3M and the J Word

3Ms = Movies, Music, Moleskins

The benefit to having younger sisters is I can watch an obnoxious number of Disney and other animated movies with them and not feel too immature. My favorites include:

• The Lion King
• Tangled
• Beauty and the Beast
• Aladdin
• Mulan
• Finding Nemo
• The Incredibles
• Monsters, Inc
• Rataouille

I love to shop. When I'm in West Africa, I will miss shopping. Well, shopping the way they do it here. I know it's materialistic and such. But sometimes it is just fun to shop. Therapeutic really.

I don't usually think I'm a very jealous person. But recently that may not be so much the case. Long distance makes me a little nutty. I mean, in the end, how do you really know how much you can trust someone? You can trust them, but long distance sucks. And there is more than 1 example in my life of long distance plus cheating.  So in the end, how do you avoid it? Do you become a hermit and never socialize with other people? What if you meet someone that you click with, even when you didn't want to? Then do you tell your significant other about everyone you met? "I met this really cool guy/girl today. He/she was super adorable and worldy or whatever. Etc etc etc." OR "I knew this really cool guy/girl from before and he/she's nice, awesome, cute, what have you."

New like: Bossa nova music- I like it.

Moleskin notebooks, day planners are great. All Moleskin products are great.

The Magical Fate Fairy

Fate. Some sort of magical power or being managed to send me a roommate that manages to keep me sane and isn’t annoying as all h*ll. We actually make a pretty solid pair and have essentially become an old married couple. We have our routines and roles. Here are some examples of why and how we fit together perfectly:

• Every morning of a work day, I shower first, then she showers. Without fail. No matter who wakes up first.
• When we were staying in the house in Mubende, we always sat on the same side of the table. Every day. Without fail. Then we were there for the 3 meetings, we were in the house for a while with our program manager’s husband. When we sat down at the table, you guessed it. We sat in our designated spots.
• Her favorite Starburst colors are red and pink while mine are yellow and orange, which means we swap the fun-sized candy packages of Starburst for our favorite colors and never have to fight over colors.
• Her favorite Skittles colors are purple and red while mine are green and yellow. WE ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER.
• When we cook, I mostly man the stove and she usually washes the dishes at the end. 
• We both like to read and have similar tastes in books.
• We enjoy movie watching and have pretty similar taste in movies (Step Up, Pearl Harbor, Romeo + Juliet, Love Actually, Stepmom- to name a few) and TV shows (Glee, Gilmore Girls, The Office). And we don’t judge each other for the girly, silly movies.
• We both think Channing Tatum and Josh Hartnett- HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT

 

We exist together 24/7. I have no idea how I’m going to survive without her once I move back to the US. It’ll be like I lost a limb… a piece of my soul… and yes she’s going to read this one day and think I’m even crazier than she thought I was.

 

There has been this random wooden penis sitting on the bookshelf in the office for as long as I can remember. I used to look at it and never really thought about what it was or think anything of it. Then I was looking at the family planning books sitting by this thing and finally realized what it was. Family planning- condoms- fake penis to use in demonstrations… ohhhhh I see now. Yes it’s taken me like 5 months to realize what was sitting on the shelf.

 

I feel old. Back when I was growing up, ALL those years ago, us girls went ga-ga over boy bands. We had 98 degrees, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, O-Town, LFO, BBMAK, Westlife, right? Now girls are psycho over Justin Bieber (who I think looks like a girl), the Jonas Brothers… there are probably more but I’m totally out of the loop. Why am I thinking about this? Oh they’re just blaring a Westlife remix in town.

This weekend was pretty slow. We didn't have power during the day but then it'd come on at night. So at least we could watch some TV shows and movies in the evening. I've been reading like a crazy person, usually finishing off a book a day. But at the rate I'm going, I'm going to run out of books to read in a week.

Less than a month before I get back!

Inappropriateness

Since I cannot express every incredibly insane thought of mine on the other blog, I figured I'd update this one on any and all things random and inappropriate. All for your reading pleasure.

If God loved women, He would have made it easier for us to go to the bathroom. I mean, seriously. Why do guys have it so easy? Every night when I walk into the pit latrine, I think about this. At night, all the bugs are attracted to the light bulbs in the latrines (when there is power), so going to the bathroom is an episode of listening to bugs buzz incessantly around your head. It'd be so much easier to pee standing up and be done with it. Nope, instead I have to worry about things crawling out of the hole and up my leg; if a mosquito is going to bite me in an inappropriate place... you get what I mean. I KNOW I said I was going to stop blogging about bathrooms, but really, it's just such a fun experience out here that I can't not talk about it.

To go months without sex... I'm just going to say, it's very depressing.

