Wrockstock and NaNoWriMo. Period.

"I was out of your league
And you were 20,000 underneath the sea
Waiving affections
You were out of my league
At a distance that I didn't wanna see
Down to the bottom"
-The Blow, "True Affection"

Yesterday was a stressful day of stressful stress things, but it ended with a Halloween themed and costumed wizard rock show in Bellevue so it was ultimately a good day.

Matt and Justin stayed over a second night, and we intended on making it a wizard rock party fun night, but everyone was so exhausted from the non-sleep and pizza the night before, that.. well, I dunno about everyone else, but I was in bed by 1 AM. Pretty lame.

This morning I had a nice little morning chat with the boys before they headed on their way to Spokane, and I pulled myself from the couch and a day of Halloween movies on tv (ideal day, I wish) to a day at work. I'm only working five hours today, and it's really slow, but I want to go home and study for my Japanese American History midterm (I am SO lame) so I can be done with that and just focus 100% on my novel. Writing starts at midnight tonight, and I am kind of partied out, so I decided to just stay in, forget parties, and start writing at 12:01. My roommate PJ has a Chemistry midterm on Monday anyway, so she's staying in with me. We're going to eat candy. What.

I'm a little nervous because I feel like I know nothing about my characters, and I don't have a vision for how the novel should start, and I have a serious fear of pacing problems after the disasters of the last 3 novels I wrote. I think this is what makes NaNoWriMo fun though.

It's literally like throwing a bag of Scrabble letters against a wall and hoping when they settle on the ground, they arrange themselves in the form of an eloquent novel. This is very, very unlikely. But every year I cross my fingers, grab my laptop, and hope for the best. I think I've improved a bit each year as well. And while I know I am never going to write an awesome perfect novel in my first try, I can't help but continue to cross my fingers behind my back. Lemony Snicket wrote a novel in a weekend! It's possible!

I've decided to set a 10,000 word goal for myself by Wednesday. That's in 4 days (from kickoff). I will feel much, much better about leaving for EIGHT DAYS for Wrockstock if I get myself ahead like that.

In Wrockstock news, I am SO EXCITED. Eia and I met a handful of people at the show last night who are going to be attending as well, so we had a bit of a squee-and-dance party together in anticipation. It was fun getting to chat with some other people from Seattle (two of which I'd never even met before!) that are also getting ready to leave, and who understand how weird it is to tell people, "Yes, I am going to Missouri. Potosi, Missouri actually. Why? Erm. Wizard rock summer camp... thing."

People who 1. aren't going to Wrockstock and 2. aren't doing NaNoWriMo probably are going to want to kill me soon. Please don't remove me from your feeds! I promise that this, too, shall pass. xD

3 more hours of work. Back to researching carnie-life and thinking about writing. And, you know, occasionally answering the phone or something.

Who is Shakespeare?

"I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind all these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music
And it breaks my heart."
-Regina Spektor, "Fidelity"

So last night, after working furiously to get all my stuff done, I watched FlashForward with my housemates Justin and PJ (show = still awesome) and then we watched the Office. After the Office, there was this commercial for "Subtle Sexuality" and we didn't know what that was, so after a bit of Google searching, Justin and I found this series of 3 webisodes directed by the girl who plays Kelly; the third of which you can see right here. I now completely understand Hayley's recent obsession with Mindy Kaling, because I find this video to be absolutely amazing. Justin was like, "Calm down Kristina, it's just a video." But I mean, it's everything I adore. Fun and silly pop music, cheesy hilarious lyrics, and a ridiculous video with costumes? And THE OFFICE? I have watched it three times through and left it open in a browser so I can watch it again. Haha.

In other news, Matt and Justin of wizard rock star god fame came over last night for some good 'ol hanging out, and about the time we prooobably should have gone to sleep, we decided to go walk to the pizza place near our house. On the way there we decided to stop at our local sort of quaint English pub for a pint. Then we got pizza. Then we came home and ordered more pizza. Needless to say, I didn't get to sleep until about 4 in the morning but we had a FUN night.

Eia was complaining about needing to write this paper on Feminism, and Matt snatched her computer and decided to write it for her. What he ended up writing did not in fact get turned in to Eia's class today, so I have requested permission from the both of them to publish it here, because it was too good to not do anything with.

-

Who…. Is…. Shakespeare?! - by Matt Maggiacomo

This question has haunted generations of inquisitive English majors. Why? Because most English majors are male, specifically male pacifists, which is another way of saying that most English majors are male pacifists.

Shakespeare was a male, first and foremost. In the context of his particular socioeconomic context, his maleness endowed him with certain privileges, such as the ability to have a penis.

While writing plays was certainly a focus of Shakespeare’s life, he also enjoyed gazing at things. Due to the fact that he had a penis, his gaze was different from that of females and therefore had significance and therefore is relevant to this essay.

The male gaze is a myth that has been perpetuated by liberal college professors for many decades. While reality dictates that men are just as likely to be shy and introverted as certain women, or as meat-loving and pigskin worshipping as certain other women, liberal college professors contend that all men have lasers for eyes and these lasers enable men to control women and their sexuality. While most healthy relationships involve an equal partnership between two people regardless of gender, the liberal college professor prefers to perpetuate the myth that all relationships occur between a male and a female and all females are inherently powerless due to the fact that all men supposedly possess these laser eyes I was just talking about. About which I was just talking.

Whateva. Get over it for fuck’s sake. You did a great job in college and that’s why you have this job. I assume that you’re intelligent enough to think for yourself, rather than simply rehash this ridiculous theory that people with penises have laser eyes. If you truly believe that then you should stop reading so much crappy science fiction.

Have a lovely Friday everyone! :)
And check out my new Fiesta video, because I am quite proud of it. It's my last mission video!

it's just like Survivor.

"Why'd you have to be so cute
It's impossible to ignore you
Must you make me laugh so much
It's bad enough we get along so well
Say goodnight and go"
-Imogen Heap, "Goodnight and Go"

I'm having one of those weeks where I have so, so much to do, but when I actually sit down to do it, I find I have plenty of time and definitely didn't need to stress myself out to the point of needing to just put it all aside and go to the bar with my roommates on Tuesday. Which I did. Which was fun. So I have no regrets. Oh being 21.

We went to this bar on the Ave, and we were really going to only stay for one drink, but then it was open mic night, and then this guy started beat-boxing and made himself sound like a Bop-It, and then we just had to stay. You would have stayed too. Come on. A BOP-IT.

Wednesday I had a reunion dinner/hang out thing with my study abroad group. It felt a little like the last episode of Survivor, where everyone is cleaned up and wearing nice clothes and it's weird to see them in a location that isn't an island with a bandanna on their heads.
But in this case, the nice clothes were just winter coats and the island is London and the bandanna is wrinkled clothes because nobody wanted to shell out three pounds to do laundry. It was really nice to see everyone. And a little surreal, because I left them all behind in London and then suddenly there they were, right in front of me on my campus in Seattle. I mean, I knew they lived in Seattle, obviously. But that doesn't change the mental connection I have with all of them being in the UK. And my school is big enough that I really hadn't run into anyone for more than a few seconds, and even then I only ran into a handful of them.

