Happy Easter!!!

I just wanted to wish everyone in blog-land a very Happy Easter. My mom just finished making the lasagna, and Aunt J– is trying to call L– as I writer this. Uncle made some eggplant and slow roasted ribs. Aunt J– and N– baked a couple of cakes yesterday for desert. C–, Ch–, P–, A–, and T– are coming over later. So is Uncle’s new gf, D2 (his last gf was also a D–hopefully this one is sane). Here’s hoping that nobody (grandma or Aunt J– specifically) don’t lose it today. Grandma went nuts on Aunt M–’s ass last night for no reason at all. She did the same to Uncle on Wednseday. This happens whenever there is a holiday coming. It just seems worse this year.

Dinner is in about 3 hours, so I need to go shower.
Happy Easter!
L

Parents and Kids Today

Controversy has been stirred up over a school bus driver that stomped on the breaks while a group of students were on the bus. The Vermont bus driver claims that the reason for her actions was that the students had gotten so far out of control that the only way for her to make them behave was to startle them. The driver has since been fired and arrested for putting the children in danger. My question is: were the children already in danger just by misbehaving on the bus? While I have never taken the school bus, I have heard things that go on during the time between leaving school and arriving home, so I know what kids do. Chances are that the bus driver was forced into doing things that seem wrong from the stand point that children are little angels. Parents need to get over themselves and realize that their children are far from angels–demons are more like it. Because I take public transportation every day, I am honored with their presence. Here in NYC, we don’t have school buses for teens, so the rest of us take the same buses as they do. There was this one morning a couple of years ago when one of the little brats decided that she wanted to play a joke on the bus driver, so she faked passing out until after the driver had kicked everyone else off of the bus and called 911. She thought it was hilarious that the other passengers were tossed off of the bus to wait for another one. As far as I know nothing happened to her, although I haven’t seen that bus driver in a while. I did see her a week later on that same bus. She was laughing with her friends about how she got the bus driver to pull over. Apparently she didn’t want to take her math test that morning.

The problem is that the parents today do not care what their children do as long as it doesn’t embarress them. I even heard the mother of a pregnant teen say something like “How dare you embarress us this way?” It is ridiculous! They don’t want to discipline them, so the brats do whatever they want without any real repurcussions. One girl I knew in high school would drink and drive (at 14) the car that her parents bought her. When she crashed the car, the cops charged her with underage drinking as well as driving without a liscence. Her parents yelled at the cops, claiming that she was only having fun, and since nobody had gotten hurt it wasn’t a big deal. No wonder teens are getting killed while driving drunk if this is what their parents’ think.

I was at the mall getting lunch at the food court yesterday when this woman brought her 5 spawns of Satan to the play place, telling the oldest (who couldn’t have been more than 10) that she was going shopping and to call her cell phone if something was wrong. She then turned to the woman sitting at the table across from them (a complete stranger) and asked her to keep an eye on them. That woman told her that she was leaving, so she would not watch her children for her. The first woman gave her this frosty look before turning to me. (I simply stared back at her.) Could you imagine what would have happened if something had gone wrong while I was watching her kids? She probably would have had me arrested for endangering her little darlings! I would have had ACS on her ass so fast she wouldn’t have known what had happened.

Northeastern or Alliant

Last month I was accepted into the doctoral program in forensic psychology at Alliant International University in Fresno. Yesterday, I was accepted into the Masters program in criminal justice at Northeastern in Boston. When I got the message from Alliant that I was accpeted, I was really excited because I didn’t think that I would get into a doctoral program anywhere (since I didn’t get into John Jay). I also figured that because it took 5 months to be accepted there that it would take equally as long to hear from Northeastern, which I had applied to in February. I was told that I had until April 15th to decided whether I was going to go to Alliant, and up until yesterday I figured that was what I would do. Then I got the e-mail from Northeastern. Now I don’t know. I really like the idea of having a doctorate, but I could still get one after getting the Masters. I also am getting a little burnt out with psychology, so a change of pace might be a good idea. Plus, I don’t know if I am ready to live in an apartment, even though dad wouldn’t be too far away–only about 2 1/2 hours away. The thing is that as of right now, I will only know one person in Boston, and that is a girl I went to elementary school with and that I haven’t seen in a few years. (She’s going to start at Boston University in the Fall.)

