An unbiased review of Taylor Swift as Eponine

Here is the main song of the character she would play:

Here is Taylor singing one of her songs live:

Unless she has been really holding back in attempts to sound more commercial, I just do not think her voice can do this part justice. She has a lovely voice and writes great songs, but her depth and range is not quite up to par with a classic broadway role like Eponine. And if she is in fact of capable of singing such parts, why have you been hiding your talents Taylor? If your voice truly is strong enough to do the role of Eponine justice, why are you limiting yourself to country/pop songs?

Anyways, I have been musing about these things lately and I really feel the need to vent because I love Les Miserables (proof here! plus I have seen it on the West End 3 times). It is my favorite musical and the book is wonderful. I have been hoping for a film adaptation of the musical for quite some time, and I believe those brave enough to attempt to make the movie need to cast only those capable of doing the part well.

***I have been sitting on this post for awhile. I think my heart was too distraught at the thought of a poor version of this movie. I have an update here. I certainly hope this is true because this girl can certainly do Eponine justice seeing as she has played the role both on Broadway and in the 25th anniversary concert. This certain put my mind at ease, and I am now once again looking forward to seeing this film.

Obsession

When I find a new artist that I like I tend to get obsessed. I listen to the same CD over and over and over. I am so in love with the new music that listening to other things is not even appealing to me. I went through this stage with Brand New, Bright Eyes, Paramore, Eisley, Jack's Mannequin, Silversun Pickups, Circa Survive, Bloc Party . . . you get the idea.

I have a new favorite. The entire CD has been playing on repeat in my car for going on a month now. I love them so much because they sound to me like the love child band of Bright Eyes and Flogging Molly.

How could that not be awesome?

More Life Lessons (Stress Management Pt. 2)

I'm having sushi for lunch tomorrow and tomorrow night is my turn to cook

darn it! i should have knocked on wood! as hard as i could!

Yes, you should just always be doing that.

keep doin that, mama cat

Why are you obsessed with rhymes?!

they pass the times!
so get in line
and say a rhyme


That is Michael's and my conversation. do you see

what i put up with?

(Excerpt from a conversation I had with Jessica tonight.)

So how often is it that you get to talk to two of your best friends who live nearly 2,000 miles away in one night? Yeah, not so often. But tonight I did! They were both on Facebook at the same time, and I was very happy to talk to them. I was simultaneously carrying on three Facebook conversations, texting three different people, and watching a WWII Doc on The History Channel.

I kept laughing because of things said in the Facebook conversations, but all my roommates saw was the WWII Documentary on T.V. I think they were marginally worried I saw a sadist until I explained why I was really laughing--and it certainly wasn't because of the documentary. I was mostly the poem above, how Michael wants Jessica to name her new VW Jetta Puddlesmacks, and how Michael will randomly show up in D.C. (most likely at the worst possible time like while we're at the pentagon or something) and get dragged off by the security guards while yelling "Fin!" with his free arm outstretched toward me. When my classmates ask if I know him of course I will respond, "No."

We had another amazing lesson in OB class today. We talked about what anger really is and the chemical processes behind it. It is literally possible to be angry for 2-3 days straight if you let yourself get so angry that your adrenaline starts pumping. I don't know about other people, but I can't handle the yucky feeling of being angry for days at a time. No thank you.

Just like stress, we learned it is possible to control anger. When you get that first little pop of anger (this is not adrenaline) you just have to let it go. Don't let it get to that stage where your body is producing anger-fueled adrenaline for days at a time!

We talked about how expressed anger and violence are merely a manifestation of need for control. We even watched a clip from Shindler's List about power.

Truly effective leaders lead by example with love and tolerance. When a king pardons a thief, he likely has created a loyal subject. When he kills the thief he just has a corpse.

(On a lighter note side bar--"And you think killing people will make them like you, but it just makes them dead." Is possibly my favorite quote from A Very Potter Musical said by You-Know-Who himself who incidentally is played by Ralph Fiennes in the movie who also happens to play Amon Goth in Shindler's list.)

