Monday, August 31, 2009

The Most Awesomest Kid EVAR!


Today, while I was at Whole Foods getting some things for later this week, I stopped in the bulk food section to pick up some chopped pecans. As I was filling my bag, "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie was playing and I was enjoying it a little, and then I hear a mom in the aisle say, "You like this song, don't you?!" I looked over my shoulder and saw a little boy, maybe 3 or 4 years old. He was wearing a little blue cape and pushing one of those itty bitty grocery carts (his mom was indulging him and putting all her stuff in it). And as the music played, little boy was gettin' on down. It made me smile for the rest of my trip. If I ever happen to have kids, I hope they are that cool.

Friday, August 28, 2009

I'm excited!

I purchased my tickets for Andrew Bird at the Music Farm on October 12th today.  *happy happy happy happy happy dance*

Boring Week?

As this week rolled in, I was prepared for a hectic schedule, and actually it hasn't been much like that at all.  Classes started Tuesday.  I more or less like all of them, but two of my professors I'm not too keen on.  Such is life.  Microeconomics will be a major challenge for me this semester.

My surgery was supposed to happen on Wednesday, but someone at the doctor's office messed up so it has been postponed until next Thursday, September 3.  I guess my dad and grandmother are coming down here to help me take are of things for a few days.  I'm glad they want to come but it kind of stresses me out.

Other than those two things, not much else has happened.  Just a few really random things.  I've met a few new people this week, which is always fun.  And I may or may not be trying to get a spot on CofC Radio.  We'll see.  I had success yesterday in making pudding with soy milk.  Clearly I am a genius.  Or at least have general knowledge.  

I have one more class to go to today and then it's off to 52.5 to maybe pick up some fun music.  Hopefully more exciting news in the future.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Weird Dreams & Upcoming Week From Hell

Last night I don't recall waking up a whole lot, but I didn't have a restful night.  I had dreams that were weird, even by my standards - three in particular.

In the first, I was at a Blue Man Group concert with a bunch of people I supposedly knew but didn't know in real life.  There was this big PVC pipe running through the crowd that was painted all different colors and little pieces snapped off of it.  The people around me kept taking off all these little pieces and then walking away and coming back for more...and that was all that happened.

In the second, I was at a Dallas Cowboys game with my grandma.  Apparently the cowboys were getting their asses handed to them.  My gran and I were walking around and passed through this open field that was separated from the football field by a wooden fence.  Big things started landing on the ground around us.  They were bodies...the bodies of several Cowboys players...that were being tossed through the air by the opposing team.  We were trying to get out of the way of this seemingly normal occurrence when a body landed on top of me causing mild discomfort.  I made a pissy face and the dream ended.

In the last dream I can remember, I was in a school in some sort of large city.  The front half of the building was sagging a little - it looked like it was leaning out over the street.  But we still had classes in this building, even in the half that was collapsing.  The inside of the building was dirty and old, with holes in the wall and plaster cracking away.  The floors were dusty and there weren't many lights but there were old TVs in every room on little wheeled carts.  We all entered a classroom at the front of the building and could tell that the floor was sloped due to the building's front slowly sliding to the ground.  But we were told it was ok and we were each instructed to grab these little tiny mattresses, get comfortable, and pay attention to the lecture on TV.  And then it ended.

I didn't do anything different in my routine before bed last night, so I'm not sure what the cause of such weird dreams was.  I'm not good at interpreting those sorts of things.  However, it's not normal for me to have that many dreams, let alone strange ones, in one night.

In other news, I went to the hand doctor today.  It was a weird experience because he had two med students following him, and they came in to try to diagnose me before the actual doctor came in.  The doctor is 99.9% I sliced through three branches of the nerve on the side of my index finger closest to my thumb.  The cut is just on the border of where nerves become too small to be repairable.  The doctor says he's done one or two repairs on cuts in this area before, and he thinks he can fix it.  So I go in for surgery next week to determine if he actually can or not.  I will never have the same sensation I used to have in my finger, but if the nerves can be reattached, not only will it save me some pain when the nerves try to branch out, but it will restore a little bit of feeling to my finger.  The doctor said that the sutures for reattaching the nerve in this area of a finger are about 1/10 the size of a human hair, so I will probably be put under to prevent me from moving as much as possible during the surgery.  He said that most people who don't have the nerve repaired do what I'm already doing and sort of stop using the finger that has lost feeling - instead they replace it with another finger in the duties it would usually perform.   Anyway, I'm sure it'll be fine and I'd rather just get it out of the way.  Hopefully all will go smoothly and in 3ish months, I'll have a little bit of feeling back.

