, guess i should have heard of that from you.

Jess on November 15, 2007

last night i slept with an eye mask on as is sometimes my custom, esp when i have a migraine which i started to get last night. i really enjoy sleeping with eye masks because it reminds me of great memories with cara but also because i sleep much more soundly as there is really no light changes throughout the night.  and i don’t wake up at 7 a.m. and just lay there for an hour only to fall back asleep at 8 and be really exhausted and unrefreshed by the time that 8:40 rolls around and my alarm goes off.  (that doesn’t happen till 8 and by 8 it’s fine cos there is really no time to fall back to sleep).  funny part, i dreamt i slept until 1:12 p.m.  Oh yes.  I fully had a dream that I woke up and was like “what time is it?” and looked at my clock and it said 1:12.  So then I was like “well that sort of sucks. but i guess everything can be okay. i can get this and this and this all done now.”  then i realized that perhaps the time thing was all a farce.  so i moved my eye mask and looked at the clock again, for real this time, to discover that i was still perfectly on track for a responsible day.  what a nice surprise.

my presentation at washburn went well last night.  there was some discussion generated which was good.  and now i just need to get my grad school applications done.  oh my my.  i need to write about why i’d be a diverse addition to the minnesota student body or else i just need to edit my purpose statement.  i don’t feel very diverse. or at the very least i feel like this is some bullshitty administrative crap that i shouldn’t even bother applying for because they don’t actually want to encourage diversity. agh.

Everytime we close our eyes

Jess on September 26, 2007

Seeing Kyle this weekend was really great. I surprised him with a bottle of Chrome.  It was cute.  I was kicking around the idea of buying it for him because he’s been wearing axe and that needs to change.  So I went to the mall on Thursday and realized I didn’t actually have time to go in, I just had time to drive by and then go to work.  So I went back on Friday and went in and decided maybe I wouldn’t get it, but then I had the lady spray a card for me and i melted a little bit when I smelled it so I decided to buy it for him.  I hid it under my receipt from the toll booth on the seat.  I wrote a note for him on the back of the receipt and when he got to the car he went to move it and found the box underneath.  He was so adorably surprised by the gift.  I love gift-giving like that.  It makes me so happy to know that he’s happy with what he’s got.

He did well at the tournament, 6-0, byed through octs, dropped in quarters to chad and tom in a really close round.  It was a good debate.  It was also really sweet how well he balances having a girlfriend and kicking ass at debate.  As a girl who dates debaters, I think I have a lot of respect for a boy who can do both well.

This week, I had three tests on Tuesday.  I’m really expecting an A on all of them.  However, I could see my grade on Art History II being a B possibly cos I was bad at memorization.  It was just hard trying to remember the information for all three classes on the same day and that meant I didn’t spend as much time on Art history as I normally do on art history tests.

Jenny and I went to the Spencer Library today to get books for our upper division art history courses.   She’s writing her medieval term paper on San Lorenzo and I’m writing my african art paper on Ibeji figures.  Specifically, I’m going to write about the artistic qualities of the photographs and plastic dolls used as modern ibeji figures in place of the carved wooden figures while addressing some of the reasons for the change.

Oh, and I looked at graduate programs again today.  I think my top two choices are Minnesota and Boston.  Northwestern is probably off the list. I need to get my purpose statement finished soon.  I was going to do that tonight but now I’m relaxing and enjoying the opportunity to not be motivated for once.  I could use a break.

It’s nice having a close female friend in my major again.  I think I’ve missed Cara more than I realized.  And I like Jenny a lot.  I hadn’t really realized how awesome she was until we talked in Florence when I was upset once.  She’s really a wonderful girl.

Wait till I get my money

Jess on August 28, 2007

Tomorrow is my first weeknight off in i don’t know how long. Then, this weekend, I’m going to Carbondale to Kyle. Today, I signed his wall “you can be my black kate moss tonight (Friday).” and cut-lined a picture of him “Sic semper Tyrannosaurus-Kyle.” This is all evidence that our relationship is very strange and very happy. As predicted by him perhaps, the 14 hours of prevention he spent driving here and back to visit me has bought him 30 hours or more of cure. I’m much less needy about the phone thing. Some of that is the curse of having cingular vs. sprint and how they won’t let us talk to each other for free… assholes. That should all be fixed soon though cos I think I’m gonna buy a mogul tonight. It’ll cut out my ability to discreetly textmessage about ever… but it’ll be pretty fancy. And I love fancy.

Also, I’m very excited because I’m spending the weekend in Illinois. And it looks like this year I’ll live my life on the standard that “it’s already Tuesday!” oh how time flies when you’re in college and working about 40 hours and going to school 14 and working on a conference paper/watching movies/hooking up cable in your room in your spare time. This semester I’m even doing the readings. They’re interesting. Moreso in Art History than any other classes since text books are written for morons. Oh! And I walked a mile and did 50 crunches today and 25 pushups. I think I’m going to start doing crunches and things every day from now on. That’d be good. And I wouldn’t even have to go to the gym. But maybe I could use the exercise bikes in the lounge at the apartment complex.

