La Belle Vie

picture

2006-09-20T18:17:00.000-05:00

insomnia

2006-02-22T00:30:00.000-06:00

...or is it nocturnalism? i've been sleepy all day, but now that i could be sleeping, i just lie in my bed tortured by my thoughts. So i'm blogging for the first time in months, because it's either that or another damn sudoku.

I wish this could be one of my moments of (pseudo)intelligent political commentary, or at least a half-coherent rant about the winter olympics. But despite my wakefulness, i have no energy, so there will be none of that.

How about a couple of lists?

Things to do next quarter:
-actually devote time to classes instead of letting the BA rule my academic life
-more consistent exercising/keeping up my dedication to kickboxing
-kickass study breaks
-more than one exciting house trip
-house camping trip
-go home or to Tulsa for a weekend
-get back to being a regular at jimmy's O:-)
-more pleasure reading
-law school recs
-FIND A JOB

Things to do before leaving Chicago:
-Shedd Aquarium
-hanging out at the Bourgeois Pig
-late night trip to Clarks/Depot/White Castle
-one more Tuesday of skipping classes to go to free day at the Art Institute
-one more night at Sound-Bar
-get panini/gelato from Istria and take it to the Point
-eat at:
- Reza's
- Green Zebra
- Frontera Grill again
- Orange again
- Ann Sather's again
- Cafe Iberico again
-explore:
- University Village
- Greek Town
- the North Side that's not Lakeview
- the lake shore jogging trail
-shop at:
- American Apparel
- Plato's Closet
- Belmont/Boystown
- Younique

I'm sure there are other things, i'll add more in time - you can suggest additions, too. In addition to all of that, i really just need to spend lots and lots of quality time with all of the people who've made these four years so wonderful. For all that i'm looking forward to in the future, leaving Chicago's gonna be tough.

One more thing before i make another stab at sleep. Andrea came across this neat self-perception evaluation tool on the web, and i'd appreciate it if you would help fill it out for me here.

love y'all

pravda

2005-12-07T14:01:00.000-06:00

given that i'm sitting in the University's propaganda office, on their pay-roll, writing this, maybe i shouldn't be freaking out about this story. But DAMN. First the planted stories in our media and planted reporters at press conferences, then the planted stories in the Iraqi media, and now we're infiltrating Pakistani TEXTBOOKS!?

A FREE PRESS IS ESSENTIAL TO DEMOCRACY.

When are we going to start getting worried about this stuff?

love y'all

meh

2005-12-05T00:38:00.000-06:00

i think i need a new crush. anyone got any ideas? (besides Steve Nash.)

love y'all

BIG surprise

2005-12-02T09:15:00.000-06:00

The Washington Post reveals what we've all known forever: Texas Republicans break laws. Particularly when they're led by Tom Delay, or as i prefer to refer to him, Satan.

Steve Nash is my ideal man. Of course he's married. :-(

That's all i got. Finals make me crazy.

love y'all

FIGHT THE POWER

2005-11-17T19:40:00.000-06:00

wow, yeah i know i haven't been posting for a while, but i could NOT let this go by unnoticed, and i feel like it's a cause that even RJ can get behind (see my facebook wall).

In other local news related events, i had to stop reading this tribune piece on the Lefkow family because i was about to start crying at work.

and oh yeah, i'm old.

love y'all.

GOOGLISM!

2005-10-14T11:33:00.000-05:00

edited.

monica is my name
monica is america's bad girl
monica is pretty
monica is singing
monica is intern barbie
monica is having a baby
monica is jealous
monica is my favourite cheerleader
monica is a single mexican woman from hermosillo
monica is not innocent
monica is taken down from the cross
monica is well
monica is out of town
monica is $$$ meltdown
monica is all that in this new album
monica is pretty good on thin ice
monica is green
monica is miss thang by joodles77
monica is a very healthy girl
monica is 5 yrs old
monica is full of baby
monica is temperate throughout the year
monica is the center of the art world in southern california
monica is grinning
monica is the bomb
monica is about 1/2 hour by the big blue bus from lax & there`s service every 10 mins
monica is taking her career to better places
monica is a person
monica is the most beautiful lady in movies today
monica is thought by many as the best photographer in detroit
monica is seventeen
monica is not exactly a pat on the head
monica is the girl who alternates between starvation dieting and binge eating as her moods turn
monica is shareware at a price of us$20
monica is fond of meeting new people and venturing into unfamiliar territory
monica is not related in julia roberts in anyway
monica is series editor for the itp nelson canada series in hrm
monica is neither responsible nor liable for any viruses or other contamination of your system nor for any delays
monica is paying beginning teachers as well as anyone else
monica is also talented in art and dreams of becoming a doctor or famous actress when she grows up
monica is currently serving as president of the local chapter of the american meteorology society
monica is also one of the few places in the la area where you can park your car and walk to just about anything you need
monica is responsible for spearheading the direction
monica is quiet and somewhat shy upon meeting new people
monica is an excellent utility that fixes the flaws associated with downloading
monica is great and the bottom line
monica is given a little more room to strut her own stuff
monica is the indian and metis education consultant for saskatoon public school division since 1986
monica is also on felicity on wed october 31
monica is invited to attend the glitzy white house correspondents dinner in washington as guest of vanity fair magazine
monica is planning to travel and wrestle in america in 2002
monica is a vegetarian
monica is the team?s best defender and most complete player
monica is a first
monica is something special in regards to both her mental gifts and her emotional maturity
monica is all ready for a sunday tea party in her beautiful yellow lame' dress trimmed with white lace and white embroidery
monica is the epitome of the concept of freedom of choice in matters of health
monica is teasing bill with flashes of her underwear
monica is given to flights of fancy; monica was the predator and the pursuer
monica is maxim's girlfriend of the day
monica is a regular person
monica is
monica is not
monica is back
monica is the president of the association of latin americna students
monica is out of town
monica is 'so gone'
monica is community that takes up the fight against cancer
monica is so perfect
monica is well
monica is conferencing sexual bondage
monica is novel male stud
monica is dating
monica is going to have her own talk show now
monica is xxxxx erotic lovemaking
monica is soaked
monica is intimate bizarre perversion
monica is snowman naturist
monica is not innocent
monica is a homewrecker
monica is sick
monica is a dirty schoolgirl
monica is a drunk
monica is also saddled with de rigueur diane warren
monica is eagerly awaiting the opening of the new whole foods market at 2201 wilshire boulevard
monica is updated
monica is one of our newest models here at the end of 2002
monica is a latina porn star

