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.

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.

with the lights on

today's title comes from shelter by the xx. i don't know why, but i've been listening to them a lot lately. their music is just so wonderful for winter. anyway, have a listen:

it's story time today. highly embarrassing story time, no less. normally i wouldn't post this here, but it's not the kind of story i want the hall-es to hear and i just had to tell someone, so...

before i begin, let's give you a little background information. ophelia the ipod? still dead. since i'm physically incapable of falling asleep without music, i've started using the phone as a substitute. the alchy roomie spent the weekend boy-hunting (i approve, since she found one that looks like benny feilhaber and he lives right downstairs). we heard all about it last night - leading everyone in my room to stay up until around two or three in the morning. not fun, since i had a nine a.m. lab this morning. when it came time to go to said lab, i basically rolled out of bed, pulled on a normal t-shirt, left my pajama pants on, and left, since i had Napping Plans for after class.

this all sounds - well, if not normal, fairly typical for me, right?

well, here's where the story begins:

my naptime got put off until around three today because the hall-es dragged me to lunch and then the mail room with them. by the time i got back to my room, i was dead tired. so i dragged out my headphones, plugged them into my phone, and basically collapsed into bed. however, i only got about half an hour of sleep before s-la's text woke me back up. my reaction was like this, at first, but then i replied:

note: when i post naptime statuses, don't text me. ever. 

after that, still being tired, i tried to go back to sleep. but i was in that half-awake/half-asleep state where my mind focuses on weird things. today's weird thought was: oh my god, i can't sleep with a bra on, what if it pulls an ophelia and tries to strangle me in my sleep? don't say it. whatever it is you are thinking just...don't.

now, we all know that i'm not that coordinated at the best of times, but my inability to control my own hands/feet/flailing limbs becomes downright pathetic when i'm half-asleep. so it should come as no surprise to anyone that i managed to get myself tangled in a mess of my own bra straps and head phones and shirt sleeves and the plug from the reading lamp that's clipped onto my headboard.

confusion. confusion everywhere. 

and, my life being what it is, this would be the time that the benny feilhaber lookalike the alchy roomie was stalking knocks and comes into the room to look for her.

my reaction?

well, first it was this:

and then it turned into this:

again, don't say anything. really.

however, i totally went back to sleep after because traumatic incidents aside, no one is depriving me of my required ten to twelve hours, thank you very much.


also, i entered the bad roommates awards by not telling the alchy about her visitor. and i think i threatened benny feilhaber jr. enough that he won't go blabbing to anyone, either.

in conclusion, my life sucks and conan premieres tonight.

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!

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.

pretty much every fifteen seconds

which is how often i'm going to blog. well, not really. but i'll be making an effort to blog more. it's hard, though, since my life has been so incredibly boring lately. seriously, all i do is shop and read and drive and get into accidents and listen to music and read. it's all so terribly tragic, i don't even know how to begin my lamentations.

...alternatively, today's title comes from worried about by lissie. i'd post it but it isn't on youtube. if you really want to hear it (and you should - she's awesome) comment or email me.

i'm home from my day of slavery work with the momster. it was horrifically boring. i basically spent all my time texting people and googling things for her. oh, and then we did an open house for some of her clients. in case you're unfamiliar with real estate open houses, they basically entail sitting around looking pretty and making awkward small talk with the spouses/children/parents of the potential buyer while the momster talks about things like contracts and mortgages and interest rates to the important people. and, yes, that was a real definition.

my day wasn't all bad, though. i've had a grand total of three frappuccinos, two mochas, and three cups of bold blend coffee today. i'm just so happy about that, you don't even know. if only everyone could have this much caffeine. sometimes i feel like starting a nonprofit organization devoted to just that - sharing the wonders of coffee with the masses. who's in?

oh, and in honor of liverpool winning their europa league qualifier today, here's something from one of their players/champion twitter twatters.

and i know what you're thinking: ew, why is there dutch rap on your blog? well, besides the obvious answer (ryan babel is hilarious and his shenanigans bring me great joy in life) there's the fact of it being...really ridiculously catchy. i've had this on my ipod since march. it's just so earwormy.

i tried something new today, too. do any of your momsters ever tell you to put egg in your hair to make it shiny/thick/less prone to frizzing up like a poodle in july? no? well, mine does. and since my hair was looking extra dry and unfortunate today thanks to all that wonderful humidity, i decided to finally give it a try.

