Salt and Bruises

I may be just too clumsy to keep my footing on the metaphorical rooftop.  Maybe I should invest in some metaphorical rock salt (non-corrosive of course) and metal cleats. Now where do I get those?

This past week has been a whirlwind of absentmindedness and clumsiness. The beginning of this unfortunately physically painful week started Friday night—at a party. After a round of margaritas, wine tasting at Whole Foods, a few beers at my place, one at a Mexican restaurant, I made it to a party at 10:00 p.m. 

I went around yelling at the guys using the side of the house as a urinal, sabotaged a 100 piece puzzle featuring puppies and flowers and had a conversation in Spanish with someone who clearly didn’t speak Spanish. I left him and burst through the front door just in time to here a guy ask “Where’s that saucy friend of yours?” Then BOOM. I was on the ground. “There she is,” my friend said.

That Monday, poor navigational skills caused me to miss the first writer’s meeting for a newspaper that recently asked me to do freelance. A few days later I slipped down 15 icy steps that lead from my backdoor and bruised my hip. I sliced my finger open while opening a bottle of wine and then again when opening a bottle of heart-shaped sprinkles. 

Oh, and I have a double eye infection.

It’s important to be able to laugh at yourself and perhaps learn from your mistakes. The events of last Friday reminded me why I do not drink to that degree often and usually just enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. I used to be completely against drinking and I started mostly due to boredom at the small Jesuit college I first attended. Sometimes I wonder what college would have been like without drinking?

I am not classified as a college binge drinker nor do I wish to be. I actually do not enjoy parties and rarely bars. I do prefer a small gatherings with a few good friends and a board game. I guess realizing this is part of maturing, and unfortunately I had to experience many instances of this ‘realization’. I'm turning 22 next week and the social drinking chapter of my life is slowly closing. I just don't enjoy it.

Ah, but its not healthy to dwell on failures. In other news I have successfully been a vegetarian for a week! You didn’t know I was trying did you? I’ll be sure to update more on that soon. I also have successfully cut my bangs into a stylish ‘side-sweep’ thanks to the wonders of instructional YouTube videos. Last time I tried to cut my bangs it was an utter failure. 

Luckily bruises disappear, cuts heal and bangs grow back.

I'll leave you with an interesting thought: Self-sabotage is the smartest thing you can do if you're sabotaging a self that is not really you. ARMAND DEMELE

Behind the Rooftop Effect

Don't forget that everything you deal with is only one thing and nothing else.

Paulo Coelho

Somewhere between realizing that I have developed a nervous habit of clenching my jaw while pushing my tongue against the back of my teeth and the suffocating feeling in my chest (which may or may not be my heart), I remembered the Rooftop Effect.

This is why I have changed my blog— I’m going back to myself. Unedited.

You see, my freshmen year of college I thought that I wasn’t cut out for the life I had set myself up for. I saw a future beneath sterile lighting with carpeted, gray walls and 9-5 routine. So I stopped going to class, discovered Buddhism and just did whatever I wanted— within certain boundaries. I was not a rebel in the traditional sense of the word.

At the end of the year I decided that it wasn’t college that was wrong for me, it was a Jesuit college that was wrong for me. What the hell was I thinking?! But I needed to experience it to know.

And here I am today; at another college—a senior. Of course this is a severely abridged version of my inner musings. It's more than the institution of college that is wrong for me, but I'm still discovering what that is. It doesn't mean I'm going to drop out of college either.

…I used to stay up all night contemplating the Rooftop Effect. It was a lifestyle that my friends and I thought up as we discussed 99942 Apophis. The Rooftop Effect essentially was what you wanted it to be.

If the asteroid hit in 2036, where would you be? Would you be content and could you sit there on the rooftop watching it as it hurtled towards you? I decided that I would prefer it that way. I’d take it with a smile and a beer (or wine depending on my mood). I’d hope that on that rooftop were all of my loved ones with me.

So will you join me?

Not Your Average Cup 'O Joe

This morning after I accidentally slept through my class, I decided that it was much quicker to absorb my daily caffeine fix by shoveling a handful of coffee beans into my mouth and chewing.

Moments Ago

“Use your precious moments to live life fully every single second of every single day.”

--Marcia Wieder quote