There's nothing wrong with cackling. In moderation.

Well, I went to see La Horrigan today. My aunt had these dresses from the '80's she didn't want anymore, and asked if Hanover's theatre would like to have them. I told her probably not, since they just had a costume sale to get rid of some of their space-consuming fug, and then it was suggested that LC's theatre might. So today I went to drop off the dresses and catch up on life at LC. It all looked the same, including Mrs. Horrigan (possibly there is witchcraft at work here). She was very nice, and listened to me talk about England, and told me all about how LC is. Their dismissal bell is this really irritating single, prolonged tone now. Like the school went into cardiac arrest or something. The LC Players are going to New York in a few weeks, and they're going to see shows and it sounds awesome, so good for them. I'm jealous. Oh! I also got to see Mrs. Horrigan take a Horrigan Moment when talking about the state of the school. You know, when she puts her head in her hand with a great sigh, as though she simply does not understand how the world can continue in this way. She thinks Mr. Sturm might retire very soon. Also, she remembers Once in a Lifetime fondly, which is nice. There is to be an LCP reunion on May 12, so mark your calendar, Marten, and see if you can come. I really want to.

And just when I think I don't know anybody at LC, especially in the theatre, in walks my cousin Katherine's friend Caitlin, who is a really, really nice girl and apparently in LCP. Or in drama/ stagecraft at least. I had no idea. But I will always have a soft spot for Caitlin, because I was the person who convinced her that it was all right to like Star Wars. She was excited to see me.

It's weird, but I'm finding that high school students always look the same. A couple of times now I have gone to high schools or high school functions and I see students who look like people I went to high school with, and I know they aren't those people, but at the same time my brain is going, "I saw him/her in the hallways all the time, didn't I? What's he/she still doing here?" It's something, I guess, about the high school tendency to want to conform and blend in and look like the magazine pictures with the straightened hair and too much makeup.

Also, I finished Christmas shopping today! Yay!

"Geiss is sending signals about retirement, about succession." "By talking about sex in a sailing magazine?" "That's exactly how Margaret Thatcher did it."

I was watching a pot, and guess what it did? It BOILED, Mother!

Welcome back, Jonah. Thanks for handling those ninjas.

I'm back home, and now that I don't have to do anything, I really don't want to do anything. I should be working on one of my arrangements or even unpacking my stuff, but as it is, all I've done since getting home is eat, sleep, and play zelda. After starting a new game yesterday I'd be finishing off Ganondorf about now, but Mom wanted to watch the football game.

I auditioned for OLO on Friday. There's not much else worth saying about that other than I've done my first professional audition, and I will soon receive my first professional rejection. I'm not too worried about how my audition went, though, seeing as how I was basically auditioning for a 25% cut in pay. Whether or not I make it, I've got a job for the summer, so I can feel secure about that.

My house is cold. I miss Gable House, and Gen. I had become accustomed to the uncanny warmth of both.

I'm going to start posting on Skewed to the Left again when I go back to school. I don't know if I'm going to follow the same schedule that I used to because of my crazy schedule for next semester, and I may have to do only two a week instead of three. I'll be balancing it between an overloaded academic schedule and stage managing for Good Woman of Setzuan. I plan on taking advantage of this break, though. I'm not going to work weekends, and I'm not going to work for more than 6 hours a day on weekdays. I'm going to finish at least one song, I'm going to play a lot of video games and D&D, and I'm going to wear actual pants for as little time possible. Merry end of the first semester, everyone, and I'll see you all soon.

"Geiss is sending signals about retirement, about succession." "By talking about sex in a sailing magazine?" "That's exactly how Margaret Thatcher did it."

Comstock Christmas Comeback Celebration!

Compendium of Stupidity Headquarters. December 15. 12:43 A.M.

Michael: Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a problem. The blog is falling apart.

Erin: I know. Since I fired the striking writers and we hired a team of monkeys to replace them, there's been a marked decrease in quality

Marten: It's because they're non-guild monkeys.

Michael: I'm NOT talking about the monkeys. I'm talking about the numbers. Marten, show us the numbers.

(Marten gets up and walks over to an easel which has a graph displaying a negative trend.)

Marten: As you can see, lady and gentleman, our numbers our on a decline. Posts are down. Active members are down. Production is down.

Michael: Also, your zipper's down. Anyway, I'm worried about people. We lost Thomas, we never see Sophia, there are reports that Paul has joined the ranks of our ninja foes, and we're rapidly losing Comstocks.

(Nathan runs in.)
Nathan: Sorry I'm late. Ninjas.

(Everyone nods appreciatively)

Michael: So what are we going to do about this?

Erin: I don't know. I think the situation is hopeless without Jonah.

Marten: Oh woe is us. We are lost without Jonah.

Nathan: We must summon him somehow. Shine the Jonah beacon in the sky!

Erin: What if... he's been Taken!?

Michael: I hadn't thought of that...

(the door to headquarters bursts in and in comes Jonah, triumphantly riding on an elephant. His hair looks awesome.)

Jonah: Never fear, comrades! The intrepid Jonah Comstock is here - to save the day!

(All clap and cheer)

Jonah: And from now on the blogging will be plentiful. Also, when did we get a secret headquarters?

Michael: Man, you have been gone a long time.

(A group of 10 ninjas enters through the hole in the wall created by Jonah's elephant. Jonah handily (and AWESOMELY) defeats them. The battle just makes his hair more awesome.)
...

Alright, so that was all my fancy way of saying I'm back, and with a vengeance. Yes, a vengeance. Soon, I will actually post about my life! Very soon! Maybe tomorrow! But now, I'm announcing my new old quasi-permanent title scheme. I'm going back to alliteration, starting with C, because damnit, I liked alliteration! Also now I'll really have one. So Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good blog.


"Geiss is sending signals about retirement, about succession." "By talking about sex in a sailing magazine?" "That's exactly how Margaret Thatcher did it."

Reports of my disappearance have been greatly... well, slightly... well actually not exagerated at all.

I admit I have dropped off the face of the internet. To be honest, I'm not really sure why. I think part of it is the fact that very little interesting stuff happens in my life, and when interesting stuff does happen my roommate blogs about it before I get a chance to. But I will attempt to break the blog silence in a non-boring way here.
I have been kept very busy by mainly four things: a cappella music, Scenic Design, Dungeons and Dragons and Kylie. Most of my procrastination has been Gamecube - based. I've also been arranging a cappella music a lot while procrastinating, which is fun. I've just completed work on my second arrangement for A Round of Monkeys, "Another First Kiss" by They Might be Giants. I have three started for Lethal Inflection, and I hope I will finish at least one over break. By the way, a funny thing happened at the Lethal Inflection concert. Jonah was trying to introduce one of the group members, Thomas Dwyer, and he accidentally referred to him as Thomas Fowler instead.
Scenic Design is finally over and I don't really want to talk about it. I learned a lot, build two incredibly intricate models and spent far more time than anyone should spend on any class in that damn little studio. But it's over. On the plus side, Jonah and I are going to be in a play in February. The show is The Good Woman of Setzchuan by Berthold Brecht. Technically I am playing three different people and also helping design props.
As I write this, Kylie and I have been together for 364 days. We went out tonight to celebrate the anniversary. It was really nice. I really think I'm in love with this girl. I really want her to meet all of you, especially you, Erin. I think you two would get along incredibly well. Hopefully this can happen at some point eventually.
Dungeons and Dragons is more stressful than it should be. I may be getting a bit over ambitious with my campaign. It's going to be hard to juggle with the a cappella groups and the play.
That's life in brief. I also wrote a whole bunch of stuff for my fictional writing class which I think I'm going to start posting on my blog, so if ya'll would check my blog in the next couple of days I'd appreciate it. I may start writing some more of my ongoing stories again now that that class is over.
By the way Michael, I have to thank you for introducing me to How I Met your Mother and lending me those DVDs. My roommate has become completely obsessed with it, and the two of us had a blast watching the entire first two seasons together in just over a week.

"Geiss is sending signals about retirement, about succession." "By talking about sex in a sailing magazine?" "That's exactly how Margaret Thatcher did it."

Give me one reason, one good reason, why we should spend our last two hours in Florida looking at the sisters of Freckle-Face Haynes the Dog-Faced Boy

I will post now!

Well, the semester's finally almost over. My IS is pretty much done, my classes are done, I have one more assignment to do, one final to take, and I am out of here. And I might actually get my grad school applications done before I come home on Wednesday, as well. Life is looking good from here.

Tonight I went to see White Christmas at the Ohio Theatre, a little movie theatre they have here in Madison. It was lovely. My mom and I have watched White Christmas every year since before I can remember. I have been gently snarking it with her since about a year or two after I was old enough to understand it. For those of you unfamiliar, it's a big-old fashioned musical filled with Irving Berlin songs and Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. It's the sort of thing, like the Star Wars movies and Pride and Prejudice, where there are set responses to certain lines at this point. So I was sad my mom wasn't there. But it was so much fun to see the movie on a big screen and hear all of the people around me laughing at it and sometimes singing along. And so now I'm in a very happy mood.

Tomorrow we're testing our fight scenes for stage combat with an adjudicator from the offical stage fighting society, I can't remember what it's called. I have absolutely no delusion that I'm going to pass. But it will be fun to try. My rapier fight is especially cool. I chose to do it to a scene from Lords and Ladies, actually; it is now Magrat vs. Lankin. My hand-to-hand fight is from A Midsummer Night's Dream. And I have also fulfilled a long-cherished dream of putting a knife fight into Jane Austen with the epic battle of Elizabeth vs. Lady Catherine. My partner for the last is one Miss Whitney Shouse. It's been really fun, we got to perform the fight in Eighteenth Century Novel class on Friday because we've been reading Pride and Prejudice.

I have to move all my stuff into a whole different room before I leave on Wednesday, because I'm getting both a new room and a new roommate, since Bethany is going to France next semester. This sucks, because Bethany is the best roommate I've ever had, and I'm going to miss her a whole lot. I had hoped to at least have a single with her gone, but no. I have to move. And I know almost nothing about my new roommate except that she likes The Office. Oh, well.

Pretty soon I will be out of here! And I will have time to do things again! Yay!

"Geiss is sending signals about retirement, about succession." "By talking about sex in a sailing magazine?" "That's exactly how Margaret Thatcher did it."

