Moments from Observation Journals - Spring 2014
Burnt skin. That is what I think the tanning salon smells like, burnt skin and coconut. Too things that don't go very well together in less you're in the tanning salon. Well beside the smell that gives me headaches, when you walk in there are these bright yellow chair and baby blue walls, like there trying to trick someone into thinking that the are laying outside by a beach somewhere but jokes on them they are just laying in a bed that will later on give you cancer. I have already come to tums with the fact that I will be getting skin cancer later on in life, like sorry I like to be tan world. … It would save so many peoples lives if they did away with tanning. I know no one is forcing people to go tanning but sometimes people can't help themselves if its just right in front of them. Then the bed turns on, the uv lights are bright I mean bright bright blue, I really dont think your supposed to look at them I think they can blind you, but I dont know sometime I look at them, kinda like the sun you cant help but look at it sometimes.
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All I can hear right now is the water lapping against the walls of the pool, the distant buzz of a golf cart, and the geckos playing in the bushes behind me.
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It’s a little weird sitting on the ISU campus,when I know that I’m not going here next year. ISU is a good school, but I need to get out of this town. It’s not that i feel I need to run away and never come back, it’s just that I want to experience more of the world than Ames can offer.
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I don’t know why I love the songs that sound happy with a hint of sadness. It just adds a certain depth that I like. It just puts me at ease that other people have felt the same way that I have before, and the fact that they felt it so strongly that they put it into lyrics for a song. It doesn’t make me feel as bad for drawing things that aren’t so chock full of joy. It drives me nuts when people criticise those that aren’t happy 24/7. It’s what makes us human, to experience such various, complicated emotions.
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Most people are staring at their phones, but all face to face conversations are about the weather. “I can’t believe it’s this warm” one girl says. “It’s the calm before the storm” another guy jokes.
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After a little while the bell rings. All of the 1,400 students that Ames High teaches soon flood the hallways. I hear phones ringing, thumbs tapping, mouths chattering, and shoes squeaking all throughout the hall. I look to my left to see students opening and shutting their lockers. Everybody seems to slam their lockers shut to make it as loud as they can. I look to my right to see a couple of freshman kissing and hugging and telling each other that they love one another.
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Now these girls at the table next to me are talking about how they did just awful on a test. I just heard one of them say she did bad and got an 88%.... If I got an 88% I would be pumped.
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I can hear a very strong loud laugh that can only belong to Ashley Nussbaum. I didn’t see her come in, but I’ve spent enough cross country bus rides with her to know her laugh. Whenever she laughs it fills the entire room.
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The grass is saturated with freshly melted snow, and I’m starting to think back to the last time I can remember a March starting this way. I’m pretty sure it was freshman year, right after my grandmother on my mom’s side passed away. The sidewalks were swamps and lakes just the same, walking in the grass posed a threat of losing your shoe to the mudbeasts that no doubt dwelled within, and the early spring gives an unjustified hopelessness that the weather will stay this way.
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I'm sitting at a table in the lounge on my way to Chicago. I took the train because I didn't want to drive and I thought it would be faster than taking the bus. We are currently 4 hours behind schedule. Maybe next time I'll take the bus. If you've never been on a modern day amtrak train, it's a fairly pleasant experience. This train has a dining car and and a cafe in the bottom level of the observation/lounge car. All the seats are on the second level of the superliner cars, and so are the doors to walk between cars. In the time it has taken to type that, a fair number of people have walked by, the door sliding open noisily, allowing the squeaky sounds of the coupler in to the otherwise quiet car.
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I’m sitting outside my house realizing how beautiful today is. The sun was shining all day and melting all the snow. This temperature feels like summer compared to the -40 degree temperatures that we have been used to… All of the streets are just glowing from all of the puddles. I can hear the car tires driving through the puddles making a huge splash noise.
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My future is a long black tunnel with a barely lit torch guiding me down the path.
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There is this guy that totally looks like a girl sitting on a bench about twenty feet away from. His hair makes him look like a girl from behind with this sandy long hair that goes about halfway down his back. I wonder how much money he spends on shampoo and conditioner? Also his facial structure is extremely feminine with really high cheekbones and a slight chin. However you can tell that he is definitely a man by all of his mannerisms. The open leg postures, him scratching his junk all the time as well the slouch when he’s sitting down like you see in a lot of unconfident guys. I wonder how it feels to walk in his shoes. Actually I’m interested to see how it would be to be any other person for an entire day.
