Pay No More Than Absolutely Zero.

So, I'm still home sick, pretty much gasping for air. Lovely. In other news, Allen is here and Amanda soon will be and that makes me happy as a clam! Or as a person who is not sick. hm...

Otherwise I have just been keeping up with work, throwing myself at internship employers, and keeping myself sane with various creative endeavors that involve washable markers, rub-on letters, and playlists that are too long to fit on cds. Hopefully friends will be receiveing the products of these endeavors via postal services shortly. Or never, who knows.

If all goes well with my respitory system, I'll be going to see Colin, Pat, Alex, and Ben's band, "The Olithics," play in their debut performance tonight. They're playing at "The Mean Fiddler" at 10pm tonight, and you should go.

A Bird Pooped on Claire's Head Today

Red.

Orange.

My cough was getting a little out of control, so today Meg took me to the health center-- it turns out the cough/cold that I had earlier triggered my previous asthma. As a result, I am now the lucky owner of two inhalers, which I'm sure will be really impressive at my internship interview that I have tomorrow.

Also, you know how in those commercials for chicken soup they always compare the good, hearty, goodie-filled soup with the dinky soup from the box that has like, no chicken and two pieces of noodles floating around in it? Well, I love that soup, and my roommies bought me two boxes of it =).

In the same vein of wonderful roommates, I want to say thank you to everyone who's been here for me lately, it means a lot. A lot!

And send some of that love over to Dave, he broke his nose and is getting an operation tomorrow =(.

Parlez-Vous Japonais?

Today I am home, sick. So you get to hear about Paris.

I went to Paris from March 9- March 18, for a trip that could be characterized as equal parts serious fun and sleep deprivation. Many museums and touristy things, excessive meandering, bars and clubs with awesomely bad music, seriously good food (and seriously bad food, let's not talk about "Chez Papa"), way too much red wine, not enough macaroons, beautiful and pretentious Parisians (and some slimy Parisian boys), abysmal attempts at speaking French, wonderful weather, a wonderful host (sauf the snoring and rancid fridge), wonderful friends, and a wonderful time overall.

The following pictures aren't really representative of any of that, but here they are all the same:

Duke's neighbors have plenty appreciation for courtyards, but apparently not for noisy, drunken clammering up five flights of spiral stairs at 4am.

Overheard in Paris: "They said they wanted to meet under the pyramid. How do you think we get there?!"
-- Under the Pyramid.

Seine and Spotlight: Paris from the Eiffel Tower

Chateau de Versailles. Jon, you know you're rowing if we get one of these things, right?

Okay, we really did love Chez Papa.

I'll post more later.

Also, this weekend Peter and Jenn arrived from sunny California and we went to visit Chris at Westpoint. Pretty soon Allen and Amanda will be here, too. Hooray for friends.

Sea and Space

it's been so long since i've had to come up with any sort of non-school related username that i was a bit paralyzed when blogger asked me for one right away. "don't you want my 'N' number first? how about my date of birth? expected date of graduation?" i wanted to ask.

from what i recall from my old days of AIM and other internet-related activities, these things are supposed to be equal parts witty and poignant, with a possible touch of irony or song-lyric reference. either that, or they are cryptic and alienating, leading readers (me) to believe they must have missed out on some prior conversation/inside joke/ cultural reference. my brilliant plan to evade all of this quickly unravelled when blogger informed me that "talisa" was already taken, and that "talisa-talisa" would be my next best option. as hard as i tried, i couldn't see myself passing off "talisa-talisa" as witty, poignant, cryptic, or alienating, and i haven't heard my name in any songs lately, either.

i ended up choosing rocketships-jellyfish because i've been doodling a lot of both of them in my journal lately (they are pretty easy to draw, and can be made in multiple colors, sizes, and variations, which is convenient when i am carrying several colors of pens and lack the creativity/skill to come up with anything else). they also allow for some pretty nice accompanying doodles: moon, stars, planets, fish, seaweed, underwater castles.... what's more, they are similar in their forms in that the rockets i draw have three exhaust tubes coming out from them, and the jellyfish i draw have three tentacles. this sort of versatility and symmetry is all very convenient, but the icing on the cake is that "rocketships, jellyfish" sort of rhymes, and rolls off the tongue rather nicely.

i could come up with something about how rocketships and jellyfish imply, simultaneously, a sense of ethereal mystery and earthly wonder. how they suggest a longing for what we can't have--the sky and the ocean instead of the land we live on. the beauty of a pitch black water and a pitch black galaxy, the idea of the unknown in both sea and space. ghostly transluscent creatures contrasted with cold metallic vessels. but really, it's all about the aesthetics. both words have a nice assortment of vowel and consonant sounds. also, both words each consist of two words, and the words that make up each of the words would mean completely different things if they weren't next to each other. the rhyme is there, but it's just a little off (sh-i, i-sh), which i like. i also like how the "k" in rocket sort of cuts into "jellyfish," which sounds kind of gelatinous and squishy on its own. i also especially like r and j, pretty solid letters if you ask me. isn't language wonderful?

overall, i guess both explanations are pretty lame and pretentious. i'm just glad i haven't been drawing oranges-- nothing rhymes with that.


*side note: while the inspiration for the title of my internet-journal came from my real journal, that will probably be the only time that those two realms will intersect. being that the internet is public, and my thoughts, emotions, and life are not, the function of this blog will be solely for sharing and updating. if you want the juicy stuff you'll have to call. or steal my journal.

Picture in Picture

Today was spent looking for my voice. In this instance, "voice" isn't being equated with "courage," in a Hilary Duff sort of way, but rather with my actual vocal chords, which apparently hate me. Claire and Stephanie are also losing their voices, though, so maybe together we can embark on some type of voice/courage-seeking journey, which would be much more poetic and compelling as opposed to my current state of pathetic and raspy.

She's An Open Book

this space is soon to be filled with thoughts, pictures, major and/or minor life updates (whichever seem more interesting), and other general meanderings. it will most likely be rife with inconsistency in regards to purpose, frequency of posts, and overall content. i don't expect it to be more or less captivating (okay, maybe less) to you, the reader, than any other type of online journal-esque endeavor, except for maybe the fact that you know me, and are probably living farther away from me than i'd like. i'm usually on the fence about internet-related ventures such as these, so if this suddenly goes away, you know why. until then, sending love over world wide web waves-- me.