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.

and now back to the present

I just signed up for a mailing list that will be activated in 2010 when London begins searching for volunteers for the 2012 Olympics.

That would be fun.

four hours of no progress

i just counted it up, and i have 10 days of class left. and i don't know what to do to get my work done because i feel like i've failed everything already.

Car damage is upsetting

:(

Why are there such things as wakes?

A second ago I was sitting here, at this desk, formulating the next sentence in the French essay, when an image on the television screen took me back to the afternoon of January 30th. I lived over again the memory of sitting against their kitchen wall, near a table of pastries, and furtively glancing over to look at Mrs. Davis. My mind could not and still cannot fathom what she was feeling and how she could feel it and yet carry that somber, withdrawn face. It wasn't uncaring. It was ill with grief. How can someone invite so many people into their home to socialize when that person's son died three days prior? I don't understand it. And I guess that might be partially why I just could not look her in the face. I had to avoid her. All I wanted to do that day was weep, and the last thing I wanted in the entire world was to cry in front of her when she was trying so hard to make it through that day. It was wretched, all of it.

I still have the program from his funeral. I keep it in the red bag with all of the wedding papers, because it happened when I was doing a lot of wedding things. I wish so desperately that I could take someone who didn't know him back into my memories with me, show them what I saw, and share it so that it won't hurt me so much.