it has been a long time since i got a headrushy feeling, felt tingly, and started to black out. i am SO glad that it happened while i was in a huge crush of people right in front of the stage at a concert. feel foolish and cruddy.

I tried to post on my PSP but it did not work. Too bad. Am at PAX this weekend. Should be at the Jonathan Coulton concert right now but am in bed at the hotel, alone. Had an awesome spot, like 1 person back from the barrier at the middle of the stage. Stood there through stupid FreezePop... feet hurt, knee hurts, hip hurts, but I can handle that... and then I start to feel dizzy... and feel a familiar rushing feeling and know that I'm going to pass out. And then promptly do something that I havn't done in a while... in about eight or nine years... my vision went completely black and I apparently started to go down, even though I -felt- like I was still vertical. Casey and a random guy helped me out (as Jared had turned around for a second and I promptly tipped over).

Apparently I can't do huge crowds + bright lights + loud music... ?

May be dehydrated... very possible, did drink four coolers before hand (am a lightweight) but was feeling almost 100% sober by then... eh.

I feel foolish. Jared came out to the outskirts and sat/stood next to me until it got to the point where I felt the same way and had to move even further out of the crowd. And then decided to head back. Even now I feel kind of spacey.

Spacey and foolish, as I ruined Jared's awesome spot for his favourite band to come nurse my blacky-outty ass.

Felt better outside and would like fresh air but the windows do not open on the 12th floor... and there was a homeless man arguing with some girls outside about how he knew they had five dollars. I would like to avoid this if at all possible.

AND the water is off in the hotel for the evening cause they're working on it or something... and this means that I can't brush my teefs.

And Gatorade is terrible. I am trying to nurse myself back to health with it and am finding it cloying and bleagh.

I read Livejournal every day, sometimes multiple times per day, and yet I can't be bothered to update! Ah well, I've been busy, I guess. I'm officially a university graduate, I received my diploma in the mail last week... and it says 2007 on it, making it look like I finished the damn thing in four years like I was supposed to (rather than in 4.5.) I miss school a lot, but it's been really nice to have actual days off. For years, any day I didn't have class, I worked. If I had time off, I felt guilty if I wasn't working on projects or doing my readings or whatever needed to be finished. Now... it's blissful!

For the past few weeks I've been focusing on being healthier. I have tons of extra time, so I've been following a book diet, something I was never really able to do before. Now I can spend a half hour or an hour cooking dinner, and I have time to eat my lunch (and I don't have to pack food around campus.) It has been going pretty well so far, which is nice. I also bought myself an exercise bike from work, which finally arrived yesterday. It is awesome, but unfortunately is not assembling very well. I couldn't get some of the bolts to go in, and when my dad took a look at it he found that the threads in the holes were all messed up and covered with powedercoat, so he has to bring home a tap from his work to fix it for me.

I was all excited to start, too. It has speakers, and you can plug your ipod into it!

My job search has been sort of sidelined by the healthy-getting, plus I've been working almost full-time, which doesn't leave me very motivated! If anyone knows of a position avaliable for a history major who doesn't want to teach, let me know. I'm tired of working in retail.

Well I suppose I should head to bed, the problem with all this working nonsense has been that I have to get up early! Horrid mornings. :d

Amanda

I really have no motivation lately. My room is a disaster, again, only it's an extra special Christmas disaster, so in addition to clothes and papers lining the floor we also have the addition of countless plastic bags, rolls of wrapping paper, and gifts that I have received hanging around. Every time I come in my room I sort of look at it, sigh, and climb into bed to play tetris/read. It's really quite a problem.

I also need to get motivated to finish my applications for that job I want to get, and also my app for government internships in the heritage sector. Urrgh. It's just the last thing I feel like doing! Well, apart from work. Lord, do I ever hate work. It breaks my heart to go there, that's for sure. Tomorrow it is me, our semi-new guy from Romania who is awesome but has a wee bit of a problem with a language barrier, and our newest guy (but by far the most capable) who is nice but still not one of the experienced people.

