Sunny days don't make me happy

Computer guy didn't call today. I'm assuming that means he's still sick, which sucks for me, because that means a whole weekend without my computer. A weekend during which I have three papers to write that are due next week. Which I guess means a weekend spent cooped up in the windowless, dreary computer lab. Otherwise known as a wretched weekend for me. As if having three papers to write weren't bad enough.

I guess I'll manage though. Maybe I'll borrow a laptop, one of my friends has an extra he offered to let me use. We'll see.

I miss readings the blogs I read. I don't remember a lot of their addresses exactly, as they're conveniently stored in my computer so that when I type them, I only have to type the first letter or two and scroll down through the bunch of addresses I've used in the past however long to find the blog I want to read. And if all else fails, I have most of them in my favorites (I hope). I don't have that convenience on the school compuper, obviously. And thus my life is a little bit sadder right now.

Well, I guess I better go...do something else? I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe this week, well I guess I started it on the plane last week and finished it on Sunday or Monday night. And I watched the movie too, and while I do quite enjoy the movie, it's so not as good as the book. Obviously. Anyway, now I'm reading the second book (second in one order, where it starts with LWW, then goes to Prince Caspian), so that's cool. I think they're making that movie right now, but I'm not sure when it comes out. They're really quick reads, those books. I love the version I have too. Very small books, which I like. So I guess I'll go read that some more, or something...yeah. Sigh. I miss having a laptop, and not having to sit in a cold computer cluster just to check my email.

I need to win the lottery. Then I could just go out right away and buy myself some high-end awesome laptop and not worry about it! I'd have to get my hard drive transferred over somehow, though. Or back it up somehow to put on my new computer. But alas, I have no money, and most likely won't for...ever. Unless I marry some rich guy, or win the lottery somewhere down the line (unlikely, because I still have yet to buy a ticket, ever).

Oh I wanted to say: I have decided that O Come All Ye Faithful is one of the greatest Christmas songs. This week, the only Christmas music I've had access to is my Josh Groban CD and my Celtic Woman CD, and both have lovely renditions of that song. Josh Groban's is better, and it's at the end and is the perfect end to a CD, I feel, because it's just so...wonderful. Glorious, if you will. And speaking of Christmas music, one of the saddest things about this no laptop thing is that I still haven't been able to buy myself a Christmas ringtone! I don't want to use a school computer...although, now that I think about it, they probably just charge it to the phone bill, so I wouldn't have to put in credit card information...hm...oh, but I can't really listen to the songs to see which one I want. I think I know, but I'm not positive. Sigh. I just want my laptop back in working order. Or at least semi-working order. Stupid computer.

Ok, bye.

I'm sick, doesn't stop me from doing stuff

My computer might have been fixed today. Unfortunately, we'll never know because the computer guy called me this morning to tell me that he's sick and would be unable to come today. This has gone on far longer than I ever thought possible, and it sucks. I just told one of my friends that maybe I should consider doing irreparable damage to my computer so they'll be forced just to send me a new one, so I can start all over. That'd probably be quicker than waiting for mine to get fixed. Hopefully the guy won't be sick tomorrow, and hopefully the parts he ordered will fix whatever the heck is wrong with it, but there are no guarantees.

Oh, and apparently I just sucked this semester at figuring out when my finals are. Because I don't have two Friday, I have one Friday and one Saturday. I just miswrote the Saturday one on Friday for some reason that makes no sense to me. anyway. So now it's Friday, Saturday, Monday night, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday. I'm going to see if my trads prof will let me take it Monday morning, I think. That'd probably be best. I just hope he's not a stickler who will make me do it during the makeup slot on Wednesday evening, because if that were the case I'd be tempted just to take them all when they're scheduled. My grades are all gonna suck this semester anyway. I got my old testament test back today, the one we took before Thanksgiving that I thought I did fairly well on, and I definitely didn't do fairly well. Not the worst I've done on a test this semester, and it was slightly better than the last OT test we took, but definitely not great. Very disappointing. As this whole semester has been, really. Some really good times, and overall I feel positive about the semester, but really it's been full of a lot of crappy crappy things. Maybe it's God's way of showing me that even here isn't perfect, and that it won't be the worst thing to leave. Although, a lot of the good things are because I'm here, and a lot of the bad things are pretty separated from the fact that I'm here, as in, they're not really related to being here. Anyway, whatever.

I just want to have a computer again. Do you realize that all week, I've spent probably a total of maybe an hour and a half online? All week? I haven't checked any of my daily blogs or anything like that all week. I haven't been on NDNation at all, which makes me sad. I hate this.

Sorry. I'm all full of complaints all the time. I don't know why anyone reads this ever, let alone often.

It's like I'm in the stone age

Good news. The computer guy came today. Bad news? My computer still doesn't work. He got more parts to be sent, hopefully getting here tomorrow, but that means at least another day sans laptop, and who knows if the new parts will even do anything. My laptop is seriously just dying, if not dead already, and I'm very sad that I haven't had a working computer all week. I haven't talked to my off campus friends at all, barely, because calling them would be stupid (I don't really want to sit there and have a phone conversation, I just like the randomness of AIM, saying whatever whenever). At least I eat lunch with Caitlin. But geez, this sucks. I have papers to write. I have a study guide for Latin that I need to update for this week's test. I never save documents and things online because I don't really need to, and I have no flash drive that I saved documents online either. So now I have no access to anything that's on my computer. It sucks.

At least my pink eye seems to be going away quickly. And no, I don't rub bacteria on my eye. Well, I do, because everything is full of germs, but maybe getting it that one time last November just leaves me more susceptible to it now, all the time, for the rest of my life. In that one eye. The eye with the tear duct thing I had worked on when I was a baby. Or something.

I miss being connected to the outside world aside from my ten minute stints in the computer cluster. Argh. Oh but hey, at least they gave me new feet thing for the bottom of my computer! Sweet! Because, you know, I really need those and all.

Laptop, why do you hate me? Everything's getting old and dying. That makes me sad.

OH! The other big news of the day. I found out today that instead of having one final every day of finals week, and two the first day, I have two the first day, none Saturday, one Monday night 7:30-9:30, and THREE on Tuesday! Woohoo! 8am, 10:15am, and 4:15pm. So, you know, that's awesome. I'm allowed to switch one, per university policy (can't have 4 within a 24 hour period, because that's just cruel), but which one? And to when? I think I'll try for the 8am Tuesday one to get switched. That's Trads. I have a take home paper to do for Trads, that we turn in at the final, and then the final itself. So writing the paper and studying for that Monday night, after the sign language final, in addition to studying for Old Testament and Latin on Monday night, that's just not cool. So I'll talk to my trads prof. If I can take it even Monday during the day sometime, that'd be so much better. Hopefully I won't have to move one to Wednesday, because it would be so much lovelier to be able to leave Wednesday instead of Thursday. I'll keep you updated.

If I ever get my computer fixed.

:-(

I really really really miss having easy access to a computer, and not having to go to a computer cluster to check my email. Hopefully after this experience, I'll be able to stay off the computer a bit more (it has been sort of nice, almost, if it didn't suck so much), but know that I can get on if I want to. Because not being able to get on even when I really want to is just making me go crazy. I finally did get to listen to Christmas music today though, aside from while being in the dining hall (because, man, they went all out with decorations this year! I don't know about South as I go there far too infrequently this year, but North is impressive, and they play Christmas music all the time, all over the dining hall. I like it). I had really missed being able to listen to my new Josh Groban Christmas cd (because I finally got it! Thanks Cathy!) and it is rather wonderful, but before tonight I had only listened to it twice, and that's sad. But it occurred to me today that I could probably put it in my DVD player and listen to it, and lo and behold, it worked! And then I sat at my desk (newly cleaned off for the computer guy), and did my Latin. I never do homework at my desk. But I could hear my CD so well through the TV, and it was just lovely. As lovely as doing Latin homework can be, at least. Anyway though.

Hopefully the guy comes tomorrow. He was gonna come today but I guess he got held up longer than expected, so he called me at around 5. I was more than a little annoyed, but not terribly surprised. Tomorrow I have very small windows in which he can come (I'm free between 11-12:50, but I normally eat lunch then...and then I'm free after 4:15, which is sort of late), but I really hope he can fit me in. Hopefully I'll be high on his list, since he was supposed to come today, but yeah. It's hard when I have such busy schedule during the days. Thursday I have a big chunk of time between my two classes, but I don't want to have to wait that long. I do have papers to write, after all. I might be more productive coming to the computer cluster to write them, but...I don't wanna. I can't listen to music when I'm here. And the keyboard I'm using? The keys are actually squeaky. Slightly irritating. But whatever. Nothing's perfect.

By the way, in case you're curious, the pink eye is once again just a fairly slight case. Hopefully I'll have these dang glasses off and new contacts in by Friday. But that might be a bit too optimistic. We'll see. Either way, did you know it's almost December already? How crazy. I love Christmas though. I'm so excited it's Christmas. Yesterday the 80s movie "Santa Claus: The Movie" was on TV. We used to have it on tape, and man, it's so awesome. Haha. Great special effects too. And tonight the movie "Prancer" was on, which is also just so cheesy, but I love it. You know, I like having cable, but mostly just for the movies that I can watch. I mean, really, out of all like 50+ channels to which I have access, I watch probably...5 or 6. Maybe occasionally a few others. But yeah. Whatever.

Man I miss blogging. Sad, perhaps, but it's just such a relieving outlet for me. Soothing. Generally. Except when I get worked up about stuff. But dude, there's at least two or three different topics I really really want to blog about. But not now, and not in the computer cluster. Not sure why, I just feel weird blogging here. So I'm gonna go now, and hopefully go to sleep soon. Because, lovely of lovelies, I have to wake up in 6.5 hours for my 9am shift. If I want to take a shower beforehand, at least. Which I do. Sigh.

Well, until tomorrow (with any luck...)

Still gone...

Computer guy didn't make it today. I'm sad. No communication with the outside world for Susie...


But, tonight I got my Latin done the earliest I think I've had it done all semester. So, you know, that's a good thing.

:-(

Sigh

Laptop currently dead, guy coming tomorrow. Must use computer cluster. Ew.

Conjunctivitis again (4 times in one full year).

Humidifier on, to see if it helps my cold.

Hm.

Steelers win tonight with a score of 3-0. What?

I wish I were home again and done with this semester forever.

Sorry I've been such a grumpy bugger

Well, Patriots managed to eek out a win. Wasn't pretty, but it's still a win. (Stupid Randy Moss only got me 4 points in fantasy football. I hope the Steelers turn in a better performance tomorrow, because I'm playing Roethlisberger and the Steelers D/ST, and I need 30 points to beat the guy I'm up against this week.)

Also, I think my laptop has a death wish. It wants me to get so mad at it that I'll just throw it against the wall. Sort of like Kevin Spacey's character in Se7en.

I have to wake up at 7am tomorrow. So that I can leave here hopefully by 8 or so to walk to the parking lot, get my car, and drive to the doctor's office (where I've never been before and therefore am not exactly sure where it is. I have directions, but yeah). And while waking up at 7 is bad enough, waking up at 7 to go to the doctor is even worse. Especially because tomorrow's appointment could be either not so bad or really bad, depending on what they do. Hopefully it'll be in the not so bad category, and also hopefully they'll find that the lovely cyst on my ovary is all but gone, if not completely. Or at least well on its way.

Either way, it won't last forever. And then I'll have to decide: Go to the store (which I do need to do one of these days, soon), or come back here for a possible nap, depending on what time it is? I guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow. But I should be getting to sleep soon. Seriously, though, this computer is about ready to die, I think. I thought that maybe I could make it until Christmas break to get a new motherboard, because it'll be so complicated to figure out a time for a Dell guy to come here when I'm around, but when I got back tonight, it took far too long to get the stupid power cord to be registered by the computer, and seeing as how my battery now lasts at most 20 minutes, it's not a good situation. And now I've been having trouble the rest of the night getting it to stay in the hole and to stay registered. I don't think this will work for four more weeks, especially when they're the busiest of the semester. Hm I think I may have broken the place where the power cord plugs into...argh. Guess I gotta call Dell tomorrow. Stupid POS computer.

Mea culpa

Apparently it was indeed a case of mistaken...things. So whatever. I hate traveling. I am so so so sick of it.

At least I'm back now. (And the Patriots are losing. WTH?) And while I'm somewhat nervous to drive for Christmas, the time I spent today from leaving home to getting to my dorm was almost as long as driving will take. So...yeah. Doesn't exactly save a lot of time, flying, sometimes.

Woohoo, more time in the airport

So, I did online check in last night to avoid lines this morning. Got to security today, looked at my boarding pass, noticed that it said "Boards at 6:30" and that my flight was at 7am. This was around 8am that I noticed this. So I frantically called home to see if we had somehow misread what the itinerary said that my parents printed when we booked the tickets. Well, I couldn't get a hold of them, so after a few tries and a few calls to each of their cell phones, I just went through security and went to the customer service desk for Frontier. Long story short, they put me on the 9:35 flight we thought I had been put on, but it was so full they had to get volunteers to get bumped. So now I'm on a 3:15 flight, for which I had to pay a $50 confirmation fee. When I talked to them, they said I've always been booked on the 7am flight, despite the fact that my itinerary (I did eventually get ahold of Dad, who checked) definitely said it was the 9:35 flight, and I remember us booking that one. Needless to say, I'm pissed. Now instead of getting into Midway at like 12:50, and getting to ND by 4, I'm going to get in at like, what, 6 something I guess, so I'll be lucky to get in by 11 tonight. And that really really sucks. And not just because I have a doctors appointment at 8:50 tomorrow morning. I guess I just have to hope that there's a direct bus from Midway to Notre Dame, and then maybe I can get in a little bit earlier. The only thing that will make this whole situation at all better than horrible is if there's a TV on the bus and it's tuned to the Patriots game, which I was very much looking forward to watching tonight. But it starts as soon as the bus I'll be on leaves Midway. Ugh this whole day sucks.

I really really really hate flying. And right now Frontier's not exactly on my friends list either. I mean, how the hell did that happen? I know I was booked for the 9:35 flight. And then suddenly they just decided to change it to 7am without telling me? Argh

(And they have free wifi here, but it's really crappy, slow, and some websites just won't load. And that's pissing me off too. But I'm stuck here for another 4.5 hours, at least until boarding.)

My first eggnog of the season? Lovely.

Two-game win streak to end the season? Also lovely (despite it being sort of an ugly game, including the officiating -- two TDs called back against us, one of which followed an amazing interception and lateral play, but I suppose which had reason to be flagged, another which had no reason to be overturned. No reason).

Surprise party for Mom's 50th that was almost completely successful in the surprise part? Great as well.

Having to leave here at 6am tomorrow to get to Denver soon enough that the post-holiday rush won't make me miss my flight, only to get back to school for the worst three weeks of the year? Yeah, not so cool. Right now I would like to flash forward to December 20 or whenever it is that I'm home again. Because ugh, finals week? Da-am it's gonna suck.

My younger brother one time told me about some family (possibly someone famous? I forget exactly who it was) with two sons, one named Jack and one named John. He found it odd because Jack and John are nicknames for each other (or one for the other, but I don't know which one is the nickname and which the real name). I found it perfectly acceptable because it boggles my mind that Jack and John can be synonymous names. In fact, I'm tempted to name my two sons (ha, assuming I have two sons) Jack and John, just to spite the system. I'm sure I won't, but it sure as heck doesn't bother me when other people do so.

I decided something today, not surprisingly while pants-shopping (such a favorite pasttime. Except not). I want to lose at least one, and possibly two (is that even possible?) sizes by graduation. I don't think this is an unreasonable goal, considering that it's more than 6 months away. The fact that I've never successfully had self-control to stick to a healthy eating and exercising regimen for more than like a week might pose a bit of a problem, but I'm really kind of sick of who I am right now, physically. This has been, without a doubt, the far most unhealthy semester I've ever had. Not only have I not exercised meaningfully since September, I've also not adjusted my eating for that fact, I've been sick twice now (and I am one of those people who typically only gets sick once a year, and usually not too badly, but this year and last year both had bad colds. And then I am currently in the midst of another not so terrible cold), and then there was that fun first hospital visit. The sick thing and the hospital thing, oh and my toe!, all worked against me with the trying to start working out again thing. But anyway, whatever, it all adds up to the fact that, while I might not really look too much fatter than I was at the beginning of the semester, I just feel gross, and I know I need to lose weight. I've needed to lose weight for awhile now, but that's neither here nor there at this point. There's only the future now. I'm slightly worried to go to the doctor on Monday for my ovary check up, worried about how much I'm gonna weigh. And I also realize that the fact that I'm setting this goal at the beginning of the height of gorging season, but like I said, I have until May. I'm not trying to lose two sizes by Christmas or anything (as evidenced by the cup of eggnog I had tonight, despite a somewhat full belly). Anyway. I don't really have a gameplan as to how I'm going to accomplish this, but I sure hope I can. I'd love to feel truly good about my body for once, and while I may not know what I'm doing after graduation, it'd be nice to know that I'll be doing it without much of the bulge that I've come to know and hate.

Unfortunately, I must leave my house by 6am tomorrow morning. Ugh. It won't happen, but we better be out of here by 6:30. I'm already checked in, I'm not checking a bag, so I just have to worry about security, but who knows how that'll be. Wednesday was supposed to be terrible, but from what I heard, at DIA on Wednesday everything was going smoothly and quickly. I'm not optimistic enough about travel to think that that'll happen to me as well, but it's entirely possible, which means that if that happens, I'll be sitting at my gate for a good hour and a half (this would be preferable to standing in the security line for an hour and a half, though). Either way, better safe than sorry. Man I hate traveling. Why'd I pick a school so far away, anyway? Psh. (The good news is this is possibly my last airplane trip to/from ND for awhile. Depending on what happens Spring Break, that is. Although driving for Christmas brings its own set of problems, but at least I don't have to worry much about overpacking.) Anyway. Gotta go finish getting set to go for tomorrow. Sigh. Not much to look forward to the next three, four weeks, until I'm home again. Stupid school, totally ruins the whole college thing. (And sorry, I just realized I wrote about part of this paragraph up above. Oh well. Who doesn't want to read about my trials and travails as much as possible? ha.)

There's nothing interesting enough going on to write a whole post

For some reason, being here doesn't give me much to talk about. Or I just don't feel the need to write stuff. I don't really know.

Hm...I sort of wish there were some job I could do for the three weeks of Christmas break. I asked Mom if Velcon would have any random thing I could come in and do, but I don't think there is. I don't want to work a lot, like, I don't want all my days of break taken up by working, but it'd be nice to make a couple bucks, you know? Oh well.

Today I spent hours holding my nephew Jimmy. There's nothing like holding a nice warm, cuddly 5 month old.

Ok important question (to which no one will reply): For my Christmas ringtone, do I go with Mannheim Steamroller's Carol of the Bells, or Vince Guaraldi (from Charlie Brown Christmas, you know), one of those songs (not sure which one...Christmastime is Here, or his Greensleeves, or O Tannebaum)? I know, I'm spending way too much energy trying to figure this out, but, well, that's what I do.

French Onion crackers? Glorious.

LSU lost today, to Arkansas. Yet another highly ranked team (and yet another #1 team) losing to an unranked opponent this season. It's almost expected now, it seems. What a crazy football season.

Tomorrow's Saturday, which is my last day here, which is sort of sad but sort of not because I'll be back in like three weeks. Or four. Something like that. Speaking of which, boy oh boy is finals week going to suck. As it gets closer, I realize more and more just how much it will. Five days of finals, six classes with finals, you put it together. I mean, I guess it's good that they're spread out, but it also sort of just prolongs the misery. Can I honestly expect myself to study every day for a week, even if every day it's something new? Most certainly not. Which means I'm sort of a little bit screwed. Especially for the later ones. Which is also bad because my last two are Old Testament and Latin, two classes I've sort of struggled in this semester. Although I don't think my grade in Trads is all that great either, thanks to the midterm. ugh. Oh well. Whatever.

Remember how I got my motherboard replaced three times this year? I think I might be making it a round fourth here soon. Maybe. The second time they replaced it, it was because the power cord wasn't being recognized very well by the computer, and it was because of the connection on the motherboard end. So they replaced it, it was all good, and then it had to get replaced again for something else (I forget exactly what now). And that third one wasn't as good as the second with recognizing the power cord, but it wasn't terrible either, so I was like eh whatever. But now it's getting annoying. Sometimes it'll get disconnected and then I'll have to jam it back in and maneuver it around for awhile before I can get the computer to recognize it. I am so sick of this computer. But I have no money, and won't for a long time. To say the least. At least I do have a warranty on this thing, so it's lasted me this long without having to pay for repairs or anything which is obviously a good thing. Oh well, whatever.

We're getting a tree tomorrow morning. So...bedtime soon.

Happiness...

I just checked the KKLI website (that's our local adult contemporary/soft rock/whatever it's called station, which plays Christmas music 24/7 every year starting after Thanksgiving) to see if they had started yet. Guess what? They did! I'm so happy. Even if it is still a little early. I can't help loving it all. And given that Thanksgiving is over, I'm ok with it all now.

(And I think I decided a Christmas ringtone to buy. Since, despite a long search last night, I couldn't find Kenny G's Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, even though I know it was there last year, and I think even just a couple weeks ago...Anyway, I think I'm gonna get Mannheim Steamroller's Carol of the Bells. I haven't decided for sure yet -- it's a big decision, you know -- but I like the sound of it as a ringtone. Yay Christmas!)

That's right, folks

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Family, turkey, mashed potatoes, football and good times. What a great holiday. I hope you all had a great one, and I hope Christmastime is great for everyone!!!

(Because, you know, Christmastime is here...soon...and I get to wear my Christmas earrings with abandon now!)

OH! And I was watching part of the Thanksgiving Day Parade (only part though, because it's pretty annoying in general) and I saw this high school band from Alabama. They did their little routine in the main area place, and then started to march off again. And you know what they were playing as they marched away? The Notre Dame Victory March! Now, I suppose it's entirely possible that their fight song is the same tune. But whatever, it was ours first, and when I hear it, I can't help but have a physical reaction of excitement and good feelings. Anyway.



(I will admit, though, that I'm a little sad -- I missed the first real snowfall at school today. I'm good at missing snowfall. It sort of snowed here yesterday, but not really, it was mostly the night before I got here, and then it also snowed the day before I came home for fall break. Oh well. Hopefully there'll be lots more this winter...hopefully.)

Haha people at school went to class today

I really have nothing tonight. Let's see...

I saw the movie August Rush tonight. Quality, quality film. I highly recommend it, if you're ever looking for a movie to see. It's just very so much good. And PG to boot.

My brother's wide screen TV that we have while he's in Iraq makes things look weird. Very short and stocky. It's weird.

I couldn't online check in yesterday (something about the fact that my dad used some sort of rewards thing to get the ticket, so...I don't know), so I was stuck in the ticketing area again. Sucked, obviously. Could have been worse, but still. I was really sad when I walked into the terminal this morning on my way to my gate only to see a bunch of cots set up. Had Frontier not been stupid, I could have slept on a real bed-like apparatus, rather than on a bench that had very little padding and thus very little give. Sigh. Oh well. At least I got to listen to piped-in Christmas music all night, right? haha. Between that and sleeping on the plane, I'm very glad that I brought my pillow again. Makes things at least somewhat more comfortable.

August Rush is very good. And I want the soundtrack.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It was funny, all these ostentatious Christmas decorations up in the airport and whatnot, and then this morning, standing in line at Frontier waiting for their counter to open, I noticed something on the thing above the counter that says the airline and whatnot. Just over the Frontier counter, which was a small counter compared to the rest of the airlines there (Southwest has a whole half of the ticketing area) were a few Thanksgiving decorations, some little paper turkeys and pilgrims and Indians, looking very simple and childish there amidst the loud sparkly huge Christmas decorations. It was sort of nice to see, though. Since you don't see Thanksgiving decorations much anymore -- I can't remember the last time I saw a decoration of a pilgrim, really. Just pumpkins then reindeer. Hm.

I just heard a song from The Nutcracker on some Macy's commercial. I haven't seen the Nutcracker in a few years. I went almost every year for a few years straight over Thanksgiving weekend with Mom and Cathy. I really do enjoy that ballet. Maybe I can go again next year. It's a good time.

I just read a news story about how retailers are trying to get more people to go shopping on Thanksgiving by being open (period) or being open longer hours, etc. What a horrible idea. Because you know what lots of people don't think about? How much it sucks to have to work on a holiday. Have we become this consumeristic, this materialistic that we can't handle being home with our families on one day? Or so much so that we can't wait one more day for that sale to buy that thing we probably don't even really need? (Answer: yes, I know we have, because we're too ridiculously materialistic and we're very now now NOW, can't wait, immediate gratification seekers.) Having worked in retail myself, I can tell you that I'd much rather prefer a society in which places were closed on holidays and Sundays over the convenience of having places open those days. I mean, I guess there are people who don't care about working those days, or people who can only run errands and whatnot on Sundays, but still. Whatever. All I know is, when stores advertise with pride the fact that they're "Open Sunday!" or "Open Thanksgiving!" it doesn't really make me want to shop there that much.

There. I found some stuff to talk about. Man this blog is boring.

Can you believe it's Thanksgiving week already?

1. Did you cry today?
--- No

2. What were you doing at 8:00 this morning?
---Taking a test. Ugh.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
--- Taking said test

4. Would you ever consider adoption?
--- Yes

5. Are you in a relationship?
---No

6. Three words to explain why you last threw up?
--- Hospital/migraine fun

7. What color is your hairbrush?
--- green

8. What was the last thing you bought?
--- hm...aside from food things with my flexpoints, I bought a hot dog at the game on Saturday...the last real thing was probably my Christmas earrings. Oh. Will get bus tickets today to get to Chicago.

9. Do you think your life is good?
---I have lots to be thankful for.

10. Who is your boyfriend/girlfriend?
--- The Backer.

11. Where do you keep your money?
--- The bank, mostly.

12. What was the weather like today?
--- It's foggy, and misty. All in all, pretty miserable, which means that I love it.

13. Where did your last hug take place?
--- Outside my dorm.

14. Favorite energy drink?
--- Coffee?

15. Who are you talking to?
--- No one.

16. Do you miss anyone?
--- I miss my cat. :-(

17. Are your parents married?
--- Yes

18. Are you very random?
--- I'd say so.

19. Do you want to cut your hair?
--- Not right now.

20. Are you over the age of 25?
--- No

21. Do you talk a lot?
--- If I'm in the right mood, with the right people.

22. Do you know anyone named daisy?
--- Well, my friend's sister's dog is named Daisy...

23. Do you listen to the radio?
--- More so at home, and mostly just when I'm driving, but now that Christmas is coming, I'll be listening more. (Christmas music!)

24. Last thing you ate/drank?
--- I got a coffee before my test. Coffee and me definitely don't mix well early in the morning.

25. Do you make up your own words?
--- Sort of, sometimes.

26. Are you ticklish?
--- Not extremely.

27. Are you typically a jealous person?
--- I don't really think so.

28. Favorite animal?
--- I don't know, Kebbie?

29. Name someone whose name starts with the letter "B"?
--- Bethany!

30. Who's the last person to call you?
--- Katherine

31. Who's the last person you called?
--- Katherine (I swear, we really don't talk that often...there's like two days between those two calls!)

32. Do you chew on your straws
--- Sometimes

33. Do you have curly hair?
--- Sort of.

34. What is the next concert you're going to?
--- Um...Glee Club Christmas concert?

35. Where did you go today?
--- So far, Debartolo, Lafortune, and North in a minute. Airport later (woohoo!)

36. Are you happy with life?
--- Could be worse.

39. Have you seen the movie 'Donnie Darko'?
-- Yeah. Not impressed.

40. Do you have to work tomorrow?
--- I'm not doing any work for the next four and a half days.

41. Your aim or aol screen name?
--- Not gonna give it out here.

42. Who was the last person you said "I love you" to?
--- Don't remember.

43. What should you be doing right now?
--- I don't know, packing maybe?

44. Do you have a nickname?
--- Sure. But that's not one.

45. Are you a heavy sleeper?
--- I didn't think so, but I think now sometimes I am.

46. What was the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks?
--- I don't think I've seen a movie in the past two weeks. Not one that I don't own, at least (actually, maybe not even one that I do own...). Oh, I saw Harry Potter 5 last weekend. I think that might be it.

49. When was the last time you did the dishes?
--- I don't really have dishes to do...

50. Who do you think will repost this??
--- No one who reads this has a blog. Mostly.

So close, yet so not

Having someone to study with is good for me. Tonight, I got the whole study guide for tomorrow's Old Testament test written out and whatnot before 11pm. Do you know how beyond amazing this is? For me, at least? I mean, for the first test in this class, I was up until almost 4:30am. For an 8am class. This was partially because I was studying, partially because I couldn't sleep. (That wasn't a good week. To say the least.) For the second test, a couple of weeks ago, I may or may not have pulled an all-nighter. Or close to. Tonight? I'm possibly going to be in bed by 2. Possibly. I do still have to do more studying, and I have to do some Latin thing (or at least a bit of it), but yeah. Sadly 2 isn't really early when one must wake up at 7, but whatever.

24 hours from now, I'll be in the airport. Fun times. Hopefully I'll be in the ticketed passenger section (where I will have hopefully found an outlet, and hopefully can watch a movie or something). Hopefully I'll be asleep. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and I'll be back home (or at least in Colorado) 33 hours from now. Hopefully. And then it'll snow, and I'll be happy (but the snow won't interfere with my getting home. That would make me unhappy).

But first, a test and two regular classes. And some packing. Oh the packing. Still haven't decided if I'm going to take the 4:10 bus or the 6:10 bus. I seriously doubt I'd make it onto the last plane tomorrow night on standby if I took the 4:10, so it's probably not worth it, but...I don't know. I guess we'll see how quickly I can get packed and play it by ear. It's gonna be cold at home when I'm there, so I have to pack warmer clothes, which takes up more room, which will be difficult with my tendency to overpack...Oh well.

Back to the studying.

This week is weird.

Last night, I went to bed with a sore throat. Not entirely surprising, given the past week and this weekend and all. Somewhat stressful, not very conducive to much sleep, etc. I hoped it'd get better in the morning, but unfortunately it was worse. The glands in my throat are swollen, and I just feel sort of not right all over. Hopefully it'll go away quickly. At least I don't have much to do today, beyond homework and stuff. I have a test Tuesday morning, which sucks, but whatever. Just a few more days until I'm back home.

(9 hours later...)

People at work were annoying tonight. First of all, credit cards weren't working, which happens sometimes (ok, a lot -- last time I worked, which was Wednesday morning, they weren't working) because our registers suck. So people would come up with food they had gotten, and I'd ring it up and then they'd hand me a credit card. I had to tell them they weren't working, at any of the registers, and they would get all pissy at me. Like, "Well, I don't have any cash or anything." and then look at me like I'm supposed to do something about it. What do they want from me? I can't help that the registers suck. I can't help that they don't have flexpoints or domer dollars, or that they don't carry cash or refuse to use the ATM we have in Lafortune. Come on, people. Argh. Some days, work just sucks because I'm not in the mood to deal with annoying people. Some days, I can put up with it. Not tonight.

Ok sorry.

I have to register tomorrow morning. I hate it. Here's my current dilemma: (warning -- it might be long and ramble-y) When I went for theo advisement (where we tell them what upper level theos we want, the classes that we need departmental approval for), I signed up for three theo classes. Two of them I really want to take, one I don't really want but I didn't know what else I would want to take so I just did it. I think I'm going to take a history class, either this one on the history of sports in America (which I would want to take pass/fail because I guess it's interesting but sort of a lot of work), or something else. And then I do want to try to take a directed readings course. So that's four classes if I don't do that third theo that I don't really want, five if I do. Five classes would get me the 14 credits I need to graduate, four would not (if I do four classes, I'll take violin or guitar lessons, and then have to find another credit somewhere. I would do next semester's Know Your Catholic Faith, but here's the deal: It's weird next semester, and is taking place in conjunction with this seminar/conference thing going on here the first weekend back after break. Those of us doing that class would need to read a book and write a 5 pager, or something like that, and attend the conference Friday night and Saturday. I'd be willing to do this, except for the fact that I want to do March for Life which is Tuesday after that first weekend. Last time, I just did the one day trip, but I was thinking that I wanted to do the weekend-long trip this time around. Last I heard, they were trying to decide whether to leave Friday night or Saturday night. If they leave Saturday night, I could do both that and the conference thing. Friday night, I can't. So yeah. Sigh).

Anyway. Registration is stressful for me. This is the last time I have to do it, though. Isn't that crazy? I think I sort of have it figured out. I'm going to sign up for some classes, with the knowledge that I can probably drop/switch one or two at a later date. Whatever.

I have thoughts (and pictures) from the weekend. But not right now. Might have to wait until I'm home. Because here's what the next two days look like: classes tomorrow from 12:50-4:15, then again 5:30-6:45 or so (my MW theo class is canceled Wednesday, but we are having an extra class tomorrow instead), and then 8-whenever I'm studying with a friend for my Tuesday Old Testament exam. Which will suck. The studying and the exam. Ugh. So Tuesday I have that at 8, then class at 11, and again at 2. I guess I might just take the later bus at 6:10 instead of 4:10, because I need to pack somewhere in there too. And the chances I'd actually get to the airport and past security in time for that last flight Tuesday night, not to mention that I'd actually be able to get on the plane on standby, are very very slim. Maybe I'll play it by ear, but I don't know if I'll be able to pack in time for the 4:10. We'll see. Anyway, hopefully I won't be posting any long or interesting posts in the next two days (because I'll be -- hopefully --- being productive).

This is the end...the end

The next time I post, it'll all be over. The next time I post, it'll be after my last experience seeing a football game as a student, and in the student section. The next time I post, I'll be quite sad, I think. Regardless of the outcome of the game. But boy oh boy do I wish that we could get one single win at home our senior year. Especially because it's against Duke. If we lose to Duke, that's just sad. But not like unexpected, you know. But it's our last game. Our last game. Ever. I mean, sure, we'll come back as alumni. But it's just not the same. We'll never again see games as students. Except for those who are doing grad school here next year, I guess. But yeah. Sigh. I almost wanted to cry tonight at the pep rally, thinking about all of it, thinking about the finality of it all. I can't believe things are ending here. I can't believe that in a few months I'll be leaving it all forever, aside from the few times I might come back as an alumni. Visiting is different than living here, though, you know?

