On Easter Sunday, etumon and I met in Ardmore and hung out, and it was awesome. (Even though there's very little to do in Ardmore, since there are 13 people who live there, all of whom are named "Frank." Even the girl!) I even brought my new digital camera, to record our exciting adventures! Unfortunately, on every one of those exciting adventures, I inadvertently left the camera in the car. Or forgot it was in my purse. However, despite those seemingly insurmountable problems, I am still able to provide a photolog of our meetup. Get ready for some exciting shots, folks!

We met at the Love's station on I-35. I was suitably impressed by the beigeness of etumon's new car, though I toned it down so as not to disturb the other people about, as you can see:

( look, look! )

Now, don't you feel like you were there?

So this morning I totally got up at 6 and had time to fix my hair AND put on makeup AND go to Starbucks. Today I am gorgeous AND well-caffeinated YAY!

Okay, and speaking of Starbucks. I am really annoyed by people who have to make a big giant deal out of not using the Starbucks terminology to order their drink. Yes, if you tell them you want a large coffee with sugar-free syrup and no whip, they'll figure out what to make you. So just tell them that! You don't have to lead off with a rant about how you "just want a LARGE COFFEE with SUGAR-FREE SYRUP and NO WHIP, I won't use whatever stupid name you guys call it, just give it to me!!!!1!ONE!!" For one thing, you are an asshole. The barista does not name the drinks. Therefore, yelling at the barista about the names of the drinks is an assy thing to do. For another thing, if you hate Starbucks so much, why are you in a fucking Starbucks? It's like going into McDonald's and ordering a Big Mac but refusing to call it that because you don't want to give in to corporatism. You're already in a McDonald's, dude. I think that ship has sailed.

Another thing. Don't bring your elementary school age children into Starbucks at 7:00 in the morning and order them fancy caffeinated beverages. I got by on orange juice when I was in elementary school. Your children clearly can too, as they are already too loud and rambunctious at 7:00 in the morning to need caffeine. (Also, doesn't coffee stunt their growth or something? I'm quite sure that was my parents' excuse. (Not that I liked coffee. But it would have been. Had I liked it.))

Pre-caffeine is not the time for anyone at Starbucks to annoy me.

Today the librarians are having a web conference on library renovation. It began at noon, so they're having pizza. Mike and I had to set up the projector, so we decided that made us officially part of the meeting and entitled us to pizza as well. So I have just had pizza! Not paid for by me!

So, my presentation is over. It went...okay. People are telling me it was good, so I'm trying to just take them at their word. Anyway, it's over. H even said it was good, so it must have been truly outstanding. And he talked with me like I was part of the team instead of a stupid underling. That won't last, of course.

I'm going to be attending the Reference meeting every week now as the representative from Systems. I think this will actually be really cool. I'll get to go and be the expert, and have something to do for awhile, and their meetings are way more fun than Technical Services' meetings. For one thing, H is not at their meetings. So that's a positive development.

My Internets at home are awesome. The wireless router hates me, but I have momentarily given up on it and just plugged the computer straight into the modem. Maybe this weekend I'll try to get it working again.

My birthday is Friday! It will be totally awesome. My family is taking me to lunch on Saturday at Belle Isle Brewery in 50 Penn Place. I love this restaurant. They're almost never busy, and they have tons of vegetarian meals, including the option to substitute a veggie burger on all their burgers. They have pizza and burgers and Mexican and Italian oh my!

TV shows are coming back. There are tons of shows I'm watching now, because I have absolutely nothing better to do than watch TV all the time. Tonight is the premiere of both Kitchen Nightmares and America's Next Top Model. The CW has been off the air most of the last couple of weeks, but it better damn well come in tonight.

So, this weekend? Fucking awesome.

Saturday picara and I took Daddy to see Live Free or Die Hard for Father's Day. God I love that movie. Die Hards are the perfect action movies, I think. Lots of things blow up, there's a few jokes, and the good guys win. Also, it has Justin Long, the completely adorable Mac from the Mac/PC commercials. Who is completely adorable, as I may have mentioned. Also, Tuvok. Yes, I know. Tuvok! He's getting work! And Governor Devlin from OZ, who appears to have a contract requiring that he be in every movie ever at this point. And playing a good guy, which was, um, disconcerting. Anyway, I very highly recommend it and will go see it again with anyone who wants to. Yes, I am just that cool.

We took Daddy to dinner for Father's Day after the movie at Garfield's, which was really fun. They have awesome taco salad there. And we shared chocolate cake, which was yay.

Saturday evening picara and I watched like 10 episodes of Supernatural. We finished Born under a Bad Sign at around 11:15, and I still had to drive back to the City, but. The next episode was Tall Tales! So we totally had to go ahead and watch it, because it is the most completely awesome episode EVAR. Dean! With his cheeks all puffed out! Sam hugging the frat guy! Wrestling! On the BED! So that was also yay.

Sunday I had dinner with a couple friends from high school, Hannah and Julie, whom I hadn't seen in ages, and we had a great time. It's so cool to me how the fundamentalist Christian clique (or whatever you want to call it) from high school have all become so much more liberal. It gives me hope for this country. So, yay for all of you, because I have totally awesome friends, who were awesome in high school, and are even more awesome now. And I, while also awesome, evidently have a very small vocabulary.

People who can't remember from one day to the next what the difference between "vegetarian" and "vegan" is. I have explained this in GREAT DETAIL. Yet I keep getting asked questions like, do I want to check the cheese Digiorno pizza for animal products. It's cheese pizza! It has NO MEAT! Therefore I will eat it! This is because I am a VEGETARIAN, not a VEGAN. *flails*

I twisted my ankle on the stairs a couple weeks ago. I scared the cat, who was at the top of the stairs watching me hop around and curse and wouldn't come down until she was sure I was done flailing around like a spazz. A few days ago my ankle started turning truly disturbing colors. There's a giant purple bruise and green and yellow shading and stuff. The colors aren't as vivid in the picture, but here's one anyway:

( a truly horrific injury )



And, just for fun, and because I think it's such a cute picture:

( Me and Zoe )

I just accidentally poured Diet Dr. Pepper in my eye.

*wins*

I've been extremely irritable for a few weeks now. I don't know what it is, but practically every night I get to a point where everything people say, to me or to each other, and everything they do annoys me.

I got my hair colored yesterday! It's awesome, three different colors. Lori is completely awesome. The underside is really dark brown-red, which they call Cherry Cola. Then the top is chestnut and blonde in chunks, sort of. I completely love it. No picture yet, unfortunately, but I'll try to get one for you soon.

The Tour de France so far this year has been incredibly weird. Most of the leaders were out before it started, and now even the presumed favorites aren't doing that well, except for Floyd Landis, whose team strategy isn't making a whole lot of sense to me. The yellow jersey is getting passed around a whole bunch to people no one would have expected to get it. I just don't know what to make of it. It's not really as compelling this way, I can't help but feel. However, I do have a new Tour boyfriend, Yaroslav Popovych of Discovery Channel. He's 26 and from the Ukraine and completely adorable. So far this year we have learned that Iban Mayo completely sucks and Floyd Landis' hip is dead. Don't forget. There'll be a test.

I've been working a bit at my old job at SNU in the IT Department. Not full-time, but I am getting a lot of hours. It's not going to be forever, though, so I'm still looking for a real job. *sighs*

Today picara and I hung out with acostilow. We got to cuddle her adorable new kitty, which has been the highlight of my week. I am such a sucker for kittens. She's so small! And soft! We also watched the premier of SGA and Serenity, which I continue to love. acostilow made cherry cheese cake, because she is made of awesome.

Tomorrow I'm not working, so I have my counseling appointment. I think I may possibly have convinced the counselor I'm not seekritly a lesbian. Then again, she may just be biding her time before bringing it up again.

There's this guy at work who's kind of, well, odd. He doesn't like sugar. (No, seriously. He's not just trying to avoid it because it's bad for you. He really doesn't like it.) He doesn't like getting free food with the rest of us. He refuses to wear IT shirts. He also decides now and then to make fun of my job, particularly the part where I have to carry cards around for people to sign. Which, you know, I make fun of my job. A lot of the things I do are kind of dumb. And therefore humorous. But when he does it it kind of feels like he looks down on *me* for doing it. He can also be quite friendly, which is part of why I call him odd. (And when he's being friendly I have kind of a teeny tiny little crush on him, which--god. Kill me.)

The other day he came in to get a soda (sugar free and caffeine free, of course) and immediately ran water on a paper towel and used it to clean the top of the soda can before drinking out of it. And I'm like....ohkaaaay. Who does that? I can't imagine it would really do much good, either, unless you're going to use soap.

( so, what do you think? )

acostilow tagged me, so here goes:

( 5 guilty pleasures )

( 5 weird habits )

Gods, my head hurts. I think it's because I've been sleeping too much, which is just fucked up. I should be able to sleep as much as I want!

I want to bake cookies, but I don't have the stuff to make cookies. I really need to go to the grocery store. Right now I'm eating cheerios out of the box.

I'm currently watching the pilot of SVU for the second time today. Chris Meloni is rilly rilly hot. Also, they showed another episode where he took off his shirt (and pants!) and he *does* really have that Jesus tattoo he has on Oz! Guh.

I haven't watched House yet. *loses at fandom*

I was frighteningly domestic yesterday. I made Virginia Beach Chicken, rice, salad, and raisin bread. None of them are hard to make, but, you know, cooking! Way better than peanut butter sandwiches or sitting in front of the TV with a box of Wheat Thins. Then etumon and I took turns playing Karaoke Revolution, which was fun. We had all the windows open, so my neighbors had the privilege of listening. Nobody complained, anyway.

I want donuts now. This is picara's fault.

I'm considering dropping one of my classes, Library Management. It's stressing me out a lot, and I haven't done quite a bit of the work. I don't really need the class, but if I drop it then I'll have to take three more hours next semester. I have to decide soon, because the deadline for dropping a class is November 3rd. Next semester there are several classes being offered that sound interesting. One is Systems Analysis, which is being taught by the same teacher I'm taking Internet from this semester. She's pretty well-organized, so I don't expect it will be a hard class. Dr. Martin is teaching a special topic called Library History, which has both a face-to-face and an online component. That one sounds like it might be hard, though. Also, there's Advanced Cataloging, which I've been interested in for awhile. An adjunct professor is teaching it, so I don't really know what to expect there. I'm afraid it'll be hard, too, but I enjoyed Cataloging.

I didn't make it to the library yesterday, so I'm supposed to go tomorrow to work on Reference. Mary Beth works till 10, so she'll be there to help. I really don't want to do my Reference stuff, but I know I have to. If I can make myself do it tomorrow, I can hopefully get it finished or close to finished.

Mary Beth's roommate called me last night and told me Mary Beth's birthday is on Saturday. (Mary Beth OMG totally didn't tell me, BTW.) Sharon is putting together this book where all Mary Beth's friends write how much they like her and stuff, which she is so going to love. Sharon dropped it at the library this morning so Mary Beth's coworkers could sign it, and I've got to pick it up before they close because Sharon's at work and can't get there in time. I'm trying to decide if I should get Mary Beth anything else. She took me out to eat for my birthday, so maybe I'll just offer to do that for her too. She is seriously such a sweetheart, and she deserves to have a special day.

I went on Monday to see Mary Beth's new apartment, which is beautiful! It's brand new, and it came furnished, which is cool. It's not the best furniture ever, but it's pretty. They each have their own bedroom and their own HUGE bathroom. They also have a huge kitchen. Mary Beth had been to the grocery store, so she made dinner for her and me. She has this recipe for little pizzas that you make with tortillas, tomato paste, oregano, ground beef, and mozzarella cheese. It was very very good, and I'm going to have to try to make it myself sometime. She also bought stuff to make chicken fajitas, so she's thinking about making that for us sometime next week.

Well, I am off to take a shower before I go pick up that book from the library. Peace out, yo.

picara has demanded a ticky box poll. I'm not doing this for her. I would never do something just because she told me to do it. But, entirely coincidentally, I find myself in the mood to create a ticky box poll. *sing-song voice* I'll do it because I want to, not because you tell me to!

( click here for the poll )

I am craving a steak, really a lot. So I think I might go to Red Lobster and have steak. Also cheddar biscuits, because their cheddar biscuits? Wonderful. And I just had a cinnamon sugar pretzel, in case anybody couldn't tell. I might have to have one of those everyday, forever.

I'm kind of depressed, or gloomy, or whatever. Mary Beth is the closest friend I have in Denton, and she's never willing to do anything with me. Last night I asked her to come make Christmas cookies with me, but she was busy being alone because her roommate was out of town. Then tonight I asked her to go to the mall with me, cuz I needed to look for a present for Matthew, and she was working on the finals that aren't due until Thursday. Every time I ask her to do something and she says no she always tells me not to stop asking her to do things. But it's really frustrating, because I feel like she's never going to be not doing something. She always acts like I have tons of friends and I'm doing her a giant favor to be her friend. I've tried to let her know that I really value her friendship, but she's not getting it. She doesn't seem to understand that I really don't have that many people to do stuff with, and that I'd really like to hang out with her. Then I worry that maybe I'm suggesting things she's not interested in, but she won't ever suggest anything because she doesn't have a car and she won't ever ask me to drive anywhere. So I don't know what I'm gonna do. We won't have any face-to-face classes next semester, so we're going to have to do other stuff if we want to see each other. I'll probably have to keep suggesting things and hope she says yes one of these days.

I emailed Laureen and asked her to go to lunch with me sometime. We've made plans for the 17th, and she's going to ask Christy and Candice to come too. I'm really excited. I miss SNU, and it'll be nice to catch up. So that finalizes it. I pretty much have to head for Oklahoma Thursday night or Friday morning. I'm worried some of the Christmas presents I ordered won't get here by then, though. I may end up having to come back to pick them up. :)

Well, I'm off to do the Christmas cookies. I'm craving sugar cookies anyway, and I got some cookie cutters at Walgreens and some colored sugar at Kroger. I'm hoping this'll cheer me up, too.

I can't get away from thinking that, even though I know several Republicans. I'm having trouble not biting their heads off, especially since the stupid election keeps coming up all the fucking time. My mother voted for Bush, even though she isn't happy about the war in Iraq, because Kerry never made it clear what he was going to do about Iraq. Gah. Yes, I'd rather vote for Bush, who's clearly going to start bombing the whole freaking world one country at a time. Of course, I was annoyed with Kerry for being less than clear about Iraq, so it's partly his fault too. And Mary Beth apparently voted for Bush because her boyfriend's in Iraq. How that makes sense, I don't know. I've been trying to leave it alone, because that conversation can't lead anywhere good. She lives in Texas, at least, so Bush's win isn't her fault. Ditto for my parents.

I've got a horrible headache right now. Since last night, really. And I'm out of Migrin-A. Now I have to decide if I'm gonna go back to the doctor for more or not. If I still have a headache tomorrow I'm gonna try to go in and get that shot they said they could give me.

Mmm, chicken stew. I'm gonna try to get Mother to make some more at Thanksgiving.