Heigh ho, Heigh ho

For the past week and a half it's been "off to work I go," which is an excellent idea, as my bank account contains approximately $50. Huzzah! I'm broke!

Good thing I've got a credit card! Hopefully I'll be able to scrape by on my fifty bucks for the next couple of weeks before my first paycheck comes through. I'm not really the type of person that enjoys living in debt.

Mom and Dad, I'm not asking for money from you yet, but be aware that there is a distinct possibility of that in the next week or so. Just so you won't be taken by surprise.

***

In other news, I'm feeling halfway productive tonight because I washed the dishes! I cleaned the kitchen! I even went so far as to put my laundry in the washer. Whether it subsequently gets put into the dryer is yet to be seen.

To reward myself, I'm blogging while watching some of the five hour Pride and Prejudice. How's that for a fun evening?

Which reminds me. I took the Jane Austen Heroine Quiz this morning. Partway through the questions, I'd say, four questions in, I realized that I already knew who I was going to be because of my answers. That's right, I'm Catherine Morland. You know, from Northanger Abbey?

I never really intended to read that book, and didn't expect to enjoy it much even when I found that I had to read it for my Jane Austen class in Parts Unknown.

However, after reading it, I realized that a book doesn't need to be well known or widely liked to be an entertaining thing to read. I liked it a lot, and because of my surprising enjoyment of that book, I thought to myself, "Self, perhaps I'll like Emma as well when we read it for class, even though I hate the movie and I've never been able to get more than three chapters into the book because it makes me claustrophobic."

I was wrong. Turns out that you can still dislike books that other people love, just as easily as you can like a book that nobody else wants to read.

Weekend Update

The past two days have been amazing, as a certain friend of mine from Parts Unknown flew down to my state, and we had a really great time. Really great. So very fun, but also a little tiring, as I had to drive back and forth between home and another city twice in two days, plus it's just exhausting to have so much fun.

Oh yeah, and you know how I wore my skirt backwards to the job interview? I got the job, yo. I start today, working as an office assistant. I've been told that my first task is going to be shredding a giant stack of old papers.

Yesssssssssss.

D'oh!

I had a job interview today. To get the full effect of the day, we will have to backtrack to this morning, when I was asking Uffish what I should wear. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: What should I wear to my interview today?
Uffish: A nice shirt and a nice skirt.
Me: (whining) But I ride my bike to school. How on earth can I get around this insurmountable obstacle?
Uffish: Um, suck it up and take a skirt with you in your backpack? (Or, you could just go naked. Whatever.)
Me: Oh, that'd probably work.

I went about my morning, getting dressed, finding a nice skirt and nice shirt (I even ironed them!), switching my backpack stuff from my normal backpack to my messenger bag so I wouldn't get back sweat all over my nice ironed shirt while riding my bike.



I went to my class, and enjoyed the hour and fifteen minute lecture on why Westerners create monsters that are mixes of people and animals (think werewolves. Or Superman) while Easterners create monsters that are their own things (think dragons and Digimon). It has to do with society (surprise! It's a sociology class), and reincarnation.

After class I went into the bathroom and laughed at myself because we had just been talking about Superman and here I was in the bathroom stall changing clothes. I reapplied makeup and straightened everything so I'd be presentable, then walked across campus with my bike over to the building where the interview was. I went inside, had a fairly nerve-wracking interview (four people interviewing me at the same time! For a stupid office job!) that I think I did alright on (?), thanked the nice ladies, and left. I went into a nearby building to switch back into Clark Kent, strode (strided?) into the handicapped stall where there's a big full-length mirror, reached down and....

Gasp! Where did the zipper on my skirt go? It's disappeared! Oh wait, phew, it's right here in the back.

Gasp. The zipper was in the back. The skirt was made to have the zipper in the front. It must have gradually turned around as I was walking across campus with that stupid messenger bag on my hip. I had sat through an entire interview with my Skirt. On. Backwards.

This is why I shouldn't ever think that my day is going alright, because I'm really walking around with my skirt backwards without even knowing it. Think of all the other things I never realize that are quietly working against me and making me look a fool. I shouldn't even get out of bed in the morning. I should just lie there, twentyfour hours a day, contemplating my complete moronity.

Really, I'm not that worried about it. As my roommate said, perhaps the potential employers will remember me better because of it: "I really liked that girl with the backwards skirt- she seemed really on the ball. It shows that she's very focused."

It was a 94%, thankyouverymuch

Oh, what better way to top off a day when you've been whistled at by construction workers, gotten an A on a hard-to-get-an-A-on test, won a volleyball game, and gotten a good workout at the gym? And also ate a lovely punkin-chocolate chip muffin? I'll tell you how to top off such a day.

Go to the Bleat and read Lileks' inspired words: Maw! Git the Scotch-Brite! I done sneezed while barfin' and shot off a mess a' groiny hairs!

I'm still laughing. I'm glad my roommate didn't question why I suddenly burst out into laughter, because I would have had to tell her that I was imagining, well, never mind what I was imagining. But it was darn funny.

It even hailed on us!

Not much to say tonight, except for that I'm still alive, and also that I'm not on speaking terms with the garbage disposal.

Our modem got fried a few nights ago in a big exciting storm, which turns out to have been a good thing. Because I needed to use the internet in order to finish some homework assignments, I was forced to awake in the morning, get dressed, and ride over to school a few hours early yesterday and today to work on school computers. I got a lot of work done, and life felt more relaxed, sitting around at school with no pressing concerns like getting to class. After computing for an hour or so yesterday, I moseyed over to the student union and got myself some cheap pasta (with "vegan meat sauce"! yum!) and ate while reading through one of my textbooks. I sat there for a good half hour or 45 minutes, reading, eating cheap pasta, and watching it rain outside.

The internet repairman came today. He gave us a new modem and our internet works at home again. Which is nice, and very convenient. But I think maybe I'll try to keep going to school earlier and just hanging out a little bit. It's nicer that way.

Deep Thoughts

Can somebody please tell me why I am compelled to close and lock every door to the outside of the house (knob and deadbolt), plus the door to my bedroom, plus the door to the bathroom inside my bedroom, every single time I go to the bathroom when nobody's home? I can sit here in the living room with the front door hanging open for hours, just waiting to be shot or chloroformed by the roving gangs of hoodlums* on our streets, but if I'm going to be further away from the front door for two minutes, I have to secure our home.

I blame you, Mom. I still love you, though.

*there are no hoodlums. The only people I ever see on our street are either old people or friends coming to visit us.

National Treasure: like the Italian Job, only with Masons instead of Mafia!

I did something good for myself yesterday! Thank you, thank you. Flowers and monetary donations will be gladly accepted.

But seriously, I went to the rec center on campus for the first time ever last night, and I worked out for about forty minutes, then sat and watched some friends playing racquetball. Now that I know about this place, and I know when racquetball happens, I think I shall be going more often.

I'm sure you're all wondering how I came to gather enough momentum to get myself to a place I'd never been to before. Well, I'll tell you: this past few weeks have been full of papers to write and exams to study for, as well as videos to make and volleyball to play. Last night I celebrated the end of that push by realizing that I didn't have anything I needed to be doing, and I balked at the idea of just sitting around the house all night doing nothing. Thus, the rec center and blessed physical activity.

Other things of note:
-I started watching National Treasure last night with a couple of roommates and friends, and I've realized that I must be really annoying to watch movies with. If I've seen the movie before, I feel the need to recite everybody's lines along with them, while if it's a movie I've never seen, I give a running commentary of all my thoughts: "No! Don't get in the truck!" "Oh, gee. They're getting gunpowder all over the place. I totally can't see what's going to happen next." "Come on! You can't just roll up the Declaration of Independence like that- it's almost two hundred and fifty years old! It'd crackle and turn to dust if you even looked at it wrong!"

-I had some weird dreams last night. They involved me 1) killing a lot of bugs, 2) throwing a jar of sunflower seeds at a tri-fold science project poster so my academic paper could be published in a national periodical, 3) purchasing $3 worth of gum with my credit card and shouting "I don't have a job!" at the clerk, and 4) being chased around the docks of some eastern seaboard Costco by an entity that was alternately some Egyptian guy, Martha Stewart, and that creepy girl from The Grudge, you know, the one that makes that clicking noise and crawls toward Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Apparently I had learned of some sinister plot while strolling past one of the ships, and was trying to get to the Costco manager's office to tell him before I was killed.

-One more thing before I go: if only all websites were this clear. (Via Mimi Smartypants)

Good Vibrations

It's October, and guess how much I'm excited about that? Very much.

I'm excited that it's going to be cooler soon and I'll be less sweaty in class after riding my bike to school.

I'm excited that I've made it through so much of this semester so far, and I'm doing much better gradewise than I was this time last year.

I'm excited because my sister liked the birthday presents I gave her, and because my roommate also had a good birthday, with lots of people in our living room.

I'm excited because I learned of a possibility of camping on the mountain this weekend (or next?), and even though I had a bad experience this past weekend, I still want to go (this time I will bring benadryl and two kinds of eye drops and lots of kleenex with me).

I'm also excited because in a few weeks, I'm going to pick up my friend at the airport and show her around my fair city and let her see what October without coats is like.

I'm excited for winter to start, even though it's far away, because winter means end of school and Christmas and wearing a scarf maybe.

I'm excited because I'm going an hour or two north in a few months to see a basketball game with like fifty of my closest friends and even though it's far away I look forward to such a fun way to celebrate the end of finals.

I'm excited because after writing a two page response and taking an exam tomorrow, I'll be relatively schoolwork free for a week or two.

I'm excited for my good friend Uffish, for the fun things happening in her part of the world right now.

I'm excited because I really like living in this house with these roommates and being able to ride my bike to school. I was a little worried about moving in with one of them to begin with, but my fears have proven unfounded and she's become a good friend.

I'm excited because I bought some socks today and they're really fun.

I'm excited that I found this many things I'm excited for, because a lot of the time I think about the things I dread instead.

Saturday is a Special Day

I've been strangely productive today, and I'm feeling good about myself, so I thought I'd let you all know that. I think I'll start at right now, and work my way back.

Right now, it's nearing 2am and my fingers are covered in shreds of picked-at krazy glue that I've been trying to get off for the past two hours. I am tired, and happy.

Around midnight, I finished my art project, heaved a sigh of relief, and loaded and ran the dishwasher. Moxious! Also, Productive!

At 9:30, our friend Dave (I call him Dave because that's his name) left, and my two roommates (The Desirable One and her sister, The Quebecer) went off to dye each other's hair, while I baked the cupcakes and worked on my art project.

At eight-ish, The Desirable One got home from work, and we three decided to set off in search of groceries. As we opened the door to leave the house, we ran into our friend Dave, who had come to pay us a visit. We all went shopping together and had a grand time, and found cake mixes for like 82 cents each at walmart. We decided to make cupcakes to eat during the potluck lunch in between sessions of conference tomorrow.

From perhaps 3:30 to eight-ish, The Quebecer and I worked on cleaning the house. I cleaned my bathroom, the chinchilla cage, and the fan in my bedroom, while she cleaned pretty much the rest of the entire house. She's much more industrious than I. I also planned out a four page paper that's due on Monday which I should have mentioned typing up after loading the dishwasher. In other words, I'm all done with that assignment and ready to print of it and turn it in.

1:00-3:00: The Quebecer and I went back to the House of Excellent Food, and watched the second session of General Conference. I was completely awake this time, and I paid attention and took notes and thought that all of the talks were marvelous. There were freshly made giant chocolate chip cookies halfway through the session. They were delicious.

11:30-12:20: I laid my benadrylly carcass on my bed and slept like a log. Like a log that's at the bottom of a lake, covered in slime and moss.

