Today was a good day.

The sky was grey.
Football season started( GO COWBOYS! )
I got free cookies.
My classes went nice
Today was payday
I got Elvia's number. (Not sure what to do with it, though.)
Oh, and no one made fun of me for listening to Mariah Carey.

*Traditional Jon-ish entry coming soon.*

Comment! (12) | Recommend!

I smile to myself; a smirk of sorts, and I turn up the volume on my MP3 player.
"Forget 'em, " I mumble to Jon(myself) as " Fantasy," by Mariah Carey gets louder and louder, in the presence of so, so, many people.

This week has been too.. blaaah... for me to care what they think.

Comment! (17) | Recommend!

TODAY SUCKED

Comment! (9) | Recommend!

I want to update now. I wanna' write about my (uneventful) day, or about the bus ride with Elvia, or about my meeting with the head of the Rape Crisis Center, or about the poker game going on outside of my bedroom door. Or about how much I love this full length mirror infront of me.

BUT! I gotta' go read.

Comment! (8) | Recommend!

I've almost completed my training for my volunteer work at the Rape Crisis Center.
I'm not sure if I can handle going to the hospital right after the crime and providing some sort of.. consolation to the victim.

I'm going to be matched with a Little brother via the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America program in the next few weeks.
I'm not sure if I'll be a good enough rolemodel.

I get paid around 9 dollars an hour to lead study sessions in the field of Criminal Justice ( I'm what they call a "Supplemental Instructor.") I had my first session on Friday; I think I did well, but there are alot of things I'm not too co nfident about.

I completed my first story for the Paisano, the only independant univeristsy paper in the state of Texas, on Friday. It'll be printed in the upcoming edition on Thursday. newswriting for a paper is so different than writing .. for.. anything else. No embedded quotes, no narration, no complex sentances--- all the things I enjoy.

I've been elected VP of Honors College, home to 800 students. I had no intention of running until I was approached by the current president, who is leaving for the Archer fellowship.

The Archer Fellowship sends students from the UT program to DC for a semester to intern with different organizations: The Supreme Court, different senators, and lobbyists. If I can keep my GPA up, I'll be there in the Spring of 09.



I'm spreading myself too thin. Maybe I should give everything up and focus on writing sonnets in iambic pantameter.

Comment! (6) | Recommend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO 'YA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO 'YA!

Normally, I'd wait weeks until I posted a new entry.

BUT---

TODAY

Today is SPECIAL.

Happy Birthday.

I'm usually good with words; however, there are no words that I can use to say how much you mean to me.



"You mean the world to me, " I could exhort all night long and justice still wouldn't be done.

"You make my world a brighter place," only partially speaks to how much you've impacted my life

"You're real coo', yo." That would be the truth; but... it just won't do.


So, I'll just say this:

I love you

Comment! (13) | Recommend!

To the leaders of nations:
Greed, envy, fear, hate-- the competition has to stop.


"Hi, Joooon," she says with a grin. I glance up at the girl and pretend like I wasn't waiting for her to hop onto the bus; pretend as though I didn't save a seat for her with my backpack; pretend as though she wasn't making me just a little uncomfortable with those sunglasses on. I was so busy pretending that I forgot her name.

"Hey, E..El...Ed... um.." and I glance down.
"Elvia. Call me El, or Vi. Whichever you prefer," she says, still smiling when I turn my head to look her in the eye, a la the androgynous lesbian Shane from The L Word... but, she had on sunglasses. I hate sunglasses.
I didn't get a chance to look her in the eye again; rather, I was stuck looking the reflection of coolest kid on the bus, myself( I'm as modest as ever, I know.) We talked for a few minutes before the topic of religion was brought up. I asked her what her faith was
"I'm catholic."
"Why," I ask, almost immediatly after. Although I couldn't see her eyes, I could tell she was a bit taken aback by my bluntness. I wasn't particularly interested in why she chose catholicism over any other, but in her aptitude in articulating her thoughts.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I can't see how you can be sober, all of the time." Eyecontact was broken as the man lowered his gaze and turned his attention to the poker table we were seated at.
"What can I say? I'm a fan of lucidity," I tell both Marc and the other guy sitting at the table. I met Marc that day.. the same day as Elvia. He was building a poker table with one of my three roommates in preperation for a game tonight. We talked for a good half hour ---"shooting the shit" as he put it--- over alot of different topics. Our conversation into alcohol found it's catalsyt when I spoke of my choice to abstain.

In the words of a dear friend(caitlinFTW), "it turns people into monsters." The other man at the table, Ryan, listened to a vague recantation of the childhood I had and the toll that Alcohol took on relationships that have yet to be fully mended.I know that I'm not being explicit at all, but some things are just too personal to talk about right now. Maybe ever.

Anyway, back to Ryan... he connected two and two as I was talking and asked me of the connection between my choice to abstain and my choices of volunteer work( I'm in the big brother/big sister of america program, as well as at the rape crisis center here in town. Almost finished with my training for both. ) and I told him.. what did I tell him? It doesn't matter.

I met two cool people in one day. Elvia, and Marc. Elvia looks better, but my conversation with Marc was better. I had to write about him after Garret made a comment about me always writing about women. In the words of Stacy Dash,
As if. My last few entries have been about caitlin, mary, me, me, me, anthony/britney, and me. I'm so selfcentered.)

Comment! (14) | Recommend!

Of all these friends and lovers
Theres no one who compares to you

"I'm sorry, Jon, but can you read that aloud once more? And louder, so the class can hear you?"
I lowered my head, trying to bury my face between the scribbled lines.

"She yelled for me to shut the door without even glancing up from her line of cocaine. "
"You know, Jon… you're just like gravity; always keeping me from my high."

The previously jovial class succumbed to silence--- the last thing I wanted to hear. I kept my head down until my teacher broke the silence "Well… see what good writing can do?"

"Like a mad scientist,"says Anthony after class.
"Huh?"
"You're like a mad scientist, with the way you write. Was that all true? I mean, did that really happen?"

The truth? Partially. I wasn't actually there whenever she did her drugs.. But I was as much a witness to the self destruction as one can be via telephone wires; however, my ability to narrate this story can not be abridged--- I watched the girl I knew and loved as a sixth grader become an individual marred by avarice for half a decade. The conversation actually took place over phone. And no, she didn't say the bit about gravity. She was never one to recite prose--- only read it. The thing that I admire most about the Woman is her desire to read. To read words, to read lines, to read stanzas, to read stories, to read novels, to read epics.
To read me.

"There were times when I could just look at you and know exactly what was going on in your head."
I scoffed. Not aloud, but in my head. You? Read me? No one can penetrate this facade of ice I've enclosed myself in. No on--

Some struggle with lust; not my particular cup of tea. Others fight a battle with gluttony, and outside of the occasional fruit snack binge, I'm winning that fight. Greed? I give my money away alot. Sloth? Yeah, I'm a pig.. but not that much of one. Envy and Wrath aren't for me.. That leaves us with Pride.
Pride is what I struggle with. I just listed six sins that I have little problem with, and for what? Pride. The sin so great that it split the heavens--- The sin that caused Yahweh to revoke Lucifer's membership card for.(Anyone catch that allusion? PPS to you.)

A personal statement is supposed to tell who we are. Transcripts and standardized test scores show what we've done… but not who we are. She had a role in making me who I am. Does this mean that I've played a role in who she is? Who she was? And if so... am I solely a good influence? No. Am I purely a bad influence? No. We all leave the good and the bad in the impressions we make upon people and I pray that I made more good than bad. After all, we've all got our demons. She's no longer my angel, though.

Comment! (45) | Recommend! (4)