This spot is to talk about Patricia's birthday an dher awesome roommates.

fake cripple

This is pretty old news by now but I think it still deserves telling. The story of How Jackie "Broke" her Arm.

I ripped my new gloves and the smoothies were a mess but, thanks to Jackie's quick thinking, Marvin and his new pot were fine.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Roy was lonely. The four of us had already talked things out and we believed that Roy needed a friend. So on Monday, October 12th (the day before that miserable rainy Tuesday) Jackie and I decided to head out and find another spiky friend. While we were out, I found a pair of gloves, Jackie got a new umbrella, we both got smoothies, and, of course, we found a new little cactus.

He's mine by the way. His name is Marvin (as in Marvin Gaye). I picked him out and paid for him and his new pot. You'll probably get to hear a lot more about him in a later post; this is just a cameo appearance.

Towards the end of our shopping, we picked up the smoothies from the Gallery Cafe (if you haven't been there, it's right across from Borders and it's the coolest cafe I've ever seen). The smoothies were cold so I decided to try out my new gloves. We had to drink these on the go because Jackie was running late for a class.

We headed off, with smoothies in hand, on our bikes with Marvin and his pot in Jackie's backpack. I was riding immediately behind Jackie. We rode from downtown and back on to campus when, in the middle of a turn-around, "it" happened. I say "it" when referring to the cause of the accident because what "it" was is debatable. If you ask Jackie, there was something wrong with her gears and her peddling went funny. If you ask me, immediately before the accident Jackie asked me what time it was. I told her I couldn't check because I had a smoothie in one hand and my watch was hidden under a sleeve and a glove and I am not cool enough to ride my bike with no hands. From my perspective, one minute she was trying to get at her cell phone to check the time, and the next minute she had somehow gone over her bike.

I was stunned. I shouted, "Holy shit, Jackie!" while all I could think was, "How the hell did that just happen?" As it turned out, I should have been doing less wondering and more braking. I hit the brakes too late and, in order to avoid running over Jackie, the bike stayed behind and I went ahead of it. I looked up at Jackie to see how she was doing. She was pinned under her bike. Her handlebars apparently had her in some kind of wrestling hold (for a description of a similar situation, look for the blog entry on handstands). I scraped my hand, ripping my glove in the process, and found a fine bruise on my hip. Jackie landed on her elbow.

We rode our bikes back to our dorm (I was in the lead this time). We walked up to our room where Suzanne and Lauren were talking and Patricia was sick in bed. At this point Jackie brought up her concern that she may have dislocated something in her elbow (the radius to be precise). Lauren calmly started to look up where we might go in this kind of situation while Suzanne ran around looking for an RA. After some time trying to figure out where to go I suggested we just go ask someone at Tercerro main.

Jackie and I asked the people behind the main desk who redirected us to the Cowell Health Center. Aside from bicycling, there was no way of getting there that would take less than 15 minutes. We set out in the general direction of the Health Center. We had walked only as far as D building before spotting a better mode of transportation. There we saw someone stepping into a golf cart. Before he could drive off, I ran up and waved him down. We explained the circumstances to the driver who then called his supervisor for permission. The driver had apparently been asked if it looked serious because we heard him say, "Well she's not crying but it looks swollen." Jackie quickly responded with fake tears. He let us in and drove us up to the Health Center.

At the Health Center, Jackie was seen immediately. I got a band aide for my hand and was sent to the waiting room to sit for an hour. When she came out, she had a half-cast on. A half-cast is exactly what it sounds like. The arm is supported by half a cast that is held on by wrapping tape around the arm. Apparently, the doctor had taken an X-ray of Jackie's arm and decided that there may have been a hairline fracture and that it would be a good idea to put this half-cast on it.

For the following few days, I helped Jackie with things like opening doors, taking care of her dishes at the DC, holding her umbrella, I even typed up a short email for her (the contents of which are quite relevant to the story).

A couple days after the accident, Jackie got an email from the radiologist saying that there was no fracture after all. No fracture and no dislocation. Effectively, she got a cast for a bruise on her arm.

Once I came to terms with this, I broke out in slightly manic laughter. I had been helping her out thinking she had broken her arm when it was quite possible that she came out of the accident in better shape than I did!

Now, fake cripple has been added to Jackie's long list of nicknames.

I Will Survive. No seriously.

Second Floor Quad Girls strike again! See video for a clip of our amazing, sold-out concert at the Hamm House lounge.

And don't worry, Suzanne totally recovered after her fall.

Watch it. You know you want to.

The Supreme...ly bored

If I remember correctly, these were the series of events that led up to the idea of forming a barbershop quartet.
First, I should say that we often treat any song like we're listening to it alone on a car radio. We join in regardless of whether or not we know the lyrics or can sing in the given key. I'm not saying we're bad at singing, I just wanted to point out that if a song we know starts up there is a good chance that at least a few of us are going to join in.
Suzanne, Jackie, and I are in our common room and, like almost every time something truly weird happens here, Patricia is absent.
It's quiet.
Suzanne starts to whistle a tune and I join in. When we finished the phrase I announce that I had always wanted to start a whistling choir (laugh if you want to but doesn't that sound like fun?) We laugh at this notion for a while.
We start talking about a capella, choirs, scatting, and barbershop quartets. I start to pull up youtube videos, one of which is of the lawyer barbershop quartet that appear in a few episodes of Scrubs wherein they sing the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann." We start singing, as usual, but this time we see if we can harmonize.
Long story short, we have almost perfected a rendition of "Barbara Ann" in four-part harmony.

Daily Happenings

Well, we havent posted in a few days, so I thought I'd just give a quick update.
Suzanne went home for Friday and Saturday and came back late Saturday night. While she was gone Patricia, Christine, and Jackie went to a karaoke/japanese restaraunt for a night out.
Last night, Suzanne, Jackie, and Patricia went to a dance party in the H building... it was not as cool as the dance parties that our building, Hamm House, hosts.
This past week, during our room mate quality time, we watched bits of When Harry Met Sally and videos of disney songs in multiple languages.
Today, Suzanne and Christine sang a duet of California Dreaming by the Mamas and the Papas in light of the recent weather here in Davis, today I was actually shivering!
Also Today, Suzanne, Christine and Jackie were conversing over some crackers and peanut butter. Jackie ate a cracker and said "hmm this needs something on it" Suzanne replied with" how about some peanut butter?"
Jackie: No, I dont like peanut butter, it tastes nasty in my mouth.
Suzanne and Christine trip over each other to come up with the come back "as opposed to in your nose/ear?"
Christine pantomimes putting peanut butter in one's ear and says "now, i could be wrong, but I dont think Im doing this right"
A very excellent quad moment.
Other news: Patricia is still sick, Christine and Suzanne have essays due this week, and Jackie just refilled her shampoo!
Thats all for now. Happy October 11!

Sweet Tea

So I learned that oftentimes roommates are the best doctors.

Or something like that. ...Especially when they want you to get better as quick as possible so they don't get sick themselves.

Remember guys, taste the tea before you give it to someone, or something very bad can happen.

fling the other way

I think I said something earlier about Jackie having bad ideas and how I support them. Keep in mind I'm not mean, I just can't resist encouraging a funny story in the making.
The other day Jackie decided that she wanted to do a handstand.
A brilliant suggestion to which I answered, "Do it."
So, like an amateur gymnast, Jackie stands facing the wall from about four feet away. She raises both arms and her right leg and with a sort of rocking motion attempts to tumble forward onto her hands. She's close but she doesn't have the momentum and falls short. She tries again but again she can't quite get both feet up over her head. I watch from my chair, coaching her. "You just need to get that right leg a little higher and you'll be there." Jackie assumes her starting position, takes a stride forward, and she's upside down. For almost a second this seemed like a resounding success. A smile came over my face when I thought she had made it, only to broaden when I realized she hadn't. The strength went out of her arms and she was now on her shoulders, upside down, and pinned between a wall and a mixed paper recycling bin. Thinking that she could handle this situation on her own, I hesitated to help her. Jackie made a few small thrashing motions that did not help her. "Fling the other way, Jackie" I say as loud as I can with what little air did not go into gasps of laughter. Jackie eventually succeeded in getting her feet under her.
During this whole episode, Suzanne was in her room hearing shouts of "Oh my god!" and "Fling the other way!" (a phrase which made the short list of possible blog titles.) She came out into our common room just after Jackie regained her footing and we explained what had happened. In what I believe is an entirely reasonable response, Suzanne burst out laughing.

10/6/2009 The bathroom conversation.

It was bound to happen sometime, I'm actually shocked it took so long to occur, that's right folks, yesterday we had the "bathroom conversation". Unfortunately, Patricia was absent for this conversation, but we fully filled her in when she returned.
The scene: Suzanne returns from a Model UN meeting to find Jackie and Christine sitting at their computers. Suzanne sits at her desk and commences to moan about a pain in her lower abdomen which she is calling her uterus.
Jackie: Oh, did you burst something?
Christine and Suzanne: (simultaneously look at each other and burst into laughter) *commence sacrasm*
after sarcasm subsides Jackie, again: You should go to the bathroom, you never know what might happen.
Christine: What usually happens to you in the bathroom, Jackie? *commence sarcasm*
after sarcasm subsides again, Jackie, yet again: Well, are you getting your thing?
Suzanne: Huh?
Jackie: Are you getting your thing?
Christine: I think she was going for period there.
Suzanne falls off chair onto floor and laughs for a good 5 minutes.
Christine: I think we broke her.
When the laughter subsided we straightened the whole thing out. But, it was pretty epic.

Also, on a side note, last night our dorm hosted karaoke!
Patricia, Jackie, Christine and Suzanne got together for an epic rendition of "I Will Survive" as made popular by Gloria Gaynor.

That is all for now. Happy Wednesday everyone!

Roy

We also have an additional member of the place. I must say that he is the light of our dorm. Thus, picture:
Pretty sweet huh? That's Roy in his new diggs. He's gotten pretty big now though. I'm often seen petting him... and then yelling "ow" as he hurts me.

While I want to say it's because Roy is just going through puberty and is having temper tantrums, it might be because I'm not a good mother (according to Suzanne.) People pet him a lot, and he loses his red spine tips. Just today, I decided to highlight those tips with a marker.

Suzanne disagreed with this idea, and Roy must have too...

D:

intros

So I figure we should get introductions underway. The authors of this blog are four college freshmen girls staying in the same dorm (hence "a permanent sleepover situation".) There's Suzanne, Jackie, Patricia, and I'm Christine. Suzanne laughs the loudest which gets everyone else laughing. Jackie comes up with bad ideas (which I fully encourage.) Patricia is always forgetting things. And I'm the funny, clever, talented, attractive, modest one (not to mention, sarcastic.) At some point we realized that we do a lot of weird things that might make an interesting blog. So here we are.