No longer depressed! All is right with the world. Well, mostly.
ABSTRACT
Writing is daunting, since I've done so much lately. Allow me to tell you all about how dorky I am with my papers. I mean, deeply, seriously dorky. Also, Look! Car Porn! drool Thank you all for your responses to my last post, all of which I sincerely appreciate. Curling happened, and it was good. I met this guy and we totally made out and then we had a date that went really amazingly well. Oh, also I had my car battery changed, which I didn't actually talk about in the body of this post, but it just occurred to me and I thought it worth mentioning. It took seriously 90 minutes, because my car's battery is seriously encased in concrete, or something, so it was totally worth the $10 installation fee. Also now my radio tells me what song I'm listening to when I listen to the radio, which I didn't know it could do before because it was one of those buttons that I didn't know what it did so I never touched it, but now that's cool. End part I didn't actually talk about in the body of this post. I need to go to New York. Happy Birthday, Birthday havers! I love you! I need to throw a party for my sister. I embarrassed myself in public. YAY! The end.
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I was totally convinced that when I sat down to write here again that my brain would just open up and all of three weeks of pent-up drivel would just explode all over the page, by which I mean screen, but now I'm sitting here looking at a big expanse of empty whiteness (Alaska! Siberia! Chris Farley!) and I can't think of anything to say. Or, rather, I'm having like an attack of ACK because now there's all this pressure to fill it, which it feels like is all I'm been doing for the last two weeks. Putting words into big empty spaces. To the tune of 52 pages in the last week! The first paper, about Austria, I think sucked. Well, I don't really know, and I might even be able to check my garde on that one now but I don't really want to. Anyway, it wasn't the best paper I've ever written, and I can tell because despite having a panic attack and like sitting down to it far earlier than expected, it still took me 14 hours to write 23 pages, which is well below my normal pace. The other paper I wrote was all about RACE CARS!! and is probably not the best paper I've ever written, but (be prepared for HUGE LEVELS OF DORKINESS) has the best footnotes I've ever written on any paper ever, including either of my theses. My favorite footnote of all time was #15, where I cited a book of German primary source documents, and then compared it with information from an American military report declassified in 1986. I've never cited a document that's been declassified before! There was also a book I cited that was given to Hitler as a 50th birthday present by Auto Union (now called Audi) on 20 April 1939, and it was all creepy because it was all, Germany is awesome! We build cars! Buy some, and then run over Jews. Woo! I mean, basically. But it was DOUBLE cool because it had apparently been acquired by the Library of Congress actually in 1939, so it had all of these stamps on it from the Nazi government saying that it was okay to export the book and that it had been cleared by the National German Library and I was all, AWESOME. Also the paper had been de-acidifed, so it had that wierd powdery feeling to it. Those of you who do research with old books probably know what I'm talking about; for those of you who don't, it's like the pages of the book have been covered with talc, but clear talc. That doesn't come off. It's like Chromium Oxide, or something, except that's wrong because that's what was used to make "metal" style cassette tapes back a million years ago when that what people did. At least I think that's true. I can't remember what else it would have been. Anyway its chemical symbol was CrO2. CROATIA TWO: THE REVENGE!!! You are so welcome.
Anyway I also for that second paper included a few pages of pictures, which was totally awesome for me because it meant I got to have PICTURES! of the old cars in (or, attached to) my paper, and that was seriously like Porn for me. Pictures like THIS ONE!
And also this OTHER ONE!
And finally this COMPLETELY OTHER ONE!
I could caption those for you, but none of you care. So anyway I turned that in this morning and then I threw away (I mean, returned) all of my library books and they are out of my hair! And so we'll see if my funding gets renewed or what, but that's all like a billion years in the future. Speaking of which, I know I barely responded to any of you after my last update, but thank you all, sincerely, for all of your kind, encouraging, and ass-kicking words. All of it--the good and the bad--was exactly what I needed to hear, and it really helped me get through the last three weeks or however long it's been. I've met with my advisor, and he's behind me 100%, and I'm still no closer to deciding if I'm going back even if my funding is renewed, but at least I'm out of the horrible dark woods of despair and agony anf flying monkeys and poisonous snakes that I inhabited two weeks ago. So that's good, and I'm back to my usual state of generally pleased indifference to everything.
