I'm currently doing the online application for my next School of Choice, and I am nervous as all get out. Which is very silly. But still...

What if they don't want me? Where do I go then? I mean seriously, where? Because School of Choice only rejects about 13% of their applicants or something, so if I don't get in...well then, I really suck. And it's not that I suck that will be sad, because I already know that much, it's that I'll finally have to admit that Clown School is really the only place I can get into.

I've got to get it done though. Deadline for applications with consideration for scholarships is the 1st. Hehe. I'm cutting it way too close. I don't know if I'm going to bother with attempting to get scholarships though. If not, then I have until March to apply.

I need to do my FAFSA too, but I've misplaced my PIN. So I'm awaiting a new one.

My Application for Graduation has already been submitted. I love you Chemeketa, but woohoo! Five more months Figs, and I'm outta there.

Thank you Jebus. Can I get a hallelujah? Can I get an amen?


HotD:

So much going on.
My head spins around three times,
And I spit pea soup.

I battle bouts of insomnia. I have off and on for the last two years or so, and they've gotten worse and worse over the last maybe eight months.

As of right now, I haven't slept in about three and a half days.

Mondays are my long days, ending in a two hour ASC Student Council meeting which actually had a big crowd in the audience today of administration, students and presenters. I did a lot of correcting slurred and 'made up' words. I made up a lot of new words today. Websters will be so happy to hear from me.

So I'm off to go slum around my house until after Heroes and then it's straight to bed with me. I'm hoping I can get to sleep tonight. The biggest frustration is that I'm tired, and I sit in my living room, or here at the computer, or outside on the street corner and nearly nod off, but when I go lay down, I just stare at the ceiling and count the dots (as Frankie would say) until it's time to get up again.

It's driving me nuts. But, I'm going to be a bad girl and pop a couple Tylenol PM (I know I know...stomach lining so on, and so forth) and hopefully it'll knock me out like Paula Jones in a round of Celebrity Boxing.

I have no day classes tomorrow, and I don't work, so I can sleep in a little before I have to go run some errands and go to some appointments. So, keep your fingers crossed for me Figs, because if I can't sleep, I'm coming over to your house and you can entertain me.

HotD:

Another is gone.
Only a few more left now,
And gavel will pass.

So Melissa, in her never ending braveness to put herself out there in video blogs, has conned me (which was pretty darn easy, because I'm a total sheep) into picking up a camera of my own and trying my hand at video blogging.

I hope to pick one up early this next week, and give it a try. I'm not sure why. Nobody is going to want to watch them (I figure it's like my blog, I'll have to make up watchers like I've made up readers) and they'll be exceedingly boring, but they sound like a fun way to be creative, so I'm going to give them a shot.

Let me know if I should post links or whatever...and I will. Maybe. If I'm not too much of a chicken.

HotD:

Bock bock buh-bock bock.
Bock cluck cluck bock buh-bock cluck,
Bock bock bu-gawk bock!

If we're going to be bombarded with stories about Lindsay Lohan and her rehab every day all day long until the end of time, then why doesn't someone (at least one someone) ask the question I've been asking for years?

Why are people serving her alcohol in these clubs, when she's underage?

Not a single story that I have seen or read has mentioned she's not even legal to drink, and has been getting smashed and partying since she was about 17. Apparently that doesn't matter when you're in Hollywood.

It just bothers me a little. That's all.

Just another example of the twistedness that is our society and our obsession with people who really shouldn't matter so very much (read: not at all), and the multitude of crap having 'fame' and money will let you get away with. Yay for priorities!

HotD:

A need a haiku.
Lovely flowing words about stuff,
In a nice rhythm.

Thanks to all the suggestions about my monitor Figs. I really appreciate you guys and everything that you do for me. You rock my wet, smelly socks. Thank the rain and melting snow for that one.

Guido is no longer making that horrid high pitched rat-dying like sound anymore when in 1024x768 (Thanks Michael for your tip!) but now that I've got the little seed of panel screen in my head, I am more and more certain I'll probably end up buying one, just so I can have more room to pile stuff on my desk. Because, we all know I need more places to pile crap.

For your viewing pleasure, a fun 15 car collision in Portland thanks to the ice.

HotD:

It is Friday, yay!
It feels like Monday to me.
I'm discomposed, man.

So, I've had an interesting few days.

As most of you Figments know, Guido was out of commission for a while, so I didn't have any internet access, save for when Tiffany loaned me her laptop over the break.

This last weekend was a three-day weekend, thanks to MLK Jr. Day, and then on Tuesday it snowed like crazy, so classes were canceled, and they were canceled for the morning on Wednesday, so I've been home.

Last night I spent about 12 hours with the help of the lovely Fred and...bum bum bum...fixed Guido! Yay! He's finally working again! Thanks Fred, you rock.

We had to do a fix of Windows XP, and then reinstall all my drivers for everything, but we managed to clean up all the viruses and malware (134 of them to be exact) off my computer so it's working fine now.

The only problem I'm having with him, is when I set his resolution at anything above 800x600 his monitor makes a horrible high pitched sound. It's not loud, and other people can't seem to hear it, but it drives me nuts. He's never done this before, anyone have any suggestions on what might be causing it?

Maybe it's time for a pretty new bigger panel monitor, even though I really don't have the money to go get one. I guess I'll just leave it at 800x600 for now, but I'm so used to 1024x768 that it's going to drive me nuts. But man, a panel would totally clear up so much room on my desk...it's so tempting...

HotD:

Baby is here, now!

He is so darn cute and sweet,
He'd be good in pie.

It's going to be 19 degrees tomorrow morning when I have to walk to campus. I really can't do this anymore.

Woke up to snow all over the ground this morning, and it's still coming down really well. It looks so incredibly pretty! I wish I had a better digital camera so I could go snap some shots of everything covered in snow.

It's only supposed to continue through the morning and then all go away, and it's supposed to be partly cloudy and in the high 40's for the rest of the week until Saturday, when it's supposed to snow again.

Weird weather compliments of Global Warming.

So it was raining this morning when Sav dropped me off in front of the Science building in a mad rush, but halfway through my Chemistry class it was spewing big fluffy white flakes in a pretty good torrent. It was so exciting to sit in class and watch it snow instead of paying attention to the lecture. Unfortunately for me, the guy behind me thought I kept turning around to look at him because he was sitting under the windows. He probably thought I was some kind of creepy stalker. And I am, but I'm not stalking him.

I paid for the prettiness about an hour later. I was in the art building and some Mook had broken the door to the outside on the lower floor, so it was practically off it's hinges. The art building has one hallway that goes through it at a slight curve, so the entire bottom floor was completely freezing. It's hard to be creative when you're hands are frozen.

My art class is my last class on Wednesday, so I went to the office and worked like a good girl.

I had meeting until about twenty minutes ago, and now I'm looking forward to a nice long evening at home, and no classes or work tomorrow. Woohoo! This is a good thing because it's supposed to freeze over and snow some more tonight, and I don't want to go anywhere in that anyway.

Instead, I'm going to clean my house, and do Chemistry homework. I so live my life on the edge.

HotD:

Falling flakes abound.
World is hushed and so quiet,
With a white blanket.

I've got the Baby here with me. We're watching Spongebob and eating lunch. He's excited because after lunch we're going to paint. I'm not so excited about the whole paint thing, but who am I to tell a three year old cutie patootie no?

I've got a class tonight until 10, and it's supposed to snow. Whee!!


HotD:

I need to clean, yo.
It's only me living here,
I am so messy.

Today was the first day back to classes and work. It didn't start well, but it's okay because the rest of the day went peachy. Mondays are fun. My Chem class is at 8:30, which is no big deal. My conditioning class is at 7:30, for no other reason then getting up early in the morning builds character.

Fusing & Slumping is at 9:30 and goes until 12:30, then I have a few office hours before I have alternating ASC Class/ASC Student Council Meetings.

I managed to get a whole slue of work done in the office today. Fixed some dates for selection (not allowed to call it hiring! Don't let me!) got the apps sent to the copy center for print, so on, so forth. I even covered the front counter for a few hours. I feel good about it.

