Okay. I *ought* to do something with this, but it looks like the requisite amount of effort to get the thing back to modern times is slightly depressing, so I'm not sure that I will. Regardless, hey, look, I'm still alive! And I'm in Chicago. And I'm thinking of changing that soon....

posted by Unknown at 3:09 AM

 

So that's it. I've got everything planned now. I leave Thursday night to go up to Boston to see Beth. I'm very happy. And I've decided I want to make pumpkin pie while I'm up there. It'll be fun. I go down to New York to see family on the nineteenth, hopefully spending more time with Debi and Rob than with mom. I'm leaving Thursday the twenty fourth to go back to DC so that I can be back in time for our TMAG trip the following day. No more work until that weekend - the twenty fifth. And I'll get paid for all of the time I don't work. It's amazing to me.

I'll be working of course through the holiday season, but my last day should be January twelth. So I'll get seven more paychecks between now and then, and I should be able to pay off my credit card with that, problem. I just need to find someone to take over for me on the lease for January. Well, for February, really.

First day of classes at school will be the twenty second of January. I'll probably go up the Saturday before. I need to work out what will happen with dorm arrangements. I really hope I can get a single in substance free.

I'm very excited to go back. If only because I'm so sick of all this manual labour (which of course was the very idea of this whole plan). I still have no idea what I want to do with myself once I've graduated, though. I'm considering just temping for a bit when I get out. Maybe that'll lead me somewhere interesting.

posted by Unknown at 9:25 AM

 
You know. It's happened again. I feel shallow for being happy. Yeah? Hell with that. I've gone through enough sadness and I know what it's like and I see no reason to repent my current contentment. Ha, mind, caught you.

I know I'm still the same person I always was. I honestly believe, though, that I've gotten more stable over time. This used to be the place I'd constantly rant and stick my insecurities. Yes, I still have them. But I don't really care now. I'm not depressed. There's nothing seriously wrong with me. I may have a few more hang ups than some other folks, but the trade off is that I'm a rational, thinking, intelligent being who's emotionally aware and highly capable. I still don't like what I look like, but I'm rather fond of my mind and soul. So there.
posted by Unknown at 11:27 PM

 
Damn you. And you, too.
posted by Unknown at 9:46 PM

 
I like cheese. Cheese is good. Cheese is tasty and enjoyable. Cheese is a dairy product. It's made out of dairy goodness. Except for evil cheese. Evil cheese is good cheese's dark super wonder twin, and it hangs out in corners of the refrigerator trying to subvert other tasty foodstuffs. Beware evil cheese. Flee if you see it. Tell it you will not submit to its foul temptations! Its blandishments will lead you to naught but pain and suffering! Paaaain! Suffeeeerrrring!!

On the other hand, evil yoghurt is fairly pleasant, as evil dairy chaps go. He's even gotten me front seat tickets to next week's Aussie Rules match. Not that I go for that sort of thing. But still. Very nice gesture.

But we're getting off the topic here, and that topic is CHEESE! CHEEEEEEEEESE! Cheesity goodness! Melty, dripping, crumbled, shredded, sliced, any way you like it, it's cheese! And it's made of other, smaller cheeses! Some are made up of as many as six point two three five four smaller cheeses. Like parmesean. You have to watch that one, it's tricky and clever. But it's also very nice use to insulate your house. And makes excellent clogs. Though you have to soften it first if you want to actually get any sort of leather upper on it. Not that I approve of leather uppers, mind you! Oh no sir! For those are cruel to put on cheese, for the cheese, it is sentient and it knows where that leather came from! That cow was its god once and you've just nailed god's hide onto that self-same worshipper! O foul demon! O cruel master!

Throughout the ages, cheese has been admired for its full-bodied flavour, its sense of justice, and its good heart. You'll never see cheese tripping old ladies in the street, no sir, that is NOT cheese's way. Cheese is like a four aitch member, lovingly helping little old granny esmerelda across the four lane highway on a moped. Cheese is caring and giving and asks for nothing in return. They tried to write a "Chicken Soup for the Cheese's Soul," but it was phenomenally low-selling, because cheese just needs no inspiration to be good and humble.

Have you ever looked closely at cottage cheese? Did you know that cottage cheese is actually made out of the souls of angels up in heaven? It's true! Why, I bet you've probably consumed some saint's soul at some point in your life, if you've ever been on a diet. No wonder it's good for you. Especially with fruit. Why yes, fruit enhances any soul. What a privilege you should have, to be able to eat some luscious pineapple with the soul of St. John the Baptist. Ahh, I envy you even now.

And danishes! Have you ever beheld so lovely a sight as a danish slipping quietly into the forest at night trying to find kindling with which it may start a toasty fire on which to warm itself so that it may present itself as all the more pleasant and tasty for your palate? What heroism. What generosity. I am in awe of such danishes. Truly they should go on to be sainted, then added to your inventory of cottage cheese.

And Cheddar! The cheese of the common man! It asks so little, yet gives so much. It loves all. Be you blind, or deaf, or dumb, or orphan, or god, or saint or sinner or widget maker. Oh cheddar. Thou art beautiful in thine open mind, lack of prejudice and accepting nature. How beautifully dost thou adorn mine quiche. O but wouldst thou stayeth with me forever! I shall write a hymn to thee, upon the style of J. S. Bach. Unfortunately, it will be in German, and no one will understand it, so I suppose we will merely skip over it for now.

Mozzarella! Another deity in my pantheon of dairy goodness! Without you, how would I delight in pizza? In stuffed shells? In various combinations all involving sauce, pasta, and cheese? You are so versatile in your many uses, and yet so simple!

And brie! O elegant brie! A lord amongst cheeses! You need naught to adorn you but a simple crust of bread! Let us rejoice in your overwhelming natural beauty and goodness! You are soft and supple, yet not so easily crushable as traitors like the banana. O no, you are no foul villain to bruise and crush but for a breath upon your beautiful pale skin. Nay, you do bravely venture on towards my plate to gracefully top my baguette with cheesy goodness before you melt away into savoury nothingness. How noble you truly are.

But let me wax effusive once more on provolone! Oh what a sight to see on such bread as my sandwiches treasure! With only some mustard and vegetables you make the most delightful of lunches! Rolled up neatly on a plate, you add such a spark to my crudites! And in my dinners, cooked! Ahh, such a magnificent show as to escape my words! Lo, I am rendered mute with delight!

Ahhh, so many cheeses, and all to be treasured for so many reasons! Except the evil cheese. I must pray you heed my words once more on this and stay far, far away from such corrupt and evil cheeses as there may be in this world. Mark my words, you will rue the day you encouter a rind of cambazola gone soft! Oh truly, yes. But lo! I shall not disparage any further the general name of cheese, for cheese is cheese and made of goodness! I salute you, cheese, for your unwavering courage in the face of... my face.
posted by Unknown at 9:38 PM

 
I'm such a preposterously large dork sometimes. I'm listening to a bit of Prokofiev, and I was just noticing missed notes in the brass. Too much time on analysis.

So tomorrow's Kyreemarie's birthday party two weeks after the birthday. Yay social quasi-social life and even on a Saturday! Amazing.

I've successfully put of doing the laundry for almost a week now, as well as just about anything else of use. Looks like tomorrow's going to default into errand running day, too. I keep telling myself I'm going to make a list. I've been telling myself that for two days now. I ought to write down "make a list" somewhere so I'll be just that much closer.

After initial panics, Raechel and I seem to be moving in favour of actually staying here. Whatever paltry sum I could save by moving elsewhere would be esentially eaten up by cost of relocation anyhow, I think. Makes life easier, I guess. And coincidentally, the bathtub drains again! I also am in possession of a bottle and a half of generic draino and two appropriately bent hangers in case this comes into question again. Now all I need is to have more lightbulbs. Something which I had been planning to do yesterday, but failed spectacularly to do right at the last minute. Go me!

