Ciao, Belli

mood: surprised
music: my roommate's ipod
random word: coax

---

I am officially cheating right now. Remember how Becky and folks had a day or so to get settled in before the language pledge started? Yeah, funny. Apparently, the Italian school thinks this is lame. We signed the pledge at registration. And I would like to aim high with the whole language pledge thing - maybe not as perfect as Greg, but I do want to see how far I can go without English. So this might be the last y'all hear from me for a while - I had wanted to make phone calls tonight, but I guess that's not going to happen. Anyway, I love you all muchly, and will talk to you soon enough.

Baci e abbracci,
~Tiberio

(Also, definitely broke in to Gifford to visit Becky. She wasn't there, but we arranged a secret meeting in the Proctor hippie lounge. It was very 007. Okay, now I'm going to actually take the pledge seriously.)

(Mumkin in a few hours.)

(Yeah.)

If we weren't all CRAZYwe would go INSANE...

mood: nostalgic for something I don't think has happened yet, it's weird
music: Billy *sigh*
random word: cheese (sorry, Dan)

---

Jimmy Buffett was phenomenal last night (clearly, he's not Billy, but he put on quite a show!)

Things I will always remember:

(the urge to use capital letters suddenly vanished from my mood...)

1) thinking he was not going to sing "a pirate looks at 40" and then he did. the very last song. the 4th encore. i guess it was his "piano man."

2) a balloon shaped like a pair of breasts that found its way onto the stage. jimmy did a fabulous dance with it and exclaimed that he had never seen a "goddam titty balloon" before...

3) they catapulted (words with my name in them get extra life points) t-shirts into the audience and one just happened to land right bewteen my legs. that would have to be the first time i've ever had a men's t-shirt fly through the air and land between my legs. and to make it even better, i totally slept in it last night

and as for the rest it...

good times and riches and son of a bitches, i've seen more than i can recall...

Parrot hugs,

Cata

7 weeks to go!

mood: content, although contemplating a nap
music: Гости из будущего
random word: сморкнуться

---

I just finished my second test! That means only 7 more weeks to go! Woohoo! Except it also means I have nothing to do for the rest of the day... On Fridays, when we have tests, we have our written exam at 8 in the morning (of course) and then our oral exams are scattered throughout the day. So last week and this week mine has been at 9, right after the written part. So that's nice, because then I'm done for the day, but it also kind of sucks...because then I'm done for the day. Eh, oh well.

Last night I walked to dinner and realized I had a Russian song stuck in my head. It was extremely exciting! Although, also last night I put on my headphones and listened to Billy for a bit. And that made me way too happy.

I already told Dan this, but for those of you who know Ricky Klein I saw him yesterday!! Yes, he is alive, despite being in various continents all last year. His hair is super, super long, and he has a beard, but he's still most definitely Ricky. He sat down at my table for lunch, even though I obviously couldn't talk to him, and we signed quickly for a few seconds...but hopefully I'll get to see him again soon. He's living in his crazy little cottage that he built in Ripton again. It made me quite happy, though. :)

Oh, and last night, I played volleyball! What? Sports? I know, but it was really fun. Except now my arms are black and blue. I don't understand...how do real volleyball players make it so that their arms aren't all bruised? I mean, cause you can say that me complaining about it is just because I'm a wimp, but you can't argue with the popped blood vessels in my wrist... I don't understand. But anyway, we have our first game against the Japanese school on Sunday. Assuming my arms get better, I'm super excited. It was really fun. :)

And lastly, I'd just like to say, that I miss Laura. Because she would always comment on everyone's posts, and now she's in New Hampshire, or Maine, or wherever she is, and now the blog is sadder. Come back Laura!

spoinkle

mood: nostalgic
music: broadway mix on the ol' ipod
random word: transformer

---

we just had a fire drill at work due to someone having trouble with a microwave.

i feel like i'm in gifford at 230 in the morning or something...
i miss school (never thought i would ever say THAT) and all you kids that make it so wonderful.

this is a lame post, but becky was clamoring for more blog-excitement, so i figured i'd at least make an effort.

Haben Sie Gehort Das Deutsche Band?

:-P

mood: happier, but still tired
music: Земфира
random word: оба

---

I'm slightly worried you've all died. And by that I mean that I know Cata, Dan and Michael haven't...because I've talked to them. But why has no one posted in 2 days? It makes me sad... And it is in fact quite out of character for this blog. So you should all post. One, two, three, go!

Um, yeah, I don't really have anything else to say. And I realize that I haven't posted either. BUT I am now posting twice in a row. And, let's face it, that just looks pathetic. Especially because about 4 days ago, I posted thrice in a row. It's sad, guys. Sad.

So, exciting news on the Russian front is not much. But here is how it lies for now...
- Laura - I saw your not-so-secret admirer yesterday. Stan. ;) Apparently he's on campus for the summer.
- Clubs and such have started, which is making life more interesting. We all have stuff to do, at least, which is good.
- I have decided to learn the Russian manual alphabet. Oh yes. I'm excited. :)
- It needs to stop raining. It's quite depressing. Either that, or Michael and Cata need to come up here and we need to dance around in front of Pearsons!
- Dan's coming up to Midd!! And then I'm going down to CT!! That weekend that we have the break from school - Dan's coming up with his brother's friend who wants to apply to Midd on Thursday, and then is going to drive me down to my lake house for the weekend, where we will hopefully have a mini Midd reunion. I'll come down Thursday night, and my family doesn't get there til Saturday. So Dan's going to stay at the lake house, and Becca Steinberg's probably going to come over. And possibly Kyle will come down too...not sure yet. But anyway, I'm excited. :) Very excited.

I think that's it. Be more exciting and post, all of you.
p.s. I love you and miss you all!

Not only does my life depend on Proctor, but on music as well.

mood: slightly depressed, but only because of the weather
music: none. that's the problem. read on.
random word: почемучка (почему=why; -чка=the ending for a diminutive; so this is a word for a little kid who asks "why" all the time)

---

So, I should be doing homework right now. In fact, I should have been doing homework all day. Surprised? No, I didn't think so. But that's not what this post is about...

I feel as though I would be much more motivated, and much less bored if I could just turn on Billy or something. Not even Billy necessarily, but just something that I can sit and sing along to. I have found one or two Russian bands that I do really like. ДДТ and Кино. I also still have my Земфира CD that I have known backwards and forwards since Senior year, and I know all the songs on the Брат soundtrack pretty well also. However, even with the CDs that I've listened to a million times, I don't know the words. I know what it all sounds like, and I can pretty much sing along with the melody, but there is something very different in just knowing a song, no matter how well, and in being able to sing each individual word. I've tried looking up lyrics to some of my new favorite ДДТ songs, and it's nice to be able to look at them while I'm listening, but it's still different. They don't mean anything to me, even after I've translated them.

It's very quiet in my room right now, and more than anything I want to turn on music. But putting on more Russian music that I just don't know doesn't satisfy whatever it is that I want right now. If by the end of these nine weeks I can say that I sit and listen and sing along to my Russian music, then I will be quite happy.


I would also just like to say that 2 very, very important things came in the mail today. 3. Make that 3 very, very important things...
1) The best letter EVER from Dan and Cata. No, literally, it's the best letter EVER. I dare any of you to try to send me something better.
2) My raincoat that I forgot at home and my mom sent me. It has been raining all day. I went back and forth to McCullough 3 times today awaiting this package. But seeing as the raincoat was in the package, I needless to say got quite wet. I was not happy.
3) In the raincoat package came the most important thing of all. Abigail decided, apparently, that it was necessary to buy me.......a HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL poster!!!! That's right. In my room right now is hanging a High School Musical poster. Basically, I've got the coolest room in Gifford. It's just that simple.

The King & the Queen & the Marching Band

mood: My 4th grade teacher would have told me I was "off in LaLaLand."
music: yes, I am a PIRATE, 200 years too late...
random word: castle

---

That title was honestly the first thing that popped into my head. After much deep thought in an effort to figure out where it came from, I decided that it was an example of what would happen if Billy Joel slept with Don McLean (think Brenda and Eddie were the popular steady and the king and the queen of the prom/ and the players tried to take the field but the marching band refused to yield). See? It makes perfect sense! Shit. I'm going crazy. Going. That makes it sound like it's some sort of a journey. I wonder if you can get there by plane. Or if you can take more than 2 suitcases that weigh 5olbs each, because that is all I can take on my next journey. Which is in less than a month by the way. And I still have no home.

Ok, I had this goal that I wouldn't post until I had anything important to say. Then I failed to accomplish my goal. But no! I DO have something useful to say. In fact, I will say it. Eventually. Now. So Becky and I were speaking in perfect Russian the other night. No wait, that part was a dream. But I'm pretty sure Becky and I were talking. Becky, correct me if I'm wrong. Regardless, we came up with a really stinkin' cool (I miss Bobtodd) idea. It goes like this: We all pick an alphabet from omniglot.com (those of you that have been there already like 8 million times know perfectly well what I'm talking about and those of you who haven't...be less uncool.) and we learn it and all write to each other in it! It'll be like a secret code! Becky and I vote for Shavian because it was developed as an alternative to the Latin alphabet for writing English and so it naturally makes sense for writing English. Also, it's really cool beacause it makes use of voiced and unvoiced opposites! Plus, it looks pretty. So anyone else, feel free to add any new ones to the ballot, and if no one says anything, Becky and I will just start writing y'll (picture Kevin in my head when I say that) in Shavian! So get ready!

mood:
music:
random word:

---

so i forgot two very important points.

one: saturday night i received a drunk voicemail from sam and jessie. most entertaining. i should call those kids back sometime.

two: friday at lunch at work, i received the world's greatest gift from caitlin and becky (see link below). you guys are awesome. i wore it all day saturday and couldn't stop smiling. it's perfect. thank you.

awesome present

hello once more

mood: sleepy
music: i don't the song, but the tufts girls group that came to midd the end of the year sang it "staring at the blank page before you...etc"
random word: bastille

---

well hello friends! it's been a few days since I looked at this lovely page last and I must say, seeing all the fun stories was great (including the THREE IN A ROW from becky)

so yeah, this friday and saturday I was in the great New Jersey visiting the stellar Laura Budzyna and it was awesome!

I arrived friday evening right on time to get yanked through the door, dash upstairs and catch "breaking free" from "high school musical"!! It was like a sign or something :)

We then proceeded to Sidney's house for dinner where I tried salmon and, I must say, I actually enjoy it. Look for a salmon-eating Dan Kelley at all your local Middlebury dining halls (patent pending). The night was passed at the Olefson's playing all sorts of mentally-oriented games such as Set, Text Twist and Scrabble. Needless to say, our brains were feeling quite stretched. Then Laura and I went back to her house where we chatted for a while and then went to bed around 1 in the morning. Rather early for a one night visit for two close friends who haven't seen each other in a long time, right? Right. But that's because we were getting up at 7:30 the next morning.

Why? I don't know. I still don't believe it myself.
DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING IS NOT A HOAX. THE EVENTS THAT FOLLOW ARE REAL, HAVE OCCURRED AND WERE DOCUMENTED BY HUNDREDS OF EYEWITNESSES. CONTINUE ONLY IF YOU ARE PREPARED TO EXPERIENCE THE TRUTH.

That morning at 9 am, in jean shorts and a pair of tired, worn Converses, surrounding by hundreds of people way more hardcore than he, Dan Kelley ran a 5K road race.

I know. I'm still stunned. I don't know how they convinced me to do it. Honestly, though, I'm glad I did it. Minus the almost dying bit since I'm way wicked out of shape, I had a lot of fun. I should do more stuff like that. So that was a new experience that I'm still feeling the aftereffects of slightly (watching me attempt to walk on Sunday was hilarious). Then we had a massive brunch, went back to the house, swam in the pool for a while, taught the effervescent Christyn Budzyna and her beau to Lindy, chatted it up for a while and then it was back off on the road for me to avoid the inclement storms, which I mostly did. All in all, it was a wonderful visit.

It also made me really, really sad. It hit me that that visit will probably be the last time I see this girl until she gets back from Chile which made it a little more real for me that a lot of people aren't going to be around next year. I'm really going to miss all of you folks who are heading out to the wide world. Those who will be around, I clearly can't wait to see all of you again.

Whew, this entry has dragged on far too long. I really should go work. I have 215 envelopes to mail out! Postal service go!

hahahahahahahahha.

mood: i'm in exactly the same position i was in when i wrote my last two posts...
music: Кино (hey, at least i put music on)
random word: ленивая

---

what's that sound? oh, is that the sound of me laughing at myself for posting three times in a row? yes, yes it is.

GUYS! I'M SO BORED!! i am still sitting on my bed, with my computer in front of me. i did go to lunch, but other than that, i've been sitting here all day doing nothing. and yet, somehow, i can't believe that it's only 3:30...

the good news being that i signed onto AIM (because i was bored) and have been talking to louise for like over 2 hours now (which is good because i haven't talked to her for real in a very long time), and i talked to cata and rachel and becca steinberg.

oh! and louise and i decided what we want to do with our lives. actually, louise had already decided, but she told me. and she wants to do like environmental public policy stuff, which is cool because i had no idea she was interested in that. and i decided that i'm going to do some kind of like PR or something in the international department of some advertising or film company (specific, i know). this is, obviously, only if the whole traveling and learning languages for the rest of our lives thing doesn't work out. which, we see no reason why it won't work out, but we figure the back-up plans won't be bad ideas...

anyway, i should really go do something. i should take a bike ride. but i'm soooo lazy!! it's also pretty hot out... too hot for a bike ride... oh dear. anyway, i shall talk to you all later! пока!

New Realization

mood: still tired
music: still the cars and trucks on college street
random word: скучно

---

Ok, so, sorry to post twice within like an hour of each other, but I'm bored. Deal with it.

Anyway, I have had a new realization: my life is nothing without Proctor lunches and dinners.

I was sitting on my bed, bored, and was trying to figure out what it was that we did all last semester so that we weren't bored. A normal Sunday consisted of waking up at the earliest at 11:30. Then we went to lunch and were there until at least 1 or 1:30, depending on when we got there. Afternoons were studying/procrastinating/hanging out, and by 5:30/5:45, we were ready for a good hour and a half long dinner.

Ok. So, waking up at 11:30... this means that I should be sleeping right now. Ok, fine. We already knew that from my last post. So for right now we can attribute my boredom to no sleeping. I'm ok with that. Then, going to brunch for an hour or two... now, here's the problem. I go to brunch, but I only stay for half an hour at the most. Because there's not 20 people to talk to, and even if there were, it's all in Russian which makes hour and a half long conversations very difficult. The studying/procrastinating part I've still got, but then the dinner part has the same problem as the brunch part.

If this makes any sense to you, I'm glad. It makes sense in my head, I promise. Basically, my point is that without long meals at Proctor, my life is nothing. So either I blame all of you for my boredom because you chose to not come study Russian with me, or I blame the dining services for not opening Proctor for Russian students. Something like that.

I miss air conditioning.

mood: tired
music: trucks and motorcycles speeding down college street
random word: союз

---

It's 9:30. I went to bed at 1. I have been up for over an hour. I want it to stop being hot so that I can have a full night sleep... And by that I mean it looks like today is going to be one of the most beautiful days ever, and the heat is just the only thing I have to blame my lack of sleep on. Even though it's not really that hot.

Anyway, last night we played Risk. It was pretty amusing. Adam Irish has now made his very own "Risk Dictionary" which includes phrases like "My heart is bleeding" and "Iron Curtain". Somehow, I made it through almost the entire game with about one or two countries. And had I just gotten a set of cards at the end, it was quite possible that I could have taken over the world from lonely Kamchatka. But apparently the cards weren't in my favor.

Oh! I also wanted to say that on the weekend of July 21 we have a break. We don't have classes on Friday, and then we're allowed to do whatever for the weekend. Meaning we can go home and speak English or whatever we want. (If we stay on campus we're supposed to keep speaking Russian, though.) BUT my point is that anyone who lives in this area should do something that weekend. Because I miss you guys. And because I don't want to spend a boring weekend here speaking Russian. Cata and Laura - are you guys down south already by that weekend? Anyway, that's my idea. If it doesn't work out, I may just go home, which would be nice too.

Miss you all!

Buongiorno, principesse e principi!

mood: Recovering from a good movie
music: strings
random word: l’oscurità

Just watched La Vita è Bella with my family. Wow. I'd seen it before, but wow. If you haven't seen it and don't mind a good little cry, go watch it.
I'm thinking in Inglesiano right now, which is funky. Some phrases come in Italian, the rest is coming in English. I think I'll be able to handle that whole Language School thing. I really think I can. I'm still trying to figure out how to work my external hard drive, but I am able to play music again, which is good. I figure that I'll keep my Italian and classical music on my computer for easy access these next few weeks and keep the rest on the hard drive. And maybe some Great Big Sea... just 'cause.
H'anyway, I've been a busy little bee recently! Last Wednesday I took a bus into New York City to see Cirque du Soleil's "Corteo" which was incredible! Lots of talented people in that company, who have absolutely no good sense. I swear, I could have put every single act on the "List of Bad Ideas". But they were as spectacular as they were dangerous, so in the end, I didn't really mind too terribly.
I spent Thursday hanging out with Laura at her house, and we met up with Sid to have dinner and then go swimming. Lots of fun. Anyone who has a pool: I highly recommend the Aquabar. It's genius. Christyn and Michelle are also tubulariffic. Christyn and I are so Myspace friends now.
Then Friday I hopped back on to a train, then another bus to get back home (eventually). There were more than one's fair share of crazy people in line, but I made it on to the bus I wanted. Unfortunately, said bus arrived in Framingham an hour and a half late. Fortunately, the woman behind me was not a native speaker of English, so whenever she got a phone call, I would try to hypothesize what language she was speaking. It wasn't a Romance language, and I don't think it was German oScandinavianan. There was an abundance of "sh" sounds. She also frequently used words that sounded like "da" and "dobra". I'm not sure if it's Russian or not, but it certainly sounded Slavic.
Today I went to return some shirts and buy new sneakers, which are snazzay, in my humble opinion. Took me about ten minutes to browse through the shoes, select them, try them on, and decide to get them. Take THAT female gender!
Skot is coming to Southborough tomorrow, which should be exciting. There aren't a lot of trains on Sundays, so he probably won't get in until 5:30ish, but I'm still eagerly anticipating getting just a little bit more time with him before I go up to Vermont and he goes back to Tennessee.
Ooh, and in case you were wondering, the last post that I made is from the old blog. Laura and I were playing with the Babel Fish translator at Altavista.com, and I took the circle story, translated it into Chinese, then back to English, then into Korean, then back to English, then Japanese, then English again. This, my friends, is a perfect example of getting lost in the translation.
And just for kicks, here's another!
"Thanks Is large, Kevin! I also love Roksana, but they did not ask me by Russian names, so I think that I will be simply "beki". Desire immediately you it will arrive in Midlberi for the fact that I can wave to you! :) Beki"
Baci e abbraci,
~Kevin

So it turns out I'm not pregnant...

mood: RELIEVED (not really that much)
music: radiobilingue
random word: bobbin

---

My mom has been freaking out because the doctor's office left a message on our home answering machine saying that I needed to call them to get some test results. It was very thoughtful of them to leave such an awkwardly mysterious message. It didn't help that I wasn't feeling well earlier this week and a mother having been struck by the creative inspiration that comes with parenthood paranoia could, I suppose, have feasibly attributed my symptoms to morning sickness. Gulp. So I finally called the doctor today and was assured that my test (which wasn't actually a pregnancy test but try to tell my mom that) came back normal. Phew. *Wipes hand faintly across forehead* So I'm basically feeling pretty good about myself. If I were someone else, I would probably celebrate by going out, getting wasted and having lots of wild, unprotected sex.

the unstoppable geekdom of me

mood: dorky and oh so proud
music: the "it's friday" song
random word: futhark

---

so that website that michael nevadomski stumbled upon is pretty damn amazing. for those of you who have seen it yet, it has the alphabets of every language out there (even fake ones like elvish and such from Lord of the Rings). It's so cool! I've spent my entire morning fooling around on it and learning stuff, rather than working.

