que veux-tu

today's title comes from the yelle song of the same name:

warning: i have absolutely no idea what's going on in this video, but i love the song anyway.

other things which i'm listening to:

it's taken me forever, but i finally have studio-quality mp3s of this and every other song they haven't released, which, as you may imagine, makes me pretty happy. 

i got a new phone yesterday! it's just an update of my old phone, and also the same phone that both of my parents have (so telling them apart? basically impossible), but it's still somewhat exciting. 

other than that, nothing too exciting has happened lately. i'm catching up on all the homework/reading i put off this week, so i spent all day reading maigret stories in french, medieval italian poetry (it's growing on me), and a ton of news articles on the wisconsin budget situation/unions. who knew spring break could be so boring? 

oh, and this? this is awesome. go watch it. the end. 

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:

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. 

On the highway, on the freeway, in the airport

today's title comes from brother lee by citizen cope:

today went well. my biology class was predictably boring. my english teacher emailed to tell me he lost his paper. the roomie had a meeting with him to talk about our upcoming paper (due after thanksgiving break - i hate final papers) and reminded him to look for it (my professor is a bit of a nut) and i just got an email that he found it. here's hoping i get extra credit for the "stress and trauma" i endured. just kidding. it won't happen, but a girl can dream, right?

circle k is hosting servicefest tomorrow, which is basically a giant dance with lots of mini service projects you can do if you want to raise money for a bunch of local charities. it's going to be awesome it better be, we've been planning this thing for months. we painted the rock and chalked most of campus and hung up a bunch of flyers for it today. i was kind of sad that i was giving up on dinner with the hall-es and the rest of my usual group of friends (it's expanding! i hadn't realized just how much it had expanded until it came time to organize the secret santa. getting everyone in one place is turning into a bit of a chore. we tried to do secret santa distribution by proxy over the weekend, but that just turned into a mess, so now we're doing it during dinner tomorrow) but i'm a club officer and it would've been irresponsible of me to skip out on publicity stuff even if it was just the fun things that loads of people came to help out with and not the actual work (flyers and banners and yelling at the lady at the copy center for like fifteen minutes because she screwed up our order).

that's right - i actually did the responsible thing. be proud, everyone. and i was rewarded for it! while we were painting the rock, two of the other officers came back from the end of campus near my dorm and told me that the fire alarm had gone off while they were there. i was feeling pretty smug for getting out of a fire drill. i ran into a hall-e on the way back to my dorm after we were done painting just in time to hear the fire alarm go off again. apparently the alarm the other cki officers heard hadn't been a drill - it had been fourth floor setting a microwave on fire again, which inspired the RAs to have a fire drill tonight. needless to say, the hall-e and i turned right around and went to bingo night instead. it was fun. and we got to skip an hour (an hour! eep!) of standing in the cold outside our dorm. and, yes, we might have amused ourselves by texting the trapped hall-es/reminding them to tell us when the drill ended. what? you can't expect me to complete my moral development all in one day, can you?

after we got back, we had another skins watching party. we got through three episodes today! i'm so proud. i really love that show. i can't wait until the movie comes out.

oh, and international friendly day was horrible. germany and sweden tied (not too bad, since it was at least interesting to see how the players who were new to the national team played) and spain got flattened by portugal, 4-0 (again, not bad - it's good news for germany during the euros and world cup, and cristiano ronaldo's reactions were funny to watch). it was the england-france game that was terrible. final score? england 1-2 france. and steven gerrard got injured - when fabio capello promised liverpool to take him off after and hour and didn't. why do they even play friendlies? there's no point. save the damn liverpool captain for his club, k?

at least we got this picture out of it

yes, i'm still mad. and i have a stats test tomorrow, so i'm going to sleep now. at least i get to go home tomorrow night. oh, and there's harry potter to look forward to! 

schedule time

while i listen to alexi lalas and steve macmanamanamanaman (minus a man or two, ahem) babble about the english world cup bid (talk about ours! USA USA), i thought i'd share my schedule for next semester. i might play with a few things in add/drop time, but...this is it for now. plan your calls/texts/oovoo times accordingly:

load the car and write a note

today's title comes from i and love and you by the avett brothers:

other music i've been listening to:

i succeeded in one of my (mini) life goals today! i have more skins converts - specifically, the roomies, one of the neighbors, and stella the hall-e. while we were waiting outside joanna the hall-e's room for her to get ready so we could go to brunch, we noticed that her neighbors (and, like, half our hall) was watching skins...and that got the other hall-es wanting to watch it. so i let the roomie borrow my computer to watch while i was in the shower and came back to find a full on watching party in my room. i had to join in, of course. we made our way through two episodes before calling it a night. i'm so happy right now, i feel like effy in this gif:

i haven't had an occasion to post skins gifs in so long, you can just have another one:

and a harry potter one, too! it's coming out in just one day! i'm so excited! i can't stop using exclamation points!

i'm cuddled up to my electric blanket again. this thing is wonderful. it almost makes up for the weather today. my dorm is at the bottom of a hill - which means i have to climb up three billion forty five (more or less) steps to go anywhere on campus and a giant puddle always forms right outside the door whenever it rains. the rain boots were an invaluable asset, even if they do sort of clash with my umbrella (it's black and covered with white polka dots). there's no point to being stylish (or coordinated) in the rain, right? right.

my group and i presented our organ trafficking presentation today. we actually found a lot of really interesting information when we were researching for it. there were one or two funny things, too. like this. who could resist a trustworthy site like kidneykidney.com? don't you just love the 20% off deal in the top right corner, too? this was pretty crazy, too. who knew charlie the unicorn was real?

i'm pretty tired now, so i'm going to sleep now. s-la don't forget the games later today! i'm so excited that they're on espn3. i can't wait to watch in high definition.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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! 

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!

same small world at your heels

today's title comes from vanderlylle crybaby geek by the national. it's awesome and you're really dumb, fo' real if you don't listen to it:

i want a schnoodle.

and now i'm going to stop procrastinating and get back to my papers. plural. at least i have the rally to restore sanity to look forward to on saturday. anyone else going?

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.

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: