inception

1. woke up at a restful hour. figured out some more furniture stuff with my dad and then got ready for the movies!
2. saw inception. loved it. am going to see it again soon. GO SEE IT. 
3. went to the gym and finished prodigal summer! up next is the secret history. 

i need some sunshine! my plan is to lie out tomorrow and soak up the endorphins and vitamin d. but really, don't read this post unless you've seen inception already. come back to it later because i don't want to give anything away...
i'm so nervous that my thoughts will be stolen tonight! my ideas aren't safe. i'm convinced that the christopher nolan stole his idea for this movie from harry potter. something called "occlumency" was prevalent in most of her books. it's the process by which one can enter another person's thought and take over information or different parts of the mind and plant images or ideas, or steal images and ideas. it's how voldemort got so close to harry and how harry was able to torture voldemort in return. the difference is that occlumency does not require the person to be sleeping, but is able to be used during any state of consciousness. the premise of the inception film is that these people enter dreams, or re-create dreams, rather, and steal ideas for corporate gain. the movie is obviously interesting to me from a psychological perspective. it's frightening to think that someone could enter our dreams and change our present. dreams are a sacred and protected product of the individual mind. to think that those intimate levels could be penetrated and manipulated is terrifying! all i know is that after that movie, other than wanting to see it again, i started to want to carry around a totem, to make sure that my reality is real. how silly! but still, how intriguing...
oh, and i think the top fell over at the end.

miranda

1. day off! figured out some more craigslist stuff with the help of my wonderful dad and then went to waffle house for a yummy breakfast!
2. went to target for some new workout gear and then the gym! i bought the $99 training deal and start on monday!
3. stayed in tonight and had just the kind of friday night i wanted to have. watched freedom writers for the second time and it made me cry all over again. 

how can i be cynical? i used to be optimistic. what happened?
and no, i don't want to talk about it.
and then this movie--lots to think about. 

the chronic-WHAT-cles of narnia

1. had work for several hours today and then rushed to the gym for my personal training meeting at four. 
2. IT WAS AWESOME. 
3. discovered how delicious bryer's all natural fruit bars are--naturally sweet and low fat, and come in three flavors (i had strawberry tonight). 

fair warning, if you haven't read narnia don't read ahead! i love narnia. did i mention this in my favorites post? probably so. nope, just checked, i didn't. good! a new topic. narnia is so well-written, so exciting. the characterization is impeccable, as is the description of the settings. i have the hardest time picking a favorite book, much less an order, but i think i can do it. the voyage of the dawn treader, the last battle, prince caspian, the magician's nephew, the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, the silver chair, the horse and his boy. maybe. the last two could change places depending on my mood. anyway, the series is magical in more than one way. its treatment of religious themes is obviously what its most known for, but a lot of people don't recognize the themes other than christianity that are prevalent throughout. i don't think they have fauns and centaurs in christianity! those images and the images of nature worship and witches pull from pagan beliefs, as well as greek and roman mythology. guess they don't teach that in sunday school class. i first read the series as a child and was immediately drawn in like a moth to a flame. the story is so intriguing and some of the more obvious metaphors to the christian faith are present to any age reader. but even now i love narnia with the same childish charm. maybe i love narnia for all the wrong reasons. but are there wrong reasons to love a book? i perhaps hold it in too high esteem and look over some of the issues that seem to bother modern critics today (sexism, racism, all those isms). but for me the series has always retained a sense of wonder and beauty and excitement that few other works of art have managed to do for me. and susan didn't get excluded from narnia because she was too wrapped up in becoming a woman and a teenager; she was excluded because she stopped believing. she was too practical for narnia from the beginning and always took her role as elder sister too seriously. lucy is one of the more respectable characters in the series and she is female--she just kept believing in narnia and wanting narnia to be real. well, to her it was real. maybe it is real! perhaps that's why i love it. i want to believe that hogwarts and middle-earth and narnia are real. anyway, that's my bit about narnia. on a side note, i decided that i want waffle house for breakfast! i have a day off from work (on accident, not my fault) so i'm going to lie poolside after waffle house and go to the gym later. la ti da!

surfin' usa

1. just got back from the gym! i didn't have a good time to go earlier today since i went out to eat and needed to stay beautified for that, so i went around 10:30 and got back around 11:15. it felt good to sweat but now i have to shower and try to get normal sleep.
2. made a birthday plan with my apartment mate: dress up like jersey shore girls, party party, watch the premiere of season 2 (thanks for the birthday present, mtv), party party, then go to sleep and wake up for work the next morning, haha. 
3. got some exciting work news today!!! i'll get to be third author on a paper, hopefully--if all goes as planned--but it's looking promising so far. 