We started the day, first of all, with me not being able to open my eye. It was glued shut with disgusting rubber cement that appeared out of nowhere during the night sometime. This provided great start to the day, getting that one part of "I am the Walrus" stuck in my head: "yellow matter custard/ dripping from a dead dog's eye...." We went to the House of Excellent Food, where live three or four young men of my roommates' acquaintance who invited us over for pre-conference breakfast. The breakfast, which happened at an ungodly 8 in the morning on a saturday, included lovely omelet something, fruit salad, and Stuffed French Toast. This is some sort of ambrosial mixture of bread, caramel, cinnamon, apples and cream cheese, layered in a casserole dish, and served to very lucky people. We watched the first session of General Conference on their big screen tv. Well, *they* all watched the first session. I pretty much was un-awake for those two hours, being in a benadryl-induced haze of drowsiness (I had taken a couple of pills when I woke up, in an effort to make my face look like normal).

Yesterday evening: There was a supposedly Totally Awesome Activity happening on the mountain which I wanted to go to, but all of my roommates were either out of town or had other plans, so I harrassed my resume-writing friend to give me a ride. We got to the site of the activity, and it wasn't quite as thrilling as expected. We played capture the flag, and I "guarded" our flag. In other words, I sat in the dark under a tree for a long time while nobody came, and gradually developed some nasty-itchy eyes from allergies. The allergic eyes continued after the game ended and we stood around the campfire, talking. Before I go on, let me suggest to you that you go and watch Hitch, because if you do, I won't have to explain what happened next.












You didn't watch the movie, did you? Sigh. Ok. So, we get into the car to go back down the mountain, and my resume-writing friend sees in the light of the car that my eye has swollen up to the size of something that's not eye-sized, but much bigger. And we're not talking just like the skin surrounding the eye area, but the actual eyeball. He suggested that it might explode, and maybe we should stop by the store and get some benadryl. I concurred. So we went into the store and the patrons stopped in their tracks and gaped at my hideousness as we walked to the pharmacy section. We got a bottle of liquid children's benadryl, as well as a bottle of normal benadryl pills. I looked down as we checked out, so the cashier wouldn't run away in fear. When we got back out to the car, he tossed me the bottle of liquid and directed me to chug about half of it, which I did. It tasted nasty. Then he drove me home, where I sat up and waited for my roommates to come home so they could put allergy drops in my eye, because I was too scared to do it myself. By the time they got home and put the drops in my eye, I was succumbing to the benadryl's drowsy-making power, and I had a precarious climb to the top bunk where my deliciously soft and welcoming pillow awaited me.

Weekend Update

I had a good day on Tuesday. My sociological theory class meets that day, and despite its being a required course, I enjoy it. The professor is kind of a hoot: this week, he explained in detail why an orange Air Jordan tennis shoe is analogous to Da Vinci's The Last Supper. And it totally made sense. Cell phones go off pretty frequently in this class, and every time one does, I expect Herr Professor to do a little dance, but for some reason he never does.

Another reason why I liked this Tuesday was the way I spent my afternoon- I went shopping, just for the fun of it, and as I rode by the Co-op on my bike, I was treated to the sounds of some twentysomething guy playing the fiddle and singing in a startlingly authentic manner. I wasn't brave enough to stop and listen- I just rode on by slowly, savoring the moment.

Thursday was a different kind of good. I went to a fast food restaurant for lunch in order to do my homework for a different class. The assignment? Observe fast food workers and write two pages about what you saw. I wrote three. I also ate a burrito.

After lunch and class, I went to the student exchange office and was videotaped as I babbled and rambled at the speed of light on how great it is to go on exchange. I laid awake for hours the night before, thinking of the many things I wanted to tell the people planning on going out into the world: how great it would be, how many friends they would make, the things they would learn about themselves, funny stories about my own exchange, warnings of pitfalls to avoid. In the end, I'm pretty sure I sounded like a raving lunatic, making wild leaps from one topic to the next without pausing for breath. But I only got three minutes! And I had so much wisdom to impart! They're going to send me a dvd so I can keep evidence of my horrible public speaking skills to show my friends and family. Hopefully they'll edit out the first thirty seconds or so where I wreck my train of thought before it even leaves the station, and simply stand there giggling and saying "I'm sorry! Can we start over?"

