@ the intersection of Grand River & Collingwood (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So many memories associated with this song! My friends and I used to hang out at The Wazoo, a used record store off of Grand River in East Lansing. Something tells me this was one of my first finds.
Image via Wikipedia
Writing | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde
Check out my newest page. It is part of my series of pages on my years at MSU (Michigan State University is the main page). Before I started writing down my thoughts on writing online, I didn’t fully realize just how deep my blogging roots go. It continues to amaze me just how quickly everything changes online.
Enjoy!
PS – You may also want to check out the page I created dedicated to MSU’s beautiful campus.
Campus | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde
Readers may have noticed that I haven’t added much “new” material lately, unless they’ve looked closely. Lately I’ve been working very hard on the “pages” portion of the blog. I’m still working on getting it exactly how I want it. There are so many great topics, etc. coming up very shortly. Stay tuned!
I will shortly get back to our regularly scheduled programs. Promise. On a side note, I’ve really enjoyed reblogging as of late. I’m not going to share anything and everything, but what I do share caught my attention one way or another. Thus far I’ve enjoyed meeting other bloggers via reblogging. There are so many wonderful blogs out there! Enjoy.
In case you missed it, below are some of the new pages I created.
Anonymous | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde
No new content. I just finally took the time to thoroughly work out the bugs in the HTML. If you haven’t taken the time to read this conversation, please do. The entire experience expanded my ideas as to what a blog can be.
Detroit Tigers Baseball | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde
Yes, I did it. I created a fan page for the Detroit Tigers. If you want to follow the Tigers this season, look no further. I embedded their complete schedule, included several links to lots of great information pertaining to roster, stats, etc., as well as added links to a few posts in which I discuss the Tigers. I also embedded a few of my favorite Tigers-related YouTube videos. It is going to be one heck of a season. Opening Day can’t get here quick enough.
Detroit Tigers ~ Spring Training 2012 | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde
Thanks to my Dad’s cousin, Glen Suszko, I have some great pictures up of the Tigers in spring training camp in Lakeland, Florida.
Michigan State University | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde
I decided that I needed to pay homage to my alma mater. I included some priceless videos. It is also inspiring some additional pages coming very soon. I loved college and always will. Seriously.
Political Quotes | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde
I spent quite a bit of time on this one. I came across some wonderful politically inspired quotes, many from our Founding Fathers. I may add more as time goes on.
Table Of Contents | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde
I decided to create this page due to the sheer number of pages I created. It is easier to understand what I’m doing when looking at the entire thing in this format. Please take a look. It will certainly be a work in progress.
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
I believe I forgot to mention just how much I love Freshly Pressed and WordPress. This beautiful Saturday morning I discovered the post below on Freshly Pressed. It is exactly what I need to hear today.
Stop Sabotaging Your Own Success: A Manifesto « When I Have Time by Sara Rosso
I had an earlier version of this post which I lost when Word decided to crash on me. Unfortunately the recovery version didn’t include the latest paragraph, and I accidently dumped the entire thing. In the end, it isn’t a bad thing. I started to discuss precisely why I need to hear the message in the above post today. It turned out to be incredibly lengthy and much more well-suited for my About Me page. I may just have to do that in the future. The gist of the message is this: I can’t understand why I am now so risk adverse in my career today when I was the EXACT opposite in my academic career at Michigan State University. I consider my years at MSU extremely successful. Unfortunately, I have yet to really do much of anything with my “career.” I’m merely getting by.
But back to the topic at hand: I just find Freshly Pressed amazing. You can find Childhood Relived’s Angie Z.’s take on Freshly Pressed here: I Got Your “Freshly Pressed” Right Here « Childhood Relived. As a direct result of Freshly Pressed, I’ve discovered some wonderful bloggers. Those listed below are just a sample.
Childhood Relived
My Pajama Days
The Middlest Sister | There are 5 sisters. She’s the middlest.
I’m just thankful I left Blogger when I did. Below Dr. Helen discusses her recent move away from Blogger.
Dr. Helen: New Blog at PJ Media
Her new blog is here: Dr. Helen
Image via CrunchBase
What is it with the Goo Goo Dolls? Two of their biggest hits in the very late 90s, Iris and Name seemed to follow me around my entire five years at Michigan State. I love the songs to be sure, but at the time, they were everywhere. To this day I am automatically taken back to MSU every single time I listen to either song.
Both songs are beautiful, even if somewhat depressing. Name happens to be off of the famous album A Boy Named Goo; Iris is off of the album Dizzy Up The Girl. Both songs were written by Johnny Rzeznik. Over a decade later, the Goo Goo Dolls still hold up. Enjoy.
