If ever the Lid gets off my Head/And lets my Brain away

Rules of the game:
Post 5 WEIRD and RANDOM facts about yourself, then at the end of the list the names of 5 people who are next in line to do this. Also leave a comment on their blog to let them know.

1. I would give up Coca-Cola (and all similar products) if I could get equal quantities of Izze

2. I love shoes.

3. I look good in pink.

4. I can touch my elbows together behind my back.

5. I don't think I read enough.

I tag Bekah, Mateo, Tim Deal, Hock, and Tony.

I thank whatever gods may be/For my unconquerable soul

10 years ago, I was:
10 years old, living in North Dakota (aka the Third Level of Hell), and watching my younger brother slowly waste away.

5 years ago, I was:
In high school in Costa Rica. I can't remember much of anything else, because I suppressed memories of that fall and winter.


1 year ago, I was:
Just getting to know Jenn.


Yesterday:
I did some laundry, worked at the front desk, and did absolutely nothing noteworthy.

Tomorrow:
Class, homework, work, friends, Jon....

5 snacks I enjoy:
EasyMac, Snicker's, chocolate-covered pretzels, Mini-muffins, Ruffles.

5 bands/artists whose songs I know the lyrics to:
Evanscence, Brave Saint Saturn, Metallica, Michelle Branch, Shinedown

5 things I like doing :
Reading, sleeping, being lazy, driving, eating

5 things I would never wear:
Burlap sack, puffy princess dress, something covered in sequins and/or glitter, toe socks, other people's skin

5 TV shows I like:
Animaniacs, Angry Beavers, CSI, A-Team, The Pretender

5 movies I like:
Dear Frankie, Boondock Saints, Underworld, The Game, U-571

5 famous people I would like to meet:
C.S. Lewis, Reese Roper, Flannery O'Connor, Margaret Atwood, TS Eliot

5 favorite toys (that I have or want to have):
Malvolio (my teddy bear), Jon, calligraphy pens, book thongs, computer

5 things I would do with 100 million dollars:
1) Buy my brother a Gibson LesPaul
2) Buy my mother a Steinway baby grand
3) Pay for my college, my brothers' college, and my sister's college, debts.
4) Buy myself a Rolls-Royce Phantom
5) Give the rest to my dad's mission work

5 places I would run away to:
Callejones, England, Austria, Russia, Australia

5 bad habits:
Procrastination, sarcasm, excessive bluntness, excessive caffeine consumption, oversleeping

5 fictional characters I would date:
1)Han Solo
2)Indiana Jones
3) Conor MacManus (from Boondock Saints)
4) Silk (from Belgariad)
5) Spike (from Buffy)

And I had put away/My Labour, and my Leisure too

I am desperately hoping that this will spur me on to writing my midterm Early English Lit paper. Grr. I am completely unmotivated, despite some lovely attempts at motivation from a dear friend of mine.

I drove up to Lansing today, to see "Lord Ben," who I have decided has the rank of Earl. So, Ben, you are now Lord Ben, Earl of Visger. At some point during the day, I strained my lower back to the point where driving home to Taylor was agony. I hunched up over the steering wheel like an old fogey, blasting the radio to keep my mind off the pain. I made it all the way to Auburn before I had to pull over and rest my aching back muscles for a few minutes. I can manage stairs--kind of--and a very, very kind young man in my dorm has very, very kindly loaned me his heating pad. I'm desperately hoping it works. Cross your fingers for me.

My brother Sam is pledging a fraternity of sorts. I'd love to give more information about that, but I don't have any to give. He's as communicative with my family as I am; we live in a perpetual state of relative ignorance about each other. I know more about his roommate than I do about him....yeah, that's a weird one. Go figure.

I said it before, but I'll say it again. Jenny came to visit. It was amazing. She is such a blessing for me; she has done so much for me in so many ways. I know she'd tell me the same thing about the way she sees me, but still. I feel almost beholden to her for all that she's done. I mean, if nothing else, she re-introduced me to Agatha Christie and we fell in love with James Bond together.

I need to fix Malvolio. His leg is falling off. (Eighteen million points to the first person to tell me the play which has Malvolio as a character) I don't know any leatherworkers, though, and I don't have the money to have him professionally repaired, either; I think I'll take him back to CR at Christmas, along with my leather jacket, and have them both repaired while I'm there.

Erm. Canterbury Tales. Yes. Paper. Yes. Ugh. Still nothing.

The three lit classes, though, are going marvelously. I'm pulling 2 B's and an A, and I know I can get straight-A's by the end of the semester. It's wonderful and I'm loving almost every minute of it, except when I have to write a paper that I don't want to write, but, thankfully, that's really quite rare, or else I might very possibly be screwed...

I'm working on figuring out my senior paper thesis. I've got a vague idea of what I want to do with it; i.e., I want to base the whole thing on The Waste Land by TS Eliot. I'd much rather base it on his The Hollow Men, but I doubt I'd be able to get enough material out of it for a paper of sufficient size...I'm thinking of pairing the Waste Land with some of Christopher Smart's work, or Margaret Atwood's, because I think Smart's nifty and Atwood's poems are great, but I'm not sure how I could pull it off...*sigh*

Oh, wish me luck, everybody. I'm going to submit 2 items to Parnassus this year. It will be my first attempt at publication, and, while it kills me to admit it, I would so dearly love to have even one of them accepted.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain/And Mourners to and fro

This past weekend was not good. At all. Well, no, that's a lie. Jenn came. That was good. Everything else was bad.

When I say that the culmination of the whole bad-days thing was me falling down the stairs and getting a concussion, and that that was one of the better things that happened, I think you start to understand how crummy it was....

In this last of meeting places/We grope together

I'm broken, empty, and all I want to do is sob. But, once again, I can't. I'm hoping that some honesty will help, though.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

Somehow.

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp/Or what's a heaven for?

Got pictures taken tonight. Some turned out nice. Some would have been nice if they weren't blurry. And some, well... yeah. Some just won't be shown here. The bottom one is my favorite one... Makes me wish I looked like that in real life.

Out flew the web and floated wide/The mirror cracked from side to side

I should be writing my Early English Lit. paper right now. Or doing my Victorian Lit. bibliography. But, it's been a while since I wrote in this thing, so....yeah. I'm procrastinating. I will kick myself for this tomorrow, when I'm tired and crabby (well, I'm already tired and crabby. So, I will kick myself for this tomorrow when I'm even more tired and crabby).

Doing a presentation for Vic Lit tomorrow, on Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. The title threw me, at first--I thought it would be something along the lines of Little Lord Fauntleroy, and how he comes to battle the forces of evil of the aptly-named Dark Tower.

Yeah, not so much. It's dark, it's grotesque, and the poem ends leaving the reader with no clue as to whether or not Roland dies, succeeds, or curls up into a little ball and whimpers.

In the past several days, I have walked the Loop six times. I am in awe of my physical prowess, as should you all be.

Oh, and I hit level 27 in World of Warcraft, and got another friend hooked on it. *evil grin* I'd feel guilty about it, buuuuut.....no.

I miss Jenn. A lot.