load the car and write a note

today's title comes from i and love and you by the avett brothers:

other music i've been listening to:

i succeeded in one of my (mini) life goals today! i have more skins converts - specifically, the roomies, one of the neighbors, and stella the hall-e. while we were waiting outside joanna the hall-e's room for her to get ready so we could go to brunch, we noticed that her neighbors (and, like, half our hall) was watching skins...and that got the other hall-es wanting to watch it. so i let the roomie borrow my computer to watch while i was in the shower and came back to find a full on watching party in my room. i had to join in, of course. we made our way through two episodes before calling it a night. i'm so happy right now, i feel like effy in this gif:

i haven't had an occasion to post skins gifs in so long, you can just have another one:

and a harry potter one, too! it's coming out in just one day! i'm so excited! i can't stop using exclamation points!

i'm cuddled up to my electric blanket again. this thing is wonderful. it almost makes up for the weather today. my dorm is at the bottom of a hill - which means i have to climb up three billion forty five (more or less) steps to go anywhere on campus and a giant puddle always forms right outside the door whenever it rains. the rain boots were an invaluable asset, even if they do sort of clash with my umbrella (it's black and covered with white polka dots). there's no point to being stylish (or coordinated) in the rain, right? right.

my group and i presented our organ trafficking presentation today. we actually found a lot of really interesting information when we were researching for it. there were one or two funny things, too. like this. who could resist a trustworthy site like kidneykidney.com? don't you just love the 20% off deal in the top right corner, too? this was pretty crazy, too. who knew charlie the unicorn was real?

i'm pretty tired now, so i'm going to sleep now. s-la don't forget the games later today! i'm so excited that they're on espn3. i can't wait to watch in high definition.

Bonjour, bonne nuit, au revoir, salut

today's title comes from this song by stereo total. yes, it's french and about death. listen anyway - all of their music is ridiculously catchy and fun to sing along to and the only reason i didn't epically fail every french speaking exam i've ever taken.

today i went downtown with michelle and some of the other hall-es. we stopped by a dance store to pick up leg warmers and a tutu for my kitty costume. no, this was not planned. but halloween is supposed to be cold and they just looked so cute. besides, as it stood, my costume was one very tiny leotard, a tail, and cat ears and i don't really feel like subscribing to the regina george school of halloween costumes this year. while i was there, we chatted with the girl who works at the store and somehow or the other i found myself signing up for dance classes, starting next semester. i'm learning how to salsa! also, i'm taking ballet again for the first time in five years - wish me luck. i'm not even sure why. but...i'm in college. if i don't try new things (or retry old things) now, when will i, right?

on the way back, the school's alert system sent about a thousand text messages (read as: three) warning about a possible warning and telling us to take cover. the word immediately was spelled wrong. it took away a lot of the message's credibility. naturally thinking the whole thing was a joke, we took our sweet time strolling back to campus. michelle and i stopped to get frozen mochas. stella found a dollar on the sidewalk.

so, of course we return to our dorm to hear sirens and the pa system telling everyone to get inside the building in case of high winds.

we finally start panicking and run into the basement (which was horribly hot since it's where all the washers and dryers are) and stay there for a good ten minutes before we find out that the whole thing was a precaution and nothing was happening after all. because this is my life and nothing ever goes right.

in happier news, i've finally listened to taytay's new album...fifteen times. okay, that's not as excessive as it sounds. i usually listen to new albums that often just to get a feel for them. some songs need time to grow. other songs, like this one, will never, ever be okay:

yes, for some unknown reason this song was playing during bingo today. i feel unclean just from listening to it. why does this even exist?

anyway, as for tay tay:

it's a little easier to talk about what i didn't like: the story of us and innocent. the story of us just seemed silly and throw back-ish. basically, a little too much like her last album. actually, both of them did, except innocent doesn't even have the saving grace of being catchy and poppy and fun. it's just...bland. everything else is pretty awesome, though. romeo, juliet, and the scarlet letter are all spared a second appearance - thank god. better than revenge, long live, sparks fly, and never grow up are my favorites right now. never grow up is probably the only one that's going to end up being played consistently over the next few months, though. much as i thought speak now was an improvement over last year's crop of taylor-swift-earworms-on-the-radio, i've got way too much (better) new music to listen to. like the glee rocky horror soundtrack, have you watched it yet?

and since i finally worked out exactly what classes i want to take next semester (and french is definitely on the list...as is spanish, strangely enough, so expect lots of pleas for help if you speak it), i thought i'd close this off with something french - a poem, actually, and one of the few french ones i know.

