getting jiggy with it.

During the first five weeks of my first semester of UCLA, I was a great student. I remember taking this one class in particular, American Literature 1800-1900. I read all but 1 of the 11 books, foregoing lots of Welcome-To-College activities to do so. Once, I even locked myself in a study room on the first floor of Hedrick Hall, without my phone, without the internet, and without music. I stayed there for three hours in the middle of the day, and I wrote a paper. This behavior is incredible to me now. I was so cool back then. Not so much anymore...

It's been a while since I've posted, which is not a good thing in the grand scheme of life. When I write in this thing, it's usually as an escape-slash-writing-warm-up for thesis work. This means that no posting equals even less thesis writing (yes, there can be negative quantities).

The weekend was chaotic in a typical end-of-semester fashion. Enough said.

I just put on Tegan and Sara's The Con, which has historically transported me into a middle of the night productivity rampage. I'm of the belief that putting music on repeat can do that... literally force your brain to remain in one place long enough to get things done.

OTHER PAST MIDNIGHT MUSICAL REPEATS INCLUDE:

• David Bowie, Portuguesed
• Rachael Yammagata, "1969"
• Nelly, "Ride Wit Me"
• Damien Rice, "The Blowers' Daughter"

Sometimes it's just a matter of finding the right tune.

--buelsy (not gonna sleep tonight)

parenthesis and pants.

Last night I realized that the last couple of months have been strangely reminiscent of my first year at UCLA, almost completely because of my speechies. I used to lay on the ground in the hallways in Hedrick Hall (3 North, Baby!), and talk to people I loved for hours, regardless of the hours worth of homework I had to do. I'm pretty much doing the same thing now, only I get to sit in my office or peruse the squadroom. Yay for moving up, and yay for reliving the very, very best of times (Cheers, Charles Dickens). In example, last night I almost peed on myself when Anna McD literally appeared out of a trash can and I literally ran away (similar to that time I tried to go see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which is a horrible, horrible movie). I have not laughed that hard for a long time (or been so near to heart failure). There you go, Emmap. I totally blogged about it.

Christmas break cannot come too soon, but the above realization is going make it full of miss-age. I think that's one of the two best benefits of Facebook: 1) alleviation of school break friend miss-age, and 2) flat out stalking.

Thank God for academia and weeks that kinda* end on Thursday. Only two assignments and fourteen and a half hours left.

*This weekend, we (as in Baby Thesis** and me) are trying a new plan: the library.
**SD is helping me brainstorm for a Thesis name. Sadly, they don't have books of options for these things. Results coming soon.

--buelsy (ready to take a big, fat sleeping pill)

charles shaw.

We're home from Chicago. A got a keyboard at some super Black Friday sale in Palatine, and now there are gigantic keyboard boxes laying all over the living room. Annie and Tuta (Christmas Island's Most Fashionable Kitty Social Lights) are loving it. They are also loving the Itty Bitty Christmas Tree that is now on one of our side tables. Our tree kicks Charlie Brown's tree's ass (proving pictures coming soon).

I just smelled UCLA. Weird-sad. UCLA is such a phenomenon to me; those were two of my favorite years of my life, and they went so incredibly fast. As (completely) happy as I am now, I still occasionally wonder why I was so powerless in 2006 and unable to force a continuation of that... era of wonderfulness. Thinking about it makes me sad-ish.

Best part about the most recent trip: TRADER JOE'S. We stocked up on Yellow Curry Tuna dinners, Soy Milk, Pesto Pasta, Punkin' Granola, Frozen Asian Chicken Breasteses, Holiday Ginger Cookies, and most importantly... TWO BUCK CHUCK! Well, three buck chuck in Chi-town. There's a reason why they call California the golden state. (Unexpected homesickness. First the UCLA smell, then Trader Joe's and two dollar wine... Simi Valley living sounds pretty good right about now).

I'm having a last hurrah right now on two levels (Have I mentioned that I love enumeration?). First, I'm drinking and being food-merry, for tomorrow I shall diet or die, whichever comes first. Second, I'm doing things that need not be done, like blogging, and Internet window shopping, and watching Blood Diamond and knitting hats in pretty colors. Tomorrow there's going to be a gi-normous change of lifestyle. DIET and SCHOOL are the new hardcore life themes until December 13th, at which point finals are over and Buelsy can start remembering the smell of the Golden State and happy times without what-might-be-tears-and-stress-wrinkles all over her face.

--buelsy (wishes she could be trader jane)