Day 14 - Ominous

I decided while at late breakfast (2pm) with dorothy, Leah, and Rose today that Indiana needs to officially add a fifth season. Then the cycle would be winter, spring, summer, fall, grey. It is definitely grey season right now. It's been raining for 3 straight days, and it's just cold enough outside to feel like I should be hibernating instead of doing anything else. Mason called me today to let me know that the orienteers will probably finish the course around 3 or 4am. I can't believe the weather has been so gross for the whole time.

Day 13 - Tired

I woke up around 7am to see off the orienteers. I went back to sleep for a while, and then woke up to go get Korean food with Dorothy, Leah, and Rose. Then we went to see Alpha Dog. That movie was so intense. I wasn't expecting that at all. There's a scene between Justin Timberlake and the young kid that made me sob audibly. Tears were streaming and I was pretty much shaking for the rest of the movie. Then we went to get baklava to feel better. We all went back to Dorothy's for a little bit, and then Leah, Rose, and I went to Turkuaz to get more baklava and also some pides. It's been a food-filled day. Now we're watching 10 Things I Hate About You.

Day 12 - Orienteers

Tonight, my apartment was the first checkpoint for a group of orienteers from MSU. I hosted my friend Mason and four other people that I don't know. They're heading out in the morning for a race that could potentially take until noon on Monday. It's been rainy, so I hope the conditions don't end up too disgusting for them.

Day 11 - Concerts

Not having class until 2.30pm is one of the most beautiful things I can think of at the present moment. I dropped my Chinese class night. I had to. It was just going to be impossible. You know it's not false modesty on my part because I wouldn't have dropped the course otherwise. My Chinese teacher wrote me today, asking if I'd come talk to her about it tomorrow. I think she's going to try to talk me into coming back to the class, but I can't.

I shot a concert tonight for work. I like shooting concerts. I don't like id-ing people.

Day 10 - Defeat

It has not been a successful day. Chinese won our little battle.

Day 9 - Tired Already

Is it just me, or do I already look sleep-deprived? I've really got to shake this insomnia. I couldn't fall asleep until 3am last night.

My Chinese class is going to be so hard. I am scared. I think it will be really good for me, but I'm afraid that I'm not going to have the time or skills to be able to do well in this class. You'd think that with the schedule I have that I would have plenty of time to devote to Chinese, but you haven't seen this syllabus. Eek.

My other two classes are going to be cool, I think. I am really psyched about my folklore class. I love my teacher already. He's old, he has a raspy voice, he has a great accent, and he oversalivates while he talks. Saliva collects on the right corner of his mouth. He also makes eye contact with people for way too long, to the point where he will just walk to people's desks and talk directly to them until he remembers that there's a whole class of people whose space he can invade. I'm really not being sarcastic about liking this man, though. He came and talked to me a bunch in class today because I was paying so much attention. I think this class, based on what we talked about today, is going to be super interesting. Plus, we get to do self-directed research. I think I want to go in the direction of Arabs in Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria. I have so much to learn about my family background, and I think this class might be a cool starting point.

Day 8 - School Resumes

I'm not writing much today because I need to sleep. I had photography class, and I'm pretty psyched about it. I stopped in at work for a bit, and I'm pretty psyched about that, too. I've already started my reading for photography - it turns out that we have a book, and I'm glad. As a final note, I need to clean my mirror.

Day 7 - The Eve of Resuming School

I woke up late today. Roommate and I then went to get a slice of pizza and to get my books for class. The pizza place we wanted to go to was closed, so we got a 3pm breakfast at the Runcible Spoon, a lovely little restaurant/cafe staffed and mostly solicited by some great hippies. Afterwards we went to the bookstore only to find that I apparently need no books this semester - weird. Later, I edited the photos from last night for a bit while Jeni and Thade looked on. I met up with Patrick Ledbetter, a friend of mine from the academy, for some baklava. I hadn't seen him in almost 4 years.

Classes start back up tomorrow. I'm trying to get to bed at a reasonable hour because I have class at 8.15am. This semester is the lightest schedule I've ever had. I only need this semester to fulfill the residency requirement for graduation at IUB, so I decided to take things that actually interest me. I have photography, Chinese, an introductory course about Central Asia, and a course about myth and folklore passed down through women in the Middle East. I'm pretty pysched. Photography is on Mondays and Wednesday for 3 hours each meeting. The other three classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll be going to class on those days between 11am and 5.15pm with a nice 2 hour break for lunch. I have no classes on Friday. I almost don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I've never really taken an easy semester.

Consider checking out the emo photos of Jeni and Thade. Those two were great models. They were really channeling what I wanted. They look nothing like their alteregos, Ama and Simon.

Day 6 - Jeni and Thade Time

My friends Jeni and Thade are moving to Boston on Tuesday, so they came to visit. I went on a cleaning frenzy before they got here. I love cooking for people, so I made dinner for them and Andrew, another friend. It turned out pretty well. I made daal and a spicy tomato and pea soup with coconut milk. Later on, Jeni, Thade, and I were playing a game on myspace in which we saw how long it would take to get someone who sucks solely by clicking through people's top 8s. As usual, we came across many angsty teenagers and twenty-somethings with very specific types of photos. You know the type, right? Hair over an eye, mirror shot in the bathroom, etc.. One thing lead to another, and soon we were all dressed like emo kids and taking pictures in my bathroom. Then I took photos of Jeni and Thade. After that, we went to the bar in Bloomington where all the hipsters hang out. We blended in for once.

Day 5 - Old Roommates Day

Sarah Craft came to Bloomington to visit today. She, dorothy, and I went to Grazie for dinner, and then came back to my apartment for some SNL with Justin Timberlake.

dorothy and I lived together my first year at the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities. Sarah and I lived together there my second year. dorothy and I lived together again my first two years at Indiana University. Yay for old roommates reuniting!

Day 4 - New Eyeshadow

I'm still on break, so I didn't do much today. I woke up late, ate lunch, fell back asleep, saw The Pursuit of Happyness, hung out with my old roommate, and bought a couple of things. My apartment refuses to stay warm, and I refuse to have another ridiculous electric bill, so I bought an electric blanket. So far, it seems like a good purchase. I am enjoying its benefits as I write. I also purchased some eyeshadow. I've been thinking a lot about a fashion shoot I have coming up; thus, I've been giving a lot of thought to make up. I tried a couple of concepts on my face at once.

Day 3 - Back to Bloomington

I drove four hours back to Bloomington from Hammond today. Traffic was unusually stupid. Normally I don't have road rage, but I got trapped behind a car dragging a trailer in the left lane today. It was going 60mph in a 70mph zone, and there was a huge semi next to it keeping pace. It went on like this for about 10 minutes. I wanted to scream. I don't really like driving, so I like it to get done as soon as possible. I don't really speed when I drive, but I like to at least go the limit.

Day 2 - No Cables

I don't think I have the cables to transfer photos from my mobile to my computer. I took the day 2 photo with my cell phone because I almost forgot to take a photo, and the cell phone was the only available camera. I thought it'd be pretty pathetic to screw up this blog on the second day of its existence.

I got back into the states around 1am or 2am today, and back to my parents' place around 3.30am.

Day 1 - Con Mi Pirata Favorito

I spent my New Year transition with mi pirata favorito, Carlos. I was in Cancun at the Hotel Gran Melia.