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The weather today is kind of an interesting allegory (forgive me if I misuse the word) for the way life goes sometimes: there are bad times that we can remember in our past, such as the cold weather yesterday, and there are trying times we have to steel ourselves for, such as tomorrow’s returning cold, but we have to just enjoy the moment we’re living in, like this beautiful weather today.
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The woods were a place I could go to escape reality, and let my imagination run rampant. Where the only person who was ever harmed by my imaginings was me. As a kid, I would come home just before dinner, covered in mud and scrapes, but grinning happily. Every time I returned home in this state, my mother would immediately point to the bathroom and demand that I clean up. I would eat, play video games, and watch a movie occasionally, but while I did these things, all I could think of is what I would do next in the morning. I could pretend I was an archer, shooting down dark and terrible creatures. Or a spider monkey that would swing from tree to tree, never afraid to launch myself through the air, howling happily as I went. In my forest I could be anything I wanted to be, do whatever I wanted to do, and no one could stop me. But now, now it is truly a place to relax, and just think.
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In the weight room , I get the constant scent of rubber , iron and a cleaner . I hear the sounds of weights clanging , Coach Fecht instructing on how to perform each lift with the occasional compliments “ nice work “ .
I’m sitting right inside the athletic entrance in a squeaky tall wooden chair next to a tall desk (where people sit to collect money for the basketball games). My feet dangle as I write. Mr. Sullivan is shouting something about pirates in his classroom behind me.
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Plenty of people have been walking by our seating area: pilots, flight attendants, moms and dads with their kids, men and women by themselves, men and women in the military, and so on. It’s interesting thinking about where all of them are headed, they’re all moving in their own directions. They pass each other’s lives in the same spot in this airport without even noticing the people around them, and then possibly ending up on opposite sides of the country. This isn’t just an airport affair, we all do this everywhere we go. We walk by people we don’t know, passing their lives for seconds and that is the only impression we leave in their lives. Usually, never to see them again.
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The worst part about this whole thing is seeing my teammates post stuff on twitter. I hate seeing what I am missing out on.
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I sit down in a burnt red chair. A cushion beneath me, and wood under my arms. My mom sits next to me in an odd position due to the leg brace keeping her dislocated knee cap wherever it is. The sliding glass doors open up and an old lady and her husband shuffle in. They stand at the check in desk until someone is free.
“Hello, How may I help you?”
“We’re here to see Doctor Rick.”
The old man says loudly as his wife shakily pulls a kleenex from her pocket.
“Your paperwork is up to date so have a seat and the nurse will call you when she’s ready.”
The man nods and he and his wife slowly make their way to the seats on the other side of the room.
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Each clique has found their own table. The popular girls are sitting front and center, taking selfies and dramatically explaining their days and all of the weekend gossip. The hipsters sit in the far back corner but are clearly heard throughout the library, their conversation often erupts into laughter causing everyone to look in their direction. A group of quiet girls sits together at a table next to me. Their heads are leaned close to each other and they appear deep in conversation. And the table closest to me houses 3 awkward kids staring at their laptop screens.
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I see a girl’s shirt that says “Look Pretty, Play Dirty” that’s weird. I don’t like that.
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I am in a three-sided shelter on the Appalachian Trail. The ridge the shelter sits on constitutes the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, so I am not quite sure what state I lie in at this moment.The shelter is composed of three stone walls with a blue and gray tarp blocking out the wind on the fourth side. The floor is packed dirt, and the roof is tin.
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Directly to the right of the door lies my dresser, three drawers tall, two drawers wide. Both the dresser and the door are made of some kind of dark wood, in fact every wooden object in the room is a dark shade of brown. Various electronic devices sit on top of the dresser, A stereo receiver, A Playstation 3, and two remotes, for the television and the stereo. A 50 inch flat screen balances on a small wooden stand, which makes the television look larger than it already is. This stand also houses my old xbox and xbox games and accessories in a small cabinet that makes up the base. The centerpiece of the stereo system, the center speaker, fits perfectly in the opening below the television and above the cabinet. A large subwoofer is placed in the corner behind the stand. Also behind the stand theres a huge mess of tangled cords of all colors.
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Also I think I might hear the creek. I know it’s there, but I’m not sure if the sound of water is from the creek or the masses of melting snow running down the street. I really like the sound of running water, it’s so calming. Often in the summer I bike to Emma McCarthy Lee park and just sit by the creek. Sometimes me and some friend will pack a lunch and go “creek walking” until we find a nice sandy sidebar to eat lunch on. I really am looking forward to summer.
