ColorMist's Xanga

Saturday, March 22, 2003

Sat, 22 Mar 2003 03:02:00 GMT

Hello Imaginary Audience! I was gone for a very long time...it seems like every time I've tried to update something has gotten in the way. I'd like to be better about posting here in the future.

Not much going on right now...there is LSU basketball of course, but I can't get into that the way I got into football season. All I know is that the men's team is ranked #8 and the women's team is ranked #1. Aside from that, I'm clueless.

My mom, Beca, and John all came to visit me this past weekend -- actually they got here on Thursday. That was lots of fun...

THURSDAY: They arrived. But not before getting lost several times. They picked me up at the dorm and we drove around, searching for a Popeyes in vain. Popeyes is one of my favorite fast-food joints, but there isn't one on campus, and the chance to go never comes up -- sure, I could ask Brandon to drive me, but whenever he offers to take Ash and I out to dinner, he wants to go somewhere "nice" (and Popeyes, by Brandon-standards, is not nice). So I saw the-appearance-of-Mom-and-the-suburban as a way to, well, eat at Popeyes for lunch!

The result was driving around Baton Rouge for a solid half-hour...and noooo Popeyes.

I maintain that we were just looking in the wrong place...this is BATON ROUGE for goodness sakes, there has to be a Popeyes SOMEWHERE.

John and Beca and Mom gave me a lot of grief for it, though. Especially since John was sitting up in the front seat making his "i'm-very-hungry-pity-me-face." And boy, did Mom fall for it. "John is up here drooping," she chastised me, "and I think he'd be willing to eat anything, if you could just decide on some place OTHER than Popeyes. Right John?"

John's response to that was to sigh and pout, "We didn't have breakfast, Ali."

"See!?!?!?"

Well exCUSE me. John is ALWAYS hungry, for the record. (I don't know where all the food goes -- he's very tall and very skinny.) I refuse to take the blame for something that happens on a regular basis.

And of course Rebeca, never one to miss a chance to tell me how selfish I am, piped up from the back seat with, "It's not all about YOU, Ali."

Soooo we stopped at Raising Cane's. Which is chicken. Just not Popeyes.

Later that evening was dinner (yep, all we did on this trip was eat...) at Chimes. Ashley came along. It was pretty nice. Good conversation and everything. We talked about Joey's trip to Italy, and how Mom and Dad actually bought him a trenchcoat and a HAT to take on the trip. Why? God only knows. My brother was thrilled to death. What does a 16-year old need with a trenchcoat, anyway? And a HAT! I have this image running through my mind...one of those black and white movies...a dark alleyway behind a little Italian resturant (blinking sign out front says "Bertinelli's" or something) ...short guy in a hat and trenchcoat walking towards the camera...comes to a stop a few feet away...takes in his surroundings...motions for the camera to come closer...as if ready to convey to us one of the greatest, darkest secrets of his miserable, tortured, trenchcoated-life...

And says these words: "A shark on whisky is mighty frisky."

Yeah. Anyway.

FRIDAY: I went to class, and had the Bio test (found out yesterday that I got a B on it) and went to go see an academic advisor in the Center for Freshman Year about some things, not least amoung them getting my intended major changed back to English (a temporary change, probably, but that's a boring subject I'd rather not discuss).

Mom and Beca and John came to pick me up for the day. As we were walking back out into the parking lot, I tried to head toward the car.

Mom, however, apparently had other plans, as she and John and Beca continued walking along the sidewalk in the direction of the new West Campus Apartments.

All I could do was sigh and follow suit. For about 15 minutes we stood looking at the not-quite-finished-yet apartments. Mom harped a lot on the subject of whether or not there would be a wall or a security guard or something to protect the apartments from intruders. She acted as if I'm supposed to know the answers to these questions, and since I, well, don't, we both got very snippy with one another. Apparently we just have different priorities. She wants to worry about what will happen if someone manages to break the lock on our front door. I would rather worry about much more important things, like whether or not the university will be providing a t.v. for the living room.

See? Different priorities. The only reason we didn't get into an argument right then and there was probably because Mom backed off on the subject.

I should note here, that Cavazos Family Trips are not always the most fun things in the world. Putting the five of us together in a car...doesn't really have a history of working out that well. Sure, over-all, it's a fun experience. (Well, I have fun anyway.) But there are moments during these trips where everyone feels like smacking everyone else...moments where you can actually FEEL the tension.

-- hold on a second.

Friday, December 13, 2002

Fri, 13 Dec 2002 14:11:46 GMT

Very quick note in case I don't have time to update before I leave tomorrow.

And yes, I *am* leaving tomorrow -- as soon as Ash finishes her exam (sometime after noon) her brother is going to pick us both up and then they're going to drop me at the airport in time to leave for my 3:00 (or 3:30 or something, I don't know) flight out of Baton Rouge.

I'll just be glad to be over and done with finals. Jesus, this has not been a fun week. I think my stomach has shrunk because I've been missing meals, and my sleeping habits are just completely weird. The Spanish exam was a nightmare; the Biology went better than I had expected, and I still have History (today at 3:00) and Library (tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning).

I haven't even started packing yet. That's okay though, I look forward to packing stuff up to go on vacation, I think it's fun.

"DID YOU KNOW?": I packed for college the night/early morning before I left? Yep. I stayed up the entire night sorting and putting stuff away.

Anyway, so I still have to pack (tonight, apparently, since I'm sure I won't have time tomorrow...even if I do finish with the Library exam by 9:00 I've got to deal with both breakfast AND lunch, and any last minute errands around campus that I might not have a chance to get done today). I wanted to make Ashley watch Gone With the Wind before we left for Christmas...maybe we'll have time tonight? Awesome movie, I don't understand why she hasn't seen it before.

And I have to clean up the room. I'm scared about this, because yesterday Ashley was poking around under the bed and she thinks she saw a roach.

Let's just say she handled it a LOT better than I did.

::defensive:: HEY, roaches SCARE ME. (What if it was one of the flying kind??) I took this chance to remind Ashley that there are cons to being on the bottom bunk: "You're safe up there, meanwhile I've got the ROACH MAFIA directly below my mattress!!!!!!"

Ashley: "It's not more than one roach --"

Me: "You don't know that."

Ashley: ::trying to be logical:: "If it were more than one roach we would have seen them around before now."

Me: ::dark voice:: "The Roach Mafia is sneakier than that. They come out at night when we won't see them."

Sure, Ashley took all the business about a roach back when it became apparent that I wasn't going to help her clean up under the bed -- "Ali, it might not have been a roach, it could have been some other bug --"

Me: "WAS IT A SPIDER!?!?!?!?!?!" ::already planning to move into our neighbors rooms::

Ashley: "No, it definitely wasn't a spider."

Me: "Great, so then it was some other really big black looking bug? Not a comfort, Ash, not a comfort at ALL."

So I stayed up on my bed and panicked for the both of us. Last night I waited for the roach-or-whatever-it was to make an appearence to no avail. Stupid, sneaky little insect -- or, as Ewan McGregor once put it, "Nippy little bastards one and all." Amen, Ewan, amen.

I've been downloading Christmas songs in the effort to make the perfect Christmas CD. I never realized it before, but I love "O Holy Night" -- it's such a beautiful song. I'm also putting "Winterlight" by Sarah Brightman on the CD...it's not a Christmas song, but "winter" is in the title, and it's so beautiful -- it's from the movie The Secret Garden...the one that came out, like, in the early 90s.

In other news, General Hospital is starting to rock more than usual. For the unaware, that's the soap Ash's gotten me hooked on. Yesterday we got to watch Jax (::hates Jax::) gleefully go through his bail hearing (he "confessed" to the murder of Alcazar in order to "save" Brenda, gag me with a SPOON), the D.A., Scotty get in trouble for keeping evidence from the court that would have incriminated Jax (Scotty doesn't really want to put Jax in jail; he'd rather put SONNY in jail...because he hates Sonny) -- oh, and then there was Luke dressing up like Santa and letting strangers loot his bar, not to mention we got to see more of Lucky yelling at people ("Hey put that back! Don't you know that's stealing?? Gimmie that!!" ::wrestles object away from a looter::) -- which is always fun. Even better was the Sonny/Brenda moment at the end. I can't wait until today's episode...just a few hours away.

Okay, well, I'm going to have breakfast. ::waves::

~~~Ali~~~

Thursday, December 05, 2002

Thu, 05 Dec 2002 00:40:43 GMT

Hello Imaginary Audience!!!!!!

Wow, it has been a very long time since I updated this thing. According to the helpful reminder from Xanga (which is ever-present on the top of my update page) it has been 44 days since I joined the program, and they feel it's time to support them by going Premium. I wish I could do that, but since I have no income of my own, I can't. We'll wait until I get published by a major magazine. I do have something ready, but becuase of the nature of the story, I can't really get into what it's about. And since it will be sent to some obscure magazine none of you will ever read (and probably published under a pen name too) -- well, let's just say no one will ever even draw the connection to me. Rest assured I will be showing you the pay-check though (and don't worry, there WILL be a pay-check).

So, what should we talk about...?

How about we talk about missing class?

Isn't it interesting the way some people miss class sometimes? It's not that they "forget" to go, per say, they just sort of sleep through the alarm. It's fascinating, really. Truly.

::beat::

You know what, on second thought, let's find another, less-dangerous topic.

Ashley and Brandon spent a ton of time months ago lecturing me about Baton Rouge winter weather. I refused to believe them when they said that it was not uncommon to have 70 degree weather in December.

Boy, what a slap in the face this past week has been. I mean, I wear my cute black jacket in protest, but my heart is just not in it. It was colder in Laredo than it is here, and that is really saying something.

Okay, I'm going to post this now and then I'm going to go mess with trying to post something in the reviews section. I'll post again on here when I've got something up.

~~~Ali~~~

Saturday, November 16, 2002

Sat, 16 Nov 2002 04:21:30 GMT

Hello, Imainary Audience (I should really get a trademark on that phrase, shouldn't I?).

Not much is going on right now. I went to Library on Thursday and Jordan informed me that one of his favorite bands (named Tool or something) played in Laredo recently. I laughed, "Where in Laredo? Nothing ever goes to Laredo."

And he was like, "You guys don't have an arena or something?"

Oh. The Almighty Arena...the one I would always pass on my way to pick up Joey from Casa Blanca. That Arena. I had no idea it was finished. Apparently Jordan had been reading a review of the concert, and it said it had taken place in Laredo's "Laredo Arena." (I laughed at that...I would have thought they could have come up with an original name. Like the "Tumbleweed Arena", or the "Arena That Cost a Lot of Money that the People of Laredo are Never Going To See Again" or something...I dunno, I'm not very funny tonight...so imagine another, funnier name, and that's the name I think they should have picked.) He said that one of the Tool people said that afterward they went to Mexico, I guess to party. Jordan thought that was cool, that Mexico was so close to Laredo.

A lot of people are usually taken by surprise when I say that Mexico and Laredo are so close. The also seem to get a kick out of the fact that I use the term "across the river" -- for example, I'll say, "My best friend Ale lives across the river, so I didn't see her very often outside of school" or I'll make a reference to the "across the river kids" from my class or I'll say, "Yeah, the last time I went out to eat across the river was --" I say "across the river" without thinking, and that usually gets some giggles from the people I'm talking to (except if I'm talking to a guy, because guys don't giggle...guys NEVER GIGGLE).

I'm so excited, I'm going to go have breakfast tomorrow at McDonald's!!! I love having breakfast there, I haven't been since last week. I worship that biscuit thing, that bacon/egg business. I don't even want to think about what might be wrong with any bacon or egg cooked at McDonald's, that's how good I think it is.

I'm also excited because Ashley, Raelee, Brandon and I are going to go to Chimes the night before we all leave for Thanksgiving. Chimes is one of my favorite resturants, now, but it's kinda pricey (or at least more expensive than eating fast food) so we hardly ever go (the last time I went was weeks ago with Brandon). So I've declared that that's going to be our treat before Thanksgiving holiday, and everyone seems to be going along with it. Yay!

As for my classes, things are going all right. The good this week has been Spanish class: I got two projects back -- I got a 96 on the composition Dad helped me with (on the phone at 6:30 in the morning!) and a 90 on the outside reading assignment which I did all on my lonesome.

The bad was English: I got a B on a paper we had to write in class. Sort of what I was expecting...I was hoping for an A, of course, but even though I knew it was entertaining (and my teacher wrote that, as she'd expected, my paper wasn't boring!) but I'd run out of time to include some other examples (we were analyzing an magazine ad). I might post it later in the Reviews section, if anyone is interested in reading it, not because I think it's the best thing I've ever written, but because I like some of the individual pieces of it, and maybe someone else would enjoy reading it.

