Procrastination... if you add an "f" you've got CRAFTS

Okay, so on Friday night I came home drunk off of not even three drinks and kind of pissed and wrote the LONGEST rant on the blog. Then I watched the season... er series finale of the OC and passed out with all my makeup on. The next day I realized that I couldn't subject anybody to reading this angst-ridden crap. Long story short I hate men, and yet I'm boy-crazy, what to do what to do. Mostly I just hate being treated badly. Is it too much to ask for to be treated nicely? I've become very cynical in my "old age" and yet that's fighting with the part of me that is so much a hopeless romantic that I'm just left ridiculously confused. Okay rant over, it's safe to read now.

My angry Friday night led me to stay in Saturday, and get my craft on. Two weeks ago I purchased two plain white shadowboxes on sale at Target for $1.98 (on sale from $7.99) with the promise that I would make something special. Saturday night I painted the first box pink with white polka dots, and today (Sunday) I printed out all the fun pictures. It is now HANGING on my wall. I'm very proud of myself for not abandoning this project halfway through. This evening I watched the Oscars with my crazy former roommate, now across the hall neighbor, Mindy, and we each painted another shadowbox. My second shadowbox is not as polished as the first, but very Mackenzie Childs inspired. I'm kind of obsessed with Mackenzie Childs, so I'm super proud. I just need to figure out the theme of the pictures for that box. The first box is "Seniors '07" themed. It has pictures of all the girls out at McMurphy's, mostly Guitar Dudes, one from New Years when Dubs visited me, and just a cute picture of my friend Lauren and I. It's kind of funny that my hair color is different in every single picture I'm in. My roommate Courtney says that I'm a chameleon. Hehe. I also put in the picture that is being used for our facebook group "The Loft." That's what all the seniors are calling the right end of the front hallway. We're cute like that. Or just childish like that. Either way, it's fun. I hope that my second box theme will come to me quickly so I don't waste HOURS looking through pictures. I am the WORST procrastinator EVER. Seriously.

The pictures (in order): Box 1, pictures in Box 1, a shot of it with my finger over the flash that looked really cool and artsy, Box 2, and two closeups of Box 2 showing off the Mackenzie Childs-ness of it all.

Speaking of procrastination in the name of "blog research" I have spent a good chunk of the week reading all of the gossip blogs, and I am now a full blown EXPERT on Britney Spears and her breakdown. I even have several personal opinions. Maybe I should rename my blog something witty and start my own celebrity gossip page. Or maybe not. I would just find a reason to spend even more of my time working on a pass/fail course and ignoring all of my graded classes.

I'll probably be procrastinating more this week by posting some sort of Oscars recap and talking about my favorite clothes. I will say for now:

• Nicole Kidman looked like a joke
• Beyonce is getting on my nerves, she definitely tried to steal Jennifer Hudson's thunder when they were singing
• I was extremely happy for Martin Scorsese when he won, and I'm even more annoyed with myself for choosing Legally Blonde to do my crafts to rather than watching The Departed for the first time
• I got very misty eyed during Ennio Morricone's speech, even though I don't understand a word of Italian. I could feel his joy :) And unfortunately I did miss a good chunk of the translation because my ex-roomie was chatting away
• Does Clint Eastwood speak Italian?
• Penelope Cruz looked GORGEOUS
• Who invited Tom Cruise? ick
• Jack Nicholson looked freakin' scary with that big bald head
• The Oscars were kind of a bore this year
  

Yeah, he told me you were the only sheriff in America who was a true friend of Dorothy

OH. MY. GOD. Veronica Mars is one freaking intense show. Okay so here's the deal, if you don't watch Veronica Mars I would prefer if you do not read this because I see everybody who does not watch as a possible convert. One day I will get you to watch. And I do not want to ruin this moment for you. And if you do watch but are not caught up to the 2/20/07 episode, I don't want to spoil you. Trust me on this, the surprise is better left to viewing it for the first time.

