put out the need for guidance

today's title comes from growing old is getting old by silversun pickups. i'm going through one of my phases with them - i just can't stop listening. anyway, here it is:

well, i have officially left cheeseball. our parting was highly distressing. he's just so fluffy! and he gave me such a sad look when i left. i was basically like this the whole time:

on a happier note, while i was there cheeseball and i managed to explore the greater part of Decent Annapolis (aka all the neighborhoods which i wasn't specifically warned off of by cheeseball's mafia/spy owners, their neighbors, my parents, google maps, &c. &c.). it was pretty fun. and by fun i mean that i could get coffee whenever i wanted. in case you hadn't realized it by now, this is basically the embodiment of all my hopes/dreams/life goals. i know, i know - i aim high.

oh, and while i was there i learned how to use a dishwasher! well, okay, i had to call the other parent to get step-by-step instructions on how to use the dishwasher, but i still washed dishes all by myself. i felt so accomplished. and for any of you reading this and going:

well...we can't all be as horribly sensible as you are. this is actually quite worrying to me and ruined all of my plans of being a penniless poet and/or playwright in a french garret.


i went to the outlets today, too. i picked up a few things, but nothing really interesting. you know what was notable? the poor dead raccoon in the middle of the road on the way back home. it was so sad looking. why do people keep running animals over? and why doesn't someone remove them from the road? seeing was so traumatic. like, i was all "lalalala. i really need to take the momster's horrible beegees CDs out of the car. falalalal---DEAD ANIMAL. DEAD ANIMAL IN FRONT OF ME. IS IT LULU?" which is just not a good train of thought to have in a car. i have enough driving neuroses, okay?

in other news, i've been on a bit of a poetry-reading kick lately. here's my favorite from today:

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams. 

-- yeats

and, oh, i give up. i was trying and trying to keep this post soccer-free but...

we need more germans, okay?

the sky looks pissed

today's title comes from the chain by ingrid michaelson. just go to s-la's blog to listen to it - every time i visit it that song comes on and gets stuck in my head for the rest of the day. damn you, s.

anyway, i am officially temporarily gainfully employed. you might recognize my new boss:

that's right - it's cheeseball! i'm watching him until wednesday in annapolis. after a whole day of cheeseball-sitting i've come to a few one conclusions: best. job. ever.

if i could turn this into a full-time career i totally would. i'm being paid to sit around someone's house, play with a fluffyfluffy puppy, and go shopping (there are malls! and stores! and three starbucks in walking distance!). in my book, this totally counts as a win.

stephen colbert agrees.

oh, and unlike Some People, i am neither taking a break from the soccer posting nor supporting the oranje. nuh uh. see, i've been telling Some People frank and s-la all along that i hate watching the netherlands play because it was ugly/boring/weird. and i just thought it was a personal thing. but after reading this and this i feel totally validated. even the dutch aren't supporting their own team! so there. nevertheless you are still dead to me until monday, oh unnamed banana-souled one.

in other rachel news, i got dragged along to a super fancy restaurant - like a four-course-dinner-three-varieties-of-water-served-in-its-own-stone-holder type of place - with the momster yesterday since we got here early...except i was dressed in cheeseballing/lazy clothes. our waiter's bitchface was particularly impressive. thankfully the food was good enough to make up for it. well, almost. i was wearing flip flops after all.

i'm still dead tired, so i guess that's all for now. i've got to get my nap in before the game, after all. which all of you better be watching, even the traitorous flying dutchbanana.

phone troubles

sorry kids, no midtown post today. i accidentally reset my phone's settings on itunes (that'll teach me to pay attention to what i'm clicking on) and now it's resyncing all of my contacts, texts, and music from the backup file (or itunes, but that's just the music) and it's taking forever. you might think that's an exaggeration, but it's not. i've just been sitting around watching maid in manhattan and sipping on my favorite drink in the world (pictures pending...they're stuck on the phone still) watching itunes tell me it's only halfway through syncing my music. if only the momster would let me leave the house without my phone. she won't even let me walk to cheeseball without my phone, let alone drive. what's going to happen in the whole ten minutes it takes to walk up the street and hang a left? nothing, that's what. i mean, i live in lansdowne, land of nothing ever happening. clearly i would be fine. silly parental paranoia.

after my phone finishes syncing we're going to pick up our christmas tree! i can't wait. it's also time to pull my little purple plastic tree out of the closet and set it up in my room again. oh christmas, i've missed you. also, i got my first anonymous commenter yesterday! let's all be excited.

i'm listening to i hate christmas parties by relient k. i've been going through their holiday albums today. you shouldn't though - it's midtown for you or our friendship is over. no, really.

