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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, June 30, 2006
Easy on Friday Mornings
With much more time on my hands these past few days, I've been a huge domestic goddess. I finally cleaned out my room at my parents' house, throwing away 4 bags of recycling and 3 bags of trash. (I won't even bring up the fact I haven't gone through my closet at all yet). Then yesterday, back in my apartment, I made carrot ginger soup, mushroom and pepper enchiladas, and spanish rice. Last night after dinner, we took a walk down to the beach because I want to take advantage of the fact I live two blocks away; in a few months this may not be so true. Love those summer nights.
This morning I had my ideal beginning to a day: breakfast with a side of short stories.
This life is a beautiful one. Now I've got to get my day started; I will probably be posting some fictional things soon.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
A Relaxed Mind is a Creative Mind.
The slow descent into post-undergrad life has been a lot easier than I had expected. Those events in life when there's all this hype building up and you're surrounded by people and the phone never stops ringing and there's always more email in your box than you can answer...then the event happens, it passes silently but steadily, and the people disappear and the phone stops ringing and the mailbox keeps blinking YOU HAVE NO NEW MAIL -- I get so scared of that moment when I'm finally alone after the hype for so long. Perhaps I have abandonment issues, or post-partum issues, or issues of some sort -- but I generally dread the day after the excitement, after life has been marked by a monumental change. This week, however, has not been as bad as I thought it would be.
Except for when I made a bad decision to watch The Ring 2 on HBO when Cathy was over on Sunday. I think I (a) secretly love scary movies even though they frighten me out of sleep, (b) am masochistic, or (c) all the above.
I don't know if I had posted these already, but here it is again (more to remind myself) --
Summer Goals
- cook much much more.
- sew crafty little things.
- read like a demon.
- write my novel.
- take lots of picnics.
- write a collection of short stories.
- transition annplified into a stronger art portfolio.
- paint.
- draw, loads.
- learn Chinese characters, so the boy won't out-Asian me.
- take a weekend train trip up the California coast.
- visit Portland.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Ready to Launch.
A week ago today, there was an evening with an apartment full of friends and tealights on the windowsills lighting up a dinner party catered by Whole Foods. It was a wonderful note to end my college life on: amazing friends old and new, contributions coming from all ends (Lisa and Trinh made mojitos, Ryan brought over his stereo system, Monica and Laura made me graduation mixes) helped remind me that it takes a village.
Then on Saturday, I sat with my two favorite friends in my department and we giggled and mocked and didn't pay much attention through the short ceremony for 900 students. So many ghosts of my freshman past meandered across the same stage, and I watched my last four years pass me by as if it suddenly all caught up with me. For a moment, I was breathless.
And then the Dean of Student Affairs called me by the wrong name. I landed back on the ground again, running. I'm ready to move forward.
This past week I've been spending at my parents' house, playing with my dogs, catching up with sleep, scouting apartment locations in LA, and laughing with many friends. I hop on the train every few days for the gorgeous ride down, to keep up with the life I still lead down in San Diego -- tomorrow I'm going to a friend/ex-student's wedding. I think it's an appropriate launch into this next chapter.
That, and a haircut!
Just for fun...reply here with your name and I'll answer these questions for you.
1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll challenge you to try something.
3. I'll pick a color that I associate with you.
4. I'll tell you something I like about you.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Graduation Day
 Ann's To Do List - Laundry- Dishes- Bachelor's Degree- Visit all 7 continents - Publish a novel - Plant an herb garden - Win Project Runway
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Finally, I have all the answers!
I was reading the archives when I stumbled across this entry from Monday, July 18, 2005:
I am rather like the first leaf of the summer to turn yellow. Today I was suddenly panic-stricken with the idea that we will not find a good apartment by September 1st. Then tumbled in the fact that I am going to graduate college (how breezily three years have slipped through my fingertips) and what exactly have I done that qualifies me to do anything in this world? ... Come March or June (I haven't decided yet) I'll have dreams dancing in my head of graduate schools, and probably an impending GRE to take, a few letters of recommendation in hand. Will I have a job? Will I be in love? Will I be heartbroken? Will I be living in a cardboard box on the side of the road? Will I be happy? Who will still be in my life? Each response is in the form of a persistent, nihilistic maggot writhing in my stomach...
& I realize I have all those answers!
Will I have a job? I have/had many.
Will I be in love? Yes!
Will I be happy? Yes!
Who will still be in my life? The people who really matter, and those who really were meant to walk this way.
Black is the color of my true love's hair...
My favorite boots.
Graduation Day.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Brown Eyed Girls & Tuesdays
As a reference:
Monday / white
Tuesday / brown
Wednesday/ black & grey
Thursday / blue
Friday / red
Monday, June 12, 2006
White Mondays
I'm participating in Color Week (started by Stephanie and Maria) this time around, so there will probably be less writing this week as I prepare for graduation. This is a white milkglass plate I found yesterday at the flea market. It's holding all my loose odds and ends on the vanity table.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
A very nice boyfriend baked me a cake on Thursday in celebration of my last final exam EVER being over. It's glorious and slowly being consumed in small bites as to savor this moment as long as possible.
This next week is a slow transition into low gear; I'm finishing the photography projects with the fourth and fifth grade classes, which will be chaotic but easier without going to class first in the morning and then driving forty minutes across town. Then my last final project for photography will be due Friday, a fancy graduation dinner party Friday night, graduation Saturday afternoon.
But last night, I fell asleep around 9:30 and woke up to a blinking cursor on my screen with a short story I'm working on, and a phone with missed calls. I turned over and fell back asleep. It was so nice to curl up and crash after a rather chaotic past two weeks, with last weekend spent in a status of delusion due to a trip to Vegas and subsequent severe lack of sleep.
I'm definitely ready to shift down.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Down for the Count.
Tomorrow morning is my last final ever. Before the final, I will pick up my cap & gown for next Saturday, where I will spend several hours underneath the bizarrely fickle San Diego weather (global warming anybody?) talking shit about everyone with my favorite people in my department as the names are called.
Here's what my diploma's worth:
- 13 short stories
- 2 novellas
- 3 screenplays
- 1 magazine
- 10 chapbooks
- 2 personal narrative pieces
- 1 profile
- 26 poems
- rough French fluency
- 35 published articles
- 80 prints
- 2 short films
- countless essays
- 9 boys kissed
- 1 summer at Cambridge University
- 2 seasons of Vagina Monologues
- 6 months of teaching art to elementary students
- 1 swell boyfriend
- 1,000,001 lessons
I had a delicious iced coffee with valencia from Starbucks (I'm addicted, thanks to Gina and the power of suggestion) for my last study session ever, and I can't stop lusting over issues of Domino.
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