Coco Chanel Would Be Proud

Today I bought a Little Black Dress!

Now, I don't really wear dresses often (or ever). I am the kind of girl who wears jeans. Everyday. However, I have recently been lamenting the lack of variety in my wardrobe, especially in the dress department, and I specifically identified the need to find the perfect "LBD" for those classy occasions. And here it is!

And for summer, I found this sundress:

Now, if only I could get it to stop snowing in Spokane. I can't wait for summer weather in California.

Salix discolor

So my parents were here this last weekend to see my sister's play (the hilarious and French "Tartuffe") and they bought us BOTH flowers because they love me too.

Actually, I should say that they bought us bouquets, because mine was definitely not flowers. I didn't even know these were available, but my mom chose a bouquet of pussy willow branches for me. And it is GORGEOUS.

I tried to get a good picture of it but the lighting in my room is pretty bad and my camera sometimes doesn't like to cooperate. Basically, it's very elegant because of the slender branches and the silvery catkins (apparently that's what the fuzzy buds are actually called). And they are SO soft.

Here are some of the best photographs I took:

Not the best lighting, but it gives you an idea of what the catkins look like:

Somehow my camera managed to take this very haunting picture:

Plans

Things I am looking forward to this weekend:

Eating Indian food while watching The Darjeeling Limited with my roommate.

The Spokane Symphony on Saturday! At the gorgeous Fox Theater!

Game night on Sunday: Aggravation and Harry Potter Scene-It.

The ultimate sister date to see The Other Boleyn Girl - perhaps not the most obvious sister date, since it's really about their rivalry, but Becky and I both love the novel. Also, we're kind of expecting the movie to butcher it, but hopefully it's still a good film.

Reading my favorite book if I have time (and or playing piano if I have time - I'm trying to learn Debussy's "Clair de lune" and the recent Pride and Prejudice soundtrack).

Having a better weekend than I've had in a while.

Words are Flowing Out Like Endless Rain into a Paper Cup

So, I like buying movies on impulse. It's especially thrilling if I haven't seen them, but have a pretty good idea that I'll like them. Fortunately, this is often the case, and is the reason that I own Garden State, Run Lola Run, The Last of the Mohicans, and now Across the Universe.

Now, I had a good feeling that I would like this movie: I'm a sucker for musicals (especially over-the-top flashy ones, a la Moulin Rouge), and I love the Beatles (although I'll be the first to admit that I'm mostly familiar with their earlier music, so I don't know all the songs or catch all the allusions). I had wanted to see it while it was still in theaters, but somehow it never ended up happening.

Flash forward to this last weekend. The scene: I am in Target and somehow this DVD ends up in my basket. ??? Oops. Now I've watched about half of it with my roommate, and I have not been disappointed.

My favorite scene (song?) so far was "I've Just Seen a Face," which makes me wish that you could actually behave that way in a bowling alley. Anyway, I think I'll be watching the rest of it tonight, so hopefully that ends up happening!

Lucky You

I'm not sure if anyone ever checks this blog anymore. If you have been, you've probably noticed that I've been neglecting this blog and my new blog that I introduced in the previous post. What can I say, I've been unmotivated or something.

Well, consider me motivated now. In fact, I'll try to make regular postings on both blogs. Take that, laziness!

Here's to the future, and unicorns.

Long Time Gone

Hello, friends and faithful readers. I have taken some time off from updating a daily blog (as I'm sure you've noticed) mostly because I am lazy. I have appreciated your comments and everyone who has asked me to return.

I have recently become inspired to take up blogging again. However, I think my time with "Seize the Carp" has run its course. Hence, I have begun a blog called thoughtfish that I will (hopefully) be keeping up from now into the foreseeable future. It won't be quite the same style of rambling about my daily life, but hopefully you'll still find it interesting.

Writing for you has been grand. Who knows, maybe I'll return to this blog someday. Thanks for reading.

Christmas Time is Here

I have already eaten the first week of Advent Calendar chocolates. Typical.

Some Poems I Found

ANCIENT AIR

Westward over Lotus Mountain
Afar, far off: Bright Star!
Hibiscus blooms in her white hand,
With airy steps she climbs Great Purity.
Rainbow robes, trailing a broad sash,
Floating she brushes the heavenly stairs,
And invites me to mount the Cloud Terrace,
There to salute the immortal Wei Shu-ch'ing.
Ravished, mad, I go with her,
Upon a swan to reach the Purple Vault.
There I looked down, on Loyang's waters:
Vast sea of barbarian soldiers marching,
Fresh blood spattered on the grasses of the wilds.
Wolves, with men's hats on their heads.

-Li Po (701-762), Translated from the Chinese by J.P. Seaton


OF RAIN AND AIR

All day I have been closed up
inside rooms, speaking of trivial
matters. Now at last I have come out
into the night, myself a center

of darkness.
Beneath the clouds the low sky glows
with scattered light. I can hardly think
this is happening. Here in this bright absence

of day, I feel myself opening out
with contentment.
All around me the soft rain is whispering
of thousands of feet of air

invisible above us.

-Wayne Dodd (1930-)


MAGIC WORDS

In the very earliest time,
when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people
and sometimes animals
and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was a time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance
might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive
and what people wanted to happen could
happen -
all you had to do was say it.
Nobody could explain this:
That's the way it was.

-Eskimo (Anonymous), Translated from the Inuit by Edward Field


Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.

-Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), Translated by Coleman Barks and John Moyne

Must Be A Possum

The things I have learned this summer:

Skunks smell like burned garlic. No, really.
In the Napa Valley edition of Monopoly, the Railroads are called "Grape Varietals." On a related note, don't make shady deals while playing Monopoly, or they WILL come back to haunt you.
K-Mart has free internet cafes. However, Facebook is blocked, so they are essentially useless.
Bees can and will sting you. And bee stings sting.
Cliff jumping is fun, but if red stuff starts coming out of your ear a few days later...you should probably get it checked. Oh, and perforated eardrums suck.
Kids have a strange fascination with jumping into swimming pools with all their clothes on.
It is possible to work in Santa Cruz all summer without ever going to the Boardwalk. I'm trying to change this fact.
The best flavor of ice cream is Macapuno (baby coconut). Believe me.
Apparently I say "bag" "flag" "rag" "tag" (etc.) weirdly. One counselor said it was cute and proposed marriage to me within the next 20 minutes. One of my campers asked if I was Canadian. It reminded me of the time Freshman Year when I discovered that I say "monk" weird. Whatever, pronounciation is overrated.
It's possible to be more exhausted than you ever believed possible even when your bedtime is 9:30pm.
Making juice from concentrate is a sublime and glorious experience.
Apparently 6th graders like having you sing them to sleep. And wake them up by singing.
Building fires is fun. However, fires that spark and try to burn your face off are an exception to this rule.
Getting mail from your former campers is amazing.
Sometimes camp food is better than Saga food. Especially the salad bar. Who knew?
Painting blue marks on your face makes you look more hardcore.
It's possible to walk all the way to the flag in Capture the Flag and not get tagged as long as you look not suspicious.
There is a Snapple flavor called Kiwi Teawi. Apparently it's kiwi flavored iced tea...?
You CAN take three naps in one day.
Stargazing is amazing and I should do it more often.

When the Lights Go Down in the City

Home for the weekend. Camp is AWESOME!! I just spent three nights painting Cair Paravel and I'm still scraping gray paint out from under my fingernails.

Sarah got married today, which was kind of surreal. CRAZY. Wow. Married. Okay, remember the time when a list was made of who was going to be married next? Remember that time when I was first on the list? Yeah, pretty sure it's basically fate now, because I caught the freakin' bouquet. Just for the record, I'm not in any hurry to get married. Rather: I came to WIN!!

