V-Day

As i'm sure you can guess, Valentine's day is not my favorite day of the year. I'm past the point of wearing black- I just kind of do my best to ignore it. I'm perpetually single, and to date my favorite Valentine's day has been with Kim when we were in high school (?)- we got dressed up, made chocolate covered strawberries and watched Sense & Sensibility. Don't ask me why we dressed up. It made us feel better. The memory still makes me feel happy. And actually, I had 2 chocolate covered strawberries tonight. It's a nice Valentine's tradition, for the non-valentines day celebration.

You know, in preparation for today, I read the Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler. It was both appropriate and on my list for the great book challenge, so I killed two birds with one stone. I read it 2 weeks ago, and it brought up some nice memories. Inevitably, the vagina monologues remind me of Hamilton, especially Laura, my feminist pro-vagina friend. (Not that i knew many people who were anti-vagina or anything.) We were in a performance of the vagina monologues our senior year at Hamilton. It happened to be a very trying time for me, and I found the experience to be therapeutic. I don't recall the name of my monologue (even though i recently re-read it), which i shared with two other girls. But i do remember my first line: "my vagina's angry. it is. it's pissed off". and at the time, it was. i was heartbroken and angry and feeling powerless and sad. and the vagina monologues helped me get some things off my chest, in front of a large group of people, by reciting some very serious, yet fun words, while wearing a pink boa. A yes, fond memories of V-Day that year. and Laura, my personal savior during that time. I probably never repaid her for that.

I can't believe February is half over. Time seems to keep flying by. My 5 year college reunion is in early June, the week after my sister gets married! This, of course, means I have to step up my gym routine to make sure I feel suitably thinnish for both occasions. But it's also just kind of weird to have such big events so close together. Lots to process. I don't even want to begin to think about it now.

Want to know what I did today? I got up, watched Friday Night Lights (sigh, the best show ever), went to the gym. Then I read a little, went grocery shopping, and made a trip to Pats for a cheesesteak. I had decided in advance that my Valentine's Day present to myself was a cheesesteak. I haven't had one in ages, and it was a guaranteed food orgasm. So I indulged, and it definitely lived up to the expectations. I also watched both my netflix movies, Vicky Christina Barcelona (one of my new favorite Woody Allen movies) and La Vie En Rose (depressing but impressive), went through my wardrobe and gathered a bag of clothes to donate, cleaned off my desk and dining room table of all the bills/mail/garbage, and cleaned my microwave (which was in desperate need of a good cleaning). Overall, i'd say I was quite productive, wouldn't you?

As for the Great Book Challenge: I read 'Loving Frank', by Nancy Horan. A truly wonderful book. I also read 'the Vagina Monologues', as i mentioned, by Eve Ensler. A quick read, and a good one. I'm now two chapters in to 'The Audacity of Hope' by our president- Barack Obama (written pre-presidency, of course). So far it's interesting, and makes me love him even more than i already did, which i didn't think was possible. I will continue to keep you posted- but so far i think i'm kicking this challenge's ass.

In any event, happy v-day to everyone. I hope you celebrated in any way you saw fit, and at least did something that made you smile.

PMShitty

PMS is a terrible thing. I know men joke about it as the reason all women are bitchy, but seriously- it sucks. and it's not something we can always control either. For instance, i thought that the pill would help my pms, and for the most part- it has. just not this month. no, for some reason, this month i've been filled with the feeling of dread that comes along with realizing you're pms-ing in a major way. i'm irritable, hungry all the time, tired, achey, lazy and feel like throwing a tantrum and flailing around on the floor. for no real reason. it's lovely. if i were in a relationship, i'm sure i would have picked a fight by now. but instead i'm just rude to my mom and not calling my sister back. i have little patience, least of all for myself. and it's not easy to irritate yourself all the time. there's no one to blame for that really. it's all your fault.

this week was very busy at work, which is a good thing- as it makes the days go by fast and i feel somewhat useful. we even had a snow day on wednesday! which was amazing and a nice rest, but by friday i was still itching for the day to end. so of course it crawled by like a drunk snail. and now it's sunday and the whole thing starts over again tomorrow. but hopefully i'll be in a better state of mind for it. pms can't last forever, right?

i'm excited for the superbowl, mainly because i associate it with eating not-so-healthy food. although, given the past week of eating i've had, i'm going to try and be good. i don't expect it to be a very exciting game, especially since the Eagles aren't in it- so i'm mainly watching for the commercials. hopefully there will be some good ones.

i got my first grad school interview letter this weekend! i have to call and set it up, but it looks like Immaculata University would like to interview me for their PsyD program. So that is exciting. what's not exciting is filling out my fafsa form, which i did today (the latest possible deadline) and wanted to pull my eyebrows out one by one, especially when my internet crashed just as i was about to finish the damn form. luckily it was easily restored and i didn't have to fill out the whole thing over again. i might have vomited out of pure anger. but that episode was avoided. thank god.

i'm now off to the gym to try and sweat my way into a better mood.
oh- and an update on the great book challenge of 2009- I've finished 'Outliers'- it was awesome. I really enjoy Gladwell's style of writing and I like how he always keeps things interesting by tying in all the randomest populations of people. It feel like good party trivia, things you can bring up in conversation and seem interesting. I bet Malcolm Gladwell is great at a party. He's actually speaking here in Philly Monday night, but I can't go :( maybe next time.
I'm almost done with 'The Boelyn Inheritance' by Philippa Gregory. It's really entertaining- but i love historical fiction. It tells the story of Henry VIII's 4th and 5th wives, told from their perspectives as well as the perspective of Jane Boelyn (George's wife/Anne's sister in law) who is a lady-in-waiting at court. And I don't know much about Henry's wives after Anney Boelyn, so I feel like i'm learning something- even if it's not all fact.
I haven't decided what book is next, but i'm thinking 'Loving Frank' by Nancy Horan. i'll let you know how it turns out...