Yep, exactly as it says. I'm still alive, though school is trying to send me to sleep forever. Good news, though? Not much left to the semester. I am very, very grateful for this fact! I could do without constant headaches from worrying about assignments and all that. Yes.

Right now, though, not much to say other than NaNo died a fast death, as usual. November is a TERRIBLE month to have NaNo in, despite fun alliterations. School is pressing students into the GROUND in November-- so lets have 'em try to write 50,000 words! Yeesh.

But, I'm good anyhow. Looking forward to finals, and the time after finals, because then I get to work on other stuff, like starting my business. Currently? All the cupboards are doorless, and we're working on refinishing them, so that they match the other kitchen cabinets. Currently they don't, and it looks funny. What's also fun is reaching for doors that aren't there! Haha.

Anyhow. Heading back to studying now-- sure I just finished an exam, but that doesn't mean I get a break, noooo. At least tomorrow will be fun. Spending the morning making Chicken Corn Rivel Soup with a friend, and it'll be good. Even if we can't listen to Christmas music just yet.

You know what hurts? Getting a spice splinter. It really hurts. xD See, I grind up the spices (oregano, basil, parsley, thyme etc.) with my hands, and usually it's an okay thing - sure you get grey-green spice-dust ingrained in your hands - but some of the spices you Just Can't Do That With. Thyme? Thyme is one of those. It has these slivers that don't want to be ground up, and if you get the bigger slivers, they'll stick in your hand.

...Yeah. I had to get mom to pull the splinter out because my other hand was full of spice. Amusing, but painful. But! I have my own jar of Italian Seasoning now, which is good because spice-mixes at the store cost an arm and a leg, and maybe your firstborn child. ;) Annnd my hands smell like spices now - it's awesome.

*goes back to reading - needs more Elie Wiesel*

“Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you have no sympathy for human pain, The name of human you cannot retain.” - Saadi

That, right there, is me right now. :D I passed the driver's test! Even managed to pass parallel parking the very first time. :3 I'm just a lump of relief, srsly. I feel so much better having that behind me and knowing that I only have to get it renewed now unless I do something terrible that requires me to take the test again. Now, unless it's ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, I don't have to parallel park again! Ahaha. That's fun to say.

Now I'm going to nap, because I slept badly last night with all my dreams of backing into the curb, and cars behind me...I think I even backed into a person during my dream. >> That wasn't good, and thankfully it wasn't a prophetic dream, because that would have been...very not of the good. Yeah.

...the cause of my terrible, terrible allergies the past few days. When I went down to the bottom of the hill to practice my parallel parking, what do Sarah and I see? Cottonwood fuzz, coming down out of the sky like snow. Gag! I have a very big hatred for cottonwood, because not only does it bring about uncontrollable sneezing and a cold-like runny nose, but it also really makes your throat hurt. Mom said that while people might mourn the passing of a lot of trees to different diseases and stuff, that no one would mourn the loss of cottonwoods. >> I have to agree - I wouldn't.

But, that's enough about that. I have to return to the drudgery that is parallel parking, which...I can actually do better now, which is a relief considering tomorrow is the Day of Truth, but I'm still winding up further from the curb more often than I'd like to. :< Will fix that today, though, and tomorrow will be good. xD

The icon I'm using? Very much an accurate icon right now. In one week I'll be taking my driver's test and, well, the car I'm practicing parallel parking in does make me want to weep, and then die. Or, maybe it's not really the car, so much as the act of parallel parking itself, which I think was devised by people who didn't want anyone driving. I mean, I can park fine, but getting close enough to that curb? Man, I am rotten at it.

But, yes. Accurate, kind of, because test on the 27th. I'm not looking forward to this, but I shall survive it.

In other news, I can make my own baked beans now! :D Yes, for me this is something exciting. Homemade food that you can change the ingredients in? Always preferable to something that is canned or jarred or whatever. I never eat baked beans, because they're too sweet and yucky, but my baked beans? Soooo good. Especially when you make them with your own pork and beans, too. Next thing up on my list to make - right in time for Curtis's graduation party - is potato salad and pasta salad. Summer is upon us, can you tell?

Other than that, not much is up. Still waiting, and hoping, that job-people call me back, but not hoping too hard. I'm planning on helping mom with her gardens in the meantime, so I can steal away with the produce and make homemade pickles, and spaghetti sauce, and all that good stuff. Someone needs to find me a stove I can can on, also, because I want to can some fruit and tomatoes. :D Can you tell I'm still really into cooking? Prolly a good thing, considering my partner in crime is graduating this year. Maybe we can get the catering biz started!

