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Monday, December 14th, 2009
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i'm off to england in a few hours to spend the next three weeks/christmas with my lovely in-laws (stated non-ironically. they really are lovely)
now that i've reopened the blogging floodgates, i can't promise not to post while i'm out there. on the other hand, i may not have much time. it could go either way really.
in the meantime, i will definitely be posting in my shiny new writing blog.
explanation: this year, in the company of several brilliant and amazing friends scattered throughout the globe, i actually finished a novel for nanowrimo. it isn't very good, but i enjoyed the process so much that i've decided to copy all my other aspiring-writer friends and start a blog specifically for creative writing, one in which i will supposedly make the effort to post something new once a week, thus forcing me into the habit of writing on a regular basis. i've actually tried this before, but although i kept my last writer's blog going for quite awhile, the fact that only approximately three people knew about it took enough of the pressure off that i let it slide and eventually stopped posting in it. so this time around i'm forcing myself to tell people about it, in the hopes that having some kind of imagined audience will give me the pressure i needed and lacked last time. to be honest, i'd probably rather not know exactly who is reading (unless you have feedback or a comment of course)--and please, by no means feel obliged to read it just because you read this; i'm really not very good at creative writing, so can pretty much guarantee that nothing i put up there will be any good. i guess i just need the idea of some big, faceless, anonymous readership that expects me to keep all the deadlines i've set for myself.
so, without further ado, here is the link:
http://abundanceofideas.blogspot.com/
it's only two weeks old so there are only two entries so far, one of which doesn't count because it's the introductory entry in which i explain the first project i'm going to be working on there, and the other of which doesn't count because it's a poem and i suck at writing poems (i would have skipped the poetry assignment, but that would have been cheating). but eventually there will be some stories in there. i promise.
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Sunday, October 28th, 2007
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Dear friends from near and far,
I have something to confess, and I'm sorry that the distance between us leaves me no option but to announce news of this magnitude on a myspace blog rather than one-on-one, face-to-face, as I should. Ok, here goes (I'm really nervous!):
The truth is, I'm engaged to be married.
This didn't exactly happen only just now, as some of you who saw my last blog entry might suspect. Indeed, I have been sitting on this information for a short while, and trying to decide how to relate the news. Why the delay? A few reasons:
The first is, of course, that I quite liked the idea of telling everybody in person when I go home at Christmas. It really is the sort of news that should properly be told in person, I know. The second is that I am worried that some people might not be very happy about it, and that if so it would have been easier for them if I had told them alone and talked it over with them. And the third is that this is all coming about at a time when pretty much everybody (including me a few days ago) seems to be having problems...from the smallest scale to the biggest. I was worried that it might seem a bit selfish to drop this happy news while other people I care about are suffering for various reasons.
So, what made me decide to tell now after all? The main reason: as it turns out, I really will only be in Albuquerque for 3 days. I've been incredibly anxious about this, because I already know it isn't going to be nearly enough time to see everyone I want to see and to do everything I want to do, especially now that I also have to go taste cakes and audition djs and such in that time. Ultimately I am telling everybody now to take some of the pressure off those days, so that you and I can all enjoy ourselves and spend some anxiety-free time together, rather than a few stressful hours truncated by some crazy mission to rush around making sure I personally tell everyone my news. Ultimately the last thing I want is to not manage to see some people, and then to have the people I don't see find out from other people rather than from me and feel bad that I couldn't be bothered to tell them when I told everyone else. If that makes any sense.
Besides, re: my other anxieties...after some thought it occurred to me that I'm being incredibly presumptive in worrying that this news will really affect anybody with anything other than unremarkable goodwill. I am really sorry about this; I guess I'm just so used to our group being steeped in drama that I've come to expect drama with everything that goes out of the common way. It was a ridiculous worry and I'm sorry I gave you all so little credit as to have it.
So, all I have left to say is the good, happy, and exciting stuff!! I'm sure some of you think I'm crazy and maybe even worry that I'm rushing things. Well, I am crazy! And we might even be doing this sooner than is necessary. But I have had plenty of time to give this plenty of very serious thought, and I can assure you all that I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't 100% sure it was the right decision, especially now that I've begun the process of planning it and I'm becoming aware of what a huge demand this is on the people I care about and how crucial it is that I not take it lightly. I'm so incredibly happy with the life I am building for myself, and this fits with it more perfectly than anything else!! We're planning on coming back to the States next year for PhDs and this is really the best way to do that together. I'm ecstatic and in love, the ring is gorgeous, the families are thrilled, and of course I'm the luckiest girl in the world. I really really hope you can all be as happy for me as I am for myself!!
So, for the details: the wedding is going to be held in Albuquerque on August 9, 2008 (early, I know, but if we get into the PhD programs we want most we will have to be at TA training less than two weeks after that so it can't be any later). I've put deposits on two venues and am in the process of very hastily working out the kinks and making all the plans. I want all my friends to be there and to have an amazing time! There will be a hotel party and an open bar and just all-round joy and merrymaking! So, get excited people!
So, there it is. I'm very much looking forward to hearing all your replies if and when you decide to send them. I love you all and I really do hope you can be happy for me.
Love from London, Your Friend
Alex
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Thursday, March 1st, 2007
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1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I respond by asking you a couple of personal questions so I can get to know you better. If I already know you well, expect the questions may be a little more intimate!
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Here are my answers to the questions Elizabeth asked me:
1. What is the first memory that comes to mind about us as elementary schoolers?
Ah, so many to choose from...I think, although it isn't my actual first/earliest memory regarding us, the very first thing that comes to mind is our infamous squirrel maze adventure. Whenever I mention you to anyone for the first time, that's always the absolute first story I tell them. Oh, that and the fact that you introduced me to Star Wars.
2. If you had to choose now, knowing how your life has turned out, would you still want to be a professional ballet dancer if you could?
That's a really good question, and very difficult to answer. I really do regret not dancing anymore, and sometimes I think about it and get a bit depressed. However, there are two things which make me inclined to say no. The first, cheesy though it may be, is that I would never have met Adam, which would indeed be a tragedy. The second one is more valid, though...I've always been sort of divided between by love of ballet and my love of books/writing, and I always knew I'd have to choose to commit myself more to one over the other eventually. And even when I thought I'd rather choose ballet, I always knew that I'm a naturally gifted writer but not a naturally gifted dancer--I mean, I got really really good because I was passionate and worked hard, but I just wasn't born with the genetic makeup that is required for a dance career, like hyper-extended knees and high arches etc, and these are things I couldn't change even with hard work. So I guess in a certain way, I think I would have eventually admitted to myself that I was sort of going against God's plan by dancing instead of going into academia. I mean, I'm not really one to believe entirely that there is A Plan and that we don't control our fates at all, but I ALSO don't believe in having a gift that you love and letting it go to waste. Sure, if I was really good at writing but hated it, I would never dream of saying that I am better off in academia, but as it is I love it, and I'm naturally disposed to be good at it, so to choose something else that doesn't really suit my nature would never have stuck in the long run, even without the injury. That's not to say I regret that time, because of course I don't--I was living the dream, which few people can say of their lives, and I learned a lot--but...I guess the short answer is no. Wow, that was long winded, sorry. It's just probably the question I ask myself the most, so it was very insightful of you to ask.
3. What do you most want to happen in Harry Potter 7?
Well, the thing I most want to happen that will very likely happen is for Ron and Hermione to finally get together. Since that seems pretty much guaranteed, though, I'm not going to use it, because it's kind of a cop-out. I think the specific thing that I want the most which isn't guaranteed is for them to spend at least part of the book at Hogwarts. Right now it seems like they won't and that makes me very sad. I mean, I have my theories about who will die and whether or not Snape is really working for Voldemort, haha, but she could do it either way and as long as it was convincing and juicy I don't really have a specific preference.
