2002-10-31
Squirrely
I just now saw a dog stalking a squirrel on the diag. It didn't catch it, which made me sad because (a) it probably would've made the dog really happy and (b) I hate campus squirrels. I hate them a lot.
2002-10-30
People just stayed inside tonight, I guess
It's a quiet night here at the library. The internet stations are only about half full, lots of empty tables, and not a single print job in the queue. Yes, it's almost as though me and the man that has been talking to himself for the last three hours are here all by ourselves.
2002-10-30
God bless the Superbowl
"Hotels Vie for Book-Cadillac"
2002-10-30
Monsterfest
I like to pretend that it's school that's got me down, but actually I'm just really really put out about missing AMC's Monsterfest. Every time I have a spare moment (aka a moment when I should be doing homework but am not) I can be found curled up in front of the television watching The Bride of Frankenstein or The Mummy. I was considering skipping lecture today, but that's probably a bad idea for many reasons that I can't go into right now because I have to leave and go to the lectures that I am not skipping.
2002-10-29
Garbagehound
This is me digging through a recycling bin in the computer lab looking for the papers I'd printed much much earlier.
I really am pathetic, but sometimes I can maintain the illusion of being a fine, upstanding, respectable person.
2002-10-29
Money (that's what i want)
So, they say money can't buy happiness, but, in my experience, it can buy lots of other things that can, indirectly, lead to happiness.
Today I skipped a class and since the new girl at work took my Tuesday shift (bitch!), I was done for the whole day at 10 o'clock this morning. So I went shopping. I bought lots of shirts that I was very pleased with at the time, but thinking about it now, I'm not so pleased, as what I actually meant to buy was flared canvas pants. Blue ones. Oh well.
A note: just in case, if I am taking your library card from you and I accidentally touch your hand, you can be pretty sure that it's not an accident. I'm pretty careful about the whole touching thing. Just so you know.
Another note: is it fair that new people can just take shifts that I previously worked? I can't work the other shifts because I have class and stuff. My boss, the prince that he is, said I could work the whole day on Saturday, though. Yippeeeeeee!
2002-10-29
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?
Someone has been unusually moody and unproductive all night.
2002-10-28
Questions
I used to say that I liked school I think that used to be true. Now I'm haphazardly throwing together my Old English exam, Old English being the only class I really have a chance in at this point, and hoping for the best.
What happened? What am I doing? How can I still possibly be in school after 16 years?
Why am I so tired when it's only midnight?
Why are all of the shifts that I previously worked suddenly being filled up by new people? Were they hiring new people specifically to take my hours away? Am I slowly being phased out? How can I only have 8 hours when I was guaranteed at least 10 per week?
You know what they say: a diaryland without melodrama is like an autumn without the sound of crunching leaves beneath your sneakers.
2002-10-27
Detroit didn't even make the top 24
Charlotte, North Carolina is my top match?
That's a little disappointing.
2002-10-27
Greetings from Meta-four
Anyone have any good ideas for my metaphor paper?
Right now the best that I have is "Metaphors are cool because they say things that aren't true and then you think and you're like, 'WHOAH THAT IS SO TOTALLY TRUE!' and then you get confused and you have to lay down or drink some warm milk or something or else your head would explode."
The other people in my class have already taken the good metaphors. War, the human body, and euphemisms for the vagina. Come on!
2002-10-27
Everytime I look around me everything seems so stationary
The end of daylight savings time makes me sad. It solidifies the fact that summer is over, which perhaps the cold weather should have done.
The thing is, I can continue not wearing a coat as long as I wish to. I can't, however, keep living on daylight savings time, because the rest of the world will be an hour ahead of me. Of course, it often seems that the world is ahead of me anyway.
Ah, summer 2002. We had some good times, but we have to move on. School has been taking up more and more of my time, but I'll always remember you as a summer of knee-length skirts and red sneakers. A summer of rock shows and walks in the arb. Watching heat rise from the pavement. Thrift stores in Detroit. Feeling momentarily relieved from the weight of the world.
There's always next summer, though. Next summer, my first summer as a full-fleged-adult-non-college-student type of person. Real life begins soon. Real life with real people doing real things. I hope I am one of them.
2002-10-26
Three cheers for Val's mom and aunt!
I had breakfast burrito on the brain all night. When I woke up this morning, Val's mom and aunt were here and had brought an egg and sausage casserole. I cut some of that baby up and put it in a tortilla and it was so exactly what I wanted that it was a little alarming.
2002-10-26
Magic in the air
Doors for the Badly Drawn Boy show opened at 5:30. 5:30(!) is early. Due to bad traffic and treacherous weather, we didn't get there until 7.
And although it was a great show, I can think of anything interesting to write about it. Except that we conspired to steal and Insane Clown Posse Poster, and then didn't. And that it was early. There's nothing like getting out of a rock show at 9pm. It's like, "Phew, I can still make curfew!" Then you think, "Wait, I'm 21 years old. I don't have a curfew!" And then if you're me you think, "Well, hang on. I never had a curfew at all because I never went out while I was in high school." And then you get depressed and wonder how you've managed to enjoy your life at all.
A few messages to random individuals:
Dear St. Andrew's Hall: Do NOT have shows in the Shelter while there is a show upstairs. Also, do not schedule rock shows on Friday, when you have your stupid club night. These two things will keep lead singers of bands from saying rude things about you.
Dear annoying woman standing next to me for half the night: It is customary to move one's legs while dancing. Just so you know.
Dear anonymous smoking hipster hottie to my left: If you thought the ugly girl with the enormous pimple on her nose was casting fleeting glances at you all night, you were correct! Let's get together (we can wait until after my blemish heals, if you'd rather) and roam the country being hip and young. I will light all of your cigarettes and launder your denim jacket.
Dear stupid people in the metro Detroit are: Here is a calendar of shows I may go to. Please stay away from them, as I find you very difficult to tolerate.
Dear Bulldog Home Hardware: Tearing the paper backing off of mounting tape shouldn't really be a difficult task. You may want to alter your product, as I just spent 45 minutes trying to hang up a poster.
I'm going to bed now, because the sooner I go to sleep, the sooner I can get up and make a breakfast burrito out of the sausage I bought tonight. It's just like Christmas!
2002-10-23
Me and my diet vanilla coke
Dear diet vanilla Coke:
Are you responsible for the humongous pimple on the side of my nose? I do realize that I've been ingesting copious amounts of you lately, but that's just mean.
xoxo
kim.
2002-10-23
And I won't get any older
If only the angels hadn't wanted to wear Elvis Costello's red shoes, I could buy these ones.
I will never ever be able to replace my red Sauconys, by the looks of things.
2002-10-23
Kim goes domestic: coming Fall 2003
I can't wait until I have my own house/apartment/cave where I can paint, decorate, and move around furniture to my heart's content.
Now my only options are changing telnet colors and rotating my plants around every once in a while.
Someday, though.
2002-10-22
Super hott librarian sex slut orgy*
We had three people, rather than only two, at the periodicals desk at work today. One of us could've gone home, but we're all so poor that we opted to stay. Three people at one desk is a total par-tay, though, so it was ok. Every time someone would ask a question, we'd all just look at each other and expect someone else to answer. And I was in the middle, so I never even had to get up and help anyone.
*except none of us are actual librarians
2002-10-22
So wake up wake up
Dear WCBN,
It is a cruel thing to wake someone up to the Lucksmiths' "T-Shirt Weather" when it is only 38 degrees outside. Please inform your early morning djs of this.
Thanks in advance,
kim.
2002-10-21
You were always on my mind
I usually do this thing where I listen to one song over and over and over and over, driving my hypothetical nonexistant roommate absolutely insane.
Today that song is Snow Patrol's cover of Will Oldham's "New Partner," although I'm about to throw three Mogwai cds into my stereo and try to finish my Old English homework.
2002-10-21
Well, it does
It seems awfully postpostmodern to receive junk email with the subject line, "Get rid of junk email and SPAM forever!"
2002-10-21
Cleanliness is overrated
In addition to doing incredibly badly in all of my classes for the first time ever, this year also marks the first time I am likely to leave my house without doing one or more of the following:
(1) showering
(2) brushing my teeth
(3) combing hair
(4) putting on clean clothes
(5) glancing at least once in a mirror
(6) waking up
2002-10-20
Just like the last one
Another Sunday, another dismal realization that I just have to go back to school tomorrow. Sometimes on weekends I forget.
2002-10-18
Working hard
Today I was shelving books about topography and I thought, "It'd probably be a more popular field if it was toplessography."
2002-10-17
Kim+Rough Trade=True Love 4 Eva
Rough Trade Mailorder is the best! Two real life messages from real people (no automated "you entered your credit card number wrong, stupid" messages from them!), way faster shipping than Barnes & Noble (when they say 10-12 business days, they mean 12 business days!), and, hey, they probably have British accents! What more could you possibly ask for?
2002-10-17
Employee of the year
I just did almost two hours worth of work in only an hour and fifteen minutes at the science library.
