2003-04-30
In which I make a surprising statement about my feelings towards newspapers
I don't understand newspapers.
I mean, I understand the concept of a newspaper, but they just seem like such a pain. In movies, people read them while eating breakfast, but I have never been able to do this. They are large, awkward and I always end up covered with ink. And although this might be a sign of my incompetance as a human being, I am choosing to put the blame entirely on the newspapers.
However, even though I choose to read my newspapers online and save myself those backbreaking trips to the curb every trash-day eve, I guess I understand why people would come to the library and read newspapers. It means that there is no mess at their house, and I guess news seems more valid when you have something physical to hold onto. What I don't understand is why someone would get newspapers from three different days, take all of the sections apart, shuffle all of the sections from all three days together, and leave them piled in a heap on a library table (this occurrence is made even more baffling by the fact that someone, somewhere found it necessary to have three issues of The Ann Arbor News in their possession at once. I have never even found one copy to be a necessity.). I reassembled them and now I am inky. Perhaps I will start bringing special newspaper-handing gloves to work.
2003-04-30
Back in
You'd think that sooner or later all the songs would start to sound the same, but that never happens.
2003-04-29
Shedding skin
My sunburn has reached the peeling stage, which is undoubtedly the best part of having a sunburn. Every time it happens (which isn't very often as I am usually very careful about wearing sunscreen), I think that there might be new and better skin underneath the stuff that is flaking off.
I am going shopping now because I freed up some space in my new and tiny room, and now I feel obliged to fill it up again.
2003-04-28
More lists
Injuries from moving:
1. after pulling a skirt off of a hanger to pack it, the hanger flew back into my face and hit me in the lip, which then proceeded to bleed. Furthermore, my bloody lip made eating sour gummy items very painful.
2. I broke a mug a long time ago, but since it was behind my desk, I chose to leave it as it was. However, when moving out this was no longer an option. I somehow managed to cut the outside of my middle finger on it. This also proceeded to bleed and bleed and bleed.
3. Pointer finger on right hand bled for no apparent reason.
4. While scrambling around in the bushes outside the old house, I received a scratch which extends from the knuckle to my wrist on my right hand.
also, one more thing at my house that is better than at the old one:
5. Moving a block and a half down the street means that I can now listen to WDET.
2003-04-28
Mustard yellow and a list
My new room is bright yellow. At first I was really excited about this. Now I worry that it will be like living in a jar of mustard, but I really don't want to paint. I think I am going to hang something over one of the walls.
I spent all day moving and now I am at work and tired and when I get home I have to go pick up some random things that I left at the old house and then unpack the 10 million boxes that are on the bed at my new house.
However, earlier today I made the following list:
Things that I liked at my old house:
1. my room was dark blue and had silver spraypainted stars
2. my dresser was big enough to hold my stereo (speakers and all) and my record player
3. my closet was able to hold all of my hanging clothes, several large boxes, shoes, a fan, 4 12 packs of pop (or soda), my dirty clothes, beer, 3 elephants and a chicken (hangers are too wide to fit in my new closet)
4. I had lived there for two years and was comfortably at home in my rut
Things I like at the new house:
1. amazing acoustics in the shower
2. my desk and dresser both have twice as many drawers as my old ones did
3. my door has a peephole!
4. my plants are happy because they have windowsills that they can sit on without falling off
2003-04-27
The only thing that makes waking up worthwhile
I am bedroomless!
Tomorrow I move into the new house. Although I saw fit to dump my shift a few weeks ago when I went to see the White Stripes, I did not see moving as being that important, and therefore, I did not take tomorrow night off, even though I have known for quite a while that it is the day I am moving. And, if today's activity of packing and moving all of my possessions to the living room was as time-consuming as actually moving into the new room will be, I will have to work on it all day, take four hours off to go to work, and then work on it all night too.
But, the day after tomorrow will be my first packing/moving-free day since Friday. And that will be nice. And the following days will also be nice, because, for the first few days, being in a new room always kind of seems like you are on vacation somewhere, staying in a motel, so everytime you wake up you think, "ohmygosh, what are our plans for the day?!" And of course, your plans always turn out to be something like "go to work" or "get groceries," but those first few waking moments are just golden.
2003-04-26
Commencement
I was awake at 6:30 am on purpose for the first time since my 8am English class my freshman year. I then proceeded to stand in a long line and shiver outside of the stadium for a good long while until they let us in, and when I sat down facing the sun I said, "I am going get sunburned," but my parents bought me aloe and a bobble-headed Big Boy for a graduation present (even thought what I really wanted was a kitten). We then ate food and ice cream and more food, but we threw in some walking to far and distant lands in between the eating and eating and eating.
