a picture and some words

Run until your lungs are sore, until you find an open door.

That's what Thom Yorke said anyway.

To J.D. Salinger:

Rest in peace old friend. Holden Caulfield and Franny Glass taught me to be brooding and petulant at 14 (a phase I got over by 15, thank God.) And despite what critics say, I don't think you peeked with The Catcher in the Rye, I always liked Franny and Zooey best. It blew my eighth-grade mind (kind of the way seeing "The Royal Tenenbaums" in sixth-grade did, which ironically, is supposed to be loosely based on the Glass family.)

Today was a good one.

Autoethnography

A Feminist's Struggle in a "Post-Feminist" Society

That's my idea anyway. I'm excited.

I'm too loopy from migraine meds to write much else. Hmm... I love all my classes. I feel really lucky to have good teachers and interesting courses this semester (oops... Sometimes I use the word course instead of class accidently because I'm used to talking about mes cours in French, ha. Also, I've walked into my English class (which is right after French) and almost said, "Bonjour" to my English teacher about three times now. I think it's gong to happen one of these days...)

Have a nice day (despite the weather.)

Bye.

current mood: pleased.

i love this picture. sara's supposed to be making a blog.

i cleaned the hell out of my apartment at 1 a.m. and had completely forgotten when i woke up. good way to start the day. and only having one class to go to is pretty nice as well.

i think it's been overcast for at least a week now.

current mood: pissed off.

but i take out my aggression sewing pillows. i find that pretty ironic.

artists i look up to most (these and others)

Happy M.L.K. day.

Speaking of inspiration, it was reading M.L.K.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in full for the first time when I was 16 or 17 that really got me interested in humanitarian ventures.

Cat Power!

I just wrote my first short story in about a year. I really like it, though I based it off of something true, so I don't know how much that affects my opinion.

I met Gloria Baker Feinstein today... She, James Nachtwey, and Henri Cartier-Bresson are my photographer heros.

I rebought some books that people have stolen from me, that's a good feeling. And by steal I basically mean that I leant them the book and then forgot to get it back and/or my mom read it in the bathtub and ruined it and didn't give it back. Whatever, I'm happy to have my complete collection once again.

I got an MLK book. Mostly because it was a dollar at Borders, but more importantly, because I love him.

I think that's all that's floating around my mind at the moment. Oh, my English teacher looks like Cat Power! I just figured it out. But now, Wednesday I'm probably going to be super creepy and stare at her a lot because I figured it out. Ah well.

A few things

1. Half of the power in my apartment went out today. Not being very savvy in matters relating to electricity, I honestly have no idea what happened. Is my power company toying with me? Maybe, because I switched the breaker off and on and that did nothing (that's what you're supposed to do, right?) So I'm stumped.

2. Classes started today. I only had one- French, and I like my teacher a lot. What I do not like is the damn online homework that goes along with the class that I thought I was done with. Arrrrrrrrg. I like technology a lot less than the rest of the world I guess.

3. I've been sewing a lot and working on numerous random projects, which has led my desk to look like this

My bet is that it stays like that a while.

4. Honey in hot chocolate is good. No. Great!

Book recommendation (et-cetera)

Today's high: 0 degrees (no, I am not kidding.) I didn't leave the house until 7, when Sam forced me out of seclusion (again, not kidding. Except about being forced. It was more like this: Sam: want me to make us dinner? me: YES. But you have to pick me up too. (I'm so sweet.)) But I literally stayed in all day and did random things. And honestly, that is one of my favorite things to do.

Here's the list of what I did (because I knew you were wondering) :

-called about some apartment stuff

-baked a loaf of bread (best yet!)

-baked chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (gotta get all the baking out of my system before I return to my shoebox of a kitchen in Lawrence.)

-read Dreaming in Cuban. Sidenote: I LOVE this book and it's been such a long time since I've read a really compelling novel.

-napped (1.5 hours while my bread was rising :)

That's when I was forced out of seclusion.

Time to call it a day. Stay warm!

I love Uganda. I miss Uganda.

Looking back at the pictures I took in Kampala (namely the slums) keeps my life centered. Along with a few other things and people, of course.

HOORAY! I LIKE MY BOOKS!!

This coming semester, I'm taking a Latin American studies class. I'm pretty excited, since my classes thus far have been strictly regimented according to my major... while this does fulfill a humanities credit, I, of course, could have opted to take some obscure French class (which would pertain to my minor.) But I'm a free spirit, so I chose LAA 1oo (gotta love the 100 level classes...) which not only sounded extremely interesting (being obsessed with maps and the world and all) but only meets once a week for an hour and a half and is 3 hrs. SCORE. I got a little nervous though that it was a little too perfect of a situation and maybe the books would be terrible. I'm glad to report that is not the case. Well, so far anyway. Based on the reviews and excerpts, they seem like quality reading material. I started one, Dreaming in Cuban which I already love. Maybe this is my reward for having an awful fall semester... Oh, and the picture is of a stack of some of my books plus a book about Japan I am sending to my brother (who is living in Okinawa.)

In other news, life is pretty decent. Except I'm sick with a cold and have basically been sleeping watching TV for 3 days straight. Productive, I know.

This turned out being a longer post that I anticipated. I guess with my mind free from the constraints of learning, I am at liberty to ramble away... What a lovely thought :)