Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Grrrrr.

There is a "special weather statement" for upstate New York. And I quote:
...WIDESPREAD FROST AND LOCALIZED FREEZING TEMPERATURES EXPECTED OVERNIGHT AND EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING... AN UNSEASONABLY COLD AIR MASS WILL SETTLE OVER THE REGION OVERNIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. MOSTLY CLEAR SKIES AND LIGHT WINDS WILL MAKE CONDITIONS FAVORABLE FOR THE FORMATION OF WIDESPREAD FROST LATE TONIGHT AND EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING ACROSS ALL OF WESTERN AND CENTRAL NEW YORK. THE FROST WILL OCCUR MAINLY BETWEEN 2 AM AND 9 AM WEDNESDAY MORNING AS TEMPERATURES FALL INTO THE LOWER 30S. SOME OF THE NORMALLY COLDER INTERIOR SECTIONS COULD EXPERIENCE TEMPERATURES IN THE MIDDLE TO UPPER 20S.

I didn't include the part warning farmers about sensitive vegetation and the growing season. Tomorrow is the last day of April . . . right?

In other news, I didn't place in the writing competition. I'm in one of those moods where I feel like everything I write is absolute crap; the contest results didn't help much. I should be getting my paper from Critical Reading back tomorrow, and I know my Chancery Cursive plate is graded so I'll be receiving that in calligraphy. If I don't do well, I think I may hitchhike out of town on a beet truck or something. Also, today was the first day all semester that I didn't hand in an assignment on time . . . it's so frustrating to have broken that streak.

I'm just frustrated in general. Home, please.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Cause she knows that it's demanding

I am on a Flaming Lips binge. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" makes me want to play the guitar SO BADLY. And save the world from evil robots with black belt karate prowess. For now I'll have to settle with writing a really good paper for anthropology tomorrow, and focus on everything else after that.

The world is moving about in my favor today; my hair doesn't look bad despite the fact that I slept on it wet, I got to creative writing to find out that all we had to do was sign up for conferences later in the week so we didn't have actual class, and had a lovely lunch at Bank Street with Ellen and Kelly. Hopefully the trend continues.

Home in sixteen days . . . there's so much to be done between now and May 14th. If I think about it too much, my brain comes dangerously close to a point of explosion. Better take lots of vitamins, cause I know that it'd be tragic if those evil robots win.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Concerning hobbits and weather

I am back from a weekend with Amy at Brown replete with Lord of the Rings references; it was lovely. Coming back, though, I felt almost guilty about having so many negative thoughts about my own school while I was there. . . being in Providence highlighted the reason why I'm sometimes unhappy here--feeling like I'm stranded, basically--and because of that I unwittingly continued to make other comparisons to Geneseo. Anyways. The point of this circular blathering is to say that while distance may be a vantage point (as I told Amy earlier about something completely different), sometimes it obscures the wonderful things about a place. And, in the words of Gandalf, even the very wise cannot see all ends. So I am decidedly happy . . . this may or may not be influenced by the fact that I'll be home in less than three weeks, but whatever!

The forecast for western New York includes rain for the next ten days. While this would typically be a depressing scenario, I'm actually glad because a) it will drive me indoors to get some real work done, and b) I will not feel resentful that I am inside working at the circulation desk and missing the prime of the afternoon on the green every day.

Side note: the taxi driver who brought me to the airport on Friday asked me riddles for a good twenty minutes. He said I was able to answer the most out of any of his customers to date. Am I bragging? YES.

I will end with one of his riddles (which I did not answer correctly); if you get the right answer without googling it, I will be very impressed:

What did the fish say when he swam into a concrete wall?

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Wanted: one pair of ruby slippers

Rome may not have been built in a day, but this paper will construct itself in a night. I'm a girl on a mission.

"There's no place like home" is my new mantra. Call me Dorothy.

Hear me roar

I am in such a foul mood right now. Seriously, do not mess.

Oh, great

Today is G.R.E.A.T. (Geneseo Recognizing Excellence Achievement & Talent) Day at Geneseo; there are hundreds of presentations and readings going on all day and we have no classes . . . it's pretty exciting. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to take part in anything because I'm working at the library. Of course. As soon as my shift is up I have to get to work on the paper due tomorrow that I have not started writing yet.

It's a great day, basically.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Pick your poison

Sincerest apologies for not updating in a few days; my dearest Erry came to visit for the weekend and we had a lovely time doing a whole lot o' nuffin'. Actually, that's not true. Mostly nuffin'. She co-hosted the radio show with me on Saturday night and was hysterical as always, our one listener (my roommate) enjoyed it.

Right now I'm at my usual table next to Shakespeare in the library . . . I just finished my calligraphy project and now I'm about to start working on the 8-10 page paper due Wednesday that I have yet to begin writing. Unfortunately, I haven't finished the reading required to write said paper yet, so . . . yeah. I don't expect to be leaving this chair very soon. Fortunately, Erin and I went to Wegmans before she left and picked up two four-packs of my poison of choice:


Expect a new post somewhere around 1 AM or so.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

At least I'll always have coffee

Today is one of those days when I feel like I'm wasting my life. It's so beautiful out, and all I want to do is have an adventure. This feeling may or may not be influenced by the fact that contrary to my level of confidence upon handing in my astronomy exam today, I did not do well on it like I thought I had.