Soo.. that will be a giant hassle, but my dad and I are going to go see 'I Am Legend' tomorrow night... it's got all my favourite things.. post apocalyptic, zombies, vampires, all awesomeness!!

I finished reading Wicked last night... I should've gone to bed earlier but I am a fool who likes to read. I quite enjoyed it, and am really glad Lindsay gave it to me for le Christmas.

Well, I must go to sleep, and I find that the interwebs are much too distracting to promote restfulness.

Goodnight!

It has been so hectic lately, what with it being the "busy season" for retail recently or something. I am so glad I don't have to work tomorrow, though! This is my fourth Christmas at the Sears and it's the first time that I havn't had to work on Boxing Day. Hooray! I can sleep! I also have the 27th off as well.

I'm lucky I don't have to go to work, as my last normal bra totally crapped out on me on Christmas Eve. It was like it knew, I swear. Underwire broke clean in half. This is the second time that this has happened to me, and I still don't quite understand the physics of it. Apparently my boobs are a destructive force. Possibly, something like an avalanche or hurricane.

Christmas was good. We went over to my Oma and Opa's for Chinese food last night, and this morning opened presents with Dad. Then my mom came over with my Papa (her stepdad) and we drove out to Vancouver to visit my cousin, and then drove to my Aunt and Uncle's for dinner. A little boring but overall a good day. Oh, and Dad and I watched Jackie Brown when I got home, because we are cool like that. We also watched the Simpsons Movie this morning, and Knocked Up last night.

Gifts were good... although I was expecting something big (there was a lot of suspicious activity transpiring around in the last few weeks) I was not quite expecting to get a laptop! It's a combination Christmas/Graduation present from my parents, my brother and two of my four sets of grandparents. (Yes, I have four sets. Seven living grandparents altogether.) I'm pretty excited about the thing, although getting it when I'm done school and the bulk of my typing is complete (or so I think, perhaps I will be a professional googler when I grow up?) is a little weird. I was all 'Yeah! I can read Jstor articles in bed instead of downstairs... oh wait.. I don't have to read Jstor articles anymore.'

Annyway, I am going to go to bed momentarily as it's pretty late, but I thought I would brag with a couple of pictures, because I'm a bitch like that.

( Ooohh. Too bad it isn't pink! )

Pepper has been helping me write my paper.



Lolcat caption?
"I can has bachelur degrie?"

Please do not steal my cold nose song for any nefarious purposes. Come hang out with me and I may even sing it to you.

My nose is so cold
I don’t think it’s ever been colder
My nose is so-o cold
The winter must be gettin’ bolder

Ohh my nose.
It’s sooo cold.
Wooah-oh oh oh my nose
It’s so - o -o o cold.

I am so cold
It is truly unfortunate
I am so cold
I have my hood on
And I’m wrapped in a blanket

Ooh I’m cold
I even have my slippers on
Ohh and I’m still cold
I don’t think the winter will ever be gone.

Ooh I’m so cold.
I don’t think I’ll ever be warm again.
Ohh my nose is so cold
It’s gonna fall off and I’ll have no friends.

Oh my heck is it ever freezing in here!

Things I Want
(For Christmas)
(or whenever, you know.)

Stephen Colbert's I am America (and So Can You)
A new black hoodie
A brown hoodie (dark brown, not tan or anything)
A new coat, or else a new button for my current coat.
Mittens/scarf that don't pill and leave fuzzies on my coat.
I want the Sims2 Seasons but I'm afraid of the spyware or whatever that it has.
Laptop, pink, preferably. (I don't think I'll get this, not by a long shot, but I do want one.)
A job in my field. (This would be #1)
Pepper to get better. We went to the vet today, and his kidneys are worse, but not SUPER worse, because he's not going to get better. Thanks, vet. I knew that. You didn't have to rub it in while I paid you for the priviledge.
Zombie/Dystopian/Apocalyptic books
Bare Minerals makeup! Off the infomercial!
A hobby. I could really use a hobby.

Okay, well, Pep is pretty insistent that it is time for bed, and I do have class at 830am so I should probably go get my sleep on. :)

Amanda

Today my mom gave me a tupperware container full of old coins and one German 50 mark bill and told me to figure out how much they were worth. Apparently, I have nothing better to do with my time, and as I did just that, apparently she's right. Of course, I probably have around ten bucks of coins here, wait, I counted... I have $18.50, not including the four Chinese coins I couldn't figure out. Best coin? 25 cent Dutch coin from 1912, worth two dollars. Most interesting? The British penny and halfpenny from 1898 and 1899 with Queen Victoria on them are pretty neat, the square 1 cent from the "Straits Settlements" (Apparently Malaysia?) and the 1/2 pice from British India are also cool. The 25 para coin from Yugoslavia circa 1938 is neat because I <3 Yugoslavia even if Tito wasn't in power yet... and the Soviet coin from 1933 with the guy holding a hammer was the hardest to identify. (Also, guy with hammer!)

All in all, I didn't do any homework tonight but I made twenty bucks which I will probably never cash in. Also, my Papa had a surprising number of coins from the Third Reich. I guess he was doing more than firing artillery during the Second World War (he must have forgotten to tell me about all the Germans he pickpocketed.) :D

Also, the bill was from a lot printed in Vienna (German- Wiens) so is also called a WIENER bill. Snerk.

An evening spent, if not necessarily well.

Oh, and we went for dinner at the Keg. Mmmrmrmrmrm.

Amanda

Do this because you're procrastinating. That's what I did.

So here's how it works:
1. Open your music library.
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. Don't lie and try to pretend your cool

Opening Credits:
"Nightingale" -Norah Jones
Waking Up:
"Madonna vs. Bonnie Tyler, Like a Prayer/Total Eclipse of the Heart" - Remix
First Day at School:
"I'm Gonna File My Claim" -Marilyn Monroe
Falling In Love:
"Paper Planes" -MIA
Losing Virginity:
"Come Around" - MIA Featuring Timbaland
Fight Song:
"She Said She Said" -The Beatles
Breaking Up:
"$20" - MIA
Prom:
"Zombies Ate Her Brain" -The Creepshow
Life:
"Brian Wilson" -Barenaked Ladies
Mental Breakdown:
"Lets Build A Home" -The White Stripes
Driving:
"Love Today" -Mika
Flashback:
"Enid" -Barenaked Ladies
Getting Back Together:
"Shine" -Ella Fitzgerald
Wedding:
"Shoot the Moon" -Norah Jones
Birth of Child:
"What's Left of the Flag" -Flogging Molly
Final Battle:
"Rebels of the Sacred Heart" -Floggging Molly
Death Scene:
"Baby Won't You Please Come Home" -Ella Fitzgerald
Funeral Song:
"Let's Get Retarded" - Black Eyed Peas (HAH)
End Credits:
"When Love Goes Wrong" -Marilyn Monroe

I admit that I eliminated songs that I don't actually like/didn't download (some songs were sent to me by other people/were on mix cds that I ripped for other songs.)

Up late on Wednesday night again, only have to read an article and write a one page summary, why does it always take me so very long? Procrastination, it is the devil. If only my prof had spent our hard earned money on a giant course pack of articles instead of simply giving us JStor links. Then I would not be chained to the internets with all their myriad distractions. I am looking at you, Wikipedia entries on Borat, customers_suck
, the entire archive of Girls With Slingshots, and ohnotheydidnt. How am I supposed to read about siege warfare in Medieval Europe with all these enticing enticements distracting me? Even when I am using the google toolbar searchy thing to look up something (ie Le Chanson de Roland) to make sure that it is what I am thinking of, I end up clicking all over the place.

I am never as up on the lives of celebrities, disgruntled retail employees, and random facts, as I am when I am trying to do something productive on the computer.

Don't get me started on my Canada Youth-whatever internship application. I forgot that I'd already signed up for it (I assume on a night like this) and I had only partially completed the application. When I got to that point again, I remembered why I had stopped. "Pick three aspects from this list you would like to develop or change." "Describe five things from this list that you have and how you got them." "Write about your computer skills." My computer skills? I can type stuff, and I can google things. Oh, I suppose I can use journal databases but that is seriously just scholarly googling. I swear I've got a B.A. in search engines, for all the good it's done me.

I need some SKILLZ. Mad ones, srsly. I do type fairly quickly, and somewhat accurately. Particularly whilst journaling.

My left thumb has been killing me for almost a month now. I am hoping it will go away. I wanted to rip my new M.I.A cds that I finally bought onto my iPod but oh, look! The connecty thing isn't anywhere to be found! Damn my brother and I for having the same electronic devices!

Well, I suppose I should go to bed. I am finished my summary and it's quarter to four, I do have class at eight thirty. One would assume I should get up and shower or something in the morning, but lets be serious. Eight thirty classes-- they're lucky I brush my teeth.

:D
Amanda

I am not feeling very well. I think I might have a fever.. I feel quite warm and appear flushed. Alas, I still have homework to do, and I had possibly the worst day ever. Well, not the worst, but the worst transit day ever. I left my house early ( quite a feat ) at 1:35 (I usually leave at 1:40) to catch my bus. I stand at the stop doing the crossword puzzle, then the jumble, then the wordsearch... it occurs to me that I have been standing there for a long while. My cell confirms this. It is now 2:55... I am going to be late for class. No worries, 15 minutes late is no big deal, and I text my friend Laura to let her know.

Twenty minutes later, I text her again. I am scared that the second bus has not come yet... it is past the scheduled time... do buses run on Halloween? The answer is yes, they just run late. Late enough to cause me to miss my connection at the bus exchange. I am now two buses behind. I get to class an hour late.. it is an hour and twenty minute class. Instead I go to the bookstore to buy a textbook, and the girl gives me a candy. It has a rotten peanut in it.

Alas, what a horrid day.

I DID, however, get a nice 90% on my English essay. Hooray! I also got two Bs and a B+ on my anth assignments. I wish I'd done better but whatever, I'm still doing pretty good.

I should get back to this medieval war nonsense though. Charlemagne awaits!

This week was initially looking like a week of terror. I had my journal entries and take home midterm due today, my english essay due tomorrow and my history midterm on Thursday. However, due to rescheduling in my english class to work around bookstore orders that havn't arrived, my english essay is due next week. My journals and take home midterm in my anthropology class are now due tomorrow, as well! I mean, a one day extension isn't much, but as I'd planned to email my prof today and tell him I wouldn't be coming in as I was sick, in order to give myself more time to finish it up... this is awesome!

I would be done, too.. except for a domino effect of laziness and timing issues. I read all my anth readings the weekend before last while I was away, but did not write entries on them, as I had to read them in the middle of the night. We went up north for Thanksgiving, to my mom's family, and it's a whirlwind of socialization, rather than... quiet homework-time. I spent the rest of the week getting caught up on my history readings, which was probably 150-200 pages alltogether. Then I worked all weekend, which really puts a damper on my schooling. Saturday night and Sunday night, I stayed up til 3 am writing out notes on articles for my anth class, and yesterday I typed them all up (22 pages of notes on articles, videos, speakers etc.) I also started my midterm last night.

I was supposed to get up early yesterday morning to type out my journals, and then do my midterm after my class in the afternoon. I set my alarm clock wrong, though, and ended up getting out of bed at around 1 pm, much too late to get anything done. The awesomest part is the week extension on my paper, as I was going to be stretched pretty thin to get that thing written.

Well, I think I'm going to start typing out what I've written for my midterm, and then maybe get something to eat... I guess I'm going to class today, after all.

(Darn, I was hoping for a day off! :D)

I finally got a cellphone... look at me, I'm so grown up.

So I took Pep to the vet yesterday, and he stayed overnight while they did the surgery. They also did a blood test beforehand because he's old (11)... and found that he has almost double the level of certain toxins in his system, because his kidneys are having problems. It might be because of the abscess, or because of something else (age, food, etc.) They flushed his system with an IV last night and one of the levels decreased quite a bit but the other didn't, so we have some pills for him, as well as antibiotics for the infection. He has a checkup on his sutures in a couple of weeks so the vet will do another blood test then.

