Time at Work

This is from a few days ago. Apparently the emailing posts to blogger does not quite work from gmail. Ick.


So today, I had the utterly unenviable job of sorting invoices again. Also happening again today was someone "forgetting" that they had a foot and a half stack of invoices on their desk. It was fantastic.

I had more interesting things to say.

Oh yes. On Saturday I went to my uncle Teacher Bear's retirement party. It was a little strange (but really cool too) because some of my favourite teachers from high school were there too. I got to talk to my old english teacher (who is still my favourite english teacher). It was pretty cool. Hanging around the firepit, almost but not quite setting yourself on fire, interacting with people I still respect on a more even level. I wish I'd given him my blog. I think he would like reading it. He seemed encouraged that I had managed to avoid the "I need to look perfectly teased and make-upped to have worth as a person" trap. We chatted about that and the pressure on girls to be pretty dolls. I like to think I have better things to do than look perfect, but I will admit that I have my days too.

Ever onward and upward, and I'll get there someday.

On excessively girly and frivolous news, my toes are missing a jewel again. After going back and getting the ones I lost in the first week replaced, and having the girl seal them into the pedicure, I am now missing a little jewel. I'm not very impressed. I'll need to either resign myself to losing jewels and toe-sparkles being ephemeral or I'll need to try out other pedicurists.

And So Our Week Draws Slowly To An End

This week has been long. I've been a very busy girl lately.

Sunday - Went to talk to Meenie about wedding cakes, had a celebratory dinner at Prince Charming's parents house, and we played the Train Game. Ticket To Ride (Europe). It is the Charming family's favourite game currently. I tend to kick ass at it. However, this time I lost severely. Oh well. Next time I'll rule the world.

Monday - I convocated. It was long, drawn out and exceedingly dull. I was the girl with the knitting. Mama Bear and Grizzly Bear (my dad) and Prince Charming were my guests. It was so nice! Everyone got along. My stepdad, Polar Bear, wasn't able to come because he had to work. Apparently he actually wanted to come. I was pretty surprised, because I didn't want to go, and wasn't expecting anyone else to want to go.

Tuesday - Went into work, and talked to the managers. They want me to move into another department (AR) when I'm not working in Accounts Payable. It will probably work out very nicely. The 3 days a week ends two weeks before the wedding, and the 2 days a week ends one week before the wedding. Did more filing and invoice-y stuff. Went out for dinner with Purple. It was nice to connect with her. She's my married girlfriend. I tend to get to see her when her husband is out of town and we do the incredibly girly things together that our partners won't do with us. Like watch Matthew McConahey (I know its spelt wrong, but no one really cares but you.) movies and check out the discount makeup section at the drugstore. Its pretty awesome. We also watch Sandra Dee movies.

Wednesday - Worked. More invoices and checking statements. For lunch though, I met Palm Tree. She'd called me the night before, and it turns out that our two buildings touch. Yay! So we caught up. Apparently her parents are in Spain, and just got back from getting lost in Africa. She's been busy lately doing about 3 jobs. However, that is actually pretty normal for her.

Prince Charming and I had our marriage prep course. The topic was good sex. It was interesting mostly because of my psych background. I've dealt somewhat with similar topics and I thought that you could really tell that the target demographic for this course is the married with small children group. If there was a more severe sexual disfunction than basic exhaustion and maybe some poor communication ( like say, physical disability or a sexual philia) I would not really recommend the course. Or rather, I would make sure to make it clear that this course is the basic beginner level. There would have to be much more advanced work to be done. Prince Charming agreed with me.

Thursday - Today is my first day in Accounts Recievable. The manager is much more hands on than the other one. That is a nice way of saying she's got more control issues. My first job is to sort invoices and put them in numerical order. My second job is to partially empty out the old ones, and then put the new ones in. It took me all fricking day and I'm still not done.

I have never dealt with such an insane and counter-intuitive system. It didn't help that one of the two people supervising me had no idea how the system really worked. The other, I'll call Crazy Filing Cabinet Lady. She was extremely adamant on how the system worked. Extremely adamant.

The super good thing about this job is that they don't have room for me in with the other girls. So where do they put me? In the ex-Chief Financial Officer's old office. Oh yeah! It is so sweet. It is pretty big (not a corner office, but hey, I've only been there like 2 weeks so far) and I get a super huge desk (which I totally used for all the invoices) AND I get a super nice leather chair and my own printer.

The dynamics of this side of the office are very different than AP. In AP it's pretty quiet, and I stay in my corner and work. Lots of work getting done. In AR, there is still work going on (that's what I get to file) but there is also a ton of talking and stuff. As I'm not always in a corner, I also see more of everyone wandering around. I'm at the point where I'm beginning to recognize faces, but if you don't tell me what to do, I don't know your name.

I had a Pampered Chef shower, and that was super awesome. I've never been a huge Pampered Chef type, but I had a great time. The lady was really low pressure and only did a bit of demonstration. She already knew most of the other people there from previous parties. The people that came were from my old old job. At the dental office. They are Mama Bear's coworkers, but they are more than that, they are like extra aunts. I've known most of them my entire life. There were flowers and cakes. It was so special. I'm going to miss seeing them every 6 months for checkups and cleanings. I have no fear of the dentist, and in fact, I look forward to going. I always get the fun prizes too.

Friday - More work and invoices. Lots of invoices. I had the worst time trying to concentrate though. It was good that I got to leave early, because I was pretty useless. I did get some stuff done but it was hard. I went for dinner with Coffee (Prince Charming's mum) as a convocation present. Then I got a present!!!! YAY!!!! My present is a knitting needle set. But we ran into troubles. We were ordering from Knitpicks, and I couldnt decide between the Denise interchangeable set (which is what Knitter has) and the Knitpicks interchangeable set. Knitter is in England, so I don't really know what to do. Aiee!

Denise

• airplane safe (plastic small tips)
• semi-stupid carrying case
• plastic tips (i do like metal better)
• I think that you get tags and stuff with it, but I'm not quite sure

Knitpicks

• perhaps airplane safe but maybe not, depends on how anal the person searching your bag is, even though the FTA says knitting needles are ok.
• very nice carrying case
• comes with lots of nice accessories, like tags telling you what gauge you are using on the project
• can buy extra bits for it
• metal tips (which i do like, but again, is it airplane safe?)

So, dilemmas abound.

Saturday - got up early to go to the salon so she could fix my toes. The jewels were coming off and I was sad. Very sad. They shouldn't come off now though, because she put more goo on top. They look nice.

Dropped off Stillettos runners that I've had forever so she can wear them golfing with her dad on Father's day. He's really nice, and apparently super excited. Stiletto does not golf.

Here. Library. Picking up a hold. My geekiness is showing, its Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly. YEAH!

Tonight my uncle is having is retirement party. It will be fun. It is my uncle the teacher. He taught me Social Studies.

Conclusion - I'm tired, and I've been getting cranky. Well, actually I am moody. I've not been getting enough sleep and/or alone time (am a definite introvert) and it is really showing. Most everything has been super fun, but it still takes a big bunch out of me. Prince Charming is stressed, I'm stressed, but things should get better soon. We've made a just-us date for Sunday. A desparately needed date. Plus I'm napping today. Next week I'm going to be in bed by 10:30. Getting up at 6:30 does not work when you get to bed at 1 am every night. And I should be more used to working steadily.

Good News

I have exciting news!

1) I now have gel toes, complete with little jewels. They are silly and perfect. I adore them, and now I want to do my fingernails. I really want to do my fingernails.

2) Apparently showing up to work, sitting in the corner and doing whatever is enough to wow them. I'm not sure if this is a sort of a small fish in an even smaller pond type of deal, or if it means that my work ethic is actually somewhat impressive. How do I know this? Apparently the office that I'm working for can't get enough of me. It's so sweet. Oh yes. So, this means they want me as long as I'm here. Or so it seems. I'll actually find out on Tuesday, after Convocation.

In other ways of being exciting, Stiletto has had the following happen to her:

1) Car broken into.
2) Got a ticket for expired plates, had to beg to not get car towed.
3)Car broken down in middle of rush hour.
4) Car broken by tow truck.
5) Car broken into again.
6) Car rearended today.

Needless to say, she's not having a good day or week.

Something New

I'm trying something new right now, to see if I can blog at work.

That's right. I said work.

Everyone can stop being all shocked at my now un-unemployed status.

I have begun my new life, and I am a temp.

All in all, this is not the worst job I've ever had, and the people here seem to be actually nice. Part of me wonders if the other shoe will drop, but the other part just tells me to shut up and be glad we're not stuck in some damn bear suit* or working for a crazy drugged up restaraunt manager**.



* Officially the worst job I've ever had. Oh yes. I was the Root Bear. It was hot, it was smelly, and it was the most boring job I've ever had. Well, it was boring until I got molested by some fratboy-types. Then I got angry and was counting the time until I was done. All in all, it was time that I'll never get back. Completely and utterly wasted.

** My worst boss ever. Even worse than "My life is in ruins. Again. Let's watch me cry" manager. I still want to go back to that job, just for a little bit, to tell her what I really think of her, and her management skills. Oh yes.

Interesting Things Happening Lately

1) Had my first wedding shower yesterday. It was amazing and fantastic. Knitter and Prince Charming's mother and other sister-in-law put it all together and I was absolutely blown away. It was a co-ed shower, and had people from Mama Bear's side of the family, my dad's side of the family, Prince Charming's mum's side of the family and lots of friends.

