Academy Awards

I think I'm going to hit this subject before Matt does, and actually be original for once. This was the first year I've seen the Academy Awards, only because they fall during Lent and our family gives up tv for Lent, so when I've been at home it was impossible for me to watch them. Needless to say, now I'm in college and I really enjoyed watching them, for the most part. Some of the categories were (I thought) really stupid and boring-I mean come on, who really cares about best music editing? Not me. What I really wanted to see were the typical ones-Best Actor/Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Directing, Best Picture, Best Animated Film, etc. I unfortunately missed seeing best animated, best supporting actor, and best actress because I didn't get to watch the awards until 8, and I was coming back to school during best actress. However, I was pleased to hear that The Incredibles won best animated, excited to hear that Morgan Freeman won best supporting (I think he is incredibly talented and very cool), and also fairly pleased to hear that Hilary Swank won best actress, even though I have not seen Million Dollar Baby. However, I feel that she is very talented and hope that I soon get a chance to see that movie. Now, on to the awards I did see. I unfortunately did not get a chance to actually see any of the movies that had nominations, but I still had my opinions. I was incredibly disappointed that Leonardo DiCaprio did not win best actor because he is extremely talented and can really play a variety of characters. He's not just some typecasted actor. However, I think Jamie Foxx probably deserved his Oscar and congratulations, etc. That did not ease my disappointment. Oh well. I was again disappointed to find that Million Dollar Baby won not only best picture but also best directing(Clint Eastwood). I was (again) hoping that The Aviator would take home these major awards, instead of the less glamorous "best costume design" and "best score". I was also somewhat disappointed in the lack of awards that Finding Neverland received. What is that? Ah well, maybe when I see Million Dollar Baby I will be more inclined to think that it deserved all of its awards. And maybe next year I will actually see some of the movies that were nominated.

Population Control

Today in biology my professor made a comment somewhat related to what we were talking about that had to do with population control. Now, I am not sure if I am the only one in my family who feels this way, but I often feel slightly insulted or offended (and therefore become defensive) when people talk about how good population control is and how we should do all these things such as only allow people to have a certain number of kids and promote birth control more and all of that. Some of it, such as the birth control issue, is a separate issue because it is more of a morality thing and has not a lot to do with me personally. However, I sometimes feel that people are pointing the finger at people like me and my family and saying we're bad for the country and the world because we have too many kids. Like kids are a bad thing or something, and we screw everything up for other people. I know they don't really mean it personally, but coming from a family of 15, it's somewhat insulting to hear people say people should only be allowed to have 2 or 3 kids or whatever, and if they have more, then what? they should be punished? I don't think people realize how they sound when they talk about it, or realize that they are offending people like myself who are part of large families and think that there is nothing wrong with it. In fact, I personally feel that my family, as individuals and as a whole, is contributing and will contribute more to society then many other people can even dream about. We're making a difference in the world and in fact, the more of us there are the bigger difference we can make.

no one is blogging

I have noticed that except for Matt and I, not many people have been updating their blogs that much. It's somewhat disappointing. And I also have noticed that people aren't really commenting that much on blogs either, which is 1/2 the fun. So I'm just putting this out their and saying, come on people, get going! blog like mad! call it march madness or something (i know, there is still almost a week until march, but who cares?) and blog, and comment!

The blues, SAD, cabin fever-whatever you call it, everybody's got it

It seems like everybody around me is suffering my some type of "sickness" or just plain unhappiness this week. Either people are actually sick(some type of flu is going around), or they are so stressed that they are going crazy, or they are just feeling the same thing that many people get around this time of year, which would be what is now scientifically named SAD, or seasonal affective disorder. Basically it's a fancy way of saying "cabin fever" or "we're all getting sick and tired of winter, I'm feeling the blues because I wish it were spring." I personally have all of this-I have some cold thingy that has completely drained me and I've been exhausted for the past few days, my professors keep piling stuff on me (especially precalc-see previous post-and bio) so I've been stressed, and I am slightly sick of the weather. Not horribly bad, but it's the first time in a long time that I've had to walk to school, or at least to my classes. Granted, the walk is pretty short (I can get there in 2 minutes), it's still 7 degrees sometimes when I leave for class. It doesn't help that we've recently had some early spring-like days, so we've seen a glimpse of what is coming in another month and a half. At least I hope it's only a month and a half. Either way, everybody around my school is feeling something, and I'm feeling it more than most. It's been a difficult week and I think being sick, especially when it's only complete exhaustion and not throwing up (something that doesn't usually stay more than a day or 2) is the worst thing ever. Not to mention I wanted to go to bed 20 minutes ago. So that's part of my life from the past couple of days.
I did do something impulsive today to somewhat counteract the boredom from my life lately-I spent $30(which is actually a pretty good deal I guess, nowadays anyway) on a new swimsuit which I think is absolutely wonderful. I don't think I've ever spent more than $15 on a swimsuit before, so this is pretty big. Plus I actually spent money on myself for something I actually wanted, which hasn't happened in awhile. I've definitely learned how to budget since I've come to school! Money is tight around here, especially when I have to pay for things like contact solution by myself now. It's really little things like that that really make a difference. Not to mention I still owe $1600 for my tuition. I should be taking care of that within a few weeks though, and it will be good to get that out of the way! I do get paid on Friday and since that will be more than $100, I don't feel bad for buying something for myself. wow, I guess I should go to bed. Yay, I get to wake up tomorrow and go to an 8:15 precalc class with an awful professor. Oh goody.

What a Day

My day today sucks. Now, I know compared to some people (poor starving kids in Haiti, unborn babies whose moms are going to kill them, my family) I don't have it so bad, but seriously, I hate today. I'm not traditionally a big believer in the whole "mondays suck"(I mean come on, how can a specific day suck?) but the past few mondays have just been awful. It seems that no matter how much homework I do on the weekends, it just piles on exponentially the next monday. To make matters worse, I have my first precalc test this Friday. Now, most of the material is not hard at all, but the stuff that is is due to the fact that he doesn't teach us anything. In fact, we don't even discuss what the chapters are about until the day the assignment is due when we asks if we have questions on it. Then he goes off onto tangents about completing the square when that was last chapter and we're on imaginary numbers. What is that about? He also has this thing about independent learning. Now, I know I'm in college, and my teachers aren't going to hand anything to me on a silver platter. But on the other hand, I'm paying $650 per credit, so they better teach me something. But no, this guy says "ask questions, remember to ask questions, that's what math is about" So we ask questions and get no answers. What good is a question with no answer? Especially in math? This guy is seriously an idiot. Now, I'm not normally a mean person and I don't hate people, but I hate this class and I view my professor with nothing but disdain. He is a horrible teacher and it just makes a class that I already hate worse when I have to figure everything out by myself. I'm just not good at learning math from a book. So when all he does in class is basically tell us we're idiots because we don't simplify something exactly right or he takes 20 minutes to go over one problem without actually coming to a conclusion or some sort of answer, it ticks me off to no end. That's why I just spent the last few minutes of my life writing a post about it that people may or may not read and may or may not care about. I'm just that mad.

Family Problems

So my family has been having numerous problems this week-nothing that they can avoid or are causing by themselves, but it's just nuts. First, Jeph gets admitted to the hospital. Then, my mom got hit by a city bus when she was going to visit him one day, and also our blue van broke down. Then I get home for dinner and Eric got spaghetti sauce on his sweatshirt, and I was going to put it in the washer right away when I find out it doesn't work! Crazy! I feel so bad for my family because they are all stressed out and so many things are going wrong. Yet in a way, I kinda of feel guilty because it's nice not having to worry about it, being able to have my own life and not being a part of it. I mean, I am a part of it, but I can't really do anything and I do have my own life now. But I feel really bad about that. I do care though, and I wish there was something I could do. But I really can't. It does suck though, I hate when bad things happen to my family. At least we all really pull together when we need to though. That's something I've experienced(you can't really learn it, it just kind of happens), that no matter what happens, we stick by each other. If someone insults or hurts someone in my family, they better watch out because there are going to be a boatload of people coming after them for doing so. It's a great quality for a family to have.

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to

Like the title says, it's my birthday. I'm not really going to cry, although my day isn't really special or anything. Seriously, the only thing different about this day than other days is that a few people have said "Happy Birthday" which doesn't happy on an ordinary day. Otherwise it's just a plain old boring day. I did watch a movie though, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days which was awesome, but I watch movies all the time, so it's nothing new. And I have to work tonight too, so that just doesn't help the whole birthday-mood. At least it's only for 3 hours. And next Friday I get paid, which will be over $100, which is good because I'm so poor. Tomorrow I'm going home for a doctor appointment, and then I'm eating dinner with my family and Theresa is making me a birthday cake and everything, which is probably the best part of my birthday and it's not even on my birthday. I also have to go to bed relatively early because I have to get up early for my 8:15 class. I'd skip it, but I have a quiz so I can't. Oh well. Happy Birthday to me I guess.

hmmm...

It seems to me that nearly everybody besides myself, for the most part, gets comments on their blogs. Matt especially. And all he does is post a poem about 10 lines long. Maybe I should consider that. Or recipes. Ooh, I got a good recipe. It's from Fr. Kennedy for toast.
Ingredients: 1 slice bread
Put in toaster. Take out of toaster when it pops up. Enjoy.

So it's not exactly rocket science, but hey, who cares? And hey, I wrote a poem for my sister's wedding which was way better than Matt's. I think I'll post that too.
There once was a girl named Gina,
Who looked like a pretty ballerina
She went north for school
And found it very cool
That pretty young girl named Gina

There once was a boy named Josh
Whose personality was very posh
He too lived in Duluth
You don’t have to be a sleuth
To know Gina fell in love with Josh

At cross country Josh and Gina met
Our mom liked him at first (wanna bet?)
But now we’re all cool
With that insane fool
Who is part of our family without debt.

A year and a half has passed
Since the big question Josh has asked
We all knew on that night
But everything was alright
When Gina found that out she gasped.

Now today is their wedding day
We’re celebrating the good old way
With a ceremony and dance
This is my only chance
To get this toast out of the way

So let’s lift our glasses to Gina and Josh
Be very careful not to slosh
On this very happy day
Smile and everybody say
Congratulations Gina and Josh

I was very excited about it, and most of the people reading this probably heard it, but oh well. Matt posts stuff that he says other people have seen before, so why can't I? Anyway, I guess I don't have anything exciting to post, so I have to copy other people. I guess I don't really care though. I have to go to work now-how awful is that, they're making us call alumnae to ask them for money on Valentine's Day! Now, I know if may be a sad excuse for love and romance and all of that, but a lot of people use it to make the day special, a chance to actually have a romantic evening away from the kids or away from work and the outside world or whatever, and I have to go interrupt it so I can make a measly 7.20 an hour. Or something like that.

last night

Last night was quite a night. Anyone who has a boyfriend/girlfriend and has been through difficult times with them should be able to relate. But seriously though, the night actually was really good. Eric gave me my valentine's day gift early, which I was ok with. He made me this wonderful scrapbook, and it is just the most amazing thing ever. Being true to my Novak self as well as the mood the moment created, I cried. It is just so wonderful and beautiful and I love it so much. And it's just great. I have the best boyfriend ever.

here is anothe picture 

Here is the first picture of my new haircut! 

Exciting News

I am absolutely pumped. I got a new haircut yesterday, the first time I've gotten more than 3 inches cut off in 5 years! It is so short too! I donated it for locks of love, so it went for a good cause too. My hair used to go to the lower part of my back, and now it barely brushes my shoulders! It's layered too, and looks (in my opinion) absolutely gorgeous. Everybody loves it too, which makes me excited. Heck, I'm excited that people notice it! Well, it is about a foot shorter, but still. I guess when you go to an all girls school more people will notice it because girls are usually the ones who notice that stuff more. But I think everybody will notice, since it's not just a haircut but and incredibly new style! But really, I absolutely love it. I was a little nervous about getting it cut, even though I new I was ready for a change, but I definitely don't regret it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll take some pictures with eric's camera and then I'll post them for you all to see!

