12-26-04
Kim, meet boring. Boring, Kim.
It is the day after Christmas and I have socks enough to last for another year. I don't know when I'll feel comfortable wearing my new socks, because it seems a shame to wear them when all it means is that soon they will also be holey and worn.
Also, I got a nice new coat which has caused my vanity level to rise to an alarming height. I don't have a mirror in my bedroom because most of the time I just prefer not to know, and there isn't a full-length mirror anywhere in my apartment, so since August I have essentially only ever seen myself from the waist up (and only in brief glances). Since I got the coat yesterday, I have spent more time in front of the mirror than I really feel comfortable admitting to. I guess that in time then newness of the coat will wear off and I can go back to cutting my own hair and never wearing make-up and slouching.
My parents liked the presents that I agonized over for them. I always worry so much about what to get and everything always ends up being fine. I got my dad gloves and some cereal (which sounds dumb, but I actually got him a whole case of cereal once and he really loved it.) from Trader Joe's that looked like something he'd enjoy. It's already almost gone, and he said that I am no longer welcome here unless I bring more of it. I got my mom a shirt and some other stuff PLUS I already know what I'm going to get her for her birthday in a few weeks.
Tomorrow I am going out for breakfast with my parents (two eggs, hash browns, bacon or sausage and toast or pancakes for $2.99! you can't beat Big Boy's blockbuster special!), and then I am heading back to my house to work a couple of days at the library, see The Life Aquatic and enjoy a few last days of roommate-free living. Then I have to come back Thursday so that we can go have dinner with my aunt and uncle, as we have not seen any members of the extended family thus far (and I haven't seen any of the extended family on my dad's side since. . .last Christmas? yikes. They all live far away in the south, except for this particular aunt and uncle who only live in southern Michigan. We usually meet them somewhere halfway between our two homes and have had Christmases in restaurants and parking lots all over Kalamazoo.).
12-18-04
Drawn and pisoed.
The other day, the roommate borrowed four quarters from me so that she could dry her laundry, but when she went to get her clothes out of the dryer, its door was open and her clothes weren't dry. She asked our landlord for a refund. He left four quarters for her and I took them because she had borrowed them from me in the first place.
Last night, I went to see I Heart Huckabees at the second-run theater for three dollars. I don't carry cash (I can't spend it if I don't have it (except that I always have my debit and credit cards)), so I was planning to pay with two stray dollar bills I had found in my room and the four quarters from the landlord. When I took the quarters out of my pocket, though, one of them turned out to be not a quarter at all, but was instead a 1 piso coin from the Philippines.
It was weird to unexpectedly find foreign money in my pocket, but I was really happy because I am lame and things like currency I've never seen before excite me. Then I realized that I didn't have enough money for the movie and I held up a long line of people digging around in my bag for nickels and pennies.
Then I Heart Huckabees turned out to not even be worth three dollars (so I'm glad I didn't pay $7 or $8 to see it a month ago). About three quarters of the way through the movie, the screen went black and the sound slooowed waaaaaay doooooooooowwwwwnnn and then stopped, and that was the best part of the movie. They did manage to fix it, but if they hadn't, I don't think that I would have cared at all about missing the ending. I actually haven't seen a movie (in the theater or on dvd) that I've liked in a long, long time. However, I have a good feeling about The Life Aquatic (about which I know very little, since I have been going out of my way to avoid seeing any commercials, trailers, web sites, reviews, photos, etc. about it. I want to know absolutely nothing about it before I go see it. I've never gone in cold to a movie before.).
12-17-04
My new goal is the last week of December. And then in the last week of December, my new goal will be the first week of January.
On Monday I said, "By the end of this week, I will have my personal statement for grad school done." But then it totally slipped my mind until right now.
Wait, that isn't true. It never slipped my mind. I just didn't want to write it. It's only 250 words, which is not many words at all, but I still have to actually sit down and write it. I don't like writing about myself (she said in her online diary). I mean, I don't like writing to convince people about how great I am and why they should accept me, and about my wishes and goals and dreams. Plus, I don't even want to go to grad school. Just thinking about papers and exams and research stresses me out. But what else am I going to do?
Dear grad school,
Please take me because I have no other prospects in life.
xoxo,
kim.
12-15-04
I really do have a new job! Really!
I'm finally starting my new job tomorrow. I was beginning to wonder if they'd forgotten about me, but I didn't worry about it too much because I'd gotten along without a second job until now, and the fact that they said they'd get back to me and never did made it seem less like my joblessness was my fault and more like it was thrust upon me by others. And feeling downcast and trodden upon is something I'm quite good at. Then, suddenly, on Monday someone emailed me and asked if I could come to a meeting today.
At the meeting I learned that no one has had my job before and as a result, no one quite knows what is going on or what to do with me. I was also given a list of names to mention in case anyone gives me any trouble. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing, but it will probably involve carrying a stack of flattened boxes down the street.
After the meeting, I stopped at Meijer to buy some bread because I wanted to make a sandwich. While I was waiting in line to pay for it, the woman in front of me was studying a dvd she was buying. She took out her cell phone, dialed a number and said, "They have "Santa vs. the Snowman 3D" for $9.99. Is that the one you wanted?" And "Santa vs. the Snowman 3D" was exactly what the person on the other end of the line had wanted and everyone was happy. It made me feel all warm and Christmassy (even though with only 9 shopping days left I still need to get presents for. . .well, pretty much everyone that I'm going to get a present for! eek!).
12-14-04
I can double my wardrobe by wearing my clothes inside out.
Last week I was wearing my black cardigan (which, in the year that I've owned it, has proven to be an essential part of my wardrobe and I'm surprised that I managed to get by for so long without one) and the roommate and I went to get some food. While we were waiting in a long line, she looked at me and said, "I think your cardigan is on inside out." It was. I said, "I thought that it was unusually hard to button." I didn't bother fixing it because I figured that would just draw more attention to its inside outness. I went home and ate and got food all over myself.
At some point during the weekend there was a situation in which I wanted to look sort of halfway decent and I decided that I needed my black cardigan for that. And even though I hadn't done laundry, no one could tell that I'm a huge slob because all of the stains were on the inside!
12-09-04
You can't dislike a cheese ball shaped like an igloo.
Oh how I love it when foods look like other things. I especially like it when food food looks like other food (like when Homer Simpson made an apple out of ham cubes).
This post is brought to you by the fact that yesterday I really wanted some vanilla wafers, and that reminded me that my mom and I made these cookies to take to my class on every birthday I had during elementary school.
12-07-04
Yeah, but if we change the name it'll be fine.
The roommate said something about how there is a Christmas tree at the place she works, and I said, "You can have a Christmas tree there? Isn't that discriminatory?" (Actually, that's not exactly what I said because it took me a long time to think of the word 'discriminatory.' I might have just yelled, "Racists! RACISTS!" That sounds more like me.)
My freshman year I lived in a small, all-female dorm (I lived there my sophomore year too, but that is not important to the story), and there was a lot of controversy when a group of people wanted to put up a Christmas tree in the lounge, because what about the people that didn't celebrate Christmas? Wouldn't they feel threatened by having a bright, festive tree in a common area? All of these questions were asked, of course, by conscientious Christmas-celebrators who decided that while we couldn't have a Christmas tree, we could have a celebration tree, or a friendship tree, or a benevolence tree (I can't really remember what they called it).
We had a friendship tree decorating party, and we were all supposed to make something that represented ourselves or our culture or where we came from. I made an ear of corn out of construction paper. I don't remember what anyone else made, but I'm pretty sure that my ear of corn was the best ornament.
After I finished telling this story to my roommate, she asked me what I was doing at a friendship tree decorating party in the first place, which is a good question because it doesn't sound like anything I would ever go to. I decided that there must've been snacks there. I would've found it pretty difficult to pass up the chance to procrastinate on homework while eating free food, especially since I didn't even have to leave the building to do it.
12-07-04
I'm sorry that this entry is all about a dead squirrel.
Last night while I was walking home from work, there was a huge* dead squirrel on the sidewalk. I thought, "Eww, a dead squirrel.
This morning as I walked to work in the rain, it was still there. I thought, "Eww, a wet dead squirrel."
It was still raining when I walked home from work, but I thought that the dead squirrel was gone. . .until I realized that it was just on a different block than I thought it was. Then I thought, "Eww, an even wetter dead squirrel."
I think I'm going to have to find a new route to work before I am faced with frozen dead squrrel, partially decomposed dead squirrel, and ripped apart by scavengers dead squirrel.
*The squirrels here are cat-sized and fearless; once one stole an oatmeal creme pie from me. It was when I was here for university orientation, and I could never quite make it to the cafeteria during the times that it was open, so that oatmeal creme pie was important. I had, admittedly, left it on the ground several feet away from where I was sitting (that sounds weird, but I was sitting on the ground too, and it was sort of partially still in my backpack), and I did see that there were squirrels around, but I was used to lily-livered rural squirrels who won't even hang around when you want to give them potato chips. I didn't expect that a squirrel would actually reach into my backpack and take my only source of food.
12-05-04
All I want for Christmas is better skin and sparkling white teeth.
I need moisturizer for my face, but it's all so expensive that I usually go to the store, stand in the moisturizer aisle and yell about how expensive it all is and leave, claiming that I will just live with flaky skin and the wrinkles I will inevitably have by the age of 27. Actually, I think I sort of have wrinkles already, from all that scowling I do. But if people weren't so aggravating, I wouldn't scowl all the time! This is everybody's fault but mine.
Also, my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I didn't know. I don't need anything. Last year my cd player was stolen so I needed a new one and my mom got me the exact one that I wanted even before I told her which one it was (I am very predictable). This year I'm pretty much all set (I mean, except for the moisturizer), though. The parents wouldn't take, "I dunno. Whatever," for an answer, though, so I finally came up with these things:
- Pans with lids that fit on them. I have one lid to use with all of my saucepans. I found it on the porch of the house I lived in last year. And if I want to cover my soup pot (which I also found on the porch), I have to use a cookie sheet (um, which I found on the porch). People assume you don't need kitchen stuff unless you get married. I would kill for a wedding shower right about now. (That kind of makes it sound like I actually DO need something, but I've been functioning so well without these things for so long that I don't miss them unless I think really hard about it. And then after thinking really hard about it, I get mad because no one will buy my pans or a pizza cutter or sharp knives* unless I get married. But I wouldn't be mad about it if I just wouldn't think about it.)
- Socks. I have toenails like knives and rough scaly heels. Therefore, I always need socks. (PS, I spend so much time trying to fix my feet.)
- An electric toothbrush. Have you seen the people in the electric toothbrush commercials? They are all SO HAPPY! If I had an electric toothbrush I wouldn't scowl so much.
I think Christmas is going to be kind of boring this year.
*My roommate claims that our knives are sharp, but I'm not sure why. Maybe she's only been using them to cut things like pudding and applesauce.
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