the check's in the mail

k, so I sent my UA deposit and dorm down payment.

Now that it's a little while later, I feel a little better. I'm just kinda disappointed, that's all. But, hey, how many people can boast that they declined going to MIT for their state school, huh? That makes me unique, that's for sure.

And who knows, maybe I can get out in 6 semesters or less, thanks to tons of the AP credit that I'll hopefully get. Maybe then I could go to (dare I say it?) MIT for grad school, even if they were a bunch of buttholes.

That reminds me: I should study for my AP's. Spanish and stats are relatively easy. Stats should be a 5 and I'm pretty sure I'm guaranteed at least a 4 on the Spanish AP, though I seriously SUCKO MUCHO on pronouns. Meh. Oh well.

I still have to make up the President test for APUSGAP. I should get to that, while thinking of a better way to abbrevaite APUSGAP. Gov and Physics are the ones really freaking me out. But it will be over forever for a while after the 13th, on which Zach Raves and his band are having a concert at Rock'n Billiards across the street from the Bookman's on Speedway. Hey, there's a small chance I won't go deaf.

circumstance

sigh
sigh
sigh
UofA.
sigh
I'm embittered, defeated, but at least for now no one's firing.

lets get ready to rumble

k, so I told mom that I wanna go to Rice. There, I said it. Quiero ir a la universidad de arroz. It just sucks that I have no home team with me here en casa. Sure, I've got Coach Elise rooting me on from the sidelines, but no amount of optomism can help you against the behemoth that is reality and the fury of parental opinion.

Mom's been playing the health card. True, I'm not the most immune person. Mom can blame herself for that. After all, I was the best weight loss plan she's had since she had her bullemia phase in high school to impress the captain of the football team. Seriously, she lost like 20 pounds over the nine months, of which 5 and 11/16 were on my birthday. So I've got a rattier system than the rest of yous. I know that. You know that. She knows it. So mom has been going all hypothetical on me, again. What if you get sick? Who will take care of you? Who will help you feel better?

And to that I wanna just yell, "I will. Duh!"

I would think that mom could understand where I'm coming from, but apparently she forgot how it used to be. K, so I don't even know where in Houston it is. K, so I won't have any friends over there right away. Even if I go here odds are I would never see them. K, so I'll have a complete stranger for a roommate probably. We can work things out.

I need adventure dammit. I'm tired of this spreadsheet of pros and cons shit. For once I'm ready to ignore the logic and do what feels right. And if I fail miserably, then it will have been worth it just for the experience.

Thrice comes to mind:

I've waited for this moment
All my life and more
And now I see so clearly
What I could not see before
The time is now or never
And this chance won't come again
I throw caution and myself into the wind.

There's no promise of safety on these second hand wings
But I'm willing to find out what impossible means
A leap of faith

A parody of an angel
Miles above the sea
I hear the voice of reason
Screaming after me
'You've flown far too high boy
Now you're too close to the sun
Soon your makeshift wings
Will come undone."

But how will I know limits from lies
If I never try

There's no promise of safety on these second hand wings
But I'm willing to find out what impossible means
I'll climb through the heavens on feathers and dreams
Cuz the melting point of wax means nothing to me
Nothing to me

I will touch the sun
Or I will die trying

Fly on these second hand wings
I'm willing to find out what impossible means
I'll climb through the heavens on feathers and dreams
Cuz the melting point of wax means nothing to me
Means nothing to me
Miles above the sea
*******

Now to just convince that to the folks.

Shoulda, Wanna, Hafta?

sigh. I have like a few days left to declare and get it in the mail. sigh. Well at least everyone else knows where they're going. That's somewhat comforting and yet distressing, encouraging and yet dissapointing.

Now with MIT practically out of the question (They sent me another red tape email last night. They've only had a week to do something they said would take 2 days at the most. But whatever, my patience is string thin with them now.) my 3rd place spot felt lonely and sad. SO naturally I had to fill it in with Rochester. sigh.

Where I should go: Rochester.
Where I wanna go: Rice.
Where I hafta(?) go: U of A

My granny's putting me on a super guilt trip. If I leave, she says, then I won't be able to make it to her funeral which she'll naturally have only if I leave. And frankly she has a point. Mom was in the same situation, but her folks were mean to her and bickered a lot about stuff. So she left, came up here to Tucson, lived with a girl off of Oracle where they have the CVS pharmacy now or somewhere near that, and for a year she was fine on her own. But then her dad, my grampa James whom I'm partially named after, died and so she had to quit school, return to the town of empty dreams, and take care of my nana because she was too stubborn to wanna leave Douglas. And there she met all the get-nowhere men in her life, including a few boyfriends. But she's always said that she doesn't want the same to happen to me, as often is said, and yet I have some weird lurking feeling that it will be just like that, and that staying here would only facilitate the process.

Cause I'm Hispanic, dammit, and that's what you're supposed to do: be there for your family. I mean technically I'm the first in my family to go to a traditional 4 year college, and sigh why does this have to be so fucking hard?

At least Rochester cared.

um

Anyone know how much the UA deposit is, including dorms?

freak out factor

The following is my anxiousness on the AP's I have coming up this year. The scale is from 1 (I could do this blindfolded and with my hands behind my back) to 5 (Is this English?!?! What's chbwibwer mean? I want my mommy!)

Wednesday 5/4, AM
AP Spanish Language

Scale: 3

Wednesday 5/4 PM

AP Statistics

Scale: 2.5

Monday 5/9 PM

Physics C (Mech)

Physics C (E &M)

Scale (Mech): 3.5

Scale (E&M): 5

Wednesday 5/11 AM

AP US Gov't and Politics

Scale: 5

Thursday 5/12 AM

AP Macroeconomics

Scale: 2

Thursday 5/12 PM

AP Microeconomics

Scale: 1.5

So now you know.

