today's a good day to stretch the muscles of the weary

a miracle's a miracle, even if it's ordinary.

THE OFFICIAL LIST OF GOALS FOR THE UPCOMING SUMMER
(now in detailed and realistic forms!)

1. THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL GOALS: use time wisely.
vague? a little. but seriously. no sitting around. unless it's with my beautiful friends and we happen to be picnicking. i need to make the most of my time. visit facebook only once a day. visit the computer as a whole only once a day. go to bed at a decent hour so there are no more naps! make sure i'm having adventures and checking things off this here list!
2. learn to drive stick. call aunt karen or uncle rich and get out there. that way, should the zombie apocalypse occur anytime soon, i will be able to drive any car available to me when attempting to make my escape.
3. set up my silkscreening set. this will first require me to create a design. i'm thinking either something with andrew jackson, benjamin franklin, or the 717. i think the 717 would be a good one. father k. dubs will be more than happy to help with the technical stuff. i just need to do it! yes yes yes!
4. revamp my etsy. read up on all the tips and tricks. then go to it! take better pictures, list more frequently, create fliers/business cards and distribute them to local businesses (checkered past, neato burrito, atomic warehouse, championship, etc.). talk that shit up! i really want it to be a source of extra income. that would be phenomenial.
5. (going along with the previous two goals) CRAFT MY BRAINS OUT!!!!! beginning of the summer- sundresses for me. later on- sundressed for esty. high-waisted skirts for me and etsy. jen's baby blanket. silk screened shirts ( i'm thinking i'll use thrifted shirts? that way it's cheaper and it's upcycling. . .) big floral tote bags and historical figure totes. smaller, strap-across-the-chest, bags with zippers and quilting/drunk embroidery.

6. make more videos with baby brother. notably the knitting rap. possibly the ben franklin womanizer remix.
7. write more often. i'm thinking two short stories a week, just to keep in practice. two scripts by the end of the summer.
8. go skinny dipping. night and day time. pool and lake/ocean.
9. learn to prepare meat. grilling chicken and burgers. cooking ( i don't even know if that's the word i want to use) beef, chicken, and steak. the normal way. the inside way. you know?
10. learn how to do basic handyman stuff. how to hang a shelf/picture. how to install lights/light switch.

that is all for now!
some of these may turn into long term goals.
i also want to learn how to do my taxes. but that can wait.

I FINISHED MY ROUGH DRAFT OF MOSAIC PAPER DOS!

IN CELEBRATION:


a man at city hall playing a golden noise-maker!

sandal contest

in the sandal contest that is currently going on in my mind, these are winning. nice color. can easily slip them on. and off. would go with a variety of outfits. nice'n'casual.
runners up:

1. the bedazzled turtle
2. the winning sandals eccentric cousin

thoughts?
does anyone know of anywhere else a girl on a budget can get a decent summer sandal?

oh ice cream man outside my window

why must you taunt me so? no matter how much i crank up the volume on the tv, i can still hear those tiny, tinkling bells. even when i put my headphones on, there's a distant echo of melodic bells. maybe i'm just going crazy. if i am, i blame you, campus ice cream truck. you will be the ruin of me.

in other news, ITS GLORIOUS OUTSIDE. corrie and dee introduced me to the 'secret garden' on campus- totally secluded, shady, colorful, the most lush grass ever- all the good stuff. for anyone who thinks north philadelphia is just dirty streets and sagging slums. . . you're basically right. BUT! there are gems like this around too. i love temple. good choice senior-self. pat on the back.

i've been applying for jobs like a crazy person.
so far i've applied to:
-spice restaurant
-mangia qui restaurant
-felicita resort (banquet server)
-carlisle country club
-blue mountain country club

that list doesn' t look as impressive as i had imagined. but still. it seems like a hell of a lot. LET THE SAGA CONTINUE.

only:
-3 more papers (journalism, film, and mosaic)
-1 piano piece
-4 finals
away from being back in the sweet 717! where i shall spend my days working and my nights on the backporch, belly full of grilled meat and fresh tomatoes, watching the blue ridge mountains among sleepy, laughing friends. there's no place like home, homie.

the brilliant mind of james dunn at work

holy long-time-no-update batman!

what a glorious, glorious, sunny, brother-filled weekend!

things we did:
1. went to the opera
2. changed seats at the opera
3. failed to understand the opera
4. overdressed for the opera (but we looked cool)
5. went to the mutters museum. so creepy. but you can't look away. drew loved it.
6. got ice cream at reading terminal market
7. looked at eels and turtles in the underground supermarket in chinatown.
8. ate insomnia cookies
9. hung out with jimmy and lauren in the studio
10. watched the movie "hot fuzz" (SO GOOD. seriously. i love that movie)
11. just enjoyed each others company!

he's seriously one of the coolest kids i know. i'm glad we get along. my dad came to pick him up today- they took most of my stuff back. my room is super empty now. kind of sad about going home but also excited for the summer. it'll be nice to not have any papers to write or finals to study for. just work. and i'm okay with that. it's so hot outside. drew and i had to dodge the sun all weekend in order to avoid sunburn. we have a love/hate kind of relationship.

tonight:
dinner!
gym!
mosaic paper!
an exciting evening indeed!

life is a cabaret old chum

come to the cabaret.

(saw the musical tonight- very interesting staging. they actually set up the space like a cabaret and the audience sat at little tables. all the characters were also members of the cabaret and there was some neat metaphorical stuff (ventriloquist = puppet for the nazi; jewish man = magician who promised to "disappear" by the end) and it was crazy sexual (simulating giving head on stage? say what?!?) but the song and dance numbers seemed a little lacking. i do have to say though, i am terrified of emcee. that is by far the scariest musical character everrrrrrrrrrrr.)

in other news, that's my future roommate! how adorable is she? and how creepy am i? (answer: not that creepy. jimmy told me to take the picture.)

projects left for this semester:
-film research assignment
-cyberspace debate
-film paper 4
-mosaic II final paper
-journalism paper

and that's it! then i'm done! home free!
camping as soon as i get back!
tasia's party!
bartending class!
montreal!
so many good things to look forward to!

also

this has to be one of my all-time favorite pictures. edited by steven.

i don't know you

and i don't owe you a thing.

i wish school was over now.
right.
now.

i do not feel like bullshitting anymore articles for elmer. or looking up synonyms for papers for t.a. dave moore. who is adorable and diabetic. but getting on my nerves with all the b's. and god bless claudia, but i have absolutely no desire to debate about university internet monitoring.

i want my car and the suburbs and the sun. i want my friends and my kitchen and my job even. i want montreal and bartending school and knoebals and ricketts glenn and lomography and half off wednesdays at salvation army and aunt karen's haunted house and the drive in and tasia's amish paradise and red rabbit and adventures with sarah and sleeping in the shade and reading things i want to read and last minute plans.

i'm ready for summer now.

i know i should hate myself a little

and yet, i don't. britney is the american dream. and lily allen is just adorable.

as if we ever needed anything to entertain us

friday: wandering city hall with the nice security dude, looking for a courtroom. criminal justice center. sad court case. chinatown with beth and alex. underground supermarket. eighties party. red lipstick on the mirror "1300 honors". dancing on the bar with keiran (in all honesty, i can really only get away with that for a couple more years so i'd like to take full advantage of it now). stealing cookie dough ice cream and all the spoons. throwing spoons on the ground. kid who looked like ellen page with the neon bookbag. getting ryan's number. but only six digits of it. lenore! daryl and the magic hair.

saturday: waking up holding a roll of paper towels. experience temple honors day. knitting in the BEAUTIFUL weather. south street with meredith. meredith stealing a dvd from that monk because she thought it was free. monk yelling at her. delicious cheesesteak. making fun of those girls. dance war. awkward dancing. natalie portman's shaved head/lily allen. womanizer cover. arrested development and birthday keiran. playing hand games from when we were little. walking keiran home.

good weekend.
excellent weekend.
tomorrow = homework day. necessary evil.

my mother's daughter

homework

sucks.

my little brother?
rocks. he is the coolest. i'm so excited for him to come visit me.

but right now i really really really can't focus on this friggin cyberspace thing. it's tooooo muuccchhhhhhhhhhhh. i don't know if i'm going to go to mosaic tomorrow. i didn't read friedman (not because it's not interesting; just because i'm not currently interested. not when i have a new season on joan of arcadia to watch!) and i want to try and get free opera tickets for me and drew for the weekend he comes to visit.

i wish college was just learning. not doing homework. just going to class, and learning.

reunited. and it feels pretty alright.

i got my xanga back! everything got sorted out with my password and whatnot! yes yes yes! i'm so excited! i missed xanga. more than expected actually. i mean, don't get me wrong, i love my blog (which was originally a substitute for my xanga) but the privacy settings just aren't there.

i also like this picture of me and sarah and liz. there's a whole series of them. drunk major barry took them. he is the best. he's really like someone's uncle or something. mildly creepy (saying shit like, "sexy!" "red velvet!" "whooo wahhh!") but there's something hilarious and sincere in there too. i can't wait for summer. i want these sandals. just a sidenote.

