I remember it well, the first time that I saw your head round the door, 'cause mine stopped working...

I like that you pay attention to detail and then later remember those details. Like how it's not just some milk. It's travel milk. I like that after hearing about my plans just once you always ask, just as said plans are ending,  "How was (insert plans here)?" I guess I'm pretty lucky to have someone who can pull all of the actual information out of my usually nonsensical rambling. Even though I don't actually like it, I like the idea of all of the pictures on your phone. I feel rather special when you send me pictures from years ago, no matter how much I hate the picture itself, the concept of the whole thing is alright by me.

I guess, you're pretty alright...

Are we facing the end of all the medicine we're taking?

I think so. 

Disclaimer:  I do not now, nor have I ever, claimed to like good music. I like the music that I like and a lot of it is actually quite terrible. I am currently listening to The New Pornographers and coming up is a little Paramore so I'm definitely not above any of the music (or people) I am about to bash right now so chill the fuck out!

Columbia College's organized events/concerts have come together to end everything that Columbia tries to make reality. Seriously, first there was that lovely Big Mouth Open Mic that was basically a really terrible spin-off of 106th and Park on BET and then Friday night was Jam of the Year which was basically two DJs from Columbia playing pretty awesome music but only getting the fall out boy fans to dance... terribly... and two bands: Matt & Kim and Ludo. Matt & Kim were alright. It was your basic boyfriend and girlfriend playing drums and keys and performing their oh so cool 2 minute songs. Did I mention there was also that really ridiculous girl on drums and boy of keys thing? Let's just say that you can always pinpoint a song by The White Stripes because of the simplistic (read bad) drum playing... I had to leave early so I didn't see Ludo but by the people who were there waiting and excited to see them I can tell that my leaving was for the best.

The only way to describe the crowd is: Forever 21 meets Urban Outfitters wearing white kids who like Kanye because it's cool to do so.

I do not own anything that ties around my neck, especially not one of those stupid scarves that are soo cool to wear with anything from a western style shirt to stunna' shades, and I do not own any western wear or tank tops that my mom may have worn in the 80s. I also do not like boys who wear these things and have fashion mullets. I was most definitely not part of this little club that attended the show.

My next stop Friday night was Cat's place to get ready for the cocktail party. We got ready, met up with the rest of our group, and made our way into Kim's ghetto mexican neighborhood! The party was a ton of fun. I basically drank a few cups of bacardi limon and coke quite quickly and got nice and red cheeked. Cat's roommate Aly and I teamed up and went out and met some new people. We met Colby aka Co-Jack. He was being a bartender and making extremely strong but extremely tasty drinks. We chatted with him for quite some time. We also met Xavier aka X aka China (or China 1). We talked to him for a bit and then decided we wanted to know, "What kind of asian are you?" He told us China and then we chatted some more. We definitely forgot his name so, "China! What's your real name again?" Cue entrance of another asian boy! Walking up the front steps was another one and so of course we asked what kind of asian and real name. He was Scott... but we referred to him as... China 2!  We also met an exchange student from France named Aida. I told her multiple times that I was going to tell everybody I know that I met a girl with the same name as "that Elton John thing." She was quite nice! 

We ended up leaving the party because Cat, Kristen, Paige, and Lisa decided that they wanted to go back to the dorms to party with the boys across the hall. I was staying with Cat that night so I didn't really have a choice to stay of go. We go to the dorm and... the boys were done drinking. One of them came and chatted with us for a bit but that's all. It was a pretty spectacular night even though I wish it would've lasted longer!!

P.S... on the train ride home I was in heaven because my boyfriend (aka the boy I have been in love with since freshman year and stared at across the cafeteria and who was Jack Skellington for Halloween that same year) was on the train... I only saw him once last year and I saw him at the bookstore this year so this was my second sighting this year and I was thrilled!

Here is my night in Pictures (none were actually taken at the party... not enough time between China and China 2):

Before:

After:

Maybe I'll forgive you, maybe you'll try, we should be happy together forever, you and I...

I think/hope my relationship with my wireless is going to turn out alright. The Linksys router decided to be a jerk so we broke up rather swiftly and $200 later I am newly engaged to an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station. So far so good!

Davedar: Out of the 89 Dave songs on my computer... I have successfully (or not so much) cut it down to 51 that I really really enjoy. Great. I will try to cut it down again and we'll see how far we get. I guessed a top 30 last time right? This time I'm hoping for a top 40. 

I smell bad and I am going to babysit some new kids tonight so I think I might make a good choice and get off my ass and shower right now... Yeah.

It's the windy city but that don't mean it's a breeze...

I'm pretty sure I went to a taping of "106th and Park" last night. Or maybe Columbia's Big Mouth Open Mic night is only attended by the BSU (black student union). There were multiple types of performances... 

• Singing (not really of the amazing sort) that was usually done to the persons track without having the vocals removed so it was excruciatingly obvious how off key the singer was.
• Spoken word of only two varieties: 

1. Lesbians talking about caressing skin with tongues.
2. Boisterous black women in camouflage one piece short suits talking about how white supremacy has made black women straighten their hair and forget that black women are beautiful and that their tits and ass were made for them and it's all that is keeping their race around... oh and it somehow jumped to caressing skin with tongues but of the hetero sort.
   

• More singing. This time in the style of a music video. This guy walked on stage with two girls. One of which as singing backing/hook vocals and the other who was there for, merely, bad acting. They sang a "love song" where the chick acted all ghetto while the other one, much prettier BTW, was stuck singing her small vocals where the stage lights didn't hit. Talk about getting snubbed.
• Finally, Rap. There were like 5 rap duos that I saw. Every single one of them rapped about... you guessed it! Chi City. I'm not even joking. Nobody said Chicago on even Chi town. Each group, as if they'd planned it, rapped about Chi City. Apparently I am not up on my windy city lingo and need to get hip to the times. My personal favorite group was the guys that go up and started off with the typical yos, yeahs, and uhs and then not so subtly went right into their song... " It's time to have sex." Not even joking, this song/rap/WTF could give 2 Live Crew's album "As Nasty as They Wanna Be", which was basically banned for sale in the US, a run for it's money. 

There were like 5 white boys with guitars and the makings of a rock band standing in the back of the room but Ashley informed me that when she arrived at 6:15, for a 6:30 show there was a line out the door of people waiting to get in and that the list of performers was full and there was another page of wait listed performers. Apparently all the white boys were on that list because they all continued to stand at the back of the room until the show ended. We left and went to get dinner at Eleven which we decided was more my scene... a jewish deli style restaurant full of kins with gauged ears and long hair. The night ended with a mighty large piece of chocolate cake... which also served as my breakfast.

Let's hope tonight's "Jam of The Year" event will be more my style. Ashley is pumped to see "Matt and Kim"who are some sort of eclectic duo from Brooklyn. Then it's off to KThro's cocktail party in my lovely dress!

Davedar: Yay new section about Dave Matthews, at least for now! I was going to do a bracket style tournament for my favorite Dave song when I realized that I had already added like 5 songs from one album to my starter list. As of today, I am listening to my 5th album and only one of those albums contributed less than 6 songs to the list. I suppose now I will just be making a rather long list of songs that I really really like and maybe doing one more cut into a list of a top 20... ok who am I kidding, top 30 probably. 

Don't let the troubles in your head steal too much time, you'll soon be dead...

I have the rest of my life to work right? But don't I have that same time to have fun and have friends? 

I think, scratch that... I KNOW I need to be more worried about working right now and saving money than about having fun and hanging out with friends. I've taken to this hermit lifestyle rather quickly since I've been living away from the city so I think i'd be alright with a second job and only a night a week with friends. I spent a couple of hours this morning before work picking up and filling out job applications for anywhere and everywhere. I filled out application for places from Starbucks to Ace Hardware... That's how bad I need a second job.

Quote to think about:

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

-George Eliot

I have always loved this quote but I never really thought about it until this past weekend. I was sitting on the bus, soaking wet, with my target bags and I should have been miserable yes? Was I? Nope. I had my i pod blasting some music into my ears. Music that makes me feel like I could never want anything else. You're probably thinking I was listening to some majestic piece from the classical era or some Bob Dylan song with genius lyrics... Nope. Wrong again. 

I was listening to a song with these lyrics:

Thursday night,

everything's fine,

Except you've got that look in your eyes,

when I'm telling a story

And you find it boring your thinking of something to say.

You'll go along with and then drop it

And you Humiliate me, in front of our friends.

Then I'll use that voice what you find annoyin'

And say something like

"intelligent input darlin' why don't you just go and have another beer then?"

Then you call me a bitch and everyone we're with will be embarrassed,

and I won't give a shit.

My fingertips are holding onto the

cracks in our foundations,

and I know that I should let go,

but I can't.

And everytime we fight I know its not right,

everytime that your upset and I smile

I know I should forget, but I can't.

You said I must eat so many lemons,

'cause I am so bitter.

I said "I'd rather be with your friends mate,

cause they are much fitter"

Yes it was childish

and you got aggressive

and I must admit that I was a bit scared,

but it gives me thrills to wind you up.

My fingertips are holding onto the

Cracks in our foundations,

and I know that I should let go,

but I can't.

And everytime we fight,

I know its not right,

every time that your upset and I smile,

I know I should forget,

but I can't.

Your face is pasty,

'Cause you've gone and got so wasted,

what a surprise,

don't want to look at your face,

'cause its making me sick.

You've gone and got sick on my trainers,

I only got these Yesterday.

Oh my gosh, I cannot be bothered with this.

Well I'll leave you there till the mornin',

and I purposely won't turn the heating on

and dear God, I hope I'm not stuck with this one.

My fingertips are holding onto the

Cracks in our foundations,

and I know that I should let go,

but I can't.

And everytime we fight,

I know its not right,

every time that your upset and I smile,

I know I should forget,

but I can't.

And every time we fight I know it's not right,

every time that you're upset and I smile.

I know I should forget, but I can't.

These are not happy lyrics yet I couldn't help but sit on that bus grinning and thinking that who cares if it's pouring on my wide open saturday afternoon! I listened to Kate Nash all weekend and I'm pretty sure I never stopped smiling. Give it a listen.

I know that after tonight, you don't have to look up at the stars...

I started a Dave Diet yesterday: Listening to ridiculous amounts of Dave Matthews until I am well versed or sick of it. It's only a partial diet though because I am currently infatuated with a burned cd I came across full of The Classic Crime and Cinematic Sunrise on it and I can't seem to spend a day without sampling it a little. So far though I am loving Dave and I'm not quite sure how I ever lived without all of these killer tunes... I decided the same thing about netflix today as well!

This weekend was kind of a bust... I freaked out this week because I am flat broke and I was starving and bored and had no money for the bus and so my mom put some money into the bank for me (even though I told her not to because I truly did not want her money) and I am now fed and have a bus pass. 

I went over to Ashley's  last night and stopped for a pumpkin spice latte at starbucks on the way. It was delicious! We decided we wanted to make cupcakes so we found a recipe and a few extra ingredients... tequila and key lime... Ashley was out of flour so we went to walgreens to pick some up and stopped back at starbucks to try the pumpkin spice frappucino. EVEN BETTER!!!  I love Fall and Halloween time because of all things pumpkiny:

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Lattes and Frapps at Starbucks

Pumpkin Bread at Caribou Coffee

Pumpkin Doughnuts at Uncle John's

Pumpkin Delights from the lovely Little Debbie

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin patches

Pumpkin "candy corn"

and finally

Pumpkin candies half chocolate half crunchy peanut butter wrapped in foil with pumpkin faces on top that have been discontinued for like 2 flipping years!!!! Whoever made that decision should be stuffed into a meat grinder alive!

Back to the cupcakes... I got to sift the flour and dump it into the mixer and that is where my cooking ended. I decided I wanted to make decorations for the cupcakes so I got out the gumpaste (wikipedia definition at the bottom Gordon) and started creating. Naturally my love for the holidays had me making a jack-o-lantern and from there I decided to make a cupcake for all 6 of the major holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and the 4th of July. The pictures are on facebook duh!

This week... work as usual and a few extra hours and money in my pocket! I have a quiz tomorrow AM in my math class and my first homework assignment in oceanography on Wednesday so this will be the beginning of: Krista Marie Genius: The Road to a 4.0

Gumpaste: Edible clay-like dough made by combining glycerin, gum Arabic and icing sugar and used to mold edible flowers and figures. Gum paste can also be rolled extremely thin and used to make intricate ribbons and lacework as well as delicate flower petals.

Why aren't you sorry? Why aren't you sorry? Why...

It's been almost 2 months. Let's go back...

June recap:  1. Went back to work at Domino's

                       2. Took up bad tennis playing with Add

                       3. Bought a new bike and rode my legs useless

July: The girls camping trip went pretty well but I would definitely say I prefer camping with Mommy and Doug... Its funny how the two city girls are better campers/fire builders/packers than the two country girls! July was also spent working at Domino's only once or twice a week but it was more money than having no job at all! 

August: I applied for a bajillion different loans with my mom as a cosigner... I spent a lot of time mapping out my debt, time spent in school, time left until I finish, and of course what the hell am I going to be doing this year? 

D-Day... after being rejected for loan after loan after loan and being denied a signature from Steve Kildea Mommy and I went over to Holly to have a chat with Him and Dawn. When we told them what was going to happen if I couldn't get a loan Dawn kept saying how sorry she was that they couldn't cosign (couldn't they have at least tried?)and Steve just reiterated the fact that I will just have to forget school and get a job. 

The kicker: They can't cosign because Steve is currently jobless and Dawn is already tied up in Jon's loans and what happens in 10 years if they need to get a new car or a new house and they have this open line of credit... YOU HAVE A BRAND NEW TRAILBLAZER AND THE NICEST MODULAR HOME I'VE EVER SEEN!!!  unkick... 

The "decision": Krista will return to Chicago to work for the Vaheys and get a second job in order to scrape enough money to pay cheap rent and a hefty loan payment. Do I even have to say I spent the hour long ride home crying and staring out the window at my life, dreams, and future flying away? Didn't think so.

I was in contact with the Vaheys setting up my job and trying to find something else while trying to figure out if I could benefit from taking a class at a city college so I always have my toes in academia and trying to find somewhere to live. At first I was emailing all of the ads posted by females or male undergrads with rooms for rent. Apparently nobody at the University of Chicago can handle living with a 20 year old college drop out. After a stressful period of searching and the threat of being homeless came about I started checking on the rest of the ads: male grad students, PHD candidates, and businessmen.  I got in touch with a guy who I assumed was a grad student and was so excited to find a place that I didn't care to know anything but how much money I needed to send to hold the room and when I could move in. 

My mom got the results back from the parent PLUS loan she applied for (so she would be denied and I could get another $5000 loan from the feds) and Kicker #2: Approved... 20 year old with excellent credit and mommy cosigner denied. Bankrupt mommy alone, Approved! And so Krista gets fucked again. 

I got onto the Columbia admissions site and started doing the math and looked into my past loans to see what their deferment rules are. In order to keep my loans deferred I need to be enrolled in school at least part time... which equals 6 or more credit hours. I figured out that I can get enough federal loans to cover 5 credit hours. My mom applies again for a PLUS loan, this time for Columbia and only for 15 large, and is approved. 

The new decision: Krista will take two classes at Columbia which is basically covered by federal loans. Mommy will take out the 15 large (all while hoping the bankruptcy court doesn't hear about it and take her house) which will cover rent for the year. Krista will work for the Vaheys and other various families on the weekends and get another job for the mornings and save all of that money to cover rent for the next year and hopefully another class each semester.

September: I moved back to Chicago on August 30th and mommy and Doug stayed through Monday the 1st since they were both on vacation for our planned Boston trip. I got 25 hours in this week with a family in the city and start working for the Vaheys on Monday. I am setting up a meeting with another woman who needs someone to sit in the morning and will hopefully have all of my time filled with work. I am settled in now, getting used to not living in the city and falling asleep to the Sears Tower, and waiting impatiently for the day when I can go to school full time again.

The Roommate: MC is his name. He was born in India and makes Indian food for dinner every night so the apartment constantly smells gross. Indian food is my favorite food though so I know how to deal with the smell. my mom took it upon herself to ask questions and this is the info: He was born in India and moved to the U.S. 20 years ago and went to Duke. I'm pretty sure he meant he came here for the purpose of going to Duke and not moved here and also went to Duke later on like I hoped. This information ages him at about 38 years old. He told my mom he is starting/has started his own business in consulting, on what we don't know, and works mainly from the apartment on his computer and occasionally in clients' offices. He also mentioned that he travels A LOT!! He will be gone most of October, February, and March so yippee for me having my own place for a while! He's extremely nice and helpful and besides the basic chats in passing and whatnot we both keep to ourselves and all is good.