La · Bella · Vita

A.) Go to musicoutfitters.com
B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year
C.) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline or italicize your favorite. Do nothing to the ones you don’t remember (or don’t care about)

1. Crazy In Love, Beyoncé Knowles featuring Jay-Z
2. Hey Ya!, Outkast
3. Here Without You, 3 Doors Down
4. Baby Boy, Beyoncé Knowles featuring Sean Paul
5. Miss Independent, Kelly Clarkson
6. Beautiful, Christina Aguilera
7. Rock Your Body, Justin Timberlake
8. Where Is The Love?, Black Eyed Peas featuring Justin Timberlake
9. When I'm Gone, 3 Doors Down
10. All I Have, Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J
11. Shake Ya Tailfeather, Nelly, P. Diddy & Murphy Lee
12. Unwell, Matchbox
13. Picture, Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow
14. In Da Club, 50 Cent
15. I'm With You, Avril Lavigne
16. Bring Me To Life, Evanescence
17. Cry Me A River, Justin Timberlake
18. Can't Hold Us Down, Christina Aguilera featuring Lil' Kim
19. Harder To Breathe, Maroon 5
20. Why Don't You & I, Santana featuring Alex Band
21. Someday, Nickelback
22. Suga Suga Baby, Bush featuring Frankie J
23. Your Body Is A Wonderland, John Mayer
24. Are You Happy Now?, Michelle Branch
25. Landslide, Dixie Chicks
26. The Remedy (I Won't Worry), Jason Mraz
27. (There's Gotta Be) More To Life, Stacie Orrico
28. I Know What You Want, Busta Rhymes & Mariah Carey featuring The Flipmode Squad
29. It's My Life, No Doubt
30. Clocks, Coldplay
31. Stacy's Mom,Fountains Of Wayne
32. All The Things She Said, t.A.T.u.
33. Bump Bump Bump, B2K & P. Diddy
34. Get Busy, Sean Paul
35. Rock Wit U (Awww Baby), Ashanti
36. If You're Not The One, Daniel Bedingfield
37. Headstrong, Trapt
38. Bright Lights, Matchbox 20
39. Fighter, Christina Aguilera
40. Perfect, Simple Plan
41. '03 Bonnie & Clyde, Jay-Z featuring Beyoncé Knowles
42. Mesmerize, Ja Rule featuring Ashanti
43. Intuition, Jewel
44. Ignition, R. Kelly
45. Drift Away, Uncle Kracker featuring Dobie Gray
46. White Flag, Dido
47. Work It, Missy Elliott
48. Miss You, Aaliyah
49. Invisible, Clay Aiken
50. Senorita, Justin Timberlake
51. Addicted, Simple Plan
52. 21 Questions, 50 Cent featuring Nate Dogg
53. My Love Is Like…, Wo Mya
54. Don't Mess With My Man, Nivea
55. Angel, Amanda Perez
56. She Hates Me, Puddle Of Mudd
57. I Want You, Thalia featuring Fat Joe
58. Blowin' Me Up (With Her Love), JC Chasez
59. Girls & Boys, Good Charlotte
60. So Far Away, Staind
61. Swing, Swing, All-American Rejects
62. Magic Stick, Lil' Kim featuring 50 Cent
63. Don't Wanna Try, Frankie
64. Sing For The Moment, Eminem
65. Hell Yeah, Ginuwine
66. Through The Rain, Mariah Carey
67. Breathe, Michelle Branch
68. Right Thurr, Chingy
69. Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous, Good Charlotte
70. Calling All, Angels Train
71. Gossip Folks, Missy Elliott featuring Ludacris
72. P.I.M.P., 50 Cent
73. Air Force Ones, Nelly
74. I'm Glad, Jennifer Lopez
75. Low, Kelly Clarkson
76. I Drove All Night, Celine Dion
77. Into You, Fabolous featuring Tamia
78. Stuck, Stacie Orrico
79. So Yesterday, Hilary Duff
80. No Letting Go, Wayne Wonder
81. Stand Up, Ludacris featuring Shawnna
82. Big Yellow Taxi, Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carlton (well, the original, but this one's okay)
83. Losing Grip, Avril Lavigne
84. Never Leave You, Lumidee
85. Why Can't I, Liz Phair
86. The Boys Of Summer, The Ataris
87. Bigger Than My Body, John Mayer
88. Get Low Lil', Jon & The Eastside Boyz (I can't help it:()
89. Running, No Doubt
90. Spin, Lifehouse
91. Something, Lasgo
92. Superman, Eminem
93. Pretty Baby, Vanessa Carlton
94. Come Into My World, Kylie Minogue
95. Me Against The Music, Britney Spears featuring Madonna
96. The Anthem, Good Charlotte
97. Deliverance, Bubba Sparxxx
98. Misunderstood, Bon Jovi
99. I'd Do Anything, Simple Plan
100. I Can Only Imagine, MercyMe

A lot of these look familiar, but I don't remember them or just didn't bother. Hmmm...I liked the class of 2001 list better...

"a brown skin, with dark eyes, and rather dark hair." I guess JJ was perfect for the role. But I still think PB would make an awesome HT. Blonde or dark-haired. Though I guess with his eyes it wouldn't work. But he'd be expressive enough. Or something. I just think he'd work. I'll stop babbling for the second time and get back to reading NA again. I love free e-texts.

So Northanger Abbey is actually my favorite Austen novel. Didn't know that, didja? It was my favorite one to read in HS and I didn't really get into P&P until I was more mature and appreciative of the changes that a certain dark brooder went through from the beginning to the end. But when I really want something happy, Henry and Catherine always make it better. Masterpiece Theatre is doing the "Complete Jane Austen" which includes three new adaptations and NA was the second one. I remember in HS wishing that there was a NA movie (and discovering that there was one but it was made in the 70s or 80s and really bad). This new one was wonderful and JJ was a great HT but I feel like he was described as fair (which to me = blonde). I remember a couple years after I read it A Knight's Tale came out and I thought "Paul Bettany would make a great Henry Tilney" but he was too old. Why couldn't he have been born later or decided to act earlier? Of course, there wasn't enough in the total budget to even afford PB right now but if they Joe Wright decides to make any more Austen movies he should do that one and just put a whole lot of makeup on Paul Bettany so he can be Henry. They could get the same girl to be Catherine though, she was perfect.

I think I'm done with babbling, now, I'll go to bed.

"f your holiday plans include singing, don’t chug the eggnog, champagne or even water. It could be hazardous to your voice....Risky refreshments for vocalists include coffee, tea and chocolate, which can trigger acid reflux; acid-laden cola and citrus; dehydrating alcohol; and dairy products, which thicken mucus" says some hoity toity voice trainer. Most of this results in a "duh" moment for singers. But it kind of knocks off the ability for a singer to drink anything before singing. What then?

Watching MFL (and remembering reading Pygmalion) I can't help but thinking Robert Shaw and Gaston Lereaux either read one another or had like minds. Both Raoul and Freddy Einsford-Hill annoy the shit out of me. Though Patrick Whatsisname did make Raoul a little bit more manly and hero-like, he still drove me insane. And Freddy I guess is more of a man (being a Mr. and not a Viscount)

Prof. Higgins and Erik are similar, though their nationalities help them be different. The Phantom is all that is a French Lover and the Professor is all that is the English Cynic(Bastard). They both are teachers that make their young proteges interesting and that draw their future husbands to them (Yes, if you're a bit dusty on your Pygmalion, she marries Freddy just like she says she will). Of course, Higgins is only dangerous to himself and perhaps some dishes; he'd never set fire to the embassy ball because the Prince of Transylvania wanted to dance with Eliza. They both do, however, take immense pride in "their" successes.

Okay, this "analysis" is done. Back to the movie.

You ever sit in a room where everything's normal, then a whole bunch of people get up and run towards walls and doorways and you're still sitting there, thinking the floor was shaking because so many people got up at once? And then you realize...the ground is shaking and you had no idea what was going on?

Yeah, kinda freaky. Even for ten seconds.

The first time you saw me, did you think, do I know her?

I'm not being vain, I swear, it's just that since I've gotten out here there have been a bunch of people (register people in borders, customers in banana, coworkers at banana, other random people) who have asked me if they knew me or if we'd met before. I was just wondering if I was actually one of those people who "have one of those faces" like the people say in the movie when they're trying to avoid being known.

So yesterday, after getting paid way too little for way too much work (a freelance job that was adding to the frustration of my previous post) I went to get my books, one of which they didn't have, but whatever. Still not too bad, less than a hundred bucks per book for three classes, plus an APA standards book (J: What's APA? Me: It's like MLA, but EEEEEEVIL) because all my papers have to be in APA. Oh, and a cool vinyl leather looking purple notepad folder. I figured I would go different with my style and appearance since I'm no longer an undergraduate. Or something. So on my way back from the Student Union, I have to go past the amazingly wonderful King Library (funny, the big library at home is MLK, the one here is King, and they're named for the same person. Good way to differentiate which one I'm talking about though, or something like that).

But anyway, on to the subject of the story, there I am, heading through campus, on my way home with my book of heavy bags/sodas, and I figure, I'll take a glimpse at the used book sale, I love library books.

Well, I probably spent a good half hour to 45 minutes there, and bought 8 books or thereabouts, all novels or similar that I've been interested in reading, but didn't have the time or the money. Titles include My Name is Red, The Historian, John Brown's Body, Chesapeake, The Second Sex, The Misanthrope and Tartuffe, A really old edition of the Lattimore translation of The Odyssey, a book about Thomas Jefferson that I've wanted to read for a while, and the next (to me, I haven't picked them up in a while) book in the Amelia Peabody Mysteries, which I was really gung-ho about in high school but fell off when I started college. But I've been wondering "Whatever happened to Peabody and Emerson? I think I'll read...but they're too expensive."

Total Price: $7.50

I love library book sales.

What else do I love? Cast iron. Especially old well-seasoned cast iron. That I didn't have to buy or season. Especially when one desires bacon and eggs. Mmmm...

What do I NOT love? Cleaning cast iron.

And not having a job. Though I did discover that there's a B&N on the light rail that had an opening as of 3 1/2 weeks ago. Hopefully they'll get back to me next week.

Okay, back to Foundations of Library and Information Science 2nd Edition.

And chicks who don't, but like to/have time to read, should definitely try out the Jessica Darling series (Written by Megan McCafferty, Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, Charmed Thirds, Fourth Comings, whatever comes later). I just finished Fourth Comings after being surprised to come across it in the bookstore (having finished charmed Thirds a couple weeks before and not been aware that the fourth was out) and I am constantly surprised by the ingenuity of MMcC. It might be different for those of you who are older to pick it up, because I started reading it in HS, where it begins for Jess Darling. In the fourth book she's in a similar situation to me, having just graduated from college eand getting used to living alone in the city with college loans to pay off. So who knows if you'll be turned off by the know it all slightly too perfect fifteen-year-old in Sloppy Firsts.

Now on to the Bourne trilogy. The Bourne Ultimatum left me with a few questions and maybe I can answer some of them by reading the books.

So, flipping through channels at 1 am appears to now be depressing.

Syriana, Domino and Cruel Intentions on succeessive channels. Others include Shakespeare in Love, The Break-Up, The Matrix Revolutions, etc. The happiest thing on is Stick It. Which I enjoy, but isn't even on yet...

I guess there's no pain in watching Ryan Phillipe die...

Here it is, 4:50 AM and I can't sleep. I was before, but I just suddenly woke up and here I am. Admittedly, it's almost 8 at home, but still, I went to bed pretty darn near midnight. Instead of sleeping, I'm sitting on the floor, next to my bed, not enveloped in the warmth, not even listening to the ocean (which is a serious stone's throw away). I've got phone calls to people I don't know about advertisements on craigslist running through my head at a mile a minute. I can't make them go away, not for anything. I keep thinking "ocean crashing, slow melody, sounds of breathing, steady heartbeat" but then I hear "I was wondering if it was still available" in three different timbre's of my voice. I must be really worried. Since yesterday was set aside for relaxation (minus a mini panic attack about being kicked out of my classes because finaid hasn't paid the registrar yet), I guess it all settled down on me now. But I HAVE to go to sleep because I'll never get an apartment without a good amount of positive energy. Or whatever.

When this happens at home, surfing the internet usually helps get me tired again. I'm gonna go try that. Hopefully it won' take the average hour.

Wish I had some Law and Order to just knock me right back out, like it occasionally does.

So I've been contemplating it over the past few months, and I think I'm going to go back to having natural hair. Now, I've been getting my hair relaxed since I was like 6, so I've never had to take care of it on my own. But perms are doing bad things to my hair and I don't know what people do to it out in Cali. So I'm going to try to do this. Now, the problem is, I don't know what exactly I want to do. I'm not growing out a fro. I just can't handle that and my hair's the wrong texture. My mother suggested something she'd seen that are like locks but lighter. I'm not completely certain I know what she's talking about, but they might be something similar to shiny locks. I'll look into it more. I just need a change, to get my hair healthy again.

We'll see how long this lasts, eh?

So, I am almost done with my undergraduate education. I could say I'm really done, since my final "class" is actually a voice lesson and Jolly and I just plan on having fun and doing a "Jess's last two years musical revue" sort of thing. I've also got a few strings to knot and stuff like that, but basically, as far as work's concerned, I'm done.

It hasn't really hit me yet.