Dear Internet,

All I want is a ten-season-long Netflix series wherein Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Alec Baldwin, and David Tennant play nerdy space cowboys, directed by Joss Wheedon and Wes Anderson, based on a book by John Green, and, knowing you, probably containing lots of cats. With music. And probably time travel and spaceships and maybe a little bit of Tina Fey. Also aliens. And if you have time throw in some Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing the guitar.

Are we on the same page here? Okay good.

Sincerely,

Ariel Bailey






PS - I DON'T CARE IF IT SUCKS JUST DO IT.

A Brief Glimpse at my Thanksgiving Adventures...

My brother came down from Colorado! It was nice to see him and hang out after three months of college.

Blublublub.

We went to Houston to visit our awesome Bailey/Alamshenas family!

We saw five alligators at Brazos Bend!

We went to Thanksgiving fireworks downtown!

AND we went to the Texas Renaissance Festival...

So that's it! I hope your holiday was as fun-filled as ours. Now back to classes and tests and projects for two more weeks, then CHRISTMAS! Whoo!

All the Stars!

So the past few weeks have been exhausting and exciting. It's been super busy and crazy and aaaaaaah I can't wait for Thanksgiving break.

Two weekends ago I went camping at Ray Roberts with these awesome people.

 

Andrew, Jena, and I struggling to tame the tent. Ugh. 

All of our outdoor-culinary adventures. We got quite gourmet! Garlic-spinach chicken sausage with toasted asiago bagel, anyone?

We also had a beautiful laying-in-the-middle-of-the-street stargazing party, followed by a midnight glowstick rave and ridiculously aggressive card games. Fun times. 

I also took senior portraits for my friend Amanda. This is the first time I have ever been paid to take pictures of someone, and I admit I was quite nervous. I think they turned out well though! (Despite the enormous pain and frustration that inevitably plagues me during projects like this that actually matter. UGH TECHNOLOGY UGH.)

And finally, this last Friday there was an Honors exodus to Inwood Theatre in Dallas at midnight, where our collective favorite godawful movie, The Room, was playing--WITH TOMMY WISEAU AND GREG SESTERO PRESENT!

This is me standing between Greg Sestero (left) and Tommy FREAKING Wiseay (right. Obviously.). 

O-M-EFFING-G. There is only one word to describe how I felt, and that is starstruck. I'm not sure if Tommy is technically a celebrity, but in Honors he's like the second most important person next to Dumbledore or maybe The Doctor. Meeting him after watching his movie dozens of times was surreal to say the least. And honestly, having experienced the nearly incoherent way he speaks broken English, I'm impressed that his movie made any sense at all!

And he signed my spoon!

My favorite quote of the night had to be this:

TOMMY: People say my movie is "bad acting". But you know what we say about "bad acting"? Greg, tell them--what do we say is "bad acting"?

GREG: Uh... I think you people pretty well know. 

Ha! Poor Sestero. So much shame. But a top contender for best quote was when Tommy called up a girl to sing Happy Birthday to her, then started and completely made up the lyrics. It went something like this:

TOMMY: Happy Bir-day to you, Happy Bir-day to you, Yay, you have Happy Bir-day, Yayayayayay, that's it! Now get off the stage. 

Ooooooh my. It was an experience. A spoon-throwing, screen-yelling experience. But oh my god it was possibly the most awesome night of my college life. My life is a joke. 

Anyway, then today I went to see these fantastic boys perform at the Country Club:

Andrew Jackson!

And in two days I'm going to Houston for Thanksgiving. All I have to do between now and then is finish my obnoxious English essay, which I have written except for the last sentence, which currently reads: "AND THEN SOMETHING ELSE GOES HERE. BLAH." Probably not academic enough for my teacher. 

Ah yes. Good times, good times. 

Progress!

This election saw many wonderful changes in our country that really restores some of my optimism about Americans in general.

We put the first Asian-American woman in the Senate!

Maize Hirono of Hawaii

We elected the first LGBT Senator!

Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin

We chose the first female amputee for Congress!

Tammy Duckworth of Illinois

There are now a record twenty female Senators!

Including all the previous female Senators, who were re-elected, and the two ladies mentioned above, these women joined the ranks:

Deb Fischer of Nebraska

Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts 

We have our first Hindu-American to serve in Congress, also a woman!

Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii

White men are no longer the majority in the House Democratic Caucus with the addition of a record number of minority groups!

Four states legalized gay marriage!

There are now more openly LGBT Congresspeople than ever before!

Sean Maloney of New York

Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana.

(Which in my opinion is a good thing economically whether or not you actually plan on making use of this law.)

ALL of the men who made insensitive (and frankly wrong) remarks about women, abortion, and rape failed to get reelected!

And, of course, the first mixed-race President won a second term!

(And also won the popular vote, just FYI.)

Whatever you think of these people's politics, they represent a distinctive move toward a better and more egalitarian country. This is an election I can be proud to have participated in!

Potter-o-ween and Pyromania and Possums, etc.

So for Halloween, my friend Jenna and I decided to go as the Black sisters (or, you know, the LeStrange-and-Malfoy sisters), and I, as the resident blonde, was of course Narcissa Malfoy.

Despite that I didn't have a wand or a robe or pretty much anything else, I did have a pretty bad ass Dark Mark, courtesy of my friend Sarah. 

Although really, I feel like I still kind of looked more like a World War II era bar singer than a witch, it's the thought that counts on Halloween, right?

Anyway. This weekend was also Homecoming, which meant BONFIRE!

(also pretty much the only Homecoming event I attended. Whatevs!)

It started off with fireworks!

And then just FIRE!

And then MORE FIRE!

Until it was so big, I almost got my face burned off from all the way across the lake!

Not this guy, though. 

He's too cool. 

These people were with me, though. RETREAT! RETREAT!

And then I came home to house sit and found a ridiculously un-afraid possum. 

Still no kitty, though. :( 

But I DO love this Inuit who put his rightful name on his Senior shirt despite that no one will ever understand it except me. 

Ah, Mickey. Good to see you embracing your true heritage!

Oh, also, I saw Cloud Atlas. Not sure how I feel about it. It was long and hard to watch, mostly because of some really uncomfortable and slightly gratuitous violence. But the concept was interesting. I guess the verdict is that it could have been better but wasn't nearly as horrible as it could have been. 

That is all.