I called Northeastern about an hour ago, and I am waiting to hear back from them. I have a whole list of questions to ask them before I make my final decision, but unless they say something that totally turns me off I think I will be moving to the land of cream pies, beans, and the Red Sox. Don’t tell Sister M–!

A Petty Annoyance, I know

I was just reading a fan-fic series over at the Scrubs Hub, which is a website dedicated to General Hospital’s Robin and Patrick. I admit that I can hardly stand GH anymore, although I have been watching since the fall of 1995–back when the show was still good. Anyway, I really enjoyed the story. It was a series of letters written for Robin and Patrick’s baby, Emma, and it was absolutely amazing. My one problem was that the author(s) kept making the same stupid grammar mistake. It is the same mistake that my mom makes all the time when she speaks, and it is constantly getting on my nerves. For a long time, I thought that I was going to be an English teacher, so I always try to be grammatical. My biggest pet peeve is when someone says/writes “I” instead of “me”. For instance, “They gave the pen to Jimmy and I”, which should read: “They gave the pen to Jimmy and me.” Even reading this back, my brain fixes the mistake in the first sentence, not even attempting to process it the way that I wrote it. In my mind the only excuse for this is that people simply don’t think when they write/speak. If they would only consider their words before they come out, things would be more grammatical. When I learned this rule (the indirect object rule), Mrs. B– told us to ask ourselves if we would say “me” or “I” if the sentence read: “They gave the pen to __”. Anyone who knows grammar, knows that “I” just doesn’t fit there. “They gave the pen to I?” It is more comfortable to say me than to say I there. That said, grammar isn’t always about comfort. One of the most annoying rules is the one about not ending a sentence with a preposition. Do you know how many papers I have strugged with because every other sentence ended with “to”, “on”, “in”, or “for”? Even Winston Churchill hated that rule! Another annoying rule is the one about not writing in a passive voice. I’m sorry, but I just don’t like writing in the active voice. I never have. I got a C on an assignment in High School because Ms. Z– thought that I used the passive voice too much. I never understood how she could fail someone for not using active voice. It wasn’t even part of the assignment. Then again she never really liked me. Could she have given me a C because she didn’t like the way I write? It is possible. I remember a conversation I had with one of my friends about Ms. Z–. Apparently, she flunked her brother because A–, my friend, helped him write the paper. She supposedly came out and told her that the reason he got an F was because he used A–’s writing style, a style that she hated.

Anyway, I’m going to end this post now before it gets further off the beaten track.

Rest In Peace, Mr. M.

I just found out today that one of my favorite teachers from elementary school died last month. I was skulking around on facebook, checking in on one of my groups. Someone posted to the wall that Mr. M– had unexpectedly died last month. I simply can’t believe it. Mr. M–, which is what he called himself from time to time, was one of my favorite teachers from back then. Probably because he was the music teacher and ran the choir. I saw him every Sunday at mass, and although he never gave me the solo at Christmas, I thought that he was so cool. When he was able to actually teach the class (because he was also the church’s music director), he taught more than just music. I still remember the day that he warned us against Me-itis. He had just come from teaching the 8th grade (about a month before they graduated), and told us that we shouldn’t act superior when we got to where they were because he didn’t want us to screw ourselves over the way that he did.

Wherever you are Mr. M., I hope you know that you will be missed–and that Amazing Grace is still one of my favorite songs.

Why is Marc Conseulos on Oprah?

I just finished studying for my psych test on Monday, and I’m wondering why Marc Consuelos is on Oprah every Friday. Is he the token guy? Did he get the job because Kelly is on Regis? What has he been doing lately? It isn’t as if he has done much of anything since he left All My Children several years ago. Just saying. He doesn’t even seem to contribute all that much.

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25 Random Things About Me

I was just on facebook because I have nothing better to do on this unofficial snowday that has been thrust upon me by the dreaded Q11. While I was over there I spotted a note that one of my friends posted on her page. It was called “25 Random Things About Me”. I liked the idea, but I didn’t want to wait until I was tagged. So, I decided to put my list on here until that time comes.

