hello tomorrow

The last year of school starts today. This semester I plan on taking all Gallatin classes, interning at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux publishing house and photo department at The New Yorker magazine, waitressing at Chevy's on the weekends, preparing for my colloquium, cooking dinner and going to yoga every week, playing with/worshiping my new Nikon D80, writing more, wearing my summer clothes until the last possible day and then a few days more, basking in the love and craziness of my roommates, continuing to color-code my notes and read things that aren't required when I don't have the time, flossing on a regular basis, and being an overall productive person. Also, I might sleep and perhaps update this blog.

I didn't think it could happen, but this summer beat its predecessor by at least a dozen cupcakes. I came back to New York after nine months abroad and binged on this city. The past three months were characterized by equal parts science movies at the museum of natural history and questionable activities of a less tame nature. So maybe my roommates and I might have jumped off the deep end, splashed around for a little bit and swallowed too much water towards the end, but all in all we're emerging intact and maybe even with a little tan.

goodbye, summer.
it's been a number of adjectives,
and i loved them all.

where is my mind?

reasons why i'm awful at this:
-we have no internet.
-i live at chevys.
-when i'm not at chevys i am either sleeping or out making questionable decisions that are making this summer wonderful.

i really wish i had more time but i am only going to get progressively and exponentially more busy from now until may.

that being said, we're trying to keep out summer project on it's feet and it'll probably turn into a fall project too. check on us, and me, every now and then and i'll try to be more interesting, i promise.

love and birthday wishes
talisa

make an encouraging banner

Take a picture of your parents kissing. Write the phone call you wish you could have. Give advice to yourself in the past. Recreate a poster you had as a teenager. Take a picture of strangers holding hands. Ask your family to describe what you do. Write your life story in a day. Photograph a significant outfit. Recreate an object from someone's past. Write down a recent argument. Make an encouraging banner.

my wonderful roommate claire and i have started a summer project. we will be completing a series of assignments from Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher's book Learning To Love You More. i think that it's going to be a really fun, positive thing, and i would encourage everyone who reads this to check it out, too. read, comment, share, contribute your own. get inspired-- it's what all of you do for me.

on a side note, claire has also started a public blog (link on the side), and it feels like the warmth of sunshine and the promise of sunrises and the poignancy of sunsets all at once. her blog has inspired me to write more, and to write better. so hopefully you'll be getting more berlin-esque posts (reference for the five people who read this blog regularly) soon.

things that i want to tell you about in person

the air guitar championships, the bee gees heavy metal tribute band that opened the championships, the magic of summer movies and picnics in the parks of new york, the project that i have recently started with claire which you will be hearing more about very shortly, the way it feels to sit by the water under bridges on hot but breezy days with trains passing over head and grass under my toes, the strange muscles that are sore now that i've started yoga again, the various whirring sounds in the basement that lull me to sleep at night, the beauty and wonder of dinosaur skeletons, the feeling of anticipation when the lights in the planetarium darkens, right before the stars turn on, the current length of my hair, how much i miss you.

"I don't care if it's honest if it's fun," said Big Red.
"I don't care if it's fun if it's real," said Kym.
"I don't even care if it's real," said Debbie. Not everyone knew what she meant.
-Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

things i've been doing (besides not updating this):

• working as a hostess/takeout girl (but soon to be a server!) at chevy's fresh mex. the upsides: pretty good money, improving my spanish, cheap food, working with my roommate meg, sombreros. the downsides: falling on my butt in the kitchen because it's slippery, mexican music 24/7, having to smile constantly at i-banker tools, coming home covered in salsa and guacamole.
• hanging out with allen who was here for a few days! going to the museum of natural history and seeing dinosaur skeletons and cosmic collisions in the planetarium.
• books: hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world, the history of love, labyrinths, even cowgirls get the blues.
• movies: the wackness, encounters at the end of the world (so cool!), wall e.
• SONIC VISION. and you might be able to guess what accompanied it.
  
• watching wet hot american summer on an inflatable screen at a big empty pool in williamsburg. with icecream and blankets and a few hundred neighbors.
• interviewing for fall publishing internships! re-organizing my life.
• our awesome apartment. our awesome, although damp apartment. our awesome, although moldy apartment. our awesome dehumidifier, elroy, who is solving the damp, moldy apartment issues.
  
• my landlord bill looking for a leak in my room and cutting holes in the wall so it looks like a christmas advent calendar. no chocolate in sight.

tonight we're going to see the national air guitar championships for claire's birthday!!!
my apologies to anyone who has been checking this. it's going to get better, i promise.

love and air guitars

The Upside of a Broken Digital Camera

Chain Bridge, Budapest

Update Me Tuna

Home was bomb diggity. Lots of friends, lots of food, lots of family, and LOTS of jellyfish. Not to mention Kellie's wedding. Even with 10 months abroad in 10 countries, the last two weeks were probably some of the best I've had all year.
Now I'm finally back in New York and aside from the fact that it is excruciatingly hot, I'm so so happy to be back. The roomies are wonderful and we are already laughing until we cry. We are hopefully moving into our new apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn tomorrow. Right now we are in a temp apartment next door. We don't have AC and it's about 96 degrees plus unbelievable humidity here so when we're home we basically lie in a row on our mattresses in our underwear in front of the fan and whine. And sweat. Profusely. During the day we've come up with some great ways to stay out of the heat, like watching Iron Man and the Three Amigos and Lars and the Real Girl and... ok, those are the only great ideas. The others have been sitting in Grand Central Station for hours, K-Mart for hours, the Walgreen's greeting card section...

I posted a couple albums to picasa. Budapest, Home (jellyfish, etc), and the Cousins. check it out, yo.