Monday, May 31, 2010

and now for the things I love...

since yesterday I posted about the things that drive me bananas, today it's all about what I love!

1. Taylor Swift songs!

2. The Beach/California!

3. my mom's banana bread!

4. Hugseys! (oh and adding seys to every word....yawn-seys, whatev-seys)

5. Lifetime Movies!

6. Texting!

7. facebook! (sad, but true!)

8. jewelry!

9. Birthdays!

10. even numbers!

pet peeves

I'm sure this comes as a surprise to most of you, but I have a lot of pet peeves! In no particular order they are:

1. People who are at the back of the line and a new register opens and they rush to the front!

2. Movie talkers!! Yes, I saw that, I am watching the same movie you are. We can talk about it after.

3. Tommy Toppers!! People who have to top EVERY story with something that they have done 100X better then your little story! and then to be combined with this...LIARS! Liars who make up stories just to have something to talk about. OH and don't forget people who just talk to much! sometimes silence is ok!

4. boys who act like they don't have girlfriends...BUT really do!!

5. girls who let guys define them. Be yourself, that's why he fell in love with you in the first place!

6. (from Sarah) People who throw their cigarette out their window when driving and it flys back and hits your car...or worse goes under your car and blows you up! just something to think about smokers of America!

7. people who tell a story about their parents and just say mom or dad. Like, for example: "Mom and I went to the mall" so wait, are you saying you went with my mom or yours? confusing. I think this might be a regional thing. I never heard this until I moved to Virginia.

ok I'm sure there are 100 more but this is all for now.

xoxo

Monday, May 17, 2010

college

Every year I get to re-live my freshmen year of college through all the incoming freshmen and their parents. They are so excited, nervous, energized and anxious all at the same time! I recently found a copy of this email I got years and years ago when I was in college and saved because it really spoke to me then...it still speaks to me now! What I have learned is that some things don't change, through the distance and the years, somethings never change and I am so appreciative of that!




Somewhere between the procrastination
and the homework
and the incessant forwards
and the new friendships
and somewhere between the phone calls to old friends,
and the I miss you's and the I love you's
and the I can't wait to see you again's,
and somewhere between all of the changing and growing,
and somewhere between the classes and the skipping classes,
and the studying for tests and the pretending to study for tests,
and the downright not studying for tests...I forgot.


I forgot what it was like to be in high school,
I forgot what it meant to cry,
I forgot that pretending to be happy doesn't make you happy,
I forgot that you can't just forget the past.
Forgot that you can't control falling in love
and that you can't make yourself fall in love.


I learned that I can love.
I learned that good food doesn't really seem great
until you can't have it anymore
and I learned that even I would grow to love Grilled cheese and tomato soup.
I noticed that I get along better with my mother now than I ever did before,
I learned that going to college means making choices
and that making choices can get you in trouble.
I learned that it's ok to mess up,
it's okay to ask for help
and that it's okay to feel like crap.


I learned that sometimes the things that you want most, you just can't have.
I learned that the greatest thing about college isn't the parties
or the drinking, or the boys,
it's the chances--
taking the chances and then making the most of them.


I learned that sometimes the things we want to forget are the things,
which we most need to talk about.
I learned that once you get to college,
things don't automatically get better,
it's what you make of them.
I learned that letters from friends are the most important things
and that sending cards to your friends makes you feel better.
I learned that home isn't necessarily where I went to high school,
but where ever I wanted it to be
I learned that my mom seemed to get a lot smarter
once I started listening to her.
I learned that I miss my sister.
I learned that high school was good for me
and that the challenges in high school are nothing.


Somewhere along the line,
I learned if you look for love you'll never find it
I learned that some people will do anything
to try and make you see their point.
I learned that its easy to have views,
its easy to have friends,
but that its hard to stick up for both of them if everyone else disagrees,
but I learned its worth it to stick up for both of them in the long run.
I learned that I don't have to be the center of attention to have fun,
and I learned that begin the center of attention isn't always fun.
I learned that laughter is the best medicine
and that friends who make you laugh are the best kind to have.
I learned that there is a fine distinction between friendship and love
and that friendship is the more valuable of the two.
I learned that sometimes it's not always possible to agree
and that sometimes it's necessary to compromise.


I learned that kisses aren't contracts.
I learned that I am my own person.
I found out that I am just starting to find out about me.
I learned that it's never too late to change.
I learned that change is good sometimes.
I learned that no matter what happens, they still care about you.
I learned that you should tell people how you feel about them.
I learned that sometimes I need to be alone.
I learned that some of the most valuable lessons in life
are the ones you can't teach in a classroom.
I learned that no matter what I want to be,
I have to take a class that I don't like in order to get there.


I learned that college is different from everything I thought it would be.
I learned that life isn't always about me.
I learned that I should stick up for myself.
I learned that that is hard to do.
I learned that people should like me for me,
and that I should like me for me.
I learned that naps are good,
and that when I get angry,
I shouldn't take my frustrations out on someone else.


I learned that things change and people change
and that it is not always possible to stay in touch with everyone.
I learned that some people are your friends for life,
even when you doubt it.
through fights, and being apart for what seems like forever,
they are still there.
I learned that you always know in your heart
that because you are friends everything will be okay.
I learned that friends make everything better
and that I should thank all of my friends for being there for me
and helping me learn.
I learned that I have a lot to learn.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

ok so I am that crazy fish lady!

