Before you begin reading this horribly long entry, I have one question: on tons of blogs, I noticed that tons of people do that “behind the jump” thing, where the front page of the blog just has a snippet and then when you click on the “jump,” it takes you to the rest of the entry.
How do you do this??! Being able to utilize such features would benefit everybody, I think. Because as the title of this entry says, I just don’t know how to shut up.
Except for two supplements, which I plan on submitting Monday or Tuesday (depending on when my analytical paper is ready to be uploaded), as well as one more transcript that needs to be sent out and a few scholarships I apparently have to apply for, I have officially done my part in the college application process. I have a few teachers to bother about recommendations, but that's no problem. (Although one of them isn't replying to my e-mails. Maybe they are going to his spam box — my main e-mail address is rather amusing but probably a bit sketchy — must e-mail him from my RED account.)
Now that it's all settled, I feel like informing everybody where I have applied. I've really known the final list since early September — when I added NYU — and I started my applications in July. My college essay? Written in July/August (although I put the finishing touches on it this month when we turned in college essays as an assignment to our english teacher — after two more rewrites, he totally gave me a 100%!). So I gotta say, I'm pretty set with all of this. I now present you with Amy's College List:
Tufts University
New York University
Juniata College
Hampshire College
Sarah Lawrence College
Wittenberg University
Kenyon College
Centre College
Transylvania University
University of Kentucky
Now, since I'm an incredibly paranoid person, I will not actually tell you my top choices on that list because, well, knowing my luck, an admissions officer will find their way onto this site and be like, "AHA! SHE HATES US!
REJECTED!" And, I mean, even if they aren't my number one choice, I must still feel
something for each of these schools, right?
Anyway.
For everybody applying to colleges this year: where are you applying? Maybe we'll end up going to school together, omgwtfbbq! Ahaha.
For everybody already in college: which school do you attend? Is your school on my list? If so, OMG TELL ME EVERYTHING. :B
Thanksgiving was scrumdiddlyumptious. Two of my cousins came to eat dinner with us this year, which was quite nice. As I've said before (I think — I'm too lazy to go back and actually make sure I've made such claims), I'm such a sucker for tradition, so actually getting family to celebrate Thanksgiving with us? Freaking fantastic! (Most of my family is rather far away, you see, so this is something that doesn't usually happen.)
Mmm, food. As you can sort of see (I've made the picture a bit small, but for good reason, as this post is too, too long), while the rest of my family put their beverages in wine glasses, I skipped that and stuck with the Sprite can. High-class, fo' realz. And those blue glowing eyes belong to Kiwi, my cousins' dogs. Do not fear.
And then for some dumb reason, my dad decided that he had to take a picture of me to post on this RED blog, for all my adoring fans to read. HA. But whatever. Here you go. One "excited" picture, and one that is more true-to-form when pointing a camera at me. Oh, and that's my sister sitting next to me in both pictures. Her expressions are more amusing than mine.
Then after dinner, we watched Rear Window on AMC, and the newest episode of Ugly Betty. I spent the entire episode explaining to Mark, one of my cousins, what was going on. He liked all the attractive people.
The day afterwards, I went shopping with my sister and two of her friends — and I gave in to my obsession-induced materialism and bought a scarf from Gap, one that is in the Spring Awakening ad (god, what is my issue here? I used the excuse, "WELL I MIGHT NOT EVER GET TO SEE IT SO I BETTER BUY WHAT THEY ARE ADVERTISING." Jeez, whoever is drugging me, could you please stop right now?). Then she went to work and the rest of my family and I went out to eat so that Mark could eat a Hot Brown (both of my cousins are recently transplanted from Massachusetts to Indiana, and I guess Mark's been on the lookout for traditional southern...
things. Yeah, um, I just ate a regular club sandwich, ahaha). Then we went to Joseph-Beth, where I showed everybody what shelf RED is on. I wish I had gotten a picture of such a scene: two twenty-something guys and my parents all down in the teen section, crouched over an essay anthology filled with essays written by teenage girls. Priceless. But no, when they started reading, I hastily made my way back upstairs to the fiction section — is anybody else this shy and weird, in that when somebody starts reading their essay they can
not be in the same room? I am just so terrible with those first few moments when they finish reading, especially when they aren't sure what to say and are trying to think of the best first sentence. Ack. It's just awkward. So no, I finally met back up with everybody when we were all ready to leave, and Mark first asked me about Saskia's essay, and then about mine. It was probably a little awkward, yeah. But I really need to get over this whole shy-thing. Sheesh, Amy.
Why isn't this stagehand strike over yet? I would very much like to inform my father that I don't care what he says, I'm going to go see Spring Awakening next month. But I kind of can't buy anything until I know if the strike will actually be over by then — they'll refund the play tickets no problem, but plane tickets? Most likely
not. Hmph. I hope that a negotiation meeting really is set for tomorrow, and that some sort of compromise is actually met,
because I need to get over this obsession stat and I kind of can't until I fulfill my cravings. And I'm sure you all really need me to shut up about Spring Awakening. Hey! I know! Everybody start sending e-mails and letters and stuff to everybody involved in the strike, telling them to get moving already because I'm annoying everybody and you want to shut me up by letting me see the show! Or better yet, get them to come down here and perform it in my living room. Mmm... yes. That's it.
Currently, I'm listening to Serge Gainsbourg, my favorite singer in basically the entire world. And because I'm sick (cold + asthma = gross) and bored, I've decided that I feel like posting a list of Amy's Essential French Tracks. Essential meaning Favorites. The same thing, I assure you. Now, I am by no means an french music extraordinaire — no, if that's what you want, then I can refer you to certain blogs, such as
Filles Sourires and
Dans Mon Café. No, I just discover this music as it comes along, whether it's wildly popular and well-known or not. It's all just so
fun. (And like, half of these would be Serge Gainsbourg if I was just making a list of every single favorite song of mine — but I'm going to exert some self-control and just list one. But hey, everybody should go and look him up on YouTube — there are so many videos of him over there, it's nuts. And fantastic.)
Also, a bit of a
warning: some of these videos may contain brief nudity, so watch out if you don’t like that stuff, or if your parents are watching and they don’t like that stuff. But, I mean, these are all European, so what do you expect? Haha. Specifically, watch out on Benjamin Biolay’s and Mylène Farmer’s videos (hers don’t have nudity, but she is rather scantily clad, and the
California video is basically about a prostitute, so whatever. Some people are freaked out by everything).
France Gall's Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son: This video and song officially introduced me to French music, during that fateful weekend when I was stuck home while my parents were up visiting my sister for family weekend. As is usually the case, LiveJournal pushed me to discover this French obsession. And this video also directly led me to Serge, because he wrote this song. God, I love the internet.
Serge Gainsbourg's Douze Belles Dans La Peau: The first Serge song that really struck me. I watched this video of it on YouTube and I was sold.
Anna Karina's Sous le Soleil Exactement: Actually written by Serge Gainsbourg, and indeed sung by him, but I like Anna's version a lot more. She's such a gem. Unfortunately, I can’t find a video of her singing it on YouTube, so this one of Serge will have to do.
Alizée's Moi... Lolita: Anybody who doesn't like pop and/or dancing, listen to this. I dare you. (And oh my gosh, how could I forget this? Julien Doré, winner of France's Nouvelle Star (their American Idol), sings his version of this song.)
Benjamin Biolay's Dans La Merco Benz: He's a recent discovery of mine. When I heard the first few seconds of this song, followed by his breathy voice, oh my lawdddd. It reminded me a lot of Serge, see, so of course I was hooked.
Air's Sexy Boy: It's so hard to choose just one Air song. I have adored Air for years, and have gone through so many phases involving this duo. You can't go wrong with them, you really can't. (Here's a fantastic Levi's commercial featuring another one of their most amazing songs, Playground Love. Go watch! I'm sure you’ll remember it from years ago.)
Mylène Farmer's Deshabillez moi: I originally heard the first version by Juliette Gréco, but when I saw this video of Mylène's performance, I was blown away even more. Mylène is so epic and astounding. I love it. I also recommend California, the first song of hers that I heard.
Jacques Brel's Ne Me Quitte Pas: Probably his most well-known song, but can you blame people for loving it? Beautiful.
I would love to upload some of these songs for you download, but I think that's kind of illegal. Darn.
Now: more pictures! From Central Park and Strawberry Fields. Only a few, I swear. I think when I'm sick, I have the tendency to go on and on and on and I'm not even that exciting. I'm just weird.
Saskia, Sarah S. and I ventured over to Central Park after the museum.
We walked around and I took pictures of random stuff.
Oh my gosh, no head!! OH NOES!
After getting lost briefly, we finally found out where Strawberry Fields is.
Pretty pretty pretty.
Then we froze our butts off as we searched for Ellen’s Stardust Diner, and finally found warmth at the bookstore reading. Ta-daaaaaa. There's probably about ten million typos in this post. But whatever. I shut up now.