Because I think you're the tops

Leave it to me and Kristen to show up at an african american discrimination support group bbq..... followed shortly by the crashing of urban cowboy for free wings, then an epic neon party with some very interesting(?) people and a rousing pong game... then there was the underground dance party.... we don't need to get into that... definitely not enough time to cover those events lol

I also woke up to 12 people in my apartment filming a zombie movie and sprinted out of my door in the wee hours of the night smuggling a rabbit.

All in all, I'd say that was a pretty fantastic weekend. Now yo necesito estudiar para mi clase de orgo porque estoy how you say.. screwed?

Everything happens for a reason.

Sorry I'm going to be THAT person.

I'm making a list. Too many things to say, not enough adderall to fix it.

1) In heaven from the elephant dance party upstairs
2) Played with a human brain on monday... because me and the neurology prof are biffles
3) Live animals I studied this week: 8 week old puppies (I know I already win right there), Millipedes, Tarantulas, Emperor Scorpions, Hundreds of bugs (so so so many), Dwarf hamsters, craw fish, African Xenopus frog. No words can explain how much fun I've had.
4) I just keep having awesome days. Just in general. Yay pursuing dreams!
5) Bought 2 more pillows today. You can never ever have too many pillows.
6) Can we talk about how many excellent TV shows are premiering this week? I'll list my favorites: Glee, Modern Family, Greys, Big bang theory, Bones, Dexter.... I'm going to explode
7) TWO packages from home?! Umm ok!
8) Met way too many cool people this week. Gts
9) Offered a reallly cool position that would be huge. I wont give details. Why you ask? Because it will jinx me and that would take all the mystery away. I mean really now. This blog reveals far too much already.

Ok going to bed now. Jam session upstairs finally stopped. It's a sign.

...

Seriously guys. This isn't possible. It's like they hijacked my brain and picked out every perfect song I have ever known. The mix doesn't even work well together. And yet.... *sigh* Mind. Blown.

Music is my aeroplane

The elephants are up to it again... being obnoxious and whatnot.

It's fine though. Which ever elephant is DJ for the night upstairs is my soulmate. They have literally played every song I have ever loved in my life over the past two hours. And it's blasting. And I love it. True love right there.

Once upon a time, I fell in love with a musically gifted obnoxious elephant. And I lived happily ever after....

I know I kind of don't have a choice in this moving on thing, but if I'm being really honest....

This sucks and I hate it.

Ok I feel better. Just had to put that out there.

Letting Go

First, I feel like I should warn anyone out there reading this that I am pulling my second all nighter in a row.... So there is a gigantic chance that I'm going to slip in and out of coherency. Which leads me to panic a little... Considering I have a hefty test in 5 hours. So yeah. Might want a functioning brain for that... eh...

Anyhoo, just thought I'd blog for a second as a mental break. My big news is that I had a weird moment of clarity last night around 3am. I was going back and forth studying for organic chemistry and ecology when out of nowhere it hit me. I'm that person who ends up being the doormat to 90% of the people I come in to contact with. Sometimes it's completely innocent unintentional thing too. I'm the type of person who's quick to forgive, likes to see the best in people and I tend to analyze and reason so much that I somehow find a way to reach my own personal homeostasis in every situation, no matter how ridiculous.

This probably seems like my blog is taking a turn for dark, emo, bitterfest; population me. Right? Well no worries. I'm on the other side of the spectrum.

It's not that I'm overly upset about that realization or I plan on going on some crazy girl power trip. I just feel like it's an opportunity for me to reevaluate how I approach situations and maybe invest in a little wake up call for next time. I feel like I need to stop taking blows and settling when I deserve to be treated just as well as anyone else. It's time for me to stand up for myself a bit more and learn to move on from bad situations. The truth is no matter how I handle my life, I can't control others' actions. If I've done what I can and it's starting to look like I'm beating a very very dead horse, it's OK to move on with life and take care of me, first and foremost. So that's the plan. No more doormat Caity. I'm not going to put myself in positions that are clearly a slippery slope to me being left high and dry wondering how I could've done more.

Sometimes you just need to come to terms with the fact that shit happens. Life's too short. I'm lucky, I have a great family, awesome friends, and hopefully, a bright future. So why waste my time crying over spilt milk? Time to clean up and move on with life.

What better way to start off than spend the weekend with two of the greatest friends I've ever had.

....

.... Cue the mad creepy carnie music? Reaaaallly Elephant friends? At least have some taste in music. Weak sauce.

Did I Mention Elephants Live Upstairs?

So I'm sitting here in my circle apartment suffering from mild insomnia. It's only 12:30am so I feel like I haven't gotten to the ridiculous stage of sleep deprivation yet. Phew.

I'm sure the plethora of Football boys living upstairs are very nice. In fact, I know they are! We've had our hello moments and they were great.

Here's my beef:

1) They are surprisingly loud on a daily basis. Just by existing. It's amazing. These people are not impressively huge human beings. But I swear, they walk and I'm convinced we have five full grown Asian Elephants living upstairs. In the past 3 hours, I've listened to them play NFL, listen to semi-lame music and yell noises to each other *I'm almost positive it isn't English*

2) They never stop.... Ever. I'm all for playing sweet games like NFL or hanging out. But when it's 2am on a Monday night and I have to wake up at 5am for work... Not such a big fan.

3) They blast their music 24/7. Half the time I don't mind because it's good music and I feel like I have my Ipod in and my life is just full of theme songs. But... When they whip out the Miley Cyrus... They've gone too far.

4) They seem really nice so I have trouble staying mad at them. Sucks. I need to learn how to stay angry in reasonable angry situations.

And I know I sound like a cranky old woman.... and or crotchety wet blanket. But I promise it's that painful.

On the bright side: I have several gift cards for buffalo wings.

... One of the elephants just croaked. A body most definitely just slammed against the floor.

Minor?

Kind of on the run but felt like writing about this quickly because I think its really exciting.

I'm taking an animal physiology class. Our professor is the neurology prof. and so of course we've been doing nothing but neuro for the first few weeks of class. I was dreading this. I reaaallly was.

And.... then I loved it. So much that I might minor in neurology. It's only 3ish extra classes and it's mega interesting!

Not 100% sure if this is happening but definitely a big possibility. Once I establish I can do the minor and graduate on time. It's official.

YES. Yay for learning! On another note, I've spent all my free time in the past week watching a compilation of Ben Stiller, Will Ferrel, and Owen Wilson movies. I sho happrey :)

Racing the battery on big daddy

I'm techi-challenged and to make a long story short, got a mini cd (like the ones for gamecube?) stuck in my mac's cd drive. I've decided that was the best thing in the world because it forced me to get my computer a mini tune up/ check how badly I've destroyed it in the past 2 years. Turns out I do a lot of damage to computers... BUT the head techie dropped my battery and so now I have this nice shiny new one. With 30 minutes left on the battery.

I'd plug it in... but I'm comfy. The outlet's kinda far away....

Anyhoo, one of my roomies and new friend is going to Belize this January for a class and I'm entirely jealous.

One of my earliest memories? Playing jungle princess with my big sister in Cape Cod. I'm only mildly obsessed with someday seeing a rain forest.

This made me decide to start a variation on the legendary "Bucket List".

There are a billion and one things I'd love to see or do in my life but I feel like once my life really starts up (family, job, etc.) I'll be a tid bit limited in the adventure department. SOO

behold my Beat the Wrinkles Bucket List!

This is my list of things to do before I kick the bucket of youth and overall lifestyle flexibility. Read it. Embrace it. Or do.. whatever you'd like.

Beat the Wrinkles Bucket List!

*The beginning*

Trip to rain forest

Ride an elephant

Spend an entire week on a tropical beach

Attempt the Ben & Jerry's "Vermonster Challenge"

Skinny Dip

Chinese Fire drill

Watch all the scrubs (or the Office.. maybe both) episodes in a row

Make a cheese souffle and not mess it up

Battery dies in 5 minutes. To be continued...

Home

I finally got to Ithaca after what seemed like the never ending road trip from hell.

My family means the world to me and I'll miss them more than I can begin to say. But... It feels really good to be back. I missed all my friends here and all the professors. I REALLY missed my animals at the SPCA. I feel like I'm home again :) Now.... Time to learn.

Note to self: Avoid opening umbrellas indoors.

I could maybe possibly be cursed. Clearly, I've done something to upset *fate?* and now I'm paying the price. I mean... I own two black cats. So I guess I'm playing with fire here.

I made the mistake of watching the movie " Good Luck Chuck" (If you hate yourself/too curious to not click... here's a link to the trailer: Massive waste of life ). I was desperate for a chick flick. I wasted 96 valuable minutes of my life watching this movie but it did kind of win me over in a narcissistic way. The girl in the movie is a walking disaster. She sorta reminded me of myself. She's klutzy, aloof, and overall cursed with bad luck. No worries. Things work out when she finds a guy who is magically lucky and they balance each other out (he sleeps with women and they find they're true love!) *Most ridiculous plot in the world..*

Because I'm half awake and I saw my parallel in a painfully bad block buster, I will think of my situation like this: I have two options: I have option A) Find a real life Good Luck Chuck OR option B) find a good luck charm to carry around. Very logical I know. It's a talent. I feel like option B is more viable.

Generally, I wouldn't go so far as to call myself cursed. I have the occasional mishap, but who doesn't? Recently however, I guess fate felt the need to prove a point: You can't snuggle black cats and open umbrellas indoors and see no consequences. Touche fate. Touche.

