Apocalypses, Daily Lives, and Culture... Oh my!

I'm kind of with Nicole on the being afraid of the apocalypse. I don't mind talking about it, but it has made me squirm a little inside for as long as I can remember. (To explain, I come from a Christian background, but I also tend to doubt and question my faith. In Revelation, it talks about the time in which Jesus will return and, "separate the sheep from the goats," and I have always been afraid that I will be a goat and not welcomed into His kingdom, and that makes the end of the world a very terrifying concept for me.)

But if I knew the end of the world was coming, I would probably spend as much time with the people I love as I possibly could, and I would quit doing some of the things I do because I need to, rather than because I want to (like classes I hate). I would also try to warn everyone else that the end was coming and to be prepared (in both the Christian and secular manners). I'm not going too in-depth on my beliefs because I know people come from all different backgrounds, and I know all of this can be really, really touchy. But if anyone does want to discuss it, I'd love to chat in the comments.

But on a more cheerful note, I found my Ilene! (If you don't know what I mean, check out some of John's advice videos. It's his concept.) His name is Dana, and he is willing to help me do what I need to do to improve my writing. I met with him, and the best advice he had for me at the start was to read good writing. He lent me his copy of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which I am extraordinarily excited to read. I also turned nineteen (finally!) and have begun my Spanish class to prepare for my trip to Honduras at the end of the summer. It's been a very wonderful, very busy week, and I'm exhausted.

To close, I want to ask a question I've been dwelling on for quite a while. When listening to my International friends (I lived in the international hall on campus, so I've got friends from Honduras, Afghanistan, Mexico, China and Korea), I hear them talk about the culture of their country. I am jealous of all of them. There is something about their homelands that ties them together, whether it be their food, their mannerisms, their birthday traditions... There is something very pinpoint-able that makes their culture THEIRS and ties them to being part of it. For example, there is something about Honduras that ties my Honduran friends to being Honduran, that separates them from the cultures of El Salvador or Guatemala. While it is certain that America is unique, we are the melting pot. We have a blend of cultures, but they change based on your location in the nation: food, sports, climate, traditions... We vary as much as our population does. So what is it to you, if anything, that ties Americans to being American and gives us our culture? Do we have a culture?

That's all I've got, I think. Happy Friday!

Adventures in the land of the Joe.

Let's see where to start?

First off, hello everyone I hope that your week has been well. I've been collecting my experiences this summer like lightning bugs in a Mason jar.

Earlier this week my Mom and brother's came up to school to treated me to a massive amount of food at the Olive Garden. We took a ton of pictures, we ran into one of my professor's that I had last fall and then we went to get frozen yogurt because that's just what we do. Then we all came back to my dorm and my mom stared my room down and sized it up like moms do and she could barely contain her Perfectionist OCD. NOt that I live in a disgusting room, I just enjoy organized clutter. But the biggest kicker was when my mom looked on my ever growing bookshelf and grabbed 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. Of all of the books that I have for   her to possibly choose from she picked that one.

Also, I started talking to an old friend again and we stayed up late one night on Facebook talking about books and writing and music and I pretty much fell in love. He invited me to a writers club that he's in and for my first meeting I got to sit and listen and occasionally throw in my own two cents every now and then. It was pretty fun, except that they are very different writers than the kind that I'm usually accustomed to being around. They're a bunch of sadists to their characters and there's a lot of guns and werewolves and I don't even know. This is clearly a boys club, except for the other girl that was there with me. So next Wednesday I have to have something to turn in. Thankfully, I'm already working on something and that I don't get laughed at by the group because I'm writing what I know. But if I do, I'm just going to chalk it up to experience and go on my way because if anything it will have made my skin tougher than it already was.

I want to see the movie "Seeking A Friend for the End of the World", it looks great, but when the topic actualy comes up I usually tend to avoid it. Sorry guys, but I will not be divulging how I feel about this because I hate thinking about it. I'll give a story about how uncomfortable it makes me feel; when I was working at Pizza Hut about a year ago one of my regulars came in, he was an older gentleman and he came in and we started talking until his pizza was done ya know, small talk. He started to talk about religion which then went into the world's biggest discussion of the Apocalypse and when it was coming and what would happen and all that. The guy started telling me that he was happy that he was so old and had accomplished so much things with his life because whatever happened he would be ready to go. By this point in the conversation I was already starting to have a mini panic attack going on inside my head, my heart was racing a little and I was probably as white as a sheet because I was only 21 at the time. I hadn't accomplished a whole lot with me life, so of course I was freaking out. I wasn't put on this Earth to go through all of the things that I had by that point just have it ended abruptly even if that is how life works. I've read The Fault in Our Stars, I know that life can end mid-sentence. But I've made too much of an effort to keep myself alive during all of the surgeries that I've had to not be here for a reason and I can't afford to think that far into the future because I've seen Death and so I force myself every day to live life to the fullest because I don't want to go without having a least something tangible for others to remember me by.

