I just can't take it anymore!!

I'm sorry. I just can't do it. They boy tried to get me to do it, and I tried, I really did. But...but...nooooo.

I mean, this is just so much better! And I have security stuffs, so do I really need to worry about having problems? Naww. And this is prettier, too. And it has a separate section for feeds. And it loads things in a nicer way. And it's just better! I don't care what all of you techies say!

I'm standing by Internet Explorer!

My lonely days are over. And life is like a song! At last...

Hello duckies!

Had a beautiful--and hot--day today. I think my car came very close to overheating, poor dear. The thermometer read 104 after it was sitting in the sun for a bit! Lordy lordy, that is hot. And even though it is immensely hot today, I am sitting here curled up in the boy's sweatshirt. And I'm a little hot, but I'm going to boil before I take it off. So there.

So just what did I do today? Well, duckies, I went off wandering, i.e. shopping. Took myself off to DSF, Filene's Basement (which I've never been to before), Target, Borders, and the grocery store. Picked up lovely hanes tanks to sleep in that really need a wash, a new book (Body Movers, which is...interesting), and two new CDs from Feist and Rosie Thomas. I listened to Feist in the car and I think I'm in loooove. I heart it. So far. :P

And, good news! The boy is coming to visit tomorrow! I am so excited. Excited excited excited. EXCITED! Mwahaha. I don't quite know what we'll do tomorrow, but I think it is going to involve ice cream and a movie. Woot!

A Sidenote--

I'm also newly excited because I just searched Project Gutenberg for some of my own favorite childhood classics and a few I've been wanting to read, and I've found a few, which will definitely save me money and give me a lot of enjoyment!

Here's some of what I found:
- all of the LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books
- Bram Stocker's Dracula
- Homer's The Iliad
- probably all of Shakespeare's plays
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, etc.
- Faust, which I really need to read (Goethe)
-Dante's Divine Comedy

And lots of other fantastic things...

Woot!

No time to say "hello." Goodbye! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!

I'm watching Alice in Wonderland on Toon Disney right now--she's just now going to the tea party with the Mad Hatter--and it makes me wonder: how do classics become classics? Who decides what a classic is? And do all classics have similar qualities? Is there an unofficial classic rubric? A selection committee? And, really, what makes Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland a classic? And is it more of a classic than the Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and, for that matter, Alice Through the Looking Glass? I'm not a fan of the book Alice, but now that I watch the film version, I'm very fond of it, although I was terrified of it as a child. I think it's much easier to follow than the book and makes...well, it doesn't quite make sense, but it makes more sense than the book does, in my opinion.

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"

There are some fabulous things in the movie. Like that quote, above, which Alice says to Dinah, her kitten. The colors are fantastic and the animation is really lovely, which is probably what attracts a lot of children. The color surprised me, actually, even though this is probably a remastered version and the color has been "fixed" since its 1951 release. They are really vibrant! They pop! And it's musical-esque. That is to say that it does have music, much more than I remembered from my childhood experience. I mean, everyone remembers the rabbit's song, but do you remember the Walrus and the Carpenter song that Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum sing? What about the singing flowers? And Alice sings too. I was pleasantly surprised, I have to say.

"The time has come, my little friends, to talk of other things / Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings / And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wigs / Calloo, Callay, come run away / With the cabbages and kings."

So, what makes a classic, a classic? What is a classic and what isn't, and what makes it so? I think a classic--at least, a children's classic--has to be something that (obviously) appeals to children, which I think is where Alice in Wonderland and a lot of the more fantastic children's books and movies have the market cornered. Children are so open to believing things that couldn't possibly be real, like Alice, and yet as they grow and mature, they begin to question the things they had once believed in, just as Alice does in Wonderland. In this way, classics are relevant, even if they aren't necessarily "believable." I think children also can appreciate the silliness embodied by a character like the Mad Hatter, and they can still laugh at the hoity toity White Rabbit, the door knob, etc. A classic also needs to be clear and "followable," which the movie Alice does very well, I think. And then there are the characters, the exceedingly memorable characters: the Queen of Hearts, the pipe-smoking Caterpillar, the White Rabbit, the March Hare and the Mad Hatter. I think, ultimately these characters and the journey that they take the protagonist on are the keys to any good book or movie, and a classic, most of all. After all, if you can't remember it, why bother?

