Holy Batman!

It’s Friday night. I’m all ready to just crash and it’s only…9:32pm my time. Good god, what’s wrong with me?

Work started this Wednesday and I never really realized how much work and effort Counselors have to go through in order to create a lesson plan and whatnot, and… yeah. After a nail-biting three days, I have created the first week of activities for the kids to do.

I find it absolutely amazing that the first week theme is Superheroes! Instantly, I’m taken back to the days when the Amazing X-Men were on television after school was done and Saturday morning cartoons like Batman and Superman. My favorite superhero was always Wolverine, even before Hugh Jackman took on the role for the movie. [Now, of course, I absolutely adore Wolverine even more!!] All the superhero movies coming out in theater the past few years and this summer makes me reminisce about my childhood and the daily joy we as children experienced.

Sometimes, I think that people need to take a step back from the hectic lifestyle and just enjoy themselves and do something completely fun. I would absolutely love to be able to make a superhero costume (without being laughed at!) when it isn’t around Halloween and do fun things like playing hopscotch or drawing with chalk. Maybe it’s the fact that I STILL have a little bit of ADD and being creative has been the only thing that really made me focused.

Yesterday, I found some old books that I made when I was a kid in summer school/school. Sometimes you marvel at the things you used to do when you were kids. I used to make magazines and be in the mail club with my friend, who I saw everyday and lived a mere minute walk from. I still have some of the postcards she gave me.

So, I leave you with this little moral (hidden in the rambling and thought-provoking things) let go a little. If you don’t do it already, do something entertainingly stupid like stopping in the middle of the day to do cartwheels or have a little snowball fight during winter. Heck, even make a fort out of chairs and sheets to relax in. Now, I’m off to finish my paper for summer school, which is a story for another time!

How Dreary All This Sunshine

Today, I made a resolve: I will NOT spend a month bumming around for A MONTH next summer, especially if I’m stuck on the couch again next summer. I was out with Mom today for that annual meeting with VR (which we got after a tiny scare - whew. thank god for Dad’s meds!), and I declared to Mom that I was in need for some Starbucks (Mocha Light with no Whipped Cream, thank you). We were sitting there and she suggested that I look for SOMETHING for a month before LICA began. I nodded and passed it off, but meeting with L for dinner later changed all that. She and I were talking about jobs, and discussing different ideas for L to apply and look into, and L told me she wanted to do something interesting… and since we were discussing zoos, it made me think.

I resolve not to bum around next summer and look into internships for me to do, maybe with my major, maybe just for fun. As much as I would love to go to Europe, I don’t have three thousand dollars to afford a trip to England and I really want to have an experience that might prove valuable later on in life and maybe prove to be some sort of thing I might want to do later if I have a hard time finding a job in education. The only problem in this resolve is that… I don’t know WHAT to intern in. I would love to do something in Chicago, but I’m not so sure how resolved I would be when it comes to going into the city alone. Suggestions would be great, but for now, I will check out bison career link. Maybe something will come up. Or I could try for Disneyworld… I just need someplace to live and my Aunt lives SEVERAL hours from Orlando.

Speaking of which, I miss my friends and Gallaudet a lot right now, probably an effect of being independent for the school year. Three more months and then I can resume to live in this place I call home (DC, not the dorm, thank you very much). Furthermore, thrilling news - rather recent, but my neighbor and former playmate (when we were kids!!) had just accepted an offer from Minnesota Twins. I feel kind of proud even though I hate baseball - now, I can actually appreciate watching a game of baseball because I can go “I know that kid!”

Happy June!

Back to School Again

Taking a summer class this summer, and it started today. Of course, to benefit me entirely with my busy all-day schedule next week and the fact that this is my local community college, which requires me to go out of my way to get an interpreter, etc.

Anyways, school began today. I just felt a shiver at school. Yeah… I, being the eager student, signed onto the website to read the syllabus when my eye caught something menacing… “courseware”. I checked out the website, and my mouth positively dropped. It costs seventy-five dollars for a glorified computer software CD. The worse part about it was that it just added salt to my pain. On top of paying three hundred dollars to take ONE class, I had to pay seventy-five to actually do this class. I don’t get my first paycheck until July 15th. I feel this will be a long, boring, and very very uncomfortable next few weeks.

So one of my papers is that I have to visit another location not associated with my religion (this is world religions course), thus I could go visit a mosque, a buddha temple, etc. The only issue I have with that is the fact that I’m going to have to schedule an interpreter to understand what they say, and thus, I have a feeling, it will be awkward for me since I’ve become so used to having a direct communication (e.g. teacher to student), not one from teacher to interpreter to student. Huh. Reminds me of high school.

In other news - I am pleased that Obama won the democratic nomination (hooray for ILLINOIS senators). I just have to go register to vote. Still. Whoops!

Another one bites the dust*

Today, after almost a month, I FINALLY got the new sidekick… the third one, thank you. My sidekick acted up a month or so ago just as I was getting ready to go home. The problem: the motherboard. The battery wouldn’t hold a charge and it kept shutting down on me and making this noise of motor running, so I was supremely frustrated… then, it shut down on me RIGHT BEFORE I was to go to the airport. Imagine my anger, my shock, mt frustration. I had to go home and my sidekick would be no help to me in contacting my parents - who are hearing and require a phone call in order to let them know I reached the windy city (aka Chicago) fine and needed a pick-up.

So, this little title and clip is a homage to my old sidekick - little sidekick jr., and a welcoming of a new one. Plus, the whole point of this post is to look at sidekick. I don’t get why we MUST have the sidekick. After all, they can be so bad at time. My friend’s friend has a sidekick and she once marveled at it and he told her that this was his fourth sidekick THAT YEAR. Sometimes I wonder why we have an obsession with the sidekick.. and then i wonder why the sidekick isn’t that amazing. Perhaps because tmobile doesn’t have any real competition with any other phone from the other companies… I mean, blackberry are also made by tmobile, etc etc.

Things are going absolutely fantastic here. I have turned in an application for a job at the Dollar Store yesterday, I found out news about my summer job and summer pay for it a few weeks ago (FINALLY!! After three years as a one-on-one aide/jr counselor (two years ago), I’m FINALLY a counselor!). Then, on top of it all, I only have one more week before I can move into my room. Ah! Yes! Okay, I’m clearly just pointing out fantastic things happening lately because right now, I must conserve money since I have less than one hundred dollars in my account and my savings has been drained by summer school. (curse you, summer school!!)

Oh, I believe Queen’s “We Will Rock You” is calling me. I shall bid you fond farewell for now.

*”Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen.

To Write or Not!

As I write this, I’m watching Doctor Who. A fantastic little show from England. It’s the second run of this series, and my god, the current Doctor is rather yummy. If you saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie, he plays Barty Crouch Jr. The name of this delicious actor: David Tennant. My suggestion: if you have SciFi channel and you happen to be home on Fridays at 9pm (Eastern), watch this show. You’ll be hooked on it almost immediately. Then, you are ordered to come and tell me all about how much you hate me for hooking you on it and gush about the Doctor and the episode etc etc. The young man on the right is David Tennant, yummy right?

Well, that’s besides my point here. During the school year, I have done three or so things: work, dealt with classes and dealt with the odd drama or two that cropped up during the school year. So, the last day I was on-campus, B and I ran into the new Editor-in-Chief for Buff and Blue. After a few minutes of conversing, she informed us she was looking for new writers for the newspapers. At first, I rejected the idea. My past expeience with journalism wasn’t pretty. I hated getting quote and my articles flopped during high school. I was finished with it after one year. My junior year, I turned the yearbook which was a lot more enjoyable for me.

However, I’ve been talking with B and I am rethinking it. While I certainly don’t have time to do it, I could do it once in awhile. To write or not - that is the question. While I ponder that, I need to preserve battery. Mine’s about to die on me. Reminder to self: check out the charger problem again soon. Ths is me saying farewell.

Ciao,

K

Home Sweet Couch

I’m home! After (*counts out the months in her head*) five months of stress, classes, tests, papers, and more, I am now safely nestled in my bed… wait, strike that, my couch.

I’m sure you’re wondering what is going on in that girl’s head! My room is currently stolen by someone else for the school year, and thus, since his school year hasnt ended yet, I’m living out of a suitcase and living on the couch. Oh, the drama that is the Wilson family.

But home. Being home means so much to me, and yet, I can’t shake off the feeling that I really don’t want to be here. I live in the suburbs which requires a car, which I don’t have, and a job to fulfill the four months instead of six weeks of summer. I’m going to be broke by the end of this summer, I know it. I’m taking a summer class, which starts June 9th. So, the important question is… what the heck am I going to do during the month of May. One of the positive things about living in the city during the school year is that there are so many options available to do - go to a basketball game, go ahead! go to a concert, go right ahead! Movies, yup!

DP, Des Plaines, is not so easy. Chicago is a lovely one hour away, which means basketball games/baseball games, etc, is a lot more difficult to get to. Especially since our EL (the metro system of Chicago) is very vague on time. What to do during May?

Perhaps, I’ll just resort to playing Sims in the Panera bakery-cafe like I’m doing right now.

Adieu, my lovely readers! I have a sandwich to eat and a long walk back to home.

K

S-U-M-M-E-R… Can you spell that out?

I am thrilled. Utterly THRILLED. The school year will be officially over in only one day (since it’s after Midnight as I write it) and that means four months at home, four months of utter bliss of no classes.

That bit is a lie, though. I’m taking an online course this summer to finish up my general studies requirements: World Religions. So, I’ll still have papers to write, tests to take, reading to do, and pain to endure. On the upside, I can use this information to reinforce my argument with R whenever we somehow stumble onto the topic of religion of any kind. Speaking of R, she left this afternoon. Tears ensured last night when she read the card last night that I got her since she won’t be returning until next year, the spring of 2009.

It’s finals week, and finals week means loads and loads of last-minute things to do. The worse part of the year is the end of the year when we have to deal with storage and moving out of the dorm, even though we’re living in the same dorm, same room next year. Last minute things dominate my week - today I had to fill out the forwarding card for my mail for the summer, it was the last day of work (*tears*), and yesterday, we moved into storage.

I’m thrilled for summer. Summer equals tan equals flip flops equals shorts. The sad thing about summer: good-byes. Most of my friends, I won’t see until next fall; some even later than that. I’ll be over in that corner crying come mid-summer when I’m ready to throttle my parents and dealing with the no-car-available issue. Living in the suburbs sucks at time.

For now, my devoted readers, I bid you adieu. I need to finish this paper before Saturday 1pm!

Here’s a picture of where I would like to be instead of this rainy wasteland:

Mister Warm Weather, where are you??

The old saying of “April showers bring May flowers” better be true with all this rain we’re getting lately. After the pouring rain we received last weekend, we’re getting more THIS weekend. Oh, dear rain will you ever stop?! I should be working on this huge History paper due Friday, but currently, I feel all sickly due to an awful, stuffed up nose and clogged ears. I don’t think I will be doing hearing aids at all tomorrow; on the plus side though, someone is covering work Thursday and Monday, meaning I can (truebiz) focus on all the homework and studying for finals.

I’m looking forward to next Tuesday. Last year for Spring semester study day, a few of my friends and I went out to the zoo (FUN!!). Here are some pictures from last year//

Elephants!!

Hippo plus Red Ball Equals FUN!!

Yeah, so depending on the weather, we don’t know what we’ll do. Study day is a GREAT day to take advantage of DC, especially during the Spring due to the fact that the weather is terrific and there’s no classes all day. We made the excuse of “studying for Biology” for the zoo trip since we we’re learning a lot about things we saw there. The elephants and hippos were our obsession last year [and in fact, I brought Colleen C. Hungry Hungry Hippo because she LOVE hippos for Christmas this year].

Look for some more pictures next week when we ACTUALLY do Study Day, and maybe from this Saturday trip to the EU Open House… if we do it.

Off to finish up something for my paper then sleep!! Fingers crossed the weather turns all nice SOON. <3

The New Meat

This weekend has been VERY busy. On top of all the meetings and errands I ran Friday and Saturday, it was also Academic Bowl weekend. For those who are clueless or never heard of it: Academic Bowl is a thing that Gallaudet offers every year for high school students. Generally, I would consider it a bit of a trivia thing with three rounds. Each school (who participates) sends a team (of 3 to 5 students) to the Regional competition. The top two teams from each regional (five in total) will go to Nationals to compete for National Championship.

[From the academic bowl webpage's gallery]

I was on one such team (Orange and Brown, dear Hersey), and ever since I graduated, I spent each year volunteering for Nationals. Usually, nationals seem to be held at the same time as Open House, so Friday, I saw a bunch of future Gallaudetians wandering around campus. It made me remember how it was like when I first arrived to Gallaudet as a High School senior, very unsure and awkward about everything. Now two years later, I am one of those confident students marching around campus as if I own it and intimidating those future Gallaudetians.

My point is that it’s so hard to believe so much have changed within two years; when I work at the matches at Academic Bowl, I remember how I felt so sick in the mornings with nerves that I never ate breakfast at the risk of throwing up, I remember how sweaty my hands got and how much they shook as I gripped the buzzer. I remembered the feeling of hot blood rushing through my veins as my answer got one of those Green Yeses. I miss playing Academic Bowl - it was such a huge part of my life in High School and my first exposure to Gallaudet (if I had never joined Academic Bowl, I doubt that I would even consider coming here).

Sometimes, I would like to rewind time and replay these things.

Hello World! *waves*

Like a little chicken popping out of the egg (not the best analogy, I know!!) I am popping out the despairing world known as Winter and entering Spring/Summer. I recently had to write an autobiography for my English class (filling up twenty pages about yourself, not as easy as it seems) and now to sum up myself in a few choice sentences that tell someone EVERYTHING ABOUT ME.

Who am I, you might ask?

Wilson, Kelly Wilson. (James Bond reference, pathetic, I know). I live in the dreadfully plain town known as Des Plaines, a few hops and jumps from Chicago. A little tidbit for you all - especially those Academic Bowl nuts - Des Plaines is the original home of one of the most infamous fast food restaurant. We even have a Museum where the original one was on Lee St. (incidentally across the newer version of it). Yes, it’s McDonald’s. I fear I’m getting off-topic here!

I went to a mainstream high school known as Hersey before deciding to come to Gallaudet two years ago. I’m sure most of you will recognize me (if you had met me at one time or another) since I was very involved in high school: Academic Bowl (Nationals three-times) Jr. NAD, etc etc. After a long process (say about three months!!) I am now an Education major - elementary, m’ dear - with a (hopeful) minor in Psychology. I’m currently in the process of declaring a minor right now.

It is now one more week of classes before the dreaded finals. All those homework and projects I put off at the beginning of the semester - Oh, I had another four months to do them! *returns to playing Nintendo*-are biting me in the butt. They’re all due within the next week or so!! Thus, I’m swamped with homework. Paper for so-and-so due blank date and so on. It makes you LONG for summer just so this is all done with, and then… I realize, oh, summer means that I won’t be able to see most of my friends here at Gallaudet for four months. *inserts sad face*

Oh! I do believe my paper is moaning my name from under the pile - it calls to me and tells me, “I need words; feeed me!”. Off to do a million and one homework assignments. <3