1. You know it's a good day of writing when you are sitting in the middle of Starbucks crying. I think my memoir experiment is going to work out.
2. I bought a hot chocolate from the machine at school the other day. It gave me a tannish hot water. Yuck.
3. Quarter Pounders do not taste as good as Royal with Cheeses.
4. I watched Pimp My Ride last night and they tricked out an ice cream truck. That was awesome.
5. and...yeah... GO ILLINI!!!
two conversations with scott, just 'cause:
Scott: umm
Scott: so
Scott: we go from syrupy sex to polariod cameras....what the heck are you planning?
(for the record, I was talking about my hot chocolate, which turned into me talking about how sex and chocolate sauce go well together, then i randomly started talking about my poloroid camera)
Val: i need a boyfriend because i keep seeing trailors for movies i want him to take me to
Scott: LOL
Scott: you are so a girly girl
Scott: its not even funny
(for the record yes, yes i am a girlygirl)
I just got back from my interview.
I have never been stepped on, poked, and bumped into that much anywhere else in my life.
I guess that's what you get if you work for the blind.
The job is someone to do PR work for an organization that assists the blind.
It seems OK but not completely what I want and its in an awkward area that is harder to get to.
we'll see. i haven't interviewed in a while and forgot how much i hate stupid interview questions.
I just got home and am already back in my pajamas.
1. I am a brunette:
2. I have my first interview tomorrow!!!
BEST COMMERCIAL EVER!
Hehe, this commercial for yahoo is seriously one of the funnies commercials ever! I laughed for entirely too long.
WORST COMMERCIAL EVER
OK, so I guess I give them some credit for telling things a little more truthfully and taking a new approach, but this anti-drug commercial is one of the most pro-drug commercials I have ever seen. Seriously the first time I saw it I stared blankly at the screen for a minute trying to figure out if it was pro or anti and if it was pro, how the hell they let it on the air.
(for one of the best anti-drug commercials, click here!)
Proof that I am the Secretary of Defense:
Proof that I played Guitar Hero:
(those two pics I stole from Christine)
Yeah, yeah, I've been lazy (or maybe busy with school and such) and never got around to posting these.
HERE ARE MY PICS FROM MY TRIP TO SEE ROB IN D.C.!
I also updated my photography page with links to all my photo pages.
Click here for all my photos!
1. A link for Rob, Alina...
I'm sure everyone wants to combine their favorite movie with their favorite pastime, right? So...
SNAKES ON A SUDOKU!
2. A link for MattyK
Umm, yeah, this is not safe for work. This just really made me think of Matt. Umm, he probably doesn't want to click this link though...
HOW TO FIX A CAR!
I love to bake!
Today I made homemade pumpkin raisin cookies with a pumpkin glaze.
Yummymcyumyum.
Oh, I also drove my dad's SUV this morning. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Although I could never find my speed gauge because my Saturn Ion has ruined me (my car has all the gauges in the middle of the dashboard).
Anyways, in the afternoon ScottyMcHotty and KennyK (MattyK's brother) had a bbq! Yayfoodandpeopleing.
Earlier in the day I asked JoeJoe if he was coming. He had no idea what I was talking about. I told him I saw his name on the email Scott sent. He still had no idea what I was talking about. I looked at the email and apparently Scott had sent it to his waywayway old aol account. JoeJoe laughed about this and I told him to come because technically he was invited :)
So JoeJoe came, and ScottyMcHotty, and KennyK, and Robert (pronounced as the French would say it) and Becca and later Karen and Tracy, Karyn, and Rich. Becca made a really good cheesy dip thing.mmm. People liked my cookies. Rich said I looked like Kirsten Dunst. We all spilled things all over the new table and carpet (I spilled soda, Joe spilled cheese and ice, Ken and Scott hit a cup of coffee and sent it all over the place playing table hockey with styrophome plates...). We are bad. I played Ken at Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the Nintendo and he only slightly kicked my ass. It was a good game to play because my normal strategy of hitting all the buttons at once seemed to be the way to go.
On my way home I somehow accidentally got on a highway. I had to get off right away because I had no idea where to go. I had to pay a toll to get off of it. Sucks.
"I Want a Famous Face" is on MTV right now. This show hasn't been on in forever.
MattyK's friends Adam and Jess were in town so we went to meet them at Parallel 42. mmmwine, although they got rid of my entire sweet dessert wine section. Nosweetforval. JoeJoeJoe and Brandana came too! yaypeopleinawinebar (p.s. i am not drunk at all) i had three wines. one was a pink flamingo something that was supposed to taste like the meditterranean seaside (there was no seaweed in it) and one from illinois and one from iowa. the last two were on the house because they totally rock someone's socks off.
highlights:
-y'all refers to two people, all y'all refers to more than two.
