Really, Toddlers & Tiaras?

I'm not going to lie: I love Toddlers & Tiaras. It's embarrassing, but I can't help it. It's addicting in the worst way.  Usually you see obese moms (although sometimes disturbingly enough you get 'Pageant Dad's, too) that are living vicariously through their children, who are usually somehow much more attractive than their genetic dead-beat parents.There's always an excess of rhinestones and fake hair, and eyeliner thatOccasionally you might see a parent who's pushing too hard on a kid who obviously doesn't want to be there, but for the most part the kids seem to if not be happy, at least be drugged enough with pixie stix ("pageant crack", as their so adorably called...) or 'special juice', which is basically mountain dew with the label ripped off.

But Season 5 Episode 2 was shocking, even for this show.

1. Kyle and Kevin or something (I don't pay attention to the boys...they don't do anything). Cute boys...although Kevin was only 2 weeks old, which is fuckin' creepy.
2. Eden Wood who redefines 'Diva' (yet somehow she's still adorable?!). If my kid threw tantrums like that, I'd smack them, but I didn't hate Eden for it. Also her mother, while entirely absurd in the amount of money she admitted to spending on pageants ("around $65,000-$70,000 overall". Excuse me?) was really funny, and overall a likable person.
3. The Sterlings (5 little girls...), mother Jamie, who is a TOTAL BITCH oh my goodness. Don't believe me? Let me explain. Not only is she a harried and incompetent mother of five, but two of her girls are fraternal twins, BreAnne and AshLynn (around 6 or so) and therefore are competing in the same age group. The father of the girls was reticent about letting his wife do this as he was concerned, and rightly so, about unhealthy competition between them. And it's obvious to see that these two girls are not as close as sisters (let alone twins) of this age should be. AshLynn is painfully shy, and clearly insecure about herself, and the success in pageants of her sister. Jamie claims that BreAnne wins more pageants, and then goes on to say things like:

• "BreAnne looks the most like mommy...she's probably the prettiest out of the five."
• "BreAnne wins because she's fun and outgoing. And AshLynn is just AshLynn."
• About AshLynn: "She did fine, nothing spectacular", whereas "BREANNE DID GREAT! SHE'S A NATURAL!".

How fucked up is that? AshLynn ended up winning 3rd Runner Up, which considering there were over 20 girls in her age group, I think is impressive (BreAnne ended up winning 2nd Runner Up, even though her father yanked her out of the competition for being "a spoiled little brat"...GO DAD!). AshLynn also won Director's Choice. To both of AshLynn's awards, instead of her mother congratulating her shy daughter, the mother expressed how "shocked" she was that AshLynn won anything, because she didn't think she'd "do well at all". Not only do I just NOT understand how anyone could treat their children like this...I don't know how she hasn't had her children, at least AshLynn, taken away from her. That girl is going to grow up with some sort of disorder. But oh trust me. It gets worse. At the very end, the bitchy BreAnne is back (I love alliteration) and when AshLynn is saying "I won I won!" BreAnne goes "no you didn't, I won...2nd runner up in our age group". AshLynn: How do you know, you were asleep! BreAnne: Yes I did...ask mommy"

Don't, AshLynn. Just don't. Yikes.

~Margs ♥

2 papers down, 1 exam and 2 papers to go!

Yikes. So my 2 english papers are turned in. I have my bio 118 exam bright n' early tomorrow morning at 8am (ick), and then another 2 papers due Wednesday. My paper for complit (Wed.) is on The Lives of Others, which is a film I'd actually seen before, but hadn't really thought a whole lot about once the movie was done. Analyzing it for a paper for class though has been really interesting. I'm debating whether or not to take my bio 107 class pass/fail....idk in what scenarios people take a class pass/fail. And then for my bio 118 exam I feel really good about it...hope it goes better than my other bio exam did. Eek.

Spent the evening with John watching TV and working on my papers and studying. I have so little motivation right now it's terrifying. And I was a total bum today, and didn't really do a whole lot until this evening.

Tomorrow I HAVE to go to the post office to deal with my passport! EEEEEK t-minus 27 days til Mexico...I hope I don't have to get it expedited for a small fortune. Eff.

~Margs ♥

The Week from Hell

But really. It is. I have four essays (2 due tomorrow, 1 Tuesday, and 1 Wednesday), and an exam in Bio 118 AIDS and other communicable diseases Tuesday. So miserable. At least I don't think the bio exam will be very hard...all the concepts are historically based, so I think I already have a pretty good handle on it. The 2 papers for tomorrow are done, which is nice because now I don't have to get up early, which is the worst. The other two I haven't even started yet though. Eeek. The one for CompLit is about the movie The Lives of Others (2006), and the other essay is a podcast paper for my bio 107 class. I have to do it on the Allosaurus...maybe I'll do it on sexuality, or communication or something. My bio 107 exam on Friday went really badly :( The only consolation is that it clearly went badly for everyone else, too. Two girls ran out crying, and one guy was like "THIS IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS" when everyone turned in their exams. Oops.