So I'm out in a remote area. I never wear pants while I'm out here. I'm always in a skirt and can I just say, when it's hot, the chaffing that goes on is out of this world. I never have this issue in the USA but here, it seems to happen every once in a while. Grr. But when I'm alone in my room, I strip down to shorts and a sports bra, throw on my iPod (with broken headphones, by the way), and jump around. It's my one way of relieving stress and frustration without having to choke, stab, punch, or murder someone. It's also a way of working out.

The traditional food here is matoke, plantains boiled and then mushed together. Usually it's coupled with beans or a meat. I eat it every day for lunch. Honestly, when I get back to the US, I'm not eating bananas again for at least 6 months. It gets a little... old? But my Africa diet rocks. I'm pretty sure I can lose the weight I gained in Boston (which I did cuz I didn't work out and ate like crap).

Every night, I hide in my mosquito net like a freakshow because I hate mosquitoes and they annoy me. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, paranoid there is a mosquito in my net, eating me alive. I know, I'm nuts. It's the mefloquine.
And why oh why was that military guy married?!?!?!?!?! Girls, if I could have taken a picture of him to show you, I would have. Fantaaaaaastic bod, great tattoos... anyway...

My little sister is adorable. I love her. This is the song she wrote for me and sent me in an email, with directions and everything:
WHEN THERE IS A DASH BETWEEN A WORD THEN U SPELL IT OUT!! XAMPLE: c-a-t

I HAVE A J,
A ..........J-E-,
I HAVE A J-E-S-S-I-C-A,
THAT LIVES IN MY F-A-M-I-L-Y
AND I AM VERY S-A-D
THAT SHE IS IN...U-G-A-N-D-A
FOR THE S-U-M-M-E-R!! :(
JESSICA IS IN UGANDA FOR THE SUMMER!!
(IM STILL VERY SAD)
:(

I will Always be a Midwest Girl at heart

Favorites:

TV Show: Glee. It's amazing.
Song: Need You Now- Lady Antebellum
Food: Watermelon
Thing to Buy: Shoes. Two pairs of heels since I've been home. I have a problem, but I'm okay with it.

Here's a story, friends, about when a guy pursues a girl... it went something like this:
His thoughts: "She's so cute. She's so nice. I want to ask her out. I just got her number. This means she's interested. What should I do? I know I walked her home... so do I lean in for a kiss? Crap, I'm so drunk. I can't think that clearly... Should I give her a good-bye hug? What should I do? Sh*t sh*t sh*t and NOW..."
ACTUAL ACTION: Gives her a High Five and leaves to go home... only to be so drunk he wakes up to find himself passed out on the hardwood floor and his wallet in the fridge.

Dear friend this actually happened to,
This is one of my favorite drunken, guy-pursuing-girl stories ever. Don't worry, I still like you.

I had the honor of seeing a wonderful friend this afternoon. I love her! Anyway, we were in VS. This is where I lost my sunglasses (SOB). But also where one of my favorite memories from the summer happened. It went something like this...
I'm trying on bras. My friend is trying on swimsuits. (PS she has uhhh-mazing abs.) We're talking about what bra I should get. I'm wearing one, we had been talking about my chest and boobs in general... then she proceeds to ask me about how it feels. Unsure of what she's talking about, I respond with: they feel fine, I never get back pain, Why? She goes: um... I was talking about the bra. And we proceed to LOL in the dressing room. It was way funnier had you been there with us... me shirtless, her just staring at me like I'm insane (which sometimes I might be). It kind of brought me back to the memories of us living together... when being shirtless was commonplace. The only thing we were missing today was S. I miss both of them so much; maybe someday we'll live together again! 

I love the Midwest. 

• Driving in a car in the suburbs
• I did get pulled over by a cop last night for being a complete idiot. Good thing I didn't get a ticket!
• My silly cat
• She's so cute! And rather demanding. I may also be slightly allergic... doesn't matter. I will pet her and love her anyway.
• Sleeping in a bunk bed 
• Or as my dad calls it: a bunker bed. The same bed I've been sleeping in for years... or for most of my life.
• Hanging out at the kitchen table in my pajamas
• I do it often when I'm home now. Including right now.
• Suburban malls
• I love them! Such a different feeling here... I have spent way too much money.
• Suburban Target
• I don't think this needs further details... self-explanatory 
• Wisconsin
• I love the Home of Beer and Cheese. Though I strongly dislike cheese. It's so strange and doesn't taste very good to me.  
• I swung by my high school today. Remodeled... it's just not the same. Those blue and yellow panels you used to have? Now that they're gone, I feel betrayed.
• Badgerland...
• LOVE!

 Home Saweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet Home.

Drinks, Flying, Decisions

So there's this drink at a bar called Skip and Go Naked. But I always think it's called STRIP and Go Naked. Which is essentially what I like to do when I'm home alone or by myself in my room. I am currently BACK in Wisconsin (as I mentioned yesterday), blogging from the kitchen table as Dumb-Dumb stares at me lazily from the other chair. And all I want to do is strip and go naked. I probably will soon...

