Departure: 98 days.
I feel so, so terribly underprepared.
Author: approximately
The little WMD that could.
MY GRANDMA BOUGHT ME PEPPER SPRAY.
It’s about damn time I carry a weapon other than my keys to keep me at ease. Not that I don’t feel safe around here — I feel plenty secure. Then there are the several days a week that I walk home from the computer lab at two or three in the morning by myself, and ask myself just how safe I am. Sometimes I walk a little faster, peering over my shoulder every couple of seconds. There’s a lot of creeps out there, you just never know.
I was talking to my mom on the phone tonight, and she got up on her soap box and preached to me about it. “You are too tiny, too petite to be walking around alone.” I suppose I don’t think twice about it anymore, and never think to have a friend with me when I’m walking at night. “You have someone with you at night ALL THE TIME!” she said. I told her I would get on that pronto, and find myself a nice, brawny male to escort me from place to place after dark. “Well, that’s not what I meant.”
It’s funny because I don’t feel tiny or weak. Call me crazy, but I feel like if someone came up and grabbed me that I could absolutely kick their ass. Don’t quote me on that, but if my life was threatened I would go completely berserk, and use every muscle in my body to make certain that I was not harmed. In my mind and right up until I look in a mirror I am 6’3″, 275 pounds. I tend to forget that I am a little person, someone that could be mistaken as vulnerable enough to take candy from strangers. I am strong! I am 5’1″! I carry pepper spray in a fashionable case, hear me roar!
Don’t even try to put me in your pocket — I am armed and ready to put you in your place.
Hiyah!
Roo
Finals — eek!
I HAVE NOT SLEPT in nearly two days.
Dearest Jesus, let this be over. Now. Okay thanks.
xo
roo
Just…do it already.
MY MANAGER invited me to a party at her house tonight.
I’m not one for parties, but I’ll be the first to say that it’s been faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar too long since I’ve done something social around here.
I’ve been giving myself a pep talk all night. “You’re going to go, you’re going to go.” I told people I was going. “I’m going.” You can do this! GO! Shoo! Have fun!
I’m not one for parties, but I am going to push myself out of my comfort zone and take a chance. What’s the worst that could happen…
Y’all’s the Best!
HARD TO BELIEVE THAT Thanksgiving break is over — then again, it’s really not hard to believe at all. I can remember lying in my bed at home Tuesday night, staring across the room and thinking, “This is going to be over before I know it.”
Here I am, back in Moorhead — not regrettably, though. My time at home was well-needed and brief, not to mention well-needed to be brief. I love the fam (even the dog, who is debated being my full-blooded sibling) but several days would suffice. Nothing personal, it’s just hard to leave a life behind at another location, especially when there is so much unfinished business being left. I will not sleep — well — until the end of the semester.
To everyone that made my visit home so absolutely incredible:
Mom, for all the extravagant meals and never ceasing going above and beyond.
Dad, for fixing the car up realllll good.
Mom and Dad, for putting up with the garage door opening at 2:30 every morning. I’m sorry my hours are so whack.
Brother man 0, for all that you do for me all the time. For making me laugh like none other!
To Loo Loo and all of her loveliness, a wonderfully talented friend, model, and Collectic partner in crime.
To Javen! My favorite semi-Oklahomian, full-blooded Homo sapien (perhaps part machine?) it’s always a treat to see you, thanks for braving the mall with me on Black Friday, perusing the thrift stores and conquering the coffee. You are fantastic.
To Grandma, for a stellar meal, ’80s boots and ’70s heels.
To the 62 crew, who take straight shots of creativity every morning, followed by awesome injections. Shit. Being at your place makes me want to be colorful, bright, and experimental (in a good way)! Thanks for renewing my inspiration.
To Jamie & Otis, for dinner at 10 NM (in the presence of Josh & Fergalicious!) I love me some pheasant strips! And for the great company of Chris Brown, Maureen, & Loo.
To all of my lady friends from near and faraway college lands, as divergent as we might be, I love you all the same, all the time, no matter whats.
And lastly, to the Minot Daily News for stalking me to the mall on Black Friday, furtively capturing a photo while I was shoe shopping, and publishing the most horrid photograph Minot has seen while labeling me as an “Eager Shopper” (for the record, I’m angry). You have secured my notions that I am being followed.
Again, thanks x thanks = THANKS!
Back to work this lady goes — enjoy yourselves!
xo
jc
It is so easy to take one look at your fears, to assess them as being unfeasible, to walk away.
It’s easy — and I don’t like easy. So why not gather up my fortitude, collect myself, and try something a little harder? It may be a little painful, but I am a strong little lady.
Why not face them? Why not? Sometimes I forget that we are all human, flesh and bone, and I have nothing to be afraid of.
Midnight music
Doorbusters
TOMORROW MORNING I am going to endure what is to be my very first — and perhaps last — Black Friday experience. My sister and I are going to brave the mall, for no apparent reason but to be foolish, spend money, subject ourselves to the commercialism that is Christmas, and frolic in the pitfall of rat traps that are big fat letters of the word S-A-L-E.
Hopefully I will not wig out.
Game Time: You Might Be In Minot If…
You might be in Minot if:
a) Your main road (Broadway) bears resemblance to a child missing their front teeth. And their molars. And their gums.
b) Bulletin boards are graced by the celebrity likenesses of the university basketball team, while billboards exhibit 80-year old insurance agents.
c) Historical buildings are knocked down to make way for panoramic views of dead trees and the underside of a bridge. Oh, and to save the youth from debauchery.
d) A Ford Contour parked outside the bank on Main Street has a ginormous freshly-slaughtered doe slung across the roof (possibly the most repulsive and inhuman thing I have witnessed in my life).
e) All of the above.
I now see why they call it the ‘Magic City’.
Happenings at #3
Brother’s gotten taller, buffer
Dad’s older, perhaps more gray
Mother’s selfless, she always was
Dog’s plumper, scraps add to her waist
House is quieter, brother moved out
Room’s emptier, he took my stuff
Bathroom’s smaller, to apartment contrast
TV’s warmer, with cable hooked up
Mind’s relaxed, step away from homework
Mind’s relaxed, step away from school
I am here,
here ready to unbend.
approximatelyes.com 