I just like that word, it has nothing to do with anything.

Good of the weekend:

+ Ben went out and got me Vicks Vapor Rub Friday night when my stomach hurt but I really needed something for my cough
+ He let me wear his shirt over the vapor rub so that I wouldn't get a greasy stain on my shirt
+ Well, it's not really good, mostly just funny, but I've had some spectacular laryngitis the past two days

Bad of the weekend:

- Ben got horrible hideous stomach pain for the third weekend this year... he was basically incapacitated late Friday night, most of Saturday, and all of today with it :( I really think it's gallstones or something, that is not normal :(
- The only position that was halfway comfortable for him in bed last night was a wide fetal position, which didn't really leave enough room on the bed for me, so I volunteered myself for the floor (it wasn't too bad but damn I hate sleeping without him when I could be next to him); he felt horrible, but we both got better sleep after that
- COUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGH no wonder my larynx is pissed off at me
- Appointment with the pulmonologist for my sleep problem was delayed because apparently I had to preregister or something (I had never heard of this before and was confused by the message they left me) and they couldn't just verify my insurance there, so they wouldn't see me >:( The doctor was a real bitch too; I was like "I don't mind waiting" when I was still unclear on what was going on, and the doctor literally said, with a smug smile, "Well, I do, I'm the doctor." Oh sorry, I didn't realize that "God" was spelled "M.D."! At least they rescheduled me with a different doctor, ugh. Wish I'd had the temerity to say the God comment then instead of just standing there tearily :-/
- Since Ben felt so horrible I did not get any pampering this weekend like I was hoping, recovering from a cold as I am :( I was looking forward to him fetching me tea and giving me a backrub and cuddling me after taking care of myself all week, and instead I ended up taking care of him. Poor Ben :( Poor Gina :(
- Not a very restful weekend at all :(

BLARGH. Thank God it's a short week this week. I just hope we both recover enough to go to Disney on Friday like we want to... they'll have the Christmas decorations up and Ben still hasn't been since he's been living down here, so we really need to go. We'll see I guess. ARGH

Time for another cup of tea before bed... we'll see how my voice is in the morning. I almost hope it's still ridiculous, as I'm Reader tomorrow in class and that would just be amazing XD Time will tell. Night!

This is what I dreamed last night:

---------

Ben and I were on a mission. There was a girl, blonde, seven years old, white nightgown, pale face. She was lost. Stolen? Kidnapped? Dead? We did not know. But we were searching for her, tirelessly.

Countless places we searched, side by side, never touching, but never straying from each other lest we find ourselves alone and in need. Old creaking saloons. Mining facilities. Museums. Office buildings. An electric company. Everywhere, everywhere we went, it was the same once we stepped inside:

Blue cubicle carpeting on the walls, the floors. Our first step into the building faced a wall. The only way we could go was to the left, always, to the left. A long blue hallway stretched before us, every building, to the left; we would follow it down and then turn, and then the buildings would differentiate. But every beginning was the same, despite the different facades.

Outside the saloon was the second alarming thing, the first being the same beginnings. A man and himself were joined together, not Siamese twins, but two of the same man fused, spliced, at the torso, their limbs akimbo, askew. One man was sleek and well-kept. The other was grimy, hair shaggy, falling in his eyes. We passed them, unsure of what to do as they lurched against the saloon railing. Later as we passed the mine shaft on our patrol we saw the clean-cut version of the man coming out of the mine. He did not see us. He clawed at his face. Flesh came away under his fingers in clumps, some of it clinging to his hands, other of it falling to the ground. He screamed, buckled to his knees. When he rose again his face was clean and calm as he walked away.

We went to the electric company then. The same cubicle blue entryway greeted us, and I mentioned it to Ben, in a low voice. There was a feeling between us of heaviness, starkness; we had to do this thing, we had no choice in the matter. And both of us knew that as we entered further into that building we entered further into wrongness.

We passed through the blue and found ourselves in a massive hall. White staircases swooped before us and above us, some of them going nowhere, all of them arcing to the left. Their proportions were alien. In the walls were little half-doors, like the portals for grocery carts in the front walls at grocery stores. Only a child could go through them. We heard a commotion below us and crept to the left, where a hole was in the floor, allowing us to look through beneath. There was a pool hall down there filled with men being rowdy. It was lit with red. Ben and I looked at each other. We did not speak but knew that great danger lay below us. We would only investigate if we had no other choice.

