Dear parental units,

I think you are great. Also, I am excited to see you on Saturday. Also, I really like it when you drive, dad. Because nobody asks me for directions and I know that if we die it is definitely because God wants us to and not cause we are driving weird. (Unless you are reading your email, which you never do anymore *cough* because Mom made you promise, right?) Also, be really glad I don't live above your ceiling anymore because I can't sleep and we all know that when I can't sleep it is usually because the spirit has called me to war against the forces of uncleanliness, and I inevitably go to, wielding as my sabre a vacuum wand. Although I am now in college, the spirit still moves me to irrational action in all sorts of wee hours of the morning and I can't clean but gee do I write my best essays at three am. Which is also loud because I type quite forcefully when I get excited, which I always do while I am writing essays, which is because I am sort of an odd duck that way. Can you tell, dearest mom, that it is super late/early? Can't sleep (thank you, diet coke), but I am also feeling slightly loopy. long story short, I like you guys. Make saturday come faster, okay dad? Don't even try to make excuses, because we all know you are superman. You can't hide the talent. Just like I can't hide the sleep deprivation. So Goodnight.

Love,
Your caffeine/ finals crazed daughter

Gingers.

At our house we have this theory about gingers. They are inescapably gingeresque and can never be anything else. I can't explain what it is, so don't ask. Those who know what I am talking about don't need it explained, and those who don't wouldn't understand. But i do think there is a difference between a redhead and a ginger. Katie tells me that this is never true. But I maintain. All gingers are of course redheads, but not all redheads are gingers. For example, there is this boy I met on the bus once upon a time three weeks ago. He has flaming red hair. Flaming. But I don't think he is a ginger. And that is why  we talked the whole way home and actually created inside jokes in those ten minutes. It was a good ten minutes. We covered majors, literature, engineering, broadway, music, and teaching. All in six hundred seconds. Then, despite the fact that he lives across the street and we both ride the bus everyday, I didn't see him again until this morning when he got off campus loop as I was getting on stadium express. Not only did we recognize each other instantly and smile wide, he actually remembered some insignificant thing I said and said as he walked past, "No machetes. That would be bad." (Don't ask) Wow. He remembered that? Second time I see him and we have skipped past all the stages of awkward eye contact and conversation recovery and straight onto the inside jokes. I feel that this bodes well. It is a wee bit irrational that I felt that excited when I saw him this morning. But I am okay with irrational, seeing as how he seemed excited too.

Katie, here is my confession. When I said it was fine that I hadn't seen him again and I didn't even care that much, that was wishful thinking. (Cause I am sure you completely believed me.) Call me a creeper, but I might actually start riding the bus all the time instead of just when it is nasty outside.

What is katie is right, and he is a ginger instead of just a redhead? There is a distinct possibility that I might like this boy. Dang boys. Dang ginger boys.

shout out to jess

who is katie's sister, who i have only met once. i don't know her, but i really appreciate the clothes she got rid of that katie distributed amongst us. new favorite skirt acquired. i also blogstalk her quite faithfully which is maybe sort of creepy. but as long as i can laugh that hard, i'll take creepy. katie and i also quote her on a near daily basis. because she says awesome things. " don't worry, i drank a diet coke, and that is why the world goes round."

jessie, if we ever actually meet and say more than hello, i will tell you in person that my blog wants to be like your blog when it grows up.

you know those times

when you are walking down memory lane. just a small stroll in your own cerebellum, and suddenly you remember all at once those things that were just wierd. those things that you don't exactly regret, but you really wonder if somebody spiked your diet coke before you did them? i thought of some of those today.

- the time i was at work and said booze. let me be clear. i wasn't being clear. and christian and alex thought i said boobs. this is wierd enough. but let's explain why it was significantly worse than it sounds. we had nicknames from mash at work and we would joke about it all the time. mine was charles, because apparently, within this specific group i was the pretentious knowitall who mostly fit in but was on occasion the brunt of scorn/practical jokes. (along with gina who was hotlips) in the true spirit of the winchesters, i told christian and alex (hawkeye and trapper) that if they were going to be mean then i wouldn't share my booze. hence the horror when they thought i said.... you know. that other word.

-the time i held that one guys hand. oh gosh. all i have to say is i am glad that jessica was there to stick up for me and give him a hard time about it when he said mean things.

- junior year. callbacks for the illiad. and we were supposed to be reciting the jabberwock but in different types of scenes as per Schmid's smallest whim. for example: deadly secret, divine intervention, etc. and of course, because we are in drama, there was the unwilling seduction, and the equally scandalous willing secuction. just because it was me and the universe has a sense of humor, i ended up with austin smith on the willing seduction round, and we got into it. schmid actually made that little throat clearing noise and moved on rather quickly. i had to make it convincing right?  sometimes i think about it and cringe a little bit. or a lot bit.
(not that i don't love you, austin. it was just a very uncharacteristically risque day for me.)

- that time i went on my first date with mitch. i asked him because i needed a date for brighton date night. why did i think that would be fun again? if i was smart i would have just made nate go with me. always the safe option. always.

- going to work on lortab. bad idea. very bad idea.

(Blah)gging.

Dear Internet,
I hate my blog background. Also, there are no cute ones to switch to. Also, no one will ever read this so it doesn't matter if my blog background sucks. Also, I am really sick of singing those same two songs in that same old show and I have six minutes until I have to go do it again. If Mendelsson was alive I would apologize for spelling his name wrong because that is just the kind of grammar freak I am, and then I would shoot him for making that show longer than it had to be by writing music to it. Also, for putting in only two songs that are in different acts, because that means that I have to be there for three freaking hours and I am only onstage for ten freaking minutes. Is that an appropriate timewasting to performance ratio? No freaking way, man! Also I have a headache that has not got away for what feels like my whole life but is actually closer to four days, which is a lot shorter than my whole life but still way too long for a headache to last. Also, the grumpy managers across the hall wouldn't let me have a vacuum at five seventeen because, "It has to be before five. Sorry." Like * you are sorry. Sorry people don't sound that smug. Fact. Also, I am really tired of ramen noodles. I want to eat actual food. Also, I am dreading my religious studies final. Because it isn't stuff you can actually have answers to, like, 'Pick three monotheistic religions and identify their cosmogony traditions' differences and similarities.' That is doable, albeit incredibly boring. No, he asks questions like "According to David Wolpe's definition of religion, what is the inherent risk in asserting belief in God and/or religious tradition through the lens of existentialism?" Can anyone actually understand that and come up with an intelligent answer? ( if you can, don't tell me. bubble- poppers are not appreciated.) Also, I wonder why life is not like chick flicks. Is it because God is in charge and men don't like chick flicks? That was a really blasphemous thing to say. (That's right, Tori. Go get the tar.)

I am in a really yucky mood, hence the blah. Not that anybody noticed.

*That word I am not supposed to say, let alone post on the internet for my mother to read.

Well, now that all that angst is out of my system, I can study some more. Which won't help all that much, because I am pretty sure studying and paper writing is the catalyst for all the angst. Sigh.

Finals

would actually be better if they weren't spread out so much. then I could just kill myself for a week instead of dragging out the agony. That's all I really have time to say. I'm too busy studying.

Here in Apartment 27...

There are some commonly used phrases, such as:

"Wendy's Run!"
"Get up off me!"
"Did you know that you wanted to make me food? Is that something you knew you wanted to do?
"What is he doing? No one knows."
" Are you guys Stargazing again?" (when Sarah and I watch Stargate)
" BAM. Roasted."
" Beat that! Oh, You can't!"
" Best. Day. Ever."

" I like my whole house!" clap "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."
" You are really dumb, for real."
" No skankovers."
" I drank a diet coke, and that is why the world goes round."

There are also some things we call each other:
Face. (This one is mostly just for Chelsey.)
Boy. This is mostly for Cody, being the actual fiance, but it works for other people too. The comprehensive list of boys we actually call 'boy' includes Cody, Michael, Jason, Sean, Shane, and Nate. There is also zach, but we call  him names that are generally meaner and less generic than just boy. Which he deserves.
Jose. This can be used on anyone, mostly in the "What the crap are you doing?" comments. For example, "It  doesn't really work like that, Jose.", or "Whoa. When was the last time you ate, Jose?"