Sorry, I hope everyone has a great rest of the week.

DFTBA!

Nicole

An Abundance of Doom

Hey y'all, it's 7:30pm Tuesday evening and I only just now figured out what I wanna write about. Yeah... This week just hasn't been exciting so far. 

ANYWAYS........

My fiance and I just got back from seeing Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World, starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley. It was a brilliant movie, by the way... but only if you like dark comedies/dramas with a sweet story. If you haven't heard of it, here's the trailer.

While it's grim subject matter, it got me thinking: what would I do if I knew that the end of the world was drawing near? The characters in the film knew what they wanted. Some went crazy through all manner of activities. Some stayed home alone. Some sought out family to reconcile and gain closure for things in the past. But, what would I do, and also, what would you (my fellow bloggers/readers) do?

I think it's an easy decision for me. I'd be with my family and my fiance (and his family). I'd try to take one last trip with all of them... most likely to California to hang out at the beach. I'd try not to focus on the impending doom of mankind by enjoying life, cherishing the excitement the world has to offer. Of course there would be moments of terror and depression, I have no doubt about that. But it can't be hard to understand that it'd be almost impossible to remain totally sane when you know death is so closely imminent. In the end, why not spend your last weeks, days and hours with those you care for the most? Seems perfect to me...

What would you guys do (hopefully not anything too crazy!)?

Sorry for the dark question... but I thought it'd be an interesting one to pose.

Well, see you next Tuesday! 

DFTBA, 

Shelby W. 

P.S. My fiance came up with the title for this blog post... Isn't he just so clever? =P

Howdy, y'all! Another Monday blog headed for your faces!

My mommy says thank you for the birthday wishes XD

 I really liked the movies that you all said you had watched while you where kids. I have a LOT of movies I shouldn't have watched. My family is really in love with scary movies and general badasserie so I watched a lot of gory scary movies. Friday the 13th, Halloween, Exorcist, Poltergeist, ect.

So I am working with this company to try and get me employed but with the way things are going I am going to have to jump threw a bunch of hoops and do things I would need to be employed to do and I am sitting here like "What the heck is wrong with you?" Granted this is stuff I need to have done but I can't afford to have it or have it done. (sorry, being vague) Thats really what is on my mind right now. I am not really sure what to do. Save for walking away from a company that has done more harm than good and just do it myself. That seems like the best thing for me to do. *sigh* sorry, crappy blog from Craig today I just have a lot on my mind. I will try to be awesome for my next one ^.^

Best wishes and DFTBA,
Craig

Back to Normal

I actually had to go back and reread my last post. I knew it was about Charlie Brown, but I didn't even entirely remember what I wrote. I crashed more-or-less effective immediately after that post. This one has more structure. I promise.

Craig, thanks for the understanding, and happy birthday to your mom! Also, AWESOME choice on movies. :) The Princess Bride is made of win.

Shelby, AW! Happy 21st! I'm SO glad to hear that you're becoming part of your fiance's family. That was really, really awesome, and quite special! I hope things continue to move in that direction. :)

Rachel, I too am incredibly jealous of your trip! I would love to hear more about it when you get back! And I understand your wish to punish me. To be honest, I don't want to be, but I do feel like I deserve it. I had a definite derp moment.

Nicole, I don't know what to say to you that I haven't said in person. XD Agreed... Six more weeks. You can survive Mother Hen! And I will survive Clean Freak 1 and Clean Freak 2 (though I'm not nearly as crabby toward those two as I have been; we've mellowed out). Now if only the final roommate would stop being mad at me... Bah. BUT we can hide in each others' rooms as the need arises, yes?

My daily life has been a bit off... For as little as I've had to do this week, it's been incredibly long. My math adviser is in D.C. for the week, so things have been quiet on that front. Meanwhile, I've helped in the costume shop, picked up my new phone, gotten into a fight with one of my suitemates, cried a few times in massive bouts of nostalgia, laughed my butt off at my friends and the other people on headset, and sat through Charlie Brown for the fifth time. I have also decided to drop as many math classes as I can while still obtaining my degree and plan to double major in Math and Theatre simply because theatre makes me happier than anything has in a long time. It's been both calm and hectic and stupidly emotional. But being in the theatre tonight put me in an extraordinarily good mood. :D I start classes again on Monday. Eight a.m. four days a week, 2.5 hours a day. All Spanish. I'm not particularly excited, but it'll help me for my upcoming trip to Honduras! (My passport got here today. I'm SO excited. EEK!)

