In Review

Just a timeline, sort of, and nothing very shocking or important. Very similar to all of your years, I'm sure.

JANUARY: Won 1st place at Trivia for the very first time; began to feel not-great; had too much APES work
FEBRUARY: Began playing softball; became very upset; got into college; feelings of sadness began to be replaced by feelings of restlessness
MARCH: Felt monumentally paranoid; was rejected from college; completed a very bullshitty (albeit successful) UGA Honors program application thanks in part to Catherine
APRIL: Obtained a car; was convinced by visiting Lindsey that UGA isn't half bad; felt completely changed; got into The Accident whilst rolling houses
MAY: Got all sentimental over Dawson's Creek and Catcher In The Rye; graduated from high school; experienced mammoth Boy Confusion; played a part in Jewish Chuck
JUNE: Watched a lot of Dawson's Creek with the summer group; Butch Walkered at the Variety Playhouse, thereby being exposed to Bain Mattox; missed high school; obtained the fifth Harry Potter book
JULY: Felt right; became legal; college-shopped and oriented myself with UGA; didn't want to go to college
AUGUST: Wanted to go to college; went to college; acclimated self to college
SEPTEMBER: Discovered both SEC football and frat parties; rediscovered Bain Mattox; felt very political
OCTOBER: Had bad experience involving alcohol; missed high school; discovered the joys of music promotion; felt involved momentarily; got lost in Decatur; changed majors
NOVEMBER: Continued being a "groupie"; had "awfulllll" computer problems; thought seriously about transferring; attended a concert alone and things began to look up; saw Billy Bennett in person
DECEMBER: Felt Christmassy; ran away to Charleston; took and passed finals; was bored to tears over winter break.

I'd say something to the effect of, "Oh, but the year's not over yet!" but I'd be lying, because in fact it has been essentially over for a couple of weeks now. These last few hours are just technicalities. I was thinking about writing a blog about my resolutions, but as of right now I have none, and even if I did I don't think this would be the appropriate forum for them. They'd all be the usual, anyway. Eat less; procrastinate less; et cetera. Everyone wants to do things less, it seems, as their New Year's resolutions reflect. I would much prefer to resolve to do something like eat more; procrastinate more. Maybe I'll just make one resolution for the coming year: to be more happy. I suppose that would be to be "happier," but then it doesn't quite incorporate my desire to resolve to do something more. So that's it, then.

(Ahem.) In 2004, I resolve to be more happy.

I hope this is a resolution I can keep.

Bias

I don't want one more person to tell me that the minute I make any money, I'll immediately "come to my senses" and become a Republican. Seriously, how many times am I going to have to listen to that prediction? If that's true, then I hope I never make any money!
Now excuse me. I'm off to go read some more "liberal propaganda." Maybe while I'm at it, I'll go kill some babies, too.

May Your Days Be Merry And Bright!

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on, our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on, our troubles will be miles away

Here we are, as in olden days
Happy golden days gone by
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us
Once more

Through the years, we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now

Bush In 30 Seconds

Ha! Watch this. You might appreciate it.

(Edited to add: For some reason, that one might not be working: try this one. Who knows, maybe they'll both work for you, maybe neither one will.)

Well. This is more fun than I would have anticipated. You do like fun, don't you?

Incidentally, Margaret Cho is coming to UGA in January. I'm not all that familiar with her comedy, actually. Should I go?

Good Tidings To You

Well I feel awfully productive of late, what with all my sleeping 'til one and baking Christmas cookies (the pre-mixed, pre-cut, ready-to-bake kind, of course--musn't over-exert myself) and watching bad teen movies on cable all day. Not to mention the thousands of mini-marathons of Rich Girls that MTV's been running all week. I don't think I'll ever tire of watching Jaime Gleicher make all those faces. Ever. I mean it; they're classic.
The thing is, living at home again has robbed me of any sort of fun, creative, exciting personality I once had. Now I understand why so much of my free time back in high school was consumed by driving aimlessly through Alpharetta listening to music. For some reason, sitting around watching Driven on VH-1 is oh-so-much more exciting while in Athens than while here. Go figure.
But there're only three more days until Christmas Eve (which is my favorite holiday--not Christmas, as you may have guessed)! That thought can tide me over for the next few days.
And by the way, who else is loving this "Smells Like The 90's Weekend" on 99X? Maybe now that they're "New Rock And 90's Alternative" they'll stop sucking so bad. Eh? Maybe.

But The Fire Inside's Delightful

I saw snow! It was snowing! I saw it and it was real live snow, I swear! I was just sitting in my car at the intersection of North Point Parkway and Old Milton when what to my wondering eyes should appear but snowflakes! They were real and there were several. Of course, nobody believes me because it's not snowing now. But I swear it was real! Don't doubt me. It was snow and it was real.
And I finished all my Christmas shopping! And I saw Something's Gotta Give and it was very funny! And so I think I'll go do something Christmassy now...

Anything But Sticking Around

Okay, Alpharetta. That's enough. I'm done with you.
That's right. I've had enough of this place for a good while. It's nice to see old friends (not that I've seen many so far--I'm working on it) and all, but the city itself is tiresome and makes me unhappy. Alpharetta is no good for my self esteem. No good at all. I never feel this bad about myself in Athens, for whatever reason, and thus I'd like school to start back again soon.
Ahem, speaking of school, my grades are up on Oasis already. Well, all but Italian, but there's no question as to whether I got an A in that class, anyway. So I got three A's and two B's and have a 3.57 and therefore will not be losing HOPE and will not be kicked out of the Honors program (two very realistic worries of mine), and for that I am glad. Either scenario would surely end in a swift but painful death at the hands of my parents.
Almost done with Christmas shopping! All that's left is family shopping, which is easy since I make my mother tell me what to get everyone. Apparently all my relatives want Georgia merchandise, so I should have just gotten it all done at the university bookstore, but I forgot. So college-store-at-North-Point-Mall, here I come.
I bought Ryan Adams' Love Is Hell Part I and Part II. I'm almost finished listening to Part I. I like. I don't love. But I like.

"I could be serious, but I am just kidding around
I could be anything, anything but sticking around
Love is hell."

Finisco!

...and I don't have to go home 'til tomorrow...

Between Deaths

So I pounded out my Anthropology final in a good twenty-five minutes. Leaving me almost three hours to worry myself sick about my impending doom regarding Astronomy. Which is lovely, you know. So I sit here in the SLC, surrounded by no one (the entire campus is sleeping--so should I be), sipping my Jittery Joe's Dutch Hot Chocolate (I should probably get over my aversion to coffee, hmm?) and attempting to pour more knowledge about the Jovian planets and interplanetary debris and planetary atmospheres into my brain. It's torture, pure and simple. I would love to just take the damn test and get it over with, even though I'd probably get a C or lower, thus get a C in the class, thus be put on Honors probation, thus get my ass kicked by my parents. So I suppose I'll sit here and study until my final at noon.
While on the subject of parental ass-kickings, there's a chance I might be grounded over Christmas break. Yes, I said grounded. (I know--I thought I was in college, too.) See, my mother called me the other day and one of her questions was regarding our credit card bill--it seemed that there were two temporary charges for two different gas stations in two different cities in one day. Why is this?, she asked. I have no idea, I answered. She said we'll wait until they're permanent and then see if we can "figure things out," but I can figure it out right now--I'm just glad she didn't notice that I actually got gas three times that day. So my point being, there's really no excuse I can come up with for getting gas that many times in one twenty-four hour period, and so I'll probably be backed into a corner and forced to admit that Pennington and I drove to Charleston without telling anyone, saw a concert, and then drove back all night. The "drove back all night" part is what's really going to do me in, and I'm anticipating punishment of some kind, and knowing my parents, forbidding me from going anywhere is probably the method of choice. Parents are ridiculous. If only I'd remembered to pay for the gas in Charleston with cash...
Alright, that's enough procrastinating; I need to go learn. Wish me luck. (Luck!)

Sure To Brighten Finals Week

You may have already seen this before; I found it on a messageboard today and thought it was too clever to not share.

