Evil Wrapped in a Fangirl Disguise

Earlier today I finished the feature on the funeral home in Othello. Just now I mostly finished the RGA article. Now I just have city council to cover and that's it for the week. Except I'm really very tired of looking at Word documents.

The editor sent me an e-mail this morning asking if the RGA meeting was juicy. I had to rain on her parade and say no. It was only thirty minutes long and everyone was very pleasant and understanding. No voices were raised.

I appreciate this. I don't want to write the dirt.

What's nice about this week's council meeting is that it was only, according to the recording, 36 minutes long. HA. Much better than an hour plus.

Next week, I just have the school board meeting to attend. This could be very interesting, because they're trying to get the community to vote for their bond proposal so they can get money to add on to the district buildings, including a new admin building and bus garage. It's kind of a hot topic.

Here's my issue: voting "yes" for this proposition will increase our taxes, this is true. But where are they going to get the money to make these changes if the proposition doesn't pass?

Mostly people are annoyed by the new admin building. They think that's just, y'know, icing. Unnecessary. One of the boardmembers pointed out, though, that when the building they're using now (and it is quite small) was built, the school district only had so many hundred students and so many faculty members. It's bigger now, and bigger means more paperwork which means more office space. And maybe that's their excuse for a new building of their own. But the additions to the school are needed. (And then there's the whole "music suite" thing and how the board wasted money on putting in astroturf on the fucking football field even though we've been getting to State [and winning once we're there] for the last forever on regular old grass and lord knows that money would have been better spent elsewhere.)

My mom's boss is angry about this because the superintendent will not come out and say what the enrollment at the schools is. She feels that they don't need to be asking us to do this because it's not really necessary. As much as people keeping saying the number of students is rising, the number of seniors in the high school is staying about the same. So the school district must be hiding something, right?

::shrug:: I don't know. Maybe. But when they opened the new elementary school, I was in the second grade and there were no classrooms in the second level. Now they had to add and "intermediate" building to handle the fifth graders because there is just no room in the school. I don't know what's happening between elementary and high school - besides moving, dropping out, the usual - but I think it's pretty clear enrollment is up in the lower grades. Something does need to be done about the space issue. Because if it's not a problem now, it will be in a few years.

The more I go to these meetings, the more I don't understand why people cannot just figure out how to work together. It's like the port and the city butting heads. Ideally, they're both working to better the area. But that gets lost somewhere along the way.

I had similar issues with the fire inspection issue that only recently was sorted out. Oh, man. If it's going to provide a measure of safety, figure out a way to make it work. Stop trying to avoid it all together. Especially if it's in the codes and mandated by the state.

And, yes, I'm well aware that this is very naive of me. But seriously. Make it work, people.

I had no idea this was going to turn ranty when I started. Whoops.

I really enjoyed the graduation dinner, but now I'm kind of depressed. You spend four years with a group of amazing people and then you move on. And, yes, I know that it's not as cut and dry as that, but I'm never going to sit in one of Tung's classes and listen to him read "The Waste Land" as Yoda or do his impression of Forrest Gump. And I'm never going listen to Bean get excited about grammar and bounce around the front of the room. Or have Weber discuss issues of translation or listen to Bullon-Frenandez read Chaucer with such joy. And I'll never see McDowell in his Donne and Shakespeare society/conference shirts or hear Koppelman sing bad poetry about her cat.

And that's what I'm going to miss. More than the students, who I don't feel odd keeping in contact with, I'm going to miss the faculty. I'm going to miss the actual classes and discussions and readings.

I don't know how not to be a student.

And I guess that's the thing about literature. (Well, and life.) You don't stop learning because you stop taking classes. You learn the things you need to continue learning and then you go out into the world and you read and interpret and write about everything.

After the dinner I left and then went back because I had to tell Dr. Koppelman just how much I appreciated her class last quarter. All of my college life, and before that, I've been interested in Regency and Victorian literature. Eighteenth century stuff. And while I'd had Survey of British Literature I with Dr. Bullon as a freshman, there's never enough time in those survey courses to really get a feel for anything. And then I took Masculinity in the Middle Ages and suddenly this whole world of medieval literature is opening up to me and it's exciting and I love it. That never really would have happened if it hadn't been for her class. So I had to tell her that.

I mentioned to Dr. Bullon earlier this quarter that I was sad that I was only now discovering this love for Chaucer when I'm so close to graduating. She comforted me with the fact that they've really only offered two classes that have focused on him quite so much and I've had both of them, so I shouldn't be too disappointed by the timing of this discovery.

In the end, the nice thing is that I can actually say that I have no regrets. I've loved my professors (even the ones that drove me crazy in class with their haphazard teaching methods) and my classes and my fellow classmates (except for a couple who were just odd, though they make for excellent caricature stories). I just don't want it to be over.

Parents over this weekend for one of Mom's gift shows. (They're buying for next Christmas? Some holiday in the far future.) Tonight, if she's not too tired, we're going to the movies. Woo. They stopped by last night on their way into Seattle and dropped of my New Yorkers from the last three weeks and The Illusionist. Along with the latest ballot. (Blah.)

And I'm proving to be, oh, the best daughter ever, hooking Mom up with the last two episodes of Torchwood. I refused to tell her about the boykissing plot. I'm pretty sure she asked about the kissing and I said, "Well, there were pictures. What do you think?" ::nudge, nudge, wink, wink:: (Pictures aren't proof of anything, though. We did get that pic of Cadman kissing McKay and that certainly never happened on the show.)

We had better really be watching The Dead in Irish Lit today because I did not finish Castle Rackrent and am so not prepared for a quiz.

A couple of days ago, someone died in the building next to ours. Authorities think it was heart related. In The Spectator they had an article about it, but the most interesting part (maybe just for me) was that in 1995 (I keep wanting to say "five years ago," which is so wrong) a body of a former male student was found in the steamer room of one of the dorms (Campion). The body was only found because students were complaining of the smell. The heat and humidity in there were such that authorities could not identify the cause of death due to the deterioration of the body. This both fascinates me (hello, crime shows) and freaks me out (building right next door). And now I want to write mysteries on campus. Fr. Cobb was right after all. You write a book set on a college campus and you've basically gotten yourself a built-in group of readers (alumni, students, faculty).

And a crime/murder on campus would probably be much better than a book where a resident in one of the dorms has a virgin birth until, whoops, they realize it was one of the priests. ("Student Pregnant: God Suspected.")

I am a terrible person.

But YEA WEEKEND.

Got my hair cut yesterday. I am so incredibly pleased with it. New hair for the new year.

Our internet router has decided it doesn't like me using the internet on my laptop, so any conversations I've had with people online the last couple of days have been abruptly cut-off. Annoying!

Going back to Seattle tomorrow. Apparently Saturday we're doing something with aunt, uncle, and EB. Sunday I'll be back on campus. On the one hand, I'm excited because it'll be nice to see people again and the start of the quarter is nice before the shiny new-ness is rubbed off by the tediousness of homework and schedules. On the other hand, one more quarter means I'm just that much closer to graduation and that much closer to having to enter the, dun dun dun, world post-education.

With that in mind, I can definitely see the allure of grad school for people not ready to but done with the educational system. Which isn't to say that I am ready to be done with the educational system. I'm just not ready to spend $29,000 on it.

And, yeah, I'm just refusing to think about this right now. Because if I think about it too much, I freak out. And I do not need the extra added fun of that on top of the fun already surrounding how twitchy classes in general can make me.

Anyway. Yesterday they did a Robot Chicken marathon on Adult Swim and I caught several that never fail to make me laugh inappropriately.

- Care Bears, Or Why New Jersey is the Garden State - "Y'all know what time it is! It's bed time! And by bed I mean ethnic and by time I mean cleansing!"

- Harry Potter vs. the Monster Pubertus - "Shall we play put the sorting hat on the Slytherin?"

- Bloopers! Because I find the Cylons falling over hilarious for some reason.

- My Little Pony, Apocalypse Pony

Guess what?

SNOW DAY!

Which means my presentation and the paper that goes with it are postponed until Thursday. Even if I do have to write a paper for tomorrow.

Also? NEW SGA!

There are pics up for SGA's mid-season finale over at New Atlantis. Nothing spoilery, IMO.

My favorite part of Family Guy tonight was "Masturbator and Commander." Because apparently I am twelve. But there were ships and it was amusing.

I'm now mostly moved into the apartment. There's a couple of boxes that still need unpacking as well as some clothes and posters that need hanging, but Dad got the furniture here today so I'm comfortably lounging on something besides the floor. Or the uncomfortable two-seater thing-y (love seat? bench?) that was already part of the furnishings. It's really nice being out of the dorms. Plus, there are no loud, annoying freshman over here.

Now if only the magnetic words on the refrigerator would stop trying to stifle my creativity. Seriously. I would totally drabble on the freezer if I could.

Why am I watching the Flavor of Love reunion? WHY??

Have started re-watching season two of Dead Like Me (hence the subject of this post). Still hilarious. Still brilliant.

I keep stretching and my sternum keeps popping. Hmm.

A couple of things before I'm off to work -

- "Holistic" Admissions

Seattle University does some pretty interesting things and apparently it's actually pretty easy to get accepted to, but sometimes I love it a lot. Especially lately taking Ethnic American Lit and Asian Religions. I've come even more to the realization that because I am here I am being exposed to things that many of the people I went to high school with are not. And I'm exposed to new things in such a way as to make me open to them. The idea that there are people out there who see ethnicity and think "They are different. They are not us. We must change them now," frightens me. I am so grateful that here, for the most part, it's more "They are different. That's cool. Let's go grab some bubble tea." (Not that I've ever had bubble tea. Yet. Someone should take me.)

Anyway. The point? I'm grateful that SU is aware of the community they're building.

- Brain Development

I just thought it was interesting and reverse of what you'd expect.

Another year gone, another year beginning.

Happy New Year!

2005 wasn't too bad for me, but here's hoping 2006 is better. I hope the coming year is kind to all of you. :)

Heading back to Seattle today. We're supposed to leave in half-an-hour, but it's not really looking like that's going to happen so far.

Have been (sort of) packing for dorm move in on Sunday. I figured that if we're leaving Saturday I'd better get my act together. Not that there's a *whole* lot to pack. Mostly clothes and anything I bothered unpacking at the beginning of summer. But still, it's a bit of a pain. I'm just lazy.

Plus, I think I'm packing too many books. I always have this problem. I'm such a book-whore. (Sometimes I do get to be a book-pimp, though. That's fun.) I'll go through the bag again and *really* think about what I want to take with.

Basically have all my movies packed, though. All nicely contained for once. :) Go me!

*

So, um, thanks to the new trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire I may be getting my HP-squee back. Which is cool. I'm fine with that. 'Cause the trailer? ( Is NEAT. )

So, yeah. It's probably going out on a limb, but I don't think the movie's going to suck. Of course, as long as it's entertaining and absorbing I wouldn't think it sucked anyway. :) I'm easy like that.