Image via Wikipedia
Cover of Iris
Image by StuSeeger via Flickr
Ten years ago began one of the best, if not the most inspiring, years of my life thus far. 2002 still conjures up such a mess of emotions and memory, almost all wonderful. It began interestingly enough. A few days into the new year I flew to Cáceres, Spain to begin a semester long study abroad program at la Universidad de Extremadura. I will always have endless memories of Spain, but things did not start out as planned.
As with any year, I began 2002 cleaning up the mistakes, missteps, and crises of 2001. At 21, it all involved the men in my life at the time. It also involved my semester long study abroad program in Quito, Ecuador and the aftermath of September 11, 2001. What’s important to note here is not the assortment of men in my life or specific details of what happened in my life as a result of 9/11 but the simple fact that I was emotionally drained from another banner year in my life: 2001.
Throughout my first few weeks in Spain, I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I just needed space to figure out what I wanted out of life. Ten years later and I am still trying to figure out the details. Fortunately it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with Spain and my classes, especially my class in art history. I spent every long weekend of the program traveling to new destinations in Spain and eventually Portugal. I visited Madrid, Sevilla, Málaga and la Costa del Sol, Toledo, Salamanca, Ronda, Granada, Barcelona, and Lisboa. I’m grateful for the foresight of the professors of the program. If it hadn’t been for the long weekends, I would not have had the opportunity to truly explore Spain. It inspired me in countless ways to visit every week the very works we studied in class. Somewhere along the way I began to truly enjoy myself and flourished. Little did I know then that the best was yet to come.
One of my last days in Cáceres a package arrived at my front door holding the key to yet more adventure. It contained the agreement for my position as a co-op with Applied Materials in Austin, Texas. I had planned the entire experience nearly two years before as an undergraduate business student at Michigan State. At that time I was determined to land an internship at the end of my sophomore year. I did. In fact, I ended up landing an internship with IBM throughout the summer of 2001. Applied Materials also wanted me as a co-op that year. By that time I knew that I wanted to spend an entire year abroad. I simply asked the hiring manager at Applied Materials if I could work as a co-op the following year. He said yes. After spending a summer in Rochester, Minnesota working for IBM, completing a semester long study abroad program in Quito, Ecuador, completing another semester in Cáceres, Spain, I was about to spend six months living and working in Austin, Texas.
In fact, I only had a month to prepare for my new job in Austin after arriving home from Spain. I arrived in Michigan the first week in May and my first day of work in Austin was slated for mid-June. I couldn’t wait. As eager as I was to get back to MSU to complete my degree, I knew that working for Applied Materials was an experience I couldn’t pass up. I’d finally get a true taste of life after college; it would not be just another summer job. I wouldn’t return to Michigan State until January 2003 after traveling the globe for 18 months.
How do I even begin to describe my six months in Austin, Texas? I truly fell in love. I fell in love with the city itself and Texas as a whole. In fact, I fell in love with the very idea of Texas. Texas truly is like a whole other country. In fact, I later drove across a good share of it on my way home from Austin, heartbroken.
The strange thing is that the entire experience didn’t start out well at all. I loved working for Applied, but wasn’t happy with the apartment I sublet. After only being in Austin for a month and a half, I found myself in a bad car accident on my way to work, my car totaled and my big toe broken. At 21, I was lucky to be alive. As I adjusted to the leg splint and put things back together, something amazing happened.
When I first arrived in Austin I befriended a new coworker who happened to be going through the two week orientation training session with me. She and I became fast friends. She became bound and determined to fix me up with one of her old coworkers at Motorola. Andy. Over those first weeks in Austin, my friend told me a lot about him, but he never seemed to be home. In fact, I wouldn’t get to meet him for nearly a month due to his trip to Perú. I almost forgot about him by the time a blind date was arranged.
Looking back, what a strange set of circumstances under which I met Andy. We met just as I was literally getting back on my feet after the accident. Instead of a leg splint that took up half of my leg, I finally had a walking cast. Andy suggested that we go to Flipnotics to check out a local act. Here’s the thing about Flipnotics: it is a two-story building with a trendy shop taking up the entire first floor with a bar taking up the second. In order for us to check out the band and hang out at the bar, I had to walk up a large flight of stairs in a walking cast. Andy appeared mortified. I didn’t care; I was embarrassed myself. There was no way I was going to let a silly situation ruin my night.
We spent the night drinking beer, talking about all we had in common, which was a lot, and enjoying the act Andy hoped to book on his radio show, ATX Live. To this day Andy is one of the most interesting men I’ve ever met. By day an engineer, by night a DJ at a co-op radio station. At the time he still hosted ATX live; he later became president of the co-op radio station. It was through him that I began to enjoy myself in Austin.
