It is 60 degrees outside, and the world feels new!

I've been back from spring break for about a week now.

It went really well.



I went to Farm Sanctuary in upstate New York. I cleaned barns. I fed cows. I petted pigs. I cleaned up after the chicken that lived in the kitchen.



It was really cool. I think I was too busy/exhausted to get depressed. I learned a ton - not just about animal rights, but about animals in general. Did you know that when sows pee, it squirts out the back of them like a super soaker? Fascinating.



So I guess I didn't have anything to worry about. I don't think I really made any friends (surprise surprise), but I was sociable. I didn't lock myself in the cabin and cry. I didn't write in my real diary about how I hated everyone. I actually felt very comfortable there.



I rented a documentary called Peaceable Kingdom - about Farm Sanctuary - for all of us to watch on the trip. After we got back, I didn't have time to return it before I left again to go home, so I just brought it back with me. On Sunday, Ethan and I were bored, and I suggested we watch the documentary. My mom sat down and watched it with us. And now she wants to try to be a vegetarian.

I think that is the coolest thing ever.

posted at 7:25 PM by Alison

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the one who ate my food has raised his heel against me

posted at 7:39 PM by Alison

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I am dilly-dallying right now.

My money for Alternative Spring Break was due about a week ago, and even though I should be over at the YMCA turning it in, I am here blogging about how I am not turning it in.

Alternative Spring Break is a registered student organization of the Uniersity of Illinois - it's also a student program of the University YMCA. Every year, during fall, winter, spring, and summer breaks, they send hundreds of UofI students off to the far corners of the US to do volunteer work.

I signed up to go to Watkins Glen, NY - home of the famous-to-vegetarians Farm Sactuary. They save animals from factory farms and take care of them, and then people come to visit the farm to pet the animals and learn about animal rights and veganism.

I about swallowed my tongue when I heard that there was an Alternative Spring Break trip going there. It sounded so unbearably exciting. And I signed up immediately.

But now, with less than a week left before I leave, I can't make myself get up off my ass to go turn in the money.

My intial concern about the trip was that I would be giving up my spring break. I absolutely hate missing any opportunity to come home. I've been home about 2/3rds of all of my weekends this semester already, and I'm becoming so dependent upon it that the other 1/3rd of the weekends I'm not at home I spend the whole time curled up in my bed crying.

Now I'm really starting to panic. I'm going to be spending an entire week working intimately with people I barely know. I HATE PEOPLE I BARELY KNOW. I hate most people I know well. I'm going to be in a strange place. I'm going to be doing eight hours a day of manual labor. I AM GOING TO FREAK OUT.

I can't take me anywhere.

posted at 12:32 PM by Alison

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This is one of those moments when I question my own judgment about attending a public university.

Today is Unofficial St. Patricks Day here at the University of Illinois. The holiday was invented ten years ago by (I shit you not) a local bar mogul, because real St. Patricks day usually falls during Spring Break. It is a bold-faced opportunity for the bars to make more money at the expense of the well-being of the students.

Apparently, there were 34 arrests last year for underaged drinking alone. That's ARRESTS, mind you. That's not including people who got tickets or warnings. That's just the people who were being so outrageous and impudent that the police felt obligated to arrest them.

Carle hospital north of campus has expressed concerns that they may not have the resources to deal with the number of alcohol-related emergencies on Unofficial.

The dorms are all on lock-down until tomorrow. There are COPS guarding all the University buildings.

The city of Champaign passed an ordinance saying that bars couldn't open until 11AM, because 'traditionally' the drinking starts at 8AM.

People at breakfast this morning (7:30) were acting like fucktards and screaming at each other from across the cafeteria.

I read an article in the Daily Illini calling Unofficial "a twist on the traditional Irish drinking holiday."

St. Patrick's day isn't a 'traditional drinking holiday.' It's for a fucking Catholic saint.

This is so stupid.

posted at 8:53 AM by Alison

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