January 2011
7 tags
As I was driving home today, there came a flurry...
This morning I drove into Austin to do some cleaning and pay my rent. With windows down and music blaring, I plunged into traffic to return home. It’s funny that I write that - home. Austin isn’t the place I grew up, nor was it a place I spent extensive time as a child.
But it has become more of a home to me than Georgetown has ever been. Here in my weensy hometown, I run into people...
December 2010
5 tags
Of Christmas Day and other absences.
Today was Christmas, of course, and most everyone has celebrated the holiday extensively with extended and close family alike. My family does most of their gift-unwrapping and frenzy in the morning, and then a formal meal around noon. It was a very good Christmas, quiet and close.
Of all the gifts I received today, the one I have to be most excited about is my new Macbook. My parents bought me...
constantlylivingasmyself asked: I was excited when I saw your post (including pics) about your trip and it didn't disappoint!!! I'm looking forward to parts 2 & 3.
On another note, I was curious as to what your tattoo says?
On another note, I was curious as to what your tattoo says?
constantlylivingasmyself asked: I was excited when I saw your post (including pics) about your trip and it didn't disappoint!!! I'm looking forward to parts 2 & 3.
On another note, I was curious as to what your tattoo says?
On another note, I was curious as to what your tattoo says?
10 tags
Our trip to San Antonio, part two of three.
The second day we awoke to the sounds of birds (or bats, as I exclaimed loudly in my sleep) at our slanty windows above our heads. Everything in the room was a grey-blue, and I felt completely at peace. Hungry, but completely at peace.
Leaving the hotel was a little hard, despite our short stay. After all, our wee third-floor space marked our first vacation together - our first time doing...
8 tags
Our trip to San Antonio, part two of three.
The second day we awoke to the sounds of birds (or bats, as I exclaimed loudly in my sleep) at our slanty windows above our heads. Everything in the room was a grey-blue, and I felt completely at peace. Hungry, but completely at peace.
Leaving the hotel was a little hard, despite our short stay. After all, our wee third-floor space marked our first vacation together - our first time doing...
9 tags
Our trip to San Antonio, part one of three.
Cameron and I came home from San Antonio a little earlier this week, and I’ve been waiting to write about our trip until I compiled all of our collective photographs. The trip was absolutely splendid. Once or twice Cam even admitted to it going better than he had planned. And here I was worrying that everything would fall apart.
But we did just fine. The navigating was easy, with the...
Anonymous asked: I read through almost all of your blog pages and was thoroughly impressed (though still got the feel of a pretentious English major) until I got to the entry of you disliking The Diving Bell and The Butterfly because it was confusing and the main character had a few flaws. That just goes to show how much you still have to learn about the human condition, the nature of regret, and cultural...
7 tags
Our trip to San Antonio, part one of three.
Cameron and I came home from San Antonio a little earlier this week, and I’ve been waiting to write about our trip until I compiled all of our collective photographs. The trip was absolutely splendid. Once or twice Cam even admitted to it going better than he had planned. And here I was worrying that everything would fall apart.
But we did just fine. The navigating was easy, with the...
8 tags
Off we go on our first getaway!
This morning, Cameron and I leave to go on our trip to San Antonio. I’m absolutely jittery with excitement and coffee and smiles! We’ll be seeing museums and eating at nice restaurants and staying at our adorable antique hotel… I’m just giddy.
Christmas came early for me! I’ll have loads of pictures when I come back. Until then, goodbye, loves!
6 tags
Being away for a few days, my Italian final, and...
Yesterday - or rather, Thursday, since it’s already past midnight - I had my last Italian test ever: the looming all-encompassing final exam. Honestly, my study patterns leading up to the exam had been thorough and structured, and although I was nervous, I wasn’t really so much worried that I wouldn’t master the material.
But I could not have been more incorrect. That exam...
Anonymous asked: I read through almost all of your blog pages and was thoroughly impressed (though still got the feel of a pretentious English major) until I got to the entry of you disliking The Diving Bell and The Butterfly because it was confusing and the main character had a few flaws. That just goes to show how much you still have to learn about the human condition, the nature of regret, and cultural...
8 tags
Oggi, finirò il mio giro nell'Italia con...
Above, it reads: Today, I will end my turn in Italy with sadness.
And it’s true. At seven o’clock sharp this evening, I will be taking my final exam for my accelerated combination course of my third and fourth semesters of Italian. It’s going to be difficult, not only because I’m now responsible for fifteen tenses, but also because it’s a farewell of sorts. As much...
4 tags
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
– Marie Curie, a very intelligent woman who understands what it feels like to have a lot to learn.
5 tags
Overheard in the Perry-Castañeda Library:
Almost everyone goes to the campus main library to study for their finals, and it seems like the looming anxiety for exams brings even the oddest creatures out of hiding. Here is a conversation I overheard at the end of my table whilst studying on the fifth floor yesterday.
A guy and a girl are discussing their review for statistics; she is lamenting her lack of preparedness.
Nervous girl: I don't think I'm going to eat, or sleep or drink anything until this final. Just study. And then I'll just bring my Camelback to the exam.
Chill dude: I've only ever filled my Camelback with alcohol.
Nervous girl: Are you kidding?
Chill dude: No, man. Jack Daniels, mostly. Leaves a funny aftertaste, though.
4 tags
4 tags
“To have an Italian mother was to be constantly loved, constantly adored,...”
– From Cilantro, Basil and Oregano, the (very) short story I wrote for NaNoWriMo.
Promise you’ll see more when my creative writing blog is ready for launch. It’s getting there!
7 tags
On productivity, college life, and maybe being...
These past hours that the blogosphere has been down, I’ve been studying heartily for my Italian final on Thursday night. Today’s round of studying included practicing with a map, literature reading, and some translations. Tonight my goal is to watch a film in Italian, take notes on what I recognized, practice vocabulary and check my translations.
Then it’s bed before midnight -...
4 tags
Two compliments in as many minutes.
I'm walking to the library, suffering in the cold, but singing to myself under my breath. It's a winter day, and I'm dressed accordingly - red lipstick, cozy scarf and blazer, coffee. I'm feeling happy. I turn the corner on my street and am confronted by a group of - you guessed it - young Italians! One of them extends their hand to me.
Friendly Italian: Hello, I'm Joe.
Me: Hi, Joe.
We shake hands. I smile, he tips his hat to me and begins to walk away.
Joe, the Friendly Italian: Have a good one.
Me: Thanks, you too.
I begin to walk away, smiling from the odd and cheerful experience. I can hear his friends making cat-calls from behind me. Joe calls after me.
Joe, the Friendly Italian: You're beautiful, by the way!
I turn over my shoulder.
Me: Thank you!
At this point, I'm wondering if he was just making fun of me. His buddies are all telling him that they can't believe he just did that, etc. Maybe they were being serious. Maybe they weren't. Either way, someone told me I was pretty. I carried a confident smirk on my face as I continued to the library.
As I approached the Drag, one of the Drag Rats was sitting on a trash can singing Christmas carols.
Friendly Drag Rat: Your sunglasses are adorable! So happy!
Today is a win.
8 tags
The upcoming end of my language run; the last...
I’d originally meant to write this on Friday, but I was having trouble putting all my thoughts together. Perhaps it was just too fresh on my mind.
From two to four in the afternoon last Friday, I attended my last Italian class of my college career. For some, this would be an event of no real consequence. But I felt differently. After all, this was a language I’d been speaking for a...
6 tags
WatchWell, this is very cool. In a generation where it is becoming increasingly socially acceptable to care about sex on a global basis, this guy is doing some serious good in the world.
Enter Sir Richard’s Condoms, a brand that operates on the same idea as Tom’s shoes; you buy one, someone who needs one gets it for free. I mean, if you have to buy them, you might as well feel a little...
7 tags
Decisions, decisions; finals week style.
Brittany (my roomie) and I were discussing our mutual misery in regards to finals week. It's around eleven at night. We're already exhausted.
Brittany: I have a genetics assignment due tomorrow, and then an organic chemistry lab due Friday that I haven't started, and then my government test tomorrow... that I haven't really studied for yet.
Kayla: I have to do my astronomy assignment, write three more pages of a paper, and study for an astronomy test I'll probably fail. All due Friday.
Brittany: What are we going to do? What should we do instead? Fuck our lives...
We both respond with our ideas at the same time.
Kayla: Group suicide?
Brittany: Sleep?
Kayla: Maybe group suicide after we sleep for a bit.
Anonymous asked: Your blogs have seemed so despairing lately.
And even in slight negativity, are lovely.
Your writing's cadence is mesmerizing.
Anyway. Have faith. I'm sure you'll pull through this semester beautifully.
And even in slight negativity, are lovely.
Your writing's cadence is mesmerizing.
Anyway. Have faith. I'm sure you'll pull through this semester beautifully.
Something that's been on my mind for the past hour...
This semester - this week, especially - is somewhat akin to someone mercilessly taking a sledgehammer to my face and then pouring salt on my wounds. I’m about two paragraphs and an exam away from death. And even then I won’t be finished. Cue zombie student.