FINALLY

Here is where I'll be living!

Early birthday excitement

I received an early birthday present last week: a digital camera!! Yes, that's right - that means I did not have a digital camera. I had a good ol' 35mm.....that I hadn't used in 3 years out of shame and embarrassment.

So the next 12 on 12 I can participate in is when I'm in London, I don't have a lot coming up in the next couple of weeks, but I want to actually use my camera. Tell me what I should take a picture of! Oh, and taking/deleting pictures of Parker doesn't count; I've already been doing that, which is a surprise to no one, I'm sure.

(In other news, if you are curious, WW and I are doing great. It can sometimes be tough balancing your friends and a serious relationship, but I think it's going well. Saturday night I stopped hanging out with WW to go to a party with real, non-fictional people! It was lots of fun to catch up with kids I hadn't seen in a while. Notice I only mentioned doing something Saturday....guess what I was doing Monday through Friday. Yeah. Whatever, we're in love.)

Okay give me some photo ideas!

An Open Letter

Dear West Wing,

I don’t want to freak you out, but I think I love you.

There. I said it.

I know we’ve only been together for 3 episodes, but the love I feel can’t be denied. Your humor, intelligence, and sincerity are remarkable and I just can’t stop thinking about you.

I must admit, I feel a bit foolish. I kept you at arm’s length; I didn’t come around for a long time. All the while, you were there, patiently waiting for me. Everyone else knew from the very beginning that you were something special and in this very moment I can’t understand why I waited so long to start watching you.

I’m sorry, West Wing, for not coming to my senses sooner. I only hope you'll give our love the chance it deserves to flourish and bloom in the garden of happiness. With that said, I am even sorrier to tell you that I am going away for two months. This puts a fjord-sized hole in our budding relationship, I know. But something tells me you’ll wait for me just a bit longer. You’re just that wonderful. I’ll think about you every day while I’m gone.

All my love,

Laura

The 1/2 fortnight's highlights

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Why say "1/2 fortnight's" when you can just say "the week's"? Because sometimes you have to be a little different. Life lesson. Write that down.

I am in SUCH a weird mood, mostly because I'm deliriously happy that this week is over; it is such a relief. Though, while it has been kind of intense with all the end-of-the-semester work, along with the craziness comes a sense of accomplishment. Such feelings are always good.

Our highlight reel will start with today's events: 2 and half hours at the library without managing to attract any creepsters, a NAP(!!!), Budgets class where I found out we got a 95 on our project & presentation, and then my last and final Fundraising class! Though I'd rather get my other classes over first - Fundraising was actually entertaining slash I actually learned things slash my favorite class.

Our 1/1040 score (yes, that's the week fraction of a score, as in I just dropped Gettysburg Address vocab on you) highlights continue with Tuesday shenanigans: Tara, Mandy and I went to Old Town for lunch! We ate at Bugsy's, walked around, went in a few stores, and then ended our afternoon with Free Cone Day action at Ben and Jerry's. It was nice to hang out with Tara and Mandy when school was not involved, plus it was fun to go somewhere outside my normal routine, and the weather was really nice. Win win win.

Quickly, my 604,800 seconds also involved hanging out with Kelley and Mike on Saturday (best weather ever? YES) and finishing my internship.

Finally, were I writing this next week, I would also be including Saturday's "slash" party at Tara's. We're not celebrating GNR here, unfortunately. It's named as such because we keep adding reasons for said celebration: "Tara's birthday/Cinco de Mayo/Guess Who Tournament/End of the semester/Why the hell not" is the current title, I believe. And YES, you read that right, we are having a Guess Who Tournament. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this. It's my favorite game ever.

What were your 0.000191781 of a century's like?

London Update, etc.

I’m supposed to be working on a paper for my Arts Policy class….but you know when you just have those moments…

“GAAAHHHHASSDFIJELFJLFFFFIWILLBELIVINGIN
LONDONFORTWOMONTHSANDIWILLJUSTBEWALKING
DOWNTHESTREETLIKEANORMALLONDONPERSONAND
IWILLBESURROUNDEDBYBRITISHACCENTSGAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!111@$@#!%!!!!!11!!!!!ZOMG”

It was like that.

