The Thinker

I've been overcome with hatred for my a couple of my classes lately, which is really bad.  I just have this huge gap between what I'm actually studying and my real life (or any jobs that could come about as a result of what I'm studying).  So I've been a little down on Stanford lately.  Why am I here again?  Why do I keep busting my butt when I end up getting the same grades regardless of effort and it allllll seeeeems soooooooo poiiiinnnnnntttttlllleeeeessssss?

(Whiny enough for ya?)

So, among all that, I decided I needed to get some good Stanford on for the first time in a little while.  So I went to the museum and I saw the Walker Evans exhibit.  In case you don't know (I didn't), Walker Evans is the photographer behind these beauties:

All of which I got to see in person.  I was staring and staring and staring, and it was good for my soul.  And then I saw this quote and I knew I was in love.

"Stare.  It is the way to educate your eye, and more.  Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop.  Die knowing something. You are not here long."

You are not here long?  Walker Evans, from the dead was speaking to me.  Do it!  Explore!  So explore I did, and as I turned a corner in our museum, I saw this little beauty.

Yes, that is the famous Rodin sculpture, "The Thinker".  I think it's one of 6 if I remember right.  Seriously, the museum at my school owns this and just got it back and I think I'm too cool to still go here?!?  Geeze Louise!  This guy really knows how to put a girl in perspective.

I wonder if Rodin had that in mind as he made this famous thinker.  To get me to thinking.  What am I thinking?  What is he thinking?  Am I overthinking this whole thing?

(Terrible joke-y enough for ya?)

But seriously, my school is awesome and full of splendor.  And I've been realizing that now is a great time to be.  I keep wanting to fast forward through the next year and a half and just be done studying and schooling and stressing and all that jazz.  But who doesn't look back at their college years with fondness?  I look back at my freshman year with fondness and it's only been a year and a half.

In five years, college will have been a blast.  I think.

Photos and Giveaway Info

Dudes.

Remember when I told you that I was hosting a giveaway when I reached 10,000 pageviews and that I would give a hint every time I passed another 1,000 mile marker?

Well, I have since had about another 1,000 pageviews, and you, my dear audience, are clearly needing to be rewarded with a hint as to what my giveaway will be!

And here is that hint:

There is not one giveaway item, but instead of compilation a few pretty cool things, and one truly terrific item.

And with that very vague clue, here are some photos that I have taken lately from my cellular device.  Here we go dudes.

From the random category:

Apparently someone at work has the nasty habit of pulling about 7 toilet protectors out and then just leaving them on the counter by the sink.  Sign says, "Who is doing this?  Please Stop!"

 Just because I go to a world-renown university doesn't mean our TA's don't get lazy.  This is literally the only comment on the whole paper.  

 The fountains this week are blood red in honor of the upcoming rivalry game vs. Cal.  All this fountain does is make me want kool-aid

As I poured my third glass in one hour, I thought, "I probably shouldn't drink alone."

And these are the "I like what I see" photos:

I like this photo, but let's pretend it was taken 100 years ago:

Much better.

 I love these fall colors.  They're pretty much a new discovery for me here.  Because of the whole lack of colors in SoCal thing here.  And anyone who is from New England is scoffing at me right now.  

If I had an architectural obsession on campus what do you think it would be?  Oh yes, it's the most Stanford building there is, Hoover Tower (named after our only presidential alum, not the vacuum).

Happy Weekend, all!  Wish me luck on the drive back to Southern California this weekend!  I have company this time!

Back To School (Year 3)

If you wouldn't terribly mind, could you listen to this song as you read this post?

Let me tell you a little thing about my hometown.  In my hometown, the first week that school starts is always the start of a massive heatwave.  It's like Summer's defiance of school.  Because Summer gets angry that there are no little children to watch cartoons until noon and go to the beach and get sand in their swimsuits.  Instead of sprinklers and popsicles there are backpacks, and pencil boxes, and tags to be taken off of clothing.

