Damn You Auto Correct

This website is hysterical and I read about 200 of them last night:

http://damnyouautocorrect.com/

This site is also a time suck:

http://theoatmeal.com/

From the website I ordered this shirt for my gay roommate:

Shout Out

Giving a "shout out" is presumptuous because it makes the assumption that there are enough people reading a blog to "shout out" to. Well I fully acknowledge this and don't care.

Shout out to Kelsey Hart, Julia Gross, Betsy Flood, Katherin Rehn, and Megan Ranegar for having a sweet pad. Check it out:

http://www.flotrack.org/video/505178-Track-Shacks-University-of-Iowa-Womens-Cross-Country

STAY IN SCHOOL AS LONG AS YOU CAN

Today was the first day of school. IT WAS WAY BETTER THAN WORK.

Work is like this:

-Get up early

-Drive to work

-Sit at a desk and pretend to be professional for 4 hours

-Eat lunch for an hour

-Sit at a desk and pretend to be professional for 4 hours

-Drive home

-Get 3 hours to use for working out, eating, showering, and hanging out

-Go to bed

School is like this:

-Get up sort of early but it really only feels early cuz of the late night before

-Bike to class

-Have class for one hour where you can wear what you want and there is almost no standard of professionalism

-Take a nap or hang out with friends

-Another class in which the prof is progressive and throws in the occasional swear word

-Head over to the Pentacrest: Would you like some free lemonade and coupon booklets? You look parched from your long day.

- Why thank you! Don't mind if I do.

-Picnic lunch outdoors for an hour. SO DIFFICULT.

-Class again where the prof has been teaching for 50 years so he is really laid back and announces he will only hold lecture for 2 of the first 4 weeks.

-Bike home in the beautiful sunshine

-10 hours of free time/ workout time/ homework time

-Maybe go to bed or maybe stay up and hang out more

Why did I ever think that school was so bad???? This attitude will probably change as soon as projects, papers, and tests roll around. Then I will go back to hating school.

WORK = DONE. Sort of.

Today was my last day at the 'ol internship. It was kind of depressing because I felt like I met a lot of cool people there that I may not ever see again. I was pretty excited to have a week of summer before school starts. I say "was excited" because that was before I remembered I don't get a summer.

Instead I get to go to Dubuque for 5 days because one of my classes has "jump start week". This week was named in an attempt to make extra school sound fun. Well, my idea of fun involves a lot more sleep and tv and seeing friends and does not involve any sort of schedule or wearing of business casual clothing or wearing of more clothing than just shorts and a sports bra.

Here are the things that I already know I won't like about "jump start week" that wouldn't happen if I got my week of summer:

1) Waking up to an alarm

2) Immediately getting out of bed instead of lounging for several hours

3) Dressing nice

4) Feigning interest in things

5) Not napping

6) Conversing with people I will only talk to next week and never again

7) Being polite

8) Learning

9) Thinking

10) Having a positive attitude

11) Being asked questions like "What did you do this summer?" because there is nothing else to talk about

12) Introducing myself to people

13) Running by myself

14) Walking

15) Trying to stay awake

I am sure there will be plenty of good things but those are way less fun to mention.

Bix 7

Last weekend I ran the Bix7, a super hilly 7 mile race through Davenport, IA. The participation this year was about 18,000 runners and there was a giant post race party with TONS of food. It was awesome. Also at the finish was a large medical tent and volunteers who would look at people at the finish and decide if they needed medical attention.

When I finished I was very hot and tired and breathing hard but I want to make it clear that I did not need medical attention and I felt that I was behaving in a pretty acceptable way for someone who had just finished a hot, hilly, 7 miler. There was a woman with a bucket of cold cloths walking by and I asked if I could have one and reached towards the bucket. She was busy giving cloths to other finishers and walked away which made a medic nearby interpret my actions in the following way:

1) Speaking unintelligibly = confused and unaware of surroundings (Really I was just breathing hard so I couldn't make full sentences. I was not confused--I knew exactly what I wanted but that bucket lady wouldn't give it to me).

2) Staggering forwards arm outstretched = loss of control (NO. I wanted a freaking cold cloth).

3) Drenched in sweat = overheated (Duh. I just finished a race).

Anyways, the concerned medic grabbed my arm and forcefully pulled me into the medical tent shouting "Station 2! Station 2!" and led me to a cot to sit on. I kept saying I was fine but they wouldn't listen. They just thought I was confused and didn't know what I was talking about. Inside the tent I was covered in cold cloths and sprayed with water. This felt good but it was a little much. When they brought out the blood pressure sleeve I stood up and said "No, I really am fine" and left the tent. I think they were still skeptical but that medic had released her iron grip on my arm and I was able to get away. I then went and gorged on the post-race goodies and the afternoon was great.

BLOG! and MOVING

I have just noticed a trend that I like very much. There is a little thing I can click on to see how many people have read BLOG! in each month since it existed. I have a theory that the most common time that people read BLOG! is when they should be studying or doing homework. Notice how the number of views increases towards finals and then dips down during breaks. November had a small peak and then a drop during winter break. May had a gigantic peak and then fizzled in the summer. To me this says that people get more and more desperate for a distraction when they most need to focus. I am very glad to provide that distraction. Any day I can discourage anyone else from being productive is a good day for me.

On another note... I HATE MOVING. I have moved all my possessions out of my house except for some clothes and blankets for sleeping on the floor. Also, Our water is shut off. After a long day of work and then moving everything I own, I can't think of anything better than coming home to no water and curling up on the floor of my room to sleep. JOY.

Secret Service

When I saw Obama speak at work, I waited in line for several hours with a friend. During this time, there were numerous secret service agents perusing the area looking really intense and ordering people around. At one point a guy in a suit approached and asked what the line we were in was for and I got nervous like he was gonna kick us out for some reason. We did accidentally/on purpose budge in line and it seemed he was on to us.

Thankfully he was not secret service but a newspaper reporter who was just getting the facts for his story. Still, this got my friend and I thinking. We had been ready to do whatever this guy told us to do just because he had a suit on and looked official. It is very possible that if we had showed up in suits and looked really serious, we could have also ordered people around. Maybe this could work at other events too! Like concerts or museums or really anywhere with security. If someone came up to a line full of people and said that they needed to all hold their arms up so they could see that nobody had weapons I am betting they would do it and look absolutely ridiculous without a second thought. They could be told they need to stand in a line that is exactly 3 wide or that all their cameras needed to be inspected or the inside of their shoes needed to be searched for bombs and then some could get confiscated. The possibilities are endless and exciting.