I know... it's a shock. A new blog. As I sit here wondering what the best way is to waste the next 45 minutes or so before dinner I contemplated many options. Read a magazine? Finish my book? Homework? Game online? Download more music? Facebook? Myspace? And then I thought to myself... hmmm it's definitely been awhile since I blogged. And that was that. The decision was made. I commited the next 45 minutes of my life to blogging and thus this post began. The spark of creation.

Now, since I was in this contemplative mood I thought I'd contemplate some more... what to write about? I could just fill you in on the last few months of my life... which I'll probably summarize in a latter paragraph though there are no promises... actually I probably won't summarize it... it would be too long of a summary to be considered a summary... more like an... ehhh, I'm stuck, I don't what it would be more like... just a too long summary. Or I could explain my thoughts on some random occurance that happened to me... but then I'd have to think of one good enough to share. I could talk about things that annoy me, like colored contacts for instance... I'm always up for complaining. I could of course make up a story too, which, if I did, would certainly start with "Once upon a time in a land far, far away..." and then gradually become less cliche. I could... ehhh that's enough. Summarizing this last paragraph, my options for topics were abundant and yet I could not reach a conclusion. So, as I always seem to be doing nowadays, I decided just to start writing and see what came out... and then I crossed a bridge I didn't know I crossed until I crossed. And that may sound confusing but it's quoted (more or less) from a much better writer than me and so I will leave it in because he's famous, I'm not, so it must be good, and I like to plagarize people who write good... errr, well... I've quoted the same writer dude twice already. Anyways... what was I saying? Oh yeah, the bridge bit. So, translation of the confusing bridge metaphor... it hit me what I should write about when I started writing and I didn't realize it hit me until umm... after it hit me? Okay, maybe that wasn't less confusing. I give up. I'm a math major I don't need to write good... err, well.

And, again, as always is the case, I don't get started on my actual topic until I've already written 5.5 hundred sentences. No use wasting more words on that though, let's get to the topic of choice. Wasting time. I'm not going to get all philosophical here, becuase if you remember, it is my goal to graduate Wheaton without ever having to take a philosophy course, but why do we consider little activities we do as a waste of time? You may "waste time" by going online... but face it, you WANT to be online during that time. If not, you'd be doing something else. We should never waste time... but always be doing something we want to be doing... even if it's just sitting down relaxing, or doing work so you don't have to stress about it later (weaker example I know, but I had to throw it in there so as to avoid anomalies... idk what that word even means... I don't think it makes sense here but that's okay). Wait... this isn't even where I wanted to go with this. Scratch this paragraph.

What I really wanted to talk about was how much people really DO waste their time by going on facebook and myspace... the two hotspots for college students. Now remember, any dissing I do here is totally fair because I am 100% one of these people who spends too much time on myspace and facebook.... I'm admitting my faults. Now that that's over I can continue. If you think about it, both programs are absolutely absurd. If you're one of the select few remaining people left who know not about myspace and facebook I shall write up a brief summary of them for you. They're these programs where you type all this silly information about you like your favorite movies, books, interests, etc. etc. and of course, pictures. If you don't include pictures you basically broke the first rule of facebook etiquette and are condemned to having a question mark as your picture. Rules you say? Oh there are definite, unspoken rules. Let's stay with the pictures for a moment. You can't include any pictures of you with your friends because it's impossible for new people to know which one is you... it's especially unacceptable if your friends are hotter than you. This is misleading. Staying with the hotness factor, you should only put in pictures that make you look at least 8 times more attractive than you really are... you will be more popular online. It is also a cardinal rule to change your photo rather frequently so as to avoid boredom and to encourage your friends to check out your profile to see if you made any other changes. Perhaps the largest rule though is that if someone leaves you a comment, you need to comment back or else they will hold a grudge against you until you do. It is perfectly acceptable to have 379 friends at your school even if you've never met them all... the number is what's important. And by the way, "poking" is soooooo 2004. I could go on and on with these rules here, but it's better to learn them through experience.

How many hours do we waste on these sites? Editing them, looking up our friends, commenting, hating "friends" for not commenting to us, checking out new groups to join, who likes the same music as you... the list is endless of what we come up with to waste our time on these sites. I mean it's virtually an online yearbook, complete with "signatures" which accurately measure how popular we are in comparison to our classmates. It's funny how much time we spend on these two sites... and almost everyone agrees. Yet, here we are, addicted to myspace and facebook. Always wanting to add more friends, post more comments, change your "about me" section, and check out how "popular" your friends are. I have no clever way to end this so this is going to be THE MOST abrupt ending I've ever had yet. I know you're waiting for a conclusion to tie it all together, but frankly my 45 minutes are up and I'm done writing.

