stuff 'n' stuff

pretty much smack dab in the middle of finals week and I don't have a whole lot to do. I had one take home final due yesterday morning and a final test yesterday afternoon, and that's about it for my "crazy" finals week, other than a presentation on my feature story bright and early Friday morning. I kind of feel guilty for not being stressed out, high on caffeine, and trapped in the library like so many of my fellow college students, but then I think that I served my time in the last couple weeks what with all my term papers... and, well... by God, I deserve a break!

so now I'm finding little things to fill my time... like spending lots of quality time with Oprah. I watched her show this afternoon and read some of her magazines this evening. I do like that Oprah lady. I did some laundry too, and some other semi-productive things, but mostly I've just been a bum and it has been true bliss.

I had a dream that Aurora, Kelly, Chelsea, and I got to go to a taping of a Queer Eye episode. I secretly entered Aurora in a contest to go, and she won, and we went to this huge warehouse where there was a ginormous party... it was the event that the Straight Guy was "made-better" for. anywho, I had a puppy in this dream. an adorable little black lab/retriever mix puppy that ran away from me as soon as we got there. then I saw Carson and he had my puppy on a leash, and he said, "this dog is the sweetest thing!," with his crazy collagen-injected lips flapping. I got to meet Carson and Ted, which was exciting by itself, but I was really just excited about my puppy. Later in the dream, I got my puppy back as a full-grown dog, and it turned out that his name was Bruce Red Rubber Ball Watkins. I called him Rubber for short. Red Rubber Ball was his middle name. oh man. now, of course, I want a little black lab puppy so I can name him Red Rubber Ball. because, after all, not only do I like Oprah, I like puppies.

sorry for the rambling. no need to continue reading. cause I'm done now.

who stole my coke?

On the last day of class here at UMD, a strangely exhiliratingly sunny december 12, I found myself down in the venden* reading the Statesman*, drinking a coke. I finished up with the Statesman, once again amazed by some of the stuff they are allowed to publish and thinking that I could do so much better (I know, who am I kidding?)... anyway, I needed something else to do and not having any homework and not feeling like studying, I decided to go grab a Ripsaw*. I left the venden and ventured into the Bohannon concourse and snatched a Ripsaw, and then went back to my spot in the venden. To find my can of coke had disappeared. My already opened half-full can of coke.

Gross.

Now, call me crazy, but unless someone stole it to get a sample of my saliva to do DNA testing (I know I ain't fathered no kids but there is the distinct possibility that I have committed murder in the past few days... amanda - peep? oh never mind), stealing someone's can of coke is really only good if they haven't opened the can and drank from it and filled it with their gross cold germs and any other spooky fluids they may have floating around their body.

so this is my note to whoever stole my coke from the venden:
you owe me a can of coke and you're getting a nasty cold, jackass.

(*UMD and Duluth references for non-Duluthians:
venden: a big room full of 20 vending machines and many uncomfortable picnic-table-like "study" tables filled with students in various stages of eating, talking, and drooling facedown on their arms
the UMD Statesman: the high quality news publication of UMD. check out their site to see true journalistic integrity: http://www.d.umn.edu/statesman
the Ripsaw: "the News and Entertainment Weekly of the Twin Ports" - Duluth's alternative newspaper that I look forward to reading every week. Especially the cartoons. Check out their site too. http://www.ripsawnews.com

In other news, finals is upon me and I'm about to go have a study session for one of my two tests. good luck to all of you who have finals and papers left... Also, I would talk about the capture of Saddam this morning, but there is too much swirling around my brain to make sense of it all.

this is my favorite movie info. site:

Greg's Previews

I like to go there and read gobs of pointless information about movies that won't be released for like three more years. or may never be released. it's one of my favorite forms of procrastination. the only thing that rates higher is blogging. which is what I'm doing. I love the internet...

I feel the need for some caramel-colored carbonated caffeine-enhanced beverage to help me slog through this feature article. this is not going to be fun, folks, but hopefully it'll be better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. here I go!

