everything it must belong somewhere

ok so this one time I was in austria and germany and EVERY MEAL WAS PRIX FIXE. remember that? and there were like 2303 (read: 6 or 7, sometimes 8) courses and it was amazing. once, this was in munich, the waitress came over and said, "the chef recommends this wine with your dinner" and we all nodded but I thought, "wait, how does he know what I'm going to ord- OOOOHHHH" at which time I was glad I only thought it, not said it, because I would have sounded like a doofus. but a satisfued doofus! it was delightful. and delicious.

after that, ordering off a menu is such a CHORE, like i have to READ it, then read it AGAIN, then make a DECISION. ugh. i can't handle that kind of stress. why on earth don't we have more prix fixe / bjillion course dinners over here? it's like many little presents up to dessert! it's the best! here it's like, first course is the banana i'm eating while I'm making my tuna salad, second course- tuna salad on toast. third course- dr. pepper. with ice.

does this make me superficial or stuck up? i hope not. because if this is wrong... i don't want to be right.

four winds

people say we live in a dangerous neighborhood. i usually ignore this, but it's true. and I am living to tell the tale. I saw TWO cockroaches today, on two separate occasions, from the crack in the sidewalk where a tree is growing next to my apartment. And those guys move FAST, making them very terrifying. they could probably kill you.

and i saw an OPOSSUM when i was coming home from the library. they are dirty and disgusting! At least raccoons (whom I hate) can be sort of cute if you squint your eyes. opossums are just unnatural looking, with their snout and stick tail. I thought maybe it would play dead when it saw me, but it started running full speed and veered away into some grass when it got close to me.

i may have to invest in some pepper spray. or an animal control body guard. I thought only thugs and people who walk in groups could survive in south central; apparently this includes vermin?

omg

"Pink Panther", the new one, is on HBO and it is AMAZING i don't know why on earth i didn't watch it when it came out. i am seriously falling out of my chair. the best so far:

Inspector Jacques Clouseau: And you are?
Ponton: Gilbert Ponton. Detective, second class. I've been assigned to work with you.
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: And what qualifications do you have for police work?
Ponton: My family's done police work in Paris for nine generations.
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: And before that?
Ponton: We were policemen in the surrounding areas for 200 years.
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: And before that?
Ponton: Immigrants from various countries in Europe all involving police work.
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: And before that?
Ponton: Farmers.
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: Hmm. So you are a little lamb who has come to Clouseau for to learn.

full circle

what? get my lab projet due in a timely manner so i can go home and thaw out? (it's raining in l.a. and i am never prepared). HECK NO! i'm sharing it with you. I wish it would loop or go around a few times. I'm sure there's a way to do that, I just don't know it. YET!




I am amazing, as is my radial engine. 110 mm stroke, heck yeah!

also, and this would break my heart if I actually cared, I had to drop my dance class to make room for an econ class. I went back to yoga. 2 hours on Friday afternoon. which could be wonderful and relazing, or I could be stressed out and wanting to leave the whole time (more likely). I'm gunning for the first option. we'll see.

like a tiger defying the laws of gravity

is this an excuse to post this super cute picture of me and steve, my date to the aformentioned invite? why yes. and here it is:


I had a super hot (and by hot i mean flattering... slash both hot and flattering) dress but it was so cold! so I wore the grey jacket all evening. oh wells. it went really well, but there was a lot of set up to do and I was the only ADX who could show up to do it (but one girls parents were there, as was john) so it was when steve called to say he was running late that I realized I had to start getting ready. 15 minutes later i was walking downstairs to finish the set up before I got picked up.


john: "heads up, lindy, you may want to wear make-up to the invite."
lindy: "I am."
john: "oh."


so with the lowest self esteem EVER (but no more or less make up), I went to dinner. I say the l.a. standards (or whichever ones john is apparently prescribing to) can feck off. we had fake candles in real votives, greg mixed (non-alcoholic) drinks, I was reminded that I can't dance (I registered for a jazz dance class for next semester, maybe I can improve?), and I had a wonderful date who made a t-rex joke, which is pretty much all you can ask for. goodnight.

old ladies + complications

I like old ladies, and I want to be in a small group with them. is that too much to ask?? I want to join a small group at bel air pres, and i want there to be old ladies in it. i'll actually accept anyone over like 30 or 35. the problem is how do I get there? no car, and poor public transportation... we'll see. there's one in santa monica, I could bus it there.

I want to go on the women's retreat, which is the weekend between finals weeks. i may... we'll see... i'm tired of women sharing their issues (and we're in college so it's mainly body-image and how much we all want to get married) and then being like, "well, that's it, see you next week" w.t.f. that's not enough. we need to move past those things! bringing them to the surface just lets them percolate and sort of mold onto your life being like, "well I talked about it... doesn't that fix it?" no. I want those conversations to happen then someone can say, "yes I HAVE BEEN there, and this is how I GOT OUT."

basically we need old ladies. who tell it like it is and make cookies and iced tea.

three-peat

today I went to IKEA to get some votives for our invite tomorrow. They're votives for fake candles. our invite's at the gamble house so we can't have actual fire. fake candles = ingenious. they even flicker! they look really great, I'll give you a picture later. I'm going with my friend steve, and I have a hott dress. I actually had one that was like SUPER bond girl. but, at the risk of sounding like a d-bag, it was almost TOO hot, you know? I felt uncomfortable with how good I looked in it. it was pretty much out of control, my new one is a little shorter (1st one was floor length shiny halter, black, with brooch at v-neck-meets-rest-of-dress part) and I can wear a regular bra. victory!


but anyhow, I also wanted to stop by target to see if we could find plastic champagne flutes/martini glasses. and that's where the trouble started. a woman told me to "turn on victory" but not which way, so I spent a while going both ways before calling kristin who told me to go "west" on "empire" (which you'll hear more about later). Couldn't find empire, and driving took FOREVER because it was Burbank at noon. I call the Target, the manager says I have to turn on "empire" and DEFINITELY not on "victory place", and that it's right before the onramp to the I-5. I went past the same convoluted intersection about 7 times, and have yet to see "empire". I ended up taking victory place because it was in the direction everyone seemed to be telling me to go. It took me directly to the huge shopping mall place and the target. I had been driving for no less than an hour in the no a/c minivan.

by this time I was out for blood. and a bottle of water.

I rode my shopping cart around the target the whole time. no one gave me a hard time, I'm sure I smelled of car sweat and vengeance at least 3 aisles away in all directions. I found no plasticwares that I was seeking, after look in the 4 different places people had directed me for 'picnic supplies'. I gave in and got myself a new hair dryer (old blue hasn't worked for about 2 weeks... and yes I just named him 'old blue'... now he's 'old blue in a dumpster') and some deodorant (I think I left mine somewhere in the blue van when my parents were down here and i've been surviving with my back up stick of secret). And a bottle of water. the riding around also made me feel better. I got home, got my NEW HARD DRIVE (gotta start transferring data tonight...), and now i'm at the computer lab.

I'll be spending the summer at Purdue, doing some sweet research on water separation (hydrogen isolation) and I'm super psyched about that. I go to bed thinking about getting published (now is not the time for your comments, HENRY) and how cool that would be. I want to get cute work clothes, but if I'm working hard all day in a lab I want to be barefoot and wearing some form of pyjamas. i'm excited. i feel very grown up (except for the losing my deocorant and riding around on my shopping cart parts)

another run around the sun

I ordered an external hard drive. check that off the list!

in between my assigned songs for my guitar class, I've been nursing "St. Judy's Comet" by Paul Simon and it still eludes me. gosh darn you and your talented composing, Paul Simon! I have this one riff down really well and it's repeated for about half of the verse so... i'm like 25% done?

but this one is soon overshadowing: "Nothing I Can Do" by Ben Taylor (the son of James Taylor + Carly Simon = musical explosion). he's not so big time so no one's tabbing any of his stuff and I'm definitely not good enough to figure it out for myself. what's a girl to do? well... sing and mutedly strum along whenever it comes on... and hope that he'll teach me someday. le swoon (over the song not the guy).

and because uploading videos = best, here's the music video.

you and i collide

my mind has been going at like 1000 bjillion miles an hour lately. it feels like a dynamics problem of "if the initial angular velocity of lindy's thoughts whirling around in her brain is a bjillion pi radians/second and is inversely related to the hours of sleep she gets, how long until she explodes?"

i actually wrote out all the things that i apparently think about all day during fluid mechanics. i turned over my quiz and listed off everything. it was pretty pathetic- classes, people whose fault it totally isn't that they stress me out. i don't think the things stress me out, i just think about them ALL THE TIME. and then go home and watch 'scrubs' and play guitar and get no work done. summer research? summer in ITALY? (i can do that if I want! slash if they accept me)

my mom brought me a new: monitor, dell laptop with docking station, palm pilot! the screen on mr. puckers (the h.p., my true love) isn't working. i think it's the inverter. whatever that is (the guy in the beret in the computer part of the bookstore told me this). so: add to things swirling around in my head: external hard drive. woot.

head 'em off at the pass!

so I didn't make it. the test was HARD and we sat around nervously while they graded our quizzes. I made some serious small talk with the guys around me. They read off about 5 names (out of 30-40) and mine wasn't one of them. I gathered my things and stood up. I looked at my small talk friend, "Well then I'll take my 5 interesting facts and go somewhere else!" and that's just what I did.

ra ra shish boom ba

jeopardy! (the ! is part of the show name actually) is filming at USC in a few weeks and today they had tryouts to be a contestant and YOURS TRULY made it to the second screening!!!! I have to come back tomorrow at 9 a.m. for more tests, and have 5 interesting facts about myself (like, the commercial break ones). I have:

1. i joined the curling team in Edinburgh
2. my name is iambic (every other syllable is stressed)
3. i have played guitar for 3 years and want to learn the harmonica
4. i used to think i was indian because my parents are from indiana.
5. DON'T HAVE A FIFTH!!

what should my 5th interesting fact/hobby/about me be? I can't leave jeopardy! hanging. but seriously- it would be so cool if i were on jeopardy! ! i hope i get through. that would be freakin JAWSOME (j for jeopardy!)