lucky red

I got this quarter in my change after getting some coffee last night and was amused that someone had painted it red. When I turned it over, I realized it was stamped with my birth year so I put it in another pocket without other coins in it, thus securing its fate as my new lucky quarter.

Unfortunately these past few days have been of the sleepless, stress-filled kind and my resulting unpleasantries have caught up with me. I'll spare details, because I have spoken of this problem before, but have done nothing to remedy it. I'm lucky to have some people who call me out on my behavior because I'm definitely a bitch to people who have done nothing to incite my wrath. It's usually misplaced, and that in itself is the biggest problem. Time to be more self-aware and less selfish. Must keep it together!

mmm hearts!

My love affair with artichokes continues. Easter dinner was particularly delicious because we had a steady supply of 'chokes at hand and I had one for a snack a few hours before. I'm currently ravenous (even though I've had better-than-usual eating habits during this stressful time) but going to stave off my hunger with a nap before I get up to do some more work before my morning lab. Eat your veggies!

fromage-y

An adorably out-of-character doodle by my sister and the carne asada fries we shared for our midnight snack last night...

I was going to do some homework until 12 or 1, but since I have work at 6 Sunday morning I'm opting to sleep instead. Friday night I was up until 3 working alongside my sister (architecture stuff for me, printmaking for her) and after breakfast this morning I slept from 1030-1 pm. Ugh. This screwed up sleep cycle is so bad, but I'm finding a way to make it work! Two more weeks of this and amidst the torture there are some really sublime moments (like this midnight snack...) and I keep realizing life won't be like college again for quite a long time... YES/NO/OH MY GOSH. Scary/sad and exhilarating all at once.

good thursday.

Despite my mild disgruntled tone in the post previous, today was a good day. I got back my cinema paper with a B+ but overall received high praise for my writing. I wrote the paper as I would write a blog post for a film, but stretched out to 5 pages, so I guess that means I'd make a second tier critic? (Not even!) hahaha. After class Isaac got me coffee, which will literally help make my night, and before class I met Jim for coffee and we caught up at an unusual Starbucks location that was previously a Jiffy Lube or something. There was an outdoor patio area that had originally been three bays of the repair stations I think, and it was nice without the usual Starbucks signage... really cool. Tonight we watched 'Bridesmaids' and Paul Feig was the guest speaker so I was geeking out! So good. Also I got a lot of personal things out of the way but now have to crank down and finish up this design project to get into final production mode. Enjoy the process, enjoy the process, enjoy the process...

a kosher square.

Tonight was (is, because it's still going) the senior fountain run. I didn't partake because I had class til 11, still have tons to do for my final project and, to be honest have no desire to get drunk and run through the fountains all over campus on a chilly spring night for a few hours. Don't get me wrong - I don't consider myself above 'running', and I don't think I'm better than the participants. I honestly have too much to do to and no pressing desire to partake in this 'fun' tradition. For most other people I think this will translate to me being too uptight, needing to let loose/loosen up, have FUN, but I know myself and I know I wouldn't have fun. I've known ever since I went to dances in high school, and ever since I set up/ran events through the ASB, that I will never have the same concept of 'fun' as the hivemind (excuse the pretension...). So why pretend when it doesn't matter?

At the urging of a classmate of mine upon exiting class, I falsely promised I'd join up and splash in some fountains with her later, after taking care of a few things, only to have this other girl give a loud, fake condescending laugh and chortle 'Oh, you're so KOSHER!' I had several retorts flash through my mind but I just smiled at them and replied 'Have fun.'

Anticlimactic much? Sometimes, a lot of times, that's life.

one lone cloud

This is one of the most unusual things I've seen. A single cloud, far away from any other cloud formation, just hovering in the sky. When describing it to T I went wild, suggesting the possibility of it being an alien spaceship cleverly disguised to blend in with our atmosphere. A perfect disguise save for the all-too-crucial consideration of that next level of camouflage that was hastily forgotten. Aliens, we are on to you. Today was a good but exhausting Monday. I went to bed at 6 this morning to wake up at 9 and begin the endless cycle of work over again. I think I'll take a short nap now and get back to work for the rest of the night.

home is wherever I'm with you.

I love taking walks and observing seasonal changes. Springtime, for obvious reasons is ideal for such excursions. The whole world bursting into bloom, fresh green growth and the air lightly-to-heavily scented with green, earthy, and petal-y goodness. With such little time left in the semester Spring seems like it is passing me by, but any chance I get I try to connect back to nature and have myself feel awed by the glorious little miracles of buds shooting out of twigs and the earth and exploding into flowers, or green leaves and epitomizing life and beauty. If I weren't so heavily dependent on technology I'd have no qualms about living like a wild woman and living off the earth!

studying with Isaac

This was last Wednesday, and we were actually working on our cinema papers due the next day. We watched 'In A Better World' which I still haven't posted on... but will eventually. I thought I had but I was clearly confusing blogging with paper-writing...oops! The good thing about working together on a paper for a film we had both seen was that we could jog each others' memories on certain details... tonal switches, musical cues and character development, woo! Other highlights include snacking on frozen grapes, watching weird clips of Entourage, listening to house and later drinking both a White Russian and espresso to keep going!

the walk home

As the sun has been setting later, the walk back from campus these days is the highlight of my day (after dinner of course). I stopped riding my bike because after neglecting to fix it up the gears switch up on me and generally make riding unpredictably scary. That and I've taken to lugging an extra bag of stuff that throws off my center of gravity and makes me 1000x more hazardous than I already am on two feet. Walking towards the setting sun and feeling the glorious warm rays is like stepping into a long corridor of light. As the sun sets, you know it's rising somewhere else.

