So this past weekend I went to the Amnesty International Midwest Regional Conference with several of the members of ECC's chapter of Amnesty.

The conference itself was actually quite unorganized and I was upset that they changed the agenda without making any announcements. We searched the entire hotel Friday night to find the registration table, but we never found it, so we assumed we had missed the registration deadline. In actuality, Amnesty had moved registration to Saturday morning without letting anyone know. So we went back to one of the hotel rooms and had a massive pillow fight involving apples and lots of screaming.

On Saturday morning, I forced everyone to wake up at the ass crack of dawn to my horrible alarm clock (my fried Alex screaming) to which they awoke in horror. We got dressed and met on the 4th floor where we saw multiple Amnesty interns setting up the registration booth. I forked over our money and we all received our name badges and such.

Once we were registered we headed out to breakfast and enjoyed omelets (where I shared a delightful story about my mother not knowing that there were eggs in omelets) and then we went back to the conference and attended our first workshop: the Women of Atenco and violence against women issues. The leader of the workshop came unprepared and didn't have anything to write on so they taped manila folders to the wall for her to write on. I felt slightly embarrassed for them, but we definitely learned many things and received insight as to how to successfully execute a Write-a-Thon. Although they were unprepared, the woman that ran the workshop got everyone involved and was very knowledgeable about the issues at hand.

After this seminar, we went to eat lunch in one of our rooms and came back for the student caucaus where we stood up and told all of the other student groups about our House of Horrors event that we held and the Amnesty staff seemed very impressed which made me feel good. After this we attended a New Member Meeting which completely lost me. A man was asking us about fancy cars and then related it to Amnesty and kept drawing really terrible squares. Still don't know what he was saying.

After this we went to our final workshop about poverty and maternal rights. I learned a lot of interesting statistics regarding the death rate of women during pregnancy around the world and was very shocked to learn how serious it was. A woman dies during child birth EVERY MINUTE. That's about 500 million women every year. The lack of care for these women in third world countries is atrocious. After we learned these horrifying statistics the presentation went south and the speaker rambled on about things that he didn't seem quite sure of. Fellow Amnesty members were asking him questions that he diverted away from answering and changed topics.

After this we went to dinner at Bennigan's and received HORRID service. We went back to the hotel and hung out for the remainder of the night discussing how we planned to use what we had learned to better our club and get students more involved. I am very proud of my group and how great they were this weekend. Going to conferences is definitely a great way to bond with the members of your club and I'm so thankful that Student Life helped me get this together on such short notice. Thank you Amy Beth and Gabe! You guys were amazing and really made this happen for us. We are all so grateful! We had such a gerat time and I really appreciate you giving some of the new members of Amnesty a chance to experience this!

PS: Genie Atta is a hot sexy mama that loves when I wink at her. haha She gave me a shout out on her blog awhile back, so here is me returning the favor. LOVE YOU!

I don't have tennis elbow, but parts of me are still hurting, most of all my heart. It sounds sappy and ridiculous, but I feel like there is an empty place in my soul that does not want to be filled. It's a place where my dad used to be. Almost a year ago, on November 8, my dad passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack. He was my best friend. There were times when we fought, but there was an unspoken understanding between us. He knew me better than anyone ever has and probably ever will. He understood my unique sense of humor; he understood the way my brain worked and my thought processes. And when he passed away I felt like a huge part of me had died with him.

There were times when I wanted to give up and I felt like nothing could get worse. I had been telling him right before he died that I was going to join the tennis team at ECC. Tennis had helped my dad and I bond while I was growing up. Any time I had trouble finding someone to play tennis with I knew he would always be there to go play with me. In fact, my dad never said no. Maybe that's where I get my persistence from. I love the game, and I love playing as much as I can. After I lost him, I was not even sure if I wanted to play for school anymore. I almost gave up on tennis altogether because I felt like I had nothing to keep me going. But I went out for the team, and I made it. I did it for my dad.

My teammates this year probably think I can be mean and take tennis way too seriously, but for me, tennis IS serious. It's one of the only things in the world I have left that I feel still connects me to my dad. Every time I step on to a tennis court, whether it is for practice or for a match, I take it seriously. I play to improve every single time I am on the court. I get irritated when others don't take it seriously, because I feel like I am playing for my dad; like he is in the clouds watching over me and cheering me on. I get angry when my teammates goof around, but how are they supposed to know that deep down inside of me there is a void that I'm trying to fill with tennis. I don't mean to be rude or sound aggressive, but I guess I am selfish, because I want everyone on the team to want to play as bad as me and to try as hard as I do.

I don't like when I yell at people at practice, but I want my dad to be proud of me; of everyone on my team. There are times when I just cry uncontrollably because I wouldn't be acting this way if my dad was just here with me. You can't help but sometimes ask WHY did this happen to ME? It's just basic instinct. I'm trying to make the best out of the situation, but I don't want my teammates to dislike me. I love them all like family, and I hope they don't hate me for my actions. I just hope they understand where I'm coming from.

Maybe I'm just emotional. Maybe I overreact. Maybe I'm completely insane. I don't know what is wrong with me. Maybe... it's just another case of tennis elbow.

There is this song by Kim Zolciak called "Tardy for the Party" and it could possibly be the most ridiculous song I've ever heard, but there is one line in the song that I repeat to keep myself from becoming a Debbie Downer. "Forget about work and the stress of the week." It's been right in front of my eyes this entire time, and it took a drunken middle-aged woman to make me realize that I need to stop letting myself get so stressed out!

