Relevant Lyrics

I took a walk in the rain one day on the wrong side of the tracks
I stood on the rails till I saw that train
Just to see how my heart would react
Now some people say that you shouldn't tempt fate
And for them I would not disagree
But I never learned nothing from playing it safe I say fate should not tempt me

I take my chances, I don't mind working without a net
I take my chances, I take my chances every chance I get

--Mary Chapin Carpenter, "I Take My Chances"


My newest obsession: rock climbing. Took a trip this weekend to John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs, Ohio (home of Dave Chappelle and Antioch College aka Hippietown, USA). I made 6 climbs, each of them challenging, given that I'm 5'2" and don't have very much reach. By the end I was attempting more difficult paths up the side of the rock. Lots of fun. I'm looking into buying some cheap equipment if I can find it and spending a lot more time climbing. Unfortunately, like all of my other hobbies, rock climbing is expensive as hell.
Topped the weekend off with AOPirate. Every year we rent a river boat on the Ohio River. Good times are had by all. Dressing up like a wench is always a blast, especially when it's with your best friends.

Petition for Bryan Laue

Bryan Laue is a graduate of Shawnee High School in Lima Ohio, and just turned 18. He is from South Africa, and although his family has followed through on every rule and regulation to apply for citizenship, Bryan has still not received a visa number. If this does not change, he will be deported.

He hopes to attend college, get a driver's license, and get a job.

Please sign this petition to expedite his visa number. If he is deported, it will split up a loving family.

http://www.petitiononline.com/laue/petition.html

To read more about Bryan and his family, here is an article from the Lima News:

http://www.limaohio.com/story.php?IDnum=51001

Oh Puddle Pull...one of my favorite times of year. By far my favorite Greek Week/Pledge event. AOII's philanthropy with Delta Upsilon. Win or lose, (but we always win!!!!) good times are had by all. Except the teams that pull against us. The picture above is our team from last year (I was second puller - you can see me under Varner, who's leaning over and calling for us). We got in 2nd, after Gamma Phi Cheating Skanks.

Last night was the first Puddle Pull practice for the new member class. Awesome turnout. I showed up to help and be entertained. Though I can't reveal our strategy (TOP SECRET!), I am gonna say that, as I like to think metaphorically, it has lots of parallels with the way my life is going right now.

After we taught the new girls our kick-ass *unbeatable* strategy, a lot of the older girls who were there got in the pits in between the new girls. I feel like having experienced girls in between really helped those who were learning. Sometimes, you just need that kind of support from a peer when you're struggling and learning.

We teach our girls to keep all of their weight back by looking up at the sky. Even if they're being pulled out of the pits, if their heads are back, they can recover. If you keep your focus on your goal, no matter how hard you are being pulled in the opposite direction, there is always a chance for you to succeed.

Puddle Pull is in teams of 8. All 8 girls sit with their legs around each other. It's one of the more awkward positions possible, but you all learn to work as a team, simultaneously. The support of others when you're all working toward a common goal is unmatchable.

At one point, all the older girls got in against the younger girls. We pretty much pulled them out of the pits the entire time, but sometimes, you just have to teach them what it feels like to fail so that they can learn to win.

All the older girls got in the pits at the end of practice because the Delta Tau Delta pledge class thought we were badass and wanted to pull against us. We hit against them and got a bit of rope, but when they hit against us, we ended up getting pulled out of the pits. I landed on top of Kim, Varner landed on top of me. No parallels there, but boys are just mean for doing that to us. They all cheered afterwards. Good job boys. You beat a bunch of girls who had been practicing for an hour. You're so manly, give me your numbers so I can date you all.

There are countless other parallels I thought of on my long walk home from the Delt house, but I'm sure you get the point. The support of a team and strategy is so vital when working towards a common goal. That's what keeps me going when I feel like the rope is slipping out of my hands....knowing there are people in front and in back of me, both pulling as hard as they can for me, and squeezing so I know they're there.

oh bach...

So, being the masochistic math major I am, I spend more time in Bachelor Hall than in my own apartment. A different breed of students frequents that building. It's a place where less than 4 hours of sleep/night is the norm...where you oft find a line waiting outside many a professor's office during his office hours. Where the coffee machine runs out of coffee faster than any other machine on campus. Where you can take a class with just as many grad students as there are undergrads (not really fair, if you ask me...). Where you find just as many students who want to be 3rd grade math teachers as those who want to get their PhD. Where you can sit next to someone every day in the computer lab while both of you struggle with this weeks problem set, but don't even know their name. This, my friends, is Bachelor Hall. And probably rightfully named, because very few math majors have time for a relationship. Ha.

This is also where I found my inspiration.

So I get really inspired by quotes. I have a leather-bound journal that I use solely to write quotes that truly inspire me. I'm not sure where it is right now because my life is mega-unorganized (having the life I do can do that to you), but somewhere it sits. Right outside Prof. Magurn's office in Bach there is a bulletin board, which I sometimes gaze at blankly while I wait for him to get to his office hours so I can ask him questions about the seemingly impossible homework he has assigned. There's a quote torn out from a magazine tacked up there that I tend to read over and over, and I finally copied it down the other day.

We have not succeeded in answering all our problems. The answers we have found only serve to raise a whole set of new questions. In some ways we feel we are as confused as ever, but we believe we are confused on a higher level about more important things.
~Found written outside the Math Department at Tromso University

I think this is what growing up is all about.

Lifeline

Today was my first rock climbing class at the Rec. It's a two hour class, but I am required to do 4 hours of climbing outside of class. I'm really excited about this class because rock climbing is something I've always wanted to do, and we get to take a trip to an outdoor venue. So pumped.

I think today was the first time that I was literally holding someone's "lifeline". I belayed while Matt climbed. He climbed all the way to the top of the 4 story wall. The entire time, I was thinking...Holy crap. This guy must trust me. A lot. If he were to fall, I was holding the rope that would save his life. And if I made a mistake, he was pretty much done-skis. It was an empowering and frightening feeling.

A video of the littles doing their Puttin' on the Hits dance is online now. Check it out. They are so ador and I love them!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1009133514653

:(

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/07/unc.student.killed/

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/stories/2008/03/05/auburn_0306_web1.html?imw=Y

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-niu-gunman_webfeb15,0,1760508.story

In the last month, 8 college students have been killed by shooting. Of these 8, six of them were women.

It seems like so long ago that I came to Miami as a freshman. There were warnings of the dangers of drinking and drugs, date-rape...all the usuals that I'm sure we all got. Lots of statistics were thrown out. 1 in 6 women will be a victim to sexual assault in their lifetime, and college-age women are 4 times as likely for something like this to happen. I've been lucky enough to not be able to count myself in this crowd.

In the last year, there have been two large-scale University shootings. As I'm sure other schools have done, Miami has installed an emergency text-messaging system. Its only use so far has been to alert us twice that classes are canceled due to inclement weather. In the last year, we have also tragically lost four members of the Miami family. I never received a text message notifying me of this. Rumors seem to fly quickly enough on a campus of 15,000 that I tend to hear soon regardless, but is that really the way information should be distributed?

Three years ago, when I stepped foot on Miami's campus, the dangers seemed limited to date-rape, roofies, and the occasional Spring Break horrific accident. Now, do I really have to walk around campus wondering if Miami will be the next VT or NIU? And what can we do to stop this from happening.

The next time there's a University shooting, or a college student's body found miles away from her campus, will I recognize the name in the headlines? Or will it be me? Because honestly...who knows? Everytime something like this happens, the police and University officials say that there's nothing they could have done. I'm not offering a solution. Honestly, I see no way that awful things like this can be prevented.

Perhaps solidarity is the only solution.

AHHHHHHHH!

Hallelujah!!!!
I'm pretty sure this is the happiest I've ever been. I can hardly contain my excitement. GREEN BEER DAY IS BACK!!!!

My professor just told us that our homework is now due on Tuesday, our take-home will be handed out on Tuesday as well, and will be due the Tuesday after break. AND! Instead of having an exam the day before Spring Break (and more importantly, the day after GBD), it will be on the TUESDAY AFTER SPRING BREAK!

I'm buying shots for my entire class when we celebrate Uptown tonight.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAAHH!!!!!!! Alcohol prevails!

In celebration, I'm listening to Flogging Molly's "Wrong Company"

Well I fell into prison about a quarter till three
Where I found in my cell a glass waiting for me
So I filled what was empty and I pulled up a stool
But he stood in the corner, the old devil wouldn't move
He said, "You drink when you're lonely." No I drink when I want!
He said, "You'll never be sober." Sure. Why would I want that?
I only drink to be merry but unfortunately
I'm in the wrong prison cell and the wrong company

how the grinch stole Green Beer Day

Professor Bruce Magurn = Satan.
And Abstract Algebra is the hell he reigns over.
I've never before felt like a class was ruining my life. But when a professor assigns a homework assignment due Monday (keep in mind these assignments takes my class about 10 hours WHEN we work in a group), a take-home on Monday that's due Friday, and an in class exam due the FRIDAY BEFORE SPRING BREAK, it's hard to think positively. Additionally, I have two exams on Wednesday. Looks like Green Beer Day, the most famous alcoholiday in the country, is not going to be happening for me. The first year that it's legal to join the crowds at the bars at
5:30am, I'm not going to be able to go. Goodbye green tongues. Goodbye getting Fratty for 24 hours straight. Goodbye Kegs and Eggs. Thank you Bruce Magurn, for making damn sure that these memories aren't going to be made this year.

roller coaster

They say, "If you don't like the weather in Ohio, wait 10 mins..."

It's true.

Monday morning: 60 degrees, sunny. Gorgeous.
Monday afternoon: Still 60. Raining.
Tuesday: Rain. All day. High 40's-50's.
Tuesday night: Temperature plummets to 20's. Snow.
Wednesday: Snow on the ground so I put on a winter coat and my Uggs and trounced off to class.
Wednesday afternoon: Nearly died of heat exhaustion walking back from class.
Wednesday night: 2am, almost froze to death walking back from the bars. Toes suffering from frostbite.
NOW: 45 degrees, hazy. Fully expecting swarms of locusts.

sweet spontaneity

Today was one of the more stressful days E V E R! EBD work is getting tougher and tougher. And it's always so hard to get on the phone with Ashlee and tell her, "No, I have no external meetings planned for this week." It's clearly not a problem with my lead generation skills, because I write several emails a day to externals. It's just that no one is getting back to me! With my luck, they'll all email me back at the same time. But even that would be better than no response at all.

The highlight of the call was this: I noticed an email pop up from one of our new members, Megan, who's applying for an SPT role (SO PROUD!) Part of it said "A woman named Izaz called me..." Needless to say, I started laughing immediately. As you probably are right now.

I decided that I would spend the rest of today doing EBD/AIESEC work. Just as I made that decision, Rob called and asked if I wanted to go to see the Special Collections at King Library. I decided this was a better idea than doing my Optimization homework (which, as I'm typing this, I just realized I haven't finished. Oops.) It was super cool. Turns out our collection of old-ass books rivals Harvard, Yale, and even the Library of Congress! I saw original Jefferson Davis letters, first editions of Journey to the Center of the Earth, Robinson Crusoe, and the first publication EVER of Oliver Twist! Yeah, I know I'm a huge dork, but I was excited.

After that, Rob and I decided that in order to relieve my stress, the best thing to do would be to go to Skippers and get dinner and a couple glasses of Guinness. And then, the best thing to do after that would be to drink Sparks in the hot tub at the Rec.

The evening turned from a stress fest into a great conversation over drinks with a friend. In my opinion, that's the best type of break - the one you didn't even see coming. Thank you Rob for making my night :)

So now here I am, making lists after lists of BD work that I have to do. I planned on pulling an all nighter to get all the work done that I needed to do, but turns out I have to make a lot more phone calls than I thought, and I can't imagine that anyone would be too excited about getting a call this late. But I'm getting really excited about the next week <---Sarcasm. Two exams next Wednesday + Green Beer Day Thursday + Another exam on Friday = Caitie's going to be studying for the next week straight so that she can get trashed on Green Beer Day with the rest of Miami's student population.

P.S. You know what really grinds my gears? The fact that professors still fucking have exams on GBD and on the day after. I mean, seriously. It's like they're trying to ruin our lives.

no one ever died of cork poisoning!

Oh SoCo. What a region you are.

This weekend, I packed 6 people into my car and drove the 7.5 hours to Greenville, South Carolina for SoCo RoKS. And what a weekend it was! We arrived at midnight on Friday and headed straight the the bar that we had rented. Dumbass at the front door thought January 28, 1987 was less than 21 years ago and gave me X's. Never thought I'd have to rub those off my hands again. The night included dancing, bull-riding, and laughing at the Trashy McTrashsters -people at the bar who weren't from AIESEC. Lots of women has their tank tops tucked into their bras. Ew. Ew ew ew. After that, we headed back and smoked some hookah out front. And of course, had a trip to Waffle House :)

Oddly, the next day I woke up feeling like complete crap. I had 4 beers at the bar. Granted, I got absolutely no sleep, but really? Where has my tolerance gone? I used to be a tank. The SoCo region had some kickass sessions - lots of different ones than we have in the Rowdies region. I really enjoyed all of them, especially a traineeship rocketship session that included a video from Arcadiy! I got to know lots of really fun people throughout the day, and talk to old friends.

Saturday night's festivities included buying two bottles of wine, but no corkscrews. A pair of tweezers came in handy for one of them, but I ended up breaking the neck off the bottle #2. I felt like such a champ/alcoholic. No shards of glass in the wine, either. And, as well all know, "no one ever died of cork poisoning", so we pushed the cork into one of the bottles. We made it to about 15 mins of the party, did the fastest version of Cotton Eye Joe ever to a salsa song, smoked more hookah, got a lot closer to Ilana than I ever thought possible (hopefully none of those pictures appear online!!!), had some great conversations, passed out in a Waffle House, forgot about an hour of my life, got a drive home from the chair (I LOVE YOU!), got back to my room where people still were hanging out, and had overall a great time! It was one of those nights where you wake up the next day, and people say "OMG YOU'RE STILL ALIVE?!?!?" Yes I am. And not hungover. Because I'm a champ.

The next day, Illinois were a bunch of badasses and stopped in Oxford to have dinner at Skippers on the way home. Slash I kinda kidnapped them. A few Miami AIESECers showed up to greet the Illinois folk, and we had a fabulous time at Skips. The best part was probably the drive. We learned that if you don't know where you're going, you probably shouldn't drag race. AIESEC dances in the car AND in the parking lot of a gas station might be more fun than at a conference, given the stares that we got. I'm feeling a lot of Miami/Illinois love going on, and I feel like this is something that might last a little longer than the conference ;)

Must go to EB! P.S. I hate math and Abstract Algebra pretty much ruined my day. Luckily, Derek and Kelly were there to suffer with me. Bruce Magurn is an evil math dictator. The end.