Then, when I got to the public library, I gave away our bus schedule. He said, "Do you want this back?" And I said, "No, just take it." It was an old one anyway.
2002-10-17
I love my car
Stuart Murdoch is selling his car on eBay. For real.
2002-10-17
English sucks, but then so do most other languages
My paper contains this line:
However, none of this explains why boat can be a verb but train cannot, and in the end the only explanation seems to be that it just cannot be a verb, which is not an explanation at all.
And I think I'm just leaving it in, because I really don't know why I can't say that I trained to Chicago last weekend when I can totally say that I bicycled to the store.
2002-10-16
You'll never walk alone
A classmate just sent this to our group email list:
Hi Everbody! I bet a bunch of you are busy at work on your papers right
now, and have been checking your email every 5 minutes as a futile attempt
at procrastination and distraction. Just to let you know, I'm with you in
that boat
Best wishes :)
Aaron
Bless his heart.
2002-10-16
A sorry state of affairs
Someone should write a book called "How to Get that Certain Someone's Attention Without Totally Making an Ass of Yourself." I would buy it. I would write it, except I obviously don't know how to. Which is why I need the book in the first place.
2002-10-16
Reasons why Chris-my-anthro-gsi's life is cooler than mine
Chris: lived in Asia for most of his adult life
Kim: lived in Ann Arbor for all of adult life
Chris: speaks Japanese fluently
Kim: speaks Spanish and French badly
Chris: has a wife from a subtropical island
Kim: is currently unmarried, but if she ever is, will probably be married to someone from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, or Ohio
Chris: lives in an apartment by Blimpy Burger
Kim: lives in a co-op
Chris: Doesn't have a phone - has to use the pay phone outside of Blimpy Burger
Kim: has a phone but doesn't answer it
Chris: likes movies like "Mothra"
Kim: likes movies like "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (hey, that's sort of the same!)
Chris: has a brother who lives in a Russian fishing village in Alaska
Kim: has a brother with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome who lives in an adult care facility in Belding, Michigan
Chris: has a trailer in said brother's village
Kim: no trailers anywhere
2002-10-15
But for how long?
I am in font heaven! Wow! All it took was a Microsoft Office 2000 disc and a whole lot of my hard drive.
I went to Best Buy and they were playing Super Furry Animals. Seriously.
And I have fonts now (no thanks to Best Buy, of course) and my internet is working and diet vanilla Coke exists and I am listening to the Liars album and it's really damn good.
Life is looking up, momentarily.
2002-10-15
Feeling sorry for myself (boo hoo sniffle sniffle)
I am the owner of:
(1) a dvd player that was stolen
(2) a stereo that has suddenly decided to not play recordable cds
(3) a computer with only 5 fonts
(4) headphones that are broken
I have also not even started writing my paper yet, even though it is due Thursday (I have thought about it a lot, though) and I live in a house with no heat.
Those of you wishing to kick me while I'm down, please form a single-file line. Thank you.
2002-10-15
A busy day
I was going to write an entry last night about how I went to see Clinic and how it was great and the guitar player had a bandaid on his arm and how they played a song that put stars in my eyes and filled my heart with hope for pop music. I was going to add that I couldn't understand anything anyone said, and that I think they might have played a song called 'Midget Boot.' (Yes, I know it is "Magic Boot.") I was also going to add a warning that, should you ever go see Clinic, you shouldn't wear a surgical mask because it might make you look like the biggest moron on the planet.
However, I didn't write any of that because my internet access decided that it shouldn't work (like, it's not enough that I don't have any fonts!).
So, instead I'll just say that some jerk broke into my house last night and stole my dvd player.
2002-10-13
Knowledge is power
It's not really a successful weekend unless you learn something.
This weekend I learned two things:
(1) Pears aren't ripe until they're yellow. All my life I've been eating them while they're green and wondering why anyone would eat something that was so gross.
(2) Putting concealer on your lips makes it look like you don't have any lips and it's really really cool.
2002-10-12
Fun in Clarksville
I'm in C-ville for the weekend, since U-M has fall break and I don't really have enough money to go anywhere fun. Not that Clarksville isn't fun, of course. Today, for example, I slept until 10:30, posed for a family picture, went to an interesting library, bought a shirt with a buffalo on it, and watched The Crocodile Hunter. Phew! Of course none of that, save the sleeping and the Crocodile Hunter, took place in Clarksville proper.
Also, my stomach hurts, but it's for a totally great reason! Really!