For example, you might wonder at my random word. well, "futhark" is the name of the germanic rune script used until conquest by anglo-saxons led to a language change (starting around 200 BCE and going until about 300 AD). once the anglo-saxons took over, they threw in a bunch of runes to handle their weird letters and vowels that weren't otherwise being used and made a bunch of runes more simple, so it become a "new language."

but yeah, i've spent the entire morning learning futhark and i have the rune system down and as far as i can tell, you just write left-to-right, put colons between words and spell things out phonetically and that's it. clearly, it has to be more complex than that, but i can't find anything online willing to teach me more, so i'm just gonna play with futhark as is.

this is why you don't give me fun dorky toys like this website (www.omniglot.com). it's just dangerous.

and how does one use differents scripts in the blog? i downloaded a futhark script and leaving random runic messages would clearly be the coolest ever.

oh, and i'm going to budzyna's for the night this afternoon. that should be fun.
love or, should i say:

Laguz-Othala-Uruz-Ehwas (being the runes for L-O-V-E)

Today we discussed bottles of vodka in the shape of Pushkin's head...

mood: a mixture of exhaustion and delight
music: Кино
random word: общество

---

lows: this really horrible headache i've had all day and can't get rid of. it went away for about 2 hours after dinner, but now it seems to be back. -- missing people...such as all of you. -- first big test tomorrow that i should have studied more for, but my headache is coming back, so i'm probably just going to go to sleep instead.

highs: studying outside with Marion. -- laughing a lot over the phrase "с Адамом", which (for those of you who have not recently finished memorizing the Cyrillic alphabet...) is pronounced "s Adamom" and means "with Adam". -- fleeting genius moments in which i feel as though i actually can speak russian and might get the hang of it after these 9 weeks are through.

smilehighs: seeing Kyle and telling him in russian that Adam just got the rickshaw out and is giving people rides, and Kyle responding in arabic. -- Adam getting the rickshaw out, giving people rides, and us still having friends in russian school...although one guy did say "Адам странный человек" (Adam's a strange person). -- reading a couple Pushkin poems and really appreciating them for the first time. -- remembering this program called mytunes and how amazing it is when you live in a dorm (aka finally getting more russian music!!).

Chinese Fortune Telling Chain Letter Fun

mood: at the hands of the fates
music: a pirate looks at forty
random word: bubblegumrum (just invented it, sounds nasty)

---

The other day my cousin sent me this Chinese fortune telling chain letter thing that I would normally have deleted except I was really bored. I totally forgot that I was going to share it with you guys until I found the napkin that I had scribbed my answers onto.

So according to Fate, Destiny, Zues, God, Johnny Depp and the Boogeyman (not intended to be offensive though my religious p.c. filter is not turned on at the moment)...

~ 13 is my lucky number (saw that one coming a mile away)

~ Michael is the one I love and the song that reminds me of him is "Only the Good Die Young"

~ Dan is the one I have a crush on but our relationship will not work out and the song that reminds me of him is "American Pie"

~ Laura is the person I care most about

~ Becky is the one who knows me very well

~ Ali is my lucky star (not entirely sure what that is but it somehow sounds like a role Ali could fulfil)

~ The song that tells me most about my mind is "Ojos Asi" (which, if I may add, is the ONLY song I can think of that includes Spanish, Arabic and Belly dancing all in one!!!)

~ The song that tells me how I feel about life is "You may be right" (otherwise known as "Lunatic"

If I didn't know any better, I'd think that game got inside my head. AHHHH! Or it could just be that with the people and songs I chose, it's impossible to go wrong.

Important! Read Carefully

mood:
music:
random word:

---

Only him it does not make permanently that can change the decision of that life route, does Renault apply to inspection while putting hard, route 3, the l2.7 candle? As for that then you imagine before, you intend, knowledge choosing you can be accurately. 1st? Position is when thin, like the accessory like it is satisfied, 2, in order to germinate, it imagines, that is good, affirmative; 3rd? That like the prospect that the bottom is bright, affirmatively is sufficient and the vital force which is the movement which you speak to imagine. In order to be this way to that it is that immature wing and the operator of reputation with, 2 strawboard you walked with 3rd? The attack odor my insect of Bert of boat Renault. With 8 on that left entirely, you throw that and are high. It was harsh with thing, Bert me it is small with percent of vital force which the column marches multi with wide methodological possibility and is hun which is done to that attack odor from the insect of this type which is compared is desired in the misdeed, the part makes that almost thing that that deep-red simply in the boat to be able landing thing enters, the silence it spreads in the boat of the code word of E d, in order is, the inside of deep-red is some kind of code word and the code word of E d, to speak? As for the range where the inside of the program 1 which misfortune you hear and is her is audible her thing which is all the space destruction of life of maintenance of the machines, accidentally the equality which is very, thickly the て with four letters that column Bert which marches the human and depends. Because that in as for Gah lady, her index finger and the thing method with thing her that of ムギ n of being Tina and egg l under beginning the history her of start space destruction of mind and her right hand meeting which do not bend extends before the deep-red color button which is prepared in order of the individual who is inhaled, it happens. Figure of speech of misdeed that Bert arrived the edge very; It decides destiny? Or the car or the extreme time when it drives the grassland did not increase the appetite of the group and, the shape in square of the boat it transfers edition under the corn candy, Tina which is exploded immediately width 8 unexpected inserts rather straightly. Being the place where the cause Tina and the ムギ n button which in the accident which is causes car that the multi of searching becomes, and deep-red which is in order with the side mouth of grassland deep-red color, the large group, to enter into that with the advance of width 8, and that course it makes, conclusion of necessary compilation, the code word of E d it drives beautifully. (Peaceful month inside in the midst of understanding of person) weight, the seashore of bee homicide person Pismo under atlas Cary of permeation is made to destroy to the other side affirmatively because corn candy him of the hot source in the thing which is full it is stimulated, when how it makes start, possibility of the state egg whose immediately some kind of evasion Haess and Bert are bad is the private pad everything which is he? As for that, in order to change Buddhism which is stimulated suddenly by, the corn candy of the hot source in the order 8 which is the homicide person who fills up the bee which was accepted and direction and candle heat the Cary surprise.

On the Sex Appeal of Time-Keeping Devices

mood: Covetous
music: Budzyna household
random word: Jughandle

---

All right, we're testing Caitlin's addiction to the blog. We're going on the hypothesis that Cata will check this blog more than she checks her voice mail.

Caitlin: When you read this, call Kevin's cell phone.

Everyone else: Vote on whether Cata will call Kevin because of the blog, because of the voice mail he left her, or because of that very special psychic connection that they acquired while studying with Tibetan monks in Burlington. Or something like that.

K + L

Я даю слово...?

mood: pretty happy, kind of bored
music: wishing it was anything in english
random word: яд

---

Things I have realized so far from Language School:

- The pledge is not as hard to keep up as you'd think it is. It's actually kind of fun.
- The pledge is the hardest to keep up when you're sitting in your room bored and wanting to procrastinate.
- The pledge also gets in the way of making new friends and being able to talk to these friends about anything other than how classes went today.
- The pledge is easiest to keep up when you're having fun and goofing off and couldn't care less what language you're speaking.
- Middlebury is creeping up on my lake house as my favorite place in the world.
- I MISS BILLY JOEL! ...and I need more Russian music.
- Russian is a very difficult (aka ridiculous (aka horrible)) language.
- Letters make me really, really, really, really, really happy. Box 2167. Because I love you all.
- Adam Irish is quite good at croquet. Except when he forgets the rules and I win. ;)
- I should not get my hopes up when Greg says "Let's go running in the rain". It does not mean let's go jump and dance and run around in the rain. It means I'm going to put on my sneakers and running shorts and we're going to actually run. In the rain.
- I miss Proctor.
- You think Vermont winters are cold? Just come up here for the summer. I have yet to sleep through a night, it's been so damn hot!
- Waking up for 8:00 classes everyday of the week SUCKS. And I've only had 2 days of it. And I've got 9 weeks more of it. Holy crap, I'm going to die.
- My suitemate, Marian, is really nice and I'm glad we're becoming friends, but sad because I wonder how good of friends we can actually become as we're only speaking Russian.
- My suitemate's name is Marian. As in Marian the Librarian. As in that song has been stuck in my head for the past 4 days, but I can't sing it because it's in English. So now I'm the girl who goes around humming.

Overall, it's good so far. The worst part, like I said, is that you can't just sit down and have a conversation with someone because the words, obviously, come out slowly and often not correctly. I'm also bored a lot, which sucks, but I know there are reasons for that. It'll get better as we all get better at Russian and are more comfortable speaking it all the time. And also, it'll get better next week when clubs and activities start. I've actually been breaking the pledge quite a lot, but only by coming online or checking e-mail. It's just because I'm bored, so I think I'll actually be better about that as the weeks go on. Right now I'm thinking "oh my god, I have to do nine more weeks of this", but yeah, I'm pretty optimistic that it'll get better. And, I mean, it's not horrible right now, just not extremely awesome or anything like that. Anyway, I guess I should go do some homework (by the way, !! you would all be amazed at my work ethic here! I'm totally doing all my homework, AND in a timely manner. I blame boredom.) Miss you all and wish you were here!

Бэки (oh yeah, I ended up just keeping my name. although, the suggestions were awesome and certainly made me smile.)

I may actually be physically ADDICTED to the Blog...

mood: drinking Milk Tea from Michael that I found in fridge (really big smile, sigh.)
music: there's this huge fly buzzing around my head right now and I can't hear anything else
random word: zebra

---

So yesterday I randomly got sick and had to take a taxi home from work (which is expensive and blows). Probably part of the reason I was so hot Sunday night that I couldn't fall asleep. Anyways, I crawled into bed at like 3:30 in the afternoon. As I lay there, I couldn't get it out of my head that I should check the blog and post. I don't know why, but it was like this burning thing that I HAD to do. I was too disoriented to get out of bed so I started planning out my post in my head. Luckily I fell asleep before I managed to get anywhere near a computer because when I woke up again at 8:00 (in the evening even though I though it was morning), I realized that I must have been totally delerious earlier. All I remember was that the post I had so desperately felt I needed to write had consisted of a list of words that I thought sounded cool...among them: rainbow, enchanting, lollipop, chromosome (now the first three sound like something out of a little girl's picture book but where the hell did I get chromosome?) There were a whole bunch, I kid you not. I wonder how healthy this obsession with the Blog truly is...

Sunday morning drive...

mood: it was a good day
music: simon & garfunkle
random word: topsytail
Speeding down Route 316 into Hebron for the first time since being late to first period senior year was almost the same except speeding to school meant going 40 m.p.h., but since they’ve changed the speed limit, speeding is now redefined as going 55 m.p.h. along a narrow, curvey, hilly, country road. It ups the intensity factor a couple of notches.

My mission was to make it to the pharmacy before it closed after realizing in the nick of time that I should probably get a Father’s Day card for my new stepfather. Recently developed theory: divorce and remarriage are nothing more than a brilliant marketing ploy that requires us to buy twice as many presents on any given holiday.

My legs are sweating against the leather seat and I can feel my short skirt start to wrinkle. My hair is flying madly out the open sunroof and I’m feeling like a big deal as I shift the hot red Jetta into fourth gear, don my sunglasses and turn on the radio, prepared to find another boring, Sunday-morning talk show. I am stunned and amused at the joke when what do I hear but Big Shot! I quickly crank up the volume to max and proceed to drown out Billy with my own heat-stroke-bellowing version, all the while picturing Billy prancing around the stage in a baseball cap, playing catch with the microphone.

New favorite feeling: my sweaty palms banging on the leather steering wheel as if it were a set of steel drums and pulling into the parking lot with 5 minutes to spare before the pharmacy closes and 5 minutes to remember if there had been an actual purpose to that drive, other than being the prefect Sunday morning pick-me-up.

Hugs all around,
Cata

---

русский in t minus 2 hours

mood: quite happy but still quite hot
music: нет музыки
random word: плавать

---

this is it. i've got 2 hours of english speaking left. it's gonna be intense, guys...

here's what i've realized, though, and what i actually had planned on writing about in my last post, but forgot. i realized that middlebury is the first place i've ever actually missed. i came back here, and it just felt like home. it's beautiful, guys. they've put adirondack chairs all over the campus, and there are flowers planted. it's really pretty. and i don't know, i just got here and had this overwhelming feeling of home. it was really nice. i've never come back to a place and really felt like that before. i guess it's cause i've moved so much and stuff, but i mean, even going home to illinois, when i still lived there, was different. and i lived there for 9 years, but i think that because i didn't truly love it, it just didn't feel right. but middlebury, well, midd is it, guys. it's perfect.

anyway, i just wanted to say that, but now i have to go eat dinner and then sign the language pledge. !! oh, i got my level assignment and stuff today. i was put in level 3, but i went and argued for level 4. i think that that'll be good. and then we spent the afternoon at lake dunmore swimming and playing whiffle ball. it was over 90 degrees here today! slightly ridiculous. anyway, i'm off, i'll talk to you all at some point, and i love you all!

p.s. i need a russian name. thoughts on tanya? ...i can't think of any that start with b or r.

Happy Father's Day (not that any of us are fathers, that I know of...)

mood: piratey
music: The Wall- Floyd
random word: banananut

---

I just want to start out by saying to my good friends Laura, Dan, Michael and Becky, that when I read your comments on my poem I was pretty much on top of the world. Unfortunately, it was cloudy out at the time so the visibility wasn't much to speak of. I love you guys! After seriously considering all of your offers I have decided that the fairest way to settle this dispute is to wait for the man (or woman, this is me not wanting to close any doors) of my dreams. The problem is that I ususally don't remember my dreams but the first time one of you appears in my threatre of the night, I shall let you know. And then we can start discussing vows. In the meantime, I am totally open to bribes.

And Kevin gets his own paragraph. First, because I am an ass and thought all week about how I was supposed to send him a birthday card and, of course, when the day arrived, I neglected to remember why I was supposed to remember what day it was. BUON CUMPLEANNO KEVIN! TI VOGLIO MIO AMOR!!! And secondly, beacuse Kevin's list of reasons why we are friends literally made me laugh out loud. None of this fake LOL crap. No, this was me actually laughing out loud at 1:00 in the morning when my family was sleeping probably finding me quite obnoxious. I thank you for that...

Last but not least, I give 100 points to Glastonbury for its classy "Taste of Glastonbury on the Green" last night and 1000 points to Dan Kelley for being an awesome friend and inviting me. I would also like to give 50 points to "Over the Hedge" at the drive-in movies in the back of Dan's truck with his crazy G-bury crowd for being hilarious! And another 25 points to the second feature, X-Men III only beacuse it was clearly not riveting enough to keep me awake and when I woke up at the end to the booming voice of the drive-in announcer advising us that the snack-bar was about to close, I prompty sat up, rubbed my eyes and asked if Snow White had made an appearance in the movies. For those wondering, the answer was a resounding "no." Oh, and -50 points for MapQuest leading us through the worst section of Hartford so that we had to reroute on the way back when it was 2:00 in the morning, dark and scary.

I miss your hugs,

Cata

Small town folk in the City

mood: Reminiscing
music: GBS (in my head)
random word: Raindrops

---

Lows: Missing the last train from the city, having to call my brother who then drives all the way into Boston to pick me up, then arriving home at about 12:45am to a very upset mother who wants to know what happened. We only missed the train by ten seconds, but ugh. Not a good feeling to make her crazy :(

Highs: All the calls, text and facebook messages from everyone wishing me a happy birthday. And Hoops and Yoyo, too.
Having a birthday lunch with my mother (it was her birthday, too!) We went out to the Picadilly Pub and had salads. It was nutritious and delicious.
Spending the rest of the day in Boston.

Smilehigh: Park bench by the pond, nighttime, rain, kisses.

но я не хочу говорить по-русскки!

mood: bored and hot
music: soundtrack to Брат
random word: словарь

---

ok, guys, this is a problem. i'm bored already. and we haven't even started speaking russian yet!! i don't have anything to do, and i could go make friends, but all of the peoples' doors on my hall are shut, and so i don't know who to make friends with... and stupid adam irish is napping and greg is bike riding.

so, obviously, the language pledge doesn't start until tomorrow, which is nice cause it gives us a chance to get to know people first. i'm living in the suite right across the hall from my suite from this past year, on the fourth floor. i've talked to two of my suitemates, who are very nice, and i've met a bunch of random other people too. greg already has his own little posse who follow him around everywhere, so whenever i've been bored i've gone upstairs to see what they are up to.

i had to take an oral exam this morning, and a written exam this afternoon. both went alright, but not great. i really just don't know where i'm going to fall on this whole placement thing. i'm not really worried because all i actually care about is that i come out of this with a comfortable level to go to moscow, but it's going to be awesome when i get put at a level lower than the middkids who were just in like 200-level this past year, while i did that freshman year. eh, whatever.

i wish i had an interesting story to tell all of you... actually, hah. i do. adam, greg and i went into town this afternoon cause i wanted to buy juice. (what kind of juice, laura? why, dole orange-pineapple of course!) so i got my juice and i got some goldfish too, and i went to the self-checkout. as i'm scanning the juice through, greg, being the 5 year old that he is, picks up the juice again and swipes it through an extra time. then adam sits on the bagging area, so that the machine starts yelling at me that there are too many things in the bag. greg, having put the juice down now, swings around and picks up a reese's peanut butter cup from the rack behind us and swipes that through too. adam, meanwhile, has gotten off of the bagging area, found squirt guns for sale and toddles over like a 3 year old saying "becky, becky, buy this too!" so i've got 3 to 4 juices on the screen, and a reese's peanut butter cup, and an extra squirt gun package in my hand. then comes the moment i realize why you all say i'll make a great soccer mom... "both of you, go stand over by the door! now!" they walk over to the door and wait for me, while continuing to giggle mischieviously. i ignore the machine that is now saying "please see cashier for assistance" over and over and over and instead go to a real checkout line and finish in about 2 minutes...with the squirt guns, i might add. all i have to say is that it's a good thing we weren't speaking russian yet. i have no doubt it all wouldn't have still happened, but i'm pretty sure everyone would have been convinced we were robbing the place. russian has an innate evilness in it, you see.

anyway, i'm off to dinner now, in the perilous place that is ross dining. this will probably be my last post in a while. (i say that, but then i very well may post again tomorrow before the language pledge takes effect and i become quite bored again...) love you and miss you all.

Бэки

Fifteen minutes of my day...

mood: philosophical
music: the hum of the lights
random word: fool

---

I smile to myself, realizing this is the first time I’ve walked through the streets of a city entirely alone. A timely opportunity, as I will be moving in a month to Montevideo, where the university I’ll be attending is roughly 20 times the size of my hometown.

I glance down at my red toenails peeping out from beneath the brown leather straps of my new work shoes. Too bad the heels are so skinny and I haven’t yet broken them in. The balls of my feet, already swollen from a long day at the office, begin to sweat and protest at the prospect of walking a mile and a half uphill in the smoldering heat. It’s not supposed to get this hot until August.

Trying to ignore the blisters, I remind myself not to stop to pick up the penny on the sidewalk and concentrate on looking like I know where I’m going. I can hear my Dad telling me that people who appear to be tourists, women or simply lost are more likely to be preyed upon by criminals on city streets. Granted, it may be broad daylight, but since I basically fit into all three of the aforementioned categories, it can’t hurt to be a little extra cautious.

When did the elastic on this blouse get so stretched out? I’d spent all day at the office pulling the sleeves back up onto my shoulders, but now the sun feels good on my bare skin so I decide to let it go. I catch a glimpse of myself in the window of a hotel on the other side of the road. The left shirt sleeve has slid lower down on my arm than right one, giving me an asymmetrical, almost sexy look. I could be a model for Secret deodorant: cool and confident. My self-assured smile quickly melts into a blush as the bellboy winks at me from across the street and I realize he caught me checking myself out.

I continue on, picking up the pace a bit, only to be stopped short by a glaring red hand: do not walk. I push the pedestrian crossing button repeatedly but it seems to have no effect. Are these things even wired to the traffic lights or do they just exist as a decoy to fool pedestrians into thinking they actually have control over the crazed white-collar drivers who will stop at nothing to beat every car on the road home on a Friday afternoon?

The golden dome on the capitol building glimmers in the sunlight, and I get a catcall in Spanish. It’s like being in Madrid, expect the signs are in English, the capitol is the only old building in sight and the man who whistled at me is wearing a John Deer trucker hat and a thick silver chain with a blinged-out playboy bunny.

I decide to take out my cell phone, in hopes of looking more cosmopolitan. No one has to know that I am checking my voicemail, even though the screen is flashing “no new messages.” The effect is almost instant: no sooner do I click my flip phone shut, than a man approaches me to ask for directions. It hadn’t occurred to me that along with signaling that I was a real city chic, talking on my phone would give people the impression that I was a local and knew my way around. At least that should keep the muggers away. Problem being, I didn’t actually know where anything was. “Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Adrien’s Landing?” the man asked me, peering over the top of his map. I’d always thought that Adrien’s Landing was in Massachusetts. Shit. “I’m sorry, I’m not that familiar with Hartford,” I explain apologetically, conveniently leaving out the fact that I’d lived 20 a mere minutes east of Connecticut’s capitol city my whole life.

I arrive at the bus stop to find it cluttered with men in suits holding briefcases and one woman reading a newspaper. I opt for the small tuft of grass off to the side, where I plop myself down and pull out a crumpled napkin and purple pen. It’s been quite a walk. I decide to jot down my fifteen-minute excursion up Asylum Street in Hartford, Connecticut, in search of the bus stop where my mom had said she’d meet me. It’s always funny when it takes more time to write down what happened than the time it actually took to happen. A lot can happen in fifteen minutes. Especially when those fifteen minutes are spent walking down a city street alone, in a pink skirt, high heels and a shirt that’s falling down without a clear idea of where exactly it is you’re headed.

A lot can happen in fifteen minutes. Even more can happen in a year. Especially when the city you’re walking through is not the capitol of the suburban state known as Connecticut but rather the capitol of an entire country. A country on a different continent where the signs are all in Spanish and the coins on the sidewalk aren’t pennies. I shudder at the thought of someone asking me for directions in Montevideo and wonder if I’ll get catcalls in English.

My poem (nothing amazing but it made me smile...)

mood: um, I forget
music: the ringing of my cell phone, should probably go get that...
random word: teletransportation (shh... it's a word)

---

The Lifeguard Chair
(for Laura & Becky and the Jersey Shore)

By day, it is a perch
For the red-clad lifeguard
Who watches children frolic amidst the seafoam
Constantly counting to make sure they are all still there

At night, it lays on its side
Overturned, to guard against strong gusts of wind
Like a sleepy toddler, it curls up on its side

It is a quaint wooden swing
Where best friends sit side-by-side
Basking in the abalone twilight
The moon, like a lonely pearl that floated away one night,
Admires its own reflection
In the velvet ocean ripples

It is a moss-speckled tower
Where the princess of a stone castle stands
Her hair tossing about in the breeze
Until its waves are as wild and unruly as the surf

It is a pirate ship
For young scallywags
Who dig eagerly in the sand
In search of buried treasure
A pebble, a shell, or if they’re lucky,
A shiny piece of seaglass
Its edges worn smooth
By the patient ebbing of water and time
One cannot put a value on riches such as these

It is a haven for lovers
Who drink crisp ocean air
Until they can taste the salt upon their lips
Like the trace of a first kiss the next morning
Hand-in-hand they wait for sunrise
Rocking to the rhythm of the tides
And counting stars instead of children.

A week is a very long time...

mood: dappled and drowsy
music: GBS
random word: tweedledee

---

Things I haven't done in a week:

1) check email

2) check blogg :(

3) look at a computer screen for any reason whatsoever

4) get more than 6 hours of sleep

5) eat normal food for dinner

6) think straight

Things I HAVE done this week:

1) shoot a gun (thought I'd start out with a BANG! pun intended, i.e. you can laugh). no, for real. I only hit the target once but then apparently the sight was off so I really shouldn't have hit it at all...

2) miss the blogg

3) mentally rank my life according to whether or not events that occur are bloggworthy

4) think about the blogg a lot

5) start working 40 hours a week at an office job at an insurance company that basically involves me going through 7,800 files to determine whether the service contracts are original, copies or from Asia. Yes, "from Asia" is its own category.

6) make over 20 trips to the mailroom already to get the files and make BIG enemies with the mailroom workers because my intern access card doesn't let me into the mailroom so I have to knock on the door. Also, I stole their cart.

7) have my first conference call. We (and by "we" I mean my boss) talked to the heads of our project at the different company branches all over the country and I may have accidentally spent the entire time completely ignoring what anyone was saying and concentrating wholeheartedly on analyzing their speech patterns to figure out what regional office they were from.

7) wake up at 6:00 in the morning (4 days and counting...)

8) eat lunch with DAN KELLEY (4 days and counting...)

9) go on a supertydooperawesomishfantasmarific roadtrip to visit Laura and Becky and only get lost once on the way home from Becky's (so apparently there are 2 roads named 291; one in Massachusetts and one in Connecticut. They are NOT the same road. This is the same mistake our Spanish professor made when we were following her to UConn. I probably should have been aware of it. But then again, I may or may not have been on the phone (I knew it was illegal in NY and CT so I decided to take my chances and use it in MA where it is probably illegal too but at least I would be legitimately ignorant when the cop asked me if I knew the law).

10) write a poem...

(see next post if you are interested)

P.S. I haven't actually READ the blogg since I am too tired and way behind. I swear I'll catch up tomorrow. I love and miss you all. And also really wish I had a computer at work. And apologize for the lack of bright colors (literally and figuratively) in this post as it has come to my attention that Corporate America eats away at your brain cells and kills your creativity.

Cata

You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.

mood: anxious, but at the moment, content
music: still the one, orleans
random word: ёж (translation: hedgehog. pronunciation: yoj)

---

So, first of all, let me say that I promise I'm not freaking out nearly as much as I was when I wrote my last post. What I realized is that it's not actually russian school that's freaking me out. I mean, I'm nervous for it, but I'm also excited, and I think it's going to be quite the adventure. I realized, though, that the reason I was freaking out is because after russian school comes a full year abroad, and after that comes senior year and after that comes the rest of my life. I've had a knot in my stomach for the past few days, and it's because I can see the end of Middlebury on the horizon. And I don't know, maybe that's crazy, because we are only halfway done with college. It's just that I expected to have this feeling at some point during senior year when I actually have to figure out what I'm doing with my life, but about 2 days ago the feeling crept up on me and surprised me early. It's the thought that I'm saying good-bye to everyone for a year, and then I come back. But a year after that, I'll have to say good-bye to everyone forever. Maybe I sound crazy, but anyway, that's what was actually freaking me out more than just russian school.

On a lighter note, I just watched the AFI's 100 most inspirational movies of the century. Number 1 was good old Jimmy (Stewart, that is) in It's a Wonderful Life. :) And that just made me smile. In fact, Jimmy made it twice in the top 5 -- number 5 was Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. :D Number 2 was To Kill a Mockingbird, which is also quite rightly earned. And, because I know you were all wondering, Cool Hand Luke definitely made it on there at around 70 or so. *sigh* So so so good.

So tomorrow is clean-up/organize/pack day. Today I went out, got my haircut, and bought random stuff that I need, like shampoo and stuff. Oh, and yesterday I bought 501 Russian Verbs, written by Mr. Thomas Beyer of the Middlebury Russian Department. So basically, I'm more than ready. I really am. I'm not so nervous anymore. Anxious, but not nervous. Oh, and I just wanted to say, Greg, that I'm really glad you're going to be there. It's been nice talking to you about it the past few days or so, and it'll be good to have a friend. :)

Anyway, I will probably be calling a lot of you tomorrow, or you should call me, because I want to talk to you before I leave, which is Friday at some time in the afternoon or so. I love you all, and will talk to you soon or not so soon or just at some point... eek! ;)

Text Messages from Michael Make Me Merry

mood: merp?
music: Indigo Girls, GBS, Barenaked Ladies, Rufus Wainwright...
random word: Darling

---

I talked to Skot tonight. He's that certain boy I know. I feel really weird. I haven't heard his voice in nearly two years. And we just had a nice, friendly fifteen minute conversation. He was walking through Cambridge with his co-worker friends, so he was a little distracted, and I called him right as he was about to get on the subway, so it was a hassle actually getting connected with him. All in all, it was just kinda weird. I know that it's an overused word and is not really right to describe it all, but I can't come up with any others. He was really excited to hear from an old friend, thought it was great that I'm taking Italian, had gotten mixed up and thought that Vermont was where I lived year-round. He said that we must see each other.
Problems: I leave June 30th and don't return until mid-August; his lease runs out August 1. He also works five days a week from 2:00 until 10:00, traveling the state asking people to give money to the non-profit he works for so that they can do everything they can to battle the Mormon moron, Gov. Mitt Romney. (He said that if Southborough ever comes up, he's assigning himself to it and knocking on my door to beg for a donation.) If I go in to the city late at night, I have no way of getting back. As far as weekends go, this Saturday is my mother's and my birthday, and Sunday is Father's Day. (Side note: shouldn't it be "Fathers' Day"?) Friday, his friend's girlfriend is throwing a costume party, to which I am welcome. Now, I love a good old-fashioned awkward as much as the rest of you, (okay maybe not as much as some of y'all) but there's only so much I can handle.
So, I don't really know what to do, think, say, decide. I'll let it simmer for a while, see what I'm up for, see when my family wants me around, talk to Skot and figure things out. (Also, thank you Windows Media Player for selecting "How Did We Get from Saying 'I Love You' " at this very moment.)
Enough of that.
In other news, I watched a Cirque du Soleil show on Bravo today. Wow. Them people's crazy! I have also gotten myself slightly hooked on LOGO movies, the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, and la Copa Mondial on the Spanish channel. I know, I know... reeeeaaaal gay. But that's why we have the boob tube, now isn't it?
And with that, I think it's best that I head off and screw my head on right.

~Kevin

Things That Make Me Oh-So-Happy

mood: sunshine-able
music: "Ice Cream" - The Music Man
random word: pahoehoe (it's a kind of lava! and it's pronounced pa-ho-ee-ho-ee! sweet!)

---

So this weekend was like the highlight of my life. The tricky thing is that I haven't posted in forever so the pre-awesome-weekend stuff hasn't gotten covered yet. Hokay, here's where I do my best to catch everyone up to the most recent smile-highs on 4 Baskenridge Dr.

Smile-High #1: Chile Housing!

Here is the house I will be living in, complete with stately-looking Chilean señora. I'll be living with her, her husband, their two daughters in their 30s, and another Chilean student who is boarding with them. It says that they have a lot of experience hosting students in their house, so that's good news for me. They'll provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner, sheets and towels, laundry, use of telephone and Internet. And I get my own room and bathroom.

It gets better. Instead of in Valparaiso, where the college is, I'll be living in Viña del Mar, which is a resort city nearby. I looked up the address on a map, and it turns out that I will be a mere 10 blocks away from the Pacific Ocean.

Smile-High #2: Running (oh, and Sidney!)

Man, just look at that gangly couple go. Aren't they just the cutest?

So, I've run three road races so far this summer - one every weekend I've been home. I'm not a competitive runner by any means, but I like getting up early on Saturdays and bouncing along the shore for a little while and then bringing home a t-shirt to show for it. It's nice to be getting into shape, and I don't put too much pressure on myself with regard to speed. (Still, I tend to leave my dad behind, which makes me smile because he's Super Triathlete Man. Then again, he can go on forever and I'm pretty much done after 3 miles.)

Sidney came home a week ago (HAPPY!!) and we signed up to do the George Sheehan Classic 5-Miler in Red Bank. It's a nationally ranked race, which is cool, and there are Kenyans, which is cooler. We ran it together on Saturday morning and we did 8-minute miles for the first 4 miles until I had like...total body failure and crawled through the last mile (all crazy uphill) while Sidney sprinted ahead. Cross-Country Sidney's a little faster than I am. Who'd a thunk. I may or may not have wanted to rip his head off the whole race long. Still, I was pretty proud of myself - I ended up finishing 130th out of 600 women and 15th out of 60 in my age/gender group with a 41:19. Not super awesome, but faster than my usual jaunt along the shore.

Next week we're running a 5k in Allenhurt, but he's going to run ahead from the beginning while I bounce along as usual. I'm okay with that :)

Smile-High #3: Becky and Cata!!

Okay, so I know this post has been done, but I can't stress enough how awesome it was. Planet Smoothie runs, text messages from Michael, horrendous traffic, Sea Bright beach adventures, bowling with C and Frank and watching Cata school us all, late-night pizza parlor dates, avoiding death by glue, finger paint, and angry toddlers in the Dorbrook Park activity building, lying on the grass under a big blue sky in Dorbrook Park, racing home to pick up Ali at the Middletown Train Station, panini lunch at Zebu with Sidney and Joe, Billy Joel/Goo Goo Dolls/West Side Story/Shakira music shopping at Jack's, buying bags and books and cute new shoes at Funk and Standard, racing home to drop off Ali, the hour-long drive down to Ocean Beach, roaring and singing and dancing and stuffing ourselves with ice cream for dinner at the Music Man Ice Cream Shoppe, the "New Jersey" version of "Oklahoma!", toddlers wandering aimlessly through the cabaret, waiters impersonating toddlers wandering aimlessly through the cabaret, being the loudest and most enthusiastic miniature golfers in New Jersey, sunsets and shadows and lifeguard stands and bungalows and the moon shimmering over the water, the hour-long drive back and miraculously being able to lift ourselves off the couch to go to ImprovJam, not really being sure whether ImprovJam was funny because we were way too tired, eating waffles and french fries at 2 am at the Broadway Diner in Red Bank, waking up at noon on Sunday, Becky and Cata moaning "Loooooora!" and calling my cell phone from the basement, Becky's ABC and Mickey Mouse and snowman and smiley-face pancakes, and all of the heartfelt hugs before they drove away into the abyss of Parkway traffic.

Cata's bowling score: 153
Laura's minigolf score: 40 (par!)
Number of meals we ate at the appropriate mealtimes: 0
Hours of sleep: next to nil
Amazing memories: too many to count

Check Becky's picture site, honestly. Kodak joy abounds.

Smile-High #4: MAAARRK!

Okay, so I don't really have time to give this one justice because Sidney is on his way over, but about 2 hours after Cata and Becky left, Mark pulled in front of my house so we could watch the Tony's together :-D :-D :-D

All I will say is, my congratulations to the fabulous Drowsy Chaperone, my sympathy to the shafted Sweeney Todd, and every WHAT THE FUCK I can muster toward Jersey Boys. Honestly.

Mark and I consoled ourselves by watching Sondheim in Carnegie Hall and then stayed up all night talking about the future and how we're going to write a musical (he'll compose, I'll do lyrics) and thank MCMP in our Tony speeches. Got up early yesterday to drive Michelle to school, had breakfast with Mark, then saw him off. Then went to the MCMP Facebook group and used my administrator priveleges to change his officer name from "Administrator" to "Legend."

Sidenote: He's joining the blog :-D

Teensy Little Low:
Since I got no sleep and exerted every bit of energy I had in the last four days, I promptly came down with an awful cold yesterday (an excellent time to watch the new Pride and Prejudice. Joy!) and am trying to recover before heading to the Bronx tonight to see the Yankees.

So much love and extra squeezy hugs to all.

Nine Weeks is a Long Time...

mood: becoming very nervous
music: Земфира (Zemfira)...Russian woman rock artist. Kind of fun, kind of scary, kind of one of only 3 albums I have of Russian music...
random word: нервничать

---

Ok, guys, it just hit me. I'm going to be speaking Russian for nine weeks. I'm going to be cut off from the entire world for nine weeks. I'm going to be SPEAKING RUSSIAN FOR NINE WEEKS!! I don't know Russian. I took a semester off from Russian. And the semester before that was kind of a joke class in which my teacher rolled cigarettes in the middle of class. I am, first of all, going to be put in a much lower level than I'd like to be in, and a much lower level than probably everyone is expecting me to be in, seeing as the last Russian class I took was level 411. Then I'm going to have to make friends with people who already have friends in Russian school cause they took the normal Russian route and started taking Russian at Middlebury. So they'll already know each other and not care about speaking Russian to each other, while I'll have to make new friends in Russian. For the past half-hour or so, I've been trying to practice or something...just like thinking about how you would say something in Russian, and what I realized is that every sentence takes about 3 minutes to say seeing as each word is separated by at least 15 seconds of thinking! AND THEN, assuming I survive the gulag, I go to Russia, and then to France, and I don't see any of you for a year, or more. What the hell, guys?! I can't do this. I miss you all so much, and instead of hanging out with you guys, I have subjected myself to nine weeks of craziness, and then a semester of craziness in snow, and then a semester of the Eiffel Tower...ok, so we'll kind of let that last one go. BUT, oh dear me.

Sorry. You know how you can know that something is coming for months and months, but suddenly one day it hits you what that something actually means? That's what just happened. I realized what Russian school and a year abroad actually mean. I realized how long of a time it really is, and how far away (either by language or by geographic location) I'm going to be from all of you.

