So long, fare well.

From a small age I have been a lover of the water. I should have been born a fish! I always loved The Little Mermaid. I used to pretend to be a mermaid at the pool...I need some gills man...

As I grew older I joined the swim team at my nieghborhood pool and I loved all of it! I've always enjoyed watching meets and seeing what times people get. Soooo excting! :) My favorite events in the Olympics are the swimming. It's so cool to see the other people that love the water and to be totally jealous at their amazing skills. It's something I could never do but totally wish I could!

A hero of mine was one of these swimmers. Everyone knows him. His name, is Michael Phelps. He is an amazing swimmer, but I seriously think it's gone to his head.

Dear Michael Phelps,

I kind of think you have become a douche. I don't know what happened to you... You are such a talented athlete and you have the world at your fingertips. I feel like you have thrown away a lot of opportunities because of your crass actions.

For example, it was very unsportsman-like for you and your fellow swimmates to walk into a foreign country with gas masks over your faces. It isn't funny. It's disrespectful. Have some class.

Also, you are a public figure. Yound kid lok up t you. Why would you do drugs?! You may not care, but little kis are impressionable, and if they think you think it's cool, so will they. Be smart. Use that brain of yours. I know the chlorine hasn't gone to your head.

Love, Ellen

Buuzzz....

Dear Blogging World that doesn't actually read my blog,

Sorry I've been awol for the past ten days. I have had nothing to say. At all. All I've been doing is working and studying and studying and working. Iiiii don't even know what to say because there has been nothing cool EXCEPT that my :)

School has been stressful- two midterms yesterday which kept me at the library Wednesday from 2 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Long. Ass. Day. I am kind of crushing on this guy from two of my classes. But I don't want to talk about it. It'll jinx it.

My car decided to start making a new noise. I had Mick the car guy (that's the nickname Denise and I have for him...) look at it today. It's leaking power steering fluid. Location of leak: unknown. I love you and your quirkiness too, Carlise.

So the baby. His name is Odin Kevin Potter. The name was picked out long ago, so no it was not drug induced...I met him yesterday and he is a little nugget of cuteness. I just fell in love with his little wrinkly nose! He has that most amazing new baby smell- it's better than new car smell. I love that smell. (I am NOT creepy!...ok, maybe a little) I can't wait to just smooch his little face again. AHhhhh! Baby. :)

Here is me and the little guy...



And him and his cuteness...



Don't you love him?! I do!!!

A Blah Blah Blah...

I feel like I have basically had nothing, and I mean nothing, to blog about in the past couple of weeks. Life has just been going on. Nothing exciting has really been happening at all and I feel like blogging about my nothing-ness is rather pointless. I guess I shall continue with my 30 Days of Truth, even though the next few are kind of MEH topics. The next one is a letter to a band that has gotten you through a really rough day. I don't know if I really have a favorite band. I just love music. It lifts my soul. I love to sing, though usually when alone in my car. If I had to choose I think I would pick Rise Against. They are just inspiring. So...letter time.

Dear Rise Against,

You are an awesome band. I love listening to your music no matter what mood I am in. When I am happy, your music is fun to rock out to. When I am sad or angry, your lyrics lift me up and make me feel better. Your songs and your sound are just great and I thank you!

Geneva!

So in less than three months I will be writing from my new locale of Geneva, Switzerland. I'll be sharing my bloggy thoughts about getting an espresso and running to my classes with the Alps in the background. (Ok, I seriously have a hard enough concentrating here with stuff outside the window. What the HELL am I going to do there?!) I'll be writing about how exciting it is to be able to hop on a train on a whim and go to Amsterdam for the weekend and walking around town in my wooden clogs (yes, I will be buying those!).

The process of getting there is a bit daunting though...by the end of this week I have to have my cover letter and resume ready to turn in to apply for various interning opportunities as well as have a bunch of scholarship stuff turned it. It's all too much and my head is a-buzz.

I've been looking forward to this trip for SSSOOOOooooooo long! I can't wait for all of those awesome experiences. And I truly believe it's going to help get me over the last of my depression. (It's my own Eat, Pray, Love!--but more than likely without the love part. Just lots of eating and praying--so much for losing 30 pounds this year! haha!) I cannot wait for that freeing feeling.

I'm scared though. I'm scared of leaving and going somewhere by myself. There will be other students there from Kent but I won't know most of them. My friend, Liz, was supposed to go with me but she has decided to push her trip back a semester...that bums me out a lot too. I was really looking forward to this trip with her. We were gonna have a lot of fun. She's still knitting me a scarf and some gloves to keep me warm, so that's cool. HA!

I'm really afraid of how much I'm going to miss people. I have such a great support system here. Without my mom and my friends I would not be doing as decent as I am. I would be totally lost without them and being about 4,000 miles away scares the BEGEEZUS out of me. I'm such a home-body. I sobbed every day when I went to sleep away camp. My mom told me the camp called and asked if she wanted to come and get me. (She said no...thanks for letting me suffer, ma!) I know I can do this, it's just hard to think about and makes my stomach turn from nerves.

I can do this. I can do this. AHHHHH!!!!!

Happy Monday!

Every fifteen seconds...

Did you know that October is Domestic Violence awareness month? Well, now you do.

Domestic violence is a huge problem around the world and in the past 20 years in America, it has been growing at a rapid pace. It can have devastating physical and emotional effects on women, children and families. (And yes, man can be domestically abused as well, it's just less common and less focused on. Sad, but true. It is the same sad way for rapes. Men just don't get acknowledged for these hateful crimes, but they experience them as well.)It has been reported that 2 out of 3 women in America have been attacked by a family member or some other acquaintance.

What exactly is domestic violence? Well, it's an abuse committed by a close family relation (i.e.- husband/wife, fiancee, boy/girlfriend, etc.) It is estimated that an act of domestic violence occurs every fifteen seconds in the U.S., which means about 2.5 million people a year on average.

In 1994 the U.S. Congress enacted the Violence Against Women Act (WAVA). This directed jurisdiction to five full faith and credit to valid orders of protection issued by other jurisdictions. Simply, valid orders of protection must be enforced to protect domestic violence victims regardless of where the original irder was issued. This means that the victim is able to call upon law enforcement for protection from their abusers and the abuser will be prosecuted for their violations.

Domestic violence isn't just physical. It's emotional and can take many different varieties in this form.

Signs of a domestically abused person:

-fear of your partner
-does your partner humiliate, criticize, or yell at you?
-blame you for their behavior?
-hurt or threaten you?
-force you to have sex?
-threaten suicide if you leave?
-destroy your belongings?
-do they act controlling and possessive?
-constantly check up on you?

There are more warning signs here. Don't be afriad to stick up for yourself or for someone you love.

Do you or anyone you know suffer from domestic violence?? Know that you aren't alone and that there IS help out there for you and your loved ones. The National Hotline can be found here. There are also other ways that you can help and those resources can be found here.

Also, there are many shelters available for abused people and their families. You are not alone.

Stop the Violence.