I swear to almighty God above, if whoever is out there honking their freaking horn repeatedly does not stop very soon, I will come down there with a hammer and destroy their windshield. seriously, it's been going for the past five minutes! it's not even a steady rhythm... it's intermittent honking. one long honk, two short honks, one long honk followed by one short honk. there's no pattern. you would think if they were going to annoy everyone on this side of goldfine b and goldfine c, they could establish some sort of rhythm, but no.

amanda can't hear it down on her end of the hall. am I the only one who can hear it? am I going crazy? is the end near? I think it must be.

no, it's not! I got up to close my window and saw one of the girls down in goldfine B (in the apartment that we spy on sometimes, tee hee) shutting her window. thank goodness I'm not dying because it would be really sad if the end was heralded not by a choir of angels but by some really weak horn honking. that would be the way I would go out though, wouldn't it?

in the meantime, the honking still hasn't stopped. FOR PETE'S SAKE. I am now considering egging this person from the stairwell window if they do not cease and desist soon.

wait! I think... yes, maybe... but it's too soon to hope. YES! it stopped.

I'm feeling kind of grinchy this december. despite putting up christmas lights and listening to christmas music and going christmas shopping, I'm not really feeling "in the christmas spirit." I feel like christmas is still a couple months away. could it be due to the fact that I have term papers galore to write this week and then finals next week? hmm, I don't know, could be. nothing like extra-long term papers and sitting for exams to kill any christmas-y feelings of joy and wonder. actually, I'm going to colorado for christmas and I get to see a bunch of my extended family and I'm really excited about that! I just haven't quite realized that it will be christmas during that time...

anyway, I have to go step carefully into the shower before I go take a really long grammar test. I definitely want to be clean for that. here's to the christmas spirit!

it's amazing just how excited you can get about buying frozen corn and burritos... I really like grocery shopping.

...getting ready for hellweek

I just had a really wonderful thanksgiving and long weekend, and for the first time, I was really dreading coming back to school. usually I really look forward to coming back to duluth, and I've felt more this year that duluth really is my home but coming back here yesterday just sucked. two days off from school was really just the thing I needed... laying around my house, watching movies with my mom and chelsea, having a roaring fire, getting some christmas shopping done, seeing so many of my friends from high school, stuffing my fat face... I'm pretty sure I gained the dreaded "freshman 15" as well, all in one sitting. who cares if it's two years too late? better late than never, I say.

but now I'm facing the last two weeks of class and then finals week. next week, I have a total of three papers and one test, all in the space of three days. all this, coupled with the relaxing-ness of my break, made me really just want to stay curled up on my parents' couch with my purring drooling cat, reading return of the king until the end of time.

anyway, here are some highlights from my weekend:
-my step-aunt, slightly tipsy, looking around the kitchen and saying, "there are a lot of frogs in here!" even though she lived with my parents for several months and should know by now that my mom collects frogs
-watching some old movie with ingrid bergman til 3 in the morning with my mom while eating lots o' pie
-sleeping til noon twice in a row... it was delightful
-going to the grocery store with my parents where they decided that they wanted to bake brie, and they had some guy at the deli counter explain it to them... and then I ended up doing most of the work
-I baked a brie!
-listening to the latin music the olive garden plays when they put you on hold (it's an italian restaurant, why the spanish-language music? I don't know)
-having my friend's boyfriend go all mike tyson on me and try to bite off my earlobe... ahhh, good times

I hope everyone else had as an enjoyable break as I did, and that you were also completely unproductive. my stomach is trying to eat itself so I had better go stop this act of cannibalism.

tanksgibbing

I'm going home! I get to eat turkey tomorrow! I get to see my lonely ladies! I get to write a spanish term paper... d'oh! oh well, nothing can hold me down! not even this 8 page paper that needs to be finished in, oh say, 2 hours... the long weekend should more than make up for all the paper writing I did this week. actually, thanksgiving by itself should more than make up for it. I'm getting low on groceries and there's only so much tuna, pasta, and peanut butter and jelly I can take.

anyway, enjoy the long weekend everyone. have safe drives and happy thanksgiving!

for some odd reason, school smelled and felt like an airport today. stale coffee, snow and cold, cigarette smoke wafting in from outside, and cranky people rushing around... somehow all these things together equal airport for me.

