wIsHinG oN sTarS

What is it that composes the feeling we refer to as "love"?
Such an abstract concept can never be fully defined and I would argue that there are as many kinds of love as there are matches of people in the world.
Also, no love stays the exact same; it is constantly morphing and evolving as things occur.
Each person who one shares this feeling understands each other on a level that no one else does. I truly believe that this is the secret to the feeling.

For me, there a few major loves.

First, my parents are the ones who have shown me how love "should" be. They would not say that their love is perfect [besides, that's a kind of arrogant thing to say about love (it leaves no room for mistakes)] but I have seen them at low points only to find themselves on top. Theirs is a dancing in the kitchen kind of love that I am proud to characterize to my parents.

My mom instills a strength in me and my dad instills the emotion. My mom has always honed in on the aspect of power and self worth from her experiences and mine and I find that I have found a power of womanhood through her.
My dad's emotion and passion is evident and he knows just how to hit that chord with me. It takes nothing and that is how we connect.

My sister is the one who has followed me throughout our lives in so many aspects that I could never fully explain. It still confuses me, the way that we connect. There are siblings that are friends but she has always been more than that to me. I've made mistakes trying to describe this and so I will not try.

Finally, my boyfriend. The incredibly handsome man who understands my quirkiness and sometimes girlish preferences. When I think of him, I think about when I was young and we would be driving from Lander to Cheyenne to visit family. I would stare out the window into the stars and wish for him. My wish came true in finding him. He says he isn't sure that we would have met if I hadn't been forced to attend the barbeque that brought us together; I think otherwise. I once made the mistake of telling him that I don't really believe in soulmates being the significant other. However, I understand now that I was very wrong. He is.

There are others who I will not run through because it would lengthen this to an absurd point.

What do you think about the concept of love being strung along a line of a person understanding you on a level that no one else does? Who do you think of that does this?

kAYLe

wHaT eVeRy woMan sHouLd kNow

A couple years ago I heard a story from my boyfriend, who is in pharmacy school and will graduate in May. He told me about a story of a woman who was taking oral contraceptives and was prescribed an antibiotic. She was not told that the antibiotic decreased the effectiveness of the oral contraceptive and she became pregnant. In the end the doctor had to pay for child support until the child turned 18.

It's kind of scary that the people who should know better, and be informing their patients of the possible side-effects are not doing so. Some may see this positively in that the woman got child support but what if the conditions had been more severe? There was a reason that this woman was on birth control...she didn't want, or wasn't ready, for a child.

This story had been playing around in my mind but it didn't really hit me until I was picking up an antibiotic last semester and the pharmacist said nothing about the effect that it could have on my OC. I even explicitly asked if there was anything that I had to worry about because I'm on an OC and he relied, no. Then I asked straight up if there would be an effect on my pill and the possibility of decreased effectiveness. Then he said, "oh, well yeah. Make sure you use backup," as though it should have been common sense.

The thing is, it is NOT common sense! There are plenty of women to whom I have repeted the story of the woman who got pregnant and they had no idea!

That is, more or less, the point of this post. If you are a woman or man who hears about a friend or family member who are taking antibiotics with OCs.

I hope this also makes you think twice before brushing off pharmacist's remarks about the drug you're taking, whatever it may be...it's for a reason. I know that some people can be a little annoyed by it but it's there to protect you and the pharmacist.

Here's a place to check out a similar story, it's a little too medical for me but you get the gist.

What do you think about this? Do you think that it's the doctor/pharmacist's fault if they do not explain the possible effects?

kAYLe!

poEtRy

Poetry can be a bit difficult. I wrote this for one of my classes. Please let me know what you think or if something should/could be changed or revised.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
haLL’s thEoRy of ProXimItY (revised)
K. Kayle Prejean

Walking to my car, feel someone might be behind me
Look to see another, keep track as he walks to his own car

Descending the dark stairs to my apartment
Peripheries reveal no intruder, quick look behind…
Safe

Sometimes feel a panic in my chest when it’s dark
Fumble with keys and find the wrong one again and again
Finally! The right one… but can’t seem to fit it in
It turns and gain safety
Quick step and flick on bright confirmation

Hear about men hiding in backseats of cars
Ambush
Hear about women followed and attacked
encroach
invade
mug
rape
murder
Must be aware of my body
Conscious of my ever-changing space
Morphing scenes call for new awareness

Sometimes conscious…or naturalized
This is a real part of my world
Maybe you think me paranoid
Perhaps you understand

It is dark or light—walking to my house/car door
Through a parking lot/store/building
and can’t help but be aware of the people, where they are going
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let me know what you think about this! :D It's for a class and I'm not sure if it closes well.
kAYLe!

mOre inTerEsTinG pHraSeS!

