The LSAT and the LBD

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I scored ten points higher on my practice LSAT than the previous Saturday, which I hope continues! That would be amazing for me and law school financial aid ... as law school is crazily expensive. There are only three more weeks of practice tests until the real one ... oh, boy. I also went shopping and found the most perfect little black dress (LBD) that I would wear everywhere I like it so much:) They are classic - every girl should have one. I also bought other feminine things that are otherwise impossible for me to find.

The evening before, I went to the iCubs game. The skybox seats were fantastic - the view of the field was really incredible! I had some great conversations, drank half a beer and was able to catch up with Joanna, who had previously been studying abroad in London. There were fireworks at the end as well, which were actually about 3 times better than those I saw on the Fourth of July.

Today it is back to homework. I have some medical terminology chapters to read and two quizzes to take online. Of course, study/reading breaks are always needed. Maybe I'll even get around to doing my laundry if I can find enough quarters lying around. Another note ... bagels are really tasty, especially with cream cheese, lemon and capers. Yum.

Senior year and the IRB

I have successfully made it through the first week of classes for my senior year of undergrad. Already, I can tell it is going to be a busy but interesting year. My 13-credit course load will be surprisingly time-consuming, topped with 15 hours a week at GuideOne and a lot of meetings throughout the week, but since when have I been one not to stay busy 24/7?

Two nights ago, I had my first PRSSA exec meeting. Being the only person on the exec board who had previously been on the board, I think it went pretty well, and I look forward to a great year. I am also interested in seeing where my final year of the Delts (Delta Theta Phi pre-law fraternity) goes. As academic chair, I am working on getting things going, including a professional evening that is always a great networking tool with local lawyers and law school professors.

For my honors thesis, I plan on interviewing several individuals for qualitative analysis. This means that I may have to bring my proposal to the full IRB (Institutional Review Board) regarding human experimentation. This means I need to have my methodology and qualitative interviews structured and finalized by the end of next week. This project is exciting me more and more, when I realize how it translates into so many different aspects of things I love. I also had to receive a certificate from an online training course on human experimentation, so I can do so in both my honors thesis and in my public relations research capstone.

Also, for some reason, I am remarkably peppy and enthused today. This would be awesome for every day. Let’s hope it continues!

I have box seats for the iCubs game tonight, and after that, a friend who graduated this past spring is having a going away party, which I plan to attend. Then, tomorrow morning, it’s back to the grindstone with another LSAT practice test.

Body images and Barbies

So I was looking at some gossip things (hey, don't we all?), and I noticed some particularly disturbing criticisms of women. The first was of supermodel Gemma Ward, stick thin as you would expect. Since her rumored boyfriend, Heath Ledger, died last year after filming as the Joker in The Dark Knight, she spent the last year off the runway and recovering with her family and friends. She gained a little weight, and suddenly she is fat. The girl looks like she could be no larger than a size 6 now, used to be a small size 00, and if that is considered fat, all I have to say is ... wow.

Another is Kristen Bell. She is super pretty, but was recently put on a "worst beach bodies" list in a magazine for the smallest bit of cellulite on her thighs. Come on! Ninety-nine percent of women would kill for her body in that picture. I don't understand this, especially when they praise her figure in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", where her ribs were prominently on display.

One last observation. Megan Fox said she had never been fatter than she was on "Transformers". Hello, still tiny!

These scenarios call into question the body figure that is popular in Western culture today, and how healthy it is (or isn't). Barbie is case scenario number one. Here is what a normal, small girl (she's only a size 4) looks like with Barbie proportions. Some students at Vanderbilt University created a life-size Barbie that is true to her proportions. And to include men in on this conversation, take a look at, over the years, the bicep difference alone on G.I. Joe.

No wonder girls are doing drastic things to lose weight and look like that blonde-haired floozy they played with as a 4-year-old. There are even girls who are now drunkorexic and diabulimic. It's no wonder many girls know the calorie count to nearly everything, thanks to dieting websites and the need to lose weight. Playboy doesn't help, showing girls who have, for the most part, fake bodies.

In less Westernized nations, it's better to have a little meat on your bones, because it means you can survive in hard times where food is short, you can bear children with normal-sized hips... instead of being 21 and looking like you're 13.