4. Who is your favorite superhero and why?
I guess it depends on what you define as a superhero. If we're talking about classical comic book heroes I definitely like Nightcrawler the best, because he has a great back story and probably the best power ever (I'd kill for teleportation--I wouldn't be late to class so often and I could visit Ads all the time). If we're talking in a more general sort of sense though, as in people with powers who Saved the World, I'd absolutely have to pick Obi Wan Kenobi!
5. What would you want to talk to Jane Austen about if you guys had dinner?
Oh god, that would be so cool. First of all I'd ask her if she thinks all her "happy" couples "make it," esp. Emma/Knightley and Marianne/Brandon. I'd ask her what she thought about the cult of sensibility, and hope the thesis of my Thesis is right. Finally, I'd probably spend the rest of the party asking her opinions on various historical figures and literary characters from around her time, just to hear her satirically snarky and extremely well-worded insults. I'd LOVE to hear her mock Alexander Pope!
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Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
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THIS ENGLAND! I WILL BE SEEING IT AGAIN SO SOON!!!!!
Ok here's the story. UNM English dept has this funding/money they award to one undergraduate student writing an honors thesis each academic year. It's up to $1000 to go look at special collections in libraries outside of Abq that are relevant to the student's field. It's obviously pretty competitive.
So, over christmas while I was visiting Ads and Greg, I went to check out the library at University of Leeds while Ads was taking his exams. As it turns out, they not only have an entire DEPARTMENT devoted to Eighteenth Century Studies (sooo cool--UNM won't even tolerate Stats to be its own department independent of Math)but also an AMAZING special collection of primary eighteenth century sources from both the English and the French enlightenment, which is totally relevant for my thesis. So I applied for this funding, on the off chance that they'd give it to me, although I recognized that it was a pretty extreme request, asking the UNM English department to fund a trip all the way to England.
BUT I GOT IT! THE WHOLE $1000!!!!! So this spring break I will be going to England to do research like a proper scholar. Not only that, but the last day that I am in london, there will be a Hogarth exhibit showing at the Tate Britain AND a collection of eighteenth cenutry French erotic art showing at the Sommerset House gallery, and I have permission to use my money to go see both! So relevant for my thesis! And so cool! The French art collection was Tsar Nicolas I's private collection, and it's showing for a limited time in London only! This will be the first time it's displayed outside of St. Petersburg!!
And I don't have to pay for a thing!
Life is amazing. Except for my crappy thesis.
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Monday, February 26th, 2007
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OK, I already posted what follows as a myspace bulletin, but some people don't read myspace things anymore, so I'll put it here as well, bc I'm desperately paranoid that nobody will show up and I'll be reading to an empty room:
Just to give everyone an update on my talk and provide all the official, finalized, and up-to-the-minute info:
I WILL BE READING A 15-MINUTE/8PG EXCERPT FROM MY HONORS THESIS...
you know, that 50-pg original academic work that has been plaguing me, robbing me of my free time, and condemning me to long evenings of research at the library for the past 8 months.
THE READING IS:
Friday March 2 from 7-9 pm
Flying Star Downtown (7th and Silver) upstairs in the second floor room.
This is part of the theses-in-progress event hosted by the UNM English department. Five other students graduating with honors this year will be reading as well; there will be 4 theses in the general field of eighteenth-century lit (including mine) and 2 creative writing theses (1 short story and 1 memoir). Mine personally, to give you the gist, is about libertines, rakes, sex, scandal and the Cult of Sensibility in two late 18th century novels.
OK, I realize that most of my friends are not in academia, and will probably find this boring, but I would really appreciate it if some people showed up anyways and sat through it, bc I could use the moral support. Also rumor has it there will be free coffee and refreshments. It is also a really good chance for you guys to see what my work looks like and to maybe get an idea of what I've been working on so hard (and why I haven't been going out much...) So, please come? PLEEEESE?? If you realy can't stand it you don't have to sit through all of them.