tell me what's true.

love y'all

worth a thousand words

2005-10-10T21:10:00.000-05:00

BUSY

2005-10-10T10:48:00.000-05:00

So i haven't updated in forever. That's because i'm a very busy girl. I've even been busy here at the news office, which is a little bit ridiculous. Here are a collection of random thoughts from the past few weeks:
-Auto-Urine Therapy is the most disgusting concept i've ever heard of
-what the hell am i going to do with myself after graduation?
-donate to hurricane victims and victims of the South Asian earthquake!
-the LSAT's weren't that bad
-what the hell am i going to do with myself after graduation?
-i miss home/need to buy plane tickets for thanksgiving
-apple-picking is one of the coolest activities ever
-i miss colour-scheme, but I LOVE RICKERT!
-what the hell am i going to do with myself after graduation?
-Harriet Miers is not at all an acceptable candidate for the Supreme Court
-i really REALLY hate the Catholic Church's new stance towards gay priests
-what the hell am i going to do with myself after graduation?

right, so maybe i'm mildly preoccupied with one particular thing. I'll get over it. In other news, I've added my friend Ivan's blog to my links - you guys should check it out. He's posting from Iraq where he works as a civilian contractor, having already completed a tour there in the military. I'm fairly certain we won't always agree, but he definitely has an interesting perspective.

love y'all

justice

2005-09-28T14:03:00.000-05:00

My mommy and disney always told me that good would triumph over evil.

oooh...and "the kid" gets what he deserves too.

love y'all

i wish a falling star could fall forever

2005-09-23T15:16:00.000-05:00

I love my house so much right now. Everything and everybody came together so well last night. I went to bed completely high on the preceeding 4 hours of talking, laughing, screaming, and playing Set, Egyptian Rat Screw, and SOCCER...gods it was such a good time. I really hope that things just continue to get better.

on a sadder note...This may be the worst thing i've ever heard.

sorry about that...fun! futbol! yay!

love y'all

aargh

2005-09-22T01:17:00.000-05:00

That's it. I officially quit. I'm gonna go ahead and declare myself an ex-Catholic. Now if only i could get rid of this guilt thing.

love y'all

warning: poor taste

2005-09-20T11:18:00.000-05:00

you guys have heard this one, right? It's awful, but i had to laugh.

Q: What's George Bush's position on Roe v. Wade?
A: He really doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.

love y'all

I'm not even gonna try

2005-09-19T12:55:00.000-05:00

...to talk about everything that's happened the past couple of weeks. Let me just say that it's been busy, but SO MUCH FUN, I've made so many amazing new friends and I'm so lucky to a) be an RA and b) be an RA in Rickert. I think it's gonna be a great year.

love y'all

Hurricane Katrina

2005-09-02T09:56:00.000-05:00

...makes me want to cry. Mostly. There are a few aspects of it that make me want to murder someone with my bare hands.

for example, Britney Spears, who's from Louisiana, has posted on her website that she's PRAYING for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Now i'm all for prayer, it's definitely something i believe in. But if you're BRITNEY FUCKING SPEARS and you have millions of dollars and the national media at your fucking fingertips, how about sending a little money? Or organizing a charity? or a benefit concert? self-absorbed whore.

