I'm Wisdomless, and glad about it!

Having my wisdom teeth removed was by far the worst, most painful experience to ever happen to me so far. I got them removed July 25 2010 (yes, I remember the date because it was THAT bad). I will recount my experience in this blog. I hope everyone who reads this has already had them removed because I don't want to freak anyone out.

I went into the doctors office wearing a TCU shirt, my glasses, and some nike shorts. I was told to dress comfy and to not have my contacts in. I remember talking to the doctors as they were preparing me for the surgery. By the time I was in the chair I was already slightly under the influence of some drug that made me less nervous. The nurse put the IV in my arm which was something I was really worried about the night before. I don't like IVs at all. But I don't even remember them putting it in. The last thing I remember is the doctor asking me who I knew that went to TCU since I was wearing a TCU shirt. I said, "Me! I go to TCU!" I don't think the doctor thought I was old enough to be in college.

Sometime later I woke up shaking because I was freezing. I was coming off of the anesthesia and I couldn't really function very well. I was shaking and kind of freaking out and my mom asks the nurse, "Is she okay? I mean I know Natalie is a drama queen but this is a little extreme." I was extremely offended by that comment and talked about how I wasn't a drama queen ALL the way home. The drugs were still in effect on the car ride home and well into the first hour I was at home. Not to brag or anything but I was hilarious on those drugs. I was cracking my family up so much that my dad got out the video camera and started taping me. We watch it a lot now. I was mad that the doctor didn't think I was old enough to go to TCU and I was still hurt that my mom called me a drama queen.

I finally fell asleep (much to my mother's delight) and when I woke up the pain set in. My first problem was that I was allergic to the Vicodin they gave me. NOT GOOD. My second problem was I had dry socket but I didn't figure that out until Friday after 5pm so there was nothing we could do until Monday to fix the problem. In case you didn't know dry socket is extremely painful. My third problem was that when the doctor finally did treat my dry socket with the clove oil some of the oil dripped all the way to the back of my throat and infected my tonsils. My fourth problem was that I got dry socket on the other side of my mouth later that week. My fifth problem was by day 8 post surgery I still couldn't open my mouth all the way. My mom told me that I was probably just still recovering so I dealt with that for a week. When spooning soup into my mouth was too hard to do I decided something was wrong. My jaw muscle had balled up on the left side and I had to take muscle relaxers to fix it, plus another antibiotic. Well, the muscle relaxers made me extremely sleepy and the antibiotic gave me acid reflux. I was still recovering from all of this when I got to TCU around the 20th of August for recruitment.

I am so glad that I only had four wisdom teeth. I'm glad new ones don't grow. And, I'm glad I never have to have them taken out EVER AGAIN. The only good thing that happened out of all of this is the endless amount of milkshakes provided to me out of pity. And, of course, the video my dad taped of me which I plan on entering into a contest someday.

Kathleen

I remember the first time I was introduced to my best friend Kathleen. We were on a school bus on our way to a basketball game somewhere in Oregon. My twin sister, Hilary, played for the high school JV basketball team and I was the JV team manager. I became team manager because Hilary didn’t like traveling around alone and being away from home. I signed up so I could watch her play, keep her company, and give her support. I kind of felt a little awkward when Hilary wasn’t with me during the away games because I didn’t really know many of the girls on the team. But, on one particular trip, Hilary made an effort to introduce me to more players.

I’ll be honest, Kathleen intimidated me when I first met her. She was a sophomore playing on JV and was swinging up to play varsity. She was a great player and was popular even with the senior girls on varsity. Kathleen was always making jokes with the coaches and other players. At school she was friends with a popular group and seemed to know everyone. She was tall and pretty and the life of the party so I deemed her way too cool to be my friend.

I immediately liked talking to Kathleen when we first met on that bus. She was nice and absolutely hilarious. Hilary and I laughed the whole time we talked to her. We bonded quickly over our love of Harry Potter and we almost never have a conversation that doesn’t involve the magical world of wizardry. We became friends during that basketball season and when it ended we began to talk in the hallways at school and started hanging out.

I don’t really remember when we actually became best friends. It just sort of happened. One day I was thinking Kathleen was too coo l for school and the next day I realized she was the most down to earth person I had ever met. Kathleen is easy going, and isn’t tied up in what other people think about her. She is a positive, glass half full type of person, and always knows what to say to cheer me up. When boys break my heart and girls crush my self-esteem, Kathleen is there. When I get homesick for Oregon I call her and she reminds me that being in Texas has been a great experience for me. On my birthday she called me two minutes after I turned 20. We celebrated graduating from high school together. And some nights we celebrate the joys of college with a simple text, “I love college.” She shares her ice cream cakes with me. Not to mention the fact that she never gets tired of watching SVU or Pride and Prejudice with me. During the summer we go on hikes, watch movies, grab drinks from our beloved Dutch Bros and generally have the time of our lives.

I tell Kathleen things I don’t tell anyone else. I don’t feel like I have to censor what I say, even if it’s silly, trivial, mean, or just annoying. She listens and responds accordingly. I feel like I can truly be myself around her, no questions asked.

I think some people come into your life as temporary friends. Some people you call for a few years when you want to go out or need a ride to the airport. Some friends I associate with here at TCU will probably not be my friends after I graduate from school. I understand that everyone I meet won’t make a huge difference in my life. Most people come and go, sometimes at their own convenience and sometimes at mine. Sometimes it’s hard to know who is here to stay and who isn’t.

Without a doubt Kathleen is here to stay. She has been with me through the pains of heartbreak and let down. She has been there for me when I felt like I didn’t have any one else to talk to. She will be there for me when I fall and most importantly, when I succeed. I don’t see anything coming between us. However, if we ever do get our acceptance letters to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry we might have a problem. She’d get into Gryffindor with all of the cool kids and I’d in Ravenclaw with the witty nerd types. But I have confidence that even if we were in different houses she would still be my best friend.

Oh and while I’m writing I might as well wish Kathleen a HAPPY 20^th BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Office Supplies

Anecdote Number One: In my closet at home I have a box of old papers and pictures from my early school days. I still have the first story I ever wrote in first grade and the book report I wrote about Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. My favorite keepsake from preschool is a questionnaire I filled out during preschool.

Name: Natalie Sharpe

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Food: Rice

Favorite Animal: Lion

Favorite thing to do: Punch Holes

Yes, my favorite thing to do was punch holes.

Anecdote Number Two: One year when I was around 5 years old my mother heard me talking to myself in my room. She stood by the door and heard me praying to God for Santa to bring me office supplies for Christmas.

Its a true story, my favorite toys as a child were office supplies. Pens, pencils, hole punchers, staplers, stamps, notebooks, paper clips, envelopes, and erasers were my toys of choice. I spent hours pretending that I worked as a hotel receptionist, booking rooms, writing statements, and stapling everything together, after punching some holes of course. I still have my cherished blue box of office supplies upstairs in a cabinet. Hopefully my children will enjoy playing with office supplies because I'm going to keep my box for them.

