my opinion matters

I love the Geek Squad at Best Buy. A few weeks ago Sawyer (the dog) spilled a vanilla coke on my laptop, completely ruining it. So I took it to Best Buy and they completely fixed it, free of charge. I’m talking new keyboard, new screen, new hard drive. For free! I am now forever justified in purchasing the service plan, and I’m glad I did it because the repairs would have cost around $1500 – yikes. Anyway, they rock and I am super happy to have my laptop back and it’s all shiny and brand new-ish. Unfortunately, I have the “I want a new toy” bug, and I’ve been trying to shake it off to no avail. I dont need a new toy – especially not one that is in any way related to a computer, but alas, I have been bitten by the purchasing bug. It’s probably just the weather and the fact that I got loan money. Instead, I will try to convince myself that the money should almost exclusively be used to pay off debt. Debt. Debt. Debt. Not a new toy. Debt. We shall see.

I left Ohio once, in August 2006, to live with my sister in Oklahoma. It was supposed to be permanent. I came home in November. It wasn’t that we didn’t get along or I hated her new boyfriend – we didn’t get along, but that wasn’t the biggest reason. I missed Ohio. It was something I never expected because I had lived there my whole life, in the same house, in East Dayton. But there was something missing in Oklahoma. First of all, there was almost no construction. There are those who have said there are four seasons in Ohio: winter, almost winter, just after winter, and construction. I missed the orange barrels that they taught in driver’s ed were filled with rocks and cement to persuade us to fear them. I wonder if other states get that same lecture. Dayton is small, but not too small. We get first-run movies and even the weird independent ones at the Neon. We have an extremely healthy theatre life in Dayton, where you can see plays at the Victoria Theatre or the new Schuster Center. ...

Okay, so I was wrong before about the site for the reserach blog for my class. The actual blog is here http://www.daytonstories.org/childhood/ - enjoy! It’s apparently a group blog where all six members of my group will be posting their research progress. Sounds cool enough. Tomorrow I’m going to try and get to the archives on campus to do some actual research that will actually count for something – here’s hoping. So far the quarter seems like it will be fairly easy – I’ve pretty much picked my topic for my 700 paper, which is the thing I was the most stressed about. I’m going to keep up with my research on the pledge of allegiance and the addition of the words “under god” – I used to hoenstly believe that it didn’t matter what you wrote a paper about as long as you got it done and got an A. I now know that you won’t be motivated to do ANYthing for a paper or a class if you aren’t at least a little excited about the subject – and I am DEFinitely excited about this. I’m hoping to do so...

So winter classes started yesterday and I’ve already had two classes: Family & Gender in Modern American History (the one I need the blog for) and Museum Administration & Collections. Tonight I have Historical Methods from 6-935. I always think those classes are a good idea and I swear I always regret it. But ah well, if I’m going to graduate at the end of the summer I have to take whatever’s offered whenever it meets. It’s okay so far – lots of papers, same as usual. The only thing I’m not looking forward to is the exams – I honestly believe that graduate students shouldn’t have to take exams. But whatever. I do what is asked so I can get my diploma, which is really all that matters at this point. In fact, I have some reading to do for tomorrow’s class – it’s a mixed undergrad/grad class (the family & gender one) and I feel bad for the undergrads because it’s more work than most 400 level history classes at Wright State – well… not really, but it seems that way, anyway. I...

I am very proud of America. I am especially proud that Ohio went for Obama, because I am an Ohioan and it feels good. It’s the first time I’ve voted for the president and it was counted, and other than Ted Strickland, I actually voted for a winner. It feels awesome.

Today is Election Day. I voted this morning at around 7:50am for Obama/Biden. I was seriously tempted to vote for the Socialist candidate – who knew there were so many people running for president this year? I was really happy because usually I’m the only person in the church basement voting, but this year I was actually in line outside. When I voted, the polls had only been open for less than an hour and a half and I was voter #64, which is impressive. That’s more than my polling location usually gets for the whole day. Huzzah for Dayton!!! I am very happy and optimistic about today. I have my whole night planned out with my electoral map and sparking grape juice to toast President Obama (omg I hope). I know, I’m lame, whatever. I have to be optimistic because thinking about McCain/Palin winning might make me cry. OBAMA!!!!!

Since last night was Halloween, Ryan and I went to Family Video to get a bunch of scary movies. The problem is, I hate scary movies – well… I hate watching scary movies right before I go to bed because it’s dark and scary and I have nightmares. So we ended up getting three actually scary movies and The Happening for me. I should have known better because it’s directed by M. Night Shamalanalamalamaman and his movies suck. Signs was god awful and don’t even get me started on The Village. UGH. But it had Mark Wahlberg so I figured it couldn’t be THAT bad. And it really wasn’t. I mean, the directing was awful and the acting was even worse, but it was a cool concept for a scary movie.. but like all M. Night Shamalamalan movies, the ending was terrible – but not because there was a twist ending. Cause there wasn’t. UGH. But I was sufficiently scared enough that I made Ryan go into the kitchen with me to get more water because I was afraid the plants were coming to kill me. So.. good job, I g...