Having gained 15 pounds in the last year has convinced me that curves are much better than fitting into little girls' Abercrombie jeans. Instead of prominent hipbones and ribs, a bit of a butt and chest isn't too bad. Plus, ice cream is tasty. So is fat. Haha.

This is why my honors thesis, 40-page paper and presentation is going to be on these issues, centered around anorexia. Some of the research I have dug up so far is astonishing. Who knew these diseases were more than just refusing that cheesecake in front of you at dessert or Karen Carpenter?'

If the definition of beauty gets any smaller, no one will fit.

Stifled laughs and bad beer

Last night, I went to an amateur comedy night at the House of Bricks with Erin and Stephen. The performances weren't anything close to the same venue we went to two weeks before. I felt bad for a lot of the guys up there, but I still give them props for getting on stage and trying out some material. That takes some initiative.

I also tried the new Budweiser 55, which is another low-calorie beer that just came out. I figured for $1 bottle night, I'd give it a go. I'm glad I didn't pay more than $1 for that beer, which tasted like watered down keg beer. Not tasty, especially for a girl who has yet to acquire a taste for beer as her drink of choice. I think I'll stick to my frou-frou stuff or my hard cider for now. Rating: D.

After the comedy, two of Erin's friends from Omaha came over and we played Apples to Apples. Best game ever, seriously. Helen Keller always wins. If you haven't played it, you need to check it out.

I have also decided that I need to try and get more sleep. Most people think I'm a zombie, surviving on usually no more than 6 hours a night, averaging 4 or 5. Some nights, too many nights, I pull all-nighters or 2-hour nights. No fun the next day. Extra caffeine that is needed the day after causes me to be super jittery and spastically hyper. I am such a busy person that I go to bed late after staying up with friends and get up early for work or another commitment that sleep comes secondary to being awake. The frequent bags under my eyes can attest to that, as well as my overly-caffeinated body. Hopefully once the semester starts and I am not socializing on "summer hours", I can get more rest ... key word here is "hopefully".

I think I am going to study for the LSAT a little tonight, so I will get going. Who knows if that will actually happen.

I've got no regret right now and I'm feeling this

Exhausted is a good word for me right now, but the exhaustion was totally worth the concert from yesterday. I went to see Blink 182, Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco yesterday in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Erin and I both dressed up in "emo", complete with extra eyeliner and punk t-shirts with leggings; I added in a plaid miniskirt for a good measure. We left to make the 90-minute drive, not expecting I-80 East to be one-lane each way for a few miles, adding 45 minutes to the drive. We were also not expecting an hourlong wait in standstill traffic for a parking spot. However, we were pleasantly surprised when there was a separate girls' line at the venue, which cut our gate wait from 45 minutes to zero. All we had to do was allow ourselves to be patted down and have our bags checked. Hooray for XX chromosomes!

What was supposed to be a rainy day turned out to be semi-overcast but not too hot to bear. The venue was called the River Riot, and it was at a place where there was a large outdoor grassy knoll that concertgoers to sit on or, if they chose, go to the stage to join a standing mosh pit. Not wanting to die, Erin and I opted to chill on a spot on the grass that was high enough to see the artists from a distance.

The place was full of "emo" kids, many just out of their pubertal phase, in typical emo gear. Itty bitty girls and boys with jutting ribcages and Red Bulls adorned the Westfair venue. Emo kids are interesting in that they want to be non-conformist, yet they all wear the same stuff, listen to the same stuff, etc. It's like being a quasi-feminist; it just doesn't work.

After listening to a couple mediocre opening artists, Panic! At the Disco took the stage. Their set was really good, and they played a lot of their best songs, but the set was kind of short, only about 30 minutes long. After that, Fall Out Boy came on. I was pleased with their set, which was longer than Panic!'s by 20 minutes or so, though they did play a couple songs I wasn't too fond of. One song they didn't play that I wished they had was "Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner", easily one of their best songs. They did, however, play "I Don't Care", an anthem to last semester, to which my roommate and I screamed the lyrics and threw fist pumps into the cooling air. They also played "What a Catch, Donnie" at the request of Blink 182. A great thing they did was perform a cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". Love, love that song, and Erin and I had both listened to it on the drive there and commented on how we liked it. Good job, boys.