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Peering outside the large windows at the back of the media center, and I’m struck in a surreal feeling of peacefulness. Seeing the snow lightly fall over the naked trees, and the golden brown remnants of the prairie grass, it feels like I’m in a snow globe.
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I wonder what [Ames High] will look like in 20 years, when I go back for my twenty year reunion. I’ll only be 38, I might have a husband and I might have kids. When I look around this place, it reminds me of how much has changed in the 4 years I’ve spent here. My friends have changed, I’ve picked up a job, my life has changed a lot. It’s really interesting to see what will happen in the next four years. Although I haven’t spent a long time in the back lobby, I go back and forth past it a lot during my school day. I don’t think that I’ll miss it that much, though.
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I can see the baseball field. The Ames High one. I miss baseball so much. Not Ames High baseball, but playing baseball for fun. Those were some of the best years of my life. It was such a pleasure to be able to play baseball when I was just a kid. The smell of the leather, the look of the parents watching their kids stumble to their positions in the field, the loose helmets falling off of the baserunners heads. Those memories are just priceless. I miss those days. I wish I could go back and relive those days. But that's life, you can't do that I guess. It's sad. That every moment that you live right now is over in a split second, lost forever.
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McDonald’s crew room. Yayyy! Not. I just got off of work a couple of minutes ago and I figured I might as well do a observational journal… There’s somebody in here watching a video on how to make sandwiches. I haven’t been in that position for like 2 years. I’m glad though. That was so stupid and pointless. We might as well have just jumped in hands on learning, not listen to this mono-tone, old, white man talk about mac sauce and crown buns.
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It’s 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon and I’m sitting on a loud charter bus next to my best friend, Elizabeth Peters. We’re just pulling out of the Mall of America, getting ready to head back home to Ames, Iowa. I have two bags sitting at my feet, one being my brightspark bag I got from the trip to Florida with my band, and the other one is my brown crossover purse that I got from JcPennys about a year ago. Inside of the Brightspark bag is a notebook, Dear John, which is one of my favorite books, and my pencil pouch. Next to my pencil pouch is my purple mug holding my tea from this morning. It’s purple, Contigo brand, metal, and I got it just three days ago. Inside of it is my Vanilla Chai tea, which is my favorite. Beside the bags and in between my feet is my purple Camelbak water bottle adorned with the University of Northern Iowa logo and a roaring panther.
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As we clip into the skis and start on the trail its hard going, the snow is, as feared, too sticky and its more like walking than it is skiing. That doesn’t matter though because just being out here in the woods, by the river, in fresh air, with my the best friend I could ever ask for, makes it all worth it. As we round this bend in the trail and look through the trees there is an eagle flying in the sky and another one in the distance. The wildlife out here is absolutely amazing. Our next stop is a little cove off the trail where there is an old rusted and abandoned car. Its covered in snow and barely recognizable but its so cute. It makes me wonder who left it out here. As I look around I again realize how pretty the fresh snow is in this sunlight, it glistens as though God sprinkled the ground with glitter. It’s gorgeous.
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A girl just sat down next to me. She is wearing typical white girl apparel, a bright pink running jacket, dark skinny bejeweled jeans, uggs, and to top it all off, a cream colored scarf. and she has apple headphones in her ears. I can’t hear what she’s listening to, but she is humming, and it is quite annoying. She seems to be attempting to read but keeps getting distracted by incoming text messages, on her iPhone 5s.
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She had a few poster on her walls. One of them that stuck out would be the biggest one of the room and it read “ Boys have germs and they’re dumb, thats why I’m a girl.” I thought it was weird didnt make sense but that’s alright she’s only 10 so I’ll let it slide.
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A lot of people want to get out of Iowa because it’s such a dull place, but what makes a place exciting or dull is what you decide to do there. Iowa has incredible skies to see the stars at night and there are amazing sunsets and sunrises that will make your knees buckle. So just sit back, and enjoy the moment while it’s there.
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I like this kind of cold when it is cold but it isn’t windy and unbearable. I kind of want to just sit here for hours and just enjoy the cold. I don’t know if there is something wrong with me or just no one is really like me but I kind of like the cold just not the snow. I could live in cold weather all the time if I had to. I have never really met anyone else who feels the same way I do but maybe someday I will or maybe not and maybe I’m just too different.
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With graduation fastly approaching, the nerves are setting in. I have so much to do, but so little time to do them. I still haven’t decided where I am going, if its ISU or DMACC. I don’t know where I will live. I still have to keep up with my school work from High School, but thats hard to do because all I can think of is next year. I am excited and nervous to graduate. I am ready to start the next chapter of my life. Getting asked what I’m doing next year is so annoying when I have no idea and get asked that all the time.
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While we were on break we shopped at the grocery store “Winn-Dixie”. I had no idea where anything was. I walked up and down every aisle and still couldn’t find what I was looking for. It’s funny how comforting a grocery store can be. I know where things are here.
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I enjoy this place, and find it strange I have never ventured here before. I suppose when I was a kid I considered the ridge that a crossed to get here to be a boundary of the forest never considered crossing it. By experiencing more, the woods actually became smaller to me. From the top of the ridge, I could see where the fields and trees ended in roads and farms. My seemingly immense and endless woods now has borders and I am not quite sure what to think about it. Is this discovery an accomplishment, or loss of freedom?
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As I’ve gotten a little older, I have decided that relaxing is very necessary, but so hard to do. When your life starts turning into a busy routine, it feels like there is never time for yourself. It really shouldn’t be so hard to kick our feet back and read a book, or take a bath, or enjoy some dessert, but we get stuck in a habit of going nonstop from the time we wake up until we go to bed. I’ve never been one for over indulging in massages and mani pedis, but I’ve been taught to enjoy the little things that help us relax. Things like hot chocolate by the fireplace, walking with my dog, lighting candles by the bathtub, or sitting outside and enjoying the stars. Those things always seem to make me feel happy inside! (And hey, they’re free!) Relaxing helps us realize how hard we have been working once we give ourselves a break, and it is also something to look forward to that pushes us through all the time and effort we spend in our lives.
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I wish I could say that right now I am sitting on soft spring grass, feeling a hot breeze fly by. Instead I am sitting in a building watching flakes of snow dance around the sky through a window. It’s annoying because it looks like they are never going to reach the ground but at the same time its peaceful because it looks like they don’t ever want to reach the ground. I’m the snowflake that just wants to get to the ground as fast as possible. The snowflakes that dance and float are the people I envy. Most of my friends are dancing snowflakes and those are the people who remind me to relax and thats probably why they are my friends.
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I’m sitting on a bench that has a little red canopy over the top. It is offering me a little bit of shade. The snow is abruptly melting leaving behind the water which is making for a very muddy park. Also, it is making the rivers water level very high and the current is moving very fast. It is pushing leftover debris from this past winter downstream. It is carrying mostly sticks. The water does not look appealing at all due to that it is very murky looking and a dirty brown color. There is absolutely no leaves on the trees they disappeared awhile back.
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Since starting this observation project I’ve realized that most of the time we are stuck in our own heads. The society we’ve all created doesn’t really allow us to take time to observe the things around us. I mean yeah we notice big things like when the weather changes or if someone gets a new car but we stop noticing the little things and the details of life.
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I’m thinking more of that once you realize that those people who make fun of you and make you feel embarrassed or make you feel like crap don’t matter then you start to not care. I use to feel really insecure about my weight and who I was so I wouldn’t talk much and I would do much and i would just feel like whatever I did everyone else would make fun of me.
I realized that as long as I’m happy and I have my friends that I don’t care about what anyone else thinks. So now I talk more and I participate more and I don’t really care if people think I’m weird. I know that there will be some people who will like me and be friends with me for who I am and I hope that everyone feels like that. I know that life is hard and difficult but it always gets better.
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It’s weird how people came up with the idea of a restaurant. It’s a place you go to eat and have to do zero work. Everyone waits on you and serves you like your a king or queen. It’s kind of funny people like to be treated this way. Why would we want a random person cooking our food or clearing our plates? Going out to eat is like a treat. We are treating ourselves by making other people do what we don’t want to do.
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Part of the reason I agreed to come here with my mom is that I wanted to rent Frozen from Redbox. I’ve seen the movie twice, but my parents have yet to see it. I love the movie so much.
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A brown haired man sits at the red topped table beside me. He wears thick black framed glass over his eyes, resting on his nose. Lets call hiimmmmm.. mm… Leo. Leo is snug in his brown sweater, brown pants and brown shoes. Surprisingly, and oddly, Leo looks very good, he can pull of the whole, “ one color” look. In front of him lies piles of paperwork that he has been filing through sense he first sat down. A large briefcase and a small twelve ounce brown togo cup of joe with a yellow sleeve also rest on the tabletop, apart from the paper work. His face, with a gentle growth of a 5 O’clock shadow has a slightly warm, natural smile permanently as his thinking expression.
