Thundercats are GO!

I think I've done everything I need to before the conference. I've packed (though I'm sure I'm forgetting about something majorly important), I've done homework, I've figured out my finances (I have just enough within my comfort zone), and ... I have a sleeping bag. I put in my time card at work, and will (hopefully) be getting paid Saturday.

Things are looking awesome.

Marcella (the professor I've been doing research with) suggested something that kind of rocked my little Arthurian world the other day. She talked about incorporating Summer of Solutions into a project on environmental activism vs. class/labor union activism and building a green economy.

Now is the time to do that kind of thing. The economy fucking sucks, and most people are admitting we should at least attempt to do something about climate change.

Problem? The collaborative research proposal deadline is March 20th. I don't know if I can switch focus that soon.

Other problem? My doing collaborative research on Arthur this summer might help me get into the Arthur senior sem next fall (even though I'd be a junior), which would make my life much easier senior year (as I'll be studying abroad that fall).

So it's looking more like the Arthur project is feasible. The other one would be really intense, and I think I'd need to get my feet wet to really do a good job. One really cool thing about that second idea I've been kicking around is the possibility of making it a sort of (almost) ecological/anthropological study. This is good especially if I decide to go to grad school for Anthropology.

I've also been nerding out hardcore about art lately. This is a really great artist, and I think that if I ever get a big back piece, I would want it to be in this style. Not the super creepy stuff, but ... that stylistic working.

Powershift is tomorrow! Ahh! So exciting! I've never been to something like this before, so I don't know quite how rockin' awesome it's going to be yet. But it should be pretty sweet. I don't know whether I'm insane for looking forward to a collective of 44 hours on a bus this weekend or not, but it's pretty exciting. Great people do awesome thing in confined spaces for prolonged amounts of time.

I should get to bed. Big day/weekend ahead of me.

Thundercats are GO!

Three days til blast-off ...

Three days and counting. DC, here I come!

In case you're curious about this hella awesome conference, I'll post a link here. I'm super, super excited.

http://www.powershift09.org

There. Check it, this is going to be awesome.

Is it strange that I'm super excited about the 20 hour bus ride there, and then the ride back? It'll be really great to chill with new friends. They're all very cool people, and I'm quite happy to be spending any amount of time with them.

As for life as it currently stands, I am absolutely insane this week. I'm trying to finish homework so I can read fun things and socialize on the bus, but that's rather a lot of homework. I should also really do the dishes before I leave (they're getting scary and multiplying ...), as well as the laundry, but I've only really got two more days.

Dad's coming up on Wednesday to pick out a new sleeping bag. He's bothered about the state of my old one. Apparently this means I'm getting a new one. Hey, no complaints here. It's also the week before tech. week at work, and so I should really be at work as much as possible. Not to mention I could really use the money ...

Good news: I submitted a draft of my research proposal to Marcella today. Yay! Hopefully she'll like it. We're meeting up tomorrow to discuss it. I love her to pieces.

It also looks like I might be able to do Summer of Solutions as well as Collaborative Research. That would be cool ... I need to do at least five hours of research a day this summer, but that leaves quite a lot of time for Summer of Solutions. Especially if I'm not a leader-type person.

Meh. As for now, I really need to go to bed, seeing as how I'm still a bit screwed up from my massive sleep schedule reversal.

Good night, lj/blog-land!

I have officially done strange things to my sleep schedule

I didn't go to Tapestry last night to dance. I was too exhausted, and was holding back the PMS crabby and SICK of PEOPLE EVERYWHERE.

All in all I think that was a good decision.

Then, I came back and tried to take a nap. That didn't really work out so well. I got up, stared at my computer for half an hour, and then went to bed. At seven thirty.

And now it's four am and I'm awake, because that was a solid eight hours that I got. It felt absolutely delicious, and waking up this early feels absolutely delicious. You know why? No one, in their right minds, is awake right now. It's really quiet. And that's exciting, because I live in a dorm. People are very rarely quiet here, especially the boys who live in the quad near me. (They've been having a particlularly stupid week, and have been yelling a lot.)

Mmmmm ... silence. I didn't realize how much I missed it.

