life is cold

today is cold and rainy and wet

The boys in PG have a new bulletin board up.

Reasons why to grow a beard.

In honor of No Shave November.

Their other white board reads:

location: nowhere

weather: 24 degrees

St Marys College of Maryland: Priceless 27,000 dollars

Yesterday went something along these lines

Laura: *thinking* hmm... i have no classes today

Craig: i have to go home for a doctors appointment. want to come?

Laura: Okay!

Laura and Craig get in the car and start driving

Laura: think we should tell your mom?

Craig: naaaah.

Laura: Good idea!

Driving driving driving...

Laura: omg this area looks terrible. lock the doors or something.

Craig: No this is the good part of town

Laura: no kidding?

Craig: yeah... this areas pretty nice actually.

Laura: *reading a sign on the side of the road*: "Need Bail?"

So despite the mildly frightening neighborhood...

We arrived safely at Craigs road. which was admittedly gorgeous.

He lives in like this little haven...completely devoid from "Need Bail?" signs!

So we drive down this adorable little wooded road and we pass his farm, but i say that i want to save touring the farm for this weekend. So his house is at the very end of the street, and its super cute and freezing cold.

And his mom is nice and doesnt even mind being surprised and takes me out to sushi for lunch which is like instant bonding because I love sushi. Plus she drives a prius and is an environmentalist times five thousand!! CHEERS! I give Craig a piggy back ride from the sushi place to the car because he only weighs three pounds.

His house is very farmish rustic historical looking and the furniture is lovely and antique-ie and they have the second best dog ever... (i have to stay loyal to happy of course) named Torque who is super friendly and lick-y and hugemongous. Craig believes his dog is some sort of epitome of intelligence, but i think he is just smiley and likes whining. Unlike happy, craig has a real dog which enjoys things like: going on runs.

And you can tell that boys live there and not girls because it is extremely different than my house.

There are no american girl dolls or barbies. no pink or yellow walls. there is no overflow of clothing laying around on the floor. There are no paint sets or drawing mats laying out on the floor. No one is repainting all the walls or pulling up carpeting. There are no flowy white curtains or vanities on the walls. There isnt any collectible clutter of jewelry and sunglasses which eats up all available surface area. Multiple cell phone chargers arent stretching across rooms. And no one is yelling at each other about needing space or borrowing clothing or when is the next time we are going to the mall or why cant i go to that sleepover tomorrow night?

In fact the only thing they had in common was that they have a really old, out of tune piano! which is very similar to ours actually, except theirs is probably in infinite better shape.

So after the doctors appointment me and craig take torque for a walk, and some neighbor on a lawnmower drinking beer and wearing plaid stops to turns off the motor as we walk by...

neighbor: AY...ay. are you Nora's boy?

craig: yeah. haha hey!

neighbor: I havent seen you since you was like this high!

Craig: yeah its been a while.

neighbor: so are you a senior at dematha now?

Craig: no actually i go to St marys college now.

Neighbor: Why? theres nothing to do there! my daughter is going to high school around there and know what she does for fun? SHOOTS STUFF.

Laura: oh wow. umm...

Craig: like trap and skeet?

Neighbor: yeah. cept she was gonna start a club at her high school and one of the other girls made fun of her and she just said " ill just shoot ya!" and everbody being so gun shy she got suspended.

Laura: well we have to go now, but it was nice talking to you!

so then we went back to craigs house, said good bye,

Craigs Mom: you guys should stop somewhere nice for dinner before you get home

Craig: want to go to wholefoods?

Craigs mom: I raised my boy well. Thats really romantic craig "hey hun, want to go to Wholefoods?!"

Laura: thanks criag

and then we drove to annapolis, where we window shopped at expensive stores like Brooks Brothers and Antrhopologie and bought two pizzas from whole foods. we only wanted one, but it was "two for the price of one tuesday"!! so we each got our own pizza and ate like one slice. AWESOME!

I am excited for this weekend, because i get to go to his house again and plus its his moms birthday!!

Now i have to go register for classes for second semester.

CHEERS

stay warm

St. Johns Fencing Tourney

So life was good to us!

SMCM tied for first against navy and Maryland college park. the indicator will decide the final score, but it hasn't been tallied as of yet.

we woke up at 5 this morning, registered around 8, and then fenced until around 6, went to dinner, and got home around 9:30.

It was a great bonding experience. I screamed and yelled at everyones bouts, as i found this helped sway the directors. (none of whom are actually certified to direct) Craig fenced just as well as i did, if not better. His mommy and daddy came and documented the entire event! Video cameras AND still shots. I wasn't really in my zone until our last three bouts, which i fenced against MD and fenced my best of the whole day.

St Johns is a beautiful college, and Annapolis is a great town. It made me wish we had a college town. I think we made the right decision in attending the Tourney. Although i really wished i had a coach there to turn to for advice... it was a lot of fun to be really fencing again.

sunsets

Friday: class. gave a tour for megans recruit. went to the grind and got apple cider, found out i'm out of flex dollars. score. then craig and i wandered up to historic, called our friends Euri and Jon, and all went for a walk, ended up down at a little beach in Daffodil valley, watched the sun set. i think thats maybe the first time ive ever actually WATCHED the sun set. On our walk back we noticed that one of the fires in one of the fire pits in historic wasn't quite out, and i had the genius idea that we all come back later that night and have a campfire! so we all went to dinner and jon decided we should make baked apples over the fire, which led to all of us attempting to smuggle as many apples as we could out of the great room, which led to craig trying to walk out of the great room with about 40 apples, which led to us getting caught. however most of us got out of there with a decent amount of apples, despite craigs inability to be even mildly discreet. then we went to Ross' concert (trumpet not triangle.) Then craig made me put on LITERALLY eight layers of clothing before we walked back to historic, where craig started a fire in approximately three seconds. Jon, Euri, and Bobby met us up there and we all sat around the fire (which with jon being an eagle scout and craig being craig, was getting rather large) I kind of improvised at making baked apples, which came out alright. however our attempt at popcorn resulted in a flaming pan of black kernels which would individually fall flaming to the ground and burn out to black little ashes. We were eventually joined by more friends, probably around 11 of us. and then everyone started singing.

around one things started dying down, and most people left. Jon and Craig and I stayed and watched the stars on a blanket and looked at constellations and shooting stars until we could feel the frost seeping in through our clothes.

Saturday: Sleep in late. shower. Brunch!! Look at shelter dogs with craig. Run two miles. Rock climbing competition! (mostly the boys, but i went along as well... to look stupid) Fall festival (= moon-bounce. hurrah for honors colleges!). shower. dinner.

Sunday: fencing tourney in Annapolis! all day. art movie night later, if we get back early enough!!

life and such

it is hard to type right now because my fingers are nearly frozen to the keypad.

my room is like the arctic (pre global warming of course).

there has been a minor crisis in my life. GASP.

so of course things have come up to interfere with a weekend at craigs house. as they always seem to... (this was "weekend at craigs house" attempt number two)

SO FENCING.

ive been in this fencing club for a couple weeks. And we were all practicing for this big ominous "tournament" coming up. which was at some arbitrary time and place.

and at our school, instead of having a set team... people in the individual weapons compete against each other to place in the top four to fence in this "tournament." In other words we compete against each other to see who gets to go to these tournaments.

SO LAST NIGHT was the qualifier rounds at our school to make it to this tournament. i still hadnt been informed of the time or day yet.

so then i heard that this big tournament we had all been practicing for was apparently this sunday. they same sunday me and craig were supposed to go to the national cathedral. OF COURSE. so i immediately said. im not going to this fencing tournament. the president of the club was like "ohkay" because basically he just does whatever i suggest.

But then one of the other guys was like "laur there is only one tournament per semester" and i was like "WHAT?! "

in high school of course there were multiple tournaments every month, and meets with other schools twice a week. so it was shocking to me that our fencing team only competes with other schools once a semester. UGHHHHHhhhh.

so THEN i said i would wait and see how our round robin results ended up.

as it stands im fairly sure i qualified....(i didnt lose to anyone) but we dont know if craig qualified yet (he did pretty well though i think.) Craig actually beat the president of the entire club, who is a senior, and rather uptight. We both beat him actually. that was a little ouch i think.

Pros of staying at college this weekend and going to the tourney:

-tourney only happens once a semester...craigs house can happen a different weekend maybe?

-get to go to the "fall festival" on the greens

-probably get more school work done than i would at craigs house

-have the option of re-taking my math test at sunday night study hours (everyone in the class does)

-get to get off of campus for fencing tourney

-get to meet other fencers in the area

Pros of going home to Craigs house this weekend:

-GET TO SEE THE FARM

- get to cook dinner

- get to meet Torque (the dog)

- get to see craigs mom and dad

- get to go to DC and tour the Smithsonian's

- get to visit the national cathedral

-get to watch UP

-get to get off of campus

- get to have a bonfire

i think it makes sense to go to the tourney because craigs house could happen next weekend?

but i feel like that would be rude to the wixons to just kind of bail like that. plus i was super excited to go to someone's house. because i haven't been home once since i got here. Cold turkey. i miss houses. and pet dogs. and bathtubs. and driving around in cars. and walls that aren't cinderblock.

