after all that we've been through~

Went to my first party of the year tonight. Didn't stay very long. It's whatevs.

I mixed PBR in my Cheerwine. Nicole didn't like it, and nobody else was willing to try it, but it wasn't that bad. It certainly tasted better than straight up PBR. That shit is terrible!

I got a new sketchbook today. It's another little Cachet one, only navy blue this time. I did a couple little sketch things in it with commentary, and Nicole did a bunch of random drawings in it cuz she was a little bored at the party.

Yeah, I had about 1/2 - 2/3 of a beer, diluted with Cheerwine. Just enough so I didn't feel uptight, so I could try and dance to the music and have actual conversations, but not enough that I felt in anyway out of control or even tipsy and stumble-y.

Unrelated: I now have "Stillness Is The Move" stuck in my head.

*sneeze attack*

Ugh, I've got a cold. It's really totally not fun.

Yesterday and the day before I had a numb, scratchy throat, but it didn't affect my voice. I've gotten progressively more sniffly and now it's just ridiculous. And of course cat snuggling isn't helping with the runny nose problem.

Other news:
Inventory starts next week. I've already started counting some of backstock, like the holiday stuff, the new stuff that we don't have space for yet, and all the bulk herbs. In preparation for inventory, I get to come in tomorrow and work backstock as much as humanly possible. Oh joy...

I was invited to a party Friday night, which I convinced mom to let me go to for a couple hours, but I'm starting to think maybe it's not such a good idea. I won't be able to really have fun since I'm driving myself home early, and I've got work at 8 the next morning. I feel like it really would be better for me to stay home, especially if I'm still sick then.

Saturday is the e-cycling event at work. Mom gets to man a grill and make food. I finally get to see Fred's band, which is exciting. Angela said she'd try to take some old computer stuff to the Alexandria store, which is cool. It's kinda funny, though, that mom and I are scheduled to be there at 8, but I'm off at 2 and she's off at 4. I'll probably just hang around at the event for those 2 hours or something.

Soccer is actually kinda interesting. Or, at least, I'm interested in the games we're playing; I could care less about the others... I'm really quite pleased that the US and England both made it to the round of sixteen. Perhaps we'll play each other again later. Sadly, our next game is Saturday while I'm at work.

oh, those vuvuzelas...

the 70s were funkadelic

Went to Kim's 70s party last night. It was pretty awesome. Emily had fun with my hair, I wore my gogo boots and my tube top and drank Mike's Hard.

Anna and Kim decorated Patrick's place with tons of Christmas lights, and real effort was put into the playlist this time, instead of the fail that was the 80s playlist. It was a really nice night, so it was no surprise the party moved to the roof soon after we got there, which was close to 11. I had a hot pocket for dinner when I got there.

And around 12-ish, when I had to go to the bathroom after my 2 Mike's, I realized it's really hard to walk in those boots while not sober. Especially on a slightly slanted roof. So I had to take them off before I stumbled my way right off the roof. Hasib got a bunch of Wendy's for whoever wanted some, and he introduced himself to me for, like, the fourth time.

Around 12:30 the police came. Apparently, Patrick's bitchy downstairs neighbors had called with a noise complaint, and then there was a robbery down the street. They played it off all nice and smooth, cooperating and such. I was kinda terrified. We had to basically stop the party after that, and about half the people left, but we hung around for a few more hours.

Cesley moved to the kitchen and didn't move for probably 2 hours, just drinking PBR. I took a nap on Tom's bed. At some point Patrick took out his bowl, and there was weird unplugged guitar jam session. Liz finally decided we should leave when Cesley got kinda delirious. Kim had to help her down the stairs and to the van. And I think I ended up being the most sober person in our group again, even if I had a bout of the spins and had to sit down for a while. After all, this was my first party since my birthday.

I'm kinda impressed with myself. I continue to manage to drink for a while, suddenly realize I'm getting tipsy and dizzy, and then I stop. And since we usually just hang out at these functions for hours, I get to spent 2-3 hours working off my buzz by nearly falling asleep. I hardly drank at all too. Ces was drinking for probably the whole time. She had a four loco and several PBRs. Crazy. I had a comb in my pocket that I would randomly pull out and use on other people (since my hair had hairspray and curls in it), and after a while of doing that to her she would just ask me to comb her hair. Weird...

Anyway, I should really get dressed and go to the studio to finish my textiles final. Which again will have no crit. Not cool...

ces = england. except not naked.
(though a couple guys did randomly strip to their underwear...)

lalala

friday was awesome. though around 1 i started to sober up, and then i realized everyone was pretty much in couples and doing that grinding, and i felt awkward and then angry and depressed. so i went to bed. but other than that, it was awesome. so much better than that 80s party. the jungle juice was delicious, though it had no everclear since you can't get that in va. i only had a cup and a half. cesley had probably 4, definitely 3. robertino, i'm fairly sure, drank an entire 12 pack of pbr, and tommy drank a bottle of wine by himself, plus some beer.

but yeah. i danced the whole "cotton eyed joe" dance with emily, and i headbanged to "smells like teen spirit" [my neck is still paying for that one...], and i fell over after a couple songs. but it was awesome.

and then i did absolutely nothing yesterday. seriously. i stayed in bed, only getting up to find food. we finally got the place mostly cleaned up today. there's a lot of recycling, good thing that gets picked up wednesday. and a lot of trash too.

in other news, i decided to try odosketch. it's pretty cool. i really like the color palate they have, even if it is limited. i'm surprised at my ability to use it, considering it's my first ever foray into the world of flash drawing, and considering i only have my touch pad. i've done a couple random experiments and a couple drawings. i realized when i was looking at my stuff there that i draw the same, whether it's on paper or on a computer. which doesn't bother me, i quite like my sketchy drawing style. i drew a couple cans, and they came out pretty well considering. i wish i had more control over my little brush, but it's hard with the touch pad. i'd like to be able to refine my lines better and get neater curves, but oh well. practice, i guess.

also, it was snowmageddon this weekend. not so much here, but there was close to 3 feet of snow at home. obama called it snowmageddon. it snowed for about 6-8 hours friday, then it rained all night, and started snowing again sometime around 10. we've only got about 6-7 inches here. i'm very glad we didn't get snowed in like everyone north of us. snow is awesome and all, but i'm personally ready for it to be spring already, even if it's only the second week of february.

HOLY GOD, I FORGOT TO RANT ABOUT THE PREMIERE OF LOST LAST WEEK!!BECAUSE IT BLEW MY MIND!! i was sitting there, especially at the end, going, "OH GOD WHY MUST YOU TORTURE ME WITH NEW QUESTIONS!!" several characters died in the episode, and there's apparently a parallel world now, instead of time traveling. because that makes a lot more sense. OH GOD the parallel world scenes were so gahh! so, season 5 ends with the white out of the bomb exploding. and season 6 started with THE PLANE SCENES FROM THE SEASON 1 PREMIERE, EXCEPT THE PLANE DOESN'T CRASH!! and i was in shock. so, if oceanic 815 doesn't crash: the airlines lost the casket with christian, jack offers to help john with his back, charlie gets arrested for his heroin, kate tries to escape again and steals claire's cab, shannon didn't even get on the plane, jin is taken by customs because of a ton of money he didn't declare, and DESMOND WAS ON THE PLANE!! back in 'reality', the islanders are back in the correct time period where they were before: the hatch has exploded after desmond turned the key, but juliet is in the bottom because that's where she fell in '77. she ends up dying, and so does sayid. but then they get taken by a different group of [the same] others, which includes the stewardess from the flight, and somehow sayid COMES BACK TO LIFE. oh, and THE MAN IN BLACK IS THE SMOKE MONSTER IS PRETEND-LOCKE!! OH GOD WHY MUST THERE BE SO MUCH AWESOME?!?!

i've been craving some super bros in my hetalia readings lately. because for real, america and canada are the best bros ever. no joke.

relevant pic is relevant. i love how one pixiv artist, annie, draws them. her style and her characterizations are awesome. broooooooosss~

i keep forgetting...

i meant to post an update about that 80s party but forgot...

basically, the playlist was only 40 songs, so that got old quick. there was a lot of pbr, so i finally tried some. it tasted ok at first, probably because i had been drinking smirnoff. i had 2 bottles of smirnoff and about 2/3 of a can of pbr. i was kinda drunk. i ended up falling asleep on patrick's couch around 1, and then another guy fell asleep on the part i wasn't on and ended up sleeping on my ass. i got up around 3, had a long and weird conversation with newbie, and went home. that nap helped me work off the alcohol i had, so saturday was nothing.

now: this past weekend. because it was epic.

THURSDAY
i went to anna's around 5:15 to drop off my sleeping things for their sleepover because thursday's are tv night with angela. i spent over an hour there talking, and helped her hang a blanket on her wall.

oh, but before that! maintenance came! there were 4 guys, plus one of the administrators for the company to look at the mold problems and hash out what to do about it. they're going to dig down around the back closet wall and fill it back in higher, so it slopes away. that should clear up the problem inside, and then they'll come in and clean up the walls there. this should be done by the end of the week, but i'm not so sure.

anyway. tv night was fun. angela got an hd tv for her room, so we watched there because the step team was practicing downstairs. i took the escort to anna's, and got there really late, which sucked. i missed all the food. we watched some movies, drank a little [i only had sips], played apples to apples, then i fell asleep. around 4 a friend of taylor's came in, already drunk, and was loud. i yelled. fell back asleep.

FRIDAY
i woke up for good around 10-10:15. i was really bored and contemplated just leaving around 10:30, got as far as the stairs, then came back. i had some ice cream, sat around. finally left for some real breakfast closer to noon. i honestly forget what else i did that day, since i had no class. i ended up staying up watching season 1 of LOST, trying to catch up for the PREMIERE OF THE FINAL SEASON TOMORROW NIGHT. it started snowing close to 2.

SATURDAY
campus was closed. no surprise. when i woke up there was already a good 6". i took a shower and walked to kroger to get stuff for a crock pot dinner. mom had been texting me about it for a couple hours, so i figured why not. the walk wasn't too bad. i walked in the tire tracks in the street. i am so glad i had my good boots and not just my rain boots. seriously. i got chicken, herbs, broth, milk, chocolate chips, shortening, and food for lunch. came back, set up the crock pot, sat around.

i think it was around 3 that the roomies and i headed out to bother nicole. btw, it was still snowing. we threw snowballs at her window until she came outside. she had no boots, just her converse, so she went back in and wrapped her feet in plastic bags. we walked to the park, pretending it was a nuclear winter/zombie apocalypse and nicole had been bitten. we saw some other students constructing a fort for a snowball fight, so we decided to make one of our own. we tried... but it ended up being a whale. some freshie kid helped us.

we went to shafer to thaw and ended up eating. we eventually decide to head back, but side track to rite aid and get things for smores. we come back, i turn off the crock pot, and we set up scrabble. part way through, we eat the chicken. nicole pwned us all with 72 points on "quote". the stupid 10-point Q was on a double-letter, and the whole thing got a triple-word. we make the smores and go up to liz's room to watch 'eraserhead' on the projector. we watch 'amelie' too. nicole ruined the end by shouting "YASHA" at the end when they're doing the kissing thing.

we sit around, and i start talking to cesley, and us two decide we should make a fort. so we end up making a fort [btw, it was still snowing]. we bring chairs and sofa cushions up, and i grab about 4 blankets from my room. we construct it between liz's bed and desk, and put the projector inside. we lay there, watching the visualizations for about an hour. eventually we fall asleep.

SUNDAY
when i wake up, i'm on a different part of the floor next to nicole, liz is in her bed, and ces has gone back to her own. i take my blanket downstairs and get my laptop and wait for everyone to wake up. eventually i take everything back downstairs, and settle in on the couch. at some point i make cookies. i watch LOST. i stayed on that couch pretty much all day. i don't even take my stuff to my room until i'm ready to go to bed. classes are canceled for monday.

MONDAY
wake up late. eventually get dressed for a snowball fight jenny organized in the park. we roomies leave together. we're the first ones there, then courtney [anne frank], then tempest, then jenny & laura. we eventually have 11 people, and pick teams like middle school. angie and tempest are team captains. we fight. it eventually ends up being all of us standing in a giant circle, randomly throwing at each other. no one can hit me. then again, i can't really hit anyone...

we end up stopping and then decide to make a giant snow vagina next to the giant snow penis someone else made. it ends up being pretty good, even has pubes. angie stood in it to make the vaginal passage itself. taylor and anna show up, cesley leaves for the gym. we take pictures. tom shows up, then anna sees nick, and everyone pretty much disperses. me, liz, anna, tay, and tom go to the commons and get ice cream. we go out to the plaza and take jumping pictures. we go back to biggs.

we watch 'the office' and nicole shows up. finally... eventually we're hungry, so me, liz, nicole, and anna go to the village. holy shit, that was delicious. we go back, nicole leaves, anna gets cold stone. we come back to our place.

and yeah. that was my weekend. i tried to do homework, only finished my math work before i started typing this. i kinda gave up on my english reading. i really don't want to go to class tomorrow. mainly, i just want morning classes to be canceled. i really don't want to go to english...

also, my birthday party is this friday. it's a 90s party. it's going to be amazing. not sure if i'll be able to actually put it here... i had to promise yasha to text him every 1-2 hours so he knows i'm conscious. yeah.

completely unrelated and rather depressing...
"so, a baby seal walks into a club..."

first week!

first week! doneeee. well, it was done yesterday, but whatevs...

lessee.

english is pretty cool, i guess. jenny had lodge last semester and said he's pretty laid back and cool. there's a former soldier [i forgot which branch] in the class, he was in afghanistan. bryce and krystal are also in it. i'm slightly worried my topic will end up being german expressionism, which is cool and all [it's my favorite art movement], but i think i'm gonna end up bored with it. one of my other ideas was handwriting and how people develop their own styles. i know there's, like, personality tests or whatever based on how a person writes. i also thought of the specific importance and significance of bass lines in music, and the evolution of jazz into other music forms. and deep sea creatures, though i have no idea where i would go with that...

math is pretty fun. jenny is in my class, and theresa from textiles last sem, and krissy and corey. dude, thursday, i learned why perspective happens. and it blew my mind. like whoa. it's hard to explain, but it has to do with planes and how they intersect with your eye as a point in space and yeah. intense. it kinda blew my mind. and our first homework was to take a piece of plastic, tape it to a window, and trace what we see out of it. i did mine from the one window in the craft bathroom, looking across at the parking deck and the corner of rams hall. i thought it was pretty cool, but we'll see.

cinema seems like it'll be fun. jessica is in my class, so i sat with her. we watch a film noir, which was pretty cool up until, like, the last half hour-45 mins, when i was just confused. but still. i'm excited because we get to watch 'vertigo' and 'the royal tenenbaums' and some other movies i was excited about.

which reminds me: i need to 'rent' "the devil's brigade" from itunes. that trailer was hilarious, even though it wasn't meant to be. sometimes i'm such a history nerd...

ceramics may prove troublesome. i'm not terribly excited about it. our first assignment will be to sculpt a boot. maybe 'sculpt' isn't he right word, but yeah. it's also due on my birthday, so i really hope mine doesn't suck because that would be a terrible birthday present. no one i know in that class though...

and textiles. both mollys are in it, which should prove entertaining, along with one of the emilys. i'm definitely excited for that class. we're starting with some intense embroidering. it's structured basically the same as the other semester: one specific project on one technique, then the final which can be anything.

i finally got my bus pass today, so i shall FINALLY be venturing to ben franklin tomorrow. molly b mentioned a quilting shop next to ben franklin, so i'll have to check that out too.

today, being a completely free day of nothing has been interesting. i laid in bed, hitting snooze, for almost an hour. i had some toast, and stayed in bed till a little after 2 when i went to get my bus pass. when i got back, us 3 [me, liz, nicole] went to the gym to check out the pool. it's pretty sweet. there's a vortex, a slide, and a hot tub/jacuzzi, plus quite a few lap lanes. the process to get in for the first time was really confusing though, but hopefully it won't be so terrible next time. then we got 5 guys, which, if we had actually been working out, would have pretty much negated any exercise we got.

and then i took a shower and blow dried my hair with my new round brush. because i'm going to an 80s party at patrick's. i'm excited. i've got a tube top and wedges, which are pretty much the most 80s things i own. though i feel like my hair is more 60s than 80s... oh well. it's byob, so drinks i'll like will be slim pickin's, if at all. i'm not sure how to get liz to get 'bitch beers' for nicole and i. they may be almost alcohol-less, but they sure are delicious.

i wish i had 80s jewelry...

bros...

music fiend!

lately i've been more actively thinking about my attempts at making an fst. i've been sorta collecting random songs from "my music" [as in, not from any other fst's] for the past month or two, and i've noticed a slight pattern to them: they're either indie or classic rock.

so my new goal is to create 2, with those as guidelines. i've got a fair list going in total:

"Skipping Hearts" MR RUSSIA [belarus]
"Stuck on Repeat" Little Boots [pre-revolution]
"shoulders" 13ghosts [canada]
"Billy Brown" Mika [england, due to a fic...]
"One Week" Barenaked Ladies [2 nations fighting]
"The Boys Are Too Refined" the Hush Sound [girls]
"Wine In the Afternoon" Franz Ferdinand [drunk arthur]
"Lumberjack Song" Monty Python [canada]
"Where Did Our Love Go" the supremes [post-revolution]
"Backstabber" dresden dolls [angry!revolutionary!england]
"Womanizer" franz ferdinand [france]
"Let Me In" siriusmo [belarus]
"Le Disko" Shiny Toy Guns [all the girls]
"Magazine" millimeters mercury [america]
"fortunate Son" CCR [america]
"Brand New Day" NPH [cold war america]
"We Didn't Start the Fire" Billy Joel [everyone]
"Angel of Mercy" Shy Child [everyone]
"When I Was a Boy" The How [colonial!america]
"Ballroom Blitz" Sweet [meetings]
"Legend of Zelda Theme" System of a Down [america]
"Changes (Borderline Remix)" Tahiti 80 [prussia]
"Fashion" Rogue Traders [poland]
"Filthy/Gorgeous" Scissor Sisters [poland]
"Farm Land" The Never [austria & hungary]
"Guitar vs Piano" Gokusan [prussia & austria]
"Let's Go To The Mall" Robin Sparkles [temporarily-canadian-poland]
"Letter From God to Man" Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip [everyone sorta]

i have a feeling the indie one is going to work out better [and faster] so i started actively looking for songs by little-known artists. which reminded me that i should really check out 3hive again...

as far as the indie one goes i've got:

"Skipping Hearts" MR RUSSIA [belarus]
"Stuck on Repeat" Little Boots [pre-revolution]
"shoulders" 13ghosts [canada]
"The Boys Are Too Refined" the Hush Sound [girls]
"Wine In the Afternoon" Franz Ferdinand [drunk arthur]
"Womanizer" franz ferdinand [france]
"Let Me In" siriusmo [belarus]
"Le Disko" Shiny Toy Guns [all the girls]
"Magazine" millimeters mercury [america]
"Brand New Day" NPH [cold war america]
"Angel of Mercy" Shy Child [everyone]
"When I Was a Boy" The How [colonial!america]
"Changes (Borderline Remix)" Tahiti 80 [prussia]
"Fashion" Rogue Traders [poland]
"Farm Land" The Never [austria & hungary]
"Guitar vs Piano" Gokusan [prussia & austria]
"Let's Go To The Mall" Robin Sparkles [temporarily-canadian-poland]
"Letter From God to Man" Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip [everyone sorta]

with "Legend of Zelda Theme" System of a Down [america] as a bonus.

i'm still determined to find at least one t&s song that fits somewhere. i can't use "come on" because i found that one in a liet/pol one. but i can't figure out how to make the song i really want to work ["feel you in my bones"].

i decided that for a cover i was going to futz with a photo i had. so i surfed my belle isle album for things that would be ambiguous and clever and 'indie' and edited them in picnik.



9 so far. multiples of some. once i figure out the specific songs and how to zip/rar the folder up and such, i can title it and add the title to one of the images.

in other news, yasha turned 20 today. scary. he was going to celebrate at bourbon street, and something about me needing a dress and getting me hooked up with some chick... idk. but anyway, that fell through and instead he's having a get together tomorrow afternoon at his house. i think that's much better, especially considering my recent revelation.

thing is, christian is going to be there.

and i haven't seen or talked to him since we broke up in august.

yasha says he says he's fine with it, and i hope so. i know i'm going to be awkward for a bit because i just am. but i really do want him to be okay with it, because i still feel bad about the whole thing. mainly because of my recent revelation. i finally figured out why specifically i was uncomfortable with it, aside from him being in love with me and me not. well, the two are connected.

so yeah, i'm nervous about it. i want it to work out. i don't want to ruin yasha's party with our issues. i'm hoping i get there before he does, or at least that we don't get there at the same time...

today was my last day of work. it was a pretty good day, considering it was also payday. yayy! my before-tax total was $666, which i laughed at, but i got $615 out of it - even with my exemptions. stupid medicare and social security... but in addition to that i ended up winning My Oh My and a $25 gift card. My Oh My is basically all the department heads getting together and deciding which employee was the most involved and helpful and all around best for the week. i'm slightly surprised i won, but not really. i wasn't even aware of how the winner was picked until mom told me. i know ellie and dan had been very glad i was there. i really helped wellness get things straightened and able to hire a 'real' employee. i did the grunt stocking work to the regular people could focus on the customers and the busy work. it was hard - my back was not very forgiving - but it worked out well.

and i added to my repertoire of skills at MOMs.

i spent my $25 on some omega-dha pills to help with my add, a delicious chocolate protein drink [mmm odwalla] and an amazing raspberry blood orange. god, that's my new favorite fruit. it wasn't as sour as oranges [and especially blood oranges] are, and you could taste the raspberry right at the end. amazing. i might have to get mom to stop by saturday when we go back to rva so i can grab 6 and bring them back with me. i know ces wants to try one.

anyway, i think i'm going to go to bed now.

oh! i just remembered an awesome thing i discovered about vista yesterday. when i have 4 firfox windows and 8 apps open in my bottom bar and vista compresses the 4 firefox tabs into one, i can right click it and tell it to display all stacked. and then i've got all 4 in quadrants in my screen. they're tiny, but that's okay. when i need to access one i just fullsize it.

and i found the most amazing fill ever on the kink meme. the prompt was something about canada being killed by a serial killer and how being a nation plays into that and the awesome twin-ness between him and america. and at first i thought it was going to be dark and depressing - actually it totally is for the first 20 or so parts - and i didn't want to read it. but then i did and it's fantastic. it really is. even though it is depressing and crazy and it just doesn't matter. it's over here.

okay, bed for real now.

new year's-ish

NEW YEAR'S KISS - CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE

woke up with fingers crossed
in a boy's bed with your pants off
after polite declines of coffee and toast
walked home itching in last night's clothes

passed a phone booth and a beauty bar
the broken windows of your neighbor's cars
in through the back door, to a message from sis
asking "who was your new year's kiss?"

it took the afternoon to piece it all
plus a half a dozen phone calls
crashed a party with larissa and chris
in pursuit of a new year's kiss

not the way that you'd imagined it
on the balcony with champagne lips
but in the pantry 'gainst the pancake mix
you had your new year's kiss
-------------------
that's unrelated to everything else i'm going to write, but it's been in my head for the last couple of days and i had to write it down somewhere. i really like that song!

anyway...

my basic new year's plans were eat dinner with angela and her dad downtown, then go to stella's party at her house near mica.

the rest i'm not sure i want to put on the internet...

fan-netherlands [before the official version] + canada = stoned...

holy god, last night...

lame title is lame... here we see patrick, ces, and liz trying to play super smash bros while mostly drunk. oh god, it's fucking ridiculous.




you know liz has been drinking if she breaks out into "hot in here" on guitar. also" nicole can't walk straight, anna makes deviled eggs, and patrick can't find a towel.