Yes there's a lot of photos, Yes you will deal with it

HEY GUYS, GUESS WHY I'M SO HAPPY!
NO, it's not because I almost broke my phone while slamming my head into my desk!
NO, it's not because my friends said they'd go to lunch with me and then ditched me at the last minute!
NO, it's not because my linguistics exam is on Friday and I still can't concentrate on studying!

IT'S BECAUSE...
....
.....

IT'S SNOWING YAAAYYYYY!!


At this point I would like to apologize to Claire, who is in Foco right now where it was -13 degrees FAHRENHEIT this morning. And she has to go to aerobics. -13 degrees is not aerobics weather. It is weather for staying in with a heater and a blanket and hot chocolate. Did you know that the lowest recorded temperature in Colorado was -61 degrees, in 1985? What the hell! But that was in Maybell, not Foco. Just some handy weather facts. Colorado is friggin cold.

ANYWAY, it is not actually snowing anymore here, it is more slush-raining, which is really nasty. And I dropped my toothbrush on the disgusting bathroom floor this morning so I have to walk to Shoppers Drug Mart to get a new one, so I'm trying to wait until the slush stops falling for a few minutes. But last night at about 1am I looked outside and everything was white and there was snow falling from the sky!

I grabbed my little camera and ran out into the quad and threw snowballs at stuff for awhile, and took some blurry pictures from the doorway because this camera doesn't handle nighttime very well.



I also took an incredibly creepy myspace picture.


I went back in and continued studying linguistics until around 2am, when I texted Naufil to see if he had any food. He said we should go to Rabba (the 24/7 "grocery store" about 4 minutes away), and I wanted to go outside so I said okay. Usually I avoid Rabba because it is gross and sticky and there's always a pack of hobos outside the entrance. Most of the food is moldy and the people working there usually look at you as if you're the most exasperatingly bothersome thing they've ever had to deal with. But it was snowing! So we went anyway.
I donned my new black-version-of-the-Michelin-Man coat and put my big camera in my bag and we had a snowball fight all the way down St Mary's street. We pretty much walked backwards the rest of the way because of the violent wind, which made the seemingly innocent snowflakes feel like needles and sparks smacking into our faces.
Rabba was its usual grungy self but once we got outside I started taking some pictures.


I like this one especially because of the apartment building filling up the background and because of the snow on the right side of the pole, and the light flare at the top, and just the overall mood. I feel like it's one of my favorite photos I've taken. But I think this may be one of those pictures that I really love, but other people don't really get, like this one. I freaking loved that photo! I remember exactly where I was and what I was thinking when I took it, and I love the gradient of bright blues and the wispy clouds and how the airplane is small and heading off, out of the frame and how it all looks and seems together. Basically I liked everything that people told me was wrong with it, but I totally get why they might not like it or think it's uninteresting, cause it's also a really personal photo, and when I look at it, it immediately brings up all these feelings. Like when you hear a song you used to listen to a lot but haven't heard in a while? When people first started dissing on the plane photo, I was like "wtf! this is a great picture!" and got all insecure about it but i've realized that it's pretty much the same deal for most photos that I feel that kind of connection with. Not that I'm tremendously concerned with how well other people like my photos... I just noticed this trend and thought it was interesting. Plus I kind of like how a photo can be really meaningful to one person, and the rest of the world would just see it as a mehhh photo. Like a secret between you and the picture! ANYWAYY, did not mean to ramble on forever here are some other photos I took.


Green bike (the same bike that's in the top photo). I like red/yellow/green together (rasta? traffic light? anyway it reminds me of italian food) so I love the little accents of colour of the red and yellow bokeh dots at the top and the green bicycle frame. Also I liked the shadow of the bike on the pavement. But I think I could have done this shot better if Naufil hadn't been rushing me. >:[

Speaking of Naufil, this is his sincere attempt at looking badass:

He is completely serious. I laughed for a long time.


I don't like this all that much, but I thought it was kind of cool. Sushi Club is also a pretty good restaurant. I had butterfish sushi there! :O ("we'll take another round of the butterfish...")

On the way home, RJ hall in the background





Back in the common room... I parted the curtains a bit and took this through the gap. It's weird and I like the blown-out diamond of the light contrasted with the perfectly-exposed, snow-covered tree limb, and I like the negative space a lot. I guess I just like it cause it's kind of weird. Click to make it bigger if you want... cause the mini version looks kind of dumb.


I took some photos of the festive decor in the common room...


This is a closeup of that red shiny tinsel-y string stuff that you can see in the bottom of the bow picture. THIS STUFF. What the hell do you call that kind of thing??

Anyway we watched Seinfeld in the common room for a bit and then I studied more and then Rifqi called and was like "let's go outside it's snowing!" He ended up running around in the quad while I took pictures from the soho entrance. He even fell down once and I caught it mid-fall! Ohohoho!


He wanted his mom to know he hadn't forgotten about her, so he wrote MAMA in the snow.



I will leave you with a couple almost-not-fail shots of my favorite mini Harajuku girl.

Dirty head fail


Not-quite-in-focus fail


Um. Sorry this post was so long and, uh, expository... I've been writing too many essays.

Melancholy vlogging

I'm sorry about this. You may have to turn up the volume cause I was talking kind of quietly so that people in the hall wouldn't hear me talking to myself. The walls here are REALLY THIN.



Soo, here are some pictures of my room! Notice the awesome posters and not-TOO-messy desk.




Hahaha, my side is cooler than Molly's boring side!


So anyway, see you soon.

The story of the American Apparel sale and the greatest store in the world

Hiii, happy late Thanksgiving. On Thursday I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving until Mom called me in the evening and told me.

Yesterday I went with Kara from 3rd floor and her boyfriend Indra to a huge American Apparel rummage sale. It was a much bigger deal than I thought. To get there we took the subway to King and walked through the theater district and a place with a bunch of restaurants with people standing outside saying "bonjour, miss." We knew we were at the right place when we saw the massive lineup:

It was really, really long. Longer than it appears in the photo. Like Target on Black Friday. Holy crap, we said, that is a very long line of people. But we got in line anyway. We stood around for awhile and eventually I ran up to the front to scout it out. It was in the basement of this building, and apparently inside there was also some woodworking thing going on. I asked some girls who had just come out with shopping bags how it was. They said they had been there since 9am and it was crazy inside, people pushing and grabbing stuff and buying things and then re-selling them. But the prices were amazing. I went back and reported to Indra and Kara. We waited for awhile longer and noticed some people getting discouraged and leaving. Kara and I devised a brilliant plan. We decided to run up to the front, and then walk back along the line slowly, talking loudly about how apparently there's NOTHING good left and everything cool had been taken. The people will surely drop like flies, we thought. So we went up to the front. It was kind of a cool building and we decided to check out the inside a bit before carrying out our plan. There was no one at the door and we just walked in. We checked out the woodworking thing and admired some lovely drawer handles. There was a sign for the sale pointing at the basement stairs. We peered down, thinking there must be some kind of security or something, it wouldn't be that easy to get in. Some girls came out with shopping bags. I knew there was some kind of ticket system going on so I asked if you needed a ticket or something to get in. They said no, as long as you're in the building you're good-- they were taking tickets at the door. Whaaaaaat? We went down to the basement and we were in. Kara texted Indra and he came and joined us. We considered going back and waiting in line cause we felt kind of guilty, but we didn't. The cheap hipster clothes were calling to us. It was crazy and most of the good stuff was gone, but I ended up getting two jackets, gold and silver ($18 each), red tights ($2), yellow tights($2), and the comfiest gray sweatpants ever ($10). Including tax, it came out to $56.50. The regular price of ONE of the jackets is $62. Woot! In fact, I added everything up, and if I had bought that stuff at normal price it would come out to $194 plus tax. I didn't take any pictures in the basement, but I found this one on a Toronto Tumblr blog. It looked like this, except EXPLODED, with a million people.


