The shit hole I live in.

(and i'll have you know, not ONE of the messes in these pictures is mine. i have talked to them REPEATEDLY, and this is what i'm left with.)















PS: I thought you'd like to see me in my work uniform. I rock it. :)

you can't return, you can only look behind from where you came

I am in such a bizarre mood today. I feel completely lazy and unfocused and surly... I think it is just cause my day started out badly when I went to the bank and couldn't get my cash checked because they are an establishment of sons of bitches. Whateverrrrrrrrrr. I need to just go sit outside and soak up the weather and remember that today is a GOOD day. Hahaha. I'd go work out but I just showered and I don't want to do that again.

Work is still going great - freakin LOVE that job. :) And the tips aren't too bad either!

I have to work tomorrow morning from 5:45 - 1:00, that's going to SERIOUSLY suck. But I will never have to open ever again hahaha.

I am officially coming home on the 17th! I'm really excited. I don't think I'm even going to tell any of my friends I'm home, cause I don't want to make promises I can't keep when I get home and decide I'd rather spend the weekend with mom and dad.

As soon as I get this money situation figured out, I'm gonna start adding like $20 a paycheck to my new savings account. I think that I will be really glad I did that.

I am also talking to a new guy... We're JUST talking at this point, and I have no clue where it will go... but he is definitely someone y'all would approve of. :) He and I may hang out later.

Ok, sorry my life is boring and there is not much to update on! I am looking sooo forward to Christmas in Santa Fe... I REALLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYY hope it snows!!!! AHHH that would make my Christmas! And I can bring my fur boots and have a legit reason to wear them. :) I can't wait! (and hopefully byt hen I will have raked up enough cashola to buy everyone like cool presents from the french quarter.)

LOVE

i wear my sunglasses at night

SERIOUSLY.

11:20-12:30 on my Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays is the most boring time EVER. I don't have class and everyone else does so I am like wandering campus by myself. It'd be pointless to go home for like 20 minutes so I just stay here. BORING.

I don't know if this is a hypochondriacal manifestation, but I think I might be getting sick. Jack (oh, you know, my third roommate who doesn't pay rent? That's the one.) just got over this terrible virus... Though I think it has a lot more to do with the fact that he and his disgusting girlfriends are PIGS and let their dishes sit and fester in tepid water for DAYS before HAND WASHING THEM... because it would take too much GD energy to bend down and put them in the dishwasher... which only SANITIZES your plates. Why would anyone go to THAT trouble?! Oi vey. Regardless, I have been feeling just a little out of it and under the weather lately... Maybe I am just running myself ragged. I'll try and take a load off this afternoon, I get done with school at 1:20 and I don't have work. OOOOH, maybe I'll go to the river. Fun. It is so beautiful outside! (Ahem... this is GOD'S COUNTRY.)

By the way, weight watchers has been going well. So far I've lost 4.8 lbs!!! I hope that I at least lost .2 this week because I really want to hit that 5lb mark... but I'm not sure. I've been trying, but I have not worked out much this week and I've been eating whatever is handy since I'm on the go so much. (Plus free coffee really is not helping. I'm going to start making my own drinks with nonfat milk. Sound good?)

I am wanting to come home Oct 17-19 just for a weekend... Check your calendars. :)

my first mini-paper of the year

Melanie Ziems
Due September 24, 2008
Paper #1
Aristotle’s Question of Human Function
Word Count: 536

Thesis: In this paper, I plan to explore Aristotle’s classic question of the human function: does the carpenter have a function but the human have none?

Introduction: The question of human function is infinite. In the time of Homer, man was recognized as “good” or “bad” by how well he performed his function – generally, his occupation. However, as humanity grew to encompass much more than a career as their defining factors, the question of their quality began to grow much further past the boundaries of their “nine-to-five”.

