This week has been exceptionally weird because, even though my company has been pretty high in demand and not very high in supply due to having to work, it's so freaking lonely. Tuesday afternoon/evening, I deposited my latest paycheck and finally got around to buying Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. And when I say I finally got around to buying it, I think I actually mean that it finally got around to coming out because I've been waiting for it ever since I finished Paper Towns and watched 100 Questions in 4 Minutes. And I now have just over 50 pages left in it (which will be split between my break at work tomorrow...which was supposed to be my day off, by the way...and that awkward period of time between me getting home from work and me going over to my grandparents' house because they feel the need to feed me at some point this week...even if it's only hours before my parents get back.)

See, I think the problem is that, when I'm hanging out with people right now (well, not *right now* and certainly not later tonight...at least I hope not) they're not the people with whom I really wish I was hanging out. (Damn, I tried to avoid ending with a preposition and still failed.) I mean, Tuesday I was all alone (unless you count the company of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Maura, Tiny Cooper and the rest of the cast of this absolutely fabulous book.) I was all alone making the worlds best burger. I was all alone eating it on the patio, catching the last few rays of sunlight. I was all alone drinking wine while watching the newest episode of NCIS. And all the time, I really wanted someone there. I don't think it really mattered who. Just someone who would listen to any inane thing that would pop into my head, sound halfway clever, and then make it's exit via my vocal chords. So, I guess...I really wanted Cambra to be there. And I knew she couldn't because she's in Dayton doing graduate school-y things like looking at cadavers and the like, but she's the one who would always appreciate the stupid things I felt necessary to say while watching TV.

And then last night. Oh, last night. Last night, I went to the Lake Erie Monsters game with a couple girls from work and a few of their friends. And I'm not saying that these girls are bad people. They're not. In fact, until half way through the game, I was having a blast! They were funny, we like a lot of the same things, I didn't feel awkward around them like I normally do when I meet new people. I spoke a lot which just never happens when I'm in a new group. I like feeling things out a bit before I try to be me around people who don't know what I'm all about. But then I realized that they were me...just me four years ago. And that me...well, she was kind of annoying at her first hockey game. Didn't help that they're the same age as four-years-ago-me. And all I kept thinking was "Oh, my God, I wish Maria was here because we'd totally be making fun of these girls who have clearly never been to a hockey game before in their entire lives." I think it might have annoyed me because they were talking about how cute the Monsters were when they clearly haven't seen the epitome of hotness in hockey.

So, I'm hoping tonight, I'm actually hanging out with the person I want to be around. It's not that I'm doubtful of it. I'm just afraid I'm wrong. Because if not tonight, then I've wasted my entire time this week.

This is why I don't think I'll ever be able to live alone. I get all crazy like this, like I did freshman year of college after Amanda left and before Liz moved in. Longest. month. of. my. life.

But, anyway, it's time for me to shower, eat dinner, drop off some keys at my dad's stupid meeting which he's not going to be at because he's in Las Vegas which is why I'm dropping off keys in the first place...and then I'm out to Strongsville to watch Miami play Boston College in the NCAA hockey semi-finals.

End Transmission.

I didn't think it was going to happen again, but I should have known that my inherent need for a fandom crush would win out yet again. This time, it happened completely subconsciously and is working its way into my conscious mind.

Okay, let's back up. This all started when I first saw trailers for the The Lightning Thief. I'll admit that I was intrigued. It has to do with melding Ancient Greek mythology (which I have loved since sixth grade) with modern times (which...um, I live in, obviously). Then, I found out it was part of a book series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and I felt the need to read the first one before the movie came out. (I have this thing about reading a book before seeing the movie unless I don't know that it's a book, of course.) That was the the beginning of the last week of January. Since then, I have actually completed the series. Partly because the books were so engaging and partly because they're written for, like, seventh graders. Also, they're basically Harry Potter but with Greek gods instead of witchcraft. There are five novels and a book with three short stories. Needless to say, reading six books in two weeks has been a strain on my sleeping pattern and my ability to stay awake at work.

On top of this, my usual character tastes have prevailed: a dark haired guy with ties to the bad guys but is still at least somewhat redeemable. I wish I knew how old the character was...especially since he can't *get* any older. He DIES in the last book. It wouldn't be so bad if he was allowed to live to be my age, but I have this horrible feeling that he's still a teen (gross). But it's not as if I have a choice in these matters. I seriously don't! I would love to go back to before yesterday afternoon, back to when I didn't grin insanely when I read his name.

The point is that I had this really weird dream about him then during my four hour nap. I think the worst part about it is that I knew, even within my dream, that that's exactly what it was. That always ruins dreams, when within that same span of time, you tell someone in the dream that you had a dream where "X" happened.

I just want to know why this *always* happens to me. At least it used to be semi-conscious. I even told myself that this time it was going to be different. I legitimately love the good guys in this series because they fight for the Olympians, not the Titans. So, I thought, if anything, it'd be one of the definite good guys. But NOOOOOOO, it had to be Ethan Nakamura who will remain 16ish forever because he's *dead*.

It's just not fair, which is kind of funny because Ethan's the son of Nemesis, the Greek goddess of divine justice....and revenge, but we're going to focus on the justice part of it right now.

Sorry, just needed to vent for a minute or so.

End Transmission.

Pathetic yet awesome fact: Since mid-August, I've acquired 88 books. How do I know this? Back then, I rearranged my "256 books," and I just now did a count of my book inventory to find that I have 344 books in my possession. This does not mean 344 different titles because I have doubles of many books (mostly ones by J. K. Rowling) and some of my books are doubled up (I have a copy of Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn and one old looking book by Robert Louis Stevenson which has a few of his novels in it).

The sadder part of this is that I've read such a small fraction of that number...

It's all those library book sales I've gone to and the used books I've bought otherwise...and the gift cards I got for Christmas and my birthday! I'm trying to plow through them but not so quickly that I'm not also appreciating them. Although, the one I'm reading right now needs to get better soon so that I don't feel like I wasted $18 on it. I think the problem with it is that it is VERY obvious that this is the first book the author has written in the YA genre. I'm sorry, but fourteen year olds have no right being world-weary protagonists. I don't care if they live in New York City, they're still too young and inexperienced! Sorry, this narrator is just...not what I expected her to be. Well that and she mixes being world-weary and Jonas Brothers references. Again, I apologize, but that shouldn't happen either. You can't just throw in a random JoBros reference in with explaining why you're being "deliberately aloof" (which is, of course, to avoid being "that freshman--the chirpy kind who needs friends fast in order to not feel alone...At LaGuardia Arts, [Viola, the narrator's,] old school, this method worked very well for [her]." (Oh man, I must miss school a lot if I'm citing things like that. This cannot be good.)

Speaking of school, I've two things to say: I'm planning on visiting the alma mater later this month for some hockey and the fact that I owe my one friend a drink since she turned 21 in August, but she's been in India since then. Also, I've been giving some not-so-serious thought to going to grad school. Basically, I think I'm just trying to avoid growing up for a few more years (under the guise of riding out this horrible time for job searching), and what better way than going back to school? However, I'm not really in a position financially to be doing that...and it's going to be a bit rocky for my family soon, I think...

Okay, before I get too depressed, I'm going to stop writing for tonight.

End Transmission.

On some level, I think everyone is crazy. I'm crazy. My brother, my parents are crazy. My co-workers? Oh, yeah! That's why I like them! And my friends...well, they kind of *have* to be crazy to be friends with me. But the people ahead of me in line at the "Friends of the Library" preview to the monthly used book sale? They take crazy (and evil) to a new level.

First of all, they all know each other. It might just be that they're all pretty old, so they actually knew their neighbors and what not when they were raising families. Now, they're like this little cult who save places in line for the others (since they all arrive somewhere around an hour and a half early.)

Second, they've all paid the dues to be "Friends of the Library." Not so secretly, I have too, but for the right reasons...well, if not the right reasons, then at least for better reasons than these people.

Probably the worst thing is that they're only in it to flip books. They buy the books that the library so obviously has too many copies of for the demand nowadays for the thirty or fifty cents they cost and then sell them for a much higher profit. In my opinion, this is absolutely deplorable and completely ruins the whole spirit of the book sales. These sales are for people who enjoy books, who might not find some of these books otherwise. I, for one, would not have found half the books I've bought at the sales anywhere else. It might be because half of them are out of print or never really took off (ie, The Dewey Decimal System of Love...which I'm kind of hoping is a light-hearted romance involving books. I do realize I'm a huge loser, but thank you for pointing it out.) But these people just buy boxes and boxes of books to then sell on their own. It's disgusting!

On another note, it's been a very interesting and stressful time at the Wieland household. I don't know how much I can really talk about it yet because you never know whose fingers might hit the right keys on the internet, so...but if you could keep my family in your thoughts and prayers, I'd really appreciate it.

End Transmission.

So, on top of all the shit that's been going down in and around my life at this time, I'm also pretty sure I've got some sort of seasonal eczema. The backs of my hands are raw and dry as fuck and it just *hurts.* Normal lotions don't work and even irritate it, but here's the real kicker: there are several ways to prevent it from flaring up, and I can't really do a thing about any one of them.

1.) Moisturize frequently: I can *try* to do this, but when I'm working 36.5 hours a week, and have to change in and out of pairs of plastic gloves dozens of times during a single shift, it's difficult to *keep* them moisturized.

2.) Avoid sudden changes in temperature: Really? Really? This one is simply impossible at work. And it's winter...like, duh, the temperatures inside and outside are going to be drastically different.

3.) Avoid sweating or overheating: I WORK IN A BAKERY! What the fuck am I supposed to do??

4.) Reduce stress: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's the best joke I've heard in a long time. This past week and a half has been one of the most stressful of my life.

5.) Avoid scratchy materials, such as wool: This is the one I have complete control over, but I refuse to follow because my favorite scarf is 100% lamb's wool. I'm not giving up wearing my Slytherin scarf just when I'm beginning to need it.

6.) Avoid harsh soaps, detergents, and solvents: What do you think we use to sanitize things at work? Honestly? It's completely unavoidable.

7.) Be aware of any foods that may cause an outbreak and avoid those foods: Um, yeah, I have no idea about this one.

So, there you have it. On top of needing $776 worth of repairs on my car, having my place of work robbed, and every single little thing that could go wrong going wrong...I'm just hoping nothing goes wrong with The Nutcracker tomorrow night. I want to be excited about it, but everything's been going so downhill lately, it's hard to.

On the bright side? Maybe? I do now own the Super Holy Fuck edition of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince from Target and can watch it whenever I want.

That is all.

End Transmission.

Because I very seriously doubt that my life could get realistically happier at this moment in time.  Sure, we could throw some random, crazy ass fantasies in there where I marry some famous actor or hockey player or a certain not so famous actor  who happened to play Ron in AVPM, but seriously, the chances of that happening tonight are so very remote that they may as well not exist.

So, why is life so great all of a sudden?  Imagine this, you woke up this morning and mailed a package to your little brother in Chicago (which kind of warms your heart because it's a nice thing to do).  The next thing you do is go home to shower and get ready and eat the most delicious restaurant leftovers you've ever tasted (Oreo cheesecake aside, of course), after which you go over to your friend's house for what you *know* will be a fun-filled day.  However, you don't know the half of it as you're driving there.  You know you're going to carve pumpkins and possibly have a bonfire, but you have no idea the sheer amount of awesome being laid out in front of you. 

So, you get to your friend's house and are immediately greeted with the smell of something delicious baking (I mean you're greeted by your friend, her mom, and her dog, but I think that's sort of obvious.)  Something deliciously apple-y.  Which just sends you into this whole wonderful fall feeling.  After everyone else has arrived and you go pick up people who need to be picked up, you go pumpkin hunting.  This takes much longer than expected, but it's totally worth it!  First of all, because you have such a great time spending this time with your friends and laughing and joking, AND you find the cutest, most perfect pumpkin you've ever seen (and only have to pay $3.60 for it)!

The only bad part of this day turns out to be a good part because the pizza place you're ordering from isn't open for another hour and this means you get to frolic in the woods until you are able to order it.  And the best place in the entire world to frolic is Squire's Castle because not only do you have the most beautiful, crisp fall day when the leaves are at their peak, YOU HAVE A FREAKING CASTLE!!!!

After frolicking (I love that word) has worn you out a bit, it's time to go pick out some pumpkin carving supplies and head back to your friend's house.  Well, when you get there, you actually have to eat pizza to get your energy back up (frolicking is harder work than it seems.  Sure, it looks all whimsical, but whimsy is tiring).  And while you're eating pizza, it's always a good idea to tell your favorite stories concerning everyone gathered ranging from "That time you tried to light my shoe on fire!" to "When we used to play hangman in French III across the room and Madame never caught on."  Good times. :)

Finally, it's the moment everyone's been waiting for.  Pumpkin carving!  It's much more work than remembered, but you have fun with it anyway.  Pumpkin guts are gross, but since everyone has to deal with them, it's not so bad.  When you've finally gotten the last of the guts out (long before anyone else, by the way), it takes a while to figure out what you're going to carve into it.  No screw ups are allowed on this pumpkin.  Everyone's had to hear you boast about your perfect, cute pumpkin all afternoon, and now is the time to prove its perfected cuteness.  What better to show off how much you love your pumpkin by mutilating it with "<3"?  I mean, really.

And once everyone has finished, you go inside for hot apple cider and the long promised apple crisp while reminiscing about old Nickelodeon shows and Pokemon.  You also, apparently, gain hipster cred by having your original Pokemon Red game in a red Gameboy Pocket.  Oh, yes, dear LiveJournal.

When you've had enough of indoors, you go outside and watch a bonfire being built and sit around it doing the same thing you've been doing all day, and it never gets old.  Unfortunately, you soon have to leave because your friend's mom is kicking you guys out, so you help clean up and say good bye to everyone.

When you get home, you recount the amazing adventures you've had to your dad and head upstairs because you think that all the whimsy has you out for the count today.  That is when you check your email.  Now, LiveJournal, this is the part you don't know about.  Less than a week ago, this hypothetical you got an email from a website you forgot you signed up for.  It advertised that it had free copies of a ton of soon to be released books and you put yourself in the running to win some of them.  Because, seriously, who doesn't love free books?  You figure you'll never win even though there are some books on there that you would absolutely love to own because you almost never win anything you actually want.  For example, no matter how nerdy it sounds, The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of "Proper" English, from Shakespeare to South Park.  I kid you not, LiveJournal.  How do I remember the entire title?  Perhaps it is because you received an email at three this morning stating that you won said book!  Let's put this into perspective.   Thirty copies were available.  783 people wanted to win this book.  Now, we're not talking Megalotto odds, but there was less than a four percent chance of winning.  Not less than three, less than four.  (See what I did there?  I incorporated the undeniably cute pumpkin with winning a book.)

How could you possibly go to sleep now knowing that, somewhere, the world's geekiest book on the English language was being packaged and shipped to you?  Honestly!  You don't, obviously.  You stay up and read more of Prince Caspian so that you may move onto Voyage of the Dawn Treader so you may read this new book and still keep on track with your book challenge!

End Transmission.

Lets start out with something, oh so clever, what's your sign?
Capricorn

Congratulations! You just had a baby boy! What's his name?
I have so many boys names picked out...but, for the sake of this, let's go with Ryan

When was the last time you were complimented?
Recently, but I don't think I could pinpoint a specific time

If there was a large spider in the room, would you stay?
Depends on how badly I want to watch what's on TV...in other words, if the TV on the first floor is taken and Gossip Girl or Eastwick isn't on the TV in the basement, probably not

Do you regret anything you've done lately?
Nope

What are you thinking about right now?
That I really want to finish The Book Thief, but that I also need to sleep as I volunteered to go into work tomorrow morning at 5

Would you be able to date someone who had a kid with someone else?
Not at this point in my life, but perhaps later on if both the guy and myself are financially stable...wow, what a hopeless romantic I've turned out to be </sarcasm>

Could you date someone taller than you?
In fact, I prefer it.  That's the curse of bein 5'9"

Do you think someone is thinking about you right now?
It's quite possible

What were you doing at midnight Friday night?
Eating pancakes with my family (Grant included!) at a nice little restaurant in Chicago

Has a girl sat on your bed before?
I mean, I sit on my bed, so...yeah

Did you get a full 8 hours of sleep last night?
Definitely...actually, I got much more than 8 hours

How has this week been?
It's been fine so far

How is your hair?
A little gross, but I was in the car all day, what do you expect?

In the past 72 hours have you been under the influence?
I've had one beer

Does anyone know your password besides you?
None

Are you gonna get high tomorrow?
Um, no

Are you gonna get married soon?
I think I need a guy before that can happen

Are you an aunt or uncle?
Grant's 18...NO!

