artyartie

Am irrationally cranky today, for only two discernable reasons:

1) I slightly botched the formatting on my book review citation.

2) A whopping number of two people will be coming tomorrow night for dinner.

While a smaller number for dinner is good, so I won't be spending money I really shouldn't be spending on this (kitchen gear, table settings, cutlery, glasses, something to hold the trifle, the food itself and a bottle of rum and brandy), I had hoped for at least a few RSVPs. I sent an e-mail to other first years and basically bribed them with free lobscouse and booze. To what levels I have sunk. I haven't even written the toast yet, and worse, I don't really feel like it.

As for number two, I really need to finish my damn papers sooner and proof them better. I want to be this prof's GA but with sloppiness like this, I'm worried he won't even want me. Ugh. That's the crux of my crankiness, I think.

I am going to watch some David Tennant, have a cuppa tea, and try to think happy thoughts. Hopefully tomorrow I will be in a better mood!

In the excitement over, well, getting into one of my grad schools, I forgot to mention another really cool thing that happenned on Monday. I won tickets to see KT Tunstall!

KBCO, one of the few decent stations up here, was having a contest for their members to win tickets to the show and a private set before hand. Only 50 people would be picked, and each would be able to bring a guest. I entered, thinking it would be nice if I won but highly unlikely all the same. Well, Monday afternoon, before I got the good news in the snail mail, I got the e-mail announcing out of 1500 entries, my name had been among the 50.

"Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"

I e-mailed otahyoni and asked if she wanted to come - she's a new convert to KT and we had been thinking of getting together next weekend. Amazingly, she could and so yesterday night we were at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, rocking out to KT. In person. And we got to meet her after the private set and get a poster signed. I didn't bring the liner to my album (which is the import, as this was pre-her-coming-over-here), but she's simply amazing in person. Energetic with a wicked sense of humor, an adorable Scottish accent and musical talent in spades and hecatombs. She did *every* song off "Eye to the Telescope" and two from her singles, though "Girl and the Ghost" wasn't among them. "Another Place to Fall" was really, really good live, and for "Heal Over" she sang over a cello solo - I think I was "guhhhh, KT and cello, guhhhhh" at that point. The opening band was good but mellow to the point of coma-inducing, and the benches against the wall make you have ridiculously straight posture, but those were the only two not-amazingly-wonderful about the evening.

So Monday? Awesome day. Tuesday? Natch.

I'm waiting to hear from the chair of the Martime Studies department at ECU, as well as San Diego, to find out when I might get my proposed aid package. So even with Monday's jubilation, I'm still a bit antsy. I was all ready to be patient for another week or two, and then one school jumped the gun!

Bookwise, I've started the second in the Bartimaeus trilogy. If you love a good fantasy novel, read these books. They're technically for young adults but they are amazingly good, and need more attention! I just finished The Brave Sailors by V.A. Stuart, which was rather good - and written by a woman who served in the British armed forces. Much better than the Ramage novel I tried to read and just couldn't finish.

With my piddly income from last year, I more than qualify for Turbo Tax's free filing program. But evidently I hit the wrong button and now it's trying to get me to pay for the full blown deluxe version. Grrrr. So tomorrow, when I'm coherent, I will go to a different site with free filing for those of us in the lower tax brackets.

I currently have two job prospects out now, after posting my resume on Craigslist. Honestly, that site works better than Monster. The University of Denver job didn't quite work out, unfortunately, but both of these sounds like enjoyable work and they pay well. And hopefully, I won't have to work at these jobs for long, with the prospect of school. All I need is two more letters of rec and I can send my applications off - and then you all get to go through my grad school anxiety, part II. I think I'm in a better place, mentally, than last year, though not having a job has me a little antsy right now. Just too much uncertainty at once! Thankfully I'm nowhere near the point where the stress is so bad I can't read - that happenned a few years ago and it was just horrible. I could barely read a magazine. But still, it would be nice for April to be here, and with it a job and an acceptance letter.

But speaking of books, I've been busy! I just finished Peter Raven Under Fire an Age of Sail book for 5th-6th grade readers, that had a lot of potential but the characters ended up being a little flat - and the female lead was a compete Mary Sue, sadly. Also in the Age of Sail vein, but much funnier, are the Pirates! books. Do not read them in public unless you want people looking at you as you laugh. I should really quote some of the best lines here. Also, I'm almost done with the first in the Bartimaeus(sp) trilogy, and I'm rather enjoying the read. Next up I have a particularly biting satire of The DaVinci Code - The DaVinci Cod. Unfortunately, it helps if you've read the original to 'get' the parody - he skewers Brown's writing and his more ludicrous bits (his protagonist is a professor of anagrammology - a field as made up as religious symbology) - I can't wait for him to rip into Brown's depiction of college classes. And the romance. And the really silly puzzles any third-grade girl could solve. *coughs* Er, if you like the original, I wouldn't read my journal in May, as I will probably go into a full blown rant against the book and the subsequent PR blitz for the movie.

If you didn't guess by my subject line, tonight I saw 'The World's Fastest Indian' and the first episode of Spooks/MI-5. This was after another pillaging of the library and a very pleasant pint and a half at Pints here and Denver, where I chatted with a delightful older man who was stationed in England for four years during the 60s. I really should make Pints at least a biweekly excursion - they make such lovely beer and the company there is always fascinating - and usually up to chat with a stranger!

After Pints I met my friend P from my old job and his girlfriend for the movie. I think of all the people from work I'll miss P the most - he was the wonderful person who bestowed Hornblower on me for Christmas. He said C, my counterpart, sent his best, and that they didn't know how they would get on without me. Like I said, there's days it's hard not to go in and just volunteer. Pesky altruism.

The movie was absolutely delightful - it was very heartwarming but I didn't think it was overly schmaltzy. And I am very sensitive to schmaltz, so this is high praise coming from me. It was hilarious but touching, and even if motorcycles aren't your thing, see the movie. Seriously. I think everyone was smiling coming out of the theater, and there were quite a few scenes that garnered spontaneous applause.

One of my treasures from the library was the elusive 1st season of MI-5, starring the handsome Matthew MacFayden. Who is shirtless and cheeky and seriously wibble-worthy quite a bit in the first episode. If you liked him, all right, lusted after him in the new Pride and Prejudice, try and find this at your library - I'm only one episode in but the show is smart and extremly well-done.

I haven't made an actual post in a while, and these last two weeks have been the reason why. January 9, I was told I had been downsized and Friday the 20th would be my last day, with two weeks severance. This wasn't a position I wanted to stay in my whole life, I run a mailroom and mobility center, but needless to say, I truly enjoy the people there and I wanted to leave on my own terms and with my own timing. Only a few days before I got the news, I had found an incredible new roommate - we ended up talking for three hours that first night we met. Needless to say, along with my job, that evaporated as well.

I've had two interviews thus far, which considering the timing is very good, and I've been handling it well for the most part, but tonight when I got home, knowing I hadn't gotten any other responses to my inquiries, I felt crushed and a little hopeless, and nearly started crying. I talked to my mom, which was a huge comfort, and on my friend jen's advice, made myself the foofiest, rosiest bath ever - a rose bath bead, salts and milk bath. The water was positively pink. I feel better, though I'm not sure how these last two days will be. Thankfully, two of my schools have late deadlines, and so I won't miss those - I just don't have the time or energy to finish the UCSD application right now. I think in a way this could be a very good thing - I should have 'moved on' a long time ago. I shouldn't feel bound to a job just because I enjoy the camraderie, I shouldn't daydream about a better life and not do anything to make it happen.

So if I'm a bit...off..lately, that's why. It's been hard to read, almost impossible to write, though today before I got home, I was in very good spirits. Tonight, after doing a few more applications and sending out some overdue e-mails, I may watch Amelie, it's one of my comfort movies. Just wanted to let everyone here know, and I hope you're all doing well.