Frank the Reindeer

this was two weekends ago (just stick with me)

October 10, 2007 · Filed under College

I wrote this last week to describe what happened two weekends ago from today: :

What a good weekend I had overall! For the last week or so I’ve been really depressed and stopping my medicine didn’t help at all. When my dad came to visit this last weekend it was was right on time. He identified and helped right away. On to my weekend…

double the amy – double the fun!

Friday night my dad went to a bar while I went to see Amy Sedaris: author, performer, and sister of David Sedaris. I almost didn’t go because I was alone, but I’m so happy I went. There were attendees from hip young adults to little old ladies. The latter group feared the opening act: The Seed ‘n Freed Marching Abominable, a group of mostly older adults dressed in bright, mismatched garbs. My favorite was a bearded man in a wig and sequined dress twirling a baton. This is so hard to describe I’ll skip to a video and pictures:

The end of their act consisted of marching Amy Sedaris onstage. She was hilarious in a weird way, saying htat her inspiration for humor was dramatic movies because you have to look for the funny in them. She wrote a satirical hospitality book called I Like You, which I recommend to everyone (I bought the book she cowrote with Stephen Colbert, Wigfield, a satire on small town life). She gave a great example of serving food creatively: take a magic want and point it at the kitchen door while walking in. Emerge with a tray of food and your guests will think you did magic!

She also showed clear disdain towards Martha Stewart, referring to her as “he” and “him.” In a clip I took from her Q&A, she first talks about her favorite garage sale finds like a tooth with a gold tip. She then talked about how she was bullied into being on Martha’s show and how she could make “him” cry.

On Saturday, I went to my first college football game at Georgia Tech, my husband school. My dad rooted for Clemson and I rooted for Tech. We had to sit in the Clemson section, though… It was such a nice day I got some great photos:

The Tech band was great. As a matter of fact, they are going to be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the grand sum of $500,000. That’s a lot, but everyone deserves to see their rendition of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

I happily returned home while my dad moped (Tech won 13-3!) and rested for Black Cat!

PS: I knit some of my dad’s sweater at the Tech game. I. HATE. ACRYLIC.
PPS: I’m finally to the front of my Bella Blouse! Slowly but surely!

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Black Cat 2007: Hotter than Hell

October 2, 2007 · Filed under College

Welcome to Black Cat, the spirit week at Agnes Scott Women’s College. As I write I sit in a classroom with students decked out in the four class colors: blue, yellow, red, and green.

Black Cat was created in the early 1900s to allow rivalry without hazing of first-years (we don’t say freshmen because it’s degrading). Each class has a color and they choose a coordinating mascot. The competition spans a week and the winning class overall gets the honor of the black cat Friday night. Saturday has a dance where all classes come together. Now I’ll list the just some events I’ll experience this week:

12am Monday: Decorating the Quad- The bell atop the main hall rings, signaling the beginning of the week and class members basically trash the quad, trying to overcome it with their class colors. We also decorate the student center. Each class gets a floor to decorate.
dinner Monday-Thursday: Part Days- Each class has a day to decorate the dining hall with a theme and hold events corresponding with the theme. The order is juniors, first-years, sophomores, seniors
dinner Wednesday: Reveal the Mascot- A sophomore duty is to figure out the first-year’s mascot. It’s revealed in a funny skit during sophomore party day.
Thursday night: Bonfire- Each class dresses up in a costume and gathers around the “bonfire” (aka a trashcan filled with fire) to sing class songs and bond with sister classes (first-years with juniors and sophomores with seniors)
Friday afternoon: Dance Competition/ Junior Production- All decor from the quad and all the students gather in the auditorium. Each class performs a specific dance. The competition concludes with the elaborate junior production, a play that makes fun of everything Agnes. Then the prize is awarded.
Saturday night: Black Cat Dance- The formal where we all come together for an elaborate party. Last year’s was at the Tabernacle with a Middle Eastern Theme. There were even belly dancers juggling fire! This year we’re in a fancy hotel downtown with the theme Masquerade.
Sunday: recovery.

This year is really important to me. Last year I was sick and my serious boyfriend broke up with and crushed me right after quad decoration. I was too depressed to do much.

I will leave off telling you the mascots for each year and some photos from this year.Featured are quad decorations, student center decorations, and junior year party day – welcome to the mine.

Seniors (blue): Lunas
Juniors(yellow): Goldiggers (sp?) (like miners, really)
Sophomores (red) us!!: Phoenix
First-years (green): ??

Next time: my weekend -> Amy Sedaris and my first college football game.

