Today!
I:
- Finished a hat I started crocheting last fall AND finished an iPod bag (well, finished other than buying a button to fasten the closure) for my sweet little blue Edwina (the iPod I got for my birthday).

- Went to visit my ex-boyfriend's mom at her yarn shop. Oh, I love yarn. And her! So that was fun.

- Made an appointment to get my hair cut tomorrow. I'm nervous - it's been 10 or 11 months since I last had it done, and I'm going to someone new, because my stylist moved away. She's at the same salon, and I've already been to two stylists there and liked them... so here's hoping it goes well!

- Went shopping. Oh, did I shop. It took me hours - gleaning from bargain stores is a task - but I ended up with some really sweet stuff. Such as two pairs of skinny jeans that actually don't look horrible on me. In fact, they look good. I really thought that was impossible. Also got a nice new bra, and a pair of SPARKLY Vans slip-ons. I've never had the old school slip-ons before, and these ones are... glittery. So YAY for that! Also, I got a pitcher to make iced tea in. Which is important when one lives off tea, but also lives in the South, where it is hot. Really hot. Everything was SUPER cheap, too. Nothing over $15, and that was for the jeans, which were 70% off. Everything but the pitcher was way discounted.

- Made Annie's Mac & Cheese, which I hadn't had in six months.

- Watched the new Project Runway and ate ice cream from the carton with my mom. Wheeeee.

- Got an e-mail from one of my favourite people back in the UK! Exciting! He's a great correspondent, I was laughing really hard while reading it. Aw, I miss York people.


Erm... yes. I have to get new glasses. Appointment next Tuesday. So it's as close to makeover central in my life as it ever gets. I'm nervous about the glasses, because I LOVE mine, but they're getting really worn out, and they need new lenses, anyway. I also get new sunglasses! In my sunglasses, which are about 4 years old, I can't really distinguish individual leaves... or read signs as well as one would hope, when driving.

I'm back in the US!
I'm really glad to be home, but wow, I really miss the UK already. I like the way life moves there, the way everything looks, everything.
BUT last night I got to have a massive burrito from my favorite burrito restaurant (HOORAY) and I love love love seeing my Mom and my cat and my ridiculously ancient dog.
And now I'm sitting on my bum watching Mythbusters, which I missed a lot. I love this show.

My luggage tried to kill me - often - for most of the trip home. I have some big bruises, and I'm sore. I had to re-pack my baggage twice to make the weight limits - once at Heathrow and once at Newark. And I got in right under the wire for my flight in Newark... then got to the gate to discover it had been delayed an hour. I got back to NC around 12:30am Tuesday night.

I saw Sweeney Todd on the plane. It was pretty sweet, though hella bloody. I love Tim Burton. Oh, and the guy who played Anthony? Beautiful much? I had one of the those "omg he's pretty as heck and I recognize him!" moments... he's a model who did one of my favorite editorials. And that voice... Also on the plane I watched "Sean the Sheep" (love that show) and listened to the Laura Marling and the newest Kings of Leon CDs in full (have I pointed out that I love Virgin Atlantic).

Today I'm going out to replace my cell phone - my old one just about snapped in half right before I left the US in January - and to get some new flip-flops and the new David Sedaris book (joy!). Also, I'm going to try driving for the first time in six months. Hopefully that will go well, as I have to drive 2 1/2 hours tomorrow to get to my dad's for 4th of July celebrations.
Looking forward to seeing my dad et al. I spoke to my little sister on the phone yesterday and my GOSH has she grown up. She can really carry on a conversation. I can't wait to see her! Six months is a long time for a 4 year-old.

Erm, yes. Home! I'm looking forward to this summer. I've missed being here, and I have some things to look forward to. Beach, thesis research, working on hobbies.

I'm back in York after two wonderful weeks travelling in Switzerland and Rome.

Switzerland was beautiful. I stayed in (very nice) hostels and saw a good deal of snow. Lucerne was really nice, Grindelwald gave me the most stunning moment of the trip (waking up after a snowy night with no view to find the sun shining and my view filled with Alps), Interlaken was a bit strange - any place outside middle American with a Hooters has to be a bit odd, really. Travelling alone stressed me out the first day, but then was good - really good.

Rome was... well, what can you even say about Rome? I was lucky because I was there with my dad and my step-mom, and my dad does not hesitate to pay for good food, good hotels, taxis, etc. Therefore, I had a nice hotel room all to myself and I ate so, so much good food. I'm reaaallly tired of pasta, though, and that never happens! The Roman stuff was great, St. Peter's and all the other Catholic stuff very beautiful, and overwhelmingly opulent. There were priests and monks and nuns all over the place. My last day there I went to the old Non-Catholic cemetery to see Keats's and Shelly's graves, and I made friends with some cats who live there... and that was really nice. I think that cemetery was my favourite place in all of Rome, actually.

I took a lot of pictures - over 1,000, though a lot of those are duplicates where I was messing with exposure or whatever - and those will soon appear on Facebook (for those of you who are my friends there) and on my Picasa.

All that considered, though... I'm really, really happy to be back in York. The whole time I was away, a part of me just wanted to be back. I'm really attached to this place - and I didn't feel a need to "get away" or take a break, because York is my getaway, and also because I'm just generally happy and relaxed here. Plus, I had a lot to look forward to about getting back - my mom coming to visit, for one (big) thing, so I was ready - and counting the days, a lot of the time.
A couple of nights ago I was walking down the street in York with my mom and a friend, and I was just SO happy - almost transcendently so. The three things I'd been looking forward to - seeing my mom, seeing Patrick, and being back in York - were all happening, and it was all just very lovely.

Today my mom and I went to Rievaulx, an old ruined abbey north of York. We walked there from a village a few miles away that had a ruined castle and a really nice cheese and meat shop where we bought possibly the best cheese sandwiches ever made (mine had Wensleydale cheese with apricots). Rievaulx was simply gorgeous. I love me some picturesque ruins. And there's nothing like being out in the English countryside with cups of take-away tea, sheep and pheasants everywhere, a ruined Gothic abbey sitting in the valley in front of you... Yeah. England is pretty nice. I'm glad to be back.

Happy Leap Day, all!

An extra day for your year. A gift of the Earth's orbit. Nice.


I'm in a weird (read: not very great) mood tonight.

But I did have a nice walk.

And a nicer toast-eating event.
One of my buddies came by and just started chatting with me... then left... then came back with crisps... then invited me to have toast with the other guys downstairs.
So I ate toast - including a piece I managed to catch when it was tossed to me from across the room.
And one of the other guys gave me a spoonful of cereal - just held it out. They're very open with their food and drink here, they just hand you whatever. One of them offered me a bite of his sandwich about 10 minutes after I first met him.
They're silly, they say things like that in my subject line, they give me toast, all is well. <3.


AND I saw a preview for the episode of "Shameless" with Bryan Dick in it. Hooray!


I just found a cool website. Pictures of Walls.

*pout*
Not only did I not get into my first-choice class next term... I didn't get into my second-choice either.
I'm taking a class on post-Industrial Revolution urbanism now? Which is okay, because it's 19th century, which is my thing. But still! I wanted to take the on on cathedrals... or the one on Stuart architecture, which is also sort of about cathedrals.
*pout*

I'm hungry. My bagel is ready. Why am I still sitting here typing in my LJ when I need to leave for class in 15 minutes?
(Last day of Tuesday/Thursday class for the semester!)


They say it might snow all weekend. I approve.

Last night I wrote my professor a 1.5 page short story instead of a journal entry about French cinema. It was a lot better than any journal entry I've written all semester.
1 paper down, 1 journal down, 1 wall label, one paper edit, and one more full paper left to go.
Then exams!
Then I can go home, once I pack up my room.

A few days ago a friend got a response to a post she had made on my school's personals site. When I learned the person was a senior boy who had not used the site before, I randomly thought, "I bet it's friend of my ex, who I don't know that well (we'll call him Zeb)."
The today she found out he lived on so-and-so street... and the only guy I know who lives on so-and-so street is "Zeb." I tell her it muuust be him, as a joke, but really don't think there's any chance.
Then tonight I find out... IT WAS HIM.
Of 350-ish guys in his class, who knows how many on so-and-so street... it was him. The one I instinctively thought it was days ago.
So.... I AM PSYCHIC.
WHAT THE FUCK.

Er, yeah. This has been a week of that.
Three times this week I was thinking about someone then almost immediately ran into them.


I want a new pair of glittens.
It is reaaaly frickin' cold out. And tomorrow it is supposed to be 30 F high... 12 F low. Wow! Winter! Finally!

Yesterday I made myself a goat cheese and pear sandwich on baguette. It was sooooo very good.

I went to the gym and worked out Thursday! I know, I was surprised, too. The gym scares me... but I like working out.

Tonight I dressed up and went to a concert of Early Christmas music... Early as in from Elizabethan England, not as in too early too be thinking about Christmas. It was nice. And they sang a version of carol I have on one of my Christmas albums. I need to get out that stuff. Christmas muuusic!
AND best thing about the concert, maybe? I basically made $20 by going to it. How, you ask? Well, I was going to pay $6 to go... then I told my boss I would be there (I work at my campus's center for the arts, where it was) and he asked me to help him get people on the mailing list for a while before the concert. I made $13.50... add to that the $6 I WOULD have spent, and you get me making a lot of money to go to something I wanted to go to! Which is nice. And I got a nametag! So official... AND there were mini cheesecakes afterwards. Mmm.

I just realized it's Friday and I don't have to wake for anything tomorrow... which is a nice feeling. And now I'm off to watch more Casanova. Woo!

I have just realized something terribly serious.

I am not a man.

You see, I already knew this, of course.
However it seems to me, on reflection, that what has never truly sunk in before this evening is that, as not-a-man, I am not much of the sort who (even were I rather more wealthy than I am) could ever obtain a bespoke suit.

And that is what I currently desperately want.


We see the problem here?




(If you do not know what a bespoke suit is, I advise looking it up, and visiting the link I've placed at the end of this entry. You will be the better for it.)


On a fairly related note, this is a book I need.


I shall pursue tailoring anyway, I do so hope, at some point in my life. It is a path I need to follow until all fits gloriously.


( More on my sartorial choices: jodphurs, chilly weather, scarves. )

Yesterday I bought:
( Food, music, a book, and, with my patience, a signature. )

Tonight was a concert (meh... but I had nice chats with my co-worker and his friend, and later with my boss), then what I think was a radiantly excellent radio show.

Oh, and by the way, this what inspired my suited espousing.

Things I love:

1. Cry Baby. This movie rocks so hard. 1950s, Johnny Depp, John Waters, music? Um, yes. HOT.

2. The person I just talked to after 6 months of not hearing from him. He's still wonderful. (Damn China. It takes away my friends, and it's full of disease and pollution and badness. BUT it let me have him back, in the end. It just better return the rest of them. 6 friends going to China within a year? Not cool. One of them is Chinese, but still.)

3. The new necklace I just made. Ribbon + crochet + sequins = awesome.

4. Raspberries.
5. Chocolate.
6. Chocolate and raspberries.

7. The moment today when I was driving along, musing about how much I can't wait to be driving around in my new car, and the exact same model and color I'm getting drove by me. That car is so swwweeet. And blue.

8. Scrubs, and the fact that this (Cry Baby) is the second thing I've watched today with someone riding on top of a car while clutching the tops of the doors.

Tonight I made a meal of awesome. And it even involved me doing something I never have before, and not f-ing it up!

I am so fricking exhausted tonight.

Yesterday I spent hours with an old friend, talked life, the universe, and everything, and especially sex, and ate straight-out-of-the-oven gluten-free brownies (just like normal brownies, really) instead of lunch. BROWNIES. Now I am freakishly filled with sweet things and am kind of grossed out by the idea of baked goods, despite my constant craving for them.

I also went out and bought sequins, which I've been meaning to do for ages. My newest project is learning to sew them to things, for extra shininess. I already did one really cool thing with them, so I am pleased. AND I got glitter-glue. I have not interested with glitter-glue in years. It is wonderful and glitteriffic and sticky. AND I got the new Thursday Next book, which is awesome, of course. And now that I finalllly found my battery charger last night (so I have both my camera AND a way to use it), I can eventually photograph all my summer craftiness.

*points at icon* I think I am finally slightly getting the hang of text-only icons. Poncho! Hurrah!

I can't wait to get back to Wes. I miss it so.


EDIT: HOLY CRAP this is why I am afraid of bridges.

A few more things:

OMG it is SOOOOvery cold. It makes it hurt inside my face.

I got jelly in my door's lock today. Note to anyone who comes see me - it may be a bad idea to grab hold of my door handle.

Salmon chowder is, apparently, good.

I got a package from my mom today! Well, Friday. But today!

Today I have had to drink: hot tea. some OJ. cold tea. cappuccino. some orangina. now I'm going to make some herbal tea.

I want to write a play a day this week, but 'tisn't happening.

Time to read Rushdie.