noteworthy banter.

over the past few weeks, i have been keeping an ongoing note on my cell phone of conversation snippets that i have heard all around me, ones that i found particularly funny. i learned this practice from a creative writing teacher my junior year of high school, and have continued to do it ever since. writing it all down helps me to see how funny and great and beautiful and downright wonderful life is. i think i often forget these things when i'm stressed about wasting three grand in tuition money for a semester of classes that i don't even need.

ah. c'est la vie, right?

 here is a picture from this weekend.

my cat came home. remember when he peaced out on me?

turns out it was more of a vacation.

i cried when he was found. real tears.

"my boss just got divorced. it's making my life a hell of a lot easier."

"can i pay you in frogurt gift cards?"
"why, yes. i take all tenders of cash."

"i have an addiction to buying strawberries."

"i'm just afraid that i'm not qualified for any of [the jobs]. like, for example, i have no idea how to use microsoft excel spreadsheets."
"they do that just to weed out the people who don't know how to use computers; they do that to weed out the illiterate. and the senior citizens."

(in reaction to a movie trailer...)
"i cried in that movie."
(another trailer comes on...)
"i cried in that movie, too."
"you cried... in james bond...?"
"YEAH, OKAY?!"

"remember that part with the zombies, when the people are walking down the highway, and the zombies come walking towards them? well, that's my biggest fear. but also, i wouldn't be made if it happened to me... because it's kind of my secret hope, as well..."

"do you even know how many times i have been spanked today? too many."

"i feel like i've just been emotionally shang-hai'd!"

(unsimpathetically) "she talks like she's been to war."

"i got really obsessed with bill cosby the other day."

"did you want paper or plastic?"
"optional."
"so... paper or plastic, then?"

"that is clearly a drawing of a daddy long leg. be not mistaken. actually, i'm not exactly sure how you can even question it in the first place. those legs are obviously telling of the species."
"i'm sorry we are not all abreast on the classifications of arachnids..."

(girl has pen in mouth. boy sitting next to her, reaches over, takes out pen.)
"whoops! uh-oh! see, that's cute, but yucky and inappropriate for this particular setting."

"there is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."

jane austen

 

i came home from school a day earlier than i had originally planned, and i'm so glad that i did.
i've had the entire day to be completely smitten with autumn today,
 and i'm quite sure that it has everything to do with the rain, the way most good things do.

this morning,
i finished up the VP debate on tivo (feeling pretty confident in my party),
made my favorite, banana pancakes,
and am now off to spend the remainder of the day with my mother.


also, my good friend, chelsee, showed me this website.
it's basically like one hundred million free audio books for your ipod.
i'm seriously in love.
i listened to northanger abbey from logan to draper.
it was bliss.
you should check it out.

and life is, well,
life is good.

"whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal."

kathleen kelly has got it all together, wouldn't you agree?

i walked into my bedroom this evening, noticing the side tables on either side of my bed.

1: my life savings adding up to exactly three dollars and forty seven cents, one of my favorite sketches by van goh in a gold frame, and a plethora of concert tickets stuffed together behind a plate of cheap glass.

2: assorted halloween candy in a neat pile, because i have somehow managed to leave the grocery store with four bags of worthless sugar, and it's only the ninth day of october. my gosh, it's like crack. i indulge before bed time. please don't tell my dentist.

and what does it all say about me, i wonder? well, i don't know just yet. but it looks an awful lot like i'm trying to figure it all out, doesn't it?

adventures in wonderland.

they met on a sunday in june.

it was dusk, and she wore a blue dress that made her eyes bloom.

he was in a suit, wearing it well.
for the first hour of their meet-cute, she couldn't remember his name. not that she thought it was something different, she literally could not find the name she'd been told he owned. it was nowhere in her cranial filing cabinet, and that was frustrating. not because she was in love with him and wanted to sketch it in bubble letters, no. but because she found herself needing to use it.

they sat on grass. it wasn't comfortable or romantic. it was grass.

he was the cheshire cat: wonderful and intriguing. she wouldn't say he preyed on young alices like her, but a strong case could be made for the fact that he did love it when they agreed to follow him.

she did that. she followed him.
on accident, really, but she did have things to say.
things to say in rich, unabashed honesty.
but he was fond only of the dress that fell upon her shoulders, putting innocence to the face he only halfheartedly appreciated.
her name was alice, and the cheshire cat, well, he didn't want her for much other than her dress, and the way that she fit inside it.

alice was in could-have-been with the cheshire cat. she sometimes caught herself watching tennis on television, and wimbledon when it was on, but never thought she'd catch herself in could-have-been with a figure so cryptic, he may as well have been lewis carroll, himself. in fact, she may as well have been fictionally developing, becoming, if you will, in a hell much less certain than even wonderland.
and the worst part of it all?
this man, a tomcat of sorts, has since claimed to be in is-going-to-be with another little girl in a different dress, one that can only be assumed accentuates character traits beyond rosy cheeks and blue eyes. alice knows this because the cheshire cat told her. and he told her because she asked him to. and she asked him to because she didn't want it to be true. and she didn't want it to be true because she believed in magic. and she believed in magic because he kissed her dimple. and that was plenty, believe me.
i mean, her.
believe her.
well, anyway.

he disappeared, the way cheshire cats are known for doing, taking is-going-to-be with him, and leaving the pretty girl in the blue dress behind, along with the hell she'd come to know so well.

alice sat down in the grass, alone.

it wasn't comfortable, or romantic. it was grass.

she thought about how she'd gotten to that point, carefully examining her backtracks, and how she had gotten more lost than she'd already been when all of a sudden, alice remembered her entrance to wonderland, and it became so clear: 

"would you tell me, please, which way i ought to go from here?" asked alice.

