emlocke

Category: It’s Called Friendship

  • Secretly Uggin’

    Emily: Can I tell you a secret?
    Chels: You secretly want these?
    Emily: How did you know?

    The drooling and the ogling must have given it away. We were standing in Closeout Chambers trying to predict what awkward run-in with a former RHS classmate could possible come next when I picked up a pair of soft, suede, sherpa boots. That’s right, against my better trend-moral-judgement, and in public, I was making eyes at a pair of Uggs.

    Uggs are the color of buttery raw cookie dough and the texture of…well, no synonym could do justice to the equally buttery suede. And for the love of my space heater, they are toasty warm. And if there’s any region where girls need warm shoes, it’s New England. On the other hand, New England is also the number one region where ice melt and road grit kicked up by snow plow caravans heed not the tender surface of plush sheepskin. Perhaps Uggs are both the hot trend and the footwear fashion paradox of Winter ’04-’05.

    I hear that the trend is over anyway. I don’t think anyone saw me butterfly kiss the boots on the way out.

    Quote of the day: “There’s another chance, a someday soon” – Amanda Marshall

  • The Lost Weekend

    Usually, when the finals season approaches, I accept the fact that the weekend before exams start will be worthless. I will spend three days in academic seclusion, studying, reading, anotating, outlining, writing, editing, counting words and pages, and I will accept that if that’s what I’ve got to do to get all the work over with, that’s what I’m going to do. I call it The Lost Weekend. Well, tomorrow is the last day of classes, exams start on Friday, I have three papers to write before I can go home, and I definitely lost something this weekend: my ambition, my mind, my will to live.

    On Friday, I looked for books for my children’s lit paper and realized that if I wanted to write about September 11th books, I would have to drive all over Western Mass if I wanted to write about September 11th because the books are so new that they are very sparsely scattered. But since public libraries do not hold college student hours, the search was put on hold for the M&C’s jam and to watch 13 Going on 30 with Holly, Lindsay and the triplets.

    On Saturday, I got up at 9:30 (that’s right) for a library road trip spanning Monson, Amherst and Northampton. I told Holly the night before to throw something at me if I didn’t hear my alarm and force me to get up, so I heard my alarm and sat up just as she was winding up to heave her pillow in my direction. So she says, “Oh! Sorry!” just as she releases it and I see it coming and think, “Here it comes,” in my head right before it hits me in the face. By the time I got back to school with all my books, it was time to take a nap and a shower and get ready to all go see Ocean’s Twelve with Jeremy. Why can’t I write a paper about George Clooney? With visual aids? After, we stopped at 391 where a really cute guy kept looking at me and approaching as if to sit down and talk to me. But he must have been running a fake out operative because at the last possible second he winked at me and left! (Jeremy later revealed that he had been giving him the “not a chance” look to scare him off. Thanks.)

    By Sunday, I was pathetic; a shadow of my former self represented only by the form of my body under the blankets. The girls got up at 10 to go have breakfast, and when Holly got back she put on her pajamas and got back in bed, which only influenced me to stay where I was while we tried to brainstorm new procrastination activities. At 2, Jeremy came over to fix my computer (pop ups…they’re popping up…) and Holly and I really were about to start our papers when we realized that we hadn’t watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets yet, so obviously we had to get back in bed and do that. Basically, this weekend was all about almost doing work and succumbing to acute laziness instead. Now I have a stack of children’s books on my desk, three more classes today and tomorrow, and I’m looking ahead to The Lost Reading Days.

    Quote of the day: “Belief makes things real, makes things feel, feel alright. Belief makes things true, things like you, you and I” – Gavin DeGraw

  • Klutz-Girl to the Rescue

    I passed my First Responder exam! I also leaned my elbow down to far over on a flip-top desk, tipping it up and smacking myself in the face, but I am now certified to perform CPR on adults, children and infants and administer oxygen!

    Holly is looking at another all-nighter on the floor with her laptop and Chaucer notes. I am in bed, but I don’t think I can sleep with research and writing and finals looming in my conscience. And pancakes at hot breakfast. Solidarity!

    Quote of the day: “Nothing to do, nowhere to go, I wanna be sedated” – The Ramones

  • Pajamas for Boston

    I went to bed wearing a red t-shirt with a somewhat suggestive slogan on the back, pink zebra-print flannel and purple space-dyed socks. I woke up wearing the same thing. Did you think that story was going somewhere? No such luck, but now you have a much better understanding of what the inside of my duffle bag looked like when I unpacked after fall break!

    It seems that the planets have realligned because Mount Holyoke Administration and Red Tape is out to get me all over again. Just when I think I’ve got it all under control and I start practicing my British accent, somebody turns around and rains more paperwork and deadlines on my study abroad parade. I’ve been running around (literally – someone asked me if I was timing sprints between Mary Lyon and Mead) since the moment I got back to campus on Wednesday. Somehow, I managed to snag an appointment with a professor who will consider writing a recommendation letter for my application, and I think my fingers will be crossed until that’s over.

    But then I can hit the highway, because I’m driving out to Boston to see Rachel’s play at BU tonight! I’m staying with Chelsea at Wheelock, and DJ and Lou will be there, so I’ll get some extra parental exposure, which I obviously need to tone down my wildchild ways. I almost wish I was going to the baseball game, too, but I wouldn’t want to hang out with all those Boston fans anyway. So, I’m going to go pack, and hopefully coordinate a more fashionable pajama ensemble.

    Quote of the day: “Life springs eternal, on a gaudy neon street” – Sheryl Crow

  • Back to School and Still Kickin’

    the annual computer crash is over, but not before i re-installed my operating system three times. i’m back online and i can finally start reloading software and data and my vast mp3 library, just in time to start writing papers and procrastinating. how i have missed aim (thanks to those who called to make sure i was still alive), thesaurus.com (i need a new word for confused), weatherbug (is it raining again?) and google (for the immediate satisfaction of all my frequent, urgent curiosities).

    the first day of classes is also over, but not without running across campus in the rain in a desperate quest for food. hot food, cold food, nuts or berries, dehydrated ice cream, i would have taken anything by the time we hit up the third dorm and still found no sustenance. who decided that dining options like continental breakfast and grab & go in the atrium shouldn’t open until monday? i know, it’s the first day of the first week, but thursday and friday are days, too! call me crazy, but i like to eat every day. sometimes two, maybe even three times.

    i almost made it through the first day of classes before rumors about my name and my life circulated all the way back to my ears. the first years from across the hall were asking me questions, and i had to admit that i didn’t know all the answers b/c i haven’t been on campus for a year. they asked where i’d been, probably assuming i’d done study abroad as a sophomore for some reason, but when i rattled off the abridged, one-sentence version of my transferring escapades, i didn’t even finish before one said, “oh! i heard about you! you went to hamilton, right?” not even a week? no, not even a day, and already i’m in the gossip column all over again. i guess i just have to laugh. i wonder what wild variations of my tale will be spun second time around.

    a snotty know-it-all hit the edge and cried in molly’s greek class. i’d say it’s a little early for losing your mind over academics, but i can’t talk b/c holly and i hit the edge and cried from laughter when our children’s lit professor spoke a gender-confusing freudian slip while reading in class. she actually seemed impressed – i think she thought we were moved to tears, not just insane.

    the day culminated with playing poker on molly’s tailgate while we waited for AAA to come change her tire. tomorrow is friday, but here in the mount holyoke time space continuum, it’s wednesday, so i have to get up in the morning and go to class. sometimes i wonder about this school.

    quote of the day: “and when we can see things clearer than we think we see them now, maybe kiss each other sweetly without trying to bite down” – matt nathanson

  • What’s Coconut Lemon Grass?

    holly brought coconut lemon grass hand soap with exfoliating beads for us. it’s a strange combination, but i think it works. our floor is slanted in one corner and living on the fourth floor is already beat, but we’re hanging our round lanterns from the sprinkler pipes on purple ribbons and our closets have lots of hooks. i feel like i’m visiting holly, just stopping by, but i don’t know where i think i’m going or coming from, so at some point in the de ja vu i realize i’m here to stay. i keep seeing people who i think i know, and i’ve only heard one “didn’t she transfer?” so far.

    we literally had to sleep on our furniture arrangements. at least we went to bed last night having finally moved the stripped mattresses from the middle of the room! this afternoon we went back to the drawing board, or in this case, the to-scale graph paper model, and found a configuration that allows optimum tv visability and optimum bedside laptop usage and optimum craft space. insider source photo slideshow tour to follow.

