Que sera, sera (what will be, will be)

guten morgan mein leibchen, bonjour mes chous, hola mi tacos.

i am way out of it today due to taking a valium yesterday (it was a bad day but it got infinitely better once the valium came along) and forgetting that now that i am on weight watchers, my body's kind of in starvation mode so it will affect me longer! the odd thing is i took it at 4 30, chilled out, made a DELISh dinner with my mom, and then all of a sudden after dinner i started to get way more out of it and spacey. i promise these are not the time-release kind (do they even make those?) so i was barely able to stay up for PR and passed out. and i am still feeling the effects today!

by the way, so many people have trouble using the correct "affect" and "effect." pertaining to a subject it's "affect" as in, "this affects me so much," and pertaining to an object it is "effect" as in "the effect on the environment is unknown"

someone who knows grammar better (i.e. labes) can explain it better. this concludes your grammar lesson of the day!

so i was reading up on some presidential candidates and all i have to say is: obama, i think you're mean and don't have enough experience; hillary, i want to vote for you but now i just dont know; romney you are such a robot and we should not have a mormon president; mccain, i not-so-secretly like you and i think you're our BEST hope for a republication; guliani is a THUG; huckabee is a religious zealot who will probably grow a long beard and pretend he's the second coming of jesus.

that concludes our presidential opinion part of the blog.

i'm on weight watchers now, for those of you who don't know. it's very hard, i'm often hungry, but i'm making it work. why not? it's a lot cheaper, i really don't need huge portion sizes, and i can afford to lose some of the lbs that have snuck on since college. i have a FANTASTIC support group (mikey, bets, kenne) who are all doing it with me and thank you to everyone else who offers words of encouragement along the way.

work update: work is a little crazy, as my coworkers are all being loud right now (and in my out of it state, im SO distracted) and yesterday my boss quit. what does this mean for the company? total chaos. let's hope it doesn't upset my position too much.

i am really REALLY antsy to move and hear from grad schools. kansas sent me an email telling me they'd shoot me a letter in about a week! AWESOME. i researched some tuition costs and got a ballpark figure of what each school would cost (including: tuition, rent, bills, food expenses, gas, etc.-- i am not going to be rolling in student loan $, but i refuse to be a starving grad student). oddly enough, William and Mary, Purdue, and UmassBoston are all about the same (tuition is around 11k per semester and living costs would be about the same) and UT and Kansas are the same (tuition is about 3k, living costs will be the same). Kansas is CHEAP for out of state! i am very impressed. they pride themselves on that, and with good reason! it's also in a very pretty city (lawrence, KS) and the campus is very lovely as well. let's hope i have a lot of options for grad school (and lots of scholarships, or a full ride, or fellowships, etc etc). yay!

so womb buddy is moving to portland next week. it's pretty! and pretty cold. here is a lovely picture:

Good luck wb!

this was actually kinda hard:
Here's how you play: Once you've been 'tagged', you have to write a blog of 10 weird/random habits/goals/facts about yourself. At the end choose 10 people to be tagged, listing their names and WHY you chose them. Don't forget to leave them a comment and tell them to read your blog. You can't tag the person who tagged you, since you can't tag me back - let me know when you've posted your blog so I can see your answers.

1. I hate HATE the smell of the candle wick when you blow it out. You know how it smokes a little? It makes me gag, so I always blow on it until the ember is out or put a lid on it. That’s a weird fact—I just HATE that smell. I bet I look pretty awesome blowing on that thing till it stops smoking though :)

2. I love school. I don’t think that’s weird, only I used to talk about the class we had that day in the bar and projects—and don’t even get me STARTED on my thesis topic. You will be bombarded with info! That’s why I’m so excited to go to grad school—I start finding out from schools in a couple weeks! YAY!

3. I am not a morning person. I feel like everyone probably knows that already. I prefer to wake up naturally, around 9 or 10 am. I used to sleep in a lot later but I feel like I waste the day if I do (unless I’m up past 2 am, and then I will sleep in as late as I can to recoup sleep). I don’t drink coffee often, so in the morning just wait till I’m awake if you expect some coherent conversation. That said, I hate naps. I always wake up feeling so groggy and like the apocalypse has happened and everyone is gone but me. Weird feeling…

4. I hate cell phone companies. They really screw everyone in America into paying exorbitant amounts for services that we don’t need or don’t work. You know that in almost every contract, it states that if you have no service where you live, you still can’t get out of the cell contract? So when I had cingular (now at&t I think?) and moved to Austin where there was no cingular tower, they said I’d have to pay $150 to get out of my contract. Luckily, a nice lady at customer service took pity on me and let me out of my contract for free. YAY! And now I have sprint.

5. I am a VERy picky movie person. There are some things I just don’t want in my brain, you know? No horror, no suspense, no thrillers, I hate murder mysteries of any kind (this goes for books too), no intense period pieces that are jane austen-esque (Atonement, I’m talking to you), no stupid slapstick, etc. etc. I don’t think its too much of a problem, as movies are quite expensive these days. I just don’t want to pay $10 for something that I would want to erase from my brain (walk hard: the dewey cox story, I’m talking to you)

6. I used to hate tv. In high school, I said often that “tv is the devil” and never watched it. When I was younger, we occasionally had cable so I would watch things like Hey Dude, Salute your Shorts and Get Smart (one of my fav shows at the time) but I guess I thought it was cool to hate tv in high school. I never watched Melrose place, 90210 or anything like that (I’m not into soaps, really. Why are they called soaps, btw?) in college I was also apathetic, but living with Katie showed me the light. She insisted on having tv b/c of football, and we had many good times watching What not to Wear, Most Extreme, and Family Guy (plus a lot more that I was prob. Too stoned to remember). Now, tv is my best friend. :) travel channel, food network, bravo, logo, etc. I love you all. If I get into grad school I am going to have to get a dvr to record my shows. Is that expensive?

7. I hate loading the dishwasher. Its so gross! I do it a lot anyway, but I think touching food-nasty plates and things is GROSS. I also hate dirty old sponges—do you know how many bacteria, etc. is in your kitchen sponge! Change that at least once a month.

8. I love writing things in my planner. Most of you know that I am anally organized, but it’s the only way I’ll remember anything. I also hate surprises. There is so much pressure to react a certain way! I mean, a wedding proposal is generally a good surprise, but make sure the person will most likely say yes! And don’t surprise visit me or whatever. I love you, but I need to plan our visit or else I will FREAK out. I am crazy anal, I know.

9. I hate juice. Unless there’s vodka involved. But I don’t like it in most any other context.

10. I like how most of these started either with “I love” or “I hate.” To change it up, I would say: I get very scared very easily. I think people are standing in my hallway in the middle of the night ready to kill me, I get scared walking to my car at night anywhere, I get scared being alone, im afraid of a lot of things (spiders, death, not getting into grad school). In short, I am a scaredy cat.

tagging people-- labes, ellen, wb, fleabag, trapes, lauren, kristen, angel, and anyone else who would possibly do this amazingness.

Cats are Essential for Human's Well-Being

look at this great quote i came across today: "Cats are more than just pets," said Naoki Yanase, a professor of English literature at Seijo University. "They radiate serenity and are essential for the well-being of humans."

yep! that also reminds me, thessaly is more likely a Japanese Bobtail cat than a Manx, because manx tails don't have a curve or kink in them and Thess's tail has a 90 degree right angle in it! (so cute). so, world, i now own a Ragdoll/Siamese and a Japanese Bobtail/possible Domestic Shorthair.
i am sure you are riveted by this new breakthrough.

anyway. in other news, i bought some things from itunes for the first time the other day, and .99 doesn't seem like a lot at first for a song but it adds up! jeez. i bought a few tori b-sides that have eluded me thus far so it was worth it, but still. i'm also trying to download music and such but haven't found anything that i really like! people! send me your suggestions!

so it's friday and i have some fun things going on today and not a lot else going on for the weekend. and i found out that most of my rec's were sent to grad school and Purdue sent me an email, "we'll let you know mid-February" which is SO exciting and i just want to move and go to school and paint my new apt and have fun with it! life! let's get on with it!

that is all. happy weekend people.
(next post: i'll talk about tv. new what not to wear today, and i am rather enjoying this Make me a Supermodel on bravo. lets discuss)

and here is a video of ellen and me in Galveston:

it's a new year and i'm glad to be here*

bonjour mes chous, comment ca-va? i dont even know if that's totally right...

so i'm bored again. not a whole ton of a lot has been going on: i had a WONDERFUL starbucks date with cheryl last night (and hope to see her a lot more in 2000 and GREAT), i had fun getting a little tipsy (who am i kidding, i was flat out drunk) on saturday night with nessa and jesse, carrie, angel, and it was fun drunkenly running into Jessica, Liesl and Tanya at poison girl.

other than that, the only thing that has happened is ellen came into town, which was GREAT and FUN and i think i'm esp. bored now that she's gone b/c we had good times while she was here. went to museums, nasa (which is totally like a dirty McD's playground), galveston (that was fun), hung out with nessa and her bf jesse a LOT (yay!), lauren came into town, and we ate a lot of good food (ruggles, barnaby's, empire cafe, to name a few). it was good and fun and it was nice to show a die hard yankee that texas is fun. YAY! but now she's gone and i'm bored again. want to come back ellen? ;)



other than that, i am REALLY excited to say: ALL MY GRAD SCHOOL STUFF IS DONE! TURNED IN! fini! only now comes the fun part: waiting and having really no idea what schools i'll get into, if any. i'm not trying to be fatalistic, only realistic, as most of these programs only take 7-15 people max. every year and there are SO many factors going into who is chosen. i did my best this year and we'll have to see if that was good enough. For now, a review of the schools i applied to: univ of kansas, purdue univ. in indiana, umass boston, univ of texas (2 programs-- amer studies and womens studies), and william and mary (that's my longshot-- they are SNOBBY and expensive). #1 is UT for many reasons, but kansas and purdue are right up there at #2. umass boston is my back up (even though its a great program) mainly b/c it (along with w&m) will be the most $$ program if i go there. w&m will be $$, but i think it's cheaper to live in williamsburg, virginia than it is in boston, and w&m is a lot more prestigious than umassB. we'll see. i honestly don't know-- and i won't until march or april. so cross your fingers for me, i'll cross the eyes, and i'll keep everyone posted. there may be some visits to schools in march/april/may, there may not. there may be some celebrations to be had, there may be news that i'm contemplating suicide. we'll see. :D plan B is to move to Austin, so either way, I'm out of here.

in the meantime, i am spending time fantasising what my new apt (wherever i do move) is going to look like, what furniture i'll take with me, what new furniture i'll need, etc. the key word here is fantasy, as i have no idea what kind of $$ i'll have to get new furniture, or depending on how far i'm moving i may have to take less things (and it's not like i have a lot of furniture that really is mine, other than my bed, desk, desk chair, and...well that's it). luckily, as the only daughter who has not taken furniture off to some exotic (or not, hello college station) locales, i figure it's my turn and i get whatever's left. since we have a surplus of furniture, it looks like i could possibly take a lot of things. YAY! i also am enjoying spending time on the behr.com website to look at paint (i want things in a deep merlot-y violet purple, with light ballet pink, white, and lime green as accent colors). to match this theme my furniture has to be either black or white (im leaning towards black) and most of the furniture we have is wood so there may be some spray paintin' up in here. it's all hypothetical but enjoyable and i'm looking forward to making a major life decision and really, sort of, starting my twenty-something life. (not looking as forward to the papers i will have to write, or the # of pages i'll have to read, or the tons of loans i'll have to take out, but it's going to be worth it).



anyway, that's that. what's new with you?

ps- the cats are doing great. they are spoiled little babies and i'm sure are not as excited about my moving as i am since they'll have to leave a huge house and fun grandparents to play with.

*quote is from a Yeasayer song that i am listening to right now

TWO THOUSAND AND GREAT

hello muffins, and happy 2008! hope you all rang in the new year with sufficient revelry and all that-- i did, even though i had planned to stay home with my cats. my older sister and her bf surprised my parents by showing up on monday (i knew they were coming and thank god they told me-- i HATE surprises, btw) and we went out to a nice bar on washington (chaise lounge next to walter's across from maryjanes) and it was empty except for us and a few of khrys's awesome friends (don't worry, i found the one gay in the group and we talked about mikey, life plans, and cats the whole time).
all of khrys's awesome friends that were there worked at vet offices, so i had a great audience for my usual barrage of Thessaly and Stella-related information. They loved the cat tree, btw.

in the meantime, ELLEN is coming today! JOY! we have a fun filled 5 days planned that include: museums (esp. the HMFA jewelry exhibit), Space Center Houston, Galveston, ellen getting her haircut by my favorite person at www.salonmatos.com, ellen possibly getting her nose pierced, and other such merriment. if you would like to see us and youre in the area, give me a call. i'm sure we'd love to see you.
in the meantime, its last minute errand running time! i hope ellen's connecting flight in chicago isnt delayed because of all the snow, etc....