Writer Supreme

Teaching, Valentine's Day, etc.

2009-02-14T17:45:46Z

Lately I've been incredibly busy with school, teaching, work, and babysitting on the side. Nice to have three jobs, eh? Ah well, it pays the bills. Teaching the class is fun, although it's hard to draw the line between being their teacher and being their friend. I think now I've got that line drawn. It's really hard to stay strict. For example, they have a paper due on Tuesday, and each one was like, "What do we write about? How long does it have to be? Give us ideas for topics!" All of this has already been outlined for them in the syllabus I handed out, but I guess they wanted more direction and basically for me to outline exactly what I wanted. I instead had them give me their ideas for papers and encouraged them in separate directions. I definitely made sure nobody uses Courier New font, since that is pathetic. All they have to do is write 5-7 pages on one theme in one of the three books we've covered so far in class. They said, "That's such a long paper!" I think this was when I had to try not to roll my eyes. Oh well. For the most part, it's been a good class.

So today is Valentine's Day, and I'm working, just like last night and tomorrow night. The boy decided that we'd celebrate on Thursday night instead, since I had that night free. He made dinner, I made dessert (strawberry cupcakes) and we watched a movie. I bought him tickets to a festival in New Orleans, where his favorite band--Kings of Leon--is playing.

Yesterday, when I was busy at work, I texted him to tell him about a funny incident that had just taken place. He replied, saying I should go ahead and tell him since he was downstairs. He was waiting with a bowl full of orchids. I really didn't expect it and it was a great surprise, especially to have him deliver it to me at work.

So now I'm waiting to hear from several schools where I applied. So far, I've gotten updates from Arkansas and Colorado State, but not an actual indication of acceptance. So I'm still crossing my fingers. I know I could do something else if I don't get in, and it's probably best--with the current economy--to do something other than more school. But I'm still hoping things work out.

I hope everyone has a good Valentine's Day/Single Awareness Day. :)

Idiocy

2009-01-11T15:32:17Z

I got a bill yesterday from the gas company saying we owed $550 (including $320 for this month's usage). I have an old house with poor insulation, so I understand the current fee--plus I immediately made sure my roommate and I plan to lower the temperature very low when we aren't home/at night.

But I swore that I paid it, pointing out on my bank account the e-bill payments to CenterPoint Energy. I failed to notice that the amounts were the same as the ones to my water company, which coincidentally sent a credit of over $200 to us the same day--so we don't owe them anything for several months.

I for some reason made out an e-bill to the wrong company. I owe $550 by Friday to the gas company or our heating will get shut off. I am an idiot of immense proportions. Add this to the negative feelings I've got lately concerning my current and future graduate programs, and whoa.

In good news, I'm dating a great guy ... though this doesn't soothe my feelings of inadequacy right now. :P Although he did buy me a signed copy of a Margaret Atwood novel for Christmas, which is beyond awesome and wonderful.

Perspective

2008-10-07T22:23:22Z

As Features Editor here at the paper, I've been put in charge of our monthly series on Breast Cancer Awareness, in which we publish one issue a week with 2-3 stories relating to the issue, be it survivors, new support groups, or new technology. While my editor knows of my history, he still thinks I should be able to write about this, saying I have good writing skills and can sympathize/empathize with the stories being presented.

So far, I've had to interview several survivors. It doesn't get any easier. One survivor asked me today if I had been affected by cancer (as it seems like everyone, even if they haven't suffered themselves, knows someone who has some form of the disease). I briefly summed up my story, and she turned from talking about herself to empathizing with me becoming a widow at 24. I felt almost embarrassed because we should have been talking about her and her struggle with breast cancer, but I do think it made her feel better by knowing I had actual experience with what she was talking about.

I don't know what the point of writing this is. I'm getting off work in 30 minutes, and the next issue will be behind me. I guess it's just hard to know I've got three more issues of this coming up, and now the management here wants me to do this every month (as every month focuses on a different form of cancer). I agree it's good to spread awareness, but the writing about it on a continual basis is becoming difficult.

I'm a professor! Sort of.