I took a walk today with my friend Elizabeth. She and I have known each other since we were 5 or so, but for the past 11 years only got to see each other once a year. So the fact that she now lives around the corner from me is quite exciting. Anyway, she stopped by and it was the first time I've seen her this summer, so we went for a walk. And it amazed me how easily and naturally the conversation flowed with her. We walked for about 40 minutes or so, mostly talking about the summer and studying abroad, and it was just wonderful. You would all love Elizabeth. She's extremely nice, and goofy, and creative. And she's a singer. ;) She would probably fit right in with our group. It's just weird, though, because neither of us have ever really seen the other in a social situation. I mean, I've never met any of her friends, and she's never met any of mine. But I could see her fitting in so well with all of you. It just made me realize how nice it is to have people you just click with. Which, of course, made me miss all of you.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the only reason I don't want to go to Russian school right now (other than the fact that I'm scared out of my mind) is that it means I don't get to talk to you all. Which is ridiculous because I'm not even hanging out with you guys; it's just the blog, and IMs, and phone calls that I'm really, really going to miss. So I'm sorry that this post has been really sappy or whatever, and kind of freaking out, and I'm sorry because I know I just posted yesterday as well, but I really do miss you guys. So the truth is that I'm probably going to post on the blog, and I'm probably going to e-mail, and I'm probably going to be making phone calls even while at Russian school. I mean, the scariest thing is that I don't even really know how it works, and if it really will be hard to do all that and if I'll have to be really secretive with it all. It could end up not being that big of a deal. Anyway, it's late, and I'm really tired, which I'm sure hasn't helped this rant. I love all of you very much.

Becky

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSIE!! :)

Smiles

mood: happy :)
music: people working around me
random word: potato

---

Hello my dear friends.

I've returned from the Cape. Despite the less-than-favorable weather Laura and I managed to have a spectacular time. We went on a boat ride around the Cape, ate out all over the place, walked the beaches, went shopping and overall just had a lot of fun. Also, this trip plus visiting Becky at her lake house has since convinced me that when I become a grown-up, respectable adult (me? right. never.) I will be living somewhere waterside, be it beach or lake (beach preferable). And I will have a boat. I want a boat. Wait.

Dan Kelley is getting a houseboat.

Also, I returned to read all the entries I had missed since leaving on the blog and I now really really miss all of you like whoa. Seriously, whether it's random romantic adventures, insanity in NYC, bizarre tales of reproductive oddities or tales of incredible weekend travels, I enjoyed every entry. And I really miss Middlebury, or more specifically, the people of Middlebury, and again more, specifically, all of you, my friends. You people are more home to me now than Glastonbury has been for a long time. Let's all hang out before you people go to school/foreign countries so I will never see you again/I see you again next year. Love to you all.

And since I can't end this entry on a sappy note, here's a funny story and a potentially controversial question.

FUNNY STORY: remember my day calendar? Here is today's entry:

"The Family"
A hippy Christian cult in the sixties whose female members were instructed to engage in a practice called "flirty fishing." In other words, they spread the gospel by having sex with men. Unfortunately, while spreading the gospel they also spread herpes, and flirty fishing was discontinued.

QUESTION:

What did we think of the Tony awards? Discuss.

Back from New Jersey and wishing I wasn't

mood: still smiling from an amazing weekend
music: anything on the tony's
random word:

---

so, basically, cata, laura and i had the best weekend EVER! i don't even know where to start, let alone where to end because i know cata and laura want to post too. so i'll go with two of the highlights of the weekend...

we went down to ocean beach, which is like an hour south of laura's town. and we went to THE MUSIC MAN ICE CREAM SHOP!!! first of all, we drive up to the store, and there were very few people there, so they were waving to us and jumping up and down, and there was a guy dressed up in a big music man costume. also, to give you another idea of how amazing this place is, the phone number is 732-85-HAPPY. yes, yes, it is. we went in and ordered our sundaes, and there were very few people there cause it was like 7:00 (we were kind of eating ice cream for dinner...) so our waitress decided that we looked like excited people, or something like that, and made each of us do ridiculous things for our ice cream. Cata had to dance and sing "Peanut, Peanut butter...ice cream, ice cream!" I had to roar like a lion (for my "rip roarin'" sundae) and Laura had to sing "Crazy, crazy for eating my ice cream". it was pretty wonderful. Then they sang lots of songs and were really happy and funny and the owner guy stole my camera and just started taking a million pictures. basically, it's the best ice cream store ever (except, obviously, for the one cata and i will be owning in a number of years...) and we all need to go there together sometime. :)

and my second highlight of the weekend was about an hour or two after the music man. we went to the shore and walked along the beach and sat on the lifeguard chair and talked. and it was wonderful. the moon was rising over the ocean, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day out, and oh my gosh, it was just perfect. we were all so happy. it was a pretty unforgettable day. (especially because it didn't end there -- we didn't go to bed until 3 am that morning....)


these are (obviously) two pictures from the weekend. two of my favorites, actually, of us sitting on the lifeguard chair. :) i've got all the pictures from the weekend on my shutterfly site if you'd like to see all of them... the site (if you don't know) is http://beckyb.shutterfly.com so you should all go and see the pictures. they're in the summer '06 album....just surpass all my family pictures and such.

and now i'm watching the tony's. :) oh, and by the way, when the woman won for "best choreography", they showed a little video clip of her choreography, and it definitely included a hand-crossing circle thing a la "into the woods". oh yeah, that's right. me and the tony winner...same thought. ;)

hope everyone's doing well! i go to russkaya shkola on friday, so i want to talk to YOU before then!

Loser Just Like Me

mood: EEEEEEEEEEE
music: Gaelic Storm
random word: SHIBBY

---

So, what's up in S-boro? Well. I've gotten one grade... B+ in Playwriting, which is not bad. But I still want to know my other grades! Not entirely sure why I got this grade and not the others - maybe because there were seniors in that class? Hmm... there was a senior in my directing class, too. Shmeh.

Also, MTV ran a marathon of Making the Band 3 Season 2 (i.e. the second installment of Diddy's third attempt at making a "band"). Aaaand, I love Dominique and how much ass she kicks. No, she didn't make the band, but watch out, y'all. A year or so down the road, don't be surprised if you hear the name Dominique Young from some one besides me!

Currently experiencing Gaelic Storm - Pirate Ali burned me three CDs of their music, and I hadn't listened to it all yet. It's good stuff.

And the main reason behind the "mood" and "random word" selections: I recently discovered that a certain boy I know is spending the summer in Boston (thank you, Myspace). He is the only person to have correctly identified the origin of "shibby". We haven't talked in about a year, and I kinda missed him. So, with a lump of courage, and a push and some tactical planning from Budzy, I sent him a message. Most surprising of all, he sent one back! Said he missed me, gave me his number, told me to call so that we can hang out in the city.

:-0

Yeah, so, gonna give him a call tomorrow, see what happens.

Have been having dreams lately. I'm not naked in any of them, but I remember them, which is very strange for me. Most recently, I was talking in Italian! To someone who spoke English, but he seemed okay with it. Except I was suffocating. But I survived!

Basically, I miss you guys like whoa. The blog is wonderful, even though I never leave comments because I'm a spaz, but peas & carrots were hilarious, and I now know even more about the reproductive habits of the animal kingdom that I was never actually curious about but still somehow feel like a more wordly person for knowing.

When she gets a lad of her own
She won't tell her ma when she gets home
Let them all come as they will,
For it's Daniel Kelley she loves still!

~Kjt

i don't know why i go for ice cream

mood: it's 3 in the morning...
music: 3 AM, Matchbox Twenty
random word: ice cream

---

cata and i would just like to say that we have had the best day ever. and that this is a joint blog. just to clear that up...

first, despite minor difficulties with the tollbooth, and the distance between it and her car, cata did NOT get lost on her way to my house. she got here in wonderful timing for dinner, which involved very slippery noodles and stir fry. It was almost like old times. Almost. Excpet there were no chopsticks. And the noodles were slippery. And there was no Suite I. The thought of eating noodles together once again was almost perfect. Except the noodles fell off my fork. aaaaaaand it's bedtime for cata.
not if i have anything to say about it. and clearly i do. i just stole the keyboard. and the stage... ja!

anyway, we decided that we were going to go see a movie. the break-up. which started at 8:20 and was about 20 minutes away. but, then, at around 7:40 we decided the best idea of the night would be for me to play "piano man" on the piano (as i have been practicing it oh-so-hard recently) and for cata to play on my flute! half an hour later, we realized we had to make it to the movie... but it was all ok. because if we had been doing anything other than being the piano man in a joint effort instead of driving to the movies in a timely manner, i would have been very upset with both of us. but we could not very well interrupt our musical climax for a mere motion picture featuring jennifer aniston and vince vaughn. so it was ok.

well, then came the part where becky knows nothing about her "home" town. we got to the mall at about 8:18, and proceeded to drive all around it, to the other end of the mall (nowhere near the movie theaters, apparently). we almost stayed in the car to listen to "highway to hell", but decided we should probably find the movie theater instead. after successfully locating the portal into the mall we sought a location device. the map was split into upper and lower levels of the mall. i stared at it for about 2 minutes, a perplexed (cata just wrote perflexed instead of perplexed!! dan! it's a linguistic moment!) dazed look upon my face. "what's in this space here?" i asked becky, using my finger to indicate the region between the 2 floors which were drawn next to each other considering the 2-dimensional condition of the map. "Is it just like an abyss of nothingness? How do we get accross it?" "That," Becky responded, "is because the mall is on 2 floors." I thought she was a genius. Until she took us in the wrong direction down the other end of the mall... right. so, um, after deciding teleportation across the abyss was impossible, i may have led us in the wrong direction and we may have gone across half the mall before realizing it. BUT, regardless, we turned around, got to the movie theaters at around 8:30, and managed to make it into the theater just as the opening credits rolled. and yes, we did have time to buy an all-too-large bag of popcorn. A huge-ass bag of popcorn that i am slightly shamed to say I could not even finish. it was unbelievable. i do believe i've met my match. until we came home at like 11:00 and decided it would be a phenomenal idea to make these enormous sundaes. yeah. and after that i ate half the bag of m&m's.

