"Don't say it, I know you're thinking." "No you don't, I was thinking about pantaloons."

The other day I dug out all of  my Guster music that I had and laid around listening to it and remembering all of those wonderful times in high school that I had with my friends. A long time ago I used to associate music with the events in my life, but I've had to stop because there were too many negative things attached with some of my favorite bands and I love music more than the negative things. Now I have gotten over the bad memories and have started listening to older music again, while remembering the good associations I have with it. Guster always brings me back to hockey and suicide sprints on the ice. When I was a sophomore Guster played a show at Higher Ground and a bunch of girls on the team decided to go. The concert was amazing. I remember my boyfriend at the time and I decided to wipe off the black X's that you get for being underage and then getting caught by the venue staff and being forced to go back and get new ones or get kicked out. I remember being in the front row and fall in love for the first time with a musician, Adam Gardner you'll always be my first. I remember when the band started playing Amsterdam that I almost peed my pants and I remember that all of the hockey girls that went to the concert had to spend half of the practice doing suicide sprints while everyone else took shots on goal.

Listen to Guster also made me remember the year I knew all of the words to all of the Coldplay songs that were out at the time. My friend Johnny Mac was obsessed with the band and spent every waking moment listening to them and when we would hang out at his house all we would do is listen to them. One time Johnny, Austin and I made a video of us playing cowboys and Indians (we were probably sixteen at the time) and we used Coldplay in the background. It was two minutes of us shooting Nerf guns at each other and then bouncing off the bed and out of the shot. It was supposed to be us falling off of a cliff, but each one of us looked like we were dancing at the end you could hear the oofs as we all landed on top of each other. I remember Lizzy and I would sing along to Yellow and Clocks and Green Eyes while we pined for our crushes and Katie had to choose between Johnny and Austin. Coldplay reminds me of old friendships and driving fast on dirt roads in purple jeeps.

Once I got through my Coldplay collection I found old Death Cab songs and Rooney. I miss Rooney, I wish they would put out some more music. Back when myspace was a thing I would put little Death Cab quotes all over my page and when everyone thought that Soul Meets Body was such an amazing and prolific song I was bopping around to The Sound of Settling. One day when I was at a friend's house her brother, who was home from prep school, asked if any of us had ever heard of the band Rooney. Being an avid follower of Robert Schwartzman and most of the other Coppolas I was the only one who had hear of Rooney and we started singing I'm Shakin'. It was really cool to know about something that other people hadn't even heard of because back then (and still today) I was always the last to know about anything.

I've been watching old episodes of The O.C. lately and almost all of the bands that I listened to in high school are featured in the series in some way or another. Hearing such amazing music has been making me nostalgic just the tiniest bit for when I younger and things seemed a lot simpler. Sure I still have some of the same issues and insecurities that I had back then, but I've learned a lot about not sweating the small stuff and that there are more important things in life than not getting invited to so and so's party. Of course I'm still in the infancy stages of my life and I have a long ways to go, but I have cultivated a strong group of friends and acquaintances who keep me on track and help me when I fall off of my high heels. 

Today is National Read A Book Day.

September 6th marks National Read a Book Day and I for one am certainly doing so. I fell asleep reading a book last night and somehow the underwear gnomes must have turned my light off for me, thank you gnomes. I am bring a book to work because it can be slow and tonight after my Shakespeare class and some wonderful Yoga X and cleaning my apartment before my parents come I will be back to reading for school and for fun. I love books. Books and reading have done more for me than some people have. It is because of books and reading that I am where I am at right now. So in honor of National Read a Book Day find a book, any book, and take some time to read. It can be anywhere, just let yourself go in the story.

Everyone loves movies.

Last semester I used to watch movie trailers on Hulu when I ran out of television shows, movies and was avoiding doing class work. I like going through the lists of recently added trailers and just watching anything and everything. Hulu posts movie trailers from all kinds of genres and countries, but mostly American and French. I loved spending hours watching clips and previews of movies that I never would have seen or heard about. It also amped me up for all of the awesome movies I saw this summer with my friends. Now that school has started and I am working, most of my time is occupied, but there are still a couple of movies out there that I am excited to see and plan on making time to go see them with some friends.

Tanner Hall

Tanner Hall is a film about girls in a New England boarding school and their struggles with growing up  in an isolated environment. It stars Rooney Mara and Brie Larson, who are excellent actresses in the last few movies I saw them in. Probably something I will see with Marg.

The Debt

This film looks awesome! It's all about a group of Mossad agents who were on a secret mission in 1965 to track down Nazis and how what happened in the past is impacting them now. I'm a huge fan of Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastin, so watching them kick ass as Mossad agents will be awesome. Definitely a guy friend movie thingy. 

The Rum Diary

   

If you're familiar with Hunter S. Thompson and you haven't read The Rum Diaries, then you must. This film stars Johnny Depp and appears to follow to the books closely. I am excited to see how far off course it is and whether or not the trailer was the only part that was true to the book. Either way Johnny Depp looks like he delivers in what looks to be a wild and wonderful movie. 

Like Crazy

I haven't seen Anton Yelchin on screen in awhile and I'm pretty I've never seen him in a romantic film. This one I might wait until it is on Netflix or dvd, but I'm intersted in the story of an American and a foreigner and how immigration laws can come between two people. 

Cracked

This movie is already out on dvd, but I only just saw the trailer. Cracked stars Eva Green in an English boarding school during the 30s. It looks like an interesting thriller set among teenage girls and their beautiful teacher. As soon as I can I want to watch this film. 

Columbiana

This looks like the mother of all ass kicking girl movies. Zoe Saladana stars as a woman out for revenge after seeing her parents murdered at a young age. Zoe is so fierce and amazing looking that I am pretty sure I will be dragging everyone and anyone to see this movie and if no one will come, I am going to see the movie anyways. God I wish I was as cool as Zoe. 

C6STBJ5K67WS

Can we keep it together? We're singing a new song now and everything starts today.

Today just sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks. I unknowingly singed the hair off of one of my fingers when I turned my stove on and kept smelling burnt hair every time I took a sip of my tea. I was so convinced that I had left the stove on or that something invisible was burning in my kitchenette. Silly Sidney, what an idiot.

Work was work as usual. I spent the day walking around like a zombie and as soon as I could I got out of there. I went to Marshalls afterwards and picked up a few things for P90X. I figure if I'm really going to do this I need to push myself and really commit to the program. I'm not going to get fit and skinny just sitting around. I'm also going to add in running this weekend too. I need to improve my endurance for field hockey and ice hockey and pep band. It would be terrible if I passed out in the middle of a basketball just because I didn't have the lung capacity to play my saxophone. Plus no one wants to settle for the chubby girl.

I want to get out of the city. I know school's just begun, but I feel so cramped and overwhelmed little I'm hyperventilating in a space I'm sharing with six million other people. I want to get away and go to the sea. Recently I considered staying here after school and getting an apartment with a friend and continuing on here, but I don't know if I could or why I even entertained silly thoughts like that. I need to get out of here and stretch my wings for a little while. I was going to go away on Monday, but my dad told me to stay here. Maybe I'll just go out to Valley Forge and hike around for the day.

I heard this song on the radio this morning. I love Guster, why did I stop listening to them?

How many problems can you have Marshall? You're twenty-five years old.

I just finished watching Ceremony, a small indie film on Netlflix. It stars Uma Thurman (Zoe) as a woman preparing to marry her documentary making finance and Michael Angarano (Sam) as a Holden Caulfield-esque younger man who goes to try and thwart Zoe's wedding. Sam disguises his plans by bringing along his friend Marshall, played by Reece Thompson, in an attempt to rekindle their friendship. The weekend turns into a lesson on love and friendship for Sam as things fall apart and he realizes that while his love for Zoe was pure and true, he was only a phase in Zoe's life that she eventually tired of. This film was beautifully done with great lines and wonderful acting. I read an article about how Jesse Eisenberg was originally cast as Sam with Michael Angarano as Marshall. As much as I adore Jesse Eisenberg I don't think he could have done the part justice. Angarao played the part with complete recklessness, delusion, and a beautiful purity of someone who just wants to love and do anything to be loved like that in return and is yet completely selfish and unaware to those closest to him. Think Catcher in the Rye if Holden was in his mid twenties. Sam's relationship with Marshall was also endearing and amusing as two best friends who have lost touch with each other and are beginning to reconnect despite their own problems and the wedding weekend. The supporting cast was also brilliant and well played. Taking place on the ocean in fall, with an amazing and subtle soundtrack, Ceremony was well worth the time.

"I am not going to be a pathetic supporting character in your unoriginal story. You are not Holden Crawford!"

Today I also completed my fist week of classes. I am so excited about the courses that I can barely contain myself. We haven't begun much work yet, but the professors, the course material, the books, and my classmates are wonderful. I have all new professors from last semester, a testament to how much larger the English department is at Saint Joe's than the Physics department. Of course I do have one twice and the classes happen to be back to back. He's great though, very enthusiastic about the material and eager to educate and share his knowledge. He is even having us write a blog in one of my classes instead of just writing a weekly journal. I prefer this because even though I love contributing to my log book, I am more comfortable writing longer pieces on a keyboard and being able to incorporate pictures, links, and movie clips will be the cherry on top of it all. Right now we are reading Beowulf, my second time, and even though my professor is not jumping around the desks reciting the poem, he is educating us on the language and the history of the poem. Today I learned what a kenning was. Example: "whale-road" is the ocean. Awesome literary technique, way to go Anglo-Saxons, way to go.

My senior English class in high school had a private screening of this. We spent the entire movie yelling out the inaccuracies at the screen and making comments about how riduculous Angelina Jolie's character was as Grendel's mother. It was a jolly time, if a bit uneducational.

