Staring Blankly at the Screen

Over the weekend I completely blew my all-month posting schedule, because I went and stayed in my hometown so I could go to an engagement party for an old friend from high school. Apparently having my mind blown by the passage of time makes me forget to write on my blog.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything particularly brilliant today to make up for the lapse. I came home this afternoon and took a 4-hour long nap instead of doing anything useful. Things I could have done instead of that nap include: eating dinner, making lunch to take to work tomorrow, reading a book, running 2 miles like I was supposed to, working on revisions to my journal submission, writing something interesting for my blog, answering the phone when my friend called, being a useful human being.

As you can see, I'm feeling a little guilty about the whole thing. I love naps, but sometimes I feel so awful and ashamed when I wake up from them that I wonder if they're worth it. Plus now I have a headache and I'm vaguely confused about life and I'm really hungry but I don't have the focus to cook anything.

I just realized that this is basically just 4 paragraphs of whining, so I think I'm going to go ahead and end it here. Just know that if I had the good sense to say anything interesting right now, you guys would be the first to hear it.

Tapped Out

This evening I'm particularly exhausted and unimaginative, so once again I'm going to fall back on someone else's genius. This post at Hyperbole and a Half is a pretty good description of my own efforts to be responsible. And this one probably explains why sometimes I just HATE EVERYONE ON THE BUS WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE for no particular reason.

But really, it's all good, so I recommend poking around there tonight while I'm being a bum. Tra-la-la!

Takin it Easy

Some days, you're too lazy to do anything but read funny things provided by people other than yourself. Unfortunately, today is one of those days for me.

To make this a little easier for you, though, I will now share with you some of the things that I'll be reading while I'm not posting anything here. And the winners are!

Postcards From Yo Momma

Sleep Talkin' Man

and...

Lamebook

Enjoy reading things more hilarious than what can generally be found here!

I Don't Even Know Where to Start

I promised my friend MB that I would post a blog today, so that is what I'm doing, even though I don't even know what to tell you guys. There have been a variety of new developments in my life, and I feel like if I tried to fill you in now I'd just get tired and confused and start drooling on myself. HOWEVER, because I love you and you're so BOSSY, I'm going to do my best to bring you up to speed. But I make no guarantees that this post will encompass everything new that has happened since 3 weeks ago when I stopped posting regularly and everyone got really disappointed in me.

Oooook... the first thing I need to tell you is kind of sad, but I just found out about it today so it's fresh on my mind: one of my gerbils has some kind of brain damage. Well, actually, I don't know for sure that it's brain damage, but he's holding his head kind of tilted to one side, and he's walking around like he's drunk or concussed or something. But I googled "gerbil leaning to one side" and wikipedia says that it's probably an inner ear problem and nothing to worry about because he'll... get used to it? They may be right, because he's still eating and digging and gerbiling around like he usually does, so I think this situation is bothering me more than him. I keep standing anxiously over the tank like "Heeey buddy. How ya doin? You wanna start walking in a straight line again, please, because mama finds it unsettling."

This issue is of particular concern to me because in about 30 minutes I'm leaving to go to the airport to fly to Houston for the weekend, and right now my roommate is also out of town, but she'll probably be back before me. So what if my gerbil isn't ok and then he DROPS DEAD while I'm gone and then my roommate comes back and has to cope with a dead gerbil and then she naturally assumes that it's my fault he's dead because I'm neglectful? Or, even if she doesn't assume I'm neglectful, it's still kind of uncool for me to saddle her with the inconvenience of a dead rodent when we've only lived together for a week. What if he's been dead for several days at that point? What if the other gerbil... like... eats him, or something?

... I'm going to stop thinking about this right now, because I don't know whether to cry or throw up.

Also of note is the fact that I moved! I'm still in North Carolina, but in a different city, where Grad School will happen, as I'm sure I've mentioned. My new apartment is pretty sweet, and includes such features as: balcony, roommate, washer/dryer hookups, and more than 2 windows. My last apartment had none of these things, so even though I am taking a serious paycut, I'm still moving up in the world. (For the record, there were windows in my last apartment, but there were only 2. It was on the bottom floor of a building built into a hill. This parenthetical is so boring.) I was really pumped about having a roommate to talk to, but then the day after we moved in, she said, "Oh hey, I'm pretty much going to be gone for the next 3 weeks, see ya!" Which was sad, but also kind of a blessing in disguise, because that means I get 3 more weeks before I have to stop indulging in my treasured pastime of walking/sitting around with no clothes on.

I'm a little embarrassed that my roommate was only here for 2 days before she left again, and all of her stuff is put away neatly, whereas I've had 4-ish days to unpack and there are STILL boxes all over my room. It's no big deal, I just have to keep moving boxes off the bed when it's time to sleep and back onto the bed when it's time to... walk... anywhere. It's alright, though, because at least I put up curtains, so it's not like I'm some kind of savage. Maybe later if I'm feeling generous I'll post some pictures of the new place. Tell me, would you prefer photos with or without boxes? Keep in mind that I lived in my last apartment for 2 years and when I moved last weekend there were 2 boxes in my bedroom that still hadn't been unpacked. So saying you want to see pictures "without boxes" may be equivalent to saying that you want to see pictures "never." Just keep that in mind.

Ok, it's almost time for me to head to the airport, so I need to wrap this up. I promise - I mean, I will try really hard - to update you on my Houston trip as soon as I get back. Also stay tuned for answers to important questions like, "Will grad school turn me into a trembling ghost of the woman I once was?" and "Do you think I should put the clothes hamper in the closet or the bathroom?"

FINE, Here's Some Miscellany

EVEN THOUGH no one attempted to help me answer the burning questions I posed last week, I still feel guilty for not posting anything here this week. So, to help you through the dry spell, here's some things...

Senior year of undergrad, I knew I had achieved maximum burn-out because at least once a day I would look up and declare, often to an empty room, "I'm going to drop out of school." Understandably, today I was alarmed to find myself thinking, "I'm quitting my job." What's really sad is that my job isn't all that difficult... I'm just a crybaby.

On a vaguely related note, I learned the other day that even though I've never been the Pep Rally/School Spirit/Rah Rah type, I will still question our friendship if you insult my alma mater, dammit. It's that deeply-ingrained loyalty of mine.

Finally, here's a pretty sweet comic (found at xkcd.com) that I wanted to share with you. I'd like for it to serve as my belated New Year's Resolution:
Til next time!

Whistle While You Work

I'll confess: I can be a bit hedonistic sometimes. I have some alcoholics in my family, and I like to think that they're to blame. I'm pretty sure that the same gene that causes an "addictive personality" is probably also linked to a general "more is more" approach to life. This is one of the reasons that I often find myself thinking things like, "If watching an episode of House while playing on the internet is fun, I bet watching an entire SEASON of House will be even better!" Or, "Why sleep for 8 hours when you can get away with 12?" Or, "I could eat a few mini Reese's cups each day, but why do that when I can eat the whole bag now nomnomnom?" I don't mean to give you the wrong impression - I have self control, I deny myself sometimes, but I'm trying to explain why, after 2 weeks of vacation (give or take) I found myself thinking, "Just another three days, that's all I need. I cannot possibly go back to work when I could be spending an additional three days sleeping and eating all day and watching TV and playing video games all night."

Of course, the problem with this approach to life is that there is often also pleasure to be found in hard work. It's taken me an unusually long time to truly accept this fact, but it helps a lot when it comes time rein in my inner three-toed Sloth. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised to find that once I returned to work this week, I kind of... actually enjoyed it? Which is doubly awesome considering I expected to be miserable having to come back from a great time with family and friends and presents and food. So, here's to productivity! And responsibility! And hard work!

... On the other hand, I wasn't thinking about the joys of hard work last night when I skipped the gym and watched 4 episodes of House.

Quarantined with a Serious Case of Crankypants

I had a really exciting and positive time at the conference I went to. The meeting with the guys from my grad school of choice went really well, and I think that they just about convinced me to apply to the PhD program rather than the Master's. I also had a good time with the girls I shared a room with, which was a relief since I didn't know them real well beforehand. The whole thing got me really amped up about grad school and my choice of career and just the future in general.

On the other hand, it was also pretty exhausting, what with all the traveling and talking and 'networking' (gag) and blowing up airports in Charlotte. And over the past couple days I've been kind of a crankypants, taking out a lot of my stress and exhaustion and hormonal explosion on my significant other. So, I've been taking today to recharge a little bit and try to stop being a jerk. So far, I have: bought groceries, eaten lunch, taken a shower, halfway unpacked, and umm... watched a hell of a lot of a television. And it's been SWEET. All that is really just to say that I have not much exciting to share with you today.

BUT. Lemme tell ya what's on the horizon here. In an effort to keep my month-long daily blog posting juices flowing, I'm hoping to start working tomorrow on some posts that will reveal more about the enigma that is me. I'm tentatively calling the theme, "Things I'm Often Afraid to Admit in Public." I'm doing my best to keep things interesting, since one of my goals of NaBloPoMo is to garner at least one comment from someone that I a) don't know in real life and b) haven't ever heard from on here before. Meeting new people! It's exhilerating!

But don't think I would ever devalue the people that have always been there for me. To paraphrase an old saying: New friends are valuable, but old friends are priceless, like Mint Oreos. Which is why I'd like to shoutout to Christa and Lizza, who both reminded me last night that someone is, in fact, reading this rambling mess. Current reader count: 5.

Marrying Up

Some people hope to marry into money, or power, or infamy.

All I want is to marry someone that will do my damn dishes.

I'm a decent cook, so I'm pretty confident that something can be arranged.