So... I'm sitting here at 2:25 a.m. on a late Sunday night slash early Monday morning. Why, you ask? Do not worry. Of course, I will tell you. I'm not the type of person to type a "why" question and then not give you the answer. That is, unless, of course, I'm being rhetorical, which by the way is a difficult word for me to spell... especially, when it is, what...now 2:29 in the late night slash early morning (and did you think that was too many commas because I think so). Now where was I before I began that long run-on sentence? Ah yes... the answer to why I am sitting here at this late hour. Well... here it is my friends. I'm having some trouble sleeping and instead of waiting it out in bed, trying to convince myself that I'll fall asleep within the next 5 minutes, I decided to get up and blog. Why now? I have no idea. I don't even have a topic in mind. I am topic-less. I have nothing. A dry well. An empty present. Now I'm just talking silly and it is clear that I am very tired. At least dry well is an expression... or did I make that up too? But empty present?... definitely haven't heard that one before. I'm going to incorporate that into my daily speech... although I'm not sure how it should be used. Okay, forget that idea.

I'm going to try my best to stop rambling now and actually say something. What could I talk about? What are you interested in? What do you all want to hear about? I've been super sick for the past week... ehh, you don't want to hear about that. (See look... I'm reading your minds! I have that supernatural ability... bet you never knew that) Hmm... maybe that will interest you... other things I bet you don't know about me. Random things. Yes, I know I tend to be random anyways, but this topic could be fun. Let me explore and see where it leads me.....

Hmm... I bet none of you know that when I was younger I used to go into the woods and sweep (not rake... sweep) all the leaves away at this certain spot... and I'd carve at this dead tree with a plastic knife, determined to make it all the way through to the other side. I wanted to make it like my little secret spot in the woods. I'd go there all the time and sweep the leaves away... and I always hoped that when I came back the leaves would still be cleared and the wind wouldn't have moved them around. Okay, so I was naive... but I bet none of you knew I did that! Sorry... that one was kind of boring. But I like this whole child memory thing... I'm gunna roll with that.

I used to make cakes just to have a food fight. I'd put towels on the floor to avoid making a mess of the house. Don't know if my parents ever knew about that actually... probably not, or they would have been mad about my wasting food. What else.... I've only been in a hospital twice and they were both when I was a baby. One time was when I was just a few months... I had a super high fever or something and they had to give me a shot. Right, so that was a boring reason to be in a hospital. And the other time was because I ran into a radiator. That's right... picture little baby Trisha running and then going straight into a radiator and splitting her head open. I had to get stitches on my forehead and that's the only scar I have. I have fun imagining this one... I just can't imagine running into a radiator hard enough to do that to myself.

Okay, this whole blog thing isn't turning out nearly as fun and exciting and interesting as I was hoping. So far all I got is sweeping, cake, and a radiator. And now I'm thinking about psychology. I warned you I was random.... though this isn't as random as you may think, considering what I just said. My psychology thinking has to do with early memories and why we remember what we do. Isn't it funny when you think back? Picture your earliest memories. Are they really random things that seem to have no significance whatsoever? Because mine definitely are. I mean, I have just a few really early memories... I'm talking from like before age 5 because from 5 on I can remember quite a bit. The earliest I can remember anything is from preschool and I have 3 memories from then. I swear... they are THE most random things ever for me to remember. One is of me lying down on a piece of paper being traced at preschool... like for me to color "myself" in later. I just have this clear image of staring up at the wall, trying to lie still. Does this fit the criteria to be considered random? Yes. Here's another. I remember seeing a girl in my preschool class at Chilis. I didn't know her name and we didn't even wave to each other, nevermind say anything. Yet, I remember which restaurant it was and I can see her face in my mind... she was holding her mom's hand. And the last preschool memory I have is from when I was at a friend's house. Her mom was talking to my mom. And this will sound crazy but I swear, I remember this sooo well. My friend's mom was saying how she was worried because they only have one bathroom in the house and what would they do if any two people in the family are sick at the same time? I don't remember what they were talking about before that statement or after it but I remember the statement itself very well. I was playing with my friend's dollhouse on a turn-table at the time when it was said. Ummm.... question mark!!!! How random are those memories? I don't remember feeling extra emotional in any way at those times... happy, confused, or anything. And yet, I remember them so well. Why on earth are those the only memories I have from before kindergarten? Please tell me your early memories are just as random and I'll feel a bit more comforted.

Wow... my blog kinda went from nowhere, to somewhere boring, to somewhere that's about as thought-provoking as I can get at 3:09 in the morning. And this conclusion is going somewhere great too. And I have the strange feeling that if I go to try to fall asleep again now I won't be able to... even though I can barely remember the last word I typed I'm so tired and even though I kinda already forgot what I'm talking about in this sentence. And the fact that I just actually typed talking as tlkaing first and then fixed it I think kinda proves something that I'm trying to prove here... though I'm not sure what it is. Ummm... I'm tired. yeah. I think I'm gunna try that sleep thing again. Hope it works out.

