Fairytales and Daydreams

 Have you ever wanted your life to be like a fairy tale? Have you ever wanted to be swept off your feet by that guy who you initially hated but grew to love throughout your far-fetched encounters? Have you ever wished for Prince Charming to show up with one of your favorite shoes and slide it onto your foot as he professed his love? A fantasy of almost every girl who has ever picked up a Disney movie or a romantic comedy is to have a movie moment in her own life. Why else do romantic comedies make so much money? It is off of the girls who dream about them coming true!

I know men will go see them--even pay for them-- to appease the woman they are with, but the movies are not designed for a male audience. They are for our girlish dreams. Dreams that we one day hope to come true and see us with the love of our life and a castle and a tiara and rainbows and unicorns and--stop me whenever you feel like it. While that might not be every girl's dream, we all have something along the same lines that we wistfully daydream for.

Not only do we witness these fantastically cheese-filled perfect endings while we are at the theater, or curled up on the couch with a blanket, pillow and box of tissues in the case of the Notebook, but we also see them on Facebook. I particularly remember the phase where everyone was taking "quizzes" on Facebook. One that struck me in particular was the "Which famous movie kiss are you?" quiz.

If you take a second to logically evaluate that question, you can see that it is preposterous. How could I, a three dimensional, living, breathing human being, transform into a two dimensional lip-lock? It is just not feasible. Even so, anyone flipping through the results of that quiz (Yes, I took it, no I will not tell you which movie I got unless you have food for bribes) can catch a glimpse into the desires of most women to reach that kind of picturesque, iconic romance in their own lives.

Is it unrealistic to daydream about these kinds of these? Maybe, but where would we be without them? Where would we be if Cinderella never dreamed to go to the ball to meet her Prince Charming? If Simba did not fall in love with Nala? If Captain Shang never forgave Mulan? If Catherine Heigl never decided to act in rom-coms? In my opinion, it would be a sad, sad world and I am more than happy to indulge in my daydreams, even if only to write a blog post about them. Happy dreaming!

Fight Like a Champion

You would think I would feel bad about being aggressive to take pictures with famous people after having so many people in India sneak pictures of me, the blond white girl. But no, researchers have discovered that aggressive camera use is definitely acceptable, especially when the result is a picture with Regis Philbin!

He is really short but he's adorable!

Regis wasn't the only celebrity alumnus to appear at Notre Dame yesterday. The pep rally for the Michigan State game was graced by the presences of Condoleezza Rice, an ND graduate, the actual Rudy Ruttiger, former head coach Ara Parseghian and the 1966 National Championship winning Fighting Irish football team!

The Real Rudy Ruttiger!

Last night also marked Notre Dame's first professional boxing match hosted in the JACC on campus. "Fight Like a Champion" featured main event Mike Lee, a 2009 graduate of Notre Dame and three time winner of Bengal Bouts, who is now 7-0 undefeated and five other fights. The proceeds from the fight went to the Ara Parseghian Foundation to support research on Neimann Pick Type C disease. The fights were fantastic! We had ringside seats and were close enough to see without having to glance up at the jumbo-tron. Since we were on the floor, we got tickets to the Mike Lee after party where I got an autograph and a picture with him!

He had already showered by this time. :)

Needless to say, last night was a great amazing night spent with my dad and a few friends. Let's just hope the game today lives up to the hype from last night!

Go Irish! Beat Spartans!

Always Remember, Never Forget

Five thousand students gathered in memory: 

9/11/2011

Never forget.

Photo available for purchase through photos.nd.edu

The Pace is Picking Up

Remember when they told us that college would be a lot of reading back in senior year of high school? Teachers warned us it would be as intense as AP World History was back in sophomore year. I thought to myself, scoffing, nothing could ever require as many notes and hours spent reading as AP World. Famous last words, anyone?

Freshman year came and there was 'recommended' reading to do before you attended lecture. Like most freshmen, I was bombarded with eighteen billion things to do all around campus so the reading assignments slipped into the background. Sure, I would skim the section titles in chemistry and I would actually do my Theology readings because they were short and interesting but everything else? Hmm, oh wait, there is glow-in-the-dark putt-putt on North Quad? Pfft, I'll do my reading tomorrow. Always tomorrow, always tomorrow.

Fast forward to sophomore year. I have more reading assignments that I could have ever dreamed of. Lecture (cough biology) is based on the book and even goes in the same order with the same pictures. I had two choices: I could do what I did freshman year and skim the readings and take good notes in lecture which worked out pretty well, or I could actually try to do the readings.

For now, I'm attempting to do all of the required readings before lecture class. Never have I had less free time! I don't know if I ever comprehended exactly how long it takes to read an academic book. I can devour a 500 page Harry Potter book in a few hours and retain everything that happened, no problem, but sit me down with my Anthropology text and twenty pages drags on for an hour!

I don't quite know why there is such a huge difference but it's a problem I need to solve as hundreds of pages of biology and organic chemistry reading pile up on me! Don't forget that the level of events to attend have only increased since freshman year.  Now there are things that I care about that I have committed to: things I can't skip off because I have a little extra reading to do.

I remember when we watched American Pie and thought college was going to be nothing but weekends right after each other with no work. Oh naiveté, where have you gone?

And God said, Let There Be Fish!

At long last, my fish tank that has sat barren (except for a bubble-blowing dragon ceramic) under my television stand is filled with life! Four fish currently inhabit my tank: a black molly, a silver molly and two swordtail fish! They are currently getting used to their home and continue to spaz out if anything comes near their tank. I hope they will calm down a little as they explore their new tank and tank mates.

I had a fantastic visit with my dad today after he drove my car up to Notre Dame. As soon as lunch was mentioned, we were off-campus in a jiffy. Notre Dame has one of the best dining halls in the country (North Dining Hall is better than South!) but sometimes, it is just nice to get off campus. My stomach dutifully snarfed down endless salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden. In between mouthfuls, I was able to catch up with my dad on what was going on in our lives. Olive Garden was super busy today but that isn't too much of a surprise since it is Labor Day. Why else would people randomly go to Olive Garden on a Monday? (Note: We're talking about normal people; I'd go to Olive Garden whenever if I only could!)

Speaking of Labor Day, guess who had class today? That's right, this girl. I walked into my Anthropology class bright and early at 8:30am this morning wrapped in a fleece. By the way, why was it sixty degrees today? It is still early September and it was 96 degrees two days ago, we shouldn't have started our decent into cold yet...right?...please?

Anyways, even my Anthropology teacher was confused at why we were having class on Labor Day. It was the first time he had ever taught on Labor Day! To apologize for making us wake up so early, he gave us a super easy quiz and I'm sure everyone who even skimmed the homework appreciated the free A. It makes sense when you remember that we have an entire week for our fall break while most universities only get a day or two but still, I don't like waking up early. Silly classes only being available at certain times saddled me with 8:30's MWF.

Of course the rest of my classes passed by too slowly because I knew I would get to see my dad as soon as I finished for the day. After what seemed like its own piece of forever, organic chemistry finished and I got a text saying that he was here. After that, there was nothing left to do but climb on my bike and rush back to PW! The time for me to leave him at the airport came way too quickly. Even so, I had a wonderful time picking out fish and eating soup and salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden with my dad.

Cheers for awesome fathers!