I have to pack now, because someone thinks I have to go see Donnie Darko at midnight even though all I want to do is go to bed. Being crammed in uncomfortable chairs for two hours with a bunch of smelly people doesn't really sound that appealing tonight.
I feel sort of a post-graduation depressed rant coming on, so I'll stop now.
2003-04-25
To-do before I leave
What's even stranger than the fact that I don't usually seem to realize that I'm moving in a few days are the things that I think I absolutely must do before I move:
1. return all library items to library (because they will be inevitably lost or destroyed during the move)
2. drink all stray bottles of beer (but I don't feel obligated to drink my many cans of pop that are lying around)
3. return pop cans to store (I guess this one kind of makes sense)
4. wash dirty laundry (I just did laundry a couple of days ago, but you CAN'T take dirty laundry to a new house. can you?)
5. have a moment of silence for my Yo La Tengo poster, which has served me very well for three years, but simply cannot handle the strain of another move. You will be missed, poster!
PS: the chair of the linguistics department noticed that I wasn't at the reception today (since I was running about wildly looking for commencement garb)! Woo! Of course, there are only about 15 people graduating in the linguistics department and I just had her for a professor last semester, but still, the CHAIR noticed that I wasn't there.
2003-04-25
Raggedy Ann graduates from college
My gown size: 4'11" to 5'0"
My height: 5'3"
My cap size: XL
My head size: med (or maybe large)
My school's tassel color: white
My tassel color: maize and blue
So, I guess the moral of the story is that you shouldn't wait until the day before commencement to buy the things you need for it. But the man in the store was very helpful.
I said, "Do you think this gown would be ok if I wore a long black skirt underneath it?"
He said, "You could probably fool a lot of people that way."
Then he said there were only small and extra large caps left. The small wouldn't work at all, but as long as there are no major windstorms, I think the extra large will do. And I can always clip it.
Finally, though, there was the tassel dilemma, but it turned out to be kind of a non-issue because he just handed me the maize and blue one and said, "Lots of people are using this." And that was that.
This was the third bookstore that I had gone to, and I had very nearly cried while walking down the street to it. All of the other ones only had gowns that were for people 6 feet tall or taller, and they wouldn't have worked at all.
After my commencement attire buying was over, I went and bought bubble tea. Bubble tea always impresses me with its grossness. It's like drinking eyeballs.
Tonight's graduation week festivities include packing, cleaning and going to bed early.
2003-04-25
I am bored
LLA Reference Desk Activity Tally
Day of Week __Fri__
Date:__4/25
Hourly reference Question Log
1-2 ______
2-3 ___|__
3-4 ______
4-5 __||__
As you can clearly see, my workday reached a frenzied pitch during my final hour when I received 2 questions in a single hour.
2003-04-25
A new house
Every once in a while it hits me that in three days I will be living in a different house. It always happens at the oddest times. Today I was eating the lunch I brought to work and I thought, "Next week I will be eating my lunch from dishes from an entirely different house." I looked out of my window last night and thought, "In four days there will be a new street or no street at all outside of my window."
More and more I think I should've listed my room choices simply by putting the largest room as my first choice and the smallest as my last. At the time I thought that I didn't want the big room because I wouldn't have enough stuff to put in it, but now I think a large, empty, echo-y room is just what I'm looking for right now. It would be like living in an art museum, not because I have lots of great works of art, but because in many art museums most of the things are attached to the walls, and there are very few freestanding objects. The only freestanding objects in my room will be a desk, a bed, a dresser, my wobbly floor lamp and possibly a bookcase.
PS: Who wants to bet that I am going to forget to go buy my cap, gown and tassle when I leave work?
pps: the only real reason to graduate is because you get one of those kickass flat hats.
2003-04-25
Pens
The other day I bought some really nice pens. I just found the receipt and thought, "It was stupid to buy those pens because now I am done with school." Because being done with school means that I will never need pens again.
2003-04-24
I have thwarted the paper's evil plan
I was reading this little commencement information sheet that I got when I got my tickets, and a the bottom of one side, it says "Over ----->", so I turned it over and at the bottom of the other side it said, "Over ----->", so I turned it over again. Luckily, I saw where this was headed and I managed to pull myself out of the vortex that would've been created by my constant repeated turning over of the paper.
2003-04-24
It would be the opposite of a mint
Just now I thought I'd come up with a really good idea, but then I realized that onion-flavored hard candy probably wouldn't appeal to anyone.
2003-04-23
Four dollar week
Monday, I told myself that I wouldn't spend more this week than the $4 that was leftover from the weekend.