I don't know how many of you ever check out my full profile in here... but it's just about my favorite part of the whole blogger website. Not all the boring, usual questions that ask me to list my "favorite movies" and "interests"... but the part down at the bottom that says "random question". This is the part I love and I think it should be at the top in bold and italics and bright colors to make it super stand out because it is that brilliant. If you know me at all, you know I am a fan of random questions... the more random the better... for I am a rather random person once one gets to know me. In case thou never checkeths my full profile, I hath decided to includeth my favoritest "random questions" here for your reading pleasure- umm... ith. AND furthermore, since this is my blog, I decided to type them here in bold and italics and bright colors to make them super stand out because they are that brilliant.

Random question 1: You have to dig a hole to China. Where do you start? Random answer 1: Preferably China... then I won't have a long way to go.

Random question 2: If mud is dirt plus water, what is clay? Random answer 2: If mud is dirt plus water, clay is clearly dirt plus water plus gray food coloring.

Random question 3: If you were a wrestler, what would be your finishing move? Random answer 3: It's a tough choice but I'd have to say the standing moonsault and just to show off I'd add in a stinger splash!

Random question 4: Whoops! Your tongue is now a magnet. Whatever will you use for silverware? Random answer 4: Uhh, plastic... duh!!!

Random question 5: The hair from your last haircut ... what would it say about your new style? Random answer 5: I could go the cheesy route and have it say something like "ahh you betrayed me" or I could have it tell the truth and say "you look pretty darn hot" ; )

Random question 6: All of the phone numbers have fallen out of your address book. Whose number do you look for first and why? Random answer 6: Who actually has address books anymore when cellphones hold like 600 numbers? But I'll play the game... Petey P's Pizza because I never know when I'll be hungry.

Random question 7: The first time you had your shoes taken off - how surprised were you to see that you still had toes? Random answer 7: I don't know about the first time, but it happened to me last night and boy was it a shocker!

Random question 8: Which is easier to make a model airplane out of and why: a banana peel or a wet sock? Random answer 8: I actually contemplated this for a good 7 seconds or so before answering and I think I came up with a rather correct response... it would depend what the sock were wet from... if it were wet from water I'd opt for the banana peel because you could at least knot and tie it's different sections... but the sock could be wet with starch and glue which would be easier to work with once it dried off a bit.

Random question 9: What was the stage name of your favorite actress before she was born? Random answer 9: Kiapheone McCormac.

Random question 10: What kind of tape is best for creating a sculpture? Random answer 10: Double sided tape is a miracle rolled on a ring.

Random question 11: You've written a hit musical! How will you avoid having fame go to your head? Random answer 11: The writers never get any credit compared to the stars so it won't be a problem.

Random question 12: If you were a pirate, how would you avoid laughing when saying "poop deck"? Random answer 12: If I were a pirate I suppose "poop deck" wouldn't be very funny... I mean, do you EVER see a pirate burst out in giggles?

Random question 13: What spells can you cast with magic markers? Random answer 13: A spell that will completely ruin your white walls and beige carpet.

Random question 14: Which is more important to you and why: flexibility or expandability? Random answer 14: Don't those words mean the same thing more or less... in my non-english major mind at least? I'd have to say expandability is more important because it's a longer word and longer words sound more important and impressive. Then again, is expandability even a word???

Random question 15: Why does the color blue mean raspberry-flavored? Random answer 15: Everything else was taken... yellow= lemon. Orange= well. orange. Purple= grape. Red= strawberry, watermelon, cherry. Green= apple. Blue= raspberry. Let me tell you something, green only equals apple because there were already three reds handed out... a fourth one would be too insane. When people decided that raspberries were loved enough to make into a flavor they couldn't give raspberry to red when they had denied apple that privilege... so they put yet another red fruit with the last color of the rainbow (because indigo never really counted). Hence, blue because raspberry.

I stopped at 15 random questions mostly for your sake... I hope now though you will occasionally check out my full profile and read the best part of the blog. It is updated more frequently than my actual blog... mostly because random questions intrigue me!

Nothing funny about this post... just sharing some fun times I've had with you. That is, I'm sharing with you some fun times I've had... not that it's YOU I've had the fun times with... got it? good. Continuing...

So... I've said about eight times before in my blog that I absolutely love NYC. (side note: aren't you proud that I didn't actually reread my fourty slash fifty past posts to see exactly how many times I said I love New York??? For me, that's a big accomplishment because I often do crazy things like that for "fun". For example, in my second or third to last blog I actually went to shoprite.com to check how many hotdogs are sold in a package when the real number wasn't at all needed for my story. I tend to over-research things in a highly nerdy fashion. And although I fully admit I am a math nerd who has calculated things one should never calculate for fun, I have never once tried to calculate the volume of my school... haha K+K. Okay, that whole side note thing got more out of hand than I had hoped....) As I was saying, I've said how much I love NY a bazillion times in my blogs... and this is another blog that kind of follows in that general nature.

