A Big Stack of Books

Don't you feel so smart and accomplished when you walk out of the library, with a stack of dusty and old books in tow?  

Today, I left the library cradling four huge books on the eruptions at Pompeii in 79 A.D.  First, I felt the satisfaction of having so much information at my fingertips.  Then, I felt the cool assurance that everyone who saw me thought I was some sort of intellectual.  

People who carry stacks of documents and textbooks just look cool to me.  Nevermind the fact that they might lose control of their load at any point--the fact that they have so many important things to keep track of is the object of my envy.    

I am not that important, but I think I will start carrying my books instead of putting them in my satchel.  I will just always have them at my fingertips so if I have a spare second in line at The Market or Java City, I can thumb through my papers and double check that debits go on the left and credits go on the right or that Mesosaurus is evidence of plate tectonics.  

The same principle applies to someone who wears glasses.  I don't care that I might attract screams of "four-eyes" or "nerd" because I think people look really cool when they wear their glasses.  I am not ashamed to admit that when I want to feel especially intelligent some days, I make sure to don my specs for class. 

Some may say these are the signs of a dork, but I think they are the signs of someone who is unbelievably suave.  After all, my mom always tells me that nerds rule the world.

What's Your Secret?

Every Sunday morning, after I've cleaned up and gotten myself ready for church, I take my coffee and sit in front of my computer and visit one of my favorite websites:  PostSecret.com.

www.postsecret.com

PS is an online community that displays postcards sent from all over the world that all have one thing in common:  they all share the sender's innermost secret.  In this website, tormented souls can express their deepest thoughts by creating a homemade postcard and sending it in.  The idea is that you get your secret out in the open, but don't have to hurt anyone's feelings or damage your reputation.

I love this idea.  This website is a link between old school and new generation:  postcards and blogs on the internet.  In this world of high speed everything, sometimes it is nice to remember simpler times of the snail mail and plain ol' postcards.

So, do you want to know my secret?  I cannot reveal it behind the anonymity of a postcard, but I will tell it to you anyway.  

My secret is that all day, every day, I wish I could come up with a secret interesting enough to earn a place on the PS website.  

Zogby : The Importance of Youth in This Election

I was thrilled to hear John Zogby would be lecturing at SMU.  I simply can't believe how many esteemed intellectuals SMU makes available for its students.  While I was excited to hear Mr. Zogby speak, I had a feeling the tone and content of the speech would be similar to other speakers.  I was wrong.

Mr. Zogby was a very engaging speaker, mostly because of his attention to the upcoming election in November.  Yes, he spoke about what each candidate offered, but what I thought was most significant was his attention to the importance of young voters.  While it is "up to Obama to lose the election", Zogby noted that there are so many youth that are fired up for this election that they could swing the vote either way.    

I know I am not alone in recognizing the unappreciative attitude our society has for America's youth.  We are loud, reckless, disrespectful, and don't know 'how good we have it'.  I get it and I agree with those comments for a lot of my kind.  

However, I know I am different.  I am appreciative, responsible, and am very grateful for my blessings.  And I know I am not alone.  Some of my peers don't get the respect they deserve.  While older adults in our community claim we are disrespectful, we feel we are disrespected by such stereotypes.

This election excites me because said adults are finally recognizing our important roles in this society.  Yeah, you may not understand us, or even want to, but we are going to have a large impact on the outcome of this election.  It is time for people to realize young people may seem reckless, but whether you like us or not, we do have a voice and we will be heard.

Ice Cream Diaries

Ice cream is my lover.  That's one thing my sister and I have in common...no matter what time of day, how cold it is outside, how many pounds I have packed on in the winter months, at any given time, we will gladly devour a carton of ice cream in one sitting.  

My sister is four years older than I, so she was in college when I was in high school.  Whenever she would come home for the weekend, I would go to the ice cream parlor, order an oreo ice cream cake and have the decorator frost an inside joke we share on the top.  Most of the time, it ended up being a quote from The Office, like "that's what she said" or "assistant TO the regional manager".  When she would come home on Fridays, I would pull out the cake and we would eat the entire thing and watch The Office in our pajamas.  Yes, it is true that we are party animals.  

One of the things that I remember the most about those times is that Jesse would always use a spoon and I, for some reason, adopted a fork for my weapon of choice.  And it was funny because our respective utensils said a lot about who we were as people.  

As Jesse is a journalist, she likes to absorb great doses of information (ice cream) and sift through it to find the essence of her discovery (in the ice cream metaphor, the coveted oreo chunk).      

I, on the other hand, use a fork because I don't like wading through nonsense.  I'm a 'get to the point' kind of person (and I REALLY like oreo chunks), so I don't enjoy wasting time with the ice cream when there are delicious chocolate cookies hiding in the abyss.  

When I eat, I stab through the cream to get to the chunks.  Much like my own life, I am ready to find the good stuff that I know awaits me.  It's out there, I just have to find it.  

I'm also unconventional.  I like to think that I go about doing things not necessarily the 'correct way', but the way that makes most sense to me, which, coincidentally, makes it the 'right way'.

I prefer forks also because they deliver a more painful stab when Jesse tries to steal the big oreo chunks away from me.  And this little feature tells a lot about me because, I am always concerned about how to protect myself and the things dear to my heart.  And quite literally, if you try to steal my oreos away from me, you will receive a swift and severe "pronging".  Don't say I didn't warn you.  

Jennifer Aniston and Her Magical Mane

Just try to argue with me:  Jennifer Aniston has the most perfect hair I have EVER seen.  Silky? Yes.  Shiny?  Yes.  Bouncy?  Yes.  Somehow, her hair is always coiffed to the 't' and not a single strand is out of place.  Is it because she has stylists on speed dial?  Or are her tresses a special, gifted breed?  I don't know, but I would like to think her hair is just naturally beautiful.  That way, it takes the pressure off of me to try to perfectly mimic her haircuts or up-dos.  

I feel like ninety percent of women take pics of Jen to their hairdressers and tell them to make them twins with the celeb.  However, if you will notice, only about one ninth of a percent of women actually have hair that holds a candle to Jen's.  I know every time I go into the salon, I take some sort of picture of Jennifer Aniston and say, "make us twins".  But, every time I leave, the result is nowhere near Jen's quality.  

I am getting my hair cut this weekend and, again, I am taking in a picture of Jennifer Aniston.  I don't know why I don't 'get' that my hair will never look like hers, but I just can't stop trying, even though I know it is neither the hairdresser nor the shears that make Jen's hair so lovable...it is just an intangible essence.  Or maybe, just maybe, it is a government secret like the truth about Area 51 or whether or not the King is still alive.