Hug Bucket

I have recently made a fantastic discovery, the hug bucket.

And this video should explain what a hug bucket is (if you don't want to watch the whole video, you can just fast forward to 1:06)


I love hugs. People who know me well know that I'm not a super touchy feely person. I have my bubble, and I don't like when people pop my bubble (although I do frequently pop other people bubbles. I'm difficult, aren't I?) But I love hugs - a lot.

So here is my hug bucket (so far):
-An astronaut
-Will Smith
-My "long lost" Italian relatives (even though they're not really lost. I've just never met them)
-Someone associated with the harry Potter books/movies
-my future children/grandchildren
-my "true love"
-a published writer and/or poet
-a cool indie-type musician
-a fellow blogger (who isn't a member of my family or my best friends. Sorry guys, you're already in the hug bucket)

The list is still a work in progress, but I'd love to know who is on your hug bucket list?

Trains are fun, and so are Soap Operas.

Sitting and looking out of a train window is kind of like watching a movie. On TV, significant, beautiful, and sad things all happen at an unrealistically fast pace, simply because they have a time slot to fill, and hey - things have to stay interesting. Just take any soap opera. In the span of a few short episodes people die, get married and divorced, have babies etc. etc.

In the real world things move much slower. While feelings and decisions may have a pivotal moment when things "change", these are still often the result of many actions and decisions building up over a long period of time. The funny thing about this is that, if you accept that many of our actions are the results of other actions - or even just our individual personalities - then nothing should surprise us. It should be easy to figure out who will fall in love with whom, or what the outcome of certain political events will be, but that's the thing - it never is. We are all so preoccupied with, well, everything, that we never really can focus on just one thing.

I've long felt that the answers are always right in front of us, we just don't know how to see them.

When you're on a train, things are going by fast - but not ridiculously so. You pass by a school, a soccer game, anything, and are given only a short amount of time to see and make of it what you will. But unlike soap operas, those people going on with their daily lives are under no obligation to be interesting, or special, or anything other than what they are. In this they are not crazy or unrealistic, they are simply human. So when you are riding by on a train, with the world passing in front of you, you are getting to watch the best movie ever made: the movie of life, minus all of the fuss.

I've included some photos from a recent train ride, I hope you enjoy.

Stress

I have been under an unimaginable amount of stress lately. Suddenly, all of my teachers have given me monstrous amounts of homework (I think I have written more essay in the past two weeks than I have in my entire life), not to mention I have been working a little bit more than usual. And, with the end of the semester approaching, registration for summer classes is coming up. I have been trying to make an appointment with a counselor to find out exactly what classes I need to take, but for some reason my i.d. number isn't registering in the online appointment maker-thing. So I call in, go on hold for 45 minutes to find out all the appointments for next week are full (appointments are made a week in advanced) and to call back in Monday.

This of course, leads to the "I'm not going to be able to register for the right classes! I'm going to mess up and be at community college for three years - not two! I'm never going to graduate! I'm destined to be a hobo!!!!!!!!".

Now, before you say anything, yes - I know I'm over reacting. But can you blame me?

OK. So maybe you can..

Luckily for me, today is my dad's birthday, and this Friday and Saturday I will be in a nice hotel room by the beach in San Diego. No work, no homework (hopefully).

I can't wait!

Rants about Cartoons, Twins.

Way back before Hannah Montana, in that time of classic Sunday morning cartoons known as the 90s, there was a little show called "Recess". Now, Recess never had the success of shows like "Hey Arnold", "Rugrats", or "Doug" (which I loved) but it was enjoyable enough.

There was one episode of Recess where the "gang" (the show followed a group of friends in elementary school) was playing in a kickball tournament against another school. When the other team showed up, they quickly noticed that each person had their counterpart from the other school - someone who looked and acted enough like the person for each of the characters to be a little freaked out. Now, obviously this is just some silly t.v. show, but it left my 7 year self thinking that I had a twin living in China.

So, whats my point??

What if we really do all have a twin out there? I'm sure we have all been in that situation where we are in the supermarket and think we see someone who looks like that one guy from that one place and start waving like a lunatic only to realize (too late) that we have never met the person before. But what if it goes even farther than that? Oscar Wilde said "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions and quotation." The idea that everything you think or feel has been thought and felt by someone else before isn't exactly a new one (although it's one that I'm sure many people disagree with), but if some of the things that we as human beings find the most important on an emotional level aren't at all unique, could you make the argument that we aren't at all unique on a physical level.

It sounds a little crazy, and the fact that today I'm running on 3 hours of sleep probably doesn't help this at all, but I still think that it is an interesting notion. After being surrounded by different groups of people in college than I was in high school, I am constantly seeing or meeting people who make me think dang, the are a lot like so and so. Heck, it seems like I can't even watch a YouTube video with out being reminded of someone I know.

If you're wondering if this post is supposed to mean that I actually believe that we all have a "twin" somewhere out there, it doesn't. Truthfully, while I find it an interesting topic to think about, it is also something I have a hard time wrapping my head around on a real, or even personal level. Is there another one of me out there? Am I unique at all? I would hate to think that I'm not.

Any opinions on this topic? I would love to hear your thoughts.