i have my little coterie of blogs that i read, a little lattice of disparate subjects and interests that make up my little internet world.  not my whole world, mind you, but the one that is plugged in and distracts me from, say, writing an essay about the percentage of the voting population being adequate or not, and the japanese poet basho's narrow road to the interior.

one of these little corners of the world distraction web is written by mindy kaling, a writer/producer/actor in the office.  kelly kapoor has a blog.  this blog, in all of it's materialistic glory, is entitled

"things that i bought that i love". 

it's charming, it makes me laugh, it's about things that i would/could never afford and some that i can, it's cotton candy on a stick with a big pocket full of lick-em-stix:  in short, i love it.

so, as i talk about the things that i recommend, the list of things i have to do, what i have been reading, flotsam and jetsam, current events and things that are new but not news, i now include: things that i bought / own / received that i love.  edition one.

rocket dog shoes from dsw.  these were CHEAP as i got them on clearance and during extra bonus points days and with about three gift certificates.  i mean, they were still cheap without those things, but that made them, well, free.  dark corduroy green with some bright blue attitude, and a gold dog on the sole?  come on.  was hesitant at first, but now am in deep adore.  shown here with black leggings and my own porcelain (read: pasty & translucent) skin.

orchids in glass.  these particular kind are fire and ice orchids, and happened to be sent to me by the valedictorian of boyfriends himself, so of course i was going to love them.  when they got delivered at work, our receptionist said "i bet those are roses" and i answered "not if they are from my boyfriend, they're not."  a flower that can be modern and classic at the same time and smell really good?  yes.

black rose earrings.  from forever21, a store i have to take some valium to enter, and one in which i can only buy accessories usually.  dirt cheap, and got them in electric blue as well.  somewhere between your grandma's old jewelry and something retro cool, i like the break from the long dangly earrings.

mittens on a string.  the only way to wear mittens is with a long string connecting them through your coat.  my old ones were wearing out, and these were a lovely christmas present.  bright blue, a color you'd never really pick for yourself and which clashes with everything (including my orange scarf) makes me insist on wearing them all the time.

orange bird scarf (and blue toggle coat).  coat was on clearance, and i had the added entertainment of being able to watch this foreign lady in front of me shop lift a gift card (which won't work for her, but she doesn't know that) while purchasing cheap coat.  big enough to wear thick sweaters under without making you look 900 pounds.  i'd comment about the orange bird scarf, but what else needs to be said?  orange.  bird.  scarf. 

kate spade stationary.  old school writing, and more than just paper should cost, i could not help myself.  on the front, with brown grass, it says simply "the grass is always greener" with just a hedge of green grass on the back.  also featured is my favorite writing utensil of the moment, and highly recommended: le pen, in green.  you will write more letters this way.

*      *      *      *      *

i'm just now getting around to rifling through and posting pictures from the last few months.

this is what i like to call "what happens when parents have vacation time and a brand new camera".

the boy is a great sport.  so this, this is the night we went to prom.  or new years eve.  your pick.

i am totally procrastinating writing my short essay about spenser's the faerie queen.

can't deal with british poetry.

and not written in spenserian stanzas.

with careless y's and whilome's all scattered about like gum wrappers.

besides, i'm shopping online for clothes with birthday money.

who can do homework with that distraction?

faerie queen goes RIGHT on the craplist.

music:  i enjoyed arcade fire's first album, funeral, but had procrastinated (me?  really?) in listening to their second album.  i ended up having it on while trying to find my way to a mall in denver, and it pretty much found me.  i've gotten quite into it as of late.  particularly while sifting through emails in the morning.

"one of the inadvertently useful aspects of the pre-internet, pre-accelerated hype era is that it allowed artists some enforced period of obscurity to develop their art.  my biggest worry about the way hype works now is that we're in danger of discovering people before they are worthy to be discovered."

---malcom gladwell

granted, this quote was in an article about vampire weekend, a band whose album i am rather enjoying at this moment.  however, i really could not have summed up my ambivalence and sometimes annoyance at the pop culture machine that i participate in and sometimes benefit by, while casting my scorn at the widespread glut of shiny mediocrity that gums up the media.

it's the part of me that reads blogs and likes hearing new things, but is stubbornly loyal and enamored with things that are old school, a complete pain in the butt and totally worthwhile.  this is why i own an ipod and a record player.  a digital camera and several polaroids.  my laptop, in fact, is sitting next to my well-used typewriter and stationary with pens which i used to write letters.

i am a mix of contradictions, and i wouldn't have it any other way.

ancillary recommendation: the song "oxford comma" by vampire weekend.  say whatever you like about the whole album and the new indie 'darlings', but a catchy, totally summer-mix-tape worthy song, and it's about grammar?  you know i'm all over that.  this song definitely heralds the imminent spring.

okay, here's the semester educational reading score*:

likes:

voltaire's candide
sir thomas more's utopia
excerpts from beowulf (translated)

dislikes:

moliere's play tartuffe
beowulf (untranslated)
excerpts from chaucer's canterbury tales

indifferent:

malory's morte d'arthur
marie de france's lanval & chevrefoil
gawain and the green knight

*this list SO does not represent all of the reading i have had to do, including introductions, footnotes, responses, etc. in the last semester alone, but in my word-choked mind we give you the reader's digest condensed version.

because you needed to know, yes?  glad that's settled, then.

okay, so now for your bi-weekly-monthly-whenever-i-unearth-myself-from-pages-of-british-literature update of my own personal voldemort, or, things that should not ever be said aloud again.  your update, in the style of one of my favorite radio hosts ira glass, is in two acts:

act one, words.  act two, deeds.

act one: words

chrismatic.

not charismatic, like one having charisma or the excitable christian movement.  no, because then we would have to actually pronounce the letter a in the middle of that, and that, that is just too much effort.  you know, that whole reading thing.  this, instead, sounds like a new r&b artist.  chris-matic, featuring lil’jon and that one guy.

supposebly.

part of speech: adjectib

synonyms: allegeb, pretenbed

also: supposeb

ongoingly.

sigh.  where do i even…just, stop making up words.  stop.  or, stop doing this on a stoppingly and nowingly basis.  please.

irregardless.

the answer to these misusages is not to add them to the dictionary simply because so many people use them.  mr. merriam and mr. webster just don’t have a spirit of excellence about words.

the phrase “in a frantic”

usage: “i was in a frantic because i couldn’t find my keys.”

a frantic…what?  a frantic mood, a frantic whirlwind, a frantic gorilla, a frantic disneyland ride…nouns, people.

act two: deeds

people, i’m hiring for about 5 positions at once.  quelle nightmare.  all i’m asking is a tiny modicum of people getting their heads out of their proverbial asses and paying attention.  just a bit.

things one should not do during a phone interview (ostensibly one that i am conducting, after they have read the ad, applied for the job, received an email confirming the phone interview time and the number at which i will be calling them):

-         put me on hold during the interview to get their other line

-         tell me they need to turn down their tv show

-         ask me if i could please remind them who we are and what the job is for, because they’ve, like, applied for hundreds of jobs and just can’t be bothered to remember

-         spend the majority of the interview asking if they can wear crocs or other types of non-office footwear to work

-         show up at the office for the phone interview

-         refer to me in a subsequent interview as “that girl”

-         tell me your dream job is a children’s book illustrator but you’d take this job alright

-         tell me you left your last job because you had a manic “episode” at work and that although you were “pretty out there”, you feel comfortable telling me this information because i’m a christian and i’d be okay with it – it being defined as hiring a nutty to sit next to me at work

-         when asked if you have a favored scripture, reply that you don’t really read the bible but your mom does

-         really, mentioning your mom at all

-         tell me that it slipped your mind that you had this interview even though we emailed about it less than 4 hours ago

-         tell me that your skills fit our organization perfectly and, in the same breath, ask what we do

dears, i wish, wish that i were kidding, or perhaps exaggerating for comedic effect.  it reaches epic proportions sometimes.  okay, so maybe not as high of a scale as an epic, but at very least dave letterman’s book club proportions.

working at my job, however, does provide me with such large amounts of fuel for my internal scorn furnace, and, well, that’s something.

holly and i were discussing some of the more interesting names we've heard recently, particularly from some of our friends who are from other countries/ethnicities, countries that won't end up having a whole generation of 86 year olds named "tiffany" or "madison". 

this is the best story from today.

so, i was shopping at the mall over the weekend.  we see this group of african-american kids, with some parent-looking folks with them (ostensibly theirs).  we're browsing around and we see this teenage girl pointing to the display counter saying

"that's my name.  that's my name.  that's my name..."

then we hear from a parent:

"clinique!  get your ass over here!"

*   *   *   *

i am watching the movie tristan + isolde for school.

even thought this is actually part of the assignment, i feel a little like i'm cheating or something.

ever be so buried with things that you don't even want to watch a movie because you have too much to do?

yeah.

sigh.

yeah.

"Do you believe in pageantry for the sake of nothing? Right now, I am drinking a can of Tab with no witnesses. No witnesses. I bought the Tab because, upon spotting it in the downstairs convenience store, I was delighted and thought it would be funny to drink such a glamorous and elusive beverage. You don't see Tab everywhere, but when you do? Laugh city.

Tab is Liza and Halston. Tab is your older sister, lying poolside in her candy-striped, blouson-waisted one piece in the summer of 1981. Tab is your mom struggling through day three of the Cabbage Soup Diet so she'll be able to fit into that Cher costume by October 29. Tab is fashion and sacrifice, flash and trash.

Also? It tastes vaguely like cinnamon and pancreatic cancer."

i could tell you about all sorts of stuff & things happening around work that are just ridiculous and funny...

but i'm getting sick.

i'm taking something that is literally called "kick-ass immune boost".

because my immune system needs its ass kicked.

if you'll excuse me, i've worked 10 hours today, and now i must work on homework for four classes.

whine whine whine.  wink.