Archive for the ‘lists’ Category

The Year In Pictures: 2010


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Christmas Times is Serious Times!

This year I am at Steven’s house for Christmas, something that everyone is treating as this big dramatic thing, when in reality this is at least the third time it’s happened. But I have quickly discovered that I can easily get things by whining that “it’s just not Christmas without ice cream for breakfast” etc. As I learned from the claymation Community Christmas special, Christmas means different things to different people (“Remote control Christmas pterodactyl!!!“), and to me, I’m always reminded of three things. I wish I had pictures, but alas, you will have to use the power of your imagination!

Gingerbread Men Ornaments
Until I was about ten, my mom would always make these gingerbread ornaments for the Christmas tree. The recipe was a little different than for cookies you are supposed to eat, and I was warned multiple times when younger that they were NOT FOR EATING and POISON! I was convinced that eating even a little bit would have killed me instantly. There were gingerbread men and also gingerbread hearts that had people’s names or “Merry Christmas” written on them in a similar NOT FOR EATING kind of frosting. The tree would smell like tree AND gingerbread, and it was fun to make new decorations every year. Then we moved to Florida and having food on a tree inside the house only attracted all kinds of bugs. That, and my brother’s allergies, necessitated moving the tree to the enclosed back porch, which brought on one of my most vivid and most terrifying Christmas memories ever.
Since the small bugs that can get into the enclosed back porch weren’t really a problem, it was the humidity that eventually brought about the retiring of this Christmas tradition. Because Florida Christmases tend to be somewhat balmy, the gingerbread men soon fell apart in the repressive moisture found in the Florida air. Since their weakest point is their narrow necks, the Christmas tree would be surrounded by decapitated gingerbread bodies, the tree itself strewn with their severed heads. It was like gingerbread Vikings had attacked our tree and made examples of all the gingerbread menfolk. After a few years of this, my mom gave up the gingerbread decorations. It’s weird that I still think about them every Christmas–and about the horrific aftermath of gingerbread carnage I’ve witnessed.

A Christmas Story
This movie is my dad’s absolute favorite movie ever, possibly. Half of it is because it’s funny, the other half is because my mom hates it. I think she feels too much empathy for Ralphie, feeling bad for him when Santa pushes him down the slide, when his mom makes him wear the horrible pink bunny suit. Or maybe she feels bad for the mother character who has to deal with her husband’s obsession with the tacky leg lamp, her Christmas dinner being eaten by the neighbor’s dog, and her authority undermined by her husband who buys Ralphie the coveted Red Rider BB Gun, even though she keeps insisting that “you’ll shoot your eye out”.

Come to think of it, my mom probably has the most experience dealing with a spouse who only likes tacky, awkward things.

The movie itself is good, I like it, and think everyone should see it at least once. But it’s not really about the movie. It’s about having the movie on 24/7 on Christmas Eve, having it in the background of everything, and having my mom complain and my dad glory at the “best parts”–which are, of course, the parts that annoy my mom. I feel like I could almost recite this movie, I’ve seen it so often.

Michigan Rummy

My family is super serious about Michigan Rummy. You know you’re grown up when you graduate to playing by yourself instead of as on a team with some adult. It’s part skill but a lot of luck, and we usually play for pennies, kept in a tupperware in my brother’s closet for this express purpose. The only downside of the game is that it’s more fun with more people, so I only get to play at times when there are 5-9 people around, times like Christmas. Hopefully I will be able to convince Steven’s family that it is the best thing ever! I have been saving my pennies.

So, yeah, that is Christmas in my heart: gingerbread carnage, my dad being happy that my mom is vaguely annoyed, and gambling. So festive right now!

5 Things I Learned in High School that I actually HAVE used later

So, in preface, I went to an IB highschool, which was fun and also kind of a lot of work. On the plus side, the English classes were probably more rigorous than every English class I took at Rice except one: Literature and the Environment, senior year. I distinctly remember thinking, “Wow, I haven’t worked this hard at writing a paper/reading a book for class since high school.” On the downside, 2:1 girl to guy ratio so, you know, so few guys that I never, ever had a date, but enough guys that I could still feel like it was 100% my fault.1. Here are five things that I learned in high school that have actually come up again later in life:

1. Math
Yes, it is one of my life regrets that I took higher level IB math instead of higher level IB French in high school. I would have aced that French exam, or at least failed less embarrassingly than in math. “Oh well,” 18-year-old Patricia thought. “It’s not like I’ll ever really need this again.” WRONG. Not only did 20-year-old-Patricia decide that Math 101 would be a great, easy way to get some D3 credit out of the way (it was), but grad school Patricia finally got a job because she was a double threat of English AND Math tutoring skillz. Also, the research methods class I’m in now is like made of statistics, or is trying to be. Maybe it’s just because no one’s awake that early in the morning, but a lot of us don’t seem up to the questionable challenge. The professor has had to remind us that y=mx+b multiple times so far and a lot of times just tells us how to get the stat pack to spit out numbers and says “… and don’t worry about how this happened.” I assume the rumors I’ve heard about this exam being hard are because all of the English BAs in this library program have forgotten what a square root is.