Today on the walk home I bought a sandwich with it. My reasoning was, "I have pickles, and what good are pickles if you don't have a sandwich to eat with them?"
That is some good financial management.
2003-04-23
In the bookstore
Earlier today I was in a bookstore buying a bluebook because I had an exam in 10 minutes. The bookstore was hot, and I was cursing my choice to wear a long-sleeved shirt (the 52 degrees reported on weather.com always looks colder than it actually is). There was some controversy involving the man in front of me in line and his many packages of photographs, so I stood there, thinking about the heat and wondering why I didn't study more for my exam.
Finally it was my turn in line. I gave the cashier 30 cents, and suddenly a girl appeared behind me in line with two bluebooks and said, "I have an exam right now. Can I just pay with you?"
And I said, "Girl who is buying two bluebooks, I have just handed over the 30 cents to the cashier. If you wait 1.5 seconds, I will lift my bluebook off of the counter and then you can pay. I do not understand how totalling up our three bluebooks together is going to save us any time, and since I only studied for about 1 hour total for my exam, I do not need further confusion in my life at this time. Thank you."
Well, of course I didn't say any of that, but it all barrelled through my mind with rather alarming speed.
2003-04-22
Machines
Today I was driving somewhere and I thought, "It is very disturbing that a girl like me can drive a car, listen to the radio, type on a computer, watch television, and take photographs, but has no idea how any of these machines work."
2003-04-22
Easter basket
My mom sent me a box of stuff for Easter. Mostly just candy, but for once she didn't overdo it on the Cadbury creme eggs. I do wonder, though, why she didn't wait until now to buy all this candy for half price and bring it down here when they come to commencement this weekend. I wouldn't love the gigantic bag of circus peanuts any less if I knew it had been half price.
But the best thing about the box, better than the creme eggs, better than the Barrel of Monkeys pen (which has real linkable monkeys inside! I wish I had had this pen when I was still in class. It would have been very entertaining), better even than the circus peanuts, are the cd-rs that look like records. You know the ones I'm talking about.
These ones:
I am going to make some very fine mixes with cds like this.
2003-04-21
Let's make a list
I should be working on my paper, but since I have returned home from work I have done nothing except the following:
1. eat lots of gummy items* (bears, worms, strawberries, raspberries, frogs - curses for forgetting to get dinosaurs!)
2. change clothes - I am now in clothing that is officially recognized as loungewear
3. wonder if having crushes on random highschool boys makes me a pervert
4. get really really excited about the fact that Enon and the Faint are going to be in Detroit on my birthday (I've known this for a long time, so my sudden excitment really isn't explainable at all)
5. think about the time my parents were going to adopt a baby. They bought lots of little baby accessories, and then one day when I got home from school my mom was crying and told me that the baby had been born and was a girl. I let out a yelp of glee! A little sister! However, elementary-school-era me apparently didn't realize that the fact that my mom was crying meant bad news; the mother had decided to keep the baby, she said. She was only planning on giving it up if it had been a boy.
I can hardly remember this, and I'd think that it is just my imagination, but I distinctly remember holding the baby bottles and the little booties and things. For a long time after we learned we wouldn't be getting the baby, I would go into my brother's room (the baby items were kept in one of his dresser drawers) and pull out the bottles (which were the kind that you put the little baggies in), and try to imagine what it would've been like to have a little brother or sister. (This bit of nostalgia is brought to you by the fact that I withdrew a whole lot of books about adoption today at work).
6. wish that my computer was living up to it's designation of 'laptop' so I could crawl into bed with it and write my paper from there. As it is, the battery is entirely dead and the cord in the back comes disconnected if you so much as bump it. (This wouldn't be quite as frustrating if I hadn't gotten this exact same problem fixed about six months ago.)
7. think that maybe, as much as I don't want to admit this, I should not live in Detroit next year**. I need to get away.
8. This summer I am going on a trip. Where? I don't know. Possible destinations include: Ireland (if I can find someone to go with me), the UK (same problem as Ireland), New York City (if May will let me stay with her after I only sent her one single letter the whole time she was in France. I am a bad person), a long road trip across middle America (the destination being San Francisco, I think), or somewhere else. I'm not so much interested in mainland Europe (or anywhere else where the dominant language is not English), I mean, I am, but I don't speak any other languages very well and I don't want to be one of those people who goes abroad and speaks loud English at people.
9. This list has gotten out of hand, so I will get started on my paper now, I guess.
*When my parents took me and my cousin to Arizona on the train, Rachel and I used to play with gummi bears and dinosaurs. We would name them and act out little stories with them. The bears were always eaten by the dinosaurs, eventually. They really didn't have a chance.
**I still want to go to grad school there, eventually, so maybe it would be a good idea to live somewhere else for a while. The only thing is, I don't want to pay out of state tuition, and I can't think of anywhere in Michigan that I want to live.
2003-04-21
I glow
I meant to add that, in spite of the amazing heat last night at the show, I didn't sweat a single drop. I attribute this fact to my dainty femininity.
2003-04-20
Unreality
As I walked from my car to my house, flashing lights from a firetruck at the end of the block made the street seem like a disco.
Then I opened the door and thought, "Smells like bleach. Or some other cleaning agent. This can't possible be my house."
2003-04-19
Library nerd
I am a library nerd.
I like to think that you can't tell by looking at me, but today when I was searching the grad library stacks for the journal containing the article I need for my final college paper ever as an undergraduate (it's due Tuesday; in my world, finding the article on Saturday is planning ahead), I was like, "This slip of paper reaading 'GN1.S72' is like a map that will lead me to a treasure!" I had to use clues in the form of large signs to dicover that the GNs were on the sixth floor, and then I took an interesting combination of stairs and elevators to reach my destination. And, no, The Southwestern Journal of Anthropology is not exactly an exciting treasure, but I'm sure Keith Basso's article on silence in Western Apache culture will delight and amaze me.
Tomorrow. (Saturday: find article. Sunday: read article. Monday: write paper)
Tonight I am going to see Hot Hot Heat at the Shelter, which is the stiflingly hot (in every season) basement of Saint Andrew's Hall. I have not yet been able to discern if it is the same "Shelter" as the one in 8 Mile. (Note: 8 Mile is now available on DVD and you can watch it in French. I am going to do that tomorrow.)
2003-04-18
-
I just found song lyrics for a woman who was so excited about them that I forgot to be bored to be at work on a Friday afternoon (well, for 10 minutes or so). She sang, she danced, she asked me if I was in high school. I told her I was in college and she asked me what I studied. I said, "Linguistics" and she said, "Do you know Tom Toon?"
It just so happens that it was Tom Toon taught my old English, middle English and Intro Ling classes, and who says delightful things like "easy peasy lemon squeezy" and "I do not have a cell phone, but I have a mobile that I take with me to the cinema". He also refers to the Great Vowel Shift as "The Great Vowel Movement," which wouldn't be funny at all except that his classes are always at 8:30 in the morning, a time of the day in which you are half asleep and the humor in things that are slightly funny is magnified.
She also described a ling professor (whose name she couldn't remember) as being tall, thin, having dark curly, and being very polite.
A polite linguistics professor? That'll be the day.
2003-04-17
For their website they take all the vowels out of their name - oooh!
So, much earlier tonight I went to Urban Outfitters. This, in itself, is a horrible, horrible thing for me to admit to. See, they had some cute tights at one point, and I thought that since it is spring now, they might be on sale.
I didn't find any tights, but I did find Muppet panties. And bras, but I'm mostly concerned with the panties. And about the fact that they are at Urban Outfitters. Even if I could justify spending $12 on an item of clothing that no one but me and an emergency room doctor will ever see (let's not kid ourselves), could I really buy them at a place like Urban Outfitters?
I can understand buying this shirt in a Salvation Army (I have to say that, as I am right this very second wearing a t-shirt that says "I'm making tracks in reading: Stoney Creek." It also has a panther on it!). But when there's a whole rack of them?
What the hell, people?
2003-04-17
Class and a haircut, two bits
Today one of my classes met for student presentations. It took forever - the estimated time was 1.5-2 hours, and we were there for over 3 hours - but my professor brought us pizza and pop, and some of the groups made cookies, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
One of the groups had given away magazines as prizes for people that could correctly match European flags to their countries (the point of this, I think, was to prove that your average American college student knows less than your average European fourth grader, but if any of those little punks care to challenge me to a battle of wits in linguistically oriented topics, you can send them my way). They had extra magazines, though, and afterwards a boy who looks like a cross between Gruff Rhys and Max Fischer gave me a copy of The Fader. I didn't have time to thank him because I was busy stuffing my face with some cream cheese/chocolate pastries that one of the groups made. Sorry!
I read this magazine while I was waiting (and waiting and waiting) to get my hair cut. The only thing more frustrating than waiting that long to get your hair cut is seeing three guys in front of you come in, sit in the chair for half an hour each, and then leave with their hair looking exactly the same as when they came in! Come on, guys, be more adventurous! Or at least wait to get your hair cut until it is all grown out and straggly, the way some people do.