"Off with their heads!"

It's the day of marginal disappointments.

Disappointment #1: I went to Barnes and Noble and bought this gorgeous planner. It's a really soft red leather cover and pretty ivory pages, and the packaging said it was July 2007 to December 2008, so, I'm like, PERFECT. Perfect. Get home, take the packaging off, hand it to my mom so she can look at my precious planner, and after a minute she says, "it starts in December." December? What? No. It starts in July. It has to start in July. She says, "no. It starts in December." So, I get semi-hysterical, or as hysterical as you can get over a planner, and I take it back and sure enough, it starts in December, though it does have the month-by-month planning pages from July 2007 on. A. Why would I want a planner whose week by week pages start in December and whose month by month pages start in July? Why would you do that? Seriously? B. Um. Not cool, because my current planner dies halfway through July. So, this means I don't have a real planner from two weeks from now until December. Sadness.

Disappointment #2: Boy has an early call of 10 am on Tuesday, which means that he won't be coming over Monday, his day off, because apparently driving an hour each way for just a day is a waste of time. I'm slightly pissed at the boy, although the pissyness is lessened considerably by the fact that I'll be seeing him Tuesday night, anyway.

Disappointment #3: So, last night, my mom mentions something about looking around for new bedroom furniture for me. I've had my current furniture since I was eight, so it's starting to show some wear, and it's ten years old and kind of immature, so I'm pretty excited, right? Today, I come home and she starts talking about it, and this is how the conversation goes: "Would you like new bedroom furniture?" Me: "Well, I've had mine for 10 years and it's starting to look old, so, yeah, it would be nice." "Well, I would be making most of the decisions, remaking your room, but we have similar taste, so.... Since you won't be here for much longer." Me: "Okay..." So, we start talking. She doesn't like the light wood that I have now, so she thinks maybe dark stained wood or painted wood. I don't think dark wood would look good in there since it's such a bright, light room, so we decide on painted wood. Probably. Although, knowing my mom, it's quite likely that I'll come home some time to find dark wood in my room. Anyway, we start talking about what she'd like to see...two smaller bedside tables instead of one big one, like I have now...and, ha, no bookshelf over my dresser. I keep waiting for her to say, maybe we could put a bookshelf by the desk, or something like that. But no, it's maybe you could put your books in the closet. No. No. My books don't go in the closet, they go on a bookshelf, dammit. I said that I wanted a bookshelf, and she said that we'd have to look around. No, darnit. I want a bookshelf. What's next? No desk? Are desks too childish for a proper, grown up bedroom?

All I can say is that there is no way in hell that I am working in the office. It is icky since Nick is in there 24/7, eating and getting greasy ickiness everywhere.

I shall keep you updated.

That's what I like about you. Yeaaaah.

So, after my last post, you all know everything there is to know about me, so why continue writing? This is my last post.

Goodbye.


Ha. Right. If I stop now, what else would I do at 2 in the morning when the boy isn't on? Ummm. I don't know, captain.

Anyway, I have a very intense week. Yesterday was the day of fabulousness with the boy and his mama in the most fabulous city. Tomorrow is another day in the most fabulous city, but this time with Laura before she goes a-biking. Thursday is the day of Crash. Movie (Nancy Drew!! Mwahahaahaha) + lunch. Friday is D-day. I.e., I have to get work done. Oh crap. Have to work Wednesday night too for Thursday update. Yeaaah baby. I did actually get something done today, although it is kind of subpar. S'about why I chose co-ed over all girls.

Anyway, Monday might bring the boy down here for a visit, and then Tuesday, I'm up there to see Midsummer Night's Dream at NJ Shakespeare's outdoor theater. And then, either that night or in the am but prob. that night, we drive (he drives, I sleep) up to Dobbs for the fourth and go see fireworks on the river! Good fun. Then back do Drew the next day, early, and I drive myself home. Early. Probably. Except, there's a mall on the way back, soooo I might get sidetracked :P

10 Things You May (or may not) Know About Me

1. I hate the way toes look. I think they are unnatural, inhuman, and, unfortunately, rather necessary if one plans on walking.

