YOLO

Well, it's 1:30 and I'm still awake. Blog post time!

The "YOLO!" phrase has pissed me off for a while now, as there are lots of examples where people say it after doing something like an asshole, not a risk taker. Sadly, I am seeing more and more of people being assholes and completely charmed with themselves for it, so I don't think this is going away anytime soon. But the guys of The Lonely Island were kind enough to write a YOLO song, which I've been listening to for the last ten minutes. Two words about furniture: KILLING MACHINES. It is helping me remember to relax and let people be ridiculous because if no one is ridiculous, who the hell am I going to judge and then what, what I ask you, would I have to open blog entries with?

Hmm, what's going on aside from jerks and music? Question for the ages.

It feels like school is slowly killing me. The semester is nearly over and that is probably why, but there's just so much going on, work is busy... It's good to be busy, but I feel overwhelmed and that means all I want to do is hide in bed or on the couch, read something, anything that isn't a scholarly article or textbook, watch HGTV, and daydream. None of the pressure makes me feel like the tasks left in this term are insurmountable obstacles, but I'm having trouble keeping myself on the obstacle course at all.

This semester's challenge has mostly been that two of my three classes are on Tuesday and Thursday nights. It sucks the big one. Hubs has Pathfinder Wednesday night and game night Friday, so Monday is our one night together and I work until 5:15 that day and usually have homework. Which I usually ignore, which usually makes me tense in some way. Augh. No more night classes if I can avoid them! None in the summer and none in the fall, thankfully. I'm trying to set up my practicum for the summer at a public library I focused on for a paper last year. I like the library and especially its director a lot; it'd be a dream to get to work there and the experience they make available to students is ideal. There are some gaps in my Alex Has Done This And She Is A Pro At It list, so filling in those blanks would be really satisfactory.

Work continues. I've started training with a young woman who really knows her stuff in the academic library job, and that's making things there much less headachey. I'm learning a lot. I respect this woman and she's very kind, doesn't seem to mind questions about the why of what we're doing. The cataloging is much less confusing since I got ushered under her wing. I am very happy to be there! Have been doing a few new things at the public library, too: shelving magazines and YA materials (it doesn't require special training or anything but it seems like there are always two carts of children's materials to be organized and shelved, so I give those priority), processing holds (cool) and returns (a mule could do it). Tonight Josh and I watched the mid 2000s Casshern movie. It wasn't what I was expecting based on the cover, but I'm glad we watched it because now I feel like a cool kid with a "foreign film watched recently" badge to display. 

I miss having garden plans this year. My fingers and toes are getting itchy to plant, so I may bite the bullet and get a big planter for our porch, but it would have to be carefully selected; we don't get much sun. It would be better to save the money towards house downpayment but just typing that I'm wrinkling my nose so you, dear reader, and I know exactly what's going to happen here. 

Speaking of foregone conclusions, I got a super serious craving for a doughnut or six Friday night. Dunkin' Donuts didn't disappoint. What I wanted was a chocolate frosted doughnut and not only did they have those, they had brownie batter doughnuts.

WELL, OKAY.

It was some kinda special. There was actually too much filling (I love yummy middle-of-doughnut surprises that are supposed to be there, but I had to move my neck pretty quick to not spill brownie batter [?!] on myself), but it was good. As Josh and I are MyFitnessPal-ing it around, I entered the doughnuts like a good little guilty-over-food-er.

WELL, NOT OKAY.

Jeeeeeeeeeeesus, doughnuts are terrible for you! Who knew?! Why did you ever let nutritionists know?! Why are there Big Oil, Big Used Car, and Big No Abortions but no Big Doughnut to look out for my interests?! You'd think if there was going to be a doughnut lobby, it would be here in the US but no. No. This is why other countries don't respect us, I am quite certain. But since they don't have doughnut lobbies either (?), whatevs. Deuces, other countries. You Only Live Once.

Statlist

Garden: Good. Planted marigolds as a general "fuck you" to the cucumber beetles, have been spraying eggplant plants with a tomato leaf/dish detergent concoction as a similar send off for flea beetles. Having a hard time remembering that there are good beetles in the world. More cucumbers than I know what to do with and that's really saying something.

School: Over. Got an A in my first graduate level class! Gearing up for graduate school application. Dragging my heels about looking at the essay to rewrite, but a good and wordy friend said he'd look it over for me, so that's a relief at least. Sad summer class is over.

Work: Gave my "hey dudes, probably not going to be a student in the fall"-type notice today. Two interviews this week. Very happy (very relieved) to have those set up. A fancy dentist's office and a property management company, reception at both places. Crossed fingers. Money, I want you, I need you, I just gotsa gotsa have you.

Love: Lovely. Trying to endure the marrymemarrymemarryme vibes without squishing them. We've had a few nice date nights lately and in general things are very good. Prepping for our move at the end of this month.

It's been so nice out lately. Not uncomfortably warm, with cool breezes. It feels like those precious days of fall in Florida, which makes me delighted because there will be many more days like this up here and sad because I am feeling homesick lately. Going home for a bit the first weekend of November! A college friend is getting married. I wish Josh could come with me, but it's going to be a wonderful trip. Get to see my best friend and spend time with my parents and Josh's.

Not sure why I can't caption this picture as I wish. Anyway. Castle Ravenloft. Josh got it last week. I rolled a natural 20! Probably the only one I will roll for myself instead of a monster, ever.

Hurry up and get here, well-employed, admitted to graduate school, wonderful weather life!

Playing with letters and leaves and life

Class is phenomenal, and my professor is one of the most wonderful people I've ever met. Going to meet with a SLIS adviser tomorrow thanks to her, to talk about reapplying in the next few months. Hard to believe it's been almost a year since I was so caught up in my application. Feel much better prepared this time, and I'm really hoping that I'll get valuable advice tomorrow. Afterwards I'll head home to finally relax for a bit (it's pretty much been work and school lately with little time to do anything but sleep or get my ass kicked at Boggle by Josh), then go to Epic to tend our garden, and then get Josh and bring him home. Thursday night we're going to see The Taming of the Shrew performed in an outdoor theater. Pretty excited about this. Working until 4, so I'll need to get home asap and then go get him from work so we can head out to Spring Green, the city where the theater is located. But the rush should be worth it and I've been looking forward to the play since Josh told me about it a couple of months ago.

Class is phenomenal, but I'm having trouble focusing on gathering the information I need to conduct a booktalk tomorrow on the book I selected, which has such an interesting title and is so godawful boring. Very, very dry. Josh is playing a creepy and sad but interesting game called Catherine and it's... interestingly timed, I guess. Feeling major marrymemarrymemarryme woes lately, and making jokes about having kids instead since I know that's not happening any time soon. It just feels safer, I guess. Wah wah wah.

Garden really needs tending, but things are growing! It's fun to go out every few days and see how the plants are doing and how the vegetables are getting bigger. Most of my time out there tomorrow will be spent weeding the hell out of the place, but it looks like as the eggplant plants (?) have gotten taller the flea beetles have finally gone away. I've never had eggplant before because I think it looks weird (story of my life), but these Fairy Tale Eggplant are really cool looking, a really happy purple with white streaks. Mostly I am jazzed about the cucumbers, which I know I love to eat.

Infamous, Intercision, and an Interview

Josh has been playing this very cool-looking game called Infamous for the past few days. He would probably have finished by now if I didn't keep interrupting him for activities that require his presence somewhere that is not in front of our television.

Have I mentioned our couch is amazing? I love this couch. I'd sit here and play video games all day, too.

Anyway. Infamous. So the player is Cole (?), this guy who through some town-isolating explosion is granted zappy powers and a monkeylike urge to scramble up buildings. Cole saves a lot of people in the city and it appears that gradually turns public opinion to his favor (everyone seems to think he's responsible for the explosion--he wasn't-- and they make a lot of noise to that effect when he walks by). There's some FBI agent outside the city who really wants to find her husband inside the city, but as I said, city is isolated. So she gets in contact with Cole and promises she will get him out and try to clear his name if he finds her husband. Cue fifteen bajillion side quests, and about as many people coming to him for favors... As Cole's over folksy buddy Zeke would say "Yer fucked, buddy! Ain't goin' nowhere!"

It's fun to watch Josh play this game, at least in a look-up-from-what-I'm-doing kind of way.

We watched The Golden Compass last night. Friends loaned it to us, and I really wanted to see it when it was in movie theaters a few years ago. I got an omnibus of the stories a year or so after that and read the first book, the one the movie is based on. It was a solid enough adaptation, right until... the ending. Which was just not there. The ending is not sunshinerainbows, but I was really disappointed the producers chose to cut the movie short. Anyone who only sees the movie and doesn't read the book is being left with a version of the story that's lacking and wrong.

Been applying and applying and applying for jobs, crossing my fingers, and getting "we've chosen another candidate" letters. It's nice to at least get responses, but I certainly wish some of them were yes-ier. Tuesday I have an interview at a conference/hotel space operated by the university, so we'll see. More crossed fingers.

Finished the garden stakes for our plot at Epic. I found el cheapo spatulas at Michael's and painted them each a rainbow color, then decorated them with those smooshed marble bits of glass, a gold paint pen, little designs, and the requisite names of plants. They look pretty neat, and I'm happy to have seen the project through. Need to spray them with the sealant, and then get them out there sometime this week.