It had an aquatic theme. They put blue fabric on the ceiling and hung little strings of fish from that. There were fish-shaped cakes and cookies. There was tasty punch, two-bite brownies, rice crispy squares, 7-layer dip, and so much more food that I'm not sure I even got to try it all.

The ice breaker was a modified form of Guess Who, where you had to figure out who the name was on your back, and then find your match. Knitter made me Prince Charming, and I had to find Cinderella.

Everyone got divided into groups and decorated a pair of flipflops. We had rhinestones, beach glass, seed beads, charms, shells, and glitter glue to use to make the most "fabulous" flipflops ever.

While that was winding down, there was a fishing game in the jacuzzi tub in the basement. It had fishing poles with magnets for hooks and magnetic fish floating around. If you got the right numbered fish, you got a prize. That game was surprisingly fun for all. Everyone wanted another turn at that one.

There was a trivia quiz that was fun and shockingly tricky. Not everyone knows that it is Prince Charming that owns the most expensive pair of shoes out of the two of us! Ha! Not me!

Then we did the opening presents thing. Prince Charming tells me that by that point in time, everything was a big blur for him. He told me that he thought that it was rude to have someone writing down the list of presents and who gave them. I just looked at him, and told him: a) everyone expects it, b) no one thinks its rude, and c) how else are we supposed to remember anything?

He sighed, nodded, and said he understood, but everything was still feeling strange.

Then we went back to having super large amounts of fun. Sometimes it doesn't pay to think too much. Just smile, laugh and be happy.

2) I started Sewing II. It's a weekly sewing class that I've been doing with Prince Charming's mum, Coffee. We did Sewing I earlier this year. However, this class kindof jumped up on us both, and so we ended up spending today finishing our projects from the last session that we'd almost finished. This is my old project (#4256 in a red twill, view C). My new project looks like this (#5047 in a very nice pale green drape-y polyester). I'm excited about doing both. They should be super nice when I'm done.

3) First batch of invites have been sent. Yay! Progress!!!

There are more. Aiee. Well. Unlike other weddings. When you get your invite does not really mean that you are higher or lower on the desired list. It means that your address was easier or harder to get.

4) Wedding personnel have been mostly decided on. These are ushers, stage managers, pockets, etc. Some have even been asked.

5) Wedding prep has been started and is in the process. It is progress. Very exciting.

6) Editing my template has occurred. I'm beginning to feel like my blog feels like home now. Unfortuntely, two things are not quite what they should be. The first is that I have no idea how comments are not working yet. Or how to get them to work. The second is that I just realized that the word "tonite" is used in my little picture. Now I need a new picture. Maybe if I don't really look at that picture, I will forget and it will stop bothering me. We'll have to see. Unfortunately, leaving out the 'gh' and adding an 'e' in words like tonight and bright is a huge pet peeve of mine.

Who will win? Will the pet peeve win? Or will lazyiness rule the day?

Blurb

Just finished adding all of the addresses that Prince Charming and I have into our pages of addy labels.

aieee.

That was quite a bit of typing.

Something New

1. I realized a while ago that unless you are somehow related to me by blood, I haven't seen you in forever. Or really talked to you. I have no idea where Stiletto is, what Ardbeg is up to. I'm guessing that Never Rye and Whistle Twice were probably watching the hockey game tonight.

I actually talked to Samurai a very long while ago. It was so strange, because I had absolutely no idea who he was. I think I worried him. It was the same day that I'd heard that Panda's dad had died, so that might have had something to do with it. Maybe, or maybe not. It wasn't until he told me he'd given my sister the clap* that I realized who he was. Best guess - he's at his girlfriend's house. In all truth though, I have no idea where he is.

2. Finally picked a china pattern. That's right. I now have a china pattern. It was by far the most difficult thing Prince Charming and I have ever worked out together. Reading this, you may think that Prince Charming and I live in some candy-coated cherry blossom land. We do not. We just have supremely different tastes and styles.

Plus Prince Charming doesn't like much when it comes to stuff you buy in a store that doesn't come from Mark's Work Wearhouse, or have to do with camping.

I liked this, and this and this. He didn't.

*Samurai has actually never given any sister of mine the clap or anyone else for that matter. He is, however, very prone to vanishing off of the face of the earth, especially during finals. After getting extremely curious about seeing if he was actually still alive, I called his house and left a long and hysterical message telling him that the wedding was off because I couldn't possibly marry him after he gave my sister the clap.

Wedding Shoes!

I am now the proud owner of wedding shoes. This is what they look like, except that mine have an ankle strap, which is what the jewelry drops off of, and are definitely not so tall. They are stunningly pretty and actually comfortable. Yay Beverly Feldman! YAY me! And Yay Teddy for her super fantastic gift!

Teddy had called me out of the blue and told me that she wanted to buy me shoes for my wedding present. Not just any shoes though, she wanted me to have Jimmy Choo's or Manolo Blahnik's.

I almost cried. She wanted me to have the coolest and best thing in the world for my wedding day. I'm moving soon to a much bigger city, and she wanted me to have very good shoes to wear for when I was there. It is so sweet. She's very fashionable and worries that people will see the scrubbies I wear and think that no one loves me.

We didn't end up going with either of those two brands because I couldn't find anywhere in Edmonton that sold them in person. It's all internet sales here. However, after scouring every shoe store in edmonton, nieman marcus online, zappos.com and many other designers' websites, I decided on the Feldmans.

I love these shoes. I've shown them to everyone I could. They are now known as the Very Expensive Shoes. As in: " Hey An, have you shown everyone in the free world your Very Expensive Shoes yet?"

Not yet, but I'm working on it.

Poplar Fuzz Attack

Today has been my first day home in quite a while. Hopefully things will start to settle down soon.

My allergies have come into force as the poplar fuzz is floating around outside, and looks a bit like snow. Otherwise, it is so beautiful outside it's shocking.

Knitting is going well on my scarf/shawl/afghan thing. I have a sort of a pattern going. The pattern is very simple. Instead of knit one row, purl one, knit one, purl one for all of my scarf, I'm throwing in sections where there is only knitting. It looks pretty good.

The air is very warm here, and so I feel a little ridiculous knitting something so very large.

A Funny Mama Bear Story

Mama Bear is doing well in this weather. She has fibromyalgia, and so right now, she's actually comfortable. All other times of the year she's complaining about how cold it is. Now she's finally happy. And cheerful. If you thought she was cheerful before, she's beyond cheerful now. (Well, except when she's desperately worried about Panda)

I spent some more time at Mama Bear's house this week. When she was getting into the car so we could do some wedding shoe shopping, I heard this strange noise. It sounded something like what a small girl would say when she got an extra large and sparkly birthday present. "Hoo-haah!"

I gave her a look. It was the "yes, crazy?" look.

"It's what marines say."

"Mama Bear, I truly think that if any marine ever made a noise like that, their marine friends would either laugh themselves silly or beat them up for being wussy babies. Just saying. "

Home Sweet Home

I'm at my mother's house right now, but that will change soon enough. This last week has been very strange. Panda's father passed away (he had cancer) and Teddy is home for the weekend. Wedding stuff still needs doing, but now there is so much more to do. It is getting done, but it is painful. Prince Charming has gone above and beyond the call of duty, and proven that he deserves his name.

I haven't seen Teddy in so long, it has been so nice to just hang out with her. We have grown up enough, and lived long enough, that we can now be together without fighting. It is a very nice change. Mama Bear is in Mama Bear-overdrive. We are all very lucky.

The air smells so sweetly out here. The frogs still chirrup in stereo at night, the breezes are cool, and smell of green growing things. The forest just outside of my mother's house is still my favourite place in the world. Even with everything going on, it is so nice to come home for a bit.

Construction Notice

As you may have noticed, this blog is undergoing some cosmetic reconstruction. While this is occuring, if you want to get ahold of me please feel free to email me at:

serasonho AT gmail DOT com

Things should settle down soon as the template figures itself out. Cheers!

Human Snot Factory Returns

Just so anyone who might read this will know, I am not dead. I am still alive.

I've turned into a human snot-production facility as my allergies decide to kick in. This kicked into high-gear on Friday, as I proceded to drug myself into a near-oblivion with Benadryl. It was the first time that I've had that reaction with Benadryl, but I won't ever use it again.

Prince Charming told me that I was slurring. I could barely keep my eyes open and focused on wedding registry stuff. I've never had such a reaction before with those drugs.

Not as exciting as the new adventures in post-post secondary life as you might have thought. I also learned to knit. Yup. I finished my finals, and promptly learned to knit. I'm liking the knitting. It uses slightly different muscles than crocheting and the basic knit stitch is a much simpler action than my usual crochet stitches. I think I'll probably end up switching back and forth once I get used to knitting.

I am so exciting I shock myself. Later this week I'll perform gravity-defying stunts involving bicycles and toilet paper.

JobHunt '06 begins

So, the job hunt begins in earnest, as the thousands of university students that have either finished school for the summer, or have graduated entirely leave the campus in search of the real world.

It is very exciting. If by exciting you mean frustrating and disappointing. I also miss my car.

In other news, I have graduated. The marks for the class that I was worried about came in. I got a B. Now, you may think that I was indulging in some over-achiever angst. I assure you, this was definitely not the case. This class was definitely one where what I thought the the Prof wanted was actually nothing like what the prof wanted. Ever.

But I don't care anymore. Heee!

YAY!

Prince Charming is home. Prince Charming is home. Prince Charming is home. Prince Charming is home. Prince Charming is home.

It's very exciting. In some ways it feels so odd, but in others it is like he never left at all.

When I was getting ready to go pick him up, I could feel my heart begin to slowly beat faster and harder. It was like waking up from winter hibernation.

I'd Rather Be....

sleeping in the sun
eating something tasty
reading something that wasn't a textbook
painting a picture that was actually good
riding my bike
thinking about something that I wanted to, not had to.
writing more haikus about outer space

but mostly, done with finals.

So Close

I have one final left after today. That means that not only will I be done, but Prince Charming should soon be home. Soon. I keep telling myself soon. Now would be nicer, but this is one of those cases where you get what you get.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good. For finals' week.

What this acutally means:

1) Mood fluctuations - this can range from euphoria to irritation to depression and even combinations of all three simultaneously.
2) Sleep deficit mounting*
3) Sugar high/Sugar crash - depending on how much remembering to eat real food has happened and how much snacking on bad things to make up for aforementioned forgetting, this tettertotter can swing gently, or it can swing hard.
4) Caffiene addiction is doing very well. Regular and plentiful doses of coffee being inhaled. Any stomach lining left at this point is purely coincidental.
5) Minimal hygiene standards kept. I am very proud to say that while I may look like I just rolled out of bed, I do not smell that way. So there.


*This actually does not apply to me right now because something happened to my alarm clock this morning. I remember setting it. I remember hearing some loud beeping noises. Then I remember loud and annoying music.

After that I don't remember much except going to write my sociology exam in some strange apartment in a town I've never been in. I walk into the room and my hands are freezing. I start talking to my professor, and he reaches out and takes a hold of my hands because I just can't seem to get warm. Then there are monsters in the room, and they are meditating. They meditate so much that their heads come off of their bodies and start floating up the wall. This, however, does not mean that the monsters are safely dead. No, it just means that they are super-monsters. My professor is king of the monsters because he is the best at it. I'm hoping I can get a rewrite as I run out of the apartment and into the city, trying to escape hungry student-eating monsters.

The next thing after that I wake up and realize that my alarm clock is off, and sitting on the bed with me. Not on my bedside table where it belongs. Mysteries abound.

Curious...

About the weather here?

Pretty In Pink

Today is a pretty-pretty-pink day.

What that means:

I'm wearing all pink. I have my pink "bride to be" pajama pants and a pink shirt on today. I'm dressed very matchy-matchy. The rest of me looks about what you would expect for a "screw pants" kind of day. My hair is mostly brushed, I think I brushed my teeth, but I'm dead certain that I put on deoderant.

See? I'm not completely lazy.

This was almost the first day I wore sweatpants to school. I say almost, and am still a little bitter. For this, like most things, blame can be placed firmly in my mother's corner.

She dropped by this morning for coffee and taxes. It was a nice visit. We got to talk for a bit and catch up while I signed my tax-thingie for the accountant. And just so you all know, yes, I do realize that once I start having to do my own taxes, I'll be screwed. She let me know what's going on out in the bush, and I tried to keep her from frantically cleaning my house. I keep telling her that during finals and/or paper season, University regulations forbid cleaning your house. This also can include doing your hair and showering, but I generally don't go that far.

She never believes me. She keeps saying stuff about me rotting to death or getting lost forever in laundry piles and how finals seem to start earlier and earlier every year.

Oh well. We also talked about my blog. Yay! I'm famous*. I gave my sister Teddy the link last week (for the fifty-millionth time) when she was bored at work to give her something to do. Now family news includes "An is funny. Who knew?" Teddy told this to Mum, and Mum is going to look at it now. Although changes may have to be made. Mum got all excited about this new and exciting bit of news and said "Panda even figured out that she's Panda. What do you call me? Mama Bear?" I looked at her, and not thinking, replied "Oh, you're just Mum." Oops.

So, Mum, I hearby dub thee Mama Bear. Long may you reign. Etcetera, etcetera, blah blah blah. Enjoy.

Then we both had to get going. I ran around frantically trying to find something I wanted to wear today to school before Mama Bear welshed on the ride to the U that I weaseled out of her. Mama Bear kept throwing nice jeans at me. I wanted big fluffy sweatpants. Mama Bear invented the No Ugly Sweatpants In My Car Rule. We compromised on my cute pink pj pants. Of course, this was after much begging, pleading, and sobbing that this was the last week of my life where I could realistically wear pajamas out of the house.**


*To my mom. Does that even count?
**I'll be a grown-up after this week, and then I have to be you know, wear clothes that make me look like a grown-up, and not the overgrown slob that I find so difficult to outgrow.

Well, I Thought It Was Cute

After posting about my cute new skirt, I decided that I needed to show it off. I decided that Knitter would have to make that unfortunate sacrifice.

I knocked on her door, and ran in to show her before I descended into my cave.

Gamer, her husband, was also there.

"Look at my new skirt! Isn't it cute?" says me.

"Have you had that skirt for a long time?" says Gamer. The look on his face is cautious but also somewhat confused.

Knitter nods, and says hello back to me.

"Umm, no. I got it a little while ago though. It hasn't really been nice enough yet to wear it. Isn't it fun?"

"I see. Did you buy it like that? Did it cost extra?" The look on his face is steadily growing more suspicious.

"Yes I bought it like that, but it didn't cost extra. I thought it was fun." I explain.

"Yes, Gamer. That's the style now." Knitter defends me and my fashion choice! Yay! Well, actually she's just informing Gamer of current trends, but I'll take what I can get.

Gamer gives his final nod. "Well, that is a nice skirt." The look on his face says somewhat otherwise. In fact, it looks alot like:

Dear Addressee,
I think that you are crazy, but am too well-brought up to ever say so. Otherwise, I hope that you have a nice rest of your day.
Sincerely,
Addresser

I go downstairs.

Prince Charming will like my skirt. Although I think that he's much better at smiling and nodding.

This was supposed to be the post I wrote to reward myself after my test today. I decided to write it anyway. Also my first attempt at conversation in forever. When did that get to be hard? I need to find my punctuation book again. Aargh. I really did hate reading that book.

It's So Unfortunate When You Start Losing Your Mind

Well. Today I've finally done it. I lost my mind.

I've been studying for this test and it really hadn't been going all that well. It is a very hard class, and it's made harder by the fact that the subject matter is very depressing. I frankly will be unbeliveably happy when this semester will be finally done.

However, back to my story.

So, studying, studying, more studying.

One of the questions on the test is about a campus landmark (a sundial). A landmark I've never heard of or seen before. To say that I'm cranky about having to find this stupid landmark that I've passed by and never seen at least once a week for over 20 months now is a vast understatement. I go look. I'm looking on the ground, I'm looking in trees. I'm not finding it. I start looking at the building. I'm trying to figure out how far this building goes around and where someone would put a freaking sundial. Don't they have to go on the ground, face up? This building (Old Arts/Convocation Hall) is very lovely. On the north side of the building, I find the sundial. Its about halfway up the building on the wall. The writing is rather faint, which causes even more frustration, but as I get closer, I can read it.

I only count the sunny hours. Class of '30.

I smile. The tension that has been following me so far breaks. I move on, and go to the building where my test will finally be. I'm about 1.5 hrs early for the test. I start re-reading notes and thinking about the essay I'll have to write soon.

The tension comes back. I start getting scattered. And hyperventilating.

It's getting back to awful. I get to my classroom today half an hour early. I've been trying to read and trying to read and all I'm really doing is freaking myself out.

It is ten minutes 'til the test starts and I have no idea where anyone is. Someone should at least show up a bit early.

I'm very much freaking out. Did they change where the test was? Did I get the time wrong? Because I totally know when and where the test is. I go to the computer lab next to the class and log in.

My test is tomorrow.

I don't know if I should be drinking more coffee, or stopping drinking it altogether.

A Wee Update

"The curse is come upon me," cried
the Lady of Shallott.
~Tennyson

Impending doom has struck. Also known as final exam week(s). I have been sleeping and studying. Monday was spent mostly sleeping after the long weekend.

Tuesday I did some spring cleaning and some studying.

Today I showered. I tell you this, gentle readers, because today I look very cute. Its true. I do. It is absolutely amazing what a shower can do. I'm wearing my new skirt. It looks something like this, however, it is a blue denim, has bleach stains scattered across the front, and the pockets are in the right place. With my little mini, I'm wearing a big white tunic-thing that is quite possible the oldest thing I own. And flip-flops. Because today is beautiful and sunny and warm (unlike Sunday, when I decided to dress up in a skirt for Easter Sunday, and then it promptly SNOWED! grr. arrgh.)

I bought my new skirt when I'd come to the realization that I'd forgotten what my legs look like. I was also pretty sure that Prince Charming had also forgotten. Plus, I've always wanted a miniskirt, but they tended to be too short. In the "Is she going through a bad break-up and her ex took scissors to all of her clothes and this is what she had left?" kind of too short. Also known as "If your mother only knew, she lock you in the house." That kind of too short.

Prince Charming will be home in 6 days.

Wedding things are going well, at this exact point in time. This guarantee only lasts for the next five minutes, or until finals end and I start thinking about the future again. Whichever comes soonest.

A Quick List - Or Things I'd Rather Be Doing Right Now
1) Reading something that wasn't assigned to me as homework.
2) Dancing.
3) Eating hot hot hot wings.
4) Painting.
5) Making a very cool anklet that I got the idea for today. It will have to wait. Of course.
6) Watching Seasons 2-Infinity of Firefly.
7) More napping.

A Small Gift

From the Endicott Studio's Free E-card. Celebrating National Poetry Month.

I thought that this was particularly encouraging, what with finals dragging everyone down and all.

This was taken from Neil Gaiman's poem, Instructions.

Being Asked Questions

I remember that when I graduated from high school, the question most asked was "So, what are you going to do next?"

