1. as we lazily stroll through summer and enter the third week of july, i realize that the season is about half over. as much i like to complain and harrumph about all the odious things that summer entails, there are things about these three months that i do enjoy. i like that, at work, things are even more relaxed for me than they are in the september-may months. i like that summer classes are given at an accelerated pace and a whole course can be knocked out in five (in some cases, three!) weeks instead of over four months. i also like that in the summer, when i’m only taking only class at a time instead of four, i can read for my own pleasure without the guilt that comes with neglecting to read for school. i do miss dressing in dark colors and wearing tights, boots, layers, and jackets. i also miss my regular tv programming like 30 rock, but i have the notion of mad men’s season premiere in under just two weeks to comfort me. also, in the summer, i usually re-activate my netflix account and start watching all those classic movies and independent and foreign productions i’ve heard about during the year. i know that if i have netflix active during the year, i tend to just hoard whatever dvd last arrived and forget about it in some corner of my room. (more…)

have you ever been chatting with a friend when, all of a sudden, they say one little phrase or word that is so annoying or out of context or superfluous, that you just tune out the rest of the conversation while you grind your teeth hard enough so that you don’t tell him/her to shut up? well, maybe i’m just really touchy, but this happens quite often. with the help of two friends, sophia and roxie, i’ve compiled a list of some of those phrases that just really grind our gears.

readers, feel free to leave a comment with a phrase that you absolutely hate. (more…)

i’m sorry that i haven’t written anything substantial in the last couple of weeks. lots of things have been going wrong, and this causes me to feel really shitty and definitely not wanting to write. i know when i’m in a sort of mood like that, my writing will just be pissy and not good. i’m aware that that is where i’m heading right now, but i have to write. i really do. since this is a blog that belongs to me, i get to write about all the things that have been upsetting me. there are four to five main reasons why i’ve been in such a crappy mood lately. (more…)

a fair warning: this post is going to be way more on the “dear diary” side than my usual social commentaries in today’s world that are filled with insight and well-thought out perspectives and analysis. well, that’s not true at all. what is true, though, is that this post will be way more gushy and girly than anything i’ve posted ever before, so i thought a warning/disclaimer should be in order. (more…)

i am blessedly able to say that i have, not just one but, several best friends. most of them are scattered around. a few in austin, one in new york, another in college station, tx, but, once again, blessedly i have a friend who chose to attend the same university as me. we spend lots of time together, because friends as close as she and i usually do things like that. i totally love her to death, and if she wasn’t around as much as she is, i seriously would be way more unstable. she definitely helps keep me grounded. among her many, many special qualities that make me (and lots of other people) love her, we also share lots of things. well, maybe not that many. i really believe that a major reason we’ve been such good friends for so long is that we sort of mush together. we complement each other. whereas i, at times, lack a social filter, and consistently put my foot in my mouth, she is much more guarded and tactful. and so on. however, we do have similar opinions regarding lots of things. we like a lot of the same music, movies, and books. (more…)

i’m taking this american literature class right now with the theme of women and the houses they live in. we started with some pretty typical stuff: anne bradstreet’s “upon the burning of our house”, emily dickinson’s “there’s been a death in the opposite house”, but now we’re moving on to more contemporary stuff. last week, we were supposed to read toni morrison’s beloved and i absolutely hated it. i know that toni morrison is supposed to be this amazing writer, and i don’t doubt for a millisecond that she is. it’s just that i’d never read anything by her, and all of a sudden, i’m expected to read beloved and it’s crazy. definitely too heavy for me. there’s all this talk about dead babies and their angry ghosts and cow-fuckers and i hated it. i couldn’t get past the first few chapters. i know i’ll have to, because i’ll be tested on my knowledge of the course content, but i’m not looking forward to it. i’m simply not. (more…)