It was actually a little disorienting, because afterward I kept hoping I'd see Emma or Rosi or James or Johnny or Claire, because I left them behind in London too. I never saw them. It wasn't fair.

The event was catered by Buca de Beppo, and we all sat around a conference room table looking at pictures from the trip on a projector and sympathizing with each other about how little effort any of us have put into our final 10 page papers that are due this Saturday. It was a little awkward, since none of us have really seen each other in about 2 months, but I got to take home a leftover Eggplant Parmesan and that's all that matters. Also, it WAS nice to see how everyone was doing. A lot of them were glad to see me so happy and normal, which was a little embarrassing, but these people did see me at my very lowest. I can't blame them.

I spent all night getting ahead (yeah okay, who am I kidding - keeping my head above water) with the homework I have due this week, because Matt and Justin are coming here on tour tonight (for their show tomorrow), and while it's really badly timed in the way of my midterm schedule, they took today off to hang out with Eia and I and so tonight we will be having fun with them. I can't wait.

Last night I also took a break from homework and other responsibilities to chat about novels again with Liz. I was getting kind of nervous to start writing on Sunday because I hadn't worked out a few fundamental plot elements yet, but I think I am at a point now where I can start writing and actually have a direction to go in. Also, I decided on writing in 3rd person, which scares me, since I pretty much always choose 1st person because I am more comfortable there. The bulk of the novel will be in 3rd person omniscient, but I also have these flashbacks which I think I'll do in 3rd person limited.

This is an ambitious novel for me as well, because for the last 3 years I have written magical realism, and this year I am doing straight up fiction. I am of the belief that fiction is harder to write than science-fiction or fantasy, solely because you're not creating your own worlds with your own rules that you as the author are the master of - you're using a setting that pretty much everyone who reads your novel is going to be an expert at, and they're going to know immediately if you get anything wrong. That's a little scary.

Anway, T-Minus 3 days until NaNoWriMo begins. I am so excited.


Also, I think I am going to start putting song lyrics from whatever song is currently stuck in my head at the start of my entries like I did today. That way, I can 1. share my music tastes with you and 2. hopefully get the songs stuck in your head, as well.

NaNoWriMo: A history, advice, and insight from a writing enthusiast.

Okay. For the last few weeks, I have been getting YouTube messages, emails, and twitter @replies asking me for NaNoWriMo tips and advice. I haven't replied to very many of these since I wasn't sure what to say really, because I don't feel qualified to be giving writing advice when I spend my time rubbing shoulders online with the likes of Maureen Johnson and John Green, whose successful novels line my bookshelves.

But I do know that the spirit of NaNoWriMo is to encourage amateurs and first-timers to embrace literary abandon, so maybe hearing from a novice writer like myself IS what people need. So now I am going to sit here and type to try and give you a collective analysis of my NaNoWriMo experience from the last 4 years. Whether or not you can glean any sort of advice from it; well, that's up to you.

First, a timeline.

2005: Heard about NaNoWriMo briefly from someone on my LiveJournal friends page. Thought it sounded interesting, checked out the site, was intimidated, backed away slowly. Didn't try. LOST.
2006: 4 days into the month, was reminded of NaNoWriMo by yet another person on LiveJournal. Even though I was four days behind, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. I opened a word document, started typing, and didn't stop until I'd hit 50,000 words and had completed about 2/3 of a story idea I'd had in my head since I was about 11. I finished two days early. I felt like a warrior. NaNoWriMo is awesome. WON.
2007: Started preparing early in October. I wrote out character analysis' for everyone important to the novel, sketched out a pretty detailed outline, and was SO READY on November 1st that the novel honestly wrote itself. I stayed strictly on schedule, doing the reccomended 1667 words a day, and then when I finished early, kept writing and made it to 59,000 words (and again, about 2/3 of the actual novel) by the end of the month. I was beginning to think maybe NaNoWriMo was too easy for me. WON.
2008: Everything fell apart. Two days before Nov 1, I had decided not to do it that year. On Nov 1, an idea came to me and I decided to go for it anyway. I just decided to wing it. I had no struture, no pacing, the plot was sketchy... with 16,000 words to go I gave up because I was too busy, it was hard, it wasn't fun anymore. Then I had an inspiring conversation with Liz and I locked myself in my room and didn't stop writing. I didn't stop at 50,000. I kept writing until I finished the entire story, ending at a satisfying 58,000 words. Despite everything, this is still my favorite story I have ever written. WON.

Everything I could possibly tell you, advice-wise, would be completely contradictory to the story I just told you. My best advice is to just WRITE. Just do it. It's that simple. Don't make excuses, don't think about it too much - just open your word processor of choice and move those fingers.

- Writing an outline and getting to know your characters before you start writing is a good idea, but my best novel was the year I failed to do that.
- Setting a schedule for writing can be really helpful, but don't regiment yourself into time blocks. Sometimes you won't feel inspired. That's okay. Do something else, let your mind rest, but get back to it later.
- Think about what things you can let go of for a month to make room for writing. Obviously there are a few things that have to take precedence over your novel. You can't let your homework slide, and it's probably not the best idea to skip your weekly phone call home to your Mom. But maybe you can stop watching the six shows you enjoy for a month, and catch up in December. Or maybe it might be a good time to get a little less addicted to facebook for awhile. Your friends will still be there next month; you can resume stalking them once you can say you've written a book.
- Find writing buddies. It's a lot of fun if you have "real life" friends doing NaNoWriMo with you, but it's not the only way to share this experience with other people. You can check out the forums and find people writing similar things to you, and in my experience, there are loads of people more than willing to make a few friends for the month of November. There's nothing better than having your own little support group of writing cheerleaders rooting for you.
- Do word wars! Sometimes you're sitting in your bedroom at 10 at night and you haven't written anything all day. You feel like a failure. You have no inspiration. Turn it into a contest! Message one of your NaNo buddies on skype (or aim/msn/facebook chat/gchat etc.) and challenge them to a word war. My favorite way to do this is to set a time (generally 30 mins to an hour) and whoever writes more words than the other in that time is the winner. It's fun. :)

NaNoWriMo is a chance to make something that is generally a very solitary activity an almost social sport. People are inspired to write because everyone around them is going through it as well; we're watching our little green word count bars move up and up, and we're sharing a really challenging and fun experience with the online community.
That being said, you have to find your own methods. You have to figure out what you're personally capable of, and what works best for you. It's not going to be the same for any two people. Some people are naturally faster writers than others. That's totally okay.

So just write. Just do it, and no matter how hard it gets, or how bad you think your novel is, don't give up. Often times you'll read it back in December and be pleasently surprised at how not-bad it actually turned out to be.