2. I was a state-ranked equestrian in my high school days. A (very close) second in my division.

3. I still sleep with Snuggy, a sheepskin blanket like thing that has definitely seen better days, almost every night. I'm probably on my fourth Snuggy, too. They were originally called "Snugglies", but I couldn't say that when I was an itty bitty tot (no jokes about my stature, please), so it was named "Snuggy" instead. Snuggy is a boy, and always has been. (whoo..it feels good to get that off of my chest)

4. The last issue of my high school newspaper when I was editor-in-chief almost caused a lawsuit.

5. I have this stuffed animal horse that looks a lot like my old horse, Mo, and before every horse show, I would talk to it. I thought it brought me good luck. My mom told my trainer about this, and my trainer said: "Good, tell her to keep talking to mini-Mo. It's working." I heart her.

6. I swore more in eighth grade than I do now.

7. I was Charlotte in my fourth grade class' production of "Charlotte's Web." My co-star, Wilbur, who was played by a girl, called me Char-Char for the rest of fourth grade and all through fifth. Our librarian was the director of the show. She held auditions during our math class (well, our usual math time, I guess), and everyone who wanted to audition read parts of the script in front of everyone else. I wasn't planning on auditioning, but I did anyway because I felt that all of the other Charlotte wanna-bes weren't good enough. I had a kick-bum costume, too, that was designed by my best friend's mom. It was kind of spider meets witch meets swamp. Twas cool, I say! And I still have my script.

8. I'm going into New York today at 10:44 and I have to be up at nine, and I can't go to sleep, darnit!

9. There are 92 people on my AIM buddy list, but I probably only talk to about 10 of them.

10. I remember the first time I met the boy and el-boy-o, and I have a great plan for our reunion back at school. It will take place on Sunday, August 26th--which is coincidentally the boy's and my eight month anniversary :) --on Westhampton Green, on the side of the side walk between what I think is Westhampton Way and Booker, right where the bushes are. Actually, that's not where I first met el-boy-o, but it's pretty close. Anyway, picnic, probably early dinner, there. Ten points to whoever can guess the original occasion :P

Food for Thought

Here's a poem I hadn't seen before that one of my interns quoted in an article. I was surprised, actually, because it's written by one of my favorite poets, Emily Dickinson. Here you are:

Poem XXIX "Ghosts"
One need not be a chamber to be haunted,
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.

Far safer, of a midnight meeting
External ghost,
Than an interior confronting
That whiter host.

Far safer through an Abbey gallop,
The stones achase,
Than, moonless, one's own self encounter
In lonesome place.

Ourself, behind ourself concealed,
Should startle most;
Assassin, hid in our apartment,
Be horror's least.

The prudent carries a revolver,
He bolts the door,
O'erlooking a superior spectre
More near.

How to, how to succeed!

I have a job offer. I am shocked. Come September, I will be a paid writer/editor. Wow. It just makes me feel warm and happy inside, that, you know, even if it isn't a lot of money, my skills are developed enough and worthwhile enough to be payed for... That was a great sentence, wasn't it?

Anyway, so my father has to come in and try to deflate the bubble. Not working. I'm rather pleased :)

Love to you all, whoever you all may be

He's got the whole world in his hands

It's a GORGEOUS day here in NJ, in the 70s, blue skies...absolutely fabulous. My mom is having a dinner party tonight, so I went with her to run errands. We went to West Elm, to get some lanterns for our table outside, and they had these cans of San Pellegrino Limonada on display. Now, my dad is addicted to Limonada and has taken to complaining that they should come in larger sizes, since the ones our local grocery store sells are in itty bitty bottles. So, you know, when we saw normal sized cans there, we had to find out where they got them. Whole Foods. Who'd a thunk it?

So, I pretty much coerce my mother into going to Whole Foods, and I decided I had to record our maiden voyage for posterity: Walk through the doors into a GORGEOUS display of flowers. Massive pink peonies. To die for. Had to leave that area quickly, obviously. Too bad. Anyway, we start walking around and we find the Limonada fairly quickly, stock up. Four six packs = yumminess. Mama also needed paper towels and sponges, so we locate the single paper goods aisle, and it's hysterical. There are more Luna bars than there are paper towels, and of course, the towels are that scratchy, recycled brown paper kind. So, whatever. We get some of those. Move down the aisle. There are two choices of tin foil (since, you know, tin foil is non recycleable), about five boxes of saran wrap, and a few boxes of plastic bags. And then, there are a few scrubby sponges shoved in next to them. My mom and I are looking at each other ready to start laughing. We continue down the aisle to find that the only other sponges they have are shaped like animals and have the ability to hang from the faucet, if the consumer so desires.

Which consumer wants an animal shaped sponge hanging from a faucet?

We pass on the sponges, make it down the rest of the aisle, and my mom stops and looks at the list: Four D Batteries. "Surely, surely they have batteries," my mom says. She turns around and asks the sales person if they have batteries and the person's face goes blank. "Batteries?" she replies. "I don't think we have batteries." At this point, my mom and I just look at each other and try not to laugh. She sales person consults a bagger, and says, "We have rechargeable batteries. I guess you'll just have to go back to Staples, right?" Snooty sales person. Right. Staples. Sorry our batteries are killing your Green philosophy.

After that, we go to the check out and the woman who is scanning everything cannot manage the Limonada. Just can't do it. The cans keep on scanning individually, so she has to delete the can, scan the box, rinse, repeat. After she's done, my mom and I look up at the screen that shows what she scanned and the price and what not, and we're like, "That's not right." She had scanned three of the four Limonada packs and a can, instead of just four packs. We point it out to her three times, and she just doesn't want to hear it, so we give up. And then the bagger asks, you know, "paper or plastic." When my mom said plastic, I was so sure the entire place was going to stop and stare. Honestly. We pretty much high-tailed it out of there after that, and burst out laughing in the parking lot.

I love my mama. And I think I'm going to have to examine Whole Foods and see what lies within... And probably buy some flowers, too.

Life is just a bowl of cherries

I don't like cherries but I LOVE my LIFE! :happy dresser dance: I have another internship! And I'm sooo frickin excited!!!



Okay, so, settling down temporarily. This one is with Hidden River Arts, which is a non-profit, internationally recognized arts organization that fosters artistic growth. So, every year, they have a fiction contest and a full length play contest, and they need interns to read them and judge them and I am one of those interns! I sent this massive email in response to the ad, explaining all of my experiences, my classes, what I read, what I write, and my resume, a short story, and an article, and the founder and director of Hidden River emailed me back and said I was just what they were looking for! Huzzah huzzah!


And, to top it off, she loves Richmond and has a really good friend in my town (who is a CW instructor at a university...). It's Fate, I tell you ;)

Oh Oh! And, they're planning an anthology for winning entries and I might be able to work on it!

Mwahaha :runs away giggling:

Ok, I'm back. I wish I could get in touch with the boy and tell him. Merr. I'll talk to him soon. Yes, soon. Okay, off to go respond :P

Loves love loves loveeee

Oh, here's a site for you: www.cancerschmancer.org

Dream dream dream when I want you in my arms...

So, loneliness has taken a vacation, hopefully for awhile, after a great and rather interesting/insightful conversation with the boy last night.

I'm up until at least midnight tonight, making sure the hangPROUD update goes through okay. It's always when I have to stay up that I really want to go to bed. Weird, eh?
In other HP news, all of my interns and I have BYLINES now! Proper bylines! Bylines that say By____. At the beginning of the article. Right beneath the headline. For some reason, coding I guess, they aren't showing up on the homepage, but I'll bring that up. We're also trying to put together some interactive quizzes for the PROUDgirl section of the site, so, if you have any unique ideas, please let me know! Carla's hoping for one each week from each intern, so we'll see how that goes. I'm thinking we're going to run out of quiz topics, but we'll see...

