July 19th-22th: OMFG LIVEJOURNAL
EDIT: Nope your friends page isn't messed up, I add more to the entry so I'm reposting (and got up before 8 to do so!), and now I'm off for a week at the beach with family, wish me luck!
Alright, I know I like getting a lot of posts on my friends page to read, it makes me happy. However, dreamer is distinctly NOT HAPPBEH at the amount of posts on there since the avatar finale. What the heck, why does everyone+all 8 of their great grandparents have either a fic or icons to post?!? I don't mind seeing so many posts about discussion, but since there are so many other posts, the discussion/spoiler posts are starting to repeat since it is so hard to go through all of them and see if this was already done!
Ahem, sorry for the rant but really, I've been going through about 60, maybe even 80 posts a day and so I haven't had time to blog! Also, the gaia reject olympics started so I'm really having a harder time than normal managing computer time. At least I've pretty much figured out dA's new system, it is really nice to have the popular page be the front page I will admit, but I always have to change the settings when I search something.
Alright Sunday must have been calm since I can't remember anything really interesting. But I do remember that we had to turn on the AC, my brother and I couldn't even lean up agaisnt chairs without sweating, it was bad. And we had the AC on for a few days, from Sunday night until Wednesday morning, by which point it was cooling down a lot and has been comfortable ever since.
Monday I started volunteering at the library again, haven't done that since last year. I came in to the bookshop, a little area, seperate from the rest of the library, the books they sell are all donations, and introduced myself, saying that I was a new volunteer, but that I had helped out last year. So I got the checklist, went around the shop, writing down where we needed more books, and then went to the back with a big cart, along with a few donations that had come in earlier. I have discovered something funny about that cart, almost all libraries have some sort of gate inside then, it's to make sure people don't walk out with a book. However, when I go through those with the cart, wow, I can hear the buzzing, must be reacting to cart, it's an all metal, black, slightly peeling, cart with a loose wheel or two, and it is so heavy when I fill it up with books. Went to the back, got the books I needed (after one or two tries, for some reason we shelve mystery and fiction in different places, and since this is a matter of opinion, well, things get confusing. One of the volunteers, Lucy, whom I had met once or twice the previous year, came back while I was back, made sure I knew what to do, and then left to get lunch. I had most of the work done, I was just counting and putting more donations on the unsorted shelves when another volunteer I remembered, Tasha came back. Tasha is, well, I don't know if she is actually retarded, but I have my suspicions. But she is able to tell if a book is fiction mystery or non fiction so she was able to help me shelve there.
We trundle back out to the bookshop and wow, you know that you've been in a very quite place when a library sounds noisy. Then again, if you know how to listen, then the library always sounds busy, the people walking, computers buzzing, the beep of books being checked out, the thud of books on shelves, a very productive sound. Tasha and I price the books in the shop (there is a paper with the prices for books, they depend on if the book is a soft cover or hard cover and what year it was published) so we get done very quickly. After a while Lucy takes the two of us back again (neither of us has the card that unlocks the doors to the "back stage" of the library, we have to borrow the paid volunteers badges) and we sort out the books that were previously unsorted. I found a bunch of books in Spanish, some more might have been in Cyllric or Russian as well, and as I was putting them on the language shelf ("Which tripled in size that day") I found Persepolis 2: A story of a return! : D
For those of you who don't know, Persepolis 1 & 2 are the memoirs of a women who was growing up in Iran during, I don't know if you would call it a revolution, we didn't really study it in history, but it was when the Shah was overthrown and the turmoil. However, these are told in comic book form, black and white only, no toning, and that makes the story both light and dark. No idea what it was doing in the language section, it was written in English and I would have thought to find it either in the children's section or our ENORMOUS biography section.
Anyway, we finished shelving and brought out a few other books (I found a summer reading book, Stargirl by Jerry Spinale, a copy of Twilight, and Lucy found a book about deterring squirels that had the best title ever, I need to find and photograph it next time). We went back to the shop, the volunteer that had been there when I got there left soon afterwards (after see and Lucy tried to figure out where the head hancho was, there was a meeting she was supposed to be at and yeah, stuff that did not concern dreamer) and Tasha left after that. So it was Lucy, myself, and another girl, maybe a year younger than me, who was working full time, but since she was working as part of a program, she was being paid by someone other than the library (I don't get paid at all, service hours only). She learned, I asked partially since I wasn't sure if she knew and I wasn't sure if I remember, that we get one free snack and then they helped me remember how to work the cash register. Then Lucy had me help update the summer reading list (I got the books for my school, I even got to put the Aneid on there for the Latin IV AP peeps) and the books for another school.
That was it really, three hours and then my mom came in (we went into the regular library later so I could get some books for my senior project) and I was able to use the cash register to buy Persepolis, it now resides with my manga in my room.
Now, before I went to the library, I was helping my mom clean out the pantry for some extra money. I took everything out (and holy crud is that a lot, took up all the counter space in the kitchen) and then wiped down the shelves. After wondering why my mom had insisted on removing the paper from them a few years ago, that really kept them cleaner, I applied a first layer of paint to the shelves themselves. After I came home from the library I found that my mom had painted the back of the shelves and, since I wanted to put in some more coats, there was no chance of the items going back tonight. But there was a problem here, Tuesday is my dad's birthday, and there was no where to bake him a cake! Here's what our kitchen looked like:
This is looking through our kitchen, the empty closet thing is our pantry.
And that little table there? Yeah, that's where I had to put the mixer and make up the filling of the cake, it was a cheese cake. So it was, interesting to say the least, I had to stick the ingrediants on the step stool just to keep them all in one place, and I was able to get a second layer on the shelves and a first on the sides while the cake was baking.
Tuesday I was up bright and early to go with my youth group to Concord Mills. Concord Mills is this HUGE mall, no seriously, one lap around (it's a circular design) is probably over a mile, felt like it by the end of the day anyway, but since it's so far off this was only my second trip to it. I got there around 9, when we were supposed to leave, waited a few minutes, Katie and her husband came over and Katie was complaining about how we had everyone but Carmela and Aroua, saying how we would get a text message any minute now about how they overslept. A text came, and they weren't coming so we hopped in the church van (which holds like, 15 people, it's big) and were on our way. I was annoyed that I had forgotten to pack my ipod, and I didn't have any sewing with me either, poo. Actually felt kinda odd, it was all of this unused time that I could be productive in, but I did muse about how ironic it is about Katie complaining about how others are late, SHE was an hour late to the white water rafting thing (yes I know, not much the could do about a flat tire, but since they didn't even find out about that until 9, when they were already supposed to be at the church, I am not envious of her time skills).
However, Derrick taught us this fun game to play in the car, we became kinda obsessive with it. It goes like this, you look around the highway for signs or cars or trucks that have a word that starts with the letter "A" on them, the first person to see it shouts it out and then they look for something with the letter "B" on it. Everyone else keeps looking for "A", but they can't use the sign the other person just did, in some games, if the word was "apple" they couldn't use apple at all, no matter how many different signs it appeared on. The first one to "Z" wins, but do you know what the hardest letter was? You're probably guessing "Q," or "X" or even "Z" but it's "Q", a lot of license plates these days start with "X" (but that's only allowed if it's the first letter on the plate) but really, there was only one Quiznos betwen the church and CM! I managed to get "Q" on both the way down and back, I saw words on passing trucks, and this game makes you pay super close attention to everything around you, the sooner you see it, the better chance someone else hasn't and you can advance.
We got into the mall, and after deciding to stop playing the game (no, not the one I just lost...) we went to different stores that were all in the same area. I got bored really fast, I'm a little old to feel comfortable in Claires, there was no The World Ends With You in the gamestop and I didn't realize until later we could go to the Forever 21 (where I found a nice dress, I took a couple of myspace photos that day to show my mom what they looked like). So I went into the Disney store and Katie, I know you love Disney, but spending 30 minutes in there is a litttlllleeee excessive. Actually it's funny, it's been so many years since I've been in a Disney store that I felt kinda uncomfortable, then again, I dislike a lot of Disney things and make no secret about how I think the hype about it is silly. Then again, I believe fan worship in general is silly, and yes, my love of authors is different. I mean come on, in Disney and in music and such it's the product of so many people but in writing, yes there are multiple people involved, but ultimetly it is the author re-creating the world annew, how can you not be in awe?
After that we walked around more, I think Katie rolled her eyes at how I was more interested in Derricks new tools than shopping (seriously, I nearly DROOLED over his new power drill, that thing was nnniiiiiicccccceeeeeeee), looked at stuff, didn't see anything I liked (well, except pocky that I got at F.Y.E, I did bring only $10 so I was limited) and was annoyed that Hot Topic did not have the single row of studs belt that I need for my Amu school uniform cosplay. Really, of all the places that have studded belts, HT is a the top of the list, but I did see a funny wristband that said "In case of emergency, break dance!"
After lunch another amusing thing occured that shows how different I have become. We were walking away from the food court (forgot to mention, this was an all girls trip, no guy apparently wants to shop) and they all start looking behind themselves, whispering and giggling. So I ask what since I had looked back and seen nothing odd and they say that the guy back there had braided his beard. So after quickly thinking "How Egyptian" and "Hmm, bet that keeps it out of everything, very pratical" I ask what is so weird. They could not explain what was so weird about it to me, but it left me thinking, half amused half depressed, that they would REALLY freak if they had seen the stuff I have seen, the stuff that is normal or weird to me! Cosplay gives you a different viewpoint on the world I have found.
Went into Wet Seal and tried on A LOT of clothing, I don't think I had ever been to one before (and my mom says there is one at our mall too!) and I found that I am too big for XSmalls. Now I could accept it if I was too tall (hah!), or if my chest was too big, but nope, my shoulders have gotten so big that the dresses don't fit over my head. Figures that I wasn't just imagining that one, I just thought it was since my hair is above my shoulders so I can actually see them but no, I' m becoming more stocky. Not exactly fun, but I have accepted that I have no waist by now, just annoying that since I'm skinny and short that I should be able to wear a lot of clothes that I can't.
I must have been in there for a while since it took me some time to figure out which store everyone else was in, but we were fine. The last shop we went into was this great big outdoor store, right after Derrick and Katie's kid was dropped off (Katie had her niece along, who's read Full Moon and Vampire Knight!, and her mom was going to drop the baby off so then they could go shopping, or something like that). So a lot of girls had a fun time dressing up in all the weird hunting equipment, thankfully no one tried to make me do so but then again, I was trying on a lot of hats, I happen to have a hat obsession. I asked Katie if she could send me the photos later (since I don't have facebook like the rest of them, it's a little harder for me to get the photos) and she told me yes if I send her the link to my livejournal.
Uh, no, there is a reason I didn't tell it to you in Claries, paritally jeaously about how you have been talking to nearly everyone else this way (if I'm going to be out of a group, well I'm gonna stay out) and also because, well, I don't want her reading it. She will call people out for bad language, although I do self censor a lot and still, this is much more than she has ever known about my life. And yes I admit, I'm a little worried that she would mention my cosplay and I would get teased about it at school. Yes I can stand a little bit, but it has been annoying to be teased for two years straight about wearing heelies, I don't particulary want to add more fuel to the fire.
We left, after seeing more interesting stuff in the store, and I forgot, we went to one more store that had the best had ever (I so NEED it) and then drove back to the church, Derrick makes really good time on the highway ("I suppose it's too late to worry since you're here now...").
Then my brother and I went other to our dad's, sang happy birthday, explained why we didn't have presents (I feel really guilty...) and he liked my cake. After that I was able to get the last layer of paint on and then the pantry was back to normal.