An ultimatum

If MIT does not send me a financial aid offer before the 26th, then they WILL be automatically, as Strong Bad would say, DELETED! No ifs, ands or buts.

Damnit, so I might soon be down to two, but that doesn't help any. I know I'm in a unique position, but I just need something to tell me I'm gonna make the right decision regardless of what I do. Some positive reinforcement would be highly appreciated, and I know I"m lucky to be able to be in this kind of position. I'm sure some people would kill to be accepted into MIT and Rice, let alone go to one of them.

So as today is a sick day as evidenced by my allergies yesterday, and I think I need to put some serious thought into this. Not just which is better institutionally, but how I would be socially. The ball's in my court now and I have to kick it.

just as uncertain and now with an aching back VI

With my new developments, I had been given a second chance to live, to explore. So began my

SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

I unpacked my essentials from my bag and crashed on the bed I had become accustomed to; the heater right next to the open window was on at full power, but the room was moderately lukewarm. I had noticed that my host had a Super Nintendo in his room, but it was hard to see in plain view. Since he wasn't around, I figured it wouldn't be too bad to just peer in to see what games he had.

So the next thing I know I've been playing Super MArio RPG for 4 hours. Nick, Andrew's roommate, was mildly surprised at how good looking the graphics were on the Super Nintendo. Lots of people had come in and out, looking for Nick and Andrew while they were watching my mad super skillz.

Nick asked me if I had any money left on the cash card they gave me. I think I still had nine bucks on it, but I tought it expired Saturday at midnight, so when they asked me for it i surrendered it at will. They said they were gonna buy ice cream to make smoothies, but I didn't want any part in it because, frankly, I had no idea what they put in there.

Andrew came back around 4 and asked me when I was gonna leave. He hadn't heard my message yet, but he was cool about it which calmed my nerves a lot since the admissions people porbably picked up their bags and left promptly at 12. They were there when we needed them, granted as long as it was on their schedule.

As night gre dark, Mom and I talked about how I was gonna get to the airport. The MIT booklet said you should arrive at your airport 3 hours before departure, so I figured I should leave at around 7 to get to my 10:05 flight. She arranged a taxicab to pick me up promptly at 7 at the main education building. I had tried to call a taxi comp. earlier, but they were rude like you might expect. He said it would cost 200 bucks and take 2 hours. after which he promptly hung up. "Asshole," I said unfilteredly without flinching. Well, he was. Reminds me of the highway patrol guy who said, "Too bad." after hearing of an accident late at night.

As the sun set, I realized I hadn't eaten anything since my lame heaping of rolls and chocolate milk that morning, so I headed back to Anna's taqueria to buy me a quesadilla. It was allright, like I thought it would be, and I drank my troubles away with another Jarrito's. Wait. No I didn't. j/k. I went to the pizza place 20 feet away. So I had a calzone, mixed up orange fanta and dr pepper, and watched FOX in vivid color. SImpsons was a rerun. As I headed back, I saw two stars in the sky, but they were both rather dim and outshined by the manmade lights across the river.

I headed back to BC and played Super Mario World until about 11. Then I tried to adjust the tv set with no cable or antenna to see what I could get. All there was were soccer and PAX, and, really, what American wants to watch that?

So I went to bed, nervous about what the next day would bring, trying to make myself confident thatv everything would be ok, but everything that could go wrong went thru my mind. After all, the terrorists went thru Logan. I played with my Rubik's Cube until I got sleepy.

Suddenly I heard a phone going off. As I came to my senses, I realized that it was Andrew's cell phone. Glancing over at my own phone, I saw that it was

MONDAY

at 2 in the morning. frustrated but high on adrenaline, I did my best to get back to sleep, as my alarm would go off at 5:30 because I didn't want to forget anything. It hadn't hit me that no one had claimed the top bunk. SO my last night there (hopefully) would be alone.

My alarm went off at 5:30, like I had hoped. The sun was starting to rise, but I tried my best to be quiet because who knows when the other dorm people went to sleep, or even if they were still awake. I peered to the top bunk, and no one had come to sleep.

I must mention, because it is a matter of serious gravity, there were rumours that my host slept with a female prefrosh. Whether this was true, I have no idea nor did I really want to know.

Everyone called me within a period of 10 minutes around 6 AM just to make sure that I was up. I assured them I was, and they wished me the best to get home. Slowly, quietly, I made my way downstairs with my luggage in tow. At the main lobby the tenant apparently thought I was an undergrad. After telling him I was the last prefrosh, he was amused cause he didn't think I looked like a prefrosh. he thought I was like a senior undergrad, but maybe that was because I hadn't shaved. Regardless, he wished me the best and I left BC for the last time.

I called the cab company ust to make sure they would be there to pick me up. After the lady informed me that they would call when the cabbie was close, I said thank you and hung up.

6:57, I see a cab pull up. It was the same company that I had called earlier, so I thought this was my ride. The guy's name was Jafta, I believe. We talked about how expensive colleges had become, and he commented that MIT was more expensive than Harvard. 25 minutes and 25 dollars later, and after going thru the undeground tunnel, I arrived at Logan and bid him adieu.

As I stood in line at the ticket counter, my cell phone rang. The number was from Boston, but unfamiliar. As I picked it up, it was a cabbie calling to say that he was running a little late. "Um, I already got picked up by you guys." "Who?" "jafta, I believe." "Oh. Jafta (grumble grumble)" and then he said good bye. So I was on the wrong taxi. Maybe I took sombody else's cab! I would normally be guilty but I just wanted to get home.