2002-10-11
Nothing that I own works properly
When I got home last night I was going to write an entry about how the music was actually very good at Espresso Royale last night, very good for listening to while I got very little studying done. When I got home, though, my network card was flashing that stupid light meaning that it couldn't find a connection even though everyone else's was fine.
Also, my fonts returned briefly last night, only to disappear this morning. At this point I feel like I should just get a new computer.
2002-10-10
Elevators
We have to do oral reports on planets in two weeks in my astronomy discussion. I got Uranus, which paves the way for so much seventh grade humor that I can hardly stand it.
Also, an old man let me enter and exit the elevator first this morning, I'm presuming because I am a girl and it was a gentlemanly thing to do. Contrast this with later, when a guy shoved me out of the way to make sure he got into the elevator before me (you can hardly blame him, though. we had both been waiting for the elevator for a long time because every time one would stop it was too crowded to bother trying to get into.)
Relatedly, if you ever find you find yourself crammed in the back of an elevator with 11 other people, make sure you remember to whistle. Extra points for whistling Biz Markie's "Just a Friend."
2002-10-10
They say the fonts are the first to go, I guess
I just had to park five blocks from my house, which really only bothers me for two reasons:
(1) On the walk here I passed many cars that were parked badly. If they had been parked properly, more cars would have been able to fit on the street.
(2) There is a gigantic white SUV parked very crookedly in the very spot that I left earlier this evening. It is closer to be perpendicular to the curb than parallel. Really.
Also, for some reason, my computer now only has five fonts: courier, ms sans serif, ms serif, small fonts, and symbol. sigh.
2002-10-09
Unreliable strangers
I look pretty awesome today, for someone who is wearing a salmon colored long-sleeved t-shirt that was only $3.99. So what happens? HE DOESN'T EVEN SHOW UP!
Seriously, folks.
There is, however, someone here who has been logged into a computer for 10 hours. Yes, you read that right.
2002-10-09
And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street
Things I saw today in my various wanderings around town/campus:
(1) The man from Wazoo taping a flyer to a trash can.
(2) A dog that I mistook for a squirrel.
(3) Actually, that was all.
2002-10-08
The future scares me
So, what?
Should I go to grad school abroad?
Seriously.
I need to be a hip young person with ugly clothes in a foreign country.
2002-10-08
I FAILED, alright?
Guess who failed her astro exam?
That's right!
I was only 1.5 points below the average though, so if there's a curve I'm home free, suckas.
2002-10-08
My clothes have the power of invisibility
Today my Old English professor "didn't see" me again when was passing back quizzes. He said, "It's that shirt," even though I am wearing a different green v-neck long sleeved shirt than I was last time he "didn't see" me.
Also, somebody buy me this.
2002-10-06
Magnetic poetry
On the fridge in our kitchen we have magnetic poetry. It is always filthy. Right now there is a gem of a sentence, which I can't really remember, that I am utterly amazed by, just because it must've taken such a great deal of time and energy. Letters are stuck on top of other words, sometimes three high! Housemate, whoever you may be, I salute your dedication to filthiness!
2002-10-06
The rock show curse
Yesterday I successfully arrived at a rock show for the first time in over a week! Last Friday I missed Interpol at the Magic Stick because I was stupid and Friday night there was a humongous traffic jam on I-94 when suddenly all three lanes of traffic had to merge into one, so we didn't make it to the Greenhornes either. But, last night I made it all the way to Kalamazoo to see Spoon! I mean, it took a lot longer than it should have, and I discovered two more things that are wrong with my car (probable hole in muffler; front passenger side parking light is out), but I MADE IT! And it was totally great.
I thought my rock show curse was over until I sat in some gum. The miracle that is Goo Gone has taken care of that, though.
The rock show curse made another appearance when I arrived home at 3:30, only to lock my keys in my car. I crashed around in the shrubbery trying to break into my house for a while, and then I gave up and laid on the porch couch and burned matches (because we have a lot of them on our porch). I thought about trying to build a fire in the grill, but I was pretty sure that all that would happen is that I would blow up the house. After I played with matches for a while, I curled into a fetal position, pulled my hood down over my head, stuck my arms inside my sweatshirt, and hoped I wouldn't die. One of the housemates got home at 5, and when I heard him open the screen door (I couldn't see because my face was also inside my sweatshirt), I popped up off the couch, and said, "I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU!" And it is quite likely that I scared him at least a little. My brain was frozen by that point, though, and I didn't reallly think about that.
Now I'm going to go to Meijer and buy something to make for dinner. And maybe something nice for my housemate who saved me from certain death.
2002-10-04
Announcing "Ugly Friday"
In other people's worlds, something called 'casual friday' exists. Since pretty much all of my days are casual, from here on out, the final day of my work/school week is going to be known as 'ugly friday' (better name pending), in which I will attempt to look as ugly as possible. If my clothes match at all, it means that I'm doing something wrong.
Before my astro exam, my professor explained the rules to us: ". . . No talking. . . .no cell phones. . . .no peeking around. . . ." and when he said peeking around he held his hands up to his nose and fluttered his fingers around. And I wore corduroy pants, so when I walked all the way down to the front of the room to turn in my exam and then all the way back to get out, my entire class was serenaded by the 'bzzzh bzzzh' sound of my pants.
I am going to see Red Dragon now, and later is the Greenhornes show at the Magic Stick.
2002-10-03
'C' as in cat
Everytime I use a name or word to clarify what letter I said, I get an overwhelming urge to laugh until next Tuesday.
In sadder news, last night nobody saved any dessert for me and Valerie, so we had a beer/homework/costume party while we studied for our respective exams.
2002-10-02
Keeping myself occupied at work part 2,431
I modernized part of my old English homework as "precious booty" rather than "precious jewelry" because it was way funnier that way.
2002-10-02
The truth is not often funnier than fiction
From my Old English textbook glossary:
Scotland, n., Ireland
2002-10-02
Try to make me participate in ICC-related events, will they?
Idea of the day: a t-shirt that says "Just because I live in a co-op doesn't mean I want to be friends with all of you damn dirty hippies."
2002-10-02
Jenny
A girl just walked by my window wearing a bright red shirt that said "Jenny" on it, which is WAY COOL. As long as her name isn't Jenny.
2002-10-02
Anthro discussion
This morning in my anthro/ling class we were supposed to write a page and a half about the weather and then compare with others in our group to see how differently we all wrote about such a mundane topic. Here is my contribution:
All weekend I had meant to do my laundry, but on Monday it still wasn't done and, actually, it was to the point where I really had nothing to wear at all. I somehow believed the computer would solve this for me, I checked weather.com and it said something like 85 degrees, which actually did solve the problem because I could wear a skirt. So I did. It worked out well, too, because I always feel a little weird about wearing jeans to work (even though everyone else does) and the only *pants* pants that I have are some beat up grey cords that I bought at Goodwill two years ago. I went to work and the warmish weather meant that it was ecessary to turn the air conditioner all the way up and I sat at my desk and shivered for 4 hours.
I actually did my laundry Monday night and was hoping for more fall-like weather the next day because I like my more fall-like clothes better than my warmer weather ones. Or maybe I'm just sick of them because I've been wearing them all summer. Whatever the case, it was still hot, the air conditioner was still too cold, and I went outside on my break. Mike the overzealous security guy asked me what I was doing out there, and when I told him I was on a break, he said, "Well, it is nice out here."
Not one person in my group mentioned the fact that mine wasn't really about weather at all. Or that it sounds like it was written by a thirteen year old. That being said, mine was waaaaaaay more fun than anyone else's in my group. This girl thought she was huge riot because she wrote about wanting Angell Hall to flood so she wouldn't have to go to class. Huhlareeous. The guy in my group wrote what he hoped was a delightfully sarcastic piece about how the weather made his coffee machine break (???). Unfortunately, there's a little more to good sarcasm than just being pissed off because the weather is bad.
Hmm. Being just a little bit more tolerant of others would probably make my life a lot happier.
2002-10-01
Throw me a bone
I bought a planner a few weeks ago, but so far it's done me no good since my professors keep changing the due dates on all of my assignments. Seriously, how's a girl to manage going to rock shows while still managing to maintain a high enough grades to graduate within 2 more semesters if she is totally unable to plan ahead? Bah humbug.
Speaking of "rock" shows (ah, the joy of a seamless transition), I am currently in the process of compiling a list of all the concerts I have ever been to. (The "rock" is quotation marks because I can't, in good conscience, call them all rock shows. Also, because putting things like that in quotes is annoying. Just imagine me making air quotes with my fingers. Doesn't that just make you want to kick me in the head?) You can take a look at this list here if you are so inclined.
The whole list thing has been a little distressing for me because there are so many shows that totally slipped my mind when I was first trying to make it. I feel like I've wasted a lot of money.
2002-10-01
I like personalized web pages because it almost makes it seem like I have friends
I was just now checking the weather for tomorrow, and weather.com said, "Good night, kim!!" which I take as evidence that I should save the clothes folding for tomorrow and go to bed now.
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