exciting news

I don't know about you, but the news that official Zubaz are back really just makes my morning.

Also, I got to go to the actual polling place and vote for the first time (absentee voting is kind of anticlimactic), plus I voted in the primaries for the first time (the absentee ballot deadline is just so early), and oh yeah, my candidate won! Haha! There's a first. Except for Feingold. And Doyle (ugh). My presidential candidate won! Round one, at least! Yeah!

woo!

Don't forget to vote!

When I lived in New York, I used to say that it was pretty similar to Wisconsin, climate wise.

LIES.

It is so cold. And it's snowing. AGAIN.

At least the snow is pretty.

fuck you, new york!

Packers won, Packers won, hahahahahaha!

The Packers are 2-0, and they beat the Giants! I love New York, but I loathe New York sports teams.

(Also, a month after I broke down and started smoking again, I am getting a cold. Send echinacea; I have the Vitamin C covered.)

ha!

I'm generally proud of Wisconsin politicians. There are a few exceptions; Joe McCarthy is the obvious choice, and Jim Sensenbrenner is a more recent example. For now, at least. I really, really hope one of them wins, because Jim Sensenbrenner is a total douchebag.

not this again

All right, I am just sick of this. Sick of what, you ask? Keep up! Everything, duh.

No, seriously, I am not actually sick of everything, I am just hella frustrated. Hella? Hella. I have to write an essay convincing UW-Milwaukee that they should let me into their lovely History/Library Science coordinated master's degree program. (Is it "master's" or "masters"? I should know that, shouldn't I?) I have written at least eight or nine pages of words about how much I want to go to UWM and learn about History/Library Science, most of which boils down to "I went to NYU, I'm so smart, magna cum laude, let me go to your school!!!" If only I could just write that, but no, I have to write one to two pages about why I want to go there, one to two pages that will prove to them I'll be a good student and graduate and later give them money and make them look good. (I assume the "give them money" part is less of an issue than it was at NYU, but I think that's true for any and every other school. It's hard to be more blatantly greedy than NYU.) I am determined to finish my application and send everything in by the end of the week, mostly so that I can stop worrying about moving to Milwaukee without a job or acceptance into a school or any legitimate reason beyond missing Wisconsin and being sick of the city.

(What is with all the parantheses?)

Whatever. Everything will work out, probably. I am legitimately sad to leave my job and all my lovely coworkers, but other than that, everything is coming up Milhouse. I'm taking the train back to Wisconsin. The train! It's going to be so awesome.

title here

1. Tonight, I got home from work, put on my pajamas, and sat down at the ol' laptop to catch up on the internets. Oh, and I bought a 22oz of Sierra Nevada and some salt & vinegar Pringles on the way to the subway. So, uh, that's what I'll be doing until I pass out from exhaustion. I know what you're thinking, and no, I do not know how it's possible that I am this sexy.

2. Oh, I was out of town last week. Did I mention that was going to happen? I went home for my birthday (also the Fourth of July, I guess). I am now officially 23; I would be freaking out about that if I wasn't so exhausted from all the fun. (I think I might also still be a little hungover, even though I didn't drink at all yesterday.) (Okay, I had one beer, which is basically nothing, comparatively.)

3. In case you were wondering, I had an awesome time at home, just amazing. I don't know how it could have been better. Maybe if I had been there longer? There were a few people that I barely got to see, but I'll see them again soon, so it's okay. There were good things and not-as-good things, but it all balanced out into this perfect week-long vacation. I got to see so many people that I love, and I will probably be less vague tomorrow after I get a solid eight hours of sleep, but trust me, there were fun times a-plenty.

4. Related to the previous point--Wisconsin is so beautiful that it kind of makes me want to cry. And, um, I'm sort of serious... gross.

5. All of those things I've been putting off since May? I'm really going to have to actually do them this month. Boo.

6. Seriously, what an awesome fucking vacation I just had. I love Wisconsin, and I can't wait to go back.

back from the homeland

I feel like I've used that as a title before.

So very much happened while I was in Wisconsin; I don't even know where to start. I'm running on about two hours of sleep, and I don't get off work for another million hours, so I'll keep this short and erratic.

My sister got into a pretty bad car accident the night I got back. She's okay, thankfully, aside from a broken ankle and some painful gross awesome bruises (one of em looked like jesus for a day or so). We ended up spending a lot of time together and didn't fight once, which was cool albeit weird as the sisterly bonding was the result of a scary awful thing. Tracey is amazing, which I can say because she doesn't know this blog shit exists.

I saw a million awesome bands on New Year's Eve in Milwaukee and had a generally awesome time, aside from two hours sort of in the middle that were just really terrible. Entirely unrelated to the bands though. No details will be forthcoming as it's honestly not that interesting, I swear, but I probably maybe will get around to talking about how I can't write anything in here lately because everything that happens is something that seems inappropriate for public consumption. That may or may not make sense (two hours of sleep, and not even bed-sleep or couch-sleep, two hours of plane-sleep) but probably I'll write more about that later because it's related to my Awesome Totally Non-Cliched New Year's Eve Epiphany (2007).

Dear Astronaut! Guys, my cousin Jeb is an awesome human being and an awesome musician in this way that constantly freaks me out. In the best possible way! Jeb and Scott and Frank put on an amazing show, as did the rest of the bands that I loved and yet am too tired to remember all the names but definitely you should somehow check them out anyway.

Yeah, Milwaukee was really super awesome. I could see myself living there, I think.

TIRED TIRED TIRED COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE

What else? I took a bunch of pictures of Dear Astronaut, and Jeb posted them on the MySpace, and people complimented them and stuff, even people who didn't know me, and I did a little happy dance. Go look at their MySpace and check out the photos and see how very completely awesome I am. Also, you could check out my Flickr page, as I posted the entire set there. I'm in the process of weeding out the crap ones so you can only see the very best. They're in the "New Year's Eve in Milwaukee" set.

While I'm linking to things, my other cousin Jason is in the hilarious awesome band From New York City. I missed their first concert by one day (it would've been so perfect too, if I'd gotten home from new york city in time to see their show) which I will regret forever. Jason and his friends managed to create this completely spot-on satire (I'm like 51% sure that's the words that I mean to say) of douchebag New York hipsters, plus they can actually play their instruments good and stuff. Check them out!

I really love my family a lot.

Soon (Probably) : more about Christmas, more about Milwaukee, more about my Awesome Totally Non-Cliched New Year's Eve Epiphany (2007), more about everything and anything

This wasn't short at all!

cats cats cats

kira, on reading Eragorn before the movie comes out: "it's got dragons. yesss!"

dudes, thanksgiving in wisconsin was intense. every two or three trips home, i forget to schedule the required two straight days of sleeping. but we did a lot of awesome things instead of sleep, so at least there's that.

more tomorrow, including caps.

#$@!^$

SuperShuttle is picking me up in... an hour or so. I will be in Wisconsin in... six hours or so. I will be able to sleep at my gate at the airport in... two hours or so.

So, really, this is all just fucking awesome. I get to see my family, I'm hanging out with Jason, I'm hanging out with Beth and Meghan tomorrow night and probably Tracey and Cody too, Thanksgiving is in two days and I'm trying Tofurkey! That'll be interesting. On Friday, I'll see Amanda who's all glowy, I hear, and Jeb and Scott are visiting for the weekend! We're going hiking! In nature! I miss nature!




I don't know if anyone has ever been this excited to take a flight from New York to visit rural Wisconsin... and I'm okay with that. I love rural Wisconsin.

savior mouse

TWO DAYS AND COUNTING.

jason: ouch! marina giveth confidence, and marina taketh it away.
marina: just like jesus
jason: or that one mexican guy.
marina: speedy gonzalez?
jason: yep.
jason: jesus = marina = speedy gonzalez.
marina: sounds right to me
jason: marina = savior mouse
marina: hehehehehe
marina: awesome
jason: youve heard of mighty mouse and danger mouse...now meet *drum roll* SAVIORRRRRRRR MOUSSSSSSSSSSSSSE
marina: saving people with tiny, tiny problems


(I get holiday pay for two days this week. Holiday pay! I love my union.)

wisconsinia

The Packers beat the Vikings. The rest of the season may (and probably will) suck, but at least the Packers beat the Vikings. Plus, my awesome cousin TiVo'd it, so I get to watch it in two weeks!

I'm going home in two weeks. Have I mentioned that?

Last night, I learned that it is not a good idea to eat an entire bag of tortilla chips, even if they are healthier than ice cream and cookies. Also, The Office is still funny. Also, cheap lighters can ruin your whole night.

Work work work! The Packers beat the Vikings!

More later, I hope.

me gusta canada.

Oh dearies, so much has been going on, and yet nothing has been going on.

In summary, maybe to be followed by more detail, but probably not because I get lazier with each passing day:

I finished Phase I (really it feels more like Phase L) of something I've been working on, and I'll find out next Wednesday whether there will be a Phase II. I'm ambivalent about whether or not I want there to be a Phase II.

I went to fucking Montreal, and it was more awesome than I ever thought possible. Danielle and Michelle and Kylah were awesome and let me stay with them for the day and a half I was in town; not only that, they picked me up at the bus station at the crack of dawn, drove me around in the rain, made me breakfast, entertained me, helped me find a costume, put up with my neuroses re: said costume, threw an awesome fucking party with all of their awesome fucking friends, and generally made last weekend the best weekend I've had in months.

Probably there will be more about that later, including stories of pineapples and Canadian beer and adventures at customs.

What else... work is better. I'm learning things about Macs, which made it much less scary when my iBook suddenly stopped loading OSX. It's fixed now, thank jebus.

Other things have happened, but I'm too tired to remember them. In conclusion, I will be back in the homeland in 21 days or so, finally. I've been looking forward to Thanksgiving since August. Apparently the Packers game is on Monday night that weekend, which seems like some kind of cruel torture since I'm flying back on Monday morning, but I get to see my family and my friends and Jason's TiVo-ing a Wild-Canucks game (and a Packers game?) for us to watch on his new TV and Jeb might visit and Scott's gonna visit and I'm, like, so fucking excited OMG.

Isn't it fun when I talk about Phases of plans I don't explain and briefly mention pepole you don't know? I remember when this was going to be a way for me to practice real, actual writing, where I would make an effort and everything. Ha! Fuck that shit.

there's doings a-transpiring!

my backyard
Originally uploaded by marinatina.

The River Falls Economic Development Corporation (EDC) plans to break ground Thursday, Oct. 19, on a 10,000-square foot building in Whitetail Ridge Corporate Park that will house Rush River Brewing Company.

Soon there will be a brewing company in my backyard, practically. At right, the trees that are actually in my backyard.

That thing I said earlier? About how this could potentially be a huge day? Well, I was right. It is. And I am terrified and excited, all at the same time.

Later today, important communications from the billionaires at Loyal to Big Oil! Stay tuned!

yay for youtube

This weekend's football highlights, based on the games I actually watched:

1. The Jets' hilarious attempt at a last second comeback. I only watched the last two minutes or so of the game, but it was definitely the funniest part.



2. The Packers' win against the Eagles. Oh, wait, they lost. Maybe because they gave up sometime early in the third quarter? I swear, there was a point where I looked at the score and couldn't believe we were still ahead 9-7. Fucking Packers.

On Wisconsin

Umm... so this is what happens when you do a google image search for Wisconsin. I don't really get it either.

Context, sort of.

excellent

This is excellent news. I think the best part, and I'm honestly not being sarcastic, but the best part is that they're raising money for the free clinic with a "Harvest Moon Barn Dance." Also awesome are the recent $1,000 donations that came in unsolicited, because that's how we do things in the St. Croix and Pierce Counties.

Also--
mail that I remembered to bring with me to the work: savings account bank statement ($0.95 interest, bitches), mail from other bank which turned out to be notification that I'm preapproved for a Home Equity Loan, which (a) they already told me that when I opened up my savings account and (b) I still do not own a home, WaMu, so please stop offering to give me a loan based on the equity in the home I do not own, dammit.
mail that I did not remember to bring with me to the work: envelope containing my paycheck from Horrible Temp Agency. Guess I won't be depositing that money today!

Also, after adding "stupid" as a tag once, I've found it applies to everything I write! Awesome!