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tibet

September 27, 2007 · Filed under College

The Dalai Lama is coming to Atlanta (Emory, to be exact) in the middle of October!! Anyone who wants to know all about the visit can go visit the special website devoted to it and the events surrounding it here. I will only be discussing it a bit in this post, but, as I intend to participate in a lot of the events, you’ll be hearing tons more about it later.

Enough with the preliminaries. Last night I attended a film as part of Emory’s Tibetan Film Festival. It’s called Windhorse and it was even in some general film festivals, winning an award at one at least. The film is a complete eye opener, to say the least. It shows the political and religious oppression of the Tibetans, including the banning of the Dalai Lama’s pictures. His name can not even be spoken. A religious studies professor at my college did the intro, as he played a bit part in the film, which was illegally and secretly created in Tibet and Nepal. At least check it out. It’ll change you.

What event am I looking forward to the most? IF I could attend, it would be the Dalai Lama’s seminar on Meditation and Depression. His Holiness being present at all is all the excitement my little religious studies heart needs, though.

PS: I’m now on the armholes of the back of my Bella Blouse.

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knitting in class and petting my wip

September 25, 2007 · Filed under College, WIP

pre-yarn harlot photos

Have I mentioned my major WIP? It’s the Bella Blouse from Knitting Daily. The pattern may be free, but I splurged on the yarn. It’s Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino I got from the lys in Dawn and Harvest. It’s going to be the most expensive item I’ve knit ($89!). However, it’s sooo soft and coming along splendidly.

I was temporarily saddened, though, by an occurence Sunday night as I watched Jesus of Montreal (an excellent Canadian film from 1989 nominated for an Oscar and winner of an award from Cannes).

I don’t know if any of you have seen The Last Knit video, but I had one of those moments. So I was watching the film (very good, by the way) in the film room and knitting away when…I ran out of yarn! I had a moment or five of fear even though I had 2.5 more skeins in my room, then considered alternatives for a few few more minutes. Hair? I felt so empty! I reluctantly put down the WIP and finished the film. After the film I practiccally ran to my room to confirm my yarn hadn’t run away.

This leads to photos of my Bella Blouse. Pardon them. The lighting is bad and they are rather outdated. I also think blocking will help the leaves stand out.

As I write this I’m about 8″ up on the back. It’s taking so long because every row or less (usually way less) I pet the shirt. I also make everyone else pet the shirt. In New Testament we made our own rules. Ther eis a rule banning knitting, so I keep it in my bag and make people stick their hands in to feel it. How do I feel about the knitting ban? Alright, actually. When it comes to me knitting, I have no problems paying attention in class. It’s actually better than sitting in class writing journal entries. The issue comes when others in my class knit. The frontrunners of this ban did not like the clicking sound. Whatever. She chews gum loudly (that was banned too, by the way, but only if it’s loud). With me, others who knit are a distraction to the extreme because I want to know what they’re knitting. All the stats. I just stare. Hat? Slipper? Rowan? Blue Sky Alpacas? Usually at my school we have acrylic scarves. However, in the land with no easily accessible knitting and luxury yarns, even that interests me.

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“raveling” in my weekend

September 25, 2007 · Filed under shopping

view from my window and some new shoes from Charlotte Russe!

Within the first five minutes of being awake Saturday, I was so surprised that I almost wet my pants – twice.

1) I woke up with a strange woman in my bed and no idea how she got there.
Basically, I have a poster of a 50s pinup girl above my bed as you can see here. When i woke up I looked next to me and she was there just lying next to me. I guess she fell down overnight. It was still creepy.

2) I got into Ravelry!! My ID is frankthereindeer
joined waiting list: 16 July 2007
joined the community: 22 September 2007
In the early days I checked daily. obsessively. After I passed space 900, I laid off, so this was quite an exciting surprise!

Now Ravelry has helped me be afraid of my queque. Seeing all I want to knit on one page (at least) is intimidating. However, it means it’s time to get organized.

The res tof my weekend was spent at the International Farmers Market where the food is amazing and the setting is freezing (I felt like an eskimo) and the Mall of Georgia. The trek to the mall was made fun by movie music and all the bad pirate jokes we could thinki of (post Talk Like a Pirate Day fun). Take, for instance

Where do pirates go to get their booty?

Faaaaaar!

Anywho, Kristi and Katie scored dress for our Black Cat formal at the Hyatt in downtown Atlanta. I got some sale clothes and my first high heels…

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what’s next on your movie to-do list?

September 25, 2007 · Filed under movies · Tagged movies

This semester, I am taking a film class for my English distributional. Each Wednesday, we watch a film that represents a certain technique. For example, we watched Citizen Kane last Wednesday as an example of narrative. My professor pointed out that this movie is hailed as the best of all time because of the innovative film techniques used. That got me to thinking about a post I saw on Felt Like Knitting…

Each year, the American Film Institute (AFI) has a “100 greatest” list. This year they announced the “100 greatest American movies of all time, as selected by a blue-ribbon panel of leaders from across the film community.”
I’ll highlight the movies I’ve seen. Check to see how many you’ve seen.

1. CITIZEN KANE (1941)
2. CASABLANCA (1942)
3. THE GODFATHER (1972)
4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
6. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
7. THE GRADUATE (1967)
8. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
9. SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
10. SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952)
11. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
12. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)
13. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)
14. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
15. STAR WARS (1977)
16. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
17. THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)
18. PSYCHO (1960)
19. CHINATOWN (1974)
20. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)
21. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)
22. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
23. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
24. RAGING BULL (1980)
25. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
26. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
27. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
28. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
29. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
30. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)
31. ANNIE HALL (1977)
32. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)
33. HIGH NOON (1952)
34. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
35. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
36. MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
39. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
40. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
41. WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
42. REAR WINDOW (1954)
43. KING KONG (1933)
44. THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)
45. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
46. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
47. TAXI DRIVER (1976)
48. JAWS (1975)
49. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)
50. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
51. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)
52. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)
53. AMADEUS (1984)
54. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
55. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
56. M*A*S*H (1970)
57. THE THIRD MAN (1949)
58. FANTASIA (1940)
59. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
60. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
61. VERTIGO (1958)
62. TOOTSIE (1982)
63. STAGECOACH (1939)
64. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
65. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
66. NETWORK (1976)
67. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
68. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)
69. SHANE (1953)
70. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)
71. FORREST GUMP (1994)
72. BEN-HUR (1959)
73. WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939)
74. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)
75. DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990)
76. CITY LIGHTS (1931)
77. AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)
78. ROCKY (1976)
79. THE DEER HUNTER (1978)
80. THE WILD BUNCH (1969)
81. MODERN TIMES (1936)
82. GIANT (1956)
83. PLATOON (1986)
84. FARGO (1996)
85. DUCK SOUP (1933)
86. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)
87. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
88. EASY RIDER (1969)
89. PATTON (1970)
90. THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
91. MY FAIR LADY (1964)
92. A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)
93. THE APARTMENT (1960)
94. GOODFELLAS (1990)
95. PULP FICTION (1994)
96. THE SEARCHERS (1956)
97. BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
98. UNFORGIVEN (1992)
99. GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER (1967)
100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)

As an avid movie viewer, I feel so inadequate. I’m going to have to jump on this bandwagon and watch some of these movies and fast! I’d love to highlight the whole list!

In the meanwhile, though, I have some new films marked on my to-do list. First of all we have The Darjeeling Limited by my favorite director, Wes Anderson. I intend to see that this Friday before my father gets in to town. Next, I intend to see Across the Universe. I mean, who can neglect a movie with so many great Beatles songs?

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my life in the scream 2 dorm

September 21, 2007 · Filed under Uncategorized

the best poster in my room; oh, how i love plays on words

Today, my male Latin professor pleased me very much. He said:
“When I tell people I am a professor at Agnes Scott College, they ask me ‘is that still a girls’ school?’ to which I reply, ‘Yes, it’s still a Women’s College.’”

Amen, brother! I take this opportunity to say women’s colleges are misjudged like whoa. Now, ladies and gentlemen, still reeling from The Yarn Harlot, I give you a list (kinda):

We are not all crazy lesbians. We have a whole spectrum from super conservatives to super liberals and everything in between.
I do not downright deny that we are all crazy; however, I’ll use our favorite word instead: fiesty.
A big thing is that we’re not separated from men. I mean, we’re ridiculously close to Georgia Tech and Emory! The guys are there, but not in an intrusive way (ex: it’s way easier to knit without harassment from male CHOKE operatives).
As a result, the compus is a lot cleaner and safer.
Lastly (for now) there is not a ton of illegal activity and crazy parties. This makes it just a better environment for me at least. To go to a party, you have to go out and experience the city, which leads to a full college experience.

Now: some visuals. This week features my lovely dorm room:

the view from my window-

the view from the door:

Kristi’s side of the room (note a tiny bit of her stash. the rest is hidden through the rest of the room)-

our closets and the rest of Kristi’s side. don’t you just love where we put the television?-

my side of the air conditioner-less room (note the stash and books cover my desk instead of schoolbooks. there’s more below the desk and on the other side of the bed)-

If you want to see more of my campus/ dorm, watch Scream 2. Sydney’s dorm is my dorm; I actually know who lives in Sydney’s room. And let me tell you: if you think that movie is at least a little creepy, imagine watching it, looking out your window, and seeing the same scene. Scares he heck outta me!

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knitters have the best subculture: my evening with the yarn harlot

September 20, 2007 · Filed under Uncategorized

Yestarday, I overdosed on knitting. Why? Well, Kristi, my roomie, and I spent approximately seven hours with as many as 700 knitters or so. Non-knitters take this differently.
Ex1: The girl next to me in Anthro called it cute…but quite nerdy
Ex2: My father, who I talked to on the phone, replied that “it’s understandable. You might need this break.” To this I said, “What break? I’m knitting right now on the phone.” Then a long pause.Indeed. Yesterday I spent an evening with the Yarn Harlot sponsored by Knitch, my lys. Kudos to you guys who put this together! It was finally an opportunity to take Kristi and show her that the world of luxury yarn blows acrylic from right out of the stash. I convinced her to by a wrap/scarf/capelet pattern and to put organic cotton among other things on list of things to buy. I myself splurged (surprise surprise) on Lace Wool in Tumbleweed with which I’ll make the Muir shawl from the new Knitty. The purple and green are a whole lot deeper than the picture suggests. It’ll remind me of a vineyard. In addition, it’ll be my first lace project!

As for Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, she was hilarious! Check out her post about Atlanta when it comes out to get it from her perspective. Knitters from all around Atlanta and as far away as Tennessee and Alabama came and we filled up a theatre and the block from there to Knitch. Oh, to see the looks on faces of passerby. I was too intrigued by it all to take pictures but you can find some at Yarn to Knit. The third photo down has Kristi and me in line. We’re pretty far up but you can see my profile and the top of her head. Yay!

After one of the funniest lectures of my life (where we sat second row, second only to the board members of the Atlanta Knitting Guild) and a Knit-In where I got help with my WIP, Stephanie did a book signing. This is where I get first digress and say that I am participating in my first Swap. It’s for Knit the Classics. The person I will be be sending to gets, among other things, a personalized signed copy of At Knits End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much. Woohoo!

There was only one downside: no photo in the blog. The girl directly in front of us got a picture taken with her three socks. We were so close! I hoped for a mere elbow in the photo. Next time I’ll bring socks.

So, by 11pm when we got home, I pretty much collapsed. My contacts, completely unprovoked, popped right out of my eyes and into my fiber. Hm…I think they were waiting for that all night. Jealous just watching but not being able to feel the wonder.

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When Water Attacks

September 4, 2007 · Filed under College, knitting

Last night, my roomie and I interrupted our America’s Next Top Model marathon (it’s so addicting, especially to new viewers like myself!) to trek to the main quadrangle for a nighttime movie.

As you can see from this photo of the Crazy One (and my thingy on the left) , it was Shrek. The third one, though, not the second. The Crazy One and the Roomie had not yet seen it, so I took far too much pleasure in watching their faces.

This is the view of our dormitory across the quadrangle before the people really filled in. This is the same part of the quadrangle where…DISASTER STRUCK.

The movie had finally started up and we were just getting into it when I heard a strange yet familiar clicking sound. This sound was followed by girls’ screams. Was it the sound of men puckering their lips as they invaded the girls school? Nay, but almost as bad. It was the sound of sprinklers turning on to water our creepily green all year grass. And the screaming was happening because half of us were seated where the sprinklers were spewing water! Luckily, my knitting had just been placed in my bag.

A massive crowd of ladies and a few dudes scrambled for dryness. We had to move a few times to get completely in the clear. Towards the end of the film, another part of the quad went sprinkler-crazy. Oh, fun!

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Transitions

September 1, 2007 · Filed under Uncategorized

So I’ve finally left the land of rap-listening knitting-snitching and parent-nagging! This past while has been postless due to moving out and moving in and getting organized. My room (pictures coming soon!) is gorgeous. The building has existed since 1891 and my room is directly above the college president’s hall. The windows are ten feet high and the floors are wood. Alas, not much storage. However, I made room for the yarn stash and books. Besides starting classes, the majority of my time has gone to talking to people about knitting and hyping up the Handiwork Club.

A great thing about the first-years: most of them knit. The downfall: most of them have been knitting scarves for years and years without moving on. Obviously, I am making it my own personal service project to increase their skill set.

The friends all have dates this weekend. Roomie is with a smart engineer who fences and is a sweetie. The Studies One is currently on a “midday outing” with a guy who works at Cartoon Network. It’s near impossible to wrangle everyone for my first trip to my new lys. It supposedly has the best luxury yarn selection in the Southeast and it just opened up a second floor. I have no business buying new yarn but I need to go and I really need to share the experience.

One of the few places I have been was CVS to pick up medicine for the Kitty Lover. This is what I saw: