Maledicte

• I am in NYC! Gods, I miss this place. (This happens to me a lot: I go to a place that I love, and when I get there, I wonder why I would ever want to be any place else. When that place happens to be NYC, it doesn't worry me too much. But when it happens when I visit my grandparents in California (Los Angeles area) it worries me a little. I always forget why I want to be in NYC when I'm in Cali.)

• Today was mostly hanging out with my mom. We had brunch, then I went home while she had a meeting, then we went out for manicures and pedicures--where the girl doing my nails filed them square without asking (I prefer them a bit more rounded) and filed some of them lopsided (though it's an easy fix)--and then went out to dinner. There was shopping for a blanket for the new bed in the apartment I'm staying in somewhere in there too. (The bed is all nice looking now. I'm sort of excited to sleep in it.)

• Tomorrow, Mom and I are seeing "An Iliad", which is a reading/adaptation of, obviously, The Iliad. I am stupidly excited for this. My Classics nerd is showing. Since The Iliad was originally a poem that would have been declaimed, I think it will be really interesting to see something like how it would have been all those thousands of years ago.

• I'm also seeing War Horse with her and my cousin (on Tuesday, I think). Cousin just turned 19 and is in the middle of her first year in college, so I am excited to hear all about her experience from her. Since, you know, my experience with college has been nothing even remotely close to normal and I'll bet her's has been. Also I am excited to see War Horse and I am now glad that I never managed to see the movie of it. This way I can see the movie after the play and have the "proper" experience.

• There will also be shopping.

• Other than that, I don't have a whole lot planned. A day at the Met Museum is a must, particularly with the Steins Collection exhibit. And the new American Wing. Oh goodness, I'm getting a little excited just thinking about it!

• I will likely send out some emails (and maybe make some calls if I can find my Big Girl Panties to wear while I do it) to some literary agencies and see if I get any bites while I'm here. If not, I'll be doing phone interviews, if I get any interviews at all. (Notice the low expectations. This way, I can be pleasantly surprised.)

• I keep... forgetting to post. I check my flist and think, "I should update my journal," but then I think, "But what would I say?" And so I don't. That worries me a little.

• School continues apace. I'm a little behind on everything because I'm starting to realize that I'm bored with school. Obviously this means I need to figure out how to make it work for me again. I think that's going to me just putting my head down and doing the work no matter how bored I get. Not an exciting prospect.

• Slightly more exciting: I talked to the head of my department (also my Poetry teacher) and mentioned that I was worried about being able to graduate in May 2013. I'd been looking over the list of things I've taken and things I need to take, and it seemed like there were more that I needed to take than would allow me to graduate after another two semesters. This is totally unacceptable. But she was really reassuring! She said that we should talk to my new advisor (old advisor now has a different position) and that we could likely spread my previous credits out to apply better. I nearly wept with joy.

• Things with the Boyfriend are still wonderful. Wonderful enough that I sometime look around to make sure that the rest of my life isn't falling into ruin while I'm distracted. (It seems not to be.) I sort of hope this wonderfulness never goes away.

• Summer Internship applications start... now. My first deadline is tomorrow (and I am finishing up my cover letter before I go to sleep tonight) with Penguin Group. After that, most things need to go out by the end of March. I'm applying to pretty much every major publishing house in NYC that has a fantasy division, and about two dozen literary agencies. I just need something for this summer so that I can a) be in NYC for an extended period of time and b) have it for my resume when I apply for internships the summer after I graduate which will hopefully help me get a job.

• Apparently when I get down, I start looking for apartments in NYC. This doesn't actually help. Note to self.

• I am in NYC! The flight between Michigan and NYC was quick and painless (except for being at 7:05am which necessitated getting up at 4:30am), but I read on my Kindle the whole way (which made the 2+ hour trip seem much shorter). I'm not sure how I ever traveled without this thing before. Kiiiiiindle. Love.

• lskull86 picked me up from the airport and took me to Brooklyn for a bagel. This sounds way less complicated than it actually turned out to be. He happens to live in the neighborhood we went to high school in, and we walked around and I looked at all the changes. (I also poked my head into St. Mark's Comics and was totally unsurprised to find people I knew still working there.) Anyway, so long as we were walking around Brooklyn and then bagel place we'd frequented in high school was in decline (apparently), we walked halfway to where I used to live to go to the place that I remembered had the best bagels ever. (They still do.) And then since we were already almost there, we walked past the house that I used to live in. It was neat to see the old neighborhood. Brooklyn Heights will always hold a dear place in my heart, even though I like Manhattan better these days.