I'm listening to the song as I type this blog and I can't stop smiling! Sure, I may be losing brain cells each second this acidic bubblegum pop song mangles my eardrums, but it hurts so good! Sometimes that's just what you need: a terrible song that you know has no deep meaning and won't ever garner an ounce of respect from any listeners with even a tiny bit of dignity. I'm not one of those people. My dignity packed its bags and left me when I told it I had an uncontrollable love of the Dixie Chicks.

Now I'm off topic. Stress. That is what this blog was supposed to be about. I get sidetracked easily. This often leads me to stress. It's a vicious cycle really. I should be doing homework, but then I open iTunes and get distracted. Then I have to rush to finish my homework which causes stress. I try to relieve stress with music, when I should be doing homework, and it begins all over again! Oh Lady Gaga stop distracting me!

Stress is bad; for those of you that have never known what it feels like. Sometimes it gives me headaches. Sometimes it makes my stomach feel like it's in knots. But now I have Kim Zolciak's expert guidance. "Forget about work and the stress of the week." I mean, even if the 'forgetting' she is referring to is going to a club and getting tanked, it still helps me remember not to let things get to me. This is college, if I wasn't feeling stressed I would probably be doing something wrong.

So I've created this imaginary solace in my mind where I can go when I start feeling the most vague sign of stress creeping up on me like the plague. It's a make-believe party where stress is not allowed. When I am in attendance at this party I feel good. I feel like everything is going to be okay. Everyone is welcome to attend! This is one party I will never be tardy for.

(I shouldn't post blogs running on 4 hours of sleep haha SORRY FOR THE ABSURDITY!)

I already had low expectations when seeing the movie Bruno because everyone I know that had seen it thought it was horrible, but I had to see for myself.

Everyone I talked to told me the movie was gross and had lots of disturbing pornographic scenes. I wasn't really bothered by all of this. I mean, as someone who was not even phased by 2 Girls 1 Cup or any of those other gross-out videos that followed, this movie was a walk in the park. I was, however, appalled at how poorly the film turned out.

I'm not sure if Sacha Baron Cohen was trying to show viewers how closed-minded and homophobic certain people can be or if he was merely trying to exploit homosexuals. One could easily get confused after watching this movie that all gay people are like that, but it's not the case. Never in my life have I ever met anyone that dressed like that (aside from certain holidays and social events) nor have I met someone who so flamboyantly parades his sexuality in front of others by making out with someone or taking off their clothes. I'm sure those people are out there in there minuscule numbers, but what I'm saying is that it is highly unlikely, and all this movie is really doing is painting a dishonest portrait of homosexuality.

Yes, the movie had its funny moments, like when Bruno mistook Ron Paul for RuPaul (Can you blame him? The resemblance is uncanny), but it seemed like they were trying too hard. One thing I think the movie did succeed at was showing the sad side of the world where homosexuality makes people angry and disgusted. Like in Texas on the talk show when he said he was looking for a man, the audience was shocked and reacted like vultures ready to pick him apart because they didn't agree with his lifestyle. It shows the ignorance of these people, and I feel embarrassed and ashamed for them. In the Middle East he was chased through the streets by people screaming, "Faggot!" It's ludicrous to think that just because someone is gay that they should be mistreated. Same goes for mistreating people of different races and religions. Hatred should not be tolerated in any form.

In the finale when Bruno and his gay assistant, Lutz, are at the cage fighting arena and they kiss, I think it's pathetic that the audience reacted by throwing beers and chairs, but when Bruno and Lutz began taking each others clothes off I stopped feeling animosity towards everyone in that stadium. I would be pissed if anyone did that, straight or gay. It just really made gay people seem like all they care about is sex and making straight people uncomfortable. I don't think anyone should be uncomfortable with two men or two women being intimate with each other, because first of all, whose business is it who someone falls in love with, and second of all, how would you feel if when you kissed the person you loved everyone around you started shouting profanities at you and threatened to hurt you? No one deserves that.

This film could have been better than it was in many ways. I wasn't offended at all, because there was nothing in this movie I haven't heard or seen before, but I was filled with intense amounts of pity. Pity for the people in this movie that showed just how ignorant and terrible they really were, and pity for anyone else who paid money to see this trash. Bruno was a movie about extremes. And I was extremely disappointed.

First of all, I apologize for my picture...I'm not sure when I became so pale!

I just wanted to get my blog up and running for the school year! I'm excited to be able to share all of my knowledge with anyone who reads my posts. If you know me at all, you know that I'll try to make this blog as exciting and interesting as possible. The last thing I want is for anyone to find me boring!

This school year has already started off with a bang. Amnesty International, the club where I currently reside as President, had it's biggest turnout since it's formation! I was really excited about that because Amnesty is something that I'm extremely passionate about. For those of you that don't know, Amnesty deals with human rights issues such as violence against women, poverty, the crisis in Darfur, torture, and other things of that nature. We try to hold a significant amount of events each year to either raise awareness of these issues or raise money to donate to different charities. We're currently in the midst of planning the Amnesty House of Horrors, which is set to take place on October 29th in the Community Room pretty much all day long. It's set up like a haunted house, but in this case each room will be dedicated to a certain human rights issue in order to show people the kinds of terrifying things that are going on all across the globe. It's free too! So everyone should come show their support!

I've also been really busy with ECC's tennis team. We have practice twice a week, and I actually spent all day today right outside Chicago cheering the Women's Tennis Team on at their Regional Conference Tournament. They played brilliantly! We made 8 out of the 9 finals. Unfortunately, I can't make it back tomorrow to cheer them on in the finals, but I know they will be incredible. The men and women that make up the tennis team, and even the coaches, Clark Hallpike and Karen Rauh, have become a secondary family to me in a way. Same goes for Amnesty. When you join things like this in college you meet some amazing people who share the same interests as you and you grow so close to them. It's made my experience here at Elgin Community College one I will never forget.