Don't question my drinking habits (or lack thereof...)

I haven't posted a new blog in a while, and I have a very good reason: school and study abroad forms are slowly sucking my soul right out of me.

Aside from running around trying to get all my school work done, I've been frantically trying to turn in all necessary paper work to my Education Abroad Program (EAP) office. I will be studying abroad in Siena (Tuscany) in Italy for the entire next school year. As excited as I am to go, I am not excited by the crazy amounts of paper work I have to do.

Today I had to go into the doctor's office on campus to get my health clearance. Basically I just had to fill out a health questionnaire and have them take my vital signs so they can make sure I'm healthy enough to travel.

I didn't think this would be a problem at all, but upon filling out the questionnaire, I came across the question "How many alcoholic beverages do you consume on average per week?" I answered zero.

Now this is a completely honest answer. I may go to the biggest party school in southern California, but I do not drink. There are multiple reasons as to why I don't, but the main reason is that I suspect I have an allergy to alcohol. I get sick almost every time I try to drink any sort of alcoholic beverage. So i tend to avoid the stuff.

But, this being Santa Barbara, the nurse takes one look at my questionnaire and says to me "and you're sure you filled out everything truthfully?" ...like its not obvious what she's hinting at.

"Yes, I'm sure," I say. Do they want me to say I drink copious amounts of alcohol? I would imagine that would create more problems for them.

She looks at my paper again and says "so, you haven't suffered any severe illnesses in the past year?"
"No."
"And you drink...how many drinks per week?"
"None."
"...Alright. Lets go take your vitals then."

I know this isn't a huge problem, but its just so disheartening that due to my surroundings, people don't believe me when I say I don't drink.

Anyways, my new camera finally got to see some daylight today! I'll post some pictures soon! :)

Who knew Tuesday nights could be so fun?

Yesterday I made sure to get my paper edited and printed out before 6 and all my assigned reading for the evening had already been completed. Now if you should know anything about me, it is this: I hate the majority of school work and am an expert at procrastination.

While I felt somewhat dirty finishing work with time to spare, it was for a good purpose. Death Cab for Cutie was playing here (RaRa Riot was opening), I had a wristband to get in, and I was going to sing and dance so much that I knew I would not be able to properly function afterwards.

Have you ever been to a concert and, in a soul-crushing moment of clarity, realize that the band doesn’t sound nearly as good as they do on their CD? Well, that wasn’t the case with DCFC. The concert was amazing. They played a good amount of my favorite songs (Summer Skin, Soul meets Body, Crooked Teeth, etc) and did justice to some of their bigger hits – especially “I will possess your heart”.

I have a problem when it comes to going to concerts –I’m short. At concerts such as this where there is a large crowd between me and the band, it is always a struggle for me to see the concert. Girls, this is where having three extremely tall guy friends comes in handy. The three guys I went to the concert with are all at least a good 8 inches taller than me (one of them is over a foot taller than me). This was such a blessing because they were able to lift me up to better see the stage from time to time.

One thing I don’t understand about people at concerts is how they can just stand still, arms crossed, and only listen to the music. I remember looking around the crowd and seeing very few people even tapping their toes or nodding their head along to the music. I screamed over the music to my friend “HOW CAN THESE PEOPLE STAND STILL?” as I danced, probably looking like a complete idiot, but loving every second of it. Albeit, some of DCFC’s tunes are a little slow and depressing, so I excuse people from not dancing to those. But come on people! How can you not want to dance with all the energy on stage when the band is playing “No Sunlight”? Do you know how ridiculous you look when you just stand there? What are you doing? Absorbing the music? Try FEELING it!

One really surprising thing about the concert was the crowd that it drew. Of course, more of the emo and indie kids were there, but I was pleasantly surprised at how very few people were smoking weed. At almost every huge concert I’ve been to, there has been an ample amount of ganja going around – so the fact that very few people attempted to smuggle in some pot was a point of interest for me. Its more than likely that many of them drank and/or smoked before coming to the concert, but I was glad to see that a good amount of people were there to actually enjoy the music and could do so while being sober.

I think my favorite thing about going to concerts is the connection you feel with a band’s music after hearing them perform it live. I felt this way after seeing Aerosmith a few years back – all their songs are much more appealing and meaningful to me. The same goes for Cake, Jon McLaughlin, Hellogoodbye, and all the other bands I’ve seen. Now I most definitely feel that way about Death Cab for Cutie. Before the concert I wasn’t very partial to their sadder sounding stuff (which is the majority of their music), often skipping over tracks such as “Transatlanticism”, in favor of songs like “All is Full of Love”. But now all of their stuff sounds amazing and all day I’ve been delving into all their music with enthusiasm.

Alright, this post has gone on for too long – I’m going to go chill out to some DCFC. :)