it's all about compromise

I have just been informed by a non-jewish friend that chanukah is not a month away. In fact, it's a little over a week away. Shows how great of a jew I am. Well then, the stove, washer, and dryer are pretty good chanukah presents.

My insane workload is over. over! The relief I am feeling right now is great, except I can't feel much off of less than three hours of sleep. My two essays are done. My two tests are done. My two articles are done. two two two. Now I can actually go grocery shopping and not drink a Rockstar every night in order to stay awake. Hello lazy weekend that I will be procrastinating from reading Hamlet (ahhh) and studying for my two english exams. Whatever. Ugly Betty marathon, here I come.

So I keep saying I'll update you guys later on what's been going on in my life. Seeing as I'm incredibly tired and lazy, you're just going to have to settle with a quick list. (I highly doubt you'll mind seeing as I don't even know if there is in fact a "you guys" aka comment me sometime, let me know you're reading!) So here goes. Massive things that have happened since I stopped blogging over the summer.

• worked at the Buffalo News for Gusto. Interviewed Old Crow Medicine Show, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers, and Mobile.
• took lots of trips up to Toronto over the summer working on the house & seeing people. was a pretty good time.
• went to Long Island and New York City to see family. I still haven't posted pictures of that, and it was in August. oops.
• started my second year of university. It's much harder, with a lot of random and useless work, but I do what I gotta do. I haven't had much chance at having a life this semester, but I make do with what I have. It's all progression.
• went to a heap of amazing concerts. Sadly the concert season has died for the winter, but here's who I saw: Virgin Festival (look it up I cant say all the names), Rilo Kiley, The National, Kevin Drew, M.I.A/Datarock/Holy Fuck, Dragonette/Most Serene Republic, Architecture in Helsinki, !!!, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. All amazing, pretty much.
• had the best day of my life. aka, I met J.K. Rowling. I had won tickets to go see her only Canadian tour date on October 23rd. It was amazing. I have a signed book. I will always love that woman. Anyways, I wrote a story about it for the Buffalo News and it was #1 viewed on their website for two days. It was also cover story.
• started working on a feature about women music journalists. Interviewed Helen Spitzer, Tabbassum Siddiqui, and Amanda Ash. all really great women.

Coming up:

• Eyeopener elections -- this time for Arts & Life editor.
• Jose Gonzalez show. sososo excited.
• Winter break -- Home, Florida, Home, Toronto, Home.
• My 20th birthday. Ah...

Okay. That's enough. My non-jewish friend is pulling on my sleve getting me to leave.

"scrabbalicious?"

this is my life these days:essay. article. study. essay. article. study.
note: rockstar. 7/11 has a buy 1 get 1 free special. bad.my magazines are untouched. my collage has been ignored.my bed is calling my name.this is unhappy, grumpy, exhausted, & stressed out jess.

don't worry though, by friday i will have time to appreciate life again.

and i'll be able to get a haircut.

times, they are achangin'

i have some big plans. plans i've dreamed about for years, and now theyre finally coming into sight. i can see them. and god, it feels good. to feel like im doing something, taking initiative, growing up, getting some excitement in my life. it's about time. [more on this later.]

second year is kicking my ass. i have never been so busy with school over a few weeks. it's been pretty bad, i've witnessed (and had) a few breakdowns. not fun.

i'm tired. i know i've been promising updates [not like anybody cares] but i will elaborate later on. my plan for this blog is to:

a) keep up with it

b) decide between this and livejournal, a girl should not have two blogs

c) introduce new and fun things

d) increase readership

you can help me out with this plan, you know.

through the twists and the turns, your colours seem to mesh.

periscope

part two:

i am officially done first year of university. it's a feat i'm pretty proud of. but it's also something almost everyone else accomplishes. i can't wait until i do something not just anyone can do. i am home for the summer, and i'm already bored. my mom has begun diagnosing every single problem that i have starting from the moment she walked into the door. so if you're curious, she thinks that i have an allergy to gluten. and i'm pretty sure she's right, but i don't want to admit it. with a serious allergy like that, i can't eat any of the food i usually eat and love, and ... no beer! that will be okay though. byebyecheapdrinks though. so yeah. i'm home, i'm bored, i'm lonely, and i'm sad, the classic first summer of a university student. three and a half more months to go...

today i had the best car ride with my dad ever. i had made mixes for the way home, and he had one of his old tapes with him. we made up a system to switch after every song. A little bit of Klaxons, a little bit of the Talking Heads. Some of Broken Social Scene, some of the B-52's. From Beck to The Police and Deerhoof to some crazy band from Buffalo that once asked if my mom could play saxophone with them. I realized on this drive home where I've gotten my love for music from. My dad has an amazing collection and knows so much, while my mom's got hidden talents like saxophone. I also realized how proud I am of myself for being musical like this. I'm excited for my life to come, even if it will suffer a few bumps and bruises.

with that being said ... i have a question i want answered, truthfully...
in order to be a great writer, do you have to suffer for or from something first?

frozen in time

part one:

i'm having one of those long periods of time when i've lost all feeling.
i've become numb to my surroundings.
i can't even form words together to express myself.
i'm sure i'll come-to within the next few days.

to be continued...

inside+out

the two things that have been giving me a lot of anxiety over are done with.
1- we signed the lease for the duplex & deposited the money. it's now ours, we fought for it, eliminated the competition, and got the place that we cannot wait to live in. it was a damn race. i'm beyond excited. we have a lot of plans. i can't get over the fact of how lucky we got.
2- eyeopener elections are overwith. the pub night was fun, and i met a ton of really great people. i had one of my "happy to be a journalist" moments. and then i lost. so.... meh. obviously i need some time to myself to be a sore loser but all in all, laura's going to do a fantastic job and i'm really happy for her. now i just need to find a job for next year. will probably end up in something grossly retail. lovely. does anybody have any connections to music or photography stores?

the stuff might be overwith, but for some reason the anxiety is still there and it actually physically hurts. meh. 16 more days until i move out of here. it's crazy to think that this year is over, it's gone quicker than any year has ever gone for me. i've gained so many things this year though, amazing friends, tons of drunken excitement, life lessons, blahblahblah. i'm really grateful for this year, and even though i'm sad for it to be over, i'm glad for this chapter to be over, to get on to bigger and better things. i'm also quite sick of residence. *sigh*.

journalism's giving me a lot of heck lately. every day my opinion on it changes. which could be good or bad. good in the sense that i've got to find the right things to motivate me, bad in the sense that it creates doubt. one huge thing for me though was picking up this semesters Ryerson Review of Journalism. it's gorgeous and really interesting, which surprised me because i remembered picking up last years and wanting to gag. it made me really excited to stream into magazine (if i get it). people keep telling me i'm going all "hardcore journalism on their asses" or "being really brave" for running for an eye position, but i don't really believe them. i don't feel like i'm doing enough. funny, i'm set on this, but i can't catch up on my readings in time for exams. i'm determined and i cannot let my peers and teachers get me down about it. i haven't dreamt about anything like this for this long.

i'm craving new music, so i just downloaded like 20 new cds on DC++. oh how i'll miss it next year. i crave new music about twice a week and it drives me nuts. have you ever had those days (or weeks for me) where you just dont feel like listening to anything because nothing feels like it will work right to what's going on with you at that moment? thank god today broke that dry spell. i'm now listening to a Feist mix cd, and it's beautiful. i'm still angry nobody would go with me to her show next month.

i'm going to leave you with three youtube videos. this week i discovered the amazing-ness of youtube, and i was hooked. the first two videos are 15 seconds long and have no sound. the third is the encore from the decemberists show i mentioned in the previous post and you must watch it, it is AMAZING.

here's the Shins from St. Pattys Day -- its part of "Australia"


here's the Decemberists from last weekend -- it's the beginning of "The Island"


here's some person's video of the Decemberists encore "The Mariner's Revenge." amazing. watch out for the whale!