Sigh. I don't know what to do with myself. I suppose forgetting my troubles at the Backer is a good start. And boy did I do that tonight. But that's another thing I'll have to leave. No more Backer after graduation? What a sad thought. It's all just sad. This is why getting attached to things is a bad idea. And yet, how can you not get attached to the Backer, or to Notre Dame, or to Notre Dame football? I hate things ending. Good things, at least.

Friday Fun

This is it. The last football Friday as a student. Tonight will be the last pep rally, the last drummer's circle, the last pre-game Backer visit. It's so sad, people. So sad. I don't want to let it go. I don't want it to end. I don't want this to be the last football weekend. But it is, and there's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing I can do to stop this train. I guess I just gotta keep going on it, and hope for the best. (The best being actually getting a win my senior year. My last year. My last home game. I seriously want to cry.)

Why do good things have to end? Sigh.

Thursday Thoughts

One of my professors made an interesting comment yesterday in class. He said that doctors have become the priests of modern society. He was talking about the amount of authority they're given, the power they have, how little they're questioned. How they have so much power over life and whatnot. It was interesting, and something I hadn't really thought about, but it's a little sad. I mean, no one wants to go against what a doctor says, right? Sort of not good.

Another interesting thing, something I read, that in the modern era, we've "imprisoned" all our beauty inside boring ugly buildings. Which is true. Architecture just isn't pretty anymore. Churches are ugly and boring (it's never a good sign when your reaction upon seeing it is "That's a church?"), new buildings are just boxy and rectangle and flat and plain, and nothing's pretty anymore. Stupid modern era architecture. (Oh, and then we get "modern art" which, for some reason, is all over this campus, like that which we have dubbed "big ugly black piece of art" that's outside the Snite museum, and is a popular place to meet up with relatives and whatnot after football games -- too popular, actually, and if I were going to meet up with someone, I'd tell them to go to the nearby but underused ugly yellow piece of art. Much less crowded around there. But no less ugly.)

So, for some reason when telling people I'm going home for Thanksgiving, I feel sort of bashful (that's not the right word, but whatever) about it. Maybe because I haven't had a single break where I don't go home. But today I was thinking about my nephew (well, both, but especially Jason, as he's actually conversant now), and man, I'm excited to see him. All of them. Good stuff.

I read an article yesterday in which Seattle teachers or something were sent letters by their superiors telling them that Thanksgiving is not a "happy" day. Because of the Indians (sorry, Native Americans). Maybe that's why Thanksgiving is becoming obsolete, little by little, what with Christmas creeping into September. Whoever's in charge of being PC about things is trying to snuff out Thanksgiving because it's such a mar against history or something. I mean, not to say that Native Americans didn't get screwed or whatever, but...whatever.

I also read today that Santas in Sydney aren't allowed to say "Ho, ho, ho" anymore, something about it being potentially offensive because, well for obvious reasons. How dumb is that?

Only two more Thursday nights with homework for Friday. Not including tonight, obviously. Thank God. (Of course, then there's also one Thursday night with studying for two Friday finals, but whatever. Ugh. Finals this year are going to S-U-C-K. 6 classes, 6 finals, none take homes, final every day of finals week. Perfect end to cap off a perfect semester. A semester that is so close to being over. Weird.)

I can't believe this is the last football weekend. And that there's basically no more football after this. Every other year I've been a student, there's been another game to look forward to after the regular season. (Although, I most certainly didn't watch or pay attention to that bowl game freshman year. Insight.com bowl? What a joke.) Yeah, there's the Stanford game next week, which I'll hopefully get to watch (it's on espn2 though, I think, so I'll have to find somewhere to watch it...), but really, this might as well be it. How depressing, and sad, and...not cool.

Know what's getting me through right now? The fact that I only have 6 more days of T/Th classes left in the semester. Hm and only 6 more days of M/W classes. And only three more Fridays of classes. As I just said...yeah. And only two more sign language classes. Wow. It seems so far away still, but it's less than a month. And just over a month, including finals. Crazy. I mean, that's only 15 more school days total. And then finals. I hate finals. But whatever.

I can't wait until four classes. Four interesting, hopefully mostly easy classes.

Everyone else hates it. I couldn't be happier.

I broke out the winter coat today. I put my comforter on my bed last night. I've (sort of) seen snow today (the weather can't quite figure out if it wants to snow or drizzle or sleet or what). Mmm cold weather. Gotta love it!

Michael Goulet? Robert Buble?

Remember how yesterday I discussed the fact that I considered getting the new Michael Buble CD yesterday at Borders? (By the way, the one I saw there that was $24 was the special edition, or limited edition, or whatever -- it has one extra song.) I've had Michael Buble songs stuck in my head all day for some reason, and I'm ok with that. And then tonight, I just turned on Leno, which is odd for me because I haven't watched Leno in a long time. Especially now, since it's all reruns and whatnot anyway. I only turned it on so I could see Conan, as it's almost time for Conan. But it was just in time to see the musical guest on Leno. And guess who it is? That's right. Robert Goulet! (Aw, he died a couple weeks ago. Sad. Not that I'm a fan of his music or anything, but it's a joke between my brother I and my friends here and I that whenever I talk about Michael Buble, they say Robert Goulet. Because the last names sort of rhyme. And when I first started talking about Michael Buble, both my brother and my friends were, separately, like "Robert Goulet?" Anyway. What a long explanation that was. Oh, and if it weren't for Will Ferrell's impression of Robert Goulet on SNL a few years back, probably close to like...I don't know, 5 or 6 or 7 years ago maybe. man time flies. If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't even know who Robert Goulet is. Well, by now maybe I would have heard of him, but yeah. Anyway.)

So. I just saw Michael Buble on Leno. That's all.

Wacky Wenden

This video/song thing sort of made me laugh. Sort of a lot. I sort of enjoy it.

Word sucks at grammar. I wrote a sentence that included "distinguish good from evil," and the green squiggly line showed up under "good." When I clicked to see what they wanted me to change it to, it said "well"! No wonder no one knows the difference between good and well, when Word tells people the wrong thing. (Although, I guess Word isn't smart enough to recognize the context there, so to distinguish something well I suppose would be grammatically correct. If that were the context. Which it's not. Hence the problem with relying on Word for grammar and spell check. I bet people would be better at spelling and grammar if they didn't have Word automatically changing things for them.)

So last night, I was working on homework and listening to my favorite, slacker.com. Journey's Don't Stop Believing came on, and I got a flashback alllllll the way back to the Michigan game (so long ago, I know), when we listened to it in the car afterwards on our way to dinner. We rolled down the windows, turned up the volume, and (sort of) belted it out. We still believed, at that point. We still believed we'd start to get something going, football-wise. We couldn't stop believing that there'd be some wins this year. So when I heard that song last night, I just had to laugh at the sadness of the situation. At the fact that no one would be really all that surprised if we lost to Duke this week, and Stanford next week, and that we might go our entire senior year without a single home game win. How long I held onto the message of that song (although...the lyrics are so weird. Have you ever sat down and listened to them? Streetlights people?), only to give it all up after the Navy loss. Sigh. Sure, we might win this week (Duke is the only opponent that doesn't have a winning record, as they're 1-9 also this year, so it's not like this is USC or anything. Or even a .500 level team), but we also might not. Truth be told, I'd almost be more surprised if we do win (even though we're favored). Man, though, I sure hope we do. Obviously. (Every time I, or anyone else, say that I hope we win, I'm reminded of The Princess Bride: "Inigo." "What?" "I hope we win." Oh man I love that movie.)

I also love the Backer. Who'da thunk that I, Susie O, previous sort of looker-downer on frequent bar- and club-goers, would end up finding true love at a bar? Ok, with a bar. Haha. I don't know what it is, really. Is it the awesome Long Islands and Purple Rains? Is it the awesome, awesome music? Is it the ability to do what I secretly love to do but generally am too self-conscious to do in front of others; namely, "dance" in a way that only people who can't really dance do? (Because, man, I love to dance. I really do. Only, my way of dancing involves crazy flailings-about of my arms and legs, and lots of jumping around. But dude do I love it. But please. No grinding for Susie. No thank you.) Maybe it's because it's so close, we don't have to take a cab, therefore I feel better about going because it costs me $4 less than going somewhere that requires a cab. Whatever it is, and maybe it's all of it put together, but man I love that bar.
There's no place like it.

Guess what? I'm sitting in my room, with a long sleeved (albeit thin) shirt and a zip up hoodie on, and...I'm cold! I suppose I should shut my window. But you won't hear me complaining about my room being cold, no siree. It's down to 68 in here! Wow! Oh, the wonders of having a radiator that doesn't turn on and stay on until the room reaches its melting point. Mmm.

We discussed abortion today in my A Faith to Die For class. It's the 200 level theo I'm taking, just for fun because it sounded interesting. It's sort of a moral theology class, I guess, but pretty...eh overall. But today, I loved. Something about debating abortion just gets my heart rate going, in a good way, and I sit at attention the whole time. For some reason I don't typically join in the debating a lot...I'm not so good with that...but if there's a point I think should be made that hasn't yet, I'll pipe up. But either way, I loved it. I love talking (or listening to discussion of...) moral theology, particularly as it pertains to marriage, contraception, abortion, and the other major life issues. That's the stuff that really gets me going. I think it's partly because I feel that it's really misunderstood by a lot of people. It's the stuff that people tend to dismiss (well, the Catholic perspective on it at least) as outdated and just rules made up by a bunch of old white guys and thus are somehow less necessary to follow. I don't know. But man I love this stuff. (Hence why I'm considering seeing if I can do a directed readings course next semester, where I pick the subject, and I can do something like that. I just...need to figure out how to do it, and how much detail I need to have planned right now. Hopefully I'll finally manage to meet with my advisor tomorrow and she can help me out. If not, I can talk to Fagerberg after class tomorrow, since he seems a good person to ask about it.)

So, call me crazy, but I'm considering taking the bus up early to Midway next week again. Horribly worded sentence right there, sorry. It's going to be busy on Wednesday, and the last thing I want is to get stuck in Midway all day trying to get another flight if I miss my flight, and even though my flight is at 6am and thus I might end up missing much of the holiday traffic that early, I don't really want to chance it. I mean, I could just leave from here even earlier Wednesday morning, at like 2 or 3, but I don't know. If I just take the bus on Tuesday, I can take an earlier one instead of just the latest possible and then, oh actually I can even still just take the last bus possibly since I'm not checking bags and therefore can do online check-in before I leave. So then I'll have my ticket and I can get into the area where only ticketed passengers are allowed, and unless I misheard the message last time I spent the night in Midway, ticketed passengers are allowed in that area all night. That area would be lots better for sleeping, I think. And then I wouldn't have to go through security Wednesday morning. Etc. I had already decided to request off work Tuesday night (and obviously Wednesday morning, as I'll almost be landed by the time my shift would be starting), so that won't be a problem. I might just do that. We'll see. Either way, a week from this moment I'll be in Colorado. And that rocks my socks off. (Well, a week from right now I had better be in Colorado, or that means less than pleasant things have occurred, and that's not good.) And a week from tomorrow? I break out the Christmas earrings!!! So excited about that.

The Pope is coming to America in April. How I wish wish wish I could go. Sigh.

The Right to Life club is going to see Bella tomorrow night. I also wish I could go to that, but alas, there's a review for Tuesday's Old Testament test during the movie time. Oh well.

Annnnd...since I started with a youtube video, I think I'll end with one. Not everyone will be able to appreciate this, but it takes me back.


That's enough for now.

It is possible!

People! Big news! I'm sitting here in my room, wearing the shorts that I've been wearing to bed a lot this semester, and I realized it feels slightly chilly. I've had my window open at least partially all day, and it's like...I don't know, probably somewhere in the 30s right now (although it did get near the 60s today, I think). Anyway, I just looked at my temperature thing, and --how remarkable is this! -- it's at like 70 degrees! Amazing! I might even be cold tonight! (If I were actually going to be sleeping, that is. But unfortunately I still have some homework ahead of me. Hopefully it won't take too long, though...)

Just thought I'd share.

Tuesday Tangents

I keep thinking today is Thursday. Don't ask me why. (Know what I was doing a week ago today? Sleeping. In a hospital. Glad I'm not there now.) Anyway.

I feel very shaky and sort of hot right now. And not because my heater is on. No, it's (at least partially) due to the fact that I just had to go on an elevator ride a couple of times over at the library. Generally when I check out books from there, it's on the higher levels (11 or 12, usually), as those are the BS, BX books (the upper Bs seem to be church- and theology-related), and today was no exception. So, when I got into the elevator (I hate elevators, but I'm not about to go climbing 11 flights of stairs), there was someone in there who asked me what floor. I knew I had a couple books in the BX section and some in the BL, but I didn't know what number BL was on so I just said the number BX is on (because I pretty much know that by heart by now). So I got the books on that level, then saw that I had to go up one more flight for some more books, and then I had to go up yet another for a few more. Not feeling good after the first elevator trip, I should have thought to take the stairs, but I didn't for some reason. So by the time I was done, I was really shaky on my legs. Elevators really mess with me. Especially the Hesburgh one (that's our library) for some reason. Anyway. By the time I got back to my dorm, arms full of books plus carrying my bag over my shoulder, I didn't trust my legs to get me up to the 4th floor. So I had to, yep, use the elevator. Although, the elevator here doesn't tend to bother me nearly as much as other ones. Maybe because it's about a gajillion years old. (Seriously. It's very old-school. With a gate that you have to close manually. I should take a picture sometime for those of you unlucky enough never to have visited me.) But now I just feel somewhat dizzy and nauseated. I wasn't feeling stellar before the elevator adventure, so this doesn't help.

Poor, poor Susie. Woe is she. (I don't think that phrase makes sense. I mean, woe is me? If you turn it around to say I am woe, it just seems weird. I guess if you substitute grieved with woe, that makes sense, and I guess that's what it means. Hm. Anyway.)

Know what else? I really enjoy my Theology of the Mass class. Especially because of the teacher, which is excellent because I'm taking another class with him next semester. He's doing a class on CS Lewis, and I'm very excited about it. He's like...he's not the chair of the theo department, but he's something like that, and deals with advisement and whatnot. He's cool. Partially why it makes me so annoyed when my body won't cooperate and stop trying to doze off during it. I don't want to seem like I'm uninterested, because I'm not. I really like that class, but the time that it is I think for some reason is just one of those times during the day that my body gets really tired. (Another one seems to be around 7pm for some reason.) Oh well. Anyway. I like Fagerberg a lot as a professor. And I'm excited that we'll be reading CS Lewis, as I always want to read more of his stuff but never do. But if it's for a class, then I'm forced to, right?

Ok, so I just came back from a trip to Borders. I'm on the Borders Rewards email list, so I get emails every few days with coupons and stuff. Normally I just delete them as I don't get stuff from Borders very often (it's sort of overpriced) and they expire fairly quickly, but I got one the other day that was 40% off any single disk CD yesterday and today. With that, the Josh Groban Christmas CD would be something like $11.50. Pretty darn cheap. So today after class and dinner and stuff, I went down to Borders. Here's the story of my life: They had just sold their last one a little while before I got there. Sigh. And I had been contemplating getting the new Michael Buble CD (well, his newest one; I don't think it's exactly "new" anymore), but it was like $24! Ridiculous, Borders. So my trip off campus was sort of a bust. I did get gas though, which I've needed to do for awhile (luckily for me, I don't drive my car very often, or very far). Here's the bad news about that: I spent $50 filling up the tank. And it still had like a quarter tank left before I filled it up. Maybe not quite a quarter, but it wasn't empty, either. $50, people. I had no choice, though, as I heard that the price is supposed to get higher by next week, and I'm driving to Chicago next week which requires more than a quarter tank of gas. Sigh. I really should have filled it up when I had the chance before fall break, because it was still under $3 at that point. When we got back, it was up to $3.15 all of a sudden, and it hasn't gone down since. :-( Oh well. At least I can console myself in the fact that I've filled up that tank twice now since coming here. And that's not very much.

On the way back from the parking lot (and on the way to it, actually), I saw a cat. A black and white-ish looking cat, but it was getting dark on my way there, and it was definitely dark on my way back, so it was hard to tell exactly what color the cat was. But there was definitely a darker color on top and a lighter color on bottom. Anyway. Walking back, it was sort of near me, but it obviously didn't want to be very close to people so it sort of moved away when this kid in front of me started getting closer to where the cat was, and then it jumped up onto the bench in the way that cats jump onto things. And you know what? I really really really miss Colt. I miss her so damn much. I hate it. I'm not really necessarily a huge fan of cats. They're ok, I guess, but they have to be the right temperament, I think. I mean, I never was terribly in love with Blackie, although I didn't by any means hate her. But it wasn't until Colt came into the picture that I really cared anything about cats. I'm not a cat person. I'm a Colt person. And I hate that the cat that I loved so much, the cat that sucked at being a cat but was so funny to watch try, is gone forever. I don't know if I'll ever want another cat, because no other cat will be like Colt. I love dogs in general, so I know that even after Kebbie goes, I'll get another dog at some point. (Not to diminish Kebbie's specialness to me in any way, obviously. Kebbie's Kebbie, which means that she's awesome.) But I don't know if I can ever love another cat with the same affection that I loved Colt. Fat, skittish, stupid Colt. With her pathetic meows, and her ability to say "No," and her cute little carrying tiny stuffed animals from here to there late at night. And you know what? It really sucks that I only got six years with her. And I was away at college for almost half of that.

Sorry for the...tangent thing there. I think I need sleep. Won't happen tonight, though. And probably not tomorrow night, either. Thursday night's still a toss-up.

Emotapost

Gar. There's nothing like working on some Latin to get me all annoyed. And feeling stupid. I wish it were all as easy as Latin I. Why is Latin II so much more difficult for me? I totally rocked Latin I both semesters I took it. (The second time, I pretty much coasted for obvious reasons. Until we got to the chapters that were past what we had done at UCCS, since UCCS sucks at being as difficult as Notre Dame and don't go as far into the book per semester, apparently. But even after that I didn't do terribly.) I have been attempting these stupid sentences for like three hours now. It's so frustrating. I really thought Latin was one language I would finally be good at. But I guess not. It's just that there's too many cases, too many considerations for different types of clauses, too many irregularities. I don't know. Pain in the butt is what it is. Definitely no Latin for me next semester, I think. (Plus, if I were to take Latin next semester, that'd mean having a Friday class. And that would violate my rule of not having class on Friday next semester. I mean, it'd like directly violate it. Haha. As if there's any other way to violate that rule.)

I really do like the Latin language in general. I just...I just suck at languages. Some people just suck at them, and I'm one of those people. Heck, I'm not even very good at sign language. Which is its own language, by the way. It's not just a signed form of English. I think there are forms of signing that are more like just signed English, but not ASL. Anyway though.

Languages hate me, and I just have to accept it, suffer through the rest of this semester's Latin, take whatever grade I end up with, smile, and move on with my day. Albeit somewhat sadly, because I do really wish I could be good at Latin.

Unfortunately, however, the only thing Latin makes me good at is losing all interest in doing homework. Because after all that Latinizing (which I have yet to finish, by the way), the last thing I want to do is more homework. It takes all the work right out of me. Stupid Latin. Sigh.

It's like they say: always go with your first instinct

Remember yesterday when I complained about the seeming rising temperature in my room (despite the fact that the temperature gauge didn't move at all)? Well, turns out...I'm an idiot. When I was going to bed, I noticed that not only did my bed feel warm (ok, hot) where I had been sitting, but other places too. And I was not ok with that. So I decided it might be a good idea to check and see if somehow my under-the-sheets bed heating pad thing had accidentally turned on. I had thought of this before, when I started to notice my bed felt hot where I was sitting, but I didn't think the rest of the bed felt hot so I dismissed it. But later, when I checked, there was the control, smushed between my comforter (folded up at the foot of the bed, pushed against the wall) and my dresser, and it was on level 4 of 5. I don't know how long it's been on, but I guess probably not long or I would have noticed before that, but after I turned it off things were much more comfortable for sleeping. And that's a good thing.

I wonder if I'll need that thing at all this year. Or even my comforter. I guess it hasn't really gotten cold yet, though, so I suppose I can't accurately say that it won't ever get cold in my room. Hm.

I don't like single subject posts, apparently. Except when it's about football.

I just noticed that I still have tape residue on my arm from when I had the IV in. And from when they had to tape it all funky-like to my arm (and between my fingers) because it wasn't cooperating very well. I hadn't noticed until tonight, but yeah there's still some there. It's very hard to get off, did you know that? And I have all these bruises on that arm too, the one with all the failed attempts at IVs. And tonight I hit my arm where one of those bruises is, and it was rather painful. Sigh. Stupid hospital.

In four years it will be 11/11/11. That's pretty cool. If you like that sort of thing.

I wish I had a way to control what temperature my room stays. It's always above 77 degrees. Usually not much above, but even that is a bit much. I haven't really had problems with my heater turning on and staying on since they fixed it (they fixed it! On Monday while I was in the shower! I came back, and realized it was all quiet in there, and it took me a few minutes before I realized that it meant that my heater was no longer hissing! So it seems that when they fixed the hissing, they also fixed whatever it was that kept making it turn on and be crazy. I don't know if I ever mentioned that here because, well, I was slightly distracted the rest of the day and week...). But it still turns on occasionally, for shorter periods though I think (no more waking up to a melting room, so far), and I wish it wouldn't. Oh well. I guess I should be thankful I have a warm room to come home to, huh?

I don't like seeing Viggo Mortensen in anything other than Lord of the Rings. That was the first thing I ever saw him in, and did you know that he looks a lot different when not playing the king of a Middle-Age world? I most definitely do not like his non-Aragorn look. Not at all. He looks so much better as Aragorn. (Is it the facial hair? The brown hair? The long, flowing locks? Ok definitely no on the last one, but perhaps yes on the other two.)

The Wizard dude in the Wizard of Oz is sort of a jerk. I'm just sayin'. (And the Tin Man is an idiot: At the end, when Dorothy gets out of the balloon basket to get Toto, she's all like "Oh don't leave without me!" And the balloon is still attached to at least one of the posts by one of the ropes. And the Tin Man? He sits there, watches Dorothy go after her dog, and continues to untie that rope from that post. And then looks all surprised when the balloon starts to rise. Maybe he needs the brain.)

