Monthly Archives: January 2012
24/01/12 Reunited and it feels fantastic
Greetings from collegeland! That’s right, I’m back at school for the spring semester. As I was discussing with Michael, this semester is missing something: naivete. (sorry about the lack of accent marks)
First semester of college, there was this great feeling of wow! I’m in college now! Classes are going to be so cool! Which they were, in fact all of them were pretty fantastic. But they were also reallllly hard.
Second semester, there was still some wow! I made it through one semester! Now I’m going to try some new classes? I wonder what those will be like! To summarize, they were still really hard. Oh, and I got MS. Not relevant though.
Third semester, I managed to trick myself into being excited. Some things still felt “new,” like taking all science classes for the first time and taking cello lessons again after four years of not playing. That made me excited for the semester.
However, fourth semester has a new feeling: dread. I dread: not doing the reading and then being stressed, doing the reading and failing tests anyway, flashcards, leaving things til the last minute, days when I leave my house in the morning and don’t get home until 11, days where I don’t leave the library, days when I do leave the library when I shouldn’t (and then regret it), late nights that I can’t avoid, weeks that seem impossible, devoting too much time to my a cappella group and feeling like I don’t regret it at all….
BUT I’m still pretty happy. Why? Because my classes this semester ARE cool, even though I know that my own procrastination will make them feel significantly less cool. And, of course, I’m reunited with my awesome friends! (Thus the title of this post) Today I had a wonderful day, mainly with my friend Lisle. Lisle is the House Manager for Science Hall, and we spent the day:
a) going to the bookstore and buying all our books and then feeling really prepared
b) torturing a Subway employee (don’t ask, the story isn’t as good to tell as we thought it would be)
c) buying lots of food
d) doing “door decs” (door decorations) for her residents
e) cooking a lot of food
f) being joined by Michael, who just got in from Tokyo
g) eating a lot of food
h) seeing Kenny, who just got in from Philly
i) working on arrangements for our a cappella group
I didn’t do what I should have done, which is clean my room so I have a place to go home to (and not feel stressed and overcrowded) before classes even start. But I did a lot of things that felt fun and semi-productive. Even though I”m stressed about the semester (5.5 credits, two ADP committees, two jobs, one S&C shift, oh and my lovely a cappella group), it’s good to be back. Get at me, fourth semester. LOL @ self. #insomnia #sorryreaders #byenow
19/01/12 And For Your Listening Pleasure
A playlist! That I made! It’ll probably go well with the next blog post. It’s like a wine pairing for your internet. You’re welcome.
JKJK XOXO
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19/01/12 The Mother-Daughter BlogStravaganza
Flaubert’s Parrot
Heidegger’s Glasses
Wittgenstein’s Poker
Beethoven’s Hair
Easy, right? Ideally the object should be one the Intellectual Figure handles every day, to enhance intimacy and mystery (the mystery of, Why the fuck would anyone write about this?) Writing the book is not really the problem, it’s the title. So to make it easier on you, the writer-to-be, we’ve created a list:
Darwin’s Ladle
Asimov’s Spatula
Sartre’s Springform Pan
Kant’s Whisk
Nietzsche’s Coffee Mug
Picasso’s Toothbrush
Van Gogh’s Multivitamins
Monet’s Smartwool Socks
Hume’s Waxed Floss
Gaudi’s Q-tip
Beckett’s Fingernail Clippers
Freud’s iPad
Shakespeare’s Doorknob
Joan of Arc’s Digital Camera
Queen Elizabeth’s Wireless Mouse
Tolstoy’s Brita Pitcher
Historical inaccuracy? Why not speculate on what Joan would have photographed if she could have! A hipster self-portrait of herself being burned to death after which she tossed the camera away from the fire… Anyway, remember to add hypersexuality, insanity, and death, plus creamed herring for breakfast or whatever weird thing your Intellectual Figure tucks into his or her mouth. We all have mouths, so we want to know this stuff. Add odd habits, such as walking by the clocktower every day at noon, or always washing the left underarm first, or roasting roadkill to save money. Or building teepees out of sticks and calling them magic caves as the apocalypse arrives (apologies to Von Trier–but we would rather roll up in blankets in a closet and suck down some liquor than sit on an exposed hillside without even a sweater if the world was going to end–though the teepee was more picturesque, we grant).
Kathryn & Cade
Tags: baking, cade, chocolate cream pie, happy family fun times, i love my mom, mom, mother-daughter, mslifeisbestlife, musings, spinal tapped, thinking, thoughts, witty thoughts on life, writing
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- Posted under Lists, photo, regular
17/01/12 Guess what you WON’T be doing tomorrow?
