April 9, 2002

Well hello! I bet you all are pretty peeved at me for not keeping up OAD. All I can say is I am terribly sorry but school has not given me a life in the past two months or so. It's gotten worse now so all I can say is you can't really expect more updates besides this one until May because the next couple of weeks are HADES! Just thought I would share some recent photos of me with you since they're fun and have to do with fencing! Don't get your hopes up, I wasn't fencing in any of them! Captions will be provided! Oooooooooo! (I know, exciting isn't it?)

Sloan, Jesse, Sara, Garrett (Jesse's bro, not a fencer), and me at the University of South Carolina "Chicken Challenge" tournament [and just to explain the fact that Sara and I are rubbing Garrett's head: his hair was all fuzzy and felt like velvet! we called him Velvet Head alllll day]

Me and one of the twins at the Swashbucklers Soiree tournament

Me looking delightfully clueless at the Fencing Club Christmas Party at Greg's pad

February 22, 2002

What day is it?! That's what I've been asking myself for the past month or so. It's been a madhouse here! Haven't had a second to even think of working on this site. It's a mess, I'm tellin' ya. For anyone who's interested, I'm looking for someone to take over as Supervisor for the Tir na Webfeis school on WebFeis. E-mail me if you're interested and I'll tell Ashe! I know she'll want to know. So how is everyone? Good I hope! Anyone been to any good feiseanna lately? I've been fencing so much. Well not SO much. It feels like a lot becuase I'm always sore. I was helping do demonstrations at the Homecoming Street Fair (basically a bunch of tables for clubs here, a rock climbing wall, and an inflatable slide in the middle of George Street). Of course it was raining that day and what do you think I did on the sidewalk? I FELL! Poor Greg I think he thought it was his fault but it was just my clumsiness. Needless to say I couldn't fence again until later. Me poor legs are still suffering! I saw The Count of Monte Cristo on Tuesday night. GOOD MOVIE! Once Edmond shaved his goatee off and had that long, curly hair the movie got really, really good! LOL j/k I'm excited because I have a private lesson with one of the fencing coaches next Thursday before fencing practice. He's going to help me find the cues for making particular attacks because he says that's what I'm missing. Maybe my 'game' will improve once I get that fundamental down. Then I can stop having bad days where I can't fence at all and frankly don't care. Yeah those aren't fun. Do you ever have those? I have them a lot. That's probably because I don't get enough sleep. Here's a useful tip: don't go to bed at 3:45am and expect to be able to get up at 7am. It ain't gonna happen (take it from a girl who knows!) I ended up skipping Spanish class on Wednesday because of doing that (there was NO way I was getting to a 9am class!) I'm really looking forward to tonight because it's Pizza and Movie night! Friday's rock. Kinda upset becuase I should have gotten two 10's out of the ATM instead of one. The stupid thing takes $2 out every time I make a withdrawal. That's piracy, I'm tellin ya! What the heck is up with that? In conclusion - as if this had any point anyway - if you guys have anything you want to see up on this site, please send your ideas my way. I'm all ears! (and fingers, and toes, and eyes. . . .)

January 13, 2002

So what's happening here? I forget when I wrote last time so I have no reference point. Well these things aren't supposed to really have anything to do with each other, are they? That's the beauty of a Rambling, you get to ramble! Wanna know what I'm doing right now as I write this? Statistics homework! Ick! Okay it's not as intimidating as it sounds right there. It's basically surveys and conducting them on random people and percentages and stuff you see everyday. Basically it's the first applicable-to-daily-life math I have ever taken in my life! I think it's the only math class in the history of my life where I will have ever tried to get a good grade. My professor is awesome too. His name is Mr. Lauzon and he's this sweet, funny older gentleman who's very friendly and cool to be around. I enjoy his classes even if it is math. I have Spanish first thing tomorrow morning. What does that mean? An entire hour where I'm not allowed to speak English! It's hard, let me tell you, especially since I don't have much speaking experience. Wanna know another fun thing I'm doing right now? Listening to one of my many Capercaillie CDs. If you haven't gotten into this band yet, you're missing out! Karen Matheson has the most gorgeous voice EVER and the band does the coolest stuff with the music. You haven't truly lived until you've listened to an entire Capecaillie CD. My goal of owning the entire collection of music they've ever put out hasn't quite happened yet but I do currently own more than half the CDs they've got (which is saying something since they have quite a few!) It's taken me several years to get this far and once I get some money I'll be able to start once again. You know what? I've only been here a week (in South Carolina) and I already miss home a little. I think it's a good thing to get away for college though. New experiences in a foreign place with new people and new stuff to discover. It's traumatizing at first but eventually I think it serves to make you more prepared for that day in the not-so-distant future when you've graduated and you've got to move out. Plus you get to experiment with being the only person responsible for yourself. It's harder than you'd think too! I mean I could sit on my butt eating snack food and watching Cartoon Network all day if I really wanted to and there'd be no one to yell at me to do my homework. I don't know how to really put it all into words but I hope you get my drift? Go to college out of state if you get the chance and have the means! It's so worth it! What else can I say? I haven't practiced my tin whistle in like a week. I don't know I'm just afraid of making too much noise so I can't really do it. I'm such a chicken. Bock! Bock! I haven't done the January Medals yet. Well I have picked the winners, I just haven't posted them for you good people to see. Heck I haven't even put the small medals on the Reviews page for the December Medals yet! I'm so behind, I'm sorry, life's hectic and it's either Life or the Computer and I kinda have to choose Life. Wouldn't you? Trying to decide whether or not I really want to work on the campus newspaper. I usually get sick of journalism cuz I hate running around trying to write articles. I think I'm in that kinda 'afraid to try new things mood' where I want to stay in my nice perfect schedule and not come outta my bubble. That said, I'm thinking I should go to the meeting tomorrow afternoon. I really want to be the Opinions Editor but I don't think I'm qualified enough and I just sucked up on my application. Hm! Not good. Maybe they'll let me do a weekly book column and occasionally a piece on the fencing team (hey, we need publicity!) MAYBE I CAN SERIALIZE MY STORIES! That's a big 'maybe' right there. Alright now that I've decided to go I'm getting all excited over here. Maybe I should end this now because things might get out of hand! hahaha This is Ciara, signing out!

"All's fair in love and war."

