It Looks Like a Wiener with Teeth - Pics from My Weekend

Enjoy~

This was IN my face.

I spent part of my Thursday afternoon at Saint Sabrina's, getting my anti-eyebrow piercing out.  It had started rejecting a couple weeks ago, and once a piercing starts rejecting, you need to get it out ASAP to avoid any serious scarring.  My piercer told me I'll probably have small scars, but nothing too crazy. I already have pretty substantial scar tissue where the holes were, and since that whole area is still pretty irritated/mad at me, the tissue is red, and looks sort of pimply.  Whatevs, I'll deal!  It was fun while it lasted.  

I skipped Japanese class on Friday (Augsburg was on spring break last week, but St. Thomas, where I take Japanese, wasn't, so I gave myself a personal day; I am not ashamed!), and here's what I missed: Hilarious and adorable drawings of our entire class (yes, we have only seven students in our upper-level Japanese course).  I think the person (cat?) on the top is supposed to be our TA, あゆさん (Ayu-san).  Then, starting in the second row, it goes: 先生 (Sensei - Professor), Katelyn, me, Ben, Danny, Lauren, Emily, and Kalia.

I've started wearing my big purple nerd glasses almost constantly, because the bottom part of the frame rests directly over the holes in my face/scars.  And check out my U of M sweatshirt! So pumped to be a Golden Gopher!

I went up to Milaca for the weekend.  First thing I did? Went to the Drive In, my favorite eating establishment in the whole wide world, with Bob.  I had a chicken bacon ranch wrap, and, of course, CHIVE FRIES. :D
I forgot to take my customary picture of my food/the menu, so this picture I stole off the interwebz will have to do.

After we got back from the Drive In, I took Mom's new four-wheeler out to the field across the road and tooled around for about an hour.  The snow/muck (muk, for those Pokemon-inclined readers)/several-feet-deep-puddles made it so I had to go 30 mph just to whip donuts.  That is, I had a fucking blast.  I did get stuck in the ditch twice (how was I supposed to know that there were puddles up to my waist below the snow?), but even having to get pulled out was kind of fun.

I wore Jake Johnson's hipster shades while messing around out in the field and got them all muddy.  Whoops.  :)

Since I took my four-poster bed from Milaca down to my apartment, my parents gave me their queen-size pillow-top mattress and bought me a pretty new comforter!  

Ernie the kitty-cat slept on my bed Saturday morning.

Maggie, my family's poodle, resting her head on my tummy.  Adorable.

I've played a lot TWEWY in the past week.  Joshua and Neku totally have a yaoi thing going on.

The homemade lasagna I made for my parents Saturday night.  I used Chuck meat!  FYI, Chuck was a real cow.  His name was Chuck.  He drank only warm water and played with Bob.  I can't make this stuff up.

My birthday isn't until April 2nd, but since I'm going to Chicago next weekend (for HON 490), and I'll be in the cities (see: the Twin Cities, for you non-MN folks) the weekend of the 2nd, we celebrated my turning twenty-two-years-old early.  Mommy made me confetti cake (a staple Ali Rapp b-day cake).  AND she put my favorite clown-candle-thingies on it!  

CLOWN-CANDLE-THINGIES.

Photo Booth fun with the 'rents.

Ernie made himself comfortable in the pile of tissue paper left over from my presents.  Among other super-cool things, my parents gave me zebra-print sheets, and 11x17 Tron and Sleeping Beauty posters.  So pumped!

Per being sleepy and adorable during the car ride back to St. Paul.

On Sunday night, a bunch of us went to the Trylon to see Orson Welles's Touch of Evil, which co-stars Charlton Heston as a Mexican (hilarious, right?!).
I didn't take this photo, either.  Thanks, internet!
And thanks, Jake, for the ticket.  :)

Oh yeah.  I suppose I should explain the bizarre title of this post.  Well, Mom and Bob and I watched Alien on Saturday night, and when the baby alien burst out of the one guy's chest, my mom said, "I'm sorry, but it looks like a wiener with teeth."  I almost died.

じゃ、ね〜

Things I like - 3/4/11 edition

Enjoy~

I love lingerie.  So much.  I totes need several of these adorable lingerie holders.

From Rakuten.

This is so badass, I don't even know what to say.

From Lokisa Shop.

THIS.

The bright colors!  The Alice in Wonderland!  I think this sweatshirt was made for me.

From the Disney Store.

HOLY SHIT, this one is just as cool!  How do I pick?!

Also from the Disney Store.

Aw.

From Wet Seal.