I had to rush out of the first Student Rep. I class though because I absolutely HAD to get my FA check into the bank before it closed, otherwise yours truly would have been facing a 670 dollar bounced check and would be forced to live in a box under a bridge. Bounced checks are bad. Bounced rent checks are even worse. My mail doesn't come until 3:30, so there was no way I could do it before then, so I stayed as long as I could and then booked it to the bank. I think I got there in time (the check was dated for today, so I'm pretty sure I'm fine) and I feel a whole lot better knowing the money is in there and that I didn't bounce anything. At least, I think I didn't.

I was treated to a tasty dinner of teriyaki chicken and sticky rice, which is sitting on the coffee table in front of me smelling oishii! I haven't eaten anything at all today, so I'm kind of hungry. I'm not a big eater (contrary to popular belief) and sometimes don't eat for days on end, but the lack of sleep combined with the stress of the first day back and not eating has me a mess. So I will eat all my dinner like a good girl!

No work tomorrow (can I get a hallelujah?) and no classes until 7 tomorrow night when I have my CompSci class until 10. Night classes suck, but it's worth not having to be on campus during the day, plus, Sav's in it with me, so we'll learn how to use a mouse and create Word documents together. It is, after all, what friends do for one another.

Now, I'm off to eat my dinner!

HotD:

I am so ashamed.
I Love New York is on soon,
And I'm gonna watch.

I've been thinking about chocolate all day. I'm not sure why, I don't even like the stuff all that much, but I was thinking all day how yummy it would be to have some really nice dark chocolate. As you all know, I am lazy extraordinaire, so of course I didn't go get any, I just thought about it. Unfortunately for me, I lack the Jedi mind powers to bring chocolate to me.

So, guess how surprised I was when about 30 minutes ago Savvy shows up and gives me...dum dum dum, a bar of 85% cocoa dark chocolate. She is a Goddess among peons, Figments, seriously, and I worship her. Honest, I have the restraining order to prove it.

She also gave me the first Dresden Files book, which is awesome because I want to read it before the series premiers on the 21st on SciFi. I am looking forward to reading it.

Now I have my tasty, tasty super dark chocolate, and a good book, and I'm a happy girl.

Sav's going to come back by tomorrow morning and we're going to go to school together with our matching David Bowie lunch boxes and scrunchies in our hair.

Thank you Sav, you are excellent.

Stephen King's The Stand is on in about an hour. The Stand is my favorite of King's books. The mini series wasn't half bad at all either, and it is by far my favorite mini series of any of his books as well. Mostly because Gary Sinise is awesome.

Today is the last day of my vacation. Please bow your heads for a moment of silence as we honor the passing of Vacation.

Thank you.

Now, as the last day of vacation I should be doing something productive. I should be putting the last day to great productivity by finding my backpack or tracking down my textbooks for class in the morning. Or even by doing something exciting, like...I don't know...whatever exciting people do on their last day of vacation. But, I'm not going to, instead I'm going to watch The Stand and order pizza.

Why? Because I'm neither productive nor exciting. You should know this by now.

Anyway, I'm off to order pizza. If anyone wants to come over, feel free!

HotD:

I am a spazoid.
I have searched high and low now.
Shoes are still missing.

In a post I did a few days ago, I mentioned the few people who took me seriously during the first Blogathon I ever did. I want to totally thank Rebecca at Serene Chaos because she took me seriously too and has been an awesome Figment to IBOM ever since, even when I lapsed in posting for ages, she still has stuck around. I didn't mean to forget you!

You forgive me right?

Somehow I've completely screwed up my sleeping schedule. Instead of sleeping my normal six or so hours at night, I'm sleeping about 45 minutes to an hour a night and then waking up and staying awake. I've had maybe 10 hours of sleep since last Saturday, which has really made me a complete mess.

I'm tired. If I sit down on my couch for too long I feel like I'm going to fall asleep, I feel all droopy and heavy and exhausted, it's just when I finally go to bed, it takes me ages to finally fall asleep, and then I don't stay asleep. I randomly wake up completely disoriented and then I can't go back to sleep.

It's made me irritable, oh and crazy. Crazier then I am already. I was sitting in the living room this morning and realized someone was singing, then I realized it was me. I wasn't even singing anything good, it was a nonsense song about nonsense. You don't win Grammies for singing nonsense sleep deprived songs. Just nonsense drug-induced ones.