ON THAT NOTE...

I'm
just
going
to
create
some
nice
and
long
and
useless
spoiler
space
here
while
you
look
at
this
awesome
poster
I think
I need...

hehe okay... I COULD NOT believe they killed Lamb! WOAH! I'm guessing Veronica is filled with the same emotions that I am. Sadness at the loss of a life, relief at the loss of a jackass, guilt over that relief, etc. Just. Wow. I'm speechless. Seeing Keith in the uniform was pretty intense, but exciting as well. I'm wondering where the show is going to go from here. It was always about Keith and Veronica as underdogs, so how are they going to go on from here? I also want to know how this will tie in with the fact that the show is now going to be doing more canned episodes, rather than the overarcing mystery. Rob Thomas is incredibly brave, and for that I applaud him.

Other great parts of the episode that are probably being overlooked due to everybody's shock:

• The scavenger hunt- very cute, but geeze Logan definitely has a thing for blondes. Have we ever seen him dating/hooking up with somebody who is not blonde?
• Mac and the new boyfriend are adorable. I'm so glad she's gotten over all the damage Beaver did to her. I SWEAR her boyfriend was a minor (different) character in Season One (a la Lucky/Tim) will research
  
• Veronica's jail time behavior
• The use of EVERY character in this episode. Sure Wallace didn't get that much airtime, but it was wonderful to see him back again. Oh wait, Piz wasn't in this, so not EVERY character, but just about as close to all of them as you can get, and let's face it- Piz didn't belong in this episode.
• The fact that Rob Thomas just totally NAILS film noir. It makes me want to go rent old classics to see all of his inspirations.
  

That was just so exciting. I'm sure I'll think of more things later to add. Once again, WOW. Yep, that's me being stunned.

Hi! My name is Maggie and I am a CREEP!

Okay, so maybe I'm not a total creep, but I do look pretty creepy in this picture. In the past week I've had so many photoshoots, that on Friday night I came to the realization that my friends and I are out of our minds. We were at Panda East and I looked around the table to realize that at least five of us had cameras with us. Come on, why take all your pictures on one camera and pass that camera around afterwards to share the pictures when you can try to compile two or three pictures from four other cameras? That's silly. Nobody thinks like that.

I'm not sure what my point was, but Friday was about reclaiming that lost youth from Thursday. Maybe I should go back a few steps, since I seem to be into telling stories completely backwards. How very artsy of me.

Thursday we had bid day, and then a party later on to celebrate the new girls/the end of recruitment. That's when it occurred to myself and a few other seniors that we are OLD. It's been three years since I was a new member watching all the older sisters talk about how excited they were to get to know us and be done with the hell that can be recruitment. THREE YEARS. Even three semesters ago feels like yesterday. This was too scary. Not to mention all the guys that I spoke to were freshmen and sophomores. This led to a minor anxiety attack the next day.

My dad told me a story about how one of his most depressing moments in life was when he realized he was a senior in college. And that's when I said WHAT? I'm a senior in college? I thought I was a senior in high school! Actually that's not what I said, but I do sometimes feel that way. He then proceeded to tell me that it's been eighteen years since he graduated law school, something i remember fairly well seeing as I was three or four at the time. This only made me feel older. In a wow, I'm old enough to remember eighteen years ago kind of way. Thanks for the pick-me-up Dad. Eventually he calmed my nerves a little bit by reminding me how young I still am, and to enjoy every moment of it.

That's the cue for Panda East to enter the story. My friend Cobb decided we'd celebrate her 22nd birthday by starting with Scorpion Bowls at Panda and then moving up to McMurphy's (our perpetual hangout). First of all, I just want to state for the record that the service at Panda sucks. It has in the past and it did again last night. But where else can you get Scorpion Bowls? I split two big bowls with my friend Lauren, and it ended up that each of us basically drank an entire large scorpion bowl. On my hunt to reclaim my lost youth I found myself opening up a tab at McMurphy's (no cash makes getting drinks feel like freebies at that particular moment, therefore you end up buying more). I purchased a shot (what was I thinking?! I hate taking shots!) and two drinks. This doesn't sound like too much, but let's not forget the giant punch bowl of rum and 151 I had guzzled down an hour earlier. I was so drunk that I forgot to take a million pictures! How ever will I remember such a crazy night years from now? That's what this amazing blog is for! Why else would I announce to the world that I am very much a lush?