Reflection: So, then, what are we defined by? Are we defined by anything outside of our occupational function? Aristotle questioned this with the classic question of the carpenter versus the human. Take that for example: In the workplace, a carpenter is judged by the quality of his work, the efficiency of his time, the amount of money he is able to make in a given day. As with any job, however, there comes a time in the day when the job ends and is met with the rest of life: family, friends, social obligations, a home, etc. Parents are often found to say that their function is as a mother or father. They judge themselves (and are presumably judged by others) based on their relationship with a child, the amount of care they give them, or the child’s general well-being. To an extent, is being a parent just another job?
It is becoming more and more clear that, to this day, we are judged by how well we perform our job functions. However, do not be mistaken in assuming a “job”, in this sense, is only one which provides a paycheck. Humans are bestowed with many “roles” in their life. For example, a young woman may have the roles of a student in the morning, a receptionist in the afternoon, a girlfriend in the evenings, a roommate, a daughter, a sister, a cousin, a best friend. She is judged by her grades, her paycheck, her relationships – all results of how well of a job she is able to do in each of her many roles. It has become tripe and cliché to assert that following the path to one’s happiness is the best way to judge them, because it is such an obscure final goal that involves much transcendence in the process. Yet, in our western society, it becomes to easy to reject the idea of judging anyone – much less based on something as trivial as who they are to someone else (as opposed to who they are to themselves). It is natural to determine if one is “good” or not by their performance of their many “jobs”, and, beyond that, it is not nearly as detrimental as preached in grade school. In the same was as no two people are able to see the same object from the exact same point of view, no two individuals are able to see the insights of another human – only how that person portrays themselves to others. In that sense, judging someone’s worth by their functionality is probably a pretty good bet.

lips like sugar cane

SO. I'm sorry I don't update much, there just isn't much exciting going on. I'm a little run down and just really needing some sleep... I almost feel like I'm getting a cold? But I have all of tomorrow off and I only work 12-5 on Sunday, so I'm going to focus on just getting organized and getting my stuff together so I can relax. I'm just a little all over the place right now. But I'm gonna get it all together this weekend.

I really just need to go buy a case of water. Cause I'm feeling all headachey and I can't keep stealing Lindsay's water haha.

PS: Worst day of my life: working til 10 when the new season of Law and Order: SVU starts that day from 9-10. Breaks my heart.

goodbye, you were good, but not good enough

I am in such a fabulous mood today (though I'm not sure why... my head kind of hurts!)

OH. i bet I know why.

I got up early this morning and ran/walked a mile. it was easier this time than last time. I ran more. Just a little bit more. But more is more. I bet that's why I'm in a good mood. And it is a BEAUTIFUL day outside! Like no joke... clear skies, a little breeze, about 78 degrees, and totally not at all humid. It's lahhvley. I even turned off my a/c and opened my bedroom window.. miracle of miracles.

I have been looking into study abroad stuff since Jen went to Switzerland and had such a great time, and last night I hit the jackpot...

SOUTH AFRICA

at the University of Stellenbosch
http://www.sun.ac.za/

like... how COOL would that be?!?!i think the only hard part would be the language barrier, but it is an Afrikaaner / English school, so maybe it is do-able. I just think it'd be such an adventure!!!!!! That'd be worthy of a whole new blog: Melanie Ziems: The African Chronicles.


Anyway. Work is going GREAT - i'm officially a barista now, no more training (whew), so that's exciting. I need to figure out when I'm going to Santa Fe for Christmas (COUGH COUGH... PARENTS... GRANDPARENTS... IF ANYONE WANTS TO FILL ME IN...) so I can figure out time off... And I guess Thanksgiving too, but that's really more of my call... jeez, that's the first time I'm going home. (My PARENTS are haters and poo-pooed the idea of me coming home to vote, so I applied for my absentee ballot... they're just using that to hide their pure disdain for me as a human and keeping me gone as long as reasonably possible) How many days away is that? Let's see, it's Sept. 16th... 72 days. Well probably morel ike 71 or 70 cause i'm sure I won't be driving home ON thanksgiving... Sheesh. Time flies when you're having fun!

