skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Thanksies need to be made to my beautiful friend, Sam Cib. Here she is, fellow blogettes:
Sam not only made my day today by telling me that The Perks of Being a Wallflower is being made into a movie, but last week, thanks to Facebook creeping, she accidentally introduced me to a blog that has been copied, bookmarked, and tabbed on my crumbling MC laptop, right next to my Y schedule: http://thefrenemy.tumblr.com/. Seriously. Best. Blog. Ever. I wish I could write as well as this person does. Today this blogger basically took my thoughts about e-books and Nooks and created the most eloquent post ever. My favorite passages:
"There is nothing, nothing like a book that is yours. The tattered and wrinkled dog, the pages you have scanned over and over, rubbed your fingers down the spine as real as human flesh. The first time you read a book that is yours is like finding a soulmate. It could be a sentence, three sentences, a paragraph before you know. You are hooked. You hug the book. You are elated at finding the kind of words that speak to all the parts of your bones and organs. You take it with you to all the apartments you’ll ever have, packing it safely in the boxes you write BOOKS on. You underline the BOOKS part in the box it is in so you know to be extra careful with it. You go to certain pages when you are sad. 97 will make you cry. 313 will make you laugh. 14 contains the life mantra you live by. You look at the corner crease in the upper right back cove- that came when you let your best friend borrow it. The ripped binding. The underlined sentences. The oil stain in the third chapter. It is as weathered and loved as your very first blanket. The reminder of somebody you loved, you take it back to the time in your life you were in Pennsylvania whipping your hand out the car window. This book is as memory inducing as a favorite song. For me, this book is The Picture of Dorian Gray. For you, it is whatever made you love the written word. Pull it out when you want to visit beloved friends."
"With real books, there are moments in a a doctor’s office. You watch a girl, maybe fifteen, pull out the Great Gatsby. You remember the moment you fell for it during the bare legged swing and lemonade sip of your sophomore summer. That month you soaked up the pain of love with the kind of awe and understanding that you will never be as brilliant as Fitzgerald. Or Vonnegut. You remember reading sentences from the great and the dead that throw you against a wall or rip your heart out, so you touch the pages and run your fingers down the ink in substitute. There are moments on the subway. A cute, tousled hair kind of guy pulls out a book you have never read. You watch his face, the movements of his mouth as he soaks it up and for a moment you love him. You take out your book, ruffle through your purse, find that paperback and let somebody fall in love with you as you struggle to read with one hand gripped on the crowded railing."
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
This week has been an emotional one. One of the girls in the theatre department just lot her mom. I think as you go through college and get involved with your major, the other people who are with you become family, and even if you don't hang out with them daily, there is the sense of fierce protectiveness and love. So when one loses someone or something, it affects everyone. I'm not going to lie, it made me feel a lot of things: incredibly sad, the shock that while I may be stressing about little things, there are much bigger things happening, and the sudden need to call my own mom, apologize for our fight last week, tell her that I love her a lot, and take her off of my "Block" list from Facebook (yes, I took her off of Facebook. What can I say, I was mad...). And I guess I needed to read something, see something that would maybe restore a little sparkle, a little hope in my world. And well, for me, that other blog post did just that.
So, Sam? Thanks, lady.
Valentine's Day is next Monday and last week I had a voracious appetite for doing the very things that sometimes make me irritable around this time of year:
-Surfing wedding blogs
-Looking at every single wedding profile on The Knot
-Reading the "Happy Couple" section in People and Self
-Couple watching in Starbucks...and making faces
-Playing the, "How? How does this stanky celeb have a boyfriend?" with only the closest of my girlfriends (which is mean, I know. But like Spence says, sometimes it's just necessary)
-Eating chocolate but not going to yoga
And then I have to remember the things that make me happy:
+I do what I want. Within reason.
+My time is mine.
+I have a fabulous group of girlfriends that I wouldn't trade with anyone for the world
+I am getting ready to embark on an equally fabulous adventure next year
+I am actually quite happy with the way things are going in my life.
+And on Monday I am going to (quite contentedly) make handmade Valentines (goofy, of course) for my best friends and treat myself to some much-needed Ben and Jerry's. And probably send my dad an e-mail demanding that he be my Valentine.
+Yoga class. Fine, fine...I'll go.
It's day two of a new semester and it's already a snow, er, ice day. I'm sitting in my room in my super comfy bed, a cup of coffee in hand, and a reading on Plato. Life is pretty fabulous right now.
It's 2011, y'all! 2011. The year I graduate. In four months. Asdkfjasdlkfjkjdakfjalkd! So far 2011 has consisted of the following: cobbling together resumes, auditioning, toting around a new purse (thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, sweet Kasey G!), and marveling at he fact that next year I will be in a different state.
Every new year I make a list of goals, most of them the same as that previous year; things like, "I won't bite my nails," and "I will fold my laundry and not let it sit on my floor," and "I will not treat my floor as an extra shelf." But really, these are more like daily goals that I try to work on. So I figured it was time to shake things up, and my lovely pal Kellie gave me an idea. Instead of focusing on a ton of mini-goals, I decided for the year of 2011, I would work on one thing that seems to have a common occurrence this semester and was the cause of my semi-demise towards the end of the semester: stress. My goal is to make sure that I don't get too over my head in my last semester of college, and to always make sure to check in with myself periodically. And maybe instead of saying yes to everything, thinking it through. Before last semester got super hectic, I loved going to the gym to take a class, run, and basically get out some frustration and kick in the endorphins. But I stopped going once school, Corn, the show, finals...everything started piling up. I really missed going and seeing the friends I made in toning and dance classes, and I missed getting the "me" time I knew was long overdue. Over winter break, I started going six times a week, taking classes, rocking out on the elliptical, and...taking yoga.
My dad said that taking yoga would not only work on building the flexibility I used to have when I was younger, but it would also give me a chance to check out and chill for about an hour. All of the stretching, all of the "downward facing dogs" and whatnot means you stare at your feet a lot. And frankly, after about two weeks I got tired of staring at my unpainted toes for so long. So I decided to make a little purchase:
And the rest is history. I feel almost dainty when I lean down to stretch out my back and calves and I see my classy red toes. We'll see how the rest pans out.
Alright, 2011, let's see whatcha got!
I found out a couple surprising things today:
1) My dad is fostering another collie (Chloe got adopted!), and brought sweet Addison home: Guys, she is SUCH a sweetheart! Though she did follow me around and gave me "woe-is-me" eyes while I nibbled on my Panera dinner, I instantly fell in love with this dog. My grandma even commented (very dryly, might I add), "Wow, look at that...Mommy and Baby."
2) My dad knows the "Bed Intruder" song: I know this because this fellow (not the elephant) serenaded me with it tonight.
It is now clear to me that we indeed share the same DNA.
Tomorrow I leave for the great and snowy state of Ohio where the following will probably ensue:
1) My cousin Divya and I will be asked to help do something constructive, like help build a shelf for my aunt's school and we'll end up breaking it.
2) The adults will argue (loudly) when we're out for dinner over who will pay the bill and my dad and uncle will end up arm wrestling (in public).
3) Divya and I will probably get a bottle of wine and laugh at them.
4) My incredibly sweet former pharmacist grandfather will lecture us on the dangers of taking Midol during "that time" and make us do Yogi headstands in the corner where the big green potted plant sways dangerously.
5) Div and I will eat a good lunch and said grandfather will probably try to forcefeed us some more because we only had one sandwich, not twelve.
6) We'll watch a romantic comedy and when the couples kiss, all of the adults will blush/not-so-subtly turn away and then try to cover our eyes with pillows (i.e. smother us).
7) Someone will slip on a patch of ice and go to the emergency room. One year it was my grandfather. Next it was my dad (who says he slipped because he was carrying a shelf; I believe he slipped because he was grooving to ABBA, which was playing on the Ipod at the time).
8) Div and I will be banished to the basement but will make up for it by eating everything in the pantry late at night.
And you know what? I. Cannot. Wait.
Well.
I figured a post about my mom would eventually find its way into this here blog. So here it is:
Mom/Mommy/"YOU-stop stalking my friends on Facebook!",
I do not say this enough but I am a lucky, lucky girl. I have a constant cheerleader whose immediate willingness to claw at anyone who doubts or messes with her daughters always amazes me. I am quite lucky to have you for a best friend, one who can make me laugh within the first five seconds. I appreciate everything you do, from driving thirty minutes to merely hand off your sickly child a bottle of Ginger Ale to listening to me gripe about how irritating life is to always making sure I have decent denim. Most importantly, though, I appreciate how giving you are to others-I've never seen you turn away from a friend in need, yours or mine. It's something that I'll take with me for the rest of my life. I never grow tired of our dates, and always look forward to those Saturday mornings at Mimi's Cafe,where you will talk to me, order pancakes (sans the bacon) with me, and fill me in on the latest drama-fest that is The Housewives of ________ County.
I love you.
Whomever invented Nordstorm deserves a Lifetime Achievement Award. Seriously. After spending a fabulous fun day with Julie-Kate at the Tanger Outlets and not really finding a lot, we moseyed on over to the Southpoint area. And in the haven that is Nordstrom Rack, I found this gem:
A black military jacket for twenty bucks? Yes, please! And I am totally planning on wearing this tomorrow. Speaking of...tomorrow I'm going to Rex Hospital where I'm getting a camera put in my stomach so doctors can see what's going on in the insides of Kiki. While I'm a little nervous, I am quite comforted in the fact that at least I'm going into this little procedure with style :)
I am aware that this poor blog has been neglected for some time. We have so much to catch up on! Corn madness, post-Corn madness, November days, etc! No worries though, now that it is break time, updates will probably be more frequent because I'll be bored out of my mind. On that note, why is is December?
December? DECEMBER! Oh my GAH, how are we already at December? My mind is blown by the fact that I have one more semester of college left...like, FOREVER (until I decide to go to grad school). Wow. I bounce back a lot from feeling elated and ready to go to New York to feeling defiant about graduating and being all, "I'm not doing it. Nope. What's a class I can fail? Okay, I'm failing it. The end."
It has finally happened, folks. The little "Kiran-isms," i.e. the amount of stress that I let affect me in my daily life has landed me into the Land of the Medical, i.e. Rex Hospital, where I am awaiting to be "officially" diagnosed with either stress ulcers or gastroentritis, meaning my stomach is inflamed. Isn't that gross? Ew. My doctor, sweet Dr. Beck, was very calm as she told me that for the next five or six weeks I was to have no more of the following: caffeine, alcohol, processed foods, fruit with high acidity (bye, bye, beloved kiwi. Oh, how I'll miss you), or CHOCOLATE. That's right, y'all. CHOCOLATE. The alcohol thing? I can do without. The caffeine? Really, the only thing I really drink is coffee, and I mean, I can take a break. But it is Christmastime, and this is the time of the year when chocolate things are at its best: peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses in the middle, homemade chocolate toffee, chocolate-oreo "mush" desserts with gummy bears and crumbled chocolate bits on top, sugar cookies with Santa's distorted face on them, CARAMEL CHEWS...I mean, really, why didn't she just hand me a noose and tell me to go at it?
However: cleaning out my needing-to-be-cleaned diet (i.e. not drinking copious amounts of slightly burned coffee everyday, along with my penchant for going to Which Wich/Whole Foods when the "time's is tough" on the academic front), and sipping on decaf tea and Trader Joe hummus and bread (thanks, daddio), I feel a lot better. Well, you would feel better too once the stabs in your stomach settled. But I feel like my body is building its strength back so I can muck it up with more late-night Cookout next semester (I kid, I kid). I've been sleeping a lot, reading things that aren't academically inclined (I banish you, Theatre History, to the bottom of my bed until next semester), and honestly, hanging out with my family. I am not even kidding when I say that my dad is ecstatic to have me back around the homefront. He misses my sister and I, I think, and so when one of us is ailing, he jumps at the chance to take care of us. Gone is the twenty-two year old form that is me currently, and in its place is the gap-toothed six-year-old me with a slight mullet haircut (thanks to him, of course. Dad thought it would be "economical" to try and cut my hair then...needless to say, he stopped and shelled out the dough to the professionals), always wanting to hold his hand. It's been nice to just do things with him like take our new collie puppy Chloe out for walks, go to Trader Joe's, and watch movies together (since I'm in theatre, I tell him a lot about what we learn in class, so he's picked up the lingo too...we were watching Law & Order, and all he could talk about was the "believability" and "character choices" of Detective Stabler). Aaand I'm not going to lie, my inner six-year-old is secretly glad to spend some quality time with her fisherman-hat-wearing-socks-and-sandals-sporting father.
Since I have been on my meds, I have been able to drive on my own and do things. Over this past week, we at Meredith said, "Congratulations and see you later!" to two very special grads:
The always-fabulous Jenn, who is heading back up to Maine to be at home for awhile and then scooching on over to NEW YOOOOORK (where I will be joining her next year!) to pave her classy name in the acting business.
And then we have...
This hoss over here, Sheryl. While this picture captures her "gangsta" mode, this HILARIOUS and beautiful gal will be hanging around Raleightown to showcase her many acting talents and then hopefully head over to Chicago and land herself a lead on SNL...because yes, people, she is that talented.
I can't even put into words how much these two mean to me or have impacted my stay at Meredith. All I can say is that I love them deeply, believe in them SO MUCH, and cannot wait to see what they do.
I cannot wait to see what this break brings. Hopefully a lot of hip hop classes, writing, catching up with my friends, and seeing my wonderfully insane family? This makes for a vacation where a lot of funny shit will go down...and I cannot wait to be there in the midst of it. Happy, happy December, sweet friends! I can't wait to see you all...and SOON!
