my car has favorite songs

i love music...a lot. it's always been a big part of who i am. back in the old days when i would squeak on my clarinet and the more recent days when i'd sing in choir...i love music. and apparently so does my car. in fact, i'm convinced that it has favorite songs.

i recently made a mix cd with a ton of kick ass stuff on it. i usually have the cd player in my car set on random. it's my way to mix stuff up, since at times i get stuck in a rut and only listen to the same CD over and over again. but i've noticed, that my car will "randomly" play the same songs over and over again. and it's not like it goes through the entire CD before it starts repeating itself...it'll play song A, play song B, and then come back to song A. so, i've learned that my car really likes songs by N.E.R.D. and Pearl Jam (especially the song Release, which is nice since it's one of my favorites too). Sometimes I have to force it to play other stuff on the CD. like i really wanted to hear the Offspring sing Get a Job which is why I put it on the CD in the first place. But oh, no...car wants to hear REM's Stand two more times first. :) anyway, i just thought it was wacky stuff. when it gets too out of hand then i have to take away the "random" privileges. :) if my car was kit from nightrider it would totally be swearing at me right now.

speaking of awesome music, if you haven't already gone to this website (http://music.download.com/wesraine/3600-8596_32-100085438.html?tag=list) and downloaded some of my friend wes's music go do it already! it's freakin' awesome. i was just listening to the song "half my age plus seven" and it totally rocks and made my day happier. wes is super talented and will rock your socks off. do it! NOW!

:)

new shoes are evil

so, i like shoes almost as much as mike does. :) *cracked myself up...just a sec*

phew..better now. so i got some steve madden sandals on ebay that are brand new...and i wore them today and walked for maybe a total of 15 minutes in them and they have already given me blisters. why are new shoes so evil? do shoe companies own stocks in band-aid companies or something? it's crazy because they look like they should be the most comfortable shoes ever, but apparently it's a lie. maybe father dennis could fart on them or something and melt them a little. or maybe my feet are just pansies?

hope ya'll are having a good monday. i'm off to read. :P

countdown: 15 days until I'm done with stuff for this semester.

owch

i've had a headache every day for 4 days. not constant, but still at some point i have one. at what point do i decide it's not finals stress and go to the doctor? i guess if it's still happening after my papers are done? ugh.

thanks ags

so, i'm a graduate student here at a&m and historically, grad students aren't usually really into the aggie spirit stuff. i like to think i'm an exception to that norm though. i've been at a&m since 2000 (this a one year hiatus) and i've had many moments where the aggie spirit has overwhelmed me. one of them was on thursday. i've been having a bit of a crabby week...for a variety of reasons that i won't get into now or ever. but i digress. i was leaving work after a long day of advising and walking to my car and could hear the war hymn. thursday was muster and so there was music coming from the clocktower. as i walked through the academic plaza and past the ymca building, i started to think about how amazing it is that i ended up at a&m and that though it has it's problems, the community is also amazing. a&m was never on my list of grad schools originally, but i can't imagine that i would feel this connected to my school had i gone some place else. the spirit here is palpable. i had a million things to do on thursday evening but all the stress of that drifted away as i saw lots of students heading to reed arena to go to muster. to remember aggies who have passed away this year and to share in the comraderie of their fellow students, as well as alums. though i couldn't go myself, i still felt that connection to this awesome university. i can't imagine having picked another school. it's impossible to imagine not having the friends i've made at a&m right now and the great memories i've had here so far. so thanks ags...

broken brains?

wow...i had so much to do for today that i think in the preparation for that...i broke my brains. halfway through my second class today, i was totally out of it. literally had no idea what was going on in there anymore and didn't even care a little bit. it was like the time that i got a bug bite on my hand and it totally swelled up and looked scary, so i took one benedryl and it made me high. you can ask mike..i was totally out of it. he would talk to me and i'd have no idea what he was saying. i put my giant hand in an old navy bag and was waving it around. benedryl totally jacks me up. and that's how i felt today...and i swear i took no benedryl. just a vitamin! vitamins are supposed to help right?! anyway, i think it will be good for my overall health once this semester is over with. then, god willing, just one semester left. :) here's hoping. tonight was one of those nights when i felt very very old in college station...and it made me want to not live here anymore...a lot. more on that sometime, maybe.

good weekend

so, mike had his head shaved yesterday and managed to raise almost $800. he's really close to reaching his goal so if you have the inclination and some extra cash to spare, i'm sure he'd appreciate it. :) there are some pictures of his shaved head on his blog: http://sooshie.org
i was trying to grow out my hair to donate some to locks of love and then a trim turned into more than a trim, so i'm starting over. i have a ways to go so maybe the texas sun will help my locks get longer.

my new roommates lindsay and cecelia moved in this weekend. lindsay is a good friend of mine and cecelia is her three year old daughter. it is so good to have them both there. i had a few friends over for marinated steak dinner last night and so they could meet lindsay and cecelia. it was a lot of fun and i think the food went over well. i hope they enjoy living in 205. i know i'm really glad that they are living with us. there's something nice about seeing toys in the living room and hearing a cute little girl ask me if i want to see all her sparkly bracelets or watch shrek. :) now that summer is coming i hope to have people over more often, because though i still had/have a lot of reading and stuff to do this weekend, it was great having friends over and introducing new friends to old friends and just all that stuff. (tim is rolling his eyes at my cheesiness right now.)

anyhow, i should get back to writing. have a good sunday everyone.

p.s.- best question cecelia has asked so far: "so, does kate pee in the potty?" :)

ditto

my friend wes posted this on his blog and i'm posting it because i was duped by this stupid service too...so be warned friends! it's a load of poop and you shouldn't sign up.

"If you are getting requests by WesRaine@invitations.sms.ac, DO NOT ACCEPT!!!!!

I accepted a request by a friend of mine two weeks ago and this thing has apparently hijacked my address book and is trying to get everyone else to join. This thing is a spamming machine that I have no control over but it seems to be sending messages to everyone in my address book (including me!) to join this ridiculous service. I have closed my account and urge anyone who has already accepted to do the same. When they want to know why you are deleting your account, make sure to tell them that it is because their "service" is really crappy seeing as how it annoyed all of your friends. We already get enough unsolicited spam...we don't need any more."

i'm addicted

yes, another quiz. are you going to do this one too tim smith? :)


which sex in the city charactor are you? 

busy body

so advising has been really really busy lately. it's registration time so i've been helping lots of undergraduate sociology majors pick classes and decide on minors and all that fun stuff. there are some really rewarding moments (like when i talked with a student about graduate school and research for a while) and some that are very frustrating (like when i have to tell people that they can't graduate or can't substitute a class that they though they could and almost cry). sometimes it's hard to stay motivated and helpful when i have my own stresses too. i told tim that i wouldn't be surprised if people were outside of my office right now waiting to talk to me tomorrow. his response was "you're more popular than aggie football." to which i retorted "the list eater is there right now eating my schedule off my door." :)

just a few more weeks of classes...and then...more advising for the summer. :)

reading break

You are Deb and you could drink whole milk if you
wanted.




Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

brought to you by Quizilla


woo!! :)

find out who you are by clicking the link below: http://quizilla.com/users/retromex/quizzes/Which%20Napoleon%20Dynamite%20character%20are%20you%3F

have i mentioned this movie (and soundtrack) kicks so much ass?

"i'm sorry but i'm just thinking of the right words to say..i know they don't sound the way i planned them to be..." (the promise by when in rome from the ND soundtrack. boo-ya!)

shaved head for a good cause

i sent out an email about this to a lot of you but thought i'd post it here in case i missed anyone and in case my readership is larger than i think it is. :) (also, to inspire others to post this on their blogs too to get the word out). my b/f/f mike is shaving his head to help raise money to find a cure for childhood cancer. you can donate as little or as much as you want. here's link with more info. hopefully mike will grace us a of photo of himself post-head shaving.

good job mike! way to help the kids. :)

http://www.stbaldricks.org/ShaveePhoto.asp?SolNumber=15324700

the big question is...are you gonna shave your facial hair off too? :)

blogspot pooped it's pants earlier

so...i wrote a very creative post before and then blogspot pooped itself and it got lost in the void somewhere.

luckily i remember what i wrote earlier which is a christmas miracle since i seem to have no short term memory. can't even remember what hours i worked LAST WEEK.

so i was noticing on my friend wes's blog that he has a links section and i wondered how to do that. do i need to use a different template? is there some wacky computer code that i need to use that will give me a chance to post some of my favorite links. hmm...i'll try this: 686579206D6167696320696E7465726E657420676F64732E2E67697
665206D652061206C696E6B732073656374696F6E206F6E206D7920
7765627061676520736F20692063616E2074656C6C2065766572796F6
E652061626F757420687474703A2F2F736578796E6572642E6F72672F
666C6173682F7468656C6C616D61736F6E672E7377662E2E6861707069
657374207765627369746520657665722E202072656164792C207365742
C20676F2120206669676874696E27207465786173206167676965206C69
6E6B2073656374696F6E2E202077686F6F702100

hmmm...that didn't work. stupid hex. :)

any thoughts?

there was other stuff but i don't remember. yay for mike being here. fun times already.

