Elphaba, why couldn't you have stayed calm for once, instead of flying off the handle?

GLINDA:
(sung) I hope you're happy!
I hope you're happy now
I hope you're happy how you
Hurt your cause forever
I hope you think you're clever!

ELPHABA:
I hope you're happy
I hope you're happy, too
I hope you're proud how you
Would grovel in submission
To feed your own ambition

BOTH:
So though I can't imagine how
I hope you're happy right now

GLINDA:
(spoken) Elphie, listen to me. Just say you're sorry:
(sung) You can still be with the Wizard
What you've worked and waited for
You can have all you ever wanted:

ELPHABA:
(spoken) I know:
(sung) But I don't want it -
No - I can't want it
Anymore:

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!

It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!

GLINDA:
Can't I make you understand?
You're having delusions of grandeur:

ELPHABA:
I'm through accepting limits
''cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!
I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down:
(spoken) Glinda - come with me. Think of what we could
do: together.

(sung) Unlimited
Together we're unlimited
Together we'll be the greatest team
There's ever been
Glinda -
Dreams, the way we planned 'em

GLINDA:
If we work in tandem:

BOTH:
There's no fight we cannot win
Just you and I
Defying gravity
With you and I
Defying gravity

ELPHABA:
They'll never bring us down!
(spoken) Well? Are you coming?

GLINDA:
I hope you're happy
Now that you're choosing this

ELPHABA:
(spoken) You too
(sung) I hope it brings you bliss

BOTH:
I really hope you get it
And you don't live to regret it
I hope you're happy in the end
I hope you're happy, my friend:

ELPHABA:
So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky!
As someone told me lately:
"Ev'ryone deserves the chance to fly!"
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free
To those who'd ground me
Take a message back from me
Tell them how I am
Defying gravity
I'm flying high
Defying gravity
And soon I'll match them in renown
And nobody in all of Oz
No Wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!

GLINDA:
I hope you're happy!

CITIZENS OF OZ:
Look at her, she's wicked!
Get her!

ELPHABA:
Bring me down!

CITIZENS OF OZ:
No one mourns the wicked
So we've got to bring her

ELPHABA:
Ahhh!

CITIZENS OF OZ:
Down!

Well, it's official.

As of tonight, January 29, 2009, Ashley Flock, Alitia Monasmith, Wally Schimke and Bret Eason are no longer friends with me.

Decompression Day

One day I woke up feeling lower than I had ever felt before. My friends weren't -- and still aren't -- speaking to me. Oh well. I decided to head over to Oakway Center to do something creative.

Potter's Quarter is a small paint-your-own ceramics shop tucked away in a back corner of Oakway Center. Despite its small size, the store was open and airy, unpainted pottery and finished samples sat side by side on shelves, and calming New Age and alternative rock music provided an inspiring atmosphere. It's the perfect place to escape from life for a few hours and concentrate on making beauty. And it's one of those rare activities that's fun to do alone or with a group.

I chose to paint a big coffee mug -- I guess even when I'm treating myself I'm frugal -- that I figured I could use either for a ridiculously huge cup of tea or as a substitute soup bowl. I wanted something utilitarian; I don't need any more knickknacks.

Here's the work in progress. The girl at the store said the mug would be ready for me to pick up on Monday, so I'll post pictures of the finished piece then.

After the first few spots on the outside were done.

The inside.

Potter's Quarter has these really cute palettes to put the glaze on.

Getting fancy with the dots.

More fancy dots.

The completed dots on the inside.

Starting to paint the inside.

One coat on the inside done! Now three more to go.

The colors are done!

Three coats on the inside.

Pretty.

My mom would love this palette because it has frogs on it. I grabbed another one to put the white glaze on because I didn't want to interrupt my creative mood to wash the one I had.

It's done!

you know what really grinds my gears?

1) Having to reset the internet every day, usually right before I have to print something off Blackboard before my next class, because Comcast is stupid and can't provide a continuous, high-quality internet connection. I'm sorry, but "Local Only" is useless to me. Along the same lines, paying an extra $15 a month for cable that I never watch, just so my roommate can watch TV once in a blue moon.

2) Living with someone who is sick, doesn't wash her hands as often as a healthy person should -- never mind the fact that she's sick -- and then proceeds to wash the dishes using a sponge and not getting them completely clean, forcing me to have to rewash them at inconvenient times, such as right before Spanish class or at 1 a.m. the same day I have three tests scheduled within a four-hour time period. I'm trying NOT to get sick here, and I want to eat off CLEAN dishes.

3) Not having a dishwasher, which would make the first problem disappear.

4) People who ride bikes in every way except the legal way -- including but not limited to: down the sidewalk, down the middle of the road, down the wrong bike lane, down the wrong bike lane in the dark, down the sidewalk on the wrong side of the road, weaving back and forth from one side of the road to the other. One guy yesterday, in front of Oakway Center, actually had the gall to say "Clear the sidewalk!" before nearly hitting me and this other guy who was waiting for the bus. Um, no. I'm NOT clearing the sidewalk. Get in the bike lane, you jerk.

5) Creative assignments for J 204. I can't just force myself to meditate. What the hell. I'm never doing extra credit for this class again.

6) The change machine in the pool hall at the EMU. They should not advertise a change machine that does not work. Because of this, instead of getting quarters on my way home so I could be doing laundry right now, I have to take half an hour out of my day so I can walk seven blocks to Safeway to get a roll of quarters.

7) Not having a car, which would eliminate the half-hour walk in frigid weather. I can't mooch rides off my friends forever.

8) The fact that Oregon winters are deceptively cold. It should never be below 32 degrees outside. Ever.

9) People who smoke.

10) The fact that because I live right next to campus, yet it's a 15 minute walk from my apartment to anything useful (i.e. besides Gerlinger Field and the cemetery), I couldn't get home nearly fast enough so I could write this.y

Things I would love to have if I had a bunch of money

Lately I've been really into bright colors and cute stuff.

the more things seem to change...the more they stay the same...Don't you think that's strange?

I would probably be the first person to describe myself as a stalker.

One of my favorite things about Myspace and Facebook, hands down, is the ability both sites give you to find out things you never knew about people, as well as a way to reconnect with long-lost relatives/friends/"friends"/oh who am I kidding I've only heard this person's name once in an overheard conversation but I guess that counts as friendship.

But today was one of those days when I realized, once again, how dull and bland my life is compared to other people's. This usually happens when I make a new "friend" and read their profile to see what they've been up to in the years since we've seen each other.

In the past couple years, countless numbers of people I used to go to school with -- including one of my best friends -- have gotten engaged, a few have actually tied the knot and still a few more have actually had children or are expecting to in the near future. Others have gone on to join the military or have moved across the country to pursue their passions.

Where does that leave me? I'm a college student, just like the majority of my graduating class. I'm pursuing a major that every so often I have second thoughts about -- usually when I draw a blank on an assignment for J 101 because I get lost trying to take apart sentences, when I have to write a 108-page research paper in just more than two months, or when I realize that I'm going to miss out on all sorts of "opportunities" to jump-start my (hopefully) future career because I have no work samples because I haven't exactly done a lot of journalistic writing during my time at UO.

The one relationship I ever had failed (not my doing, which only proves that I'm as unlovable as I thought) and most of the time I'm invisible to the world. At least it seems that way.

I know that if anyone even reads this, they'll likely protest my assertion and point out that I'm amazing too. And I love you guys a lot, more than I can communicate. I just really feel the need to vent right now. And it's just really hard to notice my own success when everyone else's lives are vibrant and constantly changing next to my own dull existence.

(Corinne Bailey Rae, "Put Your Records On")

Various San Diego stuff

I don't really feel like writing much, so I decided to just post pictures with some captions.

View from the hotel room in Sacramento the first night of the trip

Mirror shot!

Our hotel room in San Diego...not nearly as big as it looks.

The sign for the Gaslamp Quarter, the really nice part of San Diego where we stayed.

Me, Chase and Ashley in Embarcadero Park on Sunday.
This was also the day we played at Sea World.

Christina and Adam.

There were a bunch of decorated globes all along the waterfront with messages about how to stop global warming. This is Ashley.

On our way into Qualcomm Stadium, we saw a bunch of shoes hanging from the pipes in the tunnel...and apparently a few other garments as well. Some band members commented on how we should have tossed a pair of OMB shoes up there.

After both schools' bands performed their halftime shows, there was a halftime finale with over 2,000 marching band, color guard and dance team members from high schools all over the U.S. performing various jungle-themed rock songs. And fireworks.

The final score -- as of the middle of the fourth quarter.

We celebrated New Year's in Sacramento on the way back home.

The buses on the way back to Eugene. This is somewhere in Northern California.