So, today I canceled a plane flight for the second time. American Airlines hates me by now, I'm sure.
I'll be staying in Saint Louis for the rest of break. I'll still be back at Uni on the 14th to get settled in and ready for next semester.
Grades are in. This is the first semester at Uni I can look at and not be ashamed of, even though I only took three classes.
Asian Art: I got an A- for sitting in that class with my head down and my headphones on drawing the Prince of All Cosmos. And occasionally turning in seven page papers on mandalas. I consider this like...the free cookie at the grocery store.
Ecology: I got a B-, which is actually slightly surprising, because I was pretty sure I was sitting on a solid C. I guess me busting my ass mid-semester to try to fix my grade paid off pretty well.
Japanese Religion: A-. I'm happy, because I wasn't sure if I'd earned an A or gotten a B+.
So yeah, overall this helped my GPA. Soon it will also be respectable. Frigging freshman year. >>
"...[The] three most deplorable things in the world: The spoiling of fine youths through false education, the degradation of fine paintings through vulgar admiration, and the utter waste of fine tea through incompetent manipulation."
-Lichihlai
I didn't drink. There is no reason why I should have been woken up by how sick I felt at 5AM. There is no reason why I finally threw up 45 minutes later.
Now everything I drink tastes like liquid saccharine.
I'm afraid to go back to bed.
::EDIT 4PM::
Well, hopefully spending the first day of 2006 sick in bed just means I'll be healthier for the rest of it. It hasn't been too bad, tho; in times like these, having a laptop is almost as awesome as having 7-Up.
I didn't make any last year, which might be why I didn't seem to accomplish much of anything last year, either. So this year...I've made two:
1) Only eat meat once a day. Two reasons for this one, one of them being religious. I just don't feel right eating meat, but I can't become a vegetarian yet because I'm still learning to like veggies. Second, if I'm only eating it once a day, I'll make sure it's pretty damn good, so I'll enjoy it more. (It's the little things. XP*)
2) Rejoin a sangha. I obviously can't attend my old one in Missouri, now can I? I've found one in Olympia and two in Seattle I'm looking into. So either expect me to be out late Wednesdays/Thursdays or up early on Saturdays. Or two of the three. I know, me up early on a Saturday is whoa crazy, but raa.
Tying into that is picking my meditation back up. This may come as a surprise to my Uni people, who had no idea I was ever in the habit at all. Just get used to me spending quality time with my wall. Feel free to flop down with me. It's a great destresser, and I've been told I'm a good teacher.
Which reminds me. I set up another blog about all the Buddhist stuff to keep it neatly organized and separate from my everyday crap. If you're interested, scroll down to below the archives and click the circle (Maddo at least should know what that is. XP*)
Woke up feeling yucky today, but went shopping anyway in the hopes that activity would make me feel better. Unfortunately, it didn't, so I'm going to spend my evening in bed/asleep.
I got some fun things today, tho. I got myself a cleaver, which I have been lusting after for years now, and a very nice 8" slicing knife. Also got a yummy Thai cookbook.
Now if only I didn't feel like crap so I could make some of those yummy looking noodle dishes. D=
Maybe the spice would help. Good thing Rose and I plan on eating Thai food tomorrow. If it turns out that she gave me her strep, I am going to be less than happy.
Okay, so here's my "O.o;" moment of the day. And I can say that after the thread this morning, the sensation of having 75% of my face numbed, and my dream about Gautama Buddha and the Dalai Lama having a conversation (I need to rethink my pre-nap reading material.) I can only hope that my storytelling ability in my current sickened state will be good enough to properly convey the "O.o" of this event. (If I can do it with Ape Man, I think I can do it here.)
So the entire family decides to go eat chinese food tonight. We've been going to this one restaurant for years, so the people there know us by name, and we usually have a lot of fun joking around with them. Tonight they were a little stressed out, though, because we had a group of 12. Included in this group were my uncle's sister and her boyfriend, who just got back from climbing around on Everest (I phrase it that way because he did not summit.)
Now, I personally find this man to be a bit of a pompous aribag. It was interesting to listen to him blather on about kanji and kana and how oh so very difficult it is to type in character on computers in Asian countries, despite the fact that he knows no characters, has never tried to write them, and has no idea how IME works on the computer. That was the appetizer discourse. When the main entrees came he moved on to bigger, better things...like Everest!
I managed to tune him out, since I'd heard this talk once already and was far less informed on the topic, so was feeling no righteous anger. I turn away to talk to someone for a few moments. Out of the corner of my eye I see some rustling going on, so I turn back...
On his plate is sitting a SCALE MODEL of Everest. Not made out of food. It is a real, resin-cast replica, and he is discussing his route and pointing it out with a fork.
O.o;!!!!
Waking up and then finding a thread on the forum comparing you to Gillian Anderson and then discussing your breasts is more than slightly creepy.
I need to stop napping. I always end up having horrible nightmares that I can't wake up from and I spend the rest of the day just as exhausted and slightly more freaked out than I was beforehand.
*goes off to clean out the inside of the Monte Carlo* Music and mindless scrubbing should be able to relax me.
::EDIT::
I caught myself enjoying a salad again today. I can't wait for the day when that's not a mind-halting shock to my system.
Also, I have eaten no meat today. At all. This is an accomplishment of amazing proportions. And I don't feel like I'm going to go insane and bite someone's neck. I blame the salad. >>
The extended family seems to have shopped for me exclusively at Dry Ice. So now I have a lot of flashy crap I don't want. I really wish I could get everyone to decide that quality is better then quantity and just buy one or two meaningful presents. That would mean that I got very few presents, but at least for one Christmas I could feel like these people actually knew my interests. - -;
I must sound so ungrateful, but I'm the opposite of a packrat and I hate having to find things to do with presents I will not use. Clutter drives me mad.