There was a curling thing. We finished 3rd, and had a great time, and I discovered the wonder that is aspirin, for both hangovers and muscle pain. In our final we were down 6-0 after three, and then won every single end from there on out to win the game. It was kind of cool.
Two weeks ago I decided it was the best idea in the world to go to Remington's on Saturday night instead of oh I don't know working on a paper or something. Went with girlfromsouth and magicasylum and met indydc there and there were also other people! It was pretty awesome. GFS, MA and I had been pregaming over at MA's house while we sort of watched (and sort of acted out) Drop Dead Gorgeous, which we all know by heart, and watched movie trailers and made fun of the herpes pictures of Katie Holmes. Whom I feel sorry for, but herpes. Seriously. Anyway so Remington's was fun and loud and although the regular bartender wasn't there the replacement guy (who actually took Mama's job while Mama tended bar) was kind of cute, too. At least I remember him being that way, but lordy was I drunk by the end of the evening. Which I blame on the pre-gaming, but I also blame on White Shirt, whom I could NOT STOP STARING AT. Which of COURSE he noticed because even when sober I am subtle like a nuclear warhead and so anyway we got to talking (which I think was his roommate's fault? At one point we were speaking German? I remember very little of this, except asking at one point, "Was that the right response?" I was drunk) and lalala and suddenly White Shirt is like, let's do a shot of tequila! And oy that's always a bad idea. But then hilarity of the tonsil-hockey variety ensued. And then I'm like here's my number call me! And then I left. Rather abruptly, I'm afraid, and in a way that I thought could be interpreted as a blow off, but it wasn't, I was just drunk. And people were leaving so I was like, BYE NOW!! Anyway so he actually called and I actually called back and then we had an actual date on Saturday. (Lucia: I don't know if you're thinking what I think you might be thinking, because I don't know how drunk you were when I told you the thing that might make you think the thing you may be thinking, but I haven't forgotten, and he's brought it up since, and it's all good for now; we'll see) AND IT WAS AWESOME because he was fun and funny and charming and we went to Ziegfled's or whatever, which I had never been to. For those of you who don't know, it's a drag bar and a nudie bar, all kind of rolled into one. It's quite strange. The drag show was actually pretty good--it was kind of jarring to discover that there are marginally talented drag queens in DC--and the nudie bar was actually deeply unsexy. Boys standing around idly playing with themselves while people who look like my grandfather (seriously, it was Squick-Factor 12) stuff money in their socks is just Ewsville. I found it way hotter when the boys would get down off the boxes or whatever and put on their underwear or their low-rise jeans and walk around like that. Anyway it was a good time and at the end of the evening this rando girl comes up and introduced herslf as Sophie. Hi Sophie! She just wanted to tell us (meaning White Shirt, who was actually wearing a blue shirt that night, and me, who, ironically, was wearing a white shirt) that she'd been watching us all evening and she just had to come over and say what a cute couple we were. And I was like Awww! Thanks! But I didn't have the heart to tell her that that was the first time we'd spent together, sober, ever. Anyway it was cute and then we went to Bob & Edith's and then I took him home and we both had to be up early the next day and it was nearly 5:00 AM so we both went home. And so anyway it was AWESOME and then like on Monday he calls, actually wait, I called, but he called on Sunday, so it was all good, and we talked and talked and then he was all like, hey, want to go see Star Wars on opening night? And I was all, DO I!?!@?! And then I swooned. So that's what I'm doing Thursday. Oh wait and I totally forgot to mention the best part of the evening which was his ass. But the second best part of the evening was when we were at Bob & Edith's and we started talking about cars and he didn't actually roll his eyes or anything, but we had an actual conversation about cars, and 454s and four-on-the-floor and LTDs and T-Tops and I was like, SWOON. Have I mentioned? SWOON.
So in any event I really hope I don't have to look back on this post in a month and think, huh, what a hormonal little loser I was. I'm just becited about the thing. SO YAY!
Also Joe was in town and I met his girlfriend who is like some kind of talent person? And she's like, "You're cute! Why aren't you doing any acting?" and I was all, "Um, because I have no discernable acting talent?" and then she started trying to think of actor friends of hers to hook me up with so I was well-pleased. I approve of her, the end. Next time I am in New York we will totally hang out, although next time I am in New York I will have to be there for seriously like a week to do all of the things I need to do. Things I need to do include: See half of you people on this hyear Horatio. How are you all? Holla. Okay then.
Also also also, Hi! Totally Happy Happiest of Happy Birthdays to darthfox and sowilo. I did not forget, but I was not near LJ on the actual birthdays, so I am a little late, I know. But I adore the hell out of you both and I love you and I'm looking forward to celebrating with the both of you as soon as we possibly can. YAY! For things.
I think that catches you all up. I know you were all desperate for an update and you all totally wanted to hear me be all gooshy and whatever over a boy, but there you go.
Hey, malibonobo, we should probably start thinking about doing something for our sister's you know what at the end of September. Like, I don't know, maybe a party or two or something. Does anyone know the protocol? I've never been a Bridesmaid before. I was about to say that I should be visited at least twice, but I think that was Brideshead. Or maybe some kind of other head. Foundtainhead? Head cheese? Motorhead? I don't know.
Also I was in World Market on Sunday and there was this wine called, ISYNYLF, "Toasted Head." I said, "I've had dates that ended that way!" The cuteish but apparently quite dumb store helper person with the pretty blue eyes laughed. THE END.
For real.
EDITED TO ADD: I just got an email from one of my professors, about the Austria paper I did. You know, the one I said I hated and didn't think was very good? Neither did he. Grad school equivalent of an F--. Feh, I say.
Writing is daunting, since I've done so much lately. Allow me to tell you all about how dorky I am with my papers. I mean, deeply, seriously dorky. Also, Look! Car Porn! drool Thank you all for your responses to my last post, all of which I sincerely appreciate. Curling happened, and it was good. I met this guy and we totally made out and then we had a date that went really amazingly well. Oh, also I had my car battery changed, which I didn't actually talk about in the body of this post, but it just occurred to me and I thought it worth mentioning. It took seriously 90 minutes, because my car's battery is seriously encased in concrete, or something, so it was totally worth the $10 installation fee. Also now my radio tells me what song I'm listening to when I listen to the radio, which I didn't know it could do before because it was one of those buttons that I didn't know what it did so I never touched it, but now that's cool. End part I didn't actually talk about in the body of this post. I need to go to New York. Happy Birthday, Birthday havers! I love you! I need to throw a party for my sister. I embarrassed myself in public. YAY! The end.
