Trauma diverted.

There is this possibility... I'm not getting my hopes up too high - that the aforementioned orals will be rescheduled for the 27th of May, thus giving me 2 extra weeks to study. Rock.

sigh. That would be the best thing that has come out of this whole affair.

ARRRRRRGH!

So a particular orals advisor who shall remain nameless has decided that he can't make the meeting time we agreed on to take my exam and so I will have to reschedule. Again. Or, as he helpfully suggested, "find someone else to do your list with" -- in what, like, 6 weeks? the fuck?


Fuck. Fuck. fuck. fuck. fuck.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! YAY!

I will not be stressed.. I will not be stressed... I will not be...

So here's why I've been underground for the past week or two... verbally, at least. Pardon the stream - of - consciousness.

Match day- Boyfriend is coming to Chicago! Good News! now frantic looking for apartments is beginning.

Parents - causing massive amounts of stress in the apartment getting process as they refuse to remember that I am 26, know my way around Chicago, and can choose a safe place to live - Fights pending...

Birthday - causing a string of houseguests that are both a welcome distraction and causes of a compulsive need to clean and procrastinate

Orals - consuming life force... 7 weeks, 3 days to go. Unholy number of books to read. Impossible and irritating tendency to avoid working on them at all costs.

Car - Accident (minor), which lost air resonator; Bent rim on right front tire, losing air; gas prices rising as I have to drive more. Cost: er... upwards of $200.

Money - always a crappy situation - thinking of getting a job as a bartender in the evenings (although I have no skills whatsoever); taxes; bills; debt; emergency room bills; car insurance; gas; repairs; etc. etc.

Crafts - sudden overwhelming desire to be extremely crafty that is intefering with everything. Messenger bag of denim, soap, presents for friends, soup, drawing, painting, etc.

Friends - Kerri -- give her big hugs whenever you see her, her poor poor abused tooth is being cruel to her; Allyson, Karin, Noelle, Stephanie, Amber, Jett, and all of the other wonderful people that I want to spend more time with and who I have been neglecting - I love you all.

Stress - cropping up in the strangest of places, but becoming all pervasive and consuming (most of which I cannot discuss on this public forum). Pardon the facial tics - I am here, I am working, I am holding on to sanity and that is what matters.

So -- I beg you to humor me for awhile and just let me be as strange as I am - I will be normal(ish) again soon, I promise.

Hugs,
Katie

Ugh.

I am currently grading papers

I am eating lunch from frozen freezer leftovers

I am drinking apple-cranberry juice

I did some math and found out I need to read 7 items a week

I am exhausted

I am also, strangely, bored

I am Ugh

Ugh.

Ok folks.

So I'm sick - like, friggin flu sick - like I don't even care that I used the word "friggin" a moment ago sick.

I don't usually get sick, so when I do, I go down hard. Like a watermelon set atop a stack of marshmallows.

I also had my last class today, which was really very fun. We sat around and chatted and ate candy and pretzels and drank Diet Coke (which has been pointed out by one of my students as the academic beverage of choice - seriously, look around the department - what is everyone drinking? Diet Coke).

Anyway - I will miss them all, as they are delightful and wonderfully smart and my first class ever --- sigh...

But I'm sure that I won't be that nostalgic when I get their final papers to grade.

Currently, I am in the reg and thinking about how tired I am and how I'm going to curl up when I get home. On my nice, comfy, couch -- with a cup of soup -- and, er... soda -- oooh, and ice-cream. That sounds delicious.

For now? Hunting books - I'm going to try the sneak-attack this time. Every time I let them know I'm coming they scamper away.

Spring.

So this morning I look out the window (actually it was this afternoon, as I am a late sleeper) and see someone walking by in a T-SHIRT! I throw open the window and breathe the warmish 60 degree semi-spring air.

And then I couldn't get anything done for the rest of the day. I read the stories that my students are writing on for their final papers and got through the intro to Burke's Philosophical Inquiry into blah blah blah Sublime and Beautiful.

I had a small vision in the shower of how to map out my counter-aesthetics. I ate soup. I played on the internet. I called friends. I went to the store to get ice-cream. I watched "Event Horizon" (a fairly amusing 90's sci-fi horror flick about a ship that opens up interdimensional space). I jumped on my bed. I cleaned my kitchen. I thought up a way to make tiaras from any of my necklaces -- and pins. I hopped around my apartment on one foot. Spring makes me jumpy.

In all about 3 hours of work in my whole day. I couldn't even sit still enough to grade rewrites. I hear that it's supposed to get very cold very soon. The icy cold makes me hide in my bedroom under layers of covers and eat soup - the spring air makes me run all around my apartment and do crafts. If this weather keeps changing like this I won't even be able to write a sentence without stopping to jump up and down on my bed.

Hello folks.

This is my massive "what the hell has been up with KT" post.

Ok... er.... I've got nothing.

I've gotten to that point in the quarter where the weeks seem to really fly by, the days go really slow, and the months are eons.

I'm not really sure what happened last week - was that the weekend I went up to Madison? Yeah. I was up in Madison last weekend... For Scott's birthday party, and to see the Boyfriend... And I crashed my car... It's coming back to me now. Ok - last weekend, drove up to Madison Saturday and ended up waiting around for Scott and Molly (my sister and her husband) at a bar called, literally "Sports Pub". Despite the name sounding a teensey bit sketchy, it was really very nice and the liquor was cheap cheap cheap (ahhh Madison). So a good, dancing, cake-eating, boot-stompin' time was had by all. It was a blast.

Then I ended up at the Boyfriend's that night and the next morning some idiot backed his car into mine in the Barnes-n-Noble parking lot. Alas. My car was not significantly damaged except for this mysterious black box that fell out of the front right corner. I don't know if the people at Saturn have just started making up shit to put under the hoods of cars, but this is apparently (from my insurance company) an "air resonator". This is a made up part, I swear to God. What the hell would the air in my car need to be resonated for? There is no fluid in the box, only a couple of dead leaves. The car seems to run just fine without it. Eh?

Ah well. So post that I returned to Chicago for Monday then back up to Racine on Tuesday to meet with said insurance company. $25 to replace this thing, and they can't tell me what it does.

Did some thrifting, came back to Chicago, and worked my ass off all week until last night. Last night was dinner with Allyson and Ivan for Ivan's birthday at Hulio's Hacienda on North St. Damn damn damn damn damn fine food. This was unbelievably good.

Today, Saturday, was thrifting with Kerri in which I snagged such a cool pair of black suede pants that I'm going to name them - perhaps "Shirley?" I also grabbed a really cool faux 50's dress that is a nude base and a black mesh overlay that is difficult to describe in text. Needless to say - very cool. Total with red cashmere sweater? $12. I love thrifting.

Oh, and I've been making soap - so the past few days have been spent carefully shredding Ivory and then Dial Natural bars and boiling them down in a double boiler, adding random delightful and fun-scented things to them and re-molding them. Sounds strange, but it's quite fun.

Current soap recipe:

4 - 4.5oz Dial Natural bars shredded
2 tsp sesame seed oil
1 tsp coco butter
1 tsp sunblock
1 tsp moisturizer
2 tsp aloe vera
4 drops peach colorant
1.5 tsp honey fragrance oil

Seems to work well.

Of course I am also thinking of a morning face bar with crushed apricot seed, peppermint scent, and eucalyptus.

That was Thursday. Today I'm making soups - Black lentil with sausage and split pea with ham.
That means lunches for the rest of this and next week. Yipee!

Ok. So this sounds a little manic, but at least I'm getting stuff done.