in between dreams

(from weheartit)

Dreams both fascinate me and freak me out.

Two nights ago, I was in that woozy, half-conscious state where I could feel my body getting heavier and heavier as it sunk into sleep. Thoughts and pictures were flitting intermittently across the movie screen that is my mind. I'm not sure why, but I suddenly found myself in a conversation with a stranger who decided to flick his cigarette ash into my ear. I heard the sizzle. I felt it. It was so realistic that I was shaken awake by this phantom occurrence.

Does that happen to everyone? Do other people have dreams in which they trip and fall, and the reaction is so physical that the real self (not just the dream self) actually jolts as well?

Something else about dreams that fascinates me is dreaming of real places--places I've actually seen and been to--that are not represented in my dreams the way that they actually look in reality. I'm not explaining myself well. Take, for example, my high school. In my dreams, Firestone appears as a single hallway: one that does not actually exist. Yet despite that, somehow, I instinctively know where I am. And that hallway represents high school from dream to dream to dream.

I don't know if I want the subconscious and unconscious mind to be explained or not. I kind of enjoy reveling in the mystery.

lent

(from thecatholicsun's flickr photostream)

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. While walking around New York City today, I noticed a fair amount of people with the telltale dark cross on their foreheads. I don't know why it seemed so out-of-place to me...I guess I never really think of New Yorkers as being terribly religious. But what a testament to the power of religion; people will unabashedly, proudly wear a smudged symbol of their belief on their foreheads. Interesting.

Are you giving up anything for Lent?

ode to lemon tarts

(found on flickr)

submissive, she cowers
'fore this forbidden treat
first explodes, then it sours
then is delicate and sweet.

though she may be unwilling
in her heart grows a lust
for the lemony filling
and the buttery crust

as she takes the first bite
her taste buds ignite
bite number seven
she's in sensory heaven

with a lick of her fingers
she picks up the crumbs
in her mouth the taste lingers
...she always succumbs

valentine's day

(from weheartit.com)

“I think that when we look for love courageously,
it reveals itself, and we wind up attracting even more love.
If one person really wants us, everyone does.
But if we're alone, we become even more alone.
Life is strange.”

-Paulo Coelho

overdue

(from weheartit.com)

I think it's high time for a blog post. I've certainly taken enough time off. I mean, this is my first post of the new year, and it's already February 11th. I wish I could say that during my blogging hiatus I've come up with all sorts of brilliant pensées and what follows will change your life as you know it.

Alas, it is not to be.

I thought I could instead update you, dearest blogosphere, on my comings and goings and my life in general. So if you'd rather be privy to my thoughts on cultural odorlessness, the importance of educating women, my obsession with ted.com, or assorted Valentine's Day-related emo-ness, stay tuned. Right now, I'm going to be entirely selfish and talk about myself.

I will try to make it entertaining, and brief.

This semester is kicking my ass. I am taking a bunch of comm classes (Intercultural Communication, Media and Global Communication, Business of Media) and also a basic essay-writing class with fourteen freshman. Which is actually not as terrible as it sounds! I am getting into the groove with all of my classes, and while it's a lot of work I think it's going to be a really good semester. It IS going to be a GREAT semester.

It's already so much better than last semester because of my cute little apartment. Yes, be jealous. I am a denizen of the East Village. La vie bohème at its finest. It is absolutely lovely to come home to a singing tea kettle, a comfy red futon, a place of my own. (And a roommate that farts, but I'm used to that by now.) But I still need a bookcase.

And I cannot wait until summer so I can sit on my fire escape and drink wine. Or play Moon River on the guitar à la Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's...

Anyway, life is good.
Very good, even. :)