"Year of the Trible Bypass" A burger filled with chinese bbq pork between two pork buns.

i have discovered over the last few years that being friends with boys has its pros and its cons. pros: no drama, no fuss, you don't have to wear cute clothes 24/7, more dirt, more fun. as for the cons, the focus of this blog will be on one: BOYS EAT TERRIBLY. i have always kept in mind a nice and trim figure for myself, but i simply cannot avoid the fact that being friends with boys has made it quite hard to give in to food temptations i've never experienced before. if you're a boy out there reading this and questioning this blame, then tell me this...why do you guys put ranch dressing on your pizza? and why does it magically seem to taste so much better than pizza without ranch dressing? and who puts bacon and extra cheese on everything? GUYS. and it tastes so freaking good! oh and steak in your burritos? ONLY YOU! but dammit, that tastes good too! combinations i would never have thought of eating have been eaten and have resided on my hips. sometimes, when i'm about to order a burger from a burger joint, i can hear my hips whisper "sara no! :( you never used to eat burgers before you met these silly boys! don't do this to us!" but like a fly i swat the thought away and get SO excited for my burger to come for NO reason because truly, I NEVER LIKED BURGERS BEFORE BOYS. so, this post shall serve as a big "thanks" to all of my guy friends back at home, as well as ones i've met here, for introducing me to the magic of barbeque chips, nachos squirted with canned cheese and microwaved, philly cheesesteaks, barbeque sandwiches, beef taquitos (good lord), and all of the rest of the female body's enemies.

furthermore, as i was eating dinner at arby's (because there's no such thing as a nice, health restaurant) a couple of weeks ago with BOYS, one of them took the liberty to show me something on his iphone that almost made me gag and i mean gag HARD (even though i genuinely was enjoying my jamocha milkshake). it was a website called "thisiswhyyourefat.com", consisting of people who post pictures and recipes not for the weak-stomached. if you're a boy, you'll probably scroll through and think "AWESOME THAT LOOKS SO GOOD!" at the "deep fried surprise" (beer-battered deep fried bacon double quarter pounder with cheese, served with double-fried french fries) or the "deep fried bacon crusted pork rinds" served with bacon mayonnaise. alright, i can't keep going on...look for yourself.

this morning i logged onto facebook and saw someone's status saying that they were "so excited to see blake mycoskie", founder of toms shoes speak tonight on campus. being the toms shoes lover that i am, i did the most silent squeal i could in the library and immediately texted all of my friends in an effort to get them to come with me. luckily enough, one of my best friends who i hadn't seen since summer made his way from UNCG to attend, so i was truly stoked. up until that point, i didn't know much about the history behinds toms shoes. my boyfriend got me a pair of black canvas ones for my last birthday after i mentioned how "cute" i thought they looked. i knew the whole "one for one" deal where when one pair of shoes is purchased, one pair is given to a child in need, but honestly, i just thought they were cool-looking and needed them. little did i know how foolish i would feel tonight after i learned the entire, amazing story behind the company. three years ago, blake was sitting in his office cubicle job when he looked around at his dreary surroundings and boldly decided he needed a break. so, he went to argentina. why argentina? well, no big deal really, he was just on THE AMAZING RACE (favorite show ever) second season and remembered how beautiful he thought argentina was. thus, he spent his self-proclaimed vacation there, where he played polo and relaxed for a few weeks. one day while sitting at a terrace in beunos aires, he overheard two girls speaking english. excitedly, he introduced himself. (this would soon easily be the best day of blake's life, without even knowing it.) the girls explained how they were volunteers who helped around the poor outskirts of buenos aires. they were currently organizing a "shoe drive", where they went around for weeks on-end getting fancy stores in the city to donate shoes to the drive. blake, the curious guy he is, tagged along that day with the girls, and saw the giant impact the volunteers made when they handed out shoes to the children who had never had a pair before. as happy as he was, he became concerned by the end of the day with the thought of who would carry on this shoe drive after the volunteers left. and voila! the rest was magic. with help from argentenian shoemakers and friends, blake transformed his idea into a humanitarian, entrepreneurial phenomenon. one LA times front-page headliner, a spread in vogue magazine, hundreds of interviews, and thousands of enthusiastic buyers later, blake is the definition of success. actually, he has re-defined success. he has proved that business is not all about making dirty, cheap deals with corporations and being an elitist C.E.O. who could care less about their product...he brings an element of passion to business. not a passion to make money, but to go out and help kids who are too helpless to do anything on their own. customers of toms shoes have helped deliver over 500,000 pairs of shoes to children in argentina, south africa, and ethiopia, as well as run-down areas in the US. these little, colorful shoes symbolize an effort to give kids the opportunity to attend school (as shoes are required by the school) and to protect them against terrible foot diseases developed all too commonly in their environment. blake describes toms shoes as his "soul mate" in the business world, and assured me that his genuine character and kind heart has started something beyond traditional business. i simply cannot get over how awesome his idea of starting toms shoes was. i am jealous, for lack of a better word, of how driven and admired he is for what he does. growing up with a dad as a business-owner, i couldn't tell you all the intuition i've gained from my dad's words of advice about the business world. with all the little ideas i have of what i want to do in future floating around hectically in my head, it was truly a treat to wind down and listen to blake mycoskie's words. he doesn't know it, but he infused more inspiration into one room than i'll probably ever witness again.

ps. buy a pair of toms shoes!