...and it worked. i scrambled up an egg, used an old brush to work it through my hair, washed it out in the shower (that's right - i'm clean. rejoice), and carried on with my usual shampoo/conditioner routine. and when it had all dried - i've been going with the air-dry route lately. i figure it's time for me to embrace the curl - it was actually shiny. and soft. and swishy swooshy.

okay, so that last one wasn't actually an adjective. whatever. swishy swooshy is clearly one of those universal qualities that everyone can recognize. like gumption. or oomph.

besides, if sarah palin can invent words, so can i.

oh, and here's a few more links. don't judge me. i had to spend a lot of time on the internet today. it was horrible.

s-la's already seen this one, but for the rest of you:

oh, and as background, manchester city was a middle of the table team that suddenly hit it big with a billionaire oil sheik buying the club and giving them more or less unlimited funds to buy players. which they've been using... a lot. to the point where signing jesus? wouldn't be all that surprising. except in this case it would be this jesus:

google's related search suggestion? jesus navas eyes

and not the one you were thinking of.

the best goal celebration of all time:

and a song that's been stuck in my head lately:

day in the life

a quick scroll through my blog revealed a slight favoritism of one topic the best topic it's the world cup and only happens once every four years what do you expect?- in my last few posts, so i thought i'd take a break from all the soccer-spamming to actually blog about my life again.

today i...

started the day with a healthy breakfast of poptarts and milk in my room

said hi to my teddy bear shelf

laughed at my woefully un-updated bulletin board (last used circa 2008)

actually made my bed

played with my dogs (and started my epic harry potter reread)

showered and got dressed

went to the mall with sarah stücke (cool story: i totally just learned the short cut for umlauts on a mac - you hit the option button, then u, then whichever letter you want the umlaut over), where i...

bought the world's silliest bra (and a few other things, but they're in the washer so i won't picture them)

saw hannah banana in her natural workerly habitat

went to kohl's for the very first time. (here pictured: sarah stücke, obstructing the wonder of kohl's). be proud, s-la

and then i came home, where i rewatched the conferation's cup (in spanish, since univision was the only channel in the US that would show it) and...

began an epic lord of the rings marathon.

i really am that boring. now i'm off to continue my boring life with the hobbits for company.

under marble movie skies

Today's title comes from Daniel by Bat For Lashes. I probably blogged about it last summer since her album, Two Suns, was one of my favorites last year.

In case the capital letters weren't enough to give it away, I'm blogging from my phone. It's been a while since I did this, but I felt a pressing urge to blog triggered by Lulu's attempted suicide that wouldn't let me wait until I got home.

Caught that, did you? Yeah, my genius of a headphone-eating dog got her leash tangled around the backseat of the car and then she jumped...and didn't quite hit the ground.

That's right: I am the proud owner of the only dog in existence that tried to hang itself on Route 7.

Don't worry, she's alright. I did a quick dive to the backseat and detached her from her leash, but not without flashing possibly every car on the road today. My life - it's occasionally horrible.

Proof? I decided to pick up a Calculus review book after all. Of course, since my dogs had just demonstrated a strong desire to play My Chemical Romance and cry tears of emo blackness before killing themselves (I might be hyperbolizing. Might) I had to wait in the car with them while the Momster headed into Borders to pick up our books. Before she left I asked her to check if they still had copies of Fight Club since I still don't own it. What did she buy instead? Three Calc review books (three!), Calc flashcards (and considering the giant flashcard project we have due on Wednesday, this is highly, highly ironic), and Garnishinh For Dummies.

...no, I'm not kidding. Garnishing. Not even Cooking For Dummies. What are we going to do with a book about garnishing food? We can barely work the oven!

My life is occasionally ridiculous. At least I get to comfort myself with frappucinos.

Oh, and I made a new sleep/nighttime playlist for the summer. It's 33 (hopefully familiar) songs long. Anyone want to guess what's on it? Whoever gets the most gets...well, I don't actually know since this is the Internet and all. But something good. Really.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Fort Evans Rd NE,Leesburg,United States

on the way to cassadaga to commune with the dead

today's title was, once again, stolen from bright eyes' song four winds. in case you couldn't tell, i really like it. go listen to it or i will cut you.

oh, and in case you were wondering, one communes with the dead via pictures. be warned, there will be a lot of them in today's post. i wish i could create a nifty little sign to warn you properly. it'd be all fancy and yellow and have lots of stick figures spelling out 'hit the back button' a la YMCA. after seeing this picture, though, i'm afraid that no sign i create will ever measure up:

i really have nothing to blog about. no thing. all i've done is put the emergency groceries away - doesn't it seem like everyone and their mother went grocery shopping today? - and watch my snow fort melt slowly in the sun. thankfully nature is going to rebuild it for me since, you guessed it, we're in for more snow tomorrow. to which i say:

in case you were wondering, a good portion of this post will be pictures or links. this is mostly because, as a result of the snow week, i've spent an unhealthy amount of time on the internet. pity me. 

as a result of my boredom i even offered to drive myself somewhere. me. driving. voluntarily. 

in case you were wondering why this is such a novel event, my native american name is actually Fears Car Gets Crushed. 

and, of course, after bravely attempting to overcome my fear of the car, the momster's reaction went like this:

and then my face, it did this:

and then for the rest of the day i was about .00092 seconds away from becoming this person:

okay, that's all folks. i'm off to watch david letterman and curse all of jay leno's ancestors and descendants for removing coco from my television. 