Then there's the quote wall. A few classics include:
"How does he even get so many girls? He is a GINGER!"
" Sometimes, my brother invites my boyfriend to dinner and not me."
"That was an epic fall. I hope your nose is okay."
" Whenever I'm about to do something, I think, would an idiot do this? And if they would, I do not do that thing."
" What do you mean about doing a minor?!"
" You know, some days I think, I'm hungry, and my brain says, I agree. And my mind says, I concur. And I think to myself, Wow. Where did that third voice come from?"
" I'm from Vegas, all we have is dirty thoughts."
" No! Don't put on more clothes!"
And the ever classic: "Marriage ruins families!"

Could College get much better? Only if it was free.

When Life sucks....

....I go live in the lobby. This is where I was last night. Writing letters with Pandora on and trying really hard not to cry. Completely tense and stressed and exhausted, so of course I can't sleep.  ( Can't call anybody because it was one in the morning, and we are on college standard time) And this is where Shane comes downstairs, sees I am sad, turns around, sits down on the bench, and says, "talk to me." So I am complaining about how I am so tired and I can't sleep because my idiot brain won't shut up, and life is kicking my butt. And he tells me to go watch a movie and fall asleep.  And it worked. Good friend, good movie advice, good night's sleep even if it did start at three in the morning. So really, life doesn't actually suck that bad.
(Shane. Thank you for making me go to sleep. And now you can't complain cause you aren't in the blog. Ha!)

Don't. Panic.

Yesterday at the relief society thing when we were making soup and it didn't ever get thick, and I was freaking out a little bit, Katie told me not to panic and this is now my motto. (I keep wanting to put an exclamation point on it but then it looks like I am panicking.) I have said that to myself about a billion times already in the past two days since I made it my motto. Like when I realized that I somehow missed the memo and didn't even know we were doing extra credit in my Religious Studies class today. I said to myself, "Self. Don't panic. You don't really need extra credit." ( Really, even though I don't ever really need it, I am kind of a freak about extra credit. Who doesn't want 110 percent in every class? ) And then I realized that my credit card had twenty dollars more on it than I thought it did. While I was panicking and thinking somebody stole my credit card, I told myself not to panic and then realized that it was just the power bill I forgot to put in my check register. We're fine. The great thing is that most things I panic about, I realize I didn't really need to panic.

But the great thing is that I am learning not to panic even when things could be a legitimate reason for panicking. Like when I looked at my grade in Creative Arts and it was a D. And I panicked. And then I told myself not to panic like I've been doing a lot, and Katie told me that Sean had a D last year and went and talked to Dr. Ballam and it was fine. So I am having an emailing party with the professor and it is fine. Or when I think about how I can't find a job and even if I do Brighton over the summer that is not even enough money to come back to College and how I really hate that I didn't pay for this year myself and I start hyperventilating a little bit because I am terrified that I will never ever be able to just pay for my own life like normal humans do. Then I tell myself not to panic because Heavenly Father is in charge and I paid my tithing. So really if I keep doing my best, life will work out.

Katie told me about this game she plays that goes perfectly with the no panicking game. It's called, "What's the worst that could happen?" Her chain ended in death, but " then I'm covered." went next, so really anything that happens will be okay. I like this game. I was thinking today about all the situations in my life where the worst that could happen actually did happen and I lived and I'm fine, and everything is okay. Because no matter what happens, you keep breathing. Sometimes with difficulty, but you breathe. And you get through it. Because everybody can take a whole lot more than they think they can. A lot of the time we deal with things we never thought we could live through, mostly because you just don't have a choice. And you do your daily affirmations in the morning and remind yourself that life is great even if sometimes the worst that can happen really does happen. Sometimes life is great because the worst that can happen really does happen, and great stuff happens because of that thing you didn't think you could handle.

Long story short, have a meltdown and then keep breathing.  It's okay.

The one where Amy blogged about Sociology for a year and a half

"Amy, will you blog again? Cause I've read all your stuff." Okay.
So before she made that request, Katie and I were talking about sociology (almost studying) and discussing how last week Katie blogged about Sociology, namely Sternberg's Love Triangle Theory. (Not the classic love triangle, but an actual geometric shape), and how writing about things helps to internalize them. So then we decided, just like the responsible people that we are, that we would never study again.

Instead, we are going to blog about our various studies. Specifically, Sociology. Seeing as how my final is tomorrow and I still have to memorize all that crap about prejudice and family groups and different types of minority groups and stuff. So, I guess really that this is a warning. This might be boring. But I will try. And if I blog about it Katie can read it tomorrow morning and that will count as studying. So she has to read it.

So the three chapters are eleven (race and ethnicity, which are not the same thing, by the way). then there is thirteen and part of twelve, and those are politics, systems of government, and family theories.

So there are the four Patterns of Prejudice and Discrimination which I think are super fascinating. There is the Active bigot, who is prejudiced and discriminates, you know. Classic scuzzer. Then there is the timid Bigot, who is prejudiced but does not discriminate. The enxt one is pretty intteresting. This one is the Fair-Weather Liberal. This wierdo is not prejudiced, but discriminates anyway. Why the heck would you discriminatea if you are not prejudiced? The only thing we could come up with is doing this for your job. Like a person who is not prejudiced but works in an airport and has to search specific groups of people. Then there is the all-weather liberal, who is not prejudiced and does not discriminate. I have decided that this should be the goal for society.

This stuff isnt interesting. I just have to talk about it so I will remember it so feel free to skip. My feelings won't be hurt. Not that I would know if anybody was skipping stuff anyway...

Terrorism is an act of violence or destruction performed for a political purpose.  The two different types are revolutionary and repressive. Basically offense and defense. The two types of terrorism victims are Random and selective. Pretty self- explanatory. The really interesting thing that we talked about is that terrorism definitely connotes some negative things. But really, it depends on your point of view. Like how the Revolutionary war would have been called a civil war if we had lost. Dani used the Boston Tea Party as an example of terrorism and I thought, no it isnt. But then, it really is. We jsut liked the Founding Fathers. I bet the English kids don't hear about the Boston Tea Party and swell with patrioic zeal like us Yankees. Anyway...

Next up.... Five Models of Power. Go!
1 Power-elite (power concentrated in top of society)
2 Marxist Social Economy -power directed by capitalism. social conflict theory
3 Pluralist- power spread widely structural functionalist
4 Power Resource- whoever has the resources has the power. so James will rule the world.
5 State Centered- system of checks and balances.
This is where I type all of them without looking at my notes.
State Centered Marxist Social Economy Power Resource Pluralist, and PowerElite. Bam. Roasted.

oKAY. fAMILY sYSTEMS. whoops. Caps lock. Ahem.
There are a lot of different types of families and this chapter is kind of scary when you see how normal it is in society for all these different types of families. Some of them are not gonna work as building blocks of society, just saying....

Family of Affinity. people without legal or blood ties who feel they belong together. I immediately thought of Friends. Of Course. I also thought of how we all walk into my apartment and say, "Hi, Family!" And in high school how the drama/ choir department people was a family of affinity. I spent way more time with those people than my actual family. There is a reason we call her Mama T.

Family of Orientation. Family you are born into
Family of Procreation. Family you (pro)create
Extended Family. Duh. Why do we have to define that?
Nuclear Family. Traditional social Family unit. Single Parent families now count. Say what?

Sternberg's Triangular Love Theory.
None of this will make sense if you don't see the diagram. FYI.
1Intimacy Only
2 Passion/ Infatuation
3 Empty Love/ Commitment Only
4 Romantic Love
5 Fatuous Love
6 Compassionate Love
7 Consumate Love
I was confused about why 4 2 and 5 were different, but that's okay, cause Katie explained it to me. yep.

ALTERNATE FAMILY FORMS
1 single parent families
2 cohabitation
3 singlehood- did you know that seventy five percent of women are unmarried at thirty? look at that and                               then  look at the fifties. whoa! societal changes. these ones aren't necessarily bad.
4 Homosexual Relationships.

4 Functions of the Family
First is Socialization. Second is regulation of sexual activity, third is social placement and organization of society, fourth is material and emotional security. Structural Functionalist view.

Six Causes of Divorce.
(Somehow, finances didn't make it in here.)
1 Individualism overcomes relationship
2 Romantic love fades
3 Women less dependent on men
4 Stressful Marriages
5 Socially Acceptable
6 Easy to obtain legally

3 Ways the Family Perpetuates Inequality
    1Property Inheritance
    2 Patriarhcy: male dominance
    3 Race/Ethnicity constants

RELIGION Chapter 13
Conflict Theory as it applies to Religion: Religion uses the fear of God to repress the individual. "Religion is the opiate of the masses." -Marx I think. maybe. probably.

Weber- Predestination and Capitalism
Theory that protestant belief in predestination  includes the belief that social and economic success is a sign of predestination. hard individual work supports capitalism.

Civil Religion- quasi religious loyalty bonding individuals in a secular society.
Secularization: not being affiliated with any religious group
Liberation Theology: theory that religion creates feelings of individual worth and liberates the individual.

Functions of Religion in Society
Katie, sitting next to me, says, " None. Stupid." She was kidding. " Really, Mrs. President? Are you serious?"
There are lots of them.  But the three we want to talk about are as follows: Social Cohesion, Social Control, Provides meaning and purpose. Mormons. I am one. We do all these things.

5 Characteristics of Religious Fundamentalism
1 take sacred text literally, always
2 Reject Religious Pluralism.
3 Pursue personal experience with Deity
4 Opposes secular humanism
5 May endorse conservative political goals
6 Warren Jeffs.
just Kidding katie. Are you actually still reading this crap? Who needs to study? It's just a final. No biggie.


Okay. Politics. Let's get through it before someone tells me I am a bigot for not liking Obama.
Authoritarianism: Denies people government participation.
Totalitarianism: Tyrrany 1984

Types of Legitimate Authority
1 Traditional
2 Rational- Legal
3 Charismatic
I dont really know what those are. But katie explained it to me. again.

And this is where I realize that I already did the whole rest of the politics section. Gladness in the extreme.
We can continue onto racism and prejudice and discrimination and all those party subjects.

Institutional Prejudice: prejudice and sometimes discrimination that is built into a system or bureaucracy. Like the wage penalty, pay gap, or how Joann's won't hire men. I think trevor should sue them.

A Class Divided
that video where the teacher divides up the brown eyes and the blue eyes and tells all the kids who have lbue eyes htat htey are better and smarter, and then switches the next day. The kids who were told that they were the superiro eye-color consistently preformed better academically and they all jumped on the chance to mistreat the rest of their classmates. I just noticed all those typos but it is twelve thirteen am at this moment in time and I am not fixing them.

Stereotyping is a type of prejudice. Prejudice and Discrimination are different. Stereotyping is not always bad, which they did not teach us in class. I believe it anyway. Minority Groups can be  the majority in numbers. Quantity is irrelevant- minority is based on power.

4 Cognitive Processes that contribute to Prejudice
I have all of them written down but I have no idea what they are. let us now dig into the annals of sociology notes and  find this information..... and maybe play the jeopardy theme because I can't find it.......
....And then amy found it and called herself a champion. 
1 Perceptual Assimilation
tendency to percieve emwmberrs of a social group as more similar than they are. (stereotyping. why can't they just call it that. stupid vocabulary that makes my brain hurt.)
2 Contrast Effect
tendency to overestimate the differences between social groups. ( another kind of stereotyping. maybe they actually do need differentiation.)
3 The Ultimate Attribution Error
making biased judgements that favor the ingroup versus the outgroup. (ingroup is whatever group you belong to. out group is obviously the opposite. You like how I just had to type that so that the line didn't end with just one word? cause that looks wierd and ocd takes over in the wee hours...
4 Principle of least Effort
It takes effort to use your brain and realize reality and people are lazy. Yep. I have faith in Human Nature.

6 Patterns of Majority-Minority Interaction
big words. so tired. kill me. keep going!
1 Pluralism
seperate groups with social parity
2 Assimilation
we all know what that is.
3 Segregation
de jure: by law. de facto: in fact.
4 Genocide
Hitler Stalin Pol Pot. nasty stuff.
5 Expulsion
kick em out. russians. jews. native americans. humans are nice people.
6 Amalgamation
chemsitry or sociology? who knows. this is the melting pot.


3 ways to reduce prejudice and discrimination
establish laws, increase contact between groups, education
almost done. marathon.

Theories of Prejudice (attitudes)
1 Scapegoat Theory- blame a group
2 Authoriatarian personality- racist about one group, more likely with the rest of the groups
3 Culture Theory- everyone's a little bit racist sometimes...
4 Conflict Theory- I don't remember what that is, but it is always the most angry view so it shouldn't be too hard to guess.

Remember how there was that one theory that Durkheim theorized about and now I have no idea what it is? that is okay. I am going to kick this test's butt. And katie and I are starting a study blog so you never have to read anything this boring again unless you actually want to. be excited.

SLEEP! GO!