Gah! Bah! Ect...

It is the day before Christmas Eve and it's been freaking raining all day! I mean... it's not even going to change into snow until at least halfway through tomorrow! It was 50 degrees out! All that freaking cold and windy weather I dealt with right after I came home... and even just before I left from Chicago belongs here now... why is it warm on the three or four days of the year I don't mind it being cold and snowy, hmm? Silly weather! Oh well, I can still hope for a good old-fashioned blizzard on my birthday so I can organize a gigantic snowball fight or something.

I found out like, two days ago that while I was busy not paying attention to anything outside of college, there was a new Terry Pratchett book. Hooray for winter reading (and a... different... break from Dante, which I was reading before this but not being very interested). Darn everyone for not mentioning I should read it in one of my constant pleas for something to read that isn't Plato or Aristotle or Beckett. Hooray for the library actually having it (I put it on hold last night, and went over to the library today to discover that they hadn't even taken it off the shelf, and not only was it labelled Pa rather than Pr, it was reported as missing... luckily the librarian just checked it out and didn't mention the hold that was on it, or the fact that it was previously missing... Yay apathy!)

I think I'm down to two food places I still need to eat at here before I head back. I knocked another one off today with some lovely spinach pizza and a chicken-and-broccoli roll while I was wandering around aimlessly in holiday traffic with my sister. We did manage to find something for my dad (woo!), even though he is almost impossibly hard to shop for. I mean, even my mom couldn't pull it off this year. Presents are so hard to come up with. I imagine I'm pretty bad too, since around Christmas I'm always just like "Well.. I can't think of anything I need... so don't bother getting me anything. What do you want for Christmas?" I can see people silently contemplating my demise for my evil...ness. I've already bought like, a hundred dollars worth of stuff for my sister over the past few months. She got most of it straight away because she was with me when I bought it, but she still considers it counting. And recently I've bought her even more. Because I'm a nice person, and she's easier to shop for. I'm sort of disappointed that I already know like, half the stuff I'm getting for Christmas though. One thing I begged my mom to get me (the Gigantic DVD), one thing I saw the receipt for (Dratted music store and printing the artist and title of the CD right where I could see it!), and another thing that's been heavily hinted at but for the life of me I can't figure out what it could be... since it's apparently courdouroy and matches my coat. Wha? And I think my mom's wrapping up a bunch of the blue jeans she bought me the past couple of weeks (Hey! I was down to two pairs!). Hooray for holiday sales on jeans though, since I managed to get five pairs for like, 80 dollars. I'm going to miss my favourite pair dearly. Darn whatever caused them to wear out (Darn time!).

Ooooh, and today at work, someone gave me a $2.50 tip! They insisted I take it, too. I was rather flattered. Usually it's no more than 25 cents, and I usually tell them I'm not allowed to take tips, but I felt it would be mean of me to argue with the people. They were terribly nice. I guess they felt sort of bad for making me run around and confusing me about the combos (it's not hard to get confused about the new combos)... good karma to them, wherever and whoever they are. I mean, they tipped me almost a half-hour's wage. Woo!

I'm torn between going to sleep and staying up and reading more. I really don't have anything to do tomorrow. Except spend time with my family, which I haven't really gotten to do since I've been back, because everyone's always working or at school or asleep. Tomorrow is one of two days I have off between now and the 3rd when I go back. I think for the 29th or something, I ought to organize some sort of get-together. I need to see all my friends in one place again before I have to head off to college. I'm thinking maybe... maybe I should have some sort of pseudo birthday-New Year's-Christmas party on the 3rd before I leave, and then we'll all go to the basketball game, and then hang out for a bit after before I have to go downtown and get on my train back to Chi-town, where I will arrive on campus around 9 (providing for a 2-hour delay or so) and go buy my books, then sleep and then start school again. Bah! All of this involves so much more organizing than I have time for. Perhaps I should just call around until I find someone that's bored enough to organize a party for all of us. Darn working! Darn it to heck!

