hopping (TUMBLING????) on the bandwagon

yeah, so I've been feeling guilty about not posting anything here for the past few months...but I am a lazy human being and tumblr unfortunately is much better suited for laziness. That being said...I dunno! I always like having the beluga on a backburner. That is all.

(see how accustomed I've come to putting zero effort into this? no good)

-Danielle

hiding in a lion's mane

DAAAAMMMMNNNN I thought my last post would be my last one from DC, EVER. I have been proven all kinds of wrong.

Hardxcore yearning to be home, but equally hardxcore yearning not to fail my first year of college. 

Been listening to loads of Iron & Wine lately and wondering where they/he has been the past five years of my life...when I cared about music. 

The Rooster Moans actually frightens me, when I put the words and the menacing strings together.

I keep hearing voices in the hallway and thinking it's my roommates coming home, before I remember that they've already all left to board their respective trains, planes, and cars...

Maybe there is some kind of connection with my new-found love for Samuel Beam (aka Iron & Wine), check out that facial hair, and my now-faraway, much happier-looking Bear-friend:

In other semi-related news, I've created a last.fm, just another way to NETWORK WITH LIFE-MINDED PEOPLE. Or a way to shut dear friend Matthew Danger Banks up. I don't know why I'm announcing this. Um...Mallory you should make one too.

Hopefully making my way back to Princeton tomorrow. Looking forward to the heat and the bikes and the friends.

micreconomics final

Mallory's home, out biking probably, and I'm holed up in study room 508 in DC trying to find books on the Gypsies, or the Roma, and figuring out how to "create an argument that will contribute to scholarship on the topic." Everyone has been gradually trickling out, but I'm still here, wishing I could do all the things that I had planned to do in the beginning of the year, mainly kayaking down the Potomac.
Thanks to procrastination, I now know that:

1. Anastasia, the movie, is pretty much ALL lies...chick totally died like waaay long ago (once upon a December...)
2. Capoeira is far beyond my skill level, but I will spend my summer trying to do a hand stand and working my way up from there.
3. Wayfarer sunglasses are best for faces with strong jawlines
4. Tyra Banks has rabies. Wait, what the fuck?
5. Mallory and I wrote funnier (funny?) posts when we were younger and more carefree. As in two years ago.

That is all.

Stuff I'm going to be learning about in the fall

World History since the 1500s
Advanced Spanish and Grammar
Comprehensive Musicianship (how to do fancy shit on a keyboard)
Archaeology
Biological Anthropology
Piano, in general
How to Deal with 17 credits, piano lessons, my own kitchen, a job, and an internship

(only writing this because this will be the only time I will get the opportunity to brag/complain without people telling me to get over myself. JUDGE ME NOT INTERWEBS)

sede por viagens

Beyond the East, the sunrise,
Beyond the West, the sea,
And East and West the wanderthirst
Will not let me be.
-Gerald Gould

downside: dishes to wash

I tend to go through phases with my food, phases that I don't really notice because at home there's so much food I can just pick and choose what I want, and the INGREDIENTS! THE SPICES! Now that I'm in college, however, and have limited funds (read: I'm broke), I totally notice these stupid phases I go through. A couple of months ago, I was making pasta for myself a good three or four times a week. That stopped quickly, though, as I realized the hassle of washing pots and the time it took to walk up and down the flight of stairs to the kitchen pretty much killed my hunger, and my time.

FINALLY, after only eating weird boring cafeteria food, I'm all about MINI PIZZAS, DINOSAUR EGG OATMEAL, AND AVOCADOS (on everything)

It's awesome because I can make these mini-pizzas in the microwave, which means I don't even have to get off of the floor at 2 AM when I am crying about the paper that was due at midnight!
Umm...hypothetically, of course...

RECIPE FOR TASTY DISASTER:
Tomatoes (I find cherry works best, I slice them in thirds and they occupy just the right amount of space)
Salt (garlic salt, if you want to be awesome)
Fancy Bread (basically Italian or French bread...I call it fancy bread because sliced lame bread is affordable. Fancy.)
Mozzarella Cheese (again, can vary with your budget...I've tried both string cheese and fresh cheese, and I don't have to tell you which kind I prefer)

HEAT IN MICROWAVE TIL CHEESE IS ALL MELTY, ENJOY WITH SATISFIED GRIN

When handy, I like to add:
Parmesan
Basil
Olive Oil
Garlic

ok that was really basic and I know everyone knows how to make mini pizzas, but it's all I've been eating for the past week so it's all I have to say

well-deserved

To follow up on Mallory's post about proper pronunciation of famous author's names, I decided, like a pretentious brat, to trick my rather literate boyfriend by asking, "who wrote Walden?" When he answered, "the-ROW," I made a big fuss over the correct pronunciation, THOrow, hoping to astound and impress him with my new knowledge.
I got an eyeroll for my efforts.

you're the apple of my eye

Although this post is a little late, spring in DC has never been more welcome:

(Above photograph taken by roommate Emily Russel)

I've formally adopted this little plant here and I live in perpetual fear of drowning it. It's nice to have something living in the room besides me. It's a shitty out-of-focus image, and I don't have the patience to fix it.

The farmers market has opened up a block down from my class, so it's become my new routine to stop by and sample one of the dozens of dips (spinach pesto, black bean, pineapple, red pepper hummus), some of the gelato, maybe a slice of rosemary garlic bread, and the apples, the apples! For real, all my life I've only had red delicious, and after trying some of these weirdly named farm apples those old red delicious just taste like plastic to me. Not even kidding, this scene goes through my mind with every single bite:

Last of all, some quotes:

April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go. 

Christopher Morley, John Mistletoe

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night. 

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!

Mark Twain

Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment.

Ellis Peters

There. My tribute is done. Now to play outside stare longingly out my window as I write another paper.

I just like exclamation points

From Zofloya:

"Oh! self-love!--dangerous and resistless flatterer!--thou immolatest at thy shrine more victims than all the artifices of man!"

Probably more to come as I go through the book. It's true, narcissism is pretty! exciting! stuff!

old dirt road, rambling rose

I'm finally back in Princeton. I wont come back again until summer vacation, but I'm looking forward to springtime in DC. Some notes I jotted down on the various trains and metros and T's I took to find my way home:

Girl in pixie haircut reapplied hand sanitizer for the 17th time so far. It makes me feel nervous, especially thinking about the state of her poor dry skin...

Old women sitting behind me with the weathered face has a frightening cough and an equally frightening sense of humor.

Religion: what does the shaping, men or gods? Investigate.

I wonder what Lily's hair will look like oh la Lilyyyy

It may be years until the day/My dreams will match up with my pay/Old dirt road/Knee deep snow/Watching the fire as we grow old

JABBERJABBERJABBERWOCKY

To read: The God of Small Things, Peace Like A River, A Farewell To Arms shit you will do no such thing before writing your paper!!!

Cold rain sucks. Being hungry sucks.

And of course, variations of my S-duck, my beloved S-duck. I will upload a photo later of my renowned S-duck.

Yes, I have the vocabulary of a five year old, and no, my musings do not provide powerful insight into my mind. Sorry.

poor transitions

Mallory's off caving in Kentucky? Oklahoma? (One of those places...I'm a bad friend) but for real! CAVING! so cool...and I'm left recovering from being smacked up the head by my first economics midterm. 

Last night my little brother skyped me, telling me about his new netbook. When I told him that he was spoiled, and that I didn't have a computer at his age, he shot back with "well that's because computers weren't INVENTED at your age." Really now? This is coming much sooner than I thought...

Outside my window:
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."
--Charles Dickens

I'm not a Dicken's fan, but I do wish that is how the weatherman would report the weather for me. I would know exactly how to dress.

luscious locks

Today, I think I shaved my boyfriends head. I say I think because I'm still surprised that it actually happened. Halfway through doing it, I was extremely tempted to take the electric razor thing to my own hair. I didn't tell him though.

belated

One of my absolute favorite bands, Belle and Sebastian, has a wonderful Q&A section of their website. There are hundreds of questions written by fans and answered by the band members; I think I wrote one in sometime last year and received a nice response. Forgot what it was exactly. In any case, I was whiling away the cold and gray afternoon reading these, when I came upon a fitting tribute, in my mind, to Salinger...less wordy than Mallory's, but unlike Mallory's, not my own words...


From: Isaac
Q.What are we going to do now Salinger is dead?
A. Unlike him, keep breathing.
Stevie - 04/02/1


I know it's been a bit of time since his death but I still like how fitting this is.


PS: found my old comment! I must have been feeling angsty, fawning, and poetic May of 2008. It happens.

From: Danielle
Q.What do you believe in? I believe in you.
A. Thanks Danielle.  I believe in the power of a kind word.
Stevie - 15/05/08


PPS: I want this shirt:  http://www.belleandsebastianshop.com/product/ladies_fox_in_the_snow_t-shirt/

true doppelgangers

I visited an exhibit yesterday at the Smithsonian American Art Museum for my Doppelgangers class. The exhibit featured 19th century photographs of the West. Everything was sepia-toned, obviously, but on top of that the lighting was dim and the photographs were tiny. I wasn't wearing my glasses, and it felt bothersome and surreal, like I was trying to view tiny canyons and gnarled trunks through a glass of foggy urine. I went looking at neon high-tops afterwards to make my vision feel better.

nattoppet

The glockenspiel was totally created for falling snow. True* fact.




*not true

don't adeus me

I signed up to take these student-taught Portuguese classes at school, and I start next Sunday. Being the arrogant motherfucker that I am (mac is trying to tell me that motherfucker is not a word), I want to go in the class with some basic knowledge so I can be all PSHH I'm totally above this.
I downloaded some neat podcasts the other day and learned basic greetings and farewells. There was this one part that I took totally out of context, and I was feeling kind of  contemplative, and there was snow falling outside, and I should stop making excuses...
ANYWHO the part was this: the typical way to say bye in Portuguese is tchau (like Purina Dog Chow). But then the soothing voice continued on to say, "you can also use the word adeus, but only if you are never going to see that person again."
Seemed like kind of a heavy statement.

SHIT!

When this page comes up on my "Top Sites" page, as it does every time I open a new tab, this essentially runs through my mind (click to enlarge):

Sorry Beluga, I keep forgetting to feed you.


PS I LOVE DINOSAUR COMICS.

because I can

I think I'll like making lists of five things, SO here is a list of five instruments that my 8-year-old self thought my 18-year-old self should have complete mastery of by now:

1. The Piano (check! Kinda, not really. I gave up)
2. The Glockenspiel (I am totally impressed that my 8-year-old self knew what that was)
3. The Saxophone (I don't think I have enough jazz in my soul to pull this one off without coming across as a total tool/nerd)
4. The Guitar (I can strum like three chords, but not without whining about the strings cutting into my fingers. I'm a baby)
5. The Kazoo (I still have hope!)

My 8-year-old self is shaking its head in disappointment at my current self. Sorry little dude(ette).

survival of the fittest...or the laziest

There are so many projects to be started and abandoned, so I'm proposing a new one for myself: weird shit I eat. Now that I'm in college and I can't rely on those trusty ingredients in the kitchen cabinet, I have to make do with the weird things I can scrounge up at 2 am when my stomach starts making the grumblies that only hands can satisfy. 

I know Mallory eats real food at the cafeteria all the time, but if there happens to be a freak incident where there's a weird combination of food in her meal then the world deserves to know about it. This is mainly for myself, just so I can look back one day and wonder how I didn't pass out from the massive quantities of MSG I shoved in my body.

So tonights 2 am menu includes:
week-old blueberry mini-muffins, ramen noodles, and Orangina. Fascinating.

womenwomenwomenwomen

Today I had one of the strangest days of my life. I'm eating a banana covered in nutella in consolation.