Plan Number Six

I hate tests. One of the major reasons I chose history as a major is that there are absolutely zero traditional tests in history classes. I am perfectly comfortable determining how long I need to spend writing a paper, but it is impossible for me to determine how much time I need to allocate for studying political theory and microeconomics. This problem is especially aggravating when I have to study for two tests and write a paper for Monday and then write two more papers for Tuesday. Life is a little bit of hell right now.

Thanks god for sisters, friends, and boyfriends; if I were at home I would have gone insane a long time ago.

I have an interview tonight for a position that will involve reorganizing the Willamette Valley Vineyard's inventory system.

Crap!


Later: I most definitely got it, my friends. Life is oh-so-good.

I want to chop off all my hair, a la Katie Holmes and my friends Melissa and Whitney. ( Example images are behind the cut. ) I am, however, very unsure that I could actually pull it off. The awkward length stage lasts about two years for me, so once I've cut it, I'll have to endure two or three years of pain before getting back to this length. This is a very long-term decision. Perhaps I'll wait until I'm back at school where I'll have 70+ girls on hand to give me their opinions. Ah, the benefits of sorority life! Heh.

In other news, my dad has talked to my mother about it, and I am for sure getting a new MacBook as soon as I'm back in Oregon where there is no sales tax. I'm toying with the idea of getting it in Portland with Casey before we head down to Salem. That would be way more fun than waiting for it to be shipped, wouldn't it? I'm beyond excited to have a fully-operational computer again. Also, because Apple's back-to-school iPod deal goes through August, I will be getting a free 4GB iPod nano with my MacBook. Also also, with their deal to get $100 off a printer with the purchase of any computer, I could get a completely free color printer, even though I don't really need one. Triple sweet.

On the David & Sammy front, I have resolved to ignore them as much as possible. If I pay any attention, it is literally impossible to not get angry. If I pay little to no attention to their antics, I will remain unbothered by their idiocy. It's the only way I can think of to stop being so mad all the time because of them. I'd much rather rant about things everyone recognizes are unimportant than things that actually matter, like Sammy being bi-polar with a side of Munchausen's.

LAST NIGHT WAS AMAZING.

Preparation for the night began the week before. My sister and I stopped in at the local Borders to find out how exactly they would be coordinating the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We discovered a gem of information that made our 21st of July infinitely easier: they would be handing out line bracelets as soon as the store opened Friday morning. There was no question that Juli and I would be there when they did.

We were there, all right, forty minutes before what was supposed to be their opening at 10 AM. For some unknown reason, however, they opened at nine that morning, and we had been beaten to the front of the line. No matter; there were 150 orange bracelets, the first color in the line, and we were definitely early enough to get two of those. After that slightly annoying adventure, we returned home, and I went to sleep. (For some reason my sleeping schedule threw itself off base. I'm not too upset about it, though, considering it happened just in time for the release.)

We came back at 10:30 PM, prepped with information and filled with determination to be as close to the front of the line as possible. During our first Borders adventure, we had discovered that the line would be forming outside. Our second told us that lining up would begin at half an hour before show time. Armed with this knowledge, Juli and I sat ourselves down in the empty aisle nearest the door. Apparently very few were aware of the plan to start the line outside, because we were the only ones lurking near the door, and none were waiting outside. This was boding well.

As line time approached, my sister and I got more and more antsy in a very fun way. I ended up seeing quite a few high school friends there, though the only ones that actually acknowledged me and talked to me were Alex, Chris, and Lekhi. We had just started a game of cards when my sister informed me that it was 11:19 and time to head outside to see what was going down. I apologized for breaking up the game, told them it was great to see them, and then Juli and I quickly made our way out.

Outside we found a circle of Borders employees discussing how things were going to go down. We decided to stand pretty close to them, which would serve the dual purpose of finding out what was going down and claiming our spot in line behind whichever employee was going to be leading it. They realized what we were doing, laughed, and started up the orange line with my sister and I as numbers one and two. We also got some pretty slick glow sticks for no apparent reason, which made us even happier. Who could possibly turn down a free and unexplained glow stick in a moment of victory?

It's tiring to write in this much detail, so I'm going to stop now.

We ended up being the first two people to buy our books, even though a little girl and her parents ended up winning a raffle ticket drawing for the first spot in line. (The girl was so cute!) We beat them out because Juli and I had our cards ready when we got up to the counter while the guy had to fish for his. I doubt that had any effect on the little girl's enjoyment of the moment, which I'm glad of, because being the first to buy a copy had a great effect on my enjoyment of the moment. What a rush!

Juli and I basically ran out of the store and across the parking lot. As soon as the people lined up saw us with our bags, they started cheering for us, and they kept cheering all the way to the car. Lexi called as soon as we got in to see if I was in line at Borders, and it was very fun to say, completely out of breath, that no, I wasn't in line, because I was already out of it because I was FIRST. It was all quite exhilarating. Pretty soon after she called I told her I'd have to talk to her later because we were kind of in a rush to start reading.

My sister read aloud the entire way home, and I read all through the night. Some things were REALLY COOL, others were infuriating. Mostly, though, it was pretty good. I found myself disappointed with the lack of information she gave us about how everyone dealt with things in the end, but I'm not too upset.

The most amusing part of it? The entire thing reads like fanfiction.

My appointment with my new eye doctor was Thursday. The news was kind of frustrating. Apparently my prescription has changed only marginally, but I should have been wearing my glasses all day instead of only for long-distance seeing, like driving or looking at white boards in class, which is what a different doctor told me two years ago. He was a complete moron, it seems. How aggravating.

Speaking of glasses, I need to remind my mother to call our insurance people and make sure they cover both glasses and contacts. She's convinced that there is no reason they wouldn't cover both, but the people at the doctor's office told me I could only get one or the other this year. I'm not making an appointment for contact fittings until I know I can get a different pair of glasses, because I've loathed this pair since the day I got them. If I have to go without contacts to get glasses that don't look completely ridiculous, I definitely will. Besides, I'm too lazy to wear contacts every day.

My mom and I drove to a very cool nursery over in Maple Valley today and bought a bunch of drought-tolerant plants to cover up our sandy hillside. Tomorrow is planting day, and I'm actually kind of excited. Everything we got is beautiful!

My brother proposed to his girlfriend today. Yeesh, what is it with my family and getting married quickly? The earliest I can imagine getting engaged would be around graduation in three years. Slow it down, people! He has his reasons, though, and, granted, my siblings are at completely different stages of their lives than I am right now. Anyway, they are going to get married within the month in Missouri, where her family lives, and have a big reception here for all of his friends. In other words, we've got a LOT of planning to do.

Oh, Missouri. How odd it will be to see you! I suppose I'm looking forward to it.

( Pretty, witty, and gay? )

I'm so tired. For some reason I haven't been able to get to sleep at night, despite being awake for 20+ hours and only sleeping for four for three days now. I'd have thought the running would have helped last night, but no dice.

That communication error I was ranting about the other day still hasn't been solved; she has yet to get back to me. I could wring her neck!

Thursday morning draws ever closer. I guess the upside is that I'll have some pretty sweet "sexy librarian" glasses when it's all over and done with, even if the downside will most likely be having to wear said glasses all the time.

I was going to go biking after church, but it's been raining hard off and on all day. It wouldn't be the most intelligent thing to go riding a bike I'm not very familiar with around an extremely hilly neighborhood right after rain or while it's raining, so I guess it'll have to wait for another day. Running resumes tomorrow, though, rain or shine. I have a schedule, and I intend to stick to it.

House with Lexi will save the day!

YAY, Pizz! Maybe this actually ends up being a happy season love-wise for VM, eh? I like this whole waiting until the season's over and then catching up thing, I really do!

I get excited much too easily. I'm not certain whether it's a curse or a blessing, but I'll make sure to get back to you when I am.

In other news, my mom tried to make me go do some church thing with her where you're supposed to share your testimony, something which for me is impossible as I distinctly do not have one and likely never will. I told her she could choose between me going to church with them every week or forcing me on the issue which would cause me to refuse to do anything church-related and then proceeded to cry. I'm glad the sobs were brought on by the shooting pain in my jaw rather than excessive anger, I suppose, though I'd really have rather not cried at all. I hope I remember to call a doctor today.

There have been far too many comparisons of me to my brother lately, and frankly it's beginning to piss me off. I hate my brother. I cannot stand him. Everything he does is stupid. Comparing me to him is the worst insult I could imagine, and for some reason they've done it multiple times in the past week or so. Stop it. How many times do I have to explain his stupidity to you people before you understand? I get it, he's your son, you wish he actually had a shred of intelligence, but he doesn't, and he never has, so get over it already! Stop trying to make it better by comparing him to the one who actually does have brains, please.

I'm still really happy about Pizz and Veronica. That show is so much better when she isn't working on some ridiculously personal case. [Insert much whining about having to wait for the next episodes to finish downloading here.]

And I'm back once again, with yet another entry. It's almost sad how often I update this thing when I don't have people around to talk to all the time, isn't it? I used to think I was fairly introverted; now I realize that I'm only introverted when I'm friendless.

There was this horrific moment a little bit ago where I was reading some really adorable scene in my book and I completely melted. I've obviously been away from my boyfriend for too long. Heavens. I thought I'd passed that stage when I turned eleven, but apparently not.

Lexi and I saw Ocean's 13 this afternoon and followed that up with a very long House marathon. Both were amazing, and I actually got in the right lane this time on the way home from the theater! I'm almost proud. Driving home at three in the morning after the marathon was a little creepy, for some odd reasons that I need not get into, but I got home fine and that's what's important.

I'm listening to far too much music lately. I should probably stop. My shuffled playlist of Lily Allen, Keane, Corinne Bailey Rae, Regina Spektor, The Fratellis, The Feeling, The Kooks, The Scissor Sisters, etc. is like a drug. Is there a patch to help you quit music?

If I'm going to be up this early, I'm going to watch the sun rise. Maybe I should borrow my dad's laptop and make myself comfortable on the deck. That would be rather gorgeous, wouldn't it? I think I've got myself a plan.

Even better than that, though, would be going down to the beach with a sweatshirt and a camera. I can't take the path because I'd be alone and there are rapists(!), but I could drive down there perfectly safely. I'm doing it.

( I decided tonight that I was intimidated by my fall course schedule again. )

Don't you love how indecisive I am? It's pretty ridiculous. Watch me completely change my major or something in my junior year. Just watch.

In other news, someone at church suggested that I get jobs through a temp agency for the summer. That didn't sound half bad to me, so I went ahead and started filling out all the required information online for this one temp agency she suggested. I just need to update my resume tomorrow and post it, and I'm set. Theoretically, I could be working in a short-term crappy position as early as next week! My fingers are crossed.

On Monday night, one of my sister's friends whom I've hung out with many times before introduced himself to me as if he had no idea who I was. It was quite amusing, especially when Brett called him an idiot and reminded him that I was Juli's sister. Ryan got really embarrassed. "Oh wow, I'm sorry. I guess you just look different... from that angle... laying down and all. Wow. Nice! Sorry. Nice to see you again!" Ahahaha. I have no idea why I looked so different, but I'll forgive him, because he's pretty much amazing. I really enjoy hanging out with that group, which surprises me, as they are intimidatingly clever. With any luck, prolonged exposure to them throughout the summer will improve my own obviously inferior wit.

We're done with the landscaping madness, I think. Our yard looks fantastic. I want to go lay out in the grass and enjoy it all day, every day. Unfortunately, my dad's been staying home during the days again, which means I can't luxuriate out there without exposing myself as a freak. Blast!