Exploring My America

Hey all.
I haven't posted in a long time, but, now is the time!
I, and Brian, are considering entering into the Sears Exploring my America Challenge and we will need your help.
So.... start following this blog more.
OK thanks.

drunk white guy in need of ride

On Friday, Brian and I drove down to Florida to camp out for a night by the beach.

It's a pretty sweet life, I am not going to lie.

We had to wake up fairly early because it is a four and a half hour drive and we wanted plenty of beach time. We ended up leaving LaGrange around 6 AM and getting to Grayton Beach around 10:30. We went to lunch, got a camp site and spent the rest of our time on the beach playing in waves, drinking PBR and poking dead jelly fish in the sand.

Our original plans involved living it up at a local bar but by the time we got to the bar and had a beer in our hands we were tired and ready to head back to the camp site. This is when things got interesting.

We headed to the car and we see this man stumbling in the street. We saw him earlier inside the bar staggering from one chair to the next trying to text. At first we laughed at how ridiculous it was to see a thirty something year old in khakis, polo shirt and loafers acting so completely wasted, but then we saw his keys in his hands and got a little worried. No way this guy could drive.
So we pulled up beside him and asked if he was OK. He said he was, but he couldn't find his car.
We offered to give him a ride home and he accepted.
Meanwhile, on the ride home we had to do out best to keep him from going comatose, meanwhile he continuously went back and forth from trying to hold my hand and putting his hand on Brian's thigh.

Eventually we got him home. Finally. We pulled into his drive and watched him open his gate and make his way to the front door. Then we lost sight of him.
He fell. Face first into his garden bed.
Brian had to pull him up and we dragged him to his door and let him in.

We aren't really positive that it was his house because the door was open and we didn't need to use the key he provided. We figure he knew the house at least so if it wasn't his he at least knows the person who lives there.

Nothing funnier then a drunk preppy white man getting helped into his house by sober kids 10 years younger then him. Weren't we the ones who should have been smashed?

friendship bracelets

I have recently acquired friendship bracelet making materials. If you would like a friendship bracelet and would like it to be certain colors let me know.

I may have a lot of time on my hand and I may be making a lot of friendship bracelets to fill that time (quite possibly more bracelets than friends...)

necessities

So, I made such a production about my electric toothbrush that my roommate bought me one.
Which pretty much secures the belief that I was acting immature.

What makes it worse is my mom is sending me down another electric toothbrush as well.

Which means I will have three fully functioning and one broken electric toothbrush in my possession.

Completely necessary.

new cell phone

fyi, I got a new cell phone.
It's the same number.
If you haven't heard from me yet it's because I don't have your number so please text/call me and give your number.

thanks

electronic toothbrush : (

I was given an electronic toothbrush for Christmas. It wasn't the particular model I requested but it sufficed. I soon became quite attached to my electronic toothbrush due to its superior brushing capabilities in comparison to manual toothbrushes. I was pretty much hooked and completely smitten with my new toothbrush. My teeth felt dentist clean after every brushing.
I kid you not, this isn't a commercial for electric toothbrushes, I just really liked mine.
In the past when I used a manual toothbrush, I found myself brushing multiple times in one sitting because I just didn't feel satisfied with my level of clean. With my new toothbrush I only had to brush once after every meal. I was on cloud nine.
Then one day, it stopped working properly. In the middle of the night I would hear it going off on it's own with out me pressing start. It would refuse to start when I pressed "on" and would be on a delay. I was worried. Things didn't look good.
Then things just stopped. The electric portion of my toothbrush no longer worked. Yes, I could still use it as a manual toothbrush but why bother?
I was devastated. No amount of mouthwash/floss/sugar free mint gum could come close to getting my mouth to feel as clean as it did when my brush was working.
I turned to my mother for help.

Mom, please send me the receipt for the electric toothbrush you bought me for Christmas. It has only been two months and it has already stopped working.

Oh, that sux. I threw it out.

I am very passionate about my oral hygiene and I am a bit peeved. Why should I have to buy myself a new electric toothbrush costing $80 because my mother threw out the receipt. Am I spoiled? Maybe. Do I care? No. I want a replacement toothbrush. So, I explained to my mother that I was feeling rather jaded that she threw out the receipt for an expensive gift and now the gift receiver has to replace the failed merchandise. It's just not fair.
So I get an e-mail saying that a replacement brush had been purchased and sent in the mail.

Now I am happy again; blissful teeth cleaning is only days away.

But then, the toothbrush comes in. This is not the same toothbrush. This is a crappy $8 version of an electric toothbrush that I am going to have to replace the batteries of constantly and is not compatible with the replacement heads that I already have.

I am peeved again.

pancakes

I don't know how it happened, but somehow I lead everyone down here to believe that I have absolutely zero cooking skills.
Maybe it's because I only bring the beverage or some frozen food that requires reheating to all our potluck dinners. Maybe it was the one time I hosted the dinner and just bought a pre-made lasagna. Maybe it was the time I burnt my hand getting sweet potato fries out of the oven. I don't know. I guess I never fought the assumption.

Yes, I usually just let Brian do the cooking. He likes it so why not. I am not so attached to cooking. I can do it (really, I can) I just don't get all hot and bothered about it.
But now I am in too deep. It is commonly assumed that I lack cooking skills.

Last night I hosted a breakfast themed dinner. Brian did the eggs, I did the pancakes.
All the piteous chuckles I received from my failed attempts to make shamrock shaped pancakes were too much! I don't think there is any correlation to cooking ability and ability to make perfect shamrocks.

"O-ho-ho Adrienne, maybe you should just try making regular pancakes. That is more align with your skill set ::chuckle chuckle::"
-not an actual quote but it certainly sums up the vibes.

A rose by any other name

At lunch yesterday I was standing in line with one of Mariam's friends. We were exchanging pleasantries when she turns to me and says, "I'm sorry, I know we see each other all the time and say hi but what is your name again?"
For once I felt socially superior because I knew her name was Rose and she didn't know my name was Adrienne. So, I told her my name and then we went to a table and sat down to eat our lunch.

On the LaGrange College website they feature three students every month on the main page. This month one of those students was Rose so I decided to tell her that I saw her being featured on the web site.

This is where it got awkward.

She says, "That's not me, that's Rose."
I think, "If you're not Rose who are you?" but of course, at this point she already asked me for my name and I acted like i knew her name so it would be too awkward for me to ask now so I just try to play it off commenting on how similar they both look and that I should have looked at the feature closer...
For the rest of lunch she kept up with saying my name.
Adrienn, what do you feel about this? Adrienne, what did you do this weekend? etc. etc.

I on the other hand awkwardly refrained from using names.

communication update

Because I lost my phone, I am reinstating Facebook as a valid form of communication until I get a new phone.

every once in awhile.

sometimes, I wake up and everything is different or everything is too much the same- I don't really know which.

all I know is I need something different, I need something more.
I don't know if it's hormones or hangovers or something in me that was just born to run but I can't help wanting to go.

so I bite my tongue and I fight my urges and I tell myself: nothing is permanent, nothing is forever. you can leave when its all done. you're not trapped, you're not missing out, you're only 24; there's still time.

and the feeling passes and I keep going and nothing is wrong and nothing is bad so I'm OK.

Ballers

There was a point in my life where I was a tenacious basketball player. And I don't say that to toot my own horn as much as I say that to point out the stark contrast in the Adrienne of yesteryear and the Adrienne of today. The Adrienne of today no longer has confidence in her hands when it comes to shooting a basketball. Her hands turn to butter and her arms turn to putty and the ball slips out at strange angles never quite in range of the hoop.
Fortunately for the Adrienne of today, lacrosse has maintained her defensive skills so that the Adrienne of today still enjoys a good game of ball as long as it is known that she is there for the love of defense, not for the love of shooting.

And it was on this notion that I agreed to play intramural basketball with some of the other coaches. When I found out that four of my fellow players had college basketball experience I felt confident that I could solely play defense and leave the offensive end up to the more experienced players.

This theory was working perfectly. We had played two games thus far and were blowing the other teams out of the water- until tonight.
Our four college basketball players couldn't come to the game. It was up to the remaining 5 of us to come together and make it happen.
First half we were down 22-14. As I had mentioned, my shot is not what it once was and I refrained from asking for the ball. I needed to step up. I needed to man up and shoot.

I tried. I missed. I tried again, I air balled. I tried again, I bricked. I tried again, I air balled. I tried again and a voice came from the crowd "If you can't shoot get off the court!"

I'm sorry sir, I do not have that luxury. All our subs had other commitments and its just the five of us and I can't shoot.

I still needed to shoot but now it was clear that my lack of confidence wasn't for reasons inside my head, but rather it was quite obvious to everyone that I sucked.
What's a girl to do? My team needed me but my ego needed me more.
So I turned it into a joke. I pretended I didn't care, I pretended that my shooting exploits were part of a grand comical scheme to make the audience laugh.
Did I miss again? Aren't I a hoot... Let's give a round of applause to the girl who doesn't care.

but I do care. So I kinda think I need to work on that...

oop!

So this kid in my dorm and I have opposite schedules and when I come back into the dorm he is always just leaving.
And it's weird because I will literally be pulling the door open and he is pushing the door open and the doors only have a small window so I never see it coming but the door opens much faster and then BAM, there is a person right there.

All I can do as a reaction is say "oop!" in a slightly high toned voice and its honestly happened so many times that now I feel really, really stupid saying "oop" and feel the need to apologize every time.

Whatever I am just the weird grad student that lives with the girl who speaks spanish, I'm not trying to impress these people.

New Poll

I added a new poll to the right. Feel free to vote. I already did.

Valentines Day

In the spirit of valentines day I am going to share with you the story of my first kiss with Brian.

Please note that my reference to Valentines day in no way implies that I actually support Valentines Day or even remotely care for Valentines day because on both counts that is not true.

Brian and I had been hanging out for some time by this point and were cuddling quite a bit but no kisses had been attempted and I was still unsure if I really wanted to head down that road.
We were at Brian's house and were cozied up on the couch watching t.v. or maybe a movie, who keeps track. I decided I had enough of prancing around the issue and based on our excessive cuddling I determined that if I went for a kiss there was a high chance for kiss reciprocation.
Brian was sitting in an upright position and I was nestled somewhat under his arm/in front of him/on top of his lap (how does one describe a cuddle position?). Anyways, I decided that now was the time and I tilted my head up and back and went for the kiss. In true kissing fashion my eyes were closed. In true Adrienne fashion I proceeded to make a fool out of myself and kiss his beard instead of his lips and what awkward moment isn't complete with out calling yourself out and explaining why you are awkward. So there I was, positioned in some awkward way, somewhat on Brian, explaining that I meant to kiss his lips and not his beard.

Obviously he was able to look past my retardation/may possibly be retarded himself and our kissing since the first incident is typically much more on target (though I do still miss and hit the beard from time to time).

hopeless jobless

I think I should change the name of this blog to Adrienne's Life is a Fail.

Not only will it encompass my inability to act normal in social situations, but it will also brush upon my experiences at the dentist and my experiences getting rejected from a cashier position at Wal-Mart (not because of the interview).

Turns out my life is a joke.