I have a very sexy voice right now.... if your idea of a sexy voice is very scratch and kind of sickly sounding. yeah. I am kindda sick. I went home for the weekend which was really nice. my parents put tons of spice in every meal I ate (I think they put an entire can on jalapeño juice onto something at one point). other then that I have pretty much been living off of tea and Halls mentholated cough drops.

only one more week of school until spring break! I really need a break. i am in one of those time warps where you feel like you have insane amounts of things to do and time seems to be going too fast to get it all done in. I feel like yesterday was last Sunday, and cant believe it is an entirely different week tomorrow. well, "come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day"

Ralph Nader announced he will be running again...

The Epic

you have all probably been hit over the head with the fact that Chelsea and Obama were here on Monday, so I will try not to spend too much time on them.

I wasn't planing on seeing Chelsea Clinton because of my internship, but the boss at the internship told me to go, so I went. She was very articulate,and made me feel a bit better about Hilliary, but didn't really strike any "wow, I want to vote for Clinton" nerve. I met this really interesting guy. He looked a lot like McCain and was kind of glum, so I pegged him as a non-Hillary supporter, maybe a republican, right off the bat. Well, he wasn't a Hillary supporter, but he DEFINITELY wasn't a republican. we had an interesting conversation.

WI congress woman Tammy Baldwin was at the Clinton event. She is a really strong endorser of Clinton's, and also someone I have been campaigning for since I was a little girl. She is also one of our super delegates this year, and said she would not vote with the states decision, but vote for Hillary no matter what. booo Tammy.

Obama was amazing, as always. the entire campus pretty much closed down and went to see it. I even saw the president of the Beloit College Republicans Club there. I got there around 5:30 (yes.... I was one of THOSE crazys). It was very interesting, because there were non-college students there as well as college students. I saw professors and staff members and their familys (including some admissions folk).

Obama was actually on time (first time I have seen him that he has been on time). his speech was great, but not the best speech I have heard from him. it was cool to see friends and people I actually knew in the stands behind him though, and so surreal to have a political rally at BELOIT.

During the entire rally one of my friends (Marissa) not present kept texting me saying she wanted a whopper. This was a bit strange because she is a vegetarian...and it was 10:00 in the evening. Nevertheless, when me and another friend (ama) got out of the rally we picked up Marissa and drove to the closest Burger King. Now, I have never been to a Burger King (my family isn't really fast food type people, going to a McDonald's is always a treat), and I have also never personally driven through a fast food drive through; it was interesting (actually...not really). there was a duck crossing sign.

When we arrived at Burger King the storefront was closed but the drive through was still open. When i got in front of the mic to order, I realized my window had frozen shut. We pulled into a parking spot and spent 20 minutes trying to unfreeze the window to no avail. Just as we were discussing who was going to be the lucky person to walk throught the drive through in 7 degree weather, we realized the back seat drivers side window opened.... so I drove through and had Ama order everything and pick up the food from the back. apparently the guy was unfazed.


and as soon as we finished picking up the food, my window opened.

and the guy had given us 25 ketchup packets (yes, we counted). Marissa suggested that the employees can't close the drive through until the get rid of the ketchup....interesting theory.

Jim Zielinski just came into the office and told Krista and I about the full lunar eclipse tonight. we ran out front to see it. It is pretty cool. It is just starting, and we have intentions of going out again around 9:00 ish when it is supposed to be fully eclipsed. Thanks Jim!

p.s. I just read Jie's blog and realized we had the same photos. I TOOK THEM :) she must have gotten them from facebook... what are the odds that we would choose the exact same Obama photo of all of the ones I have taken?

*Warning: Political Content*

Disclaimer: I have been trying to remain relatively non political in these blogs, because Beloit promotes students from every political faction and even those not politically involved to come here. The truth of the matter is, however, that I have always been very politically active, and this blog is going to be in that vain. sorry if you disagree with my politics, I am open to discussion :)

The Wisconsin primary is on Tuesday. Wisconsin has same day voter registration and you do not need to register for a party, which means open ballots. Beloit has suddenly become a political town. Both Chelsea Clinton and Barack Obama himself are coming to the college Tomorrow. Chelsea will be coming at 2:00 to Pearson's for an "informal presentation" (whatever that means), and Obama will be holding a rally here at 10:00 in the evening for a rally. Though both of these events are open to the public, I doubt too many non-students will be coming to the Clinton thing because it is at a time where people who work cant show up.

I would love to go to both (though I already know who I am voting for). I wont be able to see Chelsea, unfortunately, because of my internship. I will be volunteering for Obama tomorrow night (i am for Obama only 'cause Edwards dropped out). I have actually seen Obama three times in person before. Me and another guy drove two buses from Beloit to hear him announce he was running last year in Springfield Illinois, and I have seen him twice in Madison. this picture is actually of me shaking his hand!

Interestingly, no republican candidates are coming to Beloit. Actually, I have not heard anything about any of the republicans coming to Wisconsin, which I find odd. if they did come to Beloit, I might see them too, just for the sake of knowing what they stand for etc.

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday (if you live in WI and WA) no matter who you are voting for.


On another note, it was great to meet the Presidential Scholarship candidates this weekend...good luck!

Valentines and Karaoke

On Monday International club had a pre-Valentines Day thing. We all got together and talked about funny Valentines Day/ breakup stories. They were amusing, I suppose. I did learn about Valentines Day in Japan. Apparently Japan celebrates two Valentines Day type events. The first is for the girls to give chocolate to the guys, and then a month after that they have the equivalent for the guys. Apparently, the guys have to give stuff to the girls who gave them stuff. It was very interesting. I don’t really like Valentines Day. I think it is pretty stupid, actually. Whatever.

Tonight was karaoke night at Commons. It is kind of amusing to see people who think they can sing get up there and sing… interesting….songs. I mean, it would be much more amusing to watch them sing fun songs such as “the bad touch”, “like a virgin”, or something else, but a lot of these people take themselves a little too seriously. There were, however, some highlights of the 30 or so minutes I was there. BSFFA (the Beloit Science Fiction and Fantasy Association) sang Queens “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Someone else sang an interesting song. At first, Krista thought it was emo due to the lyrics (it definitely was not emo), and I spent a lot of time trying to convince her it was actually someone singing about God. Even after the line about “not touching your ecclesiastical skin” she wasn’t convinced…hmmm

For the Duffy class, we have to do a lit review on something pertaining to the community and our work site (I work at an analytical lab at a food science company). We have also been paired with faculty who have expertise in our chosen lit review topic. Because I want to write something about how buildings can be built to promote unity and collaboration, I have been paired with Brock Spencer, a chemistry professor and someone heavily involved in the planing for the new science center. As soon as I walked into his office to discuss my topic wioth him, he started pulling out floor plans of the new building, and telling me all this "insider" information about what it is going to look like, what features it will have, and even which student offices will have the best view. it was really interesting.

The Connection Between Clinton and Human Sacrifice

Today at brunch, after my friends and I stumbled to Commons in the blistering cold, got our eggs and bagels, and sat down at a table, someone put a flier on our table. HUMAN SACRIFICE was the title, and below the big bold words was a description of a discussion at the interfaith house about what people are willing to sacrifice to accomplish their goals and for the people they love (I think....Iam pretty sure it isnt about my initial though, as in ancient religiouse people ripping out human hearts). As we were passing the flyer around, we noticed another advertisement on the back. “cool,” we though, “clubs are trying to save paper by advertising for two clubs instead of one.” We turned it over, and read an add sponsored by the “Clinton for President” people on campus. Now Hillary Clinton and human sacrifice are forever linked in my mind; not quite the effect anyone was going for, I think.

Another weekend has come and gone. It is amusing. I always save a whole bunch of work for the weekend, only to be really lazy and put it off until Sunday night. One would think that I would have learned by now, but for some reason I always have to tempt fate. Well fate, I win. I always get it done. No thanks to the conveniently placed laptop on my desk, nor the parties happening at TKE, the Alliance house, and the French house. But I did it…this week.

The weather outside is frightful...again

It is windy, and snowy, and cold. One of my professors disnt even come to school today. one of the only bad things about living on such a small campus (in my opinion) is that the administration NEVER cancels school. However, many professors were not around today, so it was almost an unofficial snow day....almost.

Not that we had many snow days back home in Madison, WI. I think my last snow day was when I was in elementary school. One of my friends came over, and we bundled up into our snow pants and waddled outside. Then my mother gave us bottles of dry powdered paint in big canes with holes drilled into the top, and me and my friend "painted" the snow with bright blues, purples, and pinks. those were the days...

In other news, I got a bid for one of the sororities on campus. I actually find this proposition quite amusing. For those that know me, being a sorority girl has never been one of my top ambitions, in fact, it has never been on my list of ambitions at all. I am far more likely to jeer at sororities then to join them. I did, however, get a bag of goods from them including gel pens (ahhh....took my back to my childhood), sidewalk chalk, stickers, candy, and a pencil with the name of the sorority monogrammed onto it. yeah, that'll come in handy. anyway, needless to say, i will be turning down the invitation.

That is not to say that I don't appreciate sororities. When I was first looking at schools, I wanted a campus with no Greek life. Now that I am here, I realize that the Greek system isn't quite as bad as I thought it was, I am not just saying that because half of my fellow SOIs are involved with it :) They actually have a lot of parties open to the rest of campus, and help fund things like speakers and events.

Ok, time to get some work done. Have a good rest of the week.

and so the weekend comes to an end

This weekend was amusing. There were a ton of prospies (perspective students) here for a scholarship interview Friday through Saturday. I hosted one prospie, and we entertained ourselves by going to see a visiting magician, and then seeing Voodoo Barbie, the improve group on campus. Magicians aren’t really my thing, I mean, I don’t really believe in them or anything, but this guy was pretty amusing and willing to engage the hecklers in some amusing dialogue. Voodoo Barbie was entertaining as always, though they didn’t do the “oxygen deprivation” game, or whatever they call it. It basically consists of someone dunking their head in water and holding it there while two other troupe members do an improve scene. When the person cant hold their breath anymore, they bang on the side of the water bucket, and one of the people from the skit replaces them in the water. Then the skit starts again with the original person from the water coming in and explaining why they are wet. It is quite amusing. This was replaced by a mousetrap game, where they put a bunch of set mousetraps on the floor and then do a skit blindfolded across the floor. That was amusing too, but I still like the water one better.

Saturday I had to wake up around 7:00 so I could meet the other people on my interview team at 7:45. I like giving interviews not only because I like talking to all of you prospective students, but because often times you are placed on an interview team with people you haven’t really interacted with much before. My interview team consisted of one other student who I had actually met before, the head of residential life, and an anthropology professor. It was an amusing day, and it was great to meet the seven interviewees. Something I think is really great about our presidential scholarship is it is not solely based on academics, but also what you do outside of school and the classroom.

After the interviews and lunch, I went with one of my friends to the Pleasant Street Coffee House. I like their coffee, but I ended up getting some tea instead, along with a very good slice of cherry pie.

And now it is time for me to buckle down and do some studying for multiple tests this week

Hope everyone had a great weekend.