Spring has sprung! Oh wait, it definitely just snowed here last night in northeast Ohio. sigh Well, this is how things ought to look:

All my life I've been saying that winter was my favorite season. It's because the feeling of holiday cheer and gift giving and family and togetherness is unbeatable, and I love cuddling up in blankets with hot cocoa and watching the snowflakes make a fresh blanket of snow outside. But now I've spent a winter in northeast Ohio, and I take it all back. Winter here is about 5 months too long; it's always a mixture of snow, rain, slush and wind, and it's definitely still snowing on April 5th. Spring is now officially my favorite season, because it is the season I find myself yearning for the most. Everything is new and happy in spring, I have wonderful childhood memories of Easter egg hunts, rolling down hills and driving around aimlessly, and then there's summer and fall to look foward to. From this day forth, Joanna likes spring the most. Thank you.

I also have a huge craving to go to a beach. My mom (she comes back from Taiwan tonight! yay ^_^) told me that one of my cousins in Taiwan is getting married, and they are going to spend their honeymoon in the US, haha. Anyway, I will probably take them to Mammoth Cave since that's what everyone who lives in Kentucky does, but they also want me to take them to Disney World! I'm so excited about it, but I don't think it's until August. Ideally though, I'd like to have gone to a beach before then. I'm going to see if I can't organize a nice trip in the month I have between spring and summer semester.

So... spring break was wonderful! But then, any time spent back in Louisville is. The first night I went with my dad to see the Ju Percussion Group, this percussion troupe from Taiwan. Apparently they're famous worldwide (they performed in the first Fantasia!), but since no one really knows them in the states, the tickets are really cheap =P The show was aaaawesome; there were usually at least five people on stage playing everything that is percussion, and sometimes they did a light show (using only lighters as percussion) or some comedic acts (like having the fat guy do all the wrong things). Because what is any Asian show without slapstick humor! ^_^ I think their next stop after Louisville was Yale University (go figure). If they ever tour in your town, go see them!

I spent the first weekend in Lexington, and then the majority of the rest at The Taipei Cafe. If The Ohio State University insists that their "The" be capitalized, then so shall The ever important Taipei Cafe! One of the chefs got sick on Monday, so I helped around in place of him on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then my dad caught it, so I worked on Thursday and Friday. Then one of the servers caught it superultrabigtime, so I had to work for her Saturday and Sunday. I love working there, but all I'm saying is, LUCKY IT WAS MY SPRING BREAK HUH. Get all the sickness out of the way while Joanna's here, yea I see how it is. If the other server got sick after I left, well then tough luck. But anyways. I grumbled a little in the beginning, but working there always brings my spirits up. Something about the whole independent / family business thing that makes working there so much more worthwhile. And of course, de-li-cious chinese food. I've been eating really badly at school, but I didn't realize HOW bad until I saw vegetables! And I'd have to say the only vegetables I've eaten lately were two servings of broccoli in the past month or so, and some bell peppers. Ah, I can't wait until I move into the apartment and have a kitchen ^_^ Ashley better beware, I will be doing crazy food experiments in there, wheeee.

Let's see... movies. I saw Inside Man, Aeon Flux, Thumbsucker, and Walk the Line. I recommend Inside Man and Walk the Line! Great movies, great actors, great stories, etc. I didn't know Aeon Flux used to be a cartoon on MTV back the day, so the plot was a little hard to comprehend at first. But very entertaining with neato action sequences and hot outfits, so not bad, not bad. Thumbsucker... GOD. I am so tired of the artsy awkward still-framed movies; the genre is ridiculously worn out, circa Royal Tennenbaums. It's about this high school kid who still sucks his thumb (based on a true story), but the artistic direction and acting style was so exhausted that I couldn't sit through the whole time. Shame too, because The White Witch (Tilda Swinton) from Narnia is in this movie, and she's fantastic. ^_^ Oh well.

Aaaand Ben and I had our two year anniversary! It wasn't actually over spring break, but we "celebrated" it by um, exchanging video games =B I got him Metal Gear Subsistence and some internet hooky-up thing for his PS2, and he gave me Kingdom Hearts II!!! Clearly I am the winner in this exchange, heh. No actually, I really like the Metal Gear series, I started the first MGS but apparently I can't be stealth for crap, so I'm not exactly progressing very fast. But I've been waiting for KH2 since freshman year of college when I spent many a day and night playing with Ashley and Eric, and it's finally here! The shiny case keeps beckoning me o.O But unfortunately I try not to play multiple games at once, and I'm still in the midst of Chrono Trigger. :sigh: Well, at least when I play it I can fully enjoy it.

I also picked up Tetris DS for myself. Of course, Tetris is the world's most addicting game ever, but now they have missions! and puzzles! and touch! and multiplayer! and I think I've acquired a permanent headache from the overstimulation over break. Everyone needs to pick up a Nintendo DS. Honestly, it's quite affordable, the design is unique, the games are awesome especially with the wi-fi capability... and most importantly, the DS Lite is SO sexy I can't contain myself. People say the design for the PSP is hot (and it is), but the DS Lite trumps all. Now there really is no argument for the PSP, except maybe the screen is big and clear and stuff, but there's no worthy games on it! (Except maybe the Katamari game that is coming out for it, but even then you don't have the joysticks...) And movies? Come on. That's what the iPod video is for ^_^

Okay, enough technoramble. School is back in session, there's snow on the ground after a nice, WARM, SUNNY spring break, and I'm having issues with scheduling. Plus I just got my financial aid award letter for the upcoming year, and let's just say that my predictions of Kent State being a cheap school were dead-wrong. Am I going to stay at Kent State? Most likely. But you can bet your ass that I am going to try anything to get out of here in less than the supposed three years. Either that or just spend a lot of time harrassing the financial aid office. At least they gave me work study, so I will be employed! Finally. Well, I have 3 midterms and a paper coming up in the next week, and Chrono Trigger to beat.

Will someone buy me one of these for my birthday?

Listening: Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Playing: Chrono Trigger
Reading: Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation