In which conclusions are drawn & the future is looked to

I'm sitting here thinking about blogging more regularly & find myself getting frustrated before I've even started.

I mean, I've spent this whole summer learning about social media & The New Digital Age, in which "linkbait" is a word a bloggers are semi-celebrities & the whole of the Internet is at your fingertips. I've read Mashable almost every day for the past three months and spent time dissecting what it is that makes blogs work and fail -- how to attach a blog to a small business, for example, or use Twitter to start a fundraising campaign for a non-profit.

On Saturday I had a great dinner with Jolie O'Dell of ReadWriteWeb--she's a journalist who blogs prolifically (both for pay and not) about tech issues, start-ups, road "twips," etc. She enthusiastically recommended that I focus on honing a Blog-blog for myself (not just an Anneka-Goes-To-College-I'm-so-frustrated-with-my-paper-and-oh-yeah-I-joined-a-sorority blog), start my own Vimeo channel, & Develop My Personal Brand.

This leads to an effusive: My brand?

Although I think she misunderstood my lean when I said I was a Communications major, I'm actually very intrigued by new media--not to mention words, writing, and the interpersonal internet phenomena that is blogging & microblogging. But here's my issue: there are SO MANY goddamn bloggers in the world. People blog to share expertise, to vent, and to get up on personal soapboxes, for sure, but if I started Blog-blogging, I think it would be less about that and more about... sharing? Yeah. Sharing.

Anyway. Jolie is great. Top ten most beautiful people I've met in my life and clearly passionate, hyper-intelligent, and driven. Check out HER personal blog here for a more comprehensive look at what I'm thinking about.

Anneka seizes the day (Carpe Yvette)

It is 8:30am. I have been sitting outside the Haas Center office of the Community Service Work Study Coordinator for 27 minutes. I got here right when the Center opened--why? Because they are screwing me over, hardcore. I applied to get funding to work at Washington CASH this summer (I'd get paid through Federal Work Study). Now, I submitted ALL my paperwork the first week of Spring Quarter. 8 weeks ago. The actual deadline for application was May 8. 2 1/2 weeks ago. The coordinator looked over my paperwork when I submitted it and unofficially approved it, telling me I could email my boss and tell him it's all good for the summer. 

Since then, I've been at the Haas Center what seems like every week to check in and be like, hey, when are official program acceptances coming out? when can I register for an orientation? and I've been pretty much blown off. In fact, I came in this Tues to ask again. Turns out, other people who applied for the program got emails congratulating them and asking them to register for an orientation on WEDNESDAY. Absurd. 

And now, I sit here with my latte waiting for Yvette. Too bad I have class in 25 minutes.

Also today is the TriDelt in-house draw, meaning I find out if Danielle and I get one of those delicious two-room doubles, or get stuck in the QUAD. Yuck. Oh god wish me luck...

EDIT: At 9:28am, Yvette emailed me the acceptance form letter. No apology/explanation. But that's ok, because I've been approved to work 350 hours this summer! Hot dog.

Anneka has fun & ignores her PWR paper

(TriDelt Special Dinner)

(TriDelt Formal)

(TriDelt Formal Initiation)

22 days until my last final and summer.

I'm in IHUM lecture again, no big surprise. We're talking about the play Topdog/Underdog, an incarnation of which I saw in Ashland in like... 2003? Holla.

The past weekend's been great... Tridelt Special Dinner was fun (the theme was "We're On a Boat," in reference to this) and it was profuse with sailor costumes, fruity drinks, fresh mango, and lobster for the main course. YUM. 

Big exciting carrot at the end of the stick: on the 9th, Robbie's coming to pick me up, along with all my stuff. We're going to drive all the way back to Seattle, but just... sort of... via DISNEYLAND. No big deal. We're spending two days and three nights in the park (not in the fancy Disney hotels... some Ramada) and we're gonna eat Ramen instead of Disney food so that maybe we can work a pair of Mickey Mouse ears each into the budget. Haha.

God, my allergies are being ridiculous. It's awful too, because the weather's so hot -- it's better today, high of 81, but yesterday the high was 97. Grossss. 

That's all for now, folks...

Anneka has fun with Karinna

(Above pictures are the only ones on my camera, which died almost immediately... K has the rest)

Our antics included, but were not limited to:

- CalTrain and BART-ing to SF to see 17 Again with Zac Efron and explore the huge, multi-story Forever 21!

-Exploring the Stanford Shopping Center, including their Nordstrom (giving me a really bizarre am-I-in-Seattle moment while perusing BP with Karinna)

-Eating an entire half a watermelon outside with plastic forks

-Eating red velvet Sprinkles cupcakes... mmmm

-Attending the oh-so-glam Charity Fashion Show, complete with free hair products and energy drinks. LEGIT

-Eating Fraiche fro yo (there was a lot of eating that went on)

-Watching Twilight

-Biking biking biking

Anneka loves

1. Water. Cold water.

2. Walking to the library in the cold air listening to my iPod.

3. Not having to draw because I'm living in TriDelt next year, a beautiful, well-equipped house with open kitch and two room dubs.

4. Being told that instead of taking a date to formal, I can ask two or three friends. Yessss.

5. Checking out 8 books on my research topic and feeling hella collegiate.

6. An upcoming paycheck, first of this job.

7. New conditioner.

8. The fact that my wonderful boyfriend is DRIVING to California to pick me up along with all my crap so I don't have to store more than is necessary.

9. Baby Karinny is coming to visit DAY after TOMORROW!

10. Hand sanitizer. Booooo swine flue.

11. Comments. Does anyone still read this?

Anneka wants summer in Seattle

+ I'm coming home on Thursday night! I absolutely can't wait.

- It's supposed to be 95 degrees today, and nowhere is air conditioned. Deathhh.

- My wisdom tooth hurts... I have to get it out soon.

+ Big Sis reveal on Saturday: Alison and Kyla took me out to brunch at Hobee's, which was fabulous... chapter meetings start this week, and formal in a couple weeks!

- IHUM lecture...

+ Karinny is coming to visit weekend after next! Now, if only I can figure out a way to procure a car to get her from the airport.

Anneka makes good decisions

I DROPPED FRENCH. Amazing. This allows me to A) concentrate on IHUM/PWR/dance in prisons/my work at the Center/TriDelt stuff and B) sleep and C) stay sane. Thank the lord.

I'm actually in IHUM lecture now and we're discussing the difference between dramatic theater and Brecht's epic theater. Sigh. Boring.

It's been a fun week -- it's TriDelt's big/lil sis week, which means I have a very mysterious big sis who keeps leaving presents in my room and decorating my walls! Yesterday she left me two very delicious red velvet Sprinkles cupcakes, three bottles of nail polish, trashy magazines, and a really nice mix. Two days ago, she brought me a morning latte and filled my room with balloons. Yay sororities? Yay presents?

I'm excited that I don't have to draw (the draw changed this year, and everyone's really stressed out about it), and I'm excited to potentially room with Danielle in TriDelt's two-room doubles, and I'm excited for our house chef. I think this is a really good thing.

Anneka is a Tri Delt

...hmmmm.

Anneka springs

Ohmygoodness how long it has been. Ooops. Finals + break = madness = no blogging.

Classes:

1. Art and Ideas. IHUM. Bleh.

2. PWR: He Said, She Said: The Rhetoric of Gender Politics. Despite the snafu in which I wrote down the wrong time for the class, missed the first session, and was subsequently dropped from, chastised, and re-added to the class roster, the TF seems pretty on top of everything. Interesting, funny, and engaging. The actual course work for this seems pretty onerous, though: high school-like daily writing assignments. Boo.

3. French 22. Second year college French WOOHOO I'm plugging along.

4. Dance in Prisons, my favorite exciting class. Half of the class is a study of the American juvenile justice system, examination of bodies in space, and study of dance as rehabilitation. The other half is traveling to the Gateway School, a halfway house type place for kids just out of prison, located across the street from Santa Clara Juvenile Hall, and taking dance classes with inmates and recent inmates. It reminds me a lot of Hands for a Bridge.

The spring weather is making me itchy: I've been feeling so antsy and full of undirected energy. Going to the gym is good for that, but I've been bubbling over with wanting to travel, wanting to write, wanting to reinvent my room, my body, my life.

Oh! I have a job for the summer, if the paperwork goes through (knock on wood). I'll be working at Washington Community Alliance for Self-Help (CASH), which micro-finances loans for low-income women who want to be entrepreneurs and provides them with business classes, resources, support, and workspace. I'll be their PR intern in charge of blogging and facebooking and making photocopies etc. etc. Yay.

Homeworkkkkkkk

Anneka thinks things are looking up

Good things:

* Brand new purple DONNER 08-09 sweatshirt that I'm wearing right now

* First day of work at the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness: overwhelming, busy, exciting, adult, and such a worthwhile cause. This ain't Starbucks, folks.