Do you get shy around the guy/girl you like?
Generally, yes

What was the last thing you ate?
M&Ms :)

Have you ever cleaned up someone else's vomit?
Oh, hell no!

What time did you go to sleep last night?
Like 10:30-11...pathetic!

Would you ever tattoo your significant others name on yourself?
Nope

Have you ever made out with someone who was high?
Not to the best of my knowledge

Have you ever made out with someone while you were high?
I don't get high, so no

Do you believe what goes around comes around?
Eventually

Is your birthday on a holiday?
No, but it's damn close to two

Would you ever get a tattoo?
There's a very, very small chance

Have you ever cried from being so mad?
Yeah, just a couple nights ago

Did you kiss someone before you were 16?
No

Are you planning to get knocked up or knock someone up by age 17?
Seriously?  SERIOUSLY?  This is a question???  NO!

Are you dying to take off your clothes?
Um, no.

Is your room ever clean?
Rarely

Do you tan or burn when in the sun?
Burn which then turns into a tan a couple days later

Do you know anyone with the same middle name as you?
Um,  yes.  Marie is a very common middle name...also, it's the middle name of my mom and my grandma...I was *BORN* knowing people with my middle name

When's the last time you laughed really hard?
Last Saturday when I found out that Tony hadn't told his new friends about the song that goes with his name...after I had taught it to them, of course

Do you think you know the meaning of love?
I'm not sure

Are you cheating on someone right now?
Can't be

If you took a drug test would you pass it?
Yes

What are you listening to right now?
A mix of some really geeky songs that I love so much

Someone leaves a note and flowers on your car, cute or tacky?
It really depends on the person and situation

Do you sniff sharpies?
Not intentionally, but I do like to color with them...a lot

Last person you talked to?
My dad

What are you doing after this?
Reading The Book Thief and going to bed

Has a guy lifted your feet off the ground (literally) lately?
No

Do you have a friend named Alex?
I did...kinda...

The last person you held hands with?
Dunno

How about the last movie you saw?
Saw in theaters? Julie & Julia (I think) Watched?  (if you don't count the portion of Mutiny on the Bounty) Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Did you like it?
To both legit answers, YES!

What is your favorite type of water?
Clean?

When was the last time you were on myspace.com?
A couple months ago

Do you know how many kids are at your school?
Not anymore really...I didn't really get to know many freshmen last year, and now I don't go to Miami anymore

What did you think of the movie Juno?
I enjoy it.  Wouldn't put it on my favorite movies list, but it's really good

Last time you cleaned your room?
Uhhhhhhhh...

Your favorite children's book you ever read?
The Wizard of Oz or Mandy (though, it's been *forever* since I've read it....now that I own it, though, I plan on reading it as soon as I'm ahead of the game on my challenge)

This time last year can you remember who you liked?
I was still pretty hung up on a certain former captain of the Miami hockey team...still am, but I don't check his new team's stuff as often

Are you anything like you were at this point last year?
In some ways yes, in others not at all

Have you lost contact with someone you wish you didn't?
Yes

What will you be doing in three hours?
Sleeping, hopefully

Are you a patient person?
Depends

How was your day?
Very emotional...this book...I swear, it just tugs at every heart string, especially because of the revelation in part 5 which still hasn't come to pass...

What color are your eyes?
Greenish-grayish-blue

Do you like haunted houses?
Not really

What's bothering you right now?
Being German...it's a weird explanation, but you'd understand if you read this book

Is there a night you would like to put on repeat and live it forever?
There are a few:
1.) The games/McDonald's night with Cambra and the boys upstairs my junior year,
2.) Charter Day Ball 2009,
3.) Senior Prom,
4.) the first time we decided we'd start watching home videos at my grandparents' house

Is there someone you'd like to fix things with?
Yes and no.  Yes because I wish I hadn't seen who this person truly is, and no because I do know

Do you wave when you see people you know?
Yeah

Can you braid hair?
Uh huh

Have you ever told someone you liked them?
No

Who took your default picture?
I dunno

What is the connection between the last person who called you?
He's my boss

Name something you have in common with all of your siblings?
Our parents!  Not enough? Fine.  We both love to watch Scrubs, we both hate Professor Umbridge, we sometimes obsess over movies

Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk?
CHOCOLATE!

Can you whistle?
Yes

When was the last time you did the dishes?
Um, don't remember...we've been out of town since Friday

This time last year, were you single?
Yes

Where were you at 10:17 pm last night?
In a hotel bed reading The Book Thief

Will you be up before 7 am tomorrow?
Yes

Who will be the first person you call tomorrow?
Dunno if I will even *get* any calls tomorrow

Are you a bitch?
Definitely, when it's deserved

If you could change your eye color, would you?
Nope

What is one thing you would love to happen today?
Today?  Today's practically over!  But, fine, to indulge your questions...I'd like to finish this meme and The Book Thief

Is your phone a flip, slide or neither?
Flip, sort of

Do you bite your fingernails?
Sadly, yes

How many people did you hug today?
None

Don't you hate it when you lose your train of thought?
Definitely, it's one of the worst things

Have you kissed more than ten people this year?
No

Can you recall the last time you liked someone a lot?
Yeah

Anyone of the opposite sex been on your mind lately?
Not particularly

Are you cold?
A little.  My feet are very cold, however

Do you cry easily?
Yes

Do you like animals?
How could you not?

Are you easily bothered?
Sometimes

Are you nice to everyone?
Not everyone

Have you ever slept in the same bed as your best friend?
Yeah

Can you tell when something bad is gonna happen?
Sometimes

Would you rather have long or short hair?
Long-ish

Do you tend to wake up early or sleep in late?
Naturally?  Sleep in late...but work makes me get up super early

Have you ever peed while on the phone?
Doubtful

Are you a simple or complicated person?
I like to think that I'm pretty simple, but I know that's not true

Do you think you will be in a relationship 3 months from now?
Dunno

You have to get a facial piercing, what do you get?
Nose

Who was the first person you talked to today?
Mom when she woke me up

Has someone of the opposite sex ever told you they love you?
Yes

Do you listen to your friends' advice when they give it to you?
When it's good advice

What color was the last drink you consumed?
Brown (I <3 Diet Coke!)

(PS I'm home!

End Transmission.)

I really do love blogging from Chicago.  I did so this morning from my queen size hotel bed on my book blog (it's just a really short update, almost not worth reading), and I was so pleased by the feel of it, that I had to move to the desk to do it again!

So, the reason for coming to Chi-town is the same reason as always (well, minus the Harry Potter exhibition, by now, it's making its way to Boston), Grant.  It's Family Weekend at De Paul, and since I hadn't seen him in over a month, I figured I'd come along.  Not going to lie, though, part of the reason I *really* wanted to come was for:

a.) deep dish pizza,
b.) the 12 hours of travel time to read, and
c.) the fact that I just love big cities.

When I get back from Illinois, I'm going to update on...well, almost an entire month's worth of stuff, I suppose.  That's gonna suck.  Oh, well.  That's life.

Kay, must get back to getting ready.  Though, it would sure be nice to have more than one bathroom so I could dry my hair.  Sigh.  Hotel life.

End Transmission.

My entire fucking iTunes library got deleted last night.  Yeah.  All of it.  All my playlists, all my songs, all my podcasts, all my audio books, everything.  I've spent the better part of today piecing it back together from things I saved from when I got my hard drive wiped.  I have most of it back, now, which is good, but I'm missing a few very large pieces.  Namely, I'm missing a few audio books.  Sorcerer's Stone and Order of the Phoenix are completely gone and most of Deathly Hallows is missing, too.  And the part of Eldest I had actually gotten on my computer is gone.  And various parts of other books (Half Blood Prince, for example).

And then there's the Heroes soundtrack.

I should be happy that I have the vast majority of my library back, but I just can't be.  Because I've wasted my afternoon remaking my playlists.  Some of my playlists are extremely tedious to redo, and I have things to do!  It's not like I had work or anything like that today, but I need to read a 600+ page book by next Sunday, I have resumes to get out there, and, starting again tomorrow, I will have work to go to.  I don't even care that I ended that sentence with a preposition, I'm so pissed off about this thing.

Luckily, I'll be going to the mall with my mom later (aka soon), so I'll do a little retail therapy.  What I really need is to buy books.  That's sure to make me happy.

