Righto

Okay so no lie, there have apparently been a few new people who have been reading this little online diary of mine, which kinda freaks me out because I tend to use this site in moments of high emotion and or points of drama. I am hoping that those of you out there reading this (you know who you are) don't take this as some deep look into my personality. Is it a new side of me you may not have seen before? Yes. Is it the whole picture? Far from it.

Alright, so to get on with the post I had a little bit of a revelation today: school is the source of the vast majority of my stress. Ta-Dah! I know most of you are looking at the screen and saying something along the lines of "Thank you Captain Obvious" and/ or "No shit Sherlock" but I don't think I truely got this point until over the break. For those of you just tuning in, I spent my break doing two-a-day practices with the rowing team, that plaus an hour of cardio and some strength trainging and I ahd a pretty busy week off. The kicker was though, I think I was happier for that stretch of time than I have been in a long while. I was litereally having moments when I would be sitting in the boat, or talking with friends or just hanign gout and this wonderful light feeling would come over me and I would just realize that I was amazingly happy. It had nothing to do with teh fact that I was keeping busy, and staying active that was the original source of my stress, but, in fact, school work and how it will effect me and my life and the things I want to do and all fo that fun stuff.

Stress is what utimatly kills most of us and yet we have set up a society that feeds and requires copious amounts of it. Don't get me wrong, I am well aware that life all in its own uninhibitated requires a certin amoung of stress in which it function and flow, but I think we, as humans (and maybe more specifically Americans) go way beyond our daily quota. We put people in an education system that tries to enfource the believe of learning and life long education yet we have grades and papers which cause most learning to be on a memorized basis that is soon lost after it has been implemented in the required fashion. I can not tell you how many teaches I have had that tell me not to "memorize things but to learn them." If you truely wanted me to learn something you would not require that I understand on some sort fo time scale.

I also understand that this woudln't function well either simply because people would then only choose to learn what they liked and believed was important, instead of becoming well rounded individuals...but wait! Isn't this what we do anyway? How many of you could actually re-take and pass all of the tests we went through in highg school? How many of us would be able to pass our college courses without studying once we have graduated? We attain broad knowledge yet only implement and retain the stuff that is useful. Why not just go with that? Why not just have people learn what they need and want to learn to further their lives? I am going to continue this rant a little bit later because I need to sleep now, but I hope that was at least a little something for your mind to snack on.

Happy Almost Saint Patrick's Day
~The Singing Ginger

Unitard

I would just like to say that my two favorite pieces of clothing now are my senior prom dress and my new uni suite. I have been spending my Spring Break in Texas with the crew team and two days ago we received our uni's. These are the one piece suites that we race in and I must say I feel like a super hero every time I put it on. It is THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER!! I finally feel like I am really a part of this team and that I have a new group of friends I will be a part of for life. I love the girls in my boat and the rest of them on the team and the guys are becoming like some twisted form of family. They are all wonderful and I don't know what I would do without them at this point.

This entire break ahs just been wonderful, I am getting to know some people I wasn't as close to and spending even more time with those I like to chill with. Everybody is great and the trip is more than I expected. I will update more when I get back but needless to say this is the happiest I have been in a long while. I hope everything is coming up roses.

~Claire

1 lb = 3ft

I need to lose some weight. I just recently signed onto my facebook and saw that I had been tagged in some pictures from a crew formal that went down this weekend. After looking at the pictures I realize that I am in serious need of weight loss. It really does crack me up because (as some of you may have read) I posted a "goodbye ode" to my pudge a couple of months ago thinking that, like most human beings, if I worked out 2 hours a day/ 6 days a week that I would lose some weight. I was wrong. Oi, okay bedtime. Love you all!

~The Singing Ginger

*sigh*

So after giving myself a bit of time to both mope and wallow in self pity, I am back here releasing my thoughts out into the world to all of you wonderful people. The boy said "no," after finally getting the nerve up to ask him he said "no." Lucky for me I only fall for wonderfully sweet, amazingly kind, and dashingly handsome boys so he let me down easy, and I am excited to be able to quickly pass over any awkward stage and just be friends again. Don't get me wrong, my ego/ pride is still trying to recover but I will be okay, and truly this guy is too awesome to lose to some weirdness or another.

Time to push on, time to keep going. My erg splits have been falling which is some sort of consolation, and I have enough school work to focus on to keep me busy for at least three life times. All in all life is going well. But here is my little rant for the day: money is evil. Most of the stress in my life comes from school and money. Money to buy books, money to travel money to go and do the thing I would like to do. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that by way of most of the world;s population I have very little money troubles. I update my blog, from my laptop while drinking a diet pepsi and sit in my dorm room at the university I attend. Unfortunately, like my philosophy teacher used to say "you can not compare people's suffering" so my current "suffering" (again make no mistake I am well aware of much more painful things than this) is money. Why is it that in a world so rich with opportunity and adventure that we are held back by bits of paper and metal coin? I understand that we can't just have some sort of trade or skill system, and that even if we did there would still be poor people and rich people and the ever smaller population of people in the middle...but still?!?

Money makes everything function and work and most of the time it does a great job with that; but what happens when those that deserve certain things don't have the money that should correlate to their worth? What if the grade A student can't find the loans and scholarship to attend a secondary education institution? What happens when the All American baseball player falls down on his luck and can't afford to play the game he loves? What happens when you have entire populations of people that want to educate their children on the world but have not the resources in which to travel it? It is amazing how blatantly we put a monetary value over people's heads. How we can just write off a life in dollars and cents. What gives us the right to inhibit or prohibit an existence with currency?

As per usual I have no answers to any of these questions, it has just been something that has been on my mind lately as I grow more and more aware of my monetary surroundings. Promise not to have this much of a hiatus ever again, I already have the next post started. Hope everything is coming up roses!

~The Singing Ginger

Damn

He said "no"

~The Singing Ginger

Wish Me Luck

Okay so I have come to the conclusion that this person that I really like is worth taking a risk for. I have decided that if he doesn't do something by the end of the week I am going to ask him out. I haven't done this in about 6years and the last time I asked a guy out it ended...badly. So...yeah... I am kind of freaking about this but I really do believe it is going to be worth it in the end. This is how I see this one: if he says "no" we can move on and get over that weird awkward phase where we figure out how to be friends after what just went down. If he says "yes" then we can try this out and see how it goes. :) I am so excited. Keep you all updated on this as it goes along. Wish me luck!

~The Singing Ginger

FIRST POST 2009!!

So as promised here is my list of New Year's resolutions (not that I am thinking a ton of you care but more that you all may get ideas for your own)

New Year 2009:
-Get to healthy weight
-Learn patience and self reliance
-Kiss someone who means something to me/ don't kiss anyone who doesn't mean anything to me
-Be more truthful
-Find something to love about myself everyday
-Get down to a 2:09 6k split time
-Make art
-Sing more
-Take a chance and do something totally random
-Stop swearing as much
-Keep grades up

I am sure I will have more to add but for now this is where I am at. Maybe, when we get to 2010, I will go back and tell you all what I have reached and what I have not.

Love much, and often,
~The Singing Ginger