Homeless

It's hard to feel safe when you don't have a home.

My roommate made it very clear to me that I was no longer welcome to stay with her in our dorm, and since I was planning on moving out soon anyways, it just fueled the right fires for me to pack up and crash on couches (more like sharing those tiny dorm beds) and live night to night. I haven't had something I considered my own "bed" since...Thursday. And I haven't spent two consecutive nights in one space, because I don't want to get tied down anywhere. I stayed in a very nice suite last night with two of my marching band friends so I might stay here again if housing doesn't find me a place to live today. Or, I might go stay with my sister in Wisconsin because i have the go-ahead for a medical leave, but my parents aren't as cool with that. I would go home to Fitchburg, but things have happened to me there that I want to be far away from. My teachers tell me i'm too unstable to go to class and tell me "don't worry about it" if I even suggest going back to class.

I just feel like I don't have a safe place anymore on campus and that's a sad thing to feel.

<3alymay

I want to go home.

...just getting it out there.

Being Away At Election Time

My absentee ballot is coming in the mail this week, and it's my first official presidential election (the democratic primary in March was my first election ever). I kind of wish I could actually go to a polling place and do it the ol' fashioned way, but the MA election is a big deal for me right now so I'm doing absentee instead of registering here. Virginia Wood is running for Hargraves' seat, and I really want her to win that election (and I've helped out with her myspace and facebook a little bit). Question two is important to me, too, because it doesn't make sense for possession of marijuana to be a criminal offense- we'd save (and make...) a lot more money by making it a civil offense. I also don't believe in the prison system, but that's another rant for another day.

A lot of my friends registered in Louisiana, and they actually get to vote in the LBC, our student union. Things are heating up and I get an email a day from our chapter of College Democrats. It's exciting times, I just am a little homesick because I wish I could use my old connections and resources, but it's all a part of growing up.

<3Alymay

Linguistics

The best part about Tulane for me right now is how different all of our backgrounds are. Sure, there's not enough ethnic diversity for my liking, but there's people from all over the country who want a Tulane degree (after all, we all know that Harvard is just the Tulane of the North). Though there are certainly more Southerners than fellow "Yankees" here, the diversity is phenomenal. I have friends from rural Mississippi and the nicest parts of Dallas, all with accents that I have a hard time understanding. Every time I say "wicked", which anyone who knows me knows is a staple word of my vocabulary, I get laughs, but then again, when my roommate tells a story, she says "whenever I just went to..." instead of "when I just went to". Verb conjugation is no longer necessary, and whenever anyone corrects someone's grammar, they usually say, "it's the South, baby". Store clerks and restaurant staff call me "baby girl" (as does my boyfriend?) and when I call someone "buddy", they think I'm threatening them.

Little things that my microcosm of born-and-bred Fitchburg friends took for granted (like comprehension of the word "wicked") are starting to be more appreciated.

After falling off the top bunk and almost breaking my foot, Meg and I switched beds. Here's how I've decked out my new one. Note the Newfoundland rebel flag and Red Sox pillow- I know where I came from. The green thing is actually a sarong that I've made a makeshift curtain out of so I can take naps during the day.


<3may

Appreciation for College.

College is awesome. We think as high schoolers but have the freedom of an adult and parents to call on if you really mess up and a place with free food that's opened at most decent hours. Though I am much more studious here than I was in Massachusetts, I have certainly lived more. For better or for worse, I've developed a strong taste for ramen and have learned to hide a hickey with toothpaste and foundation. I've broken minor laws and had to figure out how to take care of myself when I couldn't breathe. My door is decorated with condoms as a response to some stupid penis graffiti people left on our door signs (if you're drawing a penis on my door, you better give it a condom). It's 2 AM and instead of doing my russian homework, I'm writing. I've changed my major about 30 times in the past week. I love it here.

Nobody looks at you funny when you dance to Ricky Martin and Britney Spears. When you're first starting out at school, you make friends while wearing a towel after a shower, brushing your teeth next to each other. The concept of personal hygiene has lapsed a little bit and you take more risks.

I feel myself living my life to the fullest now, and I am one happy woman for it.

Part of me still wishes that next week was Thanksgiving because I do miss Massachusetts. Down there, you have to wear a sweater outside because it's so cold. Here, you have to inside because people jack the AC way up. I want to see the leaves change, but ours only fall from hurricane damage. When the Red Sox win, people aren't partying in the streets, in fact, some people get pissed at you for wearing a sox shirt. One (extremely drunk) guy I ran into on the quad tried to pick me up today with this line, "I have a problem. I love red heads, but they're all from Boston and I'm a yankees fan". It was so weird to be their concept of a Boston girl when I am really just from North Central Mass.

And I do miss Fitchburg. More than I can say.

<3Alymay