Norton 3.0

Class is over and I’m back at work. I’ve spent the past three hours working on my floppy disk project. Doing impotant things like preserving Norton Antivirus 3.0 onto thumbdrives so that…important antiques aren’t destroyed? I’m not exactly sure why. The library here works on a save everything we might need it again someday basis. Which isn’t always bad, we have some neat bibles from the 1500s.

I dreamt I was leaving for College last night. This time to a state school out east. To get to the school, which was on an island, I had to sail. I showed up at the pier and got aboard an ancient looking sail boat. Crystal apparently would be steering it. My new roomies, Marisol, a girl, and a blonde headed guy who apparently owned the boat got on board too. The guy’s name was Winston and I never learned the name of the other girl because she was obnoxiously girly and spoiled. When we got out into the ocean Crystal shouted at me to untie various ropes aorund the boat that would unfurl the sails. I untied one too many and a corner of one sail came loose and started whipping aorund everywhere in the wind, but we were already going so fast that Crystal said not to worry about it.

I was sad when we got to school around dusk. I had really enjoyed the boat ride. Winston and I were friends and he said he’d take me sailing whenever I wanted. I got to school and went to a mixer that night. I ran into James and a new girl he was dating. Strangly I didn’t feel weird about it and I wasn’t even mad at him. I talked to his girlfriend for a while and she was really nice.

When it got late, I went to the house my roomies and I were renting. it was a small condo on the beach with four bedrooms and four baths. I spent some time trying to pick a bathroom, which was pointless because prissy girl had staked out hers and Marisol claimed the one I wanted and the third was really dark and creepy, but Winston said he’d take it and I could use the big one in the back. I think maybe it was his family’s house we were renting.

In spite of how well the day had gone for me, and how happy I was with the friends I was making, I found that I wanted to get away from everyone and more than anything I wanted to go sailing again and just be out on the ocean far away from school and everyone else. But Winston, I found out, had left for the weekend. I was immensely unhappy when I learned how long I’d have to wait to get out and then Dad showed up with Kara.

The three of us got in a small fishing boat and rowed to a very near, very small island surrounded by multi colored lillies. We got out at a small cottage and dad said it was where mimi lived and we ought to pick her a bouquet before going in. I got the feeling that Kara and I were much younger than college aged then; Dad was much taller. We picked an elaborate bouqet but I woke up before we entered the house.

Sex Therapy

I’m halfway through my intensive course and I really like it even if class does go all day. My teacher is really cool and class is pretty laid back. We’ve learned about hormone problems that effect fetuses. One that really surprised me is a hormone imbalance that causes male babies to be born with a shallow (false) vagina and a penis so small that it is mistaken for a large clitoris. So everyone just assumes the child is a girl until the guy hits puberty and the vagina goes away and the penis grows. The book was pretty optimistic about the psychological outcome of cases like this which I don’t understand. I think the child would find suddenly growing a penis a little upsetting.

I also found out that birth control wasn’t legal in the States til 1964 which might explain why I have so many uncles. But even then it was only legally prescribed to married couples. Single women couldn’t get birth control til 1978. I am continuously surprised by advances that I take for granted just because they’ve been around since I was born.

The downside of the short course is that I’m exhausted. I finally gave up today and started a caffeine regiment. I’ll fall asleep in class without it and once it wears off the chest pains will also serve to keep me awake so its a win-win. Joel will be here in two days and then vacation!

Dear Friend

I think it is good that we not speak to each other, but because I know you are wondering and because it really is how I feel: I am sorry for all those things I said. And yes, I miss you too.

Skeletons

I dreamt I was a boy about 8-10 years old and stuck in a fortress. I worked as some sort of servant most of the time but occasionally I was used to predict the future. Every once in a while I would have flashes of the future, but I couldn’t control it. The fortress was in the middle of a famine. Everything outside was brown and dry. It didn’t usually rain but it started one day and the minute the rain hit me I started seeing visions of horses and a blonde girl. Another worker saw me and reported it to my employers who took me into a weird part of the tower. I saw the blonde girl inside the room they took me to. I do not think she was a worker because she had a very nice dress on. Her name was Winnie. She had a lot of weird powers and they were trying to get her to focus my visions. I wouldn’t tell them what I was seeing. I hated the people who owned the fortress, they were cruel. Winnie didn’t seem to like them either.

The storm outside started getting a lot worse and the two men in the room had to leave  quite suddenly to go tend to some damage the storm was causing. They didn’t seem to know that Winnie disliked them.After they left, Winnie, who I knew had seen everything in my visions grabbed my hand and started running for the stables. When we got there, we picked to black horses. Winnie chose I mare and I chose its brother who was a lot taller.