I’m spastic and happy tonight (read: manic). Oopsies. Uhm. The Most Serene Republic are like my favorite band ever right now. And the new interpol is also very good.

TOMORROW: Join me for margaritas somewhere. My weekend starts on Wednesday.

Done, I'm done, and I'm on to the next one

Jess on August 24, 2007

I’ve officially completed my first week of classes this morning at about 11 a.m. Yay!  So far I think they’re all going to be good.  I need to update my calendar later and stuff so that I have all my test dates written down and important things of that sort, but until then I’m basically golden.  The homework load shouldn’t be too terribly much.  We’re having a debate soon in Anthro which I’m looking forward to.  It’s on FGM.  I think that she’s just going to assign us one way or the other what our opinion is.  So i’m either going to say that FGM is bad because it hurts the individual and patriarchy is for fools or FGM is good because it’s sometimes chosen by the girl or we can’t impress our morals on others or community standards outweigh the individual.  Either way.  I’m looking forward to debating a bit.  It’s been a while.  I apparently decided on Thursday that I’m going to be intelligent in the class and not just sit there.  I’m remembering the reason I stuck it out in my terrible anthro course of last semester… i really like anthropology.  It makes sense though.  Anthropology is like history if history felt it necessary to continually explain what it was trying to do.

I’m also really excited about my art history classes.  Being lectured about slide after slide after slide for 6 hours a week is a bit much… but I really love both of the professors a lot.  I think that outside of history, I get more information out of the both of them than anyone else on campus.  They’re so efficient.  And I like learning about art history and it’s cool because I’ve seen a lot of original works we’re covering in my Art History II class so it’s like I have a little bit more information to weigh in about.  Janzen apparently tests over the reading in her upper levels.  Tsk.  What a waste.  So that means I’ll be reading the text book.  I also might start reading the text for Wood but I’m not positive.  She refers back to it a lot.  But I’m also as smart as it.  As I described something better than the book the other day but clearly hadn’t done the reading.  I’m just smart.  I’ll read a page and if I feel like I’m being talked down to then I’ll skim from now on.  Textbooks are such a waste of time.  This is college, bitches.  Make us purchase something academic.  I love Turabian, I’ll admit it.  I wept when I held the 7th edition (lie). But I still think the following analogy applies–College textbooks:Academic Writing::Turabian:Chicago.

I got accepted to that conference to which i submitted an abstract a few weeks ago.  Hooray.  It’s a good thing since my abstract was pretty weak cos I had no idea  what I wanted to write on… nor had I thought about it for months.  I had a matter of like 48 hours to figure out what I wanted to do.  Anyway, I need to rewatch the Constant Gardener and Blood Diamond.  What a wonderful pre-paper conundrum to have.

Kyle surprised me last night.  This is a wonderfully romantic story.  So I’m online talking to James at like 8 and he asks me what I’m doing when I get off work.  Then he suckers me into making plans with him on the grounds that he’ll feed me crab rangoons if i go over there.  He says he also might have a surprise for me when I get there.  I’m very confused about what the surprise may be.  I get bored at work around 9 and start dwelling on the surprise.  What could it be?  So I figure it’s probably either hibachi shrimp to compliment the crab rangoon sort of or drugs of some sort which would be wonderful.  I decide if it’s the shrimp I’ll eat it and if its the drugs i’ll take them.  Then I start prying a bit.  Because surprises are so much fun!  Meanwhile that day, I’ve talked to Kyle several times on the phone.  His alleged evening plans were to go out with the debate boys which turned into a party at the TKE house which turned into a party somewhere he didn’t know.  I got off work and called him like I always do and he was acting like he wanted to get off the phone… then he was pissy cos I mentioned something … then when he got off the phone he didn’t say i love you. And he knows i hate that.  So i’m fuming by the time I get to James’s door.  I mean, that kind of fuming that settles down after some crab rangoons but still. I’m pissed.  And i texted him to find out why he withheld an i love you.  So then i get excited about my surprise again and i go to open james’s door which is locked. This is not that unheard of.  James generally doesn’t unlock his door until he has to but when he’s expecting me it’s usually unlocked when i get there.  So i knock.  The door opens.  There are a dozen roses in my face.  I freak out internally and am like “WHY IS HE GIVING ME FLOWERS?!” and then I look up  and a yankees hat and those beautiful blue eyes which belong to my boyfriend come into focus and I realize it’s Kyle and we stand at the door and kiss all grosslike for a bit and then i go inside for sonic and bully wheat.  And I am the happiest little spotless panther in the world this weekend.  The roses are beautiful.  I’ll take peekchures so y’all can think he’s fantastic.

I love getting flowers.
I get girly.
And sometimes, I just look at the flowers.
And I think about the boy who gave them to me.
And I never forget getting flowers.
Never ever.