Shuffle be trippin'

The most bizarre choices, such as the Original Broadway Cast of Chicago's rendition of the song where Roxie Hart talks about her boobs, and then Christina Aguilera's song Soar (although this is at least statistically likely because I inexplicably have quadruples of Christina Aguilera's CD Stripped) which is coincidentally the same word as the one that describes my freshman orientation. Then some song by Deep Purple which I forgot I possessed. Then Speechwriters LLC, then Enya. Shuffle be in a weird mood today.

But I think I've discovered that I like Enya.

I've been thinking a lot about my day-to-day routine lately and how it subtly reveals who I am. Friday morning (yesterday morning but it feels like it was a week ago because my Fridays are much longer than any other day of the week and then I woke up early today and went to work and took an abnormally long nap in the afternoon), I went to WSUM and then French class.

WSUM is the student-run radio station that I will hopefully soon have a show on. I realize this makes me sound cooler or less cool than I am; disregard this because the following dilemma shall clarify.

WSUM has this door that only lets authorized people come in with the use of their Student ID which has a magnetic strip which is activated by whoever decides you're good enough to have a show once you've completed your training. No one was around to let me in when I got there 20 minutes late for my appointment to play with the mixing boards so I sat outside the doors doing my french homework and jerking up whenever anyone walked by hoping to sneak in behind someone. Finally when my time was supposed to over, I got let in by two guys who were actually not creeped out that I followed them in and ran into Anthony, Scott's roommate who likes the movie the Big Lebowski which I have never seen but Becca thinks is overrated. I was pleased that he remembered my name because I think he's met me only a couple times. People have problems remembering my name. I've learned to be understanding about it because I'm really bad at remembering names unless they are accompanied by a last name or are super distinctive like Chadwick or Archibald. But it tends to take people longer to memorize my name than it takes me to memorize theirs.

Since I had forgotten to bring my laptop and feared that I would miss my chance to enter if I left to get it from my dorm, I played music off of YouTube the whole time I was there. I did a voice break between every song that went like "That was the very hot Albert Hammond Jr. and his great song "In Transit. Now I'm going to play you something else that's also amazing.... Or not. Wait a sec, sorry there are technical difficulties because I don't know how to use an eighth inch cable to connect to my iPod. Oh well. Here's something new by Vampire Weekend. I just found out there's a bad word in Oxford Comma."

I was finally getting really into it when I realized I was getting late to my french class. But since I had just played with the boards, I felt like I was really hip so I ran downstairs and got a White Zombie (it's this coffee that's weirdly white because the grounds have not yet browned and it's highly caffeinated) before I left for class, but the girl at the counter added the Vanilla in the wrong order so it wasn't as good as it could've been. Because I was also feeling very curious and inquisitive, I took a different route to my class, through a garden and then through a construction site. It took about 5 minutes longer than necessary and I got to class five minutes early nonetheless thanks to hipster speed-walking during which I spilled coffee on myself but was still in a very good mood thanks to my iPod which gives me rose colored lenses and makes me smile at strangers.

Walking through the construction site and then walking among the ancient buildings on campus makes me feel strangely poetic. They have this old school charm that is not had by Chadbourne which is flanked by uglier looking buildings made in the fatalistic or post post modern styles. Another building that I love on campus is Science Hall, the Geography building, which is filled with topographical maps that you can just touch and feel very satisfied. Its staircases are oddly steep and there is one that I think leads to the roof but it is blocked off.

I finally got to class and saw that my teacher had already arrived and the students sat in their normal seats. The kids in my french class on the whole are more hip than those in my other classes. For one thing, they all have near fluency in French, which is very hip. For another, they all seem to have some kind of niche. Some of them go to concerts, some of them bike competitively, some of them used to live in D.C. and are very buff, some have weird resemblances to rockstars, some are still in high school, some write fiction in their spare time, some of them are very into indie TV shows and films,  like Flight of the Conchords or like Paris, Je T'aime (for obvious reasons) or have clearly read Stuff White People Like, some of them look like an Urban Outfitters catalogue.  Also, they're all very nice.

As for me, I like to assume that I'm very cool, but when I open my mouth, it becomes less obvious. It's a phenomenon ever present in my life I have found. I'd like to be a bit more mysterious.

Quote of the week:
"Aarushi, you surprise me everyday." -Sarah Lewis, in response to my vocal/talking voice dissonance giving me a maybe-compliment-maybe-insult (there should really be a word for that! There is probably one in German.)

I knew you knew I liked you

I haven't been posting in a bit mainly because I haven't been thinking very deeply about more than one thing in a bit. I also haven't been sleeping deeply either. Last night, I (and my roommate) were rudely awoken by a phone call at alarm volume. After that, my sleep cycle was terribly interrupted. I've become a less deep sleeper in anticipation of alarms, and I think it's very strange, since sleeping deeply is part of my identity.

I forgot to refill my medicine prescription in time so now I'm sore and this is right after I decided to walk to class and avoid elevators in my building. Oh no. The increased physical activity is impacting my asthma because when you make walking up 5 floors a necessity, you have to do it quicker than is comfortable so then I wheeze. Oh well.

My band, The Rose Lights is filling my mind a lot lately, mainly because I am really excited about it and we just got a Facebook/Myspace thing which these days is what makes your band legit. Dinner Bell is our first recorded song, and I've been getting some good feedback which is exciting, but also scary because I feel that we need to record fast to keep up the momentum we have.

It has led me to a weird speaking voice vs. singing voice identity disparity. Most people seem to not think that my singing voice sounds like my talking voice and then give me all kinds of funny looks, which I feel ambivalent about. I am normally flattered that people think I have a good voice, but I am also weirded out by the fact that people would say I don't sound like I would sing the way I do, or I don't sing like I'm myself, because the fact is that that is the way I do sing, and I've known nothing different. Also, people like Jack White, Bright Eyes,  and Beyonce, you can tell their talking and singing voice is the same.  Oh well. I am generally happy with the positive response and I'm excited that people like my voice because I will be less nervous about it. Maybe it's a chance to break away from my day-to-day persona.

In other news, my life is being pretty boring. Day-to-day it is interesting, but eventfully, there's not much besides the band or maybe I'm just not in the mood to divulge. Take a listen to the band, though.

Some tidbits

Geography Discussion:

Becca: I think it's like the change between having to have ties with the government in order to achieve your policy, and being able to have power on your own. Like back in the progressive era Gifford Pinchot and Teddy Roosevelt had like a thing.
Aarushi (me): BROMANCE!

Geography Lecture (maybe a few weeks ago):
Professor Olmanson: Can you guys think of a significant event that occurred in the first half of the 1900s?
Becca: The Teapot Dome Scandal!
Professor Olmanson: Um, that was very significant, but that wasn't the one I was really looking for?
Some other kid: World War I!
Professor Olmanson: While World War I may not be as big of a deal as the Teapot Dome Scandal, I think it's pretty relevant here.


Today I am at the Milwaukee Public Library. It's a very beautiful building. But this is because I got up really early to go to Milwaukee to get citizenship but my mom thought that they would do it early and then we could go home, but the fact is that now we're stuck in Milwaukee until 2:00 when it is, when I could've just gone to class (Sex lecture). Sadness.

Becca on some class: I was just looking around at the class and looking at all the attractive people, and I realized that you are definitely one of the MOST attractive people in the class.
Me: Thank you, that's very sweet.
Becca: There are a lot of REALLY unattractive people in that class.

I just watched the librarian kick like five people off some computers because they're "designated for people 18 and under." Bogus. (Especially since all people 18 and under should be in school right now, unless they're me who is in college and has an excuse.)

venn diagrams would be useful here

What I wanted to accomplish today:
-finish Geog readings
-write proposal for Honors project for Geography
-write French project, and study for French Test
-go to Sex Honors thing and successfully not make a fool of myself
-get back on track with seed planting and transplanting at work

What I accomplished today:
-read exactly one paragraph of Geog readings
-decided on tentative Honors research paper topic after not being able to find Volunteer work through the bureaucracy that is WISPIRG
-thought about doing French Project and made a word doc with an outline that I need to fill with content, and failed to study for test
-kind of made a fool of myself at sex honors thing but it was probably okay because I sounded like I was prepared and hopefully charmed professor
-did not get back on track with seed planting but got closer to track and wrote a plan for the next two days of lab work
-ran down my laptop battery while unproductive at Rheta's for several hours accompanied by two bromancing bandmates, one of whom is my boyfriend
-went to the wrong place at the wrong time for a meeting I wasn't destined to make
-ran down cell phone battery
-almost lost tooth paste in a restaurant style booth
-made valentines day plans
-had lunch with Gina
-made this blog entry which is nothing in comparison to blog entry i wrote on monday which got deleted by God and the little moles who crawl through the browsers on the law library's public computers.

Sleeping is giving in

So after some rude awakenings (literally),  I have decided I need to repair my sleep cycle/productivity/ability to take medicine. I have been losing sleep and it's becoming apparent because I have started substituting names for other names because I think about one person and then I try to talk to someone else and the name of the person I was thinking about comes out of my mouth and it's super embarrassing.

Also, gonna be more awake so I can think more original thoughts because before my mind was teeming with these thoughts, new and alive, but now I'm crippled with work all the time, so my mind thinks really really boring thoughts like, Jeez, I run everywhere now, or Eww, I wish I could get vaccinated but I don't have any time. They lead to nothing productive and I'll probably get a horrible illness and die soon.

Becca's blog has pictures on it! It's pretty cool. I went party-hopping last night and I managed to have a bit of fun sans substances, which is weird because normally I'm annoyed by the party environment because people are creepy and android-like and just do things for no reason, but last night was kind of fun because everyone thought I was hilarious, and I realize it's maybe because people take themselves way too seriously and when they're drunk they're as likely as I am to say weird things. The nice thing is that I can have a good time without sacrificing judgment.

I am sleepy.

Skip down, slow down, push it to the East Coast

It's so late, why not post now?

Lately, I've been well. I suppose I started a new semester and I suppose I'm in that stage of the semester in which I still feel that I can conquer it all and I am doing things differently than ever before. Some things that are different:

1. I never take the bus anymore and basically run to wherever I have to go, or as in the case of this morning, I trudged through sticky, flour-like, quick sandy snow to slowly get to my destination. Leaving with ample earliness, it still took me five minutes longer than necessary. Still, an improvement because the bus is inefficient, and it's warm when you walk and the only downside is that I spill coffee on myself while I'm running to class, but otherwise, I have found some really good shortcuts!

2. I have become totally lax about socialness. While this does not really mean that I've stopped being a social butterfly who always goes out of her way to hang out with people, it means that I am not that affected either way by my relationships with people which always go well generally otherwise I'd probably be more freaked out right now.

3. I am brimming with new excitement for several things-- including my friendships (though I am not stressing about them), my band (which has become a talking point for me as it previously was not), my lab job (this is the one I stress about), my other two jobs, my French class (it's so fun, and actually doable, which means that I have improved!), and the prospect of learning things from scratch the right, scholarly, collegiate ways for my other classes (not like last semester in that I actually DO readings on time, and am self-reliant about understanding material and am taking a class that is taken by people who are almost done with their major, allowing for interesting perspectives to flow in discussion sections.)

4. I am also very, very busy. Last semester, I felt busy because I had to work and because I was taking 17 credits. This semester, I'm both academically busy (15 credits of social studies and language is no easy task as I may have thought before) and not academically busy, and when I'm not doing homework or studying, I'm working, and when I have a rare moment of neither, I am being a socialite (in a way I only can).

5. I totally forgot to mention that I am training at WSUM- The student run radio station at UW-Madison. Soon, Becca and I will have a show and it will be amazing and funnny and smart, with the great accent of GREAT music. (Currently, I'm listening to Smashing Pumpkins.)


6. I got a brand new computer! It is of the Mac variety and I bought it myself with my hard earned money (well more like my dad bought it with his credit card, and at my next convenience I have to take $1475 out of my account and give it to my dad because I do not have a check book)!  It came with a printer! For this computer, I got a nice case that is BLUE and it was $30 from InCase.

I know it sounds as though I am going to kill myself, but I assure you that I'm actually excited about this crazy schedule, because I feel that I am doing what I want to do with right now.

Some Goals:
-Find more time for creativity: try to write a song in the next 2 weeks or refine older song ideas.
-Dress cuter and beat those hipsters in my french class at their own game.
-Go to bed no later than midnight every night. New formula: do homework in solitude, socialize/chillax/be creative until midnight! Wake up at 8:00. Class. Work. Repeat.