It looks like this, just fyi.

2. Grammar Rules
My senior year I had an English teacher who was obsessive about grammar. Every time we turned in our 4 essays on whatever book (“journals” as they were called, but that makes it sound fun and reflective when it wasn’t), she would mark all of our grammar mistakes with a highlighter and a system of abbreviations of her own devising. Then we would have to correct all of them and turn them in again, a process that seemed way more laborious while doing it than it takes to describe. My first journal corrections (don’t ask me why I saved these), I had 19 (mostly dangling modifiers). By the end I was only getting one or two (mostly word choice), so clearly I was improving. And, yes, I can see the appeal of being able to write mistake-free, but what’s the point of obeying some of these more obscure grammar rules that my supervisors won’t know about or follow? See above about the tutoring job; I’m pretty sure half the reason I got it was using the words “dangling modifier” in an appropriate way.
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Because Caitlin wants to feel bad about herself

And I had nothing to update with today since I spent a good part of the morning being at Harry Potter midnight showing/sleeping ridic late.

“Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety; Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read an excerpt.”

So it looks like I’ve read: 61/100. A lot of them in Scotland, since I had like no money, and only an academic library at my disposal. Plus only two days of class a week. So that’s a lot of wandering around in the woods and reading vaguely academic literature.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen The hottest thing about Mr. Darcy is his mansion.
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien So many names I can’t pronounce
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte gonna lock up my mixed race wife in the attic.
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling Can cure illnesses, true science fact
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee Surviving attempted murder while wearing a ham costume!
6 The Bible And someone begat someone else… etc ed nauseum. That is the chapter where I stopped.
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte Anger issues=romantic
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell started editing my own Newspeak dictionary for like four months after reading this book
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman Trying to tell my middle school friend that her daemon would totally be a woodchuck without causing offense
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens Crazy Left at the Alter Miss Havisham+CATCHING ON FIRE=the only part of this book I liked
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott Once wrote a paper arguing that this book was basically a giant in-joke/money making scheme and that Alcott really was more about her sensationalist fiction like A Long Fatal Love Chase
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy Don’t be a ho; not even a little bit.
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare Sex jokes are funnier in Olde Timey English
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien You can still be a hero even if you’re a whiny complainer (good news for me)
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell You should get married for: spite, money, boredom in that order. Also, have children and then sort of forget about them. Sorry, Wade.
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald Having a fancy gold car is cool, but it will lead to your ruin
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens This one time, in highschool, I decided it would be a good idea to read ALL OF DICKENS. Now they all kind of run together in my head, especially this one and Our Mutual Friend for some reason. I mostly remember Esther rambling about how awful she is.
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams read it, seen it, bought the towel
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh Alcoholism is fun, but leads to dying of liver failure in Africa
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll There’s a fine line between imagination and drug trip
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame Forest creatures can also have turn of the century adventures
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens Semi-autobiographical whining. SO MUCH semi-autobiographical whining.
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis Everything is a symbol for Jesus
34 Emma – Jane Austen This is my fav Jane Austen novel because it’s so different from type. Normally her works go “I’m poor but worthy! I will negotiate society to find a rich husband!” but Emma is all “I’m filthy rich and oblivious to the real world! I will wreck my friends’ lives!” Awesome.
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen See above, with a side of “too bad that loser I rejected on prom night is rich and cute now!”
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis Turkish delight=not that great. I was misled.
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres Pretty much my least favorite Louis de Bernieres book; the Latin American trilogy is hilarious and amazing and Birds Without Wings is also so good.
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden If you have to be a ho, be the BEST ho
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne Pooh Sticks: best game ever
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell Pigs are the most devious of all farm animals
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown Everyone loves a good scandal, esp if it’s about Jesus!
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez This one time, it rained for like FORTY YEARS
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving So your best friend is a midget who SPEAKS IN ALL CAPS…
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins The best book I’ve ever read for free online while working nights at the library
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery Why was Anne so annoyed about having red hair? Whenever I blew out candles from ages six to ten, I would wish for red hair. Kind of bitter that Anne took hers for granted.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood I read this in one sitting in a pub in Stirling
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding Children are bitches
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan NEVER TRUST THE NARRATOR
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen See above about Jane Austen, with a side of “Damn, my sister is crazy” Although that applies to a lot of Jane Austen novels
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens Learned how to knit because of this book. Yeah, Mme Defarge was my fav.
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley GIVING BIRTH? Crazy!
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez Either I’m in love, or I have a deadly disease. Symptoms are the same, so I can’t be sure
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt Classics Majors are CRAZY, Steven
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas Revenge is a dish best served incredibly intricately, after a ridiculously many years
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding Even annoying people with faces that are shiny and might be made of plastic can marry Colin Firth. (I actually did read this book, but since it was after I saw the movie, I had a hard time picturing the characters as anything other than the actors who played them)
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens Asking for more gruel can make you famous
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker If a woman’s acting sexual, SHE MUST BE A DEMON
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett Nature can cure your sickness
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson Cultural differences are hilarious
75 Ulysses – James Joyce James Joyce: A Crazy Person
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray Sometimes, after hundreds of pages, you can get what you want and still be miserable. Also, hating most of your own characters makes for a surprisingly funny book
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens And Dickens wanted to be remembered for Martin Chuzzlewit lol
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell Is it a story within a story within a story within a story? Or is it REAL LIFE reflected through a series of mirrors?
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro Butlers are shy and therefore sad.
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert Irresponsible women will be the downfall of us all
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White Whatever, I still say Orville is a better name for a pig.
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Cocaine can make you a better detective
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery Sometimes hats are actually elephants that have been eaten by snakes
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams Still terrified of rabbits
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas You can be holy and try to pick up women at the same time in France.
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare If you don’t know how to end your play, just kill EVERYONE
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl Oompa Loompas are the best source of comical cheap labor
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Adding to the List of Things I Quit

