Lord of the Peeps

The Mirror Project

Listening to... Ben Harper
Feeling... blah

Current IM away message, because I want it recorded somewhere:

I pay $79.77 a day to be at Tech*. I sure am having eighty bucks worth of fun today...

*includes housing and all academic fees, counting weekend days. Does not include groceries, Old Navy trips
($44 of it is just because I live across one little state border-- be happy you HOPE-less GA kids)

hmm, also... saw my old post about watching Gilmore Girls. I would just like to express my delight, yet again, that Rory and Jess finally hooked up. That brought a lot of happiness to my night a couple of weeks ago. Although I finally have some intrigue in my social realm, I still put all of my romantic hopes and wishing into that show.

But first I have to mention that being a paranoid girl in a dorm in downtown Atlanta sucks. When every loud noise you hear brings up a thought of an attack, the stairwell right next to your room, constant air traffic, people banging around upstairs, loud trucks on the road just outside, EVERYTHING attracts your attention and paranoid thoughts. I may go insane, this will be the record of why.

Listening to... Cry me a river - Justin Timberlake (Yes, I'm ashamed)
Feeling... stressed, but not as much as I should be

Okay, really- I'm going to do this regularly. I swear. Instead of posting random things as my IM away message (or maybe as well as)... I'm going to put things here. It will be fun here goes...

I heard Billy Corgan's new band's new song. It was so good, I knew I loved him for a reason. They have a very minimalist site www.zwan.com Zwan will not top my favorite band names list, but as long as Corgan is back, I'll play nice and be satisfied. Okay, now I will attempt to get back to studying for my finals.

What
cartoon dog are you?

Brought to you by the good folks at sacwriters.com.

Watching... Bridget Jones's Diary
Feeling... excellent

The orchestra concert went really well, I think. Very very good. Also, amaretto sour is very very good. I have to get started on some work tonight, but there's nothing wrong with a little non-work to start me off, right? Here's the Friday Five:

1. What size shoe do you wear?
Women's 9 ~ 9.5
2. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
At school, I have maybe ten pairs. At home, there's a mountain of shoes that may possibly still fit.

3. What type of shoe do you prefer (boots, sneakers, pumps, etc.)?
No shoes is my preference.

4. Describe your favorite pair of shoes. Why are they your favorite?
My Kmart knock-off Adidas. They are sooooo comfortable and never once rubbed holes in my feet. Unfortunately, I love them so much I won't wear them anymore (they're too old, and I would be sad if something happened to them).

5. What's the most you've spent on one pair of shoes?
Probably around $75 on some tennis shoes. I never spend much on non-tennis shoes and my penchant for Adidas and Sketchers is a wee bit expensive.

Watching... Gilmore Girls
Feeling... good

I love the Gilmore Girls. It's so funny. I would also like to say that I made an excellent dinner tonight. It was filling and included most food groups. Yes, it was my usual bachelor-burrito, but I threw in enough things that it was nice. And I feel a little gourmet and wanted to share.

Listening to... Here's Where the Story Ends by The Sundays
Feeling... like I need to get down to business

I have so much work to do! I have a quick addendum to my Friday Five... I also tidy up my room when I need to relax. It's not that I find cleaning relaxing per se, it's more that extreme clutter is stressful to me. It's a healthy way to procrastinate, I think. While I was home this weekend, I finally paid a visit to the Book Sale place that's been there for a while. I guess they have low over head, so the books are overstocks and very cheap. I got four books that are of questionable entertainment value. I tried to pick Victorian looking novels (which is my passion second to Austen). I got...
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Castle Rackrent and The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth
The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells

I've read Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and liked it (unlike all of my classmates). I don't know that any of these are Victorian, or will even be interesting; but the whole lot of them cost $12, so I figure if even one is good, it's probably worth it to have the options. I guess I'll just knock out Silas Marner and maybe Jane Eyre, then dig in to the new stuff.

1. What are your favorite ways to relax and unwind?
I like to plan vacations for myself. I'll put together a road trip on mapquest, search for cute B&Bs, review tourist attractions (yay art museums!), the whole nine yards. Too bad I never get to actually go on my trips...

2. What do you do the moment you get home from work/school/errands?
Put down my backpack or bag in the first convenient spot, hang my keys from their hook, maybe grab a coke or snack, and sit down at my computer (not so much because I'm a nerd, but I mainly hang out in my room and that's the only chair). Hooray for university apartments.

3. What are your favorite aromatherapeutic smells?
I love Bath and Body works' discontinued Pink Lemonade. I like ecalyptus pretty well. The smell of Mr Bubbles also works pretty well on me.

4. Do you feel more relaxed with a group of friends or hanging out by yourself?
well, I'm most relaxed when I'm not trying to be social, but sometimes when I spend too many weekend nights alone, I get worried about my shyness taking over. I want the option of socialness when I want it. But still, 95% of the time, being alone is nicer.

5. What is something that you feel is relaxing but most people don't?
Eating by myself is pretty nice. I get to ponder during the day, eat some good food in whatever comfortable location I want, and I think I look pretty progressive when I'm willing to eat alone. Ditto for shopping, and the occasional movie.

Listening... to some rap song on MTV2
Feeling... a serious hankering for some caffeine

Tonight's TV premieres were damn good. Friends settled the engagement fiasco without unnecessary oh-just-freakin'-explain-yourself shenanigans. Scrubs was tellement funny. I laughed and reaffirmed my love of that show. I'm so glad it's on at a time I'll remember. So I guess I'm feeling really happy, but damn I want a diet coke.

Watching... an appallingly trashy Real World.
Feeling... like I might as well just put on some porn

Time alone is good... I decided today that this lull in my personal life is a good thing. I have the same affliction as my sister, just assuming that every guy is interested in me at least a little bit, and that ones who express interest are pathetic little puppy dogs. This is a bad attitude. It's just that I maintain at least a dozen crushes at any given time, so it's kind of weird to think that not every one does that (and that not everyone maintains a crush on me!!) Haha... My Polly Anna Complex is hard at work-- always find the bright side. But really, it's not the worst thing.

The premiere of Gilmore Girls was good. I wish Rory would go ahead and get with Jess, oh and Lorali needs to get with Luke too. Can't everyone just be blissfully happy for a while? Well, I can't be right now. It's time for some serious Biology reading.

Listening to... Hey Carrie Ann by the Hollies
Feeling... embarassed

I really have finally narrowed it down. The reason I am such a social idiot is..... I am a bad mix of irrepressable assertiveness and extreme shyness. This means I cannot halt my big mouth to save my life, but once I'm talking, I become so mortified I just can't listen to myself anymore. However, my brain stores everything I say, so that later (or right now) I can agonize over every word I said. I honestly can never remember what I wore the day before, can't recall mundane conversations or even what day it is. But darn it, I could quote to you verbatim everything I said at Hall Council tonight. Oh well, it's nice to just say it here and get it out.

That realization isn't all that recent, but I don't believe I've ever put it into writing here, so that's important. I want to scream it everywhere so people will just nod and say "Oh, that's her problem. She isn't really the dumb bitch she appears to be." or at least "She's a real bitch, but I feel sorry for how shy she really is." That would be okay.

Oh, on a related note, I was reviewed as being feisty last week. I love that, I am fiesty. It's much more descriptive than 'bitch', which is the usual term for assertive girls. Plus, this week no one took over the meeting from me. There was the usual amount of chaos, but all in all-- pretty good.

Despite the rant earlier, I really am in a good mood. I just have to get the embarassment out so I can realize my regular happy disposition.

Listening to... Summertime by the Sundays (well, it's in my head)
Feeling... rested

So, Lisa and I have royally crappy concert luck. About a month ago, the Carbon Leaf concert was cancelled because the Cotton Club flooded. Then a week ago, Coldplay was cancelled because dumbos over at Masquerade let electrical equipment get water logged (this in their permanent, rain-or-shine, outdoor venue.) So last night was the rescheduled Carbon Leaf concert at the Cotton Club. Guess what? It rained and they cancelled the show. The upside is they waited until the last possible moment, so they let us come just inside and listen to Carbon Leaf's sound check. So that was pretty cool. I thought it would've been smart for them to open the bar while we waited. They could've made a bit of money in that hour. We went to the Leopard Lounge to hang out a bit more. Pretty cool place. OH, and we had dinner at Front Page News. Very cool place. However, we went there because they had a nice outdoor courtyard dining area (and it was lovely). However, we had been seated all of two minutes when the rains came (it had been pretty all day). Anyway, enough of my mistfortunes. That's just some crappy luck.

The Friday Five- all the cool people seem to do it.
1. Would you say that you're good at keeping in touch with people? Eh, I will keep up with close friends as best I can, but casual friends tend to slip away from me. I wish I were better at that though, networking is a real asset in business as well as grad school, so I need to figure

2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Let's rank on preference (without reference to frequency):
1) Snail Mail 2) Email (big gap) 3) Meeting in Person 4) Blog comments (HUGE gap) 5) telephone
I hate using the telephone. It's horrible. Blog comments goes low because you not only have the opportunity to put something dumb into print, you also put it on public display. Meeting in person requires small talk, which I am sooo not good at (which also hinders my networking).

3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it? I use Instant Messenger everyday, even though I avow that it is evil. When you're casually dating or have a crush on somebody, it's damn near impossible to keep things casual and not IM every damn day.

4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away? I have two friends in Atlanta, one of whom is my social savior. The other hardly ever graces me with her company, but both of us are to blame. There are some friends back home in Auburn and a fair number dispersed across the US.

5. Are you an "out of sight, out of mind" person, or do you believe that "distance makes the heart grow fonder"? Ummm... I'm going to have to side with research (I am a psyc major after all) and say "out of sight, out of mind." Given enough time, you'll forget. A little time with someone you really enjoy being around can make you fonder. But really long distance relationships? Nien! I only recently reconciled myself to the idea of an Auburn-Atlanta stretch (not that Auburn boys are jumping at the chance to try me out)

Well, I might as well post something of interest to myself later on. I've finished two very large books in the first month of school. One would think my classes weren't going to well, but they are for the most part. Anyway, Middle March by George Eliot was really good. It was 800-something pages, so it was like a nice long, very proper, and interesting soap opera. I also read Villette by Charlotte Bronte, which was very good. Besides being a fairly engrossing story, it also has a ton of french dialogue, which helped me brush up on some conversational french (thank goodness for the translations at the back though.)

I have four books waiting to be read on my shelf. Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Silas Marner and Love in the Time of Cholera. Maybe I should go ahead and knock that last one out. It doesn't fit in with my very proper victorian romances. Hmmm....

Oh, by the way. It took me almost exactly a year to put 10,000 miles on my car (from 9/7/01-9/14/02). Is that a lot or a little? Again, hmmm.....

Watching... Home Impovement
Feeling... like this episode isn't funny

So, I tried to post a week or two ago, but after all of my happy little typing, it errored on me and pissed me off. I really want to make this a regular thing, so I'll give it another go.

Still in Auburn
Listening to... myself typing
Feeling... bored, blank

Meh, I don't feel fabulous today. I had a nice time going to the library this morning. They didn't have any regular learn-french books, so I brushed up on a Babar book that had everything in French and English. Pretty useful, actually, and the pictures and story were better than anything they write for adults. :P

Now that I'm done with all of Jane Austen's full novels, maybe I should try to rank them in order of my preference.

1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Mansfield Park
3. Emma
4. Sense and Sensibility
5. Persuasion
6. Northanger Abbey

I'm not certain about that ranking of Persuasion. It had -by far- the best declaration of love, but my memory is fogged by whether I liked the movie. I just watched S&S and really loved it, Persuasion has not had a big-budget treatment, so it wasn't as prettily done as the others. Since I mentioned it, I'll rank the movie versions as well (I have not seen any films of Northanger Abbey)

1. Mansfield Park
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Emma
4. Pride and Prejudice
5. Persuasion

My ranking of Pride and Prejudice surprises even myself. Everyone adores it so much, but I don't remember being completely enthralled by it. I stand by my rankings.... for now.

In Auburn
Listening to... my mom play Fur Elise
Feeling... good

Well, I've been a bad girl and haven't even thought about my blog this week. I'm at home on a slow computer though, so I should be forgiven. This has been a week of good news. I got an A in Inorganic Chemistry and the lab. I was completely shocked, I barely let myself hope for that. I also got the lab job (Kanfer and Ackerman's) for which I did let myself hope. Yay!!! This is all very exciting.

Also very exciting is I saw my older sister graduate from Auburn on Monday. I watched all of the PhD students (not including her) get their academic "hoods" put on by their dean. I got a warm/happy feeling about it, I'm very psyched about grad school now. I just hope I can get through it without feeling disillusioned. This guy who knew the counselors this summer and was an ME grad student was talking about not walking at his master's ceremony. I remarked on how much work goes into it, and how he should walk and he replied "It depends on how disillusioned you feel once the degree is done." Hmm...

I'm also almost done with my last Jane Austen book-- Sense and Sensibility. It isn't my favorite, but it's good. I guess that's all the updates I can think of.