| goodbye lj |
[16 Jan 2008|11:33pm] |
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mood |
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 accomplished |
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So, I started a new blog. I moved to Tumblr. I'm not sure what I want to do with it yet, so it's a work in progress. The web address is www.merriam.tumblr.com.
I'll still be reading my friends page here, but if any of you are contemplating a move away from lj, I recommend checking out tumblr. It's really easy to use, and has a similar friends page like lj. It's also super easy to post photos, videos, im conversations, etc. to it.
Ciao.
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| 2008: why is that familiar? oh shit, i'm graduating! |
[04 Jan 2008|09:42pm] |
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mood |
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 contemplative |
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music |
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beatles |
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so, 2008 has rolled in, effectively the year i graduate from college. time to get my shit together, i guess. a few friends have made lists of things they want to do this year, however formally or informally. i think it's time for mine.
- get in to law school or get a job (this means completing my other applications)
- blog more/better or just find a reason to. if i'm not going to update about my personal life in detail then find something to write about. i just read my journal from study abroad, and it was so nice to read my daily thoughts from 2 months straight.
- write more letters/keep in touch better (i have lots of nice stationary i don't use, and i need to just get in the habit of communicating better with my friends when we're not in the same city. this will be crucial after graduation)
- clean out my closet and desk
- finish out senior year on the dean's list all three quarters
- make a list of chicago places to visit and things to do before i (possibly) leave the city (ex: visit hot doug's, ba'hai temple)
- keep up the cooking
- seriously commit to working out
- take more pictures
- get a semi-permanent address (i've moved every year for the past four years. i want to subscribe to magazines and be able to be reached at the same place. also it's a bitch to keep changing my addy for credit cards, et cetera)
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| mini-life update |
[17 Dec 2007|11:32pm] |
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mood |
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 content |
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music |
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trans-siberian orchestra xmas |
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i saw my second grade teacher in a liquor store today. that was good. she recognized me and we talked. i distinctly remember this day where this boy couldn't find a book in his desk and she flipped his desk over and made him organize it. he found that book.
also, balled out on grades this quarter. 3.9! I finally learn how to do NU my senior year.
i haven't really done anything since getting home except go to doctor's appointments that my mom made for me and watch tv. lame, i know, but it's nice to relax with no worries.
eric gets here on thursday night, then it's off to my uncle tom's hunting plantation for the weekend, then down to jacksonville, florida, so he can experience the onslaught that is my entire family.
after that mom, george and i are going skiing.
amanda morton and i are going to see the golden compass this week and i really don't want to be disappointed, but i know i will be. sad.
on law school, i applied early to george washington, because if i get in early, it's free. i find out january 15th.
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| musical piracy |
[27 Oct 2007|06:12pm] |
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mood |
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 annoyed |
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if you're not down with getting music the illegal way, just ignore this. i could claim that i buy things on iTunes sometimes, and I do, but I don't really have a moral issue with getting music illegally through the internets, and I need help doing it.
So, I just downloaded BitTorrent because I was tired of Limewire's bullshit. I have managed to use BitTorrent to download a few albums, but I can't get them to play in iTunes. Any help here?
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[25 Aug 2007|03:51pm] |
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mood |
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relaxed |
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music |
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daria theme song |
] |
i'm not doing too much these days, and it's pretty damn nice. i got back from fiji at the beginning of the week. it was an awesome time, but now i'm kind of disoriented at the fact that it's 100 degrees outside and suddenly i don't have a flock of servants bringing me veuve clicquot. tragic.
so this week i managed to watch a lot of episodes of top chef online, reprised my love of clone high and then tried to watch daria online, but all the links on tv-links are broken and i can't find any more daria now. probs likely due to the fact that they don't sell the seasons on DVD. big mistake in my opinion. if anyone knows of any "watch tv online" websites other than tv-links, please inform me.
