Rainbows apologize for angry skies

While I was in Spokane, Haddock and I had lunch at a Jimmy Johns. This was my first time inside the store so I was amused by the funny signs all over. Not only were there funny signs, but there were also some serious ones. The one by our table said "Proper apologies has have three parts: 1.What I did was wrong. 2. I feel bad that I hurt you. 3.How can I make this better." I thought that was a sign a lot of people should see. Many people thing "I'm sorry but..." is acceptable. It's not. The person you're apologizing to will only hear what comes after the "but". Recently I received a blanket apology for the way someone was acting in general. I didn't really know how to respond. Yes the behavior hurt me and it's good that it [the behavior] was acknowledged, but how can it be made better? I don't know.

3pm Christmas Day

"What do you want for your birthday?" This is not an uncommon statement. Everybody hears it once a year. The uncommon part for me is that I hear it as soon as Christmas presents are done being opened.

My birthday is on January 2nd. 8 days after Christmas. In my household there's 3 birthdays in a two week period. First is my sister on December 19th, 6 days later Jesus throws a big party for the world, and then we conclude on the 2nd with me. Also one of my best friends has her birthday on New Years day. Needless to say we're busy partying for two weeks around here.

When I was younger I felt a little jipped that my birthday was a week after Christmas. I always felt like my birthday got lumped in with the 25th. To a certain extent that's true as I still open some of my birthday gifts on Christmas day, although that is more due to the fact that people like to see your face when you open a gift that they got for you. I have only once had a birthday on a school day which can now be appreciated, but then it was annoying. No one ever remembered my birthday. Facebook has since remedied this though.

Now I do not have qualms with my early January birthday. Except when New years day falls on a weekend. Then my birthday is a national holiday and everything is closed. The only problem and it's very minor is I never know what to ask for. I usually get everything that I wanted for Christmas. So I'm asking for help: What do I want for my birthday?

Do Not Pick Up Hitch Hikers

That was a sign along the side of the road as I drove home today. When I saw it I thought to myself "Huh, is that a problem around here?" I saw a man walking by the side of the road and though "Oh, I guess it is." It wasn't until I got home and sat down to write this post that I remembered I was driving by a prison in Connell... Good thing I didn't pick up that nice looking man, huh? 

Today is my sister's 23rd birthday! Happy Birthday Sara! I'm very happy Vancouver again. I'm home and I get to enjoy some quality time with my family which is always fun. The tree is up, the house is decorated, my mom is making my favorite kind of cookies with the help of a special little helper named Samara Marie and my dog is cuddling my foot as I write. Yes, I'm glad to be home after the long, and very foggy, drive from Spokane. 

Speaking of Spokane I feel like the events that transpired after my last post are too exciting to not write about. Thursday: Actually with in minutes of finishing my last post I went to an urgent care because I was experiencing some post-concussive symptoms that my doc told me to watch out for. So I drove off to Urgent care while Haddock was at a play and Vector was at work. I got to urgent care and they sent me to the hospital for a ct scan. So off to Holy Family Hospital I went. Haddock met me there with all of her friends just as they took me back. When the nurse at the reception desk told Haddock she could go back with me she bolted down the hallway screaming "Molly" after me. It was really weird to hear my real name come out of her mouth. They put me in a trauma room so that was kind of scary. Then a nurse who was covering for my nurse came in took all my vitals and asked me some questions. He then informed me that my "much younger and much more attractive" nurse was on his break and would be coming in later. Of course as soon as he said that Nurse Matt walked in. "See, isn't he more attractive?" the other nurse asked me? He wouldn't leave me alone until I told him that he was... After a little bit an imaging tech came to get me for my cat scan. I attempted to get up but she said "You get to ride" When she wheeled me out I said "Is it frowned upon to say 'wheeeeeeeeee!'" so that should give you an idea of what kind of mood I was in. Upon getting back Haddock and I decided to take some pictures: 

 

Oh Hey... I'm in the Hospital

See, Ace? I'm fine...

"Is this going to go on facebook?" No... 

 After taken the first picture Haddock put it on facebook and camp chillins started asking what I did. I told Haddock to make up something ridiculous. The following comments were made: 

Ummmmm 'scuse me guys? Did you really believe I would climb up someone else's inflatable penguin? Anyways, my CT came back clear and I have post-concussive syndrome. So all that means is my brain is a little rattled and I can't have alcohol until I "feel like myself again". In and out. The worst part was I couldn't remember my name when I was being discharged. 

Friday: Haddock and I went ice skating with Goggs and Onee. That was a blast. I didn't fall or vom(it). Normally I wouldn't be concerned about vomiting but nausea is a symptom of post concussive syndrome. Here are some adorable photos of us:

Don't I look so happy to be there?

 

Goggs! You're such a creep!

Saturday: WE GOT TO SEE ACE! We kidnapped ace as soon as we woke up. Then we had breakfast at a place in Cour d'Alene that was featured on Diners, Dives, and Drive Ins! So delicious! After that we wrote snarky comments on some of Ace's momma's students work. Then we headed to Spokane for the Hockey game. Cheifs vs. Winterhawks. Hawks won 8-6. Those are my boys! It was so cool, we sat behind the penalty box! I've never been that close to the ice at a WHL game so that was really exciting.

Such good seats!

Those are my boys!I got made fun of for taking this picture...

We made matching sweaters! Well they made matching sweaters and I made Hawks sweater.

Sunday: Haddock and I spent all day in Starbucks. The Persephone came over and we played Taboo. After Persephone left we stayed up ALL the night (a-wink Haddock) and then today I drove home. Stay tuned for more break updates. I've got some potentially distressing things going on so I'm sure you'll hear about that.

Ridiculously yours, Molly Marie

As free as the wind blows

I'm done for the semester! I was actually done yesterday but I haven't had internet since I'm in Spokane visiting Haddock and Vector. So I am sitting in Starbucks sippin' on a peppermint mocha. Last night Cheez-It got to Haddock and Vector's house and we played a game of Taboo. Vector and I lost. I think mostly we laost because we were laughing too hard. Example: I had the card "laughing" I can't remember what the words I couldn't say were but We were already laughing from the last description I gave so I said "What are you doing right now?" "Annoying you!" was Vector's answer. Ohhhhhh my goodness I couldn't stop laughing long enough to say what am I doing right now. Fortunately I did calm down long enough for her to get it. Another gem was when I guessed brass knuckles instead of engagement ring. Mayhaps I have a bit of an aggressive streak. This morning we got up (I was of course the last one awake) and Haddock offered to make us pancakes. Well, I guess she offered to make Cheez It and me pancakes because Vector doesn't like them and she had already eaten. Then we went to see Jo-Dan at work. We may or may not have wasted an hour and a half of her time. Then Haddock and I went to lunch at Jimmy Johns: The Holy Grail of Sandwhich Shops. Apparently she had never been there. After that we went back to her house and I'm now here because she has had plans with friends for this night for about a month.

Two days until I get to see ACE! I am so excited. It's very hard to have your best friend live 3000 miles away. Fortunately things like the internet and text messages make it possible for us to be in pretty much constant contact. On Saturday we're going to a hockey game. Normally I root for the home team no matter where I am, but this time my home team is playing the Cheifs. So you can bet that I'll be wearing my Winterhawks hat. :) Speaking of Winterhawks, I still haven't sent that letter. And speaking of letters I haven't sent (do you remember when I was talking about not being able to decide if I was going to send one or not?) there is still one addressed to someone sitting on my desk in Pullman. It it ever gets sent it won't be until after Christmas break. I just don't think I'm going to send it ever.

And on that note, I failed my blogging challenge. December was a bad time to issue that...Finals+Christmas Break+Lack of Internet= Bound to fail. See you in a few days probably.

Ridiculously yours, Molly Marie

blog challenge interrupted by finals.

Study study finals finals rant. More later.

And then there were finals

This one is short guys. Today was the last day of classes until January 9th. I saw a friend who I hadn't seen for a while, I went to group dinner and I kidnapped Eleanor, who bought me a Han Solo frozen in carbonate silicone ice cube tray. Needless to say I have a chocolate Han Solo in my freezer right this moment. I have some pretty sweet photos from tonight too. Some of those:

The first Han I made.