This overall was a good weekend though, in spite of how much work I had to do, and how badly my bio exam went on Friday. I got to spend a lot of time with John, which was obviously wonderful ♥ and then we also saw a movie which was great: A Dangerous Method. It was about Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, and how they developed and furthered their 'talking method'. We also got Chinese this afternoon for lunch with my dad, which was clearly delish. My favorite food ever. Beef with broccoli...nommmyyyy.

Next weekend mom and I are going to Chicago for the day (Feb. 5th) for Adlai Stevenson's birthday event.


Blech. Not looking forward to this week.

^^from John's graduation! (2009)

~Margs ♥

JELL-O Hearts!

No John tonight :( he feels sick. Which is sad, because I'm making raspberry and strawberry-flavored jello hearts! They were for him...but I guess my sorority is going to get them instead. And I just watched the news, and there were 7 Marines killed this week in Afghanistan. It made me feel sick, and now not being able to see him is making me even more sad.
***
He ended up coming over later :)

^^An oldie but a goodie :)

~Margs ♥

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies in the WORLD!

Made cookies with John at his house tonight :) Well, I listened to music, and John baked. I'm a terrible cook haha, but luckily he's good, and doesn't mind doing it....I REALLY wanted some good cookies, and this was a great recipe I found on Pinterest (for those of you that don't have Pinterest...GET IT ASAP! Love it!!!). The cookies turned out great...seriously, any recipes I've found on Pinterest have been super fun, creative, and delicious. Another favorite I've found is the website for The Jelly Shot Test Kitchen, which is a fun website with, you guessed it, jelly shots! They're great, super easy, TOTALLY adorable, and some even have booooooze in them ;)

I have to start studying for my Bio 107 Evolution of Life exam (which is Friday) tomorrow. Ick. Kill me. It's a decent class, but that's mainly because I like the professor. She's funny, and seems to like what she's doing. But other than that, I just really don't care about 2 million year old rocks in various strata. Shockingly.

On a different academic note I talked to my advisor today about declaring my major (History), and study abroad for Winter 2013! I can't believe that I'm going to study abroad. Sometimes, I still get the heebie-jeebies that I'm allowed to drive alone, or that I'm in college, or that I'll have my own apartment with Gaby next year. I can't even imagine that I'd be allowed to live autonomously in Europe for 4 months. Absurd! But so exciting!!

Shoot. It's really late. But seriously, check out those websites I snagged from Pinterest! And for all you non-Pinners out there...joinjoinjoinjoinjoin!

~Margs ♥

Eff.

Welp, as I'm sitting down to work on my biology notes for my AIDS and other communicable diseases class, and settling in comfortably to watch the FL Republican debate (and mock them ceaselessly)....Comcast decides to cut sound to my TV. Lovely. So now I'm just staring at Newt Gingrich's toad-face with no moderately interesting noise coming out...he's just flapping his mouth like a fish. Whomp whomp.

I'm beyond addicted to Mad Men. It's literally all I've been watching for a few weeks. I'm on Season 3 right now...I can't tell if Don and Betty end up together, or not. Or what happens between Pete and Trudy.

I'm still waiting at my mom's house for John to be done with Rush stuff. It's been going on for almost 5 hours. It's Bid Night but still...I can't understand what they're doing for so long.

~Margs ♥

And the "Worst Day of the Week" award goes to....

Sunday!! They're so awful. Between the realization that you have to go back to school the next day, all the homework you haven't been doing since Thursday's bar night, the fact that you're just generally a bum, and Chapter, it's just terrible. Here I sit at my desk, watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, working on CompLit 241, and just wanting Chapter to be over already so I can get back to my work. I don't understand why we have it on Sundays...it seems like if there's a day that many people are busy, or need to do other things, especially around 6:15pm, it's Sunday. *sigh*

I'm working on this analysis of the grandmother from Flannery O'Connors "A Good Man is Hard to Find", and Holden Caulfield from JD Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye". I have to identify 'what new insight each makes possible about the other's approach to the question of strangeness' for my English 230 class. It's very dull, and kind of hard to get my mind around. For instance, I'm arguing that with age often comes wisdom, and therefore the grandmother is able to understand that she is in fact flawed, and is not 100% 'good' as she'd previously thought, right before she dies; Holden on the other hand is handicapped by his lack of years, and therefore at the end of the book has basically learned nothing from his experiences, and still judges people and their actions/thoughts based on superficial qualities. Oooooh! I think that's going to be my thesis, verbatim!! I hadn't been able to think of an adequate way to put it but I think this is good!!! Yay for blogging clearing my head and untangling my thoughts :)

I'm thinking that when John goes off to other places I'm going to keep this blog and update it as a sort of record of letters to him. You know, every time start with 'Dear John', and stuff. I think that'd be nice. He'd be able to keep up with me, post, etc. And it might be nice for other people in a similar situation to see that we're all sharing the same experiences, and that it can be done!

Anyway, I just took this of me and John last night. It makes me smile; it's such a classic 'us' picture ♥

~Margs ♥