New Chapter

So, sorry followers, I know I haven't posted in a long while. Honestly, I do have loads of excuses for it, but you don't really want to hear those. Suffice it to say that I am starting a new chapter in my life, and I will try to keep this blog every week from now on.

One of the things I've done to start this new chapter in my life is quit smoking. I've been smoking for about 3 years now, since my freshman year in college. It all started with my high school ex and neighbor, who introduced me to smoking.  We would take walks in our neighborhood, sharing a cigarette and trying not to talk about the failure our relationship had been. Then, I got a full-time job and was only allowed breaks if I smoked, so I started to smoke more so that I could get more breaks. It's a vicious cycle, and soon, I was hooked. While I've never smoked more than an average of about 7-9 cigarettes a day, I have been known to smoke much more while drinking. Long story short, it has been 7 days since I stopped smoking. It's been hard, but not too bad. I've had so much support from friends and family, though.

I have also recently learned how to play pool. It's a lot harder than it looks--especially when the person you play against is really good at geometry (and you're an English major). I haven't one a single time, in the dozens of games I've played, but I am getting better. Instead of leaving 6 balls on the table as an average, I'm now leaving 5. (That means I get two in!). Practice makes perfect, though.

I have moved back in with my parents (a week ago), so my parents had to turn the den back into my bedroom. I have realized that I didn't really miss living at home--except that it's cheaper. My room is pretty cramped, with a small twin bed and a huge dresser. I spend a lot of time in here though, because I prefer to be in here than to be surrounded by family 24/7. I'm sure you all remember how that was--or still know how it is.

Well, I'll update more later when I have more to talk about. See you soon!

Coffee, Chocolate and Netflix

Can a Sunday be any more perfect than mine was yesterday? Maybe--but mine was pretty awesome. Sure, I did have to work in the morning, but the afternoon and evening were wonderful. I started the day at IHOP with Gabe and had some delicious pancakes. Then, after work, we spent the whole day watching movies on Netflix. Those of you who have Netflix will probably concur, but most of the "Instant" movies are pretty shitty. We did find a few horror movies to watch, though, and it made for a fun afternoon. We found a series called "Masters of Horror". It's a series of one hour episodes directed by various famous horror movie directors. The episodes are certainly creepy, gruesome and full of suspense. I enjoyed every minute.

I used to be intensely afraid of horror movies. I couldn't even watch The Sixth Sense five years ago. Gabe decided to try and cure me of my fear by making me watch tons of horror movies, and I think it worked. Now, I don't get scared at all. Sure, I jump and scream and hide my face all the time, but I don't lay awake at night or have to leave the light on when I go to bed--and that's certainly an improvement. I now really enjoy watching horror movies, which Gabe doesn’t like. You see, he’s not a huge fan of horror movies, but he enjoyed making me watch them because he thought it was funny to scare me. Now that I’m not scared, I want to watch them all the time—and he gets scared much easier than I do. I think it’s payback time!

On another note: we’re supposed to be getting a “huge” winter storm this week. I’m not sure how many inches of snow we are supposed to get, but I’ve heard several predictions ranging from 6 inches to 18 inches. My bet is on the lower end, since Fort Wayne seems to get passed over by storms quite often. I’m hoping we get more, but it doesn’t seem likely. Besides, I would still have to go to work and school, even if I had to dig myself out of my house—so the less snow, the better.

This Saturday, I’m going to Snicker’s Comedy Club. I’ve never been, so I’m really looking forward to it. It is Gabe’s sister’s birthday. My mom says it’s pretty cool, but that everything (including water) is expensive—which doesn’t sound “pretty cool” at all. If anyone has been to the club, let me know how your experience was. I hear that they usually get pretty good comedians, so hopefully that will happen with us. I’m pretty hard to please (stand-up comedian-wise), so we’ll see. Some comedians think that VOLUME=FUNNY, but, really, it just makes me cringe. You don’t have to be loud to be funny—you just have to be witty. I prefer comedians who can improvise and interact with the audience as well. If you go on stage and act like you’re just spitting out what you had written down and memorized, I don’t want to listen to you.

I will be married in 108 days! It seems so far away, but really, it’s only 4 months. Four months! I can’t believe it. Pretty soon I’m going to be Mrs. Gabriel Parrish. I wonder if I’ll feel any different. Probably not. It’s probably similar to when someone asks you if you feel any older on your birthday. The answer is always no. I guess we’ll see.

Love one another and you will be happy.  It's as simple and as difficult as that.  ~Michael Leunig

English > Spanish

Today, I want to talk about the general education requirements at IPFW. I understand the purpose of general education. It is to make the students well-rounded (a cliché, by the way), flexible, and adaptable. It is supposed to help students find jobs easier and faster, even though the job they may find is not in their specific field of study. It’s a job, either way.

What I don’t understand is why English majors must have four semesters of a foreign language. And not just four semesters of any language, but four semesters of the same language. Therefore, IPFW wants its English majors to be rather comprehensible in another language besides English. Sure, this is a nice thought, but I don’t understand the need for it. Unless I am going to be teaching with my English degree (which is a possibility, but the possibility is higher that I would have gotten an education degree instead), I do not think it is necessary for English majors to have to take so much Spanish.

