...Ever since I moved to L.A., famous people stalk me...

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ellen Burstyn are here doing an acting workshop thing. I love Ellen Burstyn sooooooooooo much. She's sassy. Obviously she's been in a million things, but one thing Mandy may remember her from was the Spitfire Grill, random movie which we watched a few times (for some reason) directed by one of two famous St. John's alums: the dude who created MacGyver.


Oh, I thought of the other one: Ahmet Ertegun, the only good-guy in the movie Ray.

He apparently was a really awesome guy, and he died recently and now St. John's has a scholarship in place in case any Turkish people feel like studying the great books. Weird.

Today...

I broke into tears over a B- on a lab report. Wow. During a break from lecture. And then I had to choke back tears the rest of the morning through lecture. Needless to say, this has NEVER happened to me before. Maybe once in third grade when I got caught because Katie Y. copied my spelling test. But then Mrs. Williams named her daughter Anne Marie so I was pretty sure she didn't hate me or anything. I am seriously stressed out.

This did cheer me up a little:



It's so Dharma Initiative-y.

I WANT THIS BOOK

I keep trying to look up the etymology of words online, and it is impossible. So I went to amazon and found this book, which looks amazing. I want it. I need it. I can't afford it.

Wouldn't it be nice...

...if there were some way to be stressed out enough to motivate me to study and for me to be calm and relaxed at the same time? I'm going to start meditating on my study breaks.

Week in review

I went to the drive-in with four of the girls to see Batman last night. Yesterday was an exhausting day. I had class and lab all day long, Grandma and Grandpa got in to Bennington a day early for their visit, so we had dinner and talked, and then they went to bed and I went to the drive-in. There's nothing quite like sitting in a truck bed with three mentally exhausted girls, drinking a beer, and petting Davida's basset hound, Ghandi, while lightning flashes in the distance and Batman entertains. It was a good night. When I got back (we opted out of the double feature-Journey to the Center of the Earth) a huge thunder storm broke and the thunder and lightning kept me from falling asleep.

Then I woke up early (ON MY ONE MORNING OFF!) went for tea with Grandma and Grandpa, and then they came with me to the farmer's market and to the Bennington Pottery store (my London Underground mug is chipped and in my heartache about it I decided to replace it with a Vermont souvenir) and then we had lunch and they left. It was a really nice visit. Grandma says the nicest things, and it's nice to be around people who miss mom as much as I do. As you all know.

So this afternoon, I meant to get my car battery replaced because I am currently immobile, but I didn't because I took a nap to recover and now it's too late. Darn it. And I know that I should do at least a mild amount of work this afternoon. But I really really don't want to. So there.

This last week has been very difficult. I did pretty well in my first "semester" of chemistry, and am now in the middle of my semester of bio and second semester of chem. The second semester of chemistry is more quantitative, which is a good thing and a bad thing. The work takes less time to do but is trickier for me than what we were doing before. Bio is a dud class. I enjoy learning the stuff, but it's a lecture style class (there are only six of us so this hardly seems appropriate) which disappoints me.

Carin, my incredibly sweet next door housemate, was surprised last weekend when her boyfriend Connor came out to visit a day early and proposed. They've been dating since they were fifteen and are a really really sweet couple. Congratulations! He's been staying back in L.A. where he works and is moving out at the end of the summer.

Those are the only eventful things. Everything else is just work.

Belated thank you, Brad

I really love Rabbit Fur Coat- I think you gave it to me two Christmases ago. Melt Your Heart has been keeping me company A LOT the last week. Thanks!

I feel like I'm on a roll. Procrastination is the best motivation for blogging.

So...I'm writing a lab report and having a really absurdly difficult time doing it because of my teacher. She keeps taking off points for really teeny tiny things that no one in her right mind would penalize. Like the time when I lost half a point for forgetting to put the possessive plural ' on in a homework assignment. For real. So now I'm afraid of her and I don't want to turn anything in because I hate losing points and, honestly, can't afford to.

Meanwhile, one of our merry bunch was sent packing this week. The only boy.
I keep getting lots of group emails from the girls (there are six of us now-all girls) about nothing-all a pathetic excuse to procrastinate.

The saddest thing of all is that even if I did successfully finish this lab report by a reasonable hour, I wouldn't have anything really fun to do. Ideally, I would like to spend time with my friends, but they are all working as well.

Finally, and I'm ashamed to say it but I'm sure it's become obvious from previous posts:I do spend an awful lot of time on my computer's photobooth. Here's one from a few days ago:

Oh no, Jaime!

When you're in the U.K. you can't watch anything through the network TV websites. That means that when you finally fall for Lost, you won't be able to watch it in HD streaming on NBC! Better stay here, after all.

Mandy

Sam, my last post wasn't so much being nice to Mandy...as it was warning her about the dangers of eternal hellfire (or cold dampness-depending). Jesus, people, don't take everything so damned ironically.

Also, I love 30 Rock, Jaime. That German-bird moment is one of my favorites.

Also, I already finished my first semester of chemistry! And I haven't been kicked out-hooray!

Watch out, Mandy!

I cry WAY too easily.

I actually went to the effort to go to nytimes.com and check on what was happening in the world...and was rewarded by a fluff piece about this viral video. Bless news sources for knowing what is important to me: a good cry. Anything slightly sentimental (or even just wonderul) makes me cry. I can't make it through many 5-minute most emailed stories without getting a bit teary-eyed.
The absolute worst case: Melissa Block's moment by moment account of a mother and father searching through the rubble for their toddler and their parents. Here is NPR's little write-up about the story:

On Monday, Fu Guanyu dropped off her young son, Wang Zhilu, at his grandparents' house so she could go to work. Minutes later, the earthquake hit.

She rushed back home and saw their apartment building in ruins. She says soldiers came right away to help, but they had no equipment.

Two days later, the heavy machinery is on the way. As an excavator clears a path, Fu and her husband Wei Wang search the debris, calling for their son.

After a long while, the workers stop. They have found bodies. What this abstract doesn't relate is that Melissa Block is standing there narrating as all of this unfolds, and it's a really long story, and she's practically losing it watching this poor woman completely lose hope and fall apart.


Luckily for YOU, this dancing video is nothing like that NPR story. It's of a harmless guy doing a silly dance in some of the places he's visited. It's the kids dancing who make me cry! I don't stand a chance against that!