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I like to sit and picture what my future is going to look like and I like to plan things out but for the most part my plans always get ruined. Someone told me once that you can’t live your life in plans and that you just have to live for the moment. I can’t remember who told me that but every time I make a plan that saying is always in the back of my mind. I like living in the moment but I also like to try and figure what else is in store for me. None of us know when we will be taken from this earth and given to God so we have to live everyday to our fullest and make no regrets. We might make mistakes along the way but that’s life. Who doesn’t make mistakes? If you don’t make mistakes than you aren’t human. I especially like seeing teachers make mistakes because it shows they slip up and aren’t perfect just like the students they are teaching. All we can do in life is learn from the mistakes we and others make and move on and grow everyday into a bigger and better person.
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Right in front of me is a Bumkins blue and green baby bib. According to the label that is sticking out, its a "finer baby product." I don't know the difference between the different items, and I don't really care to take the time to find out. I think that when I have kids, I will choose the things that look the cutest. Thats crazy for me to think about. I want so badly to grow up and have a family of my own, well my own husband and kids. I know that that my time will come and some of the best years of my life are going to be right now. Being patient is a hard thing to do.
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The computers are sitting neglected against the window in the media center, and I wonder why we even have them still now that every student has a much nicer and more capable laptop with them. Couldn’t the school sell them to someone, I’m sure someone somewhere would need them, what about the middle school, or some of the elementary schools? Oh well I guess it’s nice to have them just in case, but not once this year have I seen anyone using them, whereas last year there was a line to use them.
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Rubber shoes hit the rubber flooring in Ames High’s weight room. Rial counts “one two three” every second or so. Everyone’s switching in between mountain climbers and supermans. Rial’s voice echoes around the room with the only other sound being the noisy air conditioner. As soon as the warm-up ends everyone scatters. Jennifer Berg’s voice seems to be the only one I can pick out between the murmurs of the crowd.
Clifford sits about six feet to the right of me and I can hear his music blaring. It’s sounds kind-of techno-ish. I’m assuming he’s doing after school like I am. Rial still explains a new workout, shoulder presses. Yay. Supposedly a Kosama workout. The air smells like burnt skin and rubber. At some point in time I’m sure you’ve smelt burnt skin, from working out or something. It’s got a distinct smell, a mixture of dead skunk and regret with some sweat thrown in.
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Jordan Creek Mall is actually a very beautiful building. All of the lights dangling from the tall three-story roof. All of the stores are so appealingly built with colorful neon signs, other sorts of lights, and very radiant colors that are used to draw the average person in and make them want to use their money. Their windows are all full of annoying signs that say “Save Money Here!”, “Buy One, Get ½ Off!”, or “Everything On Sale!” Yet again, another way to lure all of the brainwashed minds of the people whose faces glow from technology.
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I never realized how tiring it can be to be perky towards customers all day until I started working at Fareway. Sometimes you just want to stand and scan their items without having to ask the required “How are you today?” and “Did you find everything alright?” Oh well I can’t complain I like my job a lot and it could be worse.
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Sitting in my parents room I can see my dad flipping through the tv channels. As I look around I spot my dog ****** walk in and go right under my parents bed. From under the bed our cat ******* walks toward me and stops and sits halfway and looks up at me with a wag to her tail. I can hear the crunching of popcorn coming from my dad as he watches his tv. I also hear the clicking of the computer coming from my mom and can see shes on facebook like always. Coming from the other room where my brother’s room is I can hear him getting mad at someone on his game.
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Oh yeah well anyway back to living by old people they don’t talk that much and they’re always keeping up on shoveling their driveways, there’s even this one lady whos name is Helen reminds me of my aunt in California she was just out here shoveling her driveway and even did her neighbors, all I can thing is go grandma, I assume she’s a grandma because I see this younger couple and their kids always going over there but who knows anyway I wanna be like that old and out there shoveling and getting exercise not sitting around being lazy locked up in my house having other people doing things for me all the time.
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It’s kind of cold up in the arts balcony(or “Skipper’s Hall, if you may). Some people is walkin’ passed me. I don’t think they care so much but they did sort of approach awkwardly. Well, whatever. There’s a random brown bag sitting up here on the brick ledge by the window to the right if you face the window like I am. There is currently not a soul in the courtyard which would make sense because it’s colder than a penguin sippin’ a slushie while chillin’ in an ice bath. The penguin is probably cool with that though. I bet he just wishes he had knees so he didn’t have to just drop down when sliding on his belly. These windows are dirty and it’s sort of annoying but, not really. The band kids are jammin’ to some pretty dramatic stuff. Makes me feel the empire is striking back or like Darth Vader just casually strolled through the room.
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Another thing I notice about the school is all of the love being shared among people whether it’s two freshmen making out or a teacher congratulating a student on the grade they had received and the response from the student thanking the teacher for all of his help. It feels great to be in a place like this and to be able to go to school with people that love each other. I don’t mean romantically or sexually, but in a friendly and respecting way. It definitely helps everyone go on with their day and get their homework done and stuff like that because most people at this school aren’t constantly worrying about bullies and whether or not they will fit in. At least I don’t feel this way.
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Once I went to leave the mall, a couple hundred people soon overflow the parking lot with bright lights, road rage, and honking horns. Road rage in my opinion is created by time schedules. If people didn’t have to be somewhere at a certain time, then the flow of traffic would go along much more smoothly. I think it is kinda funny how people that are in their cars trying to get out of the parking lot think that honking their car horn will help them get out faster. After a short time, the breathtaking smell of car emissions fill the air. You can see little white tails of smoke coming from every car in the parking lot.
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Working at Valentinos has actually been a lot of fun. It can get really frustrating and repetitive but a lot of my friends work there and we have a lot of fun back in the kitchen. My friend works at Pizza Ranch and some of the people that work there are really weird and creepy. His coworkers are in and out of jail and don’t try when they are at work. I guess what I am trying to say is that I have a job that I don’t drag myself to everyday. I make enough money and I usually have fun when I am there. I could be making more money somewhere else but I am happy with the job that I have for now.
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I took the (IA Assessment test last year) as well and it wasn’t pleasing. Even though it wouldn’t really reflect on you and affect your life it was important for the school and how good the teachers taught us. I cannot lie but Ames high is the best school I have ever attended. There are so many good teachers who love their job and are very good at it. Which make me think about my future. I dont really know how my future will turn out to be. High School is just a guidance to achieve my goal. It teaches us to think beyond what you have been taught your entire life. It makes you try new things so you can find things that you like which can ultimately decide my future. I enjoyed doing art and always had interest in it, but it wasn’t something that I could rely on. I know people say do what you love but to me making enough money while doing what you love is more important. Because if you cannot provide enough food for the family, doing what you love will eventually fall.
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This is one of my favorite songs. I’m big into listening to the words and the chorus is “You only live forever in the lights you make. When we were young we used to say that you only hear the music when your heart begins to break. Now we are the kids from yesterday.” It has such deep meaning, the whole song does. It’s all so true and it gets me, man. Everytime.
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With warmer weather on its way, Iowa seems to be coming alive while people flood the streets walking, biking, running, and driving, birds flap their tiny wings and hover above all of the action, and squirrels are casually perched up in the trees. I see people carrying grocery bags coming from Walmart and Dahls, groups of middle school aged kids “hanging out”, and yet I still see thumbs tapping away and faces glowing with technology. Why would you waste your precious day of warmth to text your friends? You probably were just telling them how nice it is by texting, “Like omg, the wether cldnt B any better.” I will admit, I am also a person in favor of technology but I will never put wasting my time using my cell phone before going for an adventurous nature walk or hike or run because I value being outdoors a great deal. It is one of my deepest passions.
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I seem to find myself in weird situations. Who else is at the mall around four in the morning. I live for the some shoes and if you have to wait it ok with me. But it is vacant today. On normal release dates its a closed group of sneaker heads, however, i am single for now.
There is virtually zero movement except for the occasional stray car looking as if it is floating down the street. Its weird to think the ,majority of people are asleep and you just sitting waiting for something at the public mall.
You will see a whole lot of grays show up to these things and try to snatch a pair hoping to make money by purchasing and selling, for personal collections, and or just for daily usage. What the purpose of your purchase is it what determines your validity in the release community. The first car pulls up and you think should i go up to be first or will they not have the same.
On releases only in Des Moines people will show up at 12 o'clock just to get a pair of shoes and I'm not talking about the morning. They will wait in front of the door for 7 hours and they will get a pair.
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After a few moments of digestion I reach for my plastic wrapped fortune cookie. The expectations are low for what the fortune may be. After I unwrap the cookie from the crinkly, clear, coating. “You will buy clothes in the near future.” These words sit on the small rectangle of paper, pulled slightly taut by my hands, the weight of the sheer laziness and stupidity outweigh the physical weight of the ink on the paper that I am holding. I sit back again just taking in the fact that someone approved this divination and deemed it worthy to be sent out to millions of Americans.