1. I want to work with law enforcement one day…maybe the FBI, but definitely not the CIA.
2. I read about 5 books a month, not counting text books.
3. I like to write romantic fiction, although right now I’m working on a story about a 15 year old girl with brain cancer.
4. I sing in the shower.
5. I like to dance when nobody is watching me.
6. I’m not sure if I want to get my doctorate just yet, but I haven’t submitted applications for Masters programs yet. I am though. In criminal Justice.
7. I wanted to be a teacher up until 3 years ago.
8. I wanted to be a music major for awhile, but I decided that my voice wasn’t good enough, and that I liked psychology better.
9. I want a dog. Or two.
10. I like cats, but not as much as dogs.
11. I’m trying to eat more fruits and vegetables. I had an apple and some broccoli today.
12. I want to be a published writer one day, but I don’t see that happening.
13. I want to lose about 50 lbs, but I’ll settle for 20lbs by June. Probably won’t happen though.
14. I want to try out for American Idol, just to see what Simon would say about my voice. I’m no William Hung, but I’m also no Kelly Clarkson.
15. I want to live in San Francisco one day.
16. I’m a liberal democrat, but I think that illegal immigrants should be sent from whence they came.
17. I hated Gulliver’s Travels.
18. Sports bore me, but I like going to baseball games because they’re so energizing when you’re at the stadium.
19. I believe in ESP, witches, and aliens, but not vampires.
20. There are days that I want to be a hippie.
21. I believe in equal rights, but I don’t want to be forced to go to war, especially if it is an unwarranted one.
22. I have never been in love.
23. I want to like vegetables, but I don’t.
24. I want to try a taco, but I don’t want to go to Taco Bell (nor do I trust school food anymore).
25. I like to sing as if nobody is listening, but the whole neighborhood can probably hear me.

First Day of Classes

So, yesterday was my first day of classes for my final semester at QC, and I’ve got to say that it went well. The professors seem really cool (plus this is the 3rd time i’m taking a class with my poli sci professor–who went on an interesting tangent about the hotness feature on ratemyprofessor.com), although my human motivation course is going to be hard. After one day, I know that this is going to be the social psych of this semester (hopefully with the same wonderful results). At least this term I’ve got Tuesdays and Fridays off, so once my textbooks get here I can do some homework.

My music class seems like its going to be a lot of fun. I’m taking the politics of music, and the professor really knows her stuff. This is the 2nd time that this course is being offered, and so far I’m glad that they decided to give it another go. She said it was really popular last spring, so the department said that she could teach it again this term. We listened to Hendrix’s version of the National Anthem from Woodstock. So cool. We also talked about Hitler and Joseph McCarthy. Last night she wanted us to watch a show on PBS about J. Robert Oppenheimer. I taped it (I watched the Closer instead), and I’ll watch it in a few minutes. For this class, I have to do an 8-10 pg paper about something that we covered in class, but that we get to choose the topic. I’m thinking about doing something about Protest Songs of the 1960’s and their effect on modern protest songs. We’ll have to see.

I also started working in the new research lab. It was a little boring, but that was to be expected since I’m one of 10 research assistants doing grunt work. It is great experience, and something that I can put on my resume.

I have one more class to go to and then i will have gone to all of them. 1 day down, 2 to go.
L

Learning to work hard

As winter break comes to an end, my brother has finally checked out his grades. Altogether, he hasn’t done so badly. However, there was one class that he didn’t do so well in–his math class. Normally, math is his best subject, but this time he failed. Finally. While I have never failed any classes, I have had to study my ass off. He never has. It always just came to him without ever really trying. I don’t want to sound as if I am happy that he has failed, but now he can finally understand what normal people go through all the time. Plus, he gets a do-over. The way Baruch works is that you get to take a class that you failed once, and if you get a higher grade then it is as if you never failed. The only way that the failing grade will hurt his GPA is if he fails again. Maybe now he will re-prioritize, putting schoolwork ahead of video games and sports.

Night all.
L
P.S. I made Dean’s List. Poetic Justice.