Finally, Blink 182 hit the venue, and they had an amazing set. They played a lot of their older (and in my opinion, better) songs, and they were hilarious and crude all throughout their performance. One crazy thing that happened was that they had to stop in the middle of performing "Miss You" to tell the crowd to step back because the mosh pit had trampled several people. It was kind of ridiculous that it took the crowd a full five minutes to accomplish this task. They also performed the one song I wanted them to, "Going Away to College". Blink also sang a couple lines from their opening acts' sets, including FOB's "I Don't Care" and Panic!'s "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies". Excellent job, glad they reunited.

At this point, it's 11 p.m. and Erin and I had not eaten since we had PowerBars at 3 p.m. at a rest stop. Our stomachs were very angry at us for not spending $8.50 on a gyro or nachos, though both looked and smelled amazing the seven hours we were at the venue. We got back to my car and drove on this crazy long detour to get to I-80. We went to the first McDonald's out of Council Bluffs (obviously all places in that town were going to be packed), which was 35 minutes away. By this time, Erin and I are pretty much just hungry, nothing else. Maslow knew what he was talking about. To our luck, the McDonald's at this gas station took a half hour for us to have our two meals, which only consisted of regular cheeseburgers and fries. It's not rocket science, people. And if it hadn't been for our hunger, I would have also rated it the grossest McD's I have had in a while (save for the stuff I had driving home a while ago from Iowa City.

When we got home, we both were just exhausted. I went almost straight to bed, as I had to get up two hours later to get ready for work at 7 a.m. But it was well worth the adventure.

State Fair sights and unsightliness

So I went to the Iowa State Fair yesterday. As predicted, I had a great time people-watching "Iowa's finest." A few headlines of my 6-hour excursion:

1) A little girl who looked around 5 years old sat at the table across from me at the Dinner Bell (it's a sit-down tent for food at the fair), and she was peppering her fries! If anyone knows me, they know I pepper nearly every food that isn't sweet with a mound of pepper, to the point that people make fun of me. Not only did she pepper those potatoes once or even twice, but three times, to the point where her mother took the shaker from her. Ha! Also, I basically love condiments and spices, so she also had a pile of ketchup next to the fries. She's basically my hero.

2) On the walk back to the car, I witnessed the most horrendous outfit I saw at the fair. Forget the beer-bellied men in "wife beaters", the mu-mus and tights, mock turtlenecks (on a super hot and humid day, old ladies!) or the excessive amount of people with bad teeth, a woman was fairly overweight was wearing a stretchy green tube top tunic that had three strips of fabric on the back that tied in the middle at whatever vertebrae it hit on her back. Obviously, there was no fitting a bra in that number, and women need to wear those; they just do. I forget her bottoms since I was too occupied being disgusted and shocked by her shirt, but I fear it was leggings or a mini skirt or both. *Shudder*

3) The fair has more than 50 different foods on a stick, ranging from foot-long cornbrats to deep-fried Twinkies. At an army/national guard tent, a man in camo was passing out pencils with the Army National Guard info/logo on them. To entice people to come take them, he called them erasers on a stick. I was pretty much in stitches for a few minutes. Pencil = eraser on a stick. Clever.

4) No fair trip is complete without a trip to Bauder's ice cream stand. Best ice cream in Des Moines - the only two ice cream things that top it are Four Queens Dairy in Cedar Falls or gelato. I had a single dip of fresh peach ice cream and was in heaven. Fresh peaches in the cone, and all the ice cream is made locally in Bauder Pharmacy's basement. Yum!

5) I went on the Ye Olde Mill Ride. The only thing about this ride is you get in this log thing, and a fake-blue river takes you along this tunnel that goes in darkness until you get to a couple places in the tunnel that are lit and display old fair posters. For some reason, I freaked out (really embarrassing), and I have no idea why. I usually am okay with rides, especially ones that are so tame, but for some reason those were the scariest five minutes of the fair. Yes you can laugh, I get paranoid and it's totally laughable.

6) Animals are rampant at the fair. I saw the big bull, a 3,404 pound beast with a ring in its nose. That bull meant business. I also saw a lot of different kinds of chickens, including one that's feathers looked like fur - cutest chicken ever! Another one had just laid a pink egg - better call the Cadbury bunny! At the exotic petting zoo, I got to see a zedonk (1/2 zebra, 1/2 donkey) and I petted a watusi, which looks like a wildebeest/cow creature. They also had a live snake exhibit that wasn't super exciting, but I got to reminisce about the days when I was a National Geographic nerd and knew the names of a lot of these creatures in like 4th grade. One last mention are the ponies - I want a shetland sooo bad when I'm older. They are honestly the cutest creatures that aren't little fluffy dogs.

... and 7) While leaving, I saw a stand for chocolate-covered bacon! I may be going back next week, and if so, I am buying some! I didn't yesterday because I was stuffed with a chicken sandwich and an immaculate ice cream cone. I figure that if I'm going to BaconFest next year, I should start preparing for the craziness :)

Big deal and s'no big deal

Wow, only one week of full-time work at my internship before senior year starts. Hard to believe this summer is over. I think the idiom is true: the older you get, the faster time flies. Granted, I'm not 80-years-old, but 21 is a well-rounded number. I'd say I'm pretty mature for those 21 years. These long weeks are starting to drain me, as pointed out by my literally 100-ounces of diet soda daily habit - that's a lot of caffeine!

Now it's time to ready myself for law school applications ... oy vey! Taking another practice LSAT at the library tomorrow at 9 a.m. and hoping for a decent score. I'm also brainstorming on themes for my personal statement. Right now, I'm thinking of a determined theme, a healthcare theme and a couple other random things that fly in my head. I'm so scared about the uncertainty of the LSAT score and the law applications, but I suppose that's something I need to have faith in, trusting that all I can do is my best and hope for the best outcome.

On another note, the shoe of the day serves as a salute to one of my guilty pleasures, the show Trailer Park Boys. I missed July 1 for Canada Day, so these shoes will have to suffice. I was discussing Rickyisms last night (kind of like Bushisms but based on the main character of the show). Some of my favorites: "nay-saw, you know, space people, maybe you've heard of 'em"; "samsquatch"; "it doesn't take rocket appliances..."; "he passed with flying f*ing carpets"; "radies"; and "the flames were golfing". If you haven't checked this show out, you should. Some people don't like it, but I think it's fabulous. If you like it, great; if not, as Ricky says, "s'no big deal".

My two cents and five cent bottle deposit

I shared this with a fellow PR colleague, who then sent it onto someone who is blogging about the beer summit. Thought I’d put in my two cents:

I think the whole scene was not about diffusing racial profiling opinions. True, there was discussion on the subject, but ultimately, Americans and the press were more concerned with the types of beer the men drank and the silver bowls that held the beer pretzels. This leads me to think that the beer summit was more of a PR stunt than anything (and I hate using the word “stunt”). With Pew Research showing a drop in Obama’s job approval rating by 7 percent (according to the Times), Obama’s public relations gurus knew they needed to do something to instill more into the citizen image of the man who is to give the nation “hope”. (These are not completely telling statistics in my view, since the AP also said Obama’s approval rating jumped up 11 percent among minorities just prior to the summit). I voted for Obama, but I think that this type of summit may not have been the most prudent use of press time. Any old day, a handful of men can sit around brews and discuss an issue, but it’s best to actually make sure the issue’s message rings out clear, not the fact that Obama chose Bud Light and Biden had a non-alcoholic brew. I think more reactions came from the national beer brewers than any other group, wishing more of the chosen beer had been American-made. But if Crowley wanted Blue Moon, why should he choose anything else? If I am at an event and I would like a glass of Moscato that is made in Italy and not from the local Iowa wineries, why should I choose otherwise? It's too much celebrity concern and not enough about the issues. But props to Obama for trying something and at least getting out there.

Scrambled brains and bands

I woke up, on my own, far too early, considering my alarm clock was already set for an unreasonably premature waking hour. I’m thinking this needs to desist; it’s not very good for my 9-hour work day. My current iPod playlist likely doesn’t help, switching from Fall Out Boy’s “Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying” to Mozart’s Piano Sonata #15 in C. It feels my neuroticism, too. Haha.