The Wedding

Of course, I have to write a post about my sister's wedding. I was the maid of honor, and I think I walked too fast going down the aisle, but who cares? I had to get up early to get my hair done, and when I got there Gina and Theresa were both getting their hair done still. It took them 3 hours for Gina's hair, which was absolutely nuts, and stressed her out too much on her big day. But things got better after that. I looked good in my dress, Gina looked absolutely beautiful. The whole day went pretty fast actually, but it was really great. I cried a little bit during the ceremony and people kept giving me kleenexes, not like I needed all 80 that they gave me, seriously! but I did cry. My speech went pretty well which was good, dinner was good too, the dance was awesome. I even had someone to dance with for all the slow songs. They also had waltzes and polkas and something called a shadish(it is spelled way different than that but i'm not sure how so i spelled it phonetically). The whole day and night was just great. I can't believe my big sister is married. And tomorrow I have to get up at 4 to take her and her husband to the airport. Not cool. But then I get a car for a week! Seriously though, Josh is a great guy for her. They are going to have such a great time being married. They were so cute doing their first dance, I almost started crying again. Oh yeah, I did the limbo and I rocked at it! But then my thighs were killing me!

48 hours

In almost exactly 48 hours, my only big sister and one of my best friends is getting married. And I, being one of her best friends as well as the coolest sister in the world, am her maid of honor. This has resulted in me carrying out various duties such as calling every hair place in the world to determine cost of hair dos among other things, and while I may have complained occasionally I really have not minded that much. Now, I have to say, this is going to be such a change not only in Gina's life but in the lives of the rest of us, especially me. When I was a freshman in high school Gina was a senior, and so she had a locker on the 3rd floor while I was stuck on the first floor in the boondocks (for those of you who don't know, that would be by the shop classes, except even more hidden). Now Gina, being awesome like she is, shared a locker with me. How cool is that? Very. Then she went to college, which was a huge change but not too horrible since she came home and I got to see her a lot. Now however, she is going to be sharing her life not with our family but with Josh, her new family. It is going to be very different. Also, as Matt made note of in his blog, she is the first person in our family to get married. This makes it even bigger and a lot weirder than when cousins or anybody else gets married, for some reason that I can't put my finger on. It's hard to describe, but it's just weird. As much as we have been planning for this day, as prepared as we from all of the work we have done and from all the weddings I have gone to, I feel like Saturday itself is a surreal experience just waiting to happen, and when it does I hope it goes well and feels normal, or at least real. And I really hope I don't trip.

My New Life (an actual post)

So my first post entitled "my new life" is not showing up for some reason but it's still there, but no one can view it, so I copied it and am posting it on this one, and deleting the pyscho one that's not working. Here it is.
Ok, so I know I said I would post something new a long time ago, but I have been so busy lately! I have class MWF at 8:15 and then again at 9:35, so I'm done at 10:40 which is awesome! Then on Tuesday and Thursday I have one class from 9:55 to 11:35, and on Wednesday nights I have a class from 6-9:30. Hey, that's tonight! I'm really pumped for this one because it's my honors seminar class, and it's Most German of the Arts, so it's about German art/music and extremism, mostly the arts in Germany during the reign of Hitler, and we get to go to the opera and do cool stuff like that. Oh no, I just realized I haven't bought my 1 book for that, it's just a coursepack so it should be cheap, but we have to pay $33.50 for the opera, which is actually really cheap I'm just really poor. I also have had work related things (meetings, training, etc.) twice already this week and again tomorrow night, so I've been busy every night since I've been back, except for a few hours on Monday, but lets not get into that...anyway, I'm totally pumped for this weekend and I'm really happy this week is going by pretty fast so far because I get to go home at 11 on Friday for the wedding! yay! Let's see, what else, oh yeah, my new roommate, Rachel, rocks. We get along great, and we have somewhat similar schedules and since we both have 8:15 classes we get up around the same time which is cool. Seriously though, I love living on 2nd floor. It's way better than 4th floor. I'm making tons of new friends, as well as being around a few of my old friends. Unfortunately I haven't had much time this week to hang out with people except for meals, but hey, that's ok. I think I'm going to like my bio class a lot more than I thought I would. It's still going to be my hardest class, but eh, oh well. It's mostly about plants and the like, which I previously thought was boring but so far I have been proven wrong. Anyway, I still have to buy a couple of things, like I said, so I should get going. I know all of my blogs have been really boring so far and mostly about my life, but hey, Kendrick writes about his life and he gets tons of comments, why don't I?