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Dear Person Who Keeps Pulling the Fire Alarm¹,

I like to get a full night’s worth of sleep on the weekends. Unfortunately, your tendency to pull the fire alarm at some ungodly hour when I am fast asleep is really starting to be a problem when it comes to me getting uninterrupted sleep. I’m pretty sure it’s not just me you’re bothering; you’re rapidly becoming a hated enemy of three residence halls as we all have to evacuate whenever you decide to pull the alarm. I hope you can count, because that’s a lot of people to piss off.

I don’t really care why you have such an affinity for pulling the fire alarm at 3a.m. Maybe you’re pledging a fraternity/sorority, maybe you get a rush whenever you hear the blare of a fire alarm, maybe you keep forgetting that foil does not belong in a microwave when you want to heat up food to appease your cravings for a midnight snack. Whatever it is, stop pulling the fire alarm. I’m serious. You’re an ass for doing so.

Not only do you force three residence halls to evacuate in the early hours of the morning, but you’re also making us stand outside for prolonged amounts of time until the all-clear is sounded and we are allowed back inside. This isn’t as much of a problem in the summer, but it is most definitely an issue in the winter, particularly as there are still mountains of snow on campus from our recent blizzards. I’d rather not catch pneumonia or bronchitis because of your stupidity, thanks.

I suppose I should be grateful for your consideration, as you did pull the fire alarm in the early a.m. on Sunday morning the last two weekends. It could be worse, such as if you pulled the fire alarm on a week night during the next two weeks, as midterms are fast approaching…

Now is probably a good time to state that if you even think of pulling the fire alarm in the middle of the night during the week of midterms, I will have your head. Consider yourself warned.

1. I realize that the chance of it being the same person pulling the fire alarm on multiple occasions is very slim, but it is easier to direct this rant at one individual rather than a group. [↩]

Note: There are very minor spoilers for the 1965 film The Sound of Music in this entry.

When I was little, my favorite movie was The Sound of Music. (It’s still one of my all-time favorites.) When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered “Liesl von Trapp.”

I wanted to be just like her when I was sixteen. I wanted to receive telegrams from the boy of my dreams and twirl around inside a gazebo with him before he gave me my very first kiss. I wanted to sing “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” with a boy who would be able to sing the verses about being seventeen going on eighteen. I wanted to have her optimism, her poise, and her grace.

I’ve never had an attachment with any other fictional character; Liesl is the only one.

I didn’t realize there was so much about Liesl’s story that involves the loss of innocence and the onset of heartbreak. At sixteen, she’s right at the brink of adulthood. She’s “innocent as a rose” at the beginning but by the end, her innocence and naivety have faded and she has a much more realistic outlook about the ways of the world. Some of that has to do with her short-lived courtship with Rolf. But most of it has to do with the von Trapp family’s unfortunate circumstances thanks to the Nazi invasion of Austria and the onset of Hitler’s regime throughout Europe. Either way, the Liesl at the end of the film is very different to the one at the beginning, and her character development is something that I’ve always taken away from The Sound of Music.

There are so many things that I love about Liesl and a lot of what I love about her has changed over time. When I wanted to be Liesl at the age of six, it was Liesl’s fairytale princess quality that I loved most about her. Now, though, what I love about her is how her story carefully tells a tale of one girl’s transition from child to adult and her slight brush with heartbreak. A lot of my attachment to Liesl is for sentimental reasons, because whenever I watch The Sound of Music I’m transported to a time when I was younger, more innocent, and more naive. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but there’s a lot of Liesl’s initial trusting innocence that I think I, too, had when I was about fifteen or sixteen.

I wanted to grow up to be Liesl at the age of six, and now at the age of nineteen there are traces of her I can see in myself from three, four years ago. It’s funny how some things turn out.

I still want to be Liesl von Trapp when I grow up.

Today is my favorite holiday of the year, Chinese New Year!

As usual, I spent the past week cleaning and doing laundry in an effort to get rid of the “bad spirits” of the old year as I usher in the new one. I wanted to have a newly purchased outfit set aside to wear on the first day of the year, but time and money didn’t extend to a whole new outfit so a new shirt will have to do. And of course, I won’t be washing my hair today as it’s bad luck to wash your hair on the first day of the new year.

Since I’m away at school, I won’t be able to enjoy all the delicious foods and wonderful atmosphere at home. However, I’m managing to have an enjoyable time nonetheless. My friends and I have plans to go out to eat Chinese food and my Chinese class is arranging a dim sum lunch to celebrate. I haven’t had dim sum since the last time I was in Hong Kong during the summer of 2008 so I’m really excited as dim sum is so delicious!

I hope everyone has a great day whether or not Chinese New Year is celebrated. 恭禧发财，新年快乐！Happy Year of the Tiger!