Room with a View

My house is at the very top of an old volcano which is now called Aubrey Butte. My bedroom window covers the entire northeast wall of my room. The view outside my window changes from season to season. From my window you can see a lot of pines trees, and a few juniper trees. There are a lot of rocks that are left over from the volcano exploding millions of years ago. In the fall the ground is covered in pine needles which are slippery when it rains. Pine cones fall on the ground like acorns do in the spring. You can here them coming from way up high in the pine trees. All over bend they fall. During cross country practice when we would stretch in the park we would all cover our heads when we heard them coming. The tiny juniper tree outside my window was planted when we moved into the house 13 years ago. Juniper trees grow incredibly slow so the tree seems only slightly bigger than it did many years ago. I have grown taller in those 13 years. When the snow arrives it covers all the rocks, in a blanket of white. The snow makes everything look soft and comforting as if I could throw myself out of my window and land without pain. The snow makes everything the same color. When the sun peeks out from the clouds the snow sparkles and wakes me up if its early in the morning. When the snow begins to melt and then the winter night freezes the snow again icicles form outside my window. When I sleep I can hear the water dripping off the icicles. When the snow melts which actually occurs in late may the plants my mother plants finally have a chance to grow and turn green. The oak leaf hydrangea right under my window turns green and the white flowers bloom. Sometimes I forget those flowers are there and I love being surprised when I open my window and see the tops of the blooms. The summer months bring me blue skies and green plants. Quail families scurry past and the squirrels wait under the bird feeder waiting for birds to scatter birdseed on the ground. My sister runs past with her dog as they go for their morning walk. The juniper tree, not even an inch taller stands in the sunlight and when I go outside I can touch the top of the tree knowing that someday, it will be taller than me.

The Open Window

I really enjoy short stories that have an unexpected twist at the end. I know that I immediately trusted the young girl, Vera, when she began to speak of her aunt's great tragedy. She told the story with conviction and plenty of details, all which suggested that she was telling the truth. I also trusted her because I don't know many people who would come up with a story that sad and troubling on the whim, as a trick to play on a stranger.

One thing I don't understand is what Mr. Framton is doing. Is he visiting people in the area to introduce himself since he is new? Why is he talking only about his illness and what his doctors have advised him to do? It seems odd that both the girl and the Mr. Frampton go into so much detail about their lives (even though Vera's story is untrue) when they do not know each other at all.

It seemed to me that Vera was well practiced in the art of deception. When she told the story of why Mr. Frampton is afraid of dogs she was quick to come up with an explanation that was disturbing and scary. It seems strange to me that her imagination would lead her to tell such macabre stories. There seems to be something "off" about Vera. As my mother would say, "Her elevator doesn't go all the way to the top."

If I were Mr. Frampton in this situation I don't think I would have been so quick to bolt. I would have been interested to see how the young girl, caught in her lie, would react to the three men returning home. It seems that Mr. Frampton was too caught up in the possibility that the people he saw were indeed ghosts and not men. That would be a little unsettling I'm sure. If I were him I would be more creeped out about the little girl who made up the weird story about her own family members dying. Perhaps she is the one in need of a doctor's visit.

For some reason this story also reminded me of the book, "Wuthering Heights" and I can't get the images from the movie out of my head. The moors, open window, and the ghosts brought Heathcliff and both the Cathy's into my thoughts.

Under the Ridge

Ernest Hemingway's "Under the Ridge" short story portrays war in a haunting way. The imagery and dialogue he uses paints a descriptive picture of the war-like scene we, as readers, are transported to. There are a few things that are mentioned more than once in the story which I would like to point out because I believe they hold some sort of importance.

1- Dust

"In the head of the day with the dust blowing, we came back, dry-mouthed, nose-clogged and heavy-loaded down out of the battle to the long ridge above the river where the Spanish troops lay in reserve." The first sentence gives the reader an idea of what the day has been like, and what kind of place they are in. The people and mules and tanks in this place are unsettling the dust and it blows away in the wind. Dust is unpleasant and unavoidable. It sticks to you and reminds you of where you were and what you were doing. The dust on their clothes reminds them of when they had to crawl on their bellies to avoid the machine gun fire of the enemy after they discovered that the Poles did not gain any new territory at all. Dust is disappointment, it can blow away, but only to find a new place to settle.

2- Failure

The attack was a complete failure. No one executed their orders. "The French tank commander had got drunk to be brave for the attack and finally was too drunk to function. He was to be shot when he sobered up. The tanks had not come up in time and finally had refused to advance, and two of the battalions had failed to attain their objectives. The third had taken theirs, but ot formed an untenable salient. The only real result had been a few prisoners, and these had been confided to the tank men to bring back and the tank men had killed them. The general had only failure to show, and they had killed his prisoners."

