This is a running list of things I want to do over the winter break. It's a way to keep myself sane, reminding myself that this semester will end someday. I'll check off and write about each thing as I do it. I figure I've got about five weeks . . .
1. Go back up to my old school, hang out, and see some friends up there. Went up there on the 15th! The stupid modem was down, so I didn't know that Proessor Sullivan had e-mailed me to say that we could meet at 11:00 until I got online in the library after noon. But I did get to say hi on her way out! And I sat and talked with Professor Lambert for about an hour. I ate lunch in Tivoli, got pizza and also went to the stationary store but it was closed. I'm very happy I went.
2. Print up some fabric, medieval-style, and sew it and sell it on eBay.
3. Work a whole hell of a lot to improve my Senior Project.
4. Visit Bard College (deleted because it's the exact same thing as #1)
5. See Zack and hang out
6. Clean the hell out of my room, including rearranging the furniture and taking my bedside table down to the basement and setting up a folding tray with roses painted on it in its place, because I'm so bohemian- as of 12-29-02, I've started doing this. Tray is set up. It looks so cool I hate to put anything on it that covers up the roses.
7. Help clean the basement and/or garage- I did clean my room out. After years of cleaning, it feels like I've actually gotten somewhere.
8. Thrift eBay stuff. Anything "goth" is good. 12-29-02: I left the "goth" stuff I was going to sell in my room at school, so I am changing this to simply thrifting for sale-able stuff. 12-30-02: Went to the Goodwill! I got a nice light-brown brocade skirt that I might cut up and sew as part of a medieval-style type dress. (note later: my mom liked it, so I'd rather she had it than it got cut up.) Also: a book about the sons of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry whatever, because it has a dramatic cover; an empty scrapbook that looks at least thirty years old- awesome!; and two sheets: one is bright green with white polka dots, and the other is a small yet kind of cool medieval-esque print. And maybe some other stuff too, I'm not sure what else. Nothing to eBazon, though. (eBazon: buying to sell online.) 1-11-03: Forget when exactly I went, but I got a black miniskirt in a dragon brocade pattern to ebazon. Also this gorgeous handmade 1950s dress, fitted top, full skirt, of a beautiful brown and roange and gold brocade; and two ugly flowered napkins and an ugly flowered tray (non-matching), and a bunch of tapes: Duran Duran, Nirvana. I checked the two little thrifts I like and got nothing- like, two paperbacks I'll never read. Disappointment.
9. Write fanfic for my online pals.
10. Drive my mom to work, then go eat breakfast by myself in this really great little cafe right off Vasser campus. I've gone there before and had a wonderful time- this was two years and a half ago, when I was working at the Rite Aid pharmacy . . . at one point, the low point of my life. But I want to go there, and just sit, and write, and drink hot chocolate and eat a cookie, and pretend I'm human again. Done. Wasn't as much fun as I remember. Shame on me for trying to recapture lost emotions, although it was kind of nice. Followed by a trip to the two little thrifts, which yielded nothing. Which blew.
11. See Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers! I can't believe it's been a whole year! 12-29-02: Consider it seen. Wow! 12-31-02: consider it seen again.
12. Possibly go to NYC and also possibly see Kevin from the Backstreet Boys as Billy Flynn in Chicago. I like that musical. Parts of it, anyway. 1-11-03: Consider it done, done, done. Except for the whole Chicago thing. I went down yesterday (Friday) evening, and Chris van D. (Van D.? I'm still confused about the capitalization) and Mulzer let me into their home, which was really nice of them. Ben B. was there too, and Dave W. came over with his arm in a sling and explained to me the details of his shoulder surgery. We ordered dinner and watched the first part of the extended version of LOTR: FOTR, without the commentary, so I had to provide information for everyone. Then we all talked and went out to two separate bars, leaving the first one because they kept playing Britney Spears. Then we went to Dave's apartment! We watched the ep of Buffy in which everyone keeps bursting into song and dance; I'm no Buffy fan, but that was pretty cool. And I found out that Mulzer had seen some minor part of Law&Order being filmed in a restaurant, and I did my little Jerry-Orbach-is-so-cool spiel about how I grew up listening to him on the original cast recording of The Fantasticks. Much amusing stuff was done; for example, Chris described how every Friday he brings rap songs for his class to listen to and how they said he was "a reverse Oreo"- white on the outside, black on the inside. He disabused them of that notion by playing Willy Nelson for them. After he told us about that, he brought out a do rag and explained its purpose- when your hair is braided, it's meant to hold the braids in place. He proceeded to try to put the do rag on. He struggled with it for some time, prompting Dave to annouce, "Creamy filling! That's what's inside you."
Mulzer is studying law and wants to work for good causes in the world, for which I admire her; my main interest in the world is to work at a place like Bard. Also, I didn't vote in the last election because I had no clue what was going on with anything. Chris is studying secondary English education. Ben is . . . I'm not sure what he's doing. Working part-time, I think, and Dave is writing for a rap magazine, last I heard. And Chris and Mulzer have a cat! She's named Ella. She's small and tri-colored, and she doesn't like to be picked up or held or petted, but she does like to sniff things. If she likes you she will bite you. I slept on the loveseat, and she kept skulking around, curious. Ella the Vampire Kitty. I had to curl up to sleep on the loveseat, and the apartment was warm so I woke up sweating in the middle of the night because I had on my red fuzzy jacket that I got for Christmas. I love that jacket. I also went to sleep one time with my feet up on the arm of the loveseat, and when I woke up they were all pins and needles. My life is so fraught.
Anyway, Ben and Dave arrived at noon on Saturday, and we all went out and got brunch at Yaffa's. I had a delicious chicken sandwich with melted brie. It was delicious. After that we went into a comics store. And after that, Mulzer and Ben went back to the apartment and Chris and I went to go up to the Cloisters, except they closed earlier than we'd expected, damn it. So there were several subway rides and nice, but freezing, walk through the park. And then I went back and packed up, and Ben and I went to Times Square via subway, and then I went to Grand Central Station (alone! yeah) and bought a ticket and called my dad to say when I'd be home and got myself an Indian dinner, chicken tikka masala and rice and salad and nan and a soda and also a cookie, which I ate on the train ride back. It was great.
So I'd definitely say this was a highlight of the vacation, and I had loads of fun and that sandwich was terrific. A happy ending all round. And if I left my new Dandy Warhols cd there, I will never stop hitting myself. (Later: I didn't leave it there. Whew!)
13. Things I want to do over break: Nick Carter and Orlando Bloom. At the same time. (Edited 1-11-03 to add that, while I have not done this, it was briefly discussed by me and my friends when I went to NYC, and I would like to consider it in more depth as soon as I set up a livejournal account. Except I'm a little scared to because I may be developing niggles of something for Josh Hartnett as well, and that scares me. Why God, why? My libido is a frightening and powerful thing. And has poor taste.)