My username is reallysuperneat, if you want to track my progress. :)


Edit: I just thought of this: If you're going to Wrockstock, which is right smack in the middle of NaNoWriMo this year, don't panic. Yes, you're losing quite a few writing days. No, we're probably not going to work on our novels at all while we're there. On second thought, actually, you should panic. Just keep in mind we all have a lot of work to do to compensate for the lost days. Try to get ahead in your word count before you leave. If you're flying, bring your laptop and write on the plane. Scribble down notes and ideas on a pad of paper in the lodge while we're eating grilled cheese at lunch. :D It'll be okay. I promise.

Not today, Buzz!

This was supposed to be my "productive night". Observe.

Eia and I are both sitting in our respective rooms, miserably trying to work on/finish our papers we both have due next week. Neither of us have been very successful, as it's already 6 at night, Eia hasn't started, and I have only begun with an introductory paragraph and virtually no research to speak of.

There is a silence on the top floor of our house, as we both pretend we're working so the other person doesn't find out we're actually still on facebook/sending text messages to boys/staring at the wall.

Then Eia rings out in a whiney voice, "I want Halloween cookies!"
She shouts this from her room to my room.

*pause*

"…should we…. get some?" I shout back, hesitant.

*pause*

"Yes." I have never heard Eia more sure of anything in her life.

Twenty minutes later, Eia and I return from the grocery store with not only a package of cookies with purple ghosts on them, but a separate roll of cookie dough to eat while the ghost ones are baking, two pumpkins, and a carving kit.

"Why are we so bad at being productive?" she asks me.

"I don't know, Eia."

"I mean, I count on you usually. You're the voice of reason between us. You're supposed to stop us from making cookies when we're supposed to be working."

"Not today, Buzz," I say in a deep voice.

"Why do you get to be Buzz? I don't want to be Woody. I always have to be Woody."

I just stare at her. "But… I just said… you're… Buzz?"

"OH! Not today - right!"

Moments later I open my phone and twitter about the fact that some day, I will publish a book entirely of Eia quotes because my life is WAY too funny for me not to be sharing it with the world.


In other news, I am blogging when I should be writing my paper. This whole situation is not getting any better. I need to write ten pages and I am currently somewhere around a third of a page.

Today I filmed my last Fiesta Mission video with some friends of mine here in Seattle and I am really, really excited about it. It's a music video and it's filmed on a pretty nice camera, which is all I am going to say about it at this point. It took a long time, and we're actually nowhere even close to finished.

I have nothing else of interest to report now. I should really go start working on the paper. UGH. UUUUGH.

It's taking every ounce of will power I have in me not to go downstairs and carve my pumpkin. Stupid school. Stupid stomach ache from the 6 cookies and 1/5 a roll of cookie dough I just ate. Happy freaking Halloween.

Ghosts of Kristina past.

Well. I've had a strange few days.
(I feel like my blog starts with that sentence a lot.)

On Thursday I went to my CHID major focus group and we had a guest speaker and a two hour presentation about the benefits of studying abroad and the opportunities that the CHID program has to offer. Most people take this class as a Sophomore or a Junior, when they still kind of have a good portion of their college career ahead of them, so as a Senior it was a little bit hard being in this discussion knowing I don't reeeeally have time to study abroad again, or for a whole quarter, or in any of the cool ways my department likes to send people.
But man. They sure did a good job of planting the seed. We went around the circle and listed any of the places we've ever wanted to travel to, and I was fascinated by the places some people were interested in going. My personal list included Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Prague, India, Japan, and returns to Ireland and Scotland.

And it just figures that my program actually has trips in Spring and Summer quarter that go to at least half those places. It's really, really tempting to me to just throw caution to the wind and study abroad again, but with the amount of money it costs, mixed with not wanting to miss my last quarter at UW or have to be finishing school in the summer term.. I probably wont.

Anyway.

Friday I went back home to spend the evening with my mom. It was my brother's homecoming football game at my old high school, and since he's in the marching band, we went to see him play and do the halftime field show. Normally I wouldn't go, but my Dad is out of town and my Mom straight up told me she wouldn't go alone. So... I did my daughterly duty, gave up my Friday night, and drove back to my good old home town.
Going back to my high school is always a really weird experience. It's such a strange feeling (as I'm sure it is for everyone) - everything looks exactly the same. The parking lot, the tennis courts, the stadium, even the ASB posters on the walls, the cheerleading and band uniforms, the homecoming floats, the concessions stand… everything is exactly how I left it, except that I have been gone for three years so nearly everyone I knew has cycled out of the school and it's filled with complete strangers, as well as younger brothers and sisters of the people I grew up with.

The faculty is the same, just older. The songs the band is playing and the cheer team is performing to are just newer. Our school was still losing to Bellevue High School. They still managed to mess up the sound system, ruining the drill team's half time show (a running joke from my time there).

But then, mixed in the crowd, I started to see a disproportionate amount of people I did go to school with. There were at least fifteen kids from my particular graduating class milling about at the game, the types of people I went to school with for years and years but never knew well enough for me to actually go up and talk to them. We just did the sort of eyebrow-raise "I acknowledge your existence but please don't say hi" thing. The guy who played bari-sax. The girl with the annoying voice that ran for ASB president but no one voted for her because they didn't want to listen to her do the morning announcements every day. The kid who got expelled because he beat up a freshman for wearing girl pants right before "emo" became cool. The girl who was popular for no reason because she never spoke to anybody. The guy who choked another kid in third grade because he sat on his paper airplane. My exboyfriend's sister who never liked me.

It was so weird to keep seeing faces I have never cared about and had successfully forgotten over the last three years. It even took me a few minutes of thinking to remember a few people's names, which really made me feel old. It definitely gave me a "you've come home" sort of feeling, in a strange way.
Also, the other weird sensation was that I rarely went to the football games when I was in high school because I was shy and didn't know who to talk to, and as I walked around the stadium last night, I was trying to summon up the ghost of Kristina past and I couldn't find her. I'm so different than I was when I went to that school. I am so distanced and removed from that particular part of my life that it feels eerie to imagine actually being back, in any way other than "yeah, my brother still goes here".

It was only three and a half years ago when I used to walk around that place every day. It really puts time in perspective when you realize how long that actually is.


Highlights of the night:
1. Our school is crappy, and right when the game was supposed to start, they had a lighting issue that they needed to fix. Their solution to fixing this was turning off the stadium lights on the 500 or so people in attendance and making us wait another fifteen while they reset them and they warmed back up. Naturally, with as many high schoolers in attendance as there were, the blackout consisted of fifteen straight minutes of victory cries. "Patriot Power! *claps* "

2. My old marching band being amazing and in addition to the usual songs like "Louie Louie" and the school's fight song, the band director threw in his own versions of "Low" and "Single Ladies." There is nothing better than hearing tubas and saxophones play "Low" outside freezing on the bleachers. Sometimes I'm proud of my roots. Sometimes.

3. Sound system effing up again. There was this totally sweet moment when a football player stepped out to sing the national anthem (total Glee moment) and then, a few seconds of silence later, we realized he was singing already and the microphone wasn't on (or something). There was this collective "awwww" from the stands, and then everyone in that whole stadium started singing with him. I didn't know whether to feel badly that his moment was stolen from him, or to feel a bit heart warmed that everyone was backing him like that. My eyes honestly teared up a little out of the conflict.


My mom left her phone at home, and a bit into the game said "Text your Dad and tell him it's 7-1, LHS." I wasn't paying attention so I just copied the text into my phone verbatim. Almost immediately my dad sent a text back saying "There is no such thing as 1 in football. Dork." Sure enough, the scoreboard said 7-0 and my mom just made me look bad. Haha.
Needless to say, she and I left at halftime because neither of us care about football.


So, then my mom and I drove into Seattle to meet her coworkers at this Spanish bar (because the girl who invited us is Romanian and loves to Salsa dance?), and it was the most bizarre night ever. My mom's coworkers are actually closer to my age than they are to hers, but she also has the sort of "cool mom" thing going on, so going out to a club with her, while strange in theory, wasn't quite as awkward as I thought it would be in practice. We danced and saved each other from creepy clingy Spanish guys. I don't have much else to say about the experience, except that I don't particularly enjoy these kinds of meat-market style establishments, and also that it made me excited to dance around not-sleazy people at Wrockstock in two weeks.

Luke was texting me all night about this pirate dance party he was at in LA with everyone, and I was growing increasingly jealous because pirates > gross slimy Spanish men any day.

Experiences! Life is full of them.

It's been fun; now leave, it's time to write.

First order of business is that I changed up my blog layout a little bit. While it it simpler, it is now much too boring for my liking. I have no design skills whatsoever, so if anyone is bored and would like to make me a sort of fun banner for the top that matches the current color scheme.. that would be awesome. Email me at ohheykristina@gmail.com if you're interested. :)

Right. Also, after the ordeal with the video that I mentioned in my last update, and people suddenly gossiping about my love life on twitter again, I kind of retreated into hibernation for a few days. I know I can't help it if people want to talk about things that were made public to them, but I was not ready for more of this. Not after Alex. Not after my summer.

So anyway, that's why I hadn't been blogging for a few days.

But now I'm back, and I'm in a good mood (because I don't have to work again until Saturday xD) and I am excited about a lot of things.

Sunday and Tuesday I worked these intense 7 and 9 hour shifts at work, and I have to admit I didn't handle it very well. After having three months off this summer, experiencing working at RTÉ, and getting to spend my time completing my projects at the pace I choose, it was kind of difficult going back to being the bottom of the ladder, being told what to do and wasting entire days answering phones for someone else's business.
I am aware that this is real life and I have a normal job to make money and blah blah, so I should suck it up and deal with it, but when you have a taste of the alternative… it's just hard to readjust.

Monday was more fun. My friend Forest came over and I showed him Doctor Who. The plan was to watch Firefly actually (we've been working on it for the last week), but Hulu only has episodes 1-5 right now, and Netflix doesn't have them streaming at all, so we changed gears and I showed him Blink. I enjoyed helping in the spread of Doctor Who to America.


Usually around late October, my friend Liz and I start to devote many of our evenings to skype chatting, 1. because she lives two hours away in Bellingham, and 2. because we have this strange metaphysical ability to inspire each other to write by literally discussing our novels for about 2.6 seconds. So as NaNoWriMo looms closer, we decided last night to open up the good old baby name websites and started throwing around options for our main characters. Usually these conversations end with both of us hyperactively scribbling notes on paper and then apologizing profusely for prematurely ending the conversation as we sign off to go work on our respective stories. One time this happened when Liz was actually at my house and, in a frenzy, I literally shoved her out my door so I could run back upstairs and she could drive the two hours home to lock herself in her room to write.

I really enjoy that I have a friend like this.

So anyway. The events of last night have put me in a novelling (textedit just auto-corrected that to "novelizing". Is that really a word?) mindset, and I spent the first hour of my Japanese American History class this morning mapping out a rough time-line of the advancing relationship between my two main characters. I'm not saying this is what I should have been doing during Japanese American History. I'm just telling it like it is.

Especially since I spent the next twenty minutes or so talking to Hayley on skype, which led to a discussion about why we love blogging, which led to me changing my layout on blogspot and daydreaming about custom banners.

At least I get work done! Just not… you know, school work.

After my first class, I met Forest for lunch, who happened to be working on my campus today (he works for Coke). He's doing NaNoWriMo as well (at my suggestion), so we got into a discussion about story ideas at this fun restaurant called Jimmy John's, and he helped me figure out a way to completely restructure my book so I don't run into the same pacing problems I ran into last year. I clearly have a one track mind today. We have only ten days!


Now. Plans for this evening include: filming a video for ApartmentRed, recording my vocal tracks for a secret project I'm doing with Luke, writing an easy and fun paper for my Disney class, and opening a word document to start the ten page paper due next week, looking at it for a few minutes, minimizing it, and giving up to go watch Glee.

Silver paint in your ear.

It's 10 o'clock in the morning, I am listening to the Blow, I have bags under my eyes and need to be at work in 2 hours, but this is a good day.

Last night I went to bed at about 5 in the morning after a very fun Halloween party that my roommate threw here at our house. I finally finished my Angelica Pickles costume (complete with a makeshift Cynthia doll that I carried around all night) and everyone seemed to think it clever/funny. Eia's "Max" costume stole the show, but I'll give that to her. She created a wolf-shaped onsie by buying random amounts of fabric and eyeballing a pattern. Impressive.

Usually when Justin has parties or get-togethers here, I retreat to my bedroom pretty early on because I don't know his friends and almost feel like a foreigner in my own house… but that didn't happen last night. Mostly because I have actually been making the effort to get to know people, but also because I realized yesterday how close our actual house mates are. There was a point where no one who actually lived there was downstairs at the party because we were all upstairs painting Justin's entire body silver for his Gir (from Invader Zim) costume. For the record, painting my roommate's inner ear with a makeup sponge has zoomed its way up on my list of favorite things to do ever, because of how hilariously awkward it was. Also, our bathroom is completely covered in silver. Eia and I hung out with PJ most of the night doing choreographed dance moves to mine and Eia's playlist in the kitchen, and even Tyler (who recently moved out) hung with us a lot, which was really nice.

I got to see for myself what an idiotic game Beer Pong is (I'm a senior in college and I'd never played - I still haven't, actually, but I saw enough of it being played in our dining room last night). We had a costume contest and Eia won best overall, though I got a very solid second place. One of Tyler's friends won sexiest/sluttiest merely for dancing with our lamp.

My friend Forest dressed as the Dog Police, which I am only sharing because I feel like everyone should go watch this stupid (or amazing?) video so you understand the reference. I have had this song stuck in my head all week.



I kind of feel like I need to address the video that recently went up on Luke's channel, because there have been a lot of people jumping to a lot of conclusions since he posted it. I know it's not all that uncommon for my personal life to be made public on YouTube, so people said all sorts of crazy things in the comments (though the most common theme was how lucky I am - which I am aware of. Who wouldn't want a boy from MoM writing adorable songs about them?) It was one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me and I am completely flattered, so I am not sure exactly what I am trying to say. Just that Luke is one of my favorite people in the world, but I'm not at a point in my life right this second where it was anything more than an incredibly lovely gesture.

On that awkward note, I'm off to go work a seven hour shift at my job. Let's see if I can stay awake that long.


Oh! I just remembered a dream I had. I was replying to fan-mail really late at night and the things I was typing were all full of typos and stupid tired-things, and everyone started writing back correcting everything I was saying and adding, "it's called grammar, Kristina." xD

Responsibility.. what's that?

So. I have this "Value Assessment" essay due tomorrow, and while I SHOULD have had my whole evening free to work on it, I instead chose to drive over to my friend Forest's new apartment to watch Back to the Future with him and roommate-Justin and some of their other friends. Short term - best decision. Long term - well, I'm going to go ahead and say also a good decision, but it didn't make starting my essay tonight at 12:57 feel any nicer.

However! It is now only 1:34 in the morning, and I am already finished. Either I am quick like lightning (get it, because of the clock tower?) or I rushed through it, but to be honest, I think it's a pretty solid essay. I basically had to write a paper about myself for my focus group, talking about the journey I took to get to where I am, why I chose an interdisciplinary degree, and what I hope to get out of it. Any time I can talk about my weird life and the things I do online as hobbies and get a grade for it, I am golden.

Also, any time I can write about myself… it just comes naturally. I blame all the blogging.

So! Today was an odd day!

I cleaned my room this morning because I knew I was having a guest over, and then I rushed off to school where I proceeded to not pay any attention for nearly the entire two hours of my Japanese American History class because I was having simultaneous conversations with Hayley, Emma and Molly (three of my favorite girls in this world). Then I ran into a friend of mine from high school named Vikki on my break, so we chatted for a little while. Vikki and I had computers next to each other for two years in the Journalism lab back in the days of high school, when I was the Opinions editor and she was the Ads Manager. We read Toothpaste For Dinner together every day and have had a long standing agreement to audition for The Amazing Race when we are both 21 (she's a year younger than I am).

Then another friend of mine randomly texted me asking if I know anyone looking for a roommate, and I said that we are looking for one at our house actually, so she's coming tomorrow to look at the room? This is strange because she's lived in Montana since we were Sophomores in high school and only just moved back to Washington and I haven't even seen her yet. I have no idea why my life is suddenly so bizarre. I think maybe it's because I spent a good five weeks just crying about being miserable on this blog, and now that I am mostly completely over it, life is throwing me all sorts of weird, weird things to entertain you all with.


So then after my next class, I raced home, and on the way stupidly decided to walk my usual route down the street with the frats and sororities. This street is also lined with these trees that grow spiky green ball things, and when it's windy, they fall from the branches to the street with such force that they crack open, sending the nut inside flying out. It is particularly rainy and windy in Seattle in the fall, and these things were falling EVERYWHERE. I have never been more terrified walking home, and actually spent a good portion of the walk just going straight down the middle of the street, because the sidewalks were prime target zones. They were denting CARS. I did not want one landing on my head. Also, part of the road was flooded. Annoying.


This evening I met with old-friend-Justin. I'm not even sure what to say about the experience. There was a lot of chatting, a lot of catching up, a lot of him apologizing and explaining things, and me nodding and telling him a little about how his disappearance made me feel. There weren't really any hard feelings. I don't know how often we'll hang out or how close we may get again, but the whole experience was really positive. He couldn't BELIEVE that since we'd last spoken, I not only learned to drive a manual (something I used to swear I'd never do) but also became a Mac user. We both used to be adamant PC people. xD
So.. it was nice. It was nice to see him. It felt very 2 years ago, but I mean... those were good times in my life too.

And that, readers, brings us back to the evening, when I should have stayed home, but, again, chose Back to the Future and socializing over …. responsibility.

Meeting authors and chocolate cake.

After I got home from London, I started to get really used to having a lot of free time. I didn't really schedule many things in because I wanted an ample amount of time to just hang out with people, wander around Seattle, regain my bearings, etc. But now that school is in full swing and I am taking four classes and planning my NaNoWriMo novel and working on my paper that's due soon for my study abroad and working at my job and making videos for Red and so on, I'm finding myself a little more… pressed for time.

And yet, blogging will always be my priority.

It doesn't help that I have made plans with a different person every day this week, which probably is what's causing the me-being-busy problem in the first place, but I don't care because life is fun and I intend to keep it that way.

Last night Liz came down from Bellingham to go with me to see Scott Westerfeld and Sarah Rees Brennan speak at Third Place Books in Lake City. The bookstore was so cute and not very far away from my house at all, and apparently they have authors speaking nearly every night. How I didn't know this, I am not sure.

I read Scott's blog and adore so many of his books, so seeing him speak was just amazing. He showed us lots of pictures from his new illustrated novel and explained the history of what inspired him to want to do an illustrated novel in the first place. He was funny and interesting and I even got my nerve up to ask him something during the question and answer session - ("Do you ever slip and accidentally put Uglies slang or "bubble talk" into your other novels?")

I had never heard of Sarah before, but she was hilarious and reminded me a bit of Maureen Johnson, only more Irish and high pitched and less twittering. xD

While waiting in line for them to sign my books, I checked my twitter app and saw that someone had posted something along the lines of "OMG came to see @scottwesterfeld and @sarahreesbrenna and @kristinahorner is here!"

I started looking around wildly, hoping I could identify the twitterer by - I don't know, magic, and then miraculously the girl standing in front of me in line sheepishly said "everyone is @ replying me insisting I say hello to you." And then it was like a snowball effect; she took a picture with me and a few other girls asked me for my autograph, and the entire experience of being treated like a celebrity while I was waiting in line to meet a real celebrity was a bit too surreal for me, to be honest. I'm glad Scott and Sarah couldn't see me when this was all happening, haha.

However, on the other hand, I am very glad that my subscribers are the kind of people who go to book signings on a Monday night. :)

When I got to the front of the line, I told Scott that "I had Uglies on my shelf for three years and didn't actually read it until John Green name-dropped him in a vlog brothers video, but now it's one of my favorite series so he should definitely thank him." xD

Scott Westerfeld cracked up and said, "I will, next time I see that bastard."

Then we chatted about how crazy authors are, particularly Maureen Johnson (only out of love) and I told him the first time my friends and I met Maureen we made a fort together. Okay, so I may or may not have been showing off that I have mutual author friends to a writer I highly admire. You really can't blame me, can you?
Then I felt slightly guilty for not having heard of Sarah Rees Brennan before that night, said goodbye, and headed off.

Liz and I had intended to have a NaNoWriMo brainstorming sleepover, but ended up watching Star Wars with my housemates and eating chocolate cake and going to bed. All in all, I would say a pretty good day.

The good vs. the great.

I am at work, doing a 7.5 hour shift.
There are no managers here today though, so here I am on the internet, bloggin' it up!

My mind has been all over the place lately.

