Rant after being awake for a full 14 hours (ouch, man.... ouch)
I AM SUCH AN EFFING SOCIAL RETARD. Merrr. I am very good at sitting silently and observing, except I'm not that wonderfully hilarious silent observer who, after an entire evening of silence, says something totally thoughtful and/or brilliant and/or philosophical and/or totally insightful and/or etc.... no, I just sit silently, and at the end of the evening I say "Thanks for the dinner!"
First day at my new job. It was a little awkward, really just because it's the fifth and final week of the program and I'm just catching the tail end of it, and everyone already knows everyone else. But the kids are cute (there are way fewer than at SEP!), and after work today I went to the St. Ignacius Day mass with Marisa, and it was amazing, even though it was in Spanish and I only understood half of it. Make that four different languages I've now attended mass in: English, Italian, Spanish and German.
Then all Marisa's coworkers (mine now, too, I suppose), and I went out for dinner, at which point I sort of sank into that silent mode which must drive people who know me NUTS. Not that I wasn't enjoying myself, which is what must have come across. I was enjoying listening to everyone and what they said and how they said it.... I think I'm deathly afraid of people judging me if I should happen to say something stupid, so I tend not to say anything till I get an idea of where I can pipe in and sound knowledgeable. I HATE people like that, incidentally. And yet I don't even do it purposely. The thing I dislike most about myself, I suppose. That bedamned silence!
The newest of the new-do!
(Photos from my photo-shoot this morning out in the cool, foggy air that has totally hidden the mountain right across from my back yard)
Hence the incredibly bad backlight, with my new do silhouetted against it...
I'm so excited about it!!
Labels: Self portrait
I TOLD YOU NOT TO WAKE ME UP BEFORE NOON, SLAVE
It would seem my cat had a bit of a hangover this morning. All that late-night partying, eating the rat she caught and left on the corner of the deck for us to stumble innocently upon.... seems her horrible habits, that binge eating and those wild nights, are finally catching up to her in her old age. Poor old Graymie. What a cutie.
It's totally foggy and gorgeous outside, and has been for the past two days. We're at last getting our long-deserved "June doom'n'gloom"..... Thank you, God-who-may-or-may-not-be-a-big-placebo! I slept in till 8:00 this morning, rolled out of bed, reached my hand up to my head, and with a start remembered.... I'd cut all my hair off (AGAIN) the night before! And this time I'm totally happy with it! It's awesome, sexy (but of course), and I think it suits me way better than long hair does. Plus I can wear way cool earrings with this do! I am getting so much better at cutting my own hair. Never will I show the pictures of..... the past.
At last!!
The clouds, at long, long last, have come. Praise be!
One of those mornings
Irrefutable proof that I'm the spazz everyone has always suspected.
For the last five weeks I've driven to work every day, and every day I've passed at least 4 Starbucks locations, and every morning I've thought to myself, "I'm gonna stop tomorrow."
Well, today was my very first stop. The last day of work, and I figured I deserved it. I got myself a tall mochaccino with whipped cream, at exactly $3.10, and just seeing them fill the cup I was already drooling. I LOVE MOCHACCINOS.
Picture me walking out to my car. Ford Taurus Station Wagon, hottest car ever, in case you wanted to know (and, incidentally, the least likely car in America to be stolen!). Of course I'm on top of the world, because I've finally gotten a coffee on my way to work. And I open the door, and I have no idea how it happens.... the mochaccino leaps out of my hand, splat into the driver seat.
THIS SUCKED.
So I rolled up the seat, and licked up all the bits of coffee that had landed on the passenger seat, and salvaged what I could of the mochaccino (which, happily, was a whole 3/4 of the cup!).... And then I drove to work, where I dragged my seat cover into the prep room, scrubbed it off in the sink, and hung it up to dry where I'd hung my pants the day before. I'm totally living it green at work! Rock on, me.
Why I love my job
So there are those days when all I want to do is hide in the break room and eat chocolate bars, and if a single kid calls my name I have to take three deep breaths before answering her, so that I don't snap. Those days when I'm afraid to walk past my superiors because I'm sure they'll take one look at me and say, "Hark! A bad attitude! YOU'RE FIRED." But then there are those days when at the end of the day I actually find myself reluctant to go home.
Today was def one of those days.
Ms. Leong set the kids down to watch The Magic School Bus (the book series of which I read in its entirety when I was younger), and then she, I, and the other science intern, Erica, set outside to test launch a bottle rocket, you know, just to make sure the launcher was working and all. And we had to test it at all different pressures, of course, just to make sure we knew the absolute best pressure to pump it to when the kids launched theirs. And, hey, why not try a couple different bottles just in case we do this again next year... there could be a better bottle out there!
Each and every launch was a success. Quanto brave siamo!! Not a single one went into the VERY BUSY ROAD a few meters away, nor did a single one get stuck in the giant tree (though a couple bounced off it, just to show how high they went). And, marvelously, we got nicely rained on by each rocket.
Following that was lunch, and following lunch was slip'n'slide, and the kids' bottle rocket launches. Success, success, and more success, not to mention plenty of soaking. Definitely a day worth going to work for.
Relief!
It was so much cooler today, stepping outside felt wonderful.... breezy, airy, cool, just -
wonderful!! Want to know how much it dropped? Oh, yeah, baby. 98°.
After work I drove east on Huntington until I realized that I was trying to go to East LA, and that even if the name includes the word "east" I should actually be going west, because I live east of East LA, and therefore would have to go west to get there. See how well I know my city! So yeah, after a quarter tank of gas (DAMN) and an extra 45 minutes driving, I at last made it to the promised land: Dolores Mission, workplace of my friend Marisa, and the place I'll be volunteering in a week! It looks like a blast, the kids are adorable, and, of course, I'm the whitest person there. But I didn't feel at all out of place - everyone was totally cool, and everything so laid back that I can't wait to start work next week. Counting down!
TGI.... oh wait, it's only Monday
Actually this is a less dejected post than that. Today was pretty okay - I got the "literary magazine" for my class put together and photocopied, and it looks so spectacular! I tried reading some Daniel Pinkwater (specifically,
The Slaves of Spiegel) to the girls during class, but they didn't seem to appreciate it very much. So I just let them pore over the magazine, and bop around, and let them read parts of
The Slaves of Spiegel out loud, which seemed to amuse them more than actually listening to it.
But surprise! It was hot again today. Did you know that on cloudless nights we lose loads of heat that got trapped inside the atmosphere during the day? But now we have too much heat building up during the day to lose all of it during the night, so the days are starting off warmer and just getting hotter and hotter. The hotter they get, the less heat we lose at night, and the next morning begins even hotter. So who's surprised that Monday was even hotter than the day before, which was even hotter than the day before, which was even hotter than the day before, which was even hotter.... where are we going? That is, how is this supposed to end? July has been even hotter than August traditionally is, which means that now we're headed for an even hotter couple months, which should hopefully end by November. But then there's next summer. I've heard rumors that it'll be cold as anything, but obviously rumors aren't scientific. If it is cold, then this summer was just an anomaly, but if it's hot then, well, it'll probably be really hot, hotter than this summer, and part of this pattern of Global Warming.
To everyone destroying the world: stop it! You have to respect that we haven't got enough oil; we haven't got an atmosphere that can take all this beating!
Car rides are always funny when you get to a stop sign
"My expression says 'you overcharged me for that pickle!' but yours says 'WHY DID YOU KILL MY MOTHER?'" - Elise, on the somewhat overly long car ride to the beach.
The water was wild. A storm actually passed over us while we were in the ocean - when it started to rain we raced out of the water, with warm, heavy rain pounding our backs, and suddenly a barrage of hail, running to put our bags and towels into the car. Upon returning, we paused for a moment at the fringe of buildings along the beach. Even as we hesitated, wondering if we should go back toward the ocean during a storm, a flash of lightning struck the sand barely 30 feet away between us and the water. An explosion of light and of sound - it's as splinter-thin close up as it is from far away, and pure white, but only for a second; and the sound is simultaneous - no wait, no counting "one one-thousand, two one-thousand" till the thunder sounds.... and a pressure wave, which was almost indistinguishable from the sound, in that the sound was so strong it seemed perfectly capable of being a pressure wave.
Wow.
This guy had the right idea. When it started raining, he got out and set up the rain flap. I almost fell in love with him.
I can't believe IHOP overcharged me for that pickle.
Unrequited love
*sigh*
Celebrity sighting!
Look closer..... closer.... ooh, even closer! Ah yes, I know you see him! Not the best moment to catch him at, but cute and funny. Mid-sneeze? Mid-funny face? His date seems to be quite amused, whatever.
Bat Boy makes suprise appearance at Dodgers Game!
LA Dodgers vs St. Louis Cardinals. I'm sorry to say that the Dodgers got wiped out 6-1. *sigh* It was an excellent fight, though. A particularly dramatic moment was that in which the Dodgers were up and had men on all three bases, and of course needed a very strong batter to NOT get out. The pitcher was going to be up next, and since pitchers are apparently the worst at batting, there was a long conference as to who they should replace him with. At length they put up JD Drew, an action that immediately sparked a huddle amongst the Cardinals, who decided that they needed to put in a different pitcher, who could confound Drew. So when they at length they picked a pitcher, there was an uproar of cheering and then a huge hush to see if Drew would hit out or not. A strike... and then a soaring shot across the field... and out. But it was really the drama of the evening that was really fun.
Not to mention the excellent seats and gourmet pig head! All for free. Ummm, pass me one of those ears, please?
And of course the Cardinals gofer, with whom I fell madly in love, mostly because the back of his uniform reads "BAT BOY".
Captured light
That bubble of light fascinates me: it's basically a giant Chinese lantern, floating above a movie site. I have no idea how it works: it must have helium in it, because it's tied down; and it's so evenly and completely filled with such a white light. Where is the light?? Is there a bulb perfectly in the center? Held in the middle of the balloon without collapsing the balloon or making it misshapen? Aah, perfect! It was really so gorgeous, I don't know how they did it, but it was like a moon captured and pulled right down in their front yard, lighting everything around it with such a beautiful, white light that you wouldn't get even on the crispest November day.
Shakespeare... psychedelic!
Last night I went to downtown LA to a beautiful Cathedral I'd never been to before to watch an outdoor performance of
Two Gentlemen of Verona set in the 60s against the music of the Beatles... between each scene was a Beatles song that was appropriate to the plot. It was a great way of adding dialogue without actually changing the Shakespearian script, because the songs say so much. For instance (the two gentlemen of Verona, Proteus and Valentine, were members of a recently broken up rock band), Proteus always shows who he's in love with by singing the song Julia, with the name fitting the person he loves. First Julia, then Sylvia. This was the first time I'd been acquainted with the play, and I thought it was brilliantly done. As usual, the first couple scenes were difficult to understand, and then suddenly my ear attuned itself to Shakespearian and I understood the rest of the play clear as crystal.
Labels: entertainment
Update: still hot outside
Went swimming today! In other words, I was the free jungle gym in the shallow end, and an endlessly appreciative audience for kids' flips and dives in the deep end. But it was fun, and I'm not burnt but rather nicely tanned (except for the giant misshapen spot in the middle-right of my back from when I went to the beach and got unevenly burnt 4 FREAKING WEEKS AGO), and I'm sure I got a lot of exercise treading water in the deep end for at least a half hour, and then being "Holly the engine" and pulling around trains of girls through the shallow end, which is actually a hell of a lot more challenging than it may look. But, there were really cute lifeguards, so it was okay.
In my free time, I finished putting together the "SEP Writing Academy's Literary Magazine," the results of my class - quite wonderful, I think, with every genre of stories and some delightful poems, both haikus and limericks. Today I had to convert everything to black-and-white (some of the girls made their stories very colorful), and type up those pages that were handwritten (totally my pages, the poems I'd written up - they're colorful, but the color won't come through, and when they're photocopied it won't look very good if they're handwritten). Uneventful, kind of restful. Yet I can't help but be grateful that it's friday.
To quote another intern at SEP: TGI freaking F
A little cooler inside?
See, even the birds and the beasts (beasts include german shepherds, cats and ape descendants) are trying to get inside to escape the heat. See Bobby Bird trying to bathe in the drops of water on the dishes in the drying rack, in absence of dew on the grass outside. Unfortunately, our drops of dishwater are evaporating into this heavy, humid, inhospitable heat (good alliteration, Holly!) as quickly as the dew is, and Bobby Bird left fairly soon after we discovered him rather aimlessly poking around the sink.
Work is tiring. Tomorrow we're going swimming! They think I'm going there to help keep an eye on the kids, but really I'm going to the pool for some good, old-fashioned swimming. Do I get a good deal, or what?
My heart, my soul!
FLICKR IS DOWN!!! NOOOOOOOO! You don't understand, that's like my life. During the entire time I was in Italy, it was my link between me and home (because I really suck at writing emails in a timely fashion), and now it's just a habit. An addiction, if you will, like chocolate and SVU. No seriously. It's a problem. All three of those are problems. And you know when my chocolate addiction has been acting up? During work. Suddenly, amid all the chaos, I'm short of breath, I need to get away, take a break, step into the next room, unwrap one of those mini-chocolate bars, let it melt in my mouth or chew it if I'm in a hurry.... and then I can face everything again. Yeah, so this is definitely a problem.
Exciting news! The teacher of the writing class I took at Vromans, Kerry Madden, author of Offsides and Gentle's Holler, has made me the guest writer of the day on her blog, Gentle's Holler. The piece is actually something I started while in Italy, but then didn't work on or even think about till this class. I'm so honored that Kerry has put up the start of this story, which she's encouraging me to eventually work into a novel. Thank you, Kerry!
Labels: writing
Bush Pilot
HILARIOUS
Google Video. Watch out for the BUSHMOBILE! German, at that, which totally makes me want to learn German even more...
Labels: politics
Sometimes all I need is my kitty
Look at that loving little tongue peeking out! Man, that cat can be bratty, but she's a sweetie.
Another average day.... the girls built egg drop apparatuses in Science class; in writing they kept on typing up their stories. One girl is just zooming through them: she's keeping me on my toes, so that I need to keep on writing new prompts so that she'll keep on writing. All her stories are very short, but it's okay because they're lively, and in the end she writes far more than the girls who are writing endless stories that I can hardly bare to read anymore because they just keep growing in all their grammarless glory. Not to be a total bitch. They are great stories, and the girls are working really hard. In fact, it's one of the most relaxing parts of my day.
Kind of goofy prompts: write a story about a land where everything and everyone is purple; write a story about someone who can turn into a butterfly; you find a necklace in the park - what does it look like? who did it belong to?; write a dialogue in which one of the characters is an elf.
For next year I'm not going to have the girls work on just one story, because that makes them reluctant to do exercises and prompts; instead I'll have a new assignment every day, and once a week have a day to catch up on unfinished assignments, or to do free write, or something. That way at the end of the program they'll have a whole bunch of short stories to chose from for the magazine, and they'll really be delighted about the stories their parents will see printed up and put together in a booklet
Today felt so much like friday.... I really don't want to have to get up tomorrow morning. Last night I had the weirdest dream. It was like date-hell: I had been swept off my feet by this really cute guy, and we went out for coffee in the morning, and that turned into lunch, which turned into walking around all afternoon, which turned into dinner...... and eventually I realized he was someone truly unbearable, in that he was leaping through hoops to please and be have everything perfect. Sounds kind of ideal, right? But he was so completely horrid because he was so incredibly pompous, and sure that I would enjoy his company, and also he kept going to such extremes, like calling up his mother to make sure she'd have dinner ready for us.... what a random dream. He just wouldn't go away! Maybe it's because I went to bed late. 9:00 on the dot tonight.
Labels: writing
Stop Global Warming!
If serious reminders don't make an impact, maybe something kind of random can: someone's
google video, pretty funny and of course sadly true. Remember, THERE ARE NO EMERGENCY EXITS! Love your planet.
Labels: politics
A whole new me
Too short? Yeah, but I'm enjoying it. It's a nice weight for these blasted heat waves, dripping with humidity. And it'll give my bangs a chance to catch up with the rest of my hair. I've got so many random short chunks of hair that need to grow out. Though I suppose my attempt at layering can't have helped much.... But whatevs, you can't see any damage done, it's light and off my neck, and I have the rest of my young life to grow it out again.
Last writing class tonight! The class was led by writer Kerry Madden, and it lasted only 4 weeks, but it was really a great experience. For one thing, people used to tell me how great a writer I am, but I haven't written a story since 7th or 8th grade. Years in which I completely allowed myself to forget how to write. It was definitely a brain-challenger to be in this class and to have to start writing again, and to be creative, god forbid. But I enjoyed it so much! The other writers were a wide range of ages, so there were as many different voices as writers (11 of us, I believe); a lot of their stories put mine to shame, reminding me that I can be so much more creative than I was allowing myself. Sure, write what you know.... but you can fib a little! The wonderful thing was that it was such an easy, noncompetitive atmosphere that it was okay if a sketch wasn't great - they wouldn't eat it alive, but rather offer insight and suggestions. So all in all an enriching experience. Tonight, our last evening, Sally Nemeth came to lead a writing exercise and read from her new book, The Heights, the Depths, and Everything in Between. She read the prologue, and just from that much I imagine it's going to be wonderful. It's about a girl who feels out of place because she's so tall (5'10"), and her best friend who's a dwarf - place them in junior high school and I can just imagine a story ridden with pre-adolescent angst. However it didn't seem to have a very angsty tone, but rather witty and engaging. When it's out in paperback, I'm on it!
Man, my mind is taking summer vacation three weeks early. Oh wait, it is summer. Which explains why I've been mentally signing off every time I enter a classroom (not a lot of help to the teacher I TA for), and why I am invariably knocked unconscious when I try and learn PreCalc. Yes, that's right, I'm learning PreCalc this week, well, this summer, but I'm trying to keep it short.... I've gotta take the Westridge PreCalc final this fall to make sure I qualify for AP Calculus. I've got to make that class, I have to. It really doesn't help that I keep dreamily imagining what that extra free will be like if I don't pass or, hey, if I just decide not to take it. But I've already asked Mr. Wood if he'll write one of my college recommendations, and he's lent me a PreCalc book and promised to help me with whichever concepts I need help on.... I can't back out, not now, so Calculus, here I come!
Labels: Self portrait, writing
Too short?
I cut my hair! I'll post a picture soon.... I'm not sure I like it yet; as usual, it was a little spontaneous. Actually, I was happy with it till I realized that if I try to curl it it'll be ridiculously short.... *sob* But hey, it's cute and summery, and it'll be long enough by the time school starts to curl it again; it's like 2 inches shorter, and definitely a better shape (if I do say so myself) than before. So,
vediamo, we'll see.
In other exciting news, John the Buster's Guy recognized me, a full year later! Gosh, I got all butterflies-y right before I went into Buster's, because none of the other Busters guys remembered me (oh yeah, the girl who used to come EVERY FRIDAY? hmm, nope, don't remember), and I was just counting so much on John remembering me because he's hugged me twice, once when we ran into each other in Old Town and then once as a goodbye hug when I went to Italy, and hugs seem so final: we have hugged, therefore we have to always at least be able to recognize each other. And he did! I never give people enough credit. I guess it's because since I can't see myself and because my own memory is so exceptionally bad, I really don't expect people to be able to remember what I look like. But he did! So snaps and a hug to John the Buster's Guy.
Listening to Rent, Would You Light My Candle?
Hallelujah!
It's such good news, that I just couldn't wait to post: my tape player is fixed! The tag on the Beatles tap was peeling, and kept it from being able to be ejected, but with the help of my debit card I was able to wiggle that bugger out, tear off the offending parts, and put it back in the other way. I win!
Routine
This is my view as I drive home along Altadena. That's only half the days; usually I go up Allen, and occasionally up Lake. Altadena if I need gas and am feeling loyal to our friend Mohammed at the gas station, who's a nice guy and always remembers me and asks after me and my mom, Lake if I'm in desperate need of cheap gas. Tomorrow? Maybe.... I've actually been needing gas for the past couple days, but it's reaching the point where I no longer just need gas, I NEED gas. Like, the pointer is hovering over the red line on these uphill trudges. But hey, my first real breakdown, that could be exciting (not emotional, I've had those already. I'm talking out-of-gas-BREAKDOWN on the side of the road HELL).
Though I'm well on my way to traffic misery: today I accidentally stopped on the railroad tracks (even after my mom had a license plate that read "Don't stop on railroad stops - City of Covina" for at least 7 years of my life), in front of a long line of cars that had been moving (I know, that's what they all say) until, of course, I was perfectly on top of the tracks, my front tires across on one side and my back tires on the other, for an unbearably long red light, as I looked first left, then right, then left, then right and so on and so forth, awaiting impending doom and hunching down in my seat so that I could watch for trains while being as invisible as possible to surrounding cars (none of which, by the way, were on the railroad tracks.... yep, just me, all alone, the stupid one).
But by far the worst car trouble I've ever had or will ever have occurred just this afternoon: the tape deck in my car has eaten a Beatles tape I had, and will neither eject nor play it - this being mere hours after I complained that I don't have a CD player or a functioning iPod. Fate, I swear it hates me! I've lost the tape, I've lost the use of my tape deck, I've lost the theoretical future use of one of those iPod tape things, if I ever get another iPod (if I can bear to take that emotional risk again), I'VE LOST EVERYTHING! At least Gary Bryan in the mornings is always with me; though they definitely weren't playing any music this morning at 7:57, and I was having some major problems with that. Tomorrow: gas, Starbucks, oldies, TGIF, how can I state that more strongly! I LOVE YOU, FRIDAY!
I saw The Lakehouse again today after work..... heh, I am so addicted to Keanu Reeves movies! Man, he's not aging too well, though (don't get me wrong, Keanu, if you read this! It makes you more real and lovable that you've got that double chin, and that scar on your upper lip that never quite turned back to your normal skin tone..... not that I spent WAY too much time staring at your face, or anything). Anyways, so long as I don't think too hard about the whole space time continuum thing, and how she's altering her past by making Alex fall in love with her two years ago, then I love that movie. Definitely the best part is Kate's birthday, when she's dancing with Alex and that Paul McCartney song, This Never Happened Before, is playing. Not that the rest of the movie isn't great and sappy and romantic, too, but that part is definitely way, way above. Snaps to it.
I have revealed so much about my life by now, you should all be able to STALK me!
Please don't.
Schultze Gets The Blues
A charming, very peculiar German film; Schultze is an old, retired miner who spends a great deal of his time in the company of his two constantly bickering friends. He discovers at a late age a passion for playing American music on his accordion (instead of the traditional Polka!), a love that is scorned by most of the people around him. So when he wins the opportunity to go to Texas for an accordion music festival, he takes his instrument and some clothes, and with a remarkably unemotional parting, leaves his friends and Germany for the American South. There, intimidated by an impressive performance by an Austrian accordionist and singer, Schultze abandons the performance and takes to the marshes in a river boat, chugging from stop to stop in the Louisiana delta.
This movie has tremendously invigorating music, and great dancing at every turn - Schultze is quite the ladies' man, with his old creased hat and his gigantic paunch. What really got me were the spectacular shots; surreal, definitely, and not always relevant to the plot, dozens of completely silent shots characterized the movie the most. For instance, a stunning view of an endless flat horizon, with a solitary windmill on the left wheeling in the wind; or a shot of Schultze sitting as third party to an abandoned chess board, with pieces scattered on the ground; or even a glimpse of a driveway, with tire tracks worn into the ground up to the glaringly clean garage door...
Four stars: the long, silent segments wear on the Hollywood-conditioned brain that needs to have every instant accompanied by a soundtrack. You know, I think it's true when people say that their life has a soundtrack; we may not necessarily need music all the time, but we need noise. Absolute silence is unnatural, and the segments of Schultze sans music or even noise are a little bit weird. But all in all an excellent movie, and one I recommend highly.
Labels: entertainment
Free kisses
The girls typed up their stories today; some of them had to sit in the same room as the knitting students since there were only 5 computers in our room, and they were so well behaved! I felt so proud, it was ridiculous. They're very enthusiastic, so that even when they get off track, it still seems like they're focused. For instance I was in one room, and when I came back into the other room, I found them all up and about reading each other's stories, switching computers and just wandering around, goofing off a bit, but not too out of line. They're all so cute!
I finished Jane Eyre today, and started in on The Grapes of Wrath, which people have warned me is slow at the beginning, but which I nonetheless really am enjoying. However, before I can fully transfer my focus from Jane to Grapes, allow me to say: I LOVE JANE EYRE. I love that book so much, I just can't stop wondering at how Charlotte Bronte wove such strong, beautiful language, such an opinionated, thoughtful, brilliant character, and such an intricate plot into one story; I mean, I'd read it once before, but I have no idea where I was, because rereading it, I found page after page as fascinating as though I was reading it for the first time (not to mention I didn't remember like half of the plot.... like how she goes to live with St. John and them after leaving Mr. Rochester? and how they're actually her cousins? I dunno, but that seemed important enough to remember.... apparently I fell asleep while reading that chunk the first time around). I guess it's true that the book has dark undertones. Like Bertha and all. That's why I reread it, because everyone talks about how dark and morbid it is, and I felt like I'd completely missed that. But as I reread it, I found it no more dark than the first time I read it. The language is so full of life, Rochester's love for Jane so pure, if a little tyrannical, Jane herself such a self-conscious, vivacious personage, that I couldn't find the book dark, despite the twist with Rochester's first life. It's light, it's inspiring, Charlotte Bronte is genius..... when I've finished my summer reading, as well as catching up with the books my classmates read this year, I do believe I'll read it again. To Jane!
Labels: Self portrait
I have come for your liver
So....
Work's going all right, marvelously in fact. I'm teaching a writing class this year in addition to TAing a science class, and my girls are adorable. There are 8 of them, and at times they are remarkably ADD, while at times they are so focused I almost want to crack a joke just to rouse them from their silence. Today we did limericks, which weren't a blazing success, mostly because the rhyme scheme (AABBA) was a little difficult.... Friday was haikus, and the girls seemed to enjoy those a great deal. It's quite flattering how often their poems are about me, or at least someone named Holly. One of the limericks was along the lines of: "There once was a girl called Holly/She was always quite jolly/She liked to read lots/And eat tater tots/Her dad pushed her 'round in a dolly." Too true. After all, I helped her come up with the tater tots rhyme. Oh my god, I want tater tots now! *goes to raid fridge...*
I've been giving the girls writing prompts each day before having them work on their main stories, which I discovered keeps them a lot more focused than if I just say "write" - even if they're working on a story, they usually need a specific exercise to start off the class and get them into silent writing mode. Well, mostly silent. One of the most successful prompts I've been using is a little bit stolen from a halloween writing contest in which I once got a story published: "write a scary story using the following words: typewriter, curtains, rose, lipstick & pumpkin". I'll post more activities that go well as I figure out what the kids respond to. Mostly I've just realized that I need to keep them really busy so that they don't lose focus, even if that means only giving them 10 minutes of actual free writing a day - they get more done in that window of time than one would expect, especially when they're already into the groove.
7:00 - out of bed
8:00 - work starts
3:30 - head on home
4:00 onward - Law & Order CI/SVU
10:00 - go to sleep (secretly I'm like 90.... I need to eat mushy food, have my little schedule to adhere to, and get AT LEAST 9 hours of sleep)
FRIZZ!
DUUDE!
Ingredients: 2.5 hours of sleep; an old pillowcase (which can be shredded to provide excellent curling rags); a nice warm shower; some bobby pins; time and patience!
Edit: UPDATE - It's Sunday morning, and my hair is still nicely, uncontrollably curly!
Labels: Self portrait
PIRATES!
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
We watched the first movie in preparation for Dead Man's Chest, and I must say I'd forgotten how thrilling it is. Hilarious because Johnny Depp is amazing, but also just good; tremendously exciting. So, off to the Vons to get candy (sustenance for the wait in line), and then off to the theater; they kept on letting people into the other theaters first. But we were lucky number 13, and the lucky first ones to get into our theater. Choice seats perfectly in the center and half way up. Delectable. As always the previews are great - some def movies to put on my list. AND PIRATES IS INCREDIBLE. I love Johnny Depp so much! Admittedly his entrance in Pirates 2 wasn't quite as amazing as in Pirates 1, but nonetheless I approve. Floating around in someone's coffin is every bit as difficult as manning a sinking ship.
All the scenes with Johnny Depp were just so funny - he really adds a wonderful comic edge to the movie. Though I felt like now and again a line was a little too forced because the script is goofier than last time, since now the script-writers know how brilliantly funny Johnny Depp is. But still...... "I've got a bottle of diii-iirt, I've got a bottle of diii-iirt!!" The end certainly left way more loose ends than the first movie did, but I am so excited to see the third movie. I don't think it'll be a disappointment, at least I hope not; the movies are so rich in coolness that it's okay if some elements aren't perfect.
Anyways, I got home at about 3:00. Elise drove me home, and I've gotta say it's a blast driving in the wee morning hours with JACK FM blasting on the radio. I got home in one piece (I assume Elise did too, since I saw her alive and well the next day to watch the SEASON PREMIERE OF PSYCH, best show EVER)....... My mom woke me up the next morning with breakfast: steaming porridge and a bowl of fruit; and I blearily staggered off to work with 2 and a half hours of sleep and a cup of coffee to keep me alive. I gotta say, the first two miles of the drive were the hardest, because I could barely focus my eyes. I am part of the next generation of drivers, and you've put me on the roads! Ha Ha!
Labels: entertainment
New blog!
I couldn't bear to keep blogging on my
last site, since that one is dedicated to Italy.... so here's my new, all-American site, starting with the summer of my return and soon to detail the fun and excitement of the college search and my senior year.
Labels: Italy