January 2, 2002

Here's to 2.25 years of The Ramblings! Can it have been so long? It can! And it's about time I wrote another, doncha think? I had a quiet New Year's Eve. Went to my chica Christina's house and watched the ball drop then watched the last bit of Beetlejuice until I couldn't sit in front of the tv anymore, then just went down in the basement and worked on a story for a while. Then Christina and I listened to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack for a while then decided, "Hey it's 2am why not go to bed?" Then there was the New Year's Day shopping spree! My dad's present to my brother and me was to give us money and have us buy 'nice' clothes for ourselves. He told Christina to keep me in line and that if I brought home "clothes that made me look like a biker" he would kill me. I'll tell you what though, walking by Hot Topic with more than $100 in my purse was SOME task! But I made it to the 'nice' clothes stores and got me some nice stuff. OK two long-sleeved shirts, a pair of pants, and two DVDs (Tomb Raider and Last of the Mohicans whahoo!) Thursday we're going to continue the madness and venture to the other mall by our houses and see if they've got anything. That's the cool thing about getting giftcards for Christmas, they make ya HAVE to shop! Aw crud I forgot what I was gonna say. Well I just remembered something else so I will say that instead. Go rent O Brother Where Art Thou right now! Yes, right now. My dad rented that the other day cuz he heard it was good (and usually he's wrong) but it's such a great movie! It's frickin hilarious! - -"You stole from my kin!" "Who was fixin' to betray us!" "You didn't know that at the time!" "Well I stole it till I did know!" "That don't make no sense!"- - That's one of my favorite scenes from the movie. I remember now that I was going to tell all you faithfull Rambling readers that I got my wisdom teeth pulled last Thursday. Isn't that some FUN news? Yup, had my mouth shot so full of Novacaine I couldn't feel my tongue/lower lip/chin for about twenty-four hours! Lemme tell ya that made drinking an ordeal! It was very interesting though and I must assure you folks who haven't had them pulled yet that it's no big deal! It doesn't hurt all that bad and once you get to the point where you can at least stuff solid food in your mouth, even if you can't chew very well, it's all good! Maybe I should move on to another point; I don't seem to be much help on this subject! Anyone out there compete in the music competitions at feiseanna as well as dance? If so then I would love for you to email me sometime and give me a rough idea how the music competitions work! I'm planning on visiting several this summer and not only do I need a few pointers, I would absolutely die of happiness if I could meet any and all of my online OAD buddies! Maybe I could play you a song and you could dance to it! Now how fun would that be? :p---- I know, quit laughing at me already. I'm just a sorry college student eating Oreos and milk at 2am listening to Loreena McKennitt CDs with no plans for tomorrow except to sit on her butt and read books. Oh wait can't forget the plans to set up a debit card for when I got to school! Then I can "buy my books with it." I'm just afraid I'll use it to buy things! Must control myself. Can't...spend...card...must...buy...books.... Ooooooooh! I gotta remember to sell my books from last semester when I go back to the dorms next week. Wah! I don't wanna go back to school. I do and I don't. I do cuz I'll get to fence and I'm taking another anthropology class and I've got a creative writing class and my fencing coach is my History teacher. I don't wanna go back because of the cafeteria food, the nasty bathrooms in my dorm, the fact that the heating in our dorm DOESN'T WORK, and my general feeling of being cut off just isn't fun. HEY! Here's something to talk about: I SAW LORD OF THE RINGS THE DAY IT CAME OUT! HAVE YOU SEEN IT YET? IF NOT, YOU BETTER GOOOOOOOOOOOOO! OK I'm about to upload this and get my booty to bed. Feliz Nueva Ano!

Gopher, Everett?

November 13, 2001

Had fencing again tonight! It was very fun as usual. I tried to keep my cool and not get frustrated and I succeeded for the most part. Mark and I almost had a run-in cuz I didn't think he was doing something and he got all touchy and I got touchy cuz he got touchy....yeah but it worked out fine. One of my coaches told me that the foilists are getting really good and that he's impressed with our progress. Is that sweet or what? According to Coach Piccone, my instinct is to do things very fast and I need to slow things down and do my compound attacks (attacks with more than one part i.e. beat-attack or parry-riposte) one part at a time so they're clean and sharp. But Coach Fronabarger's comments about the foilists have bolstered my confidence for a while. If I just keep doing what I have been and just take Coach Piccone's comments to heart about compound attacks, things'll be peachy keen. OH YEAH BY THE WAY! I have a new concept for the site that I'm considering so it won't just be Ramblings anymore. Keep in mind that this will take me a LONG TIME to get together so be patient. I'll be emailing around to people to see if I can get any help on it. It's going to be fun if it ever gets off the ground but I'm not going to tell you what it is so I don't get your hopes up and then find out I can't do it. But if you know anyone who can do Java and ASP and wants to do an Irish dancing project, give them my email! :) That's about all I have the energy to write tonight. Quite a bit tired! Need to relax before I go study again. Studying stinx, especially when you have an exam the next day and that exam is MATH! Did I mention also that I'm not good at math? Very very bad! As long as I pass I'll be happy. Well I'm off! Hope your week is going well. Don't dance too hard but don't dance too little ;)

coming up in the next Rambling: more rambling

November 8, 2001

I'm very sorry it's been just the Ramblings that have been updated lately. It's all I have the energy to do right about now. School is sooo heavy duty right now. They weren't kidding when they said college was harder! It's no big deal you just have to keep your head screwed on and don't get so freaked that you start to cry (like I usually do!) I'm handling it ok right now just gotta keep this up. I have to buy some white baseball pants cuz they're my best alternative to fencing pants that I can get before Saturday! If you're thinking, "What's Saturday?" then you didn't read the last rambling! For shame! Nah I won't judge you. That's my silly phrase! Just comes out every so often. Garrett (at the fencing tourney last weekend) got a huge kick out of it when I said I wouldn't judge him (over something he said, I forget what we were talking about!) I'm afraid to compete this weekend. I fenced epee with Greg tonight (that's what I'll be doing this weekend) and it was HARD! Epee is so much more fierce and you're going for any place on the body even the head. Lucky we have masks! Geezle. He was teaching me how to hit the hand/arm (the primary target areas of epee) but I just have HORRIBLE aim I kept grazing off and frantically waving the point around hoping it'd hit him. I just lose it sometimes, get so focused that I lose touch. Must lose that stupid attitude by tomorrow night! Tomorrow night is our other official practice of the week (Greg and I just went to the gym tonight; Wednesday is the night peeps in the Club agreed was a good night to come fence outside of practice just to well practice!) Oh geez it's almost 12:30 I have to begin a 2-page essay on how I would research the topic of "the anatomy of a kiwi bird and how it has evolved over the past 2 million years." Don't have to actually write a paper on it, just write how I would go about doing the research for it. How I am going to make it two pages I dunno. Circular arguments and TONS of bs! ;) Have a great weekend! And for all you Irish dancers out there be careful, don't forget to stretch, and good luck!

A: Nacho cheese.

November 3, 2001

What do Incubus, Michael Jackson, a black Jeep Cherokee with a full trunk, and six college kids crammed into the remaining space of the said Cherokee have in common? THE RIDE BACK FROM THE FENCING TOURNEY! Oh my gosh guys I wish you could have been there. It's not as psycho lively as a feis but it's even MORE CONFUSING (I know you don't believe me but it's true) and it takes EVEN LONGER! Well in my experience, anyway. We had to wait for eight hours before everyone in the club was done but that's because Greg, our fearless club secretary, kept on winning! That was annoying because we were all REALLY hungry and wanted to leave but we wanted him to win anyway! Greg ended up placing THIRD out of about TWENTY-TWO epeeists (whahoo!) and he earned his D rating from the USFA. Double whahoo! Everyone in the CofC fencing club did FANTASTIC and we represented ourselves well. The thing I liked best about the tournament today (the Chicken Challenge at USC) was that everything is so friendly and laid back. Fencers make this crazy banter back and forth between each other during bouts (a fight between two fencers) and stuff and it's all so cool until someone starts getting a stick up their butt and taking it too seriously. Fencing is about having a good time, not being unsportsmanlike. If you're going to be obsessed with winning and take it too seriously, don't come into fencing. Everyone will hate you, or so I gathered from how people were talking about the pooheads today! I think the epeeists want me to compete this weekend but even if I used club equipment I don't have any fencing pants! :( Stupid how something like that would keep me from competeing huh? We'll see maybe someone who has some and itsn't competing will somehow miraculously be the same size as me and let me borrow their pants. Oh if only I had some white pants right about now! Like I always carry some of those in my back pocket. Mmmmmm no. I suppose once I finish my term paper for History I will practice some more bladework with Vinnie. I'm happy about the fact that I have finally DONE SOMETHING on my weekend! Now my conversation teacher can't make fun of me when he asks, "que hicisten?" and I don't say, "nada!" YES!!!!! That has been my goal this friggin' semester, to have something to say to Juan that I did on the weekend so he couldn't say I am 18 and already old! :p--- My life feels so fulfilled now. (Um not but we'll pretend so!)

Q: What do you call cheese that isn't yours?

November 1, 2001

HAPPY SAMHAIN! Samhain (pr. Sah-WANE) is an old, old festival dating back to the pagan era in Europe especially the Druids in Britain. It's also known as the Candle Festival or the Festival of Light (or I'm just making that second one up!). The general practice is to light a candle at sunrise on Samhain morning and leave it burning until sunset. I've never actually DONE that seeing as an unsupervised flame in a house could lead to fires, that and I had a cat who I KNEW would knock the darned thing over while I was away at school! Samhain is still celebrated by many Neo-Pagans today, especially Neo-Druid groups such as the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids in Britain (they don't really consider themselves a Neo-Pagan group though, they have members of all denominations who join but never leave their official religions, it's kinda cool that way). GUESS WHAT! I had a funky dream last night. I dreamt that there was actually a feis in Charleston and that I and a bunch of friends were going to go watch but the FUNKY part was that the dancers, instead of practicing inside the actual venue, were practicing outside all over the neighborhood! That isn't what was really weird about it though. What was weird is that it seemed perfectly NORMAL to me! That and the batons all the little girls were dancing with ... what was up with THAT?! Maybe I shouldn't have eaten that lentil soup and yogurt before I went to bed last night. Yeah. Have you ever had a weird dream like that? Geezle peezle. Hey last night was kinda fun. We had an informational meeting for people who were interested in fencing outside of class and we weren't supposed to bring gear (hence the term "informational meeting") but two people did bring their gear so they wanted to fence. I hadn't brought gear but one of them asked, "Are you coming?" so I wasn't going to say no! They roped me into "directing" the bout. I was basically the person who told them to "salute, don mask, en guarde, begin" and then call hits, halts, illegal hits, and blah blah blah. WELL Ciara don't understand the rules of fencing competition yet so I didn't do a very good job! But they were sweet and thanked me for "directing." I was all yeah well you're welcome! I really didn't do anything, really! What is really awesome is that there is a fencing competition at the University of South Carolina this weekend and a bunch of people from the Club are going to compete and I said I'd be really interested in tagging along just so I could watch! So I think somehow I'm going to find a ride Saturday! Yea!! I'll definitely have a good Rambling for you on Saturday if I go! Man you people thought Irish dancing was expensive! I mean I know it IS but I mean just to compete next year I'm going to need to buy like $300 of equipment! The good thing is Santelli (the fencing vendor we've been buying from) promised us another 20% discount on our order if we place another after Christmas. So I'm going to try and get one or two jobs over Christmas so I can earn money for books and fencing! Don't know where I'll work though. Wendy's maybe, the one by my house is ALWAYS hiring. Definitely swing by the mall and see who's hiring but I will NEVER work at Charlotte Russe again! I'm sure they have competent managers now and everything but nuh-uh. That ruined my life and was totally not worth it. I'd rather work shoveling horse poop twelve hours a day under a hot sun. At least horses are generally nice to you, I can't say the same thing for customers in a clothing store! Now I can't end a Rambling talking about horse poop so I shall shift topics once more!! Hm I'm actually kinda stuck here for topics. How about the weather? hahaha! Yes! The weather here in Charleston is kwazy! It's the first of November, right? Guess what the temp is going to be? Very near 80°F! Is that not insane? It'll get cooler by this weekend but still I mean that's pretty good sometimes we were lucky if we ever hit 80 in the middle of July in Ohio! Stupid annoying summers...but then it warmed up a bit but it still wasn't warm enough to swim! :( Eeek it's twenty to nine (in the morning that is!) and I have to sorta get ready! LATER---> Well back from Anthropology!! After making fun of my roomie Amy for being late for class YET AGAIN and taking some time to meditate, I am back working on my Rambling! Guess what! I did purty good on my Anthropology exam! Yea!!! Well my goal in that class was to get at least a B and so far I am holding fast to it! Can I ask you a question? IS IT NOT WEIRD to be able to have the window open in November cuz it's so hot? I'm all weirded out. So far all the weather people are saying it's going to be 79 today. I already talked about this before today. Geez I can't even remember what I already said. Hey what would a good Rambling be if I didn't ramble and confuse myself in the process!

"Yeah I know all about hotlinks, but what about coldlinks?"

October 30, 2001

I have discovered a really rocking band! They're called Amphetamine Blue and they have a really great single called "Never Die." I heard about them on www.newwelshmusic.com cuz that site is in my webring! (that's the Celtic Culture Webring if you're wondering! they're not in the OAD webring, of course hehe) Anyway my roomie is on the phone right now and so I don't have to listen to her conversation I have my headphones plugged into my laptop and am pretty much BLARING the tune in my ears! Bad for da ears but good for da brain! Yeah whatever. It's a really pretty song with great lyrics though you should go listen to it! It's not Celtic so don't be fooled by the whole New Welsh Music Dot Com thing ;) This is going to be a long Rambling seeing as I am writing this at 3:10pm before Spanish Conversation class and will probably write more when I get back and then after fencing and the meeting with Amnesty International. Yup yup. So you guys get to hear about everything going on in my life all in one day!! Tuesday is my favorite day of the week because it's when all my favorite things happen (I'm not including conversation class in that category!) Well speaking of conversation class I have to go walk to that now!! Our homework was to write a letter to Santa Claus in Spanish! How silly is that? I told "Santa" that I wanted an Irish dance school in Charleston! I think he can handle that one, don't you? HEY! Conversation class was fun! We learned a bunch of terms and our teacher drew a picture on the board (there are only five people in this class) and we had to give each other directions to different places on the map! It was cool. I have to walk down to the gym in fifteen minutes so I can run a mile or so before fencing and then FENCE! Fun! I love fencing but I am in a weird mood today I don't know I need to focus but that's becoming hard. Oh I have to go work on notecards for my conversation terms from today. I shall write more later! OK it's later. I don't know if I really wanna talk about fencing or not. I was totally not with it, so unfocused. I stank really bad. I'm not in a bad mood about it I'm just kinda. . . morose. There we go! I should have been more agressive. UGH! I always choose the attacking sports but I don't attack enough. Well they're starting open fencing on more nights besides official practice nights so hopefully some practice outside practice (isn't that an interesting phrase) will help me get my head screwed on straight. Also Amnesty International (another group I'm in!) is having petitions out by the student mail center for people to sign this Friday. So if you happen to be on the College of Charleston campus this Friday, come sign our petitions! I know we're having one about a Mexican lawyer who represented activists who was killed recently and two others about stuff I don't remember. It's been a long day I couldn't focus during anything. On a lighter note, the short story/novella that my friend Katey and I are working on (she's the lovely webmistress of Hardshoe Heaven by the way!) is coming along nicely. Creative writing always lightens my day except for when I have writer's block and want to bash in a wall. That's never good. GEEZLE PEEZLE I definitely didn't lie when I said this was going to be a long Rambling. I'll save your poor eyes now and bid you adios!

"Common sense is acquired through trial and error. Mostly through error."

October 25, 2001

OH MY GOSH! I've been waiting for a good thing to Ramble about and IT IS HERE! What is here? MY FENCING GEAR! Oh yeah I'm so excited I'm rhyming! How cheesy. It was like Christmas in fencing tonight. We got our jackets, masks, gloves, and foils (that's the type of sword I use) and they are SO awesome! We actually got to practice fencing with parters with our own gear. It rocks so much! I'm so worn out and excited that I hardly know what to Ramble about. I'm trying too hard hahaha. My foil's name is Vinnie. He's a friendly foil but cross him and he will attack! He likes to attack, lemme tell ya. That's the pommel of my foil, what it looks like at least, but its bright red rubber not green. I wish I could get together with some of the other foilists this weekend! I'M HOOKED! Like Irish dancing, fencing is totally addictive. I'm dependant now I can't escape. As if I'd want to! Now if only they'd allow bright-colored jackets with Celtic embroidery all over them instead of just the plain white they have now. . . . If only! Hey have you had any tests lately? This week is exam week (in most classes we have 2-3 midterms to break it up) and it has been total hades! I am sad to report that I got a VERY low mark on my Math exam and I don't think I passed so I was a bit disappointed on that score. I guess try harder next time? I went shopping for Peeps today - yes they have Halloween ones it's not just Easter any more folks! - and no one had any! So I settled on mini Reese's cups, some Cookies and Cream bars, and Gummy Savers. Not too shabby! It's all in the fridge right now so it doesn't melt and stuff. It's really good! I love candy it's so good but so bad for you! Isn't that the way it always is? Geez! I guess I'll go study my History now. Don't feel like bombing another exam, no way!! HEY DON'T FORGET to visit all the new sites on here! There's the Measuring for a solo dress page, the Teacher certification, and the Hardshoe steps. I'd really love some feedback on them!