-if MattyK buys a triumph in england the only thing different is the steering wheel is on the wrong side. Which means that the pedals are still on the other side. eep!
-there are more than two types of grapes? i know red and white. sometimes they are seedless.
-MK shouldn't wear a matching triumph shirt and hat. good thing he forgot to bring his matching purse.
-parallel 42 is on parallel 42. after a long debate on this i noticed it said that right on the menu
-i road in an mg which is loud and smelly and messes my hair that i took hours and hours and hours on (hehehe)
-"fucking awesome" is a category in the wine bible, or so i hear
-iowa wine smells like...well...iowa
-mk drank his paris wine too early, but i would have probably cried if he didn't drink it
-adam likes to keep me around because he says i don't tell as many jokes as mk, but i tellones that are three times better :)
-shhhh, i am not drunkish
As of this morning.
Officially.
At least for now.
I am no longer writing a novel.
Not that I have really been writing a novel for the last two years.
For those of you who don't know, here is the story behind this.
Three years ago, as a senior in college, I took a narrative writing class. One of my assignments for this class was to write a short story, around 15 pages. I turned in 72. While everyone else in the class got workshopped for half a class period at most, my teacher gave my story two entire class periods and I got the only A+ in the entire class.
Over the next year I worked on that story and got it to about 200 pages. And then it stopped. I'd often go to Starbucks with my laptop and try to write more and to rewrite but it never really turned up anything new. So basically, for the last two years, I have been at a standstill.
I am no longer writing a novel.
What I am writing now, is a memoir.
I cannot say what my story is about. But I can say that that novel was heavily based on my life, but told through fiction. I have always wanted to write it as memoir but could never really think of a way to make it work as I didn't think I could remember enough of the details and I thought if I told it linearly it would be way too monotonous.
And then this morning I woke up and somehow it all came together in my head. I think I figured out a way to do it. I think. I hope. All I know if for the first time in a long time I was really excited about grabbing my laptop and heading off to Starbucks and getting this stuff on the page. Maybe I'm just a narcissist, or maybe I just know that it might be more powerful if it's entirely told through the truth and I don't try to hide between fictional characters.
I'll see how this goes. If it doesn't go well, I will return to my novel. I just know that I need to tell this story. I need to tell my story.
Stop the world.
My mom has a cell phone.
It is one of those prepaid ones and she has been instructed to keep it off unless she has to make a call. My dad programmed in our home number and her work number and showed her how to go to that. She will forget.
...
DePaul is now a Pepsi school. That makes me sad. What will especially be missed is the Coke machine that, after putting in my $1.25, would often give me five bottles of coke.
...
The CTA has an ad campaign called "Don't be Jack" Basically it is little stick figures talking loudly and spraying graffiti and such:
(only pics I could find online, sucky quality)
Remind you of anything???
(the inline posters i designed 5 years ago)
From this I have determined that...
a) I am a marketing genious.
b) I should sue the CTA
...
All I have been doing lately is homework and job applying and searching all over for my damn missing health insurance cards (I got them in the mail a few days ago and they have disappeared off the face of the planet). Hopefully things will change soon and I will be back to my normal blogging adventures.
the best thing about going out in your pajamas is that when you get home you are already in your pajamas.
the best reason to wear your pajamas out is when MattyK invites you over at 11 at night to go take a shower with him and he lets you come over anyways even if you won't take a shower.
"I'm a Valuum"
"You suck"
and i smell like a boy, ick.
...
JoeJoe, after I asked him to be my reference to a job as a nude model i tried to apply for: "ill say you look better naked than with clothes on"
Friday: Starbucks with Nadia
Saturday: Starbucks with Jenny, Adam, Josh, and Jennifer
...
In other news, who else thinks Sid needs THIS TATTOO???
I decided today that i need to be in the city. Not that I hadn't already decided that, but today it is for certain. Two main things sparked this:
1. I was on campus for the first time in a long time and was surrounded by people sort of my own age. You don't get that in the burbs. I want to be at least semi-closer to my school and to that feeling of walking around your campus.
2. JoeJoe signed himself a lease in Lincoln Park. So I'll actually have a friend here.
Now, to find a job to pay for it...
...
I started school again tonight. Only three courses till I have my masters! It was a personal essay class, my third essay class with this particular professor. She is probably one of my favorite teachers that I've ever had and creative nonfiction is the area of writing I am most concentrated on. I sometimes think of ditching my novel in progress and turning it into a memoir. Not in the James Frey sort of way. I mean taking out all the fiction and solely writing what went on in my life, not just passing it off as truth as is. I don't think I could make it work though. My fictional alter ego will have to live on.