PS: I wrote a very long entry about the White Stripes last night when I got home, but it was sadly lost when our electricity went out for less than half a second (it was long enough to shut off my computer and make the lights flicker, but it wasn't long enough to make my clock blink). Since I'm not going to do it again, we can just say that I wore a bright pink skirt, strappy black shoes (and I only almost fell down once!), and was vastly amused by the absolute hilarity of the human race.
2003-04-16
If I get an A on the exam, I can still get a B+ in the class
You know, I have handed in some decidedly shoddy work this semester. I feel kind of bad about this, but it's too late to do anything about it now.
2003-04-15
Rock and/or roll
So, there were some more tickets released for the White Stripes show in Detroit tomorrow night, and guess who got a pair of those babies? No, guess!
And guess who paid $70 for two tickets before finding out if anyone could go with her? And guess who totally bought the tickets before it even crossed her mind that she had to work Wednesday night?
But everything worked out alright. Somebody is working my shift and someone else is going with me. I have to write a paper and study tonight, and I have an exam in renassiance lit in an hour that I haven't studied for at all (it's just an essay, folks, don't worry about me), but now I have something to work toward. Plus, I don't have to work tomorrow night!
I didn't even want to go to this show until after it was sold out, and I'm absolutely certain that it won't be worth $35 a ticket*, but the thrill of the chase alone was probably worth $10. And maybe I will be surprised.
*I usually end up resenting shows that I pay over $20 to see. They are always in ridiculously huge venues (the White Stripes are playing in the Masonic Temple, where I once saw The Phantom of the Opera) where you can barely see the band, and the audience is always filled with horrible horrible people (uh, did someone say Belle and Sebastian?). But, like, I got tickets to see the White Stripes in Detroit!!!
2003-04-14
Aargh
Is anyone else as annoyed as I am about the fact that Microsoft Word always insists that it knows what is best for your document? I am really sick of the fact that my tab settings change every time I press enter and that I can't get back to the former bullet after moving on to the next one (which I'm sure doesn't make any sense at all.)
2003-04-14
This is by far the best popcorn I have ever had
I had a long list of things I wanted to do while I was at work, including but not limited to:
1. write return emails to Jessica and Ryan
2. study for my language and discrimination exam (which is Wednesday)
3. make the overheads for my language and discrimination group presentation (which is Thursday)
4. write a diaryland entry about the many bizarre things said by my language and discrimination professor today
5. write thank yous in the guestbooks of everyone who filled out my survey
I, however, got to only #1 and then I withdrew 10 million books which took up the rest of my shift (well, the part where I wasn't checking my email, which I did pretty much every 10 minutes), and so that means that the world will never hear about how my prof's partner's cousin is a pimp or about how once his pants fell off when he was trying to crawl into the window of his car. I don't have time to properly describe these things now because I have spent the hour I have been at home eating corn-on-the-cob flavored microwave popcorn (Mr. Redenbacher, I salute you!) and drinking diet Squirt. And I still have to make those overheads and study.
So, off I go. This is my last full week of student-hood until I go to grad school.
2003-04-13
Painting pots
Today I bought some clay pots. I was sad because they were that boring orange color that all clay pots are.
So I painted them! And, granted, I didn't do anything too amazing with them, they are much more attractive now than they used to be.
I had to buy the pots because I have recently acquired some new plants, namely the yellow leafy one from yesterday and an African violet. Both of the plants are in horrible shape, and even though I don't have a very successful history with houseplants, I just couldn't leave them to die in the store. It was like being at the pound.
2003-04-13
Happy won!!!
I just watched Happy Gilmore while eating lunch (Morningstar Farm's new Parmesan Ranch Chik Patties), and guess what? Happy won! I didn't see that coming at all.
2003-04-12
I am going to hell
Tonight I went to the store and bought candles and candle holder and a plant with big yellow leaves. The total came to $7.48 and I handed the cashier a ten. She rang it up as a twenty, though, and when she handed back my change, I almost told her she was wrong. But just as I was thinking that, I thought, "Hey, that will pay for the movie tonight!" And I kept my mouth shut.
And now I will feel guilty about it for the rest of my life. Maybe I'll offer to buy popcorn for everybody, or something, because then I won't feel that I've kept it for entirely selfish reasons.
2003-04-12
Do my homework for me, please
I have one last project for my language and discrimination class, and it is a survey. And the first thing I thought was, "Diaryland surveys!" Okay, that was nowhere near the first thing I thought. I thought, "Ugh, surveys, I have to go bother tons of people?" And then I thought I'd make some sort of online form for it and just link it, but you know what? That is way too much work. And then I thought, "I could make a survey on Diaryland if I was a gold member." And then I remembered that I am a gold member and I don't take enough advantage of it.
And so, here is my language and discrimination survey. All of the questions were written by my professor, which I tried to explain in the description but ran out of room. If you have a few minutes (it's only seven questions long), please fill it out. (Does this make me seem like a slacker? I'm still giving the survey to other people too, you know. Stop being so judgmental.)
Also, my mom is letting me borrow her digital camera for a few weeks, so stay tuned for pictures of my messy house, trees that I like, and Detroit, gateway to Canada.
2003-04-11
I found something in a book
I was withdrawing books just now, and a slip of paper fell out of one. It reads as follows:
Could I be killed? One third of all female homicide victims are killed by their husbands or an intimate partner. If you are battered, you are in danger of being killed. Most homicides occur after women have left or when assailants realize deep down that they are leaving for good. BEST WISHES FOR YOUR MARRIAGE. . .
And while the whole thing is a little weird, what really really gets me is the ellipis. "Best wishes for your marriage. . .but your husband might end up killing you. Just so you know."
2003-04-10
My parents
ktethyl: hey
larry_troyer: You farmin??
ktethyl: hah hah
larry_troyer: yee-haw
My parents are coming tomorrow. My parents rule (which could obviously already be seen by the above exchange)!
PS, I took the bus to the mall to see Love Liza, which wasn't great but it had the Philip Seymour Hoffman in it, and you know how much I love the Philip Seymour Hoffman (well, no, you probably don't).
2003-04-10
I am boring because all I do is complain about my car and how much I hate the place that I live
My car still doesn't start (and it should, since it is warm out again), which means I am trapped in Ann Arbor for the second consecutive weekend. Furthermore, it means I can't go get my stereo fixed (so I'm stuck here and I can't even listen to any music) and tonight is the last night that Love Liza is playing (it was only here for one week, but Bowling for Columbine will be entering, like, it's millionth week tomorrow). I haven't been able to go to a decently priced grocery store since two Fridays ago (although I did get to spend eight dollars on green peppers downtown). I might be able to take the bus to Meijer tomorrow right after work (although I will probably fall asleep and miss my stop) or Saturday morning (but I have have a lot of schoolwork I need to do and taking the bus always takes about 3 hours longer than it really needs to).
I wish I lived in a place with real public transportation (I could get to the movie tonight, if I left right after class, but there is only one bus back from the mall after it would be over. so if I missed that one bus, I'd be screwed). Or that my car was behaving properly (I'm not really sure that it's worth paying to get it fixed, at this point).
At least my parents might come see me this weekend. And I have been assured that my room will not be repainted this summer/next year.
2003-04-09
19 days and counting
Earlier today I wrote this on the white board:
*****************************************
Dear House Meeting,
I will not be able to attend you because I have to work.
xoxo,
Kim.
****************************************
The meeting is to select a new president and pick out rooms for next fall and spring/summer. The thought of someone else living in my room is very upsetting to me. I'm glad that I'm not there.
2003-04-09
Sightings
Sometimes when I see people at work, I am absolutely certain that I have seen them somewhere else before. I am also usually certain that the other place I have seen them wasn't at work on some other day.
Sadly, I usually have to assume that I have probably seen them somewhere when I was being a jerk in some sort of store for one or more of the following reasons:
(1) The line was long and I was late for something (I am always late for something)
(2) I had to go to the copy store that was absolutely the farthest away from my house, only to find out that they did not yet have my coursepack prepared
(3) The sandwich maker did not put enough pickles on my sandwich (hey, when I say a lot of pickles, I mean A LOT of pickles).
2003-04-09
I will go back to bed in five minutes
I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and thought, "Wow! I am so wide awake right now I better get up and write that paper!" And while that shows tremendous enthusiasm on my part, I just spent 10 minutes struggling with the difference between the words "accept" and "except," which might mean that my early morning hours are better spent sleeping.
2003-04-08
Don't tell me how it ends
I did not: go to class
I did not: watch The Simpsons
I did not: eat dinner
I did: start watching The Fellowship of the Ring* on the smallest television set ever, which is currently being held up by a milk crate, a classic of "I am poor" decor. I think it loses a bit of it's epicness this way.
*okay, I am lame because I haven't seen this yet. Like, not ever. This is the second time I've had the dvd out from the library (and the list is huge, so it took forever), and it is due tomorrow but I never had time to watch a four hour long movie this weekend because I spent all of my time watching Back to the Future parts 1 and 2 (Elijah Wood is in part 2 for about thirty seconds, you know. . .we read it in the credits and then went back and zoomed in, and I said, "You know, this is what people have dvd players for."). Anyway, I really wanted to get this watched in time to see The Two Towers in an actual theater, but I guess now I will only be able to make it to the last one. Oh well.
2003-04-08
What will I decide?
Part of me says: go to class - there are only three more left.
Part of me says: you've only skipped once before, and do you really think you can sit through two hours of a man talking about renaissance poetry?
The first part again: but what if he gets to Volpone today? you know you want to hear that.
The second part: you know he said he wouldn't get to Volpone until Thursday. and all semester he hasn't gotten to anything early. (this can be seen in the fact that the class is so far behind that you won't even get to read The Duchess of Malfi, in all its gory goodness.)
First: but won't that be the last class before the exam?
Second: so what? you can watch The Simpsons if you stay home. . .
First: make me some tea and we'll talk some more about this proposal.
2003-04-07
Three cheers for run-on sentences
I am drinking tea that smells like Kool-Aid. It is such good tea that I am almost glad it is cold and snowy on this, the seventh day of April, because tea, although enjoyable during any weather (except possible when it is very hot and you do not have air conditioning), is ten times more enjoyable when it is cold and blustery and miserable outside, especially when that cold blusteriness is ridiculously out of season and totally uncalled for.
2003-04-07
Pens and pencils
Today I borrowed a pencil from a girl in my English class and another one from a boy in my linguistics class. Aside from the lead-size, they were exactly the same pencil.
Whenever I borrow pencils from other people, I always write as little as possible so that I don't use up too much of their lead. I also never use the eraser. When I loan pens/pencils to other people, I always make sure that I give them something nicer than I myself am writing with. It makes me feel like a martyr. "I will write with this ball point pen from the dollar store so that you may enjoy the luxury of that hybrid gel roller." I don't know.
2003-04-07
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
OK. This is really ridiculous. I wish my camera worked, because no one will believe what it looks like outside of my window right now.
2003-04-06
Daylight savings time
Have I mentioned before that I love daylight savings time?
Because I do.
I love daylight savings time.
2003-04-06
Tonight we are supposed to get six inches of snow
There was a huge ice storm in west Michigan on Friday night and my parents haven't had power since then. The word is that power might be back by tomorrow night, but there are 380,000 people without electricity, so scattered areas will probably remain cold and dark until Wednesday. And my parents definitely live in a scattered area.
My mom went to my grandparents' house for the weekend, but my dad had to work on Saturday, so he stayed around. He is concerned about the milk he has been keeping on the porch and about the fact that everything in their freezer is thawed out. He is concerned about the fact that it is only 58 degrees in the house and that the kerosene heater just isn't doing anything to help. He said that the farmer who lives down the road was worried that some of his cows might have been hurt by all of the falling branches, which also ruined his brand new fence.
My dad is mostly concerned about his white birch tree, though. It was very large and he planted it at the same time they were building the house. The tree lost several large branches from the top (a few almost hit the house, which would have probably gone through the roof). He says it looks awful, like the top part has just been cut off. It's too bad. It was a nice tree.
2003-04-05
You can be replaced
OK, car. Until now, your touchiness has only kept me from movies. And it's ok to miss movies. I can go see movies another day. I can rent movies. Movies are not my preferred method of enertainment on the weekends (a side note - I notice that you always started right up when we were going to see movies like The Hot Chick or Dreamcatcher, and only refused when we were going to see things that actually might've been good. I'm happy to see that you have a taste for lowbrow entertainment, but you really need to balance things out a little).
But you should've known, car, that when you messed up a rock show, you would be in serious trouble. I hate begging for rides, which is the reason I have you in the first place. And there is no public transportation to get me to my desired destination.
You are old. You have dents. You beep excessively. You have the most awful car stereo in history. But I have always stood up for you. "It's a good little car," I always said. However, car, you have betrayed me. And although I will probably refrain from hitting you with a brick (which is what I'd really like to do), you do have to realize that things will never be the same now. It is your fault.
2003-04-05
Dear weather: it is April! Shape up!
I am afraid to go out and try starting my car. Those icicles on the telephone wire can only mean bad things.
At least, though, it is cold for Hash Bash. Nothing in the world makes marijuana look less appealing than Hash Bash does. It has the power of 100 afterschool specials.
2003-04-05
More about eyebrows
My eyebrows are totally out of control. I've been thinking about switching to waxing rather than plucking, but I'm afraid that I'd rip those babies clean off, and I'm not prepared to live life without eyebrows.
2003-04-04
My stupid car, again
I was happily anticipating a quiet Friday night in until yesterday when I found out that Love Liza was finally going to get here. Since then, I've been anticipating a quiet night in broken up by a few hours out.
A quiet night in is fabulous when it is something that you really really want.
It is quite something else to have a quiet night in thrust upon you by a car that will once again not start.
PS: Car, you had better start tomorrow. You and me are going to see the Delgados whether you like it or not.
2003-04-04
With friends like you
The other day I was discussing my new house with a friend. "It's really big," I said, "and there won't be many people living there because all of the doubles are transformed into singles for spring and summer terms."
She said, "Cool! It'll be like The Shining!" which wasn't very helpful.
2003-04-04
I used to have a pink stuffed hedgehog
Reading/watching/listening to the news in the morning, especially recently, is very depressing. That is what makes newspaper articles about hedgehogs in Scotland so very welcome.
2003-04-04
It is dark and cold
Tonight as I walked down State Street in what basically amounted to pajamas and a coat, I wondered when I started treating the whole town as if it's my living room.
2003-04-03
Morning routine
I've been writing too much about school lately, and not enough about life. They aren't the same thing. However, my life isn't much.
An example:
Last night I got home at about 10:30. I checked my email, played a stupid computer game, and then I was tired. It was now about 11:15, which is far too early to go to sleep, and besides, I wanted to watch King of the Hill at 12:30. I crawled into bed, fully clothed, to listen to the new White Stripes album. I listened to track 7 ("You've Got Her in Your Pocket") over and over and over (oh Jack, how do you always know just what to say?). I fell asleep. It must've been around midnight.
Falling asleep in a bra is uncomfortable, and when I woke up a little while later, I turned off the light, pressed "7" again on my stereo remote, and unhooked my bra. However, I didn't go so far as to actually take my bra off. I might have intended to, but I fell asleep again before I had time to actually accomplish this.
Cut to 8:30 this morning. I wake up feeling digustingly greasy. My mouth tastes terrible. These things were not surprising. What was surprising, though, was the totally bizarre way in which I was wrapped up in my brassiere. I fumbled around in bed, trying to extract myself from its satiny clutches.
The scene was already strange enough, and then I realized the sound. I hadn't set the sleep timer on my stereo because I hadn't planned on going to sleep. It should have cycled through the five discs and then stopped playing. However, there was apparently a skip in disc 2 (the About a Boy soundtrack), so my early morning lingerie wrestling (and pretty much my entire night's sleep) was accompanied by the rapid repetition of the 186th second of "A Peak You Reach."
I finally did get out of my bra, but I was so exhausted by the ordeal that I stayed in bed until 10:15 reading The Handmaid's Tale.
2003-04-03
The joys of good punctuation
Jones, whereas Smith had had "had," had had "had had;" "had had" had had the teacher's approval.
My professor wrote this on the chalkboard and said, "11 hads! But with proper punctuation it makes perfect sense."
I, however, side with a classmate who said that just thinking about this sentence was going to give her an aneurysm.
2003-04-03
Definite proof
As if to solidify my idea that my professors have collectively lost it, yesterday we watched a clip of How High in class.
2003-04-02
Home again
In spite of the fact that it is only about 2am, not a particularly late hour, there is still something delightfully illicit about going to a show on a school night.
2003-04-01
Countdown!
Number of:
Days till I move out of Ann Arbor: approx 153
Days until my birthday: 44
Days I have left in this house: 27
Days till commencement: 26
Days till my last exam: 22
Days till the last day of classes: 15
Days until my next paper is due: 12
Days until I am done with the socioling research project: 9
Days until the weekend: 3
Hours until I will see Spoon: approx 5
Who knew that getting that paper done was going to result in such a heady display of excitement?
2003-04-01
More about my paper - sorry
I guess in the future, it might be in my best interest not to name my papers things like "abadessayaboutsonnets.doc". It really doesn't serve as a great deal of inspiration to get out there and do my best work. On the other hand, though, sometimes when I glance at it, I think it says something about "a badass" and that makes me giggle. So I guess it's not all bad.
2003-04-01
Shhh
There is someone ripping the carpet up in the hallway outside of my room. Why, people, why today? I just want to work on my paper. And I am too unshowered to go sit in the computer lab.
2003-04-01
The funniest thing said while I was eating breakfast
"Hey, check it out - we have a female garbage lady - oh, wait, no we don't - she's just bussin' her own trash."
2003-04-01
A long walk home
Sometimes when I am walking home at night and the air is clean and cold, nothing seems really real. Tonight there were no clouds, but there weren't any stars either. The houses in my neighborhood all looked like elaborate dollhouses, and I thought that if I went inside, I'd find fake cupboards, fake stoves, dressers with drawers that wouldn't open. The cars parked along the street looked as if they had been that way forever, and all the way home I didn't hear a single sound that wasn't made by me.
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