does truth lie in the sincerity of another sullen song?

so i'm thinking blogging about my favorite drink discovery was a bad idea. mostly because whenever i have one now i keep wanting to blog. so, here, have a picture of my latest favorite drink in the universe (it's quite photogenic) and my favorite cheeseball too (isn't he cute?). also, in case you couldn't tell, i'm rereading the potters in time to watch the newest one on dvd. is it lame that i'm excited about that? i don't think so. but, eh, it's me - i spent half an hour in the car looking up youtube interviews with the cast about the deathly hallows movie. (according to daniel radcliffe they're hitting the "home stretch" of filming after christmas. which means new movie soon!) besides, it's not like my fixation with british children's fantasy literature in general is news to anyone. it's not even my fault, either. if they would just write silly fantasy

like twilight i wouldn't be so addicted, but, nope, those silly brits had to go and invent narnia and hogwarts and - and - roald dahl. how could any kid have been expected to step away from the bookcase after reading the witches? it's just not possible. and speaking of old roald, we went to see the fantastic mr. fox and it was pretty funny (if a little disconcerting to hear clooney in theaters so soon after goats). i still prefer the book, though. oh, and remember my last post? (you should, it was from, like, two hours ago) well, i'm serious about midtown, okay? they were my cutie and the followills before i knew who cutie and the followills were. you will like them. like, it's not even up for discussion. and to help you out with that, i'm going to feature an album review/primer every day for the next...three days. maybe longer, since they had a few EPs that weren't officially released.

let's start with my favorite: forget what you know. it was their last album. and their best (according to me and gabe saporta; clearly this is a consensus you should trust, okay?). here's the ap.net review, which is a lot more detailed and coherent than i could ever hope to be since my default state when listening to music i like tends to be roughly equivalent to a gibbering baboon. i'm just saying. also, here's gabe from cobra starship talking about midtown. let's all take a moment to soak in the hopes of a reunion tour (well, if blink-182 could do it, why can't they?). excited now? good. now when you listen to the album (and you're going to listen to the album or we're not friends anymore), here's the songs you should pay special attention to, aka rachel's list of favorites:

1. to our savior - no, s-la, they aren't taking the lord's name in vain and i will never forgive you for making that your only comment on brand new/jesus christ.
2. waiting for the news - the intro. also, for any cobra fans, gabe's voice on this kind of reminds me of his voice on the scene is dead; long live the scene.
3. god is dead - no, seriously, steffi, i know what you're thinking and you should stop it right now. it's a nice interlude, okay, and there's a reason it's been on my sleep sleep playlist since eighth grade.
4. help me sleep - doesn't actually help me sleep, but it's fun to sing along to in the car. the only way the momster got me to drive on the way back from gettysburg this summer was by letting me play this song on loop for half an hour (although was she really expecting me to drive to the accompaniment of the beegees? she should've known better)
5. whole new world - i don't why, but in my mind this is automatically filed under 'soundtrack'. even if it never made it to tv (that wikipedia knows of), it's still awesome. besides, everyone knows the only things being played on tv shows nowadays is lady gaga and the disney kids. (although that bonus jonas kid's blog is the most amazing thing i've ever read, even if i don't know if it's real or not. either way, go look at it)

so i hear today's a holiday of some sort

i just got back from walking cheeseball. (who is moving! why?) our doggie-walk soundtrack of the day was the titans spirit score from remember the titans. seriously, nothing's better for an early morning walk/run. it's all inspirational and sappy. and i just really love that movie.

it's thanksgiving! i'm actually not doing any work today (and trying to avoid the computer) so have fun (and get off the interwebs, kids, it's a holiday...unless you're canadian, in which case, get off the computer anyway, you're supposed to be in school) and have a happy turkey day.

cheeseball!

so i'm cheeseballing this week and part of next, which is great because cheeseball is awesome. but his (possible spy/mobster) owners are moving in january! all we have left is december! i'm so sad! and unable to stop using exclamation points to show my deep inner pain!