you know what other smell reminds me of airports? stale popcorn. actually, stale popcorn reminds me of o'hare, specifically.

just thought I'd get some random thoughts out of the way so I can get some work done. :)

new links

I added to my links, mostly because rachel told me that I was a disappointment. I have to pay attention to what rachel says, because rachel is a force to be reckoned with. (she is also somewhat of a blog expert... she just told me that she is currently following about 12 blogs. I don't know if that really makes her an expert necessarily but whatever.)

one thing I must point out is the link to my dad's blog. he was writing it back a few months ago when he was living in acapulco. now that he no longer lives there, the blog has fallen by the wayside. after a stint in macedonia, he is currently residing in reno, nv, with my oldest brother ian and his familia. hopefully daddyo will keep his word and "revive this deadass forum" because he has plenty to say about what's going on in this country and in the world.

another excellent site I'd like to point out is the Self-Made Critic. his reviews used to be on the brunching shuttlecocks, which was a funny funny site and no longer exists, but now he has his own site. I usually come close to peeing my pants when I read his reviews.

anyway, I should get some sleep since I have a busy day ahead of me... doing homework. blech. much love...

it has been pointed out to me that this girl may have only been hungover. I won't deny that this is a possibility. but there were so many signs, such nearly overwhelming evidence... which lead me to believe either she was drinking heavily last night and woke up still drunk, or she really was getting her drink on sometime around 8 am.

case in point: she danced along to the argentinian national dirge... I mean anthem.

wake up and smell the alcohol

who wakes up and thinks that maybe it would be a good idea to throw back a couple before starting the day? on a thursday morning. before a 9 am class. and not just any class... I'm talking Spanish 4013. where you have to, um, like, think and stuff.

a girl in my spanish class came to class drunk. well, possibly not completely drunk, but definitely slightly tipsy. I was sitting next to her, as I always do, and I was thinking, "wow, her breath smells really bad... she's sitting a foot away from me and I can smell it. WAIT! I recognize that smell!" alcohol was emanating from her very being. it was truly amazing. at one point, she left to go to the bathroom and was gone for 7 minutes. she came back, tripped over her backpack and knocked over someone else's bottle of water. then she pulled out a whole pack of saltines and started chowing down, completely oblivious to the water that was turning her desk into her own private island.

ok, granted, it's hispanic american poetry and drama and the thought of discussing poetry in spanish at 9 am might be enough to drive the most committed teetotaler to have one tiny cocktail before delving into the depths of chilean existensialism. but it's really not that bad. besides, today we were discussing a funny play that poked fun at bureaucracy and had a cast of crazy characters!

what I'm driving at here is just because you can drink before you head off to class doesn't mean you should. especially for the sake of those around you who have to put up with your drunk ass and are actually interested in the class. or just want to suffer through it in peace so they can go home and go back to sleep.

I'm a day and a half from the weekend and yet I almost don't want it to come, because I will be chained to my desk for most it. with the exception of tomorrow night, when I will be attending Jim Fetzer's talk on JFK's death. 3 1/2 hours of lecture on a friday night, woo hoo! strangely enough, I'm really looking forward to it and there's a chance it might be the highlight of my weekend. what a sad little life I lead.

I'm going to take a nap now and it's going to be lovely. and I'm going to dream about turkey and how wonderful it will be to indulge my carnivorous tendencies a week from this very day. much love.

oh man

there's something wrong here. I look out my window and I see bare branches. the ground is covered in a damp loamy layer of leaves. the sun is reflecting off the cars in the parking lot across the street. the completely bare cars. the sidewalk looks... naked. as a matter of fact, everything looks rather underdressed. there's something missing. it's the 18th of November. this is Duluth. where is the snow? I realize that it has snowed... but it melted. what is going on here? we're supposed to be buried in our frigid little icebox of a city. but wait! ah yes, the good people at weather.com show that it is supposed to snow sometime... by the beginning of next week. that's more like it, father winter. bring it.