The storm was only getting worse as we left the fortress but I still heard people riding after us, more for Winnie than me probably. I saw Winnie start pulling her hair out and tying it into knots. When she finished the last knot a huge river of water came flooding onto the plain we were riding across and it swept away the riders behind us.

After wards Winnie and I found a place in a forest (if you can call a bunch of dry dead trees a forest) to live. Shortly after a hunter came and lived with us. I spent most of my time riding my horse and Winnie ended up pregnant from the hunter. One day a long time later I rode my horse across an almost none existent creek. There was still some water in it and when my horse stomped into it it splashed up onto my foot.

I had a vision of the room in the tower. The two men were talking and in a chair in the corner of the room was a slumped figure covered with a veil. The two men were talking about killing Winnie. I wasn’t sure how they would do this since they didn’t know where we were. They moved towards the slumped figure int he chair and pulled the veil back draping it over the top of her head. It was a shriveled old skeleton, except that it still had paper thin flesh on it, but I was certain it was just petrified. I’d never seen something so old and dried out before. There were a few strands of blonde hair sticking out from under the veil but no eyes in the sockets. The kept calling the skeleton Winnie and their plan was to kill it in order to kill her. I still didn’t believe this could be done since there was nothing living about the skeleton. Then one of the men pulled the rest of the veil off of the skeleton exposing her brain which was still alive looking in a juicy kind of way. Her skull was missing. It was just an exposed brain. Then the other man picked up an awl and stabbed it into the brain. I saw blood start pouring over the skeletons face and more disturbing, the skeleton moaned and lifted its head up to look at me. Or that is the feeling I got even though the sockets were empty.

I jumped off my horse and started running back to the camp but in the process I landed in the creek and had a flash of riders coming and hunting us down. I saw them kill the hunter. I started running for Winnie and the camp but she met me halfway and fell off of her horse. I could tell the hunter must already be dead. She looked at me for a moment so that she could see my visions. I asked her if their plan would really work and she just smiled. She yanked some hair from her head and started tying it into knots again. Then she told me to get on her horse because there was no telling where mine was. I reached down to grab her hand and help her up but she jerked quite suddenly and blood started pouring out of the top of her head. I could hear the riders getting close to us. Winnie slumped onto the ground and then smiled. She tied the last knot and this time it looked like someone dumped an entire ocean on us. The water yanked me off my horse and carried me a very long way. When I finally was able to scramble onto dry land again. I was myself and a girl. Then I woke up.

China and Gasoline

I dreamt I was leaving Oakridge with Dad, Kara, And Jeremiah. It was summertime and dad stopped at the corner of beltway south at what looked like a massive street fair. It was night time and he said he wanted to stop by a party to talk to some guys. He pulled p by some bg white circus tents and we went inside tot he party. As soon as Dad got inside he told me that we’d be heading home soon and asked me to do a favor for him. He pulled out two concrete hollow balls and asked me to take them to the corner and fill the insides up with gasoline. I felt a little panicky because it made me think of my senior year when dad asked me to fill the car up in Tuscola and I couldn’t figure out how to work the old pumps at Lantrips because Kara and Shad had alays filled my car up for me. Dad was gone though before i could say anything so I turned and walked to the corner.

At the corner of Bletway under some more massive circus tents was row after row of really old gasoline pumps. Several people were there filling up their cars and it took me a little bit to find a more secluded pump. I couldn’t figure out how to work it. I saw Kara and Jeremaih both at one point but they were running through the pumps too quickly for me to ask them for help filling up my little make shift bombs. Finally I gave up and went back to find Dad only to see him puling out of the fair in the white pick-up. I found Kara then and she asked if I’d finished my job and I said no. She said dad had figured as much and had gone on ahead home and said we could come whenever. I felt slightly irritated at having to go home with a stranger but then Jeremiah pulled up in that old blue car he used to have. He and Kara mocked me the whole way home for not being able to use the gasoline pumps. (For the record, I think this makes me less of a delinquint than those two).

I was slightly aware I was dreaming at this point because of all the anachronisms. Jeremiah gave us a ride back to Tuscola, but when we got back to the house it looked strange. Mom had covered it all with a canvas tent and hung banners and prayer flags all over the place. You couldn’t even really tell there was a house underneath. Crystal came out of the house and I was surprised to see her. I thought she was supposed to be in Africa. I asked her where dad was because the concrete balls were getting heavy. She looked at me funny and said dad had moved out. I asked if any one knew where too but know one did. I set the concrete balls by what would have been the car port if not for the canvas flaps hanging over it.

We all went inside and mom said hi really quickly before rushing out to go work up at the high school. I went to the kitchen to get a drink but nothing came out of the faucet. Crystal told me that Mom had had the water shut off to save money. Crystal also said she was leaving in May to go to China and that she had at least gotten Mom to agree to run the air conditioner til then. In May after Crystal left, mom planned to knock out all of the walls and just live in the tent to save money on the heating and air bills. I decided I was probably going to leave in May with Crystal but I wasn’t sure where to go. Then I woke up.

Countdown

School is out in 8 days! I can’t wait. I’m actually excited about being in summer school just because it means new teachers. I’m taking Sex therapy and Group therapy this summer. I am 23 now (in case certain parental units have forgotten ) This April is the first April in 6 years that nothing bad has happened (knock on wood).

I teach English once a weak to Spanish speakers. Its been a lot of fun and recently I’ve gotten to know my class better. We get together once a week to read the Bible in English, though usually we just talk in English for over half of that time, until Jonathon peeks in on us (My students are all Christians so I don’t feel guilty about not trying to push the Bible at them more. Plus I think its easier to read another language than it is to speak it so its better that we practice speaking too). After class we go to the Cracker Barrel and then after that they have been teaching me to dance bachata (not the skanky version) and salsa. I look stupid doing both but its still a lot of fun. They offered to teach me lambada but I would look like a fool trying to move my hips like that so I keep saying no. My roomie says everyone in Mexico dances and if you can’t you are considered a loser. American society should set up social stigmas like that I think.

Memphis is starting to grow on me. I still don’t want to spend the rest of my life here, but there are a lot of interesting things to do. The picture I put on this post is of Corky’s barbeque. All the barbeque places here serve barbeque nachos which sound disgusting but are actually really good. This place has been visited by a lot of wierd celebrities and presidents. Joel is the blonde guy sitting next to me. Its kinda a wierd picture of him and not quite what he looks like really but it gives you an idea.

Random: Washington state did a study and found that 50% of people can’t interpret a weather forcast. If you tell them that there is a 20% chance of rain, they assume that it means it will rain on 20% of the geographical area or only 20% of the day. I think alot of weather forecsaters are going to  go hang themselves when they see that. Still, the statistic seems too high. I mean, I think Americans are generally dumb, but I had a little more faith in them than that.

Suns

I went to watch the Grizzlies play the Suns last night with Joel and some of his friends. Strangely the Suns lost and I’m not sure why they would do that unless they are just being spiteful and trying to keep Memphis from gettng any good draft picks. It was a good game though. A lot of charging and Steve Nash was fun to watch.

I am working on my last bg paper for the semester. I have three little ones after this. One of my two professors has succeeded in diminishing my cohort down to three people for next year: me, my roomie, and Rach (who is thinking of dropping out too). Hopefully the Dean will take some action after he gets the student reviews in for this semester.

hmm I thought I would try to write somethng interesting but really, I’m just trying to avoid working on my paper and have nothing interesting to say.

Prom and World Domination

I dreamt I was decorationg for prom again with Tasha and while we were looking around the hotel we found a college guy rigging cameras in some of the hotel rooms. We started looking through his bag and saw that he seemed to film porn. We didn’t want to have to bother with that at prom so we knocked him out and shoved him in a duffel bag. We went back to Tasha’s house and threw the bag in her closet. I was spending the night there and then getting ready with Tasha for prom the next day. When I woke up it occurred to me that we had kidnapped the guy so I got up and went into Tasha’s room. Tasha had forgotten all about him til I reminded her so we drug him out of the closet, let him out of the duffel bag and invited him to breakfast in the hopes that maybe he wouldn’t press charges. As Tasha continued getting ready I noticed that the two of them wer flirting like crazy. Brandon had showed up for breakfast two and was going nuts watching the two of them. Tasha invited the guy to go to prom with us.

When we arrived at prom I noticed that we were no longer at the Windsor hotel but at Oakridge instead. The whole church was dressed in funny costumes and was dancing around the tables in the fellowship hall. Jeremiah and I decided we’d had enough craziness for the day and just left to go home.

When we got home Brandon was there frantically doing job searches on our computer in order to get Tasha back. I went outside to get Bonzai and ran into James. He asked if we could get back together and I said no. Then he askes why I was still wearing the ring then. When I looked down I realized he was right and was extremely irritated so I yankedit off and threw in into a big pile of leaves. James got really mad and started yelling so I went with him to the pile to find the ring. Instead I felt my middle finger start stinging like crazy and pulled it out to find a tiny wasp stinging me. I smashed it and decided I’d had enough so I got up to go inside. James wanted to know why I was quitting so I told him about the wasp but he didn’t believe me. I started walking to the house any way and he followed demanding to see my finger. When we got to the front door I showed him and he finally believed me. He tried to go in with me to help me get something for my finger but I shut the door on him and locked it.

Dad was in the living room and saw me holding my finger so he took me to the kitchen ad said mom wouldknow what to do. Mom was frantically cooking something and the kitchen was a wreck. She told me she didnt know what to do but i could tell she just didnt want to be bothered. I just kept stepping in her way and so in frustration she ran over, poured some laundry detergent in a cap and shoved it at me to put my finger in. I did so, not because I thought it would help but because I didn’t really want to get into it with mom. I started looking around the kitchen for some baking soda. Mom got irritated that I was still in her way so I told her I knew the detergent wasnt doing anything and I knew she knew what to do about my finger and so the most expedient way to get rid of me was to help. She got the baking soda for me and so I put some on my finger and then asked her for some tweezers. She found some in the bottom drawer of our kitchen and handed them to me. She said they were hers. I told her no, I kept a pair in the bottom drawer but when I lloked at them I saw they weren’t mine, so I told her she waws right. She looked up suddenly and said no, if I said so then they must be mine because I was her daughter and she would always believe what I told her and that she hoped I knew that. Unsure of what to make of this Dr. Spock moment I didn’t even bother with the tweezers. I walked out of the kitchen and woke up.

In other news: I have a twelve page paper due today and currently only have 5 pages. It’s not going to be a fun day. On the bright side, I am now the Secretary/Treasurer for our Student Association here on campus which means an additional scholarship of 25% of my tuition.

March Madness

This isn’t going to be about basketball so if thats what you are thinking, too bad. I don’t know enough about basketbell to write about it, but as a side note, a very nice guy who knew I wanted to see Steve Nash play gave me a ticket to the Suns game that is coming through here.

Joel is back from his spring break and we had a dtr which went well. Only he is a night person too and we usually stay up until 2- 4 a.m. which makes 8 o clocks really difficult. I was late to work tonight because I fell asleep after class. I also have 5 papers due this month so I’m going to have to manage my time better. I can’t wait till this semester is over.

Class has been really discouraging. After my professor passed back our midterms, told us they were horrible, made us grade them and then rewrite them, he decided that maybe he didnt want to give us a multiple choice final after all. What is it that teachers have against multiple choice? If people dont test well its their own fault! They teach you how to test in school, or their are seminars to help if they didnt. I let him know right away that I was not interested in writing another sentence and that he would probably get the same results if he gave us another essay exam like the midterm. So…our final is now an oral test. We will go to his office,he will quiz us, then we will discuss with him what grade we think we should get for the semester and he will discuss with us what grade we really will be getting for the semester. Apparently its a British testing method. While, I’m still a little bitter over the axing of multiple chioce exams, I’m not too worried about this. It will be like Sr. Joven’s spanish three class. All of our exams were spoken and if there was one thing that class taught you it was how to BS your way through anything. I like the idea that we can argue our grade with our professor too, though why a professor would do that to himself is beyond me. Oh well, its his own fault I guess.

bleh I’m tired. I’m done for now.

Memphis Grizzlies

I’m going to watch the grizzlies-76er’s game tonight. I didn’t know alot about the grizzlies before today except that they were an extension team from Vancouver (which isn’t promising in and of itself.) But after researching them I really kinda wanted them to win especially because of Marc Gasol and Rudy Gay. They didn’t win though. They through it all away by giving the other team too many foul shots. I really like Marc Gasol but I’m a little disapointed that a 7′1 man misses free throws as often as he does.

In other news, Jason is spicing up his blog site and its pretty cool, especially his latest poem. (Not that it was boring before, I’m one to talk, don’t expect me to be updating my blog style anytime soon, I can’t even figure out how to link other peoples blog sites to my page).

Also Lucas in on a plane headed home today which makes me very happy and by summer I think Shelby, Jared, and Matt may be home if I have my information right. I am all for traveling but it sucks when you can’t visit friends that you haven’t seen in a while.

Study week ends today and Spring break starts tomorrow. I think my friend Liz and I are going to paint my apartment a cream color (as opposed to the rotted pepto bismal pink we have going right now) while my roomie is out of town and hope she doesn’t notice. I think I’m also going to get new curtains and a rug. Maybe she won’t notice those either.