So who wants to hear the best idea of the... what's bigger than century? MILLENIUM!!! After enjoying our most delicous sundaes, we figured it was necessary to open our ice cream shop. First, we rejected ideas such as "Cata's Candy Shop, and Becky too!" and "Sweet Eden", specializing in chocolate apples, we were feeling much more creative. And we had 2 ideas. our first shop will be called the "Choose Your Own Adventure Sweets". Your ice cream flavor, choice of dish/cone and all the toppings you choose will lead you to a personalized and creative story adventure. We haven't worked out all the kinks yet, but trust us, it will be a hit. And we have already drafted all of you to help us write the adventures. ;) our second idea was much more completed... the name of the shop: "Brenda and Eddie's"....see below:

“A nice white dress and a party on your confirmation” = Vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce, strawberries, pieces of shortbread, and whipped cream

“The stranger” = Forbidden chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate chunks, cherry sauce and chocolate coated walnuts

“Don Perignon in your hand and a spoon up your nose” = Coffee ice cream with mocha sauce, toffee bits and white chocolate chunks

“Stand-up routine in LA” = Black raspberry ice cream and hot fudge, with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles

“We didn’t start the fire” = Vanilla ice cream with bits of red hots

“They cut it down to 3:05” = Vanilla ice cream with peanut butter sauce and hot fudge, Reeses Pieces and whipped cream

“Living in her white bread world” = Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream with whipped cream

“Just a fantasy” = Mint ice cream with chocolate chunks, hot fudge and whipped cream

“Drown our doubts in dry champagne” = Cheesecake ice cream, hot fudge, strawberries

“Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood” = Coconut ice cream, pineapple sauce, shortbread and coconut

“A bottle of red, a bottle of white” = Vanilla ice cream, cherry sauce and dark chocolate chunks

“Tradin’ in his Chevy for a Cadillac-ac-ac-ac-ac” = Sweet cream and Forbidden Chocolate ice creams, with bananas, hot fudge and caramel

“Dream how wonderful your life will be” = Chocolate ice cream with marshmallow sauce and chocolate sprinkles

“His age and his size took the teller by surprise” = Vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and M&M’s

“Crazy Latin dancing solo down in Herald Square” = Strawberry ice cream with pineapple sauce and bananas

“Through a valley of fear to a river so deep” = Sweet cream ice cream with blueberry sauce and walnuts

“My pointless point of view” = Cake batter ice cream with Oreo and brownie bits

“Guess you’d rather be a martyr tonight” = Chocolate ice cream with peanut butter sauce and Reeses cups

“Flames were everywhere but no one really cared” = Forbidden chocolate ice cream with red hots and brownie bits

“9:00 on a Saturday” = Vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and walnuts

and the fact that you're all still reading right now is the reason that i love you.
p.s. patent pending. you steal, you die a chocolately death.

peas and carrots signing off.

Sha-BOOOM

mood: spacey
music: Pride - u2
random word: snaggletooth

---

I had the weirdest most vivid dream last night and I feel compelled to share with you all. Please interpret (cue Pharoah singing to Joseph - 10 points to all who understand that)

So my dad and I were cleaning out the backyard, because we had an infestation of rocks. I don't know where they came from, but we had to get rid of all the rocks. So we were walking around the backyard picking up rocks and chucking them down the hill into the woods behind my house. About halfway through my dad says "make sure you don't hit the people down the hill when you throw your rock" and I look and there are 40 someodd people I don't know, a guy dressed like a Sambian warrior and Laura (McCarthy, not Budzyna). They convince me to go on a trip with them through the woods and all of a sudden, we are at the ocean (which I accept as naturally being in my backyard) and it's night under a full moon. We have to swim to an island a little ways out in the water. So we do it (Polar Bears style so we don't get our clothes wet...) and get to the island where we see this giant stone skull. Huge carved skull, size of an entire mountain, but not a creepy skull. It's definitely a friendly skull. We climb up and into the skull via the nostrils and inside is this giant open space where someone builds a fire and we hang out (since getting out of the water, not a single person is wearing clothes).

Then the alarm goes off and it's over.
This dream = weird and very very vivid. Also, it's the first dream I've had and remembered in a long time.

Anyway, I'm off to the Cape with Laura tomorrow for the weekend. Should be an excellent break from it all :)

Love you all

i want to ride my bicycle. i want to ride my bike.

mood: quite content
music: none. cause my stupid external harddrive, which holds all my music, won't work for some unknown reason...
random word: fly

---

i just got back from my first bike ride of the summer! :) it was wonderful. the best thing about having moved is that i still don't know my way around here very well, so me and my horrible sense of direction can get good and lost. i just spent 45 minutes only in my own neighborhood, and yet i had no idea where i was going. granted, it wasn't the most exciting ride because it was just in my neighborhood, but it was exactly what i needed. normally (and by normally i mean for the month last summer that we lived here) i go out on country roads into the middle of nowhere where it's just me, some horses and a whole lot of corn. but those rides tend to be harder, more hilly, and longer, and seeing as i'm in terrible shape and probably shouldn't be working too hard anyway, i stuck to the neighborhood today.

so yesterday, i met up with dan in simsbury, which is where becca steinberg and kristen ward live. becca and rachel left for israel today on a birthright trip, so rachel was flying into connecticut last night. so dan and i decided we would surprise her at the airport. i got to becca's at like 3:30 and dan got there at like 5:30 and we all went up to the airport together. when rachel saw us, she flipped out. it was awesome :) she was jumping up and down, and we (of course) had a big sign that said "we love rachel" ...and then dan was holding a happy birthday sign too. because it was in becca's closet, and for no other reason. but anyway, then we all went out to dinner and ice cream, and it was really fun! it made me kind of sad at the same time, though, because i realized how much i'm going to miss everyone this summer and next year. but aside from that, it was a really good time.

and the best news that i have today is that cata's coming to my house in 2 days!!! and then in 3 days we'll see laura too!!! i'm so excited. hehehe.

Reasons why I'm a virgin...

mood: virginal
music: "Like a Virgin" (not really, but that would be funny)
random word: abstinence

---

I went for a physical today thinking I'd get all my vaccinations before going to Uruguay. Not only did I find out I have to go to a tropical immunizations clinic, but I also found out there was more to an exam than getting shots. Let's just say I'm pretty much ok with being a virgin till the end of time. Yeah. I figure maybe God/whoever might be in charge up there will take pity on me and give me a baby through immaculate conception.

Cata

Clever title

mood: Giddy
music: Barenaked Ladies
random word: punctilious

---

So, I just finished talking with everybody's favorite thing that jumps and/or bounces, Mark! I still don't really believe that all those seniors actually graduated. It's really weird. Obviously, they're all going to come and visit. Because face it, none of us would have it any other way.
As we were talking, I realized something that kinda took me by surprise. I'm kinda a senior member of MCMP. DK and Budzy have each done three shows with MCMP... so has Douglas. (I'm not counting Cofresi, even though it was technically sponsored by MCMP because, well, yeah. We're not going into that.) I can't think of any rising juniors who have done as many. As far as rising seniors, Anna Murray has done 4 shows, so she's at the top of the ranks, too. The only people who may have us beat that I can think of are Catherine Vigne and Rachel Greenhaus. But golly... I'm kinda on the track to be Shannon Jr. (not as awesome as the original, but those are some big character shoes to fill.)
And I know I've said this before, but it still blows my mind that I had quit musical theatre in high school. Then I audition for everything there is once I get on campus and the only folk that take me are MCMP. Then I wasn't going to do it the following semester because I was involved in another student show, but everyone at MCMP was so much fun... and I kinda wanted to get to know Gonzalo... ahem. Anyway. Then I wasn't going to do Little Shop because of The Bewitched... we all know how that panned out. And then I'm directing (the greatest show ever!)? What the hell?
Note to self: never count on anything to unravel as anticipated.

~Kevin

The trees are weeping....

mood: bored
music: Barenaked Ladies - One Week
random word: fracklesmapt (does it have to be a real word?)

---

So today I singlehandedly killed a forest. I was given the task of making....wait for it... 2,250 single-sided copies. Unbelieveable. Though, in a twisted sense, it's rather funny that I did this on an "Energy Star" copy machine.

I decided that since I don't get work, I want to chat with people online. But I can't be signed on at both home and work without screwing things up, so I made a new ID: damtheemann

IM me. We'll chat it up hardcore.

Time to eat me some lunches. Much love to you all

ya bolshe ne hochu bweet doma...

mood: i just want to dance
music: diana ross & the supremes
random word: horse-drawn carriage

---

it has been a movie kind of weekend. last night was mr. smith goes to washington, which put me in the mood to change the world. this afternoon i went to see over the hedge with my family, which put me in the mood to go crazy and be ridiculous. now, i just finished watching runaway bride, and i just want to go find my soulmate. i love movies that, when you finish them, you want nothing other than to be immersed in the whole idea of them.

but really, right now, and all day, i've been in the mood to dance. i need dan or michael or sam, and i need to blast buttercup or twentysomething or layla. either that, or i need a big, empty studio and the pointe shoes i probably haven't worn in over a year. i've just been so motionless for so long. i think even if my mom would let me go for a bike ride it would help (i'm still not allowed to cause you never know when that spleen might burst) although it certainly couldn't hold a candle to a quick swing out, a spin and a dip...

so i just had to say good-bye to my dad for the whole summer. he'll be down in north carolina for the next week and a half, and won't get a chance to come back up here before i go to summer school. it's weird...really weird. i'm starting to realize what exactly summer school means. i mean, it's nine weeks - that's almost a whole real semester at midd. and i'll be going to classes, and doing activities all at midd. and i'll be eating at ross (...yeah, russian school eats at ross. i was quite disappointed.) i mean, it's just as intense as going away for real school...and none of you will be there. and i have to speak russian.

oh, and by the way, i've decided i'll be coming on the blog and e-mailing and stuff about once a week. even in the handbook it says something about how they don't expect you to abolish all communication with family and friends, so i won't feel too guilty about it and i'll definitely talk to you guys. :)

i love you and miss you all!