Confucius Say: Confucius Say: Confucius Say: Confucius Say: Confucius Say:

October 17, 2001

First day back from Fall Break (we had Monday and Tuesday off) and what am I doing? Playing on the computer. Hey I'm not "playing" I'm "working on my website." So there! How was your weekend? Mine was OK! I mean it was the weekend what do you do? Sleep late, eat bad food, watch Cartoon Network and Sci-Fi Channel continuously for twelve hours or more. . . . need I continue? I've started re-reviewing sites on my Reviews page because I've had loads of people request it for their sites and I realize that it is in order because, if you're like me, you do loads of revamps all the time so a review is quickly out-of-date! Be patient, they're going to take a while and I need to get some new sites in there! It may seem like a lot at first but I haven't even scratched the surface of the Irish Dance sites yet. If you know any sites that should be reviewed, lemme know! I really want to get the word out on these sites. Always glad to help people get the recognition they deserve!! We put so much hard work into these sites, it's always wonderful finding out that people actually care and come see them. I bought some really cool Capri spandex workout pants last night at Wal-Mart. I hate Wal-Mart, but there really isn't anywhere else to shop for stuff like shampoo and stuff at an affordable price around here. My aunt tells me that there's going to be a Target built here soon! Hurrah! If you don't have a Target near you then you don't understand the joy I feel in hearing that. I can't wait to have an alternative to Wal-Mart that sells REAL clothes! Oh boy oh boy guess what's tomorrow night? FENCING!! We'll probably be doing drills with the advanced fencers again and then free fencing. That is so much fun. If you're intrigued by my constant blabber about fencing, visit my fencing site: oscailandoras.tripod.com/fencing/fencing.htm It's a basic overview at the moment since that's all I know (a beginner can only write from a beginner's point of view!) but I can point you in the direction of places you can fence and stuff if you're still interested once ya read that site! Maybe one day my fencing site will get as good as this site! Well however good this site is compared to many others! I always feel like there's more that I need to do but I just never know what! You know what I thought today? I guess some people would laugh at me saying this seeing as I'm not in Irish dance classes anymore, but I would really love to get my T.C.R.G. certification. I feel so fulfilled sharing things like that with people and helping them to do it well. When I was teaching my friends from school how to do some basic Irish dance moves (check out my Irish dance pics to see how it went!) I dunno it was just so great. That's one of the driving forces behind my REALLY wanting to get back into classes as soon as possible so I can get more experience. I will figure something out! Or as Mr. Darcy says in the A&E Pride and Prejudice, "I shall conquer this! I shall!"

Confucius Say: You put your right foot in you put your right foot out. . . .

October 11, 2001

OK tell the truth now: who reading this remembers the first time I posted about fencing in the ramblings? Raise those hands high! Well I'm gonna do it again....
FENCING ROCKS!
After several weeks of drilling footwork which I enjoyed immensely, they geared up we beginning foilists and, after some weapon/footwork drills, they set us loose for free fencing! I got a little worked-up and confused with some of the moves my advanced epee opponent (we were fencing foil though) was pulling on me like BINDS which I don't really have an idea how to do yet. But I was doing some good parry 4's on her extend-advances on me! Ahhh can you tell I'm excited? Am I speaking mumbo jumbo with this extend-advance and bind crud? I think I may be.....I think I should make a page on here devoted to my fencing! Hey what a good idea, Ciara! Why thank you, Ciara! I'll have to get around to that but not tonight! My arms are shaking because my muscles aren't used to this and I am totally psyched, plus I must study study study! Ai! What else has been going on? I am currently enrolled for Spring Semester at the College of Charleston. I'm taking Statistics, World History from 1500 (with my fencing teacher, Coach Piccone!), Writing Fiction, Intermediate Spanish, and Language and Culture (a linguistic anthropology class). Writing class has me so excited! They have an entire minor in that subject here and that is the ONLY reason I came to this school in the first place! Well that and they had a FENCING team and Amnesty International, but I digress! I can't wait till I take the Advanced Fiction Writing from Bret Lott. That link through his name is to a search I did on Barnes and Noble's website for him. He has published a LOT of books and he is really really good, hence my rabid excitement! I know I will improve so much when I get in his class though I am trying to improve myself mucho before then! Eeeeeeehehehehehe Have a wonderful weekend guys and gals! I am on "Fall Break" next Monday and Tuesday WHAHOO! Extra time to sleep and work on my History research paper! Did I say 'work'? No I meant shmirk!

Confucius Say: First. Salute. Don mask. En garde. Extend. Lunge. Recover. Advance en passant. Salute.

October 4, 2001

Wanna know the worst feeling in the world? Your roommate is getting ready to leave for class when you come back from class. As you're going across the hall to the bathroom you call back, "Don't shut the door!" and she replies, "I won't." You come back from the bathroom and a shut door greets you. There's no one inside. Your keys and ID are in there too and you're wearing sandals that you can hardly walk down the hall comfortably in, but now you have to walk two blocks and up a flight of stairs and down a long hall to Public Safety to get the extra key to unlock your door. If you're not in college already, take my advice: always take your keys with you. Never assume that your roommate is going to remember to leave the door open for you if you leave the room even for a minute! I'm also always spastic about whether or not someone will accidentally somehow shut the door while I'm in the bathroom. I always thought I was being obsessive-compulsive, but now I know there was a point to it all! I've been really busy working on the website for Tir na Webfeis (one of the Webfeis "dance schools") so OAD has kinda been neglected this week. Poor sitey witey! I have returned though, but I don't have anything to put on the site really so I'm feeling kinda lost. I hate not having anything to provide for my visitors! Maybe I'll get a move on with the Overview of Irish Dance that I've been promising for forever! I know I don't need to have one seeing as every other Irish Dance website has one, but I am going to try and do something fun with it. When I am finished, you shall see what fun I came up with! Mwahahaha! Yeah uh-huh whatever. That's about all the time I have for rambling today. Gotta go tend to the studies. You know, stuff so boring you'd rather manually drill a hole between your eyes with an unsharpened pencil.

Confucius Say: See Spot Fetch

September 30, 2001

Geez tomorrow is October ALREADY?! Freaky! Hey my cousin Colleen said something really funny to me today. She was blaring Riverdance on the stereo (what can I say, the girl's got taste!) and she was talking about how she'd seen Feet of Flames on TV. "Michael Flatley had all that eye-liner on!" she said. "He looked like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz! 'If I only had a heart. . . .'" That is so true! Michael Flatley is King of Ego Trips. Have I whined about the metal taps on here before? What a cheater!! This has been one heck of a week. I've begun working out at the school gym so I'm hoping that will help me build some endurance and strength for Fencing! I need it badly. So did you all have an awesome weekend? Mine was very relaxing. Spent Saturday night/Sunday at my aunt's house doing laundry and stuff. The weather here is gorgeous. My aunt got the window in our dorm open HOORAY so we have some fresh air in here for once. I was beginning to get cabin fever in here. Ahhh this is nice. I just hope some birds don't fly in here and crap on everything. I mean we're on the fourth floor, we're right by where the birds sit in the trees! Oh hey check it out they're playing "Foxy Lady" on the radio right now! If you've never seen Wayne's World, then you're missing out on one of the greatest comedies ever made! "If you're gonna spew, spew into this!" It's great. Perhaps not suitable for all ages *ahem* (I mean seeing Mike Meyers in his underwear is NOT a pretty sight! Ew) but it's so funny it'll have the milk coming out your nose for sure! Wow the sky is the prettiest color EVER. Nice purpley-blue, lavender, pink, and stuff all faded together all nice with no clouds whatsoever. The birds are all chirpin' and the trees are just black forms against the sky. Ahhhh I could stay like this forever. . . but NO the week has to start tomorrow. Wah! Well at least I have a late class on Monday mornings. That's always a good thing. I'm losing my train of thought here. Eek it's getting cold with the sun going down! Better close the window. I hate not having screens! I feel like I'm going to fall out. Yeah, OUCH! Why do I always get the munchies right about now? Shoulda taken my aunt up on her offer to take me to the grocery store. Nah I don't wanna take advantage of everyone. I mean I am always coming to their house and she keeps buying me clothes! It's like ya really don't have to do that, but I won't argue! LOL Hm what should I be doing right now? Absolutely NOTHING! hahaha nah there really is stuff I should be doing for school and stuff...I just can't get myself to do it! Ugh! I'm such a slacker. Kinda lonely too. Wish I had my friends here and stuff. We'd have a blast hanging out in my room here. I miss those crazy chicas. We had some wild times together and we shall again! Once I get home, that is. I may end up going home for Thanksgiving since my aunt and her family are going to her husband's parent's house in Florida, so hopefully I can persuade my dad to buy me a plane ticket! Otherwise I will be sitting on my arse in my dorm in Charleston and that would be poopy. This has been way too much to read. When you're done with this, I suggest you get hold of a copy of Frank Herbert's DUNE. I have been so into those books since I was like in 7th grade. The first one is the best, but some people like the others in the series. I only like up to the fourth, and even that was a struggle to get through.

Confucius Say: I like to watch cartoons

September 24, 2001

Just another stinky Monday night **harmonica playing in the background** Why does Saturday only come once a week? Why does Monday have to be so painful? Why is Tuesday really Post-Monday? Why does Wednesday drag on forever and ever? Why does Friday never last as long as it should? Why is Saturday so far away? (this could go on all night) OK harmonica SHUT UP! Geez! I had a little bit of fun with the guestbook tonight changing all the questions, and adding a Question of the Week! Now I won't tell you what this week's QOTW (abbreviated form! Got sick of writing "question of the week" as you can imagine) is from, but if you can tell me then I will do something special for you...like mention you in a Rambling or something of that sort! Yeah that's just punishment--I mean, PAYMENT! Payment. Reward. Uh-huh. Man I have to go to bed soon! Gotta get up at 7:30. WHY DO MORNINGS HAVE TO BE SUCH A PAIN IN THE BEHIND?!!! I love Anthropology (that's my first class of the day) but why oh why does it have to be at 9:30? Ugh! There's so much more I want to do with the site right now but I have wasted so much time on this stupid computer today anyway so I'd probably better get off and start getting some sleep! Or reading or something productive. You know maybe I'm just Miss Cranky Pants tonight but I hate listening to other people eat. It's so nasty! It's like if ya chew with your mouth open any wider your food will fall all over your plate! I hate when people smack their lips when they're eating too. It's like "ew no one wants to hear that!" YA CAN DO WHATEVER IT IS YOU DO WHEN YOU SMACK YOUR LIPS WITH YOUR MOUTH SHUT! CLOSED! CIERTO! Ai! I am Little Miss Cranky Pants, aren't I? Sorry dudes, just came out there! I s'pose I should be off, as I was saying earlier! Don't forget to sign the guestbook because it's a lot cooler than it was before! OK maybe not that much cooler but I'm excited! And that's all that matters. :p-------

Confucius Say: FLOBALDEEFLEE!!!

September 21, 2001

Friday night seems to be the "bust my butt doing my site" night! Been working on this thing for like three or four hours non-stop! Do I have an addiction or what? Ai! I'm actually beginning to be happy with the site for once. There's actually some CONTENT! That hasn't happened for a while. Since I had the buckles page I thought I'd add the elastics page. There is one other site that has an elastics how-to called Reel Around the World but I got confused by it and only figured it out because I had done it before. I dunno you may have more intelligence than me! I don't have any graphics on the elastics page because a)I haven't drawn any and b)even if I did, I don't have a scanner here to scan them with! I hope to get some up soon somehow. If you have questions lemme know in the meantime, I know I can get wordy and confusing sometimes! I want to make a fencing website now but, seeing as I know NOTHING about the sport so far, I don't know what I'd make on it! I DID make some cute stick figure fencing dudes though! They're adorable. Hang on lemme get one up here.

This little dude is doing an En Garde, Lunge, Retreat Back. Sorta like Irish dancing how you mix the steps and how they all have the same names but you get to change them all at a whim. It's not choreagraphed, which is kinda scary for me seeing as I am usually not the best spur-of-the-moment person! But I am trying to get better. I might be competing in a few months' time, actually! Or so the Advanced Fencers and their coach tells us! HAHAHA! Maybe someday I will be really good. Hm perhaps I should discard the passive attitude and say, "gosh darnit I am going to work my butt off to become a really good fencer!" Hm I like that better! OK I'm going for that one! Uh oh my friend Katie got her first tattoo this week. I want to get one but of course I have no money to get one. Plus I dunno I don't know where I'd put one where I could stand it. I'm still thinking about it! Maybe I'll get something in Gaelic...MAYBE I'll get a foil with something Gaelic underneath it or soemthing! Designing tattoos is fun but I'm not an artist so I can never quite get my ideas down right. I'm a WRITER, albeit not a very good one. I try really hard to be good but I think I try TOO hard and just puke at the sight of stuff I wrote that I liked at the time. I know I have some kind of talent in me somewhere I just don't know how to successfully get it out of me!! Pain in the butt, huh? Hey sorry if your site is listed in my guestbook and I haven't listed it on the Reviews yet. I have another list written down at home of the earliest entries but alas! it did not make it here. So never fear you shall make it up there someday! Do you like the cartoon Time Squad? That is so classic! Tonight it was Edgar Allen Poe. He was really happy and stuff and nothing could depress him except when the Time Squad guys didn't like his cake. That made him go psycho! Now I must admit I couldn't really laugh TOO hard at the Poe depression thing because if you've ever learned about his life you know that it really did stink and he had good reason to be depressed. We learned about him a lot in high school sophomore English class and I don't remember the facts now but I do remember the impact they had on me. I feel sincere pain for the guy, I mean imagine what he must have felt like. Ouch! I'd have been writing The Fall of the House of Usher too! That's a very disturbing story, by the way! I am one of those people with a morbid fear of being buried alive, so the story really freaked me out big time! OH MY GOODNESS! I FORGOT YOU TELL YOU! Today around lunch someone knocks on our dorm room's door. Now no one ever knocks on our door cuz we don't know anyone, so Amy (my roomie) goes to answer it. This dude in a red polo shirt and black hat comes bustling in like, "We've come to spray for bugs." So he comes in and sprays around the air conditioner and under our desks and stuff and then is gone as soon as he came. We were like WHAT?!!! It just happened so fast. It was weird. It's good though I hope we don't have any more bug problems! Bugs are icky.

Confucius Say: Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elder berries

September 18, 2001

It seems longer since I wrote the last Rambling and boy am I sore! I did a bunch of dances for an hour on Monday (I remembered a treble jig I learned once, so now I have another dance to practice! Yea me!) and I also did double jig for 30 minutes today along with FENCING! Yes I had my first fencing lesson today (actually my third in my life but first one for my school's fencing team!) I need to work on my footwork AS USUAL! It's like in dance. My footwork stinks! I can never tell if my feet are lined up the way they're supposed to be. I guess the key word here is practice, right? I'm actually getting the gist that that is an important thing in life. It's only taken me eighteen years to realize it! Hey I'm nineteen in February! That's scary as all get-out!!! Turning eighteen was bad enough. . . . I have a math test tomorrow and I can't tell if I am ready or not! I can't study for math it just doesn't work that way. I am so tired. I shouldn't be working on my website I should be STUDYING or SLEEPING! I went to bed at 1am last night and got up at 7:30am. Yeah not running on any kind of practical schedule here. I want to be exhausted all the time! haha yeah right. Wow my shoulders and arms are really sore from fencing. Guess that's what happens when you hold your arms up in the air for 1.5 hours! I don't think I really have time to write anything more tonight. I hope you guys are having an AWESOME week! Send me an e-mail sometime! Things have been very bare in that department lately. Snail mail too. I send out bundles of letters every week and people are like not writing back! I guess I am just impatient. BUT I WANT IT NOW! hahahaha Don't you hate ending the day with, "I know I should have done that but I didn't. . . ." ? I'm in that boat right now. I have to finish this term paper with these books for History so I can start working on my research paper. That is so annoying. I live right by the library and I haven't been there to work on my research paper yet. Am I a dork or what?! Survey results are in: Ciara is a DORK.