"You look like you're evil like 'I'm going to take over the Universe! Go Cougs'"

Driving Eleanor home... Still in my snuggie

Thuggie in my Snuggie

Go Cougs and Winterhawks!

Winterhawks, Cougs, Dinosaurs. Win.

Hipster Makes it Harder

In October I started seeing some flashes of red light in the corner of my eye. No big deal, someone must have been taking a picture in the library for a project. I got up and left because the flashes were bothering me. So I moved to my favorite secret room on campus to continue killing time before my next class. The flashes continued. "Huh maybe I should call Dad about that." I thought to myself. I called my dad and he told me not to worry about it. Two days later he called me and left a voice mail about how this could be serious and I should call my eye doc in Pullman. I got the voice mail after hours and I decided to call the next day. That is until I went temporarily blind in my left eye. I called the eye doc and he asked me to have someone drive me to Clarkston where he lives and has his other office. Eleanor and I were hanging out and I called Jarrod and asked for help. He and Jamie came and got me at my apartment and we were off. Turns out my eye was fine but could be in danger of getting a hole in my retina. So watch out for those symptoms and come back in three weeks for a check up. Two days before my check up, I started having symptoms again. This time Katie took me. She doesn't know how to drive stick shift so I rode shot gun and instructed "clutch" when she needed to shift and I shifted for her. She did great. Same thing with my eye again. So they set an appointment for today.

I don't know if any of you have ever had your eyes checked, but you're not supposed to drive yourself if they're going to dilate your eyes. So once again I asked Jarrod if he would be willing to drive me today. He graciously agreed to take me to my appointment. My eye is fine and the symptoms have stopped so yay for that. Today's post is about the adventure Jarrod and I had. You see Jarrod's car had a flat tire this morning, so when he came to get me we took mine and decided to deal with his after I got my clean bill of health. It took an hour to put on the spare. I'm not sure if the process was helped or hindered by my presence... Probably hindered as all I had to contribute to it was snarky comments and documenting it in photos and a video that I have been expressly forbid from sharing with you. I do however have permission to show you the pictures. So without further ado I give you Jarrod: The man, the myth, the legend.

Hipster Jarrod is excited to change the tire!

This may prove to be more of a challenge than previously expected

I see we have shed the hipster attire 

Ah, this has become easier

I think he was laughing at something snarky

How does the jack work?

Like this!

You can't see it, but this is when it was almost  high enough to get the tire off.

Yes, that took an hour. Mostly because while Jarrod was taking off the flat, the car fell off the jack. So he had to jack it up again so he could take the tire off and put the spare on. I would also like to point out that things went much faster once Jarrod molted his hipster skin. All in all I had a pretty fun day with Jarrod. He still owes me cookies though. Mmm cookies.

Ridiculously yours, Molly Marie

P.S. Did you catch it?

My Name is Molly Shanks, and I Don't Approve of this Message.

It doesn't make sense that I am free to like brownies and I can't drink until I'm 21. Those two are totally connected right? This evening, Rick Perry's new campaign ad was brought to my attention. Take a look for yourself. It's really very offensive to me.

People of same sex orientation serving openly in the military, has absolutely NOTHING to do with prayer in school. Not only that, but the US Constitution explicitly separates church and state. Public schools are the state portion of church and state. Unlike Rick Perry, I have read the Constitution. Even though this ad bothers me, I recognize his right to free speech. 

An Open Letter

Hi there,

I've never written a fan letter before so you'll have to bear with me. The 'how to" guide I've consulted tells me that I'm supposed to tell you the basics about myself. I guess the's to humanize me... My name is Molly, but you knew that if you read the envelope. I'm 19...20... it seems wrong to say I'm 20 when I won't be for another 3 weeks but at the same time I'm not really 19. I'll go ahead and call it 19¹⁹/₂₀ (which does not reduce). I live in Pullman, WA for most of the year but I also call Vancouver, WA home because that's where I grew up.

My handy guide tells me that now I should tell you that I admire your work and what exactly I like about it. This is where the letter becomes two-fold. Yes, you are a hockey player. Not only are you a hockey player but you're a hockey player on my favorite team. So I do really admire that and I try to see a game every time I'm in town.

More than your talent on the ice, which is tremendous by the way. I really admire your writing. I love reading your blog. Every post is either thought provoking or elicits laughter from me, As a stressed out college student who writes her own blog I really appreciate this. I'd like to commend you on breaking the dumb jock stereotype. Anyone who can use the word ineptitude correctly and maintain proper grammar while writing late at night is anything but dumb in my book. So keep up the good work.

Thanks for reading, have a great day, and go Hawks go!

Molly Shanks

Tales from camp

This summer I worked at a Girl Scout camp as a counselor. I pretty much had the best summer of my life. I'm feeling a little bit homesick for camp lately so I thought I'd use this caffeine-driven time frame of wakefulness (there is no antonym for coma in case you were wondering what that jumble of ill-fitting word salad was) to good use and talk about camp! I spent from June 22nd to August 20th working for Camp Four Echoes. It was the best summer of my life so far. I got paid to go to summer camp. I was always the kid who wanted to spend more time at camp, I wish I had been clever enough to hide when my parents came to get me like my boss did when she was a camper.

When I first got to staff training, I had been driving for 3 hours after spending the night at my roommates' house in the Tri-Cities. The night before I had driven 3 and a half hours. We arrived at the girl scout office and met the people we were going be spending then next 8 and a half weeks with. I was scared. I was almost sure I wouldn't fit in with the other staff and I would be that one weird kid every group has. Well turns out that I couldn't hold a candle to some of these guys' weird. I'm looking at you Goggs. As staff training went on the closer we got. That's how I became close with Haddock and Vector. I don't think I got particularly close to anyone else at start of staff training (before we actually moved to camp) because we were all sort of testing the waters with each other. Except for me and Haddock. I think it took us like 4 days to establish we're the same person.

After moving out to camp we were all sleeping in the woods and eating food cooked outside. That really bonds people together. Is that why people go camping? I love camping but some of my friends who for the sake of this post shall remain nameless (I'll give you a hint, his name rhymes with sharrod). And when you have to go for a hike to take a shower... the motivation is not exactly high. Especially when everybody else looks and smells like you. So that really helped with the bonding. Even after staff training I wasn't close with the people that I call "my people" with the exception of Haddock who was in my cabin for the livin' in the woods with no close showers portion of training.

After a short break between training and camp starting we had our first session, and while it was not the worst session of the summer... it was very difficult. I had a camper who choked another, one who wouldn't walk, and one who cried at everything. By the last day were were tired of it. We had about 14 campers and 2 of them refused to go on our last hike. Ace and I decided to stay with the two girls in our unit and ask admin staff for help. During staff training we had established a radio call for if we needed admin help: gator aid. So I got on the radio:
Me: "Sunny to Gem."
Harmony: "Harmony to Sunny what's up?"
Me: "We need some gator aid in singing pines."
Harmony:"Ok let me see what I can do."
I wasn't there for this next part but I'm told this is how it went-
Harmony: I need gator aid for singing pines
Haddock: I don't have any... but I have lemonaid
Harmony got back on the radio-
Harmony: "I can do lemonaid."
Sunny thinking it was a code word: "What's lemonaid?"
Harmony: "It's lemons, and water, and sugar, and you drink it"
Sunny: "I NEED A MEMBER OF ADMIN IN MY UNIT NOW!"
Harmony: "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'll be right there!"

And that was this weeks fun story from camp. As well as my first bonding moment with Ace who is in fact one of "my people". :)

What's Beethoven's favorite fruit?

BANANANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Sometimes I think as soon as you set out to do something it becomes harder. For example, the other day I set out to blog every day this month. I had already completed a post fr every day in December, albeit it was on the 4th... Anyways I thought it couldn't be too hard to do. Wrong! There's this thing that kicks in when I have pressure to do something. Writers block. I spent 15 minutes staring at the blank new post page... and another 15 in between this sentence because I'm watching the Mike Leach press conference right now. Writer's block sucks guys. I should be writing a paper for my class actually. So I think that's all for now.

