Southern Boy

Before long, my last year of college will be starting up. Kind of a big deal. After four years, I have achieved super-senior status and will graduate in the spring with my Psychology and Biology degrees. Yay for me. I will finally be able to say I've done something with my life. Or well, this is the first thing that other people will care about. And hey! As long as I don't bomb these last two semesters, I'll even gradate magna cum laude. Double yay for me.

The plus side to all of this? I think I've finally gotten at least some idea of what I want to do once I'm out of college. (Note: I didn't say "once I'm grown up." I am of the mindset that while growing older is required, growing up is optional.) My internship has been the most amazing thing ever. Yes, even with the Giant Girdled Lizard chewing on my arm on regular occasions. I want to work with animals. Exotic ones. Like I am now. Hell, what else is all this psychological and biological knowledge of behavior good for? Plus, I think the lady in charge of the reptiles at the Brookfield Zoo likes me. She said she'd recommend me for a job. Of course, it could just be because that stupid lizard likes me so much. Apparently he doesn't like most of the interns.

The down side? Well, not so much a down side as just... a tough decision. Getting a full time job at the zoo would mean a permanent move up here to Chicago. I wouldn't be saying "Oh, I live in Alabama, I just go to school here." And my parents are already on me about coming back home. They don't like me being so far away. Which I get, kind of, considering I am an only child. They want me close by. And I do miss them. Quite a bit, sometimes. But... I like it up here too. And I'm not really sure where I want to be for the next foreseeable chunk of my life.

So, basically, to sum everything up: I'm graduating. Yay! I know what I want to do with my life. Yay again! I just... don't know if I want to stay here in Chicago or go back to Alabama. Not yay.

Mental note: Even if it doesn't have teeth, it still hurts like hell when a lizard chews on your sunburned arm.

Stupid Giant Girdled Lizard.

Wow. I leave for a little bit and things go even more to hell. Can I just say that I'm glad I was at the beach instead of here?

But! On the bright side! The Old Republic is available for pre-order! I can't even begin to explain just how much my geek side is freaking out right now. I had a very nice, full on geek out when I saw it.

( The Old Republic is finally going to be released!! )

Note: Wow. I am a geek.

Oh, I'm looking forward to getting out of this city for a little while. No offense to you die hard Chicagoians or whatever you call yourself. But I'm ready to be back south of the Mason-Dixon again, even if it is only for a little while.

So basically, considering tomorrow is my birthday and after that, it's a road trip down to L.A. - that's Lower Alabama to the less informed - with my boyfriend for some time at the beach, if anyone needs me for anything, they better tell me now. And it better be something I can handle today. Not that I'll be out of touch, but I really don't want to deal with anything while on vacation.

The restrictions the city of Chicago makes on the sale and distribution of fireworks depresses me. It's hardly the Fourth of July if you don't get a chance to throw a handful of water bombs into the pool. Or if you and the neighbor don't almost catch each other's sheds on fire. My inner pyro feels like it has been deprived.

However, I found this. I am amused. It doesn't make up for the lack of fire in my life today, but I'm easily distracted so I was entertained for a few minutes.

( So easily amused... )

The geek in me demanded it be done. Every year, I'll miss a couple of movies I wanted to see, just because I'll get busy and forget. So I'm making a list this year. I make no apologies.

However, if anyone else wants to see any of them, let me know!

( Movies Released in 2011 )

Why am I not surprised that Father's Day ended up being a repeat of Mother's Day?

Normally for Father's Day, my mama and I would let dad pick what he wanted to do for the day. Of course, he'd pick to spend the say on his sailboat. Then a lot of times we'd go to one of the local AA baseball games. All in all, it'd be a pretty good day.

Today? Today was instead used to try and make me feel bad about most every recent - and not so recent - decision I've made. Why did I have to go to school is out of state? Why didn't I pick an internship closer to home? Why don't I have a girlfriend? What about Khody? They liked her. Why can' t I get back together with her?

So if you hear screams of frustration, it's probably just me. Don't worry though; I promise not to strangle the first person who talks to me.

EDIT: My day? It has now been made. Volunteered to go in to the zoo for a few hours today. Just found out that I get to take the 15 foot Reticulated Python out into the zoo to give the visitors a chance to see her up close. I am getting payed to basically play with Hana all day. Best day of work EVER!

( Private to Christian )

I just finished Dragon Age 2. Does anyone else find it a little creepy just how... similar certain parts of that game are to our current situation? With the Augmented taking the place of the mages? I haven't quite figured out any ONE specific group that would take the place of the templars, but there are several possibilities.

I figure we're about... somewhere at the start of Act 2. Where things are getting to be a problem and every little incident is just fuel for the fire. The problem with that? Is that eventually, we're going to get to the end of Act 3. And that didn't turn out well for ANYBODY. Least of all the general person on the street.

Personally, I'd just as soon things NOT get to that point. In fact, let's just... skip the entire third act. Skip the epilogue and everything else that happened after too, because that's a hell of a lot of collateral to deal with. Or better yet, let's fix things before they get that bad.

Hey, I can be optimistic, right?

The amount of paperwork involved with having an internship working with reptiles at the Brookfield Zoo? Is absolutely unGodly. Despite the fact that the people at the zoo told me multiple times that interns were not permitted to do ANYTHING involving any of the poisonous snakes and lizards, they keep giving me more forms to fill out saying if I do something stupid, my parents can't sue the zoo. It's getting kind of ridiculous. Trying to limit your liability is one thing. This is taking it to another level entirely. Besides, what do they think I'm going to do? Stick my hand in the cobra exhibit and ask them to bite me?

Also, self control? What is this thing called self control? Apparently, I don't have it. I went to GameStop the other day. I told myself I was just going to pre-order Skyrim, nothing else. How does that go for me? End up walking out with not only my pre-order in place but also with Dragon Age 2 in hand. Curse GameStop. Curse my weakness.

( Private to Self )

So I don't always pay as much attention to current events as I should. The world - mostly thanks to the media - is all doom and gloom and once in a while, it's nice to live in my own little world where I don't have to listen to news reporters telling me that everything is going straight to hell. Yeah, that didn't work too well this last week.

I got a call Thursday morning from my parents because they know I don't watch the news. That's how I found out about the tornadoes. Fortunately, my parents live far enough south that they weren't affected. Then they told me that Tuscaloosa was one of the hardest hit areas. Now, I am not a fan of the University of Alabama. Quite the opposite. But of the 375+ kids in my high school graduating class, about... 60-70% of the kids who went on to college picked Alabama. Every single one of my friends from high school went there. And I just spent the last four days trying to get in contact with them, trying to make sure they were okay. Tonight, I finally heard back from the last of them. They're all okay, although a few of them lost their apartments and everything in them.

I'm... a little shook up right now, I'll admit it. I only called my closest friends, the ones whose numbers I have. That still leaves all the kids I don't have the numbers of. The kids I weren't really close to, but still went to school with from kindergarten to graduation. For all I know, I could have been in class with some of the people that are dead or still missing. I'm not used to thinking I have to worry about tornadoes. Hurricanes, yes. But hurricanes you can prepare for. I was the one helping my dad board up the house for Ivan and Katrina. Tornadoes... You don't get that chance.

I hate that school is still going on here. I feel like I should be there to help my friends and volunteer to help some of the others. But I'm stuck here. So I'm going to sit here and wonder where I would have been if I hadn't turned down that scholarship to Alabama...

I am DONE! After 18+ pages and way more time than I really want to think about, my research paper is DONE. I finished citing the last scientific journal, stapled the damn thing and turned it in and I never have to do that again. Well... At least not for this semester.

I swear, I think if someone gave me another article on the potential physiological, phylogenetic, developmental, or adaptive explanations of hyena social behavior, I would probably strangle them right now. ...Actually, make that anything having to do with hyenas period.

So... Now that my life is no longer being consumed by the research paper of DOOM... I find myself with this strange thing called free time. I don't really know what to do with myself.

If I don't answer, chances are it's because I turned my phone on silent and forgot about it. Sorry.

( PROFILE )