List of Things I’ve Quit: And reasons

Ice-skating: Moved to Florida. Bummer.
Karate: Sick of getting punched in the face.
Jazz dancing: No rhythm. Also, cannot understand jazz music.
Horseback riding: Allergic to horses. Surprise!
Playing piano: No rhythm. Also, teacher maybe died?
Writing fanfiction: Shame.
Playing guitar: No rhythm. Also, teacher mostly just told stories about armadillos and bands I’d never heard of.
Babysitting: Vow to never let some kid ride on my back and pretend I’m a horse again.
Singing in any kind of public setting: someone at a library Halloween Caroling event told me I should “never sing again ever”. Middle School Girls have fragile feelings.
Going to math competitions: Realized enthusiasm is not the same as actual math skills.
Writing novels: ???
A history class about somewhere in Europe in the 1200s: Could not understand professor at all.
Biking in Beer Bike: Traumatized the year before by having to chug at Beer Run
That English class about art: Prof=sweatiest person I’ve ever seen; plus, know nothing about art.
Road Trip: Really needed to do laundry; tired of eating fast food.
Math Tutoring: Pretty much just sick of driving to Cary
NaNoWriMo 2010: Decide to spend time instead on 10-12 page research papers suddenly do in every class. This was not part of the deal.
Volunteering at the library in November 2010: See above. At least with this one I can guarantee that the quitting is only temporary.

It’s the little things

November is the worst month. Ever. It’s cold. It’s close enough to the end of the semester that I suddenly become all about writing research papers. Everyone has Christmas stuff out already, so that I get annoyed by December 1st. I dislike turkey. NaNoWriMo is making me crazy. Whenever anyone asks me how I am, I can’t even muster the strength to blandly lie and just go “Bleeeeeeh”.

So, here are some little things:

1) Ever since I got my netbook (after my laptop decided to fulfill its lifelong dream of being a refrigerator by keeping its fan on at all times) I have been using Steven’s computer when he’s not home to be able to a) see everything on a freakishly huge screen and b) use Microsoft Office products. This has the added benefit of getting to fill his Pandora gadget with Lady Gaga to break up all that LOTR1-themed Euro pop/metal. You’re welcome, Steven.

2) Compiling course evaluations in my head. Some classes, thinking about writing that 15 minute evaluation, no matter how inconsequential it will actually be to the Powers of UNC, is all that gets me through.