We don't have a fall break this semester because we got that whole week off for Hurrican't Gustav. Which is crappy... could have racked up major work hours that week without being busy with school work. The professors are all being really cool though, since we're all like 2 weeks behind because of storm stuff (we had classes cancelled last Friday as well because of tropical storm weather from Ike).

The boys downstairs found a freaking pit bull and are keeping it. Gross. Pit bulls are so disgusting. Je n'aime pas.

Ok. I need to clean. I started my laundry later than I thought I would so it's going to be like sitting in the drier while I'm in class and it's all my work clothes... gross, they're going to be wrinkled. Annoying. Whatever. Something tells me I'll get away with it :P

OH. And yesterday this ho I work with (like seriously the ONLY one I don't like, and I really don't dislike her, I just like her less than everyone else) told me I had to take my nails off cause they're not real and might fall off. I'm like... you would have to take a sledgehammer to these to get them off... it's not like I got Sally Hansen press on nails, I spend good money on these. If it were ME as a customer, I would appreciate someone with a nice manicure cause it shows they are clean and take care of themselves.

But my manager said I could keep them. Me: 1. Bitchy coworker with no sense of personal pride: 0.

centennial post!!!!!

this is my 100th post. too bad i have to make it short; i need to leave for work in 5 minutes.

i am doing great... school is a pain in the butt but i'm staying on top of everything.

im getting excited about life. :)

malo, malo, thanks be to god

Happy hump day!

Speaking of humping...

Hurricane Ike is about to rape the crap out of Houston. :(

I mean I'm glad its not coming here and stuff of course... but still. Can't it go to Mexico? It's not like anyone even LIKES Mexico, much less gives a crap if it floods a little.

(Sorry, Papa)

Anyway. I'm getting back into the swing of things... still absolutely LOVING my job... I work about 20 hours a week. I also applied for Student Ambassadors... its like the students who give campus tours and answer admission phone calls and stuff... I think it would be really fun. Plus great on my resume. Hopefully CLC will be starting again soon, and I want to join LUCAP (Loyola University Community Action Program)... So things are going to be getting pretty busy (and I couldn't be happier!)

Today we had one hell of a debate in my European and Comparative Gov't class... Since it's 9/11, we just stuck to the war in Iraq... and there are some DAMN FOOLS in that class. This one guy was like, "Well, we have to give Bush some credit because since 2001 we haven't had 1 attack on our soil." and then went on to make statements how the middle east is a breeding ground for terrorism and hate and they needed/deserved to be stopped.

Go figure, my hand SHOT UP. I didn't even wait to be called on:

"Just because we haven't had an attack in 7 years doesn't mean he's not a blithering idiot. I mean, Jesus Christ, before 9/11 we hadn't had an attack since PEARL HARBOR!!! It's not like 7 years is some huge record.

And also, making generalizations like that towards the middle east makes us just as ignorant and hateful and breeders of ignorance and hate, so shouldn't someone be bombing us as well?"

Verbatim. I even used the term 'blithering idiot'.

Lucky for me, the class is majority democrats, so no fear of being burned at the stake. (Unlike last semester's Christian Ethics course... what a friggin witch hunt that was!)

It just irritates me. Democrats are not the reason why the world hates America. Nuff said.

I know I have not been keeping in touch with anyone lately... Not trying to hurt any feelings, I'm just busy loving life. Work is great, school is wonderful, making lots of new friends (and getting closer with old ones)... And of course there's always SOME boy. :)

Now I have to go read the NY Times so that in my 2pm US Foreign Policy class, I will have some semblence of what the hell is going on in this world. It's a class of 6 people. It's kind of hard to get by without having any idea of what you're talking about.

I am so freaking hungry.

they're trying to wash us away

That's what I came home to.
Keep an eye on Hurricane Ike.

I don't want to evacuate again. :(