FCUK it
06.29.05
Song of the Day: Bon Jovi - You Give Love A Bad Name
I must have this shirt. I've wanted a FCUK shirt forever and ever, after first visiting their Pasadena store a few years ago, and it never occurred to me that there actually might be a store in Chicago. 'Cause Chicago is totally hip like that. You will notice that there isn't a store in Ohio. See, Ohio may get H&M and Sephora, but it will never get a FCUK.
And they even have a logo shirt specifically for my city. With the influx of tourists lately, I've suddenly felt sorry for anyone who doesn't live here. I watch all the visitors walking up and down Michigan Avenue, and I think, "I'm so sorry you all have to leave!" It's become unfathomable to me why anyone would choose not to live here. Why would anyone choose, say, Ohio, with its lack of FCUK stores, over Chicago?
09:42 PM [link]
Crispy golden brown
06.27.05
Song of the Day: Robyn - Handle Me
I am the prettiest color right now. I've got this golden glow that far surpasses any tan I've ever had in terms of prettiness and intensity. And the best part is, I didn't have to bake myself under a cancer bulb to get it, and it was far less of a hassle to get it than using a fake tanner.
I've been using Jergen's Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer - after a shower, I just slather it on all over like I normally do with lotion, and voila, I'm no longer bone white. It's like magic, I swear. I'm sure that people look at me now and think that I'm just normal looking, since I'm so terribly pale usually, but whenever I look in the mirror, I'm like, "Hellooo sun goddess!"
09:54 AM [link]
The Deaf One
06.25.05
Song of the Day: Black Eyed Peas - My Humps
Amy informed me yesterday that her cell phone is set up so that when I call her, "The Deaf One" pops up on the screen.
Only she could get away with something like that.
10:39 PM [link]
Oops
06.24.05
Song of the Day: All Saints - Black Coffee
I am, rather unintentionally, in the middle of a five-day weekend.
Yes, I skipped class two days in a row. How could I be so damn lazy, you ask?
Wednesday afternoon, I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with each parent. I looked up at the clock at one point and realized that I should have left for class about ten minutes ago. Oops. Given the pajama-ish state I was in, there was no way being on time was happening. It's the class where there are 119 other students and a complete lack of anything resembling an attendance-taking routine, so no big deal.
Thursday afternoon, I got to the bus stop at 4:30. This is about 5 or 10 minutes earlier than normal, but I'd been cutting it close the last few times due to severe rush hour traffic in the middle of downtown. The 151 is supposed to come every 3 to 12 minutes. At 5:10, I was still standing there, only in a much more agitated and exasperated state. I finally gave up when I realized that there was no way I could walk into class obnoxiously late and maintain my dignity; the prof would much rather we don't show than rudely come in over a half hour late. I never intended to ever skip this class, and I'm more than a little annoyed that my perfect track record is marred now. We're given three absences before our lack of participation starts to hurt our grade, and I'm never even going to consider using the other two, but still.
I still can't figure out where the bloody bus was. What the hell?
I have decided, in a fit of uber-analness, that every song in my iPod must be rated, and that I must give each song a listen before I can even think about what rating it deserves. I have 4204 songs on it currently. According to the counter, this is 11 days, 19 hours, 19 minutes, and 4 seconds worth of music. It's very possible that about 1/4 of the way through, I'll realize that I'm just a friggin' silly goof, but for now, it's keeping me amused.
And speaking of iPods, my dad informed me the other day (while I was inadvertently skipping class) that he is now "hip" because he just purchased one. He cracks me up.
04:01 AM [link]
Happy birthday to me...
06.21.05
Song of the Day: TLC - Damaged
Since I'm completely shameless: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY. Bow down to me.
Are grandmas allowed to send birthday cards that say, "Hope you have one helluva damn fine day!"? My grandma is so funny.
And who knew that when the hawt guy said he'd call me today, he really meant at the stroke of midnight to try to be the first to say "Happy birthday," and to offer to take me out after class tonight? I accepted, of course. ; )
I should not be having to do schoolwork today.
02:55 PM [link]
Unfounded fears
06.20.05
Song of the Day: Tina Turner - When The Heartache Is Over
My fears from two entries ago seem to have been entirely unfounded. Whatever words I would use to describe last night's date, "boring" is certainly not one of them. A guy who buys me ice cream, is getting his PhD, has a totally hot body, and seems incapable of not talking is a totally charming thing in my book. And I think he likes me; he says he's going to call me on Tuesday to wish me a happy birthday. [stage whisper] pssssst, my birthday is Tuesday, the 21st [/stage whisper]
But that's all you'll get out of me on that topic, unless I love you enough to tell you all the juicy, gossipy details. Y'all know who you are.
Nothing is more startling than being in the shower and hearing the smoke alarm go off. Picture me dashing out of the shower, dripping water everywhere, to check if I left the stove on (which I had not), and then standing under the smoke alarm yelling at it to shut up. It's moments like that when I wish I had someone living with me, or at least a really smart dog, who could figure out why it was going off and how to make it be quiet. Given that my apartment has not burned down yet, I'm assuming it was steam from the shower, although this is definitely not the first shower I've taken in the year I've been living here. Weird.
02:37 AM [link]
Ouch
06.19.05
Song of the Day: Hilary Duff - Someone's Watching Over Me
Last night I decided to perform major surgery on my eyebrows, which led me to realize that for the last few months, they'd been in scary shape. Oops. I figure, you can't really blame me for not wanting to rip hair off my face on a regular basis, but I really need to stay on top of them a little bit more than I have.
Something that I don't get: I hear horror stories all the time of people who over-pluck and then get stuck with misshapen eyebrows because they won't grow back anymore. I had a sorority sister who, in high school, decided it was really cool to pluck out all her eyebrows so she could draw them on with makeup. She later realized that wasn't such a cool thing to do, but by that point, her eyebrows had stopped growing back in. So how is it that I, who have waxed and plucked since I was 14, still get stuck with eyebrows that grow back in at a rapid rate? You would think that after eight years of being yanked out, the hair would say, "Okay, I get the hint, I'm unwanted."
Oh well. At least I look pretty again.
01:38 PM [link]
Scott
06.16.05
Song of the Day: U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
So lately I've been thinking about dating, and all that it entails, and I've realized what my biggest dating fear is: that the guy is going to be a snore. Or just plain dumb.
Boring dates make me think of Scott. Scott was a friend of Shannon's boyfriend at the time. Shannon and I went to meet up with her boyfriend and a bunch of his friends one night, and Scott must have noticed me, because the next thing I knew, Shannon's boyfriend was whispering to me that Scott really wanted to give me a ride on the back of his sports bike. I accepted, more for the excuse of wrapping my arms around a hot guy than for any interest in motorcycles. We went out on three dates after that.
Scott was gorgeous; he looked like a Backstreet Boy. He had bright blue eyes and this slightly-long sandy blonde hair. He was somewhere around six years older than me, and he owned his own landscaping company and a pickup truck. He did all the right things; he would call me simply to say "goodnight", he would give me these huge bear hugs, and he told me that I was the most adorable girl he'd ever met.
Scott was also dreadfully boring.
I think I'm pretty good at having conversations. I can talk to a brick wall. When there's no one around, I talk out loud to myself, and often answer myself. There was no carrying a conversation with Scott. I asked him what got him into the landscaping business. Him: "I don't remember." Me: "Was it a hobby? Did you have friends who got you started in it?" Him: "I don't know." That pretty much sums up his response to everything I asked him. And he wasn't doing much as far as trying to carry a conversation himself. The fact that he thought I was adorable stunned me, since he didn't provide many opportunities for me to show off my adorable side.
I gave him two dates past the first one in the hopes that he was just warming up to me, and that eventually his talkative, exciting side would come out. Nopes, no such luck. When he called me for a fourth date, I told him I was going out with Shannon that night, and then his phone calls died away.
Plus, every time I said something about him to Shannon, Shannon would tell her boyfriend, who would, in turn, tell Scott. That was quite possibly the most drama I've ever encountered in my life, which should tell you that I'm a rather non-dramatic person.
What's the moral of this story? Life is unfair; it's totally unfair that totally hot, older men with pickup trucks who call just to say goodnight can be boring. Let's hope that I've paid my dues when it comes to boring men.
11:57 PM [link]
I want to just pick up and go to Europe too...
06.15.05
Song of the Day: Backstreet Boys - Climbing The Walls
Thing that drives me nuts #1724: The way Matt seems to think going on exotic vacations is no big deal. He's currently in Europe, and I only discovered this when he casually mentioned it in the middle of a conversation about his ex-girlfriend. If I got to go to Europe, I'd be screaming it at the top of my lungs to everyone I know. His laid-back attitude about it reminds me of a conversation we had about a year ago:
Matt: (talking about a girl he was hitting on) "So I told her that I would call her when I got back from Iceland."
Me: "Matthew! That's awful. Surely she saw right through that. Iceland, of all places?"
Matt: "No, I really am going to Iceland next week."
Me: "...Oh."
