Heeeeeere's Rachel

I'm back in the States! And I want to write all about everything, but I can't even figure out where to begin. Let's see..... Overall, the vacation was absolutely blissful. Well, not absolutely. But generally. ;)

LA was really neat, as I said in my previous entries.... At one point we drove through Hollywood, which was really cool, though I felt like some sort of hick tourist sitting in the back of Georgia's car and staring at the bright lights. You'd think I'd never been in a city before, or something.... But it was neat, and it was a lot of fun to see it with people who actually are used to it, and not be a total tourist. The highlight of the LA portion of the trip was the Regina Spektor concert--she was amazing in person, even more amazing than hearing her recordings. And HOT. I mean, really hot. Alex agrees. We both kind of wanted to take her home with us. ;) Speaking of LA, though, I had a lovely time with Georgia. I really like her! And hopefully I made a good impression, as well. Staying in her dorm was fun, too, it's always interesting to see a different school. And speaking of schools, we went to see Alex's high school as well, which was really interesting.... My high school was about the same size people-wise as Bryn Mawr, and was just one big building that was pretty plain and institutional, though the inside was nice and had murals and stuff. But Alex's school has a bazillion students and many buildings, and seemed really huge to me. And it had a little garden, and a whole campus.... It was so strange. I always am sort of confused by the different experiences of people I know, before I knew them. Like, the places they grew up with, and stuff. And I'm rambling. But that's the interesting bit about LA. I think I'm tired of writing now, but I'll write more about the whole trip tomorrow.

Brief Hello

Hello! It's my birthday! I'm 24! Alex is making me a delicious-smelling breakfast! We're in her dad's really cool apartment in LA, sleeping in. Impressions of California so far:

-Palm trees! Weird. In fact, all of the foliage is different. It's shocking how disorienting that can be. It really doesn't look anything like PA.
-On that note, the architecture is also different. It's all very western-seeming to me, which makes perfect sense. Also very Mexican-looking. Again, makes sense. It's funny how I use regions of the world I've never seen to describe this, but you know.
-Mountains! There are mountains everywhere! It's beautiful.
-Smog. Enough said.


Alex just said my breakfast is ready...more insights later!

On My Way

Well, tomorrow morning I'll be on my way! Just wanted to have one last post before I head off for two weeks of sun, fun, Alex, and spotty internet service. If you're reading this, and you're not a total stranger, then you should expect a postcard! Though I may be back before the postcards even arrive. ;) Anyway, love to all and sundry, and I'll be thinking of you when I'm sunning myself in Ajijic!

Being a Bogirl

I Can Guess If You're A Guy Or A Girl By Your Answers!!!

You're a mix of both. It's very hard to tell. Either you're a tomboy, or your a guy that somehow likes resembles a girl. Have fun being a bogirl!!!
Take this quiz!








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Improvement and More Counting

I feel a little better now that it actually is almost time to go home...which leads me to my second reason for posting:

1 day until the weekend!
2 days until my birthday surprise!
3 days until LA!
6 days until Mexico!
I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Feeling Blue

Maybe it's work, or thinking too much about Simmons stuff, or thinking too much about graduation this weekend, or some sort of weird hormone spike...but I'm feeling rather blue. I wish I had a big magnet that was just for hugs and love, and I'd turn it on, and hugs and love would come and stick to me from all over the place.

Is it time to go home yet?

A Dilexi Moment

Just imagine Frank or Ian being felled by one of these suicide bombers.... The mind fairly boggles.

Becky's Survey

I read Becky's blog. Therefore, I've taken the mandatory survey.

1. What is your name? Rachel Ann Hochberg

2. How old are you? 23, very soon to be 24!

3. Do you know me from Adam? I'm not personally aquainted with Adam, actually, so yes.

4. How can you tell the difference between me and Adam? Oh, there are so many ways.... Adam has a penis, for example. He is also dead. Whereas you are not dead, and thankfully do not have a penis.

5. If you could truthfully change your answer to 1, 2, or 3, which would you pick and what would you like to change it to? As a child, I always wanted my middle name to be May. Because I was born in May, I think. I used to say that I was going to legally change it. I think that would be an interesting story to tell, if it were true.

6. Name three people that you love, just the first that come to mind: You! Alex, Katie.

7. Now three more: Kirstin, Ann Marie, Charlotte.

8. Who didn't you list that you should have? Is there anyone you'd like to, but can't? Say something cryptic about them. All of Uncut Pages! But there are way more than six of them. Also David. And my family. And several someones I'd like to, but cryptically can't.

9. Name one thing that fascinates you about each of these people. Oh dear lord. If I had know I'd have to do this, I wouldn't have listed so many. Shall I go in the order they came to mind? I am fascinated by your vocabulary, Alex's hands (on a piano...), Katie's now not-as-frizzy hair, Kirstin's ticklish aura, Ann Marie's sarcastic wit, Charlotte's Ianishness, the amazing attractiveness of Uncut Pages as a whole, David's poetry, my family's interesting humor, and the cryptic group's feathers.

10. And something that irritates you... Oh my! This is like a Nohari window. Your difficulty in making small decisions, Alex's insistence that she is fat, Katie's traditional "there's no excuse for you" when I excuse myself, Kirstin's habit of dropping off the face of the planet, Ann Marie's insistence that Snape is not a good guy, Charlotte's dislike of mushrooms (when we get pizza, haha), the amazing ability to take forever in organizing of Uncut Pages, David's politics, my family's tendency to keep secrets, and the cryptic group's level of drama.

11. Name three people you really dislike: W, Toby Zinman, Rick Santorum

12. Anybody you'd like to name that you can't mention publicly? Say something cryptic about them. Scale-ding!

13. Tell me something you admire about each of the dislike people. Yes, you have to. Why doesn't that override the dislike? W somehow made it all the way to the Presidency (that must have been hard, actually), Toby Zinman apparently doesn't care that everyone hates her, and I don't think I know enough unbiased information about Rick Santorum to come up with something.

14. What is your favorite color? Do you know why? Green, because it's bright, and makes me think of grass and trees.

15. What is something about yourself that you secretly think is pretty sexy? It's not the hugest secret, but my singing voice.

16. What is something about yourself that you secretly worry is pretty repulsive? My teeth, actually.

17. What is something about me that you secretly think is pretty sexy? Or at least attractive? ;) Your eyes!

18. I'm not gonna ask the opposite. Instead, tell me a memory you have involving music. The first thing that came to mind was a song you sang once....

19. Imagine yourself married. Do you see someone you know as your spouse, or someone imaginary? Do you like this fantasy? Does it discomfort you? I see Julie Andrews as my spouse. Or maybe Melissa Etheridge....

20. Tell me a story about a time when you were truly frightened. I looked at myself in the mirror in the bathroom and didn't know quite how I'd gotten there, nor did I remember picking anything up, but I had.

21. What's something you wish you knew how to do, but don't? Read music/play an instrument. One faltering song on the guitar doesn't count.

22. What are you most likely to be famous for? Hmm.... I'd like to say art. But given my choice of schooling, perhaps for writing children's books.

23. What do you think influences your daily life the most: your parents' financial situation or their relationship to each other? Interesting question.. I think their financial situation.

24. Do you have a religious or spiritual outlook? Where did you get it? What about it do you think is particularly engaging? I have a Microsoft Outlook. Handy for email. I'm engaged by the calendar feature.

25. Do you like to dance? When did you last dance? I do like to dance! The last time was in the dressing room at Old Navy today.

26. Who is the first person you remember being sexually attracted to? Julia Kapalko, I think? Perhaps.

27. Describe the last person that caught your eye in a crowd (in a good way). The girl on the bus who has a lambda tattooed on the back of her neck.

28. Describe the last person that caught your eye in a crowd (in a bad way). The girl on the bus who had weird teeth and huge hairy eyebrows.

29. How do you feel when faced with a homeless person soliciting money? What is your emotional reaction? What thoughts go through your head? I often feel confused. I don't want to give them anything, usually, because I'm not sure it actually does anything for them...but sometimes I want to buy them food, or something. I feel uncertain as to what I should actually do.

30. Are these questions difficult? What would you like to ask me in retaliation? Actually, they're not too difficult at this point.

31. If you were going to name your child after a literary character, who would it be and why? I'm rather fond of naming a child Atticus, perhaps because there's someone who did that recently, but I forget who.... I also would love to name a child Christopher Robin, or Moiraine (I think that's how it's spelled). Atticus because he's so..... good! And Christopher Robin because he has such a lovely imagination, and Moiraine because she's really really cool.

32. What's the last book you read? What did you think of it? The last book I finished was The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters. I thought it was amazing, and in a totally different category from her other novels.

33. What is your favorite fruit? Apples for symbolism, pears for taste.

34. Tell me a story about one of your cousins. You know this already, but not everyone does... Ann Marie has the best gaydar ever. I just recently explained to her that my vacation with my girlfriend was actually my vacation with my girlfriend, you know? And she said she had just been too polite to ask, but has suspected since I was in high school....which is around when I started to figure it out, myself. She is also the best gossip in my family---she's spreading the news around to all the relatives, so that I don't have to do it! :)

35. Who is a person you still wince when you think about? It can be for any reason. Interesting..... We're watching DS9, so the first person I thought of was Ziyal.

