i'm gonna lose my head here

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

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

beginning with:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and, of course, this:

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

i'll just leave you with this:

won't let no mistake take the roof from off our heads

today's title comes from the city by patrick wolf which is amazing and you should all listen to and, yes, that means you, too, s-la:

well, it finally happened. i am really, truly, disgustingly mucus-y sick on campus. it sucks. the hall-es have been plying me with fruit and vitamin c and cold medicine and things, so it's not too bad but i sound gross. like, beyond gross, actually. every time i blow my nose it sounds like i'm trying to do a killer whale mating call or something, which means classes this week are just going to be a barrel of laughs. at least not being at home means i can experiment with cough medicines, so the rest of me is okay, if a little tired and kind of incoherent my roommate told me i sound high but we've settled on a nice little cocktail of robutussin, dayquil, and sudafed along with the world's most wonderful cough drops ever (halls, but no one ever bothered to tell me they came in strawberry and not just that horrible medicinal cherry crap) so i think i'll be fine. or, at least, the momster will think i'm fine because she has no idea i'm sick and if she did she would come here and that would be bad. 

...i just read that paragraph back. my roommate is right, even when i type i sound high. sorry guys. 

the hall-es and i went on an adventure friday night, but it's a story that i want to be, like, grammatically correct so i'll wait until i'm no longer sick to write it up. 

for similar reasons, i won't be recapping the oh-so-wonderful liverpool-chelsea game. well, not in words, anyway:

in conclusion, serhio ramo thanks you for your time:

so many nights

...since i last updated this blog. alternatively, today's title comes from fixin' to die as covered by g. love and the avett brothers, seen here:

nevertheless, it has been a long time since i posted. since the last time we've (virtually) seen each other, beatrice the ipod has been dropped seven times (and acquired one tiny dent which was in no way my fault). electronics live a hard life in my house. also, s-la and i saw tangled! it's adorable. and then the momster and husband number three took me to atlantic city, where i gambled (because i am eighteen! and can legally do so! i can't wait to get my first lottery ticket) and lost spectacularly the first night (grand total: -$185.00) but made it all back up after brunch, which looked like this:

that's right - i successfully gambled! i even made a profit ($4.05). it was thrilling. probably too thrilling, actually, as i have been informed that when one has lost all their money at a casino, the sensible thing to do does not in any way include glaring at a slot machine and playing until you've won your money back. i think that is crap advice delivered by people who never win, anyway, and certainly did not come out with a profit of four whole dollars and five cents, thank you very much.

and now i'm going to go do my homework. for real, this time.

tonight we're going to set this record right

today's title comes from george stanford's big drop. it's one of the many things i've been listening to this month. you may (or may not) have noticed, but i've been on a self-imposed exile from the internet since finals ended. i could try to explain why, but...well, it'd take too long and i'm beyond tired right now. the important thing is, a rachel without the internet is a very productive rachel indeed. i've been reading everything i ever wanted to. my To Read list is actually shrinking! that hasn't happened in...actually, it's never happened. normally it just grows (and grows and grows). i've been writing a little, too. it's...strange. strange even for me. if you're interested, shoot me a comment or a facebook message or an email or something. and then be prepared for strangeness. i really can't emphasize this enough. i've been watching a little too much british tv lately (it's like the one thing anyone in my house can agree to watch - thank you, doctor who) and reading too much postmodern poetry, because everything i write lately is either foreign or dystopian or both.

it's been a relaxing month, though. we went to see ice! at the national harbor (it's dr. suess themed and wonderful), saw just about every different light show in the greater d.c. area, visited the christmas village at busch gardens, went to the wizarding world of harry potter (crowded, so very crowded - and wonderful. i totally want to retire there) and, best of all, found my One True Ornament of the year. this is it, along with all the others (the momster and husband number three):

i'm the gold piano. isn't it pretty? oh, and that peacock you see? it's supposed to replace my dearly departed One True Ornament from last year, but the momster got the wrong one. it's still pretty, though, so i guess it counts.

ophelia the ipod has finally been replaced. her successor is now named beatrice, a departure from the six (!!!!) ophelias which preceded her. i've finally given into the fact that naming my ipod after a suicidal fictional character is probably not the best omen with which to begin her electronic life. i'd include a picture, but i'm tired and therefore lazy.

that's basically all that's happened to me in the last...however many days it's been since i last turned on my computer. there's nothing like the internet to put your life in perspective, right?

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.

the miss your mistake

today's title comes from heart in your heartbreak by the pains of being pure at heart:

i have this love/hate relationship with anthropologie wherein i love their clothes and hate the prices. well, no more. now i'm just in love with the store and in denial of the prices. this is because i found the love of my life in perfectly fitted, lacy form. behold. it's just heaps and heaps of peach lace and i already tried it on with green tights and it is perfect. this is the dress i wanted before i even knew i wanted it.

while waiting for most of you to come home, i spent the day in arlington and at the reston town center helping the momster with real estate (look! i can actually do work! isn't it exciting?). we went to this amazing thai place at the town center, then ice skating. we picked up cupcakes at that cupcakery (i really, really love that word) after. all in all, a successful day.

the morning was horrible, though. my parents are going through this hippie/health nut phase where all they drink is orange juice, so right now the only liquids in my house are water, four different kinds of orange juice, and the contents of our bar. now, normally i'm sort of apathetic toward orange juice, but after three days of it...i hate it. i really, really hate orange juice. like, i was seriously considering showing up at breakfast this morning, pouring two shots of vodka into a glass, mixing in some orange juice and proceeding to drink until the momster cracked. thankfully, she saw reason without making me resort to emergency measures - we just got back from the grocery store. i am now the proud owner of two cases of coca cola. i didn't realize how much i loved grocery shopping until today, either. all the christmas foods are out! there are all sorts of special holiday candies that i never even knew about. like candy cane hershey kisses - how long have those been around? i stocked up while the momster wasn't looking - i'm making her a surprise batch of gingerbread men tonight. hope i don't burn the house down.

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. 

i whip my hair back and forth

today's title comes from...seriously? do you really not know where today's title comes from? oh, fine:

the hall-es decided to start singing this randomly during today's oovoo session. now joanna the hall-e keeps singing it whenever we least expect it.

circle k had it's annual thanksgiving dinner today. it was fun. we spent a lot of time setting it up, but it was worth it for the turnout. apparently we got over sixty people (crammed into one very tiny dining room). britney and i went to go pick up the food from the caterer - bad idea. we're not exactly the largest (or muscliest) people. oh, and all the dishes were really hot and we kept forgetting to use the oven mitts when we were putting everything in the car. the drive itself was really fun. britney managed to reignite my billy idol love. i've had white wedding stuck in my head all day. but then came taking everything out of the car. we dropped a pie while attempting to open the door. half of it ended up on the floor and the other half was very smooshed but still in the box...so we did the right thing and sat down on the floor and at the other half. our impromptu munch fest was interrupted by the other board members coming to the door to see what was taking us so long. they thought we were hilarious. i still think that not letting an extremely tasty pie go to waste was a very sensible decision.

husband number three offered me his old down-filled duvet for my dorm room since i get cold easily. the momster dropped it off today. it's wonderful and soft and very, very warm...and queen-sized. which means that my poor bed is completely dwarfed by it. i recruited the hall-es to help me put the (much cuter) new cover on it and the cover was so large that michelle the hall-e crawled inside it to the far end to pull the duvet in after her - it made the covering process a lot easier. also, apparently the inside of my duvet cover is just like being in a tent. at least now we know what to do if we ever get bored - duvet cover tent/pillow fort playtime!

we eventually figured out that i could just fold the duvet in half. so now my bed is extra fluffy! it's a good thing, too. my roommates and i sleep way too much - the hall agrees. someone's always sleeping in or coming back from an early class to nap or napping before going out or going to bed early. our lights are, like, never on. at least being a room of fellow hibernators means that everyone's always very courteous of each other's sleeping time. these things are important, okay? and, yes, i realize everyone in the entire world has already seen this. i don't care, watch anyway:

i found this on youtube. i'm kind of in love with this kid's covers. i can't help it - cover songs are like catnip to me.

i think the whole world is drunk right now

in the last half hour, i have overheard such gems as:

hall-e's roommate: this is - this is - oh my god, what do we call you again?

high school senior: ehehehe, i'm cute. 

hall-e's roommate: yeah, you are. 

hall-e: who is this and why is he in our room?

hall-e's roommate: um, um, um - who is this?

hall-e's roommate's friend who walks in the open door: this is eric. he plays lacrosse.

hall-e's roommate's friend's girlfriend: hi, i'm meredith. i'm drunk. can i leave my stuff here?

hall-e: ...

this was while we were watching hercules in joanna the hall-e's room. we had a few other interruptions, too. oh, and then the roomie and i found a whole pack of drunk people just sitting on the steps outside when we went to take the trash out. oh, college.

in other random news, the hall-es and i went to central park today. we went shopping for electric blankets (mine is zebra print - it's wonderful) and went to dinner. we decided to walk to borders after, which meant cutting across a parking lot. now, today i was wearing a skirt, leggings, a giant fluffy sweater jacket, a hat, mittens, and boots. basically, every part of me besides a little square of exposed neckline was warm. keep this in mind, otherwise my next actions will seem a little...odd.

the momster got a new iPad today. she named it nemo at my request. she was texting me for advice on how to set it up, since she's not the most technologically savvy person (well, when it comes to apple products, at least). i was also texting a few other people at the same time.

and, my life being what it is, i end up texting the momster: MY BOOBS ARE COLD. instead of my apple id information. and her oh-so-sensible response?

the momster: oh my god. where are you? are you at a whorehouse? what are you doing?

me: i'm at borders.

the momster: are you sure? leave immediately! you don't know what can happen there!

ah, reason. it's so good to know that it's still a precious commodity in the world. don't worry, i managed to talk her back to (relative) sanity. not without spending a good ten minutes reassuring her that my new ownership of a (zebra print!) electric blanket wouldn't lead to me burning to a crisp in the night (the words "automatic shutoff" didn't seem to resonate with her)

also, i got another mysterious package today. this time it contained nail polish - that i definitely did not buy. i'm a little confused, to be honest. happy, since they're the two colors i most regretted not getting during my little "oh my gosh, it's cheap and on the internet" nail polish buying binge (here today, aragon tomorrow and can you tapas this? from opi) but...i definitely didn't buy them. i double checked my credit card statement just in case. and the package was also definitely addressed to me (i double checked that, too, despite the fact that one of the hall-es thinks that i would have no problem running off with any nail polish-containing packages even if they weren't mine). this is becoming very odd.

oh, and don't forget: liverpool plays tomorrow at 12:30. i'm going to go to sleep tomorrow, since i've got rake-a-thon with circle k at nine a.m.

!!!

why, yes, i do already have a post with this title. i don't care. why? because ophelia lives!

that's right - after spending three days constantly attempting to restore it, badgering my friends, roommates, and hall-es to help me, calling the parental units no less than three times in the middle of the night out of despair, and frantically googling every possible cause and solution for her affliction (i even tried doing this hideously complicated series of computer commands, only to be stopped by michelle the hall-e, who informed me that i had been using the wrong disk number and nearly wiped my computer of everything on it) ophelia seems to be working properly. she's syncing on itunes right now, which means i won't have any real confirmation until morning since it'll take all night for my music to copy onto it. i don't care. i'm just so excited. i was really starting to hate seeing that stupid little gray apple logo pop up on its home screen every time i tried to do anything with it.

and on that happy note, i really will go to bed. i'm actually resisting the urge to stay up all night until ophelia is done syncing. be proud of me. and wish me luck - hopefully this will be my last night of curling up to my phone so i can still hear music while i sleep.

cause it's cold outside

today's title comes from the crystal castles cover of not in love. it's awesome:

it is cold outside, though. i picked up some mittens and a hat today with the momster. oh and, fuzzy patterned slippers from target. sometimes i think accessories are the best part of winter.

i can't wait until christmas. i'm not one of those people who thinks that you should wait until after thanksgiving to start ye olde christmas countdown. i basically spend the entire year in a state of (barely) suppressed anticipation for the holiday season. i'm sure i've annoyed most of you by singing christmas carols in the middle of the summer. i can't help it - i'm just naturally hardwired to enjoy all things christmassy.