How was I supposed to know? It sounded like some bizarre "I have to wash my hair tonight" excuse. Maybe I'm just too cynical.
10:59 PM [link]
I'm just not that high maintenance
06.14.05
Song of the Day: Colette - What's Wrong With Being Lonely
So it's that time of the year again when I'm reminded of how painfully pale I am. Every year, I wonder, "Should I mess with self-tanning lotions?" Tanning in the sun is out of the question - it never does me much good anyways, and I'd rather not look 50 when I'm 30. So the only other option is self-tanning cream, but then there's the issue of how difficult it would be to make my entire body one even color. Plus, every time you shave, you take off the layer of skin that's affected, which means that I'd have to re-fake it every other day.
I'm just not that high maintenance. I always come to the conclusion that I am how I am, and you while you never see Nicole Kidman with a tan, you certainly never think less of her because of it.
11:05 PM [link]
Who knew puking was attractive?
06.13.05
Song of the Day: Minnie Driver - Learn To Be Lonely
My sister reminded me today about the time she threw up on a guy on their first date at an amusement park. He was a total gentleman about it; apparently being puked on is endearing. Maybe I need to try something like that the next time I'm on a date.
I went a little nuts at the bookstore this weekend; I picked up Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, William Thackery's Vanity Fair, Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, and John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany. The latter two were books I was required to read in high school, and their full impact didn't hit me until after I finished them. I've been dying to read them again to fully appreciate them.
A Prayer For Owen Meany, aside from being the only book I bought that was written after 1900, is the eeriest thing I've ever read. I never understood why my AP Lit prof made us read it after a year of Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, John Milton, and Dostoevsky, but I'm glad she did. It's about a kid who believes he's an instrument of God. I don't remember spending much classtime discussing it, but I don't think I would have had anything to say if we had; after reading it, I Keanu Reeved and could only say, "...Woah." I totally and completely recommend it.
With all these books I've been reading lately, I need to throw up some new entries in the Opinions section. It's been horribly neglected.
03:28 AM [link]
No day but today
06.12.05
Song of the Day: Rent Cast - Seasons Of Love
I've watched this several times now, and each time I watch it, I get more and more excited.
Rent. The movie. This fall. I express my happiness in the Kallurian way: IEIEIEIEIEIEIEIE!
The amazingness of the trailer and the fact that most of the original Broadway cast are reprising their roles makes me believe that there is no possible way this could suck. It was breathtaking onstage, and it looks like it's shaping up to be breathtaking on the screen.
I'm dying to go see another Broadway show right now; Wicked is here until September, and The Woman In White is here this winter. I just finished reading TWIW yesterday, and I must insert some gushing here: every time I read a new 19th century British novel (or we can say, European, to include Alexandre Dumas), my love for the genre grows by leaps and bounds. I can't believe I'd never heard of Wilkie Collins before now, but what a magnificent writer. [/gushing]
02:00 AM [link]
Pixel toucher!
06.10.05
Song of the Day: U2 - Walk On
It's not every day that I get mail addressed to "The Brooke In Chicago" that contains another envelope addressed to "Pixel Toucher."
Cheers to friends who have such wonderfully funny boyfriends. Congrats on graduating, Staid, but you're just jealous that I get to touch your girlfriend's pixels.
The Brooke is off to finish a book. Ciao.
03:36 PM [link]
Zombie me
06.09.05
Song of the Day: Whitney Houston - How Will I Know?
For the last week, I haven't been getting tired until about 4 in the morning, and haven't been able to fall asleep until about an hour or two after that, and then I find myself waking up around 10 in the morning and being ready to get up. Normally, this small amount of sleep would be killing me, but I've been functioning fine and I haven't even desired a nap at any point. There is only one possible conclusion for these strange, new sleeping habits: I must be a zombie.
11:28 PM [link]
*speechless*
06.08.05
Song of the Day: Poe - Another World
I'm breaking my rule of not posting more than once per day in order to scream...
I GOT A FUCKING "A" IN MY JUSTICE CLASS.
An A, not an A-, a full and complete A, on the forced curve, which before now I had thought was a near impossibility in law school...
And that sucker gave one to ME.
I'm stuck between being speechless and not being able to stop shrieking.
Granted, I would feel much more elated if I'd gotten the A in a non-BS class, but my GPA won't know the difference. I was already so proud of the B+ in Property this semester, but this just makes it all so much better.
Wow. That's all I have left to say. Wow.