Hopefully I'll be able to update more often now. Though, now, I probably jinxed myself. D: I'll head off before I wind up doing that, and poke at the library website. I'm done with seasons one and two of Veronica Mars - why isn't season three at the library yet?! ...why did I start another television series?! D: At least it's a finished series, my only hope is that it had an actual ending...

Anywho! Thanksgiving was fantabulous, both of them. :D Had family Thanksgiving Thursday, and yesterday was the Thanksgiving with granparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! Good food and fun all around, really, so all was good. And we're going to get to see the family again sooner than we usually do, at Christmas. :D So excited.

I HAEVE SNOW! Beautiful snow. I hope this is a sign of the winter to come, man, because I love it tremendously. It's not deep, but it's there, all white and pretty-sparklyyyyy. Mmf. Love me some snow. <3 <3

In other news: the semester is nearly done OMZ! Dance with me, brethren! This is the most awesome thing forever and ever. Got the two STRESSFUL assignments turned in, so...yays. :D

But, I already made the word count goal for the day, and surpassed it. Ha. 1,815 words since 1:30 am, I'm pretty pleased with that. ...even if I am really, really tired now. xD NaNo is going to kill me, seriously.

SERIOUSLY GUYS. SERIOUSLY. PHILLIES WON, THEY DID IT. I LOVE IT. *screams some more* My throooooat hurts! *watches the press conference* That was awesome. AND AND AND! The Ruiz-Lidge hug? AWESOME. Howard's SMILE? GORGEOUS. I wanted to go and give him a hug he looked so HAPPY. So very happy! I'm really excited guys. And I still want my Ruiz jersey. Much love for that catcher.

...now I quit it before I spazz more at you all, you probably don't really care. xD

Gotta love baseball. Playing in 39 degrees, with the rain coming down like no one's business? YES. So fun. These boys look cold though.

When you see this, post in your own journal with your favorite quote from The Princess Bride. Preferably not "As you wish" or the Inigo Montoya speech.

Vizzini: And you: friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless! Do you want me to send you back to where you were? Unemployed in Greenland!

"He's been in movies where he is a fairly ordinary guy...except he won't be pushed.

He knows his own mind. The bad guys...don't like that. And so they try to break him. And he fights back no matter how much it hurts.

If his characters...stopped there, they would be more or less conventional heroes. But they don't. Although they exhibit heroic stubbornness...and integrity...they're not very likeable.

We'd break a guy like Paul Newman if we had the chance...because he's a troublemaker...a malcontent, a loner. He smiled at the idiots who were crossing him. He didn't care what people thought. And a subtle change took place...the hero stopped wanting to be the hero."




In the words of a backwards recording by the Beatles: Paul is dead, man, miss him, miss him.

...yeah.

I have all my books. I have the DVDs for my Intro to Human Geography class. And...*checks* my school website is still not loading. *flails!* I need it to load so I can print some papers off of the site. D: Faily website needs to loooooad. *whines and goes to prod at her books while she waits for them to fix website*

We're heading out again in the morning. Heading for the Western side of the state/Maryland/West Virginia. Gonna see some mountains this time around -- that's my love. Mountains and trees! So happy about it. Ha. I'll talk to you all when I get back and stuff. You all stay safe, alright? <3

Because I can, and because I haven't yet. Spoilery-transcript snip and clip from the finale episode of this year's season of Dr. Who. Journey's End.

( ...the most important woman... )

Now I'm for bed.

Changing my major as soon as this semester is done. Realized I don't want to continue in International Studies and that I would rather major in Sociology. Hopefully by the time December and the end of term comes around I can figure out how to switch my major. Silly over complicated HACC website wants to confuse me, I swear it does! Evil program.

I still want to double major in something (yes, along with going to culinary school at some point), but I'm still divided as to what I want that second major to be. Philosophy looks interesting, if I choose my focus to be Social Justice...we'll see how things go, though. Social Work would also be something I am interested in pursuing.

That's all I really need to ramble about at the moment. Allergies are overtaking me now and I have to go see about Claritin now or something. <3s to you all!

So! Thanks to Amazon - man how I love that website - I am now the proud owner of Betty Crocker's International Cookbook. Only cost me $0.26, though it came to $4.25 by the time I added on shipping and handling. BUT STILL! Omz! I have this from library currently and I love it, so getting it to OWN is fantabulous. Twa-la!

And now I will shut up my cooking geekery and go do something else. ^^ <3s to you all.

So far this movie is failing to impress me, I have to say. *checks time left* ...and it had a while to go, during which it can either make up for its failing, or continue to fail miserably. We shall see how this goes, yes? Yes.

Lookie at what mi awesome Jocla made me for my biiiiirfdae! <3 <3 <3

I AM TWO!

Fweeeee~! /toss smoothie to Joc!