i'm going to DC next week for a brief visit with my mom august 30-sept 4. then quick turnaround and i get back to chicago on the 6th of sept. can't wait, as i haven't really been in evanston since march. 6 months without seeing any of my friends, and without being around my boyfriend for more than a week or so at a time.
also, upon entering senior year it's time to start thinking more seriously about what i want to do with my life. there's the whole law school v. broadcast journalism debate. currently considering law school a little more heavily. but after interviewing with ilyce glink (thinkglink.com) the other day for a potential part-time job helping her in the fall, she gave me a decent idea of how to marry the two...media and entertainment law, lucrative and it kinda marries my two loves/abilities. so that's on the back burner now.
until school actually starts, all i need to worry about is moving into my apartment and getting it all set up, furniture-wise...and the LSAT. i still want to bring my score up about 10-13 points. so when i get back to evanston, it's time to start concentrating on doing some LSAT practice tests and homework.
le sigh, and that's about the sum of my productive output for the day.
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| Time to Get Jetset |
[11 Aug 2007|01:53am] |
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mood |
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 excited |
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music |
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camera obscura--let's get out of this country |
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Ok, I'm off to Fiji tomorrow...finally! Please don't call my cell until August 21st, because even if it's off, I still get charged some silly international rate if people call me. Still trying to figure out how that works. My mom claims that's what happened to her while she was on a cruise in Alaska, but I don't know if I buy that.
Anyway, expect tons of fun pictures when I return.
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| upcoming schedule |
[05 Aug 2007|10:00pm] |
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mood |
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excited |
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music |
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the avalanches--avalanche rock |
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august 11-21: in fiji with eric. DO NOT CALL ME (at&t charges me huge international fees, even if my phone is off)
august 30-september 4: in Washington, D.C.
september 6-??: EV,IL one last year of NU!
i'll be craigslisting furniture at the beginning of september, let me know if you have anything you're trying to get rid of.
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| my geek moment of yesterday: |
[27 Jul 2007|10:24am] |
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a girl at work pointed to a picture someone had posted of an animal on facebook and asked what it was. i correctly identified a capybara.
it's official, i went to too many zoos, aquariums and museums as a child.
also, anyone else still struggling with dropping the final serial comma in a list?
in elementary school they taught us: apples, pears, and bananas
now supposedly it's: apples, pears and bananas
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| White Water |
[27 Jun 2007|08:40am] |
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mood |
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 infected |
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music |
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t pain--buy u a drank |
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Don't go to White Water (local waterpark) ever! After the e. coli breakout there a couple years ago, I should have learned my lesson. fact, i did not.
I now have a staph infection. Basically bacteria have been waging war on my skin for the past week or so. Thought they were cold sores at first because they were around my mouth. wrong. I got one on my knee. I knew that was a horse of a different color. So, long story short, now I have antibiotics and I'm on the mend.
Also, back in Atlanta and working at WSB-TV Channel 2 Action News. I'll post some stories about that when I feel like it.
I turn 21 in aproximately a month and two days. Having a fake ID significantly reduces the fun in that, but I still plan on celebrating.
Aaaaannnd, I'm taking an LSAT prep class, because I love standardized testing so much. Also known as "I don't really want to move to Topeka, KS to make only $20,000 a year after going to Northwestern". Alternately, "I want a pair of Manolo Blahniks".
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| the elephant in the room |
[02 Jun 2007|02:41pm] |
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mood |
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 awkward |
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music |
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the radio is stuck in my head so probs fall out boy |
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so, everyone knows the metaphor of the elephant in the room...an awkward situation where everyone knows something, but no one wants to be the first to point it out or admit it.
well, i've figured out a way to make it more awkward. there's an elephant in the room, everyone knows it's there, and everyone's talking about it, but no one has any f-ing idea what to do with said elephant.
so, rather than ignoring an awkward situation, make it more awkward by talking about it with everyone involved and don't have a solution.
oh, and by now, i've started to make a life in kansas. i only have one week left here, and it's weird because things are finally falling into place. it's like when you go away to college, and you make new friends and figure out where the good restaurants are, and know your way around...only now i'm leaving. i know the local radio station jingles for god's sake. i have so much useless topeka knowledge...and also mad hookups in kansas, if anyone ever needs anything from there.
it's just odd because i have a job here, an apartment, and a new set of friends. and now i'm leaving all of that. i never thought i'd find a reason to be sad to leave topeka.
i guess it's reassuring in the sense that now i know that no matter where i go after college, i'll be able to make friends and start a new life.
