a matter of time

today's title comes from walk in the park by beach house.

it's that time of year again. nanoblogmo time! is anyone else doing it this year? you better be.

anyway, to kick this year's nanoblogmo off, i have exciting news. well, exciting news for some of us, anyway. s-la, jenibean, meggo - take note. we have the world's best gingerbread house theme for this year. joanna the hall-e helped me come up with it. it was kind of an accident, but then i thought - hey, this could work. check your mail for the blueprint soon, meggo.

random, but this has been floating around facebook and i thought it was cool. however, there is the better football soccer news, too:

like this. that's right - schweini is considering a move to the premier league next season. and, you know, liverpool has new owners and new money to spend...please, oh please, let this happen. and speaking of liverpool, this happened. i miss rafa. and i really hope that idiot manager leaves soon.

anyway, today's post is going to be short. i've been doing too much writing lately. first there was the five page paper i did in two hours (but spent, like, a week outlining), and then all of the letters to reply to. isn't the wall of mail terrifying wonderful? it's actually grown since then because the other circle k officers sent me "welcome to the club" cards, but i haven't put them up yet.

despite the fact that i'm running out of room, keep up the good work, guys, since i'm getting, like, next to nothing from the parental units. well, husband number two sends care packages and husband number three signed me up for all those magazine subscriptions, but the momster...hmmph. i texted her yet another picture of my sad and empty mailbox today as a gentle hint and she called me back and sounded really depressed and promised me packages, maybe even a package full of candy. and i totally believed her. until she burst into laughter and said, it'd probably be more like an envelope. with a single m&m in it. what the hell, mother? i was so excited. but according to her, i'm supposed to settle for seeing her in person. apparently she finds my love of snail mail extremely "silly". i had to pull out my hmmphiest hmmph-face yet, and it had no effect. i'm still annoyed. 

and now i'm going to the gym with joanna the hall-e. wish me luck/calorie burning! 

it was hot and it was summer

today's title comes from better than revenge by taylor swift. underwhelmed as i was by her last album, i'm pretty in love with this one. it's pretty amazing - and she's actually doing all her own writing. i'd post it, but it isn't on youtube yet, so listen to this instead:

i forgot to mention this album in yesterday's music post, which is strange since it's all i've been listening to at night:

it's wonderful. like rock n' roll and radio and new york city's killing me are my favorites right now, but the whole thing is great. it's a little softer than gossip in the grain, but still good.

we read this in class today, and i really liked it. also, it's been a while since i posted any poetry:

Coming by evening through the wintry city

We said that art is out of love with life.

Here we approach a love that is not pity.

This antique discipline, tenderly severe,

Renews belief in love yet masters feeling,

Asking of us a grace in what we bear.

Form is the ultimate gift that love can offer -

The vital union of necessity

With all that we desire, all that we suffer.

A too-compassionate art is half an art.

Only such proud restraining purity

Restores the else-betrayed, too-human heart.

- Adrienne Rich 

i was too depressed to blog about it at the time, but on sunday i got one of the hall-es to give my bangs an emergency trim (since they were approaching IT LOOKS LIKE YOU DON'T HAVE EYES levels of growth) and michelle (the usual trimmer) was at home. sadly, the trim turned into a massacre. my poor hair has been maimed. it's a good two inches shorter than it's supposed to be. i've been assured that it'll grow back in two weeks or so, but until then...well, i wore a hat in 78 degree weather today. and i asked the momster to drop of all my scarves and her trench coat, so i've been swanning around wearing headscarves and sunglasses and her trench coat and doing my best imitation of a fifties film star, as outlined in the plan i proposed to s-la, meggo, and jeni on oovoo sunday night.

we're doing laundry now. or, we're waiting for our laundry to finish drying so we can get to the horrible task of folding it. one of the dryers broke, like, ten minutes into us using it - which is ridiculous since they're brand new bought-in-august-you-must-buy-the-super-expensive-high-efficiency-detergent-or-else machines. but while we were loading up the other dryers with our clothes we heard a bang and then a series of thumping noises coming from it. upon investigation, one of the curvy plastic things inside it broke off and was rattling around with our clothes, so we moved them into another dryer. i pulled the liverpool jersey out, though. i decided it was an omen against drying it. fernando torres in jersey form is now drying on a hanger in front of joanna's fan.

never mind, our clothes are apparently done. au revoir.

just another weird day

today was interesting. it started off with youtubing and brunch in the morning with my roomies and some hall-es. then the momster, who had a real estate errand to run in richmond, showed up so i could go with her since i didn't have class in the afternoon. the drive down was fun. it's strange - she did something cray cray again and then made me even angrier by trying to buy my approval, but i still miss her. go figure. we had a mother-daughter spa day in richmond - manicures, pedicures, and my first ever grown up facial. my face feels funny. oh, and i have no calluses, so running with sarah and lauren tomorrow is going to be oh-so-very fun. we stopped by panera to say hi/have lunch with jenibean and meggo since i wanted to see what their campus looked like/be able to visit them on my own. i'm thinking that probably won't ever happen again. we got lost three times even with gps, and the third time was in a really sketchy area. other than that, it was nice seeing them again, even if it took me like five minutes to recognize jenibean when she was standing right in front of me.

after that we had to speed back to campus since i had my anthropology club meeting (the topic was memes!), photography club meeting, anime club meeting (that's right - i joined it. one of the hall-es forced us all to sign up so she wouldn't be alone, but the anime we watched was actually interesting and about kidnappings and the mafia, so i don't think i mind it much), and dinner plans with the hall-es/random other friends to get to. oh, and then we went to the outdoor movie night in ball circle to watch the sandlot, but i cut out early because the cray crays wanted me to get on oovoo. bad idea, i must say. this is like the third time i've blown off plans with my new friends to say hi to the old ones, and it's starting to get annoying. like, i'm making an effort and all, but i guess it's not really a big deal if we don't talk every day/week/month etc. i mean, there's still breaks. besides, i'm having a horrible week parentally - money aside - and putting up with half an hour of "you're frozen" when i could be making/hanging out with new friends is...yeah, unappealing. actually, it kind of sucked. so i was emo for about five minutes and then me and the hall-es grabbed ice cream/stuck our heads in the freezer because it's just that hot out and started youtubing. somehow we ended up watching gabriel iglesias videos (tangent: michelle was convinced he was called julio iglesias and kept trying to youtube him instead) until...now, actually. we're about halfway through the playlist. i'd post one, but embedding from the phone is hard. if you haven't (and you probably have - everyone has) go watch his stuff.

p.s. i'm trying to blog more often. maybe i'll pick nanoblogmo up again this year.

we all knew this was coming

it's two thirty in the morning and i'm still awake. i am one hundred percent packed now. even the car is packed up. that's how packed for college i am. also, i really hate using my number keypad, so don't expect anything with...digits. is that the word? i don't actually know. it's late, i'm tired, and...

i don't remember my first day of high school. or middle school, for that matter. for some reason i do remember every first day of every grade between kindergarten and sixth grade. i guess my brain is just weird like that.

well, today is about to be my first day of college. i wonder if i'll remember this one. i guess that's why i'm blogging. i really shouldn't be, i'm so tired that i can't even understand what i'm typing right now. i guess it's a free write, then. stream-of-consciousness? if only i was james joyce.

i'm actually excited to go to college - and even if i wasn't, the momster's crying fits in the container store/bed, bath & beyond/harris teeter/every public place in the world would be enough to make me excited just at the prospect of leaving her. but...

my room is empty. like, meggo's and jenibean's fans are off the walls and my bulletin board is taken down and my sheets are in the dryer still because the momster said i wouldn't want to come home to a dirty room. it's so creepy.

so now i'm sleeping on the couch. it's kind of fitting in a way. i mean, my first night in this house (my first night in a lot of houses, actually) was spent sleeping on the couch because those slacker parents of mine were too lazy to set up my bedframe. they blamed it on my picking out a bed made of wrought iron and wood. i still think they were just lazy.

i dyed my hair black yesterday. it's going to be a pain to keep up during college, but at least it isn't The Oops.

just looking at the link is enough to make me nostalgic. alas, alack. woe is me, etc. etc.

in other news, real madrid signed another midfielder and drew against a third-rate belgian team in a pointless friendly yesterday. if they keep this crap up expect lots and lots of pissed off soccer ranting from me this year.

oh, and get on oovoo. it's addictive.

let's see how far we've come

today's title comes from how far we've come by matchbox twenty. i've got this playlist full of really cheesy songs that i listen to during moves/transferring schools/important life changes &c. and this one is all over it.

in case that wasn't enough to tip you off, i'm in full on nostalgia mode right now. i'm not entirely sure why it kicked in now and not, like, a week/month/year ago, but...well, it probably has something to do with this:

that? that is the result of six hours of shopping yesterday. my feet still haven't recovered. and i strained my ankle doing yoga last night and have to wear tape on it like a loser, so that might have something to do with it.


i've got to pick up a bunch of odds and ends tomorrow morning before the movie marathon s-la mentioned finally starts, but other than that i'm...done. other than laundry and physically throwing things into boxes (i'm not a big believer in that thing called "neatness", especially not when it comes to packing), i'm actually ready to move into my dorm...and away from home. i feel like i should be more excited/worried/spastic about this. i'm mostly just calm, though. maybe this is the real reason seniors get to leave school early - summer has stretched on for so long that i'm just ready to actually do something. or at least get away from the momster who keeps trying to bribe me to stay home with cupcakes and coffee and crying binges in the middle of the container store, oh lord.

it's so weird to think about this, but - excepting meggo, of course - i didn't know any of you four years ago, and now you're all so important. i wonder who we're all going to meet in the next four years. i wonder if we'll still talk then, or if we'll all have gone the way of the girl jenibean affectionately refers to as she-devil. like s-la, i don't think we will. for one thing, we really are the only people weird enough to put up with each other, and for another, i'm kind of bossy. all of you better expect lots of annoying blog posts/texts/facebook messages from me for the rest of your lives. also, we've discovered technology! see?

look at us, using technology. successfully, even. i'm still a little amazed. honestly, web cams just make me feel old. it seems like not that long ago video chatting was that thing they showed in movies to let you know you were in The Future. what happened to us?

also, i feel like our omegle adventures really have scarred me for life. like, i might have post traumatic stress disorders. when we added bean to the conversation her friend was the only person in view and i had, like, a vietnam flashback, all "OMG PENISES. PENISES ARE GOING TO RISE OUT OF THE DEPTHS AND FLASH US RUN FOR YOUR LIVES BITCHES."

and, yes, that is exactly how the vietnam war was fought. don't let anyone tell you anything different, okay?

maybe later i'll take a picture of the dogs for you all. the momster had them shaved again. they look terrifying.

with no shadows on your doubts

today's title comes from devil in the details by the ambience affair. it's amazing. i got it off of this month's indie/rock playlist and am completely in love with it. so, naturally i went a-looking for the rest of their songs and found them to be equally amazing. also, their lead singer personally answered a lyrical question on yahoo answers, which i find pretty endearing. anyway, i'll just post the song so you can become obsessed with them, too.

and, yes, part of the reason i'm posting the music video is because i think it's incredibly cool that they didn't use a video camera to make it. whatever - i'm easily amused, okay?

since s-la has already blogged about it, i'm not going to bother recapping our fun-filled, backyard hair-dyeing adventures with jenibean and meggo. instead, i'll talk about glee.

i know what you're thinking: "not this again." but hear me out - tonight was the lady gaga episode. gaga. and it made fun of twilight. repeatedly. all while promoting a message of tolerance, family togetherness, and the importance of hot outfits. what's not to love? i can't wait until next week's episode. the previews made it look insane.

speaking of things that are insane, the momster has been gone for the last few days. she's in las vegas at a business conference, leaving me all alone for days. five of them, to be specific, since she comes back late tomorrow night and left on sunday. i'm still bitter that i didn't get to go with her, but leaving school for a week when we only have, like, two weeks of classes left seemed like a bad idea.

now, we all know that i'm not the most...practical of people. i'm not all that great with the whole self-sufficiency thing. never fear, though - i made myself checklists of things i need to do so i don't die or get kidnapped or starve or something. also, the momster and several of our nosy neighbors have been calling constantly. as you can imagine, that got annoying pretty quickly, so i've stopped answering the phone. they'll get over it.

i've been loving having the house to myself. it's been nice having everything so quiet. i think it's a sign of how nerdy/lame i am that the craziest thing i've done in my four days of alone-time is reenact the risky business pants off dance off around my house. for those of you who don't know what i'm talking about, here's the clip:

okay, so i lied. i couldn't help it. risky business had tom cruise in it, and there's no way i'm putting him and his crazy scientologist face up on my blog. it's not even a real word, let alone a religion; safari keeps putting a little red line under scientologist. besides, i love scrubs.

oh, and in musical news, christina aguilera's album leaked. i might be jumping the gun a little here, but based on my first few listens, it's pretty awful. at its best, it's a lady gaga rip off. at its worst it turns into a watered down version of britney spears' worst songs. no wonder she cancelled her tour. how did she spend four years working on this? back to basics was so good. even her greatest hits album had amazing remixes on it. it's like she regressed...into jessica simpson.

and in linky news, if espn covered sports like this i might actually watch it. or at least know what channel number espn is.

other than that, my week has been pretty boring. mostly all i've been doing is playing card games and apples to apples in class, wandering around the school getting up to shenanigans that i'll tell you about after graduation (if i remember, which is doubtful), and actually learning new things in physics. like i said: boring.

and now i'm going to do more boring things: feeding, watering, and walking my dogs. they're like plants but cuter.

one night to be confused

today's title comes from heartbeats by the knife, as covered by jose gonzalez. it's pretty.

i've had a fairly busy two days. yesterday, as i might have mentioned (i don't know if i did or not, and i'm too lazy to go back and check), i did yoga for the first time since AP exams began. it was great at the time, but i've been feeling the effects all day. here's a helpful warning for all of you: lunges, squats, running, and leg- and thigh-targeting yoga tapes do not make for a very comfortable monday morning. i was so sore today and most of the soreness was centered in my legs so i spent the whole day convinced that i was walking strangely. paranoia: it's the new black.

this whole day was pretty weird, actually.

you totally thought this would be a gif. to which i say: suck it, predictability.

yeah, that picture basically sums up all my feelings regarding school, life, and the world in general.

my day kicked off at the wonderful hour of 2 a.m. because i had a killer migraine. still retaining hopes of getting a decent amount of sleep, i went downstairs and hit up the advil bottle, figuring that would get rid of all my headache-related troubles. and then i went back to bed and waited for my migraine to go away...for two hours. at 4:30 i finally gave up and went downstairs and took three of the closest aspirin-looking bottle i could find (i wasn't wearing my glasses), figuring that the pills looked like tylenol. and they were - tylenol p.m. needless to say i finally got back to sleep...and woke up at 8 a.m. to find the momster banging on my door. i took one of the fastest showers of my life, threw on an outfit comprised entirely of clothes i haven't worn since eighth grade or freshman year, and went to school.

i probably would have fallen right back asleep in the car if it weren't for an emergency trip to starbucks. i lucked out there. they were training a new employee and it was still raining so there was no line, and the new employee messed up my drink order the first time she tried to make it so i got a free venti sized drink instead. i also had two backup tumblers of coffee to tide me over until lunch. luckily school wasn't so bad. my a day teachers, at least, have had the decency to give up on the possibility of any of us learning anything within the lovely cinderblock walls of a high school ever again. so we're doing a completely useless project in econ (jennifer and i are already almost done), sitting around and chatting in yearbook, and watching movies and drawing pictures about our Feelings in gov (you don't know how much i wished i was british during that class so i could sit up and announce, "i'm english - we don't have feelings" and maybe thrown in a "pip pip" or a "cheerio" or something similar. i don't know, in my mind people in england are still stuck in the empire builder stage).

robert downey jr. has no purpose in this post. robert downey jr. needs no purpose.

and then came early release, where i chatted with mona while i waited for the momster to come collect me (no, i will not be driving regularly enough to take myself to school, thank you very much. i'm not that crazy). we had a good talk, involving makeup, music, and blogging. apparently she's a lurker. also, she might be joining our Nameless Band of Munchkins Except For Jenibean Who Throws the Entire Thing Off By Being a Tall Asian So I Guess We're Musketeers for our sleepover this friday. since we don't want a repeat of how s-la was introduced to the other Musketeers (it was awkward), i suggest she start commenting so that the Musketeers can get to know her. also, everyone keep in mind that our merry band of almost-munchkins is welcome to suggestions for a better name.

then came the two hour conference call of slightly dead-eyed randomness (methinks i wasn't the only one feeling a little out of it today) where we attempted to hash out our weekend plans. conclusions reached: we can't make plans. it was enlightening. at least i rediscovered a kesha song and found my 997th cover song. now to find those last three. i'm hoping they're good ones. quality control is important, you know?

and then i started blogging. oh, and catching up on my usual internet binge of current events/music news/blog reading. here's a new one i found. it's equal parts funny and sad, so be warned.

and here are the songs i've been listening to today. none of them are new or unique or anything. they've just been on loop in my head.

today's title song:

another pretty song. i first heard it on grey's anatomy years (has it really been years since that show was decent enough to watch? that's so weird) ago in the second season episode damage case. if you haven't watched the first two seasons of that show, you should, since they were actually really good...and then it got famous and the writing became awful:

oh, and this one's been on my summer sleep playlist for a while, but i thought now would be a good time to post it since i have a banana-related message anyway and i'm too lazy to get on facebook (which i hate). dear banana: s-la wants you to come on a b day like tuesday or thursday or next monday or wednesday. then you can join the early release movie club and visit the weeds in the senior courtyard with us. i half agree with this plan, but would also like to point out that i am both incapable of giving advice and am in actual classes for three fourths of every b day, whereas you could probably sneak into econ (i have williams) and yearbook on a days. but then you could visit sturtz on b days when i have her and...i have no idea. i'm highly indecisive. show up some day so we can marvel over how much you once grew and how worldly wise you are &c. &c.

just leave my memory away

today's title comes from kill me carolyne by the whigs, a new song gleaned from s-la's music library as a result of music day. oh, music day. it's such a good time. i have the whole harry potter musical now and spanish acoustic songs (they're playing right now)! it's pretty great.

my calc essay turned out pretty great, too, even though i ended up finishing it during early release. that was okay, though, since i ended up surrounded by a bunch (four) other procrastinators also doing their essays. oh, and i worked my procrastination into the essay by talking about how my lack of motivation to do calculus should be taken into account when planning for next year's students. except in snarkier, less sleep-deprived terms.

after that we went to see iron man 2...again. it's just that good.

robert downey jr. agrees

after that we had dinner at california tortilla (still in brambleton, sadly, since the lansdowne one went out of business) and were horrified by the actions of the hooligans and teenyboppers (these are real terms, okay?) who were milling about, stealing drinks and climbing trees willy nilly. it was awful. they were all like five years old and strolling around like they owned the place, or at least like they should be allowed to stroll around at all and not still be strapped to high chairs.

and then came music day. which, in case you hadn't heard, is awesome. music was shared. in a day, even.

...i know, i know. s-la and i are extremely creative namers. is namers even a word? i'm too tired to look it up, but safari isn't putting a little red line under it so i'll assume i can use it.

we watched our sophomore english project on macbeth, too. we recorded one of the acts. i was macbeth and s-la was lady macbeth. oh, and we were both murderers and witches and a few minor characters. leanne was banquo and every other character. as you can imagine, our acting skills were phenomenal. i don't sound monotone at all and it certainly wasn't strange to have a cross-dressing macbeth (i spent the majority of the project in tunics and dresses). at least steffi's editing was great - we had the coolest soundtrack. the bloopers and credits were the best part, though. for some reason meggo is credited as our hair stylist. the rest of it is a jamboree (oh, that's a fun word) or spatula-flinging, cheese it-eating, word-forgetting mistakes. oh, the good old days.

in other news, the momster transitioned between her rightful title (the momster) to That Woman and back several times today, mostly as a result of tiny, but highly annoying incidents. and then she and her assistant decided to have dinner at 9:30 (she's cray cray, okay?) while i was at s-la's. it was thai food and they remembered to bring home a meal for me, too. so clearly all is forgiven. the moral of this story? my heart will always be won via my stomach. that should probably worry me. one day i will have Moral Fiber (i think they sell it in pills at the grocery store, but the momster told me only old people use them and she wouldn't buy any) and will attempt to resist the lure of food, but until then...bring on the pineapple fried rice.

less exciting is the return of the mongol eyes. i can't even blame s-la's cat this time, since they didn't set in until i got home. the momster suspects that it just happened because i didn't take my allergy medicine today and it was finally nice out, but that doesn't explain why it looks like someone punched me in the face. seriously, the swelling - it's horrible. i look deranged. however, i'm heavily medicated now (but not the fun kinds; i kind of miss dr. cray cray. i've always wanted to try those crazy pills that let you hallucinate things, but during the lit and both econ exams i sat right next to the poster in the health room that tells you all the bad physiological effects drugs have on you so there's one dream deferred until...forever, actually) so hopefully it'll be gone by tomorrow morning. and if not, well...i guess i'll just become a hermit. i've always wanted to be one.

you don't get any youtube links today, since i'm dead tired right now. you can probably already tell that, though. i've got a feeling that there are typos and nonsensical sentences and horrible grammatical errors all over this post. i'll try to make it up to you tomorrow. maybe i'll even use capital letters! maybe.

why should we even care?

today's title comes from iron man by black sabbath. here, enjoy it:

if you haven't heard by now, i went to see iron man 2 at midnight the day of/after my ap lit exam (which was ridiculously easy, i felt so smart...look for that to change on thursday when i have to take two econ exams). i liked it even more than the first one but my appreciation of these movies has always been based on how long robert downey jr. is on screen, so it was definitely worth going to the midnight showing, even if i did have to suffer through school on four hours of sleep (and not one drop of caffeine until i cried to an unnamed school official for coffee - did you know that officially teachers can't provide us with anything caffeinated because it's a "drug"? those fascists). luckily we weren't doing anything too strenuous in class on friday...or anything at all. we mostly spent the day playing board games in various parts of the school. i'm guessing the last few weeks of school are going to hover somewhere between "easy" and "laughable" or the hard work scale.

oh, and a little thing called prom happened yesterday. it was...like every other dance i've been to, actually. the only new additions to the formula of bad music + good dinner + fun group + pretty clothes and nails and hair were the limo and meggo. and even meggo doesn't really count, since s-la and i have both tagged along to her dances before. at least i sort of managed to dance with my shoes on for a little while? i find that impressive. so does robert downey jr.

after, however, something wonderful happened. i learned how to take out my contacts. and it neither ripped in half nor mysteriously popped out while i kept stabbing my eye with my finger. all the credit for that goes to s-la. so, who knows, now that i've figured out how to touch my eye without horrible things happening maybe i'll even start wearing them regularly. maybe.

an alternative name for this holiday is gratuitous rdj gif day, just so you all know

today was mother's day. it was pretty uneventful. i presented the momster with her prezzie, she flapped around a bit, we went out to eat, the end. i'm mentioning this because it's sheer lack of drama fills me with glee. i learned long ago in middle school to include a handwritten disclaimer with all of her cards and presents banning overly emotional displays of affection between us, since hallmark hasn't seen fit to create a card with that addendum. they should really get on that. would any of you want to be cried on and called pumpkin for, like, an hour? i don't think so. this way is so much better.

anyway, i'm still pretty tired/operating on a sleep deficit, so i'm going to cut this post short. look for longer blogs this week, though, since things are finally winding down in school.

been there, done that, messed around

today's title comes from la roux's bulletproof. it was playing in forever 21 today and got stuck in my head. again. oh well. at least it's cheerful.

in case i hadn't made it clear, i went shopping today. in comparison to the momster's haul, i didn't get too much. you should all be proud. see?

clockwise from left to right: the widow of the south, an at-home parafin spa kit, urban decay's essential shadow box, eye shadow primer potion, and the best bra of all time

audrey hepburn t-shirt dress and floral lace leggings, both from forever 21

technically the at-home parafin spa kit was one of the momster's purchases but i'm counting in my books too. mostly because i'm going to be the first one using it as soon as this blog is over.

oh, and the bra isn't just me being slightly inappropriate (come on, do i blog every time i go bra shopping? i think not. well, except for that one time with the rainbow bra, but that was an exception because...rainbows). nope. this time there's a story behind it.

you know how victoria's secret has all those mannequins scattered throughout the store? and they always wear the cutest things? well, at the fair oaks victoria's secret the first mannequin you see in the store was wearing the same bra pictured above. isn't it cute? i think so. unfortunately it was sold out in my size, so i had the momster distract the saleswoman while i...well, technically i stripped the poor, unfortunate mannequin, but it was all for a good cause giving the store money and therefore stimulating the economy and doing my little bit to get us out of this recession before i have to get a job so just...

no, really. i know it sounds bad, but at least i paid for it, okay? and so what if i didn't find another bra to put on the mannequin? that would've looked even worse. i was lucky enough that no one saw me taking the bra in the first place - trying to put one on it would've looked a bunch worse. i could've been arrested. the mall cops would've been all, "why were you doing inappropriate things to a mannequin in public?" and i would've had to be like, "i wasn't! really! see:

no, really, how is he not gay?

and it would've been awkward for everyone. oh, and i was already an hour late for jenibean's birthday party (she turned old legal eighteen today so everybody head over to her blog and say happy birthday, okay?), which then turned into two hours between the momster's pressing need for cheesecake factory and the horrible traffic in fairfax/chantilly.

anyway, while i was shopping today, i came to a surprising conclusion. it's probably going to get me a 2 on my ap econ exam, actually, but:

the average american consumer is a moron.

seriously. 

this one's $12.00. 

harsh words, but while in forever 21 today - a store i usually consider more sensible than urban outfitters or free people, much as i love them both - i discovered that people will willingly spend over twenty dollars on 37 holes and leftover bits of t-shirt. not even a shirt. a shirt-fetus. in nine months these might one day have emerged as fully grown t-shirt members of society, but those darn chinese factory workers got to them and aborted their little fabric-y souls before they ever had a chance.

since i just got home from jenibean's birthday party (where, s-la, meggo, and emmeline-with-no-code-name-because-she-doesn't-blog-but-don't-get-any-ideas-gina-this-can't-be-your-label-because-you-blog-and-also-it's-too-long-and-has-too-many-hyphens-oh-my-god and i decorated her room in a manner which i, personally and redundantly, think deserves a blog post. a gentle hint, bean), i'm going to finish this post up with two things. never mind, i lied and am too lazy to hit the backspace button. it's going to be three things.

thing the first: dear lurkers - and i know you exist, sitting at your keyboards and being all lurker-y - did you know that you can comment anonymously? really, you can. just hit the little comment button at the top of the post and say something so i know i'm not hallucinating you. thanks.

thing the second. more la roux:

thing the third. the very best birthday song:

show me your teeth

the title of today's post comes from lady gaga's teeth and is for once highly appropriate. mostly because i didn't actually have a full set of teeth this morning. worse - i was missing half (read it like this: half!) of one of my front teeth.

yes, morgan freeman, i agree. this doesn't make any sense.

i suppose i should splainy then (hey, if banana can make up words, so can i). as we all remember, i had very excited plans to return to school today. to that end, i woke up (early, for once, i even got meggo's seven-something-in-the-morning text but was too busy bleeding all over the bathroom to reply to it), brushed my teeth (oh, my teeth), and took a shower. to borrow from jenibean's third person blogging style, Shi(h)t(zu) Happened Like This:

7:20 - Rachel shampoos her hair. 

7:21 - Rachel stops shampooing hair and takes a moment to appreciate the oh-so-delectable scent of Herbal Essence's Hello, Hyrdation shampoo. (The reader should note that this shampoo is even more wonderful than its name and scent would suggest owing to the fact that it is not one, but two whole shades of purple)

7:22 - Rachel resumes shampooing. 

7:24 - Rachel gets dizzy. 

7:24 and a half - Rachel thinks "Gee, this isn't good, time to get out of the shower."

7:25 or 11,320-Why-Is-The-Clock-Spinning-Like-That - Rachel hops out of the shower.

7:26 - OMG OMG OMG I CAN'T BREATHE. 

7:27 - Ditto. 

7:27 - AGHHHHHH.

7:28 - Rachel nosedives. Onto the bathroom's exceedingly soft tile floor. Bottom half of front tooth decides to abandon ship. 

7:29 - The Momster, henceforth referred to in all communications as The Momster, begins a single-front offensive on an enemy known as Locked Bathroom Door. 

7:30 - The Momster, despite being approximately a foot tall and twenty two pounds (more or less), is as her name suggests, a formidable figure of fury. The Door surrenders. 

7:31 - Rachel catches sight of tooth. Uncontrollable crying ensues. The Momster calls in Emergency Dental Reserves. 

And then from eight in the morning until a little after noon there ensued a truly horrifying process known by the cheerful name of Tooth Reconstruction. it involved drills, and filing, and compulsive measuring of my teeth. however, throughout this process i was allowed the use of my iPod and was able to more or less ignore the fact that my dentist (who's adorable and asian and yet has a southern accent and is always pleasantly surprised that i can pronounce her last name - nguyen - because of meggo's tagalog newspeak tutelage) was, you know, filing my front teeth into an acceptable shape and size.

i have since been assured by the momster, her assistant, and the entire dentist's office don't judge me they were my front teeth and prom is in like a month a few tooth-experts that the change isn't noticeable. actually, the momster went so far as to say they look better now than before, since i had been (past tense! my poor lost teeth!) in the possession of rather overlarge front teeth and now they're more-or-less normal sized. but she's required to say that, since she's my tiny, scary, psychotic momster. actually, so are the rest of you. i'm not even kidding. if i see you in the next few weeks, there had better not be an honest comment from any of you or i will cry. and, trust me, you don't want to see my cry. it's a messy business, all snot and flapping hands and hiccups and shrieking and things. let's all avoid it, okay?

well, except you, s-la. i'm trusting you to give me your unmitigated opinion on The Tooth Situation. and if, after careful observation, you have concluded that i'm horribly disfigured i'm retiring to my bedroom forevermore and becoming a professional hermit i'm not going to prom.

on a happier note, i discovered that i'm fully capable of texting while having my teeth drilled. also, i used my dentist-time productively by googling facts about the healthcare bill. and then i used that freebooks app jeni was going on about a little while ago to read more sherlock holmes, since my copy was still at home. oh, and the momster has tried to comfort me over my state of probable-exam-takingness by pointing out that when one is a Student In Good Standing and will be handing over no less than eight (highly bloodstained, but that couldn't be helped, i had the great misfortune of landing on my face) notes to the attendance office tomorrow, there's got to be at least one teacher willing to let me off. right? don't shatter my dreams, kids.

oh, and after some prompting, i have concluded that the development of my (dearly departed) front teeth has kept pace with hermione granger - first they were too big and then they got horrifically filed shrunk. so at least i have that to comfort me.

also comforting? these three songs, they were my favorites during the Dentist Trip of Nightmares Future:

because i do have a ton of "bruises and contusions" between Sickville #1, the Great Pancake Incident, and The Holy Union of Floor and Face:

and a classic which now rings sadly true:

i will never have children, or: two tales of bad parenting.

it's been a while since i blogged. sorry about that. these past few days have been eventful. s-la, meggo, jenibean, and i went to see alice friday night. it was awesome. johnny depp was predictably unfortunate looking but the CGI and alice's costuming fully made up for that. helena bonham carter kind of stole the show, but that's to be expected. and i just got home from a birthday party/sleepover at jodie's, so that explains last night's missing blog. i'm not going to elaborate on either of those events, so if you really want details you should badger s-la to blog about them.

because you (all eight of you) are such conscientious followers of my blog, i'm sure you're wondering what prevented me from blogging thursday night or saturday afternoon. surely i was spending all my leisure time cackling away about your rachel-blog-deprivation.

well, if you thought that, you'd be wrong. i now present to you two tales of epic mommery. be warned, they aren't for the faint of heart.

let's begin with thursday, shall we?

on thursday i received a text from the momster asking me to go with her to her office and do real estate things for her since her assistant was out. i, being the wonderful person that i am, agreed. however, instead of going directly to her office her client texted and said she wanted to meet us at a bar. okay, we said. so we went to the bar. and then the momster realized she needed to pick up extra pens and things since, you know, they aren't really supplied in bars and restaurants, so she left me to order some snacks and headed to staples - where her client called, changed her mind, remembered that she had to be at some play for her kid in an hour, and asked the momster to meet at the office after all. crunched for time, the momster left staples and went to the office - leaving me, a platter of the best wings i've ever had, and my annotated copy of the poisonwood bible alone in a bar. alone.

it was traumatic. did you know that people hit on you at bars? even when you're munching on wings and reading your book and clearly projecting the 'i'm underage, go away' vibe. some of those people were old! like mid-twenties old. and buying drinks. and not even the happy, fizzy coca cola-type of drinks. it was horrible.

i'm thinking i shouldn't have yelled at the momster about it, though, since now she's on this 'my one and only child is going to college' bonding kick. we spent all of yesterday shopping. my feet and arms felt like they were going to fall off by the end of it. and then we left the mall too late to come home and still make it to jodie's on time, so i had to buy a new toothbrush and set of pajama bottoms and sleeping bag. that sleeping bag is the silliest thing, it's huge. at least it doesn't resemble my old sleeping bag - that one's shaped like a coffin and 'contours to the body' according to the north face sales people.

