The Divine Comedy

Christmas wish list

2009-11-04T09:53:00.014-07:00

Music:

FRUIT BATS:
The Ruminant Band
Mouthfuls

NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL:
The King of Carrot Flowers

BEIRUT:
Gulag Orkerstar
The Flying Club Cup

SUFJAN STEVENS:
Seven Swans

CONOR OBERST

M. WARD

JOSH RITTER:
The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
The Animal Years
Josh Ritter

ANDREW BIRD:
NOT Noble Beast

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE:
Strawberry Jam
Feels

ANDREW BIRD:
Soldier On
Armchair Apocrypha

DIRTY PROJECTORS:
Bitte Orca

THE MICROPHONES:
Mount Eerie

Other wishes:

1. Books
2. Earrings

3.Classic Low Moc(slippers) from Overland. Size 9/10. $59

4. J. Crew corduroys, sherpa hoodie, etc.
5. Sweaters
6. Blouses
7. Diesel jeans
8. Jasmine green tea
9. Snow boots
10. Radio for the shower/bathroom
11. Bubble wrap calendar from Blue Ribbon General Store: $19.95
12. 'Talk to Me' dry-erase board from AandGMerch.com: $24
13. 'Vintage Script Ohio' T-shirt
OR
'Bexley' T-shirt
OR
'Surf Ohio' T-shirt
from homageclothing.com $32

14.2010 Calendar Print from Flora and Fauna Press, L.A. $20

15. Pretty much anything from Humble.bigcartel.com (Tea towels are $12, pillows are $32).

Sizes: small or medium tops, size 4/6 long pants (except at J. Crew, where their regulars are really long already) 9 1/2 (usually 9 or 10 are fine) for shoes.

I feel as though I've fallen off the face of the earth...maybe I have?

2009-03-18T21:49:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone. Man, Facebook sure has killed the blogging action in this family, has it not? Oh well. I don't mean to be so bad at keeping in touch with people. Last year was the year of the Brad, and this year seems to belong to Ben and Julie. But I LOVE you all.

New developments? I'm taking (organic) chemistry IV, biochemistry, microbiology research methods, and auditing physics to make sure I'm fresh for the MCAT. So that's all new, I guess. It certainly takes up plenty of time and energy.

Tonight I went over to a bass luthier's workshop in the middle of the woods outside Cambridge, NY. He is a friend of the lab manager of the college (also a very skilled woodworker) and is making some serious repairs to my bass, which was sitting in Laszlo's attic for three years. We worked on it for several hours tonight. It was so incredibly nice of him to explain what he was doing and allow me to help. It was awesome.

I am enjoying a completely new phase of my life...the incredibly-happy-to-be-single-what-was-I-thinking-before?-phase.

I have found four med schools in the UK that accept international students without science undergraduate degrees. Unfortunately, three of them are in Southampton, Nottingham, and Newcastle. I REALLY don't think I want to spend four years in Nottingham. Am I wrong?

Hmmm...can't remember what else I was thinking about before. Oh well!

Alright, already!

2008-12-08T16:48:00.002-07:00

I don't like doing wish lists because it seems to make everyone really uncreative. I considered making this an all-book Christmas, but I thought you might not appreciate that, either. I don't like getting exactly what I ask for, because then there's no surprise to this. So, here are a few specific things as well as some options that are jumping-off-points to get creative.

That said, I have been sent three messages from Mandy in as many days demanding a list. So here it is. As you can see, music is much on my mind. As is warm clothing.

If you wish price were no object...

Photos of you and your offspring

Clock radio

EZ-pass transponder

A manicure

Tristan und Isolde recording (copied is FINE - best if it has the tracks listed, though- Birgit or Kirsten preferred but not absolutely necessary...please no American Isolde, though)

Sound system components (used is FINE) I need something better than my computer's speakers.

Tristan und Isolde score

Any amazing music you would like to share with me in audible or printed forms.

Tea

Socks

Earrings

An original haiku

An opportunity to dance

Slightly pricier:

Opera tickets (x2 to share with Brock - anything but obstructed view)
Things at the Met that I would love to see before Feb 23rd:
Eugene Onegin
Orfeo ed Euridice
Lucia di Lammermoor
Rigoletto
Il Trovatore

Any lovely clothes or especially warm clothes (even hand-me-downs)
(size 4 pants and tops or small tops, please take into account that I have a slightly long torso and slightly long legs)

Waterproof boots

Awesome heels
(size 9.5 or 10)

A massage

Blender (used is FINE)

If money is no object...

Camera

Leather boots

Kaplan MCAT prep course (Not a joke)

A hefty bribe to OSU med school admissions officers.

AND AS ALWAYS...

Books!

Second-hand stuff will be totally, completely acceptable and appreciated.

I know you won't believe this...

2008-11-10T19:05:00.003-07:00

...but I think I may have lost the desire to bite my nails!

Altogether new

2008-11-10T06:42:00.002-07:00

Yesterday my friends Carin and Conor (the really nice engaged couple from Davis, CA) took my friend Scott and me rock climbing in northern Mass. It was amazingly fun and un-scary...I wish that I'd taken advantage of all the people who climbed in Santa Fe. I only did a couple of the easy climbs, but I'm going to try to practice on the climbing wall here and make this into a hobby. It's such an enjoyable way to spend a day!
I'm going to be in Ohio for Thanksgiving (shout out to Ben and Julie, as always!) and the weekend before that, I'm going to New York to see Brock.
I really had such an enjoyable, stress-free weekend of reading for pleasure, drinking tea, walking in the woods (saw three amazing deer who walked right across my path), climbing cliffs, and thinking about how incredibly blessed my life is. Life is so good.
Still not sure what I'm going to do for field work term...Brock offered for me to stay with him, so my options now include Bennington (working for a professor in her lab), Ohio (doing who knows what) and New York (volunteering in Sloan-Kettering's integrative medicine center). If I'm in New York, you'll still have to come see me, Sam and Susie!

I can't believe it's actually today! (Part II)

2008-11-05T06:36:00.003-07:00

Wow. Nice speech, Barack. I was one of the weepers last night. Congratulations, everybody...especially friends who worked for the campaign.

I can't believe it's actually today!

2008-11-04T06:31:00.004-07:00

I want to take a moment to express, in the final moment, my excitement at the prospect of having a thoughtful, well-spoken president, and the first black president. I think that Barack will win today, and I know that when he does, the incredible, wonderful, almost laughable idealism of all of us who support him will turn into the realism of living with the consequences of the government's decisions for another four years.

But this morning, waking up to the last day of coffee and polls online, I feel truly hopeful that having an intelligent person running this country will make a difference here and internationally, and that electing a black president will make a difference in the way that American children see themselves and their opportunities. Anyway, I want to put it on the record that I am hopeful today.

Me too, me too!

2008-11-02T09:15:00.002-07:00

I want to go to graduate school in the UK, too! Half the family lives there now, it seems. I don't think it is very practical for me to apply for a medical degree in the UK, but I may do it anyway.

I've been a little down the last couple of weeks. I miss the ex-boyfriend terribly and am trying not to focus on that...but it's difficult. On top of that, he and his sister have un-friended me on Facebook. I'm not sure why this upset me so much, but it has.

School is going well, but I have been more distracted this semester and am a teensy bit concerned about my ability to focus on chemistry. My microbiology and animal physiology classes are fascinating, and have been stealing my energy and attention away from chemistry.

Election election election. I'm planning for the best and ignoring the possibility that the worst could happen.

I still haven't been able to find a lab to work in during field work term. This is very upsetting, but not the end of the world. I'm going to have a lot of research experience from research projects I'm doing here for my microbiology and chemistry classes...so I guess I could spend field work term volunteering and studying for the MCAT.

I'm planning to take the MCAT on Wednesday, August 5th. I REALLY need to do well on this test. Never before have I been afraid of a standardized test. I am now. It really freaks me out that it is on a computer. I love the sensation of penciling in bubbles.

Also, I had to reassure Grandma Callahan that everyone really does love and appreciate her...maybe a certain sister of mine (not Jennie, who talked to her only a couple weeks ago) should send her an email?

What do you think?!

2008-10-12T20:49:00.002-06:00

ABC is remaking V for primetime tv. Brilliant!

What is with the HIDEOUS red and blue felt on the set of the presidential debate?

2008-10-07T19:42:00.005-06:00

I'm in the student center watching the debate. Poor McCain looks like a broken, broken man. It's really sad. I hope he doesn't get any pity votes.

On the bright side, Obama looks GREAT in comparison.

Though both Obama and McCain have unusually unfortunate makeup and hair tonight.

I am officially sick of Obama's and McCain's talking points. Answer the damned questions, fools. I wish that the crowd were allowed to heckle and cheer. I think we would all get a lot more out of it if the little wiggly screen lines from the Ohio focus group were vocal.

Everyone here makes fun of the Ohio focus groups. Cringe. Couldn't you get in there, Ben, and raise the beauty/eloquence level a little bit?

Why doesn't Tom cut them off from going over the time limit? This is ridiculous!

Words that I hate: Bush, Main street, cronyism, pork barrel spending, maverick, taxes,

Hilarious when John McCain told the young black man in the audience, "You have probably never heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until recently..."
Insulting! Hope he hasn't ever taken out any loans!

My schedule allows me to read the newspaper every morning. I love it.

2008-10-07T06:36:00.004-06:00

I'm going to take the test Friday afternoon with Jeanne. I am ridiculously prepared for this test, so I don't think there will be any negative consequences for taking a day off in the middle of the week. Also, the only temple here is super-reform, which is not that great overall, but they encourage me to go to services there. I am going to start taking Monday night classes at the end of the month to learn Hebrew etc. so that when/if I am ready to start to convert I will be more prepared.

In other news, I have decided to move back to Columbus in June to study for the MCAT, get a job, further establish my Ohio resident status, and apply to medical school. I am trying to convince Mandy that she should move back with me.

I still have no idea what to do with my field work term (6 weeks long!) in January and February, but I would like to do some interesting medical-related volunteer work.

Moral dilemma

2008-10-05T09:54:00.003-06:00

I want to go to services and fast for Yom Kippur, but I have a chemistry test on Thursday morning. I could just go to Kol Nidrei service on Wednesday night and fast and take the test on Thursday morning and then go to afternoon services, or I could ask (with my friend Jeanne) to have the test moved for us. While Jeanne, as a conservative Jew, is totally justified if she asks to take the test at another time, I feel like it would be pretty strange for me to make the same request. At the same time, I do want to go to services and observe Tom Kippur, so perhaps it ultimately doesn't matter that I'm not Jewish. Thoughts?

Also, isn't it strange that we have a word for di-lemma, but not really one for poly-lemma? Ooh, never mind, the word polylemma does exist! So this is a moral polylemma.

Friday Night Lights...

2008-10-04T17:28:00.001-06:00

is so hot.
How lame that it will only be on cable? Really lame.

Amusing, Election-related

2008-10-02T14:35:00.002-06:00

Guess what I did today?

2008-09-15T18:09:00.001-06:00

Went to soccer practice! I have a game this Saturday against Marlboro, how crazy and wonderful is that?

Obama and McCain on Science Issues

2008-09-15T18:06:00.002-06:00

Science Debate 2008

I just donated more money to Obama.

2008-09-15T15:49:00.002-06:00

Don't worry, it wasn't very much.

Still, I know that if I don't put a little money toward this campaign, and they lose, I will have a hard time forgiving myself. I am also casting my vote via absentee ballot in good-old Franklin County. Mailed in my application a few days ago.

I am SO angry with McCain for choosing Sarah Palin.

While looking for amusing images of money...I came across SEVERAL pictures of kittens with money.

Weird.

This one's for Dad:

She sounds terrible. Absolutely terrible!

2008-09-14T19:09:00.003-06:00

Go Obama, GOOOO!!!!
If you haven't read the NY Times article about Sarah Palin...well, you should.
Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes

Honestly:

2008-08-05T18:15:00.002-06:00

I want to take a break from reviewing for my bio final tomorrow to say: I find all of this work insanely difficult. I woke up early this morning to finish a problem set for chemistry, went to class all morning, talked about bio and stared into space at lunch, was in chem lab all afternoon, got home at 4:30, caused a toilet to overflow, flooding the kitchen underneath (not in a gross way, don't worry) studied for bio, took a brief trip to Dunkin Donuts and drank a bunch of coffee, and am now back at my desk studying. I have been listening to the most upbeat songs I have, turned up really loud, to help me feel like I am engaging in an important and exciting adventure of the mind rather than chained to my desk and my calculator, as I actually am. I do enjoy learning all this stuff, and I am SO thankful that I have interesting, kind, and intelligent people to study and hang out with. Still, I have basically left behind my normal life. I can handle this for two more weeks. I could probably handle it for a year. But I don't know if I can live without a life for the next eight years. What I CAN see is how this lifestyle of intense study could become addictive. It is incredibly rewarding. It must be even better once you're studying to be a doctor directly.

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

2008-07-31T21:33:00.006-06:00

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...

2008-07-21T15:47:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-20T15:26:00.002-06:00

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...

2008-07-20T11:12:00.003-06:00

...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

2008-07-19T16:29:00.004-06:00

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

2008-07-16T21:10:00.003-06:00

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.

2008-07-15T18:44:00.004-06:00

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!

2008-07-15T17:09:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-15T10:28:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-07-13T20:57:00.001-06:00

I cry WAY too easily.

2008-07-08T17:41:00.002-06:00

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!

Week Two

2008-06-28T08:01:00.003-06:00

Hmmm...I'm pretty resolved to post something every weekend when I finally get to take a breather from class...but because all I've done is study, I'm not sure what to write about. For one thing, my allergies are better. I think I had a sinus infection on top of allergies. I won't go into the details of THAT.

My five year-ish reunion is coming up. I created a Facebook group for it and then handed it over to the people who are actually going to be in Columbus. It's funny, because when I was in high school I remember knowing that lots of people were really lame, but it just seems so much more obvious now. Happily, most of my friends are doing really well. Brock works for Christie's in New York, which he doesn't really love but which he shouldn't complain about TOO much. Beth is doing really well in L.A. She was in a play in Pasadena that I thought was really interesting, and she's starting a P.A. job on an ABC show in a few weeks, which means she gets to quit her job at Starbucks!

Ross is development director for FairVote. You can look him up on their website, which I think is really cute. Yay non-profits! Ted is teaching hip-hop to street kids in Uruguay and sent me an amazing email about what it's been like there. He wants to come back to the U.S. this fall and work on getting some articles and essays published.

The last week has been very challenging. I wake up at 7:45, get ready for class and study a little. Have class all morning and then lab in the afternoon until 4. Then I come back to my tiny but comfortable room, sit at my desk and try very hard to study without watching any TV on the internet (Damn you, Lost!). And I take a break for dinner at about 8:30 or 9 and end up working until about 1:30. And this is me! I'm not going over and over the same material like a workaholic...Janet just assigns us about two chapters...plus problems...plus a paper or a lab write-up...every night, so it's impossible to get ahead! So I'm actually working and stressed out a little all day long. Then on Friday afternoon we have a "quiz". For the quiz, she gives us twelve problems, asks us to do ten of them, and then leaves. One problem EASILY takes more than a half hour. I think one of mine yesterday took me an hour, because I wanted to check my work. So I'm there all afternoon until I can't stand it anymore and have to hand it in or lose mind. Then I walk home, re-hashing the test, and I realize that I've actually done really well on it, I can't think of any that I have really messed up, and my written explanations were fine, logical, reasonable. So WHY, WHY do I stress out so much when I prepare for the quiz, and why do I feel so little confidence while I'm in the middle of it? And the real question: what the hell is it going to be like to take the MCAT?

I've compiled a sort of short-list for schools I'm going to apply to next year. Some of them I have no chance of getting into (ahem. state schools in California.) because they only accept a few out of state people every year, and let's face it. I'm not one of them.

Ohio State
Cincinatti
St. Louis University (humanists!)
Pittsburg
McGill
University of New Mexico
USC
UCLA
UC Davis
UCSF
Rosalind Franklin-Chicago

So, that's eleven...and I'll have to apply to more than that, because the acceptance rates for these schools hover around 2-3% for out-of-staters. Ohio State's in-state rate is more like 10%

On that happy note, I'm going to enjoy an entire day of not worrying about any of this. I'm going with the girls to the Farmer's Market, and tonight we'll probably get a little drunk and watch Steel Magnolias or equivalent girlie movie that our boyfriends never want to watch with us.

Bennington: First Week

2008-06-20T13:48:00.003-06:00

So...I actually, really, truly haven't had time to post. I saw a lot of you guys on my drive across the country (sorry Jennie, I'll see you soon!) which was really nice. I'm so glad that you got to know Ben better. Then I got to Bennington. My first impression was of rolling meadows full of wild flowers, stands of trees, and lots of really cool architecture. A security guard (the security guards are really quite the characters here) insisted on driving in front of me to show me where Longmeadow was...so I followed behind him for about a half a mile, then turned down a driveway to a little cedar shingle house where I have a very tiny, cozy room. I live here with five girls and one guy. Four of the girls and the guy are post-baccs with me. One of the girls is a fifth year Bennington student getting her masters in early childhood education. The house has a big kitchen with two fridges, our very own FREE washer and dryer (hallelujah!) and a nice big living room that is too dark for us to want to use in the middle of summer.

There are only seven post-baccs this year, so the five of us girls living here are the main group...there is one other girl living off campus in a barn with her basset hound. She's a Navy pilot and has a masters in strategic intelligence. The rest of us are your run of the mill Oberlinx2/Colorado College/University of New Hampshire/St. John's liberal arts girls.

Jeanne, who's front and center in this photo, is Steven Shalwitz's cousin. Weird, huh? I really love living with these girls. I think that having them around is going to help me stay motivated, and also provide me with a little bit of community so that I don't feel like I'm drowning in a sea of chemical equations, which, by the way, I already am. Anyway, I started classes last Thursday and since then have developed absolutely the worst allergies I've ever had. Terrible. I thought I was going to stop breathing the other night and made Carin promise me that if I ran in motioning that I was choking, that she should call 9-1-1 right away. I have been on a cocktail of Benadryl, Sudafed, Tylenol, and this nose spray the doctor gave me all week, and it almost makes enough of a difference, but on Monday and Tuesday I really was just about completely useless...not the best way to start out this program academically. Even today, when I had a test that lasted three hours, I had a splitting headache and the sniffles all the way through.

In summary, this last week I have learned a LOT of chemistry, I'm living in a house that I really like with a group of nice, laid-back girls I really like, and I really miss Ben. That's it! Oh, and I'm soooooo tired.

New 'Do

2008-05-30T10:21:00.001-06:00

Farewell, L.A.

2008-05-28T17:49:00.002-06:00

Garrison Keillor was on Off-Ramp this weekend. I guess he originally wrote this (below) as an op-ed for the Times. I can say, with very little exaggeration, that I am going to miss L.A. a million times more than I thought I would a year ago.

Some of my thoughts:

- You have to be retarded (or evil) to think that deporting all illegal immigrants is a good idea. I wish that I could do more to help out Saul, my absolute favorite LAMILL co-worker (who is not illegal, but is new to the U.S. and English). I also wish that I were learning Spanish as quickly as he is learning English. Damn you Saul, you wonderful man! Seriously, I challenge anyone to get to know a random sample of immigrants from Mexico and then make a decision about immigration reform. I feel completely inspired by my time here to learn Spanish and work for the under-served Hispanic population in L.A.

- How do people keep their houses clean when it rains outside all the time and their dogs are going in and out? The few rainy days we have here with Grushenka are HELL.

- It's been five years since I graduated from Bexley. I wish that I could have been a cooler teenager. I was waaaayyy too uptight. I mean, I know that I still am to a certain extent, but I do feel that I've come a long way in the last four years.

- Hmmm...I guess that's pretty much it.

And now for Garrison Keillor's (somewhat more eloquent and humerous) thoughts:

IT USED TO BE that Angelenos were much too cool to express outright pride in their city, feeling that boosterism is for yahoos from the Midwest. But when I was in L.A. last week, I got an earful about what a good place it is from friends who never said anything like that before. They had always talked about choking traffic, the unreality of real estate prices, the sprawl, blah blah blah. Now, suddenly, they couldn't live anyplace else.

The bright burst of civic feeling might have been because of the bad brush fires, including a blaze a month ago in Griffith Park in the heart of the city. Eight hundred firefighters put that fire down and immediately became heroes, and it showed people how much they loved L.A., just like your mother's colon operation jolts you into reality.

Everybody knows the comedy version of L.A. — the city of skinny tanned women, cellphones in hand, driving Suburbans the size of personnel carriers at 80 mph, taking a tiny child to the therapist to address self-esteem issues.

Those jokes play well in the flat parts of the country. A Midwesterner goes to L.A. and feels a certain sense of moral disapproval. The squalor, the opulence, the expense of natural resources to support middle-class life in an arid place, the fascination with the misshapen lives of young celebs. It isn't the Canaan it was for our grandparents. We look at it and see a rundown bungalow selling for half a million and cars inching along the 405 and say, "No thanks."

But it's good to know there's another point of view. The sun does shine there, and people enjoy their lives — the spirit of la pura vida, or the love of life for its own sake, the opposite of Calvinist America.

L.A. is more than ever a city of immigrants, the Europeans diminishing, the Rodriguezes and Jimenezes burgeoning. (Check out the phone book.) Immigrant culture isn't so pretty — you rent a cheap storefront, work 16-hour days, make your kids toe the mark — but there is dignity to it.

Unrestricted immigration is a dangerous thing — look at what happened to the Iroquois. They failed to impose border controls and, before they knew it, they were dying of infectious diseases they had no names for. In the case of California, however, it was Spanish before it was English, and now it's simply tending back that way.

I met up in L.A. with a niece from Boston who told me she was there for the first time in her life, so I did my uncle duty, got a car and took her for a spin as the sun was setting. We headed out on the Santa Monica Freeway toward the ocean, and some faintly disparaging remark she made ("it goes on forever") inspired me to wind up and give her a pitch for L.A., its gentle winters, its writers and musicians, its cosmopolitanism, its easygoing energies.

We walked along the beach, the Santa Monica Pier glittering in the distance, and then we cruised some lush streets around UCLA, and headed east on Sunset, the sunroof open, traffic juking and bopping around us, and then, looking for Melrose Avenue and the classic front gate of Paramount Studios, I lost my bearings and circled for a while in the dark. But it felt good to promote L.A. to an Easterner.

We live in a growly, snarky time, heavy irony clacking everywhere like people walking around in tap shoes, and it's a privilege to speak up for a despised city. Seattle, sit down. New York, shut up. Vermont, this is not about you. You want to hear about New Jersey or North Dakota or Nebraska, just ask.

Brad...tonight I rolled my eyes at David Archuleta a thousand times on your behalf

2008-05-13T22:25:00.003-06:00

A favor for Ben

2008-05-04T14:30:00.002-06:00

I'd love it if you could complete this survey to help Ben complete his research methods project. If you do, you can enter to win an iTunes gift certificate! Feel free to share the link on your blogs too... (we are begging and bribing, as you see...it's the end of the semester).

Click here to begin experiment

The Last Don Rag - Scott Buchanan

2008-04-27T11:42:00.002-06:00

One of the founders of the New Program, Scott Buchanan served as dean of St. John's from 1937 through 1946. These remarks were made on May 31, 1958, at a party held in honor of Buchanan and Stringfellow ("Winkie") Barr, the co-founder of the New Program in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.

This occasion reminds me of an occasion some twelve years ago when Winkie and I were leaving St. John's. There was a farewell party given us by the students. Some of you may remember, some money had been collected and put on deposit with the bookshop, a fund for books on which we could draw if we got lonesome. We were each given a token book and we had to make little farewell speeches. It was a very moving occasion for us, and particularly for me because I casually opened to the first page of my book and read it: "Tell me, O muse, of the man of many devices, who wandered full many ways after he sacked the sacred citadel of Troy. Many were the men whose cities he saw and whose mind he learned, aye, and many the woes he suffered in his heart upon the sea, seeking to win his own life and the return of his comrades. "

I have recalled this omen many times in the last ten years, particularly when I run into a St. Johnnie or two and in no time at all a conversation springs up, like fresh water from an old spring, in a world where there are fewer and fewer conversations. These years, as Winkie has just said, have been years of wandering and searching. I think we have returned to Ithaca many times, and yet have found that Ithaca is no longer Ithaca. You will remember that Odysseus finally was advised to take an oar on his shoulder and travel with it until he found people who would not know it was an oar and would take it for a threshing flail. That has happened too. I am just now invited to a conference on education next week, where the leaders of the discussion are to be Sidney Hook and Ernest Nagle and some so-called educators. They apparently think that I belong to that curious modern tribe who have never known the liberal arts. For a few minutes I want to stage a little tableau for you, a composite oral examination and don rag.

I have some questions I want to ask you, questions for St. John's graduates and questions for American citizens. As I understand the questions, one leads to another, and they all add up to: How are you doing? The first question is: Do you believe in and trust your intellect, that innate power that never sleeps? This is not a theoretical nor a dogmatic question, but rather one of experience. Do you recognize the action of this power as you live and learn? Many of you have gone on to graduate and professional learning, and, I happen to know, many of you have lived a lot in addition. You have fallen into the hands of scholars and into the grooves of practice. You have suffered the winds of doctrine, and have gotten lost in the jungle of ideologies. Latterly you have been stormed by scientific miracle and guess. In all these learnings and practices have you listened to the small spontaneous voice within that asks continually if these things are true? Have you allowed this voice to speak louder and remind you that you do not know, that you know you do not know, that you know what you do not know? Do you believe that knowledge is possible, that truth is attainable, and that it is always your business to seek it, although evidence is overwhelmingly against it? This is the first question; I shall not just now press for an answer.

The second question seems to flow from the first. Have you in the course of your life, before, after, or while you were at St. John's, become your own teacher? Perhaps this is not quite the question that I intend. This may be better: Have you yet recognized that you are and always have been your own teacher? Amidst all the noise and furor about education in this country at present, I have yet to hear this question raised. But it is basic. Liberal education has as its end the free mind, and the free mind must be its own teacher. Intellectual freedom begins when one says with Socrates that he knows that he knows nothing, and then goes on to add: I know what it is that I don't know. My question then is: Do you know what you don't know and therefore what you should know? If your answer is affirmative and humble, then you are your own teacher, you are making your own assignment, and you will be your own best critic. You will not need externally imposed courses, nor marks, nor diplomas, nor a nod from your boss . . . in business or in politics.

My third question is different from the first two, more superficial perhaps, but fateful, nevertheless. Under the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, have you persuaded yourself that there are knowledges and truths beyond your grasp, things that you simply cannot learn? Have you allowed adverse evidence to pile up and force you to conclude that you are not mathematical, not linguistic, not poetic, not scientific, not philosophical? If you have allowed this to happen, you have arbitrarily imposed limits on your intellectual freedom, and you have smothered the fires from which all other freedoms arise. Most of us have done this and come short of what that threadbare slogan, human dignity, really means. We are willing, and shamefully relieved, to admit that each has his specialty, his so-called field, and the other fellow has his, and we are ready to let the common human enterprise go by default. We are willing to become cripples in our minds and fractions of men in our lives. Some of us are willing to crush the Socratic formula and say, I know nothing. The fourth question: Do you accept the world? This is reminiscent of Margaret Fuller's Yeasaying to Carlyle: But I do accept the universe, Mr. Carlyle. I am thinking of a slightly different context in The Brothers Karamozov, when Ivan tells Alyosha that he finds it easy to believe in God, but that he finds it impossible to believe in the world. The second clause follows from the first in a crushed syllogism: Because he believes in God, he cannot accept the world. For most of us these days, the case is that we have believed in some things so weakly or fanatically that other equally or more real things have become absurd or impossible. This results from our crippled minds, our self-imposed limits on understanding, our deafness to the voice that asks: Is it true? I am persuaded that the cure for this sickness of mind is in some vigorous and rigorous attempt to deal with that most puzzling and mysterious idea, the idea of the world.

It is not a simple idea, nor even a merely complicated idea. Kant called it an antinomy, an idea of speculative reason governing all other uses of the intellect. There have been other such ideas that have governed thought, the idea of God or Being as it puzzled and dazzled the ancient world, the idea of Man as it stirred and fermented the world from the Renaissance on. God and Man have not disappeared as charts and aids to intellectual navigation, but they are in partial eclipse at present, and the world is asking us the big questions, questions in cosmology and science, questions in law and government. They are not merely speculative questions; they are concrete and immediately practical; they are as much matters of life and death and freedom as the old questions were. Most of us have made, with Ivan, a pact with the devil, an agreement not to face them and accept them - yet.

I am not going to mark you on any attempt you may make to answer these questions here today; we don't mark at St. John's. But I would guess that none of us, certainly including myself, would stand very high, if we tried. Perhaps we ought rather to ask whether these are valid questions. If they are valid, they may come somewhere near indicating a standard by which we judge our common intellectual life, and therefore our common education in this country. I myself think the questions are valid, and I draw a drastic consequence, namely that we need a national system of education, from university to kindergarten, from Federal to local, and that it should aim at the intellectual confidence which would dare to act freely and go wherever it pleases, wherever it ought to go.

Happy Birthday(s)!!!

2008-04-24T15:59:00.005-06:00

Happy happy birthday to Sam. Today I had such a bad day at work that I thought maybe a little Samness had rubbed off. For your birthday present, I will loan you a brother and sister-in-law and two awesome nieces...they're all yours for one year, after which I expect them to come back to the United States. Happy Birthday!:

I also wish you all sorts of good health and happiness and send you all my love. This is a day of intangibles.

Happy birthday Sophia, as well. You are zero today! Congratulations Ben and Julie and Ella. This is me trying to make a funny face for Sophia for the first time: (with more performed live, I promise)

Coffee shop review

2008-04-23T20:28:00.004-06:00

A review came out in the L.A. Times today...
L.A. Times Lamill Review

Spot your sister?

Oh yeah, I'm in the background...because the photographer said there was only one "attractive" barista. I hate this town sometimes.

First post on youtube! - Grushka chases her ball

2008-04-20T18:26:00.001-06:00

I felt too ashamed of that last post...

2008-04-10T20:13:00.001-06:00

So it's gone.

While debating the virtues of MacBook vs. Vaio I saw this commercial

2008-04-06T15:32:00.002-06:00

I found this COMPLETELY persuasive.

St. John's Senior Prank Video-Sophomore Year

2008-04-03T17:08:00.003-06:00

Happy Birthday, Mandy!

2008-04-03T16:11:00.007-06:00

It may seem like this was posted late in the day. But I worked from 6am-2:30pm today...and there's a four hour time difference from Nova Scotia to SoCal. Enough excuses.

Happy happy birthday, Mandy! It is so weird that you are 22...it really feels like we're the same age now. I love you and happy birthday! Mom would be so incredibly proud of you.

Ben triumphs!

2008-04-01T17:03:00.008-06:00

Today Ben found out that he got the job he applied for a couple weeks ago. He is going to be the research assistant for an emotion and cognition lab at USC. He is going to make money AND make progress for his PhD application! Congratulations!

Last weekend we went to the California poppy reserve in Antelope Valley:

This last picture is worth clicking on to enlarge it.

Sun City

2008-03-26T22:19:00.005-06:00

Watching David Archuleta perform "You're the Voice" on American Idol last night (I am never going to watch another season of this show-it is nearly meaningless and tonight Apple failed me by running a "segment" during the show that was actually just a plug for iTunes and all other iProducts) anyway, this song reminded me of Sun City. In fifth grade, Mr. Griffin showed us this video. This would have been 1995, ten years after the song was recorded. So, it already looked dated. And it was about apartheid. In South Africa. In fifth grade I didn't know anything about South Africa or apartheid or Sun City or anything. I had NO IDEA what this video was about, but I remember it VIVIDLY because it scared the shit out of me.

Also, Chikezie and Syesha are in the bottom three. They were BY FAR my favorite on this stupid show. This country is racist. I quit. Time for some Sun City.

Another cute picture of my dog. Sorry.

2008-03-25T20:51:00.003-06:00

Sorry, but she never stops being cute. This is in Griffith Park, looking over to Glendale. And for those of you who think that L.A. is just traffic and smog...Griffith Park is right next to Silver Lake and offers more than 4200 acres of quiet paths and relative seclusion.

Another Move.

2008-03-22T18:11:00.010-06:00

Last Winter:

This Winter:

Next Winter?

Ok...so I'm not complaining about the move. I've been so lucky in the last five years: St. Andrews, Annapolis, Santa Fe, Silver Lake, and now Vermont.

But I do have to move to Vermont in a few weeks...nine weeks. And it is a fifty-something-hour drive. And it looks like Ben H. is going to stay in L.A., at least for the summer, even though we are doing really well and are planning to stay together. He applied for a paid (PAID!!!) research assistant job at USC in a neuroscience lab studying memory binding, had an interview, and is waiting to hear back from them. If he gets it, then he definitely won't move with me, and if he doesn't get it, then he should stay here anyway and try to get another research job. There aren't, sadly, an overabundance of neuroscience labs in Bennington. As usual, it's all very up-in-the-air, which I hate. I like plans. And certainty.

So I am going to Bennington. Since I found out that Donna Tartt went to Bennington, I just keep thinking about The Secret History, and am unable to picture Bennington as anything other than the forest where Bunny was killed.

Surely pre-med students don't have time for murder?

Or do they?

Finished season four of The Wire...oh staggeringly brilliant tv shows...why do you have to end? Only one season left.

In case you haven't been reading the comments on Brad's blog-I thought this was worth restating: Brooke (of American Idol pseudo-fame) is not lovable. She is annoying as hell. Only Brad could possibly like anyone that nice.

Ugh.

Thank you, Mr. Rogers!

2008-03-08T10:02:00.002-07:00

London Visit

2008-02-27T06:03:00.003-07:00

Been having a really nice time so far. A very brief summary:
Day One: Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, National Observatory, Boat back into London. Dinner with Susie, Sam's delightful girlfriend.
Day Two: Walking on River, Monmouth Coffee Shop, Tower of London, saw Laura Dick.

I actually had a couple of days before Dad and Sam got in as well, during which I walked around and read a lot.

Grushka

2008-02-11T18:20:00.001-07:00

Ben took this really cute picture of Grushenka today. Thought I'd share. Also, Mandy, we have serious intentions of taking photos of the neighborhood really really soon.

Oh. My. God.

2008-02-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

Okay. So, I posted a few hours ago about this video.

Having not read Ben K's or Mandy's blogs.

New theory: We are all filled with Obama-love and are humming at the same frequency.

New question: Does this mean that I'm irrelevant?

Yes We Can

2008-02-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

Just in case this anyone has managed to live the last two weeks without seeing this video...here it is!

I love it, even though it is an emotional sucker-punch. Ben pointed out a post on frontal cortex, one of the neuroscience blogs he reads, that mentions the manipulative aspect of this video. The author shared my perspective that even though the music paired with Obama's speech is emotionally manipulative and even though I recognize this fact at the moment I'm being manipulated by it, the emotional reaction raised in us by music is what great speech-writers are trying to evoke with the cadence of their writing anyway, and the video works so well because the music is strengthening this reaction...rather than creating it the way a montage sequence does.

P.S. The Apple commercials for the MacBook Air feature a cute song by Yael Naim, a super-cute Israeli/Frenchie girl, who is also in the Yes We Can video. Ben...any idea what she's saying in this video? Also, it's a little irritating that two of my favorite new artists were introduced to me by Apple commercials.

Happy Super Tuesday! But I didn't vote.

2008-02-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

Work was fantastic today. All the customers were happy. I got to wish them a "Happy Super Tuesday", and everywhere I went, EVERYONE was talking about the election. The only people who came in to the shop today without "I just voted" stickers, had clearly just stumbled out of bed and were on their way to the polling station.

Jaime, you would love this town- many people don't get out of bed until noon. This is actually the main reason Brad lives here. Another nice thing about today was that, because I live in Silver Lake, I didn't have to hear any Republican vs. Democrat debate at all. My neighborhood is all blue, baby. It's like heaven. Everyone had an adorable political gleam in their eyes...might it be hope that this day will actually create positive change? The only thing, and I'm ashamed to say it because of a really good article I read about the phobocracy of America, is that I AM a little scared that in November all of this will amount to nothing, and we'll feel disappointed for getting our hopes up. But today, we dare to dream.

On a side note, how rude is it when people ask who you voted for? It was very disconcerting, at work, to have customers asking me this question directly. What if I WERE a republican?!!! Major faux pas, folks. OH, and I didn't vote because I'm voting absentee in Ohio. Partly because of political strategy (which is looking pretty smart now that California was so split and with Ohio coming up so soon -Ben and Julie, could you send me that mail?) and partly in a desperate attempt to establish residency there so that when I go to medical school I hopefully have the option of not paying $60,000 a year. Big shout out to Ben and Julie for assisting me in this effort! Muchos gracias.

Election

2008-02-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

I am swayed...

GO OBAMA!

Scripps

2008-02-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Didn't get into Scripps. Screw'em, I say. I guess I'll have to make do at Bennington...

Ramble

2008-01-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

Still...waiting...to hear from Scripps. Why? Am I such a controversial applicant that they have been arguing about this for the past month? Will they even remember my interview by the time they pull out my file to make a decision?

Ben is taking research methods and behavioral neuroscience classes this semester. He's way excited. Anybody have neuroscience lab connections in SoCal? If so, speak now.

It looks as though I may have a job, (although the situation is a little unclear) at the city's snobbiest coffee boutique as a barista's barback. Hopefully beginning next week I will begin to acquire all sorts of coffee wisdom.

I am loving Freaks and Geeks. Sooooo much better than Knocked Up, which I did enjoy a little. I am so sick of movies that bank on the shock factor to make money.
Juno was super cute, too. SUPER cute.
May have already posted about this, but I saw El Orfanato with Brock, and it was GREAT.

Oh! I almost forgot again! I forgot Eastern Promises when I made my Favorite Things of 2007 list. If you haven't seen this movie, you are missing out. I recommend listening to the NPR interview with Viggo Mortenson before you watch the movie.

Ghetia and Dru, friends of Ben's and mine from St. John's, came to visit last week. It was so nice to see and talk to them. So far, Ben and I have only a couple of friends in L.A., and it makes such a difference to be around people who understand your past. I feel the same way about family, of course. Here's a photo of Ben and Dru playing around in our little studio-

Kind of like a big Thank You note

2008-01-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

THANKS EVERYBODY!

The photo of Moira hasn't been framed yet, but it's so nice to have it! Also, notice the cute magnets Hannah and Emma made and the new knives and knife sharpener.

Thanks for the lovely photo, Ben K! Also, Ben H made me a beautiful bird house which I have yet to mount outside, AND he gave those flowers to me. Brad, notice that the Wait Wait mug you gave me is still very much in use.

Ben H: Thank you for the print. Ben K and Julie: Thanks so much for this photo-it's beautiful.

And the map, which upon closer inspection is a really really good map. Thanks, Dad. Isn't the pup cute?

Finally, thanks to everybody who contributed to the ever-expanding library. I already finished Love is a Mix Tape (I recommend it- especially to anyone who loves the 90s or music or love or good writing) and the Kite Runner and Musicophilia. Sam, thanks so much for the absolutely gorgeous Stephen Jay Gould collection-it's so beautiful! Also, I've rediscovered the Jo Malone cologne you got for me a couple of Christmases ago and I love it! I think I needed to grow into it.

Back to real life?

2008-01-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post some pictures of the apartment because it looks so great with all of the pictures everyone gave me! For some reason, however, the picture uploader thing isn't working. Weird.

So I'll just post about what has happened since I left Ohio. Ben H and I had a great New Years Eve dinner with a couple of Ben's close friends from high school and then a fantastic New Years Day with Ben's family and close family friends. Our friend Ghetia came up from Santa Fe for a couple of weeks wearing a suit as his only luggage. We bummed around for a couple days and then Ghetia flew up to San Francisco to visit a few of our other St. John's friends. Then Brock came to Los Angeles on a business trip, which involved inspecting a private collection of 25,000 bottles of wine (this was actually only the Los Angeles part of his collection) and then having two extra days all expenses paid to hang out with me. We came up to Ojai to watch the New Hampshire debate, which was very entertaining, and then drove down to L.A. again the next morning because I had choir rehearsal. Then we went out to dinner at Cha Cha Cha's, an amazing Cuban restaurant only a couple of blocks from my house (Brad, I must take you here) and had the most delicious jerked pork, coconut shrimp, and goat cheese and guava quesadillas. Then we went to the Arclight to see El Orfanato, which was good/scary/sad. Definitely worth seeing.

I have been working on Rosetta Stone Spanish (thanks Jaime!) and have new resolve about getting a full-time job. Oh! And I found out on New Years Day that I got into Bennington in Vermont, but am still waiting to hear from Scripps. Still, I feel a tremendous relief at having been accepted by Bennington, and I emailed a St. John's alumna who did the Bennington post-bac program and is now in the middle of the psychiatry residency program at Johns Hopkins, and she was very enthusiastic about it.

So, today Ben drove up to San Francisco to meet our friends (I can't go because of work) and I am in Ojai with Grushka getting ready to drive down to L.A. and get a real job and take care of other real life sorts of things. Sad. It's been such a nice holiday. Oh, and that game last night was devastating. I hate the South and I hate the BCS.

Evil Giraffe for Jaime

2007-12-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Christmas has begun!

2007-12-21T09:43:00.001-07:00

This is the BEST Christmas because...
I finished all my shopping yesterday.
I get to see my cute nieces every day.
Julie is a great cook!
Columbus is sooo much less expensive than Los Angeles.
Talking to my siblings in person is even better than reading their blogs.

Here is a cute picture of Mandy knitting a gift for someone: who could it be?

The only thing that could make me happier would be if Ben and Grushka were here!

Favorite Things/People of 2007

2007-12-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

No Country for Old Men

Once

Lives of Others (released in Germany in 2006, but seen by me in 2007)

The Bryant Park Project/Alison Stewart/Luke Burbank

Gillian Welch

Feist

Grushenka

Common

Silver Lake

Regarding family members disappearing

2007-12-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

So...I don't like to think of myself as CONTROLLING or anything...but when Dad up and goes to Paris without letting anyone know, and then Mandy doesn't really tell anyone when she's going somewhere in Canada for several days, I get a little anxious. But, then I thought about it some more, and I think that, although Dad as a parent has an obligation to inform me when he's leaving the country for ten days, Mandy really should be commended for going off on her own adventure. So, Mandy, as long as you don't come back married, I think it's GREAT that you go off on adventures visiting random boyfriends in Canada in the dead of winter. That said, I think you should have a cell phone just in case something terrible happens. After all, I have just seen No Country for Old Men, and the only thing that could have made that movie more terrifying would have been if it were really, really cold outside.

Why don't people steal Netflix from other people's mailboxes all the time?

2007-12-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

Bad odds

2007-12-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Ben and I went out to Claremont to see Scripps, where I have applied to do my pre-med stuff. After four long months at USC, I wasn't expecting much, but the Claremont colleges are really in a beautiful spot, and Scripps in particular is quiet, well-manicured, and architecturally consistent, which is, sadly, what I've been craving. Now I know what those college guides mean when they say "dorms like palaces". Why is St. John's SO poor?
Today, I had my stats exam at eight. I absolutely rushed through it so that I could leave as soon as possible for Scripps, because it's at least 45 minutes away (which in L.A., sadly can mean 1 1/2 hours away) and my interview was at eleven. I made it, happily, with plenty of time to spare. Overall, I think the interview went well, but I have learned that there are 150 applicants for 14 places, so I'm trying valiantly not to get my hopes up. Sadly, the last couple of days have really convinced me that this program is perfect for me. I like the people I met, I love that the program is small but integrated into the college, and I LOVE LOVE that it is supportive rather than competitive. They seemed interested in St. John's, and although they haven't had any St. John's students there, they have had students from St. Thomas Aquinas, which is about five minutes away from Ben's house in Ojai. They said that the Aquinas students have tended to be immature, sheltered, Catholic boys, which I clearly am not, so I hope that goes in my favor. Anyway, fingers crossed!

Enchanted. Really!

2007-12-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is embarrassing, but I talked Ben into seeing Enchanted last night in Ventura. We really wanted to see Atonement or Juno, but they're only playing in L.A. and we've been spending weekends in Ojai. So we were looking at rottentomatoes.com and the only movie other than No Country for Old Men (which we've seen and is definitely worth seeing-filmed in the backyard of Santa Fe, by the way) that had good reviews was Enchanted, which I'd always sort of hoped would be good. It was hilarious and sweet! The premise is that a cartoon amalgamation-of-all-Disney-princesses-ever princess finds her true love and goes to the castle to be married and live happily ever after, when the prince's wicked stepmother tricks her into looking down a wishing well.

The princess, Giselle, falls down the well and ends up in a New York sewer, then promptly climbs out of the sewer and wanders around the city asking where the palace is, etc. This movie comes off well because the real-life princess, Amy Adams, plays her part sooooooooooooo sincerely that she's almost believable when she meets Patrick Dempsey, a divorced divorce lawyer, and lectures him about true love. The songs are also pretty wonderful, but the best part is the gently ironic tone of the entire movie, which makes countless amusing references to Disney cartoons past. Anyway, if you haven't seen this movie, which I kind of assume you haven't, I highly recommend it. And if you don't trust me, read someone else's review, because I honestly can't imagine someone sitting through this without laughing out loud.

2 years!

2007-12-04T15:20:00.000-07:00

I Heart Huckabee

2007-12-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

If I worked on an admissions committee, I would bust my ass to make a decision so that some poor, hopeful (but not tooo hopeful) girl sitting in her apartment waiting patiently (but not THAT patiently) wouldn't be disappointed every time she checked her
email. This is going to be a loooooooong six weeks.

On a brighter note, I am now officially content with the outcome of the 2008 presidential race. Why, you ask? Because of Mike Huckabee. Please don't expect real substance from this post.

As a long-time Edwards-lover and realist,I know that there is no way he is going to win the primary. Thankfully, this year there are so many entertaining, generally sane (or at least entertaining) people running for the Democratic spot on the ticket that I can't lose.

Hillary:

A little severe and power-hungry, but who doesn't want a woman to be president? Plus, she's composed and competent. (That was a pretty non-rhetorical rhetorical question, actually...there are probably millions of people who don't want a woman to president)

Obama:

He's upbeat, articulate, and all this talk about his inexperience is irrelevant: he'll pick good advisors. I also like that he isn't as hyperpartisan as Clinton and Edwards. Hope IS audacious. Plus, who doesn't want a black man to be president?

Richardson:

He isn't going to win, and I don't want him to because he's way too good for New Mexico, but if he did win he'd do really well. Plus, who doesn't want an Hispanic man for president? By the way, if anyone wants to start a crazy new hobby, following New Mexico politics is a good one. It's the wild west out there.

Kucinich:

He is THE reason to watch the debates. Some highlights:
"Everyone should have health insurance? I say everyone should have health care. I'm not selling insurance."
"I am running for President of the United States to enable the Goddess of Peace to encircle within her arms all the children of this country and all the children of the world."
From his website: If you love Joe Biden, you’ll love Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, and Dodd – but not Kucinich

Plus, who doesn't want another crazy Ohioan to be president?

So, any of these people would be just fine by me.

That brings us to the real news: why I wouldn't mind if a republican won.
Mike Huckabee:

or, as I like to think of him: "red" Jed Bartlett. I want him to beat Giuliani and Romney so badly! He rocked the YouTube debate last week. If he were the republican nominee, I really wouldn't be as scared next fall. Plus, who wouldn't want to vote for an American who's LOST weight? I heart Huckabee.

Sorry, John- I just don't think it's going to happen.

Application limbo

2007-11-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

I turned in my applications to Scripps, Bennington, and Goucher and am awaiting responses. I always check my email a lot, but I hate the times when I feel the compulsion to check it every time I walk by the computer or think of the computer. I feel like Marianne waiting for Willoughby's letter, but I hope I'll have a better outcome.

Christmas Wish List

2007-11-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

New as of 12/9:
-Having Our Say by the Delany Sisters

Old:
-The Richness of Life- The Essential Stephen Jay Gould
-Better by Atul Gawande
-Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
-Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
-Any good book.

-Black choir folder (can be found at musicfolder.com- "The Black Folder-standard")

-Yoga mat

-Art/prints/photographs to decorate my apartment. I have VERY blank walls currently.
-A nice wall map of the world
-A 2008 wall calendar (but only if it's really cool- and only one, please!)

-A YMCA membership

From JCrew:
-Tall city-fit herringbone Parker pant (size 4 or 6 tall-heather charcoal)
-Any of the JCrew stretch vintage cords (size 4 or 6 tall-any color other than orange and red)
-Wool-cashmere Dani coat (6T)
-Perfect-fit long-sleeve crewneck tee (size small-bright colors!)
-York leather driving mocs- I REALLY WANT THESE!!!!
-A good choir dress, like the Flannel Serena dress or Kaylie wool jersey dress (only $99!) at JCrew. Must be black and modest and built to last.

-Any nice sturdy reading-with-tea cardigan (I must replace mine-they all have holes!)

-Running shoes

-A good mug

AWOL

2007-11-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

I left many messages on Dad's phone this weekend and then called Mandy to see what's up. Mandy spied on his Expedia account(to be fair, it's our Expedia account too) and found an itinerary. Dad is in Paris. He's going to be gone for ten days. I think this makes him ineligible for emergency-contact status.

Last weekend was great! Ben's mom made an appointment for me to have a facial and got me this amazing cleanser and lotion. This may sound like no big deal, but I have really really really not been taking care of myself lately, so it feels great to have something nice to motivate me to do so. I also worked on my applications for post-bac programs, watched OSU beat Michigan (thank God!) and took Grushka on a looooong walk.

She's been sleeping for the last 24 hours.
I'm working really hard on a good Christmas list.

Update

2007-11-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

I hate USC. It is a horrible place where horrible people go to be in a Legally Blonde-ish, sorority-obsessed, ANTI-educational environment. At least for undergraduates. Anyway, psychology is not at all what I'd imagined, but is a kind of sad, underfunded, disrespected science, overshadowed by neuroscience. I am still really interested in it, but when I started to imagine my life in twenty years, became depressed by the thought of writing grant-proposals, teaching undergraduates, or being responsible for other people's mental health. Yikes.

Soooooo, I'm going to try to be a doctor and be responsible for people's lives instead. I have been really put off by the idea of giving all of my 20s to medical school and internship and residency, but what the heck- I can make it work! Besides, I really don't do well with unstructured time. Being un-busy is so not fun.

So I have to apply to post-bacc programs, which all take one year and which I would start next summer, so that I can then apply to medical school after that. It's going to be a long haul. I'm applying to Bennington (VT), Bryn Mawr (outside Philly), Goucher, Johns Hopkins (Baltimore), and Scripps (suburban L.A.) All of these programs are competitive, so I may very well not be accepted by any of them, in which case I begin applying to second-choice schools.

Applying for things is not fun.

Meanwhile, I am finishing this semester at USC, keeping my eyes open for a full-time job in L.A. for the new year, and tutoring eight elementary school and middle school students.

Grushka

2007-11-14T16:09:00.001-07:00

HI all. I'm sorry for not posting very much (understatement, I know). But I refuse to feel guilty about it and have even unprivatized the blog to make it easier to check up on. So! For those of you who have been out of communication for a while, I wanted to send out a little update.

Ben and I adopted a pup from a rescue in L.A., she's called Grushenka (named after a character from Brother's Karamazov) and she's been incredibly difficult health-wise, but such a good dog in every other way! She had serious bowel problems for the first two weeks or more that we had her-she would throw up, didn't touch her food for the first week, and had really terribel diarrhea (including all over the house). We took her to three different vets and then finally to a critical care hospital, which was like House for dogs, where we were met by a laughably sexy Grey's Anatomy-like diagnostician vet. Soooo...after bunches of medication, a barium series, IV fluids, and more than a month of cleaning up diarrhea and boiling chicken for her, she is much better. The vet says that there is nothing we can really do except feed her this special food, keep her out of all other kinds of food, and watch her stools to make sure they don't change. Apparently German shepherds often have really sensitive colons. Who knew?

The upside of all of this (we've had her for a month and a half now) is that I've learned a lot about my good side from working with Grush. I don't know when it happened, but it's like all of a sudden I've grown up: I know how to be consistent, patient, responsible, and calm with her and it works! She knows her basic commands, responds to my whistle, is house-trained, and walks well on a leash. It really makes me wonder- did we ever even try to train Chags and Buffy or are Cavaliers really that stupid? She was obviously really poorly socialized as a puppy, but she's already learned to be friendly with strangers (although she still surprises me-the other day at the park she REALLY didn't like the homeless guy) and she's not aggressive at all-the real work to be done will be helping her be calm around unfamiliar dogs, because she is really afraid of them so far.

Victorious!

2007-11-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

Yea Ben! The Columbus Dispatch says you won third place! Congratulations-now take Julie and yourself out for a romantic politicians-wife-post-campaign dinner like she deserves.

Ben for City Council

2007-11-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's ironic that you have eight siblings...and none of them can vote for you! Happy election day, Ben!

Also, I think that this eagle may in fact be even cooler than Jaime's kittens.

I am such a bad girlfriend (And I'm going to be talking about Harry Potter)

2007-07-24T12:31:00.000-06:00

So...about Harry Potter. I couldn't go to the Midnight Wizard Ball because I had to work really early the next morning, so I resolved that I would wait to get the book on Tuesday, when, in Ben's absence, I could read happily without feeling guilty for being so single-minded. I carefully avoided going to the bookstore, but then we were going to go out to a movie Sunday night and, of course, went to Target to buy snacks to smuggle into the movie theater. Target had Harry Potter, for the discounted price, sitting RIGHT THERE. Tempting me. So I bought it (and now own an extra copy that will arrive here tomorrow via Amazon...anyone need another copy?) and spent Sunday from 8pm until Monday at 9pm reading (excepting a few hours for sleeping, working, and tutoring). Completely ignored Ben for 24 hours, even though I'd tried so....hard...not...to.

In other news, Ben and I are moving to Silver Lake next Wednesday. Lilly is going to drive out to help us move. My home phone number won't work anymore, but my cell will. Also, I am being kicked off of St. John's email, so I had to get a hotmail account. Gmail wouldn't give me an address even resembling my name. New address: annemariekessler@hotmail.com

SPOILERS BELOW

And you know...I was very pleased with the way that Harry's sacrifice was handled. I really kind of hoped that he was going to die, because it seemed like the only way to guarantee that Voldemort would die...but I think that in the end, the explanation that a part of Harry died, the Horcrux part, was pretty convincing.

Weird when Mrs. Weasley screamed at Bellatrix Lestrange, and the word BITCH was in capital letters. I bet you enjoyed that part, didn't you Jaime? So, anyway, post away about HP. I am completely satisfied by the ending (although it was a little lacking in imagination that they all end up in neat little pairs-so happy Neville didn't die by the way). And I kind of thought that Harry would be defense against the dark arts teacher. I feel free.

In other news, Ben and I are moving to Silver Lake next Wednesday. Lilly is going to drive out to help us move. My home phone number won't work anymore, but my cell will. Also, I am being kicked off of St. John's email, so I had to get a hotmail account. Gmail wouldn't give me an address even resembling my name. New address: annemariekessler@hotmail.com

P.S.- I am addicted to HBO

2007-07-11T16:15:00.000-06:00

Ben and I were starting Big Love on DVD and saw an ad for HBO shows. Then I realized. I don't even watch tv anymore. Just HBO on DVD.

Employed!

2007-06-19T11:05:00.001-06:00

I had such a great time in Ohio. It was great to see family so much and really fun to bond with Mandy and Ben K with a fun, traditional, Kessler-y project. In addition to tutoring and babysitting this summer, I got a job as a waitress at Cloud Cliff, a wonderful, slow-food, organic, bakery/restaurant. I was pleased to find out that there are no creepy behind the scenes things going on there, and that the people are actually as friendly as they seem. The best part of my first day of work was getting to know the numerous, amazing Mexican men who work there. All of the waitresses are cute girls, and all the rest of the staff are Mexican men, who are soooooo nice and absolutely hilarious. Only difficulty that arises is explaining special orders to the chef. Must learn Spanish. Yay! Ben H started his horsecamp job yesterday and is working right now...the lady who planned this whole thing embodies the stereotype of the irresponsible rich lady, flitting through life without working, and hatching schemes which she only executes halfway. If this sounds at all like me, just remember that I have THREE jobs and am working very hard at growing out of my phase of phases. Sort of.

So far, life after graduation has been amazing. I never quite realized how much emotional energy St. John's drains until this month...I have been generally happier (except for those moments when I am overcome with how messed up the world is) and more in love with Ben H than ever. It is fantastic to be back in Santa Fe with him. We watched Maxed Out the other night (another depressing documentary-this one about how the credit industry seeks out and takes advantage of high-risk people) and it was soooo cute how much it freaked Ben out. He spent the next couple of times opening the mail completely outraged that he was getting solicited by so many credit companies. I have been looking at Idealist.org for job opportunities in L.A. and am considering looking for a longer-term, more noble, job than waiting tables when I get there. We'll see, I guess.

Don't worry Moira, I haven't forgotten you!

2007-06-04T22:15:00.001-06:00

This is to Moira,

Happy birthday, Moira! I'm sorry I didn't call you on your birthday...I forgot that from L.A. to Columbus is a three-hour time difference (because I'm used to Santa Fe to Columbus, which is only two hours) and when I picked up the phone to call you it was 10 instead of 9, and then today I just totally dropped the ball again, but happy birthday! But the cool thing is that I'll be in Columbus from this Thursday until next Wednesday, so maybe we could all (your family and Mandy and Ben K too!) go out for ice cream (or whatever you'd like) and celebrate belatedly. What do you think? Can't wait to see you and can't believe you're soooooo big! Love, Aunt Anne

Oh man...traumatic time of life.

2007-05-11T20:36:00.000-06:00

So, I know that all times of life are a leeetle bit traumatic for me, but this graduating from St. John's thing is especially difficult. I mean, I LOVE St. John's. I am also 100% burnt out and actually wigged out a little bit at my math tutor yesterday (the penultimate day of math class after four years and I lose it?!) so in a way, I'm glad to be going.

Also, the fact that I am soooo sick of soooo many St. John's students (and these are the people I really have something in common with, right?) is worrying. Very worrying. I fear all of the people out there in the real world who I could potentially not like. There are probably MILLIONS of them. That alone is enough to overwhelm me.

On the bright side, graduation itself is going to be super-fun. I've made all the necessary preparations for my concerts on Sunday and Tuesday of next week, I scheduled a petit-concert for family members on the Friday night everyone will be here, made reservations for two nice dinners, scheduled Mandy's private tub/sauna and massage (with a "therapist" called Sundown), and am extremely excited about a new game I discovered called Koob. You will all play it. Mwah ha ha. It is a Swedish lawn game which pretty much involves (on teams if you like) throwing sticks to try to knock the other team's blocks over. It's super.

I'm also reading Barbara Kingsolver's new book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" which is about her family's attempt to eat only food produced within her Southern Virginia county for a year. She's a little too cute, but her writing makes otherwise for a very enjoyable book. I've started basil, sage, and tomatoes from seeds and they are all doing really well, except you're supposed to grow tomatoes under lights to keep them from getting "leggy" and breaking, which mine will probably do. Oh well. But at least the herbs are doing well. Anyway, I'll try to post more, especially about graduation. Oh, and I got an a- on my senior essay. Yay!

Oral completed successfully!

2007-04-06T14:26:00.000-06:00

I had my senior oral this morning at 9am. It went really well. The tutors seemed to have enjoyed my paper, and our conversation was friendly and productive. I'm going to refrain from telling you what the tutors wrote on my essays, because that would be bragging, and instead just bring it up and let you know that their comments were really nice. See how I just bragged, but indirectly? Anyway, I only have six weeks left, which should be a good thing but is sort of sad, especially since I will probably get very little accomplished between now and then. I included the picture above just because I like it...it was taken after the oral this morning.

Happy Birthday

2007-04-03T21:45:00.000-06:00

I feel more affection for Mandy than I do for anyone else. I think she may actually be the best little sister. EVER. She went through that great submissive stage, during which I could trick into giving away pretty much anything I desired: half her rights to the playhouse, her halloween candy (she always saves the best for last), or her shotgun rights (mom used to try to make us take turns...hah). (Note to those with misconceptions about Ohio: that last comment about shotguns was about the car seat). ANYWAY. Other good things about Mandy. Eventually, one sad, sad, day, I confessed to Mandy that she actually didn't have to do what I said, that she could just "say no". She took it to heart and whenever she feels like being stubborn, brings up that conversation. I regretted having said anything.

One of her most stubborn moments was on a day when she refused to go to orchestra practice. I think mom was waiting in the car for her and she refused to go, so I tried to bodily remove her to the car. It didn't work. It was pretty funny, though, actually, because now that I think about it I have no idea why I thought I was strong enough to win. So, yeah, Mandy's really really stubborn, and this is probably a reaction to what a domineering sister I was in her early childhood (or so she would have me believe), but all in all, Mandy's sweetness, her loyalty, her weeeeird sense of humor, her honesty, her independent spirit, and her complete cuteness make her the most lovable girl in the world. I've only ever been one year and four months ahead of her, and I guess that she's pretty much caught up now, although maybe I'll still be able to rent a car earlier? so I should probably break myself of the habit of calling her my "little sister". Thanks mom and dad, for giving me such an amazing friend. Happy birthday, Mandy.

Catch-up

2007-03-31T20:49:00.000-06:00

Hey everybody. Sorry it's been so long, but I haven't been on the computer very much at all since spring break began. First of all, I have to congratulate Ben on the successful (even triumphant!) completion of his senior oral. Everyone really enjoyed it who could be there, and we went out to a delicious meal to celebrate.

Since then, I've been on spring break. (Actually I wasn't on spring break last week, it only felt that way...haha (darkly)). I love using parentheses within parentheses. I spent my spring break with the three Bens. I was with Ben H's family at a beach house they rented for a week, (went whale watching!) then at Ben K's house becoming acquainted with Ella and reacquainted with the rest of my family (because it has been more than a year and half since I was there last. During that pleasant visit, I went to the zoo with Ben and Jaime, they took me out for lunch, and I got the girls ice cream. Even though I'm sure it's just one more silly, semi-boring (because, as angelic as those girls are, what four (almost five!) and eight year old children enjoy long conversations about midwifery, politics, etc.?) outing for the girls, for me it is the complete fulfillment of my auntly being. Playing with Ella on the floor and eating ice cream with Moira and Evie makes me so happy that it's always the little kids I end up missing the most when it's time to say goodbye. I also really enjoyed my conversations with all of my older siblings.

Happy almost 21st birthday to Mandy! 21. Sweet. That means when you come to Santa Fe I can take you to my favorite bar. I only go there to eat their really really yummy chocolate mousse cake and fries (this is a combination I like, it's not written up like that on the menu) but it's a very fun Santa Fe-y place. I have spent the time I've been writing this blog listening to:
-O Happy Day (Sister Act)
-Bye, bye baby (Franki Valli etc.)
-The Water is Wide (James Taylor)
-Billy Jean (Duh.)
-Dream a Little Dream of Me (Mama Cass)
Before this I listened to bunches and bunches of Stevie Wonder. I think I'm going to listen to O Happy Day again. Then more Stevie. Coolest thing on this playlist: Sunshine by Mos Def. Lamest: Homeward Bound by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (It was the ONLY recording I could get that was remotely acceptable of this song...and actually, now I think I should have gone with the Navy Choir). My favorite song on the list is Thugz Mansion, which is a posthumous reworking of a 2pac song.
Ok. So probably, Brad was the only person who read that part. Brad: I read your American Idol updates because I watched the first show but can't be bothered to watch any of the others...but I definitely did not read your last post about baseball. But, I did tell Ben H today during the basketball game that if I won two tickets to the final four next year, I would take you with me.

Speaking of which: Shout out to the Buckeyes! I am now really rooting for Florida, and then I will be able to cleanse myself of the horrible experience of January. I won't say anything more about that.

I saw a documentary called "Flag Wars" last week. Columbusites: Seen it? It's set in the near East side, and is about the gentrification of urban areas by upper class white (and primarily gay) couples. A couple of my thoughts: people from Columbus seem shockingly inarticulate, and this was the first time I've ever felt like gays were the aggressors. It was a very confusing sensation: "Gay people of Columbus: How could you!?" However, this feeling was overcome when they showed members of the KKK (WHAT??!!!) gathered on the steps of the capitol building and threatening both blacks and gays. Also, the occasional shot of a church group throwing things at the gay pride parade and of their children holding Ken dolls in sexual poses with nooses around their necks quickly restored my gay allegiance. Still, it was pretty awful to hear the black population and the gay population, who are neighbors at this point, talk about each other. It was also weird to realize that restoring a house could have such far-reaching consequences. I am still very, very confused about this issue.

Another thing I've become very upset about: overfishing. If you haven't already, you MUST read the three articles in National Geographic this month about the state of fish populations. It makes a lot of really good points which I can't really summarize here, because I would just be incoherently (though certainly vigorously) butchering their very well-constructed argument. But read it. And when you do, and then you want to know what kind of fish you can eat responsibly (AND IT SURE AIN'T THE TUNA YOU'VE BEEN EATING AT YOUR LOCAL SUSHI PLACE) you can go the Monterey Bay Aquarium website and print of your region's Seafood Watch guide. This week, I really really want to go to New Zealand and work at one of their Marine reserves.

OK, well, that's a lot I already ranted about. I also want to say that it's really cool that we get to see Mandy's art, and that I saw pictures of Olivia Dawson on facebook of her at an anti-war march in D.C. That was really cute. Mostly when I think of Olivia, I think of her playing with her new puppy, who is now probably 12 years old, if not dead. My senior oral is this Friday at 9am. Woo. Hoo.

Strange Happenings

2007-03-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

Tell me this isn't a little bit strange: every semester of every year (beginning as early as 1st grade with Mrs. Kuder) I have struggled with waking up and going to class. Now, at the very end of my forseeable academic pursuits, I have suddenly reached a new state: I have no desire to miss class. I enjoy getting up and coming to school to eat my breakfast of yummy biscuits and pepsi. I like sitting in the library for long stretches of time. I don't mind all of the crazies in my classes. I have a lot of homework and I don't mind doing it. What is happening to me?

CNN...Wow.

2007-03-01T22:24:00.001-07:00

The voice of reason and high-spirited debate in America. Watch to the end.

Congratulations Mr. Ghetia!

2007-02-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

Andrew Ghetia managed to make an oral about Dmitri Karamazov funny. Congratulations, Ghetia! (For those not completely immersed in my culture, an hour-long oral administered by three tutors follows completion of the senior essay: mine is sometime after spring break and Ben's is next week). Ghetia's essay was called, "How is such a man alive?": Dmitri Karamazov's Three Suicides. I may have messed up that wording, but it's something very near to that. I have a bunch of pictures of Ghetia dressed up for his oral and everything, but I think I like this one better:

Sorry I'm not posting very much. I'm pretty busy and am really enjoying these last couple months of university liberty. News: I'm going to Ohio for a few days in March during spring break. Grandma and Grandpa Callahan are back from Brazil and any phone calls from their grandchildren would make them soooo happy. This year is Grandpa's birthday as well as their 60th anniversary. I am now completely confident answering the question, "So, are you going to get married?" with a firm: "No." (Followed by my own disarming nervous laughter at my bold answer) The St. John's administration has become increasingly LAME in their responses to student parties, gatherings, signs, pretty much everything. If someone like ME is getting pissed off at their evil legislating-for-virtue tactics, then it must be REALLY bad. In protest, I am getting rid of my spring cleaning leftovers by holding a rummage sale this weekend and breaking the rule against making a profit on campus. (I think this rule is funny because I make $35 an hour using the school's lab supplies to tutor my boys) This whole rummage sale could blow up in my face... but here's hoping it doesn't!!!

House in Santa Fe

2007-02-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

To see a few more photos of it (Mandy), go to Kokopelli real estate and find Canyon Road Historic Adobe. It is in a great location so we can walk to downtown places instead of struggling to find a place to park, but it only has two bedrooms and a sleeper sofa, so my brothers will have to share. Man, am I getting chubby these days. That was a non sequitur. Another non-sequitur: Faulker is soooooo great. Another non-sequitur: Ben's oral is on March 6. Yay!

Invite

2007-02-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

I am, of course, finished with senior essay and am now enjoying...not a well-deserved decrease in work, but a bizarrely unreasonable quantity of work: 60-pg. Darwin readings (which are AWESOME, everyone should read Darwin), 50-pg. Faulkner readings (which are also AWESOME), and then 55-pg. Marx readings for seminar. A secret: 100 pages of Darwin goes by twice as fast as 50 pages of Marx= Marx is four times as boring as Darwin. Maybe more, really. I do not understand how such boring, Hegel-like writing inspired people to inspire the masses. The best part about my Marx seminars has been watching people argue about capitalism and communism. The uber-capitalist in my class, who always seemed perfectly nice before, is actually evil...something I only realized because of his cruel, heartless, arguments in favor of increased production. Scary. On the other side is this crazy girl who thinks that an argument for communism consists in giving examples of people who have been hurt real-bad by capitalism (like we don't all (except for the crazy capitalist) feel bad for the factory workers!) and then asks questions like, "wouldn't it just be so much better if (insert haughty, superior tone, ironically, here) we all just rose to a state of species-being and really partook in our community and weren't estranged from our products anymore?" And then people are like, "You know, Ms. Greer lived in a commune in India for like, thirty years, and so it must work." And then the next day in class, Ms. Greer, my language tutor is like, "Ummm...yeah it worked pretty well because we all gave up our ideals to survive and turned a blind eye to the lady in the dairy who was stealing milk from the community so that her baby wouldn't be malnurished." So. Marx. Not so impressed, I have to say.

Any-whooo. Santa Fe.

How GREAT IS IT? I just wanted to extend one final invite to all of ya'll for my graduation, which is on May 19th. Dad is going to be in Santa Fe in a house (a nice house) from May 17th-22nd. So far I have commitments from Ben K, Mandy, and Brad. Anyone else interested? I know Ben I and Jaime are interested, but Ben's quarter doesn't end until an uncivilized date sometime in June, so they are excused. Any and all are welcome. I guarantee really good food, a silly speech by the president of St. John's, a great game of senior-staff softball, a view of my receipt of a diploma, and any extent of relaxing/invigorating recreational activities.

So close!

2007-02-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

Wow...only ten hours left. I have never lived a week so full of the same boring and exhausting shit. My essay is well-written but tragically short on substance, I feel. Alas. Alas. I spent four hours (it took four hours!) to copy-edit Ben's essay last night, which was 40 pages long and is now only 35. My essay is a modest 23 pages long. We keep getting notes through campus mail telling us about our choreographed evening tonight...one of the problems with tradition is that you get notes that say, "Get dressed up and come to the president's house. Then walk in the door, at the left you'll see a closet. Turn right. A man will be there to take you're oeuvre (it actually says that!) and will ring a gong. Stand there and he will announce your name and your essay title. You will then be greeted by the dean, the president, etc." I've, of course, lost my note and don't really remember what to do except that there will be a gong. I will try really hard to take amusing pictures of the whole thing. This is really one of the moments when I wish I'd bought that video camera. A gong!

Still Going Crazy

2007-02-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday. The end is near (next Saturday at midnight...but not near enough. Ugh. Oy. Bluh. One treat: I'm going to Ten Thousand Waves tonight for a private bath. This sucks.

Ironically going crazy

2007-01-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I resorted to writing down all the words I could associate with Jung. Then I cut them out into little strips and played with them on the floor. This was actually quite helpful. I have to hand in my senior essay two weeks from tomorrow, though, so I'm beginning to be a BIT (read: REALLY) worried about my time.

It kind of worked:

Evidence...coincidence?

2007-01-26T23:44:00.000-07:00

Mom in her red coat...in the snow...wearing boots just like mine.

Waz and Lenny

2007-01-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness...you are all TOTALLY going to thank me for this. So, those of you who were in Maine may remember my interest in the Time Person of the Year article. Well, I tracked down a few of the websites that they talked about, with mixed results. One of them was in Chinese so...no luck there. One of them was that girl on MySpace who has made a living out of having the most MySpace friends and being super, super trashy. I didn't find that one so interesting either. What I DID love was Crashtestkitchen.com.

Meet Waz and Lenny, an Australian couple living in Britain who film their attempts at cooking various recipes...sometimes with success...other times not so much. Their bickering is really cute, and it is SO COMFORTING to watch people follow recipes more improvisationally, the way we all do, than normal cooking shows. This website is a treat.

Unrelated...really unrelated...things

2007-01-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

I saw Curse of the Golden Flower sometime last week (I can see movies and go out whenever I want to-mwah-ha-ha-because it's writing period!) and Jaime is soooo right about the Chinese breast thing. Americans don't really know anything about China (except Chinese Americans) but the ONE THING WE DO KNOW is that Japanese/Chinese/Korean women are supposed to have flat chests and be really really good at fighting ninjas.

Armies of women with prominently displayed bosoms.

Curse of the Golden Flower, despite this minor flaw, was actually super enjoyable. For those of you who may be worried that this movie will be like its predecessor, House of Flying Daggers, Golden Flower is WAY more interesting. This movie is Greek in its scope (tensions between various family members of the Imperial family) and completely over the top, full of Chinese goodness in its execution. I'm trying to think of examples...like the palace, which is ornate to the point of psychadelic hanging cloth, or the palace timekeeper dude, who announces the hour of the day along with various crazy sayings about rivers, suns, etc. in town-cryer-y fashion throughout the movie. The best thing, though, is that this movie relies more on super-intense relationships than on the visual spectacle of fighting. Visual spectacle is totally fulfilled by the palace, the fighting that comes later on (not to give anything away), but most appropriately, by...the golden flower!

Moving on to the unrelated thing...I did eventually get those pictures of the Bosque developed, but they didn't turn out very well because the TSA people over x-rayed my film, I guess. Whoops. Here are a couple of the pictures from the roll of lower-speed film, taken later in the morning and so not as dramatic:

Thanks Heilveils!

2007-01-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

Check out my very warm, wonderful boots!

Things like this make the best Christmas presents because they're just the sort of thing that you would never buy for yourself even though you really, really, want AND need them.

Apartment

2007-01-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some views of our lovely apartment. First, you see several different views of our fabulous, all-purpose room.

Bedroom/Office:

And the big finale: bathroom.

Now, wasn't that exciting?

In short

2007-01-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! I'm back in Santa Fe, surrounded by the remnants of over three feet of snow! I'm pretty bummed that I missed the big storm, but judging by the empty shelves, even now, at Trader Joes...it might have been a little bit too much for me and the Mazda to handle. Ben H loves his new camera, and it's oddly liberating to be able to take pictures of anything you want. For example:

This is the gate that leads to our apartment (I would take a picture of our apartment door but there is some trash outside of it waiting to be carried to the garbage can). Anyway! I wanted to give a very, very brief review of my time since I left many of you in Maine.
Southern California is kind of a miracle. Really...all of you Midwesterners reading this who scorn the Western United States (and especially California) because they are so new and big and...what goes on out there anyway?! I was once one of you, and am now completely converted. Beautiful!!:

I have already posted beautiful pictures of where Ben lives in California so I opted for one from New Mexico instead. Anyway, I get to California, then many New Years celebrations set in, which include, but are not limited to, really good food, a New Years Eve sushi dinner with Ben, and interogating a pregnant woman at a party about her pregnancy and her midwives and her time as a JET teacher in Osaka. Happy New Year! For the first couple days of 2007, Ben and I mostly watched HGTV and the Food Network. I LOVE shows about real estate. Some favorites of mine are Flip That House, Buy Me, Hidden Potential, and My House is Worth What? My favorite thing about these shows is giving into the temptation to think, "I could do this sooooo much better than they can!" What gives me this confidence, you ask? I think I must have been born with it, because it is certainly not founded on reality. And it's a really dangerous temptation, too, because house-flipping, when subjected to montage sequences, seems to go by very quickly and easily...and so I find myself dreaming little dreams of flipping houses and making all the money I'll need for school...
On the 4th, Ben took me to the Disney Concert Hall to hear the L.A. Phil. play Rachmaninoff, Bartok, and Kodaly. I have a really deep-seated discomfort with anything Hungarian because of Laszlo, but on this occassion I totally got over it and just enjoyed the show. (Bartok and Kodaly are Hungarian composers). Except for the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, which really sucked, in my opinion. The concert hall was very beautiful a wonderful, wonderful performance space. Anyone, incidentally, who likes the Disney Concert Hall should pay a visit to Santa Fe's Opera House. It was rainy and dark and cold, so we don't have any good pictures of the concert hall, and the Asian camera Nazis inside the theatre wouldn't let us take pictures, so:

There is seating on all four sides of the stage, and almost everything you see is made of wood. That weird-looking thing with things shooting off of it from all angles is their organ. Anyway, it's really cool.
So then we had a few more days of cable-binging, and then it was Ben's mom's birthday, and we were all kind of sick...
And then Brock came to visit. This was super fun, actually, especially because Ben's mom and Brock hit it off so well (which inspired Brad to ask, "What mom doesn't love Brock?"). Good point, Brad. On the way to take Brock to the airport, and visit Brad, we got a flat tire. This really sucked:

but he made it to the airport on time. Then I couldn't go to IKEA (I love you, IKEA!) as planned, but had to go to Pasadena to get a new tire. Boo. THEN, Ben and I made the fateful trip to Brad's in El Segundo. Two thumbs up to Brad's new locale, by the way. For those of you who may have, like myself, Google-Earthed Brad's address and been unimpressed by its position between the airport, water-treatment facilities, and other factory-looking things, rest assured that it is actually a very cute and cozy little town, kind of Worthington-y, in a SoCal kind of way. We watched the game, which sort of ruined our visit. We'd planned to go out for dinner after for Brad's birthday, but were so dejected that we ended up driving around in sorrow and going to Starbucks for some fortifying beverage to help Ben and me for our drive back home. I fell ill sometime during the third quarter...oh yeah! It was when all became hopeless.

This photo was not dramatized. It expresses my actual suffering. Great sweatshirt, Mandy! Thanks! So I then had the flu...and I won't go into the details about that. It delayed our return in Santa Fe by a day, so we left Ojai on Wednesday night and got back to Santa Fe Thursday around noon. Then Ben shovelled out the driveway so we could park the car, and we proceeded to do the same thing we always do when we get back from a trip...spend two days crazily rearranging the house and cleaning. We had to buy another bookshelf (we have five now) and found a place to put a TV Ben's dad gave him. Things like this, in a space as small as ours, generally mean moving everything around until it fits again. Santa Fe cured me of the flu, and I've spent the last three days (quite literally-almost all of the daytime) reading Brothers K. I have seminar in a couple of hours, and I am prepared, and I am dreading senior essay writing. I will spend the next four weeks just writing about Jung, and if the final product sucks, I am going to be really disappointed. The really good news is that I am going to Taos to train to be a midwife. Ahhh...my strength is waning...this post is so long. Nothing really special happened surrounding my acceptance by the midwives. The short of it is that I'm going to spend the summer in Taos making some money and then start my apprenticeship in August. And it sounds like I get very little vacation. Ever. So, I'm glad this Christmas was so nice, guys!

Photos

2006-12-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

I created an album on Facebook using pictures taken by...everyone but me. So feel free to check them out. Sorry, non-Facebook people.

Brief Review

2006-12-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hello. I know I'm a bad blogger for not having posted about my trip to Taos, but I have excuses. So many excuses. First of all, my trip to Taos lasted for three days and was immediately followed by 1) an 8 page Jung essay, 2) getting ready to drive to L.A., 3) driving to L.A., 4) flying to Maine, 5) settling down in Maine. My other excuse is that I'm with half of my blog-audience anyway, and the rest of you guys are so busy you don't really care about my visit to Taos. But, now that I'm settled in here in Calais, I thought I would share a few of the more interesting moments from the previous week.

Visit to Taos: It is soooo beautiful in Taos. I had a great first couple of days on my visit, following around the three midwives and four students and asking lots of questions. I was impressed that the midwives were actually not very intimidating, that the students were not very hippie-y (by Santa Fe standards, probably not by Columbus standards). Most importantly, I was impressed by the professionalism of their birth center and by the wonderful relationships they have with their clients. I got to see visits ranging from first visits to six-week postpartum visits (their last). I was a little bit bummed the first two days, though, because I had REALLY been hoping to see a birth, but because they had had two the day before I got there I figured I was out of luck. As I was leaving the birth center at the end of the second day, though, there were two phone calls from clients in early labor, and I was invited to hang out the next day and maybe see a birth.
The next day I got up and hurried to the birth center, and there were two women laboring in the birth rooms. The women were all fantastic! The midwives and students were on top of their shit, totally calm, supportive, quiet, and efficient. The laboring women were working hard and I was just in awe of them. One of the women went for a walk at 9 cms! I was invited in to see her daughter be born, which was truly amazing and beautiful and FAST! I loved it, but what appeals to me most about the midwifery center is the work they do for the women throughout the whole course of the labor in terms of emotional support. And they knit! I would have a built-in knitting support system.

Going to California: I always look forward to going to Ben's house, but this time it was a little rushed. I got home Friday afternoon and didn't finish my Jung essay until Saturday afternoon, but then I really wanted to get on the road, so we rushed to pack our things and were on our way by 7:30 Saturday night. We slept over in Arizona and got to Ojai Sunday afternoon. I spent much of my time there worrying about packing and presents, and I can't wait to go back for New Years and properly relax!

Going to Maine: Red-eye. Ugh. I got to Calais and spent the day with Mandy and Dad. Pretty much everything since then is covered in Mandy and Jaime's blogs. It's great having the girls around and having Ben, Jaime, and Mandy to talk to. We finally got the stove and Ben and Dad installed it. The house is actually remarkably comfortable and our living circumstances relatively civilized. The Christmas tree is beautiful and the girls have been running around with ornaments re-decorating the bottom of the tree and our little Christmas tree since we put them up. Cute!

Midwife Roadtrip 2006!

2006-12-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Wednesday I'm driving up to Taos to interview for the midwifery apprenticeship with the Northern New Mexico Midwifery Center. So, I already have a list of questions, but I wanted to ask all of you if you have anything you would like me to ask about midwifery in general, or this place in particular, when I am up there. I'd love it if you could comment with any questions you have.