You know who you are.....

I know you hear me catch your breath
But I'm not listening for the right words anymore
I'll take what's left
You're vicious like the blue sky
Right before the rain comes pouring through
Tell me does [s]he look like me at all
Cause they're all an awful lot like you...

-Matt Nathanson

So Many Changes

It feels like too much has happened in the past few days. My brain is swimming (this could also be due to the fact that I stayed up until around 5:30 am yesterday...this morning...with Stina) and I think it's time to dump out some of its contents. Most of these are changes that are occuring in my life. Time to recount the ones I can think of right now.

First off, there's the medication. Come on, you all knew it was coming. ;-) I'm not gonna be ashamed to write about this, because I know few people who read this blog anyway. For the past few months I've been going in to see a shrink. I was extremely wary of this at first, but he's a really nice guy and I can definitely see myself going back regularly. As a rule, I don't trust strangers with the secrets about me that I prefer to keep buried six feet underground. But...it was kind of necessary for me to open up to him, ya know? I mean...he's my shrink. (I never thought I'd ever use those words..."my shrink"...weird.) What brought this about, you ask? Well, Dan tested positive for ADD, so Mom decided to test herself and have me tested too. It's sort of a genetic thing. It's not as pronounced in me as it is in Mom or Dan, because there's definitely more of my dad in me than anything else. However, I still have it. And now I'm medicated. It actually is helping me in ways I never thought possible.

Yesterday was my first day on it, and I must say, it was extremely weird. All of a sudden I got this random urge to go out and change my appearance in a drastic way...well, it's not that drastic compared to most people, I guess, but in my case...drastic. Mom wanted me to go get my ends trimmed (because let's face it, they felt like a horse's tail), and at complete random I decided to get some layers. They're very foofy now, because I just washed my hair, but I think I could get used to them. But that's not the big thing. I got my ears pierced.

=-o

Who'd have thought it? I figured it was about time for me to do it, because I've sorta been the tomboy all my life...you know, just "one of the guys"...but now I'm...well, I guess I'm a woman now. Time to start acting like one, right?

I'm steadily getting better at switching between chords on the guitar...but I screwed up the tuning like whoa and I may need help getting it back. Bah. My stupid tuning machine LIED. Liars go to hell, dangit.

I miss Emily. I need to be with her sometime this week.

Love to all,

Miranda.

Various Quotes

The quote I posted earlier today put me in a mood for quotes, so I'm going to pull some of my favorites from my own personal quote book.

(Side note: When my friends say things that are silly or make me laugh, I write them down.)

"What kind of dictionary doesn't have 'armpit'?" -K. Gosztola

"What the crap? That's the crappiest piece of crap I've ever seen!" -X. West

"Blue is not my forte." -B. Ford

"Ich kann nicht Lieblingsfarbe." -E. Sienicki (Translation: I can not favorite color.)

"Poop startles me." -M. Archambault

"Everyone is violent when it comes to Richard Simmons." -C. Hendrickson

"Ask a question, get a cake!" -C. Sisk

"I'm not racist. I hate everyone equally." -B. McCool

"DON'T support your thesis, because this is a five-paragraph essay." -J. Sheehan

"That's not a left flank. It's more like a left-plus-some-more-degrees flank." -M. Clarke

"I've done a lot of things to Dr. Dye's mom at this point!" -R. Galizio

"It's like a seahorse! See?...horse." -A. Morin

"Congress: it happened." -A. Everts

"I have a love-hate relationship with Nietzsche, because he hates women." -M. B. Harris

"I have a lot of beefs with that movie. First, I have to sit through two hours of shit, and THEN they find the monkey." -C. White on King Kong

"I haven't played my sax since the last basketball game, and I intend to keep it that way." -J. Bulosan

"Socrates goes swimming...?" -yours truly

"Marcus, if St. Bavo's was a country, there is no WAY they'd send you to the U. N." -S. Jagla

"Tuskey's a GOOSE!" -M. Krakowski

"I lets da poo-gas flow outta mah bee-hind." -N. Krakowski

"Look! If you poke the pope, you poke Justin too!" -A. Tuskey on a T-shirt



End for now. I'll be back later with more quotes...from teachers/professors. :-D

A quote

Found this in Wem's facebook profile and I decided to post it here. Thought it was very relevant to...well, everything.

