A Spencer Addendum

So today we were in Boston recording for UTO some more. Over the course of the afternoon, we got on the subject of annoying encounters with Brandeis 2-- and so of course, I got to tell my Spencer The Prat story.

Only when I told the girls his real name, Julia burst out with "oh my god, that kid is EVIL! I hate him SO MUCH!" and told me about how he's a cheating douchebag (color me unsurprised) and, get this-- he claims to have slept with Lady Gaga.

Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead and try and process that. I'll wait.

Still laughing? It's okay. Took me a minute, too.

At any rate, it makes me happy to know that I'm not the only person to have been on the receiving end of his particular brand of terrible.

Fun fact: Today I learned, via Pandora, that I really don't like Simple Plan. This doesn't surprise me in the least, but it's nice that I can have a proper account of these things.

In other news, my laptop monitor has stopped functioning. As such, so have I.

So we'll see how that goes.

GYAHH.

Okay. So. Hi.

I have a 5-6 page Hamlet paper due on Friday. I have not started it, on Thursday night I'm busy from 7-god knows when with UTO (rehearsal, gig, party) and then I'll be... well, drunk, and not useful. So I have to write it before then. Which would be fine, except my life is exploding.

Wednesday night I'm supposed to have dinner with my hypothetical new roommates before our housing appointment. But it's possible that Steph will have to skip it, which means I won't actually know anyone there. Which would be fine, except that I won't, y'know. Know them on sight. Which could lead to some problems.

On Monday I have a 5-6 page paper due in German Cinema. NEXT Friday, my big Short Stories group projecty thingy is due.

Also, I need to declare my major before I leave for spring break.

Also also, I need to get bus tickets so that I CAN leave for spring break.

Next Friday is also (also also) my meeting with Kosta about my big science paper. So I should probably, y'know, find a topic for that.

OH. AND. On Sunday we're doing more album recording with UTO. (gotta do the CD graphics.)

I got 2 hours of sleep last night. Well. Morning. From 9:20 to 11:20. Which means I missed Science. I was kept up all night by the leaky roof.

I just. What. I don't even.

(If I can make it to spring break, I am golden. Until then.... YELL AT ME, DON'T LET ME PROCRASTINATE. NO FUN IN LEAHTOWN, GOT IT? OKAY.)

Does it say "sick?"

When I was little and I didn't feel well, I would--as one does--have my mother take my temperature. Only I wasn't entirely clear on how a thermometer worked, because when she pulled it away to examine the readout I would ask her, quite seriously, "Does it say Sick?"

The point of that little anecdote was a little segue into the fact that I HAVE A COLD and IT IS NOT PLEASANT.

I had to walk up the hill from rehearsal nursing a cup of tea ("sick tea," which is Apple & Cinnamon tea with honey) and I couldn't DRINK the tea because it was too hot and my throat's killing me from singing (bass on so many songs, holy crap how do I even manage?) and it was cold outside and it was just... miserable. Can't breathe through my nose, so when I got into my room I just kind of stood there woozily and panted.

Rehearsal was a mess. We have our first performance on Tuesday, and we're not exaaactly prepared, and everyone was just... hmm. Amanda has a name for it, from her Shakespeare group. They call them the jauns-- like, everyone has Major Issues and Shit Went Down. It was a jaunful evening. That's honestly the only way I can describe it. Several girls burst into tears. We all perked up again a bit at the end singing Lights, but that's because Lights is our soul and it fixes everything.

I was meant to do laundry on Saturday but I forgot. I am very seriously running the risk of Actually Running Out Of Clothes, Like For Real. Something will have to be done, and fast.

In other news, we blocked the entire play at H2G2 rehearsal today. Everyone seems super psyched about it, and kept bringing up promotion ideas... so at least one thing is going right.

I'm sorry for all the bitching. Life is good, really. I'm just better at handling all of this, I think, when I'm within the momentum of the week. Jumping back in after a lazy Saturday is just a bit of a shock.