Confucius Say: Le'go my Eggo!

September 16, 2001

It's hard to sit on the floor with your laptop and play around on the Internet. I wish I had a longer phone cord! Alas! OK Ciara they're sick of hearing you whine. Yeah that makes sense OK I'll move on. Did I tell you that I'm the supervisor of one of the Webfeis schools? Yes that means absolutely NOTHING and doesn't increase my standing in the world one BIT but that excites me. I dunno it's fun! hehe It is of course Tir na Webfeis, the one I have a dancer in. Lucky I'm schizophrenic (not REALLY, I'm not a psycho guys don't be afraid of me!) or else I'd never be able to juggle these multiple personalities. The site for the school is tirnawf.tripod.com If you join Webfeis, please join my school! It's loads of fun!! My favorite song on all the Riverdance soundtracks is Countess Cathleen/Women of Ireland because I love listening to Jean Butler's taps at the end. She rocks! Speaking of! I don't know if any of you like Dancing on Dangerous Ground, but my friend Joanna found a place where you can download the entire soundtrack in MP3's! It rocks! Let me find the address for you. http://www.colindunne.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000530.html The files are HUGE and they take forever to download, but they're fun to listen to! Most of the songs have the recorded taps on them so it's really fun to listen to. Did I mention they're fun to listen to? I am a broken record today! I miss my tin whistles. Hopefully those will be sent to me sometime soon. I'm starting to forget all my airs and jigs that I spent so much time learning in March. Plus I just miss looking at the big pile of tin whistles on my dresser! It's funny, I have nearing twenty of the things now and I want more!! Someday I want to have one of every single kind of tin whistle ever manufactured. Yeah I'll need loads of money for THAT! I hate and love being part of a capitalistic society all at the same time. Boy am I confused! I also miss my Riverdance video because it has Oscail an Doras on it. Why don't any of the CDs have OAD on them? Oh well I'm supposed to have that sent to me to...except my roommate's VCR is a piece of CRAP! The door doesn't work right and the tape gets stuck all the time...it's scary I almost lost my copy of The Mission the other day! I love that movie to pieces! I was about to have a breakdown. OK maybe not quite that bad! I would have cried though. That is such a good movie! Ugh I do NOT want to go to the cafeteria for dinner tonight. Last night I had some "chicken enchiladas." Someone tell me the last time enchiladas had a funky pink sauce on them? WHEN?!!! Never!!!! Ugh. I shiver at the memory. But I had a bowl of Cocoa-Krispies with it so I wasn't totally hungry afterward. I am so bored guys! I got a speech from my aunt and uncle last night about how I should "try harder to make friends." My uncle is all like well I didn't try very hard to make friends the first year and I feel like I missed out. What they don't understand is that I don't feel like I am missing out on anything! I was like this in high school and yes it is a pain in the butt and you get lonely and stressed out because you have no one to talk to but you get through it. I have friends who've been through college already and they're like me and they didn't really have any friends the first year either and didn't make any until their third or fourth semesters. The thought may make you say, "no frickin' way!" but I mean I am just not a socialite. If I don't know you then it's hard for me to talk to you because I don't know what to talk about! I'm a yakker with my buds because we don't feel the need to talk about anything really, we just blab about NOTHING and that's what's so fun about it. But there's no expectation to reach some standard like there is in the socialite/partier circle. I hate that. I always have something else to turn to, like cartoons! haha just kidding. I always know I at least have friends back home and all my 'Net friends who are there for me, so if I don't have people to hang out with here then whatever. Later in life I will laugh at me being lonely right now.

Confucius Say: Beans beans the magical fruit. . . .

September 13, 2001

Wow guys I won't even begin to say how shocked I am about Tuesday. I know we all are. It's hard to even imagine that we're at this point right now. Can you imagine us at WAR? Sure during our lifetimes we've had Desert Storm (I remember that dimly, though I was only 8 at the time and could hardly comprehend it) and Bosnia where the United States was involved but what do these - and the two World Wars - all have in common? None of them took place on American soil. Have you ever gone to bed at night hoping that war never takes place in your country? I have. In History classes of the past, I have counted myself lucky never to have had to live through a war where soldiers ransacked my neighborhood or where we had to take shelter during bombing raids. Can you imagine? I'm not saying freak out there's going to be war here, but with Bush and the rest of his top officials crying "revenge! retaliation! WAR!" you have to raise and eyebrow or two and THINK: could war happen today? tomorrow? We didn't know Tuesday was coming, how do we know what Friday, Saturday, or Sunday will bring? I will try not to be too Apocolyptic here, I am just so disappointed with Bush and the entire WORLD at this moment in time. Could he not think before he cried that Tuesday was an "act of war" and ushered in the "first war of the 21st Century"???! Do those words not send ice water up and down your spine? They do to mine. Can you imagine being a world leader at this moment in time? I never want that kind of responsibility. All we can do is hope that our country is in good hands. I, ever the Optimist, ask: could some good possibly come out of this whole thing? I am not ignoring all the bad and pain caused by this - it's easy for me because I was not directly affected by all this - and I hope peace comes to the families affected by this event and that peace eventually comes to the world, in whatever degree or form it may take.

Confucius Say: It a sad time to be American

September 5, 2001

Enough rambling about cockroaches......ew yucky! Well I just ate some snackwells devil's food cookies (my last two! wah!) and let me tell you after the food I have been eating here, they're HEAVENLY! Yum yum yum yum yum. Did ya'll hear (that "ya'll" was semi-deliberate...only semi? I am frightened) that Ashe was mentioned in Irish Dancing magazine? WebFeis is international news now!! That is so awesome. You have to email her to congratulate her. Don't we all secretly dream of getting widespread recognition for our websites, which we have poured so much love and effort into? Of course!! I'm jealous! LOL Nah not really, she seriously deserves it I mean I must admit to getting caught up in the whole webfeis thing myself (it's so fun! I love roleplaying!) What was I saying again? Oh yeah I forgot NOTHING that's the whole point of this page hahaha! I am dying to find a dance school down here. I may whip out the ol' Colin Dunne here in a bit (my last resort!) I really want the Olive Hurley videos but they're so expensive! :( Well for a penniless college student they are! :) My aunt is hiring me to help her with her filing (she and her husband have their own carpet-laying business). So that'll be good!:) Maybe I can buy the videos eventually!!! Not maybe, I WILL! I went to this study skills seminar tonight. Not of my own free will, we had to for this stupid freshman seminar class I am taking (and dropping this week hopefully!) But because I am dropping the freshman seminar (which is supposed to teach you good study habits, etc. but doesn't!) I am going to go to the study skills seminars (they have different subjects every week) so I can improve that way. It's better this way anyway. I get to be in the same room I have for anthropology! I love that class. It's a large classroom (you know the ones with the tiered seating that'll fit like a hundred people or so) but there are only like forty or less of us in that class so not too bad. I think I need a nap. I have a low Iron thing going on right now and I don't take vitamins so when the Iron count gets down, I am dragging like no other! I'm a slug. Call me Mr. Slug (except I am not a man.....so just how about Slug.) I, Slug, shall bid you goodnight!

