you only think you're pretty

oh. my. christ. 

how am i already this tired and overworked? post-prelims better be fucking awesome compared to this because there's no way i can deal with feeling this way for the next 5 or 6 or 10 years straight. 

on the plus side (there's a plus side?), i like teaching so far. the first day was pretty goddamn awkward, but we seem to be developing more of a rapport now. i had them all sign up for office hours to talk about their first papers and it wasn't as awkward as it could have been (at least on my end). one girl told me about how she's kind of weirded out by her dorm experience so far because her roommate is 24 (which is a year older than i am). made me think about how simultaneously young and old i am. i may retract this when i am older, but there is no part of me that wishes i were 18 again. maybe this is because i thought dorms sucked, or because i was a pretty lame and awkward 18-year-old, or because the convenience of buying alcohol whenever the fuck i want (which is always) totally beats whatever thrill kids get from drinking illegally. but at any rate, i like where i'm at. i still don't feel entirely like an adult, though i'm not sure that i really ever will. there's still so much of me that is a 5-year-old little girl dancing around naked by the pool (because all southern california apartment complexes have pools, you know). 

but yeah, teaching. one kid today told me that i'm a "pretty cool ta." i can be down with that. i had a bit of a pleasant surprise when it turned out that one of the two kids who i had mentally pegged as potential slackers wrote one of the better papers in the class for the first short assignment. the other kid has yet to disprove my slacker assessment (i think he's at -3 right now in my mental points scale), but i'm still hopeful. 

although i'm not a fan of trite status updates, i would like to just say that my semester has not started with the bang i had hoped it would. it being the case that i am taking two classes in my area as well as japanese, i think i was hoping that the semester would instantly transport me into excited-for-schoolwork mode. i'm not saying i hate my classes, they're just not the instant boost of magic that i had previously wished for. there's still potential, though, especially in my poetry class. i'm presenting/leading discussion on the week we're doing aurora leigh. i'm pretty excited to revisit the poem that (as cliché as it sounds) is at the foundation of my literary endeavors. the name that became my alter-ego. the name that is everything i would be (could be?). me and aurora go way back.  

candy-flavored candy

i wish it were last summer.

okay, i only kind of wish it were last summer. this summer has its moments. and there are a lot of things about right now that i wouldn't trade for the world. like ben, and the security i feel with him now (seriously, the devoted, committed, domesticated boyfriend you all know and love has been a long time in the making). i also wouldn't want to go back to not knowing the people i now consider vital to my graduate existence. like junior. oh, what a pit of boring my life would be without you. gracias por tu presencia en mi vida. (see, i too am sophisticated enough to use google translator. take that, boyfriend.) 

but last summer was so goddamn awesome. in a lot of ways. for starters, i was still in spokane (where the summers are perfect and humidity-free), spending as much time as possible with all the people i knew i wouldn't see for such a long stretch of time (even longer now, as this summer has not yielded the opportunity of traveling out west). i had just graduated from college and had literally no responsibility whatsoever. i went dancing at prago every weekend, always dressed up and looking fabulous. i also weighed about 10lbs less than i do now (mostly thanks to my old friends, cigarettes and a lack of appetite), which helped with the fabulousness. graduate school still didn't seem real--even in the days before i left washington, madison and grad school were these far away realities that seemed likely to stay that way. 

i was also still dancing, which, for as much as i didn't care for it, was quite fulfilling in its own way. and as poor as i am right now, i can't say that i don't miss being able to leave every night with anywhere from $200-$400 in cash. but more than that, i really just miss the dancing itself. okay, maybe not so much "table dancing" (i don't know why they call it that; there were no tables involved), but stage dancing was so much awesome. it made me feel sexy, sultry, beautiful, amazing--all the feelings that are, for most women, hard to come by. when i was up there it was just me and the song. there's something so right about dancing; it's like it makes the music go straight into my soul, and the beauty i felt from that didn't come from the money or the outfits or the heels (although they might have helped a bit), but from the connection of my body to the music. 

so basically, the thing that sucks most about this summer is that, for whatever reason or combination of reasons, i feel ugly. i'm not sure if reminiscing about times that i felt beautiful makes me feel better or worse about my current self, but i can't really help it.   

loitering on cliffs thinking about stuff like...

oh hey there. haven't seen you in a while. my bad, really. i've been too busy relaxing the shit out of the summer. well, mostly relaxing. i got a job working in the mailroom at the uw foundation (don't ask me what it is, i still don't know). next to reception work, this is possibly the easiest job i've ever had. basically all we do is collect and deliver mail around the building, with the occasional mindless task to break up the day (like putting fancy cards into fancy envelopes). and on any given day there are four or more people on hand to do a job that really only needs about two people. it's seems pretty clutch so far, although i have to admit that despite the awesomeness of such a laid-back job, i really honestly prefer work that keeps me on my toes. but whatever, it's only for the summer. plus, they're pretty easy-going about taking days off (since we're generally overstaffed anyway), which is good 'cause i plan on spending quite a few lazy days drinking in the park with junior.

so basically i've been brain dead since i turned in my last paper a couple of weeks ago. i think i've cleared my system, though, and i'm pretty excited to start french tomorrow to get myself back in the swing of reading and doing things that aren't sitting on my computer watching internet television (not that that's necessarily a bad use of time). i'm also extremely excited to start reading books that i want to read, probably starting with an eggers novel i recently, um, procured from work (seriously, the extra books are stored in the basement. no one will miss it). i'm also excited to start running more. i haven't run more than 10 miles in a week since before finals. speaking of which, i've realized that i've missed having regular running partners. in college i usually ran with someone else at least once a week, and i totally miss that. i ran with rush a couple of times this year, and that was great, but i don't think he runs that often, plus now he's off in wherever the fuck he goes. as for miss m, well, she has a mental block against going long distances. and the only other person i have run with here is so skinny that i want to rip off my skin when i'm around her, not to mention that she's a much better runner than i am. since i've basically met most of the people that i'm going to know for the next 5 or 6 years, my only remaining option is to join a running group. i say that like it's a bad thing. no, i'm actually kind of stoked. there's one that meets on tuesday evenings near my house even, so hopefully i'll get on that soon. assuming, of course, that i get my throat back sometime in the next century (seriously, fuck losing my voice whenever i get sick).

have i mentioned yet that it's summer? and that i have no major obligations other than a month-long french course and a job that is easy as pie?*. because that is the crucial thing here. as far as my brain is concerned, i am totally free. for three months at least. but by the time school starts i'll be practically begging to start doing work again. so far, aside from the birthday sickness, my summer has been kicking ass. i had a birthday that lasted a week, i got to go to the awesomest hip-hop weekend in minneapolis, my boyfriend took me shopping, and i've been drinking more often than not. next weekend i get to go to kentucky with miss m. few weeks after that is music and camping with j & k. at the end of the summer ben and i are staying in a beach house in nc for a week with my family (for free, even the plane tickets). and in-between? just a whole lot of chillaxin.

[*i'd just like to point out that from what i understand, making pie is not all that easy. maybe the pie-maker can back me up here, 'cause it seems like the phrase "easy as pie" is a bit misleading. unless it means easy as eating pie, in which case it totally makes sense.]

anyone who doesn't like summer has clearly never been in grad school.

i ate your soul

there is another life that i could be living (would like to be living?). i feel as though there are two contradictory impulses inside of me regarding what path my life takes, and as it stands it is (clearly) the academic impulse that has taken precedence. i want to be in school. i want to learn shit and do something meaningful with my life. that's the life i'm living/heading toward at the moment. so what's this other life look like? well, for starters, i do makeup. i love makeup. not that this is in any way apparent considering that i've only worn the stuff once in the last three months. but right now i don't live in a makeup conducive or makeup necessary life. so makeup. that's what i do in my other life. and of course i wear it all the time and maybe i dabble a bit in hair styling, or at the very least i learn some really sweet ways of doing my own hair (yeeeeah). i also wear sweet-ass clothes and shoes. in this life i spend at least a couple of hours every day getting ready (as opposed to my current m.o. of oh shit the bus is outside in five minutes where are my jeans and oh god this coat doesn't match my shoes but fuck my other coat is dirty and shit i'm out of time 30 seconds ago where the fuck is my backpack?).

i also live somewhere else, probably seattle or portland, maybe los angeles if i landed a job as a celebrity makeup artist, but definitely somewhere with a zipcode that begins in 9. i'd go to all the good clubs and shows and be friends with a bunch of bands and scenesters. and i would dance. i would be dancing all the time. that's what would make me happy. i'd still be working my ass off and probably running myself into the ground to keep shit going (although in a different way than i do here), but i would party equally as hard. and dance. it's not really the partying that's important, it's the dancing. and i'd be cool. not smart, not rich (necessarily), not useful to the world, but cool.

so, makeup and dancing. that's what my life is missing.