For the Alabama game, I'm definitely going to be babysitting Carly, but probably not Cade (he'll probably be asleep at the time the game will be going on, so it'll be easier for his mom to get someone to watch him). Remember to watch on ESPN at 8:00, Saturday night. It'll be good, I promise.

~~~Ali~~~

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Tue, 12 Nov 2002 18:00:06 GMT

Hm. Well, today is turning out to be an all right day so far...I have to go to library later, but I don't mind that, because the guy I sit next to (Jordan) is very nice, and Thanksgiving is steadily approaching, hooray! I can't wait to get away from campus. But even before that we have two more home games -- Alabama, which is going to be on ESPN (at 8:00 at night) ...I'm not going to that one because I've taken a babysitting job for Ashley's sister-in-law...I'm going to babysit little Cade, who is just one year old, and I might also babysit his older sister Carly (who is four) if they can't get her a ticket to the game. This babysitting is going to happen in the dormroom, by the way, where I have easy access to all kinds of good babysitting stuff...stuff that I would list, except that would be boring.

The Ole Miss game, last home game, has been picked up by ESPN2 so it'll show at either 6:45 or 8:00. I'll know later. That's going to be a big game also.

I can't believe that the end of the semester is almost here. I'm trying to sign up for classes...so far I've snagged Political Science at 9:30 three mornings a week. I have to go see someone about signing up for Honors English, and to find out what my second semester of History will be (becuase I can't figure it out from the courses book). I think I'm also going to take Biology here, in the event that I can't come up with enough hours. I wanted Russian 1001, entry-level for people who don't know Russian at all, but from what I can tell they only offer Intermediate Russian the second semester.

Last night I had a horrible migraine headache probably brought on from ::blanch:: missing meals. So I suppose I brought it on myself. That was actually a more comforting thought than you'd think it would be. Of course, it was one of the weirder migraines (lately they've all seemed a little weird in some way) -- it started out like a hunger headache, mostly on both sides of my head, and I was like, "Oh, okay, I'll eat and it will be fine." So I went with Ashley and Raelee to David and Crystal's house, to eat dinner there. We had a kind of pizza/chicken/cheese/enchilada deal, which was pretty good, and a REALLY good salad -- I think Crystal called it a Fiesta Salad...topped with shredded cheese and with crunched up Fritos mixed in it. Really good. Oh, and I had a coke to drink. But, maybe I didn't eat enough, because the headache just got worse. By the time I got back to the dorm room, I was starting to feel kind of sick to my stomach. I slept from about 7:00 to 8:00, and then from about 9:00 to 11:00. That second time I woke up, I felt God awful. I was sure it was a migraine, but I was too scared to take Advil because I couldn't remember the last time I'd taken some. Plus, I felt like if I was to move, I'd throw up the one meal I'd actually had all day (and I did the throwing up thing, people, a few weeks ago when I had that stomach virus...I was not happy at the prospect of an encore performance). Ashley was still awake, working on an essay or something, but I couldn't even open my mouth to talk to her because I just felt so bad. I'd been using my Discman to listen to music, because that usually helped me get to sleep...it gave me something to concentrate on. So this time, I put on my Slayers Mix (those of you who know what that is are probably, "Oh God, Ali, how could that racket possibly help you sleep!?!") -- and that helped, which actually surprised me a little. I was almost asleep, when the Discman cut off.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you buy a CHEAP Discman, there's a reason it's cheap. There is ALWAYS. A. REASON.

This is about the tenth set of batteries I've gone through since I've been at college. And I don't use it THAT much. I use it on road trips, and I use it occasionally in the dorm room. This is just ridiculous. It wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that the stupid thing take four batteries at once.

I just about cried then, because the Discman was the only thing helping me get to sleep, and without the music I was basically looking ahead to, oh, three or four hours awake with nothing but the pain and the DAMN CONAN O'BRIAN SHOW GOING ON ON THE TELEVISION SET.

At least I think it was the Conan O'Brian show.

And that's not even the point.

I wish I could remember how I got to sleep, because that could have actually turned out to be helpful sometime in the future. I remember asking God to please let me get to sleep, and I would be really, really thankful. Maybe that's it.

So I woke up infinitely happy, and even though I didn't have time to go to McDonald's for breakfast, I'm planning to go to Mr. Gatti's for lunch. Really cool.

My "stalker" called a little while ago. I made Ashley answer the phone -- she said "Hello," and all she heard was breathing on the other end. She said "Hello" again. More breathing. That's about the time she hung up and threw the phone at me, with the instructions, "Ali, you HAVE to deal with that." Yeah, well, I would, but he's such a nice guy. What am I supposed to do, tell him to stop calling?

::the imaginary audience starts throwing stuff at Ali, and someone from the back yells, "Of course that's what you have to do, stupid!!!"::

Fine, whatever. SIGH. It's so hard, constantly pandering to the Imaginary Audience.

I guess that's really all that's going on here. Now I need to go get ready for lunch. Cheers :)

~~~Ali~~~

Thursday, November 07, 2002

Thu, 07 Nov 2002 21:40:03 GMT

iii

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Tue, 05 Nov 2002 13:20:55 GMT

Eh. This is not turning out to be a fun morning. I was having trouble sleeping last night because of a sore throat, and when I woke up, I discovered that not only do I have a sore throat -- but a cold as well. Not cool. Not cool at all.

At least I found Sailor Moon on the t.v.

BTW, I managed to alter my sleeping schedule into something I hope will work out.... The result is that I am in bed at 9 or 10 at night, and then waking up at about 7:00. I've never been someone who likes to wake up early in the morning, and since my earliest class is at 10:30, I never had to worry about getting up as early as, say, Ashley. But this works out better for me...I have several hours to do whatever I want: I can write at the computer, or watch morning shows, and then round it all off with breakfast at McDonald's if I feel like it (it's just a short walk from my dorm). I highly DOUBT that it will stay like this for long...it's easy to be in bed during the week in the dorm. But the first shot I have at going home, I know I'm going to start staying up (and out) kinda late.

