momentary break from the mountain of work

So, I have another 560 words to write for one paper and then 100 pages to read and 1000 or so words to write for the second paper, but I needed to take a small break to share two things.

First, I had this conversation with my mom about how the last week or so has been ridiculously busy but also shockingly low on stress. I wake up, work all day with a minimum of procrastination/panicking, then I go to sleep and do it again the next day. It took me a lot longer to say that on the phone (have I mentioned how patient my mom is when I call her and go on long, rambling, highly caffeinated rants about whatever is bothering me?), but I ended by asking her "is this how normal people feel all the time?" And that's kind of how I feel, like things have gotten easier lately, or at least easier to deal with. I don't know why that seems so significant I guess, that's just exciting to me.

Second, I had my last sewing class yesterday, and it was AMAZING. I missed two of five sessions due to funeral & family obligations, so I was way behind everyone else, but I spent yesterday making a bodice pattern block. I still need to make one adjustment, but after cutting & adjusting 4 versions, I have a bodice pattern block that actually fits me! For those of you who don't sew, that means I have a properly fitted pattern that I can now adjust to make any style of shirt or dress that I want, while still knowing that it will fit me properly. Awesome! I have a bunch of ideas for summer dresses that will now be closer to becoming reality.

Of course, none of that will happen until I get caught up on work, so probably I should get back to it.

DONE

I just submitted my last paper for the semester, which means that I do not have to think about school or teaching or history or libraries for three whole months. The paper I just submitted sucked ass, but I am free free free. Time to go meet up with my friends and celebrate Jeb's birthday. I hope you are having a lovely day!

in which i am cautiously optimistic

Soo remember how I was complaining about all the crap I have to do, how I'll be busy for a week straight? Well, I will definitely be busy every day through the weekend, but I've done fairly well so far at actually getting things done. I've gotten stuff done every day, I've been getting to work right away in the morning rather than procrastinating for nine or ten hours, I'm basically on schedule, and for the most part, I'm not freaking myself out about any of it. For example, I did some work at home this morning, and then I decided I didn't really need to go to campus. I felt guilty about not working on my campus-centric to do list, but instead of letting that guilt fester, I decided I would just write a response paper and do a load of laundry and then be done for the day. And then, instead of dicking around for a few hours, putting off those two things, I just did them. And now, my day is completely my own, aside from putting that laundry in the dryer.

Was that boring? It was, I think. I don't care though, because I have apparently become this person who reacts to growing worry by doing something about it, rather than, you know, having a panic attack. So yeah, awesome, I am not having a panic attack, I can write as many boring paragraphs as I want.

(Oh, also, I think that once I get caught up on everything, I'm going to buy myself a new sewing machine. Exciting!)

liveblog!

Are you watching President Obama's press conference? He is blowing my damn mind.

sometimes you get to speak truth to assholes

Holy shit, today was AMAZING. So, I had school things that I can't talk about (but oh, talk to me in person, I have so much shit to talk), and then I got lunch with awesome people, and then I went ice skating. And then! Then! I went on the Lakefront Brewery tour. Bob was possibly the best tour guide I've ever had on any tour ever. Which, of course, made it so much more annoying that there was this group of assholes that talked the entire time. Oh fuck, I wanted to hit them all. But! But. I did not. Mary and I were standing off to the side, after we got our last free cup of Lakefront, and I actually specifically told her "Oh, I'm so glad that I'm not uber-drunk, I'm definitely not going to go over and tell those assholes that they are assholes."

And, oh, that, that is when the stars aligned. You know how there are those moments when you want to say something but you don't? This was not one of those times. I said that thing to Mary, and then she was doing this exaggerated fake laugh, and one of the assholes walked by. I did not flinch--he started fake laughing in response, and I interrupted him and said "oh, hey, weren't you one of those assholes that was talking through the entire tour?"

Oh, glorious, it was glorious. He kind of fake laughed, and his stupid friend laughed, and then he just stood there. And then, then I told him something like "I can't deal with this," and I shooed him away. Repeatedly! I don't know why, and it was a total dick move, or it would've been if he hadn't been a total asshole the entire time that Bob was trying to give a great Lakefront Brewery tour. I fucking put that dick in his place, and it felt so good.

I got to go ice skating with awesome people and go on a brewery tour at an amazing brewery, and I got a chance to tell an asshole that he was an asshole, and I took it. Today was an awesome fucking day.

pita pit

I finally dealt with my hard drive space issues [first world problem!] and uploaded beau coup photos to Flickr.

Jamaica photos are here. Despite that I wasn't really in a photo mood all week (and despite the fact that I barely left the Donaldson's Inn vicinity), I took a shit ton of photos. Many different views of the sunset. And by "different," I mean same vantage point, different day. Oh, but we did get to go visit this dude Everett, a friend of Nathan's parents, and while Nathan and his dad and Everett did there whole musician thing, I entertained all the neighborhood kids. We were big news on a Saturday afternoon. All the kids were adorable, and they were so into having their photos taken that I don't feel bad putting them all over the Internet.



This is one of my favorite photos, as it is the least posed. They were posing pros, it was crazy.



And this is the post-sunset view from Nathan's parents' porch. Seriously, Donaldson's Inn is the best place to stay in Negril. It's locally owned by awesome people, there are only 12 rooms, and the rooms are under $100 and literally on the beach. If you stay at the few wood huts that are left, it's like $30 a night or something crazy. Totally amazing, and you stay on the beach while avoiding all the shitty all-inclusive resorts. Okay, but more on Jamaica some other time.

More photos tomorrow; I've been doing a lot of baking and a lot of sewing, and lord knows I'd rather write blogs about that than do my schoolwork.

i'm back!

I got back from Jamaica last night. Guess what? It was awesome! Photos to come, once I get around to uploading them. My computer is almost out of hard drive space, so I've got to deal with that somehow. (First world problem!) I'm making crackers right now; the dough is currently resting. There will be photos. Photos, photos, and more photos! I brought back a bunch of small bottles of this peanut-flavored white rum creme, and one of them broke. Everything would have been fine if my suitcase hadn't been overweight; everything got all mixed up when I had to take out 5.5 pounds worth of stuff, and now all my clothes smell like overproof rum creme. (First world problem!)

Time to check on the crackers!

as;ghdgawr

After 10 or so hours of work, I am basically done with my semester. One more thing on Monday, and then 3+ weeks of sleeping and sewing and embroidering and going to fucking Jamaica. Yes.

excellent

[awesome illustration by Patrick Moberg]

[edited for formatting and to more properly give credit.]

oh hi

So, uh, I moved. That's where I've been the past two weeks. We don't have internet yet, and apparently if I don't have Internet at home, I don't go online at all, ever. Weird. I need to get it though, school starts tomorrow, and I need some ways to procrastinate. Oh, and the "we"--I live with Nathan now. It's totally fucking awesome so far, and we got through the moving process without hating/killing each other, so I'm hoping it will continue to be totally fucking awesome. In other news, school looks to be awesome this semester, and I applied to get a booth at Art vs. Craft with my friend Leah (who makes the prettiest and most amazing things), and The Best Volunteer Job in the World continues to delight and amaze me. And, that is all for now. We're at the bar across the street (that also has internet and coffee & bagels in the morning, sweet) and I need to finish up on the Internet so I can finish my beer and go home and sleep and get ready for school in the morning. Yeah!

sometimes it blows me away how lucky i am

So after doing absolutely no work on my paper all morning, I decided I needed to go to the coffee shop and spend money I don't have at the Alterra. But first, I decided I needed to walk by the new apartment because I couldn't quite remember what the building looked like. And hey, guess what? I am not going to apologize for doing something so borderline weird, because my landlady happened to be standing on the front porch, so I walked up the steps to talk to her, and she was like "hey, I washed all your curtains for you, and also I'm almost done cleaning your whole house, and we re-grouted the bathroom tiles and we're almost done painting and oh by the way, we put up two awesome amazing light fixtures and a ceiling fan WITH A REMOTE CONTROL" and holy shit, I have the best landlords EVER. She cleaned my fridge! And my windows!

And then, after I went upstairs to check everything out, she walked back downstairs with me, and she was all "so are you in love with him?" and I was all "who, Nathan?" and then I started giggling, because I have a lovely amazing apartment and awesome landlords and the best boyfriend in the world. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

But hey, if this is making you want to vomit, don't worry. I'm at the coffee shop, and now that I've finished freaking out over how awesome my new apartment is, I have nothing to do but finish my fucking paper. I really am so sick of this goddamn paper, and I really hope that translates to finishing it quickly and not having to think about it anymore.

quickly

I'm in New York, it's awesome, details forthcoming. For now, it is important that you know that I got all my grades back, and I got straight As, and I have a 4.0 for the first time ever, and I am so very awesome.

funny funny!

You know how yesterday I said that I finally felt like a grad student? Today, I was offered a position as a TA in the History department. Tuition remission, health benefits, and a (generous!) stipend. Excellent.

HAHAHA FUCKERS

I GOT INTO THE HISTORY PROGRAM AT UWM.

I START GRAD SCHOOL IN JANUARY.

IN TWO TO THREE YEARS I WILL BE A FULLY QUALIFIED ARCHIVIST.

AND I WILL HAVE TWO MASTERS DEGREES.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

hey guess what

Remember this?

HEAVEN. ON EARTH.

I have a new life goal: working at a bookstore. OH WAIT, I DO. HAHA, LIFE, I WIN!

Go buy some books; I listed all of the books that are on the front page right now. I recommend this book if you're looking for something to buy for me (make sure to buy it from downtownbooks-milw). On a related note, it's going to be really hard not to spend my entire paycheck on books. Apparently, there's an employee discount.

oh shit

I HAVE A JOB AT A BOOKSTORE.

MY LIFE IS NOW COMPLETE.

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.)

one step closer to being an archivist

All right. Buenos Aires, so far.

[There was going to be a photo here, but it was taking far too long to load.]

I've had a lot of cafe con leche.

I've purchased two bags so far; I may buy more. I am all about consumption in Buenos Aires.

We went to the San Telmo Feria (Feria de San Pedro Telmo) which was full of tourists and jewelry and old things and generally very full. I wanted to buy an old cigarette case, but the cheapest one I could find was 450 pesos, which is something like $125. I don't need an old cigarette case that much, but maybe they'll have one at the Feria de Mataderos. I think I'll enjoy that one more; apparently it's not nearly as crowded.

What else have we done... we went to a few museums. The Palais de Glace and el Museo de Bellas Artes (I think). There were some amazing pieces by modern Argentine artists at the Art Museum, and the Palais de Glace had a really impressive photojournalism exhibit. We'll get to MALBA eventually, which is apparently the best art museum in the city. We also went to the Museo de San Telmo and tried to go to the Puppet Museum (fuck if I remember the Spanish name). We walked by the penitentiary museum and the Museo de Arte Moderno; the first one we'll see later, the second one has been inexplicably closed since at least March. We went to the Toilet Museum too, which was pretty great.

We've walked around a lot, mostly San Telmo and Palermo. Argentina empanadas and ice cream are both delicious, and I'm basically in love with dulce de leche. We're going to Uruguay tomorrow during the day (the ferry only takes an hour!) and then the Hippodrome at night. If we time everything right, we'll see the last horse race of the day.

There are other things, but they can wait I think. I swear I'll have pictures on my flickr soon (I know you're all waiting with bated breath), but the wifi in the apartment is spotty at best, and I have a lot of photos to upload. I'll get to an internet cafe by Tuesday at the latest, and maybe I'll try to upload everything later tonight when no one else is online.

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.