1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter. (If you want a letter, just say so)
2. List (and upload) 5-10 songs that begin with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

I got an "S" for Slime from Lauren. woo!

1. "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" by Sammy Kershaw
2. "Skraelings" by Leaves' Eyes
3. "Sign of the Cross" by Iron Maiden
4. "So Near So Far" by Angra
5. "Sleeping Sun" by Nightwish
6. "Somewhere Other Than the Night" by Garth Brooks
7. "She's Everything You Want" by Billy Gilman
8. "Somebody Else" by Hawk Nelson
9. "Suckerpunch" by Pain
10. "Sugar Rush" by A*Teens

=^.^=

ok, you fine folk, you.

I'm coming home tomorrow! my flight is 1130 on southwest, and is supposed to land at 8:10 pm. y'all can form a Welcome Home We Didn't Know You Were Gone SIG and as our first order of business, we can get together at the airport and hug and smooch hello again and go for some nibbles cos I know I'll be famished.

I'm not sure where to go for nibbles, but Chili's sounds like a good place to me. hash it out on the comments if you'd rather go somewhere else.

anyhoo, MUST go to bed soon or I'll be dead tomorrow morning.

=^.^=

...I figured I owed y'all a post. : )

been hanging out with wyatt a lot. it's been fun. let's see... what has been going on.

my GPA went up - woohoo! no more worries about massively bombing all my classes and getting kicked out of ASU. after three years of shamefully screwing around, my GPA is 2.89, and will only get higher.

( school, classes, blahdee bloo )

so as you can see, it looks like work piled a mile high far out till beyond the smoky horizon.
whee! : D

I also figured out why I hadn't gotten that stinking stupid tutoring job that I wanted to freaking badly - you have to have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0. fuck my life. it would have been perfect.

so I am leaving on Friday on a 9:45am flight and returning on Saturday the 30th on a 7:15pm flight, arriving at 8:10pm in case you want to say "Hi, I didn't notice you were gone, but I'm glad you're back!"

well this turned way more specific than the general update post I had in mind, but ah well - I am freaking tired and need to sleep.

oh yeah - for the first time in a year or maybe more, I GOT ALL OF MY LAUNDRY WASHED AND FOLDED!!! in only two days. usually the modus operandi is do most of it, then let about 2-3 loads moulder around until I run out of clothes again. I even got most of it put away - the only thing stopping me is that I ran out of drawer space and skirt hangers. when I move in to ashley's (and get rid of stuff in the process, this streamlining my existence - I hope), I'll clean out the bottom two drawers of my dresser and put clothes in there. that will do the trick. and I neeeeeeeeeeed skirt hangers like crazy. I think the room issue is mostly because dorm dressers had drawers that were bigger than mine even though it was the same number, and because I'm not really sure of the last time that ALL of my clothes were clean at the same time, and thus needed to be stored at the same time. plus I have a lot more than I used to, since I don't get rid of clothes as I get new ones.

anyhoo, sleep time nao.

=^.^=



( footnotes )

this is the way the world ends
this is the way the world ends

not with a bang but a whimper

--T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"

=^.^=

uggggh... so I just finished my poetry portfolio. holy crap, it took forever, and I sumbitted it three minutes late. I had a typo in my letter and my poems aren't formatted at all - like, I didn't even have time to clean up split stanzas. ah well... at least it's over with, and not, like, an hour late. I also got really smarmy towards the end, since I was rushing, exacerbated by the fact that pandora chose RIGHT AT THE END to play dragonforce. sigh. I suppose pandora thought it was helping me go faster.

so my head feels really, really empty right now. unfortunately, my pocketbook is empty as well, or I would want to go somewhere with a bunch of you fine people. sighhhhhh.... and I have astronomy extra credit to do, and I need to remember when the final was. I think it was the last day, or something. fuck. it's on the 7th. arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhh...

someone buy me a lottery ticket so I can win.

=^.^=

1. broke up with tony. it just wasn't working for me... now I know that you definitely ought to hang out with a person a lot *before* you date them. otherwise one gets invested and the other one gets disillusioned, and that creates a bit of an earthquake.

2. I'm going to move in with ashley and aaron! wheeeeeeeee!

3. my dad said he got a real car for me (as opposed to the keychain, and borrowing the Blue Armadillo). I have no idea what the details are, or if the rumor is true. but that means I will not have the hauling wonderfulness of the van for much longer. on the other hand, I won't have to sell my kids' organs for fuel.