3) The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. I am a little more than halfway through this book, and it is AWESOME. Basically, aliens called The Boov conquer Earth. They oppress us, but it’s hilarious! Observe:

Gratuity Tucci, sassy eleven-year-old, is having none of that. Then she makes friends with an outcast Boov who has decided his “human name” is J.Lo. If that doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will. Best alien invasion ever. I can’t wait to see how it ends.

4) Coloring. And being happy that wordpress is not as temperamental as Tumblr.

5) Doing impressions of animals that are pretty much overlooked in the impressions world. Like the walrus. Or the sandpiper. Complete with exciting sound effects. The best part is leaping into Steven’s office and shouting “GUESS WHAT ANIMAL I AM!!!” I was surprised he got the walrus.


  • 1You’ll note that I’m nerdy enough to use the abbreviation LOTR but not nerdy enough to listen to German metal bands sing at least an entire freaking album about it. It can be a fine line.
  • Blogroll or People With Better Blogs Than Mine

    I was all ready to post another review of a banned book this morning until I realized that between Friday and now I have only been reading this engrossing book my mom lent me for the plane and congratulating myself on remembering so much about To Kill a Mockingbird. So that is out for now. Instead, I have decided to take you on an odyssey through my Google Reader, since my blogroll sidebar has been flitting in and out of functionality since the host transition. Also, because it’s way easier than thinking up something original. I am saving all my originality for today for the super fun times surprise group project due Thursday that has just been sprung on us. Yeah, you WISH you were in library science grad school.

    Blogs By People I Know

    The Adventures of Cynthia Bova!
    Written by: Cynthia Bova
    Who I Know From: THE 434
    Updates: Whenever Bova feels like it
    Mostly About: Bova’s adventures; occasional angstiness
    Once Bova challenged me to some kind of dramatic blog contest, but since she is five times better at being dramatic, she was the clear winner. Unfortunately, she hasn’t really updated much since spring–at least I PRETEND to update twice a week.

    inhale prepare/exhale release
    Written by: The Lovely Natalie Gallagher
    Who I Know From: Illustrating This Freakin’ Book I Wrote
    Updates: Usually when Natalie is freaking out about something
    Mostly About: complaints, rants, random quotes, art
    I only get to see Natalie maybe once every two or three years since she lives in Minneapolis, which is like on the other end of nowhere from the generally snow-free places I tend to hang out. Reading her blog is therefore pretty much the only way I can still pretend that we are friends for later when I will need favors in interior design/wedding dress fashion help/illustrations/fabulousness counseling.

    Always SomeThings
    Written by: Deya
    Who I Know From: Rice; specifically breakfast and Chicano Lit class
    Updates: Regularly, until a month ago. Maybe I should leap into Nancy Drew-like action and get to the bottom of this by sending a facebook message.
    Mostly About: Books! My favorite thing!
    Deya’s book reviews are usually much more considered than mine, and are usually about books that adults might actually care about. However, she never has long-winded rants about how sucky grad school is, so we each have our strong points.

    Typical Adventures
    Written by: Caitlin Miller
    Who I Know From: My sordid past aiding and abetting the WSS Mafia.
    Updates: Sporadically
    Mostly About: Caitlin’s life in L.A.
    So far, Caitlin has mostly written about moving and decorating. I am vaguely annoyed that I have lived in my apartment for a year, and hers already looks nicer than mine. My feeble attempts at decorating ended at The Wall of Hats (for hatmergencies) and the World’s Largest Crossword (best picture ever). I am hoping that if I keep it in my Google Reader, over time her life will eventually become an action-packed rollercoaster of L.A. intrigue when she is cast for an MTV reality show and/or starts fighting crime. This may be the secret reason I follow anyone’s blog, including my own. And if not, at least I will get some decorating ideas.

    Blogs Written by Strangers (or just Strange People)

    Better Book Titles
    Written by: Dan Wilbur
    Updates: Whenevs
    Mostly Covers: Book covers with the words replaced with what the title SHOULD be
    Maybe it’s only funny if you were an unhappy English major/read way too much like me. My favorite lately has been Don Quixote.

    Bookshelves of Doom
    Written by: Leila Roy
    Updates: Pretty much daily
    Mostly About: Books, libraries, things vaguely related to books and libraries
    Leila Roy is my hero. She is hilarious, we share similar tastes in literature, and she is a super-successful librarian sans an MLS degree. Since one of my goals in life is to end MLS snobbery, I think that’s awesome. Anyway, the book reviews are hilarious, but she also provides random tidbits of lit-related news like Harry Popper condoms in Switzerland and Archie Comics/Twilight crossovers. In fact, I feel like I should stop having a blog and we should all read hers instead.

    Go Fug Yourself
    Written by: Heather, Jessica, Intern George (Clooney)
    Updates: Multiple Times Per Day
    Mostly Covers: Ridiculous Celebrity Fashion
    This probably seems like a weird thing for me to read religiously given that I am generally clueless about 1) celebrities and 2) fashion, but sometimes I need to feel better about myself. Because sometimes celebrities wear things like this.

    PostSecret
    Written by: Frank Warren; International secret-filled masses
    Updates: Every Sunday
    Mostly Covers: Postcard submitted secrets
    If you haven’t heard of PostSecret, you might be legally dead.

    Catalog Living
    Written by: Molly Erdman
    Updates: Daily
    Mostly About: Gary and Elaine, two fake people who actually live in the houses and rooms pictured in catalogs.
    The concept here is pretty simple: picture of ridiculous rooms found in catalogs that no one would actually live in followed by a one line explanation (attempt at explanation?) about what Gary and Elaine were thinking when they decorated this way. A good example: this or this.

    Cute Overload
    Written by: Meg, and some other people
    Updates: Daily
    Mostly About: Adorable things
    I feel like this blog and my reasons for liking it are entirely self-explanatory.

    Food Gawker
    Written by: Mostly hungry people with good photography skills
    Updates: Multiple Times Daily
    Mostly About: Food
    Whenever I don’t know what to make for dinner, a few minutes on Food Gawker will usually sort that out. It’s perfect for me, since I hate all cookbooks that don’t have pictures for every recipe. I just can’t get excited about making a recipe until I can see the finished product first. I know it’s judging a book by it’s cover, something I’m supposed to be wholly against, but I don’t care. Seeing a picture of how tasty it is will help me know it’s delicious.

    There are more plus some webcomics, but I don’t think you’re READY for that information yet.

    Last School Year Ever: Why My Week Has Sucked

    Sorry about not posting yesterday; this week has been like a perfect storm of small amounts of tragedy that mix together to make a Long Island Iced Tea of despair.

    –The bus route is going through its awkward teenage years, trying to reinvent itself, but remaining confused and unsure of what its peer group wants. At least, that’s how I’m interpreting its persistent, erratic behavior. The first day it was just massively late every time I tried to ride it, which is not that surprising on the first week of school. Then one afternoon at a random stop in the middle of the route, the bus driver told everyone to get off because she was done. It wasn’t an off-shift kind of thing–those happen at the end of the line–and we were all forced to wait FORTY MINUTES for the next bus–the two that should have come in the intervening time apparently having stopped off somewhere for after-school aperitifs. Or the happy times when the bus mysteriously fails to change direction at noon as it should, and I am forced to walk in a pack of my disconsolate cohorts along the side of the road. Walking in the sweaty, sweaty heat is kind of annoying, but not the end of the world. However, it’s throwing havoc to my carefully balanced schedule.

    –My advisor is going on sabbatical the semester I’m supposed to be writing my Master’s Paper. Since I’m “aggressively competent” this will probably not adversely affect me to the extent it may some people, but it still means that I will 1) have to do a lot more work more quickly and 2) plead my case to the few remaining professors who care about things like public libraries or books way more aggressively than should be necessary. I mean, whose idea was it to only have two professors who are remotely interested in children and teens? I’m feeling the love.

    –Once again, my classes only have vague relevance to my future career path. After yet another summer spent working in an actual library doing what I actually plan to pursue, this is even more aggravating than before.

    –Our apartment is broken. We haven’t been able to use the shower for two days. Since Steven was going on one of his “if I wash my hair too much it’ll fall out” kicks even before that, it is a smelly, smelly world.

    –Everything I eat or drink lately has a weird metallic taste. It took me forever to realize that I’m not dying of arsenic poisoning and that it’s just our dishwasher not washing the soap entirely off our dishes.

    –I finished Hunger Games in like five hours yesterday and, despite loftily thinking myself immune to pop-lit trends, am now desperate to read the sequels. My choices are: wait three months on the library request list with all the other teen girls or pay money. I am in an agony of anti-BigBoxBookStore, cheapskate, frantic teen girl indecision.

    –Steven keeps beating me at our jury rigged two-person version of Settlers of Catan. My honor is furious.

    Hopefully I will at least be able to sort out the last two today.

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