Bases Loaded: The Beginning

I have been struggling with this decision for awhile and trying to figure out how to go about it and I have finally decided I am officially a baseball fan.

This may come as a shock to you all. I have previously expressed distaste for all sports, including baseball and never really shown true interest in any physical competitions. But I've reached a point in my life where I realize, something is missing. And that something is complete and utter devotion to a professional sports team.

I think sports fans have a quality that I admire: faith. As a fairly agnostic college student, I think the ability to believe in something---anything is a quality I would be lucky to possess. So I have decided to embark on this spiritual-baseball journey.

I have decided on baseball for these reasons:

1. Baseball is played in the spring and summer time. I don't have to endure the hardships of a Minnesota winter to like this sport.
2. I look cute in raglan-tees
3. I like hot dogs
4. I like it when boys wear their hats forward.

There are probably many other terrible reasons as to to why I should like baseball that you will judge me shamefully for. But truthfully, when I start liking things for shameful reasons, it usually turns out well for me. For example, my 10th grade crush on my English teacher resulted in what I would consider a lifetime affinity for Bob Dylan. I hope that my baseball endeavours will be equally successful.

Vices

My name is Cali and I'm an avid nail-biter. I don't have many of the vices that plague normal college students (alchohol troubles, numerous sexual partners, inability to make it to class etc) but I like to bite my nails. I think the longest I've ever gone without chewing is 6 weeks but I jinxed my own achievement by constantly running my teeth over my long, brittle nails.

I bite my nails mostly when I'm nervous or stressed, often times so bad that I need to put band-aids on my thumbs to function. Try text messaging with sore-thumbs wrapped in adhesives.

But I'm proud to say, I have not bitten my nails since my first week back from break. That's over a month, and it's really starting to show. The thing that really keeps me going and curbs my urge to run my teeth underneath my fingernails is the beautiful work of my friend Alaa.

Since the first week of school, Alaa has been doing my nails for me at the beginning of the week and she does a beautiful job. We've done a lot of great color combos and Alaa paints these magnificent little flowers on my ring fingers and thumbs. The girls in my class think she should get a job at the Mall.

So as I told Alaa and Lexi today, I've been having wet dreams about how gorgeous my new nails would look with a French manicure...and voila!


I'm quite happy. Another one of my vices is going into too much detail about vain things such as nails, hair and make-up. I apologize.

Janelle returned home this weekend so I had the opportunity to have my first real TV binge of the semester. Some people may think watching 2 or 4 episodes of Dexter in one night is a TV binge. This is false. For me, a TV binge is completing one season of a television show over the course of a weekend without pause for social activities, bathing or accomplishing anything.

So starting late Friday night and ending Saturday at 10 pm, I watched the entire third season of Gossip Girl. As a result, my room looks like this:


And unfortunately, Janelle is one of the devoted readers of my blog, so she's bound to find out how I trashed our room no matter how hard I clean it tomorrow afternoon.

Another of my vices: liking teachers, specifically teachers of English. I thought by going to college I would be able to cure myself of my teacher fetish. Not true, my creative writing TA is so adorable that I should probably work on my poetry so as to get in his good graces...

So pleased with a daydream, now living is no good.

Yesterday, I revisited one of my favorite albums---Cassadaga by Bright Eyes. I was listening to "Milk Thistle" from a different Conor Oberst album and I starting thinking, "Damn, this song is so good," and I love how it's placed at the end of the album and then I thought, "Hey, wait. Isn't there another album that ends on a similar, beautiful note?"

There is. It's Cassadaga and the song is "Lime Tree" and I hadn't realized I didn't have the album on my new computer, so I dug out the CD and put it in my library.

It was like this amazingly important part of my music collection has been missing and now that I have it back, I feel more complete.

So now, onto more interesting things.

The semester is, of course, picking up with papers and tests and whatnot but overall, I'm enjoying school. The most interesting class so far is my creative writing class. Right now, we're working on our poetry portfolios. Poetry is not really my thing but I think I've managed some good work. I'm excited to start on my fiction and memoir. Prose is definitely more up my alley.

My tutoring job is going great as well. I help out after school two days a week in a fourth-grade classroom. It's delightful being around children and makes me miss my little brothers less. I love it when my friend does my nails because the girls in my class are all, "Dang girl, who did those nails?"

I also got Valentine's Day advice from the boys who said I should take my boyfriend to McDonald's and let him order off of the dollar menu. They said to blindfold him, lead him into McDonald's with roses and candles all around and he wouldn't even notice.

"You want a McChicken? Too bad, that ain't on the dollar menu."

So today I skipped journalism class to do real journalism. I was working on a profile of one of the candidates for Minnesota governor. I came into the office at 7. I was supposed to interview this gubernatorial candidate between 7 and 9. It didn't happen. Instead, he called me at 10:30. I bought myself a cinnamon-sugar bagel for the inconvenience. I spent 10 hours in the office. It was quite nice, aside from my oatmeal explosion in the microwave. I think the story turned out well, since it was my first 'profile' and I hope everyone enjoys it.

The rest of my time has been spent watching Dexter with Janelle while researching apartments for next year. I've become quite obsessed with having an apartment with a beautiful kitchen, entertaining areas and walk-in closets. I have this vision of myself having very elaborate dinner parties and drinking wine while discussing literature. In this fantasy, I also have a cat.

Affordable student housing near campus is not living up to this expectation, unfortunately.