Now I'm debating what to do in this wonderful silence. I think I'll read. Yes, reading sounds like a good plan. Either Vonnegut or The Mists of Avalon. But first, I'm going to wash out a bowl, make myself some breakfast, and drink some tea. Oh, it has been far too long since I was up at this hour (of my own free will, that is.)

It's really beautiful, imagining myself the only person awake on this floor. There might be someone up late studying, but I doubt it. It's the beginning of semester.

So ... tea and books!

Repercussions of the Lifestyle

It's snowing/sleeting weirdly here. I can't quite tell what the weather is doing. Walking home from work was really super gross.

I've been laaaaaaaazy this week.

I suppose it's just a repercussion of my lifestyle. I'm so busy, all the time. All, all, all the time. And now that most of my major projects are done, almost all motivation has stopped. I really like sleeping, but I also like to stay up late and shit around. Usually, staying up late to shit around wins out, because ... I'm very, very good at distracting myself.

A part of this new trend is that I'm planning my next tattoo. There will be pictures of ideas up at the blog. The next one will probably be pretty small, a text tattoo. I have ideas for a full-back piece, but that's a huge commitment, and ... they are forever after all. I'm also wondering if I want to do something that I've written, or something that someone else has written. As a writer, it would be really cool to have my own words on my body (and potentially more creative). But it might also be weirdly narcissistic. But would it also be strange to have someone else's words on me?

It's a dilemma. I'm obviously not going to get another tattoo for a very long time, but I'm still designing it and will sit on the idea for a long time. Probably until after I graduate. A lot can change in the next couple of years.

I wrote a poem for Creative Writing, and I really like it. That makes me happy - I'm becoming more interested in poetry than I've ever been. Maybe it's because it's easier to write poetry in college than it is to finish any sort of narrative. It's a one-shot, sit down and get a full draft right away. I can also experiment more.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the novel, but it's on a strange sort of hiatus until I can get time to really work on it.

I've caved, and decided to buy an iPod. I miss having portable music ... and iPods have so many awesome things that attach to them. And they're shiny, and ... MISS portable music devices! Especially now that I'm busing a lot of places around the cities. iPods are nice for that. On a side note: I've been pirating music from Hannah, and she has the Dr. Horrible soundtrack. Ooooh, the wonder that is Joss Whedon! I still really need to finish Firefly. Kira: Firefly soon, yes?

It's been a technology/music sort of week.

Pictures of new boots are coming, as well as the new shirt I'm wearing. Potentially a dress too (it's a sexy little casual thing). Actually, picture post in general coming later.

Tonight's docket looks like reading the play for acting tomorrow, and then reading some Vonnegut. I bought "Slaughter-House Five" and "Breakfast of Champions" last weekend, and am dying to get started on them. I've been in a Vonnegut mood for a while now.

X-posted from Livejournal

Last week was potentially one of the best weeks ever.

Here's a list of all that went right:

1. Vagina Monologues was pretty damn successful. We kicked it off on Wednesday, and I didn't have to do too much except for the Hamline performance. The last performance was today, so the campaign is officially over.

2. The Hamline performance was well attended, and we made over $1,000 at the door. Yeah. We're awesome like that.

3. Nancy Pelosi was confirmed as a speaker at Power Shift (which is in 11 days, so stoked!).

4. Got to spend the afternoon kicking around Uptown with mom. I bought a dress, a sweater, and sexy-as-hell boots. All practically brand new, and under $50. Yessss.

5. We applied for and got all the money for our conference funding for Power Shift.

6. At Lindy lessons at Tapestry on Thursday, I was singled out as a good dancer and given a coupon for a discounted hour-long private lesson. Hell to the fuck yes.

7. Ike finally came to swing dancing tonight. This has been a year and a half in the making.

8. I am finally getting a chance to relax.

9. I spent Saturday night with Hannah G. nerding out and talking. We haven't hung out outside of work for far too long. We also did a massive music swap.

And so my life is looking pretty damn awesome right now. I'm incredibly happy, and things are looking up. And after Power Shift, I don't have anything too major planned. February was/is my month of crazy.