Often when I am with a woman, I find myself quietly wondering, What is she telling me about God? And after years of hearing the heart-cry of women, I am convinced beyond a doubt of this: God wants to be loved. He wants to be a priority to someone. How could we have missed the cry of God's heart? From cover to cover, from beginning to end, the cry of God's heart is, Why won't you choose Me? "You will...find me," says the Lord, "when you seek me with all your heart (Jer 29:13)." In other words, "...I want you to pursue Me."
~John Eldredge

I'll be the branch, You be the vine

Let me start out by saying that this weekend is definitely in the running for the title of "Most Influential Weekend of Miranda's Life". It only furthers my belief that everything happens for a reason and that there are no coincidences.

This is another one of those things that I was pulled into at the last minute because help was needed. Looking back, though, I feel like I was close to useless on this weekend as far as "helping out" goes. I was in the skits, and that's pretty much it...unless you count the dorm watches at night (right now I'm running on low sleep). I thought I was going to have a small group, but the guy who put those together (Luke) didn't give me one. Me=confused by this. I'll be talking about Luke a little later.

I cried a lot this weekend. It all started when the lead singer of the Pete Cornelius band said something during the song "Blessed Be Your Name". He said that when he sings the lines "You give and take away", he always thinks of his and his wife's seventh child that was lost during the 4th month of pregnancy, and how he's sad about it now, but how joyful he is that the baby is in heaven with the Father, and how he understands the true meaning of how he gives and takes away.

Of course, Joseph came to my mind. Here I do not speak of my friend from Ireland, but my older brother. Mom had a miscarriage before me. There's a long detailed story about this that I can't really tell here, but the basic gist is that I've always felt a strong connection between him and me (ever since I was very little), and I know that he's been praying for me my entire life from heaven. I firmly believe that I would not be the person I am today without my brother's prayers. So, when Chris of the Pete Cornelius band spoke of his wife's miscarriage, I instantly broke down. That was the first thing that would get my attention this weekend.

The second thing was in one of the talks given by the Bible Geek, Mark Hart (spelling??). I can't remember exactly what he said, but it made me think about the relationships I have with the guys around me. It made me think of what I previously deemed "The Man Situation (parts I and II)", and what could be wrong in my life that could have helped to contribute to the frustrations I was feeling immediately following both halves of said Man Situation.

Then it hit me...I think it was when Mr. Hart (spelling??) told us to think of the Ten Commandments as breaking God's heart rather than breaking a set of rules. I look at too many of my guy friends as potential boyfriends. I didn't understand why this was, and I kind of still don't. Why would I want to treat my buddies like this? Why would I want to make them objects?...more of me in hysterics.

I think the third time I found myself in tears was when Luke came into the situation. It was during another praise and worship session with PCB, and I needed time by myself away from the group. I just function better if I'm outside under a tree where I can hear the birds sing and feel the softness of the wind drying my tears. Well...I didn't get to be alone outside for very long. See, here's the thing. I know Luke meant well. I know all he wanted to do was help. The way he approached the situation at hand made me feel very uncomfortable and a little freaked out. I was bitter that I couldn't have my outside time, but the bitterness melted away after Eucharistic Adoration.

Adoration was the big part of the weekend. The PCB was playing during the Holy Hour, and Chris then encouraged us to make a decision then and there before the Lord our God. Any sort of decision that was weighing on our hearts, he encouraged us to just jump right in and make it. He also said that he hoped the decision was to choose God over our worldly desires and our sin.

This is it, Miranda, thought I. If you don't make your decision to stop looking at your brothers as potential boyfriends, you'll never make it.

Suddenly my hand touched the triple novena medal around my neck. My fingers ran over the crucifix, the miraculous medal, and the St. Joseph's medal.

And then it hit me.

St. Joseph, the most chaste spouse of Mary, the Mother of God, is the patron saint and protector of virgins.

So I went forward and knelt before Jesus Christ to make my decision, once and for all. I've written about this before, but even then as I typed out the words, I didn't feel their power in my heart, and I honestly didn't believe that I would be able to keep my commitment. But there, bowing so low that my forehead hit the marble of the floor before the altar, I knew what God wanted. I had finally heard God's voice. I am completely unavailable to single guys, because I need to work out some issues in my relationship with my Heavenly Father.

As I'm sure I've said before (I can't really remember if I have or not), I need to be comfortable with me as ME AND ME ALONE before I can be comfortable with me as someone's girlfriend.

I talked to Claire about all of this, and she said that a good way to know when this time of unavailability may be coming to an end is when you know that if you have a boyfriend, you won't be dependent on him to be happy. You won't need to see him all the time, and you won't be different around him than you are around the rest of your friends.

I know that this period of waiting will be hard for me, but it's for the best. I want to be the best I can possibly be before I try this dating crap again.

I'll be the branch, you be the vine
I've been withering away for some time
I can feel your healing coming to my mind
I'll be the branch if you'll be the vine.

Reflections

Do you ever stretch out your muscles just for the helluvit? It's amazing what good just stretching out can do. Especially your legs. Take five minutes now to sit down on the floor and try to hold on to your toes for eight seconds.





Feel better? I sure do.

On the way to work this morning, it was a little foggy out. It was sort of like an eerie mist hanging just above the ground. When we got to campus, I looked out the car window at some passing trees. The sun had just risen above the edge of the horizon, and the light shining through the trees turned the hanging mist a vivid orange color. Isn't it strange how God chooses to paint his canvas? I'm always in awe of his masterpieces. Especially the ones at dusk. Entire fields illuminated by the last few rays of the evening sun and the glowing lights of the lightning bugs?

Think about this for a second. The sole purpose of these insects is to light up the world when the sun goes to sleep (this only happens in the warmer months because there's snow to do it in the winter). They don't bite or sting. God is so amazing in his creations. Even in darkness his light shines through. :-)

So to end such a reflective post...I have something completely irrelevant. It made me laugh so I had to include it.

"The Time has come!" the Walrus said...

Odd how I can never remember which passwords go with which sites. Maybe this is a sign that I spend too much time online?

I'll be here in LeMans till 3 today. Guess what time it is now? 7:15. Yep. Long day. AND I have a meeting for the HoCro conference tonight at 7...hah, that's in just under twelve hours. I'm really looking forward to this, despite all that has happened in the past week to sort of, well, blow my mind with all the...oh, what's the word...carelessness, maybe? Ah well. Not my problem.

So I did a lot of thinking last night. I had a bit of a look into the life of an insomniac, so God knows I had the time for it. Here's what I came up with.

Step One: Assess the situation. I'm really stressed out because of a silly thing.
Step Two: Admit the problem. In the past, I've looked at a lot of my guy friends as potential boyfriends. This needs to stop.
Step Three: Think of a Solution. Obviously, I need to stop looking at my guy friends in such a way. They never did anything to deserve this. :-P My solution? Completely take myself out of the entire dating scene.

Yes, that's right. I'm not dating anyone. What I'm hoping to achieve here is that I'll start looking at the guys around me as friends and nothing more. I don't need some kind of confirmation that they'll never be boyfriends, because that's just the way it is with guys and me. I need to learn to accept it. I'm just one of the guys for now. So many of my friends have told me that someday one guy is going to be very very grateful that I was such a good friend of his first. Emily was one of the friends that told me this. You'd think I'd shut up and take the advice my best friend gives me, right? I'd say it's high time I did so.

It's time for me to wait. As a reminder of this commitment to wait, I'm going to get to Aquinas as soon as possible to buy a St. Joseph's medal. St. Joseph is the protector of virgins. I have no doubt that I avoided many a sticky situation through his intervention (including Billy).

I have no idea how long I'll have to wait, but I know that as soon as I take myself "off the market" so to speak, I'll meet the right guy. And it will be splendid.

I picked up my guitar last night. And God saw that it was good!

Groggily yours,

Miranda

The Man Situation, A Sequel

Forget all I said in the previous post, because it's not true. I was led on, and am very bitter about it. Seems like there's always going to be someone better than me for the girlfriend role. Know what's funny? This isn't the first time this has happened with the "man" in question. You'd think I'd learn my lesson.

Know what else is funny? I still find myself liking the first guy whom I seemingly forgot about so easily. I now realize how uneasy I felt switching interests so quickly, and I also realize that whatever I felt for the "man" in question couldn't have been anything more than a phantom. Do you know why I realize this? Because I've fallen even harder for the first one.

It's difficult when I can't mention names. I'm wondering now if I should speak with him, but I'm still confused. When it comes to listening for the voice of God, I'm completely deaf. I can't hear a thing. Know what's more? I don't know how to take the earplugs out of my freaking ears.

I need an advisor. I don't know how to do this.

The Man Situation

It seems as though all I've done while using this blog is complain about things, even if I've done so in a more witty manner than I'm used to. I guess I just don't have much to say about my own goings-on, unless they're things that irritate me.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about something in my life I like to call "The Man Situation". The visitors we're receiving today won't do much to help that, either. It's a rather difficult problem. Let me give you a bit of a background story on this. My dad has this friend from high school who, after marrying an Irishman, returning to Ireland with him, and having three boys, somehow managed to stay in touch. They've come to visit us periodically over the years if they had a reason to fly to the States. Her three boys (called Hugh, Joseph, and Jonathon, respectively) have had a few inside jokes here or there with my brother Dan and me. Joseph, being one year older than me and thus could be considered closest to my age, would write to me quite a bit during my first two years of high school, and I'm almost sorry to say that because of this (in conjunction with the fact that I was always "one of the guys" to my high school friends and never any sort of girlfriend material), I found that I was sweet on him. Of course, if you'd tried to tell me back then that a relationship with him would be out of the question due to there being an ocean between us, I would have stomped my foot and stormed away from you.

Then he stopped writing, and I was sad. That's pretty much it. Until this evening, of course, when I'll get to see these people again. I won't deny that I'm a little nervous about it, seeing as I've been through all of high school plus my first year of college since the last time I spoke to Joseph face to face. Though it won't really be difficult for me to be me, because I hear that all three of these boys now have girlfriends.

Which brings me back to The Man Situation. My mother's playful nature came round as soon as we learned that they were coming to visit, and she said that we should try to "get me a boyfriend-for-a-day who is so drop-dead gorgeous that he looks like a supermodel". I sort of stared at her for a moment, stunned that she'd even suggest this. Why would I need a boyfriend to make me a more attractive person? I won't deny that having a boyfriend would actually make a lot of things a little easier for me right now (I don't think I should go into detail, because that is yet another complicated situation), but a fake one? What's the point? I don't want to make anyone jealous. Weird.

Plus, there is someone who has been upgraded from "friend" to "friend with potential" as of a few days ago. Don't think me fickle, because I'm not. I thought about it long and hard yesterday, and it's definitely not my fault. I really need to talk to Emily. Sometimes she understands me better than even I do.

Enough of an update about me? Can I go back to complaining about things in a witty fashion now?

Why Acronyms and Chain Letters are the Anti-Christ

Think about it for a second. The English language is probably THE mutt of all languages out there. Its words take their roots from many of the much older, more ancient languages, especially Latin and Greek. It's also considered to be one of the Germanic languages, so if you wanted to go and randomly learn German, a lot of the words would be similar so the only thing you'd have to work really hard at is the grammar.

How far has our language come? Pretty far, although it's not nearly as old as some of the romance languages. Remember Old and Middle English and how weird they sound now? These two languages look like some kind of alien language written out, and God help us if we ever try to pronounce any of those, right? Well what about the English language we speak today? Even now nobody cares about it. If you come to America, you are expected to speak English well enough to be understood. Contrary to this, if any random American decided to take a trip to the Vatican, they'd expect all the locals to speak English for them because they don't want to bother taking the time to learn Italian, right? LAME.

Which brings me to the acronyms. Examples: "lol", "brb", and "omg". Et cetera. If we continue to use these acronyms so freely when speaking to friends (or just some random person whom you'd like to fly to Florida to meet...may I remind you that Florida is America's wang? Love you, Nathan...), they might creep into ordinary language. What does this mean? The English language will continue to evolve and we will lose even more of its original beauty. I have personally taken it upon myself to prevent this by forming a Coalition to Preserve the English Language. I know of many who will join me in this movement.

As far as these chain letters go...well, let me tell you something. I've seen a variety of them. They sometimes contain sweet stories or funny anecdotes, and at the end of each one of them is a warning. Each warning begins "Pass this on or..." or "If you don't send this to (insert number here) people...". And these sentences are finished with threats. Threats to my life, my virginity, my soul...and my sanity. So far, I'm still alive, I'm still going to mass every week, and nobody has climbed through my window in the middle of the night to rape me and/or slit my throat. The only thing these chain letters have been successful in achieving is making me roll my eyes, mutter something along the lines of, "Idiot...", and click the "delete" button.

What a cruel world we live in.

{This is actually something I posted at myspace that I thought was rather good, if I do say so myself.}

Acronymically yours,

Miranda

No pain, no brain

I've done some thinking, and I think I finally have it figured out.

For this past school year, I was confronted in so many different ways to explain why I believe what I believe, and a few of my viewpoints even changed. I think I finally know where I stand, but I want to write it all out just to make sure.

1) Abortion is murder, whether the government says so or not. The government says a lot of things. I have the right to choose to believe what they say or to think they're completely stupid. In this case, I choose to believe that they're completely stupid. Life doesn't begin when the baby is born, folks. The two cells that are needed to create the baby in the first place are alive, aren't they? When they join together to begin this miracle of life, they're still alive, right? People have argued that beings who aren't capable of sin have no souls (i.e. animals). I've always thought this was a fuzzy argument, because brand new human beings in the womb are technically not capable of sin. Yet we still believe they have souls, right? I'm seeing a tangent here, so I'll move on to the next topic.

2) I'm still unsure about my views on contraception, although I believe that in very extreme cases, this option should not be overruled. See, if you're planning on waiting till marriage to have sex, why even bother with condoms or the pill? They're useless if you save yourself, right? And even in marriage, if you practice natural family planning (that is, if you feel you're not quite ready for children yet), these means of contraception are still useless. However, if a woman has been raped...what then? The option for this so-called "morning after" pill should be offered to her. She can choose to refuse, right? This may contradict my views on abortion...that just occured to me. I see that I still have a few things to think through.

3) This next issue is something I'm not really adamant about. I'm more apathetic than I am anything. There really shouldn't be any sort of law against gay marriage, because whether we like it or not, gays and lesbians are going to fall in love with each other and want to get married. We can't choose who we fall in love with, right? So why should we try to stop anyone?

There was more...I can't remember any more of it right now.

I'll be back.

Confusedly yours,

Miranda

Complete Hysteria and Utter Hilarity

Terry Pratchett is a literary genius. Below is an excerpt from The Last Continent that I was reading today. I laughed so hard at it that people actually asked me if I was okay.

'Ponder exploded. "I don't believe this!" he said. "You're turning your back on an astonishing god-given opportunity--"
"Absolutely, Mr. Stibbons," said Ridcully, from above. "No offense meant, of course, but if the choice is a trip on the briny deep or staying on a small island with someone trying to create a more inflammable cow then you can call me Salty Sam."
"Is this the poop deck?" said the Dean.
"I hope not," said Ridcully briskly. "You see, Stibbons--"
"Are you sure?" said the Dean.
"I'm sure, Dean. You see, Stibbons, when you've had a little more expierience in these matters you'll learn that there's nothing more dangerous than a god with too much time on his hands--"
"Except an enraged mother bear," said the Senior Wrangler.
"No, they're far more dangerous."
"Not when they're really close."
"If it was the poop deck, how would we know?" said the Dean.
Ponder shook his head. There were times when the diesire to climb the thaumaturgical ladder was seriously blunted, and one of them was when you saw what was on top.'

Terry Pratchett, you're my hero.

Satirically yours,

Miranda

HERE'S a thought...

I've decided to try my hand at writing my own little chapter as a humorist if I were writing it to be published in a book called "101 Damnations: A Humorist's Guide To Personal Hells" (note: It's an actual book.)

I can't tell you how irritated I get with formalities. Step back and think for a minute. People generally tend to avoid other people, right? It's not absolutely necessary for them to talk to one another, so why bother? I'm not ashamed to say that I fall into this category. It's why I will never allow myself to work in the fast food industry. My summer job is somewhat like that of a receptionist; I sit at the front desks of the residence halls up on Saint Mary's campus (which is actually the school I'm attending, in addition to having two parents employed there) and take care of the problems that arise when the summer guests get persnickety. Perfect job for someone who doesn't like large crowds, right?

Don't get me wrong or anything; I enjoy watching people as much as anyone else. I find the human race to be quite astounding. I just don't enjoy interacting with them when they're angry, upset, or looking for someone to direct their frustrations at (unless, of course, we're talking about a close friend). So when these summer guests walk into the building and I smile and say hello, the only thing I expect back is another hello in return. Sure, I'll answer if they want to make small talk or ask me how I'm doing. However, if you ask me that inevitable question of "How are you?", do NOT turn to your friend and start talking without waiting for my response. If you ask me how I am, I assume you are genuinely interested, however stupid it may seem, because I don't even know you.

People who ask the question of "How are you?" merely because it is a formality upset me greatly. It truly makes the person you're asking feel like crap when you immediately turn to whomever is standing next to you and begin running your mouth without even waiting for a simple "Fine, thanks."

Here's a thought: Just don't ask me that question.

Cynically yours,

Miranda

A Couple of Sibling Conversations

You'll be getting a lot of these because my younger brother Danny and I have a somewhat unique relationship. ***Disclaimer: When he says that he hates me and that I'm gay, it means he loves me. I'm not gay. ;-)

The first one:

-D: *whine* I want CHOOOOOCOLATE!
-M: Dude. Quit being loud.
-D: Do you have any chocolate?
-M: Why? Are you PMSing?
-D: Yes. My ovaries are flaring.
-M: Do you remember that Mr. Goodbar Robyn gave me?
-D: *eyes lighting up* You still have it?!?!?
-M: It's in the freezer.
-D: Can I have some?
-M: What's in it for me?
-D: I love you.
-M: Go away and never speak to me again!
-D: Ah! I mean! You're GAY! I freaking hate you GAY!
-M: Here, you can have half of it.


The second one occured a few nights ago during an episode of Grey's Anatomy.

-D: Wait. I don't get it. She's having an affair?
-M: Yes. With that guy.
-D: And he's married to the red-head?
-M: Yes.
-D: And that chick wants all her bad parts gone.
-M: Yes. She doesn't want to risk the cancer coming back.
-D: What do they do, just throw them in a box?
-M: I don't know. I'm not a surgeon.
-D: Wait. Wait. Are they...?
-M: Dating? Yes.
-D: No, like, cutting him open.
-M: Oh...yeah.

*long pause*

-D: We just demonstrated the difference between boys and girls.
-M: Yeah, so?

*another long pause*

-D: I am SO confused.


I love my brother.

Green Apple

Odd how whenever you think of green apples you think of a sour taste. I've got a sort of sour taste in my mouth right now for two reasons. One: I've got a Green Apple Jones Soda at my side. Two: I saw an old friend at Subway about an hour ago when my mom stopped for lunch.

I'll feel awkward if I mention his name, but now that I think about it, I feel awkward around anything remotely concerning him now. In my junior and senior years of high school (which were rather unfortunate years of my life), Neil was a very good friend of mine. At least, I'd like to have considered him so. He was supposed to graduate with the rest of "the fellowship" as we called it (a group of six or seven or so friends in which I was a year younger than the rest), but he had failed a few classes and ended up having to do one more semester. I was looking forward to it, because I'd be seeing more of him if he was still in high school while I finished up.

All this time he was dating another of this "fellowship". I never felt awkward when I was the third wheel with them. I considered that a blessing, because I'd had many misfortunes when it came to dating (come to think of it, I still do to a certain degree). However, when she graduated and left him to finish his last semester, new ideas surfaced. They were new for me because I was completely oblivious to everything. He sat with me and some of my other friends at lunch once, and whispered in my ear that he'd had a crush on me for quite a few months now.

Just call me the Awkward Turtle.

I never wanted to see myself dating him. Ever. Mostly because I was such good friends with his CURRENT girlfriend. (Side note: I never dated him. I never will, either.)

Then I learned of something awful that happened between him and my dear Emily. She was very distressed, and I will never press her for the details. She doesn't like to use the word hate, but that was the closest I've ever seen to her hating someone. And that's something big.

So when I saw him today working at Subway, I felt every fiber of my being heating up with the Awkward Situation, and I almost felt my hands flattening against each other in the shape of the Turtle. I'll never be able to look at him the same way again, and I feel badly that I can't be his friend anymore.

That's just the way things go.

So the fortune under the cap of my Jones Soda says this: "You will soon find something lost long ago." I wonder if this something is even something tangible. ;-)

Awkwardly Yours,

Miranda

P.S. I made an executive decision. I need to sit back. Am I being too assertive? If yes...does that mean I've done the wrong thing again? I must have a knack for repeating my worst mistakes.

Another Addiction.

To begin, let me say that I am the Queen of Alliteration.

To continue, I've been somewhat disappointed with some of the readers over at a different blogging site I've been using for almost two years now (how sad is this, folks?). When I say I've been "disappointed", I actually mean I've been "disgusted". I decided it was time for a fresh start. My best friend Emily and I made an executive decision a few weeks ago, and it was that we should consider the summer of 2006 to be the "Summer of Fresh Starts". So...this is me, trying out a new blog site. We'll see what happens.

In the mean time (is that two words or one? I could never figure it out), I believe it's time for me to end my very first entry here with a list. (Note: in addition to being the Queen of Alliteration, I am also very well known for making lists.) This one is a list of pranks I've either learned about for the first time or have actually seen in repetition since my family moved here. So, without further ado...

Hoosier Pranks I've Learned About Since Moving From Colorado to Indiana

1) Devil on the Doorstep (or) Ding Dong Ditching. This one is pretty much self explanitory.

2) Gnoming. This is where you and some friends in a car drive around in any given neighborhood, periodically taking turns jumping out of the car to steal various lawn ornaments and then tossing them out the windows of the car when leaving for home.

3) Forking. Take a load of plastic forks, push them into the lawn of an unsuspecting victim, and break off the handles. Then, when this victim goes to mow the lawn...ohh. There goes the lawnmower. A variant of this prank is also Frozen Forking, where the forks are stuck into the snow of someone's lawn, broken off, and left there to freeze.

4) Stupid-Blow-Up-Thing-Slashing. This one was actually a product of the imaginations of myself with a few of my cousins at a very dysfunctional Thanksgiving gathering two years ago. In the colder months of the year, we've noticed a lot of inflatable lawn ornaments to celebrate the season. I made a separate list of the stupid blow up things we've seen, which I will not include here, but included in this list is The Grinch, Scooby Doo With A Santa Hat, and various other winter icons. This prank involves us going around in the dead of night with large knives and slashing the stupid blow up things. (We couldn't come up with a better name for this prank.)

5) Hubcapping. Basically, you steal the hubcaps off of someone's car and hide them in a car belonging to a close (and, albeit, unsuspecting) close friend.

As of now, these are the only five I can think of, but I might be back later to add to this list.

However, I do believe that the best prank ever was a practical joke played on a friend of ours from youth group that I got pulled into at the last minute. What happened: We (when I say "we", I refer to myself, Andy aka Skippy, Marcus, and Nic) covered our friend's car in post-it notes while he was still in school. Why were the four of us not in school ourselves, you ask? We're college kids and our friend (Mammo) is still in high school.

Woo.

I leave you with that.

Unfortunately yours,

Miranda