oh. yeah.

So... it's not that I forgot about this... it's that I forgot to keep using it. I was busy. Sue me. (Don't sue me.) Whatever. Anyway! With a crazy summer currently underway... I hope to continue using this as an outlet for social commentary, movie and media response, and now poetry. Some dear friends of mine have started a determined movement of sharing poetry amongst one another and being very strong and open and such. So. I think. Here is where a few poems will surface now and again. Possibly. Maybe, we'll see. Who reads this, anyway? Post a comment if you're living.

Movies I've seen: Made of Honor, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (reviews pending)

Movies I am DYING to see: The Dark Knight, Mamma Mia.

Jobs held: Teavana (third summer in a row; last day will be June 25), Jilly and George (one day; they politely let me go, saying I couldn't work enough hours. Bummer.)

Jobs to be had: Carroll College Academy directing position (details pending; starts June 28)

Shows performed: "Too Many Sopranos" (opera by Edwin Penhorwood; played the angel Gabriel as a silent trouser role)

Shows to be performed: "Jekyll & Hyde" with Greendale Community Theatre (as an ensemble member: the newsgirl, Red Rat dancer, party guest.)

Apartment situation: SOLVED. Details pending. *happy dance*

Reading: still trying to finish "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand (not because it is boring or too long but because I have been so fuggin busy and it takes time to concentrate on. *guilt*)

Listening to: Jason Mraz's "We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things". Coldplay. Flight of the Conchords.

Guilty pleasures: Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods. (OH MY GOD I can't even BELIEVE some of it...) Project Runway reruns. ANTM reruns. America's Best Dance Crew. Otherwise trashy tv programs aimed at my age group.

Visits to Chicago: One. Short but productive. And one planning for this week...

Visits from the Twin: One. Short but fun. Need to fix this number. *taps watch*

Progress on the novel: Uhm.... I got a handful of pages done the other day... hand-written. Haven't typed them up yet. Tomorrow, probably. Eek.

Paintings done: NONE. Gahh. I thought I would be painting like crazy this summer! ALAS. Soon. Maybe.

62nd Annual Tony Awards were tonight; congrats to South Pacific for sweeping stuff up, and to In The Heights for Best New Musical. And beyond deserving... Patti LuPone for "Gypsy". What a goddamn winner. That woman is a powerhouse and looked great and sounded great and deserves every inch of whatever ego she may have. For reals. (Oh, and... Dear Kelli O'Hara: your time will come. Teach me your career, please, kthx.)

Also. I'm totally sick. Last Thursday was Ben's birthday, so we went to Six Flags, and I thought, "Hey, I don't have to sing till Monday night! I can scream all I want to." So I did. And the next day of course I had no voice whatsoever. But I was abnormally sore, I thought, and by the end of the work day I thought I might have a fever, too. I did. The next day was spent in coughing, feverish, miserable agony. I wallowed in Jane Austen (I watched the new Sense and Sensibility adaptation and Mansfield Park) and Slings and Arrows with Mom once she got home. That night I kept waking up and feeling worse; at some point I did wind up vomiting, which I knew would only exacerbate my throat, but I didn't know what to do about it. I have been trying to stay hydrated and have been sleeping on and off all day. I have conquered the fever, I think, and most of the mucus. But my sinuses are weird now, and my throat still feels like it was attacked by drain-o or as if I'm in training to become a fire-breathing dragon. It is an absolutely terrifying feeling. I'm hoping that tomorrow will see me much improved. I definitely won't be singing at rehearsal tomorrow night. :\ Balls.

On that note.... peace!

i'm tired of monkeyin' around... oh, ooh bee doo!

So a week ago today I got a call from my mom, saying that she had been informed that her father was killed in a car accident in Arkansas, where he lived. That night I took the train back to Milwaukee and the next day my family and I flew Milwaukee to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Little Rock (fuggin last minute flight availabilities) and spent the next few days dealing with the aftermath of the unexpected death. At first, things were very stressful and awkward, but soon the culture shock wore away. Much of that side of my family (my mom's siblings and cousins and aunts) are very unknown to me due to the distance and cultural differences. They're very different from what I'm used to... but not at all unwelcoming. It was really nice to see people I didn't know before, to be welcomed by them, to experience that part of the family tree. It was likewise nice to indulge in a number of cherry limeades from Sonic (re: the holy mother of all fast food beverages). Then on Sunday we flew Little Rock to Memphis, Memphis to Milwaukee, I hopped an Amtrak to Chicago, and Hilary and Meghan picked me up at the station with Hil's car (re: literally, planes, trains, and automobiles in that order).

Otherwise, I played a lot of Guitar Hero and Rock Band with my cousins Nate (12), Chance (10), Ashlee (15), and Tommy (11). I watched "Little Miss Sunshine" for the first time (thumbs up!!). I watched "Wild Hogs" (what the hell were they thinking?). I watched "A Knight's Tale" with Ashlee in remembrance of Heath Ledger. I bought "Glengarry Glen Ross" (KEVIN SPACEY I AM HORRIBLY IN LOVE WITH) and can't freaking wait to watch that shit. I read Persuasion by Jane Austen, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman and memorized my lines in Long Day's Journey Into Night for class. I bought The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery (it looks fantastic) and The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory (because EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME). I have no idea when I'm actually going to read these... Next priority is The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James because Mom got it for me for Christmas and I haven't read it yet (guilty). 

I watched "Atonement" for the second time last night with some friends. The first time I watched it I absolutely hated it and for some reason last night I rather loved it. What the hell. I get really confused when that happens. But whatever. 

So yeah. I've been playing catch up with classwork and stuff yesterday and today. And the weather keeps changing violently and has left me and Meghan utterly ill in its wake; fevery, achey, dizzy, sore throat, etc. etc. and so on and so forth. Sigh. Fighting it is too much work. Ballet was fun this morning. I feel competent about it.

My Disney mix on my iPod is growing ever larger. This weekend I snatched "Under The Sea," "Les Poissons," "Bare Necessities," and "I Wanna Be Like You" for the compilation. I already have "Aladdin," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "Hercules," and "Enchanted" as well as a number of songs randomly pulled, three from "The Little Mermaid," two from "Mulan," and one from "Tarzan." It will, someday, be the longest playlist ever. And it will rock. So hardcore. My brother also shared the Tenacious D album, the Muse album and the Dragonforce albums with me. For the win.

Oh, and as far as my own writing is going... I wanted to work on my pirates some more, as I'm so friggin close to getting through the second draft it's not even funny... but instead, on the train back to Chicago, I threw open my laptop and began something new, something that's been itching at my hands for a few months now and has finally pushed through: a Georgian fairy tale. An Austen-esque heroine finds herself unwilling to grow up a proper young lady and seeks adventure and fantasy in other places than the dance floor, and she ultimately gets drawn into magic and mystery more strange than she ever dreamed of when her favorite fairy tales and myths begin to appear in her real life... or something like that. Her name is Eglantine. I'm disgustingly happy with that. I had originally thought it would be Victoria or Emily or Rebecca or something, but no. Eglantine. It's a kind of briar rose. Delightful.

Movie thoughts: "3:10 to Yuma"

I'm sure I don't need to link you to the imdb page for this, since it's so recent. But I finally got to see it  (since the dvd came out yesterday) and wanted to make a point to say how excellent I thought it was. Uh... spoilers ahead?

Russell Crowe, despite the cell phone incident of whatever-year-that-was, and despite any negative media connotations he carries, is an excellent actor with enormous presence and I love watching him in whatever film he does. As in "Master and Commander", he embodies dignity and badassery to the extreme, yet never seems predictable or tame. I love his speaking voice. 

Christian Bale continues to astound with his ability to grow and comfortably sport different variants of facial hair/haircuts while likewise shifting dialects between films as easily as a chameleon changes colors; while one is always aware of it being Bale behind the voice or costume, his versatility lies in making you believe that he is, in fact, whoever he's playing. Christian Bale is Bruce Wayne. Christian Bale is Jack Kelly. Christian Bale is Theodore Laurence. Christian Bale is Daniel Evans. (And so on. Duh.) It's exquisite. Each and every time he stares heatedly past the camera it's like you've never seen him before. 

Ben Foster is outrageous and chilling as Charlie Prince, the sharpshooting right hand man of Crowe's Ben Wade. His round, staring eyes and serious expression behind his scruff and beneath his broad-brimmed hat are eerie and effortlessly impassioned with the intent of doing everything for his Boss (this is a gigantor build-up to the fantastic moment in the last ten minutes of the film when Crowe absolutely destroys him for gunning down Bale's character... dead silence except for gunshots, all they do is stare at each other, and it's awesome!). His costuming is almost... surreally perfect. His hat, his coat, his silhouette are cut as meticulously onscreen as if he were a fucking diamond, but he doesn't stand out from the others visually and serves no distraction to the story. It's great. 

The film has twists and suspense that serve it well as a modern salute to old Westerns. It's old-tasting but with new enough faces and a new enough vigor to its delivery that it keeps a modern audience captive with open, slack jaws and gasps a-plenty. (Wow, do I sound like a film critic? Good.)

...uh. End spoilers here?

Other than that. I might have a little fever right now. I feel achy and cold but my face is warm. That usually signifies 'fever' yeah? Well. Shit. Tomorrow will consist of taking meds, packing/organizing stuff to go back to school (heads up, Chicagoans) and cleaning the shit out of my room. More or less literally. It's a wreck. Seriously. 

Till then. I salute you.

Mother Superior jump the gun...

Question: So. How much would it suck if I went back to school on Saturday and started class on Monday and I was already sick?

Answer: A lot.

One of the things I've inherited from my mother are sensitive sinuses. It's interesting, because they shift whenever humidity experiences a change, which means I know when it's raining (if I'm inside) and usually also if it's going to rain or if it's going to be mercilessly muggy for a given week in the summertime. Monday it was stupidly warm here in the midwest, for the beginning of January, at least. I was at work (inside the mall and away from windows or doors) and felt my sinuses shift for the first time in a while, at least since August. Minutes later a customer came in and mentioned in passing that it was pouring cats and dogs. That's when it started. Not the crazy weather. My nose. I felt increasingly over the last two days as if I have lots of little bits of cottonball stuck up my nasal cavity. I figured that it would pass more quickly due to it being winter. But now I'm thinking maybe it won't pass more quickly due to it being winter, because now I'm not expecting it or my immune system is more weak or something like that.

That would be dumb. Especially because I drink more tea than most people I know. Even at work, I find I make more drinks over the course of the day than anyone else I'm working with. I try to conceal it a little bit. 

...and then today I woke up with my nose FULL OF COTTON and my throat utterly closed off, like the one exit you need off the freeway to get to the airport with on time. A shower has fixed most of that, and ibuprofen has been absorbed just in case.

But how dumb. I've been healthy for several months now and then BAM the Midwest has a day of menopause and suddenly I'm the kid in the back of the class who uses up all the tissues and carries Purell in her pocket. 

DUMB.