I put this on every other blog I had. . .

I have pictures up on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasua/

If you look at the sets on the side it is easier than the photostream as I have stuff in some semblance of order. The "animals" set is just any animal picture ever and is in the other sets.

Yeah. . . hope that's not too confusing.

I figured I'd change the way things looked. .

Cute spring elephants. . . they remind me of the mother and baby elephant at the St. Louis Zoo.

Apparently the last time I used this was in July. . . Obviously I still check my friend's page with regularity and comment when I have the urge, or can find the words.

My NEW blog of the trials and tribulations in England is (again)
http://nasua.wordpress.com

I have made a new blog. . for England.

http://nasua.wordpress.com

feel free to look at it every now and again.
i luv you LJ, but wordpress just looked so pretty!!!!!

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...


Opening Credit: Battery - Metallica

Waking Up: You're Crazy - Guns'n'Roses

First Day Of School: Midnight Creeper - Elton John

Falling In Love: King of Spain - Moxy Fruvous

Fight Song: Wet Sand - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Breaking Up: Why Have You Brought Me Here - The Phantom of the Opera

Prom: Have You Seen Her Face - The Byrds

Life: Sometimes You Can't Make It On - U2

Mental Breakdown: Etude in A minor op. 25 no. 11 "Winter Wind" - Chopin (It will give me a mental breakdown. . .)

Driving: Stand By Me - Rockapella

Flashback: Fur dich mein Lieb - Hiss

Getting Back Together: The Frayed Ends of Sanity - Metallica

Wedding: Animal Song - Savage Garden (I'd totally forgotten I had this on my playlist. . . wow)

Birth Of Child: Concerto No. 9 in F major - Correlli

Final Battle: Episode 18 - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams -- BBC

Death Scene: Where Your Eyes Don't Go - They Might Be Giants

Funeral Song: Mail Myself to You - John McCutcheon

End Credits: Teddy Bear - John McCutcheon

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Okay the last two just freak me out a bit and show that I do need to clean up this playlist. . .   I'm surprised at the total lack of opera that iTunes decided to put forth. . . . usually it's like one every 3 or 4 songs, but apparently not today.  Whatever works. 

I suppose I'll need to go listen to Episode 18 to know what this "Final Battle" shall be like. . .  how odd.

Okay so my birthday was yesterday and I worked worked worked and then went to Dorian's to have cake and tea.  Justin came too, so that was nice to see two friends.  Yay for low key evenings.  I only had people sing to me THREE times. . .two of which were Dorian and one was Gabe (yeah thanks buddy).  I promise not to kill you three. . . *sigh*  I really do hate that song. 

But it's alright, I got over it. . .  and enjoyed the cake.

Today my dad and I finally had enough time to play at the pen store.  My birthday present was a fountain pen. I am very excited to use it.  I have a Lamy, which is a very nice "starter pen" and I don't think the guy was going to let me walk out of the store with anything else.  Fancy as some of the other pens were, the quality lies in the Aurora line.  HOLY CRAP they were stunning to play with.  I played with a $59 version (it just came in yesterday. . happy birthday to me haha!) but it only comes with cartridges.  BAH!  So I wanted to see what a $100 Aurora was like, and just plain wow.  It was quite amazing.  It just moved across the paper like nothing. . .  Gorgeous.  I want one.  But that's after I get used to the fountain pen world of writing and handling.

And what do you clean your fountain pen with??  Take a guess.

Annnnddd the answer is. . . .

Windex.  WTF??  Dilute Ammonia, thank you very much. . . so yeah. 

I have two ink bottles to go with my Lamy.  Black Cherry and Velvet Black.  I didn't like the blue one so much, but perhaps I'll go back to it at some point or just get a cartridge of it. 

So if you want a letter from me. . . let me know, and I'll scribble something off to you.  The first letter is going to my Uncle since he ADORES fountain pens more than me. . . since he used them in school and such.  And he has his mother's pen. . i REALLY want to see her pen. . it must be stunning.

I really should scan in some of those pictures of my dad's family. . . .   wow. 

But I leave for work in. .   15-ish minutes.

Dann bis spaeter

And sometimes it leaves a sad little (or big) pit in your stomach. 

I was all excited to think I'd get to see some old friends soon who I haven't seen since the days of cons. . .and now I have heard nothing, absolutely nothing from these people.  Other people have and they've hung out with them and had a great time and I'm just moving along with my life at the MSB hoping to have some social time and fun with old friends and well . . .I'm sorry, but I just felt sick.  That horrible feeling of Ruxton just came RUSHING back to me.  The one where I have friends (or classmates back then), but I don't see them, they all go off and do things with each other and talk about it to me, or around me or whatever and yet, I am never included.  That whole peer-assigned role of the "fly on the wall that can never join in."  And I'm sorry if this sounds like something other than what it is. . i'm not sure what it sounds like. 

Don't think of this as a guilt trip or as anything else.  It's me feeling sad and lonely.  There, I went and said it,and that's just how it is.

I fucking hated Ruxton Country School in way too many ways.  Six years of hell and cons were the ONLY thing that pulled me out of that silent pain I put myself through. I was afraid to make friends in high school, afraid to smile for fear they would just come and stab me in the back.  That's all middle school was. . .  "oh I'm your friend today, but for the next 3 weeks i'm going to tease you and talk about you all day long."   I don't even jest.

I latched onto cons far too strongly.  This was a group of people that liked me because I was me. . because of the person standing there with them.  It was great.  And now those are gone and I have a few of those friends still, which makes me happy.  So thank you cons for giving me friends I really do enjoy having around.

BUT the point is that I am now wallowing in rather horrid memories and feelings and I just want to disappear to England where I HAVE to start over and make new friends and I can't sit in these funks because it's a new environment that doesn't know me and I don't know it.   September can't come soon enough. 

Neither can Monday.  Orientation at work, birthday, back to work where I can deal with fun kids and forget about all of this because I have to wonder where they're going to put me once I finish orientation.  *sigh*

Okay, time to go shower and stop writing about horrid feelings.  Showers always make people feel better.  At least they make me feel better. 

It feels nice to know that I didn't have to go to the MSB today, but I did have to go to the YMCA.  *sigh*  I am setting myself up for serious stress.  Yesterday I didn't work at all, which was good, but now I'm going to work tomorrow from 5-10 and then I have to go do my Aquarium volunteering Tuesday morning.  This means VERY little sleep and I should actually go get on that right now.  Yeah. .  sleep is good.


Good night all.

Winston is doing quite well.  He does have this rather horrid habit of barking incessently though when he's outdoors no matter what.  It drives me nuts because my mom will let him out and then not let him back in again as soon as he starts barking.  When I'm trying to sleep this is a tad problematic.  It would be better if my room weren't in the back of the house, but it is.  Silly puppy.

I want a cat.  I love Winston to pieces, but I want a kitty cat to keep my lap warm.  Winston doesn't  cuddle so much. 

Save the hedgepigs!!!  And I'm going to England to work with squirrels. . Perhaps I can see about finagling in something with hedgehogs instead.  Oh that would be FUN!

Haha

I want to go to St. Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital. . .  *giggle*
Apparently it's GINORMOUS and it has a Hedehog Sancutary that you can visit for uh. .  4.20 GBP.   Cute eh?  Maybe that's Scottish pounds. . I don't know.  I'm a bit lost in this whole thing.


But yes.  TEEHEE!
I love the BBC news!

The BBC has a news piece about this duck!  Poor little thing.  At least it's eating healthy and running about. 

Today I'm going to the Senator with a bunch of other BRC people and friends.  They want to tear down my movie theatre!! It's one of those Baltimore landmarks that I really can't bear to see disappear.  I'm still hurting from losing Memorial Stadium, but that was hardly ever used.  I can understand why it's gone now, and it did give our neighborhood a very nice and shiny YMCA.  But still, I miss my stadium.

The Senator on the other hand is a MOVIE THEATRE that is used.  Apparently not often enough, or pulling in enough money.   Sad times.  Edward Norton likes it. . .  Yeah, okay, that's not a reason to keep it around, but movie stars do like to come to the Senator for premieres.  It's right on York Rd which causes some problems with traffic.

Anyways, I'm excited to go to The Senator today.  I hope they raise enough money to help it out.  I would donate if my bank account weren't dedicated to health insurance and car insurance.  *sigh*

Which reminds me, I need to go pay those.

EEP!
*scampers off*

At the YMCA people wear sauna suits and upon sharing this info with my friend she said, "wow, that's sexy, i want one now so i can stew in my own toxic juices."  i nearly snorted my brains out.


just thought i'd share.

haha

Young girl with friend: I was walking down the hall at school and then these kids walked by and I could totally SMELL them. Not like a bad smell though just a... smell.

Random Girl walking by: Oh my gosh! You can smell people, too? What a coincidence! So can I!

I would SO love to be that random girl. 
Teeheehee.

Someone make these "overheard in [insert city/country name here]" sites go away, i can spend hours reading them. . . 



On another note, Baltimore has managed to do it's usual winter thing: it snows, we shovel, it gets FRICKIN cold (it did get down to 15 F, which is quite rare for here) and everything ices. . so to all you jerks on my street   STOP FUCKING SHOVELING YOUR SNOW INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET AND INTO PARKING SPACES!!!  yarrrrr

I would be really pissed off if someone had taken my parking space (that I shoveled out for myself yesterday) today.  There was no way I could hack through all this ice.  My back already hurts from the shoveling.  I'd rather not kill it by breaking through heaps of icy mounds that are rock solid. 

Happy thought: last night I went to Anna and Dorian's and Dorian, their mom Linnea and I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's. Anna made cookies and then we painted with water colors while talking about school rings. . . or something.  It was a lot of fun.

I took a nap for 2 1/2 hours today and now i feel all groggy and narsty.  I'm waiting for it to get late enough that I can actually fall asleep without waking up at some weird hour in the am when even my dad is still asleep.

Also never drop stuff on my dad about his novice coaching. . . like the start dates and stuff.  He gets pissed off and rants to ME for about 11 months out of the year.  I DO NOT LIKE IT!!!  Someone needs to be his sounding board, and it can't be me.  I love my dad, but he's got to learn to talk about something other than rowing.

September can't come soon enough.  *sigh*

1. Work starts late if at all. . .  the snow on the ground is now rock solid and getting icier by the hour.  Seriously, I was jumping up on a down on some untouched snow and barely made an imprint. 

2. I can actually get that drug test taken on Friday for MSB.

3. Jana and Linda don't kill me for leaving Tuesday to go to my new job that pays quite a bit more than they do. 

4. The MSB is a nice place and I will really enjoy it

5. That I fall asleep in the next 15 minutes.


g'night!!!

Taken from Kris

I found this on a website:

A bunch of obnoxious American college kids on the train last night:

OACK #1: "Hey, remember the time in Amsterdam when we had to use that ATM that wasn't in English?"
OACK #2: "Yeah, I did the whole thing in Danish!"
OACK #3: "It was Dutch, you dumbass. Danish is a food."

Why are people so dumb? hahaha

I just thought I'd share this.  It makes me giggle and roll my eyes at people that seriously need to learn to think before they speak. 


On another note: mango tea makes me happy.

There is snow falling from the sky and sticking to the ground.  The roads are clear, but that's not a big surprise.  There isn't very much yet, but it doesn't look like it's stopping QUITE yet.  I'm not holding my breath about this stuff though.  Tomorrow is "supposed" to be grey with stuff falling from the sky again, and then it's going to get "sunny" and warm-ish.  Warm being the high 30's.  I look forward to seeing lots of snow.  It's winter, we are SUPPOSED TO HAVE SNOW!!

yaarrrr

But I shall now hop off to the shower to get all clean so I'm prepared for my processing at the MSB (which should take about 2 hours).  What FUN!! Then I will come home and fold my laundry,  rip the sheets off my bed, and find any other laundry in my room and wash it.  And then I shall try the VERY scary thing of ACTUALLY cleaning up a few things around my room.

I hate to say it, but I'm about to put out a snap trap for a cute little mousie.  I have HAD IT. Nothing beats sitting here playing some game online and seeing a little something move over the side of my printer. . i turn, i look, there is a little mouse booty sticking out behind the box my external HD came in.  MOUSE BOOTY!!!   I was SO tempted to see if I could just pick it up by it's tail. It moved slow as can be too. . . like it didn't really CARE I was here.  Eventually I just scared it off so it would leave my room alone for about 10 minutes.  I swear, these little mice. . . actually they aren't little. THEY ARE LITTLE FATTIES!!!!   I have no idea what they're eating. . except part of my rug. . .  I've had this rug since I was like 8 or 9 in my room and it's getting a wee bit tattered.  So uh. yeah. 

OOOOOHHH today I also have to fill out the FAFSA online.  This means finding my old tax records.  FUN.  And filling out the current tax forms.  I have my W-2's, I have my tax forms.  I think I'm only missing 1 form.  And um. . . yeah.  I am set for some form filling goodness.  Who knows, maybe the British Consulate or even NCL will give me money for school.  Oh I hope so.  I could use all the money I can get. 

