You'll never get a second cupcake if you don't ask for it

My 2 year old nephew, Benjamin, visited for about a week with my older brother for all the graduation hoopla. Here are some of the many lessons he taught me:

-Tell people how it is, and don't apologize. If you don't like the salmon, just say so. If your diaper is poopy, simply ask someone to change it for you.

-Swinging higher than you think you can is always exhilarating.

-Some people are better baseball partners than others.

-Shoes are not necessary when riding in a car.

-You'll never get a second cupcake if you don't ask for it.

-Games with sounds are better than games without sounds.

-Sliding down a staircase face first? Bad idea. Sliding down backwards? Endless fun.

-There's no good reason why we shouldn't play racecars in an international airport.

It's not all make believe

Admitting I have a problem is the first step to healing, I'm told. That is, if I were willing to heal myself from the chaos that comes with being an avid "Grey's Anatomy" fan.

I know the show is full of ridiculous relationships, exaggerated emotions, and completely unrealistic medical monstrosities. But what can I say, addictions aren't rational.

With the season 5 finale taking over two hours of my life tomorrow night, I'm saddened and intrigued by the coordination of this show and the course of my college education. I started watching the show a little late in the game my sophomore year, but after catching up on seasons 1 and 2, I've never looked back.

The show has been one constant for me in a time when I never lived in one place for more than 9 months. Friday afternoons I knew that no matter what had gone on in the week, or how chaotic my life seemed, I could connect to abc.com and join people whose lives were inevitably more screwed up than mine. I could escape for 42 minutes into a world not entirely separate from my own, with characters who go big or go home. It's kept me connected to friends outside of college, as we've been able to rant and rave about Meredith's latest antics, or Callie's latest sexual orientation. This year I've been able to watch it in real time on Thursday nights, but the connection is still the same.

So tomorrow, I will make myself a heaping bowl of air-pop popcorn, pour a glass of milk, and settle in for a finale that I'm predicting will result in the death/absence of at least one major character. Hopefully the same will not be true in my own life.

And as a side note, here's an interesting article written by the show's neurological script consultant. It's fascinating.

a eulogy

I realized tonight, driving home from a movie, that in 33 days, I will be effectively giving up journalism. I've been telling myself ever since I applied for Teach for America that I could freelance, or at least contribute to journalism in some capacity beyond simply a reader (although with the state of newspapers, I'm sure they'd be grateful to know they have at least one avid fan.)

But as the send-off date gets closer, it's becoming very clear that my time for outside writing is going to be slim to none. Sure I have the summer, but I have to survive an intensive summer training, a more than full-time teaching position and a master's degree at one of the most demanding universities in the country. Time for even a journal, let alone conducting interviews and research, will be precious.

And that sucks.

As I sat watching State of Play with two journalism friends, I couldn't help but get a pang of longing for the messy newsroom, the rush of a deadline, the frantic scramble for a pen that hasn't run out of ink. The joke in The Whitworthian newsroom is that it's our addiction. If I walk into a coffee shop, I usually spend more time eavesdropping than I do on whatever I'm there for. When I hear friends at a party, I snap into investigation mode: is this a trend? How many other people would have similar sentiments? Is this something I should follow up on? It's what makes for a better story, but also for a cursed life.

While the movie raises so many questions of ethics it's hard to keep track, it ends with an almost 5-minute eulogy for the print newspaper, walking the audience through the printing process from front page plates to newsstand. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into my drug before the news is dead.

And on a random semi-related note, props to Ben Affleck for sticking up for the Boston Globe. Now we only need 5 million more rich people to follow suit.

battle of intelligences (I mean, sexes)

In my Interpersonal Communications class on Friday, we had a sort of battle of the sexes session. It involved the women on one side of the room and the men on the other, and we asked each other "questions" about relationships, dating, social norms, etc. There were two questions/statements I felt should be taken beyond the classroom. (As a disclaimer, I was pretty underwhelmed by the depth of questions people came up with. Just because it's Christian school doesn't mean we don't have the same issues as everyone else).

1. "Why do girls that claim they're feminists and all for women power and stuff still want to be courted and expect the guy to pay for everything? Isn't that hypocritical?"

I also point out that the male student said the word "feminist" as if it were synonymous with a child molester's name. I've heard two responses to this so far. First, that feminism means something different to every person who would label themselves as such, and it can't be assumed that all "feminists" believe all traditional roles should be eradicated. But the second, and my favorite of the two, came from my friend Jasmine: "They expect us to take care of EVERYTHING ELSE for the rest of the relationship (kids, the house, schedules, etc) so they can throw us a bone for a few months and pay for dinner." Well said.

2. This wasn't a question, but rather a study my professor shared about what men and women are attracted to. For men, it was first and foremost physical characteristics. For women, it was the "potential for monetary security." Here is my response, for both generalizations: phooey.

a bucket list, of sorts

With my college career ending in less than two weeks, I've realized (as is inevitable in these nostalgic times) that I still have a lot I want to do at Whitworth University. Plus, I've always admired Alyssa's goal lists for defined periods of time. So, with 15 days left, here is my bucket list:

1. swim in the Aquatics Center. Katie and I already got this covered, we're going to a water aerobics class. brilliant.

2. Catch a pinecone. For non-Whitworth folk, this is a student tradition. Basically you're not cool unless you can say you've caught a pinecone falling out of a tree.

3-5. Go to the Screaming Yak, the Viking, and Double Dribble. (all bars, of course.)

6. Play miniature golf at Wonderland, the fun center literally a block away from campus that I've never been to.

7. Get a milkshake from the Jack in the Box drive-thru. The only way I will go to Jack in the Box is if it's on a list of this nature.

8. Sit and talk with someone at Rogue, the coffee shop across Division that also serves alcohol.

9. Get a cake from the library. This would require someone to send me a cake, though... what can I say, I'm an optimist.

10. Go on Whitworth's radio station, whitworth.fm. Kelsey and I are going to do a short show together: The Baconators.

11. Use the Dine with the Mind program, which essentially is a voucher to take a professor out to coffee. This one is more of a joke, but still might happen. Especially since my meal plan is quickly vanishing.

12. Make out in the library, preferrably in the poetry or classic literature sections. Like #8, this one takes outside participation. Again, optimism.

13. Tell a dirty joke right as a tour of prospective students walk by.

14. Go look at the art in the Koehler Gallery. Current exhibit: "Something better than free beer," the senior exhibit for art majors.

15. Rollerskate down the Hello Walk.

A different look

In my Communications Ethics course today, a Fulbright scholar spoke about her take on Islamic dress in the gulf states.

I must say, my worldview was challenged.

A professor of English at the University of Bahrain, who is visiting Whitworth on a six-week Fulbright program, lectured about her country's take on the Hijab, the traditional scarf worn to cover the hair by Muslim women. She showed pictures of various styles and levels of modesty. She then compared these to the chador, what is what we consider a burka, or the full facial and body covering.

I knew before that for the majority of Muslim women, their clothing is their choice. As she said, the only country that requires the full is Afghanistan, and we all know how I feel about that. I've also always tried to make the distinction between Muslim and Arab, and fully realize that these terms are in no way interchangeable. There's a mosque down the road from my house. I get that.

But after hearing this incredible woman speak, I was inspired to realize that the West isn't the only one that cares about the oppression of Afghani women. Though she did say the idea of military or economic intervention in places like Afghanistan was a fundamentally Western idea, she said the women of Bahrain are just as outraged at the floggings in the street and the extreme takes on marriage.

Here's a fascinating video she showed us of the new First Lady in Qatar: