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. . . . . entries for 30.9.07 . . . . . I am a caffeinated CWR-revision machine. And I believe it is going well. Differently, but well. Wenn ich Leute finden, mit wem ich Deutsch üben kann, bin ich wahnsinnig glücklich. (Translation: when I find people with whom I can practice German, I am insanely happy. There are probably plenty of grammatical errors in that sentence, but I tried. Really.)
Screw that. I wear red, gold, light blue, vampy purple, or nothing at all. :P I LOVE MR. BLOOM. He emailed me this today. :D We have a "committee on discipline" here. Shucks. I want a disciplinary committee. I would buy a light gray trenchcoat and join it, and act awkwardly badass all the time. . . . . . entries for 29.9.07 . . . . . Hey - neat. :) It may be temporary, the cause of the particular ENV reading I am currently subject to, but right now I am becoming quite the flaming environmentalist. So. Regular ENV reading (not too awful) + ENV problem set (dear God Almighty a lot of work, and a lot of random Internet research) + CWR revision (not a big deal) + Greek comedies (apparently a riot) + Republic + Symposium + Homer paper = Erin's workload for next week. God save me, if it is right that He should do so. I am suspicious that this is going to distract me from HUM reading. . . a lot. (Perplexingly, HUM reading is already relevant to its contents. Wow.) I think Rhodora would be the best thing ever to name a female child. Jophiel is a pretty amazing thing to name a kid in general, but Rhodora - Rhodora is *it* for girls. O lord. I got my bank statement today and it is - whaddaya know - password protected. Of course I cannot remember the password for the life of me, so I am really going to have to do all that damn banking stuff now. And I should do my medical stuff also, to get all the hellish faxing out of the way in one fell swoop. Sigh. Just saw Amelie, which was extraordinarily good. :D Then I had a mini-tea party with two of three roommates, the third of whom I believe is out dancing as I type. Tomorrow I have another CA reunion. I hope for good things. . . . . . entries for 28.9.07 . . . . . This is interesting. There are enticing social events happening tonight, like a showing of Amelie in Wu and a band at the humanities nerd eating club and Grindhouse here in Rocky. . . but what I *should* do is read. . . . . . entries for 27.9.07 . . . . . I think there is a different INSANE INITIATION/PARTY/HAZINGTHING LIKE EVERY DAY HERE THEY ARE YELLING IN THE JUNIOR SLUMS IT'S GONNA MAKE ME CRAZY. Anyway. I was looking at Shannon's artwork (new Shannon from Guam, not prettyblonde Shannon from Nisky) and I realized I freaking miss art in general. I have this little blank canvas, and the UStore has paint and stuff. I may do something about this. Once in the spring of my twenty-fourth year I had nothing to say With a dangling promise A terrible past I threw all the words away We were born to HUM Our CA group surprised one of our members today - it's her birthday - with a highly delicious strawberry ice cream cake. The act of surprise itself was cruel, but funny. She thought one of us was crying on her bed, and when she opened the door, there we were - SURPRISE! And now Sophocles. O, it never ends. . . . . . entries for 26.9.07 . . . . . I sort of want one of these. Hopefully I won't in a few days' time. :P Lab was fucking crazy today - the epitome of what you do not want a lab to be, minus perhaps the injuries. I ended up sitting at my desk, writing down two different measurements whenever someone shouted them at me, taking times on when little test tubes filled up, frantically switching test tubes so as to keep on track with data collection, and trying - in between scribbles and so forth - to label more test tubes so I wouldn't have nowhere to go with the next data entry. It was the most adrenaline-filled science class I have ever been to. It's because we got the hard data collection (my group of three), and. . . we were just three, not four like everyone else. And I, alone, got the harder half of the table. THIS HAPPENS. THIS HAPPENS TO ME. Oh I am tired. And sweatygross. . . . . . entries for 25.9.07 . . . . . - and yet: for now, I think I'm going to take a leaf from the book of a friend of mine, who endeavors to enjoy the immediate puzzles without thinking too far into the future, and moreover to look at things as puzzles: things to be solved with skill and effort and pleasure in the process, as well as the eventual positive result. I need to get into that organic garden and do some serious goddamn GARDENING. I need something zen, other than tea. I should have brought my knitting stuff. O my brain. If only we could build a more efficient human being. I always did find the notion of a creative writing class in some ways problematic, because an attempt to teach "creativity" is counterintuitive; after that thought, I would remember that to write *well,* one must write deliberately, and to write deliberately one needs criticism, such that one might get in a class. O God, criticism. I am so painfully unaccustomed. I don't mean to sound melodramatic, but I hope that this class does not beat the desire to write out