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Lauren's Journal

lauren
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12/02/2008 09:51 #46919

Dolla Dolla Bill Ya'll
hmmm... you see, I always want to post something I think that others will think is interesting. This is hard for me. You know those people who can kinda just talk about anything...remember the smallest details and make a story out of it? That's not me.

Oh and I also have problems with deja vu...did I write that before? Is that how uninteresting I am that I have to repeat the same ol same ol on this blog that I barely write in in the first place? I am awesome.

So here's an idea.

There are three dollar stores in my town. Three. One, two, three. We have the original Dollar Store where everything really is a dollar. Then we have the Dollar General where almost nothing is a dollar. I believe the third is the General Dollar or something along those lines. The third I have not been in yet because, well, the second one is closer to my house. I was talking to my dad about this pseudo monstrosity and he was going on about he was able to get curtains and a curtain rob for my room at one of the dollar stores, i don't know which one, and how great it was because before them they would have to drive all the way to Oneonta, about half hour away, to get things such as these. I get that, really I do, but THREE??

I mean really, you need to picture this. My town sits in a valley. The village is mucho small while the town (i think i have that distinction right) spreads out through the mountains with dairy farmers and whatnot. But the village itself...you can walk from one end to the other in maybe 20 minutes. I might be exaggerating though, its been awhile since I walked from one end of that place to the other. but either way ALL THREE of these Dollar Stores are within LESS THAN ONE MILE of each other in my little shit ass town. Really? Really.
tinypliny - 12/04/08 10:00
Haha.. $1 = Rs.50
metalpeter - 12/02/08 18:52
I kinda agree with (e:Paul) it is kinda false advertising. I think that some of the places might get away with it because they still have stuff that is predetermined to cost a dollar or maybe every thing costs even dollars with no cents.
james - 12/02/08 11:12
You can never have enough shit.
paul - 12/02/08 10:31
I hate dollar stores where the stuff is not $1.00. I feel like its false advertising.

12/01/2008 13:51 #46907

Picture This...
There are small towns and then there are small towns and then even there are smaller towns. I live in a town I would classify as a middle small town. There were about 100 people or less in my graduating class. I have friends from two of the surrounding towns who graduated with 30 or so people. Crazy. The thing about my middle sized town though, is that it allows for the fostering of crazy football maniacs.

Walton almost made it to the state championships this year, but lost after their 30 or so game winning streak. Sucks for them. All over the town there are posters and signs that say things like "Fear the Warriors" and "Walton Warriors All the Way". Sheesh. They lost, take down the stupid signs.

Also, in response to (e:joshua)'s post about deer carcasses... my school would often get the first day of hunting season off simply because more than half of the students wouldn't be there anyway. I had a friend whose step father owned a deer prep place...for those hunters who didn't want to do it themselves...and I distinctly remember walking in there and having to watch where I was going so I didn't walk into a deer face. They were all skinned...and I don't know which is worse, with or without the fur. It is not uncommon to see deer strapped to the top of cars or hanging from trees. Better there than then indented into the front of your car.

I don't have a problem with hunting, or hunters. I do however have a problem with "flatlanders" aka city folk and new jersey-ites who come to the country and shoot at anything that moves. I might have written about this in the past, but once a little old lady was standing on her back porch and was shot dead by a hunter from new jersey who swore she was a deer. Gross.

Oh and, I made the mistake of going to the (only) bar in Walton while I was home. There were so many people there that I had forgotten existed...its weird to see people outside of the ridiculous mindfuck that is high school. I think that perhaps it is only in places like Walton where you can find men dressed from head to toe in camo dancing to the the dj who goes from playing "its getting hot in here" to "she thinks my tractor's sexy". oh and i won't even get into what it means to leave high school as a (chubby) straight girl and come back a slimmer homo. No, I don't have a boyfriend...
kookcity2000 - 12/01/08 21:58
I like your town taxonomy. Likewise I always thought the town I grew up was a med-small.
fellyconnelly - 12/01/08 19:27
i'm so glad i didnt come with you on this trip home....
heidi - 12/01/08 16:47
I'm from a small-small town - my high school graduating class was 42, the class behind me was about 35. The school district calls the two days the kids get off for hunting season "Environmental Awareness Days" although when I was in school, it was just called hunting season.

We call those nasty suburban philadelphians & jerseyites "flatlanders" too. We're called "ridgerunners" :::link:::

Usually the Saturday night before hunting season is the biggest night of the year at the local (and only public) bar, yep, lots of men dressed in full cammo dancing with all the local single women who would love to hook up with a flatlander, who would presumably be richer than men in Tioga County. Yeah, totally sucky djs.

I had kept up my ties to home while I was gone but when I moved back in '03 i got a lot of apologies from people who hadn't been so nice to me in high school.
james - 12/01/08 16:31
Going to one's hometown is always a grotesque landscape best left unrevisited.
joshua - 12/01/08 15:14
Ours had skin on it, and I felt lucky that it stayed on the entire ride. Seeing it without the skin has got to be worse...

I love your "flatlanders" term. :) And I don't know how somebody could mistake a person for a deer. Perhaps I should ask Vice President Richard Cheney? Bahahaha.

11/26/2008 09:24 #46844

Sha-wing
Category: pie.
oh my oh my. i have to drive the 4 odd hours home today in the yucky wet snow. i only really have two concerns. the first being dumb ass mother fuckers who don't know how to drive on the thruway and, once I get of the safety of the highways and enter into the deep mountainous region i call home, i never really trust my car. oh yeah and its a piece of shit and takes like 20 minutes just to get up a hill that felly's car takes like its pie.

mmm. pie.

technically i shouldn't even be going home today. i find it terribly inconsiderate when professors assign papers for the week after thanksgiving. It's like, here's some time off for you...to do school work! bastards. so yeah i have one paper due on tuesday and another due wednesday with a presentation to go with it. i mean, i guess if i wanted to look at the brightside, at least i will knock out two out of three real quick and only have one left before i am free.

Last night Felly and I watched (another) one of the worst (lesbian) movies ever. I can say that just about 99.9% of "lesbian" movies suck ass. Period. They either have bad plots, bad acting, bad sex, or bad all of the above. They just don't make em like they used to. This one was called "Kate's Addiction" and it was about this psycho bitch (Kate) who murders her best friend's fiance because she wants her for herself. the murder scene should have tipped us off but we continued to watch, only to learn later that the psycho had been drugging the friend all throughout college so that she could rape her in her semi-coherent but not remembering state. GROSS. Oh yeah, and ultimately, the crazy psycho gets killed and the friend and her new boyfriend end up happily ever after. Yeah, like that.

Anyway, I'llllllll be hooooooome for the holidays, so ya'll have a fabulous thanksgiving. Word.
mrmike - 11/26/08 10:41
Enjoy home :)
leetee - 11/26/08 09:45
Drive safely! :O)
janelle - 11/26/08 09:38
One year in grad school, I had to skip going home for Thanksgiving because a professor assigned the biggest research paper of the semester to be due the Monday we returned from Thanksgiving. Another professor had an essay test for the Tuesday after.

I had Thanksgiving at a professor's house and it was strange and awkward because the professor and her husband were both socially awkward and cold people.

Probably one of my stranger Thanksgivings.
tinypliny - 11/26/08 09:28
If its any consolation, I have a major draft due on Monday. Its no "thanks"giving for me. :)

11/18/2008 10:09 #46736

meta (update with pics!)
tation?

i know that's not how you spell it.

i met with my professor on Saturday at spot coffee. it was weird... it was one of the things that screams, i am a graduate student, no longer an undergrad. we talked for an hour about a paper i am writing right now about a haunted plantation in Louisiana and, gasp, my thesis. I think I actually have a topic and theory for the thesis, which is crazy exciting and crazy nerve wrecking all at once. this professor is amazing. she gives me just enough praise to keep my feeling capable and good but not too much so that i don't stop questioning myself and my ideas. she still intimidates that shit outta me but i know its not because i am scared of her, but because she has taught me so much and i know i still can learn so much from her.

felly got a new blackberry. right now i have her old phone but soon i am getting an (orange!) boulder!! its a super chunky heavy duty phone cause i don't really aesthetically like the super thin streamlined ones...they make me nervous.

in other news...there is snow on the ground! this is like...real snow. last time it snowed, by the time i had ralphie outside it was mostly watery crystals that didn't cover the ground. i can't wait to see what he thinks this time.



Ralphie's newest sweater

image

Ralphie's first real snow!
image
fellyconnelly - 11/19/08 07:13
ralphapotamus is aDOReable!
lauren - 11/18/08 19:16
It is called The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville LA. It is supposedly "America's Most Haunted Plantation".

And yes, its actually called the boulder. i spose its meant for outdorsy folks...i just met a construction worker the other day who had one... i just thought it was perty.
jenks - 11/18/08 18:20
what plantation?? I toured a few...

And do you mean perhaps the "PEBL" phone? or is there really one called boulder? haha. I had a blue pebl. Loved it.
james - 11/18/08 10:49
I like your spelling much better.
paul - 11/18/08 10:20
I wish basra could play in the snow

11/13/2008 18:55 #46678

Vent
Category: school
I am having one of those breakdown moments.
It's the end of the semester...like, really.

I just got home and checked my student email and was overloaded with all this shit.

Deadlines about when to register for next semester.
I don't even know what the hell I am doing next semester. Do I sign up for thesis guidance? How many credits do I take? Do I get financial aid? Who is going to be my second adviser?

THEN
I got an email from the library telling me that two of the books I am using for one of my research papers were RECALLED. What a bunch of bullshit. Someone else needs the books so they get them?? What the fuck. They missed out. I have them because I need them...I don't just take out shit tons of books for the fun of it. Why is it that because they, the late bird, want the book I have to return it early? You'd think that maybe at least my option to renew would be taken away. I might be able to handle that, but no, I gotta give them back on Monday...three weeks before my paper is due. Maybe once I return them I can recall them and get them back.

AND THEN
another email from the library...I supposedly have a book that was due today. But I swear to whoever that I returned that shit. I take books very seriously. I respect them and keep track of them and godamit I returned that shit. And, I have no proof. They don't give receipts or anything that says you returned your books. You put them on the desk and walk out. So I have no proof and therefore will either have to pay for the damn book that is floating around somewhere in that giant library or have my library privileges revoked, which ultimately is out of the question.

For those students out there...you surely understand. It seems like everything that can go wrong usually does when you have 4, 20 page research papers to write. Like I don't have enough shit on my plate right now I have to worry about all this other shit. Ug. I am sooooo mad.
museumchick - 11/16/08 22:03
I detest library recalls. I have no good advice, but I definitely can relate!
heidi - 11/15/08 01:30
Aw, that sucks, Lauren! (e:tinypliny), that is sooo funny.



jason - 11/14/08 14:03
Can't you just ignore the recall?
tinypliny - 11/14/08 13:51
I HATE library recalls. The exact same thing happened to me in my first year. I searched for a book from the dungeons of library book wells for a whole hour. When I found it, it was dusty and it hadn't been cracked open since it was bought for the library. And then within a week of my checking out the book, some idiot recalled it. And the library wanted it the very same day. I hadn't even got through 4 chapters. It was so maddening. I gave it up and recalled it the next day just to give that idiot some dose of the same medicine. I think s/he caught on to my game and we did the tit-for-tat recalls for a whole of 4 recalls each. Then I gave up, because I didn't really need the book anymore and I got tired of dealing with such a vindictive loon.
joshua - 11/14/08 13:44
What the hell? I didn't even know that you could recall a book once it was taken out. I'd call them and say, too bad, so sad, I need them and if some ass dragger wants them, tough luck. That is so annoying!!
johnallen - 11/13/08 22:50
Be strong. I hated that part of school and only went for an Associates, So I can't imagine the stress and pressure you are under. Just don't fall behind.