Weirdness and Coolness

After last night's post from the side porch I came inside and took a seat near the front door and the television. My roommate and his girlfriend were cuddling and tickling each other on the couch and we were all half watching the Daily Show when some weird light patterns on the window caught my eye. Our living room is mostly windows and as we live on the corner of an intersection (is there any other kind of corner?) there are often cars passing by. I watched out the front window waiting for a car to come by and explain the dancing lights and when it eventually did it illuminated a figure across the street. It startled me and when I squinted in the dark I was made even more uneasy. The man was sitting under a tree with a weak flashlight, staring in my window. "Any reason you can think of why a man would be sitting on the ground across the street?" I asked my roommate. He frowned, took a hurling bat and walked around the side of the house and caught a glimpse of the man as he scurried down another street. What was the guy doing? I felt really uneasy the rest of the night and didn't sleep well, even after locking my windows. I *hate* sleeping without the windows at least cracked, even in wintertime. Officially creeped out.

Today though, one half of the couple who have been living in my basement gave me five dollars for giving him a ride down the street and helping him carry some pillows. Pillows! I felt bad for taking the money, but I'm not in a position to turn down cash these days. He seemed genuinely grateful for the help too, so what the hell.

sort life out

I've spent the evening reading on the porch. A moment ago the sunset was a brilliant orange-pink swath behind the houses across the street and the faint smell of pot wafted out of the house, presumably from my roommate's girlfriend. There are a few tasks I need to complete. Come to think of it, there are several tasks I need to complete ranging from the right now to the before-I-go-to-bed to later this week to the indeterminate future. I feel a lot like Shaun in Shaun of the Dead when he puts a to do list on his refrigerator before passing out that reads, "Go round mum's, get Liz back, sort life out." Minus the impending hangover and the zombies, of course.

So let's see. I need to bring in the cactus, definitely, and probably clear another path in my room since I was rearranging the already post-earthquake-looking apocalypse earlier. I don't know what to do tomorrow. At some point I need to return that stupid stereo receiver and one day head to the airport to exchange the pounds, Euros and Swiss Francs for legal U.S. tender. Wednesday evening the Timbers are playing Seattle in a cup match, which is bound to be epic considering they're our biggest rivals and since we're now in different leagues it's a matter of luck that we get drawn together at all. There's a possibility that we won't play each other again until 2011. Thursday is another Timbers match, but this one is an exhibition against Bayern Munich's reserve squad, and my roommate's hurling team is playing a short demo match at halftime. I'm sort of obligated to be there.

Then there is the mess of the holiday weekend. I've been locked into going up to my grandparent's lakehouse since before I left for Europe by my grandpa. For some reason, he's really excited that I'm going to be there. I have no idea why. My cousin is plotting something elaborate and probably dangerous and definitely something I won't want to participate in and he's involving my youngest sister in it, possibly because he knows I'm a big party pooper and don't like to see my family members do dumb and illegal things while inebriated. Ironically, I will probably just get smashed so as to be able to ignore everything stress-free and end up hanging out by myself for most of the weekend. I like the lake, but I like it for apparently different reasons than the rest of my family. I like to chill out and look at the trees in the breeze; my family thinks I'm depressed. I like to take the canoe out in the morning; my family likes to drive the speedboat fast and inner tube or water ski all day. My cousin especially likes to push things just slightly too far. He's always wired and has ambitious plans that require the collaboration of nearly everyone else. It's not a fault really, it's just the way he is. I'm just way too laid back and lazy for it. Just lemme alone with my beer and let me roast marshmallows or something!

Before I go camping again I need to remember to buy new batteries for the flashlights that all died at the same time (while putting on the rainfly in the dark after it suddenly started raining, of course. When else do flashlights die? Convenient times? Ha!), plus dish soap and paper towels. I also need to rinse out the gross cooler that's been stewing in the sunshine of the car.

Before the roadtrip this summer I need to get my brakes checked out and possibly replaced. I have no idea how I'm going to swing that financially after the school certification debacle.

School starts at the end of September. I have one term until graduation. Then what? Fuuuuuuuuuck dude, I dunno.

Well Shit.

I was all ready for this intense month of school. A whole term in four weeks! Yesterday went as well as could be expected. I woke up on time, showered and caught the bus. After two and a half hours of French I filled out my VA (Veteran's Affairs. They run the GI Bill - college money for former servicemembers - among other things) certification, picked up my transit pass, bought my books and still had enough time before my afternoon history class to surf the web a bit in the computer lab.

But then this morning, I got an email from the VA office at my university. Typically, the GI Bill gives me money so long as I'm taking 12 credits. It turns out though that there's a limit to bullshit classes that you can take and I've exceeded that limit. As there are no classes offered this summer that are required for my graduation, I can't get certified for any credits, which means no money, which means I had to withdraw from all of my classes. It also means that the next pay check I was expecting isn't going to happen until maybe October. That's an awful long time to be living nearly entirely on credit. Crap crap crap.

There are a couple things I can do right away to help out financially: return the stereo receiver that finally shipped, of course, ten minutes after I gave up waiting for the backordered item and walked down to another electronics store and bought a different one; return the textbooks I just bought, though I cracked up the plastic on my $220-non-returnable-after-opening French book last night, so that's a loss; sell some older textbooks on ebay or something (though honestly that sounds like a pain in the ass). Other than that, it's eating cheap canned food and rice from the grocery store.

Any ideas for entertaining myself on the cheap/free? I do have some new gadgets related to music that I bought before I found out I wouldn't be getting paid, but I don't know if I could just do that all day.

Lazy Day

Tomorrow I start school again at 8am. It’s been three full months off and six months since I’ve put any serious effort into anything. Thankfully for my academic endurance and attention span, I’m doing all 12 credits in just over four weeks. I then have a few weeks to do nothing before heading out on a cross-country road trip in August. So today has been spent vegging in front of the television, first watching the Confederations Cup soccer games and Top Gear, then some BBC show on nature and Sky Sports.

The U.S. soccer team, sentenced last week to “virtual elimination” from the Confed tournament (in the Guardian’s words), somehow made it to the next round. They needed to win by three goals and needed Brazil to beat Italy by three goals in order to move on, and exactly that happened. Considering how the U.S. played the first two games, they absolutely did not deserve to advance, but since it came at the expense of Italy, the country whose soccer team I despise more than any other, I’ll take. I’ll take it with glee. I hope Guisseppe Rossi is crying right now, that goddamn traitor!

The starters I put in my garden are doing quite well, but of the seeds I planted, only one has done more than simply sprout. Every one of my peas was dug up shortly after planting. What the hell did that? I’m disappointed because even though beans and peas may not be my favorite vegetables, I get more satisfaction out of growing something from seed rather than just hoping I don’t kill the starter.

I went camping earlier this week and didn’t get back to my parent’s place until after three and I didn’t feel like leaving immediately to Portland, so I missed the Timbers game. And what a match to miss! The Timbers won 5-1 and Minnesota got THREE red cards! I don’t even think I’ve seen on tv one team get three red cards in a single match. Incredible!

This is pretty cool

The Guardian may infuriate me on a daily basis, but their photo galleries are usually impressive. This one is about all the species that are being reintroduced to the UK, some of which have been gone for up to 500 years. I didn't know there were lynx and wild boar and beavers in Britain! I just love this sort of stuff.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jan/28/wildlife-conservation?picture=342253033

Well hello!

I've been back a grand total of three weeks, but it feels like forever. I was worried that when I came back I'd fall into my old routine of sleeping in too late, watching 'Scrubs' all day, then drinking too much and having a headache for the next day causing me to sleep in too late, watch 'Scrubs' all day, then... you get the picture. But I've been pleasantly busy and even productive on occasion. I renewed my driver's license, got a fishing/hunting license, fished, tore up the garden and its eight inches of demon sod and planted some veggies - beans and peas are sprouting! I also spent a great deal of money on some new electronics - a laptop, turntable, stereo receiver, the like. I figure they'll last me forever so I took the band-aid approach and did it all at once, so I only have to go through the sickening feeling of spending wads of money one time. My youngest sis graduated high school this weekend and I came down for the ceremony and to visit with my grandparents who also made the trek. I now have just under two weeks to waste until school starts and I intend to spend it doing some hiking and figuring out this new computer.

Also, I'm having impure thoughts about joining the Coast Guard. See, it counts as military service in terms of pay and retirement, but is far less... what's the word.... painfully stupid as the army. If I joined in the next year, I'd retire when I'm 42. Sigh... I don't know. Someone will talk me out of it, I'm sure.

I tried to catch up on politics since returning to the US, but it's a little overwhelming. Why are people letting Dick Cheney appear on television? Are there really people who think murdering a doctor that performs abortions is justified? Did the BNP really win seats in Europe? Sometimes I think I don't want to understand such things.

I've been asked to note that right now in my living room I'm blogging on my new Mac, my roommate's girlfriend is knitting, my roommate and my upstairs roommate are playing Magic and the History channel is on the television. What nerds.