Time marches on.

Today is the end of January.
Went be fast, didn't it?

Last week I was complaining to myself that the last 3 weeks have felt SO ridiculously long, but now that it has come to and end of the month, I can not believe how quickly that just passed me by. What even happened in January? It was just a complete blur. Really though.
I trekked through the first few weeks of classes, which are always decently easy, but also a really hard adjustment. Trying to get used to how new professors work and get into the groove of class schedules is tough, but it has been done.
I remembered that I have wonderful friends.
I made some good friendships much stronger.
I survived the first month of my best friend being gone. It had it's terrible moments.
I got a WONDERFUL new roommate. I was more worried to get new roommate than have been for anything in a long time, but I have been so blessed!
I went to some high quality sporting events.

Yes, January was solid. I'm a big fan.

Time is such a funny thing. It seems to change it's pace all of the time. I don't know how to handle this madness. In the moment, it takes way too long for time to pass. But looking back, it goes faster than I ever thought possible. Thinking about the past makes me think about what I've done with my life. I need to take advantage of every moment and never waste any of it. Life is precious. Sometimes I forget and I need to step back and remind myself.

And now February is now upon us. This should be good. I have high hopes for the next month or two.

Side hugs.

Observing the world and commenting on its absurdities is one of my favorite past times. Sometimes I just like to sit and watch people and see how they interact. The culture of the university which I attend makes for some even more outrageous situations than the average outrageous interaction. Today's topic of observed absurdity:

The awkward side hug.

This is one of my favorite parts about watching people around campus. I will admit that I've been in my fair share of awkward side hugs. They are great.
I don't usually mind awkward side hugs, except for when the awkwardness is not acknowledged and laughed at. But I would never be the one to initiate a side hug, I always go for the full-frontal hug. (I do not take credit for the hilarity in the title "full-frontal hug")
I have a dear friend of mine, who shall remain nameless (it starts with a K and rhymes with jendra), and she ALWAYS goes for the side hug. Don't worry, I give her a hard time every time this happens.
I can't even explain the side hug. It's just bad news bears.

You see someone on campus that you know, not super well, but you know them enough that you feel obligated to carry on a conversation with them. It could be someone from freshman year who you haven't seen forever, someone you went to high school with, someone you went on a blind date with and had fun but haven't talked to since... there are a lot of these people, you know what I'm talking about.
You are obligated to talk to this person (sometimes you don't want to, sometimes you do; either way you are obligated to). You approach and aren't sure what's going to happen and then BAM, they go for the side hug. There's no avoiding it, there's no going back.
It's like they're saying: "Hey, I don't want to actually hug you, but I feel like I should, so let's just stand side-by-side and only embrace halfway because more physical contact with you than that might make me hurl." Not cool.

You know what makes side hugs even more awkward? Backpacks.
Backpacks really make any form of hugging awkward. It's like: " Oh, hi. I appreciate your presence so I'm going to hug you. Oh no, I just wrapped my arms around you and you were twice as wide as I was expecting. Oh wait, I'm not even hugging you anymore, I feel like I'm hugging your backpack. Cool."

Yeah.

Beezer.

Today I created a playlist of Weezer and Beyoncé songs.
I called it Beezer.
That should tell you what kind of a day it was.
Honestly, it probably won't tell you what kind of day it was.
I'm not even sure what kind of day that is because I've never put that music combo together before.
But let me tell you, it was brilliant.

Today's favorite Weezer song. And today's favorite Beyoncé song.
It was definitely a good day.

Sociologist.

I am a sociologist. Not sure when, but this just recently happened. True, sociology has been my major for over a year now and I should have felt like a sociologist long ago, but alas, that didn't happened. I would sit in my sociology classes and think to myself: "Wow, this is super interesting. But oh my, these people are a bunch of crazies. They are full of theories about people and opinions about how the world works, and I just am not."
But the time has come, my friends. I am a sociologist now.
I realized while in my Human Development class (not a sociology class) when I began thinking about development in terms of how the children are being socialized and how their SES (socioeconomic status) is effecting their socialization. I even started thinking about dating relationships in terms of social exchange theory, which is an outrage.
Nerd. That is what I said to myself.
And you know what, I am okay with that. I like being a sociologist. It gives me a unique perspective of people and life in general.
I'm a fan.