Hi. It's been awhile.

I went to Washington DC this past week with a group from College Republicans - I mentioned the trip a couple entries back. It had its ups and downs, but I think I'm overall glad I went. The hotel reservations got screwed up, the bus driver hit a sign which consequently cracked a window which then had to be replaced at a truck stop outside New Haven.....whatever. Traffic, messed-up hotel stuff....we eventually got there, missing Dick Cheney by several hours, and I missed Senator Zell Miller because he was only speaking at the stupid banquet that we weren't at.....definitely false advertising. AND he was signing books, but I didn't bring my Zell Miller book because I'm a genius. So, we listened to some really good speeches, got to know some more good Conservative names, and did some freezing-ass cold sightseeing. And made friends with some guys from Rhode Island. And Jess drank!

Got home at 3am this morning, thanks to Alejandro driving to Manchester in the middle of the night to pick us up. Proceeded to sleep some, get up and unpack, do laundry, clean, go to work, come back, have dinner, do homework, finish homework, watching TV with Steph now. Most Extreme Elimination Challenge is hysterical - watch it! I probably shoulda called home today, and now it's too late. Work is hard. Payroll for the first few weeks is going to be a pain in the ass, until everything is set and the printer works, and there's actually a budget hearing next Monday, same day as when my application to the School of Business is due. And, I have almost no idea what I'm doing. At least it's early on, so I have something of an excuse for being clueless. Did you see that, Eric and Dave? Clueless!!

I was admittedly very irritable today, for a number of reasons. And no, they're not estrogen-related (probably). Just irritable and letting things bother me that normally wouldn't. Saw Brian M downstairs in the study lounge, because now he lives at Buckley again - coolness.

Goodnight or something.

From http://www.steveandarlyn.com/funstuff.html:

Kids Speak Out on Marriage and Dating

Q: How can a stranger tell if two people are married?

A: "You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids."
- Derrick, age 8


Q: What do most people do on a date?

A: "On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date."
- Martin, age 10


Q: What would you do on a first date that was turning sour?

A: "I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns."
- Craig, age 9


Q: When is it OK to kiss someone?

A: "When they're rich."
- Pam, age 7


"The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that."
- Curt, age 7


"The rule goes like this: if you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
- Howard, age 8


Q: Is it better to be single or married?

A: "I don't know which is better, but I'll tell you one thing. I'm never going to have sex with my wife. I don't want to be all grossed out."
- Theodore, age 8


Q: How would you make a marriage work?

A: "If you want to last with your man, you should wear a lot of sexy clothes, especially underwear that is red and maybe has a few diamonds on it."
- Lori, age 8


"Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck."
- Ricky, age 10

Once a month, things really start piss me off. Just a lot of stupid things in the past couple days that add up to a lot of nothing, and yeah that's vague but oh well. Today is officially Wednesday, so that makes four more days until I can go back to where everything is again. It's a little hard to accept, how much I've broken off from life around here - friends scattered, people I never see or talk to any more....and I wish I did. It's a stupid thing, to lose friends from lack of communication. But then, I guess people grow apart. Maybe most of it is born out of conveniance - you make friends with the people around you, and maybe most of those relationships are shallow enough that they don't hold out over long distances or long periods of time. Sad. The people I'm closest to now are the ones I've met only in the past year or even few months.

I should probably keep a more private journal, but I think keeping my more personal problems and thoughts out of this one keep it from being completely unreadable. My inclination is to bitch and moan, but what exactly do I have to bitch and moan about? How I'm feeling today? Aches and pains? I'm completely healthy, I have a great family (as long as I'm not confined with them in an enclosed space in long periods of time), I get to go to school without worrying about making tuition payments, and I can do pretty much whatever I want. Count your blessings Laura, count your blessings. There's no reason to start being a depressed suburban teenager now. See the title on top of the page? I'm not changing it. It's still true. I just need to get out of the house more.

Home for one more week. I really have lost touch with most of my high school friends, sad to say. They have their own lives at home, school, or in the military now. So, I still spend most of my time reading, hanging out with Shawn, and occasionally playing housewife. Going to Washington DC in a couple weeks to the CPAC convention (Conservative something or-other), where I get to see Dick Cheney, Zell Miller, David Horowitz, Ann Coulter......oh man, I'm excited. And a dork. Hardcore conservatives may be just as unreasonable and funny as hardcore liberals - I don't know that anything will ever be accomplished by hardcore partisanship. Still, it's good to know that in this world there do exist those who will stand up and scream until they're blue in the face about the principles many people feel are out-of-date and obsolete. Jess and I are going to enjoy ourselves.