millworker

lindy has some exciting travel plans coming up...

dec 6th- fly to frankfurt to visit cousins
dec 10th- fly back to edinburgh to take rest of exams (boo)
dec 16th- edinburgh airport to pick up john + dad
dec 19th- fly to prague
dec 22nd- train to this place in austria to meet mom + greg + thomas
dec 29th- fly to london
jan 6th- fly to s.f.o.
jan 7th- drive back to l.a. (NO TURNOVER! i am at the mercy of jet lag)
jan 8th- classes start (actually i don't have any monday classes so it's jan 9th for me)

wow. life goes pretty fast. and i cringe at my CO2 emissions... maybe bike to l.a.? dragging my bed, etc. with me? I wouldn't make it past pacheco pass and would spend the rest of my days subsisting off casa de fruta nuts and malt balls. haha no one reading this probably gets that. but it's super funny, f.y.i. also super true.

borderline

things i love about train stations:

#1: TRAINS
#2: whistles and the blowing thereof
#3: very high vaulted ceilings and other 19th and turn of the century architecture
#4: TRAINS
#5: the cool info boards that change frequently
#6: lots of newsstands and places to get coffee
#7: the sounds of trains coming and going
#8: TRAINS

under the iron sea

I'm going to be on a train for five hours and then be in a different country!! (sort of)!! did you know that the queen is the queen of canada, too? and of australia i think!! are we the only ones who don't have a queen?! and if/when we get one... can it be me? that would be SUPERBE.

desperado

did you know that the difference between a latte and a cappuccino is the steamed milk : foamed milk ratio (and, by conservation of volume, the ratio of those two things to the espresso)? it'll all just turn into steamed milk by thermodynamics eventually.

I thought there was somthing monumentally different between them. And I sat down at the starbucks at bristo square and did my maths homework, and outlined some of my bio notes to begin studying, and read the 'latte' and 'cappuccino' posters several times. is the whole world built on ratios of the different phases of milk?? milk is a colloid, by the way. that's a gas dissolved in a liquid (right? someone please correct me). so it's sort of both phases all the time, when you think about it.

people are contracting aids at the rate of one new infection every 8 seconds. people are being bought and sold like lattes and cappuccinos. sometimes i wonder what good knowing the resultant moment on a beam does, or why I make 3 flashcards about it, and commit it to memory. why am i transfixed by all the different kinds of artificial sweetners I can put in my tea? i've gotten so lost in the world, and i'm sick of it. and all we argue about is if two men or two women can get married. there is nothing new under the sun, but people try to get excited about milk : milk ratios and i'm not impressed anymore. i don't know what i'm trying to say, or what I'm going to do now. buy fairtrade coffee and use linen grocery bags. turn off lights whenever possible. not have unprotected sex or start doing heroin or something. say 'thank you' more often.

cold feet

in my hands (but on the desk now since I'm typing) I have a letter. the letter is from my director of studies (like an advisor) to accomodation services.

i give the letter to accomodation
they shred the year-long lease and give me semester-long one
several people notify registry and adjust my account
my usc advisor gives me clearance for my spring classes
i take my exams
accomodation gets my flat keys back
i get on a plane
i'm back at usc for spring semester


gaaaaaaaaaaaaah piece of tri-folded A4 paper!!!

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." -Isaiah 30:21

"Rise Up With Fists!!" (Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins)

oh to heck with it everyone go buy "Rabbit Fur Coat" now.

What are you changing?
Who do you think you're changing?
You can't change things, we're all stuck in our ways

It's like trying to clean the ocean
What do you think you can drain it?
Well it was poison and dry long before you came

But you can wake up younger under the knife
And you can wake up sounder if you get analyzed
And I better wake up
There but for the grace of God go I

It's hard to believe your prophets
When they're asking you to change things
But with their suspect lives we look the other way
Are you really that pure, sir?
Thought I saw you in Vegas
It was not pretty, but she was (not your wife)

But she will wake up wealthy
And you will wake up 45
And she will wake up with babies
There but for the grace of God go I

What am I fighting for?
The cops are at my front door
I can't escape that way, the windows are in flames
And what's that on your ankle?
You say they're not coming for you
But house arrest is really just the same

Like when you wake up behind the bar
Trying to remember where you are
Having crushed all the pretty things
There but for the grace of God go I

But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists
And I will take what's mine mine mine
There but for the grace of God go I
There but for the grace of God go I
There but for the grace of God go I
There but for the grace of God go I

"Born Secular" (Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins)

I was born secular and inconsolable
I heard that he walked, he walked the earth

God goes where he wants
And who knows where he is not
Not in me

It's the way mothers greet their sons
When it's a moment too late
It's the law of the land
That sometimes the dam just breaks

God works in mysterious ways
And God gives, and then he takes
From me, from me, from me, from me, from me

It was a toss-up between this song and like every other song on the album... if i'm feeling uncreative the next post will be "Rise Up With Fists!!" (Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins)

rise up with fists!!

RUGBY GAME!!! whoa!!

it was awesome. we made outfits (we just wanted to wear red, one of the pacific islanders' colors) and it was freezing and an awesome time. i'm too tired/lazy to write about it, here's a jawsome picture. but i will tell you this: rugby players are SAVAGE. and they like kill people. example: each other. it's crazy i never want to play. at least in hockey they have lots of pads/a helmet.

p.s. this is an acknowledgment of the beautiful life of chase elder. i remember him riding at reckless speeds on his longboard around campus. i don't know who reads this blog, or if any of you knew him, but he was a gift from God, and remains so in memory and in experience.

a warm green hug

a nice update with pictures

I went to Dublin and it was fabulous. You want to actually hear about it? Then get yo'self over here. And hopefully there'll be a post about it soon. Here's us on Howth which is this island thing outside Dublin. It was very beautiful.