The story of Roxie, Penny and Lucky!

ok so here is the story--Roxie is my original fish, she is kinda emo and doesn't really like people looking at her. She usually just floats around and sometimes plays dead. She is perfect!! Lucky, the beta in the purple tank in the left corner, was the Funk/Gore RA fish. Matt the cleaning lady found her flopping around in the water fountain before Christmas Break. He saved her and she was in the RA office for the second semester. I adopted her for the summer and she will return to the RA office in the Fall for them to enjoy (that is if I don't kill her!). Penny is the latest addition to my pack. Penny was abandoned by the original owner in Funk! Apparently Funk was full of fish abandoners. Penny is super happy and loves to swim. I love her. Penny's tank is a little funky right now because the tank's filter was broken so I had to borrow one that is too big so the lid doesn't close. But I am going to go to Pet Smart and get a new filter for this tank.

The End!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

President Casteen's remarks at the candlelight vigil for Yeardley Love

There are profound ironies in our gathering here tonight for this purpose. This is the spring time. It's the time of year for renewal, for new beginnings. And yet we have come here to grieve the ending of a young life, of Yeardley Love's life, one full of promise and high prospects—and one not unlike yours.

I want to talk tonight about Yeardley Love, and I want to talk about you, and about this community—about us. Some of what I have to say is very hard. Bear with me, and listen.

First, about Yeardley: We know little at this point about Yeardley's dying. The prosecutor has found cause to bring the charge of murder. The defense attorney has described her death as an accident. This is not the forum to examine those charges or the evidence that will eventually make its way to court.

But it is a forum for acknowledging what we do know. That includes: that Yeardley Love accomplished much in her too-brief life; that she earned the respect of those around her—her classmates, her faculty mentors, coaches, sisters in her sorority, her roommates, certainly her family; that she excelled in what she undertook to do in life, and she excelled in what she chose to be; that Yeardley Love did nothing to deserve to be attacked and beaten, to deserve to suffer the injuries of which we have all read in the police reports, to deserve to die; indeed for that matter, that woman beaten, thrown against walls, or in any other way abused has ever deserved either to suffer or to die.

My hope for Yeardley, and for you, is that her dying inspires an anger, a sense of outrage that engenders determination here and wherever Yeardley's name is recognized that no woman, no person in this place, this community, this state, our nation need either fear for her safety or experience violence for any reason: not because of her sex, not because of her size, not because of an attacker's advantage or arrogance or mindless sense of right to abuse, to harm, perhaps to kill; and then that memory of Yeardley's name, her personal strengths, her successes, her human worth may survive the memory of the dying about which we ache tonight, and that you and we and all who know the story of Yeardley Love will learn the lessons of her living, of her life.

And then I want to talk about you for a few minutes: take something away from this event. Take with you the determination that you will speak up for yourself, that you will act when you see or hear about abuse or violence in the world around you. If your relationship is unhealthy or toxic, seek help, seek support. Talk to your dean. Seek out a faculty member. Come talk to me. If necessary go to the police, or let us take you to the police. If you fear for yourself or for others any form of violence, act. Seek the support that belongs to you, because you belong to us. Demand and expect support, respect, and assistance when you do that. Help your friend in the same way if she (or he) needs help of the same kind. Don't hear a scream, don't watch abuse, don't hear stories of abuse from your friends—and keep quiet. Speak out. Find me; I will go with you to the police.

We all enjoy the privilege of living here in what we call—and rightly—a community of trust. I have believed you; you have believed one another; we have learned to trust one another here. Leave tonight with knowledge that the blows and abuse that somehow ended Yeardley's life threaten all of us, threaten you, and threaten this community of trust—that violence and abuse left unconfronted can and will destroy this culture that we love.

Addressing the shock and the grief that all of us feel tonight is hard. It's also something we owe to Yeardley Love, and we owe it to one another. You do not have to do that alone. If you need someone to listen, to act on your behalf, to help, call the numbers that you know, or remember 924-7133. Call 4-7133. Don't hesitate, don't wait for someone else – do it tonight, do it first thing in the morning. And again, if you believe that you know something that threatens one of your friends, do it for Yeardley Love—call.

The net of this as I understand this community, our place, your identities as people whom I respect and cherish is that the lesson to learn—the value for you of remembering Yeardley Love for what she was—is that you choose to live, that you guard against the events that led to Yeardley's death by recognizing evil, by recognizing danger, by seeing it for what it is whether it is your own or your neighbor's, by choosing to preserve this community of trust. Choose now, tonight, to honor Yeardley Love's life. Promise yourself that wherever you go from this place in future years, you take with yourself the sense of vicious loss that tonight commemorates.

And tuck away in your soul the knowledge that neither Yeardley Love nor any woman ever attacked has deserved it, that no victim in the end has to suffer, has to die, but that together we are the protection, that we must act together to protect one another and to see to it that the things we've learned here become and remain true in the world to which we go after this place.

May God bless Yeardley Love.

John T. Casteen III, president

May 5, 2010