Bit of Ivory

And here I was hoping that the end of school would make me less busy. But instead I’m having to catch up on all the things I’ve been putting off for school. Including sleep, which I can’t seem to get enough of. I mean, really can’t get enough of. I’m more tired than I’ve been in a long time. Accumulation of all the hard work of the past semester, I guess. I’m kind of looking forward to my job ending on Thursday.

That’s right– with the end of the project I’ve been working on, my job ends, too. I’m looking forward to a bit of free time– at least, I might get free time, I’m interviewing for a job at BYU tomorrow– but I’ve been at WGU for more than a year, and I’ll miss it. Good people, pretty good place to work. But I’ve outlived my usefulness– I need to move on to bigger and better things. This internship, developing this program and this assessment, has been really good for me, but now that it’s done, my talents would just be going to waste. So, we move on. If I don’t get this job at BYU (it’s in the Graduate Studies office, doing writing and editing and training), I might apply to be a grader at WGU. It would be contract work, which would be good for my schedule, and it would look good on my Ph.D. applications. Might help make up for my complete lack of teaching experience, which still has me worried. I’ve been trying to think of alternatives to getting a Ph.D. Maybe I’ll end up getting my MLS after all; with a MA in English and an MLS, I could work in an academic library, which would be nice. I might still be able to get a job teaching English at a junior college, but even then I’m going to need to get some teaching experience somewhere, to compete with all the other MAs who will have teaching experience while I don’t.

Gah. I’m so screwed.

And so tired.

I got a B in my Critical Theory class.

I can totally handle a B. Considering how little I felt I understood and how late some of my assignments were, yeah. I can handle a B. Thank you very much.

And now I NEVER HAVE TO TAKE CRITICAL THEORY AGAIN. Unless I go on for my Ph.D., that is.

Done! Done! Done!

*dances*

In other news, I got my Marta pics yesterday! They’re beautiful. I’m going to get them framed tomorrow.

A month from today, I’ll be sitting in a bookstore with a bunch of my closest friends, waiting for HBP.

YAY!!!

Lois and Clark? Best. Superman. Show. Ever.

*huggles DVDs*

So. . . when are we getting Season 2?

Thanks to all who posted or sent birthday wishes; they were very much appreciated. I have the best friends ever!

Yesterday was good. I started out the day by sleeping in, which is the best way to start any day, IMO, let alone a birthday. After waking up around 10, I lounged about for a bit, showered, checked my e-mail and LJ and was floored by all the birthday greetings from all of you, got serenaded by our back-door-neighbors (the guy who made me my Ravenclaw cake last year, and his family, including his daughter who I taught in church last year) and my grandmother, and then. . . proceeded to do yard work. I’d rather not, but it has to be done, or else we won’t be getting our garden in this year. After the yard work, my mom and I drove downtown to get my cake and stopped at Hires for a root beer freeze (mmmm, root beer freeze), then came home for a family dinner of breadsticks and my mom’s homemade spaghetti (mmmm, spaghetti). Then I finally opened my presents!

From the siblings I got copies of Polagara the Sorceress and Belgarath the Sorcerer by David Eddings (the last two books I needed from the Belgariad/Malloran cycle) and The Artemis Fowl Files by Eoin Colfer (which is great, but which I’m sure I got partially because Lisa and Laura wanted to read it too, especially as they admitted as much). From the parents I got a nice, crisp, brand-new $50 bill, because I want to get the Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman season 1 DVDs, which don’t come out until Tuesday. And from the Evil Triumverate, I got this tote bag, these refrigerator magnets, and a spiral-bound journal bearing the word “muahahahah” on the cover and a to-do list inside, featuring such items as “Crush hope (every day)” and “Place Refrigerator Magnets of Demeaning Bickering on refigerator” and “Offend friends and strangers with Tote Bag of Gratuitous Insults.” Muahahahaha indeed.

After the pressies, we headed down to Provo to see Pirates of Penzance at BYU. So. Much. Fun. Just the right balance of seriousness and comedy, and all the the principals were excellent. I was especially impressed with Mabel– she absolutely nailed “Poor Wand’ring One” which is Not. Easy. We ate my cake down there in Provo (mmm. . . cake. . .), then headed home, thus ending a full, lovely day. Not as full as last year, but I’ll never have a birthday like last year’s. This was good for me.

Sorry I didn’t post on Saturday like I said I would; it ended up being a busy day. Of course, that means I now get to type the Update O’DOOM.

the blind date that wasn’t. . . much of a date, that is

Well, his name was Joel, and he might have been 25, but if he was, it was 25 going on about 17. It went down like this. Jen and I drove down to Lehi, which is where we were supposed to be meeting the guys. When we got there, it turned out Kevin (Jen’s date) was right on time, but mine wasn’t there. He had been rafting on the Provo River, and wasn’t back yet. So we finally decided to go to the restaurant without him. We get to Chili’s, meet up with another couple, and there’s an hour wait– but since it’s already 8 and the concert starts at 9, no go. We ended up at a fast-food Chinese restaurant, where Jen’s date paid for both Jen’s dinner and mine. We made awkward small talk until we were almost done with dinner, when my date finally showed up.

He’s totally NOT my type. Bleached-blonde hair messily spiked every which way. Elementary school field day t-shirt. Cares more about his band than, oh, anything else that I could tell, unless it’s kayaking/ river rafting. So we sit for about 15 minutes while he eats, make more awkward small talk, and then we all head off to the concert– me still in the car with Jen and her date, since Joel’s car was full of his guitar and other associated band stuff. Turns out the concert is in Joel’s backyard, for some high school graduation party, and that the band (Tension) is missing its drummer. Ever heard Blink 182 without a drum beat? Yeah, me neither. So Jen and Kevin and I sat on the swings and listened to the badly-played music while young boys grabbed burning sticks out of a fire pit and chased each other with them.

It was surreal. So that’s what cool people do on weekends. I never knew.

Anyway, when the concert was over, they had planned on playing games, but it was already 10:30 by then and we didn’t want to drive home too late at night. The fact that neither of us had very much in common with our respective dates had nothing do to with it, I assure you.

So, yeah. Doubt I’ll be seeing him again.

So what have I been doing with myself since? Lots of stuff, I assure you.

memorial day weekend

Saturday was spent doing several things, among them getting a new cell phone. I wanted to switch my plan, but since I was on an AT&T plan and Cingular bought them out, they wouldn’t let me do it without buying a new phone. I got this one, which is rather cool. Much cooler than my old monochrome-screen-no-bells-or-whistles phone. Rather enjoying it, actually. Did you know you can download Pitfall?

I also helped out a bit around the yard– we’re still getting our over-grown and/or dying yard into shape– and we had an excellent dinner of barbequed hamburgers, with grilled pineapple for dessert.

Sunday I went to church, had dinner with the fam, and then we started on our annual trek to family gravesites, starting at a cemetary here in town where my Bytheway great-grandparents, my cousin Thomas (who was stillborn), and my Grandpa By are buried, then continuing up to Heber where most of my mother’s side of the family is buried, including my Uncle Ray. We left flowers on all the graves (including the headstone–complete with names!!– that my as-yet-perfectly-alive grandparents have already put up. We rounded off the day with a visit to my aunt Jeanine’s, because my cousin and his wife were in town for their brother’s graduation. Fun, exhausting day.

Monday we headed up to my great-uncle John’s house for the annual Memorial Day breakfast, which unfortunately was rained out. The pancakes still tasted good, even though we ate them inside instead of in the backyard. We stopped at Pace’s for our annual Astro Pop (wonderful popsicles, mmmm) and then went to see Star Wars. I really, really liked it. And I never cry at movies, but this one got me– when they started playing Leia’s theme and the binary sunset theme at the end. Curse you, John Williams! After the movie we stopped at the Salt Lake cemetary to put flowers on the grave of my last set of great-grandparents, then headed home. But the day wasn’t over yet! We did a bit more yard work, grilled steaks, and then watched A New Hope (which my sister-in-law has never seen). Good times.

So now I need to go back to everyone’s reviews of Revenge of the Sith and see your reactions.

and since then. . .

Work has been interesting, because apparently the power outage on Friday burned out the power supply on our file server at work, and they weren’t able to restore said server until last evening, so there really hasn’t been much that we could do. Business was back to normal this morning, except for the ususal hiccups that a computer disaster will cause, which is good, because we have deadlines coming up.

School is out for a bit, as the prof gave us the last two weeks of class off to work on our research paper. I’m going to be attempting to write the theoretical chapter of my thesis as my project. My approach is a weird kind of amalgalm of moral, cultural, and postcolonial criticism, so it actually should be interesting. I went to the library on Wednesday to do a bit of research, and ended up getting more than just school books. . . a few Perry Masons that I hadn’t read (or it had been so long that I forgot the plots) and a few Georgette Heyers– mostly mysteries that I haven’t been able to get my hands on, but a couple of her romances too. I’m rereading Cotillion at the moment.