I really hope it's not a chronic thing, but according to what I've read, we caught it quite early (the vet said you usually don't notice symptoms until toxin levels are 3x the normal levels) so even if it is chronic he could be okay with a special diet and pills...

He seems good, though... and I can hear him crunching on food right now, so he's eating.
I'm not as upset about it as I was yesterday, and I'm really glad I took him to the vet, so that this could be caught before it was too late. :S

I have been up since four am... and I can't fall back asleep! This is not fair at all! It's not like I fell asleep at eight pm or anything.. I only got five hours of sleep. Being sick really sucks.

I was supposed to hang out with Lindsay this afternoon but I am not feeling that well, and apparently she's getting sick too. Not from me though... everyone's getting sick. I'm hoping it's just a cold going around and not, say, bird flu or something. That would be unfortunate.

I think I'll play the Sims.. I've got nothing else to do.. I'm on vacation and I'm sick. Jerkass immune system.

quisquilia is latin for 'odds and ends'

...

I'm super psyched- I got an A- in my SCMS class! Even though I... missed almost half of the classes and... drifted off in the middle of the exam..!! Yay!

Um... that's pretty much it, except I worked real hard all weekend, and had super giant free dinner at The Keg tonight with work folks. Our bill was over $700! There were fourteen of us, but still. It also DIDN'T include any alcohol! Crazyness.

Anyway, I must go to sleep, as I am ... super sleepy! :D

-Amanda

It has been a long time since I last updated...and now I am attempting to do so in the three second delays between iLike questions on Facebook. I have been rather busy, I suppose... but just don't have that much to say. Kinda sad, really, as I read my friends list daily (multi-daily, actually.) Anyway.. what have I been up to.. hmm.

I... turned twenty-two on the twenty-ninth, that was something. I had dinner at the Keg with my parents (together!) and Ryan on Friday night, dinner at the Greek Islands with Katie, Sally and Amy on Saturday night, and my Oma and Opa came over for coffee and cake on Monday night. I did get some pretty nice gifts though, and lots of money that I need to deposit in the bank or else it will just live in cheque form in my wallet.

I went to a garden party! That was really fun, apart from the less than stellar turn out. It's called RSVP-ing, people. You say you're gonna go, so show up! I baked fifty cupcakes. We all had at least four each. :D I also wore a cute dress that I bought at the Superstore. I don't like the Superstore on principle, but I must admit they have incredibly cute clothes at very cheap prices. They also have the moisturizer with tanner that I like (and have bought five tubes of incase they stop carrying it.)

I finished one of my classes, and wrote the exam on the 28th. I guess I did okay, but I hope I did well. I found myself spacing out and doodling in the middle of writing my essays, so we'll see. Grades aren't posted yet, so I wait in semi-anticipation.

Work has been hectic, as the two other experienced people went on vacation simultaneously, and two people who had been here for six months or so moved to different departments, leaving me and one other person with any experience at all, plus three new people. One of whom managed to seriously injure himself at work, and who seems to be pretty flaky in general. Hopefully he doesn't stick around, as he drives me up the wall. I'm never so glad as when Tuesday rolls around and I have three days off for school. Don't tell my supervisor that I don't have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays anymore though.. work=yuck.

Umm.. apart from that, it's been pretty day-to-day nonsense. I used to be able to write huge entries about what happened to me on the way home from school, but lately I just don't have the ambition. I think it's because I have been more social, and have someone to rant to about stupid customers or weird people on the bus, rather than writing about it here.

I think I'll have to make more of an effort.

Anyway, two photos of my shenanigans this past month.


Pre-Garden Party (sober)


Nearing the end of the Garden Party (semi-drunk, pretending my hand is the hat that I was wearing previously.)

my cat had a fit and meowed til i let him outside at 230 am... so to while away the time waiting for him to come back inside i was looking around on the internet...

and managed to scare myself real good by looking at things about the DeRitter creature, chupacabra, and other scary things...

methinks i need to read a romance novel to de-scare myself. too bad i have to work in the morning :(