16 posts tagged “friends”

Today was a turning point of sorts.  I have epiphanies every now and then, and I realized that I haven’t really given Bangkok a chance, and I should have tried harder to like this city.  That’s getting a bit ahead of myself though, so let me come back to it.

Yesterday was the end of week 3 of my CELTA course.  I had a lesson, and I thought it was going to go well, and … it didn’t.  It was my first hour-long lesson, and my first below-standard.  I was more upset than I should have been, but I think most of that was just being tired.  I’ve been working my ass off the last 3 weeks, and though it’s not like I couldn’t have worked harder, it’s taken a toll.  I’ve been at school from 830 to 6ish everyday, and planning lessons after that until late, not to mention the stress of being in an entirely new, unfamiliar place and meeting new people and learning so much new material.  I will admit that, this course has made me re-evaluate a lot of things I never thought about in my teaching before, and that’s a good thing.  I’m much more self-aware when I’m teaching, my planning has gotten better, I’ve learned to anticipate problems, and learned better teaching techniques.  At the same time, though, the constant stress of planning and being evaluated has exhausted me, and more unfortunately, sucked my confidence.  I know I’m not a bad teacher, but when I teach a lesson and can find very few things that I consider strengths… it’s discouraging.  I know I have improved, but being more aware of my teaching has also made me realize that I’ve still got a long way to go.  Granted, my trainers always compliment me on the rapport I have with my students, but that rolls off my shoulders; it’s a good thing (great, when you’re working with kids) but it’s not everything, and I know it.  I made a comment in one of the input sessions the other day, that we need to remember that this course is only a month long, that we will continue to grow and develop as teachers and that we shouldn’t feel discouraged if we don’t come out of this as super-teachers.  Perhaps I should take my own advice.  For the most part, I do, but yesterday was just… overwhelming. 

But yesterday wasn’t just the lesson from hell.  Afterwards was pretty decent.  I called my mom and talked to her and Mamaw, which I hadn’t done for 2 weeks, so I had some stuff to fill them in on.  They were intrigued to hear about Ben, since last time I talked to them was before I went out to Khao San for the night.  (reminds me, I need to write that up…)  I wandered out into the hall, stumbled into one of my colleagues, and we went down to the local Irish pub where some of the others were having drinks.   I didn’t really want to hang with the subset of CELTA people that were there, so I wandered off to the gay bar that is the other hangout spot for our group and found the people I was looking for.  Oddly enough, the people from the pub all showed up at the gay bar shortly thereafter, since happy hour was over, and we all spent a couple hours chilling and talking.  There’s some really cool people there; I’m the youngest, of course, but then, when am I not?  I tend to stay on the fringes and drink my coke and watch, but I still had fun.  After a while, Bonnie, Eric, Czar and Gabe and I left to go get ramen from a restaurant near the pub, wandered into a parking deck to use the bathroom, and then debated going to get a massage before just deciding to go home.   

I took the cab with Bonnie and Gabe to Phaya Thai and walked from there.  When I got home I was surprised to see it was only 1145.  I was going to take a shower and then was so lazy I decided to just go to bed, and then Habib called me and we talked for 2 and a half hours.  It was good to see him again, even over a webcam.  I’ve missed talking to him, though he has certainly become more cynical than he was.  I’m not really surprised, but…  sometimes I kinda miss the old Brenton, for whom we had  a Facebook  group devoted to his deflowering and traumatization.  I’ll never forget the day Julie told me he had come to her and told her he had realized that God didn’t fit in a box.  She was unimpressed, thought he should have realized that sooner, but I realized it meant he’d come a long way from the first night we had dinner when he asked me, “So, what religion are you?”  Wow… that was a long time ago.   -sigh- Nostalgia.

And now that I’ve gotten to the point where I would actually talk about today – I’m tired.  And I’m going to bed, so my epiphany will have to wait. 

today was a good day. I got a lot of things done - boxes mailed to neechan and to a fellow Raveler, money on my phone, a time for Gizmo to go to the vet to get fixed, took my jeans to be altered.  I even dropped by Knitting Tree for an hour or so to tell them about the Myeongdong meeting and do a repeat or so on my cowl.  It was fun to be there again - I told them I would come back Friday and bring some of my FOs to show them, since last time I was working on the legwarmers. 

After all my errands, I ended up in McDonalds to meet my new friend.  We had a lot of fun talking for an hour or so before he had to go do homework for a marketing class.  He lives in Kukdong, which is like, right next door to me.  When I walked back by KKW the lights were still on, so I ended up going back to McDonald's with Kim-teacher, Kyung Mi (Violet) and Soh Jin (pansy). We stayed there talking about all kinds of things till 10.  And now I'm home, browsing ravelry and attempting to figure out what pattern I want to make with this cotton/rayon blend from Knitting Tree. 

Also today - yummy kimbap.  MMM...

I'd like to finish this cowl this week so I can be wearing it.  Also, wanna start my dragon shawl but am still working out if it should be double-stranded or single. Need two more balls to make it double. 

And then Jon sent me this article.
Excommunicated doctor hailed for abortion

Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Recife excommunicated the doctor, the child's mother and the medical team involved in the procedure.

However, the stepfather was not excommunicated, with Sobrinho telling Globo TV that, "A graver act than (rape) is abortion, to eliminate an innocent life."

Um, no, I don't think so. Because rape isn't the elimination of anything innocent at all.  This is just wrong on so many levels.  First one - 9 y/o raped by stepfather, pregnant with twins.  Abuse had been going on since she was 6.  (Can 9y/os GET PREGNANT?)  Hello, where was the mother in all this?

2ndly - the girl's mother and the entire medical team who performed the abortion have been excommunicated.  Guy who did the raping? Totally cool in the eyes of God.  And the Archbishop has the nerve to say that  "God's law is above human laws."  Of course it is, but I think you are getting confused here, because the law that says it's okay to rape your stepdaughter is probably not God's law.  My two cents, anyway. 

Brazil bans abortion? What?

Well, today wasnt as bad as I thought it might be, considering my sleeping pattern last night.  I got up and was at work on time and everything.  Lunch was good - I always love kimchi nabe.  But the weather - omigosh it was so cold today. Douglas said the weather forecast said possible snow, and it certainly felt like it could, but the only thing blowing in the wind was all the leaves.  I'm going to have to break out my wool coat soon if this keeps up.  Still, I had my little fleece cropped vest that I got in COEX the other night. It's super cute. See?  Even the really hot Korean salesguy said so...

I wanted to get the cream-colored one that matched my bear mittens, but when I went back to the store with cash it was gone, so brown it was.  And I wear enough stuff that matches brown that it doesn't matter.  I think though that I definitely want to go to uniqlo and get myself another fleece from there, cause the one I had last year was a lifesaver, and much easier to wear than my big coat.

After work I went to Seoul Station to meet Han's aunt and uncle who are visiting here for a few days. We had dinner at Bennigan's, where I had the strangest sandwich.  It was called a monte cristo - normal ham/turkey/cheese sandwich.  but for some reason the chef decided that this particular sandwich of the ones on the menu wouldn't cause enough of an arterial blockage. SO - they battered and fried it and sprinkled it with powdered sugar. Yeah, like a donut. Or a funnel cake.  I swear, it was so strange, like eating your main course and dessert at the same time.  it didnt really add to the flavor or the sandwich.  And as I was walking out of the restaurant I saw the sign where they advertise that they specialize in healthy fusion food.  Well, it was definitely fusion.  I wish I had had my camera...

They asked if I wanted dessert or anything, and I pointed out that not only was I full, but I felt like I had already eaten dessert.  So we walked around the department store there for a few minutes and then got some coffee at Dunkin Donuts.  I don't like coffee, but they had something that looked intriguing - chrysanthemum tea.  Thus, today's Korean word(s) of the day.

Kukhwa = chrysanthemum
Cha = tea

Technically, I already knew 'tea', cause of my kids.  Sometimes I bring my mug of whatever I happen to have that day, and since the kids know by now that I don't like coffee, they try to guess what I have, cocoa or tea.   Incidentally, the word in for 'coffee' is 'coppi', so the kids think it's really funny when I have to go make copies of a book or paper. 

On the way there I finished my scarf, and also discovered that I can walk and knit at the same time - I was binding off as I was transferring lines, and so I just kept going as I was walking.  I'm not sure if I could do more complicated stitches at the same time.  I even managed to walk up the stairs and everything.  So now it just needs to be blocked, and then it will be finished.  It's supposed to have crocheting on the ends, but I don't know how to crochet, so we'll just leave it as is.  I've also got that stuff that I promised to ball for Kate, and plenty of lessons to plan this week.  Plus, I have a pokemon date with neechan, andI think i want to trade her some of my current ones before i start an entirely new game and get the other starters.  btw, nick - i can play/trade with you too (and I'm sure jessica would love to as well), if you're not too busy with zelda. another thing i need to play. let's not talk about that though. I think I won't worry about starting my next gauntlet/Tim's scarf till the thursday meeting in Gangnam.

Now I've had my shower and I'm tired... I really wanna go to bed.  I guess typing my thursday adventure will have to wait again, as will the superblogpostofdoom. and I have other things- some more progress reports to finish, a bank transfer to do (tomorrow)... blocking the scarf.  ah screw it, those will wait. I'm going to bed.

Really. I don't know why it's taking forever. Maybe cause I'm dling stuf from itunes and dling torrents and doing web thingys at the same time, but that's still no excuse.

I have had a good day today.  Tuesdays are pretty chill cause I have a 3 hour break between my classes, and even though I meant ot come home and work on progress reports today, I took a nap.  I was tired.  I was up late lastn ight cause I was so excited about getting to go back to Japan for New Year's that I couldn't sleep till sometime around 4 am.  Also, there were more mogi in my room.

So class as usual.  No big deal there. I probably should be getting to bed soon cause I have a full day tomorrow, but I remembered that I needed to post.  Ack! I have a video for you today, neechan.  Not edited, but I thought it didn't really need it anyway. 

Today I went to the Center for the Birth of Baha'u'llah.  It's also the anniversary of Matt proposing to Amanda.  I always remember that cause she called me when I was at Freshman Semi-Formal that year and I was standing outside the Fox with a hundred people around me going "He did WHAT!?!?"  This was a perfectly reasonable response on my part, consdering they met in August of that year.  The program tonight was fun... I met and re-met a lot of people and though I'm fairly certain that there are at least 2 names I don't remember, it's okay cause I know their faces at least.  Aruna gave me a ride home, which was good because I'm almost out of money on my subway pass, and I need to put more on. 

And then I came home, and was poking around the Itunes store looking for a John Mayer song that I used to have but for some reason can't find anymore.  There's one torrent of it, but it has no seeds so I just gave up and decided to spend a dollar on the song.  And then then THEN I found the Doctor Who TV OST!! You know me, I love OSTs, if they are good, and the DW one is, and I'd thought about trying to find it before. There aren't any torrents of it that I've been able to find.  And you know I NEVER buy music, or I do so about once every blue moon.  But this is such great stuff that I honestly don't mind paying $10 for the album.  Especially cause I know I will listen to a lot of it.  Some soundtracks are only good with their context, but this one is good enough to just listen to. 

Okay, I really need to get to bed cause I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow - emails and a letter and some other things. Have to transfer that money so that i can finally pay bills.  More scarf.  Etc. Remind me to post those articles about china.  and my laptop dilemma.

So here's my first post for November's blogging challenge.  I know it's cheating to back-post, but my excuse is that I just found out about the challenge this evening.  Depending on how this challenge thing goes though, I might keep it up.  Wouldn't hurt me to set some goals for myself, and whittle down my always-amazingly-long list of things I want to do. 

I think for November, I will focus on trying to edit/post the pics I have been meaning to get to for a while.  One a day for the time being, and we'll see how adventurous I get.  This first one is from one of the rides at Lotte World, the amusement park at Jamsil that I went to on Halloween.  I'm pretty sure this sign means that you shouldn't ride this ride if you are pregnant, but it just comes out sounding like you're not supposed to get anyone pregnant while on the ride.  No sex on a ride at a family-themed park?  The things people think of... -sigh-

And technically, though this word was Thursday, here's the Korean word of the day, from Flora and Alice:

Mokkdori = scarf

They were telling me this the other day, but they say it all the time - as y'all know, I like my scarves, so I wear them pretty much every day. They also told me the word for earrings, which, when I related it to tim, the ensuing conversation on a public bus caused an ajuma to glare at us and get off at the next stop.  I blame his phone's dictionary and its inclusion of the word 'ear sex.'  With Tim, Kristina, and I, how could that not start a conversation?  Here's another one then... I think I learned this a while back. 

Ajuma = married woman. 

Similar species to Japanese okaasan.

Lots of things happened, so here goes -

• Thursday - took a long nap till midnight, then stayed up playing AoE and reading the last of the Primes novels till 8 am on Friday
• 
  Friday - woke up late and got to the Baha'i meeting as it was ending around 430 pm.  Met a bunch of Baha'is and found out about feasts and study circles.  Went to meet Tim for dinner, met his recently arrived teacher friend Christina. She's pretty cool.
• Saturday - wandered around Dongdaemun and found yarn.  Dongdaemun Shopping Town = awesome. It's five floors of craftiness.  Bought a wallet from a street vendor, wandered around town some more, then met Tim again for dinner and norebang with his Korean friend.  Yay for shabu-shabu.
• Sunday - went up to Hyehwa to meet the Stitch-n-Bitch group.  That was lots of fun, and it was good to be around people who can help me with my knitting.  I learned what k2tog means!  Then went to Itaewon for Indian food with Kate, a new friend from SnB and got hit on by sketchy Indian dude.  Started watching Elfen Lied.
• Today - finished sewing lining into green knit bag. 
  

  green knit bag
  Looked for knitting patterns online to keep from napping, then read a Dark-Hunter book.  Got box from Mamaw and had PB and J for dinner.  Cleaned up my apartment.  FINALLY shaved my legs, now that i have my razor back. 

Well, here I am sitting on a train somewhere in North Carolina, I think. I’m not really sure, cause the platforms here aren’t marked clearly like they are in Japan, so I’m just guessing.  Amtrak is definitely chigau from the Japanese train system, but it’s not bad.  The bathrooms are pretty nice, at least; though I never used a bathroom on a Japanese train, so I can’t make a comparison.

Things have been so crazy for the last week or so, and I haven’t updated anything in a long time, and since I have and electrical outlet right here next to me (a definite point over Japanese trains) I can feel free to type away without the computer dying on me.  Hey, if I’m up for it, I might even watch some Torchwood later. 

Working backwards might be the easiest way to go about this.  So, today I am on a train to Boston to see Nick and his family before I leave to go to Korea.  I haven’t gotten my visa officially yet, but my appointment with the consulate is on Wednesday, and as soon as they give me the go-ahead, I can ask for my plane tickets to be bought. 

For the last week or so, I haven’t really been doing much – mostly getting ready to go and hanging out with Lauren, Matthew, Kaylie, Jessica, Amanda and Caity.  Christina came in town to be with me for a few days before I went, since she had the long weekend.  I was working a temp job, but … well, I changed my mind. I’ll start at the beginning.

The craziness has been going on for a few months now, I think – it has just intensified recently, within the last month.  I was in Atlanta till July 15^th, then I came home and decided to work some temp while I was waiting on my Korea stuff to come through.  On July 23^rd, I was having lunch with my grandmother, Sharon and Am at Panera, when my car got hit in the parking lot.  The Panera lady came up to us and asked if that was our car in the parking lot:  “A silver Impala?  I just stopped someone from leaving who hit you.”  Well, I was annoyed, because my original (obviously delayed) plans had been to leave for Korea on the 25^th of August – a car wreck is so not on my list of things I wanted to deal with.  I went out to look at it, and the girl was still there, and there wasn’t much damage.  She accepted full responsibility for it (damn straight, since I wasn’t even in the car), and her insurance promised to pay to get my car fixed.  But there were issues, of course.  When aren’t there?

The first thing was that she was from Arkansas. So she had some insurance I had never heard of, though it turned out to be pretty good, on my end anyway.  Their closest branch was in Atlanta, so they had to send an independent adjustor out to come take pictures of my car, and then send them to the person it Atlanta.  For the next three weeks, I tried to get in touch with this woman, and she never returned my calls, until Friday, August 16.  She called to tell me that she had (finally) process my claim and that I would be receiving the information in the mail soon.  I got an estimate and a check on Monday, and took an hour off from the job I was temping at to go out to the body shop and have them do their own estimate of the costs.  As it turns out, theirs was about $300 different from the insurance figures.  It was going to take 8 days to fix my car; did I have another, or had they given me a rental car, the body shop guy asked.  I told him I hadn’t known to ask for a rental, and that the adjustor had just mailed me this stuff, I had never talked to her.   I took my lunch break the next day to call around and try to talk to someone who could help me get a rental.  I finally got in touch with my adjustor’s supervisor, told him all my grievances with his employee, and explained my dilemma.  So he got me a rental and told me not to worry about the discrepancy in the estimates, and sounded a bit peeved that my adjustor had not been returning my calls.  She called me later that afternoon, and I told her I no longer needed to talk to her, since I’d already spoken with her supervisor, and she ended the conversation suitably quickly. 

So they gave me a Malibu, and I went to the hospital to see my grandfather.  This was his 3^rd week there – he’d been admitted on Aug 4^th to get a triple bypass done, since his arteries were so clogged.  The operation went fine, but he developed pneumonia in the hospital, and they had to go back in two more times because his coughing cracked the wires they had used to close his ribcage.  Am did the surgery, and she cried – she had to pick pieces of his rib bones out of his chest cavity where they had broken.  On Saturday the 23^rd, after the second repair surgery, he developed problems breathing around 2 am.  The hospital called us, but by the time we got there, he was already gone. 

We stayed at the hospital till 4 am, then went home, joined by Sharon, Amber, Stephanie, and her mother.  I’d cried hysterically in my car, but managed to not do more than tear up a bit in front of everyone else.  I asked my grandmother for the blender and made a milkshake, then went to bed around 6.

For the next three days, it was crazy.  The phone was always ringing, when Mamaw wasn’t calling people to tell them the news.  People kept coming over, and our fridge was stuffed.  My older uncle flew in from Kentucky during his calving season; my younger one and his wife helped put the funeral together, and even though Stephanie has only been part of the family for a few months, she was just as torn up as everyone else, though she channeled it by being busy.  I took my mom, sister and Randy shopping for funeral clothes with the $500 worth of gift cards that had been Pops’ gift for working 50 years at the roofing plant; his anniversary was the day I graduated college.

Shopping with my mother is always interesting.  My sister has fairly good taste in clothes, for the most part, but there’s nothing for it when it comes to my mother.  She’s just satisfied with wearing the cheapest, frumpiest things and doesn’t understand why the rest of us think she’s crazy.  She went to help Randy find a shirt and jacket, and I took Christina to the dresses.  I looked for one for mom while my sister changed, finally settling on two for her to try.  Of course, the final decision was going to be mine, but I thought either one might work.  One was shorter dress, with cap sleeves and a leather belt around the waist.  It even had pockets; I knew she would like it.  The other was a calf-length, black and flowy with ¾ sleeves, but light enough that she wouldn’t roast in the sun.  It was a $90 dress, but I figured it was on sale, and it would be the best. 

She tried on the cheaper one first, like I knew she would, and loved it.  It looked like a sack of potatoes.  The darts in the hip were the wrong shape, and the little belt made it look cheap.  And while pockets may be a novelty, they surely aren’t appropriate for a funeral.  “This is the one,” she said.  I shook my head at her, backed up by Randy and Christina.  “Go try on the other,” I told her.  “Just try it.”  It was much better, and even though she worried about the price, I told her it was fine.  Then I got myself a dress, by the same designer (but strangely, for half the price), and we went our way. 

When we got home, Ken was there with Stephanie and Mamaw, and they asked how our shopping had gone.  “Did you find something?” he said, pausing as he turned to leave. 

“Yes, we did.  I mean, they got me a dress, and I don’t really like it, but everyone else does,” my mom explained. 

“Good then,” he said.  “Wear that.”  Everyone laughed, except my mother, who tried her best to look peeved. 

The wake was Sunday night, and the funeral on Monday.  As sad as it was that Pops was gone, I still found ways to smile.  It was the closest our family had been in a long time.  Pops’ brother, Uncle Jack, was unfriendly as always, but Matthew and Jessica had come down for the weekend to be with me.  Jessica took Monday off work to come to the funeral, and Grandma Chris made a roast for us.  There wasn’t really much to do, except talk to people I rarely see.  Stephanie likes scrapbooking, and had put together a few boards with pictures of all of us on them.  There were so many funny things I had forgotten, and new things I learned that night.  I had been thinking to myself for a while, off and on, that there were so many things I didn’t know about Pops, but then, I also realized that knowing the things I did know were more important that stuff like what his middle name was and exactly what year he was born.

There were stories, of course – everyone had them to tell.  One of my favorites was from Aunt Earlene, one of Pops’ sisters-in-law.  He used to live with them, for a bit after her and Uncle Jesse were married, before he met Mamaw.  Pops always loved desserts, but he was very picky about his food sometimes.  Am and I made jokes about that – he had wanted to go out to a steak dinner when he got out of the hospital, and we laughed, saying that the tea would be too sweet, or not sweet enough, the steak not cooked properly… something was always off.  It was one of the things we loved teasing him about, but sometimes it was annoying.  Before I went to Japan last year, we had been talking about going out to dinner, just the two of us.  When the day finally came, it was a disaster, or just about normal.  The first place we went to was full, and then we ended up at Applebee’s, not his favorite place.  He didn’t want to drive further into town though, so there was no help for it.  But everything was wrong, and it upset me so much I almost started crying at the table, because I had just wanted us to have a good time before I left, and he just couldn’t find anything right. 

 To get back to Aunt Earlene, though.  One of Pops’ favorite things was banana pudding, and one night for dessert, Aunt Earlene made some other kind of pudding… I think she said it was pineapple or something.  Anyway, Pops said it was too rich for him, and he didn’t want any.  So Aunt Earlene put it in the fridge, and she, Uncle Jesse, and Aunt Ouida, Pops’ other sister, went out to the movies, thinking they would eat it when they got back and it was cold.  So they get back from the movie, and they’re all excited – Aunt Earlene sends Ouida to get the pudding from the fridge, and she gets some bowls and spoons.  But Aunt Ouida has a problem.  “Earlene,” she called from the kitchen, “There’s no pudding in the fridge.”

“Well maybe I left it out on the table,” Aunt Earlene replied.

“No, not there either.”  So they look everywhere for the missing pudding.  I think it was Uncle Jesse who finally found the pudding bowl in the sink, filled with nothing but water.  The entire thing was gone.  Pops had eaten it all, despite it being ‘too rich’ for him. 

There’s so many of these stories I have… I keep thinking I should write them down, so I don’t forget them, since I won’t have him to remind me anymore. 

It’s 1 am now, so I think I might get something to drink and then try to sleep a bit.  I’ll finish this later, ‘cause you know there’s more.  I haven’t even told you about the funeral yet.

Or at least, glare at me very hard.  And maybe not let me borrow Breaking Dawn.

Totally my fault, though.  I was supposed to get up and help her bake a cake this morning and I was really tired from working so I went to bed at 10 pm.  Unfortunately I woke up again around 1230, and with the help of facebook and a vampire romance novel, went back to sleep around 530.  Which means I most definitely did not get up and over to her house at 8 am.

Now it's almost 130 and I have to jump in the shower, toss on clothes and get over to Amanda's for the party.  I might be fashionably late.

In completely random linguistic points: when I was talking to Miles last night, he for some reason mentioned that in his dialect (Filipino Chinese?), the way you pronounce the verb 'love' and the word 'painful' are the same.  I think that's pretty awesome, and I wonder how that happened.  Also, true.

Okay, so besides the craziness that I posted yesterday, I haven’t really updated this in a week or so…Life’s been good, and I haven’t really felt like writing. 

Olga came into town for the holiday, which was good.  She was leaving to go visit Savannah for a few days on Wednesday, and called and asked if I wanted to come, so I did.  It really was a spur of the moment thing, which I miss doing.   I’m pretty much on my own around here, everyone gone for the summer or permanently, and my roomie’s never around, really.  So I spend a lot of time alone, which isn’t horrible. Just gets boring sometimes.  Anyway, I hadn’t planned on visiting, didn’t feel like the $80+ in gas and 8 hours of driving on my own, but since I didn’t have to drive, or pay for gas, it was cool.  We saw Olga’s family, and the second night I stayed with my grandmother.  Then we came back on Friday, and that was fine with me, cause it meant I got to go the party at Chip’s house in East Point to see the fireworks.

Lots of people there, with small children, but also a bunch of the Bread crowd, who I missed, particularly (ninja) Will and Beth.  I also got to meet her fiancé (again, I’d met him once before, when they weren’t engaged), and we all talked and laughed and watched fireworks, and waited for Chip to set himself on fire.  Didn’t happen, but we were all hoping; it’s apparently pretty funny, and he does it almost every year.  But it was so nice to see everyone – I hadn’t seen Beth since… last spring break? She’s going to Germany to start her ministry in August, so I don’t know how often in the next couple years I will see her.  The wedding is March, either the 21^st or 23^rd, and I’m definitely going to try to go.  We have our theological differences, but Beth has always been an amazing friend – who else would get up before sunrise with me while I was fasting to have our weekly breakfasts?

Other than that, nothing much going.  I’ve been temp working, and re-taught myself how to knit, and I finished my first scarf today.  I bet nee-chan will be proud of me.  I alternated the knit and purls, so it’s got this funky double-sided texture thing going, and added a fringe.  I probably need to block it so that it will be flat, cause right now, its doing this curl thing, as you can see in the pics below.  Also, if y’all start knitting – don’t start with mohair.  I had no idea what I was getting into.  It came out not too bad for a first time, I think (I mean, it’s not falling apart… yet), but it was a bitch to work with at times.  It’s kind of a powder blue/tan, in case you can’t see the colors too well.  

Oddly enough, knitting is also a good way to get me to watch TV.  Yes, strangely enough, I’ve been watching a lot lately – some movies and trying to finish up DN Angel, which I stopped in the middle of a bit ago.  Remind me sometime to write a post about the character dynamics in that show, especially the love-interests…There’s some interesting sexual politics going on there.  Not that it wasn’t a good show – I just have to be really … bored to watch TV, and I can’t do too much at once.  It literally gets boring, and I’ll just turn it off cause I’m tired of it.  So my next project – finish up DN Angel, and watch Arrested Development, while working on a bag to hold my knitting.  It’s going to be green – I got the yarn for it the other day at Hobby Lobby, and the needles.  I found a buckle today at Hancock, but I decided to wait on that, since I don’t need it right now.  I’ve been trying to use the TV, so I can sit on the couch and not spend so much time confined in my room (this is why dorm life is bad – you don’t kno how to live in a real house anymore).  Unfortunately, the DVD player won’t read my DVDs from China, so I have to watch them on my computer in my room.

-yawn- for some reason I’ve been tired really early lately – I’ve been working 8 to 5 the last few days, so I’ve had to get up around 630.  I’m still not sleeping all the way through the night; I keep waking up in the middle.

Damn the flies in my room. I don’t know how they get through the screen, but it’s really annoying. I kill several an evening.  I’m going to go make dinner now, and maybe watch some stuff and start balling the yarn for my next piece.

Let’s see, such grand adventures to relate.  Well, I forgot that the library closed at 6, not 8, so after a fairly disappointing day job-hunting wise, I removed to the grove outside and read Emma till 8 or so, and I was hungry.  My fountain, alas, still runs dry; that is to say, not at all. 

I then took myself home and made spaghetti for dinner.  I was too hungry to be bothered with anything more complicated, and I was getting to the best part of any Austen book – where everyone hooks up.  More to say on that later.  I finished Emma around 1030, and didn’t feel like reading any more, so I turned to my computer for entertainment.  I beat one AoE scenario economically, but

didn’t have the patience to hand everyone’s asses to them militarily, so I tried again to get ahead in my Greek campaign, and once again was royally demolished by the Dorians.  What the hell. I will beat the scenario, at some point. 

I gave up on that, thinking I would try something else – unfortunately I discovered the other night that neither the Civilization 2 I dled nor the ZooTycoon will work (damn you dumbasses for password protecting your files. Ugh.), and I did not have the foresight to bring my other computer games with me on their actual discs (or my crayons, which I also want now).  I used to own Civ… I wonder where it got off to.  Anyway, those options out, I turned to RollerCoaster Tycoon, and beat a game I had been in the middle of; it’s pretty awesome, a huge garden that you have to make into a park.  I started on one of the other scenarios, but after a while got bored.  I thought about sleeping (this was around 230) and then picked up the Chronicles, not intending to read through all of Prince Caspian, just to, you know, start a bit.  I finished it. And then started on Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and before I knew it,  it’s much lighter than I expected it to be outside, they’re at the World’s End and everyone goes home happy. Sort of.  Not to spoil it for you, but really, do any of the Narnia books end unhappily?  Well, except that one where they all have that horrible thing happen to them… but that book doesn’t really have an end, persay. 

I’m babbling yes?  Oh well. It’s 8 am.  And I haven’t slept. In fact, the only real reason I’m writing this right now is cause I’m on campus to see if Nick happens to be around; unfortunately he hasn’t seen fit to grace me with his presence as of yet.  But I get to see Olga tomorrow!!  She and Adam are coming over and we’re making dinner. Yummy – green bean casserole, and some chicken with sautéed mushrooms, and rice, I think. 

SPOILER ALERT!!! 

What am I forgetting? Oh, thoughts on Emma.  Well, I have to say, that in the final estimation, this is a book that either the author expects you to be very observant throughout, or to read more than once.  I’m going with the latter, because even though I am pretty observant when reading things, sometimes it takes me a bit to fit everything all together.  So I enjoy re-reading things, and sometimes finding new pieces when I do.  I think my main problem with Emma was that everything fell together – but that was all.  There was no real development to it, I think.  We get 200 pages in and Harriet’s confessing and suddenly Emma’s in love with Mr. Knightley.  And only she can marry him, then.  Completely forgetting that he can’t marry, by Emma’s own admission, because of little Henry.  It was just all too contrived for me, and not even well contrived either.  Especially the whole thing with Robert and Harriet.  I mean, I know she’s only 17, but please, give her more credit than to be that flighty.  And if that damn guy who wrote the introduction in my edition hadn’t spoiled the surprise, I’m sure I might have considered the whole Frank/Jane mess to be pretty contrived as well.  As it was, I kept waiting for it to come out, but even when it did, it wasn’t nearly as satisfying.  Though on later reflection, I realized there wasn’t really a way that Austen could have managed it, with the third-person limited, except what she did via the letter.  But my curiosity was not slaked at all.  Another thing I noticed – most of Austen’s novels take a fair bit of cultural background research, but this one was moreso than the others I think – not the least because of things like the disgrace of secret engagements and Mrs. Weston’s “condition” are not common today.  Yes, multiple readings are definitely in order; the only thing is that I dread sitting through all of Mrs. Elton’s and Miss Bates’ ridiculousness again, so it might be best to wait a bit for that one.

Rereading the Chronicles, however, is different.  I think what made me read so much was the remembering – with Prince Caspian, I wanted to see how it compared to the film, but also how much I remembered, and the same with the Dawn Treader.  There were parts where I would get excited, just remembering something up ahead, and places where I had completely forgotten the plot.  I had to force myself to slow down, and read it all through properly.  In that respect, it was completely different from Emma.  With that, I wanted to just get through the story, to see how it worked out.  I can’t wait to finish the last two – I never really remembered much of The Silver Chair (though for some reason I always remember it once being referenced in a Babysitter’s Club book – yeah, I read all those);  but I always thought of The Last Battle as my favorite, though I only read it once or twice, I believe.  We’ll see when I finish I suppose.

On a less happy note… this is truly sad. And in so many ways, disgusting.

Children get HIV in Krygyzstan