Weeping Cherry Tree

The tree in our front yard is sooooo pretty, despite the fact my dad cut off all the bottom branches so he can mow the grass underneath. The poor tree looks half-naked, he he.

The only negative thing about a weeping cherry tree is the mess it makes. My car always gets covered in a rainstorm of tiny pink petals that stick to the windshield. I just wish those little boogers would stay on year round.

Yellow Spring

Look at the pretty yellow-ness of these pics I took at Penn State. I love Spring.

Yes, I am off to write poetry about yellow spring now, I've been inspired. The last poem I wrote was about suffocation... at least this one is sure to be more cheery!

Penn State

Yesterday I went with Emily to State College for her take a practice MCAT, but they didn't have it so we had driven for 2.5 hours for no reason. Therefore we walked around the Penn State campus and went in the little shops in the town. Aside the fact that Emily about killed us 17 times on the trip there on mountain roads that weren't even wide enough for one car, we had fun. Oh yeah, and one of the squirrels bit Emily. Now she thinks she has rabies, ha ha.

Globalization

Nicole and I got back from our globalization conference in Bloomsburg on Thursday and Friday. We went to with our English seminar class that is pretty cool group of people. I am really excited about the topic I wrote about for my paper--that is branding and culture and globalization. I thought after I presented, people would attack me since my ideas are often from a different perspective than most others in the academic arena, but actually people seemed to respond quite well. This made me very happy. I actually enjoyed the conference even though I lost many many hours of sleep for it. How exciting the topics of globalization are! PS. That didn't sound quite so nerdy in my head.

Sanjaya Gone

Dang it. I missed American Idol and this was the show that Sanjaya got voted off. After all the buzz and all the blah blah blah over him. Actually, I kind of felt bad for him. He knew he wasn't a very good singer, but the morons voting for him wouldn't let him off the show. Given his circumstances, I think he handled all the criticism pretty well. I'm interested to see what on earth he is going to do now.

Violence is Destroying the World

Since the tradgedy that occured at Virginia Tech on Monday, I have been on edge, not that this could even compare with what the students and families actually there are experiencing.

Today we watched a DVD in my Internationial Relations class about suicide bombers and the rise of females dedicated to the cause. This was horrifying and really makes me think of how trivial certain things are in life when violence is destroying lives. And then after that video I walked out of Shippen Hall and heard screaming. The first thing I thought was that people were getting gunned down until I realized it was just the elementary kids playing outside.

What kind of world do we live in?

VT shooting

I'm praying for all my friends at Virginia Tech after the awful shooting that happened yesterday. Thankfully Kevin, Harold, Graham, and Bryan are ok, but things like this are not supposed to happen. Hopefully God can turn this into a time to work in many people's hearts.

The Beetle

I just finished reading The Beetle by Richard Marsh, which actually outsold Dracula in its day. I must admit I liked it even better than Bram Stoker's classic. I think the action is a little faster paced, and the mystery is more intriguing.

I guess the real reason I like it better is that I found the ancient Egyptian allusions fascinating, although I wish I could rewrite the ending to better suite my fancies. I am surprised that I have never even heard of it before. See, reading piles of books for classes isn't all bad.

Amelia Bedelia

I had a strange blast from the past when I was thinking about the concept of 'dusting'. Why does 'to dust' mean to wipe away the dust? And why are those little particles called dust, when dust originally referred to what we now know as 'dirt.'

Anyway, this got me thinking about Amelia Bedelia. She is the star of one of my favorite book series that I read when I was a kid. Amelia Bedelia is a maid who always take directions literally. I remember her dusting the house by putting powder over all the furniture, drawing the drapes by doodling in a sketchbook, rearranging the towels by cutting holes in them, and putting the lights out by hanging light bulbs on the clothes line. The only way Amelia continued to keep her job was by making fresh pies and stuffing fork-fulls in her bosses' mouths as they spot each new disaster that she created. Who couldn't love Amelia Bedelia?

PB & J

Can you believe that my grandparents had never eaten peanutbutter and jelly sandwhich before? Soooo, when I found that out, we had a PB & J party. I think the conclusion was that they aren't so bad. I just find it shocking that anyone could not have eaten the most classic American sandwhich ever. I think we also discovered that black raspberry jelly is preferable over plum jelly.

When I was in Panama we had pb&j's every single day. That was 30 days of them. That was a little too many. And sometimes they were soggy. That was not good. But now that was long enough ago that I have recovered.

Eggies

I colored Easter Eggs this weekend and then we did not eat them. I was shocked when people told me they had eaten the eggs they had dipped in toxic colors. Something just seems wrong with that. Green eggs for eating? ewww.

I usually go overboard with my decorations, and spend like 30 minutes an egg so that by the time I'm done with 3, the others have already dyed a whole dozen or so. I like experimenting with the clear crayon the best and dipping the egg in more than one color.

On Sunday we hid the eggs at one of my relative's farm, and let me just tell you that it was cold. That was not really how I wanted to spend my Easter, searching for little eggies while flurries drifted from the sky. I suppose the weather helped us to find them a little faster... My mom already broke all of the eggs she found anyway. Soon the smell of rot will invade the dining room table. Gee, I wonder what will be the cause?

And this was the first year I didn't have an Easter basket to hunt at home. I'm too old. This is very sad.

Peeps

Oh my gosh. I had no idea people could be so creative with Peeps. Do you know how many Peep websites there are out there? I personally hate their sugarary marshmallowy disgustingingness, but I can't deny that they are cute. They get 5 stars for cuteness. I almost wish that I did like them just so that I look at them. Its just the gooey thing, and granulated sugar thing.

That said. If you want to see the poor little critters biologically tested, check out this Peep Research website. It is so funny. Especially the sad 'after' pictures of the Peep test subjects.

Easter

HAPPY EASTER!!