watch?v=sXldafIl5DQ

Because we can never get enough Eastwood.

….

EVER.

Russ says to me:

Rachel, your world would be full of light and fuzzy, soft things and LOTS of colors and very little scary noise. But then…sometimes there would be this dark cloud of worry that would hover around the people in your world.

But I would hide from the cloud! I say. But have I?

And that is all. I tell this little story because it is interesting to imagine what your world really would be like, if you could make one, and how often would you let things cloud it up anyway?

Here’s to sunny weather, in your world, all the time.

2010 began and ended with me in Eau Claire. It was kind of rough at first, considering I didn’t know anybody, but I met people quickly. Besides taking pictures of random people, I mostly did homework. I drank a lot of coffee, which surprised no one, and somehow made it to every school I needed to observe in (without a car), which surprised everyone, including myself. This was all part of a class I took, which required me to have 60 observation hours…I ended at 70.

In order to do this, I braved the Eau Claire transit system, beautifully pictured here. More than once, I considered buying pepper spray, or writing a will. I did neither of these, even though the first one would have made sense.

This made for kind of a depressing winter. Spring was pretty, though:

Plus, Russ transferred to Eau Claire starting the fall semester. We had to wait all summer, though. I decided the best possible thing I could do that summer would be to sell my soul to working, so I kept two jobs: one at Walmart, and one at a small department store.

Walmart wasn’t supposed to become the hellish and hilarious job it so was. Besides getting to drive a forklift, which was insanely awesome, I sadly also got sucked under Big Brother’s watch. This didn’t prevent me from reading 1984 during the course of all my lunch breaks, influencing the cleaning crew to chant excerpts from Brave New World, or even have a tailgate with an open fire pit in the Walmart parking lot on my birthday.

If you’re wondering how the last one went, we were chastised by management, but they avoided calling the police. Needless to say, that was the most exciting thing that happened to me all summer, if that gives you any indication on how thrilling 60-hour weeks are.

In October, I stood up in my friend Shawna’s wedding. Shawna is a close friend from high school, and I was honored to be a part of her special day.

The rest of the year went by fairly quickly. I signed a lease for an apartment last semester, and am very, very excited about that. Room and board in a college dorm is overrated, considering a meal plan that costs around $1600. What?? I knew that my rent alone would cost around that, and food wouldn’t even come close to costing me a grand for a year. Looking for an apartment was scary, but well worth it. I’m looking forward to moving in this summer.

Overall, I’m kind of glad 2010 is over. Because even though it was eventful and I had a lot of ups and downs, etc. etc., I’m looking forward to what 2011 is all about. I think it’s going to be sweet.

(Edit: You can “like” posts from WordPress now?? DO IT, YO)

The hugeness of my textbooks increases exponentially the farther along I am in school, I think. So does my coffee intake. Of course, no one is surprised. But it’s a little unsettling to be spending so much time with people in a book who are, for one, dead, and also a whole lot more dry and confusing than, say, the show Phineas and Ferb, which I would probably watch excitedly until my eyes bled. Sometimes I struggle to react academically to Edgar Allan Poe, for instance, who was addicted to opium and married his 13-year old cousin wrote “The Raven” a poem about a dead woman and a talking animal.

Here’s a few more life anecdotes for the curious, if any. It’s entirely true that I’m really bad about keeping up with everyone I care about and have lost touch with over time. It’s been an amazing struggle lately to get everything done that seems to be important, and then I’m left with a huge gap because I miss everybody. So if you happen to be one of those people, I’m sorry, and hopefully I will catch up reasonably soon. Or, you could hire somebody locally to slap me around a little. (In 18th century colonial households, female independence beats YOU!) Make me a sandwich?

Hang in there, few last subscribers to this poor blog. I’ll keep your interest by telling you a small story that happened to me last week. It kind of sums up what’s going on with me: It was cloudy outside, then sunny, a mixture of “Why the heck did I bring this coat” and “Man, life would be easier if you didn’t have to wear pants.” Instructors were engaging, then talked past me, because I’m again distracted by whatever. Looking out the window in my classroom, past the tall buildings and tops of trees shedding leaves before they even change color, I think about who has contributed to me ending up where I am right now, or who hasn’t, and more importantly, how I wouldn’t change a thing about what’s happened then, because in some divine direction, it has taken me here, to this point.

(Feel free to not analyze that. According to Poe, while it was melancholy, it did not have 100 lines, and therefore, reader, you must have definitely become distracted [Poe, "Philosophy of Composition"].)

I can’t stop listening to Coldplay. Also I listened to some Bob Marley today.