Oh well, this will be fun while it lasts. It's nice to be up and about early in the day. It's been starting to get cold, and it's always pretty freezing in the morning (it usually warms up a little as the day goes on) -- and I just adore winter weather. Plus, now I don't feel like falling asleep in Spanish class, because I actually feel rested. It just feels very refreshing (especially not to having to worry about oversleeping). Ever since I can remember my dad has lauded the merits of being awake early in the morning. I can now see why.

It was pretty funny -- last night I woke up, and I felt as if I had gotten several hours of sleep (which I had) -- so for some reason I jumped to the conclusion that it was morning. I looked at my watch (I had to press the Indiglo button on it because it was completely dark in the room...I must have been REALLY out of it to not realize that it was the middle of the night) and the time said 12:30. I was like, "On my GOD I missed Spanish class!!! I can't believe it!!" And I was about to worry myself into depression when I looked toward the window and realized that it was dark outside.

"Oh. It's 12 at night."

I had a good chuckle over that before going back to sleep.

That sort of thing has happened at least once before -- me waking up in the middle of the night and thinking it's daytime. I guess that's because my body is still not really used to the idea that I'm actually falling asleep at decent hours.

So yeah...moving onto stuff that the imaginary audience might actually care about...

LSU has four more football games in the regular season. Kentucky is this weekend -- and it's an away game (I think it's going to be televised). The weekend after that is the Alabama game, home -- I'm going to babysit Cade (and maybe Carly, they haven't decided yet) here in the dorm room as a favor to Ashley's sister-in-law. Then Ole Miss is the next weekend before Thanksgiving (I'm so hyped to leave that I'll seriously already have my bags packed and by the door, yeah, five days in advance...by the way, the day I leave is when my sleeping schedule will be screwed up once and for all because I don't see how I'm going to be able to rebound from that). Ole Miss is going to be an awesome game. If (when) we win Ashley says she hopes that the student section doesn't take the field, because we're probably going to be televised and she says that would make us look really stupid, taking the field just because we beat Ole Miss. (Actually, I should note that last year, the final home game of the season, the students took the field after the Auburn game because, well, it was Auburn, and also because that meant that we were then sealed for the SEC Championship game.) So, watch on t.v. and you'll see.

The final game is at Arkansas, and it's going to be nationally televised on CBS (wow!) as it is every single year. I think it's going to happen on the Friday after Thanksgiving but I'm not sure. I'm going to watch it on t.v. and I'm going to make everyone watch it with me, too. I hope we win -- that goes without saying.

Okay, I guess that's all for this entry. Cheers, everyone. Leave some feedback if you like.

~~~Ali~~~

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Wed, 30 Oct 2002 02:00:28 GMT

(Edited note: I added a rather lengthy explanation of Tacolare Night and the story of the "brick" to the reviews section, under the folder about Dialogue and Quotes from Brick Holders...please check it out if you so desire!)

Hellloooo all the people that aren't reading this!!! ::bounce::

A few days ago I got an e-mail from Xanga saying that I now have Xanga Premium. I was a little shocked, since you have to shell out cold hard cash to be upgraded in the first place.... Apparently this is a free-trial or something. It'll be over sometime in November. Until then I have use of all of the nifty Xanga features.

I wonder if the Xanga people monitor my web log?

Because if they are, then I'd like to take note of the fact that they STILL have not answered the e-mail I sent them about the fact that I'm not getting the comments people say they're sending me.

And if they really want me to spend my money on the upgrade, shouldn't they try to do everything they can to make me a happy Xanga user?

Just a thought. I love Xanga, but I also want to know where my all my comments are...? I want to know if I deactivated something on accident.

Anyway.

I just took another online quiz, "Which Moulin Rouge Song Are You?" and ended up with "Come What May" -- I tried to post the graphic (like I did with the Christian Bale one a few entries down) but for some reason it didn't work. ::frown:: And it was really, really pretty too.

I love Ewan McGregor!!! He says the most awesome stuff! Here are a few of my favorite Ewan quotes (credit to this website: http://www22.brinkster.com/turtlegirl/eyeliner/ go visit, there are many more quotes there...!!)

EWAN QUOTES

"I can move that wee arrow around a bit."
-On his computer literacy

Q: "What annoys you most?"
Ewan: "Cockroaches - nippy little bastards, one and all."

"The women in L.A. are really scary. Someone should tell them, 'You don't look any younger. You just look uncomfortable and weird.'”

"I don't care about Oscars. It's such self-aggrandizing nonsense. It's a way to manipulate people into believing that their choices are what's good. It's rubbish. They're looking after themselves. I'll be fucking deliriously happy if I ever get one by the way. I'll go up there and cry and everything. But I don't value them, because I don't have one yet."

"Pleasure? I ride motorbikes. And I play with my daughter. And I sit in pubs."

"I'd like to see me naked. That would be novel"
-When asked what celebrity he would most like to see naked

"And they were really afraid that I might actually have some fun in my life, that was a huge threat to them. No fun in Utah. It says that when you drive in: 'No fun. In Utah. Thank you.'"
-On filming A Life Less Ordinary in Utah

"That's silly. I don't want to sing on an elephant."
-Ewan on the phone to Baz Lurhmann, director of Moulin Rouge, before he realizing that the elephant was fake

"I've got a black woolen hat and it's got PERVERT written across the front of it. It's the name of the clothing label. And I was with my wife and my baby at the supermarket and I didn't think. I just put my hat on Clara's head, because it was cold. And the looks. I couldn't figure out why I was getting death looks. And then I realized my 10-month old baby's wearing a hat with the word pervert written on it and these people were like, 'There's Satan! There's Satan out with his kid!'"

"The goal is to use the money to move into a big house, so my daughter can have a garden."
-On what he hopes to do with his money

I'm leaving out the move rated R ones ( ::watches everyone suddenly start running for the Ewan quote site link:: ) because, hey, in my imaginary audience there might be imaginary kids running around. Impresionable (did I spell that right? Because it doesn't look spelled right...) kids.

Nothing else is much going on here. I have an English project to do.... (SIGH, no one ever SAID that college would be actual WORK.)

So I guess this is where we close. I will talk to you tomorrow, imaginary audience...

