snow on the sahara

Today I ran my first 5k! Very exciting. I mean, I've run 5k before, but not A 5k with scoring and such.

I did pretty well--finished around the middle of the pack, in the bottom 50% but not by much. Official time is 32:50. I cut a bunch of time off my usual total time and my per-mile average. The race raised money for a local women's shelter, too, which was good. Some of the people in it were seriously awesome; there was a 90-year-old woman and the lady who won the walkers' group (which started the course three minutes after the runners) had a time that beat me by a little bit. That's some serious walking.

I'm pretty pleased. Will definitely run another sometime.

Yes we could. And we did.

44,988 words.

Cuz, um...I live in Middlesex County and Union is right nearby...Oh christ, between this and fadingembers declaring me a true Jerseyite after my "malls should never close" comment, I fit in now, right? As soon as I get my Slea-Z Pass I'm good to go!

So, yeah. Am in Jersey now, as I have mentioned before. Apparently in one of the more expensive counties, according to Insurance Man. ANd can I just say THANK THE LORD that the car not being in my name yet means it can stay insured in Ohio and not here? Because damn, y'all. I knew it was expensive out here but $2,000 a year? In the good insurance tier? Damn. But I do have cheapx0r renter's insurance, so rob me at your own peril.

It's interesting to be out here. I was freaking out on a daily basis right before the move, but in general I feel good out here. I do feel antsy about Jobby McJobberton calling me, even though I am certain they will and I honestly believe the odds are good that after working there for a week, I'll get picked up for a season (to use the tv parlance), so I'm probably going to the temp place tomorrow to see if I can get nay short term stuff.

Hear that, Jobby? That's your cue to call me right before I go so I don't have to bother, plz.

The roads are fucking insane up here. The sheer density of people all packed in makes getting anywhere kind of hard, plus the roads are laid out as if planned on a drunken dare. On the bright side, I'm learning my way around and kind of know how to get to arafel's place. It does fucking rock having two of my formerly long-distance best friends within driving (or yelling) distance.

It doesn't feel like home. It feels like it's just something I'm doing somewhere else for a while. But a lot of life is like that, I think.

I think most people know I was planning to move to New Jersey at the end of September. That's been moved up a bit to, um, next week. As you can imagine, I've had a few moments (...hours) of being fucking freaked out by this, and thank dog for the comforting words of fadingembers, arafel, and imre_nico, but I am feeling better now. I do NOT want to jinx this, but since yesterday I've talked to a couple of temp agencies that were encouraging about getting work for me as well as had one preliminary phone interview for an internship (went great) and had a request for another.

So. I'm maintaining.

So the reading was lovely. Mom and Dad and Uncle Ron and Aunt Mary Ellen came up for it. I was fourth out of five readers and was a bit nervous, but not too much. I'd originally planned on reading the short story and a few poems, but everyone else was going so fast only only taking ten or fifteen minutes out of the theoretically-allotted twenty so I decided to just go for the story. Wendell (a prof and head of the creative writing program) gave me the most touching introduction. I'd write it down for posterity but a) I can't remember the whole thing an b) no one would care, really. But he was very complimentary about my writing and about its versatility--he mentioned that the two stories I workshopped didn't seem to be written by the same author. (Yes, that's a good thing) Also that the dead baby story gave him goosebumps.

Squee.

( Look! It's me! And the head of whoever was sitting in front of Dad. )

The actual reading of the story went well. I wasn't too monotone and I only stumbled once. I've received a few compliments since then from attendees I've passed on campus, so it seems I can score this one as a hit, not a miss! And then the girl who went after me read a hilarious story called McCourage. I might e-mail her and ask for a copy because is truly was teh funneh.

The rest of the weekend was fun if sodden. In keeping with the craziness of Ohio weather traditions, eighty degree days segued into a deluge on Friday and Saturday and big thick puffy snow all day Sunday. Bah. sarcasticval came down to see our friend Jay at the University Film Organization's event. He was here as a fancypants guest speaker since he's successfully transitioned to LA. (And he's worked on Veronica Mars, too. What is with me knowing people who give me this weird two-degree separation from the bestest show this season?) He's met a fair few celebrities and I questioned him further.