This year I've just been sitting back and watching the whole city settle into it.  New routines, new teachers, new friends, and for my brothers and I'm sure many other boys across the city, video games and pool side lounging are replaced with homework and staying after school for practice.  And every year, even though there is always a lot of dreading and sighing and tired eyes early in the morning, it feels good to go back to structure, to go back to activity and teachers and a sociability.

I'm starting to get really excited for this new school year.  Can you tell?  Things are finally, finally falling into place and I feel like there is a great year coming up under my toes.  I remember growing up, I met every year with a few nerves in my stomach and a few of those sighs that I mentioned before, but always excited to become immersed in something.  To get lost in my day and spend time studying and accomplishing.

This year feels different.  It feels like I'm losing a few of the safety nets that I grew up with.  But at the same time, I have that same little nervous feeling that I used to have growing up.  A little worm in my stomach that wiggles around and makes me antsy.  I think I'm more nervous for this year than for any other year of college.

But that's also because I'm sooooo excited!  Yesterday I made the drive back to school and let me tell you, it was actually kind of awesome.  I know, this coming from the girl who had an emotional explosion last time time I did this drive.  (I think the key to a good road trip is good mixed CD's.  I burned myself one and forced a friend of mine to burn one for me and I survived it all.  But that is just a side note.)

I was sad to leave Upland more than usual this year.  Sad to leave my family (even though they will hardly notice I'm gone once my Grandma moves in on Saturday).  But the exciting part is that I moved into my new apartment yesterday, and it feels like home too.

Please excuse my face.  No makeup and 6 hours of driving without air conditioning in a fairly hot environment will do that to you.  Or at least it does it to me.  Also, that is a strand of hair, not a crazy eyebrow.  

It's a little space to call my own (well, mine and kristin's) and it has couches and a bed and hardwood floors and a little makeshift kitchen and so many little things that make it feel like it's mine that I will tell you about later.  I feel like this little space is the start of a lot of good things.  The start of a year that I think I will look back on for the rest of my life, hopefully with smiles.

Home is wherever I'm with you.

Awesome!

Awesome (sarcasm):

• The smell of pot in my dorm as I finish a take-home final at one in the morning.
• The sound of alcohol in my dorm at the same time
• Black Betty (my computer) deciding she doesn't want to turn on the day before a 12 page paper is due.
• Not having a job this summer and not knowing where I'm going to live this summer
• packing

Awesome (actually):

• I've been wearing this outfit for wayyyy too long:

• I now have 15 twitter followers, one of whom may or may not be Andrew Luck (no really, I'm not sure if it's him or someone pretending to be him)
• I have incredible friends:

• Betty coming back to life just in time
• The amount of Dr. Pepper I have consumed in the last week.
• Sheer laziness in pretending like I have nothing in the whole world to do.  (even though a little bit I do)

A Few Odds and Ends

I'm supposed to be finishing packing my room, which for me simply means throwing all of the random schtuffs in my room into plastic bins and then eventually into the back of my car.  While listening to a billion musics.

Also, this guy:

One of my favorite parts about blogging is that I'll be going across my day as regular and then something will hit me and I will just know that I want to blog about it.  The reason why that is awesome is because I start looking for things that are cool and funny and then when little things happen, I'm in a good mood planning the post.  

This guy hit me.  He is like my childhood.  From the Saved by the Bell vibe going on to the faint memory of childhood pizza parties, I just really wanted to post a picture of him.  I can't even quite describe it, but the cup made me happy.  

Another random little tidbit:

The other day I was walking across campus in the morning and there was hardly anyone around because there weren't classes that day so who in their right mind would walk around in the morning?  Plus it felt earlier because of the doom and gloom that is the weather we're having up here. 

That whole paragraph is not related to the story hardly.  

Anyways, I'm walking along and then suddenly I drop my cell phone, and I'm upset so I say, "Oh Fiddlesticks!"  and this man who is like the only other person awake in the Stanford morning is about ten feet away from me and he just stops and is looking down and laughing at my reaction. But not aloud.  Just kind of thinking about how absurd my reaction was.