babies don't need coffee

it's 8:00 p.m. i'm in a local coffee shop trying to study. and suddenly this place is more hoppin' than a bar at northgate. only it's hoppin' with the goth people who are loud, with sorority girls who aren't here to study though they have books, and apparently a group of mom's with their babies. what is the deal with that? why do babies and mom's need coffee right now? shouldn't babies be asleep? i'm pretty sure my bedtime was 8 p.m. until like 3rd grade or something. i have decided two things: 1. if/when i ever have a baby, i will not bring him/her to coffee places where students are trying to study and 2. i need to move to a bigger college town. there are only like 5 coffee shops in town so everybody in the free world is here. i know, i know..it's a business and people come here to drink coffee and it's not a library. i'm just sayin'...it sucks asses.

sara and i decided that we need to open a coffee/wine bar in town that is for graduate students or people over 23 only. i think it would be a huge success...and it would be quieter.

other than that, i'm having a good monday.

happy easter

happy easter everyone. easter in my family was never as big of a celebration as christmas, but it was always a fun time for the parks fam. we'd anxiously await our easter baskets and try to locate all the hidden eggs. i find myself missing that a little today. i'm appreciative of tim and lidia though for letting me invade their dinner plans. :) today i didn't get an easter basket or marshmellow peeps (though i might go to the store to get some..love those things!), but i did get to hear mike rant about mass and i get to have yummy dinner. woo!

i got home yesterday from a conference in new orleans. it was a great time and i'm really glad that i went, even though i didn't originally want to go. ate so much good food, had some good drinks (probably too many as tim can attest to from my failed attempt to drunk dial him), and the conference itself was also really great. my presentations went really well and going to the sessions gave me lots of ideas for research. ideas that i should write down so i don't forget them. met some new people, made some new friends, hung out with old friends..it was great.

now it's back to the grind.

happy easter everyone. i hope it's a blessed day.

i'm on to something

see...green tea is made of yoda juice. if you don't know what i'm talking about see my previous entry entitled: green tea is yoda juice from february 21st or something.

i could use some right now. as it turns out, 3 hours of sleep isn't enough. starbucks hasn't even helped. but i bet yoda juice would. aw yeah.

by the way, if there are three multi-colored dots by the title, you can click on them to get to the link i was referring to. or it's right here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7187847/?GT1=6305

the weather person is the devil

so i wanted to check the weather today to see if there'd be more hail like there was yesterday. i tuned into the weather channel and it appears there is something wrong with their sound. all the people sound like they have devily voices. it sounds like when someone is being interviewed and their voice is disguised. it's actually kind of funny and i wonder if people nation-wide are a bit startled when they hear demon-voices on the weather channel. :) it's especially awesome when the cute weather guy has this huge smile and his voice is just devily. good stuff.

grading stuff led to deep thoughts

i've been getting a sneak preview of my future life as a prof this week. i've been grading marriage and family exams for the past 3 days or so. someday i'll be dr. kate and i'll be paying some crazy poor grad student (or undergrad) to grade stuff for me. :) grading isn't too bad in general. these exams are especially interesting because they've been writing about how women have to choose between career and family a lot of the time, or in sociology speak...they veer towards or veer away from domesticity. some of their insights about that subject are really interesting and some of them scare the pants off me. not in the usual way that you might expect if you've graded undergraduate essays before. inevitably there is one or two that goes on a moral tirade instead of actually answering the question that's being asked of them. sort of a "wwjd" response to an exam question. so far there haven't been any of those in this set. instead, they just keep writing about how when women choose the career path, it's hard to choose the family path. the longer i'm in graduate school the more i wonder if this track really will lead me to being that crazy cat lady in the future who has a lot of publications and a lot of litter boxes. i'm not convinced that ph.d. women are destined for that path. i just hope that it's possible to have it all. sara and i have been talking about the lack of role models we find in our graduate lives of women who get to have a fulfilling career and a family life too. crazy veering. :) i'm pretty sure there's some research to be done here. don't steal it from me bastards! we can co-author it. word!

in other news, i'm kinda bummed because one of my favorite local websites has crapped itself. it was http://www.aggielandmenus.info totally rad site! you could look up pretty much any restaurant in town and they would provide a menu, as well as contact info and some places you could even order online. it was great and i hope that it will come back to us.

well, it's 2:03 a.m. and i almost reached my goal of grading 30 exams since 9 p.m. just 5 short but it's bed time. night yo!

spring break?

