11.30.2003

lee hills hall is going down the drain
There is a toilet in the third floor women's bathroom that will not stop flushing. Once again I must express my great dislike for automatic flushing toilets.

what about guns in missouri?
I saw a van the other day that had the following written on the side windows:

END THE VIOLENCE. STOP THE SALE OF LIQUOR, DRUGS AND ILL. GUNS.

It made me wonder what made Illinois guns so much worse than those of other states. Or, maybe armed Illinoisans (is that the right word?) are just exceptionally dangerous.

11.28.2003

other things i forgot
Thursday (a.k.a. Thanksgiving) was my sister's 19th birthday. In my effort to treat all family members the same (see Oct. 28), I take this opportunity to encourage you to e-mail her with your belated well-wishes: drummerbee[at]yahoo[dot]com.
sad
I had scanned many of my pictures from my trips abroad on another disc and I seem to have lost it. Bugger. Some of my best pictures came from Paris.
i made it through a week without guster
And now I sit in an empty Alpha Chi house, listening to "Come Downstairs and Say Hello." Having forgotten the disc in Columbia, I think this is the longest I've gone since July without the CD that has become the soundtrack to my semester. (I think there might be a dangling participle in there, but I don't feel like fixing it.) There's something about the peace of sitting in an unusually quiet sorority house that makes me loathe to call and find out if there are any other college students out in Columbia on a Friday night over break. I know some might chastise me for holing up in my room for the night, but I want to take advantage of this rarity and revel in the silence.

why i love going home
-The 5+ loads of laundry done for free!
-Doing crossword puzzles with my dad
-Sleeping in
-Feeling like a celebrity when I show up at church
-Hours in front of the t.v. - watching much football, several movies, CNN and catching some quality Cosby, Friends, and Simpsons reruns
-Orange sourdough pancakes after Thanksgiving Day. ooooh, yum!
-New contacts from the eye doctor. Finally, ones I can actually see out of!

what i could do without when going home
-#1- Our Stone Age computer and dial-up Internet connection.
-The fact that my bedroom above the garage is an icebox
-Dentist appointments
-The lack of new Ed, West Wing and Friends episodes when I actually have time to watch them
-The question: "So, do you know what you're doing after graduation?" No, I don't and please don't remind me.
-The singed hole in my pants, a result of the lit match that fell in my lap when trying to start a fire in our wood-burning stove. I didn't realize my own strength; when I lit the match it snapped in two and the fire landed on my leg. My favorite sweats are scarred forever.

signs that the little apple is evolving into a metropolis like its namesake
-We got a Target this fall
-We're upgrading the current Wal*Mart to become a Super Wal*Mart
-We've knocked down the unsightly pipe and steel buildings that great visitors on Tuttle Creek Blvd
-We got a Jimmy Johns, a Buffalo Wild Wings and a Chipotle all within the past year or so

more pics
As promised, more pictures from London

the worldwide war protest, the London contingent
PACE (pronounced "pah-chay") means peace in Italian
My thoughts, exactly well, the flag anyway, although that lady's confused face echoes my thoughts as well
The looooooooong line this protest was the largest ever. this line stretched for miles
The entry to Hyde Park the protestors gathered in Hyde Park where there were speeches and a concert. I was only there as people were arriving but even then, there was much of a carnival air about it all.
Voicing opinions i found the various chants, cheers and songs that people created for the protest interesting. As with the signs, some were derisive toward the U.S., Bush, and/or Blair. Some were downright hi-larious

warwick castle
Darwin and...Darwin? Our head professor, Jim Bogan looks a little waxy himself in the wax museum in the castle.
Princess Di So real it was freaky
Winston the roommates, Ell, me, MP and Meg with our buddy
The flat two boys Seth, Micha, Brandon, Jon, Matt and Justin in the stocks outside the castle
Micha the castle was a bit of a maze...it's amazing Micha got out safely.
Boys will be boys

beatles walking tour
At Abbey Road
Sarah and me
The cover shot Sarah, me, Emily and Sarah recreate the classic cover
Yeah, I'm a dork
The "Bea'le Brain of Bri'ain" Sarah and I with Richard, our guide, who came highly recommended by Luke

other places
Stonehenge
Outside Shakespeare's birthplace Meg, MP, Dave and I experienced the Bard's glory at the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance of The Taming of the Shrew that night in Startford-Upon-Avon
Canterbury Cathedral Russ, Dave, Ellen, Sarah and Megan. We thought the bell tower in the background looked familiar, much like a tower we have on campus
The Great Hall of Harry Potter fame is actually the dinning hall of Christ Church College at Oxford.

11.24.2003

below: pictures!

first, a quick re-cap of the weekend
It was two days full of K-State athletics. I came home to the Little Apple Friday night and went straight to the women's basketball game, immediately followed by the men's basketball game. Things that are funny: about a thrid of the packed colliseum left after the women's game. They knew they'd seen the best game for the night and didn't stick around to see the men play. Take that, battle of the sexes.

Saturday, Maureen showed up at my house at 1:30 and we headed to the packed Ahern Fieldhouse for the women's volleyball game. Braving the cold, Maureen, Ally and I trekked to the football game. Maureen only had to brave the cold until she got to the press box. Ally and I braved the cold the entire game. If you didn't already know the outcome of the game, here it is:
my team won.
my other team lost.
Yes, I wore both colors: K-State t-shirt, Mizzou sweatshirt; both were covered by my neutral blue parka.

After the game, Maureen, Tom and I attempted to hit up Aggieville but the weather got nasty and we didn't stay out too late. We met up with Angela and her friend Lane. They were looking to a place to stay the night and I figured that since Hotel Brooks was already renting out rooms, why not have a couple more guests. Besides, my mom would be excited to have a couple of fellow Pi Phis in the house; she's overrun with Alpha Chis now that Ally's one, too.

So, that was the weekend. Fun times. I think I saw more Mizzou friends in town than my Manhattan friends. Most of my friends from home don't get off from school until Wednesday. Ha ha.

so i lied.
I don't have pictures. I have links to pictures. Yeah, I know they're about seven months late, but I finally had time to put together some of my London photos. Without a digital camera, they're a pain to scan and upload. You should feel lucky you get to see them at all. Maybe someday I'll find the time to learn how to put all the pictures on one website and have captions. Woah. For now, your mouse finger can get some excersise. Enjoy!

around London
Big Ben at day
Big Ben at dusk
King's Reach Tower, home of IPC Media and the office where I worked at Wedding & Home
My view from work
Westminster Cathedral
Tower Bridge (not London Bridge, for which it often is mistaken. London Bridge is now in Lake Havaseaud, AZ.)
Hugh Grant at the London premiere of Two Weeks Notice
Sandra Bullock at the London premiere of Two Weeks Notice
our flat Megan, Ellen, Mary Pat, Sarah, Careth and I lived in flat one, the first floor with the light on in the bay windows.

flatmates
the six of us: Sarah, Careth, me, Megan, Ellen and Mary Pat
me and Ell at a Parisian cafe in Montmartre
Meg, Ell and MP
Meg and MP at a pizza stand in Covent Garden
Mary Pat creates our voice mail message in her fabulous British accent. It was so real that Ellen's mom didn't leave a message the first time she called because she thought she'd reached the wrong number
Sarah and me outside Earl's Court before the Paul McCartney concert.
Ell, MP and me ready for a night out in London. We didn't realize until on our way out the door that we were all wearing red pant, black tops. We broke some British hearts that night. ;)
Careth
Ell, Meg and me

friends
Ellen, Elizabeth, Sarah and I before we leave Chicago for Heathrow
Ellen, Elizabeth and me
Elizabeth and Megan in the Parisian cafe
Happy Valentine's Day from Daniel, Laine, Ell, Brandon and me
Meg and Brandon at flat one's hoppin' wine and cheese party
the end of the night the killer wine and cheese party.
me and Doug (who attends SMS but whose brother dated my pledge daughter, Lane. he lived in the basement flat. small world, eh?)