Kay, I think we're leaving, like, now.

End Transmission.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I CANNOT WRITE A COVER LETTER TO SAVE MY LIFE!!!

What the hell is wrong with me?  I can type anything I want whenever I want, but when I sit down to type something that matters, all that comes out is blabbering gibberish.  Strong grasp of the English language, indeed.  HA!  Who the hell am I trying to kid with this search?  Oh, let's just google cover letters.  Yeah.  That's great.  Except for the part that every link sucks and part of that is because I didn't really do extra curriculars in college.  Well, none outside church.

In conclusion, whatever cover letter I put out there is pretty much going to majorly suck.  Fantastic.

Thank you for your time.

Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Wieland

(End Transmission.)

Memory is a funny thing.  If you had asked me if I had anything that distinguished me as an officer of French Club in high school just three days ago, I would have told you no and asked why I would have.  Then, yesterday, I was cleaning out this one dish thing that I kept a bunch of random stuff in and found this little gold fleur de lis pin and I immediately recognized it as the pin Madame gave me when I was appointed president.

A somewhat similar thing happened at dinner, too.  I was talking about cleaning my room and coming across my first diary.  One of the entries was "This is the third time I've had strep this year," or something close.  I became concerned that my parents hadn't been concerned.  Three times in one year (and it was only April, I believe) could have actually been tonsillitis!  When I brought this up to them, my mom shrugged and was like "Nope, guess not."  Across the table, however, my dad corrected my mom's cavalier, atrocious answer.  He remembered talking about it with her in the kitchen of our old house and then taking me to the doctor.  And the doctors said I was okay, so that's good.  But it's usually Mom that remembers these types of things.  I'm not sure if it clicked with her memory afterward...

Alrighty, that's it for now.

End Transmission.

I'm really craving a sandwich made with all the fixins for a taco. Pretty sure that it would be the second most disgusting sounding sandwich I would have tried, but I still want it. I blame my mom. She made taco meat this morning while I was asleep and I'm almost positively sure that's why I'm craving it...even though it sounds gross. That, and I had a dream that I was eating one and it looked amazing.

(A monterey jack and crunchy peanut butter sandwhich on Peppridge Farm's cinnamon swirl bread was the most disgusting sounding sandwhich that I've ACTUALLY eaten. Confession: It was amazing!)

I'm also getting everything ready on Blogspot for my project (which starts in just over a week!)  It's a little stressful.  I've been getting a lot of book suggestions, and now I want to read all those, too.  Okay, not all of them.  It was suggested I read The Vampire Diaries, and despite the fact that I have read (and own) all the Twilight books (and I'm going to go see the new movie when it comes out, no matter how much I hated the last one.  I mean, have you seen how awesome Jacob Black looks in this one?  How could anyone NOT want to go?) and I adore the Princess Diaries series...I'm kind of over the whole vampire obsession America's teenage girls have developed.  I just don't get it.  Werewolves are cool...vampires...eh, not so much.  Can someone explain to me what makes vampires cool?  And ninjas?  Because, to be honest, pirates are much more awesome.  Wow, that got off topic. Um...book project.  Book suggestions.  OH!  I have very little means to acquire these books, and, in my mind, I *need* to own the books that I read for the project.  Because they have to be part of my library.

I also think I'm going to start by finishing A. A. Milne's Winne-the-Pooh.  I got it just before I definitely decided to do the project, and I'm about half way done.  Then, I think I'm going to tackle Narnia.  I should really be putting this on Blogspot, but...whatever, it's already here and I'm lazy.

And, while I'm discussing all the things I'm doing right now, I'm cleaning out some things in my room.  It's becoming more and more apparent to me that I need more space...or more storage space.  Really, I need more book space.  And more space for pictures and the like.  I'm kind of wishing I hadn't decided at thirteen that I was going to do an Impressionism theme to my room...and then kept it going.  I wish I had been a more normal kid back then.  Oh, Monet, why has my love for you destroyed my chance to show my love of other things?  I'm finding a lot of stuff that I thought was long gone.  Grade school class pictures.  My address book.  Gameboy games.  Movie ticket stubs (my earliest dates back to '01...I actually have three from that year: Legally Blonde, Zoolander, and Harry Potter).  Diaries (my favorite entry so far has been "Today I tricked Mommy by puting her sripris turtelneck in a tater stick box.  And Daddy tricked her a toy car insted of a real car."  Oh, January 18, 1995.  Scratch that.  April 17, 1995 "I'm not hot.  I'm cool." wtf, seven year old self?)

Okay, I'm going to eventually get to talking about how amazing last weekend was, but...right now, I really need to clean off my bed.

Oh, shoot.  The entire point of writing this entry was to jot down my *real* dream last night...this morning...whatever.  Kay, so, I'm not quite sure if I *was* Ginny Weasley or if I was just pretending to be, but it was the battle at Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows.  Except...it was taking place in the back parking lot at St. Clare (for reference, check out the album on Facebook "This One Time At Dairy Queen..."; the last pics were taken there.)  I was rushing around, looking for...well, I have no idea what I was looking for, but I found Fred...who looked like Joey Richter, the actor who plays Ron in A Very Potter Musical, so I really just wanted to, like, make out with him or something but...in this, he was my brother and that would be gross.  I BLAME  A VAST MAJORITY OF MY FRIENDS FOR THIS!!!  They have made so many comments about how Tom Felton looks like he could be my brother, and it pisses me off.  Anyway, for some reason Fred knows something about the Resurrection Stone and needs to find Harry, but Harry's already fighting Voldemort in this battle that is absolutely nothing like the real one.  Hagrid shouts to the crowd a lot, werewolves jump in from time to time, Voldemort turns into a giant llama, and I remark to Hermione (who I was apparently standing next to and who looks remarkably like my cousin, Maria, for reasons I won't get into here) that we really shouldn't have went to see this movie because it was just so disappointing.  WHAT?!  I mean, yes, if Warner Brothers did decide that was the way to go with the final movie, I would probably go on some sort of rampage, but...I need to know why my subconscious decided that Voldemort needed to turn into a llama.  It defies logic.  So, THAT is it.

End Transmission.

I saw Julie & Julia last night with my grandma while my mom and grandpa were at a meeting for Eucharistic ministers in the Cleveland diocese. Obviously, Dad had no interest in going. As I watched the movie, I started thinking that I need a blog that...has a point. I certainly wouldn't be abandoning this one. This is where all my thoughts about what's going on in my life go, where I record things that I've done. I can't just let go of this journal after I've had it for nearly seven years. However, I do need something new and different, for a while anyway.
Watching Julie & Julia gave me that push I needed to have a blog with a purpose. Purpose really is a better word than point was. The characters' passion was cooking. Mine is reading. However, I never feel like I do enough of it. I have all these books in my possession, and I've not read one hundred of them. ONE HUNDRED! So, my goal is to do one of two things.

PLAN ONE:
*First, acquire four more books for my library so that I may...
*Secondly, read one book each week for the next two years, and after reading a book, I will...
*Lastly, keep track of my progress by writing a blog entry (or two) about each book (dependent on length of said book).

Plan Two is basically Plan One but one year long and an undetermined amount of books. (This is something else I'll need help with.)

Some of these books will be super easy reads, books I bought while in high school and never had the chance to read. Others will be those classics that, for some reason or another, I was never forced to read. Others still will be ones that I was supposed to read for school but got too lazy to actually read. Lastly, there is the jumble of books that I've picked up at library sales, Goodwill stores, gotten for Christmas...all in bulk so that I couldn't actually get through all of them before my next book purchase.

( List of Unread Books In My Library )

So, either suggest four books that I might like in addition to the listed ones, or help me narrow it down to something like 52 books. I would also like input on when I should start (hopefully soon or else I may have to run out and buy more books) and suggestions for a title. Right now, I'm leaning toward a one-year project because I don't know if I could do two years. I don't know if life will allow for that. One year seems pretty safe, and I'm willing to try more than 52 books in a year's time.

Leave your comments and suggestions below, please. I had a lot of fun doing my summer challenge, which I did finish my original challenge. Twenty-two books was a little demanding, but my original twenty was just right. That was probably the other part inspiration for this challenge.

End Transmission.

"It's really dark in my house. And quiet. But mostly lonely. Grant and my parents are either *in* Chicago or almost there right now. And I'm in the computer room, talking to myself (because, seriously, who else is there to talk to here? Ghost Cat only shows up when it pleases.)