So, I'm watching Bridezillas on WE...and damn, this bride is bitchy. But anyway, bride and mother are talking about said bride being walked down the aisle by both mother and father. Thoughts, anyone? I feel like the aisle would be crowded. It's sweet, but not traditional. I don't know what I think...I mean, if I did it, my mother would be bawling. Well, she'd be bawling anyway...and my dad would probably be teary too. I'm kind of hanging on to the idea of daddy giving me away. And here's another one: Is your wedding day the most important day of your life? I mean, it's important, but is it the be all and end all of important days? What about the birth of your children? And if you say that the birth of your children is the most important day/days of your life, then is that a slight on your marriage? And what about...I don't know, big life-changing career days? Promotions? Job offers? Aren't they important too? What thinkest thou?

To add to the jumble, I'm also reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I'm over 300 pages in, about half way, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. First off, Vampires is a totally new genre or subgenre for me, but I do find it to be fascinating so far, because I know so little about the history of vampires and the legends that exist. I'm not sure how I feel about how Kostova tells the story. Maybe it's just me, but over the first 150-200 pages or so, when we're reading the letters, I had problems separating the lives of the father and Rossi, the professor. I can figure it out when I get confused and have to add another detail into the mix, but the problem is that I have to pause and concentrate on which character did what 25 odd years before the story is actually taking place. The other big problem I have with the telling of the story is the way the father tells stories and writes letters. It just isn't realistic. No one recounts that much detail, no one. I know that we're supposed to be stepping into the memory, but the suspension of reality is, in this case, hard for me to believe. Of course, it is a story about vampires, so their goes reality, right (hopefully)? But since we're on the subject of vampires, here's a question: Why is no one FREAKING OUT about people being BITTEN BY FRICKIN VAMPIRES? Um. I'd be flipping out. Like, hysterical. And the wife of the guy in Istanbul is all, oh what a shame, I'll go make him dinner. I mean seriously!

/rant.

I do like it though. Really ;)

We're living in a material world and I am a material girl

I'm the walking example of retail therapy. I start feeling lonely, and then I started thinking about what I could buy. I mean seriously. I want to slap myself. If Ryan was here, I would have him slap me, but he's not here. Hence, you know, the loneliness. It's a vicious, vicious cycle.

All I wanna do is find a way back into love...

I miss my boy.


That's all I have to say at the moment.

Da da da da da...

So, the Tonys were last night on CBS. Fairly good show this year, I think. Wasn't a fan of Fantasia singing from The Color Purple, and the Mary Poppins performance was kind of weird and out of context... but I loved the Grey Gardens performance, and Spring Awakening was, I think, very intriguing. From what I've read on other b-way boards, the Spring Awakening performance was a mix of all of the rock-n-roll songs in the show, so it was kind of...overpowering, I suppose. Oh, and 110 in the Shade looks great and I cannot wait to go later this month! Woot for broadway!

It was another successful week for hangPROUD. All of the interns submitted everything before the deadline, and everything was fairly good, so I applaud them. And my boss returns from vacation today, which I'm psyched about. I missed her. And it was weird to not wake up to five emails from her alone in my inbox. Ah well. I've figured out that I can do all of my Monday work--editing--in an hour and a half, tops. Cooool man ;).

On another note, I really want to start reading for next semester! I'm psyched. Two (three) englishy classes! :claps hands: Shakespeare and epic myth and gothic/jacobian dramaaaa. Huzzzzah! Soo, when do book lists go up? Huh? Huh?

On a related note, I'm reading this book that my mama bought for me called "Scarlet's Sisters" which is all about women growing up in the South before/during the Civil War. It's got bunches of really interesting information, I think. I would recommend it, if you're interested in that sort of thing. Because, you know, if you aren't, you probably wouldn't enjoy it.

And finally, my weekend with the boy was lovely :) Brief, but lovely. And The Play's The Thing at NJ Shakespeare is FANTASTIC! Goooo see it now! It is funny and sharp and witty, set and costumes are great, ALL of the actors are fantastic, they're all equity, and I've seen two of them on Broadway numerous times so, you know, I kind of feel like I'm subconsciously stalking them. It's gotten great reviews...and...it's just great, so gooo see it now!! Go go go!

Okay, Itunes 7 just downloaded...so, ciao for now!

I can't sleep, so what do I do? Go on Facebook, of course! Like, duh. Here's what I learned:

1. My ex-assistant aerosoles store manager is engaged!
2. My ex-BFF went to Cancun. And, remarkably, the pictures remind me of the time when we went to the Bahamas together, minus the whole partying in downtown Cancun thing.
3. A certain theatre person who recently graduated is a brunette now. I def. need to see pictures of this.
4. A certain former roommate of my next-semester roomie (well, one of them) lists a certain greek society on her profile...and I am dubious. And a little befuddled.
5. Apparently Hailey is facebooking at the same time *I'm* facebooking
6. A certain other roomie of mine has not updated her message nor has she replied to the comments I left on said message. I hope aforementioned other roomie is okay and happy, even though she will prob. (never) read this. Love to the roomies! Unite! Soon. Ish.
7. It's Grace's BDAY! Happy BDAY GRACE! brb. Got to go leave comment.
8. The new facebook app's are getting excessive...
9. A certain former faculty member and beloved honorary member of the theatre department (maybe not so honorary...he's seems to show up rather frequently) has really cute kids. I kinda already knew that, but I'm just restating the obvious, d.l.
10. Cancun is popular this summer...
11. I have at least one whore as a facebook friend.
12. And said whore is prob. an alcoholic by now. And a druggie. And needs to buy real clothes...
13. Ohmegoodness, Corey J is a real live grown up person now instead of just my best friends little baby blonde haired brother! Weeeeird. He has a facebook...
14. I am so glad my boy is not stuck in the teenage inability to type normally thing. :cringe: Okay, so maybe the gamer typing thing stuck...sticks...but, you know, i'll take w00t over...you know, anything my teenybopper barn buddies type.
15. And I'm really glad he doesn't call me a ho. I mean, seriously...people think that's flattering and nice and affectionate? Gag me, please.
16. Some people spend way too much time on facebook. I don't include myself in tha statement, just so you know.
17. I really should change my profile picture soon. It's been up for awhile. Me likes it though.
18. I just saw a certain comment on a certain long islanders profile and I am so glad I'm not living with said certain person. Whew.
19. I love my interns because they turned there work in before the deadline! Go interns goooo!

Okay, so that last one wasn't from facebook, but it's true. Now I fully intend to go to sleep and stop thinking about useless things, like weddings and harry potter and where I want to live someday and the cute house I could buy... I saw the cutest house today.... :sigh:

loves loves loves!

I'm so excited/And I just can't hide it

Hello hellooo!

Oh crap. I was going to call Ash today. Hm.

Anyway, off to see the boy and the show of the boy tomorrow afternoon. V. v. excited. Spent hours making 4 dozen cookies (who needs 4 dozen cookies?okay. not I.) that my brother actually likes (wow!). Tried to melt white chocolate to drizzle over it but some how the consistancy wasn't right and it ended up glopping, so the very few chocolate smothered ones are v. yummy and v. ugly at the same time.

Also painted my nails, so, my room is toxic. Ha. Oops. Annnnd it's pizza night = pepperoni goooodnessss. And I'm watching friends, which is a classic good time, when one is alone... Oh Ross. You fool.

So, moral of the post is that I get to see the boy tomorrow and I am excited!!

I want to be a hunter again...

If anyone knows where my camera is, please let me know.

I am the champion, my friends (ok, so I changed it a little weeny bit)

I MADE WANTONS!! AND THEY KICKED BUM!

oh my great goodness, they were delicious! I'm sorry for everyone who didn't partake, which is, you know, everyone besides me and my mama. So sorry.

That's the way (uhuhuhuh) I like it!

I'm making wantons/dumplings/pot stickers!!!!! They smell yummy and I really hope they taste yummy too. Shall let you know.

In other news, I picked up by vase today from the pottery painting place and it looks nice. Kind of modern and bright and slightly whimsical. Not quite what I was going for, but I like it lots. Huzzah huzzah! Must find flowers to put in it...

xox