Okay, so it's been a while. I don't have much time for a long post, but I wanted to update, because I miss everyone. Things have been going well, even if they are a bit stressful. School, school and more school. I'm a senior this year, so I have absolutely no free time. I'm going into environmental non-profit management, and working with the state Democratic party. I've been spending the last few months taking classes, networking, trying to find volunteers. I start my internship with the Association of Florida Conservation Districts this week. I'll be saving the trees! :  ) I absolutely love it, though, and everyone I have spoken to in the field says they love going to work every day. It's more of a hobby than a job, because it's something I would be doing whether they paid me for it or not.

I'm going to be an aunt! Ashley told me two days ago that she's preggers, so little Necole Jr. should be around sometime next November. She will, of course, worship me. It really feels like we're adding another member of the family, a feeling I hadn't really considered. It's like we're all having a baby :  )

In other news, I became a vegetarian two weeks ago. PETA finally got to me on campus, and gave me one of those little booklets that shows where the animals come from and how they are treated. I had always sort of brushed it off (probably just because it's easier to eat meat), thinking they were just talking about the worst of the places- but after some research, and after talking to some people who have worked in the factories, I found that torturing the animals is common. Cutting off the beaks of chickens so they can put feeding tubes down their throats, stapling their feet to the floor so they get fatter, skinning or boiling cows and pigs alive, animals never seeing the light of day and living in cages where they can't turn around, being fed anti-biotics just to stay alive. Less space, fatter animals= more profit. It makes sense. And there are no laws protecting the animals. Is a cow really so different from a cat or a dog? The chickens develop pus-filled tumors (that are still there when you get them from chick-fil-a, or packaged at the grocery store, the beef is still packed with hormones as it is FDA approved. The average meat eater causes 90 animals to be tortured and killed each year. I think I'm okay with tofu. Torturing animals for the convenience of meat when there are so many tasty vegetarian options is not okay for me. So, I've been telling everyone, because no one I have spoken to yet was fully aware of the situation. I have no moral issues with eating meat, as most people don't, but this is something altogether different. If there is a Publix in your area, their meat is a bit safer, and definitely more animal-friendly (not enough, but better).

So, on that lovely note, I hope everyone is having a great week!   

HAHA!

Finals are over! Woohoo!!

1) take down the Halloween decorations

2) contact everyone I know and let them know I'm not dead

3) apologize profusely for not calling

4) get drunk

So long?

I miss everyone. I'll be in Kansas in a few weeks. Hopefully I'll see you. I'll try to post a bunch of pictures this week.

<3 Necole

Currently Watching I Heart Huckabees (Single Disc Edition) By Jason Schwartzman, Isabelle Huppert, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law, Mark Wahlberg, Naomi Watts, Angela Grillo, Ger Duany, Darlene Hunt, Kevin Dunn, Benny Hernandez, Richard Appel, Benjamin Nurick, Jake Muxworthy, Pablo Davanzo, Matthew Muzio, Shawn Patrick, Patrick M. Walsh, Tippi Hedren see related

So! New things everywhere and more time for posting. I haven't been near a computer for more than ten minutes for about two months now, so that's nice. Before I moved I was working full time at the pizza place (they have my two weeks' notice, so my last day is next Saturday), and not very much else. I was finally able to move into the new place on Friday, and my main fear was the roommate situation. The apartments are set up for college students, with individual leases and anything I could want in a complex. They're brick buildings, with red trim (I'll post pictures), and all the apartments are townhouse style. I'm bling-blingin' it with the master bedroom, with my very own attached bathroom inside the room. So I can take a shower and just walk around naked for as long as I want. Except that eventually my roommates knock on my door to ask if I wanna poke some smot. They're all freshman, which is weird- since I was told they usually pair upperclassmen together, but there it is anyway. They're cool, though, even if they are little punk kids. They like music, which is good, since I always have something playing. We're all going to a Counting Crows concert next week. Oh, and they love me. But of course they do :  )

Now for the really good part- school! HA-weirdo, you're thinking. I love my new school! UCF is beautiful, and it is intimidating just to be around most of the professors. I have to call most of them doctor, which of course reduces me to a stuttering mess. I want to be a doctor...and I've begun working on it, too. There is a program the school offers called Ramp that allows a junior to be paired with one of these bad-asses to help the professor with their research. It's basically a part-time job, working on real research projects, with a professor from either the political science department or the journalism department. It is meant to prepare students for graduate work. I'll go to workshops, learn how to put together a presentation. And I'll basically be doing it until I graduate, maybe longer.

My classes are fun, if a little bit scary. I have to do a LOT of reading. At least 3 newspapers a day. And there is a lot of textbook reading. But I'm finally narrowing my search for the perfect job.

I was afraid of all the change, at first. Mike and I are both struggling this semester, he more than I. He graduates in December, and took on two internships. So we have to sneak time in, when we were used to seeing each other every day. I don't see Brent and Bubba nearly as much. But everything else is good. It's nice to be surrounded by college students again, to actually FEEL like a college student. The apartment complex schedules events for us- breakfast in the clubhouse on Monday, ice cream party on Thursday, a luau by the pool on Sunday. And I have just enough time by myself during the day, without feeling rushed to get to work on time or run errands. If I am accepted to the Ramp program, so that I don't have to get a job working some minimum wage job at a restaurant on campus, that would be perfect.

SO, time to run. I have to wake Mike up and convince him food is better than sleep.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (and they still kick ass)

A man breaking his journey between one place and another at a third place of no name, character, population or significance, sees a unicorn cross his path and disappear. That in itself is startling, but there are precedents for mystical encounters of various kinds, or to be less extreme, a choice of persuasions to put it down to fancy; until-"My God," says a second man, "I must be dreaming, I thought I saw a unicorn." At which point, a dimension is added that makes the experience as alarming as it will ever be. A third witness, you understand, adds no further dimension but only spreads it thinner, and a fourth thinner still, and the more witnesses there are the thinner it gets and the more reasonable it becomes until it is as thin as reality, the name we give to the common experience..."Look, look!" recites the crowd. "A horse with an arrow in its forehead! It must have been mistaken for a deer."...

I'm sorry it wasn't a unicorn. It would have been nice to have unicorns.