Guess what? Next semester, I've decided to forgo the Latin. It's just become too much this semester, and while I do like learning it and knowing it, I just don't know if I want to work that hard next semester. If I don't take Latin, it will be the first semester since first semester freshman year that I won't be taking a language. The three semesters after that I was taking Spanish, then the next three semesters (including this semester and the semester I was at home) I took Latin. I think it'll be nice not to take a language. So yeah. Anyway. Latin makes me sad. Because I suck at it this semester. :-( I suppose I don't really try very hard, though. I like being good at things when I don't try very hard. Man I suck.

My room is really hot. It's no hotter than when I wrote about it a couple paragraphs ago, but man it's just hot in here now. It's not right that it's finally cold outside, and I feel like I have to wear a tank top and shorts in my room. Sort of like...the anti-Debartolo. Hint: Both suck.

Sleep, though? Sleep is good.

Wait, you mean you're supposed to win football games?

Here's how it is. Our first home game as students ("our" being my fellow seniors and I), we had almost the best experience possible (to take away the almost, it would have had to be against USC, but yeah): we won in such a way that we rushed the field, and danced in Stonehenge, and had a grand old time. (Yes, it was against Michigan and we should never really celebrate a win against Michigan in such a fashion, because we should beat Michigan always and expect it and act like we've been there before, because Michigan sucks always. But this was in the Ty era, and we had just lost to BYU the week beforehand, so whatever.) And now, our senior year will end with our last game being a demoralizing loss (is that even possible at this point?) to Duke. It will end without us having seen a home game win, without getting to see the victory jig thing that the Irish Guard do after home wins, without having any real reason to celebrate at all this season. That's just how it is.

Because we suck that badly. We suck worse than anyone has ever sucked before. We suck worse than anyone ever thought possible, for anyone. We suck so badly that we are going to lose to DUKE. Duke, people. And we're not talking basketball here.

I don't even remember what it's like to be at a game where we're winning in the end.

(Or what it's like to watch our players on offense, and not expect us to have a turnover (be it through an interception or a fumble from one of our players). Or what it's like to watch a pass (when we're on offense, obviously) without thinking that it'll just get intercepted, dropped, or be completely off. Because dude, how many drops did we have today? Like EVERY SINGLE THROW. Jimmy Clausen didn't look too bad, aside from his bad decisions to keep the ball and get sacked instead of throwing it away. But man. I remember watching Brady throw, to Samardjiza, or to Stovall, or to Carlson last year, and fully expect them to be caught. Sometimes amazing catches in traffic, but they would be caught. This year, I watch and I expect everything to go wrong. And it does. And when the other team throws? I fully expect them to catch it, and then to get some more yards. Or to run it, and to get at least a good 5 yards per carry. At least. Because man, why the hell can't our defense defend against the option? They had a bye week, and then two teams in a row that work heavily on option. And we look like we've never seen it before, both weeks! Gawl-durnit all. I miss seeing us play well.)

(The one consolation of this horrible, horrible senior season is that everyone else sucks too, sort of. I mean, OSU -- the #1 team in the nation -- lost today to...Illinois, I believe. At home, which makes it so much sweeter. And USC hasn't done much of interest this year, and Michigan lost again today, and BC lost last week, and it's all the year of the upsets and whatnot. So...that's something, I guess. But in all honesty, I don't care what the heck other teams are doing. I just really really wish that my senior year didn't have to be the year where we have our absolute worst season ever. Without question, and by far. A year where we're going to lose to DUKE. The team that, before the season started (remember that? When we thought we might actually win a few games?), was a guaranteed win. The end of our run of cupcakes, the end of the stretch of four games that were supposed to be easy wins. Ah, how naive we were.)

Randomocity

Well, dagnabbit, I had parts of a post earlier today and wouldn't you know it, it's gone now. I know that one of the things had to do with the fact that I have 8 holes in my two arms from IV attempts...three of which actually worked, and two of those not so well. But that's pretty boring.

I hate it when I lose posts. Hasn't happened in awhile. Sad face.

Well, I'll tell you about this instead. I went to the mall tonight after dinner (semi-bad idea, as I was really tired by the end. Sucks how easily I get tired now. And it really sucks that, because of that, I am not at the Backer right now with my friends. I miss the Backer. I love the Backer. And I want to be at the Backer! :-( Stupid ovaries. Only good if you're trying to have kids, I've decided. Otherwise, they just tend to cause problems. Ovaries. Who needs em? I do I do! Just...not at the moment. And probably not for awhile, with the way things are going in that area. Haha. Anyway, the mall was tiring after a long-ish day for a post-hospitalized girl), not for anything for me -- I went spur of the moment and didn't even have money with me -- but I managed to find something I really wanted.
Look! Christmas earrings! Cute, dangly ones! And those red ball ones? They totally jingle. How sweet is that? I'm so excited to wear them! I have no Christmas earrings, and now I'm going to wear these like every day starting Thanksgiving. Until Christmas season is over, obviously. Not forever. Haha. But man, they're awesome. And now I really want Christmas season to be here. But being at the mall was weird. Because it's all Christmas-ed out, right down to the Santa area (although he's not there yet, obviously), and that's just wrong. It's still too early. I love me some Christmastime, but not before Thanksgiving. Seriously, people.

I wish I could remember what my other thing was...I had one thing about my IV fun times, and one more thing about something completely unrelated. Ah well. Stupid computer. But also stupid me. Whatever.

I want to be at the Backer. :-(

I went to the Glee Club concert tonight. Man do I love hearing groups of guys singing in lovely harmonies. Mmmmm. Overall, I'd have to say that the Glee Club does not consist of terribly attractive guys (and in the suits they wear for the concerts, they tend to look like little boys sometimes), but those voices all together makes quite an attractive sound. And their Christmas concert is in a month, and I'm very excited for that as well. Christmas music + Glee Club + almost the end of the semester = a gooooood time.

I want to go see a movie. I want to see Bella again. I saw it once already, and it was quite good. I highly recommend it. I didn't cry though, although I probably should have. I'm watching Return to Me right now, which is an awesome movie, and I almost always at least tear up slightly when watching it. Ok not tonight I guess. Anyway though, yeah. Huh? Oh, Bella. I want to see it again. OH!!! The Wednesday I come home for Thanksgiving, which would be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (duh), a movie comes out that I really want to see. I think it's called August Rush, and it looks excellent. Or at least mildly interesting. One of the two. I think my friend and I might try to see it at some point when I'm home that weekend. That's only two weekends away. Less than two weeks now. Crazy. I'm scared to drive to Chicago by myself in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning. Oh well. Oh and back to movies, don't kill me but "Enchanted" looks like it could be at least somewhat amusing. Anyway.

I had a horrible dream last night/this morning. Let's just say it involved me hearing about some bones found that were a long-lost missing girl's, and then somehow I was transported to being that girl, and then I like witnessed/experienced how she died. And it wasn't pleasant, because it involved being snatched out of nowhere by a guy running by while in some field, and then he and some friend of his sort of becoming animal-like as they ripped the girl/me apart, literally, complete with flying pieces of flesh. It was gross and very disturbing and scary, to the extent that it woke me up and I was almost afraid to turn around for a second for fear that maybe some maniac was sitting in my room watching me. I get creeped out easily when I'm alone in my room sleeping or almost asleep or after being startled awake. Anyway. I guess it evens out the quite lovely dream I had yesterday when taking a nap. It was a very nice dream, that one. Almost too nice, in that it was sort of sad to wake up to reality. Sigh. haha anyway. I don't tend to remember my dreams very often, so it's interesting that I remember two within like a 15 hour time span. Hm.

Well friends, I'm afraid I've run out of even boring things to talk about. I must therefore say adieu, and go on my way. Tonight might be the earliest I've gone to bed since getting out of the hospital (which is sad, and should be reversed). Hm. Anyway.

12(ish) days until Christmas music starts! And Christmas earrings! Yay Christmas earrings!

And it only took two days in the hospital...

I got flowers! They're from my parents. They rock. (My parents. Well, the flowers do too.)

Mmm they smell nice. And look pretty.

(Obviously, I sort of suck at taking pictures of flowers. Oh well. I have no idea what kind of flowers these are, by the way. Other than the pretty, smell-good kind. Works for me.)

I have very little to discuss other than ovaries.

(Ok, maybe I'm not really talking about ovaries, but it's all tied together with that.)

Without question, do you know what the most delicious thing I've eaten all week was? The chicken broth I had...was it Tuesday morning? Yes, must have been Tuesday morning. (Tuesday was all just sort of a blur, so I forget what was Monday, Tuesday, or yesterday. Not being near a window, and being in and out of sleep for must of the time, it was hard to distinguish one day from another.) But man, that broth was lovely. It was the only meal I ate while in the hospital that didn't end up making me feel nauseated, and it was also the first food I had had since Monday lunch. But man, as far as broth goes, it was amazing. A little salty toward the end, but yeah. Mmm. I considered getting it for dinner later that night, even though I was off the clear liquids diet at that point. (Probably would have been a better choice over the chicken noodle soup, as it turns out, although once I got some anti-nausea stuff and slept a little bit, that chicken noodle soup worked out fine as well.)

Saddest part about this excitement-o'-the-week? The likelihood that I won't be going to the Backer this Friday night. Sigh. I mean, I could, but it probably wouldn't be the smartest thing I've done ever. And while this year has been sort of the year of unsmart decisions made by Susie, I'm not sure that I should go this far into dumb decision making. Although, I mean, I went last week...haha. But last week I hadn't spent a good three days letting my legs turn to jello. I walked over to Lafortune today, and by the time I got back to my room I was quite spent. So I don't think spending three hours dancing away would be the most prudent thing to do. It's ok. The Backer will still be there at a later date, of this I am certain. Unless someone burns it down. And should that happen, that someone will be getting visited from a very angry ovary-cysted girl. And no one wants that.

Man, now I'm going to be freaked out anytime I do anything even semi-exerting. Obviously this weekend I need to take it easy because I'm way out of shape (amazing how quickly lying in bed for two days straight can get you out of shape), to the extent that my legs were shaking today after a trip to Lafortune. Which isn't all that far away. Kinda sucks a lot, because I'm trying to figure out how the game Saturday is going to go. I don't think I'll be able to do four hours standing. But I'm also completely unwilling to miss the game. One group of friends has seats right behind the Gold Seats, so I'd be able to sit with them and actually sit and see the game. I might do that. Problem is, they're in a different section than the group I sit with, and thus our ticket books are different colors. Still might be doable once we get past the ushers, though. We'll see. Anyway. Sigh. I almost wish it had been appendicitis, and then I could just be recovering now and not worried that anything currently inside me is going to rupture. Stupid ovaries. Oh, and that's the other thing. It's easy and painless to tell people that I had appendicitis. But it just seems sort of awkward to announce to a class, or to teachers, or anyone, that I have a hemorrhagic cyst (or just a regular cyst) on my ovary. Perhaps it's just me being more sensitive than I need to be, or perhaps it's real, but I doubt a lot of my teachers (5 out of 6 of whom are male) want to hear that. Oh "women's troubles." haha.

Welcome back

To me.

So, I've spent the last 48 hours in health services or the hospital. On Monday, I had really bad pain in my abdomen that started when I woke up and just pretty much got worse throughout the day. So I skipped my 3pm class (went and told the prof first since I was in debartolo anyway) then I went to health services. I was there until just after 5, at which point I had to go to the ER because they decided it looked like I indeed did have appendicitis thanks to a number of things (not the least of which was the incredible pain in my abdomen), and I needed an ultrasound or something which they can do at health services, but the place that does it there closes at five, and we decided I had to do this at around 5:07. So off to the ER I was, after getting my insurance card and rounding up a couple friends to bring me (the lovely Krista and Gail, to whom I am very indebted). I didn't get into the ER to be seen until around 9:45 or so, after getting there at 6. So that sucked a lot because as I was just sitting there waiting to be seen, I just felt worse and worse. My stomach hurt, I had a fever, and I just felt sick all over. Krista and Gail went back to campus after Katherine and Caitlin showed up, around 7:45 maybe. They hadn't eaten dinner yet so I felt bad about that, and there was no point in all four of them being at the hospital.

