Somerville-Clay strikes again

This is in list format, not because I’m lazy, but because random thoughts should not be disguised as cohesive paragraphs.

1) First off, I want you guys to know you are very important to me.  And I liked our debate in Derek’s comments.  Hopefully no one was offended.  I was surprised with how much I ended up agreeing with Max’s comment at the end, haha.

2) Today was a good day.  I finished my application to study abroad in Madrid, and won a free movie from the university library.   I entered a random drawing last week, not expecting to win.  But now a digital copy of Argo is mine.  Yay!

3) I’m going home on Friday.  If anyone has anything they need done in Newport, I’m your woman.  I can’t imagine what that would be, though.  Among the highlights of my ten days on the better side of the country, I will be: visiting my grandparents; visiting my dear friend Alison at UC Santa Barbara, whom many of you met during camping last summer; celebrating my birthday (the 19^th); sleeping as much as possible; painting if there’s time; getting my first-ever professional massage, which I bought myself as a birthday present because it was like 80% off.  I figure once you start getting tension headaches and knots the size of baseballs in your shoulders, it’s time for professional help.

4) I successfully conducted a 19 minute interview with author C.C. Chapman as part of a new discussion series I’m leading with ONE.  It went as well as could be expected.  The link is here, but I don’t imagine you’ll find it particularly captivating.  Also, the beginning is me mid-sentence because the recording process lagged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyZLaRZcm0s&feature=plcp. Will post the link to my corresponding blog when it’s published, because that will be a quicker (more interesting) read.

5) I find out on Friday if I got a big, $16,000 scholarship I applied for (sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).  It’s an environmental studies related opportunity, with a 10 week, paid internship with a gov’t agency to boot.  It would be incredible if I got the opportunity, and if I believed in deities who were concerned with minute parts of my already-minute fate, I would pray to them.  Instead I’m just sending positive thoughts into the universe.  I think they have an equal likelihood of making a difference.

6) I’m going to take down my story from last week, because I’m paranoid about plagiarism.  Not because it’s that good of a story, but because I hate plagiarism.  So if you haven’t read it and want to, I’ll take it down next Monday.  And of course everyone is welcome to read the collection I’ve been working on.  Derek has and thus far has pretended to like it.  That’s why he’s the best.

7) Still thinking about the tattoo, but not with enough passion to get it.  Last time there was a big hubbub and some discouragement, but no one ever asked me what I wanted.  Now we shall see if it is worthy of defying the temple that is my body.  In truth, I just like looking liberal with my short hair and general awesomeness.  Again I am not getting a tattoo, so you don’t need to tell me not to.  These are just the thoughts I throw around in my head.  I’m a thought thrower.  But anyway, the contenders are:

• La mejor para el futuro (“The best for the future” in Spanish, but with a feminine ‘the,’ making it feminist).  This reminds me of my passion for making a difference in the world and focusing on the positive aspects of the future when I’m down.  Because sometimes life gets you down. 

• “You have been in every line I have ever read” by Charles Dickens, from chapter 44 of Great Expectations.  I would have to read the entire book before justifying putting this on my body forever.  But I like the idea behind the quote, like finding someone that gives you the same jolt as an incredible quote or poem or whatever gets you excited.  I love quotes, I have an entire book of them I’ve collected at home, so this one hits home for me. 

• “If you are holding out for universal popularity, I’m afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time,” by A.P.W.B.D., better known as my fictional hero.  And a host of other Dumbledore quotes.  This one in particular strikes a chord with me, because as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized you have to let everyone think what they’re going to think and go your own way.  As I like to say, “you do you,” which is one of the few modern day phrases I really relate to.

8) “You do you” and “Jump on it/tap that” are the two pieces of advice I give with the most frequency.  Like I said, “you do you” is just letting people do the dumb shit they’re going to do.  That’s what I’ve struggled with the most in the past.  Because I want to solve everyone’s problems and correct them when they’re being dumb asses, but generally people don’t like that.  As my dad says, “you can be right, or you can be happy.”  Sometimes being happy is just letting things go and disagreeing with the things people do without trying to be a superhero or a correcting nay sayer.  As much as I love Henry Clay, it was out of bitterness that he said “I would rather be right than President.”  Never forget this moment, friends, because it’s unlikely to come up again: I admit that Clay was an imperfect man like the rest of us.  And I used to hyphenate.

“Jump on it/tap that” usually has romantic significance, but it’s really about doing that thing you really want to do but always talk yourself out of.  All the girls I hang out with have some guy they’re drooling over, but they never do anything about it.  So “jump on it” is the easiest way to (unsuccessfully) spur them into action.  But it could be applied to a variety of other pursuits.  Just that my friends are generally motivated in those areas.

9)  Want to do a fun sharing thing?  This is what I think we should do.  Find your college essays and post the first two sentences of one (or more than one).  I don’t have to look mine up, because I rewrote it so many times that I still remember what it is.

“There aren’t many seventeen-year-old girls in love with Henry Clay.  Nineteenth century politicians are rarely the fodder for our hormone-induced infatuations.”

10) Be happy and text me any time you aren’t, because I have lots of nice things to say about all of you.

Night night.

Rachael