Happy Veteran’s Day!  All the banks in town were closed, yet we hospital workers still had to show up.  Huh.

As if four months in Germany wasn’t enough to look forward to (if you’re bored, sometime count how many times I’ve talked about studying abroad in the last two months.  Get a life, Brittney) my family and I will be setting sail on a CRUISE to the Cayman Islands for the new year.  As in, get back home January 4th, fly to Europe January 6th.  I like to stay on my toes, people. 

Some people on Facebook are making their statuses one thing they’re thankful for from now until Thanksgiving.  Since I save my Facebook statuses for stuff that really matters (i.e. GUESS WHAT BITCHES, I’M GOING ON A CRUISE! … okay, it wasn’t exactly like that) perhaps I’ll do it here. 

Today, drumroll please, Brittney is thankful for Caffeine.  Is that lame?  Well, it’s the truth.  That’s been the overlying theme of this lifetime week.  Sometimes people see me bleary-eyed, straight outta bed, puffy eyes/face/snotty-nose, heading to work, and they stare.  Little children scream.  Boys I know on the bus tell me I look tired.  Thank you, young sir, I really thought I look simply as ravishing as I feel at SEVEN-THIRTY IN THE MORNING.

My boss announced at our staff meeting today my LAST DAY AT WORK!!!  December 10th.  I have so many fun countdowns going on right now. 

My best friend Kayla (is it okay that I finally used your name?  I feel the entire blogosphere knew anyway) wants me to tell the world what I once said were my two most hated things in the world: beer pong and the elderly. 

Off to our last PRSSA house meeting of the year.  And then to the Vine with my main IC bitch Lauren.  And I feel a freakish amount of other people I know will also end up there because the Vine is like our place, mannnn.  (I recently saw Fast Times at Ridgement High for the first time, I sincerely apologize.)

A spur-of-the moment trip to UNI to visit primary bestie was in order yesterday afternoon– I took her to a very belated birthday dinner (…at Applebee’s) and we saw Couple’s Retreat.  I thought it was cute and funny and I really wanted to be married afterward (my movie companion said this was quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever uttered which is saying something) and my other friend told me that you don’t need to be married to visit a resort.  WHATEVER.  It wasn’t like drop-what-you’re-doing-and-go-see-this-movie-good, it could definitely be a rental, especially if you get irritated at Vince Vaughn playing quick-talking wise guy character in all of his movies.

Upon my return, I picked up a copy of the Daily Iowan and was briefed on:

1. Dr. Ponseti died (sad– he’s the one who’s foundation we did the 5K for on Friday)

2. If you did not know by now that the Hawkeyes are 7-0 you are just the DUMBEST person on the planet because IS YOUR TEAM RANKED #6 IN THE BCS POLL!?!?  Facebook has become equally unbearable.  Maybe it’s because I was raised quite anti-Hawkeye, but I have yet to jump on the undefeatable bandwagon.  Don’t get me wrong– it’s amazing when we win & I hope we go to infinity and beyond, but the inner-pessimist in me is saying Stop being like this, entire rest of campus– when we lose, your Stanzi is the Manzi face tattoo will seem a bit ridiculous.

3. After a few weeks of relative quiet, some jackasses decided we needed some real fist-to-mouth, trips-to-the-hospital assaults.  Nothing like a girl walking home from downtown and getting jacked in the face by a guy to remind her she’s in Hawkeye country.  You can read about the two downtown assaults here: http://www.dailyiowan.com/2009/10/19/Metro/13733.html

