I’m in Ravelry! Squeeeeeeeeeeee! I’ve just spent thirty minutes organizing my stuff on there. No where near being complete, but it’s late and my eyes are going all blurry on me, so I should go to bed. Just one more: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
P.S. I (heart) the way my Cute Teacher pronounces my name. ^_^
I like taking showers. They let me think. AND I get brilliant ideas for portfolios somewhere in between rinsing out the shampoo and slathering on the peppermint scented shower gel I bought from Bath & Body Works while I was in Montana. Just spent the last 45 mins writing and editing one piece of my portfolio that I need to get done before Halloween. Not bad, even if I say so myself. Some days, especially after writing a lot, I just feel like I’m a genius. Some of the stuff is pretty good actually. Or at least that’s how I’m feeling right now. Let’s wait until I actually have to hand it in and see if I’m sweating bullets then. XD Anyway, this portfolio isn’t due until Nov. 5th, but that’s reading week (which I’ll be spending in Sheffield) and I’m already going over to Oliver’s on Halloween, so I need to hand in my portfolio before I leave. Otherwise it’ll be very expensive to come here, drop it off and go back again or it’ll cost me a whole lot of points. Neither is an option I’m willing to entertain. So I’ve got about two weeks to get it done. I can work on my other portfolio while I’m in Sheffield since that isn’t due until the next Monday. Everyone is already talking about their dissertations and how they have no idea of what they’re going to do them on. I feel just a tad smug about my situation: One, my “dissertation” is only 6,000 words with a 2,000 word commentary (I swear, they need to let me write more than 6,000 words, that’s so not enough for someone like me who likes to ramble) and two, I’ve already begun mine and have about 3,000 words so far! And I’m not even past the introduction yet! Gah. I see lots of editing ahead of me. And I’m thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo this year. Don’t know if I have a whole 50,000 word novel in me, but hey, it’s an excuse to write (as if I need one). It’s gonna be a busy Novemeber. Especially if I decide to compete in the dance competitions as well!
Still knitting the Isabella, haven’t made too much progress on it, haven’t even gotten to the increases yet! On the other hand, I have been busy with Christmas gifts. So it’s not too bad. I still want to buy yarn and roving though. But even more than I desire buying *more* yarn, I want to use up all of the stuff I’ve got in my stash so I can actually justify buying some.
Ran into the cute teacher again today. Wasn’t looking my best today (who is on Mondays?) with my hair doing its weird fly away curly poofy thing. Unlike on Friday when I ran into him when I was on my way to the train station to meet Oliver (I had actually made an effort to do my hair and look nice in general). Ah well. Then again, he looked like he needed another dose of caffeine, so maybe Mondays are just evil in general?
Okay, my stash is calling me. Shall watch an episode of Buffy before going to bed (even though I know that it’s 1 am right now and *should* be going to sleep).
Just wanted to say that I should be getting my Ravelry invite soon. As in there are about 1500 people in front of me on the list. Then me! That is all.
Proper update once I’ve gotten my assignment for Writing Lives done and Oliver has gone home again. :(
Yesterday I heard that my first cousin Jenna is pregnant! *grin* The baby’s due in early April. Now, the question is: Do I make a baby blanket or a baby garment? And what color? No one knows the sex of the baby yet, so I’m thinking something like pastel yellow and spring green and sky blue. Staying away from pink. Maybe some lavender if it’s a blanket that I’m making…
Been dancing, reading some Edgar Allan Poe, “spying” on people (for my assignment, not because I’m weird) and knitting.
I love watching the sea. Especially when there are bigger waves than usual. Like right now. :)
My internet connection decided to die on me last night at around 8:30. Tried restarting, unplugging the cable, all that jazz. Nada. So this morning I called the Network helpline people (I got their number from reception downstairs). They said that they’re working on fixing it. Being the impatient being that I am sometimes, I decided to pay them a visit personally if the connection had not rectified itself by the time I had to leave. God, that sounds ominous. What I meant was that since I was going to be in that building today anyway (had to print off an assignment at the library) I’d stop by and ask again. So I did and they asked me all sorts of questions like do I know my IP address (yeah, right, I have the memorized just for emergencies like this *rolls eyes*) and did I have my laptop with me (Uh, no. It’s heavy. Not lugging it up the hill unless I really have to). Eventually, they wound up printing off some instructions on how to reconfigure my connection settings and if that didn’t solve it, I should bring my laptop up tomorrow for them to take a look at it and help me solve the problem. Luckily, their printed mojo worked. ^_^
Had another class with the cute teacher. *grin* And now he knows that the J in my name is not like “jam” but like “yes”. I’m trying to get the original pronounciation established around here. Sounds more exotic that way. Therefore, I am more interesting. *nods* We got an interesting assignment for next week. We have to “spy” on someone, take note of every little detail and then imagine what their partner is like. Once that’s done, we need to write a short scenario with the two of them interacting. This is supposed to help us define and write a whole character, not just one aspect of it. Hey, if it lets me do people watching, I’m all for it. But he did say that we shouldn’t stalk people because “there are rules against that sort of thing”. XD
I’m off to knit again. I started making an Isabella in light green for myself last night. I just hope that my gauge is right this time. The baby pink one I made last spring turned out to be too big for me. *sniffle* But at least it made a nice graduation present for my sister. :)
Okay, so it’s 8:29 right now and I’ve been up for half an hour. We had a fire drill. >_< But the guy who was doing rolls call (he used to be a tutor of mine during my first year) said my name and then this look of realization dawned on his face I know this one!. Gotta love an unforgettable surname. ;)
I guess I should start doing stuff that can be crossed out of my to-do list. Yes, I made a to-do list last night. I think I’ll go do laundry. Seems the easiest right now.
