Alas, the time comes in every person's life when they need to do something not necessarily wanted, but needed. And that is a friendslist cut.

As those people that have been on my friends list know, I haven't posted in a great long while, and reading of the friendslist only happens on a relatively infrequent basis. And so I'm going to attempt a cut to get possibly try to have the opportunity to at least not lose giant pages worth of entries. Though posting/commenting is still going to be sketchy because I'm honestly on the internet a fraction of the time I used to be. And I'm finally admitting that I don't see it changing soon.

Probably going to do a similar cut on other social networking sites as well, so if you're dropped here, you may be elsewhere too.

That being said, I'm going to try to keep it to people I haven't seen post recently, comms that I don't really read much anymore, and the like.

Our power went out at appx 6:40 this morning. Roommate said she heard a pop right before everything died, which means a transformer blew (and I don't mean some weird sort of Optimus Prime fanfic, either).

And those things don't just fix themselves.

Tried to sleep a little more, but that's just not happening in this weather with no fan. Ugh. So I got up, got ready for work, grabbed my tiny computer, and am now out having breakfast and stealing (not really because it's free) WiFi. Breakfast and WiFi is not a bad way to start the day, but waking up an hour and a half before you usually do is not fun. X-[

Will probably head into work early and just hope that the transformer is fixed by the time that I get home...

Why I hate summer:




and for my metric friends out there...

Dearest kittens,

Have I ever mentioned that I love typing things up in Notepad? Well, I do. It's lovely. Just a simple text program - nothing fancy. No formatting or anything distracting. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Word, and all the things I know how to make it do. But some days, you just want to type something up so you can cut and paste somewhere else, and Notepad is grand for that.

My secret love affair with Notepad. :-D!

So, I'm having a "need to buy stuff" phase recently. So many things I want/need to buy! A new bag, a new phone, new storage for art supplies, new art supplies!, new ink, new hair... The list goes on and on. I even want to go clothes shopping, which doesn't happen often at all, let me tell you. Alas, I don't have the funds right now to do much of that. Sadness. But I'm having serious new-phone jealousy right now. The roommate just got a new phone yesterday, and it's so shiny and key-boardy and feature-y. *grabby hands* Not to mention that my phone is from the STONE AGES. :-D And while it's lasted me well, it's getting to be long past the time that I got a new one. One that isn't pay as you go. Because there's stuff that you can't sign up for if you don't have an actual carrier... like the emergency text notifications from school.

My only problem is: The phone plan. I don't call people all that much! The people I call? Are mainly my parents. And I tend to email them more often than call. When I call, it's usually that I'm having some sort of mental freak out. :-D Or that I have extra special good news. I know, I know, two extremes! I'm not really a phone person though, so I don't even need the least amount of minutes that places offer per month. But I do want texting. Which is extra... and I'm not sure I can afford another $60+ bill per month. WOE AND ALAS!

Anyhoo, moving on to less-stressful things... Um...

Vacation! :-D I have currently scheduled a few days off before the school year starts up again! Aug 19-21 (and then the weekend of the 22-23), which gives me 5 days off! Woooo! I was hoping to get it a little earlier in the month, but because the art department is moving and I'm helping with that, my days got pushed back. But I put my foot down and said that I *needed* at least *some* time off, so the 19th-21st it is. And then school starts up again on the 24th. CRAZEE! I plan on mainly just going up to my parents' and hanging out there for a few days. Get some work done on creative stuff while they're at work and just in general relax a little. It's not a lot of time, but it's something. :-)

It's funny that when I mentioned taking a day or two off for a "long weekend", my parents pushed me to try to get even more. Saying that I need a vacation before school starts. And that I deserve it. And other such nonsense. They're parents! They're supposed to be pushing me to work *more*! X-D Well, a few days will have to do. There's just no more time left for a longer break. Plus, the more I work, the more money I make. Which is horribly capitalist of me, but oh well. Bills need paying. *nods*

I have a surprise mostly boss-free zone today at work! Most of the bossly type people are gone, so it's more relaxed than usual. Which is nice. Though it means I slack, and usually when I slack the time goes slower. Siiiiigh. Oh well. Such is life.

