Let's Pick Up Where We Left Off

I realized that it has been three weeks since I've made a blog post and since I had three tests today I have no homework (due tomorrow) so here goes.

To recap the last three weeks of my life:

1. There is now has a vine called Shirali Y Eats. Check it out. Its almost as good as the Shirali pics.

2. The Arctic Monkeys and Grouplove both released new albums that I will be listening to when I get off work tonight. Also the Catching Fire movie soundtrack list is out and it looks really good.

3. I had my first biology test and I can't figure out whether or not I think I did well. I think I spent more time in line to turn the test in than I did actually taking the test. Also the dude in front of me was wearing his shirt backwards. It was a v-neck.

(My evernote just cut out in the middle of this post, and I was very sad)

4. Everyone is a stress monkey this semester because were sophomores and we have more homework. I've been watching to see which Chem-E's will go up in flames. I hope they prove me wrong, and then make me delicious chemically engineered food when they work for Coke. There is only a 10% graduation rate though, so I think my bets are safe.

5. I don't hate my roommate but I can't make a judgement call until October, I guess that's a thing, but I think she'll pass the test. Our room is pretty chill.

6. I started running again and I'm gonna do a 5K with some friends. Well, sorta do it. Our time probably won't be too hot but its the thought that counts...or maybe that only works with unwanted gifts. Eh.

7. I figured out my life with my friend Madison. It involved me taking 12 credits this summer. Bye, bye life and money I hardly knew you. Seriously I hardly did because college is a huge money hole. Hopefully it pays off because seriously so much money, and I go to a public school. I'm sobbing for the people paying 50k a year right now.

8. We are almost done with our fifth week in the semester which is a bit mind blowing. The fall semester seems to go really fast, and then spring just drags on for about 20 years.

9. The new Divergent book, Allegiant is coming out on October 22 and I don't have any tests the next day. Win. Additionally no Org. Chem Test the day Catching Fire comes out. Another win.

10. I went to my first Indians game and they actually won.

I also thought I would explain my obsession with TV shows. When I was in high school I watched TV religiously. I had a schedule every night of the week, and when I came to college I had friends so I stopped doing that. Anyway, this week has been TV premiere week and I am missing Grey's Anatomy right now because I am at work and I am a little salty about that. I did watch last weeks Bones episode today. The writing on that show has just tanked. It used to be my favorite show, but it might have moved its way down to 4th place and now I am going to need to change my security question answers. Parenthood starts tonight too. I channel my inner old person when I watch that show. Whenever I bring it up everyone always tells me their moms watch it. For pilots this year I'm gonna try Blacklist, Trophy Wife, Hostages, The Michael J Fox Show, and Welcome to the Family. It will probably be November before I actually watch them though because there is no time ever to do anything but homework and sleeping.

Well, that was my ramble to kill time at work.

Noelle

Read More

The Line

The social line of appropriateness is a thin and pale line. We're all tiptoeing around it trying to decipher the reaction of others and do what we feel is the best thing for the situation. We spend our whole lives trying to show our best face and make sure that people see what they want to. But, is that really us? We walk around on egg shells trying not to offend people and to make sure we are what they want to see. We go to work and do exactly what they want us to do, even if its not our normal personalities. We lie to people to make them think that we are more impressive than we really are. We bend the truth. We all do it. 

When were in social situations, the personality relaxes. We tell inappropriate jokes and spend less time thinking about who we are supposed to be. They say the more comfortable you are around people, the more you will tease them. The more inappropriate things you will say around them, and the less you will filter. But, there is a gray area between teasing and actually bothering someone. I, personally, have never been very good at reading social cues. Sometimes I can pick on people's feelings, but usually I am pretty in the dark. If it's really obvious I will understand, but if its subtile it goes over my head. I can never tell when people actually want me to stop or when they are joking about wanting me to stop. So, I've discovered that my constant teasing isn't always welcome, and I have to watch for the point where my playful self meets my sarcastic self and filter. I am a green/orange, notorious for being ass-holes. We get inside our own heads and don't pay attention to anyone else's. 

I'm not much for apologizing. I've always thought just saying what you want to say is the best way to live, but I don't want to go around being a jerk.

So, I'm sorry if offended anyone and although I can't change, I can watch myself. 

~Noelle

Just so this post isn't just me venting my problems, here is another pic from the Shirali collection. I hope she doesn't mind these. If she does, I guess I'll apologize for that too. But, still post it, because they are enjoyable.

Read More

Here's to Another, Better Year

“Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (...) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”

                    

       - John Green, Looking for Alaska

They say when you're a teenager, the best times in your life are yet to come. That is what fuels us. Part of living in the present is imagining a future, and sometimes wishing and working to get to the end point is better than the actual end. We use the future to justify the present, and each year that ends we hope for a better one to start. We use it to keep us going and know that the way things are now aren't how they always will be. Every year is a new start. New classes, the potential for new friends, new routine, and a step closer to whatever end game is in the future. I don't have a specific idea about what I want to do when I finish college, but the thought of having a year of college done and a year to decide what to do next is extremely daunting. When I think about each year, I think about how each year I tell myself things will get better. Not in a sad I want to kill myself way, but in a way that says I have a future, and if I don't like something now, change is always around the corner.

Today was my second day of my second year of college. It is my first year as a biology major and I have a new roommate. I was able to keep the things from last year I liked, and rid myself of the things that I knew weren't making me happy. I've been to all of my classes, and I got a week of college camp helping with Major Events Committee at school, which although I had good times I probably wouldn't do it again. I pretty much sold my soul, (and my body) to them. I did move in early though so I got my part of the deal. 7:45 Organic Chemistry seems to be part of the deal too, well a different deal. I think maybe with the devil. Curse profs who enjoy mornings.