Reading my blog! (How sad) Or, ya know, looking anything up on Wikipedia. Or going on Reddit. Or, in case you didn’t infer, reading any other blog that works through WordPress. Why? They’re all shutting down tomorrow to protest SOPA, an “internet piracy” act that actually threatens internet freedom.
Whoa.
Wait.
No Wikipedia? How will I find out anything?
Oh right, Yahoo! Answers will save me. JKJK.
But seriously, everyone should go find out more about SOPA (which in Spanish means soup) and decide how they feel about the issue! It will probably affect your life (at least tomorrow, when you’re like WAIT I want a list of all the top US albums for 1992 or to know where Winona Ryder was born or to find out where your favorite author lives).
So, my life will be a little empty tomorrow without this blog. Not to fear, my mom and I will work on our mother-daughter-blog-stravaganza which we hope to publish on both our blogs after the wordpress blackout.
Have a nice blog-free-info-free-reddit-free day, guys 
make sure to look up SOPA on wikipedia before midnight!
PS Thanks to BFF-sky Michael for alerting me to this topic/issue!
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13/01/12 Hey Ladiez
You may notice a new poll on the sidebar, and you may be wondering WTF. It’s okay, there’s a perfectly logical explanation. Ish.
So my friend Leada and I have been discussing bras for a really long time [thus far this doesn't sound normal] and we were talking about how a lot of our friends seem to own a lot more bras than us. So we wondered: how many bras should a person have?
This idea lay dormant for a while, until it was dredged up again by a VICTORIAS SECRET ONLINE SALE. Was this our chance, we wondered, to increase our bra numbers to match those of our friends? Should we? Should we not?
And thus, a poll. Please vote!
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13/01/12 falling
Books I’ve read lately:
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Sister by Rosamund Lupton
If you’re like me and you get extremely affected by books, don’t read all three of those at once. It’s completely terrifying.
The Handmaid’s Tale talks about falling in love really negatively (well, so does The Marriage Plot but in a less straightforward way). It’s weird because I feel like I always want to be falling in love with something, like
Developmental Biology
Barcelona
Green Tea
Never Let Me Go (the book more so than the movie)
Vitamin D
and it’s so nice when you get to fall in love with something permanent (or as permanent as things get). Green tea will always taste the same and Never Let Me Go will not be rewritten suddenly. Did you know that honey is the one food that (thus far) has never gone bad?
Too bad I don’t like green tea with honey, too sweet.
It’s scarier when you fall in love with things that can change quickly like science (new developments all the time and suddenly you don’t understand anymore) or people (pretty much the same explanation as science).
Getting MS is kind of like falling in love.
First you’re like oh, this feels weird.
And then you’re in denial for a really long time and you keep saying “oh, it doesn’t matter.”
But then when you think about it when you’re just by yourself at night you cry (and then you realize that it means something).
And from then on you’re either trying to make it work or escape.
I guess the difference is that MS doesn’t make you happy (unless, I guess, your doctor gives you enough Valium).
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13/01/12 [insert catchy song lyric here]
I have an unnatural lyrics obsession. I think being obsessed with lyrics is one of those things (like ugg boots, lipgloss, and making out in stairwells) that was only cool in high school. To those two people who voted that I should write about music, you probably didn’t know what you were getting yourself into.
Songs I used to be incredibly obsessed with (and still kind of am):
“Wondering Where the Lions Are” by Bruce Cockburn
“Greener” by Tally Hall
“Speeding Cars” by Imogen Heap
“Helicopters” by Barenaked Ladies
“Black and Gold” by Sam Sparro
“Friends O’ Mine” by Bowling for Soup
“I Will Possess Your Heart” by Death Cab for Cutie
as well as like 60% of the music made in the 90s. Sadly. I know. I have no taste. But I have fun.
Lyrics are so fantastic. I have to resist the hourly urge to post a lyrics facebook status because I am mature now (read: not in high school) and thus I should have my own thoughts or at least I should have better quotes such as those from very intellectual people.
On the topic of intellectual people: look out for a surprising mother-daughter-blog-post-extravaganza coming your way soon.
My dad said that I should write about only what I want to write about. But isn’t blogging a lot about audience? If a blogger blogs alone in a forest and no one is there to read it… then how the eff are they getting wi-fi? #clever
Speaking of readers, I’m a little giddy because my blog topped 1,000 views. Thank you everyone who reads you guys make me cyber happy.
Anyway, current favorite songs right now are:
1. “Ray Charles” by Chiddy Bang
2. “Criminal” by Fiona Apple
3. “Freaks and Geeks” by Childish Gambino
4. “Oh My God” by Mark Ronson ft. Lily Allen
5. “The First Single” by The Format
6. “Oliver James” by Fleet Foxes
7. “Fly” by Sugar Ray (in case you were wondering where the 90s music was)
8. “Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby” by Islands
9. like everything by Tally Hall. Total Tally Hall phase. Look ‘em up.
Tags: barenaked ladies, cade, family, imogen heap, lyrics, mslifeisbestlife, music, musings, polls, readers, songs, spinal tapped, tally hall, thinking, thoughts
11/01/12 Literally Every Vote Counts
…in my election. AKA my poll. One reader voted for me to write more about College so I’m going to write about College. Speaking of which, vote in my poll and YOU TOO could see your chosen topic turned into a rant by me. Er… anyway…
College is kind of a weird limbo state. Let me explain.
You’re working, but you’re not really working.
You can drink as much as you want, and nobody will call you an alcoholic.
You can break laws, but not feel like a criminal.
You’re surrounded by all different kinds of people, but they’re all the same age as you.
You get to “live independently,” but can be arbitrarily ordered to live with someone you’ve never met.
You pay to go there, but the people you’re paying don’t have to do anything nice for you.
See what I mean? Or maybe not, maybe that’s just my weird view. Regardless, I love college (oh hey Asher Roth, you’re right, college is fantastic). College is a nice break from the real world where people indulge you and make you feel like you’re in the real world. I guess it’s a good transition for us late adolescents whose brains haven’t fully developed yet (although mine has already started decaying).
Anyway, I get the feeling that said pro-college-voter-person didn’t just want to hear about the theory of college junk that I’m suddenly spouting. Let’s talk about my college experience.
When I first got to Wes, I wanted to double major in Biology (to indulge my weird new science-geek hobby) and Government (my so-called “true” interest) and be pre-law and go to law school and feel all smart and argue with people so we could all show how smart we were and so on. And then be a public defender (just to show that I wasn’t completely shallow). Then, suddenly, I got MS. Curveballll. The whole Government thing seemed pointless suddenly, like why would I do that? It wouldn’t mean anything to me. Suddenly, I was pre-med.
Backtracking a little bit, all the way back to age 5: this is the year when I found out that the sight of blood made me pass out and have seizures. And not just sight, reading about a bloody thing in a book (like, say, the final scene in the second Harry Potter book) would leave me unconscious (and face-down in a plate of waffles. That’s what I get for reading at the table). This whole passing out at inopportune moments thing continued for the next 13 years. Which meant a lot of concussions, and even a chipped tooth (“you look like you got in a fight with the floor. And the floor won.”-my mother, circa 8th grade).
So, as you can imagine, when former teachers run into my mom at the grocery store and ask about me (I’m so popular) (jkjk) and hear that I’m pre-med, they’re pretty shocked. Hey, me too. I watched a frog heart continue to beat in a beaker of saline last year and stayed upright, mind over matter baby.
Anyway, back to the college thing. The problem I’m having now is that I’m still a little bit attached to Government. The Government department at Wes is so popular that it’s pretty impossible to get into courses, and yet somehow I am enrolled in two Gov courses next semester. Whaaaat. I want to take them so badly. They both sound fantastic. But, here’s the catch. To be a double major in Gov and Bio, you need a GPA that I just don’t have. And since pretty much everyone at Wes double majors (we don’t have minors), I’m feeling some serious pressure to ditch my Gov love and find another major to do. English looks like it’ll work, but to be an English major I’ll have to drop at least one of those precious Gov classes. What to do?? I’m very torn.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Should I just take 6.5 credits next semester and hope death will at least be painless?
Also, as my friend Elizabeth and my mom have both noted, I should really link you guys over to the Office of Admissions blog that I write for. clicky clicky. Coolest job ever.
ALSO to the voter who voted that I should write about “Pandas” (and who is not my 15 year old brother, who I suspected), here is a panda for you:
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I don’t actually have anything to say about the panda. But I keep promises. Hope you like your panda, anonymous panda lover.
Tags: cade, college, mslifeisbestlife, multiple sclerosis, musings, polls, readers, sleep, spinal tapped, thinking, thoughts
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11/01/12 PostScript
PS- please vote in my poll? I’m going to try to write about what people actually want to read about instead of just what happens in my head. Thank you!
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