"that depends a good deal on where you want to go," said the cat.

"i don't much care where," said alice.

"then it doesn't matter which way you go," the cat said. 

and that was when alice picked up her wit, and learned never to follow the cat, no matter the way he looked in a grey suit. she understood that he may show up, though previously appearing invisible, yes. he may reappear upon her meeting of the mad hatter--a character whom she particularly adored. she knew that she'd beg to get out of wonderland when tea was served that she wasn't fond of, or when she realized her demons in the queen of hearts. for now, though, she was in a place of whimsy, a place she might not be able to journey to years from now, a place she wanted to be, and, well, maybe she wasn't ready to leave, after all. so, she decided to paint the roses red, irresponsibly, until the grass was comfortable. and conditionally romantic, depending on who chose to sit there beside her.
and believe her when she says that it will never again be the cheshire cat.
because today in wonderland, she'd forgotten his name.
and she told me it was blissful. 

*excerpt and concept taken from alice's adventures in wonderland, by lewis carroll.
as for the rest of it, i'm sure it would do you well to read between the lines.  

this just happened:

(taking an oral iclicker quiz in my history of interior furnishings and architecture class.)

the only work michelangelo ever signed was....

person in class: i'm almost 99% sure it was the mona lisa.

...and i'm almost 99% sure it's common knowledge that the mona lisa was painted by da vinci.

if you didn't know that, basically, i just saved you from a lifetime of humiliation. i wish someone would have done the same for the boy sitting behind me. poor guy.

T-75.

today, while i was in best buy, i checked my email.

one was from carter, and it said he'd be home on december the 15th.

first, i squealed. loud.

second, i read on.

he also threatened me with my life if i didn't get him a birthday present.

little does he know, his birthday surprise comes four days later, all the way from russia.

i've been smiling like a fool all day long.

this song takes on a whole new meaning, right?

T-75 & 79 days, party people!

surreal, but nice.

i tried for about three hours to think of something creative to say.

i wrote something, but it's not done.

in fact, it's sitting lonely in my draft bin until i can muster the energy to fix it all up, work out the kinks, you know? i just hate that. 

so, instead of something creative, you're stuck with this...

first, a series of awkward pictures that i took once, and then a bunch of other stuff.

 this is my roommate, cassandra. mostly, i call her samantha. or sam. for no reason at all.

also, those are my favorite pants. they're yellow.

-i can't stop thinking about how i need to get up the canyon. i miss the color change every year. always too busy, or too lazy. not this time. it's happening.
-today, around 2:00, my roommate and i fell asleep on my twin bed, watching a movie. we didn't wake up until 7:30 p.m. ...weirdly, i was comfortable the entire time.
-i keep a large blue quilt pinned up over my bedroom window because it makes my walls glow a certain grey color that only comes on rainy days. and, well, we haven't had one of those in a long, long time. so i fake it.
-all of the boys in my ward wear their white shirts too tight, and gel their hair like pauly-d. i hate socializing with them. a lot. 
-i didn't go to sunday school today. instead, i skipped out to make banana pancakes and eat reese's peanut butter cups.
-i never have homework these days. i hope that changes. can't believe that just came out of my mouth.
-i am now a english major with an emphasis in creative writing. i always think that makes me sound so silly, but i've never felt more myself before, so i'm thinking this is finally it.
-my roommates are constantly drinking green smoothies, and i just think that's gross.
-friday afternoon, i got a letter from a friend in texas addressed to merideth grey. it made me want to marry him.
-this weekend, i went bowling. i asked my roommate to check out my bum, then my cousin's bum, deciding whose was flatter. i won that competition the way i usually do. like a boss.
-i fall asleep to you've got mail almost every single night. 
-i try to avoid people at school. well, just the one, actually... but it hasn't exactly been working. so mostly, i just keep my nose buried in a book and continue across the quad, hoping he won't notice me.
-i need to eat more vegetables. yeah.
-i wish that shania twain would re-popularize.
-one of our roommates broke up with her boyfriend the other day. cassie, mels, and i are more heart broken about it than either party involved. probably because the boy she was dating is our neighbor, and he strongly resembles jacob black. he was usually around on my laundry day, and regularly offered to help. i'm not exactly sure how he thought he could be of service, what with me sorting my delicates and all, but i appreciated the offer. and his sculpted-by-the-gods good looks. too bad, really. 
-turning 21 sounds scary, but i feel comforted in the fact that i'll be able to buy hard alcohol soon.
...just kidding, nance! ;)


that's all.