anyway, the bonding lead to me basically getting an entire spring wardrobe. here, check out the bounty:

in case you couldn't tell, the rainbow bra was my favorite purchase. getting it was awful, though - it involved seeing a librarian in victoria's secret. buying things. i can't bring myself to elaborate any further.  

we ended up getting manicures, too. the woman who did mine was pretty cray cray - all she did was grunt and move my hand and watch the chinese drama on the television behind me. she did an awesome job, though, so now my nails look like this:

i don't have a weird number-shaped birthmark on my hand, either - i wrote someone's locker combination on my hand in fine-tipped sharpie and now it won't wash off. i scrubbed and scrubbed with the little heated towels and in the shower yesterday and it just wouldn't go. i guess i'll just have to wait for it to fade. 

and just to round out this little trio of grainy iphone photos, here's lulu. i think she looks like a squirrel in this picture, what do you think?

i tried to get cookie to pose, since he's the nice dog, but he doesn't like cameras. oh well.

i'm listening to four winds by bright eyes, mostly because s-la said she didn't like it. clearly s-la is a deranged cat-lover with catastrophic brain damage since all sane people like the song.

and i'm singing "snow-oh, snow-oh" - the reprise

in case you haven't already heard (and if you haven't, please comment with the location of the lock you've been living under, since i've been looking for a nice place to hermit) tomorrow's a snow day.

like most people, i'm pretty damn excited about this (sorry, s-la, it's not a real cuss word). mostly because it means that i don't have to do my homework tonight, don't have a gov quiz tomorrow, and the calc test that was originally scheduled for tomorrow? is now moved until tuesday. possibly later.

do you want to know the real reason i'm excited for this snow day? you do. it's pretty boring:

see those lovely, overflowing baskets of clothes? yeah, that's my laundry. which i haven't done since, oh, i don't know...the week after christmas break?

in other words, it's been a while since the washer and i have had more than a passing acquaintance. i've been reduced to stealing my mother's overpriced leggings (which i will confess to liking much more than my own - perhaps i'll just keep them, it's not like she'll notice, we share closets) and wearing hoodies and t-shirts from freshman year. it's so very sadmaking, except for the part that said old/stolen clothes are wonderfully comfortable.

in keeping with today's trend of grainy iPhone pictures, here's two more:

this is Snow Day Celebration Cupcake. the momster picked it up when she was emergency grocery shopping. sadly it got a little squished when i took it out of the dandy little cupcake holder but i assure you that it was beyond adorable before it's little impromptu photo session. 

cookie wants you all to know that he is also beyond adorable, especially when begging for cupcake crumbs. also, meggo's shoes say hi.

now, let's talk about this:

it's probably definitely edited. but still - kesha. keysha. keesha. k-dollar-ha. we know that you're capable of being an intelligent human being so quit the shenanigans already. next thing we know, you'll be arrested for yelling 'bomb' in an airport. and you're pretty and all, but when even the models can't get out of jail after offering to reenact an indecent proposal, you know there's no hope for you.

in happier news, it's oscar month on tcm and my dvr is officially empty. or it will be until midnight, when it starts recording the errol flynn/olivia de havilland version of robin hood. i think tomorrow's going to be a laundry/movie marathon/finish perusing pre-fall collections sort of day.

oh and speaking of (why yes, i do try and pretend that my digressions into new topics aren't completely trite and predictable), these two are probably my favorites of the day:

oh, YSL, stella mccartney - why so wonderful? i'd sell my soul and also my entire harry potter collection just to have one piece of either of these collections - they all look so gorgeous and dramatic and still wearable. and you really don't want to know what i'd be willing to do for one of those hats. 

currently playing: take it in - hot chip.  

redundancy is redundant

today i:

1. visited meggo and got bonus jenibean
2. changed into pajamas 
3. went grocery shopping with the momster...in said pajamas
4. all of the above

i think we all know the right answer here. clearly it was all of the above. i'm pretty tired and have my lit multiple choice exam to study for, so this'll be a short post.

i've been out of shampoo and conditioner for most of this week. sadly, i kept forgetting that when i got in the shower and would have to perform a wet and wild naked run to the momster's bathroom to steal hers. well, there was a towel involved, but that's seriously no help at all when it comes to the whole wind chill effect. so when the momster asked if i wanted to go to harris teeter with her, i said yes and hopped in the car - still in my pajamas.

now, they're pretty cute pjs - purple and black plaid flannel bottoms and my r t-shirt from the senior panorama picture - so i didn't feel that bad about being in the grocery store with them, even if it was a little awkward since i recognized most of the baggers and cashiers. so i ignored my slightly inappropriate grocery shopping attire and went about making my all-important shampoo, conditioner, and mysterious birthday supply purchases.

let me rephrase that - by 'purchase' i mean 'scooped up all this stuff i wasn't paying for and went in search of the momster and her cart'. while on said search, i ended up in one of those four-cart pileups in the middle of the candy/school supply/hosiery/foot fungal cream aisle (which, by the way, who came up with that shelving system?). you know the kind i'm talking about - four middle-aged ladies pushing carts piled sky-high with ragu and three dollar store brand cereal get into a passive-aggressive stare-off over who gets to make it through the aisle first, with a couple of loners (i.e., me) trying to figure out a way to edge around them without being trampled.

in the midst of the four-way stare-off, one of the women turned to me, did a double take, and said with exceeding slowness and care, as if i must be mentally deficient, "you're wearing pajamas and your shirt has a giant r on it. did you know?"

no. no, i didn't know what i was wearing. i am one of those unfortunate people who can't afford to pay their electric bill and had to get dressed in the dark today. oh, or maybe i'm just an incredibly functional blind person - i don't have a seeing eye dog because i just use a combination of echolocation and the sonar app on my phone to find my way around.

now, here's the part in the story where you shake your head and go, "oh, rachel." i will admit to unleashing a veritable torrent of bitchery. she deserved it, okay?