To continue with the crazy expressions that people use, today we (by "we" I mean I) will be researching the phrase: "coon's age". Does it contain a racial connotation or does it simply refer to the age of a raccoon?

FYI: Context of Phrase:

"I haven't seen you in a coon's age!"

So here's what I've come up with.

urbandictionary.com said the phrase is...

"hickbilly slang used to descibe a long period of time; roughly 8 and a half years

and

Normally raccoons normally live roughly 5-6 years in the wild. However once in awhile you will find a big grizzly one that is about 15-16 years old. This my friends, is what you call a 'coon's age'"

thestraightdope.com continues...

"Unfortunately, many of those negative stereotypes were applied to black people, hence the derogatory term "coon," first used in the 1850s but more commonly heard after 1890. Some etymologists speculate that the term was used because of the raccoon's dark coloring rather than its real or imagined behavior. Whatever the case, the usage is highly offensive today - heck, it was highly offensive back then. For that reason, "in a coon's age" makes many people uncomfortable, notwithstanding its innocent origin. You might try "in a dog's age" or "in donkey's years" (British), which have the same meaning. Or "in a month of Sundays," which avoids animals altogether. Better yet, do us all a favor and come up with an original expression. We haven't had a novel way of saying "for a long time" in a coon's age."

So, the moral of the story is...don't use it because it may be offensive! Try one of the alternatives.

So I hope that this adequately answered the question...let me know what you think!

kAYLe!

haPpY biRthDay iS liCenSeD?!

I found out today that the song that seems to have been sung for centuries is actually licensed! Yeah, I'm talking about happy birthday!

According to unhappybirthday.com...



"The melody for Happy Birthday was first penned by two sisters from Kentucky, Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill. The song was called Good Morning to All, but bore the recognizable melody. The tune was first published in 1893 in the book Song Stories for the Kindergarten.


Working with the Clayton F. Summy Publishing Company, Jessica Hill published and copyrighted Happy Birthday in 1935. While the copyright should have expired in 1991, copyright has been extended repeatedly over the last quarter of the twentieth century and the copyright for Happy Birthday is now not due to expire until at least 2030.

The Clayton F. Summy Company is no longer independent, but, through a chain of purchases, the copyright for Happy Birthday To You lies securely in the hands of the Time Warner company. Happy Birthday's copyright is licensed and enforced by ASCAP, and the simple little ditty brings in more than USD $2 million in annual royalties."


Darn Time Warner has its hands in every candy jar!

In class, GL-B talked about how a woman posted a video of herself, playing the guitar and singing the familiar tune, on YouTube. But because it is an advertised space, they were required to remove the video...because the song is licensed and the woman did not pay any kind of royalty or copyright fee...hahahaha kind of funny to really think about the ways our crazy system works!

What do you think about this?!

kAYLe!

oH mY moNDay!

It is a classic and widely acceptable thing to complain about the beginning of the week, the dreaded Monday. People have sung about it and complained about it and I have felt Monday's wrath as well!

I hate, dislike, detest, condemn, deplore, have hard feelings for, do not take kindly to, am not able to say much for, cannot speak well of, am adverse to, am displeased by, loathe, scorn, despise, have an aversion for, spit upon, shun, denounce, resent, look down upon, curse, am sick of...Mondays! (I could have continued [because i have a thesaurus] but chose to abstain [see, i really do have a thesaurus] just kidding I knew that one!)

Mondays remind me that I only have so long to get all my crap done and Wednesdays only make that feeling worse because I have, usually, procrastinated well enough to enter myself into panic mode to get the same list done.

I am on Orange Alert for all the stuff on my list that needs to be done (the length of the list decides the level of alert [see drawing]) and by Wednesday I'll have advanced to Red Alert. The rest of the days no longer matter because I'm pretty much done for!

Well, now I can cross my blog entry off of my list, which makes me feel...solaced. (Maybe it's time to let the thesaurus go)
But now it's time to cross something off of your list...as Wolf Blitzer would say...."Post a comment on my blog!"

kAYLe!

gEt ouT oF dOdgE!

My boyfriend and I were walking back to my house when he brought up that people say things like "get out of dodge" but what does it really mean? And that made me wonder, if people are constantly getting out of dodge then why would they go there in the first place? I did a little (and I really do mean a little) research and found out the following:

UrbanDictionary.com said...

It comes from western entertainment that refers to Dodge City, Kansas

The Maven's Word of the Day added...

"Dodge City was the setting of innumerable Wild-West movies and books and, most prominently, the CBS-TV series Gunsmoke, which ran from 1955 to 1975. After being defeated by the good guys, badmen might stereotypically be commanded to "get the hell out of Dodge."

The transferred sense, 'to leave or get out (of anywhere) at once', arose in the mid-1960s, when it was recorded in the slang of youth gangs, and became common by the 1970s."

We agreed that it makes sense that it would be of western entertainment origin. I couldn't find anyone, specifically, who has said this but I did find this movie poster.

Anyways, if there's anything you'd like to add or comment on...you know what to do!

kAYLe!

we'Re mOvinG to...

I found out this past Wednesday that my boyfriend got his pharmacy residency at the University of Chicago Medical Center and so we'll be moving to Chicago in May!

It is still a kind of strange thought to be moving to Chicago for good...well at least for the next few years. I've lived with my boyfriend's parents for two summers there (they live in a southern suburb) but the thought of getting our own place and a full-time job is a crazy thought that hasn't fully hit me yet...but it probably won't til we get there...and even then maybe not for another couple weeks or so. Hahaha.

I've started the hunt for jobs and I've got to say...it is a little discouraging. Even on sites that work to help college students and recent graduates find jobs there are postings which require a crazy number of years' worth of experience. I understand that these account for internship experience, ect. but I haven't had any!

Luckily a couple that I have worked for before offered me the jobs again but that'll be my fall back if nothing else pans out. But it's nice to know that I won't be left out in the cold.

The hurtle we've both been trying to jump is finding a place that is close by the University of Chicago campus while staying within our budget but not losing aspects of quality and (importantly) security. For those of you who aren't familiar with the area, if you go too far to the south or north of this area you could end up in an undesireable (and dangerous) area. It's kind of funny because some of these really nice, cheap places that don't charge you for other silly amneities are actually located right across the street from housing projects and that's why they're so cheap...but they really get you before you have a chance to realize this point! It's sort of funny. Luckily my boyfriend is from the Chicago area so he knows about these sorts of things.

Well, I'll keep you updated as we find out more.

CoMmeNt por favor!

diS coNNecT

I realized something today and it really gave me a jolt.
In fact, my mouth fell open in incredible disbelief and it's still there.
I've lost something...and I don't know what or who to attribute the loss to...
of course I am the prime suspect!

I used to sing...and dance...and draw and paint and feel really strongly about all of it. It isn't so much that someone told me not to do any of these things anymore. It's like I forgot how to.

This terrifies me!!!!!!!!!!

I truly believe that there's a point where we all begin to forget how to be young and do the things that make us feel purely....passionate. Maybe there's a point where it transforms into other areas but I don't feel the same kind of simplistic passion and enjoyment that I did when I did these other things!

I cannot explain how this struck me...and I really mean STRUCK me! It was like a sudden bolt of realization where I understood that a piece of me is gone. It's been awhile but I suddenly realized it...like ten minutes ago!. . . . . . . . i honestly cried.

It hurts that this has happened and not only did I let it...I didn't even realize it

I suppose that the good thing is that I realized it...I don't know that some people ever realize it and that is so sad.

What are you missing?
[I promise to give you something more substantial than this tomorrow :( ]

tHe eLevaTor anD iTs seCreTs

Last night while perusing CollegeCareerBuilder for some kind of comfort for my post graduation unemployment anxiety I found a post from MarketingFX. This posting not only made me feel so much better, it really made me interested in working for them. My favorite part was a section about what to do if you're bored on an elevator:

"Next time you’re on an elevator and feel a little bored, liven up the moment with some of these insightful ideas:

1. When there’s only one other person in the elevator, tap them on the shoulder and then pretend it wasn’t you.

2. Push the buttons and pretend they give you a shock. Smile, and go back for more.

3. Ask if you can push the button for other people, but push the wrong ones.

4. Stare, grinning at another passenger for a while, and then announce, “I have new socks on.”

5. Before the elevator door opens shout “DING” and then laugh and say “beat you again Mr Elevator.”

6. Stand really close to someone, sniffing them occasionally.

7. Drop a pen and wait until someone reaches to help pick it up, then scream, “that’s mine!”

8. Hold the doors open and say you’re waiting for your friend. After a while, let the doors close and say, “Hi Greg. How’s your day been?”

Job hunting can be stressful, that’s why you shouldn't take yourself too seriously."

Speaking of elevators, I remember a great quote from the amazing Leo Buscaglia! (If you don't know who I'm talking about then it is time you did! Check him out on youtube but especially read the book, Living, Loving,& Learning. It's Fantastic! But one of my favorite quotes is when he is on a crowded elevator full of people and he notices that everyone just looks straight forward and watches the floor numbers increase or decrease. So he turns around and starts talking to the people. Then, he talks about what the people would say when they got off..."There's a crazy man in the elevator and he wants to know us!" I love it. Leo Buscaglia really takes a humanistic approach to relaitonships and what we all want and should give.

For me, the elevator is pretty amazing in that it is the one place where people are forced (or willing) to stand so close to strangers. The confined space does not allow for personal space to be regarded and waiting does not seem to be much of an option for most. That's why it's so amazing that people are willing to let down their personal force field to not have to wait for the next elevator.

Please tell me what you think about this (elevators, Leo Buscaglia, etc.) or ask me a Q.

kAYLe!

thE imPorTanCe of geNeraL oBserVanceS

General observances seem to play a bigger role than most people recognize. I say so because these are the things that everyone observes so some may think that it isn't worth mentioning. I do think they're worth mentioning, however, so here are a few of my observances for today:::::::


:FIRST: I really enjoy walking to classes with music. To me, it is kind of like adding theme music to your life! Hahahaha I think of Cronk from the Emperor's New Groove when I think of theme music. I suppose the difference is that he made his own and I use my iPod. Come on, you know what I mean, and if you don't then you should give it a try! Two that I'm enjoying right now are Sam Sparro's "Black and Gold" http://www.metacafe.com/watch/746240/sam_sparro_black_gold/
and Kevin Rudolf (ft. Lil Wayne) "Let It Rock" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh3gGQfyVyw
These are great theme songs!


:DEUX: I wrote a pretty bad poem about my walk to class.......
Right Left Right Left
heads tilted down finding a connection
long strands of white cord flow from ears
avoid ice avoid hurtling bike avoid cloud of smoke
deep breath fresh air
still accosted by the haze
faster now leftrightleftright
escape there
~KP


:TRES: When I came to my seat in class I saw a flyer I read a few lines on the back side then flipped it over. The title read "Increase Your Reading Speed! Free Seminar" However, a part of it was shaded out by whoever had left it there. I know that it is so immature of me to laugh at this but I think that sometimes it is okay to get a laugh out of something like this. After all, who thinks to find these words in a flyer title? If you ask me it's pretty amazing. I cannot imagine the process or if the person just saw it and was showing someone else?

As always, just let me know if there's anything that you would like me to discuss or just make a comment about this post!
kAYLe!

a fuNny tHing hapPened...buT i doN't reMemBer

this is just a list of funny things from this weekend:

~I was hanging out with my friend on Friday night and all we did (for the most part) was watch previews for upcoming movies. A really good place to watch previews is http://images.apple.com/trailers/. I suppose this isn't really something funny that just happened...but the fun we made from it. Either way, it is a good source without having to search for previews through Goooooooooooooogle over and over again. :)

~This same friend also gave me some interesting insight into the online gaming world. Apparently, when one is using a microphone in a game and there is a lot of static, someone might say "yeah, I'd like some fries with that!" referring to the terrible static that can occur when ordering in a fast food drive thru. I honestly got a kick out of it.



Ok, now I'm starting to forget some of the things that I wanted to talk about. Isn't it crazy how something so funny can happen and somehow you can't seem to remember exactly what it was or why it might have been funny at the time?

I feel like I have this problem more often than not but I do have confidence in the fact that it was funny at the moment and I had a really good laugh!

Have you ever laughed so hard that you cried? I never quite understood what that meant until this past Christmas when my friend made a clip on some website (which is sadly gone now due to the Christmas season having passed) where you can put in pictures of you and your friends' faces and it pastes them into a dance with crazy music. Well, in this specific one, we all have funny faces and they're pasted onto dancing elves! I have never laughed so hard before, I actually cried. Have you ever felt that? It's kind of weird I think...a sort of confusion between the hilarity of the moment and the overload of stimuli that causes you to cry. It's just strange.

Well, I'm going to leave my anecdotes there but if you have something that you'd like me to talk about or something you would like to say about the post, leave a comment.