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I told her I wanted a cheeseburger with fries and a side of ranch. When she finally brought my food out after having a break from eating her own she forgot the ranch. Ugh they always do that, especially at Buffalo Wild Wings. I don’t know if I would ever want to be a waitress, it seems really hard. Like at Hy-Vee you only have to deal with a customer with a few minutes but when you’re a waitress you have to be with them for a while and you have to be really nice if you want a good tip. At Hy-Vee we don’t get tips so it’s not as big of a deal. There is always those people that come through Hy-Vee and try and tip you and it gets super awkward because we don’t accept them.
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Nothing strikes me more than the guy that comes inside The Pita Pit and instead of putting his trash in the trash can, he decides to just smear his food across the table and dispose of his garbage on the ground. I hate when people think that they are funny or predominant, and it just makes them look like an ass. I feel bad for the employees that now have to clean up after that ass hole.
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I arrived at this house finally. This smell was the smell when I first came here in America, 10 years ago when I was a 5 years old kid. I felt time flows so fast as I remember how I waited for a life here in America looking at this house for the first time. And that was already last year and now I am here recalling the last days. I will never forget this place and the feeling right now. I am listening to a K-Pop song called, ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’ which the melody sounds like life in America. I listened to this song when since I was in Korea, planning to come here in America.
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As a bigger group of people start to pile up inside, I seem to notice all of the facial expressions that show that they are not enthused to be standing in a line in this nasty smelling place. I hear people talk about how much longer they will be in line, what they plan to do the next day, and that Taylor will be picking up Vanessa at 6 PM to bring her to the restaurant (as said by a woman that is waiting in line). All of these stories I honestly couldn't care less about but they actually interest me to sit and record the actions and emotions and senses that are being portrayed in this tiny, smelly, Post Office.
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After a long night of working, I have finally finished all my chores and am waiting for everyone else to finish. I am sitting in the dining room listening to the music playing throughout the store. Currently the station we are listening to is playing Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J. There is a faint sound of the music coming for the kitchen where I usually am. There are the sound of mop’s sliding across the floor and a vacuum running in the party room. Every now and then you can hear the cash register go off as Reid is running the “day end’ procedure. The printer is continuing to print tickets and coupons that have been used today. The dishwasher has just gone off, I can hear plates getting through around as Tanner is putting them back on the buffet. You never realize how much is going on when you are apart of the chaos. When you are running around trying to get out of the restaurant as fast as you can, you don’t realize how much is actually going on.
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The first crowd that appeared in the library seems to have disappeared, so I get up and walk along some of the shelves in search of somebody to eavesdrop on, or creepy watch. I remember last week when I tried to do this at Stomping Grounds some college kids figured out what I was doing and started talking really loud about gossip of people around me. “OMG DO YOU THINK THAT KID OVER THERE WITH HIS NOTEBOOK IS WATCHING US! JESUS, HOW RUDE!” I just started chuckling to myself and waved to them as I left.
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The girl on the other side of the teacher is reading a book but she has her laptop out, and it has a bright yellow case on it. She’s got a blue bottle of gatorade that she keeps taking drinks out of. I’m not really sure what her name is and it kind of makes me realize that i don’t take the time to get to know or really learn about my classmates.
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I just like being alone and spending time in my santuary of my room. I get so tired at the end of the day from being around so many people. I take a nap everyday after school because of my introversion. Once I told a friends that I was an introvert, and she thought it was a social disorder.
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I know that the food that Mcdonald's servers are very unhealthy for me but I couldn't resist on buying me some fries and mcchicken. I think putting nutrition label on the plate is a good idea but I beat less than 50% of the costumer don't even bother to look at it. The guy with sunglasses left but the forgot to throw away the napkins that he brought. Why take so much napkins in the first place when you are not even going to use it. As i examine the Nutrition Facts, I see that the food that I just ate adds up to 740 calories. That much in just Mcchicken and medium fires? No wonder why this is the number 1 reason for obesity in America. People do not see the hidden calories that is put into these food. What I have heard that there are no good nutrients in the food why it why it make you hungry are 2 hours. Not good source of protein and vitamins is used in the fast food industry. It is all about making money and getting rich. And unlimited refills worsens the situation. I try to stay away from pop as much as I can.