i found out today that i'm not the only person who does this. one of my friends (and her roommate) has already stockpiled her christmas candy for the season. i went over today and was greeted by two whole drawers full of candy canes and chocolate santas. it was pretty amazing. they've got holiday lights and a mini christmas tree and everything up. it got me excited. maybe i'll decorate my dorm room after all, even if we are only on campus for ten days of december. it never hurts to be festive. although i don't think i'll be stringing christmas lights up. i'm pretty sure that's a fire hazard.

i met with my group to watch a movie for our presentation on organ trafficking. we watched this:

it was actually good. the organ trafficking turned out to be a subplot, but the whole movie was really interesting. the dvd kept skipping, though. we put some toothpaste on it, but it was still pretty messed up. stupid netflix.

extremely loud and incredibly close is just as good on a reread. if you haven't already, go read it. it's wonderful. jonathan safran foer's prose is something i want to curl up in. the way he uses multimedia in the book is really cool, too. it's got drawings and lists and ends with a flipbook. what's not to love?

for some reason, my chaucer class started talking about walt whitman today. it inspired me to hunt down a copy of song of myself at the library. i'm rereading it slowly, since i have homework and papers and other books to read, but here's one of my new favorite bits from the beginning:

These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they 
are not original with me, 
If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing, 
If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing, 
If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing. 

This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is, 
This the common air that bathes the globe. 

i should probably go to sleep now. i'm starting to think that studying for finals is going to turn out more stressful than the finals themselves. we'll see, i guess.

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! 

all round the fields of anfield road

i'm cheating with today's title - it's from the fields of anfield road. that's the lost liverpool mention you'll see in this post, though, i promise.

in rachel news...life has been routine. i'm getting used to things, i guess. i'm finally done with midterms (which crushed my soul and left me unable to look at either scantrons or thesis statements the same way again). i finally figured out the real reason that freshmen aren't supposed to take 300-level english classes - it isn't that the work is hard to understand (it's not) it's that there's so much of it. four papers in two weeks. same for the iranian film seminar.

but it's over! i was like this all weekend:

i had a bio lab from nine to noon today. i was going to be sad about it, but it turns out that the professor had to leave for some family emergency or the other at the last minute and left us these as a substitute for the lab we were supposed to be doing (more dna polymerization - yuck):

also, ahahahaha at caitlin in the background

that's right - i got to play with mr. potato head for three hours!

after that, the momster and husband number three showed up for what i thought was going to be a nice, casual lunch/giving-rachel-money/distribution of presents afternoon. wrong. so wrong.

they took me to A Bank. a bank. according to them, now that i'm 18 i have to know how to use them and deposit birthday checks and withdraw my own cash and things. it was horrifying. also, apparently husbands one and two and the momster had savings accounts for me and didn't bother telling me - so there was this whole to-do where they were calling the various Financial Advisers (doesn't that just sound hideously grown up?) and sorting out authorizations and secondary account holders and other adult things like that. i am apparently about to be trusted with my first debit and credit cards since the Great Spending Fiasco of 2008. wish me luck.

the point of this story is that i had to spend two and a half hours in a bank (on a very nice, sunny afternoon no less) being lectured on financial responsibility and how they are putting me on a budget and the dangers of impulse buying and basically being reminded in every way that i'm an adult and will one day have to take care of myself and know how to do things and...

no. just no. i'm freaking out a little. the momster and husbands one through three seemed to get that since there was a general consensus that i looked panicked and so the parental units who were at the bank in person took me to party city and we got my costume (i am going to be a cat since the pre-made disney costumes are either skanky or not very nice looking. we're making better ones over the summer for next year). i was slightly comforted by assembling the pieces of it. i now have a sparkly cat ear headband (and a fluffy version lent by michelle), a leotard, tights, a giant poofy tutu/tulle skirt, cat gloves (one of the hall-es is helping me sew on rubber pads to make them into paws), and a two foot long bendy tail (being sewn onto my costume by michelle). it's going to be great. also, to bring me back from the heights of Mt. I-can't-be-an-adult-I-just-learned-how-to-do-laundry-and-can't-even-drive-that-well-and-sometimes-I-forget-things-like-what-continent-Paraguay-is-in-and-also-my-own-name, the parents let me pick out costumes for them and the dogs, too. the human half of the family is now Minnie and Mickey Mouse. the lulus are going as a banana and a cat.