Okay, so I'm reading the stuff with the DVD that does the atmospheric visualization stuff.
(There's no good way to describe this, so here's a link...) It has a section on "if ___ is you color, then you are ___."
So here are my colors. I have three favorite colors, but most people think of purple first because of my hair. I can't dye my hair green because it would look moldy without bleaching, and I can't dye it blue because blue fades to grey.
"People who like green are usually down-to-earth, reliable, kind, and generous. You often have a knack for identifying and bringing out the best in people. Your concern for people is genuine and sincere."
"If blue is your color, you are trusting and trustworthy. you may sometimes feel vulnerable, as you tend to be more sensitive to others and prefer a close circle of friends. You are deeply hurt if others betray your trust."
"If you like purple, you are highly artistic, enigmatic, spiritual, and unconventional. You can be easy to live with but hard to know. You tend to protect your inner thoughts."
Okay, all opinions on whether or not they're right aside, here's what's making me laugh: HOW THE HELL DO THEY FIGURE THIS STUFF OUT?
XDXD
People saying "Merry Christmas" to me has been pissing me off, even though it shouldn't. Not from strangers, but from people who know that the only reasons I go through the motions of celebrating and asking for gifts is because it's less stressful for all of my family. Still, it's unfair to them, because they just want me to have a good day. I just think I'm getting touchy about it for no good reason and it will stop now. So if I seemed irritated when you said it to me, that's why, and I'm sorry; December is always a very hard month for me, and my stress can manifest in very, very stupid ways.
That being said, I've had fun so far today, despite the fact that I think I am coming down with Rose's strep. Fam and I made our family's homemade donuts for the first time since I was nine, and it was a lot of fun. MiniFam was actually cooperative and helpful. I need to have a weekend morning where I get everyone up and we have donuts at Comic House-- they're really yummy and fun and messy and they make me think of family. >>
I may or may not also be making fondues. Yep, I got a fondue pot. A really frickin' nice fondue pot. Red cast iron, and forks with wooden handles. I also got a crock pot. I'll know by the end of tonight whether or not I also got a rice cooker. Also, the Grandmother-in-Law is cleaning out her kitchen and sending me all the stuff she doesn't use anymore, so hopefully I can score more pots and pans for my kitchen.
Here's my Christmas list so far:
Books:
Blue Jean Buddha
Where Bigfoot Walks-not really about Bigfoot
Cooking:
Fondue pot
Crock Pot
Teapot w/ built-in infuser (which looks very awesome)
More kitchen knives
Kitchen Scissors
Bath:
Body wash, milk soap
Body Butter
Etc:
Tea, chai (which I don't like, unfortunately)
Tea, green (advertises itself as tea used for the Tea Ceremony, which is a big lie. It made me laugh.)
An atmosphere-creating, visualization DVD.
Beauty and the Beast DVD special edition, unfortunately currently lost in the mail, but I've been promised a copy no matter what.
Two new wallpapers, edited to suit my widescreen, but easy to crop if you want them for yourselves.
I claim no art responsibility.
Pillow
iRoll
So I'm not really sure what's going on with America this year. If at all possible, people seem to have become even more insane.
This is the only answer:
The right side of my mouth where they drilled feels funny now. The teeth and gums are sore and my cheek is puffy...
There are a few things that don't suck about Saint Louis. For one, Panera bread (OMGGGGG). I miss their I.C. Caramels and their bagels more than I thought I did. Also, there's this great German lady who has been working there since I was a freshman. When I went in today after my dentist's appt, she was there. While she was getting me my stuff, she gives me this intent look.
"You work at the jewelry store?"
*smile* "No, actually."
"Ah, I mistake you for someone else. But you are beautiful, and you should know that."
*surprised* "Thank you!"
People love her because she cares and somehow never gets stressed out. <3 you, Stella. <3 you like whoa, and you make the best hot cocoa ever.
I also like the dentist because they have all this fun hi-tech stuff and I get to stare at x-rays of my teeth. But today's dentist visit was rather traumatic...I'm not really sure I can explain why, but rest assured that I am thoroughly traumatized.
So I find out today that my two (yep, only two) wisdom teeth are coming in. So I have to get those extracted this summer. And, I have cavities.
This is the source of the trauma. I have never had cavities before. They are something that happen to other people. I am a dentist's wet dream; I floss, I brush all the time, I use listerine. When I go in my teeth are virtually plaque-free. My dental records glow healthily, and are covered with notes like "GOOD BRUSHER."
So how the FUCK do I get cavities, I asked?
Well, it turns out that a few of my teeth are heavily grooved, and a toothbrush can't really clean them properly. So while my good hygeine means I have an incredibly low decay rate, getting these cavities was pretty much inevitable. I literally could have done nothing.
But he says that the rest of my teeth are indestructable and that after these are filled, he doesn't think I'll have cavities ever again.
BUT STILL! I can't frigging BELIEVE that I have cavities! I really wish I could fully explain...
I think I need to go sulk in my bed for a while, which is the third thing about Saint Louis that doesn't suck. I have never slept in a more comfortable bed in my life. Just...it EATS my nerves with love. It's like being bitten by Lestat, only minues the vampirism and the Tom Cruise.
NOTE TO SELF: Update this banner.