However, (and as an added bonus) that major hottie in my top friends named "austin" (oh, you know, the naked one in the bathtub ;) will ALSO be reading, and her thesis is probably more fun than mine, as it has to do with bollywood film adaptations of Jane Austen novels.
OK, that's all. Really hope to see someone there. Any questions, message me.
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Friday, February 9th, 2007
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Monday, February 5th, 2007
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I'm a bit weirded out. Since when is Bridge to Terabithia an epic fantasy.
In other news, it's official: research grant to London for spring break, English conference in Pittsburgh in late March, and Coachella in April (ok I had to pay for that one, but so worth it).
In other other news, I am delighted to hear that Harry Potter 7 is coming out at midnight in both UK and US. This means I will get it a full 7 hours before my fellow Albuquerque fans. Ha, I'll probably have finished it before they even get to crack it open. I win.
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Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
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OK, I officially adore Veronica Mars. They were watching Sense and Sensibility!!
Is it sad that I knew exactly what they were watching, even when the camera wasn't on the tv screen?
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Sunday, January 28th, 2007
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More good news! Today I got my official invitation to present a paper at the Sigma Tau Delta conference at UPenn. So I'm going to Pittsburgh in March! For free! (Well not free, but UNM is paying). I win at life!
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I GOT TICKETS TO COACHELLA!!
I am, if you can't tell, incredibly excited about this. I have never successfully made it to a big outdoor music festival before, since my grandma died right around the time of Vegoose the last time I tried to go.
The lineup is freaking amazing. Example:
Interpol, Sonic Youth, Rufus Wainwright, Gogol Bordello, Amy Winehouse, the Arcade Fire, the Decemberists, Kings Of Leon, The New Pornographers, Air, Kaiser Chiefs, Damien Rice, the Kooks, the Chili Peppers, and more.
Most importantly, THE ARCTIC MONKEYS and THE FRATELLIS will both be there, which was enough to tempt me even without the rest of them.
Actually, though, the main reason I sort of impetuously spent the money on the tickets ($250 per person) without thinking it through first is because of RATM. Apparently Rage Against the Machine is having a one-off reunion at Coachella. Now, to me this is not a huge deal. I liked them ok once upon a time, but not like WHOA, and I haven't listened to them in ages. However, apparently when Adam was a troubled youth (ha) he was crazy about them, like favorite-band crazy. And he actually had tickets to what would turn out to be their last performance in the UK. But his mom found out and said he was too young to go (he was 14) so she made him give his ticket to his big sister. Right after which the band broke up. So, he's always wanted to see them live, and I would kill to see the Arctic Monkeys, so I figured I'd better buy some tickets on the off chance that we could go.
So, yeah. He was planning on coming to see me in Albuquerque one last time over the summer before I move to London, but the flights were WAY more expensive than flights to LA anyways, so now he is going to come to Coachella instead, as long as he can persuade his mom to give him an advance on his Dad money. I will have to do the drive by myself so that I can pick him up at LAX and get us to Palm Springs, but I've done the drive a dozen times before, so I should be ok. I haven't got our camping passes yet (woohoo, I haven't slept in a tent in like 5 years), bc I want to wait until I know he's coming, but I am still totally excited. And, even if he cancels at last minute, I can always sell the tickets! (I'd go alone but it seems as though it would be potentially dangerous).
Sooooo excited even to be going back to SoCal! This will be sweet!
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Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
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So, things are incredibly stressful at the moment. Which is why the last thing I need right now is a new TV show to get addicted to.
Unfortunately, today I was boycotting the State of the Union address, so I had the WB on in my room while I did some homework. Gilmores was dismally bad so I wasn't paying attention, and then Veronica Mars came on, which I never watch, but I was too lazy to turn off the TV so I let it play.
