As for the next best thing

I spent all day reading, in the kitchen, and listening to the soundtrack to Midnight in Paris. Mmmm, this is nice. However, there is the ever-lurking hint of what's to come. That being, tomorrow. That meaning, back to "school." (Imagine me shooting a belittling glare at some of the idiots I have to coexist by). Oy. It's always that much worse going back after I have been given a reprieve. After this past summer and the summer before, being immersed in academic environments with other grad students and professors was exactly what I had gone looking for and found. And then....I return to school. It's not that my high school is bad. Not at all. We have impressive theater, English, and social studies departments. The vibe is not the typical footballer/cheerleader-perpetrated dichotomy of the normal American high school. But once I got a taste of something good...let's just say I've outgrown my school. Yes, that's it. The college courses I'm enrolled in offer a much-needed reprieve from the rote methods of high school education. Anyways, enough of the ranting.

Just having submitted all of my college applications makes the next five months all the more painful. This summer, and all through the fall semester, I've been telling myself: "Just make it to January, then the applications will be over and you can relax." But no. I can't relax. I have to stress out about physics until March, and then I have to spend all my time choreographing and at musical rehearsals until March as well, and then I have to stress and spend all my time producing my play (which I'm thrilled about! But still, it does not offer a reprieve) and rehearsing for my play and then on top of all of that I have to get this hour-long pilot episode we're doing off of the ground and wrapped by March and produce a monthly TV show that's actually of some measure of quality. In conclusion: now I have to just make it to June. I'm feeling a little burnt out.

I just came back from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I knew it would be good. It was. David Fincher never ceases to bowl me over; his use of color and tone are always the cherry on top of his incredible movies. I recommend it, but perhaps you should see it on an empty stomach.

I went from listening to French music all day to listening to all music by Heart (specifically: Magic Man) after that film!

In 8 hours I'll be bathed in fluorescent lighting and filled with bitter coffee. I can't wait.

...plus two pictures from this week! (first is digital, second was taken on 35mm)

By a waterfall

New Paltz, NY