Just when you think it MIGHT snow. . .it doesn't.  When I walked out of the YMCA tonight I thought it didn't feel right for snow. . . it felt right for the infamous Baltimore "Crap Fall."  It's not "Snow Fall," and it's not rain. . .it's craptacular precipitation falling from the sky that could be snow if only it were about 10 degrees colder.

*sigh*

I miss winter. . . . 

On that note, I'm finally going to bed after I watch a YouTube of a certain aria that will help me sleep.  Mmmmm pretty aria.

Tomorrow I go in to the Maryland School for the Blind for processing.  We'll see how this goes and just where on earth they're thinking of putting me.  *sigh*   I hope this is going to be an okay job.  If it looks like I'll be miserable I'm going to have to nix it and go for a temp agency.  I'm going to hate losing my rowing. . .   really really really bloody hate it.  I love that bunch of people, but I HAVE GOT to make money for grad school. 

Hokey dokes

night night world.

My deafeated heart keeps beating on
I won't die, like Chucky won't die
But i'm not here to socilalize.


I have found my Mink Car CD.  I have missed this CD so much.  They Might Be Giants make me SUPER happy!!! 

I think it's time I try to find a concert of theirs to go to before I head to England.

It was sweet like Lipton is sweet
But the after effect left me paralyzed


yeah. . . I'm just so happy with this album.  Heeheehee


I need sleep.

I went to Anna and Dorian's to watch the Grammy's.  It had some pretty amazing songs, and people that showed up.  These are amazing singers. . . so wow.

To bed I go.

when you're waiting to hear back about a job.  Either that or it flies by, but right now it's just puttering about moving as slow as it wants to.   I want to hear back from the School for the Blind and I want to hear that I can go work in the Solar group and play with Autistic kids.  I'm not so sure about how I feel with working in the Life group.  Okay, so they get to go on field trips and all that, but the autistic kids are something I think I could handle a lot better. 

Today I have to go into the YMCA to belay again.  Who knows which kids will show up.  If I do work for the MSB I'm really going to miss the days I do the wall.  It's such a fun 2 hours.  And kids are telling me they really like it when I do it and they're so excited to see me there even if I'm doing something else.

My mom is sick.  She's hacking and coughing away and it's kinda . . well. . not so good sounding.  I'm worried about her, but she'll get better. Usually if she gets sick like this it's 2 weeks of misery for her and for me and my dad.  It also means clearing a space on my floor for my dad to sleep since she can wake up the dead with her coughing.  And the coughing is starting. . . today. .   ick.

Winston, my precious puppy, is still very doggy and not yet a sick pup.  He's got cancer, his fur is growing back from where they had to shave his belly for the scan at the vets about 3 weeks ago. . or maybe it was longer. I can't remember these things.  I need to take him for a walk, but I have to eat dinner first and then go to work, so maybe tomorrow I'll get around to it. 

This new laptop is growing on me.  I'm starting to really like it, which is good.  At first i was like well. . .I got it, it's mine. . and now I need to learn to love it even if I don't especially like it.  But now that it's the one I've been using, it's quite nice.  I need to get Office on it before I head off to England.  The "trial" that came with the computer is only good through March.  I didn't want to pay a crapload for Office through Dell.  Perhaps I'll be able to find it on a decent sale or something, or get the new office when it comes out.  We shall see.  I'm scared to upgrade this thing to Vista.  I don't think I will for some time.

Anyways, I need to go get my dad up so we can make a very early dinner so I can eat before work.  We're making rice and steak and a veggie thing. . . I'm a tad fuzzy on the details.  All I know is I'm doing the rice.

I'll admit I adore the cold blustery days that winter usually provides, but today was  a welcome respite.  Mostly because I had to be outside for approximately 3 hours sanding down a stand for a 125 gallon tank.  I'm also glad it was sunny.  Kay and I had a great time using the electric sander and now I'm clean of most wood particles.  I think showers are my new best friend.  I've always loved them, but today I really needed one to get the grit off of my skin.

Anyways, Anna and Dorian will be here soon to whisk me off to see the new baby that Max and Leena had a few days ago.  (I wrote an LJ on that day).  So I have to go get ready.  Shoes, jacket. . all that stuff