Improv Everywhere

This is interesting. Improv Everywhere.

They do the most random things in the most random paces with hundreds of random people. You gotta love it.

No Pants Day
Food Court Musical
Frozen Grand Central


My favorite is probably no pants day. Why doesn't DC attract these types of events? It's always NYC.

The Coolest Thing Ever to Hit the Pool

I went to swim laps at the rec center on campus this week. I stuck my head under the water to get ready to swim some laps, but I heard something strange. Something that I thought was air bubbles in my swim cap at first. But the noise did not stop. Words? Were those word I was hearing? Or music? Could it be music? I asked my friend I was with if she heard it too, and lo behold I was not going crazy. She had heard an ad for McDonalds the last time she went swimming.


UMD broadcasts radio stations in the pool. Literally. Underwater. Stick your ears under and you can hear it. Come up for a breath and silence. It is the coolest thing ever. I had no idea it was even possible to listen to music while swimming. This will make using the pool much more enjoyable. When in high school, I always wished they'd invent something like this, and here it existed all this time.

Now I can swim to the beat.

A Functioning Freezer

My roommate and I finally got a freezer that works! Yay. They hauled away the old fridge and brought in a new one. Finally. Ice. And TV dinners.


The first thing I ate from our new spanking new freezer was one of those little cups of "stick it in the freezer and wait 24 hours and out comes sorbet" things. It was so tasty. And cold.

I remembered the name: Del Monte Fruit Chillers. Freeze overnight & Eat. They cleanse the palette. I recommend the glacial mango. Although, after looking at their website I also want to sample the frosty peach, polar raspberry, and arctic strawberry. Ok, that's all the flavors--it looks like I might still be eating sorbet when it starts snowing outside. Brrrrr.

Which reminds me...I have big plans for making smoothies soon, before it gets too cold. I love frozen treats.

Cheeburger Cheeburger

On Sunday my Aunt and I met up in a city between the two of us to catch up. We went to what I would consider one step away from being a "mega" church. The music was really loud, and the building looked more like a warehouse outside and concert stadium inside than a traditional church. A different experience for me, not necessarily bad, not necessarily good. I don't think I would drive for 30 minutes to go there again though. Meeting with my Aunt who I usually only get to see once a year was the nice part.

Then we went to a 1950's inspired diner in Old Columbia with electric pink walls and a cardboard Elvis cutout in the corner, Cheeburger Cheeburger. The sandwich and fries were delicious. I love how they encourage you to get about a thousand different toppings on your "invent-a-burger." It ended up being so big, I could hardly fit my mouth around it. Thank you slice of pineapple, onion rings, roasted red peppers, bleu cheese, lettuce, tomato, salsa, guacamole, and honey mustard. Yeah. It might sound gross, but it was great.

Touchdowns=Toppings

The Terps won another football game again today. Cool stuff. I wasn't feeling so swell this morning when I woke up, so I wasn't entirely sure I'd be able to go, but fortunately I bucked up and went.

Apparently, for every touchdown our team gets, every attendee can get a free pizza topping at Papa Johns. And if Maryland wins, they double that number. That means that this week we can get a large pizza with 12 toppings. Whoo. It's not so much that I would every want 12 different things on my pizza, but somehow game is more exciting when we can celebrate that we will have two more topppings to add to our Tuesday pizza. We got another touchdown? Oh, yay, more toppings! I think the people around us were cheering for other reasons.

My apartment building was having a resident appreciation party today, so we did our quote, unquote, tailgating, for free. We had hamburgers and then got our faces drawn by a sketch artist named Jerry. His technique is the giant face, little body style. I never much understood the concept, but hey, it's still kind of cool to have my "resemblance" on paper. Looks just like me, huh?

Casa Blanca USA

Today, a group of friends and I hit up the White House. Yeah. We went inside. I bet you are jealous now, but don't be too much, we only got to tour the first floor East Wing. Thank you Wisconsin congressman, (even though I've never stepped foot in Wisconsin).


It was cool, something every American should visit at some point in their life time. We walked through the Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room (my fav), and the State Dining Room in addition to a few others. I think I could get used to living there; a little stately elegance. My plan is in progress. My bid for the 2024 presidential election is only a few years away. Watch out Washington.

What I really want to know though, is how you get a job working in the White House. I was envying all the young professionals scurrying through the corridors. How could I be one of those people? Hmmmmm.

Oh, and about the one lone protester outside. He apparently he has a 99 year permit (of which he has completed 26 years) to camp out, but they don't offer such things anymore. All other protesters must go home to sleep. We opted not to walk by him; looked a little creepy. We don't even know what it was that he was protesting. When I suggested that I could live in the White House, I did mean in it. Not outside. Across the street. Or on the road.

Terps Football

I went to a REAL football game yesterday. Maryland vs. California. We did not get creamed. Or pulverized. Or chopped up and served for dinner like everyone seemed to predict. We actually won, 35-27. Go Terps!

I was amazed at how many people showed up. The Byrd Stadium holds over 50,000 people, and seemed to me like it was full. For students, they have a lottery system, so sometimes you get tickets, sometimes you don't. We, fortunately, did.