~~~Ali~~~

P.S. I got the A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack the other day -- some of the songs rock, but a few are too weird to listen to.

P.P.S. This weekend I'm going to Alabama with Raelee and Ashley (what do you do for fun at LSU? You leave campus! Bwa ha!! This makes I think about the fourth time I've spent more than a day away from here... I went with Ashley and Brandon to New Orleans for a weekend back in September...and then for fall holiday I went and spent a night at Aunt Marybeth's in Mandeville...and of course, last Saturday at Auburn -- no, I'm kidding, it does rock here...I just bought a CD of LSU songs the other day...I am so high on this school it's not even funny...I cannot imagine being anywhere else [/end the LSU raving]). That's also the weekend I'm supposed to set up my classes on my PAWS account, I think. Eeep!

Monday, October 28, 2002

Mon, 28 Oct 2002 13:20:58 GMT

I know you ALL want to hear about the Auburn game.

::groan::

Well, let's start at the beginning of Friday night. Raelee invited Ashley and I to go out to eat with her and her boyfriend Anthony. He's a really cool guy (and I'm not just saying that because I know Raelee knows the address to this journal! :P ) -- he's just a person you feel comfortable around. We went to a GREAT Baton Rouge place, Copeland's (God, I hope I spelled that right) -- very good food.

After that, Anthony dropped us off at Graham and left...and Raelee, Ash and I went to "run errands." This meant dropping off the DVDs we'd rented on Brandon's account -- because Brandon was really worried that we'd forget (silly Brandon -- I can be responsible when I want to be). Luckily, Blockbuster is right here in Tiger Town. So we walked...in the rain...at night...GASP! We must be crazy! I hated doing it, but, well, you gotta do what you gotta do. So we turned in the DVDs and while Ashley was paying some fine on her account (pretty big fine, too) Raelee and I looked at all the DVDs available to buy (not that I was planning on getting anything...I do all my shopping at Half.com -- we'll get to that later) -- I'm a picky person when it comes to movies. I don't like gross-out comedy, and I don't like big-gun-shoot-um-up-action-flicks (unless I like the star).

After that we walked through Tiger Town/in the rain/at night to the Union. Wow, what a good time, especially when Ashley and Raelee decided it would be big fun to walk across the wet, muddy, parade ground to get there.

In the Union we checked our P.O. Boxes (none of you EVER send me mail EVER...a letter once in awhile would be nice) and visited the ATM machines. Then we trekked back to the Mini Mart to stock up on food for The Seven Hour Bus Ride to Auburn.

Back at the dorm, it was movie time. First we watched The Thing Called Love...Ash's tape...about a bunch of kids trying to make it in the country music business, starring Samantha Mathis, Sandra Bullock, that-guy-from-My-Best-Friend's-Wedding...you know, the one engaged to Cameron Diaz's character...and River Phoenix. ::sighs unhappily:: So good looking. And so killed by drugs.

Then we watched A Life Less Ordinary -- God, what a rocking movie. I can't decide which I like more...the humor or the romance. Okay, well, the romance. But come on -- most of the cousins have seen it...and I'm sure they'll attest to the fact that it's hysterically funny!

After that Raelee left and Ashley and I prepared for The Seven Hour Bus Ride to Auburn.

This involved packing and then walking at 1:15 in the morning to the stadium parking lot (yeah, Ash and I are real risk-takers). We huddled in with the Bus 6 group, and I made a phone call to Ale to pass the time.