1. Go to Google.

2. Type in one of the following queries in the search box:

--"miserable failure"
--"weapons of mass destruction"
--"French military victories"

3. Instead of clicking "Google Search" click "I'm Feeling Lucky" each time.

4. Enjoy.

Four To Go

Days, that is. Today, tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, and then I'll be on my way home. Of course, I'm split between being excited to see old friends and to be Christmassy and being unenthusiastic about actually being in Alpharetta. I'll likely be making a few trips back to jolly old Athens, and there's been talk of another trip to Charleston, although this time not to see a concert but to see the sights. Yeah, we'll see if that works out. Riiiiight.
My Italian final is over, and while I didn't kick its ass, I think I did a pretty good job of getting the grade that I'd need to keep an A in the class. I'm sad to see that class be over because it's lots of fun, but oh well. So I have the next three days to study non-stop (har har) for my Anthropology and Astronomy finals before first semester is finally over with.
This last month or so has just been so much better than everything that came before it, and I don't quite know why. (It's not that...well, it's not just that, so shuddup.) I'm glad, though, either way. I don't know what my point is, but being happier really makes me like UGA a hell of a lot more.
And now to study. Hah. We'll see how that goes.

Post-Trip

I'm so sleepy. Today has been exhausting, all the way from getting home and collapsing into bed at eight in the morning to wishing I could collapse into bed right now. I just figured I'd do a little recap of yesterday's events:

Six hours in the car on the road from Hell

Running up and down the streets of Charleston taking pictures of everything

Seafood! Because there's an ocean!

Pole-swinging

Being pretty much the only people in the whole bar

NPR-like openers

The show!

Delivering the good-bye gifts (Ash! How can he leave us?!)

More caffeine pills than I can count

Legitimate fear of dying on the dark, foggy, rainy drive home

That about does it. Tomorrow I'll be learning to speak Italian all day for my 7-10 pm Italian final (which, for reasons unknown to me, is in the Forest Resources Building). Ho bisogno a studiare, ma lo e molto noioso.

ROADTRIP!!!

Charleston!!! Charleston Charleston Charleston!!!
Bye Athens. See you in the morning.

Louisianans Smell

Well, Louisiana is officially State #2 on my list of states that could sink into the ocean never to be seen again for all I care. Louisiana, you're on my shit list.
Watching the game (well, the second half, as I was alone in my dorm room for the first half, which is considerably less fun) was fun though. And while that doesn't quite make up for the 34-13 beating we got from LSU (Billy made every kick he attempted, thankyouverymuch), it at least comes close.
I have a paper to write today that I haven't started yet, a five-to-seven-pager, and since I'm a lazy bum, I'll probably be up into the wee hours trying to finish it. This will mark the first of a three day period of Very Little Sleep, for which I'm excited. In any case, it's looking to be a good next few days.

Freezing Rain And Show

Of course last night was another Bain Mattox show. And so of course I'll be writing a little bit about it on here. What else? Where else?
Full Fathom Five opened. I'd heard such great things about them, but they left me less than impressed. I mean, they were entertaining enough, but all their songs sounded alike. And it didn't help anything that they announced, "Okay, this'll be our last song," and went on to play a song that lasted two hours. Well, okay, it was more like seven or eight minutes. But it seemed like two hours.
So then after a little bit, Bain went on and rocked the place. It really is great when they play the Georgia Theater, and my only qualm was that they had to cut two songs because they ran out of time, even though Cowboy Mouth wound up playing for eighteen hours. I heard quite a few people saying good things about BM (people who were there for the other bands and had never heard of Bain, I mean), and apparently quite a few people bought the CD. They have t-shirts now! So I have a t-shirt now! It's cute. I love it.
Cowboy Mouth was the headliner and I'd heard they were amazing live. Well, yeah, they were awfully energetic. And they played well. And the crowd was into it. But I just couldn't really get into the music. Plus I was exhausted by then (they played for forever). But eventually they did finish and we were off into the freezing cold and rainy night. Freezing!
I know, I know, I'm no Ashleigh and Athens is no Boston. But today was cold and wet and made me grumpy. Boo bad weather.
But yay busy weekend! Friday I may be making the trip into Alph'retta to see me some "Steel Magnolias" (yeah? yeah?), Saturday I'll be making the trip into Hotlanta for another flyer-hanging (this time for a show I can't go to, but eh well), then back to Athens to watch me some SEC Championship game, and then on Tuesday...well, I don't want to jinx anything. So we'll see about Tuesday. Well either way, busy busy busy!

Boo

I don't think there's going to be a 99Xmas Soundtrack Volume IV! Or at least not this year. I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. Oh, bah humbug.

A Request

Click here and vote for Bain Mattox, please. It would be much appreciated. Let's win, shall we?