Okay, well that's all. Camp starts OFFICIALLY tomorrow. These may be the last words I write as a sane person. But at least I hope to be having a radtastic time as I lose my sanity.

Let's Get Dangerous

Well this is it, folks. I leave for camp tomorrow, training starts on Sunday and kids start arriving next week. I'm not sure how often I'll be near a computer, but I'm sure I'll have a few chances to update over the summer. So, keep checking.

Look at the size of those cabins, I'll be as snug as a bug in a rug or something. Anyway, keep in touch, guys!! I'll definitely check email fairly regularly.

Weimaraner

Now there is a word I cannot pronounce. It's the kind of dog that one guy likes to photograph all the time, and he'll give them the dog's head but a human body. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyway, I can't say that word, but I'm working on it. It used to be "whim-ih-ra-ha-ha," but now I walk around mumbling, "Why-mer-anner, WHY-mer-anner..." It's a work in progress.



So basically my friends and I are really sneaky, and I'm good at acting not suspicious. My friend Sarah is getting married, so we threw her a surprise wedding shower today, which was fun and mostly not awkward. She was my small group leader/advisor at church from 6th grade until graduation, and she's definitely allowed to get married because she's like a decade older than us. I'm more not okay with my friend Erin who is 19 and getting married, but that is a completely different story.

Sarah and I were supposed to hang out today, and we drove to Jessica's house (way out in Walnut Creek, definitely a good 40 minutes away) on the pretense of dropping off stuff for Summer Sunday School, which both my mom and Jessica's mom are apparently involved with. And then...SURPRISE it was actually a party, what do you know.

We made an excellent cake, I cannot stress enough how good this cake was. Three-tiered white cake, with raspberry jam between the layers and vanilla frosting. Then embellished with tacky flowers and plastic doves, and lastly crowned with the essential bride/groom ornament. It was a work of art, believe you me. It's creation was well documented, and if I ever get copies of the pictures I will post one here, because I like to show off my work. I'm not so worried about my future cooking anymore, in fact I plan to transfer to the California Culinary Academy, the pastry track. Because I have a gift.

The part that made the evening switch from "completely not awkward" to "mostly not awkward" was when Sarah predicted the order in which we (the '04 girls) are going to get married. Out of nine girls, I bet you'll never guess who was first on the list for getting married. I'll give you a big hint: it was not any of the other eight girls. I think all my talk of made-up complicated love situations and secret English lovers ended up boosting me up on the list. Ah, crap.

And with that, I leave you with this exciting news from my secret English lover that is not actually my lover but is actually English: The World Cup starts in 8 hours!! (At least, 8am Pacific Daylight Time). I don't really know much about soccer/football/fútbol, but I guess the World Cup only happens every four years, like the Olympics (well, I guess the Olympics are really every two...). Anyway, here's England official World Cup song, if you're interested. Okay now, time for bed.

WHY-mer-anner!!

Eleanor Put Those Boots Back On

Here's a story! This one time when I was little, my eyes were itchy and watering and red, and I couldnt stop rubbing them and they kept getting worse and worse. So my mom administered some eyedrops. It was only after my eyes started burning that she looked at the bottle and realized that she had grabbed Tough Actin' Tinactin by accident. The moral of the story is, you don't need to treat your eyes for athlete's foot. Or something. That was a random story, I don't know why I thought of that. Actually, maybe it was the Tough Actin' Tinactin commercial 15 minutes ago.

Oh, TV. I think I'm subconsciously trying to fill my quota for the summer before I leave for camp, so it's definitely been on too much lately. I think my favorite is watching movies that are so obviously dubbed. Like this great line from Die Hard: With a Vengeance:



[McClane hands Zeus a gun]
John McClane: You know how to fire one of these?
Zeus: No.
John McClane: No?
Zeus: Hey, all brothers don't know how to use guns, you racist melon farmer!

Priceless.

Hey, I finally finished packing for camp! So now that my room is nice and clean, the weirdest thing started happening. My room smells like it was freshly painted, it's so strange! Like a phantom smell or something. Anyway, now I have the urge to go paint walls. But maybe that's just the Home and Garden TV kicking in.

A Rose By Any Other Name

As some of you know, I will be working at a summer camp this summer, starting this weekend. Aside from the state of perpetually packing for it, and the shopping/to-do list that keeps growing longer, I have the task of thinking of a camp name. This is a delicate business, since I will be called this name all summer, and presumably in summers to come, so it has to be something that I won't hate after the first three days.

For a while, I was thinking "Cricket" would work. The concise two-syllables, the hard "K" sound (similar to Caroline). And if this name was taken, I had "Fraggle" (as in "Rock") as my backup. I mean, who would have claimed Fraggle?

Well, after visiting the camp two weekends ago, I learned that both Cricket and Fraggle were taken and had been used for the last 4-5 years. Back to the drawing board.

My third choice had been "Carabiner," but I never seriously considered it because it would be shortened to "Beaner" and I'm not such a fan of racial slurs.

My mom suggested Willow, which is actually not a bad idea, but it brings to mind the Warwick Davis movie (which my family may or may not absolutely love, okay yes, we're obsessed with it).

The worst suggestion so far has been "Conch," like the shell (thanks Dad). As in the huge one that Ralph uses in "The Lord of the Flies" to round up the troops and form a primitive civilization before Piggy and his asthma fall off the cliff and they all start worshipping a pig's head and everything falls apart. That kind of shell.



We have one of these monsters, and if you aren't familiar with the correct pronounciation it is CONK. Can you imagine being referred to as CONK? Thanks, I think I'll pass...

Anyway, any and all suggestions are welcome, although I don't expect to get any since I don't think anyone reads this blog anymore. Sorry for being so flaky, I kind of lost motivation for a few months there. And now that I seem to have it again, I'm leaving in five days, and it will definitely be neglected all summer. Oh the irony.

As for the camp name, I'm thinking I'll see if Nutmeg is available. That was actually almost a nickname of mine, a long time ago. Or just last year. Fingers crossed!!

Listening to Goldfrapp Every Day of the Week

I'M SHRINKING. I went to the doctor today and they said I was 5'8" and a half. BUT LAST TIME I WAS 5'9" AND A HALF! So I basically lost an inch. The guy there said I wasn't shrinking and was probably just inaccurately measured before, but all I heard was LIES!! Make sure to come see me now before I shrink into the floor.

It gets worse! I had to get a shot. But it's okay, everybody: I survived. Actually, I don't really mind shots as much as I used to. They're just not my favorite. I figure I'm allowed at least one irrational fear, right? At least I'm not afraid of snow, clowns and Bigfoot like someone I know (aka my sister).

We ate dinner at a Greek-Italian restaurant that my family likes. It's not my favorite, but it is pretty awesome when they bring out the saganaki and light it on fire. My sister sat across from me, which is usually the best place for her to make fun of me (okay, not really).

So apparently my nose is different from everyone else in my family, and she likes to point it out all the time. The conclusion is that it is short and fat. Here is how my nose feels about that:



It is not pleased. Actually, it doesn't mind being special, because it can wrinkle like no one's business.

Dinner was fun, though, we talked about French movies and the hotel guy in Paris that my sister and I agree is the most attractive human on the planet. And I finished a super tough Sudoku, because I'm a big nerd. But at least I've got the rest of my family addicted to it too.

I spent this last weekend in Cal Poly with Nina and Leah, where I heard the funniest story EVER about their roommate's grandmother driving the wrong way on the freeway. " 'Do Not Enter'? Well, I'm-a gonna anyway!" Probably the best.

Happy One Year

In honor of this occasion, I am eating a tangerine popsicle.

Oh, and I changed a few things.