Wlaking up to the counter attendant, I told her of my itinerary to ead back to Tucson.

"Um, that flight's scheduled for tomorrow."
"OH SHIT" I thought. I explained to her my promblems that Denver screwed up my plans, and so I called the hotline and they gave me this flight. She sincerely apologized and I saw the first real sincere smile I had seen all day.
"Um, so is there any way I could get to Tucson today?"
"Let's see, I could get you from here to LAX leaving at 10:05"
"Um, anything else?" (I can't explain it, but I just didn't want to go to LAX)
"Well we have a plane leaving for Chicago in about 20 minutes. There is one open seat."

And after a few sighs and thank you's, I had my ticket for Chicago and then from there to Tucson. Had I taken my original cab, I would've had to go thru LA, maybe. My CA aversion perhaps paid off or something, somehow.

But now for the fun part: getting thru Boston's security in 20 MINUTES!

Somehow, with a lot of praying and wishing, I got through intact and with all my stuff. As I hurried to my ate, they had already begun boarding. Amazingly, I wasn't the last passenger. But thru a little luck and some help from somewhere, I was heading back home.

Up in the plane, I had one fo those out-of-body experiences. For a minute I thought I was back at BC. I could visualize walking down the gray mile perfectly vivid, but then I remembered I was in an airplane, in the air, heading towards Chicago. For a while I was joking to myself that I left my soul or something over there by accidentally, but that would be silly.

I got in at Chicago around 10 in the morning. I had noted that the plane for Tucson wouldn't leave until 2:40, but it hadn't dawned me taht I would have to spend over 4 freaking hours at an airport.

Fortunately, O'Hare is not the worst airport to be stuck in. I had loads of fun riding the escalators and the moving sidewalks. I was fascinated by the stoies on CNN. I bought a book. Thoughts crossed my mind to call one of my buds or even the school, but I figured I should wait 'til I get home and on the ground to say anything. They have the AWESOMEST! LIGHTING! DISPLAY!

At last it was 2:15 and they started to board. Then I got home.

I almost forgot. I had a cheese pretzel at O'Hare, but this was the weirdest looking cheese sauce I had ever seen. I couldn't quite determine its state of matter. It was too still to be a liquid. Hot, but not steamy enough to be a gas. Still, but jiggly enough to not be a solid. So I ate some cheese plasma, and I was rather unimpressed.

But the ride back home was the scariest, coolest ride ever. The plane was a little old, and the lightingg was a little shoddy to say the least. The part that freaked me out the most was that when they turned on the seat belt light, the coincinding beep was not your average beep. It was a PUTONYOURSEATBELTCUZWEAREGONNACRASH sounding type of beep. It scared me to death. Over Colorado (or maybe NM), I swear, the snow that was over the Rockies looked like Dairy Queen soft serve ice cream. I so wanted to just grab a spoon and scoop out that yumy goodness. Apparenty cheese plasma has bizarre side effects.

But at last I got home at about 4:30 Tucson time and was ready to tell all of my adventures. Then I got sick for a week.

THE END

a little question:

Do we HAVE to declare on Tuesday????????????????? Cuz frankly I know the time is near but I can't make up my mind yet. But now that it's almost over and my uphill battle now feels kinda pointless, should I just face the facts and resign to the logic? I don't know.

Saw Sin City with Mom last night. It's awesome. Careful, if the gore and language and gongas of near naked and naked women turn you off, then you won't be able to get into it and you'll think it sucked.

All Mom could say was "wow". I just thought it was pretty good.

just as uncertain and now with an aching back V

As the sun set a few hours before on an awesome day, the next thing to follow was naturally

SUNDAY

I got up around 9 because I was exhausted from my partying to the hizzmax. Slowly and quietly, I got myself ready and repacked all of my stuff because my host's roommate was on the top bunk, but his prefrosh was nowhere to be seen. Oh well. Good morning, probably hung over dude. I was back off to AZ.

SO I arrived at the student center to check out and enjoy a continental breakfast before the bus I wanted to get on left promptly at noon. I got in line and quickly signed myself out and was handed a student survey. As I began jotting down all the wonderful and smelly experiences I had had over the past couple of days, I overheard one of the main people talking some gibberish about airplanes and flying and that junk. Then he said Denver.

That caught my attention. SO I Headed over to him, and I asked, "What about denver?" in a rather naive fashion. "All flights to and from Denver have been cancelled." he sayd rather collectively.

"OH SHIT!" I thought.

SO I headed back to the reception desk to ask them what I should do. Also I found out I was the ONLY one affected by this sudden turn in the weather. How fortunate I was! Now, when I checked the weatherchannel.com on Wednesday before I left, it said that there would be sunny skies and highs around 50. So, until this sudden new development, I thought things would be smooth sailing. Well, THEY LIED! ThE BIG LIARS! They could tell I was pretty wracked up about this new development, but all they could do is hand me the number for the airlines, United, and wished me the best, though they didn't explicitly say it, cause otherwise that would've been completely rude. I mean, they brought me here; shouldn't they be the ones figuring out how to get me to leave? But all they did was point me to the public telephones.

After a few unsucessful attempts to contact, I went back and asked them if that was the right number. "Did you press 9 first?" the lady at the desk politely asked me. "I WOULD'VE HAD YOU FUCKERS TOLD ME SO! WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM, PSYCHIC?" I thought. "Oh, no I didn't." is what I actually said.