4. The east-side dorms were also not a peach of a place to find yourself if you had to pee at 3 a.m.: http://www.dailyiowan.com/2009/10/19/Metro/13727.html .  Now, I AM NOT CONDONING THE ACTIONS OF THE MALES IN THIS SITUATION, but as a college female who lived in the dorms, I read this and had kind of a “Umm, duh?” moment.  This girl was probably staying with her boyfriend and didn’t want to have to go to a girls’ floor to use the bathroom.  She may have also been from a different school altogether & didn’t have a key to a girl’s bathroom– whatever, lots of possible scenarios.  I can see both sides of this– at 3 a.m. she’s thinking– what guy is going to be in there?  I’ll go fast, even though it’s against the rules, no one will notice.  Note: there are unlocked bathrooms for both sexes on the first floor of all dorms.  It had to be truly terrifying for the lights to go out and all of that to go down, but all I’m saying is: think.  I know the thought of this ever happening never crossed her mind, as it probably wouldn’t mine either, but Iowa City is not the safest place to be.  Regardless if you’re “safe” in a dorm or school building, you can’t control the actions of your (most likely inebriated) peers. 

In closing, I just ran about three miles and am feeling fantastico.  Perhaps I’ll work on some homework… in advance?..so I can enjoy bestie apple brats on Wednesday & family time this weekend?  What a strange concept– we’ll see how it goes…

I’ve been up for approximately two hours and am already going to chalk this day up as an L.

The news of Obama’s winning the Nobel Peace Prize greeted me on my various social networks, with people’s reactions ranging from “Oh.Em.Gee.  Move over Rob Pattinson, Barack Obama is once again the only altar to which I bow” to “I’m going to punch him and the entire Nobel committee in the neck.”  My feelings were somewhere in between on this spectrum, leaning more towards the “Huh. Well whaddya know” but mostly because I remembered that I had pumpkin spice granola in my cabinet and suddenly getting a bowl of that for breakfast became priority numero uno. 

 ANYWAY, after getting the scoop on CNN & reading some people’s commentary, I’ll go ahead and say the whole Nobel Peace Prize thing is a bit premature (snicker, snicker, insert immature joke about ejaculation here).  I love Barry O as much as any other guy (perhaps more if the “other guy” happens to reside in the deep South, my hometown, or is a writer on SNL) but to quote a very limber pelvic-ed man, “A little less conversation/a little more action, please.”  Granted, the only other Nobel Peace Prize winner I could name without Google is Dr. King, so maybe there’s a litany of other winners who have done some so-so stuff and Obama’s win is par for the course. 

IN OTHER NEWS: after polling approximately six people, I dyed my hair.  It did not turn out well.  The following conversation happened yesterday.

Me: So I bought hair dye.  It’s called CinnaStick.

Kayla: Is it red?  Just don’t go red.

Me: No, it’s not red!  It’s called CinnaStick.  It’s just like brown.  And it’s not permanent so it’ll just kinda fade out.

At some point today, I’m going to have to call her back to let her know that in fact my hair IS red and that CinnaStick can go suck it.  Okay, it’s not that bad.  It has like a reddish tint (it didn’t really change much at all) which could also just be blood from my scalp since there was quite the burning sensation when I realized that I’d in fact left it on for FIFTEEN minutes when I was only supposed to leave it on for ten. but I have a completely plausible reason for losing track of time that may or may not involve me NOT WINNING a free burrito on Twitter Trivia AGAIN.

The good news is, it’s supposed to wash out in 28 shampoos (so with my hygiene schedule, it may or may not be back to normal by Christmas… ha.  That was a joke, feel free to guffaw.)

AND FINALLY, it’s Homecoming weekend.  I couldn’t give two shits less EXCEPT that I work all weekend so will get to enjoy absolutely zero of the festivities.  Oh, and we’ll probably be hellaciously busy at work, which I really won’t mind since it makes the time go by super fast EXCEPT then I won’t get to eat my free sandwich til after I get off at nine and I think you all know what happens when I don’t eat every fifteen minutes.

What should I be for Halloween?  Taking any and all suggestions.  Double points if it’s hilarious and half the people who see me won’t get it because it’s super intellectual.  Triple points if it’s half of some sort of pair since the IC bestie and I are obviously going to dress alike (keep in mind he is over six feet tall and has a beard that rivals most Amish.)