Random things that need doing, as a reminder for myself:
-Laundry
-Dishes
-Stirfry for dinner because there's an entire bag of farmer's market veggies in the fridge om nom
-Cleaning of room
-Writing of Sr Sem story
-Writing of other type things :-D
-Drawinz (always)
-Go to bank
-Ugh pick up some tissues from the store! Napkins = OW on my nose

In more random news, my trend of not/barely brushing my hair continues. Yes, I know, that sounds so weird. To be fair, most of the time I'm pulling it up into a bun type thing, so if it's a little messy, that's a good thing! And when it's down - well, it's barely down - but when it is, it's all wavy/curly from the bun. So... messy is also a good thing then. I combed it out this morning after my shower, but I don't always do that either. This is so not info that anyone needs, but oh well. :-D

Just got a craving for Seafood Alfredo. Nnngh om nom. I may have to push the stir fry to later this week... But I don't want the veggies to go icky. UGH, THE DECISIONS!

More art talk! For my Senior Sem, I've had a thought. Well, it's technically for *post* senior sem... I'm going to have all these pieces that go together to form part of this story. But... they may eventually get separated (I'm trying not to think too highly of myself with nothing even done yet, but sometimes people buy art...). My plan is to get scans/pictures put together of the work and make a sort of picture book out of it. Maybe (if I have funds) get it printed up for myself (and anyone else that would want a copy of it).

Okay. Time to get some work done now. I'm planning a sort of sappy picture post later, so stay tuned! :-D

Alright, here's how my day went.

But first...

Picture the people in your life. I'm sure there's quite a few. Some of them may be creative type people! Think about them for a second. Are they arty creative type people? Like, do they like to make stuff? Sweet. I hope everyone knows someone like that. Now think of their house. Or their space. Basically, where ever they hang out and do their work. Have you ever seen it?

Does it horrify you a little bit? X-D

If you know the right types of creative people, they are probably prone to suffering from "Oooh, I might be able to use that for something" Syndrome. It's a rather life-altering syndrome. Here's how it goes:

Creative person is out and about. Somewhere. Perhaps work or school or... anywhere. They see... *something*. It's possible that it is someone's trash. Not gross garbage, just... unwanted. They then utter the following phrase: "Oooh, I might be able to use that for something". They pick up the item, and they take it home/to work/to school. Their collection of stuff continues to grow.

See also: "Pack Rat"

Now. Imagine that you have (at any point in time) around 8 of these types of people working in a department. Imagine that this setup has existed for god-knows how many years, and that as people leave, new people take their places, and *absorb* the former person's stuff as they add their own. Thus increasing the collection. Not only in offices, but in classrooms and storerooms as well.

Are you frightened yet?

Picture now, if you will, that through some miraculous intervention from the money gods, this department has acquired a NEW SPACE. Said space is approximately a mile away. And teleportation has not yet been invented. But that the department now needs to leave their former space for the new one.

With all their stuff.

This is an appropriate moment to go here.

Today, my good friends, I began the task of packing up the Art Department. Along with other people, obviously. It wasn't just me. :-D But... yeah. We threw a LOT of stuff away. (Some of it got "absorbed" into people's personal collections. Mine included.) But there's still so much left!

Another thing is that because this is old stuff, a lot of it is super dusty. At least when we were working in the old gallery storage. And when we moved into the ceramics studio, then everything was covered in old clay, glazes, chemicals, etc. Plus, you're moving around so it's warm and sweaty... I was pretty gross when I got home! :-D

...and we get to do more on Monday! Woo? :-D

Arm-swinging riddle solved
Scientists have long wondered why humans swing their arms when they walk.

Um, because we look like weird robots when we don't? :-D

Now that that's out of the way... :-D An entry!

I know I haven't posted for a few days. I shall tell you why. Wait, let me summon my powers of extreme understatement.

*summons*

Okay, here we go: I had a bad weekend. Bad enough that I was in my car, driving back to the apartment, and I ended up getting on the highway instead, and didn't stop until I got to my parents' house. That's about a 2 hour drive. And I stayed there for around a day an a half until I was feeling human enough to rejoin the real world. It was basically a lot of stuff that happened all at once, it kept piling on, and I couldn't deal with it on my own. Nothing that was anyone's fault - just my own crazy brains.

I'm feeling a bit better now though. And there's an actual planned trip up there scheduled for this weekend, because it's my dad's birthday! So that should be good too.

Moving on to different topics: I need a new purse/bag. The one I have, I've been using for several years now (I got it right before that trip my parents and I took to Disney world - almost 3 years ago??), and it's really showing its age. It's an olive-y colored canvas and while I love it because it holds almost anything, it's time for something new. Plus, with me trying to look a little better, fashion-wise, it doesn't really go with a lot of stuff. It's a pretty casual looking bag. So I'm looking for a bag that I can wear with any number of outfits, but one that is also big enough to hold everything I need to carry. Which includes (but is not limited to): wallet, chapstick, lipstick, hand lotion, folding hairbrush, tissues, painkillers/tummy medicine, pen, note/sketchbook, and book to read. Plus, if I can manage it, I'd love for it to be able to hold my tiny computer as well (which is about the size of my sketchbook), for the times I want to take it along with me.

Still on the topic of fashiony type things, have I mentioned that I'm on a bracelet/jewelry kick at the moment? I've made myself several, and picked up things to make more as well. Amazing how many bracelets you can make with just a few dollars worth of stuff from the craft store. :-D Then, when I was up at my parents', my mom started going through her mother's old jewelry box. There's a ton of stuff in there that I once thought was pretty ugly, but that I really like now. Go figure! :-D My mom let me take a necklace (which is sort of fancy, but funky and neat), and a bracelet (which is silver and sort of art deco-ish almost). There's a necklace in the jewelry box that is too fancy for me to comfortably wear for every-day stuff, but that (depending on my outfit) I might wear next year for my gallery opening for senior seminar. And "my" pearls, which were a gift from my other grandmother (that were supposed to be a gift for my wedding, but I think she realized that's not going to happen...), and that I've never worn and need an extender for because I have a fat neck. ;-) But I'm thinking those I might wear to graduation. Lovely that I'm planning my jewelry for ocassions that won't happen until April/May. :-D

Anyhoo. :-D

Y'know, even though I'm feeling better, there's still things that are irritating me. The problem I'm having is really emotional emotions. Does that make sense? Something hits and it's so much *more* than it should be. I'm sadder when I'm sad. I'm *angrier* when I'm angry. Little things that I can usually handle (and that I've handled in the past!) get a huge reaction from me. And I know that if I let it out, people are going to be like "Wtf is her problem?" Sigh.

On a positive note, tomorrow I (and Faye and Bethy) are going to head to a comic shop in the city that's having a "book club" sort of deal with Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite. I should really read through it again tonight, just to refresh myself.

I think that's a good note to end on. :-)

Good morning, kittens!

It is, unfortunately, still morning. (At least when I started writing this! :-D) And while I am boss-free today, and thus slacking horribly at work, I'm a bit bored. The time goes so much slower when you're not doing much.

But I have good news! Brace yourselves. Okay, are you ready?

I feel that I look fairly good today.

I know! Gasp and shock! It's true though. And what's more, there was at least one day earlier this week that I also felt pretty good.

