R.I.P. Michael Jackson

so michael jackson is dead. and i never thought i would feel this sad about it, because he wasn't to my generation what he was to my parents', but...it's strange. even though i wasn't around for the jackson 5 or the thriller video's premiere or his mtv heyday, i never really noticed how much he still influenced my life. all of our lives, really, because isn't that really what fame is about? the ability to see and be seen and have this huge impact on people just for, well, existing? and he did more than that - he made music, influenced more artists than i can probably name, and had his name slapped onto scandals and bad jokes and tabloid covers. it's late. i'm tired. but i just felt like i had to say this now, before i go to sleep, because i know that when i wake up tomorrow this won't feel as raw as it does now. i hope that, wherever he is, he's in peace. 

and here's a link to the original video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-TZnNXXQrI

bloggy time

so, in the interest of finally updating this thing, it's time to play the what's-happening-in-rachel's-life game.

player 1: is obsessed with making friendship bracelets. they're just so pretty.

player 2: is in the midst of finals week, and just took her french exam. it was ah-mazing. 

player 3: is writing this blog and dedicating it to stephanie, who is even more ah-mazing than the french exam and has also never been mentioned in a blog before (and just to clarify, stephanie is not s-la)

player 4: is desperately trying not to start writing until she's done attempting to study.

now, i'm sure you're all wondering which player is the winner of this little game. the correct answer would be e. all of the above. since i have faith in all of you, i'm just going to say that you all guessed correctly and move on to the prizes.

which are piccys! yay! and for once they aren't from flickr. 

so this is stephanie, who is the dedicatee of this post. and has very nice arms. and also bracelets, which she made. 

and this is the bracelet that i'm making for her right now. it's about an inch and a half longer than that now. i'm thinking after i finish this one i'm going to try and make one of the ones with a heart-shaped pattern, or this double zig zag type that i saw on google. 

and now onto my other obsessions, like this song.  

she has such a pretty voice and really, i just love the verse that goes "i am the voice of the past that will always be". it's so lyrical that i just feel the urge to use it in that fantasy story i'm trying not to write until exams are over. 

other obsessions include 

because every line in this is just gorgeous, and i just wish i could find a text version online because her voice is kind of strange, but still. the part where she goes "i am done holding my tongue like a bible. there is too much war in every verse of our silence." is just gorgeous, and if i could write like that i think i'd get up and do the funny hitched breath hiccup thing between verses too. i'd leave out the lesbian part though. boys are pretty. 

speaking of pretty, pretty boys. shia leboeuf. i'd go see transformers two just for him. although the megan fox hysteria is highly annoying. 

in other news, i got a hair cut. and took off six and a half inches. and i'm officially going to be a design editor next year for the yearbook. which has led to me going to yearbook camp on some week or the other in july. 

also, my french exam featured ernest hemingway leaving the spanish civil war to meet two jewish boys fleeing paris for le zone libre. in other words, my future tense composition turned into crossover fanfiction between hemingway and our short story l'etoile jaune. yes, i have issues. hopefully i'll get an a? 

contact update

a lot of people have wondered why i never wanted contacts - well, today i present to you the best reason ever to avoid contacts (or, a story from rachel's saturday night)

our lovely protagonist (moi) happens to be very fond of mac's lash-defining mascara. you might even go so far as to call it her best friend. but, in the tradition of all sexy best friends (hello lex luthor, we miss you) it went bad. how? well...

all of those lovely mascara-aided lashes got stuck to my left contact. so i, of course, went with the reflex of brushing/rubbing them out of the way. and when that didn't work, i (being a very resourceful protagonist, none of that wishy washy bella swan nonsense up in here) attempted to take my contact out. in the car. in a maryland parking lot at 11:30 at night. 

unfortunately, no one warned me (oh that evil ministry of magic contact wearing, why must you keep the public in the dark?) that these favorable conditions won't persuade the contact to magically jump onto your finger. so the contact stayed put. and mascara the evil bff caused Severe Itching in the eye area. mon dieu, what was a girl to do?

well, the natural course was to rub the eye in question vigorously. which i did. and then my contact ripped in half. in half. and i couldn't even tell if the other half was still in my eye or not. 

so, after several badly lit public restrooms, many, many restaurant patrons wondering why on earth the insane girl kept touching her eye and going "ohmygodohmygodohmygod", and a very rushed trip home (surprising sans ticket, but only because we explained to the police officer and he let it slide), we got home. 

and then i spent an hour staring at my eyeball in a giant mirror and trying to figure out if the contact (well, half...let's call it halfie, shall we?) was still stuck to my eye and how to get it if it was -- why yes, this period did feature a panic attack, my mother was most unimpressed. by the end of the night we concluded halfie was no longer on my person and so i went to sleep. 

but then came morning, all three hours ago (for me). and my eye still felt strange. so after more rubbing (can you tell i was the little kid in preschool with both hands like permanently glued to her face?) out popped halfie. i'm not sure if i was more horrified or relieved. relieved, for obvious reasons. horrified because a. i'd heard all the sleeping with contacts horror stories and b. because if it'd been in all night and we couldn't see it, where the hell had it been?

and so ends the story. i hope you tell it to all your children in the grand style of horror stories everywhere. don't forget the flashlights, blankets, and appropriate exclamations of pure horror. 

in more happy news, i spent most of yesterday at meggo's, helping her friend get ready for prom. my makeup skills were put to good use on her at least. who knew i could line someone's eyes without killing them?

victory!

update on project contact: i can now put them in and take them out in one try (and, when taking them out at least, without a mirror). why, yes, i am excited. 

i'm reading the screwtape letters by c. s. lewis now. what's ophelia the ipod playing? beau fixe by coralie clement qui j'adore. 

i have a french speaking quiz tomorrow. as a consequence i've been frantically practicing the lovely french r sound. my mother recently informed me that i sound like a dying cat while i do so, so i figured that was an indicator that more practice was necessary. 

in other news, the story idea i've been playing with is starting to come together plot-wise. thank my muse, viola. she's been working overtime - and quite randomly. one idea is for the first pure fantasy i've ever considered writing and the other is for a post-apocalyptic society with vaguely religious undertones. 

flickr picture of the day: comme des enfants.