So, a couple of weeks ago this friend of mine randomly asked me if I wanted to go into NY the next day to see a show. Of course, I never turn down an offer to go into the city... although I did at first but that's besides the point because I ended up going. Approximately 18 or so hours after that phone call I was on the train. We waited in the Rent lottery... and lost, as always is our luck with show lotteries even though the rent lottery had about twenty zillion less people than the Wicked one ever did. So, instead of getting $20 front row seats we got $40 mezzanine seats... all works out. Get this straight here... two weeks ago I went to see Rent and a mere eleven days later I'm back in the city seeing two more shows.... in one word, a-mazing.

Fastforward 11 days from when I saw Rent and subtract a good six hours and that's exactly when I was sitting in another theater in NY watching The Producers. Add those six hours back and I'm seeing Wicked. I could have died during that 11 day break and those 11 days would still have been the best 11 days of my life... not really, but I just love NY and musicals... as if it wasn't known. Three broadway shows in under two weeks... how many more ways shall I state it? I'll stop there for your sake. So yeah, none of the shows were completely new to me... I've seen Rent and Wicked before and I've read The Producers script. Needless to say, they were all good. In The Producers there were a good five or so moments of improv which were hysterical and the show is hysterical on its own, so that was just a hysterical time... hysterical... had to say it once more. And in Wicked I actually got Ben Vereen's autograph before his five bodyguards pushed him away... if you don't know him then shame on you because I absolutely love him.... sigh. I now have two Wicked playbills, one signed by Idina and one by Benny V. ... what more could I want? Maybe six more Wicked playbills from future performances I haven't yet gone to, but besides that really...

As of right now, I have no future trips to NYC planned... but I'm ready to pencil one or two more in before I'm off to school again... I just love it. Sorry this wasn't the slightest bit funny... but I had to share my extreme joy and love of the city.

I'm a cowgirl

Hmm... once again, I have little to say but I felt like writing... so I'm just gonna start this here post with whatever comes to mind and see what happens. I may end up just completely deleting this if it's no good... but if that happens you wouldn't be reading this now so..... riiiiiiiighttttttt..... don't know where I was going with that sentence exactly.... so I'll just awkwardly end it now, in the uncomfortable state it's in.

Summer's here. At least for people like me... in college that is. Not people like me as in people who begin writing blogs with nothing to say or something like that. Anyways, for all you highschoolers out there... you have to suffer another month or so... unless you're one of those private school "a la" Lauralton people who get out in May. Right.... like I was saying, it's summer. If you're a college student all summer means is you're back to curfews, you need to get a job, and you're forced to live hundreds of miles away from your "real home" where you now reside for 9 months of the year.... yes, you leave your friends and go back to "friends" you haven't talked to in a year other than a few "hi, how are you"s and "that's cool... sooo.... talk to you later?"s on AIM. Sigh. You know it to be true... this is why you are sighing with me. Just to clarify however, not all old highschool friends become "friends".... just most of them ;) I wanted to make sure I made that clear before I got a few phone calls slash angry IMs from my CT "ahem" friends.

For you current highschoolers slash seniors graduating this year, let me share with you some solid advice from a freshman year college survivor. First, about this whole "summer" business... you will come to learn that when you are away at school, you wish to be home. No school work, no classes to contemplate skipping, no realizing you can't buy those cheetos you've been desperately craving because you spent your last 75 cents on laundry.... when at school, you wish for home. But, there's a big but. When you're home, you desperately wish for school.... no cleaning your room unless you feel like it, only needing to walk across the hall to see your friends instead of having to drive across town, no cleaning your room unless you feel like it, and virtually no rules. Although it may seem like a lose-lose situation, it's so much better than high school. And your "home" becomes better than your home.... if you understand what I'm saying. And if you don't.... you're obviously still a highschooler... spend a year away at college and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Okay, that wasn't really "advice" there was it? It was more so what to expect. Here's some more "what to expect"ers. First.... bathroom related. You WILL have a shower stall that you call your own and even if the others are empty and yours is taken you will wait for yours to be free, rather than use another shower.... or at least seriously contemplate waiting. You will soon realize that it's not unusual to see four feet in the shower stall next to you. If you have co-ed bathrooms like my school, you will get over this much faster than you think... basically once a guy walks by in a towel. Again, on the same "if" as the previous sentence, you will forget that bathrooms in public places are not co-ed and you will go into the guys bathroom if the girl's is taken... and you will be awkwardly caught at least once. Haha... remind me to tell you a funny story about that in a future blog. And finally, you will have to get over the fact that everyone poops and it's not worth sitting in the stall waiting until everyone else in the bathroom leaves.

Now, on to the laundry related... yes, this is deserving of a category all it's own. You will, at least once, wear jeans for 13 days in a row without washing them, before realizing it's almost been two weeks... so then you check how much clean underwear you have left to decide if you should throw the jeans in the dirty wash and actually do laundry this weekend. You will most definitely celebrate whenever you find a quarter. You will have a pile of dirty clothes, a pile of once-used but not quite dirty clothes, and a pile of clothes used more than once but that you could use a couple more times without smelling too bad.

