Dear Verizon, fire your marketing team

This past week, I've been in DC during the day for a class. This means that I woke up every day at 4:45, left the house by 5:40, arrived at the train station at 6:00, stood in the dark and cold until the train came at 6:10, slept the whole way to DC, took a bus from Union Station to Mount Vernon Square, went to Starbucks, had class from 9:00-4:00, took a bus from Mount Vernon Square to Union Station, ran to try and catch the 4:24 train (I made it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but Tuesday and Thursday found me on the 5:20), read The Time-Traveler's Wife (go buy that and read it right now) until arriving back at the train station around 5:30, then driving home and walking in the door around 6:00. So I have been understandably exhausted. But I was alert enough to notice something while taking the Circulator back to Union Station. It was a billboard that looked just like this one:

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Now, because of the building where this ad is located, you can't really see the bottom right corner from the street, because it is angled. But every day, when we passed this billboard, I couldn't help but wonder, "Why is Verizon equating their phones with buckets of angry female deer?"

Albeit, I haven't been watching as much television (or when I do, it's usually taped, so I fast forward through commercials), so I haven't seen the Droid commercials. Had I been paying more attention, I would have seen that Verizon means that it is a bucket of third-person-singular-present-indicative "do." But let's take a second to think about this, Verizon. What do buckets contain? Matter. Actual physical matter. Buckets do not contain verbs, so I would venture to guess that most people are going to think of angry female deer when they see this ad. And then the ad doesn't make sense to them, and they have little desire to buy your product. And then Apple goes and makes straightforward ads, and, well...we know who emerges victorious. Just saying.

Anyway, this billboard really bothered me, and I know I have a few editors (or at least word-conscious folks) who read this blog, so I figured you would appreciate it. If you see this billboard, just picture a bucket of raging mothers of Bambi, and it will give you a good giggle.

*And just a side note, I really, inexplicably hate the word "bucket;" you know I'm dedicated to this post, because I think I used it five times, including in this side note. And you all think I don't love you.

Busy Bees

As LNDQ not-so-subtly pointed out in her most recent post, I have been remiss in updating all of you in my life. It's probably because I have recently turned into the busiest person in the history of the world. If the history of the world only consists of the past three weeks at the seminary. Which brings me to the topic of this post: busyness.

I hate being busy...most of the time. Part of me likes it because it means I'm moving and shaking and Doing Big Things, as Sarah likes to say. I usually feel really productive after an especially busy day. But seriously? I just want to have three consecutive hours between 8:00am and 10:00pm where I don't have to be somewhere or turn something into a digital drop box (God, I hate BlackBoard) or really do anything. Just one day out of the week.

Let's take a peek into a typical Tuesday for me, which is my busiest day by far.

6:30am- Wake up, shower, get ready/dressed
8:00am- Leave apartment, get coffee
8:30am- Old Testament class
10:00am- Work on homework (or socialize with other people who are supposed to be doing homework)
11:55am- Chapel
12:20pm- Lunch
12:50pm- Choir
1:30pm- Greek class
3:00pm- More homework, or sometimes a power nap if it's been a particularly rough day
4:15pm- Leave for DC, ride in a van for two hours and get absolutely no homework done
6:15pm- Arrive in DC for class (except sometimes, we don't arrive until 6:45/7:00...I also hate 495)
6:30pm- Youth Ministry class
9:30pm- Load back into said van and get nothing done, once again
11:15pm- Arrive back on campus

And from there, I either end up hanging out with two of my friends for a little while, because I've just had the longest day ever, or I go back to my room and crash. Seriously?! I hate this schedule. My other days are equally as crazy, I just don't have to trek down to DC. I don't have any time to just chat on the phone with my friends or get big chunks of homework done or anything like that.

So to sum up this entry: I. hate. being. busy. If you can avoid being busy, do it at all costs. It will make you go insane. And not update your blog for weeks. And apologize to your (few) followers, because you've been a very negligent blog owner.

I promise you something more exciting next time around.