And I got sucked in!!!!!!!!!!!! I stopped doing hw to watch! It's so good! But I have to say, ignorant as I am, that I like the guy named like Fez or whatever much better than the Logan guy. He's very cute and the Logan guy slept with a prostitute. Is this very wrong?
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Friday, January 19th, 2007
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Well, it’s the first day of school and I am already sleep-deprived. I had to hastily (re)read two books in my last week of London time (albeit easy ones: Midsummer Night’s Dream and Emma) and need to have another two read by Monday (Richardson’s Pamela—decidedly not easy—and Rousseau’s Geneva Papers in French—average difficulty). Furthermore, I have to grade eight essays by Tuesday, and need to turn in a sizable chunk of thesis work on that day as well, as the thing is due in its entire fifty-page glory by March 23. I don’t think I’ve ever begun a semester at this anxiety level before; I had my first all-nighter of the semester on the second day of class. Tear.
So, you may ask, why am I livejournal-ing instead of working? Well, it goes like this. I only have an hour break before bellydance class begins (yes, I said bellydance class, want to fight about it?), and unfortunately I am really bad about focusing during small blocks of time, so if I only have an hour I can rarely get things done—I usually need a long stretch of time to really work. That, and I’m feeling slightly brain-fried. That, and it depresses me that I haven’t written in here for ages.
So, right, really excited to begin my final undergraduate semester. I am taking 22 credit hours, just like last semester, but it went reasonably well for me last semester (A+ in Thesis Prospectus, German, and Pilates, A in Later Enlightenment, Visual Rhetoric, Editorial, and Love in the French Novel, and **shaking fist at bitchy prof** A- in French Lit Revolution to Present Day) so I think I will be ok. I’m taking that many because I need precisely that many to graduate. On the schedule this semester are: Honors Thesis, Honors Capstone Seminar: Lit and the Courtship Ritual, French Civ Revolution to Present Day, French Phonology, Intermediate German, Internship, Independent Study: Pedagogy (which isn’t really a class, it just means I’m student teaching a 300-level Jane Austen class and getting credit for it), and Bellydance, which I am just taking because I needed a one-credit class to get to 22 and my friend Natalie was really keen on it.
I’m actually extremely excited about most of these classes, except maybe French Civ because I don’t particularly enjoy reading political treatises and stuff like that as much as I do literature.
In other news, I suspect I’m mostly just depressed to be back in Albuquerque after a month in London. For those of you who were in suspense about it, I can presently confirm that every minute of the trip was perfect. I was kind of nervous about where the Adam thing would go, but I shouldn’t have been, because it went incredibly well. We clicked like I’ve never clicked with anyone before. It’s so nice to finally be with someone who not only has hundreds of things in common with you but who has the same kind of drive and ambition and determination to actually make something of himself and do things with his life. I’m used to dating the aimless type, or guys who know what they like but can’t figure out how to turn it into something they want to do with their lives. Which is fine, don’t get me wrong, but…it’s just incredibly frustrating for me to watch someone bum about and tinker with ideas and not actually do anything 24/7 when I can’t find enough time to do all the things I am trying to get done. Sorry to go on about this, but I’m just so incredibly excited to meet someone who doesn’t slow me down!! I had pretty much resigned myself to the idea that relationships, though nice, are a huge handicap to getting ahead and thus probably not worth it in the end. And the best part is that Ads is a total type A- to my type A, so he can calm me down when I get too stressed or spastic without actually slowing me down. I think this seems like such a big deal to me right now because I'm in the middle of this massive crux, sorting out what my life will be like in the next five years as I start grad school, and I don't know what's going to happen or where I'll end up, which scares the crap out of me, but at this point it's Top English University or bust. We both even applied to Oxford! Time will tell.