Crap, gotta go, bet I won't have time to finish it tomorrow, I leave for the beach at 9 am, no idea why it has to be so early, we do have the whole day to get there... signing off.
Alright, I know I like getting a lot of posts on my friends page to read, it makes me happy. However, dreamer is distinctly NOT HAPPBEH at the amount of posts on there since the avatar finale. What the heck, why does everyone+all 8 of their great grandparents have either a fic or icons to post?!? I don't mind seeing so many posts about discussion, but since there are so many other posts, the discussion/spoiler posts are starting to repeat since it is so hard to go through all of them and see if this was already done!
Ahem, sorry for the rant but really, I've been going through about 60, maybe even 80 posts a day and so I haven't had time to blog! Also, the gaia reject olympics started so I'm really having a harder time than normal managing computer time. At least I've pretty much figured out dA's new system, it is really nice to have the popular page be the front page I will admit, but I always have to change the settings when I search something.
Alright Sunday must have been calm since I can't remember anything really interesting. But I do remember that we had to turn on the AC, my brother and I couldn't even lean up agaisnt chairs without sweating, it was bad. And we had the AC on for a few days, from Sunday night until Wednesday morning, by which point it was cooling down a lot and has been comfortable ever since.
Monday I started volunteering at the library again, haven't done that since last year. I came in to the bookshop, a little area, seperate from the rest of the library, the books they sell are all donations, and introduced myself, saying that I was a new volunteer, but that I had helped out last year. So I got the checklist, went around the shop, writing down where we needed more books, and then went to the back with a big cart, along with a few donations that had come in earlier. I have discovered something funny about that cart, almost all libraries have some sort of gate inside then, it's to make sure people don't walk out with a book. However, when I go through those with the cart, wow, I can hear the buzzing, must be reacting to cart, it's an all metal, black, slightly peeling, cart with a loose wheel or two, and it is so heavy when I fill it up with books. Went to the back, got the books I needed (after one or two tries, for some reason we shelve mystery and fiction in different places, and since this is a matter of opinion, well, things get confusing. One of the volunteers, Lucy, whom I had met once or twice the previous year, came back while I was back, made sure I knew what to do, and then left to get lunch. I had most of the work done, I was just counting and putting more donations on the unsorted shelves when another volunteer I remembered, Tasha came back. Tasha is, well, I don't know if she is actually retarded, but I have my suspicions. But she is able to tell if a book is fiction mystery or non fiction so she was able to help me shelve there.
We trundle back out to the bookshop and wow, you know that you've been in a very quite place when a library sounds noisy. Then again, if you know how to listen, then the library always sounds busy, the people walking, computers buzzing, the beep of books being checked out, the thud of books on shelves, a very productive sound. Tasha and I price the books in the shop (there is a paper with the prices for books, they depend on if the book is a soft cover or hard cover and what year it was published) so we get done very quickly. After a while Lucy takes the two of us back again (neither of us has the card that unlocks the doors to the "back stage" of the library, we have to borrow the paid volunteers badges) and we sort out the books that were previously unsorted. I found a bunch of books in Spanish, some more might have been in Cyllric or Russian as well, and as I was putting them on the language shelf ("Which tripled in size that day") I found Persepolis 2: A story of a return! : D
For those of you who don't know, Persepolis 1 & 2 are the memoirs of a women who was growing up in Iran during, I don't know if you would call it a revolution, we didn't really study it in history, but it was when the Shah was overthrown and the turmoil. However, these are told in comic book form, black and white only, no toning, and that makes the story both light and dark. No idea what it was doing in the language section, it was written in English and I would have thought to find it either in the children's section or our ENORMOUS biography section.