So I went droddingly back to the phones. So I finally got through, and, what I should've expected, it was entirely automated. The guy's voice, whom I shall call Ted, was courteous and not too robot sounding. So first I asked him if there was a flight from Boston through Houston and from there to tucson. "Did you say from Austin to Houston?" "No" "Did you say from Boston to Houston?" "Yes" "Let me see what we have (makes clicky noises to emulate seraching on a compy) We have one flight, but it's sold out." From there I went to double check, just in case they were messing with my mind, that my original flight was actually cancelled. Ted informed me it was. "Repeat" "Flight number iuafbsadbf from BOston to Denver has been cancelled" "Operator, please" "PLease hold while I connect you to an operator." This music they were playing was sooooo not what I needed to hear. It was a dramatic kind of muzak, vaguely reminiscent of the Twilight Zone theme. 10 minutes later, I figured I should do something to up my odds. So I grabbed the other telephone, asked Ted to connect me to the operator, and was now on hold on two different phones. I must've looked pretty pathetic, one phone to each ear, my head drooped down, my arms shaking from being in such an awkward position, and my eyes getty kinda watery.

Finally, about 6 minutes later, a lady picked up on the first line. I informed hwer of my situation, and she sounded like she had been hearing my problem all day. "there's nothing open left for today, but I can schedule you for a flight leaving tomorrow." "Can't you check another airline or something?" "No, ma'am, we can't do that" (I'll rant later about that part, trust me) "o...k.... tomorrow's great, thank you." After which she gave me my flight numbers (now going thru Chicago) and even my seat numbers. happy yet still distressed, I said thank you to the lady and hung up.

Inbetween all of this I had natuarally contacted back home. Mom was worried, but calm and coolheaded which I so needed to be at the time.

After finally getting squared away again, I headed back to the reception desk to see abou un-checking out. Then I asked about what to do next. They merely told me to ask my host if I could spend another night. They refused to expand on the possibilities if I couldn't stay at BC. Still tense, I called Andrew, but only left a message. I joked with them that it would be better to just drop by and tell him the good news, and I think they thought I was serious. How they couldn't see through my facade, I have no idea.

So I lugged all my stuff back to BC, and upon getting buzzed in I asked the tenant guy to call my dorm to see if my roommate had awoken yet. I think the call woke him up, but he was really wasted and understanding or just really understanding, so I headed back up and put down my stuff.

I almost forgot, I did see my host's roommates's prefrosh checking out. He had herd about the bad new, but his mommy was there to take him home. I really wanted my mommy, but knew I couldn't so I sucked it up and did the best I could.

Sunday afternoon is kinda uneventful, so I'll include that with Monday.

you can thank alice

www.muffinfilms.com

watch 4,6, and 12. those are arguable the best (?) ones.

just as uncertain and now with an aching back IV

With my tummy full and my brain in utter pain, it came to pass that it was then:

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT! (That was a song, wasn't it? Didn't they use it for PLAnters nuts?)

With my noggin screaming in utter horror of things just seen (The Miss Ugly Pageant, of course) I decided that a large dose of sophisticated entertainment was urgently needed. Fortunately, the musical production at MIT was having a show, "COmpany"- a Sondheim musical, I believe- and it only cost 2 bucks for prefrosh. SWEET! It was in their version of the little theater, which is actually below the auditorium that looks vaguely remisniscent of the Syndey Opera House. But anyways.

The show was basically about a guy named Bobby. He's the unmarried one in his circle of friends. And he wants what they have, but knows that it's not exactly heaven in a handbasket, either. His guy friends "want" him to meet a nice girl now that he's almost middle aged, but in reality they yearn for being single but are thankful for the relationships they have with their wives. One couple actually decides to get a divorce, but still live together and take care of the kids and do exactly everything they used to do but just aren't "married" anymore by law.

There are three main women in his life. One's a flight attendant. One's a girl he's nkown for a long time but have now since become "good friends" and the other one is a loud, New York type of girl. He eventually sleeps with the stewardess because she's not the brighest lightbulb, but then she has to leave for work to go to Barcelona. SO typical. You meet a nice girl, you get down with her, and then she has to leave. He "argues" for her to stay to make her feel wanted, and to his surprise she actually does for another day.

"What?!" he says... "Oh God..."

The best number is when one guy's singing about their marriage in a slow, excited tone, while his wife-to-be starts saying rather briefly, "Listen, everybody I'm not really getting married...." in such a hurried tone and pace that you feel almost sorry for her since she doesn't wanna go through with it anymore. Eventually, they do, because it's raining and she doesn't want him to catch a death of cold as he walks out in the rain after she says she doesn't love him enough.

I sat next to this old married couple who liked to tell me that they go to every show the MIT musical theater compnay puts on. The next show is Star Wars: The Trilogy: The musical.

My thoughts exactly.

"Luke, I am your father. Luke, you are my son."
"Well, you cut my hand off. And this is not much fun..."

This is why I don't write musicals.

I actually saw my host at the show, too. Turns out he (or at least his friends) are into musicals, so that was kinda comforting to see them there too.

As the show concluded and sand the opening numbet for the closing, I headed out quickly because my feet were getting numb from sitting in their chairs.

Then came the hardest decision of teh whole trip so far: Now what do I do? THere were two main choices. One was to go to the 2nd floor of the student to watch one of the fraternities host a "battle of the bands" romp near the exhibit gallery. The other choice was to go to the other hall on the 2nd floor of the student center and go to Yuri's Night World Space Paryt 2005, a party to celebrate the anniversary of the Russian guy who first went into orbit. I was tossed.

I could go and listen to some hard alternative stuff
Or I could go and chill to their "space-themed dance music"

I could pay for admission and refreshments at the rock show
Or I could enjoy "free food, games, and tons of surprises"

Weighing my options, I went to the space party. And boy am I glad I did.

As I walked into the blacklit room, the techno sounds and pretty visuals of planets and stars and stuff pleased both my eyes and ears. The refreshments were of the human kid and untampered with, so I enjoyed a few bage of Star Wars skittles and Coca-Cola.

They were holding a raffle for a trip to experience zero gravity on that airplane ride thingy, but it was like 20, 30 bucks a pop, and I had to spend my money for beter things (good thing I did, too). But everyone who bought a ticket got one of those lightup wristband things, but I figured it wasn't worth 30 bucks just for that and a chance to fly zero g's. damn, econ is taking over my life!

Thinsg were pretty middle school dancelike. NObody was really dancing, and there really couldn't be one side for the girls since there were only 2 girls, or should I say women, at the party. One was probably a student at MIT with her bf, and the other was a married woman. To lighten up the mood, the hosts and DJ's started to blow up a lot of green balloons. Green, but of course. Pretty soon people were batting the thinsg around like nobody's business. A couple eventually came my way, and so I started to bat it up in the air, as well. Suddenly, the A/C or something came on and my balloon flew out of reach. It w=ended up at the married couple's table. She batted it back rather excitedly. So I batted it back.

We played for 15 minutes.

Afterwards, the DJ said for the two couples to come and dance the slow dance. It was "Rocketman" by Elton John and fortunately not William Shatner. I heard the married woman say, "This is just like our wedding." And so they danced and rather nicely at that. Upon returning to their seats, the lady came over to me and pointed out that they han't ACTUALLY danced that during their wedding, but it was during their honeymoon or something. Those two probably are meant for each other, then.

With loads of fun techno and dance music saturating my ears, I finally got up and started to play with the green balloons as everyone else was. We kicked them, a couple got stepped on, but people were jst having fun groovin and batting.

Then they played the songs I requested for prom here, and I hadn't even asked. A big smile came across my face naturally as they started turning up the volume. I looked for the married couple, but didn't see them anymore. So I danced like nobody's business, as apparently I'm not the only person who likes that song.

I finally letf around 12:30 around they started playing more funky stuff that I'm not as much into, like the Beastie and "Jump around"

But then I went to bed very happy and ready to come back home to declare, I wanna go to MIT

But you shouldn't count your chickens before they're hatched.

things to do when not at school

Your element is Earth. You have your feet on the
ground and are in touch with reality. Some may
say you need to lighten up, but you are just
not that way. It's not that you don't enjoy
having fun, you only find it in more calmer
activities such as writing or reading a book.
But before you have your fun you always make
sure your work is done. You are considered the
reliable one among your friends, you would
never betray anyone just like and are not
influenced on peer-pressure. Friends and family
can always come to you for guidance because you
are wise and smart. You know what is right and
what is wrong and you study hard to become
something big in the future. The bad side is
that your friend/s feel ignored when you spend
more time with books and papers rather with
them. You are not such a people person and are
sometimes a question-mark on how to behave
around them at certain times. Luckily it always
works out, somehow. Love is not really desired
in your world right now, maybe in the future
when you've got a work and so on under control.
After all, you are a perfectionist. Rate and
message!


What is your element? [with pics + 7 outcomes + detailed answeres!]
brought to you by Quizilla

something funny

1. go to google

2. type in "French Military Victories"

3. Click on "I'm Feeling Lucky"

4. laugh

just as uncertain and now with an aching back III

I almost forgot, I entered a raffle for an iPodshuffle, but I had to be present to win it at the exact same time I was unforturnately at my financial aid appt. So, who knows, I could've won an iPodshuffle and be cool like everyone else.

Fortunately, I woke the next morning relatively dry and unsmelly. This set precedent for:

SATURDAY

I found a vending machine that accepted the TechCash they gave me at the beginning and bought myself a Coke, but it had a green top. Turns out it was one of those "1 in 12 wins a free Coke" contests. And I won! Though I've yet to redeem it, but I figured that this bottle was lucky and so I used it to pick up water from the various drinking fountains as my kidneys shouted "hooray!"

The Next House was hosting a waffle breakkfast in their country styled kitchen. And, Wow, it was a BIG kitchen. One of the fraternities was there boasting that they had a 5 star chef at their place, but I was only interested in waffles. As they freshly popped out of the waffle maker (all made from scratch!) my mouth began to water. That was a bpretty good breakfast, except the waffles needed some butter and syrup.

Afterwards I went back to BC for a seminar on all the various dorms. They explained all the locations and styles of the dorms (they're all coed except for one female dorm) and more importantly indicated the setup for freshman dorms. Most have doubles, a few have singles, and one even has triples and quads. It was pretty typical and expected of such a session, informative but with holes. They had set up a Bingo game with words they would say during the Q and A session, but nobody won.

Later I took a tour of the Simmons building, which is appropriatlty called 'The SPonge" It looks like a metallic piece of swiss cheese! inside it's all post-modern looking, and they even have their own meditation room where a monk was residing temporarily during some ritual. They took us to the top floor where they had a patio-ish thing outside full of snacks, but I was unsure of how long the meats had been in the sunlight so I just ate Cheez-its and Ritz Chips.

Now, I hate wind, and it was windy up there naturally
Now, I hate heights, and it was very tall up there naturally
So I slowly made my way back inside and headed or the elevator as fast as I could run.

