Christmas Break Insomnia

It's 2:30 am, Thursday December 29th. I am totally wired on caffeine. Probably won't hit the sack for another hour... Damn Wawa.. So Christmas was eh this year. Had a freaking stomach virus. I have never failed to endure an illness over Christmas yet! Great accomplishment huh? Oh well, what can you do. At least my brother medicated me with Miller.. That really helped my 102 fever lol. I sat in his room with music blaring, window wide open, his fan full blast and a Miller Lite on my neck lol. Merry Christmas Michele! I am glad everyone liked their gifts this year. My brother and I are really getting good at shopping for the rents. Old age perhaps? I felt bad for my boy friends parents though. They had Christmas dinner at their house unfortunately, I had to bail out last minute. I went up on Saturday, but I really felt bad I couldn't be their with the whole family. I know that they were really looking forward to having me meet the whole clan. But, if I went I would have been throwing up half the time. I think I'm going to purell my ass to death for the next few days so I don't repeat Christmas on New Years.

So forget the mushy crap, let's get to the goods of '08. Now I don't know about you, but nothing says love like a Pearl necklace and a Bilstein sport suspension. I love my boy friend. He knew exactly what to get me. I got him the latest and greatest Garmin and of course some clothes and skiing stuff. I got his dad a kick ass cashmere scarf and his mom a Waterford xmas ornament and a Yankee candle. My bro and I got our dad a digital camcorder ( he needed to be updated from the old fashion tapes). We got mom a really nice griddle she wanted and a logitech ihome thingy for her ipod she recently mastered. And last but not least, we got Nana a hearing aid and sugar free chocolate lol. I got the Bro Back to the future and the Ghostbuster trilogies. He just got a sweet Samsung TV from Nana so he's set not to leave the house. Oh I almost forgot, I got Toby that pet nail clipper (as seen on TV). :) Him don't like it.. Damn TV people lied. They must have sedated the cat they clipped on the commercial because Toby ran! lol.

I love giving people gifts on Christmas. It's so easy to tell when someone really likes something. And when they really like your gift.. I dont know, I get this great feeling of accomplishment. It's so cool to share real joy with somebody. You and that person you gave to have this connection for about a minute and a half. And you always question their enthusiasm. Like, "Yeah?! Do you really like it? I wasn't sure in the store, but the guy..." It's the best part of Christmas. At lest for me it is. Well, 2008 is done. I can't wait for summer lol.

Next Semester

Next semester I am taking math 012 because I missed the cut off by 3 pts. Should have retook the test but eh, I suck at algebra. English 152 because I loooooovvveee English oh so much lol. Economics 151, Comm 154 and Intro to business. Dean Polk helped me pick out my classes to ensure a good business transfer to Kean. I'm pretty excited about all of them. Should be an interesting semester..

Why kids cheat..