But if You Left It Up to Me, Everyday Would Be a Holiday from Real

Last time I said I would put up pictures, so here they are. I never put up pictures from the NYC and Boston trip we took in December, so I'll do those.
This was the view out of our hotel room on the morning of the snow storm. Beautiful New York.

The sister and I outside the Greek Restaurant near Barnard College.

The Empire State building. I remember when this picture was taken - we were climbing out of the subway and it appeared in front of us, and I remember how silver it looked.

The General Assembly at the UN.

We recognized this statue outside the UN. In case you don't, let me refresh your memory. Turns out that it was a gift from Finland, so it all makes sense.

Watching the ice skaters at Rockefeller Center.

We are little Triceratops babies, and we are sad because we are extinct. So...we're weird.

Heck yes T-Rex.

Wellesley College. I mean, what?

And now for something completely different. Here's the last day or so in 4 points:
1. A's Game last night. Killed the Mariner's. 7-2.
2. My jaw hurts. Ow. Random.
3. Addicted to Home and Garden TV. Sad. I think I'm turning into my Mom. But at least I'll have a really cool house someday.
4. Otherwise, have just been pretty lazy. Everyone else is either at school or working. Maybe I'll do something today. Maybe right now. Ciao.

Mercy's Eyes Are Blue

I'm home in sunny California!! That's always exciting. I have about a month of doing nothing, then I'll be working as a camp counselor with middle school kids. Not sure what that will be like, but I guess I'm willing to sacrifice my sanity for $135 a week. Kind of pathetic, whatever.

So, I've just been lazy for the last few days. I went to San Francisco with Becky yesterday, which was fun. I basically love San Francisco. I promised my cousin Rachel that I'll go with her too, so I'm sure I'll be back in the next few weeks.

Apparently my friend Alex is visiting, so I think I'm hanging out with him and Kevin tonight. That should be fun, since I haven't seen them in ages.

Hmm, really don't have much else to say. I think I might post some pictures next time, so keep a lookout for that. Also, it's almost one year since I started this blog, so I'll have a special post or something. Haven't quite planned that yet. Anyway, hope you're all having an excellent May.

I Have a Hedgehog Named Beans

I'm sitting here and I really have nothing to say. I thought I would update because it has been a while. Life has been really good, really busy and hard at times but also just wonderful. I definitely don't get enough sleep (I took a two hour nap this afternoon and that doubled the total for the last 24 hours), definitely feel exhausted most of the time and have so much that needs to get done. But whatever. C'est la vie. I try to focus on the positive, and it's really not hard because there is so much good.

Let's see...I love people. I've been spending more time with people I don't know very well, and becoming friends with someone is just the best feeling. I really enjoy getting to know more people this year.

I love singing, and I'm going home this weekend to sing John Rutter's Requiem with my parents choir (for some reason I'm always singing with them, it's fun but I still don't think I'm enough of a grown-up to qualify, these people all have KIDS and stuff). It's a little sad to be leaving, though. I love going home, but I miss a lot at school when I leave, and the year is ending so quickly.

What else has been good? One of my friend in England who I've been in and out of contact with has recently been online more often, so we've been talking a lot in the last few days. This kind of goes along with the "getting to know people better" category. It's just so great talking to this friend who, really, I don't know all that well. I mean, we haven't seen each other in person in five years or something like that. So figuring out all the stuff we have in common is pretty awesome.

Let's see, I got elected as next year's Dorm Senator for the dorm I currently live in. I am excited for that position, but I'm kind of having trouble visualizing how busy I'll really be. Learning to prioritize and manage my time well is definitely a skill I've been working on this year, and I still slip up now and then (don't get me started! I pulled my first official allnighter last week = 40 hours awake and then I slept for 12). Anyway, I guess I'm just saying that I hope I stay on top of things as senator next year. I'm not too concerned about that at this point.

Finishing up (because I'm flying home in the morning and I still need to pack, holy crap is it really 2am?), in a moment of weakness I started a MySpace account. I've always been really against them and never wanted one, but the planets aligned or something and I succumbed to the dark side. If you want to check it out, it's www.myspace.com/galadrielights. Don't try to add me as a friend if I don't know you, because I probably won't accept it, but I thought I'd share the link anyway for some friendly stalkerage or whatever. Oh gosh, please no one actually stalk me, that's just creepy!

Random fact: Today the people who live above me threw some tacos at our window. What the crap?

Quote of the day: "Imagine you have a giant meat grinder stuck on your face." -Forrest Baird in a class lecture, in an attempt to explain Immanuel Kant's concept of the mind processing data. Apparently the bottom line is that we can't really see anything accurately for what it really is because we have this meat grinder in the way.

Okay...time to pack.

Yeah Edamame

Well, it's been...FOREVER.

Sorry about that. I kept almost posting, but it never actually happened. I was thinking about how often I used to post, practically daily for the first month, then more erratically since I was traveling, but I think this is the longest time in between posts. Anyway, I'll stop talking about boring stuff. I'll just try not to let it take so long again.

Let's see, what have I been up to? School has been crazy, this is honestly the busiest I have ever been in my life. You mess around in middle school and high school, and freshmen year isn't too strenuous, and studying abroad was just playing around with some work (and an awesome final exam at 10pm on an isolated island in Scotland), but now it's down to business. I'm taking four English classes along with Core 250 (it's about worldviews, metaphysics and epistemologies, so we study philosophy and religion...for example, we're learning about Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Avila and John Calvin right now), so it's a pretty heavy load. Lots of reading, writing 3 page essays at midnight, using big words like hermeneutics, all that.

Oh, here's an awesome poem I wrote for my Creative Writing class:

Meter

I’d like to see you in the dark
The ghostman is around the shark
She’s picking berries in the park

He watches from his room
The maid sweeps with the broom
The flowers are in bloom

Begin with this and it’s too late, you see
The old man whistles down the foggy quay

(quay is pronounced "key")

So that's pretty much the best thing ever. Or not. Notice the iambic meter, please!

My friend organized a Bachelor Auction to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research, so I was helping her out with that a few weeks ago. That took up a lot of time, but it was a lot of fun. There are a lot of great guys here. We ended up raising $2300 from 25 guys...yeah. I was hoping for $500-600. The bids were astronomical! Most of them went for between $75-140, and the highest was $210. Pretty sure I had $19 in my pocket - haha. People joked about how much the girls were willing to pay for a date, but...there were a lot of guys who approached us really wanting to be in it, and I think it's all the same. Anything to avoid (gasp) - actually asking someone out on a date.

Anyway, sorry for talking about boring stuff. That's pretty much been my life recently. Being busy, then hanging out until all hours of the night. I can't remember the last time I went to bed before 1am - it's more often 2am or 3am. I'm pretty nocturnal, and there's kind of a group of like-minded people in my dorm, so we'll hang out, or my roommate and I will just be up late. It hasn't been too bad, except for the night when we were pulling an all nighter (damn Brit Lit paper) and I ended up sleeping at 6:30am...until 11:30am (in other words, through my first three classes). Anyway, all that to say, my new bedtime is 11pm. Haha...yeah right.

Apparently it snowed at home. In California. Where it never snows. I would miss it! I mean, it's snowing here, but that's no big deal. I told my family to take pictures, and apparently my brother saved a snowball in a plastic bag in the freezer, which is the sweetest thing ever. I love little brothers.

Oh, and little sisters, too, especially one who is going to prom with a redheaded dreadlocked boy. That's just awesome.

Anyway, I think I will leave you now. Sorry that this post was so long in coming, and sorry that it's actually pretty boring, if you think about it. But maybe the next ones will make up for it. I can't wait for Spring Break, we're going to stay in a lighthouse! Cool, huh?

What I Need and Want

Here's another fun activity: Google "Your Name + Needs" and "Your Name + Wants," then compile a list of the results. Funny stuff. Apparently, I'm pretty needy and I want a lot of stuff.

Caroline needs to be more sexy.
Caroline needs new management. So who's to blame for the contamination of the sewer system?
Caroline needs to calculate an hourly heat input rate for her natural gas.
Caroline needs at least ten frogs from each location.
Caroline needs a job.
Caroline needs the money but is reluctant to take from a child.
Caroline needs an MRI every year for the rest of her life.
Caroline needs to be able to trust her heart.
Caroline needs help to deliver food and medicine to the starving Cheyenne people, to whom she owes her life.
Caroline needs to help the cake loosen slightly before it comes out of the pan.
Caroline needs some work on her teeth.
Caroline needs a kiss...
Caroline needs a better fiancee!
Caroline needs to be prevented from leaving the house.
Caroline needs to learn, roses really smell like poo poo.
Caroline needs to come get dirty with us one week!
Caroline needs boys, preferably ones in bands and floppy hair.
Caroline needs the support of the local farming community.
Caroline needs some Fanta too.
Caroline needs to be mocked for saying this.
Caroline needs to ask, “Do we want to end up like that?"
Caroline needs to have some good food in her.

Caroline wants to know why you called her a dork on my myspace?
Caroline wants advice on what to do about the stolen parcels.
Caroline wants a baby but she's confused.
Caroline wants you to send her email – that’s entirely consistent with her character.
Caroline wants to talk to Michael, she has something important to tell him but he wants to know more about her. Why is she so mysterious and secretive?
Caroline wants to be recognized for the patterns of light in her paintings and drawings.
Caroline wants to buy her own tuba.
Caroline wants to wear her leotard and tutu to school every day until she makes prima ballerina.
Caroline wants to skip college and become a runway model.
Caroline wants to be a pilot.
Caroline wants you to know just how awesome we are.
Caroline wants to drive from Fairbanks, Alaska to the tip of Chile.
Caroline wants to visit the Cotswolds, she heard it was “edgy” 500 years ago.
Caroline wants to know what love is like.
Caroline wants to see you in your hot and sexy boxers and a smile...and nothing else!
Caroline wants to be known as Carlo von Tiedemann.
Caroline wants me to learn to play "Sweet Home Alabama."
Caroline wants to make love to Matt’s car, or in Matt’s car, or on Matt’s car.
Caroline wants me to look at how high she can swing.
Caroline wants you?
Caroline wants to contribute to world domination.
Caroline wants to point out that there was also a scorpion, though that was lurking under the bed in our room.
Caroline wants to study botany and is accomplished at mathematics - not desirable traits in a woman in Regency England.
Caroline wants to go back to New York.
Caroline wants him, but he definitely doesn't want her.

I Walked on the Moon

If you feel like doing something really sentimental but kind of cool, here's what you should do. Off the top of your head, make a list of the first 50 children's books that you remember reading (or listening to) when you were young. I'm taking a Children's Literature class, and although the activity I just described was not assigned (well, not exactly, we do need to choose 50 children's books to read, so I made the list to brainstorm some ideas for that), I really enjoyed doing it. It's crazy to think about, because I've always been a voracious reader, and my childhood was when it all really started and it's kind of cool to look back and see how it affected who I am now. Anyway, so I'm looking forward to rereading some of my favorite books from back then, but also ones I don't remember as well or have never read. It's crazy, I looked up a book that I remember my fourth grade teacher reading to us, but I never read it myself. So it will be interesting to see how much I remember. I also found one that I did a book report on in sixth grade, that I remember nothing about. So, should be interesting.

Actually, it got me thinking. How cool would it be to design a class (probably as a psychology class) that forced students to look back at their own childhood and own development to find the things that shaped them - their opinions, interests, etc. For me, the books I read were a huge part of that. For someone else, maybe it was the TV shows they watched, or the places that were familiar to them, a sport they used to play, etc. I just think it is an amazing activity to look back at something you haven't thought about in years, and it would be interesting to see if it still seems familiar, possibly affected your development in some way, or if it seems completely foreign and apparently didn't affect you. Anyway, enough about whatever. Just if you feel like being sentimental (and a touch egotistical), then you should do it sometime.

I have another current event!! I'm not sure how long this trend will last, but I guess if there is something interesting to talk about, then I'll bring it up. So, apparently there's going to be some sort of collaboration between Google and NASA. Can you think of anything more awesome? I think they're just at a stage where they're throwing out ideas, but they sound pretty awesome to me ("awesome" twice in two sentences, terrific grammar, really). They are talking about commercial space travel, possibly some extreme sport team that plays in zero gravity, etc. Anyway, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. I wouldn't mind a vacation to the moon, personally.

Hmm...that just reminded me of Brian Regan's DVD of one of his live shows. If you have not heard of this man, you are missing out. He's a comedian and I think that he's hilarious. He has a way of pointing out the humor in everyday life. Anyway, he talks about wishing he was one of the astronauts who has been to the moon, so that he could top any story at a dinner party with just the line, "I walked on the moon." It's funny stuff, you should really look it up.

Anyway, that's it for today, I have class in about 9 minutes, so bye!

Celtic Music + Spearmint Gum = Killer Combination

So, I haven't updated in a really long time. Maybe you've noticed. Maybe you've celebrated. Basically, I just suck at life or something. Or not. Whatever.

Words of wisdom: Eating jell-o with a fork is tricky. Not that I know this from personal experience. Not that I'm trying to eat jell-o with a fork right now. Since I am supremely awesome and also a genius, I never eat my jell-o without a spoon, because that would just be silly.

This post is pretty ridiculous so far. Haha. Maybe I'll talk about current events to make up for it.

So, Disney and Pixar! I'm not sure how I feel about that. I was kind of looking forward to the time when the contract expired and Pixar would be an independent entity of extreme awesemnity (whoa, I really did not plan that rhyme! I just decided to write "awesemnity" instead of "awesomeness" and then I looked back and noticed "entity"...oops). But then Disney buys Pixar and ruins my dreams. Whatever, I'm sure their future movies will also be similarly terrific, since Disney has been involved with all of the past ones anyway. I just hope that the Pixar people will still rollerblade down the halls and have paper airplane contests. I've always thought it would be awesome to work there. Maybe I should make use of my Pixar connections (oh yes, I have them. Jealous?).

Okay, that was the current event. I hope you enjoyed it. Back to the insanity.

I found the complete first season of Fraggle Rock at Target!! I was amazed!! I swear, the Fraggles are back with a vengeance. They're selling Fraggle plush toys and there's a Fraggle edition of Uno. I hope they start showing reruns on TV. It's funny, because I only saw a handful of episodes when I was little (we didn't have Disney channel, so we only watched it on vacation), but I pretty much love it. My sister is irrationally terrified of it. So that's fun, I guess.

I have a week off from classes, so I'm just hanging around campus and relaxing. It's wonderful. Lots of people went home, so it's really quiet. It has also been pretty foggy lately, so walking around campus in the mist is beautiful (especially the Loop at night, with lamp posts and pine trees).

Anyway, it has been grand. Maybe I'll post again someday soon.

We Fall but our Souls are Flying

I love flying. There is really no part of it that I don't like. True, having your ears pop is kind of lame, and if you're prone to motion sickness, then I guess that really sucks. I think my favorite part of flying is taking off, landing, and all of that floating in between. I even like turbulence. I think that's a pretty clear indication that something is wrong with me.

Actually, there is something I don't like about planes. It didn't bother me when I was a little girl playing with her toys on the way to Hawaii or Washington DC or wherever, because at the time it didn't affect me. But now that I am a bit taller, I am a little annoyed that the windows in planes are at about shoulder level. I guess it makes sense if you're mostly looking down anyway, but I'm not a fan of having to crane my neck to get a look outside.

That being said, is there anything in the world more beautiful than flying into the San Francisco Bay Area at night with scattered clouds, which are tinted gold and pink by the street lights and neon signs? Okay, so there probably is. But it is still an amazing sight.

Maybe you've guessed by now that I was on a plane today. I'm home for the weekend to see my younger siblings in a production of "Godspell." This makes me a good big sister, I hope. That's the plan, anyway.

Let's see...an update on the last week. I'm taking a psychology class, which is something I'm really interested in. It's cross-cultural psychology, so we're basically comparing how different cultures think and raise children and everything. We've been watching some movies, too. So far we've watched "Whale Rider" and "Bend it Like Beckham" (both of which I've seen), but next week it's "The Gods Must Be Crazy," which I've never seen and I've only heard good things about. So, that's something to look forward to.

We watched "The Brothers Grimm" last night, which I'm sorry to report was worse than I expected. Actually, I won't be too hard on it. I'll just say that I thought it was kind of boring and I couldn't really get into it. Although this could be because the volume was pretty low and that made it a little harder to follow. Also, if I was a little kid, parts of it would have scared the crap out of me. True, I was kind of a wimpy kid, but that's not the point. Anyway, I don't really recommend it but I know people who do like it, so maybe you would.

MUSIC SECTION
Apparently my blog has sections now. I think this might be a one-time thing. I just wanted to say that I finally got "Picaresque" by The Decemberists. I've been listening to "The Engine Driver" for months now, but I didn't really know any of their other songs. Anyway, it's a good CD. I definitely spent a lot of time listening to it today during my 8 hours of travel (I don't think I should arrive home at midnight if I left school at 4pm).

I should probably stop talking sometime soon. I hope you all have a great 3-day weekend. Who knows when I'll update again. I've been slacking, but it's for your own good since my life has been a bit boring lately. If anything interesting happens, I'll let you know.

Epanalepsis

Pretty sure I haven't posted in a while. Not sure what's up with that. Does that mean I have a life now? That might be cool.

Finally back on campus!!! So that's awesome. I'm almost done moving in (I just need to decorate a little more, and I have two small boxes kind of in the middle of the room, so as soon as they disappear I'm officially "done").

Not much to report. Wow, this is turning out to be a really lame post. Aren't you glad I updated? Class is good, I finished my homework at 4pm so I have all evening to do whatever (and when I say "all evening" I mean it. It turns out that my roommate is nocturnal like me, so that's good news. Not good news is 9am classes).

Anyway, I found my manly hammer so it looks like I'll be attempting to hang up some posters again. I think the walls are made out of titanium or something. And when I say "manly hammer," I mean it's just a hammer, but it's pretty manly compared to my roommate's girly hammer which is little and covered in pink and purple flowers. Wow, Queen's "Hammer to Fall" just started playing. How fitting.

Okay, time to destroy some more pushpins.

Magnificat anima mea

I just wanted to report that after singing for two hours straight two nights in a row, my voice is remarkably husky and sexy sounding. This is a moment in time that I want to record. Thank you. Pass the cough drops.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Well, life has been relatively uneventful since I've been home. I went to San Francisco with my mom, aunt and cousin a few days ago. That was interesting.

My mom had these ancient gift certificates for Saks Fifth Avenue, so the point of the trip was to buy makeup for her (which is pretty funny, since she rarely wears any). It was pretty fun. Makeup people can be scary, though! Three of them cornered me and were like, "Would you like us to put makeup on you, pretty girl?" I was like, Pretty girl? Who are they talking to? "Yeah, sure..." There was this other creepy saleslady at Neiman Marcus. We walked in, and she attacked us. "Have you tried our Vitamin C [lotion]? Would you like me to put it on your hands?" We were frightened. It was fun though.

Me: Cosmetics Counter :: _______ : Candy Store
A. Clowns
B. Chocolate Covered Pretzels
C. Little Kid
D. Boogey Man

Correct Answer: C

What else have I been up to lately? I'm singing Rutter's Magnificat with my parent's choir tonight and tomorrow. I've only been to like three practices. Hurray for being able to sightread successfully 94.7% of the time! So that's exciting. Full orchestra, open flames and synthetic fabrics, lots of music, etc. Oh, and my parents are pretty sick (I'm the only healthy one now! They're out to get me!) so I might be the only one in my family singing tonight. Haha. Wait, that's not really funny. Just ironic that I'll be up there and my parents won't, even though they're members of the choir and I am certainly not (you have to be a grown-up, and it's optional for you to have grandchildren). I may be an adult, but I'm really new at it.

Went to my little brother's basketball game yesterday. It was time for me to be a good big sister, since he recently dubbed me a S.W.I.N.E.S. (apparently: "Sister Who I Never Ever See"). Our cousin is also on the team. They lost, but it was close.

What else? I really liked "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." I had high hopes for it, and they weren't disappointed. Not everyone I've talked to was overly thrilled, but I just loved it.

I was going to put up some NYC pictures, but the internet doesn't want to let me right now, so maybe some other time. Okay, that' s it for now!

You Know You Need Unique New York

I know I do. In four days, we saw five Broadway shows, met up with two friends from California who now live in New York, did some shopping, some sightseeing, and basically admired the snowy city decorated for the holidays. Here's a not-too-brief account of our trip (so far, we're not home yet. We're visiting some friends of mine at Wellesley College, outside Boston, while my sister checks out the school).

Thursday basically doesn't exist. We woke up around 4:30am and didn't arrive in NYC until 4:30pm. Checked into our hotel, ate dinner at an organic food restaurant (Josie's? It was good, whatever it was called), and took a taxi downtown to see our first show, "Wicked." Unbelievably good. It's based on a book which is based on "The Wizard of Oz," and it basically tells the story of the friendship between Glinda and Elphaba, aka the Wicked Witch of the West (oh yes, it's true). The musical deviates from the plot in the book, but in some ways I think it's almost better because of it. The songs are great, kind of similar sounding, but still great. I was familiar with the music, too (actually, I was also relatively familiar with the costumes and sets from pictures I've seen online, so none of it was a big surprise in that sense), but it was amazing just to see how it all comes together. I'll admit, I got a little misty-eyed during the first song (and a few songs later, and again towards the end). So that was a surprise. I guess I just really liked the show. Anyway, I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen the show, but I will say that it surprised me.

I'm trying to remember Friday. We went to visit Barnard College for my sister. I knew it was affiliated with Columbia, but I didn't know that it was essentially the same university, just different colleges. And I didn't picture the school being right in Manhattan. We really liked it, though. There was a snow storm that morning (I woke up and the sky was grey, and huge chunks of snow were falling), so the campus was pretty and snowy, and some girls were building a snowman and singing carols. We went on a tour, then went to eat lunch at a nearby Greek restaurant. My family visited Greece two years ago, and we definitely fell in love with Greek food (not to mention Greece and the people). So we were sitting around the table and all giddy because we were in New York and it was snowy and we were eating Greek food.

Next we went to the UN, because Becky wants to work there someday. We went on a tour, and it was pretty cool, although not all of the rooms looked quite as slick as the General Assembly (the cool room in "The Interpreter," which was not that cool of a movie). Some of them had some strange curtain decorations. Kind of odd. Anyway. The gift shop is amazing, though. They have stuff from all around the world, so that was exciting. The Ireland section wasn't quite representative of an accurate Irish gift shop - there wasn't any Guinness merchandise. They had some really cool Egyptian bottles, and there was a cool creepy looking wooden box from Romania. I was pretty excited about that. It probably was carved by Dracula or something. Or not.

Next we tried to go to an electronics store to buy some stuff (more accurately, my Christmas present: an iPod. Yes, I have decided to join the legions of the undead. And by "the undead," I mean those white earbudded types). However, it had closed at 1pm, and was definitely empty by the time we got there. And it was closed all day Saturday. That equals: Jewish! So that was pretty cool.

We got dinner food at Fairway Market across the street from our hotel. This place is amazing. It's like the New York version of Berkeley Bowl (the store where Dr. Wirth bought her weird fruit and stuff to show to her high school Spanish classes, if any of you were in those). Then we went to see "The Producers"! I was definitely very excited for that. I love Mel Brooks. I truly do. I've been watching the preview for the new movie for months now, and I'm even more excited now that I've seen the show. From what I can tell, the movie has almost identical costumes and sets to the stage version, so that's cool. When you're watching the movie, you should be thinking, "This is how the show looks on Broadway! Caroline told me so!"

Saturday we slept in. That was good. We met up with our friend Blair, who is a few years older than me and a grad student at Columbia. None of us know her very well, but she's my sister's idol, so that was probably most of the reason we got together. Also, she went to Wellesley, so most of the conversation was about both of the schools (Wellesley and Columbia). We had brunch at a little French cafe. Then we went to see "The Phantom of the Opera" at 2pm. It's my favorite musical, probably mostly because I saw it for the first time when I was eleven, and it was a formative experience for me. Obviously the music is good and the costumes and everything, but my favorite part has always been the story - the twisted love triangle, the Phantom's tortured soul, his power over Christine, that sort of thing. Anyway, this was our third time seeing it live, so not really any surprises there.

Afterwards, we met up with our friend, Susan. She's in the process of adopting twin boys from Guatemala, so we talked about that a lot. I've always wanted to adopt (not really sure why), so I was really interested in hearing about it. At one point we were at FAO Schwarz (damn the candy section!), and she was looking at the baby toys and stuff. I think it's really hard for her to wait for all of the paperwork to get finished. Hopefully they will be coming home in late January. We went to Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, went inside St. Patrick's Cathedral, looked at all the window displays at Bloomingdale's (unbelievable), and actually looked around inside. We ended up in the section with gloves, scarves, and...fur. Apparently Norwegian foxes come in burgundy and teal. Who knew? Then we went to Grand Central Terminal (not "Station," you touristy types, you) and ate at one of their restaurants. I finally gave into my craving for a New York hot dog, and I had some cheesecake, because apparently they were the restaurant that invented it. I feel like I owe them a lot. I talk about food too much.

Oh, Sunday. We walked over to Central Park (only a few blocks from our hotel) and ended up at the American Museum of Natural History. Amazing. They have tons of stuffed animals, in a taxidermical sense (I hope I just invented "taxidermical"). And fake animals, too, like the huge whale they have hanging from the ceiling. I was a fan of the fake sharks. I think most little girls went through a phase where they wanted to be marine biologists and study bottlenosed dolphins. I liked sharks. They also had lots of awesome dinosaur bones. I got a T-Rex shirt, because I'm just that cool. I hope it glows in the dark.

We went to this awesome store that sells newspapers and magazines from around the world. I found the January edition of "Empire Magazine." I needed to mention this because it was the highlight of my month. If this magazine was a person, I would marry it. Enough said.

At 3pm, we went to see "Spamalot." I love Monty Python. They are the best ever. There is no question. So, clearly any musical that is based on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is a good thing. They had a lot of the same sketches from the movie (from the coconuts to the Knights of Ni), and some new stuff (like the Lady of the Lake). So, definitely good stuff. My family bought the soundtrack for it a while ago, but I haven't even seen the box, let alone listened to it. So many of the songs were new to me. Funny stuff.

For dinner, we ate at a British-type pub around the corner (hurray for British-type pubs! I definitely chose the restaurant). Then we went to see our second show of the day, which was "Avenue Q." Hahahahaha. Hurray for politically incorrect, offensive and hilarious show. If you aren't familiar with it, it's basically about a neighborhood in New York. And puppets live there. Reminiscent of Sesame Street, albeit the adult version. Definitely not for everyone, but we enjoyed it.

Today we got up early and flew to Boston, and basically spent the day at Wellesley. My friends showed us around, Bexy had an interview, we took a tour, and have basically been hanging out. We had lunch and dinner (I've really missed college cafeteria food. It's so pathetic. I'll get over it when I go back to school). Tomorrow we're meeting with a faculty member who is a relative of a family friend, then probably hanging out in Boston, then flying home and gaining back those hours that we lost on Thursday. Hurray for that. Okay then, TTFN.

My Official List of BISP Quotes

"Maybe we should just try to use another lion." -Caroline

"St. Cuthbert was a saint." - Keith Beebe (in a lecture)

"Yeah, we thought it was weird, too." - Becca

"Did someone else say 'femur' at the same time as me?" -Katie O.

"All my children will wear meatskins." -Jeff

"Let's mourn when I won't be funny because I'm dead bones." -Tahlia

"I'd like two scoops of egg on ice cream with some hot water." -Kara

"Jordan, you said you're good with your bare hands, right?" - Katie Troxell

"Guys at Whitworth don't date, they marry." -Becca

"When a mullet starts to look good, you know it's time to leave the country." - Katie O.

"When I say I have crap in my room, I don't mean I have piles of dung." -Nathan

"Apparently the key is to slap Andre the Giant." -Katie O.

"The fruit of his loins was much." -Tahlia

"I was really depressed when I found out that I'd never have hair like Lauryn Hill." -Jordan
"That's a good reason to be depressed." -Tahlia

"They're probably like, 'We've been talking about this for years! Now we finally have an American to ask. What kind of bread do you eat?'" -Jordan

"Just think of the flames of renewal!" -Keith
"That's what I was going to say." -Jeff

"My socks are crispy." -Betsy

"Your mom is her dad." -Nathan
"Apparently, my mom is an asexual amoeba!" -Jeff

"I would ride Prince William." -Emily

"Ah, the joy of pills." -Cheryl

"How would you know I've been to Hawaii?" -Gretchen

"I would rather have a broken crotch than have Kara stitch it up with chopsticks for me." -Kristin

"The guy with the cool hair and I are practically dating." -Caroline

"Coif is the best word." -Jeff

"The person on this trip whose name starts with a 'J' and ends with an 'oseph.'" - Kristin

"Katie O. wants to have Jesus' babies." -Nathan

"The stench of desperation hangs about me like the stench of rotting fruit on a compost pile." -Katie O.

"I am a jelly doughnut...that is so rad!!" -Jeff

"What's with the beetles?...For the Beatles..." -Caroline

"Loud and clear!" -Leah (about Tahlia...)

"Take a picture of me reaching out to you!" -Tahlia

"I was like, 'I can sew!', so I made a trenchcoat." -Kristin

"You were a stone with boobs!" -Katie O.

"My first crush was David de Santiago." -Kara

"I wore Spandex pants until recently." -Kara

"Basically, the first guy who ever asked me, I laughed in his face." -Gretchen

"I'm a 'Hamburger' girl, I always have been. I never liked folding it 'Hot Dog' style." -Nicole
"'Hot Dogs' were dumb." -Becca

"Notice the fin." -Caroline (me as a mermaid)

"We were affirming the greatness of apples." -Jenny

"Why are these monkeys all robot monkeys?" -Nathan

"When I was little, I tanned like a little Puerto Rican child." -Jeff

"There's like a million of them...like three or five!" -Caroline

"Why are you looking at me like a fish?!" -Caroline

"They were big, too! If they got in a fight, they would take you down. Bite at your ankles." -Becca (about American Girl dolls)

Iconoclasm Essay:
"I don't like iconoclasm." -Katie O.
"I think it's bad." -Caroline
"The End." -Jeff

"You must be a sorceror, because your rock just turned into a bird!" -Jeff

"Did any of them question what they were doing?" -Kara (response to Magical Mystery Tour)

"I hate ladders in the morning." -Cheryl

"Where did they go? They're so sneaky, those Army men!" -Betsy

"Can you imagine a fight breaking out in a nudist colony?" -Katie O.

"I'm not marrying Rupert Grint!" -Kara
"Why not?" -Becca
"Because my last name would be Grint!" -Kara

"Look, it's like a 'Where is Mother Teresa'!" -Becca

"I don't like them, and I'm afraid!" -Kara (Burger King commercials)

"Why aren't you a comedian major?" -Becca (to Kara)

"I would marry Kara. I would laugh everyday, because I'd be like, 'Haha! I'm married to Kara!' And she's funny." -Caroline

"I wouldn't think: Dime - five cents." -Kara

"Montana's a free country. We don't need scary commercials to make us feel good about ourselves, thank you!" -Kara

"Taylor, you look so forlorn!" -Kara

"I took all my calcium ON THE SAME DAY." -Taylor

"I would be really Gollumy and tell her she was a tricksy mommit." -Katie O.

"Just goosh this little ear!" -Jordan

"That's like saying, 'I've never seen Jordan eat krill!' She always eats krill!" -Jeff

"I think you all are abusing your chopsticks." -Kara

"Are you rice-ist?" -Nathan

"Maybe they were defanged piranhas." -Caroline

"Cindy Loo-Who? No, Cindy Who-Who. Wait..." -Cheryl

"I'm going to use that as a band name someday - Cindy Who-Who and the Defanged Piranhas!" -Becca

"Why are you showing us Division?" -Jordan

"It's like a vampire popsicle." -Katie O. (Marc Quinn's Self)

"Either it's mold or it's a type of cheese." -Cheryl

"I saw the whole thing! She stole the see-through pajamas from the homeless man, and now he's a lot more naked than he was five minutes ago." -Jordan

"Is it a bad sign if your eyelashes look like mutilated spiderlegs?" -Caroline

That's it for quotes. I'm leaving for NYC tomorrow morning. Hurray!

Don't Try This at Home

My Top 3 Favorite Moments in the History of my Parents' Driving:

3. When my Dad was trying to parallel park in downtown Spokane and hit the car parked behind him. Then the car parked in front of him. Especially sweet since it was in front of a restaurant and the owners of the attacked cars probably witnessed the whole thing.

2. When my Mom was driving me to my brother's promotion ceremony from middle school and sped across the railway tracks when the bars were coming down. Then lectured me about how I am never allowed to do that.

1. When my Dad wanted to make a possibly illegal U-turn, decided against it as the traffic control vehicle approached, instead turned left, pulled into a driveway and turned around to discover that he was driving the wrong way down a one way street. Oh yeah, this morning.

My parents are usually exceptionally good drivers, but I am glad to have witnessed these exceptions in my last 20 years of riding in their cars.

And that's all I have to say for today. Remember to wear a seatbelt, and maybe a helmet isn't a bad idea either.

Do Wah Diddy Diddy Dum Diddy Do

Things I am Happy about:
1. Having tons of time to read and watch movies or do whatever I want.
2. Vocabulary: Yesterday I learned the word "soi-disant" and it's possibly the best thing in my life right now. I'm just waiting for a chance to use it.
3. Raiding my parents CD collection: As dorky as this activity is, I discovered a new CD by Libera, who are an insanely good boy choir. Their songs lean a little too much toward pop, but if my (future) kids sing like those boys, I will be a happy person.
4. December: For so many reasons. Christmas is in December. Movies are coming out. The Decemberists sing "Engine Driver." And after December is January, when I can go back to Whitworth and be a normal college kid again. And take 80% (or so) English classes. Oh the nerdity.
5. Singing Rutter's Magnificat with the adult choir at church. I was glad to discover that my vocal chords still work.
6. Taking a spoonful of peanut butter and eating it.
7. Getting new music. Kaiser Chiefs and Kasabian and a bunch of Queen. Wow, unintentional alliteration. I'm happy about that too.
8. The music video for Basement Jaxx "Do Your Thing." Watch it and I guarantee it will put you in a good mood.
9. Watching "Rent" and figuring out that it was based on Puccini's "La Boheme" all by myself. True, I watched "La Boheme" within the last couple weeks, so it was kind of fresh in my mind, but I was still really proud of myself. Way to be cultured.
10. Cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. Yes, please.
11. Being able to straighten my hair again. Sure missed that in Britain.
12. In a week I will be in NYC. Hurray for seeing Broadway shows and visiting colleges for the sister.
13. Editing my friend's final paper, which makes me feel like I'm at school. And I love editing stuff. I wish I had a paper to write, and that is the sad truth.
14. Facebook, which has gotten cooler beyond all my expectations. Pretty much anything that allows me to keep in touch with BISPers (and lesser mortals) is probably awesome. And hurray for the photo albums.
15. Having access to, not one, but two pianos so I can mess around on them all that I want and pretend like I'm still actually any good. Although, not both pianos at the same time. The whole "opposite sides of the house" thing.

Things I am Sad about:
1. Having tons of time with nothing to do but find ways to entertain myself. It gets old.
2. When I was in Europe, my computer at home was in the shop and accidentally had all the data and stuff erased. We got the data back, but some things are lost forever. Not the least of these were my Best Times for Minesweeper. For the beginner's level, I was down to 3 seconds. That will never happen again. I don't know how I did that the first time.
3. Colds that last for more than a week. Especially when you've only been back for a little over a week, so you pretty much came home and have been sick ever since.
4. Being home when all your friends are away at school.
5. Spending far too many hours online (morning, afternoon, and night) while other people have lives. Not being emailed or called by people because everyone is busy with school.
6. Basically living a hermitic lifestyle in the most depressing way. Involuntarily antisocial.
7. My parakeet who sees me as a sex object. Eww.
8. Already having homework for my Jan Term class. Needing to plan a movie that I really don't feel motivated to do. What can you film in Spokane in January?
9. Madonna's new song that ripped off of ABBA. At least Vanilla Ice stole from Queen. But ABBA?
10. It's snowing in Washington but it's raining in California. Especially sad when I actually decided to go hike around the lake but it rained. And sad when I don't get to play in the snow.
11. Running out of the gum I bought in Italy which wasn't that good anyway but at least I had gum and now I don't.
12. Trying to make an omelet but it always turns out as scrambled eggs. Oh well. Eating it with cheese and salsa makes everything better.
13. Still not knowing where I'm going to live when I get back to school, and the fact that I probably won't get to room with the person I want to. These are sad tidings.
14. Discovering more words that I can't spell. Including the names Michael and Jeffrey (are you sure it's not Micheal and Jeffery?) and apparently the word omelet. Because I think "omelette" looks a lot better, but I was wrong.
15. Wasting so much time that it's not even fun anymore. Maybe I will go into hibernation until January. Or get a job.

Anyway, I figure I have the same number of happy and sad things, so I guess that means I'm pretty balanced. And it's only a few more weeks until people come home, so I can go do fun and exciting things again.

Christmas tiiiime is heeere...

Do Hummingbirds Hum?

Back in California, and I'm not sure I can handle the culture shock. In case you didn't know, bacon is really crispy in the US and they drive on the right hand side of the road. And they all have these funny accents. At least I brought some McVities back with me (aka chocolate digestives), so I can get those out when I start to feel homesick for England. Everything is so different now.

Anyway, might as well talk about the rest of my Roman holiday (haha...). And share some pictures.

St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. One of the better sights and it's free. Cheryl and I did our "No Admissions!" dance. Except that it was only me.

Pretty terrible picture of a really awesome hallway in the Vatican Museum which led (eventually) to the Sistine Chapel. The walls were covered with old looking maps of different parts of Italy. And I'm a sucker for old looking maps.

As for the Sistine Chapel itself, it was on the border between...cool and unimpressive. Maybe unimpressive isn't the word. Of course it's impressive. But it's just a lot smaller than you expect and much less spectacular. And there's no picture because if you take one then the security guys kill you and once you're dead, God's probably pretty angry at you too. Decided not to risk it.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica. I think it's the biggest church in the world or something. Or at least towards the top of that list. I'm pretty sure that the main altar (the brown structure in the middle) is over Peter's tomb.

Me and St. Peter. I think you're supposed to kiss his foot, but everyone just seemed to be rubbing it, so I did as the Romans do.

Michelangelo's Pieta.

We ate lunch with a view of the Coliseum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Roman forum. So I guess that was pretty cool.

They took out the floor of the Coliseum so you can see the system of tunnels underneath, like where the tigers that jumped out at Russell Crowe came from.

Here's a better picture.

Anyway, I think we both agreed that the Coliseum was our favorite sight in Rome. Otherwise, Rome really didn't do much for us.

The Arch of Constantine, which I know absolutely nothing about. It's between the Coliseum and the Roman Forum.

A few blocks away at the church of St. Peter's in Chains (San Pietro Vincoli or something like that in Italian, I'm way too lazy to check right now). In other words, those are (allegedly) the chains that bound Peter when he was imprisoned in Rome.

Statue of Moses in the same church, with horns (misinterpretation of "rays") coming out of his head.

Awesome Roman sky.

Possibly my favorite pizza box ever.

We're at the Roman forum!

Another shot of the Forum. Another free sight and pretty cool. We like old stuff. Cheryl's a history major and I almost was, so we're walking around like, "This is so cool! We are so dorky!"

The pillar that Peter was chained to in the Mamertine Prison. There's also a spot on the wall (not in the photo) where you can supposedly see his face, where it was imprinted when a guard pushed him into the wall. It's pretty awesome, it actually looked like a face.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for pictures.

Flying home wasn't too bad. Well, actually it was. I had three flights (Rome to Paris, Paris to Houston, and Houston to SF). Had to wake up at 3:15am for the first one, the second one was delayed 90 minutes, which meant I missed the third one and had to take a later one, but I sure had to run through the Houston airport to get to it and I was still the last person to board.

And here's the real tragedy: I was looking forward all day to the point where I could say, "I have nothing to declare but my genius," but it turns out they don't really have you do that in Houston. At least the Customs Guy was impressed that I was traveling alone internationally and all that.

"Are you by yourself?" (Really dumbfounded.)

"Yeah. I know. I'm that cool." (Okay, I only said "Yeah.")

Anyway, so now I am home again, wearing clothes I forgot I had. I tried to play the piano yesterday and it was pretty mediocre. I guess I'll have six weeks to practice. I'm going to start pulling out my hair if I don't find something to do. At least it's almost Thanksgiving and people will be home this weekend.

Went to a Cal basketball game the other night. We had to leave early, but if Cal won (which I think they did) it was the 500th win for their coach in his college coaching career. So that was pretty cool.

Random facts: I have the worst sore throat within memory and I no longer possess the ability to sleep in. I hope this is temporary. I have woken up consistently between 6:45am-7:30am over the last few days, and it's depressing me.

Anyway, hope you all have the best Thanksgiving ever and if you like me you should call me or come over to visit because I'm cool or something. Alrighty, bye.

When In Rome...

We arrived in Rome at about 1pm this afternoon and checked into our hotel. Then we relaxed for a while and headed out to see the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. While we were walking down the street, we looked down to see a face staring back up at us. There was randomly a pig's head resting on the sidewalk. I think we were both speechless for about the next block.

Trevi Fountain is the large 18th century fountain of Neptune (remember the part in Roman Holiday where Gregory Peck is trying to borrow the girl's camera?). It's tradition for tourists to throw a coin into over their shoulder to make a wish and to ensure that they will return to Rome. Actually, I just read an article yesterday about some street cleaners who were arrested for stealing money out of the fountain (usually, it goes to charity). So we threw in our coins and took some pictures, and avoided the guys who kept trying to hand us the flowers they were selling. ("If one more rose is thrust in my face...").

Then we walked over a few blocks to the Pantheon (not to be confused with Athen's Parthenon). It's basically a round basilica under a huge dome - it looked like a beehive crawling with tourists to me.

Ate dinner (lasagna = mmm...) in the square outside, then walked back to our hotel as the sky darkened. Kind of a leisurely afternoon.

Oh, and there's a weak wireless connection in our hotel room. What was wrong with England? The rest of Europe wants me to get online. Anyway, that's it for today.

Firenze

Yesterday we slept in until lunch (that felt good) and went for a walk on the south side of the Arno River (most of the major sights and museums for Florence are to the north, where we stayed, but the south side is more scenic, I think - more trees, and a great view of the city once you get up the hill).
The old gates to the city, now just a random tower close to the river. There's a nice path starting at about this point that takes you up a tree covered hill to a piazza overlooking Florence.
This was a random little grotto/spring/wishing well (at least, I contributed one euro to make a wish...I'm weirdly superstitious like that) towards the base of the hill, across from the tower.

The first thing that hit us when we walked into this church was the scent of candles. It was absolutely silent, and dim and cool.

Unlike most of the cities we've visited, where they expand around the old walls so you find them randomly in commercial areas and whatnot, the city walls of Florence are still very scenic.

Florence has some gorgeous buildings, but Cheryl and I were glad to see some trees.

We were debating over whether it would be rude to take a picture of the painter, but then a group of excited Italian children in matching blue jumpsuits and red hats rushed over to him and crowded around, talking loudly and looking at his work. We decided we weren't that bad.

We eventually reached Piazza Michelangelo, which has a replica of our favorite statue - David. And when I say we, I mean me.

I'm kind of a dork (if you hadn't noticed), because I found a copy of Puccini's "La Boheme" that Baz Luhrmann directed in Australia (I saw his production in SF...what can I say, I love Baz. He made Moulin Rouge) on DVD, and I pretty much had to buy it. I'm not a big opera person, but there you go. Anyway, so we went back and watched that. Then I stayed up until midnight to register for classes. Then I stayed up until 2am, because I do that.

This morning was fun. I woke up with about 150+ bites from some nasty bedbug or something (note: the hotel is clean, but it wasn't the brightest idea to take the spare blanket out of the closet and sleep with it, no matter how cold it was). They're mostly on my neck and arms, but there are some like on my forehead and ears. It's pretty pathetic. The ones on my wrists look especially depressing - really pink spots on my poor white skin. I look diseased. Anyway, sorry if this was the "too much information" post, but my life is pretty itchy right now. Hopefully they'll disappear soon. Like tomorrow.

Anyway, we went to the Accademia and Uffizi today. The highlight of the Accademia is Michelangelo's "David." Pretty much the only reason for going, but it's worth it. Pretty sure that my sister and I both have crushes on him. Cheryl wasn't too smitten, but I think she was glad we went. And the Uffizi is full of great stuff - Leonardo's "Annunciation," Botticelli's "Primavera" and "The Birth of Venus," etc. So, all in all, a good day.

We went back to the restaurant where we ate on the first night. Cheryl said something like, "It's our last night in Florence!" and I replied "This is where I ate last time it was my last night in Florence!" Basically, this is the restaurant I eat at in Florence.

Anyway, we're headed for Rome tomorrow morning, and I don't know if I'll luck out with wireless internet again, so the next time I update I may be back in the States. We'll see. Until then, I hope you're having a great life.

PS: Best soda ever!