My room probably smells lovely thanks to the birthday roses I got from Hayley. If I could inhale through my nose, I'd tell you for sure. My new Spock bobblehead says "Fascinating."

Imma stop rambling and randomly capitalizing That Which I Deem Important now. Ttyl, blog.

*head explodey*

HI GUYS. LONG TIME NO SEE.

I just got back to school after a week-long break, which I also used as a break from this blog and higher-level brain functioning and, um, going outside. My stress levels have been at epically high... levels... and so I really needed the time to sit around and do nothing but draw and sleep and write Doctor Who fanfic. It was nice. Relaxing.

Anyway, I'm back now.

My life is already a bit easier because UTO as a whole decided that recording every weekend in March is a) expensive and b) insane. We're limiting it to three days over the course of the spring, which means the CD release is pushed back until fall. Also, my solo-- at least my Straight Lines solo-- won't be on the CD, because we don't have the time or money to record it. Which sucks. On the other hand, there are two more songs whose solos haven't been auditioned yet that we're doing later this week, so there's still a chance I'll have *a* solo on the album.

Also: we're going to be selling UTO "up YOUR octave" boxers as a fundraiser. I expect you all to buy a pair. They're gonna be supermegafoxyawesomehot.

(No, seriously. We need the money. Buy boxers.)

As it stands, I have an essay due tomorrow at 4, and an oral presentation in a class that starts at 3:40. Also, I need to show the prof my oral presentation during her office hours, which are from, like, nine to noon or some shit. So tonight and tomorrow will be busy with the work. And then tomorrow night is my first H2G2 rehearsal, and probably also more homework-doing about which I've forgotten.

Related: could someone, at some point, remind me to go actually declare my film major? If I don't do something about it soon, a minor it will stay. Which I do not want.

ANYWAY. The ultimate good news here is that I'm not losing every single weekend to madness. Which is a really big relief.

I *can* get through this semester. I am strong and capable and clever. It will ALL WORK OUT.

(Also also: someone make me do my laundry and clean my room. Because I can't put it off forever.)

OH RIGHT ALSO I TURN 20 ON WEDNESDAY. SO THERE'S THAT.

AAAAAAH.

Hello, blog people!

So I do this thing where I stress and procrastinate and put off and have a merry old time, and never sleep-- seriously, I've watched the sun rise two nights in a row now-- and I don't blog because, well, it would just all come out like this: "a;oroihgaekbrjxlpiygqvkehgeytcramt!!!"

As it were.

I've just found out that I probably won't get Schwartz auditorium for the play performances, which really fucking sucks, because the play as written-- or rather, as is still being transcribed-- was kind of custom-made to go there, because that's the space we always use. I'm still typing the damn thing, and auditions are (hopefully) a week from today, and it didn't even occur to me until now to freak out about whether or not we'll get enough people. This show demands like 10 highly committed actors-- there are HUGE monologues, like all the time, and it's Douglas Adams so they have many myriad big words but rarely any kind of point. Oh, god. If I manage to pull this thing off it will be a miracle.

Oh, also? My classes have started assigning papers. Hahaha. Ha ha. Ha.

On the bright side: we have two new girls in UTO, who seem to be coping relatively well. I have rehearsal three nights a week, and BORG on one of the off nights, leaving me kind of just Mondays and Saturdays open, unless I want to start piling things on top of each other. Which I'll probably have to. We're recording every weekend in March.

Also, we're having our first UTO party/initiation on Friday. Which should be fun and I'm really looking forward to it. (I never thought I'd say this, and don't expect me to repeat this sentiment any time soon, but... I could use a drink, anyway.)

Which leaves us with one very stressed out Leah, who is still just slightly sick enough to be annoyed by it. A GIRL CAN ONLY DRINK SO MUCH TEA, UNIVERSE.

In other news, I finally caved and bought myself the Next To Normal album on iTunes, and we're starting in on Midsummer Night's Dream in Shakespeare tomorrow. So that's all nice.

