Lately I have taken to fueling my procrastination with David Sedaris and his books. And I can’t even get mad at him for it. It’s like when a baby does something and if anyone with a working vocabulary had pulled it you would be angry but because it was a bubbling bundle of joy you excuse their wrong-doing. This is true except Sedaris is taller, older, and far less innocent.

His books have been a joy to read and my only complaint is that they are over too quickly. The New Yorker calls him “A satirical brazenness that holds up next to Twain and Nathanael West.” This comparison to Twain frequents the review page on the majority of his books. Sorry Nathanael West. But based on the reaction to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in my English class this year, Mark Twain isn’t everyones cup of tea. Sedaris, however, combines “a satirical brazenness that holds up to Twain” all while sporting a modern cheekiness that puts him in a category all his own.

For anyone whose to-do-list is growing by the second but is able to delude themselves into thinking (as I do every day) that it is actually dwindling in size, I recommend Me Talk Pretty One Day. It will be your gateway drug to a long, happy, and humorous affair with one David Sedaris.

The Virginia Commonwealth Rams beat the Kansas Jayhawks on Sunday to advance to the Final Four. They didn’t just beat the Jayhawks, they blew right ‘em.

Beating Florida State by one point during their Sweet Sixteen match was a blessing, but beating Kansas during their Elite Eight match by a large amount was an even bigger blessing.

The highest seed in the tournament is a #3 seed, Kentucky. Not one #1 seed exists. Poor Duke and Ohio State.

Who would’ve thought that the Final Four would’ve been UCONN, VCU, Butler, and Kentucky? Probably no one.

This NCAA Tournament is definitely one to remember. This is a perfect example that not everything that is bigger, is necessarily better and that the underdogs, major underdogs none the least, can surprise you.

“We made history here, winning five games, going to the Final Four, and as I said out there on the floor, we’re not done yet.” -VCU Coach, Shaka Smart

The Challenger is and always will be G.O.A.T. Greatest Of All Time.
It is not just Pat alone that does this, but the staff as a whole.

There were a lot of first timers who were very nervous and a lot of well experience who were also nervous.

I sat there looking around and I noticed how nerve racing these auditions get. I was aswell nervous but nothing compared to the others. There were a few actors who I wanted to ask if they were okay because their shaking was so intense it did not look health. But I let them shake their nerves away.

There is always the basic audition jitters. Everyone wants to impress the director, read for the character they want, and even show their acting ability to the most extreme point.

I feel the best way to handle an audition is to be vulnerable and relaxed. I make it my job to be friendly and meet new people and learn something. Even if i don’t make the cast the auditions should give me some new educational background.

Well, I made call-backs. Even though Ms. Chelsea Cunningham School Theatre Director tells everyone at auditions “not to read into it” or ” it guarantees nothing”. I’m still excited. Call-backs are today and I am a little nervous of my competition even though I don’t know which character I would like to be. Any character with a semi-big role is good enough.

Freshman year: A time when I had a fear of teachers and upperclassmen. I was overwhelmed by faces I didn’t recognize and friends that I didn’t know yet. I tried out for my first play and got in. Drama became a huge part of my life and the people I met because of Drama would become my friends forever. I worked really hard on my homework and found school to be a breeze. I excelled in everything I tried to do and ended the semester taking journalism.

Sophomore year: A time when I wanted to get on everybody’s good side. I knew a lot of upperclassmen from plays. I added newspaper to my schedule at the very last minute (just the day before school started). I started out on the newspaper staff and right off the bat I’m given the title of an editor–something that usually doesn’t happen to sophomores. I continue my involvement in drama and make it to All-State….twice. This is also the year when we all discovered that Mr. Hildreth would no longer serve as a drama teacher. Everyone involved in drama worried about the future of the department. I continued in newspaper, becoming the number one staff member in the class. At the end of the year I was awarded co-editor in chief with Bea Rendon

Junior Year: Newspaper took over my life. I started working at Carlos O’Kelly’s and was in the fall play. My workload went on overload and I tried my hardest to keep my grades up. That didn’t work out so well. My perfect GPA went on a decline. The newspaper looked good….most issues. And it ended receiving a gallup award. That was cool.

Senior year: It’s all a blur.

Today: Is the beginning.

“I just got a call from Danielle from church. Becky had been missing for about two hours. She committed suicide…” my dad told us.

Just the thought of death is something I don’t wish to talk about but the fact that someone I knew, someone close to me had left me for good just scared me.

Death. The only things I have ever become so emotional about were my great grandmothers, my dog, my grandfather and now Becky.

And for that matter: suicide. Suicide is the most selfish thing in the world. The fact that someone thinks that their life is not worth living and that others will not care confuses me.

Becky was depressed but never showed it. Every time I saw her, she was always smiling and making sure my theatre and band activities were keeping up. During the holidays, she would make different things to make people go “awww” when they saw them.

She must have been so lonely and scared about what she may have to do. I still don’t understand why she did it but there must have been a reasoning behind it. Whatever the reasoning was, I hope she found it under the water where she was discovered.

Someone will always care for you. No matter if you leave someone with infinite amounts of debt, someone will still care for you. If you feel like everyone around you does not like you, in fact someone still will care about you.

