super awesome surprise trip to detroit

so on sunday this week, i was making plans with friends for the coming weekend. on monday evening, my dad called and asked if i wanted to go to detroit with them this weekend to hang out with eric and beth and meet the whole wilson gang. half way through a bottle of champagne and totally overwhelmed by the thought of having to figure out flights and work last minute, i declined. on tuesday, however, beth IMed me and convinced me that not only was it feasible, it wouldn't be that hard to plan at all! also, with my newly improved, post champagne thinking abilities, i realized how long it'd been since i'd seen the two of them and how awesome a weekend with family would be. an added bonus was that i'd get to be there as beth tried on wedding dresses. sweet!!! so i confirmed with my boss that i could miss some work, confirmed with my mom their flight info, and bought my tickets! and then on wednesday i canceled my previously-made weekend plans (my friends all forgave me!). today, i get to look forward to an awesome weekend!!! woohoo!!!

intervention

so i don't know how many of you have seen the A&E show called 'intervention.' it's one of my favorites, and all 7 seasons are available to watch instantly on netflix which frequently results in me watching it for hours on end. it's sort of addicting (ironic, right?).

anyway, even if you haven't seen it, you can probably guess the plot: a person who is addicted to something (drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, etc.) has agreed to be in a documentary about their addiction and then, after learning about their life/addiction, their family holds an intervention and asks them to get help (usually 90 days of rehab). the last few minutes of the show are about whether rehab was successful, whether they relapsed, how they're doing now, etc.

i can't really explain why i love the show so much, since so much of it totally grosses me out. i hate episodes where people take intravenous drugs (AHHH NEEDLES!!! GROSS!!!), the episodes about eating disorders (OMG, SERIOUSLY, JUST EAT SOMETHING!!!!), and episodes where vomiting occurs (AHHH VOMIT!!! GROSS!!!). i have to cover my eyes for parts of pretty much every episode, or mute it if someone's puking... *shudders* near the end of every episode i try to guess whether or not the person is going to be successful in their recovery, and i almost always guess that the person's going to do just fine. granger makes fun of me because i'm so optimistic, although he ALWAYS assumes that everyone is going to relapse, which is a little too pessimistic in my opinion... anyway, reality lies somewhere in the middle. sometimes people make amazing recoveries; sometimes it's like they didn't go to rehab at all.

sometime, the show drops a bombshell on you. you spend 45 minutes learning about this person's life, hearing what they and their family has to say about their addiction, starting to care about whether they make it or not, and then BAM, in the last 10 seconds of the show you find out they died. and the way they tell you? black screen, white text saying "oh yeah, by the way, stephanie is dead. oh what's that lying on the floor there? your heart? sorry about that." roll credits. wtf, intervention?!?! why do you make me care about the people on your show and then surprise me with such depressing news right at the end of your show??? sheesh.

but i do enjoy the show, and it also makes me extremely grateful that i and everyone i love have been lucky enough to avoid these sorts of problems. i mean, my brother and sister do have diabetes, which is so totally LAME, but fortunately they are incredibly dedicated to taking good care of themselves and have mostly been able to live normal lives doing what they love to do! if they, or anyone i love for that matter, had to deal with a drug addiction, i'm not sure i could take it.

if you haven't seen intervention, i recommend it. just don't blame me if A&E rips your heart out as you watch it...

20 things to do before 2012

ok, so last year's list of "25 things i want to do before i'm 25," was a big fail (for proof, go here). i'm going to try again this year, although i'm going to make my goals are more achievable to avoid another BIG FAIL. i'm also going to modify it to be only 20 things, and rather than have my birthday as the deadline i'm going to make it December 31, 2011. here goes:

1. Finish knitting the scarf for my mom
2. Visit Monica in Charlottesville
3. Visit Eric & Beth in Alaska
4. Visit Granger in North Carolina
5. Spend a day in Annapolis
6. Spend a day in Harper’s Ferry
7. Travel to a foreign country
8. Read at least 5 books for pleasure
9. Learn and master a new dish (just ONE!)
10. Start learning French
11. Take a class in something fun (read: not school related! something like pottery, wine tasting, or cooking)
12. Be a photographer for a day
13. Go to a cultural event each month
14. Expand my musical horizons
15. Work out 2-3 times per week
16. Lose 10 lbs
17. Finish my MA from American University
18. Get an awesome job that I love
19. Get my own place (where I can have a dog)
20. Get a dog

i think everything on this list is achievable before 2012, although the ones that could potentially give me trouble are the last 3 (since #18 is dependent on accomplishing #17, #19 is dependent on #18, and #20 is dependent on #19). some of these are guaranteed to happen, like #7 (Eric and Beth's wedding in Canada!), but most of them really depend on me motivating myself to get them done. so, will i be able to do it this year???

apology post... and you're welcome

ok, well, from the last few posts you can probably guess how i've been spending most all of my time these past few days... i'm sorry to have bored you with updates about my school work, but now, you can rest assured that what i post will be incredibly, undeniably, UNBELIEVABLY interesting!

today's topic...SOCKS!!!!

so, i date a sock thief. like seriously, it gets to the point where every few months i have to root through granger's sock drawer to find all my socks because all i have left is an unmatched orange and green striped sock and an unmatched fluffy red sock. so i go through his drawer, and there i find a good 15-20 pairs of my socks (along with a pair of my gloves... granger: "but you gave them to me!" brigit: "no i didn't, i just gave up looking for them!") neatly folded up exactly how you'd expect someone in the military to fold socks. something like this:


on the other hand, if you looked in my sock drawer, it would look something like this:


so anyway, i get all my socks and put them back into my dresser. but, whadda know? the next time i wear the socks, i put them in the laundry, they get washed, and then THEY END UP BACK IN HIS DRAWER! he's a sneaky one, that granger...

fortunately for me, i came up with the perfect solution to this problem. i noticed, after careful observation, that granger is only a nice white ankle sock thief. he doesn't touch my colorful socks, and he stays far away from my fluffy socks. so the solution was clear: neon ankle socks! so i got a 6 pack of hot pink, neon green, and bright orange socks:


not so interested in these, are you, granger?

FREEEEEEDOM!!!!!!

• tuesday 11/30 - final presentation on the DRC
• thursday 12/2 - final paper on Timor-Leste (20 pages)
• monday 12/6 - revised research proposal due (10 pages)
• tuesday 12/7 - report on DRC presentation (10 pages)
  
• tuesday 12/7 - final paper on DRC/greed and grievance (15-20 pages)
• thursday 12/9 - final exam in US Experiments in Peacebuilding

progress report...

• tuesday 11/30 - final presentation on the DRC
• thursday 12/2 - final paper on Timor-Leste (20 pages)
• monday 12/6 - revised research proposal due (10 pages)
• tuesday 12/7 - report on DRC presentation (10 pages)
  
• tuesday 12/7 - final paper on DRC/greed and grievance (15-20 pages)
• thursday 12/9 - final exam in US Experiments in Peacebuilding

UPDATE: next 7 days of my life

here's my to-do list for the next 7 days:

• tuesday 11/30 - final presentation on the DRC
• thursday 12/2 - final paper on Timor-Leste (20 pages)
• monday 12/6 - revised research proposal due (10 pages)
• tuesday 12/7 - report on DRC presentation (10 pages)
  
• tuesday 12/7 - final paper on DRC/greed and grievance (15-20 pages)
• thursday 12/9 - final exam in US Experiments in Peacebuilding