quickie

busy busy lately...but i've been lounging a bit too. been snuggling up at night with a book and loving it.

every year, ash, my mom, and i go shopping the day after christmas. this year we were out from 10a.m. until 8p.m. my sister can literally shop 'til she drops. i was exhausted by the end of the day, but had a good time.

ashley cut my hair on christmas and, though she says she thought it looked fine, i thought it looked like a mullet. i got stressed about it for a while, but then went and had someone fix it up. so now my hair is significantly shorter than it's been for a long time. i'm just happy it's only hair and it'll grow back.

tonight i'm going out with my girls to coyote joes. haven't been in a while and it should be a lot of fun. $1 drinks! it means i'll have to drive home friday, probably with a hangover, but i'm willing to make the sacrifice 'cause we always have a blast.

have to get ready to head over to anna's.

a tad longer than expected...

back with the family in michigan. before i left, i saw the nutcracker wednesday night with alisha. we had fabulous seats in the orchestra (for free!). the first half was a little dull, but i really liked the second act. i was impressed with the wardrobe and stage design. the fake falling snow was gorgeous. exchanged gifts with the roomies after the show. i'm really glad the girls are as excited as i am to see wicked in january. it's just too bad it's at the oriental or we would have better seats. working at the auditorium has really gotten me in to the whole theater scene and i'm loving it. i'm pretty sure i'll be getting tickets to see diavolo in march which should be a really great experience. not sure if i'll be seeing too hot to handel: the jazz gospel messiah in january, but i should probably go 'cause i've been involved with so much marketing for it.

stopped by dennis' place before i started home. he got me cranium and i can't wait to have a game night with some of our friends. i need to remember to bring trivia pursuit pop culture home so we have that option too. he also made chocolates with mango curry and coconut for everyone for christmas and, of course, they are super yummy.

finally did some christmas shopping yesterday with charles. leaving in a bit to finish up today with my dad. he actually wanted to spend some time with me, so i'm taking advantage of that. after shopping we're going to meet my mom for dinner.

haven't gotten a hold of anna yet 'cause her phone is broke, but hopefully her and brandon will come over tomorrow and do a little gift exchange with me, elise, and bunk like we usually do. also hoping to get to see amy and mark while i'm home. it's too bad i can't stay for new years, but i'm looking forward to spending it with alisha and nick. we're thinking about going downtown to see the fireworks, which will be a new thing for me. sounds fun and on the inexpensive side, which is definitely a must after christmas shopping.

i think having no snow on the ground is affecting my christmas spirit. maybe i've finally hit the age where it starts to fade. i'm sure ashley will make sure i'm all "merry and bright" on christmas morning. we're having a christmas brunch this year with my family, as opposed to the dinner we usually have with my mom's side. we're doing the dinner + gift exchange on christmas eve so that my uncle's family can be there. they're spending christmas day with my aunt's side. i'm glad i don't have to deal with the "which-side-to-spend-the-holiday-with" war. one of the many perks of being a half-breed.

i desperately need a new book. i finally finished irving's until i find you which was 800+ pages and now i'm bookless again. i'll probably pick one up with my chanukah money while i'm out today. i love staying up late reading in the living room with the christmas tree lit up, curled up with a blanket. i looked through my mom's books last night, but i wasn't desperate enough to read nora roberts. not exactly my cup of tea. i stayed up and watched reruns of miami ink instead. i'd like to pick up gregory maguire's son of a witch, but i already ordered it from half.com earlier this week, so i'll have to find something else. speaking of books and being the nerd that i am, the title for j.k. rowling's final book has been released: harry potter and the deathly hallows. yeah, i'm excited.

hehe

a boy gave me flowers.

vanilla caramel housewarmer

the reading went well last night. i was really impressed with all the talent that we have in our mfa program. all of the poetry, fiction, and non-fiction pieces that were read were very good. both alisha and dennis came to see me read. i have fabulous friends.

i finally heard fiction pieces from both gil and lori, which i enjoyed. michi read a non-fiction that she had written about buying a bike in boston that was really funny. the final reader, who i don't know personally but i guess she's graduating in a week, read a non-fiction piece about how her sister reclaimed the word "porkchop". She included uses such as, "Does this make me look porkchop-y" and "Man, that was a porkchop move." We were all laughing our asses off.

After the reading, Alisha and i took a cab to rockbottom where we both enjoyed a dinner of macaroni 'n cheese. i also got peach sangria that was yummy. other than having to lug the stupid oyez sign all around downtown chicago and the fact that we had to wait quite some time for the blueline on the way home, it was a great evening.

now i'm on page 4 out of 6 on my final paper for this semester. i'm going to feel so great after this paper is done. only then will my winter break actually start.

been busy...

today was pretty productive, considering it's my one day off. i did the monstrous amount of dishes that us girls have neglected for the past few days, cleaned the rest of the kitchen (which was getting funky), took out the garbage (probably had something to do with the funk), cleaned my room, and even vacuumed. then i proofread my section of the final printout of oyez, which goes to print monday.

i think i'm going to be reading 2 of my poems tonight at muse cafe, which is located right off the chicago stop on the blueline. the fall 2006 mfa reading starts at 7p.m. people should come, 'cause we're all pretty sweet.

plus, look how cute i am... don't pretend like you can resist this.

bored work rambles

there's a new designer at kda. i met her this morning for the first time. seemed like a very nice young lady; very professional, well assembled outfit with a perfectly groomed blonde bob. while talking to her, she shared with me that she's married and she and her hubby have their own house with hardwood floors. i later learned that she's 23 and is graduating in a week with a BA in interior design

so yeah, i already have my bachelor's degree and i'm in grad school. but i'm also single, usually unintentionally sloppy in appearance, renting an apartment, and pretty much flat broke. now, don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to sound unhappy with my current situation. it would be ridiculous to whine about being a single writer in her early 20s living in chicago working towards a MFA. i guess it just made me think. what really is the healthiest place to be at this age? i suppose there can't be a ladder rung that every successful life should have reached by now, but ya know.

sloooooow day today. i have now sat for nearly 8 hours on my ass, listening to ridiculously nostalgic christmas music, greeting 1 person on average every 2 hours, and answering 2 phone calls, which both ended up being solicitors on line 7. boring as this might sound, i accomplished a lot. i decided on a final order for my portfolio and wrote my paper detailing its revision and composition process. i wrote the 2 evaluations for my internship and also did my annotated bibliography for hell class. so now i've only 1 paper left before the unofficial completion of my 1st semester of grad school. (unofficial due to the fact that, as part of the oyez marketing team, i still have to assemble on- and off-campus readings for next year.) this final paper is going to consist of many full paragraphs of bullshit.

it's cold. i decidedly do not like cold. i'm all about comfort. pajamas, long skirts, bare-feet, air-conditioning, and blankets are a few of my favorite things. (i'd like to take a minute right now to share with everyone that the beach boys' "lil' saint nick" is a splendid little christmas jingle.) apparently, chicagoland wind really makes a difference, because this place seems significantly colder than michigan. i was really ready to give up the other day; just sit my ass down on the sidewalk and freeze to death on my way to the blueline. ok, so maybe that's a little dramatic, but you get the idea.

i find it interesting that the lemonade i got from jimmy john's has 0% juice in it. doesn't it seem like there should at least be maybe 5% to give it that lemony taste? i'm just a little bit disturbed by this.

update

my back seems to be all better, but now i'm sick with a killer sore throat. if it's not one thing, it's another, i suppose.

found out today that the joffrey is giving the theatre staff free tickets to see their production of the nutcracker, so alisha and i are going to see it december 20^th.

tonight is the aplon reading on campus at the gage building. after he reads from his work, he'll be critiquing poems by the 4 students in the poetry workshop this semester, which includes me. should be interesting.

a woman in the office keeps her cell phone ringer on during work hours. it must be on the highest volume. there are faculty meetings every tuesday at 3p.m. and every tuesday during the hour of the meeting, her phone rings constantly and drives me nuts. the ringer is some intense jingle that sounds like the song from mission impossible. i really want to answer it and say, "she's in a meeting until 4. STOP. CALLING." i think that somehow might be unprofessional though.

dennis and i want to have a board game night but we don't have any cool board games. i have trivia pursuit pop culture at home, but that doesn't help us here. someone should donate to our cause.

my sister and her boyfriend got matching heart tattoos in the crease between their thumb and forefinger. this makes me gag and wish i had a boyfriend at the same time.

boo boo

yesterday i spent the majority of my day in the emergency room. my back had started hurting me the night before and the pain quickly progressed to serious discomfort by around 12/1p.m. i left work and by the time i got off the blue line at division, i was having trouble breathing because it hurt so bad. i had to talk to myself to stay calm enough to make the walk home. by the time i got back to the apartment, i was in tears. i tried to lay down but it made it worse. my mother advised me to go to the emergency room, so i drove myself there alone. i was there around 5 hours.

it was not a nice hospital, but it was the closest. it was freezing and all i had was a sheet and no pillow. no one told me what to do or where to go, so i was wandering around hyperventilating for a good 1/2 hour. when a woman finally came out to see me, she asked if i was having contractions and how far along i was. i was ready to freaking kill her until she explained that someone had called and told her a pregnant girl my age was supposed to come in with shortness of breath and cramping, which is what it looked like i was experiencing.

the doctor just told me i had a knot the size of a tennis ball in my back below my ribcage, which was making it hard for my to breathe. they did x-rays, but didn't find anything else wrong. he gave me a script for motrin and vicodin and sent me home. the vicodin is helping somewhat, but i'm still in mild discomfort constantly. it's really irritating and making it hard for me to sleep.

thank god today is friday.