Feelin' the Same Way...

Not gonna lie, this has been a pretty stressful week. More stressful than it should be. Finals are coming up very soon, which is always a sure-fire way to turn people into crazy balls of stress and frustration - everybody. It's finals. We all go through it.

Hi ho.

Oh, and I've been reading Kurt Vonnegut.

But yeah. I've been pretty upset this week for a number of reasons. Mainly because I'm really missing a lot of people I haven't seen in a while. Good friends whose schedules I haven't been able to match up with. Family members. I miss everyone.

On another note, I'm listening to lots of Tyler Hilton and Norah Jones this week. Somber, mellow tunes. And talking to Shannon! Which has been more helpful than she can know.

I've also been watching Dane Cook and clips from the new movie August Rush staring Freddie Highmore (I think that's his name), Keri Russel, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (in a role where he's not a psycho! I love it!) It looks like such a good movie and I'm dying to see it. No cash or time this weekend, but maybe eventually.

Mom's birthday is Saturday and I have lots of work to do for next week. Possible snow at the end of the weekend, so hopefully I can get back up to Chester.

Cheers.

I am what you see,
I am not what they say.
But if I turned out to be
Could you love me anyway?
I'm standing anonymous
Hoping your heart will just wake up
And ask for me by name,
Maybe someday will ask for me by name.
Just not today.
"You'll Ask for Me" by Tyler Hilton

The sun just slipped its note below my door
And I can't hide beneath my sheets.
I've read the words before
So now I know the time has come for me.
And I'm feelin' the same way all over again,
Feelin' the same way all over again,
Sayin' the same lines all over again
No matter how much I pretend.
"Feelin' the Same Way" by Norah Jones

Cold Water, A Pool Hall, and Blood and Gore

It's Tuesday and I've more or less settled back into school after Thanksgiving break. Last Tuesday I got home at around 8:30 because I had a night class and had to be out of the dorms by 10 pm. Not having had a truly hot shower in about a week and a half, I was eager to take a long, hot bath. But when I filled up the tub, the water was disappointingly luke warm.

The next day we learned through my father's careful observation that our hot water heater was rotted, so after trying desperately all day to salvage the thing, Mom and Dad finally gave in and ventured out to Sears to get a new hot water heater. Of course, Dad didn't have enough gas in his truck, so the thing broke down just down the road from Sears. He ended up calling me about 6 times to get numbers from his cell phone (he didn't have it with him, of course) and calling a friend to come put gas in the truck and save the day. They got the water heater and all was right with the world.

Thursday we went to my aunt and uncle's house to gorge ourselves on stuffing and turkey. After my cousin Dan left to go home to his apartment we all went to a pool hall for a while.

Friday I hung out with my friend Kim. She bought me the movies Girl, Interrupted and Almost Famous - very late birthday gifts, she insisted. I watched the movie Captivity when I got home. It's a horror film starring Elisha Cuthbert and Daniel Gillies. It scared the shit out of me. The basic plot is this: Actress/model Jennifer Tree (Cuthbert) has it all: fame, beauty, a flourishing career, but all she wants is just one day to relax and be herself. She gets more than she bargained for when she is drugged and kidnapped. When she awakes she is in an unfamiliar, scary place where her captor appears dressed all in black just long enough to drug and torture her. She finds comfort in Gary (Gillies), a fellow prisoner with a few tricks up his sleeve. Despite the dire situation, the two are able to steal moments of solace and comfort together as they try to find a way out of this madness. A love story within the horror genre, this film had me chewing my nails on the edge of my seat. Suspense, mystery, gore, romance. It's all there. In the style of Saw, House of Wax (2005) and The People Under the Stairs, I'd definitely recommend this film to horror fans.

That's my vacation in a nutshell.

Noel and Christina's Subway Misadventure

The night air was chilly. Christina and I hurried up the hill from our dorm, eager to reach her car in the parking lot. Once inside, we waited for the car to warm up, talking about life and silly things. We were about to embark on an adventure. We just didn't know it yet.

After traveling the long and winding road, dodging crazy Derry drivers (you wouldn't think so, but they're here) we reached our destination: Subway (eat fresh).

There were two young men working behind the counter. Christina called them Sweetheart and Doof. The one called Sweetheart, she confided, is usually the person who makes her subs when she comes in and he's always a "sweetheart," hence the name. Doof, on the other hand... well, you know how you talk to someone for a few minutes and you realize they have that far-away look that says they're just a few spades short of a full deck? Doof was one of these people. In the process of making Christina's sub - roasted chicken with swiss cheese - Doof asked her at least four times what kind of cheese she wanted. FOUR! It didn't even take him four minutes to make the sub!

The food mission having been accomplished, we sat down so she could eat. And then we left and decided to drive around down roads we hadn't traveled yet. We passed the prison (didn't know we had one) and quite a few sketchy houses, and ended up in Manchester. We were just about to go into Hollywood Video when I patted my pockets. My keys jingled in my left pocket. The right pocket was empty.

Panic began to gnaw at the back of my mind.

"Fuck. Where's my phone?"

After standing up, checking and re-checking my pockets, feeling up the seat and the floor, I turned to Christina with what must've been a hideously pained expression. She called my phone and we waited.

Ring, I thought. Ring!

No such luck.

Back to Subway we go. Subway closes at 11. It is now 10:35 and we are in downtown Manchester. And we hit every redlight on the way. Visions of me pounding desperately on the glass pane in the Subway door and making wild hand gestures at Doof in an attempt to plead with him swam through my mind. Christina and I started talking, for some reason, about Mark Wahlberg. We tried to remember what Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch was all about. We got there with fifteen minutes to spare and retrieved the phone from Sweetheart.

From now on every time I need something to go right I'll think of Mark Wahlberg.

Oh, and a one-sided AIM conversation I found when I got back.
Mom: Noel
Me: [Away Message]
Mom: Noel are you there
Me: [Away Message]
*sometime later...
Mom: Noel did you go to Subway in Derry? They have your phone.

Yeah. What a night.

Literary Orgasm

I've been meaning to update this thing for a few weeks now, but haven't had the drive to do so. I blame this on the fact that my life is not all that interesting. I do the same things everyone does: wake up, eat, go to class, do some work, eat again, drink some coffee maybe, chit-chat with friends. Occasionally something amusing or out of the ordinary will happen, but it's usually not anything quite awesome enough to make the blog.

Well tonight I have experienced something I can only describe using a term borrowed from Jamie: a literary orgasm.

And that experience was Sister Spit.

Seven women, two hours, one mic.

Fucking amazing.

www.sisterspitnextgen.com

Check them out.