it's a good day to face the hard things

<-- delicious omelette from sunday morning. i fucking love omelettes. damn straight. i feel so strongly about them that swearing is warranted. i love cloud cult and i love babies. so naturally i love this video.

things i want right now:
1. mary poppins umbrella
2. tan faux-leather bomber jacket
3. a million sundresses
4. an omelette
5. summer

things i want to do this summer:
1. learn to drive stick
2. go skinny dipping (liz p. recommends it)
3. learn to cook basic things
4. learn basic handy man stuff. like how to hang pictures.
5. silkscreen
6. go outside more/ eat more popsicles
7. ask people on dates

because dates are fun. and no one ever goes on them anymore. at least not in the old fashioned way. you know, like in movies when one person just approaches the other and asks them to go get dinner or see a movie. no texting. no facebook. no instant messages. none of this "talking" crap. just doing it. worse comes to worst you get a story out of it. there's really not a huge risk factor.

and for a moment i saw god

i am so ridiculously addicted to cloud cult right now. they were incredible on friday. it's been a while since i've had that kind of experience at a concert. i generally always have fun at shows and dance and whatever but i love the times when i feel an actual connection with the band or whatever. and i leave feeling lighter or happier or more motivated and hopeful. they were just good people. and the live painter on stage was incredible. i bought two of their cds: feel good ghosts and the meaning of 8. they're both so good. interesting musically and moving lyrically. the meaning of eight has some really good liner notes explaining the significance of the album title. favorite tracks: 1. a good god 2. take your medicine 3. no one said it would be easy 4. the ghost in our house 5. the will of a volcano. just really good themes throughout. i'm so happy. i haven't found good music in a long time.

home was magical. i spent it mostly hanging out with my brother. we went to both salvation army locations. i bought a really cool gold and blue glass set (set of six with matching mini glasses? they're kind of like shot glasses but bigger. like shot glasses for hagrid.) i also bought some sweet mom shorts- high waisted, bright blue on one side and white with pink roses on the other side. bad. ass. drew and i tried to go to see "i love you man" but the douche-y movie ticket guy who we nick-named timmy wouldn't see us tickets. lammmeeee. then i went to barry's surprise party. small but fun. i love my 717 people. i also love red lipstick.

easter was good- the babies in church were adorable. i got to drive with drew! it's so funny to see him behind the wheel. he looked like a newsie in his little easter outfit. drew and i made a video. i love that kid. easter food was good. lamb, asparagus and artichoke, potato thing with goat cheese and other fancy cheese, then pear cake and rasberry sauce for dessert. so good. it was nice to see grandma and grandpa. thems good people.

now i'm back in the 215.
eating all my easter candy.
i love chocolate and peanut butter.
the combination of the gods.

oh hump day

despite the fact that you are my busiest day of the week, i somehow look forward to you the most. i think it's because of the accomplished feeling that comes at your end. 

i saw chitty chitty bang bang tonight at the academy of music (which is absolutely beautiful. i contemplated just sitting there after the performance and finishing my book but decided against it.) i forgot how much i love this song. still gives me goosebumps. and this song is just ridiculous. if i ever did musical theatre, i would want to be the crazy over the top villain. those are the best. 

i'm also reading "free to choose" for my mosaic class and i have to say it's really interesting. it's about economics and stuff but the whole philosophy aspect really reminds me of my dad. it's kind of bizarre to look at it from a post-modernist perspective because i almost feel like it's breaking down my own background/education in government in economics or at least all the opinions/information i've absorbed from my dad over the years. it should yield an interesting discussion in class tomorrow.

i was also thinking about montreal. i'm pretty sure we're going to have to live on noodles and toast. we're all ridiculously broke. but i'm so excited. i just want to lay in the park and drink wine. that is an ideal week for me. only two-ish months away. 

dear rockstar diaries:

jimmy and i are going through serious withdrawal. how are we supposed to live vicariously through you if you aren't updating your blog at least daily? what are we supposed to be doing? living our own lives? and why would we do something like that when we can follow your adorable little life together/individual lives. it's getting bad around here. all we do is watch joan of arcadia and sleep. sometimes jimmy draws. i knit every now and then. but really. we are dying. you need to update immediately or we will be forced to quit school mid-semester and translate our cyberstalking into real life stalking. (sidenote: not really. please don't report us to the cops. we don't have the resources, time, or balls to actually stalk you. plus we're good people and only moderately creepy. i understand this may be hard to believe with the overall tone of this post but trust us. it's true. we went to catholic school.) please update immediately and frequently with a million pictures of the burgers you are eating, the adorable outfits you are wearing, the sunny days you are experiencing, the fields you are frolicking through, and smiles you are smiling framed by those red-lipsticked lips. 

all our affection:

jimmy&caitlin

adorable

this site is adorable. 

it reminds me of miss mary penxa, who is in love with love.

imma tell you, like you told me

cash moves everything around me. 

singing dolla' dolla' bill ya'll. 

(one of the a cappella groups sang that last night = magical. i think i like the covers of rap songs the best.)

i do need a source of income. i spent a lot of money this weekend. food, movies, parties, subway, underwear. bad news homie. 

i was recently thinking that i haven't had a crush in ages. like a really really long time. i used to always have one, if not two or three or four or a million. but now i don't have any. and i haven't. in at least a year and a half. i don't know what happened. i have guys that i have semi-crushes on. but never legit crushes. i mostly just want to hook up with them or like the attention. i never actually like them, like them. i miss it. i'm getting sick of the random thing. it's fun but not the best. it'd be nice to actually have someone i enjoy spending time with and plan to see more than once. just a thought.

joan of arcadia is seriously addicting. can't. stop. watching. must. write. article. must. go. to. bed. uuuggghhhhhhhhhhhh.  

kicking shoes into the subway and bands in basements

so good saturday!

1. slept in late!
2. went to see a crazy french film that was part of the philadelphia film festival. everyone was doing it with everyone else. and just when you thought you had figured out who was going out with whom/who was having an affair with whom, it all got twisted around. it was interesting.
3. delicious dinner at j&h. i haven't had a cheeseburger in a loooonnnggggg time.
4. acappella benefit with corrie, liz, jimmy, and alex. wonderful! ron is such a good singer! i also got to see the peter family (adorable and super nice). so good!
5. black and white party sucked so we left but the random party we found on the way back was so good! the band in the basement was awesome! static technique? or something like that? funk/ska/rap? very danceable. talked to the trombone player. talked to james from the mansion. on the way home we found a pile of shoes and kicked them down the street. then we hung out in the room. silliness ensued. i haven't been to a hallway party in ages.

overall = A+++ saturday.
today: homework and going to see the phillies opening day thing! yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!

i'm not buddha so don't touch me

yesterday was glorious.

went to lunch with christine- all you can eat indian buffet at this fancy schmany resturant called palace at the ben. so good. we were completely gluttonous. i litterally took a spoonful of everything. and it was only $12 total! and it was super fancy! yes!

on the way out, near the hostess podium thing, i saw a dish with these little green and red things in it. it had a little spoon in it, so i figured it was candy. i ate some. not bad. second handful- tasted a little off. third time, i realized it was potpurri. mistake.

then we shopped around downtown. i bought a jean skirt, some chapstick, and adorable underwear (one pair with kittens that look like an old children's book illustration and another pair with hamburgers and fries. i'm eight years old apparently.) it was just nice to look at stuff even if i couldn't buy a lot.

then i went to see dan deacon with keiran and her friend jack. we saw abby, brianne, mary, joe, and juliana there. much dancing ensued, and i got to take my first cab ride in philadelphia. i came back and just passed out. i was ridiculously tired. that whole day and no nap. crazy.

today: homework, sewing?, film festival, acapella concert, black and white party? corrie's roommate's boyfriend's party? staying in and sewing/watching jurassic park party?. i have options.

that's what i had for lunch. in case you were wondering. it was so good. i miss real food.

yes!

i am in love with dave eggers and everything he touches. if he started his own celebrity gossip magazine, i would subscribe. if he decided to write the descriptions on the back of movie boxes, i would rent all of those movies. if he was in detention and had to write the same sentence over and over again, i would pull a fire alarm just to get dentention with him and read what he's writing. he's just so ridiculously brilliant. and i think i saw him in the chicago airport once. he asked if this was the flight to san francisco (where he lives). then he made a comment to the woman in front of me about how he's always late and he just ate a sausage sandwich and drank two beers so he's ready to fly. it was definitely him. i swear.

today was marvelous! i got delicious food from my main man victor (international line) and i ate with a bunch of friends. afterwards we went to visit jimmy in the art studio. the new tyler building is glorious. i'm just going to start spending time there randomly. we looked at art and had a photo shoot ( the lighting is beautiful and our new thing to do is say "I'M GOING TO BLOG ABOUT THIS!" and then take a thousand pictures. it's nice to finally have people know about my blog. i obviously can't write in it like i used to but blogs are so much more personal than social networking. and it's just very relaxing) pictures!