I have tickets to the 2 p.m. showing of Gypsy this afternoon. Who's excited? That would be me.

Berkeley is pretty well-known for its politcal involvment, its activism. It was the site of the Free Speech Movement in the 60s. Its seen countless protests and rallies throughout the years.
Now, if you'd asked me yesterday whether I thought that sort of spirit, that level of political engagement, was still alive on campus, I'd have told you it wasn't. There are protests, there are politics, but they seem to be on the part of a small fraction of the students. Most people have always seemed more or less apathetic.
Yesterday, after the presidential election was called, people started marching around campus, singing and chanting. After about an hour, the crowd had grown to about 500 people, and was completely blocking Bancroft Avenue. Someone climbed up on a streetlamp and started waving an American flag. The energy and pure joy in the air was just incredible.
( The Atmosphere as Thrilling Here as Always... )

Umm..this? Possibly the best idea ever. I've never been drunk in my life, but I do pretty stupid shit when I'm tired, so I enabled it on my email anyway. From 2 to 7 a.m. every morning. Why am I ever up at those times? I don't know, but it happens often.
Now if I could only apply it to other aspects of my life besides just sending email. Or maybe I've just been making bad decisions lately.
Help me Google!

My laptop is gone again. It developed more problems, and the people at tech support got an earful...until they offered to repair it for free. I sent it off this afternoon. I miss it though. My programs, I needs them.

My laptop was broken for like two weeks there.
But now its back, all better. And I'm $200 poorer, but whatever. It's my own damn fault, for breaking the hinge, however it is that I managed to do that.
I regrettably, don't have much to report.
I've been working and going to class. Not reading, not watching TV, not listening to music. Just working. And sleeping sometimes. Bah. I'll have to work on that.

I've been busy. So busy, in fact, that I've not had time to post here since classes began. But rest assured, I will be back. However, just at the moment I have a cold and the desire to do nothing more than lay in bed and consume warm liquids, and I've managed to get the afternoon off work for the sake of accomplishing this goal.
Later.

First, sad news.
I suppose considering how many other newspapers are struggling, it shouldn't come as much of a shock, but it just seems so much more personal when it's the one that I work for.
Hopefully, the situation will be resolved, and if anyone reading this could make any kind of donation, it would be incredible and I would be very grateful.
Also, I'm trying to entertain myself before classes start.
I seem to have fixed my internet, yay me.
I've been reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I quite like it so far, it's cute, although I sometimes get the feeling he's trying too hard to be unique and interesting.
That's all for now. In other news, my room is still a mess. Albeit somewhat less of one than yesterday.

I got back in Berkeley today. ZOMG. The freshman, they're everywhere.
In my absence, the internet at my apartment has completely flipped out. I should get on that. Longer update coming later, but right now my room is a disaster and I can't stand it any longer.

Hunter Parrish is in Spring Awakening!? How was I not aware of this? How can I finagle myself to New York to see this madness, is the better question.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go catch up on my Weeds watching. I'm like four episodes behind...is srs business.

One of these days I will learn not to put everything off until the last minute. That day is not today.
It's one a.m., I need to clean up my apartment and pack before I go to bed, and I have a nine a.m. appointment to get to tomorrow. And what am I doing? Oh right, writing a livejournal post.
In just over twelve hours, my class obligations will be over for a glorious two weeks. I will be going home, which I'm quite looking forward to. I need the change of scenery. And I get to see everyone who's home for the summer...finally.
Also, I'm listening to Mamma Mia. I need energetic music to keep me awake. After this I'm moving on to Hairspray. My neighbors must hate me.

Well, it turned out that the nice new SD card I got for my camera was in fact not compatible with my camera. Fail. So I headed into the sketchy electronics store nearby and the sketchy owner sold me a new one ("It's usually $20, but for you, I make it $15"). He probably still overcharged me, but whatevs. My camera works again, so no complaints here. It's a good day for sketchy electronics stores.



I am here to prove to you that my camera is functional with a picture from my work picnic outing this morning. I'm not in the picture, that would be Byron from advertising. The kite is mine. Yes, I own a penguin kite. Don't judge.
I wish I could offer some observations on the Olympics, but I haven't watched anything yet. I'm trying to remedy that now, with what looks to be women's swimming.
Also, I have insane amounts of food. My uncle took me grocery shopping (at this time yesterday I think I a package of bagels and a tub of cream cheese were the extent of the contents of my fridge). And by the way Choctal Vanilla Ice Cream is possibly the most amazing thing ever.
I'm almost done with summer classes. Less than a week...and then I get to go home. Yay! Home! And then I come back a week later to do more class. But I'm not focusing on that.

"I done another bad thing"
-Lenny, Of Mice and Men

It's possible I've killed another of my plants. Actually, it's almost certain. The first one died from lack of water, and the only logical conclusion is that I now overcompsensated and killed this one with too much. I need to buy plastic plants, for reals. I feel terrible every time one of them dies in my hands, which happens more often than I'd like to admit. You would think that at the age of eighteen and as a college student, I might be able to nail down the finer points of plant care, but you'd be wrong about that.
P.S. It's possible I only made this post so that I could use that quote from Of Mice and Men. I couldn't resist.

I'm going to go ahead and be somewhat wierded out by this advertisement that appeared in my userinfo when I last loaded it. It's kind of ridiculous to me.
For one thing, someone actually took the time (albeit not much, by the looks of it) to design a banner ad to promote Sondheim ringtones, which is pretty amusing in itself. I mean, I'll admit I've spent awhile fiddling with my phone to get the "Bobby" refrain from "Company" to be my ringtone. Seriously. But I didn't think there were enough other people like me out there to merit Sondheim ringtones becoming an actual enterprise. Also, the choice of picture, wtf?

Somewhat Friends Only, But Not Really, Just Sometimes
This is the journal of Valerie-Broadway aficionado, college student, tea addict, Chinese food enthusiast, plant neglecter, couch potato and linguistics nerd, among other things.
I have not fully formed my plans for this journal, and perhaps I'll update this post when I do, but I anticipate that there will be at least some friends-only posts. I cannot at this time guess as to what percentage of the total posts they will make up, but suffice it to say, if you want access to them, please inquire here.

Once you are added as a friend, you can get some background information on me here