I took Eia out the other day in my Fiesta to begin her manual car driving lessons. It felt really, really good knowing that not only is this something that I conquered in my life, but I am actually good enough now to teach someone else how to do it. I also realized that somewhere down the road I stopped finding new routes to take (sans hills) a little while ago. I've just been driving my normal ways, which is.. really nice.
I also found out I get to keep the car for a month longer than I expected, and then have to drive it to LA to give it back, which is going to be fun and exciting. Overall, this whole fiestamovement thing has been a really positive experience for me. I learned how to do something I never thought I would be able to, and I've grown to really enjoy driving. I never cared too much for it before all of this. I have been trying to find ways to utilize the last two months... so don't be surprised if I start writing about a lot of little random impromptu trips.

Also, NaNoWriMo is coming up suprisingly quickly.
I am going to be very incredibly busy in November, but if I could do it last year (when the odds were seriously stacked against me) then I can totally do it this year. Even with Wrockstock right in the middle. Even with a road trip to LA toward the end of the month.

I have just a skeleton of an idea for a novel, but I think it's enough to go on. Plus, Liz is coming down to visit tomorrow so we can go see Scott Westerfeld on his Leviathan book tour (which I am certain will be inspiring because he's one of my favorite authors). Liz is then spending the night, and she and I can talk about our novels for hours so this should be good for us.

There is something else that recently happened in my life that almost feels a little too good to be true so I hadn't written about it yet... but now I think I will.
A few years ago (just after high school) I dated this guy named Justin. He and I broke up on pretty amicable terms and were still best friends (and carpooled to school every day) for nearly another year afterwards. But then a few things happened in his life, and he completely shut me (and everyone else in our friend group that went along with me) out of his. There was really nothing I could do, as it was his choice, so I just went on with my life (even though it was really hard for me) hoping someday, maybe, he'd let me back in his.
To be honest, I had pretty nearly given up hope. But the other day, my good friend Colin (another close mutual friend to both of us who'd been shut out as well) called me to say that low and behold, they'd spoken on the phone. And that Justin was doing well and had broken up with his girlfriend and was getting his life back on track.

My heart started racing and I had butterflies in my stomach, thinking that maybe that meant he would answer a call from me too. He hadn't returned my calls or texts or anything since the previous summer. I waited a few days, and, losing my nerve, merely sent a text. I didn't expect him to reply. For a few hours, he didn't.

But then, later that evening when I was out grocery shopping with roommate-Justin (confusing), he did.
Recieving a text from him felt all too familiar and I was honestly getting shaky when I saw the message was from him because I was scared of what he might say. It was one of those movie moments that you never think are going to happen in real life. Long lost friend re-entering your life months and months after the fact? Yeah right. What if he didn't want anything to do with me?

I set down my shopping cart, milk sloshing and nectarines rolling out of their plastic bag as I fumbled with my cell phone. The gist of the message was that he realized how wrong a lot of his decisions had been, he had a much better grip on his life, he wanted to apologize to me for being a crummy friend in person, and could we hang out?



I feel like my life is coming full circle in a good way. I saw a PostSecret today that said "I'm realizing sometimes you have to lose the good things in life to make room for the great things."

This struck a chord with me, because that statement is so completely true. I may have felt like I lost a "good thing" when Alex and I broke up (and then completely stopped speaking), but it looks as though I'm about to get a great part of my life back. Justin and I are meeting on Wednesday. :)

Anyway, life always has a funny way of working out.
Someone sent me a message a few weeks ago saying that reading my blog had made her look at her own break-up and realize she wasn't hurting anymore. She told me that I was going to have a moment like that too, and when it happened I wouldn't even believe I was ever that upset.

I honestly thought it would take a lot longer for that to happen. I mean, you were all there with me. I was a MESS. And it wasn't that that long ago.

But... I feel really okay now. I am not sad, I do not miss him, and the things I have going on in my life are really, really great. So here's to the rest of my life. It's going to be awesome.

I'm happy!

Disney Class and drunk guys.

I was just sitting on a couch in one of my campuses many cafeterias, watching Jim and Pam's wedding on Megavideo and minding my own business, when this guy in a leather jacket came and plopped himself down on the couch beside me.

I just ignored him right away, like any girl with headphones in her ears would do, but then he leaned over and put his face right up next to mine and said "HI IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU, WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" He extended his grubby hand right in front of my nose.

I gave him a pretty standard annoyed looked, shook his hand, said "Kristina", and turned back to my computer screen. Does he not understand how important this wedding is?? Instead of returning to his side of the couch, he lingered over my shoulder, taking in a few moments of the Office.

"WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING?" he slurred at me.

I didn't answer, mostly because I decided to be an ice queen but also because he was clearly drunk and I really, really didn't want to be making pleasantries with this wasted leather jacketed greasy haired boy. It was noon when this happened. NOON.

"SO WHAT CLASSES ARE YOU TAKING?" he tried again.

Luckily for me, the credits were starting to roll at this point, so I took the liberty of packing up my laptop to leave without answering.

"Hey!" he shouted. I turned around, but he wasn't shouting at me. He was shouting at his friend, who was asleep on a plastic chair. "Hey!" he yelled again, kicking the friend repeatedly. Kicking him hard! The friend didn't even stir. I left.


So that was my morning. College. Sigh.

Now I am in the library, killing time before my Consumerism class far, far away from the guy who I'd bet is probably still kicking the friend who was probably even more wasted than the first guy was.
Since I last updated, I have watched a lot of TV, nearly finished my Halloween costume, and fell in love (again) with both Rosi and Hayley, because they're amazing people who I only wish could be in my life more frequently than they are. I contemplated flying to Texas with Liz to see Muse (we once said we'd go as far as Las Vegas to see them because they're NEVER IN SEATTLE. And Texas is their last show in the US before a long string of shows in Europe, then Australia, and then freaking Japan. It's not fair).

However, we are responsible people, and also poor, so we wont be seeing our favorite band in the Lone Star state. Unfortunately.

Today I decided to sign up for another class, even though we're already 10 days into the quarter. I met this girl in my CHID class that runs a focus group on Disney every Thursday for two hours, and while it cuts into my "lie around in bed doing nothing" time on Thursday mornings, I would much rather sit in a circle and discuss the effects of Disney on society than refresh facebook and eat junk food in bed, so there you go. Also I'll get two more credits, bringing me up to a more acceptable 14 this quarter over the 12 I was already enrolled in. She told me that on the last day, we're going to go see the Princess and the Frog in lieu of having class. That's awesome.

I am getting very excited for a number of things. Halloween (and the party Justin is having at our house next weekend), Matt's show here the weekend after, Nanowrimo starting on the 1st, and leaving for Wrockstock on the 5th. I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am for Wrockstock. My cabinmates (aside from Eia and Liz) are mostly all people I have never met, but we've been exchanging emails for the past week or so and I think I love them all. Not to mention EVERYONE ELSE I am going to be seeing there.


Oh, and for the record.. even though my Jim+Pam Wedding experience was tainted by a stupid drunk guy, I don't want to belittle how it made me feel. I was tearing up and smiling and sniffling like my two best friends got married. It was beautiful. God I love well-written romance.

Dominant right eye.

I can't even remember what I did on Monday, so it must have been insignificant. Oh, looking back at my previous blog post, it appears I already wrote about Monday. I summed it up in one purchase of an overpriced skirt. In that case, we'll move right along here to Tuesday. xD

I woke up for the first time in weeks completely sans an alarm clock, which would have been a lot more exciting if my body hadn't decided 7:30 was an acceptable time for that to happen. Especially since I had nowhere to be until 2.

But anyway, because of that, I had hours to just lie around in bed, reading "Unwind" and watching the previous night's Gossip Girl and catching up on emails I let fall to the wayside because I have been too busy living my life to be online as much as normal.

There was a blog comment the other day that said something along the lines of, "well to me it still sounds like you're not happy to be back" which I found to be a really odd thing to say, since the comment was left on a blog post where I was talking about how much I'd bonded with my housemates, made new friends, and wasn't experiencing any sort of weird culture shock things. I don't feel the need to respond to each and every dumb comment I receive, but this one kind of stuck in my mind for most of yesterday, and while I was out celebrating my roommate Justin's birthday at one of our local bars, I was asking myself if that was true or not. And I came to this very surprising conclusion that it's not true at all.

The last few days, despite going back to work, despite stress over school, despite confusing boy situations and missing my London friends and having to get back into a routine.. I've realized I'm really happy. Sort of in a content, I-can-be-okay-with-this-life kind of way. And that was really encouraging, because I haven't been home very long and I can already tell that this is going to be a good year and that I am really lucky to live where I do.

We played pool at the bar last night. I was (and always have been) seriously awful, but Justin's friend Forest picked me to be on his team and I managed to get one or two of our solid balls in. Forest and I had a few nice chats over the course of the night, and he also taught me how to figure out if I am a dominant right or left eye. I'm right. Apparently that's good if I ever want to shoot a gun. Haha.
He was asking me, "So I know you talk about your friends that you have far away… I am wondering how many that is. I mean I know a handful of people who live in other places.. but you make it sound like you just have loads from the Internet and stuff. How many are legit friends?"
I didn't really know how to answer his question. I said "all of them". I said that in any given place, aside from like.. Asia or Africa or something, I would probably have a at least one if not a handful of people I could call if I were ever stranded. That I regularly text a good number of them. That plenty of them know my secrets or would be invited to my wedding were I getting married. He seemed impressed or intrigued or at least interested (alliteration wooo) in how that's possible. I like when people try to pick apart my life, honestly. It makes me feel exciting or exotic or something.

Anyway, most people went home kind of early; Justin and Forest and I continued to chat about life and Justin's new job and girl problems. Then Tyler stopped by, and eventually drove us home (because he wasn't going to leave Justin and I to stumble home alone) and we had this short little emotional moment with him because he just moved out and that's sad. Like he's breaking up our family or something. :(

Now it's Wednesday! There is nothing all that exciting about Wednesday to be honest. Just that my roommate PJ and I have a strict schedule with the bathroom (I shower at 9) and she's currently in there and it's 9:08. Frustrating.

"We could go there."

I can't even begin to explain how I am feeling lately. I will only have been home for 2 weeks this Wednesday, but it feels like ages. I honestly feel like I was in London months ago. In another life. Or something.

I was talking to my good friend Colin on the phone today, and I was telling him that everything about my particular experience this summer was strange.
I never really felt like I was on the other side of the world because of how many friends I have over there. Sure I was in a new country where the food and the signs and the accents were different, but I had people to hang out with every day and friends that I already knew, so I kind of felt at home already.
And then cut to Seattle, to home, where a lot of times people come back from being gone for a long time and have trouble re-inserting themselves into their routines because life did, in fact, go on without them for the whole time they were gone.

But I didn't experience that either. My best friend (Eia) was gone too, for the same amount of time, so everything about our dynamic was just put on pause. I'm not very close to anyone else in Seattle aside from my housemates, and whatever they did in their spare time when I was gone doesn't really affect how we all interact in our living room, so life literally picked up exactly where it left off back in July. In fact we're all already closer after this last week in a half, oddly.

The only other people I am really close to here are Liz and Kayley and I only see them every so often anyway, so nothing's changed there either.

Basically, what I am trying to say, is that I experienced literally NO reverse culture shock like everyone warned me I would. Life here is absolutely the same, except that I now have a much more expensive taste for clothes, and I am incredibly more willing to go hang out with people and do things than I was before, because I am not being pathetic and video-chatting/waiting for emails up in my bedroom.

Anyway, I think these are all good things. Because life here is back to normal (better than normal, honestly), and I am, for the most part, doing really well and looking forward to the next year of my life here at UW and in Seattle.

Yesterday morning I was talking to my friend Josh and we decided we wanted doughnuts. I said the best doughnuts were at VooDoo Doughnuts - in Portland.
He was like, "We could go there."
It's three hours away.
I have free gas in my Fiesta for another month.
It didn't take much convincing.
We literally drove to and from Portland in one day just for doughnuts. After we got the doughnuts we were just kind of walking around the city and I asked, "so now what do we do?"
We didn't really account for the fact that we would still be in Portland at that point, since our plan only went as far as "get doughnuts".

Then when I got home, rather late, Eia and PJ watched the Wedding Crashers while I slept on a footstool. I really didn't mean to sleep on the footstool, but it just happened that way. Sometime around 11 Eia kicked me and said "go to bed!" and I nodded and obliged.

Tonight I went with Justin to Urban Outfitters to help him pick out a new jacket under the condition that I not buy anything. I bought a skirt. Sigh. It's a really nice skirt.

Tomorrow is my first day back to work! It's going to be incredibly weird. I hope I remember how to use the computer system. xD (It also just hit me earlier today that I have been at my job for FOUR YEARS. How many 21 year olds can say they've worked at the same place for that long?)

FIRE

Friday night I saw the Toy Story double feature in 3D! I definitely loved those movies as a child and watched the first one at least 50 times (because it was my little brother's favorite movie), but I probably haven't seen either one in 7-8 years so it was almost like watching them again for the first time. I was really surprised how good they were still this time around as an adult. There were a lot of jokes that went completely over my head when I was little.

I went with Eia and Justin and Kayley and Denis and a few of Kayley's other friends, and it was $14 well spent.

Friday night we were supposed to play Mario Party with our housemates, but instead, Eia and I stayed up until about 3 in the morning (I have no idea how this happened) looking online for various pieces of our Halloween costumes. I now have everything I need to be Angelica Pickles aside from some orange socks, purple shoes, and a doll that looks like Cynthia. Basically I just need to track down a blonde Barbie doll, of which I don't have.

Saturday morning, about 4 hours later, I woke up (hating my alarm clock) to drive into Issaquah to see my brother march in the Salmon Days parade. He plays trumpet in the band. I also just get kind of warm and fuzzy watching the parade each year because I marched in it every year from 7th grade up to my senior year of high school. When my brother went by in his (dorky/awesome) band uniform, I did the standard "Wooooo Nick Horner!!!" older sister embarrassing thing that's expected of me, and luckily my brother is a good sport and just laughed behind his trumpet and kept walking.

Then their band director saw me and his eyes widened and, while still marching, said to me, "I still owe you like a THOUSAND dollars or something!" before continuing on down the street. To explain, awhile ago they entered this competition by submitting a video set to a song they played, for this local radio station thing. The first prize was $10,000 for their band program. I may or may not have mentioned the video on fiveawesomegirls and got a lot of my subscribers to vote for them. I am obviously not claiming that I alone got them to win, but I definitely sent a lot of people in their direction and at the end of the competition, my old high school was handed a check for $10,000.
It was very exciting. And it was nice to see him and be acknowledged, because I had honestly kind of forgotten about it, and this is a HUGE DEAL to them because our high school never had thaaaat much money for the arts.

Anyway, I felt even more warm and fuzzy after that exchange. Sometimes YouTube makes me feel like a superhero, and I'm glad I can use my powers for good. xD Oh I'm a loser.

That afternoon I ducked into my work, because the theatre that employs me is right there on the parade route. My coworkers were really happy to see me, especially my manager Coral who I would consider to be one of my best friends honestly. Eia was there as well since she teaches dance there, and we hung out in the box office until 2, since we decided to see the new show playing there, "Chasing Nicolette". I missed the opening because I was still in London.

THEN. Last night we were at home, hanging out in the living room with our housemates, complaining that our Saturday night was boring. Eia and I were jealous that half our friends were at a Sci-Fi Con in St. Louis and the other half at the Sidewalk show in New York, when SUDDENLY. Justin was in the kitchen and we heard him shouting, so we ran to see what was going on - out the back window, all we could see was GIANT ORANGE FLAMES.

I have never seen a group of people go so quickly into panic mode.

We ran outside, started grabbing buckets, filling them with water - the apartment building across from us in the back alley was ON FIRE. There was an old couch that someone had left by the back door and it was completely engulfed in flames, and it was spreading really quickly up the wall of the entire complex. A girl ran over from another house with a fire extinguisher, and when it ran out, got completely hysterical. Justin was still running back and forth with buckets of water. Finally he took our recycle bin, just dumped the contents on the floor of our kitchen, and handed it to Eia and Tyler's cousin who ran upstairs to fill it in the bathtub. All this time he was on the phone with 911.

People were spilling out of their houses at this point, and I realized no one from the actual apartment that was on FIRE was outside. Myself and a few other peoplee started shouting "Hello? Who lives in this apartment? You need to come out right now!" There were no fire alarms. Why were there no fire alarms?

Finally, finally people started coming outside, completely bewildered. I met a lot of my neighbors that I had never seen before, all standing huddled and confused, clutching their laptops.

The fire was almost subdued at this point. The flames were down but it was smoking and smoldering and everyone was really scared.

Then the firemen showed up and took over.

Everything is okay, but the wall is blackened, the couch is nonexistent, and at one point during the night a bunch of us just got completely blasted with a fire hose because we happened to be standing in the wrong spot.

Needless to say, Justin went out that night and bought new batteries for our smoke alarms, because we realized in the midst of everything that NONE of our smoke alarms are even on right now because they were all beeping annoyingly due to low batteries. So that's fixed.

Anyway. Later on, we laughed about how earlier, we'd wished for a more exciting Saturday night. Be careful what you wish for, man.

Non-domestic woman.

I realized today that I have signed on for a lot of TV shows this season.

I never used to be the kind of person who watched a lot of TV. In fact, in middle school and most of high school, I preferred reading books and doing things online to sitting in front of a television, and I bragged about that to people frequently.

But then somewhere around my Sophomore year, people started watching Family Guy… and I couldn't be the only one not quoting the episodes at our musical rehearsals… and then I started watching Who's Line is it Anyway because it was on right before… and then my dad talked me into watching Lost with him and I became hooked… and then I saw that a book series I secretly loved was being turned into a TV show and thus I started watching Gossip Girl… basically it was a downward spiral, and now, 5 years later, I think I would have to call myself a TV junkie.

Mondays: Gossip Girl and Heroes
Tuesday: Nothing
Wednesday: America's Next Top Model and Glee
Thursday: FlashForward and the Office

Okay, maybe that's not actually as many and I thought it was now that I have it written down in list form like that, but still. That's five and a half hours a week I am dedicating to watching my television. Not to mention I am still working on watching Weeds in my spare time and I'd be watching Doctor Who and Lost as well if they were on right now.

Overall, the moral of the story is, I have no idea when I started actively watching so much TV. Probably when they started making good shows, I guess. xD
I can rest assured knowing I'm still not one of those people who just plops herself down and channel surfs until finding something decent to watch to pass the time. No reality shows about Miss Teen USA for me, thank you. I watch specific shows because I think they're worthwhile.

Yesterday I woke up early so that I could, with the help of my housemate, get into full Zombie makeup and costume to film some clips for an undisclosed project. Keep an eye on my channel in the next few days to see the culmination of that effort.

Then I headed over to campus for the one class I have on Thursdays which is my focus group for being a CHID major. For two hours I sit in a circle with other CHID majors and we talk about what we're interested in, why we chose an interdisciplinary major, what we intend to study, and the direction we might take our thesis/capstone project. There are snacks. I think I am going to like this class.
Yesterday we had to talk to the person sitting next to us for ten minutes and then awkwardly introduce them to the group ("Hi this is Sophia… she… what's your minor again? Right, she's also an Anthropology minor, she transferred here from…. some community college.. in Seattle.. she… is blonde.. um,") but then we had to tell the group something shocking about ourselves.

Most people revealed some hidden talent or something (I informed the group that merely hours beforehand I was covered in blood, haha) but this one guy said the weirdest thing I have ever heard a person say in front of a group of people.

He told us he likes to play basketball, and sometimes he'll go to the IMA and be shooting hoops, and he'll see pretty women. And that he likes pretty women. And that he particularly like pretty women in tight clothing. And that tight clothing instantly turns him on. And that oftentimes, if there aren't pretty women around, he might just stop what he's doing and leave. And he'll go somewhere were there ARE pretty women. And he just KEPT TALKING ABOUT IT. Nobody knew what to say or how to stop him and every single girl in the room suddenly felt very uncomfortable; the girls in tight clothing because they knew he'd probably been looking at them, and the girls in baggy clothing because they suddenly felt like they probably didn't fall under the "pretty women" category. Our adviser just kind of…. went to the next person and said "okay then,".

I can guarantee that my quarter project will be to make sure I never end up sitting by him.

Yesterday I made a cheesecake!
This is an event because I don't cook, I am not a domestic woman, and the fact that I thought "I am going to make a pie today" even crossed my mind is a bizarre, strange happenstance.
It turned out to be pretty good too! Even though I didn't read the packaging and completely missed the part where it said "warm cream cheese to room temperature" and I tried to beat the cream cheese cold and spent the next 20 minutes getting hard cream cheese out of my whisk.
But it all worked out in the end. :D

Now I have day three of classes and I hope they're as interesting the second time around as they were the first (because I only have my two main classes on MWF). Fingers crossed.