So, craptastic events aside, my life goes on, and I continue to plod through the daily activities, some of which are actually pretty awesome.

This past weekend I managed to sneak a peek at a lot of people from high school. I was much more nervous than I thought I would ever be at the prospect of being around people I haven't seen in over ten years (my class never had a reunion). It was much less exciting than I anticipated.

The event was a band debut. A boy I never talked to in high school but have started keeping in touch with through facebook is in a cover band called Whiskey River. I recall thinking they kind of sucked at the outset of the evening, but since the spinach dip was devine, didn't make any moves to leave too early. By the end of the night, the band hit their stride and sounded, in my opinion, pretty decent. Maybe it's because they ended up playing a lot of songs I really love, but I had a lot of fun, and I'd go again.


School is officially in overdrive. I have a pleading/complaint (I've yet to grasp the difference between the two, if there is any) due on Thursday, a cross-complaint due Monday, and my answer to the original complaint (a demurrer, I believe) due next Thursday. After that, I have one more class (a Monday) which has one more assignment due and the next meeting (a Thursday) is our final. I can't believe the class (dealing with the complaint and answer phases of litigation) is almost over.

I hardly get to catch my breath, though, because the following Monday is the first meeting of the second half of the two-course class, which will deal with the discovery and trial phases of litigation.

I am so technical. Does this make sense to anyone?


This weekend, my Saturday will be a very busy day. After waiting for the mail which should contain my unemployment check (which I will promptly deposit), BFF and I are heading to Temecula to have lunch with our dear friend, Snap. From there, we're heading back into OC, and south to San Juan Capistrano to see our dear friend Darin (the handsome dairy farmer) play a gig at the Coach House. Immediately following that set, we're going to hug Darin and tell him how awesome he is, and then hustle up the toll road (note to self: grab the transponder from the Jetta) to Costa Mesa and see Rival Sons play a free show at Sutra.


At some point this weekend I will surely write a cross-complaint. Really!


I've been sleeping terribly. It creates a vicious cycle. I sleep terribly, thus creating a need for coffee during the day, which then wakes me up and keeps me awake long past my bedtime, leading to more terrible sleep. I need to get up at 5:00am and it's nearly 1:00am. I should have known drinking all that coffee to keep me awake through the study group was a bad idea. T__T

I have some of the best friends in the world on here. I love you guys so much. To those of you who commented on my last post (it's private-locked now), I'm not sure what I can say except thank you. I wish I could say all things magically got better with your words, but that would be a lie; however, I can say that I feel much better. You guys are the best. *hugs friends*

Well, the semester's in full swing. I had an exam last week that I positively bombed. I'd like to think I studied my ass off, but I know I've been distracted by other parts of my life since before Christmas, and I've been feeling the weight of several things coming down on me extra-hard in the last week.

So, my car's dead and my sister's on drugs and I'm still unemployed. Compared to those things, everything else in my life that's going wrong seems like small potatoes.

Solutions are in sight, though. I'm going to school and will have a good job soon enough thanks to some newly-aquired skills, and my dad and I are going to look at cars today. Life sucks, but it's temporary. As for my sister, I cannot control her actions, and need to let go of my expectations of her.

"Whatever is impermanent is subject to change. Whatever is subject to change is subject to suffering." Much of my suffering is brought about by my own doing. I become attached to things as they are, and then they deteriorate or die or change, and I'm disappointed and sad and upset. If I raise my expectations I am bound to be let down. Just as the things I love are destined to wither away, break down, become obsolete, or die, so is my suffering impermanent. I take comfort in this. </ buddhism >

Lately I've been listening to a band called Floor Thirteen. They play loud rock and roll, reminiscent of AC/DC and some arena rock bands. The music is definitely in your face, but if you like the kind of music that brings to mind the rock of days gone by, then this is a band you need to check out. I recommend "Let It Go" as a first listen. Visit their myspace for samples of their music.

But if you don't feel like clicking a link, then here's a youtube video of a live performance of "Shut 'Em Out."

Ugh. I haven't made a substantial entry since before Thanksgiving. That's very unlike me! Sure, I've got that meme going, but that is only through sheer force of will, and that doesn't really update anyone on my life. I have failed at other multi-entry memes like this in the past, and I REFUSE TO LET THE 30-DAY MEME CONQUER ME. So there.


