Time for some good ol' fashioned procrastination
Still working on finding a job/figuring out what I want in terms of a job-to-school ratio, so I've been at home (except for a few lovely days in Florida!) doing random paperwork things for Ben's work, school, and moving, and then doing/procrastinating doing homework. But I have been reading a lot (for pleasure, even!), so that's been nice, although has also been part of the procrastination. ^_^ I'll hopefully be starting to volunteer somewhere soon too, so I think some measure of social interaction will be a plus. 'XD
Some brief observations about Michigan: Ponce de Leon should have come up here looking for the Fountain of Youth, because seriously, it's creepy. People here look waaaay younger than they should. When Ben first started work, we thought most everyone at his job was around our age, only to discover that they were all in their mid-thirties and even forties! No one here realizes that's the case, of course, or at least they pretend not to, as they sneak off to their secret state-wide cult of youth meetings...
Probably related to the youthfulness is the fact that the pace of life here is so extraordinarily much slower. I'm sure people still have a lot of demands on their time if they have families or if they're working more than one job, but the work environment is very different. In both our jobs, Ben and I were absolutely floored by what people counted as being "busy." In the temporary job that I had, when a moderate amount of people came in to register for school, keeping all of the people in the office doing things rather than sitting around with absolutely nothing to do, the people there said that it "got pretty crazy for a while," and I was speechless. Ben's been used to having things "due right now" meaning they're literally due in a thirty minutes or an hour, whereas here they mean "due at the end of the week," with people being "busy" meaning that they're working on one project rather than the five to ten he's used to handling. We still look at the clock after we've had dinner and just start laughing because it's eight o'clock rather than ten or eleven like we were used to back East because we both got home so late. Surreal. Frustrating sometimes. But probably good from an overall human-health perspective.
Third, I feel a little bad admitting (yes, admitting) to people that we moved to Michigan for Ben's job. Inevitably, the response is, "I thought everyone was leaving Michigan, and you both moved in for a job!" This is almost always accompanied with the subtext of, why are you coming in here and taking a job that some unemployed Michigander (yes, that is the proper term) could have taken? *initialize guilt trip sequence* ^^'' ...So that's awkward.
Aaaaanyway, curtisr tagged me:
A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it".
I am also a rulebreaker: black_howling, liebschen, okeananaya, wonderocalypse (ha, now you're double-tagged! ...which may... reverse the tagged-ness... but... let's pretend it doesn't).
1) Whenever I'm pondering something or getting nervous, I have the habit of taking a strand of hair and running my index fingers through it alternatingly. (Apparently this looked somewhat silly when I was in Oxford thinking my brains out and my hair was only four or so inches long). Unfortunately, both Ben and my mom have picked up on this, and now they very annoyingly ask me what I'm thinking so hard about every time they see me doing it. >,<' Does it look like I want to answer your questions about what I'm thinking about while I'm thinking?!
2) I've been vegetarian for five and a half years now.
3) I've grown my hair long and cut it short twice now to donate it to make wigs for people who are sick with cancer or other diseases and have lost their hair, and am working on the third time. Doing it again was kinda unintentional... I always end up going way too long between haircuts, so my hair was getting a little longish and I was like, eh, what the heck, might as well not waste it. So hopefully it'll be long enough to cut sometime this summer, although I'm thinking it may not be until next winter, which is just... a bad time for a short haircut. =\
4) I've lived nine different places now: Colorado, Wyoming, Florida, New Mexico, Virginia, Pennsylvania, England, Connecticut, and most recently, Michigan. I never know how to respond when people ask me where I'm from. I don't really remember Colorado at all, and I guess I lived in Virginia the longest, but didn't necessarily "grow up" there... so I usually end up saying I'm from all over. 'XD
5) Somewhat related to number four, apparently I enunciate my consonants more than most people (or most Americans, at least)? People have told me that my accent seems slightly British even before I ever went to England. ^^' I guess I seem like somewhat of a proper person in that way, since I've also had people comment that I have good posture, and have even had a friend ask me to teach them how to eat, not as in diet-wise, but physically putting food in my mouth-wise (because I do it well, maybe? 'XD Still don't completely understand that one, but you know who you are. I've never been so surprised, weirded out, and complimented all at the same time).
6) When I went to Governor's School, my "phrase" in the memory book was "Awww, I'm sorry." I do tend to apologize for things that have nothing to do with me, but say it because I feel genuinely bad that they happened to people. It drives Ben crazy.
7) I'm a sucker for a good vocabulary. If you express yourself with interesting words in everyday conversations (speeches don't really count), I'll probably like you, or at least will struggle not to like you even if I think you're a jerk.
Some brief observations about Michigan: Ponce de Leon should have come up here looking for the Fountain of Youth, because seriously, it's creepy. People here look waaaay younger than they should. When Ben first started work, we thought most everyone at his job was around our age, only to discover that they were all in their mid-thirties and even forties! No one here realizes that's the case, of course, or at least they pretend not to, as they sneak off to their secret state-wide cult of youth meetings...
Probably related to the youthfulness is the fact that the pace of life here is so extraordinarily much slower. I'm sure people still have a lot of demands on their time if they have families or if they're working more than one job, but the work environment is very different. In both our jobs, Ben and I were absolutely floored by what people counted as being "busy." In the temporary job that I had, when a moderate amount of people came in to register for school, keeping all of the people in the office doing things rather than sitting around with absolutely nothing to do, the people there said that it "got pretty crazy for a while," and I was speechless. Ben's been used to having things "due right now" meaning they're literally due in a thirty minutes or an hour, whereas here they mean "due at the end of the week," with people being "busy" meaning that they're working on one project rather than the five to ten he's used to handling. We still look at the clock after we've had dinner and just start laughing because it's eight o'clock rather than ten or eleven like we were used to back East because we both got home so late. Surreal. Frustrating sometimes. But probably good from an overall human-health perspective.
Third, I feel a little bad admitting (yes, admitting) to people that we moved to Michigan for Ben's job. Inevitably, the response is, "I thought everyone was leaving Michigan, and you both moved in for a job!" This is almost always accompanied with the subtext of, why are you coming in here and taking a job that some unemployed Michigander (yes, that is the proper term) could have taken? *initialize guilt trip sequence* ^^'' ...So that's awkward.
Aaaaanyway, curtisr tagged me:
A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it".
I am also a rulebreaker: black_howling, liebschen, okeananaya, wonderocalypse (ha, now you're double-tagged! ...which may... reverse the tagged-ness... but... let's pretend it doesn't).
1) Whenever I'm pondering something or getting nervous, I have the habit of taking a strand of hair and running my index fingers through it alternatingly. (Apparently this looked somewhat silly when I was in Oxford thinking my brains out and my hair was only four or so inches long). Unfortunately, both Ben and my mom have picked up on this, and now they very annoyingly ask me what I'm thinking so hard about every time they see me doing it. >,<' Does it look like I want to answer your questions about what I'm thinking about while I'm thinking?!
2) I've been vegetarian for five and a half years now.
3) I've grown my hair long and cut it short twice now to donate it to make wigs for people who are sick with cancer or other diseases and have lost their hair, and am working on the third time. Doing it again was kinda unintentional... I always end up going way too long between haircuts, so my hair was getting a little longish and I was like, eh, what the heck, might as well not waste it. So hopefully it'll be long enough to cut sometime this summer, although I'm thinking it may not be until next winter, which is just... a bad time for a short haircut. =\
4) I've lived nine different places now: Colorado, Wyoming, Florida, New Mexico, Virginia, Pennsylvania, England, Connecticut, and most recently, Michigan. I never know how to respond when people ask me where I'm from. I don't really remember Colorado at all, and I guess I lived in Virginia the longest, but didn't necessarily "grow up" there... so I usually end up saying I'm from all over. 'XD
5) Somewhat related to number four, apparently I enunciate my consonants more than most people (or most Americans, at least)? People have told me that my accent seems slightly British even before I ever went to England. ^^' I guess I seem like somewhat of a proper person in that way, since I've also had people comment that I have good posture, and have even had a friend ask me to teach them how to eat, not as in diet-wise, but physically putting food in my mouth-wise (because I do it well, maybe? 'XD Still don't completely understand that one, but you know who you are. I've never been so surprised, weirded out, and complimented all at the same time).
6) When I went to Governor's School, my "phrase" in the memory book was "Awww, I'm sorry." I do tend to apologize for things that have nothing to do with me, but say it because I feel genuinely bad that they happened to people. It drives Ben crazy.
7) I'm a sucker for a good vocabulary. If you express yourself with interesting words in everyday conversations (speeches don't really count), I'll probably like you, or at least will struggle not to like you even if I think you're a jerk.