Alright, it is time for me to get confrontational.

I don’t like Starbucks. I really don’t understand your obsession with it.

I mean sure, I understand that there’s no accounting for [bad] taste, but the way you go on and on about Starbucks, you’d think there was crack in their drinks.

Is that it? Is there crack in it? Is that the disgusting chemical taste?

I’ve ordered many drinks there, thinking that SURELY I was just missing something. But I’ve been severely disappointed in the quality of my purchase each and every time. I usually end up thinking “I can’t believe I paid $[too much] for this crap!” before tossing it.

Maybe you can explain it to me. I will listen to your reasoning, but I must ask you to first tell me whether or not you think Louis Vuitton purses are attractive so that I can properly gauge whether or not to believe you when it comes to matters of good taste.

With Guarded Affection,
Kalin

So I write stuff down, and usually there is something at the top of the list that I don’t REALLY want to do. And in utilizing my impressive Advanced Procrastination Techniques, I don’t do ANYTHING on the list because for some reason I get it stuck in my head that that thing I don’t want to do HAS to go first. It is dumb.

And there is nothing I hate more than having to scribble things out in my planner and move them to the next day to try to get them done. There have been weeks where things just get transfered day to day to day. I was lying earlier when I said there’s nothing I hate more than that. There’s a lot more I hate more than that. I’m going to put “Use less hyperbole on blog” on my to-do list, but I can’t promise it’ll get done.

I digress.

So I’ve started just writing down deadlines in my planner and keeping a separate, massive to-do list, filled with every imaginable task I need to accomplish. I write it on a notepad I keep near my desk and the list covers several pages. I like to write it with colorful markers because that keeps things interesting! Also, the ink doesn’t run when my tears soak the page.

I like to use these to-do lists to impress people, too. I walk up to strangers and thrust the sheaf of papers in their face and aggressively spit out, “You think YOUR life is bad?! LOOK AT MY TO-DO LIST.” And if I’m luck they get scared and don’t look at it. Sometimes they do look at it and see that I’ve written down stuff like emailing Santana’s breeder to see if there are any pictures of his sire I could see. That kind of stuff doesn’t elicit a whole lot of sympathy.

I will make a mental note to stop oversharing about my to-do list.

Better yet, I will write that ON my to-do list.

And I will cross it off…

Riiiight.

NOW.

I guess this area is pretty popular for deer hunters. I was at the laundromat yesterday because I was getting to the point where I was going to need to don a polyester leisure suit for classes if I wanted to wear anything clean. There was a big sign in there welcoming hunters and asking them to write down where they came from. Several had come up from Louisiana, some came down from Michigan and most of the rest were from Missouri.

Not to be outdone, Bradley and I are going deer hunting. I don’t actually know how to shoot anything, so we are just going to reinforce the bumper of the car and then go for a high speed joy ride through the country.

Wish us luck!

No, I am kidding.

I did go out last night with some of my sorority sisters to see One Republic in concert. I dig their music and was pretty excited that they came to our university. Apparently we won the opportunity in some contest on Facebook.

As one of the members of the Student Activities Board was announcing our accomplishment, my friend Becca turned to me. “Did you participate in that?” she asked.

“No!” I answered, “I didn’t even know about it until it was over. Did you?”

“Yeah!” she responded. But then the announcer started listing off things that people had done to win points in the contest (visiting websites, voting on things, etc.). “Wait,” Becca said, “maybe that was something else…”

Besides our lack of participation in getting them there, the band put on a great show. That is a fairly big compliment from me, because I tend to dislike a lot of live music. I know, that’s the opposite of most college students it seems, but these days there are too many bands that just don’t sound good live. That was not the case this time, I’m happy to report.

Enough of my commentary on the music industry! Here are your (drumroll please)…

My sister Lil provides photographic evidence of her daughter playing with a friendly little snake. This is especially impressive to me because it was mere weeks ago when I got scared by a piece of rope that was lying on the sidewalk because I thought it could be a snake. And it is worth mentioning that I already knew it was a piece of rope before I got scared.