I hated being asked this question. I knew that people only asked because a) they cared and were curious or b) were just killing time, shooting the breeze and didn't really care.

Either way, it meant that I had to have something to answer with. This was a bit of a problem because I wasn't really sure back then. You develop your stock semi-amusing answer, however, and learn to deftly change the topic.

This is also how I also answer the inevitable " Wow, you sure are tall, do you play basketball? No, well you really ought to, I bet the coach would sure love you."

My usual response?

Something self-depricating about a lack of both talent and coordination. It's both true and non-offensive. This is repeated ad nauseum instead of responding more truthfully and completly with: "I'd rather stab pencils in my eyes than play a competitive sport, especially basketball, with highly competitive and agressive athletes, because that whole team-sport thing actually sounds kind of like a mid-level ring of hell. Right in between the one for jerks who park in handicapped parking and the ring for overly biased journalists with no understanding of proper research methods."

Oddly enough, I used to get asked that question ALL THE TIME. Especially by strangers, the more random the stranger, the more likely I get that same damn question. Now my random stranger question still revolves around how tall I am, but with a new twist.

It is now: "Wow, you sure are tall. It must be really hard to find boyfriends tall enough."

My usual response: "Nah, my fiance is about the same height I am. Whoever's tallest just depends on the shoes we wear."

What I will someday say if I ever get annoyed enough: What? Seriously? Aaaargh. I'm leaving. I have better things to worry about than how tall my boyfriend is.

I'm now getting asked the "So, what will you do now with your spanking new degree? Grad school?"

It's understandable. I know. Enquiring minds want to know. My answer?

"Grad school? Dear God in heaven, please no. Not more school. Not for a while. Maybe a job. I hear you get money when you do them. That sounds very fun."

I've been working on this degree for six years. That isn't to say I've always been in school, but it has been my overarcing goal for that long. That is a long time. That's a full quarter of my life. I won't say never for more school, because the world has a way of throwing forever in your face, but I will say not right now.

I'm also getting married this summer, and then moving two timezones away. To a very large city where none of my friends live. I'll know a few people there, but mostly it will be people I've only very recently met, and no family of mine.

That is a lot of change. So to do all that and start school again (even if I wanted too) would be too much. Plus the whole money thing. It sounds intruiging.

My plans aren't really any more concrete than that. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, I'll have options. On the other, I'll have no (well, little) direction. We'll see how I do in this world with the B.A.

Something A Bit Lighter

1) Today marks my first week of flipflops. NO MORE SHOES!!!!! YAY!!!!! This means that summer is here to stay.

2) Bunny Report - The bunny is looking well and fat. I saw him as I was leaving today, and he matches much better now that all of his white is gone, and the snow has melted.

3) The Scholar-Poet is currently ignoring me. Oh, no, he's just emailing his girlfriend. I guess I won't be all mad at. He is the only person who I've ever written a limerick for. That makes him famous. Well. Famous to me.

4) Prince Charming will be home in exactly two weeks. Not only will we be in the SAME PROVINCE, but we will be done our separations. Together. It feels a bit strange. It even sounds strange.

"When the Lord took back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream."

That's how I'm feeling.

Well, plus the fact that I'm also tired right now and totally not looking forward to finals. I, however, think that it all contributes.

The End of an Era

Last night it suddenly hit me.

I had the last class of my undergraduate degree today. This thing that I've been working on for so long, has almost ended.

This has been the most difficult thing I've ever done, and it's Finished. It's Over.

These words keep echoing in my brain. It feels so strange as they roll around and reverberate like church bells tolling.

Last night I was remembering all of the things that have happened since I started this degree. It was a lot, and very heavy.

1) Moved out.
2) Moved back.
3) Moved back and forth so many times that I've actually forgotten how many moves I've made.
4) Did my "wild experimental" stage. I use quotes here because as wild goes, I was pretty unexciting.
5) Did the therapy thing.
6) Watched my brother die. Cried a lot. Things get fuzzy.
7) Ended the therapy thing.
8) Got kicked out of school.
9) Quit my (very well-paid and most excellent) job.
10) Found a new and crappy job.
11) Got fired from said new and crappy job.
12) Was Officially Unemployed.
13) Found new and even crappier job, one that will never ever be put on my resume.
14) Regained some self-esteem, and quit that job.
15) Was unemployed again. Found new job.

16) Found a better job.

17) Went back to school.
18) Met this guy, who seemed to be pretty cool. We talk lots.
19) Left that school as soon as I could, for a different school.
20) Remembered how to breathe again.
21) Started on finishing my degree. Went back to school full-time.
22) Pretty Cool Guy turns into Prince Charming.
23) Life with Prince Charming is pretty wonderful.
24) Discover that life without Prince Charming is both terrible and boring.
25) Get engaged.
26) Live in the never-ending maze of wedding-madness and homework.

This is definitely an end. The best part? There's a new beginning coming. When I'm not too busy hyperventilating (really not all that good about change), I'm really excited about what will be coming next.

More Busyness?

So, all of a sudden, I'm getting all these new readers. Yay! Hi! Come on in. Take your shoes off, and help yourself to whatever is in the fridge.

Now I'm feeling all this pressure to keep coming up with new and interesting things to say. Unfortunately all you get is me.

A Clarification:

Earlier I talked about doing something to my hair that I'd never done voluntarily before. It had been done a few times before to magnificent effect on Halloween. I really wish that I have pictures to show, because you'd be impressed. Stiletto is a queen of the comb and hairspray.

I'm talking about backcombing. I avoided it for years. The last time it was cool, I deliberately avoided that trend like the macarena (which I'm still proud to say that I can't do). I had long hair, I had short hair, but I never had big teased hair.

Mum thinks it is hilarious that I've started occasionally added pouf to my hair. When I was little, my sister Teddy and I would tease her and complain about the amounts of hairspray and teasing she would do to herself. Pouf was a bad word in our house.

Now she can't seem to stop laughing. I suppose it's only fair. Or something. Stupid karma.

A Week of Busyness

Oddly enough, this week was:

a) busy, and
b) involved actually spending time with real live people.

Real Live People. Not just people like Buffy and the Scoobies. Or Angel.

Crazy huh? Although I did finish of the seventh season of Buffy. And have started on Angel.

What I thought of Season 7 of Buffy.

1) Kennedy is the most annoying character in the world. Seriously. I am a peaceful, non-confrontational person. Kennedy would talk, and I wanted to jump into the TV screen and slap her in the face. If that didn't make her stop, punching in the nose was my Plan B.

2) Some may be aware of my deep and abiding love for Firefly. Also, a tiny crush on Captain Reynolds. In season 7, Nathan Fillion plays the main villian's first henchman. He likes to go around cutting up girls.

My thought process when I first saw Nathan Fillion on the screen:
a) Yay! It's Nathan Fillion. Yay! More Captain-y goodness!
b) What is he doing? Why is he doing that to that poor girl? What is going on? The Captain would never do.... Oh. He did. Why did he just do that?
c) She's practically the same age as Kaylee. That's so terible. How could he do that? Buffy is going to have to hurt him lots now.
d) Zoe is so going to kick his ass all over the place.
e) hmm. Turns out he's pretty tough. Buffy should call Zoe, and also Jane. He could bring Vera and totally help. Space age guns should help against massive evil powers, right?
f) Poor Captain. He went all crazy-like. I need to watch more Firefly in order to restore my faith in the world and Nathan Fillion.

3) Thank you Joss Whedon, you big jerk. Thanks for killing off my two favourite characters. Jerk. Why do you always do that? You do know that the other kids won't want to play with you if you keep on doing that.

4) In the commentaries, JW kept on talking about how tired and exhausted he was.
Season 7? My least favourite of all. I will say no more.

Originally this was going to be part of a much larger post, as I was going to introduce my friend, Whistle Twice, but I'm doing stuff with Stilletto and have to go. She is throwing a party tonight!

A Weekend of Busyness

This weekend was interesting because:

1) It was busy.
2) I experimented with my hair and did something I've never done on my own, of my own free choice before.
3) I saw lots of lovely people.
4) I found out that some people* LIKE MY LISTS! I know, it sounds crazy. It probably is. Panda told me today that she loves my lists. They make her laugh. (fyi, I use lists all the time for correspondence, not just here on my blog) Panda gets alot of my lists as she is also a bridesmaid of mine.
5) I went looking at shoes. Very nice and kindof expensive shoes.

Exciting? Yes.

Did I think that I actually had more things to say? Umm, also yes. Unfortunately, I'm feeling pretty scattered right now, so I'll have to make more sense later. Yay for you. Enjoy the anticipation.


*and by people, I really just mean Panda

Utter Excitement

My house has a very large yard, which for the most part, tends to be rather quiet.

So quiet, in fact, that bunnies like to live there.

They've lived there throughout the summer, and through most of the winter. However, I'd stopped seeing them after about November. There was a big fat bunny that especially liked a small nook in a raised flowerbed in the backyard.

Today, to my utter excitement, the bunny was back. He (or she) is beginning to turn brown again and is still happy and fat.

I'll have to remember to leave some carrots out for him. His fatness is probably just his fur fluffed out for warmth.

Cravings

The night before last I dreamt that I was in a grocery store, and someone was offering me a red chili pepper. I just looked at it and thought how lovely it would be to eat it.

Earlier that night I had eaten two spicier than the Olive Garden's peppercinis. They were delicious. There was a bit of a burn, and the flavour was magnificent. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed eating something so much.

Yesterday I cut up big chunks of raw onion to put on my perogys.

Before that I was adding hot sauce to my rice.

It appears that I'm craving spicy hot things.

Am I going crazy?

Someone Else's Contest

So Tyler f. is having a contest, in hopes of reaching 40,000 visitors on his 40th birthday.

Go look at his website. My favourite post (so far) is the one about hebrew tattoos.

I find this especially funny because Stiletto once told me a story about how this guy was showing her his tattoo, which was supposed to say Canada in Chinese. She saw it, and realized that it was incorrect because it was only the first character.

She replied after he tried to argue with her that it was correct, "I spent a year in China, and on every letter I wrote home, I had to write the characters for Canada so that letter would actually get home. You are missing a character."

The Importance of Spring

soft winds have begun,
the snow will soon be melted.
green awakening.

snow! begin to melt,
the green scented winds have come
and soon he'll be here.

A New Week Has Begun

I had all sorts of ideas for my next blog, but of course, by the time that I get to the computer to start typing, I've forgotten.

So I'll start in the middle and work outward. And I'll do it as a list. Because lists are where it's at.

I can't believe I just wrote that. Whenever I read phrases like that, I tend to usually do the following:

1) roll my eyes
2) and wonder
a) where what's at?
b) who really talks like that? and
c) why usually whoever says that seems to be selling something.
3) decide that the only possible recourse is to ignore that phrase and move on.

On to the main list.

My Main List

Things Learned Over The Weekend

1) Cleaning is dull. Deadly dull. Which is why I do it as little as possible. But the inevitability of no clean underwear eventually does hit, and I used my time alone to begin to rectify this. (Knitter and Gamer are gone for a visit to the coast, and so my access to the laundry is unlimited and guilt about leaving crap in common areas is nonexistant. Yay!)

2) Waking up to Hakuna Matata is disorienting. Even after 5 days. Knitter left her alarm clock on, and so I'm waking up to disney music. Which is not bad, just extremly odd. First thing in the morning, I get to wake up to music, and it is familliar enough that I'll recognize it, but it is not familliar enough that recognition is easy. When you're still sleeping, so it forces me to become awake enough that I can figure out how I know what's playing.

3) The Sugarbowl has amazing coffee. It's just fabulous. And mindboggling at just how good it is. It's not just myself that thinks so, I went with another coffee-snob friend, Rides on Elephants (who will henceforth be known simply as Elephant, due to the long and unwieldy nature of the long form of her name) and she agrees. We will return.

4) New favorite place to go out for a drink. The Strathern (sp?) at first glance looked a little... like a dive. As the night wore on, I realized two things:
a) Cheap beer gets better after a while.
b) The Strat (Strath?) is extremely low on the pretentious asshole scale. People came, people drank their beer, and left. Elephant said that the place reminded her of the small bars she would go to when she was in australia, and it sort of reminded me of small-town bars (of which I've been to 3) There was a jukebox, but it was quiet enough that I had no trouble talking to Elephant.

c) It's nice to have a quiet place to go out for a night. The people there were all after the same thing, more or less. It was a very relaxing night.

Plans for the Future

1) Run a contest. More details to follow.
2) Update links.
3) Become a philosopher. I was reading Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (a very good book in a very good series) in the tub, and I realized that there is so much I don't know about how and why and when, and wish that I did.
4) Find an apartment in Toronto that:
a) doesn't cost the earth
b) isn't in a super scary part of town
It would be nice if it was close to the U of T.
5) Finish my sewing project.
6) Finish cleaning.
7) More studying. gah.

Last Night, Watching the News

the weather girl on the news,
is explaining to me how the wind blows
and all i can think is,
"you and i are so far apart,
the wind that touches you will never touch me."

Wow, or Public Service Announcement II

Everyone needs to go out and listen to Holly McNarland's version of Phil Collins' In the Air tonight.

Everyone.

She takes a mediocre song and gives it teeth.

I also have to thank Stiletto for letting me listen to her walkman so I could hear this song.

Thanks Stiletto! Not only do you always wear sexy shoes (even perhaps when you shouldn't because of inclement weather), but you also are an clever and marvelous pirate.

More Happy!

Finished my last midterm, and it went well, I think.

There was one question that I wasn't quite sure what the prof was asking for, but I guessed and either I did well on the question, or I bombed it. However, that is the past. And I kicked ass on the other questions. Which means that fortunately, a whole bunch of the questions were on the readings. I'm much better at reading books than sitting in class, listening to lists of programs, names and dates.

This style of class has led me to realize yet again that I'm definitely a visual learner. Or something. Just listening to lectures is almost painful. It hurts. It is also freakishly boring. The subject matter could be wildly fascinating, but style of presentation really does count. I am a diagram kind of girl. Pictures make me happy. I like to think that that is how I get to write super-fun papers on graphic novels.

I will admit, I adore Powerpoint presentations, especially when the notes get posted before class. The psych department is pretty good about allowing and facilitating webnotes on their website; whereas the sociology department is rather... terrible. I'm sure that it has something to do with their budget and its ever-present cuts, but I will admit that: a) I'm spoiled and b) I like it that way.

A Note On Something Completely Different:

I've found a new lab which I like. There is some sort of a statistics/economics lab going on right now, and the TA is hilarious. My favourite is when he gets all sarcastic when talking to his students, and then calls out "SILENCE!" Fortunately he doesn't care about visitors coming in, as long as you're quiet. Which I am, because really, who am I going to talk to in an economics lab?

I had to stop going to the business lab, as fun as those computers were, with their double screens and fast connections. I totally blame business students for never shutting up. I know that they do a lot of group work, but I kept ending up near the same hyper-annoying girls. Who kept talking. About their friends. Behind their backs. It was like being in jr. high again. Save me from those trendy bitches. They were more than I could take.

No really, I'm being serious. I can only handle so much yoga-wear and perfect hair.

A Teeny-tiny Update

Umm, so my coffee, which I previously said was full of sugary sweetness that made up for the funky bitterness?

Currently, not so much. In fact, not at all. The sweetness barely covers the bitterness, and amplifies the horribleness, and now that it is cold, the approval rating sank like your battleship.

Rays of Sunshine

Even though I have one midterm left (rated: very hard), and I have my sewing class tonight, and still have much wedding planning left to do, several things have come up that are very cheering.

1) I ran into a professor from last semester that still has a paper of mine. Through a long comedy of errors, I still hadn't gotten back my final paper. We got to chatting, and he told me that my papers were some of the most interesting that he'd gotten from the class. YAY! He also said that they were really interesting, and were pretty good. DOUBLE YAY!

The best part of this is that it was a 400-level class and I had basically no background in the theories of that subject. TRIPLE YAY!

2) I wrote a midterm today and I think it went well. This is good because in this class, I tend to get bored. The prof is really interesting, but it's a 200-level (which is still introductory level instruction on the subject) and I've also taken 300-levels on the subjects that we touch on in class.

3) The coffee I'm drinking right now is really rank, but there is a crazy amount of sugar and real cream in it, so it is elevated to not bad, with a super fun caffiene buzz.

4) Someone left a comment. I know that I shouldn't be so affected by such small things, but it is my second comment, and the first from someone I don't see on a semi-regular basis. I'm pretty psyched.

5) Buffy + Spike. What will happen next with those two? All this growing tension and chemistry is beginning to get to me.

Don't tell me, I'm still watching the sixth season. After these tests, I'm totally finishing the season off and getting into season seven. I'm totally serious. DO NOT TELL ME. I do remember that something really bad happens; and I remember huge controversy but I'm not quite sure what.

Both Stiletto and Prince Charming think I've been whatching too much Buffy lately. Perhaps it is true. Perhaps. Or maybe they're just jealous. In my defence, I need something to do besides plan wedding things and worry about where we're going to live after we're married.

Darkest Magic

Last year some time before my birthday, Prince Charming picked up on the fact that I am mad for dark chocolate.

The darker, the better.

I love the rich full bittersweet taste of a rich dark chocolate. Not for me the mild and mellow of the medium chocolate. White chocolate has its place, as a garnish, or as an accent.

This knowledge spread to Santa, and so in my stocking there were quite a few pieces of dark chocolate hidden in there.

Among them was a bar of Botticelli's Double Dark. I've never heard of this brand before, but that does not mean anything right at this moment. Hovever, I've just finished eating it. It was wonderful. Beautiful. Luscious. It was not bitter at all, but simply the right amount of rich with a hint of sweetness. Whoever AlpineConfections Inc. is, from Delta British Columbia, they have an excellent product.

I totally give this amazing chocolate bar my endorsement. Whatever that is worth.

Public Service Announcement

This is my good deed for the day.

Do not, for any amount of money, go see Ultraviolet.

It is a terrible movie. I cannot for the life of me, remember seeing such a terrible movie in the theatre before. I think that the last movie I saw that was that bad was Rollerball. Even then, I still think Ultraviolet is the worse movie.

If you desperately feel the need to see this movie, rent it at home and then fast-forward through the talking parts.

I have never before been in a movie where people walked out with only 15 minutes left. I could hear people in the rest of the audience saying things like "this stinks" and "this movie sucks."

It was so disappointing. I do like action movies, and I could see how Ultraviolet was trying to umm, emulate their sucess. I liked all three Blade movies, and also liked the Kill Bills. I haven't yet seen Aeon Flux, the movie, but I did see some of the shorts. However, as much as I appreciated the comments on the potential future, I could not get over everything else that was terrible with the movie. I'm a huge fan of futuristic fiction, and I love seeing different views of how the current trend of globalization could end up, but this was... unfortunate.

