Read to feel better about yourself

This weekend was one of irony.

I'm a very thrifty person. I could say cheap, but that has negative connotations. I like this trait about myself, so we're gonna go with thrifty. The word is even more appropriate because the weekend I finally decided to truly commit to my "thrift store pledge:" I, Danielle Gehman, being of sound mind and body, do pledge to shop for "new" clothes solely at second-hand stores, in so far as that's possible, for one entire year. (Of course, for some things it ain't possibly. And Lima has no second-hand stores that I know of.) I was proud of myself for resisting a whole heap of things I wanted to buy when my mom and I went shopping on Saturday.


That's not the pathetic part. Later after all that carefulness, also on Saturday, I was cleaning out a drawer in which I typically put papers and things, and I found a check, void and uncashed from a job I worked in 2007. This is the face I used when I took it back to the store to beg for mercy and was hardheartedly rejected:

I don't want to discuss the amount. You can probably see it if you click on the picture. Let's just say that in my a minimum wage job it took me a couple weeks to make this. I would like to pretend this is an isolated incident, but I'm infamous in my family and among my friends for losing/ forgetting things.

I tried cheering myself up with things like, "Think how blessed you must be that the fact that that check wasn't cashed didn't mean a bill unpaid or a child unfed."

It didn't work very well.

Then I went to the thrift store and bought these pair of Converse for 4 bucks:


But I still feel only slightly consoled.

Of course, tales of stupid things that you've done might cheer me up....

My audio education of anti-American debunkment

Debunking? Debunkification?

As I've been puttering around today, looking out the windows at sights like the above, and preparing for a get together we're having at the house tonight, I've been listening to the audio version of Don't Know Much about American History by Kenneth C. Davis. Drier than I expected, but still worthwhile. It's not really anti-American, actually, but I know the value of a good buzzword.

Join me in disillusionment:

Nathaniel Hale, martyr of the American cause, probably didn't say "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." An invention of the good ol' free press, likely.

Paul Revere got so far on his midnight ride as to warn Hancock and Adams in Lexington that "The regulars are coming out!" (not even the British regulars? c'mon Revere) but was then captured by British patrol and never actually made it to Concord. Boo.

Betsy Ross probably didn't have much to do with the first flag. The story comes from her grandson, William J. Canby. But then, why ever would a family member fabricate a story to make his family part of a successful revolution's legends?

George Washington didn't chop down a cherry tree, and he probably was too harsh to be very well-loved by his men in general. Just by his more well-fed officers. Sheesh.


I have picked up some fun tidbits, however:


Benedict Arnold was considered an American hero for assisting in the Battle of Saratoga which turned the tide of war. There's still a statue of his boot there. Poor dude, he just felt under-appreciated....

As Washington set out across the Delaware on Christmas Day in a boat with Harry Knox, he said "Shift that fat ass, Harry, but don't swamp the damn boat."

Several women really did manage to dress up as men and pass themselves off in the Continental army. Mary Scaberry did until she came down with a fever and was discovered. She was dismissed for "Sexual incompatibility and fever."

There ya are. Pass those around at parties.

Apologies to my non-American blog friends, who may or may not have known what these refer to. I value you!

The Tube of Me: Dan and Dan

And now it's time for another edition of...

I know, it's been quite awhile since I did the last (and first) of these, but don't fear, more to come.

Dan and Dan is one of the newest of my vlog channel discoveries on YouTube, and I absolutely adore it. I'm not always one for British comedy. I do like dry comedy, but sometimes it's so dry that it just gets caught in my throat, I can't quite digest it, and I'm left saying "Did I just eat something?" (Or maybe, Did I take that metaphor too far?) But Dan and Dan, for me, has that extra spark of cleverness that you really need to pull off subtle, downplayed humor. (that's like the fifth time I've meant to type "Dan" and accidentally typed "Dani." Oops. Six.) Something like Flight of the Concords, if you're a fan.

Scurry up top and watch it now, if you haven't.

Back so soon? So as you've seen, it's really only one guy. This is one of the best of his skits and songs, but what you can't see is that he generally plays up two separate personalities in his videos. And sometimes you need to know the characters to get it. But I just never get tired of one Dan criticizing the other Dan's looks or childhood or something. I know, it doesn't sound too original on the surface but...

May I also recommend the palindromic sketch , the Wikileaks Christmas song , and Miner Conspiracy .


Are those of you in the northeast states having a lovely 20th snowstorm?

I'll pursue it with forks and hope

It was torture tearing myself away from my friends in MA this time, much worse than I remember it being the first time I left. I'm still happy about my decision to return to Peru, but a big part of me wanted to just sleep on the mattress on the floor of Mel's room all semester. I'm sure her roommate would've loved that as well.

But I couldn't mooch off meal points and oatmeal forever, so here I am again. Suitcase still packed on my own floor.

I've decided that one of the projects I'm going to take up to keep me from intense boredom in these last three weeks before I head back to Peru is The Hunting of the Perfect Grad School. I do indeed tend to "press the snooze button on life," as a wise old facebook sticker once described post-grad education. (whatever happened to facebook stickers? Is it no longer cool to send trite, witty, cute, and unoriginal sayings to your distant acquaintances? Except "penguin slap" of course. That was genius.) Bonus points (umm...in the game of life?) if you know what the title references, by the way.

