I'm going to go ahead and use this time and place to rant a little bit about this semester. At present, I have a miserable existence. I hate ALL of my classes this semester, and I feel like I am trapped in a bad relationship. All I do anymore is go over HISTORY, HISTORY, HISTORY, and DRAMA, DRAMA DRAMA...(Leo interjects "Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!") I learn about learning, and I sit trapped in a place where I feel far smarter and otherwise superior to those in control of my situation, and yet it is impossible for me to get out.

I feel like I need to just break up with this semester and get it over with, (possibly by using the old classic "It's not you it's me" line, despite the fact that just like every other time that line is used, it really is not the person saying it that is the problem...) but that leaves me with the one big burning question: "What then? What happens then if you don't just wait it out?" ... Well, mom says I can come home and flip burgers for a living, and let's be honest, I really don't see much difference between the burger flipper who knows that the "War of the Roses" was between the York and Lancaster families in England, and it ended when King Henry VIII married a York daughter and ended the dispute, and the burger flipper who will live his or her entire life with no knowledge of these events.

So I'll ride it out. I'll get this stupid bloody degree, this piece of paper that says "HEY, look at me, I've got an overpriced education, this likely means I am either brilliantly smart and paid for it through scholarship money, or I am deep in debt, which means I will devote myself to keeping a job so that I can pay my student loan bills... Either way, you know you're getting an employee that you can count on."

Another complaint about my education: I have already told you all that I despise attendance policies, I feel smarter than my Anthropology professor, I despise getting up for my art history classes to be lectured by a professor with no concept of "making things interesting and approachable" (who possesses the added bonus of having a head shaped like a mushroom,) I don't like going to drama class where I am forced to try to decipher the lecture given in a THICK Indian accent, and listen to made up words like "Symbolical" (By the way, this instills faith in my university's English department, when they are willing to hire English professors that posses such a limited understanding of the language that they proceed to make up words... But I digress.) And to add insult to severe injury, I hate my history professor.

Here's the story: I don't like history to begin with. (I don't like reading/hearing any LONG-ASS story when I already know the ending... Sorry, I have better things to do with my time.) In addition to her weird lecturing style, her utterly bizarre testing methods, and her general overall nuttiness, (no doubt, nuttier than a Guinness-book world-record-sized pecan pie.) So in an effort to preserve my own sanity, I took a non-history book to class, and as I sat in the back, quietly reading, not disturbing anyone, I was reprimanded because I was doing something that had nothing to do with her lecturing. (It should be noted that there were several people either not in attendance, sleeping, or playing computer games on their laptops who were not singled out for reprimand, and we all know that nothing bothers me more than a double standard. And since these students were also engaging in activities that had nothing to do with their historical education, I feel I have to right this injustice, if only by ranting about it here.) Tiggles claims that she probably didn't say anything about the computer games because she was unaware they were going on... To that, I stick to the mantra of my former professors, and that judge in Duluth, Minnesota who said, "Ignorance is not an excuse!" SO THERE!

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Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I'll go ahead and say this. I apologize to you kids, my readers, my friends and family, my colleagues and coworkers for my continued grumpalumpagus-ness that has been pretty much the status quo since the inception of this semester. I have been generally miserable overall, and I have let it spill over into my interaction with all of you. I have been an incessantly-whiny asshole, I'm sorry. I'll try to do better. I can't make any promises other than "I'LL TRY! REALLY." (Please note I waited until AFTER today's rant to say I'd try to do better!)

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QOTD
2.16.04 - [Person X is pretty much the only person I can't stand to the point of STRUGGLING to feign civility.( Jen W. and person X are talking when I arrive. Person X leaves.)]
Jen W. - "Hey! What's up?"
Liz - "I just have one quick question for you. Can you honestly tell me that you find it possible to engage in an intelligent conversation with [Person X]?
Jen W. - "Well, no, but the lack of intelligence makes the conversation part easy."

2.17.05 -
Liz: "Someone should really tell Shane that with that combination of cross-hatch-patterned tie and vertical striped shirt that he looks like a fucking optical illusion!"
Leo: "I'll do that later, and when I do, I'll be sure to use those exact words! "Fucking optical illusion!"