Disgusted With Myself

Living in this new house, with these roommates that are roughly my age, I've been exposed to much more radio music than I've been used to listening to for at least the past three years. Not that I am against radio music or rock music in general. I've just been in the habit of listening to my iPod and therefore my specifically purchased music for a long time now. So it's been a long time since I've listened to a lot of Top 40 type music, but now I do!

I've heard most of these songs before, in passing, but now I'm hearing them over and over again, I've begun to like some of them. "Some of them" being Unwritten, by Natasha Bedingfield, and Waiting On the World to Change, by John Mayer. Also some other ones, but you get the picture (or maybe not. Maybe you listen to way less radio than I do). It's not that they're bad songs, it's just that they're not *my* kind of songs, and they're so terribly common and obvious.

I guess my problem is that these songs are okay songs that the music industry has told me to like. I like to feel like I'm an independant thinker, so when I am tricked into buying into what is sold to me, I feel vaguely disappointed and annoyed.

Random bit of KoL Happiness

Huzzah! I found some of the new content! Without looking at spoilers! I feel totally cool and stuff. And there's so much to do! And I haven't even seen all of it yet! If I was good at poetry, I'd write you all a haiku, but since I'm not, I'll just grin and gloat for awhile.

Landmark Day

Last night, a friend of mine came over and he ushered me into adulthood. That's right, folks. You heard it here first: I have a resume. It was like pulling teeth, trying to make my job experience sound useful, but we did it. Or rather, *he* did it, and I took dictation. Anyway. It was still hard.

This exercise wasn't just for kicks. I needed a resume in order to apply for a job this morning. I'm not going to tell you what it is, cause I don't know if I have it yet, but as soon as I have news, you can be sure that you, the internet, will be the first to know. Cross your fingers for me.

Favorites

Favorite part of the group dinner date tonight?
:The part where my date and my roommate's date (they happen to be roommates, too) left early, cause they were seriously cramping our style. As in, they sat next to Each Other on the couch (instead of next to us, their Dates), and talked only to each other about football except for when they were bragging to the general assembly about their various proofs of coolness.

Favorite thing said during the evening?
:In a desperate attempt to create a conversation of general interest during dinner, my other roommate pipes in with, "Once, I joined the Communist Party!" Even this comment could not save the evening.

Favorite art project made this afternoon?
:That one that my communist roommate and I did in the backyard with the photosensitive paper and the weeds.












Favorite dessert we had tonight?
:It's a toss-up between the delicious cheesecake made by roommate #3 and the delicious chocolates made by me. But probably the cheesecake.

Favorite totally hypocritical statement made by me?
:"I hate it when nobody updates their blogs!"

I'll be Bach

I'm sitting here, on my roommate's computer, typing this first post in a long time. For those not in the know, I've moved. I'm living downtown in this great little house, with this great backyard, and this great way-closeness to school which I take advantage of every day when I ride my bike to class. Take that, high gas prices!

I'm on my roommate's computer not because mine is broken or lost, or anything like that, but because as I may have mentioned earlier, my computer hates blogspot dot com, and refuses to load any website that includes that name. This is also the reason why it's been so long since I've posted- I'd pretty much forgotten that it exists, since I can't ever see it myself. Anyway, I'm back.

I'm loving the new living situation, because I've got fun roommates who do fun things- we switch off weeknights for cooking duty, and there's always friends over, and we're thinking of doing hikes every saturday (two of us already went on one, and it was pretty fun), and it's nice to go grocery shopping together, and three of us have a class together on thursday evenings so we carpool, and they all think the chinchillas are fascinating and great.

This summer, I was a little worried about my classes this semester because they're all upper level sociology classes, a situation I've never had before. My fears seem to have been needless, however: two of them are taught by grad students and are therefore not terribly hard, and the other two are pleasantly paper-free. In fact, I've only got the one class that has an actual long paper due, but he's chopped it into bits that are due every once in a while, so you can't do the entire 15 pages the night that it's due, so it's really not that bad at all. I've already got the first part done! The other classes have things like weekly reading responses (only a paragraph or so each week), once in a while-type memos (write three pages about watching a video online!), and, uh, I think that's it. Except for exams, you know. So I'm absolutely way less stressed and worried about this semester's workload now that I'm in the middle of it. Hurray for my school being a "party school!" I can get good grades becase we've got crazy grade inflation, not like the University of Parts Unknown, which gave me a harsh harsh taste of reality for the past year.

Well, I know you've all been checking my site every day, waiting impatiently for me to post a long, rambling vomit of words that isn't all that entertaining. Now that I've discovered the joys of stealing the roommate's computer (except that all she has is Internet Explorer (shocking, I know!)), I will perhaps get back to my regularly scheduled short and possibly interesting posts in the future.

Another short post on my current state of annoyed-ness

There's a few things bothering me right now. Two have to do with my bathroom, the other is non-bathroom related.

Light lag: the light in my bathroom does not turn on at the same moment as you flip the switch. It waits approximately three seconds before actually illuminating the room. This is slightly aggravating the first time it happens, and when it's been going on for several months, it really can get on one's nerves. However, I'd almost rather have the light off altogether, because when it's on, I can see the minute details of my shower curtain, which is the other thing that bothers me. My shower curtain is an otherwise lovely and happy looking map of the world, with one irksome flaw: no rivers. Alright, I know it's just a shower curtain, and it isn't supposed to be an exhaustive study of our world's geography, but come on! At least put in the Nile and the Amazon. Perhaps the Mississippi? Also the name of Brasilia is in a larger font than Hawaii.

My other annoyance is that about a week ago, for some reason my laptop decided it no longer wanted to load any pages with the word "blogspot" in the url. Seriously uncool. I can't figure out why it is so against the free communication of thought and also pictures; I tried clearing my history and my cache and all kinds of other things that I sort of understand, but it still refuses to cooperate. I think I need to shut down my computer for many days to give it time to think about the annoyance it has caused me. After which thought it will obviously see the folly in omitting an entire server's worth of blogs, and apologize profusely.

Arg, Arg and Double Argh!

1. My hair, upon exiting the pool around 7:30 in the evening, magically transformed itself into something curly and pretty, without me having to so much as brush it. Naturally this happens when I stay in and do nothing all evening. Beautiful hair, wasted!

2. Um, I have to work tomorrow? And the next day too?

3. (this one's the double arg) The amazingly perfect and nice house that my friend and I fell in love with, that we were going to rent and share with maybe four other girls and have a fun house of people, cannot be rented by us at this time. Why? Because we couldn't find another four girls to share it with, and the two of us can't swing the $1000 per month for much longer than two months by ourselves. I now need to find a new place, and nothing will be as wonderfully spacious and friendly as that house.

Total Awesomeness

Alright, so I'm pretty sure I'm the last person on earth to know about this amazingly wonderfully great video. Just in case I'm not the last, though, I'll pass it along to youse guys.

(Directions, for the unsavvy: Wait till the whole thing loads before you play it so you don't get weird lag and skips. Play; enjoy, giggle. Repeat indefinitely.)

Violasaint, World Traveller

As you can clearly see from this,
and this,

I am a west side type of girl. I have a strange fascination with the middle states, like Ohio, and Illinois and Indiana, and all those places that I know must be there, but as yet they are just empty holes in my experience of the world. Once I get enough money saved up, I'm going to try and do some travelling, both to the rest of this continent, and also to Europe. Beyond that, I have vague hopes of someday seeing like Tokyo and Hong Kong, and Mexico City, and some chunks of Africa maybe?

If I was a dog, but I was counting my age in people years, I think I'd be three.

Festivities included a sumtuous dinner of fondue, salad, fondue, and fondue. Fondue you want some more? Fondue you think I'm crazy? That was a ton of cheese and meat; I fondue not need any more food as long as I live!

You may ask, "how does it feel to be another year older?"
I may answer, "a lot cheesier."

To be perfectly honest, I don't feel this old. At least, I don't feel like a responsible adult- I still don't know what in the world I want to be when I grow up, and for goodness sake, I'm still working in fast food. Although today I didn't work, and wisely spent the day watching America's Next Top Model as a reward for working out for half an hour while watching Chariots of Fire.



I think I need to get myself a hobby.