Ladies and Gentlemen...

I would like to make an announcement.
Today, for the very first time ever, Lauren Kunin went to a gym and worked out.

Yes, that's right. Try not to fall over from excitement.

I'd like to thank my friends for the encouragement. I couldn't have done it without you.

Yoga on Mondays, weight training on Tuesdays and Thursdays.


My mother is so proud.

HA.


Oh, and, I got drunk dialed by Meghann today. It was almost as exciting as my physical exhertion.
I miss you!

Matt's future boss

Reading for Columbia, no doubt.

Matt!

I just read a blurb about The Devil Wears Prada movie in Us Weekly! Anne Hathaway is Andrea, Meryl Streep is Miranda, and Adrian Grenier is Alex.

What a random weekend

I went to like six parties cuz we'd be at one for a bit and then it'd get lame so we moved on. But we didn't go to Andy's, which is good considering they're probably getting sick of the drunk straight kids. Whatever. On Saturday I got everyone to go to the Love Parade and we met up with my cousins and yeah it was pretty crazy. Lots of mad dancing and naked people. We also stopped by Forever 21 because we lead meaningless, consumer-driven lives. Chelsea's little sister stayed over for the weekend and then her friend Cameron slept on our floor on Saturday, but I didn't like him. Way too, "I'm the man." It's all kind of blurry not so much because I drank but more because the most random stuff happened and there was a lot of it.

Oh but here's a story! So it's Saturday night and Matt and Jason are over to carry my TV to my room and Chelsea and her sister are downstairs finding Cameron. So Jason, Matt, and I are sitting around and these two girls come by and one points to me and goes to the other, "Is that the one?" So I'm thinking, sorry we're loud. But she goes, "We have a complaint. That jacket you're wearing belongs to my friend. Someone stole it from her laundry." We're talking about my blue Hollister jacket. So I take it off and hand it to her so she can see the bleach stains from my deoderant and such because clearly it's mine. So the one girl (who is acting like an RA or something) goes, "Well, she identified this stain," and she points to a spot where I got Nico's refried beans on the arms. And I'm like, "But this is my jacket. Ask this guy ::point to Jason::, I've been wearing it for three years." And the girl who supposedly owns my jacket goes, "Well, I guess it means more to you than it does to me." And I'm like, "Yeah because it's MINE." So the "RA" goes "Well just so you know, don't steal laundry. It's really not good." And by this time I'm pissed so I'm like, "Yeah, no shit." "Well we just have to tell everyone just in case." "THANKS FOR THE NEWSFLASH!" So in short they left and I was like shaking from the absurdity of it all. So did this girl see me wearing it, grab her friend, follow me when we were taking up the TV, then leave and come back? I dunno. But I saw her (the authority figure) at lunch with Hailee yesterday so we took a cell phone picture. Good story, huh?

Enjoy the silence [?]

It's mandatory that I write something in here, in honor of the first rain of the season.

After three hours of talking to Topher [and not reading for my Art History class], I can finally accept some peace of mind that comes with the kind of friends I've made. It's rare to find people you can really talk to, but it's rarer to find people who will really listen.

It has stopped raining, but the sound of water on glass still breaks the silence.
The thought in my head: I wish I danced in the rain.


Waking up tomorrow will be painful. I couldn't care less.

That's just fabulous!

My night included a visit to the ultra-exclusive, by-invitation-only club Milk and Honey, then later a party at the spectacular Ritz hotel. I love New York.

Got down with my bad self

Today was the first day of classes: a complete day, actually, my first one in a while. Events included sociology class, weight training intro, signing up for yoga classes, buying tickets to see John Cleese, talking to Jason, seeing the aftermath of some sort of rocket or satellite or missile launch, having a badass dance party in our floor's lounge, and laughing til it hurt on the floor of Kirsten and Kristin's room. Again.
Tomorrow is jam-packed [as all fridays will be], complete with two classes and two sessions, a soccer game, a margarita mixer/dance party, and whatever else the day decides to throw at me.
Corpse Bride and clubbing [yes, clubbing] on Saturday.

I really do love college. Sometimes I wonder if it really is all downhill from here.

Whatever. I'm living in the moment and enjoying myself immensely.
But there are some people I will always miss.

Who would've thought

That in the most liberal city in this country, I'd have any trouble finding people to go to protests and festivals with. I've made a tight group of friends with two of the few conservatives in this place. Well, Chelsea's family is hardcore Republican, but she's on the left side of apathetic. Hailee is really Republican, though, and so is Heather. This usually isn't a problem. I save my political discussions for dinner with Jason. However, there are two liberal events this weekend and I'm stuck with possibly no one to go with. First is the College Not Combat rally. Wes will go, but Chelsea probably isn't interested, and Hailee definitely wouldn't go. I'm actually more interested in the Love Parade that starts a few hours later, but Wes is working at the AIDS center (he counsels people who call the hotline) untl 5:30. Chelsea will go, and I bet I can convince Hailee and Heather to go. It's not political. You may have heard of the Berlin Love Parade -- ours in SF is the only one in America and much smaller, but with the same love, peace, tolerance, and art message. We'll see.

An e-mail from my professor, the distinguished Andrew Lear

Hi, class,
The question about The Poet and the Women (Thesmaphoriazousai) is: what is the place of anal intercourse in this play's value-system, and why is Agathon, in particular, an object of its mockery? You know Agathon, of course, from Plato's Symposium; remember, however, that this play pre-dates the Symposium (probably by @30 years).
I chose this translation, by the by, because I like the series, and it is cheap. I didn't know it in particular. As it turns out, I like it a lot, but it is a bit too euphemistic about sexual matters. Aristophanes is crude, by our standards.
On page 101, Euripides does not say "he meets his clients during the nighttime": he says, "you must have fucked him but don't know him"
(ie you haven't seen his face).
On p. 109, Mnesilochos does not say "Intimate, you might say." but "It has a smell of little cock" (presumably Agathon's)
On p. 118, Cleisthenes does not say, "I come as a friend", but "greetings to those who share my way-of-life".
On p. 141, the Scythian does not say, "If he was tied up da oder way round, etc." but "if his ass-hole was facing the other way, I would understand if you fucked him." and he uses words for rear end and fucking liberally throughout.
And on p.143 instead of "oh da beautiful shape etc." he says "there, that is better for my cock" (presumably taking his stage-phallus out from under his cloak)
Anyway, that should give you some more Aristophanic flavor. AL

(This message is associated with Homosexuality in the Classical World)

I have a new San Francisco wardrobe

Unfortunately it has been hot and sunny for the past two days. Whoops.

Anyway, this weekend my mom and Sean flew up and Sean stayed with me in the dorm. Interesting times. On Friday we went to Crustacean (my favorite restaurant) and after that I basically took a shower while Sean MySpace'd and crashed. Got up way too early on Saturday to go have lunch at Raleigh's with Tami, Jamie, and Ian. Fat ass guacamole burger. Then on to the Cal game where I got a little sunburned but it was all good cuz we won and I saw one of the staffers from camp. But I had a raging headache so after Sean and I got dropped off I made him order sushi for us and then go downstairs to get it when the delivery guy came. We ate on the floor and watched Troy -- magnificent. Heather, Hailee, and Wes all stopped by for a while, too.

Sunday was a challenge cuz I had to get up, eat breakfast, walk to the mall with Wes and Hailee to buy Chelsea birthday presents and balloons, walk back, set everything up, then go downtown with my mom to the THREE STORY FOREVER 21. Holy god, it was the only place we shopped cuz I bought so much stuff. So now I actually own long sleeve shirts. And my mom offered to fly me down sometime in October but since there really isn't much for me to do in San Diego, she's gonna come up here and we'll shop and eat at nice restaurants. SCORE. So they had to get to their flight in Oakland so they couldn't drive me back to school, so I Muni'd it all by my big girl self back to school. When I got back Wes was asleep on my bed and Chelsea and Jason were running around. I napped for like ten minutes and then got dressed and we took Muni allllllll the way to Ghirardelli and had dinner at Lori's. We appointed Wes as our "watch for the stop" guy on the way back but he botched it and we had to get on another bus and make the driver turn around for us heehee. But we did make it home, made some popcorn and hot chocolate, watched A Lot Live Love, and crashed. Then Chelsea and I slept through class today. Ha.

Happy 21st Birthday to me!

Ladies and gentleman, I'm of drinking age. I'm also from Lakewood, Ohio.

No one is ever too old for Disneyland.

Well anyway

My computer has yet to be fixed, but I've managed to keep it on for about two hours today. Behold the power of positive thinking. Most of that time has been filled with downloading every possible live John Mayer song I can find, which I was inspired to do last week. So my iPod is dancing.

So the first couple weeks of school were really sunny and I got used to it, but now it's been cloudy for a while and I'm having to adjust. I actually think it's quite pretty, though. Yesterday I went on one of my almost daily expeditions (because I walk everywhere now) and the fog resting on the hills is very atmospheric, as my mom would say. I walked to the gym, went on a quest to find the post office, and bought some magazines at Borders, all with my soundtrack of live John Mayer music (I highly recommend "Message in a Bottle" and "Do You Suppose" with Dispatch). And so it is, San Francisco's weather is not that bad.

My mom and brother are coming up this weekend and Sean is going to sleep here. I'm expected to entertain him on Saturday night. Thus far I've planned to order in sushi and rent a movie, and depending on what Saturday night adventure is happening, he might go with us into the city. That could get interesting.

P.S. - Don't be lured by the seemingly fantastic concept of fat free cheese. You'd think I would've known better.

ATTENTION:

Advertisers, FUCK OFF.
Do NOT comment if you're including a link. We don't care, we don't like you, and we're not here to help you.

Thanks and have a great day.

Oh give me a home...

Moving is like reinventing yourself, but better, because you have your past to build on.
But going back is like reminding yourself, you've grown up, but part of you still belongs here.

I never thought six weeks could change everything in the way that it did. I never thought living in a small dirty box, constantly surrounded by noise and other people would be anything but misery. I've also never liked admitting I was wrong.
But I was. Wrong.

I've been awake today for a little more than two hours, and my large room, filled with books and treasures and memories of my past, feels barren, blank. It's like I'm looking into someone else's life, someone else's past, someone else's story. I've read the memoir and I remember the events, but I'm no longer sure it's me who's lived them.

It makes me laugh, because if I had said to my friends, seven or eight weeks ago, that living in a small dorm room surrounded by dozens of people constantly going in and out, would be my idea of home, they would have thought I needed to be exercised.
I've grown more in the past six weeks than I have in months. I guess that's what being uncomfortable does: it teaches you things, mostly about yourself.

But now I'm "home" in San Diego, sick, as luck would have it, and missing my Santa Barbara company more than anyone would have expected.

But the icing on the cake is: this IS me.

I just thought you all should know

That Meghann is inebriated right now and just got back from the Castro with: Heather, Hailee, Chelsea, Nima, Jason, Wes and Beau.

Thank you, San Francisco!

Fucking electronics

So essentially -- after much conversation with the HP people -- my laptop has some sort of hardware problem and they're going to come pick it up and fix it. Luckily I have Chelsea's laptop and a bajillion PC's around to use. However, they suggested that I back up my laptop before I give it to them. So tomorrow I'm going to buy a cable at the bookstore to do this. I will try in the PC lab, and if that doesn't work, I have a friend with a desktop in his dorm room. The sheisty thing is that I don't think I can get 600 songs off of my computer and burn them onto discs. Can I? We'll see. My friend Hailee had this problem but she downloaded a program from the internet that let her put all of her music from her ipod onto a new computer. Sucks butt.

Otherwise, today was fine. The frozen yogurt in the dining center is fixed and it basically makes my life. And I had the most amazing sandwich for dinner -- chicken, avocado, and pesto on focaccia bread. Holy god. Incredible. Tomorrow is class, bookstore, gym, three-story Forever 21 on Powell, then Joe's and Ghirardelli with Heather's boyfriend, the Nimanator. Hope all is well with you bitches and hos. Peace out.

ta·boo also ta·bu
adj.

1. Excluded or forbidden from use, approach, or mention: a taboo subject.

It's strange what I can and can't say these days.

---------------------

Final exam number one in about 9 hours. | Final exam number two in about 35 hours.
An odd week at home and then back to chaos, the end of the beginning.

"You mean," asked Avon, quite amazed, "that after all this time, we're just beginning? I had no idea how far you have to go before you can start. Almost makes me want to stop."
"You can't do that, either," said Edward severely.
"Why?"
"Can't very well stop if you haven't started, can you?"
"Edward," cried Avon, "I never knew how important it was to start before you begin."
And turning around, they began.



[from The End of the Beginning: Being the Adventures of a Small Snail (and an Even Smaller Ant) by AVI. I highly recommend it.]

JOHN MAYER TRIO

Fucking brilliant, pretty much. At first I was a little eh on all the new non-John Mayer music, but it's actually really awesome. And of course he played all his good songs. I got a full video of "Daughters" on my camera. Does anyone know how to put those on the internet? Check webshots tomorrow. Also, more adventures on public transport. "You don't need that laughin'! You need some ::slap slap:: and good conversation." Yeah Boom Boom Room. Stay tuned for our Thursday night adventure to Joe's Crab Shack and possibly a gay club. We'll see.

In other news, I have class at 8. I have class at 8 every morning, so don't call me after 11:30. And I've got three (perhaps four? Four girls and a gay guy? Maybe) room mates planned for next year. What a fucking mad house.

Coldplay...and then some.

Seventh row seats to the most spectacular and stimulating concert, ever, accompanied by two serious partners in crime. Word of the night: AWESOME.

pre-concert in the parking lot

between the opening and main acts

the start of the show

after Chris Martin came within two feet of us

"my song is love..."

See/hear my new favorite song off the album.

I feel like I woudn't be a true fan if I didn't make some sort of plug for www.maketradefair.com

A week and some partying later, finals have come to bite me on the ass. Two more tests, two letter grades, one blank GPA box to be filled on my record.
No pressure.

Um so yeah basically

Pretty much the most out of control weekend of my life. New pictures on Webshots to illustrate. Yesterday I woke up at 1 pm and did NOTHING and watched The Sweetest Thing. Today we went to Fisherman's Wharf, had fun on public transportation, ate soup in bread bowls at the original Boudin. Had fun with the Bush Man. Heather met a gangsta on the bus and his cousin came up to ask for her number. It was great. Ta ta bitches.

SoHo Adventures

LeeAnn told me about a gallery showing for Visionaire, so I had my first visit to SoHo.

The writing on the wall

My suite bathroom after our second night in Carman 712.