---------------------
I was totally convinced that when I sat down to write here again that my brain would just open up and all of three weeks of pent-up drivel would just explode all over the page, by which I mean screen, but now I'm sitting here looking at a big expanse of empty whiteness (Alaska! Siberia! Chris Farley!) and I can't think of anything to say. Or, rather, I'm having like an attack of ACK because now there's all this pressure to fill it, which it feels like is all I'm been doing for the last two weeks. Putting words into big empty spaces. To the tune of 52 pages in the last week! The first paper, about Austria, I think sucked. Well, I don't really know, and I might even be able to check my garde on that one now but I don't really want to. Anyway, it wasn't the best paper I've ever written, and I can tell because despite having a panic attack and like sitting down to it far earlier than expected, it still took me 14 hours to write 23 pages, which is well below my normal pace. The other paper I wrote was all about RACE CARS!! and is probably not the best paper I've ever written, but (be prepared for HUGE LEVELS OF DORKINESS) has the best footnotes I've ever written on any paper ever, including either of my theses. My favorite footnote of all time was #15, where I cited a book of German primary source documents, and then compared it with information from an American military report declassified in 1986. I've never cited a document that's been declassified before! There was also a book I cited that was given to Hitler as a 50th birthday present by Auto Union (now called Audi) on 20 April 1939, and it was all creepy because it was all, Germany is awesome! We build cars! Buy some, and then run over Jews. Woo! I mean, basically. But it was DOUBLE cool because it had apparently been acquired by the Library of Congress actually in 1939, so it had all of these stamps on it from the Nazi government saying that it was okay to export the book and that it had been cleared by the National German Library and I was all, AWESOME. Also the paper had been de-acidifed, so it had that wierd powdery feeling to it. Those of you who do research with old books probably know what I'm talking about; for those of you who don't, it's like the pages of the book have been covered with talc, but clear talc. That doesn't come off. It's like Chromium Oxide, or something, except that's wrong because that's what was used to make "metal" style cassette tapes back a million years ago when that what people did. At least I think that's true. I can't remember what else it would have been. Anyway its chemical symbol was CrO2. CROATIA TWO: THE REVENGE!!! You are so welcome.
Anyway I also for that second paper included a few pages of pictures, which was totally awesome for me because it meant I got to have PICTURES! of the old cars in (or, attached to) my paper, and that was seriously like Porn for me. Pictures like THIS ONE!
And also this OTHER ONE!
And finally this COMPLETELY OTHER ONE!
I could caption those for you, but none of you care. So anyway I turned that in this morning and then I threw away (I mean, returned) all of my library books and they are out of my hair! And so we'll see if my funding gets renewed or what, but that's all like a billion years in the future. Speaking of which, I know I barely responded to any of you after my last update, but thank you all, sincerely, for all of your kind, encouraging, and ass-kicking words. All of it--the good and the bad--was exactly what I needed to hear, and it really helped me get through the last three weeks or however long it's been. I've met with my advisor, and he's behind me 100%, and I'm still no closer to deciding if I'm going back even if my funding is renewed, but at least I'm out of the horrible dark woods of despair and agony anf flying monkeys and poisonous snakes that I inhabited two weeks ago. So that's good, and I'm back to my usual state of generally pleased indifference to everything.
There was a curling thing. We finished 3rd, and had a great time, and I discovered the wonder that is aspirin, for both hangovers and muscle pain. In our final we were down 6-0 after three, and then won every single end from there on out to win the game. It was kind of cool.
Two weeks ago I decided it was the best idea in the world to go to Remington's on Saturday night instead of oh I don't know working on a paper or something. Went with girlfromsouth and magicasylum and met indydc there and there were also other people! It was pretty awesome. GFS, MA and I had been pregaming over at MA's house while we sort of watched (and sort of acted out) Drop Dead Gorgeous, which we all know by heart, and watched movie trailers and made fun of the herpes pictures of Katie Holmes. Whom I feel sorry for, but herpes. Seriously. Anyway so Remington's was fun and loud and although the regular bartender wasn't there the replacement guy (who actually took Mama's job while Mama tended bar) was kind of cute, too. At least I remember him being that way, but lordy was I drunk by the end of the evening. Which I blame on the pre-gaming, but I also blame on White Shirt, whom I could NOT STOP STARING AT. Which of COURSE he noticed because even when sober I am subtle like a nuclear warhead and so anyway we got to talking (which I think was his roommate's fault? At one point we were speaking German? I remember very little of this, except asking at one point, "Was that the right response?" I was drunk) and lalala and suddenly White Shirt is like, let's do a shot of tequila! And oy that's always a bad idea. But then hilarity of the tonsil-hockey variety ensued. And then I'm like here's my number call me! And then I left. Rather abruptly, I'm afraid, and in a way that I thought could be interpreted as a blow off, but it wasn't, I was just drunk. And people were leaving so I was like, BYE NOW!! Anyway so he actually called and I actually called back and then we had an actual date on Saturday. (Lucia: I don't know if you're thinking what I think you might be thinking, because I don't know how drunk you were when I told you the thing that might make you think the thing you may be thinking, but I haven't forgotten, and he's brought it up since, and it's all good for now; we'll see) AND IT WAS AWESOME because he was fun and funny and charming and we went to Ziegfled's or whatever, which I had never been to. For those of you who don't know, it's a drag bar and a nudie bar, all kind of rolled into one. It's quite strange. The drag show was actually pretty good--it was kind of jarring to discover that there are marginally talented drag queens in DC--and the nudie bar was actually deeply unsexy. Boys standing around idly playing with themselves while people who look like my grandfather (seriously, it was Squick-Factor 12) stuff money in their socks is just Ewsville. I found it way hotter when the boys would get down off the boxes or whatever and put on their underwear or their low-rise jeans and walk around like that. Anyway it was a good time and at the end of the evening this rando girl comes up and introduced herslf as Sophie. Hi Sophie! She just wanted to tell us (meaning White Shirt, who was actually wearing a blue shirt that night, and me, who, ironically, was wearing a white shirt) that she'd been watching us all evening and she just had to come over and say what a cute couple we were. And I was like Awww! Thanks! But I didn't have the heart to tell her that that was the first time we'd spent together, sober, ever. Anyway it was cute and then we went to Bob & Edith's and then I took him home and we both had to be up early the next day and it was nearly 5:00 AM so we both went home. And so anyway it was AWESOME and then like on Monday he calls, actually wait, I called, but he called on Sunday, so it was all good, and we talked and talked and then he was all like, hey, want to go see Star Wars on opening night? And I was all, DO I!?!@?! And then I swooned. So that's what I'm doing Thursday. Oh wait and I totally forgot to mention the best part of the evening which was his ass. But the second best part of the evening was when we were at Bob & Edith's and we started talking about cars and he didn't actually roll his eyes or anything, but we had an actual conversation about cars, and 454s and four-on-the-floor and LTDs and T-Tops and I was like, SWOON. Have I mentioned? SWOON.
So in any event I really hope I don't have to look back on this post in a month and think, huh, what a hormonal little loser I was. I'm just becited about the thing. SO YAY!
Also Joe was in town and I met his girlfriend who is like some kind of talent person? And she's like, "You're cute! Why aren't you doing any acting?" and I was all, "Um, because I have no discernable acting talent?" and then she started trying to think of actor friends of hers to hook me up with so I was well-pleased. I approve of her, the end. Next time I am in New York we will totally hang out, although next time I am in New York I will have to be there for seriously like a week to do all of the things I need to do. Things I need to do include: See half of you people on this hyear Horatio. How are you all? Holla. Okay then.
Also also also, Hi! Totally Happy Happiest of Happy Birthdays to darthfox and sowilo. I did not forget, but I was not near LJ on the actual birthdays, so I am a little late, I know. But I adore the hell out of you both and I love you and I'm looking forward to celebrating with the both of you as soon as we possibly can. YAY! For things.
I think that catches you all up. I know you were all desperate for an update and you all totally wanted to hear me be all gooshy and whatever over a boy, but there you go.
Hey, malibonobo, we should probably start thinking about doing something for our sister's you know what at the end of September. Like, I don't know, maybe a party or two or something. Does anyone know the protocol? I've never been a Bridesmaid before. I was about to say that I should be visited at least twice, but I think that was Brideshead. Or maybe some kind of other head. Foundtainhead? Head cheese? Motorhead? I don't know.
Also I was in World Market on Sunday and there was this wine called, ISYNYLF, "Toasted Head." I said, "I've had dates that ended that way!" The cuteish but apparently quite dumb store helper person with the pretty blue eyes laughed. THE END.
For real.
EDITED TO ADD: I just got an email from one of my professors, about the Austria paper I did. You know, the one I said I hated and didn't think was very good? Neither did he. Grad school equivalent of an F--. Feh, I say.