I feel I haven’t explained my London program very well to everyone...so here goes. It’s strictly an internship program. For 8 weeks, I will live and work (most likely, for free…WAH WAHHHHH) in London. When you apply to the program through Mason, you actually get to choose/pick out what organizations you may want to work for – then once you’re accepted to the program, the “sister company” to Mason, Anglo American, works to help match you up with the companies you specified. Then you go over and become best friends with Steven Merchant and make out with boys with british accents, and…what? Oh, that’s Laura’s Daydream Program. Sorry.

So after about a month of road blocks, I finally landed an internship yesterday! I will be working for the National Campaign for the Arts (NCA), which is like the British version of Americans for the Arts. I am very excited, as they were one of my original choices. They do a lot of lobbying for arts funding, as well as educational and cultural research for other organizations to use for advocacy. I had a phone interview with the NCA director yesterday afternoon, and she used a couple of slang terms here and there that I had NO CLUE what they meant, and it took all I had to keep from squealing with delight. Holy crap I can’t wait to be over there. I’ll probably be doing a lot of writing – press releases, fact sheets (for advocates), governmental briefings, etc. This will be really really helpful for me. Woo!

So now that the internship location is confirmed, I’m just waiting to hear about where I’ll be living. That is also set up through Anglo American, but they have a number of student apartments all across central London, so I’m not sure yet in which particular flat (yes, I said it) I’ll be calling home for June and July. I’ll most likely be living with other Mason students, none of whom I currently know.

In other news, Dana’s wedding weekend was tons of fun. Too many shenanigans to go into, but I will say that it was SO great to see my PSE loves. I met a lot of new, fun people too. At one point Saturday night, I was in a hotel room hanging out with Katie (she and I repped the VT/PSE dem), Mona and a couple more of Dana’s Saudi friends, and a few of Dana’s family members. It was a sampling of Dana’s life hanging out together in one room. So fun!

I don't have a good segue for this, but did anyone watch How I Met Your Mother on Monday?? HOLY CRAP that episode was good. I mean, they all are, but that ending had me squealing. ...Apparently I have been squealing a lot this week.

Finally, Elyse and Meghan: you’re welcome. :-)

PS: I added more songs to the Mix Tape – the new ones are at the beginning. Can I just say…I am obsessed with that new Jason Mraz song. It’s so sweet and summery and I love it. The end.

I’m in a good mood (which means, dear reader, that you get a list format!) for the following reasons:

* After months of searching, I finally bought these shoes for Dana/Jean’s wedding. I LOVE THEM. They manage to be kind of hot and classic all at the same time. AND I got them on sale. Expect to see me wearing them at all semi-formal and formal occasions from now until forever.


* I got my schedule ironed out for next semester, and I’m going to (hopefully) be taking a kick-ass English class on theory and practice of publishing printed materials, and writing/editing copy for said materials. I’m really looking forward to it, and I hope that come registration day next Monday, I actually get in. I will also be doing an independent study comparing London/UK arts management techniques with American ones. I really like that I’ll be able to design my own project! And really, I can start this summer if I want. But I’m probably gonna be busy working on my fake accent and landing me a British boyfriend. These are my real goals for the summer.

* Because I’ll only have my internship (and the aforementioned objectives) to concern myself with while I’m in London, I’m going to be able to finally read a bunch of books that I haven’t had the time to read. I’m way behind on my list. (This is not to say that I’m going to be a bookworm while in London. No, no, no. I will take advantage of every millisecond of my time there. But sometimes, you have to make time for reading and relaxing. I can just do it in Hyde Park.) Here are the books I plan on taking with me.

- 100 Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- god is not great – Christopher Hitchens
- Winter’s Tale – Mark Helprin
- Daughter of Fortune – Isabel Allende

These are only a small sample from my long list of books to read that AREN’T textbooks. God, reading for pleasure sounds SO nice right now.

You know, this post almost sums me up. It’s got my love of lists, reading, learning, wanting a british accent and/or a boyfriend with one, and shoes. Wait….we’re missing something:

Much better.

Nostalgia at its weirdest and slightly embarrassing-est.

During my senior year in high school, I took Leadership. It was mostly a bullshit, easy A class, but it did provide me with a number of fun experiences. For our final assignment we had to write ourselves a letter that our teacher, Mr. Blakely, would send to us in 5 years. We could write anything we wanted. Apparently Mr. Blakely was a little late on holding up his end of the deal, but he did follow through. I got that letter today, almost 7 years later! Here is what I wrote, verbatim:

“6/6/01

Dear self (haha),

Have you forgotten already? This is your leadership final – written in 2001. I’ll graduate in 8 days, along with my greatest group of friends, the Angels (Jean, Tina, Ashley, Elyse, Kristin, Seana, and Jenny) I’ve had an amazing senior year, and learned a lot about myself. I have had times of struggle, friendship, and boredom. But the year was well-rounded and fun. I hope in 5 years I’ve graduated from Tech and at least had a couple boyfriends! I hope I’m a lot skinnier, too. Bobby Convey, I love him. He scored his first goal this season, I was there to see it! I finished Girl Scouts, and I have a lot to look forward to in the summer. Beach Week, Germany (with Ashley!) and Cancun. Then I start my new life in college!! Yeah, I have blond hair now…wonder what it’ll be in 5 years. This is my last year playing the clarinet, too.

If you haven’t read “Soldier of the Great War” recently, do it. And keep in touch with high school friends, the Angels, and see if Travis Pope and Adam Temple are still alive. :-) I’m not taking this very seriously. Since high school is almost over and it’s REALLY scary that I’m starting basically all over, try to keep some part of high school with you. Friends, memories, anything. It shaped me thus far and I think it deserves to be carried with me. Especially friends, they’ve been wonderful, don’t forget about them. This is weird…which reminds me,

“LIFE IS FAR TOO IMPORTANT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY”

Keep that in mind, don’t forget, you can make any situation amusing if you need to. I’m sure I’ll be more serious in 5 years but still, people w/o any laughter in their eyes are dull.

Most importantly, respect yourself and know that you’re a good person – the only person you can always count on is yourself. – What a smart 18 year old I am!!!

Love,

Me

- hopefully my nickname is still LB!! That’d be “tight”, I “sweat” that. That’s slang that Heather always makes fun of, I bet I will too in 5 years, oh and “emotional”. haha. “

A large portion of this is ridiculous; I think we can all agree on that. But I think for being almost 7 years ago, a lot of it still rings true. I like the “you can make any situation amusing if you need to”. Absolutely, Age18Laura. I also like that I completely admit to not taking it seriously. I would write about Bobby Convey in an assignment I’m supposed to be taking seriously. I do still love him though. I also enjoy that I’m generally all over the place…clearly that hasn’t changed.

So it’s obvious that I’m not any skinnier, I haven’t had any luck in the boyfriend department, and I’m really not any more serious than I was then…though that’s one I hope doesn’t ever change. The first two I’m finally getting around to working on, so I’m not really too disappointed. They will both come in time, and while I want both of them very much, I do understand that patience plays a big part.

I would be willing to say that I’m not the only person I can count on. Last night I had dinner and dessert with Sarah, Tina and her fiancé Ben, Seana, and Elyse and her boyfriend Brad. Looks like I kept in touch with those ladies like I’d hoped I would. (Last night was so much fun, by the way) I’m surprised I left out the College Crew in the letter, but I think my senior year was really about finding those friends that were still in high school with me. I didn’t know the friendship gold I struck in the College Crew until a year or two later. I’m extra lucky to have friends in the Angels and the CC. (yes, we name our groups of friends, what!?!??)

It seems like I was serious and caring where it mattered, but generally was just a doofus. I’d like to think that still applies.

Okay, now onto less absurdly emotional things. Or, just a different kind of emotion:

HOLY CRAP SDFSDFSDFIOSJDFOISJD@!!!!!111!!!!!! I BOUGHT MY TICKET TO LONDON YESTERDAY. I leave from Dulles on June 2nd at 9:41pm and arrive in London at 10am the next day. Then, after what I hope is the best time of my life, I leave at 4:20pm on July 29th, and arrive back home at Dulles at 7:34pm.

Visitors expected! :-)