Catherine Alis Buckius

All the women who are independent
Throw your hands up at me
All the honeys who makin' money
Throw your hands up at me
All the mamas who profit dollas
Throw your hands up at me
All the ladies who truly feel me
Throw your hands up at me

--Destiny's Child, "Independent Women, Pt. 1"


Catie Buckius should have been one of Charlie's Angels. She's confident, intelligent, and beautiful. I could definitely see her kicking some ass, too. And she likes to have fun, like any girl should. She defines the independent woman.

Catie has one little flaw, however. She loves life, perhaps too much. Because of her lust for life, she tends to put off her work until the last minute. In the end, it doesn't hurt her much because when she does her work, she does it well. But as anyone who's ever gone to school, ever, knows all too well, procrastination is ultimately counterproductive. You spend a bunch of time dreading writing an essay, when if you'd started that essay right away it would probably be done 10 times faster.

Yet this flaw is an endearing one. It's been said that you like people for their good qualities, but love them for their bad ones. Besides, how can you not love Catie? She might be demanding, but that demand is very motivational. I might not have this blog if she didn't beg me to write every week so I could feed her procrastination habit.

I don't know if Catie's a big poetry fan, but hopefully she'll like this poem:

Catie Buckius, you're my friend--
The kind of girl I'd soon bend
Over backwards for; it's true.
Catie, I'm your Montague.

You're oft bouncing off the walls,
Humoring my drunk phone calls.
You don't know what comes beyond
School, but some man you'll make fond.

You've got talent that won't go
To waste; what you set out to
Do will suit you perfectly.
I can't rhyme with perfectly.

Just like that rhyme I can't find,
You're a rarity. The kind
Of girl with your charm may be
A treasure. That's jazz, baby.

Only the coolest girls get songs written about them. Catie, how your angels get down like that?

You Are Home

In the 19 months I've spent at Penn State, I've always felt left out one way or another--so much so that I've grown some kind of superiority complex/disaffection with Penn State. I knew that my kind of people existed; I just had no idea where.

[An aside: I love my friends, but I have somewhat diverse friends who generally are rather unlike me. When I say "my kind of people," I mean pretentious, jaded assholes and artsy-fartsy pseudo-hippies.]

Last night, I attended my second Phroth meeting. The "meeting" consisted of watching Arrested Development, eating pizza and drinking Miller Lite. Tonight, I went and "sold" magazines at an open mic night. Somehow, everything has changed.

At the open mic night, someone played "El Scorcho" and at least 50% of the people knew the song. The girls looked different in a good way. There was free coffee at 10 P.M. Why hadn't I stumbled upon these gatherings before? It seems so obvious now. All this time, I was assuming open mic nights were full of untalented hacks and their friends. Don't get me wrong; they are. But I'm an untalented hack, too! I'll fit right in! I feel like Isaac Newton getting hit on the head with an apple, all in a two-day span.

Like I said, it wasn't the open mic night that was good; there were a handful of good acts there, but on the whole it was pretty sucky. However, 90% of the audience was there for new, original mucsic. Surely it was a glass-half-full crowd, optimistic that something interesting would stand out. For me, it did--I'd found my niece, as Eric Matthews would say. For the first time since high school, I felt like I fit in.

Now to practice my Weezer covers.

Ooh, You Make Me Live

So I was watching Four Kings--I know, this entry is officially off to a bad start, but hear me out. It's Seth Green's sitcom on NBC, in case you didn't know. Basically, it's about four best friends who live together. They've been friends since childhood. Anyway, in the episode I was watching, two of the friends get into a fight when it's discovered one is a Republican. The Democrat of the group takes serious offense to this (as any respectable Democrat would).

There's a scene at the end of the episode where an old friend of the guys' runs into them at a bar. He wonders how they've remained friends so long.

"I guess we're the brothers none of us ever had," one of them says.

I often wonder how it is that I've lost so many friends over the years. Well, it turns out that this is actually normal. It turns out I've been spoiled by the friends I've actually kept.

I also wonder what it is that's kept my friends and me together for so long. I've known Jake almost my whole life. I've known DJ for a dozen years, more than half my life. And Murph, I've known well for over five years. Josh has been my best friend at Penn State since freshman year. What do all these guys (and myself) have in common?

Well, besides the obvious (white, middle-class, college males from Pennsylvania), there's one unique thing, I think. Let me Tarantino it for ya.

Jake, Josh, and I only have a younger sister (coincidentally they're all roughly the same age). Murph's an only child. DJ's what he likes to call an "Oh, shit!" baby. He's got a much older brother and sister.

We're best friends because we're the brothers we never had. (I think) We all need each other. DJ's got a brother, but I know he doesn't see him as much as brothers normally would. Whenever any of us is in trouble or has a problem, we've got our best friend to call on for help or just to talk, or even to just laugh it off.

I don't know about the other guys, but I've always wanted a brother. Older brother, younger brother, didn't matter. I always wanted that camaraderie that two brothers shared, no matter how different they were or how mad they got at each other. In a way, I was a little jealous of my dad, who had four brothers of his own growing up.

Little did I realize, I've had four brothers all along.