don't wanna:

write. or study. just don't wanna.

to my denton friends: you are wonderful.

befuddle:

in this cold weather, the windows of my apartment fog up each time i take a shower or wash my dishes.

listening to the new josé gonzález, in our nature. procrastinating to the max.

connections:

this
reminds me of this
which reminds me that i must get away from here soon.

very soon.

lazy monday:

feeling sleepy and bored and lazy. nothing to do, really, until next week, when i will work myself to near-death, writing papers (three!) and studying for final exams. i guess that i could get started now... but that's so unlike me.

this morning i watched amélie (inspired by lauren's feel-better suggestion). now i'm listening to the soundtrack.

and speaking of beautiful things: 3191.

one reason why i shouldn't live alone:

BUGS (or, crawly things in general).

wasp-y things, crickets, silverfish, lizards, especially cockroaches. i'm terrified of them. and just the thought of suffering the presence of any of the above by myself, all alone, is terrible.

luckily, maribelle, being the ferocious little kitten that she is, just saved my life by detecting an enormous cockroach that was crawling on the ceiling next to my bed. the knowledge of its hardiness and dirtiness makes my skin crawl. i'll probably never get back to sleep from the fear of this bully's cockroach friends lurking around somewhere, unseen.

FUCK.

disclaimer:

CASEY DIDN'T MEAN TO POST IN WEBDINGS! SHE WASN'T TRYING TO BE MYSTERIOUS! TRUST HER!!!! WE CAN'T FIX IT! TRANSLATE IN WORD!

from othello:

"there are many events in the womb of time which will be delivered."

jazz:

lounging and listening to jazz while drinking wine and reading makes me feel better about being nerdy/living alone.

i need to do something creative or outrageous soon, or i might go crazy.

the marfa/west texas road trip was incredible. see pictures here or here, or watch a video here.

any suggestions for the next destination?

sleep:

last night i laid down at 11:30 pm but didn't fall asleep until after 5:30 this morning. yucky.

today is a chilly, rainy one in austin. perfect weather for lounging and studying indoors. and i'm feeling lazy.

we're planning a road trip to marfa/west texas this weekend! i'm so pumped!

palabras españolas:

so i noticed today that every time i run, i constantly form nonsensical spanish phrases and repeat them over and over again in my head. often about calcetines rojos or something random/absurd like that. i don't know why. i'm just sayin'.

tonight i made a delicious batch of pea and basil soup with toasted ciabatta and sun-dried tomatoes and watched 'go for zucker' (belatedly, and at the suggestion of my german film comedy professor). today was a very good, very long tuesday.

question: is it possible for one to update one's blog too often?

three reasons:

why i like to go to denton:

1. fun friends
2. homemade sushi
3. handsome boys

one of my favorite songs:

joni mitchell "california." performed beautifully. mmm. i'd much rather watch this, or perhaps anything at all, than finish writing my spanish paper about feminism in eighteenth century spain at the last minute.

weh:

went to see a performance of macbeth in winedale last night. the sky/landscape out there was incredibly beautiful/eerie:also, this weekend i drank ENTIRELY too much beer.

books:

i love books!

me, today:

frowning because i don't want to write a spanish paper, my kitten is losing lots of fur & smells of sulfur, and a few tiny blood vessels under my left eye burst today while i was swimming/wearing goggles.

but! all's not so bad. today i had a thai lunch date and received a letter from my madre española (on handmade paper, covered in flower and ladybug stickers), and tomorrow i leave for a long weekend in denton!

time:

i have so much free time. i spend it doing absolutely nothing. i can honestly say that i don't know to where my monday has gone. wastey waste waste.

in addition, i am getting extremely anxious for the upcoming change in season/weather. i just bought this new/vintage coat, which i can't really imagine wearing until it cools off at least 100 degrees... or 40. but really. it's so hot out right now.

i need to get out of austin for a while. i'm bored.

rainy run:

i just got back from a thirty-minute run in the heavy rain with carmen. afterwards, my fingers were prune-y and my running shoes soaked, but during the run i felt so great and refreshed in a way that i can't explain.

