Glee!   
02:47pm 16/05/2008
 
music: Herman's Hermits: Can't You Hear My Heartbeat
SO getting an iPod Touch! Awesome!		  
     
Hit it
 
   
10:43am 16/05/2008
  So last night I had one of those dreams where the semester was ending and I realized I hadn't shown up for one of my classes since before midterm. Ack! Panic! What kills me is, my mom says she still has those dreams. Something to look forward to, I guess. Being 56 years old and still dreaming about exam week.

Yesterday was Senior Dinner. It was nice. Noisy, but nice. As "entertainment" each table had to do a 20-second skit advertising Marlboro. I had the fortune of sitting with Catherine O'Callaghan, who I believe I've mentioned before is sort of like God - academic advising, the go-to person for when your life is falling apart. So my table (a very shy group) left it up to me. And I stand up and say, in a real advertising-like voice, "Does your life suck?" (Laughter.) "Are you... struggling?" (More laughter.) "Are there times when you feel you could just use a little... help?" (Even more laughter.) "Then come to Marlboro College, the home of the one, the only... Catherine O'Callaghan!" (Roaring applause.) So that was fun.

I just my dad a proposal for monetary assistance in purchasing an iPod Touch. Selling point: In Krakow, I'll have to carry my computer around on the tram every time I want to use the internet. Loss! Damage! Theft! With the new iPod, I would have everything I needed in my purse - and I could leave my computer at my home and free up some packing space. Fingers crossed. I think I made a good case.

Ummm yeah. So. Today I will think about cleaning my apartment and watch TV all day instead. I'd better get to it!		  
     
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As per Mark's request.   
11:01am 15/05/2008
  ( Story: Riding in the Car with Anja )  
     
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!!!   
11:17pm 12/05/2008
 
mood: happy
Yes, well, I guess I'm the only one who's not like "Duh, no shit" about this, but --- I got an A on my Plan!!! My orals went swimmingly, and Franklin (my outside examiner) kept writing down names of places to send my stories for possible publication. And one of the stories, he declined to discuss, saying that it was one of the best stories he'd ever read and there was nothing to say. Holy cow! And Resha, the Spanish professor, said she preferred my translation of the Borges story to the professional one, and everyone said the same thing about the German translation. And then I blew their minds by admitting, embarrassed, that I'd only had a year and a half of Italian. (Which I later realized was untrue; I only did two semesters, never got to intermediate.) And I had them all cracking up over Calvino and postmodernism. And then they sent me outside and in about three minutes Laura came out to get me, and there was this piece of paper with A's written all over it, and handshakes and hugs and then a discussion of where my future will lead me, and then more hugs and handshakes. It was lovely.

Lately I've just got this feeling like my life's just beginning - like the world's at my fingertips and all I have to do is pluck, pluck, pluck. It's this fabulous sense of being at the threshold of "the real world," of "adulthood," and some of my friends are kind of cringing and shying away from it and starting to use wrinkle cream (seriously), but man, this is where it's all gonna come together. The next ten, twenty years - the fucking prime of my life - it all starts here.

God, I sound like a fucking Lifetime Original Movie. But I'm serious.		  
     
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Mmmmm   
10:01pm 11/05/2008
  Strange British boy who's well-versed in postmodern lit messaging me on facebook, a conversation about literature, about American versus British school system...

You just plain can't beat that. Or, well, I guess you could beat that. If there were, like, a strange British boy who's well-versed in postmodern lit just happening to get a flat tire outside of my apartment and needing a place to stay and turning out to be inordinately fond of Jack Daniels and sex.

But hey. Gotta take what you can get.		  
     
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08:17pm 10/05/2008
  So I burned myself on a frying pan this evening while making supper.

I guess I've never really had a real burn before. It hurts like a motherfucker.		  
     
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The Nostalg!   
01:42pm 09/05/2008
  Today I turned in the last paper of my college career.

Sniffle.		  
     
Hit it
 
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   
02:18pm 05/05/2008
 
mood: ecstatic
So, Catherine O'Callahan, who's basically Marlboro's God of Advising, came up to me today.

And she said she'd heard that my Plan was "brilliant" and "extremely professional." (With little quotation marks.)

And then she said the person who'd said those things was Laura Stevenson!!!

(Two things you should know, if you aren't a Marlboroite. First, Laura is my advisor/Plan sponsor and is one of the three people who will sit in on my orals and decide what grade to give me for Plan - a.k.a. has the ability to give me a B and crush my hopes and dreams. Second, Laura is the most terrifying, hard-to-please, "Oh my god I didn't do my homework and Laura's gonna eat me," "Oh my god this doesn't deserve an A and Laura's gonna eat me," professor in existence.)

Brilliant!!! Professional!!! Holy shit!!!!!!!! Hamsterdance!!!		  
     
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So.   
11:58am 02/05/2008
 
mood: confused
music: Traveling Wilburys: Tweeter and the Monkey Man
So my paid account ran out and all of a sudden there are ads on livejournal? When the fuck did that happen? I honestly don't think they were there before I got my paid account last year.		  
     