36. Is there anything that is consistently irresistable to you? Can you imagine a situation in which you would not find this attractive? Apparently nice hands (specifically Alex's) are consistently irresistable to me. I've found them attractive in many not so appropriate situations up to this point... I'm not sure there are any in which I wouldn't, except maybe if I were in mortal danger or something.

37. Tell me a secret. It can be a current one, or an old one, but at some point the secretiveness of this should have mattered to you. Hahaha...... Guess what? I'M GAY!

38. If you could erase one of your own memories, would you? Why or why not? I don't think so.... my memory is bad enough as it is, I don't really want to have any holes in the recollections I have.

39. What about one of somebody else's? Hmm.... I might be more tempted, but I learned my lesson from the Buffy Musical. Tara's song didn't slip past me! Hah.

40. Describe a beautiful landscape that you have seen. Or a beautiful sky. Hmm.... I saw a really beautiful landscape and a beautiful sky from the top of the Tor in Glastonbury.... The whole surrounding area spread out all around me, misty, the town and the orchards and the fields... and the sky, with the sun coming up and slowly breaking through the mist...

41. Do you like eggs? I like eggs!!!!

42. How many of your answers were true? All but two.

Countdown

6 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!!!

Just wanted to let you know.

Interesting Eye Game

So, I got bored at work. Really bored. I made a game for you all! Try to identify who the eyes belong to! I think it will be too easy if I tell you who the choices are, so I'm not going to. Have fun.....

On May Day Gifts

This year has been full of odd May Day gift coincidences. I'm a bit baffled by it, so I'm going to tell you about them all.

It started with Julie, when Alex asked her what she was going to do about her May Day gifts. Julie said that she's going to come back next year to give hers out, and that she already knows which one Alex is getting. It's a rainbow suncatcher that I received from Ellen Kreuger, who (I think?) got it from Margot--both lesbians in Deceptive Cadence with me, whom I looked up to rather adoringly as a frosh. Sensing a trend, I passed it on to Sierra, also in Deceptive Cadence with me, who passed it on to Julie, who wants to pass it to Alex. Clearly there's a long-lived cycle of a cappella lesbians, here. I love it... I love being able to trace the path of something that meant so much to me when I received it, and was passed on with a lot of thought on my part.

On May Day, I had several conversations about gifts I had given; once with Kate, another Deceptive Cadence member who was trying to figure out what to do with the DC gift I'd given her (also passed on from upperclasswomen whom I adored, and passed on to Kate with equal adoration). We decided it would have to go to someone in a different a cappella group, now that Deceptive Cadence is no more. The second conversation was with Laura, who said that she still has the gift I gave her, a stuffed animal, and that she hadn't passed it on because it was at her parent's house. I remember choosing stuffed animals for her and for Julia, because they had so many in their room that year, and I loved going there to watch tv and snuggle with people and stuffed animals and pillows.

When perusing pictures from May Day, there were several shots in Ana's albums of various people wearing a suspiciously familiar leopard-print pillbox hat.... And unless there are two of them out there in the world, I'm betting it's the same one I gave to Lilah, which seems to have been passed on within SPT, and is apparently a source of great merriment. ;)

Then just this morning, when reading various people's walls on facebook, I was startled by the most recent comment on Elizabeth's wall--from Melanie, whose name I recognized only because she took a cute picture of Alex and Sarah and I on May Day that I'd just been looking at the night before. The comment was about how cute "Akhmed" was, and how she loved it. For a second I was really, really confused, and then I remembered that I'd given Elizabeth a little fuzzy chick for May Day, and named it Akhmed as an inside joke. I actually only remembered this so easily because just a few days ago Alex was telling me that she'd always thought the little chick was cute when she saw it in Elizabeth's room, and one day looked at it and realized it had been a May Day gift from me.

How strangely circular this all is.... It makes me feel sort of...proud, and happy, that I have this legacy that seems to connect me to so many people. I remember looking at my own May Day gifts, at the names on the tags, some of which I vaguely recognized, and felt warmly about because I felt this strange connection. When I passed them on, I hoped that the warm feelings would continue, and I trusted that the people I passed them to would know I thought of them, and would pass them on to people who had been important in their time at Bryn Mawr. Now it's my name that a few women saw this May Day and maybe recognized, and maybe thought warmly of me, way back in the chain. It's kind of astonishing. I like it. Hooray for May Day, and for passing love along.

May Day

May Day was lovely! Don't believe me? Check out the pictures!