Smoke and Mirrors

Procrastination!

Ah... it's a beautiful thing, procrastination. I still have a pile of work to do -- gearing up to do the Last Big Project, the one that's half my grade in both classes (which, happily, I can turn in for both classes, hurrah!) I know I need to be doing a lot of research, but... well, I just couldn't make myself do it tonight. I did finish some homework tonight -- an essay evaluating three website about dinosaurs for children. Now I just have the one project to go, and this hellish semester will be over.

Last night, my class met at the art library at Boston College. I had never been out there -- it's all the way at the end of the B subway line. It took me ages to get there. I tried to read on the T (To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, on a recommendation from Joanne) and fell soundly asleep instead. When I woke up at the end of the line, I was completely disoriented and could very well have spent the rest of the night wandering around lost, except I ran into a guyn in my class, who had a car parked nearby and gave me a ride to the library.

The library -- what little I saw of it -- is beautiful. It's an old Gothic building, with lovely stained glass windows. I thought we were going to have a tour, look at the collection, fun stuff like that... instead, we sat in a little room and watched a three-hour Powerpoint presentation. I was bored stiff, and cranky, because we could have had the presentation in Boston, rather than travelling all the way to BC.

It took me an hour and a half to get home -- an hour on the train, and then a half-hour on a bus driven by a complete lunatic. I've ridden buses driven by this guy before, and I am convinced that he's crazy. He is very loud, often yelling things that make no sense at all, and he really likes to turn on the microphone and sing off-key snatches of songs... last night, when I got to the bus stop, the bus was already packed. It was ten o'clock by then, and I didn't want to wait around until 10:30 for the next bus, so I squished myself onto the front of the bus, followed by two guys who ended up pressed against the front doors all the way to Chelsea. Even though the bus was full beyond capacity (they aren't supposed to let people stand in the stepwells) Mad Driver kept opening the doors and yelling to the people still at the bus stop to climb onto the roof, then cackling like... well, like mad. We finally left the station after ten minutes or so of this, and headed over the Tobin Bridge to Chelsea. One of the guys squashed against the door said "Man, I hope he doesn't open the doors" and Mad Drviver heard him. For the rest of the trip over the bridge, he kept yelling "Like this?" and making motions like he was going to open the door and dump the guy, and the rest of us in the stairwell, out onto the road. The first couple of times, the guy who'd spoken laughed uneasily. Then he looked worried, and tried to find something to hold onto. Finally he said "Look. Stop that, okay?" The driver just laughed. Once we got to Chelsea, the driver felt the need to stop and yell out the doors to random people on the street. At one intersection, he sat and talked to a woman on the corner for about five minutes, while we waited for him to move along so we could all get home. He drove away from the corner with the doors open after a passenger yelled at him, and, since he was watching his friend instead of the road, he took a wrong turn. He didn't notice until people starting demanding to know where the hell he was going -- then, when he did notice, he drove around the same block several times, laughing and yelling "There's a nutcase behind the wheel!" into the microphone. A man at the back asked to be let off -- he said he lived nearby, but I think hge just preferred to walk. I didn't blame him. The driver ignored him. We finally got back onto the bus route, and he sang into the microphone all the way to my stop. I bit my tongue to keep from calling him a jackass when I got off -- and today, since I was still annoyed by it, I wrote to the MBTA and complained. I don't expect anything to come of it, but... I was scared last night. It takes a lot to scare me, but I hate being around someone who acts so crazy. He was paying no attention to where he was driving, and he could have caused an accident. Plus, I was damn tired, and just wanted to read my book quietly until I got home. Not too much to ask.

Because I am shamelessly mimicking Monique, I have more Sims updates. (Hey I said procrastination was a beautiful thing!) When we last checked in, Russell Crowe and MaryEllen had just had a bouncing baby girl. Yesterday, after a mere three days of infancy, baby Claire turned into a little girl, in a shower of daisies.

As we see here, MaryEllen and Mom Sim didn't even take any notice. Also, Claire is wearing an odd hat, for no apparent reason.

After a few minutes, MaryEllen noticed how grown-up her daughter had gotten, and they shared a touching moment:

Later, Claire chatted with Bob. I think the Speedo might make this an unhealthy environment for a child.

Still later, Russell explained his alien conspiracy theories to little Claire:

Quick catchup entry, with Sims

Hello. No, I am not dead, though this semester is doing its best to kill me. I'm about halfway done, and I have one big project left to do. I am very pleased with myself, as I managed to build a webpage from scratch, with a minimum of swearing at the computer. Is it sad that my first thought, upon finishing the site, was "Man! That'll look good on my resume!"? I spent 16 hours last weekend on that project, and have been spending almost every night since on homework.

I tookm today off work, because I couldn't sleep last night. I went to bed tired, and lay there scritching the cat, and did not sleep. I kicked off the blankets, turned over, and didn't sleep. I dozed, had a nightmare, and woke up again. I tossed and turned and annoyed the cat, and finally fell asleep about a half hour before the alarm went off at 5:30. I tried to go to work, but after ten minutes of standing in the kitchen trying to remember how the coffee pot worked, I gave up, called in sick, and went back to bed. I slept until 11 or so, then got up and did more homework.

I went into Boston tonight for my last therapy appointment. I don't have the time or money to continue, and, really, I think it has served its purpose. I started going because I couldn't make the last horrid scenes with Barry stop circling around my head, and I felt so broken... and really, I don't know how I would have gotten through without it. The doc said lovely things about me -- said I am sweet and pleasant (heh) and that, should I need to talk, he's just a phone call away. I left lighthearted, and feeling strong. I feel like I acheived something, like I came through something that came frighteningly close to killing me, and I'm okay. I got through it. I feel I can handle just about anything now. And, given the fact that I've started my job search, I need that strength.

I have, in spite of all the homework, managed to find time to mess with my Sims in the past week. I downloaded a Russell Crowe Sim, and made he married the Mary Ellen Sim soon after.
Shortly thereafter, there was an addition to the house when Russell and Mary Ellen had a baby. Whee! :

And, in a sad note, Patrick ended his online journal. I understand (and applaud) his reasons, but I'm sad to see him go just the same. He was, after all, the main inspiration for me starting my own journal. I am lucky enough to be able to see him often, but I'll miss his updates. I know that he's going to go on to write amazing things (he has proved that ability already) and I have an enormous amount of respect for him. Someday, when he's tremendously famous, I'll be bragging I knew him when...

A hiatus from the hiatus?

I got a ton of homework done this weekend. It's a tiny bit, compared to what I have to do over the course of the semester, but I feel good about it -- I got a large chunk of my first HTML project done. I'm relieved, as I knew I would only have this past weekend and this coming Friday to work on it. I started off not knowing any HTML at all, to speak of, and now I know the bare basics -- essentially, what I'm working on is just a paper, but it has to be handed in as a web page. I think I was so afraid of the coding itself that I was convinced I would never get the project done -- it isn't finished yet, of course, but I can wrap it up Friday.

The homework was difficult over the weekend, though. Saturday was way too hot -- I went to class, and afterward couldn't stand the thought of going home to my sweltering apartment. It was in the 90s outside, which meant it was a sauna in my living room. I went to the mall and wandered in air conditioning instead. I dragged myself home at around 4, and settled down to work... and then wasted an hour or so reading email, chatting online, and playing on 3WA. Then, once I finallt got settled down to work, a large and scary thunderstorm rolled in. I like thuderstorms a lot, but not so much when the lightning is actually hitting the ground in my neighborhood. I shut the computer down and unplugged it, then ran around closing windows (making it even hotter in my apartment) and then sat and read and comforted the cat -- she hates bad weather. Once the storm rolled out, my homework momentum had worn off, so I fiddled around a little bit and then gave up. Most of the work got done Sunday, in between more large, scary thunderstorms. I'd get started writing, then have to shut everything down, then I'd start again once the storm seemed to be ending, then would have to shut down again... at one point, I decided, like the very smart girl I am, to sit in the living room chair and read while the storm passed. the chair is right under the window. Have I mentioned the lightning hitting the ground? I settled in, got comfy, and started reading and scritching the cat, when BOOM! A big blue flash, a huge crack of thunder, the cat bolted and hid under my bed, and I yelled "Holy shit!" and fell off the chair. I think a tree very near my house must have been hit. My ears were ringing, and the hair on the back of my neck was all standing up and tingling. Once that storm passed, I spent a few more hours writing, and finished for the night at around ten, feeling very pleased with myself.

Work is very weird at the moment -- we are switching circulation systems, and our old system has been shut down. The new one (which no one really knows how to use) isn't ready yet, so we really can't do much for people. We can check books out manually, but we can't look anything up, or renew anything, or put holds on books... luckily, people have been fairly understanding so far. I'v only had one person get angry because I couldn't look up the book he wanted for him.

And now, I am tired... must go off to bed. Maybe I'll update again soon, maybe I will go back to the hiatus... I'll surprise you, how about that?