On a more serious note, I have to take the time this weekend to clean out my closet and pack up all of my gentle worn and no longer needed clothing to send home with my mother back to Vermont. My parent's how was almost untouched and because our town is high enough in the mountains it escaped what could have been a lot of devastating damage. Unfortunately a lot of people were not as lucky including the town of Waterbury, which is right before Stowe. You have to drive through the small town when you get off the interstate to get to Stowe. Waterbury is situated in a small valley where several rivers come together and join the Winooski. Because of the low laying land many homes and business where damaged beyond repair. People are now gathering what they can to donate to the people in need until the can get back on their feet. Fortunately it is still warm in Vermont, if this had happened a month or two later, it could have been much more serious.

Waterbury. There is a road under all that water. 

Stowe.

Downtown Waterbury.

Homes underneath the water. 

The river has crested the bank and washed away the roads and almost the bridge in the background.

Downtown Waterbury. The restaurant in the right corner was called the Alchemist. It was completely devastated and will mostly likely remain closed. 

More information about the damage in Vermont and how it will affect the fall: 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/08/31/opinion/parini-irene-hits-vermont/index.html?hpt=us_mid

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/02/us-storm-irene-vermont-idUSTRE7814VL20110902

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2011/09/02/in_vermont_helicopters_ferry_supplies_to_those_stranded_by_irene/

Tip of the day: Don’t smash your face!

It's only Wednesday, but I'm pretty sure that I have already summed up my entire fall semester. Of course I haven't had my Liz Bloch-Smith class yet or my nonfiction workshop yet so my tune will probably change by tomorrow, plus I haven't started field hockey, pep band or hockey yet either. Today however, my fall semester looks like it is going to be very nice. I just wish I could get my sleep schedule down to where it needs to be. Lately I've either been having too little sleep pr too much. Last night I fell asleep fairly early (before 11pm) and then woke up promptly at 6am. I tried to fall back to sleep and then almost overslept my class. It's frustrating, but it's better than the usual beginning of the year pregnancy scare (no worries mom, it's always from irrational stress not the other reason).

I'm a couple weeks into P90X now and I am pleased to say that I have successfully made it through all of Phase One's workouts without having to stop and take a break. Now I do have full intensity through all of them. Plyometric definitely kills and by the end I am barely getting off of the floor, but I can get all of the way through it and maintain ballet feet too. Go me. I'm not really sure how school is going to affect my Tony Horton time other than that I know it's going to take a hit. I've been able to manage it with work and weekend fun, but throw in school too and I'm going to struggle. It's all good as we Purnells say or no worries like my Hebrew Friend will tell you.

In other news I am up to twelve pairs of lacies. I know it's a random segue from school to underwear, but these are the things that are on my mind right now. I got three from Hailey while I was at work. After I got them I spent the rest of the shift showing them off (not on) to all of the hostesses and made Take Out Boy watch over them until I was finished waiting tables. The other day I dragged a friend in with me when I picked out another set. He actually came in willingly and then spent most of the time amusing himself with the body sprays. My friend was helpful in picking out colors though, it was very nice of him.

Today's band: The Boxer Rebellion
Today's book: The Portable Dorothy Parker
Today's nail color: Stiletto Red 

I'm just going to come out and say it, you were kind of a prostitute.

I'm finally sleepy tonight at a fairly early hour (early for me) too. As soon as I finish this post I am turning and sleeping in in the morning. Tomorrow was supposed to be the start of classes, but with the storm damage classes have been delayed until Tuesday, yay! So in the meantime I am going to write about the things that make me happy. Just a little something to think about in spite of all of the ickiness outside. So here are five things that make me happy, in no particular order:

1. Seneca apple chips. I love these things, especially the granny smith kind. They're better than the puffed apples that the Amish women make because they are crispier and tart. I love them better than potato chip or corn chips or pretty much any other kind of chip. I always get real excited when I see them in the supermarket and end up buying more than one bag.

2. Greeting cards. I love greeting cards so much. I try to find any occasion to give them out to my friends. I just think that there's still something so poetic about cards, especially the ones that I hand make. One of my friends has her birthday on Valentine's Day and every year I give her a mess of birthday and Valentine's cards as a part of her gift. Greeting cards, well really cards in general, are a great way to brighten up a person's day.

3. My bed. My bed is awesome! It's a full (a little small) with a cast iron bed frame that has been painted antique white. Right now I have cream flannel sheets and six pillows and two comforters. It's great when the air is cold because I will snuggle down underneath the blankets and pillows where it's all soft and fluffy and fall asleep for hours. So much wonderful sleep.

4. Snow days. We don't see as many snow days in Philadelphia as I did up in Vermont, but the ones down here are pretty epic. Last winter we had a couple of good ones where the city was completely crippled by the weather, but everything was all white and sparkly. It was so pretty outside and the best part is that school was canceled. Unfortunately it's hard to find someone to go for walks or make a mess in the snow with me.

5. Matt & Kim. Matt & Kim is the most epic music duo ever. One of my most favorite concerts at the First Unitarian was a Matt & Kim show. My ipod has a smart list dedicated to them and whenever I'm feeling a bit blue or lethargic I put on some Matt & Kim and dance around. They have helped get me up and down between Philadelphia and Vermont when I'm driving late at night. I share them with everyone I meet and everyone loves them too.