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this is amazing
 So Sloane Crosley is a writer who has a book of essays called "I Was Told There'd Be Cake." I'd heard good things about so I already ordered it, but then I came across this! She made a bunch of dioramas of scenes from her essays. Hello, awesome! She even made a video about it. The photo above is an essay about someone pooping on her floor at a dinner party. Neat, huh. The poop is a painted hazelnut, which I think is innovative. I might've done a coffee bean. Anyway, I've always had a thing for dioramas. I read this book when I was in middle school, and the girl in the story made dioramas for science class, and I thought it sounded like the coolest idea, because she went above and beyond. Like, she made an ocean out of tin foil, stuff like that. It sounded really impressive at the time. I think my fascination stems from my love of dollhouses and miniature things. We had a store at our mall called Ingle's Nook, and it was like a doo-dad store with miniature clothes and wooden acorns and mini benches and mini everything. I used to buy things even though I didn't have a dollhouse to put the stuff in. I would use it for Barbies.
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yikes times a million!
My book is due tomorrow! EEK! This past weekend, I spent literally every day in the Starbucks dungeon. Like hours. I drank four venti Shaken Iced Tea Lemonades. I kept accidentally saying grande instead of venti, because grande sounds like it should be the biggest size! Venti sounds tiny, like an espresso. Anyway. I can't believe I am nearing on the home stretch! I wrote the ending and everything. I even cried a little. It's very sad and bittersweet... now I have to go back and even everything out and make sure it flows right. This, in my opinion, is the hard part-- the making sure that you have an actual story. With like, a plot. Haha. I do, I swear I do have a plot! It's actually been a ton of fun to write because it's about the beach, and summer, and summer love. I loooove summer love. : ) I've been listening to a lot of Dashboard Confessional, a little Fiona Apple, and currently... Leona Lewis! This bleeding love song is sneaking in... It's really good to run to! I actually exercised the other day! I feel really proud of myself, despite the fact that I just ate (and don't get grossed out, because it's actually very tasty and satisfying) spaghetti with olive oil and garlic and cut up hot dog. With a dash of Tabasco and a side of fresh mozarella and balsamic. I love fresh moz so much, but having to eat the whole ball over the course of a week is kind of a lot. I keep trying to think up new ways to eat it, besides just slicing pieces off and popping them in my mouth. Back to business-- the first draft is nearing completion! I can't wait for Emily to get her hands on it! As soon as this puppy is out of my hands, I am doing the following: 1. pedicure
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I am in love with Percy Jackson
I think I mentioned this a while ago, but I wrote an essay called Eeny Meeny Miney Mo(m) for this anthology-- it's called Demigods and Monsters. It's a whole book of writers talking about Percy Jackson, who is the young hero of Rick Riordan's Lightning Thief series. It riffs on Greek mythology and basically creates a whole new modern day mythology. I am such a fan of Greek myths and I am also such a fan of Rick's series. If you haven't read it, please do. If you like Harry Potter, you'll love this. Anyway, Rick edited the book and it's coming out later this month, exclusively at Borders. My essay is about Greek gods and the pros and cons to having each for a parent. Like, for instance, if Aphrodite was your mom, you'd probably be gorgeous-- definite pro. But you might also be kind of narcissistic and obsessed with looking in the mirror--definitely not cool. Anyway, the book is a lot of fun and I hope you'll check it out! XOXO
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Jason Street loves us
Isn't he adorable? |
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I knew there was a reason I liked that guy...
Obama picked UNC to take it all the way in the tourney. For the Final 4, Obama likes UNC, Kansas, UCLA, and Stanford. GO HEELS!!! http://www.850thebuzz.com/blog/?p=4210 Last night, my old college roommate and I watched the UNC game and gorged ourselves on fake food-- there was Cheez Whiz and "nachos" involved. It was gross but satisfying. We also ate some Ben and Jerry's-- she with her strawberry cheesecake and me with Cake Batter and chocolate frosting. We always fight over which kind to get bc she likes it really chocolatey, while I prefer some kind of cookie/dessert B&J-- ie my favorite was the Southern Pecan Pie icecream, which is now in the Ben & Jerry's graveyard. I also like the Oatmeal cookie one, and the Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. Any other favorites out there?? I'm willing to try new things.
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This is AWESOME
So I found out on Cynthia Lord's blog that Shug is on Michigan's reading list (whoo hoo! Thanks Cynthia!) so I googled myself in the hopes of finding the actual list-- I'm a see-it to believe it kind of girl. I didn't find it, but I did find something so amazing that I have to share it here. It's a scene, acted out by a girl named Carly-- from SHUG! She plays like 4 different parts. WOWZA. I'm so, so impressed. Thanks, Carly! You rock. One other thing-- if you've ever happened to look at my mood pics, you'll know that I am a big Buffy fan. Huge. Well, the stars aligned and I got to go to the Buffy Reunion at Paley Fest this week. It was like, the best week. Ever. I flew back from LA today and I think I'm still on a high from the awesomeness of it all. I will post some pictures asap (they're on my sister's camera, and she is flying home to Richmond for a N.E.R.D concert, the lucky minx!) I had so much fun in LA with my sister and my young friend Claire, who I used to babysit but now is just my friend. I introduced her to the Buffysphere, and she's never been the same. At the reunion, they aired an episode (Once More With Feeling) and then the cast and Joss and David (writers and producers) talked about the show. Sarah Michelle Gellar is a tiny little thing. So is Seth Green. Haha. But he is so freakin cute and so is she. It was such a special night. I will post pictures and also some from Friday Night Lights, which I also attended. Why oh why is Matt Saracen so cute?? Just wait till you see the picture of US! Don't be too jealous though. Other good Panther news-- it looks like Season 3 is pretty much a go! Best news all week! One other funny thing-- on the elevator in the parking garage, an old man walked in wearing a Panthers windbreaker and a tattered Panthers hat. He was cute as a button, and my sister was like, I love your jacket! And he goes, thanks, my son gave it to me. We're like, who's your son? (Because obvs, this was a very VIP jacket, they don't sell these kinds of things, you know.) He says, Jason. And the first thought in my head is, Jason Street?? But alas, he was referring to Jason Katims, headrunner of the show and also, ahem, a writer from MY SO-CALLED LIFE! Love!!! So there you go. If you don't watch Buffy or FNL, this whole post probably made no sense to you and you're probably bored. Sorry. But I'm just so excited about all the wonderful things that happened in LA that I have to share. My time in LA=surreal. It also equals=nightmarish traffic/road rage/getting lost. But I'll prefer to remember it as the time I had Jason Street's arm around me. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!
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me so tired
I just realized I got called out by someone named butsu. Butsu says (in a comment below), "you don't post often, do you?" Thanks for calling me out, butsu! Dang. So yeah, things have been busy, UNC beat Duke, etc etc blah blah blah. I am about to go home to Virginia for a little while before I had out to LA with my little sister Susan and my best girl Claire. Exciting things will happen there that I will explain soon. For now, I will say that I am so sleepy and my apartment looks like a crack den. Seriously. From what I've seen on SVU, my place could pass. So before I fly out, I have to: -clean my apartment at least enough so that I can walk from my bed to the couch without moving boxes or kicking coats out of the way Are you happy now, butsu?
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Clear Eyes...
I am in a panic over Friday night Lights. Help me save it, please. If you haven't seen it yet, head over to nbc.com and get ready to be seduced. If you are already a fan, join me in writing to Ben Silverman over at NBC. Ben Silverman Dear Ben, I don’t know how much weight a fan letter carries, but if does, even a little bit, let me say that I am a fan of Friday Night Lights. A huge, serious, dedicated fan of Friday Night Lights. I believe it’s the best show on television. A lot of other people agree with me—Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Time Out New York, Best Week Ever, they all agree with me. Jenna Fischer agrees with me. Why don’t you make it unanimous and agree with me too? After I heard people hype this show up to almost unrealistic proportions (NY Times called it “not just television great, but great in the way of a poem or painting” that’s pretty damn great) I went out and bought the first season, sight unseen. I watched the first episode, then the second, then pretty much the whole thing. I was blown away. I couldn’t believe just how great it was. I became a FNL missionary, evangelizing about Coach Taylor and the Panthers, getting others to join my cause. I showed it to my sister, who showed it to her roommates. I showed it to my best friend, who showed it to her little brother, who showed it to his friends in college. I converted people I didn’t even know. That’s how passionate I am for this show. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. Sincerely,
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I know it's strange to feel sad over someone you never even met, but I do. I feel really, really sad and heavy and I feel a real sense of loss. It's a lot of things really, the way he was so young, just a year older than me, the fact that he has a little baby girl who will only know him from his movies, and also the fact that he lived in my neighborhood makes him feel like someone closer than just a guy who's in movies. Really, really good movies at that. Brokeback Mountain, of course, but I will always love him in 10 Things I Hate About You. Heath Ledger, we hardly even got a chance to know you and experience all the great performances you had to offer. He was a true talent, one of Hollywood's very few. I wonder what he would have pulled off if he'd only had the time. |
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The first day of our tour went off peachy. We did two really fun school visits and at the end of the day, we did a book signing at Books & Greetings that was AMAZING. I mean, there must have been 60 girls there, plus moms. They were all so so cute and excited, and they asked really good questions. I was pretty much blown away by how many girls there were-- I did a lot of signings when Shug first came out, and I have to say, I've never been to a signing with this many people! Except maybe Julie Andrews. Tomorrow, we have one more school visit and then Barnes and Noble-- the B&N signing isn't over till 9pm! We'll be all the way over by Greenwich, so I probably won't be getting back to the city till late. Boo! I have to say, B&N is gonna have a hard time topping what Kenny at Books & Greetings pulled off. That's a tough act to follow! Check out a picture of us MIX authors--
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MIX it up, people
MIX authors are going on tour next week! What is MIX, you wonder? MIX is the brand new tween paperback imprint at Simon & Schuster, and they are reprinting books in paperback-- including SHUG. Yay for that! So to promote it and to promote some books, we are going on tour. Who is we, you wonder? Rachel Cohn, Melissa de la Cruz (I loooove her name, isn't it so fabulous?), PG Kain, Taylor Morris, and I are doing a little tour around New Jersey and CT. We're visiting some schools and we're also doing a few signings. On Wednesday the 16th, we'll be at Books and Greetings, reading and signing from 3:30 to 5:30pm in Northvale NJ on Livingston Street. On Thursday the 17th, we'll be at the Milford CT Barnes and Noble on Boston Post Road, from 7pm to 9pm. There'll be a Q&A panel and everything! If you live in the tri-state area, I hope and cross my fingers you'll come out and see us. I'll love you forever!
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cue my back-up dancers, I have an announcement!
Mic check, 1-2-3. I have an announcement! I present to you, the title of my second book... THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY, to be published in Spring '09. Yay! I'm so happy about it, yall. It's coming along slowly, but it's been so much fun (for the most part!) to write. My first draft is due to my editor in March, which is actually really soon, considering I've only got about 1/3 written. It's about a 16-year old girl named Belly, and it's all about this really monumental summer when life just starts happening-- for the good and the bad. It's about family and old friendships and first love. And it's YA, so it's significantly juicier than SHUG. So, yay for that! Here's the Publisher's Marketplace blurb from today: Jenny Han's THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY, in which a sixteen-year old returns to her mother's best friend's summer beach house to find that lots of things change when you turn pretty, but not always for the better, to Emily Meehan of Simon & Schuster Children's, by Emily van Beek of Pippin Properties.
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Gregory Maguire rocks my world.
 So, as some of you know, I work at a school library. Yesterday I had the extreme honor of listening to Gregory Maguire talk about bravery, and writing, and WICKED, and all kinds of stuff. He came for a casual sort of lunch talk with our Gay Lesbian and Straight alliance and our Diversity club, and we all just sat around a table and listened to him talk. And he is a FASCINATING talker, he spouts wisdom like it's nothin, he said so many profound things that I am kicking myself for not writing it all down. I just gobbled it all up and now I am sitting here trying to really digest it. If you're not familiar with Gregory Maguire, he is the author of like, a million books (well, 30, which is basically a million) but most notably WICKED, which is now an award-winning Broadway show. And an amazing show at that. He talked about adopting his three kids, about how he came to pick the name Elphaba, and how the story of WICKED came about. He talked about his writing process-- he writes by longhand first! He has like a million notebooks! He is amazing! It was such a rare privilege to hear him talk, I hear he doesn't do many school visits these days. He's the longtime family friend of our Associate Head of Academic Affairs, which is how he came to spend time with us. I'm still just kind of soaking it all in and feeling very grateful. I'll leave you with this: So if you care to find me Tell them how I
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it's been too long, my friends
Well, I'm sick. Ugh, I hate being sick. Sick = boring, appetiteless days and sleepless nights. And I got myself a flu shot and everything! I've been hard at work on my next novel, and it's actually been really fun to write so far! I know, this is how it always starts-- it's all candy and roses in the beginning, and then by the middle I'm ready to walk out on it. But I figure I might as well enjoy it for now. I'm listening to a lot of Dashboard Confessional to get me "in the mood" and in the right mental space. You know, yearn-y, a little melancholy, romantic but in an imperfect kind of way. I'm hoping to get 5 more pages before the weekend is over, and for me, Monday is a part of my weekend, so that is probably an attainable goal. I'm lucky I have my writing buddy Sio! I wish for everyone a good writing buddy. It makes life so much more pleasing. I guess I'm going to go do my seasonal clothing swap and switch out my summer stuff for my winter stuff. Big fun. Remember everybody, fall back tonight! (Thanks B for reminding me!)
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wow...