And here's another one. The Sun-Times today, which of course i wouldn't even be reading if i didn't have to for work, is full of letters to the editor about how Americans did SO MUCH for tsunami relief, and now all the other countries are IGNORING our disaster. This is my favourite: "Now is the time for other nations to help us. I hope rescuers from Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Kosovo, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere will join U.S. teams to save lives and rebuild America after Hurricane Katrina. We always help. Where are they?" Yeah, because i'm sure INDONESIA, AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ and KOSOVO have just TONS of spare money and RESCUE WORKERS sitting around with NOTHING TO DO, and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia each possess several elite teams of people trained in HURRICANE RELIEF. Idiot. The reason we send relief is because we can afford it, and we were hardly the only nation that jumped on the tsunami relief bandwagon, or acted in Kosovo. But here's the real point: OTHER NATIONS HAVE OFFERED AID. You just have to speak French to know about it, because the only people talking about it are LeMonde. Get this, Venezuela offered to send relief. We have a major political figure up here calling publically for Hugo Chavez's assassination, and his response is, "here, let me help you cope with your huge national tragedy." If only the Bush Administration had that kind of grace.

Finally, And people are accusing liberals of politicizing this?

AAARGH...

love y'all

sweet home chicago

2005-08-31T10:04:00.000-05:00

lovely. no one's in the news office today. i'm listening to Ella Fitzgerald and probably gonna work on my peace corps app.

yeah...NYC was tons of fun, most of the time, and a little harrowing at other times...rather than try and tell everything, let's condense it to top 5 lists.

Top 5 worst things about my NYC weekend:
1) Having TONS of trouble making it back to LaGuardia to fly out.
2) This party with all UofC people that made a bar in Midtown seem Psi U two years ago.
3) Wasting the day Sunday being hungover, because all i could do at said party was get drunk.
4) My cousin's apartment building being exactly like a college dorm with more disposable income.
5) The amount of money i spent.

Top 5 best things about my NYC weekend
1) Seeing Kaushik, Aarthi, Laura, and Emile.
2) Fifth row tickets to Rent.
3) Visiting NYU Law School, talking to students there, and getting excited about it.
4) The rooftop terrace on my cousin's building.
5) A bagel and coffee in Central Park on Monday morning.
6) Shopping at Zara for the first time since Paris.

I'm exhausted today...i may just go ahead and leave here early and take a nap before going over to Judith's. This amuses me. Not sure how i feel about the Onion redesign though. This is just WRONG.

One other thing before i go...according to the stats for this page, I only had 10 visitors on Saturday, but there were 57 page loads. What was that about?

love y'all

sheer brilliance

2005-08-26T11:18:00.000-05:00

in other news

2005-08-24T15:54:00.000-05:00

i know, i know, i've said too much today. But there's so much going on! Just a few quick links:
-The love of my life is on Wired. Sidenote...why does Wired have such an awful website? aren't they supposed to be good at that shit?
-EWWWW sidenote: check out the comment...it's the best description of Chicagoist i've ever heard.
-LOL
- Well, we slipped three. We all know i hate US News & World Report, right?
-oh, and y'all have seen this, right? Because it's pretty effin hilarious.

love y'all

McCain-Feingold

2005-08-24T10:42:00.000-05:00

So sunday morning i wake up somewhere in the hours between 9 and 11 and wander out to the living room in my usual not-that-hungover-because-i-only-drank-a-bottle-of-boones-last-night-but-still-
tired-because-that's-the-way-i-am-in-the-mornings stupor, and, on some sort of weird, masochistic whim, turned on the sunday morning talk shows, just in time to catch the beginning of Russ Feingold being interviewed on Meet the Press. Senator Feingold is on there talking about having called for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. This is mildly interesting, but not that exciting. What is more fascinating is that almost from the second the senator opens his mouth, i'm thinking, "this man is running for president." This feeling becomes even more blatant when "distinguished-looking" white man (television anchors aren't names, they're types) asks, point-blank, "Senator, are you a candidate for the presidency in 2008?" and Feingold responds with a full three minutes of platform-enunciating and not-denial. Now i don't know very much about Russ Feingold, but i kind of cock my head in mild interest at this revelation, mainly because Feingold ISN'T Hillary or Kerry, and god knows we need more dems who fit that description. And then i switch over to ABC, where Georgie Stephanopolous, like a good adorable little monkey, is talking about Kinky Friedman and the Daily Show. This is when Silpa comes out and joins me. We bask for a few minutes in Jon Stewart's gloriousness, and then i tell her about Feingold, and Silpa says, "oh that's interesting, the only thing i really know about him is the McCain-Feingold bill..." and all of a sudden my usually suppressed, corny, ridiculously lame, political junkie sense of humour rushes to take over my brain with the thought, "wouldn't it be HILARIOUS if McCain was the Republican nominee in 2008 and Feingold was the democrat, and then it was the McCain-Feingold race." And no, actually, it wouldn't really be that funny at all. Vaguely amusing for about five seconds. BUT, i'm fairly certain that were that to happen, there would be a slew of articles ALL over the newspapers, magazines, and blogosphere, comparing each candidates compliance with the legislation that bears their names. And because i have NOTHING to do at the news office today, i'm gonna beat them to it. So here it is, and you heard it here first.

First of all, for those of us who might need a brief refresher, a summary of the major points of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (aka McCain-Feingold).