Some thoughts on flying:

• Being overweight is highly unfortunate for travelers.
• Sitting next to someone overweight is very unfortunate for travelers.
• Delayed flights are really no fun.
• Small children screaming and crying on flights make me want to pull the emergency escape and jump out the airplane.
• I have a love/hate relationship with the aisle seat. I like it cuz I get up and go to the bathroom without crawling over someone. I hate it cuz sleeping is slightly more uncomfortable as compared to sitting in a window seat.
• TVs on flights are awesome.
• Rocking chairs in airports make me happy and sleepy

Current fav song: California Girls by Katy Perry

So Here's The Deal:
Uganda

• Serious work experience
• Living in Africa... need I say more?
• Going back to Uganda, I love it there
• Chapati...
• Getting my hands in some serious experience, to see OVC/HIV/FP programs in the real world... to see development at work (if it's working at all)

Philippines

• Southeast Asia experience (seeing things from that perspective rather than an East Asian or African one)
  
• Finish school
• Finding an internship- but hopefully in something I'm interested in
• Traveling in SE Asia (S. Korea is one stop for sure)
• Something different and completely unknown

The problem is and always shall be Money. Finishing school... Yada yada yada... finding a job. Etc etc etc. My brain does not shut up. Can someone just give me a plane ticket and I'll go where it says to go?

My pending return

I will be in the Midwest tomorrow at this time. Hopefully happily blogging from my parents' dining room table and playing with Dumb-Dumb. Here's the thing. I have to pack. And packing is hard. Very hard. I have things everywhere. And I have no idea what I'm doing. What do I need? What should I bring? I always bring too much of what I don't need and not enough of what I need.

Readers of blog who are living in Wisconsin, I want to see you. Please and Thank You.

I will be headed to DC for Memorial Day Weekend. Yes, I am flying to Wisconsin just to turn around and drive 12 hours to DC. Because why? Because my family has a weird love of road-tripping. So for a full 24hrs, I will be jamming out to my iPod as my little sisters watch awesome kid movies and I will ponder how much my butt feels like it's flattening out. BUT I will be back June 1st. So I will want to see as many people as I can. Also because at this rate, I don't know whether or not I'll be around in July. Yes, I'm still debating UG vs PH...

So here I am, packing with pop music.

Freedom and Some Favs

Freedom, it's a thing I thoroughly enjoy. I'm currently sitting all by my lonesome in a pretty empty apartment. Roommate is gone, moved out and off to Africa for 5 weeks. I'm jamming out to M.I.A. and cleaning my apartment. How I accumulated so many dirty dishes? Not quite sure.

The thing about freedom (from parents, from relationships... from school) is there is an element of unknown. You can feel free to make any decisions. Good, bad, ugly. You have to live with those decisions but the fun part is finding out what happens as a result of them.

I finished a book called Cutting for Stone. It was awesome. Definitely being put in the Favorite category. ALSO The Book Thief was FANTASTIC. I loved it. It has many stars in the Fav category. Now that I am totally slacking off, not doing school, and just working, I have time to read some things for fun. It's nice.

Usher's OMG... catchy song. Very bar friendly. We went to this bar the other night and one of their special drinks was called Skip and Go Naked. I wonder what it's like... I didn't get it but it sounded fascinating.

Another week begins...

A lazy Sunday which really shouldn't be that lazy

Current Fav Study Jams:
Kid Cudi's "Pursuit of Happiness" and "Make Her Say"
Wang Lee Hom's "Hua Tian Cuo" and "Wei Yi"
Miike Snow's "Animal," "Black and Blue," and "In Search Of"

Okay, here's the thing, I was supposed to study all weekend and get as much Health Law and Medical Systems information into my head as possible. That hasn't happened. Instead... I am applying to go to Malawi for a year, made a new friend, and found some great new jams. I am in serious trouble. But I am not that worried. I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not going to care about grades as much this semester. It is what it is. I need to enjoy life along with school and if that means not getting straight A's... I think I'll live.

Extreme dislike: people who can't understand that girls and boys can just be friends without any desire for anything more. Just because you're of the opposite sex, it doesn't mean you guys are going to go at it like rabbits automatically. Friendship- there is such a thing between girls and guys.

PS Texts from last night- great reading for procrastination. And makes you laugh uncontrollably.

Feeling like P Diddy...

Favorite upbeat song right now: Tik Tok by Kesha. Pretty sure I'm going to try to wake up to that song every morning to see if I do wake up feeling like P Diddy after hearing her sing it. I find it weird how some songs have the most absurd lyrics but are still so freakishly catchy.

Today is my last full day in Wisconsin, I fly back to that place over to the East tomorrow afternoon. (sniff) And then I start school... I'm not looking forward to it at all. I will probably die slowly and have an aneurysm by the time this semester is over. If I'm still alive in early May, I am going on a solid vacation where I can just sleep and relax.

There's so much snow. It's like living in a crazy winter wonderland where I'm scared to death to drive because let's think about it. I drive like 3 weeks a year, when I'm in Wisconsin. Other than that, I walk and take public transportation (which I have a love-hate relationship with). So the driving in snow/bad roads thing gives me nightmares.

Speaking of dreams/nightmares, I dreamed I was flying to Germany last night and I forgot my carry-on on the flight from Milwaukee to Chicago. I totally freaked out and woke up thinking I was going to forget something when I fly back to school. I wonder what that dream means... sometimes I think dreams don't mean anything. Then other times, they are a blatant indication of things I'm thinking about. I need a dream-teller... dream-explainer... you know, someone to tell me what my dreams mean. I wonder if it's kind of like fortune telling...

So my little sisters go to their friends' birthday parties and I marvel at what gets given as gifts these days. Gift cards to clothing stores... really? For my birthday, back when I was young, I had all these cool things that I wanted. I received some pretty spiffy stuff and went to some birthday parties where other people received superbly cool stuff. Parties back in the day were so much better than they are now... maybe that's because I hail from the 90's.
FOR EXAMPLE:

• Bop-it: Probably one of my favs... I wonder what that would be like to play with drunk now... probably awesome. Maybe I'll have to hunt one down to give it a whirl.
• Furbies: My music teacher in grade school had a furby that he would sit on the top of his piano during class. What a weird invention... I never had one. Back in the day, I wish I did... not so much any more.
• Beanie Babies: Okay, these toys were supposed to be worth "soooo much money." They were bean bags that had heads and tails sewed onto them. What a weird thing to have people obsess about.
  
• Pokemon vs Digimon: still haven't figured out the difference, nor do I really care.
• Fairy Winkles: Does anyone remember what these things are? I had 3 fairy winkles... or did I have the Wee Winkles... who knows. They were so cute! A little strange, but a fun toy.
  
• Polly Pocket: My absolute favorite toy as a kid. Now if you think about it, it's definitely a chocking hazard. But I loved them. I had so many... and I'm pretty sure my parents still have them all stored somewhere. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. toy. I swear by that toy

Well now that I have word vomited all over this post, I'm going to go to lunch with my mom.

A New Year

There is no better way to start off a new year than to do it by applying life lessons to your own life, cleaning out the old crap that you've accumulated over the last decade... And jamming out to the most ridiculous songs you can find in your iTunes library.

For example:
"Boom Boom Boom" by the Vengaboys
"Mickey" by B*Witched
"Blue" by Eiffel 65
"The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground
"99 Luftballoons" by... no idea
"Ooh Ahh... Just a Little Bit" by Gina G
And a crazy combination of Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and good ol' Britney

So I may be going a little bananas spending all my time cooped up at home, surrounded by the wonderful snow. But it's actually pretty fun and relaxing. I've started reading The End of Poverty but it's so dense that I have a habit of dozing off ever other paragraph. New Years Resolutions, anyone?

Here are mine:
1) Leave the country
2) Do something spontaneous and unexpected
3) Workout on a regular basis rather than my typical 2 months on, 3 months off cycle
4) Try as many new things as possible, whatever they may be
5) Say no less often

It's a start to a new decade, why not do something fun and crazy with my life this time around?!

Favorites from this Summer

Favorite Summer Movie: The Ugly Truth, most definitely

Favorite Summer Cocktail: Mojito

Favorite Summer Song: In the Summer Time- Mungo Jerry

Favorite Summer Meal: Summer salad or light sandwich

Favorite Summer Outfit: Light, summer dress

Favorite Summer Reading: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson

Favorite Summer Moment: Sitting on the Terrace with friends, having some beer

No Doubt Concert!

I went to Summerfest for the first time EVER yesterday and it was great. 2 of my friends and I saw the No Doubt Concert, and it was awesome. I have to say, the money spent on those concert tickets were well worth it. We had decent seats and No Doubt was great.

Bedouin Soundclash played first. I had never heard of them before but I liked them. Very appropriate opener. Then Paramore came on (The top picture). Now they were fun! Lots of head banging- I liked how the guitarists head banged in sync. Hayley Williams has a great voice. Finally No Doubt came out. They were great live entertainment. You know, there are the bands and musicians who have great music but don't always put on a great show. No, this was not one of those cases. It was AWESOME!!! Adrian Young, the drummer, played wearing only his underwear. I wonder if that helps him stay cool on stage. Gwen Stefani was amazing. She has a great body, even after have 2 kids! All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'd definitely see them in concert again.