I felt like I brought something unexpected to his day, but also, I don't know this man, so how can I say if he was laughing at my quirk or just at me?  I guess I should just give him the B.O.D.

And lastly:

A woman with full hands asked me to help her open a door that I was sitting sort of close to the other day.  Except that you needed an ID card to open the door and mine didn't work for that dorm.  And hers was in her back pocket of her jeans.  I said I would carry all her stuff for her, but instead she just asked me to get it out of her jeans.  

I think I was hit on. But she wasn't even college-student aged.  She appeared to be in her late 20s or early 30s.  

It was just weird.  

Well, I started with and odd and ended with an end so....

(to go with the cheese, of course)

Some Reasons I am not Angsty Right Now

Even though I have been angsty a lot lately.  (But that's all changing)

• The wonderful Kelsey had a birthday on Thursday.  I love her so much, and it was sooo fun to celebrate with her.  Pic:

• The weather.  Did you know that I suffer from SAD?  It's Seasonal Affective Disorder, and it means that I get depressed in the winter time.  Yes, I am a California girl wuss.  But this is keeping my body from realizing that it's winter right now.  Thank you California.  
• Blogging got me a job!  Well ... Kinda.  Blogging and my superior people skills.  Like making jokes in interviews.  No but f'real, the people at the Stanford Alumni Association wanted someone who was adept with social media and it's marketing uses.  AKA, I uses the interweb and I gotz me a job.  
• I'm taking an Ebonics class.  Which is incredibly interesting to study, and which makes for great conversation.  I come back with interesting facts and phrases all the time.  This is a book I use to study, along with another picture which I don't find offensive in the least bit:

• It's February.  Meaning my birthday is coming up.  Also meaning this is week 5 of the quarter.  Also meaning I'm taking a girlfriend's road trip to LA soon.  Meaning it's practically March, and then I get to go travel the east coast.  
• I decided I don't like being stressed.  And I decided I'm just going to work really hard and then not set any grade requirements for myself.  So if I work my bee-hind off this whole quarter and get C's in all of my classes, it will suck, but I will be okay with it (eventually).  So whatevs
• I finally blogged for TUSB, which I have been meaning to do for literally 2 weeks.  
• Also, I remembered not to take life so seriously.  Like is it really the end of the world if I don't get a really legit job this summer and I end up doing office work again.  And I decided that if I'm not having fun in my music theory class then that's stupid, because I love music a lot.  And that should apply to everything basically.  
• Also, I discovered good music.  Like Mumford and Sons and Brandi Carlile and Rod Stewart (mostly joking there), and Bon Iver.

So I'm happy.  And I'm fixin to stay that way.  

I'm baaaaaaack!

But not in a creepy way.

I always feel like during Christmas vacation I get really lazy and fat and I just sort of fall off the grid for a little bit.  So even though I am very sad to be leaving my life of family, gluttony, and old friends, I am really glad to be back at school, back at the grind, and back with my new friends.  This place is starting to feel like home to me.

Today, was my sister's birthday and I had an awkward break between classes so I sat down and a bunch of strangers got to hear me sing Happy Birthday to my sister.  There is a point to this story, I promise.

The point of this story is to say that I am so glad that I got a digital camera for Christmas.  Because once my family was lame and having too much fun to talk to me, I took a picture of the pretty Stanford surroundings.  Here's that pic:

And even though I am stressed about my hard classes, I am grateful to be going to a beautiful school.

I know that this post sounds like I hate my family, but I don't.  I actually love them.  Happy Birthday Camille! I hope you were serious about that can-opener.


In one last thing, this is me upon hearing the news that Andrew Luck is coming back to Stanford next year.

And when there's an emergency dance party, it means I'm officially back at the farm.  

Racking my Brain

Here is a picture of my brain:

Doesn't it look huge?  Haha.  Yes, I had an MRI and this is an actual picture of my actual brain (as opposed to my fake brain).  If any doctors happen to see a tumor in there, would you like to let me know?  Or not, I'm happy to live in ignorant bliss (and I don't have health insurance anyways).

Oh and by the way, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME.  Just wanted to kill any rumors before they start.

I participated in a psych study at my school last week and not only did I get $126 for four hours of my time (only 1.5 of those were spent in the MRI machine), but I got some really cool pictures of my brain.  And in case your wondering, yes I did over-analyze them.  (Does the fact that the right size is bigger mean I'm more of an impulsive than a logical person?)

While I was in the machine, they showed me pictures of different things to try and see how my brain showed my emotional reactions.  The things that probably got the most out of me were the tip of a gun pointed at my face, pictures of anything with blood, and of course, pictures of cute babies.  (Although none of the pictures came close to this:

)

And thus, this Stanford student got $126 closer to being out of debt.  Yipppeeeeee!

Oh and by the way, I kind of got lazy this week and did a very similar post here

Witty Witty

In an effort to not be depressed right now, I am blogging.  (Don't worry - it's sports related depression).

I'm not even sure how to categorize what I'm about to talk about, but all I know is that the people at my school are really witty.  Like even the Frat Boys.  For example:

Sure the stay thirsty part is ... questionable, but I love this commercial and I love this flyer.  It is so funny.  And if the most interesting man in the world does it, then it's got to be cool, right?

I have another example.  Also based off of a commercial I love.  Here is the original commercial:



It's obviously great right?  Women love him, men legitimately want to be like him.  It's a win win.  Well here at Stanford we have a men's acapella group called Fleet Street.  And every time they perform they wear tuxedos with red bow ties but without the tuxedo jacket part (I'm sure there was a better way to describe that.).  Here is their flyer put up for recruiting purposes:

I thought it was really funny.

Story number three.  (It's the last one I promise.)  On the first day of school, the R.A.s of the all freshman dorms will write encouraging words in sidewalk chalk all over campus like, "Good Luck Otero!"  or something cute like that.  Sometimes they don't exactly stick to the script though.  Two Freshman dorms here are called Junipero (abbreviated to J-ro) and Donner.  My two favorite chalk scribbles were:

Caught in a J-Romance

&

Ain't no party like a Donner party.  

The donner party one gets me every time.  I've heard it before, but I still think it's really funny.  

And that's some things around school that have made me laugh.  

HEAT WAVE

I know, I know, I know that the heat here is about 10 or 15 degrees cooler than it's been at home (L.A. says holla atchu boiiiiiiiiii!!!) and that if I were experiencing extreme cold I would be more miserable than I am here, but it is like re-donk-ulously hott here at Estánfor.

Did you know I spend about 45 minutes a day walking outside?  It generally takes 5-10 minutes to get from one place to another on campus by foot and in the heat I move sooo slow.  This is how I look when I leave my dorm:

(but you know, my version of the dress has sleeves and is a little longer)

and this is how I look by the time I get to class:

Isn't it crazy how I gain like 100 pounds and get crazy eyes because of the heat?  Everyone tells me I look tired and disheveled all day.  Plus those sweatpants are just not flattering.  And look how quickly I got a tan.  

My solution? The Bender Room.  It's this little room on the 5th floor of the library that overlooks half of campus, is very cozy (and good for naps!), and has a temperature of like 60 degrees.  

(note: actual picture of actual bender room)

After about an hour in there I am freezing cold and ready to face the sun again.  And then I don't die on my way to my next destination.  The end result is something like this:

(Don't I look ready to face the professional world?)

I know it's only a temporary fix, but the heat wave is only temporary too, right? RIGHT??!!?!  I can't survive this oven-temperature much longer.  

Thanks for putting up with my lack of real photos.  Google images and I are practically best friends now.  You don't even want to know what I put in the search engine sometimes.