Friday Night Ramblings are Young and Sweet, Only 17
Mar 29 '03
The Bottom Line Welcome to my internal monologue. It's a scary place to be.
First of all, I would like to say that I am honored to be writing the infamous Friday Night Ramblings, a tradition started by one of my very favorite Epinions writers, lemon_lime. Historically, one is supposed to muse about current events, philosophical questions, etc. after a long night of drinking. Well, I've cheated a little bit, in that I'm writing this introduction and an outline of a few topics to discuss at 4PM on Friday when I'm completely sober. I do this because I know that I am totally incoherent when I'm drunk, and if I don't make some sort of template, I'll come home and… well, I don't know, but it wouldn't be pretty. Although, I am never able to stick to any plans I make, so I may end up scrapping the outline entirely.
Thanks to Mike (mfunk75) for passing the baton of rambling to me. You can read what he wrote last week (drinking alcohol that I bought him, no less) here.
Next week, another excellent writer named Mike ( ingysdayoff) will be rambling for us. I look forward to that.
I have the tendency to ramble even when I'm sober (as Mike can attest to), so this might all be really dodgy. Here goes…
Saturday, 2PM: Oops, looks like I didn't post this last night. It's not that I forgot-I even mentioned it to my friends. I simply got too drunk to write anything. I don't even remember going to bed, but I woke up fully clothed, with my door wide open and a glass of water next to my head, so one of my housemates must have put me to bed. I was just washing my hands and I was scrubbing at this weird bumpy dirt on my palm for a couple of minutes before I realized that it was some type of gravel imbedded in my skin from when I (apparently) fell down on the walk home. I'll have to ask my friends to fill me in on exactly what happened. Or maybe I don't want to know. Part of the reason that I got so drunk was that we went to an '80s party at an "anti-fraternity" on campus. It's the place that "The Pit" in PCU is based on. Even though I'm 22, this campus is a police state and big parties aren't allowed to serve alcohol. So, we had to smuggle some in using Gatoride bottles, and I guess I didn't realize how much vodka was in there.
Ouch. I feel like my head was run over by a bus. So, I'm sorry to disappoint that this won't be a Friday Night Drunken Rambling, but instead a Saturday Afternoon Hungover Rambling. The results will probably be similar but a bit more coherent.
My uncertain future and impending graduation
I'm a senior, and I don't want to graduate! College is paradise. Parties all the time, not having to pay for food, living really close to all your friends and being able to call them using a 4-digit extension… I could go on. Yesterday, the office of alumni relations set up a table outside the campus center to give us free t-shirts and books about "life after graduation." The book is hilarious but scary. It talks about how not to look like a tool when ordering wine, which is really weird because earlier that day, I was thinking about how I never want to be one of those people who knows a lot about wine. I decided that it's better to have negative goals like that because they are easier to achieve. ;)
But what are the odds that I would be presented with a book regarding something I had just been talking about? I think I have an ability to summon things. It happened especially a lot when I was in Toronto. For instance, we would talk about a song and then it would come on in the pub. And I guess my ability continued back in the States. For example:
Mike and I went to see The Pianist, so we talked about how it would be funny if we made out during it as an homage to Seinfeld. I hadn't watched Seinfeld in about three weeks, but when I turned it on a couple of night ago, the Schindler's List make-out episode was on!
What was I talking about? Oh, right. Graduation. It's a good thing I made this outline. Anyway, my mom is pressuring me to live at home after graduation, but I really don't want to. Not that there's anything wrong with it for someone else, but I just know that being at home makes me feel really confined. I also want a challenge; I don't want to take the easy way out, so I want to move away and make a new life for myself, at least for a while. But I think about various areas of the U.S, and I don't think I'd be happy in any of them. Most of my friends will be in New York, but I am definitely not a New York person. I like big cities, though, so that's why I'm leaning toward Toronto. But it's kind of a compromise because I really want to move back to London where I "studied" for six months last year, but I can't stand to see my parents upset. When I told them I wanted to move an ocean away, they cried, and I really can't deal with that. But they can drive to Toronto, and they understand why it appeals to me since they've seen Bowling for Columbine and share my political views.