To answer this week's question... I don't actually remember any. I was usually a good kid, and I was hopelessly in love with Nickelodeon and Disney movies, so I spent a good chunk of time on that. I remember watching this movie Screech or Screecher or something like that (It wasn't Scream) that terrified me. Also, Stay Alive with Frankie Munez, which freaked me out as a kid. But that's really the only ones I remember.

But I think that's all I have for the week. Craig, I will see you on Monday!

This post is coming to you in 4 parts.

Hello everyone, this post will be coming to you in four parts.

First, I want to thank everyone for the support and kind words, especially you Craig. What you said really meant a lot to me and I appreciate it. Also, happy belated Birthday to you're Mom :).

Secondly, this week has been a bit of a roller coaster. But one not quite as bad as last week's, which I'm considering a really good thing, but the six weeks that I have left in this dorm until I get to move back "home" are going to slowly go by and I'm not too thrilled about that mainly because there is a girl in my suite that I've dubbed "the mother hen" and she's found a way to push a lot of my buttons over the past five weeks and it's getting a little out of hand. One mother is enough for me. Six more weeks. Must push through.

Third, My summer reading has dwindled a lot lately, sadly. Now I'm just picking up random books and not sticking to the list I had. But I have read six books so far this summer so that's a thing. My Gilmore Girls marathon has been doing great. I'm on Season 5, which means that I only have two very sad seasons left.

Fourth, some of my favorite movies that I watched as a kid and that I've tried to push onto my little brother's is quite a list. But I'll name six just for variety; The Princess Bride, America Pie and well I think that's about it. I didn't really live in a very sheltered environment.

Enjoy your new Macbook, Rachel, Happy Belated Birthday, Shelby I hope it was great! Also, I loved the cover that Hank made of  "Somebody I Used To Know'.

Til next time I hope everyone has a great weekend!

DFTBA

Nicole
                                                                                   

Family Dinner, Birthday Cake, Gotye and Answers

Hey everyone!

So, Monday was my 21st Birthday. I didn't spend it partying or bar-hopping. I began my birthday at midnight reading A Storm of Swords and almost fell asleep in the bathtub. I went to Olive Garden with my mom and my fiance (my dad is working out-of-state and won't be back until Saturday) for dinner Monday night. Nothing really exciting there, apart from their amazing bread sticks and my fiance surprising me by ordering an awesome chocolate cake. (Oh, and that Strawberry Pomegranate Mojito...yum.)

The night before, my fiance and I went to his parents' house for the usual Sunday family dinner. He has four siblings (two sisters and two brothers), and it's always an interesting, often scary time over at the house. His older sister as a baby boy that just fell in love with the birthday hat they made me wear. His youngest brother is a fan of Sci Show (he obviously never forgets to be awesome!). His youngest sister is my age... and then there's his brother who is in high school. That boy repeatedly shout-sang these two lines from Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know": 

1. "But you didn't have to cut me off!"
2. "Now you're just somebody that I used to know..."

He didn't know any of the chorus lyrics in between those lines, which are the first and last. It made for some interesting moments, and he often parodied those lines as well. So, I naturally mentioned Hank Green's brilliant Subway parody.

I wasn't expecting much of a birthday celebration from his family. Over the years, there had been so much drama between all of them and us. But, as I am helping his younger sister light all the candles on the ice cream cake, I see two gigantic gift bags out of the corner of my eye. Attached to my chair were a whole bunch of balloons and then the ice cream cake. I mean, I expected a cake, but all those gifts? It really made me feel welcome; it's the most comfortable I've felt around his family in the three years we've been together. When I opened the gifts, one of the cards hadn't been signed. They snatched it away and quickly passed it around to be signed by the whole family. When I got it back, I found money in the card! Gifts and money!? I think they may have gone overboard, a bit. Also in the card was the line, "Now you're just somebody that I used to know..." We all know where that came from. =P His oldest sister (whom I've had a hard time getting along with for many reasons) even gave me a card. I feel even more part of their family now, and I'm happy that I can finally say that.

Now on to Craig's question:  "What movies were your favorites as a kid that you probably shouldn't have been watching?"

This is a good question... When I was 8-9, I was obsessed with Titanic... So much so that I watched it multiple times a week (for the record, I was homeschooled, so I had all the time in the world to do that). But, I suppose that's not all that bad unless you bring up the nude scene... Other than that, the only movies I can think of are some random horror films (I went to see Saw with my mom when it first came out... I was 13), and then Grease and Grease II. It might seem weird to list those two films, but if you watch the videos below, you'll understand why I shouldn't have been singing along with these songs, let alone watching the films.

• Greased Lightning - from Grease
• Reproduction - from Grease II

I think those are the only films I shouldn't have been watching when I was younger... not all that bad, really...  Or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better. haha. Well, I can't wait to see what films all of you mention... Hopefully they won't be as awkward as mine. 

See you next Tuesday,

DFTBA 

~ Shelby