to conclude this little story: i still have a terminal fear of growing up and a slightly worrying addiction for costumes. also, when these two things are combined, i can manipulate some wonderfully embarrassing halloween photos out of my parents. i really can't wait for this year's batch.

other than that, i've been catching up on my reading and replying to letters. if you sent me anything last month, look for a reply in the next week or two.

the clock is ticking forward

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

dear all,

as you may know, my birthday is coming up very, very soon. you know what would be a great present? a new immune system. the current one sucks. pumpkin picking, which also turned into apple picking, yesterday was great. today started off great, too, until the immune system decided to die on me again. the momster tried to distract me with shopping in georgetown and cupcakes and tapas and freaking out about how old we're getting. it didn't work. i kind of want to crawl in a hole and die right now, but i'll settle for going to sleep - at nine. nine o'clock. i hate life. to everyone whose plans i've messed up - sorry. and send better my health my way.

p.s. in lieu of new white blood cells, kleenex and needle-repellent skin will do. i'm getting blood drawn tomorrow morning, and we all know how i deal with doctors.

fell out of a daydream

today's title comes from low road by grace potter and the nocturnals. she's my latest musical obsession. and, no, ginger, i don't care if you don't like her - watch the video, anyway. here it is:

 

due to my college-bound circumstances, i've been forced to buy her albums on itunes. they were so worth it, though. i'm listening to them right now. other recent itunes purchases (since today turned into a less-awesome version of music day): sharon jones and the dap-kings, tv on the radio's return to cookie mountain (since my less-than-legal version was a little lacking in quality), and a preorder of cutie and the followills' new album. it came with a free download of radioactive, also known as the new single with the ridiculous music video.

so...what's been happening in my life? not much, actually. college feels a lot like home, but not as nice. and isn't that weird to realize? like, it's more fun and there are always people to hang out with and things to do but...i want my dogs. and my bed. and my mommy coffee maker. speaking of the momster, she's on vacation with husband number three right now and keeps texting me pictures of dolphins and restaurants and food that i can't eat. it's highly depressing, especially since - surprise surprise - i'm sick. again. oh immune system, why must you hate me? at least michelle the hall-e/neighbor has vitamin c and cough drops and orange juice and managed to turn me into a semi-functioning person today.

class was actually fun, today. my chaucer class - aka the 300-level class that my advisor warned me was really hard - was hilarious. all we talked about was rocky and bullwinkle, dante, and chickens. well, chickens and roosters. and then to illustrate how hilarious the nun's priest's tale was, the professor made us all cluck and crow like chickens and roosters...for ten full minutes. and since our auditorium is right by the building's entrance and the door was open, we got a lot of weird looks. also, since i was still a little doped up on dayquil/cough drops/vitamin c, my clucking was...enthusiastic. let's go with that word. enthusiastic enough to get me singled out with other dozen or so "champion cluckers". why do these things always happen to me?

after that, we celebrated one of the hall-e's birthdays by surprising her with sherbet and ice cream and cake. oh, and we got her a balloon and nail polish. it was fun, since we surprised her with all of this - and singing - at 12:01 in the morning.

so, in case you couldn't tell, this post was actually started on tuesday. a lot has happened since then, so i'm just going to keep typing in this draft instead of posting the beginning of this separately. let's see...

i had my stats and bio tests on thursday and friday. they were both easy. disappointingly so, actually, since (as the oovoo munchkins probably saw) i stayed up forever on thursday night rereading the six chapters covered on my bio test just in case i forgot something. i didn't. it was possibly the easiest test i've taken in any science class since elementary schools. one of the questions asked where one goes in the event of a fire (one of the answer choices involved standing in a corner). i'm a little bitter.

to cheer ourselves up, the hall-es and i went to see toy story 3. we showed up a little late after dinner so we got to see it for free, even. it was awesome, and all of the hall-es who hadn't seen it before had the decency to tear up (take that, ginger). after that, michelle and i went to our round of club meetings. the last one ended around 11:30. so, walking back to our dorm in the dark, we're a little surprised to see a huge crowd of people sitting on the ground in a circle in the middle of campus walk. oh, i think. there must be a hippie club on campus.

