the past few weeks have been daily REOs, bad-to-boring-teen-chick-flicks, cute-boots-are-the-meaning-of-life, lean-cuisines-for-every-meal kind of weeks. it's amazing how much stuff i do NOT have to write here at the moment. thank goodness there's always...
good movies seen lately:
planet of the apes
the graduate
lust, caution
i have no idea how i really spent last week. a bit scary, but it's all good. the weather is going to be in the 40s this week! and then, spring break with the boy, the cabin, the movies, the word games and the foods!
this week's playlist (in celebration of the end to my music slump!):
1. go on- jack johnson
2. hospital beds- cold war kids
3. silver lining- rilo kiley
4. pictures of you- the last goodnight
5. is this love- bob marley
6. the midnight chior- the thrills
7. for the widows in paradise; for the fatherless in ypsilanti- sufjan stevens
8. you're a wolf- sea wolf
9. love and memories- O.A.R.
10. civil twilight- the weakerthans
11. scar that never heals- jeremy fisher
12. if i had eyes- jack johnson
good movies lately (in celebration of the end to my movie slump!):
sixteen candles
be kind rewind
i haven't updated for a while. i'll skip over most of the details from this week because, frankly, i don't remember much of what happened.
the week started out on monday with classes galore and a candid talk from chuck klosterman. in person, klosterman was a lot older and more funny. he discussed how hot topic is going out of business due to the rise of the ipod and internet, critically analyzed britney' spears' upbringing, and answered really hilarious questions about what's indie and what's hipster. i dragged katie along with me after our full day of classes together and it was the best end to a long monday. tuesday was voting day! i voted! and the rest of the week was all work, class, eat, sleep, repeat.
actually, today was exciting. i experienced my first mental institution. i did a walk-through (through?) the space with other various architects/contracts from work, since i just completed its interior design. it was about how i expected- something straight out of 'girl, interrupted'. some people were rocking back and forth in the corners of padded rooms while others were shuffling through corridors in nightgowns. it was pretty eerie and smelly, making me terrified of going crazy someday. after work/the mental institution today i took an exam (not very well) with the professor that spells things like "restauration" (restoration, her specialty- go figure) and "sentances" and did not regret my anti-studying behavior at all. i am not sure failing the course is the right way to go about rebelling against her terrible teaching but it's all i've got!
so, i do actually do some stuff during the week, it turns out. this makes me feel better about those times when i sit on the couch and flip through every channel on the television until i choose about five mediocre things to watch simultaneously, spending most of my time flipping back and forth between them. yay! tomorrow i am going home for the weekend and starting to get excited for the oscars...
tonight i made a magical discovery: the "iTunes Essentials" section of the itunes store! i cannot believe i have never explored this before. well, the truth is i have never allowed myself to venture very far into the itunes store, until now. basically, it is a bunch of pre-made mixes by artists, occasions and moods. and okay, i just realized i maybe be the last person on earth to find this out. but still. the mixes are so much fun to browse around with titles from "autumn" to "black fraternity party" to indie wedding". i have spent the last hour going through songs and getting really excited whenever i recognize one or finally learn the artist of a song that i've never been able to remember. how do i have so much time on my hands lately, you ask. ha, i seriously do not know. tonight i was ready for bed around 8 o'clock and actually thought about cracking open a book for fun.
this weekend was short and full of pairs. i ate at noodles twice. i saw two pretty bad chick flicks ("feast of love" and "the jane austen book club"). i made two cakes (or watched others make them). i got two homework assignments done. tada!
