Polka All Over

Today was strange. But great. And wonderfully filled with root beer and polka.

The usual Saturday morning routine: Lunch at Plex with Erik and Anna.
OH, but friends...

Honestly. You must get this sandwich at the Plex:

Toasted Onion Roll bun
Mozzarella
Tomatoes
Basil
Pesto
Cucumbers

Oh, delicious... Mm...

So, yeah. I editted Bryan's paper and read some more of my wonderful new book. I guess tomorrow I will pay by having to think of my stuff for elections speeches for vice (come vote for me, willard friends.) and finishing that paper that I never finished LAST weekend. Yeah. Prison songs. I want to enjoy it, so I won't stay up ridiculously late. It's only first draft to turn in, so yeah. Okay.

Anyway, I called Brandon today and talked for the first time with him in over a week. Yeah. That's sort of how it is I guess. You know. :( But, in good news from that conversation, umm... well I guess good news... he shaved his head which blows my mind. I am sitting here trying to think of my B with his head shaved. It's not happening. I can't imagine. Ahhh! NO! okay. Let's hope it grows some in the next few weeks, or else I won't see him during spring break. OR MICHAEL. shit guys! wtf? Shaved heads? Oh man.

So then the most amazing thing happened. And it was called Polka Party.

Jess and I ran down Sherman to Presence to get some last minute ridiculousness for our outfits. Oh yeah.

I wore the following:
A pink tanktop
A maroon shiny skirt
A maroon shiny tie
A black tux jacket
Black fishnets
My punky shoes
Pink earring and bracelet
Mario Wristband
Hells yah.

I got second place in the Best Dressed for girls behind the amazing Kate Kountzman. That girl totally wore some underwear outside her pants. Wow.

Aside from eating some heavyduty meat, heavyduty cake, and learning how to polka, I also drank lots of water, sweated tons, danced with some awesome polka dancers (props to Matt for just jumping in the air to offbeats with me, Isaac for being classy and waltzing with me, and Bryan for being simply an awesome polka dancer. To think he almost didn't come.), oh, and Matt and I won the King and Queen of Polka or something. I think. Totally shocking, considering we both just learned to polka and um he had 10 shots. So yeah. Wow! I can't believe I didn't realize how drunk he was. I mean, wow. And... he didn't fall over. And he led me. How did this happen? Yeah, so we totally got polka CDs.

The ride home was amazing as well. In my corner there was Matt, Bryan, Bryan, Grant, Karl, Mathias, Kevin Durnbaugh, and various others who led to some extreme craziness. Seemingly deserted and empty bus turned out to be super loud and sexually crazy bus. Yep. Wow.

Post Polka was spent hangin with Heather, Jess, Tate, Lil Jess, and Lindsay in Heather and Jess's room. Good quiet times. Well kinda quiet times. H and I ventured first floor to see the happenings, but unfortunately there was not much except the crazy "LoveBiorhythms" we set up with the help of Grant. Apparently Heather and I are super compatable (I feel like I'm not spelling this right) so we're going to go skinnydipping and have sex at the lake. Heather and Grant aren't allowed to talk anymore since their scores were so low. No more talking for them. And Grant and I are only allowed to apparently be locked in a dark room and have sex aided by Heather as "Sex Helper" (maybe "sex mediator" instead?) since we're so intellectually incompatable that we're dumb heads.

Tomorrow are exec elections. I am really excited (nervous) and it'll be okay if I don't win (I really would like to) and I have my speech all ready (I don't), so yeah. Maybe I should get an amazing NINE HOURS of sleep tonight and go to bed earlier than I have at all... in... Um... before three... when did this last happen? I don't know. Wow.

Okay, goodnight friends and lovers. Happy polka evening to you all.

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New Book

"How could we keep it (creative power) alive? By using it, by letting it out, by giving some time to it. But if we are women we think it is more important to wipe noses and carry doilies than to write or to play the piano. And men spend their lives adding and subtracting and dictating letters when they secretly long to write sonnets and play the violin and burst into tears at the sunset."
--Brenda Ueland, "If You Want to Write"

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If I had a photo theme, this would be it:

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Excerpts from my mom's emails

"In fact, my sister and I never liked Barbie very well. We used to bend our dolls' arms and legs backwards as if they were doing a type of crab walk and remark on how Barbie looked like a camel...

"Well, all I can say is it's about time. Forty years of "dating" is ridiculous. Probably Ken ran off with that little vixen Skipper."

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Somewhere Deep in the Recesses of CC's Anatomy

After a day of being dragged out of bed at early hours, teaching kids how to read, and attempting to stay at par faculty level, CC's Senses were fighting one another. Each of them, Mind, Body, Soul, and Heart, had decided to confer at Stomach's place, because he was empty and there was plenty of room. Combining their powers together in such a holy communion, the Senses didn't realize that CC could hear their conversation during her Gender Studies class.

Mind broke the uneasy silence, "Um. Um. Guys? There's a lot of stuff that needs to get done, and um... I can't do it by myself... and uh, uh..."

"Shut eet up," burst out Body, twisting his French mustache, agitated. "Zhee eezuh tired. Geeve zee gerhl a break, mais oui?" The others muttered and twiddled their Sensical thumbs.

"But, but... uhh... you guys, you know her parents are paying a lot of money for her to go to this school, and um... she has all that money to finish raising for DM, and uh, uh, at least two papers and one exam. Plus umm.. she wants to apply for American Studies and the Writing Program, so she really needs her grades to be good," Mind sputtered.

Heart as usual had been wandering non-Sensically, "I just want to play!"

"SHUT UP! You always interfere on the weekends!" shouted the rest of the Senses. There was an awkward silence.

"Zohkay," Body heaved as he lounged back in his futon from French Futons Express. "Mind, I understand vut you zay. Zhee does 'ave beaucoup de vork. Mais oui. But- 'onestly, I ahm uh feeling a little of zee, how do you zay? Zickness. Zleeping eez a necessicism."

"Uh, uh... necessity," Mind corrected. Silence again fell upon the group as Stomach's residence groaned loudly.

Soul searched within herself and suddenly spoke up, "Well, maybe... Maybe, Mind, you can find salvation... and Body, you can find rejuvenation... if she writes her philosophy paper." Murmurs of agreement filled the empty air.

"Wait! What about me?" cried Heart.

"Why not apply yourself elsewhere?" Mind logically and articulately suggested.

Suddenly, a rush of mush and slop broke into Stomach's room, as CC had decided to go down to SAGA. The meeting was suddenly dismissed, but all Senses could agree, things were looking up for each and every one of them.

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One Promised Sappy Entry, Dedicated to Amy T

She let down her hair and put her foot out the window. She talked about it briefly, "You know, why don't people put their feet out the window more often?" I agreed and when I looked over again, hers were dangling, blocking the side mirror.

Just another lazy humid Ohio afternoon. We had promised earlier we wouldn't get ice cream. We laughed about the prospect of college as we pulled through the Dairy Queen window for the second time that day.

Finding ways to amuse ourselves, we grabbed tape decks and danced to Boys II Men, reliving our childhoods and eagerly anticipating mid-September.

We covered the Beetle in words, just to get reactions. A small success. We secretly hung outside the school, completely conspicious in our Vapor vehicle, and waited for siblings.

Along the creek, we stopped for breath before we ran down the stairs, our legs screaming with pride and pain. One unplanned night under the stars in the water and one on the porch in anger. We drove for miles without getting to that rundown barn...but we had our feet hanging out the window, the self-help tapes blaring in the deck, and one small soft serve in each of our hands. We were just fine.

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I figure that this is important:

I just drunk-wrestled Brett to the Matrix Revolutions soundtrack. Not only was it epic, but it was also life-changing.

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Valentine's Day Approaches...

Brett just asked me for a love poem, and this is my favorite one ever. (Cute little story to go with it, if you don't know: Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote it in a tribute to her love for her husband, Robert Browning, because she was revived from illness when she met him.)



Life And Love

Fast this Life of mine was dying,
Blind already and calm as death,
Snowflakes on her bosom lying
Scarcely heaving with her breath.

Love came by, and having known her
In a dream of fabled lands,
Gently stooped, and laid upon her
Mystic chrism of holy hands;

Drew his smile across her folded
Eyelids, as the swallow dips;
Breathed as finely as the cold did
Through the locking of her lips.

So, when life looked upward, being
Warmed and breathed on from above,
What sight could she have for seeing,
Evermore… but only LOVE?

—Elizabeth Browning

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Sleepless in the City

I shouldn't be stressed out anymore. But I still am. I knew winter quarter wouldn't be any fun with the whole being-stuck-inside-because-it's-colder-than-a-witch's-tit-outside and having-tons-of-work-that-never-relents, but I didn't expect the basic struggles that I am now facing...

I've never fought my body so much to be healthy. When I feel a sickness coming on, I have to tell my body it's not going to work... Talk about mind games.

I've never had to fight to sleep. This dorm has increased about 20 decibels since we got back from winter break. I'm tired of it. Literally. I'm exhausted. Last week, I considered going down to the common room to sleep, but stopped myself only after realizing I'd have to unplug my alarm and things on my dresser might fall off.

In good news, my paper is done. I'm happy with it, other than that last paragraph that's a little on the sketchy side. Now that this is done, I can start my philosophy paper!! AND my prison song research paper! YES! I love work! Oh, did I mention that I should have read about 300 pages this weekend in my romance novel and my book ON reading romance novels? Oops. Oh well. We'll see how lost I am today.

In other good news, I love my mom and dad. I'm so happy I have a good relationship with them, and I'm even happier that college has improved our relationship further.

I'm not sure if this is good news or not, but I'm on my way out the door to go to Evanston to Osco-it-up, Barnes and Noble freak-out, and do the ultimate-pick-up of dry cleaning. Sweetness.

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SEEKING:

One friend to run away with me.

We'll jump out the window together, holding hands and run the block. That 70s Chevelle over there is for us, ready to go. Run. I'll slide into the drivers seat and you'll jump in the back through the rolled window, head first. We'll strip down to our underwear and throw our clothes to a cat on the side of the road to keep her warm. Radio blasting, hands catching wind, I dance in my pink underwear as you take the wheel. Light catches the dirty windows and we'll laugh at our feet. Out of gas, pulled off the road just outside of Nowhere, you'll find that blanket in the trunk. Crawling under the star-woven sky, we cuddle to keep warm and laugh at everybody back There because we know what they don't.

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Super Tuesday

From my mom on local politics: "You might call it the battle of the pointy, pencil-head, conservative Republicans vs. the somnambulate, overfed, conservative pachyderms. The entire election turned on how well the candidate appeared to belong to the best-of-all-possible-political worlds, the Bible-thumping, right-wing reactionary, anti-abortion-placard-carrying, pro-death-penalty, anti-gun-control Pharisees of southwest Ohio. Now I'm sure you've figured that this place couldn't get more conservative than it already was, but this race would have surprised you. These characters made Mussolini look like a leftist. Somehow the issues came down to just how much you were against abortion (as if it were a matter of degree), how pro-death penalty you were, etc. Someone even promoted himself as the MOST conservative candidate...

When he goes for his next haircut, Dad is considering asking Bill the barber for a nice, right-to-life cut...

There's so little room on the right that I can only predict that the next election will feature pistol-packing candidates exercising their right to put to death any person who has sex at all."



Man, I miss politics back home. I never thought I'd say that, but it's true. Nothing compares to the Republican cookouts and the high school in-class debates with people who say things like "Women on welfare should be sterilized."... Thank you, Johnson, I'll always remember you for that.

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Things I Saw This Weekend

Lucia di Lammermoor
I was already excited to see Marcelo Alvarez, but the icing on the cake was Natalie Dessay who crumped in half on the stage while hitting notes unknown to man. Ahhh, the Lyric.

Janet Jackson's Boob
In conjunction with JJ's breast, I saw the Super Bowl.

O Brother Where Art Thou?
Remember how I told you my rock n' roll seminar is the best thing ever?



And I also would like to mention how I love the El. I love it so much. Nothing like seven people playing "Musical El". (Let it be known that I have developed this game and I honestly want to play it. It'd be good times. Chinese Fire Drill meets Musical Chairs meets Chicago Transit.) Nothing like transferring at Belmont onto a feces-ridden car and then seven kids busting out of one car to raid into another, only to run into the largest and loudest snoring man this side of the Mississippi. "Get ready! The train's coming!"

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Wasting Time (to remember things)

15 years ago (from today) I...
1. ...got to be the red flower in my first ballet recital.
2. ...missed my "big white house" back in Winnetka.
3. ...had to forfeit position as baby of the family with the birth of a cousin.
4. ...had my first argument with my mom.
5. ...was told by "Big Amy", big because she was two years older than me, that she would give me her little sister. Turns out she didn't even have one.

10 years ago, I...
1. ...founded the Recycling Club on the Cincinnati Av/Orchard Av block of Lebanon.
2. ...told my parents I kicked a boy at school in "the family jewels"
3. ...ate leftska (sp?) for the first time
4. ...beat Paul Revelson in the times table competition on Halloween. (They'd be talking for years)
5. ...made a tobbogan out of construction paper with Polly.

5 years ago, I...
1. ...got tripped running the 400 dash and still have the char in my leg to prove it.
2. ...made the biggest friendship mistake yet.
3. ...did my algebra homework every night on a card table in our living room, listening to Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour.
4. ...traveled to Washington DC with my entire eighth grade class.
5. ...would walk downtown in the spring after school to get an ice cream soda at The Ice Cream Parlor and then go to the library and do homework.

3 years ago, I...
1. ...got layers in my hair.
2. ...got my lisence, despite almost being hit by tow truck at left turn onto... (what's that street, L-Towners, that Holbrook is on? right by Kidd Coffee??)
3. ...made the bestest friend I'd had yet.
4. ...began looking at schools.
5. ...kept a secret from everyone because I knew life was going to be harder.

1 year ago, I...
1. ...spent a weekend in Disney World, and then back home playing in the snow.
2. ...decided to go to Northwestern.
3. ...was overcome by second semester senior year depression (ie: I gave up in class and wanted to get away)
4. ...learned, while walking through the streets of Avignon, I am the only person I can depend on.
5. ...realized an afternoon spent reading in the sun and wrapped up in someone's arms can be more amazing than anything else.

Yesterday, I...
1. ...stayed up too late for my own good.
2. ...bonded with the new exec at Giordano's.
3. ...cheered on No Matt No at Titanic.
4. ...spent an amazing afternoon with Jess and Bryan at the lake, fighing windblown sand and standing on barbed-wire fences in the rain and lightning.
5. ...applauded for my favorite professor yet.

Today, I...
1. ...decided not to work at the elementary school.
2. ...allowed myself to sleep in.
3. ...reread Laura Mulvey's essay on Visual Pleasure.
4. ...looked at Bryan's photographs.
5. ...seethed while sitting through pointless class.

Tomorrow, I...
1. ...will work on my gender studies paper that I have yet to starting writing.
2. ...will double check and make sure all DM money is turned in.
3. ...will go to Lane Fenrich's fireside.
4. ...will hug someone who I love.
5. ...will turn in that French project I have yet to start.

5 games I like:
1. Tennis
2. Taboo
3. Euchre
4. Life
5. Compatability

5 things I'd buy with $1000 are...
1. A trip to southern France.
2. New shoes.
3. A video camera.
4. A personal trainer.
5. Tickets to things I will end up spending money on.

My top 5 musicians right now are...
1. Queen.
2. The Beatles.
3. Johnny Cash.
4. The Flaming Lips.
5. Rooney/Maroon 5/Norah Jones.

3 bad habits that I have are...
1. hypersensitivity
2. procrastination
3. insomnia

4 different places I've lived include...
1. Winnetka, IL
2. Lebanon, OH
3. Evanston, IL
4. C'est tout.

My top 3 biggest worries at the moment are...
1. OH MY GOD! MY GENDER STUDIES PAPER!
2. OH MY GOD! MY PRISON SONGS PAPER!
3. OH MY GOD! MY FRENCH TEST!

My top 5 biggest joys at the moment are...
1. Getting to see Michel Godry and Charlie Kaufman and an amazing movie TONIGHT.
2. My Mario wristband.
3. Yesterday's storm and rainbow.
4. Friends who I love.
5. Getting to relax in t-minus 15 days.

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