Right now I'm outside trying to write my creative nonfiction essay; we have to choose a word and expound upon it in five paragraphs, three of which are personal anecdotes relating to the word, and the other two are more philosophical/academic perspectives on the word.

I'm writing about coffee. Obviously.

I just want to feel successful. Argh. Everything is frustrating at the moment.

When Debbie Met Frodo

There is no lack of things to write about at the moment, I'm just trying to sort everything in my mind. One of those nights.

I'm studying for my astronomy test tomorrow, and the unit covers black holes. The idea of a black hole is just so far from human conception--or my human conception, at least--and while I understand what I'll be tested on it just still drives me crazy thinking about its implications.

Also, we're reading Nabokov's autobiography Speak, Memory in my Critical Reading class. Nabokov was a self-proclaimed chronophobiac; he was afraid of time and its passing, describing our existence as "but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness." My professor asked the class if any of us had ever thought about death before, and he was surprised to see that we'd all raised our hands. Death is for someone his age to contemplate, he said.

As we get older we begin to conceptualize things in a less infinite manner, seeing timelines instead of horizons, and it's strange to realize that I'm beginning to do that myself. Since when do I not have enough time to be everything in the world I want to be?

Wow, sorry to be such a downer! While I have more work than I can reasonably manage at the moment, things really are good, I promise. Just know that my morbid universal musings are tempered with things like the Celtic alphabet, which I abuse to no end during calligraphy class:

Business as usual, basically.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?

I'm trying to think of a good metaphor for this shift at work. I am at the laptop desk--my favorite place, as most of you know--and seriously, the SECOND I sit down someone comes up to the desk. I get up, help them, resettle myself with my book and VOILA, another person magically appears with a dead battery. It's to the point where I'm getting passive-agressive; I'll snatch the person's card from them but then be really friendly. Yes, I realize I am sick.

Side note: bad pick-up lines just make me laugh a LOT.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

I bleed caffeine

So I woke up at 2 o'clock and the sky was blue. There was no trace of snow. For a minute, I thought I'd dreamed it all.

I am still exhausted and grumpy, and I may or may not find the need to employ toothpicks to prop my eyelids open with. For now, though, I will continue drinking the Venti coffee next to me; I tried the new Pike Place roast from Starbucks . . . it's quite good. Geez, I love coffee.

Spring is still hibernating, and so am I

I just got out of the shower. I have been awake all night at Relay for Life. Obviously I am having difficulty stringing together sentences more complicated than simple statements.

'Bizarre' is a good word to describe my present state. It is snowing, and the wet, white flakes against the newly green grass is somewhat disconcerting. It's as if spring peeked around the corner in all her innocent sweetness, then retreated back in shyness and left us with God-awful snow in the middle of April.

I'm rambling. I need sleep.

I will leave you with this question, though:
If April showers bring May flowers, then what do April flurries bring?

Friday, April 11, 2008

Rain and reminiscing

I may have to break the promise I made to myself and leave my room and my pressing work in order to go outside and walk in the rain. Like two minutes ago I heard a rumbling sound, and then all of a sudden it was like someone above us had wrung out a wet towel. Thunderstorms are a far more beautiful aspect of spring than budding flowers, a mon avis.

The sudden rain just reminded me so much of my first night at college; I had walked over to a carnival-like thing set up at south campus to meet up with my roommate (who hadn't moved in yet), when all of a sudden the skies opened up and drenched us all. I pulled off my leather sandals and just ran barefoot back to my room, completely soaked and by myself but not caring in the least because it was the beginning of some new adventure. A lot has changed since then; I feel older in some ways and younger in others. Different, certainly. Would I have changed any of it? I don't know.

Maybe I'll tie a key to a kite and conduct some electricity like Ben Franklin . . . perhaps I'll be struck by some brilliant idea for my paper in the form of a current to the brain.


Side note: the carillon is nice and all in small doses, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing.

The answer is not "wonderful."

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Falling for a number of things

Today I took a 'trip' down memory lane back to my klutzy tween years, to be painfully punny. I had a meeting with a professor whose class I'm going to audit next semester, after which I ran back to my room to get a few books before work at the library. On the way from Schrader to Livingston, I was fumbling for my phone to see what time it was because I was worrying about being late and wasn't paying attention to where I was walking, and BAM! I walked right off the sidewalk and did a face plant in the dirt.

The most unfortunate part about it was the fact that I fell right outside the floor to ceiling windows of the dining hall. I have no doubt that quite a few people saw me. After picking up all my books, I gave new meaning to the term "walk of shame" as I sped away with my my head hung abashedly.

Despite the bruised knees, today has been a pretty excellent day. We're reading Nabokov's Speak, Memory in my "Critical Reading: Autobiography" class, and on Monday my professor was talking about how Nabokov had synesthesia. My immediate thought was of one of my favorite Dinosaur Comics, and after class I went out on a limb and decided to send him the link. Well, he really enjoyed it, and proceeded to print it out and share it with my class today. So basically we're getting married, despite the fact that a) he could be my grandfather, and b) he has quite a thing for Freud, as Tim and I discussed earlier. I've decided that I can put up with an Oedipus complex in exchange for a relationship brimming with Shakespeare and Dinosaur Comics, though.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

"Socially inept" is not a excuse

The extent of some people's rudeness just really amazes me sometimes. I'm sitting at the IDS desk (which isn't usually busy at all), reading my book, when all of a sudden I hear this extremely loud, extremely obnoxious fake cough. I look up to see two people standing in front of me, waiting to be helped; there was a guy right in front of me but I knew it was the girl behind him with the unfortunate tickle in her throat because she was snickering immaturely. So naturally I raised my eyebrows and gave them both death stares, and the guy looked apologetic on the girl's behalf and was super-polite when I gave him his books.

I just wanted to be like, "Really? Really?" to that girl though, ESPECIALLY because she was wearing a 'Reference Help' shirt (meaning she works here, too). The lengths some people will go to in order to be as obnoxious as humanly possible is quite astounding. I pride myself on my self-control when saying that I did not reach across the counter to slap her in the face.

Monday, April 7, 2008

A lovely buggy Monday


Things are on such an upswing for me these days. I don't have time to elaborate at present because I have close to 300 pages of reading to catch up on and a paper to write, but I will suffice by saying that I found about twelve ladybugs in the stairway this afternoon.

Coincidence? I think not.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Geneseo student in April: "Hey, have you seen my scarf?"

So I'm going through old documents I've saved on my computer and just organizing and reading things I haven't looked at in weeks/months/years (I've had my computer that long?!) . . . . it's an interesting process.

Often times when I'm sitting in a public place with my laptop, I'll eavesdrop on conversations and type out any particularly amusing ones . . . here are a few I stumbled upon just now:

My grandfather, sitting in our car at the beach: I went to Pete’s house eh, last Sunday, and his mother-in-law was there; he said she lost weight but I can’t figure out where—I still can’t get my arms around her!

Girl using the common room stove, after being asked why she was using oil to fry her egg: Because you're frying it, dorkus! It tastes mad (expletive)ing good! We take that yellow shit out, and it cooks when the white gets (expletive)ed up.

People are so funny. I would totally create an "Overheard in Geneseo" blog, but it wouldn't be very entertaining because chances are, you'd know who said the stupid thing and just lament the fact that you did.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Written in the stars

Want to know the best part of my moon lab?

THE FACT THAT IT'S DONE!

I'm fairly happy with it, actually. Percent error was less than a tenth of a percent . . . so yeah. Go me. In the process, I also came across a new favorite website . . . Sky & Telescope Magazine has a website, and there's this awesome program on it called Interactive Sky Chart. You basically look at the night sky on it, and can track the progression of the stars and planets and Moon at your exact location on whatever date and time you choose ranging from the year 1600 to the year 2400. I looked up the exact position of the stars the minute I was born. Isn't that wild?! Essentially, this program means that we can look at the sky at any given point in our lives, far beyond our deaths, even. Our entire lives compiled into the movement of the stars.

I suppose you could argue that that's a morbid thought, or one that renders us insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but I really don't see it that way. Rather, I feel like being a part of the motion of something so much larger is just that--being a part of it. We are witness to something that has existed long before us, and will continue to exist way after we die. There's meaning in that.

Anyways, enough late-night abstraction. Definitely check out the website, though . . . you have to register with your email address, but it's free and totally worth any spamming that may follow.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Sugar-coated lies

I thought it was generally accepted that if a gummy candy is coated in sugar, then that sugar is assumed to be sour.

Apparently not, because the sugar-coated gummy worms I bought downstairs were not in the least bit sour (much to my disappointment). I blame that misconception for the past hour, which I have wasted on the Internet. My foundation of knowledge has been rocked. How am I supposed to do work when I can't even depend on the lip-puckering, mouth-watering sour deliciousness of gummy worms? Oh, the misery.

Here comes the sun

Today's high temperature is 62 degrees. I APRIL FOOL YOU NOT. Obviously my solidarity in wearing sandals or flip flops for the past five days has paid off, because my toes have successfully beckoned forth the sun. HA.

Unfortunately, I have not been outside for more than a collective 20 minutes or so; I went right from class to work today. Sigh. There was a brief torrential downpour when I was going around upstairs, rough shelving books. I wasn't too disappointed not to be in the middle of it.

It is now the eleventh hour as far as getting my moon lab done . . . I really have been on top of my work except for this stupid assignment. Oh well. It'll just be one night of misery and then I'll never have to think about it again.

39 minutes 'til I can go outsideeeeeeeeeee.