It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

I have about twenty things more useful that I should be doing, so of course, right now I am going to learn myself html tables.

Notable Alumni at Universities To Which I Have Applied for Graduate School
Subtitle: Duquesne Has the Whole Pittsburgh Thing Going For It, But is Otherwise Lackluster

Duquesne University	Werner Herzog	Bobby Vinton	Nobody else really and honestly I'm not even sure who Werner Herzog is.
Illinois State University	John Malkovich	Gary Sinise	Laurie Metcalf (aka "Roseanne's sister")
Ohio University	Paul Newman	Ed O'Neill	Arsenio Hall
West Virginia University	Don Knotts	Billy Mays	Joni Mitchell

Okay, I wanted to learn tables and I also wanted to share the fact that I may be walking down the same hallowed halls as Don Knotts or Al Bundy if things play out.

( Something I did at 2:30 AM when I should have been asleep. )

What I should be doing:

- reading Keats
- finding and balancing my checkbook so I can figure out if I can afford to do a bit of shopping tomorrow

What I am doing:

- makin' tea
- postin' pics

Basically I realized I had pictures on my camera from months ago up until now and I needed to delete that shit so here is some crap for you to enjoy with your eyeballs.

( Supar old pics from the state fair. )

( The Halloween Times )

I have had a habit recently of documenting fashion success moments via camera! ( and now, your fashion plate )

- Grandma is doing better! Not out-of-the-hospital better as far as I know, but apparently awake and past the really bad stuff for the moment. That scared the shit out of me and I'm really going to put forth an effort to have a better relationship with her.

- I took the GRE today. I'm just going to go on and say I'm not super happy with my results. I guess the verbal score was halfway decent but the math score was utter garbage and will serve only as a record of my complete stupidity for future generations. Hopefully I did better on the written section. I'm hoping obviously that it doesn't keep me out of school or anything but for the most part now I'm just so relieved it's done. I do *not* have the money or energy to do it again this year, either.

- I HAVE THE GREATEST BOYFRIEND ON EARTH. Seriously, he went to Charleston with me and sat around for 3+ hours while I took this test just so I wouldn't be nervous and lonely all day. HE KICKS ASS AND I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

- I drove home from Charleston in the daaaaaark, woo woo. I mention this only because it's the first time I've driven anywhere out of town at night, haha. It wasn't so bad.

- I'm gonna see A Christmas Carol with Corey and his family tomorrow. I know as a self-proclaimed Dickens enthusiast I should probably want to cry and cut my wrists, but as we all know, I am a fucking sucker for Disney crap, so my light and dark sides will be battling it out.

- SLEEEP AAAAHHHHHH.

My grandma on my dad's side is in the hospital and I think she might be dying. I don't know. She looks horrible. I only saw her for a few seconds today before I got taken out of the area - there are only supposed to be 2 visitors at a time in the ICU, and there were a ton of her brothers and sisters in there that I'd never seen before. One thought I was my dad's wife. She's got fluid around her heart and lungs, and the medicine they give her for that hurts her liver, so I guess they can't really fix it. The nurse said something about her being really upset last night and asking for my dad and brother, because she thought she was going to die. The nurse was pretty flip about it but I can't stop thinking about it. If she's going to suffer I'd rather she, well, didn't.

I feel really sick. I have to go to Charleston Saturday to take the GRE as well, and I have a paper due Wednesday, and I really just want to crawl in a hole. I don't want to deal with anything. I guess posting about it online isn't going to make anything better, though. I sit around feeling sorry for myself far too much as it is!

I took way too long making this icon just now. Whatever, the scrolling is jerky but I'm proud of it regardless. I have like 8 other Osaka ones too. I think I'm going to wait until I make a ton, then do one of those gigantic cross-fandom posts and link it in a bunch of communities, haha.

Anyway. That's all, really. :D

( New specs! )

I have no makeup on and am doing the MySpace looking-over-the-glasses-cool-guy pose, because the computer screen was reflecting off them. They feel huge but I think they look cute in a kinda 70s nerd way. Now, off to clean house and write a (hopefully short) paper!