Gyahhh. I don't know. I'm going to stop writing now. I'll feel better when the play is sorted.

Eep!

I know I know I know. I said this was going to be a daily blog, and now I'm starting to get lazy about the skipping of the days. I know. And I'm sorry.

I have been busy, my friends. Due to the courses I'm taking, I have a huge amount of reading to do for homework. UTO has been holding auditions, and tonight's the first night of BORG with the newbies, and, like, there's still the massive looming monster that is the play I'm supposed to be directing. Which is terrifying. All of this would be a handful on its own, but I'm also watching Doctor Who with Marlena, and as most of you know... once you start daydreaming about the TARDIS, it's incredibly hard to stop.

Anyway. I have a little two-hour window here to blog and get shit done before I run off to club administration stuff for the rest of the evening. So I guess I'll tell you an anecdote.

The other day, Kosta told us the story of how he met Rudolf Peierls, also known as one of the Manhattan Project physicists, and the guy who discovered that plutonium is even more susceptible to splitting than uranium. "It was in the 1970s, when I was just a Little Tsipis" Kosta said (which I love, because it reminded me of how Maureen Johnson refers to her past self as "a little mj") "and there was a conference about nuclear energy in the Balkans. Everyone who was anyone was there. Everybody important, and also Little Tsipis. I was freshly married, and so of course I brought my wife. Oh, she was a sexy thing! One of the nights of the conference, there was a dinner party. And my wife, well, she always wants to be noticed. So she came outside wearing this little skirt, probably as big as a, uh, like a napkin. And we hear a grouchy old man voice shout 'Go put something else on-- you're going to catch your death!' ... and that's the one time I met award-winning scientist Rudy Peierls."

I love Kosta.

And, oh. Because this is Sounds Passing Through Sudden Rightnesses, after all, I'll leave you with this excerpt from my Film textbook:

"The experience that art offers us can be intensely involving. We say that movies drew us in or immerse us. We get absorbed in a book or lost in a song. When we can't finish a novel, we say, "I couldn't get into it," and we say that music we don't like "doesn't speak to me," as if it were a sluggish conversational partner.

All these ways of talking suggest that artworks involve us by engaging our senses, feelings, and mind in a process. That process sharpens our interest, tightens our involvement, urges us forward. How does this happen? Because the artist has created a pattern. Artworks arouse and gratify our human craving for form. Artists design their works-- they give them form-- so that we can have a structured experience.

For this reason, form is of central importance in any artwork, regardless of its medium. The idea of artistic form has occupied the thinking of philosophers, artists and critics for centuries. We can't do justice to it here."

Take that, indie snobs who slather ideas to film like that makes it a movie. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Jim Jarmusch. Stop hiding behind that tree, Richard Linklater. I see you. THREE-ACT STRUCTURE RULES.

... I'm sorry. That went to a place. It won't happen again.

Bye kids!

Love, Today

To catch you up: I spent most of the weekend in bed, being sick. It's getting rather tiresome.

Last night I stayed up until an ungodly hour trying to help Marlena delete a virus from her computer, which wasn't very helpful for anyone because I had to get up early for UTO. We had our first rehearsal, and then sang at the Activities Fair, and then aggressively recruited for an hour and a half. Then, after a brief break, we went dorm-storming for the midyears. I haven't even THOUGHT about my homework, which is bountiful.

But I've been keeping myself entertained.

If you've never read them but love Doctor Who, PLEASE look at the Television Without Pity recaps. I mean, first of all, TWoP is a wonderful website full of very clever people-- Strega's Angel recaps are smart and stinging, highly critical but also very accurate... and they're the reason I call Angel's team the Ministers of Grace, which is fantastic. (Everyone needs more Hamlet references.) And hey, I still to this day think of Melinda Clarke as Lady Heather because of Joanna's work on The O.C. But the Doctor Who recaps-- done by a guy named Jacob-- are just... I do not have the words.

"Indescribably wonderful," I'll go with.