Ridiculously yours, Molly Marie

A Very Productive Sunday.

Around 2 I got a text from Jarrod. "Wanna come to resonate today? 5:00" I had mixed feelings about this message. First of all, I had only been awake for a little over an hour and I hadn't left my bed yet. A fairly typical Sunday for me. Second of all, I wasn't sure I wanted to drag myself out of my apartment to listen to a pastor I was unfamiliar with and be in a big room full of people I didn't know. Sometimes it's a struggle to get me to go to things with a room full of people I DO know. After a few minutes of contemplation on what would be the better choice for me to make I sent back "Yes please". After all I wasn't the one who had to drive and I didn't have to sit by myself so giving it a shot couldn't be that bad.

I neglected the book report that's due on Wednesday and wrote some of the book I'm working on. Of course I watched How I met Your Mother while writing. So 4:10 rolled around and I played another episode making it 4:30 before I decided to get ready for Jarrod picking me up at 4:45. Scramble on. I look in the mirror and notice my bangs are sticking straight up. Super. I jammed a headband over my bangs and ran out the door because Jarrod was there.

After stopping for coffee we arrived at the Schweitzer Event Center where Resonate was held for the very last time. I always feel like I'm walking into things at weird times. "Oh this is our last meeting here this is so emotional..." Yeah, I don't have any connection to this, like at all, so I'll just sit here an be awkward. As for the actual service, that was pretty par for the course. Sing a few songs, listen to the speaker, pray, sing a few more songs. Then comes the hardest part for someone who's akin to the socially awkward penguin... Socialization time. I knew Jarrod annnnnd that's it. I followed him like a puppy with him occasionally looking over his shoulder to make sure he hadn't lost me. Jarrod knows a lot of people.

I think I'm going to go to Resonate a few more times before I make a judgement call on how I feel about it. Stay tuned for more.

Ridiculously yours, Molly Marie

Challenge Accepted

I've issued myself a challenge for the month of December. I want to write a post every day. I will be writing not just about my day but about whatever provokes my thoughts. Possible topics include:

-Church 

-Dead Week

-Finals Week

-Christmas

-Hockey

-My Best Friends

-A teaser of what I'm working on (if you're lucky)

-Book recommendations

-Familial Relationships

-Laundry

-My Roommates

-My Dependence on Electronics

-Awkward things I do, or my friends do

- Whatever else tickles my fancy

That's all for now. More tomorrow.

Ridiculously yours, Molly Marie

Canada Oh Canada...

When I was 12 my brother and I were visiting family on San Jaun Island. While walking around downtown we noticed the site above. Now, Jake and I had never been to Canada and we still haven't. This didn't stop us from re-writing the first line of their national anthem and continuing in a different tune with other less than flattering things about the nation. I'm not sure where I developed my taste for making jokes about America's "hat" as I call Canada, but I do enjoy a good Canada joke. All of this is in good fun and I actually think a lot of things about Canada are cool. Mostly its favorite sport and the players it produces. Just kidding... kind of.

Anyways, every time I think about Canada I think about that story and how much I love my brother. The bonding moments are far between, but I love them. On thanksgiving we bonded in the fact that we had to spend time with our father's wife. We spent a little time putting together his application to Wazzu; I am SO excited for when he's in Pullman too. After we did that I introduced him to The Oatmeal, specifically the comic on thanksgiving which is hilariously crude. We laughed really hard but of course couldn't share why we were laughing with the family because well, my grandparents are Evangelical Quakers.

Flexing with my brother in Oneonta Gorge

After the actual meal was one of my favorite moments with Jake. I showed him the best of socially awkward penguin. We read through the list and we got to one and I started laughing a little when Jake said "I do that all the time!" I lost it. I couldn't believe my cool little brother did something on a socially awkward penguin meme. I laughed really hard at that. My laughter fueled Jake's laughter. At this point we were laughing loud enough to interrupt the conversation between my dad and grandpa. "What are you two laughing at?" Came from the other side of the room. I looked up to answer and I just kept laughing. I couldn't breathe and the harder I tried to gain my composure to explain the more I laughed. Eventually Jake got a hold of himself and told my dad why I was crying from laughter.

Moral of the story? Laughter and bonding with my brother are some of the best parts of being home. I'm excited to see Jake again in about two weeks.

 Ridiculously yours, Molly Mari

Well, that was embarrassing.

Tonight I got to spend some time with Eleanor which is pretty rad. We went to Denny's on our midnight adventure. Our waiter was named Quinn and he managed to make me blush. I have a very unfortunate habit of playing with my silverware. Well our waiter was clearing our plates and he reached for the knife I was twirling and I guess I just didn't expect it because my hand jumped back as soon as his hand was on the knife. He smiled, laughed and said "Oh, I'm sorry. I could leave it if you still want to play with it." I was so embarrassed! I half laughed at myself and said "Oh no, that's ok" while breaking eye contact with him. He earned himself a generous tip though...

That guy is lucky I'm only passive aggressive.

I have some road rage. If you've ever been in my car, reading this may not surprise you. I'm not an aggressive driver per se, I don't drive too fast (except for when I got that speeding ticket on I-84), I don't cut people off, I don't lay on the horn, and I don't tailgate. I mostly just get mad and shout inappropriate things inside the safety of my car. Unless one of my darling roommates unrolls the window because she has forgotten that I scream unbecoming things at people who I, in my road rage, deem to be less than intelligent in how they are driving, and or are crossing the street. In this particular case there were about four "bros" walking in the middle of my already very narrow residential street with cars parked on either side. I digress...

This morning the road rage started early as Katie, the aforementioned roommate, had asked me on Wednesday if I would drive her to a building on campus to return all of her ROTC gear. I Agreed but told her that it would have to be at 8:30 because I had a quiz at 10. So I got up at 8 in order to wake up a little before driving on campus because both the drivers and the pedestrians are of the opinion that they are invincible, and while I know this is not true, I am still liable if I hit them with my metal death trap. Katie packed up her gear and we were out the door. I was in an extraordinarily good mood considering I was awake an hour and a half earlier than I needed to be and had gotten little sleep. I opened the door of my apartment and took a breath of fresh air, yes it was going to be a good day. Then, I saw it. I saw the car wedged between mine and another. Had he pulled up 5 inches further he would have taken my drivers side mirror off.

I was not happy. At all. My mood had previously been high. I instantly began swearing and then remembered my whole building didn't need to be woken up because of this ass-hat. I kicked his tire and walked around to the passenger side so I could crawl into my seat. To make matters worse because there is a ridiculous curb on my cul de sac (which is not one word but Blogger is telling me it's spelled incorrectly either way...I blame the French) I had to preform a 6 point turn to make it onto the street. So upsetting.

Fortunately, this tale of morning road rage has a hilarious ending. As I mentioned earlier, I'm the kind of driver who keeps a commentary of other drivers, and pedestrians. I came to an intersection on Stadium way and I needed to make a left turn. The driver across Stadium way also needed to make a left turn but I couldn't see his turn signal upon reaching the intersection. I slowly crept forward and saw his turn signal. "Why don't you go while I go?" I said to the handsome driver who could not hear me from across the street and in his own car. We both began to turn. "Good boy." I said when he had done exactly what I had told him to. He must have been able to read lips and had very good eye sight because I earned a very strange look from him. Which of course made me giggle till I got home.

Ridiculously yours, Molly Marie

A day that I didn't wake up for.

I was going to write about not liking being touched, and decided not to. Then I was going to write about avoiding people, once again I decided not to. Instead I will write about my day.

I woke up at 2 pm. FAIL. I even set an alarm. And then I worked on studying until about 4:30 when I took a shower. After I got dressed I did some laundry and contemplated sending a letter I wrote, it's sitting on my desk so that's how that went. Then I picked up Eleanor for cru.

That was the best part of my day. I don't think I've been to cru for a month. It was really nice to see people I haven't seen and of course hear somethings that I probably needed to hear. And of COURSE I got to hang out with ELEANOR! Sorry I got a little excited there.