the whole registration predicament was solved, but not as I was expecting. I did go down to accounts receivable, but I didn't get to bring my horrible wrath down on anyone like I wanted to. I explained the whole thing and then was told that the remainder of my tuition had to be paid... and then I meekly shuffled away from the window and went and called my dad. who brought his wrath upon accounts receivable. now, don't get me wrong... I'm all about being an adult and doing things for myself, but if my dad wants to use his "voice of authority" to get things done around here, then I'm all for that. hooray for my dad!

so, I got to register on time, much to my relief. for all those who are interested, I'm taking Hispanic American Civilization and Culture, Analysis of Public Discourse, Gender and Communication, and Advanced Writing: Language and Literature... which sounds suspiciously like the official title of the AP Lit. test that I had so much fun taking in 12th grade. it looks like a pretty good schedule for the most part, except having class at 9, 11, and 12. no 10 o'clock. I can't find anything to take during that time. unless anyone has any ideas? perhaps the perennial favorite... underwater basketweaving. or maybe... fishing skills!

anyway, I should go bathe myself and then it's time for ping pong with corey. an update on the ping pong battle: the past two (three?) weeks, corey has beat me 2-1, every week. I know, I know... I lost my touch. I knew it couldn't last forever... corey has the skills. besides, winning seven games in a row was just getting boring. hehe.

have a lovely day.

grr arg

well, today, for the first time ever, I discovered a hold on my school account, from accounts receivable, effective as of 11/07. what that means, essentially, is that my last tuition payment was not paid and that I cannot register until it is paid. this is incredibly unfortunate, because also for the first time ever, I get to register on the second day of registration. this means I may actually have somewhat of a chance of getting into all the classes I want to take, when I want to take them, which is nice since I am nearing the end of my time here and need to get certain things done.

also unfortunately (more unfortunately for accounts receivable... muhahahaha), according to my most recent tuition bill, as of 11/07, my tuition had been paid. boo to accounts receivable. one would think that their system would be a little bit more streamlined, a little bit more sychronized, if you will... so as not to issue a hold on a person's account on the same day that their tuition bill was paid. oh wait, what am I saying? that's ridiculous.

so... what am I going to do? what anyone would do... I printed out a copy of my tuition bill and I'm going to take it down to the accounts receivable office in their little hidey hole in Darland Admin. 140 and, as I told my dad, I'm going to RUB THEIR NOSES IN IT. (to which my dad replied, "ooo,,,you go, girl!!" and yes, he really types all those commas for no reason whatsoever.) hopefully I can get it straightened out in the next few days so I can register on Friday.

whew. pretty frustrated by that whole thing. warning: abrupt subject change ahead.

as I was getting into bed last night, I glanced at my clock and saw that it was 11:45. holy geez, going to bed before midnight? what's wrong with me? then I realized that all my roommates were in bed and had been for some time. and amanda went to bed around 11. where are the wild and crazy college girls? we're supposed to be out partying or causing trouble or cramming all night or at least sacrificing small rodents or children... or.. or something. actually, who am I kidding? I love that we were all in bed before midnight. that is the essence of this apartment.

I think that's all for tonight. by the way, just out of curiosity... who is the "anonymous" commenter from my last blog? amanda and I are almost positive that is a direct comment from GOD, but I wanted to rule out all other possibilities before jumping to that conclusion. anyway, sorry for the long rant at the beginning, just a little frustrated. good night and much love.

halloween part deux

so, I was watching the local duluT news on thursday night, and there was a story about a man who had been hospitalized since halloween night. he had come up to visit for a halloween party, and then had been savagely beaten with a metal club. they showed a shot of a house, and as they show the house, I'm thinking, "wouldn't that be weird if it was at the halloween party I went to?" then the camera pans over to the next house, and I realize I recognize this house... then I jump off the couch as the anchor says, "the party was held at 123 4th Street. the man got into an argument with the neighbors..." sure enough, that's the house I went to halloween night. then I yelled for kelly to come watch and verify. definitely the same house. though it must have happened after we left the party, it is likely that kelly and I met this person.

what would possess someone to beat another person with a metal club? this person was still in the hospital after nearly a week.

cassi said she's just glad that kelly and I are safe. I would have to agree.

hammer on the bottom!

after trying on my new clothes, dusting my desk and computer, jumping on my bed for a bit, drinking two glasses of water (and making the requisite trip to the toilet afterward), and reading a little in return of the king, it seems that I may as well use all this random energy that's keeping me awake to do something pseudo-productive.

I had a lovely evening tonight... went shopping with mah homegirls, chelsea and kelly, and I bought a velvet blazer that I have been eyeing for quite some time at the gap... damn gap and their monopoly on cute mass produced sweat shop goods. they get me every time! raar. afterward, we saw intolerable cruelty, which was very funny... don't be fooled by its appearance of romantic comedy-ishness. it is that in some ways, which is something a little different from the brothers coen, but it's really more just a comedy. "I'm gonna nail your ass! I'm gonna nail... your... ass!!!" that's just for you, kelly and chelsea... hehe.

and on that note... I think I'm going to go to bed. there was lots I could've talked about but it looks like blog writing just sucks all the energy outta me. all is well in the world, much love.

halloween... when stupidity reigns

so it's been two weeks since my last drunken posting, welcome to drunken posting number 2. what did you expect, it's hallo-ma-ween? hallo-ma-ween. so other than nearly getting busting by campus security, along with a couple other things, my night was pretty fun. being a gangsta was super fun... better than a ton of other costumes I've had. I liked wearing the velour... it's like wearing pajamas to a party. and you know me, sleepy mcsleeperson, I like sleep a whole lot so what's better than wearing pajamas outdoors? you know... halloween! speaking of sleep and what's better than sleep... since halloween is over, pretty much nothing beats sleep so I'm going to get some right now. good night all... much love.

ah, sweet victory

this just in!:

FOR THE SECOND TIME IN TWO WEEKS, IN A STUNNING UPSET, ALEXIS STAPP BEAT COREY FISCHER IN THREE GAMES OF PING PONG.
the world is asking, what's going on with corey fischer? what happened? he was on top of his game, on top of the world, really. he had so many successes behind him, one would only think the trend would continue forever! but no, it was as if the gods looked down and decided that corey had had enough wins... more victories were simply not in the cards for him. it was time to give alexis a chance. and oh, success has never been so sweet!

ok, really, I shouldn't brag so much. it's just ping pong for pete's sake! but really corey, 21-11? you can do so much better than that! honestly, you better start winning at least 1 out of 3 again or I'm going to have to find a more worthy opponent. just kidding, I would never do that. but maybe. but probably not. but...

after finishing my multitude of papers and one test, I swore off writing for the rest of the week, but obviously I'm currently breaking that oath.
you know that you've been stressed out and working too hard on homework when you are happy to go to a job you hate... just because you know you won't have to write any more stupid papers. I was EXCITED about CLEANING TOILETS last night and this simple fact is a testament to how much work I had to do these past few days. but, hooray, hopefully only a few more days of cleaning smelly men's bathrooms and emptying garbage! (it's a proven fact that men's bathrooms smell worse than women's... seriously... I'm pretty sure there exists research about it and everything... check it out).

I'm really excited for halloween, as always. halloween ranks about second on my list of favorite national holidays... what could be better than pretending to be someone else, eating seven pounds of candy, and scooping out pumpkin guts? not a whole lot. I have no official plans yet for friday night, other than dressing up thug-like (anybody have some ice to loan me?) and partying somewhere.

anyway, this is already foreva long and I was writing this instead of reading spanish poetry. whoops! good night and much love.

babies

born today, thomas edstrom... son of peter and sarah edstrom, and nephew of (my roommate) rachel edstrom! welcome to the world, thomas! congratulations rachel on becoming an aunt. we should form a club.

babies really are the best way to start people.