After that we walked to Kensington Market for MORE SHOPPING. We went to Blue Banana Market, which is the coolest store EVER. It is amazing. They have stuff from lots of different sellers, from local designers to Paul Frank. It's giant inside, plus there's an upstairs. It's like the best of Etsy plus non-pretentious Urban Outfitters, combined with a candy store and multiplied by a million. It is everything that I love, in one store. Some things are expensive, others are super affordable, and there is SO MUCH STUFF. If any of you ever visit me, we are for sure going there. Because it is amazing. I will definitely be doing some Christmas shopping there.

Random News

Today has been very productive. I got up at 10:30, which is extremely early for a Sunday, went for a run, bought toothpaste and shower gel (on sale!), took a shower, had breakfast (lunch), went to Pratt library with Rifqi and studied Arabic for four hours, went out to sushi with Rifqi, Naufil, and Kara, practiced violin in Marg Ad for an hour, and helped Rifqi clean his "fish bowl" (tupperware... he does have a legit fish bowl, but there's a male beta in it named McLovin and McLovin kept biting the two female betas he got... so we transferred the females to a tupperware container). And after I poast I'm going to do some more Arabic. Because there is always more Arabic to do.

I just opened two of those tiny packs of Skittles and neither of them had any purple ones in them! wtf?! Oh well, everyone knows the red ones are the best anyway.

The day before yesterday I saw the hugest Burwash Bug I've ever seen. Running across my floor. It was not okay. I've seen little ones, maybe an inch long, that are creepy but easy to smush and be done with, but this one was like the one in the picture. HORRIFYING. About three inches long, with a million creepy-ass legs and running waaayyy faster than any bug should run. I screamed and Rifqi smashed it with a shoe. Yay Rifqi!

Also the day before yesterday, I went to a Mario party in RJ (one of the residence halls) and destroyed people in Super Smash Bros (N64 version) and diddy kong racing, which is like Mario Kart but lamer. There was also guitar hero but only one guitar, and ddr but only one dance pad. :\
Afterwards I went back to the south house common room with some people and we watched 10 Things I Hate About You. I've seen that movie a million times, but this is the first time I've figured out why it's named that. It's actually pretty obvious. Anyway, Naufil kept saying "oh my god Erin that girl is EXACTLY LIKE YOU!! AAhahahahahhahaha!! She's such a bitch!!" The fire alarm went off at about 2am. This happens waayyy too often. But we all hung around outside for awhile, and then came back in and finished the movie.

I don't really have any pictures of anything good right now, but I don't like doing picture-less posts. So here's a little shrine dedicated to my favorite cat, who the Claires apparently saw today because they are in Corvallis and who I miss very much.

Pretty Houses

Traditional Japanese houses are SO BEAUTIFUL. I love the sliding doors and big open spaces and mats and floor-to-ceiling windows. My ultimate goal is to live in a house like this. Think of the natural light!







I think Totoro actually originally made me start liking Japanese houses. The house in that movie is awesome. Off the chain, if you will. And guess what! They made a REAL ONE.

Speaking of Totoro, peep these cute Totoro cupcakes.



Click on them to go to their websites, because they are pretty awesome.

In other news, I am pretty much better now, I still have a pretty sore throat but I can talk and swallow things again. Less than a month till winter break!
I went and saw the movie 2012 a few days ago with Rifqi and a few other people. I have mixed feelings about it.
Cons: extremely depressing and traumatizing, two and half hours long, some really lame lines especially near the end
Pros: John Cusack, really good special effects, not boring
We were going to see it at 10:40pm, but that showing was sold out so we hung around in Dundas Square for awhile and saw it at 11:15. They have winter decorations up now, I thought they were kind of weird but kind of pretty.
And here's a lovely washed out by the flash photo of me and a stoned looking Rifqi.
Lawl.

pictures pictures pictures

As most of you probably already know, I have been sick for the past week. And I am still sick. Last night however I finally busted out a fever and so this morning I went to the student clinic and they gave me muchas drogas (they don't really give a damn if you don't have a fever). Soooo hopefully I'll start to get better now?
Anyway, not much has been going on recently except for a whole lot of bedrest and cough drops, so this is a post about the past, not the present. Basically a huge pic-drop of photos that make me a bit nostalgic. I'm too energy-zapped to write anything else so here you go:




















Goooooooooooodddd tiiiiiiimess. I'm going back to bed.