2008-09-12T19:46:07Z

So, if you remember last post, I made friends with some professors, including the children's lit one, who encouraged me to follow the Ph.D. in children's lit route. Since then, I've been able to take on five separate classes teaching wise, wherein I will instruct young collegiate minds on works such as "Snow White," "Peter Pan," and "The Mysterious Benedict Society," while said professor is away at conferences.

Even better though is that yesterday I got a phone call from the English Department, informing me that they have an open spot for their middle-level literature class, an upper-level class for literature for the 4th to 8th grades for prospective English teachers. And they offered it to ME.

So, while I still lack my M.A., I'm teaching an upper-level class that is normally only given to professors. How freaking awesome is that? This is really encouraging me to completely ditch the journalism route and proceed fully into academia.

So excited.

Busy semester looms

2008-08-23T17:03:02Z

I had a grad school meet-and-greet Wednesday after work. It was one of those things where the professors wanted to welcome all new students and let them get to know the "broken in" ones, but only about four new people showed. But it was good. My profs from last semester were glad to see me. One is married to one of my best friends, Paulette, so he'd randomly come up while I was talking to people and go, "Aren't you Jerrica Ryan, the new Features Editor for the Log Cabin Democrat?" and I'd reply, "Well, yes I am, thanks!" It was funny. He and I are very much like brother and sister. He also kept referring to how he might sleep with one of the grad students that evening (Paulette, obviously). That was fun.

One new prof, who wrote his dissertation on Judy Blume (which I think is a stroke of pure genius) was trying to talk me into pursuing a joint MFA/Ph.D. in Children's Literature. "You'll be so marketable!" he kept saying. So I'm looking into it. I have to retake the GRE this year because my scores have expired. I took a practice test this morning and got a 610 on my Verbal, which is the only score I care about. So as long as I score that high or better, I'm good on the GRE.

But Comps will be Nov. 3 and 4 and that date is looming. Terrifying. I hope I can pass the two-day test, but there's so much on it that I keep freaking myself out. It's basically a ton of selections from Medieval to Present. We're forming a study session on Monday at 6 so maybe it'll go okay.

I also need to work on my writing sample for MFA programs. I think I'm stronger, writing-wise, than I was five years ago. Just in case, a local writer is reading one sample (you have to have two stories) and is giving me feedback. He may hate it, so who knows how this will work. It can't hurt, anyway.

Also, at work Thursday I got to go to the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition project in Bigelow. It was hot and muddy, but I got to see Ty Pennington and snuck in with another reporter to areas we weren't supposed to walk in. That was fun. Lois Lane I am not, but I'm working on it. It is taking me a little while to get used to all my duties at the paper and I am probably not doing as good a job as I should be ... but I'm still only a month in, and I may be blowing my bad parts out of proportion.

And more letters have arrived.

My acting debut...

2008-08-20T20:28:13Z

I know you guys were waiting.

And here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FENhzcXbYB0

I am billed in this feature film as "Girl at beach" although I do in fact have lines. And you should wait for the credits anyway, because it's full of our outtakes.

I'm anxiously awaiting your comments. :)

And yes, I do in fact know how silly this is.

My new job

2008-08-19T03:06:34Z

It's kind of interesting at my new job ... the change from editing to writing is a lot different, but the biggest difference is getting used to my co-workers.

To illustrate my point, go to www.youtube.com, type in "libparks" and click on "The World."

This is a teaser trailer for our company's pro-recycling video campaign. I had to film my section on Sunday, in which I am sitting calmly on the beach, sipping a cup of coffee and reading our paper. Joe (crime reporter) walks up, dressed up as the trash monster, and tells me I should litter instead of recycling my cup. When I protest, he pulls out a real machete and chases me across the beach. This is supposed to be illustrative of what will happen in 10 years if we stop recycling.

Upside to all this is that I still looked decently thin on camera. :) Downside is that I laughed uncontrollably through the whole thing. I'm not sure acting is my forte.

Tomorrow I have to write the arrest log and Quorum Court articles. Wednesday I'm going around town to the paint your own pottery studios to do a feature. Thursday, who knows.

update

2008-08-09T02:29:29Z

and too tired to type in caps. sorry.

i'm in jonesboro for one of dan's friends' weddings, which is tomorrow. it's weird being back here. but good, because i know dan's parents/brother still care about me and it's good to see them. it's more driving around and remembering, and then seeing his parents' house and remembering. but it's really ok, better than i thought it'd be.

i'm working a new job--reporting at a local paper, versus copy editing at the old one--and it's good but i'm tired tired tired. i'm getting up at 8 a.m. at the latest, so come 10 or 11 p.m., i pass out from exhaustion. i have to drive about half an hour to work, which isn't that bad and allows me time to think/destress from work, just is not that great on my gas tank. but oh well. first paycheck is next week, whee!

my other news: i got a letter. if you know what this means, yay, if not, it doesn't matter.

Happy Birthday, Dan.

2008-08-01T01:32:20Z

I miss you. I wish I could be celebrating your 29th birthday today. I donated my hair in memory of you, as a birthday present, and today wrote a story with a positive message to show you that I was remembering the good times.

When people ask me what I'm looking for dating-wise, while I'm not replacing you, I tell them I refuse to settle for less than the love you and I had for each other.

I love you.

Jerrica

Ever wish you could go back in time?

2008-07-27T21:12:10Z

Because I do, at least in three separate instances from this past week. If only I had a censor on me to tell me when NOT to say something. OMG.

Ah, well. Life, you really like to play these games with me, don't you.

jerrica28 @ 2008-07-26T20:41:00

2008-07-27T02:06:09Z

Inspired by a list of top 50 books I've seen recently, I'm putting down my own. I am not listing them in order. This is honest, so I've included non-literary books, and I tried to limit it to no more than one book by each author. Comment!

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
3. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
4. Beloved by Toni Morrison
5. Grimm's Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm
6. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Complete Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson
8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
9. Heat and Other Stories by Joyce Carol Oates
10. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
11. The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier
12. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
13. We Don't Live Here Anymore by Andre Dubus
14. Victorian Fairy Tales by William Makepeace Thackeray, J.M. Barrie, et. al.
15. Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
16. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
17. Collected Stories by William Faulkner
18. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
19. The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor
20. A Secret Word by Jennifer Paddock
21. The Small Rain by Madeleine L'Engle
22. The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
23. Transformations by Anne Sexton
24. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
25. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
26. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
27. About a Boy by Nick Hornby
28. Blue Horses Rush In by Luci Tapahonso
29. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
30. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
31. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
32. Animal Farm by George Orwell
33. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
34. Beauty and the Beast and other French Fairy Tales by various
35. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
36. Our Town by Thornton Wilder
37. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
38. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
39. Christabel by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
40. Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marian Keyes
41. Echoes by Maeve Binchy
42. Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by W.B. Yeats
43. The Stranger by Albert Camus
44. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
45. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
46. Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill
47. The Palace of Wasted Footsteps by Cary Holladay
48. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
49. A Widow for One Year by John Irving
50. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

That was a lot harder than I thought. :)

Harry Potter trailer

2008-07-22T21:02:42Z

I just went to see Batman: The Dark Knight, and at the beginning was a teaser for the 6th Harry Potter movie. Don't get too excited; it was simply the HP music and Dumbledore's voice, but I totally geeked out and clapped. My friends are ashamed of me now. :(

Still! HP movie! I think I'm more excited about this than the Batman movie, even with Heath Ledger as the Joker. By the way, the Joker was awesome, awesome, awesome. Great friggin' movie.

New haircut!

2008-07-17T21:14:58Z

I donated 8 inches today to Pantene Beautiful Lengths! I'm sure my hair will look quite different when I fix it, but here is my new look!

My hair is so thick that it made 3 ponytails, one-half of a potential wig!

Am not trying to be emo, but sometimes I can't help it.

2008-07-15T03:29:08Z

And I'm sure it's just a simple case of it being that time of month (sorry, any boys that read this).

I just feel bleh, but that is probably because of the many changes I'm going through right now, what with being newly single, finishing one job and starting another, and moving into a new house. And my consistent eating issues.

My biggest problem is not staying active and finding things to do. I have plenty of things I can do, and I need to remind myself of that.

But! Positive! I am hanging out with more people, being more social, and finding ways to stay outdoors and take more opportunities to hike and such. So this is good. And I started writing a new story last week and although it isn't Hemingway-esque, at least I'm putting words down.

Tomorrow I am to the library to finish a paper which needs to be done, and then to work. Wednesday is Movies in the Park night/hiking night with my aunt, and Thursday is haircut day (haircut keeps getting put off because my hairdresser's family keeps getting sick, so I hope this will be the day, although I really hope her kids do get better soon, as that is infinitely more important than hair). And Thursday is also hang out with Paulette day, so that will be nice. Friday I'm going to see Mamma Mia with my mom during the day and that night is my going-away party after work. Saturday I'm going hiking with a friend from work, and Sunday is Paulette's birthday. And Monday is last day at the ADG!

Positive! I'm trying, see? I promise I'm not emo!

Bored

2008-07-14T01:29:02Z

I think I'm about to run to the video store to get a silly girl movie, but I'm in a weird mood, and I think that's all I can handle right now.

I have been productive today--cleaned house, did graduate school stuff, went to church, walked dogs.

I hate Sundays.

Thought I'd share this weird photo of me.

2008-07-11T07:44:56Z

This was me right after we returned to UCA after our trip to the Southwest. I promised that I would spin around at some point in my skirt, and so I finally did.

I look happy, although I wasn't that day. I am now*. I kind of wish I was wearing that skirt now so I could recreate this.

And, as you can tell in this photo, my hair is super long. Next Tuesday I'm finally chopping off 8 inches to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, for women with cancer. I'm ready.

I've been listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen lately, and it made me realize how incredibly naive I am. I'll explain: the song "Dancing in the Dark" is a particular favorite of mine. I told a friend that the song reminded me of myself and of someone I knew, how we were tired of the day-in, day-out, especially the lyric where Springsteen says, "wanna change my looks, my hair, my face" and talks about how the city will drag you down. I considered it more to be about wanting to break free and do your own thing. Then my friend pointed out the lines where he talks about needing a love reaction and wanting to dance in the dark--and I felt like a complete idiot, because I didn't think about the song in a sexual way. I still think it's a wonderful song. I'm just saying I'm incredibly naive. Oh well! But I think this photo really represents me--feeling childish but doing things regardless. And I'm happy with that right now.

I should really go to bed. I started writing a new story tonight though!

*To clarify: I'm happy because things are looking up in my life--job and living situation. The other stuff is just an added bonus.

Very, very, very happy.

2008-07-09T04:44:12Z

I know, meme's are annoying. But I'm insanely happy at an email I just received and can't write anything other than squee! right now. :)

1.Name:
2.Birthday:
3.Where do you live:
4.IM:
5.What are you studying/What are you working as:
6.What makes you happy:
7.What are you listening to now/have listened to last:
8.What is particularly good/bad about my LJ:
9.An interesting fact about you:
10.Are you in love/have a crush at the moment:
11.Favorite place to be:
12.Favorite lyric:
13. Best time of the year:
14.Weirdest food you like:

RECOMMEND
1.A film:
2.A book:
3.A song:
4.A band:

PLUS
1.One thing you like about me:
2.Two things you like about yourself:
3.Put this in your lj so I can tell you what I think of you?

Job issue resolved.

2008-07-04T05:49:03Z

I am going to put in my two weeks notice at the ADG tomorrow. I am really going to miss the place and the people. But when I talked to my boss today, and she said she couldn't offer me anything more than part-time right now, I made the decision to try something new. She was really positive--let me know she thought I was a good writer and that reporting would be a good avenue for me to explore, that she wishes she had stuck with reporting instead of going into editing, and that I'd leave the ADG on good terms (with the possibility of returning in the future).