Oh, and today I received a mysterious package from the Evil Triumverate. It’s marked “Do Not Open Until June 4.” Dang.

At about 11:00 today, the power went out in my office building. We waited around for an hour or so, until we got word that a substation had blown, and power wouldn’t be restored until 3:00. So I’ll have an even longer weekend than I was expecting, even with Memorial Day. Despite the lost work time and consequently the lost money, I’m not complaining.

Despite some hiccups at school, it’s been a pretty good week. I got my scarf that I won from the Jelly Bean Society auction– I love it! Jiminy, tell your son that it’s great, will you? Too bad it’s May, and I won’t be able to use it for a few months. My cousins are in town for my other cousin’s high school graduation, and they brought their kids– including their newest, month-old Emily Mae. I got to meet her yesterday. So much fun to hold my namesake! She’s absolutely adorable, too.

Let’s see, what else has happened? I preordered a ladies’ fitted “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good” shirt from TLC. It won’t ship until the end of June, but that’s okay with me, as I don’t have the money for it at the moment. Just as long as it’s here by, say, July 16.

The reason I don’t have the money at the moment is that I just bought this pic from Marta’s art sale. Whee! So totally worth it. I’ll post a pic of it when I get it all framed.

And. . . I’m going on a blind date tonight. A friend of a guy that Jen’s principal set her up with (we’re doubling). Know nothing about it except that his name is Joel and he’s (maybe) 25, and he has a concert (is he in the concert? What kind of music? no clue) tonight that we’re going to. Should be interesting. I shall report tomorrow.

And now I plan on enjoying the weekend. Until I start panicking on Saturday night because I haven’t prepared for my presentation on Wednesday. And since the teacher isn’t going to be there, It’d better be good or else the class won’t have anything to talk about. Joy.

I’ve now been tagged three times for this, so I’m guessing I’d better actually answer.

1) Total number of books I’ve owned?

I really don’t feel like counting, but several hundred.

2) The last book I bought?

An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott, on ‘s recommendation. I’m enjoying reading about the brown curly-haired girl falling in love with the rascally redheaded boy.

3) The last book I read?

Well, I’m reading the above, but the last one I finished is Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. Eagerly awaiting The Hallowed Hunt.

4) Five books that mean a lot to me:

Leaving aside the scriptures, which would take four of my five alloted books:

1) Kilmeny of the Orchard by L.M. Montgomery. So she’s a Mary Sue and he’s a Gary Stu and the plot is melodramatic and predictable– this book was my favorite for years. I even made a porcelain doll based on Kilmeny.

phone tracker app

2) Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley. My favorite book before Kilmeny. I wore out two paperback copies before I finally found it in hardcover.

3) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Obviously. My favorite book ever, I can never read it enough. I’ll probably have it memorized by the time I’m 30.

4) Cars and Trucks and Things that Go by Richard Scarry. I love many children’s books, (in fact, it was a close decision between this and I Can’t, Said the Ant by Polly Cameron), but this is the one I remember spending the most time with as a child, and which I still find myself pulling off myself today.

5) The Harry Potter series. Literally changed my life.

Five people who need to do this meme:

Gah. Who hasn’t done it?

Kate
Katrina
Laura
Amanda
Jade

Melissa! Interviewing JKR! At her house!!!

*runs around in circles while her coworkers stare at her*

Congratulations, Mellie. No one deserves it more than you. And I’m not even jealous. Just so, so excited.

*tries to calm down*

*fails*

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Yes, folks, its a miracle! Can you believe it?

All joking aside, I’m actually quite pleased with myself at the moment. That’s because I finally finished my Pride and Prejudice custom Live Journal mood theme! Yes, I know I’ve been using it forever, but it was merely functional, not complete. Now there’s a unique picture for every mood. Go, click! It’s good stuff. About half the pics are from my own screencaps; the other half are from an amazing site I found called Longbourn, which has a seriously freaky amount of screencaps from most of the major Austen movies, including 2,187 from P&P. I never would have gotten it done if I had to do the screencaps all on my own.

If any of you fellow Austen fans like it, I’ve made a zip file with all the pictures in it. Feel free to take it, but please download the zip file and upload the images to a server of your own (like a Photobucket account). Do not simply link to the files on my webspace. I pay for that bandwidth.

Maybe this is the first in a string of finishing things I’ve started.

One can only hope.