Greenwich
Laine, Emily, me and Chrissy on the boat to Greenwich
Jon and Brandon straddle each other and the Prime Meridian
I do the splits across the Prime Meridian. I hadn't done the splits since dancing in high school. A bit sore afterwards. (and yes, I know the creep taking the picture of me....that'd be Jon.)

more to come later

I've been writing this on my dad's computer at work because ours at home takes about 3 days to boot up, when it decides to actually do so. I wonder what the students think about my dad having a pretty, young college student spending quality time in his private office.

11.19.2003

i think a guy tried to pick me up at the artisan tonight
He came up to me with the line, "Hey, are you Molly from Stephens College?" When I let him know the sad truth, that I was not Molly, he pulled up a chair and asked what I was working on. He didn't get my real name or number. I'm such a tease.

speaking of molly...
My gracious cousin, Molly, is going to let me crash at her place - the Hah-vard dorm - when I visit Boston. Yeah, the smart genes run in the family.

get your fill of posts, j-dub?
Just trying to satisfy my hourly readers.
dude, settle down
According to my stats, some of you check my blog every other minute. Is my life all that exciting to you?

other stat info
Some of my favorite searches that have led to my blog:
-smelly pointe shoes
-s@r@h m@gill the ho
-where to buy a leotard columbia mo
-aberdeen steakhouse london
-p@t he@ly new york times
-pearl tampon pictures
-brighton bag erica
-stuloo
-c@rson d@ly phone

Also, besides Pat's blog, Luke's is the website that people use the most to link to mine. I find that interesting not only because he hasn't updated his since September, but also because he has admitted that he doesn't read my blog. That means one of YOU uses his link. And uses it a lot. Who are you? Maybe we can join forces and convince him to start posting again.
i think i aced my american foreign policy test
But that worries me. I thought I aced our last test and got an 83%. I guess we'll see.

11.13.2003

live from gannett
OK, not quite live, but maybe as J Dub would say, this report comes to you tape delayed from Gannett.

Dan and I represented the sarcastic, cynical, apathetic, yet wisened seniors in the back row of what was supposed to be the J-Scholars class representative election night. (We were the only two in the room not discussing the recent J200 lecture.) The night was not a waste as we gleaned fabulous info on what will be happening to and within the J-School over the next two and a half years. Read and weep: (you will cry, either because you are not hear to reap the benefits or because they are fowling up something cherished....cast your vote.)

Completed by fall semester 2006:
-Gutting the former Sociology building and creating within the old shell a four-story, glass building-within-a-building
-This will house the Reynolds Institute (think Poynter Institute, says Dean Brooks - not me, silly.)
-The Reynolds Institute will work to "connect the industry to education by adding a research element" and will house much of the school's graduate programs.
-The building will include an expanded journalism library, an auditorium, several seminar rooms, capabilities to broadcast CSPAN at all times and a coffee bar.
-It will also house the new convergence sequence.
-An underground walkway will connect Walter Williams to the Institute.
-This underground walkway will contain the facilities for all the online media the school does, meaning that the KOMU, Digmo and KBIA Web sites will all be produced from the basement of the Walter Williams-Reynolds Institute walkway. (taking digmo, et al out of their respective newsroom will definitely improve internal communication, won't it? yikes.)

other aspects of the plan:
-Adding another story on Neff Annex (the Neff Annex-squared).
-Definitely an updated press. They've already found a donor for a used press and think they might have found someone to donate money for a spankin' new one.
-Souping up the newsroom with a new frontline system. Whether this system will be PC- or Mac-based is yet to be determined. (The new building will be totally Mac, dude.)
-And - drum roll please - new computers for 214 Lee Hills Hall.

totally unrelated
I wondered this weekend who made the awful mistake of putting the "Gay Heat Wave" cover models in white on this month's cover of Vanity Fair. Of all people, the fashion-conscious gay community would know that wearing white is out of the question after Labor Day. Thank you to Details, for clarifying for me that this is ceasing to be a faux pas: "At the fall menswear shows, there was more bleached cloth on display than at a Klan really."

