C’est La Vie

is setting in. Life is busy. I’m quite tired of it all.

I want to go back to last year and freshman year and how much fun I had.

Dammit. Junior year of college sucks.

Yes, I’ve been one busy little bee. Today has been a horribly awful day: I was up late finishing a paper of pretentiousness for my Criticism class, woke up early to study for my French exam today and was distracted by the awesomeness of old Saved By the Bell (not “The New Class” or “The College Years”, original, awesome Saved By the Bell). I may wake up early from now on to watch it….but most likely not.

Mmm, Zack Morris.

Anyway, I had to go print off said paper and then studied in Starbucks, wherein I felt like I was prepared for the test….until I got to the class and realized just how wrong I was. It was awful. Ugh. Went to the library to get a book out afterwards, and we have self-checkout machines, and naturally it screwed up for me. So the old lady behind the reference desk spoke to me like I was mentally handicapped because the machine messed up on me. I was like, thanks lady… good people skills. Le Boyfriend made a remark about how she was probably just distracted as she “had just discovered this thing called ‘the internet.’”

Tomorrow will hopefully be better, as my friend Maegen will be coming to visit me from a college about an hour away!! We’re going to a place that specializes in desserts and I am suuuper excited. Dessert is my favorite meal of the day, so I eat it as much as possible. And I don’t have class thanks to Rosh Hashanah as my college is big on celebrating the Jewish holidays; but I do have to give a tour at 9:30 in the morning. Which I volunteered for. Gross. But I do need the money! Plus I FINALLY GET PAID NEXT WEEK. Yes, for the first time since starting my new jobs at the end of August, I will be paid. AND IT WILL BE GLORIOUS!

Ranting aside, I’m going to try to dress nicely tomorrow for Maegen so potentially some nice outfit posts for the first time in a long time! Woo hoo be excited!

I am a Democrat/Liberal/Feminist/Pro-Choice/Pro-Stem Cell Research/Anti-War/Intelligent woman. I wanted Hillary, and I fully admit that. However, when she was not nominated, I began to research Obama more. And he was alright, but after watching this debate, my love for him has grown tenfold.

Here’s what I have to say to John McCain…(not exactly nice, so if you’re Pro-McCain, you probably don’t want to read this)… Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I never! The lovely Selina at Flying Saucer held a contest for some fancy skin care products, and, on a whim, I entered. And I won! Holy cow! I never win anything so this is astounding. Thank you so much Selina!

This is definitely a nice pick-me-up. There’s a lot of family drama going on and I’ve been in a crappy mood the last few days, so this comes at a much needed time. Not to mention all the things I have to do before Monday. J’ai mon premiere examen en Francais lundi, as well as a 5-7 page paper for my Criticism class of pretentiousness. At least, that’s how I refer to it in my head. It’s not impossible, just a huge pain in the patootie. Yes, I said “patootie,” that’s just how mad I am! Don’t mess with me, I’m caraazy.

Anyway, I bought the most adorable thigh-high knit socks at Target the other day, and test-drove them on Tuesday. Imagine how many people stared at me for wearing them, because it was just about everybody. I mean, of all the crazy things people can (and do) wear, I’m doubting thigh-high socks are the weirdest, particularly because I had a longer skirt on, so it’s not like I was wearing short booty shorts and then tall socks. Much to my chagrine, though, they don’t have elastic at the top so they fell down a lot. Anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking double-sided tape, but that would probably be painful. Oh maybe that fancy tape they use to hold actress’s boobs into their Oscar dresses? I have to look into this.

That’s the excuse I’m using to rationalize my latest (of apparently many? what the hell?) purchases.

Whilst shopping in the mall with Le Boyfriend on Saturday, we went into one last store after I bought a pair of thick stockings (real honest to goodness thick stockings!) from Victoria’s Secret, and L.B. bought himself a nice khaki blazer from The Gap on super-duper sale. Therein, I found something that literally took my breath away. It was the last one in the store, in the color I wanted, and it just so happened to be in my size. The best part? It was only twenty dollars. I believe that’s called ‘fate.’

Except mine is black. Mwahaha.

Why yes, that is the fringe skirt from Express that I’ve wanted since I saw it in the spring of last year. Do I care that it’s probably no longer in style? NO. Do I still love it? ABSOFRIGGINLUTELY. Especially since I bought it for $50.00 less than its original price. Fantastic.

Warning: this post will be a longer one. Probably with lots of my opinions which might not be fully-formed or agree with yours. But it will also have cool facts. So the choice is yours.

I skipped my Myth and Religion class today. Not because I don’t like the class; on the contrary, it’s quite enjoyable. But the professor gives the lectures completely from our readings, which were all written by him. Now, normally I find that extremely annoying: you can only buy your books from the campus bookstore because, guess what, your professor wrote your books! Ha ha, screw you student, spending all your hard-earned summer job money on textbooks!

In this case, however, it’s actually kind of cool. My professor is the first person (ever, for serious) to translate Ovid’s Fasti into English, because, “someone had to do it” (and that is an exact quote). If you don’t know, Fasti is the poet Ovid’s last work, written in calendar form, basically describing Roman life. His more well-known work is Metamorphoses which has stories about Echo and Narcissus, etc. Plus, his edition is basically the only edition, plus it’s a PENGUIN book. Now I don’t know if too many people realize how huge of a deal that is. Maybe it’s an English major thing, but Penguin books are basically the most trusted (minus Norton) and most reliable editions of any book. Also, my professor talks like Ron Burgundy in Anchorman with Will Ferrell doing James Lipton from “Inside the Actor’s Studio.” So really, Will Ferrell making a funny voice is how Woodard speaks. Apparently I can’t link the video onto here so click here to watch part of the sketch of Will Ferrell as James Lipton interview one of my favorite people ever, Charles Nelson Reilly, as played by Alec Baldwin.

Anyway, whilst skipping class, I got the urge to go to our bookstore and just wander around. Again, maybe it’s an English major thing but I just find bookstores and libraries (where there aren’t a zillion college students) extremely relaxing and pleasant. In my wandering, I found a book and bought it, even though I probably shouldn’t have. I can’t help it, I have a weakness. It’s written by Andy Warhol about his life and experiences in the ’60s, and it’s titled Popism: The Warhol Sixties.

Let me just explain that I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE Warhol fan and have been for many years. My father has lived in and around Washington, DC for almost ten years now. Consequently, when I went to visit him, he would take my sister and I on tours of almost every single museum/gallery/national attraction in the DC Area. You name it, I’ve been to it: the White House back when you could still take tours through it (how I miss the Clinton years…), to the top of the Washington Monument, the Holocaust museum, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian Natural History museum, the Smithsonian American History Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Kennedy Center, the National Gallery of Art, the Pentagon (pre-9/11), and I don’t even remember where else.

Well, at one point we went to a museum that was housing a temporary Warhol exhibit. And it wasn’t just an exhibit. The ENTIRE museum had been turned into Warhol. There was even a room with Mao wallpaper. They had some of his shoe drawings, part of his film Sleep playing in one room, a huge wall with many of his revolver prints (like this one, entitled Guns), and of course walls dedicated to Marilyn, Elvis and all his other celebrity images. And yes, I own that pink Marilyn poster as it is one of my favorites; my sister bought me an Elvis print bag (inside the handles it has his famous 15 minutes quote); and I bought myself another bag with his Flowers print on it, as I figured it was more ambiguous than a can of Campbell’s). So while I am not an expert, I feel that I do know quite a bit on Warhol (although I refuse to watch Factory Girl, as I’m not a big Sienna Miller fan).

So, to make a long story short (too late!), in my Criticism class on Monday, we were comparing Van Gogh’s Shoes to Warhol’s Diamond Dust Shoes. (Ironically, as I clicked to find the image for the Van Gogh, I stumbled upon the essay the excerpt I had to read that compared the two. Click here if you’d like to read Jameson’s theory on why Postmodernism sucks and why in 50 years he thinks we won’t be talking about Warhol anymore, which I personally believe is bullshit and that he’s pretentious and kind of an ass. I digress). Our professor got to talking, and basically said that he though Warhol was fetishizing for America the idea of capitalism, and how comforting it was to see a Campbell’s soup can, blah blah blah. I kind of started to tune him out. Because, you see, I always thought (and I’ve had discussions with my art-loving-beret-wearing Le Boyfriend plus Art History major friends of mine) that the whole point of Warhol’s work was part fetishizing, yes, but also to mock our culture and point out how ridiculous it was. “There will only be one Marilyn Monroe.” So what Warhol will do is take her picture and put four of her out there at once; same thing with Elvis. Everyone is consumable and expendable to our culture; hence the “in the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes” quote. Nothing is sacred, everything can and will be consumed by and for everyone else. At least, that was always how I took it, was as a negative stance on our culture. I could be wrong. Either way, I’ll still love him.

Hopefully this book will bring some clarity to the subject. I love that I buy a book to read in my “downtime” between…reading other books. *cough*

Sorry, that was an extremely long post. But hey, something to do while you skip class/procrastinate on everything you have to do, right?

Pardon how awful I look (it was raining the entire afternoon and we were outside without umbrellas), but look who I got to MEET!

IT’S RYAN MILLER, GOALIE OF THE BUFFALO SABRES!!!!!!

Yes, I’m from/live/go to college in Buffalo. So therefore, this was monumental for me, as, like 100% of Buffalo, I am a Sabres fanatic. I seriously started jumping up and down when I saw him. Le Boyfriend and a friend of ours went to Music is Art Live! One of the bands came on to play and announced they had a special guest, and lo and behold it was Ryan Miller, who proceeded to play rhythm guitar on… I want you to want me. How perfect is that?! OH!! You might recognize him from this commercial too! Buffalo loves this man and I do too.

Needless to say, I’m smiling like a damn fool because…that’s exactly what I am.

(Picture is mine, no stealing or I hurt you. Click to make it bigger if you’re jealous or just curious on who I’m talking about).

I feel very special and famous now that miss WendyB has linked to me in two of her posts. When she did, I admit it, I started bouncing up and down I was so excited! I’m a nerd, but that’s okay, someone has to be!

(PS Wendy- For some reason I can’t leave comments on your page, so if you see this, I’m linking to your site because you are my new best friend. Or at least a new blog friend).

Anyway, I just got back from giving my first tour as a tour guide for my college, and now I’m rushing off to go see the second half of our home football game. And apparently later I’m going to an art gallery and/or out dinner and dancing? Look at me, a little social butterfly!

I would spend it all on WendyB’s auction to raise money for Stephanie Nielson, her husband, and her family. If you haven’t heard, Stephanie (or NieNie) and her husband Christopher were in a private plane crash. Christopher was burned on over 30% of his body; Stephanie on 80%. They have little children and now a huge mountain of hospital bills. So go donate! I’m about to donate to their PayPal (which you can also do on Wendy’s site), and if I had anything to auction off, I would. Instead, go to WendyB’s blog and bid on her offerings of: one of her gorgeous necklaces, immortality, diamond earrings… what more could you want?!

The auction is over Friday. GO BID NOW!!!!