Ch-ch-ch-changes

Its been forever, but the blog will soon be back.

I'm going to Enlgand in a couple of weeks for the next semester, so this will soon be transforming into a travel blog of sorts. Expect pictures, short updates, and stories from abroad!

These past two days I have had an appetite for the first time in months. Yay!

Also, today both my internship and my only Tuesday class were cancelled, so I had tons of time to get all my work done. On top of that, I also had time to run some errands, relax and watch some TV, take a long walk to go get hot chocolate while listening to good songs on my ipod, enjoy the first day of quasi-fall weather (I could wear a sweater! My room isn't sweltering hot!), go to the library, and was--get this--able to do some pleasure reading for what may have been the first time during college. Woohoo!! What a day. :-)

I've been listening to this song A LOT lately. It's been on repeat on my iphone as I walk. This, and Rose Parade.

2:45 In The Morning by Elliot Smith

I'm going out sleepwalking

Where mute memories start talking

The boss that couldnt help but hurt you

And the pretty thing he made desert you

I'm going out now like a baby

A nave unsatisfiable baby

Grabbing onto whatevers around

For the soaring high or the crushing down

With hidden cracks that dont show

But that constantly just grow

I'm looking for the man that attacked me

While everybody was laughing at me

You beat it in me that part of you

But I'm gonna split us back in two

Tired of living in a cloud

If youre gonna say shit now you'll do it out loud

It's 2:45 in the morning

And I'm putting myself on warning

For waking up in an unknown place

With a recollection youve half erased

Looking for somebody's arms to

Wave away past harms

I'm walking out on center circle

The both of you can just fade to black

I'm walking out on center circle

Been pushed away and I'll never go back

I'm going to file this one under "WTF, 60's?!?!"

"This fairly dreadful Van Heusen tie ad celebrates a line of ties featuring 'brand new, man-talking power patterns that tell her it's a man's world...and make her so happy that it is!'"

Via Jezebel. Go there to enlarge.

Edit: This was my 200th post! Woohoo!

United States of Sin

The Seven Deadly Sins, broken down on a per-capita basis. Check it out via Buzzfeed.

Things I like about it:

Glutony as measured by the number of fast-food restaurants per capita...with a great big epicenter in the middle of Texas.

Things I don't like about it:

Sloth, as measured by expenditures on art, entertainment, and recreation compared with employment. Viable?...maybe. Insulting to artists?...unfortunately, yes.

The weather report on my computer said that it was going to rain today. As it is 99 degrees outside, I can't help but feel like that is simply a lie.

Well...

Can you tell that I'm hungry? If you need further evidence, I direct you to my most recent post on my other blog, Tea Pots and Polkadots, reposted here:

Oh my gosh, this looks amazing. And yet, incredibly, incredibly simple.

I found this image (and the recipe to go along with it) on a website called What's Cooking, via the always amazing Food Gawker). I am so excited. First, I love avocados. Lovelovelove them. I'm sure there are plenty of savory dishes that avocados would not improve, but I am hard-pressed to think of any now. Second, my hat goes off to such impressive food photography, which can make such an easy breakfast look that mouthwatering. Third, I am so happy that this is something I could make for myself in my tiny, ill-equipped dorm kitchen at college. Toast? Check. Coffee? Check. Cut tomatoes? Check. Hard-boiled eggs? Check. Yummy-looking avocado spread? Check. Oh man, I can't wait to make this for myself soon...

Staring down yet another dining hall meal (I've only been here a week--I am so not allowed to be over dining hall food yet) and all I want is Indian food. Tasty, tasty Indian food....

I came across this quote when cleaning out my inbox today. I like the source.

"Remember, the loudest person in the room is the weakest."

--'Frank Lucas,' Denzel Washington's character in "American Gangster"

Busy little bee

Packing packing packing packing. That was how I spent most of my day, and I actually got a surprising amount done. Heading back to school on Tuesday...can't believe the summer is over already!

I also had a lovely late lunch with Jordan today, which was so much fun. I had such a great summer with her, and I am going to miss her so much! But she's off to London tomorrow, so good luck Jo, you're going to have such a great time!!!

Off to bed now...hoping to get an early-ish start in the morning.

"We have the idea that our hearts, once broken, scar over with an indestructible tissue that prevents their ever breaking again in quite the same place, but..."

from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon

The time can pass so easily

I feel like I've spent this whole summer driving. Not that it's a bad thing, as it has taken me to tons of great places--Santa Monica, Malibu, Claremont, up and down the coast, Hollywood, Glendale... So, more driving today, but also a great day! It was hot, but not too hot, perfect to wear this awesome summer dress that I got for $15 from a thrift store in Seattle. I met up with my friend Andy and one of our professors/my academic advisor for a really nice little lunch and coffee. Then, a tiny bit of last minute back-to-school shopping, and now back home to chill on the couch with my brother and my dogs, and answer some work e-mails....

School starts in a week from today. I'm resolving to make the most out of these last days of summer...seeing friends, swimming, chilling by the pool, reading lots of books.

Next Up!

I'm finished with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and while I did enjoy the story thoroughly, my only criticism is that it was incredibly wordy. Sometimes that was nice--I could just get lost in the strikingly precise and detailed descriptions of New York in the 1930s to 1950s and delve into the inner workings of the characters--but sometimes it got to be a little much. Not to say that it is short on plot--the story is engaging and unique, the characters dynamic and easy to care for--but it is quite heavy on the descriptions.

Next up--Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. The fact that this book is a collaborative work between two fabulous authors immediately caught my eye, as did the Washington Post review on the cover: "Something like what would have happened if Thomas Pynchon, Tom Robbins, and Don DeLillo had collaborated...It's a wow," and the Barnes and Noble employee's description of "a sort of hitchhiker's guide to the apocalypse." I don't know about you, but the Religious Studies major/Neil Gaiman and Tom Robbins lover in me was hooked.

Jitterbug Perfume

First things first: if you haven't noticed by now, I love quotes. When I'm reading a book, I usually do it with a pencil in hand, and go through the whole thing underlining and starring passages/words/paragraphs that I love (only if the book belongs to me, of course). Most books I've read in the past couple of years are marked up like this, and some much more than others. One of the most marked up is my copy of Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. I've dog-eared and pencil-marked the hell out of this thing. So, this is something I've wanted to to do for a very long time, but keep procrastinating on: just write down all the bits and pieces of this book that I've marked in one place. So, here goes, my absolute favorite passages from one of my absolute favorite books. No need to keep reading if you don't want, this is really just for my sake.

Firstly, this book has one of my favorite openings, right up there with the opening of The Poisonwood Bible (which is also one of my favorite books of all time, with the most evocative first paragraph). It is too long to reproduce here, but here is part of it:

"The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious....The beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip....An old Ukrainian proverb warns, "A tale that begins with a beet will end with the devil." That is a risk we have to take." 1-2

And onward we go....

"On their sofas of spice and feathers, the concubines also slept fretfully. In those days the Earth was still flat, and people dreamed often of falling over edges" 17

"They fell asleep smiling. It is to erase the fixed smiles of sleeping couples that Satan trained roosters to crow at five in the morning" 34

"If the world be round, I can scarcely help it" 43

"...they were trading the live wood of the maypole for the dead carpentry of the cross...they were straining so desperately for admission to paradise that they had forgotten that paradise had always been their address." 142

"The Middle Ages hangs over history's belt like a beer belly. It is too late now for aerobic dancing or cottage cheese lunches to reduce the Middle Ages. History will have to wear size 48 shorts forever" 154

"As a point of departure for the psyche, however, a crystal ball has merit, although a mandala, a seashell, or a cigarette pack can be as effectively employed" 157

"Alobar...slipped recklessly out of the shop while the sun's seal was still affixed to the scroll of the horizon" 193

"Like a baby grand in a town without piano movers, Madame had settled firmly into place" 220

"....in Massachusetts it was half past five, a time of night that could lay some legitimate claim to the morning, and a cold crack of oyster light was beginning to separate the sky from the Atlantic" 245

"The universe does not have laws.

It has habits.

And habits can be broken" 251

"Wearing the dawn like silver on their wings" 291

"However more abbreviated than its cousins it may look, February feels longer than any of them. It is the meanest moon of winter, all the more cruel because it will masquerade as spring, occasionally for hours at a time, only to rip off its mask with a sadistic laugh and spit icicles into every gullible face, behavior that grows quickly old" 303

"It was no accident that our ancestors pinned Valentine's Day on February's shirt: he or she lucky enough to have a lover in frigid, antsy February has cause for celebration, indeed. Except to the extent that it "tints the buds and swells the leaves within," February is as useless as the extra r in its name. It behaves like an obstacle, a wedge of slush and mud and ennui, holding both progress and contentment at bay." 304

"But, then, who could guess the identity of any of the costumed or the masked? And wasn't that--and not the lust and the gluttony--the true beauty of Mardi Gras? A mask has but one expression, frozen and eternal, yet it is always and ever the essential expression....The freedom of the masked is not the vulgar political freedom of the Divine, beyond politics and beyond success. A mask, any mask, whether horned like a beast or feathered like an angel, is the face of immorality." 309

"Live by the heart if you would live forever" 317

A day at the beach

A day at the beach. My hair is sandy and all messed up, my body still feels warm, and my eyes are tired from squinting at the shore.

Trundle Trundle

I spotted two fattyfatfat raccoons trundling along the road tonight as I drove home from camp/work. They really freaked me out at first, because I definitely wasn't expecting them, but they were pretty adorable. And fat....those were some fat, happy raccoons.

Lovely

Lovely night in LA tonight. Warm, beautiful, and clear, spent with one of my favorite people in the world.

Love

"Love is the practice of difference as relation"

-Catherine Keller, from Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming, a crazy-amazing-beautiful-confusing book I read for my Experience of G-d class last semester.

We took Mu Shu to the dog beach in Huntington Beach today and it was so much fun! It was the first time he had ever seen the ocean/been to the beach. We didn't take Won Ton because he was all tuckered out from a really big day spent with me up at camp/work yesterday, so he stayed at home with David. This is Won Ton on the floor with my friend Matan, who is pretty much obsessed with my dog and was over the moon to see him.

So we spent the morning at the beach, then drove to In-n-Out for lunch, and unfortunately battled traffic both ways. It was totally worth it, though, just look at that happy face!!!

He was a little unsure about the water at first, but then really got into it.

Now I'm relaxing at home (it's kind of silly how tired a day at the beach can get you), downloading the acres of CDs that showed up at my house today (thank you, Lee!!!) onto my computer, and drinking a very delicious smoothie made by my brother. Good day.

Also...

I got 1 cent of interest for the past month in my checking account. Fabulous.

Coyotes

I have seen four coyotes in the past week and a half, after never having seen one before. Ridiculous. Also, they are absolutely adorable and way smaller than I would have expected.

On Fire

Some water got on some legal papers my dad needed today. He was wondering out loud whethe he could microwave them to get them dry.

"No no no!" My 16 year old brother says "Don't microwave paper, it burns!"

Dad: "Well...no, not if you just put it in for a second or two, it's fine"

Brother: "No, trust me, I'm a teenage boy. Also, potato chips. They burn. And if you put the potoato chip bag in with the potato chips...it's magical"

We live here

I ran across this Photo Essay: The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth

Here are a couple of the photos, but really, click the link...they are all breathtaking.

Four Corners, USA

Kauai, Hawaii

Black Rock Desert, Nevada

Cappadocia, Turkey

Antarctica

Cute

I just saw the smallest, cutest little baby opossum in my backyard tonight. So adorable!

Perfect Summer Day

Today was a perfect summer day. I read a whole bunch more of my book, laid out by the pool, went swimming, and then had dinner and frozen yogurt and a bit of late-night shopping with Jordan. :-) Perfect.

Thoughts of the Day

You know what I don't like? When your bagel is so hot that the cream cheese melts on it....drives me crazy.

I got two new pairs of super-cheap dance shorts in the mail the other day, and then proceeded to dance for a couple of hours. Yay!

Also in the mail was my new quilt, ordered online because it was incredibly cheaper there than it was in stores.

Today is so far proving to be a good, relaxing day. It is amazing how motivated I am to read my book when my internet is down for a couple of hours. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is so far proving very entertaining, a fun and exciting read.

Problem?

I think I might have just developed an internet-shopping-for-dance-clothes addiction. Or, more, an internet-window-shopping-for-dance-clothes addiction...because I probably won't actually buy any of it... Like this dress, which I want. A lot. 

But probably won't buy, because online shopping kind of scares me, and I don't really have money to throw away on dance clothes. *Sigh* Oh well...

Feel the burn?

Working out today was a really good choice....I felt great for about 40 minutes. This should be a daily thing. Summer goal?

Lazy Day

I had a great, lazy day today hanging out with my little brother. He is now unceremoniously zonked out on the floor next to me because it seems like a certain pair of pugs have kicked him off of the couch. :-)

Beautiful Photos

These photos showed up on a blog I like, LikeCool, a little while ago. They are by photographer Nicolas Evariste. I love how kind of weird and beautiful they are.... Just wanted to share them with you. More are available here.

Blech

My room is really messy right now. It is this horrible combination of living in two places at once, not being/not wanting to be completely unpacked from school, not having enough time at home to every really clean it up, and having to re-pack to go back to camp every weekend. Ugh. I really don't like it right now. I keep feeling like I'm going to loose something important or forget something in my back-and-forth travels, and it is just very unsettling. Plus, right now it is hot as the dickens in here. Yep, as the dickens. I said it. Next weekend, I hope to clean this place up a little bit, but, honestly, I'm not holding out that much hope...

Shabbat Shalom

"Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
--Harriet Beecher Stowe, Am. author and abolitionist

Running

Today, there have been a ton of random thoughts that keep popping up in my head in this really particular, fully-formed one-sentence way. Like little bulletins from me to me. Special. Also, I was wearing this particular pair of hoop earrings today that make this quiet whooshing while I walk, and I really like listening to it.      ...yeah.

Some days

Lately, I have either good days or bad days, in varying proportion to each other. Today was a not-so-good day (yes, I know that was not one of the aforementioned options. oh well.) I was too much in my own head, to overwhelmed with things that I otherwise would like to push down and forget about for as long as humanly possible. Which, unfortunately, sometimes means minutes, and, thankfully, sometimes means days. I can momentarily forget when I stay busy, and today I got a lot done at work. I called tons of parents, bunked all the cabins for third session which was actually a lot of fun in a nerdy, put-the-puzzle-together kind of a way, ate a really yummy camp lunch made by my fabulous kitchen manager sister, and wrote a bunch of e-mails for my other job and then freaked out (again) over how much more there is to do for that. Now, I am going to relax for a little bit, read, and try, some more, to not think about anything.

July 1st

Rabbit rabbit

The Uniform Project

I stumbled across a really cool website/project called The Uniform Project the other day. It is the brainchild of Sheena Matheiken, an NY woman who has pledged to wear one dress for one year in order to promote 'sustainable fashion' and raise money for the Akanksha Foundation, a grassroots non-profit that is devoted to bringing education to poor children living in India.

The blog is part exercise in fashion and part charitable organization, in a combination that I find really endearing. Matheiken snaps pictures of her outfit each day to post them on the blog, and damn, that girl has got style. 
She takes the basic charcoal grey dress that she and her friend designed (there are actually 7 identical dresses, one for each day of the week, which are reversible and have pockets, making me really want one) and dresses it up with vintage or handmade jewelry, jackets, belts, underskirts, and the damn cutest tights/socks/leggings you have ever seen.
Granted, she is a bit 'out there' some days, but in general I think she is absolutely adorable, and I am kind of envious of her ability to wear some crazy/costume-y things and make them look great.
Because, yeah, I don't think I could ever rock the French/Catholic Schoolgirl look quite like she does....

Summer Time

Oh, how times have changed...this is from a 1957 issue of Modern Girl magazine: 

"It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so-called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing"

Well done, Modern Girl, well done.

Just a thought

I went to a lecture tonight by a philosophy professor from Stanford who was talking about her work bringing liberal arts education to women living in a halfway house in the bay area. Her program brings Stanford professors to this halfway house to volunteer to teach classes in Philosophy, Religious Studies, English, Drama, Political Science, etc. It seemed like a really interesting program, and I was happy to learn about it. Also, she included this quote in her lecture, which I liked:

"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society"

--Theodore Roosevelt

Coffee

It is the morning.  I have not yet had coffee. This seemed to be an appropriate post. Going to the dining room right now...

On my mind

"We stopped laughing, I took the world into me, rearranged it, and sent it back out as a question: Do you like me?"

From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

Okkkkk....

I know I'm probably echoing a bunch of people when I say this, but....American Apparel has gotten really, really weird. Just saying....

Why, yes! I will wear my mesh cut-out leotard with a pencil skirt and demin jacket. I call it "business casual."

WHYYYY are we wearing booty short overalls?

Yes! I have found my Smiley 80's costume! Oh...wait...this is for real?

A hooded swimsuit? For when its raining? And I'm in the pool? So my hair doesn't get wet?

Some things are still...normal. And cute, even, if not still horribly expensive.

Like this top, but AHHH neon blue leggings! I think it has recently become cool for women to not wear pants. Fun...

Cute dress.

Very cute Oxford shirt dress. I kinda want this, actually.

But, just when I am regaining hope....

Nope! Foiled again!

All photos courtesy of American Apparel

Good Morning

My dogs used my bed as a wrestling rink this morning, and then they just went kaput and fell asleep on top of me. It was the most adorable/best way to wake up, ever.

Formal Apology

I can't remember where I found this, but I ran across it a while back, and then re-ran across it when cleaning up folders today, and thought I would share. Very funny, I think.

Gender, Science, Math

This is a very interesting article from Slate about the gender gap in science and math, sent to me (a decidedly humanities-type student) by my science and math-y father. Among other things, it includes a report about an interesting experiment done to study whether the gender of one's science or math teacher has an influence on one's test scores/grades. Hint: it kinda does....

Early Birthday

My mom and dad surprised me with an awesome early birthday gift. This jacket from Lululemon that I've been coveting for years now. :-) 

My mom and I went shopping and we just *happened* to run across the Lululemon store, which she knew had said jacket, and so went inside, with me expecting just to put it on and sigh, but she surprised me with it right then and there. :-) Yay! Thank you!!

Bikes

I was downtown for a couple of days last week on jury duty, and came across these really cool bike racks while walking back from lunch one day. What a great idea!

I like how they are both artistic and functional, and how they add something to the interest of the street, rather than take away from it. Not to mention, they encourage biking rather than driving, which in the one-way street craziness of downtown (and on the crowded streets of LA in general) is a great thing. And I love how they look like they're racing by on the street when you look at them like this:

(Via Teapots and Polkadots)

News

This is a short, but informative article from the NY Times about the first women elected to the Kuwaiti parliament. Four women were elected, just four years after women gained the right to vote or run for office.

Image via NY Times

I also love this picture, of Salwa al-Jassar (second from the right in the picture above) at the inaugural session of the new parliament.

Image via Getty Images

A Poem

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Do not go gentle into that good night, 

Old age should burn and rave at close of day; 

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, 

Because their words had forked no lightning they 

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, 

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, 

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight 

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, 

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. 

Do not go gentle into that good night. 

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

--Dylan Thomas

Damn It

My 12-year-old goldfish died yesterday, and so did some other things in my life.

And I have jury duty for the next 8-ish days.

I really hate everything right now.

Question

My birthday's coming up, so this question seemed appropriate: how old would you think you were if you didn't know your actual age?

Weird

I didn't have any coffee today. That is definitely weird.

Random

I miss school a lot, (but some parts of home are nice).

There is a polling place for the CA special election in my garage. My dogs keep wanting to go out and say hi to everyone. This has also shown me just how little it seems people care about this special election, there have been very few people here.

Started working on the ballroom dance competition I'm organizing this year. SO much to do.

I've had terrible/terribly awesome songs stuck in my head in the last couple of days: I'm So Paid by Akon, Jizz in My Pants and I'm on a Boat by the Lonely Island, Just Dance by Lady Gaga. Is it bad that these songs are the ones that remind me of school and make me sad when I listen to them? Goodness...

Almost over

The semester's almost over, and I feel like Harry Potter at Hogwarts. Not that I've got a terrible family to go back to or anything like that (they are fabulous!), I just don't want it to be over, at all.

Yay!

I got funding for my fall internship! Yay!

Bed Musings

This post shall be filed under the "more random than anything else" category. Sorry for its complete unrelated-to-anything-blogworthy-ness.

I think it's interesting that in middle/high school I never did any homework on my bed, and now I practically live there. At home, I mostly worked in the kitchen/dining room, and hardly ever in my room at all, let alone on my bed. I used to tell people that I kept my homework separate from my bed because I had problems sleeping (that part is true) and I wanted to keep all work-related stuff out of the area where I was supposed to be calm (not sure if it really works that way, but it sounded good). Mostly, I think I just liked being in the kitchen, around my mom while she was cooking dinner, or at the table with my brother or sister, or on the couch curled up with my dogs. I liked seeing my dad first thing when he came home from work. I liked feeling connected, like I was in the middle of it all (as far as 'it' was my home), and like I wouldn't miss anything. My bed, and my room, just felt too far away from the warmth and life of the kitchen.

Now, I practically live in my bed. Part of this has to do with the fact that I have upgraded from the small twin I had at home to the dorm-issue twin extra-long I had freshman year to the big, fabulous, beautiful double bed that I have now. I love it. I do all of my work here, all of my random internet browsing and movie watching and e-mailing and reading, everything. I haven't used my desk as anything other than storage space in months. I have a small couch and a chair in my room that I'll occasionally use, but mostly they are just for my friends/sponsees. I love this bed so much that I'm planning on squeezing it into my bound-to-be-much-smaller dorm room next year. I swear, I will get rid of every stick of furniture in that room if I have to, as long as I can keep my bed.

I don't know what exactly promoted this change (or why I devoted an entire blog post to it!) but I know that I will really miss this bed over the summer. But, come fall, it will be back at school and so will I. Until then, I shall remain faithful to my steadfast little twin at home, which has been so good to me for so many years. :-)

Finals Coming Up

Finals are right around the corner, the last day of classes is tomorrow, and I am freaking out. I'm not ready for this year to be over, I am not looking forward to the summer (no job + most of my friends live in other cities = bored and lonely-like), and I am just generally sad about school ending. I like it here, I'm happy, I don't want it to change and go away. At least I have two papers and a test to distract me from all that....blech.

Picking Classes

Picking classes....is not going fabulously. I feel as though the offerings for next semester are very much sub-par, as compared to the past four semesters I've been here. Hmm. Recession? Budget cuts? Coincidence? I don't know.

I DO know that I want to take Introduction to Religious Thought (a Christian/Jewish theological theory survey, with a great Professor I have this semester) and Problems of Philosophy with a Prof I've heard great things about. After that I have two more spots to fill, and I don't know if they should be taken up by Contemporary Issues: Women in Islam, Religious Ethics, Jewish Mysticism, Bioethics, or European Civilizations to 1350. 

Yes, it is pretty obvious I have a specific area of interest...oh well...thoughts?

Doodles

Curtsey of my friend's blog, Duncan's Doodles, which has a new batch of awesome and funny doodles up for your viewing pleasure.

I Liberal-Arts-ed the Hell Out of That...

I have become liberal-arts-icized. (And I'm ok with that. I think.)

Exhibit A:

Today, my friend and I scoffed at a professor from another college who stopped him in the middle of an explanation about his final paper to ask him what the hell "eroticizing the other" meant. "Oh my!" we laughed, "how could he not know?!" And then I realized just how "liberal-arts-icized" I have become. Good lord.

Exhibit B:

I just typed the word "intersectionality" into a Word document. A usually-helpful red, squiggly line appeared under the word as my spell check tried to tell me, "I'm sorry, but that's not a word." "Oh, yes it is!" I laughed as I clicked "add to dictionary."

Hot Hot Hot

It is hot as HELL out there right now. Helllllloooooo, summer, you have officially arrived. 95 degrees (and counting) and I am wondering why I must be in class and not lying out outside with a book and some good music to listen to....

In other news, I got housing for next year! Yay! And it is good housing, too! I am living with four of my friends in our own little hall in a dorm on a great part of campus. We have 3 single rooms and one double room between the five of us, and though we haven't yet figured out who is getting the double I will not let that put a damper on my mood. It really couldn't have worked out better for us and I am very, very grateful that it did. :-)

Dress Up

I wore nice dress pants all of yesterday, and it was awesome. I had an interview in the morning and just didn't feel like changing, so I wore them through a ballroom dance rehearsal, politics class, a coffee date, homework, and some more ballroom dance. They were soooo comfy, possibly more so than my regular jeans, and I just liked being a little dressed up all day. So, I repeat, it was awesome.

Pretty Poem

I like this poem: :-)

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain things are to be loved,


in secret, between the shadow and the soul.



I love you as the plant that never blooms,


but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers.


Thanks to your love a certain fragrance,


risen darkly from the earth, lives darkly in my body.



I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,


I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride,


so I love you because I know no other way than this:


where "I" does not exist, nor "you,"


So close that your hand on my chest is my hand,


So close that your eyes close and I fall asleep.



-Pablo Neruda

Women and the Media

Sorry for the second rant in two days, I guess I'm just in a rant-y mood....lo siento!

A blog called "Stiletto Revolt--Women and Cultural Warfare: A Multimedia Expose" has a list of The World's Worst Magazine Ads (specifically modern ads that portray/play off of negative, manipulative, unhealthy, or warped ideals for women), and it is pretty shocking. Here are a couple of the ads:

AD CAMPAIGN: Fit Yogurt (Brazil)

LITERAL TEXT: “Forget about it. Men’s preferences will never change.” 

(So eat this yogurt so that you can!)

(Just buy her jewelry and she'll open her legs!)

AD CAMPAIGN: Wonderbra"

("There are only two ways to get a man. If you can't cook, you better be sexy.")

(For participation in the organ donation program!)

(Please check out the analysis with the link at the top if you want to see/know more.)