Saturday night

This is the first Saturday in a long time where all I have to do is sit and watch tv, completely by myself. It would be nice if I wasn't so bored.

Two posts in one night

The only reason I am posting twice in a night is because I really have nothing else to do. Except research for my final paper (I have 3 huge books on German and American propaganda, as well as web articles) but why would I do that?
I recently saw on the news that the Twins have a proposal for a new stadium again, one that is a lot more likely to get through then the one with the retractable roof or whatever its called. Unfortunately this one would not have a top, which would definitely suck during the early season since it's usually COLD in Minnesota up until May, in case people haven't noticed! It would be kind of cool though, and if other teams in other states can have their own stadiums, why shouldn't the Twins? That's one perspective. The other is why waste so much money on sports when it could be put to better use in other things? And why waste so much land space, that I believe is going to come from parking, in fact I think the parking lot where my family parks when we work at the Target Center is going to be the new stadium ground. However, to dispute the money argument, the state would pay nothing-the Twins would pay $125 million, and the rest would come from a small increase of sales tax in Hennepin County. I still am not sure whether or not I truly favor a new stadium...why can't they have a top on it?
One other thing that I would like to comment on is my friend's radio show. His name is Ryan and he goes to Northwestern in Roseville, which is, in my opinion, notoriously conservative (which is not the point of this but oh well). They have their own radio station, and he has a "talk show" of sorts on Sundays at 11 and Mondays at 9, and I have recently decided I would listen to it. It's actually somewhat funny, especially if you know Ryan. If anybody really honestly wants to try to listen to it, you have to listen online, and it's at www.wvoe.fm, and like I said, it can be somewhat funny. If you know Ryan at all.
Well, since I really can't think of anything else to talk about, I'm done for the night. Please feel free to comment on anything I have written, most notably (at least the one I think will get the most responses) the Twins stadium.

Another night at the Telefund

Tonight was yet another night of work calling alumni and asking for money. I actually got 4 people to donate, which is a lot more than I usually get! This is really sad that all I really have to write about is work, but really there isn't anything else too exciting going on in my life. Classes are boring, I don't really do a whole ton. Oh yeah, my computer dvd player is broken again. Crappy. That's about it.

Catholic teachings

I heard a very interesting rumor yesterday while I was at work. I'm not sure if it's true, but I thought I would put it out there. Two girls and I were somewhat talking about birth control, for about 2 minutes, right before we started calling people again, and one of them said there is a Vatican document or something like that (I'm assuming she meant an encyclical or something) that says if the majority of Catholics don't believe something or don't practice it, it becomes null. Is that true? I find it slightly hard to believe. She claimed that somewhere close to 85% of Catholics (and then thought that number might only be American Catholics, who are somewhat different from other Catholics in some ways) don't believe in birth control, using this to say it shouldn't be a Catholic teaching anymore. What are your thoughts on this? And is there really church teaching that if a majority stops believing/practicing it, it's not a teaching anymore? I seriously find that difficult to believe-if the majority of Catholics stopped believing in the Eucharist, it would still be a teaching. Same with many other things that our church has been based on.

Carmen at the Ordway

Last night I went to see Carmen, and opera, at the Ordway in St. Paul for my Honors Seminar class. It was a pretty good opera, even though I had a headache through almost the entire thing. It wasn't horribly long, at least not when compared with Wagner! and I thought the music was pretty good. I didn't get supper, which I think played a part in my headache, so not only did I have a headache but I was hungry. And sortof cranky for some inexplicable reason. But other than that, the actual opera itself was good, even if the rest of the night left much to be desired.

Cardinal Ratzinger...and Confirmation

We (being the Catholic church) now have a new pope. Cardinal Ratzinger, from Germany if the name didn't give it away, was elected earlier today to be the new head of the church. A lot of people probably aren't going to be happy with this because he is very morally, and as my mom says, liturgically, conservative, but hey, we have a new pope! Yay! It's exciting at the very least. Besides, with all the predictions and grumblings, does anybody really even know what he's going to do? I love how my Catholic and non-Catholic friends alike here at school who don't necessarily follow all the church teachings or have degrees in theology or even know that much about it (not that that's required to be a good Christian or anything) argue so vehemently about their point of views and how he is going to be a horrible pope. I don't really know much about him except he's conservative, but who really knows what he'll do. I do not think we're all going to hell in a handbasket just because he's conservative. We'll see what happens. On the other hand, I do not have to take the bus to Epiphany's confirmation tonight. My parents are going to pick me up. That's a relief-I don't have any money for the bus anyway.

