Christmas in October

Heading to Boston tomorrow for what is quite possibly the greatest weekend of the year... the Head of the Charles.

The HOCR is the empitome of the pearls and a baseball hat lifestyle. A social gathering focused on athletic achievement. Pearls and baseball hats will be out in full force. The sun will be shing (hopefully), the banks of the winding Charles will be filled with preppy Bostonians, glorying in the awesomeness which is rowing and head racing.

Too filled with excitement to say anything meaningful. Boston, tomorrow!

also, Boston is the ulitmate PBH city. Followed by London and Madrid.

In Memoriam

Last night a pivotal member of the PBH team was lost. That is to say, I am no longer in possession of one of my pearl earrings. Distressed and distraught as I am, I have borrowed some silver hoops for the time being. A search party is on the look-out for the wayward pearl, and hopefully a replacement will be found soon, though you can never truly replace such a valuable and loyal friend.

Farewell pearl earing. You served us well. May you live on forever more in our hearts and memories. We know you have gone to that happier place in the sky where all lost earrings must someday go.

Rest in Peace, right pearl earring.
January 2002-October 10, 2007

ksw is not allowed to blog in class or post 5ks

unicorns, ksw? in the words of the show i no-longer watch because the office is three million times better than weepy hospital dramas gone to pot, "seriously?".

a brief post from the library... rather than repping unicorn colors in the midst of the fall. i have chosen to dress appropriately in fall tones: brown jeans, gold loafers, orange swingy blouse (my favorite), grey blazer, and saffron scarf.

In other important news, party planning has begun for the event of the fall. a certain unicorn-crazy's birthday extravaganza. Color theme has been chosen. The appropriately stylish: electric blue and black, with a few bronze accents

Things I am super pumped for:

• the office
• more planning for ksw's b-day
• 9 days till the HOCR
• researching papers
• chilling in the bow with a fellow blogger
  

rainbows, unicorns and rain

rainbows and unicorns really get a bad rap from today's disenchanted populace. what is more happy than a unicorn jumping/leaping/flying over a rainbow? Nothing i say. which is why, on this grey* day i choose to wear an orange sweater and a purple hat with a unicorn on it.

i would say today is the first truly grey day. at home this would be the limit for me. i would curl up in my down comforter with Tamora Pierce and not budge until it got back into the 70s. but that cannot be done here in new england; in new england this is just the beginning... it hasn't even started getting cold yet. this is the time we say goodbye to sunshine for five long months. it is therefore extra important to keep a girls spirits up today. we cannot be curling up quite yet-- not until there is at least some snow on the ground and tights must be worn under jeans when venturing outside. so i wear unicorns-- well unicorn, my hat isn't quite sweet enough to have multiple unicorns. every time i look in a mirror i smile. i also like to think that i brighten the day for people who see my hat. perhaps tomorrow i will wear tie-dye (it tends to have the same effect).

now i am sure that l is thinking that this girl from california is getting a bit too hippy for PBH, so i feel a need to state: i am indeed wearing my pearl earrings with my unicorn hat, and my umbrella is a jCrew.

ok back to tie-dye. it is another under-appreciated decoration. now i am not talking about rainbow-spiraled shirts you see guys with grosey dreds and bob marley bags wearing, but rather home-made tie-dye done on the stylish white tank top you were wearing while making shirts with your team but accidentally spilled some of the yellow dye on. that particular tank is now one of my favorites. the color has definitely added something.

SO! to review: to brighten a grey day

• bright colors are a must, on clothes but particularly on umbrellas-- nothing is more depressing than a sea of black, navy, and gray umbrellas
  
• hot drinks with friends
• long lunches
• unicorns
• don't be afraid to rainbow
• play with the dinning hall silverware that for some reason gets magnetized on rainy days
  
• blog while in class
  

*yes i spell it with an "e" -- it is onamonapiac** that way
**yes i also spelt that word wrong, i can't get it close enough for spell check to get it

another weekend

Can't believe the week is over. Once Monday and Tuesday are over the week just flies by, I feel like its because there is the possibility of being able to go out on wed. or thurs., even though I almost never do.
Any way, this weekend I am looking forward to dressing up. I don't care whats going on. I am dressing as though there is something amazing, this means a dress, maybe straightened hair, and defiantly the red lip stick. The red lip stick has something of a streak going. I won't mention what that streak is, though I am sure you can infer. Also, I will knock on wood so as not to jinx said lipstick. The knocking of wood also leads me to another topic close to this PBHers heart: superstitions.

As Michael Scott once said, " I'm not superstitious, I'm just stitious". This is true of me, as well. I am very apt to become attached to material objects as signs of good luck. The pearls and a baseball hat in question refer to the pearl earrings I wear every day. I've had them since I was 16 and started rowing, and they have become both a style staple and a charm. Sure, I have had bad results in these earrings, but I have had enough good fortune in them to believe in their power. Also, wearing them makes me feel better. The act of not wearing them conjures up too many concerns, ie. What if they are good luck and I loose because I am not wearing them? The mere act of asking this question is unsettling, and could potentially lead to a poor performance based solely on hyped up nerves. I also am highly attached to a worn yellow red sox hat, which I like to bring in the boat with me. It too has a history which dates back to my earliest rowing years. I am also generally superstitious, believing in karma, bad and good omens, and jinxes. This superstition stems from being a control freak, as long as I remember the good luck item I have control of my destiny.

Anyway, enough philosophizing. Now for my list:

Things I am excited for this weekend:

• racing
• trees changing color
• a nice dinner on sat. night
• dancing in a dress
• red lip stick
• being braver than last time.

Historical figures I admire:

• Otto Von Bismarck (uniting Germany, managing those tricky alliances)
  
• Livia (sick hair style)
• Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel, crazy architecture)...Bernini, too.
  
• all the Puritans (braving New England, believing in predestination)
• Eleanor of Aquitaine (went along on a crusade, married a younger man, Henry IV of England.
• Napoleon and Robert E. Lee (so sick, but for their mistakes in the North. Russia and Gettysburg, respectively).
• the Lost Generation
  
• the Dutch, rocked capitalism before anyone else. Plus, Vermeer and Rembrandt.
• Louis XIV, for Versailles. Henry (IV??) of Navarre because Paris was worth a mass.
• Peter the Great, because he made them all shave their beards and toured Europe "in cognito".
  
• Catherine the Great, because enlightened despotism is super clever.

more to follow, later I am sure.

"last year he had an original thought...

... it died of loneliness." -- Gossip Girl = Awesome

to ksw

Dear ksw,

• you aren't allowed to post in economics any more.
• ANTM and gossip girl are on tonight.
• next time I am going to do a history themed post. ie. why Otto Von Bismarck, the Puritans, and anyone in WWI is amazing. More amazing than econ. curves.
  

Love,
ljg

hump day

i have long considered the day to be a distribution curve that is skewed to the left with wednesday being centered over the mean.

• the week starts with monday: when you wake up everything is fine and dandy, and then you remember you have class. not only do you have class, you discover as the day progresses, but you have reading and problem sets, and papers that you somehow managed to blank on over your gloriously free free weekend. then you get out to the boathouse and you discover in addition to class and reading and problem sets and papers that your coach is super pissed about one thing or the other and practice is super hard
• steep upward trend
  

• then comes tuesday, oh crap-- here we are at the beginning, not a weekend in sight, and shit is getting real, really quick
• steeper upward trend
  

• then comes wednesday = hump day. once you get past wednesday the rest is down hill, but first you have to make it though wednesday AND wednesday night. everything is due thrusday, and even the stuff that isn't due thursday you have to do wednesday night because on thursday night you have antm and gossip girl which leaves very little time for work when you consider the early wakeup due to am lift. wednesday is like when you are running up a hill and you know you are almost at the crest, and you know any stride you will not be running uphill anymore, but be striding easily down-- but you aren't there yet, and somehow each successive stride is made harder because of the knowledge that you are almost at the top. sometimes it is even like you are on ski's trying to cross-country up-hill, going almost nowhere, and each stride you go foward, also takes you back a bit. (i could also throw in a rowing metaphore-- it's like rowing in a head wind, each time square your blade to catch the wind picks it up, forcing you back towards stern making you to miss water which has the added disadvantage of pissing off your bow, further slowing you down down down down)
  
• the hump, the crest, the peak, the max...whatever you want to call it
  

• but once you past wednesday, life is good. thrusday is the new friday--one doesn't have class on friday unless she has a burning desire to learn about negative space and sketch in a notebook, in which case she is presumed to be throughly enjoying the experience of sitting in lecture on the weekend (l? C?)
• sloping down
  

• friday is the weekend
• and down
  

• as is satuday
  
• and down
  

• as is sunday
• and down-- never actually reaching zero, but here we are getting pretty damn close
  

The evolution of awkwardness

Ok, so I wasn't always awkward. This is something I am pretty much certain about. I blame Facebook and boys for this ailment. Facebook is at fault because it makes it possible to know someone without actually knowing them in real life, making you have to pretend when you actually meet them that you a) don't know someone's name b) don't know their interests, fav. music, and cute/ironic "about me". I am bad at this pretending. Also, I always feel like people know I know who they are, and it becomes some sneaky and annoying circle of awkwardness where we both try not to reveal what we really know.

That is the true essence of awkwardness (awkwardity?), when something lingers in the air unsaid or an event remains unmentioned although you are clearly both aware of it. Essentially, awkwardness is that giant pink elephant in the room no one is talking about. Akwardness is most prevalent (in my case) post hookup. Having been on the receiving end of day after-makeout awkwardness far too many times, I have evolved into an awkwardness initiator. If I act uncomfortable first, I cannot be made more uneasy by their response. This is of course, horribly stupid and annoying. Bobo, one might say. When I talk about "being more brave", that's my awkward way of saying that I should be less awkward. Awesome.


Tomorrow is Wednesday. Best TV day of the week, and always has the potential for a dance party...

tuesday thoughts

Check out the New York times business section today, ksw would be so proud of you. Ignore all the stuff that the future investment bank people will want you to know about and look at the bottom of the page where they talk about yachts and yacht-accessories. This article made my morning, apparently it is no longer cool to just have a yacht with 5 bedrooms, 2 exorcise rooms, a sauna, and a wine cellar. No, you are not fly (hahaha) if you don't have a helicopter, or at least a minis-sub to go with it (no you understand the laughter, fly and helicopter= pun). There are some priceless quotes that I will not recreate here, suffice it to say I cannot wait until the day when the energy saving additions to my 34 million dollar boat will be a "laughable" increase in the price.

Wearing a dress I got on bluefly today. Its color-blocked which is pretty sick, but also a little sheer. Bummer. Using leggings to deal with the issue, must invest in some slips. Also, I must agree with cbg about the necessity of yoga pants. Only because this morning I awoke to go to lift only to find myself devoid of any comfy pants. Had to drag my exposed legs all the way to the gym, again bummer.

The use of the word bummer reminds me that some clarifications may be in order. In case the word appears in the coming posts, I will quickly define a commonly used PBH phrase: BOBO.
The term bobo comes from my cousins who used it to describe pretty much anything that was not normal, cool, or kosher. CBG and I use it to describe things we find unpleasant, lame, or awkward. Pretty much synonymous with "tool", or ocasionally for asshole. But it can also be a term of endearment, for a dumb but lovable friend (ie. CBG herself).

Examples: " I cannot believe she is wearing jeans with a jeans jacket. That is so bobo".
"That kid in section is a major bobo. He needs to shut up about Foucault."

On the radar this week:
racing season
fall temperatures
getting shit done (on the water, in the classroom)
being less awkward (one might say bobo)
needing a pedicure
planning a Halloween costume/someone's 21st

sample sale weekend

one of my favorite things at home is the summer side walk sales on main street.

at home, main street ends at the pier-- it is quite a cool effect, one that has (i'm sure judging by the metal posts now put up at the start of the pier) as fooled a person or two into thinking he (because clearly a she wouldn't be so dense) can drive right out on it to the ruby's diner at the end. So the main (pun intended) part of the street is at the beach. during the summer, a good day was one spent surfing/bodysurfing, reading a book on the sand, lunch at wahoo's, ice cream at cold stone, and shopping at the local stores. and when there was a sidewalk sale going on, that was particular fun-- what can be better than shopping while getting a tan?

now don't judge. sure, the clothes were on sale because they were last season-- but this is southern california we are talking about, not new england. in so cal you can wear jeans to dinner, running shorts to class, and sandals all year long. we a a little more laid back on the west than our east-coast counterparts. in addition, the shops along main are primarily surf-shops, and i hate to say it, but surfer-fashion, while fashionable, doesn't make sweeping changes season-to-season (after all, we really only have 2: summer and autumn) .

this brings me to the sample sale. the elusive thing that all crave to get a pass to. for quicksilver you have to actually have an invite-- something that can be acquired from employees of the company (my sister never used her qs hookup, and to this day it drives me batty). for rvca it's a little easier, you just have to figure out the date/location and you can show up. and if you are really lucky you know someone whose brother works for billabong/nixon who can get you into the warehouse-- that is when you have struck gold. warehouses are the best. this season's clothes at a 60% discount- you just have to be willing to pick through the jackets with bleach stains and shorts with broken zippers.

a&f had their sample sale this past weekend. employees only (lame), but seeing as it was in ohio--whatever. now you may be thinking-- what is "California surfer prep sophisticate" doing shopping at a&f? well, besides hollister blatantly and shamelessly trading off of the good-hb name, and their loud music and strong smells that drive me crazy when i enter one of their stores, they have very warm jackets (key for a CA girl transported to winter) and when one has a hookup who can get her 40% off of all merchandise, the store suddenly seems less noisy and the cologne that permeates everything smells much more like brad pitt. in addition ruhle, ruehl, ruhel(?) has the most gorgeous bags ever. at least that is what i thought until i saw the one brought to me by m this weekend. lets suffice to say it looked like a peacock and a rooster exploded onto it. it was one of those bags you love or hate. it wasn't for me.

• as a side note: what is the strong attraction to feathers? this is something i have not yet been able to figure out. they really don't feel that nice, sure they are soft but with a weird spine up the middle that gives me the hebie-jeibies. feather-boas as a child always freaked me out. in addition they shed everywhere and make people sneeze-- then you have snot on you expensive feathers that are impossible to clean. no, the only way feathers should ever be worn is on a masquerade mask.

at any rate... besides the bag, which f for some reason is able to rock, i ended up with a zip-hoodie, a mini-skirt, and these shorts i am unsure of how to term--tapered-leg flowery men's boardshorts? that is the thing about sample sales, you really don't know what you will end up with. but here is the thing-- i really like those shorts (even though i am going to have to jimmy-rig a new zipper b/c the original one broke off) and therein lies the reason why sample sales are amazing--> one can discover crazy new things that she never would have otherwise

this week

• excited to have clean clothes to wear having done laundry
  
• headbands
• new bangs
• all the work i have been procrastinating on catching up with me
• erging
  
• it is officially fall