herrrrrooooo! i'm alive. still a bit sick, but much better.

bethy and chris are here. and they're so cute. :) i catch myself thinking about words in an english accent here and there, too, which is funny.

we've gone out to our place a couple of times now. we went last night for drinks and i got carded, which was a bit odd. when i get carded these days, i am never quite sure if i should take them seriously or not. like, is this some cruel joke? so i kinda roll my eyes and get out the old i.d.

i got a fabulous new phone... i nixed the nokia idea once i saw i could get a blackberry for NEGATIVE $25 on amazon. so now i have a curve. still waiting on my internet to activate, mostly so i can download the Law & Order theme song as my ringtone, but even without internet i love it.

old phone:


new phone:


also, it's tiny and adorable.

not much going on. life is so quiet when i'm just in the one class.

oh, but dude.. i got to thinking again tonight how very much i would love to have, in each class, like one or two kick-other-student-out-of-class-free cards. like, during the first week of class, if they annoy me too much, i could just set the card on their desk and they would have to withdraw. why am i so mean? because it always seems that there is at least one person in EVERY one of my classes that drives me nuts.

in french class way back when, it was the canadian girl (with a grating accent) who sat in front of me, diagonally, in the direction of the teacher. she always had her legs crossed and her foot up in the air, always wearing flip-flops... and she had THE grossest feet, EVER. really long toenmails. every time i looked at them, i thought, "rat claws!" and i couldn't help but look at them due to where she sat. i ran into her a while later.. she was working at a bar on the beach. i said hi and tried to place her, and when it dawned on me who it was, I RAN.

last term, i remember distinctly a little shit that was in TWO of my classes. big guy that wore fish shirts a lot. actually seemed very smart, but was in the young/arrogant stage of his life. it was annoying. he was always quick to jump on people for mistakes, even when they weren't making one. you'd think it would only take one of those mistakes to make you think before you speak, but apparently not.

now this class, i have two cardable folks. the one girl isn't that bad. she seems nice and all. but she sits next to me... again, in the direction of the teacher, so i can't help but see her. she is on her iphone THE ENTIRE TIME. playing. writing stuff. texting. she was even listening to voicemails today during class (the teacher was reading us poetry) that i could hear from my seat. i'm like, PUT EET DOWN. step away from the iphone! or at least sit in the back, so the teacher can't see you ignoring him the whole time! she sits in the FRONT ROW.

but she's not half as bad as the old lady. this lady is like 58. i ain't no ageist; i got nothing against her for that. but OH MY GOD, she is annoying. i think i scowl at her every time she says something now. why?

ok. this is what i know about her: she is from detroit; she is 58; she grew up in a very poor household; she was a greaser; she liked to hang out with guys fixing up their cars; she has an alcohol problem; she actually is an alcoholic, she just had to admit; admitting you need help is hard; she owes the library $60 so can't check anything out (i have heard this multiple times); and if she had $60 to her name, she surely wouldn't be spending it on a library fine. and it's not as if any of this really came up by chance... she was really PULLING this stuff out.. especially the alcohol thing. i mean, it was the night the DUI guy came to talk to us, but still. why do you feel the need to tell your class that? we're not in group here!

WHY DO I KNOW THIS MUCH ABOUT MY CLASSMATE, from CLASS discussions?! she keeps HIJACKING our class discussions to drone on and on. the teacher, the nicest old guy EVER, actually even cut her off the once. maybe even twice. everyone just kinda shakes their heads as she is talking. like, WHY should we know that you are an alcoholic? HMM?

she also feels the need to acknowledge everything the teacher says that she knows anything about. today he mentioned dante, and she basically cuts him off to say, "ah yes, dante's 'inferno.'" you know, so we all KNEW that she knew who dante was. as if the rest of us didn't. he mentions billie holiday and she has to say, "ahh, yes, bill-ieeeeeeee!" SHUT UP ALREADY.

she also is CONSTANTLY talking in class, as if the teacher is giving his lecture just to her and they are actually just having a conversation. "mm, hmm, yep..." today the teacher read us poems. she listened to EVERY ONE with this expression of glee on her face, her mouth open, and giggling audibly, presumably so the teacher could hear how much she was enjoying them. she sat there MOVING HER LIPS the whole time, i think planning what she would say next. the professor read a poem about his grandfather and at the end, she says, "you must have had a very special relationship with your grandfather" as everyone was clapping. like, i would totally appreciate these outbursts if they were every once in a while, and if they were genuine... but as it is, she literally just talks the ENTIRE TIME, and none of it feels genuine.

so, needless to say, she annoys me just a little bit. :)
in this mean spirit, i also think... she's going to school to be a teacher at age 58? ??? i know you're never too old for school and all, but jeeeeeez... she's only a few years away from retirement!

ok, thank you for "listening" to my rant. i go calm down now. ;)  ¶ 9:56 PM