Today I've managed to flood my house and ruin my kitchen ceiling, all by tapping a pipe under the sink with a container of soap. I broke a 6 month old GPS by looking at it. OH and I hit a copious number of frogs trying to avoid road construction. And.... my hamster was almost eaten by my cat. And... I might've lost a 300 dollar check. Last week? I destroyed my car driving to volunteer at an animal clinic. I lost all of my pants after packing up my house to go on the market. Last month? I flashed my ass to our realtor (husband of our minister) when I fell trying to paint our porch. Just a series of unfortunate events....

It's funny how you don't truly embrace superstition until hot brown liquid instantaneously spews like mini gorges throughout your house. I'm currently packing for school in the dark, while dodging bowls of brown water (still dripping from the ceiling). Tomorrow, I'm stopping at a gas station before I head off for Ithaca. I'm buying a rabbit's foot and a four leaf clover key chain. My Buddha will be on my dashboard at all times and I'm making it my goal to find a heads up penny in the street to pick up. Just to be safe....

Then again...

Then again... Life can just throw you a steaming pile of shit.

In times like these, I feel it's best to devote a reasonable amount of time to wallow in self pity. Anywhere from angst music to retail therapy to endless runs. It's all fair game.

The key to this approach is this: Once you've hit that point where one more day of self pity starts to make you border line pathetic... You stop. Balls up. And move on. :)

Moral of the story: Never compromise your own self respect and settle. You deserve to be treated just as well as anyone else.

Small rant brought to you in part by a very tired blogger...

When I grow up, I want to be a.....

When Keith Richards was a kid, untouched by the rock star lifestyle, he desperately wanted to be a librarian. Prince William dreamed of becoming a policeman. On a Monday morning, eight year old Barack Obama made public his dream of becoming a U.S. president.

So what happens to our childhood dreams?

My senior year of high school, I declared to those most important to me (and of course anyone else who might listen), my intended major for college. I spoke with confidence and passion. Why wouldn't I choose that major? It's my dream!

This only occurred... 8 times before I gave in and registered as an exploratory student at Ithaca College. How in the world was I supposed to know what I wanted out of life? I was only 18 years old. I was clearly too young to know exactly what job I wanted to pursue.

Of course, Obama was only eight years old when he knew what he wanted out of life.

How is it, that someone in the 3rd grade can confidently and without hesitation bare their soul and without shame share their greatest dreams with not only those around them, but with themselves. However, a 20 something, half way through their undergraduate education, can more readily confess their utter confusion and fear of the future than simply know what they want in life and go after it with everything they've got.

Maybe it's the years of experiencing disappointment. Realizing that some dreams, as wonderful as they may be, just aren't realistic. Maybe it's the general and all too familiar fear of being let down or knowing that life will always be unplanned and full of unexpected moments, that prevents us from starting our lives in the first place.

As a kid, we don't know fear yet. We haven't experienced life enough to see the bad. We live in a protected sphere encompassed by our closest family and imaginary friends. Clearly (brace yourselves for sarcasm), a childhood dream is silly and unrealistic because our dreams are imagined purely through the naivety of our hearts. Little logic is involved.

Honestly though, I kind of think Obama had the right idea. In my opinion, our childhood hopes and dreams may be the most reliable and honest truths of what we REALLY want out of life. It's easy as an adult to shut down a childhood dream. We have countless excuses to deny ourselves of what we really want. It costs too much. It's too risky. Fear of judgement. Fear of our own capabilities.

It seems to me, that we do more damage to ourselves with every added year of "wisdom". Not to say that we don't gain valuable insight through personal experience as the years pass. But I believe people have a tendency to get caught up in those experiences and forget the eight year old kid inside. Maybe it's time to clear our heads. Forget the friend that spoke behind your back, or the professor who told you that you just weren't good enough and it was time to think about life plan B,C and D. There will always be obstacles and bad luck in life. Sure, we can take the safe route and get a comfy desk job. But 30 years down the road, when you spend the majority of your time and energy at your job, can you say you're happy? That you have no regrets about the path you chose?

I've always been a strong believer that happiness in life doesn't come from the size of your bank account, the number of facebook friends you have, or the image others have of you. At the end of the day, the one constant in your life will be yourself. If you give up on your true passions and goals in life, who's life will you be living? Not yours.

Eight year old Barack decided one day that his dream was to become president. He struggled immensely throughout his life, but he stayed true to his passion and never gave up. Most people in Barack's position would have gladly taken the easy way out, happy to settle for a more dependable future plan. Had he ignored the kid inside, our country might still run under the foresight of yet another spoiled, simpleminded politician.

It's incredibly risky to trust your gut instincts and go for what may seem to be an impossible future. But if you're too afraid to take a leap of faith in life, what's the point of living?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and should make the decision that works best for them. I respect that entirely and would never criticize someone for choosing a paved, high traffic path. It comes with a certain level of predictability that can be extremely comforting in a very unpredictable economy. It's a popular route that's worked out for countless people. It promises a magnitude of security and relative happiness.

Unfortunately for my dad, a strong advocate for such a lifestyle, I will put every ounce of will and energy into avoiding that path at all costs.

I choose the path less traveled. I choose to be the eight year old.