( Aw yeah. It's meme time. )(from givethesignal and obsessical)

Happy almost-birthday to me! I got a gift from uncle and aunt today - part of it was 50 bux, earmarked for Ohio trip or grad school applications, and part was tickets to Little Shop of Horrors! I'm excited. Of course, I'm skeptical as to whether or not any play-going experience could ever beat the greatness of Sweeney Todd last year, but I'm willing to see :D

But yeah, this might be the last birthday I get excited about! Not even that I'm crazily excited to ~*drink*~, although I guess it'll be nice, but it's the last "okay, you gotta be older than this before you can do _____ activity" age. I have to get a new driver's license though, and I really am unhappy about that because the picture on my current one is awesome. I mean, I'd frame it if it was bigger, haha.

Big paper is coming along slowly. I have crept over onto page six, and am kind of crapping out idea-wise, but I still have research to do. So. New due date is Oct. 1, because that's when you have to have it in for this prize... thingie, that you can get. I honestly don't think I've ever gone so slowly and agonized so much about something, but maybe it's good for me, to teach me the importance of building up some sort of ability to schedule and work on time and that sort of thing. If I don't, I probably won't survive grad school, eheheh 6_6;

Aside from that, nothing's really been going on. Except I have finally begun to watch Black Books, and it is my new British TV show obsession. Honestly, between that, Doctor Who, and the Mighty Boosh, I think I owe some part of my soul to the BBC for the hours of entertainment it has given me.

OKAY now I'm gonna go with my mom as she runs errands, for I am bored. \0_0/

I fell asleep watching iCarly just now. There was a heavy focus on pies in the plot of this particular episode, and overhearing the dialogue in my sleep caused me to dream about eating pies. Now, I want pie. Really, really badly. Do I have pie in the house? That's ridiculous, why would there be pie in the house?

In unrelated news:



That is all.

I have a bit of reading to do before I go to sleep so I don't want to write much, but I just wanted to brighten things up from the dismal tone of the last entry. We're both still bummed, of course, but I've recovered most of the way. It does indeed fucking SUCK to be at school alone after I got so used to having him there, not to mention the fact that he's also at school alone at a place he hates and we spent the last year making fun of. Ohhhh well. At least I have better transportation so we can still spend enough time together to keep us from going completely insane.

I have a pretty good schedule this semester. 16 hours, three classes a day back to back. Ordinarily I'd rather have a break, but sans boyfriend I'd rather get in and get out than have to hang around being lonely. Most fun so far: YA Lit or Monstrosity. Most boring: Tech Writing. Blaaaah. But it's supposed to be easy and Kevinsky is in there with me so I'm not completely alone.

Corey and I made a Beckley trip today to see Ponyo. It's so incredibly cute. I have an obsession with cute things, as you may know, so this worked out well. Also, the Beckley movie theater is huge and awesome. We need to go there to see Alice in Wonderland or some other cool movie we're looking forward to, I think.

I got my check change today and I'm fighting the urge to impulse purchase an autoharp. NO I DON'T KNOW WHY. Well, I've always wanted one, but I'd probably just be mediocre at it like I am at all other instruments. But I guess there's something to be said for being mediocre at a wide variety of things?

I bought some school books today! Young Adult Literature had maybe six or seven books, but awesomely, they were all around $10 each. The reading list is so cool, too. I read Persepolis at work (fantastic) and about half of The Perks of Being a Wallflower at home. I would like it more if I was reading it in about eighth grade, as it's intended to be, so it's not the book's fault. It did make me want to listen to the Smiths, though, so there's that.

Um, I don't really have much else to say. I'm planning on going to the state fair on Saturday with Corey. That should be fun. I like the fair but I always go with my dad, and while I love my dad, I think you need to go with people your own age to ride carnival rides and whatnot, to really get the full experience. Or something. I don't know. But I hope they have that one thing where you spin around and stick to the wall.

I'm making a post!!! Math class is almost over... there's a test Tuesday and if I make high enough on that to have a B average or higher, I don't have to take the final, and I'll be done. I'm very happy about that because afterwards I'll have two lovely weeks of freedom. Corey is probably going to be at the beach with his family for one of them though, which is lame. But it should give me time to do actual work on the Hamlet film paper which has been sorely neglected over the past month or so. I've got to get it done mainly because I really want to go to Athens for a couple of days and if I'm in the conference it'll give me a reason to, haha. I'm hoping to go to Blacksburg on Wednesday to celebrate being done with class, and after he gets back from the beach we are rocking some state fair.

I've been doing more grad school research. When I talk with Corey about it I usually have a freak-out before the end of the conversation, but honestly I think it's going better than it was. I'm pretty sure I'll apply to IU Bloomington and Ohio University. I'm looking at Boston places or Philly/Pittsburgh places as a sort of wild card (moving to any of those places would probably be hard for us, since it's pretty far away and way more expensive to live there, but it'd be fun, so I'm going to at least consider it) and also for one or two safety-type places that are likely to let me in if I can't get into the others (but hopefully something besides WVU). Mainly I have to worry about the GRE now; I think I meet most of the basic criteria for IUB already except for not having taken the test yet.

I'm finally getting my IUD tomorrow too! Sorry if that's TMI, but I think most of the people who read this are mature enough to handle it, haha. I'm not nervous at all, really. I think it's going to cost me in the neighborhood of $400, but for five years of not worrying/paying for pills, I think it's worth it. I also hope I'll be able to lose the weight I gained on the pill more easily. At least, I think it was going on the pill that caused me to gain weight; either that or there was just a very big coincidence involved.

Corey and I went to the Bluefield flea market at 8:00 yesterday morning, an amazing feat for me since it was Saturday and I usually do mad sleeping on Saturday mornings. I wish I had brought my camera, because they have it in this old parking building in the middle of downtown and it's in this area of really cool, old, mostly abandoned/falling down buildings and right beside the railroad. It sounds sketchy because it pretty much is, but there's still some nice stuff around there - we found a nice little cafe for coffee afterwards. Anyway, I bought two Genesis games for $3 each (and one was a six-pack game so really I bought 7 games!) and a purse.

In honor of my new flea market purse, I give you a meme givethesignal did a thousand years ago and I am now stealing! ( WHAT'S IN MAH BAG )

Dammit. I was looking on contrariwise.org and - ( this person ) has more or less the exact tattoo I want.

I came up with it on my own years ago. Do I still get it or do I have to change it now that it's not unique? D:

- Harry Potter was fantastique! I want to see it again but I've already gone with my boyfriend and BFF, so there's not really anyone left over to take, unless Daniel wants to when he gets back.

- I feel like a sack of blah today. I skipped class and meeting time so I could stay home and be depressed and crampy. I need to work on my draft, but I can't find my stupid paper... the original one with the comments and whatnot on it that I need to work off of. Argh!

- I need something to read now. I was rereading HBP but it seems kind of pointless now that I've seen the film, and I gave up on LotR once again. So, I want something that's interesting and fun, somewhere between War and Peace and Twilight on the literary respectability/ease of comprehension scale.

- In conclusion: SO. BLAH.

I just got out of math... there was a test in there that probably took me all of ten minutes. Which kind of worries me, like maybe I missed something, but I think it was just actually incredibly easy. I'm not scheduled to start work until 12:30 though, so now I'm just killing time until then or until Dr. Roth calls me, whichever comes first.

I bought my Harry Potter tickets the other day! Yes, I am a gigantic dork, don't judge me. But Bethany and I have gone to the midnight show for the past two movies. This time, Storm and Corey are coming, and Corey's sisters. I'm pretty excited! I think it's on... Tuesday night? Or Wednesday morning, technically. So, I'm going on a ~*school night*~, haha. ADULT PRIVILEGES ARE MINE. I'm going to reread the book before then, I haven't picked up a HP book in ages.