I just read over that paragraph and realized that it’s incredibly unromantic-sounding, but since not many people know much about Ads I’ll leave it there. But I want to clarify that it really was an incredibly romantic month, and that I’ve been pretty much swept off my feet in every possible way. We had so many perfect moments: late-night ice skating around the Christmas tree at Somerset House (think like Rockefeller Center only with a huge nineteenth-century building in the background), a night of Royal Ballet and gourmet French restaurant dinners at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, endless shopping trips, a wild concert at a hip indie London nightclub complete with all-access passes, a classic dinner-and-movie date to Pan’s Labyrinth and Kettner’s (London’s oldest restaurant) for champagne cocktails, a day at the Tate Modern, day walks through Soho and Camden and all the south bank places, a tour through the London Dungeons, a Shakespeare matinee (Much Ado) and visit to the Globe, an exciting premiership soccer match with gorgeous team replica jerseys, a homey London Christmas, a perfect New Year kiss at a massive house party in Leeds, a visit to Jane Austen’s house, a day of research at an impressive library, and even a stop at Platform 9 ¾ in King’s Cross!
…whew.
So, yeah. I think I’m in love. I know I’m in love. :)
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Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007
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I just saw Pan's Labyrinth, and I am highly recommending it to everyone. It's a gorgeous film.
In other news, Leeds is the coolest city ever and I just survived a MASSIVE new years eve party, which was a success in every possible way.
Hope everyone's well.
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Monday, December 25th, 2006
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I haven't got much time to post, as here in london it's past noon and we're getting ready to start cooking christmas dinner. I've been working on writing up a little travelogue of my adventures but won't link to it until I've had time to finish it properly. The gist, though, so far, is:
I am having by far the best christmas of my life. Aside from the small regret of Albuquerque's having got proper snow for the first time in a decade on the year I leave town, nothing could mar this holiday. Over here life is foggy and chilly and full of interesting accents, pints of ale, and surprisingly good food. I've been to the Ten Bells, the pub where Jack the Ripper picked up prostitutes, and Ads and I went ice skating at sommerset house right by the thames. I've been to see royal shakespeare and tomorrow I am going to see a football (soccer) match...And after new year's we're going to the royal ballet!
Ads and Greg's family have all been incredibly kind. They bought me loads of nice gifts and have been very welcoming and affectionate. I think there's a certain stigma in the air suggesting that I'll be part of the family officially before too long. I'm perfectly happy about this.
Speaking of happy...
I think I am probably the happiest I've ever been in my life. And I'm not even working on my dissertation! Oh dear, what has this boy done to me?
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Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006
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I love the day before Thanksgiving. School is so quiet and empty, and nobody can seem to concentrate in class. I just spent an hour goofing off in Deutschkurs, and I'm half-tempted to skiv out on French and go home (probably won't though). Andy turned up early this morning and I'd like to spend at least a little time with him before he goes back to school.
I'm feeling oddly zen at the moment--perhaps unwarrantedly so, as I still have millions of things to finish before the semester is over. I was in a foul mood yesterday, got no sleep, and am in pain because I had my braces tightened last night, but for some reason I feel quietly cheerful today. Perhaps it's the feeling that winter is finally arriving, or perhaps it's the thought of France and the evermore-quickly-ticking countdown on my Myspace telling me that I'll be in London in 26 (!!!!!!!!!!!) days.
Whatever it is, though, it's nice and I intend to enjoy it as much as I can before the usual panicked stress attacks find their way back home.
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Thursday, November 16th, 2006
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I officially adore my life.
For starters, it looks like I've pretty much secured a spot at U Southampton, about an hour and a half out of London. It has an English degree specifically geared towards Enlightenment Lit, with an optional concentration on Jane Austen studies, and their main research center is the Chawton House library, which is in the house where Jane Austen once lived. Plus it's on the southern coast. I get to live by water again!!!!!
Secondly, I got my honors prospectus back today, with nothing but good on it. I already knew it got approved, but I hadn't seen the comments from the honors board until today. The chair of the department called it "a superior thesis." I win.
Thirdly, I rocked the general GREs, with a 650 math/700 verbal. Still waiting on the writing scores.
Finally, and this one is the kicker:
Remember how this christmas I am going to London to visit Ads? Well, we are spending christmas in london, and then new years at his university house in Leeds (he's throwing a big party), and then...WE ARE GOING TO FRANCE. Ads bought himself, Greg, and me the tickets today as a surprise. We will be in Lyon, which is apparently a very cool and charming place in the mountains. YAY!! The rest of the itinerary is cool as well: ice skating at Somerset House, tickets to see Royal Ballet do Nutcracker, tickets to see Royal Shakespeare co. do Much Ado About Nothing, and tickets to a West Ham v Portsmouth match on Boxing Day!!!!! Ballet, theatre, soccer, and france. What's left? Our honeymoon will be a brutal disappointment after this, I suppose.
This might possibly be the happiest I've ever been. The only days that might have once topped it are ballet-related and therefore too painful to think of, in any case.
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Sunday, November 5th, 2006
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I survived. Barely.
Yesterday morning I took the GRE Subject test in Literature. A few of my friends in other fields were there taking GREs for their own subjects, and wanted to know if mine was going to be hard. To which I replied, with a certain testiness:
It's a 230-question exam covering the entire literary canon. Could you fucking pass it?
And it was hard. I did really well on some parts; for example, I nailed the quote from Wyncherly's The Country Wife, caught the reference to Tristram Shandy, and knew all the grammar and lit crit, including things like the affective fallacy and the mirror stage and stuff I thought I had long since repressed. There was even a passage from Pride and Prejudice, excitingly enough, with questions that were incredibly easy for me but would be absolutely impossible for someone who wasn't VERY familiar with the book already. Then again, I can't tell any of the AfAm writers apart, other than the obvious, so anything from the Harlem Renaissance--and there was alot--was a fucking shot in the dark. In the end, I can conclude that I did reasonably well. I certainly didn't rock it (nobody did) but I did quite well and I think I can accept my performance as passable. I now feel comfortable thinking of myself as, not perhaps well-read, but fairly well-read, which is good enough for now. In our defense, other than Maria, Austin, and myself, all the exam-takers were grad students applying for PhD programs. So there.
Afterwards we celebrated by gorging ourselves on beer, sandiwches, and greasy fries at Kelly's...mmmm. I had a fantastic Belgian Pale, very tasty. We hung out at Beeps for awhile too, a funky novelty store downtown, which was endlessly entertaining. We spent an hour or so completely engrossed in the sex books; at first we were reading out funny things to each other and giggling, but by the end we were so absorbed that we had each silently dug in to our own book, and nobody was speaking at all. Ah, the calming effects of sex advice.
We ended the night with a trip to see Marie Antoinette (preceded, in honour, by a stop at Flying Star for slices of cake--I had a fantastic piece of chocolate mousse cake with raspberry sauce on top). I quite liked it; that is to say, I adored the costumes, the sets, the hair, the champagne, the desserts, the acting, and ABOVE ALL the shoes (look out for the purple converse in the shoe-shopping scene everyone) but I found that there simply wasn't enough dialogue to keep me properly engrossed, which averages out to "I quite liked it." I think the cast spoke a total of about fifty words in the entire film. Nevertheless, we got a good laugh at certain scenes, particularly the big brother manly sex talk staged in front of a massively phallic elephant, and the bit where the swedish soldier recreates the cover of every harlequin romance novel ever (on horseback, of course). I am also obssessed with that Strokes song now.