I arrived home to find three lost boys with a 30 of beer. Which I proceeded to happily drink. This morning I woke up and my head did not feel so good. All day. And even a little bit at night. As my roommate Courtney likes to say, "Oh My."

AND YET... I felt like I reconnected with my younger self of about two years ago. Crazy nights aren't as common once you're too old and too cool for frat parties. Money runs thin, tolerance grows stronger, and last call is at 1am. There is more of a limit. Last night I not only took it to the limit but went above and beyond. Sure I paid the price the next day, but my anxiety over age seems to have calmed a bit, and I had A TON of fun. I just wish there were more pictures :-P (which brings us full circle again to why I'm a creep).

Let's check back in and see how I'm doing in two months when I'm 22!

I will sing this victory song- woo hoo hoo hoo, oh yeah, woo hoo hoo hoo

I really hate when I have a million things to talk about on here and by the time I get to my computer they have all faded from my mind. I mean seriously, that's just like a cruel trick my brain has been playing on me. And as soon as I've finally posted and scraped together the best possible ideas left in my poor abused mind, the brilliant thoughts will come back. Of course, by then I'll be walking to class, or somewhere else random.

Yesterday ideas came to me as I was driving three and a half hours back to Massachusetts from New Jersey. I couldn't stop, so yes, I was that crazy person on the road attempting to jot down a note while driving. Very safe. Well I was writing against the steering wheel, and never took both hand off of it, so you could say it was the safest way to write. A police officer might not agree, but that's all in the past.

Anyways, what keeps me going while driving is music. My favorite station in the tri-state area is 95.5 PLJ. I listen to that until it starts getting unbearably fuzzy about twenty minutes down I-87, right after the first tollbooth. Right before this is when the odd moment occurred. I was listening to the new Blue October song "Let the Rain Come Down" (or something like that, I will edit this with the exact details and links when I find the appropriate free websites and html-ish stuff) and I realized it was a complete and total rip-off of that 80's song in Napoleon Dynamite. I mean TOTAL. The only thing different were the actual lyrics. It left me perplexed. The song regained some popularity after Napoleon came out, so why would they copy it when it's still fresh in everybody's minds? Perhaps their egos are that big. And after I just got over their cockroaches line in the first song.

Well this isn't a full on rant. I had started describing my drive back up to UMass. Once the station gets garbled, I don't have patience to keep looking for the local stations, which don't last too long anyways since I'm driving through the mountains. Luckily the Magmobile has a six-CD changer. Unfortunately this is in the trunk, so I have to pick out my CDs very carefully beforehand. Usually I forget to change these CDs so I need to pick music that I don't mind listening to over and over again. This week's drive was sponsored by:


The X-Y is an amazing album, but that one is not as easy to sing along with as the others. So yes, I am outing myself here on the internet, I am one of those people you drive past bopping their head up and down, using the steering wheel for percussion, singing their heart out. I've even been caught waving my hands in the air. That is me. Usually I pay no attention to the people watching me, because I'm never going to see them again- except for maybe my next jaunt through Connecticut after a weekend home. But the worst is traffic.

So if you were driving on I-84 at approximately 11:30am yesterday you might have been stuck next to me as I was belting out some Sheryl Crow. Oops! The one saving grace is that it's cold out and my windows were closed. I like to turn the music up loud enough that I can't hear my own voice, thus making me believe that I sound like Sheryl Crow or whoever else I am listening to. Common sense tells me that I possess only the ability to make dogs howl, so at least these strangers did not have to endure that while sitting in traffic yesterday. And no, I have no plans to go on American Idol.

Is UMass racist?

Even I'm insulted by this, I can only imagine how I'd feel if I were black...

The DC has decided to honor Black history month by cooking food that... comes from extreme stereotyping?

DC Menu for Thursday-

"**BLACK HISTORY MONTH**

Soup:
Tomato Florentine (vegetarian)
Kick’n Crab & Corn Chowder (Berkshire)
Radical Roasted Vegetable Soup (Berkshire)

Entrée:
Southern Fried Chicken with Gravy
Fried Catfish Filets
Hoppin’ John
Southern Style Macaroni & Cheese
Baked Cod with Grilled Pepper Coulis (Berkshire)
BBQ Baby Back Ribs (Carving Station)

Vegetarian options
BBQ Riblets
Tofu Stir Fry (V) (Berkshire)
Spiced Mushroom Pecan Rice (Worcester)
Pesto Lasagna (Worcester)
Veggie Dogs (Worcester)

Dessert Station
Benne Cakes
Sweet Potato Pie
White Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing (vegan)"

This could be the start of a beautiful obsession

This movie sounds like it could be the male-counterpart to Veronica Mars. Therefore, I must see it. The Minnesota Daily refers to Brick as a film noir, and also says it's "described as 'Twin Peaks' meets 'Donnie Darko'." Not only was I thoroughly intrigued by Donnie Darko, but Twin Peaks is something that helped to inspire Veronica. I will probably be heading down to Blockbuster (yeah, I broke down and got a membership) at the end of this week. More to come on that later...

I have become comfortably numb...

Hello.... is there anybody out there?

Or just anybody reading this blog, really. Okay I've been putting this off long enough, but I guess I just need to sit down and get to it. What is the point of this blog? Besides the obvious and somewhat smart-alecky answer of to fulfill a class requirement.

First of all, I want my blog to look pretty. It must be something that catches the eye of somebody flipping through blogs, and also captures my spirit. What is my spirit? Well, I'll get to that later, but I want the blog to be well organized, fun, but not overwhelming colors, and kind of girly looking. I want my blog to be something that people enjoy looking at, as well as reading. When I'm browsing through multiple blogs I usually tend to skip over the ugly, disorganized, and/or hard to read blogs. I tend to linger on the blogs that have colors that pop, I'm not straining my eyes to read, and most importantly have pretty pictures. I still haven't quite figured out how to put pictures (ed. note, I figured this out later on) and other forms of glossiness on my blog, but it is a main objective of mine.

Besides the 500 words per week requirement, I would like to post on my blog whenever I feel bursts of inspiration. In a world as crazy as ours, I feel this inspiration all the time. In fact, I plan on posting an entry as soon as this prospectus is finished. I think that most blogs seem to start this way, people need to discuss all the stuff in their head.

Basically, I plan on discussing whatever seems to be looming on my mind at the moment. The blog will mainly be about (this part is going to sound really cheesy, but I cannot find a better way to put it) my journey to find who I am and what kind of world I'm living in. Mainly I will post things that I find amusing, but I will also post about things I am currently obsessing over at the moment. I am a huge fan of most things media related, especially fashion and television. I will have plenty to say about my favorite shows, especially as February sweeps begins.

While I don't plan on putting down all of my information, such as my address, phone number, screen name, etc, my blog will not be anonymous either. If you pay close enough attention it will be pretty easy to figure out where I am and what places I frequent most. One of the great things about blogs is that there is certain anonymity of being in public. There are SO many blogs out there, that you can get lost amidst the many. If I were to write about this crazy girl I came across today, some guy reading in Idaho wouldn't be like "Oh Wow! That's Kim!" If a story is not too incriminating I will mention my friends and other acquaintances by name. If it's something that I think will embarrass them when they decide to support me and read my blog, I'll keep it anonymous. I plan on making this blog popular enough that my friends, along with various UMass students will be reading this frequently.