Ook.

Da, Buster, Klepto, and I are all heading down to GA today for a pre-Xmas family visit. We're leaving pretty much as soon as Da's finished getting ready. I am not quite sure how I feel about this. I enjoy visits, love my family, but playing 'good little straight conservative Christian GIRL' is exhausting. We'll not be the only family there; my uncle and his fiancee will be there, and probably my aunt and her new hubby. It's a happy thing and a stressful thing, this family-visit business.

I'm rambling. I should shush.

In other news, I pierced my ears. Rather odd considering some aspects of me, but I've been toying with the idea and decided to get it done last night. I will have pretty little white gold balls in my ears for 6-8 weeks, at which time I can switch them out for some of the others that I've bought in the past.

As much as I hate the movie West Side Story, this feels rather apt at the moment: "I feel pretty, oh so pretty. I feel pretty and witty and gay!"

Yes, Maria. Very gay.

See y'all later.

~Brilliance and Light

so much to do, so little time

I go back to school Sunday. Tomorrow I will finish (read: do most of) my packing and Dad and I will pack up the truck with my new bed, stair-step bookshelves to get ON said bed, and way too many boxes, bags, and sacks. Move-in starts at 10 A.M. Sunday, and I want to be there BY 10 so that we aren't wading through lots of other people. In my experience, most of the students get there around 12 or 1, so we should get in a few hours of less-crowded work.
Monkey and I are living in the dorm RIGHT NEXT TO THE ART BUILDING! Much happy. Less hauling. Fewer hernias. That building is the one with the Jack-and-Jill style suites of rooms, with 2 girls per room, sharing the bathroom. Monkey and I will be in one room, and two of our friends who have also roomed together since freshmen will be in the next. (I will name them when I can think of suitable names. They are full of character and deserve consideration in the naming process. :) )
Because of our GPAs, Monkey and I got into the group of overachieving overachievers that gets to stand there and look pretty at the official College formal Convocation events; let's call them the Pretty Purple People. (Code name for "Long Boring Mandatory Ceremonies Where Too Many People Talk For Hours On End...Especially the President." We have to attend so many of certain types of these throughout the year, and write pledge slips stating we've attended.) Pretty Purple People also stand at every music event and hand out DIFFERENT pledge slips for the music students, who have to attend so many recitals per semester that they don't recognize any other buildings. (The music program, esp. music Ed., has so many hours that it makes my major look like a walk in the park. Eurg.)
The main thrust to the letter from Appointers of the Pretty Purple People was that I 'will be representing the College,' especially when I am 'wearing the purple and gold Pretty Purple People ribbon,' and should dress accordingly, e.g. an 'unpretentious' black dress. Unpretentious I can do. Black I do so much that my grandmother seems to think I'm a goth. Dress... not so much. The only black dress I have is VERY pretentious, purchased for Lip Sync last year and probably illegal in a few states. So I went shopping.
FOUR STORES AND TWO DAYS LATER... I have as unpretentious of a black dress as I am likely to find. I also have another black piece of spray paint masquerading as a dress. It called out to me. It said, "I am soft, and I am thin, and I will cause your parents to make very strained faces and funny whimpering sounds. Buy me."
I had to. The dress compelled me.

I got to spend time with E-chan and the Flower when they were here before I have to leave. the Flower attends school and has an apartment in Charleston, and E-chan has been in Japan for most of the summer, so getting to see them, even if not at the same time, was wonderful. The Flower and I also made plans for her to kidnap me during her fall break and return me during mine (hers is the Th/F and mine is the next M/Tu).
Monkey, E-chan, Editor Kay (another HS friend) and I all visited at the park and had lunch together a few days ago. It was lovely. We really need to spend more time together. Editor Kay and E-chan will both be at the same school (also mum and C's school) next year, and they also plan to come up to stay with us sometime after midterms. I look forward to it.

I have more things to...Oh! Buster is in college now! This is unreal, and slightly frightening, and really awesome. And lots of other adjectives! He's in art school too, for Graphic design. (but I think he'll be a bit more employable when he graduates than I will.)

I've been looking at graduate schools. Again. More seriously this time. I still need to talk to my adviser and ask about various career and grad school options, but I think I am going to go ahead and get my MFA in ceramics. I may starve, but I think I will be happier getting my MFA than I would getting an MAT. Of the schools I have looked at, I keep coming back to a program in Oregon. I don't like the thought of being farther than a few hours' drive from home/family, but I love what I've heard of the Pacific Northwest area and want to go there.
We'll see. I have another year to build up my portfolio, work towards my senior show, and decide on what grad schools and grad programs I want to pursue.

Tired. Anxious. Excited. Sleep is the best option.
Laters...hopefully sooner than later.

~Brill

What I do when I should be doing other things

more cat pictures


This is me were I a cat, at least attitudinally. lolcats make me extremely happy, and it's a very good distraction from all the packing I should be doing.
School starts back on Sunday, and I'm only half packed. On a positive note, I'm half packed! This time last year I wasn't even that. Of course I also have a birthday party and a doctor visit in the interim, but it's still less.

The kids returned to school today, and it was blissfully quiet, and I got a massage. Le Batard has taken it upon himself to learn the art of massage, and both Monkey and myself have volunteered/were asked to be his practice dummies. I was quite happy.
Then I went to pick up Buster this afternoon. The High School decided that just before the year started was a great time to tear up a quarter of the main parking lot, right where kids usually wait. So now, instead of 4 lanes of traffic at the main pickup point and two lanes at the main road entrance, the whole shoot and match is now two re-routed lanes.
The people who drive in this town and especially at the school do not need this; the majority of drivers in that lot are blithering imbeciles who do not need construction to garnish their perfected massacre of the practice of driving.
I came down the road towards the school, had to pass two cars stuck behind another who refused to turn before I could finally get back into the correct lane, and pulled into the second (main) entrance. Buster saw me (our vehicle would be hard for a blind man to miss, it's so huge), and got in as soon as I stopped. The administrator they had trying to direct traffic motioned forward the car ahead of us. Nothing. More frantic motions. Nothing. The driver is sitting in the only lane in this direction waiting for his/her/it's spawn.
It's 20 minutes after school finished, but more people than usual still remain, and this car is holding up traffic. Finally another admin comes over and much gesticulation and exchange later, the car s l o w l y moves forward and trundles off into the doldrums of the parking lot.
I passed him/her/it and proceeded to freedom. Neither Buster nor I is amused at this point. Because of construction there's a large, very legible, noticeable sign that says cars in my lane must turn right, with adequate room given to switch around an island to the left turn. When I pass this sign, what do I find but a DIFFERENT driver from the original incompetent who decides that manners and common sense do not apply to him; his tail end is in front of me, blocking my escape from the hellgrounds when he noses his front in front of another oncoming car... and sits. Passes up an opportunity to go, and rather a lot of traffic goes by before he can next leave, freeing us.
Have I mentioned that I hate the HS parking lot?!?!?