We climbed one of the strange white staircases. It did not lead us anywhere. We tried two more but the results were the same, and we could not go through the half-doors. We went to the left, to where the hole in the floor showed us the pool hall. We could see there was a slide going down to that floor, a white slide. I went first. The slide's end was cramped and small, I almost could not escape before Ben came down. He nearly ran into me. We both escaped the slide and stood up in the pool hall.

The men were less rowdy now. They continued to play, but they were rough, and they looked at us with cold flat faces. They still spoke with each other, but in slow thick words we did not understand. After each sentence they would again give us those flat looks as we passed by. The feeling of danger increased.

To the left -- always, always, always to the left -- were some small rooms. We did not enter them at first. At first we walked past six large pool tables surrounded by men, and came to a deserted part of the room. A pool table in front of us was under a red overhead lamp. We came up to it.

Dissecting trays were laid upon the table. Inside them were dismembered doll parts, plastic arms and legs, a torso here and there. But from somewhere there had come blood, thick and red, staining the plastic and the dark trays. Unidentified organs were intermingled with the limbs, but these were not plastic, they were real. A scalpel leaned haphazardly against the wall of a tray, its sharp tip pointing upward into the air.

We left the dissecting table in silence and went to the only small room with any occupants. Two little girls, one white and blonde, the other black with short hair, were sitting at a small table. They had very earnest looks about them as if they were concentrating hard on their task at hand. The only problem was that they had no coloring books, no toys, no homework sheets, no snacks. There was nothing on the table. Yet we knew that they could see something there that we could not.

The little black girl got up and told us that she had something we needed to see. She led us back out into the pool hall and led us to the back, where a hallway formed, again, to the left.

There was a chest of drawers there. It was studded with costume jewelry: pendants, brooches, beads, bracelets, earrings, so studded one could barely see the original wood beneath.

A feeling of great portent filled me. I looked at Ben, then the little girl. "I think we are each supposed to take something," I said. "That feels right."

I opened the top drawer. Trinkets -- old gears, small toys, keys -- spilled forth. The little girl took a toy, then quietly left us.

I opened the middle drawer. Inside were notes I had written to my brother long ago, drawings I had made in middle school, paintings from a few years ago. All mine. I had not seen them since their making. I could not think how they had come to be there.

I opened the bottom drawer. Larger objects were here but I could only see one. My hand went to it under its own volition. I could not have taken any other object if I tried.

"This is what I am supposed to have," I said, and my voice was resonant and strange. "This is what I need."

It was a large tube of phthalo blue artist's paint. It fit perfectly in my hand. It was a necessity. It was what I needed.

I began to feel myself waking up. As I felt myself coming to on the bed, I knew that if I only turned, I would see the phthalo blue there on the nightstand... ready for me.

Finally got sick. All the cool kids were doing it, so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon. Sore throat yesterday and today, moving into a cough tonight with some stuffy nose and a temperature 2 degrees higher than normal. Awesome. -_- Mostly I'm annoyed that Ben isn't here to take care of me. Though having Mom here to take care of me would be pretty sweet too. NURSE ME DAMMIT!

Anyway. Haven't done any studying today at all, I had a rotation that went until 5 and then got sucked into the interwebs with contact_vp drama and sf_drama's "post the saddest thing ever" thread. Oh well. I deserve it, right? 'cause I'm sick? Right?

Oh, fine. I'll go look at some freaking pancreatic physiology for half an hour. But that's it, I swear! Then sweet, delicious bedtime.

This year I wore two costumes: zombie veterinarian to school on Friday, pirate to a party on Saturday. The zombie makeup takes at least 1.5 hours to apply and 1 hour to remove sober (that liquid latex is a bitch) so I didn't want to do it two days in a row.

Examples of the two costumes:


Zombie veterinarian hangin' out at Starbucks. Won the Scariest Costume competition at school, hence the giftcard.


Small angry pirate in front, boyfriend begrudgingly being my skull and crossbones in back.

( More )

Yay Halloween :)

I could never be an ophthalmologist... too many horrible eye problems just plain give me the willies. They don't make me want to throw up or anything, but they make me go "jesus fuck that is the stuff of nightmares!" (Yes, I wrote that in my notes during a presentation on eye disease yesterday.)