Hanna (2011)

Joe Wright, director of Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, bounds into new territory with action-thriller Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan as Hanna, a teenager who's been raised in the woods by her ex-CIA father (Eric Bana), who has trained and educated her all her life as a deadly assassin. Though this sounds slightly preposterous, Saoirse Ronan is so convincing and powerful in this role that any shadow of a doubt is instantly removed as soon as the film begins. Overall the casting is just excellent - Cate Blanchett as the sinister CIA agent Marissa Wiegler is the terrifying 'wicked witch'-like character and a worthy and interesting antagonist. I would describe the look and feel of the film as a modern day action thriller with a fairy tale twist. Many motifs such as the woodcutter in the forest protecting his daughter, the young girl thrown into the world battling the elements trying to find her way home, the evil witch and her henchmen determined to find her, yet all of these elements are nuanced, and add depth to the story. The variety of unfamiliar locations makes the film extremely visually stimulating, and clever camerawork makes the story iconic and memorable. I haven't been this excited about an action film since Kill Bill or the Fifth Element, whose leading ladies definitely remind me of Hanna. Last but not least, the score by the Chemical Brothers is engrossing, but never distracting, and weaves into the story perfectly, making it whole. I loved this film so much I'd pay to watch it again, and again. Definitely one to watch in theaters while you can...

sidewalk findings

Quercus alba (white oak), a dandelion seed-head, and a pretty unidentified white flower beauty I fell in love with.

It's super blustery right now. I just printed my cinema paper and am putting my nose to the grindstone for a few hours before class... time for a big cup of ginger tea with honey, and I just cracked open the window in my bedroom so I can better hear/feel the gusting outside.

all I had was dried mango

My mom sent me a photo of the delicious lunch she made for herself (I think this was on Monday?) and I responded with this photo. It gave her a good laugh! Today I didn't eat anything for lunch and so for four hours suffered from a raging headache which I attributed to dehydration, stress, and atmospheric pressure. Nope. When I went back to my apartment after studio and fixed up some leftovers the change was INSTANT. Being highly sensitive is slightly irritating...

stuff I wore

My lazy uniform consists of pullovers (be it a thrifted slouchy number or a moth-eaten woolen sweater) and black jeans with fun socks if I'm feeling so inclined. SO lazy. These days I can't be bothered by what to wear, even though I unofficially ordained Wednesdays as 'Wear-A-Tie-Wednesday' when I saw a friend of mine all dressed up two Wednesdays in a row. I've forgotten to do the same! But I wear a skirt every now and then, so sometimes I do crawl out of my comfort box. Maybe tomorrow I'll have fun dressing up! But then again, maybe not.

pho with i

This was several weeks ago but I neglected to post it because the featured food-buddy is shy, but out of a necessity to unwind, as well as my fond remembrance of that day here it is! I always get the pho bowl with EVERYTHING - rare & well-cooked beef, tendon & tripe and then I throw in multiple handfuls of bean sprouts, basil leaves, cilantro, jalapeños you name it! And a squirt or two of sriracha and/or spoonfuls of sambal oelek if I don't want the sugar with the heat. Anyway we had some much-needed catch-up talk time, and egg rolls, and hot tea and it was super fun. It's hard to squeeze in lunch dates with people when part of it is going to be spent feeling guilty for going out instead of doing schoolwork :(.

luck/fate/chance

A few weeks ago I washed a beautiful vintage mustard wool muffler that needed a good cleaning and set it out to dry. A few hours later when I came out to check on it I found this ladybug exploring the golden woolen landscape and so I just watched it for a while, enjoying its red & black & white body bobbing along. With that said, the month of March was, at its core, rather good, but wrapped up in layers of misfortune, uncertainty and doubt. It was stressful going through the motions of fickle events and weather... is that why they say March is 'in like a lion, out like a lamb?' I feel like the end of the month sent me reeling and today was a completely lazy day meant for recuperating. But I feel like I was just lazy... well I'm working on a paper now, shaking off this dusty weird feeling and hopefully rebuilding momentum for the coming week.

happy april!

After a long week in which I finally snapped into production mode I'm a little tired, but have to keep marching on. Yesterday I had a pin-up in studio, which went fine and now I have a ton of work to do this weekend/next week. I went to a screening of Hanna with my sister and thoroughly enjoyed it, another post on that later! I'm sluggish this morning after having caught up a little on my sleep. The images are of a flower I found growing on a sidewalk lawn and now have in a vase on my desk, and a cat that was snoozing in the yard for hours.