on the show when the season is finished, but for now let's just say that the fact that I'm still watching it speaks for itself...but so does the fact that I haven't gone crazy trying to find wifi to watch the latest episode. Do with that what you will. I watch the reviewer sawyer7mage who reviews every episode. I both agree with his opinions and find him attractive. He also reviews Naruto and other shows like that, but they don't hold my interest. I'm strictly LoK.
• I got all A's last semester. Be proud.

And I believe that is enough for now. I'm sorry for my leave of absence, but then again, I'm not. It was rejuvenating.