...well, maybe she deserved a little, but i probably should have stopped when my mother wheeled the cart up and looked impressed with me. the momster. she who once made a south carolina police officer cry when she was the one who'd been pulled over for speeding. the momster was impressed with my bitchery.

i'm thinking i should've taken that as a sign to, you know, stop the snippy comments. i didn't, though, with the end result that i'm now probably feared in the brambleton harris teeter. i'll be the new version of the chupacabra or however you spell it. or maybe the boogie man, that sounds cooler.

besides, if i have to suffer through the misery of upcoming exams, everyone else should have to suffer too.

i'm listening to today was a fairytale by taytay. the irony hasn't escaped me.

on the phone with the jenibean now. here, check this out, i found this when i was cleaning out my pictures folder and it made me laugh:

and so a cult was born

what's on the ipod right now? daniel by bat for lashes.

so it's been a fun few days. meggo, jenibean, s-la, and i made our gingerbread...pyramid. it was amazing and infinitely better than that silly kit s-la and i assembled. i blame costco for clouding her mind with happy waves and distracting her into buying it. highlights from this year include kanye woods (a tiger/kanye hybrid gingerbread man), balloon boy stranded atop an obelisk, blink-182 in chocolate santa form, jon & kate plus 8, the hatter from syfy's remake of alice, b!, beat up pete wentz, and the mistresses/cheating girlfriends of the year. oh, and lots and lots of twizzler guts. s-la took some nice pictures of them on her handy dandy (hot pink!) new camera, but some of the pictures are ooh-la-la scandalous, so they're going to have to stay in their secret corner of the internet.

(speaking of secret corners of the internet, this just made me laugh)

the sleepover at meggos was fun. i saw all, like, four hours of alice finally and it was amazing. even if alice had an unusually manly voice. i hope the burton version's going to be just as good (if not better), even if there won't be any pretty people on screen. i managed to stay up until 4:30 - jenibean and meggo were up even later, those crazies, but s-la gave up and abandoned us around 2. we woke up around ten, i think. whatever time it was, it was hideously early, but once i was awake i just couldn't go back to sleep. don't you just hate when that happens? oh, and once again i left things at meggo's - my boots (purposeful; and i have her black flats, they're comfy) and my jacket (very, very accidental). hopefully i'll pick them up wednesday since a little birdie named phoney told me meggo's planning to wear el booties on tuesday.

luckily frank stopped by this afternoon to drop off round two of my christmas prezzies - including a poufy purple jacket and matching scarf! in other words, i am no longer likely to die of pneumonia this week.

after that i did some laundry, took a shower, and power napped until like eight o'clock. it's been a pretty epic day, i think. oh, and i had a dream!

i was standing on an empty road in the country in the new dress i got at nordstrom (why, yes, i did finish my christmas shopping on december 28th, so what?) and out of nowhere a giant ipod on legs appeared. it wasn't a very graceful ipod, either. it's legs were all long and thin and gangly and it seemed kind of bow-legged; it wobbled as it walked toward me. and then it stopped, folded its legs up, and sat down so that it looked like a giant ipod standing on the ground (without visible legs).

and then the ipod speaks. it's got a voice kind of like morgan freeman. it told me to go forth and give people scarves. except for homeless people because it seems like all they have is scarves, so they should get real clothes. and then it told me to wear my hair in princess leia buns. and that my microwave was going to explode on january 1, 2012. oh, and then it promised me that if i followed its directives the sky would rain itunes gift cards that day. after that it did a funny full-body ipod wiggle thing that i just sort of knew was its version of a bow and told me to spread the message to the masses. i wonder if this is how cults begin?

and then i woke up, finally updated the apps on my phone, and downloaded tap tap revenge 3. you...probably don't want to know how long i spent playing that. it's a shamefully large number of hours, though.

hmm, i'm tired. just added new (old) songs to the playlist. stay tuned - whenever i wake up tomorrow i'll post pictures of the new dresses and meggo and s-la's prezzies. but not jenibean's because i ate it already.

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!

buzzer club!

academic bowl, fondly known as buzzer club, had its first competition today. and we won! which was exciting, mostly because we beat park view (which, seriously, is just full of the most annoying kids ever...they wore ties.) and also because i got to visit with meggo, who's plays buzzer for freedom. which was exciting, especially because seeing her spiffy jacket reminded me that i need to go shopping this weekend. oh, and in my competition to woo s-la to buzzerdom, i would just like to point out that sarah and i are campaigning for the club to dress as ninjas for the next meet or districts. because, really, what better way to buzz than while dressed as a ninja?

speaking of things happening this weekend - because, in my world, friday is so the weekend - new moon is coming up. i can't wait. i hope we have people who dressed up in our theater. and maybe someone like that crazy twilight fan on youtube who started hyperventilating and crying when she first saw the new moon preview. that'd be amusing.

what am i listening to right now? half of my heart feat. taylor swift by john mayer. it's happy.

and all mellow. good music to blog to.

i stopped by starbucks after school today. here, have a flickr picture which shows my order (well, okay, this is much prettier looking than my order...and also, my drink doesn't splash like this. whatever.)

eye eye eye

i'm thinking i should give up on contacts. experience 1 since the Case of the Ripped Contact Lens involved me sitting in meg's bathroom poking at my eye for fifteen minutes before realizing that my contact had already come out. fml.

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

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?