Talk, Talking A Lot, But It's Still Talk

I wish the 15th would hurry up and get here - I want to watch Juno like twenty times in a row.

(Oh.  Hey, everybody.  What's up?)

I'm still as busy as hell, but it's easier to handle now that I'm feeling more upbeat.  And this weekend is actually going to be relatively leisurely, since my Evolution & History of Life midterm isn't hanging over my head anymore.  I hate that class.  I get up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday already bored in anticipation of the lecture.  And the lab.  Dear God, the lab - easily the most aggravating two hours of my week.  Like last Tuesday?  We're still studying ancient sea organisms (even though you'd think we'd have progressed to land-dwelling creatures by now), and our lab assignment was to separate a bunch of fossils of the same phyla into species.  The only catch was that some of the fossils were in pieces, sometimes very small pieces, and we still had to try to classify as many of those as we could.  Even so, it should have taken all of fifteen minutes, but since the girl I usually partner with wasn't there I got stuck with the most anal-retentive guy in the room.  Apparently he missed the part of the instructions that allowed us to disregard the pieces that were too small or warped to identify, because he was determined to classify every frigging granule.


And so on.  For almost an hour.  We were the last ones in there by far, and the TA kept coming over and saying stuff like, "You guys don't have to be super-specific - some of the pieces aren't identifiable.  Really."

You don't say.  Needless to say, it was kind of a pain, and pretty typical of that lab, sadly.

But yeah, it's been kind of a weird week overall.  My social life suddenly picked up, although I don't think I did anything to instigate that.  And I had this weird prophetic dream on Monday: I dreamed that the fire alarm went off while I was in the shower, and when I woke up I was like, "Ha, that would be a pain in the ass" and went to take a shower.  And I kid you not, just as I was turning the water off the alarm started shrieking. 

I did not go running outside in my towel, however.  Maybe if there was smoke in the hallway I would have, but come on.  Everyone was just kind of ambling outside, so I took the opportunity to get dressed first.

And on Tuesday I was a lab rat in one of the sociology department's experiments.  I won't go into a ton of detail because it really wasn't that interesting, but basically I was paid $20 to spend an hour filling out questionaires and spitting in a test tube at certain intervals.  I also had to write a speech at one point, but that part was designed to stress me out.  The thing is, I figured out what was going on pretty early in the game, so it really wasn't that painful.

I don't know if any of that makes sense.  It was kind of a weird experiment, though - I can't really think of a way to describe it that wouldn't take ages, and it's really not worth the effort of writing it all out.

There were other incidents as well, but I'm going on forever here so I think I'll just disregard them.  Actually, I think I'll stop now and go outside - it's ridiculously nice out today.  And later on I'll probably go see 21 - it feels like I haven't been to a movie in months (although truthfully I saw Vantage Point while I was on break).  Anyway, I'm off.

I always forget how far superior my shower at home is to the ones at school.  It was tempting to stay in there for as long as the hot water lasted, but of course I have more important things to do now that I'm home for break.

Big, important things.  Like...uh...work out.  And play Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon while watching some of the first season of House (seriously I'm going through withdrawal - I need some new episodes!)  And play with my rabbit, who wouldn't let me take him out of his cage last night but apparently has now forgiven me for being away.

And he'll get sick of me eventually, since I don't have to go back to school until January 20th.  College wins!

Speaking of college, my exams went pretty well, which is surprising given that I put off studying a tad too long.  The Stats exam could have gone better, but I wound up with an A in the class so the test itself has been rendered insignificant.  Somehow managed to pull off an A on my Biology exam, which was over 26 chapters of crap I didn't care about.  I've already forgotten almost all of it - it's a beautiful thing.  Philosophy went really smoothly, but that probably isn't a good thing.  Every time I think I do well on something in that class I'm unpleasantly surprised later.  So we'll see.  Mythology, though, was a breeze.  I actually liked that class, so studying for it was almost leisurely in a way.  I finished in fifteen minutes and got a perfect score on the thing.  Which I'm not smug about at all.  *lies*

Not that it was that big of an accomplishment: it was only over four chapters.  *ego deflates*

Right, I'll shut up about all that.  Actually, I'll shut up entirely - I'm hungry.  Hope everyone has a good Christmas, if you celebrate it, and if not, then at least a good break.

Dude, Kal Penn (you know, Kutner from House?) was at my campus today.  Saw him in the dining hall and definitely did a double-take.  He was kind of being mobbed and I had a class to get to, so I didn't get an autograph or anything.  Still, I think this is my first celebrity sighting, concerts excluded.  It's not exactly one of the defining moments of my life, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

So yeah.  Just thought I'd share.  But I'm actually shutting up now because finals are in - dear God - three days and I haven't started studying anything in-depth just yet.  So I need to go do that.

*plops down*  Whew!  I just spent about an hour dancing around my dorm room like crazy to this song.  Go listen to it (or at least part of it) and you'll understand why I'm worn out now - it's pretty fast, and I guess I was closer to flailing than dancing per se.

(Just a warning - it's almost a guarantee that it'll get stuck in your head if you listen to it, so follow the link with caution.)

I also did a good portion of this so-called "dancing" in front of my mirror and thus was able to confirm that, yes, I am an energetic but terrible dancer.  Like, if someone was trying to dance with me I'd probably smack them in the face by accident.  Repeatedly.  So often that it would cease to look like an accident and I'd probably be arrested.

Anyway, if any of you actually checked the song out, you probably have some serious doubts as to my taste in music right now (and are probably also cursing me because now it won't get out of your head.  Ha!)  I don't know why I like it, either, but I'm feeling pretty manic at the moment, so maybe it's just a mood thing.

Wow, this post is really pointless.  Like, beyond my usual.  Whoops.

I need to turn off the music and finish my homework anyway.  I have finals in a week and I haven't really studied all that much yet.  And I'm nursing a serious grudge against my Biology professor for testing us over the whole semester's worth of material.  (I know that's the point of a final, but none of my other professors are doing it and it's at least twenty chapters of crap.  NOT ON.)

Also, the lab sucks.  We keep dissecting things, and even though it doesn't particularly gross me out, it is getting tedious (and the smell isn't exactly a plus, either.)  As if that's not annoying enough, today we were talking about the reproductive system.  And if for some reason you're laboring under the delusion that college students can be mature about this sort of thing, allow me to correct you: they can't.  Didn't help that the TA was talking about it all in his incomprehensible accent, and he's also the last person I want to hear talking about anything even remotely related to sex.

"I wonder," I mused to myself as the TA rambled on about VAA-gin-uhs (to a chorus of undignified giggles and snorts), "if I could beat my head against the table hard enough to knock myself unconscious."

And, once again, I was the sucker who had to do all the actual dissecting.

"I could be doing anything else right now," I hissed to the guy sitting across from me.  "I could be reading The Iliad, finishing my Philosophy essay, studying for my Stats final-"

"Or sleeping," he supplied helpfully, slurping his coffee.

"-Or sleeping," I agreed, slicing through the lifeless (and curiously flattened) animal on my tray recklessly.  "And it would be infinitely preferable to molesting a dead rat before ten a.m.."

(We were dissecting them so we could examine their reproductive organs, so as to illustrate the material we're covering this chapter.)

"I'll give either one of you twenty bucks if you lick the rat," another guy said, leering as he leaned over the table to check out either the organs spilling out of the dead rodent or my breasts - it was hard to tell.  I opened and closed the dissecting scissors threateningly and he leaned back in his chair, falling asleep in about five seconds.

As you can see, only geniuses are accepted here.  And I really am going now.

You know what would be nice?  Being able to watch the sixth episode of House 4, that's what.  Come on, Fox website, get with the freaking program already - that episode aired three days ago, and I can't get it to work for me anywhere else!  I've been forced to watch Grey's Anatomy, for God's sake!

(I will not become addicted to that show.  I just won't.  I saw the first season and wanted to beat my head against a wall...although it looks like the show's improved since then...gah!  No!)

I did, however, became addicted to chocolate-covered pretzels while watching the newest episode of that show today.  Can I afford to be consuming large amounts of chocolate-covered pretzels?  No.  It's a good thing I don't keep a lot of junk food in my dorm - I just stole them from my friend (who was the one to force me to watch the show anyway, so she deserved what she got.  Or rather, lost.)

Anyway.

You know what else what be nice?  Finding out how I did on my last Stats exam.  The scores were supposed to be posted by now, but are they up?  Nope.  I realize that the professor has a life, and that's wonderful and all, but I'm a selfish being and would like to stop wallowing in uncertainty.

Oh, but here's something positive to say: they finally turned the heat on in my building, so I'm no longer freezing as I attempt to do my homework.  That's always a plus.  Also, this song amuses me far more than it should.

So I guess it's obvious that nothing significant is going on, so I'll just stop talking now, okay?

You can stop applauding, though.  Real nice, that.

Attempting to write and talk to my family at the same time, and my conversation is for crap right now because of it.  Not that it matters - I'm being treated to a monologue about grade curves at the moment, so I don't really have to do more than make affirmative noises.  Just got back from the Stats Test of Doom, which actually wasn't as terrible as the professor made it out to be.  As in, I don't think I failed, so I don't need to reassure myself that life will go on, my parents won't really kill me, etc.  Good thing, because I was giving myself pep talks all day and am now ready to beat my inner cheerleader to a pulp.

And I did really well on Monday's exam, so even if I don't get an A on this one, I'll at least have a little room for error.

This is all terribly fascinating, I'm sure.  Sometimes I read my past entries and just marvel at how boring my life is, and how often I can talk about the most random stuff.



(Just for the record, I'm no longer on the phone.  My family grew frustrated with my monosyllabic responses.  Whatever - I'm actually going home for the weekend, so they'll get the benefit of my glorious company and sparkling conversation then.  [/ego])

Anyway, now I can start studying for my Mythology exam in earnest (for some reason I'm particularly motivated to kick ass on that test, probably because I'm actually interested in the material), and maybe I'll actually write something this weekend.  I have a chapter of Accepting Irony to finish - I know how I want it to go, I just need to get it written, is all.  The eighth chapter is actually unexpectedly lighthearted, but that was partially done on purpose - it gets more dramatic very soon, so I wanted to compensate a little bit.

I'm also considering participating in NaNoWriMo this year.  Tentatively considering.  But moilio sent me the link to the site, and the more I think about it the more I want to try.  If anything, it'll at least force me to get off my ass and accomplish something, even if it's utter crap.  At least it's crap I can edit later.  The only problem is school - I can't say I'm willing to let it interfere with studying and so on, especially since I have to keep up my GPA so I can keep my scholarships.  We'll see.  At least I have a very vague plot idea - that's a start.

Did not realize I had this much to say.  But I think I'll go to bed now...damn early classes.

This week has been made of fail.  From the B I pulled on my Biology exam (which sounds whiny, but one more point and I might have gotten an A, depending on the curve) to the C my Philosophy professor gave me on an essay (thank God it's only 5% of my grade) to losing my ID to the two Stats exams I have coming up next week, both of which cover ten chapters of material, it's just been one pain in my ass after another.

So next week will be stressful because of the Stats exams, I was studying and writing papers all day today and will continue to do so tomorrow, and the week after next I have more midterms.  Oh, the joy.  Hopefully there's a lull after that - I'm not liking the pressure here.

But on a lighter note, I met with my academic advisor to discuss the spring semester, and now that I've gotten my less-than-desirable Gen-Ed requirements out of the way it looks like I could be taking some pretty interesting classes next semester.  I'm actually thinking about minoring in Classics now, since I'm enjoying my Mythology class so much.  We'll see what comes of that.

...Funny, I'm not actually as annoyed as I sounded at the beginning there, probably because I'm too tired to really be angry about anything.  But I need to look over a couple more chapters of Stats before I go to bed - I wanted to study five today and only got through three, and there's no way I'm studying seven chapters of Stats tomorrow in addition to finishing two essays.  Hell.  No.

So.  I will go do that now.

Long week. Very long week. All of my professors decided that now would be a great time to start picking up the pace, so I've had a ton of homework and very little time for sleep. I've been getting around five hours a night since Monday, which is starting to wear on me a little bit since I'm still used to getting at least eight hours. Plus I've been eating less and exercising more to stave off that freshman fifteen, and while I don't appear to have filled out any, thank you Jesus, it's probably not the smartest thing to do when I'm so tired already.

I really need to vacuum my room. I've been pretty good about keeping it from getting too cluttered (which for me means "yeah, there's crap everywhere, but it's all in neat piles"), but three weeks is pushing the dirt limit, I think. And now that I have time to take a breath or two, I could watch another few episodes of House 3. Preferably not while vacuuming - I'd have to get the sarcasm from the subtitles, and that's no fun.

Anyway, the only class that's really holding my interest right now is Classical Mythology, because we're finally getting into some of the myths. We started with Hesiod's Theogony, and certain aspects of it are some of those things that probably aren't supposed to be funny, but are. Like Cronus castrating his father because his mother was sick of being constantly pregnant. (Brief explanation: Uranus and Gaea - sky and earth, respectively - were locked in a sort of eternal sexual embrace, which meant that the sky was pressing down everything on earth and Gaea kept popping out kids. How this is possible when the two were supposedly constantly joined I'm not sure, and Hesiod didn't get too detailed in that respect. Anyway, Gaea was getting sick of it, and so she conspired with Cronus, her son, who agreed to separate the two. Awkward.)

"I've made your evening by now, haven't I?" the professor asked, and everyone was like, "Oh, yes you have."

Surprisingly, I'm liking Stats a bit more. I think that's because I'm starting to appreciate the professor, who really goes out of his way to make sure everyone understands what we're doing. And Philosophy is still fun, but we've been getting into some pretty mind-numbingly repetitive discussions lately, which can be a chore. Biology I don't even want to talk about (why did I take that class? WHYYYY?), and the thought of Rhetoric is making me panic because I have to give a speech Monday. *shudder*

So now that you have all of this lovely random information about my life, I'm going to grab dinner a little early. And then possibly go to sleep.

Well, I guess there had to be a glitch somewhere. Everything was going so perfectly, it was a bit unnatural.

My Stats and Biology TAs are going to drive me to an early grave.

I had my first Biology lab last Thursday, and maybe it was just unbearable because it was the first session and everyone was feeling a little awkward, but that doesn't change the fact that I wanted to kill myself for the vast majority of the two-hour period. Ye gods. Also, the TA is Chinese and his accent is a bit thick. That's really the least of the problems - I can learn to decipher an accent, it's not such a big deal. However, I don't care if you're not actually a teacher, you should be able to get up in front of a classroom and present the material with some degree of finesse.

Stats is a little better - I didn't want to off myself, at any rate. Still, I couldn't stop thinking, "I'm trying to learn about statistics from a guy who can't pronounce the word 'contraceptives'." (It was an example, okay, don't ask.)

He's Chinese, too, actually, so in all fairness, the word is probably a mouthful. And I hate to say this, but...two Chinese guys are my math and science TAs. No, that doesn't scream STEREOTYPE in all capitals in the slightest, don't know what you're talking about.

I don't want to dislike them or their classes - they seem like nice enough people and I don't want to heap hate on them when they don't really deserve it, but man, it's going to be a long semester with those two if the first sessions were any indication.

Anyway, I was just taking a break from writing a paper - conclusions are always the hardest part for me; I can never seem to hit the right ending note no matter how eloquent I sound while making my points. So I should get back to that (and Philosophy, and Mythology, and Biology...bleh, homework.)


...Or not, it is now ten minutes later and I just got back to my room because of a lovely impromptu fire drill.

Right. Now I'm going.

( Lots of college-related talk. )

Wow, that got pretty freaking long. I'll put it under a cut and spare your eyes.

I am now officially moved in! My mom and I got here around 1 p.m. yesterday, spent an hour dragging my stuff into my dorm room, and I was unpacking in a frenzy until about seven. Grabbed dinner, then went back to the hotel to shower, because I didn't feel up to braving the community bathroom at the time, and wound up just staying the night there because my dorm isn't air-conditioned and it was f/n hot. But now I have an extra fan that I can actually feel from my bed, so I'm set, I guess.

My room is huge. A girl from the front desk showed me where it is, and when she walked in she went, "Whoa! This is a big single!" It's easily twice as big as I imagined it was going to be - my closet's even a walk-in! Maybe it was a double in another life (although it would've been really cramped if that's the case.) Anyway, it looks amazing now that I've got all my stuff set up. But my door won't stay propped open...so I'm probably giving the impression that I'm some kind of recluse.

