Why I love Dinner Party Download

Brendan : “Yes, I hate cupcakes. I make no secret about it. I think our desire for them is this return to being children, but more than ever we really need to act like adults in this country. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the mortgage bubble paralleled the cupcake bubble.”
Rico: “You know, I thought they were just tiny cakes with frosting.”
Brendan: “Tiny frosted evil, Rico.”

Don't agree on the cupcake sentiment, but the wit is killer.

Link here.

Disney, a photo recap

I came home with:

-half a handle of rum ("but why is all the rum gone?!")

-Mickey ears...

...with my name on the back

-a Peter Pan mug that I love

-Harry Potter postcards, stamped with "Hogsmeade"

-a Mickey t-shirt

-an overpriced poncho

-Lots of good memories

Dear Rachel

What a great idea!

Dear 20-year old Rachel,

So hey, yeah, college is awesome, right? And London? That was a great decision. Way to not stress about everything that was swarming around you back in Texas, and good job on going to all those theater shows with your grocery money. It was totally worth it.

Maybe try to pay a little more attention to things in general though. I mean, you're crazy smart and good at school, but...how do I say this nicely...you're really lazy about it sometimes. Your college is full of amazing people and events and guest speakers, and you should really, really take more advantage of that. Also, it's not such a bad thing to get passionate about a cause, or take sides on things. I know conflict makes you a bit uncomfortable, but some things are definitely worth having an opinion on, even if it makes you and some other people a bit uneasy. You are a procratinator by nature, but you will save yourself SO MUCH STRESS if you would just start on those papers (and especially that senior thesis project) just a little sooner than you'd like to.

And those girls you're hanging out with? For the most part, they are some of the best friends you will ever have. You should thank your lucky stars that 18-year old you got assigned to that particular freshman hall. The sorority thing is probably not all it seems cracked up to be, alas. I mean, those girls are awesome too, but let's be honest - your heart really isn't into it, is it? I'm not saying you should drop out or anything, but think about what else you could be doing with that $75 a month.

Speaking of money, way to not have a credit card yet, that is a good move. Although, seriously: you have no concept of managing money in any kind of real way. That's going to suck in a few years when you do get a credit card, and aren't as good as you should be about paying off the balance. I know stuff happens and you DO really like shopping a lot (and you don't get expensive stuff), but you're going to be paying on those student loans and things for a really long time, and if you go ahead and skip all the credit card debt, you're going to be a much happier person for it.

Also, maybe you should think about taking some ballet classes again. I know you thought you were done with that after high school, but if you really think about it, you don't like working out at all besides dancing. So while you're in great shape now (seriously, even your stomach), it will be really good for your muscles and such in the long-term to just go ahead and keep up with that.

Your twenties are pretty much going to be great, so don't forget to enjoy them. 30-year old you would definitely do it all over again, which is certainly not something you would agree to now if you were asked to relive 10-20 or so. Mostly just the junior high and high school part though, right? Anywho, you're going to get to see and do a lot of amazing stuff, and while you will occasionally wonder if things would have turned out differently if you had made different decisions, I think we both can agree everything is going to go (went) exactly as it should have.

Best,

30-year old Rachel

Where's MY super helpful report?

All these articles, one after another, talking about how good chocolate is for you. Blah blah blah. Where's the story that justifies MY junk food habits huh? I'm not even into chocolate. Where's the study about all things cheese flavored actually being good for your pancreas or similar?*

*Although all of the pro-coffee and wine ones have been a good start. Thanks for that.

Side Effects

We've been sitting around and doing very little since last Friday afternoon, with small spurts of activity here and there.* While you might think this is quite a nice way to spend your time, there are unintended consequences, I've discovered. For instance, any activity whatsoever is really taxing, like "I could use a nap now" taxing. I just matched together three days worth of clothing to wear on our upcoming weekend getaway to New York, and am now utterly exhausted. And the two hours of snow shoveling earlier certainly didn't help either. I wonder if we're going to have to work our way to full days of doing every day things without totally wearing ourselves out.


*For posterity's sake: we had about 3 feet of snow dumped on us over the last 6 days. It was great, and then it was not so great.

Indulge me for a moment, if you don't mind

I'm super sad about the earthquake in Haiti. I've haven't said much about it via Twitter or whatever, largely because I don't know what to write that doesn't sound trite. Haiti has captured my imagination for years - I wrote my senior thesis on it, I sponsor a Compassion kid there...I might also stalk Creole interpreters for information when I have Haitian projects. I've never been, but that's not for lack of desire, it's just never been a place I could visit without a reasonable expectation of being kidnapped.

I'm also going to vent here for a minute:

Pat Robertson, you are a moron. What the hell 'pact with the devil' are you referring to, exactly? I will give you a freakin' earful about why Haiti has had such a hard time of things following the revolution, and a great big chunk of that fault lies with U.S. foreign policy. There are so many problems with this story that I can't even begin to address, but I'm angry. And you sir, should shut up.

News people: stop saying the 'island of Haiti.' Haiti is only a third of the island, the rest is the Dominican Republic. Why aren't we hearing anything about the DR? Surely there were some affected regions there, yes?

The whole thing is so tragic - as if Haiti weren't already one of the saddest places on earth. And yet, everyone I've met from there has been hopeful and well-educated and just wonderful. I hope they're all okay.