| Rawr. |
[Jun. 26th, 2007|12:33 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | The Land of Sand | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  complacent | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | iPod on shuffle | ] |
It certainly has been business as usual in Saudi. In three weeks, I've hardly left the house, spent most of the day in my pj's playing Guitar Hero and watching movies. It's a sad, sad existance, but it's relaxing. I'm saving my energy for Ireland, which is where I'll be in 5 days!! I'm SO excited! A month without alcohol and social interaction could drive a body crazy...
So I think I've found a place to live next year. It's a 2 bedroom, 2 bath double shotgun on Camp and Jefferson, which is owned by my mom's friend's cousin's friend. If that's not connection, I don't know what is. Now I just have to get in touch with Mattie and see if she's still in, etc.
For now though, I must sleep. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 16th, 2007|08:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Houston, Tx | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bored | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | U + Ur Hand--Pink | ] |
Summer's off to a slow start. Spent five glorious yet ominous days with Sara, at the end of which she met my mother. Mother approves. It's a step in the right direction, I think. Now I'm in Houston, figuring out ingenious ways to waste my time while being at least semi-productive. It'll keep my mind off missing Sara. It'll be hard until I leave for Ireland, because at least in Ireland, I can drink my weight in Guiness and take a couple classes which will keep me occupied. Until then, though, I think I need to start writing again. It's been a semester of analytical shit and come August, it won't be ready to immediately switch gears to creative writing. I need to ease back into it, or else my work will be sloppity. I have a couple ideas that will keep me busy for the next three months. Right now, though, I'm craving some chocolate. Yum.
P.S--For Your Entertainment: An Answer to William Carlos Williams
Dear Sir,
This is the third time
you've pilfered
my plums.
What's next?
the truffles, or perhaps
my wedding ring?
When will you learn
not to take everything
that snatches your eye? |
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| Cough Drops and Other Things |
[Nov. 20th, 2006|02:15 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | The 12-foot Box | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  okay | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Christmas 2006 playlist | ] |
Fuuuuck! I'm getting siiick again!! NOOO!! Cough drops, Claritin and Day/Nyquil, here I come!
And only like 2 weeks after the Ass Incident too.
Ok, for those who haven't heard about the Ass Incident, I'll ramble for awhile. About three weeks ago, I started having a pain in my ass, literally. I didn't know what it was or where exactly it was coming from, I just knew that the ache was coming from that general area. Anyway, the pain worsened and before I knew it I was feeling like an old man with prostate problems...I couldn't sit, stand or walk comfortably, and then, one morning, after a particularly eventful evening at Sara's place, I woke up intending to drive back to New Orleans to go to class, but I couldn't move. So finally, I caved in, despite my pride, and told her to drive me to the E.R. Weell, I got there, and they must've asked me at least 57 times if I had 1. Fallen recently? No. 2. Trouble with using the toilet, constipation? No. 3. Had anal sex? No. And I felt like saying "Goddamn it, ask your people, I've told the story at LEAST 89 times." Anyway, turns out I had a gigantic abcess in my ass crack. So they had to remove it. And it was the most EXCRUCIATING physical pain I had EVER been in. Even after morphine and a local, I still felt EVERYTHING. At least they gave me Percocet. :).
So I missed 3 days of class and therefore spent most of last week making up for it.
It's getting to be that time of year where there's so much work to get done and I don't know how I'm going to do it. Tomorrow I'm spending at least 2 or 3 hours in the library doing research for my Chaucer class. I have a paper due Dec. 1, which is essentially about Medieval Queer Theory. It's interesting. I suppose I'm going to spend most of the paper rambling about the Pardoner being bashed at the end of his tale in the Canterbury Tales.
I also have a HUGE portfolio due for my poetry class and I don't know what I'm going to do...I need two poems in formal verse (I already have a villanelle, and I'll probably turn the other poem I workshopped into some kind of stanzaic verse). And three other ones in whatever form I choose, with more than one revision for each, plus a self-analysis and a bio, and proof of submission to a journal or review outside of Loyola. I NEED to do well in this class. Not that I'm not doing well already, but, you know, I want to go out of Martin's class with a flourish.