Along with my fall into senility, I also am sporting a wicked headache and my eyes hurt. I also think I may or may not have killed someone in a sleep deprived rage last night, but I can't remember. That's another thing, I'm not remembering much of anything.

I need to straighten myself out though and get some sleep tonight and tomorrow night, because I've got to be up early for my first day back to classes and work.

The College Boys are moving out. They've only been my balconymates for about three months, and they currently hold the record for the quickest turn around in balconymates I've had since I moved in. I should go give them a certificate, or a gold star, or a fruit basket. Boys like fruit, right?

The College Boys moved in about the end of September, which means they've lived here a grand total of 98 days, clearly making them the winner. Trendy Couple moved in a week after I moved in, and moved out about six months later. Imaginary Couple (so named because I never saw them, ever, mearly heard about them from other neighbors) lived there for about seven months and With-Two-Kids lived across the way from me for about eight months.

The bowl across the way sat empty for the rest of the time, which I have to say, I enjoyed purely because it meant that nobody came upstairs on this end of the building but me.

The College Boys are the first balconymates I've had since I've lived here that I've actually seen move out, all the rest must have moved out in the dead of night or when I wasn't home, because one day they were just gone. I gotta tell you Figs, it creeped me out a little. I'm pretty observant, so when a whole bowlfull of people and stuff vanishes without me noticing, I start to think maybe I feel into a John Saul novel.

What's really funny about this whole moving thing, however, is just a couple days ago I had a conversation with The Fishmonger about The College Boys and if they still lived there, because I hadn't seen them in over a week (I should say here, that actually I hadn't heard them in over a week) and I was told they did, and I casually mentioned that I thought they were going to move out, and was told that they weren't. Very firmly, in fact.

Now they're moving out in a huge rush, including banging their furniture on my bowl door trying to wrestle it down the stairs, dropping stuff off the balcony, and yelling at each other. Why? Because rent is due today, and they're trying to move out so they don't have to pay January's rent. Naughty, naughty boys. I bet they didn't even give notice either.

G'bye College Boys! I will miss your drunken rages, your fights through the front door, and your clamoring up and down the stairs at all hours of the night like a herd of cattle. I wish you the best.

Hey Figments, how long do you normally leave your holiday decorations up for? When do you put them up? When do you take them down? I'm always curious about peoples customs and traditions with decorations.

I usually get my Christmas tree on my birthday, the 14th, and then decorate that day and the day after, and then leave them up until about the 6th or so. I plan on taking everything down and boxing it up tomorrow. About mid-March I'll get my spring stuff out. Yeah, I have spring decorations. A whole ceramic village and everything, what's it to you?

I didn't get a tree this year, because I never could find the time to go pick one up with a car big enough to hold it. Although I am kind of sad about the whole not having a tree thing, I'm also kind of grateful. It saves me the hassle of taking it down, getting it out of here and disposed of. For your own future reference Figs, throwing it on the side of the freeway is not disposing of your tree properly, as one slightly angry cute state trooper once told me before he hauled me off to Tree Jail, he wearing nothing but a Santa hat and a stocking over...wait, maybe that's just a dream I had one time.

Not having a tree also means I don't have to spend the next three months impaling my feet on dried pine needles stuck in the carpet.

So, when do you put yours up and take yours down? Would you be willing to come take mine down? I'll give you a nice shiny quarter. Whadda say?

So one resolution this year is to post every day to my lovely blog here, but try and have at least one post a day be something not...stupid. Um..vapid, shallow, meaningless. You know, like every other post I've got here.

So in the style of every single media outlet in the world, I give you the most important, hard hitting new story with that contains vital information that will cause great social, economical and political impact on the world around us.

Britney Spears is putting fans on notice: Be prepared for her hot career comeback.

I know, I know. It's a lot to take in at once, but as soon as the overwhelming tears subside, I'll be here to talk about it.

HotD:

Quilts and hot chocolate.
The heat is turned up on high,
Feet are still frozen.

There is a 'Tales from the Dark Side' marathon on today, so of course I'm watching it instead of being productive with my last few days of freedom.

I worked a bit on UN this morning. I've rewritten a few paragraphs so they move a bit more fluidly. I have a difficult time with long blocks of dialogue. It's not that I can't write it, it's just that it's very difficult for me to leave it alone. Simple transitions drive me nuts too, I always want to over-detail them, and then everything becomes bogged down, but I'm working on it.

