She called it "Cultural Re-entry Shock"

But can I call it "it's 4 in the afternoon why aren't you dressed yet common sense"
But that's the thing with common sense, it's not so common.

Although there are some things I absolutely love about the US, there are some things I could absolutely do without.

Par example:

People who think it's okay to leave their house undressed! Alright, okay, I understand if it's the morning and you are going to the gym, or you're just going out for a quick something and heading back to your house (sure I judge just the same, but I understand, I did it too when I was at my low point). But excuse me, it's the middle of the day! Why couldn't you take off your old crusty clothes and get dressed properly? Why? WHY?! Go cry yourself to sleep, you disgust me.

Hey you, little girl, where's the rest of your clothes? I understand it's been warm and so everyone automatically disrobes a bit...but you are still at school. I repeat: still at school. You're looking particularly whore-iffic for a school campus. I know you like the quad, the grass is green, the trees are beautiful, the sun is shining...put your clothes back on. I save my ho uniforms for when I go out dancing-sure, wear them whenever you want-but there are students who don't need to see your nakedness, besides there are children!

Oh and a-hole, I've got something to say to you too. This is not a park! I can fight the urge to football your kid like I really want to, but you need to play your part too. Namely: keep your child out of my our way when we're going from class to class. I don't like many children (especially when I'm not being paid to be around them), I definitely don't like them on sight, and this is supposed to be a child-free zone, let's keep it that way. Or I can help you help me, just give me 5 minutes with them. They either won't want to come back, or will be quiet and stay the hell away from my window when I'm working.

On the plus side I still love the Suz reading room. It's upstairs, completely silent, and has this beautiful globe that I may or may not stare at and plan my next trip with.
I was slightly bummed that I had to go to the gym at 7ish instead of opening time but at least the summer sports have started working out in the morning so I still have muscles to look at. I missed strenuous exercise so much and I didn't even realize it! It doesn't touch dancing, but it's still so...just so. My French partner thinks it's weird I like to exercise so much, but it keeps me on an even keel, things are just better when I exercise regularly.

It's safer for everyone around me too.
I'm just saying.

But I miss food that's healthy and tastes good. Why do people seem to think that in order for something to taste good it must be deep-fried? I'm so glad everyone in my family cooks! And we all cook different things so it's always interesting and good.
PS Welcome back jalapenos, chili peppers, and pepperoncinos, how I've missed you so! Yay spicy food again!

This is how a pint of B+J's disappears...

No, I wasn't doing a bit of emotional eating.
So there I was eating peanut butter cup B&J's, every time I was about to stop I'd find another cup of chocolaty peanut buttery goodness and would think: 'One more, so all you can see is smooth ice cream with no cup bumps.'
I'm sure if it wasn't the last pint of ice cream my sister's I would have finished it. The thought of having a fridge senza ice cream and the things I have would have to do for a milkshake stopped me.
Seriously, my love for milkshakes knows no bounds.

The best ideas come to me when I'm eating or drinking ice cream...the latest: trimming internet fat.
Namely facebook and myspace and the others that I don't use and somehow signed up for. So ciao ciao fb, peace to myspace, and I'm throwing up deuces to all the others. You bore me. You put up quite the fight though, fb & ms(?) I had you for 5 years! That's longer than I've willingly done anything non-physically/linguistically related.

I did hesitate before I deleted them...I have pictures I NEED! So I sent a message out to the few people I actually use it to keep in contact with, gave it a few days, and buh-bye! It's funny, with myspace I had to confirm 2 times, wait for an email, confirm again, and now it'll be gone in 48 days...with facebook it showed a couple friends saying ________will miss you, __________will miss you...then after I confirmed I had to tell them why, confirm again, and it's deleted...but I can always use my old email and password to sign in. I'm confused though, does that mean I'm there (as in the blank face and such) or that they kept my profile but deleted all my friends and such? I'm gonna wait a week and see what happens, if I don't wait long enough I think it'll cancel my cancellation and I'll be back at square one because of curiosity.

You wouldn't believe the number of people who couldn't believe I would do such a thing as to delete something that did absolutely nothing for me except allow me to put up pictures so others can be nosey without having to actually speak to me. Actually, you would. But yeah, honestly, it did nothing for me, so so long.
I'll put my pictures on flickr and PS instead!

Oddly enough, a weight has been lifted. No facebook, no myspace, no cell phone.

You knew it was gonna happen...

...so there we were, listening to MJ, when we decided to see how much of the dance we remembered.

So myself, my sis, and my mom all did Thriller. It was sad, it was amazing, it was what it was. We don't remember all of it, but enough to enjoy ourselves. It was hilarious.

Y'know, for ol'time's sake.

It's the end of an ERA!

I found out when I got home from school. I didn't believe it, I thought it was a [bad] prank.
Or maybe I didn't realize that I believed it because this morning I disregarded the clothes I had previously chosen and instead wore all black and, after double-checking before class, set my ipod to MJ an' let it play. The end of an era, I say!
So my tribute to MJ is 3 fold. This post, the first spot on 'Lyrics I Love' when PassionSoars is officially up and running (I just need to find the template with tabs that I like, then I'm moving over...), and a good old-fashioned album listen. That's right, album.
His music made my world a better place.
He had issues, sure, just like everyone else, and some that were exacerbated by Hollywood (and being sold into the game so young) standards and pressures...but he was good at what he did.
And I cringe to think of the pressure he had about the comeback. How do you comeback when you're already king? You're fighting yourself, one of you lose!