Anyway, I am excited for the concert on Sunday, called River Riot, in Council Bluffs that my roommate, Erin, and I are going to. Featured bands are Blink 182, Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco, all of whom I love. I am also going to the Iowa State Fair on Saturday after I take my practice LSAT. Should be a fun experience and great people-watching, if nothing else. Today is the opening day of the fair, and it’s sure to be sweltering as most opening days seem to be without avail. As always, the fair is bound to “bring out the best” of Iowa, with mullets on both sexes, too-tight tube tops, unnecessary skin revealing … I think you get my point. So many fried foods on a stick, too, including Twinkies, Snickers bars, and pineapple. There’s a reason that Smash, a Des Moines shirt company, introduced a new tee last year that said: “I went to the Iowa State Fair and all I got was type 2 diabetes. It’s not the place to go if you’re concerned with your caloric intake, but they did introduce a “salad-on-a-stick” at the fair last year; I doubt that went over well.

Hot days and birthdays

At work today, I went to the Iowa State Fair before it began to deliver hymn songbooks to the First Church for the annual Hymn Sing my internship company, GuideOne Insurance, sponsors. I am sooooo excited for the fair to begin, especially for the people-watching.

Tonight is also my friend, Pat's, 22nd birthday party. I expect a good time. My roommate, Erin's, friend, Libby, came into town, and we're all getting dressed up to have fun. Anyway, best get going to have fun :) I have to go pick up another friend, Randi, from work so that we can start the festivities :)

Testing (and) the waters

This morning, I got up semi-early for a Saturday and walked to the library to take a practice LSAT test. While this was not the most fun experience ever, I managed to increase my previous practice scores by about 5 points :) I hope I continue to see an improvement for the next six weeks until I actually take the exam on September 26. That's when one 4-hour test will determine my law school future.

Last night, I went on a walk with a good friend, Randi, twice around Gray's Lake. It's always great to get out in the fresh air and talk to another person about things that are on your mind, especially when they can relate to you and your weird "girliness". I am also going back to Gray's later on today (when it's not so flipping hot outside) to paddleboat. This is one of the few times this summer I have actually gone out and enjoyed the summer this year, so I am grateful for the weather and comraderie.

I am also considering possibilities for vacations in the next year or so. With law school approaching next year, I have realized that if I don't travel in the next 9 months or so, I likely won't for a long time unless I study abroad the summer after my 1L year. Thus, I applied for my passport on Tuesday and cannot wait to book a ticket for an adventure! I am not impulsive and rarely have made it out of the Midwest (in fact, I have never been out of the country), and I thought in the past that traveling was an expense I could afford not to partake in. I now have realized that I do not want to be bitter that I have not gone anywhere 20 or 30 years from now, so my upcoming, yet-to-be-determined travel plans I am now considering investments in myself. And I am excited!!!

On that note, I will go back to watching "Trailer Park Boys", a crude "guilty pleasure" Canadian TV show that I was introduced to a few months back.

Out of focus

This morning, I woke up and got ready for work, not really concentrating on anything in particular. Get to work, and I’m instantly drained, despite the constant intake of Diet Dew and coffee. Want proof? Already this morning, I have spilled yogurt on myself, forgot my car keys/umbrella/work badge and made three separate trips in the rain from my garage back to my apartment.

After my emotional roller coaster from my boyfriend leaving the states for a year to LSAT pressure to work and my upcoming senior year, my life is not easily set in focus. Wouldn’t it be nice if your mind worked like a well-tuned camera, going macro to micro and zoom at the simple twist of a lens or press of a button? Not to mention the cameras with auto-focus. Hell, I want to be a camera. Things are made so much clearer and simpler, and you see reality from whatever angle you choose.

In lieu of this idea, I need to focus more on the things I need to accomplish right now instead of worrying about things in a year or a month or even three weeks. I need to stop worrying about things I have no control over, and start taking over the parts of my life I can control. This started with me standing up to my mother and applying for my passport on Tuesday. I am going to live my life and be happy with it. Derrick once told me that he lives his life so that at the end of each day, he can say that if he died that day, he would be happy with his life and his day. I need to make an effort to do the same.

Here’s to focus, to clarity and to the proper development of me as a person.