So after I doused my phone with water this morning, ten minutes ago it stopped malfunctioning long enough for me to get all the contact numbers and take a 20-second call from my mom. Then I threw it against the wall twice and put the remains in the trash.

That's how it's done.

...ordering clothes online!

No more cloooothes. I have more than enough. It's a sort of compulsive thing...now that I have money, I feel like now is the time to spend it. I was pretty frugal all summer and now I have to make up for it. But at least the clothes I'm getting are different and most of them are vintage. Aaaah e-bay...it's both economically sound and better for the environment. I completely endorse e-bay shopping over real-life shopping. Anyway...good band I've recently been listening to is The Virgins. You all out there should download "She's Expensive", or another song by them. Or go buy the whole CD, if you're feeling craaazy and want to spend money just to get the official artwork and all.

I'm in this conference right now, supposed to be in charge of fixing anything that goes wrong. It's a fairly big auditorium and the guy in front looks like Hugh Hefner. Apparently he's only 65 (he actually mentioned this). The audience is full of principals from every school in NJ. It's overly air-conditioned and I'm really cold! One more hour left (or less) and I can call it a day.

I like this job a lot. It's great to be able to see people from school, and to be close to NYC. Blah blah blah.

I feel I should mention that my tuition this year has ballooned to 30,000. For Drew. I know the topic of ridiculous college tuition is not a new one, but I've never had to pay that much and I feel supremely taken advantage of. Most of the increase is due to the Pell Grant that my mom isn't getting because she made "too much" money last year. She got an hourly raise to a dollar more than what she was making before. That's literally all that was changed to her financial situation. Also, I made a couple thousand dollars from my summer job. So now we're not recognized as all that needy, the grant was dropped and it's as if the money I made from last summer is being taken back from my parents. Okay. It's only money.

YEAH, RIGHT. I wish I thought like that. I'm not a money freak and I don't really mind if my future job doesn't get me rich, but this situation makes me want to go into every giant store in America and wantonly steal things. I am so done overpaying for shit. And I don't want my mom to pay for anything for me anymore. I hate being a vacuum. Because of me, every month hundreds of dollars is sucked out from her bank account and I am tired of it. Maybe she doesn't "mind", but I sure as hell do.

And in case anyone is unclear, Drew University isn't worth $30,000. It's not worth $15,000. Three of four thousand would be about right (or less)--but then the school wouldn't be able to squander away millions of student dollars by taking the school in a "new direction" so it can compete in the "liberal arts marketplace." As far as I know, nobody wanted these changes but the new president, who everyone hates. All my friends hate him, the newspaper staff hates him, and now I definitely hate him and everyone associated with the money expenditures and the awful decisions made in the name of this school.

What a terrible atmosphere to be a part of during my senior year. In short (uuhh), I'd better make thousands from this job (3-4 would be fine) to soften the blow and so I can be more or less entirely (makes sense to me) self-sufficient.

My friend Dave showed this to me the other day:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wl6YIRBfvjg

Gotta love Kenan.

Free Stuff (Non-Edible) I've Gotten During My First Week At Princeton:

2 polos (come with the job)
2 t-shits (also come with the job)
laptop cleaning tool
NMC t-shirt
NMC tote
NMC notepad, pen and pencil
stress ball
cassette and lighter adapters for the car
2 blank discs (1 DVD, 1 CD)
headphones
a demo of Sibelius "music-making" software, which I might give to my composer brother

I forgot what NMC stands for, but the first word is "national", the third is "conference" and the "M" has something to do with teaching technology.

If I had a Mac, I also would've picked up a free copy of "Aperture" at Day 1 of NMC, the most valuable item (at $200 retail) and presumably coolest. I helped give those away and the conference-goers were very happy.

Also I should mention that I'm no longer working for the Sports Camps division, but for Conference and Events Services (like I applied for)! And it's way better.

Song of the week is "Freeway" by Aimee Mann. Yeah, you remember Aimee Mann. She did the Magnolia soundtrack, among other things.

I've been downloading all the torrents of Sex and the City. I'm halfway through season 5, which is a lot heavier than the other seasons. You start to feel bad for the characters instead of envying them. Kind of like seasons 5-7 of Buffy. But it's still a great diversion.

My room at the condo is shaping up but it's still a mess and I don't know if it ever will be like I want it to. I'm so sick of every day not having something I need in its right place, of making tons of to-do lists for whatever it is I don't have or still need to fix, of endlessly dividing my stuff between two places but not feeling organized in either one. Also I'm gettin' real tired of driving back and forth from Saratoga to fucking Ballston Spa every day.

I guess it's a good thing I'm only here for another week.

Also I should note that I'm going to Lake Placid tomorrow with my mom for a weekend of birthday pampering. So don't feel too bad for me yet.

Song of the week is "Ghost" by Voxtrot. Good band.

I should stop separating my life into countdowns. I do that too much. Summer's been alright so far, and Princeton might be fun. It's just that I've gotten used to a certain type of people at Drew (read: awkward) and I'm kind of afraid of the Sports Events Services strain of people that I'm going to be working with for two months. For one, it's a good bet that they will be really into sports--a recreation I've basically never involved myself in to any great extent. Until I got offered this job after applying to something similar.

But I can be sporty. Or I can pretend.

Song of the week is a tie between "Baby Boomerang" and "Phantom Limb", both by The Shins.

My finals were easy and I'm glad to get a break from Drew. It was weird saying goodbye to people, because a few of us were moving out at the same time, so I kept seeing the same people and didn't know when the last time would be, so I wasn't sure when to say a formal "have a good summer"-type of goodbye. Then some people I just bypassed completely. Oh well!

I finally have my own room in my dad's new condo and I am going to make it really attractive. Tomorrow we're going to get a gorgeous bed and I am fairly excited.

I still need to see Iron Man, which I mostly want to see because ever since I saw this little gem,

I've been really into Robert Downey Jr. The movie's silly but he is perfect in it.

Nobody cares about this but me. BUT. On my birthday, this is happening:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/may/07/radio.pressandpublishing

<3333333333333333

Song of the week is Wilco's "Shot In the Arm".

I'm not a huge live music person, but they sound exceptionally good without fancy studio equipment.

The song of the week is:

"Spring Break 1899", written and performed by Murder by Death.

I don't like the weekends much right now. Last weekend was so ridiculous, I was bored out of my mind. Sometimes I really hate this school, hooray.

On the bright side, that means this weekend will be (hopefully) be much, much better. The scales (of life, if you will) usually tend to come out even for me. It's a bit distressing but sometimes comforting.

Your official registration for 2008/FA is now:

ENGL*127*001   Credits: 2.00  Registered
ENGL*21A*001   Credits: 2.00  Registered
ENGL*21B*001   Credits: 2.00  Registered
FILM*18*001   Credits: 4.00  Registered
FREN*126*001   Credits: 4.00  Registered
FREN*186*001   Credits: 4.00  Registered

Total credits (excluding wait list): 18

The song this week that I am obsessed with, in case anybody cares, is "Long Time Running" by The Tragically Hip. I wish I had the technological know-how to post the mp3 on here.

I went to Stop and Shop today and every food product that I bought, I consumed within about 12 hours. This includes an entire bag of $1 (and pretty low-qual.)  gummy bears. No more grocery shopping for me, as I have no restraint.

OH did I mention that I am one of 3 very important people in charge of this year's school election? Being astounded by my importance is normal. Just treat me like a regular person, though, ok? I don't want any special favors.

I haven't posted in a while. It's pretty late on a Wednesday and I'm not going to either of my classes tomorrow. HOWEVER I am planning on working a lot at the newspaper and I have a meeting with my adviser tomorrow. I hope he doesn't hate me for doing the English major requirements so out of order.
 
Umm...anyone have any suggestions for movies for me to download? Or good alternative/indie music?

Housing lottery numbers came out, and I got 88. Not bad at all--in fact, best so far! I think I've progressively gotten better numbers as the years have gone on. Nobody knows where they want to live, and it's the familiar confusion of last year. It's fun to see where people end up even if it seems a bit stressful at times.

What else...still doing SGA, still doing MRC stuff, working more on the Acorn. Waiting patiently for nicer weather.

This morning I stumbled upon an interesting blog (http://bandwagn.com/). Its goal was to post a new song for every day, which I thought was admirable. Well the guy definitely didn't post a song for each day and in October seemed to have stopped bothering entirely, which is too bad because a lot of the stuff is really good. Anyway, I spent a good part of the afternoon downloading everything he suggested. Ah, the joys of spring break...I just couldn't do this type of thing at school. Too many distractions.

Speaking of distractions, apparently Drew has two dances during the next two weekends after spring break, LOL. One is a "Spring Fling" and the other is Junior/Senior. The Spring Fling is brand new ..supposed to be like Holiday Ball (which I wasn't around for), only without the "holiday" part! So I'm excited, even though I hadn't heard about this until yesterday, despite my ubiquitous involvement in school affairs. Kudos to everyone involved for the excellent planning and promotion.

"insert meme rules here"

1. What 2-3 characters from literature/theatre/film/music/etc do you most relate to? Why?

yikes, I don't know. I relate a whole lot to certain songs, but not really the people who create them. Not sure about those other categories either!

2. What was the best thing that happened in Europe last semester? The worst?

Best--the concerts/random weird nights with Clea (and sometimes John!). One of my favorite nights also was going to see a this comedy show with a few other people that turned out to be really funny and fun. Also seeing Steve Merchant on the street (not by accident). The worst would be...? I dunno, I had a lot of middling-moments, like "yeah I'm in London but what am I doing that's so great?" So, I would say "too many of those" as being the worst. I didn't have any actual bad times, though.

3. What is one artist that more people should listen to, because they're really good and accessible, but don't?

Pulp! Their songs are over a decade old by now, but so many of them are so, so good and a lot of people (mainly from countries that aren't England) have never even heard of them.

4. You can have any job you want, or work for any organization you want, without having to worry about work experience, education, any other qualifications, or how much money you might earn. What do you chose?

Probably an assistant to a movie director, or part of a camera crew on a good TV show. No sitcoms.

5. In your own words, how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Please answer in 15 words or less, and make one of the words "Appletini".

15 2-lb pieces of wood per hour. I want an appletini.

I'm going to pretend that Jesse's most recent post was a meme, and that he tagged me. I really don't want to do my homeworks.

Top 25 Most Played Songs on Meg's iTunes (Since September 2005)

  1) "Babies" by Pulp--145
  2) "I Don't Feel Like Dancin' " by Scissor Sisters--108
  3) "Use It" by The New Pornographers--87
  4) "She's My Man" by Scissor Sisters--70
  5) "Do You Remember the First Time" by Pulp--66
  6) "Stuck Between Stations" by The Hold Steady--55
  7) "Town Called Malice" by The Jam--55
  8) "Sing Me Spanish Techno" by The New Pornographers--55
  9) "Grace Kelly" by Mika--53
10) "I Love You" by Under the Influence of Giants--51
11) "Like a Friend" by Pulp--50
12) "Fireworks" by The Tragically Hip--46
13) "I Can't Decide" by Scissor Sisters--45
14) "Maybe, This Time" by OK Go--43
15) "All the Old Showstoppers" by The New Pornographers--42
16) "Mama's Room" by Under the Influence of Giants--42
17) "Myriad Harbour" by The New Pornographers--41
18) "The Bones of An Idol" by The New Pornographers--41
19) "The Bleeding Heart Show" by The New Pornographers--41
20) "The Spirit of Giving" by The New Pornographers--40
21) "Song 6" by Daniel Powter--39 (this is embarrassing)
22) "Might Tell You Tonight" by Scissor Sisters--39
23) "The Ghost of Genova Heights" by Stars--39
24) "Oh Lately It's So Quiet" by OK Go--38
25) "Sentimental Guy" by Ben Folds--37

I don't listen some of these songs much anymore and the stuff I do listen to is much more varied, so there's less of a chance that newer bands will break into the top 25 anytime soon. That being said, The New Pornographers is still the best band in existence.

Also, I definitely got that summer job at Princeton. Whoooo wants to come visit me? You might get to meet the real-life equivalent of House if you stopped by the Princeton Medical Center*. Also there's a really big mall nearby.

*may not exist

I've started to keep a food diary on Microsoft Word. We'll see how long this lasts. I thought I would post the first couple of entries on here in order to appropriately show how ridiculous I've become.

FOOD DIARY!!!

 

Ok so….MONDAY (2-25) I ATE:

 

7ish gummi bears

An apple

A banana

Cappuccino

Mountain Dew

A tootsie pop

Some sprite

 

Resolution for Tuesday: eat NO candy. Just cereal with perhaps a banana and a cappuccino w/ juice or soda.

 

TUESDAY (2-26)

 

OK. I didn’t do well…the Popcorn Factory thing came and I couldn’t/didn’t help it. Here goes:

 

1 bag ranch popcorn

1 bag cheese popcorn

½ bag of rainbow yogurt pretzels

¾ bag of chocolate drizzled caramel popcorn

A cookie

About 6 sour sugar gummies

A few gummy bears

 

HAHAH that’s pathetic. No wonder I feel like sh*t! OK…well. I didn’t eat any other food…like half a bowl of rice crispies with a banana. And of course,

 

Cappuccino

Apple juice.

 

That sucked. New Plan?

 

GYM WEDNESDAY and FRIDAY. And fuck it, SATURDAY TOO!

 

Wed—sushi. I have to. Wednesday is sushi day, I have deemed it so. After sushi I’ll stop by the UC again after work and get coffee.

Thursday—cappuccino and cereal at commons. Should be rice crispies with banana.

Friday—same. Doesn’t NEED to be rice crispies, but shouldn’t be sugary. Bleh, no more sugar, please, for the love of god.

DON’T TOUCH THAT CANDY UNTIL SUNDAY. NO CANDY UNTIL SUNDAY. NO CANDY UNTIL SUNDAY. NO MOTHERFUCKING CANDY UNTIL SUNDAY.

--------------end journal-within-a-journal-----------------------

Other news...I joined the Living Council! I'm VP. Also I may have gotten an internship at Princeton over the summer. They e-mailed me a stunning 6 weeks after my phone interview, so I'm not sure what's going on...if there's been a mistake or something. I hope there hasn't, because I really need something to do this summer that isn't in Saratoga!

I seriously feel crappy. Sugar is the devil! I was going to say the "devil's food", but the devil already has a food and apparently it's chocolate cake???? GAAAH I need to stop, I apologize for this entire post.

I joined the Student Government Association last week, and our student newspaper this week. So now I'm a senator and a copy editor for my school! This is good because I am starting to get bored with life. Even though I'm taking 5 classes, I still end up with a good amount of dead time, mainly because I don't see a lot of the same people I used to. A few weeks ago I was all about re-establishing connections with people, but I can't be the one doing all the work--and that's how it would be for a couple people who, for now, I'm just going to give up on.

I really hate driving in New Jersey. Fuck all of you New Jerseyan drivers who suck. Yeah, you know who you are/what I'm talking about/karma is coming for you. God I hope I don't get into an accident.

Also...YAY for the writer's strike ending!