The Icon Faerie

The one time I actually CAN go to bed early and have the desire to, I can't sleep and end up laying there, tossing around for two hours. This is a bitch.

I had to write a ten minute play for my Play Development Workshop class, since we're holding a ten minute play festival (using the prompt "the most important thing in the world") and Steve wanted us to "understand the process" or something. I don't really consider myself a playwright, so it was an interesting exercise. I do prose, usually, where you can have narrative and a little more psychological insight whereas in a play it's all action and it all has to be in the text. Anything else the director's making up. Anyway, Chris wrote this great dark comedy about hope, and Aaron wrote these hilarious little vignettes about the invention of the wheel, and I wrote a piece about a guy who accidentally killed and then purposefully dismembered a young girl and he wants the mother's forgiveness before he gets strapped to a table. I am a cheery little fuck.

Also, I am very bad with money and nobody should ever let me have any. And you should never go grocery shopping when you haven't eaten anything all day. These two statements are related.

My last Mentalist recap was sixteenth in the top thirty hits for thetwocents.com last week! Woo! This has never happened for me before, so this is a good thing.

Steve wants to start holding graduate meetings on Tuesday mornings at NINE AM. Which would be all very well and good, I'm sure, except when you can't fall asleep until 4:30 and have to leave the apartment at 8:30 to get there on time, the morning comes very early.

Today I was very sleepy because that's what happened to me last night. I was sleepy which is different from just tired.

I started reading the next Bernard Cornwell book I have, which is The Archer's Tale, the first of a trilogy. I get through the first twenty pages, coastal English village, our hero is tall and strong, your basic Cornwell fare. We also get to hear a lot about the priest. Also pretty typical for Cornwell, as his priests tend to come in two flavors: one, holier-than-thou, vice ridden, and disgustingly corrupt, or two, not as pious and devoted as you might expect but okay guys. This one is the latter. Okay. Well we have French raiders getting all up in their grill now and kill the priest and the rest of the village as well (except for our hero of course). Okay, fine.

Hero and the priest get this wonderful scene before he expires and then we find out the hero is the priest's son, and this is treated as though we readers should have known this all along. And maybe I should have been genre-savvy enough to know, since in that moment we also hear that hero's mother is the priest's housekeeper. Okay then. But looking back though the first pages, it is pretty much implied that the priest and hero's father are two different people. I get the whole priests having kids thing, I do. But if Cornwell was going for a Big Reveal, I can only say that he failed fantastically and his editor should have beat him with a switch until he fixed it. Sometimes I think best-selling authors start getting held to a lower standard than lower-earning authors do and getting passes because they make the company money (Jesus, look at SMeyer), but I digress. I was just disappointed is all.

Awesome things today:

I got a three piece luggage set at goodwill for ten bucks. For another two bucks I got Jacob Have I Loved in paperback and Fugitive Days by Bill Ayers in hardback.
I AM getting money for SUNY. I haven't done the math on how much it is going to be after tuition and everything, but I think I'll be okay.
Related: see today's XKCD. That is me.
Today all I did was freight. I didn't have to steal with stupid customers.

So last night... probably about 11 or 11:30, the power went our which means that I laid here in the dark. I curled up in bed and read by candlelight and then it came back on about 2:30. It was kind of chilly at that point. >_> I probably should have gone to sleep, but I was getting to near the end of A Lion Among Men. I hope he's planning to write more, because I cannot get enough of the Wicked series. I can't even really pinpoint what it is I love so much about his writing, I just know that I love to read it. (Liir/Candle/Trism OT3, y/n?)

Moira Kelly is on Heroes. GUYS. THAT'S WHERE MANDY WENT. SHE DIDN'T GO TO MANDY LAND SHE WENT TO HOMELAND SECURITY AND CHANGED HER NAME. >_>
Dan Byrd + Sylar = LOVE that is all I will say about that. XD

So I agreed to pick up a shift tonight because Ashley wasn't feeling well last night and didn't think that she'd feel any better today, and I need the hours. But I had to talk to my brother and see when he could have the car back. He said, very martyr like, "I can be back by 3:30. Of course... I'll have to miss rehearsal..." and then he left.

WELL you know what? If you hadn't killed the car, we wouldn't be having this problem. The play is extra. It is not for a grade. SACRIFICES, IT'S TIME TO MAKE SOME.

Unfortunately, working tonight means that I can't go to my high school's pops concert. Which is not such a downfall in itself. BUT I read in the newspaper that the concert will be concluding with La Vie Boheme. From Rent. I just. I don't know HOW. Are they going to skip all the verses? And now I won't be able to find out. Woe.

( Behind the cut is the lyrics to LVB, with all the things I doubt we'd be able to mention at my alma mater in bold. I'm just guessing with where they could start. I'm imagining it will end before where I do and not include dialogue, but I figured as long as I was doing it... )

And if you can't mention mucho masturbation, why even bother.

( Grad school freakout. )

So I'm freaking out. I'm going to end on good stuff. Good stuff. Hm.

Well I'm watching The Lazarus Project (third season Doctor Who) and the Doctor just said "We need to turn this up to eleven." I'm always good for a Spinal Tap reference.

HBO gave a production order for A Game of Thrones, which I'm excited about. I'm also contemplating the merits of going to see the new James Bond after work on Saturday.

I work tomorrow 2-5 here at the movie store and then 5:30-9:30 in Davenport, which I'm not really okay with. Boo. My first Stafford Loan payment is due at the end of the month and that's okay, I get paid again before it's due and it'll be okay, but I'm just nervous about future months when I'm not sure if I'll be able to pay. I told you, I'm shite at this adult crap.

(Doctor, you can show up and whisk me away in the TARDIS any minute now...)

Hm. Good... ... ... Jared Diamond is going to be at Coe on February 3rd, and I might actually be finished with Guns, Germs, and Steel by then.

I'm going to stop there before I go back into a freakout.

So I haven't updated much because honestly it's been kind of low-key around here, but today I finally have good news, so here's what's been going on in the last week.

1. I worked two days in a week for the first time in a long time. I love pretending like I'm going to be a contributing member of society.

2. I joined westerosorting and am working diligently on finishing AFFC so that I can get my app in so I can find out what great house I belong to. \o/

3. I am taking my second GRE on Saturday and I have been relearning how to do algebra, geometry, fractions, and learning about statistics and probability so that I can do better than I did originally. I also wish that I could somehow inherently improve my essay writing skillz like a mofo but alas I don't think it's going to happen. I'm just going to have to make sure that I'm doing my best.

4. On the TV front, my mom has started watching Dirty Sexy Money with me, and my dad has taken to watching Heroes with me so that he can make fun of me when I make noises and yell at the TV. I also finally finished Angel (I liked it, but not as much as I liked Buffy -- it had its moments, like Smile Time wherein Angel becomes a puppet). Joss always kills my favorites, though. The bastard. :( With Angel behind me I no longer have an excuse for not writing Reneesme Cullen/Connor Angel-slash-Reilly I can now watch Doctor Who and Torchwood, which I have started to do -- Doctor Who, anyway. I'm making myself wait for Torchwood (WAH). I think I secretly adore Christopher Eccleston and I want a TARDIS for Christmas.

5. There were many lolz to be had in RP last night. LOLZ are the only reason I do anything anymore.

6. I was contemplating doing NaNoWriMo because I really, really want to and I have an idea and everything, but I'm just not sure. I don't want to start it and be on track only to not do anything for three days in the middle of the month and then boom get behind and discouraged. I might do it anyway, since I don't have pile of homework and three term papers like I have in years past. >_>

7. One reason I love my Movie Gallery job: I get to talk about movies and be paid for it. My co-worker and I last Saturday talked about scary movies with basically every customer who came in and wanted a copy of The Happening, which we can't seem to keep on the shelf. She can't do them at all, and my problem is that I can never seem to find one that's scary enough. The last one I saw that I was truly scared by was The Blair Witch Project which -- okay, say what you want about that movie, but when you're twelve, watching it in the middle of the night because you know your parents wouldn't let you, and watching it in the dark lest mom and dad become suspicious... that is a fucking scary movie. I did not want to get up off the couch to turn off the TV. Maybe I'm too cynical for scary movies, I just end up thinking, "Man. That's lame," and I inevitably get bored.

8. Friday we were all ready to go to my brother's play(s) and then BAM my sister called my mom and asked if anyone was going to come get her. It was her fall break, except she had neglected to tell anyone this until that point. So we changed our plans and went to Cedar Rapids to get her. I took her back yesterday, and reminded her to tell us the next time she wanted to come home. I'm glad that we got to go to CR, though, I love road tripping with my family because seriously. Some of the stuff that happens when I'm out with all of them I could not make up if I tried.

9. Finally, I got that job I interviewed last week for and I am going tonight to do paperwork. \o/ I am going to go crazy but you know what, at least I will be paid. Not particularly well paid, but still paid.

I was reading Stephenie Meyer's BD FAQ (here) because it was linked from F_W (I am hopelessly addicted) and I come across this gem:

Stories need conflict

WHERE WAS IT, STEPHENIE? WHERE WAS IT?

God, the more I think about it, the more it just feels like a punch in the gut.

OMG, want it now mommy.

I haven't been writing much, because not much has been happening. It's been a slow, peaceful week with just me and the cats, and they have been in and out and making the I WUV YOU face at me when I have food and they don't. I cleaned the house last week because I wanted a nice clean house to be alone in (I dunno, something about being in a clean place makes me more relaxed), but it's kind of gotten dirty/cluttered again. Probably because I just bring all my crap out here to the couch and leave it instead of putting it back.

My goal is to finish A Clash of Kings by Thursday when I go after Mandy and Kitty (I'm reading so fast but it's so long ;_;).

I had another phone interview today with the district manager of Movie Gallery. Still playing the waiting game. Whatever.
ETA: Okay, snap, forget that. I have the job and I'm starting August 5th.

I had a fanfic bunny bu-ut I can't decide how to approach it. I think it can be done, and I can do it, but it's kind of like figuring out how you're going to build a set once you have a design.

Yes. I just made that comparison.

Well, after an examination of my toes at approximately 3 AM this morning (after I accidentally kicked the wall in my sleep, cried out in pain and woke up my mother on the other side of the wall), my toes are not broken but are indeed bruised.

Sarah and I signed up to share a room in New York, but knowing our luck we won't find anyone else to share with, and then we'll be split up into two other rooms that already have three and thus will be forced to share a room with girls who use too much hairspray and make up and I just don't like.

Finished third Princess Diaries that I started last night. Can't help it, I love those books. It made me happy.

I haven't eaten since about 4:30 yesterday and I'm starved. We have half a box of bowtie pasta in the cupboard. You do the math.

Need to fill out housing information and first year seminar forms for Coe. Damn.

Okay, I joined craighnaduhn this morning, where are the "Outlander" and Jamie/Claire loffers on my flist?

Well, I've done my patriotic duty to help keep the economy afloat.

I love sales and coupons for free movie rentals. ^_^

Books bought at Barnes and Noble:
1. A Veggietales book for Milo.
2. "Ash Wednesday" by Ethan Hawke
3. "Dear America: The Journal of Finn Reardon, a Newsie" by Susan Camboll Bartoletti
4. "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer.

Movies: "Just Married", "Phonebooth", "Sweet November", "Message in a Bottle", and "Monster's Ball". W00t. :D

And, I swear, my car should either just die completely, or stop making a monkey out of me by working when people show up to help me.