...on the plus side, apparently the people moving in like to vacation a lot and have two little shih tzus.

but CHEEESEBALL!

stephanie and silliness

so, before we get to the awesomeness that is STEPHANIE (deserving of capital letters, even), i'm just going to get all the silly blogging out of the way.

silly thing the first: this is both creepy and endlessly entertaining

silly thing the second: cheeseball...clearly not going to be the coverdog of any magazines. poor puppy's not that fond of cameras. i tried my best to get pictures anyway

also, cookie and lulu did not approve of my cheeseballing. they hung out the window looking annoyed. see?

now, onto stephanie. she's awesome. i might have mentioned this already? but it bears repeating. the only way she could increase in awesomeness is if she magically started blogging. i'm just saying. she was even featured in like one of my very first blogs! (well, her arm was)

also, she just turned sixteen (and is still in the same level of math and science as i am...darn those smart kids) and is an amazing writer (go look at her features in the school newspaper! if i can dig up a copy i'll scan one of them in so you can all marvel at her writeyness. oh, and she's insanely smart and pretty much saved my slacker-self from failing chemistry by having mini-cram sessions before every test so i wouldn't forget the formulas. and she's ridiculously, unbelievably nice. like, unicorn nice. we're talking sunshine and puppies and rainbows here.

so, here's the stephanie playlist:

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

blah.

doing homework. whoever invented calculus should go die. actually, they're probably already dead, so yay, but i still have homework, so boo.

speaking of things that = boo, this is my last day cheeseballing this week. was up at five to walk him and finish homework. oh well, at least that means more time to run in the morning.

i'm reading middlemarch right now. it's amazing. the characters are all so lively, and i just love celia. dorothea is more than a little annoying so far, but even she has her endearing moments. it's so strange to think that it was a serial story first - why don't newspapers print stories like this instead of yet another round of "miley-paris-angelina wore-this/sang-that/dated-so-and-so".

here's my song of the moment. i've been playing it non-stop all week. and yes, it's a cover, but not one you're likely to recognize (your parents might - mine did, but then, my stepdad was a big kate bush fan back in the day)

today i...

was boring. went to school. stayed during early release to help multicultural club set up for mix it up day. went to buzzer club. went to cheeseball. went home. basically, the highlight of my day was helping cheeseball's neighbors spray paint a water gun black so it'd look like one of the plasma blasters from halo. and starbucks. starbucks is always a highlight.

here, have some cheeseball:

my playlist today:

harbor and cannonball (damien rice cover) by vienna teng

battle studies (the album, i've listened to it once through, i think i'll give it a few more loops before i offer any judgement on it) by john mayer

that joke isn't funny anymore - the smiths

and this makes me ridiculously happy. mostly because when i opened up youtube to find a link to the video i was originally going to post (helena by my chemical romance) i found myself face-to-screen with a whole featured section on cutie followill and co. so here, have a kings of leon cover (since i know you'll have followed that link and watched every video they have).

use somebody (with bonus paramore):

adventures in cheeseballing

i finished my related rates project! a full week early, which means i get five (badly needed) extra credit points.

oh, and i'm dogwalking again this week. yet another crazy schedule. so i headed over today after yearbook (i stayed after school for that today. there's so much to do! i just wish i could have stayed longer) and ended up locked out. of every door. like, the key literally wouldn't turn in the lock (and it was the right key, too, i triple-checked). and it's happened before, but in the past i could always just go through the back door.

the thing is, to get through the back door, you have to go through the gate that lets you in the backyard. the gate which had rusted shut. luckily, cheeseball's owner's neighbors are very nice (and had things to drop off and pick up from their garage) and brought a ladder so we could climb over the fence into the backyard and use the back door.

which makes this house number two that i've broken into since halloween.

don't worry, i remembered to pry open the backyard gate so i can get in again. maybe tomorrow morning i'll take a picture? i'm just glad i didn't have to cheeseball this morning, since i was already at school at 7:30 to check my calculus project (which is done! early!) with my partner. 7:30 in the morning. i know, i'm shocked too.

oh, and tomorrow is buzzer club (otherwise known as academic bowl). i think certain people named s-la should come along.

here's a soundtrack to my day today (now with commentary):

round here - counting crows (it played during my attempts to break into casa de cheeseball, mostly because i forgot to take out my earbuds) i'd post the music video but universal's full of nazis that disabled embedding on their youtube account.

white horse (taylor swift cover) - jordan mccoy (her voice is interesting. i wish she'd done the full cover)

over my head (cable car) - a day to remember (this is another cover, this time of the fray. but we already know i love covers. thank god for punk goes pop, right?)

the ballad of serenity - sonny rhodes (i was feeling some joss whedon nostalgia. when i have the time, i will finally watch dollhouse.)

school - supertramp (do i have to explain why i was listening to this?)

anthems for a seventeen-year-old girl - broken social scene (ditto.)

battle of who could care less - ben folds five (no, really, i should have to explain this least of all)

seventeen - kings of leon (it's kings of leon.)

still have homework to do. and the daily show/colbert report hour of happiness to listen to while i do said homework. i feel like having them on in the background subliminally influences me to be more snarky when i'm doing homework, and if there's anything those sadists masquerading as my teachers deserve, it's snark.