So Obama has been all over TV this week giving live speeches to the public and to congress...and you know what that means: dispute. The issue about whether his speech on education should be shown in school really caught my attention. For as long as I can remember, religion, politics, and money are three subjects you just don't use as ice-breakers. Separation of church and state is the best thing to ever happen to the South, as it has kept any sort of pressure of religious talk and tactics off of students. In my opinion, politics should be on the same level as religion in school... that is, non-existent. All over the country there were parents e-mailing principals left and right (no pun intended) expressing how they did/did not want their child to see president's address in school. I feel that there was no reason for the speech to be shown in school. Yes, it was about education, and yes, Obama simply stated things along the lines of "stay in school", "graduate on time", and "don't let your failures define you", etc. But really, do I need to hear this from him? All of the advice was obvious and bored me almost as much as if I, being 18 and licensed for over two years, had to sit in driver's education again. Every kid sitting in a school has the general idea that they are there to learn and try their best to do well with hopes of graduating at the end. So why Obama felt the need to broadcast this speech to students and even have teachers revolve their lesson plans for the day around it makes me terribly upset. Many kids now think "I want to do well in school and make good grades and be a Democrat like Obama when I grow up!" As a Libertarian, I see it as unfair that this speech was given by the flag-holder for Democratic politicians and citizens...as if to say that Republicans, Independents, and other parties don't give a damn about education. Even if the entire speech held "non-partisan and unbiased views", every TV was filled with Obama's face preaching these ideas, and with the title of the most powerful Democrat under his name, the bias and partisan efforts appear naturally. And need I remind you that Bush Sr. in 1990 tried to pull off the same type of live, broadcasted speech in schools and Democrats went haywire, refusing to let it happen! And imagine what would happen NOW if John McCain had won the presidential election and tried to present the same speech to kids...I can just see the "No Elephants in Schools" bumper stickers on Priuses now. (Obviously, innocent kids don't even realize these complex policy strategies as much as the white house does.) I just don't get how folks don't find the entire idea kind of scary. If I walked in an elementary school and saw posters with Barack Obama's picture and a caption that read "Stay in school, kids.", the first thought that would pop into my head is "Big Brother much?" and would probably rip it down. It's not that I am against Obama, and he totally is an amazing person that has indeed overcome many obstacles throughout his life to get to where he is. A dedicated and intelligent man...that has nothing to do with me. People have different desires besides following the typical school-routine in the one life they get. Is Obama saying that if a passionate sixteen year-old wanted to start working as an auto-technician his junior year in high school to support his family and forget about college it would be a terrible decision by federal standards? Try telling it to the kid. Everyone has the free will to choose whatever path they want, without the government's advice. What's next, Obama broadcasting a live speech to pre-schoolers telling them to eat their vegetables?

i have developed this theory throughout the past week. one night it hit me so hard that i sprung up from my pillow and just could not wait to write it down...my theory is that the ground and the sky are irrevocable lovers, in deep true love. the proof is within the way they complete one another, reflect each others' movements, and unarguably demonstrate the most public displays of affection.
the ground symbolizes man and men in general, as to say that the monuments and statues and blue swimming pools erected upon it are man-made and occupied by human beings like you and me. as for the sky, she is a majestic, mysterious being, keeping her most valuable endowments in constellations far, far away where no one can reach. she shares brightness and light with the ground, yet equally possesses the ability to change her moods as rapidly as hours in the day go by, transforming from peach-gold in the morning to cyan to violet to pitch black when something feels wrong within her. the ground can always feel her heavy sadness at bad times, as she soaks him with her precious tears. sometimes soft droplets, other times sharp hail.
the sky remains the dominant one in the relationship indeed, and the ground certainly doesn't mind as he works hard with vigor and strength to cultivate his roots and grow tall, sturdy trees. he builds these trees as high as he possibly can. not only to give the sky a magnificent display of emerald, lime, and pine greens for her to admire and look at throughout her busy days, but more simply in the pursuit of trying to touch her. if he does, he will be the first. let's face it, the ground's got wood for the sky, and lots of it.
the sky continuously feels flattered and shows it to the ground well when she stays clear and sunny for days, letting everyone enjoy her beautiful features...but again, like every relationship, there comes times of inevitable change. in the sky and ground's case, it is with the change of seasons, where she leaves the ground frosted and cold soon after summer's end, blowing her hard winds, and leaving him without any source of warmth. his once bountiful trees are left naked, without their sparkling leaves.
forgiveness is one of life's greatest gifts, especially when the sky and ground have it for one another. after a winter that seemed forever-long, spring arises. the ground blossoms (in a manly way of course) and sprouts new flowers from his fresh, thawing dirt...serving as his way of saying "hello again...i love you,darling sky". the sky then stabilizes herself and spreads a sincere scene of crystal sky and weightless clouds, as her form of saying "after-all, i am so grateful for you, dear ground".