Basically, as a leader you want your subordinates to follow you out of respect and love--not fear. Showing mercy and pardoning when someone does something wrong makes one a good leader. Amon Goth was unable to to see the power in mercy and forgiveness and simply continued on in the violence and punishment power he was used to. Needless to say it did not turn out well for him--not at all.

We also talked about how a lot of people shy away from power because they do not want it. We always hear how power corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely. However, we have to learn how to exercise power in this life. God, our ultimate exemplar, is omnipotent. That is to say He is all powerful. If we want to become like him one day, we must have power and use it the right way or how will we ever be ready to assume a position of omnipotence?

Also, the person who said never let a sunset on an argument needs to be kicked in the teeth. Sometimes the best cure for an argument is to step away, calm down, and then rationally discuss the issue when the anger is gone. Trying to address an issue when you are still upset (and consequently irrational) nearly always ends badly.

Now I am certainly not a morning kind of person, but I will admit that things never seem so bad in the morning. Sometimes the best resolution to an argument is to sleep on it. The angry-I am right and you are wrong and that's the way it is mentality from the night before is gone. Chances are if you tried to duke it out when you are in this mentality (not to mention tired on top of it) the situation will only escalate.

Even though we might know all these techniques for coping with anger and stress sometimes things seem completely overwhelming nonetheless, and it is nearly impossible to discern any reason why things are the way they are. In those times, the best thing to do it put things into the eternal perspective. Remember who is really in control of things and put it in His hands.

Only here would I ever learn this in a graduate school organizational behavior class.

Stress Management

I am tired, oh so tired, right now. BUT I feel like I had one of those days where I just need to share what I learned.

The life lessons are just coming at me like whoa right now! It's pretty awesome. It makes me feel wise and mature and whatnot.

Today I learned about stress in my organization behavior class. I can explain to you how your eyes send not one but two signals to your brain. One for your brain to process what you're seeing and the other to your amygdala (yes I now know what an amygdala is) which is part of your emotional response center (limbic system). Basically, the point is that your body reacts to something before your brain really comprehends what is going on. Kind of cool huh?

I also learned our limbic system (emotions) are the first thing to develop after our brain stem. Everything we learn is connected to our emotions. Our frontal lobe (our rationality) does not even fully develop until we are in our 20s! So basically, humans are emotional beings. I suppose that means Bones (one of my favorite shows) is a fallacy, but I guess I'm ok with that.

Basically, we are all cavemen. When we encounter stress we react with our fight or flight gotta run away or kill the deadly saber-tooth tiger response. Our ancient survival instincts still kick in when we are stressed even though the situation is completely different these days. I don't remember the last time I was mauled by a tiger anyways! Instead we have a bombardment of low-grade stresses, but we still have the survival instinct reaction anyways. Stress is only a physical reaction to a (this is important) PERCEIVED loss of control. Rarely when we finally calm down and put things into perspective, was the situation even close to what our reaction was.

And (now this is scientifically proven people) stress makes you unhealthy! It makes you sick, dumb, irrational, achy, tense, etc. Dare I say that stress also makes you completely miserable (in my experience anyways).

Sometimes, as a graduate student I feel guilty about putting aside work I know I should be doing to have fun, exercise, cook, watch a movie, etc. However, today I learned that I need to get over that nonsense. I always knew it was good to set aside time for exercise and eating and the essentials, but I just can't help but beat myself up about doing something fun when I know there is so much school work to be done. Even during the fun I had this weekend, I always kept thinking in the back of my mind that I should be doing homework. But by golly wouldn't you know, my happy fun times were justified in class today.

As a matter of fact, when you are feeling the most stressed is the time when you most need to step away from the situation and gain some perspective. I need to remind myself that while school is important right now, it is not all there is. As a matter of fact, in the long run school is relatively unimportant.

So the point of this:

We can't avoid stress. BUT we can learn to deal with it. As a matter of fact, I think maybe part of our test in this life is to learn to control stress.

(I promise I'll try to think of something more fun to write about soon. Like perhaps how I left my phone on silent this morning and woke up at 7:45 and had to be at school at 8 or how despite the fact Zumba gives me a good workout I don't think I will ever be a good dancer :(, or how I thought I lost my iPod today, or how my team got reamed in front of the entire econ class and I almost lost it in classic Rachel the Big Mouth style, or how I got so upset on Sunday because someone started playing Christmas music that all I could do was stick a pillow over my face at someone else's apartment and be so miserable that I started cracking up and couldn't regain composure for a few minutes and how it was exacerbated by people putting more pillows on my face, or how I now laugh every time I hear the phrase golden arches, or how I booked a hostel 0.3 miles from where I'll be staying next week in D.C. for Saturday night before the rest of the group gets there and how they supposedly provide free walking tours, or how I'm really excited to go get Indian food with my friends from Africa on Thursday night, or how much I love the movie Despicable Me, or my rediscovered love of the Weepies, or how I get to see Anthony Green on Friday night, or how ridiculously excited I am to go home in just less than two weeks . . . well you get the point.)

But isn't life wonderful?!

Can't Go Back Now

This weekend was good. It was so good.

It was yet again another one of those weekends where you expect nothing much to happen, and then so much does happen. I end up realizing that life is actually pretty wonderful and I have friends that love me.

Pretty awesome stuff huh?

I would be lying if I didn't admit that sometimes when I'm in Provo I feel a bit cut off. I have no family here. My reliable, wonderful, go-to friends are just as far away as my family. I will also admit that making friends is not always the easiest thing for me to do. I think it's the awkward period where you almost feel like you're inviting yourself to stuff and you're not sure that you're wanted period that gets me. Sometimes I would rather just sit at home alone that subject myself to that.

Anyways, I digress.

On Friday I went to Park City . . . all by my lonesome. I drove through the canyon after finishing work and the day was gorgeous. I'm not much of a driver, but something about driving through the mountains on a sunny day with unusually warm weather for a November was pretty spectacular.

(I took this picture en route to PC, possibly a little dangerous but it was too beautiful outside to resist.)

I drove to PC with the intention of revamping my business clothes wardrobe. I think I did a pretty good job, and would prefer not to admit how much money I spent. I will say I have absolutely no buyers remorse. It felt good to go into store, pick out what I wanted, and just buy it!

I find spending productive alone time rather empowering. My drive back through the canyon that night with a chocolate banana vivanno smootie and some great music playing in the background was just pure happiness.

Then the night took me in a pretty unexpected direction. I went to a birthday party at 8:30 with the intention of staying for an hour, and then going home to get work done. When I finally got home at 2 a.m. that morning I felt even better about life though slightly more exhausted than earlier in the day.

Saturday consisted of early morning homework I had procrastinated. Then 1st row (that's right I said 1st row) tickets to the football game where BYU decimated UNLV. Oh, and I got a free shirt. How cool is that?

Then I ate more sushi than any one girl should ever eat in one sitting. It was delicious!

By this time I was sleep-deprived, full of food, and ready to crash hard. I assumed my weekend fun was over when I headed home with a fuzzy head and heavy eyelids. I promptly passed out after getting home around 6.

And then wouldn't you know it, but the next thing I know I'm hanging up the phone from a conversation I barely remember having. I was out of it asleep at this point so I had to check and make sure I really did get a phone call and that I wasn't just dreaming. It was almost like texting in my sleep all over again! In retrospect, even though I felt like poo when I rolled out of bed and inspected the damage of my early evening nap (crazy crumpled bangs and red lines from the sheets all over my chin and neck), I'm glad I did it. Another fun evening.

Then came a wonderful Sunday with an uplifting church meeting, an impromptu dinner that didn't turn out half bad, a fireside, games, and some completely ridiculous nonsense (which is my very favorite kind).

But don't you love to laugh? I got my fill of it this weekend. It was definitely one of those hey Rachel, your life is really pretty great kind of weekends. Even though I am far away from my family and I have wonderful friends at home, I know some pretty great people out here, too. Next time I'm feeling a little down I will tell myself this.

I love that I've reached the point in my life where a lot of my insecurities are dissipating. I realize that most of them were pretty irrational in the first place. Maybe I'm not the most well liked person around (I'm sure I'm not because sometimes I think I can probably be a complete pain), but I don't need to be that person. Sure, being the outgoing person will never really be my thing, but I certainly shouldn't be afraid of putting myself out there sometimes. Showing up at a party where you don't know very many people can be a really great thing sometimes! Great people are all around us, and I should never shy away from getting out there and getting to know them.

On the flip side, learning to do things on your own is a different kind of wonderful. I really didn't want to go all the way to Park City by myself, but I am sure glad I did. There was something nice about knowing that I was doing something alone because I wanted to--not because I didn't have any other choice. There is a BIG difference between being alone and being lonely, and that is a pretty empowering idea!

I love this song. And I love The Weepies.

Wand

A wand (a mascara wand that is) was the start of my troubles today. In the morning I am hardly coherent, and putting on mascara is definitely not the safest thing for me to in that impaired state. However, I must do what must be done. I braved the danger and put the mascara on anyways. Alas, it was fated to be an unsuccessful attempt. I proceeded towards my eyelashes with the brush and then I proceeded a bit too far.

You got it.

I poked the darn thing right into my eye (with no contacts if you please). My eye has not been the same since . . . who knows it may never be.

Ok . . . it will be.

On a bright note though, I did score well on my quiz. 22 out of 24--my best yet.

Oh, and my favorite new winter food:

A cup of Stephen's Milk Chocolate Cocoa with one spoonful of Stephen's Pumpkin Spice

and (here's the kicker so get ready for it)

Thin mints.

You use them as straws! You bit a bit off of one side and then another bit off the opposite side. Then you suck the hot cocoa through the cookie. The cookie gets soft and then you eat it (all at once or it will fall apart and get messy). It is like melted minty chocolaty heaven in your mouth.

It will certainly make your bad day better. I promise!

So will this song:

And hopefully this picture:

Nasty

but it's that just a strange word. Say it a few times . . . go on!

Nasty

Nasty

Nasty

Nasty

It sounds ridiculous now doesn't it? In econ class today my teacher was talking about how if people acted amoral (like econ is supposed to be) it would create nasty individuals and nasty businesses. Then I just started saying the word nasty in my head. After about 4 times, it no longer sounded like a real word.

Like the word fork . . . or bleachers. (I mean who even comes up with this nonsense?)

On another note, I experienced homelessness for about 50 minutes today. I have decided I do not like it one little bit. After coming home from the gym, I decided that it was high time to take the rapidly decomposing pumpkin that had started to leak some unknown substance all over the ground to the garbage. After finishing the deed, I returned to my front door only to find that it was locked. LOCKED! I was wearing only my gym clothes (shorts, t-shirt, tennis shoes) and luckily a jacket I had decided to put on at the last second. No keys, phone or iPod. In fact, the only thing I had apart from my clothes was my gym pass which was of absolutely no use to me.

First I tried the windows. I have been successful in the past at finding a random unlocked window and crawling through (in a skirt no less) (through the smallest window in the house) (into the bathtub). But no such luck for me today. I was locked out for reals.

Then I decided to sit on the steps. Surely someone would be home soon. Or at the very least some friend would come by and take pity on me. Once again no such luck. Then I started getting cold. It is November in Utah after all. So I got up and started walking around. This didn't really help and I just got colder. To make matters worse, I also started to get hungry.

When I started to feel really homeless was when I finally resorted to standing next to our neighbors laundry vent to keep my legs warm. The warm air that smelled like clean laundry felt really good on my legs that had been exposed to the elements for the past 40 minutes.

It was finally time to go to FHE, and upon my return an hour later I was no longer homeless. The door was thankfully unlocked and I could resume my life as a person with a home.

It felt terrible today to be completely cut off from communicating with people and to not even be able to go inside. Even the laundry room and lounge of my apartment complex are kept locked. I cannot even imagine what it must feel like to spend days, weeks or even moths at a time living like this. My brief, fairly lame experience helped remind me why I want to get an MPA degree, and I reflected on all the good I will hopefully be able to do in the world someday. Being locked out of your house, stranded in Salt Lake City or living in a developing country definitely helps develop empathy in a person. Because to some miniscule degree I understand what people are going through, my desire to help them is increased. I think that is a VERY good thing.

I am officially obsessed:

In Bronco We Trust

Saturday was one of those good days. You know, one of those good days that was extra good because you weren't even expecting it to be anything at all.

I had planned on attending the HELP reunion in the morning and then spending the day studying and doing things that are important albeit boring.

Instead, I spent the entire day with my favorite friends from Africa (that I lived with in Africa . . . they are not African). We ate pizza, talked about our favorite African memories including (but not limited to) squeeze yourselves, fierce (but really parasite) Pierce and Blurry Flurry our favorite Irish friends, the goat pee incident and Edith's reenact of said incident, the joys of wearing eyeliner and squeezing four people on one small boda boda.

Then, for the first time this season, I went to the football game. Can you say 8th row right behind the goal? I can:

Oh, yeah . . . and BYU won. About time, huh?

New favorite artist: Ray LaMontagne

I will carefully choose my favorite song and post it soon. I haven't picked one quite yet.

Yesterday's Feelings

I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but I'm working at the elementary school again. Mostly, it's wonderful . . . per usual.

However,

yesterday happened.

Yesterday was BAD.

It was raining and it was sports day. Never a good sign.

So we had to stay inside and halved half of the gym with the 3-6 grade sports class (yes halved half . . . 1/4 of the gym for 18 running, screaming, antsy, short attention-spanned K-2 graders).

Before we even made it over to the other half of the gym two girls got in a fight. Not a verbal fight, a physical one. There were tears and time outs and apologies.

While calling role one girl stepped on another girl (whether intentional or not I have been unable to determine). There were more tears and another apology.

Then we played dodgeball. One boy got hit with the ball and a combination of that and his disgust with dodgeball because he got out so soon made him cry . . . more tears. The same kid got quite disgruntled later when he had difficulty with bowling. It resulted in him throwing a ball at me, having to apologize and getting sent to time out.

Things went smoothly for a bit until I was informed that two girls had stolen gum from my backpack. I was slightly confused because my backpack was clear on the other side of the gym. Turns out, it was one of the volunteers' backpacks and incidentally it was his first day. Some impression he must have got of us. I had been screaming myself hoarse half the class and then he gets his stuff stolen.

But what he must've thought of us unruly heathens!

There were two more apologies and some chewed gym spit into my hand. I momentarily forgot that while that's ok with Gage it probably isn't the best idea with a student who is not related to me.

Then we took a water/bathroom break. Two of my girls pushed each other's faces into the water fountain. Two more sets of tears, apologies and time outs.

(Side note: When I was in 5th grade I pushed a boy named James' face into a water fountain when he cut me in line on a field trip to Sandy Springs Park. I felt slightly inclined to laugh when this situation arose yesterday because I had been there and done that before. I am sure if I told the kids about it they would either promptly disbelieve that I was ever a child or lose all respect for me so I decided to just keep it to myself.)

As if it could get any worse, things got even more out of hand. I finally decided to mandate that anyone I saw not keeping their hands to themselves was out for the rest of the day. I ended up sending 6 kids to time out.

Whew . . . that hour went on for far too long.

To sum it up:

Kids in tears: 6

Thieves: 2

Time outs: 10

Apologies: 7

ABC gum in my hand: 1

On the bright side, the class did eventually end. And as far as I can tell not a single one of those kids remembered the slightest thing about how bad yesterday was.