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| fall 07---the beginning of the end |
[16 May 2007|11:57pm] |
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mood |
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curious |
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music |
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hairspray--good morning baltimore |
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for my first quarter senior year...
-Advertising: fulfills a Medill elective and from what I've heard, can be interesting as well.
-Armed Forces: w/ Moskos. Had to take a class with Moskos before I graduate, and I missed out on intro to soc.
-Theory and Practice of Translation: fulfills a French Minor requirement. will be interesting as the last time i took French was fall 07.
-Museum Studies: Design: have no real clue what this class is about, it's art history, the prof got good CTECS and it sounds interesting.
still...all in all, a waste of a reg time. I had the first reg time of everyone in the school.
got locked out of law and ethics of journalism, wanted to get it out of the way, and also it would have meant classes only M-W, but pre-reg was while I was at work and Topeka was flooding, so i wasn't exactly worried about my fall quarter schedule.
Only 22 days left here. It's going to be a bittersweet ending. I will be so glad to be home this summer, and definitely won't miss the city of Topeka (it doesn't have much to offer). But in a way I'll be sad. I've become friends with the people I work with, they even come to me with their personal problems now. I've made a little life here, with an apartment, my car, I go to the public library, I know where to shop, I know which restaurant has my favorite wine on their wine list, I even found a charming, and certifiably good restaurant here in Topeka. It's bizarre to think that I'm leaving here, perhaps for good.
On that note, or rather on the restaurants tangent...I have finally found a skill I have. I can pick/recommend restaurants. Once in a city, I have an uncanny way of finding places to eat, and being able to pick good places for other people depending on price range, company, and occasion. When my professor came to visit, she took me and Adam (the other Medill student in Topeka) out to lunch. She has to, because Medill pays for it. It was up to me to pick the restaurant. I chose http://www.brickovencourtyardgrille.com/ the brick oven courtyard grille, and we had an amazing lunch outside on the patio. I had tilapia and creme brulee. I own Zagat guides for both of the major cities I live in (ATL and Chicago) and I mark restaurants I've eaten in. I vote in the Zagat survey for both cities, and I get the Chicago mag weekly food e-mail "Dish". This skill may seem to have no practical application, but it comes in handy more often than you may think. How often in daily life do people have an opportunity to show off their singing voice?? Company karoake night? But people dine out, all the time. And it's one of my favorite things to do. When my prof and Adam got to the restaurant, they were both impressed. It smelled amazing in there, and Adam turned to me and said, "I didn't even know a restaurant like this existed in Topeka...how'd you find this place?"
I smiled and told him "I can't sing, I can't dance, but I can pick restaurants. It's what I'm good at."
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| TM-tastic |
[10 Apr 2007|09:06am] |
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Sooooo, I'm in Topeka, Kansas working at a TV station as a reporter/producer. You can watch my stories online here...http://www.wibw.com/searchresults?searchKeywords=merriam
A word of warning, the video doesn't seem to play on macs. Go figure.
The station got hit with a major virus, and we're still recovering. Most of the computers don't have internet, which severely cripples my job. Hopefully they will be fixed by this Friday (the next day I work after today).
Topeka has proven to be pretty boring so far. There's not much to do after work because I can't really spread roots here and get involved in the community or make friends because I'm only here for two more months (thank god). But I am seeing David Sedaris and Ted Leo here in the next month. Already saw neko case.
Soooo, I'm living in this furnished apartment that my mom picked out. It's called Warren House, and it's rented by the month or by the week. It's cheap, and it's clean....but it's not exactly safe. There was a stabbing pretty much right outside my apartment this past weekend, and it's right between a gas station and a cd tradepost that keep getting robbed. awesome.
so i think my mom wants me to move. which i support. i told her from the beginning that this place was sketchy, but she insisted it was eccentric and blue collar. wrong!
sigh.
but i am going to fiji this summer with eric's family. he has a rich uncle who's paying for the whole thing, even the plane ticket.
http://www.namalefiji.com/launch.html
mmm.
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| TM means teaching media |
[26 Mar 2007|09:14pm] |
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 lethargic |
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music |
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avenue q soundtrack |
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hey, guess what??
i'm living in topeka, ks this quarter working at a news station (www.wibw.com).
i had my first day today. when i was in the shower getting ready this morning, the smoke alarm went off in my crack house apartment. then, as soon as i had gotten out of the shower, dried off, thrown some clothes on, grabbed my keys and touched my doorknob...it stopped, just as mysteriously as it started.
the rest of my day continued in the same vein. as soon as i got to work today i was sent away to be drug tested. after waiting for an hour, i was allowed to pee in a cup.
at the station, i was given a short tour. this culminated at my new "desk".
on it was:
-a mishmash of tapes
-a nest of papers
-7 coffee mugs, some with foreign life growing at the bottom
-an old hp laptop (my new computer at work)
-a pile of peanuts, still in the shell
-an umbrella or two
i was given a box, paper towels, and a spray bottle, and i got to work. also, for half of today i didn't have a chair.
still, i went through my first day of training today. i got to write 3 short pieces that aired today and edit some video that came down off of the feed tapes.
i met a whole bunch of people and have no definite impressions of anyone yet, other than that they are all nice.
this week i work tues, wed, sat, sun. 9:30-6:30 each day, and i am learning to produce the 5pm news.
Eric (boyfriend...i know i don't update this enough) is coming out this weekend to visit. he's gonna try to drive down thurs night so we can hang out on friday.
can't wait to see what new surprises tomorrow brings.
ps- for some reason, neko case is playing here (well, lawrence) on april 6, and i'm going!
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| new year's eve |
[31 Dec 2006|11:43am] |
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mood |
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hopeful |
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music |
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new order--age of consent |
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fyi: because GA is run by Christians, you can't buy liquor on Sundays.
Therefore making plans for New Year's Eve at the last minute usually fails miserably.
See: rough transcript of convo b/t myself and Nick Johnson at aprox 1 am last night:
K: what are you doing tomorrow night
N: just going over to soandso's apt with some people. wanna come?
K: sounds good to me
N: SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT
N: fuck fuck fuck
N: i hate christians
K: ?
K SUNDAY, OMG WE ARE FUCKED
So tonight may be a potluck night where we all steal from our parents. That, or Nick's going to take a road trip to Alabama today. One or the other...
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| utah |
[23 Dec 2006|08:38am] |
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ecstatic |
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music |
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hilltop hoods-- nosebleed section |
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Skiing kicks ass. That's pretty much all there is to say. I am going to try to take some pics today if I can. We are preparing for Christmas Eve, where my family will watch "It's a Wonderful Life" together. One of my favorite Merriam family Christmas traditions. Shortly followed by the "Flight Home on Christmas Day Because it's Cheaper". Oh, how I LOVE my family. But seriously, have I mentioned that I love my family recently?
We're going out to one of my favorite restaurants in Park City tonight, and possibly going tubing or ice skating tomorrow. Olympic Ice Rink, or bomb-ass tubing place (it has a Mongolian yurt).
Also, can't wait to get back to NU and see everyone. But 1st, party in the ATL for new year's eve. I don't fly home til the second, so let's do something fun. Last year I had champagne with mom and watched a movie....not the plan this year.