Now the dirt. We'll start with McCain, because he's my favourite. Except when he's being a dick.
-Career profile of McCain's fundraising activities
-McCain received $31,000 from Global Crossing, and appears to have returned the favour.
-Also, a Center for Responsive Politics study from the 2000 presidential election, which reveals an encouraging and ideologically-consistent reliance on small contributors in the McCain campaign, also reveals a rather disturbing reliance on PACs.
-Then there's the Reform Institute, which simultaneously supports campaign finance reform and provides a convenient way for its chief proponent to circumvent it, if he so chooses
-and McCain's identification with campaign finance reform has made him quite a target for plenty of other reports on minor items of hypocrisy.
-on the other hand, props to McCain for effective utilization of internet fundraising back when Howard Dean was still a twinkle in Karl Rove's eyes, and for keeping up the fight in the Senate

Now Feingold.
-The basics: Feingold's individual-to-PAC contributor ratio is lower than McCain's. His disclosure has improved quite a bit but remains imperfect, and recently businesses have started to play a larger role in his fundraising. Also, the man gets lots of money from lawyers.
-Feingold spoke out against his own party's attempts to circumvent the BCRA, and other fundraising efforts.
-Also, he gets props for refusing to accept soft money in his last (pre McCain-Feingold) Senate race.
-Honestly, except for one chronicle of bitterness of a defeated opponent, i couldn't find a single example of Feingold even potentially violating or subverting McCain-Feingold.

So i guess in this comparison it's the democrat who wins. But in all fairness, it's important to note that McCain has been far more of a national figure than Feingold, and thus far more of a target for critical eyes. Who knows what may be revealed if Feingold steps more into the national spotlight? In any case, who really cares about the 2008 elections anyway? It's all just a game until 2012, which is when OBAMA should run.

love y'all

Thanks to the good nerds at google for making this ridiculously long entry possible.

it's getting to be that time

2005-08-23T13:55:00.000-05:00

Seth Stevenson's Slate series on Amsterdam this week is making me want to move back to Holland. At the same time, every time i pick up this book i want to move back to Paris. Which all leads to the main question: What the hell do i want to do after i graduate? I thought i was pretty set on the whole Peace Corps-then-law school plan. Nice and simple. But now i'm kinda considering this owning a business in Hyde Park idea, which could be fun. Or maybe, despite all my "i want to get out of the developed world" idealism, i really just want to find a job in Europe. Here's what i don't want to do:
-more school right away
-a boring, un-self-motivated office job
...but beyond that, i'm a little bit lost. And the decisions loom...

love y'all

Desperate Housewives!

2005-08-22T14:05:00.000-05:00

So, Marcia Cross isn't the lesbian on Desperate Housewives. If one of them is, we're left with Eva Longoria, Teri Hatcher, or Nicolette Sheridan. But i gotta say, if Eva's gay and used Tony Parker as a beard, then life is way more unfair than i ever imagined.

In other news...according to the official ABC quiz i'm a Gabrielle! SWEET...and here i totally expected (a thoroughly disappointing) Susan.

love y'all

melancholy, alcoholism, and other fun games

2005-08-22T11:09:00.000-05:00

Maybe it was the champagne at brunch. Maybe it was friday's acute realization that, since i'm going to new york and columbus the next two weeks, this was my last weekend in chicago before i move back into the dorms. Whatever the reason, all day saturday i couldn't shake the feeling of living in a Hemingway or Fitzgerald novel. Something about the day just had that sense of youth in decadent, anesthetized decline. Like, we went to the beach but it was almost empty, and it was unsatisfying because the sun wasn't quite warm enough and there were biting flies that stung our legs and made us leave after just over an hour. And we went to dinner in Little Italy, and were walking up the street enjoying a lovely evening when we saw a car crash and people crying.
Finally, at the end of the evening, when we were sitting in Nichols park drinking boones and smoking hookahs and cigars, i managed to come back to contentment and lose the sense of being trapped in Tender is the Night.

Here are some things that excited me about the weekend:
-Saw The Aristocrats yesterday and it was hilarious, as expected. And my gods i'm in love with Jon Stewart.
-Isaac and i, completely randomly and on a whim, decided to investigate the possibilities of opening a restaurant in Hyde Park after we graduate. I don't know why, but there's something i like, A LOT about this idea. I can hear my father yelling at me from the future about this.

The bad thing about having an ongoing flirtation with your bartender being your only substitute for a love life...you tend to want to spend a lot of time at the bar. Anyone up for Jimmy's tonight?

love y'all

Poetry and Aeroplanes

2005-08-19T09:32:00.000-05:00

i don't have a lot to say today, so i'm going to let Teitur say it for me:

There was a party last night, last night
Cigarettes and empty bottles, empty bottles
Better open up this window, this window
Need some air to clear my head, clear my head
Alone in these strange beds
I think that I’ve traveled enough
Poetry and Aeroplanes
I am tired of waiting for love
Tend to fall asleep in the fast lane, in the fast lane
Sometimes sinking low in the high life, in the high life
No more happy songs of heartbreak, oh’ heartbreak
Or playing white knight misunderstood, misunderstood
Alone in these strange streets
I think that I’ve walked them enough
Poetry and Aeroplanes
I am tired of waiting for love
Another night I lie awake
In woken dreams of faith and fate
Hope my love don’t come too late
Hope my love don’t come too late
Alone in these strange streets
I think that I’ve walked them enough
Poetry and Aeroplanes
I am tired of waiting for love

love y'all

take me now

2005-08-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

the two most ridiculous pick-up lines i've ever heard in my life, thrown at me within 5 minutes of each other at Jimmy's last night, by two men sitting on either side of me:
1) "So, did you get some sun today?" (correct response: "no, fuckwad, i'm NOT WHITE" but i was too confused to respond.)
2) "I'm so fucking high right now. Are you smoking crack too?" (correct response: gather things, run out of jimmy's to where isaac was standing outside talking to laura on his cell. That one i did.)

But oddly enough i still had fun there talking to Zak (Zach? i like it better with a k), the bartender, until around 1:30.

love y'all

it's a toss-up

2005-08-17T12:21:00.000-05:00

in which moni embarrasses herself...

2005-08-17T11:03:00.000-05:00

;-) that amuses me.

so i wrote a poem today...it's the first time in oh, a year that i've actually managed to complete a poem. It's not the best i've ever written...a little trite, and it rhymes but lacks meter :-/ but i don't think it's horrible either. Judge for yourself:

On the Quads

in the blinding warmth of the summer sun
and the bee-sting silence of my telephone
i kick off my shoes in the damp green grass
and i've forgotten what it feels like not to be alone
in this lavender and tree-lined morning
the worker bees continue on their quests
in coffee cup and scaffolding vulgarity
and i remember what it feels like to find rest

yeah...so that's...ummm...a poem. We're getting free pizza at the News Office today!! :-D

love y'all

SWEET

2005-08-16T11:44:00.000-05:00

This is so the most exciting thing to happen in Texas politics since the killer Dems fled to New Mexico and Oklahoma to avoid redistricting a year and a half ago. Thank all the gods there may be for Kinky Friedman's attempts to revive the old-style Texas politician...if he sticks with this, i'll stay registered in Texas just to vote for him.

Also, Parisist on the wearing of the colour black:

"Des existentialistes aux punks, de la reine Victoria à Audrey Hepburn, des gothiques aux amish, le noir rend tout le monde d'accord."

love y'all

SO GOOD

2005-08-15T15:37:00.000-05:00

just finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower. You should borrow it from me.

love y'all

i feel good

2005-08-15T12:37:00.000-05:00

i just saw a woman wearing a t-shirt that said "i feel good" and had a little smiley face in one of the o's in "good." It made me smile, because i agree.

i'm not sure why i'm feeling so good.

maybe it's because i just got free ice cream
maybe it's because there are strawberry cream hershey's kisses here at work
maybe it's because i discovered the best time-wasting website EVER
maybe it's because i really like this book
maybe it's because i made risotto last night
and just maybe it's because i met a sweet, sexy boy friday night, and i feel like he might actually call me again
but mostly i think it's because i realized that if i were him i would call me. and as long as i think i'm worth it, if he disagrees, that's his problem, not mine.

oh, and by the way, i think all of you are worth it too.

love y'all

childish

2005-08-12T16:24:00.000-05:00

I'm feeling neglected today...first of all i e-mailed silpa in the morning and she hasn't answered, making this about the third day in a row that this has happened. I know, i'm dumb, and just because she's busy at work and doesn't compulsively check her e-mail every 6 seconds like some of us doesn't mean she doesn't love me.
Secondly, i'm feeling undervalued at work. Because here's the deal: I suggested to my buddy Josh Segal that he apply to work at the news office, and when he did, i recommended him really highly to my boss. So Josh was hired, largely on the strength of my recommendation. But Josh was hired to do a special project. So while I often sit here searching the web desperately for things to do, Josh always has something to do, and it's interesting, and he's largely self-guided, as opposed to my job, where i only ever have work if i ask people for it every 5 minutes. Now, Josh is getting to come in specially on Monday, at a time that i will be working anyway, so that he can attend John Johnson's funeral in Rockefeller while i sit here at my desk at the News Office. Also attending the funeral will be, among others, Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, and at least one high-ranking member of the Bush Administration. Now i know that it's morally reprehensible of me to want to go to a funeral because of who will be there. But, just, in general, i feel so out of the loop at the news office, like everyone else is a real employee and i'm just an intern. And i was starting to not feel that way when they assigned me the obituary on Monday, but now i'm back to it. So i'm done doing work today. Childish, i know, but there it is. I just want the week to be over.

love y'all

3 thoughts

2005-08-11T12:44:00.000-05:00

three thoughts for today:

1) Cafe Iberico is my favourite restaurant in Chicago.
2) I hate David Brooks
3) HAPPY BIRTHDAY SILPA!!