"I can smell your fear!" "That's just my cologne." Fear for Men: A new cologne from Realite

Right now, I should not be posting. I should be writing an outline. But! people don't post anymore, and it's lame. Nathan and Jonah have stopped existing on the internet, and there's no excuse. I know for a fact how much Jonah procrastinates. Your procrastination time should be spent complaining about what your procrastinating from! Like this stupid outline. I don't like outlines. My mind is not organized, and I would much rather babble on about whatever I'm writing about and organize it after the fact. The thing about this outline is that it's part of a final project that confusingly does not in fact end in a research paper. Instead of writing a 15 page research paper for our final project, we are to find sources, write a paper proposal, a 2 page outline and an annotated bibliography for a 15 page paper that we don't actually write. To be perfectly honest, it will probably come in handy later when I'm getting ready to write my junior and senior IS's, but right now it's really a pain.

Also, I'm auditioning for OLO. Like, to sing. I am terribly frightened about this for no rational reason. It's free for Wooster students to audition, so I signed up in a sort of "what the hell," mood, and now I'm all anxious. Either way, I'll probably be working there again this summer, singing or building props. Alaska died because people can't afford to get there.

Also also, I won't be living in my home for much longer. Not that I really have in a while anyway, but now I won't even have a room. Dad has to move the shop back to the house, and what is my bedroom used to be his sewing room, so when I get home for break I get to start putting things into boxes. This is why I need to find places to be during the summer. Scary.

In the mean time, my sisters introduced me to Jonathan Coulton. I've downloaded a handful of stuff from him after watching that video, he's great. He's got a remake of Baby Got Back that I want to arrange for Lethal Inflection. Erin said someone should make a fanvid for the previously linked song for Jim and Pam, but she has too many procrastination activities. It got me thinking about how many great things came from procrastination. When I procrastinate, I used to draw webcomics(been meaning to get back to that) build things like lightsabers and clay dragons, or play my guitar. I've decided that procrastination builds character, and that a person can be judged by what he does instead of work.

I hope everyone elses last couple weeks of the semester are going better than mine, see all soon

"Geiss is sending signals about retirement, about succession." "By talking about sex in a sailing magazine?" "That's exactly how Margaret Thatcher did it."

Go spend some time with your family. Hurry

I have successfully constructed a Thanksgiving Dinner. Not a Thanksgiving Diner, which would be a great place to play Alice's Restaurant all day, but nevertheless all together too silly. I did not ruin my turkey, it was perfect, except for the knife we used to cut it, which is not actually part of the turkey, so that doesn't count. My crescent rolls would have been perfect had my family arrived on time to to eat them when they were fresh and toasty out of the oven, but that is family and what can one do. The same went for the potatoes and the green been casserole, it would have all been lovely had I waited just 45 minutes to start them. As it was, I had to put every thing in the microwave after serving it, because I didn't trust the oven in Gable to merely keep things "warm." But! My dinner was tasty, and I am feeling rather accomplished. Since food, we've just been chillin' at my house. My dad was comically entranced by the Wii, and the board games have been woefully ignored.

miniature mildly amusing anecdote: You all know I am in a holiday show, and that is why I am staying in Wooster. If you did not know that, go down a few posts and find out. Anyhow, there are two children in this show, and one of them, Miles, saw a bumper sticker on one of the band members' cases. I am not sure what the case was for, but that's not important. The bumper sticker read "Porn rapes the mind." Miles asked why it said that. Tom carefully replied, "because it does." Further inquiry was replied with choruses of you'll understand when your older. Miles is nine years old. I feel like this is either a fun or taxing challenge for parents in the entertainment business.

And so my final order of business is to inform you all of the changes in the state of my love life, though you might have seen it coming. Erin has pointed it out to me that whenever I post anything about a girl on compendium, I'm generally dating her within the week. Genevieve falls into this pattern. She also falls into the pattern of of having a lovely name, and being Catholic. All the important women in my life seem to be Catholic. Except Guthrie, who is Jewish for shock value. But I digress, Gen and I have been together for a week now, we'll see what other patterns this relationship follows.

Hope everyone had a great Too Much Food Day!

"Geiss is sending signals about retirement, about succession." "By talking about sex in a sailing magazine?" "That's exactly how Margaret Thatcher did it."

but our line lengths were syncing up and it would have broken the pattern.

Gen and I had a haiku battle:

Pinball jedi 42 (9:58:13 PM): No one taught me the
right way to write a haiku
This last line has too many syllables
"Gen" (9:58:31 PM): refrigerator
"Gen" (9:59:14 PM): yes it does indeed
your haiku has too many
"Gen" (9:59:19 PM): syllables, marten
Pinball jedi 42 (9:59:27 PM): Oh, are we going
"Gen" (9:59:49 PM): hahahahaha
"Gen" (9:59:50 PM): you lose
Pinball jedi 42 (9:59:47 PM): to communicate using
"Gen" (10:00:06 PM): only the Haiku?
"Gen" (10:00:08 PM): yes
Pinball jedi 42 (10:00:13 PM): now why would you go
Pinball jedi 42 (10:00:22 PM): and steal my last line before
Pinball jedi 42 (10:00:31 PM): I could finish it?
"Gen" (10:00:42 PM): you could write the thing?
"Gen" (10:00:45 PM): :-D
"Gen" (10:00:54 PM): i was going to say "you wrote the fucker"
Pinball jedi 42 (10:01:04 PM): That would be funny
Pinball jedi 42 (10:01:14 PM): you should have done it instead
"Gen" (10:01:39 PM): of that other one
"Gen" (10:02:02 PM): if i finish off
Pinball jedi 42 (10:02:04 PM): thanks, I was having
some trouble finishing it
"Gen" (10:02:13 PM): all of your damn-ed haikus
"Gen" (10:02:29 PM): pinball wizard, man
Pinball jedi 42 (10:02:51 PM): my last lines are bad
"Gen" (10:03:15 PM): no shitskies, sherlock
"Gen" (10:03:35 PM): well, back to ignoring da
"Gen" (10:03:41 PM): homeworking thingies
"Gen" (10:04:04 PM): the key to it all
"Gen" (10:04:11 PM): is inventing shittons of new words
Pinball jedi 42 (10:04:02 PM): how can you go back
to something that you aren't
Pinball jedi 42 (10:04:05 PM): actually doing?
"Gen" (10:04:54 PM): ignoring is key
when you're writing shit fanfic
about Gattaca
"Gen" (10:05:04 PM): ^_^
Pinball jedi 42 (10:05:09 PM): You and your fanfic
Pinball jedi 42 (10:05:16 PM): always ruining my fun
Pinball jedi 42 (10:05:24 PM): now I will be bored
"Gen" (10:05:41 PM): now i'm going to
be speaking in damn haiku
all fucking night long
"Gen" (10:06:22 PM): thanks a lot, marten
p.s. i forgot to put in
a new pot ad... oops
Pinball jedi 42 (10:06:17 PM): it's tough to stop it
once you've got the hang of it
Pinball jedi 42 (10:06:24 PM): I'm getting better
"Gen" (10:07:00 PM): it's like iambic lines
in the pent of ameter
in english classes
"Gen" (10:07:04 PM): :-D
"Gen" (10:07:27 PM): i think i just won
with that last haiku right there
*quits while is ahead*
Pinball jedi 42 (10:07:41 PM): I'm bad at speaking
in a shakespearean tongue
I use my fingers
"Gen" (10:08:14 PM): "Le oiseau parle avec ses doigts... numeros cinq, six, dix"
Pinball jedi 42 (10:08:39 PM): That is cheating
other languages are lame
you should not use them
"Gen" (10:09:20 PM): well that's all good then
because it wasn't really haiku
just a random quote
"Gen" (10:09:47 PM): from some stupid film
i had to watch in french class
which makes me throw up
Pinball jedi 42 (10:10:14 PM): I do not know french
well enough to have noticed
you shouldn't have said
"Gen" (10:10:30 PM): .........
"Gen" (10:11:12 PM): that just made no sense
oh marten the linky one
i quit, okay? yeesh
"Gen" (10:11:35 PM): oh god i really do quit... i just called you the linky one to make my syllables fit
"Gen" (10:11:47 PM): my brain exploded
Pinball jedi 42 (10:11:41 PM): hey, I can be link
"Gen" (10:12:03 PM): but only if i'm the sheik
"Gen" (10:12:12 PM): and marten's a sage
Pinball jedi 42 (10:12:05 PM): we fit the parts well
"Gen" (10:12:27 PM): yes, we definitely do
"Gen" (10:12:31 PM): no doubt about that
"Gen" (10:12:40 PM): I KICK ASS AT HAIKU
"Gen" (10:12:43 PM): refrigerator
Pinball jedi 42 (10:12:52 PM): I like this game much
Pinball jedi 42 (10:13:09 PM): we needs must play more often
Pinball jedi 42 (10:13:17 PM): I need more practice
"Gen" (10:13:49 PM): don't you mean "must needs"?
that's way better english, marten...
ugh, i'm so tired
Pinball jedi 42 (10:14:28 PM): I'm not the major
So I wouldn't really know
you grammar nazi
Pinball jedi 42 (10:15:05 PM): no offense was meant,
I just needed syllables
you know my last lines
"Gen" (10:15:25 PM): yes, they all sucketh
Pinball jedi 42 (10:16:49 PM): can I really be that bad?
"Gen" (10:17:38 PM): eh... they're just boring
"Gen" (10:18:05 PM): this whole haiku thing
reminds me of XKCD
their lines syncing up
Pinball jedi 42 (10:18:11 PM): its a metaphor
Pinball jedi 42 (10:19:01 PM): for how often I startsomething
"Gen" (10:19:11 PM): wow this haiku took awhile
i'll finish this one
"Gen" (10:19:17 PM): damn! i missed it
Pinball jedi 42 (10:19:11 PM): but do not finish
"Gen" (10:19:58 PM): bwahahahaha
you mean like promising me
pot ads you don't do?
Pinball jedi 42 (10:20:42 PM): unfortunately
"Gen" (10:21:42 PM): THAT WORD IS THREE SYLLABLES
"Gen" (10:21:49 PM): or perhaps it's four?
"Gen" (10:21:58 PM): oh no wait it's five
"Gen" (10:22:10 PM): i miscounted... forgive me
Pinball jedi 42 (10:22:07 PM): how could you doubt me?
"Gen" (10:22:32 PM): *headdesk* NO MORE PLEASE
Pinball jedi 42 (10:22:56 PM): but gen, it's so much fun, now
"Gen" (10:23:08 PM): i'm signing off now
no really i'm going to
Pinball jedi 42 (10:23:06 PM): okay, I'll stop
"Gen" (10:23:18 PM): :-D
"Gen" (10:23:48 PM): well, that was the longest IM war since me and my friend ben spoke exclusively in asterisks
Pinball jedi 42 (10:23:59 PM): how did you manage that?
"Gen" (10:24:37 PM): *demonstrates*
Pinball jedi 42 (10:25:03 PM): ah
Pinball jedi 42 (10:25:20 PM): haiku is more fun
"Gen" (10:25:37 PM): *hates*
Pinball jedi 42 (10:25:31 PM): that was unintentional
"Gen" (10:25:47 PM): *takes way less time to type things in*
Pinball jedi 42 (10:25:44 PM): at first, anyway
"Gen" (10:25:58 PM): .......

I'd have separated by haiku, but they didn't always sync up. It was awesome anyway.

We need a new template. Maybe an office quote. But I'm really tired of the chicken one. Mostly because I wasn't there.

I'm watching TV on the Internet on a TV!

Okay, I'm going to take a page out of Michael's book and post a Christmas list of my own. Now, I know he traditionally asks for unfeasible and expensive things, but I thought I'd request something a little more affordable. I know 625$ seems like a lot for a sword and shield, but it's really for the greater good. I'm sure that if you all pitch in, I'll be able to save Hyrule by new years. At least I'm not asking for a monorail.

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

I guess I'll keep walking

Sheesh. Cabaret is over, and I'm still living on a weekly basis. Oh, the show went well, but it went well so many times that I really got sick of watching it. I'll post my review when I get it back from Shirley and make it suck less. Right now I'm waiting for my professor to tell me why my code doesn't work. He's pretty good about answering his emails very quickly. heh, computer science department uses the technological resources. go figure.
Halloween was pretty awesome, up until everything that I put off to make a kick-ass costume caught up with me. Still, I had a great day dressed as Link. The only thing that wasn't perfect was my hair, because I got it cut over fall break for some reason. I've got some pictures of the gear that I took with my video camera after I discovered I could do that, but pics of the everything else must wait until Gen posts them on facebook. She dressed as Sheik; that's what inspired me in the first place. Note the hookshot. It is nifty.

I have (perhaps foolishly ) agreed to do a holiday show for Ansley, my theatre professor and advisor. It's very difficult to say no to this guy. The rehearsals are fun, the songs are easy, and I suppose I'm making good connections, but it's just a bitch to drive out to Medina every night for the rest of this month and also have papers and programs to write and multiple jobs to do. The show is the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, so my family is coming up here and I'm going to cook. I'm rather excited about that bit.
Hm. Sad for as busy as I've been, that's pretty much all I can say about it.
This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

I write only for Fame, without any view to Pecuniary Emolument.

First Bronteana, now Austenblog, next... The World.

Last Friday the one-woman show "Cheer from Chawton," which is about the life and writings of Jane Austen and has traveled all over the US and England (including at the Jane Austen Festival in Bath) came to Hanover. The woman who does it, Karen Eterovich, is friends with Jim, one of our theatre professors. My official stand on this show last year was "YOU HAVE TO BRING HER HERE!" When I found out over the summer that they had followed my advice, I immediately emailed Jim and asked to be involved in some way-- setting up chairs or running tech or anything at all. What I ended up getting to do was participate in the show as Jane Austen's niece, Fanny Knight. I gave her a few cue lines, like "Item Five. I want to know about Tom Lefroy." It was FANTASTIC, a wonderful experience. Karen Eterovich was so, so nice, and I was being all fangirly. She gave a period comedy workshop that morning, too, which I skipped raquetball to attend, and it was sooo worth it.

Anyway, I sent a review of the show to Austenblog, which is pretty much one of the top two Jane Austen sites on the internet, and the number one place for Jane In The News. And today, my review is on Austenblog! And the Editrix sent me a nice email back saying, "What a wonderful review, Erin! Thanks so much for sending it! I've posted it on the blog. Maybe it will come to an area near me...I hope so!" Yay!!

In other news, yesterday was Halloween. During the day it was medieval costume day, so I went around in a dress I got at the theatre costume sale and looked pretty. That evening there was a Halloween costume party at the school president's house, because she is awesome, and the majority of the girls in my house were going in a group as Harry Potter characters. I have a presentation today, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to go, so I didn't sign up. But last night after dinner I was told that I should go as Fleur Delacour, so I did. I happened to have a light blue track suit, and I printed out the Beauxbatons crest from the internet and taped it on, and wore a blue shirt underneath. I parted my hair on the side (where it is still stuck) and ponytailed it and I was good to go. We were a terriffic group. We had all of the main characters, and a few guy friends who went as Arthur Weasley, Fred and George Weasley, Mad Eye Moody, and Hagrid. Mad Eye and Hagrid looked particularly awesome. My friend Marietta was a terriffic Bellatrix Lestrange-- she had a great costume, she sprayed a white streak into her hair, and she had a fake Dark Mark tattoo. And my friend Emily was an awesome Tonks. She actually dyed her hair pinkish-purple just for last night, and she looked badass. Bethany was the least Asian Cho Chang ever. I can't wait to see these pictures on Facebook. I hope mine turn out, but the majority of them probably won't because I don't have a digital camera. Sigh.

The party was a lot of fun. We got to go all through the president's house, and it is HUGE. It has three floors, about nine bedrooms, a huge kitchen, and a library.

Also, yesterday was my last day playing raquetball, and Friday is the last day of raquetball class, in which we are just doing evaluations. HOORAY! I made it through without dying or being seriously wounded and now it is OVER! I still suck, but anyone who makes it through raquetball class unscathed and with her last PE credit is a winner, I think.

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

Life seems nothing more than a quick succession of busy nothings.

Wow. This is actually the first time since school started that I've had enough breathing time to actually post here. I mean, there are things to do (always with the things to do!), but none of them are pressing. And I'm sure I have something worth posting about. Definitely. Um.

Well, I was in Oedipus Rex, which was fun, if sometimes frustrating. I was Tiresias, the blind prophet, and also I was Attendant Number Two. This means that I got to look pretty, be Jocasta's handmaiden, and hang out with the girls who played Antigone and Ismene, who were adorable.

Now I'm in (sort of) a traveling one-woman show which has come to Hanover called "Cheer from Chawton." The performance is tomorrow. It's the creation of a woman named Karen Eterovich, and we're so lucky to get her here. She spends the show portraying Jane Austen, and she does a spectacular job, reciting excerpts from some of Jane Austen's lesser known works like my favorite bit of Juvenilia, "Henry and Eliza." I am playing her niece, Fanny Knight. I give her four cue lines. It's a lot of fun. I met her (Karen Eterovich) tonight, and she was very, very nice, not to mention very talented.

I'm working on my IS, which has me feeling a bit in over my head. I feel like I'll never get organized enough to make it coherent, but I will, because I will have to. All of my other classes are good, except for raquetball-- which is horrendous and I can't believe I have to go seven more times (well, six, because I'm skipping tomorrow)-- and Mark Twain-- which frustrates me because our professor is so cynical all the time. YES, SOMETIMES THINGS ARE HAPPY! JUST LET IT BE HAPPY, DAMMIT! It's in this anthology because it's FUNNY, not because it's some kind of crisis of identity! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Stage Combat is awesome. It is the only class in the world worth getting up at 7 am for. And... I think that's about it. Whoo!



This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

The House of Carpenter

The Carpenter family is not at all what I expected. Not sure if it's better or worse, really just that it's weirder. But considering the family I come from, I guess weirder is better.
When I left on Saturday to spend a weekend with my girlfriend's family, I assumed I would have to win the approval of three people: her mother, Carmen, her father, Nathan (who I will refer to as Mr. Carpenter to avoid confusion), and her little sister Krissy. I quickly discovered that I had left out five members of the family: Peter, Kylie's favorite cousin who is living with her immediate family while he tries to get a job in DC, Zinzi, the poodle, and Xena, Mercatroid, and Michiko, the three current cats (in order of seniority.)
And, yes, the opinion of the cats' is important. This family revolves around its cats. They obsess over them. (Except for Mr. Carpenter. He appears as baffled by this as I am, although he has kind of gotten use to it.) I don't mean they buy them lots of stuff or anything, they just... really like them. And talk about them a lot. Actually a favorite topic of conversation between Kylie and her mother is the rather complex politics of the relationships among the three cats and the dog.
The dog is wonderful. She is almost the perfect dog, in my opinion: exactly the right size, friendly but not too friendly, and she's fluffy and fun to pet. And she almost never barks. She does have a tendency to bring everyone presents, including her favorite stuffed toys, which resulted in the very funny Kylie quote "Nobody wants your octopus, Xena,"
The cats are... cats. I'm rather allegic to them, but my meds seem to be keeping that at bay for now. The most interesting thing is that Michi, the crocodile cat, the biter that Kylie has been warning me about for weeks, has taken a serious liking to me. She jumps up on my chair and cuddles with me. Apparently she doesn't do this for anyone else. Anyway, I find her adorable.
So that's two votes of confidence for me. The third actually comes from Krissy. Krissy is a strange girl. She's very sarcastic and somewhat pessimistic, but that's understandable considering her medical situation. When you take into account everything she's been through in the past couple of years, she seems downright cheerful. Anyway, she and Kylie pretend to have this antagonism, but they really love each other, and they're a lot more alike than either will admit, and I think they really do miss each other when Kylie's at college. She definitely approves of me, though, and she and I have gotten along fabulously. And she's a fantastic cook.
Peter is pretty cool. He just graduated from Taylor University, and to be honest, he reminds me of someone else at Taylor who many of you probably know. Like him, he is a fairly conservative Christian who is probably in the closet. In fact, I would be willing to bet money on it. He's very funny. Kylie and I went hiking with him today and had a wonderful time.
I do not think Mr. Carpenter likes me very much. Or rather, I think he likes me, but not the idea of me. Mr. Carpenter is an engineer. He does not take a lot of risks. He calculates things. I don't think his calculations come up favorably if his daughter is dating a theatre major. But he could come around. He's a big sci-fi fan, and we've had some good geek-talk, he and I.
Kylie's mother is... something else. If you ever wondered where Kylie got her attention span and her spaciness, well, that's where. And she talks about the most random things. Like exploding woodland creatures. And "those novels with the romantic sex". She listens to lots of pop music, but relies on Krissy to remember which groups she likes. This morning I listened to Krissy explain to her, at her bequest, the meaning, line by line, of "Holla back girl". Yeah.
So, that's the Carpenter clan. They've been more fun than I imagined, and they've treated me to some excellent food. I'm still awaiting their verdict on me, but my verdict on them is pretty much positive. I could come to love this family.
I'd definitely need allergy shots first, though.

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

FREE BIRD

If there was ever a night to blog about it was this one. Nathan and I played a show at Common Grounds tonight, I on guitar and Nate on harmonica. We played all of the songs we wrote over the summer, including an emo song about data, a country song about global warming, the more-or-less self-explanatory "Writing a Paper," and an obscure but hilarious to a select few "Ode to Zeno." The latter was my favorite of the night, because 5 people laughed hysterically the whole time while the other 20 or so stared blankly. I think this is the mark of perfect nerdcore. (Nathan and I define ourselves as Acoustic Folk Nerdcore, though because I only downstrum my guitar, Ryan suggested we make that Punk Acoustic Folk Nerdcore, which I think is decently close to our sound.)
We need to work on our endings, because people seemed not to know when to clap. Maybe its a coffee house thing. In any event, some people yelled freebird and we decided to actually play it, after working on it for roughly twice. It went ok for a while, Nathan owned the guitar solos on his harmonica, I barely passed off the vocal solos, but then when we ran out of lyrics we just kept jamming. And we couldn't stop because, well, its free bird. So eventually I took the reigns and made it sketch comedy. The following exchange (stenographed by Marten, to Michael) took place:

Me: "NATHAN! I dont know how freebird ends!"
Nathan: "It doesnt end, you have to play forever!"
Me: "maybe if I play fast enough, smoke will come out of the guitar and set off the fire alarms!"
Me (one chorus later): "I got it, I gave blood today! I'll just pretend to pass out"

So I did. And it was amusing, and we got many applause and yells of "finish it" which I might have entertained, had the skin on my thumb not been totally gone. But I exaggerate. Nonetheless, it was an amazing time for me. I can't wait for the next one.

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

...I guess. If you like your women with their skeletons on the inside.

Before I go on, I found this interesting. Michael might not, I don't know. It's a realization about the Wii's Mii avatars that has interesting social implications. click it if you feel like clicking it.

I have been quite busy for the past forever, between working my week and a half off before school, then finding as many jobs as I could handle once I got to school and actual classwork. As of now, I am taping field hockey games and putting them on dvds for the athletic dept., working in the scene shop some odd hours every week, hosting prospies whenever we get them, and hopefully I'll be editing at least one pot every week. Meanwhile, Arby's still hasn't sent me my last check from 2 weeks ago, and I have only half of my text books and no money. luckily, David's combination of being a generally agreeable guy and rich-kid-guilt gets me the computer programming book whenever there's homework, and Ansley rarely actually makes us read the books he requires for his classes. Oh, I forgot to complain about being the inventory manager for Common Grounds, which means I put in orders or buy the things that we run out of. Theoretically the college reimburses me for the things I have to buy. Unfortunately, our current treasurer seems to be incompetent, and it doesn't help that her voice makes my brain sort of wiggle around in my skull.

By the way, Mary broke up with me the other night, something about being unsure of how she felt. I guess pretty much the same reason I broke up with Kaylee so long ago, but I could have sworn that karma already got me for that. Maybe since no one's broken up with me online yet. Oh well. I'm not angry at her, and I'm glad that she told me face to face, but I am sort of angry in general. I'm also slightly frightened of the rebound possibilities.

One nice thing is that right after it, I went home, got my swords, came down stairs and dueled with Sarah. In minutes, every weapon we had built and covered was taken by some employee or customer of Common Grounds. This is very encouraging.

As busy as I am, I decided to drop out of both Round of Monkeys and Merry Kuween of Skots. I may come to regret this, but right now I'd rather have the occasional time off. I've also started updating skewed to the left, though I think I might start with two updates a week until I get into my stride again.

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

The Story of an Ear

So I wrote in my last post that I had gotten my ear pierced. And for six glorious days and two agonizing ones that was the case. But alas it was not to be. On Sunday night Kylie noticed my ear was beginning to swell. On Monday the doctor told me it was infected. This morning the doctor cut it out with a scalpel.
Yes, that's right. my piercing didn't just get infected - it got so infected that the earring had to be surgically removed. What happened was this. The earlobe became so swollen it swallowed up the stud and as I slept new skin grew over it. When I awoke my ear was enormous, red, and devoid of any sign of the piece of gold concealed within. So there was nothing for it but to give me a localized anesthetic and operate. I haven't decided whether or not to try again when this heals up. My gut (and my ear) is telling me no. Maybe next time I'm feeling rebellious I'll just get a nice tattoo instead.
The rest of my first week is going pretty well. I'm very worried about Russian, because learning a whole new alphabet is harder than I thought it would be. I have friends to help me along though so I'm sure I'll be ok. I'm still figuring out how busy my schedule is going to be - hopefully I'll know by tomorrow if I have a better job or if I'll have to be working at Java Hut again.

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

Some people are heroes. And some people jot down notes.

Guys, guess what? My review of the new Thursday Next book is going to be in the Star on Sunday! It's in the Indy Sunday section on page 24 at the bottom right. And it is pretty! My Aunt Barbara brought copies around last night.

It will also be on indystar.com for those of you currently living out of state who might want to see it.

Yay!

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

Errata

So Gen-Con was pretty much awesome. For Michael's sake I won't go too much into detail, but suffice it to say I played the second best 6 hours of D & D of my life (as an evil Drow priestess no less), discovered an awesome Star Was game, jammed on harmonica with a Celtic guitar and fiddle player, and spent roughly a third of my savings. But it was worth it. So worth it.
I also talked to a number of industry insiders (including the inventor of Fluxx) about the steps I should take if I'm looking for a career in gaming (a path I am seriously considering at this point.) and got some numbers to call and websites to visit in hopes of getting an internship with a game company over the summer. Cause that would seriously rock.
I go back to school Saturday. I'm almost completely packed and so ready to go it's ridiculous. I could leave tomorrow. I want to. I miss everyone and I'm bored.
That being said, it has been nice to see you all this summer (although some of you I would have liked to see more of.) I am ready to be with my college friends now though.
I failed to get a driver's license. This is not entirely my fault, as I had to cancel my scheduled test because there was no car for me to take it in. And then there were no openings this week. So now I have to get my permit renewed and go through much bureaucracy. But such is life. I'm used to it by now.
I went to see Stardust with my parents. No, I had not read the book. But, I'd like to encourage all of you to see this movie. Cause it's awesome. Unfortunately, in order to enumerate all the ways in which it is awesome I would have to give away many good surprises, so I will not. However, I have seen many movies this year, many of which I was looking forward to, and I have to say this one was the most fun. And it might just be a perfect date movie, if any of you are looking to go on a date and need a movie.
One more thing - I got my ear pierced. My left one, if anyone is interested. I think it looks kind of sexy. But I keep reaching up and feeling it and thinking it's a big zit.
This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaaay.

MY COMPUTER IS WORKING AGAIN! HUZZAH!

That's... really all I had to say, actually. The computer guy came yesterday, and he worked for a little more than an hour, and he fixed it. He is my new best friend.

Oh! A tree fell down on our street yesterday. For no apparent reason, other than that I guess it had been weakened by the storms from the day before. It almost hit our mailbox, but instead it just hit street. It blocked the whole thing for a while. Our neighbor, an old guy who had a quadruple bypass less than a year ago tried to get rid of it himself, and my dad had to send me up to sit with the computer guy so that he could go stop him. A few hours later, the tree-removing people came, and it's gone now.

Look how well my computer is working. I've started backing up all of my icon bases and pictures onto photobucket, and from now on I'm emailing every draft of everything I type to myself. Computers may come and go, the internets are forever. This is my new motto. When this whole thing happened, I was halfway through watching North and South, which I was downloading an episode at a time. Now I'm afraid to do that anymore, so I'm going to have to wait till school starts to finish watching it on Whitney's computer.

Yeah, that's bascially it. I just wanted to celebrate my computer's second lease on life with a blog post.

"There are so many people I have to thank for this repair! First of all, my computer, because I couldn't have done it without her. The computer repair guy, because that job is harder than it looks. And also, because of my dad, too. And finally, I want to thank God. Because God got rid of that virus. And I feel God in this computer tonight. WHOOOOOOOOO!"

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

I totally no longer have so much a title scheme, and to be perfectly honest, I hardly remember anyone else's

I have returned to Wooster, and it's lovely. I have a moving in story to (nearly) match Michael's.
As most of you know, I'm living in a double with Marten in a house which is also a coffee shop called Common Grounds. Over the summer, the Ohio Light Opera uses this building (Gable House, which, during the summer, is not a coffee shop) to house some of its people. Because Ohio Light Opera folks allegedly break and/or steal things, we keep all of the Common Grounds property in an upstairs room. Last year, at random, room 204 was selected.
Flash forward to about a week ago this summer, when Mike, the first resident to move in, arrives. It just so happens Mike's assigned room is 204. Thinking that its not his responsibility to move all the house stuff dowstairs, he decides to temporarily move into 201. Flash forward to Friday, when I arrived to move into my assigned room - 201. (After, of course, finding out that my new band director had some how failed to put me on the early move-in list and Res Life had not finished cleaning it.) Now I have to point out that out of all the rooms on the floor we could have chosen, we managed to pick, twice in a row, exactly the wrong ones.
I'm pleased to report that the buck stopped there. Along with Nick (Mike's roommate) and the other Mike (Mike1 had not returned from some kind of trip) my father and I moved all the house stuff into the living room, all Mike's stuff into his room, and all Marten and my stuff into our room. I effectively moved in three times. Currently my room is in a state of half-unpackedness, waiting for Marten's arrival before I put anything into the desks that still need to be moved. I also have a Playstation without a power chord and a television and fridge I can't plug in without an extension chord.
Luckily I've had virtually no time in my room since I've been hard at work training to be a rank leader. In the end I made Asst. Rank Leader, which I can live with since I get to do the same stuff and I get a shiny broach.

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

Naturally, all the new readers were delighted at what happened—so much so that people with the name of Wickham have had to go into hiding.”

So... on Friday my computer got a virus. And it wouldn't go away, and I was starting to get very fretted about it. But I just tried to fix it again, and this time-- the third or fourth time we've done this exact same thing, mind you-- it seems to have gone away. I am tentatively thrilled, my joy being tempered by the idea that maybe it's just lulling me into a false sense of security. The result is that I'm now afraid to turn off my computer. Ever, ever again. So, if you don't hear from me for a while, it may mean that I have turned the computer off and the virus came back and ate it.

ETA: RAAAA! Let there be weeping and gnashing of teeth throughout the land. I now know how that guy felt when his OX was BROKEN.

Yesterday I had a great time with my mom and my aunt Barbara, going to the art museum and walking around in the gardens there. If I ever decide to film an amateur Austen or Bronte movie, all of my exteriors will be illegally filmed at the IMA and Lilly House grounds. It's so pretty. I also went back to the fair with my mom, which was fun. I got to see the bunnies and the other things I didn't when I went with Comstocks et. al.

I have seen Becoming Jane, but I think you all know about my experience there by now. It was fun.

Now, an amusing anecdote. For the past two years my mini refrigerator has been living in the basement here at home, because sophomore year my pod had a fridge, and junior year my roommate provided the fridge. This year, I am taking my mini refrigerator back to school with me, for the following very logical reasons: 1) It is mine, because 2) I bought it, 3) with my own money, and 4) I have need of it at school, and 5) that is its intended purpose.

Well, my brother has been storing soft drinks in there, mostly for when his friends come over. Earlier this week he found out that I was reclaiming the fridge, and this exchange took place between him and my mother: "WHAT?! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" "Yes, it is, it's her fridge." "NO, IT'S NOT!" "She bought it with her own money." "BUT I'M THE ONE WHO USES IT!" "Well, now she needs it. You should be thanking her for letting you use it this long." "NO WAY! SHE'S NOT TAKING IT!" "Yes, she is." "BUT I NEED IT!" "You can bring drinks down there in the cooler." "IT'S TOO SMALL!" "Then you can buy your own fridge." "NO! SHE NEEDS TO BUY A NEW ONE!"

It was at this point that I almost started laughing, but luckily I managed to forbear. He has since asked for a fridge as a reward for passing his junior year of high school; the request has been refused.

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

Do you even want teaching? DO YOU JUST WANT TO SHOOT THINGS?

I've been reading the archives, again. We used to be small. We used to be in high school. Thomas used to post. Lara used to be on the blog. Remember the blog wars? The first one was when I thought Nate's posts were lame, and the second one was when Erin thought Michael posted to too frequently. A pity what happened because of the second one, the first Michael post in the archives is the one he posted when he left, all previous were deleted. Then he posted links to What Kind of Day has it Been, which you can't read because a while later he gave it to Jonah, who changed the name. Someone else started a blog called What King of Day has it Been that those links now go to, some girl named Harriet C Dufresnes who hasn't posted there since her first in March 2005. Jonah commented on that at 6:24 of an unknown date because blogger comment records are lame. You know, Erin is a real bad ass when she gets her literature on. I like how Jonah pointed out Michael's niche, and I decided he was bun-bun without the switchblade. I've read the beginnings of Jonah's journey through journalism and the beginnings of Nathan's adventures with Ashley, not to mention my own place in our scattered group, separated by district lines. I've just been reminiscing a lot, for some reason. I really want to go home and see everyone. I'm sad that I won't get to see Thomas because he is in St. Louis. Remember when we had to make rules about the template thing? Wow. We are a volatile yet diplomatic bunch. Is it strange that a very important part of my life occurred on the internet? I love all of you, and I love this blog. There were 100 posts that November of 2003. Now we hardly get more than 10 a month. I guess the compendium's purpose changes from time to time. I miss Jonah's celebration posts, but I suppose it would be odd if he did another one. I'll see everyone in a week. It would be cool if I could see everyone at the same time.

This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

The New Jonah Comstock

So I have made a decision. The old Jonah Comstock, he of the clashing plaids and shock value, is on his way out. It's time to start phasing in my new style, my college style, the Jonah Comstock people can take seriously. From now on I buy clothes that are distinctive, but not insane. I'll keep shopping Goodwill, but only on the lookout for really good clothes. In addition I'm going to consider other consignment stores and even department stores. I'm keeping the vests, and the plaids, but it'll be one plaid per outfit except on special occasions.
I'm not selling out, but its time to redefine myself as an adult person, and make some compromises with the world. Of course I don't have the funds to do this in one fell swoop nor would I want to. Instead I'm phasing out my old clothes, gradually buying new things and trading out the craziest of the old, returning them to the Goodwill from whence they came.
This doesn't mean people can't still buy me silly things, though I would prefer distinctive but not insane. I know this new me will make some people sad, but I also know that it will make many people happy (my father for instance). Know that it is done for the lofty goal of making me even sexier than I am.
This is not Bring Your Chicken to Work Day!

Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!

I just got back from my family vacation in North Carolina. It was originally intended to be a family reunion with some of my mom's family, which it still was, only my Aunt Carol and her family couldn't come because of IPS changing it's school schedule-- my uncle teaches there. Anyway, it was my grandparents, my mom, my Aunt Barbara, and my brother and me; and also my mom's cousins, Laurie and Leslie, their parents, and Laurie's husband and two kids, who are five and two and a lot of fun.

Basically, we went to the beach every day, and I like the ocean but I do find that gets boring after a while, especially if there's no one your own age to hang out with. There was a nice pool with a slide that was a lot of fun, as well. I got approximately 1,000,005 bug bites, so here's hoping I don't end up with West Nile virus. One night my entire nuclear family went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I was the person in charge of answering all their questions afterward, because as it turns out I was right about it leaving huge plot gaps for people who've never read the book. One night we ordered pizza and everybody just hung out together exchanging stories about their childhoods and their kids; that was probably my favorite night. There was also the night that the boys had an amazing come-from-behind victory over the girls in Trivial Pursuit, but we're not going to talk about that.

Near Atlantic Beach, where we stayed, is the town of Beaufort, which has lots of cool pirate stuff because Blackbeard lived there for a while and his ship, The Queen Anne's Revenge, is sunk somewhere off the coast. They have stuff from it in the Maritime Museum there. We went on a pirate tour-- and it looks like such a fun, geeky job, leading the pirate tour-- and saw Blackbeard's house, which has a secret underground getaway. It's also where he murdered his 13th wife and the boy who was trying to help her escape. There's a 300-year-old cemetery in Beaufort, and we walked through that, too. That was really cool. I saw a tree growing up over/between two graves of what looked to have been a husband and wife.

And yes, I did read Harry Potter; for my full thoughts on it you can go to my lj, where I have posted them. I also posted my Harry Potter recaps there, since the Star couldn't use them after all. This pissed me off at first, but I'm over it now.

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

A mild disturbance in the Force... As if one - no, maybe two voices gasped in mild surprise, shrugged, and moved on!

I found a new comic. It's pretty clever so far, with a couple weird points.

My tenure with the Ohio Light Opera is almost up; I'm coming home in a couple weeks. I've learned a lot about myself, working my ass off for the past few months, but I was so exhausted that by the time I got a full nights sleep after we started rep, I forgot it. Seriously, though, I didn't realize how much I liked to control things, and how well I didn't work with others. Maybe I just felt I had something to prove. I'm told I'm a good carpenter, which makes me feel good, but I don't want to carpent at this pace again. If I come back, it will be management, props, or perhaps even singing. I've done my last load of laundry, and hopefully my last grocery trip. We get two more days of Lowry lunches, so I've been stocking up on their cookies. After next week, we strike after the last performance of each show, then clear everything out on Sunday the 12. Special thanks the Gen Pecharka and Sarah Gollwitzer for movies, wal-mart trips, and generally preventing massive amounts of boredom.

I don't think I can afford to go to GenCon. Less for entry purposes, more for lack of money to spend there, because if I went, I'd spend a lot. Standing Stone and my new computer took a lot of my wallet, and I still need my last paycheck for books.

Next summer I might go to Alaska with Lina and Kiel. That's pretty much all I know.

Nate, I've been catching up on CoM. It's good.

I like italics.

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

Nathan's less than triumphant return to the blogosphere

So I haven't posted anything in about four months. There are several reasons for this. The main one seems to e that my life s divided into two types of time: time when I'm doing way to much and therefore have no time to blog, or time when I'm doing nothing and therefore have nothing to blog about.
Also I've been going through some things emotionally which have made a part of me want to kind of disconnect from all of you. From everyone really. But I'm over that now. It's nothing personal really. We all have our emo phases, I personally think mine corresponds directly to the length of my hair. I also kind of wanted to see how long it would take someone to notice my total lack of posting (answer: more than four months.) So, yeah, that didn't really help me get less emo. But I figure it's high time I posted anyhow.
After I gave up on getting a job, my goals this summer have become as follows:
1.Get a driver's license
2. Work out at least every other day
3. Arrange as much music as possible
4. Watch the entirety of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD

Number one I have not actually managed yet, but I'm working on it. I want to wait to take it again until I'm sure I'll pass. Number two is going quite well, and I'm seeing serious improvement in my physical strength and endurance. I think I'm almost average now. I have arranged two songs, am well on my way to finishing a third, and halfway through season six of Buffy.
I've also been helping my mother sell babies on the internet. It's not going so well. At this rate I doubt we'll turn much of a profit. If any of you are in need of realistic baby dolls or no anyone who might be, please let me know.

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

Wow! I was as unscrupulous an entrepeneur before I lost my memory as I am today!

I went home to turn 20, then I went to Tennessee, then I came back all too soon. My birthday was quick. Erin gave me a wooden dagger from Across the Pond. I'm pretty sure it's magic. My parents gave me a couple of comically chinese books and a card that played starwars when you opened it. I'm sure it was annoying to sign. Mary, in a distressingly adorable fashion, bought me the same thing I got for her, the Jurassic Park trilogy. I had just bought her present on amazon, and I guess she hadn't got it yet. The card I got from her also made noise. It was Michael Scott talking about reverse psychology, and it made me smile inside as only the office can. I don't know if I like being 20. It's kind of a lame age, really. I'm not a teenager, but I can't buy my own Guinness, which I have discovered is tasty. I've still got 3 bottles left from the six-pack my boss gave me for being a carpenter. Really the only basis I had for choosing it as my favorite six pack was that my dad had a bunch of t-shirts for it, and I didn't think my dad would by t-shirts that advertised a shitty beer. I had a decent time at Standing Stone. Didn't do that much at all, prepared my campaign a bit, watched some movies, boated, played some guitar, a bit of scrabble here and there and the obligatory trips to the dam and fish hatchery, followed by some actual fun at the lake. I spent a lot of my week pretty lethargically, though. I think it has something to do with having no weekends. or evenings, for that matter. I do not like being back at work. Finishing Duchess was terribly stressful, and people are getting more tense as we near another opening. I think my least favorite kind of person is the kind who thinks she is entitled to be cranky because she thinks she works more than you, or anyone else.