4. so I almost didn't go to class today, cos it's the last day before finals start up, we had already done our evaluations, and I was going to use the week or so to catch up on reading all the stuff that I haven't read - which is just about eveything. I also skipped both study sessions, which I kinda feel bad about cos I rather like the people that go, but hey - I was hanging out with lots of people one night that I don't get to see much, and then I was watching X2 and X3 on TV along with Iron Chef America, Food Network Challenge, Chopped, and Throwdown with Bobby Flay with wyatt at his place. OBVIOUSLY those are way more important than... say... who the hell the narrator is in "Heart of Darkness".

but I did go to class, paper and pencil in hand, to suffer through whatever trite end of the year sentiments were to be had. but what to my scared-as-shit eyes did appear... but a final exam and eight waves of raw fear. so yeah. surprisingly, it went well. my only major blunder was not remembering the names of three characters. and get this - no studying, but I ACTUALLY FINISHED THE ESSAY ON TIME!!!!! weird, ain't it. obviously this shows that reading, taking notes, and studying are pointless wastes of time. I know, I know... it'll come to bite me in the ass soon enough. but by golly, right now I'm *enjoying* it.

5. I hemmed and hawed and broke down and made a dreamwidth account (thanks dave!). note: every time I have to pull that word from my memory banks, I first cycle through "dreamweaver" and "dreamcast". never fear, this journal will remain the one that's actually about me and the stuff that involves, concerns, or interests me. the dreamwidth (there it goes again) account will be for poetry, story stuff, working on my novel, and other creative writing ramblings. so pop over if you like and visit. I only have one post up so far, so it's fairly boring, but content will arrive soon - I assure you. also, I have the cutest default userpic EVER.

6. the religious group that I go to on tuesdays with my parents has changed to thursdays, thereby disen-everything me, which makes me sad, but there's nothing I can do about it, but oh well... cookies crumble. but that means that tuesday evenings are freed up for me. just in case anyone cares.

7. so now I have to do my poetry portfolio - which is basically, rework three poems written for class, and write a 1-2 page letter explaining the changes. it sounds really easy, but it kinda sucks because I don't know what to do to my poems. unfortunately, it's due today at 5:00pm. I also have to do astronomy extra credit - extremely easy, find an astronomy pic of the day from like NASA or somewhere, and write a little thing on what it is and why it's interesting. I also have the astronomy final to look forward to - boo.

8. I'm flying away from here on the 22nd and coming back the 30th. WOOHOO to colorado, wyoming, relatives, kittens, and wide open spaces! and cooler temps. haha, suckers.

9. I still have to draw up my schedule for fall of next year. what I really need to do is find an advisor who knows beans about anything and find out how much I've screwed myself. also, online summer school starts on June 1st... two classes, one per session, eng 241/242 (american lit, some of the shittiest most boring stuff ever) with my favorite english teacher Of All Time. so hopefully it won't be too dreadful.

10. still trolling the area for swimming opportunities. and late-night hot tubbing. thinking about tubing on the salt river - anyone want to go? it's so much fun. and evidently there's plenty of water this year. I'd also really like to paddle around tempe town lake. water water water...

well, I'd better get cracking on that poetry.

=^.^=

so, the last meeting of the year is tomorrow. whee! the constitution dictates that female slime wear a bodice on this occasion.

I wore my bodice last year, and as one of those infernal women who can't possibly wear the same thing twice, I am debating whether to wear that bodice as per strict interpretation of the constitution, or substitute it with a very nice corset which I haven't yet worn and had in fact been saving for this purpose till my compunctions reared their heads.

people throw around bodice and corset like they're interchangeable. I know better than that, but many people couldn't tell you what makes a bodice a bodice and not a corset, and vice versa.

what with the constitution being in flux as it is, anyway (insert comment about living, breathing document), I figure it can't hurt.

EDIT: huh. just looked at the constitution, and by golly that's actually not in there. I know I read it somewhere... eh. oh well.

however. I know that people can become pretty purist about the littlest things - like the THEM logo for t-shirts MUST be a dragon with a starburst. that aside. I don't want to spark a mob with pitchforks and torches just because my garment has hook and eye closures instead of laces.
--------- this is still  concern though, because the dragon/starburst thing is also tradition that people get up in arms about. I don't want anyone getting snippy because I'm not following the letter of... uhh... tradition, and I've inadvertently disrupted their autistic paradise comfort zone routine.