And the food??? Your breakfast will often consist of a Coke on the way to class. You will be grateful that the dining hall labels the food. Whenever you have a couple of spare dollars you check to see if anyone's willing to drive you to a Taco Bell or a Subway. By the end of the year you will probably have Domino's phone number memorized. Two meals a day is pretty much standard.

Classes... it won't phase you if a student walks into a class drunk, even if it's a 9:30 a.m. class. You will not know the names of well over half the people in your classes. Ten page papers used to sound impossible, now they're a godsend. You don't do homework you study. You can write in your textbook and not put a cover on it without getting yelled at. You will think $90 for a book is a fair price and will celebrate when you bring it back at the end of the semester, barely used, and get $6.50 in return. You will set your alarm in the morning for 8:52 to get to your 9:00 class, suddenly only 8 minutes are needed to get ready instead of an hour and a half like in high school. P.S.... about that 9:00 class there, you will realize that any class before 12:30 often gets slept through slash skipped due to sleep.

And the one everyone loves.... the social life... maybe that's an inadequate title here... let's just call it "fun". More often than not you will show up to a house party only to leave 15 minutes later because the keg has already been emptied, or it's so crowded you can't even see the front door. Related to that, parties are EXACTLY like they appear in the movies even though you thought they didn't really happen like that. Going to the library will be a social event. You will walk to check your mailbox two or three times a day for fun, and if you get a package then forget it, it's a time to celebrate!!! You will probably even pre-game on nights when the only place you go is to a free movie on campus. You will rediscover afternoon naps, and yes, an afternoon with a nap is considered a fun afternoon.

That's about all the "what to expect"ers I have for you. You may not experience all of the above. But I can promise you that one of your friends you make at college will experience the ones you don't. They're unavoidable. If you're already a returnee from college, please let me know if I have left something important out, or if (though very unlikely) you can not relate to my above situations. If this is the case I will add and delete items as I see fit. But really, I'm just kidding... I'm not going to change anything. And again, even if I did, you as the reader wouldn't know I did unless I told you which I'm not going to.... and I'm not sure how to end this sentence again sooooo it's ending.

Okay, I realize it's been more than awhile since my last post. But a lot has been going on and I haven't had the time to think up any creative-yet-somewhat-true stories to share with you all. Forgive me, for I have returned.

First of all I just have to celebrate that I got a sweet suite in Keefe next year with some of my favorite Wheaton girls: Amy (my oh so cool future roomie), Sarah, Genna, Esther and Meg!!! Forever Young is our winning theme... don't ask what it means, it's just too complicated for my fingers' liking to type out for you all. Basically, we got a suite because we said we're going to act like kids and fingerpaint and stuff... sort of, not entirely our plan, but true enough for the case of this blog. If I can get a spot in one of the oh-so-competitive-to-get-into suites on campus just by saying I'm going to fingerpaint for the Wheaton community, then I must be Mel Gibson's son.... which I'm clearly not.... so there's more to it than fingerpainting. Now that I mention it though, I wonder where he lives off campus.... hmm....

Speaking of wondering, I've been wondering a lot lately. More crazy, stupid questions to collect in Trisha's not yet existent book entitled "Random Things You Unconciously Have Wondered All Your Life But Never Thought of Asking Until Now". I must give credit where it's due. Not all of the questions I will tell you about have been thought of or even researched by me. But they have all indeed struck my curiousity in ways that are inexplicable slash unexplainable... whichever you think sounds smarter. Nonetheless, I will be inserting in-text citations in the proper MLA format when necessary.... that is, I will give credit to the people who thought up the questions, but there's no way I'm actually going to cite where I got the answers... not like those random websites care anyways, the only people I'll hear from who "care" are those who thought up these questions and then yell at me that I stole their idea and published it in my blog. Moving on...

Though probably the weakest of all my thought provoking questions, it is the one that struck me first and opened my mind to the world of random questioning. While in the bathroom of the lovely Meadows East 3rd dormitory, I went to grab my toothbrush and proceeded to brush my teeth. I noticed that, yet again, my toothbrush holder was slightly ajar, exposing about four millimeters of my blue (or is it red?) toothbrush. This got me wondering, why don't they make toothbrush holders the right size to actually hold a toothbrush? You may think I'm crazy if you have not had this experience. Perhaps you have only used a toothbrush holder while vacationing, at which time you may have also used a TRAVEL-SIZED toothbrush, which works out quite nicely. But in the big boy world of toothbrushes, these toothbrush holders don't cut it. They're too small. It should be a one size fits all kinda thing, not a one size fits most!!! This has been a thorn in my thumb, or whatever that crazy expression is, for this whole year. Yes, it's kind of like the timeless "why do they sell hotdogs in packages of 8 and hotdog buns in packages of 12" question... but I bet you haven't heard the toothbrush holder one before! Just as a side note, when I went to shoprite.com to verify the correct number of hotdogs vs. buns that are sold in a package, I noticed that supermarket industry hotdog sellers got tired of this age-old question and started packaging both hotdogs AND their buns in packages of 8! Learn something new every day.... oh yes, and the credit here all goes to me (Carr, "Toothbrush").

Next question was raised, and researched by Miss Amy Lizbeth Breckenridge. Where do hamsters come from? I mean, you never see a hamster crossing the road, or running around in the woods. What's up with that? Where do they live? The answer to this one my friends is actually kind of cool... at least I think so.... in a nerdy kind of way. Hamsters were first "discovered" in 1839 in the Syrian desert in the Middle East.... so that's like Asia or Africa or something. For awhile they were thought to be extinct, but in 1930 a scientist in Syria found a girl hamster and her 11 babies. Only four of the little hams lived!!! Every hamster today is descended from those four brothers and sisters.... try not to think of it as incest, it's much more pleasant that way. They were smuggled into England in 1932 in the pocket of an unnamed zoologist and brought to the United States in 1938. Someone thought these little, furry mice like things from Asia/Africa would make good pets and they started breeding them alot more. Hamsters are "once again" extinct in the wild... none have actually been seen in Syria since two were captured by a rodent control officer in the 1980’s. Word is that if you spot one in Syria and report it they'll give you some award... not money I don't think.... more like an honorary plaque or something. Tell me honestly that that isn't cool and I'd bet $10 you were lying. That's a fun little history/biology/zoology question there I think!!!! (Breckenridge, "Hamsters").

Okay here's another one... why is it that the hair on your head can grow to be very long but the rest of the hair on your body "knows" when to stop growing at a certain length? Brian thought up this mind boggling phenomenon and I looked up the answer to this question... the answer of which goes way over my non-biology orienented brain. But I'll give a shot at explaining it with as few biolographic terms as possible. Okay, so your body hair has these hair follicle things and they're programmed to stop growing every couple of months or so versus head hair follicles which are programmed to grow for years at a time. Then there's something about growth phases, and rest phases, and hair falling out. It all boils down to, your body knows. Basically, that's the only law of biology I'll ever need to know. Your body knows what it's doing. Case closed. Still an interesting question. If you're a biology person I recommend looking up the real answer... it's probably really interesting if you understand it. (Gonsalves, "Hair").

Okay, next question, courtesy of Kurt Adametz. With heart transplant surgery, during that amount of time when you're heartless (when they removed your actual heart and have not yet fully sewn in your new-from-another-person's-chest heart) are you technically dead? That is, if you're heartless, your heart obviously can't be beating, and a beating heart is what makes you alive (in my non-biology world at least), so do you kind of die and come back to life? It may sound silly, but I bet you're intrigued. I had some people assure me that there was no way around "temporarily dying"... that "of course" that's what happened during a heart transplant, and "how could I think otherwise?". But these people were making fun of me and just testing me to see how gullible I was. Here's some relief... you don't die. During surgery, a heart-lung machine takes over the functions of the heart and lungs, freeing the heart from its normal function so that it can be removed. The use of the machine allows the surgeon to carefully stop the heart while the vital organs continue to receive blood and oxygen. Simple answer I suppose. I'm glad to know that if I ever need a heart transplant I won't have to go through a temporary death. (Adametz, "Heart").

This last question I have not yet been able to find a direct answer to. So if you can help me out, please do. I was just wondering, how many chickens die naturally nowadays... I mean, so many seem to be killed for food... how many out there actually die a natural death? What I really want to know is what percentage of all chickens that are born actually end up dying naturally. Like I said, no direct answer. Whenever I typed "chickens amount killed food die naturally" into google I only got about 8 million animal rights sites. I now know however that animal activists are angered about animals used for not only food, but also dairy, animal testing, clothing, pet shops and entertainment. I kind of already knew this, but I didn't know it was these significant six that showed up everywhere... it was like a list of the ten commandments or something.... 1,2,3,4,5,6, bim bam boom... a paragraph dedicated to the exact same reasons why animal activists are angry on every site. It's like the official rules to being an activist or something. I'm sorry, it's not something to joke around about. I'm kind of ashamed, looking back. Not enough to erase it all, but ashamed nonetheless. More pertinent to my actual question however is that 9 billion chickens are killed each year in the U.S. for food. And the most I've been able to gather from any one website is that that number is by far "the majority of chickens born each year". 20 million are killed each day in the U.S. When thinking up this question, I didn't want to find all these gruesome details that make me feel guilty about not being a vegetarian.... I wanted to know how many die naturally... which can be a beautiful thing.... natural death. Certainly better than the destiny 9 billion American chickens fulfill each year. Before answering the question I would have thought billions still die naturally... now, after visiting all these awful sites, I swear to you I wouldn't be shocked if the number last year was seven. This one, again... all me. (Carr, "Vegetarianism").

Some fun questions, huh? Get you thinking??? Good! I'm glad!!! I'm glad to have inspired you all to find out what makes hair mousse so puffy, why the sky actually is blue, and why the gas tank is on the left side of some cars and the right side of others. I'm also glad to have taught you a thing or two. My real question now is, once it's published will you go out and buy "Random Things You Unconciously Have Wondered All Your Life But Never Thought of Asking Until Now"?