Me: So is Lindsay Lohan a ho?
Jay: *pause, reluctant regret* Yeaaaah...

He also did work on Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Me: So are Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie doin' it?
Jay: I want to say yes.

Ah, pointless celebrity gossip. It puts the lotion in the basket.

Later Val and I headed out to the mall in Perrysburg and I got a copy of FFX (played it, but want to actually own it) for twelve bucks. They're selling FF X-2 for ten bucks. Go figure.

Sunday was pretty calm. Val departed, I played a bunch of City of Heroes, I went to visit Abby and jester_x and their adorable new kitty Tink, who is a TOTAL CUDDLEWHORE. My kinda cat, yo. Tonight I'm finishing up my final project for Rodney's class. It's going pretty well; I'll post thumbnails or something here when it's done.

Things accomplished so far this week:

* Purchased three (3) tassels. Two for my two degrees (I EARNED THEM AND I AM GOING TO WEAR THEM BOTH DAMMIT) and the souvenir tassel that comes with the graduation package. The souvenir tassel is much prettier than the brown one (for Bachelors of Fine Arts) and the drab/gold one (for Bachelor of Science in Technology). Drab isn't even a color!

* Purchased one cap, one gown, and the rest of the stuff that comes in the graduation package. Alumni mug, decal, keychain...if I were a more suspicious-minded person, I'd think they're trying to push us into the "proud alumnus" camp in order to get money out of us when we have some. Nah, that can't be it.

* Established that I will in fact be receiving two diplomas, not just one with both degrees listed. This is worth its own bullet point because I don't want to end up with one more pretty frame than I need. Those mothers are expensive.

* Turned in my thesis. Now it's just waiting to be bound. So hey, my first book! Kinda! Because I am teh s ukc with titles and I couldn't think of a better Jesus-thesis pun than "Personal Thesis", which reads more like my lack of imagination than like a reference to Depeche Mode, so I adapted one of Casey's ideas and decided to pun a candy brand instead. So I called it "No Wrong Way to Read a Thesis". That's how you can tell it's great literature.

And just for the hell of it, the most smartass poem in the thing: ( Cut for those allergic to poetry )

Actually, I find this meme quite interesting. It's cool to learn what you guys have done. Everybody post!

Ten things I've done that you probably haven't
1. Won my court at the district tennis tournament in high school and was awarded the Most Valuable Player Award. This is probably the accomplishment I am most proud of in my entire life.
2. Took 11 years of ballet class, 2 years of tap, and 2-3 years of jazz, I forget.
3. Won first prize in my 5th grade science fair
4. Was awarded my high school diploma by my father
5. Won the position of head field commander in marching band, beating out people who'd been working at it a couple of years (but deferred it until senior year)
6. Toured the inside of a video game production studio
7. Flown a timezone away to meet members of an internet cult at age 18
8. Graduated with two degrees in two entirely different fields of study at the same time Okay, this one happens in May.
8. Met Anne M. Martin, author of the Babysitters Club books. My youthful self was thrilled.
9. Won an AMV contest with my first video
10. Held the all-time record score for calculator Tetris at my high school

I am teh captain of the carpet ship!

So today I finally saw the results for Ohayocon's AMV contest, at least according to a poster on animemusicvideos.org's forums. Hallelujah won both the Drama category and Best in Show.

....eeeeeeeh!

I know it's not like I was up against the same kind of competition as, say, Otakon, but it's still pretty bitchin' to know that people thought you were the best of what was there. There were some videos that I liked a lot, too. And also I'm shallow. So, whee! Oh, and the icon is from fadingembers. Instead of practicing it myself, I outsource my narcissism! (Just kidding, sweetie. I think it is omg totallie cute. Now we're icon twins!