Subject title in dedication to my two four-times-over loves right now, the Glee pilot and Star Trek. I've tried to write posts about them, but they've all come out garbled. I've seen them both four times in the space of a month! I love them lots! I follow twitters about them! I've allowed my brain to be infected by the virus known as ontd_startrek! Beyond that, my ability to express myself about them falls into incoherency and violent affection!

I don't know why I failed to post for so long, when I had plenty of stuff to talk about. Mostly I think it's because I feel guilty that I haven't been reading my flist. I love you all, so I feel bad when I don't check up on you regularly. :(

I sort of have a job lined up, if the paperwork ever goes through. I spent Memorial Day weekend in Atlantic City with saezutte and my future suitemates and we had lots of fun and one very heated game of Monopoly which I lost miserably. I am a sore loser, but also I was menstrual. It was a recipe for disaster.

I also saw Up. Such a cute, lovely movie. The love for Pixar in my household runs deep and true, so I'm going to see it again with the parents tomorrow and watch my mother freak out with love and my father get teary eyed, because I predict that is what they will do. I predict I will be the embarrassed, but entertained one in the middle.

What has finally driven me to fire up to ol' "Post an Entry" page is that I finished The Demon's Lexicon about 20 minutes ago and I wanted to tell any skeptics on my flist to give it a shot, because it is very, very good.

( Short review, no spoilers. )

On to The Demon's Covenant! I am pleased to say I look forward to it with high hopes and no reservations!

*Though she didn't use it in quite the same context, I did steal this joke subject from sparkly_stuff, who, incidentally, did a hilarious "I'm on a Boat" rewrite for Star Trek over here.

Had a nice birthday. Weird that I am officially 20. For the actual day, splintercat organized a trip to a Japanese-style karaoke place with private booths and we spent two hours making crazy, loud, off key fools out of ourselves. It was awesome. Also received amazing joke presents from friends from home, wyvernrabbit and enjoyabel:

1) Gone With the Nerd
2) Modified standing cut-out of Edward Cullen. Mine has sparkly Wonder Woman wrist cuffs, and buttons that say "I Support Cedric Diggory" and "I Sparkle For Liz."

Point two has taken up residency in my dorm room, where he has acquired further modifications in the form of a fashionable scarf and a panda hat. He watches over me while I sleep!

Be horrified. You know I am. Although slowly he's grown on me until I can almost view him with a kind of affection.

There were some other things I wanted to talk about, but I've pretty much forgotten what they were. I've been neglecting this LJ for too long.

Oh yes, I have a Twitter now, which I promise I will never bother you LJ friends about again. However, for the interested, you now have a link.

Alright, enough of that randomness. Have a meme:

( six icons meme )

RL rant in the next few paragraphs, FList. Run while you can.

So, I found out last Tuesday that my oldest friend's mother had died, and instead of feeling grieved in any measurable, healthy way, I promptly stopped sleeping. This went on in a pretty intense and stubborn manner until the funeral this Monday, which I skipped classes for, during which I had a good cry and after which I hugged my parents and came back to school and slept for eight deep hours, and then had one blissful day of relative normalcy before Wednesday, when my body decided to expel all of its repressed confusion and grief in the form of a violent stomach virus, and then, after 24 hours of sickness and delirium (when I should have been in class, making up what I missed on Monday), I woke up feeling mostly better except that I was suddenly, once again, apparently unable to sleep.

I hate this. I hate this so much. I hate that death happens to good people, to people I love, and that my body is such a psychosomatic bitchface, and that I can't help but selfishly despair over the fact that this all happened a week before midterm season, and how I am in no way prepared to deal with all this except to loose my directionless fear and rage into the wilds of the Intranets in the early morning when I should be dead to the world and am instead far, far too alive to it.

Okay, so I basically slept for two straight days. That was weird. It is Tuesday right? OH GOD, WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S WEDNESDAY ALREADY? *despairs of self*

Hello, new thremedon friends (*waves*)! I love you all, but I want you to know that I've gone more insane than usual the last 10 days or so making Spotlight Fest and Christmas happen at the same time. My parents and extended family sort of hate my blackberry now. (What is that infernal buzzing sound? And why is it coming from your pocket?)

My Christmas, as a result, was a total blur. I think I got some good stuff. I got a new printer, new laptop speakers, and Iron Man, which were the three things I needed desperately. I gave my mother not one but FOUR pairs of handmade earrings, which she loved. And my relatives were as generous as could be expected when we are a lower middle class family struggling with the crappy economy. I think I should consider myself satisfied, and lucky.

Also, somewhere in that mess I went to go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was AMAZING. It was funny, visually interesting, and let us just say I BAWLED at the end. And I don't mean the closing scene left some tears in my eyes. I mean for the last 20 minutes or so I was crying quietly, but freely in my seat. And as soon as the credits started rolling, I actually started sobbing, which was embarrassing, but very cathartic. Basically, I am a SAP, but I think this movie earned all those tears, which is more than I can say for other movies I've cried during.

Tomorrow/today, I have a New Year's party to attend, and then on the 2nd, I'm heading up to Boston to stay with the illustrious PayPay to belatedly celebrate the date of her birth.

The downside to all of this is that... I have fallen woefully behind in the Merlin fandom and will continue to fall even more behind over the next week or so. It is actually pathetic how quickly I got used to seeing Bradley James' face on my Flist every day. D:

I wish I was in a better mood when I finally got around to making a school post, but haha, we make due with what we've got.

My classes this semester are AMAZING. I'm taking this totally incomprehensible class on "Language and Culture" which is fascinating even as half of every lecture goes over my head. I've got Astronomy, which I'm taking to fill my lab requirement, but is turning out to be interesting and fun nonetheless. There's also Psychology of Learning which is only there to fill out my schedule, but is again, interesting, and the professor knows how to engage her audience. AND THEN THERE ARE MY 4000-LEVEL ENGLISH CLASSES.

I'm taking a class on Romantic Poetry with this man, I'm totally in heart. He's such a consummate poetry professor, half dork and half unbelievably melodic speaking voice. He's got a reputation for making poetry fun for people who do not consider it fun in the least. So obviously, he sends me into paroxysms of joy. So great. So awesome. So much love. I thought I was going to have to twiddle my thumbs until Byron and Shelley, BUT NO. HE EVEN MAKES ME LOVE BLAKE. BATSHIT INSANE, OVERLY CHRISTIAN/MYSTIC BLAKE.

THEN. OMG THEN. LITERATURE OF THE FIN-DE-SIÈCLE. It is a Victorian Literature class only on the 1890s. THE SYLLABUS, GUYS. It's got Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula, etc etc etc. If you haven't noticed, there is A LOT OF GAY in A LOT OF NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE. I CAN'T DEAL. AND EVEN MORE, THE TEACHER IS AWESOME. I think I scared her with my little sophomore enthusiasm. I figure eventually I'll tell her I wrote my freshman research paper on Victorian homoeroticism in Heart of Darkness and then all will become clear, but for now I am just this silly little girl in this class half-full of graduate students and I DON'T CARE.

And even more than that, I continue to live in the pockets of all my friends here, which has given me so much joy. Even more so because this is the most I've let myself get close to people in such a long time and I'm not being hated! There's so much love in my life right now its sort of stupid and sappy.

( ETA: Of course, OF COURSE, I was PMSing. God. Ignore, ignore! I'm really happy! I am not one of those people who is still on LJ because she likes to verbally masturbate about how emo she is! Really! Blame it on my raging hormones! )

THE POST BELOW IS THE REASON PEOPLE TELL YOU NOT TO GIVE YOUR PASSWORDS TO FRIENDS EVEN WHEN YOU ARE SORT OF INTERNET MARRIED TO THEM.

THE LIE IS PROVEN BY splintercat SAYING AS ME THAT MY BRAIDS ARE A TRIBUTE TO A JEDI PADAWAN WHEN IT IS A WIDELY KNOWN FACT THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN A SINGLE STAR WARS MOVIE EVER IN MY LIFE, AND THUS WOULD NOT BE WILLING OR ABLE TO MAKE THAT CONNECTION.

Anyway, yes, I am back at Barnard and instead of living in splintercat's LJ!pocket, I have taken up semi-permanent residence in her suite.

My roommate is awesome awesome loweryourwand and our room is awesome awesome high ceilings and access to the fire escape. However, our suite is not awesome awesome--it is in point of fact kind of sketchy--and the only suitemate I have really become acquainted with is sort of made of epic fail in the communal living department. Follow along the story as it develops!

Now, to sleep!

HELLO EVERYONE.

I BROUGHT splintercat SOME AMAZING GIFTS (I.E. MATCHING L AND RAITO BOOKMARKS!) FROM OTAKON LIKE 4 HOURS AGO AND I ENDED UP JUST NEVER LEAVING HER SUITE. BECAUSE SHE (AND HER SUITEMATE PAY-PAY!) ARE JUST THAT CHARMING AND ADORABLE.

NOW WE ARE WATCHING LOTR WITH CAST COMMENTARY HAHAHA. AND NOW I'M SAYING HORRIBLE THINGS ABOUT LOTR DOUJINSHI TO POOR splintercat WHO IS CRYING FOR HER CHILDHOOD HERE, OMG LOTR SHOULD NOT HAVE DOUJINSHI JAPAN SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED NEAR LOTR.

OMG LOOK AT HOW CUTE MY MOOD THEME IS! HAHA, LOOK AT THIS ICON TOO, I'VE NEVER SEEN HERMYSELF USE THIS ONE.

So like, I know I already said this before but THAT GEORGETTE HEYER, SHE'S ACE.

Venetia, God, I might have to name my firstborn that now. If I get around to the children thing. Which isn't likely. But you know it's the thought that counts!

My life right now is basically packing. I tore through Venetia and April Lady (also awesome, BTW) early this week so that I could finally return my overdue library books. (Over a dollar in library fines! Heinous!) And then I went to work Wednesday night and sort of haven't stopped.

Part of that may be that I hardcore cleaned my room in the process. I forgot how huge and empty my room was without the hulking bean bag chair taking up a fifth of it. Also gone are the broken lamp and fraying butterfly chair and many notebooks and magazines of dubious value dating back to approximately grades 5-8. Also, I brought up the bookshelf my Dad got me in May that I previously didn't have room for and it was filled double-shelved in less than half an hour. I've run out of time, so my books were shelved with no forethought at all and in no discernible order, but at least they are out of the gutter of my loft bed, the top of my dresser, and the drawer of my writing desk. They are in stable lines and piles, which is a new state of being for many of them, I must admit.

And anyway, the controlled chaos fills me with giddy anticipation because haha, first weekend home = reorganization and CATALOGING. OH YES. I haven't cataloged since my last sophomore year, so maybe it will be some kind of four year tradition. A TRADITION OF AWESOME. Also, of geekery.

So anyway, I've been cleaning and packing with my mother while my father gets sulky because apparently he cannot accomplish sitting around while everyone else runs about the house shouting about missing bras with much composure. At one point I might have yelled, "GO TWIDDLE YOUR THUMBS" with an undertone that clearly meant something else because I am not very mature, but you know, it never came to blows, which I consider a victory.

Also, my allergies kicked in this morning (on account of the dust, you see), so I spent most of today packing with a head that felt about four sizes too large for my body. At some point, the following conversation occurred:

Me: Mom, I'm sorry I'm being such a ditz right now. If I could just think in a straight line, that would be awesome.
Mom: Sweetie, you being a ditz is not that unusual.
Me: *laughs ruefully* *blows nose for the 136th time*
Me: (cheekily) I must have got it from somewhere.
Mom: Well, it's no wonder.
Me: *thinking it over* (innocently) ...But Mom, you're not a ditz.
Dad: (in the other room) ...

My poor father. I'm sure he says he suffers cruelly.

So... Natsume Yuujinchou is pretty darn cool? I hate the fact that I have this HUGE HUGE WEAKNESS for characters like Natsume. Lost characters who are just aching for a kindred spirit. I hate that I identify with these kinds of people, but I can't help but love them despite myself. AND OH MY GOD, MADARA/NYANKO-SENSEI, WHAT THE SHIT, WHY ARE YOU SO AWESOME?

I'm so behind all my other shows, what is wrong with me.

Anyway, I recently finished the Librivox recording of Pride and Prejudice that's done by Karen Savage. HEARTILY RECOMMEND. She has a smart English accent and she "does the voices," but not in a hammy way, which is just how I like it. And then I went nuts and re-read all my favorite P&P fanfic and also maybe Mr Darcy Takes A Wife. Oh self. You so trashy. Although I found it funnier this time around? I'm mildly disturbed saying this, but I actually enjoyed it more having read P&P just before it. Does that make any sense at all?

I have been listening to a prodigious amount of ABBA and ELO. I bought their greatest hits CDs with the last of my iTunes gift card money. ABBA is rather self-explanatory, but oh my God, Electric Light Orchestra. When put up against my recent hardcore classical music immersion after Nodame, their classical touches just send thrills through me. Also, my Dad stole my CD backup of the ABBA and has been playing it non-stop. This included hijacking the mix I painstakingly created for my mother's party, and telling everybody how awesome they are and how they should listen to them, which, I can't even explain how unnecessary that was in my pop-oriented family.

