Moved??

It's real. It's so undeniably real. So real in fact, that I spoke for a total of about 3 hours to Vanessa and Karin today about normal things so that it felt more reality than fiction. The bad news is that my plan backfired a little bit as far as letting that sink in- but I'm actually moved in to my apartment in Manhattan!! Couch, bed, chairs, kitchen- for Pete's sake I have a dishwasher. I made cookies today just so I could use the kitchen. 

I even, wait for it, got a library card. (Insert gasps of awe and oos of amazement) They were a little impressed that the girl who had been there for 26 hours was getting a library card, but I figured that I could check out some movies and chill. As it turns out, the manhattan public library has quite the stash. But nothing on the hordes of books at ksu. Holy shmokes. I just wandered for about an hour. In and out of the stacks, pulling out shelves, taking mysterious stairs, wandering. Mega impressed. Put it this way, from an architectural perspective, the main floor ceilings are high enough that in the center of the floor they devised a split-level style that allows for double the shelf space on one floor. Then the parts of the floor plan that aren't the stationary stacks have to be moveable to maximize space. What is this land. That's all in excess of the "great room" which looks like Hogwarts except without the floating candles. And I'm all about wizards.  I have a feeling that the very empty great room is less empty in the regular school year. 

Stay tuned for the portion of this chaper book that explains how I found the wizards of Kansas. "You can still be with the wizard, what you've worked an waited for..." 

Themed Thursday 2: Pants on the Ground

THEMED THURSDAY!!!!

The task this week was to used 500 (ish-I'm an English Major) words to tell the story that begins:

“After class I was sitting in the school bathroom and suddenly, the lights go off.” 

I'm sure Michelle has already finished in true form, so there you have it.

Ready? on your mark, get set, GO.

After class I was sitting in the school bathroom and suddenly, the lights go off. And I’m thinking, ok use problem solving skills, this could mean one of the following things: 1) Moaning Myrtle got crafty and flipped the switch. 2) Someone is going to be awarded the jackass of the day trophy. 3) The power is out due to the torrential storm. 4) My mind powers are working. (not that I was thinking-turn off the lights, but that’s definitely what I was thinking this morning when my mom flipped on the flood lights pointed at my face after my alarm went off. Maybe it’s like some sort of delayed reaction.) (This will require me to also practice seeing into the future…. Poop.)

But the real question is, HOW AWKWARD IS THIS?! Someone/weather gods, literally caught me with my pants around my ankles, and I’m thinking, well, I thought that was a euphemism old men use at Lutheran brunches to make their hunting stories sound adventurous. So now, what do I do? Quite frankly (my dear I don’t give a damn) I am not so familiar with this bathroom. And you know how you usually use the same bathroom around the same time because you naturally develop some sort of pattern to your otherwise chaotic life? Well, I deviated from this pattern and it came back to bite me in the ass.

Maybe I should explain.  There’s a real reason why I’m in the third floor of the library.  And I’m only slightly embarrassed to say that I followed my heart and not my head. Cupid has good aim, and he knows that I’m easily persuaded to do things that look smart, but aren’t. The reason that I came all the way up these stairs is that I found out that the “Plan to be Rich Men of America” meeting goes on here every Thursday. Well, you don’t just chintz on that sort of information, so I put on my smart glasses, a pencil skirt, and a scarf and enough make up to look intellectual, but casual, and curled up on the most prominent study chair reading a work of Russian literature I don’t understand (it was in Russian, ok?). Now this isn’t really an official club on campus, but damn, do they attract the right sorts of men-the kinds I’m interested in. Needless to say, those multiple cups of tea that I brought along with me eventually had to go somewhere other than my bladder.

And that brings you up to speed.

So here are the solutions: 1) play it casual and fumble around in the dark until I find the door, all the while keeping it calm, cool, and collected. 2) Scream for help and hope that one of the most attractive men of the PRMA comes to my rescue. 3) Take a nap (don’t judge me). 4) Draw enough attention to myself so that someone else has a good blog post to write.

Which do you think I actually did?

Oh for the love of Rothko

Someday, I want to be Simon Schama. Where I can say things like this, "The blaring horns of mustard-colored cabs, screeching cell phones- and those screaming into them bury the pulsating, meditative hum emanating from the sequence of paintings hung from the facades of buildings covered in a thin film of city exhaust." in a British accent and not be looked at like I'm crazy. 


Speaking of Simon, I had forgotten about baby Schama who shows up in the Rothko one. Heavens, just the best. Oh, and he cooks? Yeah, that's ideal.  That's basically what I want to do with my life. Speak in a British accent about art. 


I suppose that applies to Sister Wendy too.....  But it's a life choice. 


In later news, choir auditions were good (now I can go hug a frickin' tree!--shout out to Paige) Then some Linus: funny as per usual.  It was good to have a hearty laugh in the midst of Stressville, MN.  Shortly followed by the ever classy Midnight Express where you stuff yourself to plumb full and call it a day. 