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Three of the people were “mall walkers”. I see them regularly when working at the cookie store. It’s sort of creepy how I know who they are and what time they usually come to the mall. We have our regular customers who I now know by name because they get their daily coffee or cinnomin roll. One older gentleman with white hair and bright white tennis shoes comes almost every morning to buy his cinnomin roll. He buys it and has us save it in the back until he is all done with his daily walk.
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The child has abandoned the table his family sits at ,in favor of running around the checkered black and white tiles that make up most of the flooring. I have never really liked children, though they seem to like me. Even from where I sit, he looks like a loud, sticky mess and chocolate covers his face. I wonder why his parents aren’t watching him, making sure he sits down and stays out of trouble. Then I notice they are both sitting on their cell phones. I would easily place a bet saying at least one of them is playing candy crush as their child runs to wreak havoc involving the jelly bean machine right behind me. Sure enough, without turning my head, I can tell he has pulled the little lever to release multicolored candies into the grated catch-all that sits below the spouts of the machine.
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Valentines day was the best. I worked every day of the week leading up to the special day. On the fourteenth all the employees came in, and we each had a specific job. I worked the front (Baking cookies and register), while the employees in the back did dishes and frosted the hundreds of cookies we were going through. That day I mastered almost every job there was. I just now realized that the stressful day was the best one I have worked. I had an awesome time being rushed and laughing at for making dumb mistakes. Some of the closest relationships I have right now are with the girls that work in the cookie shop. I’m glad that I didn’t give up on the job in the first few months.
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A small lamp lights up enough space to write and, a good sized section of my dark brown desk it sits on. Empty soda cans, my computer speakers, a pencil lacking its eraser, and an array of pill bottles are illuminated by its light. I can even read some parts of the labels from here. “Capsule by mouth twice”...”for anxiety”, “one tablet daily”, “Quetiapine Fumarate, One tablet by mouth every evening”. The tops of some of the bottles are marked with a black Sharpie, a friendly reminder not to drive after taking them. Not like I could get far, normally they do a pretty good job of knocking me out leaving me drowsy the next day.
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I am writing this observation journal while sitting here in a little community named Sava Colon, Honduras. I never thought I’d be here but I am and I am enjoying it. It is about 85 or 90 degrees here with only a few clouds hanging above my head. The scenery is beautiful with the mountains surrounding the houses. It’s obviously not like the USA but I’m not complaining. I was not expecting there to be chickens/hens and dogs running around everywhere. There dogs are our deer. They’re everywhere! There are also horses and cows all over the place but not in pastures. They stand along side of the roads and graze on grass or corn or they hang out in the middle of an area surrounded by palm trees.
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If I said I never noticed the smells of Mcdonalds foods you’d know I was lying. The smell of their french fries overpowers any other smells in the surrounding air. Greasy is the best way to describe the way the fries smell. That greasy smell can make my stomach grumble though.
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I'm sitting on a bench just outside the doors of Younkers. Santa Claus is right in front of me but there's some objects in the way and I can't see him. I know he's there though. The little kids that walk by either say, "Santa!" or they run behind their parent's legs in fright. As a kid, I think I was more of the hider type. I got a nickname that way. Sneakers. My crazy cousin told me that I acquired that name because I would always sneak off and do something naughty. I asked my mom and she told me that I was a good kid, not naughty, and it's because I would sit by the door at family gatherings, trying on shoe, after shoe, after shoe. I love the nickname Sneakers. I love shoes so I think it fits perfectly.
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My dad gets out and fills the car up with gas. He opens the door and I was expecting to smell something like a farm or cow or something, but no, there was literally no smell at all. Usually when you get out into the country there is a unique smell that overwhelms you. I am very surprised with the smell but that ends immediately when I take my first sip of my McCafe strawberry shake from McDonalds.
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While I sit here at Downtown Deli I see many kinds of people around me. There is a guy sitting two stools away from me eating his sandwich. I cannot tell which kind of meat it is but there is a lot of lettuce and black olives. There is so much lettuce that the lettuce is sliding off the bread with each bite he takes. His cheese looks like it got melted perfectly. The cheese is making my stomach growl. When I’m done observing I will be eating a sandwich. I can hear the workers slicing the meat with their slicing machine. The microwave periodically goes off each time someone asks for their sandwich to be heated. I can hear one of the workers asking people questions. He says, “ What kind of meat do you want on your sandwich?” and “What kind of cheese would you also like?” There’s an old fashioned tv across the room from me playing a tv show that I didn’t even know existed.