happy new year!

well, it's 2010. year spaceship according to mark hoppus. sadly, i didn't do anything wild or crazy to celebrate - just stayed up late drinking champagne - pronounced correctly, thankyouverymuch - and watching the ball drop with the momster. i'd like to start this new year of blogging off with something really profound and meaningful, but mostly all i can think is 'wow, ewan mcgregor sure is pretty'. blame angels and demons, which i watched for the first time today.

my new year's resolutions aren't very interesting either - work out more, eat healthier, write more, quit wasting so much time on the internet, etc. i've written them all on my dry erase board so when i fail at them i can erase them and pretend they never existed (like eddie c. in new moon). except for this resolution - become a better/less paranoid driver. seriously, it's sad when a kitty can drive better than you. see?

oh, and just to get all the cuteoverloading out of the way, look at this:

he's just too adorable for words. this video makes me want to cuddle my puppies now, but cookie is passed out on the couch with all four paws sticking up in the air (he looks kind of dead, actually) and lulu is still giving me a Malevolent Glare. oh well. i'll just keep getting my cute animal fix of the day from the internet then.

i'm listening to sleepless by the decemberists right now. it seems kind of fitting. i finally got around to buying the dark was the night compilation (which took the last of my gift card money, but between the buying binge and s-la i've gotten to 9229, so that's happy at least) and it's been my soundtrack of the day. like i've been wandering around the house with my hot pink hello kitty robe flapping behind me listening to conor oberst and bon iver and pretending that my life is an indie movie in progress. clearly we're only at the boring, overly long, cartoon introduction, but hopefully things will pick up and the Story of Rachel (yeah, that's just the working title - we'll wait for inspiration to hit when it comes to naming my life story. inspiration or, you know, something eventful enough to warrant an actual life story being made) and i'll become less boring. after all, i need real things to blog about!

oh, and speaking of stories, i've been writing one. and by 'writing' i mean i've been jotting down ideas on scraps of paper and desperately hoping i can keep away from the keyboard, because once something gets to compy it takes over my life. now, my life may be boring, but it's the kind of boring where i still have tons of meaningless school-related work to do that cannot be put off for a story, so, really, this whole writing thing needs to stop. i keep telling my hand that but it just ignores me and picks up the pen anyway. woe. woe is me - and that stupid callus on the inside of my middle finger that popped up in sixth grade and has yet to go away. i wonder if in the future kids will always use computers and never develop writer's calluses? darn those future younguns. i'm going to be twice as crotchety and mean to them when i get old out of residual callus-related bitterness.

soul is boring - spirit flies

today's title is gleaned from michael mcclure's poem 99 theses, as i'm far too unoriginal to come up with anything myself. no, really. today i haven't done anything that could possibly be construed as productive. i've just been reading and running and listening to music. it's been another slow day, just sitting back and finding things that inspire me. like this:

in keeping with that theme (and having decided my life is too boring to blog about) i've decided to blog about other people. or, rather, to blog about random things that caught my eye on the interwebs or idiot box today.

starting with this. could they really not come up with any better descriptor than 'jesus-era'? geez, time magazine, follow my example - on days when your creativity seems sapped, turn to better writers. but thank you for letting me know that this is on youtube, since now i'll have something to watch on my phone in the car:

the economist is doing much better, having produced articles like this (and to think the british say we're the uncultured ones) and, which would've been highly appreciated back in the days when i had current events to do and couldn't think of global topics.

random fact of the day: typing in theone.com redirects you to the daily record's home page. how did i find this out? i tried to get to the onion's homepage on my phone and accidentally hit enter too early.

other random fact which wasn't quite interesting enough to be the official random fact of the day: i enjoy all the editorials calling the 'double-ohs' the decade from hell. for my commentary on the 'double-ohs', see above, right around the part where i advise people lacking in creativity to look to more eloquent sources. as for calling this the decade from hell...well, seeing as this is the first full decade i've been alive for (sorry, nineties, if i had just come along two years earlier i could pretend to be an expert on you, too), i'm not going to make any judgements. however, can a decade which gave us the end of the harry potter books and the beginning of the movie franchise be all bad?

...never mind. clearly this was bad enough to erase all the good done in the last ten years.

i've been reading a lot of poetry lately. this is one of my favorites. go check it out.

i'm in hardcore christmas mode right now, so i'm listening to the sixpence none the richer version of it came upon a midnight clear. sadly, it wasn't available when i was putting together the holiday blog playlist, so you'll just have to find it for yourself since youtube refuses to play it.

ooh, ooh! breaking news: keith olbermann just declared 'death panel' (first used by sarah palin) to be the lie of the year. share in my amusement. cable news never stops being funny.

this blog has gone on long enough. i'll restrain myself and just post one more link.

have yourself a sandinista christmas, guys!