All Or Nothing

ImmuniME

As a result of not feeling too well, I took some Tylenol PM last night around 6:45pm. You who know me well most likely know of my extreme non-tolerance for any kind of medication (i.e. I still have to take Dimetapp instead of NyQuill or anything normal like that). So, the Tylenol PM was a risk, but it was one I was willing to take, because of the beforementioned not-feeling-so-well and also because I really really don't want to get sick right now (have you noticed, people say this as if there is a different time at which they really would like to get sick. Is there such a time?). Anyhow, I slept from 7:30 last night until 9:00 this morning. Enjoy, immune system!!


And, as an addendum, I am cool, and I do have a rockin' social life. So don't worry about me!

Grudges

All is well. I will neither be torching Texas Tech nor moving to a foreign country to escape their tyrannical behavior.

However, my plan of becoming a lawyer, making a trip back to Lubbock right around registration time for Tech, and hanging about the West Hall, asking students if they have any grievances they would like to discuss, finding a particuarly pertinent grievance, and then suing Tech for all they have is still in the works.....and then in my closing statement, before the jury, I will say, "Haha, Tech! You got yours!!" It will all be very professional.

oooh, I am pissed off.

oooh, I am pissed off. Tech loves to screw people over. It's so aggravating, because state schools have the unique situation where they are able to make whatever decisions they feel like, whenever they feel like making them, just because the number of students it will affect will never be enough to make a difference. One pissed off student isn't going to change anything. Here is a copy of a letter (with all incriminating details left out) I just had to send, so you can see where the annoyance is coming from.


Dear ****(and no, that isn't to replace a bad word :)),

My name is Elise Foreman and I am an English minor. I am a senior with over 100 hours currently, and I am supposed to graduate in December 2003. However, I have encountered a major problem that I really need the English department's help with.

I made a **** on my SAT as a senior in high school and was therefore exempt from ENGL 1301 at my first university (Dallas Baptist). When I transferred to Texas Tech as a junior, I had the understanding that my exemption and credit would transfer as well. As soon as I found out (by looking at my transcript, not because anyone told me) that the ENGL 1301 credit did not transfer, I set out to get that credit. I met with my advisor, who told me that the exemption did not transfer but that I could take a CLEP test to take care of the class. I signed up for a test date at the beginning of the summer, for ENGL 1301, and when I came back from Tyler to take the test, I was informed that in an "overnight decision" the ENGL 1301 CLEP test is no longer going to be offered at Tech. That also means that I cannot take the one other CLEP test that I needed to take, which is for a sophomore level credit in English, because I have to have both 1301 and 1302 completed before I can take it.

****, I'm sure you can understand the problem I am facing. I have made either the dean's or the president's lists my last three semesters here at Tech. I made a **** on my SAT. I have taken the LSAT, because when I graduate I am going to law school, and I scored a ***, which is in the **th percentile, with a ***** score on the reading comprehension section. I cannot begin to understand why Texas Tech would not allow me to take a test that I was already registered to take, because of someone's "overnight decision". This is unfair. The CLEP office said that if I got express permission from the English department, then they would be able to administer the tests. I feel that it is imperative that the English department give this permission so that I can take the tests I was already registered to take, get the credits that I should already have, and be able to graduate on time in December.

I have left you a phone message, and if you could please call me back as soon as possible I would greatly appreciate it. I would also be more than happy to come in and talk with you in person, or meet with anyone else there who needs to hear about this situation. Feel free to forward this email to anyone else whom this might concern. I appreciate your time and your help.

Sincerely,
Elise Foreman


if any of you have some suggestions of something else I can do to fix this situation, let me know. Because right now, I think I'm about to drop out of school and move to Costa Rica and never ever think about Texas Tech again.

The Fine Line

It's a fine line we walk, between doing the right thing for ourselves and doing what everyone else thinks is the right thing for us.

Well well. Look who's back.

Well well. Look who's back :) Yes, it's me, the girl of no schedule, who finally made it back from Cali at about 3:30 this morning. I stepped out of DFW airport, and my first thought was not, "ah, home sweet home", or "hello, good 'ol state of Texas", or even "well, it's nice to be back". Instead, it ran more along the lines of "holy crap, it feels like a giant sauna out here". And it really did, even at 1:00am or whatever time it was right then. Amazing.

Well, I feel that my massive fan base (is that one or two words? help me out, other spelling nazi) would like to hear a recap of my adventures as of late. I am trying to think of a good way to give the readers digest version of the last couple of weeks instead of the War and Peace version. That's what my dad says to me everytime I tell him I've got a story for him - "Readers digest version, Elise". I figure I ought to give the same kind of consideration for other readers :) So here goes

Maybe a list will work:

1. Take spanish final at 8am two Thursday's ago

2. Leave Lubbock at about 11am the same day with my brother, Nathan, headed west

no, I don't like the list approach. I think I will just expound in a normal fashion on what happened, starting now. We drove all day Thursday, got to Clarkdale, AZ at about 8pm in screwed up, we-don't-recognize-daylight-savings-time-because-somehow-we're-above-that-nonsense, Arizona time. We hung out with Nathan's good friend Steven's grandparents that evening, which was nice, and then we left the next morning after eating some freshly picked peaches for breakfast. We took the 17 back up to Flagstaff instead of going straight to the 40, because I wanted to see Sedona. And no, it had nothing to do with that song about "There is no Arizona", and everything to do with the fact that I've heard it's really beautiful there. Well, not much to do with the first anyway....I don't listen to that...anyway....

Sedona certainly did not disappoint. For those of you who haven't ever seen this place, try to imagine a mix between Yellowstone and maybe some place like Red Rocks in Colorado - I mean, this is a little town, with the most laid-back atmosphere imaginable, old and young hippies, earthy stores, and tons of little coffee bars abounding, with unimaginably beautiful red rock cliffs rising on either side of you, and canyons of forest below. The temperature was right around 80 or 85, and it was the middle of an August day. I mean, seriously. Talk about ideal. Also, my brother and I find that it is imperative to listen to appropriate music for the atmosphere we are currently in. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Live Art, disc 2 seemed like it would fit perfectly. And it did. Are you jealous yet?

We then got stuck in a huge, standstill traffic jam in the middle of the Mojave desert. For an hour and a half. The temperature was 118. No lie. Some moron got in a wreck and jammed up the whole road for about 10 miles. Yes, I did say 10 miles, and yes, I did say 1 1/2 hours. 118 degrees. Overheating cars. No A/C. Deliriousness soon set in, and resulted in my brother saying "Wheeee!" about every 5 - 10 seconds after we finally got going again on a road that was somewhat rollercoaster-y. What a day :)

L.A. The city of the angels. In order to keep this even somewhat readers digest-ish, let me expedite. Santa Barbara (with some Jack Johnson and Ben Harper playing live at the Bowl, which is up in the hills of Santa B), Isla Vista (tons of beach houses, one of which we were lucky enough to know the residents of, overlooking the ocean), Carpenteria Beach, Ventura Beach, Malibu (with some Pepperdine Law), Zuma Beach (in Mali), Pasadena (which is awesome and has great personality, a great strip, and pretty interesting nightlife :)), Santa Clarita, more Malibu with two really fun girls, one of which was housesitting for some beachfront property on Malibu Beach.....I mean, seriously. Plus, if I would have extended my stay (once again, as I had already done so twice, oops) I would have been in San Diego as we speak, and shortly would have been heading back up to L.A. with a brief stop off at Laguna Niguel. And all of these things are within an hour and half of each other.

Ahhh....only 4 more months until I can make the move for real. It was, however, really annoying to be out there for a while like that, get to hang out with the people I know there, meet and then hang out with even more people, (awesome people, by the way), and then have to come back. To Lubbock. I guess I'm just ready to get on to the next stage of my life, and to start the stage and then have to put it on hold to take care of the little matter some like to call graduating...well, we'll just say it makes it much harder for me to take my studies seriously this fall. And for those of you who already know what a stellar student I can be, this is a little dangerous :). Oh well, I do like Tech, and it's always the people that make the place, and the people in good 'ol L-town definitely make the place :) YOU people! Haha, what a moment we all just had together. I sincerely hope all is well for all of you, and if anyone wants details about anything in particular, I'll be more than glad to oblige. Or, if anyone wants to hang out, I actually broke down (as sad as I am to report this) and got a cell phone. There were some who were genuinely beginning to hate me for not having one. So, I give a salute to all of you rebels who are still hanging in there without one - stay strong, stay strong. And with that, I will end this post, and try my best to go back to the daily posting as soon as I am back in Lubbock - which will be Thursday. Adieu and Ciao :)

A conversation from work:

A conversation from work:

Co-worker A: Hey, how much does a liter of Jack cost?

Me: I have no idea - probably around $20?

Co-worker B: Hey, co-worker A, you should be more like Elise and her roomate, they're too good to drink (stated very condesendingly)

Me: What?

Co-worker B: Yeah, your roomate told me all about it, you two are all holier-than-thou churchy types who won't go and be baaad.

Me: Oh, is that how you get to be bad, you go drink?

Co-worker B: Well, um, yeah, I mean, you don't go out, right? Because you're too goood (barely salvaging his well-constructed argument)

Me: You know, you sound like a 12 year old.

Co-worker A: laughs

Co-worker B: Well, whatever, we're all going out tonight if you don't have church or something....haha! (as if this were the newest and funniest joke he had ever thought of)

Me: Alright, have a great time (dripping with sarcasm and said while rolling eyes)

Of course later on I thought of something I could have said instead, and this is about how it goes:

Me: As soon as my highest aspiration becomes being a 24 year old 7th-year sophomore in college, still active (very active) in my fraternity, making a hefty $6 an hour working about 15 hours a week as the only male at a day care, and getting drunk nearly every night, I will be sure to join you and be really really baaad. But until then, I think I'll try to scrape by with my boring, holier-than-thou policies of not getting trashed at every opportunity, graduating in a somewhat timely manner, and moving on to bigger and better things than the $6/hr partime daycare job.

yeah, that would have been good.