"A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

I have this awesome professor, Kenneth Alrutz. He teaches my modern American lit class. What of it? Well, today in class he asked each of 60 students an important question. Then he listened to every answer, and related them to a story about returning home after college. The question... In what ways have you changed since you came to college??? On a sheet of paper write one way that you have changed for the better, and then one way you have changed for the worse. The hardest part of answering the question was limiting each side to one predominant change. Unfortunately my list of changes for the worse was way longer than for those for the better. But this is what I wrote... Positive: I know myself much better. I've discovered what I stand for, and I've embraced my true self. I've taken time out for me-- something I never did in high school, especially coming from a big family by today's standards. Negative: I get depressed more easily. I float around in many circles of friends and I don't know any one person extremely well, so I don't know who to turn to when I'm distressed. Other students listed procrastination, growing closer to or further from their families, keeping an open mind, learning to party, becoming less selfless, or too serious. In response to the guy who never talked to his mom, the prof said "Call your mother!" (Every week!) In response to my getting to know myself, he asked, "Do you like yourself?" I replied, "Yeah, we get along pretty well." I guess my problem is that after leaving a close knit circle of friends in high school, I feel as if the rest of the world has walked out. But the good news is that especially this semester, I have grown closer to many people-- many of you are reading this right now, & you have no idea how much that means to me! Of course, some of my optimism came out of a relationship with this guy, Chris --not Vincent! And who doesn't feel better after a feisty game of "You don't know Jack!" But strangely enough, it's the friendships I have that I am really thinking about at 4am on a Saturday! I love you guys! And I mean that.

So I'm Blue

You are blue. You are somewhat innocent, in the fact that your genius only extends to the physical world. You have a false sense of contentness. You are usually the quiet one, the genius. Everyone can count on you to help when they have problems, but you only fall short of being able to solve your own. What inner color are you? </P

Hueston Woods!

So there is one reason above all else that I chose to go to Miami University. That is nature! I LOVE it! And here, it's everywhere! There is nowhere else on earth that I feel so alive and in touch with my inner being than in nature. One of the requirements for any school I would choose was that there must be beaucoup land area of forest or natural park, a place where I could go to get away. So when the weather warms up, probably after spring break, I want to try to get out to Hueston Woods to hike-- one of my favorite pastimes. Two things, one is I don't have a car to take me that 5 miles, and the other is that this is a pastime spent better with friends-- going with a few friends from our corridor would be a blast! Anyone up for it? Let me know! I can't wait to see Oxford's forests in full bloom!!!

IS ANYONE GOING TO THE BSKTBALL GAME TONIGHT???

I haven't even been to a basketball game here, but this instructor from high school who is also a good friend of mine said he better see me at one of the games. So is anyone going? I'd love to join you guys if you are. Until the earlier LJ post, I didn't even know when the next game was. Post me one!

Imagine...

I absolutely love writing, and the book I am writing all my personal thoughts in now has this word scripted across the front cover in blue against a fiery orange and red background, with green wisps throughout the art. The book is one of an entire series by Flavia... the last one I finished was entitled "Dreams."So I have decided, in the spirit of writing & getting to know myself, to try to "Imagine" something every few weeks along my journey. I gave it a shot a moment ago.Imagine... imagine having a loving relationship on the most casual of terms, where you & he are almost like best friends, and you know each other so well that very little hurts you; a relationship where you can chat and hang out, and lie beside each other with your clothes on, in the same bed; a relationship where nothing physical or sexual is jumped into & getting to know one another is enough for both of you; a dating relationship where you go out to dinner, spend weekends in each others' company, go on roadtrips and group getaways together; a relationship where problematic labels like boyfriend or girlfriend are only a compassionate way to address each other.

"...the sexiest mother fucker to ever grace the earth with his presence."

I never meet a guy without some strange circumstances surrounding it. I was looking back at some of my written diary entries, wondering what I could share with my LJ friends, when I came across this quote. I met an interesting guy when I visited a friend, who is married to a military man & living off the base in Savannah, GA. The trip is a story in itself-- as crazy as any of my stories. (It was a week of my winter break.) But I met this patriotic wonder first at the New Year's Eve party, and again when he visited us the next morning. I was so hung over & ultimately mellow, that I went outside to get away from the sounds of the TV, and anything else making noise. It was like spring in Georgia, so I laid down leaning my head against the trunk of a huge tree, I buried myself in leaves, and I went to sleep with my iced tea right beside me.This guy asked me if I was ok, only to comment that I would probably be eaten by fire ants if I laid in the leaves like that any longer. Then later, I realized he had been teasing my married friend, trying to tempt her to have an affair. I thought I'd get his mind off her and try to seduce him, but before talking with him for long, this girl told me not to flirt with him. Though married, she had eyes for him and it would hurt her if I messed around with him. Excuse me! Who was the single one? She had no right. And it really pissed me off, but I was there to support her, so I tried to let it go.Frank Curby-- can you believe his name?! He wasn't worth it anyway. The guy turned out to be a total asshole & his head was stuck far up his ass too. My friend's husband commented to me though, that this friend of his was "the sexiest mother fucker to ever grace the earth with his presence." Yeah, he was so sexy he probably had sex with the other military men every night! No woman in her right mind was giving him any. I'm definitely glad Vincent isn't anything like this guy. He's a strong person, but he has a good heart too.

Your heart is free; have the courage to follow it.

So there's this guy in my life now... And you're thinking, no way! Missy has a guy? I know!! Me too. His name is Vincent. And he is soooo sweet. I don't even know where it came from, because when I met him I was like "Whoa! I dig him," but he didn't exactly come off as sweet. Casual, rugged, sexy, sure, but not sweet. That's the thing with guys, when it's just you and him, he transforms into this love & sex diva, but you never see it coming. He told me how he felt about me, and it was deep. So he was like "Sorry... I hope you're not weirded out." I told him, "I know what weirded out feels like, and this is not it." A few minutes later, he asked me what it was, if it wasn't weirded out. I didn't know.He didn't know either. But we only talked for like, an hour or two, and we were definitely going strong when we had to split. He is awesome beyond all reason. And I've only known him for like a week. I'll have to visit him when I'm home though, because he is definitely not a Miamian, never comes to campus either-- so it may be the only way to bridge the distance."A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

No individual snowflake ever felt responsible for an avalanche.

This has been one crazy week. I'm disappointed that I couldn't get a ticket to the Vagina Monologues, not meaning to mention that I was extremely unproductive during the week. But there's another element in my life that has helped me make it to the weekend. It's just awesome to talk to people and get a little encouragement. And it was great--though exhausting-- to hang out with the guys on Tuesday for that bizarre flight. Between that all-nighter and an all-nighter in the classic sense, I am still tired. Of course, being up at 2am may have something to do with it. Blame it on the frappochino. Hopefully the weekend will bring some rest, some studying, and some fun, so that I can conquer next week with a vengeance. Because I may find some cool plans for next weekend, and the weekend after that takes us to Spring Break!!!

LJ Help

None of this is all that important.. but I am obsessed with Supernova style on LJ, and I can't read the text in it! Any reccomendations? Which one of those color schemes reads well and looks good? And for any computer/LJ gurus, I don't think I was successful in loading Vision Client or whatever. My comp is old school, Win 95, but are there any tricks to getting it to work that I should know about? btw, I'm definitely lazy on this slow computer, and I plan to neglect to spell check. Hope that's not a pet peeve to any of you.