YEAH VOICES!

Culture show was tonight and it was awesome. I messed up, but I still smiled.

I am dead tired and dreading turning in two papers at 9:30, but its all worth it. VOICES is a production that I am very, very proud to be able to put my name on.

So much has happened in the last week - hell, within the last day - but that's all I'll say for now.

flying high

NSU all cast was tonight - it's going to be an AMAZING show! FamPo just blew me away, I love love love Step Up, and Yosakoi made me wish I had the time for it again.

I am approaching hour 40 of no sleep (2 naps totaling less than 2 hours thrown into that) but I am very awake because I'm so pumped for the show! I was really stressing because I don't feel like I have mastered the JCREW dance but our choreographer (who i thought was hella mad) really liked the part of the costume that I actually did wear tonight. I didn't wear the rest of it because I didn't want to look too...I dunno. Like I was trying too hard. I did the socks thing mostly as a tribute to my father and my cousin, and they turned out to be a hit. Yays!

And then I also got an email and my section really liked my ethnography presentation board, so I guess the all-nighter was worth it ~ hopefully this means I get an A? or at least not a check minus?


So combine those three things and you have a very tired but pretty happy Katie =) I'm also really starving and I've got another project due in 8 hours sooooo I best be getting to sleep!

Busy busy college time

I had two nights this week in which I slept for less than five hours, because I had 2 papers due, a project, hip-hop twice a week, campaign meetings, core, other meetings, and other life-issues. I'm also getting sick =(

Anyways. Today was pretty much the weekend since I only went to one hour of class, yay! I scrapbooked which was fun. Colleen made us dinner tonight and it was gooooood food. And also something my mom would have made. Soul food yaa!! Dinner and chilling with good friends was much needed....relaxing and I didn't have to rush off to something else.

And that's basically the whole point of this post, because it's good to stop and smell the roses every once in a while. *huggles* at all those who are like my (very loud) family and my warm and fuzzy blanket.

The Italian Saga Begins

Forreals, yo!

Yesterday I received my paperwork for my study abroad stuff...to say the least, it is going to be one major pain in the ass. I don't like the EAP website very much, plus I have to go find all these documents that I don't have and get a bunch of shit notarized...ugh. It's another thing (and by thing, I mean fifty things) to add to the list of things I have to get done, which is starting to crush me. Or whatever comes right before crushing. I know my stress hormone levels are going to be elevated until after I get my visa stuff cleared out of the way in a month =(

Then there's the prospect of going about how to live in another country. I need a bunch of shit (I'll classify it all as "travel equiptment") which I can't afford IN ADDITION to the whole social/cultural/linguistic stuff I've been trying to prepare myself with. The whole process makes my head spin just thinking about it...but man I'd kick myself for the rest of my life if I gave up this opportunity.

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In other things of recent, my buddy group hosted its first "buddy event" last night. I got to cook (I like to cook but I rarely cook good food because it's difficult to cook for one...plus it takes time) and get to know people and hang out in a chill environment. I think that's what I miss most about my recently graduated friends, just hanging out and having one hell of a time. All the orgs and school stuff I'm running around doing are important and fun and interesting, but de-stressing they are not....

Today it was all rainy and gray in the morning (the rain abated in the afternoon) and it's the first day of fall so the poetic whateveritscalled was not lost on me. I didn't really mind it too much though, because as I was walking home with my buzzed friend, the sunset was coming through over the bay. Something about looking west and seeing absolute beauty shine through the clouds, and looking east and seeing the world look dark and menacing but framed in the vibrant reflection of the sun...it's as close to spiritual euphoria as I get. The ephemeral quality probably has a lot to do with it, but at the same time it makes it difficult for me to share that feeling with anyone...which is what I desperately want to do. This is why I can never properly explain how I can claim to love being near the ocean and the beach and the California landscape so much, and yet I don't surf and I don't go hiking and things like that...

This isn't from tonight - I actually took it two years ago from my dorm window - but I didn't have my camera with me today. This was actually on my photobucket site, which I probably haven't looked at since 2005...let's just say there are some memories on there. Some of them are heartbreaking - everyone seems so much more distant now.

Love will come through, it's just waiting for you

That's the song I've got on itunes right now. anyways, random things from today:

My restless cruise-ship waitressing bffl from high school called me today! I was so excited to hear her voice that I was totally walking down Telegraph with this HUGE grin on my face, you would have thought that I was insane if you knew me. We've decided to meet up in Venice this spring and eat lunch together in Italy.

My mother also called me today, I'm not sure why.

In the same vein, I called and talked to my father...to tell him how I bought $5.50 worth of the hippie organic coop produce (same thing would have cost $12 easily at Andronico's) and then proceeded to walk into GBC and buy fries and chicken strips, an illustration of the walking contradictions I live with on a daily basis.

Some random guy that I've never seen before passed me on the street today and to make a long story short it reminded me that the past is never in the past. It's not static, dead (and hopefully not forgotten). It's dynamic and it goes with me everywhere.

I had to read aloud for a hella long time in Italian today, and I don't think I screwed it up so badly. That was exciting for me...

I've been having massive headaches lately, and today is no exception. My energy levels have been exceptionally low as of late also =( I don't know why, either...my emotional energy is high and I'm really excited to be doing things with NSU, APAC, AIAS, Habitat and Reach....but I do know it's far to early in the term to be burning out on school, which scares me. I don't want to quit anything, because I know next semester I'm going to miss it SO MUCH...sometimes I think I still need my mom around to take care of me and tell me what to do. Sigh.

Can We Chill

This week has been really stressful, probably because I stress out too easily over things. Trying to chill the frick out, but school + clubs + doing things like laundry have been A LOT lately and all the stress has been making me more tired, it's been giving me aches and pains, not to mention the occasional panic attack. I am going to try and work on TRUST and BONDING with the officers in the org that's giving me the most stress though, because I need to feel like I'm working w/people that have my back. I realized this because that's what NSU is to me. I was kind of bummed about a few things going on in NSU (or rather things not going on) but tonight I realized all over again why I do it all, and why I'm probably going to be out till 11:30 at least one night a week for them.

LOVE.

And the support and awesomeness that goes along with it.

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December 2nd, 2007
UCB NSU's 5th Annual Nikkei Culture Show

save the date! cause you'll be hearing a lot about it from now on.