I have some very sad news. I forgot to celebrate my one year anniversary of blogging on January 29th. I was going to write a very special post, commemorating this past year... but instead I was probably out with my dance friends having fun. So tragic.

So yes, I have now been blogging for over a year and I have a mere 44 posts, this being number 46. Wait, that doesn't make sense... erase that.... this being number 45. That's better. Sigh. What has become of my life during this past year? I graduated high school and have now completed my first semester at Wheaton, but what does it all mean.... what is the significance? I should take a philosophy class... I'm good at asking random, thought-provoking yet utterly pointless questions that I don't really care about answering. Actually, it's my goal to graduate Wheaton without ever having to take any philosophy class... I'd rather avoid the controversial topic of "the nature of reality" if I can help it.

The classes I actually am taking this semester are pretty cool. My prof for Calc II is Napoleon Dynamite and my Macro prof wears size 15 shoes. In French we're currently learning the alphabet and in my poetry writing class we're learning to "hear the words that live in silence". My psych class I have nothing fun to say about except that it's really cool and interesting and I actually have friends in that class. I should have a pretty easy semester... I don't have to write one paper in any of my classes and I'll only have 2 finals. Woot woot!

I've honestly spent more time on dance than I have on work lately. I had to come back to Wheaton two weeks early for the dance company. Each day was 8 hours of dancing and we learned like 4 new pieces and cleaned everything else up. Let me say that again because I don't think you fully comprehended what I just said. Each day was 8 hours of dancing... do you realize what that really means?!?!?! It was exhausting. Lately, we've been running our entire show like everyday which is just as tiring as preseason was. In one week we start onstage rehearsals and a week after that we have our performances and we're done for the year! Woot woot times two this time!

About the only good thing about preseason was that I became alot closer with my dance co. girls. We hung out quite a bit and now we'll spend the occasional weekend going out together. We've had some fun times!!! I'm glad that now I have two strong groups of friends up here... my original Young 1sters and the younger half of my dance co. girls. I don't feel like going through the whole friend introduction like I did with my Young 1st friends, so from now on just recognize these names as being my dance co. friends (along with their brief intros): Rachel (my fellow math nerd and supercool Texan friend), Stephanie (Young 3rder who I LOVE), Lauren (uppercampus dweller who's really funny), Amy (a friendly girl who lives in a basement and has pooping issues), Susan (a gebbie goddess who is super sweet), and Kurt (the guy who's not in the dance company but should be). Got it? Good! Moving on then....

I moved rooms too, now I'm in Meadows East... a much larger, noisier, non-wellness dorm on campus. It'll take some getting used to, but it isn't half bad. And I still (illegally) have my key to get into Young so I can go back and visit my friends there whenever I want. My new roommate is a sophomore from Florida. She seems cool but is barely ever in the room so I haven't really gotten to know her. I swear that the only times she is in the room is when she's dropping off more new dvds she just bought.... I swear that this girl is a living Blockbuster store.

Tonight's the superbowl. I won't be watching. I will be sitting in my room, doing my hw, secretly hoping that the Eagles win. Did I just say that, living in New England?!?!?!? I think I did!!! :0

Saturday was my annual dance party. Always changing in its style, but always fun. When we were younger, this party consisted of swinging on hammocks while squirting people with water, riding down the stairs in sleeping bags, singing Big Spender 800 times during the night, wearing cups and other kitchen paper products as clothing, and calling male strippers. Now we are much more mature. Events have changed to playing telephone, trying to levitate people in chairs, writing in lipstick on windows, talking to turkeys, butt cherades, and playing truth or dare with ghosts (much to Catie's freaked-out-ness). They may not sound more mature... but the party in itself is much more mature than it was. The only constant thing that hasn't changed over the years is the writing game and my brother's brownies that he never fails to fail at making. One thing's for sure, it's always fun no matter how old we get.

This year was a good group of people. Almost everyone who normally comes was there, plus some new people who I love.... no one real young this year which probably accounts for why the party was so much more mature in its nature... as I proved in the previous paragraph. The movie this year was Identity, which I didn't like but could enjoy watching. You know the type I'm talking about. Identity is your typical horror movie... ten people get stranded together at this run-down hotel and they start getting killed off one by one. They should have just called it Your Typical Horror Movie. Okay, that was a bad joke... now I have to try to save myself throughout the rest of this blog... (I hate when I do that to myself!!!) There was a weird psychological twist though which was partially cool and partially ruined the movie for me. There were some valuable lessons hidden in the movie too. For instance, never worry about a convicted murderer... he's too obvious to be the killer. Also, when trying to figure out who the murderer is, always be suspicious of a little kid... especially if his mother and father both were killed... what better reason to kill someone than if they make you eat your vegetables? The best one though, which I will always carry with me, is this... whores don't get second chances. So don't become a whore... you won't get a second chance.