Confucius Say: Play that funky music till you die

September 3, 2001

I killed a cockroach in my room two nights ago and I haven't seen Earl since so I must assume the best...I mean, the worst! I made him this nice picture, didn't I? I mean the dude left his guts all over my good running shoes and I had to scrape him off the floor myself. I'm sorry if you're like a Buddhist or something but I mean I just can't take a bug that's several inches long and twitching at me in my room. Uh-uh!! I still check when I'm on the back stairs of my dorm in case he turns up. My Uncle Jack told me that these critters can dive bomb you. DIVE BOMB? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I was also told you can kill them by flinging rubberbands at them (tidbit from Uncle Jack and my cousin Colleen). They said you have to twist them when they're on your finger and then fwing! (that's my "rubberband flying through the air" sound. fwing!) Colleen said that they shot the head off of one with a rubberband once! Isn't that too funny? Jack asked me if I needed rubberbands last night when they all came to visit me. hahaha Last night we had a millipede in here and it was VERY small and harmless but I mean I didn't want to get stung or anything (nasty little critters). My roommate's all freakin' out about it last night. I turned from my computer, looked at it, and was all like "oh geez" and walked over and SQUISH! More bug guts on my running shoes. I wiped it up with a paper towel and into the trash he went! I'm not sure why I always assume that they're male insects. How DO you tell the sex of a bug? Ask a bug expert, personally I'm not into bugs. Yuck! I just kill them. I should start a bug extermination company. OAD Bug Killer Unltd, Inc. HAHAHA! I think I will actually start a page of that just as a joke. Hm maybe not. Would you like to know the current bug-kill count for OAD Bug Killer Unltd, Inc?

Current stats are:
Cockroach: 2
Spider: 2
Millipede: 1
(updates pending)

Hey check it out everybody: my WebFeis dancer placed second in the August Feis! hahahahha How funny. My entry was so stupid too. You'll have to go over to the results page to read it because I won't waste the time putting it up here! A lot of Irish dancers on the web are involved in WebFeis now. I am a late-comer, seeing as two feiseanna had already occurred before I even joined, but it's a blast!! Totally pointless but very fun. And this Rambling is the epitome of what a Rambling is: total rambling. All rambling, all the time.

Confucius Say: Why you even read this page anyway?

August 30, 2001

It's been ten days since I last wrote a Rambling? Eegad! I'm slacking. Let me show you a beautiful picture I have drawn in PSP, and then I shall tell you the story behind it:

His other three legs are covered by his wings, by the way! I wouldn't give the guy only three legs, poor thing! Do you think I am cruel? Oh right, I was supposed to be telling you a story!! There are two sets of stairs in my dorm: the main ones across from the elevator and the back stairs, a room away from my room. I usually take the back stairs when going to and from class because it is right by my room and because no one else takes it and I don't have to dodge anyone! Anyway, yesterday morning on my way to History, I saw this THING scuttle across the floor out of the corner of my eye. Turned my head and saw a COCKROACH disappear under the stairs! I bolted so fast...anyway when I came back for lunch, no bug. Coming back down on the way to Math, the sucker was in the middle of the floor! When I came by he started flapping his wings like, "yeah I can take you come on gimme what you got!" I nearly ran straight into the door in my haste to get outta there! In hindsight, it was humorous but I hate the devils. Last summer at the beach house my family rented like twenty minutes from where I am living now (on Folly Beach) this cockroach flew outta NOWHERE and landed on my aunt's face as she slept on the couch (lemme tell ya I have never heard anyone scream louder than she did!! haha If you want to see my Aunt Jennifer, visit my Pix page and scroll to the "wedding dance" photos.....she's the one who got married!) ANYWAY back to the cockroach I saw. There was a dead one in my room the other day that my roommate found and it twitched on its back for DAYS (we finally threw it away) and I joked that "if it had stayed on the floor any longer, we'd have had to make it our room Mascot and I'd have named it Earl." Well he is trash can fodder so there is no more Earl...until I saw the roachie on the back stairs! The portrait I did above is big ol' Earl threatening me on the back stairs. As long as he doesn't come out of nowhere and attack me, we can stay friends. I still scuttle up the backstairs quickly when I come through the ground floor door, however! (I'd rather brave a cockroach than a set of crowded stairs, any day!) OH MY GOODNESS ok dormitory laundry rooms STINK! I put my clothes through the washing machine (one load of colors, one of whites) which was a DOLLAR each wash and then I put all my clothes through the dryer on the highest setting possible (twenty-five cents per dry) and what do you know? NONE OF IT WAS IN THE LEAST BIT DRY! So it is going through again. What is up with this crud? Can they not replace the washers and dryers every ten years or so? I mean geez this school has been around since like 1770 (though the laundries aren't that old! haha yeah right I can see the founding fathers trying to figure out the washing machines in this dorm. "Hey Thom, which setting should I put my colors on so they don't bleed?" "I dunno, George. Say, what does 'permanent press' on the dryer mean?" Then Bennie Franklin shouts in the background, "Why won't this machine START?! Didn't this thing read my Autobiography?") I have to get my butt back downstairs so I can rescue my probably still-damp clothing before it gets tossed on the table with all the other clothes that remains unclaimed for hours!!!

Earl Says: Scuttle Scuttle Scuttle

August 20, 2001

Check it out all my dudes: I am now officially a college student! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaahoooooooooooooo! So far it's been pretty boring. I moved in Saturday morning and since then have done nothing. Absolutely frickin' nothing. I went to the library this morning and studied French for about 2 hours, then tried to buy my history book which STILL hasn't come in (and I think they gave me the wrong Spanish books! Argh!) Now I am just chillin' like a villain in my room. My roomie is out with her friend which is OK cuz I am a loner anyway ;) I found out today that the fencing club starts next week sometime! I am so excited. I can't wait to become something of a real fencer instead of a little "poser". hehehe I do a few stepdancing routines in front of the HUGE mirror on the back of our door here...it's like mini dance studio!! Anyway I think they can hear me down below when I do it through the floor, so I try not to do it too much! Right now I am eating chocolate covered raisins and a can of Coke. I just had a friend back home (she's on AIM) joke "already starting the healthy college eating life huh?" So true! I was trying hard to fall asleep last night and resorted to practicing my treble jig under the covers! Then I stopped because I figured my roommate was like "what the......!" ;) My first day of classes is tomorrow. I am so excited, apprehensive, and everything else all at once!! I just hope I don't freak out or anything.

Confucius Say: Time With Friends Passes Too Quickly

July 15, 2001

Well everyone, one of my hugest dreams has come true: right now I am sitting at a computer in SCOTLAND! That's right folks, I'm in the UK and lovin' it! I've already been to England and to Haworth in Yorkshire and also into Lincolnshire but now I am back in Fife, Scotland (in Dunfermline) where Andrew Carnegie was born and where King Robert the Bruce is buried. I'll have some pictures on here for you soon and even more after that...but this has been one heck of a trip! hehehe Excuse the short Rambling, but I'm not feeling too well in the health area today so, to prevent my losing breakfast on the keyboard, I'm going to have a lie-down for a bit. Thanks to everyone who's signed the guestbook lately! You're angels!

Confucius Say: It Hard To Find The Left Foot Sock

May 24, 2001

I am SO out of high school for GOOD! The next time I am going to school is for graduation practice and the next time after that is GRADUATION! I can hardly believe I'm graduating. Three years of hard work (and one year slacking off! that would be Senior year, btw!) have finally paid off and I am on my way to college in August! I am so nervous. I'm going to be a freshman on a college - albeit a small one - campus! The first year is always so scary. I can remember my first year of high school. Those were some shaky times!!! But I made some friends then that I'm going to have for the rest of my life, so I hope the same goes for college! I talked to somebody from the College of Charleston (www.cofc.edu), which is my school, today and it looks like I'm joining the fencing team when I get down there! You know, people with funny masks that make them look like bugs and bendy little swords! I'm so excited. And nervous. And excited. (!!!!!!!!!!!) You know this page of Ramblings? Well I have a whole SITE now that is nothing but ramblings! Scared yet? http://www.xanga.com/santiago is the address. I stick a bunch of my poetry on there, so please check it out and leave me messages to tell me if you like it! Some of my friends from school are on there. CollinWetzel, mattel_inhell, and GreatBast669 are my buds from school. Well, Collin is my brother's friend so he isn't like someone I hung out with or anything but he left a message on my site and called me hot (now whether he meant it or not.....) so I must give the kid brownie points in my little notebook! hehehe There's a picture of me from Prom this year on there too (I have to get those scanned onto this site sometime soon!) so you can see part of the cool Victorian dress I wore.

Have you ever had a friend who you thought was your best friend - your soul friend - and you were meant to be together from before the time the Universe was created, only to have that person ruin your life to the point where you nearly killed yourself because you couldn't live with being double-crossed that badly? That description totally fits a girl I was best friends with for 2.5 years in high school. She screwed me over a couple of times - big time at Prom by bringing my Ex with her and not even giving me any kind of hint - and now we are not on speaking terms at ALL, though it's her fault and I no longer feel the loss. I spent yesterday afternoon burning pictures I still had of her. Did you know that pictures smell really bad when you burn them? ;-) I think I'll stick with ripping them up and throwing them in the garbage. Actually the one picture of hers that I burned (her senior portrait) I burned, tore up, then flushed down the toilet. Talk about closure on a relationship! You people who don't know me in real life, which is a lot of you!, must understand that I am usually not like that but this girl was supposed to be my best friend and she hurt me in so many ways that a best friend should never EVER do. She's ruined my trust factor in everyone and I don't know how I am ever going to overcome that, but I'm sure someday somebody will be so good to me and prove to me that some people are indeed worthy of trusting. As it is, I'm still uncertain as to whether that kind of person actually exists.

Confucius Say: Wet underwear not fun

April 16, 2001

Must...think...of something...original...to ramble...about. So I've been off school since last Thursday and I have to go back to school tomorrow. That's right, my poor excuse for a Spring Break is three days long. I am getting quite restless to tell the truth so maybe it's better that I go back. Wait, so that my teachers can torment me not only at home but in person? Screw that! I work till 10:30PM tomorrow night, so if I have any homework they can just poop on the sidewalk for all I care. As usual, I haven't danced in about two weeks. Call me a lazy bum but I just can't get myself to do it! Have you heard about the riots in Ol' Cincinnati? What a load of crap! I am not even going to start talking about my opinions on the subject lest I get hate emails and bombs thrown at my house or something...but I think there is always a better route than violence over ANYTHING. Fighting and violence only make innocent people suffer, as the shop vandalization downtown and the need for the curfew all weekend have demonstrated. If you want people to be sympathetic to your cause, do things in a peaceful manner and people will respect you. With violence, you only turn possible supporters against you and make them loathe your cause completely. There was one "peaceful" demonstration after the riots into which the police fired beanbags and the people were complaining about it cuz it was peaceful. EXCUSE ME but the police had a RIGHT to be extremely cautious after the crap the people were pulling down at Police Headquarters, I'm sorry!!! I am so sick of this, really I am. The fact that a curfew was needed to stop this crud just shows how bad it was getting and how people need to reevaluate what their thought processes are.

I've been doing a lot of Celtic reading lately. What have I learned? Well actually I haven't done all that much reading. I have been reading a book called Bard by Morgan Llywelyn. She's a MASTER! You have to read anything by her, especially the book Druids. She's my hero as far as Historical Fiction goes! And speaking of writing...we have stories due tomorrow in Writing class. I get to read mine last of all cuz it is probably the longest but I am so excited to read it! I spent 3.5 weeks non-stop working on this story! I need to share it with someone! Well one person has read it and he helped me edit some conspicuous parts (thanks Jon!) but I need to read it OUTLOUD. That's so fun.

Confucious Say: A Penny Saved Is One More Penny To Deal With

April 7/ 8, 2001

Everyone is so frickin' nitpicky lately!! Geezle weasel already! So it's 2:18AM here right? Is it Saturday or Sunday? I say it's Saturday night but my computer clock is telling me it's Sunday. So as a result, this Rambling is dated the 7/8 because it's not quite clear just WHAT day it is (I mean if I were in Scotland right now it'd be 7AM which would definitely mean it's Sunday but that doesn't mean SQUAT seeing as I'm in Cincinnati, Ohio!)

I have been informed via a message in my guestbook that my site is faithfully-viewed but getting stale! So I have suspected for some time. The thing is....I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO ADD TO SPICE THINGS UP! Suggestions anyone??

I have just started a new job. It's insane I swear I will just DIE soon but it's fun so I can't do that. www.charlotte-russe.com is the site for the company. Man, if you don't have a Charlotte Russe clothing store near you I pity you greatly! They rock. The clothes is fashionable and cheap at the same time. Plus they're all running huge sales right now (I know I've had to suffer through them all this week! Ugh! Sales are good if you're buying stuff but NOT if you're ringing them up!) So buy up, girls! ;-) Sad to relate that I haven't danced since Monday night. Work has kept me busy busy busy! I think I am going Prom dress shopping tomorrow. That ought to be fun!! Just as long as I can get my chica Christina out of bed before 1:00 because I have to go in to work at 3pm and we need time to try stuff on!!! Today (or yesterday, depends on what your view of the day is though it isn't even DAYTIME right now!) I worked for 5 hours and then ran down to my school to help with this big fundraiser. It was like auctions and dinner and you have to be 21+ to attend but they have student volunteers working a lot of the stuff. I helped people find their tables for a while then I worked with these cool sophomore guys "bid-running" (I like to think of it like Blade Runner, only I am the Bid Runner. Yeah, whatever I say it's 2:30AM and logic has been suspended!) They had a live auction and, when someone won, one of us had to get this piece of paper and run around like MAD trying to find them and then get them to sign it. The ends of my toes were WHITE by 11pm that night!! (I'd had knee-high boots and socks on for 12 hours!) It was fun though I was scared initially because I didn't think I could do it. Oh yeah and all of us had to wear these cheap-arse gold vests whose threads were coming out all over the place. Very tacky. I felt so stupid and I know I looked stupid limping around all over the place cuz my feet hurt LOL

Confucious Say: Never Eat Yellow Snow

March 24, 2001

Welcome to the third page of ramblings! Visit the SECOND PAGE here and the ORIGINAL PAGE here.

So how is everybody doin'? I am so tired. I was at Sharon Woods all day cleaning an old house from the early 19th Century. Whew that was a task! If you go to www.thinkhistory.org and go to the "Heritage Village" part of the site and click on "Vorhes House" it will have a picture of the place I helped clean. I have never been this exhausted in my life! But it was so worth it. If you ever get a chance to do behind-the-scenes work at a museum like that DO IT! You will not regret it. The best place of working at a museum is that you get to see all the stuff that the regular people who pay to come through don't ever get to see! Isn't that fun? Of course it is! Do you like the picture of my shoes on here? It used to be on the front but I made a new graphic of me dancing in hardshoe and socks to stick at the top of the main page. Ughers! Don't ask, I just decided to make up a new word. I AM SO HAPPY TO BE DANCING AGAIN!! I'm kinda kicked out of my dancing spot tonight though. You see, my brother and I share the basement for practice. He is in a heavy metal band and I dance. When they are practicing, I keep clear. Sometimes when he's practicing alone I dance but not when they are all there! They're doing Godsmack right now. Aiyiyi! That's a good group though. My favorite song is on the new album called "Spiral". It's all about reincarnation and stuff. Oh yeah. Go see my pictures in La Galeria. Um...when it's cold outside you should wear a coat or at least a warm, long-sleeved shirt. Uh-huh.