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!

pumpkins scream in the dead of night

if you don't know the song today's title comes from, you're a failure of a person. end of story. just in case, i'll post it. 

i'm dead tired right now. it's been a busy few days of adventuring. i'll post a real update tomorrow. until then, me, my kitty cat costume, and the hall-es say hi. 

oh, and i got a 250-page pack of stationery today. be on the lookout for letters soon!

Bonjour, bonne nuit, au revoir, salut

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

anyway, as for tay tay:

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

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

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

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

n’importe ce qui fut écrit
demeure, même

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

et sans connaître la langue du livre, comprendra
chaque mot

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

un souffle, une sorte de sourire entre les pierres. 

claude esteban 

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.

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:

new layout!

i've finally given in to my true love of purple and changed the color/layout of this from the template i originally picked out. it's pretty spiffy, don't you think?

trick or treated yesterday. even though the candy haul was only moderate (people stop giving out candy at, like, 9 - what's up with that?) it seems like it gets to be more fun once your old enough to wander around outside without parents calling every few minutes to make sure you haven't been abducted or something. speaking of abducted, i was sorting through my old books and i found The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney, which got me wondering why there aren't faces on the milk cartons at school, because i think it'd be an interesting way to break up the monotony, don't you? like, i always read the sides of my milk cartons and cereal boxes when i'm eating, and it's always, like, nutrition facts or a puzzle or something.

oh, and i'm branching out musically. sort of. i'm listening to something that's actually current (down by jay sean) and it's, like, annoyingly catchy. and in other music news: check out the like. they're pretty awesome and their new single is free on their myspace.