Top 13s of 2013

Top 13s of 2013
(in no particular order)

Albums

Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise

The Maine - Forever Halloween

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Jake Bugg - Jake Bugg

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

The Neighbourhood - I Love You.

Youngblood Brass Band - Center: level: roar

Sigur Rós - Kveikur

Surrogate - Post-Heroic

The Wonder Years - The Greatest Generation

The Maine - Imaginary Numbers

Bad Books - II

Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Movies

The Before Sunrise Trilogy - Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight

Books

Wolf Lake - Anonymous

Sibling Love

"I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THE DECAL WAS SUPPOSED TO GO ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE CAR. IT SAID CAR DECAL, NOT WINDOW DECAL. OK," screamed Dad at the dinner table. Each of us exchanged fits of laughter while our eyes shifted away from our slightly seething, half-laughing father. 

"Can I pick the eyeliner off of you? PLEAAAAAASSSSSSSEEEEE. It looks like it'd be so satisfying to peel off," I pleaded to Lindsay.

"NO. Stop Megan!" she barked at me while reading her Stephen Hawking book. "STOP!" she shouted as she wriggled further into the couch to avoid my prying fingers. "MEGAN, SERIOUSLY STOP IT. YOU'RE SO ANNOYING."

"Hey Matt, have fun last night?" I asked in a nudge-nudge wink-wink tone. "Thanks for waking me up at 2 AM. I loved hearing that door slam. So what'd you do?" Matt continued to pour himself a glass of water and seemed to be ignoring my question.

"I said, What'd you do? Hellllllloooo Matt!" I said a little louder than the first time. 

"Nothing, Megan. OK! Jeez." Matt mumbled to me as he sighed while walking out.

Any of these situations come up on a regular basis when the Pietz clan is back in action. After 4 months of not living together, I think as siblings we've all missed each other. Though each of us knows exactly how to piss one another off, there comes a certain kind of comfort with residing in the same hallway and eating dinner together in the evening.

Yes, we talk at least once a week whether it be text or Facetime while we're at school, but it is still odd not knowing exactly what is happening in someone's life, not understanding their course load, or being able to picture the friends we each talk about. After being with one another essentially non-stop from birth, the transition from knowing and understanding everything to nothing is quite odd, even unsettling at times. 

Everyone knows that college allows people to grow and change. Parents pay thousands of dollars so their kids can realize they're not that smart, they're semi-talented, and that they need to grow up a bit more before they can call themselves an adult. So basically, Lindsay, Matt, and I said goodbye to one another just as we were about to change even more drastically than we had throughout high school. Cool.

Matt and Lindsay can make me scream at the top of my lungs to shut them up,but  there are days when you want your siblings to be around. We still send each other "Hope (insert test here) went well" or "Thought of you when I saw (insert link here) today" texts. We still poke fun at each other's styles, taste in music, and studies. And of course, we all equally miss our cat.

Now every time we see each other, Lindsay likes to scream "I love you!" fifteen times while she bear hugs each of us. I can't breathe, but I appreciate it. Sometimes I want to rip her detachable collars or ask her to chew with her mouth closed for the 8th time, I still love her. She likes to scream it, but we all know it exists. Yes, it's cheesy, but it's true.

I know Lindsay and Matt will always be there for me. Our continued communication has proved that. And I can be confident now that we'll always talk. I love my siblings, and I wouldn't have our relationship any other way.

We never look this good anymore 

The last day all of us were together before starting college.

The Suburbs' City v. "My" City

As everyone starts to straggle home from their designated universities and winter break begins, I realize that in about a week everyone will be bored of their suburban bubble and start to crave doing something "different."The lightbulbs will turn on simultaneously as "THE CITY" pops into their heads.

Don't get me wrong, going to "The City" is fun. But, after experiencing "The City" for ten weeks, "The City" doesn't seem so enticing. 

You see, "The City" is a fictional place. It is made up of: Michigan Avenue, State Street, Millenium Park (or really just The Bean), and every so often, museum campus. And though I used to be one in the population of "The City," the past 10 weeks I've spent at school have given a sense of disdain for the place. It's always crowded, full of tourists, and there's nothing cheap or non-franchised. It's basically a large outdoor mall with a park next door. 

I understand the appeal: popular shops, decent food, lots of holiday spirit all in walking distance off a few stops on the El. It's easy to get to and relatively safe. But, "The City" is not a true representative of the city. 

Yes, 10 weeks is not a lot of time, but it's enough to understand that "The City" creates such a poor picture of the city. So, instead of me talking further about how the suburban kids (including me) need to explore, I've decided to include a few photos of my version of the city. Hopefully they'll make you rethink your winter adventures. 

The Metro - Wrigleyville. My favorite venue. 

Grant Park - far south end.

Urban farm in Bridgeport

Riot Fest - Humboldt Park 

Old Town

View from campus

My parking garage

Boystown on Halloween

Molly's Cupcakes - Lincoln Park

Ravenswood Used Books - Lincoln Square

Panes Bread Cafe - Lakeview

Museum campus view

Books I Can't Bring Myself to Read and My Excuses

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

This would be the first Herman Melville novel I've read. In fact, it'd be the first Herman Melville thing I've read (he wrote short stories and poetry too). Melville actually stopped being popular when Moby Dick was published which is pretty interesting considering that most people have a general concept of the plot of the novel (crazy captain pursues elusive whale). Melville was even friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne, so cool! So why can't I get myself to pick this book up?

Well, I certainly have over thought how much I think I know about the plot. I assume that Captain Ahab gets the whale, but I guess I need to know what happens in between. Plus, even thought I loved Scarlett Letter, I fell asleep constantly because it was so dry to me and I don't want to do that while reading Melville's work. But, I am going to try to make the next book I pick up from my pile of about 20 that I was hoping to read over break. I should. Who can ignore the name Ahab? 

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

A former requirement of the AP English class I took last year, I knew that there had to be meat in something that was on a high school syllabus. Plus, Russian literature is infamous. Dostoyevsky was exiled in Siberia for 10 years, and this novel was the second to be published after his return. In fact, Wikipedia details that he was considered one of the most dangerous prisoners at the Peter and Paul fortress and was only allowed his copy of the New Testament, fortified with Dickens novels and newspapers when he visited the military hospital. He had 10 years to his thoughts, so the novels that followed must be pretty heavy.

I'm guessing I haven't picked this one up yet for two reasons: the season and time/patience. Because it's a Russian novel, my wonderful senior English teacher Miss Ingraham used to say that reading it in the winter made her students sort of depressed. I'm not really down for the whole winter sadness routine. Plus, if I have so many books to get through this break and the names in this book alone take some time to figure out, I don't know if I want to dedicate the rest of my break to the nuances of Russian name spelling. Maybe it'll be my beach read this summer...

Love in the Time of Cholera 

by Gabriel García Márquez

Since I am not quite a fan of science fiction and fantasy, I'm pretty hesitant about magical realism. Marquez is the king of magical realism. But, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature so he's got to be good, right? Now 86, Marquez has been heavily influenced by his family's history and Latin American roots. Plus, he's heavily influenced by Hemingway and Faulkner (and he wrote about it.) The novel is also a non-traditional love story.

I honestly believe that the magical realism is the only part holding me back. I know their are some people that love sci fi and fantasy so much, but I abhor talking animals and plots that take place in other galaxies. Marquez will be read when I get on a world literature kick, I can feel it. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey published during the transition period from Beats to hippies. Plus, Kesey was a guinea pig in a CIA-funded drug study that included LSD, mushrooms, peyote, cocaine and more. He worked at local mental hospital, sometime under the influence of those drugs. Obviously, he's got to have some great background for a novel that takes place in a psych ward.

Probably the largest reason I haven't read this work yet is because I feel I haven't read enough from the Beat generation. I've touched Keorauc and Ginsberg briefly, but not enough to say that I fully understand the writers of the Beat movement. It's definitely a time period I have a large amount of interest in, but I want to understand the full context before I read the novel. 

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Whitman seems like an acquired taste but also a required reading for anyone who considers themselves a lover of the American canon. A realist, Wikipedia labels him as a "part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism." Not only did Whitman impress a lot of people, he spread the wealth of American thought by influencing many of the Beats, most well known being Kerouac and Ginsberg. 

I think I'm avoiding my copy of Leaves of Grass because a) it's a 488 page monstrosity (at the B+N classic version) b) I feel the need to dedicate a chunk of time to it because it's not going to be something I just read, I will be analyzing and connecting along the way because that's what I do and c) I'm scared that if I don't enjoy as much as others, I'm a failure as an English major and American Studies minor.

DePaul's Winter "Break": A Blessing or a Curse?

At first, I wanted to write this in list form, but I restrained myself. 

I'm not BuzzFeed.

I wish I was Buzzfeed because I'd be making bank, but I don't have the GIF library to compete with them. Except for this gem:

Thanks to DePaul's lovely (I think...) six week break, I was able to find the above amusement. In my myriad to do list of activities that needed to be completed over the next 42 days, one was to re-organize and clean out my computer. SO EXCITING. SO ADULT.

And while I love having the time to sit down and read a novel, do my laundry (for free, sweet!), and binge watch all the TV episodes I missed over the past 10 weeks, I can't help but wonder how much more time is wasted at home versus being at DePaul. So, for your viewing pleasure I've created two graphs that chart how I spend my time at school versus at home. The results are a little disheartening.

Yes, as a teenager I love my sleep. I also love that being home means I can try to conquer the 24 books I bought over the last 10 weeks and tackle the list of 46 movies my friends have recommended to me. 

But the one qualm that I have is that I see LITERALLY no one. The majority of my friends are at school getting ready for finals and won't be back for at least another 10 days. And I'm writing this after being on break for 10 days. 

While I do appreciate having finals before the holiday season begins and being able to have some much needed time to myself, I miss people. 

I know I'm going to despise these 6 weeks as everyone finishes the school year in May while us DePaul kids sit in classrooms until mid-June. Why give us break during the cold months when we all would enjoy some extra summer?

Yes, it's cheaper to fly home once in these months then twice for all of you out-of-towners, but would it be so bad to spend Thanksgiving with all of your new friends?

I'll get back to my cat and The Best American Essays of 2012 now.

Week Whatever: Questions that Keep Me Up at Night

I have failed in attempting to write pieces on schedule, but that's OK! Once my classes begin in 3 days, writing will become a part of my weekly plans. For now, I'll post something that's been sitting in my Google Drive for a while. I am by no means a comedian (everyone always tells me I'm only funny when I'm mad). Here's an attempt at a little fluff piece.

Questions that keep me up at night:

1. How many emojis are too many?
2. Why do my headphones always break at the most inconvenient time?
3. Will I ever find a pen that’s “the one”?
4. How can the government keep on making pennies?
5. Will my Oldies station be filled with Top 40 radio crap?
6. At what point is a flat pillow to flat to sleep on?
7. Is there such as thing as owning too many hoodies?
8. Will I ever have a good hair day when it’s not 11 pm on a Tuesday?
9. Can I be passive aggressive and not tweet about it?
10. Is the art of the mixtape dead?
11. How much can I allow myself to spend on pumpkin spice lattes this fall?
12. Does my cat actually like me?
13. Will Thought Catalog continue to spiral downward? Can I survive a day without reading it?
14. Is the number of oreos I eat in a day proportional to the number of times I’ve thought about working out?
15. How can I get this list to not sound like a mash up of first world problems and another millenial rant?