OMG THAT'S NOT A BODICE CAN'T YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE YOU HAVE NOW SHAMED THE NAME OF MONEY-GRUBBING SLIME GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!!!! --- is the kind of thing I'd like to avoid.

so... what do y'all think? permissible, or proscribed?

=^.^=

p.s. if you say permissible, you'd better back me up when the mob starts raiding the farm shed.

by the way:
a bodice is an actual outergarment. a corset is an undergarment (although that has mostly become a technicality these days).

pics for comparison:

bodice:




corset:



I suspect felicity would be an excellent person to ask about the similarities and differences of the two.

I cannot for the life of me remember who it was who gave me 40 bucks at movie night. I got ashley and aaron's at my house and added them to the list already, but I just found an extra 40 in my back pocket and can't recall who it's connected to. not writing it down for the LOSE!!

I want to say it was lauren but I just can't be sure. I hope I don't get a whole bunch of people claiming it as theirs... but I do need to know who it was.

I am so sorry. *thwaps head against tabletop*

=^.^=

hey y'all! there's a movie night tonight. I, for one, have about... five dollars to my name. so that whole eating dinner out thing is, well... out.

HOWEVER. for anyone who wants it, I will be making a gigantic pot of pasta with beef and beans. you can ask amanda or miroku or some other people (I don't remember who all partook the first time I made it), it is damn tasty. and it is FREE. just head on over to the Den at about sixish in order to hang out and eat. for those who don't eat beef, I will also be making pan-fried pierogies.

also, if you would like to help - and I would vastly appreciate help of all kinds - please drop round at about 5:30.

also, afterwards, I can bring everyone to ConHQ who needs a ride.

=^.^=

yeah. yeah. the pun is dumb and it doesn't even really fit, but ah well...

anyway. I just got off the phone with Erin Schiedt, banquet manager. everything is squared away - I just have to sign a new contract when she gets it to me because they had the date wrong, plus she added a completely vegetarian entree as well as the mahi-mahi for no extra charge when I mentioned that we have some vegetarians among us.

I do need to figure out a way to fax it - someone mentioned that ASU has fax machines available to students, or something, so details on that would be nice, unless someone has one of the own that I could borrow.

anyhoo, so far I have received money from Mike. I will be going to both movie night and movies for newbies, so I will be happy to take your cash then, if not before then or for a little while after then. remember, Monday the 20th is the deadline. I will be making a thread on the THEM Forum listing the people from whom I have received money, and will edit this post with a link to it when I do so. for now I have to run and deposit the club funds so far in the bank and then head off for a dental appointment.

I hope you all are as excited about this as I am!! : D

=^.^=

SWEET HEAVENLY DAY. I posted this in my own journal instead of the THEM LJ. what a sillyhead I am.

so there were three cool things that happened to me today.

1. after class (during which I was mostly asleep but surprisingly able to keep my head from nodding and my eyes from closing), I went down to hayden library to return the Rime of the Ancient Mariner video, when the Mossesso kid (I can't remember his first name, he's the little brother of Gio from high school, I mentioned this before I think) came up from behind me and he hung around and we talked for awhile about class and the stuff in it. we agreed that interpreting stories and poetry through an artificial lens imposed by the reader, instead of the themes/history/philosophy/whatever of the author, is intellectually dishonest. he went to get a coffee, and I went to return my video. I thought it was very neat that he wanted to talk to me. I don't know if it was just "oh hey I happened to see you, you're in my class, let's exchange pleasantries" or what but I dunno... it made me feel that much more a part of the class. it was cool. he's a very interesting person, and I for one would not mind at all cultivating a real friendship.

***I interrupt this bulletin to point out HOLY CRAP my favorite of all time English teacher, Larry Ellis, looks a hell of a lot like an older version of early 90s Toby Keith.***

2. so I was waiting at the bus stop when a black guy came up and asked me the time. I pulled out my pocketwatch and told him it was 10:10. he went and checked the bus schedule, then came back over and said thanks, then went on to say that at first he was kinda afraid to ask me "because of this" - and he touched the Confederate battle flag keychain on my backpack. I've been carrying it for a few months and no one's ever said boo about it before, and I fully know how ... controversial it is. I told him that I had relatives fight for Illinois during the war, and one of them (my great-great-great-grandfather, actually) died in the Andersonville prison, and I kept the flag as a reminder of what they fought against.
because yeah, I know that to most people, that flag represents racism of the worst kind. my family (on my mom's side) has been Catholic since we crawled out of the mud and saw God, and my aunt (who's big into genealogy) has dug up documents of theirs. those men fought to put down a grave social evil.
the flag represents to me so many more things. one of them is bitter misunderstanding. I do not claim affection for the Confederacy because I'm racist, or think it should be ok to have slaves, or anything to do with black people at all. I claim it because of the fighting independent spirit with which it blazed, and its audacity to stand up to the economic tyranny the north was imposing as though it were controlling a subservient, conquered nation instead of an integral component of their own country. there is a whole dynamic of history missing from the books because they are written by the victors. the American Founding Fathers are heroes because they won. the Confederate Founding Fathers are traitors because they lost. but so many people will look at that flag and see only what they want to see, or only what certain people want them to see, and that is hate. it's not about hate at all. it's about a fierce and fiery love for the higher ideals of Western civilization. and no... slavery isn't one of them. read this article. it's a great explanation of just a few facets of my view.
anyway, the man understood and when we got on the bus, he wished me a good day. I can only hope that one more person now sees a little bit better that this flag is more about history than prejudice.

3. a girl on the bus caught my eye, smiled, and said she liked my shirt. note: I'm wearing my teen girl squad shirt. that was cool. homestar runner everywhere!

so, I was thinking so much about these three cool things, and hoping I would remember them long enough to be able to post about them when I got home, that I missed my stop and had to walk back home from Priest. eh well... more time to think. : )

=^.^=

I have a tendency to pour it on a little thick when it comes to names. I try to curb my enthusiasm fr names when I *know* are, well... too "out there".

but I can't help thinking that Shadrach Matthias would make a freaking awesome name.

wow, I totally thought I posted this last night. now it's 10:30ish. haha.

=^.^=

I found this in a comments section. it's a hymn, but past that I don't know anything about it. I really like it, though, and should find its music and learn it.

1 AND can it be, that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour's blood`?
Died he for me, who caused his pain?
For me, who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

2 'Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!
Who can explore his strange design?
In vain the first-born seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine!
'Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel-minds inquire no more.

3 He left his Father's throne above,
(So free, so infinite his grace!)
Emptied himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam's helpless race:
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For, O my God, it found out me!

4 Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

5 No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

=^.^=

but I just had to post, and LJ was being annoyingly broken.

so. two essays done, need to hand in a hard copy of the English one on Wednesday. she's going to count it as coming in on Monday, though, cos that's when I emailed it to her in an attachment. hopefully it won't be docked too much for being a little late, but luckily there's extra credit: ten points stuck directly on to the essay. WOO! and all I have to do is watch a movie from a list that matches up with something we've read, and compare/contrast it to the original piece.

I checked out the movie from the ASU library. that means that on saturday, I have learned MANY things: how to use Library of Congress call numbers (I'm a dewey decimal girl), where stuff is in the library, certain interesting things about how LC call numbers work, and that there's a nice woman who works at the info desk. oh, and that there is a HUGE CHESTERTON SECTION!!!! <3<3

I chose to do "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." I had seen that the movie was animated, which make me very skeptical, but I love that poem and was interested in what was going to be done with it. then I read on the back that the guy who made it used woodcuts by Gustave Dore (who, by the way, is an AMAZING artist and I LOVE his work) and colorized them... I have yet to see if they are actually "animated" - as in, *move* - or if they're just still shots with a narrator, or what... anyhoo, extra credit is due April 30, but the video is due back in Saturday so I'll probably watch it Wednesday night since I don't have to go to bed early. just have to take wyatt to RCIA inquiry.

speaking of which... I get frustrated while I'm there because the ladies who run it, while being very nice and all, are... well... woefully inadequate answer-givers, and since Inquiry is all about asking questions... it doesn't mix so well. so I tried not going and saving myself the hassle but then I get this strong feeling that I *should* be there to jump in and make sure people have their questions answered accurately, and aren't left with a wrong impression or, God forbid, a completely wrong answer. but on the other hand, I *do not* want to overstep my bounds, or something, because in the end it's *not* my class. so I am going to go, in the hopes that when I can add something, or jump in when divinely prodded, I will. it's better than having wyatt tell me all about it afterwards and being impotently irritated.

going to antonius' sister's wedding next thursday... I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO WEAR. he emailed her though so hopefully that will be resolved soon without having to needlessly chew on it.

finally, this gives me hope.

=^.^=

(I decided to skip midranges. just know that there is middle ground as well, except for The Keg, as they have only two preset menus, and Monti's, which has one menu.)

