I love you, Ricky.

This opinion is something that I'm sure will be wildly disagreed with by everyone I know, but, well, I enjoyed Ghost Town waaay more than Burn After Reading. Don't punch me, okay?

But, yeah, I recommend it.

On another note, I think I've fallen for Austin. This feeling will be more certain when I find a place around here that makes decent guacamole. It's important. If you have any suggestions, please pass them my way.

[update]: So, I've been feeling shitty all day - sneezing and runny nose stuff - but I just chalked it up to the consequence of living with a kitten. It got worse the last few hours, so for fun or something I took my temperature. The readings varied from ear to ear, but overall I'm averaging over 100*F. (<-- Notice the lame attempt at a degree symbol?) I'm going to take some Theraflu and go to bed. The reason I mention all of this, though, is that I'm just baffled as to how/why I have a cold right now? I bet fucking flu season is starting. Ugh.

"Bruises"
Chairlift

"I woke up with the power out, not really somethin to shout about"

I tried calling but I can't reach any of my friends in Houston. At least I know that Priya and her family are ok via her blog. I hope Marion and Jordan are okay as well.

My family is ok. I can reach them by cell phone. Several branches fell on our roof; one pierced the roof and crashed in our attic. That allowed a good amount of water damage to the ceiling between our living room and the attic and has weakened the ceiling. My parents are really concerned about that collapsing so they have moved everything out of the room. The only other pressing issue really is that almost all of Houston is without power, and I'm reading estimates that it will take a few weeks at least to fix it. I hope my neighborhood gets power again soon, because without it my parents have no way of charging their cell phones.

On a cuter note, I'm sitting on the edge of the sofa and Stella has fallen asleep with her body wrapped around my butt.

[update]: Yesterday a lawn crew tried to remove the branch threatening our roof, but when the supporting branches were cut away the whole thing fell straight through our house and landed in our living room. My brother tells me that the hole in the ceiling is about six feet wide, and is pretty close to the ceiling fan. My dad and the crew put up some tarp and hopefully that will keep the rain out.

The sky looks slightly ominous

I saw Burn After Reading today at lunch and I think I might have enjoyed the Australian Beef Pie I ate more - but that's because IT'S BEEF PIE. Yum. I need to learn how to make Beef Wellington. That might have been one of the best things I ate in New York. Anyway, about the movie, I was not prepared for how pointless it was and how jumpy it made me.

Yesterday I played Super Mario Galaxy ALL. DAY. LONG. It was embarrassing. I stopped when my arms hurt too much for me to play well.

I signed up to take the GRE on the 30th for some reason. Well, for the reason that it's required for graduate school, but I'm really scared that I'm going to put it off until I don't study for it at all. Should I study? I decided to take it this month so that I would have time to take it again if I bombed. And when I took the SAT, my best score came when I wasn't trying. I think I'm also terrifying because John told me that he had so much trouble with it...and John is smart! Kind of. Well, yes, but not as smart as I am (based on SAT scores, GPA, and the fact that I'm able-bodied).

It hurts me to admit this here, where people can read it, but I haven't done shit with thank you notes yet. Ughhhh. I wish there were a person I could hire to do this, like when Cartman hired some Mexican men to read The Old Man and the Sea for him in season 11. Season 11 of South Park is fucking amazing, by the by.

I just spoke with my parents - they're taking Kirby to the park for one more good run before the storm really begins. My dad told me about this really helpful website, stormpulse. I highly recommend it.

Oh, of course I forgot something. This may be totally common knowledge by now (cuz John was all like, "ohemgee, duh, you didn't know??") but they're making a (non-documentary) movie about Harvey Milk, which I'm really excited about. I really hope that turns out to be stellar, and hopefully more people will know about him and his legacy.

"Skitzo Dancer" - Justice (remix) < --- thx to the Alamo for this one

CANNOT. STOP. WATCHING.

Austin was slightly more charming without the students

I am quite amazed by the transformation that has occurred in certain areas of my new hometown. It's funny, because I drive around and gripe, "god damn students," but I'm 110% sure that I experienced the exact sentiment as a college freshman ("those damn highschoolers") and I'm 85% sure that something similar was felt as a 9th grader. Ah, the wisdom of aging, I guess you could say.

Instead of delving into something mopey and questioning, I will entertain you all with a complaint. So far while living here, I have called two different restaurants to place to go orders (one a 24 hour eclectic place, the other a Thai food place). In all my years of to-go-ordering, I have never been posed the question "do you know you are calling the [insert street name] location of [insert restaurant name]?" Oh, am I? I thought I could call you and place an order for your sister location, because, that's how it works, right??? I asked John, how stupid do the people (cough-cough students) here have to be that restaurants need to resort to reminding you which location you are calling?

Really though, I have *never* been asked that question in Dallas, Houston, Plano, Sherman...anywhere.

John just assures me that people living here actually are a little air-headed. Maybe it's all the "Texas Sweet<3's" stickers that I'm seeing.

The other day a few young women (who did NOT look like sorority girls AT ALL, HOW DARE YOU THINK THAT) decided to unload their 4-wheeler while parked on the ramp connecting two levels of our small parking garage. Why? Why would they do something that would so obviously cause a huge traffic issue? Because they were closer to the exit door, that's why.

My anger is the only thing that keeps me going, sometimes. That and my kitten.

PS - Marion, Priya, Jordan - I miss you all dearly.

PPS - Dear DNC, congrats on having the WORST MUSIC SELECTIONS EVER. The rest of your programming is pretty good, though, btw.

new things

so I have a brand new computer...and I'm realizing that it really sucks when you lose all of your bookmarks. otherwise, this new computer thing is pretty sweet. i like having my laptop actually on my lap without blocking circulation to my extremities.

also, my new computer is small enough that it can share my lap with a kitten! Stella! you are asleep on me right now! it's so cute when she uses my (or john's) chest as a bed. when she sneezes she sounds like the first time you turn a sprinkler on in a long while and all the air rushes out. kind of a pffffft noise.

i'm trying to catch up and re-find all of my favorite blogs, and i'm very taken aback to check my friend priya's and see both jordan and robert commenting?! i mean, wha? pleasant surprise.

marion should be visiting next weekend, and we will go and see some master pancake-ing of jurassic park. it won't be the same without priya, though.

right now john is playing the new madden - i just helped him create his own fantasy team. he made the wise decision of following my advice when choosing his logo/mascot (which is a demon/devil theme), but when it came to the name of the team john pretty vehemently discarded my suggestion of the "Teufels", which is German for demon. i really love it. john said it sounded too funny. there's a really old German poem that talks about when the teufels come out to dance in the graveyard, and how the townspeople are so frightened, which I remember reading in class, but I just looked for it for like 20 minutes and couldn't find it.

we comprimised with "Geist".

this cat is just dead-weight in my arms as I type. she's cuter than a real-life moogle.

anyway, on the topic of the wedding somewhat, i really wish there were more occasions where we could get all of our friends under the same roof to party. that made me so happy.

oh, I almost forgot, I created an ApplyTexas account last night, and I'm working on a portfolio for that. derp...

Shit. I just have four weeks. Shit, shit, shit!

• I have to go and get my bedroom ready for the honored arrival of the groom-elect.

• Amount of people coming so far: 132.1

• I'm freaking out, man.

More to come

This is the first time I've ever gotten on here at work - I guess the reason being that I just don't want my page in this computer's history files. Anyway, something rather surreal happened that I want to describe in detail when I get home.

For the time being, I will record here that I just made the floral arrangments for this guy's funeral later today.

It's a weird day.

Bathroom Tech II

The History Channel just informed me that most toilets flush in the key of E flat. It's been a while since I've had a chance to turn on and actively watch a television, and it's interesting to find that unless I watch it frequently, I have no desire to have it on.

I spent most of my day fighting sleep and training/talking to Jordan. I enjoyed having some solidarity at the shop - someone I could commiserate with.

Anyway, I must return to the assembly of my new camera. It's so beautiful, I'm almost afraid to use it!

battered broken - jude

OMG QUIZNOS GREEN CHILI CHICKEN SOUP = SOOOOOOO GOOD

the clock ticks, ticks, ticks

By noon on Monday everything will be so much better; all this shit will have cleared. The book will be done and gone. I will escape from the flower-store-stress. My mom will have gotten used to the idea of dress alterations that cost almost as much as the dress itself, and I will have temporarily forgotten the recurring agony of making my family poorer by getting married. It's just difficult to envision that future right now.

At least my brother is happy. That was the most important part of today.


Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

sueños mojados

Do want. Now.

[Edit]: I've found it cheap(ish), and it will soon be mine. Bwaha.

never.

I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn.

Over the past year or so I've been witnessing a situation where two individually decent people I know dated each other and became unbearable for a lot of people to be around.

I don't know whether or not this is a weird thing to blog, but right now I just really have to write down that I love Priya and Kyle. You see, Priya is awesome, and Kyle is awesome as well. And together, they're still awesome.