Nostaaalgia (yoinked from chocolatemoose)

1. What did you do in 2003 that you'd never done before?
Spent three months away from home... ate at a dining hall, survived a quarter of college calculus. Applied to colleges, stressed about getting into colleges. Graduated from high school. Lots of stuff.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Gah! I don't even remember if I made any New Year's resolutions... so I guess that's as good as not making any. I suppose I will make a resolution again this year, but I usually just make it up as soon as anyone asks me.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not that I'm aware of...

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
Me? Travel? I think considering my usual movement around the country, we'll consider Illinios a different country.

6. What would you like to have in 2004 that you lacked in 2003?
Better grades, more time for fun, and... more money for less work!

7. What date from 2003 will remain etched upon your memory?
I guess that's pretty much either graduation, or my first day of orientation at the UofC...

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting accepted to the UofC, and then actually being able to afford it... sort of.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Hmm... Must've been my attempt at physics.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Lots of headaches and other stress-related things, but nothing serious (thank goodness!)

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My college education.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
What an odd question... I don't know. Maybe some of my floormates invovled in the clean-up brigade that one disgusting night of drunken-ness... umm. How about all the LotR fans that managed to not yell at me or be mean at the midnight showing? That was worth celebrating.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
I'll pretty much generalize here and say the American government. Gah!

14. Where did most of your money go?
School.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Finally leaving for college!

16. What song will always remind you of 2003?
Probably anything from Keep it Together will remind me of the summer, and Everything to Everyone will remind me of the first few months of school.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
Hard to tell... probably about the same. Maybe a little happier, because this time last year I had just gotten my deferral from UChi...

ii. thinner or fatter?
A little more in shape, I think, but not necessarily thinner.

iii. richer or poorer?
Pretty much the same (which is broke). Far more money has passed through my hands, though.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Getting to know people.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Homework... working in general.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
At home! With my family and (hopefully, if we can get together sometime) my friends.

22. Did you fall in love in 2003?
Can't say I did, no. Had a crush on a fair number of people, I guess. But that's about it.

23. How many one night stands?
None.

24. What was your favourite TV programme?
Sigh... I haven't actually watched TV in so long.. I guess I'll stick with what I watched all the time reeeally early this year while I was still in high school.. CSI.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
There are some people that I didn't know this time last year that I really don't like a whole lot... but hate is a verily strong word.

26. What was the best book you read?
Huh. Well, Order of the Pheonix was rather good... But I think I'd have to say Good Omens. Woo!

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
This is such a strange question for me to answer, but it might just be all that weird remixed game music I've picked up.

28. What did you want and get?
To go to the UofC

29. What did you want and not get?
More financial aid... hehe, no.. hmm.. I can't really think of anything that I really wanted badly and didn't get. There were a lot of concerts I missed though.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Return of the King... and Matrix Revolutions just because of all the insane conversations had afterwards.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I had a birthday this year? Huh... I don't even remember having a party. But it was my 18th. Yay.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not being scared to death of Chicago when I got there to the point that I had to cut my schedule down to a bunch of rather useless and boring classes that later drove me nuts.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2003?
The usual t-shirts, jeans, and striped-shirts-underneath-t-shirts.

34. What kept you sane?
During school, wanting to come home. Now... nothing. mwahahaha!

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Huh. I... don't know.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
That dang blasted war on terrorism of ours.

37. Who did you miss?
My friends in high school... sort of high school in general.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
This isn't fair! I've met so many new people this year. Therefore, I refuse to give this question a proper answer.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2003.
How to take care of drunk people.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"The thunder struck, the clouds appeared
Our fearless crew was not prepared
and pretty soon the boats came for us
half a million strong
We gathered arms, we fired shells
We build a wall around ourselves
and pretty soon the spirit was a lot like
what it used to be back home
So far away from everyone
and everything starts today"

Deedly Dee

Hmm... I love how all my entries have some sort of nonsensical title, because I'm lazy and obviously don't write about anything specific enough to have a proper title anyway.

So, I spent today wandering around the mall that's a bit farther away than usual... with my mom. We ended up getting some interesting blank t-shirts that I plan on bending to my own e-lol (there's a word I haven't used in a looong time) ends, and a watch that is stilishly bright yellow. It goes well with my I am Made of Poison shirt.

Neep, I must continue later, my sister has decided (in our great tradition of excellent choices for holiday movies) to watch Dr Strangelove.