Hello again. It amazes me that I'm still getting hits here. But since there are people listening, I might as well talk.
A new boy... let's just call him G for now. Immediately after we met, we were seeing each other practically every night. No matter how many times we told each other we were going to take it slow - him just out of a relationship, me with my relationship-phobia - things really took off and progressed a lot faster than either of us anticipated. It's crazy, this head-over-heels, butterflies in my stomach, not wanting to go to sleep unless he's next to me, can't keep our hands off of each other whirlwind. I keep telling myself to be careful, not to let myself fall for all the amazing things he says to me, but here I am falling for him a little more every day.
It's 99 degrees here every day, and it makes me want to stay in bed all day every day, only getting up to go to work or pick up food. I would eat ice cream for every meal if I could.
I'm halfway finished with college, and wondering where all that time went. Finals stressed me out a lot more than they should have, and I'm beginning to think I'm not cut out for a career in science. The other biochem majors I know can spend every waking moment studying, with their parents paying their rent and no social life to speak of. I work for everything I have, and I'm just not willing to completely give up being 19. That's probably what's going to get me rejected from med school, but I don't think I'd be able to live my life any other way. I got through half a chapter of my MCAT prep book and burst into tears just thinking about how monumental this one test could be.
But when G is around, I don't worry about these things - I'm more confident than ever and immensely happy. It worries me that it takes a boy to do that to me - I talk so much to all of my friends about how women need to be independent, especially at our age, how we have to know we can rely on ourselve before we can rely on someone else. And here I am, a walking contradiction, but a happy one. When I think about that, I'm terrified, but I suppose that's what life is.
i'm a mess these days. i feel as if i'm not actually living each day as it passes, but rather floating by, just an observer. i'm so very behind in analytical chemistry, and organic chemistry, and okay, just about everything. weekends are late tipsy nights and early morning opening shifts, and weekdays are early morning classes and late night closing shifts. i always bring my textbooks to work with me, but i never open them. my thoughts come mostly in fragments these days.
spent saturday night at diana's place - giggling over pink champagne in plastic dollar store flutes. ashley and i standing in the street with our camel lights, dancing to her renditions of country songs. drunk text messaging with a boy from work who is bound to get me into trouble. and later, standing on the back porch, brandon and i drying ashleys tears, because things don't seem to be working out the way they should for anyone these days.
friday night, sent home from jarrod's apartment by the brpd, most of us with hangovers, jarrod with a minor in possession charge. me curling up on the couch in brandon and travis's apartment, drinking a bottle of smirnoff ice for the first time since i was 16. danielle sitting next to me, blurting in a vodka-induced haze that i should know by now that brandon wouldn't want a relationship at all in college unless it was with me... what? brandon, the first person i told after i slept with jarrod? the only guy mary, ashley, and i drag to louie's on sunday nights for our raunchy, sex and the city-esque chats over strawberry pancakes? brandon who has seen me throw up in the street outside of tucks? who watched me eat two entire pizzas and a party size bag of zapps chips on the orpheus parade route? there are a lot of things that could be said about this, but i'm not sure i've convinced myself that it's real just yet.
Hi. My laptop hasn't been working in almost a month. I swear that's why I disappeared.
So much to say, but I still have 2 more finals to take in the morning, so I'm going to put this off for another day or two. There are pictures to be seen here, if you're interested, and as soon as I get my Halloween pictures onto a picture CD, those will be there too. There are a few pictures of Jarrod in all of his beauty there, but they really don't do him justice - I'll steal some of his pictures from his web album eventually to show you. I'm terrified of linking it from here, of course.
Go vote! Because I'm a dumbass who forgot to figure out how to vote absentee, I drove to New Orleans last night to cast my vote this morning for all three Johns on the ballot - that includes Chris John for the Senate from Louisiana.
At the risk of jinxing things, I think Kerry is going to take this.
I've been surprisingly productive lately. A few weeks ago, I got a job at Starbucks, so I'm finally making money again. I've had tests like crazy lately - in most of my classes, I have tests every 3 weeks, but during the hurricane a lot of them were pushed back, so I had those to make up, and the subsequent ones weren't postponed at all. Fun times, really. As predicted, organic chemistry has, in fact, turned into something of a nightmare, and while I don't mind physics class, the accompanying lab makes me want to cry sometimes.
Not that I'm complaining: I perform at my best when I'm consistently occupied. This way, I never have the opportunity to slide into a pattern of oversleeping and being hungover all the time.
Oh, and I somehow managed to find the time to turn 19.
My birthday was actually Friday, but LSU's fall break was Thursday and Friday and most people went home for the 4-day weekend. So my roommates threw me a party Wednesday night. I couldn't have asked for better friends than the ones I have. Brandon bought me a bottle of Bacardi 151; Mary bought me the LSU football t-shirt I've been wanting since last semester; my roommates bought me condoms. Aaron managed to stumble down the street from the TigerLand bars, where he spends 90 percent of his time these days, to my apartment.
So here's the fun part: I had to work the opening shift at Starbucks at 5 am Thursday, but I didn't let that stop me from getting obscenely drunk Wednesday night. Oh, and on that note - you should try mixing Smirnoff's strawberry vodka with strawberry Kool-Aid. It's incredible. Of course, it was the 151 shots that did me in. But I somehow managed to stay awake the entire night, with Aaron's help. I made it to work almost entirely sober.
So we almost had a problem with the hurricane interfering with today's game, but we're good to go. Except for the fact that ESPN backed out of broadcasting GameDay from Auburn. Which sucks, because I have a feeling this is going to be a really good game. Last weekend's blowout (LSU: 53, ASU: 3) was exactly what we needed to get ready for our first SEC matchup.
On an entirely different note... Mary, Ashley, and Lindsay live in an apartment complex a few blocks away from mine, and if they're not over here, I'm over there. For the past few weeks, we've been involved in a prank war with the boys who live across from them. Most of the stuff that we've pulled hasn't really been anything special, but Thursday night, they really got us. We were sitting in their living room watching a movie, when all of a sudden the door swings open and something comes flying through the air and lands on the carpet right in front of us. We all stare at it in shock for a few minutes, and then it hits us: they threw a dead raccoon into the apartment. And it is bleeding all over the carpet.
Needless to say, we were disgusted, because those things carry all kinds of nasty diseases. It is so fucking on now.
So last night, we climbed into their apartment through the window and took just about everything they own. Their fridge is completely empty. Their X-Box is ours now, as is their whiskey and several cases of bottled water. This is just to prove to them that we can get in whenever we want. We have something else entirely up our sleeves for later this week.
See, a few weeks ago, they knocked down the gate to the pool in a drunken stupor. The cops came looking for it, so they needed to stash it somewhere so as not to get arrested. Kevin, one of the guys that lives there, works with Aaron, so they tossed it into his backyard. Now we all know that I have my own connections to Aaron, so Mary and I have taken it upon ourselves to get the gate back from him. Once they find out that we have it, we'll definitely have the upper hand, seeing as how we control whether or not they have a criminal record.
Any suggestions as to what to do next are greatly appreciated. These guys threw a dead animal at us. They're going down.
I have to run now, because the game starts in half an hour. Geaux Tigers!
So it's looking like Hurricane Ivan is going to hit us in the next few days, and a lot of people are getting worried and whatnot. Me, I'm planning a hurricane party.
New Orleans is going to get hit a bit harder than Baton Rouge, so all of the schools there are already closed for the rest of the week; it's looking like we'll be out of class by Wednesday, which works in my favor because I have an organic chemistry test that night. My mom is probably going to hurricane-proof our house and home and come stay at my apartment, and she's promised to bring plenty of Pat O'Brien's Hurricane Mix.
See, the apartment complex where I live is designed fairly well for occasions like this. The buildings are arranged in a horseshoe, and the entire middle slopes downward so that too much rainwater just forms a lake in the middle of the place. Each individual building is also on a slight incline. And apparantly, two hurricane seasons ago, when Isadore and Lily both hit Louisiana, everyone who lived here at the time threw tarps down the slopes, covered them in dishwashing liquid, and played in the rain while the power was out. This is how things work at LSU.
I've honestly never been very intimidated by hurricane season. Anyone with half a brain in New Orleans has damn good flood insurance, and we get enough practice with this shit growing up that it never occurred to me to think of it as an actual threat. If anything particularly troublesome (like this one) comes along, you pack up anything irreplacable and head out. I used to adore getting to visit my aunt and uncle in Houston during hurricane days. When Andrew hit when I was a kid, we sat with our front door open and watched the wind blow.
Granted, I have heard some pretty fucked up stories about Hurricanes Betsy and Camille back in the day, and this season has been pretty hectic - I would not want to live in Florida right now - but I'm just going with it. No use getting all worked up over something that can't be changed.
Really, I suppose it's a good thing that I'm not easily intimidated, because one day I will be one of the people staying behind in the emergency room while everyone else starts evacuating.
My biggest concern right now is Alabama staying dry enough for the Auburn game this weekend.
My swimsuit is out already. Cowboy Mouth's "Hurricane Party" is on repeat. Bring on the alcohol.
nicole: 19-year-old LSU sophomore. biochemistry, pre-med. native new orleanian. starbucks barista. borderline alcoholic. addicted to facebook, red bull and vodka, and college football. a little neurotic, extremely indecisive, and often irresponsible.
Go vote! Because I'm a dumbass who forgot to figure out how to vote absentee, I drove to New Orleans last night to cast my vote this morning for all three Johns on the ballot - that includes Chris John for the Senate from Louisiana.
So it's looking like Hurricane Ivan is going to hit us in the next few days, and a lot of people are getting worried and whatnot. Me, I'm planning a 
Granted, I have heard some pretty fucked up stories about Hurricanes Betsy and 