When I do get back to NU, my room is a closet. Literally. It is room 6 1/2 because it wasn't originally a room. It was a closet (luckily it has a window, but my clothes closet is across the hall). Oh, what sororities won't do to cram people into the house and make money. I am thinking of renaming the room. I am removing all signs of life or occupancy from the door and either naming it Platform 9 3/4 or just putting up a generic sign that says something like "Janitor's Closet". Any other ironic and/or inappropriate suggestions are welcome.
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| alarm clock catastrophe |
[08 Dec 2006|10:21pm] |
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mood |
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accomplished |
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music |
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TMBG beatdown |
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i knew i liked those new dunkin donuts commercials for a reason. they might be giants did all of the songs for them. to celebrate this discovery from the internet i am just going to listen to them for a while tonight. (for those out of the loop, tmbg was my favorite band through much of high school. it was a magical age)
also i am in the ATL
now through dec 18
the 25th through jan 2nd.
anyone have new years plans?
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| apeshit |
[25 Oct 2006|12:42am] |
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mood |
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 listless |
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music |
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NMH--two headed boy pt. 2 |
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sometimes i feel like i am living on the verge of insanity. i am sitting here in the gamma phi living room by myself at 1 am, studying for a French midterm. i am sitting at a table near a wall. i just looked at the wall and got lost on a daydream tangent about what would happen if i scribbled an obscene word on the wall. i won't do it, beyond not having a penchant for destroying things, it would be a crazy thing to do. then i started thinking about what i would think if i heard someone else had done something like that, and i was wondering if i would consider them a fellow "almost insane" person, or if i would condemn them as crazy.
this isn't nearly the first time. in high school all the time i would daydream about driving my car into a schoolbus full of children. it's not a suicide fantasy, just a what if. what if i stopped in the middle of the hall, threw down all my stuff and started screaming. what would people do? would anyone empathize?
i have these moments all the time where i have the choice of acting normally or going totally apeshit. i always choose normal, but what if one day i just chose apeshit. what if i came in to lunch and just overturned the salad bar then walked out? what if we all constantly chose apeshit? what stops us?
obviously i need sleep.
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[22 Oct 2006|07:07pm] |
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mood |
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calm |
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music |
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the weakerthans--aside |
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On Friday night at approximately 7:05 pm I fell in love with the city of Chicago.
I have always liked the city, but that night, walking from my job to the el, I just fell in love with the city.
Also, I love my job. Thursday night my boss had his 3 female interns come over to his house with a photographer to shoot some b-roll. Sounds sketchy, eh? At one point my boss actually said, "Ok Sammie, now unbutton your sweater...slowly..." Things you should know: my boss is gay, this was for a story.
We shot a bunch of stuff, I played online poker because we're doing a story on that. Then my boss's gay boyfriend, Sammie, and I had to pretend to be in a love triangle where I was married to Adam and Sammie was the other woman. My reporter was directing us like a softcore porn.
Friday I spent most of the day at work trying to find a hooker online. I do such random shit for my job. (I found several hookers)
This weekend I went to a seriously NU party. It was a DOW 12,000 party where everyone wore business attire and drank wine and ate cheese and crackers. love. I downed a whole bottle by myself.
anyway, after recruitment practice tonight i need to see my boys. off to 912!
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| how this night is different from other nights |
[03 Oct 2006|12:38am] |
| [ |
mood |
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 dirty |
] |
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music |
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chamillionaire--ridin' dirty |
] |
setting: a dark and stormy night at the Gamma Phi Beta sorority house. Girls are going apeshit because the basement flooded.
Katherine in parked in her room reading a magazine.
*knock knock*
k- come in, et cetera
sorority sister: "Katherine, there's a soaking wet, very dirty phi psi boy asking for you downstairs."
katherine's inner monologue: this is going to be good.
jussi t: bocce ball?
k: INDEED! FORMIDABLE!
And I spent the next hour running around NU's flooded and muddy campus playing bocce ball with corrie and some phi psi boys.
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