That wasn't so bad....

Well, thanks to Alyssa Lydeen, I now know how to use public transportation. Or at least I know enough to get to the cathedral tomorrow. Thank you Alyssa. And everybody pray that I get there in one piece. Eric is worried.

Metro Transit

I have got to be the biggest idiot. I can not figure out the metro transit system. I would be the worst at using public transpo if I had to rely on it. I'd be late everywhere! The only reason I want to use it is so I'll be able to go to my sister's (and a lot of other people from church) confirmation tomorrow, and I have no way of getting there unfortunately. I was trying to figure out if I could take the bus but I don't understand how it works. I went online and all that but it was not as helpful as I hoped. Either that or I'm just dumb. This sucks. How pathetic is it that I can't figure out public transpo?

The Incredibles...or Shark Tale

What a great night. The most strenuous thing I have to do (besides get together for about 20 minutes with megan to do a bio thing) is deciding whether to watch The Incredibles or Shark Tale. I brought them back to school with me after I was home this weekend, and I'll have them for 2 weeks, so I'm sure I'll watch both of them at least twice, but which one should I watch tonight? Hmmm.....

Freshman Year

I've decided that freshman year of college, while relatively easy and fairly enjoyable, is somewhat a pain in the butt. Everything is new, which is not that big of a deal but can be weird and confusing at times. But what really sucks is how I have to take a bunch of classes that I've ended up hating. I've tried to take ones that seem interesting and not just dull, but a lot of them have sucked. Plus my precalc professor is a complete and utter moron and still treats me like I'm stupid even though I have the highest grade in the class. And my biology professor is also being completely unreasonable. What is the deal? At least almost all of my liberal arts requirements are completed.

Twingo

Tonight Gina, Josh, Eric, and I went to watch the Twins play the Detroit Tigers. It was a pretty close game, but they ended up winning 6-4 in the 9th inning. Awesome. Tonight was half-night Tuesday, so what used to be the lower GA but is now called the home run porch (all of the seating areas have new names) was only $8 instead of $16, which was cool. We snuck in our own pop and candy, again, cool. Tonight was also a Twingo night. For those of you who have never played Twingo, you play it just like bingo, except there are plays instead of numbers. So instead of having B-10, you have a code for a play. Examply-a single is 1B, a caught ball by left field is F-9, a walk is BB, etc. It's really fun and generally goes through the 4th or 5th inning, or until all the prizes run out. The first 25 players to get Twingo win a prize. Tonight, Eric Michael Peterson was one of those lucky winners. Can you believe it? He actually won Twingo! The best part of it was when he was hoping for one of the players to be hit with a pitch. Torii Hunter comes up to bat, and Eric says "come on, take one for the team, get hit with the ball" and a few pitches later he gets hit! So Eric got to circle the HPB (hit by pitch) on the scorecard for that. It was hilarious! Not only did a player get hit by a pitch, which I don't see happen too often, but it was the exact player that Eric told to get hit! Hilarious. That wasn't his winning play however-his winning play was a home run hit in I think the bottom of the 3rd or top of the 4th. And his prize wasn't some lowly shirt (which actually wouldn't have been horrible) but 4 free tickets to any season game. Needless to say, the four of us are going to be heading to a game in the future. We've already picked the game actually-Twins vs. Yankees, June 4th. Isn't Twingo awesome?

Changes

As you all can see, I have made a slight change to my blog-I changed the template, which I feel was a much needed change. I think it looks pretty cool now, but who knows? I may get sick of it and decide to change it to something else. We'll see. Other changes that have been happening are--oh wait, nothing else is changing! My life is so dull and unexciting I wish something would change. But the same thing happens every week as it did the week before. Oh joy.

Not since I was 11...

Tonight my roommate Rachel and a couple of friends (Megan and Jes) realized that we can get a quad, so we are going to. Luckily there are 2 rooms (one big one small) and a bathroom, so at least we don't have to completely stress about having different hours and having guys over all the time, or having guys spend the night...at least they are only going to stay on the weekend. And at least these girls aren't the type to have sex with the guys they bring over. Thankfully. And at least none of them have had abortions, and they all shower. I'm kindof nervous actually about roomming with 3 other girls, because the last time there I roommed with 3 other girls was 7 or 8 years ago, with Gina, Theresa, and Maria. That was a scary scary experience. I hope this is much better. If it works out we'll probably all get an apartment our junior year. I hope it goes well-please everybody pray that it does!

J-term

I have decided that I am going to study abroad during J-term next year. The one that I chose to do is called Catholicism and Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and it’s pretty much what it sounds like. I am taking a theology class next semester which will fulfill the requirements needed to get in, so I’m only a little worried about it. The main thing that I am concerned about is the fact that I have to pay a $350 deposit when I turn in my application. That will leave me with about $10 in my checking account, plus I am going to need money to pay for Theresa and Maria’s movie that I am taking them to for their birthday, and Matt and Laura’s wedding gift. That means I will not be able to spend any paychecks that I will get the rest of the year. Oh well, not a huge deal. I don’t have a ton to buy, and all it means is that the digital camera I’ve been saving up for will have to wait until after I get my first paycheck from my summer job, instead of being able to buy it at the end of the year, which isn’t a huge deal.
Something I have been thinking about a lot lately is my possible major. I really don’t know what I want to do. I know I am going to minor in biology, and I want to either double major with theology as one of my majors or also minor in theology. But I don’t want to just major in theology. I know I don’t need to decide for awhile. It just bothers me a little because it seems like everybody I know not only knows what they are going to major in, but also what they want to do. I have a lot of ideas of what I don’t want to do, but I have no clue what I would want to do. I’m so unmotivated and uninspired. I’m taking a few classes next semester that will give me some ideas-sociology, political science, and philosophy. Does anybody have any good and helpful ideas for anything?

I was on tv because the pope died

As the title says, I was on tv today because the pope recently died. (Sorry Matt, I would have told you when I was going to be on but I got back from class and got the phone call and left immediately.) If anybody wants to see it, both my mom and Eric's mom videotaped it. Which is kind of sad, since it is about a 30 second clip with both of us saying approximately one sentence each. It's still pretty cool that I was on tv-I looked ok, better than I thought I would. However, the best part of the story is not being on tv, but biking over to St. Thomas where they filmed it. Eric called me I think about 2 minutes after I got back from my morning class. I was just about to change to go running and he said I had 20 minutes to get over there. I quickly changed, tossed on some make-up, grabbed my purse and headed out to the bike rack. As I am racing down Randolph Ave to get to St. Thomas (I must have been going around 10 miles an hour), I pretty much don't stop pedaling the entire time, and all of a sudden I see about 5 yards ahead of me a curb instead of a sidewalk. If anybody knows what a regular sidewalk looks like, there are no curbs, just sidewalk declining/inclining down when there is a street. Not on this one particular place in the city however! My two choices that shot into my head were either to jump it or try to swerve around it onto the road. I should have jumped it. Instead, I swerved, too late however, and ended up crashing (and I mean crashing) into the curb! Major wipeout. Luckily I was still far enough away from the road, and that I fell onto my left side, that I fell into the grass and not onto the pavement. However, my entire left side hurt like nothing else, and my left arm and foot, both of which were pretty exposed since I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and sandals, were incredibly scraped up and dirty like you wouldn't believe. I also had grass and leaves not only on my clothes but also in my hair and stuck in my bike handle. What the crap is that? It was awful. Not to mention the fact that my chain also came off my bike so I had to spend an extra 5 minutes putting it back on. Thank you to dad and Kendrick for showing me how! I ended up getting to St. Thomas 5 minutes late (pretty good considering), still on time to do the interview, but looking like crap with no time to wash up. Luckily, the camera guy is good and didn't end up showing my arms. Not to mention the fact that I still had to shower when I got back, which stung pretty bad. And all of that for about not even 15 seconds of fame.

Running

I went running yesterday for the first time since November. It was really hard-I only ran for 20 minutes (the equivalent of about 2 miles at the pace I was going) but it hurt the whole time. Being out of shape hurts. Today I was sore, and for a little while I couldn't figure out why and then I remembered and I felt stupid. So I went rollerblading to loosen up my muscles (it is bad to exercise one day and then not the next couple of days because your muscles tighten up and end up being more sore), and it didn't really do a whole ton. After work my legs hurt even worse. I think part of it may have been because I sit for 3 hours straight. Tomorrow I'm going running again and I think it might be a little easier. I hope so. I really want to get back into shape a little bit so that when I really start training this summer I won't have to start from scratch, and then when cross country comes I will be way better than last year. Also, I just want to stay in shape because then I will be healthier, and it just feels good to run. Maybe it's just me, but running really helps a lot. That's about all I have tonight. Not exciting at all, I know, but it's my life. Or part of it.