...and then three of the hippies turn around and wave at us, and we realize we know some of them. it turns out that after our epic halloween idea thursday afternoon (we're being the disney princess ensemble - i'm jasmine!) the hall-es who didn't have club meetings decide to wander around campus. and somehow or the other they ran into friends and friends of friends and started a disney song hippie circle. one of the hall-es even has the disney treasury songbook with sheet music and lyrics for all of the songs from every movie. we made our way through a ton of them, scared a few passersby, and talked a few more into joining us. and then someone started singing airplanes and one of the new friends mentioned that if you look at the sky for eleven minutes, supposedly you'll see a shooting star. so, being sensible people, we all lay flat on the ground in the middle of campus walk at 1 in the morning to look for shooting stars...but all we saw was airplanes. and then lauren the hall-e had the bright idea to take us on a field trip to the old amphitheater (it's in this out of the way corner of campus on a hill backing the woods, and the back of it is crumbling off the hill so they decided to stop using it and let it just turn into creepy ruins) where we...were creeps, actually. it's good to know that i'll never have normal friends.

after that, we drew inappropriate chalk people outside the auditorium and hung out a little longer, before finishing a knight's tale (where i had the incredible brainwave that ginger could be the ginger in the movie. well, if he was angrier and cooler. maybe our goal should be to turn him into the ginger from the movie?) and watched get smart. oh, anne hathaway. your bangs are such an inspiration to me.

today we woke up in time for brunch. i broke a flip flop (that's the third pair since june. what's going on here? it's like karmic retribution since lulu isn't here to eat my headphones) and left my starbucks mug on a bench (it's okay - it was still there when i went back for it). mornings suck. we're doing homework now (or i'm supposed to be, but i figured i'd take time to finish this post since i've been such a lazy blogger) while we wait for our laundry to be done. and then we're going downtown to get stuff to make t-shirts for our glee watching party (next week! i'm so excited i'm just going to use a few more exclamation points! like this! !!!!!) and stationery (so i can write you all letters/send you postcards, etc.) and random things.

i'm going to go do my homework now. i really don't want to have to spend my whole weekend worrying about it. but, before i go, i'll leave you with a few more songs:

idk, idk. blame the hall-es. 

oh, and this:

that's right - 8:30 tomorrow morning. liverpool v. manchester united. don't forget to watch.

p.s. i'm watching this game right now. you should, too:

counting up the minutes til i get along

today's title comes from uncharted by sara bareilles. my preorder for kaleidoscope heart came through today, so at least i can get some new music at college.

i've had a busy few days. remember how i went home for the weekend? well, originally i was supposed to return to school sunday night (i had actual, set plans and everything - we all know how rarely that happens). this happened instead:

in other words, the momster bribed me with food - specifically, the chocolate volcano at don pablo's. and then, just to be on the safe side, she had a glass of sangria. to those of you who don't know the momster that well, i'll let you in on a little secret - half a glass of even the weakest alcoholic drink has her giggling and talking to potted plants left and right. needless to say, i wasn't going back to school sunday night. i guess that was good. it gave me time to enjoy oovooing with a decent internet connection (question: how much do i hate my dorm's wifi access? answer: more than you will ever know) which is good, since i got into a giant, pointless fight with about 75% of my followers over the weekend. sorry about that, guys. it's all at&t's fault. maybe next time the momster marries someone i'll just text you my freak out instead of attempting to call. i'm still right and also five years old. na na na na boo boo. that's been resolved, though. i think. if only some of them were free to oovoo in the afternoon. it's when my internet's the best because i'm usually everywhere but my dorm room (and everywhere else has better internet).

continuing the story of my adventures at ho- oh, who am i kidding? it's time for doggy picture spamming. i haven't been able to do this in ages.

this is lulu. you might remember her.

this is lulu bitchfacing. you might remember that, too. 

