Sorry updates have been scarce lately, but it's That Time Of Year again, and my days have pretty much looked like this:

8am: Eat
8:30am: March
12pm: Eat
1pm: Play baritone
5pm: Eat
6:00: March
8:30pm: Mandatory fun
11:00pm: Pass out.

Rinse, repeat, etc.

So tomorrow is our day off from band camp. It's good timing too, because all of us are turning into cramped, cranky, exhausted zombies. This is bar none the toughest band camp I've been to in my seven years of marching band. My knees and back are aching something fierce.

But it's okay. I have Dr. Horrible to watch on the iPod.

My birthday is Friday, which is the last day of band camp. Yay, two decades!

Yesterday, I went clothes shopping. I guess my mother took pity on me and allowed me to be Rich Kid for a day; "Go buy some clothes and just put them on your credit card. I'll pay for them when the statement comes." You wouldn't believe how much easier shopping is when someone else is paying. Obviously. Anyway, shopping is still difficult for me - I seem to be in this twilight zone of sizes and proportions. Things that fit my BOOBS look like a burlap sack everywhere else on my body. Things that look good and form-fitting and cute and show off my figure look pornographic with my BOOBS popping out of it.

And let's not even get started on pants.

Okay, fine, let's get started on pants.

Short with big hips is apparently a foreign concept to most clothing makers. I'm too large to shop at places like American Eagle and wherever else skinnier people my age shop, but things from here fall off of me. Ugh. So frustrating.

Add to yesterday's drama about my drivers' license and the awful old witch at the register, there was one bright spot in my shopping soap opera.

This. This adorable trenchcoat dress, which will be worn as a fall coat because I could not pull this off as a dress. But it fits me in all the right places and makes me look curvy. There's a slight buldge at the button closest to my BOOBS but nothing noticeable or cannot be solved with leaving the top button open. I looked at the price: Originally $110. Clearanced out for $40. I got it for $23. Last one in that size and color in the store. It was... destiny.

A Canadian playing Nellie Forebush in an Upper Pensinsula production of South Pacific. Bear in mind the character of Nellie is from Little Rock. Also, the dentist playing Emile and another Canadian playing Joe Cable.

Labels: nubbin

Is it such a big deal to the rest of society that I don't drive? Because goodness, I have sure caught a lot of flack for it these past few days.

I do realize that I am nineteen, almost twenty. I should have gotten a license four years ago, but I didn't. I took all of the drivers' ed classes and got both my Level 1 and Level 2. I almost didn't get my Level 2 because the drivers' ed teacher didn't feel I was ready - he said I didn't "have the focus" for it; something that was probably due to my ADHD. However, he did anyway after my mom pretty much called him a grumpy old cuntbag or something, I don't remember. After that, my mom wouldn't ever drive with me because of me very nearly trading paint with a Dodge Ram on the highway MY SECOND TIME driving. So, that pretty much put a screeching halt (Get it? Heh. I'm so witty sometimes...) on my getting-a-license process. I occasionally drive with my stepdad and with friends when I am called upon to be the DD or what not. As I am over 18, I can get a sort of modified learner's permit that allows me to drive with any licensed adult over 18. Also, since I have all of the classes and hours, I can get the 30 day instructional period waived. So, it's not like I "can't" drive.

Despite this, I've been catching a lot of flak for not having a license for things that, well, GENERALLY SHOULDN'T REQUIRE DRIVING.

Working at a band camp this past week, for instance? When I got there, the band director informed me that I would need to drive her van back to the school after the camp was finished; she had to ride on the bus with the students. Had it not involved driving through Lansing, Michigan, I probably would have just not said anything - there would be another licensed adult in the car with me. But given that, I felt it would be best to tell her. I am not a fan of city traffic. I told her the situation, and she said, "Well, that sucks, but you're not going NEAR my van."

Sigh.

And then today. Today, I went shopping for new school clothes at JC Penny. The lady who waited on me was an older woman. She was folding and bagging FAR too slowly, for one thing, but that doesn't really matter. I paid for my credit card, which apparently required me to present some form of ID. So, she asked for my drivers' license, and the following exchange ensued.

Her: I need to see your drivers' license.
Me: I don't have one.
Her: What do you mean you don't have one?
Me: I... don't have one.
Her: So... you don't drive?
Me: Yes, that's correct.
Her: Well, how do you get by without a drivers' license?

It wasn't even in a curious, genuinely wondering kind of way. It was a bitchy, "what the hell is wrong with you, you are in college and can't drive" kind of way. I kind of wanted to say something... but it wouldn't have been nice. Something along the lines of THE SAME WAY YOU GET BY WITHOUT THOSE SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS or something. Either way, I was pretty much fuming when I left the store. It isn't anyone's business why I don't have a drivers' license - it should be a non-issue unless I apply for a job that requires one, which, by the way, no job I have ever had has required one, at least up front. And good lord - since when was a license required to go SHOPPING?

Today, as I was walking across campus to check my mail at the union, I saw a bunch of marching band kids heading into the dining hall. Just off of a week of teaching little maggots (just kidding) how to march, I felt the strong urge to call them to attention to see if any of them flinched into the early stages of a ten-hut.

I didn't, deciding I'd look like an ass if they did it or not.

It kind of reminds me of this.

I'm back from the band camp I was working with for this past week. It was in DeWitt, Michigan, and it was a Catholic school. The camp itself was held at a retreat center run by the Franciscan order (or something)/the Lansing diocese. It felt very strange being there as 'ethnically Catholic' or just 'lapsed'. The grounds were gorgeous, but the buildings were very spartan and the whole place had a sort of monasterial feel. But I'm done and got paid and am so proud of the kids. When I got there Monday, I saw how they marched and etc. It was bad. Like, really bad. As in, during parade blocks, they got so far separated that the band director drove her minivan through their ranks. But when we had the demonstration at their high school yesterday, they looked like a real marching band. It was awesome. And it was nice to get paid for it as well.

Last night, I got home, showered, watched an episode or two of "How I Met Your Mother", and passed out. I got so little sleep over a span of four days that I just couldn't handle being awake anymore. When I woke up this morning, I felt better, but had an overwhelming feeling of, "Well, that's over. Now what?"

I'll tell you what!

My final FURSCA paycheck arrived today, and I got paid twice what I thought I would. I got a full two weeks' pay even though I only worked one week, technically. So, Leer suggested we head to his hometown, Sturgis, Michigan, and get his car new tires so we could head up to the UP tomorrow to see my family for the weekend. So that's what we're doing. If I don't update this weekend, you know why. (Because I don't have a USB modem and my family is stuck in a dial-up past. That's why.)

Today, I went to a wedding. It was the first wedding I had been to since I was, oh, eight years old. It's funny - this weekend is one of those times where I feel like a big girl. It's kind of scary that people my age - people I am good friends with - are at the proper marrying age. Not only that, but this weekend, my boyfriend and I got a hotel room with another couple our age. You know, things that grown ups do.

ENOUGH ABOUT THAT! The wedding! Anyway, it was one of my double sisters (SAI and Phi Mu) and my boyfriend's Phi Mu Alpha brother getting married. It was a simple, elegant outdoor ceremony at this place. It was really intimate for being outdoors. The reception was very unique, too. Instead of the traditional "clang your glasses with your silverware to make the bride and groom kiss" thing, they announced the only way they would kiss is if a.) someone got up to the mic and read a made-up limerick or haiku or b.) if someone correctly identified the music being played via iPod over the loudspeaker. The music was from mixed CDs the couple had made each other over the years. I had fun with it - the couple apparently likes a lot of the same music I do. :) The whole ceremony and reception was very personal, unique, and spoke a lot about the couple. There was no emphasis on one single person like I've seen with some weddings. (I might not have gone to a wedding since I was a wee child, but I've seen enough TLC wedding stories... I know that a lot of weddings just cater to the bride's "princess complex".) As one of the groomsmen (and one of my good friends) put it, "This is one of the only drama-free events I've been to. The couple is perfect for each other, nobody here doesn't like somebody else, no bitter exes hanging around, nothing. It's just a very happy occasion." And so it was.


