The New England Society for Tea Fetishism

I got my own office at work! Well, technically I share it with the work-study kids, but I'm in here alone right now.
I talked to Amy and Annie on Wednesday, hooray! I talked to to Amy for five minutes and then she fell asleep on the couch so I talked to Annie for a long time. It's so nice to talk to people who love me. Oh, and last night I got a call from Hood and I gave them ten bucks and the girl said "Wait a moment I have to have you confirm with my supervisor, and the supervisor was Miss Torrey Campbell. Guess what? There was a super-brawl over the spoon again (Coblentz won it). I think she said that they called the police. But a Memorial boy stole the spoon, so the boys are being treated well.

Last night I woke up a 2am to the sounds of a drunken Led Zeppelin sing-along coming through my walls. My boy neighbors like to drink. I tried to get mad, but it was just too funny listening to Randy singing the words to Whole Lotta Love. I didn't want it to stop.

Nicki, the RA, is moving two suites over to Montauk 223 because she is very unhappy living with Sonia after the whole yelling incident and the totally useless suite-meeting of a few weeks ago. But 223 is empty and she needs at least one person to come and live with her. I got a call from Robin, the RA supervisor, last night asking me if I would be willing to move. I want Nicky to be happy but I'm not moving all of my shit again. Moving sucks.

He's havin' some difficulty gettin' the salt

I read a travel journal on Slate about a guy's trip to Japan. He deliberately explored all the cliches, like Japanese courtesy, eating habits (he went to a restaurant that serves whale--just whale), and their obsession with ultra-cute animated characters. Oh yeah, and Japanese porn, both the animated and real-people versions. Apparently Japanese men have a thing for violent and demeaning pornography involving schoolgirls in uniform. Way freaky.

I heard she stuck a candle in her deal

I'm testing out a theory....
Despite the mist and the rain, we had our Harvest Festival, or "Harvestival" today. Outside. It was a lot of fun, but I was outside for 3.5 hour in the wet and cold, and now I'm kinda stuffed. I'm in the computer lab right now, and there's this kid sitting two computers down from me. Every time I cough or clear my throat, he goes "shhhh." I tried it three times. I'm not quite sure if he's doing it to me, or if he has some kind of disorder, because he made a couple noises before I coughed. Also, he has an itchy back. Anyway, it's kind of fun.
I did it again and he shushed. It's definitely a reaction to the throat clearing. I feel kind of bad, because now I'm almost positive it's like an OCD thing, because why would he be shushing my quiet throat thing and not these two incredibly annoying girls who are practically yelling a conversation at each other?

Still, I'm rather amused.

Have you ever been to AlterNet.org? Good stuff.

Mix, mix
Stir, stir
I married young
It's all a blur

I read an article in Slate the other day that really makes me wonder about the Catholic church. You all know about the AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. Well, whoever represents the church over there is telling people that HIV can pass through condoms. Apparently there is scientific proof of this, and the rest of the world is just denying or ignoring the facts. This information comes down from the Church, so it must be true. I guess that since they've shown how useless condoms are, people will just stop having sex. Instead, it's causing people to stop using condoms. This birth control dogma is way out of hand. Every sperm is sacred! Gotta save those non-existant babies! I hope they're doing as much as they can to help these children when they become sick and orphaned.

Guess what's on the radio?
**Amy, what you wanna do? I think I could stay with you, for a while maybe longer, if I do**
tee hee

Just got feet, don't got shoes.

I bet no one will read this within the next 90 minutes, but I have to post that on USA tonight they're showing the "DC Sniper Story." God help me, the computer lab closes at 8pm, and I will be forced to go back to my room and watch it. I bet they won't show footage of silly college students doing the "bob-and-weave" in the A.C. Moore parking lot.

It's amazing what a couple days and a lot of repression can do for a body. But then again, I've always had a talent for repression. Things are a lot better. As long as there are no more yelling matches, I think I'll be fine. You know what my big problem is here? There's no one to hug. So, Amy and Annie, watch out when you come to visit. I'm going to crush you like an anaconda.
In other news, it was told to my suitemate Nicky that Craig, (Mr. Hemmingway himself) said of her, "she hates me now, but she'll want to date me by the end of the year." Nicky has admitted that Craig is an attractive guy, but that all ends when he opens his mouth. Wow, pompousity in it's raw form. I haven't seen that in quite some time.

Bliggety bloggety bloo
As Amy will attest, the meeting went horribly and only served to make a larger mess out of what was already a bad situation. I did not take my own advice and said some things that were most certainly taken the wrong way. And I wonder to myself, What is it about me that makes this such a bad situation for me? Am I that concerned with having other people like me, even if I think that they are not good people? Why can't I just throw off the tension and not worry about passing her in the bathroom or on the stairs or on the way out of the suite? I'm really envying the Zen Buddhists right about now. I am everything, therefore I am nothing, and therefore I am her, and therefore she is nothing. **shoo fly, don't bother me** Ramble much, Sarah? Anyway, if I can't take it, I'll just move out. I will live with undergrads and I will like it. At least they won't be able to take the whole "I'm thirty and you're so uptight and childish about everything" tactic with me.

Please, Grand Mastah A, stop with this, "Don't eat it if it's yucky" bullshit. The banana bread is tasty. Exhibit a.) It's already half gone. Exhibit b.) I haven't shared it with anyone. Exhibit c.) well, there are no more exhibits, but I felt like adding one more.
We're having a suite meeting tomorrow at 5:15 which has been called by Robin, the head RA in the Montauk complex, or whatever she is. I really don't want to go. I can't imagine that anything I say will be interpreted in the way that I mean it, in other words, not as a personal attack on crazy yelling suitemate. What she said does involve me and Tracy, but I wish that the meeting was just between her and Nicky. I'll tell you guys all about it.
See what you're missing by not being a resident at a grad school of your very own?

Sing with me! *I got ba-naaay-na bread, It's really yuuuuuhmmy*
Ooh, actual food with substance, (i.e. not granola bars or trail mix) and it's in my room, and it's so moist and delicious. It totally kicks the puny ass of Sodexho dessert. You remember how dessert was the best thing going at Hood? Not so at Southampton College.
Today I went and begged for prizes for the P.A.G.A.N.S. Club. We're sponsoring a pumpkin carving contest for the harvest festival, or "Harvestival" as one of the RAs has named it. She's a really sweet and wonderful person, but not too good with the naming. Business owners in Southampton are very nice. We got a pumpkin candle holder and three gift certificates handed to us, and we're pretty much promised two more if we just go back and get them. Yay for us! Oh, and PAGANS stands for People (something) God/ess And New-age Stuff. I can't remeber the first A. Apparently the Pagans are also New York's answer to the Hell's Angels. I did not know that.

Last night one of my suitemates totally went batshit on my RA suitemate, Nicky. And now she might be moving out. I can't say that I'm sorry she'll be leaving. I was majorly traumatized last night listening to her yell at Nicky for like 20 minutes. Apparently she thinks that we're all out to get her. After she was done I think I cried for an hour. Yelling affects me in really bad ways, even when it's not directed at me, although last night it partially was. And I felt miserable which made me miss my Hood peeps a really really lot which made me cry more. So hopefully she'll be moving to a different part of campus soon, and she can get some help because she sounds like she has some issues that need working out.

I saw a headline on the Netscape homepage about a nuclear power plant having a leak in its coolant system. Even before I clicked on it I knew which power plant it was. Yep, good old Seabrook, NH. Maybe next summer we can take a trip to Hampton Beach and catch some three-eyed fish.

I didn't think it was possible, but the showers here are actually smaller than those in Memorial. And at Hood I always shaved while sitting on the edge of the tub. So last night I was bent over double in the shower with the shower head tilted toward the curtain and my butt pressed up against ice cold tile (because we have no heat yet) when my hand slipped a little and I took a half-inch long strip of skin off of my ankle. I think I bled for about 30 minutes.

In better news, I have been offered a ride to Cambridge for Thanksgiving break. My first thought was to have my mom meet me near the junction of 90 and 128 at a McDonald's or something. Annie and Amy, you know why I scrapped that. Now I figure I can just go all the way to Cambridge, get on the red line inbound at Alewife and take the orange line to North Station. The commuter rail goes right into Salem. Or I can go red to blue and have my mom meet me at Wonderland although I do feel some trepidation about taking the blue line by myself. Crazy people abound. And smelly Italian men with chest hair and lots of gold chains who go to the doggie races.

The California recall election is on Tuesday. I can't wait for the numbers to come back from that. I'm hoping that it's a Total Recall election. Yes, for reasons unknown even to me, I want Arnold Schwarzenegger to be the next governor of California. How fucking awesome would that be? I just have this feeling that if he's elected some mystical door will open up and everything that's possible in every universe will suddenly come true. Like "Schwarzenegger's governor? Chyah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt!" And monkeys would actually fly out of your butt, because the natural order of everything will have been completely altered forever. Or maybe it'll just be the set-up to enact the lyrics of the Tool song, "Aenima." Anyhow, The Daily Show is covering it, so whatever happens I'll be entertained.

I'm getting comfortable at my job. I can joke around with my bosses and the work-study students. It's a good, stress-free environment. The one problem: Easy listening. Shania, Celine, Whitney, various unidentifiable male crooners. Bad eighties music, and not bad in a good way, like "The Safety Dance," but bad in a bad way, like Simply Red. The only thing worse is the new music. Every time I hear the new Phil Collins song I think, "there's so much evil in the world." (and ten points to Kirsten if she can tell me the KitH skit that line is from) Right now the love theme from Mannequin is playing--you know, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," fearuring Grace "Starship" Slick. eeep. I'll have to cleanse my brain with Radiohead or Ani when I get home.

Okay. I'm gonna have to stop with the Assface thing. 1) Because I feel kinda guilty and don't really wanna be that person at this time in my life and 2) outside of the whole "battle of the writing styles" thing, he's actually been very nice to me. So, he shall henceforth be known as Craig. I will probably still blog about the wacky things he says in class, like that he enjoys books he can't understand and reads Ulysees over and over again, but the Assface thing is gone. Anyway, it's a Buffy reference and I probably shouldn't use it in such a demeaning way.

Annie knows this already. I got up at 6:30 the other morning (and if you don't know why, you don't know me) and while I was washing my hands I noticed that the window was looking quite pink so I opened it and got a lovely view of the sunrise. Great views all around here. I could sit on the grass and look at clouds all day, but there is work to be done and credits to be earned.

The ocean is like twenty different colors over the course of the day. In the morning it's like gun-metal and then it lightens up toward the afternoon and gets all sparkly. Sometimes it's almost white. I love it.

Oh, and to add to the similarities between Southampton and Hood--there's a Peace Pole here, although sans braille and sign language.