Monti's and House of Tricks both operate on the "mini-menu" concept, in which you order off a menu when you arrive. Monti's has one preset menu, while House of Tricks has a flexible menu (we would choose it ourselves). if you'd like to look at Monti's menu before voting for or against it (it's pretty darn shiny), comment and I'll put it in a separate post.



The Keg Steakhouse. low end: $28.95 (plus tax/gratuity). high end: $36.95 (ditto).
cool part: "At The Keg we do not apply automatic gratuity, that is completely up to our guests."

Dave and Buster's. low end: $22.27 (plus tax/gratuity/room fee). high end: $36.78 (ditto).

Monti's. $39.95 (includes EVERYTHING).

House of Tricks. low end: $31.00 (plus tax/gratuity; includes entree, beverage, dessert). high end: $52.00 (ditto; includes salad, starter, entree, beverage, and dessert).



**House of Tricks gets a little complicated because there is no blanket total, since each item on the menu has its own price. people will have to bring cash with them that night and pool at the end, since there are no split checks. however, this means individual people have much more flexibility in how much they want to spend.

if you want more info on anything, just ask.

=^.^=

woke up. felt revolting. hit snooze. before the alarm rang again, though, tummy did in fact revolt.

yuck.

I feel like a big ball of icky. the penguin captures it perfectly.

=v.v=;;

the Blue Armadillo is back and ready for action! just in time to go to Mass .... today. ugh. I was going to do that bed thing.

how can you be distracted from SLEEP when you are so tired you're practically keeling over??

sigh...

=^.^=

Your Animal is the Crane

Deep down, you are a very secretive person. You keep a lot to yourself. You may seem friendly and outgoing, but it's not the full picture. You prefer your own quiet company. You are a smart and talented person. You have an amazing set of skills. You are also quite reflective and thoughtful. You have a unique spirituality that is always growing.

hoo dang. all that from my freakin' birthday. I knew these tests were freaky.

otoh, a CRANE? hmm.

=^.^=

I had the astronomy test. it went ok. I think I did pretty well on it, considering I studied for EVER last night. I even got to take a shower at 3:30am!

so then, since I totally forgot that there's not meeting today, I decided that I would look extra-nice and break out the white fishnets to wear under the red and cream sundress.

so some old guy in the bus whispered "nice legs" as I got off the bus... ok. then as I was walking from the bus stop to hayden library to print out the study guide that took forever to make, some weird homeless guy started giggling as he walked past in the other direction. weird.

but it was all made up for when some other guy - not an old homeless guy but a decent-looking student - held the door open for me on my way out of the library, and then struck up conversation by asking "so what's the occasion?" still labouring under the impression that there was a meeting today since I had forgotten all about movie night, I said "I'm going to a club meeting after class today."
"oh, what club?"
"T.H.E.M.; it's the science fiction fantasy club."
"what's your kind of science fiction and fantasy?"
but by then we were walking in opposite directions, and since I was worried about being late, I didn't exchange any more words with him, which is sad because I'll take any opportunity to chat up the club.

so I took the test and went down to the arcade, where I was informed by tony and miroku that the is in fact no meeting today because tomorrow is movie night. I felt really dumb cos really, I'm Slime, I should pay attention to these things.

anyway, a bit after tony left the arcade, I found out that my right heel is a bloody mess! stained my shoes, and I'm hoping that the blood will come out of my nets. ian came through and got me a bandaid and some neosporin (which I have actually never used before, I use bactine instead).

so now I get to go home and hope the bus driver doesn't make me put my shoes on.

all in all, today's run the gamut. creepy homeless guy and a shoe that's a menace to society and needs to be put down. no meeting today. versus doing pretty well on that test and getting a hug from tony while he was on his way to work.

I guess today is pretty good after all. : )

=^.^=

so I was going to join my parents at a potluck for my dad's birthday. since it started at 6:00, I couldn't take the usual 5:00 bus. so I was going to drive it instead. since I hate traffic, I got all the equipment I needed to listen to music in the car - cd player, tape adapter (the Blue Armadillo doesn't do cds), Simon and Garfunkel, even a freshly burned Moody Blues cd. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, for those following along at home.

so the Blue Armadillo didn't start. it gave a nasty hacking sound and grumpily stayed put. accessory worked, though, but you can't really *drive* with that.
called dad - help help the thing won't start but it can't be the battery what do I do!
he said, "oh yeah I knew there was a little problem with that van when I gave it to you. : ) "
thanks a lot, birthday boy.

so now I have a gigantic blue balled-up armadillo playing dead in the driveway.

=^.^=