so, i'm glad that i was a lazy ass and didn't do a thing academic or work related this past weekend (well, mostly), because it looks like i'm going to be really really busy for the next two weeks. AND what sucks about it is that this week is supposed to be spring break. i guess i should get it out of my head that this week is any different from the rest of the year. the only change is that i don't have to go to class this week. however, i foolishly took on too much extra work for this week (though i need the money and good karma). still have two books to read, two presentations to prepare for a conference in new orleans next week, one paper proposal to write, and 70 tests to grade. and all of that has led to a bit of insomnia that will likely prevent me from going to swim with tim tomorrow since it's 2 a.m. and i'm not asleep right now. he's going to think i'm the flakiest swim friend in the world, but i bet he'll also understand since he's also in graduate student hell. i'm really really looking forward the days when i just have one thing on my plate instead of like 3022wq342. (yes, i know there's a w and a q in there...bring it.) but you know what, i bet that will never really be the case. there will always be various things to balance. (like maybe career and family and stuff like that...instead of papers and two jobs and blah blah blah..what am i talking about). i just hope that it's not so much all at once all the time. whatever, i'm rambling because it's late and i'm tired even if my brains won't let me sleep. dumb bastard brains. before i know it, it will be summer and it will be hotter and i'll still be posting stuff like this. :)

talked to mike today . he says hi to everyone from italy. i think he's enjoying his time there and i'm sure he'll be posting about all the mopeds and stuff that he's seen. here's hoping he doesn't swear at the pope tomorrow. (side note for dennis: mike was going to tell the pope hi from you and to let him know to make you a bishop).

so that's it for now. better try to sleep so i can get stuff done tomorrow...i mean today.

"i can tell that we are going to be friends"

the subject line is the title of a great song by the white stripes. if you've seen napoleon dynamite, you'll recognize it from the opening credits. if you haven't seen napoleon dynamite, stop reading right now and go watch it already. you are banned from reading my blog until you've seen one of the best films yet. i'm resisting all urges to stop writing this and watch it for the billionth time.
the soundtrack is really quite good too, though this song is strangely missing from it.

anyway, i've been blogging a lot lately and it's not like i have a lot going on that i need to write about. more like i have had a lot of stuff on my mind lately and i'm forcing you all to read it. i've been feeling really nostalgic lately and i'm not sure if that's because spring is just about here or because i just got home from a great visit or because of some other reason that i haven't thought of yet. maybe it's because i live in 205 now and the vibe here is totally different than it was when i first moved back to texas. and things have changed in a lot of good ways since then. tim got married, mike got a new opportunity in new mexico, shells gets to be closer to family, etc etc. lots of good stuff. but i still find myself missing those times past. when brett and mike would pull up outside my apartment on the way to northgate. when tim and cass and mike would smoke cigars in hammock chairs in the back. when shells and i would talk over mudslides trying to understand boys. when the boys and i would go to fox and hound and watch brett do ninja moves in the parking lot or i'd go to lunch with the computer guys and be the only girl and the only one to not get their computer jokes. and that's just the texas memories i have from last year i could go on even more about crazy undergrad adventures or fun times with dennis (like when he farted on a child once or crashed a 15 passenger van into a car), monica, jeremy, jed and jen. or bitch sessions with sociology peeps and the hell and adventure that brought me closer to people at marquette. i guess the reason i quoted that song up there was because i really just miss those close networks of friends that i was graced to spend various points in my life with. luckily tim and i can carry on the college station front and i'm so glad to get to hang out with him and lidia (except when tim makes me go swimming in the morning) :) and i have sara and sociology peeps to keep me sane with boys and classes and all that fun stuff. things have changed for all of us, but the friendships are still there. as the song says: "tonight i'll dream while i'm in bed, when silly thoughts go through my head, about the bugs and alphabet, when i wake, tomorrow i'll bet, that you and i will walk together again..i can tell that we are gonna be friends."

i know..i'm a fuckin' corn dog lately. bite it.

addendum: there are probably people that should have made it in that last paragraph but aren't there. i'm happy and grateful for all my friends. except for tim now who hates my corndogginess. bite it tim. :P just kidding. you all rock asses.

crisp texas air? *yawn*

so, i took almost a week off and relaxed my ass off in albuquerque. it was great and i had a really fun time spending time with one of my closest friends in the world, mike. we ate great food (even some that i made!) and went mini-golfing in the sunshine (i kicked his ass on one round....woo!) and i met some of his buddies in NM. it was just what i needed and i hoped that i would come home refreshed and ready to face the rest of this semester. hopefully that will set in tomorrow because it certainly hasn't today. i'm pooped and unmotivated to read 100 pages tonight, even though i really need to. lucky for me...spring break is next week and i will get some time to get work done. i have two papers to write this semester (one is my dissertation proposal..yikes!) and need to work on another project too so that i can be a superstar when i eventually graduate.

i'm probably rambling now. thanks for a fun time mike and thanks NM for being beautiful and enchanting while i was there. makes it hard to come back, but i'm so glad to have great friends in TX here to keep me sane.

okay, it's either reading time or bed time....we'll see how exciting this book ends up being.