I checked the air to make sure no one was smoking weed next door or in the hall, so I’m not sure how else to explain that one. Some of their music is just good. And that is all I have to say about that.

Russ brought Assassin’s Creed this weekend, and I became addicted again and then had to be yanked off like a dope in rehab when he went back home. Here, I’ll explain it this way. It has all the qualities I enjoy in video games:

1. Hack and slash

2. Flying through the air on top of buildings in the Middle East

3. Slow, painfully-easy-to-follow plot lines

4. Feeling like a badass.

In other words, if I was rich, I would buy an XBox 360 and play Assassin’s Creed 1 and 2 until my eyes bled. And then I would buy new eyes, because I’m rich.

MINI. SCONES. I had some in math class, which made math and the large amounts of coffee I chug at that hour more bearable and actually a little more fun, because I had MINI SCONES. If you can’t already guess, they are mini, and also scones. I tried to share some of my MINI SCONES with my bitter professor, but he grunted at me, which made me regret offering the delicious things and then I just made a little MINI SCONES party with the people around me. And that was enjoyable.

I looked at my Elcho school pictures recently and it’s no mystery that I miss teaching like crazy and all I want out of school is to be in the classroom again. (Well, besides drinking coffee, but I already do that and if I can do that and teach at the same time that would just be insane.)

So needless to say, with my 9th day in at Eau Claire, I started my teaching courses and I am STOKED. I got placed in a middle school English classroom, and now I get to visit them three times a week. Part of the course is making lesson plans and teaching lessons in the classroom I’m placed, so that just makes my life here. I miss being at the board.

This is nice, because it’s been kind of lonely so far. You’ll have that, though, when you transfer. So my plans include joining College Republicans (again) and getting involved in the community after being on hiatus for awhile, you always meet interesting people that way. I’m DONE with campaigning though, for the love of John McCain, no more. I get that 2010 is a prime election year – and God knows it will be insane to watch – but I’m confident that Republicans can win seats without much help. It’s about the time a majority party has to lose a bit of power, that’s just how the system cycles. So anyway, it will be pretty exciting. Most of all, even though it’s a partisan organization, I met more intelligent people from all parties when I was in College Republicans because all the political groups seem to interact eventually. And I like that diversity of people and ideas.

Either way, Russ comes to visit this weekend and that is AMAZING. I’ve been going to classes and learning and doing the good student thing, but in the back of my mind I’ve been very excited for tomorrow. I miss him. True story.

Speaking of missing people, I need to get back in touch with, like, everyone. I’m really good at getting caught up in life and not calling people like I should. Definitely a priority for me this semester.

And in other news….TACO BELL. On my food plan. Kickass, right?

This is the sixth time I’ve moved into a dorm room. I have a system of packing now; it’s kind of an art, not gonna lie. I think it only took three trips to and from the car to get my stuff in, and I packed a little more than usual this time around. Mostly because of the not-having-a-car-this-semester. I bought ahead. I think I have enough hygiene products to last me for ten years. In other words, for six more move-ins.

So now I’m in UW-Eau Claire! And I’m graduating here! It stands! I don’t care what happens, you can’t take me out of here without a bachelor’s degree. I’m kind of sick of transferring. haha.

Beautiful thing: textbook rental. I still had to buy some of them, but hey – TEXTBOOK. RENTAL. Take note, every other university in this country. A little piece of me died inside when I learned I had one more math class to do. I was all, what, I thought I was done, what. More of me died when I read the title of my textbook: The Heart of Mathematics. I can tell you right now that math does not have a heart. It is very heartless. It looks at you there, struggling, sweating, and it laughs, “Ha ha! You puny English-minded human! I think I’ll go pretend to be useful in real life now.”

I lived another year. This is a bonus! I also didn’t blog much, which is neither good nor bad, it just means that I used my time for lots of other things. Here are those things, in summary, if you’re interested. Kind of like a late-Christmas card.

I fell off the face of the earth and started spending a lot less time on the internet when I took up a job as a teacher’s aide in late January. I helped with 4th and 5th grade students, drank a lot of coffee, decorated my own classroom, and bought a betta fish, Demetri. I became really attached to the kids really fast. The majority of them came from rough backgrounds and I learned a lot about teaching and a lot about kids. At the same time, I was taking night courses in Wausau. My commute lasted an hour and a half one way, every day, except on the weekends, when I crashed and made lesson plans for the following week, along with homework.

Then I decided to drink more coffee and go to school for the summer. I took a terrible women’s studies course in which I learned nothing, and a speech class in which I learned even less. Both of the classes helped me get my associate’s degree in the fall, but this degree in arts and sciences is about as helpful as a moose with diarrhea. I mean, that’s just not helpful at all. Try and take a moose with diarrhea to a job interview, and the interviewer might laugh at you, or tell you to go away, or wonder how the hell you even got a hold of such a thing. Sometimes I ask myself this very question.

But the summer was amazing, because in the summer I met Russ, we started dating, and I love him. It’s easy to say you love something, or someone, but it wasn’t easy for me to open up and actually have fun with my life outside of school. Russ helped teach me, and he was very patient. We went on lots of amazing adventures, including going to the top of a parking garage, and it was so much fun we try to go back whenever we can.

I decided to stay in Wausau for school in order to finish cheap(er) credits and begin the process of transferring. It was a crazy semester, and I was able to enjoy many varied life experiences, including taking three English classes at once, working retail, and having roommates who were either clinically depressed or overdosing on prescription painkillers. Through it all, I spent a lot of good times with Russ and that made it totally worth it. We shared lots of coffee and tea, contemplating the world, and possibly the rest of our lives.  See the common theme of coffee here? It was meant to be!

I successfully transferred to UW-Eau Claire, where I will be going now until I graduate. I know, university-jumping seems to be my sport, and believe me, if it were in the Olympics, I would SO win a gold medal, but I’m ready to graduate there. Leaving Wausau on the last day was one of the hardest things to do, though, because I know I’ll be away from Russ and it’s not going to be fun. But, we’re still planning amazing adventures, and therefore…

I can’t wait to see what 2010 will bring.

Because, the adventures won’t end with this past year. Not if I can help it. I hope, if you’re reading this (and I know you, I mean, that always helps), we’ll have lots of amazing adventures together too. Or at least I can make you a cup of coffee. You know that sounds just as good.

Ergo, I have lots of character.

I get my paycheck tomorrow. WAIT, BACK IT UP

Okay, so, I got a job at the end of July…a nice little teddy-bear stuffing job. Indeed, that’s what’s I do. I work at a little toy store in the Wausau mall, and they stuff bears. It’s quite morbid. Actually, it’s really creepy. I don’t understand how watching taxidermy is good for kids. But at least it prepares them for the real world of embalming, should they want to pursue a career in funeral directing. By the way, I’m just saying words. Stuffing bears is totally cute and you should try it. Yeah.

But in the meantime, I’m wondering why the heck my car sucks up so much gas. Maybe it’s compensating for the fact that it makes TERRIBLE GRINDING NOISES. This has pretty much been going on for two months. I pray every time I get in the thing and drive. So it’s like a rosary. Only with what seems like 10 miles per gallon.

So…I think if I planned this out right, I’ll have just enough gas to drive to Wausau and secure my paycheck, fill up my car, and then drive back. This plan wouldn’t be any more brilliant if Barack Obama came up with it. You know I wasn’t typing that with a straight face.

It’s alright, besides all that, I’m loving life right now. It’s hard not to.

Even if there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think about how desperately I want to be an English teacher with a salary and not having to worry about filling up my tank.

So once that’s known, usually by the end of the first day (I like to get my dirty little secret out there), I’m always called upon, in 5 seconds or less, to give conservative opinions on everything so the class can be fair…and balanced. And that’s why I’m a pet…or token…conservative. Like a potted plant – except I water myself. You know that would be cool.

So now my 5 seconds or less.

*sighs are heard*

Look, people. Conservative or not, politics hasn’t taken a break after Obama got elected. Not by a long shot. I’m almost afraid the influx of superfuel regurgitated by the young vote has run dry. People! The political process does not end on November 4th. You can’t expect the guy and his cabinet to do a perfect job once elected, although he’d love it if you looked the other way. Then he can quickly pass extreme bits of legislation riding on the seat of his popularity. Heck, I would.

What do you really think about this healthcare bill? None of this, “Something needs to be done about it” crap. Everyone knows that, Sherlock. What do you really think about the changes that will be made to privatized insurance and how it will effect you? If you agree with government-run healthcare, okay. At least you thought about it, maybe in line to order a sandwich.

You may be young, fresh, and made of awesome – but you’ve also got intelligence in a government that doesn’t seek to suppress it. Work it! 2010 is around the corner…where even more beautiful people get elected…and your future depends on their decisions.

Darn, my 5 seconds is over?

Alright. But still. As much as it pains you, throw up your favorite news page and even just skim it. Adults take control of their own lives, and this aspect of it is no exception.