In the next three weeks, I will begin my time as a features reporter at the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway. I'm nervous because it's been awhile since I've reported, plus I'm worried it will be like the Jonesboro Sun was. But I'm going to be positive. I'm going to make more money here than I ever have before, and since I'll be writing, I think that will help my outside writing. And I do know a few people that work there, so maybe the transition won't be so bad. And I can get lunch with Paulette and Kara and my other Conway pals. :)

It's a little scary, but I feel OK about it. One person I talked to recently about this asked if this would affect my chances of applying to an MFA program or of preparing for one, but I don't think it will, as long as I stick to a schedule. I am going to need to be more scheduled than right now, since I will be working 40 hours a week and writing a thesis and preparing for comps. But I'll be able to work it out.

My friends at the ADG are throwing me a going-away event (we're probably just going to Flying Saucer downtown) but I'm glad they made the effort. I really will miss everyone.

Pictures from my trip!

2008-07-03T05:43:57Z

Just a handful of photos. I have others listed on Facebook or myspace, if you want to see.

This was near the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona.

This is me, Kara, April--all tentmates from our trip.

I look like a devout Mormon or something here. My hair was unwashed and in a bandanna/braids, it was sandy so I was wearing sneakers, and we were required to wear skirts on the Hopi Reservation. I still got whistled at that day though!

Me at the top of Canyon de Chelly. I'm silly.

Relationship stuff. See, I told you had a hectic three weeks. :)

2008-07-02T05:18:24Z

So I got back from my trip on a Sunday, and by Monday had broken up with my boyfriend, Paul. People keep asking what led to that--wasn't he a good guy? Weren't we cute together? But I think that although on the trip I was committed to him still, I realized when I got back that every three months it seems like I'd re-evaluate the relationship and want to break up. It's not that he's a bad person at all--he's not--but I just realized how much different we are. There were three basic reasons. I think he's more materialistic than I am. He's a little more self-absorbed than I am. Our education difference may not need to be a big deal, but it is--I'm almost done with my master's degree and he's only graduated high school. There were obvious things about me that weren't working out too. Either way, I don't think he and I were the perfect couple, although things appeared fine. I think that it takes courage to break up with someone when things are comfortable if you realize it's not meant to be. It was weird--on Monday I sat down with him and said we were better off as friends (It wasn't as bad as it sounds) and he agreed, and we actually hung out that night thinking about our respective futures. It was very adult, but then a couple days later when we were at the same party he left as soon as I got there. From what I've heard from his friends and my brother, it sounds like he's not taking this so well. I know he's hurting right now, and I feel bad, but not bad enough to go out with him again.

I wanted to add here also that I know that I obviously did things wrong in the relationship too. I don't want to blame him for anything.

That said, there is a potential person for the future. I don't know who exactly looks at this so I won't say anything more about it for now. But I am hopeful.

I'll do this instead of updating

2008-05-11T04:11:20Z

Bold the books you have read, italicize books you’ve started buy not finished, strike the books you read but hated, add an asterisk* to books you’ve read more than once, and underline those you own but still haven’t read yourself.

001. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
002. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy*
003. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
004. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
005. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
006. Catch-22: A Novel by Joseph Heller
007. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
008. Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
009. The Odyssey by Homer
010. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
011. Ulysses by James Joyce
012. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
013. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
014. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
015. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
016. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
017. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
018. The Iliad by Homer
019. Emma by Jane Austen
020. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
021. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
022. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood*
023. The Canterbury tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
024. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen*
025. The Historian: A Novel by Elizabeth Kostova
026. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
027. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
028. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
029. Life of Pi: A Novel by Yann Martel
030. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
031. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
032. Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
033. Dracula by Bram Stoker*
034. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
035. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
036. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
037. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
038. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
039. Middlemarch by George Eliot
040. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
041. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
042. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden*
043. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
044. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
045. Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle I) by Neal Stephenson
046. American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman
047. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
048. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
049. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
050. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
051. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
052. Dune by Frank Herbert
053. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
054. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
055. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
056. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
057. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
058. The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
059. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
060. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
061. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
062. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
063. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
064. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: A Novel by Michael Chabon
065. Persuasion by Jane Austen
066. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
067. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
068. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
069. Anansi Boys: A Novel by Neil Gaiman
070. The Once and Future King by T. H. White
071. Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan
072. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
073. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
074. Oryx and Crake: A Novel by Margaret Atwood
075. Dubliners by James Joyce
076. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
077. Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
078. Beloved: a novel by Toni Morrison*
079. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
080. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
081. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its… by Truman Capote
082. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
083. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
084. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
085. Watership Down by Richard Adams
086. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
087. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
088. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Anonymous
089. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway*
090. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into… by Robert M. 0Pirsig
091. The Aeneid by Virgil
092. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
093. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
094. The Personal History of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
095. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
096. Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt
097. The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling by Henry Fielding
098. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
099. Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
100. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
101. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
102. Candide, or, Optimism by Voltaire
103. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
104. The Plague by Albert Camus
105. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
106. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

Straight As!

2008-05-11T03:53:25Z

I got straight As!

I'll post more later, as I am at work. But I got straight As!!!!

I am too many things right now.

2008-03-03T03:04:49Z

Family drama, work drama, and the immense amount of homework, combined with my current hormonal state being elevated because of birth control + that time of month, has got me wanting to quit life, just for a moment. Just wanting one day where I can lie in bed and watch shit movies and eat chocolates.

I think, honestly, I want to tell people what I really think and not simply gloss over things in order to be nice.

I'm sure this is normal. Nothing to worry about, really. But I'm angry with some people, upset with myself, wishing things were easier (life in general).

On the other hand, I've discovered that Damien Rice is the awesome, and his two CDs are leading me back to sanity. Although the melancholy lyrics may be making my mood worse. Perhaps I should switch back to the Beatles.

baby showers, and how much they suck.

2008-03-01T04:54:46Z

My aunt's shower is tomorrow. She is having a baby girl, and I'll be 25 years older than this cousin. I thought it would be nice to help out with the planning even though my other aunts are in charge, so I suggested that I would purchase the group gift. I was told this was fine since nothing had been bought yet and no one gave me any ideas for gifts.

It has been nothing but a hassle since then.

The aunts didn't want to get the car seat because it was too expensive, although they are doctors and lawyers and make more money than I ever will unless my books sell for millions. But Babies R Us had neither the stroller, nor the car seat, nor the swing, nor the high chair that my aunt registered for. And since I didn't want to order online and not have a gift for Shannon to open at the shower, I decided to buy other gifts that my aunt would need, such as a baby monitor and diaper genie, that were all on her registry. I worked for three years at a nursery and I know these things are needed. It cost $219 but I knew all the aunts would go in on it together.

Aunts tell me tonight (the friggin' day before the shower, at 10 p.m.) that they don't like what I bought and they're ordering a stroller online because it's a better gift. They speak to me as if I am a child and ask me to take everything back.

They tell me they planned for six weeks to do this, though no one told me.

My aunt WHO KNEW ALL THIS didn't tell me anything about this, not even tonight when I texted her again about gifts for tomorrow. She called me at work when she was somewhere obviously busy (tons of noise in background) so I told her I couldn't hear her and that I was at work. She texts me just that if I buy anything else for Shannon, to make sure it's on the registry.

I'm sorry, really, are you serious? Should I really stick to the registry? Man, I had no idea that I should friggin stick to what my aunt picked out. GRRR.

Am done with baby showers. I try to be nice and this is what I get. The shower is at noon tomorrow and I get off work at midnight tonight so I'm going to have to get up super early tomorrow in order to dress up, drive all the way out to the baby store, UNWRAP the gifts I already wrapped, take them back and buy something else (because I'm sorry, babies do need other things besides strollers), all before driving back across town to the shower and to pick up my mom.

I'm being sensitive and babyish. I don't care. This stuff is crap.

Ugh.

2008-02-28T06:00:57Z

Hate sinuses. Hate this paper I'm writing for Lit Theory, and hate fact that although I've finished one I need to write a second one within the next 9 and a half hours.
Hate the fact I can't go 5 minutes without blowing my nose. Long night ahead.
At least one paper is almost done. Yay, I guess.