isn't it funny how one's general feeling about life can yo-yo from day-to-day? okay, maybe it's just me. but my feelings and moods are so variable! some days are "juggersense" days, some days are great, others are okay, some are awful. little things can make me happy or upset or pissed off or nostalgic. i'm a really emotional person and i wear most of them out on my sleeve (best fashion accessory ever!). i've never really been bothered that i'm a moody person...perhaps it bothers other people?...but that's just how i am. we'll call it my temperament to use a psychology term. temperament refers to the fixed disposition a person is born with. it doesn't really change over time and is a good indicator of other personality traits and interpersonal relationships. so today, as maybe you've been able to tell by now, was a great day. i'm happy, i'm finding some furniture for my apartment, it was my friend's birthday, i got good job news, i went out to eat (alone), i'm reading a good book (prodigal summer), i got some new music, my boyfriend is coming in three weeks, i made birthday plans...the list goes on and on! and while i tend to feel guilty about how self-absorbed my life seems sometimes (i mean, i'm blogging about my life for pete's sake--self-important? yes.) today i've just been trying to ride the wave of feeling happy. so healing vibes to you know who you are, good luck job vibes to you know who you are, and thank you vibes to you know who y'all are.

time flies

1. went to work, the gym, grocery shopping. then read, made dinner, watched chopped, and about to gtb!
2. browsed for more furniture on craigslist and looked online for bedsheets/comforter sets. such fun! hopefully i'll get the furniture i want and it'll all fit in our three cars...
3. made an appointment for my free personal training session finally, and then realized that i have to reschedule! how annoying for me and for the gym. but i'm determined to get it in this week. 

all the furniture shopping makes me excited for junior year and my new apartment and (another) new start in my life! sheesh, 2010 sure has been an exciting year so far! it's weird that i'm already reading the august issue of cosmo. i can't believe how quickly time passes when you actually slow down and look around. but really, time doesn't pass that quickly. it's been a long time getting to july 13th, and all i want is for another three weeks to roll around so that i can be heading home to where i belong. i really have enjoyed this summer, don't get me wrong. and i can't wait for it to get to that point in my life where this summer will all be so worth it. i'm getting to do so many things that most students my age aren't getting to do with their summers. but this summer is a stepping stone to where i want to be later in life. hopefully this year will be a stepping stone to later in life also. it's more like a stepping boulder. but that's what it takes sometimes. i'm excited for classes and excited for friends and excited for going out again! i miss college. i can't imagine graduating. people down here are always surprised that i'm "only going to be a junior." i'm like "only?!" you're kidding, right? that's so old to me! but my sister is in the process of buying a damn house, and i feel old?! geez. people who are over 30 look at me with scorn (trust me, i've gone out with some 30-somethings lately and can barely take the heat--double entendre intended). the withering looks are getting old, but maybe i should stop complaining about "only being a junior."

and it was all yellow

1. had an awful sleep last night and had a really bad morning, but the day slowly got better. 
2. got the passport photos for my visa made today and got the august issue of cosmo in the mail!
3. watched the bachelorette tonight--i'm pulling for roberto! season finale is on august 2nd...that's the week i'm going back home, yay!

don't get me wrong, i've definitely enjoyed my summer. but it's just not been as wonderful as i expected. missing people and being this far away from home has really been a bummer. but the experience has been priceless for my resume and my career goals. cosmo had an article about making the steps to change things in your life that you are not happy with and i've pretty much taken those steps and ended up where i am this summer. but i also have some lingering thoughts that can't be solved with the simple steps cosmo put forth. some things just can't be changed. but i'm really tired after my fitful night last night and need to get some sleep. i've decided that i liked living alone though. the roommate situation has calmed down a little bit and it's pretty much back to normal. and picking out furniture for my new apartment has been fun! next decision: bedding and wall paint color...

7/11

1. woke up late, watched the soccer game (viva espana!) and went to the gym. 
2. planned an outfit for tomorrow, read an article, watched foot network. 
3. started night by elie wiesel and can barely put it down. the writing is so honest and so succinct and so heartbreaking. 

i can't even imagine the holocaust. i put down night when i got to a chapter break and got up to walk to the kitchen to make a frozen dinner. i paused in the doorway and almost started to cry. i could hit myself for how ungrateful i am. not ungrateful, but unappreciative. no, that isn't the right word either. jaded comes closer, i think. i think every holocaust conversation that happens eventually comes to the place i came to tonight--how can i be so worried about some of the stuff i'm worried about when people lived through something like the holocaust? and it is not in the past; it will never be in the past as long as genocides happen, like the ones in the sudan and in darfur and to our planet earth. yes, i think humans are committing a mass genocide against earth. few people acknowledge it, few people try to prevent it or try to fix it, and few people care enough to rise up against the mass consumerism. elie talks in the intro and also in the actual book about his loss of faith. if they were God's chosen people, how were the Jews being subjected to such annihilation and suffering? it was the cruelest torture. and now, God's creation, must be asking the same questions. if you created us and love us and intended us to be used wisely and with care and compassion, how can you let these horrible things happen to us? every evil in this world is just a product of another evil. why are the pink dolphins in the amazon being killed and used as bait, with the carcasses left to rot on the shores? because the people of the amazon region are starved and impoverished and need money for their families. why do they need money for their families? because they are uneducated and don't have access to health care and birth control and cannot control their population. why the lack of basic health care and education, seemingly inherent rights of humanity? there is no government funding and no one who really cares. why no money and no one to care? i am growing tired of answering these questions. they may not even be the right answers. it's just so frustrating. i am outraged at the murdering of the pink dolphins, but how can i be so angry with poor citizens just trying to survive? and questions like that follow all the answers that involve blame. where does the cycle begin? where does it stop?

bucket list item: donate time and money to my causes.