Four Topics, None Related

I just completed my study abroad application for the spring semester and turned it in with a sizable $350 deposit (refundable if I am not accepted into a program). I'm excited and nervous about the whole thing, so if you wouldn't mind throwing a word or two in my favor up to the Big Guy, I would appreciate it.

I applied to the American University of Rome, a school I got accepted into after high school but couldn't attend because they wouldn't give me money. Stingy Europeans. They have a strong International Relations program, so I was able to find lots of useful courses to take.

Not to mention, it's Rome.

Think of the art. And the history. And the Pope.

. . . Okay, so maybe that last one isn't a big selling point. But still.

*starry eyed*

Pray for me to get in . . . it could mean shiny souvenirs and postcards for you. :D

. . .

On an altogether unrelated note, I was walking across campus earlier today and overheard a girl telling her friend about a conversation that had apparently taken place the night before. And I quote,

". . . and then she was all like, 'Don't make me confiscate your Streisand collection!' So I had to be all like, 'Mom! Leave Barbra out of this!' . . . "

. . . Really? Are you serious?

I just had to shake my head at that one.

. . .

Fall break was good, but not nearly long enough. Spent the first part of the weekend with the family at Standing Stone State Park, somewhere we hadn't been in ages . . . the last time we went as a family was probably when I was in the 4th or 5th grade.

Needless to say, everything looked a lot smaller than I remembered.

When we got back I managed to get a little reading done and tried to keep from overcrowding the social calendar.

And, of course, I avoided getting any serious work done like the plague.

. . .

If I can get all my homework done, I intend to watch the debate tonight. Not because I don't know who I'm voting for, but because--like many Americans--I've developed a sick fascination with this election.

If this isn't the most important election of my life, it will at least be the most groundbreaking (whichever side wins).

As a nation, we are currently balanced on the blade of a very precarious knife (to borrow an analogy from The Lord of the Rings). The decision we make regarding our next president will either set us down the path of reconciliation with the international community and lead to a peaceful, respected withdraw from the position of hegemon, or erode what little remains of our image abroad into nothingness thereby destroying our ability to get anything done in the world . . . without guns.

And guns, my friends, are a very poor international bargaining chip.

Especially in the long run.

Always from the child's hand the sword
should be removed.

I think every nation
is an infant.

-Saint Francis of Assisi