shroud ourselves in the cosmos; let the music play

Bitchly Little Girl #3! Comes in to return a laptop. Appears to be in a rush, but spends a full minute adjusting her clothing before she logs on to the laptop lending station, so we can go through the actual process of returning her laptop. Which, I notice, has not been shut down. In the future, I mention casually, make sure you give it enough time to shut down all the way. Why do you have the default on 'restart,' then? she counters. You know, I say, I couldn't tell you. You should take it up with CLICC. I don't have the time to, she informs me. She also apparently does not have two fucking seconds to switch the setting from 'restart' to 'shut down.' But she does have the time to make my life unpleasant, apparently. Jesus.

Also, I am hungry.

So today I, um, watched Star Trek. Again.

Hey, Campus Events was showing it for two dollars. TWO. That is the same price as a cookie from the organic vending machine. Only twice as much as a bag of chips from the regular vending machine. And about 1/5 of what my dinner from Rubio's cost today.

I almost decided not to go, because, damn, I have so much shit to do. And I promised myself I would decide where to apply to grad school by the end of today -- which is looking unlikely. (I did have a good talk with Dan about grad school and other things today, though.)

But today kind of sucked -- tired the moment I woke up, frustrating practise, scratchy throat (o hai post-nasal drip), angry at work, dozed off in the stacks at work, didn't play well in a coaching -- and I decided that no, I needed to go to this movie. Because I need the future to be bright and shiny and beautiful and full of lens flares and french horn solos.

Seriously, this film has a great score. I hope the horn soloist got paid really well. And I love that they used the original theme for the end credits.

Honestly, Star Trek just gets better and better, possibly because now I've seen about 20 times as much TOS as I had when I first watched it. ( potential spoilers? )

BUT OMG I WANT SALT AND PEPPER SHAKERS THAT ARE SPACESHIPS. MOST ADORABLE PROP EVER. I CAN HAS?

Turns out it's no easier to motivate yourself to run in the evening, after a long, footsore day, than it is at oh-dark-thirty. The first three sets were... okay (hard but I made it, more or less). The fourth set, I had to stop and walk after 2 minutes, because my legs could not run any more. The fifth set, I managed to push through, partly because I walked most of the fourth set and partly because it was The Last One OMG. So, I dunno. I didn't ever really get to that place I found on Monday, where it felt like the top of my head came off and movement was effortless (granted I was only there for perhaps four minutes total on Monday, but still). Then again, did not need inhaler. *shrug* I guess I'll carry on with the regimen, increasing to 6:1 for Friday and Saturday, although part of me worries that it might be moving too fast. (Hopefully that is the part of me that will be gone if I lose a few pounds, eh?)

The kitties had a Big Day Out today! We went to the library and met all my bosses and friends. They stayed there all afternoon, I was surprised. I had anticipated only staying for maybe an hour or so, then taking them back home and boogieing back to work the rest of the shift, but they behaved themselves and were quite happy to let my boss dote on them all afternoon. She sent us home with some makeshift toys, too -- a travel-size dental floss tin that rattles, and a couple plastic eggs ("You can put pebbles in them, I bet they'll chase them then!"), plus a bit of string that we probably shouldn't use to tie up books now that kittens have been chewing it all up.

I can't decide if I want to eat dinner first, or practise? I wish it were not so late. (I probably should have gone running earlier, instead of watching that second episode of Star Trek.) I also wish that season six of NCIS would air on USA Network already, so I won't feel so awkward about watching the new season. (I read the season six synopses on Wikipedia, but it's definitely not the same. I've tried watching the full episodes on the CBS website, but it hates me! The videos won't load. They did on my daddy's computer. No fair :c )

Okay. I'm very very hungry, and if I try to practise without eating, I'll just play badly and get frustrated, and last night was quite enough of practise-related breakdowns for me. (I called my mum in tears and worried her half to death before she realised it was just because of a bad practise. She talked me down and I went to sleep and practising this morning was much better.)

1. Can somebody please explain to me why the "seasonal Frank" for mid-September is tangled in flashing christmas lights?

wtf.

2. Practised, and suddenly realised how sloppy I have been this summer. I sound like ass. And I think I might deserve it. :/

3. School of Ed orientation this morning indeed answered questions and reassured us, although the classes we're supposed to be taking still are not on the Schedule of Classes. Also, I'm totally excited that the school we're doing observations at tomorrow morning is walking distance from my house :)

4. I feel a little burned out, and school hasn't even started. What the fuck. :c

5. Boss somehow cut her fingers pretty badly while cleaning windows this weekend? :C Poor Boss!

Dear Guy who just returned the red pen to the circulation desk,

I'm certain you did not just say, "Thank you, my love," as you handed me the pen. Because, I don't care if you're gay or asexual or very friendly or whatever, we have never met and that is not okay to say to someone who is merely doing her job.

With a great deal of professional distance,
Sigma

I just checked the schedule of classes for this quarter, and if the Graduate School of Education does in fact get its shit together and offer the classes we need, following the tentative schedule the Music Education professor sent us, I definitely won't be able to take a second year of German. Sadness. (Although honestly I probably wouldn't have been able to anyway because that would surely put me over 20 units, and I'm pretty sure the Arts counselors won't let me over-enroll any more because I'm already over my Official Unit Cap for all four (five) years here.) Of course, if the GSE has no money to offer our classes (because of University of California has failed ALL OVER ITSELF -- O HAI SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT, I GUESS YOU DON'T WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO BE EDUCATED BY WELL-TRAINED TEACHERS), then I'll be able to work in the library in the mornings, instead of lunchtime, and take German 4 from 11-11:50. Is it wrong that I almost hope that the Music Ed program here falls apart so that I can do what I want? I did not say that. I swear.

In other news, after taking two days off, the air seemed okay this morning, so I went running (1:2), and it felt sooooo good. I'll probably do the same run:walk ratio tomorrow, take Sunday off, and try starting "week two" again next week (2:1, walk, 3:1, walk, 4:1, 4:1, rest -- a rather intimidating ramping up of the running portion). Also, my daddy told me to bring my running shoes when I came home this weekend (to see his cousin & her hubby & their new baby who are visiting from Chicago), and we might get me new shoes. Mine aren't uncomfortable, and they're probably not too worn out sole-wise, but they're a couple years old and I marched in them, so the upper part of the shoe is pretty beat up. *shrug* I like shoes, so it's all good.

In kitten news, they enjoyed my friend's visit, and he definitely enjoyed hanging out with them! Baxter threw up this morning, though. He's fine now, I think -- at least, he was fine when I left this morning. I'm pretty sure he's not actually sick, I think he was just a little too worked up running around and playing this morning, and then he ate too fast and gave himself a tummy ache. Right before he booted, he made the loudest, most miserable-sounding meows, though. I felt really bad for him. And then he tried to eat his own vomit, which was, well, not okay, but I can see why a kitten might do that. Especially since it was mostly entire pieces of kibble. (Baxter is apparently bad at chewing? Ducky seems to chew more, but he's a little bit smaller than Baxter and I think the kibble pieces might be too big for him to swallow whole.)

Oh, crap. I just gave a woman directions to the student services office, but it's a furlough day and none of the department staff are here. Whoops.

Dear Shoe Boy,
You're still gorgeous, but the after-hours drop at the library is meant to be used after hours. There is no bin there when we are open, which you could clearly see, because that wall is floor-to-ceiling windows. When we are open, you are meant to come the fuck inside and return your books in the inside drop bin.

Not as indulgent as you think I am,
Sigma

Composers, I swear.

Today when I looked out the window of my flat it was frighteningly hazy, and my chest was tight enough that I needed to use my inhaler without doing anything more than walking to the window, so I decided to delay today's run. Hopefully the air will be clearer this evening? If it isn't, I'll take today as a Day Of Rest and nudge the training schedule back a day. Or until I'm no longer afraid to open the windows. Granted, I'll likely have to regress to a smaller run-to-walk ratio, but that's okay. I'd rather not breathe smoke.

Yesterday I finally started my grad school research. I'm still running with this (admittedly baseless) idea that Chicago is A Place I Want To Be, so that would mean Northwestern (technically in Evanston but not prohibitively far from Symphony Center eh?), Roosevelt, or DePaul. From there I jumped to check out the New York schools (god the Manhattan SoM sounds fantastic but I'm a little afraid of NYC and I'd probably never ever get in anyway), and I'm working my way westwards. The idea is that I want to go to school far, far away. And apparently my parents want to have a Serious Conversation about that with me, which will be joyous, I'm sure. I know I was talking a lot a while ago about going to grad school in Europe, but... I dunno. It's proving difficult to find information on what schools are even "good," especially information in English (because I just don't have the patience to wade through real-life German right now), and I'm pretty sure I don't want to end up playing with any kind of European "sound," although the German sound is miles better than French or even English bassoon. And Europe might be prohibitively expensive right now. Plus I have latched onto Chicago-in-my-head, which is kind of undercutting my motivation to investigate European schools. Eh. Musicians (er, Amanda), where are the other schools I should be looking at? How have I studied music in college for four years without knowing this? How have my friends found out where they should apply? (Of course, now that I'm looking inside the U.S. I imagine my teacher will have a lot more info for me.)

Also! I just spent a good long while chatting with Former Dungeon Master Ben about schools and teaching and sci-fi (he's reading Asimov for the first time; I've been DVRing Star Trek TOS & TNG and overdosing on Torchwood and reading all sorts of interesting meta about Sci-Fi and Television and Issues) and just... life. And I loooooove Ben and I miss hanging out with him, but inside my head (probably not inside his) the spectre of J hangs between us and I definitely still want J to Die In A Fire. I definitely felt a lot less awkward today than a few months ago, though, which is comforting. Because we are, in fact, friends on our own merit and not just through J. I <3 Ben. (and god damn do I miss playing D&D. *pout*)

In other news, one of my fellow Library Assistants suggested putting honey in coffee, which I had never considered before (because honey is for tea!). I tried it today, and it was actually quite good. *shrug* Who knew?

To Do This Evening:
- run if the air is decent
- practise (despite kitties hiding)
- put a new bag into Mom's Badass Canister Vacuum (which is now MY badass canister vac because she got a fancy new one just like it but better and a different colour!! YAAAAY I LOVE MY MOMMY SHE GIVES ME HER CAST-OFF AUTOMOBILES AND HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES) and vacuum the shit (NOT LITERAL SHIT YOU GUYS) out of my bathroom and the kitties' scratching post and cat carrier, which have been outside de-fleaing and de-Raiding for the past week and are probably now covered in ash.
- make pesto??? -- my basil has gotten pretty large -- and pasta go to with :)
- hang out with Dory, who asked this morning if he could crash on my couch. Yay! I hope he's not allergic to cats... Not that they'll be on him or anything, they sleep with me with the door shut, but still. Dander and all.
- deal with more of my Desk Heap maybe? I got a little bit of it sorted the other night -- or at least, it's now an orderly tower of stuff on top of the printer instead of a jumble of crap all over everywhere. I'm finding myself with a shocking lack of space for papers and things, though, and I don't really know how that happened, because I can't imagine where all these papers used to be hiding. I don't know, Abergavenny? oh god torchwood in my brain
- Pow-wow with Flatmate re: rent, which is due, to find out how we're adjusting for her doing automatic deposits for the cable. (know what SUCKS though? the building manager called me this morning and informed me that the pet deposit will be $400 which is a lot more than I anticipated. Aaaaarg.)
- OMG CUT TIES WITH PAC PROMOS. Which means finding the original paperwork. Which reminds me.

PSA TIEM!!!
If you are approached by a representative of PAC Promos, Inc., DON'T LET THEM TALK YOU INTO ANYTHING. RUN THE OTHER WAY. This mostly applies to ladies who have cause to be on a college campus in SoCal, because that is where they approach people (that is where they approached me).
The discounted salon services sound really nice but they charge you $20 a month and they DON'T STOP. I ended up not even being able to make time for any of the salon trips before the offer expired. At the time, I figured, "Oh well, whatever, I am allowed to make poor choices with my own money" (and $20 a month is definitely my own money, and not my parents') and assumed that they'd stop charging me once the offer expired. NOT SO. Which I did not notice until yesterday. Fuck me. And all the reviews I've read say that cutting ties with them is a huge hassle, which I'm not looking forward to.

... Hooray! Or not.

1. I might have finally started to like Evanescence. I know I used to be snide about them and the "my clothes are black LIEK MY SSSSSSOOOOOOUUUUULLLLLLL" crowd that was into them when I was in... middle school? high school? but "Bring Me To Life" came on in the car on the way to work and... it clicked for me. Huh. I need to revisit this band.

2. Other Bands I Dig Right Now: Paramore, Franz Ferdinand, Linkin Park (CRAAAAAAAAAAAAWLING IIIIIN MY SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN hahahaaaaaa -- but also apparently Brad Delson was pretty awesome as the keynote speaker for Commencement 2009 WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY CLASS OOPS I BLAME YOU MUSIC ED). Plus I'm still totally into Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Cake. To say nothing of my all-consuming love affair with Muse. I'm definitely going to get The Resistance. Even though my disc drive is broken still/again. (I want to have sex with their songs. It's a little distressing.)

3. I did some detective work about my Pulcinella question and uncovered a bunch of other things about it that didn't match up, so I've turned to the authorities: the conductor and his TA. I anxiously await answers.

4. I talked to Boss about it and she says that the kittens probably do still have fleas (I haven't seen any fleas, on the kittens or elsewhere, but I keep finding flea dirt where they've been sitting). So tonight, the plan is to drive to LB and get some spray for the furniture from my mum (and a more badass vacuum -- I Dirt Devil'd the room last night but it's honestly just too much room (She cannae take any more, Captain!) for a poor little Dirt Devil to handle. Which almost makes me question the capacity of a Roomba to handle it... but then, Roombas are designed for entire rooms. Dirt Devils are designed for small, localized messes, like a knocked-over plant pot, and mine does better on carpet than flooring anyway. In conclusion, Roomba: STILL WANT), and to use the spray and bathe the kittens (a regular bath, with warm water and baby shampoo) either tonight or tomorrow morning, whichever works better logistically. And to launder my bedsheets AGAIN.
Fuck I hate fleas. Nasty little fuckers.

5. The kittens had tapeworms from the fleas. I lived in the same room as the kittens and the fleas all weekend. Presumably, I was bitten by the fleas as well. Should I get checked for tapeworm too??? (Boss says probably not.)

6. Things to get from a petstore, maybe also tonight:
- flea collars (to cut up and put in vacuum bags?)
- safety collars for the kittens to wear (they'll have to be v. small)
- flea medicine (Advantage/Frontline/whatever, the kind where you put the drops on the animal's skin (usu. back of the neck))

7. I made a tentative schedule of my classes for Fall, and what I want to know is, WHY IS EVERYTHING ON MONDAY. WHY. Seriously, Monday will likely begin at 8-fuckin-ayemme with a 4-hour education class, and then in the afternoon, there are four things, two that I have to do and two that I want to do, which overlap with each other variously. And won't end until 10 at night. One of those things is Wind Ensemble (and honestly I'll probably be able to get away with only coming on Wednesdays); another is a chamber music class that I might not want to take anyway, since I only enjoy it about 30% of the time (the other 60% I'm either bored or biting my tongue so I don't dress down my classmates), and the pianist I usually work with is super-swamped and I don't know if she'll take the class either. So I guess that resolves my issue -- I take the required ed. classes and don't worry about the performance classes -- but it's still ridiculous that things are so on top of each other. I'm going to have a conflict with orchestra, too, but it's not as egregious -- I'd only be missing the last hour of rehearsal, one day a week. 5 hours out of 6 is not so terrible, right? (It's certainly better than 2 hours out of 4, but what can you do?)

8. The library is FREEZING. We put a thermometer out in the main room and it is 67 degrees Fahrenheit where I sit. Short Chris said that when he came in this morning it was only 64 degrees, so this is an improvement, but not enough of one -- my fingers are still stiff and a little numb. NB: Google says it's 87 degrees outside. DEAR UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 20 DEGREES IS A BIG FUCKING DEAL. YOU WANT TO SAVE MONEY? CUT YOUR ENERGY COSTS BY FIXING YOUR GODDAMN THERMOSTAT. I WOULD LIKE TO NOT WORK IN A MEAT LOCKER, KTHX.

9. According to Google, today is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope! Yay! Accordingly, their logo is all steampunked out. Hee. :)

things that cheese me off:

1. when people who i dislike already and who have been music students here for many years cannot condescend to use the drop boxes for books and cds and instead pile them in front of me saying, "return... return..." !!!!!! FUCK YOU CLARYCE GTFO OF MY LIBRARY

2. when people are idiots. srsly. this girl walks in and says, "excuse me, do you work here? can you help me make copies?" It's a copy machine. It's not even a fancy copy machine!! Fortunately, I had to help a guy who got there first and then Boss came out and I was all, "can you help her make copies (pls Boss pls)?" and she did and I didn't have to deal with it. (afterwards, Boss and I might have had the "thank you for helping her i don't know if I could have been nice because honestly it's a copy machine how hard can it be?" conversation in earshot of the girl. oops. it's not like i care, though.)

3. when Flatmate puts stuff down the garbage disposal and then doesn't run it i mean seriously who does that??? (Flatmate has a collection of kitchen habits that I find infuriating and/or disgusting. so I clean passive-aggressively. I should just have it out with her, but honestly, I either clean passive-aggressively, or not at all, so I may as well keep bottling and we will at least have a clean kitchen eh?)

4. when i leave for work early -- early!! -- and somehow, Los Angeles traffic conspires against me so that I arrive at work even later than I did yesterday. for serious. I wanted to shoot everything in the face. IN THE FACE. !!!!!!

5. to reiterate (because it just happened again): WE HAVE DROP BOXES FOR THAT. GTFO.

1) So a mildly off-putting guy in the library just asked me if I am on Facebook, and then suggested that I add him. CREEPER Y/Y???

2) I did a lot of things on Saturday that were... a little ridiculous. ( TL;DR HAHAHA ) but then we proceeded to have swimming and barbecue and cake (is it wrong that it is always spelled "CAEK" in my head? This troubles me) and my dad told mildly inappropriate "patients-I-have-had" stories to my friends and it was good. Also he diagnosed the cause of malikamalisha's fainting spells? Which is also good.

3) OMG SO I'M PROBABLY GETTING THE KITTENS THIS WEEK YAY!!! In my near future: many hours spent captioning own cats. MWA HAHAHA