Today's rambling: Just call me "The Bitch"
Written on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2003 at 7:27 p.m.
while feeling a bit

Shakespeare, to me, is one of those things that 'intellectual people' like because it's expected of them. You can't be a well-educated, highly intellectual person if you don't enjoy discussing the merits of Shakespeare. Does that make sense? My basic point is that I don't think Shakespeare is as wonderful and brilliant as everyone makes him out to be. In fact, I can't stand reading his stuff. It's not my bag.

That mini rant was brought on by the fact that I have to read Macbeth for Humanities, and I actually made an attempt to read a few pages of it today. Granted, I had to read it in 10th grade, but I don't remember much of it (except for the Porter scene, which was probably the best in the whole friggin' play). Both Kevin and Pam told me that with this professor you don't have to read anything; he goes over everything in class and all you have to do is highlight what he goes over and read that, and you get an A. All fine and dandy, but if I'd like to get the most out of this experience, it would be nice to at least skim the required reading!

But it is impossible to skim anything written by Shakespeare. Doing so would result in one of those blank, "What did I just read?" sorts of feelings. So I had to plow through this nonsense, page by page. Now, there are 70-some pages that need to be read by tomorrow, and I went from page 7 to 15. Not very far. And then I just gave up. It might have been less tedious to read if they didn't have those stupid little degree signs (y'know, the little tiny circles) after every other word! Yes, some things need to be explained because of all the language changes that have occurred between then and now. But they put those little thingies after words like 'spent' (as in, 'the spent swimmer', or however it went). Do I need to be told that 'spent' means 'tired'? Kristen said that anyone who's seen 'Austin Powers' should know the meaning of that word, but I've known the meaning of the word even before those movies! And I'm not trying to sound pretentious, it's just that this book was defining entirely too many words. And I couldn't help but look down at the foot notes for each one of those signs, just in case maybe my definition of the word was different than theirs. So what should have taken maybe 15 minutes (for one page..ha ha) took even LONGER!

Alright, that's enough. But I'm slowly discovering that I'm not going to like this semester nearly as much as I liked last semester. Between Health and Humanities, I'll probably be ready to shoot myself. I only took Humanities because it filled two of my Gen Ed requirements. Health is mandatory for every student here, and that's going to bore me to tears as well. I took Health in 7th grade, 10th grade, and 12th grade. And then, of course, I got mini Health lectures in various other classes, such as the Everyday Living class I took one year. Combine that with the fact that this college class is done in an OBSCENELY stupid way, and I just know I'm going to be bored to tears. But better to get the suffering over with now than keep putting it off.

Here's how our Health class is going to be conducted. 'Tag-team teaching', as Josh puts it. Two professors, where one will do four lectures, then the other will do the next four lectures. Nothing but lecturing. And it's in an auditorium, so it's not as if we could really do any fun-ish activities. Then again, how do you make Health into something fun? "Alright, class, let's see who can eat the most fruits and vegetables in one week! Whoever wins gets a beautiful bag of BRUSSEL SPROUTS!"

I'm getting bored--and annoyed--just writing about that class! I finished reading the first chapter today, which was full of common sense stuff. When I'd finally finished it, I shut the book, looked over at my roommate, and declared, "I hate Health and I wish it would die."

So that's a good start to things, eh?

Okay, now I'm ....

A couple of hours later...

That sentence was supposed to say something along the lines of "Okay, now I'm irritated." And the reason for that sentence is this. I was talking to Amanda on IM, and she all of a sudden said that Lauren had come in crying and so she had to go for a couple of minutes. When she came back, she said, "Do you have any alcohol?"

I knew automatically that it was Lauren who wanted it. Anyway, I said no. A minute or so passed, and then Amanda said, "Lauren has been through an ordeal...what if we payed [sic] you to buy some?"

"Ummm...no. :P" was my response.

Allow me to say that, of late, Lauren has been seriously getting on my nerves. Her melodramatics are more than I can handle, especially since you can TELL she's just faking it! So yeah, I was definitely less than sympathetic. And I knew that the 'ordeal' had to do with Josh, aka Kevin's new roommate. Does anyone remember me saying how I knew he was a creepy, dirty little thing from the minute I met him? Yeah, now everyone ELSE is finally discovering this. Anyway...

