I feel like a stay-at-home mom.
Except I'm not married and I don't have kids.
You may have gone back and re-read that statement. And you still don't understand. Allow me to explain.
I have been out of class since 11:00 AM and had planned to spend the rest of the day (until practice at 4:00 PM, that is) doing homework for the classes I have lately been daydreaming through. I know nothing about what's going on in Finance, Accounting, Marketing, and Risk Management....
But I had to stall this self-tutoring in order to run to the mall to pick up a birthday present for a friend. And then run a few more errands. At the mall, I saw many a stay-at-home mom in sweatpants, t-shirts, and pony tails pushing strollers around the mall. They were giving me funny looks like, "Aren't you supposed to be in school? It's 11:30 in the morning." (Remember that I was asked multiple times this summer if I was 15 or 16. So I assume they assumed I was in high school.) Either way, I felt really out of place, even though I was very well-groomed (which is rare for a rower, mind you. We're always too exhausted to care about our appearance).
Anyway, after scurrying around the mall during "mom" hours and not "college kid" or "high schooler" hours, I had to run over to Target to pick up a few more things. It was pretty much the same thing over there--moms with babies picking up the same items I was: birthday cards, shampoo, workout clothes, make-up, etc.
Then, I came home and noticed that there were a few chores to do around the apartment. Nothing that should take too long and I could certainly leave a few for my roommates to do. That's only fair, after all. But, no. I immediately turned into a germophobe-mom-clean freak who couldn't leave one square inch of the bathroom, shower, kitchen, living room, etc, with an ounce of dirt or clutter on it. After a few hours of coming out of my self-induced neat freak coma, I realized the whole day was almost gone. And that I will just have to spend my Thursday evening studying for all of my classes.
It was then that I started to see a trend.
I'm being too responsible.
I'm taking 15 hours of course load this semester, have a Risk Management and Insurance internship, am the secretary for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, practice 20 hours a week for rowing, and just took on a weekly babysitting job. Like a stay-at-home mom, I have started to assume that I need to do everything by myself and that no one is qualified to help me. Which is a recipe for disaster.
By being at the mall during the day, I realized I'm beginning to lose focus on what I'm actually here to do: go to school and row. That's it. All of the extra things I've added to my life will look great on a resume, but will they help me lead a happy and healthy life? Or will I constantly be overwhelmed on a day-to-day basis by everything I've added to my schedule?
I'm supposed to just be a college kid who has fun and works hard at school. Instead, I have assumed the roles of athlete, nanny, student, business person, and board member. The problem is: I want to be all of these things. I guess I'll just have to figure out how to make them all work without digging myself into a hole.
Now, how do I get rid of this shovel?
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Hide your kids, Hide your wife.
I'm so exhausted it hurts. But you deserve this. Because of my lack of updates lately, you deserve to hear about my Saturday night.
It all started about 4 months ago when Avatar came out. Our teammate was so obsessed, she immediately planned an Avatar-themed birthday party for her 21st birthday. Her birthday is in August and she promptly sent out an invite in March. Just so we could pencil it into our calendars and would have absolutely no excuses as to why we didn't attend. Then, for the next few months, she sent out threatening e-mails AT LEAST once a week telling us that if we weren't at her Avatar party, we were as good as dead. She would have no mercy. Therefore, Bag Lady and I planned our outfits last spring. And she began growing her hair. It is now down to her lower back (almost butt) and was perfect as an avatar braid (which is what she had been "training" it for for a few months).
Finally, the day had arrived. At about 8:00pm yesterday, Bag Lady (roommate) and I started braiding our hair. We braided our entire heads. Then a friend of ours came over and we began painting ourselves blue. We painted our entire bodies blue. It took about 3 to 4 hours to get completely ready...and we had three other people helping us paint and get dressed. We hadn't even thought about the possibility of the paint staining our skin blue until a friend came back from using the restroom: "Uhh guys....I just tried washing my hands and...uh...they're still blue. I scrubbed them and I can't get the blue paint to come off of my hands." Bag Lady and I drop what we're doing, slowly raise our heads, and look at her with utter disbelief. I cannot speak. I can't utter a single word. Bag Lady, on the other hand, drops her head back in despair and wails, "I'M GONNA BE BLUE FOR THE REST OF MY LIIIIIIIIIIFE!!! NOOOOO I CAN'T DO THISSSSS!" I kinda start laughing because, hey, it would be pretty funny to walk into class Monday morning with a blue tint to your skin. It would definitely come off throughout the week and it would make a great conversation starter. Boy-I-sit-next-to: "So, what did you do this weekend?" Me: "I went to a blueberry patch and ate a bunch of blueberries. They were sooooo good." Then I would stare straight ahead and listen to the professor as Boy tries to figure out what exactly just happened.
Anyway, we figure that we're already blue so we might as well continue getting ready and deal with the whole being-blue-for-the-rest-of-our-lives-thing when the night is over.
We go to the party and immediately step into an acid trip from the 70s. Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Rain" is playing in the background and there are blacklights everywhere. Everything is glowing in the dark. The walls are covered with leaves and paintings of Pandora (the planet in the movie Avatar) and paper mached horses, plants, and flying things are set up around the room. Objects are hanging from the ceiling, I was stepping on unidentifiable objects, different colored drinks were being passed around...it was nuts. It was fun.
Until the cops showed up. I wasn't nervous at all because I was a good girl that night and hadn't had a single drop to drink. They immediately ask for the owner of the apartment. She shows up to the front door looking like this:
Meet the birthday girl. She went all-out; didn't eat chocolate for over 2 weeks and worked out hardcore every day to don this. And is now talking to SIX cops while sipping on the drink in her hand.
They take one look inside the apartment and go, "Holy shit. What the hell is this?!" Apparently they had never seen Pandora before...but I'm pretty sure they've seen a druggie's house and this looked pretty close to that. So I was surprised at their shock.
They say that people in the apartment complex called 911 because they saw people walking around with guns. Well in the movie, there are army people who have huge guns. So some people bought fake guns and spray painted them black (thus painting over the orange tip that is indicative of fake guns). She convinced the cops that it was all in good fun and it was her 21st birthday party. They asked, "What in the world are you wearing?!" She replied with, "Well a loin cloth, of course," as if it was completely normal. Which it is...for her. She spun around so they could get the full effect and therefore mooned the 6 cops standing on her front porch. "Sorry," she says, "Inevitable wardrobe malfunction," and laughs. They start laughing and walk away saying, "Happy birthday, Lauren. Have a good night. And just hide the guns." "Ok, thanks for stopping by!"
Everyone inside can't believe how smoothly that all went down and Lauren does a victory fist pump in the air. Back to the party.
Later, I leave with Bag Lady and another friend. We are trying to figure out how to get the blue off of our skin without turning our bathroom blue. We resolve to trying to find a hose around our apartment complex. Finding no such hose, we use a fountain in one of the courtyards. We basically took a bath in that fountain. It was probably so dirty, but we didn't care. The blue came off relatively easy. The only downside is that it turned the fountain water blue. Hope the fountain is ok today....
Then I took another shower, changed into my pjs, and we watched the end of Forest Gump until we all drifted off into a Pandora dreamland.
See pictures below.
The horse from the movie. Made out of paper mache and chicken wire.
My amazing roommate who painted her body with me. Love you for this!
The group posing in my kitchen. From left to right. we have a cat, army people, two avatars, a Princess Lea, and a tree.
In the process of painting ourselves blue. In the mirror you can see roommate's look of concern....we were semi-worried that we were going to be blue for the rest of the week.
One of my best friends. Love her to death
Mail-ordered yellow contacts and fangs. Was also wearing a loin cloth. Also has feathers in her hair. Also made a bow and arrow out of string and sticks in her backyard. I'm almost convinced she was an Avatar in her previous life. Hope you had a great birthday!
It all started about 4 months ago when Avatar came out. Our teammate was so obsessed, she immediately planned an Avatar-themed birthday party for her 21st birthday. Her birthday is in August and she promptly sent out an invite in March. Just so we could pencil it into our calendars and would have absolutely no excuses as to why we didn't attend. Then, for the next few months, she sent out threatening e-mails AT LEAST once a week telling us that if we weren't at her Avatar party, we were as good as dead. She would have no mercy. Therefore, Bag Lady and I planned our outfits last spring. And she began growing her hair. It is now down to her lower back (almost butt) and was perfect as an avatar braid (which is what she had been "training" it for for a few months).
Finally, the day had arrived. At about 8:00pm yesterday, Bag Lady (roommate) and I started braiding our hair. We braided our entire heads. Then a friend of ours came over and we began painting ourselves blue. We painted our entire bodies blue. It took about 3 to 4 hours to get completely ready...and we had three other people helping us paint and get dressed. We hadn't even thought about the possibility of the paint staining our skin blue until a friend came back from using the restroom: "Uhh guys....I just tried washing my hands and...uh...they're still blue. I scrubbed them and I can't get the blue paint to come off of my hands." Bag Lady and I drop what we're doing, slowly raise our heads, and look at her with utter disbelief. I cannot speak. I can't utter a single word. Bag Lady, on the other hand, drops her head back in despair and wails, "I'M GONNA BE BLUE FOR THE REST OF MY LIIIIIIIIIIFE!!! NOOOOO I CAN'T DO THISSSSS!" I kinda start laughing because, hey, it would be pretty funny to walk into class Monday morning with a blue tint to your skin. It would definitely come off throughout the week and it would make a great conversation starter. Boy-I-sit-next-to: "So, what did you do this weekend?" Me: "I went to a blueberry patch and ate a bunch of blueberries. They were sooooo good." Then I would stare straight ahead and listen to the professor as Boy tries to figure out what exactly just happened.
Anyway, we figure that we're already blue so we might as well continue getting ready and deal with the whole being-blue-for-the-rest-of-our-lives-thing when the night is over.
We go to the party and immediately step into an acid trip from the 70s. Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Rain" is playing in the background and there are blacklights everywhere. Everything is glowing in the dark. The walls are covered with leaves and paintings of Pandora (the planet in the movie Avatar) and paper mached horses, plants, and flying things are set up around the room. Objects are hanging from the ceiling, I was stepping on unidentifiable objects, different colored drinks were being passed around...it was nuts. It was fun.
Until the cops showed up. I wasn't nervous at all because I was a good girl that night and hadn't had a single drop to drink. They immediately ask for the owner of the apartment. She shows up to the front door looking like this:
Meet the birthday girl. She went all-out; didn't eat chocolate for over 2 weeks and worked out hardcore every day to don this. And is now talking to SIX cops while sipping on the drink in her hand.
They take one look inside the apartment and go, "Holy shit. What the hell is this?!" Apparently they had never seen Pandora before...but I'm pretty sure they've seen a druggie's house and this looked pretty close to that. So I was surprised at their shock.
They say that people in the apartment complex called 911 because they saw people walking around with guns. Well in the movie, there are army people who have huge guns. So some people bought fake guns and spray painted them black (thus painting over the orange tip that is indicative of fake guns). She convinced the cops that it was all in good fun and it was her 21st birthday party. They asked, "What in the world are you wearing?!" She replied with, "Well a loin cloth, of course," as if it was completely normal. Which it is...for her. She spun around so they could get the full effect and therefore mooned the 6 cops standing on her front porch. "Sorry," she says, "Inevitable wardrobe malfunction," and laughs. They start laughing and walk away saying, "Happy birthday, Lauren. Have a good night. And just hide the guns." "Ok, thanks for stopping by!"
Everyone inside can't believe how smoothly that all went down and Lauren does a victory fist pump in the air. Back to the party.
Later, I leave with Bag Lady and another friend. We are trying to figure out how to get the blue off of our skin without turning our bathroom blue. We resolve to trying to find a hose around our apartment complex. Finding no such hose, we use a fountain in one of the courtyards. We basically took a bath in that fountain. It was probably so dirty, but we didn't care. The blue came off relatively easy. The only downside is that it turned the fountain water blue. Hope the fountain is ok today....
Then I took another shower, changed into my pjs, and we watched the end of Forest Gump until we all drifted off into a Pandora dreamland.
See pictures below.
The horse from the movie. Made out of paper mache and chicken wire.
My amazing roommate who painted her body with me. Love you for this!
The group posing in my kitchen. From left to right. we have a cat, army people, two avatars, a Princess Lea, and a tree.
In the process of painting ourselves blue. In the mirror you can see roommate's look of concern....we were semi-worried that we were going to be blue for the rest of the week.
One of my best friends. Love her to death
Mail-ordered yellow contacts and fangs. Was also wearing a loin cloth. Also has feathers in her hair. Also made a bow and arrow out of string and sticks in her backyard. I'm almost convinced she was an Avatar in her previous life. Hope you had a great birthday!
Above: roommate linking in with the horse. If you've seen the movie, you know what this means.
Also, whenever we looked at ourselves in the mirror, we forgot we were Avatars and kind of got scared. Therefore, we kept saying, "Hide your kids, hide your wife," all night. This is from a you-tube video that's pretty funny. I uploaded it for your viewing pleasure. The star of the video has been interviewed on many late-night TV shows as a result of the video's popularity. And people also made it into an auto-tuned song, sold it on iTunes, and made over 1 millions dollars. That's also down there too. And just ignore the last half of the second video. I don't know what that's all about.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
I don't CARE if you're a freshman...
YOU'RE SO HOTT!!!
So we were assembled for our athlete welcome-back dinner in the basketball auditorium. And that's about the time I started considering myself a very lucky girl. Yes, I'm able to go to a great school, live in a great city, have great friends, be loved by a great family, and have two arms, two legs, and a head on my shoulders. But that's not why I'm lucky. No....but think about it. I am assembled in the gymnasium with 500+ other student-athletes who work out EVERY DAY. A.K.A. their bodies are jacked. Roughly half of these are women, so knock that down to a super-jacked group of 250 guys. Shave off another 100 or so for assholes, 75 for the not-so-attractive ones, 50 for those shorter than me, 24 for those who already have girlfriends, and you get the ONE super-hott guy who walked up the aisle past me. I swear to you right now on my business school GPA, he has the bod of a god. And hair to go with it. I haven't seen that 'do since I looked at my dad's pictures from the '70s, but he totally rocked it. A little long, parted to the side, with some slight curl to it. As he sauntered past, the heavens opened up, angels began swirling around his perfect golden locks, and cupid came out and struck me with his arrow. I was done for. My roommate had to pick my jaw up off the ground and wipe up my drool with her Kleenex: "Pull yourself together! He's a freshman." I whip around and respond with: "I don't care if he's eighteen or thirty-five! He's got the look. And I can't stop looking!"
Technically, our relationship would be acceptable considering I was asked if I was 15 or 16 multiple times this summer. So if you want to give the cougar label based off of looks, HE would be the cradle-robber and I would be dating an older man. Plus he looks like he's about 23. Either way, I WIN.
I haven't seen him around campus YET, but it's only a matter of time before I run into him in the weight room. So, until then, I must try to look extra attractive (and maybe 19) whenever I'm lifting weights. Which is actually pretty hard to do when you're squatting over 100 pounds and sweat is dripping down the side of your face.
I'll let you know how this progresses....
So we were assembled for our athlete welcome-back dinner in the basketball auditorium. And that's about the time I started considering myself a very lucky girl. Yes, I'm able to go to a great school, live in a great city, have great friends, be loved by a great family, and have two arms, two legs, and a head on my shoulders. But that's not why I'm lucky. No....but think about it. I am assembled in the gymnasium with 500+ other student-athletes who work out EVERY DAY. A.K.A. their bodies are jacked. Roughly half of these are women, so knock that down to a super-jacked group of 250 guys. Shave off another 100 or so for assholes, 75 for the not-so-attractive ones, 50 for those shorter than me, 24 for those who already have girlfriends, and you get the ONE super-hott guy who walked up the aisle past me. I swear to you right now on my business school GPA, he has the bod of a god. And hair to go with it. I haven't seen that 'do since I looked at my dad's pictures from the '70s, but he totally rocked it. A little long, parted to the side, with some slight curl to it. As he sauntered past, the heavens opened up, angels began swirling around his perfect golden locks, and cupid came out and struck me with his arrow. I was done for. My roommate had to pick my jaw up off the ground and wipe up my drool with her Kleenex: "Pull yourself together! He's a freshman." I whip around and respond with: "I don't care if he's eighteen or thirty-five! He's got the look. And I can't stop looking!"
Technically, our relationship would be acceptable considering I was asked if I was 15 or 16 multiple times this summer. So if you want to give the cougar label based off of looks, HE would be the cradle-robber and I would be dating an older man. Plus he looks like he's about 23. Either way, I WIN.
I haven't seen him around campus YET, but it's only a matter of time before I run into him in the weight room. So, until then, I must try to look extra attractive (and maybe 19) whenever I'm lifting weights. Which is actually pretty hard to do when you're squatting over 100 pounds and sweat is dripping down the side of your face.
I'll let you know how this progresses....
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