Well, let me just tell you my story then maybe I can answer the question. It was the first marking period of my senior year. I was in Mr. Murphy's advanced English class. His curriculum included an outside reading every marking period. And to be honest I thought our options where quite standard and boring. So I thought I could beat the system again with my 50 dollar subscription to Bookrags.com, A cliff note site. Except this time instead of reading every chapter summary and writing a report in my own words like I did throughout most of high school. I got a little lazy in the midst of writing this report on The Stranger. Which supposedly was a good book, but nevertheless I stole 2 paragraphs from another similar essay. I used a thesaurus to replace some words. But, instead of fully rewording the paragraphs I just left them as is. I thought it flowed similarly to mine. So I left it. Well, about a week later I was shocked that my teacher figured it out and printed out the essay off of google. I really thought since I paid for my sh*t I would have been safe. It was literally two paragraphs, the rest I did write. It didn't matter, Mr. Murphy failed me for the first marking period. It kept me off the high honor roll! So I went home and told my dad. He was so pissed. It was a nightmare, I got my car taken away for 2 weeks! My dad called my teacher and he agreed not to make a federal issue out of it and report me to the school, but he did fail me. So after the incident I never renewed my subscription to Bookrags.com, I have never even revisited the site since then. I learned my lesson the hard way. I was so lucky not to have been reported to the school. Thank God it was my first offence. It really sucks too because during high school my ex boyfriend, plagiarized every essay he had ever handed in. He was in basic English and I guess those teachers are just happy to have something to read. But, he never got caught, and his essays were practically word for word. I suppose he instigated me as well. However, he was a very very very stupid kid. I had multiple teachers tell me that he held me back. I eventually got over the V-card thing and realized that they were right. However, I guess he was just lucky or had tons of sympathy for his stupidity. However, I don't believe kids cheat because they dislike their teacher, or feel that their teacher is a push over. I know my reason for doing it was arrogance and laziness. I felt as if my eloquence in my speech and writing was enough of a cover to make me above the law. Where as in my ex's case he simply was extremely dumb and lazy. I do believe if he got caught like I did, it would not have phased him like it did me. I had much more to lose than he did. I was a bright kid, I couldn't afford to have my name tarnished. He was pretty much retarded, seriously, people thought he was, I have no idea what I saw in him. He had nothing to lose. He was in retarded classes that probably didn't care because he probably wouldn't go to college. So I guess for those who aren't high achievers do it because they just don't care. A D to them is just as good as an A, as long as they pass that seems to be okay with them. So if they get caught, oh well, better luck next time. I believe someone like me experiencing an F in English for the first time ever, would be enough to change them for the rest of their lives. I known that I will never ever do it again. It is not worth it, AT ALL. Bottom line is eventually everyone gets caught, and you probably wont just get an F. Not only will you fail, but everyone will know that Jane Doe plagiarized, and in college, you will get kicked out of school. And good luck getting into another school. You might as well stick you head in between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye. And if you simply forgot to do the assignment, just hand it in late or don't do it at all. Better an F for forgetfulness than for plagiarism. In conclusion, kids cheat because their lazy and arrogant. Youth can sometimes make you feel above the law, especially if you are underage. I only hope for someone like me, if they decide to cheat and get caught that their teacher is as kind to them as my teacher was to me. I don't think kids understand the severity of plagiarism until they are caught. I know I didn't. I never thought that the consequences were that sever. But, they are. I think teachers should spend a few moments in the beginning of the semester to just emphasize how real this is. Warn them of the consequences and make clear that it is not tolerated and that they will be caught. It happened to me, and I think I was pretty smart about it. I think I put more thought and money into it than most probably do. So if I got caught, you most likely will too. DON'T DO IT!

The Car Hunt

Well my Bemmer hit 168k miles the other day. My poor baby's getting old. She hates this cold weather too. I had a little trouble starting her up on Tuesday to go to class. She still runs great, I just get nervous when she does that. She probably didn't like sitting in the cold for a few days without being started. I've been so sick this past week I could not even get out of bed. I'm pretty sure its bronchitis. I got to get my butt to the doctor Monday to clear this up. Anyways, I'm in the market for a newer car. I figure the getting is good in the car market since the economy has hit the car market pretty bad. My cars still worth a good penny so my parents are willing to help me out with something newer. My dad and I went car shopping on Friday. We were all over north Jersey looking at these Audi TT's. That car's got some ah-um's. I wasn't sold on them though. I don't hate the fact that most of them are manuals. Stick's are fun to drive. They just get annoying after awhile. However, during our car quest I came across a few Audi A4's that I liked. It was the last place we looked, at the last moment walking out three of them caught my eye. There was this one midnight blue V6 quattro, OMG. She was gorgeous! little high on the price though. But, she was only 2 grand over our max. I was hopping my "professional" wheel and dealer dad would work the guy down. No such luck. My dumb ass dad offers the guy 12 out the freaking door with a trade. I'm thinking to myself at this point "what the hell happened to Mr. Low Ball 2 lots ago?!" So of course we call my mom to see what she thought. No go on that deal. I was pissed. I loved that car. She had 86,000 miles which isn't bad on an 02' A4. My boyfriends 98' A4 has 200,000 miles on it and the bitch still runs like a champ and he's never had to replace anything major on it. Then today, I was like to hell with my dad, I'm bringing my secret weapon to look at another A4. So I met my boyfriend up in Asbury at this dealer we were at just last week to look at an S4 for him. They had the same car in silver with only 56,000 miles on it and they wanted 11,995. I brought my car for the guy to look at as a trade, and God bless my boyfriend (who instructs and races for Porsche BTW) he tried so hard to get this guy to come down on the price. Damn guy would only come down to 11,200 with my car! I was pretty bummed. I really liked this A4. I test drove it and everything, man did she handle too. After dinner we went back to the drawing board and came across a bunch of A4's in my price range, so hopefully I will hit the right one. Buying a car is so freaking stressful. Of course I can't settle for a Japanese or American car. I mean I've been spoiled with German engineering. That would be like going from Park avenue to the Park bench. And besides every single day I'd catch major crap from my boyfriend and all of his friends if I ever rolled up in a Honda. No offence, but they all race Porsche's, I just can't do it. I hope I find something soon...

