highrise living for a joke like me

Four interviews down (Boston, Emerson, Point Park, DePaul), two to go. Miami is scheduled for Monday. VCU is being odd. I will harass them next week.

Still have not taken make-up exam from last semester. This is getting downright pathetic. Anyone want to take some time Tuesday morning and drive my ass down to campus and make me sit this test? *sigh*

There are two other Big Things I need to talk about, but they'll each get their own post. Expect spammity over the next few days.

Now to break my heart all over again avoid writing.

Oh dear God, why is this so difficult? I feel like I accomplished nothing yesterday.

Political Science: completed by Monday
~ 1500 word paper
~ hand in all remaining work

Mythology: completed by Wednesday
~ notes on chapter 33
~ notes on chapters 14-15
~ notes on chapter 17
~ notes on chapter 18
~ notes on chapters 20-21
~ notes on chapter 22
~ notes on chapters 23 & 25
~ notes on chapters 28-29
~ notes on chapter 36
~ copy lecture notes
~ 3-4 page paper
~ sit exam on Wednesday

I've already started on this, but dear God, I don't think I'm going to survive the next five days. This is just the stuff I have to get done to finish the semester; it does not include housework, writing, or the stuff I need to do for the college transfer process (a whole 'nother post entirely).

Political Science: completed by Monday
~ chapter 13 on-line quiz
~ chapter 13 off-line quiz
~ chapter 14 on-line quiz
~ chapter 14 off-line quiz
~ chapter 15 on-line quiz
~ chapter 15 off-line quiz
~ take-home final exam
~ 1500 word paper

Mythology: completed by Wednesday
~ notes on chapter 33
~ notes on chapters 14-15
~ notes on chapter 17
~ notes on chapter 18
~ notes on chapters 20-21
~ notes on chapter 22
~ notes on chapters 23 & 25
~ notes on chapters 28-29
~ notes on chapter 36
~ copy lecture notes
~ 3-4 page paper
~ 1 page extra credit assignment
~ sit exam on Wednesday

Fuck.

Lazy Shit My Poli Sci Prof Has Done:
~ Picked a textbook that will do chapter quizzes for him online and automatically grades them.
~ Not bothered to get on the bookstore about ordering said book, so that all they had was last year's book.
~ Waited two weeks before providing a syllabus.
~ Did not print out syllabi for the class.
~ Used Word docs of the chapter summaries in lieu of Powerpoint or other presentation material.

and the latest bit of stupid:

~ Put up a second set of chapter quizzes, without removing the answers for the essay questions.

*headdesk*

My Mythology prof, on the other hand, is a gem, and I'm really looking forward to my presentation in October. Ragnarok as presented by Neil Gaiman's American Gods, anyone? W00t.


Title quote by Bern Williams.

...while I wait for cookies and laundry to be done. Oh, I'm so domestic.

( the last three weeks or so, subdivided by theme )

So, as it currently stands, I still have to formally withdraw, but that has to wait until week after next, since I'm leaving for NYC tomorrow and will be there for a week. I'd hoped that this trip would be over spring break, but now I'm on extended vacation again. :( I'll be seeing a bunch of folks I haven't seen in a while, and some theatre and a number of museums. Hopefully I'll be feeling sufficiently better that I can start job hunting when I get back.

And then we do a drug challenge of the birth control. It sounds rather like a game show, I know.

But, the cookies are now done, and I have it on good authority that they came out AWESOME. At least I can still do some things right. :D

The snow is coming down so quickly, I don't even have words to describe it. If it were rain, I'd say coming down in buckets. Is this what it's like to live where they have real winters?

Anyway, I've been meaning to do a RL update for a while, so here it is:

( cut for tl;dr )

tl;dr: It was bad. It got better.

aka the aforementioned RL update

Things have settled down, finally. I started a new medication, which might help with my mood, and also might help fix the fact that I'm always freezing; apparently my thyroid function was on the low side of normal, and bringing that up might solve two problems. Hopefully. Also, I've learned that my cholesterol and triglycerides are bizarrely high (the one thing I got from my mother's side of the family, wonderful), so now I have to change my diet. More oatmeal, more exercise, but I refuse to give up the cheese. (It's also possible that one of the meds I'm on is adding to this problem, which would be just peachy.)

Finally, finally, finally took that art history test make-up. It was making me crazy, and I do not exaggerate there. The test itself was a bear (two periods she never covered in class, a couple of images I'd never seen before), but it's over and done with and I don't really care anymore. I had A's on every other test and assignment in the class, so I'll probably wind up with a B for the final grade, and that's fine.

Spring semester starts tomorrow. I'm taking Intro to Sociology and Intro to Political Science. I'm also going to be taking a writing course, but it's taking a little bit of effort to sign up for it. Should have it sorted out by the end of the day tomorrow.

And if the first two weeks of classes go well, I'll be filling out a few job applications. The places all seem to be hiring, so fingers crossed and all that.

And then I have to start contacting and applying to colleges. Man, the future is scary.

So, was woken up this morning by my mother informing me that the furnace was broken*, so now my house's temperature is at 62F and dropping. The HVAC guys are supposed to be coming, but they're dumb and haven't called me yet. I'm currently wearing three layers and camped out in my brother's room, which is the smallest room that is not a bathroom. When I really can't stand it, I have a space heater I can turn on, which will hopefully be enough to keep me a little warmer. Hadn't planned on this. We'll see what happens.

I did, however, have an awesome day yesterday, which, coming on the heels of about a week of remarkably good days, is doing wonders for my mood.

Art hist and music were rather dull, but in American hist I had a presentation, and it went really well. The topic was music during the Vietnam war (anti and pro), and I'd put together a pretty spiffy (if I do say so myself) PowerPoint. To go with said PowerPoint, I'd taken the eight songs I was specifically discussing and snipped them down to just the specific stanza(s) I wanted, which meant I wouldn't have to worry about having to scan through the songs for the exact part. I also had packets with the complete lyrics for each song, which people seemed to actually be looking at. And I got compliments afterward, not just from the prof but from a number of my classmates. I was really, really pleased.

Then I went down to Dupont Circle and met N (formerly of Starbucks), who was passing through DC on her way from Bum-Fuck, Ohio to Miami. We camped out in Teaism and played UpWords, then hung out in Starbucks to talk some more, then wandered around Beadazzled until I had to head out. It was really, really great to see her. Having a social life, even for just a weekend (I got to hang with triannamaxwell on Friday), is really great.

Also, the replacement for the corset I bought at Dragon*Con last year arrived. I think I need to bug Sarah G. to help me make sure it fits, since I think she's the only person I know in the state that knows how to lace it properly. But, it's here, and that makes me gleeful.

My mood has been better since the beginning of last week, much closer to what it should be. I'm still worried that it's a fluke, or that it will go away once my metabolism has caught up with the current meds configuration, but it makes me optimistic that I actually will be ready to go back to school next fall.

Speaking of, I need to start making those phone calls to the various programs. Eep.

*Actually, my brain had already begun the slow crawl toward consciousness, with the thought of Dude, is it cold in here? And yes, my half-awake mind says "dude". I imagine it as a tiny, pot-smoking surfer-boy, which doesn't make any sense. Don't ask, I don't even know.

Still alive, just busy enough that I haven't made time to post.

Have actually started contacting people at potential colleges for next fall, so that's exciting. Still looking primarily at the Northeast and northern Midwest, but I've been told good things about a school in North Carolina that I'm going to look into. It's a weird process; Mom wants to hold me back, since I'm still not doing great on the mental health front, but I'm still forging ahead because I'll die of boredom if I don't. Hopefully I'll be ready when the time comes, but right now I just want to run screaming into the night.

Classes are really, really boring. I'm totally doing too much work for one of them, but I'm slacking in the other two because I can do the work with my eyes closed. I worry that the lack of intellectual challenge is making me lazy, but considering how maniacal I'm being about American History notes, I'm probably fine. I am looking forward to my final project in that class (pro- and anti-war music during the Vietnam war); considering the vastly differing political stances my classmates have, it should be a rip-roaring good time. :P

This is the last weekend in the box office (thank God), and not only do I have shows Thursday through Sunday, but we've got two shows on Saturday. I'm planning on bringing one of the bagpipe books (World Music final project) and settling in for the long-haul.

I'm hoping to have some fic up tonight. The last "She" drabble is in my fingertips, and once that's typed I can post it and the four others sitting on my hard drive. Then I think I'll start picking at the various other short WsIP until the end of the semester. It's my plan to devote winter break to finishing the novel, but I'm not going to let myself start working on it until after exams. 'Cause I'm responsible like that. /snark

So, the paper's done; it's probably the worst paper I've written in recent memory, but all I care about right now is having something to hand in.

I got about 4.5 hours of horizontal time. I was definitely awake for the last hour of it, which is annoying, but it's better than nothing.

Thank God it's Friday. Thank God it's Friday. Thank God it's Friday.

At least the headache's gone...