The CGI was well done, and I know Glen Fiddich liked what they did with her face, but I hated it. The wierd filtering they did on it made it difficult for her to show any emotion at all. Which could be the reason for the terribly overdone acting poor Milla did.

Anyway, bottom line? Save the hour and a half of your life that you will never, ever get back if you watch this movie.

If only I could give up school for Lent...

Well, I'm back in the thick of things after a delightful time following Prince Charming around like a lost puppy.

That's right. My Valentine's Day present was that Prince Charming got to come home for Reading week. Which meant that Reading Week got busy.

Prince Charming and I:

1) Celebrated our anniversary by going to West Ed Mall to look at the sea turtles (he loves sea turtles so much) It was a perfect surprise, since he had no idea that there were sea turtles in here in our land-locked prairie city. Then we got all dressed up and went for dinner. Also fabulous. Sadly, the next leg of our party did not work out so well. I'd planned for us to go for salsa dancing lessons. What I did not plan was for me to misunderstand the paper and show up for the lesson part of the dancing. Instead, we watched The Corpse Bride. Still very nice.

This is the first time I've ever planned any big event for us as a couple. Prince Charming is super huge on surprises and he is the one who tends to do stuff like this. On the whole, I think it went rather well. It could have been somewhat better, but it was a very good night.

2) Picked out wedding rings. We both will have them, and they aren't matchy-matchy, but are in similar metals (white gold). His is done and paid for, but mine is just now ready to be cast. Mine is a custom jobby because my engagement ring style is not too common, the band just needed to be domed on top a bit. It's not going to be fancy or anything, but it will be very lovely when it is done.

3) Watched him do homework. Well, sort of. Sometimes I also used that very important time to sleep.

4) Did some work figuring out wedding-night hotel plans. Which are now done. By the way. Thanks Knitter!

5) Bought a crap-load of yarn. New projects!!! Very exciting.

6) Took a hiatus from Buffy.

7) Um, and lots of other random and boring things that were made wonderful and fabulous because Prince Charming was holding my hand.

So that is the sappy story of my Reading Week.

Now it is back to school and homework and all that stuff that I can't see being allowed (or getting any sort of credit for) giving up for Lent.

Reading Week Bliss

So, it is Reading Week around here, and so my super exciting plans revolve around pretending that I'm not acutally a student at the moment. Sweet, yes?

So, I'll probably start posting again on Monday. Or not. It entirely depends on how this week turns out, and then I'll be back with all sorts of exciting stories.

Sticky Wicket Explained and Un-Confounded

So, a while ago I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. It is going rather well so far for me. Knitter, one of my upstairs neighbours, has all of the episodes, so it is both fun and economical to do.

I was warned that Season One was sub-par, and I agree. It does a good job of setting the story and the future tensions that would come out, but it left me a little wanting. Season One focuses the story on Buffy, and places all of the pressure on her, story-wise. Unfortunately, after watching Firefly about umpty-zillion times, it falls a little flat. Buffy was a good character and got rather well rounded, but the rest of the characters got left empty. The surrounding cast become a group of excessively useless babies. It was pretty sad, and almost hard to watch.

It also drove me nuts that Buffy was wearing bras to bed. It is just one of those facts that firmly takes the tv show and places it within such a specific context that it does feel artificial.

I can see that most of it is done for a reason. The image of Buffy as innocent victim is repeatedly thrown at you as she both kicks ass and falls for Angel, the ultimate in "safe" bad-boy. She is never shown as interested in a man unless she comes up to just below his shoulder, and he outweighs her by maybe 100 lbs. The show also throws many horror movie staples at you, the viewer, as well. The disembodied monster-hand. The implacable advance of the monster. The innocent victim. The not-so innocent victim. The ghostly child as pathway to Other and also expositor.

I'm glad I watched it, however, because I've never been able to watch horror and be able to deconstruct it before. It was always too scary and I couldn't remove myself from watching it enough to look at it analytically before. I'm actually pretty excited about perhaps being able to do it now.

The other main problem I had was with Angel. He is supposed to be the romantic lead. He is supposed to make the audience drool and cheer when kissing happens, and riot when shirts come off. I remember watching a few episodes and having a huge crush on Angel. It was a little disappointing to realize that not only was the crush completely gone, I was almost repelled by him.

Then inspiration struck.

1) Angel is such a flat character, and is so mysterious, he becomes "that guy, you know, the one in black." There is nothing there. He just shows up, is good looking enough that you know you are supposed to want him, and then leaves.

2) I dig smart boys. Boys who read make me do double-takes. When I saw Prince Charming's bookcase, I knew for sure he was both very interesting and definitely worth my time. It's not until Season Two that you see Angel's apartment, and you see the reams of cool books lying around. He's just now becoming interesting and nicely layered (am currently watching Season Two.)

3) She is 16, he's 300-ish. I'm 24, and wouldn't consider dating a 16-yr-old, or even and 21-yr-old. It's beyond cradle-robbing, and is moving into criminal action for me.

4) Whoever does his eyebrows needs to take less off, and darken them a bit. They are not dramatic enough. His hair is dark enough that he could handle, and in fact needs a darker eyebrow. It looks funny. This is a complaint I've had of David Boreanaz for a while, and it still needs doing.

A Surprising Lack of Valentine's Day Funk

Today has gone surprisingly well.

For those of you who are new to the scene, I will sum up. I am engaged to Prince Charming. He is, of course, very charming; but also is currently very far away. He is going to school two time zones away and so is gone for about 8 months of the year. This is the second year that the two of us have spent the 8 months apart.

We are currently at about the half-way mark for our last 4 month stretch. It feels so good to say that. Prince Charming and I were not engaged when this started, that happened a year ago.

Another key factoid to know. My favorite holiday is Valentine's Day. I love it. I am not one of those people who bitches and complains about the hideosity that is Valentine's Day. I adore it. I still adore it when I'm single, I just adore it more when I'm not.

However, when you take those two facts and put them together, it sometimes makes for a very lonely and sad day filled with comfort m&m's and ice cream.

But, and a very large one as well. Today I am feeling pretty good.

Not only is my true love far away, but I also had a midterm today which was accurately referenced in the syllabus as the Valentine's Day Massacre. I fell asleep on the couch after I got home from school and slept way too long, and so was wide awake until 7 am. Which was not a good thing, not at all.

With all of these factors, which should have added up into a great big ball of misery, somehow have not. It has been a pretty good day. I will go home and eat a nice dinner, with a nice big bowl of ice cream. I will finish doing my notes for my last midterm tonight, and then I will settle down to a few episodes of Buffy (Season One).

I had a good day, and I will have a good night.

I hope that you all had and are having a good Valentine's Day, with many hugs and kisses from those who love you. If not today, then soon.

Return to Wellville.... Maybe

Today I woke up and realized that something was different. It took me a while to realize what the change was. I could actually breathe through my nose. It was a welcome change, and hopefully a portent of good health to come. I still have my cough, but it is nowhere near the "Beth has consumption" level of hacking that it was. It is actually approaching a civilized type of coughing.

YAY! It is always exciting to be feeling better just in time for.... midterms.

All of a sudden, my excitement about my massive improvement in health has begun to fall flat. Draining slowly and dribbling out.

I'll keep myself going thinking about the joy that will be reading week.

My Starbucks Life, or Sorry Mr. Frost

I say the night will end in fire,
He says in ice.
From what I've tasted of the steamed apple cider
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if I should have to order twice,
I think I know enough about drinks,
To say that for my date
The double chocolate chip frappachino
Is also great,
And would suffice.


I was studying at Starbucks, if you couldn't tell.

Haiku # 2

deep thermal vents burn
awakened, kissed by G-d
the first in-drawn breath


also while studying the formation of the solar system

My First Haiku

in the beginning
there was both explosion
and nothing at all


written while studying the formation of the solar system, last night

Mad About Haiku

I spent many years of my life unable to remember the number of syllabels that are in each line of a haiku. It was like knowing how to spell the word "answer" or how many centimeters go into an inch.

Anyway, I seem to be breaking out into haiku. It is very strange because while I have written many poems in many styles, I have never been drawn to the haiku before. I will admit that I am now enjoying them quite alot.

Pre-Valentine's Day Haiku

i breathe in and out
valentine's red and pink.
i keep smelling you.

4:55 PM - 9:25 PM

Today I went to a funeral. I don't have much to say because I never got to meet the diceased. He only lived about 4 and a half hours.

It was a beautiful service.

I remember that in my Eng 101 class, many years ago, people would ask questions about suffering, about the why and how it could happen. I suppose it is natural that people would want to know these things.

After more funerals and days of crying than I can count, the only thing I have decided about suffering is that when those around you hurt, you go to them and hurt with them. Acknowledge their pain and be with them while they hurt. When you hurt, go to those around you and allow them to see your pain and hurt with you.

Recognize that God is great, and life is painful. Both statements are true.

I had promised myself I would never do this...

When I read blogs, one of the fastest ways to bore me to death is by posting the link to your score on some quiz. The quizzes come in anything from what "personality" tests , to what your personal fairy is, sexlife type, or what your magical power is.

I'm sort of doing this to you.



and because it is always good to share...





Anyway, I'm beginning to feel better, and should post again soon.

Newsflash

I'm sick. Actually sick. After almost being well for, well, a while now. I am sick yet again.

If you spend more time sick than well, what does that actually mean?

A New Look, and more

Along with homework and learning to sew, I have become obsessed with changing my blog. I desperately want a snazzier looking blog, and I went looking for templates.

