Personal

I’ve got 1402 words so far. Maximum allowed is 3000. I’ll try to write the commentary about my other two pieces first to see if I need to write one more short piece to ramble on about in the commentary. So far I’ve managed to blather on about a 384 word piece for almost an equal amount in the commentary. Seriously, these people should not tell me to talk about my work. They can’t shut me up. When it’s written that is. If they ask me on the spot to explain my stuff, I freeze up. Ah well, such is life.

Went to a pub quiz tonight with Alison and her friends. Came in fourth. There was this one guy who gives me the heebiejeebies if I look at him too long. Especially if I look him in the eyes. I mean, he’s nice and funny and smart and all but just looking into his eyes makes me really uncomfortable which is really weird because I usually have no problem looking people in the eye. This guy though…*shakes head* Probably going again next week. :) I looked awesome tonight though, even if I do say so myself. My hair cooperated, make-up looked good and the shirt that I wore… Well, even though it was pretty low cut, I thought it looked great. And low cut shirts usually don’t look good on me because my “assets” aren’t big enough to make them worth it. But this shirt, *excellent* buy. ;) As Mel said, or so I’ve been told by Oliver, I at least know how to best “display” myself to make me seem bigger than I am. She had been talking about chest sizes with Oliver and he had said that he prefers smaller chests to big ones and that suprised her because Oliver seemed to go for well-endowed women. He pointed out that I’m not that big (seriously, my 36B is not big) and she doesn’t seem to agree with him… XD

Started watching Jem & the Holograms again today. Been singing along to them. How pathetic is it that I still remember all of the words to their songs?

Had a blast dancing with Tom today. Our styles really mesh well. And when we were forced to swap partners, well… neither one of us was too happy with our new partners. My two didn’t lead and his two wouldn’t follow. I feel more confident dancing with Tom, possibly because his grip is strong and he’s got enough strength to put me where he wants me to go. XP

Been writing a lot today. Just sat in the kitchen drinking my decaff coffee (because caffeine just makes me bounce off the walls until unholy hours of the night) and writing for my portfolio. It’s “due” in less than two weeks. Meaning that I need to have it done, printed and handed in by Halloween before I leave. It’s not actually due until the Monday after Halloween. But this way, I get more time to work on my other portfolio which is due on the following Monday. :)

And now, I’m gonna type up what I wrote earlier and edit what I’ve already got. For some reason I’m productive at night when I feel like I’m going to just pass out because I’m so tired. Gotta love weird body clocks.

P.S. The Cute Teacher showed up in my dream last night. Cannot remember what exactly happened, but I know that he was there. And that there was a cliff made of smooth stones (the kind that can be found on the North Beach). And some weird water racing. And chocolate.

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*