Currently From Chaos By 311 see related

4:26 PM. It's storming nearby, showering here. I'm at home, on my back porch (more properly stated, at my home, which is the back porch, lately), enabled to do this by my laptop, one of the few extravagances I have left. Wearing what I woke up in; last night's lipstick still smudged on, dry. Rifling through a pack of 100s someone bought me, drinking cooled green tea. It's a green tea kind of day, and that means it's a thoughtful day; not an agonizingly thoughtful day, just a day to muse. And those days make the best blogging days, I find.

On a communicatory note ("Communicatory" --there's some descriptivism for you there), I have a new AIM. If you're my friend, my acquaintance, my future college classmate, or just one of the many Footprints on my site that I never get to know, feel free to shoot me a message. I like talking to and getting to know new people, especially if it gives me new things to write about on my Xanga (And yes, I'm aware, AIM is kind of middle-school, but I still use it to talk to people, along with Skype, Facebook, e-mail and text).

SN = et al et cetera

(The sun's out now. I wish it had stayed gray, or I hope the gray returns. Sunshine feels a little contrived at the moment.)

(Who did this cover art? It's cool. I'm aware that I'm asking a rhetorical question that I'm too lazy to look up in another Tab right now. )

I'm sure it would be displeasing to the company Audible (..if there was any one individual at this company aware enough to be displeased about this) to hear a new "customer" publicly tout that they've used Audible's 14-day Free Trial in order to obtain an Audiobook, with full intention of canceling that trial after the Audiobook has been finished and enjoyed.

But, eh. I'm poor (more accurately, broke). I did the same with Ancestry.com a month ago. If they offer it, I am free to indulge, and if they allow me to cancel with a claim of dissatisfaction, I may cancel (my dissatisfaction related to the fact that I will be asked to provide monetary compensation for books. Good books are art; art, in my opinion, is a metaphysical universal resource meant to be shared freely and not sold as a commodity. It can be argued that I am really just being cheap). And when the ad for Audible's trial appeared on my Facebook page, David Sedaris's new(ish) novel was depicted. I might not have taken the time to click on the ad, otherwise.

You see, I've read Naked, I've listened to a ton of Sedaris on audio in the car, and I've seen him live at the Blumenthal. I can't say he's as much of an intellectual turn-on as he has been for me; as my English teacher aptly described, Sedaris's crutch is irony and sarcasm. And though most humor today is based on these elements.. when you realize that this is essentially all you're laughing at, it feels a little... base. Uncreative. However, I had not completely dropped Sedaris, and I have been Limewiring his readings recently, with no luck. His new book looked interesting; so I got it on audio.

I've listened to 3 chapters, about 45 minutes of it thus far. And it's about what I expected, but a little better, I'd say, actually. The humor is right on track with what one can expect from Sedaris; the dry voice that describes in tragic anti-humor a well-scripted exagguration of childhood stories. However, that sounds like a scathing/condescending description, and it's not meant to be. This is what Sedaris does well. His new stories are funny; I enjoyed sitting out here and hearing them earlier today. His imitation of a horrific elderly nanny is actually pretty damn tickling.

There's nothing like Sedaris live/recorded. He's one of the few authors I'd rather hear than read.

(I don't hate all pictures of myself. However, this is not a favorite. I spent a long time on my curly ponytail on this evening, and yet my bangs decided to smush to my head. So my head isn't really flat, I promise.) Me and my friend Kel at the Calvar wedding. If you didn't read last post, Mr. Calvar is the Chamber Choir and AP Music Theory teacher at my (former..) high school. I do hope he enjoyed the card I made; I also ended up burning him a mix, which I hope he doesn't find trite, seeing as he is a quality musician and instructor, haha. I mean, I hugely appreciate classical music. But my CD for him, titled "Less Common Lve Songs," (though I did footnote that some of the songs were, uh, kind of common), was a contemporary romantic mix. Some cheerful songs, some slow dance songs, all kind of from my music taste (I mean, I couldn't go completely experimental. For most people, you don't put Animal Collective on a wedding album.)

The Calvar Wedding Mix CD:

My Love (Lykke Li)

White Flag (Dido)

Yellow [Coldplay Cover] (Jem)

Samson (Regina Spektor)

Michelle (The Beatles)

The Show (Lenka)

True Love Will Find You In The End (Wilco)

Up and Away (Dave Matthews)

Such Great Heights (Iron and Wine)

Raw Sugar (Metric)

Sea of Love (Cat Power)

Lisdexamphetamine* (Zack Polozune: my boyfriend. This is not a love song; it's his latest composition. I'm pretty sure Calvar's already heard it, but he may not have it on CD, and I figured it'd sort of be like a tribute-by-proxy from one of his composition students.)

The lovely couple, strolling onto the dance floor.

..I've been assigned my dorm: Gramley. I didn't have a strong preference, but I'm glad I got this one, because the beds are loftable. I also have a lot of friends on my hall.  A lot of my friends are in Babcock, though, so I'll definitely be crashing the other dorm a lot of the time. I'm hoping next year is the Honors Dorm, though. I don't know if it's any nicer, but I'll bet it's less crowded-- and we get to choose our own visitation hours.

Getting organized for college, like planning for any big move, is tricky. I have a four-tab  Spreadsheet (Bathroom, Bed, Desk, and Miscellaneous) for shopping/packing, and I feel like I've taken care to really think of most everything. But I'm SURE I'm missing things, big things. I really need more clothes; I didn't bring enough when I moved out. I need a digital camera, a nice digital SLR, desperately. And Waffle House still. hasn't. called. I don't know what to do. I have no money. I have just enough to cover this month's phone bill. That's it. And I need to be getting stuff for our room, my roommate Grace's and my dorm: an area rug, a lamp or two, ..I don't know, stuff for the walls? We need curtains. I feel like a terrible, cheap roommate.

The UO curtains I WISH I could buy .

I just tried to apply to Wal-Mart online. Their stupid online application is full of glitches. I'm going to have to drive to Mooresville and do it. I absolutely hate this.

On the flip side, my friend Tyler is enjoying a trip to Chicago as we speak. He's told me he loves the city, the people, etc. (I adore Chicago. If you scroll way back in my blog, I'll bet there's a post from when I went last August.) I was AIMing his cellphone, and we had the exchange seen below:

erwuxvcm (5:10:17 PM): It's really stuffy. Question: are places unique for anything other than the atmosphere's they create? As I walk through the city, I'm thinking about that

..What makes a "place?" Isn't it a completely relative term? Who defines where the "place" ends? First, on a basic level, if I say, "I love living in this place," I could be referring to a house, street, neighborhood, town, city, county, country, or maybe something that falls between those divisions. And what defines a location? As I'm re-reading our conversation excerpt, I'm not sure I really understand what he means by his second line there. (I just texted him to ask for elaboration.) Oh, gross, I just ashed on my speaker. I hate that.

I want to discuss this more, but I feel like I need him to further direct that discussion; it's kind of vague and I want to know what you mean, Tyler, by "atmosphere." My first thought was that the people in a location help determine what the location becomes, but I suppose that could be considered part of the.. atmosphere? What is atmosphere? This feels like it's going to become a chicken-egg dilemma (Is anything about a place inherent, or is it completely dependent on artificial factors?).

He's currently busy, and he says he wrote these thoughts down, and will get back to me tonight. Until then, the question remains open for thought.

This summarizes the nature of the Zack/Avery relationship.

I did get out for a sleepover with some of my girlfriends. We went to California Pizza Kitchen and Chick-fil-A for dessert, and we did  with Zack (he's still at  for Orientation/Registration. My friend Karen, whose house we stayed at, left today at 11 for hers, also at ECU), went for a 1 AM walk, then watched The Lion King online until we fell asleep on the guest bed. Heh. It was a nice break from routine.