AH, DISTRACTIONS. i open up my computer and then firefox and before you know it there are exactly 100,000 different tabs going!
right now i am a bit peeved that i have not gotten to watch tonight's taped LOST episode yet. is it worth staying up that extra hour? watch me ponder this just long enough for it not to matter anymore. i just slipped into my favorite socks + slippers combo and i am now finally settled and sitting still enough to evaluate the day.
this morning i woke up for work at the typical 7:00am. waking up that early always makes me want to kill myself. seriously. and it does not get easier with time. fortunately, the suicidal thoughts tend to die (ha) once i'm up and around for a good ten minutes. around 7:40am i trudge out to my car, which is buried in a nice and thick snow pile from yesterday's snowstorm. after realizing that no amount of gas is going to move my vehicle... i start shoveling. and keep shoveling in knee-deep snow in little puny flats while breaking a sweat (good morning!). and then find random men in the street to help me push. and finally, get to work about 15 minutes late. not too bad! work flies by. today everyone is overly interested at lunch time in my lean cuisine panini and baked! cheetos. i finish two projects! i leave work to drive to class and am ashamed when i can't remember the last time i WALKED the whole way to class. okay... this narrative isn't working out very well. i am getting pretty darn sleepy. so, fast forward to errands on state, meeting people for drinks at the union, sitting in on a "famous" christian porn speaker (he was on "the view"?) at the union theater with katie waiting to watch actual porn, but leaving in disappointment. coming home to a random object in the middle of our driveway that looks like it has fallen off either sara's or my car. the sad part is that we don't know which car it belongs to (we've both been having troubles) or what the object is even called? we stare at it for a good 10 minutes like it has fallen from an alien planet in outerspace, and then decide to ask a boy for help. overall, it was a good day full of... car troubles! damn, i hope no other piece of equipment thinks about falling off tomorrow. for my own sake, i hope that was not too boring. okay goodnight.
hi hello! i've decided that i need to start up blogging (yet again) to record what goes on during my days, weeks, months... because i tend to very easily forget.
today was a half snow day, which was like a mini-miracle here. i skipped both my morning classes before they had officially announced that classes were canceled and it was heaven. i managed to stay inbetween the moods of a sloth-like couch potato and a hyped up five-year-old while waiting for the dean's e-mail stating her permission to skip more class. this afternoon i made a fairly good attempt to do productive work like my other two roommates, but failed and decided to drift off to sleep (again) while watching "funny girl" in bed. around four o'clock sara, the boys upstairs, and i shoveled out the foot (sara said it was 15") of snow from our really long driveway, and then gathered together with the whole neighborhood to help out this one girl dig her car out. it was super cute. now, sara and i have ordered pizza and are anticipating the start of project runway! eek, ricky please go home.
today one of the most miserable day (weather-wise) of the winter and the first day of the semester.
i've been celebrating this first night of no homework with multiple hours of TV-watching. right now "the office" is on, the episode about michael's return from jamaica and the photograph of jan, and even though i've seen this one at least five times i have to watch and laugh. in this way, it reminds me of "hannah montana" which is undeniably addicting, thanks to my roommate. seriously now, i've tried and you cannot not watch and love it.
this afternoon while working out at the SERF and watching CNN, everyone stopped and pointed at the screen when heath ledger's death was announced. there were lots of high-pitched "ohmygod"s from girls clutching their hearts dramatically. wow, celebrity death causes such a commotion. and we were all just getting over the anna nicole shindig! i was so so amazed when i saw articles online about his death with quotes and pictures only hours after it was announced, which just shows how behind i am when i don't continually remind myself what year it is- the year of apple producing new products (the new skinny laptop!) every other second.
okay, it's ten o'clock. goodnight!
right now i am holding down the fort at scott's house while he is at class. this includes lounging around in his bedroom and catching up on facebook for a couple hours while enjoying his ancient "fan forced instant heat" machine as it warms my bum. i kind of told him (and myself) that while he was gone i was going to do productive things, but really, this is much more fun.
i am slightly tired and sick with a cold. i got back from guatemala saturday night and haven't had much time to "recover." here is a top 10 list of guate highlights to start off the year:
1. my family from last year (elisabeta, vanessa, martin)
2. por supuesto (translation: of course, you would, duh, i hate you)
3. como se dice: shut up?