    when molly moved in early this evening, she ran out the door to give us a hug. we are ’emily, emily, holly and molly’ all over again. i’m the first emily, i call it. then emily and i booked it back to her room to watch gilmore girls and molly came over with food, and then i ran to find holly b/c lindsay and her boyfriend were visiting for about five seconds. we went to visit olga who is anti-sharing the closet with her roommate, but very pro handing out software to anyone interested. it’s odd to have people stopping by and people to visit. now i just wish allegra and rachel were actually on campus this semester!

    prospect has a new salad bar – ‘the farm stand’. go ahead, dare me to actually call it that. holly said, “it’s nice to actually have someone to go to dinner with.”

    quote of the day: “i wanna dance with you, i see a sky full of the stars that change our minds, and lead us back to a world we would not face” – live

  • we’ll always have camp jewell in the summer

    em locke 12: at least we have each other
    rachcl85: i was just gonna say

    quote of the day: “i believe that we are lucky, we are golden” – third eye blind

  • new roc city

    i knew ridgefield couldn’t be the only town with a wannabe nickname. located approximately 53 minutes from ridgefield, new rochelle, ny is a buzzing metropolis, streets lines with gleaming skyscrapers and flooded with fresh faces…oh wait, wrong image. new rochelle is the kind of city you might avoid after dark. but when the sun goes down, it’s only natural to play through on the – hello – glow-in-the-dark-mini-golf course.

    lauren, jenn, all the boys and i made the 53 minute trip to putt flourescent neon golf balls off flourescent neon fish (or knights or frogs, depending on the theme of the room) in a frenetic boys (minus rick) vs. girls (plus rick) battle for black light victory. i don’t remember who won, but i know it wasn’t me.

    lauren will tell you that one the way home, we nearly collided with the same woman who had given us directions a few blocks back. i’ll tell you i’m still glad she wasn’t driving! but i’ll also tell her thanks for the diet coke.

    quote of the day: “she dreams in color, she dreams in red” – pearl jam

  • a penchant for taking lovers

    clandestine78: on an unrelated tangent, i apparently will have a lover this fall
    Em Locke 12: oh my goodness!
    clandestine78: i hope my horoscope agrees!
    Em Locke 12: no, say it more like you’re in a jane austen novel
    Em Locke 12: “i will take a lover”
    clandestine78: haha good call
    clandestine78: but i got an IM from *** today about how he has decided that we will be lovers.
    Em Locke 12: ahhh, did he say, “i have decided to take a lover. and that lover will be you!”
    clandestine78: those exact words.
    Em Locke 12: wow, he’s perhaps too well-read in girly victorian books

    hey, whatever, i’d take him.

    quote of the day: “we are flying high, above the carpet on feet, we are airplanes today, we can do anything, we can do anything” – garrison starr

  • wild goose chase reunion

    this morning i woke up, sort of flopped out of bed and, as is my custom, right-clicked on down the buddy list to find out what everyone was up to at 10 am. lauren wasn’t online, toni said ‘happy father’s day, this mount holyoke girl whose real identity escapes me quoted bob dylan. and my favorite camper alex was playing soccer in ridgefield. ridgefield? hello, i live there!

    i jumped in the car and drove around all the athletic fields i could find, and then finally went up to rhs to check out tiger hollow, when i happened to see ridgefield’s blue and yellow uniforms and rolled down the window to ask a soccer mom who was playing. she said, “i don’t know who’s playing right now,” and i wondered why she was watching the game until she followed up with, “but the norwalk girls are playing ridgefield in about twenty minutes.” of course, all the norwalk girls were hanging around in the parking lot and standing in the middle, the tallest one (but no braids!), was my alex!

    i parked the car (feeling way too ‘soccer mom’ in my loaner mini-van) and walked over to their little huddle and when she saw me alex started making high pitched breathy noises and ran over to give me a hug. we got to talk for a little while before the game started and then i watched her play – sorry girl, but i have to take just a little pride in the fact that ridgefield beat you three to one! but i still love you!

    as promised, alex, here is your shout out! mwah!

    quote of the day: “real guys go for real down to mars girls.” – outkast