Just when I think I'm all caught up on work and I've skipped out on a meeting that was after work for the joy of being home before six, a billion things pop up that need to be taken care of before the end of next week, and, as usual, I'm rarely sure how to go about accomplishing them. How awesome would it be to have a personal assistant? Someone who could just make your appointments for you, etc.?

Oh, wait, my Mom does that. Yep, I'm 27 years old, and Mom made an appointment for me to see the optometrist to get new glasses (JC Penney's is having a buy one, get the other half-off or something like that, and in Mom's world, it's criminal to miss a good deal like that). She knows me too well - I'm always so frazzled from work that I never think to do things like get check ups and whatnot. I haven't been to the doctor in over a year and a half (I'm rarely sick, and I covet my few precious hours of free time a week). Unfortunately, my headaches have been kicking in of late (almost 90% due to work-stress, I'm sure, but the rest might be eye strain). So she took it upon herself to set something up for me. She's really the best.

Now, if only those government "incentive" rebates could be sent out so that I can get the new glasses without crying. No optometrist wants his or her client leaving their office with red-rimmed eyes... it's bad for business.

So it was my brother who recommended SideStep.com for booking flights a couple of years ago, and having only ever needed to use it once, I used it as a one-shot deal (and it was really handy). Today I got a prompt to register so that the service can remember the airport I fly out of, etc., and I thought, what the heck, I'll do it. After I registered, I got a confirmation message:

Your account is confirmed. Yay!

I lol'ed from the cute. Yay! :D

I've been laboring under the impression that today is the 17th. Today is not tomorrow, thank freaking god, because what kind of person would deliberately decrease the time in which they had to accomplish the complete mountain of work that needs to be done in one day less than there actually is? I'm Sisyphus with the freaking boulder over here - without the part about being a cruel King of Corinth, of course.

I'm going to read this tomorrow, and it's not going to make any sense. I can feel it.

So, um, San Diego Comic Con. I seem to be planning on going as I have already registered for it. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I must be feeling some kind of crazy, but the last couple of days I've just been getting more and more excited. I have not been to a convention (outside of the Philadelphia Flower Show) since I was 12. And the four day pass was seriously less expensive than I would have thought (but omg, airfare rates right now are $600+. Thank you, IRS, for giving me my tax return today, because I have already spent it).

This was all prompted by my comrade, seraphtrevs, mentioning it to me, me mentioning it to my Mom who was all like, whut? are you crazy? You should totally go!, and the fact that my brother is going to Jamaica in May (yes, I have travel!envy). And you know what? THEY ARE ALL THREE RIGHT!

Yay, California!

I don't know if it's the rain or the fact that it's Sunday afternoon and I don't want to go to work tomorrow, but I just feel like I'm done. I'm done trying to be an adult. I just want to kick around, hike in the woods, and watch tv. Maybe go to the mall and hang out with my friends from high school (except that they don't live here anymore), and not worry about money except if you have enough to go to the movies after eating at the food court.

How does somebody become nostalgic for the tenth grade? It feels rather pitiful, really. And depressing. And I'm not even sure that our mall had a food court when I was in tenth grade or if it was built later. I can't remember any more.

A first grader got off the bus while carrying his cellphone the other morning. I just had this moment of stunned wtf-ness. And I felt really old. I didn't get a cellphone until I was a junior or senior in college - about the time I got my car. I never needed one before then because we always used calling cards on pay phones. It was a non-issue. Now kids who barely know their home phone numbers, or where they live, are bringing in cellphones. I think it's more of a status thing, to impress his little first grade friends, but still. It's a little weird and hard for me to wrap my brain around. So I'd rather stay home and make mix cds for my car which is too expensive to drive far anymore and pretend that it's summer so that I can open up some windows around here and get some fresh air for a change. Blah.

Soccer games on ESPN2 tonight - yay! It must be April. :)

ETA: Oh, wow, bad day much?

Must. Stop. Drinking. Caffeinated beverages. After. 3pm. ::blargle::

Oh, hi thar. Happy Easter! Going to bed now...

Heroes is eating my brain.

And it's lovely. :D

Now if only NBC.com would upload the next episode after 2x05 so that I can catch up with season two, I'd be a really happy camper...

...where x = ("no good can come of this")².

Anybody know when they'll put more episodes from season two on nbc.com? I've watched all of the first season plus the first five of the second season in just a week and a half. It really is all seraphtrevs' fault. I blame her completely.

----

There's a sound that I love: pigeons cooing. They've been coming to our backyard for most of the winter, and I love the sound they make. The leader of the flock has been puffing up his neck like a balloon, fanning his tail, and spinning in place for the last two weeks, too. It's so silly looking. At least until it turns into a pigeon gang-bang which is just - no. But pigeons, yeah. Silly.

---

I have to get back to lesson planning...grarr. I have twelve fairytales to rewrite in a boring way due by Tuesday, plus lessons for fourth and fifth grades and a couple of meetings this week. ::sad:: At least it's only a three-day week...

Because I've been a little overwhelmed with work and other boring nonsense, I totally missed the press conference yesterday that Philadelphia is getting a Major League Soccer team in 2010. GUYS! This is what I've been waiting for! I can't believe it! This is amazing!

It means that I'll finally be able to see the Revs play in person! :D :D

Seriously, one might think that I'd automatically support my new "home" team, but... I've loved the Revolution since they were last place underdogs lo, these many years ago. But, I'm open for a second-favorite-team. :)

Now, if only their supporters weren't called the "Sons of Ben". Dude, what about the ladies? I can't be the only girl in the Philly area who's a soccer fan...

I was watching bits of a 60 Minutes segment online the other day about how Denmark is the happiest country in the world because the people living there have lower expectations for their lives than in other countries, and I promptly forgot about it until today when I thought YES. That really is the problem, isn't it? We (as in the royal we, as I don't know if this is how anyone else feels) expect great things of ourselves - we can be successful, rich, well-educated, have anything new that we want, etc. etc., so long as we put our minds to it, go to college, go to church, be involved, be pro-active, want to help others before we help ourselves, be risk-takers, be the best we can be, plan ahead, don't sit on our laurels, invest our money, market our strengths, excel at multi-tasking, be go-getters, butter up the boss, lend a helping hand, manage our time, be individuals, be tenacious, think positive, don't let the little things get us down, stop to smell the roses, have ambition (but not too much), and be true to ourselves.

That's utterly ridiculous. No wonder I feel so stressed and had the mother of all migraines Thursday evening where I thought I had meningitis and was sobbing into a blanket and thought I was going to DIE.

So here's to lowering my own expectations for myself. I'm going to just keep saving my money, finish out this quarter (or semester, whichever it'll be), and THEN worry about getting into grad school or getting another position somewhere. I am not a multitasker; I work best when I'm focused on one large project at a time. I accept that of myself; the toughest task is getting other people to see the same thing without stepping on anyone's egos. That's a project in itself.

Eeeeep! Eclipse!

I hope you all got a chance to see it; even though it was snowing this afternoon, it cleared up in time for us to enjoy its orange-y wonderfulness. ::is happy::

It's Monday morning? Are you for realz? I have to leave for work in an hour?

Ha! That's just too... too... aw, crud. I knew as I listened to the rain all night long instead of sleeping that I'd be paying for it in the morning...

Hee, I watched Chris Matthews on Hardball tonight make a great analogy between Obama/Clinton and Lawrence of Arabia. The fall of Aqaba was likened to the knocks Clinton's campaign has taken in recent weeks. Also, any show that features Tom Brokaw doing commentary is for the win.

I'm glad my state isn't caucusing right now (is that a word?); the anxiety caused by watching these political antics is bad enough without having to worry about who I'd vote for in a ... wait a minute. My state doesn't have open primaries, so I'm not allowed to vote in them anyway! Goddamn, sometimes I hate PA.

Truth be told, if it ends up that Obama wins the Democratic nomination, I don't think I'll be that broken up about it; I like Hillary Clinton (and the Clintons in general - Bill Clinton was a freaking awesome president) and would vote for her without a second thought if she hadn't been so hawkish about the war to begin with. Besides, I really, really want to see a woman president in my lifetime (and being only 26, I want more than one, thanks). But with Obama, yeah, I could live with that. But then again, it's not up to me to help decide since our country, as it is today, is not a true democracy where everyone is represented. This two-party thing has really got to stop.

I went two weeks without having to teach my hated enemies second grade students, but alas, tomorrow is another day. I blame my sudden M&Ms binge on their impending arrival. Seriously, I think I've eaten my weight in candy-coated chocolate today.

___

I was going through this year's collection of wall-calendars-sent-free-in-the-mail, and judging them worthy based on whether or not they had pictures of apes. I can't stand them; gorillas and chimpanzees freak me out. I don't wish them any harm or anything crazy like that, but I certainly don't want to see their pictures on my wall for a month.

Strangely, orangutans don't bother me near as much, and I'm not sure why.

___

I'm afraid that I've read all of the decent G/B fic that's posted on the web, and I'm going through withdrawal. I forgot until recently just how ridiculous it is getting into a fandom that is essentially just limping along on the memories of yester-year. Note to self: in the future, stay away from fandoms that have not had new canon material in five-plus years.

However, if there is still professional fiction being written for DS9, there's still some canon in the making, right? In fact, just a week or two ago, I read the Star Trek SCE (Starfleet Corps of Engineers) eBook #55 Wounds Book 1 and # 56 Wounds Book 2 (though I bought mine through Sony's eBook store since that's the hand-held I have), and I really enjoyed it (them, though really it's all one book just broken into two parts that you have to buy) because it was chock-full of Dr. Bashir torture. I just wish that there was more fall-out to the story (the next DS9 book in the series, Warpath, doesn't make mention of the events of Wounds, though if I remember correctly, they were published the same year, so there you go). I'd love to see some Bashir fic written about the DS9 Relaunch books; there's still a lot of potential left for the character in the canon universe.

On the other hand, I'd settle for some new Bashir-fic, period. Beggars can't be choosers, and all of that.

What is up with Parade magazine this weekend? Okay, granted it's a shamelessly pro-conservative rag which in the past I only picked up to read for the Ask Marilyn column and the Laugh Parade, but it doesn't excuse printing its feature article - an interview with Benazir Bhutto - without mentioning once that the woman in question was assassinated. The article is written in the present tense; the very front page of the magazine sports the sentence "Is Benazir Bhutto America's best hope against al-Qaeda?"

Open up to the article, and the teaser before the title reads "As Benazir Bhutto seeks a return to power, Tuesday's election in Pakistan could profoundly affect the fight against terrorism." The rest of the article is written in a similar vein - and I wouldn't have a problem with that if they simply put a disclaimer at the top saying that the magazine was about to go to print when she was murdered. Would that have been so hard? Just how far in advance are these things published, anyway? Or was it just supreme laziness? Crazy.

The windchill this morning was 5^oF (-15^oC). Most mornings, I have bus duty at work, which involves, among other things, opening building doors and van doors for students as they come in. Bus duty usually lasts about 30-35 minutes.

Can we say, "REALLY FREAKING COLD, OMG!"? My fingers... I could not feel them.

In other news, they're saying that it'll be about 65^oF (18^oC) by next Tuesday. ::squee!::

Every single time I get a fever, it's accompanied by sharp, spikey pains in the joints of my fingers, shoulders, and knees, and I get hypersensitive skin. The shifting of my shirt sleeves hurts. I'm not even that sick; I just came down with a head cold last night (picked up from the cashier at the grocery store the day before that, I have no doubt). So does this happen to anyone else?

At any rate, it's three hours til Christmas! I would have quite happily spent the night with my telescope trained on Mars and the moon, but, alas, it is cloudy. Instead, I'll just wrap up in my electric blanket, read, and wait for the decongestant to kick in. Onward to Christmas! Enjoy!

Holy potatoes, it's windy. It's just absolutely howling out there - you can't tell if it's the wind at first, or low-flying aircraft. But since military planes usually don't fly low over the neighborhood at night, you realize it's the wind a half second later. The winds tomorrow are supposed to be 20-30 mph with gusts to 55 mph. Couple that with a daytime high temp of 33F, that makes for nasty windchills. I'm betting the kids have indoor recess tomorrow, too. Joy!

On the other hand, today was a great day to just sleep in, do laundry, eat cookies, and watch DS9 episodes all day. I'm re-evaluating my opinion on Sisko after having watched the sixth season episode Waltz. That was a damn fine episode. These DVDs were a great investment. Ah, geekery! It beats the hell out of reality all the time, at any rate. :D

Twelve more days until Christmas! :D :D :D

As you were.