It's like taking a college course in Doctor Who-- or at least, the first two seasons. Things get sparse for three and four (but that suits me fine, because a) I haven't watched them yet and b) I'm a Rose fan) but from what I've read so far... wow. The close readings are so analytical on every level... it transforms a show that I dismissed as merely "cute and clever" into something far more cerebral, far more valuable. Jacob goes off on philosophy, on Campbell's Hero's Journey, on Milton, on grace. This guy is SMART, and he makes me see the series in a whole new light. Excellent, thought-provoking reading. If you like Doctor Who, or are an English major-- or, like me, are both-- this is can't-miss. Or if Doctor Who isn't your thing but you're a television buff, search the site. See if it has your favorite. I guarantee you'll learn something new.

For now: I have so, so much homework. I try not to think about it, but I'm going to have a SHIT TON of reading this semester... and until I get the script photocopied out of my Hitchhiker's radio play book and into a workable format, my hands are totally tied-- as well as the hands of my potential cast and crew. I've bitten off a lot for the spring; here's hoping I can chew it all.

[Edit: reading the series 1 finale recap, and Jacob just went literary alchemy on my ass. OH MY GOD HE'S THE JOHN GRANGER OF DOCTOR WHO. SO HAPPY.]

LADIEEEES!!

Firstly, a note: to those of you who wandered over here from Hayley's blog, welcome! Glad to have you. She's a pretty awesome girl, huh? (Edit: Oh, my god. I didn't even mean to make the joke. It just came out like that. THAT WAS NOT A REFERENCE. Anyway.)

I'm sorry for the obnoxious title, but I've just got back from my first UTO meeting (that is, for those just joining us, Up the Octave, the all-girls a cappella group I sing with on campus) and, well. We kind of just shout "ladiiies!" a lot at each other. They're an absolutely wonderful group of people whom I never would have met if I didn't sing, and I'm really lucky to have them.

See, like. I've known about a cappella music since I was just a little girl. My older cousins were both in groups, and my high school had two groups (which expanded to four over the course of my being there). For me, it's always been a sign of the musical elite. They're fun and talented and, just... being in an a cappella group MEANS something. It means a) that you got chosen, that you're worthy and wanted, and b) that you kind of get a new family, especially when dealing with college groups. It's a wonderful little subculture.

My first semester, I didn't get into any. I hadn't in high school either, but I'd always chalked that up to high school groups resorting to blatant favoritism and popularity contests (which is true). But college was supposed to be different, and better, and... well, frankly, I'd wanted to go to Brown, and I hadn't gotten in there, and I just wasn't looking for or expecting any more rejection in my life. It kind of ruined the first half of my freshmen year, because after that I stopped trying: I basically lived like a hermit in my dorm, except for going to class.

It was a dark time in Leahland.

Anyway. A lot happened over my freshman year winter break, which resulted in me coming back to Brandeis extremely focused on building a life for myself here. I'm now the secretary of two clubs (one of which is UTO), and I'm directing a play for the other, and I have friends here (imagine that!) and I just...

I suppose the moral of the story is that things are never how you expect them to be, but that's no excuse not to try. My first semester in UTO (which would be spring of last year) I was the only newbie in a group that was very upperclassman-heavy. It was a little isolating. But then, due to a lot of circumstances, we lost more than half the group. And things have changed SO MUCH for the better-- even though, for a few dark moments, the few of us left actually considered just ending the group. The newest group of girls are engaging and silly and sweet, and I am more fond of them than I can describe. I'm not a particularly average person, and so I've kind of gone out of my way to make a non-standard life for myself here at school, with my nerdy little nook of friends. But UTO is my bastion of normality; my one genuinely pure college experience. When I party (which is not often), it's with these girls. I can gossip with them, and we're recording a CD together... it's just pretty all-around wonderful.

Anyway. I didn't intend for this entry to be about my history with a cappella, but it just kind of happened. Tomorrow I start classes, and then it's BAM into the thick of things. So we'll see how I do, shall we?