In other news, I have been frequenting the theatre recently, which has been fun. I went to see my friend Zack in a very funny contemporary adaptation of Candide, which I completely enjoyed. The sets were amazing and the whole play was very well concieved and staged. Also, more recently, I took my mom to see Phantom of the Opera at Popejoy. And, uh, yeah. I think I've been spoiled on that show, simply from having seen it done well on stage too many times. The girl who played Christine had an absolutely awful voice; listening to her was torture. Don't know if this was mostly me expecting her to sound like Sarah Brightman, but she definitely had an annoyingly nasal quality, and overdid the vibrato to the point where she always just sounded off. Also, the special effects that I have come to love and look forward to every time I see the show were completely lackluster this time around. For example, take the bit at the end of act 2 where Raoul is looking for the Phantom and Christine, and he dives off the bridge into the "water"...This is usually my favorite part of the whole show, so I was really anticipating it, but when it happened they turned all the lights out on stage, so you couldn't tell what he was doing, and he definitely didn't go head-first like the last guy did. Lame. I never thought I could dislike that show onstage, and was doubly dissappointed to find that I could after all.
Not much more to say. Saw The Prestige, which looks amazing, and it had a preview for Pan's Labyrinth, which looks even more amazing. Also, Ads and I have been arranging a sort of itinerary for while I'm in London. So far, this includes: two West Ham matches, Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker, Royal Shakespeare Company's Much Ado About Nothing (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), ice skating at Sommerset House, and a big New Year's party in Leeds. I win!
Best be off and try to get some work done on my Proust paper..blegh. F Proust. Tonight I am going to celebrate bonfire night with Drew et al. We are probably not going to light a bonfire but we are definitely going to watch V for Vendetta.
Happy Guy Fawkes Day!!!!!
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Comments: Drink Me!
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Sunday, October 29th, 2006
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I am recovering from last night's awesome Halloween party. It was originally X-men themed, but some people deviated in the end. The costumes were all fantastic, so, naturally:
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Comments: 3 inch smallerinches smaller Drink Me!
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Tuesday, October 24th, 2006
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I. Hate. Gilmore. Girls.
Texas, however, is not bad.
Oops, commercial over. More later?
PS Also loathe Fabio. Just a thought.
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Comments: Drink Me!
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Thursday, October 19th, 2006
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Goodness, so many things!
For starters, !!!!! Jeffrey won Project Runway! Yes, that is the most important thing I could think of to open with. I am really happy because he almost lost due to jealous bitches, but didn't!! Much more enjoyable than yesterday's GG's, a show which I am boyotting once the heinously boring MLB is off of Fox and House MD comes back.
In infinitely more interesting news, Imogen Heap is playing in Albuquerque!!!!! I can NOT believe this. She was just in Leeds a few weeks ago; Ads told me his roomie saw her. I HEART Imogen!! Even better, she is playing at the Launchpad, a pretty small and totally chill venue. I was worried that she would sell out, so I bought tickets asap for myself and Drew. She plays on Monday the 27th and I can't effing wait!!!
More depressingly, I took a practice subject GRE and did abysmally on it. I know essentialy NO 20th century American poets, and they were the biggest thing on there!! It was awful!! For example, certain sections would have four excerpts from poems, and ask "Which is by Ezra Pound? Which is by William Carlos Williams" etc. Well, I don't f***ing know...I hate C20 poetry. So yeah, um I got about 1/3 of the questions wrong, which put me in the 90th percentile. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!! I am taking the test Nov 4, which gives me some time, and I have come up with a serious study plan, so I am hoping t'will all be ok.
Tomorrow I am going to Texas to 1)see my bro play in a major college soccer tournament, 2)visit Jennifer at UT Austin, and 3)outlet shop with my mom. Should be lots of fun. We are all driving up there as a family, which threatens to be excruciating, but I am bringing 100 GRE flashcards, so hopefully that will help.
That's about all the nouvelles from over here!! God my lj has become so boring...
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Comments: Drink Me!
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pinktutu911's journal
ecstatic but nervous.
dorky.
blissful and enamored.
divinely happy.
calm.
ecstatic, jubiliant, giddy etc.
relieved.
uninteresting.