Sometimes, when you combine two awesome things, you can end up with something terrible. Take, for example, the cheesy, baked oysters I had in BA and place a few inside a homemade chocolate milkshake...those things individually are delicious, but, fucking fuck, keep them the hell away from each other!

But, thankfully, Priya and Kyle are more like chips and queso. Or maybe sour cream sauce and chicken enchiladas.

I'm hungry.


PS - I kinda wanted to fire a crossbow filled with rusty arrows through the face of the pilates instructor tonight. I'm pretty torn over whether I'll go back or not. Actually, I'm pretty torn over everything. (Yay for this sentiment helping me choose a title for this post!)

Today's my mom's fifty-ninth birthday

I would really enjoy any opportunity to encourage or induce some inter-friend groups-mingling. I used to dwell on the thought often, but not as much these days. I suppose because I just realize how impossible it would be, to connect London to Boston to St. Louis to New York to Los Angeles... etc. etc. ...to here.

However, this rare meeting of the worlds will come to pass on Friday the first. It will be eagerly yet anxiously anticipated event taking place at the church, and in the dining room of the Magnolia. I think if everyone doesn't get along I will find a way to blame myself for it.

I miss all my German things.

James is a good name. I come across it too infrequently.

I wish I were at Star Pizza right now. It's one of the good places very conducive to story-telling.



Death Cab for Cutie - I will possess your heart
The National - Mr. November

Incongruous Thoughts Concerning My Return

I'm back in Houston today, for the summer. As far as I know, it's the last time I'll really be living here, in my parents' house, which is sad to me (especially since they keep forlornly mentioning that in passing).

Even though I've left Sherman and I'm done with school, I'm still really stressed out because of:

1. Wedding Invitations
2. Fixing The Yearbook**
3. ...and other things I can't remember
   

But I'm confident that the bride-elect will make it through, in part due to my friends. Speaking of friends, tonight I finally got to spend time with them again.

We went to a midnight showing of Jurassic Park and seeing it on the big screen again was everything I could have hoped for. I was definitely surprised and pleased to discover that my friends could recite many of the lines throughout the film with the characters.

It's odd and wonderful to have done a lot of growing up far away from someone, but when reunited, everything is as it was before. What is frustrating, though, is when you have to catch up on all the stories that took place while separated.

Part of me wishes that I could have been at John's house with tout le monde this evening, but seriously, tonight kicked ass.

Tomorrow the work begins anew. So I return to the addressing...


Vampire Weekend - M79

**Um, I'm on the yearbook staff, and I finished my section a while ago now. However, things are all kind of going to hell in a hand basket, and I'm taking on Editor-In-Chief duties because, well, no one else is!

EXAMS ARE EVIL

This is brilliant, in my opinion, and I don't know why I was completely unaware of it until now. Sign me up for that! I can't wait for German and Japanese versions.

Yay for part 1 of the House season finale in 10 minutes.

i feel like things are crawling on me

Through the noise emanating from my television, I thought I could hear something rustling nearby. I muted the TV for a while, and recognized that dreadful noise of some bug creeping-crawling through your possessions. After I turned on all the lights, I spotted a black, medium-sized beetle or cockroach. This angered me very much. After playing cat and mouse for a few minutes, I finally squashed the speedy creature. But then, when I was washing my hands in the bathroom, I noticed that the rather loud cricket noises weren't only coming from outside, but from inside the bathroom as well! This pissed me off even more. I searched around for a while, but I've come to the conclusion that this cricket lives somewhere behind the sink cabinets.

I can't wait to leave this wretched place.

the end?

For maybe the first time, the opinions I hear on my television on MSNBC right now are relaxing me.

geez, this post is a downer, huh?

For the past eight years (or more?), my birthday has coincided with finals, exams, tests, and other forms of frippery. So, as far as I presently know, this will be the last year of that.

So, yay.

The sensation of having one's birthday forgotten is not something I've personally had to experience, and I'd like to think I'd handle it gracefully if that were ever to occur. However, I've noticed a trend in the college years that if I don't surround myself with people or plan/prepare something I end up getting really depressed. And I want to stress that it's not because I'm a "look at me, look at me" person, but rather I just dwell on the fact that almost all of my closest friends and loved ones are so very, very far away. And I miss them.

So, here's hoping that a distraction presents itself, because I have no time to look for one right now.

On the brighter side, I can't wait to eat some Guerreros tonight! That stuff is as yum as all get out.