Natalie Stanchfield

Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of Lent. I’m not Catholic, but I started observing Lent in high school as a test of willpower. The first year I gave up donuts. After Lent was over, I didn’t eat donuts as much anymore, so I came to the conclusion that Lent was a good opportunity to rid myself of habits that might not be good for my health. In years since then I have given up coffee, cigarettes, and meat. This year I thought about giving up alcohol, but I’d tried that before one year and I just became cranky and was no fun to be around. So I decided not to put my roommate Ayme through that this year.

Instead, I’ve decided to give up complaining. As of late it has been brought to my attention that I complain…a lot. When your Japanese class dubs you the Monkey Queen (from 文句言う—monkuiu—to complain) because you grumble so much, you might want to do something about it. Hey I’m not complaining here.
I feel that complaining has become a crutch. So I’m giving up the sarcasm from my shtick. We’ll see if I still have anything to talk about…

So if you catch me complaining, gently remind me. If I do slip, I’ve resolved to immediately say something positive about whatever I was bitching about in the first place.

Also I want to make clear that “Gee it’s raining pretty hard, huh?” is NOT complaining per se. If I said, “Gee it’s raining pretty hard. Just typical on the day when I have to run all my errands…” THAT’S complaining.

So look forward to a sunnier, perkier, probably quieter Natalie. But just wait, Lent ends right as portfolio week begins!

So the other night I was thinking, why don’t people go to Guam on vacation more often? I mean isn’t it a U.S. territory and it’s tropical right? But I never hear about people going there. Curious, I did a little googling.

Blazing ahead, I found the Guam page , Guam-online, which insists that

However, the widely held belief that Guam is one big military post is far from accurate. Guam has much to offer and visitors can spend their entire time without seeing any military presence, if that is their desire.

Guam’s number one industry is tourism, actually. So you could have a totally epic holiday: laying around on beaches, hiking (they call it “boonie stomping”), or taking in a little of the local culture. Guam is pretty fresh.

The indigenous people of Guam, the Chamorro , have a matriarchal society. When the Spanish arrived on Guam and took over, they didn’t catch on to the fact that the women had the real power and only conducted their dealings with Chamorro men. Because their society was organized this way, their culture was able to avoid erasure, passed down among the women.

So let’s go to Guam! I’m serious! You can get a huge apartment for like nothing! And pretend you’re a colonialist!

Look at what I missed! This is right by the restaurant I worked at, the classy Sinbad’s Restaurant, where you can enjoy an “Authentic San Francisco Dinning (sic) Experience.” Heinous!

Anyways I am bummed that I missed a gnarly pillow fight!

But you know what they say, if feathers fall on Tuesday, you better have your pillow ready on Wednesday.

Here I am! My first blog. I just want to say the Guitar Wolf is the loudest band known to the universe and my ears are blown out.
Rock n Roll