i'm out of groceries, so for dinner i'm having an amy's kitchen mattar paneer which is, surprisingly, really delicious for a frozen dinner.

my suspicions were confirmed today when i found out that i contracted ringworm from the kitten. hopefully she and i will both be treated and well and ringworm-free by the end of the week.

cutie:

omg, seriously.
lots of rain lately. nice book/nap/tea weather. lazy lazy.

school isn't so bad if i just remind myself often that: 1) i have four-day weekends, every weekend, and 2) i finish in may (hopefully!).

could september be any more packed with shows that i want to see? acl, of course, but then: john vanderslice, yo la tengo, amiina, the sea and cake, the animal collective, do make say think, maria taylor, etc. etc. ugh.

kitty kitty:

i've been getting accustomed to having a new kitten in my little house for the past few days. she's pretty adorable. she loves to chase pens and to type on my computer and to purr and to curl up with me to take naps. also, she has the bluest eyes that i've ever seen and her fur is as soft as a rabbit's. i'm in love.

revamp:

this morning i painted my bedroom!

before:
and after:
i'm pretty happy with the results. see more new apartment photos here!

in other news, i have been incredibly lazy for the past few weeks. just reading books and watching 'the office' and laying out by the swimming pool and making quick trips around the state. school starts in a week and a half. plenty more relax-time between now and then.

in:

settling, piddling, getting accustomed to living alone. my new apartment is very small, but also very wonderful.

move out, move on:

i'm in austin, getting ready to move from my old house to a new apartment. i'm really getting anxious and restless much too far in advance. i don't move out/in for another week. but today i packed up my bookcase, cleaned out my bathroom cabinets and drawers, sorted through movies, took what was mine from our storage closet. i was on a roll, so i decided to go through some storage bins and expandable file folders in my own closet that i have been neglecting for a long time. and i found every receipt from the past three years of my life.

apparently i have been holding onto them despite the fact that a receipt from a cup of coffee from march of 2005 or a tank of gas from a year and a half ago is completely useless. anyway, sifting through and throwing away those little slips of paper felt like reliving my life in a weird way. i remembered the fun and/or stupid things that i have done or spent money on and it made me a little sad to think that, now that i have disposed of the receipts, i will never be reminded of those trivial things again. but then i remembered how relieved i felt to be rid of a garbage bag full of receipts and unimportant documents.

svitska goes to spain:

i'm leaving for spain in a bit (eleven days) to do some studying of broads, and i want to chronicle my trip without spoiling this little blogspot. so here's my new, special spain-blog, for those who are interested: http://svitskagoestospain.blogspot.com.

i have quite a few loose ends to tie up in the next eleven days, a little school work, a lot of packing, "to do" & "to buy" lists as long as my arm. wish me buena suerte. & don't have too much fun without me.

baby boy:

hey you! look how cute my nephew is:
he just turned one. see more photos here.

mother may i:

why must may arrive with an anticipated ten days of stormy weather? yuck, i say.

i'm feeling very:
-excited about the end of school and the beginning of summer.
-anxious about finding new living arrangements for next year before i leave.
-lazy today, but i blame that on the weather.

chairs:

from the haunted meeting room at scholtz beer garten.

bird poop:

how do birds time their excretions so impeccably?

just a moment ago, on my bike-ride home from class, an enormous dollop of bird excrement landed, directly & cleanly, on my inner calf. instead of being grossed out, i am in awe of the precise simultaneity of this bird shitting from his branch & me pedaling beneath said branch. also, i am really happy that the huge dollop did not land in my hair.

happy four-twenty!

disparate:

i should know by now that drinking strong coffee at 5:00 p.m. is not such a good idea. i have very nasty bruises on both of my kneecaps. my neighbor-lady is an ogress. i registered for fall classes this morning. school is about to get crazy. i'm feeling inspired. things are looking up.

everything within this is absolutely unconnected, despite what you may think.

oooh:

mmm:

oh, life. busy busy. doing nothing. going crazy. i turn twenty-one soon. españa is soon, too. beware.

burnt:

i burned myself twice this morning, one time grabbing the hair straightener by the wrong end with my right hand and the other time on my left middle finger while preparing a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. i'm all hurting and stuff.

rain:

i am on spring break, visiting my family at home, & it's about to start raining.

rain reminds me of home, home reminds me of rain. thunder is coming.

mousse:

last night i had a dream that i was squirting hair mousse into my mouth & eating it as if it were reddi-wip. i was just reminded of this when i sat down at my desk (to begin all of the essays that are due tomorrow) & saw my hairspray on the corner. now i can't stop gagging & thinking about eating hair mousse. yuck. this is really going to hinder my writing.

march already?:

i guess it is!

this weekend was bradley's 21st birthday weekend. he went out sober at midnight & came home pretty wasted a few hours later, which was funny. this weekend was also two art museum visits, beer-drinking con mis padres, & explosions in the sky on campus, which was amazing.

this week is hectic: meetings, an essay test, two 10-page papers, a research paper outline, a sister-visit, & four tet. next week is spring break, which is much-needed.

so i just fixed myself a cup of boh tea that i bought last summer in malaysia. i don't know that it really tastes much different from the plain old bigelow tea that i had with my breakfast this morning, but it brings back memories of sitting at the tea plantation café, people-watching, enjoying the tea & the moment & my life. it makes me feel very nostalgic. i want to go back. i guess that's what nostalgia is.

on running/illness:

i love to run. it makes me feel very healthy & very satisfied. sometimes it is fun to do, especially when the weather is nice. although i haven't attempted to run very long distances as of yet, my ultimate goal is to be able to run a half marathon. some people are funny runners. i like to snicker at them a little bit, but then i think twice & realize that i probably look equally ridiculous, if not more so. i stop snickering.

i hate to be sick. i have been sick for practically two weeks with at least three separate illnesses. being sick makes me feel helpless (because i cannot do some things for myself), guilty (because i could potentially infect my roommates, boyfriend, classmates, or basically anyone whom i come in contact with, & also because i have to cancel plans), & lame (um, because i am fatigued & i go to bed ridiculously early every night, & also because my voice is gone & i sound like a monster).

hopefully the running that i have been doing daily will cancel out the sickness that i have contracted. like an equation that looks like this: (sickness)/(running) x (running)/(sickness) = 0

juice should factor into there somewhere, but i'm not a math major (& i haven't taken a class in years & years), so i don't know just how. whatever. anyway. i'm going now.

salida del sol:

on monday i watched the sun rise in my rearview mirror. a sunrise is a beautiful phenomenon that i don't see nearly enough.

on tuesday i skipped all of my classes & instead spent the day hooked up to an iv at the university urgent care facility.

on wednesday i slept. a lot.

& on thursday i took a two-hour nap & purchased netflix, two things which i may or may not later regret.

snow:

it has been snowing outside all afternoon. i have stayed inside in my bed, listening to the flakes fall on the tree outside my window, on the sidewalk, on the windowsill, watching it collect on the cars, on the driveway, on the flower beds, but not on the grass.

i have also been reading & crying all afternoon; i just finished 'extremely loud & incredibly close' by jonathan safran foer. it was absolutely amazing & touching & well written. a true & complete work of art. books like this make me want to be a writer. i know that it will never happen, because i lack the talent & the confidence in myself, but it is a nice thing to think about sometimes.

arctic blast:

it is sooo cold in here! my fingers! my toes! i can't get warm!

home-body:

the holidays have been great. every time i get ready to come back home*, i am a bit apprehensive. not to sound snobbish, but i usually consider sour lake/beaumont to be sort of depressing. thankfully, my amazing, hilarious, ridiculous parents & sisters more than make up for the deficiencies of the location. so, when my family is able to briefly refrain from farting or yelling or making lude & politically incorrect remarks, i really enjoy spending time with them. i will be sad to leave.



*i refer to both sour lake & austin as "home." in this instance i am referring to sour lake. i have not quite made up my mind which home is real & which is a pseudo-home. i am not even sure that this is a decision which must be made.