Back on solid ground, I headed back to the skating rink to check out the clubs and activities fair. They had a few interesting clubs that I could actually see myself becoming a part of:

MIT BEEF
As it sounds, MIT BEEF is a group dedicated to spreading the good word of meat consumption. As many MIT students are naturally very worldly and often vegetarian at that, they like to point out the important nutrients that people might not be getting from veggies alone. They were serving beef jerky. Now, they said they didn't mean to shun or discriminate against vegetarians, but merely wanted people to expand their horizons.

The Math CLub. That's not its real name but I don't remember it. The one lady looked really bored, so I went over to see what there was. All she had was a Rubik's Cube and a game of SET. So we played SET for a while. She was whooping me at first, but then I caught up later after I remembered the rules a little better. I then solved the cube they had. "What method do you use?" she asked. "Um, the one my friend Brent Morgan showed me" I said, and to that somebody turned their head towards me but said nothing.

The Chocolate lab. All they do is mix different things with chocolate. Their Dark chocolate ginger was a very interesting taste for my palate, though I stayed mostly with milk chocolate mint smores.

I saw Susanna Brown a couple of times there, but otherwise we didn't see each other much or talk a whole lot.

Then I went to their Mexican-esque restaurant, Anna's Taqueria. Their employees spoke in Spanish, and I thought that gave it a nice touch, though later I realized that most of the restauarnts had Spanish-speaking employees. So I bought myself a quesadilla and a Steak and Rice burito, and a bottle of Limon Jarritos (they're usually in the "Hispanic" aisle) to wash it down. They had Juanes on the radio and were plying his debut album from beginning to end. I sang along as best I knew to his big hit, "Photografia," or something like that. Actually it's a duet with Nelly Furtado, who had a couple of pop hits like, "I'm like a bird" and other songs.

Here's the chorus sans accent marks and rough translation

Cada vez que te busco te vas (Everytime I look for you, you leave)
Y cada vez que te llamo, no estas (And everytime I call you, you're not there)
Es por eso que debo decir (And for that I should say)
Que tu solo en mis photos estas (That only in my photos you are)

See? It sounds better in Spanish. After all, it's one of the Romantic Languages.

Then I went to the MIss Ugly Pageant, which was funny but scarred me for life. It's an "anti-pageant" where the arguably worst person wins. This year there were only 4 contestants. My favorite was The Faurves, conjoined quadruplets connected at the hips. For their talent portion, they sang Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and rotated around so we could see all of them. Quite well, I must add. But the winner was ... god I don't want to spell it... MIss Jizzalot, a guy who developed a "self-lactating" bra upon "stimulation" and he demonstarted it for everyone. That and he wore a thong and pantyhose. He was awarded by last year's winner, a girl who could take off her underwear without taking off her shorts, after which she threw them into the audience. I am just SO glad I wasn't near them. I must pray that if I go there that I do not get placed in that dorm, EAsT camPUS (that's exactly how they spelled it in the brochures and everything else.)

That's all for now, I'll finish SATURDAY in the near future, because Saturday night was the best night of the whole trip.

just as uncertain and now with an aching back II

now with one night under my belt, I could start on:

FRIDAY

I woke up, a little stiff but otherwise excited, because today I would see the heart and soul of MIT: the classes! Whoopee!

After getting myself ready and walking down the "gray mile"- the creaky, squeaky, freaky walk between the dorm room and the bathroom with all the other dorms along the way- I went to get from grub. They had a bagel shop in their version of the Student Union. Their bacon, egg, and cheese bagel was delicious and probably high cholestoric.

First I headed down to physics as my first class. There were only a few people there, but a little before the bell would've rung (I never heard any bell, and their schedule is very simple. class from 10 to 11, then 11 to 12, etc, and they're not too picky on tardiness as long as your exucse is decent) the professor shoos us away, saying any prefrosh classes have been cancelled because they all had a pop quiz in his classes and didn't want us to bother them. Bothered, I went to an aeronautics class, which talked about buckling and core strnegth, which was interesting but used lot of diff eq's and partial derivitive symbols I was not ahppy about, but I kinda understood it and took good notes.

Later I went to their gift store/ supply shop, The Coop. For the longest time I wasn't sure if they meant coop as in a chicken coop or as in cooperation or co-op or something. The O's were intertwined, so it made sense that it would be the co-op, but I had the nerve to ask and lo and behold it is a chicken coop. That's just stupid, cuz nothing there is worth chicken feed. Plus, their shirts were very boisterous and full and of themselves. Upon entering one of the t shirts said something to the effect of:

CalTech
For people who couldn't get into MIT

and likewise for Harvard, though the other schools probably do something similiar, or at least I would hope so. I bought a snazzy new hat (snazzy is such a cool word, no?) and a binder.

I went back to the educational buildings to check out a couple more classes. I went to a multivariable calc class, and it seemed doable but more abstract than I would like. Laters I went to an Econ class. Now, MIT along wiht many schools do the whole the-prof-will-lecture-a-couple-days-and-a-grad-student-will-review on other days type of thing. So Olga was takling about the formulas for consumer consumption and the philips curve. Their econ is a lot more math based than Gray's, and is it weird if I say that I like the latter verion more? So then she gave a pop quiz. I almost got a passing grade on it.

I think I ate lunch, or at least I thought I did at the time, but I was never sure, though I did eat a cookie I bought from the bagel shop earlier.

Then it was over to the academics fair, about all the majors and what they can offer. The math people were flat out rude. "So what would it take to get a math major?" I asked. "About 10 classes." The guy remarked hotly. "Is that it? Really?" I asked. "yesssssss, but they're hard classes." she says with a look that clearly says I don't want to be here right now. The Econ group found it more valuable of their time to leave before I could see them. It's doable to get a minor in Spanihs, and I could make more money in my first year a an engineer than my mom makes with her 1 and a half jobs.

There I met the independant fraternity, Epsilon Theta. They're a coed fraternity (is that an oxymoron?) off of campus but very friednly and very nerdy, like nerdy to the tenth degree (I mean, even their initials are ET). I kept thinking about going to their events (Katamari Demachi contest, BOard Game-a-rama, Watching Star Wars and sipping Cocoa at Midnight) but never did, partially cuz I was uneasy about them being off campus and another that if I went there I'd surely have no chance of a real social life.

Then I went for a meeting with the financial aid advisor since I hdn't received an offer yet. I don't wanna talk about it.

Now feeling crappy, I looked in my book and found that some junior or sophomore (his grad year changed depednig on which agenda you looked at) and he was playing on his piano for a recital. He played a few pieces, and I think they were all from memory. One of them, called Photographs at the Museum of Something, was like a half hour long. It was very soothing and I think I kinda fell asleep for one of the pictures. Soporific- sleep inducing, that's like the one word that's sticked in my head from freshman year. But it was nice.

After that I think I went to get me some real food. My dorm BC was having a special buffet style dinner, each floor with a specific style of cuisine. The first one that caught my eye was a beach party at Connor 3 with hot doggies and burgers. Even though they have full kitchens with stove and everything, they were using the multi-purpose Geroge Foreman grill for everything, and they boiled all the doggies. It was edible.

Later I went to the Next Dorms to watch their annual musical production. This year they did "Lucky Stiff." Basically, take "Weekend at Bernie's", set it in Monte carlo, make it a musical, and VOILA! you have this play. It was cute, and a good production for a crappy story. The best part was when one lady sings the same song twice to two different guys.

Then it was about 10:30, and I walked over to bed. No one was around so I turned off the lights and began to snooze.

Then at 3:30 there's a big commotion.

How to get wasted in three easy steps:
1. Obtain necessary equipment
a. Bawl's energy drink (The Red Bull for Quake fans!)
b. vodka
2. Mix and consume
3. Try and puke on the top bunk while your roomate's pre-frosh is trying to sleep on the bottom of the apparently pretty permeable mattress.

But overall things were bright. My outlook was a little brighter. Only tomorrow would hold the answers and begin to close this ceremony.



Or would it?

just as uncertain and now with an aching back

So I'm back. (Insert appluase) MIT has been quite an interesting experience and thensome. Actually I had been trying to think of a few good titles, of which I picked one at random at the last second to be the official one. Honorable mentions go to:

Everyone looks like Alice!
MITrapped?
The (way too) long way home, part deux
99 green balloons
Too mnay kooks spoil the broth

They all have their own special significance in my heart.

So, I'm sure you want all the juicy, crunchy, tangy and caramel centered datails. So here we go. It would make sense to start on:

THURSDAY

Logan airport reminds me of a hospital. Is that where they fimled Home Alone? You know, that McCulley Caulkin flick where he gets left home for Christmas before he gets molested by Michael Jackson or something. Anywho, is that the airport the family runs thorugh, cuz the ticket booths seemed reminiscent for some reason. It could've been O'hare, too, but Logan seemed right for some reason. Anywho I found the bus and off we went to campus. Everyone was bragging about what math class they were taking. I am proud to say that I'm the only pre-frosh I know of who's taking Stats senior year. Diff EQ, schmiff EQ; I could standard deviate your ass anyday.

So we arrived at MIT, and it looked pretty sweet. As soon as we checked in, we got assigned to out host dorms and locales. I was put in Burton-Conner, a 5 story buildings with 9 floors each with a different flavor. I was in Burton 3, AKA the BTB, AKA the BUrton Third Bombers. My host, Andrew, reminded me a lot of that kid from freshman year who always wore the bathrobe. What's his name? Steven something, no? Annie, do you know? Anyway he reminded me a lot of him. After I dropped my bags, he said to me in the most polite way possible,

"I have math hw due tomorrow, so leave for a while." (paraphrased)

With my trusty little guidebook of activities, I found my over to the Alumni Center where they were having the second annual MIT fiml festival. 50 teams had 5 days, an iBook abd a video recorder to make a 10 minute video. They showed the top 15 entries. One team, named TEAM AWESOME, was so awesome that they didn't bother to turn in a video. I think they have the videos on the web. You could probably google it or something. The winning entry was about these shoes and whoever wore them had serious issues i.e. drug dependance, suicidal tendencies, etc. One of the funniest ons involved a white kid getting back to his Asian roots after getting in to MIT, where, according to the film, 88% of all students are Asian (this is blatantly wrong but adds effect). So he goes to these Asian kids, and they start giving him all these "Asian" tests. One invloved eating with chopsticks. Another involved kareoke, I believe. The final test of one of kung-fu skills, and in badly dubbed format, the ehite kid says, "I have seen both Rush HOurs 1 AND 2" and then he whhops the tar out of the ninja kid, so he becomes officially Asian. It was really cute. I recommend you try and find them.

I think I'll just finsih Thursday for now and continue with the rest later.

So afterward I headed over to the official prefrosh icebreaker party. They just had everyone gets in small circles and play Bingo with people. I helped fill in the space "Does not have their license yet" but it was pretty lame from the get go (the bingo thing at least.) Then we went to the ice skating rink sans the ice for the dorms/greek festival. One of the dorms made almond jello. It was weird. One of the fraternitties had DDR and so everyone was trying their best at it. But everyone was failing and no one knew why. Suddenly it hit me that there was a delay between actually stepping on the pad and it registering on the screen. with that knowedge, I managed to get an A on Drop the Bomb on standard mode and everyone was "woowwwwww." They had plenty of food and games and even a bumper car setup outside, but I was tired and left around 11.

My host is not... how would you say.... clean. All of his stuff was on the floor. His roomate's stuff, too. But I managed to put all tghe clothes from the bed to the floor and slept. Also we found out later that his roommate also had a pre-frosh, so we took the beds and our hosts were nice enough to find another place to sleep. Most dorms across MIT are doubles, but Burton-Conner has singles and doubles and, apparently, really comfy couches. But especially the decor or the dorm room and the bathroom (COLD AND SMELLY= negative points) made me feel very unwelcome and I was hoping that things would be a lot better in the near future. Had I needed to decide right then and there, I would've said I definately wouldn't go to MIT in the fall. But I tried to be optomistic and slept without shivering too much.

So ended the first night.

(notes to self):
egoheaded
freeness
rudeness
classes
how to (or not to) get wasted in three easy steps

I have 5 minutes

greetings from cambridge. mass, not england. So I'm at MIT for a smidge longer, and I found a laptop for public use, though I doubt they included blogging as public use intention. Things are going all right, it's pretty sweet so far. It's like an oasis in the middle of an industrial desert from what I've made so far, I'll elaborate more once I get back home.

things tio remember (note to self)

trash
super nintendo
miss ugly
bernies
88%
alice

k, well I gotta run. cya soon, y'all.


Mitchy

it feels appropriate for some reason

CHANTAL KREVIAZUK LYRICS"Leaving On A Jet Plane"I'm ... I'm ...All my bags are packed, I'm ready to goI'm standin' here outside your doorI hate to wake you up to say goodbyeBut the dawn is breakin', it's early mornThe taxi's waitin', he's blowin' his hornAlready I'm so lonesome I could dieSo kiss me and smile for meTell me that you'll wait for meHold me like you'll never let me go'Cause I'm leaving on a jet planeI don't know when I'll be back againOh, babe, I hate to goI'm ...There's so many times I've let you downSo many times I've played aroundI'll tell you now, they don't mean a thingEvery place I go, I think of youEvery song I sing, I sing for youWhen I come back I'll wear your wedding ringSo kiss me and smile for meTell me that you'll wait for meHold me like you'll never let me go'Cause I'm leaving on a jet planeI don't know when I'll be back againOh, babe, I hate to goNow the time has come to leave youOne more time, oh, let me kiss youAnd close your eyes and I'll be on my wayDream about the days to comeWhen I won't have to leave aloneAbout the times that I won't have to say ...Oh, kiss me and smile for meTell me that you'll wait for meHold me like you'll never let me go'Cause I'm leaving on a jet planeI don't know when I'll be back againOh, babe, I hate to goAnd I'm leaving on a jet planeI don't know when I'll be back againOh, babe, I hate to goBut I'm leaving on a jet plane(Ah ah ah ah)Leaving on a jet plane(Ah ah ah ah)Leaving on a jet plane(Ah ah ah ah)Leaving on a jet plane(Ah ah ah ah)Leaving on a jet plane(Ah ah ah ah)Leaving on a jet plane(Ah ah ah ah)Leaving on a jet plane(Ah ah ah ah)Leaving on a jet plane(Ah ah ah ah)(Leaving) On a jet plane[ www.azlyrics.com ]

Gulp. I'll try and blog if'n I can whilst I'm over there, but i can't say for sure. I just hope this helps me decide, cuz I am soooooooooo indecisive.

Play a song for me

So I'm not going to prom.

But I requested a song that I haven't heard on the radio (of course online, but that doesn't count) or on TV for a very long time. If they play it, lemme know. These are the lyrics. Be they groovin, I don't think we could use these for our English project.

One more time...
One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah, all right
Don't stop dancing
One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah, all right
Don't stop dancing
One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah, all right
Don't stop dancing
One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah...
One more time
One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah, all right
Don't stop dancing
One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah
Don't stop dancing
One more time
Uhmmm...
Dance feelin'
Celebration tonight
Celebrate
Don't wait to leave
Uhmmm... no
He don't stop
You can stop
We gonna celebrate
One more time
One more time
One more time
Celebration
You know it's gonna cool the light
Tonight
Eh! Is feeling
Music's got me feeling the need
In
Air
Come on, all right
We gonna celebrate
One more time
Celebrate and dance are free
Music's got me feeling so free
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance are free
One more time
Music's got me feeling so free
We gonna celebrate
one more time

10000 days

So we all just came back from the econ challenge up in Phoenix.

We came in second! Hooray! Todd's team did really well, too! Lauren Peate's team did way awesome! In the first round each member got a perfect score! I'm gonna end another sentence with an exclamtion point!

So as my prize for coming in second, we each get a $250 savings bond. Thirty years from now- yes, years- we should each get a check or something for 250 bucks. That's a veeeery long time, and seeing that intesrest rates are lower than inflation rates, it will be losing value basically everyday. I could probably exchange it for maybe 60 bucks today, but it's money I don't really need at the moment so I can use it in the future or something.

Will I have to note this on my taxes?

I'm leaving supposedly for MIT on Thursday. I'm worried. On the way back down to Tucson I was looking at the cacti and the ostriches and the things we call mountains thinking this might be the last time I see them in a while. The question for me right now isn't if I want to leave, but whether or not I'm meant to stay here.