First off, thanks to yamapea, honooko, wintersjuly, and wrangler for the snowflake cookies~
They're so adorble on my profile page omg I love them. <3
I would totally return the sentiment in kind, but it appears that (1) gifts cost money? and (2) the snowflake cookies are no longer available, so if those were free, they're gone now. or there is always (3) which is I FAIL AND DON'T KNOW HOW TO WORK V-GIFTS. It's probably the last one. D:
Still, ilu all and thank you for the pretty cookies. *hugs*


Okay, so, in other news, there's not much to report! I'm in the last week of the semester. I was somehow able to space out all the homework that got moved so far down the syllabus that it threatened to kill me so that it's nearly done and I have until Friday to turn it in.

My professor's mother has stage 4 non-hodgkins lymphoma. I don't know what that means, really, except that it's bad. Luckily, the cancer is not in her organs or her bone marrow, so while it's not curable, it's treatable, and they're hoping to gain her a few more good years with the chemo, which starts this week. He says his younger brother is doing nothing to help out during this time, so everything is falling on Steve to be with his mom and do everything else that comes with having your last surviving parent basically knocking on death's door.

Part of me knows this is what's going to happen to me, one day, so I can sympathize, and I don't begrudge him anything that's happened this semester. As frustrating as it's been to deal with classes being cancelled via email when I'm already on campus, multiple changes to the syllabus, and those changes meaning homework is assigned late enough to pile up in the last two weeks of the semester, I know he's carrying an inconceivable burden while handling the classes he teaches, and also still helping fellow attorney friends with some of their work on the side. I'm not complaining, and I sincerely hope his mother pulls through this chemo and that her cancer goes into remission so he can have a few more years with her.


And~ it appears most of the country is under some sort of inclement weather at this time!


As for Southern California, we've got more rain than we know what to do with. Mother Nature has a sense of humor, for sure. We're in a drought and are a veritable tinderbox waiting for a stray cigarette or untended campfire to come and burn us off the map completely, so what does she do? She gives us a year's worth of rain inside of two weeks. It's raining cats and dogs out there, guys, and it's cold, to boot. We'll have sunshine tomorrow, but if you come back Wednesday and Thursday, the radar will probably look like this, again.


I hate to be morbid, but I really wouldn't be surprised if there's a mudslide in all this rain. It seems like So Cal is just a dangerous place in all aspects! Wildfires in the dry season, mudslides in the wet season, and earthquakes in any season... why do people live here, again? (This, after I spent several minutes gushing at pinkpapyrus about how amazing Los Angeles is. AND IT REALLY IS! You just have to deal with a few surprises, now and then. LOL)

I, for one, love the rain, but not when my umbrella turns out to be less functional than I thought it would be when I purchased it. Therefore, I am off to Target to buy a different one. One that will hopefully help me stay dry. Since that's the whole reason to purchase an umbrella in the first place.


OH, AND I HAVE SEE'S CANDIES LOLLIPOPS. YOU ARE SO JEALOUS. >:D

I don't seem to have much to say, these days. I guess I do, but for some reason I feel like posting's not necessary.

• Saturday
  tweege and I went all the way out to Nuevo (about 60 miles) to see our friend Darin. LJ friends from circa 2004 may recall I got to know a guy in a local band whose day job is owning a dairy farm. It's been five years since I got to know this guy and Teege and I have always seen him when we all go to the same shows. We've never really just "hung out" with the exception of the time we met him to see V for Vendetta when it was in theaters.
  
  Anyway, midterms are over and the final crunch of "oh crap the semester is over in just four weeks!" is still about a week away, so I decided a trip out to Darin's farm was a great way to waste time.
  
  We arrived, and Teege's first statement was "How do you live out here? Where are your neighbors?!" Darin looked to me for the same reaction, but I grew up in small suburbs and have spent time in Wyoming with my grandparents (ain't no place as sparse and desolate as that there Wyomin', folks, and don't never let no one tell you differ'nt), so I was totally unfazed.
  
  We started the day with a tour of his house (which looks small from the outside, but is actually fucking huge from the inside), then a tour of the farm (me riding on the back of a quad, Teege riding on the front, sometimes there was also a dog or two).
  
  There are 2,000 cows, and on this day, two calves. Four cows were sick and we got to meet the veterinarian when he came to check them out. The milking shed is mindblowing. Two guys (on this day only one) basically cycle the cows through thirty-two stalls, hooking each one up to the sucker-thingies, which go to town on these cows' teets. I'm not kidding.
  
  At one point Darin showed Teege and me how to milk a cow by hand. It was weird!
  
  From there we went back to the house and had some dinner and talked for a few hours and then watched Once, which all of you need to watch right this minute. Don't question me on this, okay?
  
  When the movie was over, we had to leave, because it was Darin's bedtime and besides Teege and I had a nice, long drive ahead of us. Jim, Darin's bassist, popped by at the last minute and said something that we misheard. As he was driving away, he called something from his car that was probably "See y'all!" but sounded a lot like "Skeeballs!" We decided to keep it. XD
  
  So Saturday was amazing and Teege and I decided we need to visit Darin on his farm more often. :]
  
  
• Sunday
  On this day, I went to the Orange Quilt Bee with my mom to spend some much-needed crafty time with my crafty friends. I managed to finish cutting the tiny pieces for a quilt I began in January 2008, so let's all cross our fingers I can get it finished (all the way up to the binding) by the end of 2010. LOL
  
  After the OQB, my parents and I went to El Torito with my sister and her boyfriend. The occassion was technically his birthday, but apparently my parents would like to take them out now and then as opposed to having them over for dinner because - let's face it - sometimes it's just really nice to go out and eat food you don't normally cook and let someone else deal with the cleaning. *beams at logic*
  
  After dinner, I went to Fullerton to pick up P&T (read: Pat and Teege, aka BFF and her BF who is pretty much my brother without the blood relation), and also their dog, Pocket, and head down the street to a park to see our friend's softball game. I don't know what the final score was, but from what I could tell, our friend's team lost rather spectacularly. Pocket was so well-behaved! He even sat on the bleachers the whole time. Good dog!
  
  After the game, we went to the Slidebar in downtown Fullerton (DTF), the only place that was open after 10:00pm on a Sunday night. We put some money in the jukebox, played some awesome music, and enjoyed some french fries and conversation.
  
  All in all, the best way to end an awesome weekend. :)
  
  
• Today
  I was boring. I was supposed to have a study group, but no one from school bothered to tell me that they all met yesterday and therefore didn't feel like meeting today. I didn't learn about this until well into the afternoon. Apparently they each thought one of the others would let me know. LOL. It happens!
  
  I did homework, played The Sims 3, did some more homework, organized my notes in all four classes, read my TESOL chapter, did some more homework, played some more Sims, read some fanfic,

and now I'm going to bed

Night, y'all! Skeeballs!!

So, my last entry of any substance was like a week ago (okay, longer than that) and even though I've written twice since then, they were only drive-by picspams, and even then, I failed at that Week in the Life photomeme after Day 1. The moral of the story is this: midterms suck.

( more school babble )

By the by, California, 2009 is almost over. Do we have our budget for this year drawn up yet? We don't? Big surprise. My state, were it a country, would have the 7th highest Gross Domestic Product in the world. Instead of being awesome, it is not only overdrawing its bank account, it is not even balancing its checkbook. :(

So, anyway. List! In no particular order, nevermind the numbers:

1. Obviously, I'm lacking in spare time. The fall drama season is in full swing, and I'm watching (the operative phrase is actually "downloading to watch at a later date") My Girl, ROMES, Ohitorisama, Tokyo Dogs, Bocho Mania, and 0 Goshitsu no Kyaku. It remains to be seen which I will decide to watch to the end. Last season I started out with four on my list and after the second week had narrowed it down to only two.
   
   
2. Okcupid Boy text messaged me a few more times after that last fiasco (of which all journal evidence has been deleted, thanks) and I responded in the interest of politeness. I keep meaning to get onto okcupid and send him a proper message about "you're busy and I'm busy and it's not fair to either of us to keep trying to make this work," but I haven't found the time to do that.
   
   Another boy that I was texting for a couple of weeks has dropped off the radar. I responded to all of his text messages, but haven't found time to reply to his last message on okcupid, and I think he took that to mean I wasn't interested any longer. That sucks cos he lives just a few miles away and goes to the same school as me, so while I'm busy, meeting him would not have been inconvenient.
   
   A third boy, who I had been talking to about the same time I met the first one, keeps sending me little messages on okcupid, even though he knows fully well I'm busy, and even though I haven't had time to reply to the last two he sent. I think that's adorable, because they're just little one-liners like "I hope school hasn't eaten you alive." and "Hey, how are you? I hope your week went well. Have a good weekend!" The crappy part is that he lives in Hollywood which is just too far away. I can't maintain a friendship beyond Fullerton (where I go to school) these days, so Hollywood is definitely out of the question.
   
   In addition to all of this, I'm actually getting really sick of men. I've never dated a girl before, even though I came close last Spring. I think I'd like to. I live in one of the gayest cities in the world. I've obviously got some soul-searching to do so I can figure out what I want.
   
   So basically, I'm calling it quits on the dating game, again.
   
   
3. There's not going to be a Christmas this year. My parents and I have agreed upon the following thing: Santa Claus will not spend more than $25 on any single person this season. I basically told my mom I wanted my Pearl Jam shirt, the one with the stick figure on it, replaced. The one I have is fifteen years old and needs to be retired, and Hot Topic just started carrying the design. It's a $20 shirtIt's on clearance, and that's all I want for Christmas.
   
   (actually, my list is much longer, but the other items are either beyond Santa's budget or small enough I can manage them for myself.)
   
   
4. My life is so boring. I only get out of the house to go to school, go to a study group, and nanny. I swear, if my best friend didn't live like two blocks from school, and if she weren't my nanny-charge's mom, I'd never be able to see her. It's so great, too, when she says, "come over!" and I'm just at school in the library and so desperate for some fresh air.
   
   tweege, I love you. Thanks for being my BFF! <3
   
   
5. The Angels beat the Yankees tonight! Now the series is 3-2 with the Yankees ahead, but all the Angels need to do is win the next two games to get to the World Series. I believe they can do it. The next game is Saturday. If they win that, the deciding game is on Sunday, and whoever wins that game goes to play the Phillies in the Series.
   
   
6. Coffee is, like, the most amazing thing ever.
   
   
7. I double-booked myself for Halloween. :( I never double-book myself! I'm so disappointed in me!

Okay, this got out of hand. I have a study group at 8:00am in the morning. Bedtime for meeee~


PS: one of these days I'm going to respond to comments, too. I haven't been able to since... *checks inbox* ...September 30. DDD:

The final syllabi revision came back today. Steve says he "intends to not have to change this again."

Midterms won't be over for another 14 days. T__T

Starting tomorrow...
10/15: PLEG 116 MS Word test; PLEG 214 midterm ch 1-7
10/19: PLEG 104 HW#2 due
10/21: PLEG 101 midterm ch 1-8; PLEG 104 quiz ch 7-8
10/27: PLEG 116 MS Excel test
10/28: PLEG 101 LR# 4-5 due; PLEG 104 midterm ch 1-8, HW#3 due
11/04: PLEG 101 LR#6-12 due
11/11: PLEG 101 LR#13-18 due, HW#4 due; PLEG 104 quiz ch 9-10, HW#4 due
11/12: PLEG 214 quiz ch 8-10

As you can see, even after midterms, the madness doesn't end, and I didn't go so far as to put the rest of November or the beginning of December on there. I don't want to induce a panic attack, right?

That list is kind of insane. Somewhere in that 11/11 mess of PLEG 101 and PLEG 104 homework and quizzing, I need to study for and take my TESOL final online. I'm really hoping that doing the bare minimum is going to earn me a certificate from that program, because I can't afford to do much else.

I have a test in the morning and midterm tomorrow night and I haven't studied a lick. I've been too busy doing homework in my other classes. Who knew paralegal classes would be so darn research-heavy? I'm beginning to realize there's no way I'm going to finish this program in two semesters. If going full-time with the intro classes is driving me this insane, what happens when I get to the core electives? O__O I'm probably going to be a part-time student out of necessity next semester. :(

Today, I went to school from 9:00am-11:50am.
I picked the boys up from school at 12:30pm
and had set them down in front of a movie by 1:00pm.
I did homework on my laptop at the kitchen table until their moms came home at 3:00pm.
I packed my stuff and got home by 3:30pm, at which time I came to my desk in my bedroom and unpacked to resume doing homework.
I didn't stop until 9:00pm, when I went downstairs to spend a mental vacation with my favorite detectives (Law and Order SVU).
At 10:00pm I came back upstairs to spend another hour on homework, and then
at 11:00pm I decided to talk about it, because
OH MY GOD. This rivals my last semester as an undergrad in the history program.

I SLEEP NOW KTHXBAI

P.S. Safe to say I'm still hiatusing liek woah. I manage to read some and comment occassionally, but can't reply to comments left to my posts/comments. Also, if you see me on AIM, SCOLD ME.

P.P.S. I've been listening to MUTEMATH since yesterday and need you all to enjoy them. Please ignore the fact that this song was on the Twilight soundtrack. The movie may have sucked, but the music does not.

This week:
Tuesday
  - PLEG 116 is online!
Wednesday
  - PLEG 104 homework #1 due! quiz ch. 3-5!
Thursday
  - PLEG 116 is online!
  - PLEG 214 meets in the evening!

Next week:
Monday
  - PLEG 101 & PLEG 104 are business as usual!
Tuesday
  - PLEG 116 is on campus! test on MS Word!
Wednesday
  - PLEG 101 homework #3 due! midterm ch. 1-6, 11, 18!
  - PLEG 104 homework #2 & #3 due! quiz ch. 7-8!
Thursday
  - PLEG 214 midterm ch. 1-7!

The week after next week:
Monday
  - PLEG 101 & PLEG 104 are business as usual!
Tuesday
  - PLEG 116 is online!
Wednesday
  - PLEG 101 Legal Reasoning excersizes #4 & #5 due!
  - PLEG 104 midterm ch. 1-8!
Thursday
  - PLEG 116 is on campus!
  - PLEG 214 meets in the evening!


I could go on with the weeks after that which include more quizzes and homework but this is really the worst of it because there are *midterms* and those are always terrifying. The above also doesn't mention the online TESOL program, which is halfway finished and continues to throw off my paralegal groove. *beware the groooooove!*

I am currently kicking myself in the ass for leaving the PLEG 104 homework assignment that is due on Wednesday until just now. It's so MASSIVE. Lesson learned! I'll never do that again.

Suffice it to say: self-imposed hiatus! Still reachable by cell, email, LJ comment or messaging (since those come to my inbox anyway), facebook, myspace, AIM (very rarely, as is the norm these days), postal service, and carrier pigeon.

Behave while I'm gone and don't make a mess or anything. Be back soon!

♥♥♥♥♥

I have a cold. It reminds me of this one fic pinkpapyrus wrote once where a couple of Eitos got sick and she went into such delightful detail about what happens when you roll over in bed. It was the greatest. I feel like I'm not alone when I'm sick and I recall that story. <3

Being sick, I think I'm going to miss school tomorrow. We'll see how I feel. I'd hate to miss class, but dlfkhsdlf do my classmates want this? Probably not. I'm past all my quiz and homework obligations for the week anyway, and could use the rest before the WILD WILD BACHELORETTE PARTY this weekend. (In actuality this bachelorette party will be less wild and more kickback, but traditionally such things involve galavanting and wildness, so I have to at least give the impression of a weekend of sin and debauchery, right?)

My テゴマス tote bag came in the mail last week while I was busy housesitting!

I love all the little monsters on the back side. Yay for テゴマス! It seems like they had some successful concerts. I'm happy for them. :)

Um, other than all of this, my life is the same-old same-old. I'm boring!
- I'm still in school working on Paralegal and TESOL certificates
- I'm still nannying in the afternoons
- I'm still too busy to catch up on dramas. I haven't gotten past ep. 8 of Ninkyo Helper and ep. 6 of Buzzer Beat, and I'm so glad I dropped Orthros no Inu and whatever that other one was that started with a K(!?!?)

The new Muse album, The Resistance, came out yesterday. Wooo! It's pretty decent. I'm holding out for the new Pearl Jam album, Backspacer, which comes out apparently on SUNDAY next week, and not Tuesday. Leave it to Pearl Jam to break away from the norm on something as mundane as the release date! ^_^

The Angels are in the midst of a series against the Red Sox right now. They always fall when playing against the Red Sox. The Angels have two problems: (1) They lose their game near the end of the season and (2) the Boston Red Sox. I believe they can get to the playoffs; they do that almost every year, but often they're the Wild Card team, and it's after a full season of being the best team in the West and losing their standing in the last month of regular games. Come on Angels! You can do it!

I would cry about the state of my baseball team, but football started this past weekend and the Dallas Cowboys pounded Tampa Bay in short order. There was an 80-yard touchdown! It made me so happy! I couldn't find the game on TV, but nfl.com is so awesome now, it's almost the same, only without the cool camera angles. Okay, it's not the same. But if you want the play-by-play version of the game, nfl.com is the place to be.

My face huuuurts. I hate being sick! I'm going to count some sheep and hope this cold doesn't keep me up all night. :(


ETA: OH SNAP HOTAKKY'S AT IT AGAIN. I wish hotakky were a comm so I could JOIN but not WATCH and therefore not have the whole FRONT PAGE of my f-list taken up by jpop and jrock uploads in VIETNAMESE. I mean, I'm greatful for the links, and heaven knows I take advantage, but lhfldsgfsdl SPAMMMMM *cries*

Today was the first day of the fall semester!

I'm taking four classes at the community college. I added a fourth today when I decided that Contract Law is really useful and I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to learn about it from one of the best professors in the department.

My schedule is
Mon/Wed, 9:00-10:20am - PLEG 101; Intro to Paralegal Studies
Mon/Wed, 10:30-11:50am - PLEG 104; Legal Research and Terminology
Tues/Thurs, 9:00-10:20am - PLEG 116; Computers in the Law Office
Thurs, 7:00-9:50pm - PLEG 214; Contract Law and Procedure

All classes except for 116 are taught by Steve Dayton, who is the head of the department and prefers to be called "Steve." In my opinion, he's really cool. He makes it pretty clear that if you do the reading and turn in assignments, then he'll pass you. It doesn't matter what your scores are like as long as he sees effort. He doesn't guarantee straight As, because those are reserved for the students with high scores, but he does promise that students who do the work will pass his classes. I think that's fantastic.

He also has a sense of humor. He walked into the Legal Research class and his first words were, "Welcome to the class from hell." We laughed nervously until he explained himself. Basically, we'll be learning a new language in this class. It's all English, but it's legal-speak, which is completely different from the terminology people in the real world are used to hearing (eg: in the law office, what you think of as your "heirs" are called your "potential beneficiaries." Your true heirs are unknown until after your death, because LORD ONLY KNOWS WHO YOU OWE MONEY TO, right?)

The Tues/Thurs class is nice because it's only in the classroom for the first three weeks of the semester, and will be online after that (with the exception of student-teacher status reports about halfway through the semester).


The TESOL course is going well! I've got it down to a science, as of today. I read the chapter, listened to the lecture in the background of some tidying up, and will be participating in the message board discussions tomorrow when I get back from my paralegal class. The TESOL course is actually the least-stressful thing I've got going. It's the most flexible, in terms of when I watch the lecture, when I post my discussion responses, and when I take the quiz. I think it's fantastic, really. I can "attend" my TESOL lecture at 9:00pm like I did tonight, and it's perfectly fine. I'm really pleased with my choice to go with Anaheim University for my TESOL certificate. :)


I'm a full-time student, guys! This is really exciting. It's just the first day of school, and already I'm having fun. *is weird*


One thing, though, is the parking situation. I got to school at 8:30 this morning and there wasn't a single space left on campus. After a hellish adventure in the parking structure and one of the farther lots, I ended up parking on the street in front of my best friend's house, about a quarter-mile from campus, and that was the best spot I could find! Normally I don't mind a nice walk, but I was trying to get to class ON TIME. I booked it to the room and arrived five minutes late, but Steve was kindly waiting for the stragglers because he'd had a nightmare experience with parking, himself.

So I'll be leaving the house at 7:00am tomorrow and hopefully arrive on campus in time to get into one of the parking lots instead of taking up some poor soul's front yard the way I did today. I really wouldn't mind parking off campus and walking every day, except I know there's street sweeping in that part of town some morning of the week, and that's a $50 parking ticket I cannot afford. Maybe I'll figure out which day the street sweepers come by and just get to campus early on only that day. I'm pretty sure it's Wednesday, but I don't want to take any chances until I know for sure, so I'm leaving early tomorrow.

...which means it's time for bed!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

So, here's the token "I might not be around much" post.

I barely got my TESOL homework in under the mark, today. Not the best way to start the first week of a fifteen-week online course, right? It's pretty simple work, but I waited until the last minute to bog down and focus, so...

Basically things are about to get super crazy and I'm going to have to divert a lot of attention away from here, so AIM, LJ, Facebook, Myspace, Poupee, and everything else will probably take second fiddle to that obnoxious thing we call "the real world."

In eleven days, my sister will be released from jail. I know I haven't mentioned it much on here, but that's what those vague references to "visiting my sister" meant on Fridays for the last four months. She got a sentence on that court case (the one where Kobe Bryant was almost on the jury panel, except he's a professional althlete and the playoffs were coming up, so he got off the hook) and had to serve 120 days. Basically, she'll be coming to stay with us for five days while she gathers her personal items, arranges for a bed in a sober living home, visits her probation officer, and handles other official things that need her very immediate attention.

In eleven days, I have my first day of "real" class at the community college (as opposed to this online class which will be in its third week by then). I'm enrolled in nine units; not as many as I had hoped, so I may audit the singular online Japanese class just for the hell of sharpening my language skills because I HAVE COMPLETELY FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THAT LANGUAGE. I'm weird, okay? ^_^

So, basically I'm going to be in a mad scramble to help my parents get everything in order before Laurie comes home, because we want to be ready to help make her first week out as orderly, stress-free, and pleasant as possible. For me, this means taking on extra, uncommon tasks around the house, in addition to my usual I'm-an-unemployed-bum-who-is-earning-her-keep chores such as floor-cleaning, dish-washing, etc.

OH AND I AM HOUSE-SITTING FOR THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS. Sleeping at the neighbor's house to keep their dog company. *drills into head*

I'm going to break this down for my own piece of mind...

( Tomorrow: visit Laurie one more time... )

lather, rinse, repeat...


ETA: note to self, somewhere in that schedule, you should do the following
- clean Mo's bowl
- give Sadie a bath, maybe Tiger, too
- take puppies for nail trims, maybe Sadie, too
- clean the bathroom and your bedroom
- keep going to the gym!
- keep waking up between 6-7am!
- keep eating lots of fruits and veggies!
- keep listening to music; it's cathartic
- BREATHE

Today, I'm going to a function at my university which will honor my favorite professor.

Dr. Ronald D. Rietveld, Lincoln Scholar and Professor Emeritus of History at California State University at Fullerton, is retiring.

I've participated a bit in helping out my friend, Sarah, in preparing poster boards and in doing some last-minute organization last night. Today, I and another friend, Carrie, will be ducking out of the lecture about an hour early to make a few last-minute arrangements for the reception following the lecture.

It'll be nice to see Doc again. We all called him Doc.

I tried hard to write something for the memory book they're giving him. I can't say how difficult it was to try to put into words how much I treasure his presence in my academic life. He is a rare individual, an outstanding professor, and a great man.

I'm extremely emotional about the whole thing, and I just know I'm going to struggle to avoid crying at some point, today.

For now, I have a lot to do to to prepare for this afternoon's event, not the least of which involves going to JC Penney to raid their sale racks for something suitable to wear, tonight. What the heck does "California casual" mean, anyway?

I suspect this is just my excuse to participate in a little retail therapy, but also I think it's just because I haven't seen Doc since my graduation day, almost exactly three years ago, and I really want to look my best today.

I'll take pictures!