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A girl living, loving and writing in Los Angeles.
August Listening
August Reading
Favorite Places
Copyright 2001 - 2008 by Ann, unless otherwise noted.
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Friday, December 30, 2005
I updated the lists section, finally. I just read Life of Pi, has anybody read that? The ending is...weird. Somebody discuss this with me!
With a glorious week of break still left, I plan to finish at least two more books (aim high, kids). Banishing Verona and Lolita, I'm looking at you. I've spent the past week in the peace and quiet of my apartment, and it is glorious to finally be alone for a few days after the hubbub.
When did we all get so cynical about the holidays?
Time to go grocery shopping.
Monday, December 26, 2005
Top 50 of 2005
1. San Francisco
2. fredflare.com
3. My apartment two blocks from the beach
4. BUST magazine
5. "My Humps" by Black Eyed Peas
6. ice wine
7. The Believer magazine
8. Mary Kate & Ashley
9. Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire
10. Vagina Monologues 2005 (& 2006)
11. best roommates ever: Alice & Shauna
12. This American Life
13. America's Next Top Model, Cycle 5
14. mochas from Amelia's
15. REAL SIMPLE magazine
16. Jenny Lewis (and Rilo Kiley, and More Adventurous)
17. the Hollywood machine
18. Fiona Apple & Extraordinary Machine
19. Louis Cannizzaro's artwork and loveable spirit
20. craftster.org
21. Craft blogs <3 (some good ones: loobylu.com, littlebirds)
22. Rose Bowl Flea Market
23. Project Runway
24. bookmaking
25. Tristan Prettyman & twentythree
26. Boston
27. Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith
28. making my first book: Little Wings
29. first dates four years in the making!
30. Paper Source
31. TURNING 21!!!
32. alphabet stamps
33. handwritten letters
34. postcards from all over the world
35. H&M, opening up 2 in SF
36. Miette Patisserie
37. high heels
38. Uggs
39. Book Club
40. Gmail
41. Lacey. Just Lacey!
42. "One Love" cover by Jason Mraz
43. Team Aniston
44. Cappy's Coffee & Tea
45. "Boyfriend" by Ashlee Simpson
46. curly hair!
47. Grey's Anatomy
48. Otis College of Art & Design
49. clear skin
50. my new iTrip!Labels: lists
I felt completely sucker-punched by the holidays this year. Christmas snuck up on me like a guerilla attack, and soon enough much too much time was being spent doing the parking lot dance in every mall within a twenty mile radius of my parents' house. So much has happened in the last few weeks that I can barely grasp that I've lived that much life and feel like I'm barely alive at all.
Some Things That Happened:
- Dallas, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston
- San Jose, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, San Francisco
- 7 hour train ride one way, up the east coast.
- 8 hour road trip back down the California coast (why is this state so freaking big?)
- holiday shopping
- a first date four years in the making
- reunion with Ilissa
- usual family holiday madness, involving fighting and tears
- The Family Stone & King Kong (both bad)
Next year, I will be better prepared. I plan on doing all my Christmas shopping online, figuring my Christmas list out early, really decorating my flat (though our Charlie Brown Christmas tree was much appreciated in presence this year), and perhaps even writing cards again. And no more traveling & dealing with horrendously overcrowded airports and planes. This is all said, of course, without any clue of where or how I will be surviving next holiday season -- assuming that I haven't failed school/to graduate/finding a job/life as we know it.
Hope your holidays are just as warm and cosy as ever! Thank you for reading, commenting, emailing, and generally being around. I love you guys.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Yesterday, on the Winter Equinox, it was 82F degrees in sunny southern California.
Everything I've been writing has been meeting a quick and early fate with the cursor + delete. I don't know why I don't have the words right now.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Some things I've learned in the past (seemingly) endless days of traveling:
- Time is relative; sometimes a 7 hour train ride feels shorter than a 3 minute country song.
- Everything you need you can carry on your back, or in a carry on suitcase with wheels.
- All the single male travelers on planes look like serial killers.
- Boston is Cold, with a capital C. But beautiful and alluring.
- Emerson is Artsy and seems Fun/Perfect.
- Providence is so Sweet.
- My 5 year plan.
- Uggs are incredible.
- Maple macchiattos are a bit of heaven, and hopefully coming to a town near you.
- Gina's house feels like a second home, and it feels so good to be reunited with your twin.
- It feels silly to have my ID checked for 18.
- That my heart could do backflips like this.
- I can actually tire of traveling.
- Everything really is bigger in Texas.
There will be more. It's been an exhausting, fulfilling, refreshing, wearing, and incredible quarter of my break already.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
I'm still traveling, but leave me a happy message to come home to!
Friday, December 09, 2005
Here's the thing:
People are losing sight, especially American people, of what the holidays really mean. Does it take a natural disaster or a terrorist attack for people to really understand caring about each other is more than a gift in fancy paper? It's really about caring enough to take the time to show admiration, respect, and deep gratitude. This life is short, but it is wide. It is wide because of people, because of the moments that people make, and because this life would be a lonely one without family, friends, & community.
But I think the spirit of giving is completely lost on a selfish nation that has made consumerism its politics, and especially in a state that has made Arnold Schwarzenegger its governor. It is not about giving of things, but giving of yourself.
This specific year of mine has been marked with rapid, unexpected growth that has left stretch marks. Even now, I'm reevaluating the friendships and people in my life, and remembering those who really counted who may not be so close to me this holiday season -- and forgetting the ones who don't deserve to borrow any more of my time.