We never had a romantic relationship, but we did become very good friends. He soon introduced me to his manager and friend Cheryl. She became one of the best friends I’ve ever had. If I saw her today I have no doubt we could just start up again right where we left off. Not many men can introduce you to a new good friend; Andy did. That’s the thing about Andy and Cheryl: they got me. We spent hours checking out new bands, solo artists, etc. We attended the very first Austin City Limits festival together. Cheryl and I were there when Andy’s RK surgery to correct his vision went terribly wrong. After he recovered his sight, we threw him a “dressed to be seen”/Halloween/late birthday party at his house that became legendary among us. After all of my years of not fitting in high school and being mostly a loner in a college, I finally had a great group of friends that I truly loved.
After the accident I had to move almost immediately. It turned out that my sublet was only through the summer. I panicked. Fortunately, through Applied Materials internal classifieds system, I found a great place to live. Karen became another great friend in Austin. She had just built her home before the stock market plummeted and wanted to test out the idea of a renter. We became fast friends, bonding over Beatles music. I loved living in her house. It felt as though I was living with one of my favorite aunts for three months, and I enjoyed every minute of it. As my return to Michigan loomed, we hosted a combination goodbye/birthday/Christmas party for me. I did not want to go home.
I’ll never forget leaving Austin on that foggy morning in mid-December. I cried. I had never felt my life come so completely together as it did in Austin. I wanted to stay, but I felt that I had to go back to MSU to complete my degree. I always planned to return. I still miss the people, the music, and the fun. It didn’t quite work out that way I planned. Despite my best intention and efforts, I never did get a job in Austin after graduation.
I’m not sure why I am looking back to 2002 now other than to say that it is time to move on. I loved my life in Austin. For whatever reason, I haven’t been able to recreate that deep sense of happiness in Bay City. I need to figure out what I need to be truly happy and go after it. Life is too damn short to be miserable. There will always be a part of me that will treasure all of those experiences I had in 2001 and 2002. There are days when I just look in the mirror and wonder what happened to the girl who risked everything for adventure.
Songwriters: David Kent, Kirsti Manna
She left without leavin’ a number
Said she needed to clear her mind
He figured she’d gone back to Austin
‘Cause she talked about it all the time
It was almost a year before she called him up
Three rings and an answering machine is what she got
If you’re callin’ ’bout the car I sold it
If this is Tuesday night, I’m bowling
If you’ve got somethin’ to sell
You’re wastin’ your time, I’m not buyin’
If it’s anybody else, wait for the tone, you know what to do
And P.S. if this is Austin, I still love you
The telephone fell to the counter
She heard but she couldn’t believe
What kind of man would hang on that long
What kind of love that must be
She waited three days and then she tried again
She didn’t know what she’d say but she heard three rings and then
If it’s Friday night I’m at the ballgame
And first thing Saturday, if it don’t rain
I’m headed out to the lake
And I’ll be gone all weekend long
But I’ll call you back when I get home on Sunday afternoon
And P.S. if this is Austin, I still love you
Well, this time she left her number
But not another word
Then she waited by the phone on Sunday evenin’
And this is what he heard
If you’re callin’ ’bout my heart
It’s still yours
I should’ve listened to it a little more
Then it wouldn’t have taken me so long to know where I belong
And by the way, boy, this is no machine you’re talkin’ to
Can’t you tell, this is Austin and I still love you
I still love you.
Image by A. Blight via Flickr
MAC – Michigan Agricultural College
I became extremely distracted by this website tonight. It is an online collection of items dating from various periods throughout Michigan State University’s long history. I graduated a year too early! In 2005, MSU celebrated 150 years.
I’d love to have some of the milk bottles, pennants, and leather patches featured on the website!
Image by matthileo via Flickr
Image via Wikipedia
Salute to Juan Armando Ceballos – Project 2,996 | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde
I’ve tried and failed to write about 9/11 so many times over the years. Words still fail me. I can’t believe that it has been ten long years. Where do I start?
As irrelevant as it may seem all I can do is tell my story of that awful day. I’d only been in Quito, Ecuador for a couple of weeks. I spent the fall semester of 2001 studying abroad in Quito, Ecuador at the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito, campus Cumbaya through Michigan State University. I’d just settled into my classes and life with my wonderful host family, los Caleros. In fact, I’d spent the previous week on a mini vacation in Atacames on the Pacific coast near Esmeraldas with my host parents. They simply wanted to get to know me better. Nothing could have prepared me for the horror of that beautiful Tuesday morning.
I had just woken up and was preparing for the day ahead at USFQ. As I was getting ready in my bedroom, my host Mom, Adriana, yelled for me to come quick. She’d been watching TV in her bedroom as she was getting ready for the day. She watched on TV as the first plane hit the first tower. I thought that it was a horrible accident as many other people did at that point.
After eating breakfast and catching a bus to the USFQ campus, I headed to class. It was there that I began to hear rumors of what had happened in New York and Washington, D.C. I wouldn’t learn the entire story until I had a chance to eat lunch at a small café near the university. There I sat transfixed to CNN Español.
After making my way back to the university for afternoon classes I couldn’t believe the chaos erupting in the hallway housing the study abroad office. USFQ hosted several students from the United States that semester. Unlike me, most were from small liberal arts colleges on the East Coast. Many knew people who worked in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They were seeking information and assuming the worst.
We later had a meeting regarding the attacks and someone placed a huge TV in the lobby of the university. I remember crowds gathering there trying to catch any new piece of information. As soon as possible I headed back to my host parents’ home. I needed reassurance.
Watching the news with my host Mom, it became clear just what had happened. It still doesn’t seem real. At that point I called my parents in Michigan and spoke to my little brother. I simply needed to talk to my family.
9/11 faded into the background of that semester, but it was never completely out of mind. I admit that I thought about what I would do if my plane back to Michigan was hijacked. I also thought about who I would call. Traveling back to Michigan on December 22, 2001 was an adventure all its own.
It was then that I fully understood the impact of what had happened. I saw soldiers in the airports, new security measures were in place, and anxiety was everywhere. In my adventure home, I somehow missed the fact that the incident with the shoe bomber occurred the very same day. My parents would tell me that after the fact. In retrospect, I am glad that I didn’t know.
Early in 2002 I boarded yet another plane. This time my destination was Caceres, Spain where I was to spend yet another semester studying Spanish through the Office of Study Abroad at Michigan State University. I tried to come to terms with the changes taking place in the United States and the fact that I felt less safe as an American. It didn’t work. Some things I experienced in Spain stay with me to this day.
I travelled as much as possible throughout my semester in Spain. Naturally I ended up in southern Spain, which Muslims occupied for over 800 years. In 2002, there were many Pakistani and Afghan immigrants throughout that area of Spain. It was not hard to imagine Muslims occupying that area of Spain.
Later in the semester an anti-Semitic group posted disturbing fliers all around Caceres, angering our large contingent of MSU students. I’d never been exposed to anything like it. I can only imagine what it is like now. If people expressed such blatant hatred openly, how much hatred lay hidden behind closed doors?
Image via Wikipedia
Family’s Meaningful Vacations Make An Impact
Why does the argument made in this article seem so obvious to me? Some of the best educational experiences I’ve had in my life resulted from travel, with or without family. I’m not sure why or how this could be considered a trend. As far as I’m concerned, stretching outside of personal comfort zones (i.e. routine) is one of the primary reasons to take a vacation.
I loved my childhood travel experiences so much that I sought every opportunity for study travel while at Michigan State University. When I use the term study travel, I’m not talking exclusively about formal study abroad opportunities, wonderful as they are. In my personal experience, I also include alternative spring break opportunities, as well as formal internships and co-ops.
I am particularly glad that the article included a discussion of opportunities to volunteer during a family vacation. I find it analogous to my alternative spring break experiences at Michigan State. Quite simply, they were wonderful. As a group, we worked hard during the day volunteering at various locations, including schools, orphanages, etc. During the evening we experienced the best that our locations, Merida and Puebla, Mexico in my case, had to offer. The volunteer work fostered a bond that simple spring break partying could never match. I treasure those memories and would recommend the programs to anyone. The family vacations I loved as a child gave me the courage to seek out new travel opportunities as an adult.
Ultimately it made it easier for me to seek paying internship and co-op opportunities far from home. I spent a summer interning at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota right after the technology bubble burst, and I was fortunate to live and work in Austin, Texas for six months through a co-op with Applied Materials. Given my background, I doubt I would have taken advantage of those opportunities without those earlier experiences of family vacations.
I grew up in Michigan’s smallest city, Omer, Michigan. Most of my family lived and continues to live in Michigan. I attended the same schools my entire childhood, all in the same school district, of course. I even lived in the same house for most of my childhood. I needed change and new opportunities. I am so glad that my parents realized that. Their foresight opened my eyes to the opportunities open to me later in life. For that I am truly grateful!
Image via Wikipedia
Breaking News & My Mixed Feelings | Silly Mom Thoughts
Osama bin Laden‘s death a month ago caused at least a few people to reflect on the last ten years of the War on Terror. I think Lindsay Maddox at Silly Mom Thoughts got it right (see post above). Lindsay is approximately my age. She is right to say that our early adulthood was shaped and overshadowed by 9/11. It is still hard for me to believe that 9/11 happened nearly 10 years ago. At the time I was a 20 year-old student at Michigan State University spending a semester studying Spanish in Quito, Ecuador at la Universidad San Francisco de Quito. I’d only been in Quito for two weeks. I’ll never forget the feeling of helplessness, disconnect, and uncertainty.
I can only hope that we can finally move on as a country. There are countless ways in which we haven’t. The issues that were glaringly apparent that horrible have yet to be addressed. We all have to admit that we are a little less free. It is time to move on.
