Reading

This is all the reading I have to do for school (with the exception of the Chicago Manual of Style, which is purely reference). All of this needs to be digested by December 21! Lovely.

It's Snowing in October!

I'm Drowning in Homework!

I'm literally drowning in homework right now. At orientation, the speaker said that most students re-evaluate their "reasons" for attending graduate school around the end of October. It's when they are hit the hardest with the huge amount of work and responsibilities that's just been laid on their shoulders. I said to myself, "no, that won't be me. I appreciate why I'm doing this and won't be overwhelmed at all!" Yeah, (expletive) right! Today I've spent almost the whole day immersed in reading and only just came up for some air. And now I'm going to dive back into my workload. I'm hopeful that SOMETIME or other I'll be able to find sometime to post about the concert I just went to last week along with a few pics!

Kelly Tagged Me, Now I'm It

Kelly's tagged me to post 20 random things about me. I'll try not to duplicate anything I posted on 20 Really Interesting or Just Plain Strange Things You Didn't Know About Me .

1. I'm obsessed with silver. Gold to me is subpar.
2. I hope to one day have a pet cow. Either Guernsey, Jersey or Holstein.
3. I always cry when I watch The Little Mermaid (1989).
4. The leading literary critic, Harold Bloom, once told me I was pretty. It's a moment I'll never forget.
5. When I was 7, I stole an Alf umbrella from a Bradlees.
6. I like to link things. Hee hee.
7. I wear lots of hats.
8. I love Fossil watches.
9. I love pocketwatches and curse the fact that I can't wear them because I'm female!
10. I once had a house in Portugal as part of my inheritance. Not anymore, though...
11. I secretly dream of being famous in the literary world.
12. Autumn is my favorite season.
13. I love the Oxford English Dictionary. It's a word-lover's delight.
14. I've danced tap, ballet, jazz, modern, lyrical and gymnastic all to countless '80s and '90s cheesy pop tunes.
15. I hate drugs.
16. I really really really want my own apartment.
17. I'm more immature than I let on.
18. I'm convinced that John Henson is the funniest man alive!
19. Turner Classic Movies is my favorite channel (can you see I'm struggling here?)
20. I love to rebel! If you don't rebel against something in your life, then you are just letting yourself be washed away with the tide.

Bev, tag your it!

The Big 25 List

With the big 2-5 lurking just around the corner (actually it's over a month away), I thought I would be inspired by French Toast Girl and do a Big 25 list. These are the things I want to accomplish in my 25th year of life. My goal is to complete all of these before I'm 26. Here's my list!

1. Get an apartment closer to work and school! This is crucial for my sanity and for the ozone.
2. Start becoming financially independent and buy less junk!
3. Shhhh... this one's ultra-personal so I cannot reveal it's contents.
4. Learn how to flirt! hee hee...
5. Travel to Paris, France.
6. Learn some French before I go to France!
7. Celebrate one year of no sugar on April 9th, 2006!
8. Sign up for 401k. And read the huge 401k info packet before I do so I make an informed decision.
9. Keep up reading the New York Times and Publisher's Weekly and listening to NPR.
10. Learn how to rollerskate.
11. Be cool, fork over the cash and finally buy an iPod. Does that conflict with #2 on my list?
12. Get a professional portait taken of myself.
13. Take a self-defense class, or learn some self-defense techniques. Or get a can of mace!
14. Look more people in the eye
15. Make a few friends outside of work.
16. Brush up on my Portuguese. It's really faltering.
17. Travel to Maine (I can't believe I've never been there).
18. Get rid of some of the shame I carry around with me. I hate being embarassed over everything.
19. Brush up on my writing skills.
20. Go see a musical, theatrical production or even some ballet. I have no excuse not to because my school is in the theatre district and I get student discounts. Yes!
21. Read more blogs. There are so many cool and interesting people out there in the blogworld.
22. Go to the beach and have some fun in the sun. Believe it or not I haven't done that in a few years!
23. Watch less TV! (pipe dream)
24. Go to another crazy concert! (I went to one on Saturday, I'll fill you in on the details later)
25. Above all else, strive to be happy!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

I'm starting to get concerned about all this rain we've been having! It can't be good. It's been raining on and off for a week now and it's been raining (not drizzling, but pouring) all day today with no stop! MSN even has an article about it: Hundreds Flee Soggy Northeast. Hey, I guess it could be worse. It could be non-stop snowing and I could be trapped in my own house! Wait. No I take that back. That would be a good thing!

Thinking Big

It's been a dreary and miserable week. I swear I haven't seen the sunshine since Saturday! Or was that Friday? It's been so long I can't remember. We've had non-stop rain and perpetually overcast skies. And it's supposed to continue through the weekend. It's enough to make one suicidal. Fortunately, my thoughts have been towards the more progressive side of things. I've been doing lots and lots of thinking. About my situation in life right now. My 25th birthday is coming very soon and I don't have a lot to show for it. I feel that I'm successful professionally and academically, but in life, I'm a bit of a failure. I really need to get my act together and straighten out of my life. And I'm hopeful that if I do that, everything else will fall into place.

I'm Still Alive, Barely

Shame on me for not posting in almost a week! I've been completely inundated. I feel like I'm buried under a mountain of junk that needs to be sorted and organized. I've literally spent the day reading stuff away. I finally read through the Friday and Sunday editions of the New York Times and am making my way through my stack of magazines. Not to mention all the reading for school I'm doing. It's an incredible amount. I thought my having to read 5 Bronte novels as an undergraduate was tough, you should see my reading now! When I find my digital camera (it's somewhere in my mess), I'll take a picture of the mountain of books I have to read for classes and post it. And it's not just reading, I need to sort through and organize all the physical junk in the house. All the excess clothes, books, cds, boxes, shoes, and other random things that seem to be everywhere! I feel like having a big clear out! A grand purging of the whole house. I want to go through every nook and cranny of every room and just throw stuff into the trash. Just get it out of my house and out of my life!

Good Old-Fashioned Home Cooked Meal

That's what I'm hankering for right about now as I sit eating my cold Bruegger's bagel with onion and chive cream cheese. Because of my new schedule of full-time work, part-time school I've had to change my priorities food-wise. Lots of frozen pizza, frozen dinners, bagels with cream cheese, bagel sandwiches, burritos from the local Mexican place, bagged popcorn, fruit in ziplock bags, etc. Any food that is fast and portable and BORING. And even during the week, it's mostly the same old take-out standby. Which in my case is pizza, pad thai, and Applebee's buttermilk shrimp. Mmmmm, the variety! I've had to start drinking coffee again to keep myself awake enough to work and study. Problem is coffee is a hypoglycemic's worst enemy. It kicks up my insulin levels so when my blood sugar starts to dip the difference between the two is staggering. So I have to drink coffee and follow it up an hour or so later with an orange juice. Now I despise the taste of both. Bleh! Luckily, I have tomorrow off, YAY!!!!, so I'm going to try to cook a homemade lunch and dinner. Hmmm. What shall I prepare? Soup? A classic meat & veg dinner? Ooohh Seafood? Shall I even attempt some kind of low sugar dessert? The possibilities are endless.

Robert Mitchum ::swoon::

I think I'm about to faint. The good folks at Turner Classic Movies (who are obviously my long-lost family, they just don't know it yet), decided to dedicate the month of October to the sexy, hunkalicious, charming and debonnaire Robert Mitchum. They will be showing 32 movies and one documentary throughout the whole month. Did they read my mind or what? Robert Mitchum is my all-time favorite classic male movie star (move over Kirk Douglas!). Not only was he outrageously good looking, but he was a talented actor with a rebellious side. He is highly underrated which is why I'm glad a whole month is being dedicated to the man with the sad eyes! Here are some pictures for you to ogle at: