Everything I ask for.

Question:What do I do on a technically-Tuesday morning (1:23 a.m) when I have a fourteen line poem by Sylvia Plath that needs to be memorized by 3:30 this afternoon?

Answer: Everything I shouldn't be doing of course!

The internet is way too huge of a distraction. It's such a killer that the sites I frequent the most are updated practically by the minute. Facebook, tumblr, twitter. When I have work to do, they're practically screaming, "WHY ARE YOU DOING HOMEWORK? WASTE TIME ON ME!" The past few afternoons have been fairly productive though. I managed to write two papers, as well as a six minute speech on how media influences young adults (mostly in body image and smoking). But now I have this poem that also needs to be memorized and presented and my brain is doing a giant key-smash and won't retain any of these lines.

"The prince leans to the girl in scarlet heels,
Her green eyes slant, hair flaring in a fan
Of silver as the rondo slows; now reels
Begin on tilted violins to span

The whole revolving tall glass palace hall
Where guests slide gliding into light like wine;
Rose candles flicker on the lilac wall
Reflecting in a million flagons' shine,

And glided couples all in whirling trance
Follow holiday revel begun long since,
Until near twelve the strange girl all at once
Guilt-stricken halts, pales, clings to the prince

As amid the hectic music and cocktail talk
She hears the caustic ticking of the clock."

Ugh.

In other non-school related news, I have still been hanging out with the cute, not-so-new-anymore friend. I feel like if I write or talk about it too much, it'll be a giant jinx to the situation, but things are good. I enjoy having him around, even though it makes me painfully aware of how much of a newb I am to the dating world and everything that comes with it. I'm not going to lie, there have been a few bouts of awkward frustration on my end, but it's hard to stay upset with someone who has been so good to me in the time that we have known each other, and with someone who laughs with me at the stupid thoughts that flow out of my brain and mouth rather than looks at me like I've got a creature crawling out of my ear. I'm going to leave it at that. Things are good, and most importantly, I am happy.


I got my septum pierced the other night, thanks to a friend who knows her shit. It did not hurt as much as I thought it would. At all. I was actually pleased with how it was, and I love it. Not going to lie, it has also been a bit of a confidence boost when people notice and tell me they like it. My parents, however, are not as happy about it as I am. My mother practically had a meltdown when she logged into Facebook and saw the pictures, and my dad posed the question: "Did she join a group of head shrinkers? Why didn't she just put a bone through her nose?" I am at the point where I know that my parents are not going to agree with everything I do in life, and sometimes I just gotta do what I want.

I really need to go out this weekend. I used to be slightly educated in the social scene that this city has to offer, but thanks to illness and hospitalizations, I have been out of it for a few weekends. I am thinking that a night of dancing at the Metro this weekend with my best friends is a nice cure to this problem. I just need to boost up on the vitamin C first though. I always seem to catch the plague when I go there.

And in some writing related news, my fellow homancer Alice and I got to interview Jimme from Sunday Night Scene the other night in Millennium Park. It was a great interview and the dude was super laid back and we ended up talking and hanging out with him for about an hour. As soon as I get batteries for my voice recorder, I will be posting it to The OddNotes. I also wrote an essay before coming here on some reading we had to do in the summer. My essay ended up getting chosen to be published after it had made it's way around through the journalism faculty. So excited that my writing is getting some recognition. Now to find a way to get paid for it...

This is super long. Back to memorization.

Medically speaking, you're adorable

Halloween was not what I expected it to be this year, but it was good nonetheless. The beginning of our Halloween night was kind of squished by the fact that Chipotle was supposed to be giving out free burritos, but the one nearest to us was closed...at 6 pm! It was kind of a bonerkill, but we were not about to go and trek across the city for Chipotle when there were other things to do and get ready for.

Basically, my night went like this: got ready, sat around for about an hour, went to a friend's apartment, took some photos, got drunk a little bit on our favorite raspberry vodka, and then I ended up back at my apartment to cuddle with a cute, new friend for the evening. Once we crashed on my couch, I rolled around drunkenly and complained about the lack of good scary movies on television.




Don't ask me who I was trying to be...I'm not even entirely sure. I was originally shooting for a Marla Singer-esque look, but then I realized that it was about 38 degrees outside and I was not going out in bare legs and arms. So we'll just say I was 'Some Bitch.'

After surviving my first Chicago Halloween (which really isn't saying much since my night was quite tame), things took a slight turn for the worst. I have quite an impressive medical history loaded with surgeries and illnesses and weak bones and everything else. You name it, chances are I might have had it or have been thought to have it. Last Sunday night, all I did was sneeze and my neck hurt BAD. When I looked in the mirror a few minutes later, there was a large, swollen lump on the front of my throat. Not really a good thing. After waiting it out for a day, I finally made a trip to the Emergency Room with the cute, new friend that I mentioned before.

A CT scan determined that I had an 'abscess' on my neck and it had to be taken care of pretty much immediately before it got even more infected and turned into a serious problem for my throat. They numbed up the lump, and while I was still awake, cut an incision into it to let the fluid build up drain out. Yes, it is as nasty as it sounds. I THOUGHT that I would be able to go home after this simple procedure, but no such luck. They wanted me to spend the night to keep an eye on it. My cute, new friend stayed the night in the hospital with me, which made me really happy and I appreciated it a lot. I have a slew of amazing friends here and I don't think I'd ever ask that kind of thing out of anyone, so it was super sweet he did that and I felt much better.

The next day, my mom came down to Chicago to stay with me the final night and I was blessed with a lot of visitors. Some of the people who showed up surprised me, but it was awesome. My cute, new friend stayed there a lot with me as well as a lot of my other good friends. Thanks to Brian, I was able to get my laptop and a few other things to keep me occupied. Also thanks to wi-fi, I was able to stay in contact with everyone and take pictures such as:



After what felt like forever, I was finally discharged.

Now I've just been taking it easy. I haven't been to class since Monday and the thought of how much work I have to catch up on makes me stress out. The doctor's finally gave me some legitimate pain pills (Hydrocodone) and let me just say that I can definitely see why people get addicted to pain medicine. My head feels amazing. My mom left yesterday, and it was nice to be able to spend some more time with her. Love my mommy.

Cute, new friend stayed over last night. I made him watch one of my favorite movies, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and there was lots of cuddling.

I think I'm growing up...a little bit. New experiences, and I'm kind of nervous and self conscious about some of them, but things can only get better, right?

For now, I am listening to Katy Perry since it's a nice day outside. I'm waiting for my head to feel like it weighs a normal amount (aka, I'm waiting for these pills to wear off), and then I'm going to make lunch and head over to the Hilton to help out my friend Alice with some things and hang out. Not excited about school tomorrow...

Current music: I'm Still Breathing - Katy Perry

Angel's night.

The above photos are a result of the absolute boredom that overcame me earlier today. I am getting cabin fever, as I have not been out of my apartment since Wednesday, with the exception to go to the doctor and make a trip to CVS for toilet paper and ice cream. So today when my mom put money into my account for me to get groceries, I got super excited to get out, and even busted out the red lipstick. I have a slightly weird thing in my head that I'm either going to fall in love in a bookstore, or a grocery store, so even when I used to live at home, I'd dress up a little more just to walk through the aisles of the grocery stores, perusing the produce and checking for sales. I got Brian to go with me and now I have a cupboard full of delicious food.


Room 202's adorable Pokemon pumpkin

My meal for the night (the teriyaki noodles were Brian's). Also had a mango iced tea and gushers!
Since tonight is technically 'Devil's Night' and I'm still feeling slightly under the weather, we are having what we call 'Angel's Night' since we are choosing to not go out. I'm currently in Brian's room, pissed that they replaced showings of 'The Munsters' with the Bulls game, and watching Scooby Doo 2. It's a pretty slow night, but from the feelings of it, my sore throat is going away slowly and I've got my fingers crossed that I will be in tip-top shape come tomorrow night. Halloween is one of my favorite holiday's ever, and I'd hate to have to miss my first one in the city. I keep thinking about it though, and I can't decide if I would be horribly opposed to staying in, cuddled up on my couch and watching old horror movies all whilst eating the junk food that I bought today and drinking apple cider. Then again, I would really love to wear my Marla Singer outfit out and see what the city has to offer for my favorite holiday.

Currently, one of my best friends from home is in Chicago, and I am unable to go see him. He's in a different part of the city as me and I'm still kind of sick. I haven't gotten many visitors yet, so I would've loved to see a familiar face, but alas...illness strikes yet again and he leaves early tomorrow. Super bummer.

I'm going to go hope that the Bulls game gets done soon so I can watch the Munsters, and finish watching Scooby Doo 2. Have a nice night everyone.

Somewhere in the city...

I swear, my days are much more interesting when they happen in the Windy City. This past weekend, we had another crazy night at the Metro. About once a month, they do a night for the 18+ crowd with great DJ's, and a serves as an opportune time to have an awesome night with friends. Before hand, we may or may not have had a few "cocktails" (I'm not sure if Vitamin Water/Kool-aid + Vodka counts as a cocktail...), and this made for an interesting train ride. I'm quite sure we made friends with just about everyone in our car, as we took pictures with everyone, as well as asked them "WHYYY AREN'T YOU COMING TO THE METROOO?" We had a fun time dancing the night away, and once my friend tried to steal a bottle from the bar, our night was over and we took back to the streets of Wrigleyville and found our way home back in the city.

The Saturday following that night, I spent a lot of time sleeping before heading off to Belmont St. with Alice. It's one of my favorite streets to wander around. Great thrift stores, as well as a few other stores that make me hate my life for being so broke (American Apparel, namely). Then the following day, Sunday, I went to Indiana with my best friend Brian to check out his hometown. Small town, but I loved it because it felt like fall. Colorful leaves falling everywhere, and it came accompanied with the scent of burning leaves and dead foliage - which is quite possibly one of my favorite smells on the planet.

I think it is because of this heavy weekend that I am now curled up on my couch with Brian, sick and watching the Skeleton Key. I went to the doctor yesterday and I think the general consensus is that I'm having side-effects from the H1N1 vaccine that I got. Sore throat, high fever, etc. I was pretty miserable yesterday, but today I'm feeling slightly better. I think my fever is gone for the most part, and my throat is becoming more and more tolerable. Just in time, too, seeing as Halloween is coming up this Saturday! I plan on being Marla Singer from Fight Club. Tease out my hair, red lipstick, black sunglasses, a slip looking dress, and some sexy heels. I'm excited for my first Halloween in Chicago.

I've been getting a lot of good news since living in this city. I've gotten a great internship. My friend has an internship at a vintage store that would like for me to guest column on their webzine. Over the summer I had to write an essay based upon a book that the journalism department had to read, and I got word that mine is being passed along for final consideration so it may be published in the school newspaper or on the departmental website. Super exciting. I also got asked if I was interested in working for the paper, so I will be making an appointment as soon as I'm not dying of the plague to find out more about that. Even if it's not a paid job, it adds to my clip file which is majorly important.

Is anyone else dressing up for Halloween?