Today has been really chill. I had massive amounts of laundry to do, and I did it. I basically just camped out in the lounge on first floor all afternoon, did homework, and kept an eye on my laundry. I probably did about 6 loads.

I think I'm steadily becoming more of a night person. Last night, I stayed up until about midnight, and tonight I think is going to be another long night. I have 60 more pages of reading to do for my history class and a poem to write. I write all my best poetry late at night, so here's hoping that lack of sleep will propel me to write something awesome.

Mmmmmm. Garbage makes really great, grungy pop. I've been listening to Incubus for most of the night, and Shirley Manson's voice is a nice break, along with the super industrial music itself.

I should stop procrastinating and get on that homework. Yes. Ready .... go.

Off to a running start

This semester is, as predicted, off to a running start. My classes appear to be challenging and fun, all at once, which is what I really like.

My classes are:

Acting 1 (I get to play around for two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. YES.)
Creative Writing (More about this prof. later)
American Lit to 1860 (the professor for this class seemed really cool, and then he would start yelling a lot. In an angry sort of way. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about him, so we'll see how this goes.)
1968: Protest and Revolt in Global Perspective (the professor is hilarious, and the work load is intense. Good combo, they sustain each other)

So my creative writing professor is crazy. You know that stereotypical English professor? The one that is absolutely crazy? I think it might have come from her. We had a "sensory picnic" the first day of class. This means that she laid out blankets, put objects on them, and we were to have a moment of Zen with the objects, and then free write for 10 minutes. (She actually used the word Zen moment.) On February 12 we have the day off. On the syllabus it reads: "Feb. 12 No class. WANDER AND WRITE POEMS."

She makes me smile rather a lot. I love crazy creative writing professors.

Balancing "The Vagina Monologues" and Power Shift has got to be more difficult than expected, but I only have a week left until Vagina Monologues is out of my control. Less than that, even. I am absolutely exhausted, but in a good sort of way. We're getting a lot done for both. It looks like we will have raised $15,000 by the week after next week. (By "we" I mean students from the schools all around the Twin Cities.) That's pretty damn amazing. That conference is going to rock so hard core, I don't even know.

As for the moment, I'm doing some homework and waiting for friends to come over to watch Planet Earth. It should be super sweet. Lovely, lovely lazy Friday.

Days off make me happy.

In order to not burn out on activist things before the full semester even starts, I decided to take my long weekend between J-Term and Spring Semester off. Thus far, it's been four days of wonderful irresponsibility.

Friday, I had planned to stay in and clean my room, and then my dad called and offered to take a friend and me out for lunch. He had to get me my prescription, and it worked just as well, because I needed groceries. It was a really great time, and I love seeing my dad.

That night, I decided to try to clean my room, and then got a call from another friend. Her friends from Iowa were in town, and she was having a shindig at her apartment. So I went, made some cool new friends, and went home and went to bed.

Saturday was pretty lazy. I had hoped to meet up with the same friends for lunch/coffee, and then didn't get to. I ended up going to a ceili at Tapestry, which was fantastic. I haven't done ceili in about a year, and by the time I finished my calves were positively burning. They've been sore for the past two days, but it was worth it. A very delicious sort of sore that makes me want to stay in and be the relaxed homebody I should be on breaks.

Last night, I went swing dancing after spending a remarkably pleasant time at Ike's Superbowl party. I knitted most of the time and talked over the game. Swing dancing was good, but my calves hurt. This morning I could barely walk as a consequence. Am feeling much better now.

I convinced my friends Tim and Kira to go to Tapestry to learn to swing dance on Thursday! It should be a really great time, and seven bucks for a whole night of dancing plus at least two hours of lessons? Really good. Really damn good, in fact.

Dancing is sometimes my life.

Today I read, shot out some emails for Vag. Monos, but was generally very lazy. I did manage to do a weeks' worth of dishes, however. That was fantastic.

I've also been writing again, which feels really good. I took a break to gather my thoughts, and now they're gathered and going very cool places. I'm on chapter 14 of my novel, which is an absolutely fantastic feeling. And I've still got most of tonight to continue writing, I just thought I'd take a quick break to update everyone on my weekend pursuits.

I like breaks. I should take them more often.