Questionaiire

While I was babysitting the other day, I came across this book filled with fun questions for the reader to fill out. Obviously designed for tweens, the book compelled me nonetheless, so I filled out one of the questionairres and tore out the page. 

I know that they're cheesy, but silly questionairres are my guilty pleasure. I think a vast majority of girls have filled these out before, but never as honestly or truthfully as they should. Even if you know nobody will ever read your answers to the questions, you always fill them out as if everyone you have ever encountered in your life will read all the answers. And in the process of doing so, your real answers are lost. 

TEN 2010 New Years Resolutions

1) Replace all "bad words" with happy words

examples: "Holy Sugar"

 "What the fruitcake is going on here?"

2) Call old friends from high school twice a month

3) Only eat when feeling hungry (No more snacks due to boredom or random eating rampages at 2:00 in the morning)

4) Work out 4 times a week (walking to class doesn't count)

5) Slow down to see the beauty and goodness in everything, especially the things that are prevalent in my everyday life

6) Read 12 books for fun

7) Have at least one hour of "Kate time" per day, doing things for myself I really enjoy (playing guitar, painting, reading)

8) Cliche Alert: At least one selfless act of kindness every day

9) Return all Blockbuster movie rentals on time

10) Establish a specific money-spending budget to abide by each month

Facebook Forever?

If I had a Facebook until I was 98 years old, how many pictures would be tagged of me? 

I wonder how long we will all have our Facebooks. It's hard to think we will have them our whole lives, but unless something else comes along to replace Facebook, then we just might. We will all watch each other get married, have children, and become senior citizens. My generation will watch itself grow up, and it will all be documented on the world wide web.

A Facebook page encompasses all you need to know about a person, depending on that person's privacy settings. And if my Facebook represents who I am, how will I change and grow as a person over the next 20, 50, 70 years? Will my interests be the same? Will I still be obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock movies? Or Harry Potter books? Will I still love to listen to classic rock? And will I still consider myself to be a liberal person? 

Even after 5 years having a Facebook, I have looked through my photos and have found a vast change in myself. And I have seen changes in my friends too. Although the makers of Facebook most likely did not plan it to be a timeline of people's entire lives, I believe that is what it is. 

Tide Detergent

My friend Connor and I decided we were going to make up a rap song. The only trouble was, we couldn't decide what to rap about, so we asked a friend of ours to give us a topic, and we were faced with the challenge of "Tide Detergent." This was the result:

Folding clothes all in those hoes 

Thinking of no one knows 

When you break it down and every thing goes down 

You put it in the hamper and nothing is a damper 

So blame those hoes 

You feeling like you may not know 

Where the hell your clothes are gonna go

T-T-T-Tide for you laundry 

give you lots of pride 

dream on me

(x 2)

Eff chlorox, eff bleach, eff chlorox, eff bleach

Eff downy because it makes you frowney 

But Tide give you, give you pride 

So you dont need no alibi

So you can get clothes on the indside and the out-out-out side

Clothes in da washa 

Clothes in da drya

When you put on that fresh clean shirt,

You'll soar higha

I AINT NO LIYA TELL EM GANGSTAS

(jam out) -  bamba bamba dam bom  bom bom ("TELL EM GANGSTAS")

When i was a lil girl, I thought tide was dirty 

Then i put on dem clothes and the world got flirty 

So i said to my Gs to the left: Put that shirt in the wash 

And show me your best cause Tide, it's better than all the rest....

dj spin that shit

 

bom bom chicka wawa wawa

T-T-T-Tide for you laundry

Give you lots of pride 

Dream on me 

(x 2)

Tide its really neat 

Put the motha freakin socks on your motha freakin feet 

Cause you dont need no bleach to feel motha freakin complete 

Thats why im saying that heat is sweet 

And Mom don't need no meat because Tide's beat is meat

Tell em gangstas

Street Stun

What if you saw this one day?

Or this?

What if you were driving around in your car, just running errands and minding your own business, and every ordinary thing around you was suddenly unordinary? Let me elaborate. The streetlights are purple, orange, and blue. The trees are upside down. The cars are all driving sideways. 

What would you do? Completely freak out obviously. Because the fabrics of everything we know and are comfortable with would be destroyed and our world would fall to shambles. You might even suspect someone of putting LSD in your coffee that morning, because that is the only thing that might explain what the hell is going on.

I asked myself what I would do if all of the street signs around me said something different. I would completely panic. I think it would be really cool if everything that was "ordinary" was actually unordinary. 

The truth is, ordinary objects are as ordinary as you make them. It is the perception of the viewer that makes that decision. I have decided to look at everything around me in a different way, and it makes life much more unordinary, and that's the way I like it.

2009

The year 2009 was an odd year (pun intended). I wouldn't particularly want to relive it again. The second half of freshman year at SMU definitely beat the first half, and so far the first half of sophomore year beats the second half of freshman year, but 2009 was just plain bizarre for the following reasons:

*I lost my phone 5 times 

*My GPA was a 3.153

*The family I babysit for gave me a raise from $12 to $15 an hour

*Second semester freshman year I was enrolled in 13 hours of class

*I am currently enrolled in 17 hours of class

*I went on one vacation

*I had 7 overdue rentals at Blockbuster

And what do all of the numbers in these points have in common? They are odd. You might be wondering why this is significant. And I am wondering why it is not. 

Yes, I'm sure I could think of just as many scenarios that would encompass even numbers, but 2009 was not an even year. I tell myself I am not superstitious because I feel no remorse for walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror. Breaking a mirror just sucks. But at the same time, what if life was just one big sign? Or series of signs? 

Why or how could I lose my phone five times? For the reason that I am forgetful and clumsy most likely, (or maybe there is some kind of SINISTER alterior motive being plotted by the thing in the place) but also maybe because after five times, I begin to understand the why and the how, and I take corrective measures to prevent it from happening again, which I did. But why after 5 occasions would I change my ways? That is the very question I am pondering. 

And why would the family I babysit for choose a $3 increase, changing my hourly pay from $12 to $15? Obviously due to the fact that I am a terrific babysitter and deserved it, but why? Because it is the year 2009. And 2009 is an odd year. 

It is an interesting thought to consider: What if every odd situation that occurs during an odd year was important? And I do not yet know the significance of the events and scenarios. It is a pretty stupid thought, but compelling too. 

Think about it. 

"Hmm...If only I had a chair."

"If only."