Returning

Listening to nothing, because Windows 8 doesn't like iTunes. Yeah, I'm calling y'all out. Come on. Get over your feud so I can listen to my own dang music on my computer and not have to have my phone plugged in
Typing on my new computer!

    I realize it's been forever and a half. I won't apologize, because let's face it, what good would it do? Knowing me I'll probably go MIA again. But I figured it was about time I gave all four of you who care a little update.
    First off, I started my semester with total crappiness. I got the flu over Christmas - thanks, Corey - and then got a sinus infection which turned into strep. I missed the first day or two of all of my classes, causing me to fall irreparably behind in Linguistics and I had to withdraw (because the second day I missed happened to be drop/add, and I wasn't aware). Then Psych decided to kick my you-know-what to the curb for nine straight weeks (it was a ten week course, rather than lasting all semester) and no matter how I tried to do well in that class, I was stuck with a 62. For those of you who know me, I am an A-B student. Mama does not take Fs. So I ended up withdrawing the week before the final. Ridiculous, I know, but even if I'd made a 100 on the final, I still would have failed the class. It was rough.
    So I'm rounding out the semester with only three classes. However, the work load has been intense. I'm taking two Latin classes back to back on Tuesdays, from 5:00-8:30 (one is a two and a half hour class), and despite the crazy amount of work I have for them, I love them. I've had the delight of being taught by the brilliant mind who is now perhaps my favorite professor and teacher of all time - Dr. E. He's so amazing. Lucky me, I'm taking his poetry class in the fall and we're studying one of my favorite poets - Catullus! Color me ecstatic.
    I only have two school days left - this Tuesday and next Tuesday, and everything in the world is due those days. So of course Lucille takes this as her cue to leave this cruel world and take all my files, music, and photos with her. b!+<#.
    This brings me to my new computer, Sulpicia (named after the female Roman poet). She's an HP ENVY m6 notebook, and so far we get along quite well despite her Windows 8 and its battle with my iPhone, Olga. They're not getting along at all, but I'm going to let Geek Squad handle it. With all the work I have to do this week, I don't have time to fight technology.
    I would like to give one non-recommendation, however. If you've read back one or two posts, you'll see my love for e.l.f. makeup. It runs deep and pure. I ordered a palette last week that I thought was going to rock my sock drawer to the moon and back. Unfortunately, it was the worst thing I've ever tried to put on my eyes (including the time I squirted my face with mop water at work). I love the e.l.f. baked eye shadows. They're a shimmery smooth silky dream made of clouds and unicorn kisses. But the palette is a nightmare. The colors are a horrendously chalky, powdery mess, and the color payoff is nonexistent. I will promote almost every other product from e.l.f. to the grave, but the baked eye shadow palette almost sent me there prematurely. I encourage them to revamp it and I will be the first to purchase it as long as it's just like the individual baked shadows. But as it is now, do not follow in my fateful footsteps, folks.
    Lastly, I'm going to the beach with Corey and his fam in a few weeks. Ordered a new swimsuit online from Victoria's Secret. Stay tuned for a review - I tried some ruched bottoms, so let's see just how unbearable they are!

*I was not paid to promote or recommend any of these items. I mentioned them of my own volition.*

Still Here

from lilmisscatty on iconator.com

Listening to Variations on the Ash Grove arr. Joseph Martin (I really love this melody, and this is a wonderful arrangement. Another addition to the "Will Learn Before I Die" List.)
Avoiding Stats at all costs.
    I promise I am still here! Lucille has finally returned, and she's had quite the face lift. I had to get her lid replaced, and it is now no longer black, but a very vibrant purple. It's definitely less slimming than the black, but it's okay. We've cut cookies out of her diet. HA Computer pun... And that one was a freebie!
    Speaking of puns, I'll return to your regularly scheduled content next Punday. You will get your Letters to Inanimate Objects for the week by Friday (I should think).
    Until then, I leave you with this little visual my friend Johnny and I came up with during our lunch today:

    I know, we're hysterical.

Just Puntastic

from no_taint_of_sin at iconator.com

Listening to absolutely nothing because none of my music is in my iTunes library anymore. Kill me now.
Thinking about all the things that are annoying me right now.
    In case you can't already tell, I'm not in the best of moods. For starters, I was under the impression that everything that was on my old hard drive was transferred to the new one. Evidently I misunderstood, since I now have only 294 songs on my computer when I used to have over 1100. Not okay. On top of that, I paid for expedited shipping for my Norton Anthology of American Literature, and I received an email today informing me that it will not be here until the 26th at the very least. That's two classes that I will be without my book. Also not okay. To make matters worse, I'm flat broke, and need gas and school supplies, and my contacts won't be here until Friday. I only have three more pairs of contacts, which means I'm going to have to wear my stupid glasses for two more days. Stupid, stupid glasses. They're not even the right prescription anymore, but I can't even afford to pay eight bucks for a cheap new pair online. I can't afford good vision. Sorry to anyone who sees me on the road. 
    Let's improve this massive amount of suck with some awesome, as the VlogBrothers would say. And what's more awesome than a few puns? I only have a few, but I've saved them for you. (Yes. I rhymed on purpose. Because I'm awesome.)

• I follow Owl City on Twitter, and I read this tweet while on my break at work: "I mustache you a question, but I'm shaving it for later." I laughed so hard, my frozen mocha almost came out my nose. 
• This one I heard from one of my managers - for future reference, we'll call him Swaggy. He asked me, "What did the baker say on payday?" The answer: "I knead my dough." HA. That's a clever one. 

    Speaking of which, I could use some dough myself. Maybe I'll sell a kidney. I hear they're pretty pricey.

Lucille's Tragedy

from MOViESTARxMATERiAL on iconator.com

Humming Starlight by Muse
Craving Pretzel M&Ms. I had a bag earlier. And by a bag, I don't mean 99 cents at the register. I mean, search for it by the five-packs of gum in the candy aisle.
I swear I have an excuse this time. No, really, I do. My hard drive crashed. Lucille - my laptop - was in the shop for two weeks, and she now has a new hard drive and none of my old data. Except for my book, which I thankfully had the insight to rescue and move to a jump drive. I now understand the importance of "backing up" one's hard drive. I now also know the definition of "backing up" in reference to a hard drive. Yes, I am that technologically illiterate.
    At least I'm not grammatically illiterate.Which would be unfortunate for an English major.
    Or just illiterate. Equally unfortunate.
    Poor joke.
    So there's that. Also, I have been working quite a bit, and babysitting (which I honestly haven't done in quite some time), and some other things which I shall probably tell you about tomorrow(ish) or Saturday. And classes started yesterday. I'm taking fifteen hours, which is really not that bad, but the load will be heavy, so I'll have to get on a set schedule for posts.
    Here's what I'm thinking. Letters to Inanimate Objects (and Random People) at the end of the week - think Saturday nights, so I can write letters to Panera's new toaster. Let's call 'im Squealer. And either Sunday or Monday will be "Punday," depending on when I have time to be clever, and how much cleverness I can remember. And if I can think of any other clever posty ideas, I'll definitely squeeze them in. Along with a few sporadic ramblings about books, literature, and writing. I am, after all, in two English classes. And this blog is, in fact, called Dang Write! I might as well write at least a bit on the subject of writing itself.
    On that note, I've been reading The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Now, the movie The Secret Garden (yes, the one with Maggie Smith, who plays Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter, as Mrs. Medlock), was always a favorite movie of mine as a child. I loved the gray, Gothic moors and how much it contrasted with the beauty of the garden once Mary and Dickon had tended to it. I loved the magic of Colin's walking, and how he acted like a little Rajah, and how Mary was the only person who could control him at all. The whole thing was just so magical, and as a child obsessed with magic, you can understand the draw. Well, when I was about ten, I got my hands on a copy of the novel from the church library (which was also the school library) and readied myself to be equally impressed with Burnett's writing.
    But I wasn't. I was impatient, and though the writing really wasn't that heavy, it was just too much for my ravenous mind to chew. So I returned it to its shelf, and didn't look back.
    Until a week and a half ago at Barnes and Noble. It called to me from the Classics shelf, I swear. My mom was in the bathroom, and I already had a twenty dollar hardbound collection of Poe in my grip, but I reached for it. I haven't been able to put it down since. The book, as they almost always are, is so much better than the movie I remember as a child; I am, however glad I saw it first. I still have those actors' faces and voices in my mind's eye (and ear) as I read, and it's like I can see it so much more clearly for being familiar with the characters already.
    Anyway, I digress. The purpose of this was to recommend it to you. It's fantastic, a quick read, and everything is simply put. I didn't have to re-read a single sentence, unless I wanted to. And some were just so beautifully written, that I did. So go buy it. It's cheap, and wonderful. (Which sounds dirty.) Get your mind out of the gutter and into The Secret Garden.