Spring break 09'

Spring break approaches within a week and I cannot wait to get back home and relax. Many of my friends are going on trips all around the globe but I am totally content to just spend my break in California. Several of my friends were trying to get me to go on a trip but I'm so exhausted from school going on a trip and then not being able to come home until the end of the school year just sounded like too much.

For the break I plan to meet up with friends back home and then take a road trip out to Palm Desert for a few days to possibly play some golf and of course enjoy the hot weather. I really miss the warm weather and luckily the past few days here in Dallas have been pretty warm. During the school year it snowed one night and it was the first night that I have ever seen snow when I was not in the mountains skiing.

I'm very excited to see my friends back home. I know several of them will not be able to come down because I know the public school calendar is much different than SMU's. Either way I'm sure it will be a break that's definitely worthwhile

Texas-What I thought it would be like

This past weekend me and a few friends did a community service project working on this old lady's house. It wasn't that bad we just had to do some yard work and it was a nice day to be outside and to get some sun. The best part of this experience though was where the house was located. We were doing community service projects roughly one and a half hours east of SMU and I saw some of the most "southern" people I have seen in my life. I really got a kick out of it.

After working around the house my friends and I decided to get a quick bite to eat at a close by McDonald's. While we were in there I saw one man that I definitely perceived was from the south. He had a Nascar shirt that said, "Dale Earnhardt JR. #1!", a mullet for a haircut, cowboy boots, and a huge belt buckle with the Texas Longhorns logo on it. Honestly, I felt a strong urge to laugh because it looked like such a typical southern stereotype, but instead I just kept to myself.

After eating we were all pretty thirsty, so we decided to get a quick milk shake or ice cream at the Dairy Queen across the street. While inside a couple in their late twenties possibly early thirties came into the Dairy Queen dressed head to toe in hunting gear. The wife had a pink hat but other than that she was dressed in complete camouflage. Being from San Diego there's not a whole lot of hunting that goes on. I go fishing with a few friends on occasion. It was fun and interesting to see Texas as I originally envisioned it: which consists of people some sort of cowboy attire and see people talking with a heavy southern accent. It was certainly fun to see Texas in a different way.

Arrested for Texting?

I did not know about this story until last week. A 14 year old girl from Wisconsin was arrested for disorderly conduct for refusing to stop text messaging in class. I thought this story was made up at first because it is so ridiculous. After hearing the story from a friend I saw the girl at her high school on television as the news anchor was discussing the story. The police officer's justification for arresting her was for lying, saying she did not possess the phone, not obeying the teacher, and disrupting the class.

This story was such a joke to me at first I literally could not get my head around it. When I was in high school I would see students text during the middle of class multiple times. The typical class size in my high school was thirty to forty students per class so students texting seemed to get away with it all the time. If a student had been seen texting by the teacher the worst thing that would happen is getting your phone taken away for two days.

A police officer's job is to protect and serve. Arresting a 14 year old girl for texting is in no possible way protecting or serving the girl. I've noticed that many police officers spend a lot of time on minor problems. Instead of going to a high school to arrest a girl for texting shouldn't the police officer be out on the streets trying to arrest drug dealers and problems that are actually an issue?

Top Athletes Caught Using Steroids.....Again

I am an avid sports fan and I watch almost every sport. But recently I feel that everything I watch has at least one player cheating the game by taking anabolic steroids or performance enhancing drugs for that matter. Several days ago after a long day of school I just wanted to take some time to sit down, relax, and watch some sports. It seemed the only thing being shown on ESPN was all-star baseball player Alex Rodriguez' recent steroid story. Yes, again there is another top athlete who made his way to the pinnacle of the baseball world with the help of drugs.

It's almost become embarassing to realize how many of our country's athletes cheat and ruin their bodies just so they can win. After Lance Armstrong won his last Tour de France, American Floyd Landis won the next Tour. He then had a test come back positive for performance enhancing drugs and was stripped of his title and made the rest of America look bad.

I am not surprised by any means when I see a high profile athlete deny that he or she has ever taken steroids or any other type of drug go on to admit or get caught for having used them. I don't really understand why anyone would want to jeapordize their career of being able to play a sport for a living and get paid far more than one should just so that they can be the better player and get paid more. The risk is definitely not worth the reward.

I am so tired of seeing professional athletes in court testifying to whether or not they used steroids. They might as well have a league for any sport in which the players are allowed to have as many performance enhancing drugs as they would like. Therefore it would be fun to watch because everyone would hit a baseball riduculously far without much effort and there wouldn't be sports drug stories on ESPN the entire day.