To kick off the new year, here are some new Shirali pictures. 

Also, I've been holding out on this because it was a surprise for friend, but now he has seen it so I can post it. I made it back in July from an idea from my friend Heather (mentioned in a previous biography). I really enjoyed working on it, and am actually pretty proud of it. I come off as a science and logic personality, but I really do like the arts a lot.

So anyway, I hope this is another great year full of Enya naps, family drawings, Shirali dinners, Zee's runs, actual runs, and great people.

Here's to another, better year,

Noelle

Read More

Home Again, Home Again, and a little about me...and Tate

I went to Minnesota for the long weekend. I hit the twin cities, Carleton college, and Rochester. I didn't realize how many people my family knew in Minnesota. We stayed at a friend's house and then traveled all over from there. I saw my best friend from childhood, who goes to Carleton College in Northfield. Tuition is a grand 54k a year and no one chooses majors until they're finishing their sophomore year. I suppose that's what happens in liberal arts colleges. I go to a state university where tuition is less and they want you to know everything you want the moment you step in the door, a philosophy that I find to be utter bullshit. No one knows what they want at the age of eighteen. I wish they gave us more time to explore and decide what we like, but if I want to do that I have to pay $54,000 a year, so I guess I'm stuck making uneducated decisions about my future. I just hope I don't end up suicidal at 40 because of my choice at eighteen. Also in Northfield, is a store that sells very good olive oil and vinegar. 

This week has been a lot of visiting with older relatives, something that is sometimes fun at most of the time just is really awkward. You have to laugh, or you'll end up crying, right? I really don't want to get old. Maybe life can take me out at 60 and I don't have to do the whole dementia thing, or if I do I hope I at least get to keep my sense of humor.

Either way, Minnesota was fun. It's nice to get away from Ohio for a while, even if they're pretty much the same place.

In a previous post, I wrote a biography for my friend Madison, and she so graciously wrote one for me as well.

Noelle is now a Biology major at the University of Akron. If you had asked her two months ago, she would have answered she was a Biomedical Engineer, part of the 80% of other Honors students who are studying engineering. However, Noelle decided to buck the trend and try something new. Since Noelle is no longer an engineer, she is not a member of any engineering clubs such as Eureka Honors Engineering or Women in Engineering. She enjoys procrastination, playing guitar, doing stuff on her computer, writing blog posts, and taking bad pictures of her friend Shirali, among other things. Noelle 'Wonder Woman' is known by other names, including 'The Asian,' 'Yun, and 'No Wiser.' To learn more about Noelle, visit her at her blog, her home, or her dorm.

Due to the popularity of the Madison post, I promised my friend Tate I would write her a bio too.

Taylor, or more often known as Tate, grew up in the harsh suburban streets of Massillon Ohio. As a child she enjoyed Star Wars, playing pretend, and running away from home with macaroni & cheese boxes in hand. Through her angsty teen years she enjoyed such bands as My Chemical Romance, and more My Chemical Romance. She also enjoyed a hippy phase, courtesy of a seventh grade English teacher. She has just finished her first year of college at the University of Akron. She is unsure of her major and has thought of everything from education to law to social work. In her free time Tate enjoys writing, reading, more writing, and watching Netflix. She currently splits her time between the city of Akron and her family home in Massillon. She has one brother, one boyfriend, and two dogs. 

~Noelle

Read More

Well it Had to Happen Eventually

My grades finally came in. I got an A in everything but Chemistry, where I got a C. A C that sent me into a five minute freak out, and question my whole college life, because that's what I do, I freak out. This is a side that people outside of my family rarely see from me. I am always referred to as the calm one, the one who doesn't freak out, the one with the least amount of emotion to show. But, I still have my moments.

Getting this C has made me reflect on the way things have been for me the last 14 years. This is first C I've ever gotten, ever, since kindergarten, unless you count the minus I received in skipping, but I don't think anyone does. My kindergarten teacher might. She pulled my mom in for a parent teacher conference about it and my mom just laughed and taught me how to skip at home. I was a bit of a Wiz kid in elementary school, but the people I was up against weren't anything worth comparing too. Not offense to them, but it was an inner city school and there was none of that Kumon crap or any of those montessori kindergartens. My parents read to me as a kid, and I liked books, as all my friends know from a trip to Books-A-Million where I pointed out every book in the store I read as a child. Basically, I could have just pointed to the whole children's section. I had a lot of free time when I was a kid. Then, I went to a high school where someone with a 3.8 could be ranked in the hundreds. That's a rich suburb school for you. Now, the kids I go to college with honors students. Students that have never even gotten a B before. That were valedictorians of their high schools and have won awards. For the most part, I've always been in smart company.

But, anyway, its my first C, and its in a class that actually matters for my major. I got A's in all my engineering classes but the only biology related class I got a C. This freaks me out, this makes me wonder if I am doing the right thing. This sends my head into a tilt, but then I get talked down. Usually by my mother. She's always the one who does it. I hardly ever cry anymore, but for some reason when I'm with my mom I just lose it. It's always been that way. She is also the person I can get the angriest at. I guess if you feel like someone is going to love you anyway, you can just let loose and not worry about the consequences. The people you love the most are always the people you treat the worst, because you know they will still like you when you've calmed down.

Well, thats my rant, turned awkward. I just wanted to write something.

~Noelle

Read More