love y'all

paranoia revisited

2005-08-10T13:10:00.000-05:00

i think our sense of outrage has atrophied. Here and here are a couple of things that we should be getting really damn mad about. I love this - apparently our surveillance is both overly intrusive and not being put to good use. What does the New York Times teach us today kids? Our intelligence agencies are for watching us, not protecting us.

oh, and here's something else. let's see...we're lacking competence, morals, credibility, and now taste...what exactly is it that our government DOES possess?

love y'all

amazed

2005-08-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

i just got the chance to see the film discussed here and if you ever get the chance, you should too.

i am absolutely in shock. It was funny, powerful, moving, mature...and made by two 13 year-old boys from the Chicago suburbs. The film is "aimed at young audiences" meaning that its format is highly reminiscent of a Sesame Street segment, which, of course, just serves to make it more striking that what they're talking about is nuclear destruction.

Beyond making me whole-heartedly buy in to their message, this also makes me feel RIDICULOUSLY inferior. These boys are THIRTEEN for gods sakes, and they've already accomplished something that shows more talent and insight than i am likely to demonstrate over the course of my lifetime.

All i can say is...damn.

update from yesterday: Rowshan, my "second mother" is supposed to have a hysterectomy today. There are lots of good signs that the tumor isn't cancerous. Still, if you pray, put a word in for Rowshan Daneshy...she's one of the kindest women i've ever met, and i've been incredibly lucky to have had her in my life since really before i was born.

Thanks kids, oh and see the film!

love y'all

what a day

2005-08-09T15:37:00.000-05:00

so i'm at the news office for an extra day today, and somehow was labouring under the misperception that that would be less stressful than being downtown. HAHAHAHAHA Here are some of the things that happened today, in chronological order:
1) Becky (the instructor) was late to kickboxing today, so she made it extra-hard and ran over, making me a little late to work.
2) Spent a good portion of my morning scanning the newspapers for mentions of the UofC and got NOTHING. Not really my fault, but i tend to misconstrue random things as personal failings.
3) Got a call from my mother informing me that her best friend, who's like a second mother to me, is in the hospital with a tumor in her uterus. Subsequently called my "second father" and completely neglected my news office duties to talk to him.
4) Ate lunch for Habeas Corpus with Nancy and two reps from a test prep company. One of whom has communicated with me by e-mail numerous times, met me once, received multiple e-mails from Nancy with my name in them yesterday and today, and proceeded to call me Molly for half the meal. At least a) i got to hang out with Nancy and b) they picked up the tab.
5) Had to walk from Noodles to 56th and South Shore and back to the news office (for anyone who's not from HP, that's 25 minutes-ish each way) wearing khakis and super-uncomfortable shoes in the 90-degree heat to pick up photos of the man i'm writing the obituary of.
--update--
6) On relieved way home from work ran into one now-graduated object of unrequited affection who informed me that he's supposed to be hanging out this evening with my most recent now-graduated object of unrequited affection, who i had thought was gone from chicago, and who is in fact leaving chicago, and the country, this weekend. As if today hadn't fucked with my head enough already

I guess that's it. Basically, everything has been physically and emotionally exhausting. But here are two good things: 1) I came up with something really cool to give Silpa for her birthday. 2) Today i'm going to kick back and drink a PBR and watch The Incredibles for free on the quads. in shorts. You should come watch it with me.

love y'all

...in which Monica channels Carrie Bradshaw

2005-08-08T13:03:00.000-05:00

i have a very Sex in the City like question to ask today: does anyone engage in displacement flirting? Isaac and Joel Lanceta exposed me to this concept yesterday - the idea that if you want to talk to someone, you talk to a friend of their's instead. I think this is one of the stupidest ideas of all time. Yeah, if i'm really interested in a guy i want his friends to like me, but if there's a guy i'm trying to pick up, i don't see the point in not talking to him directly. Is there anyone out there who employs this strategy? Has it ever worked?

In other news, my major assignment today at the News Office is writing an obituary for a Professor Emeritus who just died. This is good in that it's the largest and most consequential job they've ever given me here at the News Office. It's bad because it's WRITING AN OBITUARY, which includes calling the family and friends of this man and intruding on their grief to write a press release. I recognize that this is actually probably something they want, but it still feels sketchy...especially if any of them ever realize that i'm just a student intern...

Finally, every once in a while i'll be surfing the net at work and come across something that makes me have to hold back tears so that it's not 100% obvious that i'm goofing off. Want to see today's entry into that category? Click on the PostSecret link at right.

love y'all

insomnia

2005-08-07T02:08:00.000-05:00

it's 2:15 and i've been tired all day, but i can't seem to fall asleep. At least Andrea's still awake to talk to me on IM. I wouldn't mind lying awake so much if there was anyone at all who i wanted to daydream about before falling asleep. sigh. ok moni, get over yourself.

Laura leaves tomorrow to start her cosmo internship in New York, which is exciting (and a little nervewracking) for her, and kinda sad for the rest of us. I'll miss her. But Allie will be staying with us for a couple of weeks, which is cool, because even if i didn't love allie, THE WOMAN BAKES HER OWN BREAD, and i'm never gonna argue with having fresh-baked bread in my apartment.

maybe i should try this whole sleep thing again.

love y'all

city life

2005-08-01T11:34:00.000-05:00

wow...i just have to say that the Metropolitan Diary section of the NY Times is about 67 times more interesting than it's counterpart in the Trib. Score one more point for the "Chicago is nothing compared to New York" team. On the other hand, i would DEFINITELY choose to live in Chicago over New York if i could live here. my god that building will be BEAUTIFUL if it ever happens. I may be in love with Santiago Calatrava. He's only, you know, my father's age. And married.

Walking around Pilsen with Laura on Saturday, i realized that if i ever do live in Chicago after i graduate, for a job or law school, (barring someone deciding to give me a condo in the Fordham Spire) i will definitely want to still live on the South or Southwest side. As much as i enjoy wandering around the shops and restaurants in Wicker and Lincoln Park, or the view from Tashfeen and Nithin's apartment in the South Loop, Pilsen and Hyde Park are both just so much more interesting.

Oh, you know what, i ALMOST forgot: WTF!!?? As Jed Bartlett clearly explained way back in Season 2 of the West Wing, "A recess appointment assumes the Senate's gonna have no problem with the nominee." It's meant to conveniently fill uncontroversial, generally lower-level positions, NOT to subvert the process and place someone whose coworkers think he's crazy, who even Republicans in the Senate are uncertain about, and who has expressed a very vocal lack of respect for the institution he will be serving to one of the most crucial foreign diplomacy positions in the nation! This administration's complete lack of shame as it destroys the fundamentals of our democratic, representative form of government is staggering. And i'm slowly beginning to hate Bill Frist even more than i hated Trent Lott.

love y'all

ennui

2005-07-29T13:18:00.000-05:00

Laura suggested i update, probably because i've been filling her inbox (along with Silpa's and Evan's) with about 16 e-mails of articles, recipes, and my meaningless musings. Yeah, work at the News Office is just a little bit slow today.

Maybe i want to do communications instead of law or politics? I kinda like it here, when they give me real work, and there's a character in my book who writes for an expat paper in Budapest and it brings back my old dream of being a foreign correspondent. Eh...i dunno...i think i'll just run away to africa for a few years. oooh...there's something i can do with my time - Peace Corps app!

BUT...first a quick rundown of links to what's happening in Monica's head right now:
I want to buy several things from here but shouldn't.
I want to see The Aristocrats (and Must Love Dogs, but we won't talk about that).
Paul Krugman's making a good point for once.

love y'all

maybe the world isn't going to hell after all

2005-07-28T12:21:00.000-05:00

Look! Look! Good News! wow...how often do you open the NYT website and find that in front of you!?

And i was treated to two seperate sweet and entirely unexpected acts of chivalry this morning.

And the book i'm reading (Prague, by Arthur Phillips) is turning out to be kind of amazing.

guess i'll move the knife blade a couple of inches away from my wrists.

love y'all

and another message from my favourite NY Times columnist

2005-07-27T13:17:00.000-05:00

Thomas Friedman's getting so bad he's even infecting his copy-editors. "I thought people went to jail for that?" Declarative statement, my friends. In other news, rather unsurprisingly, this is the least focused column ever. Maybe if Friedman were writing another one of his (utterly inane) books, he could manage to address China, Ireland, CEO salaries, and the energy bill in one piece without sounding like a five year old on speed - in an op-ed, not so much. And that's not even addressing the goddamn sports analogy. Lance and his team "combine strength and strategy"? wow Tom, i'm pretty sure that's the ENTIRE POINT OF THE TOUR DE FRANCE AND ALMOST EVERY OTHER SPORT. And i don't think the terms playing offense or defense really apply to bicycle racing. But then, i guess when you're a confused new york liberal who has allowed your obsessions with Israel and the free market to completely insulate you from all logic or human intellect and who makes Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd look good, mixing metaphors is really the least of your problems.

love y'all

the mean reds

2005-07-26T14:28:00.000-05:00

work is crazy, almost everyone i talk to is tired and stressed, the world and the people around me seem to be conspiring to lower my self-esteem, people keep committing horrible acts of destruction in the Sudan and Zimbabwe, launch.com is playing Dashboard Confessional. i can look out my window and see the top floors of the Hancock building shrouded in threatening grey clouds - i'd like to be in an apartment up there alone with my book and a well-stocked bar. i wish andrea wasn't at grief camp this week. i should call my mommy.

love y'all, i suppose.

it's tough being a girl...

2005-07-22T12:31:00.000-05:00

This article at the Economist is really interesting. Through work at NAWL i'm discovering that this is true for the legal profession as well. We're hosting a "General Counsel Institute" in New York in November to try and educate women who work in corporate legal departments on how to rise to the top, because apparently there's a lack of women in lead counsel positions at major firms. And the upcoming issue of our journal is all about career advancement, and i was reading in one of the articles about how one of the things that holds young female law firm associates back is that male partners are reluctant to form the same kind of informal mentoring relationships with them that they would with young male associates, because of concern over perceptions or accusations of impropriety or sexual harassment. This all makes me sad. But i think it'll get better. I think women of each subsequent generation get more and more comfortable "playing with the boys," if you will, and less and less bound to prescribed gender roles. Of course, as Laura pointed out in a similar conversation we were having about female directors of non-profits, there's still going to be a substantial number of women who choose to sacrifice their careers for their family. But i still believe that society is evolving in such a way to make that choice a) less common and b) less necessary.

and to bring up another requirement that society imposes on women, apparently all of my getting up early to exercise may be counter-productive. Grrr...you just can't win.

or can you? At least we're finding ways to deal with hangovers. Now if only they could come up with an after cure instead of a before cure.

By the way, the last two clips were courtesy of the fact that i've spent HOURS looking at old news articles about UofC people to make sure that we've associated them with the right people on our website. And i'm getting back to it now. Sigh.

love y'all

It's not paranoia if they're really watching you...

2005-07-22T11:32:00.000-05:00

In keeping with the above entry (or i guess actually the entry below) about the dangers of unregulated blogging, i'm just going to go ahead and directly copy what Jin had to say in his xanga today:
"i was browsing the web today, and stumbled onto this one guy's site. now this guy researched the venture capital bankrolling every college student's favorite site these days--thefacebook.com. now one of the companies keeping the facebook afloat has ties to the cia. combine that with the facebook's disclaimer of not promising it won't release information to third parties, unbeknownst to the user, and we can speculate that the cia is doing a wonderful job of getting private information from the nation's 3-4 (?) million college students. and, of course, whichever government agency or security-affiliated corporation is collecting this information is probably immune to lawsuits thanks to our buddy the patriot act. i'll try to get the link to that site, but remember kids, be careful of what you put on your facebook profile and what groups you join."
hahaha. oh yeah, and just in case you missed it, the House extended the Patriot Act yesterday. War is Peace and Freedom is Slavery, kids.

But you know what? i'm not actually going to worry about that right now. It's friday, and i'd rather worry about what i should wear to go hang out in an executive skybox at the Sox game tonight, and whether we should go to the 57th Street beach or the Point to swim and tan tomorrow, and whether i'll have time to see all the movies i want to see this weekend

love y'all - enjoy the 100-degree weather!

rejection

2005-07-20T12:02:00.000-05:00

so i just found out that i'm not going to be an undergraduate fellow for the program on international security policy. this is not a huge shock. there are plenty of people in this school who are far more into IR theory than i am, (see comment about Robert Pape below). and i'm getting damn used to handling rejection letters. before i arrived at this school, i'd only received one in my life, and that was from Princeton. now, i could never give you an accurate count. in fact, i'm so used to reading them, i've even started helping one of my bosses write them, which is a form of catharsis, i suppose. but still, it hurts. just like i'm not at all surprised that a certain person hasn't answered my last e-mail, yet every once in awhile, when i hit the refresh button and come up with nothing, i get sad.

also, i'm a little pissed off because in asking for applications they requested an unnofficial transcript and "two paragraphs on why you want to be a fellow." so i wrote two semi-humourous and interesting paragraphs on my fascination with international politics. then in my rejection letter, they described the criteria candidates were evaluated with as including "security-related extra-curricular activities and future plans." maybe i'm being obtuse, but i feel like you should give candidates a clear picture of the criteria that they're going to be evaluated on BEFORE you evaluate them. I didn't include my MUNUC participation in my essay because i don't think it's really that relevant to WHY i wanted to be a fellow. but if i'd known that security-related extracurriculars were important, OF COURSE i would have stuck that in. in a way, this is also analogous to my love life. from what they tell you at the beginning, it seems like, to acheive romantic success, one just needs to look reasonably good, have good personal grooming habits, and be a nice/interesting person. but i think i do a decent job of all that, and i'm still sitting around every weekend begging my roommates and their boyfriends to let me tag along. will someone please send me a list of the criteria that's being used to reject me?

ok, i'm gonna get over myself now and go finish the NY Times crossword puzzle or something. check out this site and for a little fun, zoom in all the way.

love y'all

i get way too bored over the summer...

2005-07-20T11:32:00.000-05:00

...so i'm creating a new blog. Here it is. And in keeping with the theme, here's a fun little article about blogging hahaha...i can't believe that. How can you be so dumb? This should be a huge warning to those of us who want to pursue political careers. I am fully confident that when i'm running for office 30 years from now, some one will pull up all the comments on this blog, and on my xanga, and drag them through the mud. Which is why i'm not going to mention the murders i've ordered...oops...

In other news, i didn't realize that despite having read his book and promoted the hell out of it, i didn't know what Robert Pape looked like. I discovered this when he was just hanging out by my desk for about the past 5 minutes and i didn't pay any attention until Larry (my boss, director of communications for the University) comes out and is like, "Hi Bob!!" Stupid Monica. I should know this man.

ok, time to see what i can do about the formatting of this site.

love y'all