I Like...Surprises

I believe I have mentioned my awful summer night class in which we eat pizza, watch movies about gangs, and get 403 emails per day from our professor (many of them completely indecipherable). Last night was the LAST CLASS, thank the sweet pickle, and it ended on a positively FABULOUS note. And by fabulous I mean we watched a 2.5 hour documentary about a pediatric cancer ward that detailed the lives of three kids with end stage cancer and their families. Most depressing movie in the history of the world, and oh wait, COMPLETELY irrelevant to a class about gangs. We were all very confused, and our professor tried to rationalize it by saying that the parents of these kids have to struggle with a lot of the same things that the parents of gang members do...umm. Really I think he was sick of listening to presentations and was out of movies.

But I digress.

The point is, there is this guy in my class, we'll call him O. He plays basketball and is 6'11", which made me sitting next to him hi-larious (I'm 5'2", yup). O comes to class some of the time, listens to his iPod all the time (yes, in class), carries full conversations with his fellow teammates and big shot football player friend while the professor is talking, and doesn't turn in assignments. Huh.

O brings family-size jars of apple sauce to class (yes, the huge size that you can only buy at Sam's or something) and eats the whole thing with a tiny plastic spoon. We learned that he can eat 4 pieces of pizza, a Big Mac and fries, and two ice cream bars in one sitting. O also carries a giant box of Froot Loops in his backpack and eats them quite noisily during movie time. He wears his sunglasses in class sometimes (but not during movies like his superstar friend). He is also very witty, says "Amen" a lot, and likes to shout BLESS YOU at the top of his lungs every time anyone sneezes. He has offered on several occasions for me to stand behind him and shuffle along while he walks out of class 2 hours before it ends (and I assure you, I would be completely hidden as he is humongous). Basically, he exudes "athlete," and carries off that persona quite well.

All of these things make O quite endearing and funny, and I initially wrote him off as a semi-thuggish, amusing dude who fit the stereotype of college athlete who doesn't care about school in every way. I'm not proud of that, but I did.

But. Wednesday night was the Horrible Night of Presentations, in which people got up and read the slides they had prepared two weeks before and lots of people slept or slipped out of class. Professor man called on O and asked him to come give his presentation, to which O replied that he didn't have a presentation to give (again, it was due two weeks prior to that). He would, however, be happy to go to the front of the classroom and talk about himself. Literally, that's what he said. We all laughed and prepared ourselves for a humorous "presentation" that he would make up as he went and get out of the assignment as a result.

O started off by telling us how he grew up in the worst part of a large city in the Midwest, and how he was standing next to his favorite older cousin when he was shot in the head on the street corner in a drug deal gone bad and had brains splattered all over him at the age of eight. He told us how he went home that day to his mom, who told him that the only way to survive their neighborhood was to become the toughest guy on the block, so he spent the next ten years doing just that. He started getting in fights with people, taking boxing lessons, growing to be almost 7 feet tall, and beating people up if they looked at him wrong in passing.

O told us how he came home from a fight one day in seventh grade to find his mother sitting in the dark on the floor of their living room, sobbing. When he asked her what was wrong, she informed him that she didn't know what they were going to eat for dinner. That there was no money. That the electricity had been cut off and she didn't know how she would get it turned back on before it got cold. At that point, O tells us, he decided that he couldn't let this happen again, and did the only thing he knew how to do: at age 13, he began selling crack.

After a few months of selling, O found out that he was quite good at this crack trade thing, and he experienced something he never had before: success. He told us how he is not proud of it now, but at the time he felt useful for the first time in his life. When he was dealing, there was enough food to go around every day. When he was dealing, there was always gas in the car, heat in the apartment, and a safe apartment to call home. When he was dealing, his mother could take her children to the doctor and not worry that she would be refused or taken advantage of because she couldn't pay. This new lifestyle was as addictive as the drug he dealt, and O quickly became wrapped up in it. At one point, during a deal that involved $300,000 of coke, a "friend" of his stabbed him multiple times in the stomach in a back alley - if O hadn't been able to crawl onto the street where a nice old man found him and took him to the hospital, he'd be dead.

Then came basketball. O's mother was desperate to get him out of this lifestyle, so she approached several basketball coaches in the area to try to find a school who would take him. Eventually, someone decided to take a gamble, and O started playing his junior year. This eventually led to a scholarship to a junior college in Texas, where O said he realized that there were "actually good people in the world." He realized that not everyone you pass on the street is out to get you, and some people actually care and want what's best for others. In his own words, "I had no people skills, I didn't know how to relate to others, all I knew how to do was fight, because that's all anyone ever did to me and that's what you had to do to survive." He learned how to function in society from basketball and a bunch of random people who reached out to him in a way that no one ever had before. He also realized that he was capable of acting kindly, and that he had the potential to be more than just another drug dealing statistic who dies before the age of twenty. This realization softened him, and he believes that living in this tiny, Southern little town literally saved his life, as ironic as that sounds. At the age of 21, Big O found his real life in Paris, Texas.

From there, O decided to really try this school thing, raised his grades, and won a scholarship to play basketball at OU. Here, he has a 3.4 GPA, is set to graduate a semester early, and plans on getting a master's degree as soon as he graduates. He told us that he is saving money to bring his mom and siblings to the South so that they can experience the life that he has found and get out of the 'hood. He wants to start speaking to youth about the possibilities that exist outside of drugs and gangs for kids like him.

By the end of this "presentation," several people were near tears, and I was feeling quite guilty for pigeon-holing him so quickly into the thug/slacker/athlete box, writing him off as someone who was just there to play basketball and didn't realize the importance of the education he was getting. But I was wrong, way wrong. For whatever reason, it's habitual for us to stereotype people and slap a label on them based on a few, selective pieces of information. The entire point of the career I've chosen is to dispel these stereotypes and fight against them, and yet I still do it more often than I'd care to admit (or even realize). However, it's way more fun to be wrong about these things and to be served with reminders of how little I know about people and how capable they are of bouncing back from lives that, by society's standards, are worthless or lost causes. I guess the point is to always be looking for these surprises, because there might be a heartrending story and a whole lot more behind those giant apple sauce jars, size 39 shoes, and boxes of Froot Loops.

I Like...Elvis?

= ???

These two songs have been on repeat all week, and it just occurred to me that they were both sung by Elvis. I guess they didn't call him the King for nothin...But these two ladies have remade them to be totally addictive, very modern, and just as sweet as the originals. In fact, we danced to the first one at our wedding (for our first first dance, because we couldn't decide and had a first first and second first bahaha). So anyway, here's to Elvis, apparently:

Love Me Tender - Norah Jones

Cant Help Falling In Love - Ingrid Michaelson

Disco fever, an awkward wedding, and Skippy needs to go home

AKA, my SYTYCD recap of the week. Overall, I still wasn't super impressed this week...as Nava the Dance Expert stated so accurately in our weekly group recap email, I think the disappointment has been in the routines this season, not necessarily in the dancers. So many of the dances just don't have the conceptual meat to carry the story combined with the WOW factor that so many from past dances have had...there's just an oomph factor that's missing.

Sooo, we'll start with the best:

Brandon and Kayla - I think these are the two best dancers left on the show, hands down. The contemporary routine was pretty and extremely well danced, and the choreography was pretty great, but I just couldn't feel connected to the whole mistress-of-a-married-man storyline. Drug addiction, breast cancer, AND extra-marital affairs? Come on people, this is a dance show, not a Lifetime Original Movie marathon! But they did a great job with what they were given. Their disco was pretty great (even though those death drops or whatever they look like looked quite painful), and they kept the energy up and nailed all of those crazy lifts, which most couples can't do without the audience thinking AHH SHE'S GONNA FALL ON HER FACE WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. The synchronized arm shimmies or whatever you want to call them when she was on top of his shoulders was great...but I still couldn't help but compare it to the disco that Brandon and Janette did, because that was just completely awesome. I miss Janette.

Ade and Jeanine - I agreed with the judges on their samba, something just looked OFF. But the routine wasn't that great either. I did enjoy the Nap/Tab hip hop routine...and I think Jeanine definitely has the best solos of the girls (but Kayla is stronger overall). Ade is really good, but sometimes I feel like there's a disconnect between him and his dances. I don't know. Maybe he's not eating the music or feeling the music or sitting on the music with his ears or whatever Lil C kept rambling on about.

Evan and Melissa - To me, it couldn't be clearer that these two need to go home. I'm sorry and I feel bad for saying it, but Evan is just BLAH. I'm sooo over him. All he does is make cartoony facial expressions, shrug his shoulders, hop around a lot, and do several bell kicks. Every. Single. Time. Their Broadway routine was gimmicky and not challenging at all, and it just felt awkward (could it be their weird half-dressed garter costumes?). And clearly the quickstep fell short. Melissa's a great ballerina, but the other two girls are wayyy more versatile.

However, in all of this mediocrity, there was this:



This is the reason I watch this show. Um, no, not to watch extremely muscled men dance and flail and crawl in boxer briefs...but seriously, this is an art form. It's official, I'm on Team Brandon. And no, I did NOT vote for him over 20 times last night after he danced this. Absolutely not.

I Like...San Antonio

So lately I've been feeling some unexplained nostalgia for Texas, particularly San Antonio and the hill country. It all started about a month ago when I was driving down to Dallas to meet Scott and hang out with my family for a few days, and I felt the urge to blast "Southbound 35" for old time's sake. Since then, I've been quite out of my normal (i.e. indie/hippie/songwriterpotsmoker) music zone and have been on a pretty hard core Pat Green kick. There's just something about his music that transports me in a second back to the carefree days of college when our biggest thing on the agenda was planning the next float trip or theme party. Jen and I were reminsicing about breakfast tacos at Taco Riendo, the somewhat sketchy, completely delicious taco place where we were almost always sure to be the only non-Spanish-speakers in the place. So, here is my ode to San Antonio:

There are so many great memories of that town, such as everything that took place here:

Retreats in the hill country:

Amaaaazing BBQ:

Fiesta and NIOSA, San Antonio's Mexican [and much tamer] version of Mardi Gras:

BREAKFAST TACOOOOOS:


$2 Margs at Panchito's:

Of course, tubing on the Comal in New Braunfels:

And eating at the amazing Grist Mill afterwards:

And who could forget college night at Far West (aka Cowboys) Dance Hall:

I'm no country girl, but I sure do miss San Antonio sometimes. In honor of that, here is some good ol' Texas country for your listening pleasure:

Wave on Wave - Pat Green

Crazy - Pat Green

Carry On - Pat Green

We Need Healthcare REFORM? Nooo...

This is reality for way too many people:



But really, they should just get a better job. Yup. We don't need no "Obama-care" up in hurr.

Rant over.

I Like...Learning

Here are some interesting tid-bits I learned this weekend:

1) The Harry Potter game for Wii is not as cool as one would think (at least not the Order of the Phoenix one). Yes, you get to do spells, but we played for 20 minutes and all that went on was moving some clothes into a trunk and walking around the castle aimlessly. Not fun. Where's the Quidditch?!? And YES, I realize I'm a huge nerd.

2) Somehow, when one makes gin and tonics at home, they are much more potent than at the bar.

3) Sitting around with friends making drinks and making fun of each other playing Wii is SO much fun. Okay, I knew that already

4) Non-scheduled Saturdays are extremely important.

5) Just because I am awesome (and I mean AWESOME) at Wii bowling does not mean I am awesome at actual bowling. In fact, I'm terrible. Like 78 terrible.

6) I forgot how competitive I am and how I really reeeally dislike losing! As Lisa put it, it's a miracle we all play games together and we're all still friends. Lots of Type A med students + me and Hannah and James = yikes!

7) Piano bars and Colorado Bulldogs are a fantastic cure for post-losing-funk. Especially when they play Don't Stop Believing and the whole bar sounds and you dance a lot.

8) That song NEVER gets old.

9) Blaring the show choir version of that song from Glee while driving around eating ice cream never gets old either.

10) Enjoying a lazy Sunday morning for the first time in a while is more important than writing papers. Yup.

That's it for now. Oh, and p.s., if you couldn't tell, I loved this weekend.

I Like...Weddings

As I posted about yesterday, we had a blast last weekend celebrating our friends' wedding, and lots of fun was had. Here's what took place:

Some rehearsing and eating downtown

An adorable bride and groom celebrating

More awesome dancing

A "fresh-faced" picture before Journey sing-a-longs to the iPod because the COVER BAND did not know "Don't Stop Believing!!"

Some intense disco-ing

Some...of this

Happy friends after dance-a-thons

Self-picture taking, always a necessity whilst dancing

Old friends :)

All in all a great night, and I must say that Scott did a great job sticking his hand in the air and taking random shots. This was the first wedding since ours that we have both been really involved in and gotten to witness up close through the whole process, and it definitely brought back some wonderful memories of our own (and of course made some great new ones). Yay marriage, yay weddings.

I Like...Dancing

This past weekend, Scott's BFF-partner-in-crime-roommate-best-man-all-around-crazyperson Rob married his longtime girlfriend (and good friend of ours) Jen. Seriously, these boys have been friends since the fifth grade when Rob invited Scott to stay for dinner after working on a school project, and they have pretty much been through everything in life attached at the hip ever since. They are COMPLETE opposites and yell at each other a lot, but their friendship is pretty adorable. So the weekend was full of toasts and parties and food...and dancing! We had a fantastic group of dancing fiends on the floor at the wedding, and it was a BLAST. I love dancing, and I really really really wish I could do it with any inkling of talent, but this is what I look like when I do it:

Apparently me dancing = awkward facial expressions and lots of pointing?

Oh well. We can't all be professionals.......like these people:

(SMOOTH TRANSITION, eh?!?)

Last night's episode was pretty blah until the final three routines. I will say that while I appreciate the sentiment and while the intent of Tyce's piece about breast cancer was touching, it didn't grip me or move me like Mia's Addiction piece did. I think a huge part of it was the song, but it felt more contrived and "Beaches"-ish than raw and heartwrenching like it could have been...But it was still a beautiful dance. Here are my two favorites:

Kayla and Jason dancing a Shane Sparks hip hop routine (loved the Thriller references)



Brandon & Jeanine dancing a routine by Laurie Ann Gibson (yes, the crazy choreographer from Diddy's Making the Band awesomeness).

I think Brandon and Jeanine are my favorites at this point, with Janette coming in a close second. I'm calling Evan or Jason and Melissa or Kayla for elimination this week. If Melissa stays it will be because she happened to draw the tearjerker of the week. Also - I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty intrigued to see if Katie Holmes can actually sing and dance tonight. Innnnteresting.

And this is where I shall end the post of endless rambling.