Jenna's House of Idiosyncrasies Version 10.0 [Focus.]

I'm feeling so sick of it right now.

If I could just figure what it is.

Google Search: whore house

For more information go here.

Woo hoo!!

Read This

I am just enthralled with this woman. Her design is absolutely brilliant, and her photographs and commentary are awesome. I'm currently making my way through her archives. You should too.

(P.S. You are currently reading the 100th entry since my installation of Movable Type.)

to Movable Type 2.51. Oh yeah.

And it only took like, 20 minutes! I feel so smart.

Couldn't sleep. Finally caved and got an imood. I always said they were too cutesy but I can't fight the urge anymore.

(Check it out under "Currently" in the right-hand column of the journal main page.)

Friday: Showing your sister the cool sights in your home town is fun. Even buying her stuff when you have no money makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Saturday: I want to have Veblen's baby. I am still fond of the Waffle House, no matter what. The new 987 (yet to be officially christened) is small and missing some people but quieter and more like a home than a party house. I actually got to talk to people. It was really nice.

Sunday: Surfed around pointlessly while at work, ate a pot roast dinner with my family and watched the first hour of The Wizard of Oz, complete with commentary. Came back to Athens, went to Locos with my partner in crime Melissa to see the darling and talented Scott Little perform. Socialized with him and his sweet girlfriend Michelle, and then came home and recapped for you fine people.

The weekend helped. I'm feeling much better about things. And now, a two-day week, and then my sister, and Thanksgiving with the whole fam. I am so ready.

So I just finished my advising appointment (don't even start on me about not getting advised until the week before Thanksgiving) and found out something that has made me cuss in my head about everything for the last half-hour.

I'm transferring the Franklin College next semester from University Studies. I need two sciences: a biological one and a physical one. I did not know this, so currently I have two physical sciences, and have to take yet another science next semester.

But oh, it gets so much better.

My second science, the one I don't need, is one I am taking right now, Marine Enviroment, and I'm going to either come close to failing it or actually fail it due to some sleeping through a test on my part and a general non-understanding of the material at large. So, this class, that I don't need to graduate or transfer or for anything is basically going to completely trash my GPA and make the next year be even a even bigger struggle to catch up than the last one. And I didn't even need it!

The mistake is basically me thinking that science is science is science and that all four hour labortory courses are essentially the same.

See, the worst thing is, this is my fault.

In my head I'm chanting "I'm a fuck-up, I'm a fuck-up, I'm a fuck-up..." but it my heart I'm trying my damndest not to believe it.

Hopefully I'm be better by tomorrow. Afterall, it does no good not to bitch about everything incessantly. This just has completely ruined my Friday afternoon.

We have quizzes. So. many. quizzes. Read More »

I don't remember playing this when I was little, but it is still great fun.

You will live in House.
You will drive a mauve Galant.
You will marry Will Hoge and have 0 kids.
You will be a web designer in New Orleans.

Play Mash Online.

(I put in a bunch of rockstars for the men. That's how it always works, kids.)

Go here and write a favorable review of my site, if you please. Sound eloquent.

Maybe it will convince them to update the damn screenshots...

Morning, day, or night? quiz by maikamariel

Which Fashionable Band Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
You're The Strokes! Dun Dun DUNNNNN!!!! You're the life of the party! You were prolly smoking in the bathroom most of your highschool career, but hey we don't have cancer! You have had more critical praise than most bands and you don't know why! You have been compared to the greatest rockers which makes you blush. Hehe, you stupid stoner! We love you! You love us!

Not only that but...

Julian Casablancas - Who Is Your Rock Star Boyfriend?
brought to you by Quizilla

hmmmmm....

Last night I dreamt that they had installed these teleporters all over campus. You stood under it and it zapped you where you needed to go. But it wasn't free. They deducted money from you UGA card for every trip. I was looking at a map of all the locations of teleporters (many of which I don't think actually exist at UGA) and was very frustrated because none of them seemed to be near my building or my classes or even downtown.

Nevertheless, I decided to try it out. I punched in a code, stood under the teleporter (which, by the way, looks like the top of a shroom, especially when someone is standing under it, except more metallic) and was promptly—

zapped out into space. Where I died. Why do I always die in my dreams?

My roommate says that psychologists claim that if you die in your dreams that you die in real life, and that I'm some sort walking case study.

I don't know how true that is but it's an interesting thought.

...let us stress our main points one more time

• THIS IS A LOAN
• It Must be REPAID... even if you do not finish school, do not graduate, do not have a job, or are not satisfied with your educational experience.
• THIS IS A LOAN

————————————————————-
Those people at the Department of Education have too much practice needlessly repeating themselves. This is because of public education.

On the upside, I got all 15 quiz questions right the first time. Go me.

I'm feeling kind of disconnected from things right now.

It's something I can't quite put my finger on.

