Welcome To Homecoming

Not the Silent Hill Version...

Before I start this more nostalgic post, I would like to state my current goal. I want to meet Ellen. That is my goal in life. I do not want to sit in the audience and watch her make her show. I want to physically meet her and say hi, maybe get a hug. She is just so cool. Now, on to the post…

_______________________________________________________________

This weekend was homecoming at my alma mater. It was my first homecoming as alumni at my school. It was really weird. It was one of those times where everything was the same, but everything had changed. I do miss being a student sometimes, but I like being a grown up. It’s just more stressful now on my own. 

I got up really early Saturday morning and drove down to the school. I stopped and picked my sister up on the way so she could see some of her friends. It was great. I saw a lot of people I had spent a lot of time with at school. It was almost like I had not left at all, but I could not just go back to my room and sleep after the rugby game.

I went to the football game, for the first time in four years. We actually beat the school we were playing (we go more for the academics instead of the sports). It was so much fun. I spent so much time doing things I did not even notice I got wind burned until it was too late.  There was so much to do and not enough time to do it all. 

I got to see what the people who are now living in my lodge (house on campus) did to it. Some of us who lived there last year saw them going into it. They did a great job with the space. I wish we had thought of some of the stuff they had done. We traded stories about the lodge and how wonderful it was to live in it. They were going to have a Halloween party there, so we left pretty quickly. 

Last night I had dinner with a friend, who had graduated many years before, and her friends from school. They were wonderful to talk to and to hear about all of the changes that have been made to the school since they had been there. I hope that my friends can be like that when we get older. It might be hard, but I would still like to be in touch with most of them ten years down the road. It’s hard being away from them.

I discovered that a lot of my friends (well most of my friends) who had graduated had moved to northern Virginia and the DC area. I am not that far from them, but traffic here is just awful. Maybe I will take a few days off and just be in my favorite city. 

My college roommate and I spent the night at a Super 8 hotel (in the sketchy part of town). It was just like we were still roommates, except we had the TV on. She played her video game and I talked about random things. We have strange conversations, maybe one day you will see them in print. 

Homecoming was a lot of fun. The drive back was long, but worth it. It was hard to leave. I do not want to be the creepy old alum that hangs out and pretends to still be cool. I would rather still be 21 and trying to figure out what classes to take next semester. I wish time had stood still just a little longer. Oh well, I will just have to slow down the future and enjoy the present.

Welcome to Self Reflection

My last post was, though I hate to admit it, pretty much all angst. I have been a bit stressed out and am for some reason a naturally high strung person. I know I am not perfect, no matter how much I pretend to be in my own mind. I fear failure, though I tend to learn best from it. I have several ways to combat the stress. Here are my five ways to calm myself down. 

5) I work out after work. I almost always feel better after I have burned a few calories. When I was in college, rugby was my way of beating the stress out of me.  Currently I cannot afford a gym membership not is it convenient to join the rugby club in the nearest city, but I do have a few good workout DVDs. I enjoy the high intensity workouts that are between ten and twenty minutes long. I can replay them for however long I have, which is not always very long. 

4) I eat healthy “comfort” food. I cannot eat a lot of milk products, so instead of ice cream I eat frozen fruit or smoothies. On a hot day (or even a cold one wrapped in a blanket), I love munching on frozen strawberries or peaches. I also love making my own chili and soups. I’m not saying to stress eat or over eat, but food is comforting and having something that reminds me of when I was a little kid just makes everything seem better in the morning. 

3) I go to church. I know many of my friends are either not religious or are a different religion than I am.  I do not like fanatics. In fact the way fanatics act is the exact opposite of how we are told to act in the Bible. I also do not always agree with things that are said and taught. That being said: I do find comfort in the belief that there is a higher power that is not out to get me. I do not feel that a higher power that has so many other people to watch out for would come strike me down just because he needs an entertainment source. The pastor at the new church I started to attend also pointed out in his sermon today that the Bible is full of imperfect people. If a higher being could put up with Jonah or (ugh) Saint Paul, I think he can put up with me. 

2) I drink a cup of calming herbal tea. I love tea. My personal favorite is oolong (not herbal), which is sometimes hard to find in the US. Luckily international food and drinks have become more popular, so it is now easier for me to get my hands on.  However I would not use oolong tea to calm down, instead I like ginger (helps with stomach problems), peppermint (stomach and head), and chamomile (head) for calming effects. They are great for the days I have trouble getting to sleep. 

1) I call a friend, family member or my significant other. The best thing for me to do when I am stressed out is call someone and talk it out. I do not always like to annoy them with what I am going through, but hearing another person’s opinion is always helpful. Sometimes I cannot calm myself down and need someone to remind me to take a deep breath. This is why roommates can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. 

I am currently trying other methods to keep me calm throughout the day. I have started meditation and would like to pick up Tai Chi. Keeping sane and healthy (both physically and mentally) is a high priority.

Welcome To Life’s Little Mishaps

It's always one right after the other...

             

It’s almost Halloween and the gremlins are out playing all sorts of pranks on me. It’s starting to get to me.

I know I am not perfect and really all of the horrible and not so horrible things that have gone wrong in my life are my entire fault to begin with. It just seems like its one thing after the other. My dad says that that is just how it is from now on, but the uncertainty for my next screw up keeps me stressed out and on pins and needles.

My string of bad luck in combination with stupid started at the beginning of August. I was on my way to visit friends and had to park in a parking garage. I was being slow and careful, but not careful enough to prevent myself from denting my car and getting white paint all over one side of it from one of the support beams. I spent the entire ride home crying my eyes out. From this experience I learned that you can never be too careful and that the insurance company will help you get it fixed. It will take forever though, even at a nice place. I spent the entire month of September driving my mom’s car.

There have been a few other smaller things. Like I blew a fuse in my kitchen and my silver wear draw finally called it quits on me (that one was not my fault). The small things really get to me. It’s like I get one thing fixed (*cough* the toilet *cough*) and something else breaks. I think I might have an infestation of gremlins. I just hope that it does not get worse as Halloween approaches.

It’s not that I cannot handle what is going on, I can (or at least I think I can). It’s more that I have problems focusing when I get super stressed out. I am always afraid of messing up. I sometimes wish there was a crystal ball that told you that everything would be okay six months to a year in the future, but there isn’t. There is also no guarantee about anything that could happen between now and a year, let alone three weeks. It’s one thing I think I was not quite as ready for. All of the different stress factors becoming an official adult. Things are constantly breaking and need upkeep, prices for everything are constantly on the rise and sometimes I wonder if I can keep up with the fast paced world that we live in.

I know I probably sound like I am whining and I will admit that I am. Most of my mishaps are my fault, but I am doing my best to learn from them. It’s tough and I am terrified of really screwing up. I just keep telling myself that sooner or later I will figure it all out. As the movie “The World’s End” pointed out: humans are imperfect and we will never be perfect, so go annoy an alien race out of invading us by being stupid (and occasionally drunk) humans.

So since we are imperfect here are some quick tips if the worst should happen.

• Stay calm and don’t fly off the handle. – I have already managed to completely ignore this one, but it is easier to assess the situation when you are calm instead of freaking out. Also ladies you will ruin your makeup if you start to flip. The waterworks are hard to stop once you start.
• Ask for help. – It might be the only thing that saves you. If you have no idea and the internet confuses you, just call someone you know. Usually they can help or direction to someone else who can. If you are too embarrassed to ask your families ask a close friend’s family. They are less likely to make you feel like two inches tall.
• Sleep on it. – Sleeping helps you go over the day while passed out (or something like that). I tend to find myself feeling better in the morning (well most of the time, not always). It’s always good to try.
• Do your research – Sometimes you can fix it yourself, but if you think you could mess it up worse, just stick with a professional (also research).