"We don't talk about love/We only want to get drunk"
I always expected to meet my future husband at college because that's where my parents met, but time is running out, and I've given up hope. But, at the same time, I am happy that I don't have a boyfriend! Seriously! I see the lifestyle of my friends who have significant others and it bores me. I'd rather go out to parties, get drunk, and meet new people than sit around and cook together. Sometimes I think this is just sour grapes because I don't have one, but I look at my history of (sometimes literally) running away from commitment and I realize that I am not just lying to myself about this one.
War! What is it good for? Making Bush and Cheney richer!
Watching TV makes me sick. If they did a study, I'm fairly certain they would find that happier people watch less television. In London, I barely watched the telly at all, and it was the happiest time of my life. These days, the TV is even worse than it usually is with the incessant coverage of "Operation Iraqi Freedom." I can't believe our government has the gall to use the word "freedom" in the name of a campaign in which we are dropping bombs on civilians. It is the ultimate hypocrisy. And calling dead civilians "collateral damage?!" These are human beings.
Actually, one of my housemates says she wants there to be more blood on CNN. There is 24-hour coverage, but none of it shows what is actually happening. It looks suspiciously like a video game, and I think that's how most Americans see it, as well. War is extremely horrible for both soldiers and civilians. If we are going to make a judgment on whether or not it should be taking place, we should at least be well informed as to what exactly is taking place there.
Bush is spending billions of dollars on this unjust war while cutting important programs including education and law enforcement. The only people who will benefit this war are the already rich business men who run Halliburton, Dick Cheney's former company that won the "contract" to rebuild Iraq. How sick is that? If we truly cared about the Iraqi people, we wouldn't be destroying their country in the first place. Yes, Saddam Hussein is a horrible dictator, but there must be a better way to remove him from power than bombing the hell out of his country.
Besides, Bush claims that this war will prevent future terrorism and make America more safe. Well, guess what! His arrogant assumption that the world will be "shocked and awed" by our immense power is wrong. People are shocked and appalled, is more like it. Al Qaeda membership has increased because all this war is doing is angering the rest of the world and causing more people to join anti-American organizations.
Technology: Good or Bad?
Our society is very consumer-oriented, and people are often eager to buy the latest gadget, and advertisements send the message that things are what make us happy. Well, I think that we have too much stuff, and that's why people are unhappy. Most people's jobs are very unsatisfying as they sit in front of a computer all day and feel as if they aren't affecting the world in any way. Besides, since we have so little to do, we have more time to think, which makes us unhappy. I think that humans are meant to be hunter/gatherers and if we went back to that, people would be more happy. One of my housemates and I were very frustrated by a certain situation this fall and we hopped on our bikes and rode to the local orchard where we picked apples and blueberries, and it alleviated all of our stress.
"What you don't have you don't need it now" - U2 You have to appreciate what you have and not constantly be wanting something else.
By the way, we were watching a U2 DVD before the party last night, and it reminded me that I need to tell you that I wore mfunk75's sunglasses. I told him I felt like the trying on Bono's sunglasses.
Also, I think people spend way too much time indoors these days. The modern sedentary lifestyle is unhealthy for both the mind and body. Also, I think we were meant to hunt and gather in groups, and people seem to spend a lot of time alone nowadays. This is one of the reasons I think cars are so damaging. Apart from the harm they cause the environment, cars make people lazy, anti-social, and selfish. It makes me sad that our country doesn't have a better train system because trains are better for the environment, relaxing, and social. You can get up and walk around on them, and you never hear about anyone getting "train rage." Besides, trains and train stations are romantic, especially ones in London. That's another thing about technology: it's unromantic. You never hear any love songs about modern conveniences, and romance novels are all set in the past.
Sleeper54 says to talk about the Red Sox
Woo! It's almost Opening Day! I'm very excited for baseball season to begin, although I must admit that I haven't been following many of the off-season transactions this year. So, sorry, Tom, I don't really have much to say about the Sox in this ramble except that they've broken my heart many times. Sometimes I think that being a Red Sox fan is like staying in an abusive relationship. In case y'all haven't seen it, check out my profile page for a photo of me working in Fenway Park and a link to my story about that.
Well, that's about enough rambling for me. Thanks for reading! I hope I didn't completely bore you. I should probably eat something and clean the house. This place is a mess. Oh, and I guess I should do some homework. That's one thing I won't miss about college.
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Vote beckytcy and lemon_lime for Epinions Idol. Each as cute as Clay, together as round as Reuben, they write the naked truth.
"[Chad and Becky] are what this competition is all about." -Simon Cowell
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