On a terribly geeky note, my troll made it to level 20 in WoW. I don't know if I've ever mentioned here that I play. I do, but very rarely. Maybe two or three hours a month at the most. I know, I'm a dork. Sorry.

HotD:

A resolution.
Posting everyday with blogs,
With something to say.

Those of you looking for something retro that will bring back fond memories of spending too many quarters in dark arcades that smelled of sweat and pre-teen angst, I give you 8bit Betty.

Really fun chiptune music that will either make you fall in love with it, or turn you into your mother screaming 'turn that Nintendo off, it's just a bunch of noise!'.

I rather like it, Figs, and I think you will too.

Thanks James

Mike just left, he came by this afternoon to play with me, because let's be honest Figments, my house is the funnest house around for a three year old.

We watched some Backyardagans and Wonder Pets. He was very sad Blues Clues wasn't on, since that's his current favorite after Scooby Doo. Monsters are all the rage this year. We played some games and spent about an hour and a half drawing pictures in MS Paint. I've always been a big fan of teaching preschoolers how to use Paint, because not only does it teach them basic usage of computers, it's a huge novelty, and it saves my furniture from being drawn on with crayons 'by accadidn't'.

However, I have to say, that spending the afternoon with him totally wiped me out. It used to be that I could keep a whole group of the cheese smelling twerps going all day long and still have energy left at the end of the day. Now I just want a nap.

James also agrees that I'm old:

Rhea Rhyolin: I must be getting old, three hours with a preschooler totally wiped me out, and I used to be able to go all day with a group of them
nine2000james: LOL
nine2000james: You're totally old.
nine2000james: You were 11 when I met you, and that was like what... how long ago now?
nine2000james: You've gotta be like 16 or 17 now
Rhea Rhyolin: Aren't you proud of how big I am?
Rhea Rhyolin: I can cross the street by myself now!
nine2000james: I *am*

James - I can't believe you remember that. That's hysterical.

James and I first became buddies during the first Blogathon, where I caused a great scandal across the 'Net by blogging in a Graveyard for 24 hours. I also became the topic of great debate on mailing lists, listservs and blogs everywhere when someone started the rumor that I was only 11 and/or 6 years old, was posing as two or three people, and should (and I quote) be 'tarred and feathered' for asking for donations for charity, because everyone knew I was just going to keep them anyway.

James, his sweetie Kelly, and Cat (the organizer of the Blogathon) were the only ones who took me seriously that year, and didn't threaten my life, the lives of my family, and various appendages. We've been buddies ever since.

That is also the year I met Melissa, over at Blessed Blogger. She found my blog via one of the lists talking about me, and we became friends soon after.

Good times, you guys. Good times.

Fixing Guido is my goal this week. I'm hoping that with all the hard work Cory put into trying to get him running for me a couple weeks ago (thanks Cory) that the rest of getting him to work correctly should be pretty easy. Cory did all the hard work, I just slapped his knees with a ruler when he lagged behind.

Guido's Winsock is currently broken, so he can't connect to the Internet. And he still has a few viruses on him, but I think if the winsock gets fixed, I can fix the viruses pretty easily, I hope. I have to have him up and working again, it's driving me nuts.

Unfortunately I can't find my WinXP install disk, so I can't do a repair. If anyone might have one that they'd let me borrow (don't worry, I paid for WinXP and all that) I would greatly appreciate it.

HotD:

Baby, it's cold outside.
Chilly wind and rainy days,
Winter is so here.

So, I've compiled a list of everything I'm going to do this year, and then at the end of the year, we're going to revisit it and see how horribly badly I failed at following through with anything. It'll be fun, Figmets. Play the home version of this game along with me!

In no particular order, is L.O.S.T I.T, which, of course stands for "List of stuff to do in two-thousand-and-seven". I'm so clever. 2007 is hyphonated because it's my list, and I said so. Plus, I suck at acronyms, okay? Just smile and nod and go along with it. There you go..you're a peach.

• Learn to knit. I mean it. I really want to learn how. It just looks so fun, and you get to make stuff! I promise not to make scary doll clothes.
  
• Travel out of the state. East coast is my desitnation this year, since I've never been that far...well...East.
• Travel out of the country. Someplace where accidenal beheading and disembowelment insurance is optional, not required.
• Five things off the 'Before I Die' list. I don't know what ones, but at least five of them.
• Jeans. Seriously, why do I buy them if they don't fit? They'll fit by the end of this year, mark my words.
• Sit on a jury. Now Figs, I've been avoiding this for two years, and I do want to do one. So watch, I won't get a single summons at all.
• Write my will. Morbid, but necessary. Everyone should do one.
• Graduate. Six months to go Figs, six months to go.
• Go Mini Golfing. Because I never have.
• Finish a novel NOT connected to NaNo.
  
• Take a very long road trip.
• Make a quilt.
  
• Take Japanese lessons.

So, it's not that long, and it'll probably get longer. But I think these are fun (for me) goals to set for myself for this year. Because I can, because it's always fun to gripe at myself for not doing them later.

I had a bit of trouble with rent today. Bit of trouble being that rent is due the 5th and I don't get paid until the 8th, so I had to run down to the managers office and see if they would let me pay on the 8th. They did, but with a 60 dollar fee (20 a day) which although is understandable, is hard on my really tight poor college student budget. It was a booboo to my bank account for sure.

It was a big weight being lifted off my shoulders though, because now I don't have to worry about where I'm going to come up with the money before the 5th, I know the check is already written and all of that good stuff.

I'm going to have to find another job, it's just difficult because with the job I have already, and going to school full time, I'm not sure where I can squeeze in the time for a second job. I don't want to do night work, because I have to study (and eventually sleep) sometime. My first class this next term is at 7 AM (yeah) and I'm done with classes by 12:30 all days except for Mondays when I'm there until 5, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are off, except for Thursday nights where I have a class from 7 to 10.

I work until 5 Wednesday, Friday and every other Monday for the ASC, so that leaves my options pretty limited. If I could find something Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturday or something, that would be perfect. If anyone knows anything (that doesn't involve street corners), and could pass it along, I would greatly appreciate it.

It wouldn't be nearly as difficult if I had a roommate, because then I'd go from paying a little over a thousand a month for everything, to only about half that, which would save me a lot of money and stress.

Growing up I lived in a very hectic very crowded household. I had a ton of siblings, and usually we had other family living with us as well, so there were always people around. At one point, we had about fourteen people living in the house, and it was just crazy. It was hard to find time for yourself to even think, let alone take a shower or nab the bathroom before someone else got to it first.

We moved around a bit too, and so I love having someplace I can be that I don't feel like I'm pressured to move out of right away, or that I feel like I have to share with a ton of people. Part of me feels like I'm too old for roommates now anyway (even though it's practical when you've got five more years of college and med school left to share some place so it's not so expensive) and I really don't want to share....for the most part.

There are only two or three people that the idea of them moving in is perfectly fine with me because I know we'll get along (and you know who you are) and I would totally welcome them if they showed up right now with bags, but other then that, it's really hard for me to give up my privacy and my space of my house.

But then the bills show up at the first of the month, and I have to face the facts that I either get another job. I mean I scrape by alright, but I hate it. It's a lot of not paying this bill to make sure the power stays on. I'm sure a lot of you understand Figs, a lot of us seem to be in this boat.

I'm fine with working another job, I just burnt myself out last year really badly working four jobs and going to school full time.. By the end of last May I was having massive heart arrhythmias and breakdowns because I was just completely overstressed with everything. I don't want to put myself in that situation again, especially not with the MCATS looming in my near future. Breathing is nice, it helps keep a girlish figure.

I just need to kidnap...force...get a friend to move in with me. Or, I could always move to a smaller less expensive place, but man, I hate moving too. By the time you pay all the moving fees and deposits, the amount you spent would cover the extra cost of the rent for where I am now for almost a year. How is that worth it? So it seems to be pretty much damned if I do...

Well Figs, here it is, the second day of the New Year. Have you all broken your resolutions yet? Did any of you make resolutions? What were they? I ask because I'm too lazy to come up with my own, and want to steal some of yours.

HotD:

Today is Tuesday.
Days slip by so quickly now.
Only six are left.