Then we had thanksgiving!! it was fabulous. I tried to make green beans and mashed potatoes. Mostly other people followed the directions/recipe and they turned out OK. saving grace = gravy packets my mom sent that arrived just in time! kelly and i drank a little too much bad pinot, and we watched ice age 2. it was the best thanksgiving ever. here's some people making hand turkeys. mmmmm american culture/elementary school...

Today after class Kelly and I met at a Princes Street Starbucks to study. actually just to read and comiserate about the poor quality of starbucks over here. no joke. this is what happens:

me: hi. I'll have a grande americano please, sit-in.
barista: americano... and what size?
me: grande please.
barista: okay... and would you like milk with that?

w. t. frappucino?! if i wanted milk i would have ordered a latte. i don't mean to be all coffee elitist or something because i only know what those things all mean because i looked them up with the nutritional info on the starbucks website. but if you work at starbucks... shouldn't you know these things? anyhow, i politely said, "no, just black" but yeah these people would never survive in the states. they were also mean to kelly and told her the 'cider' we get in the states is "just warmed up apple juice." i would slap-slap them but i don't think I could reach across the register.

but anyhow, i'm thankful for starbucks and their comfy chairs. kelly read "the unbearable lightness of being" which i recommended and we both agree is an amazing book. I read "extremely loud and incredibly close"- some chapters I love and some are only so-so. this is what happens when you have several narrators. anyhow, we had the best seats by the window and i watched the sunset and the sillhouette of the city against the sky disappear by like 5:30 because it gets dark that early. And we sat and drank and read and had a wonderful time.

then- SOUTHERN. this is our favorite bar. I/we love it. We got mozzarella, tomato, and basil paninis and i got a diet coke kelly got a mcewan's (which is a beer). But the main idea was for me to try absinthe, which kelly described as "a warm green hug". And it's illegal in the states, so I want to take advantage. kristin said I shouldn't because artists went like nuts when they drank it, but they had a lot. so I went up to the bar and ordered one. kelly told me the brand and I felt very smart and cool asking for that instead of just "an absinthe" and they make it like... there's this sugar cube on a spoon/strainer sort of thing. They pour the absinthe (it's green!) over it, then they burn the sugar cube (!!) then they pour a double shot of water over it. so after 5 minutes of my suppresing my excitement/wide grinning (definitely uncool) I paid my 3.20 and took it back to where we were sitting.

but... i didn't like it. it tasted like burning and smelled like black licorice. these are two things I don't like in my mouth. licorice i don't like in any context, and fire is pretty cool, just not in my mouth. i had two sips and made a 'gag reflex' face and kelly and i traded. she finished my absinthe, i finished her mcewan's. she said when they made hers they added 2 doubleshots of water... this i will ask for next time maybe i'll like it more. but when i tried whisky i was like, "my throat is on fire!!!" and she was like, "yeah... that's the idea..." so possibly i will stick to my diet coke? but anyhow, we traded and it was perfect. that's why we're friends. and now we're home. huzzah. tomorrow: rugby game. sweet.

ask staff for details

i am in... DUBLIN! yay! i came to visit bridget and orrin and silas. we went places. it'll be a better post when there are pictures (we took pictures!) so i'll tell you more about it later. mmkay. peace.

train in vain

at the check-out at sainsbury's

lady: [looking for type-in code for pastry thing]
me: oh, it's an olive one.
lady: oh you're american?

i thought: wow what keyed you in genius woman
i said: "yes"

lady: so what are you doing over here?

i thought: freezing
i said: "studying at uni"

lady: whereabouts in the states are you from?

i thought: don't make me think about it, it's too painful
i said: "california."

lady: california! why would you come over here? What's wrong with california

i thought: absolutely nothing.
i said: "absolutely nothing."

try again

i finally got a bank account. it was a long story, and it was all in mail you can't just go into a branch. it all had to go to 'corporate'. where is corporate, you ask? oh about 10 minutes from my house. it's taken 8 weeks. 8 weeks... 10 minutes... this country is retarded.

but i gave blood. there's a 12 week waiting period here b/w blood donations, so last time i went in i wasn't eligible again yet. yesterday i was eligible again, so yesterday i marched in and held out my arm (and finger for the iron test, my least favorite part). new least favorite part: they put the needle in sort of wonky and now the bruise is creeping out from underneath the bandaid. plus they can't like take the needle out and reinsert it so i'm sitting there for 5 minutes knowing it's going to bruise, and they'll make me apply pressure to it to prevent hematosis (is that the name? they told me and i forgot). Basically you get to apply pressure to a bruise.

I gave blood and all i got was this stupid bruise. actually that's not true i got orange juice and a chocolate biscuit. i was hoping for a sticker or something, but I realized little kids don't (normally) give blood so why would they have awesome stickers/prizes? oh well.

me: "I'm O positive. doesn't that mean my blood can go to a lot of people?"
nurse: "no that's O negative."
me: "oh."
nurse: "but that's still special. I'm O positive. It's very special."

I wonder if she says that to everyone... or just me, the girl looking for stickers and prizes.