remember our life?

ahh i've had an uneventful couple of days ! but i'm still gonna write a thing !

i'm pretty swamped at work- i was out for several weeks, and on vacation right before that, and i am taking on a bunch of new projects and responsibilities now (which include a surprise event tomorrow and an event next week)- but if i don't take a minute to like, think my thoughts, i will probably go insane.

last night mouse came over and we went to get coffee at the green line. i have to interrupt myself and say that i'm giving up caffeine for lent. it isn't ACTUALLY for lent, because i am not a practicing catholic and the tyranny and evil of the catholic church makes me sick to my fucking stomach, but i'm still "a catholic" in the way that people who grew up in the catholic church are- real superstitious and preoccupied with the saints and junk. but, anyway, i'm switching to decaf for now in hopes of switching to no caffeine, because i've gone from barely sleeping to not sleeping.



anyway, i met up with mouse and we went to the green line and had a good talk about ancient history. he's been listening to the hardcore history podcasts about ancient rome (which probably explains why he changed his facebook picture to a bust of caligula, but that could also be the fact that he is like a vegan caligula. minus wine. minus incest. minus vomiting. plus 8 hours of sleep a night.). it was pretty interesting, and boy, he sure taught me a lot about claudius.



facts about claudius
- super dumb
- ....or was he?!?!?!

in other news, or non-news, my cats still fucking hate each other. well, maybe not HATE. roxy jr. seems to really want to be friends with pizza- he follows her around and tries to sniff her and stuff, and she freaks out and hisses and runs away (or attacks him). here's a picture of him coming to say hi and her trying to run away:



i am slowly coming to terms with being a single person with two cats, and it isn't bad so far. i'm conscious of seeming like a "cat person", but in reality i'm an equal opportunity "animal person" who just happens to have cats. if i had a turtle i'd talk about it and anthropomorphize it and dress it in clothing just as much !

i cannot write another interesting thing right now because i'm so swamped with work. i might do some hanging out/movie watching tonight (unfortunately i have to miss ryann's show at the bean, but you should go !), but i'm mostly going to be working from home and possibly eating cream of wheat.

p.s. maybe i should get a turtle

sooooo on friday they announced a major restructuring of my department (basically half of the department- not my half- is being moved to another group, and my half is changing names and taking on some events from a different area) in a meeting that i missed. i didn't have the energy to be anxious about it all weekend but now i'm back at work and everyone is whispering about it and that is making me anxious. we're having a meeting at 11 to "discuss our questions and concerns." my concern is not so much what is happening but like, if i will still have a job at the end of the fiscal year. it's like... 99% likely that i will, but my worry is that my job will change so much that i will hate it. oh well, can't do anything about it now.

i had a very full weekend ! friday was the opening of mike and jeanne's art show at part time studios in fishtown, so mouse and i went down there. their show was sea-junk themed and everything both of them made was absolutely stunning.



i'm really proud of both of them. fishtown is... weird, i basically never go there and didn't even realize this block was there, but there was a little block of galleries and junk (including the fabled coffee shop that biz lives over ! where i... saw two of my coworkers? it was like seeing bugs bunny in real life or something). fishtown is full of weird people who look like aliens who heard tell of earth hipsters and tried to emulate their look without the use of the earth internet, so there was lots of weird flapper clothes, giant feathers in peoples' hair, and slouchy socks. i also saw at least two bolo ties. the gallery was pretty crowded because it was first friday, so i got to very briefly see and barely talk to a lot of people i like. here are my two favorite things from the show:


unfortunately i don't have a full picture of this, but it is a beautiful melusine by jeanne


a leviathan by mike !!!! my actualllll favorite of his was this tiny fiji mermaid but this is my other favorite

afterward, mouse and i went to whole foods and i came home, where i went to bed surprisingly early to avoid cleaning my apartment for company this weekend.

on saturday, i procrastinated so hard i actually played windows solitaire (i use cumulative scoring so i end up in the hole, and always think one more game will get me back in the black), but ended up doing an okay job cleaning my room and getting my laundry together and getting some of my junk off of the couch. my friend brian from connecticut was in town, and luckily was up for a bunch of stationary back pain fun. we got indian buffet and gelato and then watched the naked gun, which i just realized is available on netflix instant !



it kind of fell apart from there because, as you know, there is basically nothing good on netflix instant, but it was fun. i ended up actually going to sleep early, which is sort of a bummer because i go to sleep at 4am on work nights, but i slept for like ten hours, which is unheard of. i think it might be due to the fact that roxy jr. didn't sleep in my room and it was raining so it was like super dark in my bedroom.

oh yeah ! i introduced pizza to roxy jr. on saturday too !



they are not really getting along yet- lots of hissing and growling, though surprisingly pizza seems to be the alpha (do cats have alphas?) and roxy jr. immediately backs down. no real fighting or confrontations, but no grooming and cuddling yet. oh wellllllllll.

on sunday, i met up with brian, christina, nick, and sandi at local 44 for brunch. christina had gone up to nyc to see wild flag with nick and sandi, and then brought them back to see wild flag here. local 44 was kind of disappointing (righttttt after i updated my yelp reviewwwwwwww)- bland bloody marys and the removal of vegetarian disco fries from the menu was pretty heartbreaking. nothing really looked too appealing on the menu, so i chose the new menu item replacing the disco fries with eggs on top that i had last time- weird spicy french fries with eggs on top. i'm not sure why i got this because i'm not really wild about french fries, but it was pretty gross- the fries were super super super super salty, they didn't taste hot at all, and they were pretty dessicated. also the eggs were the size of peanuts.

i tricked everyone into going to cvs with me afterward to get cat supplies, and i also treated myself to some nail polish-


rimmel hot cocoa, purple rain, and steel gray

and then came back home and hung out with nick and sandi while christina napped, and then *i* napped, and then they all went to see wild flag again (i'm bummed that i didn't try to go to this- my back was so messed up when christina strongly urged me to go see them that i thought i'd never be able to go, but it looked fucking amazing and i love mary timony and ahhhhhhhhh). after they got home i had some wonderful drunk bonding with them all, and then watched futurama in bed until it was time to go to sleep- 2am, still pretty early !

so, overall, good weekend. not much on the horizon this week except lots of work, hanging out with mouse, maybe going to ryann's show at the bean if i can make it (the walking junk is still pretty tedious), introducing jeanne to roxy jr, blah blah.

p.s. i love nick and sandi
p.p.s. work is stressful right now

know that i'm important in your life

seriously next week i'm gonna stop drinking so much coffee because i want coffee all the time and my mouth always tastes like shit anddddddddd i spend $4-$16 a fucking day on coffee !

the only reason i'm updating my blog today is because i have a research proposal and a paper to write today, as well as a chapter and the rest of my stalin book to read. i woke up at 6am today intending to study, but instead i laid in bed for an hour watching rancid and no doubt videos and stewing about what posers they are. i don't have much to say about rancid besides the fact that they're nerds and i'm embarrassed for them, but seriously like... gwen stefani is such a pud. i cannot stand the awkwardness of that album being all about her mooning over SOMEONE IN THE BAND. why was everyone afraid to tell them that that was weird and that it made everyone uncomfortable??? i'm convinced that the only reason that they sold all those albums is because everyone was too wimpy to tell them that. i've never met a single person who ever liked no doubt but i think my friend type might be "people who never liked no doubt".


this was NEVER cool

not much going on this week besides studying. i've been at the green line basically every day, and i haven't made that much headway. i'm pretty behind in my writing class, but i had a good meeting with my professor and i'm feeling more confident. i know i'm a decent writer, but the critical writing program here is super fucking rigid and we have to follow pretty asinine guidelines (written by a person who legitimately, from her instructions, appears to be some kind of rude maniac?) and i was worried that i was failing to follow the guidelines. i was at ease during the meeting though because the basement of van pelt library is infested with mice so i got to look at a bunch of cool mice during the meeting !



what else? blehhh i upgraded my cellphone. after breaking three blackberries and not being eligible for an upgrade, i got an iphone 3G for $99 (since they were trying to get rid of them) a couple of years ago. i basically hated it the entire time and it became basically non-functional when the iphone 4 upgrades came out. i figured i would always like, get some other phone when it was time to get a new phone- i used paul's droid thing in california and it was awesome ! buttttttt i ended up getting an iphone 4 and it's actually a decent phone so far. maybe it's just because my phone has been non-functional since the summer so this seems great in comparison, though. whatever, i feel like a disgusting yuppie asshole jerk and i am ashamed that i have a phone that a poor child probably assembled. what apps should i get?


i'm being flippant but i really hate that it's 2010 and i'm posting in a blog about iphones

i also don't want to make this a list of stuff i bought but i got a necklace on etsy made of a deer's rib from a found carcass, and i've had the most annoying conversations about it at work.



everyone keeps saying that it's "sad"? like, i guess it's technically sad that everything on earth doesn't live forever, but like... all of them eat meat? how is that less sad than acknowledging the fact that animals having skeletons ! i am so insulated by my social circle that i always feel like a fucking teenager at work when anything related to animals and vegetarianism comes up. it is so fucking bizarre to be almost 30 years old and still have to have this conversation or have people who are 30+ years old be like, "MMMM MEAT I COULD NEVER BE VEGETARIAN OH SORRY I'M EATING MEAT ARE YOU OFFENDED WHY ARE YOU VEGETARIAN IS THAT VEGETARIAN??? WHAT'S IN THAT??? MMMMM MEAT" to me. i'm not offended by people eating meat. i do not care that other people eat meat. i do not want to have philosophical conversations about not eating meat. but anyway, no, my deer rib necklace isn't sad, it makes me look like a cool witch. and not a fucking wiccan, a witch ! fuck you !

this is the worst blog entry i've ever written. back to JSTOR or what the fuck ever.

i don't want to change the world

goddddd i'm the worst blogger in fucking history ! i've been really fucking busy lately, almost entirely doing reading/writing for school. i'm seriously almost regretting my decision to go back, because i have so little time and i feel like i haven't seen any of my friends in weeks. i barely see christina and we live in the same house. blahhh. all this for a degree that will be totally useless ! five years of AGONY !!!!!!!!!!!



i had a good weekend last weekend- on friday night, i forced myself to do some homework, KIND OF. which is, incidentally, also what i did on saturday. i seriously have never, ever, ever in my life had such a hard time reading a book as i did with beyond the culture wars by gerald graff (and i remember my recent experience with that mamdani book !!!!!). basically the book is about how educators should teach their students about conflicts and controversy surrounding literature and like... every single line of the book is a restatement of that sentence. and like... no offense gerald graff, i'm sure you are a really rad person, but you are a windbag of the highest degree and i hate your book and i fucking hateeeee you.


i'm gerald graff ! i'm a professor ! blah blah blah ! teach the conflicts, kids !

i spent most of the day studying at the green line, half with christina, half without, almost all with jesse (she was working), butttttt i didn't really get very much done. on saturday night, mouse and mike came over to watch the phillies break my heart and we got thai food (well, mouse got chinese food) and the boys played with the kitten. that was cool for me because she's a pain in the ass. i love her, but she's in like... extreme attack mode right now and my arms and neck (she likes to hang out on the back of the couch) are a mess of little bite marks and scratches. anyway, mike played feathers with her for awhile and mouse let her attack his shoes. i was happy to see them both because it's been forever. mike got mouse eskrima sticks for his birthday, so i'm looking forward to getting hit with eskrima sticks while i try to knit or watch movies.


i chose this assortment of nunchucks and violence sticks because it says "quality wood"

speaking of the kitten, she is still totally obsessed with food. it is the weirdest thing in the fucking universe- there's nothing medically wrong with her, yet she constantly acts like she's starving to death. any time anyone else besides her is eating, she starts yelling at them and trying to get the food ! this past week, she has bitten, eaten, or tried to bite: vegan pizza, mushrooms, peppers, spinach, TOFU SCRAMBLE, pretzels, a piece of pineapple from pineapple fried rice. what the hell ! here's a picture of her being really cool:



on sunday, i ran some errands and went to whole foods to get food to try to make myself eat food (ED stuff has been weird lately. understatement). i got vanilla yogurt and gingersnap granola from the bulk bins (!!!!!) and pears for breakfast, and i'm gonna try to eat that in a minute. after doing mooooooooore studying all night (at the green line, where patchie entertained me and played good music), francesca came over because she was in town ! holy shit ! i didn't even notice she was short because she acts so fucking tall. she ordered vegan pizza and i ate some pretzels and it was neat. i'm sort of embarrassed because pizza was being aloof and weirdo was being a weirdo.

as for the rest of this week, i've been cornholioing on lattes and studying and i'm still pretty far behind despite my professor giving us a much-needed extension on our genocide paper proposals. i'm going to do my damndest to catch up and get all my work done today and tomorrow. i seriously doubt i'd spend so much time studying if my study habits were more efficient- as it stands, i spend like 8 hours zoning out and read like 2 pages and then the next day spend 5 hours freaking out about how i spent so much time zoning out and then read 2 more pages. life ! is weird.

the only other news is that cam was totally right and my laptop didn't even come CLOSE to fitting in the h bag. i'm going to return it (i guess? i really like it but $58 is too much for a bag i can't use every day, even if i have to bring my laptop to school) and i got this bag instead:



i love it, and it should fit my laptop and school books and crap. and jeanne described it as looking like "something you would put horse feed in" which might be my style? if i wore leather or boots fit my calves i'd either be a robin hood person or look like someone who rides or tends to horses.

i wanted to make this entry more enriching and entertaining but work is fucking annoying ! i hate everything right now ! byeeeee.

roxy the obscure

somehow i totally fucking forgot my mom was visiting today? like, my mom lives 1000 miles away and i only see her once or twice a year, so it isn't like.. her driving down from the suburbs or something. how did i forget !

i did not update yesterday because we had a meeting from 9am to 3pm. we had our team retreat for work. i'm sort of bummed with the format- my team is split into two halves, and each half would have their own retreat in previous years. my team's retreat was going to my boss' house, eating a ton of delicious food, going over our business plans, and then going home early. i understand the value of having both halves of the team go over our business plans together, but it was just... a six hour meeting in our conference room. totally not fun. other teams got to paint ceramics !



that said, it wasn't too bad and it went by super fast and we got to go home afterward.

yesterday when i got home i took an epic nap (bad form !) and made a card for my craft swap recipient. i'd love to show it to you guys but i'm afraid that she'll somehow see it ! i also did a little more work on my herringbone neck thing:



seriously, most relaxing pattern ever. it looks really cool and it's super easy and knits up really fast. i've probably spent less than an hour on it so far. i also want to marry sheep shop yarn. here are some other colors i'm considering buying when i'm a millionaire:


modern


lilac


royalty


lime


ocean

at $12.50/skein at loop, and with my commitment to not buying yarn without a project in mind, i'm not really likely to buy all of those, but i love them ! and i've read that the yarn is discontinued so if i don't buy it now, when can i ! but i'm a miser and a scrooge and unless i can think up some projects i'm not getting them ! you guys just watched me convince myself of that, by the way.

oh, what else? i got mockingjay in the mail today ! i can't wait to read it and most likely be disappointed by it. i'm currently reading the girl with the dragon tattoo so i can write a scathing review of it a la my twilight reviews, but it is actually too boring and dull to even... scathe.



i'm about 150 pages in and so far all he's done is

- call everyone by their last names and have the characters all each other by their last names 300000000x
- use the phrase "wennerstrohm affair" like 700000x
- describe every single piece of furniture in every room ever
- wrote the most unnatural dialogue? like in an attempt to make the main character seem cool and professional, he actually made him the rudest most socially awkward person in the universe. and yet he writes about how awkward and weird lisbeth salander is but all of her conversations with people are polite and normal?

it's just like... not compelling? at all. i also feel like i'm reading "the socially awkward guy with no defining characteristics" because the aforementioned girl with the dragon tattoo has, so far, sent an email and took a picture of a thing. maybe she shows up more later, but i'm not really that interested because so far she's just a one dimensional character written by a dude who obviously wanted to fuck a thin "goth/punk" woman.

anyway, i have to rearrange my schedule a little because of my mom's visit. i was going to hang out with mouse and kev tonight but i probably shouldn't leave my mom alone on her first day here. i'm still going to see dangerbird and red devil on friday. i may also take off of work monday and tuesday ! the sky's the limit.

i'll leave you with this picture of baby meerkats in honor of my newfound love of meerkat manor



did you know meerkats are under 2lbs and 1 foot tall??? best dudes.