if you like pina coladas

...then be jealous of me & K for jet-setting off to the fabulous Cabo San Lucas tomorrow AM. I've never gone on a traditional "spring break" trip during college (Salem, Oregon doesn't quite cut it, now does it?), so this should be a really fun and crazy adventure. I don't know if K & I will be getting that crazy, but I hear the whole Cabo scene is OOC during the Easter season, so we'll be experiencing the craziness second-hand at least.

The career faire was okay. I made my Facebook and Myspace private, which annoys me, but I figured I should take at least a few internet precautions while job hunting. My blogging won't be affected at all, because I make sure to not write about anything super inappropriate because it ALWAYS comes back to bite you in the ass. Trust me. Anyway, my suit was hot and I looked fabulous, too bad "hot" and "fabulous" aren't the #1 qualities employers look for. I did, however, scope out a potentially amazing opportunity. I'm going to keep mum on it until I find out more because a. I don't know if it's going to pan out and I hate being all, "Oh I'm going to do this thing and it's amazing!" and then...nothing and b. BF has a psycho EX (don't they all?) and I wouldn't put it past her to do something completely crazy, like, oh, I don't know, using University letterhead to forge an official document and send it to potential employers saying I cheated or something.

I'll be out of the country until next weekend, have an awesome spring break all you undergrads!! For those of you out in the "real world", I'm sorry.

like they don't have 500 bucks to spare

I was accepted into another conference this year which is super exciting. Although NCUR in Maryland is turning out to be super stressful since this Scorsese paper has been HAUNTING MY DREAMS and progressing very slowly, this conference is going to be a breeze since I had to turn in a completed paper back in January. Phew. I would NOT want to be working on two research papers right now, one is way more than enough. Also, this conference is specifically for literature so I'm sure there are going to be a lot of interesting (to me) presentations. Oh, and it's in Utah. Which is, y'know, Utah.

Here's a little blurb from my paper, titled Fictional Femininity: The Construction of Gender through Creativity in Faulkner's Sanctuary and The Wild Palms:

Focusing on two of the strongest female presences in his body of work, Temple Drake and Charlotte Rittenmeyer, William Faulkner’s Sanctuary and The Wild Palms act collectively to call into question the binary division of gender present in the Old South. In Sanctuary, Temple Drake—portrayed as the Southern Belle who falls from grace by the end of the text—performs her femininity in the way she dresses, acts, and eventually talks as she retells her horrific tale of the events at Old Frenchmen place. Correspondingly, in The Wild Palms, Charlotte Rittenmeyer—depicted as a self-concerned creative force—shifts from embracing her femininity to rejecting it and refusing to perform as Woman. These female characters, while substantially different in personality and behavior, act as a cohesive unit in which Faulkner is able to explore patriarchal society’s construction of gender roles and functions. Faulkner establishes that not only is femininity socially constructed, but also that the concept of gender as a whole is completely fictional, entirely made up by society. Through his descriptive language of Temple and Charlotte’s appearance, performance in family dynamics, and abilities in the field of creation and art, Faulkner is able to dislodge the normative notion of femininity in the Old South and replace it with his own, albeit blurred, vision of the female body.

Exciting, right? Well, it would be, HOWEVER my lame 40k a year school is saying they can't provide me any funding because they've already funded me to go to one conference! Oh, excuse me, I was unaware that students were limited to the amount of academic achievements the University would support them to complete. MY BAD. I'm trying to get SOME kind of funding from my school, I know they can't just throw money at every student that wants it, but I also know that they funded a student to got o AUSTRIA for a friggin' conference, which cost a lot more for one trip than it will for my combined two trips.

murad gift with purchase

Okay, this was too amazing to not share. I've already called my mom and sister to give them the scoop, so now I'm letting you in on the secret!

Murad (the most amazing skin care line ever) is having a gift with purchase right now to promote their new line of acne treatment concealers. I have not used the product yet, so I can't vouch for its abilities, but I've been using Murad products for 7 years and I've never experienced one I didn't absolutely adore. If you spend over $75 (easy when buying lots of skin care products) you get FREE SHIPPING and a "Perfect Pomegranate Trio" travel set including: Firming Bronzer SPF 15, T-Zone Pore Refining Gel, and Waterproof Sunblock SPF 30. Just enter "conceal08" at checkout and you're good to go! I can't wait to try out the firming bronzer, oh, and the concealer!

storm before the calm

The week before spring break is always insane. Every college student in the country is focused on only one thing: the beach. Every professor in the country thinks we should be focused on only one thing: school. Just a slight conflict of interest.

I've been working on my Scorsese paper for the past few days but I still don't have much more to show for it. I can, however, tell you all kinds of useless Mad Marty facts like that one of his ex-wives (he has 4) is the daughter of Ingmar Bergman (famous director) and that his first acclaimed film Mean Streets was shot in 24 days. Tonight I should be able to finish typing up my notes from the 12 books I'm using to pull this epic of a research project together. Then I'm turning in a second draft to my advisor on Thursday (hopefully).

Okay, just so this post isn't 100% boring, here's a vintage shot of Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, and Harvey Keitel on the set of Mean Streets (Scorsese's mother's kitchen):



And if you ever need to know ANYTHING about Scorsese, I'm your girl. I've read so many articles and chapters about him that I know enough to write a book. Seriously.

giant bag of costco cereal: breakfast of champions

It doesn't matter how many boxes of the crunchy, sweet stuff I have in my cupboard, every time I go grocery shopping I'm tempted to buy more cereal. It is my one absolute food weakness, and while I'm able to admit that I have a problem (that's the first step!), I haven't been able to curb my cereal craving in the slightest. I think part of my obsession is that there are so many cereals out there, so many new tastes, shapes, and textures to try, that I feel like I need to give them all an equal chance to be my breakfast. This would probably be a reasonable approach to the most important meal of the day if 1. I ate cereal for breakfast on a regular basis and 2. I did not shop at Costco.

I have to admit, I sometimes (read: always) get up late, forcing myself to nab a granola bar or piece of fruit as I hurriedly grab my backpack and rush to class. Sadly, a bowl of cereal is not a very portable food, so my collection of boxes sits in the pantry waiting for their time to shine, which is usually only on weekend mornings. Cereal lasts for quite a while if you keep it stored properly, but I'm running out of room. No sooner did I finish a giant bag of Oat Bran purchased last semester than I snagged up a new box of Puffins at Trader Joe's. Every time I take two steps forward in my effort to actually consume what I buy, I take another three back...down the cereal isle to grab some Chex before I checkout.

"but it's sew not over"

I totally love puns and play on words, so of course I love the ad campaign for the Project Runway Season Finale, because it is filled with puns, including, but not limited to: "Hair today, gone tomorrow" (referencing Chris's human hair designs, puke), "It's sew not over", and "A last stitch effort". They totally "make it work," as Tim Gunn would say.

I'm super psyched to see everyone's crazy designs and to hear Christian say "fierce" another 52 times during the finale show. I am curious, though, why is Victoria Beckham guest judging? Just because you wear clothes and like shopping does not mean you know anything about style (refer to hideous orange dress). I guess she IS famous. But I mean, really? Get a new hair cut. They should have totally asked B Spears instead, now that would have made for an interesting episode. Does Victoria Beckham even talk? She seems so wax figure-y to me.