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!