Evil Wrapped in a Fangirl Disguise

I'm posting this from the computer of the family I'm house-, horse-, and dog-sitting for. I'll be here a week. There are 24 horses and 5 dogs. Phew.

Also, SNOW.

( Supernatural - 6.09 )

If I get anymore spoiled for the next episode than I already am, I will punch something in the face. By which I mean, BE CONSIDERATE WITH YOUR SPOILERS PLEASE. I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW.

Just felt it needed to be said again.

So I was going to post about fic difficulties, but then I decided to e-mail sdrohc_ratiug instead and save all your flists.

But I will say that we got SNOW. FINALLY. Without it December was just starting to feel like a great big cold spot. And while snow is a pain in the ass to drive in (I should know, I had to tonight) it is pretty! Driving through it at night is like being in one of those starfield screensavers.

Or on the Enterprise.

Also, it is very quiet right now and every now and then I can hear a cow outside. Just this low, lonely sound. I like it better than the coyotes.

Speaking of quiet...I love the sound of the snow falling through the trees here when everything is perfectly still. That and handline going in the yard in the summer are probably two of my favorite outdoor things.

Tim Story's "Asleep the Snow Came Flying" is a piece of music that pretty much always comes to my mind when it snows. It's one of those songs that's tied in with driving home on winter days in the early dark with Mom and watching the snow out the window, toasty warm inside. I think I'll probably always associate it with the same feeling the perfect stillness of winter here gives me.

And now that I sound crazy, I'm calling it a night. :)

- Went in and met with the school district's business manager to ask some questions about the proposed budget. Didn't take too long. He's pretty helpful and was wearing a nice shirt-tie combination.

- Woke up too early. Really want a nap.

- Can't take a nap. Writing feature on peaches. I am looking forward to peach season. Mmmm.

- Meeting sdrohc_ratiug for dinner, and drinks possibly (margarita? pina colada?), tonight. Yea! Fun hanging-out times.

- More SPN season four to catch up on tonight.

- Weather reports say it's only about 93 degrees right now. Ha. With an expected high of 97. Crazy. And by crazy I mean that's cooler comparatively speaking. At least it's a dry heat.

( Non-spoilery. Just...me being a big dork. )

Meanwhile, the wind is freaking me out. I moved all of the vehicles, so hopefully there will not be a repeat of last time it was horribly windy (involving broken glass and crushed door-frames.) I do not like this.

I have a caffeine headache. :( Ow.

Last night it was really windy. A couple of years ago, there was a winter storm where the wind was so strong, it knocked over powerlines and blew in silos and flipped circles. We had a tree blow over. Thankfully, I was in Seattle for that. And, thankfully again, I missed the big Seattle storm that year by being home. Anyway, last night wasn't nearly as bad as that.

Unfortunately, I came home this morning and found out that a huge branch had broken off one of the trees and landed on my dad's truck, denting the door and busting the window out. Not good. But that's what insurance is for.

If I had been home, instead of house-sitting, it would have been the car I drive parked there. There is also no way I would have slept last night if I had heard that right outside my window. Windy nights make me afraid another tree will blow over and hit the house this time.

It's 2 degrees outside but feels like -7. Colder in some other places.

And I'm voluntarily going out there.

Ha. Oh, winter.

Meanwhile, the palms of both hands and my left arm all hurt from my adventure in falling the other day. I'm just glad I didn't hit my head on the washer.

I've basically been mopey for the last three days with absolutely no excuse or explanation. I'm kind of sick of it. Maybe it's the weather? We've got several inches of snow and staying warm indoors is sort of the plan for every day and that can get kind of bleh after awhile.

But at least it's pretty outside. Instead of just being cold and brown and gross. That's something, I guess.

There is something about my new haircut that makes me feel cool and adult. I love it.

Also, we have our first snow! There's no way it's going to stick, since it's been raining all day. But still! Snow!

While Seattle Central, only three blocks up the road, has canceled classes today, SU students are risking their lives for their education. Now that's dedication.

Okay, so not really. But I did slip a bit in the crosswalk on the way to class. I could have fallen and gotten run over by one of those drivers that thinks of pedestrians as moving targets. And though the sun is now melting lots of the ice, there are still patches where you're happy walking along and then, whoops!, all of the sudden you're on your ass.

Not that that's happened to me in years, but I'm always afraid it might. At least, it hasn't happened to me on ice in years. I did fall down stairs at least once both my freshman and sophomore years. I am oh so graceful and light on my feet.

Anyway. There were only six people in Masculinity this morning. Classes before ten were canceled, so either they couldn't get in, misunderstood the announcement, or just decided that it was unnecessary to show up. It was actually kind of nice having only six people. Much more like small group work, which makes me a little more willing to put myself out there and share a thought. And I did. Go me. For class we had to read Sir Orfeo in Middle English (always fun). It's based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, so I explained that myth because one of my questions for today had to do with the significance of the change from a tragic ending (Orpheus) to a happy one (Orfeo). Really interesting stuff. And it was lots of fun hearing the professor read bits out loud.

There was also talk with one of my fellow classmates about Asian American Lit and how if it's not canceled tonight we should e-mail Tung and suggest that he cancel it, since the roads get dangerous after dark and he doesn't want to leave his baby fatherless. We're awful people.

The wind is blowing so hard right now I can actually feel it in the floor. It's freaking my out just a little, though I know it's not nearly as bad as it sounds. However, with all of the trees it makes a lot more noise (kind of like the ocean). And then there's the added fun of huge flying branches. It's this type of wind that ruins everything but the slightest breeze for me. You Seattle people that always say, "I love the wind," are crazy.

The weather was weird all day anyway. We went to Wenatchee and it started snowing huge wet flakes and didn't stop for about four hours. At one point there was talk that roads were going to get closed and speculation that we'd be stuck there. Which would have been fine, I had books and things to occupy myself. Luckily, the snow let-up, but the ride home still took 30-45 minutes longer than usual.

We ended up with 2-3 inches of snow in the yard and Mom and I went out and took pictures of the Christmas lights (on the one tree) in the dark and those turned out kind of interesting. And now the freaky wind is banging things against the windows and threatening to knock the power out (according to Spokane). And the bad thing here is, since we use our own well-thing, if we lose power, we lose water. I remember the first time I lost power in Seattle and still was able to have running water. It was like, wow, modern conveniences!

In other news, I got most of my Christmas shopping done! Although, holy crap, we went to Walden Books/Borders in the mall in East Wenatchee and they did not have a single book by Virginia Woolf or James Joyce. There was a bunch of Kerouac and Twain and that Garrison Keillor and manga. Weirdos.

Not that Woolf and Joyce are special or anything, but I was (am?) feeling at a cross-roads reading-wise and thought, hey, I liked To the Lighthouse, let's try something else. No? Okay, Irish Lit is coming up soon, let's try Joyce. No? Screw you, you small town hack book store! Screw you! Geez. Moses Lake is smaller and their Hastings would still have Joyce. (And now I'm going to go to Hastings and they won't.)

Country life. Ain't it grand?

(OMG, do you know how much it hurts me to write "ain't" and leave it?)