As a result I now find myself attempting to teach myself html here so I can make something myself. Because you know, it can't be that difficult if millions of people everywhere make up templates and stuff. This will be interesting. I've taught myself how to change colours, now I just have to... find out a format that I'll like for more than a week. Ack. I think I know what I want, I want a fabulous picture in the background, something minimalist probably, and I definitely want to change the font. I've been thinking about themes, perhaps fish, or maybe a space-based pattern. There are some absolutely fabulous pictures from Hubble and the different missions that have been going on.

With other news, I went to go do my part in the electoral process earlier today. I now have the right to bitch however I want about the federal government for the next four years.

Yay Me!

If you live in Canada, GO VOTE NOW, you have approximately 4.25 hours left to vote.

Fun With Friends

This week has been a good week for spending time with friends. I spent Wednesday night with my friend and ex-roommate Palm Tree, and spent most of today with my other friend Stiletto.

Palm Tree is fun. I never know what we will end up doing or who will join us. She just moved back into the duplex where we lived together, and spending the night felt so odd, because while I had lived there for quite a while, the duplex looks a lot different now. The furniture is different and the basement, which was our super-girly hangout, has been transformed to the mecca of all things sports. The decorating scheme is focused around the projection tv and basketball jerseys.

It was so good to see her. She is the only roommate that I've ever had that I still keep in contact with. I totally blame her excess of patience.

I have known my other friend Stiletto, for eight years (how did that happen?) We sat next to each other in the back of our AP (Advanced Placement) English class and bonded over the teacher's dislike of the both of us and our love of poetry. Now she is my fashion coordinator and school buddy. She keeps me looking sharp. She is still disgusted about how she came back after being in China for a year and found that my wardrobe had regressed to shades of navy blue, olive and grey boring.

Tomorrow I'm going to go and hang out with Glen Fiddich, another really good friend of mine, and finish watching Firefly with him. It is my new obsession. I cannot explain how upset and bitter I am that there are only 14 episodes. I never got to watch it when it came out (I tend to not watch tv for a variety of reasons, most of which involve a lack of cable and evening shifts or courses) and I'm so sad about that. I'm even more sad that there isnt more.

This may not be the most interesting post, it's basically just a list of what I've been up to (which actually does include school work, shockingly enough, AND going to the gym, absolutely frightening!) however, I feel good. I feel really good right now, and I hope to stick with this.

It might be that this semester is going to be easier school-wise, it could be my new exercise regime, and it could also be that this is the last semester that Prince Charming and I will be apart. It could also be a bit of all of it. I just hope that it doesn't go away any time soon.

Stiletto is getting anxious. I'm borrowing her computer, and I think we have to go have fun now.

At the Hospital

Continuing in my series of posts from about town, I'm writing in the lobby of the hospital, where they have free internet. Very exciting in a technology-is-everywhere sort of way.

My granny is doing much much better. She's looking like herself again, and talking more. It's so good. She's going on walks and stuff too.

The bad news is that my mother now knows that I have a blog. Mom, if you are reading this, I just want you to know that sometimes you may think that you are reading a bad word. Blogger has this thing where occasionally there are typos and they tend to look like bad words. For real, mom. I don't know how to fix it.

I love you. You are the best mom ever.

And I've never skipped class ever. Or anything like that.

Did I tell you I loved you? And you're the best?

You are.

Ignore the potty-language. Its not really there.

:-)

At The Library

For those of you who are in the know, you will know that my computer is on the fritz. It is something to do with my BIOS and memory. In that intersection is the reason why my computer still will not work.

Because of that, I am at the Library right now. In honor of that fact I am going to write about books.

Number One

I love Frank Herbert's Dune. It is a magnificent book and I enjoy reading it every time I pick it up. All of the details that he puts into his book created this fascinating world.

It is truly a great book. So, on one hand, I totally understand why another writer might want to rip him off and use a plot line of his instead of making up a new one. I understand, but I don't recommend or endorse. In fact, I think that it is a pretty lame thing to do, and yet, it isn't the first time I've seen it done. Colby Hodge did it in Stargazer.

I look at the cover of Stargazer, and I'm not exactly sure why I picked it up and read it. There is a half naked guy on the cover who reminds me of someone. I'm not sure who though, and that always drives me nuts, so... I still have no clue.

However, that does not change the fact that if you change the name of the Circe in Stargazer and think of them as the Bene Gesserit and think of Shaun as a Maud'dib, it is almost like reading a cheaper and shoddier version of Dune. With more sex and hints of Star Wars I, like Padme (oops I meant Lilly) going to go to the Senate for help to fight the evil invasion of her lovely garden-like home planet.

I think that I'd not be so annoyed with this, except that I've seen it before, and I'm a little shocked. I come from the University, where at the beginning of every term, students are warned of the terrible penalties that await plagarism. Failure, expulsion, a one way trip to hell... you are made aware of them all. Apparently if you are a writer, you get published.

I've also seen this before with the Liadan Universe. The Liaden Universe is a series of fluffy books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller that are half science fiction, and half romance with a dash of fantasy. I can't remember which of them is a Dune ripoff, but just look for the "fear is the mind-killer" mantra and the scene where Paul Atreides is tested by the Reverend Mother. There is at least one other of the books that was probably a rip off of another science fiction book I liked, but I haven't read the Liaden books in a while so if you are curious, you can go look yourself.

Number Two
Robert Sawyer is coming to Edmonton Jan 29 to Stanley Milner Library at 2 pm. He is an amazing science fiction writer. Everyone who likes to read good books should go. I have one of them and I was so impressed by it. The two main characters go walking down Philosopher's Walk in Toronto, and when I was there last February, I absolutely had to go walk down it as well. Calculating God was a great book, and I'm only sorry that I haven't read more books of his.

Number Three
S.E. Hinton has written a new book. It is fantastic. Everyone should read it. Even if you don't like vampire novels. That's right. The writer of the Outsiders and Rumble Fish has given us a novel about a vampire. Hawkes Harbor is what a vampire novel should be.

And that is most of what I wanted to say today, because I'm running out of time here. Enjoy!

Back to School

I've had my first day of school today.

Its always very exciting to have a first day of school. The first day is alot like New Year's Day. You have all of your good intentions leading you straight into the hell of finals week stress. Here is a list of things I've tried to do in previous semesters. I have now learned that one should take a bit of time with things like resolutions and such, and should not be rash when making them.

Good Intentions I Have Had:

1) Do all readings, and not only will I do them, but I will do them before classes
2) Read chapters three times, to make sure you understand them, like those gradschool TA's tell you to, so you too can suceed.
3) Also read something off the recommended list, no, I will read several somethings off the recommended list.
4) Start your big projects in two weeks, so you can have them done before you usually start them, the day before the day before they are due.
5) Get up early every day, so you can have breakfast before your classes.
6) Go to all classes, no matter how boring.
7) Not be late to any classes, no matter how boring.
8) Go to gym and be healthy. Eat good food and not Kraft Dinner for the thirty-third meal in a row.
9) Walk to school, not just jumping on the bus. After all, I'll be getting up early enough that I can, and it will help with being healthy.
10) Go back to the pre-requisite courses and study up on the stuff I didn't quite catch the first time (but totally fluked my way through) for the class I'm taking now and actually do need to know.
11) Go to the extra-curricular speakers that occasionally come to the school to give interesting talks on subjects that are both interesting and unknown to me.

I would just like to say that I don't think that I have ever been able to keep all or any of those resolutions. Part of me feels a bit depressed and low-self-esteem-y at that, but another part of myself just reminds me that perhaps this next semester will not only be my last, but my best.

That is the good part about the first day of something new, there is a break point. You can say to yourself that no matter how it was before, now you are onto something new. As you say that to yourself, you know that it is true. You just have to keep on going, and working, and perhaps, if you work your hardest, and never give up, you might get somewhere near where you wanted to go.

My Amazing Christmas!

I had a wonderful Christmas. I will just start out saying that all in all, this was an excellent year.

I find it rather funny though, that I, the girl with 1000 hobbies (who really was told, and has been told several times that perhaps I ought to focus, and maybe just have one or two) got a sewing machine.

A whole new realm of craftiness draws me.

Happy New Year's!

To everyone who comes by, Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas!

My holidays have been very good so far, with lots of family and visiting and time with Prince Charming. Unfortunately my grannie is sick though, and she's in the hospital, so I've been trying to visit her lots too.

Best wishes to all, and I hope that the new year brings good things to you all.

Wedding Madness

So before I become horribly swamped in details and overwhelmed with the minutia that I think is coming, I am going to be horribly proud of myself in regards to wedding planning.

So far Prince Charming and I have:

1) Booked the church and hall
2) Mostly booked a caterer (just waiting for a taste test which is already booked, and probably mostly a formality)
3) Figured out tuxes (final fittings tomorrow)
4) Bought one wedding dress
5) Booked the photographer
6) Decided on favours
7) Bought invitations (Yay Michael's!)
This is pretty far in advance, so that is pretty exciting for me.

In about five minutes, I'll realize what else needs doing, start crying, give myself a massive migraine and collapse.

Prince Charming won't know what hit him.

Actually, he will, and hopefully he:

1) Won't take it personally (probable)
2) Won't let it get to him (unsure, he also gets stressed about the wedding, but usually we freak out at different times so it tends to not be a disaster)
3) Will realize that it will end (definitely probable, when I freak out about something, he is generally pretty good about staying calm, putting me to bed and/or feeding me, and weathering the storm )

On to the next thing....

End of Term

I just finished my last final. It will probably take a little to turn my head around and actually realize that I'm done for the term.

In retrospect, I will say that it wasn't my best term, and I'm going to have to do something to make sure that next term isn't so hard/bad.

9 credits left until I graduate. God willing.

However, before I do that, I'm going to watch White Christmas tonight with Prince Charming (who is finally home) and wrap christmas presents and have a lovely dinner.

Free! Free! Free!

Well, sort of. I have one test left, but not for 12 days. Prince Charming comes home in 4 days. So today I am going to go play with a camera with a friend of mine. Maybe I'll get a picture for the site, maybe not. If you are in Edmonton, we will be the two loons at the Legislature grounds, running around like nutcakes. It will be mucho grande latte fun.

In the meantime I'm borrowing her computer while she showers and prettifies herself. You know, all that girly stuff at which that particular friend excels at. It should be a photo-extravaganza, and a rather long post. or not. she's pretty quick. Fun huh?

Last Day of School, or the day I finally regain my mind

Today, gentle reader, is the last day of school for the Fall 2005 school year at the University of Alberta.

Yes, today is the day where I remember that there actually is an end in sight, and that soon all that there will be left is 9 credits of courses between myself and graduation, whatever that may bring.

Of course, between myself and that exact moment is about four pages of b.s. (yes, you heard me Mr. Literary/Visual Criticism-Fan, a big whole load of someone ate too much McDonald's crap er... crap, but I mean it!) Oh, and that one big honking scary test that fortunately I have a nice chunk of time to study for and learn all the things I was too busy trying to keep up to actually understand. Well, unless I totally screw that one up.

Perhaps you are wondering about my track record for studying during exam week, especially after Prince Charming just got home after 4 months of being 2 timezones away?

Well, it might not be the best, but with a little faith, hope, a very detailed schedule, I may not do so badly. Here's hoping.

And might you be wondering also where exactly I am at this moment due to my latest technical trials?

Well, I am at the nicest lab in the university that I've found so far. Which is as far of a discription as I'm giving anyone because it happens to be both a) quiet, b) not too busy and c) posessing of both windows and a nice view. Keeping it that way might mean that other's cant enjoy it, but that is a sacrifice I'm ok with making in order to keep the gomers out.

Panties! Panties! Panties!

Oh, but not your average natty grannie panties, oh no. We are talking very cute new panties, just in time for Christmas. Unfortunately, I don't think they have the exact pairs that I have online, which is very sad, because they are even nicer looking. I will admit, I am a sucker for ribbons on panties. Although, I almost got these, but in blue or black. I will admit, I was very sad that I also A) am not super rich, being a student and all, and B) stopped fitting their bras years ago. Oh well, less cute things to spend money on means more money spent here and here.

Or something like that.

I would just like to say that I deliberately did not make any comments about how the panties don't look the same on me as they do on the models. Very deliberately.

Re: Spelling Seeks to Swat Sex Claims

Now, I have no idea if Spelling is a dirty pervert or not, but I am completely... I don't even know the word I am right now. Disgusted? Shocked? Resigned to stupidity, or at best, a very large lack of proper education?

First of all, there is a very large confusion here. Apparently it is unknown among certain people that physical force is not necessary for sexual abuse to have occurred. One of the reasons that is so because sexual abuse can come in many forms. Coercion can also take place in other ways besides physical threats. Do I really need to spell these possible scenarios out?

Now, Aaron Spelling is in a wheelchair right? I have no idea why I think that, probably the 4-yr old pushing him over comment. Anyway, as gratuitious as that image is, it is irrelevant.

Being in a wheelchair, or able to be pushed over by a 4-yr old doesn't mean that a person can't inappropriately touch another person, or make inappropriate and uwanted comments. All of which are definitely within the grounds of sexual abuse/harassment. So is being coerced into actions which the victim is unwilling, which also can be done from a wheelchair.

I will admit that I'm not sure of the actual American codes that apply, since you know, I took Canadian Criminal Justice System, not US CJS, and if there is one thing my eternally long years of post secondary have taught me is that only twits cite without A) proper references and B) factchecking.

Why I Don't Like School

So, there is a very long list of things I don't like about school. I'm pretty sure that this is the same sort of thing that everyone hates about school, but I can be unoriginal if I want to.

1)It never freaking stops.

There is no point at which you can say, "Oh look, I'm done. Fantabulous." You will always have chapters to read, notes to make, assignments to research, background info and philosophy to study. Asses to kiss, and so on and so forth.

The worst I think is the background in philosophy that I don't have. If you are taking an arts degree, TAKE PHILOSOPHY 101!!!! It is the one course that I actually wish I had taken, not because I care, but because it would have been effing useful. It is the beginning of every class. It comes up after the discussion of Freud and his ideas, and how they apply to whatever class you were sucker enough to take. If you did take that class, you could probably safely skip the first two or three classes. Especially in any 200 level course.

2) First years.

You can smell it on them. That glorious freedom, the first time away from dreaded Mom and Dad, and their totally downer rules. It ranges from the scent of impending alcoholism, to the totally unsurprising realisation that... "I think I might be bi." I understand, this is new, msn tells us so. But really. Think about this. First you have a liberal environment (most universities.) Then you add increasingly relaxed sexual mores (definitely for the girls.) Add a legal drinking age of 18 and you get bicuriosity. Plus the little freaks never study.

3)Annoying pre-grad school bitches.

This may be limited to the Psych department, but its mostly because it is ingrained into you that to make your degree useful, you have to go to grad school, whether you are into research or actually talking to people (just joking, I know that the researchers have to talk to people too sometimes, but you know what I mean.) It doesn't help that everywhere you go, you have classrooms of 200+ students for most of your classes. Meaning? There will be craploads of competition for any job you might be even remotely qualified for.

This environment leads to the assholes and bitches that you hate, you hate them for their wonderful GPA's, their extensive volunteering history, their research assistance history (and resulting excellent relationships with faculty and staff,) their personal history with whatever disorder/disabilities/environments and the glowing reference letters that you know that they are going to get.

The kicker is that there is such an obvious hierarchy, so if you don't have some sort of grad school plans, you are obviously deficient in some way. Because, come on, why else would you get a psych degree? Some are assholes about this, and some are surprisingly nice. I think that you going to understand how the split is divided.

4)How expensive everything is.

The cheapest coffee is about $1.70. This is not for anything fancy or super large. It is a smallish cup of regular blend coffee. I think i found $1.50 once, but it was a small cup, and the place only had one kind of coffee (versus the usual minimum of dark, medium, flavoured, decaf assortment.) I'm not actually a coffee snob, (well, I don't think) but I did once work in a coffee shop, and it does make you notice stuff like that.

If God is smiling at me when I need to buy textbooks, I may end up with spending $30-75 dollars per class. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case. This semester I spent about $500 dollars (I am in THREE classes this term!) It is so painful to spend that kind of money. Especially since resale is a chancy business.

You will notice I leave out tuition. Yes, we all wish we lived in France where in your french 101-102 class they taught you that the government pays for university like high school got paid for. However, I have resigned to the current government's irrational postsecondary policies (more non-self sustaining scholarships? why? is there nothing better you could have done? Just like fashion, you dont spend all your money on the flashy items, you buy them cheap at discount. Spend the money on basic staples of your wardrobe that will last for years.) I also understand according to the extremely basic economics that I understand, I value this thing I pay for enough to only gag at the pricetag, and not bring up my cookies all over the table in rejection. Plus I would feel kinda hypocritical, seeing as how I get so much support.

Although, I also understand that undergrad tuition also pays for you know, the important students. The graduate ones. The ones that might actually publish something, compared to the definitley statistically insignificant undergrad that might make the paper for some freakish reason.


5) Due to both of our programs, Prince Charming is two timezones away from me. We are not together because of school.

I understand that in 8 months we will be married and shackled together forever, but it is still not balm to my psyche.

So, there you are reasons why I don't like school.

Five months until I graduate. Yes, I am counting. And I understand how bitter and bitchy this post will make me sound. I wont even bother telling the world that I'm actually a nice person, who totally doesn't kick puppies.

Why I Like School

I recently discovered that there is now an academic peer-reviewed journal about graphic novels and comics. It is called ImageTexT, and can be found here:

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/

Super fantastic, hey? I'm excited.

Unfortunately I now have to go and work, which is a reason that I don't like school.

Things I Have Done And Not Done

It may be a month since I've last published, but it doesn't feel like it's been so long. I guess that I've just been very busy. To save time and energy, I will give a list of some of what I've done since last post.

Some of What I have Done:

1) Written two papers, one on reading graphic novels, and the other on the self.
2) Written a midterm, on advanced statistics. VERY DIFFICULT.
3) Gone to Toronto, to see Prince Charming become the Reverend Prince Charming.
4) Crocheted several scarves, and figured out why I was always losing stitches, which resulted in a very unattractive scalloped pattern. I wasn't throwing an extra stitch on the end of each row.
5) Discovered Lush's bath melts, specifically, "Something Wicked This Way Comes" which leaves your skin both soft and sparkly. A BIG favourite.
6) Gotten a virus on my computter, rendering my browser currently unoperable. Where am I now? On the library computer. At school, that place I try to spend the least amount of time possible.
7) Started my own personal mantra and method for studying stats. More on that later.
8) Seen some very good movies, and some very mediocre movies, and some very sad movies.
9) Missed Prince Charming horribly
10) Quit my job.
11) Finished my job. Which are two very different things, I assure you.

Things I have not done:

1) Not found a wedding dress.
2) Not gone to the gym.
3) Not finished all my readings.
4) Not done the dishes from this weekend.
5) Not finished cleaning my house.
6) Not planned my birthday party.

So, that is what has been going on for me. I know that all three people that read my blog are very excited to know that, so there you go. Bon Appetit.