Amanda's next words were something about how Lauren was walking up to the video store and did I want to go because she (Amanda) thought it would be better if Lauren had her two best friends to talk to. I didn't want to go. The last thing I wanted to do was walk in sub-freezing temperatures for over a mile to get to a tiny video store, all the while listening to Lauren piss and moan about something that she brought on herself anyway. And yes, I realize how callous that makes me sound. It's not that I'm the sort of person who doesn't WANT to listen to the problems of her friends. My entire life has been spent making sure I'm there if one of my friends is having problems. But Lauren's problems are embellished fluffs of melodrama, and that's the sort of thing I don't want to listen to. But somehow, I got sucked into walking with them. Actually, the funny part was I said something like "Does this have to do with Scum of the Earth, aka Josh?" When she said yeah, my response was "Yeesh."

"Yeesh" was actually meant to mean "Oh god, I don't want to have to listen to any more stories about how Josh tried to get into Lauren's pants and how she was up in his room last night, please spare me." What Amanda took my response to mean, however, was "Oh yeesh, that Josh is such a jagoff, I'll be right over." So she told me to meet them in front of Ralston in 5 minutes.

My one reward for going was I got this little bottle-shaped chocolate with Kahlua inside. I love Kahlua. ^_^ But the rest of the walk was crap. I arrived at Ralston to see Lauren looking more miserable than usual, her face all splotchy and her hair hanging in her face. We started walking, but Amanda had to run back for some earmuffs because it was so cold out. So Lauren and I sat inside, and to make an attempt at looking as though I cared I asked, "So what did he do?"

As if she was just WAITING for me to ask this, she gave this little sobbing moan, covered her face with her hand, and then squeaked, "I'm okay!"

Insert Amber looking like �_�

The story went something along these lines: Lauren went up to Josh and Kevin's room (Kevin wasn't home). Josh was acting really coldly to Lauren, and then said something about how Lauren had made it weird between them. So Lauren informed him that if he'd wanted to the other night, she would have "f*ed him."

My sympathy meter dropped a few more points. It would be one thing if they were dating and he just suddenly dumped her. But this is all about sex. From the beginning (which was just a WEEK ago, for flip's sake!) they've had this lustful sort of 'let's make out' sort of relationship. Although I have to confess that the only reason I knew of their snogging was through Amanda. Not that I particularly WISHED to know of this superficial relationship, but yeah. Whatever. On with this story. Being a romantic, I don't agree AT ALL with two people getting together just for sex. I already knew that that was the sort of person Josh was; he'd already told us about his daughter, and last night he warned Kevin that there might be something hanging on the doorknob, thereby meaning that Kevin would have to knock before coming in. So in other words, this guy is no better than a rutting animal.

But for the rest of that walk, I had to listen to the most retarded stuff! Y'know how in romance novels or movies, after the girl has been through a vicious breakup (she's still in love with him, of course) she'll see things that remind her of him and she'll burst into tears? Yeah, that's how our walk went. Only it was such contrived crying that you couldn't help but want to hit her! Like, we passed the Kentucky Fried Chicken and she was like, "I guess we won't be eating at *squeak* KFC now!"

"Um, why would you?" I asked flatly, knowing of her dislike for the restaurant.

"Josh wanted to eat there the other night," she explained, "and I told him I didn't like KFC. *squeak* But I'd eat there now!"

I did show kindness, then. I kept my mouth shut.

Then later, we passed by an army recruiting thingy. I guess Josh was trained to be a part of the special forces or something, so of course Lauren squeaks again and points at the building. Amanda must have wonderful tolerance (or a more generous heart than I), because she didn't seem to be getting as annoyed with Lauren's playacting as I was. There were a couple other instances where Lauren would pretend to cry as she was 'reminded' of Josh...somehow the topic of football was brought up (I don't think it had to do with today being SuperBowl day), and she was all like, "Josh played football!"

As Lola would say, for carp's sake! Get over it, already!

Actually, I really ought to be more pitying toward her. Not because of this nonsense, but because she obviously has some low self esteem. And is dealing with it in an unhealthy manner. She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket (and she doesn't smoke unless she's 'stressed'), she wanted alcohol rather badly, and she's willing to have a 'relationship' that's completely based on sex just because she thinks she's too ugly to actually find someone who'd want to date her for any other reason. Self esteem issues here. But the only way to actually get through to her would be to stop coddling her and be blunt...and perhaps even brutal. A good "Get over it!" would probably do her wonders.

But only if all her friends agreed to do it. If it was just me, she'd just stop talking to me and I'd be labeled as "The Bitch". It would take all of her close friends to agree to make this change. Maybe the next time she's around, I'll suggest it. Because I'm telling you, I can't take much more of these theatrics. I already got rid of one person who did that; I don't want to have to deal with another one.

Gah. It's 7:25, and I promised myself that I would get to bed at 8 (8:30 at the latest) because I have to be up so early tomorrow. But I still have to take a shower, and Jam just signed on a little while ago! *cries* I don't wanna be the Workday Wench anymore!!!!