Jaime, Steph Smith, and I stayed up the whole night. An accomplishment that all sleepover-goers aim for. I am proud to say though that I am the champion. Not only was I up the whole night, but I stayed awake that entire day... until 1:00 that next morning. A straight 39 hours beat everyone's "I was awake from 7 that night until noon the next day". Ha! That's childish now compared to my feat of awakedness!!! Anyone care to challenge me next year? I dare you!!!

I'm obsessed with the musical Wicked. In fact, it goes beyond mere obsession. I'd say I'm mildly addicted to it. For the past however many months I've listened to the cd on average 2.5 times a day, downloaded as many video clips as I could find, read the complete script, continuosly checked the Wicked forums and fan sites, and put favorite quotes in my profile. I had not, however, ever seen the show. Until yesterday. The day my life became complete...

I introduced Miss Kimberly Dolberg to the amazing musical that is Wicked several months ago. Since that day, she has only grown as obsessed with it as I am. For her 18th birthday she happened to recieve 2 tickets to see the performance during Idina Menzel's last week. Idina Menzel IS Wicked; she makes the show... I told her I would happily accompany her if she needed someone to go with. OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! I was quite excited.

The show itself was UNBELIEVABLE! I thought that knowing the entire script by heart would be a disadvantage for me and I wouldn't be able to appreciate alot of the "surprise" aspects of the show... including the jokes. I couldn't have been more wrong. How I read the script in my mind at home was sooooo different from how the actors portrayed the characters. It was exciting to watch and absolutely hilarious! The special effects were different from how I imagined them to be and the performers switched up how they sang alot of the songs too which kept me on the edge of my seat... something I didn't expect! I was so emotional that it was just.... well, disgusting. I've always thought those people who go to like a John Mayer concert or something and cry just from seeing him were ridiculous. But.... there I was.... in the Gershwin theater.... crying for no reason the minute the curtain opened. I was finally seeing what I had been obsessing over for so many months. It was unreal.

Let me make one thing clear before I go any further. When I say crying, I mean crying. I can't explain it. It was the most amazing feeling! I literally thought for a minute that during intermission some usher or somebody would come over to see if I was okay. I kept trying to control the tears throughout the whole show. Now that we understand the real meaning of "crying" I may continue.

All of the actors' performances were flawless. Idina literally sounds better live than on the cd which absolutely blew me away. That never happens with a performer. She was unbelievable! Jennifer Laura Thompson who plays Glinda was hilarious! I never saw Kristin Chenoweth (she originated the part) play the role, but I could tell just from listening to her portrayal on the CD that Jennifer made the role her own. She was totally different from how I expected Glinda to be and it worked beautifully! I could not stop laughing whenever she was onstage. Joey McIntyre was in it and he was way better than I expected. This was one case where bringing a pop singer into a musical to try to increase its ticket sales didn't ruin the show. He was actually really good and fit right into that broadway stage! It was really just unbelievable. I'd give anything to go back and see it again.

After hearing Idina and Jennifer prance around to "I like chocolate, I like cheese" we ran to the stagedoor to get autographs. Well... I didn't HEAR them prance around, but they were singing/laughing and kinda jumping around after the curtain call. Wickedly funny! Pun intended. While waiting for Idina to take all of her green makeup off, Kim and I stood around, sandwiched between 800 other fans. Some group of girls in front of us were beyond fans. They acted like they knew her. One of them had seen the show 11 times. Do you realize that's over $1000? Anyways, some little girl had a gift she had wrapped to give Idina and these girls were like "Oh, don't worry! She'll take your gift. She loves little kids. And Joby will open it for her... she always does!" Apparently Joby is Idina's personal assistant who handles threatening gifts from children that may be bombs in disguise. But these girls were rattling off all little things they knew about Idina, like her personal assistant's first name. I swear, I wouldn't have been surprised if they said that Idina uses their apartment to hide away from the fans and that they've had several sleepover bonding sessions complete with home movies and doritos. Ever since then I've felt very competitive about this "who know's Idina better" kinda thing. We wanted to be like... "oh yeah? What kind of toothpaste does she use? Don't know that one do ya? Huh? Huh?!?! HUH?!?!? .... It's Crest, so there!". And later on, when on the train, we saw someone else with a Wicked program and I swear I wanted to be like, "hmm... I notice you don't have any autographs. Well, I happen to have Joey Mac's, Jennifer's, and one of the twenty-out-of-800-one's that Idina actually signed! Jealous now, aren't ya?" I really am too big of a fan. Something is wrong.

I said to Kim that if they ever make a movie of it I will be in trouble. I think I would literally watch it every day. That's not healthy. Simply put, Wicked was insane. I have never been so totally absorbed in something for 3 hours before in my life. And... I've never cried that much out of sheer excitement before. And... I think last night was the first time my competitive side came out. And... I can't wait till I can go again! Woot woot for Wicked!!!!