of me for sheer feeling of inadequacy. I have to remember: good, highly effective writing does not just happen spontaneously. You really need to work at it. You need to be able to stand up to criticism and understand it and say "yeah, I'll change" or "no, I won't, and here's why" and not feel sort of like curling up into a ball and shaking under the creative writing library table. I reiterate. I sound more melodramatic than is justified. I'm tired, and I still have work to do - and SO MUCH work for humanities in the next week. Ugh. My hand hurts. And I have tons of work to do, particularly for the week ahead. And it is HOT. And where is Ting? . . . . . entries for 24.9.07 . . . . . O what a world we live in. On my way back from my Greening Princeton meeting (appropriately placed after my ENV precept, in which I am the only female), I realized that I'm very happy with how I've fit myself in here - what I'm doing in all respects. I'm the cover designer for the liberal campus magazine; I'm going to work in the organic garden and maybe do some other stuff with the environmental groups around; I like my classes and my roommates. I frolic in the fountain. Life is good. I found the New Media Center and got Progressive Nation work done there on the HUGEST FLATSCREEN DISPLAYS I HAVE EVER SEEN. They also had fractalish-looking screensavers going on some of them, and dear God Almighty. What impressive graphics we have at Princeton. So now I need to read, and after dinner I need to trek down to Frist and go to precept. Grar evening class - grar! . . . . . entries for 23.9.07 . . . . . On a completely different note: We just had two fire drills. In a row. And the strobe lights are still blinking. >.o Here are some pictures from today's shenanigans! We set out intending to go to lawnparties on Prospect Avenue, at the eating clubs, like everyone else. We seized photo ops on the way. . . . and once we were there, too. (The fellow in the middle is Yiannis, who is a good egg.) We got bored quickly, and moved on to sillier pursuits. Also, my feet hurt from my white heels, which are pretty, but brutal. O the blisters. O, o, ow. Today was an adventure. We of Buyers 12, and Yiannis, our honorary fifth suitemate, went to lawnparties together. Mostly we sat around at Quad, waiting for Everclear to set up. We only stayed for a couple of their songs before leaving to play in the fountain by the Woodrow Wilson school (which we just call Woody Woo fountain around here). There is photo documentation on facebook, and there will eventually be even *more* photo documentation when Yiannis decides to upload his pictures. And I ate an absurdly large amount of chocolate cake with milk. I got rather lucky so far as roommates are concerned. We are all basically cool in Buyers 12. :) So I had a CA reunion party tonight, from which I just returned. I walked back with Shannon, my friend from Guam, who is also in Rocky. On the way, we walked behind a couple of guys, evidently returning from some down-campus shindig as well. From a fourth-ish floor window, a guy was throwing derisive comments at them, including "you're pieces of meat!" When we walked by shortly after, he said "you're not pieces of meat. You're beautiful women. I respect you intellectually." He was pretty obviously drunk. It was funny. And that's my story. . . . . . entries for 22.9.07 . . . . . The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to the First Level of Hell - Limbo! Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test They fed us steak and fancy mashed potatoes and, for some reason, cabernet butter (it was pink) this evening at ye olde dining hall. It was tasty and it is now sloshing about in my gut. Slosh. Slosh. Making due progress on schoolwork! :D I am actually really excited for my CA reunion tonight. I miss Zvi especially, goofball what he is, with that damn haircut that so many guys seem to have. I see a guy with the Zvicut and it is invariably not Zvi, and I am sad, but tonight I see a Zvi, and it will be good. It is portentous, and a thing of state That here at midnight, in our little town A mourning figure walks, and will not rest, Near the old court-house pacing up and down. Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards He lingers where his children used to play, Or through the market, on the well-worn stones He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away. A bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black, A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl Make him the quaint great figure that men love, The prairie-lawyer, master of us all. He cannot sleep upon his hillside now. He is among us:—as in times before! And we who toss and lie awake for long Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door. His head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings. Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep? Too many peasants fight, they know not why, Too many homesteads in black terror weep. The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart. He sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main. He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now The bitterness, the folly and the pain. He cannot rest until a spirit-dawn Shall come;—the shining hope of Europe free; The league of sober folk, the Workers' Earth, Bringing long peace to Cornwall, Alp and Sea. It breaks his heart that kings must murder still, That all his hours of travail here for men Seem yet in vain. And who will bring white peace That he may sleep upon his hill again? There is a global warming water fight outside my window. They are playing perky music. I am reading The Libation Bearers, and being sort of hormonally morose. This is WEIRD. I'm wearing my Heretic in Good Company shirt today. I wonder what manner of reception it will receive. . . if indeed I ever leave my room. Aeschylus, Aeschylus, Aeschylus! (And I really need to write, too. Yearg.) I am bored. This is not good. . . . . . entries for 21.9.07 . . . . . Sometimes, a girl just wishes she knew Spanish. Wissen Sie? It is *way* too hot to be mid-September. Ugh. Freakin' Jersey. Freakin' global warming. Unrelated: the minocycline here comes in classy cream-and-maroon capsules. :P On my first real weekend of college, I foresee. . . sleep. And reading. In abundance. Oi vey. Just spent 70 minutes on the phone with my mother. It was nice. She and my dad are getting along well in my absence, and I honestly cannot tell you how happy that makes me. If I explained to you how, you'd raise your eyebrows and not get it - it's sort of a "I guess you had to be there" thing, but more like a "I guess you have to be a Sherman" thing. (Cas knows about this. I think you, sister dear, probably feel about as relieved and warmfuzzy about it as I do.) I continue to miss our inauthentic curry, and now I also miss my mother's totally amazing Italian chicken soup, which I gather she made a couple nights ago. I actually miss my parents, too, which I didn't really think I would. They're something else, them parents of mine. . . . . . entries for 20.9.07 . . . . . Also: if I had the time, I could wire myself into a rather important Jersey election. Too bad I have no time. :P What I need. . . are good public domain pictures. Of the United States. And stuff related to the Justice Department. I wish such things were easier to find. Holy cow do I ever have a lot to do. Before I get into that: today, HUM lecture was bad, and seminar was good, so who knows. :P Who freakin' knows. Anyway. So I finally got an email from the editor-in-chief of Princeton Progressive Nation, which is the magazine I'm involved with now. He's decided what ideas he likes for the cover (front and back) of the mag and he wants decent drafts of them both by Tuesday. I sort of enjoy - masochistically - the fact that I've given myself a digital art class on top of my already impressive workload. Speaking of which: I need to read a few ENV articles for Tuesday, along with a mess of HUM stuff. I need to read Aeschylus for Wednesday and Sophocles for Thursday. And it goes on. This is a week's worth of college work I have here. It is sort of scary. . . . . . entries for 19.9.07 . . . . . When I said in my creative writing class that the writer has to find where their fiction fits, my professor thought I was absolutely brilliant. I guess it's a writerly way of putting it, finding where it fits, but I was rather surprised about her enthusiasm at that one little phrase. A turn on "fiction has a place," she said. I had never thought about fiction having a place. To me it's more about making a little room after finding a gap, and that's why I said: finding where it fits. I have tons of work for that class, but I do like it. I do. . . . . . entries for 18.9.07 . . . . . Creative writing is going to be good, but VERY labor intensive. Princeton Progressive Nation (hereafter referred to as PPN) is disorganized, but could be good once it gets itself in order and (among other, more important things) figures out what the hell it is doing with me and the cover. Ay ay ay do I ever have a lot of ENV reading I need to be doing. I liked my lecture considerably more than I liked my precept, because my lecturer knew what he was talking about, and my classmates - myself included - don't really. Granted, we had this one day to talk about the Iliad and (if possible) the Odyssey, so the degree to which we skipped over stuff and jumped around without any manner of depth was sort of appalling. . . hopefully this will improve. I remember Zvi (CA leader) being cynical about precept. I hope HUM does not make me cynical about precept. Not related to our dying economy: my first HUM lecture was awesome. The US economy is screwed, screwed, screwed. (By screwed I mean headed for a natural downswing, but, well. . . you know.) This institution sends out too much freakin' email! So HUM eats less of my life than I previously thought. This is good, I think. I wish I'd known earlier. . . . . . entries for 17.9.07 . . . . . Mari adds "or whatever" and "I don't even know, so" and "oh my God" and other really casual-sounding English fragments into her Spanish conversations with her mother. I kind of love it. I do not have to get up very early tomorrow, so I am going to stay up late and write a lot. Frank gave me a good idea for something to do with the story I'm writing, albeit in that "hmm. . . that idea translates to this idea in my vision!" sort of way. It's a good way. I like having a brain in good working order to bounce things off of. :) How "summerlike weather" magically manages to return just in time for a) the weekend and b) for meteorological fall is completely beyond me. . . except, well, I know there are witch doctors here. I've been telling you. I've been telling you ALL. I am fairly certain I have spent more time fiddling around on the Internet than most people here, which is. . . sort of funny. I am privy to a culture of ludicrousness such as they have never DREAMED of. . . . that is an interesting hanging preposition. How would one fix it? Anyway. Class was fine, but unremarkable in its first dayishness. I have hours upon hours of HUM tomorrow, and tomorrow is Iliad day. Woo. Ting cannot help but laugh when she reads Hollow Men because of all the phallic imagery in it. I think the phallic imagery adds a dimension to the poem I had not previously considered, but Ting, Ting just thinks T.S. Eliot is a horny old bastard. Oh boy. Today has been an adventure so far, and I haven't even gone to class yet. My roommate accidentally stole my towel from the hook outside my shower, so I had to borrow the towel of a girl whose name I do not know, but who lives (conveniently) right across from the bathroom on our hall. I was going to do laundry today anyway, so I shall wash her towel with my stuff (because even though she said "oh, that's okay" to the suggestion, if you give someone back their towel used, it's kinda questionable) and return it this evening. Bright side: theft not malicious, only Ting without contacts on. Also: there is no reading packet for ENV 201B I densely failed to pick up at the book store. I have no idea where my professor expects me to get the reading from. Hopefully we'll get it today in class, which is in 37 minutes. It's a ways across campus, so I should get walking in, say, 15, to make sure I'm good and early for my first class. I am going to see if I'm allowed to fiddle around with my schedule now. AY CARUMBA. . . . . . entries for 16.9.07 . . . . . So I officially have reading due for ENV tomorrow that I do not possess, either online or in print. Maybe it's a packet in the U-Store. On this basis I shall go there when it opens tomorrow to seek it out. . . if I cannot find it hiding online somewhere. Sigh. College. :P I'm on the Princeton Progressive Nation staff, mostly, at this point, as the cover artist. (They just moved to glossy color covers this year.) Eventually I may write an article or two also. I feel like signing up to help American Foreign Policy, one of my CA leaders' magazine, too. It looks like a good publication. . . . all of this political writing makes me look forward to one day taking that "creative nonfiction" class, straddling the journalism and creative writing programs. Aaaaand we're all gettin' convocated pretty soon. Woo. . . . . . entries for 15.9.07 . . . . . Well, I have officially sat through a college football game. (Not the whole thing - just most of it. :P) It was cold, and we lost. Oh well. I'm done. Introducing my friends to weird music. Ah, and now Erin is on mailing lists. All manner of mailing lists. . . . . . entries for 14.9.07 . . . . . Boys next door are playing their music REALLY GODDAMN LOUD. >.o Princeton students + showtunes + YALE SUCKS + naked running men = Triangle Show. Dear God. Note well: I've actually met a couple other people who like Richardson here, but who are skeptical about his ability to win the nomination because of his presentation, and his general lack of following compared to the frontrunners. Well BAH. Word on CWR: I'm in, but I can't go sign up for a section for another two and a half hours. YEARG. So I am going to research medical stuff online, and if nothing is to be found online, I will call people. And fax machines, too, I suppose I could research, but eeeeeh. Mental block of "ew" to dealing with my stupid bank account stuff. Yearg. No word on creative writing yet. So unmotivated. . . . . . entries for 13.9.07 . . . . . I have a family blog now, to facilitate family-not-worrying-about-me-quite-s'much. You can't read it though. :P Sorry. I am inexcusably tired this Thursday evening, so I am off to bed. Know this: Spiderman 3 is funny, but bad, bad but funny. Also I miss Frank. A lot. Because he and I, we are not as dysfunctional as MK and Peter. We are in fact impressively goddamn functional for a teenaged couple. :P Go us. <3 . . . also we don't stick to walls and make out upside-down. Um. Yeah. There are basically no mandatory events to attend today and yet, AND YET, I find myself swamped with things that I must do. I feel this becoming a way of life, and I can only hope I will adjust in time. . . . . . entries for 12.9.07 . . . . . Ting and I just climbed out onto our roof. It was pretty awesome. Also signed up for the college democrats mailing list today, and briefly witnessed a game of Rocky-Mathey quidditch on the quad outside Buyers. I have no idea what is happening with the college progressives, but we were supposed to have a meeting tonight. Good news: schedule is basically fixed, creative writing app is turned in, I am well-rested from somewhat excessive sleep, and I can theoretically print now. Woohoo! Bad news: throat is still really wicked sore, and I seem to be unusually light sensitive. Hopefully that will sort itself out. I may invest in cough drops and/or sunglasses if it doesn't. . . . . . entries for 11.9.07 . . . . . Strangely, the only indication here that today is September 11th was a moment of silence during our fire safety assembly. No one really talked about it. I guess I can't draw any particularly profound conclusions about it, but it does seem odd. It's something that happened now, part of the national circumstance, and it doesn't bear much discussion anymore - it just is. At least here, today. From an email I wrote to my mother an hour ago: "I got up early to go to my adviser meeting so I could sign up for classes. Some glitch in the system is preventing me from signing up for HUM, sadly. I emailed the head of the program and if she doesn't reply soon, I'll go pay her a visit in person. My computer, for reasons unbeknownst to me, is having issues printing to campus printers. I'm at the computer help department now to (hopefully) get this sorted out. . . . also I feel awful. Sore throat, aches in my arms (last night it was my right arm, now it's more my left), a sort of optical headache, and general fatigue. In the past half hour or so I've started to feel like I have a fever, and I get goosebumps when I'm outside. It's raining and relatively chilly [silly in the email - just caught it now], but not enough so to justify this. That all being said, I do like it here. :P I just have a lot of problems to clear up. I signed up for environmental studies and social psychology, the latter of which I will probably drop if I get into CWR prose. Ting and I have been CWR-bonding a lot. Anyway. I should go sign up to be called for OIT. Don't worry about me too much - if this weird illness keeps up I'll go to the health center." So now, the printer problem remains unsolved, although OIT is working on it; there has been progress in the realm of HUM, though I still cannot register for half the class; with some degree of difficulty and lots of emails and computer-switching, I printed out my CWR app in the OIT center; and I still am really miserably sick-feeling. I am waiting for Ting outside OIT, then we are going to go eat, if she has time before her adviser meeting. If she doesn't, let me tell you, I feel much more like sleeping or going to the health center than eating. Ugh. And HUM - how in God's name will I even manage it? And how in God's name can I read so much about God in six days? Dead. Dead. Dead. . . . . . entries for 10.9.07 . . . . . The charm of the multilingual friend is slowly receding into the routine of having a multilingual roomie - or, rather, two of them. I like my adviser. I do not like the humidity. I like my new hoodie. I do not like the thought of being busy as all holy hell for the rest of my life, and on that note, I do wonder what the hell is going on with my echecking. In the past week I have sweat more than in the entire rest of my life. I showered three hours ago or so, and I am already completely repulsive again. Couch is coming soon, and from there, food may happen, as may reading and/or writing, until three, when I have some matter of mandatory meeting. I had better sleep because I am waking up WAY too freakin' early to go to a panel discussion. And then we move the couch in. And then I eat something. (There may be breakfast somewhere in there?) Tiger's Roar, or the big vocal performance for freshmen here, was pretty good. I am overwhelmed with boy-missing, and indeed, friend-missing and CA-missing (and family-missing, hush Cassie, I am not leaving you out, SHEESH). . . . . . entries for 9.9.07 . . . . . I got into HUM! . . . . . entries for 8.9.07 . . . . . YO. I am at Princeton, as in on campus with Internet access. Community Action was fantastic. Call me and I will regale you with tales. There are far too many to type here. Unfortunately for my blogreaders I have a res hall meeting to go to. I will write more eventually. :) . . . . . entries for 2.9.07 . . . . . In two hours I will be wrenched from the Internet for six days, most of which will be spent in Trenton with Lifeties. (I am not going to California. :P) I lost my wallet for a while yesterday. That was BAD. I found it, though, so all is more or less well now. . . . . . entries for 1.9.07 . . . . . Off to New Jersey with me at last. Keep in touch, all you absurd people who for some reason check my blog. Clearly you have some manner of unnatural interest in the goings-on of my life, and it's conceivable I won't ramble on here as much while at Princeton because I will be too busy trying to find a place away from my laptop and Wifi so I can do my goddamn reading. o.o Never did finish one of them short stories - I'll need to do that, um, tonight? In the hotel room? Or when I get back from preorientation? The ending must be good, and it can be. Endings are just damn difficult. Printing junk so we know where the hell we're going. Woo. come home? |
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{ting} .:past:. April 2002 .:skin:. turtles! turtles! by araglas |
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