3- What does it mean to be considered Brave, and what does it mean to be considered a Coward?

In the story a Frenchman with "his head held high" walked over "the edge of the ridge and out of sight." This man was obviously walking away from his duties as a solider. The narrator of this story doesn't believe the Frenchman's actions to be cowardly. However, the men in the leather coats certainly did and made him pay for it. The narrator stated that, "He could walk out of it (the hopelessness and idiocy of their situation) not from cowardice, but simply from seeing too clearly." The narrator states in the last paragraph that "The nearest any man was to victory that day was probably the Frenchman who came, with his head held high, walking out of the battle." Why is walking away the sole victory of the day?

4-Setting Examples/Consequences of Actions

The boy Paco, who shot himself in the hand out of fear, was made an example by his officers. He shot himself so that he could be excused from the front to be bandaged and cared for. He wanted to escape the terror of battle so he shot himself in order to leave. It was an act of cowardice that made him react to battle in this way. His officers wanted to show the other soldiers that reacting to battle in that way would not result in pity. "Paco must be punished as an example, in order that there would be no more self-inflicted wounds, and that all others would be punished in the same way." To me, it seems that Paco was already ashamed of his actions and suffered enough for that. However the officers made him feel more ashamed and his last living emotions were that of embarrassment and regret. "Then, while the one held Pace by the arm; Paco, looking very ashamed to be spoken of this way when he was already ashamed and sorry; the other took his pistol and shot Paco in the back of the head without any word to Paco. Nor any word more."

This story delves into the deep questions of what it means to be a man. What is bravery? Who should be considered a coward, and who shouldn't? Also, I think it allows the reader to think about what he or she would do in this kind of situation. Are you more like the Frenchman, Paco, of the Extremaduran?

Cafe Conversation

I met with Nathan for the third time last week after class on Thursday. We met in the library cafe again and this time I brought my computer. I'm so glad I did because it gave us a lot of talk about. I was working on homework when he arrived and he immediately assumed I was on Facebook. I asked him if he had a Facebook and he said yes. So I logged on and added him as a friend. Then I decided that Facebook would be a good way to show Nathan pictures of my family and my home.

First I showed him a picture of my twin sister, Hilary. Most of her pictures feature her jumping over barriers and water obstacles as she runs the steeple chase so he was impressed by her athletic lifestyle. I then showed him a picture of us side by side. He said we did not look alike at all and that he would not have guessed we were twins. Then I showed him pictures of my older brother, Nathan, in Seattle. I visited Nathan, my brother (not my conversational partner), during spring break so we took a few pictures. Then I showed him a picture of my mother and some of the things that we did in Seattle.

Lastly, I showed him pictures of Oregon which made me somewhat homesick for the mountains. Nathan thought my pictures were very beautiful and expressed interest in traveling to other parts of the United States. I asked him if he had considered traveling around the U.S. during the summer. He said that he wanted to but that it was difficult and very expensive because the U.S. is so spread out. In Europe one can travel from country to country simply by catching a train. That is exactly what he plans to do this summer. He and a few of his friends have a planned a trip to go to Italy, Spain, and a few other countries by train this summer. He is very excited to be back in Europe and with familiar faces.

I asked Nathan if he was planning on returning to TCU in the fall and he was unsure. He says that he likes TCU and that school here is easy for him but that he misses his friends and family in Belgium. He has one sister here but I think she has become accustomed to Texas in a different way than him. Nathan seems to be strongly tied to his friendships in Belgium and I wouldn't be surprised if he transfers to a Belgium university that is in his hometown. He said that he has already applied and been accepted to the university so all he has to do is make a decision.

I told him that I thought it was brave of him to decide to study here in America, especially since he knew so little English. He said that he was glad that he came and that he has learned a lot of English but that a year without family and friends is really hard. I can't imagine not being able to go home for an entire year. My first semester of college I was separated from my twin until Christmas and that was hard enough!

Nathan and I plan to meet today after class. I'm interested to see what we talk about this time.