I think i really want this dress for Jen's wedding:
She said she wants all the bridesmaids to just buy any black dress they want. I like this plan as I could definatly wear a dress like this again and again and again. It's from J Crew and one of few dresses I have seen that I actually like better in black then in brown or another color. Alas, I probably shouldn't buy a dress until she actually gets engaged...
1. My dad bought me a laser level. It's my favorite thing ever and I haven't even used it yet. Yes, I am that excited over this.
2. I need to move out soon because my dad bought a new entertainment center and had to rearrange the furniture in the living room and its all screwed up because my couch that I won't let anyone use is totally in the way. Yes, I own a couch already.
3. My sisters came over today and we were all going to see a movie. I somehow convinced them that instead of something quality we should go see Accepted. It rocked. It made me sad though that I didn't have a great college experience of saying fuck it all and following all the things I really wanted to do and pretty much wasted four years on a crappy degree. Yes, I got all this from a dumb college movie.
4. Nat and Jen apparently decided that if Jen gets cancer and is going to die they are going to harvest Jen's eggs so I can carry her child so her spirit lives on. Then I can write a book about it and get on Oprah. They decided that Tori Spelling will play me in the made for TV movie. This is because most real stars won't appear on TV movies. It was either her, Tracey Gold, or Kelly Martin. I chose the lesser evil. Yes, these are the things we discuss.
Me: so, were you in your underwear all day?
JoeJoe: ha - no
JoeJoe: shorts until i realized the basement is cold
Me: hehe
Me: i want a job where i can wear underwear
JoeJoe: and you're telling me you can't find that in 5 seconds on google?
Me: hehe
Me: so you, as my consultant, are suggesting i get into internet porn?
JoeJoe: officially, yes
Me: ok, joejoe is the devil consultant on my shoulder
JoeJoe: yay!
JoeJoe: and now you've answered the elusive question, what does a consultant do?
Me: hehe, a consultant is a pimp
So tonight I finally went to go see that educational movie on the effects of reptiles on the travel industry. That's right, two weeks after it was the thing to do, I finally found someone to see Snakes on a Plane with (granted said someone was out of town for weeks) and he got two more people to see it yay!
First I accompanied JoeJoe to Kohls where he bought luggage (no, he didn't think we were really going on a snake filled plane, he needs it for work. If he thought we were battling snakes he would have bought a machete, duh). He refused to buy the hot pink or the purple or the old lady tapestry print one and settled on boring ole black (side note, you probably should never take me shopping with you as I will spend the whole time pointing out the stupidest things I see). I saw a set of pans I totally want though. It was a Rachael Ray set with cushy orange handles, so cute! Alas, I have no extra income and already have a set of Naked Chef pans.
Anyways, after our shopping trip we headed off to the movie. We got there a bit early and while sitting around I noticed the poster that explained what movie ratings meant:
It kind of made me sad when I saw that the bunny got to watch movies up to PG-13, while the giraffe could only see a G-rated film. It made me lose it when I noticed the strange child molester who showed up in the NC-17 category but apparently was not allowed in any of the other types of movies.
Anyways...so, Joe and I are waiting and we can't get in touch with MK, and Sarah calls and says she'll be late and Isla calls and says she'll be late and Jen calls and says she can't come. Yup. Luckily Isla and Sarah made it just in time to see the entire film. Although, as Joe put it on the phone with both of them, "I don't think you'll miss anything important. The title explains the whole plot."
Yeah. It pretty much did. Let me tell you, this movie defiantly exceeded my expectations for greatness. It was so brilliantly bad it was great. I highly recommend it. Poor Ebert has been undergoing surgery and unfortunately has not reviewed this fine film. I bet he would like it too because he is actually pretty good at liking movies for what they are instead of expecting them all to be Oscar-quality (although I must say, this is so Oscar quality :) )
MILD SPOILER AHEAD: So, near the end of this film and, like every movie involving an incident on a plane, the pilot is dead and they need someone to fly the plane. They choose this one guy to do it saying that he has over 2,000 hours of experience flying. At this point I whisper to JoeJoe that I was disspaointed because I thought they were going to say his experience was flying in a video game. At this JoeJoe laughs at me for thinking this. Yup. I was so right. I am so good at guessing the conventions of these films :)
Yay! Well me and JoeJoe loved it, not so sure about Sarah and Isla though. And the people in the same row as us at least didn't seem to find it nearly as entertaining and seemed as if they'd never actually heard of it and saw an ad and just decided to go see a random movie. Hehe.
After the movie Joe and I went to Portillos for dinner where I had to wait a ridiculously long time for my hot dog (I got it plain too, how hard is that?) then went back to his place where MK joined us to watch some TV and torment the doggy.