It has come to my attention that my new record for "Beginning to Go Crazy After Being Left Alone in a Living Space for an Extended Amount of Time" is not even six full hours. When left alone, I get paranoid, I talk to myself, I'm afraid of the dark, I forgo meals in favor of various snacks (last time this happened it was Riesen and water...this time, well, I haven't exactly left the computer room since returning from running errands, four hours ago).

Mostly, it's the quiet that gets to me. So, then why have I stopped watching Youtube? I have no freakin' clue." --My Never Quite Finished Entry From Friday Night

Oh, Fridays spent in a house completely devoid of other people. I would have said organisms, but Grant's frogs are still here, and my mom has plants, and I'm pretty sure we have germs and stuff living here, too. Yeah, that night was completely weird because I only had me...well, me and the Vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green, via Youtube.  And, now, my current favorite song, A Song About an Anglerfish.  It fits Friday night so well for me.  Unfortunately, I didn't discover it until yesterday...but that's not important.

What *is* important, then?  Only that the rest of this past weekend was made of SO MUCH AWESOME!!!  Saturday, during the day, I had a fair amount of getting ready for what was going to be one of the most boss nights I've ever experienced.  So far, only one precedes it in awesomeness, and that is, of course, the Friday night before graduation at Miami...most of which I can't actually remember in clear detail.  I just remember being happier than anything and dancing in the middle of High Street between ducking into bars for a drink or two.  AAAAAAAAND I've gone grossly off topic...sort of.  So, Saturday night comes along, and Laura and Tina come over to watch A Very Potter Musical.  Should I even bother linking it anymore?  Honestly?  If you want to watch it, you can find the link in the dozen other entries in which I've mentioned it.

Now, one of the most important parts of this endeavor was the gathering of snacks, and realizing how much of a nerd I am about this musical.  I knew just every line in the play which corresponds with the snack or drink we picked up and then recited it as I put the item in the cart.  "Accio Double Stuf," "You can make, like, a Gusher-Teddy Graham sandwich,"  "Oh, no, I've got a Fruit by the Foot, I don't want your Gushers," "I love Hogwarts; Hogwarts is amazing," and, of course, "Eugh, Squirt?!  Never mind, I'll stay dehydrated."  I don't know why they don't like Squirt...I had it for the first time this weekend, and it's amazing!

Oh, and then there was the drinking game that went along with it.  (Hint, hint, more reasons to watch it...as if Harry Potter, musical theater, hilarity, and boss Zefron posters weren't enough).  Yeah.  We thought that would be really fun...until Act 1, Scenes 3 and 4.  Every other second, it seemed, we had to drink in order to keep up with the rules.  Needless to say, if it weren't for the snacks, my mom would have probably killed me because our rug in the family room would have probably been stained a permanent shade of, ahem, Merlot and Vomit.  Yeah.  Not good.  However, crisis averted by the plethora of snackage.  YAY!! 

However!  This did not satisfy me and Tina.  No, we wanted Denny's in the worst way at about 1:30, and we somehow convinced Laura that we should walk there.  And, so, at 1:30 in the morning, three relatively buzzed 22 year olds walked the near mile to Denny's, ate some food, and walked (at a much slower pace) back to my house where 2 of the 3 of us promptly fell asleep.  Oh, Laura, will you ever stop being distracted by the TV?

I got up Sunday morning, showered, got dressed, woke up Laura and Tina, ate some Donettes, and kicked them out of my house, basically, because I had to leave for the Indians game with my cousin, Amy.  About two months ago, I won tickets to the game at the St. Greg's carnival (along with a pretty kick ass grill set) with a little help from my lucky shoes.  (My lucky shoes are currently on hiatus as I've used them a lot this summer, and I don't want their luck to wear out.  So, I'm sorry if there's something you're really hoping for, my lucky shoes are not available to help.)  And the only person in the immediate area who was available to go with me who I felt really comfortable going with was Amy.  (Little backstory:  She's about 3.5 years younger than me, people often remark that we look more like sisters than cousins, and we've grown pretty tight in the past couple years.  I mean, I let her borrow books from me.  There's a certain level of trust that goes into me allowing people to borrow books...and she has three of mine as I type this.)  So, I was really excited to get to spend some time with her, especially since we paid the same amount for parking AND food as we would have for one of our tickets.  And they were really nice seats.  Somewhere between first base and Sin-Soo Choo (I really hope that's spelled right) and eight rows back from the field.

The only thing that really sucked about the game was that now I have this really bad sunburn on my shoulders and back.  WHY DO I ALWAYS FORGET SUNSCREEN??  I even thought, when I went back inside my house because I forgot the directions, "I should get some sunscreen," and then, as soon as I had directions in hand, any thought of sunscreen was gone from my mind.  Other than that, everything was great!  We won!  We basically got to see the Air Show, too!  The food was amazing (and at $9.25 for a meal: good quality cheeseburger, more waffle fries than Amy could eat, and a kids' size drink, I was surprised at how good it was).  

After the game, we drove to our grandparents' house for the Labor Day weekend grill out.  There were more burgers, hot dogs, brats, and kabobs (kabobs were actually a first this year), potato salad, corn on the cob, watermelon (which was still surprisingly good)...basically, the best End-of-Summer spread one could ask for.  Oh, and frozen Christmas cookies.  Yum!!!  When everyone had eaten, we watched home videos from the 90s.  This has quickly become my favorite family tradition.  We talked about doing it for years and years, but we only started actually watching them on Memorial Day.  I really hope we continue this in the coming months.  We have plenty of family gatherings as the holidays arrive.

So, that was my weekend.  And, now, I'm living for this coming weekend when I get to go visit Cambra in Dayton!  And I've heard rumors, from her, that Sam, Tony, and Kristen might also be coming!  And I nearly cried when I heard that because I haven't seen most of them since June...though I did see Cambra in July at Put-In-Bay with our moms.  Maybe Friday I can convince her to put up the pictures from that day onto Facebook, as she has completely failed in that task so far.

I'm so flipping excited, it's ridiculous, and now I have to try to fall asleep.  ONE MORE TIME FOR THE ANGLERFISH SONG!

( Anglerfish Song )
End Transmission.

Hm. Thought I'd have more to actually say when I opened this tab. Well, let's see where this takes me.

This weekend was miserable. Weekend Bruegger's customers are jerkasses and should not be allowed within five miles of the store. But then, Sarah, how could you guys stay open on the weekend? Well, okay, *some* people can come in, but you have to take an IQ test and have your blood pressure taken before you can get within 50 feet of the store. Does that sound reasonable to you? Because I don't want to deal with idiotic, frustrated people when I myself am suffering from frustration and a certain degree of "I didn't get enough sleep"-idiocy.

It's probably due to this past weekend that I've been sleeping during the day more often...and why I'm still up right now even though I know I have to work at 5 (that's in the morning). It's not that I'm not tired. I really am. I'm exceptionally tired, but I can't seem to actually get to sleep. I dunno.

I'm pumped for this weekend, however. Friday afternoon, my parents are driving Grant to Chicago so he can start his college career at DePaul. Now, there are some pros and cons to this:

Pro #1: From now until late November, I have an entire bathroom to myself!! No messy, gross boy stuff goin' on there! No more unflushed toilets! No more finding out there's no more toilet paper! No more seat being left up!
Con #1: From now until late November, I have an entire bathroom to myself. No one else is going to clean it...

Pro #2: I've gained more control over what TV shows we watch.
Con #2: I won't be able to watch Scrubs on a nearly nightly basis with Grant anymore.

Pro #3: Girls will outnumber boys in this house (excluding pets) for the first time since 1991.
Con #3: Real adults will still outnumber me.

CON #4: I don't do well on my own in a living space for more than about 12 hours.
PRO #4: I GET TO HAVE AN "A VERY POTTER MUSICAL" PARTY!!! (Complete with AVPM snacks, a drinking game, and all the random little decorations I can find...by this I mean some HP stuff, my Canada sweatshirt, and maybe a dolphin...or a football). I WON'T BE LONELY!!

So, yeah. Oh! And I'm getting a haircut later today, and the fam is coming over for dinner to see Grant off.

Kay, so maybe I need to go to sleep *now*. Roughly three hours of sleep is not going to be good for baking, but what can you do?

Um, stop napping. Go to sleep earlier. Be normal. Come on!

End Transmission.

So, life in general is kind of sucking right now. People are assholes (and by people, I mean customers), I'm tired all. the. time., and I never seem to have enough money despite the fact that we now legitimately get tips at work (woot!).

However, I did get in a very nice hour and a half nap this afternoon. I was only interrupted once so that I could be asked what kind of cheese I wanted on my burger. If you must know, swiss. It's the best kind to have on a burger, though I would not mind trying brie. Must keep that in mind.

I also got to go to Bath & Body Works today and got myself some of their aromatherapy stuff and a room spray (since it was $3). I got a little thing of body lotion which is supposed to make you feel optimistic. It does. It is bottled happiness. I highly suggest getting your hands on some if you ever get the chance. I also got their pillow mist which is supposed to make you sleepy. Not that I needed it today, but I used it nonetheless, and it was heavenly. I just sprayed my arm with it, and...it kinda feels weird, so I'm not going to do that anymore.

Let's see. I don't work tomorrow, but I work Wednesday-Friday in the mornings. Then I have the weekend off (aside from a 4 hour morning shift on Labor Day, big deal) and free tickets to the Indians game on Sunday (which me & my lil cuz are goin' to!). Seriously, if I had to work tomorrow, I'd probably end up killing a customer, for sure. I'll detail asshole customers next month. Now, back to watching vlogbrothers on youtube and then sleep!

End Transmission.

I'm starting to realize that Twitter, however much I love using it, is a website for extremely arrogant people. I know I had a certain amount of arrogance before I used Twitter, but I feel that it's like starting a vague conversation with the expectation that someone's going to go "What's that you're on about?" And you get to tell them everything at a later point in time (because 140 characters just isn't enough to go into the intricacies of the faux nap or why on earth you're so excited over McDonald's having American Girl toys...which admittedly are totally bitchin'.)

See, the difference between this, here at LiveJournal, and Twitter is that there are so fewer people on my friends list here than people who follow me on Twitter. Even the terminology is for egomaniacs! Holy shit! I have followers, people who pretty much must read what I say on Twitter because, really, who is going to not read a one to two sentence post. It's kinda lame not to. But here, if you don't want to read something immediately, you don't have to. You can put it on hold and not worry about having to go through three or four pages before you have time to read it. It's fantastic! I follow 104 people on Twitter. That's a lot less than some people but a lot more than others. I almost always have at least two pages to go through every time I return to Twitter.

Here's another reason I know it's arrogant. (Man, I'm starting to sound like Grant; problem is, I LOVE TWITTER.) I've updated Twitter 289 times since I got it in December. I've had this journal for about five and a half years and have written 612 journal entries. That's nearly half the amount of updates in less than 15% of the time. Undeniably, it takes much less time to update stuff on Twitter because you have so little space in which to do it, but...I really don't know.

Man, I had a couple really good entries earlier this week and kinda left them out to dry, completely forgetting about 'em. Although, I'm not quite sure how much people wanted to hear, at great lengths, about how much I hated that Grant got home early from work, so there was a possibility that I wasn't going to get to have Chinese food last night. It would have worked well on Twitter, though...a few bi-polar-ish posts. Yeah. Oh, well, I missed my shot.

The other one, however, was about a night in which I actually had something resembling a life and found myself driving home from Geneva at nearly two in the morning. Yeah, um, driving west (or east, really) out there on 90 in the wee hours of the morning, in the rain, is not a fun ordeal. But it was totally worth it because I needed a night away from home. I may need another one soon (so, hopefully, Alex calls me sometime in the near-ish future). I went out to dinner at the Red Robin in Willoughby with people from work to celebrate one of my co-worker's birthday. My favorite part of that event was actually before it even started. I got there a little early, as did a couple other people (Rachel, my former assistant manager, Alex, one of my co-workers whom I never really get to see anymore, and Justin, a guy that the birthday girl (and a few other Bruegger's employees ) apparently knows). So, when the birthday girl, Katie, wasn't there, we decided to hit the (tragically pathetic) bar. Rachel's 19, so she couldn't really drink with us, but the guys ordered there Miller Lites, and I was trying to decide, tossing between getting a girly drink or sucking it up and ordering a Guinness. Guess which I did. I made the guys feel like total wusses and got myself the Guinness, and it was more delicious than any Guinness I've ever had...ever, if only because I felt superior to the guys.

Dinner was great. We got the waiters to sing their embarrassing birthday song to Katie, and she, as pretty much any other twenty year old being sung to by people she doesn't know while everyone she does know claps along in a very public place, was dutifully embarrassed...and yet she was not quite embarrassed enough to not scream with joy when she opened up her Zac Efron Rolling Stone cover tote bag. I don't get it, really...but, and if you've done what I suggested and watched A Very Potter Musical (Act 2, in particular) you'd know why, I could barely keep from giggling madly to myself. So, in the middle of it all, a few people were talking about this party they were going to and asked me to go along.  I checked back at home to see if anything was going on there, and nothing, as pretty much always, was.  And it was out to Geneva...eventually.  What I didn't know off the bat, nor did pretty much anyone else, was that I was going to be one of the main drivers.  Yeah.  In my little Focus (which I'm still completely in love with...and who needs to be cleaned out, vacuumed, and all that good shit).  Anyway, the party was pretty fun, but I didn't really know anyone there except the people I work with (and at that point, Justin and the other girl I drove there, Emily).  However, the best part is that Alex now has my phone number and we're gonna start hanging out and shit.  So, yeah.  He's kind of a strange lad but unbelievably entertaining.  Now, before you get any ideas in your head, like, "Ooooh, Sarah, you like him.  No, you *like* like him,"  I don't think I do.  I'm kind of over that "Guy You Work With" thing.  Didn't end well for me the first time.  The second, which was just a crush, has yet to stop haunting me, and the third...was just a mix of crush and the fact that I just like working with guys more (which explains a lot about a lot of my lunches sophomore year at Miami).

Well, that's about it.  It's almost six now, so I need to fake wake up from this faux nap and ask Mom what's for dinner and complain that I'm hungry *now*...so, then it becomes an issue of what snack I'm going to have before I can eat dinner.  Sigh.  Annie, you're right, it is the hard knock life.

Damnit.  Now I have that song stuck in my head.  "It's the hard knock life for us/It's the hard knock life for us/Instead of  treated/We get tricked/Instead of kisses/We get kicked/It's the hard knock life!"

End Transmission.

So, for the longest time, it's been internally bothering me that there were two paperback versions of the British children's set of Harry Potter books. One has Dumbledore on the back (I've had this version for the past nine years); the other, others believe and I can't disagree, has Nicholas Flamel (potentially...we can't figure it out!). And this summer, I've become increasingly obsessed with the library. In fact, as of right now, I believe I have something like eighteen things checked out from the library...with four things on their way to me. Anyway, at my library, they have this "Everlasting Book Sale" which basically consists of all the books they can't seem to sell at the normal monthly book sale (of which I am a particularly big fan). Crap books. Well, mostly.

Yesterday, I was browsing through the books there and came across the "Nicholas Flamel" version. Unfortunately, I probably had thirteen cents with me, and that, surprisingly, doesn't cover the price of a book at the library. So, I sort of hid it from plain sight (not that anyone really ever looks at those books, just poor college grads whose pay day is the very next day), thinking that if it was still there today, it meant that I was meant to have that book. It was fate, and nothing can override fate.

So, guess what I got for thirty cents today. Oh, yes, the book (which still needs to be entered into my catalog of books) is mine! (Yes, I keep a catalog...it helps me remember what books I own without having to go through all my books all the time.)

The other thing I did was rearrange all my books again. This was probably the second major move and the fifth or sixth since I've been home from Miami. It took...it took an extremely long time. Removing nearly 256 books from my shelves, sorting through them, deciding which ones go where, and then executing my plan is hard work. Now, unfortunately, if I buy pretty much any other book by an author I really like and whose work I have shelved all together, I'm screwed. It happens.

Kay, must go either work on my 21st book of the summer (the end of August deadline is coming fast, though I did meet my original quota) or move my laundry along. Which do *you* think I'm gonna do?

End Transmission.

So, apparently, I'm back to having my usual insomnia. This, however, is really, really bad now because I have to be at work in 6 hours. Now, it's not as if I have to be there at 5, but 5 hours of sleep has pretty much *never* been enough. ::Angry pout::

Why is it that when I have no real desire or need to sleep, I can fall asleep quickly, but when I need to fall asleep almost instantaneously, it takes hours and hours?? I guess putting Raymond on my lapdesk and my lapdesk on my bed and then playing AVPM isn't such a good idea after all. But I can't help that that's the only thing I really want to watch/fall asleep watching! If I didn't have the ability to go straight from one video to the next, I'd say fuck it, but...playlists are the most amazing things ever created...and so it's 2AM, and I can't sleep.

Maybe typing will make me more prone to sleep, yeah? I mean, I spent enough years staying up all night typing papers and those made me sleepy enough...and now...it's starting ::yawn:: to work.

Mmmmm...I'll update my real life later. When I have more physical energy.

End Transmission.

Kay, so I'm feelin' the need for new icons. I'll still keep a couple (because I can't bring myself to get rid of the one for posts concerning hockey or the one I use when I'm really sad...and maybe Pluto will stay, too, but pretty much all the rest are gonezo.) But here's the problem, I probably have over a thousand icons saved to my external harddrive and probably a hundred or so more saved directly to Raymond...how in the world am I supposed to just choose basically twelve ones from all that? I'll figure it out...somehow.

Anyway, so I'm fairly sure one of Miami's incoming freshman hockey players was in Bruegger's again today. This makes me more excited than it probably should...maybe because I have very little else in my life over which to be excited. I seriously have a very sad life as of right now. It basically consists of reading, going to work, watching AVPM, sleeping, and avoiding my "fellow Slytherin" on AIM because she annoys the crap out of me. Sigh.

Well, then, I really don't know what else to say for now...wow.

End Transmission.

So, I haven't updated in, like, almost a month...that's bad. Let's see what's happened in that time...

After my supermegaawesomelyamazing trip to Chicago, I was back at work, and they've had to cut everyone's hours due to how much the economy *sucks* still...so I work something like three days a week. This was actually really good because it means that last Friday, I got to go to Put-In-Bay with my mom, Cambra, and Mrs. Kunkle!!! We had so much fun!! I just wish we would have had more time together, though. I'm waiting to see when I have another weekend off to see if I can get the Kunkles over here in Cleveland. I'm *really* hoping I have next weekend off, too, since I'm going up to Buffalo/Niagra Falls this weekend. And I thought I wouldn't be traveling this summer. Psh!

Let's do a few stories...yeah? Yeah. Well, let's start with my favorite. It was about a week ago. I was at work, and this *REALLY* *REALLY* attractive guy comes up to the counter. So, I start, you know, checkin' him out. Seriously, what else was I supposed to do? And I realize he looks strangely familiar but not from around here. It's one of those things where when you see someone *way* out of context, you don't really believe that it's them. I had a few reasons why this particular guy should not have been at MY Bruegger's. First of all, I thought he'd be far far away, and if he was living at home, home is Rocky River...not Mayfield Hts. It was one of Miami's former hockey players...well, it ended up being two of them...AND two incoming freshmen hockey players. I nearly died of sheer happiness!!

Okay, so...I still haven't weighed in on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. My opinion: best frickin' Harry Potter movie yet!! It was a difficult movie to do because of the title. The book/movie aren't really *about* the Half-Blood Prince until the very end (besides Harry having the Advanced Potions book, which isn't a main plot point).

They also had a nice balance of funny and dramatic moments. I mean, the Ron on Amortentia and Harry on Felix Felicis scenes were epically hilarious! And on the other hand, you had pretty much any scene with Draco (my fave is still when he steps on Harry's face, followed closely by when he reveals his Dark Mark. Sigh.) I've only seen it twice, so far...this just means that I need to see it if I can get Cambra here and I can explain anything to her.

I've found out that I give exceptionally complicated explanations when people ask me seemingly simple questions about the series. Like, my dad thought "Is Snape evil?" was a simple question. Yes or no. Yeah, um...I went through pretty much the entire history of Snape to get to the answer that "He's not evil, but he's still a jerk." Not to say that I don't appreciate him as a character; I think he's fascinating, but he is a jerk (to put it nicely).

The other thing that's taken over my life is A Very Potter Musical. I linked to it a couple entries back (but that was, you know, last month), and it never gets old. I've probably watched it about 16 times...because aside from work and occasionally seeing friends, I have no life! I go to work, I sleep, I eat, and I obsess over Harry Potter stuff. This summer has been especially obsessive. I've been ridiculous in the past, but *never* this badly.

OH! And the last thing I've been doing is reading. I've changed my list at least a half a dozen times because I've started compulsively ordering stuff from the library...So, I've read 17 books so far, and I'm running out of steam. I'm actually thinking of cutting back to my original goal of 20 so that I can stop worrying if I'll make my goal.

( Updated Summer Reading List )

End Transmission.

This week has been ridiculous. Ridiculously AWESOME!! We left for Chicago on Monday around noon and we have been pretty much non-stop since then. Of course, we've all had extremely early bedtimes, but whatever. That happens when you're walking around the city all freaking day long.

Tuesday (because Monday was mostly spent in the car), we went around to the Field Museum and walked the Magnificent Mile. Holy shit, when we went into the American Girl shop, I was in 9-year-old heaven. Seriously. If I had bought all I had wanted to buy there, not only would I not have had enough money, they would have owned my soul because I would have had to sell all of my other posessions as well. I also spent $4 on a bar of chocolate from the Ghirardelli store. It wasn't even abnormaly large. It was just a regular sized bar. The fact that they gave me a real bag to carry it in, however, made it worth the $4.

At the Field Museum, we went to an exhibit on pirates, as if we hadn't seen enough pirate exhibits on other vacations. Still, pirates are awesome. We also went through the "Evolving Earth" exhibit where I've found out there have been 6 mass extinctions since the beginning of Earth. Yeah. I only knew of the one that killed the dinosaurs...and maybe the one that killed the mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers...but other than that. That's four other mass extinctions of which I knew nothing.

The next day was probably my favorite. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry. I know, I'm not a real science-y person, however they have an exhibit there that beats all other exhibits (including the Titanic one that was at Kings Island in 1998). Yes, they have a Harry Potter exhibit. I spent about $50 at the gift shop...which is surprising because I thought I'd spend at least $100. Yeah. I could have spent many many more if my bank account permitted. Anyway, they had all sorts of set pieces, props, and costumes from the movies. I got to play Quidditch and sit in Hagrid's chair. I even got my picture taken by the Weasleys' Ford Anglia. I got to see Draco's Quidditch robes from the second movie (and school robes too), costumes from all the professors we've seen (except Flitwick for some reason), all the Yule Ball robes, the Hungarian Horntail. I was on the verge of tears nearly the entire time because it was just so freaking awesome!

Oh, and if you were wondering how much my Harry Potter collection grew, here's what I got:
1 Slytherin scarf
1 Slytherin necklace
1 Harry Potter the Exhibition t-shirt
1 Harry Potter the Exhibition travel mug, and
6 Movie poster postcards

After the Harry Potter exhibit, we toured the U-505, a Nazi U-boat, because my dad was really interested in seeing it. Not going to lie, it was a really cool tour, short but cool. And then it was off to the ESPN Zone for dinner. We didn't play any games because we were so tired, but the food was good.

Today, we took a Chicago Gangsters Tour. I was going to include them in the title but decided to go with my original. Anyway, I highly recommend it. Now that I think about it, my family seems obsessed with the bad guys. It's not just me. It may just be me and my dad, but...well, no, Grant is going to a school whose mascot is the Blue Demons. It surprised me, on the tour, how many things were no longer there. One of the gangster's fronts for his illegal liquor business (a flower shop) was now a parking lot, and pretty much everything else was gone too, except for a church and the theater where John Dillinger was allegedly shot. (PS We were supposed to go see Public Enemies tonight, but I think we're too tired).

Then, it was a ride on the L to DePaul to see where Grant is going to be living for the next four years. It's a nice campus. Very small, but nice. We got to see his dorm building, the athletic center, the student center, the library, and, of course, the bookstore where we all got our DePaul gear. When we were done there, we went to the art museum. Oh. My. God. Amazing Impressionism exhibit. Lots of Monet, for which I was very happy. I even have a new Monet print to hang in my room and postcards to sticy tack to my walls, too.

So, that brings us to now. I'm sitting in the "Business Office," basically two computers in a hallway, and really wanting to go upstairs and lie down for a bit. So, that's all.

End Transmission.

While reading Eragon and it's sequel, Eldest, I've come to notice some things about me that time has seemed unable to change.

1.) If I find myself enamored by a certain character, and they appear to be in mortal danger, I will flip ahead in the book to make sure they're actually alright. I did it for every Harry Potter book since Goblet of Fire. In that one, it was Ron. I know. I don't understand what was going through my thirteen year old mind that I actually liked Ron, but there you have it. I thought he was going to die in the second task, and I needed to know he'd be okay. Jo quickly squashed my hopes in Order of the Phoenix but kept me on my toes for the rest of the series in regards to Draco. In the Inheritance Trilogy, I've become smitten with Murtagh, and he was definitely in danger at the beginning of Eldest, and I flipped ahead to see if his name came up again. I won't tell you if it did since I don't know how many people are planning on reading it in the future.

2.) I love secondary bad guys. Like, LOVE love them. If someone is dark, mysterious, moody, and has connections to the dark side, I automatically love them. My four biggest literary crushes (as of right now) are Sirius and Regulus Black, Draco Malfoy, and, now, Murtagh. I would include Snape because he's freakin' awesome, however that's come and go...these ones are much more consistent.

Okay, so I've got this job at Bruegger's for the summer and basically until I can find a real job in the fall, and I really like it. Okay, I like it except that sometimes I have to wake up at 4AM so I can be at work at 5. And I've found out that most of my co-workers love to read and that some of those ones and others are excited for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and...I just love my co-workers! It's true.

Let's see...I've been having some weird dreams lately. Dreams that have taken me back to places I haven't been in years: NDCL, my old house, and St. Clare School. Next, who knows, I'll be at Rita Wilhelm's Dance Studio. God, I hope not. Also had a really really weird one last night. I'm trying to piece it back together, so maybe when I do I'll post again.

I'm super excited for the end of this week. Friday and Saturday, I'm going to Toledo to visit Cambra, and Tony will be there and perhaps others too. I don't know for sure, but def me and Tony! And then Sunday is Grant's graduation party. Sure, I have to work that day, but at least I won't have to help set up...Grant can't get out of it this time. Muahahahahaha!!! AND!!!! MONDAY I'M LEAVING FOR CHICAGO!!!!! I'LL FINALLY BE ABLE TO SEE THAT HARRY POTTER EXHIBIT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE, LIKE, DECEMBER!!! Can you tell I'm excited? Speaking of Harry Potter, there's a Harry Potter musical on YouTube, and it's absolutely fantastic. http://www.youtube.com/user/StarKidPotter That's the link if you want to watch it.

Oh, and yesterday, we went over my grandparents' house for Fathers' Day. When we got sick of watching the Indians losing, I suggested we pop in some home movies. Wow. We were messed up in '93. I don't know what we were on back then (of course, Grant was 2, I was 6), but we (in the present) could not stop laughing the entire time. I'm going to have to go back over soon to watch some more, for serious.

Um, so that's about it, I think. I need to run to the library to pick up a summer reading game thing. Hey, if I'm going to read at least 22 books this summer, I'm going to have at least 22 chances to go see a shuttle launch in Florida. Oh, yeah.

End Transmission.

I'm revising my reading list. Since Brave New World has been sitting in my purse, unread for the past two to three days, I've basically given up on it for this summer. So, I have also given up on any other "classic" books. I'll leave those for when my mind thinks "Hey, shouldn't you be going to school now?" in late August. In their place, I've added Eldest, Eragon's sequel (of which I fortuitously bought an autographed copy at Half-Price Books!), and Rumors, The Luxe's sequel.

( Updated Summer Reading List )

So, let's see. Yesterday was Grant's graduation from St. Ignatius along with my cousin, PJ. Everyone else said it was a really quick ceremony, but Maria and I were sitting in the theater just dying while all the boys' names were being called. True, it was nothing compared to the College of Arts and Science at Miami, but over 300 names is just a lot to sit through in a dark theater when you're already tired.

And, before I forget, I had the weirdest omelet at The Cheesecake Factory. Don't get me wrong. It was delicious. I don't think they make anything but delicious food, but the eggs were...too perfect. They weren't exactly processed to look that way like at Bob Evan's or something, but there was something Stepford Wives creepily perfect about them. ::Shudders::

I'm also realizing that I need to get some new icons as I will no longer be needing the ones I've titled "english major" and "oxford circus." I may not even need "solitaire" anymore...though, I can't part with my hockey one. It's been around too long.

Anyway, time to back to my reading and whatnot...Whatnot, here, refers to hiding the fact that I've bought more books and also cleaning my room. It's still no where near being close to done.

End Transmission.

Heh. So, I realized today that my book buying is *far* from over. Okay, it's at least 2 books away from being over for the summer. How do I know this? I found at least $15 in coins in my room today and all I could think was "I could roll these, exchange them at the bank for real money and take a trip to Half-Price Books!" That's how I know. (Also, every time I type Half-Price Books, my fingers want to type Half-Blood Prince. July 15th needs to be here now.) It wouldn't be unrealistic to expect to find Eldest and perhaps Rumors up there. It's not my fault that The Luxe and Eragon turned out to be so awesome that I need to have their sequels!

So, that'll be my Monday aside from getting my room straightened up...That's an adventure and a half, believe me. Today, I practically gutted out one of my closets, and I wouldn't suggest walking in my room without shoes because you just never know what thumbtack or s-hook is going to dig itself right into your heel. Also, I basically haven't gotten any reading done in the past two days because I've been cleaning my room. I HAVE A DEADLINE TO MAKE WITH MY SUMMER READING! Yeah, it's more than two months away and I'm nearly half way done already, but I have a very difficult book to get through right now. It's not difficult because it's long. It's difficult because I'm not all too sure how much I actually want to read it and it's old and one of those books you're supposed to read in high school or whatever and I somehow managed to escape it then, but now that I'm done at Miami, I feel like I should have read...I just want fun reading! Not quite brainless reading, but fun.

I think my dad just got home which means my car is back! Oh, I missed having Reggie around today. Not that I went many places, but I like knowing he and I aren't too separated. It's a very loving relationship I have with my car. Slightly disturbing but no more so than the love/hate one I have with Raymond, who (despite his obvious problems) has been incredibly cooperative lately. Yay!

Okay, that's it from me today. I need to go do stuff up in my room, I suppose so that I might be able to sleep there tonight.

End Transmission.

You know what's really bothering me now? The fact that there is a petition online to get Tom Felton to play Riley in Eclipse. THEY ALREADY TOOK ROB PATTINSON AWAY FROM US! THEY ARE NOT TAKING TOM FELTON AWAY FROM THE HARRY POTTER FANDOM, TOO!!!!! And, why would I want to see him actually be killed? Just sayin'. I mean, it's going to be ridiculous enough when I see the Sectumsempra scene in Half-Blood Prince in July. ::angry grumbling::

Aside from that, life's been really good. I went over Laura's the other night and had one of those "Last Night in Town" shindigs with her, Tina, Caitlin, and Brian. We ended up going over a lot of stuff from high school (because I save everything). It was hilarious because we couldn't figure out about half of the references we made in each thing we read.

Wednesday night, we went over to my grandma's house (my dad's mom) and started cleaning out stuff so that my cousin can move in for the summer. If anyone is lost, we had to move my grandma into an assisted living place last summer (well, a few different ones before we found one that was actually suitable) because she has Alzheimer's. We found a *ton* of interesting stuff around there...a Viewmaster, an old will, divorce papers from her divorce from my grandpa, about $200, about a dozen boxes of garbage and storage bags, pictures, a quiz-like thing my grandpa did back in '47 for "Commonly Confused Words," and a shit-ton of other things.

And all through this, I've been trying to fit everything from my dorm into my room and finding it (unsurprisingly) difficult. I don't think my parents understand how hard it is to fit stuff meant for two rooms into one. I'm going to need more shelving space. Maybe another bookshelf would just suffice. I don't know, but I really can't do anything until I get more storage/shelving space (and maybe I need to take a close look at my shoe collection...I have more than enough for two large tubs...but I don't want to get rid of any!!!)

Finally, I've actually finished Eragon!!! Thanks to having the audio book, it only took two days. Now, it's on to Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, one of only four classic books. It's summer, sue me! Oh, yeah...I just went over my list again and figured out that I've added another book. It's the last one on the list...which means, I believe, that my book buying for the summer is over since I officially hate myself for buying so many books. Sigh.

( Updated Summer Reading List )

That's about it! Must get back to finishing the laundry.

End Transmission.