Life is a Cabaret

I'm in Vienna now, though only for a few more hours. Tonight I'll be taking a night train to Venice. Three days in Venice, then three in Nice and three in Paris, and then I go home.

I'm looking forward to going home. Traveling is difficult, being constantly on the move, not staying anywhere longer than three days. I've enjoyed being all these amazing places, but I'm looking forward to being settled again, and being at home, with a language I speak and understand, and food I recognize, and bookstores with books that came out in America a couple months ago but aren't in Europe yet so I've had to wait for them. *sigh* And, of course, my friends and family. My twin graduated from college a couple weeks ago, and I haven't been able to do more than send a card. I think I'm going to buy her a bottle of wine in France. :p

I wasn't particularly homesick while in London, but at least there I was settled. And in an English-speaking country. XD

But now I'm pretty glad that I only have ten more days before I go home.

In Belfast, after very long day of traveling. I think the jury is out on whether I should have just flown here or not. On the one hand, I spent roughly twelve hours getting here, had to get up early, and am now very tired. On the other hand, I hate flying. Of course flying to Dublin or Belfast would have been much quicker and easier, but...I hate flying. And I took the scenic route! But I am so tired right now.

Giant's Causeway tomorrow! Already booked my ticket. I would be getting excited, except I am too tired, so I think I'm just going to go to bed. I get free wifi here, so I will try to update in more detail tomorrow.

i. I feel like Roman numerals today.

ii. I am so ridiculously tired. Gah.

iii. I have to go back to work tomorrow. Bah. Through a reduction in hours and a quirk of scheduling, I got eight days off in a row. I got called in on one of them, but that still left me with a lot of time off when previously I'd been working basically full-time but never with more than one day off in a row. And it's nice to make more money, but I do love lazing around. :p

iv. Though speaking of work, this week I am going to give in my two weeks' notice! It feels odd to leave so soon because I'll have only worked there for two months by the time I leave, but I do have to go back to school.

v. Also, some friends and I are going to Vegas in mid-August. A few days in Vegas, and then we go to Sacramento for some concerts. Well, the friends are going to Warp Tour and Green Day, but Warp Tour's not my thing so I'm just going to Green Day. And I have family in Sacramento, so I don't have to worry about a place to stay or anything. So basically I'm going to be out of town August 16 through about the 25th, which is why I'm giving notice at work so soon though I'm not going back to school until like the 29th.

vi. My computer's power cord is crapping out. Again. After only like six months. Fortunately, though, that means it's still under warranty, so I do not need to pay $90 for a new one! On the other hand, apparently the Apple store requires me to even have a reservation to make an exchange, which is...whatever. But I couldn't do it today, so I made an appointment for right after work tomorrow. An appointment to make an exchange. *shakes head*

vii. I'm still so tired, and I have work early tomorrow. I'll answer comments later. Good night.

I have been so tired lately. I have avoided doing almost everything that requires effort. Including writing, which makes me feel guilty, because I still have to do the Support Stacie fic (gah I am so late, sorry, wiggiemomsi). Also, shinyopals, I am so going to be on IM more often and get a move on with Vegas-fic.

I don't think I've hit my saturation point for lazing around--I don't think I have a saturation point for lazing around XD--but I need to be more active and not spend all my time reading books and fic and watching DVDs.

School just made me feel so tired. I sort of want to tell my mom that when she starts nagging me about getting out of the house more, but since she's been a high school teacher for thirty years, plus having a Master's when I'm not even done with my BA yet, I don't really have that many grounds for complaint. :p But I was just getting so weary at the end of the semester that I was almost to the point of not caring about school so long as I had time to rest. Which feels silly to me, because I didn't even really have that big a load. My classes were not that hard, since I could keep up after not reading more than half whatever reading was assigned. I didn't have any papers or assignments so onerous that I couldn't just do them the day before. I only really studied for one of the three finals I had. Why was I so tired?

(I mean mentally more than physically, though I am physically tired as well. But I'm pretty sure that being physically tired often comes with being out of shape and having an inactive lifestyle, so I know I'm getting pretty much what I bargained for with that. Is mental tiredness a side effect?)

But on the other hand, I'm pleased I didn't let my fatigue affect me that much. I got the best grades I've had in years, and, I just found out, made the Dean's List for the first time ever. (Whoo!) So hey, even if I do get ridiculously tired, it's nice to know that I can rise above it.

Which means, it's now time to rise above it. I've had a very nice three weeks off, but now I really need to get off my ass and turn in my damn job applications and start writing my fics.

At least remixredux09 is about to start. My favorite ficathon, yay! I could always write fic I liked for this ficathon, even during my 2006/2007 Years of Deadness.

So. Soon I will go to bed, but definitely starting tomorrow, I will do job apps, fic, collaborating, and updating LJ more often. *firm nod*

ETA: OMG it's raining! *bounces* It's been raining so often the last week. And thunderstorms! I love thunderstorms. We get lots of rain in Tacoma, but very few thunderstorms. More of those in Reno, for all that there's so much less yearly rain.

ETA 2: Apparently I can't shut up and I'd rather edit my post than make a new one. I was just thinking about some fic reviews I left recently. I've always been a long reviewer when I have the time (as in, reviews so long that they take multiple comments), but I think I've really improved in noticing and talking about the nuances of a story because of my writing classes. Like, really noticing specific word choices and what they add to a story. In reviews I wrote years ago I could rhapsodize about more general things--beautiful language, characterization moments, etc--but I think taking writing classes has helped me become a better reader. My professors have always told me that reading will make me a better writer, but I didn't realize it worked the other way around too. Very cool.

Classes are done! Done! Now I just have three finals and a paper, and I am so getting started on that paper tomorrow, but classes are finally over and I don't have to make myself get up earlier than I otherwise would until next Friday, when I will be spending thirteen hours in a car, gah.

That was a long sentence. XD

In other news, Dreamwidth. My thoughts on it are vague. I mostly got one because I like having backups on the major journaling sites, and I wanted to make sure I got my name before anyone else could. However, as long as everyone on my flist either stays on LJ or crossposts from DW (as it seems people are), I'm staying on LJ. And probably not crossposting to DW, unless I stop being lazy at some point (not likely). My LJ is paid until January, and I don't want to waste that. I'd get a paid DW account, but they're more expensive and so far don't offer anything I really need. By the time my LJ isn't paid anymore, cost of DW paid accounts will have gone up as well. Also, I don't get as many icons with a DW paid account as with an LJ paid account (at least without the whole extra userpics thing), and DW doesn't offer extra userpics yet, from what I can tell.

So basically, sticking with LJ for now, and will probably only really move if everyone else on my flist stops posting here.

And now, the semester is practically over, and I'm tired.

Am back at school. Also, Younger Sis is here! She came back with me, and she's staying until Tuesday night.

I adore Younger Sis, since she's fun and social and likes spending time with me. But she's also not quite as good at entertaining herself as Twin is, and of course as I am, so I don't expect to be online all that often over the next few days.

Tomorrow we're going to the Tacoma Art and Glass museums. On Tuesday, we're going to Seattle. We haven't decided what we're doing Monday yet, though we've pretty much decided against going to Canada. We'd not really do anything there, except, well, be in Canada. I'd like that, except Younger Sis isn't sure it's worth six hours in a car. :p

Okay, am so tired. Younger Sis also wanted to drink, so I've been drinking a bit. Am not drunk, or even tipsy I think, but am so tired. Will possibly be going to bed soon, but will be online and read fic more beforehand.

I hate how I can go to bed a full nine hours before I have to get up and still not get enough sleep. THANK GOD it's the weekend and I can sleep in.

Then tonight heart_of_man came over and we watched Silence in the Library through Journey's End. What are probably the three most difficult episodes for me to watch in the entire show, and I watched them all tonight. That was...an experience. Mostly fun, but wow I'm tired, I think almost as much from emotion as from my recent difficulty sleeping.

It's funny. On the one hand I think it's sort of sad that a TV show can evoke this depth of emotion in me--still, more than six months and more than one viewing after these episodes have aired. But on the other hand, I think it's brilliant that a TV show can evoke this depth of emotion in me. Even with me being a fangirl of various things (and all that being a fangirl entails), part of the reason I love Doctor Who is that I can love it so deeply. It's an endless cycle! *g*

And I was GOOD. For SitL/FotD, I mean, in terms of keeping quiet. I did keep talking all the way through Journey's End about various shippy things because of course I just had to make sure that heart_of_man was aware of all the implications (XD), but I shut up during SitL/FotD! I was determined not to prejudice her against them, because just because I hate them doesn't mean she has to, and I guess I succeeded, because she said she didn't think they were that bad. But she is also willing to read my posts on the episodes, and shinyopals's Moffat essay...

In terms of other things today, that essay I was whining about yesterday? I am completely astounded at the response I got from my professor.

Because, seriously? I only read about a third of the book I was writing the paper on. I skimmed the rest of the book as I was writing the paper, and I thought my argument made sense, but I figured I'd get to class and the comments on my paper would be along the lines of "did you understand the point the book was trying to make? What about a, b, c, d, etc.?"

Except then I get to class, and my professor calls my draft substantive and accurate and a good resource for the rest of the class. This was just...wow. Completely awesome, but totally unexpected. I managed to understand a complicated book just by skimming it? Dude. Well, the in-class discussion also helped, but I talked about things in my paper that we didn't talk about in class.

That was just...a bit surreal.

Though there was a comment my professor made that totally amused me. He critiqued my grammar (which normally would not amuse me, considering I tend to pride myself on my grammar, at least when I'm not completely zonked (like I am now) and am thinking even marginally about what I'm saying or writing), but the critique was about my use of "which" when I could have used "that".

He said it was a British thing to do.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh internet, I have gotten far too used to writing as British as possible in most of my recent fic. Apparently I succeeded enough that I subconsciously use British grammar! And I need to try to remember my American grammar better!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

omg so tired. I don't know why traveling makes me so tired when I'm not even crossing any time zones.

There was snow today. I had to walk through it in order to turn in my last two final papers. I was sad.

My shuttle to the airport picked me up at 5:45 for a flight that was supposed to be at 8:15. Except then it got delayed. We finally left at around 10, got in at 11:30, and then I had to wait to pick up my baggage so it was after midnight when I got home and now I'm totally going to bed.

I did, however, finally get started on my yuletide. Can't finish it tonight, but will totally do that tomorrow.

And what was nice was finding sparkly glittery holiday cards when I got home! :D Thank you, ginchy and magic_at_mungos!

*snoozes*