but we'll see.

i think maybe ill go on a run.

before i turn into an ice cube.

academic advising ( i am almost a second semester frosh!)

i have been advised.

things are looking good! and as long as i pass this semester of math, i will never have to take science or math ever again..MUAHHAHAHAHA. its pretty much just english, art, and edu. classes from here on out. WHooohooo! and it is a definite possibility that i can do my double major undergrad in three years and then get my masters my fourth year! i just have to take some summer courses and do some work. i have to find an internship this spring somewhere. preferably a paid internship.

i am going on a run with charlotte.

i am also eating a pink grapefruit. mmmlech.

Its ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!

i apologize for not having blogged in forever and ever.

goodness graciousness!

so where to begin?

Pre- Halloween:

so me and craig really make an effort to not be "that couple" that is together all the time, and to have individual friends and interests and such... but anyways. it seems to have worked out that our best friend here at school is probably Bob Dean.

this is the part where i would do a little writing about bob dean, but there is really nothing to say except he is one of those people you really just have to meet. so i'll leave it at that.

well the day before halloween we were all rather excited. bob was excited because his girlfriend of two and a half years Audrey, who goes to UMD, was coming to visit for hallowgreens. Craig and I were excited because Bob was excited, and because we are both easily excitable. The rest of the campus was excited because Hallowgreens was just around the corner.

NOTE: Hallowgreens is the biggest party of the entire year at SMCM (which is really not saying very much at all) BUT nevertheless we were all very excited.

so i had one class in the morning. from 8-9

then i had the rest of the day free. but not really. because craig had a concert. so i had to go of course.

i spent like two hours working on my costume for the next night... (lara croft: Tombraider)

and then i walked downstairs to go see craig play with the orchestra.

the concert was exciting for the following reasons:

1. i sat with Euri Jorge.

let me explain

Laura: Euri! Hey man come sit by me!!

Euri: Oh hay laura! did you know craig is in the orchestra?!

laura: yea...yea euri thats why im here.

Euri: oh. wow. do you think people will sing?! i really hope people sing!

laura: euri its an orchestra concert

Euri: does craig sing?

laura: no... no one sings euri. thats a choir. people sing in choir.

Euri: oh i always get those confused.

2. everyone in the orchestra was dressed in costume. including the conductor...who euri kept calling the "instructor". i'm not making this up.

3. the entire orchestra performance room is about the size of our band room back in high school. this gives everything a more intimate atmosphere and also allows me to make weird faces at craig while hes playing. Im pretty sure this enhances his performing skills.

4. Ross, craigs older brother the music major, was for some unknown reason (probably just because he felt like it) playing percussion.. but not just any percussion...he was playing triangle? awesome ross. really. i wanted to ask how hard he had to practice for that part, but i didnt get a chance.

5. clapclap clap clap

euri: oh look craig is standing up! is he going to play now?

laura: no he just did play... the french horns had a solo

euri: oh... like already they played?

SO anyways. then craigs friend Chris arrived as a sort of last minute hallowgreens guest. Chris is a family friend who is very nice, but kind of high maintenance in that you have to keep him constantly entertained or he will start complaining about how bored he is. then Audrey got here and there was hugs all around and bob was very excited!!

Audrey is a mix of a four year old and a ballerina. she is very delicate looking and likes bouncing around and getting piggy backs and eating trix cereal. we loved her! she is apparently a finance major.

Then we went to go find something to do before chris died of boredom. so we set off to the Ross' house in hopes of entertainment (because that is what big brothers are good for.) Unfortunately we had to wait like ten minutes because Ross was at a pub with some of his own hallowgreens guests. ("the campus nearly doubles in size for hallow greens." this is apparently a statistic that craig read somewhere and probably repeated about one hundred times this weekend)

so we went to the daily grind to go get some apple cider before chris exploded out of boredom.

on our way the grind some fake zombies came up and drooled blood on Bob's jacket. This upset bob because he really did not want fake blood drooled on his jacket. This upset craig because craig is scared of a zombie attack.

anyways so finally ross came home and we borrowed Tropic Thunder and made a movie night out of it.

it was pretty violent. i really didnt like the movie very much at all. but the people were all awesome so it was still fun.

HALLOWGREENS

the next day bob took audrey for a tour. and me and craig worked on his politics paper. craig is not very good at getting work done, but he is EXTREMELY good at getting distracted.

so after i plowed him through half of his paper and then we went back to his room and got changed into our halloween costumes.

craig was supposed to be Indiana Jones and i was supposed to be Lara Croft.

