space rock

Almost time to leave for the bus to the airport. I love taking buses at 5am. I'm probably leaving way too early for an 8am flight, but if I wait any longer, I'm definitely going to fall asleep. I can't believe I managed to stay up this long. I watched a million episodes of Daria on YouTube and drank a 24oz (drinking a 40oz=immediately falling asleep) and actually did a fairly non-spastic job of packing, and now it is time for me to do the thing where I leave for the airport, but obviously first it was time for me to do the thing where I write a post that illustrates just how half-awake I am. Happy holidays everyone. I'll be trapped in the land of dial-up for 12 days, so you may not hear from me for awhile.

neighborhood happenings

Yesterday: I arrive home at approximately 1am, find the locks on both doors into the apartment building have been jammed with toilet paper. I manage to pry free the TP on the first door, give up on the second.

Tonight: I walk out of the subway around 12:20am (early night!), see the aftermath of a car crash. One car in the middle of the road, one car halfway through a chain-link fence, four cop cars and eleven or twelve cops standing around.

The two events are probably unrelated.

Also, when is the city going to put out rat poison? The rats are running free on the streets; I saw one run from the street into that little park at West 4th and Sixth Ave, holding part of a roll in its diseased little mouth. It was adorably gross and disgusting.

Speaking of disgusting, trimming your fingernails in public IS NOT OKAY. It is not okay on the subway, it is not okay on the street, it is not okay anywhere outside of your bathroom. When I am on the D train to work, I am already annoyed that I'm on the D train (makes at least one more stop than the A train) and that I'm on the way to work. Watching and listening to you cut your nails pushes me from "annoyed" to "violent," and I refuse to believe I'm the only one.

the future is now

Hey, guess what, you can post to Blogger from Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Haha, I almost typed Cocs! Hilarious.

I finished Crime and Punishment this morning. It was good, obviously, and I'm glad I finished it after I gave up on The Idiot halfway through, but I feel like I just finished a marathon. A confusing marathon where you know everyone else is getting so much more out of the marathon than you, but you really want to pretend you get the marathon, and sort of you do, maybe one or two parts of it, but you know even after finishing the marathon the first time, you're going to need to read it at least one or two more times before you'll have a real understanding of what Dostoevsky is trying to say. Something like that.

The seventh season of South Park is sort of annoying because there's too much political shit, but the Jennifer Lopez episode is still fucking awesome, even though I watched it for the first time with this douchebag I used to be friends with, back in the day. What a fucking pendejo.

In conclusion, I made a necklace today.

fucking whatever

These two guys from work figured out I have a blog, so now I'm all
paranoid about writing this, because I have to work with those people,
you know? If they think this is lame, they'll totally lose all respect
for me, which would be, like, a lot of respect because I am awesome
and say "like" constantly, not only in casual conversation but in
writing too. What's not to respect?

Whatever. Today I figured out that I can still use my webspace at NYU,
which means I have 50mb of storage and unlimited bandwith, so I will
soon rule the fucking internet! Seriously though, I have all of this
drive and motivation to practice web design shit, but the problem is I
have no real desire to make a webpage of my own. Like... what the fuck
do people put on their webpages? I can barely handle the fact that I
have a blog; what the hell am I going to put on a whole webpage? I
guess I could do photos or something, but I mean, no one cares, right?
Surprisingly, I think I'm not quite self-absorbed to do this whole "my
own website" thing. Wait, no, I am, I just haven't quite gotten over
the embarrassment caused by being exactly like all of the people I
hate. Oh god, I hate myself! And yet I love myself... what a fucking
predicament.

Whatever. If you or anyone you know needs a webpage, leave a damn
comment. I'll make you one for free, and I can pretty much guarantee
it won't suck. I mean, it might at first, but I'll totally keep fixing
it until it stops sucking. Maybe I'll even keep going and make it
awesome! Awesome's gonna cost you, though.

two weeks until i go home again

I am currently geeking out over the following:

1. medieval research with the coolest history professor in the world.

(look! you can buy her book!)

2. setting up my own website

(can anyone recommend a good place to host my site? i'd prefer somewhere independent; i found this place that seems cool, but I have no idea how much bandwith I'm going to need.)

3. making jewelry

(i'm gonna buy some beads and thread before work tomorrow, and then i'm going to make sooo many necklaces!)

4. reading is magic!

(crime and punishment is awesome!)

cleaning!

Yesterday, I cleaned my room for over two hours, and it was awesome. I can now walk from my door to my bed without having to wonder if there's anything valuable and/or breakable buried among the mountains of clothes.

While cleaning, I found a post-it with the following written on it:

"Yesterday, last night, right out of the subway, it smelled like autumn for an instant and then it was gone. The exhaust and smells of the city were back. When I got to my building, the entryway smelled like semen."

Isn't that just beautiful? I'm so glad I noticed that before throwing it away with all the other garbage.

so tired my eyes hurt

I've been walking around for the past few days, thinking of things to write about here. I've mentally composed the first paragraph of at least four entries, but obviously none of them have actually made it through to the end. Mostly it's because I'm lazy. Also, I'm taking a break from my computer. We've had some good times, and we're not breaking up or anything, but I need to take some time to, you know, find myself and really figure out who "Marina" is. Plus, spending all my time before work on the computer and then carrying said computer to work seems silly when work is a fucking computer lab.

This morning, instead of watching dailymotion.com for four hours, I went ice skating, and I think if I could skate every day and maybe even play hockey once or twice a week, I would be permanently happy. There was almost no one on the ice today, and I wore my very own skates (which are somehow a tiny bit small which means my huge feet have gotten even huger since high school), and I skated for forty-five minutes, and I fell once, but I also skated backwards a little bit, and I am totally going skating again tomorrow. I really want to go skating every day this winter, or at least every day until the free skating rink and Bryant Park closes down.

I also realized recently that I haven't read a book for at least two months, possibly two and a half or three. After I got over the shame, forgetting but not really forgiving myself for being such a damn philistine, I borrowed two books from Kira and decided to go to The Strand as soon as I'm sure I have enough money for rent and student loan payments (more on that later). I borrowed White Noise and Crime and Punishment (the new translation by... their names escape me, but they are totes the hot new thing in the foreign literature translation world. I decided to start with the Dostoevsy, and guess what? It's fucking intense! So far, I'm pretty sure this Raskolnikov guy is definitely going to do the right thing and certainly isn't going to kill anyone or do anything illegal or "criminal" to get out of debt (don't tell me if I'm wrong, you'll ruin the surprise!).

In conclusion, you know what sucks? Debt! Also, credit. Apparently my credit is only "fair," which I find highly offensive. My student loan payments are going to be $200 more per month than my rent, which according to Sallie Mae is generous, since they could've given me a worse interest rate based on my "fair" credit. Fuck you, Sallie Mae. If anyone has any ideas as to how I can make a lot of money really, really quickly, leave a comment. I'd prefer either legal means or illegal means with very low risk of getting caught (kidding, Mom!).

Also, tomorrow, I'll probably remember to write about Thanksgiving break, but it's going to be old news by then, so who knows.

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.)