4. chitty chitty chat chat nights
5. swimming in our underwear in pana
6. que eres... seloso?
7. getting to 2nd base with erin
8. shedding some cynicism
9. re-creating "dirty dancing: havana nights"
10. GUATEMALAN CLUB MUSIC (which i have been listening to constantly even since i got back into the states)
good movies seen over break:
27 dresses (A-)
the aviator (A)
stardust (B+)
in the mood for love (B+)
once (B+)
the namesake (A)
juno (A)
i am legend (A)
good things:
*seeing "white christmas" for the first time ever
*planning out break in movies
*raspberry ale in champagne flutes
*the notes that sara leaves for me on the bathroom mirror every morning
*three down, one to go
*running into a friend from freshman year you forgot you knew you had
*wearing the same tank/tee combo for the entire week
*family christmas cards with essay-long letters
*multiple friends coming back into the states
*passing statistics 301
*the joke-y e-mails sent between me and my internship supervisors
*seeing the best in people
*excitement for spending more time in guatemala
*excitement for my semester to travel the world (or okay, maybe just one continent)
*actually, excitement for new's year eve, returning to school in january, and this summer (i have a lot of excitement in me)
while stomping around in the snow and taking 45-minute chunks of time to walk anywhere in order to avoid death, i've been thinking a lot about the "some people think they are just on earth to be happy" phrase.
this year i've met more people than ever that hate celebrating christmas. however, i cannot help but secretly find warm-fuzzy happiness in the blaring of carols for many hours at a time, electronic dancing santas, and people exclaiming that it's only "x" days 'til christmas!
for the time being, a day or so, life is back in order. this refers to the fact that life is now actually less "in order" with time to take deep breaths, enjoy the food that i eat, talk with people about things other than scheduling, go to yoga with sara, obtain new reggae music, and damnit, be inspired.
since this semester started, my general feelings and personality have landed all across the board. if i were to illustrate them, they would look like a giant rollercoaster. the twist-y kind where you hang upside down and go all over the place. in other words, the kind that i do not particularly like. i catapulted myself from laid-back to workaholic in about one month, experiencing an initial high (refer back to my "this is the best day ever" feelings), followed by every sort of out-of-place and lost emotion out there. i felt square. i feel square. however, i am now working towards finding that happy medium (or not?) while in pursuit of a graduate education and a fulfilling career. yep, no idea, yet. but it's going to be good.
for the past few days, i skipped out on school and attended GreenBuild, an international conference for sustainable/green design, in chicago. at GreenBuild, i got the opportunity to see paul hawken speak and i have to share his speech with you. WATCH AND BE INSPIRED.
(paul hawken comes in about 1/4 of the way into the clip)
first of all, i'd just like to say i have a really great playlist going. right now i am listening to "the way i are" by timbaland... and damn, i love this song (grammatical errors and all). it gets me so pumped up.
so, i pretty much just bought two identical pairs of boots online. ah! i wish i could just TAKE MY BID BACK! this major mistake is directly blamed on my lack of eBay experience. to be exact, this is only the second time in my life that i've ever visited eBay. earlier tonight, i found the perfect pair of boots, fell in love with them, and way over-bid on them to secure myself as the winner! however, two hours later... i find a pair of even MORE perfect boots and secure a (more than likely) winning bid on those as well. the more i reflect back on my last few hours of online browsing, even though i'll have to go through the return hassle- it was worth it. if you saw the boots (either pair), you'd understand. and hey, now i have choices! still, i do not think i should not be allowed to use eBay for the first time in a couple years without some sort of practice purchases first.
eBay is one of those new-fangled internet operations that i usually forget about, simply because i only use it in desperate situations (i.e. to find cute parisian boots). scott just got me netflix for my birthday, which was the best present ever, but it is surprisingly difficult to get used to incorporating an internet site (outside of e-mail) into everyday routines (despite the fact that it IS just more movie-renting). in addition to netflix users, the many people who keep up photo sharing sites, display their book recommendations on goodreads, or keep daily blogs amaze me! one of my friends consistently does all of the above, which makes me worship her because she is so connected, up-to-date, and involved.
