The Blog.

When we first started this class I really enjoyed the blogs. I put a lot of effort into them and I wanted to do one everyday. After a month or so my enjoyment and commitment for my blog started to dwindle. It started to be a hassle having to keep up with blogs and comments. I also stopped enjoying it because no one was commenting anymore. When you have a blog a no readers it just doesn't motivate you to keep writing. I like writing to make points and to get my thoughts out into the world, but that wasn't happening. Now that the semester is over I don't think I will keep up with this blog. It was fun while it lasted, but I just don't see the point anymore.

The End.

Sean Carey

I was recently recommended an album called "All We Grow" by S. Carey. He is a phenomenal artist. His musical genre is alternative. Every song is different and colorful. His music may be some of the most inspirational and calming at the same time. Sean's album is perfect for studying. It is interesting enough to keep you up, but calm enough to not distract you. My favorite song on the album is number 3. It is called "In the Dirt." I highly recommend this artist and album to everyone who is looking for more music that is off the mainstream radio stations. I know you'll love it!

My Unremarkable Thanksgiving Break

The week before I flew home to Minnesota I was very excited. My sister had just gotten engaged and my parents just bought a new house! So I was very anxious to get back to all the mayhem. My sister picked me up from the airport and we drove home. My parents took me out to dinner. It felt so good not having food zoo food.

After dinner I was stumped. What next? Who to hang out with? I met up with my friend Brooks. We were excited for about 10 minutes, then we realized that there was NOTHING to do. Right then I had realized why I left MN in the first place. There was no one I wanted to see and no where to go. I also didn't feel "at home" anymore. My house was boxed up and ready to be moved. I felt like I was a burden on my families life and that it was not the right time to be home. My break was truly unremarkable.

I couldn't wait to get back to Montana and finish out my semester. I want to say that I am going to finish strong and with all A's, but my motivation has been gone for about five weeks now. My classes are boring and I have no interest in them. I am ready to take a long break and start the next semester! WOOHOO!

When Traveling On An Airplane...

I carefully sat down in my first class seat, trying not to wrinkle my clean and crisp navy blue business suit. It was another trip, another conference that I had to sit through, another lonely hotel room, and another weekend that I was spending away from my kids. I listened and watched the flight attendant with perfectly set hair and bright pink lipstick; demonstrate the same safety features that I had seen a hundred times before. Soon we were lining up on the runway. I could feel the pressure holding my body tight against the chair. I grasped the grey plastic armrest and took a deep breath. It was another normal take off, another normal flight. Or so I thought.

            I was sitting next to an older man. He seemed to be in his late fifties. He too had on a business suit, but his was slightly more wrinkled. His hair was thin and grey. He was reading an article from the old magazine that the airline had provided. To my left there was a younger woman. Her thick blonde hair was dreaded. She wore a turquoise scarf, a brownish dress, and big winter boots. Even over the loud windy sounds that filled the cabin, I could hear her headphones blasting.

            Midway through the flight I stood up and walk to the bathroom. I stared at the mirror, judging and critiquing my appearance. “When did I get those wrinkles?” I thought to myself. Then I gasped, “A grey hair!?” I said. I was 36 years old and I was wearing away. I carefully shimmy my way down the aisle back to my seat. The older man next to me was hunkered over, leaning half way in my chair. I gently tapped him on the shoulder and say, “Excuse me sir.” No response. I start shaking him a little harder. Still there was no response. I push the flight attendant button and the Stepford-Wive looking woman approached me. “This man isn’t moving, I think something is wrong.” I whispered. She went back behind her curtain and grabbed two more attendants. The next thing I new the whole plane had broken out in chaos.

To be continued…

The Cathedral

Raymond Carver's writing style is very interesting. I actually found it to be very annoying. The sentences were very short and like Molly said, sparse. It felt very unnecessary at times. When I read I like to take it in and imagine every scene. Although he made the story very detailed, the stunted writing distracted me. I was more focused on correcting his writing style, then actually understanding what he was trying to portray. Overall the plot was interesting, but his writing definitely turned me off from reading anymore of his pieces.

I bet you can't guess which ones a lieeee!

  *As a tike, I was involved in many sports. My favorite was the St. Paul T-ball league. I played for the Minni Twins T-ball team.

*Two years during my high school career I won Best In Site for the solo ensemble competitions in MN. I sang two german pieces from the opera The Magical Flute.

*When I was 4 years old I went to the Radison hotel in Duluth. This hotel had circle hallways because the top was a rotating restaurant. While my parents were checking us in my sister and I ran through the hallways. I happened to hit the ONLY corner in this circle hallway. I was gushing blood and had to be rushed to the hospital. I recieved three stitches and now have a perminant scar on my forhead.

Illnesses, Anxiety, and Witt.

House is one of Fox's weekly premieres. This is a very entertaining show. It is about a group of doctors who take the "untreatable" cases at the hospital. At every commercial break the suspense thickens! The normal routine for each patient is to go through a traumatic event, start getting better after some mild treatments, and then fall dramatically into a life threatening situation. Eventually House figures it out and quickly treats them on their last breath!  Even with a new patient every time, you get to watch the main characters progress. There are romances, deaths, and personal dilemmas. Each character is completely different from one another. House for example, wallows in self pity and tears everyone else apart, yet you still love him and can't get enough of him. Another character is Wilson. He is another MD who happens to be House's best friend. Normally they can't stand each other, but they have a great bond and commitment to one another. The great thing about having a wide variety of characters is that they play really well off of each other. They all have a different wittiness about them. Their humor makes the intensity of the hospital seem obsolete. This is a fantastic show that I think everyone would enjoy watching!

Type 2-The Helper Type

According to the enneagram test, I am a type 2. A type 2 is the "Helper" type. My basic desire is to be loved and my basic fear is being unloved or unwanted. Type two's want to help everyone around them. They are very compassionate, sincere, and warm-hearted. When they help people they feel needed, by feeling needed they feel loved. Once gaining the feeling of love they regenerate and are able to give to more people. The unhealthy side of helpers are aggressive and dominating. If they don't feel loved they will try to find that love and usually force it, which makes other people want them less.

I was shocked by this result. I have never taken a personality test before and this was surprisingly dead on. I love people and I love when people need me, it gives me tons of energy. I don't want to say that I am aggressive and force peoples love, but I guarantee that I have done that in the past.

I lived very close to the Mississippi river. My friends and I would always climb down the cliffs and skip rocks off the sand patches. One day we dared my friend to swim in the river and go all the way under. We told him that we would pay him 40 dollars. Now if you're from Minnesota you know how gross the river is. You can see where the sewage runs into it and you have definitely heard about all of the dead bodies they find in there. Well my friend knew all of this and decided that 40 bucks was well worth it. He swam out there and dunked his head under, two weeks later he was on bed rest with bronchitis and vertigo.

When I got to Montana and saw people floating down the river, I was shocked. I then started noticing how clean the streets were and how I didn't have to step through trash as I walked through town. The water was clear, the air was fresh, and the town was spotless. I never thought St. Paul's sanitation was bad. I thought it was pretty clean compared to New York or New Orleans, and it is, but it is still a gross major city. I now feel extremely lucky to be living in Missoula. No it is not perfect and it can be grungy in some areas, but if I can come here and feel a change in my skin and lungs, they must be doing something right.

I think that people in bigger cities need to be more aware of the messes they are creating. Cities are materialistic. That is where companies are advertising, producing, and selling their goods. Because of this, people from the outskirts of the cities and the people living within the metro areas are all buying and wasting in the same place. It is difficult to figure out how we can make this problem go away, because it is a matter of everyone participating. They advertised and forced the "go green" stuff on us back home too, but it just didn't have as great of an impact in some places. If we really want things to change, we need to enforce more laws and have more consequences, otherwise no one is going to listen.

Sustainability Research Paper

For my research paper I wanted to compare the newest "green" cars with larger "inefficient" vehicles. I have been reading a book  for my philosophy class called Justice, What is the Right Thing To Do? by Michael Sandel. In this book the author talks about putting a price on lives. One section is strictly about green cars vs non green cars. I want to research the amount of money corporations spend to make their cars more efficient and how many lives are lost in each type of vehicle. The main topic of sustainability is the sustainability of lives, what type of vehicle will save the maximum amount of people?

"It's Tater Tot Hot Dish, don'tcha know!"

Everyone has a special dish served at thanksgiving. One besides a turkey or a pie. A dish that represents their culture and family. It is the unifying dish of the evening. Back home in Minnesota we have a very creative dish. The tater tot hot dish! It is a very salty, meaty, and delicious dish. One great thing about this casserole is that it feeds a ton. It was actually created to be served potluck style after church services. This hot dish is especially perfect for my family because I come from a very large Catholic family. And it is a great fall or winter meal because it'll add some pounds and keep you very warm through all the 30 below winter nights. Its calorie count is high, and it is about 50% fat. According to calorie count in just one serving you will have eaten 517 calories. That is over 1/4 of your daily recommended amount of calories. It's not all bad though, in the Minnesota Recipe there is 57% vitamin A and 11% vitamin C. It is also a great source of protein.

For some reason Minnesotans are weird about sharing their recipes with anyone, but I'd say it is time the whole world knew about our ever so famous tater tot hot dish. I would definitely recommend tater tot hot dish to anyone. Yes this dish seems like an automatic drive to the gym, but when you're hunkering down on a snowy Minnesota night and you want some comfort food, this is the perfect dish for you.

A Little Piece of Me

I am from a pretty big city. Big traditions, a big population, and even big people. My hometown is a top ten candidate for one of the most obese cities in the United States. The main event to prove those statistics to be true, is the annual Minnesota State fair. You can get anything from large glasses of fresh milk to deep fried candy bars! This fair has been a huge part of growing up! Every year, my family and I, would wake up at 6:00am to start getting ready. We wore matching t-shirts and neon colored fanny packs. My small family of four were some of the most stylin' people there. We would take pictures in the photo booths, pet the cows, and ride up and down the space needle until it was time to go home. We would normally get home around midnight, exhausted from walking, with tons of dirt caked on our skin. Those were some of the best times of my life. 

Although the fair was the highlight of our summers, there was still a downside to it. Once we saw the rides being set up, our hearts would ache, this meant that school started in a week. Immediate images of desks and pencils and books were consuming our minds. The thought of- ugh how many books will I be forced into reading this year?- would haunt me until the first day of school. I hated reading while growing up. We were required to read 25 books a year and I was not an efficient reader. I also never had an interest in fantasy stories or goosebumps, like the rest of my peers. So for 17 years of my life I refused to read for pleasure. 

I have recently become interested in reading, ever since someone recommended Mitch Albom's books to me. The first novel I read of his was Tuesdays With Morrie. It is a sweet and sincere story that blew me away. Since then, I have read 4 more of his novels, and branched out to all different types of books. Now I finally read for fun and not just for class. The two books I would greatly recommend are Tuesdays With Morrie and Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom. He is a fantastic writer that will leave you feeling endless amounts of compassion for everyone around you.