That was the worst thing I've ever seen in my whole life. And by "that" I am referring to Britney's "performance." Wow. Just wow. That's all I can say right now. I feel like I just got slapped in the face with a wet mitten. Um, that's what everybody was excited for? I was rootin for that dumbass. Britney is gone. I think we all just have to accept that. The girl with the snake around her neck is dead. This chick who barely bobbed her head to her "music" needs to go home and take care of her kids. I mean, she was wearing a bra and panties, whatever, fine, but she barely danced, let alone lip-synced. I don't even feel sorry for her. I feel disgusted. She had her shot, people were on her side, but she didn't even try. Girlfriend looked like she was drugged out on that stage. My best guess is that she got nervous and smoked a doobie or three before she hit the stage. But you know what, Britney? If you're nervous, you practice. If you're nervous, you dance your ass off until you're ready. You rehearse blood sweat and tears. You don't go clubbing with Puff Daddy and Criss Angel. Criss Angel of all people?? He makes Kevin look look like Clooney. This was your moment and you blew it. It's not enough for us to want it for you. You have to want it for yourself. Britney, I'm over you. You dummy. Let this be a lesson to us all! ed. CHRIS BROWN killed it. He killed it. WOW. He is now officially my boo. That boy can dance. If you stack that up against the mess Britney pulled out of her butt, her "performance" looks all the more sad. People were rushing up to the stage for this boy. Me included, in spirit. My good mood is now restored!
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a Damn fine day
Today is my birthday, and I spent it at the beach with good friends. We ate white bean guacamole and turkey sandwiches and roasted shrimp orzo and red velvet cake. My friend B made a strawberry grape cocktail, and Lisa brought the tanning oil. My friend Chris did the driving. The weather was amazing, the best. Not even hot! Just an end of summer breeze, and boy did it feel nice. I even made finishing touches on my tan. We jumped some waves and I got totally worked by one of them-- I did a sand dive and pretty much exfoliated my whole body in one fell swoop. One fell, painful swoop. My body is now very smooth and a little bit raw. I just got a spa treatment for free! On the way home, I fell asleep on the train. It was the perfect end of summer and start of a new year for me.
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Cape Cod is the best place ever. I'm staying in this incredible house-- I feel like I'm on the Kennedy compound, it's that big and nice and homey. My bedroom has a huge balcony with the bay right there, right in front of me! I wake up in the morning, and there's the bay. Amazing. Yesterday, we went on a whale watch and we saw 24 whales! They were breaching and everything. Also, my tan is coming along nicely. Also, the food has been really really good. Lobster, blueberry pie, corn on the cob, BBQ, peach pie, blueberry muffins, "dirt bombs" (cinnamon and sugar muffins), lox and bagels, MMMM. I think I am going to try my hand at kayaking today! Life is good when there is the sun and beach and blueberry pie. With ice cream!
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Summer lovin, had me a blast...
I had a summer love affair, guys. With The Office. Specifically, Jim Halpert. Why did I not watch this show sooner? Why?! I love it. I've watched all three seasons online, and I'm crazy for Cocoa Puffs. I even have a soft spot for Michael, and Dwight. I love 'em all. I can't wait for fall! On the other hand, why did summer happen so fast? Why is it almost over? I'm not ready to go back to school! Not that I don't love my job, I do. But... it feels like Sunday night before a big Monday morning math test that I haven't even studied for. Whoops. Um, I need to be writing right now, before I go back to school and don't have the same kind of time on hand. And instead, I am watching So You Think You Can Dance. (Danny! Danny! Danny!) This summer has been all about: * Jim Halpert Ummm, what else?? It took me a minute to even get that much! Well, it's not over yet folks. I still have a few weeks to finish honing my new story, plus Cape Cod, plus my birthday!! Yay, I love my birthday. My birthday is both cursed and blessed-- it always falls either on or right around the first day of school. September 3rd. The good part is that it also falls right around Labor Day, so I always get a three day weekend no matter what. So there's that. The other bad thing is that I'm now getting to be the age where I dread turning one year older instead of being excited about it-- there's no driver's license or 21st birthday to look forward to anymore! There's just me, turning my Scary Age. Gulp.
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Wow.
I'm a tool. I never use that word, but I'm using it now-- I'm such a tool! I was reading over my website inbox, and I realized I have emails from May that I never responded to! What the?? I thought I replied to all my emails, but sometimes it just gets away from me, I guess. I now vow to reply within a week, so this never happens again! Readers, I am so sorry and I hope you don't think that was me being unappreciative of your letters. I so appreciate you taking the time to write me, I'm just very forgetful and occasionally lazy. I promise to be better next time!
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drained
working
busy
lazy
nerdy
stressed
worried
awake
excited
energetic
sick
hopeful
pissed off
grateful
relaxed
full
embarrassed