• While hanging out with lskull86 I went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol which was a lot of fun. I was a little disappointed with how much Josh Holloway was in it (I always want more of him, he's awesome) but I was absolutely happy with the movie. It was an excellent action flick. (Except for the scene in the super tall building. Heights freak me out.)

• There is no food in the apartment I'm staying in. Like... no food. I am hoping that my mother will be gifting me with some funds so that I don't starve. I used the last little bit of my money to get myself a late lunch--sandwich and a giant red velvet cupcake to go. A late birthday cake for myself, since I didn't get cake this year.

• There is a Magnolia Bakery a few blocks from this apartment, too. I don't think I ever knew that, but I am totally going to hit them up. Magnolia Bakery has the best cupcakes in the world, guys. No joke. Alas, that's not where my dessert cupcake came from (though what I ate of it was still excellent).

• Tomorrow night I am going to a New Year's Eve Eve party. The Moonlight Circus is a Dances of Vice party. I've wanted to go to one of their parties for a long time, but I always seem to miss them. So I am excited to be able to go to this one! And only $30 for a ticket. I'm wearing the sparkly blue dress that I wore for my bat mitzvah. Yeah. I know. Ten years later I actually still fit in it, since it's just a stretchy sheath. It was a modified prom dress that we got back then, so my mom just made the straps longer and now it fits again. Magic! I'm not actually going to this party with anyone I know, so hopefully I will meet some new people.

• I am also going to a party for New Year's Eve out on Long Island with lskull86 and some other friends. I'm excited. Parties in Santa Fe aren't nearly as much fun. I suspect this party will actually be more fun than the one tomorrow, in the sense that it will have lots of nerdy people, some of whom I might have met when I attended I-Con a couple years ago. So that will be interesting!

• Oh jeez, it's been be a really long time since I wrote here. Mostly that's due to midterm papers. When I have pressing things to do for school, I tend to not let myself do things. (I mean, I still read fic online, but I don't write mine. And I don't get online to talk to people, but I do check email constantly.) I do still see/talk to friends who reach out to me, but I tend not to reach out because I'm technically "not supposed to." Or whatever. Anyway, I sort of became a hermit for a bit. (And I didn't manage to get one paper done, and my teacher told me not to turn it in anymore, since we're past the grading deadline. Which means that my grade for that class got dragged way the hell down, so I'm freaking out about how to pick it up again and maintaining my GPA for my scholarship and oh crap I made myself nauseated again.)

• Other than that last one, I got all A's in my midterm grades. Because I am awesome.

• Speaking of papers, I wrote a paper on Montaigne's essay "On the Cannibals" for my ethics class. I actually thought this one wasn't as good as the really-terribly-awful Machiavelli paper—certainly less organized, as I had less of an idea what I was talking about while I was writing it—but... I got another 25 out of 25 points on it. I should get my first paper for my Bible class (same teacher as Ethics) on Thursday, so we'll see what I get on that. Apparently this teacher really likes me.

• That last bit I actually know for a fact because, through a series of strange events, I ran into the Chair of the Creative Writing department at one of my other teachers' book launch, and she knew who I was because apparently my Ethics and Bible teacher was "raving" about me. Her word, not mine. I was assured that they were all good things, though.

• This encounter also led her to telling me that we should meet so that she could see about getting me out of taking some of the beginning writing classes. I gather she'd read my file, since I didn't actually tell her all that much about my writing experiences before she said that it sounded like I had sort of gone backwards. It would be nice if she could actually get me out of being stuck in the future with some of the people I'm stuck with now, but if not I will have at least cultivated a sort of relationship with her. I'm hoping she can also pull some strings to get me into her Poetry class next semester. (Apparently we have to take a Techniques class for the three main specializations, regardless of what we decide to specialize in.) She's not only smart, but really fun about being smart (if that makes sense) so fingers crossed for at least getting her as a teacher.

• I have a meeting with her and my academic advisor tomorrow.

• Moving right along from school things... The weekend of the 15th I was in a minor collision in my car. By which I mean, I had pulled in behind a guy in a truck at the gate for my dad's community, and instead of opening the gate he started backing up. I didn't realize he couldn't see me, so I thought, "Oh, I'll just get out of your way, dude," but he came straight back into me. I wasn't injured or anything, and only the passenger side rear door of my car was damaged. And, because it was clearly the guy's fault, his insurance is paying to replace my door. I'm taking it in tomorrow, they'll give me a rental for a few days, and then my car will have a door (and a window) that functions properly. Thank god, because we're supposed to get snow tomorrow night, and the window in that door no longer closes all the way, which makes my car awfully cold in the morning even without the possibility of snow.

• This does not solve the issue of my car's engine. But that will have to come a little later when I have the money.

• Speaking of, though, I worked a bunch this past weekend and make some money, all of which will likely be held in reserve for taking my car to the mechanic. I haven't done it yet because I don't want to take it and then not have the money to pay him when he's done. Hopefully I will be able to get this done in the next week or so. Fingers crossed.

• So, now that I'm actually in school for writing, I'm actually writing again. Not a whole lot, but some. I've actually started writing a story I've had notes for (and the first few sentences) since high school. It's a gender-swapped Peter Pan story, sort of. (All the credit for reminding me that I had it in my wip folder goes to olukemi and she knows why. :>) I'm really enjoying it so far, and I'm trying to finish it for when my turn to be workshopped rolls around in my Fiction class. (I can't remember when that is, now, but I have it written down somewhere.) I'd also like to finish it before NaNoWriMo, since I will be putting all my writing during the month of November towards that.

• So yeah, NaNoWriMo. I will be once again attempting to beat my odds. (Those odds being that I am 0 for 4 at this point.) I... don't yet know what I'm going to write. I'm thinking I might try this thing that girasola and I have been planning for years but never really get around to writing. Of all the things in my WIP folder, it has had the most plotting and planning done on it. On the other hand, as it's not entirely mine, I'm not sure I want to just go ahead and write it. Part of the fun of it would likely be writing it with her. My other options are entirely unplanned and unplotted as of yet, but I could change that. I don't know right now. But, in case anyone cares, you can follow my progress on my NaNoWriMo profile. (And until they fix the writing buddies option, that's all you can do.)

• I have been feeling lonely lately, even before I shut myself in my house and pretended to write papers for two weeks. I miss girasola and exrpan, who are not only my missing best friends, but have fabulous lives in NYC (no matter how much they complain). Not the least because I haven't been online in weeks. But also because I am just sort of feeling like I will never be able to get back to NYC, like I had my chance and I blew it. This is partially because looking at the prices for apartments in NYC is super depressing and also because there are things I am considering once I graduate (fingers crossed fingers crossed fingers crossed) that aren't in NYC. It makes my stomach go all noodly when I think about it. Ugh. Anyway, I miss you guys. ♥

• I am currently eating pasta with pesto that I not only made, but made with basil I grew. It's super delicious. (Even though it's throwing off my allowed meals for the day and not helping me lose the weight I gained while my Gram was here.)

• Oh yeah! My Gram came to visit. The same weekend that I got into the accident, actually. It was really nice. My dad and I cooked for her. Things that we got the recipes for from her years ago and used to make more often but haven't in years. Like the family spaghetti sauce. And blintzes. And baked macaroni and cheese. And frito pies with avocado. It was ridiculous how much amazing food we had, that was all cooked by me and my dad. Gram also took my dad and I out for a minorly expensive dinner at a fancy place that he and I like a lot. (It's where I took him for Father's Day this year.) Anyway, I swear I gained at least five pounds. Which means fitting in my jeans is getting problematic again. Whoops. Still, it was really nice to see Gram. We watched The Princess Bride one day, which she hadn't seen and I didn't know that my dad had. (He is a big squooshy softie, apparently. No, actually, it probably has more to do with Mandy Patinkin than anything else.) It was really nice.

• For those interested, the Big Session Festival is back. It went away for a little bit, but with the release of the Oysterband's new album with June Tabor (I suspect), it's back for this coming summer. I was looking at how much money I would need to save to be able to go, and holy crap. The tickets for the festival are actually reasonably priced, but airfares to England (as always) are frighteningly high. I think the chances of me being able to make it out there next summer are slim. Maybe I'll see if my mom will match whatever I can save... Chances are still slim, but at least she'll be proud that I'm making an effort, so it's not a terrible idea to ask, I suppose. Anyway, for those who are thinking about next summer's vacation and who happen to like the Oysterband (or celtic folk music in general) should definitely consider going.

• Wrote another X-Men: First Class fic last week. Or, I finished writing it last week. As it's been revealed, I'll likely post it here soon. Though, I want to change the ending a bit. So you can expect that soonish, I think. There may be some other fics coming before the end of the year, too. I'd like to actually finish some of the things I've started. Since I think I actually have a dozen fics in progress at the moment.

Oh jeez. This entry is really freaking long. I need to stop writing it now, regardless of whether I have more things to say. And I have to go write some poems for class tomorrow, so.

• I bought my tickets for NYC. I actually paid for it all myself, but my mom reimbursed me half. Still, it was sort of exciting to buy my own tickets and all that. :) I will get to see all sorts of awesome people while I'm there! girasola and exrpan because I miss my bffs; I timed the trip to allow me to be there for lskull86's birthday; and oduinn will have just moved. I am super excited. Plus all the other people who I'm not mentioning by name. :)

• Oh also: exrpan, we should do another photoshoot now that's it's warmer. Maybe in Bryant Park, or on the steps of the Met or somewhere a little more urban. If you have time, that is.

• Got my financial aid award letter from school. Um. They're giving me $7,000 per semester in a "Department Award Creative Writing Scholarship". Ok, a) $7k is half the full tuition, and b) I haven't submitted a writing portfolio yet; what are they basing this scholarship on, my admissions essay? I'm also getting 25% off the $13,900+ tuition, and I'm eligible for another $7,500 in a loan. Which means, all told, we might be paying a couple hundred dollars per semester for me to go to this school. Also, since I was urged to do so by my advisors, if I submit a writing portfolio now and win another award, are they going to just pay me to attend? This is all both awesome and baffling. I have to call them tomorrow and make sure I actually know what's going on and this isn't some sort of cruel joke.

• But yeah, speaking of writing portfolio, I'm working on one. I need 6-10 pieces to put in it, and I have exactly one that is finished and could go in without me having to edit it. And only two that just need basic editing. Another needs an edit and a major addition, and two more need me to actually write them. And I'm supposed to turn something in on Friday. Laugh with me. Come on. You know you want to. (/headdesk)

• Speaking of school, I registered for my classes last week:

♠ I am waiting for Living Writers: Foundations (the first Creative Writing core class) and Techniques of Creative Writing: Fiction (another Creative Writing core class) to open up new sections for me to enter into.
♠ I am already registered for Beginning Bible Studies (which fulfills my Social Science Distributive liberal arts core requirement) and Ethical Traditions (which fulfills my Ethical Responsibility liberal arts core requirement, and I still maintain that Seminar totally fulfills both of these requirements).
♠ And Literature and the Post-Human (which has Frankenstein (haven't read) and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (read in high school) as required reading among other things).

There are five classes instead of four in the hopes of graduating in four semesters instead of five, and all of them are upper level courses. I'll have to take a Cultural Diversity liberal arts core requirement class next semester, but other than that, I can pretty much take all Writing and Literature classes all the time and they will all be upper level classes. It's kind of super exciting.

• Had dinner with my dad tonight. When I got there, this conversation occured:

Dad: How are you?
Me: Good. Tired, but good. The kids were really difficult today.
[significant pause]
Dad: Payback's a bitch, isn't it.
Both of us: (/dies laughing)

• Apparently Borders is closing all of its stores. Which means the last big bookstore here is closing. That leaves us with one mostly successful, marginally interesting local store, and a few used book stores, and a B&N an hour away. I am bummed about this. On the other hand, I am also happy for liquidating sales. That means more travel books will be added to my growing collection, and possibly some Moleskines and possibly some other things. Still, it's a bummer.

• There are some fandom things I need to be working on. But I keep getting school things put in my lap and then I don't let myself work on fandom things because I should be working on the school things, and I'm not working on the school things because I am procrastinating. Ugh. I need to work around this. I have to figure something out.

• It's stupidly hot out here. Sleeping has become difficult even with the medication I take. It's worrisome.

Speaking of sleep, I'm off to do that.