I love Athens. I love going to UGA. I even enjoy dorm life. But nearly everyone here feels like an acquaintance. And it gets lonely, not having your close friends around.

Friends seem to happen by accident for me. And I could name several people I saw tonight that I would like to spend more time with and get to know better, but I have no idea how to orchestrate something like that.

And so it goes.

Welcome to my late night thoughts. In my head I complain. A lot.

I don't miss Winder, but I miss Winder people. Maybe its being younger or less jaded or something, but Winder kids are so much more genuine and accessible than most people here. I'm having a hard time cracking people's shells.

I'm really gonna be okay. One just has to articulate these things for them to gradually get better.

There is nothing like waking up and hour and and half before your alarm and being able to just think in your bed for awhile. Especially when your alarm goes off at 9:15.

I dreamt all night about being on a dating show. I was wearing clothes uncharacteristic of me. I had a short skirt on but my legs still looked awful even in the dream. I can't remember what my date looked like. I remember that he didn't know we were on a show. It was some sort of hidden camera type thing.

We went to a movie and I kept drinking water but it had no effect on my extreme thirst. I went back to my house and drank water there but nothing. Then I woke up and it freaked me out for a second because (I think because of the dream) I expected to wake up in Winder but I woke up in Athens. And I realized I was thirsty because my nose was all stuffed up and it was freezing in my room. I got up and drank some water and messed with the thermostat and laid back down and thought about all the nice clothes I just bought in the dream and how I would never see them again. It was a very realistic dream. Just like my life, except, you know, without the hidden cameras. And the dating.

So where did I go tonight?

Myself and my partner in crime, Melissa, snuck into a private Tinker/Jump show at Emory University. We did this by walking right by everyone standing outside the room and sitting in on Tinker's soundcheck. Basically acting like we totally belonged there. We are so devious.

I love Tinkers. Adam (the drummer) wore Jenna Parker's "Jenna" shirt which produced a thrill for me. Cause, you know, thats my name. *Grin*.

Oh, banter.

Jay (before Say Goodnight): "This is a song about dirty little secrets with your roommate."

Ward (before Come Out Clean): "Good evening class - Welcome to Rock School."

Also, some sort of reference by Jay relating "Broken Hearts Education" to Rock School.

Ward: "You all get an A+ in Rock School."

All the Rock School comments rang with me because I'm taking Rock 'n' Roll History right now and all during Tinkers set I was thinking about the riffs verses the obligatto guitar lines versus the guitar solo breaks, and picking apart the drum lines. (Also, ever since I got into the class I've been attempting to place everyone's influences. With both Tinkers and Jump it's hard, which is really a good thing.)

Um, tangent.

I love, love, love Jump. They played 15 Stories, which is like, my song.

I got to see so many of my people. I love Opiates.

As it turns out, a stutter when talking to Jump. A lot. My asking for a picture when something like this—

"Matt!" He looks at me. And completely stuns me. "St—T—P—Picture? Could I? With you and your brother?"

He stares at me, completely deadpan, and says, "If there is one thing I do not do, it's take pictures with my brother."

He's really good at that. For a second I totally believed him.

He burst out laughing, danced over next to Evan, and they stopped moved for two seconds and took a picture with me. I tried to thank them but they both walked (or danced, or leaped) away in opposite directions. But I should soon have my very first Jenna with Jump picture, a "Bivins Sandwich" as Crystal called it.

I was the middle of a Bivins Sandwich.

You can make cities here.

If I told you my plans for tonight I'd have to kill you. All will be revealed in time.

However, for all you curious Winderites, I will be working at 106 tomorrow.

Sexy young hip bands are playing! Stop by.

I stopped to take a study break at 4:00 and still haven't gotten back to it.

Somehow, between my teacher and my textbook all the life and the drama of the pivotal time I am supposed to be writing my essay over (civil rights movement, 1950s and 60s) has been drained away and I'm actually bored. I can barely concentrate on this stuff in the daytime and here I am, hyped up on stimulants, forcing myself to cram. I'm pretty smart, but not smart enough to take an essay test cold turkey.

I knew I was forgetting something. This week was stacking up to be waaaaay too easy.

The one good thing is, I know this is something I can handle. In high school (hell, even just last year) I gave up too easily. I didn't push myself to achieve what I could, and praised myself for not stressing about things. I was such a silly kid back then. Way back then. Heh.

Invaders keep getting into my thoughts even when I tell them to go away. I don't know how I'm managing without certain people. I guess they were always right when they were telling me I was stronger than I knew.

I do feel remarkably strong lately.

Despite a gut-wrenching, head-splitting, all-over-body-pain migraine, I insist on both going out tonight (Better Than Ezra @ the 40 Watt) and then following that by pulling an all-nighter for a test that I literally just found out about from someone living down the hall from me.