I transferred from Ball State University a year ago. I had taken one semester of Japanese at BSU. For my degree there, I only needed two semesters of any language. When I transferred back to IPFW, I had already had one semester of Spanish that had been transferred from my high school AP Spanish class. Therefore, I decided to stick with three more semesters of Spanish. However, my semester of Japanese did not transfer, and because of that, I have to take an extra semester at IPFW for that Spanish class. It seems to me to be a waste of my time. I understand that I may encounter people in my life that do not speak Spanish, but I feel that in my chosen career (either working at a publishing company or teaching at the college level), the people that speak Spanish will most likely also speak some English. I do not think that communicating will be a problem.

However, what surprised me the most was a discussion I had with a nursing major. If I remember her correctly, she did not have to have any semesters of a foreign language. WHAT?! So I, as an editor for an American publishing company (publishing books in English) have a higher chance of encountering someone who does not speak English than a nurse in the E.R.? I think not. How is a nurse supposed to help a patient if she/he doesn’t know what the patient is saying? At least, in my case, if I did need to speak to someone in my career and couldn’t understand them, it would not be absolutely critical if I had to spend the time to find a translator. But in the E.R., time matters and the patient could die if the nurse took the time to find a translator.

Well, that rant is over. I sometimes just do not understand the reasoning behind the classes I have to take as an English major. At least I did not have to take more than one semester of Math or Science. 

Wedding Update

As of tomorrow, Gabe and I will have ordered our invitations for our wedding reception. Since we are getting married in Georgia (and only having a reception in Fort Wayne), we have to word our invitations carefully so we do not insult our grandmothers because they aren’t invited to our wedding. It’s definitely frustrating…trying to please everyone. And not easy, either. But, we are trying to enjoy ourselves, even though it can get frustrating and tedious at times. 

We are still looking for a cheap photographer (but a good one!), if anyone has any ideas. We are thinking of contacting the IPFW Photography Department to see if any students would be available to take pictures. It seems to me that it is unnecessary to overpay a professional photographer when we have talented photographers all around us that have not yet succumbed to their egos.

Welcome to my blog

Like most nights, I am sitting at the computer, watching late night television and wondering "Why do I find this entertaining?" Maybe this is the part of my day where I can forget about life for an hour or more and listen to subpar; wannabe stand-up comedians make bad jokes about politicians and the weather in New York City. Mostly, I just wonder "Who in the hell would really want to have sex with David Letterman?" and "Is Jay Leno's hair really real?" But, since the purpose of this first blog post is for you to learn more about me, whichever of you was assigned to read this (Hello, you!), I will try and make my boring life a little more interesting for you.

Here are some facts for you: I was born in Fort Wayne, and except for a 2 year period (in which I was a Ball State Cardinal), I have lived in Fort Wayne for my entire life. My parents are upper-middle class Republicans (something I have learned to accept, and love them anyway), and I was and am a spoiled brat girl. Now, I live with my fiancé, Gabe, who is definitively opposite of my parents (except for the Republican part, which I’m attempting to squelch (and may have succeeded)). I am getting married in May of this year (an elopement in Savannah, Georgia (which, incidentally, is the most haunted city in the United States—not an exciting prospect for a girl whose biggest fear is ghosts, but I’m trying to expand my comfort zone)). 

Wedding/Reception planning is not really as fun as everyone makes it seem—but I’ll probably get into that later. I’m 22 years old—my birthday is August 2^nd. I have three pets: a Boxer named Tatti, a step-cat (Gabe’s cat from a previous relationship) named Simon, and the newest edition to our little family, a kitten named Roxie. Both Roxie and Simon are completely black and utterly awesome. Tatti is a lovable, but fairly unintelligent darling. I’ll probably put pictures up later. I guess I could tell you what classes I’m taking this semester, or some other boring stuff like that, but I think telling you that I’m a Senior Literature major will tell you enough about my class load. No math, no problem. 

I have next to no hobbies, unless you include an occasional obsession with art and crafts. I prefer to spend my free time doing less productive things, like watching television or watching television. Of course, I enjoy reading (certain things). Much of the time, for me to enjoy reading takes more than the New York Times Bestseller. I have difficulty reading a huge majority of books whose authors are still alive. My preference is for British authors in the 18^th and 19^th century. As a helpful guideline, I have found a list of books that usually meet my standards of “great literature”. While the list (which can be found at http://www.listology.com/list/1001-books-you-must-read-you-die) is obviously not inclusive of every book I’ve read (or will read) that I enjoy, it is a great tool for me to discover texts I will enjoy. 

I enjoy spending time with new and old friends. Currently (since probably an hour or more has passed for me), I am watching (and listening to) Gabe and his friend play Call of Duty. Gabe (being quite a bit older than me) has introduced me to several people I consider good friends that I would not have considered friendship with before. My more intimate friends are a group of five girls who have known each other since elementary school, and my sorority sisters. While I was at BSU, I joined the Phi Mu Fraternity (Phi Mu is an old sorority, and when it was created, the word 'sorority' had not yet been invented. Therefore, it's technically a Fraternity of sisters). While I was apathetic towards sororities when I first started college, my mother and a few friends encouraged me to join the Greek community. I have never made a better decision. It has broadened my perspective and increased my social relations and self-esteem.

"I am no bird and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will."
-- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte