Today is Wednesday, which means that tomorrow is Thursday. By tomorrow night I need to have all of my things packed, which means that tonight I have to clean my room. Some time in between tonight and tomorrow I need to find my watch, clean my computer, and locate all my cookware. Also there is the matter of some disassembled pens to attend to - they require reassembling. (Why do I have disassembled pens? I don't even know.)

My father was smiley this morning because now various Ikeas have hybrid only parking spaces near the front of the store, and this makes him feel special. It will probably make him feel more special to track our mpg for the road trip there and for his trip back. He somehow managed to acquire a new bike rack which places the bike behind the trunk of the car rather than on top. It looks less silly, which I think is a downside, and it prevents the whole bike-acting-as-a-sail-and-causing-drift issue. I haven't decided whether that is an upside or a downside yet; the drift keeps him on his toes.

Also I have to arrange things somehow so that I have enough room in the front seat to comfortably use my laptop. I have that personal statement to write - it's written, but it's not in words yet. There are t-shirt designs to finalize and announcements to compose.

Most importantly, we must figure out a safe and stable cactus transportation method. I can't type and hold a cactus at the same time, so I'm probably going to need to rig some kind of container. Maybe one with a suspension system.

When Mister Bones eats the ears off of Mickey Mouse waffles, his dog ears get fuzzier, shinier, softer, and floppier.

No, it isn't.

But I was totally productive today! I edited two paragraphs of the paper I'm editing to submit for a contest. Well, I sort of edited. I marked what I don't like, wrote some suggestions, got other papers which are better written to look at, and made some (but not all) changes. I've forgotten that editing, real editing, is intense and difficult work. By 'real editing' I mean absolutely decimating my own paper, and then raising it from the ashes better than it ever was. It's a little intellectually exhausting. That's probably why I don't do it often, even though I know I should and even though I always appreciate the results of my efforts when I'm done.

I also made a list of things I might put in a short essay to submit with a photo of Mister Bones for a contest. I seem to have a thing for contests lately. Right now, the photo I'm thinking of is upside-down-bat-ears:

I will modify it though, at least, or take a new one in a similar pose. It would be better if his eyes were visible.

That's what it says in the spot where my fourth grade should be - just NR. NR = Not Reported. This sort of worries me - that was the one where I got an extension, and then went over the extension a little bit. On the other hand, my professor never emailed me to tell me something was wrong. I also know that professors are generally expected to have a seventy two hour turn around on final grades. For a test, this seems okay. But for fifteen to twenty essays, which are themselves fifteen to twenty pages, this seems unfair. Three days to read and grade 225 to 400 pages seems like it would take a herculean effort. And that's just for one class, not multiple classes. In this class, the essay is half of our grade. Three days seems a little aspirational, at the least.

I didn't feel like raising GUAS from the ashes today either. Last night I was watching television because I couldn't stand to look at my computer screen any longer. I spent about nine or ten hours yesterday working on the website and the listproc. Unlike some people who are silly heads who live in Bronxian stomping grounds, I actually like the new site better, and not just because I made it. It has fewer colours and photos, but in my mind that adds up to visually and aesthetically simpler, and therefore more desirable. Take that Joe! Just kidding. I agree that the last site was quite good. For this one, we have no choice but to use a template, and the template is not very customizable. I expect that this is to make it simpler for people who don't build websites, and even out the playing ground for all the professors, departments, organizations, etc. THe only real customization I can do besides the header is with html in the text, and by embedding photos and videos. Even the photos can't be hosted on the site though - the only way it works is by putting them on a flickr stream and using the code. That's strange, but okay. I might just set up a flickr stream for the organization to make it simpler.

The first photo is of Mister Bones helping with the dishes. Mostly he helps by getting in the way or by licking plates as they're loaded into the dishwasher. He looks confused and sad here, because I had just thrown out food instead of giving it to him. Mister Bones doesn't believe in the concept of food going bad, and therefore not being suitable for eating. The second photo is of Mister Bones helping me blog. As you can see, he helps me blog by sitting on my bed and touching my nose with his nose. He slept all day today, until my parents pulled into the driveway in their hippie car, and then he woke up and ran to the front door to meet them when they came in. This morning we made more progress with chomping and dragging. After a round of chomp chomp I showed him how to chomp on my dad's arm and then drag my dad towards me. Then he did it all by himself. Yay for progress! Much like Mister Bones, I also slept all day. I think the sleep deprivation from finals has caught up to me, and I've run out of adrenaline. That's fine - after I sleep it off I'll feel better and return to a normal schedule. Today was a day of being a bum, and it was great. Now I'm going to go continue reading Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. I bought it months ago, but was too busy with school to start it until I got on the plane home.

I can say that in all seriousness.

Taking a shower at school is always a mistake - I took one today with the idea that taking a cold temperature shower might lower my fever a bit. Or at least relieve the icky hot scratchy fever-ness of fevers. But no - I forgot that the showers here only have one temperature setting, no matter where the knob is. They start out pleasantly cool and then by the end of the shower the water is scalding hot and there's nothing you can do about it, and you just have to put up with it anyway because you've still got soap and hair conditioner on. Didn't help with the fever any.

English essay due tomorrow. I finally got the second theology essay done this morning, a full twenty four hours after I was supposed to get it done. It turns out the sleepiness was just a precursor to my allergies going haywire. The toxic mold in my room doesn't help. Opening the window doesn't help because yesterday there was lots of lawn work done in the Quad. So, still definitely allergic to inside and outside, except now sometimes I get strangely short of breath. It's sort of like that feeling you get when you hold your breath just a little too long underwater, and let the air out of your lungs because you know there's no oxygen in it so there's no point making the effort to hold it in anyway.

Other things I accomplished today that were not my paper:
Calling L--- to tell her I finished my paper
Finding out I got an A in philosophy
Turning in some library books
Forgetting that Chicken Finger Thursday means that there are Chicken Fingers on Thursdays
Getting distracted by a blog which is, in part, about the non-misogynistic performance of butch gender identity
Returning the 5th grade science poster to the Observatory
Breathing
Unfortunately there was no way I could go to the final project presentation thingy with free pizza last night. Not enough breathing, too much coughing. I was really looking forward to seeing some of the presentations, too. H---- had told me about some of her ideas for a presentation when I saw her in Saxby's on Tuesday and it looked awesomely interesting and funny.

Sunday I go back to Texas. I have settled on one large suitcase, one duffel bag, one small suitcase, and my green canvas bag. Everything else is going to fit into ten storage boxes or be, in the words of J-- (remember - J-- is not Joe!), purged. I think the bold really makes it better; purged isn't nearly as dramatic as purged. I have a plan for Sunday; it goes like this:
Go to Texas
Say Hi to Mister Bones
Sleep
Shower
Eat
Sleep
Play with Mister Bones
Sleep

Maybe some more sleeping. There might not be enough sleeping in that. Also a visit to my allergist, the Apple store, and my hairstylist. Love the jewfro, but it's just too hot in Texas to be practical. Even if I were to keep it, it needs some shaping. It looks weird in the back and around my ears. The photo is of me with a not-really-an-allergy-mask allergy mask the other day. They didn't have allergy masks at CVS or the hardware store on 35th st, and this was close enough. It actually helped a lot for the time I wore it. I am aware that the jewfro doesn't actually look like a jewfro in the photo - I had slept on it and it got all crushed. Also when I'm stressed I have this habit of pulling the curls out of my hair, and they tend to loosen up a lot into waves. Right now, because I took a shower, I am totally rocking the jewfro. Hah! Anyway, about the allergy mask - I was letting my air conditioner dry out (after Lysoling the mold) and had my window open. It was kind of heinous, especially since I'm now immune to my antihistamine. Yay Alien Blood!

There are some older residents of Georgetown that come to Lauinger library every morning to read the daily newspapers. While I don't begrudge them access to free news, it is highly annoying that they read them so loudly in a silent reading room. It's very distracting, especially when there are many other places in the library where they could go to read them. Places where their loud newspaper reading would go unnoticed. Places that aren't silent reading rooms. We even have elevators so they can get there!

I wouldn't be distracted by this if I were at Baked and Wired like I'm supposed to be, though. But I would be at Baked and Wired like I'm supposed to be if the effing self checkout machine worked. We only have one of them, so when it's broken, it's broken. I got here before seven, and the plan was to be out of here by seven. But instead I am being held hostage by the non functioning self checkout machine, and the circulation desk doesn't open until 8:30. I'll be stuck here until at least 8:45. That is, if the old person doesn't drive me insane first.

Dear Old Person in the Library,

Loudly RIPPING newspapers is NOT allowed in SILENT reading rooms! If it's not your newspaper, you shouldn't be ripping it! And if it is your newspaper, you should read it in your fucking house! Or on one of the fucking five million benches outside!

Sincerely,
Me. And every other student in here who is paying upwards of $50 000 per year to attempt to write papers or study for finals in this Silent Reading Room.