At least I'm being honest.

Anyway, I really need to finish Chapter 7 of Accepting Irony so I can post the sixth one. I've got about an hour to kill before my friend and I go to dinner, so I'll get on that. I can meet people later.

I unearthed an almost year-old Stranger Than Fiction oneshot today, which I liked and therefore had to polish and post right that second. I'm not sure why I hadn't put it up before now (although I'm glad I didn't; my old ending was way too abrupt and slightly daft.) I think it had something to do with watching the movie again - I just bought it to take to college with me, and I'd forgotten how much I liked it, Karen Eiffel's character in particular.

Not that it's relevant, but that's the first fic I've written for anything other than a book. I'd like to try a House fic one of these days, but I want to actually watch the third season first (which I now own! *completely disregards dignity and dances around*) Can't wait for Season 4 - I think it starts September 25th? Could be wrong.

On a different note, we're having my brother's birthday party today even though it's not actually until the 25th. I'll be away at school by then, though, so we moved the party, which my brother insists is actually the "Kate's leaving!" celebration (the jerk), up a few days. He got some amazing gifts - I guess it's supposed to make up for all the dorm stuff I got this summer.

Huh. Hard to believe I'll be moved in by Friday. Strange that I don't feel even the slightest twinge of anxiety at that thought; I'm probably suppressing it. I'm sure I'll be a right mess after I'm dropped off, provided I'm not distracted by shiny things and the other people on my floor.

I had a recital today - God, I hate those things.  I like singing, but audiences make me extremely nervous.  Still, I think I actually did well; a bunch of people came up to me afterwards with compliments, which has never happened before.  It was kind of embarrassing.

Oh, well.  At least it's over.  Although I'm no longer taking lessons, even, since I'll be in another state by the end of August.  Gah.  What am I going to do with my Friday evenings now?  Those lessons were all that got me out of the house - it's not like I have a big group of people calling me up to invite me somewhere.  *descends into self pity*

Okay, I'm over it.

Speaking of college, my mom and I went to Target today and bought a ridiculous amount of stuff for my dorm.  (Yes - MY dorm.  The knowledge that I have a single never fails to enormously improve my mood.)  I'm being a lot pickier about coordinating things than I thought I would be.  Who knew I was so anal?  But all the crap we bought barely scratched the surface of the list we put together.  That list goes on for three pages and isn't even finished yet.  It's kind of frightening, actually - my mom's uber organized, so the list has all kinds of categories and sub-categories.  Just looking at it made my brain cramp up.

*sigh*  And now I'm looking at college courses so I have some idea of what I want before I go register for classes.  Even though I've already fulfilled my foreign language requirement, I want to learn a new one...but honestly, none of the languages they offer appeal to me.  I would fail miserably at Chinese or Japanese.  I've never had an interest in learning German or French.  Spanish would be practical...but everyone takes Spanish, and honestly the prospect kind of bores me.  Swahili and Hindi are a little too out there.  I already took four years of Latin, and Greek just feels too similar.  Italian doesn't interest me either.

What I really want to learn is Gaelic.  Lately I've been on this whole "Irish pride!" kick - and I know I'm going to study abroad in Ireland.  I've been planning on that for three years.

Bleh.  I'll figure something out.  There's always...sign language.  And if the urge to learn Gaelic doesn't go away, I could always find a way to teach myself the language.  

...HAHAHAHA.  Yeah, that'll happen.  Pssh.

What with preparing for college and all that, the time seemed ripe for a change.  I guess switching up internet identities yet again was the easiest possible way.  (Actually, I'll take any excuse to do that: the moon was in Aquarius, I dropped a pencil, it's my dad's birthday...it's all valid.)

Besides, over a month without internet access was severely traumatic.  I just need to put that experience behind me.  But it did give me time to start planning - and actually writing - what I hope and pray will become a bona fide novel.  And fractions of ficlets, but the potential book is what really excites me. 

That and my room assignment - I'm in a single!  The sweet land of stuff that stays where I put it!  Turning in my housing application in the beginning of October was the smartest thing I've ever done.  *triumphant laughter*

That said, I'm off to refriend people.