So now, since it's been so rare, and I want to wallow in it a little, I will tell you what I'm wearing today! A picture would be better, but as previously mentioned, I'm at work. So you have to settle for a description. From the top down:

-Messy hair in a messy bun. I've discovered this trick! If I comb/brush my hair after my shower, I feel like it needs to lay perfectly. If I DON'T brush it, I can just mush it all back into a bun, and it's good to go.
-Squarish/rectangular glasses
-Lavender/black/white geometric wrap dress with collar
-Black semi-sheer tie-front sweater with 3/4 length bell sleeves (I love this sweater - it's great to throw over things)
-Dark shiny grey & silver bead bracelets
-Platform-type sandals - tan. I would've preferred a different type of shoes, but I only have so many pairs, and this was the best of the shoes that I can actually walk in for work. :-D

So there! It could use some earrings, but I really don't have any. I'm also in desperate need of a purse, so today I threw most of my essentials in a tiny black purse-type-bag and the bigger things in an orange silk totebag that I got a few years back from Laura (the munchkin's mom). It's an absolutely gorgeous color, but unfortunately fraying along one seam. I'm thinking of picking up some matching/coordinating ribbon from the fabric store and reinforcing/covering up the side seams.

I confess to having a recent interest in fashion. Or at least, in looking better/dressing better than I feel I have in the past. It's been tricky, because for a few years I was all officey all the time. It was *fairly* casual, but I mainly wore black pants and some sort of sweater or something. Pretty boring. It got to the point that a lot of my work clothes were seeping into my non-work wardrobe, but neither was very exciting. Toward the end of my time at my last job, I finally started to buy some skirts and dresses to mix it up a bit, which was fun for me.

Then when I quit and came to school, I started slipping into "jeans and a shirt" every day. Really easy but sort of boring, though I tried to get some decent shirts. To be fair, it's still been a lot of things I used to wear to work. But then, surprisingly, summer came along and made me get some new clothes. Mainly because I didn't have much summery clothing, because I tend to hate summer fashion. But I picked up some tshirts that were pretty cute, and two pairs of things that I'm not sure if they're shorts or if they're capris! :-D They go right at/below my knee. I've been wearing them to work along with my newish shirts, and (I think!) they've been looking not bad.

I'm at least trying to put a *little* more effort into how I look. I've altered some of my tshirts (not nearly enough, but it's a start), and I'm wearing dresses/skirts again from time to time. It makes me feel good. I don't do it every day, and some days I'm still pretty disgusted with how I look, but I'm having more days that aren't bad in the appearance department.

Along with this, I've been reading some new blogs, some of which are at least vaguely fashion-focused. One of them is galadarling.com. She really tries to be upbeat, and she's pretty cute, and she's got a really quirky style (and crazy colored hair!). I'm not obviously trying to copy anything, but she's got some good things to say. She also does "Things I Love Thursdays", which is, I think, one of the places where the whole meme of 'things I love' started, and thus where some of my inspirations come from for T.I.L..

Talking about fashion. :-D Probably not something anyone ever expected to see here, right? Oh well. People could probably argue that worrying about how you look is shallow, but I think that looking better/dressing better makes me *feel* better. And that's not something I'm going to apologize for. So there! :-D

p.s. I still need to get my hair done. Cut and color. Anyone know of someone in the Chicago area that I could go to that won't completely violate my wallet? SIGH.

Dear kittens,

Apparently, my body rejects the concept of going to a midnight premier of a movie and then to work the next day. Because my alarm is normally set for sometime in the 7:00 hour, and I usually hit the snooze button several times before I get up. Today? I slept RIGHT through it. Rolled over about 10:15 or so (I'm supposed to start work at 9). I was in the middle of a very strange dream, that I now cannot remember other than it was strange.

NOT FUN TIMES.

To make it worse, this is the second time in a very brief period of time that I've slept through my alarm. Wtf! That's never happened to me before! It's made EVEN worse by the fact that people knew I was going to the Harry Potter opening last night, so I feel like a giant fail. SIGH. My boss laughed a little and told me not to sweat it, but STILL. I feel bad. :-(

On the other (non-spoilery) hand, the movie has made me want Harry/Luna fic. :-D *facepalm* Especially some sort of post-Final Battle situation.

Okay. I am so tired today. :-D Zoning out constantly. Zzzz. 4 hours left. Sigh.

Okay! Even though I get so paranoid about a part of these sorts of things when I read them, I'm doing it myself. So there. Stolen from my flist. Done over two days.

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