* Being done with my IHUM paper after bending over backwards to produce something brilliant. It hella wasn't brilliant. But it's out of my hands and it feels gooooood.

* 12 days until my very favorite boy comes to town.

* Anyone watching Joss Whedon's Dollhouse? It's kind of great. Who wouldn't love a show about programmable people?

I saw a narcoleptic dog today. And then I went to work. And the gym. And had a PB&J for dinner with a banana and cinnamon toast and cereal. Hmm hmm hmm yum.

Anneka is going to throw a fit

Or have a nervous breakdown. VERY SOON. 

I am trying to

1. Finish the quarter with winning grades (including writing an impossible paper this weekend and acing all my finals)

2. Get very very in shape by going to the gym every day and eating better

3. Find a summer job/internship/paid volunteer work, now.

4. Start hours at the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness and figure a way to get paid for it

I honestly feel like I'm coming apart at the seams. Everything is a huge effort right now. I feel cross-eyed and heavy-limbed from trying so hard. All the time. Today was class-career counseling-gym-Center staff meeting-dinner-paper-internship search, with no breathing in between. And the internship search? Coming up SO dry. Everything is either the wrong time frame, or unpaid, or I'm not qualified, or it's out of Seattle. I can't stand it. I don't know how to do this.

Anneka plods through Winter Quarter

I'm back on campus after a wonderful President's Day weekend/Valentine's Day at home. Sitting in class right now, actually -- we're listening to a couple of guys talking about the production of the Wasteland that our entire IHUM class is seeing tonight. Joy.

After class, I'm going (more or less) straight to an interview for volunteer opportunities at the Center for Relationship Abuse, an organization one of my RAs is involved in. Once again, I'm sort of waiting for extracurriculars to come along and smack me in the face, but I'm tired of it. Drama here has been so frustrating: I got an audition notice this morning in my email and I got all excited and then noticed that all roles (except for the two-line prison guard) were male. Nice. It's been weird going from high school -- where I was always deep into shows and extracurricular stuff -- to here, where I go to class. And do my homework. And stuff.

I'm feeling anxious about summer plans. I need to find a job: earn money, hopefully find something that looks good on a resume, stay in Seattle, work decent hours (unlike Starbucks). What! I don't know how to look, or start looking, and I'm already feeling like I'm running out of time. I have to interview for this stuff over Spring Break, or something, because if Stanford doesn't get out until June 10th I can't very well start interviewing then. AGHHH. Stress.

Anneka eats yummy things

I just need to make an announcement that I had an amazing snack.

It was strawberry yogurt with GoLean Crunch bits (like granola) and milk chocolate chips. WHAT. DELICIOUS. I am so proud of it.

Anneka is... bored?

That's not supposed to happen in college.

I'm off the crazyness that was one acts, and back from my wonderful weekend in Seattle and have been holed up in my room watching Alias. I didn't get cast in "For Colored Girls..." (shocker!) and am sort of looking for the next thing to do with my time.

I got a B on my first Comm paper. I am sort of under the impression that my TF is looking to be tough on his kids -- in the first section, he drilled us with questions about lecture in his somewhat-unintelligible Indian accent and would shoot down our opinions. I left that section feeling foggy and exhausted (this is the same guy who, replying to my email that I would miss section because I would be in Seattle said, "I wouldn't want to pry into your 'family reasons' but missing section will adversely affect your grade." THANKS, ASSHOLE.) So I'm mad at him. He didn't even write a grade on my paper. Confused, I went back into the classroom to ask and he said essentially, oops, I'll email you.

Not a lot else to report. Miss home.

Anneka was in a play

So the show went very very well, as you can see - it was beautiful, thanks to Cassie's (our director) background in tech. Of the three original shows that went up, ours was the best received -- especially by a guy from some festival who came out to give us feedback and potentially nominate us to perform in Reno? That's still coming down the pipe. Flashbacks to Roosevelt Drama, though.

Scariest moment of my life: all six of us in the show enter from different places in the theater (behind the audience, doors near the stage, etc). As I was trying to get to my entrance, I got LOCKED OUT OF THE THEATER. I swear, my life flashed before my eyes. I ran outside, barefoot, banged on several sets of doors to no avail. I had to run all the way to the front of the theater where the producer was just locking the front set of doors. It was terrifying.

The weekend was very good, too. Lots of good people. Most of the dorm was gone on ski trip up at Tahoe, so I hung out with the few people left here: including an epic grocery run to Long's with Danielle! I have soooo many frozen things in my teeny freezer compartment. I think Shawnee's gonna be hard pressed to find space. But I'll worry about that when she pays me back. Hmm.

P.S. It's a lot more satisfying to write a blog when more than two people comment on an entry...

Anneka makes New Year's resolutions

Normally I make a point of NOT making resolutions for the New Year, because I expect that if I did, I would break them and therefore be plunged into a terrible mire of guilt and self-loathing. I skip all that either making none at all or making very general, very vague resolutions like "I resolve to be happier/healthier/nicer/smarter." This year, Anneka resolves to be BRAVER and therefore make actual resolutions.

1. Take a multivitamin every day. I have a bottle of Centrum sitting on my shelf, and although I prefer gummi vites, it seems like they're dosed for the needs of four year olds and therefore totally ineffective in my body.

2. Go to the gym! Ohmygosh I am so excited about the gym. I just got back from a nice spin on the stationary bike and climbed forty "flights" of stairs on the stair master! I am all noodle-y with delight.

3. Eat out at least once a week. Somewhere really delicious. Most importantly, get the eff out of the mindgame insanity that is Stern dining.

4. Take better care of my hair by using heat-protectant. That one's easy, but I'm happy with it.

5. Drink more tea. Mmmmmmmmm.

6. Eat fruits and veggies with every meal. If not every meal, almost every meal. I'm finding fresh fruits and veggies are just about the only reliable thing in the dining hall... hurray!

7. No Late Nite. Exceptions made only in dire circumstances.

Off to dinner, and then four hours of tech. Hurray.

Anneka's dorm room is no longer a figment of your imagination

My bed, fuzzy grey blankey, Flea-bee, photo collage.

Me with my picture collage.

Our door, plus our bulletin board (to the right) that I decorated. Note the Winter One Acts poster.

My closet.

Microwave + jewelry + tea essentials.

Desk + shelves. Can you spot the Nalley Vegetarian Chili?

My side of the room.

Anneka embarks on her second quarter

So this first week is kind of fun/really stressful. 

Stressful being:

- Pre-tech week for Bloodsong. Nightly three-hour rehearsals, mainly focused on developing and performing emotions that would occur ten minutes before execution. Not pleasant stuff. I'm exhausted. And the weekend will only be worse: four hours on Saturday night, five on Sunday. And then the whole next week we have tech from 7-11 nightly. SHOOT ME.

- Buying $214 of text books. For ONE CLASS.

- My door is locked because I'm suspicious the birthday mafia is trying to throw everyone who had birthdays over break in the shower and I'm soooooo not in the mood.

- 9am classes. Ergh.

Kind of fun being:

+ Shawnee and I finally ordered a fridge today! That is, I ordered it. Shawnee approved. And then I am going to go to the grocery store and buy milk and juice and popsicles and eggs (well, not eggs, but I wanted to refrigerate eggs I so could) and ice cream and cream cheese and frozen food. HURRAY not-dining-hall-fare.

+ I think I'm finally figuring out what my schedule is. Tentatively, I'm taking my IHUM, Art and Ideas (focused on the ways theater and dance communicate to wide audiences -- we spent 30 minutes today talking about the rhetoric of WALL-E), a great French conversation class (our prof is named Tanya and she's pregnant and wears heels), probably Comm 1B (Media, Culture, and Society), and Sleep and Dreams. Comm is cool because the professor was super energetic at 9am and played with shadow puppets for us as an example of "media" 140 years ago. Sleep and Dreams is cool because the subject matter is actually FASCINATING and there are really cute narcoleptic dogs that will visit us. Wish the class wasn't 600 people.

+ I'm making an effort to eat fruits and veggies with every meal, and I'm feeling good.

Anyway. Yes. That's been the last two days for me. I miss home, very very very much.

Anneka plays college student

I live in the library, now. All mail should be forwarded accordingly. Kthxbai.

Anneka doesn't play well with others

I'm working on two big group projects, due Tuesday and Wednesday. Neither of them is started, really, and both groups are totally dysfunctional. One is three high maintenance boys and me, trying to create our own Utopia: one boy shoots down everyone's ideas and then borderline refuses to contribute and all of which are flaky. The other group is for my drama class, and includes an overachieving, passive-aggressive girl who wanted to block, light, and costume a scene for Tuesday (totally unnecessary) and burst into tears when no one jumped for joy at the thought. Right now I'm sitting in Old Union waiting to meet with that group. One person already called me to say they'd be 15 minutes late.

Both groups like, refuse to schedule, and when we do schedule, refuse to show up. It's SO FRUSTRATING. Who said group work would be easier at Stanford?