this is cookie. he was too sleepy to look at the camera. i like to call this his donut position. 

i did laundry. cookie and lulu slept on my laundry. cue redoing my laundry. i should've gotten cats.

after her exhausting nap, lulu got on skype. or maybe i got on skype and let lulu flap her ears at the screen. something along those lines, anyway, 

this is my mailbox.

it's empty. this is a hint.

i came to the painful decision that two doors of shoes was excessive and sent some home with the parents. this is all i'm left with. i feel so bereft. 

i just thought this was cool. 

this too. it belongs to sarah the hall-e.

i got back to campus at 8 a.m. on monday. which meant waking up at 5. which meant that i was one very grumpy rachel all day.

you might be asking why i had to be back on campus so early. well, oh wonderful Hypothetical Question Asker, it's because i had a bio lab from 9 to noon. it was horrible. we had to scrape the inside of our cheeks for skin cells. and then we had to examine fungus and bugs under microscopes. oh, and we had to squish a live termite and look at that, too. luckily, the boys across the table from us offered to do the termite-squishing for us - just watching it was gross. my professor was completely zoned out all class, too. whenever my partner and i would go up to ask how to do something or if we were doing something right (or, later, what to do when we were done) he would just smile and nod and stare at his computer screen. i'm still not sure if he was smiling and nodding at us or whatever he was working on. it was extremely annoying, at least until the end when we interpreted the smile and nod to mean "yes, you can leave forty five minutes early since you're already done with the lab. go forth and frolic and get those pesky images of squished termite out of your head before lunch." all of that can be included in one slightly dopy smile-and-nod, right? right. 

i had my bio lecture after that, and then i finished reading the painted bird. i've probably already told you this, but i'll say it again since it's that important - never, ever read it. it's terrifying and traumatic and after i read it i couldn't get to sleep. we talked about it today in my global issues class. the teacher's pretty weird. he walks around the room carrying the podium in front of him. and, okay, i have some pretty weird habits, but..does he really have to stand behind the damn thing all the time? he nearly hit me in the head with it! and he actually did hit two kids last class. i hope someone steals it. 

in other school news...hmm, what other school news is there? um, i had funnel cake for dessert today? too food-related? um, i went to my chaucer and stats classes today. they were okay. my chaucer class is actually called chaucer and his age and is all about chaucer and his contemporaries and the works that influenced him and the historical context of his major works and...it's great. i love it. we spent the whole class talking about dante, so that was fun. i went to stats after that, which wasn't fun at all. we're talking about things like normal standard deviation and distributions and other mathy-sounding words. there are graphs. and numbers. and my professor still won't make eye contact with any of us. i can't wait until i'm done with that class. 

oh, and by the way, i cut my hair. or michelle cut my hair. in my dorm room. while my roomie and a few of the hall-es watched. it was kind of silly and reminded me of the oops incident. anyway, i have bangs now. they're fun. and, don't worry, i taught the momster to use skype just so i could get her (and the lulus' and jim's) opinions. three of the four seemed to be in favor. that last one, though...well, just look at her smooshy little bitchface:

oh, and speaking of skype, leanne has one! go add her. and then someone should corrupt her/teach her to use oovoo. and by someone, i mean you, s-la. 

i went to yoga on monday. it was awesome. we all fell asleep a little during the relax-y bits, but the actual poses were fun. well, except for the half-lotus when my earring snagged on my shirt and my ear started bleeding all over the place. the rest of it was fun, though. we're going again every friday and monday. oh, and mondays are going to be aikido (which is this weird japanese martial arts thing sarah wants to try). and in more rachel's-actually-being-active-oh-my-god news, i'm hiking on saturday. i don't know where, though, so hopefully the hiking buddies won't let me get lost since i won't be able to get home. (it's probably going to happen. we all know how bad my luck is)

by the way, if you see something weird on my profile, don't worry - i'm not cooking. well, not cooking for real. the hall-es and i have decided to document our adventures in attempting to cook in a dorm. who knows how this is going to turn out. but if you have recipes, hand them over! we need suggestions. so far we've got a list, but it's pretty short. we've got a movie list, too, so send suggestions for that, too.