So I was the girl that started searching for colleges freshman year of high school, but I'm finding this search much less exciting. Probably because I'm going to be entirely on my own dime on this one, which means I have to worry about tuition and scholarships and teacher assistantships and paying off student loans until I'm 40. Wait, I'll be in education, so make that 50.

I really hope that was an exaggeration.

But I found good news this morning: my former participation in an Americorp program means that many universities will waive my application fee! It may seem small, in the scheme of things, but it feels like the universe wants me to succeed.

Some schools I'm investigating:

My friend's boyfriend tried to get us into the education building at BU on Saturday night, but all we really saw were janitors leering at us from inside the locked doors.

Suggestions for grad school hunts, or suggestions for MA in TESOL programs? (I should figure out some way to sort of hint at these questions instead of asking them outright, cause for some reason people just shy away from answering direct question. Y'all's behavior patterns are very strange.)

These images aren't mine, obviously. But they probably originally came from publicity shots, so I'm thinking they won't mind.

Oh for the snowy days of my youth!

When you grow up in a state that gets snow on a regular basis, I think there often comes an age of indifference. Probably not to the beauty, and definitely not to the inconvenience, but more specifically to the fun of snow.

It's been a good nine years or so since my reaction to a snowstorm was "Oh boy! Let's go outside and build a fort!" Now I sound more like, "How fairytale-like it is outside the window! Hot chocolate and a movie/book please."

But in this latest snow in MA (which I'm very happily still in at the moment) I got in a good winter frolic. And even better, as a group of us were attempting some sledding down a semi-hill:

a woman in an SUV pulled up and said that she was an alum of the college we go to, had a house right up here with hot chocolate in it, and would be very happy for us to come play in her backyard.

Would you even think to make such a kind gesture? Not me. Feeling like a real part of the community, we took her up on the offer and so had a lovely romp with her playset, children, and dogs.

The kids reminded me of the days when "Watch me jump off this swingset into the snow!" sounded like a good idea.

And she even made good on the hot chocolate.

Guest Blogger: Trish on prunes and Uggs

First off- hello!

Was that too formal?

My name is Trish (from Life from a college kid), and the lovely Dani has asked me to present a guest blog. Her and I discussed options of what to write about, one of which being prunes:

We always have a bottle of prune juice in the fridge at home which is only consumed by my father. Every morning he walks (stumbles sleepily) down the stairs, slugs over to the fridge, and flings the door open. After standing mindlessly in the cold air for a few minutes, he grabs the bottle of prune juice, twists off the top, and takes a long swig straight from the bottle. It annoys me every time he does it, because I NEVER drink out of the bottles. But then I remember that it’s prune juice, and then I’m not annoyed anymore.

The End

Yes, I too realized that an entry on prunes would be a terribly short entry. And posting this story would probably embarrass my father.

You never heard this story, got it?

So I decided to post about something more.. in the moment. Actually, something that got to me today in class. As Dani has figured out through intensive studying (otherwise known as stalking), I attend Penn State University. It’s a wild place to be, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Topic: Ugg’s

I do not own a pair of Ugg’s, because I personally do not find them attractive. They are bulky and boxy and Ugg-ly. (Get it? Did you get that joke? It’s okay if you didn’t, it was pretty well blended.) Anyway. Ugg’s are very popular up here in the mountains of Pennsylvania, because it does get very cold, and from what I have heard, Ugg’s are very warm. However, I have also heard that Ugg’s are very expensive. For someone who can’t pay more than $30 for a pair of shoes, the outrageous average price of $200 for a pair of weird looking boots is just baffling. (After a bit of research, I also now know that Ugg’s are one of Oprahs favorite things of 2010.)

Now, if I were to pay this much for a pair of shoes, I would try to keep them as nice as possible.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PENN STATE GIRLS?

Lesson 1: Suede + Snow/Sleet/Rain/Slush/ALCOHOL= NOT AN ATTRACTIVE PAIR OF SHOES.

Today as I sat in my Media and Democracy class (and while I wasn’t staring at the incredibly-attractive-second-year-law-student guest speaker), I noticed the overwhelming amount of Ugg’s- Ugg’s stained with sidewalk salt lines, Ugg’s drenched with water, Ugg’s caked with mud. My favorite pair (and hence the “alcohol” portion of the above mathematic formula) were the Ugg’s with a very obvious red wine stain all over the toe.

Ohh. How quaint.

I guess I just don’t understand why people don’t take care of expensive things. If you are going to spend $200 for a pair of boots, make them last- or else donate that $200 to giving shoes to people that don’t have any.

When I mention that to the girls in the Ugg’s that have sharpie marker drawings from clever drunkards, they laugh and say, “Trish, you are a riot- people without any shoes!! WHERE do you come up with this stuff? Ha-ha!!"

And the giveaway goes to...

LadyCat, from her blog Lady of Wellington.

My dear, I shall be attempting to send you a message immediately after I post this.
I have not been having good luck with the "messages" I've sent recently though, so if you don't get it we're gonna have to figure something else out.

I'm currently back in MA home and having a lovely time with all my friends who are gearing up for their classes tomorrow. So I may not be posting a lot during this visit, but I do have another guest blogger coming for you soon, so look out for that.

Do you all have a Winter Wonderland going on right now? We do!