Today UChorus had our concert. It went VERY well...We made it through Mozart's Requiem with only a few minor problems, which is impressive, considering we'd never run the whole piece before, OR run the piece with a full orchestra.
On a completely non-academic note, I've realized that I've been in a kind of a bubble this semester--I've been focusing completely on writing, school, and Sara, and haven't had the time to realize how much I miss my friends. For all those affected by my neglect, I apologize. I'll try to be better about it, especially since I won't be having to drive to Baton Rouge next semester because Sara's moving back to New Orleans.
People I miss:
Geo
Thalia
Michelle
Dom
Ian
Sharina
Cassie
Katherine
Ashley
Dan
Jamie
Wes
Neval (I know I live with her, but I'm never here, so I hardly ever see her)
That is all.
Mad Love. |
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| Soooo |
[Nov. 6th, 2006|09:23 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | horny | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Leather--Tori Amos | ] |
Soooo, I have semi-finalized my schedule for next semester. Here it is:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
9:30-10:20--Metaphysics
11:30-12:20--Saints and Demons in Medieval Europe
1:30-2:20--Trolius and Crysede Etc. (Chaucer II)
Tuesday, Thursday:
9:30-10:45--Christian Mysticism
11:00-12:15--American Masterworks
I might also try to find John Bigunet and see if I can't get a seat card for his Writing Fiction class. I hate that all the spaces were grabbed like, the day after early registration started. Oh well. Maybe someone will decide that they don't want to take a 4:55-7:35 class on Mondays. That's a bitch. But I think it'd be totally awesome.
On another note, yesterday I told my mother that I was dating Sara. It went well.
Also, yesterday, Sara painted my toes a color called Fuscia Bling-Bling.
Mad Love. |
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| Finally. |
[Oct. 22nd, 2006|10:50 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | The 12-foot Box | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | mellow | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Take Your Mama-Scissor Sisters | ] |
Ok, so it's been some insane amount of time since my last post. Something like 3 months...
Anyway.
Things have happened.
1. For those of you who don't know, I have been in an almost-3-month relationship. It is fantabulous and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. I spend most of my free time in Baton Rouge, but it's awesome because all we do is stay in bed and watch The L Word and have lots and lots of mind-blowing sex :). We went to Austin last week for Fall Break an it was pretty awesome.
2. I now share a dorm room (a 12-foot box) with Neval. It's been interesting, to say the least. We haven't tried to kill each other yet; on the contrary, I think we've gotten a whole lot closer.
3. I think...I'm not sure about this...but I think I might change my writing concentration to poetry. It's still just in the baby stages of a thought, here's some of my reasoning:
A. After a few nights out and discussions with Martin (my writing professor, who's not coming back to Loyola next year) and after he told me that I was one of his best poets (and introduced me as such to fucking JAKE SHEARS (!!!!)), which, coming from Martin is a compliment, I might be more talented than I initially thought I was at poetry.
B. Grad school. I have to play a role. And that's either going to be fiction or poetry. I don't know. I still have time to decide, and I'll take a few classes from John Bigunet to test the waters in fiction before I finalize that choice.
Here's an example of the work I've been doing lately:
I was thinking of dying my hair
Red. Not Clairol number fourteen red,
I mean Crayola fire engine red.
And if I put the tiniest bit of blond on the tips
I could fix it so it’d look like
Cat-licks of flame on my head.
Then you’d grow your hair out long
You’d trade in your hog for a pickup
And we’d move out to Arizona.
We wouldn’t have kids (because that would mean
I’d have to kick my smoking habit).
Instead, we’d find them, feral children,
Ragged and worn like the seams of a used baseball.
They’ll leave love-marks on our hands
But we’d teach them how to fight
How to fuck
How to write
Poetry
And when the last one can break
Our knuckleball grip on him,
We’ll watch him fade away into
The Indian paintbrushes.
Then, sitting on our rotting front porch
I’d let you light my cigarette and settle
Into the mould you’ve made in my arms.
And I’d remember
You with your ponytail
And me with my hair on fire.
