Definitely Sixteen Candles, however, I loved all of the Hughes movies that featured Molly Ringwald, even the little talked about For Keeps as well as the much beloved Breakfast Club. Molly Ringwald was the epitome of awesome in my eyes as a small child. She was awkward, funny, hip, cool and utterly lovable with her fairly down to earth looks and freckles.

RIP John Hughes, you made me look forward to High School and College with a snarky, self aware dialogue that went on to spring forth shows such as Dawson's Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with it's hip kids who always knew exactly what to say and a quasi-philosophical way to say it.  :)

Making characters that are fully rounded, relatable and alive: Epic Win.

Okee,

So here is the deal, I have to read Genesis for one of my english classes (Classical and Biblical Texts) and as I was reading the story of Noah and the Ark, I had a realization: what about the evil fish? A flood would not have killed them.
So this has led me to rethink all that I had previously thought of the happenings of the Bible.
Bear with me now, I know this may sound crazy and conspiracy theory-ist, and yes, it is just that. So let me rave.

FISH KILLED JESUS! THATS RIGHT! AND GUESS WHAT! THAT EVIL FISH MAFIA KILLED THE NEW EMBODIMENT OF CHRIST AS WELL:

tHE CROCODILE HUNTER HIMSELF! (Steve Irwin, bless his soul).
So now I must warn everyone of this evil and insidious fish mafia!
I must say, I know it sounds crazy but I feel like I am being watched from the murky depths. OH GOD NO! Charlie Tuna is in on it too! I won't make it, but you can! Save yourself! Spread the word of this murdering mackerel. (garble, wheeze, bubble, *dramatic death*)

Are you happy being my freind?

PLASTICS

Voltaire/Rousseau Chimera, yes I am evil. Thanks for asking

All of the above. Variety is spicy~

So I really want to kill my sister. Why? you may ask, well because she just told me that she smokes. I know for most people this wouldn't be anything to really have a shit fit over but for me this is. She is 14 and our Mother just died of Cancer, due to.......... that's right! Smoking. I have to say, at this moment I am supremely pissed off. Why did my Mother have to spawn? I mean really, children are unnecessary, stupid and overly annoying creatures.

Okay, so laying on the bed with the intention of reading "Good Omens" and listening to Regina Spektor, I instead listened to Regina Spektor, read a bit of Good Omens and fell asleep. While sleeping I had a few odd dreams that I only remember snippets of.

In one snippet:

David's friend Beth asks me if I am a key person and then when I answer No, I do not think so, she leans down and looks intently into my eyes. I can remember her eyes, nose and freckles vividly. When she pulls away, she said something that has floated on in dreamland, far from memory.

Snippet two:
A man of slightly looking Spanish decent is on a bicycle, stops and gives me a bag of Green Seedless Grapes (my favorite).

Snippet Three:
I was cleaning up rather late in the morning at a party where I had no clue who the people were, but that I remember the night before, one of the fellows there was plotting something in regards to his sister and since his plot seemed intrusive to me and backhanded, I suggested to him that he just talk to her. Also another of the fellows had apparently been one of those physical fitness child geniuses, kind of like that Hercules kid. He reminisced with me during the clean up about his childhood fame and good old days while showing me pictures.

Snippet Four:
Oddly enough my dream kept returning to this segment. I was standing out in front of a restaurant window that was, in the dream, near my apartment. I was eating noodles from a bowl with an oddly shaped vibrator, I believe it was pink, the vibrator, not the noodles. And I was absolutely assured in the dream that people in the restaurant were both laughing and mocking me. And somehow I feel this segment is an amalgamation of my time in Paris. I have taken on the character of "the homeless/the Rom/ the trickster/street walker", no clue what the noodles mean other than maybe a humble meal, and the vibrator must be from all the time we spent in Pigalle, in the arrondissement of Monmartre, home of the Moulin Rouge. Honestly, it is a scary place at night. It was hard seeing the seedier aspects of life so concentrated and so gaily placed before you, like a platter of delicious sushi, but after looking closely you see that the rice is indeed maggots. the sad thing is that it doesnt have to be this way. In the daylight the place is divine with all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies and a never ending supply of curious folks to watch.

So, the party scene is easy enough to figure out since David and I had a dinner party with another couple last night. It was a lot of fun. However, my apparent giving of quasi-mystical, shamanistic powers to David's friend Beth as well as having a few (what would have been deemed Circus freak fodder in the early turn of the century 1900's) characters in my dreams (and yes he had a turn of the century feel to him, I felt I should call him Philip). And lastly the grape man who I will fondly refer to as Jesus the Mexican boy, due to my love of the Iron and Wine song of the same title.

A--- Allegory

B--- Boudicca

C--- Charming

D--- Deft

E--- Effulgent

F--- Fragrant

G--- Gregarious

H--- Hoggle

I--- Inaccessible

J--- Jesting

K--- Kittens

L--- Lymphatic System ( I has one)

M--- Malapropisms

N--- Nananananananananananananana ( the never ending syllables of that yellow fruit)

O--- Orpheus, for his sweet sweet lute

P--- Plutarch--Sabine Women---Sobbin Women---Seven Brides for Seven Brothers---Favorite Musical

Q--- Questions

R--- Rebecca, me name

S--- Socks/Shoes

T--- Tiger Lily

U--- Uvula , I has one and so do you

V--- Vociferous

W--- Wacky

X--- Xanadu, Citizen Kane's Palatial Estate

Y--- Yowza

Z--- Zippy

I have decided that I want to read Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" before going to Paris so that I would be able to trace some of his Parisian experiences while exploring my own. Also, it is the only piece of literature by this particular author that I have ever wanted to read. I know there are other options if I want to read about Paris but I am not in the mood to have to deal with the sex and squalor of Henry Miller and the "Tropic" series, have no interest in reading any Hugo at the moment and I don't happen to have any Anais Nin, so exploring Hemingway's Paris seemed appropriate. I have picked a few of my favorite quotes from Ch. 3

In chapter two, as he sat in a cafe writing, he spied this girl sitting by the window. His description was beautiful and oddly loving, this is not what all I was expecting from Ernest.
( Quotations Under The Cut and a Few Other Observations )



Ch. 3 "Une Generation Perdue"  A few favorite quotes

{I thought of Miss Stein and Sherwood Anderson and egotism and mental laziness versus discipline and I thought who is calling who a lost generation? Then as I was getting up to the Closerie des Lilas with the light on my old friend, the statue of Marshal Ney with his sword out and the shadows of the trees on the bronze, and he alone there and nobody behind him and what a fiasco he'd made of Waterloo, I thought that all generations were lost by something and always had been and always would be and I stopped at Lilas to keep the statue company and drank a cold beer before going home to the flat over the sawmill} (30).

{But the hell with her lost generation talk and all the dirty, easy labels. When i got home and into the courtyard and upstairs and saw my wife and my son and his cat, F. Puss, all of them happy and a fire in the fireplace, I said to my wife, "You know, Gertrude is nice, anyway."

"Of course, Tatie."
"But she does talk a lot of rot sometimes."
" I never hear her," my wife said. "I'm a wife. It's her friend that talks to me."} (31)

The more and more that I read about Gertrude Stein, the less and less I like her. Her poetry is dense and horrifyingly repetitive and frustratingly enough, that is her point. Maybe she will grow on me. Authors are like that, fungal.

A RED HAT.

A dark grey, a very dark grey, a quite dark grey is monstrous ordinarily, it is so monstrous because there is no red in it. If red is in everything it is not necessary. Is that not an argument for any use of it and even so is there any place that is better, is there any place that has so much stretched out. (Stein "Tender Buttons")

I am spending my final night of 2008 with two old high school friends, one of which I see and talk to quite regularly via online messengers and whenever I happen to be in town visiting with the g-rents. The second friend, I haven't seen since June when I attended her baby shower, she had a little boy and this will be the first time I get to see him. The three of us were very close all through middle school but during senior year of high school began to drift apart a bit from the power trio we had been. I hope this meeting of the three yet again is auspicious of new beginnings with people who mean a lot to me.

2008 has been a hard year for me, as most of you know, I lost my mother in April after finding out two weeks before that she had liver cancer. She had been sick since January on and off but it was not until the two weeks before her death that we were all aware of how dire the situation was. I was able to visit with her twice before she passed and that is something for which I am very grateful.

After my mom passed away I decided to take a leap and go for something I had always wanted to do: travel. So I signed up for the Short Term trip to Paris, went through the interview process and was accepted. I leave on the sixth of January. I am incredibly excited about this opportunity and having this trip to focus on has really helped me to weather the grief the year has brought. I think, due to the help of some truly amazing people, I have come out better than anyone ever could have expected under the circumstances.

This year has been one of healthy thinking, becoming a stronger person and gaining a ton of confidence. My Sophomore year was a challenging one grade wise, but this semester I was able to prove to myself that I can handle this college thing and do well in classes that I find challenging.

and last but certainly not least, being able to meet David has made a huge difference in how the rest of my 2008 turned out. He is a truly special person who makes me incredibly happy and I am glad and honoured  to be starting the New Year with him.

It is going to be a good one. Come on 2009!

Latin 103- B- (huge omg wowowowowowow surprise *happiness*)

Women in Religion- B+

Understandings of Christianity- B+

Walking for Fitness- B (pissed about this, I KNOW it should be higher, teacher was a douche, I had an A at midterm)

Medieval Texts- A+ (very very happy about this one, validates my choice of major)


It was a really tough semester for me and honestly, a lot of the time I feared that my grades would be much lower than this. But things worked out and I am very glad they did. Well, here comes Paris, and then a semester of four literature classes and another PED.

Short Term- Paris (2 papers, and a final test to pass)

Spring Semester

Classical and Biblical Texts
19th Century Texts
Queer Theory
History of the English Language
Survival Swimming

It's coming whether I want it to or not, so...bring it on!

I've always experienced anxiety dreams when doing something new, or not so new really, I mean anytime a new semester rolls around I have the naked, without a schedule or books dream. But this time I had the falling out of the plane dream because I was using the bathroom and the toilet fell in and out of the plane. I know that I'm getting kind of nervous about the plane ride, having never done that before, but really. Most people would worry about the plane crashing or something, I guess my subconscious is really self centered, only I get to die in my dreams dammit! I have an ego- maniacal dream state. Figures.

My room is finally clean and now I am all packed up for going home (Virginia) for Christmas. I just realized that I will essentially be living out of a suitcase for two months since as soon as I get back to Berea, I repack and leave for Paris directly. OMG! It is going to be fun though and now all that stands between me and relaxation is a 10 to 12 page research paper that I got an extension on, that Professors gift of an extension saved my life, there was no way I was getting that paper done today to turn in tomorrow and still have time to sleep, clean and pack. Suffice to say, she has my first born (children, gremlins, puppies, no bake cookies), whatever I spawn in the future. And the extension enables me to spend tonight with Researcher which is doubly nice since I won't get to see him for near to two months.

I feel like my brain is back on somewhat straight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WOWZERS!

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/bornbad1/zombie_student_web.jpg

After tomorrow life will start to move rather quickly.
Tomorrow I leave for TN to spend Thanksgiving with my roommate's family.
Then on Sunday its back to Berea.
Then that weekend, Friday night, Roxanne's Christmas party,
then later that night, Lexington with David, then Saturday, Louisville with David.
Then reading period and Finals starting Monday, last final on Friday,
then home to Va for Christmas break that afternoon.
Back to Berea on the fourth of January.
All day on the fifth in Berea for final meeting for Paris,
the the sixth, we leave for Lexington airport, short layover in Chicago, arrive in Paris on the seventh.
Paris for 20 day, 2 days in Nice,
then leave for the states on the 29th, arrive, I suppose on the 30th,
and then short rest,
my birthday on the 9th of February,
then on the 10th second semester starts.
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG. THIS IS GOING TO BE AMAZING, EXHAUSTING, BUT AMAZING.

My only class was cancelled, I am happy for that, but sad that my professor is still sick. So I have a meeting for coffee with my advisor and I suppose this is the part where I tell her what I hope to do with my life after undergrad...

I kinda have a clue, I know a master's degree is in the works for me, perhaps in comparative literature or library science.
Hopefully she will have some tips. Either way it will be an enjoyable experience, I've always enjoyed our talks.

*utter scream of frustration*
I had my GSTR 310: Understandings of Christianity today and it was a doozy.
To start off, the professor had a Jehovah's Witness come and speak to the class and discuss the particulars of his faith. This portion of the class was good, the young man gave a good overview of his beliefs as far as he was capable, not being a scholar of the faith. We had a question/answer session where I asked a question and I felt that he answered with dignity and still preserving his own beliefs. However.

When the professor later asked if there was anything of interest that we would like to add to the discussion (earlier, after the young man left, we had discussed the differences between Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Christians, etc). So as it seemed natural and pertinent to the class, I gave a little blurb about the Prop 8 and the Mormon Churches involvement. This is the moment of utter fury. A certain fellow in the class who also by the way has a complete monopoly on the school news paper (he is Editor-in-Chief), and has used the news paper as his intensely conservative platform, proceeded to speak DOWN to me in the class and in not so many words, but tone, mocked me and my statement to the class saying that I was misleading the actual purpose of Prop 8. He is an arrogant bastard. That is all, I shall not think on it any longer.

Rupert Brooke, Georgian poet (era neither state nor country), some would call it propaganda, either way, it is beautiful. To hear him read from Libido would be amazing,

Or!

Kahlil Gibran reading from The Prophet.    T'would be heaven!

that I just had the most wonderful day and night ever, all thanks to a special someone ;)

Becca