Thursday, April 10, 2014

I'm Smart

I'm going to college, and have been for over a decade.  We kept moving, so I had to change institutions (and majors) multiple times.  I have more than enough credits to have a Bachelor's degree, but I don't even have a certificate of participation to show for the last ten years of my life.  I've been feeling really discouraged, wondering why the heck I'm still going to school.  Then, I got a call from my college yesterday saying they had a financial aid check for me to pick up.  I had applied for scholarships, so I was all excited, thinking I'd gotten one for $25.  Yeah, I got one for $700.

Boo-yah!

Go me!

I'm awesome!

And rich!

My Mom Belongs in a Book

My dad paints, and he recently had someone commission a portrait from him.  My parents have two schnoodles that bark like crazy whenever anyone knocks on the door.  They also have those doorknobs that will open on the inside, even if they are locked, so they are constantly locking themselves out of the house.

A few days ago, my dad went outside.  A short time later, a knock sounded on their door.  The dogs went berserk, so my mom went to the door, yelling at the dogs and spraying them with a water bottle.  Assuming my dad had locked himself out (again), she opened the door and sprayed the knocker in the face.  Multiple times.

It wasn't my dad.

It was the guy that commissioned the painting.

My mom belongs in a book.  Especially considering that, after the guy came inside, she couldn't find my dad and had to send him away to come back another day.

The Donner Party

As a child growing up in the United States, the Donner Party has always been a part of my education.  I went through the initial horror when I learned that they ate each other.  As the years passed, I started to feel real empathy for them, then I decided, "Heck, they were dead, why not eat their bodies?"

Little did I know just how messed up this whole situation was.

Where the Donner Party became stranded in heavy winter snows was land occupied by the Washoe Native American tribe.  There is much documentation that the Washoe watched the Donner Party, were aware they were starving, and (here's the frightening part) made numerous attempts to provide the Donner Party with food.  What did the Donner Party do?  Shoot at them.  Ignore the food they threw across to them.  They even killed one of the Washoe.

When I told my best friend all of this, her response?  "The Donner Party were just really people persons."

Buh-duh-dum.