I don't mean to be the girl who cried harrassment....

I don't mean to complain unnecessarily...but there's this guy at work who is seriously creeping me out. There is definitely a line between being complimentary and being just plain weird, and somewhere I think he has definitely crossed the line. First of all, every time I come in to work he greets me with something like, "Hello, Beautiful," or "Good morning, Gorgeous." I think he says this to all girls, but it's still just kinda weird. Next, he always comes up with something to say about my appearance. Here are a few of the most recent (in order of ascending creepiness):

"Your teeth are beautiful. You have a beautiful smile."
"Your eyes are your best feature - lift up your hat so I can see them better?"
"Your eyes are so beautiful, they almost look like Persian eyes." *weird look from me* "I said PERSIAN, not virgin. Don't think I said virgin. I don't think you have virgin eyes. Unless you want to, because I guess some girls like to be seen that way..."
"You're so skinny." *touches my stomach*
"I like those pockets on your jeans." *puts face and hands very uncomfortably close to my butt* "They're really hot."

After saying some weird comment, I attempt to engage in normal conversation (this never works). Here are snippets of a few of our recent conversations:

Him: Do you like toddlers?
Me: Yes
Him: Aww...even when they run around naked?
Me: Sure
Him: Well, you'll be a good mom.
Me: Thanks.
Him: When I was a baby, I ran around in my diaper and suspenders. I was probably really cute, wasn't I?
Me: Probably.
Him: I'll be a good dad, because I'll hold my toddlers. I like them, except when they're little s***s.
Me: Okay, cool.



Me: Do you wanna put this dish over there?
Him: Do you have a boyfriend?
Me: Yes, I do.
Him: What's his name?
Me: Rex
Him: Where's he from?
Me: Kalamazoo
Him: Is he nice to you?
Me: Yes, he's very nice.
Him: Is he black or white?
Me: White
Him: Oh. I wish I was your boyfriend.
Me: Um...
Him: You're just the kind of girl I'm looking for.
Me. Thanks...

And one time I licked my lips because they were chapped and he was all, "Oh, do that again..." Um...WEIRD. And sometimes he asks me really awkward questions like, "You're so strong - are you superhuman?" or "Do you think I'm delicious?" I almost replied to this one with "No idea - I've never tasted you," but then realized that this leads to too many other questions, such as "Well do you want to?" So yeah, it's just weird. And I mean, it's flattering to some extent, but it's mostly just creepy. To his credit I'm pretty sure something is a little mentally off there...but that excuse can only go too far. Generally the way my shift goes is that I work where I'm supposed to until he creeps me out too much, and then I go hide in some other area until his shift is over.

Is it any wonder that I want to quit?

And now I know why it's called March MADNESS

YAY for MSU being in the Final Four - I am proud to be a Spartan.  I am so proud of being a Spartan that I figured it might be worth the money to go support them in Detroit this weekend.

I was wrong.

In order for me to go support my team, I need to have the income of someone who's been out of college for a long time - not the income of some broke college student.  There are tickets selling anywhere from $300 to $5,000 - tickets to a SINGLE basketball game!  Who spends $5,000 on two-ish hours of their life??  That's a down payment on a house!  A semester's tuition!  A trip around the world!  And they're going to spend it on a BASKETBALL game?? You could feed an entire third world country dinner for that amount!  Our society really is full of madness at this time of year.  People's brains get replaced with basketballs and all they know is "Must....watch....game....!!!!"  My season tickets for football were $146, and I was concerned about spending that much money on sports.  But twice that for a single game?  No thank you.  It's not as if people who don't go to the game don't get to see the outcome.  I can trot right down to my local sports bar and watch the whole thing on a big screen.  I will be able to see the sweat on the player's heads, unlike people at the game who are watching tiny dots run around on a far away court.  At the end of the game, my pockets will still be full, and likely my tummy will be full too with reasonably priced chicken wings - YUM.  I bet at Ford Field a cup of soda is $10 - don't even THINK about buying any food.  Yeah...BW3 is looking like a good option.

So to our basketball boys:  I love you, but not that much.  Good job so far and good luck this weekend, but I will be cheering for you back in East Lansing unless I win the lottery between now and Saturday.

Talents

So I've been thinking - isn't everyone supposed to be good at something?  What is my talent?  I look at my friends: 

1. Carly - Carly is an amazing writer.  She'll publish some quality stuff some day, or the world is just messed up.  Her e-mails make me laugh more than anyone else's.  Even if she's just saying "hi" in one line, somehow she makes it entertaining.

2. Codi - Codi's a genius.  She actually LIKES organic chemistry.  I feel that this in itself is a talent.  Anyone who likes orgo is something special.  Codi's going to solve global warming some day, I just know it. I would vote for her for president even though she's a democrat.

3. Beth - Beth is out to win the world over for Christ.  She's been just about everywhere doing it, and she's good at it, too.  She's been to what, 3 or 4 continents in the past few years?  And she's such a light for Christ - that's awesome.  She leaves for Italy in two months.  YAY for her.

4. Rex - Rex is good at making friends.  Example: We both work in the cafeteria, and he knows EVERYONE, and I know no one.  Today he came to the section I work in, goes up to the guy I am working with, and is like, "Good luck on your exam today, man."  I had no idea this guy had an exam today.  I don't even know his name!  He (Rex) is also friends with the janitor who cleans his floor - he's this old divorced hippie guy, and Rex is all, "Eric's so cool - we're gonna work out together."  WHAT?  Oh, and I swear it seems like he knows every girl on campus.  Every time we go out some girl comes up and is like, "Oh my gosh REX! It is so good to SEE you!" (in that annoying girly high-pitched tone).  So anyway, Rex is friends with everyone he comes in contact with.  That is an awesome talent.

5. Josh - Josh knows everything about computers.  If there's ever a computer problem I have ever had, Josh is like, "Oh, well clearly *lotsofcomputertermsIdon'tunderstand*, and you need to *lotsofcomputertermsIdon'tunderstand,* and then he fixes it for me.  Presto!  Oh, and he built his own computer, which is fully functional and he uses it on a daily basis.  This is very cool.

6. Betsy - Betsy is good at photography.  I'm not even sure if she knows this since she's not really doing anything with it professionally (I don't think), but she totally has an eye for it.  I look at some of the pictures she's taken and I'm like, "Whoa...how did she do that?" (Example for those of you who know her: the profile pic with the white background and the half a face thing? AWESOME). She's good at art in general, and writing too, but she's so smart in other areas I think she just can't decide which she likes best.  I personally really like her photos, though.

6. My dad - I don't know if this counts as a friend since he's my dad, but I'm counting him.  My dad is good at getting weird jobs.  We are in this awful economy, yet my dad's options are overflowing and he is turning jobs down.  He does the weirdest things, too.  My dad has been (in no particular order): A model, a salesman, a superhero (I'm not kidding), a roofer, a businessman, a TV actor, a TV cameraman, a computer consultant, a coach, and a teacher.  WHAT? Who DOES all of this stuff?  I applied for about 35 jobs before I found one on campus.  My dad can't decide which jobs sound like the most fun for him to pick.  Umm...okay.

So anyway, the list of friends with talents goes on and on, but it brings the question: what am I good at?  The only thing I know of that I am especially good at is training my pet rat. (Right now she's learning to jump through a hoop, and she's doing really well!).  There are two problems with this talent.  #1 - It will never be useful in life. Ever.  #2 - No one but me thinks this is cool.  Well, maybe Cindy thinks it's cool because she gets to hang out with me and eat treats when she does her tricks right, but I don't think she quite counts.  So what am I doing with my life?  I feel like everyone has a talent that they can use for God's glory, but it seems that I don't have anything to offer.  I mean, if God has a use for a rat trainer in His kingdom, sign me up.  I just don't feel that He needs one, though.  I'm twenty years old; it's too late in life for any natural talents to magically spring up.  I'm never going to win the olympics.  I'm never going to be Yo-yo Ma.  I'm not going to be the next J.K. Rowling or even the next Meg Cabot.  So what am I useful for?  This isn't meant to be all emo, but honestly introspective.  If God put me here, then I must be good for something.

So what is it?

To Do

I put "write in my blog" on my to-do list, so I am writing in it pretty much so I can cross it off of my list.  As I write this, I am watching MSU play some basketball...69-50 with 6:39 left in the second half...so this is good.  They're pretty good at basketball so I've heard.  I went to a scrimmage this season but have never been to a game due to the INSANE hard core-ness that is required to be a part of the Izzone.  To do this, a prospective student must attend an all night party in the field by Case Hall which is held in September.  If they leave early, they lose their rights to buy tickets.  If they make it through the "camp out," they then have to attend EVERY game, and they can get kicked out of the Izzone if they miss one.  There have been people in classes trying to give away their tickets because they have so many exams the next day or something and don't want to go to the game but also don't want to get kicked out of the Izzone.  It's INTENSE.  Okay...enough with the capslock, me.  I just have never been to a game.  I hope to go someday, though.  Maybe an Izzone member will have tickets available on a day I can go.  That would be fun.  I've heard it's crazy.

Okay, as much as I love blogging...I think I would like to sign off now and watch MSU win this game on the road to the finals.  Adios, all.

Blog?

Okay, so I am attempting to create and maintain a blog. I started to think about it, though, and what is a blog anyway? First of all, the word is weird. BLOG. It sounds like some monster out of a Mother Goose rhyme that would eat children if they didn't go to bed on time or something. It is just a really odd name.

Second, what is the purpose of a blog? To keep track of what happens in one's life? A diary of sorts? I thought the whole idea of a diary is that it is supposed to be a SECRET, though, so wouldn't that make a blog sort of the anti-diary? I created a blog once under the name Natalie Cordova. I called it "Confessions," and it was a sort of diary because it was a place that I could spill my darkest secrets and no one would know it was me. I have since deleted that blog, so don't bother to look for it. I know some of you still will anyway, but it's not there. Promise. It was just a little too weird for me - my secret other life blog. Odd.
To keep a blog under my real name, though? That other people can read? What is the point of this? Still, if I thought that blogs in the mainstream sense were completely pointless, I suppose I wouldn't be writing one. This is odd...I will have to think on it.

In considering a title for my *ahem* BLOG (still hate this word), I chose the one I did based off of a diary entry of the same name that I wrote last year. It was an entry where I lamented the fact that my friends kept telling me it was pretty much sacrilege to go to MSU and not party. "Sober Spartan" is pretty much an oxymoron, they would say. I spent a long time trying to figure out the whole "in the world but not of the world" idea on this campus, and I feel that I have accomplished it to an extent now that I sort of like the idea of being a "sober spartan." I'm still a part of the school, but I can be different at the same time. Not being a goody-two-shoes, but also not being a barf-on-my-shoes either. Life seems to be finding a general balance of where one fits in and where one stands out, you know?

So anyway, there's the history on the name of this blog. As for what the blog contents will be, I don't know. What does one put in a blog? How much of this is supposed to be my true emotions and struggles, and how much of it is a facebook status-esque proclamation to a list of friends about what I am doing? I don't know. I guess I'll have to try and find a balance - story of my life.