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A girl living, loving and writing in Los Angeles.
Blog Archives!
July Listening
| 1. |
Grapevine Fires
Death Cab for Cutie |
| 2. |
Mercy
Duffy |
| 3. |
I Feel It All
Feist |
| 4. |
With Arms Outstretched
Rilo Kiley |
| 5. |
Labels & Love
Fergie |
July Reading
Favorite Places
Copyright 2001 - 2008 by Ann, unless otherwise noted.
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Thursday, November 24, 2005
Jean-Pierre Jeunet directing Life of Pi. . . that will be very beautiful and interesting. Now I'm more motivated to read the book.
Just saw Walk The Line. Incredible.
Also, I've changed the title of my short story collection from Little Wings to Parting Gift. That's my fault for getting too eager to jump the gun; now that cover is completely null.
Thankful.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday; love, warm thoughts, and good food are all I need.
This year I am so grateful for so many things that have happened: the people whom I have met, the friendships I have developed, and the opportunities that have presented themselves to me.
This year, I am thankful for:
- my health
- family
- friends, far and wide across this world who keep me safe in their hearts, including every single one of you
- my roommate & our apartment, finally a home!
- San Francisco
- internship experiences
- whirlwind adventures, wild risks, and heartaches
- having the support, inspiration, and encouragement to write and self publish my first book
- reconnecting with very special friends from the past
- Vagina Monologues 2005, cast & crew
- handwritten letters and postcards
- the courage to be honest with myself, to let go, to move on
- the amazing professors and peers I have studied with and worked with
- all the knowledge gained
- Otis College of Art & Design
- mochas from Amelia's
- Jake Gyllenhaal, for that booty shot in Jarhead
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
First Book Cover.
I just woke up from a 12 hour slumber. Monday, I slept until 4 in the afternoon. I don't know how I do it, but I hope I keep on keeping on. If I could only figure a way to read whilst sleeping, my life would be complete.
I received an unexpected email this morning from Gideon, the director of the Cambridge programme (it is only appropriate to be British here), wishing us all Happy Thanksgiving. This email made my morning. I was traumatized last week when bouts of my early dementia started to show through -- two very lovely British folks came into work and started talking to me about Cambridge because I was wearing my sweater. I couldn't, for the life of me, remember the name of the college I lived in while in Cambridge only two summers ago. Frantically, I had to ask Nicole, who after chiding me with disbelief, coaxed it out of my walnut sized memory.
Anyhow, the point of my entry was to mention how this one email had changed the course of my entire day. It made me laugh, made me tear up with sentiment, and made me feel the warm fuzzies inside.
Somehow I suppressed all these warm expansive memories about Cambridge, and other moments where I felt infinite in the past four years, because it truly can be a threat for me to tumble headfirst into a life that takes place solely in the past. (Though Proust would say that this is just the true nature of time).
This does not undermine the fact that I can say with heartfelt confidence that the two most important things that happened in my undergraduate life (if not my life) include studying abroad for a whole term in Cambridge, and being cast in the Vagina Monologues 2005.
The holidays have surely arrived.
P.S. To your left is a preview of the cover of my first book.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Happy 21st Birthday to one of the most amazing girls in the world, and luckily my roommate, Shauna!
I threw a White Party at our apartment tonight (well, last night now), a brainchild of Kira so that she could be here in spirit even though she's studying in Kyoto this year.
She said to me, "You really don't know what you've got til it's gone!"
I've really got a lot.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Cedric Diggory is my heart. My whole heart.
That is all.
Wait no, one more thing. Cho Chang = O V E R R A T E D.
She is not the very least cute, and spoke about two lines in the whole film. The advertisements made like she was the fourth star, while shrouding the most important reason to see the fourth film (see above). Her Scottish accent was cute but her face was smushed in. There are sooo many more cute asian girls in the UK, I promise.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
My ambitious novella has become a fifteen page goal. In the interest of time, I have decided to compact the story by connecting the fragments of scenes and memories I've already written. The important scenes that mean something, and then the linking scenes that guide the reader and myself along. As it turns out, the segues are the most important part. They are the exposition, where the world is on display as it seems and the reader has a moment to breathe and grasp the gravity of the monumental but subtle scenes preceding in the comfort that nothing outrageous is going to tailspin.
There is another 15 page short story from my very first fiction workshop class that I'm going to pair with Departure in a collection entitled Little Wings. Side by side, it's a juxtaposition of where I started in the writing program and where I'm ending (almost).
If you could pencil it in, I will be reading on Thursday, December 1st at Porter's Pub on campus alongside twelve other talented crazy/beautiful writers. And if you find something you want to take home, there will be chapbooks on sale.
Good Things
- knitting circles
- "Bruised" by Jack's Mannequin
- starting a crafting group
- job interview for well paying job
- warm edamame with sea salt
- cuddles with Sophie
- AIM conversations with friends in Denmark, Spain, & Germany
- planning a bookmaking party
- November weather in southern California
- Nina Simone
- wool tights
- being cast in Vagina Monologues 2006!
- finally being 21
- Simply Orange juice
- planning New Years' in Vegas
- finding pictures from this past March and realizing you look 1000x better now
Sunday, November 13, 2005
To your left is a new soundtrack, because I discovered a bundle of new songs tonight, in addition to a mixed CD that came with a splendid birthday package from an awesome twin sister.
When I took Sophie out for her last bathroom run tonight, the moonlight diffused through the coastal overhang in a way that illuminated the neighborhood. The startling cold was overshadowed by the startling silence. Crickets have been running this hood since we moved in two months ago, a status they've kept up as a few of the family terrorize my walk to the kitchen nightly. Only a week ago the cricket song was louder than our television. But now the silence is deafening, signaling the end of summer, the unfolded year.
This was a good night to discover a new soundtrack. It's like a new beginning in so many ways.
According to my roommate's mother, California is supposed to have a massive earthquake this upcoming weekend. So massive in fact, that it's supposed to cause tsunami-esque damage to the coasts of California and Hawaii. Anyone within two miles of the beach should be wary; good thing I am two blocks from it.
So if I don't make it to the end of the week, good night and good luck.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Sophie is adorable, and certainly the most efficient alarm clock I've ever had.
I got a haircut, fancy new boots, and gel eyeliner. Highly recommend gel eyeliner, don't know how I lived without it.
This weekend is being spent anticipating and practicing for the three callbacks. Wish me luck!
Cannot wait wait wait til break, Fiona Apple on the 28th, and more. Always waiting for something more.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Sophie has been here for one day and she has already picked up two cute guys in my neighborhood. Whereas I have been here for two months, and I didn't even know these guys lived here.
Having Raye over last night was really great; though it made me realize that I think I stopped living four months ago, and my body has yet to catch up.
I haven't committed any acts of random bravery. Maybe Sophie can help by being my courage dog.
I don't know how to move my feet anymore.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Sometimes there is a longing that rattles inside the cage within my chest, but I never let it out. It's a crazy little bird that misses certain persons to death, but I'm keeping it under lock & key for its own good.
Buttery soft purses, work-of-art shoes, and very beautiful prose is helping me through. The words have been floating around in the air, but I haven't found a way to pin them down properly. It's like I'm an awkward giant with a butterfly net, and the words I manage to catch are all the wrong ones.
I just ordered Banishing Verona, The Next American Essay, & A Fairly Honourable Defeat. My next favorite thing to come home to are little brown boxes on my doorstep.
And I get to see Raye tomorrow, and welcome a new guest to our apartment for the next few weeks!
Saturday, November 05, 2005
I'm 21!
My amazing roommate threw me a surprise party last night, which needless to say led to me waking up my poor friend who was sleeping on the couch to make an Advil run at 5 am because my head felt like it had cracked open and my brain had dried up.
Tonight, we just enjoyed a beautiful cake from Extraordinary Desserts. Thank you to all my extraordinary friends for making my first birthday in three years nothing but smiles.
Friday, November 04, 2005
Ahhhhhh! My last full day being 20! Ahhhhh!!!
Thursday, November 03, 2005
It was incredible when I heard The Postal Service's Such Great Heights on the radio a few mornings ago, and instead of feeling a gaping hole, I felt the delicious lure of infiniteness again. I sang along in morning traffic, and the 71 degree weather seemed to agree with me. It felt so great to reconcile with a song I love, to disconnect all ties of what it used to mean to me.
It's thoughts like these that catch my troubled head
when you're away, when I am missing you to death
It's a bittersweet feeling, not to miss someone to death anymore. Twisted as that is, to be underneath somebody's thumb like that was a comfortable position. Like belonging to someone, like meaning something to someone. But I wriggled out.
And to so many of my beautiful friends, who are going through much fresher ends-of-things, you too will wriggle out and sing along to your favorite songs again. You will feel infinite again.
P.S. Though I still get moments of deep sadness and resentment when I hear Ben Folds' The Luckiest. No one said this would be easy. And in that case, I present:
"We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get a damned hurt use it - don't cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist." -- Ernest Hemingway
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