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Sunlight on the lino...   
11:14pm 01/05/2008
 
music: Squeeze: Goodbye Girl
It's awesome when you're kinda manic and dying to buy shoes and then get your mom's permission to buy shoes.

<3

But really! Logically! In a new "grown-up" wardrobe of skirts and suits, I can't very well wear either a) plaid velcro sneakers or b) Birkenstock sandals. Which pretty much sums up my perambulatory-shoe collection, save for a pair of blue ballet flats with owls on them, which look nice with the blue skirt but don't really work for anything else.

I could really go for a game of Bananagrams right now. Unfortunately, it's like, nighttime.

And in case you weren't aware. Bipolar disorder != fun.		  
     
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Randy's verdict:   
02:28pm 30/04/2008
  There's nothing wrong with my car, but call him if something goes wrong again.

Ugh! Well, at least I've got Dad's car until Saturday. I'll have to do something exciting before then. Go someplace far-away in preparation for not having a trustworthy car.		  
     
Hit it
 
   
06:01pm 28/04/2008
  a) The '08 Camry has more blind spots than a, uh, blind leopard.

b) I finished my Plan!!! It's currently at Staples being copied and bound! Hooray!

c) New episode of House tonight!

d) I'm trying to decide what to have for dinner that will be appropriately celebratory. I mean, double-celebration here, man. A Plan-finishing, House-watching supper. Chinese or pizza? (God, I'm a loser.) Hmm. Maybe Quizno's. Haven't been on that side of town for a coon's age.

e) It's raining and feels like it's fucking below zero.		  
     
Hit it
 
   
09:14pm 26/04/2008
  So today Dad came down and we drove down to Hartford to pick up a rental car (yeah, a bit far... but all the rental places around here were out of cars. This is fucking Brattleboro! They must only own like two!). So I am now using Dad's car while he uses the rental.

And on the way down, we discussed my car's prospects. I asked how much he'd be willing to put into it. He asked what I thought. I said I'm probably gonna need a new car anyway because if I'm working ESL, I'll probably be in neighborhoods where I need to lock the car. And since we've already established that we won't pay to fix the locks, there probably isn't much point putting an excessive amount into the car now.

So this sounded logical to Dad. And he said if it's gonna cost more than $300 to fix, ask the mechanic if he knows someone who'll buy it for parts.

Jeeeeesus! I mean, I wasn't expecting a huge figure, but $300's pretty fucking low!

So I guess I'll be getting a new car after I get home from Europe, unless I decide to move over there, in which case I won't need a car. But I honestly don't think I've got the balls to move that far from home. Particularly since my meds don't seem to want to stabilize. (I'm a little bit manic again. And it's only been like two months since we made all the med changes. Two fucking months.)		  
     
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09:06am 26/04/2008
  So in addition to my car's death, I finished off last night with a migraine. Spectacular.  
     
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Shit. Again.   
09:24pm 25/04/2008
 
music: Modest Mouse: Blame it on the Tetons
Yeah. So. My car shit the bed. At a traffic light. On the second-busiest street in Brattleboro. (Putney Road.) And the cops had to come and redirect traffic. And the tow truck had to come and carry the car off into the sunset.

So now the Horse and Buggy is chillin' at Randy's (see car disaster of 2005), and one of two things is going to happen. Either a, Randy will be like "Uh, how did your other mechanics miss this?" and fix it right up, or b) my dad will come down tomorrow, rent a car, and leave his car with me. (If the repairs are gonna cost a lot, we're apparently just gonna say fuck it and get me a new car when I get home from Europe in July. No use repairing a car you can't even lock... no use repairing the locks on a 10-year-old car... the reasoning eludes me, but I'm not the one footing the bill - and I don't think my dad's ever loved a car before.)		  
     
Hit it
 
Yea or Nay?   
01:48pm 23/04/2008
  So, rather than actually working on Plan, I'm working on its layout.

Cover sheet: ( Is this too corny? )		  
     
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Shit.   
07:05pm 22/04/2008
 
music: Beatles: Oh Darling!
So, upon taking another look, the mechanic was unable to find anything wrong with my car.

Which completely explains why it's having so much trouble starting. I mean, totally. We're 100% here. Absolutely nothing wrong with the car. Except every time I get into it, it sounds more and more like it's not gonna start at all.

MRRR.		  
     
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An ode to homework.   
04:52pm 21/04/2008
  Dearest homework, why can't I do you? Perhaps if you were the guy at Chili's with the sideburns... but no. Alas. You are merely sideburnless homework, and there is no excitement left in the concept of doing you, only the desire for it to be over as soon as possible. And yet I know I must do you properly, and not stray, and not give off the impression that my thoughts are elsewhere...

O, homework, I fear our relationship is coming to an end. Every day I despise you more.



Marlboro senior writes extremely strange Livejournal entry. Further analysis shows cause was Plan.		  
     
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01:35pm 20/04/2008
  I can't take it anymore!

I'm going someplace ELSE. I don't care if my car breaks down on the way. I am getting out of this goddam apartment and going someplace with better homework vibes.		  
     
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12:59pm 20/04/2008
  "Marlboro senior takes shower! Locals awed by clean hair!"  
     
Hit it
 
 
jullandershere
 
 
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