So next week, school starts on Tuesday, surgery sometime in the week, and sorority recruitment stuff starts Saturday.  Busy, busy, busy and I will be more tired than I can even express in words.  I guess it depends on when I have the surgery as to whether or not I'll be doing the recruitment stuff, but it's just a lot going on all at once.

That's all I've got for now.  More next week, I'm sure.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I Get It Honestly...

The week has been fairly uneventful - I've been in sorority workshops all week.  Hand has been healing quite well except the swelling has gone down and I still can't feel my fingertip.  At the advice of the ER doctor, I'm going to see a hand specialist tomorrow.  Perhaps that's a little over-cautious, but sounds like a good idea.

Anyway this evening I missed a call from my father and when I called him back he said only two words: "You win."  And I was confused.  He explained.  Turns out he had just gotten home from the doctor because, while on a job site, he was hanging a lighting fixture and the screwdriver slipped.  After gushing much blood, he came home with two stitches on his wrist.  We are a clumsy people.

Unlike my accident, however, this was not his first run-in with a screwdriver.  When I was younger I remember him working on something in his old Mazda pick-up truck and stabbing himself in the hand with a screwdriver.  Good goin', Dad.  I wouldn't make fun of him if he wasn't okay.  :)

So that's about all the excitement we can handle at the moment.  Possible update this weekend.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Frankenfinger

I wasn't planning on writing anything today as it was supposed to be a fairly low key day.  I slept in.  I unpacked some stuff.  I paid my tuition, and most importantly, I went to Whole Foods to buy things specifically for making myself dinner for the next few nights.  I'm not one of those people who is good at planning meals ahead of time, so a three-day dinner plan was something pretty adventurous and exciting for me.  Pretty normal stuff, right?  And then it began...

The first thing that sucked about today was that my electricity was turned off for like an hour or so because of a misunderstanding between SCE&G and myself.  Basically it's all clear and they now understand that they can suck it.

Once I had electricity back, I spent some time doing some things on the computer with iTunes and such, and at about 8:30, I decided I should probably get a move on with the food thing.  I wanted bruschetta, so I got this nice nice nice baguette and some decent produce at the store.  I was really looking forward to this fairly unbalanced meal.  Diced up the tomatoes, looking good.  Garlic...no problem.  Parsley and basil were a breeze.  Then came the red onion.  I really don't even like onions.  Really.  And I highly debated (at Whole Foods and again while I was chopping things up) just omitting the onion and having a lighter fruitier bruschetta.  But nooooo....I always follow the recipe the first time around and I wanted to see it from the recipe writer's point of view and maybe this would be the best bruschetta ever and I'd be thankful for this stupid onion.  

I sliced the thing in half with great ease and no tears.  It was the stupid little thing on the bottom...you know, the thing that you don't eat that's all gross and the peels all are attached to it.  I just had to remove it and then it would be smooth sailing.  Mhm.  Right.  I was almost through when by some freak force of nature, my hand that was holding the onion still slipped.  And simultaneously the knife decided, "Oh this onion doesn't seem so dense anymore!  I'll just slide right on through!"  At first I thought that I just kind of bumped the knife into my hand and it was all cool.  And then I started gushing blood all over the place.  Awesome.

I have never had a cut this bad before, so I have never involuntarily lost this much blood before.  I was freaking out.  I hadn't eaten all day and I was gushing blood...what if I passed out or died or turned into a unicorn or something else really ridiculous and bad?  So I followed my instincts.  I channeled everything I had every seen on a fake medical TV show, and I wrapped it up, squeezed it tight and held it way up over my head.  I then ran to my neighbor's door.

My neighbor, Jennifer, is in school about to graduate and become a physician's assistant.  Of course she'd know what to do.  I felt like a tool for disturbing them at 9:30 at night, but it had to be done.  She invited me in and took a look.  After a few minutes she'd stopped the bleeding, and I started feeling super nauseous.  I can't stand the sight of my own blood.  We rinsed it out with a saline solution and she came to the conclusion, "If you came into my office, I'd be giving you stitches."  Off to the E.R.

The particular E.R. I went to has to be one of the best ever.  Everybody was nice and human and accommodating.  My nurses joked around with me and we had a good time, considering the situation.  The doctor was nice enough to humor me and laugh with me and let me take pictures even though it's kind of a weird thing to do.  He performed what he called a "finger block" - basically he stuck me with a needle 4 time and my finger magically went numb in all the right places - and stitched me up.  I was proud of myself for being able to watch what was going on for once.  It was actually kind of a humorous situation once I determined that I wasn't going to die and they set my finger up in its own little surgical tent type thing.  Three stitches later, I'm back home.  I was having some issues feeling the tip of my finger, so I may or may not have to go to a hand specialist next week, as I may or may not have just nicked the nerve a little bit.

My super special dinner tonight ended up being Frosted Flakes...

Pictures follow.  This is where you stop scrolling if you have a ridiculously weak stomach.

The scene of the crime.

Oopsie.

My finger in its little mini surgical tent.

The Frankenfinger Monster.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Oh Deer!

I love this time of year because of all the little baby animals.  Since I've been home, I've seen young bunnies, elk, llamas, and of course, deer.  This is however an awful time of year, because I decide that I want to adopt one of each of these critters and pet them and love them.  :)

Today was an active day in our front yard and fields.  For the past few weeks, as is typical at this time of year, we've had a doe and her 3 little baby fawns hanging around in the front yard and the field that we used to have sheep in.  Two of the fawns are always seen together and we call them "twins".  The other fawn is often off on its own and seems to have a bit more character than the other two.  The mother isn't around as often, at least not visibly.  

We hadn't seen the deer for the past week and were a little concerned.  The fawns are young enough that they still have spots on them.  And then today, as I walked out of my grandparents' house, I saw this thing munching on one of my grandmother's plants and it stopped and stared me down for awhile then returned to its snack.  Later, when I left the house in the car, I saw the twins lying down in the field, and they too stared at me without moving.  When I came back home later in the evening, the mother walked across the driveway in front of me, and the twins were still lying in the field.  By the time I got to the house they'd walked off.  The little fawns are so adorable and I was able to get two kind of blurry pictures of the twins before they ran.

The brown blobs are deer, ok?

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Things Are Too Normal

After the rushing around of the past two weeks, it's weird that things are now TOO quiet.  I haven't been doing a whole lot.  In fact, the only things I have accomplished are reading the first Harry Potter book, doing a little artsy project, and brushing the dog.  Everything else has kind of been me milling about and just generally not doing anything.

I've decided I'll be returning to Charleston on Wednesday.  I'm kind of happy, but at the same time I'd just rather not return to Charleston at all.  But also not stay here.  I need to move, but that's not something I can do right now for about a million different reasons.

I feel like my summer has been completely non-existent.  I haven't really gone on vacation other than the little New York trip.  I went to school for a month.  I haven't even had any major change or accomplishment.  I've been trying to get back into painting and other stuff like that, but just am finding that it's a lot harder than I remember.  I lack inspiration and ideas.  I want to start sewing.  And embroidering.  But it has to be by hand because I don't have a machine.

Actually I just remembered, I did go see Julie & Julia on Friday with my mom and her best friend.  It was a really cute movie.  When I was younger, my father and I used to watch Julia Child on TV and have a cup of tea together.  I wasn't crazy about her then, but that being said, I didn't give a damn about cooking then.  So I was really kind of intrigued with this movie because it exposed a julia Child that most people were not familiar with.  Her character was really revealed and it made her a much more interesting person to me.  As for Julie Powell, I think it was really cool what she did.  I don't really know anybody that dedicated to anything as she was to cooking through Julia's recipes and learning everything she could from it.  I really WISH I could be that dedicated to spending so much time in the kitchen after a day of doing something else.  Of course, this movie was probably not completely accurate in respect to either of the women, but it was just really cute.  Much better than I expected it to be and I was pleased.

There was a preview before this movie for 2012.  I have to say I'm really looking forward to this movie coming out and I'm going to see it whether anyone comes with me or not.  It's another movie about apocalyptic stuff and if your'e interested in seeing the awesome trailer, you can go here.

That's all I've got.  Two little art projects in plan for the next few days.  If they don't totally suck, maybe I will share.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

New Car For Me!

Yesterday I finally got my shit together and went to get my new car.  It is good to be done with all the searching and the paperwork and other annoying stuff.  I went with the 2004 VW Jetta 1.8T GLS!  Yay for letters and numbers!  I may have actually stated before that this car was a 2006.  That was a lie...oops.  But anyway, the car has like 27,000ish miles on it and has a moonroof, heated leather seats (because it gets so cold in Charleston), a huge trunk, lots of airbags and some other nerdy stuff that you may ask me about if you feel so inclined.  I'm really happy with the car so far and hope to continue to feel that way about it for a long time.  She has not been named yet so...suggestions are welcome.  :)  And now, for the pictures.  Ignore all my stuff that's already in the car.  And also maybe more pictures later.


Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Another Excellent Weekend in New York

Anybody who knows me is well aware that I absolutely love New York City.  Also any part of New York state that I've been to, I have thoroughly enjoyed.  Last year started my awful habit of making several little trips to New York each year.  I even took the opportunity to study at NYU for 2 months last summer and to live in the East Village and enjoy its weirdness.

So this weekend I packed a little bag and borrowed my father's car and took off for New York to visit my friend Adam in Yonkers and to make a little trip into the city.  When I visit Adam we don't really make extravagant plans or write down a schedule or do super touristy things, but we always have fun and it's just enjoyable.  I love having the time to hang out with him and it's nice to do it in a place that I love.

When I arrived in Yonkers Friday afternoon, Adam was still at work and I was dying for some sleep due to a huge lack of sleep from the night before.  After much listening to the cat squeaking away under the bed, I finally dozed off and before I knew it Adam was there.  We sort of had a relaxing evening watching Food Network and just generally being lazy, and then eventually went to a diner for late food.  Note: I love diners.  In Charleston, we have maybe 2 diners that I never go to because they are nowhere near me and always are ridiculously busy.  So diner fun with Adam is always a treat.  :)  Anyway, after dinner we called it an early night and that was that.

Saturday was our day to head into the city and just sort of amble around and explore.  Apparently Adam doesn't often venture into Manhattan, so it was a treat for him too.  We did nerdy things like checking out the MTA museum/store in Grand Central and going to the FDNY museum/store somewhere (I really just follow...am not good with directions!).  Adam had a moment of glee over each and I enjoyed it as well.  After that we trekked down to Herald Square so I could buy shampoo.  I always get my shampoo from Lush and typically I spend way too much money there, but I managed to keep myself in check this time.  But man, I really love that store.  We then sort of walked aimlessly around (I say that because I had no idea where we were going :)) until we ended up in Times Square.  At this point I decided that it was imperative that I enter Toys 'R' Us because I saw Hello Kitty things and I am probably really only 5 years old.  Fun was had by all...or at least by me.  We ate dinner at this little Italian restaurant that specializes in pasta.  Was very, very good.  After that we took a nice little walk through Central Park and then headed back toward Grand Central.  I really enjoy taking the subway and the Metro North.  It is one of those little pleasures that I just am overjoyed about.  So train ride back was fun fun except for the "wobbles" of the train that made me want to vomit.  Also the drunk couple in the seats next to us who were making out and considering getting down on the train may have contributed to the need to expel my dinner.  All in all, the trip was super fun.  The only thing that was not accomplished was the finding of a real, live rat for me to view because I have never seen one in that wasn't someone's pet.  Weird story...nevermind.  We walked to the train station from Adam's apartment, so naturally we walked back and I died on the way due to a tremendous hill and the fact that I am lazy.  My legs are still giving me a big "fuck you" over that.  Thanks, Adam.  :)

Also, while we were in the city we became very aware that it is Hello Kitty's 35th Anniversary!  Hooray for HK!  There were some neat statues and fountains of the feline and her bunny friends in this courtyard that we passed by.  There was one bunny fountain and a Helly Kitty fountain that operated by having two little streams of tears shoot from their eyes into pools around them.  Poor sad bunny and kitty!  Anyway, if you like Hello Kitty, go check it out.

Sunday we had planned on doing some rugged nature things.  We were going to wear plaid and grow mustaches especially for the occasion.  However, it poured all morning and most of the afternoon, so we slept in, had bagels in the afternoon, watched MIB2 and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and had dinner at Spice Village, possibly one of the best Indian places EVAR.  After all that we sort of chilled at the apartment and just talked and laughed and had a grande olde time.

Monday I headed back to Pennsylvania.  I always hate returning to PA after I've been in New York.  Not only do I miss my friend, but I just miss the happy feeling I have while I'm there and I become irritated as soon as I leave.  That's actually not true.  I'm fine until I hit New Jersey, where I start to prep myself for the mild irritation, and then in PA I just become a grumpy asshole who hates everyone.  I am really sick of Pennsylvania in general and if I could get away with it, I'd probably make it a point to not come back here for a very long time.  However, most of my family live here and it's really not an option at this point in time.

So those are all the boring details of my weekend.  Not boring to me at all.  I had an amazing weekend and the best host in the world and I hope that I can do it all over again in the near future.  I hope even more that I can get my ass in gear and graduate college very soonly so that I can then begin searching for jobs and hopefully move to New York semi-permanently.  Hooray!

Tomorrow I'm getting the new vehicle.  Be excited please, because I am.  :)

(Apologies because I never really take photos in New York.  Sorryyyy!)

Monday, August 03, 2009

Fleet Foxes! Holy shit!

Thursday night (July 30 for people who are "date challenged") I had the pleasure of driving to Philadelphia and actually making it to a concert on time.  I also had the experience of being directed by a parking attendant to back my father's car into a fence, but let's not talk about that.

Anyway, a friend and I headed to the Electric Factory to see Fleet Foxes.  I was looking forward to this for a very long time.  Being the nerd I am, I actually woke up early the morning the tickets went on sale to make sure I remember to get them RIGHT AWAY.  And when they arrived, I gave them a little special place on my refrigerator.  So when the day finally arrived I was sooooo happy.  I was twitching with happiness.  And possibly maybe dancing a little.

When we got there I was kind of confused and lost because I'd never been to this particular venue before and driving in Philadelphia tends to have this effect on me anyway.  So we took a little time to sit and talk and just relaxxx before things started.  We sat upstairs along the railing because I am short and we didn't get there early enough for me to stand right in front of the stage.  So being upstairs was kind of the best option available for me as far as being able to see.

The opening band was Espers.  They are from Philadelphia, so I hear.  And I kind of really didn't like them.  I probably would've liked them if it was sunny and we were in a field.  Or if I was smoking pot like all the kids downstairs.  Yes, you fuckers.  Thank you for ruining everything for everyone who isn't retarded by smoking ALL NIGHT and giving us all headaches and making us want to rain vomit down on you from above.  Seriously.  I know that people do this but there is a point at which the entire situation just becomes ridiculously.  That point was reached about 20 minutes into the evening.

ANYWAY.  Espers were not impressive.  Little bit weird for my taste.  That's saying something somehow.  So here's a picture of them:

Blurriest picture ever.  

And whoever was responsible for making sure everything sounded right for this band seriously sucked.  A lot.  But after maybe 30 minutes of that awful stuff, there was a quick reset for Fleet Foxes, during which they did their own sound check and went into the booth themselves to make sure things didn't suck.  And then they were on.  I had watched videos of their live performances before so I had kind of an idea that they were good but I was really extremely impressed.  It just is amazing that they are as tight as they are and that they immediately are in tune and in perfect harmony with each other - no searching for notes whatsoever, really I didn't hear a single mistake. 

All in all this concert probably falls into the #3 slot of my favorites of all time, right behind the Violent Femmes show at the Plex and Nicole Atkins at Snug Harbor.  Was very enjoyable and I'm sure I will be making an effort to see them again in the future.

Here, have some blurry pictures.  My camera seriously sucks so hard.  Maybe someday I'll do something about that.