Sorry!

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I'm not listening to anything because it will distract me from my work. But guys. 20/20 Part 2 is out. It's my reward for getting all this crap done.
    Sorry, I know I'm a terrible person. You don't get a new post today (aside from this, which really doesn't count). The four of you who read this can punish me later. Too busy now. I had to close at work today so I was there until seven, and now I have two papers and three Catullus poems to write and translate by tomorrow... And I don't have time for a post.
    But Thursday! Get excited. I did some cool stuff this weekend, and I'll tell you about it then. I promise!

Whoops

Listening to A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton (y'all remember that song?)
Missing Corey. He left today. I won't get to see him again until Christmas.
    I know, I did it again. But in my defense, this weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. I actually had more time than I thought I would to spend with Corey because my awesome boss found it in her wonderful French heart to let me off three hours early on Friday and spontaneously give me Saturday and Monday off. I about lost it. I tried to hug her Friday, but she's not good with allowing other people in her personal bubble. She also won't accept air hugs. I may have sent an overly emotional text in gratitude calling her a "perfect French angel." I was happy, okay. However, since Corey only had this weekend we were everywhere at once trying to spend time with everyone who's important to him - and unfortunately we couldn't get to all of them.
    On top of that, my mom had to have a pretty intense surgical procedure done on Thursday, and then plastic surgery on Friday and she's sort of down for the count. She had the beginnings of basal cell carcinoma in two places on her nose and they had to be cut off. The incisions reached all the way to the cartilage and were about as big as quarters so skin had to be taken from somewhere else to repair it. Unfortunately, the skin on your nose doesn't match just anywhere and the grafts had to be taken from the middle of her forehead. The strip of skin has to be left connected from her nose to her forehead for the next three weeks for blood flow, and then they may have to reshape her nose if it's uneven. Then they had to stitch together the skin on her forehead, but because there's a strip of skin missing in the middle, they had to peel it back from her skull and stretch it back together so it would fit. She's in a ton of pain and honestly, the way her face looks right now has taken a pretty big emotional toll on her. Believe me, if you saw pictures you'd understand. It's not a vanity matter. It's one of those situations where you don't look like you anymore and it's really jarring and taxing. So definitely be thinking of her if you care at all, and keep her in your prayers if you pray. It's been a whopper of a weekend.
    So anyways, people have been in and out of the house to visit her, and my grandma came down to help take care of her. So we had both Grandma and Corey here. And on top of that, my car Little Red has a leak in one of her hoses that's been causing her to overheat and smoke and generally look like she's gonna blow up. A problem which just chose to surface this weekend.
    A Five Faves and a Flop post is coming. I've taken photos and everything, I just have to find time to edit and write. Also, another school post - I've come up with a pretty good way to take notes and keep track of everything that's been working really well for me so far. I haven't gotten behind! ...Yet!

Double Word Thursday?

Listening to Britney Spears (it's gonna be a thing this summer...)
Eagerly awaiting my next order from e.l.f.!
    So, I realize I haven't posted in two weeks. For yesterday, my only excuse is that I sprained my wrist and typing is not fun. Last week... I know something was going on, I just can't remember what it was for the life of me. So to make it up to you - here's all of the wordiness I've missed!
     So the way I choose the words of the week is through my dictionary app on my iPhone, Olga. There's a word of the day each day and I look through them and choose one for each week. That or if I hear a really cool word I'll look it up and keep it in mind. Unsurprisingly, it was difficult to choose from all the awesome words but I went with:

[nok-tuh-LOO-suhnt] adj. visible during the short night of the summer.
So Sax would sit on the western sea cliff, rapt through the setting of the sun, then stay through the hour of twilight, watching the sky colors change as the sun’s shadow rose up, until all the sky was black; and then sometimes there would appear noctilucent clouds, thirty kilometers above the planet, broad streaks gleaming like abalone shells. Kim Stanley Robinson, Blue Mars
 
[sahr-dn-uh-PEYL-yuhn] adj. excessively luxurious.
Here, in this half-destroyed Tartar town, surrounded by steppes, he indulged himself in a Sardanapalian effulgence that beggared even his jassy Court. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Potemkin



The runners-up were pensée, imponderable, natch, mignon, and fantast.

Midnight Vigor

from xxx_vintageglam at iconator.com

Listening to rain pattering on the leaves outside. That's right - both of my windows are wide open because this weather is fantastic.

Feeling über accomplished.

    For some absurd reason, when my family starts turning out their lights and closing their doors, I get a massive burst of energy that I cannot possibly ignore. Normally, I waste it by staying up until three a.m. doing nothing of any importance on Lucille (my laptop). But tonight, my friends, tonight I fueled the energy burst with a bottle of coke, so it was twice as bad. There was no possible way to sit still during this one. (That's what she said. Sorry, couldn't resist.) So I decided to rearrange my room.

    I twisted my hair up in chopsticks - that's when you know I mean business - and went to work. It took me roughly three hours, but my room looks great, now, and I feel so organized and mature. I couldn't help sitting down at my desk (no longer covered in clean laundry, and actually looking like I could do homework there) and thinking, "This must be what successful adults feel like when they get something big done. Like remembering to finish their load of laundry in the washing machine, or buying healthy groceries that aren't dinosaur-shaped." Even though dinosaur-shaped makes everything taste better.

    Not only are my clothes put away and my shoes off the floor, but I moved all the baby clothes my mom had been keeping in my closet downstairs. Now I have room for my own clothes. On both sides of the closet. And I organized all of my flats into my sister's old barbie doll hanging holder she'd put on the back of my closet door. Once you take out the naked and unfortunate-looking dolls, it works perfect for shoes, I swear. Greatest idea ever. A few weeks ago, I'd gotten rid of extra clothes in my closet and dresser, and folded everything nice and neat, so that's all organized. I'd cleaned out my desk, too, so all those drawers have been put to good use. (That was when I had my demon/scorpion/stalker/murderer experience. The little freak was just chilling in my shirt. Yes, in. As in the shirt on my body. It wouldn't die, either! I crushed him with a binder, one of my black flats, and a stiletto, and the thing reincarnated itself every time! I finally went at him with hairspray until he was glued to the carpet, and he was still trying to kill me even as I froze him in place. Then I plucked him from the floor with jewelry pliers and flushed him to kingdom come. Hear that, arachnids everywhere?! Come near me and I will kill you, dead!) I even found a place for most of my books. I couldn't fit them all on my bookshelf, but I got them off the floor. 

    I also realized that I am in the middle of ten different books right now - despite the fact that my little list on the sidebar only has about five or so. I'm really bad about that, reading more than one book at a time. I'm almost finished with one, though, and two of the others are story collections that I just read when I can't sleep or something. And I found three different pairs of glasses.

    I'm still really energized so I think I'll work on my book a little. I'm in the process of rewriting the beginning. Again. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck, my lovely lit. lovers!

Why Positivity Doesn't Pay Off

from HunHunHoney on iconator.com

Listening to Alligator Sky by Owl City (Feat. Shawn Chrystopher) Check it out - it's a pleasant surprise!
Avoiding editing my book. I can't handle the ugly.
    I woke up today and (despite having a really weird dream involving zombies and tattooing dead zombie skin) decided that today would be a good day. I rarely do this. It's not that I'm a negative person; I just don't consciously think, "Today will be a good day."
    At first, it seemed like it was working. I was only a few minutes late to class. (Being late for me is normal; my internal clock is perpetually slow. Yesterday I thought for some stupid reason that my class didn't start until 11:30. Where I got this idea, I couldn't say. Italian has been at 11:00 a.m. since January. The day before I almost drove away with the gas thing still in my car at the gas station. I'm losing it, I swear.) I got an A on my research proposal. And I had a lovely plan in my head to get a new pair of (better fitting) shorts and a soft off-the-shoulder tee that I'd seen was on sale. 
    I have two pairs of shorts from last summer that are now too big, so I thought I'd sell them back to one of those stores that buy new and gently used clothing. I knew that denim shorties were on sale at American Eagle for under 25 (convenient, right?), and I also had a 15% off coupon. I figured with the money from two pairs of shorts and the discount, I'd get those shorts at a steal. 
    I went to American Eagle first to be sure that the shorts looked okay on me, and to find the tee that was on sale. Unfortunately the tee wasn't on the floor, so I asked an employee for help. She brought out three in my size from the back - black, white, and hot pink. None of those three colors really look good on me, so I asked if she'd be able to find any of the pastel tees. She went to look and there weren't any in my size, but there was one in a Medium, so I took it. I figured, it's on sale, sure, right? Well, I brought all of it up to the counter and asked if she'd hold it there so I could go sell my shorts and get the money for it. She seemed happy to oblige, but I felt that she was probably irritated with me having her do so much for me. 
    Cut to the new and gently used store. Zoom in on a super cute navy blue white polka-dot romper by the counter. Eight bucks. What. A. Bargain. So I bought that, and when I did, they told me they couldn't buy back either of my shorts. Way to ruin my whole set up. They did give me a 10% discount on the romper, but still, $7.64 from $8... Anyways, I got into my car eight bucks poorer and Little Red (my car) took that opportunity to say "Low Fuel." Perfect.
    Back at American Eagle (now bereft of $28), I couldn't possibly come back and tell the poor girl who'd gone through all that trouble for me that I didn't have the money to buy that shirt I made her dig for and the shorts. So I bought them. For forty freaking dollars. 
    Can you hear that? It's the few pennies I have left echoing as they clatter to the floor of my bank account.

Why I Can't Be a Functional Adult

Listening to You and I by Ingrid Michaelson 
Wondering why I can't manage to make better use of my time





A functional adult I'll never be
This one fact I could almost guarantee.
The sound of my alarm on deafened ear
Grows louder every moment, more austere, 
Until, as Fate intends, I jolt awake, 
And wonder if a shower I could take
And still be timely to my morning class,
If bathing right away I should not pass.
While tardiness, I know, is impolite,
I fear if wandering eyes on me alight
Without a chance my hair and face to paint,
A simple glance may cause them to feel faint.
Unconscious students would cause more disrupt 
Than my belatedness, howe'er abrupt,
Instead of ugly-caused chaos create,
I'd rather shower and be slightly late.


Two reasons more that timely I'll not be
are due in part to time discrepancy,
For of the six clocks which each day I read,
Not two of them the same time are agreed. 
My bedside table clock's a minute slow, 
Meanwhile the stove top clock through time does blow.
The worst, perhaps, in terms of tardiness,
Would be how far my car's clock does digress,
For while it is four hours far behind, 
To be eight minutes fast it seems resigned. 
I also tend to underestimate 
The time from home to school to navigate,
As well as mastering the central deck,
For parking there is somehow still a wreck,
And though the signs to park or leave are clear,
I manage every time from them to veer.

Now, to end my temporal swings
From tardiness to missing things
A writer's life is one for which I'll wait
For each night spent with pen and ink
Would mean a day to sleep or think,
For on my own clock I'll operate.

And now, to procrastinate...

Are We Sure Alice Didn't Just Get Lost in the Central Deck and Not a Rabbit Hole?

Sort of half-listening to Saw It On Your Keyboard by Hellogoodbye
Thinking about the coming months. 
    Yeah, that title is really long, but it applies, I promise.
    So, last night - or, I guess the night before last... it's one a.m. now. So this time yesterday? - was really good. Lovely things happened, but those lovely things are not what I want to discuss right now. What I want to discuss is the fact that so many things went wrong in regards to school and such today that I really just want to redo it. The school bit, anyways.
    I set my alarm for 7:30, since I have a 9:30 a.m. class Tuesdays and Thursdays. That gives me an hour to get ready, leave at 8:30, and arrive promptly at 8:45 to find a parking space and trudge to class. Of course, it would be ridiculous for my day to begin as planned, so this is what actually happened: I didn't hear my alarm at all, so I must have turned it off in my sleep, and my dad woke me at 9:00 on the nose. Nine. Fifteen minutes after I'd planned to be on campus.
    Now, I'd showered before bed the night before, so I wasn't dirty or smelly. In other words, I didn't need a shower, but it sure as heck would have woken me up. But I didn't get that, did I? Didn't put make up on; just mascara at a stop light (on the bright side, someone told me that no makeup looked good on me [: ). Didn't get my tea either, which would have helped. So, what with rocking my just-rolled-out-of-bed look, and speeding a bit so as not to be late, I arrived on campus at 9:10-ish, give or take a minute.
    I've had early morning classes before, so I assumed the West Deck would be fine to park in. Never assume, reader. Never. Apparently, by 9:00, every student and faculty member and maintenance worker and car-pooler is magnetically drawn to the West Deck, which is the most convenient deck to park in for my classes - right by the building I go to. Having made the stupid mistake of turning into this deck, I got stuck there for ten minutes, leaving me only ten minutes to go to another deck, find a parking spot, and get to class. The class I still haven't been to, and have no idea where it's located.
    Once I've broken free of the black hole of time wasting that the West Deck has become, I jet around to the Central Deck, where I've never parked before. Now this parking deck is enormous. I mean, really huge. Something like seven or eight floors, I don't really know. It's like a massive multi-leveled car-bearing beast just looming over Campus Loop Road (for some reason, the comparison my brain supplied was a "multi-leveled vacuum cleaner." Please don't ask me how that makes sense; I really don't know..). I've never been in this deck before, hence I have no idea how to get around. Somehow I made it up to level three, by simply following other drivers, as the signs made no sense to me.
    It's like MarioKart in there... All these weird colors on the walls, cars on every side of you and randomly popping out through breaks in the walls and such... The layout is so confusing for me. I managed to circle the third floor something like fifteen times. I was literally lost on one floor. I never ran into other cars, so I didn't realize I was going over the same path over and over. I finally noticed a car buzzing up toward me from one of the breaks in the wall, so I decided to turn down that way, thinking it was a way to go up a floor or something. I quickly discovered it was one-way, and that one-way was not my way. I feel like I gave that stupid silver Volkswagen Bug the scare of it's life.
    Anyways, I finally figured out how to move up and down floors in the deck - I'm telling you, it's nuts - and I parked and headed across campus to my class. I'm now roughly five minutes late or more and haven't even gotten to the English building yet. When I entered the building - silent due to classes which have all started - and got to the floor my class was on, I passed the room twice because the room was quite difficult to find.
    It turned out it was down this weird little half-hallway that I easily missed. Twice. My professor was very understanding though. She said that everyone has those days when they just get lost going everywhere. Then she said, "You're like Alice, and there are plenty of rabbit holes.. You just happened to fall down the right one." First off, I immediately thought, "Who's Alice?" Then, realizing the allusion to Alice in Wonderland, I thought, "If she fell down that one particular rabbit hole and got terribly lost.. That wouldn't be a good thing. That's not the right rabbit hole. That's the wrong one. The right one would be the one that she can get out of - a normal rabbit hole, which would only fit her foot or something..."
    If this is an omen of the rest of my semester, I honestly don't know how I'm going to manage. My second class of the day gave me no trouble. Plus - added bonus - my professor is from New Zealand, so I get to listen to her cool accent every Tuesday and Thursday night.
    So yeah. That was my morning, really. Not so much my whole day. The rest of my day was alright. Just the morning sucked. So much.