i want you to know what love is

blehhh ! i have so much school stuff to do ! blehhh !!!!

what's up guys? i haven't really done much the past couple of days besides go to class and do my homework. german is actually getting pretty hard because i cannot make my brain understand the difference between the cases. like, i know what to DO for each case, but i don't know how to tell if something is nominative/dative/accusative. i give up. history is okay, despite two weeks of group work where i got grouped with the same dude who is like... intent on denying the contribution of women to american history and talking about how our female professor is WRONG and the female writers are WRONG.


in the words of mary wollstonecraft, "fuck you, ballbag !"

i have german homework every night this week and next week, a big german essay to write, a german voice presentation (which is basically just reading the essay), a german interview with someone who isn't my professor, and a final exam. for history, i have to answer a discussion question TODAY, watch the lectures, do the reading, do one more timeline essay, do some more little online questions, and then do a final exam. i'm totally fucking swamped and i'm procrastinating like crazy !

last night while doing some reading, i actually got choked up because i hate andrew jackson so much, so today's (very brief, cause i have studying to do) lesson is about how andrew jackson is the fucking worst.



you may know him as the $20 bill guy, or maybe OLD HICKORY, but what you should really associate andrew jackson with is the indian removal act and the trail of tears (a genocidal relocation of native peoples so we could take their shit, in case you missed middle school history). during the war of 1812 he killed a shit ton of native americans, and during the first seminole war he went into spanish territory and killed a shit ton more of native americans (which is significant because it was totally illegal and fucked up). he then went on to basically be the forerunner of anti-intellectualism in the united states who fiercely defended the idea that his racist hunches were better and righter and more noble than fancy book learning. and um, here is a quote from his first state of the union address that is one of the grossest things i've ever read:

What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion?

blehh. i fucking hate him ! why is he on money ! why do ATMs only give $20 bills ! here's what i'm using instead of $20s now:



um, on a lighter note, that beautiful dress i got fit perfectly and looked great on me and is my favorite thing ever



and it comes in several other beautiful colors that would look great on me:



but i'm not sure what to do about my most recent ethical quandry about target. like, most of us have pretended that target is better than walmart because they are like 20% less soulsucking, community-destroying, and unethical, plus they have cuter stuff. it's cool, i'm not perfect, this is an inconsistency on my part and i probably should do more than half-heartedly acknowledge it. recently, though, the store donated $150,000 to a political candidate who is homophobic and aggressively supports homophobic legislation, as well being affiliated with a band who supports the violent extermination of gay people (and um, see above for my feelings about violent exterminations of people).



here's the rub, though: target is one of two clothing stores that sell clothes in my size. there are a handful more that sell plus size clothing, but most are $30-$100 a piece, whereas most clothing at target (and the other store, old navy) is below $30. they also have reasonably cute clothing, an extreme rarity for plus size women, who very rarely get the opportunity to feel comfortable and attractive and cute in clothing, with target's clothing being slightly more well-made (presumably because their child workforce is more disciplined? i hate life). but, that brings me to another point- why is it important for me to look or dress cute? why do i care about that? i know why i SHOULDN'T, so why do i?

anyway, i don't know what i'm getting at here. if i look at this like cute dresses vs. being an ally for my fellow human beings, the choice is easy. if i bring in a bunch of other complicated stuff about being fat/plus size clothing/socialization/consumption, it seems slightly more complicated. i guess my conclusion for now is that you should throw red paint on me if i end up buying those dresses, but i'm going to try not to.

i'm free

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's over ! it's finally over ! i had to work all weekend, which is kind of a bummer, because i'm already back at work and i feel like i just left work. on thursday we set everything up, and registration opened on friday. we were in a new building with much more space, but there were some logistical problems there (like, we had to use their wireless, which blew, and WE had a lot less room because of how the tables were set up), but it ended up being okay. generally the registration team are cool people (not a coincidence, since i have to be there with them all weekend and pick the team based on who i'd want to hang out with for 25 hours). i was there til 10pm, but we had free food and a good pandora playlist which was basically like a really good oldies station, so it wasn't too bad.



on saturday, i worked from 7 to 6:30, which was kind of brutal. saturday was super, super, super busy and that was the day we had some difficult people. i think everything worked out okay, but registration closed at 4pm and people were hounding me until 6:30, chasing me down while i was carrying big armloads of stuff and big awkward sign posts, etc. i thought i would never get out of there and i was super exhausted ! but at a quarter to 7 i headed home and met up with christina, who was also exhausted from volunteering at a girls rock philly related event and hanging out with amber at art star. so jealous ! if i wasn't working i definitely would have gone.



we both decided to "take a nap" at 9pm and we both woke up at 4am. we IM'd each other for a minute, and then christina went back to sleep. i ended up sleeping from 7am-11am or so. jeez. i guess i took for granted the amount that a few extra hours of sleep on saturday morning counts since i didn't get it that day.

when we got up, i leveled solanas to 60 and did part of zul'gurub with paul. i've never really seen any of the bosses besides the raptor and tiger bosses so that was kinda cool ! then christina and i went to target. i wasn't really sure if i needed anything, but i thought i'd check out their plus size section because i saw a few cute/wearable things online. guess what though, guys ! the plus size section was 2 racks of clothing, unmarked, in the middle of maternity. it was like 3 cardigans, a sundress, 4 pairs of stretch pants, and maybe one ugly rayon dress?


above: some bullshit

i might actually like... write them a letter about it? philadelphia is a fat city, and there was like 2309823 fat people at target, and i think if they actually had all of the nice stuff they have online in the store, attractively presented and marked with a sign, people would buy it? the target on delaware avenue is kind of a mess anyway, but like... why should a maternity section be so expansive compared to a plus size section? so many more people are fat than pregnant. and why should the plus size section be in the center of maternity? i did buy this dress online from them last week with a gift card, and i hope it works out:



we also went to the grocery store, and then came home and chilled out for a little bit. i guess the most exciting thing (if exciting is the right word) is that i guess i'm quitting warcraft. my last friend who played (who i played with most often) canceled his account and uninstalled the game, and there isn't really much for me to do now


RIP harridan

i have very mixed mostly bad emotions about this right now because like... that's what i did to avoid all of my real life problems ! and now i don't have an excuse/crutch anymore ! like, i really really do genuinely enjoy playing, but i did play slightly more than i'd be naturally inclined to because it was like... something to do where i was interacting with friends but didn't have to leave the house. i'm not even sure how to talk about it because people are so weird about warcraft (like, somehow think it's nerdier than other video games or that people get ADDICTED !!!!!!!!! to it and a couple in china let their baby DIE while they were playing and omgomgomgomg) but the reality is that it's like... a video game that is fun, and everyone plays video games.

full disclosure, though i hate discounting my feelings because of hormones- i actually forgot to take my birth control for 3 days so i think i'm having a uh, heightened emotional reaction. i'm bummed that i won't get to talk to those friends as much, if at all, and i'm bummed that i'm going to have all of this dangerous time to think about eating disorder stuff and general weird hide-y feelings where i want to stay in my house all the time.



and not to segue from my crappy year of depression to OMG HAYYYYY but while i was at work this weekend, the bottom of my rootote split. after looking for a similarly huge bag online and not finding anything i loved (annnnnd not wanting to pay $45 for another rootote- i got my other one for $14.99), christina offered to make me a tote bag. she let me pick out fabric from her... fabrics, and i picked these:


green corduroy outside


this amy butler stuff inside

i'm pretty excited because the bags she makes are the shit. if she has time, she's going to make some to sell, and i'll let you dogs know what the deal is.

list of things i can do instead of being a hermit
- hang out with christina more
- hang out with mouse more and GO TO HIS HOUSE
- ride my bike and go outside more
- make new girlfriends
- go look at the dogs at the dog bowl
- do stuff like read and knit, but OUTSIDE
- volunteer somewhere

okay, i'm going to go because i have a ton of stuff to do today- it's taken me like three hours to write this cause i keep getting interrupted ! bleh !

p.s. big ups to christina for lending me her blanky and alpaca when i was crying last night !
p.p.s. jeanne and mouse are both back today and i'm soooooooooooo psyched. jeanne saw so many good animals in colombia and apparently, according to text, mouse "hugged a naked lady".

blue cyclone

guys ! i had a revolutionary idea last night while i was eating a bowl of cereal while standing over the sink (saddest dinner?) ! i'm going to buy one of those sandwich press things.



totally serendipitous too, because i was digging through my wallet and found a $25 target gift card that my boss gave me for christmas that i totally forgot about ! imagine what i can do with this thing before i get tired of it ! it has terrible reviews on target's website because it's one piece and super hard to clean, but i don't care ! i want to make a HOT sandwich with fake ham, cheese, and tomato !



so yeah, that idea was basically the most exciting thing to happen to me yesterday. oh yeah, i also bought some alice crocs on ebay to wear in the rain:


#1 favorite rain shoe

and they sent a size 9 instead of a size 10 ! i was totally bummed, but the shipper refunded me and gave me $6 to ship them back to her. i knew it had to be too good to be true because i got them for like $14 with shipping included ! now all of my regular shoes will be ruined in the rainnnnnnn.

what else? we raided last night, much to my chagrin. i'm just not really feeling it anymore. our attendance is low because of the summer, so we do all the boring easy bosses on tuesday, and then no one shows up thursday to do the hard stuff, so i feel like i'm wasting a night a week doing boring old stuff. i guess we're still getting some gear for people who need it, but i feel like my time could be better spent staring at christina or reading a young adult novel.



i do like playing with paul and ibrahim and jeff and gavin and a few other dudes though. last night i had an extended conversation about dr bronner with them and another about how we think people do not deserve gifts for getting married !

tonight i have to get working on my sock ! i assume christina and i are going to the west philly knitter and crocheter meetup again tomorrow, and i want to have at least SOME of the pattern knit (i started over, remember) because last week i mostly fucked around and didn't knit and i want to um, prove my knitting chops. fuck you nerds !

p.s. christina and i didn't start a blog of the weird things the other says while we are watching tv or hanging out- that would be weird.
p.p.s. two of my friends' gmail accounts have been hacked, so i assume my gmail will get hacked next. obviously don't open any random viagra or online casino links from me !