I love this time of year because it is about showing your family, friends, and community how much you appreciate, love, and care about them. Finding/crafting/reconstructing something special that someone would love but never dare to get for themselves is the most amazing part. It's a chance to show people that they are worth more than they think; and that is one of the most important things any one person can do for another. I think I'm also going to find a Giving Tree to get a present for, and clean out my old closet to give away bundles of warm clothing.
Be good to yourself this holiday, and more importantly, be good to each other.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Every day has felt like Friday; finals week always feels like a strange Twilight Zone period. Now I've got a visit with the lovely Gina for an East Coast road trip from D.C. to Boston (wish us luck with weather), a glam weekend in San Francisco/Santa Cruz/San Jose with a road trip down the incomparable California coast back home in time for the holidays. I know tis the season to be giving, but I can't stop finding thirty things I like in every store I walk into. What the heck! Nonetheless, I am saving myself for H&M.
I accidentally bought a smutty book yesterday from the 25 cent cart outside my favorite used bookstore. I was scouting some hardcover books to gut and turn into blank journals, but as I was in the process of cutting today I read the dust cover and could not stop laughing. Maybe I will share passages from it later, because trust me it is great.
Good Things
- getting into the holiday spirit
- winning a scholarship for my photography
- teaching elementary students art next quarter
- Vagina Monologues
- spending spring break building houses in Portland for Habitat for Humanity
- or spending spring break on a holiday in Spain
- good friends and warm drinks
- making holiday lists
- our Charlie Brown christmas tree
- Boston travel books!
- direct deposit
- raw mole sauce
- snow boots
- buying my dream camera with said scholarship
- bookmaking
- generous peers
There are still a few chapbooks available, so please eMail me with the information stated below if you'd like one. Happy holidays!
P.S. I'm frustrated Nicole won America's Next Top Model. Talk about supermodels being boring and dumb! Epitome! I was definitely rooting for Nik.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Please don't let it rain or snow in Boston next week.
Please don't let it rain or snow in Boston next week.
Please don't let it rain or snow in Boston next week.
Tell me about things I should see and do in Boston!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Because I am 3/4 done with finals, and I can't sleep yet...
2005 Firsts of the month...
Take your first post from each month and post the first sentence or so. One should probably skip memes unless they're the only posts in a month.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Welcome, 2005.
Yesterday one of my best friends was telling me about how Open Water was made: with a director, his wife the producer, the two actors, a day job, and a lot of chum.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Talking bout 'ginas.
So it turns out that all three of our shows sold out.
So thrilled!
Lately, all I can do is emote.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
"Not About Love" by Fiona Apple
So get this: I am going to be a tutor/TA for the lower division poetry class next quarter. I, who hated poetry more than calculus, will be helping impressionable young college coeds find their way with poetry. Don't panic.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
I'm Wide Awake, it's 2 AM.
I'm exhausted yet I have the hardest time making myself go to bed. Many people who have been around me when it's sleepytime will vouch for this -- even though I am passing out, I have the hardest time actually getting under the covers. I'd rather pass out unconscious in my clothes on top of the duvet.
Monday, May 02, 2005
There's no need in ever going, cause I'm better off never knowing
I'm really disappointed with Tristan Prettyman's studio version of Love, Love, Love. They took a totally sweet, pretty little surf song and laid it over this hyper commercialized track and turned it into whatever supermegastar hot shot single they're hoping to send her on the pop star trail with.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Bonjour, June.
I feel like a little flickering lightbulb in an empty hallway.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Life by the Sand
Most recently, I've found myself frequenting the movie theater, something I don't do often. Now I'm in the dark air conditioned light box just about every week, and much to my chagrin, and I'm very updated on every big budget blockbuster: Mr. & Mrs. Smith,Bewitched, Batman Begins, and just last night War of the Worlds. They have the most extensive and best previews, and I really do love previews the best.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Please don't tell him that I miss him...cause I don't.
Because it's been brought to my attention that I don't talk about how I spend my days enough, here is a recount of today.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
I am so filled with nervous, bubbly anticipation and apprehension that I do believe a hot spring is developing in my stomach.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
On a whim tonight, I met up with one of my favorite friends and we saw a graduate production of The Last Five Years. The two performers were so incredibly talented; the story unfolded in a way that was quite in my taste. I'm inspired to keep trucking with my novel, it was a great breath of fresh air.
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.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
The past week & so has been one of the busiest and craziest of recent memory.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
The past week & so has been one of the busiest and craziest of recent memory. There were a lot of work hours, a lot of papers, a lot of writing and editing, a lot of not sleeping. I spent 20 hours in 2 days learning InDesign, after an impromptu decision to handbind chapbooks. I read for the first time in public, which was quite an amazing experience. It's no secret that I'm quite comfortable on stage, but to read my own words felt like a very intimate act. Perhaps it can be likened to giving birth on stage -- revealing my creation.
However, it was harrowing to realize amidst all this work that the piece I had decided to make into a book is at the very least months, if not years, from being finished. So needless to say, it will not be on lulu.com for quite some time. I do have these 10 first edition chapbooks that I handmade, and if you're interested in one, please let me know.
At the advice of one of my favorite professors, I'm willing to release more of my mistakes into the world. With that will be a trail marking how far I've come and how far I've gone.
There has been so much going on it feels like my life is bursting at the seams; but I don't have the energy to explain it all. Fiona Apple was absolutely amazing on Monday, I thought my heart was going to burst when she sang Get Gone. Now to come: a French final, a screenplay, more books to be made, cleaning, doctor appointments, and packing to go to the East Coast in 7 days. So please enjoy the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree my roommate & I adopted, and let me know you're listening.
Update: If you want a chapbook, please eMail me with your full name, address, and why you want one.
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