Hidden Talent

I have a hidden talent. I discovered it last night.

I can slide like a major league baseball player... while running...

You know how they slide, right? They slide into the base and without realizing it, are right back up again. Nice and clean, down and up.

I totally did that while I was running last night. Hilarious.

The run was going well. I was running down Woodland Ave, which is a fairly large sloping hill, and right before I got to the intersection of 4th street, boom, I hit the pavement. My feet completely came out from under me and it was as if I threw my arms up in a "hoorah" and went down a park slide. One minute I was cruising and the next minute, I was down for the count, arms and butt sliding across the nice sheer patch of ice that I somehow blatantly missed. And a car was driving up the hill and slammed on his brakes because of course, someone had to witness the fall.

But do you know what the best part is? I 'glided' right back up. I never 'glide' anywhere. You should have watched me play softball growing up. Ask my parents, they can attest. I was the girl who slid into a base and everyone cringes, 'oooo, that looked like it hurt'. Needless to say, I never ever 'glided' into a base and immediately stood up. I always thought to myself, "ok, let's hope we make it to the base!" right as I was about to slide.

So you can imagine my surprise when I was 'slightly' graceful in my fall yesterday. I giggled to myself the whole way home. A "graceful fall". What an accomplishment. It's been a long time coming. Us Ring's are not graceful. Here is a link of my brother being graceful, courtesy of my cousin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQHOFaaRX48&feature=youtu.be.

Watch the video. It will make your day.

And in other news, I feel like this 'fact checking' is kind of a hidden talent... read this article: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/23/truth-squad-fact-checking-wednesdays-debate/?hpt=hp_c1.

Cheers to laughing at yourself. Makes the soul feel happy.

Moody

MCAT studying is kicking my behind. The full-throttle-wind-up-boot-kicking kind. Yeah. It's affecting my mood a bit.

Save me.

I'm not waving a white flag. I just need some ooomph. Some hooosssttppha! to keep going. To not let the scary thoughts about what happens if I lay an egg on test day, bombard my noggin'. I've been nose-to-book(s) since Thanksgiving. Reading, and taking notes, writing, and reviewing content. Sometimes I feel it is paying off, and sometimes I want to crawl under my desk and not come out for fear that the MCAT books will eat me.

I know what you're thinking: SUCK IT UP. Stop whining. This is all she talks about...

Believe me. I want to suck it up. I want to stop thinking about it. I want to retain all of the ridiculously cool knowledge that I have smashed into my brain, and spew it all out like no-ones-business on March 24th (Dooms Day). However, there are many more things to learn. One of which is the Writing Sample. It scares the living daylights out of me. The most recent prompt I had to write about: "In a democracy, a successful politician resembles the ordinary citizen" Explain the statement, give an example of when a successful politician does not resemble the ordinary citizen, and discuss what determines whether or not a successful politician resembles the ordinary citizen.

Seriously? Seriously??? That's not easy. It's not an opinion essay. You need to use examples. You have half an hour to write it. Go. Do it. See what you come up with and let me know because mine ran around in circles and I swear I used the word citizen 50 times.

So... yeah... rant is done. I will go for a run, do some yoga, make some dinner and maybe take a whack at a few prompts. No wallowing. No pity party. Good thoughts. Sunshine. Rainbows.

Bonnaroo 2012 anyone?

Defined

I thought this article was really interesting: http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/16/opinion/navarrette-chimichanga-comment/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Besides the whole political issue that they are talking about in this article, that the GOP is on a suicide mission if it continues to alienate Hispanics, it made me think about what it means to be defined. Holy cow. If you see some of the examples that were in that article:

        "Lastly, if it's not too much to ask, just once I'd like to not be defined by a food group. Politicians have dished out this tactic for years. In his congressional and Senate races, Lyndon Johnson went into the Hispanic enclaves of south Texas and handed out tacos and beer. Years later, President Gerald Ford tried to bond with a Hispanic audience by taking a bite out of a tamale. Bill Clinton loved Mexican food and consumed it with gusto. During a visit to a Mexican restaurant in Tucson in the late 1990s, Clinton showed his affinity with Hispanics by eating enough to satisfy an entire Mexican family."

These examples make me slightly nauseous. To think of how our presidents have acted in the past towards a certain race, defining them by a food group, just makes me realize that they have no idea how to relate to someone that isn't white. Putting an entire race under the umbrella of 'tacos and beer', it makes me angry, to be honest. But who am I to say or complain about how people should be treated... I'm not... I've said it before, I'm a little peon in a cubicle in northern MN. I'm white, and have grown up in an environment where everyone else is too. 

It just seems demoralizing. But it got me thinking about how I define myself versus how others might be defining me. I'm sure it's not what I would like people to think, but at the same time, it doesn't matter. Their opinions are their opinions. It should not effect how I go about my day to day boring life. 

But this is politics. This is how our top leaders are treating/defining what "Hispanic" means to them. Tacos and beer. Tamales. 

Ugh, super lame.

Stereotyping=Ridiculousness

Don't give in to the madness...

Eggs

I have a great story. It involves eggs. You all will appreciate this.

My roommate and I went to Sam's Club last week. Bonus! And we each were trying really hard to restrain ourselves from buying mass quantities of everything. (i.e. 48 cans of Diet Coke, lawn furniture?, a bucket of cheese-balls, and the assorted 5lb blocks of cheese) But we did well! Neither of us got anything super weird or too extravagant... except me... and the eggs...

What happened, really, is not that I wanted 36 eggs for $3 (such a good deal!!) for myself, but that my roommate and I would SPLIT the 36 eggs for $3. Whooops! When I got home, I handed her one of the two 18 packs of eggs, and she goes "What? I don't need any eggs. I thought it was a good deal, but was wondering why you needed that many eggs?"  Dunn, dunn, dunn... 36 eggs?? What am I going to do with 36 eggs!!??

Well, I hard-boiled 18 of them and have been eating them constantly. Mmmm, protein. I'm doing well! Only two left. Now I only have 20 eggs left... Omelets anyone? Souffle maybe??

In other news, here is my article of the week. This person Did Not lay an egg... http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/politics/gop-tuesday-contests/index.html

And yes, I read the whole article. High Five!

Race

Since I've been trying to stay up with the news, I've been reading and seeing a lot of articles on racism. Not to say that there were not any before, but since I've been living under a rock and not paying attention to the news, I haven't been aware...

Anyways, as I was taking a little walk break today, I was thinking about what I had just been studying. Carboxylic acid derivatives, i.e. amides, anhydrides, esters, and acyl halides. Fun, right? Yeah, I didn't think so either. My face must have been saying the same thing, because I came upon a man who looked at me and said, "Wipe that mean look off of your face! Are you sure you're doing alright?" I burst out laughing, and reassured him that I was fine. Just thinking. He smiled at me and continued walking in the opposite direction, calling out to me to have a better rest of my day. Crazy funny. The man was black.

Here is my article of the week: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/31/opinion-tim-wise-what-is-post-racial-reflections-on-denial-and-reality/?hpt=us_t4

Definitely go and read this article. If you have the time, read some of the comments that other people have left below the article. Mind blowing. I swear.