Happy day! Boss finally remembered to bring my Bailey's! I feel better now. I just hope I get off in time to enjoy a bit of it tonight.

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

Not being overburdened with subject (having nothing at all to say) I shall have no check to my Genius from beginning to end.

I greet you all on the eve of the Potterdämmerung.

I thought I'd do a post since I've actually gone out and done a couple of things recently, though none of them terribly interesting.

I went bathing suit shopping with my mom, and after going to some six or seven stores I discovered beyond a reasonable doubt that modesty does not exist in the juniors department. I didn't want a bikini, and so I came back with nothing. And my mom and I both hate to shop, so this majorly sucked.

On Saturday I was forced to go outside. Whether I liked it or not, I had been informed, I was going to my aunt's pool and I was going to sit out and I was going to get some sun. So I did. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I had sunglasses and plenty of reading material, which helped. I came away with no real visible change to my complexion except that my right arm, a spot on my left shoulder, and my right knee are sunburned. I did get a little sun, so for a few days I was probably not quie so luminous as usual, but since the burn on my arm has now faded to a tan, I'm guessing that all of that is gone now and I am as uniformly pale as ever.

On Sunday I went to a cousin's birthday party, which sucked more than usual. My recently divorced cousin Leslie brought her new boyfriend, and Kristen also brought her new boyfriend, and so I had no one to talk to and I was bored out of my mind. I actually went to the van, got out my book, and sat out on the porch and read it. I'm not usually driven to these lengths of rudeness.

Yesterday I had a dentist appointment and survived it. I always doubt whether I will come out of the dentist with all of my teeth intact (I'm always afraid that they will accidentally pull some of my teeth out, because my teeth are not strictly the most stable teeth in the world; they hate me), but I have done so once again and don't have to worry about it anymore for six months. Huzzah!

I have found out that my Harry Potter recaps will not be in the Star, but they will be online, though they do not appear to be there yet. And suddenly I am getting paid for them, which I was not expecting and which kind of makes up for the fact that I won't see them in print.

Today is Whitney's birthday, so I'm going over to her house later. I'm desperately trying to finish a chapter of Pemberley to be a makeshift birthday present; I won't jinx it by expressing any hopes.
(ETA: I AM THE CHAMPION OF THE WOOOORRRRLLLLD!)

Also, I have been reading Jane Austen's Letters, and it has affected my prose style, I'm discovering. Can you tell? I can.

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

Heave ho, thieves and beggars! Never shall we die!

Well, thankfully, my job hunt is over!

I spent most of June rereading Harry Potter like it was my job, because it kind of was. I told my aunt who works at the Star that I was reading them again in preparation for the new book (which was worthwhile in and of itself-- it was really interesting to see the story develop like that), and she told the book editor, who asked me to write recaps of each book for the Star. I didn't get paid, and I really had to buckle down and read fast, because the deadline was last Monday, but I did it. They may or may not get printed. Yay!

My aunt also got me my real job, which is a really sweet deal. Her friend Angela works at Hotel F&B magazine, which is a trade magazine for hotels and stuff, and she's having me go through the back issues online and convert them into a new template and fix their HTML and stuff. It's not hard, I work from home, and I'm getting paid more than I should. It's great. I went to the Chicago area for training last week, and Angela was really, really nice. We ate at a lot of nice places and watched some good movies-- The Queen and Possession. My room at her house (which is a lovely little house) had its own bathroom and its own computer with internet. Angela even rode the train to Union Station with me, and I rode a train from Union Station to Indianapolis by myself. It was a long trip-- an hour longer than it was supposed to be because we got stuck behind some freight trains-- but I still like train travel.

I have also recently seen Ocean's 13 with Whitney and Pirates again with my dad. And tonight I'm going to see Evan Almighty with Whitney and Bethany.

Also, I've started writing again, which feels really good. Several projects. I'm trying to finish all the fanfiction I'm in the middle of this summer so that I can shift my attention to more original work. I set deadlines for myself, and I'm only a little behind. I'm confident that I can catch up today. Fairly confident. Kind of.

That blog title got "Hoist the Colours" stuck in my head again. I like that song, but man, does it get stuck in my head easily.

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

I'm just bloggin' about my generation...

I've been here for almost a month, and my schedule has taken shape: work, sleep. It's a slight exaggeration, but only slight. I do have some free time, I'm going to start updating skewed to the left with varying degrees of regularity using ms paint instead of drawing; thats the beauty of stick figure comics. Some people I'll be working with next year at common grounds are here for research things, so I've spent a bit of time with them. I've also found time to start working on a D&D campaign. Preview: it's on the moon.
Work is a dangerous place; we lost two carpenters when Sean lopped off the ends of a couple digits with the table saw and his practically wife went with him for rehabish things, and today I "starfished" my thumb. That's when you're screwing with a phillip's head* and the gun skips off the screw and jabs you in the hand, leaving an imprint that looks like a starfish (when it's not bleeding anymore) and hurting like hell. Only, when I did it, it was more like a shell fish of some kind, because I got the corner of my thumbnail and split it. It's sort of useless for tight gripping and theres a constant dull throb, but when it happened it hurt so much it made me nauseous. I was out of commission for about an hour and I still feel really annoyed that something that tiny could make me useless. definitely not looking forward to my nail falling off in a couple weeks.
Aside from that things have been going pretty good. The first week and a half was hell, but now that I'm not screwing up so often, and have actually finished a handful of projects on my own, I get a nice feeling from looking back at some cool stuff and being able to say "I built that." I need a camera to start a portfolio of work or something, you never know what I can use.
Today we actually got out at around 4:45, half way through dinner we got a call telling us the power was out in the theatre because of the awesome thunderstorm we had today. I've been reading the DM's guide and preparing some things, stringed my guitar, and have no solid plans for tonight. subject to change. I'm looking forward to standing stone in July, and I'll see everyone back home in August.

*there's really no good way to say this

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

On Sunday of this week I was unemployed.
On Monday I had a terrific prospect.
On Tuesday I had an interview scheduled.
On Wednesday I had a job offer.
This morning, I'm back to square one.

I decided to pass up what might well turn out to be the best job offer of my summer. But I feel like I made the right choice.
The job opportunity came to me at an open house for a friend. A man there was executive director of a camp called Jameson Camp. We talked, I e-mailed in an application, they called, I went in for an interview, and I left feeling really excited about being a camp counselor, despite that I would have only two days off a week, and be working 24 hours otherwise, starting tomorrow (today).
However, in the car on the way home I started to cry, and from there on out the most difficult decision-making process I can remember began.
The factors were powerful on both sides - CPR and First-Aid training, a chance to work with kids as a performing arts counselor, a good work experience. And on the other hand, missing out on seeing some friends, on Levi, on the Canadians, on Standing Stone, and on a lot of time with Saralyn that I could get with a nine to five job.
I went back and forth all day and finally, at 11:30 at night, after an emotional conversation with Saralyn and another with my parents, I called and said yes.
And then I started to feel like I'd made the wrong choice.
I packed my bags, did all the paperwork, did nearly everything to get ready, but I just couldn't get excited about the job. All I could feel was dread and anxiety. Finally I asked my dad to pray with me for guidance and clarity.
And then I knew I had to call back and turn it down. Before I started down the wrong path. They needed a counselor and I needed a job, and everything about it made sense. But that didn't make it right. So I followed my heart on this one.
I don't think its a total loss. Now that I've given up on this I really feel like I'm not going to waste my summer. I'm going to get a job, learn to drive, and make some plans.
I feel a little sad to lose this, but maybe it'll be right next year. When I have some time to plan it in advance. For this year I feel good, better than I have in a while.

If anyone knows anything about a job, do let me know...

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

Home again, home again, to go to rest/ By hearth and heart, house and nest

Well, clearly, I am back from England! Whooo! In fact, I've been back for about a week now, and I miss England a lot. I'll be blogging about my trip in more detail on my lj, starting tomorrow. It was the most amazing time. Probably the most amazing time I've ever had in my life. I went with a class of about 23 students and two professors to London, Straford upon Avon, and then Bath with three friends. I got back on the 21st.

Now I need a job, because I did not get either of the internships I applied for. My mom is driving me up the wall. She says that they may need to dip into my savings to pay for my school next year, and all kinds of things like that, but I refuse to go back to JC Penney because when I am there, I actually feel my brain rotting. And nobody is nice there. And I hate it so much that I have developed an actual physical aversion to department stores. Last summer when my grandma and aunt took me to Macy's or something too soon after I'd left Penney's I seriously started to feel sick in there. I spend all day yesterday filling out applications for bookstores, and today I filled out another internship application.

Here is a sample of the stupid crazy in this job hunt right now: On Monday I went with my mom to see my grandparents, and my Aunt Carol was there, and she started ribbing me about not having a job yet, and my mom was very reasonable and said, "She's been back less than a week, and she can't look for a job on the weekend or Memorial Day." But then last night, out of NOWHERE, she flips on me and is all, "You WILL get a job! You will get a job TOMORROW!" Speaking as though tomorrow was my only chance, and the alternative was immediate eviction. Oh, also, "You will look for that contact's email address RIGHT NOW!" (I had to do it during the commercial breaks of Star Wars Tech and The Legacy of Star Wars on the History Channel which were, by the way, awesome.) Sure enough, when I got up yesterday, my list of things to do which she left on the kitchen table was this: "1) Get a job. 2) Empty the dishwasher." Then last night as she was driving me back from turning in applications, she had the nerve to say now "disappointed" she was in me that I did not apply for more internships before leaving school. Gee, Mom, I'm sorry that your daughter, who gets straight A's at one of the toughest colleges in the state, has been on the Dean's list every semester, is so esteemed by her professors that one of them specifically asked her to work for him, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke or do drugs, doesn't party, doesn't have sex, is involved in the theatre, is in two honor societies, is mentally stable, and has a great core group of friends is such a disappointment to you. I swear, it's when I come home that I most frequently feel like a failure, and that seems really backwards.

End rant.

On a happier note, I saw "Pirates" on Sunday and it was the AWESOME!
("I once knew a pirate who'd lost both arms and part of an eye." "What'd you call him?" "Larry.")

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

Great! You've trapped us in a hypothetical situation!

On Saturday at 2:36, I got home and spent the next few hours unloading things from the van. My room is still a big mess and a bunch of my stuff is still in the living room. On Sunday, I set up a job interview to work at UPS, then went to the olive garden and my grandmother's house for mother's day. Today, I went to Arby's and took an open shift, which I planned to do for the remainder of the week, and work another week before starting at UPS. I also called Michael to let him know I'd be helping out at footlite, basically asst. stage managing with Karen. At 6:20 today I got the following email:
Marten -

This is Kirk Domer from OLO and I wanted to know if you might still be intereted in working at OLO this summer. I know this is awfully late notice, but I just had a carpenter drop out at the last minute. I am heading to Wooster tonight and will be in the car for the next 5 hours - so if you are interested and would like to give me a call to discuss the opportunity - please call me at 517-256-0912.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you! - Kirk

I called him, and it's a $2000 dollar stipend + room + meals on weekdays. I'd run 3 shows, and work in the scene shop from 9 to 5 durring the week. I start next week, and finish August 12. If I did it again next year, I'd get paid more. I can't pass this up, it's a paying internship my first year into college.

And now I'm putting things into perspective. I'll have been home for a week before going back to Ohio. If I keep doing this for the next 3 summers, I'll never be home for more than one month at a time. It's really like I've already moved out for good. I feel like I should rent out a storage place so my parents can have the room back for things they might need it for as my Dad's shop situation gets harder. I don't think they'll be paying anything for my college tuition anymore. It's all loans from here on out, all me. It's like my house is getting full and sort of squeezing me out at a very high velocity. I'm scared, but I also feel like I can sort of handle it.

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

Du duhduh duh duh duuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!

So I have to apologize for my blog silence. An extended girlfriend-related stay at The College of Wooster is, I suppose, mostly to blame. I have also been silent at Corndog for the last three days, but prior to that I was maintaining weekly updates which YOU SHOULD ALL READ.
And on the subject of writing, everybody remember NaNoWriMo? Well June is NaScreWriMo, National Screenplay Writing Month (Not to be confused with NaNoScreMo, National Screamo Writing Month, or nano-screamo, the writing of screamo songs that are only a few seconds long.)
It's actually called Script Frenzy, and you can write either a 20,000 word play script or screenplay. I know many of you have experience in this area. Anyway, I think I'm going to participate. It looks much more achievable than NaNoWriMo plus its during the summer.
I will write more when I get home. Until then, keep this under advisement.


Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

swimming in a plaid ocean is not as much fun

Again with the long lull in posting. Again with the sentence fragments. Lots of work, barely passing stats and chinese, but that's okay. Just need the credit. Next year's schedule not as cool as it could be, but will do. Went to Cleveland a couple weeks ago to be in a movie. Ansley, our theatre professor, directed and produced it with money from some organization. It's about a "frat party gone wrong." If it actually makes money, I get a tiny bit of it, but I'm not thinking that's very likely. Cleveland is kind of like Narnia, and the girls like me there. By that I mean I had no sense of time perception and there was this one girl who'd hang on me in all the party scenes. She wore a mullet skirt, meaning in the back it was very long and in the front it accentuated a nice pair of legs. Highlights of this trip include chipotle, comical parallels between the quizzes in cosmo and maxim and Meredith covered in fake vomit. It smelled like cold liquid doritos. I feel like something happened this past weekend, but it's sort of been eclipsed by last night's concert. Merry Kuween of Skots, one of the three a cappella groups I'm in, put on a concert, and I sang, nay, rocked the solo for Fat Bottomed Girls. The rest of the show was also basically awesome, and I'll have a CD when I come home. We dropped our pants on stage. It was very liberating. Speaking of dropping pants, this Friday is No Pants Day, so drop 'em.
I'm nearly done with year one. time is all fast and stuff, kind of disconcerting. but hey, I can drink in a year, so cheers!

Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

Goodbye, Cruel World!

How melodramatic. It's currently 12:10 PM and I finished my first final of the end of my freshman year of college. I realized the other night that I was really behind...retarded, if you will...in my mentality. I have yet to truly realize that I'm in college. That I have become one of those people I always admired because they were so OLD and they knew SO MUCH. I'm a sophomore Spanish Education major at Ball State University. God, how weird does that sound?

Man, my posts are always so lame on here. Ya'll are all, "I'm quoting literature," or "I'm writing a satire," and I'm like, "Nurr...I'm in college." Oh how life mocks me.

Because it’s ridiculous. Because it’s absurd. Because they’re wearing pants!

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me

I have a lot of things to say, but I haven't posted in forever because our semester is winding up and we just got through dead week, so prepare for information overload. I'm going to try to do this chronologically.

In my Brit Lit class, which was pretty good, we performed a scene from Jane Eyre, the scene where Rochester takes Jane up to the third story in order to tend to stupid Richard Mason, who has been attacked by Crazy Bertha. And guess who got to be Jane? ME! I volunteered to read as Jane in a little snatch of dialogue we read aloud in class, and after class, Dr. T. stopped me and told me she wanted me to be Jane when we performed the scene and I was so excited. You don't even understand. I've been crazy for the chance to play Jane Eyre, even for a few minutes, for so long. It went really well. Dr. T. said I did a great job, and I got pretty into it, despite the fact that it was just a little class performance and I did not have the best Rochester to work with. Dr. T. asked if I was going to go to grad school for acting and I told her no. It was a real thrill for me. In speaking of Jane Eyre, did you guys know that Footlite is doing Jane Eyre the Musical next March? Apparently they have heard me saying they should. I am so bringing like three people up to see it with me. What do you guys think the odds are the Horrigan will end up playing Crazy Bertha? Or Lady Ingram or something?

I went home a week early for Easter, because our One Acts and ADPi formal were all Easter weekend; one of the One Acts performances was on Easter itself, which was really dumb and we were all pretty pissed about it. But seeing my family and getting to do Easter with them was really fun. I got the Rent soundtrack, and have had all of the songs stuck in my head in a loop ever since. One Acts went pretty well; I was in a ten-minute play about a woman who has this fantasy guy in her head and she's trying to get rid of him. One of my lines is, "You don't fucking exist, Bradley!" which was fun to shout in front of a bunch of people. Formal was fun. I'd never been to a formal dance before. Bethany was my date, and we had fun for a couple of weeks watching people scramble to get dates and panic while we were like, "Eh, we don't really care." The event was held on a plantation in a small town called Milton, Kentucky, and while we were there, the power went out in the whole of Milton for about an hour. So we sat and played cards by candlelight until it came back on, at which point Bethany and I watched the dancing, and danced a little bit. We were even pretty near the dance floor when we did it. I had a really pretty dress; 'twas pink.

I finally got a call from the publishing company I want an internship with this summer. They wanted to set up an interview. Yay! And what were you doing, Erin, when you got the news that you had this fantastic career-related opportunity? Why, I was making a medal out of a yogurt lid and paperclip chain, why do you ask? Of course, they had to set up this interview for smack in the middle of dead week. Argh.

I presented my Women in Fiction project to Dr. Eden. I was so, so nervous, and let me tell you why. The guidelines of this project were: "Create a theory of women's literature. Present it creatively. Trust yourself." And that was IT. No other requirements of any kind. The whole class was nervous about it, and nobody had a clue what to do. I signed up to present on Friday. Then, all of a sudden, on, like, the Wedensday of the preceding week, she remembered that she was going out of town on Friday, so my presentation had to be moved to Tuesday. GAH! Half the class completely flipped out. An option that was given us was that we could present just to Dr. Eden, one on one, which I took, even though that idea scared me, because it did not scare me nearly as much as the idea of presenting this thing in front of everybody. So I went, and I presented, and Dr. Eden actually, finally, really liked something I did! I began by telling her how nervous I was and asking her not to judge me, but at the end she said I had no need to be so scared, because she really loved my project and she was, I quote, "impressed." YES! Then we sat and talked for a few minutes about Austen and the Brontes, just like I've always wanted to with her. SHE LIKES ME! SHE REALLY LIKES ME! I turned in the final version of this project today, praise the Lord.

So, Wednesday was my internship interview. Dad came to get me Tuesday evening, and on the way home he told me that our dog, Lacy, had died that morning. At first I thought it was about the meanest joke ever. But it wasn't. She was thirteen years old, and we knew she'd had cancer of some kind for about a year. She'd had a seizure before, and her back legs were getting really weak, she could barely get up onto the porch from outside anymore. We think it was some kind of brain or spinal cancer, but we're not sure. But apparently at the end of the week before, she had a stroke or something. She couldn't walk without falling down, she couldn't eat, and she was miserable. I didn't know anything about this. Finally, they decided to put her down, and Dad took her in on Tuesday morning. At about 8, which is when I woke up to do my Women in Fiction presentation. Weird. At first my parents didn't want to tell me. They seriously considered telling me that she was just at the vet and not telling me she had died until spring break because they didn't want to stress me out more than I already was, like I was three years old or something. It was actually Adam who told them that was stupid and he was not going to lie to me about that. He apparently got pretty mad at them. For that, I am really grateful to him. So, on the way home, I listened to "Seasons of Love" and cried quietly a little, but it wasn't really awful until I got home and she wasn't there anymore. She wasn't there, the gate wasn't up to keep her in the kitchen... ugh. I went upstairs and didn't want to come back down and face the emptiness. But the upstairs bathroom was out of service, so I had to go downstairs to go to the bathroom. I was the only one down there. I just stood in the living room door for a few minutes, staring at it. Then I saw her stuffed bear that we always played with her with lying in the corner, and I went over and picked it up and cried for about half an hour. She was such a good dog. So pretty, and so sweet. She and I hung out during the day a lot when I was home for breaks, and she always remembered me, even if it took a minute, like, "Oh, yeah! You're the one who hangs out with me and lets me out sometimes! Welcome home!" My interview was at one, so I got up in the morning and watched a few episodes of the British Office, which we're borrowing from somebody. It was okay until I went to get lunch and hit the ice dispenser. A couple of cubes of ice always fall on the floor, and Lacy loves ice. The minute she heard that thing, she would come running and eat the ice on the floor. So, when a cube of ice fell on the floor and I had to just put it in the sink... that sucked. The good thing is that I got to say goodbye to her, because I spend more time saying goodbye to her before I go to school than I do my brother. Looking back, I can't think of anything I would have said to her had I known it was the last time I'd see her that I didn't say then: goodbye, I love you, I'll miss you, be a good girl.

The internship interview went okay. Everyone there is really, really nice. I was nervous, and I hope I didn't seem like an idiot. They still seemed like they were selling the company to me when I left, so I hope that means they were still interested. They kept asking if I had any questions, but they explained everything so well and so quickly that I couldn't ever think of any. They said they'd get back to me within about a week, and it's been almost a week now, so... who knows?

On Friday, we did another scene in Brit Lit, from The Importance of Being Earnest, and I was Lady Bracknell, which was great fun. That's a really cool part to play.

Other than that, my roommate has started a new pain medication for her doom headaches, and it is a barbituate, and when she takes it when she's tired or hasn't eaten, she says things like this (actual transcript, created by me for the purpose of trying to get her not to take this medication anymore): “Whoa. I swear to God I just saw a pink bunny. It was real cute. I wish we had a bunny. Although if it was a pink bunny, it’d have to be a girl, wouldn’t it? Blue Bunny is an ice cream. Do you know they’re having a national Ben and Jerry’s Day?”
“I wonder what happened to Alf. I had Alf slippers. I don’t want to know what happened to my slippers, I want to know what happened to the show. I think Alf had a cat. I wonder what happened to the cat. And my slippers. They wouldn’t fit me now, I had them when I was, like three.”
“Erin? Was it you?” Was what me? “You brought destruction and bad things to the city and you were a prophet of evil.” No. That was not me.
“Just be careful, okay? Because it looks like a teapot, but it’s a trap. It’s a trap!”
If you want the rest of this (and, believe me, there is more) I will put it in a separate entry. This one is long enough already.

So, we just got done with dead week here, and I survived (barely). I had my only in-class final today, and turned in my last two papers. The only thing I have left to do is my take-home essay final for Brit Lit, which should be pretty easy, and then all I have to do is pack and go home on Friday!

FIN!

Because it’s ridiculous. Because it’s absurd. Because they’re wearing pants!

I've never had karma work in my favor before

I'm skipping two classes today. Chinese is a waste of their time because I don't know today's skit, and stats is a waste of my time because it's not like he teaches it anyway. The problem is, I'm going to get something like a D in both classes, and I feel like there's nothing I can really do about it. Even when I try stats, it just falls apart, and I'm so far behind in chinese, it's like it's not worth it anymore. Part of my wants to keep my GPA up, and part of me says fuck it, it's a requirement, I just need to pass it.
Meanwhile, the weather is ridiculous. There is snow on the ground. I've had ridiculous weather before, but it has never actually made me angry. I walked outside this morning pissed off like nothing else. If I weren't so tired, I'd have shouted at the sky the whole way to philosophy. I tried wearing shorts on Thursday in rebellion, but it just didn't work. Where the fuck is spring?
One good thing going for me right now is Mary Latalladi. I can't just say Mary, because her last name is so cool. Say it with me now: Latalladi. Mary Latalladi is a wonderful girlfriend, particularly if your lips are chapped from ridiculous weather.
Thank you to everyone who comments on Skewed to the Left, which is still going strong with no use of self-reference so far. That fourth wall is staying up as long as I can keep it up. No telling how long that might be, though. Today's comic might be a bit out there for you, but Kant, Peirce, and Frege(Fray-guh) are all philosophers who presented a different way of looking at logic. That might help.

We should get a new template soon.

Because it’s ridiculous. Because it’s absurd. Because they’re wearing pants!

A Day of Awkward

Today was filled with awkward things. The first happened a bit before 2:00 am. I was sleeping in a friend's room because one of her two roommates was out of town, and we all (4 of us) wanted to get up and go to church together. Unfortunately, we hadn't counted on her roommate coming home at 2:00 am completely smashed, and quite noisy about it.
But that wasn't awkward. That was just annoying. The awkward bit was that her slightly drunk friend came in with her and he, with three sleeping strangers in the room and after having just been obviously loud enough to wake them all up, decided to ask her a very personal question.
I'm weary of saying anything specific but it was a question that revealed some pretty intimate information about the two of them, and getting up would have revealed that I heard it all. So I sat there through the whole awkward drunken discussion and pretended to be asleep. Finally I went upstairs to my own bed when the roommate went to the bathroom.
Then at 9:30 this morning, the second awkward thing happened. One of the girls who was going to church with me came upstairs to talk to me and see if I was ready to go, and she caught me during the approximately three second walk between the bathroom and my room. We preceded to have a conversation about when we were leaving which I thought not at all awkward, but would later find out (from other people) was awkward for her because I'd forgotten that I was wearing not my normal boxers, but one of my very few pairs of boxer briefs, and apparently I was showing more than I knew.
But, my favorite awkward event was at around 4, when Amanda got a letter in the mail from a boy she broke up with a week ago, which he sent the day before they broke up. She decided she wanted Ryan to read it aloud with all of us in the room. And it was really gushy and romantic, and aimed towards the future, talking of the warm summer days to come, when they could be together. Sitting there listening to it was, well what's the word of the day?
Anyways it occurred to me that this might be worthwhile bloggin' material and that I hadn't blogged in some time. The night is young, but with any luck I won't have to put up an addendum.

Because it’s ridiculous. Because it’s absurd. Because they’re wearing pants!

Go on, do Deformed Rabbit. It's my favorite.

I actually had a pretty fun day yesterday, even in spite of the fact that there was no episode of The Office on. It was my roommate's birthday. She had previously taken great pains to tell us at length about how she hates her birthday because A) her parents are assholes and do not celebrate it properly and B) people forget. She proceeded to make sure that people would know it was her birthday by removing her birthday from Facebook and telling nobody about it. Because apparently if you didn't know already, you are not worthy of knowing her birthday. Or something. I don't know.

But those who were worthy of knowing her birthday decided that we would not give her reason to be justified in bitching about it anymore. Other Roommate and I went to Wal-Mart with Bethany days early to get her presents she would like. One of our sorority sisters decided to give her a surprise party.

Her parents came on her birthday eve and took all three of us (Roommate, Other Roommate, and myself) out to dinner and dairy queen. (All in all, it was a good second half of the day for me. I took a nap, the one thing I was looking forward to all day, went to dinner, got Dairy Queen, called my mom.) At the dinner, Roommate decided to tell her parents that she is seeing a guy who A) she wants to marry-- and her ex-fiancee just broke up with her in the fall, mind-- and B) said guy is in prison. While we were just sitting there, shaking our heads, staring at our plates, industriously eating our food, and trying to be very small. They took it pretty well. Better than they took the idea of her getting a hedgehog next year. At midnight Megan, the girl who would throw the surprise party, came into the room and sang to her and gave us birthday hats, which Roommate had apparently never had before, and she was psyched.

She slept most of her actualy birthday, as she does most days. She liked our presents, and then the surprise party went off well. I liked being a conspirator, it was fun. There was a lot of attempted lip-reading and significant looking and hand gestures behind Roommate's back. Finally, at 10:20, I get the go-ahead, and I'm all, "Uh... [Roommate], will you go down to the kitchen with me to get juice so I don't have to go by myself?" And there was much shouting of "surprise!" and Happy Feet penguin masks and cake and a bunny cup.

After that, Roommate, Bethany, Whitney and I watched Sister Act, which I had never seen all of before. And I finally found an alcoholic beverage I like, and which I almost drank a whole serving of. With a crazy twisty straw. Smirnoff Wild Grape. It tastes like sparkling grape juice and not like alcohol!

Because it’s ridiculous. Because it’s absurd. Because they’re wearing pants!

It's easy to regret your awkward conversations but hard to regret the ones you didn't have.

Spring break, split into two parts and annotated for your convenience!*

Part I
1) Work at Arby's all week. Everyone I actually know aside from the managers have quit, so it's just awkward time with the Mexicans. I'd have nothing against them if I spoke Spanish. I discover that the general manager is a figure skater and was an alternate for the Olympic team in the 70's. This fuels conversation for about fifteen minutes.
2) 300. See it. It's awesome. It's like the film style of Sin City applied to Gladiator, the movie is amazing.
3) Lina and I visit Michael, watch TV, borrow Big Love and Carnivale, respectively.
4) Watch entire first season of Carnivale in the course of a few days. It's an amazing series, and Michael needs to by the second season.
5) Built weapons, broke weapons, rebuilt weapons.
6) Party on Saturday with K.C., Huevos, and some other people you guys don't know. Miniscule amounts of alcohol were consumed by yours truly to appease the holiday, and large amounts were consumed by Baethor and Huevos. Comedy ensues over the backdrop of constant guitar hero awesomeness.
Part II
1) My hair is short. It's the shortest it's been since I shaved it. It feels funny.
2) My webcomic remains updated thrice a week. Read it. It's funny sometimes.
3) I filed my taxes. $250 refund for me!
4) Dad has martini nights on Mondays at the shop. I discover beer that actually tastes good and some other interesting liquors. Dad's reenactor friend spills things a lot, and I remain sober after unknown amount of alcohol consumption.
5) Dagorhir! My ass must be bigger, because at least half the hits I took were right to the tuchus. Awesome fighting, met some new people and missed some old people. Good times were had by all. Very sore the next day
6) Tried to build more weapons with comstocks, but weather was annoying. Played worms, extreme scrabble. Saralyn called, so we all took a short break to call our respective/prospective girl friends. Strangest game of extreme scrabble ever. Lots of nudity (in the story). Next day was very lazy. Went to blockbuster, where Jonah got distracted by bubblegum and left the movies behind. We didn't realize this until we got home with not movies. Went back and got them, while at the same time much silly argumentation occured over whose fault it was (Jonah's). THX 1138 is weird, and Life of Brian is funny.
7) Lunch (chinese) with Guthrie. Hartman and Nick Brock like capitalism and don't like the middle class. Jennifer wouldn't let go of my leg. Freshman are funny, and Michael's show about Guthrie really needs to be on television.

Yay Spring Break! I go back to Woo on Sunday. Saturday's events will not be recorded, because it is almost certain that nothing will happen on Saturday.

*numbered events do not necessarily occur in chronological order

Because it’s ridiculous. Because it’s absurd. Because they’re wearing pants!