Mortal - Definition: Human.

Thoughts of the evening, mostly Burlesque (the one with Cher and Christina) and post-finals bliss inspired

I was a Britney girl, because Christina is really hard to sing with.

To do this summer:

Play piano
Read books
Sit in the sun
Learn about economics, management and human resources, and accounting
Sit in the sun reading books
Make things
Write

Falling in love would be nice, especially if he’s as pretty as the guy from Burlesque.

I will never be fooled by a guy who “knows what he wants and goes after it.”

I’m happy being single. I’m not opposed to having a boyfriend.

I am opposed to having just any boyfriend.

Whoever he is, he’s got to beat out my friends for who I want to spend my time with.

I have yet to meet a boy I like as much as my friends.

I will keep my eyes out for one, but I’m not looking.

I’m smarter than a lot of the girls I meet, but the ones I’m not I make my friends right away.

It makes me proud to know so many girls who have the right attitude about boys.

I’m happy.

I’m so content I don’t know where to start. I wish there were more hours in a day.

Best exchange in Burlesque:
“But you’re with Nikki.”
“We’re just friends.”
“Where I come from, friends don’t chew on each other’s earlobes.”
“Aren’t you glad you left?”

Yes, yes I am.

Joiking!

Joiking is a special thing. It’s Sámi. It’s interesting, and really cool. But I have to laugh at some of this. The first and last are good. The middle two are up for your own interpretation.

Traditional[ish] joik:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxXzcF4zMvk

Techno joik:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT4IRolAvz0

Rap joik:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Xkq_d85Ec&feature=related

Pop joik (I actually kinda like this one):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3WEB_DTO8

I’m taking a class on Sámi culture this semester. The Sámi people are the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia. If you were wondering. It’s pretty interesting.

Personal Disclaimer Cards

My friend and I decided it would be a great thing to carry around a sort of business card that contains all the information about yourself that you find yourself having to explain over and over because somehow it comes up in conversations with every new person you meet.

My name is Lauren. It’s not Laurie or Laura; those are not nicknames. They’re just other names that sound like mine but aren’t.

My last name is Dunn. It’s really easy to pun on, but I assure you, I have heard your joke before, and it wasn’t funny the first 50 times. It will not be funny the 51st, either.

I have obscenely small toenails. I’m aware of that fact, so please do not feel like it’s up to you to tell me about them the first time I wear sandals this year. You also shouldn’t feel the need to exclaim, “Oh my God, Lauren has ridiculous toenails!” in the middle of a large group function.

I call all my good friends my best friends. So I have a lot of best friends. I call my best friends by their first names and I expect you to automatically know who they are (but not really). I’m a name dropper. I know that doesn’t normally mean what I’m using it to mean right now.

I’m a linguistics major. This doesn’t mean I spend my time learning lots of languages. I happen to know Norwegian and Spanish, but it’s only because we ling majors like languages so much that we happen to speak some pretty obscure ones. Learning a whole bunch of languages ≠ Linguistics major.

I am the youngest child in my family, and there’s a gap of 15 years. No, I was not an accident. I came from the UW sperm bank and am the biological daughter of my mother but not my father. There was a son between me and my sister that died of a genetic mutation that my parents carry, so naturally they didn’t want that to happen again. Yes, it’s sad that my brother died, but it was before I was born, so I’m not actually sad, so you don’t have to be sorry for me. If you feel the need to be sorry, be sorry for the rest of my family, who was alive when he was. Also, no, I don’t know who my biological father is, and legal records don’t acknowledge any other father than the one I grew up with. My Mom and Dad have been together since the Stone Age.

I’m a year younger than everybody in my class because I skipped a grade.

I sing a LOT. If you catch me at it, I’ll probably do a funny voice and then stop. But I’m actually pretty damn good. I just get nervous when caught. I sing in a choir here, and I love it. [Insert, “You should be a music major!”] No, I shouldn’t be a music major. I auditioned when I was applying for colleges but didn’t get in because I was super young and I totally botched my audition, but by the time I could re-audition and probably get in, I realized I don’t have to get a music degree to sing for the rest of my life, so I decided to do something else.

I’m really bossy. It’s part of the reason why I got a promotion so quickly at work; I have no problem telling people what to do. I tend to give orders where other people would ask questions. Some people find me very impolite, but my friends know that my instructions to come over and hang out can be met with a “no” just as easily as they could say, “I can’t tonight,” if I had asked, “Want to go to a movie?” I speak in statements, but I expect people to constantly do other than I say. Except at work. If I’m being super polite, it’s one of four things: 1) You’re my superior. 2) You’re a boy I like and I’m trying not to be ridiculously overbearing and terrify you. 3) We’ve just met, or 4) I’m really not that fond of you.

I smell like coffee almost all the time.

That is all.

I got to thinking again

I just saw a picture that said, “Why are you holding back?” And I thought, “Why am I holding back?”

And then I thought, “Wait, what am I supposed to be holding back from? School? Life? Work? Boys?”

I don’t know what I’m working towards; I just want to be happy. And I am, for the most part. I don’t enjoy school. I’ve always known that. When I finally sit down and learn something, I love it; it’s great. I love learning. Who doesn’t? But I still ‘hold back’ in school because it’s not what I want to be doing.

I want to be doing.

I want to talk to my friends and read things and write and eat and play the piano and listen to music until my eyes and ears and fingers all fall off and I’m the size of an elephant.

Except I don’t want to be the size of an elephant.

I want to have enough energy to go to the group fitness classes I can attend for virtually nothing because I’m a student. That’s not going to be available after college. I can’t be up through all hours of the night doing homework if I’m to take advantage of that. I want to ignore my homework while I have the opportunity to ignore something as inconsequential as homework.

So the picture got me thinking, but I don’t think it did much else. It’s good to ask yourself questions and make sure you’re going where you want to and getting there the way you want to, but it’s equally detrimental to sell yourself short as it is to coast through life without realizing you could be doing your life better.

Obviously this post is not an extensive list of the things I do and want in life. Point is, it’s my life, and I think I’m doing it just fine.