we roll our jeans up (a post about mixtures)

today's title comes from chugjug by family of the year. check them out. no, really, do it. their digital downloads? 100% free, although you can donate if you want to. i actually think i'll ask the parentals to buy the cd for christmas just to support them, since they're pretty good.

anyway, today's post features a lot of mixtures. to begin with, i'm drinking my own improvised version of a peppermint mocha. it involves adding 15 white chocolate candy cane hershey kisses to half a large cup of bold blend coffee and adding a splash of plain creamer or heavy cream. it's wonderful. my nails are a mixture, too - one coat of here today, aragon tomorrow; one coat of cuckoo for this color; and one coat of bring on the bling. the result is a perfect forest green (for some reason i can't find this color on its own - it's always a green with a shimmer or a hint of blue or yellow. why do nail polish manufacturers hate forest green? right now it's my ideal nail polish color) overlaid with gold sparkles. i think it's kind of perfect for the start of the holiday season. my music is a mixture of my own purchases and s-la's, too. right now i'm listening to daylight by matt & kim, gleaned from her during our long overdue music day last week.

all in all, i think mixtures are pretty good things, don't you?

i'm in a very christmassy sort of mood right now. we decorated the house today. well, the tree and stockings and in-house decorations are all up, anyway. we're putting the lights up tomorrow. i had some bad news yesterday, though - my annual christmas ornament purchase broke last year. apparently lulu knocked if off the tree and the momster thought she could replace it before i found out but forgot. everywhere i turn - secrets and lies. i was quite annoyed. i mean, look how pretty it was:

we went to the christmas light show in gaithersburg today. i love that place. it's so pretty. they added prism glasses this year. basically, they give you little paper glasses when you drive in and everything is extra shiny and bright and multiplied by like a thousand and if i were ever to try drugs, i think that's what the world would look like.

in other news, i jumped on the netflix bandwagon today. i was going through our dvd collection and realized that i spend way too much of my pocket money on movies. so far, netflix is amazing. why didn't anyone tell me that they have, like, every movie and tv show ever? it's wonderful. and they have an ipad app! it's like having a tiny, tiny tv with me wherever i go!

i'm now off to marathon torchwood and rewatch doctor who and drool over pictures of boots i'm too poor to ever own on the internet. woe is me, &c. &c.

we're older now, the light is dim

today's title comes from o children by nick cave and the bad seeds as used to wonderful effect in harry potter and the deathly hallows part one.

other than posting that wonderful song, i'm refraining from posting anything about the movie until everyone has seen it. seeing as the urge to babble about it is almost uncontrollable, this is going to be a very short post. instead, watch this video that joanna the hall-e sent me. it is so much better than the original song:

i left campus last night. this morning husband number three and i accompanied the momster to the hospital to get an iron transfusion. it took six hours. six! all went well, though. the momster beat my tap tap score (annoying) and requested cookies, which lead husband number three to pick up gingerbread men. they're yummy. i still have one left. and then we went to see harry potter! again! (the first of many, many times over thanksgiving break, i hope)

leaving campus early had an unforeseen benefit, too. apparently i've missed a total of six fire drills since i left. this is wonderful. 

it's a nice to start again

today's title comes from white wedding by billy idol. i've been on a kick lately, don't even ask me to explain it:

other music i've been listening to lately?

this just made me laugh:

and this is just awesome. as is this:

nothing much happened today. i worked on my organ trafficking presentation with some friends. oh, and then i rewatched persepolis with the hall-es. it's still good. i mostly just napped today. i had my 9 a.m. lab today, so i basically just rolled out of bed (it was so hard - the new duvet is like sleeping on a cloud) and wandered to class in my pajamas. we went on a mini field trip in bio today. we went around campus collecting samples of dirt from different habitats and testing for organisms. the things we were looking for were invariably gross. the lab partner and i were hoping not to find anything, so of course a spider fell out of our bags as soon as we got back to the lab. it was horrifying. thankfully, class let out early today. i had a nice long brunch and then napped from noon until four. it was wonderful. sleep really is a girl's best friend.

don't forget - it's international football soccer time, starting tomorrow: usa v. south africa (2 p.m.), germany vs. sweden (2:30), and spain vs. portugal (3:55). celebrate with me by watching this (alternately wonderful and horrifying) ad for spain's new jersey:

until the earth stops turning

today's title comes from gorecki by lamb:

liverpool lost. that's all i'm going to say about that. these past two years have been a pretty depressing time to be a supporter. i have high hopes that the new owners will do the right thing come january transfer window time, though.

i have a confession to make:

you know that iranian film class that i always complain about? well, i kind of like it now. the films are getting better as we move into the modern era, and even the ones i initially didn't like are actually pretty good. i don't know how to explain it properly. it's like...the more i learned about iran and its culture and the revolution combined with my film analysis skills getting better to make me actually appreciate the movies we've been watching. a lot of them are about kids during the revolution or after it. it's kind of surprising how easy it is to connect with child-driven plot lines, especially when a lot of them were based off of the director's real life experiences. it made me start to wonder what happened to them after the movies were over. oh, and we watched persepolis on friday. we have it at home, but i bought my own copy today. i didn't like it the first time i watched it, but now i'm a little in love with it. the same thing happened to me with pan's labyrinth. it's so strange - this is like my year of multiculturalism, or something. i'm a little crazy for spanish and iranian history right now. they're so complicated and divided and just...i should probably stop before i start writing an essay.

this craziness is starting to transfer into other things, though. like, from becoming interested in just iranian films, i've started liking foreign films in general. i hate writing that. it feels pretentious. but some of them are really good! and subtitles aren't actually that bad.

i raked leaves with circle k today. we had to get up at a horribly early hour to do it. the hall-es and i actually woke up late and ended up texting the other members for half an hour for directions to the house they were at and walking half a mile in the opposite direction because we are geniuses. it was fun, though. this one woman told us all not to quit school because we would never make it as professional leaf rakers, but i think she was just jealous. her leaf blower ate joanna's headphones, too, so we made a return trip to target so she could get new ones. while there, we saw these crimes against nature:

doesn't he look cold? also, don't you just love the dog's face in the background? it's totally judging that guy. 

poor, poor anne frank and ray bradbury do not deserve to be shelved right next to that crap. and sold for less money. 

the following are not crimes against humanity. they're just funny:

why, yes, that is her entire wardrobe (more or less) drying on her bed. 

the roomie attempted to dry two loads of laundry in one dryer. as a result, nothing got dry. and since this is a weekend, the second she left the laundry room all of the dryers were taken. so she decided to dry everything in our room, with hilarious results. 

i discovered the existence of cookies and cream hershey kisses today! i probably shouldn't have, actually. i can't stop eating them.

enzymes

today's title comes from the song of the same name by freelance whales:

i'm home. i have the flu. i am headed to the doctor tomorrow - and after that the eye doctor. i am clearly the sickliest child on the face of the earth.

i think today's theme is going to be sentences beginning with i - it's good to be selfish.

i've been home for four hours and have already had to pry my headphones out of lulu's tiny mouth. i've missed having fox soccer channel to watch champion's league games on in hd. i also missed having cookie sleep on my feet (he's doing that right now).

i think this i-thing is harder than i thought it would be; how does steve jobs manage it?

i think the trailer for tangled looks really cool:

i was a bad citizen and didn't vote today. i don't think i'm registered yet. i also think you should stop judging me since i've only been eighteen for two weeks.

i came home and was terrified by my laundry room - the momster replaced our washer and dryer with these scary, high tech things that beep and have a spinny dial and very complicated instruction manuals.

i'm tired and mucus-y and think i will end this post here. i also think that the road to recovery lies with the giant bags of leftover halloween candy sitting in my pantry. i think i'll go liberate them.

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!

non, je ne regrette rien (a post in pictures)

fifty percent of today's title comes from the song of the same name by edith piaf, also known as the-song-that-played-during-the-kick. i've actually been playing the inception score on loop lately. it's good background music, but then again i love just about everything hans zimmer chooses to do. 

part 1: fun with masks.

awww. 

s-la tries on the hooker mask. 

so does jenn the asian. 

i get photographed trying on something...odd. 

again, so does jenn the asian. 

and travis just gets photographed trying on something gay.

...and something terrifying. 

part 2: questionable taste in clothing

we ventured into ed hardy while waiting for s-la to stop being lost.

the store that sold the masks only seemed to carry Rings of a Certain Size.

and that size would be giant.

see what we had to work with?

part 3: someone eats twice their own body weight.

look at those plates!

part 4: goooaaaal.

real madrid vs. club america. i started capping when the game started looking interesting.

see the other tabs open in my window? yeah, stop judging me for them.

this is a shameless attempt to get you to watch club football. 

or at least support the usa's bid for the 2018 world cup. sign up here. 

typical germans

since my next friday is booked up by (possibly) the last jeni-meggo-rachel-steffi sleepover ever for the summer, the other parent and i decided to make yesterday a double feature friday. we went to see inception and salt. the former was so good that we watched it twice, while the latter...meh. angelina jolie looks ridiculously pretty in it but the ending was horrible. my official verdict? don't see it.

