i'm gonna lose my head here

today's title comes from resurrection by the temper trap.

i'm not even going to bother apologising for being a bad blogger lately because, honestly, this has just been an incredibly busy semester. banana, i don't even know how you've managed with your nine thousand languages and activities. so, instead, this is just going to be a random post about things i've been liking since my last post.

beginning with:

salad! i'm a lot little bit in love with them. actually, i'm eating one right now (one of the sinfully unhealthy ones from wendy's) but i've been craving them in all shapes and sizes. like i had a buffalo wing caesar salad at salad creations last week and it was wonderful, and i made a little one two nights ago with dried cranberries and raisins and feta cheese as a midnight snack. who knew i could like green things? the momster is certainly mystified. 

dante! this is the second semester that i've had to read the divine comedy in an english class, and this time around it's actually in two separate classes. my brit lit and italian poetry/modernism class (the full course name is "T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and the Italian Trecento" and was apparently going to be longer but academic services made my professor shorten it) are overlapping all over the place. we're reading a lot of the same works (okay, in reality, it's more like "we're reading a lot." full stop, the end, sorry but no sleep for Rachel until may) in each of them, but at different times, so occasionally walking into each class feels a bit like going through a time loop. nevertheless, dante and all the other medieval poets we're reading in my italian/modernism class are actually really interesting. although i am getting a bit sick of petrarchan sonnets. poor laura. also i think i have the first canto of inferno memorised.

doctor who. pretty much self-explanatory, actually. although i would like the record to show that i plan to do this to some door in my house one day, or maybe just my bedroom door this summer.

tying in with my last obsession, british television in general. downton abbey, merlin, skins, torchwood, north & south...they're all so wonderful. and, best of all, the shorter seasons makes the writers seem to step up the quality of the episodes a lot - there are way fewer filler episodes.

in keeping with my hall's obsession with merlin/pretty people in period clothing with accents, i introduce to you Arthur Bear. the hall-es and i built him at build a bear together and we're planning to mail him around to each other over the summer. he even has a little passport so you can all sign it! i'm pretty excited.

and this is Merlin Bear, which i got for myself since it lost in the hall-e vote over which bear to build (it was a tough decision to make! also, we got a lot of weird looks from the build a bear staff). michelle the hall-e made a bunny, but i don't have a picture of it.

the history channel, which on three separate viewings has told me that the biblical story of moses is evidence of an ancient alien encounter, of various rumors and theories that abraham lincoln was a vampire, and that humanity is suffering from "amnesia" which prevents us from being able to remember/understand that our ancient ancestors clearly had contact with aliens (because how else were they able to build the pyramids?). i'm beginning to worry about the channel.

cki! i got reelected for next year. we went to our district convention and won things, too, but most of you are adept facebook stalkers so you probably already know that. and i finished the club scrapbook. well, after i put every minion i could find to work, first.

and, of course, this:

if only i'd been alive in the eighties. also, how is it that everyone in that video is, like, a multimillionaire now? and a lot of them are pundits, even. oh, and the current liverpool coach is in it, too, see if you can spot him.

i'll just leave you with this:

saw your face last night on tv

today's title comes from this song:

the hall-es and i went to see paranormal activity 2 last night. it was hilariously un-scary. however, having left my license at home, i had to do a number of questionable things in order to procure a ticket. apparently some movie theaters actually care about verifying if you're over 17 or not. and of course this would happen to me after i turn 18. i'd post more details, but...well, those of you getting letters from me will see why i'm leaving the story off here. also, if you haven't already, facebook message me your home address. i have charlie brown christmas cards and they are begging to be sent out.

my halloweekend has been pretty awesome so far. like s-la, there were some boy-related (mis?)adventures and a couple of parties. lola the hall-e has been absolutely hilarious as a result of her own adventures. there's been lots of text message analyzing and gesture-dissecting going on in our hall. tonight we're taking it easy, though. hopefully we're going trick-or-treating in a few minutes, too!

...yes, that's right. i'm a college freshman and i'm going trick-or-treating. i've never missed a year and i'm not about to start now. besides, if we go early there'll still be time to party after. i'm thinking this will be my theme song today:

oh, and in case you didn't already know (you should)...

LIVERPOOL WON. the manager remains insufferable and christian motherfucking poulsen played. and, no, that's not swearing. that (should be) is his actual name. seeing as that's what anyone with, you know, eyes, screams at their tv and/or computer screens while watching his decrepit 300 year old self run aimlessly around the pitch.


here, bask in the joy with these hilarious pictures:

clearly the highlight of this game was seeing stu stu and freckles on the same screen

no reports yet on why a game of red rover broke out during the game

ehehehehe

eh. it's halloween. have another song. this one's dance-y!

the clock is ticking forward

warning: the gifs contained in today's post make no sense. at all. proceed ogling soccer players at your own risk. consider this my little birthday present to myself.

today's title comes from bang bang bang by mark ronson. look for a music post tomorrow - i'm too tired right now. 

as you already know, i turned eighteen. it was great. i spent the weekend in a nice, drugged-up haze of sleepiness - the momster says i slept for 63 hours, i disagree - due to the doctor not bothering to look at my drug allergies and prescribing me the wrong thing. oh well. at least i'm well rested. 

the momster and husband number three repeated last year's (and the year before that and the year before that and god, i'm old now) ordeal of showing up at midnight with a cake and candles and horrifically bad singing. this time they included a pint of ben and jerry's cookie dough ice cream. that nine pounds i lost last week? yeah, don't worry, it's all going to come back. after that, i got some more sleep, woke up, and headed back to campus carrying about thirteen thousand pounds of freshly laundered fall/winter clothes. perhaps that's an exaggeration. it was really more like twelve thousand nine hundred and ninety nine pounds of clothes. these distinctions are important, you know. 

i dumped the laundry, my comforter, computer, and new prezzies - highlights include an iPad (dubbed hermione), new uggs (don't judge me, they're comfortable and my old ones never quite recovered from last year's blizzard), and the world's most wonderful coat from anthropoligie. it's red and has silk lining in the sleeves and even came with a hood. it's my favorite. i'll include pictures when i'm less sick and gross.

 

i kind of got an unexpected prezzie, too. when i checked my campus mail today, i found one expected package (a purse, courtesy of vogue/husband number three's magazine subscription contribution to the Give Rachel Free Things Fund) and one that was definitely not. specifically, an extra-small, 2010/2011 germany away jersey customized for thomas muller - which i didn't order. seeing as i've talked soccer with all of you readers, the family, and, like, a handful of people on campus, i figured that the pool of suspected senders would be easily narrowed down. however, it's been twelve hours and i still don't know who it's from. it even came with matching shorts! and the return address is from some business in china, which husband number two said meant that it probably came from ebay. not many people even know that i wanted a muller jersey. i'm very confused. do enlighten me. 

i've been highly unhealthy today. i had tomato soup and a slice of pizza - and then came cake after cake after cookie after chocolate after cake. i had to go to the gym with joanna the hall-e for a couple hours to make up for it. but it was still so worth it. michelle the hall-e made me a cake! it was chocolate with purple icing and tastes delicious. the rest of the circle k board gave me chocolate, too. sometimes predictability comes in handy - a birthday really isn't complete without heaps and heaps of junk food. i'd post pictures, but i'm too tired right now, so check facebook or tomorrow's post. 

the best prezzie by far, though was liverpool's Very Exciting News. the takeover of the club - ridding it of the disgusting parasites that more or less ran it into the ground relegation in three years and placing ownership in the hands of the same people who own the boston red sox - was approved by britain's high court yesterday. now you don't have an excuse not to watch (and i can finally order the new jersey, since i've been waiting for a new kit since fernando torres's first season). 

lauren the hall-e is even getting into the spirit. she's doing a skit for her theatre class. the script is predetermined, and somehow or other she ended up playing a man. while helping her practice her lines after bio this afternoon, we decided that she was a spanish soccer player. so now she's borrowing my fernando torres jersey and joanna's basketball shorts and calling herself antonio ban-torres. well, actually, the first name keeps changing. we've so far reject raul, sergio, and alejandro. my favorite is antonio ban-torres, though, so that's just what i'm going to call her.

after we figured that out, the mr. russell competition in our dorm started up. it was basically a bunch of guys stripping to different music for about an hour to an all-girl judging panel and audience. we actually forgot about it, but two of the hall-es were judges and rounded up the entire female half of the dorm (and kicked out all the non-competing guys) so we didn't really have a choice. it was still a hilarious way to spend the night.

random thought: did anyone catch under wraps playing on the disney channel a few days ago? i recorded it but i haven't actually seen it in years. it got me thinking (and googling) about other disney channel movies. why aren't they as good anymore? like, i watched wish upon a star a few weeks ago and it was still awesome. well, it was a little weird realizing that the older sister was played by katherine heigl sporting some serious 90s hair, but other than that i would totally watch it again.

in conclusion, landon and timmy thank you for your time:

rise as the buildings crumble

today's title comes from when the world ends by the dave matthews band. specifically, the oakenfold remix, which has been on a playlist a friend sent me ages ago, and which i rediscovered on the car ride home. here, take a listen - it's kind of dark and...layered. like an onion. i don't know, it sort of fit my mood.