Hey.... why don't I stick the to-do list right here? hrm.

• make dumpling filling
• buy phyllo dough, nuts for baklava, also tp and bread for house, possibly dumpling wrappers
• Laundry!
• Comcast bill
• Make CDs for O, D, ...know I'm missing someone....
• Finish cleaning my room.
• Return library books
• Activate phone
• Go to Macy's, get a freakin' cuisineart or something.

I've been sitting on a fifty dollar gift certificate forever, and I finally figured out I ought to use it on a food processor. I just made hummus last night, and I think the big difference between mine and the ones I like is the mashedness and fluffyness which comes of being well processed and having air whipped into it. Plus making dumpling filling would be twenty seven times easier. And for oats when I'm making cookies and whatnot.... Last time I was at Beth's I actually took oats and crushed them with my fingers. Was sad.

Very proud of myself today for practicing. Very shamed by the fact that I suck so much more than I used to. Lots of sucking. Voooortex. *Sigh* Keep going, I guess.
posted by Unknown at 9:21 PM

 
Today after I got off work I sat outside on a bench for a bit, tired. I sat there and sang. From Les Mis. Rather loudly. In French. Yargh.

So I finally convinced my tired feet to plod onward to the metro. I got on. I got to Rosslyn shortly, and I didn't feel like getting off. So I didn't. I was really enjoying the distance to Foggy Bottom. Was considering getting off and turning around then, but I was still too tired to do it. So I sat there. And missed the next train back in the other direction just barely, so I sat there some more. I finally got off at L'Enfant Plaza and sat there a couple minutes before catching the next train back. I dunno, maybe that was good enough.

I'm never tired at the right times. I'm never hungry at the right times.

I finally emailed my sister. She informed me it had been over a month since the last time I did. I'm so horribly remiss, and this is for someone I genuinely care about. I don't really get it.

I want to snail mail some people some things. But I'm horrible at that, too. I need a personal secretary. Bah. J'en ai assez de cette vie.

Happy Mardi Gras. I got a free idiotic looking hat out of it. I *love* idiotic looking hats. And I really like being able to wear them and not get too many stupid looks. I couldn't care less about the actual holiday.

Lords and ladies help me, Jenna suggested I ask her parents if I could live with them for a semester and finish up my degree at New Paltz. Uh. Yeah. New Paltz. *sigh* Well, seems to be a five and a half mile walk from her house to campus, so it'd be sorta feasible, really... maybe.... blargh.
posted by Unknown at 9:37 PM

 
I feel pretty....

So I'm inordinately vain about my hair. The fact that I get compliments on it at least weekly, sometimes daily, sometimes thrice daily is not helping.

My bathtub no longer drains. I'm cooking more often. I worry I'm spending too much money. But I haven't used my credit card in over a month.

I have not yet figured out what I'm doing about the fact that my lease will be up end of May and I need to move and I have no one to move in with. Oh how I wish with all my heart that I could figure this out and actually live with people I already know. I don't think it's looking like time is cooperating in this respect, though. Anyone want to come live with me this summer? :P

Today Alyson commented that she was working on making schedules more constant. If this happens, it would actually be highly outstanding. I have no particular preference for day off, but I'd love to be able to plan to do something weekly. I need something musical in my life, mainly. Perhaps either teaching lessons or finding a chamber group. I'd love to do recorder work or something, too. Something. Anything.

I need to clean my room like there's no tomorrow.

I haven't burned incense in about three months. I think I ought to. I like it. Dunno why I'd forego a guiltless pleasure.

I *will* burn some new CDs for people. And I said before I'd send Owen something. I will send Owen something. I WILL.
posted by Unknown at 10:31 PM