listening to mp3s on my parents' computer is a wrenching experience. for some reason, the sound card and/or cd drive find it necessary to skip around if anything happens to occur in the realm of computer functioning besides the playing of said mp3s. this results in much frustrating jitteriness. however, due to my current possession of only mp3 cds (and plenty of 'em) and strong need to listen to music all the freaking time, i will deal with this damn skippy-ness.

i got my hair cut yesterday morning. pictures here, here, and here. they are all very bad pics, but i think you get the point. i am still getting used to it, but people are telling me it's cute. i am not sure if i am suffering from being the recipient of a universal classic white lie or not. either way, it's hair, it'll grow and annoy me at every stage, anyway.

tomorrow morning, i'm leaving the fair city of olympia for the apparently rainier lands of san jose. i am sure i will have a stunningly fabulous time, because kevin, aja, and sammy are all excessively cool people. not sure what else to say about that, but the giddiness is there, on the inside.

the past day-plus has been fun. i met becky's shawn yesterday, and, yeah, he is damn cute and is, by all accounts, nice and excellent. and becky seems happy and...jealous?! a new emotion. i'm impressed, anyway. :) she came to dinner with my family at the new restaurant by the same people who brought you olympia's fine ramblin' jacks, an italian place called mercato. it was quite yummy. i might give you a full review later if desired, though i doubt many of you would ever come to olympia to eat at semi-pricey italian places with nice atmosphere. (i think i like the place on the west side, can't remember the name, but it's in a little house and is *delish*, a little more, though.) as part of my meal, i had a salad involving grilled pears, hazelnuts, gorgonzola, and blackberry vinaigrette, so... i'm not complaining. mmm. that night, i slept at becky's house because she was home alone and dislikes it. unfortunately, i crashed around 9pm--while we were watching king of hearts in her living room--and slept until nearly 7am, i think. a good night's sleep for once in a while. i woke up and read about two-thirds of one of her books, no-no boy, which was good, before going into the kitchen to investigate the possibility of making blueberry pancakes. an hour later, success--and then becky awoke and we had pancakes, read newspaper, and talked. and talked and talked. of course. i don't call her my best friend for nothing; we have to talk *sometimes.*

today, i came home, showered, changed, and then my parents took me to this place my mom has been raving about since it opened called chopsticks. it's a small, trendy asian restaurant. i say trendy because that is a pretty accurate description of the atmosphere--the almost unmistakable strains of a pure moods volume playing in the background, pretty hip lighting, etc.--and the food was an assortment of noodle-based dishes (salads, soups, and stir-frys) from various asian influences (chinese, hong kong, korean, thai, vietnamese, cambodian) and they served taiwanese bubble tea. which is a scary beverage that i have not tried. i fear anything involving tapioca. heh. the garden fresh spring rolls (not fried; like an asian burrito, basically) were killer (in a positive sense); their pad thai was pretty good. it's hard to fuck up pad thai, though. i thought it was a little odd that they had no star system for spiciness, but i think i just eat at thai restaurants on the ave too often.

my sister and i went to target after she came home from school and loudly mocked several items. she bought some red hair dye because she wants to do "something" with her hair and everyone has convinced her that black hair dye is a bitch and not worth the hassle. i got random hair-doing items because i don't know what to do with my hair in its new state. it's still falling in my face. i will experiment further. i am just resisting getting into bobby pins because they seem so complicated, somehow, but i suppose a lot of little clippy barettes would be just as bad.

now i should go help my mom make eggplant parmegian. i enjoy it when life revolves around food for a little while. yay for food!

listening: quasi - nothing from nothing

i'm in the exciting city of olympia. it's cold here, but not as cold as it was in seattle. in seattle, the snow was beginning to stick. it snowed all afternoon on the first day of spring. i know, it's fucked up.

i got out of my last final--the poli sci final i doubt i did especially well on, but i could have done far worse!--and started packing as soon as i heard from my parents. they told me they were taking me to the airport on saturday morning. that meant that i needed to pack for not only my days in olympia, but also my days in san jose, which means i have one crazy-full backpack. it's not heavy since it's mostly clothes, but still. no room. erf. must resist urge to shop in california. if sammy takes us to a record store, this may be difficult. mmmm, vinyl. mmmm. mm.

and now, my stomach is so full. i have eaten a lot of "easy asian-y soup" my mom just made up. it was good, but i have eaten a lot today. mostly bread products, too. i had a bowl of honey nut cheerios this morning, followed by a semi-early lunch of pasta with garlic and mizythra (mmm, mizythra), then the snacky mood kicked in and i ate a lot of dry honey nut cheerios and glasses of water. my parents brought me a naked fruit beverage (mmm, naked) and a pizza around 3:30, which was good, but it made me severely gassy for the rest of the evening. and then we just had soup. and i'm dead. uf.

my mom is looking for cheaper sellers of the pharmaceuticals my dad uses from canadian websites. she just read a list of side effects, which included liver and nerve damage. "nothing unusual," she said. cancer meds are scary.

i should be accomplishing a lot of things on this trip home, but i have a feeling i'm not going to. to do them, it is likely i would have to drive myself, which i don't...really...want to do. i have a car key, but i haven't driven since probably winter break. (i don't think i drove at all when i was here for a day in february.) i've never really liked driving, and since i'm out of practice, i would definitely lack confidence in my abilities. i am also likely to forget where the hell i'm going and how i get there since it's been awhile and we're living in a different place and all. so, i dunno. i don't expect my parents to chauffer me around, of course, but, i don't know, driving is complicated. i should call the optometrist and the dentist and see if they can get me in for last minute appointments; i should get a haircut; i should pick up a refill of my happy nasal spray from the qfc pharmacy; i should hit up the local thrift shops for pots and pans to replace the ones anna's taking away from the harem in our time of need. these are all things i should do on my own, since i'm a big girl now. but i don't want to.

maybe tomorrow i'll change my mind.

um, yeah, wow. so much to do, so little time. i have my poli sci final today, then i'm done. the bad news is that i haven't studied for it at all, and i don't think i'm really going to be able to do a good job of cramming it in today before 2:30. i am also supposed to go back to olympia tonight, despite dreams about my parents cancelling on me and saying i would go home tomorrow morning somehow instead, as soon after my test as possible. problems with this: i have not packed. i need to study instead of pack. anna and josie are going to london and tonight lindsay is going to try to come over for a little goodbye toast thingie, however brief it must be. a few other things i feel i should be doing right now: showering. eating from that $5 box of cereal i bought last night because i was afraid i didn't have any more food. buying a magical green exam book for my test (duh!). returning my karate gi to the ima, since i don't know what they do to people who fail to return stuff in a timely manner at the end of the quarter. cleaning the whole goddamned pigsty of an apartment.

so yes. i am feeling a little stressed! and i wanted to share with you, my dear readers! is it just me, or does the phrase "dear readers" evoke far too much dear abby/ann landers-related bullshit to ever be used seriously? i could always go the miss manners route and address you as "gentle readers," but i think that might make some of you puke even more if you don't enjoy the subtle wit of that columnist. how about i just stick with "y'all"?

i've been hanging out with chris a lot more than expected. it just always turned out that there was more free time than we planned. well, i guess, technically not, because it was mostly during times i should have been studying for various finals, but, hrmm, given the choice... i think i studied enough for the two i had yesterday, anyway. at least i bothered to actually take them. it wasn't an absolute necessity; i would've gotten a grade if i hadn't even showed up to the zoology one and come to psych only to bubble in B for all the answers. which is exactly what the girl who came in late and sat down right next to me did. very distracting.

i wish poli sci were multiple choice. i would know this shit so much better. but no, essay tests. i'm fucking dead. i see my corpse floating in the pond right now, with my TA trying to cover up his tracks. oh, wait, this was suicide, not murder. he might just see my body there and think, "ah, but she had such potential..." but even then. my studying will consist of reading all .docs i have regarding the class, going over notes, and skimming book chapters for clues. oh, and this test is completely required. i probably have a crappy grade in that class, anyway. unless graeme really liked my paper, heh.

total side note, i am pleased with my hair today. for being brown, it's a lovely shade. very chocolatey. not my favorite dark chocolate, of course, but still chocolatey. and even if no one agrees with me, i am going to think that because that's how i like to think of my hair, kthx very much.

i'm going to olympia tonight. i get the feeling my mom is planning to take me to the airport, since she planned a friday night dinner she knew i would enjoy (eggplant parmegian) and told me about it. she usually doesn't like to make seattle runs after dark, though she could be prompted. i honestly don't mind taking the bus, and i would kind of like to come home in between, even if just to crash and repack my backpack. i am hoping to get away with just the backpack carry-on for all my stuff for the four days. it should be doable. in olympia, i get to see becky, see my family, eat good food, and i am *hoping* i will get my haircut, since i doubt i would get to do that in california, though aja and i talked about how fun(ny) that would be to have a girl's day where i get my hair cut all crazy and she gets her nose re-pierced. it would be like a punk rock day spa. anyway, olympia is good. i'm sure i will be busy. oh yeah, i need to hit up the local thrift shops--i love the goodwills and value village in olympia more than most of the others i've been to, for some reason, and the salvation army has a kickass book selection--to find some pots and pans to replace the ones anna is taking home. she has these little ones that are in CONSTANT use in that kitchen, and if i can swing it, i'm going to get a fucking plastic strainer for once. the little metal piece of shit is really bad, if functional. i think we might need more glasses, too. blargh.

and then...california. i don't really know what we're planning to do most of the time, but it'll be super fun. if nothing else, there is the ben folds show on monday night, and i want to go hang out with kevin. we were thinking of pretty places to go (monterey, etc.) and he said he would let me play his drums. hee. i am going to cook a meal at least once; defiinitely a breakfast with french toast and turkey bacon. MM. california will be quite lovely, then i will come home and anna and josie will be gone and carly will be in josie's room. i bet no one will even have rearranged the living room yet. i'll get to do that. i'll need to buy a couple expensive textbooks. chris and i will hang out some more, but this time promising to do something that doesn't mostly consist of making out in my room. (not that that's a bad thing, mind you!) and i'm working friday, saturday, and sunday, woo fucking hoo. yay for gettin' paid.

yeah. i don't know what else to say. my typing skills are shot this morning. i have noticed so many typos in my lazy eye-wanderings that i don't even want to proofread. shit, i need to take out the trash, too. always something else to do. it's sad when even chores sound more interesting than the more pressing task of passing a class.

listening: luna - rhythm king

i should be studying for physiology and not obsessing over m&m's that i REALLY SHOULD NOT run down to panties and buy right now, but i wanted to say hello and offer this photo of the harem. that is, top (left-right) being me, christine, reid, jana; bottom anna and josie. in case you didn't know. we're sexy bitches. :)

listening: led zeppelin - the crunge

yeah, it's a few hours later, and i'm in kind of a bad mood again. i was listening to tool before work, and that always fucks with me. like i told mike, tool is like chocolate--hershey's special dark. it's cheap and readily available, not brilliantly satisfying, but it gets the job done and tastes yummy. yeah, i have issues mixing my food metaphors with my music metaphors. just wait until i get rolling and start throwing sex in there, too. hoo boy. i could go on such tangents for hours.

basically, i'm insane, right? yeah. thought so.

i should be studying. my book is open, propped up between my torso and the desk, and i'm reaching and looking right past it to the keyboard and computer monitor. who needs good study habits?

i'm really tired. i swear i'm incapable of waking up after 8am now. i hate you, 8:30 class that is now over but has irreparably damaged my sleep cycle. on the upside, i have fixed my nine key. i think. and cleaned my mouse. that's what i do when i'm tired and sitting at the computer, being frustrated cos it's early and sucking. i scraped all kinds of shit out of their inner workings, and now they work like a dream (though still look like shit), and this is related to sleepiness because it is what i did when the rest of the harem was passed out in their bedrooms at 9am like normal people should be on saturdays after a house party.

you see? i can draw these connections. straight lines. just like those old itt tech commercials for drafting programs that were on during matlock in the summer when i was 12. i'll never get over being 12. i still like the number 12, even. it's my excuse for everything.

i really should hit the books. but not loudly, cos, y'know, it's a library. heh.

mm, and to think it only took me a month to forget how fucking *elite* menstrual cramps were! yeah, i'm having fun now.

oh, sorry, was that too much information? *thinks* hrm, i frequently distribute tmi in my blog, so... probably not.

i swear i am listening to built to spill every other time i start blogging. coincidence? i should put on something else. maybe after "i would hurt a fly."

by the way. i love all of you. i do. wow, i'm moody lately. just friday night i hated everyone. go figure!

it's my last working sunday for at least a quarter. oh, wait, that's wrong. my last regularly scheduled working sunday for at least a quarter. i am working the sunday night before classes start again as part of my 20 hours of (paid) hell. speaking of which, must remember to write hours on the calendar... but yeah. i told my boss i didn't want to work sundays next quarter, so i don't think i will be scheduled for sundays. so i will have an actual day off. this makes me unequivocably happy. i think that's the right word, but i haven't been sleeping enough and my vocabulary is going to hell. or my perception thereof. did i mention it's finals week?

but yeah. the party, it was good. there were a lot of people here. jen the cute one came and brought yummy bread because she ROCKS. and we hung out and stuff, which is always good. i love jen. i was acting completely insane for a couple hours, just at random. i don't even remember what i was doing, exactly... i was dancing and talking to people like i was crazy-hyper and generally being my weird self with the whole self-restraint thing turned partially off. jen was amused shitless by me; i could tell by the frozen-in-startled facial expression. so many cool people came. adam was there, lindsay, jesse, brendan (who tried to attack everyone under the mistletoe), marta, most of the boys downstairs, graylan (of course), a bunch of people i didn't know well... and there was a lot of food, especially desserts, so i was having a crazy sugar high and felt kind of ill for awhile. we were kind of trying to hook lindsay up with matt downstairs, but he didn't make an appearance. ah well, some other time, perhaps. lindsay has been hanging around the harem a lot more this quarter, which is fabulous. may the trend continue. we listened to a cd of irishy fiddle music on repeat the jana burned, and people were giving goodbye hugs to anna and josie and we sang happy birthday to josie. all in all, a success.

reid's friend, carly, who is moving into josie's room, also came to the party. she was a little shy, but then, i think i am, too, and i was still kinda crazy here. she just isn't used to us yet, but i'm sure it will work out ok. she's very worried about stepping on our toes, she said. i tried to assure her that we were very easy-going and friendly and that this is basically a fabulous place to be as long as you try to be a little social. she said she tended to hole herself up in her room, and i told her that i understood, that i was often like that myself, but you haev to leave to eat, bathe, and leave, oh, and watch the simpsons once in awhile. she seemed amused. as long as she can latch onto our senses of humor, she should be fine. cos really, i could imagine a far, far less suitable living environment for anyone than the harem is. the harem is love, man.

oh yes, and if you want to see why i was so amused by irc last night, you should check out n00n quotes, because i think that explains it pretty well. especially if you scroll down and get a better idea who cj is.

happy st. patrick's day to all my green beer-swilling friends!

listening: neutral milk hotel - in the aeroplane over the sea