I've also been experimenting with form. Here's a modern not-so-sonnet. It's very VERY rough, but here it is anyway:
I never realized kissing could be so complex.
The marks you left on my coffee stained mouth
this morning still show and everyone sees.
My tongue still feels the raw grains of sugar
in your accent. My fingers trace patterns,
geometry left on my skin. I know
a fire blazed down my throat last night and burned
oak trees of innocence and inhibition.
But when you kissed me, my eyes were open;
who knows who could’ve seen us—my mother
or a priest—they’ll point bloody nails at us
and pin us alive in coffins of passion.
Baby, I’m scared of hell and I’m scared of you,
but I’ll hold your hand and help you slay demons.
4. I'm trying to get a reading series off the ground here. Loyola has such a healthy writing program and New Orleans has such a rich literary history that it almost refuses to recognize, it's kind of ridiculous that we don't have one. We've invited Tulane to join and collectively, the project includes about 8 people. I'm VERY excited about it. Plus, it'll give me an opportunity to establish myself as a writer and a student here like I haven't before. I need to start getting my act together in that department and really focus on my work.
Anyway, that's pretty much it.
Mad love. |
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| WARNING: |
[Jul. 28th, 2006|11:05 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Austin, TX | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | lonely | ] |
I feel like I've really fucked up. Like my priorities have never been right. Like I've been wanting all the wrong things from all the wrong people. Like I've failed the people who need me and love me the most.
Ironic, isn't it? The one thing I need is the one thing I can't have. It's killing me because I know you're there. I know I could have you if I could reach you. If you weren't so far away.
You are the one thing that's right in a world of wrong. You nourish me. You destroy me.
I just hope I'm right about you.
On a lighter note, by birthday is in 12 hours and 43 minutes. |
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| Pointless Post |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|11:08 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Dhahran, Saudi Arabia | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | exhausted | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | You've Got To Hide Your Love Away--The Beatles | ] |
So I've been watching a lot of FIFA World Cup 2006 Germany soccer. In the past few days I've watched:
USA vs. Czech Republic
Spain vs. Ukraine
England vs. Trinidad & Tobago
It's a guilty pleasure of mine. Besides, some of these teams (like Spain and Brazil) play really sexy soccer. With finesse. And that's something I can appreciate. I guess because I used to have aspirations to athleticism before I realized that I would rather spend hours upon hours locked in a theatre.
For the record, jetlag is like hell on earth. :( |
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| Home |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|02:16 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Dhahran, Saudi Arabia | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Southern Belles in London Sing--The Faint | ] |
It's the eyes that tell me I'm home. In the US and Europe (more so in the US), strangers on the street rarely notice me. Coming back home to Saudi, however, as soon as I step off that plane from Dubai or London or Amsterdam or Dublin, I see the eyes. Women's eyes, those big dark eyes with long, thick, beautiful lashes (we call them "camel lashes") are enhanced with dark eyeliner and veiled. It's only when I come back that I realize the use of an abaiya (those black veils that Saudi women wear when they're out and about). Suddenly, I become aware of my bare arms, my pale pink skin, my bulk, my breasts, my uncovered sheared short hair, my boy's jeans I was once reprimanded for wearing in public, my foreigner's blue-gray irises. I become aware of all of this because the men gawk. It's not because I'm beautiful or irregularly proportioned or anything like that, but simply because I'm not behind a veil. I am a foreigner. I am different, unknown. Their curiosity or disgust or whatever it is these men think of me runs more along the lines of what they would think of a monkey at the zoo. The blackness of an abaiya provides a sort of privacy that I sometimes envy when I feel unbridled eyes on me. Because when the only thing you can do is look away and pretend not to notice, you wish you could just hide.
Anyway, that's sort of what I was thinking when I got off the plane in Dammam.
The trip back here wasn't so bad. I mean, it wasn't a life changing experience, but it wasn't hell either. Well...I take that back...my sister was grumpy so EVERYONE had to deal with it. Like, she thinks the world totally revolves around her. I mean, I love her to death, but with her, everything is a competition. No one can say anything about me, or I can't say anything without her saying "well...I'm better." Which I suppose is cool, I'm glad she's confident enough in herself to do that, but it just gets REALLY annoying. Anyway.
We had a connection through London Gatwick. I haven't been through that airport in SO long. I've realized though, that I like to adapt my accent wherever I am, be it New Orleans or Austin or London, so I was starting (i kid you not) to actually talk in a British accent...without realizing I was doing it. I had to stop myself before I got in too much trouble.
So I've decided that Emirates Air is the best airline in the business. Seriously. The inflight entertainment was rockin. 500 channels worth of stuff to watch, plus games and more leg and ass room than you can possibly imagine in an economy class seat. We flew from London to Dubai on a flight that wasn't completely full. Like, we actually had an entire ROW to ourselves. It was nice. Plus, I had two mini-bottles of red wine that knocked me out, so I slept for like, 4 hours. :D yay alcohol. Oh, by the way, I've decided that if I don't live in Greece or Italy or something of that nature, I'm TOTALLY living in Dubai. It's THAT awesome.
Our flight was delayed 45 minutes out of Dubai. But that's ok, I played blackjack with a guy from Pakistan in the seat next to me :D.
And now, I'm "home" in the other OTHER Magic Kingdom sitting in my very very different room. My parents disassembled the bunk beds...they haven't been separated since I was like, in 6th grade. So it's just very bizzare sleeping in my childhood room that looks so...changed, I guess. It's also weird sharing a room with my sister again. That girl...is LOUD when she wakes up. It takes her literally an hour and a half to get ready and she HAS to do it in here, WHILE I'M ASLEEP at 6:30 AM. But maybe that's just me being uber-sensitive. I don't know.
Well, I best be off. You know me, things to see, people to do.... |
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| Houston |
[Jun. 12th, 2006|04:04 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Houston, TX | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | In Or Out--Ani Difranco | ] |
SO. Here I am in Houston. It seems a bit anticlimactic that of all places to be, I'd be here. Granted, it's only for a couple days, but, you know how that goes. As always, we're trying to get three hundred million things done before we leave the country, so we're all stressed out and my mom and sister are getting hella bitchy.
On the bright side, I slept on a real bed for the first time since April 28th. :D Yay for ergonomical correctness.
In about 27 hours, I'll be on a plane "home". I might be there three fuckin weeks. Which would suck. A lot. But at least Thalia and Ian are there, so it's essentially all good.
Last night my sister and I went out to see the new Disney movie Cars. Tres entertaining, surprisingly enough. I know it's LAME but, you know...the short at the beginning made it all worth it.
I better go start packing. However, there's a caramel apple downstairs with MY name on it. So packing for a transatlantic flight might have to take a backseat to warm, caramelly buttery goodness. Yesssss indeed. |
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|
| A resolution |
[Jun. 8th, 2006|12:25 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | lazy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Fever--Peggy Lee | ] |
I have resolved to start using my LJ a little bit more. I think it's been awhile since I last wrote in here.
At this point, in my immediate sphere, there are a few things I know:
1. I'm moving to Austin until August 25. Loyola won't let me live on campus until July 27, and since I don't know how much longer my current living situation can last, I didn't have very much of a choice in the matter. So I'll be livin with Dan and Jamie and the kids, and hopefully rekindling some old friendships from high school, and hopefully remaining drama-free while I do it. I'll also be making and saving money for Katie's College Adventure, Year 2. Anyone know of places hiring in Austin?
HOWEVER, returning to my beloved Austin makes me a little...uneasy, for certain reasons that I don't really want to go into right now.
2. I'm planning a crazy-ass road trip for my birthday. And, if none of my Tejas buddies want to join me on an excursion back to NOLA, then I'll sure as hell be going by myself.
3. At the beginning of the summer, I made a goal to get better at poetry and submit something to some review somewhere by August. So far, it's going as planned. Or, at least, I THINK I'm getting better. That could be the ego I can't afford to have talking, though.
4. Yet again, I have a totally irrational crush on a straight girl. :/
5. I leave for Saudi in six days.
6. I bought new shoes today. They're bangin.
7. I REALLY need a cocktail.
That's pretty much what's happening. |
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