School stuff

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. :(

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.

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. :)

Okay, so the earliest class I have so far is at 11:10 a.m. Now, that may not sound so bad, but I need to leave an hour before class starts, otherwise I’m all icky and sweating when I get to class. And I need to be up two hours before that to make breakfast and pack a lunch since I’m not coming back to my room in between class and dance practice. So that means I have to get up at 8. Not so easy when you consider that I keep staying up until at least midnight just working on creative stuff (like Christmas presents!). So I’ve been up since 8. I made breakfast (that was a fiasco in itself, I kept spilling stuff everywhere and it just wasn’t pretty) and when it finally was done, I decided to check my e-mails. I got one from my Writing Project tutor. She just gave a basic outline of what we need to bring to our next session which she wants to have next Wednesday at 9 a.m.! Meaning that I need to get up at six a.m. *weeps* Oh, and I know that she means well by wanting us to be structured in our writing and that it’s supposed to help us but I just don’t write like that. I go where the story takes me. I don’t write it all up and do literary research in advance. It’s more like: “Oh hey, this guy seems to want to talk about trains. Guess I should look up some stuff,” instead of deciding before I even start writing “This guy is a train addict.” Plus, I’ve already got a story I want to work on that I’ve already written. I don’t see a point in me starting a new story because that’s something I know how to do (you should see the amount of drafts and just one page scenes I’ve accumulated); I’d rather work hard at revising what I already have to make it as close to being published as possible. Well, I’m meeting her later today so I’ll discuss it with her then.

I’ll write about yesterday later. Now I have to go make lunch.

It was the weirdest thing. I was walking down Marine Terrace, going over my shopping list in my head and I see a guy with longish strawberry blonde hair coming towards me. We both do a double take before saying “Hi!” It was Tucker from UM! It was kind of surreal realizing that I know this person who I just happened to take a class with last autumn in the States and now he’s just someone I can run into at the oddest times.

And then when I was coming back from Somerfield’s, I walked past Scott, the guy who sorta lived with us in Rosser because he was friends with all the guys and therefore spent a lot of time over at our flat. He didn’t notice me though. And I didn’t realize that it was him until after we had passed each other.

I’m just glad that I’ve gotten back into the habit of making an effort in my appearance (as in actually brushing my hair and putting on make-up) before I go out. I wonder who else I’ll run into this year.

Oh and yesterday, a pigeon flew into the kitchen and scared the crap out of me. It just sat/stood on the kitchen table before it flew out the window again. Next, we’ll probably have a flock of seagulls picking through our trash can.

I think there might be someone in Freddy’s old room now. I heard voices as I was going past.

My dad did eventually show up at 10 a.m. He’d been stuck on the M1 for two hours. So we quickly packed up the car and off we went! Let me just say that the road from Sheffield to Glossop has some really beautiful scenery. The Peak District is awesome. ^-^ So is Northern Wales. The dense greenery, the huge Bala Lake that we passed, the hilly-ness of it all. Love love love. And speaking of wonderful views… I LOVE my room! It’s right on the seafront. I wake up to hearing the waves crashing on the beach, then I get to see it once I’ve opened the curtains that just let the light flood in. The way the sea changes color and is multiple colors at the same time. The white caps all over dotting the surface. How the peeking sunlight forces its way through the clouds. The wind blowing seamist everywhere… Can you tell yet that I adore this place?

Well, we got to Aber at around three o’clock. I checked in, got my keys and then schlepped all of my stuff in. My dad took a four hour nap while I unpacked and chatted with my new flatmates. There are four of us in total, all of us studying English (at least I think we all did English, not too sure about Freddy). Anywayz, I’ve talked to Sarah and Tom the most so far, but I did run into Freddy in the morning. All of us except Freddy are in our final year. I do have at least one thing in common with Freddy though: Civ4. He saw it this morning when he was using my computer to register for his classes (the same way I used Sarah’s to register for my classes).

So I didn’t really do that much yesterday. Today, I had breakfast with my dad, then a bit later we went up to the Penglais campus so I could find out what my schedule is going to be like and then we were off to Morrison’s to do some stocking up. Oh the amount of stuff that was bought… *shakes head*. I should be fine with all of that for at least a month. Of course, I’m not talking about the perishables, but I’ve got enough grain-y stuff to last me quite a long time!

Just a little while ago before my dad left again, he cooked me a proper steak with an excellent creamy pepper sauce. There was some extra sauce so that’s in the fridge waiting for me to use it up some time soon. ^_^

Ooh and my dad said that I’d lost some weight! Yay. Hopefully I’ll lose some more now that I need to climb that hill at least once a week and have to get pretty much everywhere I need to go by using my two feet. :)