Anyhow, I must resort to begging, in his memory...please, let more great ones come out like Mike, and less like Souljaboy.

By all means, kick me while I'm down.

My my, it has been a roller coaster week...I'll bullet.

~My 85 year old great grandfather is marrying his ex-mistress-now fiancee.

~I have a burlesque mentor, finally!

~I took my Italian test for the uni and honestly, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

~I found a workable (for me) bus schedule to get to and from school with minimal hassle. It won't be fun once we get closer to the winter, but I have a couple months so no worries.

~I have finished training and can take my 1st dancing certification test whenever I so choose.

~But the hours weren't flexible and didn't mesh in the least bit with my school hours, which, after this summer, go well into the afternoon and (with traffic) would cut my shift in half...

~...so I'm still jobless and searching.

~I was invited to a 4-day weekend in Vegas for only $200 (plane/hotel)!

and, here's the kicker:

~Because of my hardship withdrawal(s) I didn't make 'satisfactory progress' my last year in school* and the school will not "award" me any university or federal money. I can appeal twice. Once now, explaining (once again!) my hardship, and again after completing summer quarter (to their satisfaction, naturally).

This blows for several reasons:

I have to get a short-term loan from the school for this quarter, which means that I would have to pay off over 2G by September before I could attend fall classes.
If the first appeal doesn't go through and I have to do a second, I would have to get a second short-term while waiting for the second appeal, assuming I could pay off the first...hello! I'm jobless!
If neither is accepted, I have no aid from the government. None. Nada. Niente. Get it?

You fuckers are not going to break me. Now I know why people frame/bronze/pedestal their degrees, after all this shit I'd do the same!



*No fucking duh! I was fighting depression, you heffas! I was under the impression that a hardship withdrawal also applied to financial aid...shit.

A Morning Story

Here's Stacy at 5 am:
Ahhhhh. Good morning! It's so quiet, all I need right now is water, coffee, and a window. Could life get any better than this? I hope no one interrupts my quiet-happy-morning time, 5 am is a great time to be alive!

Here's Stacy at 4:59 am:
Why the fuckadoodle am I awake right now? Today sucks. Get me coffee stat and no one gets hurt, no no no, no talkie.

Unfortunately if I want to get to the gym by 6 I'd have to catch the bus at 4:30 AM. And that's after a half-mile walk (uphill, both ways! haha, moving on).
You wanna know why?
I thought so.

Because life sucks and I've decided to be environmentally, economically, and Stacy's moneyally friendly. I kept my UPASS, which for about $15/month allows me to ride all public transportation "free."
Which does add up, but so does the time I will have to spend on the bus. US buses scare me. And it's an hour and a half to get to UDistrict, at least 2 to get back.
Sweet cheez-its!
Study time, I know, but it's not fun because of my area. I'm so close to the airport and the town is so small that I don't have any direct trips, it's tons of hopping all over the place.

This is bad/horrible/wrong for several reasons:

1. I'm deathly afraid of getting lost someplace. The buses cross over at the airport, downtown Seattle, and/or across Lake Washington in Bellevue. I don't mind downtown, the other two puh-lease!

2. I won't be at the gym when it first opens...which means that I won't know for sure if the machines will be open when I want them to be (hello! patience issues) and I won't be able to watch the Rugby guys practice out the window (yum!). DAMN.

3. Were the other reasons not enough?! Come on now!

Man, school already sucks.

PS All techies!

Could someone please show/tell me how to change my layout so I can have little tabs on the top, I've been trying to figure that out for ages! I just don't get it...tech is too hard!

My dog is weirder than your dog...

I was going to put cuter, but I knew that would cause all sorts of problems that would make me say some (entirely true and) hurtful things about what makes a dog, someone would undoubtedly end up crying, and then all-out blog wars would begin. My little ol blog isn't strong enough to go against the heavyweights, so weirder it is.

Lil Ebony is an adorable black lab. I say little because she only comes up just past my knee whereas our last Labrador came to mid-thigh.

Here's the adorableness that is our (I'm actually 4th in the ownership line) 2 year old pup:

~Unless sitting for a trick or treat, she normally sits on top of her tail. As in her tail sticks between her two back legs and she sits on her actual back, she looks like she's in the butterfly position.

~She hates playing fetch. But she does like tug-o-war and chase-the-dog-with-the-toy-in-her-mouth, naturally.

~She likes to eat sticks, apples, ice...well basically anything except bananas and liquor/liquorice.

~Water scares her. If she sees it, she runs; if she hears it, she runs...we wonder if there was a little abuse before we adopted her.

~She won't catch food that's tossed to her. Even if you let her smell it beforehand then toss it to her she will let it hit her and fall, then pick it up and run away to eat it.

I'll stop there, I'm lazy and tired and well, that's all I can think of. But I'll be sure to put a vlog up (once I have a safe computer to transfer stuff to. My pics/videos are being held hostage until I can buy a new laptop!) of what I think is her cutest trick!