10-28-04
I thought I'd keep doing the vote theme for titles until election day, but I'm sick of it. Besides, I'm done voting, so election day is already over for me.
After worrying so much about my faulty deposit that I only slept for an hour last night (from 1:30 to 2:30, if you're interested), my trip to the bank was sort of anticlimactic. I violated my first rule of going anywhere (always bring a book), but since I arrived at the bank at approximately 9:01am, I didn't have to wait long. Also, the bank man and I had the same birthday! Other than that, though, nothing very interesting happened and the bank people told me that I should have my money by tomorrow, and that the very same thing happened to someone else not very long ago. And really, that's all I have to hear in order to feel better about anything. I just need to know that it's not just me.
Also, this afternoon there was a lost little boy on my floor. I was just sitting at my desk and counting the minutes until I could go home when a loud wail of "MAAAAAAMMMMMMMAAAAA" suddenly rose from the stacks. I called security and had him sit behind my desk and tried to talk to him because he seemed to cry less loudly while I was talking. But I'm not great with kids, so I just kept saying things like, "My name's Kim! Don't worry, we'll find your mom! I'm sure your mom wouldn't leave you at the library!" I felt bad for him because he was so obviously terrified and I was just as obviously not helping at all. I was relieved when security showed up with his mom, but not really for any of the reasons that I should have been relieved.
np: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists-Walking to Do
10-27-04
Vote against malfunctioning atms in 2004!
I just tried to make a deposit at an atm, and after I put my money in the machine made a bunch of weird noises for a long time and then said that my transaction was incomplete, but didn't give me my money back and it isn't showing up in my account and it was a sizable deposit and now I'm all nervous that the money is just gone. And now I have to go to the bank tomorrow morning even though I don't really have time and I hate actually going inside the bank (I haven't been inside a bank since an atm ate my card three years ago). And I needed that money. I really did.
I hope I'm not going to be so worried about this that I can't enjoy the 'you've-just-worked-three-consecutive-nine-hour-days' party that I'm having for my roommate this evening. You know it's a party because I rented White Chicks.
np: SFA-Carry the Can
10-26-04
Vote factory pants in 2004!
Yesterday was the first time that the sun shined since October 13. At least, I'm pretty sure that it was the first time that the sun shined since October 13. Maybe the sun shined a lot during the last two weeks, but only while I was at work or otherwise engaged indoors. This paragraph is really just an experiment to see that if, by using it many times in a small space, I can convince myself that shined actually is the past tense of shine. It sounds wrong.
Other than that, last week I got my hair cut, and while it is the same haircut that I always get, someone new cut it and did a much much much better job than the person who usually does. I bought some new pants (green ones!) on the same day (I pretended I was getting a makeover), and since they were so cheap and I am living a precariously pantsless life (I have one pair that fits and a bunch that kind of fit if I pin them or wear a belt or hold them up, but none of those are ideal situations.) I decided that I should also buy some brown ones that were exactly the same style and size. I didn't try them on and when I got home the brown ones were way too big.
I'm quite pleased with the green pants though. They are very similar to the pants I had to wear when I worked for a month in a factory, which is the highest praise I can give to any pants. In a perfect world, I'd still be wearing them. The world being what it is, though, they were all covered with ink and peanut butter, so after my month was up I threw them away.
Also, I have a new tv now, since mine died a couple of weeks ago. I had to get one by today so that I could watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown tonight. And my parents took me out for lunch yesterday for my dad's birthday, except we ate at about three in the afternoon, so we spent a while trying to figure out if we should refer to it as dunch or linner. I vote for dunch.
I swear I had some sort of coherent entry idea when I sat down to update this. Maybe next time.
np: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists-Counting Down the Hours
10-20-04
Vote absentee in 2004!
What's more fun than forgetting to check the mail until 9pm and then discovering that you actually received some mail?
Finding out that you not only received mail, but that you received your absent voter ballot!
No more waiting in line for an hour and a half to cast a vote that will have no impact on the outcome of the election for me! But now I have to pay 83 cents to send it back and everyone else gets to vote for free, which doesn't quite seem fair. Also, I won't be able to get one of those "I voted!" stickers.
np: SFA-Don't Be a Fool, Billy
10-17-04
Vote no black toenails in 2004!
One of my toenails has turned purplish black. I hope it's not going to fall off (that happens sometimes, right? I feel like one of my dad's toenails fell off not very long ago). I'm not sure that I could handle that. Maybe I should wrap a band aid around it every morning. Or a rubber band or something.
Oh, and accidentally subscribing to Entertainment Weekly when I meant to register for the GRE might have been a blessing in disguise, because after studying the website of the only school/program I am applying to*, it appears that I don't even need to take the GRE. Which is kind of good news and bad news, because I don't have to take the GRE (good news!), but if I had known that last year at this time I could have written my personal statement and been in grad school by now (I am just going to assume that I will be accepted because I'm super smart and a pleasure to be around).
*Because practically every school in the country requires THREE letters of recommendation. I could maybe dig up one person to recommend me, but three? I can just see myself going to visit one of my former professors: "Hi, I'm Kim. You probably don't remember me since I probably only spoke about 10 words in your class all semester, but would you write to the University of Illinois and tell them that I would be a useful addition to their grad school? Kim. I was in your semantics class. Three years ago. I sat in the front but I didn't say anything. I usually looked like I was taking notes, but sometimes I was drawing comic strips that starred anthropomorphic pineapples. Um. Okay, thanks anyway."
np: sufjan stevens
10-17-04
Vote no more late night entries in 2004!
I bought some new shoes but I'm not sure that I want to keep them. One one hand, I love that totally useless button that is attached with elastic thread. I do. And I hardly ever find shoes that I like and these were cheap. Plus, they have wide heels, which means I would actually be able to walk in them (probably).
[By the way, all of those points were supposed to be on one hand. Can you do that? Or are you only allowed one point per hand? I would say you can have up to five points, since you have five fingers (well, four fingers and a thumb, but five digits, anyway). My aunt accidentally cut off part of one of her fingers when she was a kid, so she can only have four and a half points on one hand but five on the other (which isn't really fair, since that side would always win). I remember that I used to regularly write papers well into the night, but now it is only 2am and I am babbling like a moron!]
On the other hand, I feel bad when I spend money. Any amount of money, because those little amounts add up after a while.
Back on that first hand, I need some nicer shoes, because the only ones that I have that are appropriate for formal winter functions (as if I'm going to go to any. but still.) are a four-year old pair of mary-janes whose soles are coming detached (which, I guess sort of makes them inappropriate for formal functions).
My real reason behind this entry wasn't to write about my new shoes which I might return, although I'm sure they are a fascinating topic. What I actually wanted to do was introduce you to two new links to your left. Books is where I am going to write about books I have read. Not reviews, per se, but at least some sort of focused writing relating to a book. I was hoping that this would improve my writing*, which I'm pretty sure has been going steadily downhill since I finished school and no longer had any reason to try to write well (because wanting to write well in order to not sound like an idiot is not a good enough reason, apparently). Plus, when I looked over the list of books that I read last year I realized that I couldn't even remember what half of them were about, so hopefully writing about them will make books stick in my mind for a little while longer.
Secondly, one of my my only** new year's resolution was to take more pictures because I felt like I wasn't taking full advantage of my digital camera. I didn't tell anyone about my resolution, though, which would have been a good thing to do since if I had told someone they might've said, "Hey, Kim, I don't notice you taking that many pictures. In fact, I haven't seen you taking any. In fact, you might as well be using your camera as a paper weight." So I decided that posting my pictures on the internet would be a good idea, because then people might possibly know if I wasn't taking any pictures. I mean, it might also happen that no one looks at them at all, but the possibility is there.
So, there you have it. Both of the links are mostly just for me, but you are welcome to look at them because it adds pressure for me to (a) be a better a writer and (b) take more pictures.
*Judging by the two entries I've already written there, this is probably not going to happen.
**What can I say? I aim low.
np: I pretty much only listen to Sufjan Stevens. And I'm going to go seem him November 17! And I might wear my new shoes, if I decide to keep them!
10-16-04
A blur of activity.
Today at work:
(1) I identified a book simply by hearing a physical description of it.
PLUS
(2) I successfully tracked down the person who was theoretically the owner of a hat found near my desk.
PLUS
(3) The hat actually did belong to the person that I thought it did.
PLUS
(4) [I can't remember what number four was going to be, but I did one other amazing thing!]
Quite frankly, I deserve a cookie.
np: dinner
10-14-04
It is indeed a mysterious world.
It's funny how things sometimes don't work out as you plan. Like for instance, just now I got out my credit card, opened up firefox and had every intention of registering for the GRE. Instead, what happened was that I subscribed to Entertainment Weekly.
np: John Cale-Half Past France
10-13-04
I went on a wee small vacation.
In conclusion:
- it IS true that you never forget how to ride a bike.
- just because it is October and cloudy does NOT mean that I won't get sunburned.
- it is a shame that there isn't a grad school program that I would like to enroll in at any of the three universities in the u.p.
- I always just miss seeing big boats go under the Mackinac Bridge or through the Soo Locks. And it would make me so so so happy to see one. Which is perhaps a reason that I should move to Sault Ste. Marie. I could sit by the locks all day long and forget about grad school (I've almost forgotten about grad school already. I knew that if I didn't go right away I would probably never be able to make myself to go.).
np: Sufjan Stevens-Vito's Ordination Song
10-08-04
And I'd like you to meet my son, Blue Curaçao.
Yesterday while I was waiting for dinner to cook, bake and chill (vegetarian sloppy joes (we call them beanjos), oven fries and cole slaw, respectively), I was flipping listlessly through the channels and came across The Maury Povich Show. I stopped to see what the topic was, because sometimes the topics crack me up. This one was a boring one like, "Is my teenage daughter addicted to sex?" and I was just about to change the channel when I realized that the thirteen-year old girl that Maury was talking to was named Tequila!
Then they announced the results of a lie detector test that said that Tequila had accepted money for sex and her mom cried and cried. All I could think was, "You named your daughter after liquor. What, exactly, did you expect?"
Today I worked and worked on a super-top-secret-non-work-related project while I was at work, and I remembered that writing is hard.
np: the Shins-Saint Simon
10-05-04
At least it gives us something to do.
This afternoon at work two women were browsing the dvds and must've come across a copy of Mrs. Dalloway, because one of them said something about how this must be "another adaptation of the book that that horribly tacky movie was based on. Did you see that movie? What was the name. . .oh, The Hours. You didn't? Oh, it was horribly tacky." And she kept saying, "horribly tacky," and shaking her head. I wished that she'd elaborate a little more because, although I didn't like The Hours*, I also didn't see any way in which it was horribly tacky. Also, library lady, The Hours wasn't based on Mrs. Dalloway, it was based on a book called The Hours (!), which has some connection to Mrs. Dalloway, but I'm not sure what it is because I haven't read either and can barely remember the movie.
Also at work, a guy left his bag by my desk and asked me to watch it, even though I have told him in the past that it is not my job to watch people's stuff for them, and I don't always stay at my desk and will not be responsible if his bag gets stolen.
Then when I got home, a food delivery man kept repeatedly ringing our doorbell, even though it was not our food that was being delivered. I looked out of the window and saw him and didn't go out to answer the door because it wasn't my food. Apparently, because we are the first doorbell, we just have to deal with everyone's crap. Sunday morning at 8:30, the guy that was bringing the new phone books rang our bell just because he wanted to let someone know that the phone books were out there. I said something like, "Oh, that's terrific," and went back inside grumbling about how when I want to know a phone number, I just look it up on the internet.
In fairness to everyone who has angered me today, though, I am usually a bit more pleasant when I have not been awakened by cramps at 5:30 in the morning**. One minute I was pleasantly dreaming that I was a roofer, and I was just about to launch into a rant about how people today are building too big of houses, and the next minute I was awake and in great pain. Relatedly, after a two month absence, my period is back with a vengeance. Welcome home, old chum!
*Because it was boring. If movies aren't funny or scary, I really have no use for them. If I wanted to sit around being somber, I would just spend my evenings examining my life very closely.
**Although, how would it have been to have been awakened by cramps at 5:30 under a canopy? I think I'm getting excited about the prospect of having a canopy bed again. And the seller just sent me the tracking number for my package! Obsessive following of my canopy's short journey from Chicago to Ann Arbor starts now!
np: the Reindeer Section-Nytol
10-05-04
Maybe soon I will get my very own tree house.
I've always wanted a canopy bed. I mean, I did when I was little, but I hadn't thought about it for a while. The other day I was watching one of those home makeover shows and there was a canopy bed on it! A canopy bed for adults! I thought, "I'm an adult! I live in my own apartment! There is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't have a canopy bed if I want one."
For some reason, the first thing I did was go to the fabric store to look for canopy patterns (the roommate kept saying, "Simplicity Teen? These are for little kids! The princess canopy?" condescendingly.). Then I remembered that I never actually learned how to sew, I just talked and thought about how great it would be if I did. And after adding up the prices of the pattern and the fabric and all of the sundry other things that I would need, I decided that a canopy wasn't currently within my budget, anyway.
Then I remembered a little thing called eBay! I found a blue, mosquito net canopy that was pretty much exactly what I wanted for less than $20. The whole time the auction was going on I thought about how great it would be to finally have a canopy bed! And how I could sleep under a canopy and read under a canopy and diaryland under a canopy!
But now the auction is over and I won, and all I can think is, "A canopy? What am I, eight years old?"
np: Brendan Benson-Crosseyed
10-03-04
The worlds collide, but all that I want is a shady lane.
I love fall. I love the way the air is cool and the sun is less intense. I love the way it smells and the way leaves crunch under my shoes. When the sky is as blue and the air is as crisp as it has been for the past few days I always feel like I should be out picking apples or jumping into leaf piles.
I did neither of those things (but there's still time!), but I have gone on a lot of walks. Friday I walked on a trail by a lake. I stood by the lake and wondered if fish lived there, and at that very moment a whole bunch of fish swam up to the shore as if to say, "Yes, Kim, we fish live here quite happily! Come join us in our underwater paradise!" I also passed by a bench that had a plaque that read "In memory of Enne Amann (d. 2003) who often wished there was a bench here. Now there is. Enjoy!" I hope to someday have an irreverent bench dedication in my name.
Yesterday my walk was boring, but today I walked upwards of 10 miles for no reason other than the fact that every time I was about to turn around and head for home, I would think, "Oh, I'll just walk a little bit farther and then turn around." The whole time I whistled "Oh Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head," and wondered if there was some way that I could translate my loves of inexplicably walking long distances and whistling into a lucrative career. I doubt that there is.
np: Pavement-Shady Lane
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