this week i began my internship. it was fun, funny, great. i cannot express how much i enjoy the people, the work, and the ability to be an intern and get excited about a "real job" before actually becoming tainted by the corporate world of inevitable politics. during each work day, i remember feeling myself slowly enter the post-graduate real world and stray away from my academic center-of-the-universe. it was completely refreshing. this is a good start.
wow, i just realized i never documented anything at all about china. even if it is unproductive, i might record tidbits here just so i can remember what it felt like to live within a communist country and how i would not travel there again for any other reason than to consume dumplings all the live long day.
lately things have been going my way! i think.
this morning at 10:30am i had an interview for an internship at my dream architectural firm. by 11:00am, i had the job! then, i proceeded to spend the rest of the day gushing about it. now comes the worrying stage and re-vamping (more like creation) of my business casual wardrobe, but i'm still excited! this firm is the kind of place that i've envisioned myself working at for a while now. the building is located in an old brick factory (previously used as a photography gallery) with an open space plan, rustic wooden beams, and minimalistic red doors and white partition walls. the firm is woman-owned, consisting of only six staff, half of which i assumed were gay- just all around very attractive, good humored, intelligent people. so YES! EXCITING! i celebrated tonight by doing a half-assed job on my statistics homework. again, YES! EXCITING!
due to my own little terrifying universe of class and work and clubs, i am sad to report that i have completely lost track of any sort of current events, new music/books/movies, and lots of friends. it's just sad, so sad, that the only new music i know is from television commercials (jcpenney, the cube-y ipod, old navy, etc.). i miss you, oh precious precious free time. actually! my roommate's boyfriend's band (sara, matt, saint radar) has a new CD out, which is pretty much what i've been listening to for the past week. yay go buy! or befriend him like scott and get it for free.
as much as i'm fitting into this current life of organized schedules and pats on the back, i am holding on like hell to each moment of spontaneity and my refusal to join the blackberry brigade (please no). i am so confused (and at the same time, excited) about choosing a good way of life in regards to the upcoming years. the future is scary for many reasons having to do with change, but what scares me the most about "growing up" is the end of growth- you stop growing physically and almost mentally, like not adding any more words into your vocabulary (i know vocabulary isn't my strong suit, but today some kid said the verb "gander" to me, wha?! do people really say that in everyday sentences?). i really really hope to keep growing after graduation and well passed my 100th birthday with hobbies and travel and everything... into an enormously tall and well-spoken person. OK- it's time for bed.
GOOD NIGHT!
helloooooooooo! (this is me shouting at you from the other side of a great big tunnel)
i can't remember the last 30-some stretch of a month where every single day i could confidently say: THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER.
this last week in august represents everyone doing the "nothing but everything" thing. obviously, i have some time on my hands (ex. actual blog post in over three months, gluttonous television-watching, daily cat naps) but, on the other hand, there are a million and one things to be done before the start of the school year.
lately i am really into non-fiction books: the world is flat, asian-american dreams, bowling alone. right now i'm favoring "bowling alone" over the other two. i haven't had much time to sit down for hours and race through it, but let's face it, that's not my style. it took me about a month to finish the last harry potter book, which technically makes me a slower reader than most elementary school kids. i fully recommend "bowling alone" as a great random pick-up book if you're at all interested in people. it is not one of those pretentious sociology books either, so don't let the graphs and really really small print scare you off.
last night i baked another martha stewart cake, which i did not photograph because it was not worthy. it caused an almost-fire in the apartment and ended up resembling a cream-colored lump of cancer. no matter how delicious that cake turned out (very but what do you expect from pounds of butter and cream?), it was definitely not worth it in the end. while baking my cake and watching "prime" (B), i also began researching grad schools. my only comment is: AHH?!
an ending quote: "it will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."