For example, your iris should never be prolapsed so that it's hanging out the front of your ruptured eyeball. If your eyeball is doing that, you're kinda fucked. ( Nasty eye images! )

Eurgh. This is the closest vet school has come to grossing me out. I'd so rather pop an abscess with a six-inch diameter and watch the pus pour out, or jam my entire arm up the ass of a bull, than see a mutilated eyeball.

Here's a link to a forum where people discuss it in pretty good detail.

http://www.ichorfalls.com/2009/03/15/candle-cove/

Here's a video of the show. Make sure the sound is up! Even if you don't think you remember it it's worth a view.



( ... )

sf_drama had a Friendacalypse today so now I have some shiny new friends. *waves*

Like I said in sf_d, I'm 25 and in my second year of vet school. I'm in the midst of exam week right now: two exams down, five more before Friday. I'm currently hopping back and forth between anxiety (I'm going to fail everything! aah!) and procrastination (I know this stuff, I'll be fine, I can go check LJ for a few hours... OH CRAP I DIDN'T DO ANY STUDYING). I'm a very visual learner and draw, not trace, everything I can for learning anatomy: example is here, http://dangerous-nargle.deviantart.com/art/Ventral-vasculature-of-brain-137192493 with the arteries of the canine brain. That's my DeviantArt account, by the way. With school I don't get much time for art, so photographs are my primary uploads there since they're easier for me to make look badass than drawings, which tend towards cartoonish.

I also enjoy writing -- I harbor a dream of writing the great American young adult science fiction novel someday on the side while I'm practicing veterinary medicine. I also crochet and knit occasionally, and used to spin fire fairly frequently but can't light up now that I've moved to southern California for school (this state is too flammable!). Portland, OR is my hometown and you can expect to see a fair amount of winsome longing for it as long as I live down here.

As evinced by the whole being in vet school thing, I adore animals. I have a cat, Charlotte, who's 11 and a highly amusing lazy bitch. I used to have a ferret who I only half jokingly consider to be my spirit animal now (he died when I was a kid). I enjoy lizards and exotic animals but don't know much about them. I LOVE birding and when I get the chance I post my lifelist/lists of birds for the day in here. I'm up to 168 species identified, w00t! I did some research this summer on avian mycobacteriosis, which didn't get me any live bird experience but was still fun.

I have a boyfriend, Ben, who's getting a PhD in mechanical engineering. He is hugely dorky, we love watching bad movies together, and we're coming up on our fifth anniversary in March. He lives 30 miles from me and so we visit (and I post about him) pretty often.

That's pretty much the basics. You'll also see some healthy doses of angst now and then, along the lines of 'why is my brain so tiny,' 'why don't I have any friends,' or 'Southern California is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.' Just a warning.

Nice to meet you all!

Today is World Rabies Day. While only 3-4 people die of rabies yearly in the United States, at least 55,000 people die of rabies worldwide every year.

Vaccinate your cats, dogs and ferrets for rabies. Bats worldwide can be carriers of rabies. If you see a bat on the ground, leave it alone. If a bat touches you or you wake up near one, you should get post-exposure rabies vaccines (which are given in the arm, not the abdomen anymore) because their bites are so small and can be missed. Bats found in daylight or behaving strangely have a 1 in 10 chance of having rabies.

Skunks, foxes, and raccoons are also common carriers in the United States. Avoid these animals especially if they are acting strangely. If you are bitten seek medical attention immediately. If you have the animal or the animal's body it should be submitted for testing. The only test for rabies is cutting off the head and examining the brain, and the only treatment for humans is vaccination before symptoms show. Once symptoms show the disease is almost always fatal -- in recent years two or three people have survived rabies without vaccination and with signs developing, but that is two or three people out of millions to have contracted this disease throughout history.

Cat and dog bites are less likely to transmit rabies but the possibility is still there. If the animal is unvaccinated and acting strangely euthanasia should be strongly considered so that the animal can be tested. Immediate vaccination and quarantine is another option. If the animal has been vaccinated before your chances of contracting rabies are hugely lowered, especially if the vaccine is current. Consult with your doctor if you are bitten by any animal besides rodents (including squirrels) and rabbits, which die too quickly from the disease to pass it on. If you are bitten and there is a good chance of rabies you need to undergo 4 post-exposure vaccines in the arm, given on different days. If you wait until symptoms develop, there is almost a 100% chance that you will die.

Rabies is still a massive public health concern in many parts of the world. Pass on information about the disease to continue to keep the incidence low in this country, while giving information to friends in other countries if possible.

This is a child with rabies who likely died no more than a few days after this video. This one is very disturbing -- the child is screaming and obviously delusional and in pain.



This video is by the girlfriend of a 16-year-old boy Zach who died in the United States from rabies after a bat was found in his bedroom. His family didn't know that bats can carry rabies.



Rabies is a preventable disease, thanks to human, wildlife, and pet vaccinations. Education is what will help decrease the number of people and animals that die from this terrible disease. Please feel free to pass this note around.

I have become a tourist in my hometown, though I am a strange reverse on the typical pattern: I know everything to see before I see it and marvel only at the familiar. The plants comfort me. Deep evergreens tower coolly above me, while rose and fern and rhododendron greet me on my level. Men in dark jeans and wire-framed glasses sip microbrews outside, their Labradors cozy beneath their long legs. Bicycles stand ten deep on some streets. Old women and young hipsters stand together waiting for the same bus. Familiar sights, and yet they feel so long ago. I sip tea and watch the rain fall in my parents' lush garden and yearn for life here.

Coming back to temporary 'home' I look down at brown mountain ranges nestled deep in the desert. Still humans insist on eking an existence here. The brown smog coats all: I think back to deep green and the bite of autumn in the air, and I ache.

This week I fell asleep while driving my car. Luckily I was stopped at a long stoplight when I actually fell asleep -- it was for about 30 seconds, maybe -- but I had been fighting it the whole way home, a mere 15-minute drive. It was 3 in the afternoon and I had gotten a decent amount of sleep the night before.

This isn't the first time I've had drowsiness while driving, much to the scare-the-crap-out-of-me-ness. It's not the first time I've had excessive daytime sleepiness, period -- the past couple years, I get more and more unable to stay awake during 'passive' activities, like sitting in lecture, taking notes, or reading homework. This last car issue is scaring me into making another appointment with a doctor to discuss it. I've had my thyroid tested twice and it's normal... at this point I'm starting to lean more towards mild narcolepsy, as the main symptom is excessive daytime sleepiness. Thea, if you see this can you tell me if any of this sounds familiar? I know you have more severe/chronic symptoms than this but I honestly can't think of what else it could be, given the signs, and the interwebs do tell me that a spectrum of severity can exist and not all narcoleptics experience all symptoms.

If anyone's interested, this is the list I have so far of what I want to discuss with the doctor. I used this journal for a lot of the points; I realized I've been talking about this, on and off, for almost three years.

( Big ol' list )

No matter what it is though... I've had severe drowsiness while driving probably around 10 times now. And this last time when my car stopped for just a minute I actually fell asleep for a second. That's really, really, REALLY not safe and I need to get to the bottom of this before it happens again. :-/

Southern California is burning again. The Station fire has consumed over 120,000 acres, but it's at least 50-100 miles to the northwest of me and so I didn't see much more in my own area than what appeared to be some extra smog. Until today, that is; the sun did not come out today. It has been 100 degrees for the past several days, today is no exception, but no sun came out this morning. I realized that the thick layer of smog had increased to mix with plumes of brown and gray smoke.

I walked to the Starbucks today to study, a 0.8-mile round trip. My throat burned. Tiny flecks of ash fluttered past me in the half-sunlight, a perverse mockery of the first snowflakes of the year. Again, this fire is nowhere near me.

I drove out two 'towns' east to purchase a bridesmaid dress. On the way there, around 5:15, the sun through the smoke behind me cast a queer orange-red light on the cars in front of me. My rearview mirror looked tinted though it is not and I had cleaned it before I left. I have a pair of sunglasses that turns the world brown and every time I glanced behind me it was as if I'd just put them on. But they sat in my glovebox the whole time. It was surreal, seeing vaguely bluish or at least pale sky ahead of me, with normal lighting, and behind me a writhing mess of smoke and dull orange light.

Dress-shopping was over in an hour or so. I got back into my car and drove back westwards. Only a few streets in and I realized that the sun did indeed come out today; it glared sullenly through the thick choking clouds, a baleful menace, a fierce red disc threatening all. If you have never seen a sun like this (unfortunately, I could not get home to my camera in time to get my own pictures), you should probably be glad. I have seen it once before, during the B&B complex fires in Oregon, and while it was gorgeous it chilled me to the core. There we saw flames on the side of the road as my friend's family and I evacuated the lake we were staying at, and charred land on either side of us as the red sun pulsed downward angrily. I wonder if it will be there tomorrow. It makes me think of a predator, fierce and stalking, with hollow cold eyes and an utter disregard for what it sees below. When I saw it flicker into life today my heart gave a little stutter, though I had seen it before.

On the one hand I do not like my sky to be apocalypse-colored. On the other hand, it inspires for me writing and feeling dread and awe and other emotions I don't usually get to use on a daily basis. While that's nice and all... I'd rather firefighters weren't getting killed trying to stop it and people weren't losing their homes.

We'll see if they get it under control... I may post some pictures later of the smog/smoke tonight, even without the ominous red sun it was pretty forbidding. If the red sun is out tomorrow I shall definitely try to capture it, a demon for my very own.

Three weeks into my second year of vet school and I've been busy, busy, busy. Not always in a productive sense, mind, but busy none the less. In the past three weeks I have:

- Learned about aspergillosis and respiratory function in birds, specifically psittacines
- Drank three margaritas on a school night... before dinner... before studying... yeeeeah
- Gotten up for 8 AM classes far too many days (second years have a different schedule than firsties)
- Gone to lunch with my 'little sib' (first year paired with me, she lives around the corner in my apartment and is awesome)
- Had two clinical rotations and got to see what happens when a guinea pig neuter goes south... or north... or east? west? who knows?
- As a corollary to the above, snuggled a sleepy bunny
- Saw the Flaming Lips in concert with Ben four blocks from my apartment and they were FUCKING BADASS
- Hosted my 16-year-old cousin for an evening and a day before she headed off to Disneyland with her friend
- Sucked at mini golf and getting back out of Anaheim once in it
- Gotten smashingly drunk to a Toy Story drinking game (every time Woody's a dick, every time Buzz really thinks he's a spaceman, every time Randy Newman deserved an Oscar, every time an adult joke was made... you can see how excessive intoxication could easily occur)
- Visited Ben's new apartment (that's right, boyfriend's a PhD student in mechanical engineering now and FINALLY gets a studio apartment, YAY)
- Decided that Wolf Parade + big Miller's (an anatomy book) = love... or at least, it made me actually HAPPY while studying *g*
- Bought four new textbooks and <3 them all dearly

It's been busy. I've kinda dropped off the face of the planet. I want to call my mom (which normally takes at least an hour, maybe two because we talk so chattily with each other), exercise, do basic things like laundry, and feel too busy to do them... on the plus side, I reviewed all my cardiac notes from last year tonight, drew some bitchin' anatomy illustrations, took some notes, and have an action plan of stuff to study for tomorrow. We'll see how the week goes, I guess.

( Lyrics to Wolf Parade's 'I'll Believe in Anything' :) )

Sort by song title
First song: A - DJ Amuro
Last song: * - M83 (...though I'm not sure if that's a real song title, or if the title just got eaten in a computer transfer...)

Sort by time
Shortest song: Goodbye - The Evolution Control Committee (11 seconds)
Longest song: Obama Mix - Z-Trip (54 minutes, 47 seconds)

Sort by album
First song: Apocalypse Please - Muse (Album: Absolution)
Last song: End Credits - 28 Days Later soundtrack

Top 10 most played songs
.1 The Way We Get By - Spoon
.2 The Pelican - Menomena
.3 I Turn My Camera On - Spoon
.4 Muscle 'N' Flow - Menomena
.5 Dark Center of the Universe - Modest Mouse
.6 When the World Ends (remixed) - Dave Matthews Band
.7 Handlebars - Flobots
.8 Evil Bee - Menomena
.9 Dune Arrakis (Wormsign Mix) - Bart Klepka
.10 Bigger Stronger - Coldplay/The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning - Smashing Pumpkins


First 10 songs that come up on shuffle
1. Just a Thought - Gnarls Barkley
2. All the Things She Said (Russian version) - T.A.T.U. (lolz)
3. Meant to Live - Switchfoot (lord, is all my embarrassing music coming out to play?)
4. VITAMINS ARE GOOD - Kompressor (now that's more like it hahaha)
5. Blue - A Perfect Circle
6. Angel (live) - Sarah McLachlan
7. Simply Being Loved - bt (awesome DDR song)
8. Rise Up, Shepherd and Follow - GLAD (my favorite nontrad Christmas song)
9. Apossibly - The Apex Theory
10. Spit and Fire - Rainer Maria

Search...
"sex" - how many songs come up?: 4, but 2 are remixes of the third song
"love" - how many songs come up?: 103
"you" - how many songs come up?: 283
"death" - how many songs come up?: 49... but half of those are due to the band Death From Above 1979
"hate" - how many songs come up?: 28... thank you Trent Reznor and your Pretty Hate Machine
"wish" - how many songs come up?: 6

*sniff*

So many great moments in that book. Ron reading the book on tips about girls and giving Hermione splendid compliments. Harry poking himself in the eye with his glasses upon turning 17 and being able to use a Summoning Charm on them. Mrs. Weasley giving Harry her brother's watch for his coming of age, and Harry hugging her fiercely. Kreacher's story of being tortured by Voldemort, and Regulus Black's Horcrux attack on Voldemort. The horror of Bathilda Bagshot being possessed by Nagini. Ron returning and destroying the Horcrux, Snape's Patronus, Potterwatch. Hermione being a general badass. Lupin's terror of his son being a werewolf driving him to panic. The break-ins to the Ministry of Magic (Magic is might, how dreadful) and Gringotts. The Elder Wand, the Cloak, the Stone; oh, Beedle the Bard. Luna's paintings of 'friends...friends...friends' in her room. The sadness of Aberforth and Albus, the tale of Grindelwald, "for the greater good." Neville leading the resistance in Hogwarts and living in the Room of Requirement. Fiendfyre and Ron's stroke of genius about Parseltongue and the basilisk and Ron and Hermione's first kiss about the house-elves. Snape's memories. I open at the close and Harry's family. Hagrid carrying Harry out of the forest. Neville and the sword of Gryffindor and killing Nagini. Molly Weasley destroying Bellatrix. Harry figuring out the Elder Wand, and Voldemort signing his own death sentence. Albus Severus.

I <3 these books. I really really do. <3

Just finished Order of the Phoenix. That book really is one of my favorites of the series, angry teenage Harry and all (which is very realistically written, might I add, having two younger brothers). The horrors of Umbridge and the Ministry only serve to make the triumphs of Weasley Is Our King, Fred and George's magnificent exit (sooo much better in the book than in the movie), McGonagall's brief alliance with Peeves and her screaming that she will make Harry an Auror if she has to tutor him every night, and of course, the DA so much more brilliant. It's the same heartburstingly happy feeling that comes when they finally win the Quidditch Cup in Prisoner of Azkaban, only instead of being once in the whole book, we get all those triumphs in Order of the Phoenix of the faculty and students getting the better of Umbridge, who provides such an amazingly evil character. Most hated character I've ever read/seen, that is for sure -- there was more than one moment that made me want to throw my book in fury and punch it in the spine, haha, the first time I read it. Ooooh, "I must not tell lies" is truly one of the most fiendish things ever!

Oh man. So many great or chilling moments in this book. Snape's Worst Memory and Harry realizing that for once he could identify with Snape because he knew, too, what it was like to be humiliated and taunted. Harry using "Crucio!" still gives me chills and makes me pause in horror. Neville, Luna and Ginny joining Harry, Ron and Hermione at the Ministry. Voldemort's possession of Harry at the end. DUMBLEDORE'S TEAR, fucking gets me EVERY TIME. AUGH. So good.

Mmmm, Harry Potter books. <3

My summer research is over. Huzzah! If anyone is really interested in what I did this summer I can send you the Powerpoint, ha, but I'm too tuckered to go into it any more today. Gave my presentation today and listened to everyone else's summer research presentations, which took ages. I still need to work on the paper, but I'm going to take a few days off before I mess with it again, I just need a break from avian mycobacteriosis :)

They e-mailed us on when our poster presentations are: February 18-20, 2010, San Francisco. Hotel paid, airfare paid, food paid. Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, except for the fact I'll need to bring my winter coat back to CA with me from OR when I go home for Christmas break, haha. San Francisco is chilly! Not sure what I'll all get up to while I'm down there, but my friend Gordon is going as well, so at least I'll know someone. Though I'll probably just end up sitting in the hotel a bunch... ahh, we'll see. I need to try and get that poster mostly done over Christmas break; I want it to be fucking kickass, as the winner receives an additional $5000 in prize money!! I really want to travel some this summer as it's really the last summer I'll have, like, ever, so money would be awesome. Ben's friend Chris' family has a beach house in Greece that they've said we could stay at... I'm thinking that would be pretty freaking awesome. I can finally see the Parthenon! (Shout-out to Sara, Wendy, Laurel, and my classics major friends, haha!) But we'll see, we'll see.

At any rate, it is a relief to have the presentation done, and despite having 23 slides I got through them all in the time limit without speaking like a chipmunk on fastforward. In fact I had a few people tell me that I had done very well and had a nice speaking voice, which is always nice to hear.

All right. Enough of this -- time for a cup of tea, typing up all the story notes I made during people's presentations, and writing up a storm :)

My dad got laid off. I don't know the reason, my mom just told me yesterday. He's getting a good severance package, and he was laid off, not fired, so that's good.

But still. Every time they get ahead -- Mom got promoted two levels at her job and got over a 10% raise -- something like this happens to knock them down. It's been happening this way for 20 years, ever since Dad's bipolar was diagnosed. They've just never been able to recover. And with Dad's limitations with stress and people skills (high stress job + constant people + too long hours = suicide attempt) I don't know how long it will take for him to find a new job in Portland, OR, with a job market that's barely keeping a pulse.

*sigh* I just don't understand why something like this always happens. It'd be one thing if it was just one really bad, big thing. But it's a pattern. I just wonder who's got it out for them. :-/

List the first ten fandoms that come to mind. Your friends will comment with the character from each series that they think you are most like. No favorites (...unless it's legit)!

1) The X-Files
2) Lord of the Rings
3) Harry Potter
4) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5) Angel: the Series
6) The Office (US)
7) Mystery Science Theater 3000
8) MacGyver
9) Firefly
10) House

Go to it! Pick as many or as few fandoms as you like, I am curious to see people's responses!

Upon being told by a shark at my vet school that a really tremendously awful-smelling fart wasn't 'that bad,' I said, "You eat rotting killer whale. Your opinion is invalid, Mr. Shark!"

...er.

Finished book 3 today and am beginning book 4. Unlike when I get the books at midnight releases I am just reading them casually here and there before school starts. The movie inspired me to read through from the beginning and see just how things lead up to the end. Thoughts so far:

- No mention of Horcruxes besides the obviousness of the diary in book 2. Hoping to find some sort of hint to Hallows in here somewhere, but no luck yet beyond the old 'wand chooses the wizard' chestnut.

- Snape's batshit raging reaction to Sirius and Lupin in the Shrieking Shack makes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more sense given what we find out in book 7. I'd be pretty fucking raring to see someone soul-sucked if I believed that they were even more to blame for killing the person I loved than I was. So... yeah. For the first time that reaction doesn't seem as over the top and hatable to me as it used to. Before I was like 'really, all that just because they hated each other at school?' It seemed like too much, but I never read much into it or tried to figure out why it was so deranged. Now we know! It is interesting to me that Sirius and Lupin had never figured out that Snape loved Lily, though. That sort of thing is usually difficult to hide if both parties are in the same space (i.e. Hogwarts).

- I am so envious of how effortlessly it seems JKR can pop something slyly into chapter 1 and have it be massively important at the end of the book, or two books later. Plotting is my weak point as a writer (uh, which means I'm pretty fucked) and things just seem to fit so easily in her books once you recognize the clues that are dropped in.

- Also, Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Cup in Book 3 is always fucking awesome. McGonagall sobbing harder than Wood and wiping her eyes on a huge Gryffindor flag just makes me go 'YAY!!!' every time haha. I do love how she captures that EXTREMEYAY that comes along with finally winning a championship at sports after working as hard as you possibly can.

More thoughts to come as I continue to read :)