People on my Hit List (in no particular order):
*Meghan (actually no...she gave me cookies when I was absolutely starving due to having eaten a grand total of 500 calories in one day...so she gets immunity from my wrath)
*Kat
*Sara

One of you people got me sick! When I get a bio major to compare our germs and find out which one of you it was, I shall be coming after said individual with a pitch fork and a very very hot curling iron. What kind of torture can be done w/ a pitch fork and a very very hot curling iron? I'll leave that up to your imagination but rest assured it shall be VENGEFUL but just so you know how miserable I am right now...I went to bed around 3:30 this morning...planning to sleep until 1 or 2. Did I get to do that? NO. Why not, some may ask. Was it because I slept wonderfully and awoke at 11 fully refreshed? Was it because Meghan had to go somewhere early and woke me up on her way out? Did my phone ring? Was someone trying to kill me and I was therefore forced to run for my life through the hallway? WRONG ON ALL ACCOUNTS. I woke up at 11 today because my nose was so stuffed that I couldn't breathe! I was sweating and running a high fever and pretty much coughing my lungs out. Therefore, whoever got me sick, watch your back for I as soon as I can breathe again I plan to hunt you down like the animal you are and exact my revenge.

End Rant.

So yesterday was a great day. Mom came down to visit and we had a great time. Went to lunch and then I took her to Dupont Circle. WW3 did not errupt and if I wasn't sick I would dance around in glee. After that I went to Bright Eye w/ Adam at the 9:30 Club. Tilly and the Wall and Bright Eyes were damn good. The band that played in the middle was rather messed up and I'll just assume that the artists in the band were on crack, acid or both. But anyways. I've been to a fair amount of concerts, but they've all been huge, mainstream bands who played in stadiums. The 9:30 is a really smoky club in a somewhat renovated warehouse near Howard Univ. Club shows are much better then their stadium counterparts. The space is smaller and the acoustics are better so the music is both better and louder. It's lesser known bands who play at them and they're usually much much better then mainstreamers. Also, I now feel as though I'm officially a "Washingtonian." Pathetic as that may seem, the 9:30 is like a cult down here, you have to go at least one or you're not really part of the city. On that note, anyone interested in Chevelle or Breaking Benjamin in March?

Adam gets mad props for the lending of his Pete Yorn CD to me...

..yes, you heard me. Mad props. Not just props, but mad props. This CD makes me ever so happy.

So in the life of Ash...I don't know. It's been a good past few days (more like 10 or 11 to be specific but whatever). I just don't feel like myself. Stats and Macro are trying to kill me. But I won't let them. As Death beckons me quietly w/ his scythe I shall kick, scream and fight the endless darkness. (yeah, I'm a little scared of me right now too).

Saturday mom is coming down to visit for a bit, then going to the Bright Eyes concert. Mwahaha. Pete has agreed to go shopping w/ Sara and I at some point (*jumping up and down with glee*) and next weekend a rather large group of us will be making an excursion to Lulu's. As Kat pointed out, it sounds like the name of a hooker, but we've been meaning to go to a club for quite some time. Pre fall break I believe.

Silence gets us nowhere...gets us nowhere way too fast...

...yet somehow it is golden...people always say you don't truly appreciate something until you no longer have it, but I don't think I've appreciated silence this much in a very long time...
...I also like to think that there are at least two kinds of silence. The first (and most commonly noticed) is the silence of your surroundings. All I hear now is the quiet tap of my fingers on the keys and it is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard. The second is silence of the mind. I've never been privy to this particular brand of silence for more then a few moments. My mind is always swirling with thoughts whether they be my own musings and contemplations (thank you Chiron) or song lyrics or past conversations. Silence of the mind is not something I would want on a regular basis but I wouldn't mind it a bit more often. Since Chiron has returned to me (Chiron=muse) my mind has been a jumbled mess of ideas that I'm trying to work through. I can't look at a pastoral scene without thinking of alternative ways of describing it. I can't look at a person, watch their actions and not try to build some sort of a plot or thesis around what they are doing at any given moment. It's wonderful to be able to think in terms of colour when I've been seeing things in grey for so long but I still have to get used to it.
...I went to Dupont Circle today and so much came to me, particuarly when I was in a photography gallery. This man's work was absolutely amazing, one particular picture of an Israeli soldier by the Wailing Wall had ideas seeping out of my pores. So as of right now I'm not at a loss of ideas but rather at a loss of determination to solidify these ideas into possible short stories or social commentaries. What I think I'll do is just write down my ideas as they come and put them all in a box (flame retardant of course, with my luck) and just hope that one day I'm struck by the sudden urge to write...
...and now, the sun of my conscienceness shall sink into the burning embers of the sea of dead as the viking ships of past sank to their final resting place...in flames and glory...
...adieu...

*Disclaimer: This rant does not apply to any of the guys who read this because you're all "nice guys." I wouldn't associate with you otherwise.

Males, as a species (because they are that different from girls) FAIL. They fail at life, relationships, basic human decency, and most importantly SANITY.
So I'm walking back to AU from the bank today around 12:30 and a guy drives past me, literally gawking for god knows what reason. I figure, no big deal and continue on my merry little way. Then he drives past me again, once again gawking and I think "OK, maybe he got lost and had to turn around." Then this continued to happen 5 more times during which he pulled over, nearly got out of the car and followed me, then proceeded to ask me at least twice if I needed a ride somewhere.
*SCREAMING IN RAGE, ANGER AND VIOLENCE!!!!!!!!!!!*
WTF!?!?! Seriously, I was scared for my safety and well being. I know you can't walk alone anywhere in DC at night but this was in the broad daylight, in a very very safe area of town to a freakin' bank! In all honesty, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Apparently there is because I was seriously afraid I was going to be raped and murdered. It is a SAD state of affairs when a girl can't even walk to the bank w/o worry of being sexually accosted. I now plan to carry mace with me at all times when I'm off campus.
On a happy note...I befriended Dr. Bennett today @ Subway (he's a prof in my dept) and I really love all my classes. Chris (a guy from my SIS class last semester) that I thought I would never see again is in my Econ class, Radaka (who used to live on McD2 but left and I thought I would never see again) is in CWS and Rachel and Samantha (from CW) are in CIJ w/ me. And I also met a guy named Andrew who seems to be very nice and who lives about 10 minutes away from me in Pennsylvania who is also in CIJ. So life is not all bad...some guys are just serious assholes.

So I'm BACK. It feels odd, but in a good way. I neither dreaded nor was overjoyed at the prospect of returning to school. I just woke up yesterday morning, shrugged and said "hmm..back to DC today." I've gotten to catch up with some people and as I get into the swing of things, once again I will probably be overjoyed at the fact that I'm back in the city.

Break was good. I got to hang out w/ best friend A LOT (aka pretty much constantly from Dec26-Jan3) as well as see the YC crew (much love to y'all) and I got to spend some quality time with my family. I'll never entirely be OK around Aunt Diane again, and I had to grit my teeth and force myself to hug her at Christmas Eve, but other then that it was a pleasant, enjoyable holiday. Sometime in between all the insanity I worked about 43 hrs so I should have a nice pay check being sent to me in a couple of weeks and I took a riding lesson w/ Erin. Rode Oscar (17hh dark bay Thoroughbred gelding). Very cool horse, he's the spitting image of Clyde (wtf is up w/ me and horses who have weird, very boring names?!) and riding him truly gave me hope for Clyde's future. Oscar was responsive, eager and athletic and I think that with some work Clyde can be better a better hunter/jumper then him (Oscar has no style whatsoever...he can jump anything put in front of him but it's not necessarily a pretty picture). Ok. End rant. *collective sigh of relief*

First day of classes. 3rd World Lit seems absolutely amazing and I'm very excited about that (not so excited about the prospect of reading Heart of Darkness by Thursday but c'est la vie). Statistics won't be insanely difficult, and my prof is amusing but I nearly fell asleep. This does not bode well for an entertaining semester.

Tomorrow I've got Critical Issues in Justice, College Writing Seminar and Macroeconomics. CIJ and CWS look interesting, Macro not so much but I'll get through it.

And a quote from Lis' as Sarah and I screamed in fear at her driving..."don't worry guys...I'm all over this..."