Hoo-raaaaay!

here's some advice for you:
don't drink from the wrong side of the glass to cure hiccups, because it makes you puke. and before it makes you puke, it makes water come out your nose. neither are really pleasant things to have happen to you at 1:30 am, but though they both happened to me tonight, I still laughed til I nearly soiled myself...

so I had the hiccups, and I was trying to solve it by drinking from the wrong side of the glass. (has anyone ever heard of this and/or tried it before? it's really kind of awkward! and who came up with it in the first place? what kind of crazy person figures out that drinking from the wrong side of the glass is an effective cure for hiccups?) though it was hard to figure out, it cured my hiccups by god. but the water spewed from my nose immediately, and then I started laughing so hard that I just... well... I puked... in the kitchen sink, no less, because cassi was occupying the bathroom. it was not pretty, let me tell you, but I still laughed really hard and rachel told me I'm the greatest roommate ever.

other than the puking and such, I've really had quite a good week. I scored a bunch of As on various assignments and tests, including my rhetorical criticism of conspiracy rhetoric midterm!!! which I was terribly worried about. I usually tend to underestimate myself and I end up doing better than I think I will, but I really felt that the test did not go well, even after all my studying. but I ended up getting an A, which makes me a happy little girl. I also wrote (what I thought was) a really bad spanish paper a week or so ago, got that back, got an A on it and not only that, my professor posted it on her website as an example! hooray for me! once again, reaffirming my decision to major in spanish. I actually like spanish a lot. and it's nice because I've been putting a lot of work into school, and as cheesy as it may sound, I really feel like I've earned my As.

last, but not least, and actually probably most importantly (hehehe)... I, alexis m. stapp, BEAT COREY C. FISCHER IN THREE GAMES OF PING PONG on Tuesday, October 21st. this is a first for me, and for corey as well (loser!). just kidding corey, we all know it was a fluke. many factors contributed to my OVERWHELMING SUCCESS and corey's SHOCKING DEFEAT, and who knows if they can be replicated at another time. I like caps tonight a whole lot.

anyway, it's seriously late now and I still have class at o'dark thirty so I should get some sleepy sleep sleep. much love.

beat box bizzle

ok, here it is: my first ever (slightly) drunken post. probably won't happen too often, so take advantage of this rare opportunity. don't be distracted by the somewhat decent typage... I pride myself on the ability to still be able to type fairly well even when inebriated. (granted, my grammar kind of takes a downswing but what are you going to do? I really just don't know.) kelly, aurora, chelsea and I went out to eat at little angie's, where aurora and kelly shared a margarita the size of their heads. not their combined heads however, just one of their heads by itself. now that's a big margarita, people. not to say that kelly and/or aurora have big heads. just know that it was a big margarita.
anyway, then we drank here for a bit, whilst watching queer eye (and playing the marvelous queer eye drinking game). plus, my boobages... they're squishy. that's right.
anyhooooo. good night. much love... alcohol was created by the devil.

I'm still in the beginning phases of this whole online journal thing. had a hard time with several other journals (how hard can this be, honestly? everything is set up for you! there must be something I'm missing... or else I'm just cursed) and now hopefully this will work. it seems like it's working... but I have a feeling it's not going to work, and I'm just being lulled into a false sense of security. we'll see.

anyway, the point I was trying to make was that because I'm still testing the waters with this, I'm not going to do a "real" post today. also, I'm just feeling sleepy and I have homework to do. excuses, excuses, I know. instead, I'm just going to make some nice ol' lists. enjoy.

bad stuff (or things that did not make me happy today):
-the midterm for rhetorical criticism of conspiracy discourse... despite the fact that I started studying several days ago, I still had a mad scramble of studying today, and still felt completely deflated when I sat down to take the test.
-the thought that I have another test coming up next week, and, for the class mentioned above (don't make me type it again!), a paper that's worth more than the midterm... please. make the bad man stop.

gray zone:
-the realization that it's midterm... this is a glass half empty/half full kind of thing for me today.

good stuff (or things that made me happy today):
-the enormous pile of leaves that had blown into the bike rack outside lake superior hall.
-enjoying the poetry of jorge luis borges early this morning
-recording "the greatest hits of amanda and alexis... and amanda and alexis and cassi... and chelsea and alexis" etc.
-"exploring" amanda's roommates' crazy disgusting messy room. I'm pretty sure that they live in a landfill.
-the mint chocolate fudge ice cream I'm eating right now.

overall, more good than bad today, which is typical but I'm somewhat tired so I probably don't sound too positive. don't let the weary, rundown tone fool you!
anyway... may this blog have a long, happy, and fulfilling life. don't give up on me yet folks! love to all.

OK!!! OH MY GOD!!! this better work... OR ELSE.