The cheers however, are kind of cruel. There is one that features the line, "Hey, you suck" over and over again. A real classy way of celebrating a touchdown. The most compassionate one though, was when a player on the other team got hurt and people in the crowd start chanting "you got f*@#ed". Well that was nice.

My face really hurts from the game. It's probably because it was about a million degrees outside and only two clouds were in the whole sky. My skin is about as red as the red shirt that I was wearing. Oh, good American sports.

Don't Forget to Dot Your Eyes

My sister got me the cutest eye equipment ever. A contact case and glasses case that match each other. They're purple! With polka dots! Sooooo adorable. I especially love the compact and travel oriented nature of the cases.


Now I can see when I'm on the move (see how cute my contact & glasses cases are).

9-11

Seven year anniversary of 9/11 today.

I can hardly believe it has been that long ago.

I remember sitting in chemistry class my sophomore year of high school when someone ran in and insisted we turn on the TV. There the world trade towers were on the screen, smoking away. I don't think it's a moment any American will ever forget.

My art teacher made us write down our personal response to the whole occurrence and seal it in an envelope because she said we would want to remember exactly what we were feeling in that moment. She was right; but now I don't know where I put that envelope. Maybe I'll find it someday.


Our hearts are heavy today in remembrance of the many lives that were stolen by the terrorists. But they did not win, nor will they ever. 9/11 only brought our nation closer together and revealed the good that was resting within millions of people.

Zig zag, Kick, Knee, Yah

Tonight a friend and I took a Turbo Kick class at the rec center. We had planned on going to a Latin dance workout class called Zumba, but it was cancelled due to some CPR training or something. Turbo Kick however, was pretty fun. The kicking and punching was especially fun. Our instructor was high energy. I figured that we spend all that money on student fees, why not take advantage of the classes offered?

Pretty soon no one will want to mess with me in dark alley ways. Yah.

The One

How did I completely miss John McCain's "The One" campaign ad fraught with Judeo-Christian religious allegories? I wanted to burst out laughing when I saw it. At first I thought it was produced by the Obama campaign, but something didn't seem right. It was over the top, too inflated, too laudatory.

Then, in the last few seconds, it all came together. It is making fun of Obama's religious following. It is so well done and poking fun at just the right spot that it becomes ridiculously funny. Obama as our saviour? As the deliverer to the Promised Land/Moses/Charlton Heston?

Here's the ad. You'll love it, no matter who you plan on voting for in November.



I feel like some young right wing conservative is sitting is his/her office chuckling about his/her cleverness for creating this concept. And he/she should be; because this is brilliance.

A Pool? Outside? At My University?

UMD is awesome. They have a pool. Well, actually 3 of them, but one is outdoors. That's right. And it's free for students.

Thursday some friends and I went to the pool before class. And basically it felt like summer. At a park. Sun bathing. Splashing around. A few laps.

I got a tan burn.

I love going to such a big school. They offer so many cool things and have endless resources.

They even hired a poor lifeguard to sit in front of the kiddie pool and watch the water drip off of the mushroom. I found it mildly humorous.

Raisin' McCain

McCain's speech at the RNC tonight was as expected, meh. The guy is a "maverick" (which is great verbal branding by the way). A war hero. A great man. I liked when he spelled out his policies and distanced himself from both his opponent and his own party. He did what he needed to do.

He did a decent job with his oration, but basically reinforced the same ideas I already had about him. He'll never be the public speaker that Obama is (or for that matter his candidate for VP is), but all the same, he gave a respectable presentation of who he is and where he came from. He spelled out his policies and plans and that seemed honest and straightforward.


Let me tell you, if I heard one more commentary about the balloon dropping, I was going to blow a gasket. We had the TV on ABC, and the newscasters started commenting for an extended period of time about the balloons and confetti falling from the ceiling rather than about the speech that just took place. It was disgraceful. And then we switched channels to CNN and lo and behold, they were marvelling at the balloon drop too. Apparently if you want to impress the media, just drop a few patriotic-colored helium-filled rubber things from the sky.

Gee guys; don't comment on the speech, please. We want to hear about how cool the convention decorations are.

The Treat

Before I drove back to Maryland today, my family picked up food from the Treat, aka iconic Shippensburg. This place has been there forever and draws a large crowd of individuals from just about every age group--middle school students to senior citizens.


I can't ever remember a time when the Treat wasn't there. It is probably the most successful ice cream shop and diner in town. They make mean Oreo flurries and hot fried ham hoagies. Today we had chicken dinners, but if you ever visit, I would recommend the ice cream. It's good.

Maybe not the best food ever, but The Treat is kitschy; and it is my hometown.

Day of the Laborers

Happy Labor Day (which might be more accurately termed Laborless Day since most of us have off work)!




Don't forget that you can't wear white shoes anymore. Not to say I will obey that rule. I will probably end up donning white shoes around around Thursday of this week.

Who made up the arbitrary shoe-color rule anyway? No black after memorial day? No white after labor day? Foolishness I say. Does anyone even go by that antiquated fashion nonsense anymore?