I heart rings.  Someday, I hope to become one of those crazy old ladies who wears a billion ginormous and gaudy rings on all her fingers.

From Louis Vuitton.

Everything about this dress.

From Jason Wu.

I really dig this, though I'm not a fan of hiding my stomach.  Work it, girl!
From Ravijour.

Red fox blanket.  NEED.

From TopDogCouture's shop on Etsy.

Steamboat Willie Micky Pook-a-Looz.

From Pook-a-Looz.

Love.

From Forever21.

Also from Forever21.

I would use this Rilakkuma duster-glove while wearing my Rilakkuma apron.

From ShopKawaii.

Dreams do come true, yo

For those who haven't yet heard, I got into grad school at the only place I applied, and the only place I wanted to go, the University of Minnesota.

That means:

I am guaranteed an income, health insurance, and free tuition for at least the next two years, while I get my Master's (M.A.) degree.  The U of M's Communication Studies Department is not technically a feeder program (meaning, just because you get your M.A. there doesn't necessarily mean you're a shoe-in for their Ph.D. program), but I'm really excited to join the U's program, and would like to continue there.  So, barring any extreme fuck-ups, I will hopefully have that guaranteed income, health insurance, and free tuition for six years.

Like I said, I will have an income.  What does that mean?  Well, I'll be a salaried employee (the salary would equal approximately $18.52 an hour, if it was an hourly position)--more specifically, a part-time ("junior") faculty member at the U, teaching or acting as a teaching assistant for mainly public speaking courses.

I will also have health insurance.  I don't know what else to say about this, other than I feel extremely lucky to have gotten a job that will give me benefits.  I know a lot of peers who still worry about that sort of thing.

I will also not pay a dime in tuition to get my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.  I'll still have to pay some fees (couple hundred dollars worth a semester, I think), and buy textbooks, but in the grand scheme of things, paying even $1000 a year to get a terminal degree is SO worth it.

I'll be going for Communication Studies, concentrating in Critical Media Studies (URGO peeps, think Stuart Hall).  My goal is to become a full-time professor somewhere after I finish with my grad education.

Well, there's most of the technical stuff you'll need to know.  Emotionally?  When I found out, I started screaming.  Then I cried a little.  The I screamed for another fifteen minutes or so (I also ran out into the quad and Bob Groven hugged me).  Then, I basically went into shock, and totally lost it when I got home.  The stress of wanting to get into grad school so badly and not knowing if I would was one of the worst things I've ever had to deal with.  I had nightmares about getting rejection letters for several months.  Even though getting that acceptance email was a positive experience, it was still stressful.  By now, though, the only feelings I have are feelings of excitement.  I can't WAIT to start teaching!  And I already feel so welcome at the U (the Chair and I have been emailing back and forth about various things, including his daughter's newfound fascination with Japanese culture, and if I have any manga suggestions for her!).  My family and friends have all been appropriately happy for me, and last weekend, a bunch of us went out for drinks at Sgt. Preston's.  We walked back to Augsburg, through the U's campus, around midnight, yelling and singing (there were several renditions of "For (S)he's a Jolly Good Fellow").  People carried me (not because they had to, but because we were all so happy).  It was seriously fucking magical.  And now that I think about it, I couldn't ask for better friends.  :)

I'm leaving Augsburg for the final time as an undergraduate student this May, but I'll never forget the support the people here have given me.  Someday, I'll figure out a way to thank you all individually, but for now, this blog post will have to do.  Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for writing letters of recommendation, giving me high-fives, letting me miss class so I could visit the U, making me dinner (we be makin' da pancakes), giving me incredible opportunities to work and do research for pay, backing me up when I decided I wanted to study video games and "gay porn manga," organizing the office to surprise me on my birthday, spending ungodly amounts of money on homemade past and delicious salad, sitting with me at Hard Times, throwing me a Pokemon party, taking care of me when I was sick, and for everything else.  I LOVE YOU ALL!  And stay tuned, even after graduation in May, as I detail to you all my next big adventure: Teaching and getting my Master's at the University of Minnesota!

The Weisman Art Museum (above), over on the U's East Bank, where Ford Hall (below) and the Communication Studies Department, are located.

And I get to stay in beautiful Minneapolis, "City of Lakes," the U.S.'s most literate city, with more theaters per capita than any other city outside of NYC, home to Minnehaha and St. Anthony Falls, and the country's highest percentage of volunteers.

I LOVE AUGSBURG.  I LOVE THE U OF M.  AND I LOVE MINNEAPOLIS!

Peace out, yo.