Here are some pictures from happier days of my 3-6 graders doing abstract art a la Jackson Pollock a few weeks ago:

And this happy little bug was there to greet me when I got school today. It was like it was saying,

"Be happy Rachel, Friday is nearly here and one of those great thunderstorms you love is coming tonight. Now give me a smile!"

30 Seconds

I went to a concert tonight. I forgot how much I like them. For reals it kind of gives you a high. I enjoy being smushed into a whole bunch of people who are all there because they love music.

Of course, it has its downsides, too. People also tend to forget all sense of common decency and push, shove, hit, bite, scratch, etc. their way towards to front because for some reason unbeknownst to me everyone seems to think that they deserve to be at the front more than anyone else. Not sure why people think that, doesn't make much sense in my opinion.

I got really sweaty. Like soaking wet. I'm talking had to go buy myself a new shirt at Wal-Mart before going to eat sweaty here. It was legit sweatiness. And if I do say so myself, the hastily acquired shirt looks rather good on me really.

Despite my extreme sweatiness, I was so tired by the time I made it home from my late night Denny's omelet I very nearly skipped the shower tonight. That would have been rather disgusting. Luckily for me, I made myself do it because let's be honest I would be the only one who suffered from me not taking a shower tonight.

I'm already showing some fabulous bruises on my arms and feet from tonight's ridiculousness. As it turns out, hardcore looking boy in commando boots responsible from aforementioned bruises on my feet was not nearly as tough as he looked, as evidenced when he was pulled out of the crowd sweating more profusely than me and half-conscious. Just because you put on all black and paint your fingernails doesn't mean you're hardcore I suppose.

Anywho, as yet another piece of evidence to the fact that new media is taking over the world (I have a rant about this I might discuss at some latter yet to be determined date), here is a picture Jared Leto took and posted from the concert tonight:

Kings and Queens of UVU. I circled myself in pink so you can find me easily!

You're welcome!

Wonderflonium

Do not bounce.

My new favorite thing. Check it out!

What my age again?

Nobody likes you when you're 23 . . . or so the Blink 182 song says.

I have been more than a little surprised by how many people had never heard of this song. Also, I did not post the real video because the run around naked the whole time . . . ew.

Luckily, I now know that isn't true. Clearly, the copious facebook messages, texts and calls indicate otherwise. Oh, the surprise birthday party my roommates threw me tonight and the planned dinner and laser tag with my friends tomorrow isn't too bad either!

Happy late birthday to myself! It goes to show that grad school is already kicking my butt because I didn't even have time to write my birthday post until the night after my actual birtday.

Thank you everyone! I love you all a whole big bunch!

Group hug!

The Paper Cut from Hades

So I paper cut my finger last night. Aren't they just the most miserable things? I mean how can a flimsy little old piece of paper literally slice through your skin and make you bleed? HOW?!

Said paper cut sliced my finger last night whilst reaching into my backpack.

It bled.

This morning while getting ready the silly thing started bleeding again!

And then, and then I'll be darned if today during class I reached into my backpack and resliced the same finger in the same spot on the same piece of paper.

It bled.

I mean really? How much more ridiculous can it get?

Completely irrelevant except for the title but enjoy:

On a brighter note . . .

Gossip Girl Season 4 premiere tonight!

Happy early Birthday to me!!!

Laziness and River Rafting

I say this in the most humble way possible, I am an awesome river rafter!

I'm pretty much a pro!

Hey remember when I used to have bad teeth?

For the full caption of this picture go here. But to sum it all up, I am familiar with Olympic Class V Rapids.

Yeah, seriously.

I'm leaving to go tomorrow to go rafting on Kings River. It's been awhile since I've been so I'm pretty excited to go camping and rafting

So I finished everything for work today. I made my last trip to the office, emailed my recommendations, deposited my checks, etc etc.

I had all these wonderful glorious plans to go home, eat a quick lunch and then really buckle down and clean and pack.

But then I realized I had absolutely no energy. So I took a nap. Then I woke up. But then I fell back asleep again. It was just one of those times when you know you should be doing something but you are much too tired to really care. Holding my eyes open was more of an effort than I could manage so how was I supposed to scrub, sweep, mop, and dust my house into submission? How?!

But on the good side, I did eventually muster up just enough energy to get in a short work out and do the dishes. After a shower I hit the couch again.

And here I sit.

But to prove I haven't been completely wasting my life away here are some new songs I really love:

See, I haven't been wasting my life away completely!

Seventy Times 7

I love music! Did you know that?

Directions for this post:

1.) Play this video




2.) Read this post while listening




I love how a song can transcend just being a song. It can be connected to a thousand memories. The song means so much more than just the original tune and lyrics that the artist records. Because of your experience with it you make it your own. It doesn't matter how many years go by or how your musical tastes may change. This song comes on and you can remember with almost perfect detail the moment that this song became something so much more. Unfortunately this can be a good or bad connection, and I have songs that qualify in both categories. But I certainly have more songs that remind me of some of the best times, friends and memories I have in my life than ones that remind me of the bad times.

I'm going to tell you about one of them.

While driving to work this morning Seventy Times 7 came on my iPod . . .

Immediately I was driving through the Smoky Mountains by the Little River en route to Gatlinburg. The car is full of my very best girlfriends. It is the perfect day in one of the most perfect summers of my life. All the windows are down, feet are hanging out the window and we are young, relatively carefree and anxiously awaiting our post high school lives. We weren't really sure what would happen come fall when we would all go our separate ways or how the years at college or wherever else we were going would change us, but I know at that moment we couldn't care less. All that mattered was that we were together and having an awesome time. I don't remember what we did in Gatlinburg, where we went that night, or even who's car we were driving, but I will never forget that drive and that song.

Using cell phones, water bottles or whatever we could find we sang (or maybe we screamed)

And is that what you call tact?

You're as subtle as a brick in the small of my back.

So let's end this call, and end this conversation.

and is that what you call a getaway?

well tell me what you got away with.

cause you left the frays from the ties you severed 

when you say best friends means friends forever

just as loud as we could into our "microphones".

It was definitely one of my infinite moments (see Perks of Being a Wallflower for explanation).

I will admit that if I heard Brand New's first CD for the first time today, I probably wouldn't think much of it. But Your Favorite Weapon and I have history, and I will certainly never forget it. How could I when it is the background music to practically every good memory from the summer of 2005? Or as I like to call it the summer of the Posh Elite complete with high school graduation, Warped Tour, hooker high heels, Kelsie's hot tub, Jessica's dad's pool, being water logged practically the whole summer, hanging out in Kelsie's basement, Tom and Blockbuster, my first job at Mr. Gatti's, scary movies and the circular conversations of which of us would survive in a scary movie situation, my brains falling out (i.e. nosebleeds) and perpetually loosing my contacts at Kelsie's house, driving down a curvy road at all hours of the night either to or from Kelsie's house, late night trips to Wal-Mart and late night meals at IHOP. 

Ahh . . . can't you just feel the nostalgia? 

Excuse

Excuse the short post. I am much too excited from the return of Gossip Girl tonight. It wasn't quite as eventful as I expected, but it certainly set up for some pretty interesting episodes.

And why have I never been informed of the Monsters of Folk before? Anything involving Connor Oberst must be made known to me!! Don't you forget it!

A Suspicion

So about midday today (I think it was while I was having lunch in the car) I had an itch on my neck. In the process of getting it sorted out, I realized I had my shirt on backwards. The funny thing was, you certainly couldn't tell. I probably just looked just as fashionable regardless of my unintentional wardrobe malfunction.

This leads me to my thought for the day. I was reading Perez Hilton the other day (as I do most days) and there was some post or other about Lady GaGa and her fashion choices. I have to say I am rather impressed by the fact she constantly keeps up her out-there wardrobe all of the time in front of the paparazzi. But I must say I suspect as soon as she is away from the beautiful dirty rich lifestyle and the fame she likes to just dance around in her hotel room (brown eyes free from her gratuitous amount of makeup) in a t-shirt and basketball shorts.

I just know it.

With all the extreme fashion she is usually seen in it's almost hard to picture her dressed in clothes that seem normal for the rest of us but for her are just eh eh boring. Here's a rendering of what she might look like. Of course it's impossible to find a picture without makeup or accessories of some sort because of the aforementioned reasons.

I don't really know, but I really like to think so.

P.S. -

How many Lady Gaga song titles did I sneak in up there?

Waiting

Isn't it just the most horrible thing? Waiting for a phone call, to see how you did on a test, to hear from that guy that got your number, for the next Harry Potter film installment, and so on and so forth.

I can't stand it. Of course, it easy to get distracted during the day when I'm working, but at times such as these I just get anxious and jittery just thinking about the long weeks of waiting ahead.

Oh, I'm talking about my graduate school applications by the way.

They are submitted and as of this afternoon all of my references are submitted as well.

I don't like this not knowing business. I am not a patient person nor have I recently asked to learn more patience. Theretofore, I do not enjoy this one little bit.

Just the thought of the long month of March makes me angry and resentful. Not that March every did anything to me, but (and take this as impersonally as possible you month of March) I sincerely hate you, you dreaded approaching month.

Waiting a whole month before finding out whether or not I get into a graduate school program I've been wanting to attend since freshman year of college or to find out that my graduate school hopes for next year are shut down. In any case, once I find out I'll have little more than a month to figure out what to do with my life next fall before going to Uganda for the summer.

If accepted, there's housing, moving, part time work, etc. to figure out. If I don't get in there's the whole finding a job nonsense (not to mention the disappointment of graduate school rejection).

I hope the glimpse into the inner workings of my mind and subsequent mood was exciting.

I applied to:

NYU

and

BYU

and for your musical entertainment and mine whist I wait here is a band I recently discovered. Yes, I know this is a Christmas song, but it is good nonetheless so just enjoy!

Brand New...

Is playing in Salt Lake right now. I'm not there.

I'd prefer not to talk about it.

No I'm not going to bed...

So you know how all those commercials you see talk about how great it is to work from home and go to college online in your PJs?

It's not so great.

I've been working from home in my PJs (yes everyday in my PJs) for almost two weeks now. It's boring. I snack too much. The times goes by much too slowly. All I want to do is pick up that for fun reading book on the coffee table or turn on the rather large and inviting TV just across the room. Plus the lighting is not at all right for focusing on work. It is better suited to a late afternoon nap (after the reading or the tv watching of course). I'm more of a doing something kind of worker. I enjoy being in the pool at swim lessons, talking to people at recruiting fairs or running my classroom of kids at the elementary school.

This girl is not suited for a desk job. Not one little iota.

On the bright side, due to my overabundance of time and energy and a more nonexistent social life than ever before I am going to the gym approximately 5 days a week. Getting in shape and being healthy is kind of an addiction. And why shouldn't it be (within the realm of reason of course). When you look better and feel better about yourself, why not work to keep it that way? Especially when you have nothing better to do and are consuming copious amounts of cookie dough, ice cream, and teddy grahams in the course of your 8 hour work day just steps away from your kitchen. (You/Your=I/my)

I ran nearly 3 miles last night and biked over 5. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when you push yourself that extra mile (I had been running only 2), and you think you can't do it but then you do. And it's never quite as bad once you come out on the other side of it. As a matter of fact, if I had the time I suppose I could have run more. Or maybe it just feels that way now while I'm sitting at home in my PJs on the couch with the knowledge I will be asleep in less than half an hour.

Oh and please riddle me this:

Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle?




I'd give an arm and a leg to play like him . . . wait . . .