you might have noticed my complete absence from all things bloggy last week. that actually wasn't me being lazy - i finally gave in and went to the doctor last week (i've been trying to stay relatively healthy while i'm at school. i'm - pun intended - sick of my immune system imploding) and found out that i let my cold go so long that it turned into, like, a viral infection that settled in the cartilage in my chest. that's the gist of it, anyway. i was busy sitting on the table and trying not to go "ow. my chest hurts. ow. i can't walk. ew, this is gross, i'm so mucusy and why does mucus have to even sound gross as a word?" while they briefed the momster via the phone since, despite resolutely checking the box that said not to inform my parents, the doctor informed my parents - apparently you don't get a say when you're under 18, even when it's only four days (oh. my. god. i turn eighteen in four days. four days! i'm going to be an adult!) under. bastards. anyway, i now have an arsenal of antibiotics and mucus thinners (seriously, doesn't that word just look gross?) and heavy duty painkillers and things. it's wonderful.

you probably wouldn't have seen much of me on the internet, anyway, though, since most of my midterms were last week and i banned myself from the internet (except for liverpool news, but those don't count because i have both the app and device updates texted directly to my phone and anyway it was special freaking circumstances, okay?). the hall-es and i did the math while trying to figure out how to fit all of our stuff in one elevator yesterday, and it turns out that i've written 32 pages of midterm papers in the last week and a half. i hated life a little after hearing that. especially since one of my midterms was to write two essays, due thursday, for my chaucer class (more medieval dream theory and compare/contrasting of chaucer and langland and dante). i, staying at the library with the hall-es until it closed, finished them ahead of time. but when i get to class, i found out that the teacher extended the deadline until wednesday (my birthday!) because she got so many "sob stories". excuse me? i have a chest infection and i got my work done! ugh, i hate lazy people.

however, there was a silver lining to the week. the momster turned up on campus - again - wednesday to lecture me for not going to the doctor sooner and take me to a "real" (read: not school-employed) one for a second opinion. it was fun anyway, though, because she brought the lulus and two of the hall-es and i got to walk them around campus for a little less than an hour. cookie was his typical adorable self. lulu...well, at least she didn't bark at anyone. she mostly kept walking away from me and michelle to sit in the middle of the path and look cute and pettable, effectively stopping traffic on the campus walk. i guess i'm okay with that, though, since it turns out that dogs are just as good cute-boy-who-like-puppies bait as they are girl-bait. it was a new (and fun) discovery.

we had another nail party during glee, too. lauren the hall-e helped with my nails. they're black with a coat of each different kind of silver sparkle we could find (the sheer one, the dark greyish silver that kind of blends into the black, and the giant chunky ones are my favorites) so it looks like the night sky. lauren the hall-e is quickly becoming a problem. all her spanish music is getting to me (she had a test to study for last week). i've had enrique iglesias in spanish stuck in my head all week. i actually like it. um...can it be less pathetic if it's in spanish? actually, judge me if you will, i'm in love with these two songs:

now that the boring stuff is mostly out of the way, here's an overview of the good news:

LIVERPOOL GOT BOUGHT. it's wonderful. and apparently the new owners also own the boston red sox, which is supposed to be promising. i don't care. as long as it means we get decent transfer funds and a new coach, oh, rafa, i miss you and can actually start winning things, i'll be happy. also, that means i can finally by the new kit. i've been holding off since i didn't want to support the crappy old owners (who are still trying to sue so they don't lose the club) but...well, i really want it. really, really, really want it.

also, i'm home.

let me just say that again. I'M. HOME. it's wonderful. i stayed up until six this morning just running on my wonderful, personal treadmill and watching tv on all the flat screens at once (there's a pleasing echoing effect throughout the house) and emptying my dvr and chewing on ice chips and playing with my dogs and blowing my nose/coughing as loud as i want to and wearing my ugliest, kiddiest pajamas and not wearing any makeup at all and showering without shoes on and...i could go on for a while. i'm just that happy. best of all, the momster's been pampering me. there's nothing like being sick at home (well, besides being well, but we all know that never happens for me). one of the hall-es has gotten into the habit of brushing our hair for us after we shower - it's wonderful, you should all go talk someone into doing it for you, too - and it made me remember when i was little enough to let the momster brush my hair, and...well, i've been bugging her to detangle a lot. yes, i know i'm only four days away from being an adult. i don't care - i like being pampered, okay?

anyway, i'm going to wrap this post up now. we're going to a pumpkin patch and then i have to call husband number two back since i was still asleep when he called earlier. au revoir.

come around sundown

today's title comes from the cutie and the followills album of the same name. it leaked! i'm listening to it now - reviews will be forthcoming...eventually. i have four papers due this week (on top of the four papers i had due last week). i'm beginning to hate school.

you know what i don't hate? justin timberlake. he and britney spears are basically the last relics of my musically-challenged childhood which i can look on without feeling endless shame. actually, watching this makes me and the hall-es all sorts of giddy. you should watch it, too:

to get the tedious recapping out of the way, here's my week in pictures:

rainy days leads to umbrella fencing in the halls. 

why do i always get the mean fortune cookies? the last one told me to eat more carrots to avoid cancer. this can't be normal.

L decided to hang out in my step stool today. she also may have decided to get stuck in it. oh, hall-es.

i was up bright and early at 7:45 this morning to volunteer at the food bank with circle k, but i didn't bring my camera or my phone, so i couldn't take pictures. it was fun, though. we did a lot of sorting and boxing, mostly. people (and businesses) like to donate some weird stuff. we had pallets full of dietary supplements called flush the fat, a bunch of ankle and knee braces, and around fifty boxes of shampoo and conditioner. that was the worst. a lot of the bottles burst in the boxes, which was disgusting to feel when you were reaching in to sort and box them - we went through a ton of paper towels cleaning off the bottles, and my hands still feel kind of slimy. the club and the hall-es and i went out to brunch afterwards, where i introduced everyone to my favorite, most unhealthy brunch food of all time: southwestern tater tot bowls. it's basically what it sounds like: a bowl full of tater tots covered in cheese, bacon bits, tomatoes, green onions, salsa, and sour cream.

...needless to say, i have since been convinced to join in on a healthy eating month. after all, i do have to get into jasmine shape. so for the next 31 days, i'm not drinking coffee or soda (i will probably cheat on the coffee - however, the hall-es seem convinced that my caffeine intake isn't healthy, so i'll have to sneak some on the side) or snacking after nine in the afternoon evening. it's going to be horrible. hopefully it'll pay off. at least it gave me an excuse to stock up on tea and hot chocolate and marshmallows at giant today.

i'm going to have a busy day of homeworking and soccer watching tomorrow (note: real madrid is being shown on espn 2 at 3 p.m. and liverpool plays at 10). i should actually probably just save this post and go to sleep, since i only had a little nap today before watching mean girls in joanna's room (also, apparently i curl up when i sleep? i had no idea that wasn't normal. i don't know, i just like to sleep with the covers over my head and apparently all the hall-es were debating on whether i was actually under the blankets or if it was just a pillow. oh, and apparently i like to hit people who try to wake me up? who knew. ) but i just feel like blogging tonight. it's been a very, very long time.

it's funny, but i've been feeling like a sponge, lately. i don't know...i guess i'm just trying a lot of things i never thought i would be interested. like aikido. it's weird and kind of hard and i fall down a lot but it's still really fun. oh, and pilates...actually, that's just hard, but we're going again this week anyway. oh, and letter writing. there's something i never thought i'd pick up - but then i realized the joys of a full mailbox and changed my mind. i wonder if my sponginess is going to stick around. i kind of hope it does, but then...well, i quite liked being a hermit. me and my room or basement or kitchen on a winter afternoon with lulu on my feet as slippers and a book or new music...well, it was nice. better than nice, actually. i'm actually ridiculously excited to get back to that during my breaks.

i guess you could call this my poem of the day, but i've been obsessing over it for, like, the last week, so i don't know if that label really applies any more:

You who never arrived 
in my arms, Beloved, who were lost 
from the start, 
I don't even know what songs 
would please you. I have given up trying 
to recognize you in the surging wave of 
the next moment. All the immense 
images in me -- the far-off, deeply-felt 
landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, and 
unsuspected turns in the path, 
and those powerful lands that were once 
pulsing with the life of the gods-- 
all rise within me to mean 
you, who forever elude me. 

You, Beloved, who are all 
the gardens I have ever gazed at, 
longing. An open window 
in a country house-- , and you almost 
stepped out, pensive, to meet me.
Streets that I chanced upon,-- 
you had just walked down them and vanished. 
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors 
were still dizzy with your presence and, 
startled, gave back my too-sudden image.
Who knows? Perhaps the same 
bird echoed through both of us 
yesterday, separate, in the evening... 

- rainer maria rilke 

no post would be complete without music. in no particular order, here's what i've been listening to lately. being deprived of my usual rachel-time (and therefore, music-finding time), i need recommendations. what have you all been listening to lately?

okay, so i lied. clearly there is an order to this and clearly florence and the machine covering girls aloud deserves to be first. i've actually probably blogged this song before, just because my love of cover songs and florence has been well-documented here. you can listen to it again anyway.