The week after that, I'm actually going to a show for the first time since, I dunno, early high school. No, freshman year of college if you count the pit of despair known as the Rock-It Club... thankfully, this one is at the rec center, so I won't reek of cigs and desperation afterwards. I only went a handful of times in high school, because the bands pretty much sucked and they were always full of horrible high school goth hipsters who made me want to go on a killing spree. But I hear very good things about this band, and I now have the power to invalidate Hipster Smugness since I am a College Student now, and therefore Above high school pettiness.

I bought a Radiohead record yesterday, but I was debating on the first season of Buffy - they have it used at Cheap Thrills for $11. Should I swoop in and pick it up before someone else does? I hear it doesn't get super good until later on, but I don't want to start in the middle and you don't really get whole seasons for $11 like, ever.

First of all, movies watched since last updating of movies: The Hangover, Year One, and on the home front The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers (yes, we are rewatching them all, only it's a first-time watching for him on the second two. NEEERRRRRDS.).

I had an interesting day today, I suppose. I went to school early for paper purposes, and got five Hamlet DVDs and a private lecture (yes, kind of awkward. But helpful!). And the previously Twittered-about cigars! I'm definitely not watching all the Hamlets all the way through. I'll probably just watch Ophelia stuff and closet scenes and only watch the rest if it's just so interesting.

I bought a new wireless mouse the other day! My old one crapped out and I had a couple in between that never really worked, so I bought another one like the first one I had. But the main reason I'm even mentioning this is because it's pink and cute, and I'm probably a bit more attached to it than a person should be to an electronics accessory.

The cherry tree in Melissa's front yard has so many cherries on it right now! SO MANY. What's that... I hear you demanding ( PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF? )

Our baby bunny died last night. I really thought he was eating and doing okay, but I guess the injury was just too much for him. :( May he eat many carrots in the sky.

So, our outside cats attacked a baby bunny yesterday. This, of course, being what cats do. But my mom, being the awesome person she is (though I suppose some naturalists could disagree with this opinion), brought the bunny inside and is trying to take care of it. It's eating and poopin' and whatnot, so I'm hoping it'll be okay. Here he is:



That's the un-wounded side, obviously. I took a picture of the injured side but I'll put it under a cut because I don't know about you, but maimed baby bunnies are pretty depressing to me. ( :( )

We don't really know what to do for it besides keep it clean and warm, feed it, and keep the injury clean. My mom's been putting Bacitracin or some kind of human wound medicine on it - if anybody knows if this is deadly to bunnies or something, for heaven's sake let me know! Otherwise, plz to be sendin' your best happy bunny vibes this way.

Books finished recently:

- The Monk by Matthew G. Lewis
- My Booky Wook by Russell Brand
- Tank Girl One by Hewlett & Martin (graphic novels count!)

Now I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I'm moving on to Lord of the Rings. I never finished the books when I was younger, even when the films came out and all my nerd friends and I were obsessed with it. I'd get halfway through The Two Towers and be all "I don't know who anyone is and all they're doing is walking" and put it down. But now, with my advanced reading abilities and access to Wikipedia for backup information (I have a horrible time keeping different characters straight in books and movies), I'm going to kick their (the books') butts.

Anyway, tomorrow Corey is taking me for lunch and then we're going to the old cemetery in Pocahontas, where I will proceed to drape myself across centuries-old tombstones and have provocative pictures taken of me for posting on my MySpace account. Okay, everything in that sentence was a lie except for the first part. We are going to the old cemetery, because I really like looking at old tombstones. I might even take some pictures, but said pictures will involve no cleavage or morose facial expressions, I promise.

Right now I'm sitting alone in the house and kind of bored. I've read a lot and played World of Warcraft today, and am now moping and listening to music, thereby exhausting my three "entertain myself when alone" methods. I need to go back to food intake monitoring because I don't think I've gained much weight back but I definitely haven't lost any in like a couple of weeks. But probably not until Monday, since Corey is taking me out tomorrow and my dad always wants to go to some kind of greasy burger dive on Sundays.

Now, I suppose it is time for PJs and possibly calling Corey or doing something until I am sleepy enough to sleep.