tomorrow I'll unwillingly head back to school.

only three weeks left now.

if I begin to think about the Christmas holidays, going to the Cape with oldest friends, relaxing more with my family, and then picturing myself in an airplane pointed toward my favorite city in the world---nothing seems to feel real anymore.

I'd like to post a job offering, it's very simple. Dissatisfied and disillusioned college student searching for someone punctual and cruel to wake her up out of reveries (at least in the morning, and then again when it hits 10 at night). Must be able to fill, hoist, and throw without mercy the entire contents of at least one bucket of water on said college student. (and then make her coffee afterward)

interested applicants can contact me with a CV and photo attached, danke sehr.

-lab

Erntedankfest

A year ago today I was still up, just getting home to my dorm with my brother after our Thanksgiving meal with my study abroad family in Vienna. We just caught the last U-Bahn at around midnight and happily reached home with our leftovers of turkey, stuffing, beans, and sweet potato casserole (with marshed mallows on top). We skyped our family for a while in Bedford together, and then probably both collapsed, exhausted and disoriented because we never successfully got Johnny out of jet lag mode his entire trip, in addition to the day's turkey consumption.

Earlier, we had spent upwards of three hours in the used music shop around the corner in my district, trying all of the instruments in the shop until I finally decided on my little, beautiful guitar and the radiant and colorful case to go with it. Happy one year anniversary, Maria Theresia. This guitar has brought so much light and joy into my life, and I hope, the lives of others. (Definitely this random girl in the third floor kitchen one day was like crazily thankful for my musical presence...it was sweet)

Today, I find myself home alone, after two Thanksgiving meals and time spent with one of my oldest and dearest friends and her family (who proudly call me their third daughter) and with my dad's side of the family. Right now, I just feel so blessed. I always feel thankful for my family and friends, but today was a perfectly delicious reminder. I cannot take these people and these relationships for granted.

I wonder, this time next year, just where I'll be, and with whom I'll be spending this day. It's exciting...and scary...to have no idea.

luce

11.11.11

to quote the rascal flatts song that was part of the graduation medley we performed at my high school graduation ceremony (and sung by my bff becky):


My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all the you want it to,
your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small, 
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know someone loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.


<3

fortunes, iphone style

It started as a conversation about yoga, which turned to chai, and then to Turkish coffee and ended up with my new friend Grace using her iphone to do my palm reading.

Here's just a sampling of what it said (it wouldn't e-mail me the entire thing, alas the constraints of technology):

(1) Your finger leaning indicates that you give great importance to your instincts, and often act on gut feelings.
(2) Your hand shape indicates that you are a gentle person.
(3) Your head line indicates that you have very high natural mental ability and agility.

and

(1) Jupiter (index finger) indicates that you have strong leadership ability.
(2) Your fingertips indicate that you can be self-indulgent at times.
(3) Your fingertips indicate that you are an intuitive person.

Some which weren't listed in the e-mail include how my finger spacing means that I am not a judgmental person, my thumb indicates musical skill and intuition, and there was something about how I make most decisions based entirely on emotions. I also have a great capacity to encourage and care for others and will Oh, and that I have untapped skill in the fields of math and medicine (this one in particular is fantastic).

It's scary that this iphone app is as on the money as my friend Cagla's coffee cups and the Meyers-Briggs test.

In other news, Tupelos are travelling to Long Island this weekend to sing at one of our Newpelo's highschool collegiate a cappella competition. Her parents are providing copious amounts of NY pizza and Jewish bagels.... :P

And in other, other news, there's this program to be an English teaching assistant in France that I was thinking I would apply to, but I just found out this week about the same exact program but IN AUSTRIA. This is probably the first amazing thing to happen for real in a while.

Light at the end of this tunnel called Wellesley? Yes, yes indeed.
luceface

Spookie Tupie Teaser '11

We had our annual Tupelos "Spookie Tupie Teaser" this past Friday night, and it was pretty fantastic.
Here's a clip of my solo, and click here to view the rest of the concert.

Per tradition, we're in costume. Friends from the 100 Acre Wood were present (I'm Christopher Robin!), in addition to Marilyn Monroe, a beer maid named Gretchen, and nerd, and others.

In other news, it's been snowing in Wellesley all day and it's not even Halloween. I'm starting to lose hope that I will ever get rid of my cold/fever/flu symptoms. I've lost count of the number of cups of tea, water, and juice a day I've been consuming...

 xx
luce

page 397

I took off early Saturday morning with students and faculty from the geology department to go on the departmental field trip. An explanation may be necessary- I took the intro geosci course sophomore year for my lab requirement and loved it, so that when faced with the issue of taking one last science/math course to graduate, I obviously chose an obscure higher level seminar in the geology department. It's about volcanoes.

Seriously though, the geoscience department is probably the nicest set of students and faculty at Wellesley College. My professors are the kind of people who studied at places like Amherst, Duke, and MIT, but are such easy-going humble people that you would never hear it from their lips. Oh, and they've not only travelled all over the world for their work and study, but boast of such things as having attended cooking schools in more than 5 different countries. We cooked an amazing feast Saturday night.

I'll post more about the trip, along with some pictures of the AMAZING outcrop we focused on, but for right now, I just need to explode with joy about something. The brunt of my homework for Tuesday was readings that I was going to print off Friday night, but of course I forgot that all of the libraries close at 7 on Fridays, and conveniently forgot about all of the public printers just lying around in the science center, which is ridiculous because I literally just used one like Thursday or something. This meant that I was *forced* to bring Anna Karenina with me for the trip, since it was going to be quite a lot of driving. I am now halfway through the novel, and something wonderful has finally happened....

Levin, Kitty, chalk, and a few chance moments to themselves. That is all it took to bring them together after more than a year of silence, distance, heartache, and misunderstanding. I would be lying if I didn't admit that the beautiful brevity of this resolution brought tears to my eyes. Either that, or maybe my eyes are still irritated from the 6 entire heads of garlic I chopped for the sauce yesterday.

Dreams shall be sweet with images of chalk and green table clothes floating intermingled with tea cups, ocean waves, and skipping stones.

lacking anna

I've been way too overwhelmed with school and real life smacking me hard in the face to read my anna karenina....but at least my assigned reading has been of interest...

I've had to read Goethe's "Leiden des Jungen Werthers" (for the second time) and am now working my way through Faust, Teil 1. It's amazing to be reminded again of the beauty of the German language, thanks be to Goethe. ;)

"Es ist besser, ich sehe sie durch die Augen ihres Liebhabers; vielleicht erscheint sie mir vor meinen eignen Augen nicht o wie sie jetzt vor mir steht, und warum soll ich mir das schöne Bild verderben?"
-Werther

(there are also many many wonderfully beautiful lines from Werther, but it's all so depressing that I can't bear to post it here because I'm trying very hard to not let myself be depressing)

Dichter: So gib mir auch die Zeiten wieder,
Da ich noch selbst im Werden war,
Da sich ein Quell gedrängter Lieder
Ununtergebrochen neu gebar,
Da Nebel mir die Welt verhüllten,
 Die Knospe Wunder noch versprach,
Da ich die tausend Blumen brach,
Die alle Täler reichlich füllten.
Ich hatte nichts und doch genug,
Den Drang nach Wahrheit und die Lust am Trug.
Gib ungebändigt jene Triebe,
Das tiefe schmerzenvolle Glück,
Des Hasses Kraft, die Macht der Liebe,
Gib meine Jugend mir zurück!
(Faust, Zeile 184-197)

My professor also included some youtube links to particular productions of Faust, and I'm loving it. Best homework assignment ever.

Oh, to be at Wellesley, pouring myself into books of madness, suicide, deals with the devil, and pantheism!
-lab