Enough already

In the past week, four friends have told me that I need a life. Three of them were last weekend when I felt guilty for going to a movie instead of studying. And sadly, I realized yesterday that even though I dusted, mopped, vacuumed, did laundry, cleaned my bathroom, put dishes away, went to the grocery store, took the recycling, caught up on e-mails and made a couple of phone calls, I still felt bad for not doing any homework. So basically, I'm incapable of taking a third of a day for myself without feeling guilty for it. I think my friends might be right...

Except it's not that easy. Last weekend, I had a whole paper to write plus a rough draft for another class and reading to do. When things involve research and a lot of thinking, it's not that easy to just get up and go to a movie whenever I feel like it without thinking of all the other things I should be doing instead. Now of course not every weekend is like that, but I almost envy my friends who have time to be bored.

I think I've done a little better this weekend. Today, I went to church and then just hung around the apartment until this evening when I went to look at a couple houses for rent. No textbook cracked open, no Word document opened, no research done...Just me, Sara, flipping through crappy movies on TV and my Cadbury egg. Does that count as having a life for awhile?

Speaking of looking for places to live, I was highly disappointed in my selections today. I'll spare the more boring details, but in the end I found myself in the passenger seat of a Gator, holding the landlord's dog while crossing a pasture that separates the owner's property from a tiny little depressing house with concrete walls and carpet that smelled like smoke. The last guy who lived there was a Katrina victim who was dying of cancer and I'll bet anything he died in the house. It gives me the creeps.

On the bright side, the property was furnished and had horses grazing in the front yard, but still, no thanks. The second property, owned by the same people, was a disturbing orange color right off of a main road that will be undergoing construction soon. A lady and her two kids live there now and they make a silly family. When she opened the door, she greeted the landlord, then looked at me like, "Who are you?" with her eyes and nose scrunched up. I almost said, "You know what, I'm really not interested in living here anyway. I don't need to waste your time." But I don't say things like that, so I just introduced myself and after a few awkward moments of her hesitating to let us in, she moved aside and let us through the door.

While I was standing in the doorway, her daughter gave me a full-out scowl and seriously scared me. I was so ready to get out of there.

It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't exactly taken care of either. Messy and one bathroom for three bedrooms, not to mention a crappy layout. And I know I must sound really picky, but honestly, you don't have to be very picky to turn these places down. I was surprised because the landlord's house was really nice and when I talked to the couple earlier, they made the places sound great. Of course, I guess they wouldn't say, "Yeah, the houses are really small and smell funny" over the phone.

Anyway, my search continues and hopefully I'll be able to find a roommate that doesn't keep changing her mind on what she wants.

Class is going better, though. I'm finding the material more interesting, although I still feel like everyone else knows a lot more than me. There have been several occasions when someone in the class will quote some scholar, author, "great thinker," etc., etc.

"As so-and-so says..." And the teacher always knows who they're talking about. I don't.

On a different note, life has been a little depressing lately. Just this past week, all these young people have died, and working at a newspaper, I hear about all of them. First, the student body president at Chapel Hill was shot to death around the same time a girl from Georgia was found dead. Then, two high school students were taking an unofficial skip day from school and ended up having a wreck. One died and the other is in critical condition. If he lives, he'll be charged with manslaughter. Next, there was a fire is Salisbury and two firefighters died. At least one was a volunteer firefighter and just 19. Then a lady in Matthews...the assistant town manager or something...died when a tree hit her car. And today, Mom told me that someone's son was also in a car wreck and died at just 20.

It makes me think that people are lucky if they can get through life without getting cancer or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's way too much life to be lived to be the victim of some careless decision or random act of violence. It's kind of scary.

However, I heard the best story ever on Friday and it was one of those "there must still be some good in this world" moments. I get to write an article about it tomorrow, but I'll give you a sneak peek: There's a bus driver/Vietnam veteran in the area who is called Cross Man. He sculpts crosses and gives them away for free. The way he got into it and the hundreds of people he's reached is incredible...That's all you get for now, but I'll post the article on here when it's done.

To keep with the lighter note, I got my car window fixed today! All the car places I was calling were going to charge me a minimum of $75 and since I already had the window, that seemed like too much to pay. But a guy at church fixed it for me today thanks to Mom talking a lot. (I mean that in the best of ways). She called the pastor to ask a favor and mentioned that my car was broken into and my window needed to be replaced. Lo and behold there's a guy at church who could help me and wasn't even going to charge me...but I paid him anyway because it's the thing to do and I was very grateful. Now if we can just do something about the $3.17 gasoline.

One more thing: I've found a downside to my job...school board meetings.