Laura:craig how do i look?

craig: good

laura: do i look like lara croft?

craig: eh... should i bring this leather jacket or leave it here?

laura: well its kind of warm out... maybe you should leave it.

we went to go meet bob and audrey for dinner. they are very cute in that bob is kind of like a mom. when craig and i met audrey and bob to go to dinner this was our conversation:

Audrey: OH LAURA YOU LOOK AMAZING...craig you look good too.

Bob: Oh Auds you didnt finish your cookies i packed for you

craig: thanks.

Laura: you packed her snacks?

Audrey: well see we went on a tour. bob gave me a tour of your campus. its beautiful. breathtaking really.

laura: you packed her snacks?

Audrey: i couldnt finish them because you made me take a nap bob.

bob: oh well lets put on your rainboots before we go to dinner, its wet out.

audrey: next time i want to sleep on the inside of the bed.

bob: well we'll have to see about that Auds. go put your rain jacket on.

Craig was getting rather strung out because people kept not recognizing who he was. plus he is used to having epic halloween costumes because his mom used to personally make them for him and his brother every year.

but anyways, people kept immediately recognizing who i was. and craig kept getting

"umm... are you..... ummm maybe like.. OH IVE GOT IT. your a crocidile dundee!! no? well maybe... oh. indiana jones you say? i might have recognized you if you had a leather jacket"

by the time we got to dinner this is what happened

card scanner lady: hello... you must be lara croft.

craig: who am i?

lady: i really dont know hun, dont ask me.. please i dont watch tv really.

craig: im not going to eat until you guess

lady: oh hunny dont say that... i really.. um i just dont know...

guy serving potatoes: THAT LARA CROFT IS THE BEST COSTUME IVE SEEN ALL DAY

craig: don't even talk to me laura. dont even say anything.

bob: craig you kind of look like a park ranger...

Then after dinner...BRYAN GALE AND PAGE GOT HERE. Bryan is craigs best friend from high school and paige is his new girlfriend. they are rather adorable. Bryan is awesome. hes from ireland and plays piano and guitar and has an endless supply of one liners. Paige was really sweet, and her older sister is a senior here at SMCM. But both bryan and paige go to Towson...they have a football team.

so we all went back home and everyone else got dressed. chris as a guy from BUYMORE in Chuck a tv show. Bryan gale as indiana jones number 2 (the one that people recognized as being indiana jones) and paige as a black cat, bob as a cowboy, and audrey as a ballerina.

hallowgreens is when all the underclassmen trick or treat for alcohol at all the upperclassmens apartment housing. all in all things are pretty crazy, but public safety is around in case anything gets out of hand.

the rest of the night consisted of a few rounds of malibu, a whole lot of jello shots, some apple punch spiked juice, and some jungle juice.

probably the best part was Ross' apartment, which we visited about five times.

Ross and his friends had done a full out production of...wait for it... "KING ARTHUR'S CASTLE" The entire apartment was decked out as a castle. complete with a sign on the front door that said "ye must have seen one and twenty winters to enter this castle" which craig thought was a line from a movie..."no craig... it means you have to be 21 to drink here stupid"

Ross and friends were a complete cast with some pretty awesome costumes. they were serving spiked rum and playing medieval sounding music. it was pretty amazing.

it started raining pretty hard and i was feeling pretty intense marching around in my combat boots i had borrowed from some one for my costume. audrey the ballerina was not doing as well in her slippers and although it didnt really seem to phase her, bob would occasionally just pick her up and carry her around. whenever he put her down she would start jumping up and down and waving her arms around to whatever music happened to be playing depending on the house.

at one point i turned around and craig had randomly bought a pizza from some dominos delivery guy who was dressed as an oversized gorilla. but at that point i didnt even bother asking him...

then we all went home and went to sleep we were grateful for no casualties. craig had 7 people sleeping in his room because his room mate had invited his ex girlfriend down to celebrate in the festivities. it was a full house and then some.

POINT LOOKOUT STATE PARK

the next morning we all woke up and went to brunch. Then i had to take pictures for an art project i was working on which required me to go off campus to the nearby Point lookout state park. Craig and i had decided to make a trip out of it and invited bryan, paige, bob, and audrey to come along, which of course they all did. So we voyaged off campus in a small caravan of cars with no directions (craig: um well i kind of know how to get there.... approximately...) but alot of country music cds (which were bryans) and arrived at the park (miraculously?)! we wandered and took pictures and laughed, and then all had to say goodbye because people had to go back to their own colleges and such. which was sad.

hopefully more visits are in store in the future.

now i am majorly excited for CHRISTMAS!!!