And now that I've caught you up on my entire life, (It's the most depressing when nothing has happened and it's a really short post and then I say something expansive like, my entire life, and it was encapsulated in under 300 words.) I am hitting the books again and trying not to get distracted with art theories and intelligent British men spouting snapshots of art history.


Wish me luck!




 

Dancing... all of the time.

Sittin' in the Team room. Talking about life. The usual.

After sitting in the library doing work with Hannah, listening to musicals and chatting about life and getting it done. So needless to say, it was a productive and well spent afternoon, I mean if you like writing papers and the like. Top notch.

Occasionally I wonder what the other people think when they see me dancing in the library.  Then I realize that I don't care, and continue to dance. Sorry not sorry.

I'm off to the land of dreams. Like a boss. Night y'all!

Weather... and other tales blown in from the recent past

"With the chance I've been given, I'm gonna be driven as hell!" -Legally Blonde the Musical
Well, there's that for a study night. Me. In the library. With a soundtrack. Nothing that different from normal. In all probability, it's a little different considering that I'm in the library, disrupting the majority of studying students with my dancing and sneezing. I'm not sure if I'm using this quotation as a sense of motivation for myself now that speech is done, that I identify with it, or that it's just freaking catchy. But regardless, I'm sticking with it now.

Oh yes, MN has caught up with the rest of the world, it's allergy season here and that means I'm probably the most worthless here pretty soon. The good news is that Voice Juries are done, and so is the Forensics showcase (Pictures? Some are really attractive, so be jealous: https://picasaweb.google.com/116804446869401815266/ForensicsShowcase?authuser=0&feat=directlink), so the meetings are wrapping up and so are my speaking obligations. That means that my semester is also getting progressively less fun. Instead of performing, talking, or having any kind of strange adventures, I'm stuck with the regular kinds of adventures you can have by making regular days awkward days around the people you don't know. Sound familiar? Need I remind you about all of the strange people I happen to wink at? Or the ones that "judge" (read: envy) me for dancing recklessly in the library? There are many of those occurrences.

Other things of interest as of late. Let me list them, everyone loves lists.

1) Dancing in the down pour of rain with Vanessa. I mean this was of biblical proportions. The kind that you envision flash flood warnings coming from. We got out there within the first 10 minutes of the rain starting and the drains were already over flowing, the puddles in the street over ankle deep, and people everywhere! So much splashing and being wonderful individuals. Needless to say, I have a few goals in life, and one is that when given the opportunity to dance in the rain: do so with glee.

2)Tornado watch at GAC. Silly Minnesotans. Rain does not equal deadly twister. And if it does, get me cell service and internet in whatever hovel of a basement of a building you are going to sequester me. Boo.

3) Found out some rooming things (not for sure, but it's gonna happen) for the summer. Ava, me, Mariecus, and Colleen. What a splendid group full of all kinds of amazing wonderful adventure potential.

4) Speaking of summer, if you are reading this and like to get letters, give me a holler and an address for the summer and we shall initiate Letter Leader Board Phase 2! I write letters like I listen to Ke$ha: all da time. And often her lyrics make an appearance in said letters. It's a good deal.

5) Choir tour. This actually happened before #1 over here, but it deserves mention. It was fun, we survived it. Saw some GAC history, laughed a little, met some good people, sang pretty. Yup.

6) OH (not Ohio, that was three weeks ago), last weekend (honors day and that stuff) there was this dance milieu that was the shit! Pardon my French, but seriously, the best. Props to all of you dancers out there who happen to read this. Our Place, In Place was super spectacular.  Gave me shivers every time.

7) Speech people are fascinating individuals who tend to make regular life more interesting just by using facial expressions that don't typically appear in daily conversation. I like that.

8) Apparently one of my projects for the summer is going to be burning discs off of my hard drive...  My computer seems to think that it is full of pictures and music. How silly.

9) Cross words are fun and occasionally make you feel smart. Thanks Ch-low for that tip. I'll now sometimes feel smart while I am maintaining my A in Stats.

10) There may or may not be an escaped State Hospital patient running around on campus. We have had many alerts but I like to think of him meditating in the arb, or streaking the football field, or just watching the mysterious dial in Nobel, or climbing the art building. Mostly because those are the first things I'd do if I escaped the State Hospital in St. Peter. Chances are that he's hitched a ride someone, I would be hard pressed to climb a hill after working so hard to get outside walls.

You lucky mallards, two posts in a day. Dig it. Live it. Love it.

Not voted off the island this week

I survived!  With almost no tears! Aren't you proud of me?

Ok. I'm not being entirely honest. One test was postponed. Now let's get something straight, I had prepared to take 3 lengthy midterm exams today. Not even kidding. One for Italian High Renaissance (51 slides, for 2 comparisons and and essay), Gaga (2 comparisons and an essay), and Philosophy (choice of essay). I was ready for all of them with only the allotment of time to review some things before I actually took the test! Girl Scouts' honor.

So I arrive in plenty of time to my first class of the day, and begin looking over the dates of the slides that I had just learned last night, and after about what should have been ten minutes into class (note, this is not unusual for JCU or for my professor in general. She is often a few minutes late and frantically trying to turn on the projector and usually talking about how her cat is still sick.) a woman from the front office comes in and says that Professor Smyth is going to be late and that the midterm is postponed until next week. How late? About an hour.

The reactions of my class are as followed:
Furious 50%
Relieved 49%
Laughing 1%

I am the 1%.

I just laughed. Seriously, what kind of day could this possibly be? My first test had been postponed, the class would start late, and I just couldn't stop laughing.

For many of you this is not a surprising reaction. Eventually, when you don't sleep enough, or the stress levels just get to you, laughter is the only real response to have. So the other 99% of my class hadn't reached that point and were absolutely no fun what so ever. Boo.

So I spent the next hour sitting by myself dancing to Britney Spears and studying Gaga... (well that's a strange sentence).  Professor Smyth (no, I'm not spelling that incorrectly) showed up, WITH HER CAT. Go ahead. Read that sentence again. I'll wait. Ok, yeah, so the sick cat came to school. Not that I'm complaining, I want to bring my cat to school all the time, but apparently with a flooding kitchen, and a sick cat, and being an art history prof, things just got out of hand and we were just going to go to the library instead.

The library across town.

Granted, it's supposed to be a fantastic resource for our projects, and we wouldn't have any idea how to a) get there, b) get books, or c) what do do with them once we found where they were (which is a process, believe me). So we trooped and tram-ed over to Piazza Venezia to find this specialized Art History international library. Good idea? Yes. Different from a midterm? Very much so.

This library can best be compared to a labyrinth. For example, it has many rooms. But not just any silly old rooms, these look like the Beast's library in Beauty and the Beast.  You know, filled to the brim with books? Floor to ceiling, covering every wall with steps and a platform to go up to the second level of books. There are maybe 5 of these such rooms, folded in on each other and stacked carefully. The tricky thing is not just figuring out how to get to the upper level of the shelves (there's only one way up, and that means it's only in one room and you have to wander your way around the edges until you get to that one corner of that one room where your book should be).  The other tricky part is that not every book is somewhere that you have access to. That means that you have to go through the process of actually finding your book (read: find title and author of book that maybe useful for your research, go outside the library to another room where the card catalogue is, riffle through cards in little bitty baby drawers, (my prof described this process as 'sensuous' but I'm not sure that's the same word I would come up with) find call number, attempt to figure out whether it is somewhere you can get to it, ask librarian who only speaks broken English, they say that you have to fill out a request form) then going to find the place/forms to make your request. Whewf. By the time we got to that part of the tour, my professor was adding extensive editorial remarks about the process which included that idea that once you made your request that little elves, who you never see, wearing funny hats scamper off to find your book and bring it back to you in 30 minutes.

So instead of taking a test, we learned about the Italian Librarian version of Santa's little helpers. Good work.

After that little excursion, I caught pizza with Kate, studied for my next test, rocked it, then decided that anyone with two tests in a day deserves a Nutella Crepe. So I got one of those before looking over my Philosophy notes. Otherwise known as looking at random pictures of Moua that I hide in my wallet. What? That's strange. Oh well.

Back to the apartment where I had the lovely pleasure of skyping dear dear Chloe. We plan on making this a regular occurrence, you know, after she finishes reading the news paper.

And that was my test of survival in Rome. Tomorrow's task? Water obstacle.

But Serious, a Tuesday?

If you want to know how to suffer on a Tuesday, do the following things.

Spend all afternoon in the library writing a philosophy paper that you don't really understand. But make sure you do so after you show up for a class 30 minutes early, and get kept 30 minutes longer in the same class than you should have been. Then make sure that you sit buy a buy who wears very large headphones and plays them too loudly as he watches a movie. Make sure that the girl who is sitting across from you expects you to confront the big-headphone guy, but you just turn up your Itzhak Perlman playlist and pretend that you know how to write this paper. (At some point I may write an ode to the guy with the big headphones.  He had really pretty eyes.)

You should continue in this pattern for close to 6 hours. At that point you should probably give up, admitting that 3 pages single spaced on an incredibly vague prompt that you don't understand is just too much for a Tuesday. Go buy groceries. Carry heavy groceries home. Then convince yourself that you should actually finish that paper now. Now. NOW.  Ok, go eat nachos (real cheese isn't the same), then finish the paper.

Actually finish the paper.

No for realz.

Finish the paper.

Have dance party and eat cheesecake.

Write blog.

So here we are. The paper is done. The blog is done. AND pictures are posted. Who are you proud of? Oh yeah, me. Awesome.