Now, I have to go lay down. Oy.

What's new, you ask?

I saw Howie Day on Monday at the Tate Center, and I'm sorry to say, despite glowing reviews from several people that I have great respect for, I was less than impressed.

Granted, he has a very pleasant voice, and all the layering (for the unfamiliar, he lays down percussion, bass, voice tracks and guitar lines while on stage to play over) was pretty, and I'm sure takes skill (because if you've seen it done wrong before, you know it can be very wrong), but ultimately, it was monotonous and I was bored. I also had a really hard time connecting to him, which is something I need out of that type of show, a single person on stage with the guitar. I will not being seeing Howie Day again, but if someone bought me the CD I have the feeling I would hold onto it. He's not bad at all, he's just not great. However, for $4 I got to spend an evening out and see several people that I know, so I felt it was productive. I also finally formed my own opinion on Howie Day.

An aside: it's a shame that it is so easy for me to articulate what I don't like about an artist, yet if I'm really passionate about music it leaves me speechless. Hmmm.

I came home after my History class today I slept the remainder of the day away (until 6:45, actually), which is the easy explaination of why I'm awake right now. If only it were so easy to explain away everyday. Why is it no problem to fall asleep in the middle of the day but at night I just stare at the ceiling for hours?

I joined Blogsnob, so from now on under the Cliques/Rings section on the main page of the journal, there will be cute little text ads from other people's journals, and in turn text ads for my journal will pop up other places. This is all pending approval, of course, but from the sites that are already in it I'm fairly certain that I'll get in too. Makes sure to check out those other sites, and maybe sign up if you want ads too.

Coming up—Thanksgiving (and the visit of older sister Heather) in two weeks. Between then and now:

• Tomorrow (tonight) Better Than Erza @ the 40 Watt.
• Friday - maybe attempt to crash the free, student-only Jump/Tinker show at Emory.
• [If one of my accounts is settled soon, then maybe] Will Hoge in B'ham in one week.
• Veblen @ 106 West on the 23rd.
• Two labs, 4 CD reviews, no tests, 10-20 posts here, and many sleepless nights.

Whew.

Slathering billycrickets! You are 46% insane!
Partly holding it together, partly on the edge—you're like a pig on a highwire, cute and stinky but a potential danger to yourself and others. Most people think you have a "dark side," and they're not referring to the part of you that's in the shade on a sunny day. You're definitely not a vegetarian, except maybe when you're eating. You like leafy meats. Do not run with scissors while operating heavy donkeys.

---

Take the test here.

Well my school newspaper (The Red & Black) has been very busy this week.

Not only is there an article about my sista's show at Nuçi's Space tonight, but my friends at WUOG, Jason and Dave, were quoted about net radio here.

I know, I'm friends with so many famous people. You wish you were me.

Also, how do I find these things? You can actually pay the fine people at extremekidnapping.com to kidnap you, as a form of entertainment. "We specialize in creating the most realistic kidnapping scenarios available."

The 'Services' page is a must-read:

"journey to secret location where you will be sensory deprived and mock tortured (more realistic torture is available upon request)."

All packages include a videotape of the whole thing, which is supposed to be "A great conversation piece, and a testament to your hardcore extremism!"

Can you say, conspicuous consumption?

"15 and Pregnant... part of Lifetime's Dark Family Secrets Week."

Starring Kirsten Dunst. No, really.

me (6:11:52 PM): I took a nap this afternoon
jessica (6:11:59 PM): lucky
me (6:12:13 PM): napping is good... it's like sleep you weren't supposed to get
jessica (6:12:44 PM): its like winning the sleep lottery, or finding 5 hours in your pocket

So guess what: I'm WUOG's music staffer of the month (Well, myself and a male counterpart by the name of Robert. All things being equal, you know).

This may seem kinda silly but this feels like a big deal to me. I'm not your student-council-event-organizing-worker-for-the-community. I'm just me, and someone like me thinks that you do things because you like doing them, and the things you like, the things you are good at, are not really the things that people actually get recognized for.

But there was my name, emblazoned in red magic marker (or perhaps red Sharpie, since they are required equipment for WUOG) on construction paper beneath the banner proclaiming "Staffers of the Month". It felt good. It brightened up my whole day.

And then, like the good staffer I am, I cut out of our staff meeting early, to go see Angie Aparo at the 40 Watt. It was great. He is awesome, and funny, and gracious. And I literally starting crying during "Cry". He moved me to tears, can you believe it? And at one point he was randomly calling out city names to get cheers (because the crowd was cheering equally for every geographic location) and he actually goes, "You know, I was in Winder today...". Angie Aparo knows where Winder is. I am only so impressed by that because I am in awe of him. If you ever get the chance, you should see Angie Aparo play live.

Perhaps the nicest thing about going out was the company. Allison, Dave, Abie, and Catie are awesome people. They don't put up these walls you have to break down, and they somehow make me feel like a part of the group. I'm not watching what I say or afraid of looking or acting stupid or of laughing too much. They just make me feel really comfortable being me. There are only a handfull of people in the world that do that.

The girls and I went to Blue Sky after the show (coolest little coffee house in Athens, for those not in the know), and then Abie was kind enough to give me a ride home. She noticed that her gas light was on, so we went in search of gas. Do you know there are no gas stations open near campus at 2 in the morning? Crazy, right? We did ultimately find an Amaco way up on Broad, and the gas excursion came to an end, but it was actually pretty fun. Anything not to go home, right?

But I did come home, I had to, it's a school night.

Which means I should be in bed.

I'm trying to relax.

Even though I feel happy, contented, or I have at least convinced myself that everything is great, I also feel like I am constantly on the verge of a panic attack.

My heart and shoulders tighten when I think about my "To Do" list. I have a constant headache, I'm either too hot or too cold and always figget. I feel overwhelmed, crushed.

But then again, I feel fine. Things feel like they are going fine. I can't decide if I am happy or freaking out.

It's not easy being me.

So the test went fine, of course.

But (there's always a but):

1) Walking to the bus stop (it's a quarter til 6) I step into a huge puddle which splashes up under my jeans and deposits a substantial amount of water into my shoe. So my foot is cold. And very wet.

2) After about 4 minutes at the bus stop I get impatient and decide a walk would do me good. About a block later it starts pouring.

3) I realize I forgot my umbrella at home.

4) About 30 seconds later, the bus I had been waiting for goes by.

It could only be more poetic if the bus had also splashed me as it went by, but unfortunately, it was on the other side of the street.

As soon as I finally arrived home after dinner, I got out of all my wet clothes and got into dry pajamas, at 7:00 in the evening.

Tomorrow can only be better.

::crosses fingers::

I have to take the Regent's Test today. I am not in the mood.

I am in the mood to lay in bed staring at the ceiling listening to Vertigo through headphones, washed in grey rainy-day light.

But you can't always get what you want.

I gotta go.

My new favorite song is Jump, Little Children's Broken Heart's Education. The lyrics can be found here.

It's so sexy. Especially the harmonica part. Yum.

So what's up with the quiet lately? For awhile there my readers just couldn't stop commenting, and then suddenly, nothing for days.

Don't you love me anymore?

Time for Rock 'n' Roll History. Later my pretties.

So on Friday, Kim Parker (one of my father's friend from high school, known to me for most of my life as "Auntie Kim") sang at 106 West with my father. And as I sat in the soundbooth manning the technical aspects while watching the show, it slowly occurred to me, listening to Kim sing, that she was probably the earliest influence on my singing style, so early that I can't even remember when she wasn't there. Before Billie Holiday, before Jennifer Nettles, before Sheryl Crow, and way before I finally discovered Janis Joplin (and really, what took me so long?), there was Kim Parker.

It's cool to be able to trace these things back.

The rest of the weekend passed mostly without event. Georgia lost to Florida, there was some family stuff not worth mentioning, I did my laundry, and then came home, to Athens. I missed it.

Back to school tomorrow pour moi. Everyone wish me luck. Break's over.

3½ weeks until Thanksgiving, yo. The bicoastal Tollerson sisters reunite. Ya'll lock up your sons.

So I'm sitting here trying to remind myself why I came home.

The reasons are threefold.

I wanted to see my sister, most of all.

I also needed to do laundry.

And I needed to collect some winter stuff to take back to school with me.

But my sister is asleep now and will be gone most of tonight and most of tomorrow, my laundry's going to be done within the next couple of hours, and I already gathered all the winter stuff.

So what am I doing here?

This has already turned out to be even less fun than I thought it was going to be. Blah. Just gotta get through to Sunday, and then back to school pour moi!

Man, I can't wait til Thanksgiving.

I forgot to mention that last night, Jason played most of Sitting on the Dock of the Bay while in the bathroom located next to the stage, and when this drunk girl continued messing with the door trying to get in, he ended up coming out mid-song, still playing, with his belt and fly undone (but thankfully, nothing exposed). It's a story for the grandkids, alright.

Also—I just realized today that as of last Wednesday, I've been keeping an online journal for one year. A lot of things have changed since I started my melodramatic whining for all the world to see. I just wanted a reason to mess with my page more than once a month and here I am, making two entries in the same day. Life is weird. Fun, but weird.

A very kind soul loaned me her fake id, and I managed to get into DT's.

(Don't worry, I'm stone sober.)

Why is it that all the 21+ places in town seem to be dives?

Veblen was awesome. I know I always say that, but that's because they are always awesome.

And they played a new song! It doesn't have a title yet, but it's awesome.

I really had a great time.

Happy, happy Halloween everybody!