The gold t-shirts they gave us ROCK. On the front there's just a little logo in the corner ("LSU off to Auburn" with the date) and then on the back it says this "You Think Our Band is Scary? Wait Till You Meet Our Football Team!" -- the picture is of Mike the Tiger behind the wheel of a purple bus (an LSU band member in the passenger seat) mowing down both Auburn player #20 and their "War Damn Eagle." For those that aren't educated on the Auburn/LSU rivalry, let me say that it is just rife with bitterness. In 1999 Tommy Tubberville and his players smoked cigars on our field after the game to celebrate their victory. The idiots managed to get their pictures taken (or maybe that was part of the plan), and of course LSU fans were livid. Last year here in Tiger Stadium, before the game, the Auburn players stomped all over the "eye of the tiger" painted in the center of our field (they got docked for unsportsmanlike behavior).

And here's where the t-shirt comes in.

The band was just finishing up the half-time show when one of the Auburn players (I'm going to assume it was #20-whatever-his-name-is since he's the one on the t-shirt, but I could be wrong -- maybe the LSU Student Government people just picked a random number...?) came out onto the field. He decided that it was time to practice, and that's just what he proceeded to do WHILE THE BAND WAS STILL ON THE FIELD. He ended up getting into a shoving match with several of the band members. Hah. Hah hah.

Back to bus trip.

It went really really well. The Student Gov. people on our bus passed out Krispy Kreme donuts, and for the first bit of the trip we listened to a CD of LSU fight songs (including the ever popular "Hey Fightin' Tigers" to which I now know all of the words!!!). The S.G. people also passed out LSU stuff (yellow pom pom wave-y things) and bag lunches. During the trip, I fell asleep occasionally, but never for more than a few hours at a time.

We arrived in Auburn sometime in the morning...I want to say about two hours before kick-off (which was at 11:30). On the way in, the S.G. reps played a video of last year's game against Auburn (as aired on ESPN).

Jordan-Hare Stadium is very nice...credit where credit is due, and all of that. I was even impressed with the Auburn fans...everyone we ran into seemed nice (then again, there wasn't much time to talk to people).

When we arrived and took our seats in the LSU student section, I was happy to see the band already seated a few sections to our left. The WHOLE band was in attendence, by the way -- when Ashley told me that, I got the feeling that it's not the norm for a visiting school to bring their entire band, but I could be wrong.

The LSU student section at Auburn was really no different from the LSU student section at LSU. Everyone was very loud, not nessecarily rowdy, but quick with the criticism. It's customary, in Tiger Stadium, when the opposing team's starting line-up is read, to yell "sucks" after every name...

ANNOUNCER: "(insert name here), (insert position here)"

STUDENTS: "SUCKS!"

ANNOUNCER: "(insert name here), (insert position here)"

STUDENTS: "SUCKS!"

And so on, and so on. When the Auburn line-up was read (I don't recall seeing the LSU line-up read at all...maybe I missed it) and the pictures flashed across the big tv screen, we all said "sucks" after every name. Good times, good times.

Not only that, but when the Auburn swimming team was brought out onto the field for a presentation of some honor, we heckled them, too. Well...I didn't. I felt bad for them. But I was apparently the only one of those sentiments.

What was really funny was the band. I love the band. They were constantly playing music. The announcer continued reading over the fight songs and such...I still thought it was great. The Auburn band, by the way, paraded all the way around the stadium (they got heckled too) only to have to go all the way BACK in the other direction so they could take their seats. Sure, it might have been tradition...but... "Well wasn't that a waste of time?" one of the guys behind us remarked. Indeed.

One thing Auburn will never have is a lack of mascots. They call themselves "Tigers" but their symbol/mascot/whatever is an eagle (the "War Eagle") which flies around the stadium before each home game -- AND according to some news reports I read, they are also called "the Plainsmen." Huh.

Unfortunately for LSU, we lost. Not only that, we lost badly. We made one touchdown, and they made, like, three. Or four. Something like that. The final score was 31 - 7. Very depressing. It didn't look like the same team that came back out on the field after half-time of the USC game to kick some Gamecock tail (though I would MUCH rather have lost to Lou Holtz than to Tommy Tubberville...although Tubberville did show some class at the end of the game by kneeling on the ball instead of going for another touchdown...that was nice of him, as much as I hate to admit it).

A lot of reasons have been cited for our loss. Nick Saban's mother-in-law died last week. Then there was the Damian James controversy -- he's one of our best players...and he didn't show up for practice a few times in a row without contracting Nick Saban...leading to reports that he was going to be kicked off the team or that he'd actually quit. (This is apparently a personal problem he's having and we've all been asked not to speculate...and to just pray for the best.) Plus we've lost some really great players -- including Matt Muack, our first-string quarterback -- to injuries. (Matt Mauck is out for the "regular season" but I think the others are due back in time.)

Marcus Randall (second-string QB) did a great job in the second half of the USC game, but...well...at Auburn, he was not only starting for his first time on the road, but the conditions just weren't great.

It's okay though. We're looking ahead to the next few games -- this next weekend we have a rest before we play Kentucky (an away game, and it won't be nationally televised unforunately) ...then from there it's Alabama (I won't be attending that game because I'm going to babysit Ashley's neice and nephew instead ::bounce:: Carly and Cade rock) followed by Ole Miss (God, I really want to win that one...our last home game) and rounding off with an away game at Arkansas (it'll be nationally televised Thanksgiving weekened, on CBS, according to Ashley, because it's a tradition or something).

Back to the Auburn game...the Auburn fans started that horrible, terrible "Over-rated!" chant toward the end of the fourth quarter (I'm surprised it took them that long). For those "not in the know" that's what you chant when your team is beating a team ranked higher than you in the polls (at the time of the game, LSU ranked #10 in both, I think). The LSU student section fired back with, "At least we're rated!" (Auburn is not. Hah.)

On the way back to the buses we were heckled by some Auburn fans...not that badly, but that didn't stop me from being seriously annoyed. At Ashley's advice, I just plastered a smile on my face...and when a group of guys started jeering the group we were walking with, I just waved at them (as did everyone else) and then I blew them a kiss. I wasn't brave enough to flip them off or come up with some heated remark.

I don't really remember much of the bus ride back. I fell asleep from time to time...everyone else watched a bunch of football movies.

I will say that having a police escourt is the coolest! I don't think we had one for the whole trip...just when we were leaving/entering Baton Rouge and entering/leaving Auburn. We returned at about 11:00 at night...and the police rode ahead of the buses (I think there were nine buses in total...roughly 475 students went) to stop traffice at intersections. I felt very important.

As it turns out, the game didn't hurt us THAT badly. We are still ranked the #1 Defense in the Nation (ahead of such entities as Oklahoma, Texas, Miami and Notre Dame!) -- and we're still ranked in the polls, though we've dropped quite a bit. Auburn STILL is not rated in either poll. But they got what they wanted...they are still in the running for winning the SEC West Division.

Predictions for the future are plenty. Some people think we'll win the SEC West and then go onto play Georgia in Atlanta for the SEC Championship, which would be awesome. Ashley says that winning against Georgia would send us to the Sugar Bowl to play against the winner of the Big-10 Conference. Others are predicting that we play the Cotton Bowl, maybe against UT.

Yawn. I need to go get some breakfast. While I typed most of this yesterday, I finished it off this morning. Cheers, everyone.

~~~Ali~~~

P.S. Several people have said that they posted comments -- however, I haven't gotten anything from anyone (with the exception of a note from Jo after the first entry). I would appreciate it if you would all keep trying...I e-mailed Xanga about the matter and am awaiting a response.

P.P.S. I almost forgot that I said I'd mention the Half.com stuff later -- I just spent the last of my Half.com gift certificate (a birthday present from the parentals) on: the A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack and Royal Deceit, an obscure Christian Bale movie. I can't wait to see RD (which is supposed to be a take on Hamlet or something) -- I'll make sure to tell you all what I think! ::bounce::

Friday, October 25, 2002

Fri, 25 Oct 2002 03:56:52 GMT

Here we are...Thursday night...I think I'm doing awfully well with getting in an entry every night. If there was actually anyone out there reading this, I'd be scared of spoiling the audience.

Okay, I lie. Jimmy called me today to let me know that he'd made a stop by (he especially liked the MSN conversation pieces I posted, which you can all find by clicking the reviews link up near the top of the page). And Jo left a comment in the comment box ( ::hugs Jo!!!:: ).

As for Rebeca, she claims that she read at least one entry. However, those who know my sister can personally attest to the fact that she doesn't always tell the truth. ::cough::

Today was a pretty average day. We didn't get back the Spanish quizzes, but heck, I have absolutely no problem with waiting. I also had my first day of Library Science...the material seems sort of boring, but the teacher is obviously trying his best to make the material interesting. I think he's nice. The guy sitting next to me was also very friendly, introduced himself and everything. He's from Baton Rouge, and he says he's met someone from Laredo before! ::bounce::

There's also a girl in that class from my dorm, and I've talked to her a few times, so that's cool. I don't think she knows yet that I'm in the same class, though.

For dinner I ate at Mr. Gatti's Pizza -- and I think one of the pieces of pizza I ate was sort of dough-y. Ugh. That's okay, though. Mr. Gatti's rocks. It's the best best BEST pizza.

Hold on a second...

~~~Ali~~~