I need to get to bed. I need to be up tomorrow to be on the road for DeWitt for that band camp I am working for, and it's going to take about two hours to get there. I sure hope that place has internet. I'm going to be one sad panda if not.

Hopefully (with their permission) I will have some pictures from the wedding to post soon. It was such a beautiful ceremony. I really wish my camera wasn't in Detroit because I was a dumbass and forgot to get it out of my friend's backpack after Cedar Point.

Finally... best of wishes to Carolyn and Stephen. You guys are perfect for each other. :)

So, as of 6pm yesterday, I am no longer a resident of Burns Apartments. I'm kind of sad that FURSCA is over. It was nice just banging around Albion and seeing people. I regret that I don't really get much of a vacation before school starts, but I suppose there is no rest for the wicked.

I'm currently staying at the lodge. I don't know if this is allowed, per se, but it's just for a few days. My company is Leer, occasionally (but never after 10pm, I swear) and a few birds (or bats, I'm not entirely sure) that are stuck in the chimney or nesting in there or whatever that twittering and fluttering noise is. I tried to light some candles in the fireplace to see if the... bat/bird would respond to it. Not so much.

As far as the rest of the lodge goes, it's hot in here. Very hot. And every time I open the windows to air the place out (and hopefully get rid of that lingering Saturday night in a freshman dorm scent), Campus Safety shows up to make sure I am indeed a student and not someone trying to clean out the place. I don't know that any potential robbery going down would be very effective - there's so much stuff in here from people using it as summer storage that a would-be thief probably wouldn't know where to start. But that's not really the point, I suppose. It's just hot and crowded in here. Also hard to get around because someone decided the front foyer would be a perfect place to put their stuff. Awesome.

Tomorrow is the wedding, and then the day after, going to work for that band camp for $50 a day. Hooray, money.

I couldn't leave this bit of awesomeness until tomorrow:



I love how Neil Patrick Harris is pretty much in everything these days. I didn't know much about him (I was too young for Doogie Howser, MD) until I started watching "How I Met Your Mother". And I don't care if this is Sesame Street, it's golden.

Good god, how is it August already?

It's August 1st, so that means I have to be moved out of the apartment today. I'm going to be a squatter around my sorority house for a few days. Here is the upcoming business over the next few weeks:


- Moving out of Burns (Aug. 1)
- Carolyn and Steve's wedding in Augusta, MI (Aug. 3)
- Work as woodwind coach for Lansing Catholic High School's band camp (Aug. 4th-7)
- General tomfoolery and further squatting in said sorority house (Aug. 7th-13)
- Band camp begins for some people! But I get to move in to my room! (Aug. 13)
- Band camp beings for real! (Aug. 16)
- Band camp ends! Also my birthday! (Aug. 22)
- School starts! Boo! (Aug 25.)

On a more interesting note, my boyfriend taught me how to drive a stick shift today. In his 1986 Saab 900, no less. My mom had warned me against him teaching me how to drive a stick - "If you want to stay in a relationship, I wouldn't... usually learning how to drive a stick ends in screaming, tears, and hatred." Surprisingly though, it was fine! I didn't grind the gears as much as I thought (only once), I only stalled out a few times, and there was no screaming or crying or gnashing teeth. I wasn't great at it, but I was certainly better than I thought I would be. This is exciting; in the future when it comes time for me to get my own phat ride (Ha. Phat. Does anybody even use that anymore? Oh, how times have changed.) I'm no longer limited to automatics like I was 24 hours ago. Plus, it was FUN. I can't explain it, but driving stick connected to me to the machinery of the car in a certain way; I felt like I was totally in control of what was happening with the engine (because you are) and not just passively sitting and driving. It was SO cool.

What is not cool right now, however, is the way my eyes are irritated. I guess that would mean it is (finally) bedtime.