double feature friday ended up turning into movie marathon weekend. we watched a night at the roxbury (my favorite will ferrel film ever), wild hogs, and then - because i made him - bend it like beckham. that last one turned into a pretty fun drinking game - whenever one of the characters reminds you of the momster, drink. er, on second thought, maybe that's only a fun game for us. not that i'm condoning underage drinking in anyway. but if i was, i put my vote down for mike's hard lemonade, i finally tried it and it's awesome and gee, i guess this is why the bloggle is no longer linked from the facebook.

after that, we embarked on part 3490325 of rachel's college shopping extravaganza. when i'm finally done with it i'll post some of my favorite purchases. well, if i haven't died of exhaustion first. shopping is hard work...or it normally is.

after we did all our real shopping, we decided to pop into a tj maxx and see what kind of crazy stuff we could find. discount stores have the randomest, most amazing things sometimes.

like this:

and this:

they're doggy hair products! isn't that wonderful?

and, best of all, this:

don't worry, i made him buy it. if only they'd had one in my size, too. it was only six dollars!

there's one thing i saw today that i won't get for another twenty to thirty years, though:

oh, if only i had a record player.

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.

the scene: a city after dawn

today's title comes from in sleep by lissie. i posted about it a little while ago. if you don't remember it, go youtube it, i'm blogging from my phone.

while researching clips for the awesome, no really, i'm actually excited for something school-related, isn't that weird? film studies project i'm doing in lit, i came across a veritable gold mine of late 40s and early 50s educational films.

i know, i know - that doesn't sound all that interesting. certainly not good enough for an entire blog post (because i am, of course, a blogger of High Standards and only post about meaningful things like makeup and robert downey jr. and hair), but...well, just watch them. you'll see what i mean.

for example, there is the classic Boys Beware, which takes care to warn teenage boys of the dangers of hitchhiking. the 1950s sure must have been a nice time. nowadays most people aren't allowed to hitchhike because of the possibility of being kidnapped, raped, or murdered. back then the only danger was that you might meet a sick, diseased... homosexual. that's right. back in the 50s the biggest danger to hitchhiking teenagers was this:

anyway, here's the clip:

there's a companion video for girls, too. don't worry - girls, beware isn't about our risk of being killed by an angry lesbian. nope, it's about our risk of being killed by, oh, just about everything else.

after watching that you might be wondering why it was that just about everyone in 1950s america wanted to murder women. it's probably because of little films like this, which "educated" the modern man on how to deal with women.

there are a bunch of other clips in the related links on the side. watch them all when you have the time - they make for really fun car viewing.

oh, and in case you didn't notice, this is my hundredth post of the year! woo hoo!

look for another post from me later tonight - i'm going to go eat dinner and plan my lit and calc essays now. oh, and watch the daily show (don't worry - i know it's on right now, i've got it recording), the colbert report, and glee. i'm so excited for glee, it's a little unreal. the previews last week made it look like this episode is going to be hilarious.

oh, and while i'm sharing links i found in the car, here's one that left me a little horrified and a little hysterical. i love cracked.

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.

"I mean a girl just can't go to Sing Sing with a green face."

today's title comes from breakfast at tiffany's, both the movie and the novella. it's been my obsession of the day. i promised myself i wouldn't read any of the books i got on friday until after AP exams were over, but...

yeah, i couldn't hold out. and breakfast at tiffany's technically isn't a book - it's a novella. so i've read it three times now. it's that good.

like, i've always loved the movie but i always thought that most of holly's charm was due to her being played by audrey hepburn. she could make anything seem glamorous. so i figured that i was watching the movie and enjoying holly's character more because i'd already seen (and enjoyed) audrey in other movies.

the other movie. with bonus atticus finch gregory peck.

since i've read the novel(la), though, i've kind of had to revise my thinking a little. i always knew that truman capote's story would be darker than the film since...he's truman capote. i've read in cold blood and the flower house and a few of his other short stories and i know that he's a lot grittier than the happy ending/hot male lead hollywood adaptation. so i was prepared for that aspect of the story, at least.

i didn't expect it to be so interesting, though. like, the story is darker and holly golightly is disturbed and flighty and complex and fascinating. so, so fascinating. i don't want to spoil anything for you (because you're all going to read it, okay? every last one of you. it's short, so no complaining). and then you'll watch the movie, because who could resist this?

i know, i know. anyway, i'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear that ophelia the ipod is healthy and has all her songs back. it took three hours, but it was worth it.

glee is on now, so i'm going to leave off here. sue sylvester is so awesome.

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.