Best of 2008

It's time for the 2nd annual, [clever title] Best Of List!

Unfortunately, my wireless internet connection is down at my apartment, so I've been squatting at the local wifi cafe, spending money on food, so I can feel better about sitting here for hours. Last year, I was able to write this list on New Year's Eve. Not sure what I'll be doing that day, so I thought I'd get this done while I know I have time.

MOVIES
Iron Man
Wall-E
Be Kind Rewind
Pineapple Express
Doubt
Slumdog Millionaire

(I can't believe I didn't see Tropic Thunder, Quantum of Solace, The Wackness, and Rachel Getting Married.)

BOOKS
sTori Telling by Tori Spelling
Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

MUSIC, this year, I've included some of my favorite music videos(!)
Funhouse by Pink
We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. by Jason Mraz
The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley
Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends by Coldplay
"Chasing Pavements" from 19, by Adele
"Warwick Avenue" from Rockferry, by Duffy
"4 Minutes" from Hard Candy, by Madonna
"In Love with a Girl" from Gavin DeGraw, by Gavin DeGraw
"Single Ladies" from I Am...Sasha Fierce, by Beyonce
"Housewife" from Unknown, by Jay Brannan
"Winter Song" from The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs, by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson

Unfortunately, I was unable to see ANY New York theater this year...but the travesty of me missing out on seeing The Seagull with Kristin Scott Thomas and Peter Sarsgaard will be made up for when I see In the Heights AND August: Osage County in January.

Thank you all for your continued loyal readership, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Stay tuned next year for
Exciting new grad school developments
News from my summer job
Adventures in Boston and beyond...

Little Bummer Girl

Me: [singing] Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow.
S: Is that really how it goes?
Me: Yeah, they rewrote it for Sinatra, but it's really a sad song. I just read a long article about it. Christmas is SAD, and nobody knows it but me.
S: Yes, Annie, you're the only one who is depressed during the holidays. You're THAT special.
Me: No! I'm just saying, the holidays are sad.
S: Most holiday songs are sad. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is about date rape. "White Christmas" is sad.
Me: No, it's not! Oh wait, yes it is...
S: "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" is sad.

conversations with my teacher, vol. V

My final paper for RM's class, Performance Theatre and Community, is a 10-page culminating essay, combining my application to Emerson, every paper I wrote for RM's class, details from an observation assignment for my Drama as Education class, and a lesson plan I wrote. It's also virtually the first draft of a grant proposal I will one day prepare to request money to start a performing arts center for urban youth, which I am swiftly realizing is my mission, and an attainable goal.

When I spoke with RM about it at today's final meeting, she said that it's easy for me to write academically, but that the personal is more compelling and, since that is what is propelling me toward this goal, I should "embrace the richness my past provides me." She told me I should not consider it "sentiment" but "poetry."

Her final notes on the paper itself were: "I appreciate the broad and personal basis for your proposal, and will be happy to support it however I can."

Maybe she'll serve on the Board of Directors of the organization one day.

overheard in CVS

Loud and Dumb Girl: So. It's called CVS Convenience Store, right? And "con" in Spanish means "with." But what's "venience"?

it's time for another confession

So. Ahem. Attention please.

Because the male population of my program is approximately...10...and most of them are gay...and the other few are engaged, strangely, and I'm certainly not meeting anyone else in Boston, I have gone and done something I never imagined I'd do.

Yes. It's true. I joined an online dating service.

A good friend of mine met someone she really digs on the site and said I should do it. So, after spending entirely too many hours alone over the weekend, I posted some pictures and wrote uber-witty profile answers and answered some questions and even messaged a few dudes who had written amusing profiles, bound and determined not to be alone for the rest of my life.

And now, I sign on and stare at my empty Inbox and wonder how I could possibly feel rejected by people about whom I know nothing except that they drummed up moderately clever screen names and posted blurry pictures. It just seems wrong.

BUT. I figure, since I feel the best I've felt about myself in quite a while, and I love Boston, I might as well have a little hope that I might snag a good date or two out of this impulse.

And now, you all know.