Things I've noticed about myself: I subscribe to more men's magazines than women's magazines. Is there something about myself that I haven't figured out? Also, when I shop, I measure my purchases in magazine subscriptions. (Is this $15 belt worth more to me than a subscription to Esquire?)

11.11.2003

check that one off the list
I just balanced my checkbook. This is significant because I haven't done so since London.

a semester smothered with estrogen
As the time comes to start looking for ideas for a date to our formal, I've realized that this semester more than any other is seriously lacking in the guy factor. It amazes me how few guys are magazine majors. My two j-classes (newspaper design and magazine editing) have a total of eight guys between the two of them. And Dan accounts for two of those eight. (Props to him for putting up with me every day in our classes.) Sociology of the Family has seven guys in the class of 70+. The only class with substantial male representation is my American Foreign Policies political science class. And most of the guys in that class turn me off because they think they're so smart and aren't afraid to spout off their opinion, no matter how off the mark or off subject it is. I hate asking guys out. I'm such a chicken.

help me out here, please
Do you know anyone who needs a place to live next semester? I need a roommate.

11.10.2003

london, actually
After initiation on Friday, a group of us girls went to see Love Actually. It was perfect for the place I am right now. I've been really missing London lately and my attempts to ease my "London-sickness" have failed. Seeing pictures of Big Ben, beefeaters and the Tower Bridge just don't do it for me. That wasn't the London that I spent everyday at. My London was the Earl's Court tube station, Blackfriars Bridge, Nandos, the IPC Media tower. Love Actually was my London. There were Walkers crisps, Ant and Dec, britpop group Blue and plenty of British pop culture humor. The best part however, was when the character, Mark, walked out of his flat, rounded the corner, and I knew exactly where he was: right outside King's Reach Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LS. They didn't show the shop, but directly out of view was EAT, the cafe where my editor treated me to a birthday lunch. He walked through the OXO Tower, out onto the South Bank and there was Blackfriars Bridge! (notice the picture: the tall building is Kings Reach Tower; I worked on the 27th floor. To the right is the OXO Tower above a bunch of shops. To the left is the hotel with a bar where the art director, assistant editor and I spent Valentine's Day afternoon drinking three bottles of wine.) sigh. It was a nice reminder that my London did exist and still does.

Now, was that enough links for you?

11.06.2003

already packing
I'm going to Boston. Although, if I were living in San Francisco, I could have bought a ticket to London for less. Or if I were in NY, I could go to Paris for even cheaper. Why do I have to live in a land-locked state, far from any good international flight deals?
what's up with the "district?
Two days ago, I saw a six-car police chase on Broadway. Yesterday, our house mom witnessed a bank robbery at Commerce Bank downtown.

it's cold
I broke out the pashmina today.

I miss London.

11.04.2003

interrupted from my late-night, last-minute study session...
...by the ATO pledges, streaking Greek Town. For ten minutes.

11.01.2003

-----
Yesterday morning I realized I didn't have a Halloween costume, didn't have money to buy a costume and didn't have time to create one. So based on what was clean in my closet (which is a lot since the weather keeps changing from hot to cold), I fixed myself a rockin' costume. In all black and a white strip of fabric with "CENSORED" pinned to my clothes, I was a censored bar. My pick-up line for the night: "If you lose your clothes, I can cover you with my body." Totally in character, I know. Maybe Sarah or Meh-gen can hook me up with some of their photos to link here. ;)