Anyway, we finished shelving and brought out a few other books (I found a summer reading book, Stargirl by Jerry Spinale, a copy of Twilight, and Lucy found a book about deterring squirels that had the best title ever, I need to find and photograph it next time). We went back to the shop, the volunteer that had been there when I got there left soon afterwards (after see and Lucy tried to figure out where the head hancho was, there was a meeting she was supposed to be at and yeah, stuff that did not concern dreamer) and Tasha left after that. So it was Lucy, myself, and another girl, maybe a year younger than me, who was working full time, but since she was working as part of a program, she was being paid by someone other than the library (I don't get paid at all, service hours only). She learned, I asked partially since I wasn't sure if she knew and I wasn't sure if I remember, that we get one free snack and then they helped me remember how to work the cash register. Then Lucy had me help update the summer reading list (I got the books for my school, I even got to put the Aneid on there for the Latin IV AP peeps) and the books for another school.
That was it really, three hours and then my mom came in (we went into the regular library later so I could get some books for my senior project) and I was able to use the cash register to buy Persepolis, it now resides with my manga in my room.
Now, before I went to the library, I was helping my mom clean out the pantry for some extra money. I took everything out (and holy crud is that a lot, took up all the counter space in the kitchen) and then wiped down the shelves. After wondering why my mom had insisted on removing the paper from them a few years ago, that really kept them cleaner, I applied a first layer of paint to the shelves themselves. After I came home from the library I found that my mom had painted the back of the shelves and, since I wanted to put in some more coats, there was no chance of the items going back tonight. But there was a problem here, Tuesday is my dad's birthday, and there was no where to bake him a cake! Here's what our kitchen looked like:
This is looking through our kitchen, the empty closet thing is our pantry.
And that little table there? Yeah, that's where I had to put the mixer and make up the filling of the cake, it was a cheese cake. So it was, interesting to say the least, I had to stick the ingrediants on the step stool just to keep them all in one place, and I was able to get a second layer on the shelves and a first on the sides while the cake was baking.
Tuesday I was up bright and early to go with my youth group to Concord Mills. Concord Mills is this HUGE mall, no seriously, one lap around (it's a circular design) is probably over a mile, felt like it by the end of the day anyway, but since it's so far off this was only my second trip to it. I got there around 9, when we were supposed to leave, waited a few minutes, Katie and her husband came over and Katie was complaining about how we had everyone but Carmela and Aroua, saying how we would get a text message any minute now about how they overslept. A text came, and they weren't coming so we hopped in the church van (which holds like, 15 people, it's big) and were on our way. I was annoyed that I had forgotten to pack my ipod, and I didn't have any sewing with me either, poo. Actually felt kinda odd, it was all of this unused time that I could be productive in, but I did muse about how ironic it is about Katie complaining about how others are late, SHE was an hour late to the white water rafting thing (yes I know, not much the could do about a flat tire, but since they didn't even find out about that until 9, when they were already supposed to be at the church, I am not envious of her time skills).
However, Derrick taught us this fun game to play in the car, we became kinda obsessive with it. It goes like this, you look around the highway for signs or cars or trucks that have a word that starts with the letter "A" on them, the first person to see it shouts it out and then they look for something with the letter "B" on it. Everyone else keeps looking for "A", but they can't use the sign the other person just did, in some games, if the word was "apple" they couldn't use apple at all, no matter how many different signs it appeared on. The first one to "Z" wins, but do you know what the hardest letter was? You're probably guessing "Q," or "X" or even "Z" but it's "Q", a lot of license plates these days start with "X" (but that's only allowed if it's the first letter on the plate) but really, there was only one Quiznos betwen the church and CM! I managed to get "Q" on both the way down and back, I saw words on passing trucks, and this game makes you pay super close attention to everything around you, the sooner you see it, the better chance someone else hasn't and you can advance.
We got into the mall, and after deciding to stop playing the game (no, not the one I just lost...) we went to different stores that were all in the same area. I got bored really fast, I'm a little old to feel comfortable in Claires, there was no The World Ends With You in the gamestop and I didn't realize until later we could go to the Forever 21 (where I found a nice dress, I took a couple of myspace photos that day to show my mom what they looked like). So I went into the Disney store and Katie, I know you love Disney, but spending 30 minutes in there is a litttlllleeee excessive. Actually it's funny, it's been so many years since I've been in a Disney store that I felt kinda uncomfortable, then again, I dislike a lot of Disney things and make no secret about how I think the hype about it is silly. Then again, I believe fan worship in general is silly, and yes, my love of authors is different. I mean come on, in Disney and in music and such it's the product of so many people but in writing, yes there are multiple people involved, but ultimetly it is the author re-creating the world annew, how can you not be in awe?
After that we walked around more, I think Katie rolled her eyes at how I was more interested in Derricks new tools than shopping (seriously, I nearly DROOLED over his new power drill, that thing was nnniiiiiicccccceeeeeeee), looked at stuff, didn't see anything I liked (well, except pocky that I got at F.Y.E, I did bring only $10 so I was limited) and was annoyed that Hot Topic did not have the single row of studs belt that I need for my Amu school uniform cosplay. Really, of all the places that have studded belts, HT is a the top of the list, but I did see a funny wristband that said "In case of emergency, break dance!"
After lunch another amusing thing occured that shows how different I have become. We were walking away from the food court (forgot to mention, this was an all girls trip, no guy apparently wants to shop) and they all start looking behind themselves, whispering and giggling. So I ask what since I had looked back and seen nothing odd and they say that the guy back there had braided his beard. So after quickly thinking "How Egyptian" and "Hmm, bet that keeps it out of everything, very pratical" I ask what is so weird. They could not explain what was so weird about it to me, but it left me thinking, half amused half depressed, that they would REALLY freak if they had seen the stuff I have seen, the stuff that is normal or weird to me! Cosplay gives you a different viewpoint on the world I have found.
Went into Wet Seal and tried on A LOT of clothing, I don't think I had ever been to one before (and my mom says there is one at our mall too!) and I found that I am too big for XSmalls. Now I could accept it if I was too tall (hah!), or if my chest was too big, but nope, my shoulders have gotten so big that the dresses don't fit over my head. Figures that I wasn't just imagining that one, I just thought it was since my hair is above my shoulders so I can actually see them but no, I' m becoming more stocky. Not exactly fun, but I have accepted that I have no waist by now, just annoying that since I'm skinny and short that I should be able to wear a lot of clothes that I can't.
I must have been in there for a while since it took me some time to figure out which store everyone else was in, but we were fine. The last shop we went into was this great big outdoor store, right after Derrick and Katie's kid was dropped off (Katie had her niece along, who's read Full Moon and Vampire Knight!, and her mom was going to drop the baby off so then they could go shopping, or something like that). So a lot of girls had a fun time dressing up in all the weird hunting equipment, thankfully no one tried to make me do so but then again, I was trying on a lot of hats, I happen to have a hat obsession. I asked Katie if she could send me the photos later (since I don't have facebook like the rest of them, it's a little harder for me to get the photos) and she told me yes if I send her the link to my livejournal.
Uh, no, there is a reason I didn't tell it to you in Claries, paritally jeaously about how you have been talking to nearly everyone else this way (if I'm going to be out of a group, well I'm gonna stay out) and also because, well, I don't want her reading it. She will call people out for bad language, although I do self censor a lot and still, this is much more than she has ever known about my life. And yes I admit, I'm a little worried that she would mention my cosplay and I would get teased about it at school. Yes I can stand a little bit, but it has been annoying to be teased for two years straight about wearing heelies, I don't particulary want to add more fuel to the fire.
We left, after seeing more interesting stuff in the store, and I forgot, we went to one more store that had the best had ever (I so NEED it) and then drove back to the church, Derrick makes really good time on the highway ("I suppose it's too late to worry since you're here now...").
Then my brother and I went other to our dad's, sang happy birthday, explained why we didn't have presents (I feel really guilty...) and he liked my cake. After that I was able to get the last layer of paint on and then the pantry was back to normal.
Crap, gotta go, bet I won't have time to finish it tomorrow, I leave for the beach at 9 am, no idea why it has to be so early, we do have the whole day to get there... signing off.