Anyway, after I got in, they wanted to put in an IV which was fun because I was dehydrated (I hadn't had anything to eat since around noon, and the health services people told me not to eat or drink anything as I was on my way to the ER in case I had to have surgery) so my veins weren't cooperating. They tried like three different places before they got a working one, which ended up not working very well and necessitated another one going in early Tuesday morning sometime. (And then yesterday at some point they put in yet another one because that last one kept getting kinked or something. So yeah. Lots of IV fun.) And then throughout the next several hours, I...got a migraine (they had noted that I was dehydrated and yet didn't even start fluid going after they put in the IV thing), I finally saw a doctor after 11 sometime, and I had to get a CAT scan before which I had to drink this stuff that would make my appendix more visible, and then I went and had that done. It was weird because I was half-asleep and not paying much attention to what was going on. And then almost immediately upon return to my room, I threw up. And I felt a little better. And then the CT lady said that it most definitely wasn't appendicitis, but something on my ovary, a cyst, probably a hemorrhagic one. So that sucked.

So then I had to have an ultrasound...a very not fun ultrasound...and then I got admitted to a real room and got there probably around 6 or so. The whole night from around 11 on, I think, I was in and out of sleep the whole time, so my sense of time was messed up. Plus I wasn't anywhere with windows, so yeah. Anyway. Then yesterday I basically just spent the whole day sleeping on and off, people coming in and out to do random stuff, I talked to the doctor in the morning who said that they might look at doing a laparoscopy to drain the thing, possibly, or just send me home and let it do its thing, since hemorrhagic cysts often just go away on their own. So yeah. I was going to be released last night but then I got another migraine, or at least felt very nauseated after attempting to eat some dinner and I had a headache too...so yeah. Then they decided to keep me overnight again, and I got a sleeping pill around 9:30 to help me sleep, and it did. And then today I just slept a lot too and then woke up enough to eat some lunch and talk to Katherine to see if/when she could come get me, and I got released around 2pm.

So that was my fun and exciting last few days. I've missed two class days so far, and tomorrow I won't be going to my 8am. Might make it to my 2pm, we'll see. I feel crappy for missing even more classes, but I also don't want this thing to rupture (because that'll mean a lot more pain, and more missed days). We'll see. I have to go back to the hospital in 2 or 3 weeks to have another ultrasound, which is a bit of a comfort.

So tonight it's a lot of laying in bed, being a bum (and actually being allowed to do so! More or less). I want to eat something, but I don't know what, exactly.

Anyway.

I'm sure I'll be writing again, because it's what I do best, right?

Sorry...

I'm in the hospital, and am writing this a couple of days later when I'm no longer in the hospital...and only because I'm doing this thing (NaBloPoMo) where participants blog every day for a month...apparently there are prizes, and while I never win anything, I'll be darned if I'm going to lose an opportunity just because of a stupid little hospital visit.

Christmas!

So, on my slacker.com radio, obviously I have Josh Groban as a selected artist. I was listening to it last night, and I was about to go to bed, and "up next" was Josh Groban so I skipped to the next song. Any guesses as to what CD it was from? That's right. His new Christmas CD. It was O Come All Ye Faithful, and it was amazing.

Christmas is coming! (Starbucks here is already in full Christmas mode, with the Christmas music, the Christmas cups, the Christmas flavors. It's still early yet for that stuff, but boy do I love it when the time is right. And I'll admit to being a little bit excited about it even now.)

Remember when I used to hate football, and alcohol?

We might could possibly get snow on Tuesday or Wednesday. I mean, the highs are in the 40s both days, so nothing real. But how much you wanna bet that, on either of those nights when it's sure to be below freezing outside, I'm still gonna have to sleep over all my covers in just a shirt and my very short pajama shorts? Argh.

Oh, and while I'm here, in your face, Colts! I knew it wouldn't be an easy win, but I believed we'd still get a win, and indeed we did. I felt validated and relieved, especially considering the upsetting experience I had at the dining hall at lunch today. I was wearing my Tom Brady jersey, and the guy working at the station with the meat and stuff, whatever the meat of the day is, he got my attention after I went back to get some ketchup (I hadn't gotten the meat or anything, he just saw me), and told me to come over. And then he proceeded to ask me if I was actually a fan or if I was just wearing that shirt. (Why on earth would anyone wear a jersey if they weren't a fan?) And then when I jokingly said, "No I'm just wearing it" because it was a stupid question, he was like, "I'm serious, are you really a fan?" And I said I am, and then he said something about how the Pats were going to get crushed today. I said, "Ok we'll see" and left. I mean, if it was a normal interaction with a normal person, that'd be one thing. But this was an adult man, talking to me as though I had seriously offended him, or were wearing something seriously offensive. His voice and stuff, it was like, dude I'm not wearing a swastika or something like that. I don't get it when people do stuff like that. Maybe some jovial ribbing, that's one thing. But to talk to someone like he did to me, or for people to engage in very mean-spirited comments toward another person because the mean person doesn't like the other person's team, that's just ridiculous. I would never be all jerky like that about people just because they're wearing something that supports a team I don't really like. This guy was scarily serious about making sure I knew what an idiot I was for supporting the Patriots. I don't get people sometimes.

Anyway. Pats won, so that's excellent. And the Cowboys played wonderfully against the Eagles tonight, which is good for two reasons: One, I tend to root for the Cowboys in general unless they're playing against like the Patriots or whatever. Two, the guy I'm playing this week in fantasy football only had one player left by the time that game started, and I was up like three points over him at that point, and his one player was McNabb, the Eagles' QB. So I really wanted him to have a bad game so that the guy I'm playing didn't get many more points. I still have one unit left to play, and that's the Steelers D/ST tomorrow night. So now thanks to the Cowboys doing very well against the Eagles, I just need the Steelers to be good enough tomorrow night to get me 4 points for their defense. Very doable, I think. Actually I guess I need five to win. Anyway though. Good times.

Best thing I've read today? "The only thing better than creepy Susie is drunken creepy Susie." That's been the birthday girl's (Julie) away message for much of the day. In context, it's hilarious. Oh how Backer memories will be cherished after this year...

Speaking of that, sort of, isn't alcohol supposed to make you lose your inhibitions? I mean, seriously. Even a little bit? Maybe I'm just that much of a control freak that I absolutely refuse to let myself get to that point, no matter how much I have to drink. Because all it makes me do is dance, dance, dance. Wish it had let me lose a bit more control (just a bit -- nothing crazy now) this weekend. Alas.

Anyway.

What I woke up to this morning...

You see the little pointer thing that says what temperature it is? Yeah, that's because it was so hot it went higher than even the part that says "C/F". Actually by the time I took this (after I took my shower), you could see the pointer (barely -- it's right there at the F). But when I woke up, before I opened my shade (the window was open all night, as it always is now), it was definitely off the charts there. The weather has finally gotten to the point where it's consistently cold at night, so I'd be able to sleep under the covers without getting hot, and maybe even put my comforter on the bed. But you know what? The past few nights I've slept over all the covers. Over even my afghan. And last night/this morning, there was a point at which I woke up and realized that my fan was actually just blowing hot air at me. I think the fan itself had gotten so hot that it was generating heat too. Everything I touched in my room this morning was just warm -- toothpaste, desk, dresser, hairbrush, etc. I hope that they come look at it this week, because I thought I was done with having to deal with 90+ degree temperatures until next summer. No, what I hope is that they can actually do something about it, because this is beyond ridiculous in a big big way. I'd rather them completely disconnect the heater and have to deal with possibly a cold room (but this is the 4th floor, and heat rises) than deal with this. There is no reason that my room should be this hot in November when it's 50 degrees outside. No reason. It's nice to come in to a warm room from cold weather outside, but there's a difference between like a 70 degree warm room and a 90 degree one.

Yeah.

Addendum

For the record, I don't necessarily think that Weis should be fired immediately, or this year. And he won't be. He has the #1 recruiting class coming in next year (and players continue to commit, even after this unbelievable thing that is our season -- hopefully that won't change, and hopefully those that we have won't decide to go elsewhere now), and I still think he could have at least something of a good year next year. Maybe. Hopefully he's learning more this year than he has in his whole tenure thus far, and hopefully it will show next year.

Unfortunately, I'll have to experience it through a TV, and not as a student, and that makes me sad. Will I even care enough after this year to spend the 4 hours every Saturday that are required for ND football-watching?

Speechless.

I can't even describe what I'm feeling at this moment, what I've been feeling for the past five hours. I mean, it's just...unbelievable. Now, I'll admit that up until today, I still thought Charlie had some good coaching in him. I was unwilling to believe that this entire horrible nightmare of a season had a lot to do with him and his coaching. Today? He coached us right out of a win. The game was entertaining, it was good, it was pretty much what I expected. Or as good as I could expect. And then we were on 4th and 8 with 45 seconds left in the 4th quarter. We were down near their 20 or 30 or so, so pretty close to the red zone. Score was tied at 28-28 (thanks to our inability to keep them from converting a 2 pointer after one of their touchdowns, as they had missed an extra point earlier in the game that I thought would make a difference in the end. Unfortunately it didn't). Logic would tell a person that any team in that situation would go for the field goal there, right? Apparently our brilliant Super-Genius of a coach (yeah, remember when we all thought that? Those were the days) decided that, no, it wasn't enough to get a field goal. We need to win by 7, not just a lousy three! He had been going for it on fourth downs quite a bit today. Well, actually he tends to do that a lot. Like at Purdue, it worked well for us on fourth downs. But today I just kept thinking it was a bad idea the more he did it, thinking one of these times our luck would run out. Well, it did that time. Granted, ok, I suppose our kickers aren't the most clutch, aren't the most reliable. But seriously. You go for the field goal there. EVERYONE knows that. Except, apparently, our head coach. That call was up there with Willingham's call in the 2004 BC game to punt from the 30. From the BC 30. As in, there were 30 yards between us and their endzone, and instead of at least trying for a field goal (unlikely to get it, but weirder things have happened), he decided to punt. That was one of the most ridiculous coaching decisions I've ever heard of, until this.

You probably know the rest of the story. If not, here's how it went. Navy got the ball with 45 to go, we stopped them pretty quickly (finally, defense, way to step up -- they were pretty disappointing today), and then we got the ball with like seven seconds left, so we didn't do much with it. Here comes overtime. I hate overtime. I hate it. With a passion. I couldn't watch it. I was freezing by this point, down to my bones, shaking from that and from the whole game situation, so most of overtime was spent sitting on the bench (while everyone was standing, obviously) or standing with my hands over my eyes. Occasionally I would venture a peek or something, but yeah. I just...I just couldn't watch it. Anyway, they got the ball first (Weis actually managed a good call by opting to do defense first -- that's what you do in overtime if you have the choice and have any common sense), and obviously scored, got the extra point, etc. Then we did the same. Then we got the ball, I think just managed a field goal (which we MADE, thank you very much Weis). Then they did the same. I hate overtime. Then they got the ball, scored, and since it was 3rd OT and once you hit 3rd OT you have to go for two if you get a TD, they went for two, and of course made it. I believe that it was this OT where they scored on the first play. But I wasn't watching, so I don't know if it was a pass or a run. Our inability to defend either today, it wouldn't surprise me either way. So then we had the ball. We finally managed to score, and then...no 2 point conversion. Which is no surprise to me. I knew that we had to stop them from getting to 3rd OT, or stop them from getting a TD in 3rd OT, because just the way that they play makes overtime and 2 point conversions favor them over us. I knew we'd be incredibly lucky to get the 2 pointer. And luck has not been our strong suit this year. Obviously.

So here's where we stand. An historic 1-8 (8!!!) season, the worst season in the history of Notre Dame football, far too many consecutive losses to USC, far too many blowouts, lots of pain where Michigan is concerned, lots of crappiness all around, and now added to that will be the end of a 43 win streak against Navy. Which I believe had been the longest win streak of any in the game of college football. None of the other horrible coaches that Notre Dame has had through the years, and there's been a fair share, none of them managed to lose to Navy. This isn't a knock on Navy at all. They always fight us hard, and today was no exception. But this loss falls squarely on the shoulders of Charlie freaking Weis. There is no one else to blame today. Sure, the defense could have played better. But the defense didn't decide to go for it on 4th and 8 when a field goal would have pretty much guaranteed us the win. Even if we hadn't made the field goal there, at least we would have tried. No one would be questioning a field goal attempt over going for it on 4th and 8. Not when we're tied, with very little time left, and the win there in our grasp.

What a senior year, eh? (As I said earlier today, I bet UCLA feels like an idiot for losing to a freaking 1-8 team.) I believe that Weis should take some of the ridiculous amounts of money he earns and give it to each and every one of the seniors for completely ruining our last season as undergrads. Not even just being bad, but for making it the WORST season Notre Dame itself has ever seen. Not just the worst season we've seen. The worst season anyone's seen. He owes us. Based on even just that one call, he owes us. (And apparently, for that 2 point conversion attempt, he put in Travis Thomas who just isn't very good, instead of Aldridge or Allen who had both been running the ball greatly the rest of the game. If that makes sense, I don't know what doesn't.) Give me my senior year back, jerk. I defended you. Not anymore.

Is one home victory too much to ask? Just one? I mean, if Weis is going to coach us like he wants us to lose, I don't see how we're going to beat even Duke. DUKE will beat us. I wouldn't be surprised if Air Force beat us either. Remember when we used to win, and when we used to win at home? Yeah, I barely do too. I'm sure it would have been a nice time.

(Oh, and I've discovered, after going out to eat tonight to a place that had a TV showing the ABC night game, whatever it was, some SEC game, that it's painful to watch college football now. Painful. Because no team looks as inept as we do. And other teams actually look GOOD. Imagine that. Some teams find ways to win. And score. And defend. AND NOT GO FOR IT ON 4TH AND 8 WHEN A FIELD GOAL WOULD WIN THE GAME.)

If the Irish win, I wouldn't be completely sad if the Pats lose...

My two football teams this weekend are both playing games that could easily go either way. Obviously we have no idea what's going to happen today between the Irish and Navy. Theirs is the worst defense we've played thus far (as we've apparently played 6 of the best 16 defenses so far, or something like that), but our offense is sort of horrendous. In a sad sad sad way. And their offense very much relies on the option, which we aren't so good at defending. I mean, that's what they did last year and all too, and we still managed to hold them to something like 14 points, but you never know what'll happen. (Or if we'll be able to score 14 points even if they are held to 14...) And then with the Pats-Indy game, absolutely no one knows what'll happen there. On the fantasy football projections, as they project scores and explanations every week for each player, both the Colts defense and the Pats defense are projected to amass a total of -3 points (each). For some reason this strikes me as funny. I think it'd be completely crazy if like both teams scored in the 50s and it was just a total shootout. (Although, I'd find it really funny if the Pats manage to put up a game like they did last week against the Redskins. But the Redskins the Colts are not. Obviously. And since the Colts have beaten the Pats three times in a row now, I'm by no means just completely expecting a win for the Pats. But man, wouldn't that be nice?)

Anyway. It's Saturday. I got me some football on the brain. Deal with it.

I'm in love. Or something.

I really shouldn't post when I'm drunk (or even somewhat...), but I wanted to say something.

...


Now I can't remember what it was. Hm. Maybe it was that I hope we win tomorrow, but I will admit that I don't really think beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will. Or that it'll be easy if we do. Either way, you know what? There'll be a flyover. And it's Navy, so that's cool. You can't hate Navy.

Know what else? Darn I forgot what else. Oh yeah! Caramel and chocolate is like amazing together.

AND. The Backer is my new best friend, I've decided. One of the few places that provides heat on a cold night long after you've left. My love for the Backer is unparalleled, I think. (The Backer is a bar, by the way. A bar with a great big dancing area that plays great music. Some crap, but lots of 80s stuff, and boy band stuff, or at least NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye (not that I like NSYNC, but whatever), and it's a grand old time. AND you get a free drink with the $5 cover. Beat that. I have a free drink ticket from the last time I went (prior to tonight), which followed a party for Katherine at which I had a few (four) shots and two drinks, so I decided I was done for the night. They have different colors for their free drink cards, though, so unfortunately I couldn't use mine tonight as they were only using a certain yellow color. Sometimes they have a grab bag of colors, a mix of different cards, so I'll just have to wait for that to use my extra free drink. Because let me tell you, when I get that free drink, it will be amazing. TWO free Backer drinks in one night? SWEET. Oh. This has all been a parenthetical statement. So I'll end it.)

One of my hand soaps smells weird. Before the beginning of the year, I got two little soap dispensers -- one with a more fancy soap, and one generic kind. The generic kind has a smell that at first I liked but which I believe I now associate with like my gross toe and conjunctivitis and general nastiness I had going on which required lots of handwashing. For which I would tend to use the generic, less cool kind, because I didn't want to waste the good one on my germophobia (whether rightfully or irrationally). So now I kind of hate that smell. Hm.

Um. I think I should go to bed. Haha. Football tomorrow! Woohoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Correction

Remember when I said, yesterday or the day before, that I saw a commercial for ABC Family's Countdown to Christmas? The one that starts Nov 21 (which I found odd, as that's more than a month before Christmas, and they do like the 25 Days of Christmas)? Turns out it's the Countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas. So they're like dragging out the whole Christmas thing as long as they can, I guess. Weird.

Whatever.

Color me surprised

So, remember how I had a rather terrible day yesterday? (Because of one stupid stupid grade?) And then I said maybe I'll have a good day today somehow? Turns out, I did! Didn't go to bed as early as I would have liked (and won't again tonight -- argh having homework on Thursday nights absolutely sucks. Definitely won't have that problem next semester, I can guaran-darn-tee you that), and then had trouble falling asleep, but I still got more sleep than I've gotten any other night this week. Aside from Sunday night, but that's only because I don't have to be up until like 11 on Mondays, and that's just so I can eat lunch with Caitlin at 11:30. Otherwise it'd be even later. Anyway. And then I had Old Testament, which was pretty par for the course, nothing special or great or bad. Although, one of the two people who sit next to me in that class (we have assigned seats by last name -- my senior year of college, and I have two classes with assigned seats by last name, not even just "pick a seat and that'll be where you sit all semester") wasn't there, which was enjoyable because it just feels so crowded sometimes in the Debartolo classrooms when I have to sit with people on either side of me. I dislike it rather immensely. (To the point where, in one of my classes, I put my bookbag on one side of me so that I only have one side open, and generally the same girl sits there who I'm acquaintanced with.) Anyway. I guess that was the highlight of that class.

Then I went to the A&L department for their walk-in advisement hours, but they were all in a meeting this morning. When I went on Tuesday, they were all in a meeting until half an hour after I was there, and I didn't feel like waiting around. They seem to be in meetings a lot. Like, every time I go. Sort of annoying. But whatever, I guess that's what I get for trying to be spontaneous and not making an appointment. I'll get in one of these days. Actually I sort of have to do it soon...Anyway though. Hopefully I can get in tomorrow. Got grabngo after that, was cold as it was in the low 30s and I was just wearing a T-shirt, sweatshirt, jeans and flip flops (my heater turned on sometime during the night rendering me very hot and making it difficult to believe that it was very cold outside), got back to the dorm and was greeted with a room that was a good 50 degrees warmer than the temperature outside. Lovely. Checked email, etc, decided to take a nap instead of work out or do homework. Slept until Caitlin called me for lunch at 12:15. Glorious. Came back after lunch, got online again, checked to see if classes for next semester were up yet -- and they finally were! That got me very excited, probably more so than it should have, but I'm still very excited about it. Whatever. Had to go to my 2pm class, so got my normal latte from the Huddle on the way and headed over there. That class is always enjoyable, even if I do occasionally (or...generally) have a hard time during the end keeping my eyes open. I hate it, I don't know what it is, because I do like the class and I very much enjoy the teacher. So anyway. I didn't have that problem today though, possibly because of the lovely nap, or the latte (but I always have one of those), or my general excitement over life today. Anyway. And afterward a friend of mine and I went to the theo department to pick up a paper copy of the classes for next semester, which again got me re-excited because man. I'm excited about classes next semester. But wait for that.

Oh! I just remembered what else was great between lunch and class! I watched like ten more minutes of Harry Potter 3. I put it in my DVD player a couple days ago and mostly just watch a few minutes here and there, usually before I go to sleep or something. And so I felt like watching some in my little bit of downtime there, and I love it. Harry Potter is just fun. So enjoyable. Anyway.

Um...so I don't really know that anything happened after that. Oh! Duh. All Saints Day Mass at the Basilica! That was lovely. Man I love the Basilica. And the Lit Choir was singing, which is always great. Lots of incense going on too. Gotta love the incense. Anyway. Good times.

So. About the classes. I am so. excited about picking for next semester. And I have a really good DART time too! I think I might just end up taking only theo classes again next semester...I don't know. There are quite a few good ones that I want to take, and I don't know how I'm going to pick only four. Sigh. Haha. I definitely want to take this CS Lewis class with Fagerberg (the prof of my 2pm TTh class this semester), and I want to take this class with a prof that everyone says everyone should try to take at least once while here (he's very famous in philosophy circles), and I'm trying to decide if I should continue my Latin career (right now leaning towards not, but we'll see). I might end up taking five classes. I don't know. If I do take that philo guy class, I'm gonna try to do it pass/fail. And I also was thinking about doing a directed readings course, to lighten the load a bit more, but if I'm struggling to get in all the classes I want as it is, maybe that'd be stupid. I don't know. I have to look at that this weekend though. Anyway.

This is unrelated to everything, but it's really good. Great read. About the ND-Navy relationship.

Funny story, we got sent an email today regarding parietals on Saturday night. As you may or may not know, Sunday morning at 2am is daylight savings. Parietals on weekends is at 2am. Our email said that parietals do not get pushed an hour later because the clocks get moved back. Sad (not really, as it rarely affects me if I'm in the dorm at that time). But funny too.

Ok. Argh. i have to go do work. I suck at that. Especially Thursday nights. No Friday classes next semester, that is a definite. And no early classes. And I'm tempted to pick classes based on where they'll be, because I don't want to repeat this semester's Debartolo marathon. All Debartolo all the time! I won't be able to avoid at least one Debartolo class, but hopefully the rest can be elsewhere. Just for a change. I'd love to have a class in the Main Building, but they're few and far between, unfortunately. How cool would that be, though? Man. Anyway. Ok yeah back to work.

I can't not love it

I just saw a commercial for ABC's Countdown to Christmas! I'm so excited. (Don't worry, it doesn't start until Nov 21, so that's good.) But yay!!!