Thursdays are Never Productive

I always make grand plans for Thursday nights. I'm always convinced during the day that I'm going to get home from work and immediately get started on my homework so I don't have to do it over the weekend. Today I even went so far as to make an hour by hour schedule for myself. It was:
1:00-7:00 WORK
7:00-8:00 DINNER
8:00-8:30 PRACTICE TRIADS
8:30-9:00 RESEARCH OBAMA CAMPAIGN'S USE OF TECHNOLOGY
9:00-Bed CATCH UP ON SOCIOLOGY READING
And um...yeah. I ate dinner and practiced triads. I then proceeded to clean my room, which is at least something, I guess. I've been letting my shit get too messy lately. It got to the point yesterday when I kind of felt like I was having a minor panic/claustrophobia attack and I actually had to open the window wide and stick my head out to get some air and calm down. But anyways, my little space is much cleaner and I feel much better for it.

It's finally beginning to register with me that oh hey, I'm actually going away next semester. And I'm getting SO EXCITED. Handing in all my visa information did it, really. And now all I can think about is where I want to go, what I want to do. I've decided what I want to do for spring break is go to Barcelona via the south of France. So I'll probably take the train, cause the Eurorail goes straight through Nice and Marseilles. I also really want to make it to Amsterdam at some point, and Vienna as well. I want to go to the opera in Vienna and Milan and go to all the museums everywhere. I got dinner with a friend and her roommate a few nights ago, and the roommate had done the NYU in Florence program last semester. She said she loved it, but only after a few months. She made the point that a lot of people have warned me about, that it's very very small, and very very touristy, and far too many NYU kiddies are happy to just go to the American bars and drink all the time. And that's pretty much the exact experience I don't want to have. I'm going to try my hardest to become fluent in Italian, and I want to actually use this semester to experience everything I possibly can. I want to be so tired by the time I get home I can't leave my house for a week. I've been less stressed about the money aspect of it lately too. My mom has told me that she's getting me my plane ticket for Christmas, which lifts a huge burden off my shoulders ($900 ticket=less fun things Alex can do), and my nonna has promised to help me out. I'm also being a huge miser this semester and barely spending any money at all.

In other news, JIM KIM IS COMING TO VISIT THIS SATURDAY! Then I'm cooking dinner and watching Newsies with Jade. Then on Sunday Mom is coming in to do some shopping, so we're going to have a girls day. I miss her a lot lately. I think it's just getting to that time of year. But it's going to be a fun/busy weekend. Which is probably why I should have done homework tonight?

I need a new novel, preferably one that has nothing to do with child molestation. For some reason, the past three books I've read have all had a plotline that revolves around a child being abused and its consequences on the child and the people around him or her. And honestly, it gets me down. I don't pick up books being like yes! Child abuse makes for a wonderful read! I just pick books that look interesting and then when it gets obvious that the child in the book was molested I'm just like Fuck. Not again. So...any suggestions? I really want to read Roberto Bolano's 2666 but I don't have the time right now to read a book that is 1000+ pages of hardcore Literature. But I don't want to read something airy superficial either.

Testament

It says a lot about my social life when Tarik, my friend the night security guard, says "Wow, I don't usually see you at night!" when I walk into the dorm at 11:00.

New Secret Crush

Or not so secret. And a little creepy. A lot creepy. Kind of?



You got to admit, the man is pretty attractive. And forceful. And when he gets mad he stabs the table. With knives! As Mitch pointed out when I was telling him all about my love for Rahm Emanuel, he's basically Karl Rove, except attractive and a democrat. Weird how the exact same qualities that make Karl Rove scary as fuck make Rahm Emanuel really sexy.

AHHHHHHHH

HE DID IT HE DID IT HE DID IT

AND THE USA IS NO LONGER ROYALLY FUCKED AND I AM SO HAPPY AND THIS IS WONDERFUL

Surprising Discoveries

Today I was sitting in the bathroom at work being all nervous and tense about the election when I looked at my underwear and noticed for the first time that they say things like "Color Outside the Lines!" and "Laugh at the Rules!" and "Let Yourself Daydream!" and I was like Wow, Thanks, Underwear! Who knew that inspiring words of wisdom would present themselves in the bathroom?

The Lord Will Prevail (right?)

Just so that no one can claim the republicans have a monopoly on praying for Political Change:

Dear God Please please please let Barack Obama win the election tomorrow because if he doesn't you know as well as I that this country is going to Go to Shit since John McCain will probably die of his melanoma (which never goes away but just lays dormant until it reoccurs but you already know that because you're God and all-seeing and knowing and stuff) as soon as he's in office leaving the country in the hands of that Insufferable Bitch Sarah Palin whose religion ACTUALLY BELIEVES that God (not you, I'm sure, but some hard, illogical, unforgiving God) will make money "flow from the coffers of the unbelievers to the believers" which if you take it to it's logical conclusion pretty much gives her and every other so-called "Christian" in her sect free reign to lie and cheat and steal from people as long as they are HEATHENS which pretty much means everyone outside of fucking Alaska which is just one more reason why we're Royally Fucked another one being the fact that it will be a return to back-alley-coat-hanger-abortions because John McCain doesn't believe in "The Health of the Mother" but I'm sure you know, God, that abortion doesn't end because it's illegal but it just gets more bloody and dangerous and disgusting, and speaking of blood and how if McCain gets elected the whole world will just decide right then and there that although we've been heading down this road for a long time the USA is finally just one big fucking joke and be even less willing to do things like help out in Iraq or Afghanistan which is another place that is royally fucked because we took our troops out to invade an occupy a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 in the first place and are now in such a morass that You Only Know how the hell we'll be able to leave and our soldiers who come home are mentally ill and until the democrats in congress stepped in WERE BEING DENIED HEALTH CARE AND MOST OF WHAT THEY DESERVED (like a college education! and why do you think you're average poor kid from the Bronx joins the army? so they can go to college, not because they have some great urge to Fuck Up Iraqis) UNDER THE GI BILL and wow let's talk about being Christian.

So in short, dear God (the God that I, and most rational people believe in, and sure as hell NOT the God in whom Sarah Palin and her fellow "Christians" believe), you know as well as I do that Barack Obama is the right choice for this nation. Please throw around your influence up there just a bit.

And to close, IF ANYONE HAS NOT ALREADY VOTED OR IS NOT PLANNING TO VOTE I WILL PROBABLY STOP BEING YOUR FRIEND. And please vote Obama/Biden. I won't stop being your friend if you vote McCain, but I may not speak to you for a few months/years/decades.

Top 10 Places I Want to Go

I've been thinking about everywhere I want to visit lately. Although that list pretty much encompasses everywhere, there are some places at the top of my list. And Italy is at the top of my list, but I'm not including it because I actually am going there!

1) India
I've wanted to go to India since some time in early high school when I went through an Indian-Authors phase and read tons of novels by Indian authors set in India. I'm not sure exactly where I'd want to go while I was there yet, but I know it will take several trips. Which I'm totally cool with.
2) Barcelona
Another place I've wanted to go since mid-high school. This time I read The Shadow of the Wind and fell in love with how the city was almost a character, it had so much life to it. It just seems beautiful and gothic and fascinating, and it's where I want to go for spring break next year.
3) Greece
I want to see the white houses. And the blue sky. And Greek men. And eat lots of dolmades.
4) Mexico City
Last summer I read The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, Mexico City was the main setting, at least for some of the book. The book left me with the impression that Mexico City was this lively place teeming with ideas and literary movements and romance and sex and all of these wonderful things that I usually feel are lacking in New York. And it's beautiful and colorful and it's going through this art renaissance.
5) Oaxaca
No, not because of La Catrina. But because it's Mexico's version of Napa Valley, or Italy's Tuscany, where they have the most complex and wonderful food.
6) Portland and Seattle
I feel like I could live in one of these cities if New York doesn't work out. They have wonderful food scenes, they're cheaper than New York, and they are huge classical music cities.
7) France
I want to go to Paris, I want to go to Nice, I want to basically go everywhere.
8) Cuba
Mostly if I could go back in time and see it before it became a broken down time warp.
9) Dublin
Yes, I've already been. But I don't consider spending a day shopping really experiencing Dublin. I should have seen a few plays, and walked around the old section a lot more. I'll do one of those literary tours where you read James Joyce and Oscar Wilde then visit all the places referred to in their books.
10) Laos
Yeah, this was an Anthony Bourdain inspiration all the way. It looks beautiful and so foreign and wonderful.

Who's coming with me?