Rest in Peace Becky Herring wherever you may be.

All the time and work people put into pulling something like this off is tremendous. Stage management must sit through all the rehearsals and production meetings. It’s fun though because we get a dose of everything. When the actors are missing we get to fill in for them and we also get to help out the production team when they are working on the set.

You can text and harass Katie Steingrabe at 202-9926

I’ve been dating my girlfriend for coming up on a year and a half. Without question I love her, and I have come to love her family as well, even looking at them as a second family of my own.

When her grandmother died last year I was genuinly saddened. I attended her funeral and reception, feeling the same kind of pain I feel when I’ve lost loved ones in the past. I’d known her grandmother for some time, and she really liked me, and it was truly like losing a family member to see her just go away.

Whenever I’ve heard of her or her family suffering from health issues, I feel myself becoming overwhelmed with fear and worry. I’m scared because I know that even if you haven’t known someone as long as another person, it is still so easy and so common to love them.

Friends, after you truly know them, do become like family. I’m glad I’ve made a new, true family around my friends, and, even knowing how much it can come to hurt, it can also feel so amazing and wonderful to have another family by your side.

So I went tanning today. It was nice and relaxing. Yup! Hopefully spring break doesn’t go by too fast but I’m pretty sure it will. Aw sad face. But i guess the quicker it goes by then the faster summer will get here. WOOT WOOT!

I’m so bored it’s 10 at night on a Friday and I have nothing to do. I’m going on a trip to St. Louis for Gear Up and everything is paid for. I go on Monday and get back Thursday it should be fun for the most part even though some people I don’t like are going.

 After I get back I might go to Carroll, IA to visit my grandma which will still be boring.

I’m still learning how to play guitar; I haven’t had any lessons but I’m in guitar club at school so hopefully I’ll get better as I practice more. I know how to play the beginning of Day Tripper by the Beatles, and I know how to play a little of Lithium by Nirvana.

It’s 10 p.m. on a Friday night and I have nothing to do….

As I pulled to the front of the left turning lane, everything got quieter. I looked at my dashboard and all my lights suddenly turned on. When the light turned green I released my brake.

Nothing happened.

This had only happened once or twice before. I stayed calm and attempted to restart the car. The engine started, the radio played and the heat came on, but the car would not budge. That’s when the cars behind me started to honk and yell at me and there was nothing I could do.

I looked over at my girlfriend and we both knew we were going to be stuck there for a while.

She called her mom to try and figure out what to do. When she was done I reluctantly called my own. She wasn’t mad at me, but was frustrated by the situation and comforted me, saying she was calling a tow truck and she’d pick us up so we could finish our date as soon as she could.

After about 20 minutes a cop knocked on my window and wanted to know what was going on. When I told him I couldn’t get the car to move, he called in a high priority tow truck so we just sat there and waited.

The car’s heater, radio and hazard lights soon went out as well.

We were now trapped in a car in the middle of winter without any heat, entertainment or any way to let anyone know there was danger. To add insult to injury, my hood was frozen shut. I couldn’t even pop it to let other drivers know not to enter the lane.

Eventually another cop arrived and instructed me to put the car in neutral so he could push me out of the lane with his car. It was only after he was gone that I found I couldn’t shift the car’s gears.

I became frantic. If he pushed us and we couldn’t move at all on our own, my girlfriend and I could have easily been tossed into oncoming traffic and killed.

The moment his covered bumper hit mine was easily one of the scariest moments of my life. Both of us screamed in fear and hoped that he would hear us. When all else failed, I ripped open my door and screamed at him to stop.

When the officer demanded to know what was going on, I said the gears would not shift and invited him to try himself. When he came up empty handed he walked back to his car frustrated.

After an entire lifetime adding up to one hour, my mom and the tow finally arrived. My girl and I were both freezing, terrified messes. I remember we both embraced close, both about to cry in terror and joy.

We finally made it to the mall, exchanged our presents, ate dinner and saw our movie, not forgetting how lucky we were we’d made it. It made the date all the sweeter to finally enjoy.

Zach Braff plays the part of Andrew Largeman, a mentally drugged up young adult, ready for something more in his life. He returns to his hometown for his mother’s funeral where he meets all of his old high school friends who haven’t seen him in quite a long time. Andrew messes around with drugs and parties to pass the time and reconnect with his old friends.

Back at home, he meets Sam (Natalie Portman), an eccentric young girl living with epilepsy, at the psychiatrist’s office. After his appointment, he realizes how different and strange Sam is and offers her a ride home on his sidecar bike. Andrew finds such an interestingly odd lifestyle Sam lives in when he starts to get to know her even more than what’s on the outside.

Garden State is a movie with many credits to Zach Braff such as COFCA Break-through Film Artist, CFCA Best New Director, Empire Award Best Newcomer, Pauline Kael Breakout Award, Golden Trailer Best Music, Grammy Best Complication Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, NBR Award Best Debut Director, Sandance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Dramatic, and many others.

Altogether, I was never disappointed in the movie. I was always entertained and the indie camera style just added to the effect that this could be real life. Garden State deserves the 9.5 out of 10.