Actually, regarding the party, we were rained out of our usual outdoor location, which rather literally put a damper on things, but we made due at the house, even if it was in no way prepared for visitors. It also put a strain on the theme, seeing as we were no longer in the park, but everyone took that better than my mother. Half of them didn't even get what the theme was, hahaha. It didn't stop us from making them wear (New Years, plastic) top hats!

I also reread How To Marry a Marquis and Sorcery and Cecilia, and in my fit of Regency love, I dragged my mother to two separate libraries one day when our true motive for going out was to acquire a Personal ID card for me from the DMV, since I've given up even the pretext of acquiring a driver's license in the near future. We went to one library before the DMV which required doubling back, and then after the DMV we stopped at the other library which was 20 minutes out of our way. My mother is a saint.

So I acquired To Catch An Heiress, the "prequel" to How To Marry A Marquis, as well as Darcy and Elizabeth: Days and Nights at Pemberly, the sequel to Mr Darcy Takes a Wife. To Catch An Heiress was AMAZING. The ending didn't quite live up to the beginning or middle, but SUCH a beginning and middle! I had to put the book down multiple times because I was laughing so hard I couldn't read for my shaking. Most of those times involved something with Blake's butler who was HILARIOUS. I made a start at Darcy and Elizabeth, but I got 60 pages in with no humor, intrigue, or truly, anything of interest sighted which was about the time I consulted the reviews on amazon and saw that even people who 100% enjoyed the first were thoroughly disappointed by the second and I put the book down like a hot potato. Sigh. I've also acquired Mr Darcy Presents His Wife, which I'm hoping is at least marginally more interesting. Also, These Three Remain (twice in as many months!) and have been rereading favorite passages. My love of Dy only grows upon reacquaintance. And to round out the numbers, I also took out two Heyer books, even though they are in large print, which annoys me. They're Heyer; that should count for everything.

I've made a (very) unofficial goal for myself to have finished 15 books by the end of the summer. Just for reference, I've read 9 books so far: Aidan's Darcy Trilogy, Victory of Eagles, Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy Takes A Wife, How To Marry a Marquis, Sorcery and Cecilia, To Catch An Heiress. Don't think I don't see the running theme, it will be broken by Breaking Dawn whenever I get around to that. Speaking of, I avoided the release frenzy on principle, but I'm chafing at all the spoilers on my flist. I swear, when Deathly Hallows came out I barely stumbled over spoilers even when I was looking for them. What the hell, Twilight fandom.

So uh, yes. My week. There you go. OTAKON THIS WEEKEND! I realize I never posted about it here, but I semi-solved the problem of companions. Two of my friends are coming along, even though neither of them is any kind of anime fan. One is intrigued by the novelty, and the other's boyfriend is going to be there. Plus, I'm deep discounting their fare in the hotel since I'd rather have them there than be alone, so it is a cheap weekend away for them. I figure they can ditch me for a few hours if the endless parade of panels and merchandise begins to bore them. They have assured me they are up for a laugh, which is all I really care about. I'm excited! :D

Hullo Intranets! Lots of things happened in the three weeks since I last checked in (obviously)! In an effort to not bore you with the details, I'll cut every topic so that you can pick and choose from the tl;dr at your leisure!

( 1. I got fired! )

( 2. We had family visiting! )
( 3. I almost had a boyfriend! )

In summary, my real life these past few weeks has been made of failure, and I took it the way I always take it, which is by escaping from it by acquiring a new fandom. Which brings me to points 4 and 5. Please be warned that from here on out, there be SPOILERS.

( 4. I watched Doctor Who! )
( 5. I watched Torchwood! )
( 6. I read Victory of Eagles! )
( 7. I watched the Avatar finale! )
( 8. I watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! )

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. MY LIFE, THIS JULY. Also, I managed to see Get Smart and Iron Man twice, missed The Dark Knight's opening week and instead saw the UNBELIEVABLY BAD MAMMA MIA. DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE UNLESS YOU ARE SOME SORT OF MASOCHIST. ACTUALLY, I THINK I HAVE TO GIVE THIS ANOTHER CUT JUST TO ADEQUATELY EXPRESS HOW HORRIBLE THIS MOVIE IS.

( 9. I watched (and hated!) Mamma Mia! )

So anyway, if you have learned anything from this epic post, it is that you should avoid the majority of Mamma Mia! at all possible costs. And that I am most certainly not dead. Now I am going to go help get ready for my mother's annual birthday party/family reunion/picnic in the park which is taking place tomorrow. The theme this year is "Sunday In The Park With George" which we have cheerfully corrupted into parasols, polka dots, and picnic food. What can I say, it makes my mother happy.