Oh and last night, someone would just not lay off the intercom buzzer thing! It took me forever to realize that that sound wasn’t actually a part of my dream, then it took awhile for it to click in my head what the sound actually was (because it sure wasn’t the fire alarm and I know what that sounds like) and then stumble out of bed and as soon as I get to the intercom, it stops. I didn’t even have the chance to pick it up and ask really irritably who it was (because I’m still nice to total strangers [because the voices at the other end always equal “total stranger” in my head before I know who it is] even if they drag my carcass out of bed), before it stopped. Haven’t seen anyone in my flat today so I haven’t been able to ask them if they heard it too or *gasp* if they were the ones I hadn’t let in at quarter past three in the morning.
Going back to making Krisi’s present and watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice now.
Yesterday, the weather was gorgeous. The sun was out, it was warm, but there was a slight breeze to keep things cool enough. :) In the morning, I went to the Farmer’s Market kinda hoping to find some roving like I did in Montana, but I had a feeling that I wouldn’t find any. And I didn’t. I had also given myself a £5 spending limit and since I didn’t see anything at the market that I wanted, I went to Clare’s and bought one skein of Classic Yarns Cashsoft DK (57% extra fine merino, 33% microfibre, 10% cashmere) in a light grey for £2.50 (it was discounted because it was the last of the dyelot). Really pretty. And soft. And I have no idea what to make out of it. I’ve got about 130m/142yds of this and that’s not enough for a scarf. I don’t want to make a hat out of it. Or fingerless mitts. *sigh* Other news on the knitting front: I have finally gotten an idea of what to make for Christmas for Krisi. Not saying what, just in case she reads this, but I like it because it’ll be something practical and I get to do some stash busting. ^_^
Then two hours later, I’m hiking up Pen Dinas with Gabe. He’d messaged me through MSN an hour earlier and asked if I wanted to go. We had lunch up there (swapping halves of our sandwiches; I had PB&J on wholegrain while he had some beef&cheese on white). I’ve got a panoramic picture of the view from the top, but I haven’t uploaded it yet. Oliver called while I was up there. I told him to guess where I was and he immediately said: “Top of a hill.” Apparently, I’m somewhat predictable. Is that good or bad though?
At five, we left for the movies. At this point, let me just say that I think Gabe is out to get me. He saw what it was like for me climbing up Pen Dinas (and boy am I glad that last year I decided to climb up to the M several times during the year, otherwise Pen Dinas would really have kicked my butt) and he wants to get up to campus going through the Penglais forest! At first it seems fine, but it’s a really steep climb and I’m not in the best shape, okay? Then we finally get back onto the road that I wanted to use in the first place and we’ve just spent about ten minutes in the woods just to get to a spot that would’ve taken us two minutes to walk to. Grr. We did make it to the movie in time though. I was melting into a puddle of sweat at that point (something I wanted to avoid which is why I wanted to leave -early-), but at least we didn’t miss the beginning. We went to see “Atonement”. I though it was pretty good. I liked the ending. Now I want to read the book to see how it was written.
Martin is a genius. He knows how to make the shower warmer! Last night, I turned on the water to make it warm up before I get in and it was boiling hot. And I couldn’t get cold water. So I knocked on Martin’s door and asked if he knew anything about showers. And he fixed it! I mean, he’s the one who “broke” the shower in the first place, but it’s really nice to be able to take warm/hot showers again. Before, the water only got to like warm/lukewarm which wasn’t that much fun actually. But now, hot water! *grin*
I (heart) dancing. Especially when it’s with a guy who knows what they’re doing! Or even sort of close to knowing what’s supposed to be done. Today, at dance practice, I danced with four guys: Luke, Pete, Martin and Jan. In that order. Each time getting better than the last. From the beginning then. Luke is a beginner. We did waltzed together. He kinda forgot steps, but that’s okay seeing as this was his second lesson ever. (He kinda looks like Ron Weasley. As in the way I imagined Ron Weasly to look like before I say any of the movies.) Then it was time for Quickstep. That I started out dancing with Pete. It went okay. I don’t think that he was taking it too seriously though. He feels more like a “fun” person than someone who actually wants to practice dancing. Soon though, he had to go do some team stuff, so he passed me onto Martin, another guy from the “team”. Quickstepping with Martin was a whole lot more fun than with Pete. I think it’s because Martin actually did seem to want to practice and neither one of us was too clear about doing the turning so we kinda learned how to do that together. Plus, he was fun to talk to while we danced. Then came Jan. Wonderful dancing Jan. He’s from Holland and has been dancing for five years. An excellent leader I must say. He had me doing twirly things and stuff. Made me actually feel like I could dance. We only had time to do the cha-cha (or is it chacha?) before we (as in the whole dance group) were kicked out of the room because the stupid Sports Cage had double-booked the room and hadn’t told us about it. Grr.
The dance social was tonight at the Cambrian. Had a raffle, played pass the parcel (won candy and a condom XP) and there was a quiz. My team won the quiz by a point. We got 20/30. And all I could really contribute to it was my knowledge of what’s in a screwdriver (the drink, not the actual tool) and what the breastbone is called. Oh and who drew the “Peanuts” comic. All three of us got a stuffed toy; mine was a cow while Tom got a turtle and Dani got an electric blue monkey which she immediately dubbed “Bananas”. Then at 10:30 the party headed to the Pier for Peer Pressure. It didn’t really sound like my kind of fun, so I came back. Have had a nice cup of tea and chatted with Becky on MSN. And I’m getting kinda sleepy now, so I’ll end this here.
Oh, and today the weather was awesome. Sat on the beach doing homework for an hour, enjoying the sun. I love being so close to the sea. :)
Type one: Okay, so a recap of Tuesday: OMG my teacher is so hot! I mean, seriously. I am so lucky to see him once a week for two hours at a time. *grin* He just seems to exude this confidence, an intellectual sexiness. He seems to be the type of person who’d know how good wines. It’s some sort of finesse that he’s got. Plus, he’s young-ish. As in I doubt that he’s much over thirty, if that. Unless he’s got really good genes like Steve who just doesn’t seem to age (I swear, he looks pretty exactly the same now that he’s 39/40 [can’t remember which] as he did when he was 20). Okay, so my teacher’s kinda got this camp thing going on, so I’m not too sure if he’s gay or not, but that does *not* detract from his attractiveness. And my flatmate Hannah agrees with me! So it’s not just me with weird taste. If someone else thinks that he’s gorgeous as well, then he must be. ;)
Then last night there was the fire talk. Afterwards, Gabe and I first came to my flat so that I could eat dinner. There was a bouquet of red roses on the counter (in a Dolmio pasta sauce jar, just so you know that we’re still students XD). I said something about never getting roses and Gabe just offhandedly said: “Well, I’ll buy you some. When I’ve got money that is. Or just one, ‘cause they’re expensive.” *grin* Then afterwards, we went over to his flat because he felt that it was his turn to make tea (he’s been pretty much drinking a lot mine :P). So we just hung out in his room chatting and drinking tea. Then at some point I said that I don’t like poetry and he was just gobsmacked. “You don’t like poetry?!” “No, not really.” He took a book off his shelf and read me a poem from there. When I still wasn’t too impressed, he kept on finding more online and read them to me. This must’ve gone on for at least half an hour. He did eventually find a poem that I did kinda like (The Lady of Shalott), but I have to say, I’m still not a fan. (this here was cuteness type two) But it was nice to be read to. I think that’s why I like audiobooks so much. Someone else is telling me a story instead of me reading it. ^-^ Yesterday we also tried out a new way of getting to each other’s flats without having to go outside and crossing “the quad” (as Gabe dubbed it). It was actually pretty cool. No need for shoes anymore!
Yesterday was my first dance lesson. I had loads of fun. And, there were tons of guys there! Which I was surprised about. I don’t know if they’re all going to stay (I kinda doubt it) but at least yesterday there were almost equal numbers. I did the Chacha and Waltz with a guy named Alan, then Jive, Quickstep and Rock’N’Roll with Monika (a girl from Spain). I know that neither of them are coming today because they’ve got classes, so we’ll just have to see who I get to dance with today. ^_~
Since it is so nice outside right now, I think I’ll go sit on the beach and do my homework there. :)