04:02 PM [link]
I don't actually love you, sorry
06.08.05
Song of the Day: Shakira - Escondite Ingles
The postal store's only option in stamps today were ones that said "I love you" on them. I really hope I don't have to use them to mail something to someone I dislike. It might have been amusing to use them when paying bills, but I've recently discovered the wonders of online bill payments. It makes it feel like I'm not even spending money, until that rude awakening when I get my bank statement.
I bought three CDs today, and I consider it a successful purchase since I only left off two songs from each CD when I put them on my iPod. The mix of genres couldn't be more different: I bought the new ones from Coldplay, Shakira, and Courtney Jaye (a mix of country and pop with a Hawaiian influence, strangely, yet beautifully, enough). For those who know my musical tastes, the Coldplay purchase surprises me as much as it probably surprises everyone else, but I found myself strangely attracted to the clips on Amazon. After reading the reviews, I realized why I enjoyed this one but not their past efforts - this one actually has some bite to it to keep me from falling asleep.
I also bought pink heels today, finally. They're a cotton candy metallic color with pink jewels on them. They are, quite simply, beautiful.
04:09 AM [link]
I object
06.07.05
Song of the Day: Anastacia - Sick and Tired
My Monday/Wednesday night class continues to improve as more people skip. This is because there are 120 students in the class, and exactly 120 chairs. I've never been in a class where I couldn't spread my stuff out into one of the seats next to me. When both people who sit next to me are in class, I feel like I can't even move my elbows without bumping into someone.
Regardless of how many people are present, the class is absolutely draining. I swear the professor must have ADHD or something. He speaks so fast I can barely keep up with him, and he flies all over the room and then suddenly shouts, "OBJECTION!" while rapidly pounding his fist on the podium. After two hours and ten minutes of this, I'm ready to run out of there as fast as I can.
He's also been assigning 100+ pages out of the textbook for every class, which makes me want to strangle him. However, I suppose it's actually pretty reasonable since the summer schedule is squashed into half the amount of time that the regular semesters are, making each class meeting worth one full week of class.
I could really use a martini and a backrub. Where are the cabana boys when you really need one?
01:04 AM [link]
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes...
06.06.05
Song of the Day: Anastacia - Left Outside Alone
Here's a bit of nostalgia that I'm sure Shannon can appreciate:
The very first song I ever owned just popped onto my iPod - Ace of Base's The Sign. I totally remember sitting in the basement of Shannon's old house watching a tape that had the music video and interviews with the band members or something of the sort on it.
I'm not even sure how old the song is, but the fact that we were in Shannon's old house and the fact that I owned this on cassette means that we were quite young.
Gotta love the iPod's "shuffle" function. It's like insta-memories.
01:19 AM [link]
I gots me some stuffs to do now!
06.03.05
Song of the Day: Robyn - Don't Stop The Music
Just an hour of poking around online has gotten me excited about this summer. Right in my area, I have found a nature museum, a conservatory, a zoo, two farmer's markets, a different art fair each weekend (including one that ranks 19th out of 250 national art festivals), and walking tours of Lincoln Park, Goldcoast, and Old Town put on by the Chicago Historical Society. Plus there's Old Town in and of itself, which I haven't been to yet, for reasons unknown to me, and all sorts of different theatrical productions, including Wicked, which I would simply kill to see. I would also kill to see the Chicago Botanic Garden, but despite its name, it is not actually in Chicago, and is impossible to get to without a car. Which I do not have. Sigh.
What this all means is that this summer, I shouldn't have many weekends where I don't have something new and exciting to do. And I have Sex and the City to thank for this. I can hear Shannon repeating what she told me earlier about there being groups to help with my obsession, but I'm quite serious here. I would have been reluctant to go off and do all these things by myself if Carrie hadn't done it herself, saying, "The city is my date."
So there you go. I have a hot date every weekend this summer, and its name is Chicago. Sure, he won't buy me dinner, or open doors for me, but I'm an independent girl and can do that all myself. Although if someone wants to join me, that would be awesome too. Especially if that someone needs a break from working at Cache so she can check out the one-of-a-kind shops in Old Town with me. *wink wink nudge nudge*
02:04 AM [link]
House of Leaves
06.02.05
Song of the Day: Deborah Cox - Something Happened On The Way To Heaven
This is an order:
Go read Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves. It's the creepiest thing I've ever read, right down to the fact that I brought it up on a message board on the very same day that, unbeknownst to me, Melantha started rereading it. It's been at least a year since I read it, probably more like two years, and I still get very physical chills down my spine when I think about it.
And for God's sake, if a doorway ever suddenly appears in your house, don't go in it. Who does something like that?
11:05 PM [link]