Over at Alpaca Farm Girl’s blog, she’s posted pictures of their newest addition.

Fidget at Finding Yourself Despite Yourself posted a hilarious video demonstrating what some Basset Hound owners are subjected to at 2AM.

Angela from My Dogumentary shared pictures of her dogs’ Halloween costumes. I love that they go together. I’m going to do this with the ferrets next year. Maybe they will go as a weasel and a big rat. Oh, wait…

This last one is not actually a blog, but Slick Deals gathers up all sorts of bargains and coupons on the internet and posts them each day as they come in. Some are completely worthless to me, but others are pretty handy!

In closing, here is a picture I took of Huckleberry Finn leaping off of a small table.

(I bet right about now you are feeling pretty silly for falling for that whole “I’ve got a social life” trick I pulled earlier, eh?)

Maizy opted to stay in the cage while Huckleberry Finn, surprise surprise, wanted to get out and run.

Towards the end of the evening I scooped him up and petted him for a minute. His eyes drifted shut and he went to sleep for just a moment, which I thought was rather cute. It is certainly better than his reaction used to be (reminder: spazzing out and nipping). I took him back to his cage, and he settled in to a hammock to catch some z’s.

I was attempting to do the same (minus the cage and the hammock, of course), but these days Bradley insists that he MUST go out every three hours. Bradley was also insisting that he was hungry enough to perish immediately if he didn’t get some kibble. So, squinty-eyed and bushy-haired, I let him out and reached for the bag of kibble.

Gone.

Surely I must have set it somewhere, but it was not revealing itself in the dark, so I gave up on it. Bradley could survive until a more reasonable hour.

This morning I found the bag of kibble on its way behind the fridge. Huckleberry Finn had not only knocked a 4 pound bag of kibble off the shelf, he had then dragged it across the whole kitchen in an attempt to stash it behind the stove in his usual hiding place.

I would expound more on how ridiculous this is, that a little weasel weighing less than two pounds would steal a four pound bag of dog food, but I hear him rustling around in the kitchen as I type. I don’t even want to know what would happen if he found the knives.

Man a-freakin’-live…

Good golly…

I spent over two hours today in our sorority meeting, going over sorority bylaws (amending and such), nominating for next week’s elections and preparing for our national report by discussing our strengths, weaknesses, short term goals AND long term goals.

Everyone was well behaved, these meetings just tend to drag on.

And on.

And on.

Luckily, my presidential position made me stay perked up this year.

In previous years I could be seen trying to chew off my own leg, and I was not even shackled to anything, I was just THAT bored.

But it is over for another year, and I am graduating in December. And that is reason to celebrate!

from 52 to 48 | 48 to 52 with love

Maybe I’ve realized the value that each individual plays in our strangely anonymous-yet-intimate little online community.

Or maybe I’ve realized that I should provide my own readers with more interesting reading material than my standard fare (”Blah blah, here’s a story about a giant rat. I am busy. Here’s a picture of a dog.”)

Regardless of why I’m doing it, I’d like to take this opportunity to link five posts that I’ve enjoyed so that you can enjoy them, too. I hope to make this a weekly tradition on my part.

A story about the hazards of art degrees from the Country Doctor’s Wife: Dinner on April’s Veranda with the Ancient One.

The Goat Channel from Chickens in the Road almost made me want to call my mom and beg her to let me have a goat. Or better yet, to show up at home with a cute little goat tucked under my arm! Wouldn’t that be great, Mom?!

Gorgeous pictures at Kids’ Cattle Blog: The clouds were puffy that day.

Speaking of awesome pictures, check out Work in Miniature at Paige’s Malfunction Junction. I especially like the first picture of the rasped hoof.

Last but not least, Ms. Florida Transplant of Just a girl… And her dogs shares a hilarious tale of alternative medicine exploration: Public Constipation.

So go on, check out the links and enjoy yourself. I will be over here dealing with this:

(Hey, old habits die hard.)