BUNNY IS A BALLSY CARD SHARK

I love breakfast and old game shows.

I woke up two hours before my first class this morning so I had plenty of time to indulge in two of my most favorite morning rituals. Making a gigantic bowl of steaming oatmeal and settling back into my bed to watch Card Sharks.

Breakfast is easily my favorite meal of the day and I often find myself eating scrambled eggs with peppers for breakfast and again for dinner. But for early mornings, my go-to snack is oatmeal.

Recently I have been loving oatmeal with pumpkin, cranberries, chopped up almonds and a bit of vanilla soy milk; I can honestly say that it is the most delicious way to wake up in the morning.

While I eat breakfast without fail every morning, it is a very exciting day when I wake up before 7 o'clock and can lay around and watch The Game Show Network. It is a similar feeling to when I get to watch Regis and Kelly on Friday mornings, but I digress, I surely will discuss my deep love for Regis at a later date.

While I am an equal opportunity employer when it comes to game shows that predate 1979, Card Sharks is BY FAR my favorite. The hair, the giant pants, people who are named Bunny (in all seriousness, she won today's episode), and the distinctly 'risque' questions that deal with mid-age hair loss and convicts who may or may not steal hotel towels (only 35 out of 100, in case you were wondering) all add to the ambiance that is CARD SHARKS.

I'm going to my aqua-aerobics class this afternoon, maybe I'll ask some of my swim-capped comrades if they have seen this episode.

Would You Like a Medal or a Cookie?

Hipster #1, coming to a sudden realization: "Is everyone at this table applying for grad school?"

Unfortunately, over the course of the past 3 months, I have become a card-carrying member of this aforementioned club.

These past 3 months have felt like an eternity, but the upside to 'applying to grad school' is that most people seem to think that 'applying to grad school' is an appropriate, if not exceptional, use of my time.

I think that this is absolute crap. Sure, there are a few essays involved in the process, but essentially it is just writing your name repetitively on different sheets of paper. This being said, it gets people off of my back when it comes to the question of 'what are you going to do with the rest of your life?'

Regardless of how silly I think all this is, I couldn't help but getting a little amped-up over the entire process. So I compiled this list of things that make me smile:

dressing like a grandma (note my new 'leopard' jacket)

eggs (in all forms) and wine in cute red bottles

my cloud-like bed that I literally LIVE in

carmex, smart water and wonderfully trashy television

beautiful spring days that surely will be around the corner and soaking up the last bits of eclecticism before graduation

Timing is Everything

"...and as you held the door, you wanted to know my name, timing is everything...."

While most people have no reference point to place the line above (which is blasphemy in my opinion. Country Strong. Go see it and report back) I think that most people can agree with its intention. Timing is everything in this world.

Just yesterday I was griping to two of my professors about wanting to find a 'cool' news story to cover. A house on fire, a baby being saved by some sort of duck-billed platypus, shoot, even a profile piece on a Zamboni driver would be breaking news in this two-bit town.

But, while they were in the midst of ridiculing me for asking such a dumb question, (their point being that I should be able to make anything seem interesting, and if I can't, I'm not doing my job correctly) they imparted a total GEM of wisdom upon me. 'If something makes you look twice, take a picture, 15 minutes of footage and have a little chat with the person'

The idea swirled around in my brain for the rest of the afternoon, mainly while I wasn't paying attention during the aforementioned 'brilliant' professors lecture, but I digress. It was such a simple idea, yet so applicable.

I have been struggling for months now to come up with good story topics, good things to take photos of, etc. and all I had to do was pay attention to what I already saw every day!

So, as I emerged from the crumbling walls of the J-school and out into the strangely sunny quad of campus, timing struck again.

I happened upon a totally normal looking human playing his violin on campus. I took a second look, and scampered off towards my apartment to get my gear.

Moral of the story: some people really are smarter than me.

The Dash

Someone recently asked me if I had ever heard of a dash before, the sarcasm was palpable. My response returned nothing less, 'those horizontal lines I see all the time in books? Nope, never heard of 'em.'

With graduation quickly approaching, this seemingly mundane remark got my gears turning. Truth be told, after four years of college, with a journalism degree no less, I still don't know exactly how to use a dash.

This confusion didn't last long, I generally don't like not knowing things (more to come on this later, I'm sure) I quickly went home and dug out an old style-guide and now I am the proud owner of a new piece of knowledge.

But this got me thinking, what other seemingly mundane things don't I know, understand, comprehend, etc. I like to think of myself as an educated member of this society, but I have no idea how to roast a chicken! To err on the side of sexism (which frequently do), how can I be a twenty-something woman and not know how to roast a chicken! In the old days I would have had a baby in each arm while somehow deftly fixing an elegant meal for my husband and family.

That being said, as I graduate from my apartment in my sleepy/fratty/hippy, little college town and into a similarly small apartment in a slightly less sleepy/fratty/hippy, urban environment, I look forward to learning new skills that hopefully will propel me along my quest to becoming a real-life human.