Et peut-être que tout était écrit dans le livre
mais le livre s’est perdu

ou quelqu’un l’a jeté dans les ronces
sans le lire

n’importe ce qui fut écrit
demeure, même

obscur, un autre qui n’a pas vécu
tout cela

et sans connaître la langue du livre, comprendra
chaque mot

et quand il aura lu, quelque chose
de nous se lèvera

un souffle, une sorte de sourire entre les pierres. 

claude esteban 

look at me updating

let's just get the school stuff out of the way now, okay?

remember how i said stats was stats a few posts back? well, that's still true. it's bearable. i've got stats friends now, and even a walking buddy who's in the chaucer class i have right before, so all is good in the world of math. well, sort of. it's a strange, strange class. for one thing, the professor seems to be terrified of all of us. he's little and he stutters sometimes and he won't make eye contact with anyone. i kind of want to adopt him or take him to an animal shelter or something. but then he gives us a quiz - the bad: we have one every class. the good: they're partner quizzes and you can use your calculator. - and i get over the whole wanting-him-to-be-a-self-actualized-person urge. alas for my fleeting bout of goodwill.

and whan in septembre with his shoores not-so-soote...okay, so that was only 2/3 chaucer and 1/3 rachelism. whatever. you get the general idea. the general idea being that reading chaucer in the original ye olde english is très, très difficile (oh, and sarah and i have been helping stella with french - it's surprisingly fun). luckily, our pronunciation isn't graded, or anything, and we get to use modernizations with our reading. unluckily, we all still had to sound borderline mentally challenged while sounding out all the words as a class yesterday. the teacher is still cray cray, though. so is some of the class, actually. we've figured out that if you mention a random, obscure historical or literary fact in class, sturtz 2.0 will immediately pick up on it and start tangeting. and, yes, tangeting can be a verb if i want it to be. so the chaucer friends and i have decided that if we get stuck in class/forgot to do the reading we're just going to start blurting out random things and hope she goes along with it. i can't wait to try mentioning rasputin next class. i'm hoping for an angry anastasia-related rant, since when one girl mentioned king arthur, sturtz 2.0 went off on all of the bad movie adaptations of the story for a good hour. it was like nap time.

global issues in literature remains depressing. the book we're reading for that class is horrifying. this is it.  it's so bad that none of the lit friends, or the roomie (who is also in the class) can read it before going to bed. oh, and then we get to class and have to watch this movie:

cheerful, non? as you can imagine, dinner once again required to-go boxes.

after all that came the fun stuff, though. i restarted watching sherlock holmes with the hall-es since we'd put off finishing it for so long that the people who hadn't seen it before couldn't remember anything that had already happened in it. oh, and we did touch ups on the nails for everyone not me, before commencing a three person operation to get joanna to let someone paint her nails. can you believe that a manicure-hating person exists? yeah, i couldn't either. eventually we just sort of held her hands down and got to work - sarah buffed and filed, i painted, and michelle did designs. it turned out pretty well, so if this whole college thing doesn't work out we figure we can open a nail salon. there was a luau off campus after that. details about that aren't really bloggable, but the alchy didn't come back until morning and the creeper story has a sequel. i'll fill you in during breaks. oh, and since i went through all the awkward trouble of introducing all of you via oovoo, i'm expecting news roundups in the form of blogs. i'm still not refriending you on facebook, though.

anyway, i just woke up, so nothing interesting has happened yet. au revoir, mes amis.

i'm a slave to technology

so i forgot to turn my phone off last night (and pause the song that was playing, so mgmt's electric feel is now my number two top played song) and had no battery this morning. i spent the whole day at school simmering in a mild state of panic at my lack of phonage. and, yes, i am fully aware of how pitiful that is. let's just blame steve jobs, okay? clearly iphone come equipped with a secret chip which recalibrates your chi until it's automatically thrown off balance when there isn't a working phone within ten feet of you. or something.

so it's friday. the lady who does our laundry is here, so i'm going to nap and wake up to freshly wandered pjs. it's exciting. i should probably finish my favorite drink in the world first. (i'd have taken a picture but i just started drinking right away and now it's half full and kind of disgusting looking).

i'm listening to antonia (acoustic) by motion city soundtrack right now. last night on the way back from the play (which was awesome, if a bit trippy and confusing) i was talking to s-la and reached this wonderful conclusion: everyone should have one friend who has, like, amazing taste in music and listens to everything, regardless of genre, and keeps an eye on the indies and will pass on the good songs/artists/bands to you, and has so many songs that when you tell people they have six bajillion songs the truth is, it's closer to seven bajillion. everyone should have that friend, but none of us do. i wish i had a friend like that! think of how much good music i'd be able to listen to if i had someone to find stuff and pass it on and bump up my music library! me and s-la would be in musical nirvana (hee, puns). it'd be great. so if by some chance you're reading this and you fit this description, leave a comment - i welcome strangers with good music! (well, only strangers who aren't strange. creepers, begone!)

oh, and speaking of the play, it really made me want to reread as you like it, which is what it was based off of. meggo and i read it together when i first moved to lansdowne, way back in freshman year. touchstone was our favorite, but celia was pretty cool, too. who's your favorite? what's your favorite shakespeare play? enquiring minds want to know.

also, this is why french is the coolest language. and the cutest!

sat today

it was boring and long like standardized tests always are. working on homework now. maybe a movie tonight? i'm not sure which one, though.

here, to make up for cheating you all out of the ahmazing mashups last night (it was late! i was lazy! and had to study!), here's a cause des garcons:

and here's the chinese dynasty song, which got me through both the world history ap exam and sat subject test:

hmm, so i'm going to go finish my related rates project now.

avec ou sans moi (i put my itunes on shuffle and got a title)

so i'm sitting on meggo's floor. she's right next to me. i'm trying to inspire her to blog (and have her blogging inspire me to continue blogging...it's a complicated circle). she says, "my butt hurts." i agree, meg, i agree. your floor is hard.

our computers don't like each other. i have a macbook and she has a pc. we're having a music day ("do you think if my butt were bigger it'd have better padding?" also known as an interlude from meg). actually, it's more of a music night because we've only been doing this for a little while (since we got back from dinner, actually), so music night would be more appropriate, but it doesn't have the right feel to it, you know?

oh, so we went to dinner at cheng's and now have enough leftovers to feed a small country. looking for free food? go out to dinner with a homecoming group and don't go to the dance. being the only people actually going home, all the leftovers are automatically yours. win!

speaking of win, meg is blogging! i call this a victory (i've been winning a lot lately. see: my fight against capital letters. they tricked me into using them in the last two posts -- the hazards of posting from my phone with its dastardly autocorrect -- but i've got the best of them now)

listening to: taper jean girl - kings of leon. oh, haircut followill, why'd you start enunciating? i miss the good old days of slurry songs and crazy guitar riffs. patrick stump managed to keep his songs impossible to understand.

hmm, so i took a lot of pictures today (woo hoo for the birthday camera) and we're going to take more once pantsless is done being pantsless on the dance floor (and has delivered our dessert...HIGHce cream ftw), so i'm gonna cut this post short (like kanye west on tay tay. what? what? too soon? yeah, i thought so too).

alternate title for this post: it's late and i'm feeling parenthetical

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? 

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.