Turkey Day!

So Thanksgiving has come and gone, and we have about 3 weeks till Christmas!! My Thanksgiving was kind of depressing. My mom decided she wasn't cooking this year so we had our turkey dinner at a restaurant. I did not like this at all. It felt so wrong. It was also difficult to stuff my face since my brother and I drank to oblivion the night before. I felt like crap the whole day. I was supposed to go to my boyfriends parents afterwards but, I was so sick. Not only was I extremely hungover but, this damn cold I caught off him wont go away. Its been a week and I still can't breathe. I felt awful about not going but, there was no way in hell I was driving an hour up north in holiday traffic hungover with a cold. Hopefully next year will be better. I have a feeling I am going to be hosting a party next year. Scott's dead set on moving in together after spring semester sooo we shall see. If so, I'm frying my turkey. My dad did that last year and it was awesome.

Advising Experience at OCC

Lol why do they have professors advising kids? Shouldn't that be another job in its self? It is freaking ridiculous. I went to the administration building, the lady told me to look up where the psychology advisers are. So, I go to the teacher sign up on her door. Then, I came back the next day. I then explained to her that I wanted to switch my major over to business. So She said that I needed to go talk to someone in the business dept. Okay, so she then walked me over to the business part of the building. I went to Prof. Reily's office and of course there is a freaking wait. So I looked for another professor to go to. Walked all the way downstairs. And I get this guy who has never done this before, and it was his first semester here at OCC. So I explained my situation to him and after about 15 minutes he takes me upstairs to the "big guy". I was actually surprised that he was able to explain somethings to me about the associates degrees. But still, I needed more answers. And more importantly, I needed to make sure it wasn't futile to sign up for the business classes in the spring. I sit down with Mr. Polk, who turns out to be the dean of business, economics and comp sciences. I really liked this guy. He was so helpful and totally changed my mind about the associates degree. He was very logical in his approach to help me. He went over all my classes, told me all of them were great to transfer except the health course that the associates requires you to take. So He gave me the spring 09 catalog and circled a bunch of classes for me to take instead of the health class. Then he Bs'ed for a little while about Latin. lol He had me translating a bunch of college motto's. I was quite surprised as to how much Latin I actually remembered. Anyway, an hour and a half later I had my future all planned out. Pain in the ass, but hey I got it done.

Sick as a Dog

I am going to kill my boyfriend. He gave me the worst cold ever. I feel like someone took a hose full of gook and flooded my lungs. I can't breathe at all. My throat feels like it is on fire. Totally ruined my week. And what sucks even more is Friday night my aunt and uncle came up and took us to a Yes concert at the Borgata. It would have been soooo much better if I wasn't blowing my nose the whole damn time. This whole week was shot. I can't even drive. I feel dizzy and weak. UGH! I just want to feel better!!!!! Why did my boyfriend have to kiss me!! Men suck, they really do.