Writer's Block

I nearly forgot this blog today. I am getting this in under the wire.

Today was a rather packed day. I spent the morning finishing those pieces of my paper that I didn’t manage to complete last night. I will probably be up well into the morning finishing my paper, since I have been volunteered to watch my cousin tomorrow.

The afternoon was spent in Ann Arbor at the mall. It was a fun day spent with friends, and it sure beat thinking over a stupid Shakespeare paper or pacing the floors at work.

It seems like I had more to talk about before I sat down to actually write this post. That figures.

Twelfth Night: The Paper

I’m 80% of the way done writing my final paper for my Shakespeare class. I’m excited at the prospect of being finished, but I can’t seem to hold my focus on the actual task of writing the paper. This is a common problem, however, when it comes to paper writing.

It is a generally acknowledge truth that paper writing is 90% procrastination and 10% actual writing. It all seems to even out in the end…

I have the next two days off, I don’t have to go to work or school, so of course it is supposed to rain. The only days that ever seem to be nice weather wise are always the days that I have obligations elsewhere. ::sigh::.

Alright, so I have dilly dallied enough as it is, and must get back to some serious paper writing. I promise to try and be more interesting tomorrow. Toodles!

The Anticipation Builds

I am used to having several things that I am supposed to be doing, and then in true procrastinator fashion finding something other to occupy myself with. This is why it is weird that all I really have to do at the moment is to write my final English paper.

Obviously I’m not doing that at the moment as I am blogging.

I’d like to say that I’ve interrupted my paper writing to write this before deadline, but that would be lying. I do have a portion of my paper written out though. I worked on it a little during my last break today, so yay me!

As of tomorrow though I plan to have my paper written and e-mailed out to my professor, God
I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I take my Psych exam tomorrow morning, and I want to send off my paper in the afternoon. I sent off my Philosophy exam days ago. The only thing that I will have left after tomorrow is to study for my math final.

I’m so stoked.

The only thing that could make tomorrow anymore awesome would be for MSU to get back with me about whether or not I’ve been accepted. That would be amazing…

Enough With The Neurons Already

I still haven’t heard anything from MSU. Still. Yes it’s driving me crazy, no I don’t really want to talk about it, let alone think about it.

On the WCC front my unofficial transcript currently indicates that my associate degree is pending. I want to take this as a good sign. I’ll give them a couple more weeks to get back with me on that front, after all this week is only week six.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate waiting? I’m sure I have, but it bears repeating. I. Hate. Waiting.

Aside from the whole waiting game aspect, today was actually a really productive day. We finished covering our last chapter in algebra, and I think I have a pretty good handle on things there. Today was also the last lecture in Abnormal Psychology; I get to take that final on Wednesday. Yay! Last night I finished and sent off my Philosophy exam. That was an AWESOME feeling; I’m so relieved to be done with that class. Earlier I managed to finish a massive outline for my Shakespeare paper, which is all that remains to be done for that class.

I’ll probably write the majority of the paper on my breaks at work tomorrow. I am so psyched to nearly be done with this semester! It is most definitely time for a break.

Earlier I was sitting in my psych class, and we started watching this movie. I kid you not the entire first half of the movie described in depth the appearance and function of a neuron. Now, in general relearning information doesn’t tend to frazzle me. I am used to this part of the education process. I get it, we need to keep going over the same information, it’s important, I will play your little games.

However, I must draw the line at this continual studying of neurons. Really, the concept is not so very hard to grasp. I understood it in all of my high school Biology classes and in the Intro to Psychology class I tool in the fall of 2007, and the Child psychology class in the following winter, and even the Human Biology course I took this last fall. By the time we went over it this semester in Abnormal, I was fully tired of the subject.

Neurons as important as they are, are not so very complex that they warrant this much attention. Or at the very least, they are not so important that they warrant this much of my attention.

Mr. Police Man

I traveled to the Detroit Metro Airport today. That was exciting.

My dad’s friend went to New York to visit with his daughter and new grand-daughter, and he came back today so dad and I went to pick him up from the airport. It was a beautiful day to get in the car and drive with the windows open.

But anyway, the airport… So we got there around one-forty or so, which turned out to be a good thing, because it took a while to find the correct gate to meet him at. We did end up finding the gate by two, and since his flight wasn’t due in until about two-thirty it meant that we had a bit of a wait ahead of us. This of course was fine, no problem, or at least that’s the impression we had of the situation.

We held that impression until the police arrived.

The first police officer was a funny little man. He drove around in his little car, attempting to be intimidating. He was definitely one of those people that didn’t seem to carry much weight, while he certainly tried to be the voice of authority he wasn’t very authoritative.

First you need to understand something about the layout in front of the Delta Northwest gate. There is of course the building, and then in front of the building is a sidewalk followed by five lanes of traffic. The one closest to the curb is apparently the only one in which it is considered kosher to park and wait in. The others are driving lanes.

We were sitting in the second lane from the sidewalk waiting, and this was an apparent no-no. Mr. Wise Guy apparently thought he was super funny when he pulled up and asked, “What are you waiting for, a ticket?” Though I kept my mouth in check, my knee jerk response was, “Obviously. That’s exactly what we came here for.”

He proceeded to explain that we were parked in the road, and apparently people were complaining. I however, don’t believe the second part of this is true. I mean, really there were three other lanes there. Any moron could have figured out how to use one of them. But okay, whatever, we moved to the proper lane. He then proceeded to make everyone in the proper lane move up and all the gaps were filled. Can anyone say control freak on a power trip?

Not long after we, and those who were parked like we were, moved a whole new group of people took our places in the second lane. This is when the police van carrying three more police officers arrived. They joined the lone cop on his mission to deal with the “situation”. They appeared to be even less effective than he had been. While he backed off, they approached several people before they too backed off choosing instead to loiter by their van which they had parked in the third lane, creating a problem that had not previously existed.

However, the fun had only just begun. Not long after the arrival of the van police, another one showed up. This guy was on a motorcycle. Not once did he get off that motorcycle. In fact, he didn’t even really seem to say anything to anyone, he just road along the second lane in his motorcycle watching everyone. For a little while he two parked in the third lane and sat on his bike as traffic drove around him.

Eventually though, they all took off seeming to give up on what had been deemed an unfixable problem. A short while later an officer returned, this one on foot, and he walked the second lane, he never stopped to say anything to anyone.

It was insane. The first officer seemed to care SO much about how everyone was parked. He was very committed to his job as it related to parking control. It was almost comical.

A Good Day

Today has been a good day. There was nothing particularly spectacular about it, but I feel good about it and that is half the battle, right?

I had to work, and it wasn’t really busy which was boring but not awful. I spent the evening putting stickers on fudge boxes. But before I went to work I watched Hank Green’s new video, and it is made of AWESOME! You must watch it, and I’ll make it easy, I’ll include it here!



So Maureen Johnson has issued a bet, which will expire in less than an hour. Essentially she said that if her book Suite Scarlet, which just came out in paperback, made Amazon’s top 1000 then she would go to Trapeze School. She does not want to go, so naturally I contributed by purchasing two copies. I personally already own and love the book, but I think my nieces each need a copy….

…especially if it means Maureen gets to go to Trapeze School.

While I was browsing Amazon I also came across “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”. I knew this book existed I just hadn’t gotten around to purchasing it yet. I now own a copy, and just have to wait for it arrive in the mail. Really, I mean, is there anything better? Pride and Prejudice with zombies inserted?

I’m sure it’s as every bit entertaining as it sounds, I can’t wait!

So yeah, today was good day. I mean, yeah okay I didn’t hear back from MSU or WCC yet, and it’s still driving me bonkers… but whatever. I guess. Ugh, waiting is awful but at least today wasn’t I suppose.

Decisions, Decisions

I am working on finishing the more difficult part of my Shakespeare final exam at the moment. Just like on the midterm, this worksheet is for the most part compiled with quotes from the book. My task is to go through and for each quote determine who is speaking, which play it is from and what is taking place when the part is being spoken.

In theory it shouldn’t be difficult, considering that you know, I’ve read the plays. Really it’s not hard work it’s just a pain in the ass.

Have I told you lately that I’m really sick of Shakespeare? Because I am, I really am.

Aside from this crazy worksheet I’m waiting for my Philosophy professor to post the final for that class. If I could have the weekend to work on that it would be fabulous. Or even Friday. I could definitely devote some time to philosophy on Friday.

As far as my on-campus classes go things are going a little more smoothly. I just have a few more pages of reading to do for psychology, and nothing pressing for algebra. I’m hoping that I can get everything out of the way by early next week so that I have plenty of time to devote to the math review packet.

I also have to decide when I want to take my algebra final. He’s putting copies in the testing center, so theoretically I could drive up next Saturday and take it, but then Shawn still has to go in the following Monday, so it might just be smarter to wait and take it in class.

Decisions, decisions. I can’t wait for this semester to be over. I’m in need of a break, big time.

A Taunting Mailman

I think the mailman is taunting me. He must know what I am waiting for several letters to arrive and therefore finds it fun to fake me out.

This morning I walked into the kitchen and when I looked out the window, there was the mailman’s car stopped in front of our mailbox. Generally one is led believe that this means that the mail has arrived, or at least that your residence has received some piece of mail.

You would assume.

When I finally made my way to the mailbox, despite the obnoxious rain/hail that was going on at the time, I opened it up only to find empty space. Apparently we didn’t get any mail today, not even junk mail.

Since when do we not at least get some junk mail? Or you know, at least some mail for my sister who has never lived at this address but still manages to receive mail here.

It was crazy. It is crazy. I am going crazy!

I’m sitting her waiting, continually waiting to hear back from people. I’m waiting for the verdict from WCC as to my associate degree, and the verdict from MSU as to my acceptance (Or… non acceptance?). Oh, well, I’ll hear back sooner or later I suppose, though sooner would be preferred.

Ah, Michigan

It’s finally stopped raining. The rain wouldn’t be quite so unwelcome, if it weren’t also so cold outside. It’s supposed to stay cold through Wednesday. In fact, on Wednesday there is some talk of a rain snow mix. Gross. I’m looking forward to Thursday when it’s supposed to get into the sixties and then the eighties on Friday. That is my kind of weather!

Ah, Michigan.

I’ve managed to get everything done for my philosophy class. At this point I’m just waiting for him to post the final exam. Seriously, I can’t wait for the day that I don’t even have to think about that class and the inane homework that comes with it. Good-bye and good riddance.

The last two days have been seriously productive though. Not only am I all caught up in philosophy, but I’m caught up in my Shakespeare class. I can finally start in on the final exam for that class as well as lend some focus to writing my final paper.

I have three more days of Abnormal Psych left and four more days of Algebra. I’m so looking forward to this summer, if only because it will mark the first time since the summer following senior year that all I’ll have to worry about is work.

Well I shouldn’t say that necessarily… once schools out that’ll free up my time more meaning that I’ll have more time to focus on the fact that I still haven’t heard anything from MSU. Seriously, what’s the deal? I’m curious, and really quite anxious to know the final verdict. I’d like to have some idea of what next fall holds.

I suppose I’ll have to wait and see, even if I am a bit tired of waiting…

Clones and White Lies

Apparently I am in need of a clone, or at least a cloning machine. It seemed that the days of having to close more than one department on my own were over, but then of course you what making assumptions does…

I ended up having to close both the furniture department and the fudge shop alone tonight. Really this isn’t so bad, but at the same time it’s not great either. Only once did I have to go between them, but now many sales were lost because I wasn’t in a particular place at a particular time?

Obviously I need another me; if I could split myself in two it would make things so much easier.
At any rate I spent the majority of the night in the fudge shop. This one guy kept coming into the store and asking random questions. He was super friendly, and I had made up my mind that if he asked me for my number I was definitely going to pretend that I was married. That may make me a bit of bitch, but whatever.

Besides isn’t that considered more of a white lie? Well ok, maybe not, but still. Isn’t it kinder to tell a bit of a lie? I think it is.

The Best Welcome

“What was the best welcome you have ever received? What made it so special?”

During my senior year I was a cross-age tutor. This meant that for one class-period three days a week I would go to one of the local elementary schools and help out in a classroom as a teachers’ aide. The way that it was set up is that you were assigned to one classroom for the duration of the year.

There was one morning into the second week of the class that I showed up at my assigned classroom and found out that my students were in gym class, and I was welcome to join them there if I wanted. So obviously I headed down to the gym.

The minute I walked through the gym doors one of the boys spotted me and shouted, “I love you Miss Sandy!” It was absolutely adorable, and most certainly one of the best welcome’s that I’ve ever received.

Tax Day

Several months ago my Dad and I figured up my taxes, and we determined that I had to pay both to the Federal government and the state. Turns out though, that after my Dad redid them today he made a slight error, and I actually get back just about everything I paid in to the federal.

I still have to pay out to the state but that’s to be expected. So my tax turned out to not be so bad.

I still have a ton of Philosophy homework to work through, and I don’t want to. As you can imagine this creates a problem. I can’t seem to find the motivation to dive into the reading. I’m sure that I will later on tonight, but at the moment I’d rather watch last night NCIS and The Mentalist.

Definitely better uses of my time for the moment, or you know…whatever.

OMG

Several days ago a customer called and wanted to order thirty-three of this specific drawer pull. We did not have thirty-three immediately available in store, in fact we had a reported four available and I could only locate one of those four. Lovely, and of course there weren’t many available to order because they are being discontinued.

Great.

So I made a list, and on this list I noted which of our fellow stores had some in and how many they had at their disposal. I then set myself to the task of calling around and getting people to send their stash of drawer pulls to me. On Saturday I finally managed to track down enough drawer pulls.

I had four that I had found in our store, and the remainder was set to be shipped to me. But of course, just when you think that you’re on course something has to force everything to fall apart.
Today my customer called back. In fact they called twice, because they were insistent that they talk with me and not the other associate I was working with, so in fact I ended up calling them. Apparently something had come up, or whatever and they had decided that they don’t need thirty-three drawer pulls. In fact they only need two drawer-pulls.

TWO. Not thirty-three after all, but two instead, which was what they had originally ordered and then said they didn’t want before calling back and requesting thirty-three. WHAT. THE. HELL?!

I mean, it’s funny, but OMG. Then when they revealed that they wanted only the two they expressed the concern that the two that were reportedly waiting for them at customer service might not be there. Of course to this concern I said, “Oh, you know I don’t know if they do or not, but I have four so I’m sure I can manage to get two for you.”

Declawed Darcy

Darcy got her bandages off yesterday. Well I guess I should say bandage, because she took the other one off the day before. We got her fixed and declawed last week. She was mad as hell the other day after Scott finally managed to get the bandage off. She spent a good deal of the day hiding in the corner and hissing at those of us who were trying to make friends with her.

She was better by last night, and today she’s doing well. As long as she doesn’t see Scott she’s fine, then she kind of wigs out. We haven’t managed to coax her into coming out of my room though. The few times we’ve gotten her out to the living room, she’s darted back again.

She probably feels more secure in there, but hopefully she’ll be ready to venture out into the rest of the house in the next few days.

We’ve got my nieces cat over at the moment. Last night, or I guess technically this morning, I woke up to Darcy hissing. She was lying next to me, and Popcorn had gotten up onto the end of my bed and was staring at her. She isn't always a sociable cat, especially when it comes to other cats.

The Hypnotist

So today was interesting. In fact I could have had a less interesting day, I’m just saying, that would have been fine with me.

First of all there was the woman on the phone who seemed to be annoyed with me, even though I didn’t really say anything that should have bothered her all that much. Really, I can’t read minds, therefore questions cannot be helped. This is no reason to be short tempered.

But I digress.

So this woman wanted to order these drawer pulls. Fine, ok I can do that. But of course, it can’t be a simple matter; because of course these drawer pulls are being discontinued. Great, this means that I can’t order them all in one fell swoop. Therefore I spent the majority of my night calling around to other stores in the company trying to get them to send me these drawer pulls. I need thirty-three of them, and have managed to round up eighteen.

Lovely, I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow night.

The second reason why tonight was interesting isn’t quite so blah. I was sitting at the desk in my department, on the phone with another store regarding the drawer pulls, and of course I was on hold. This by the way was awful because rather than music playing instead there would be silence that was occasionally broken by these high-pitched beeps. It was annoying.

But anyway, I’m sitting there on hold when out of the corner of my eye I notice a group of people stop in front of my desk. So I lifted my head and turned to look at the trio of woman that were standing there and indicated that I could help them.

I kid you not, one of the woman opens her mouth and says, “Can you tell me where the hypnotist is?”

I may have come off as a little rude at first, because I’m pretty sure I was staring at them like they were out of their minds. This was not the question I was expecting. But of course, once I got over how strange the question was it occurred to me that maybe a hypnotist had rented out one of our conference rooms, and sure enough this was the case. I pointed out one of the rooms, and the group confirmed that the hypnotist was in fact there.

As I said it was an interesting night.

The Shakespeare Problem

I only have to read one last play for my Shakespeare class, and I’m having trouble convincing myself to sit down and read it. We’re reading “The Tempest” and I’m not impressed with what I’ve read so far. It may just be me, but I’m not a big fan. Egh, Shakespeare!

At the moment I feel like all of my motivation has been sapped away. I am in a perpetual state of waiting. I’m waiting to hear back from Michigan State and I’m waiting to hear back from WCC. Really, to be frank, I’m tired of all the waiting.

I want to know, I want to have some concrete idea of where I’m headed. But then of course, there is this equal proportion of dread. Sometimes I’m not sure I want to know. I’m not sure if I want these answers that I’m waiting for because there is no guarantee that they will be the answers I want to hear.

And yet… I really, really want to know!

At any rate, I suppose I won’t find anything out until I do so it’s not worth worrying over. At least the Shakespeare problem can be solved in the next few days. I have to go to work and I’ll need something to do during my breaks.

Great, Shakespeare. Eh.

Abandoned Projects

I finally got around to cleaning my desk today. Not only did I clear off the mass of papers, books, and candy that was sprawled across the top of it, but I finally organized the shelves. I ended up throwing out a bunch of papers that I have no idea why I ever saved, and I even found some things that I had believed that I had lost.

For instance, nearly two years ago now I graduated from high school. During one of my friends grad parties a group of us came up with the rough outline of this story. We took notes and everything. I had believed that I’d lost the notes, and surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, I stumbled across them today.

Apparently I’d stowed them away with some of the other writing projects that I’ve begun and abandoned. As I recall I actually did begin writing the story that those notes were meant for. Now I’ll have to go searching around in my files for the portion of that story that I’ve actually written…

Grow Up?

Today started out like any other day. One could say that it was average. I groggily forced myself to roll out of bed and grudgingly drive to work. The store was actually fairly busy today, which was nice. It made the day go by quickly.

I still got to fit in some time and go to the last half of my little cousin’s fourth birthday party once I got home though. It was nice. Really though, the most interesting part of the evening was when I was getting ready to go.

I am short. Or maybe I’m just of average height, and all the people around me are abnormally tall. Take your pick, the fact still stands though that I am not by any means tall.

So I was getting ready to leave my cousin’s house, and my little cousin comes over and I told him that he isn’t allowed to get to be taller than I am and that he has to stop growing. His four year old response was that he has to get taller and grow up. So of course I persisted by telling him that he could get older but not taller.

His response was, “I have to grow up, and so do you. When are you going to grow up?” It was adorable and hilarious and made my day. Despite the frigid weather outside I can’t wipe the smile from my face. Children are adorable, and they “say the darndest things”.

More Winter? Really?

Cassandra Clare is a genius. I just finished reading the third and final book in her Immortal Instruments Series and I’m blown away. She writes with such a compelling voice, that once you begin reading it becomes a compulsive action. You can’t stop until you reach that final page and even then you’re so close to the story that it’s hard to imagine that it’s over.

She brought all of the loose ends together in a satisfying and compelling conclusion. I don’t want to spoil the story, because I really recommend that you read the series. At some point I’ll get around to writing a proper review for either the series as a whole or each book.

In other news, I hate the snow. Where had all the warm weather gone? Despite the noxious weather, however the drive to class this morning actually wasn’t bad at all. The roads were damp, but thankfully they weren’t icy. Based on reports on the radio the freeway was a mess but that’s not surprising. People drive like imbeciles on the freeway when there’s even a speck of snow on the ground.

There are essentially two main categories of people on the freeway in adverse weather. There are those that decide to drive slowly to the point of being down right obnoxious. They are over cautious and therefore cause more frustration than anything. Then of course you have those who decide that it’s perfectly alright to throw caution to the wind. These are the idiots who end up slowing everyone to a stop when they get into the inevitable accident.

Needless to say I avoided the freeway this morning, and therefore got to school early rather than late. Hopefully the drive goes as smoothly tomorrow morning as it did this morning.

Inherently Indifferent

I have finally started working on my Philosophy exam. Three questions in and I’ve already lost any interest I may have had. I hate philosophy. In theory it is interesting, but at the moment I have truly lost all motivation.

I want a break. I’m tired of playing at this continual juggling game. Once school is out some of this stress will fade…

Today was another all right day. There was nothing inherently exciting about it, and yet there wasn’t anything inherently awful about it either. Time at work actually seemed to pass by fairly quickly, which was great. I love it when I feel so busy that I’m not drawn to the clock. I like to look at the clock and think, “Is it really that time already?”

Time Management

There are several things that I should at this moment be doing. In fact, for the past four days I have fed myself that same sad delusion: that I would complete my philosophy exam, get it e-mailed off early and not be working on it down to the wire. I dare you to guess what hasn’t gotten done yet…

Worse than not done, I haven’t actually, really started it. I’ve thought about it. I’ve considered it. I just haven’t acted on any of those very valid thoughts and considerations.

This is my reoccurring problem. This is why, as much as I tend to dislike them, deadlines are good for me. They lend structure to my disorganized thought processes, and allow me to find focus in moments of scatterbrained meandering.

Am I off now to work on my Philosophy exam? Well I should, at least a little bit. Of course I should also get some sleep so that I can get myself to work in the morning. So many obligations, and such a short span of time to meet them…

Down To The Wire

I nearly managed to forget to post tonight. Geez.

Today actually wasn’t horrible. Well except for having to get up at five thirty this morning to go to class. Then of course there was actually sitting through class… and then going to work… Ok, so it wasn’t wonderful, but whatever.

Work actually seemed to go by pretty quick since I had quite a few things to do. I like to have lists of things that need to be done. I feel more motivated when I have tasks that I can complete and then am able to just move on to the next task. It’s nice.

Alright, I’ve managed to get this done down to the wire. Now on to my philosophy exam…