blackiestark

• I've been going to the gym very, very regularly. Even when it means going three days in a row. Instead of sitting at the computer, I'll drag my ample tush down to 92nd street and work out. I usually do cardio ~3 days a week and then on Wednesdays I do this incredibly difficult, upside-down, pretzel-twisting Vinyasha yoga class before chemistry class. I'm still not sure which one is more challenging.
  I guess part of my motivation is that I'm going to that wedding in 2 weeks, but really, there's something very satisfying about it anyway. I'm sore today, and I love it. Besides, I can check my email on my phone! And Facebook!!
  
  Oh, and funnily, last night a girl came in on her cell and was like "Yea, and I'm going to the gym instead of doing that paper that I have to write so I don't fail out of school!!" and I laughed, and somehow felt better. I may be a big booch failure, but I'm not alone.
  
  
• I finally bit the bullet and got someone into my apartment to clean it and noranac is coming on Friday to help me unpack. Yay! Unpacking will be so nice, and not having to pull my clothes from inside a box will be such a change. When people go on a treasure hunt, they're usually not looking for clean underwear. They're sometimes looking for dirty! But it does definitely put an adventure-spin on things.
  Seriously, though, when I came home last night to find my kitchen and bathroom and living room all shiny and clean, it rocked.
  
  
• I'm going to a concert tonight! Schoolwork be damned! Pink Martini, at the Tilles Center. Yes, I could have seen them at Avery Fisher Hall but I prefer smaller venues. So we're going to Long Island, Adam, Micah, Alex and I. Woo! It should be fun.
  
  
• I got this supercompetitive internship at the Museum of Natural History. I officially have a staff badge again, and secret elevator access, and employee cafeteria munchability, and more importantly, lovely science-type things to put on my CV. It's a fantastic opportunity, doing DNA analysis on polar mammals to test their changing fitness in a climate of global warming, and I just can't wait to dig in!
  Does this mean I have less free time? Yea. But I'll parse through it all somehow.
  
  
• Did I mention I'm going to Colombia (the country) in 10 days? Do you want a postcard? Comment here! (comments are screened)
  
  
• Tell me something that makes you happy! Or a secret! It's Thursday, the week is almost over, and I'm trying to stave off my peaking anxiety.
  
  

 I wanted to specifically thank everyone who commented on my last entry.  Not only was it nice to know that I still had friends that care, but that other people who've made the reverse culture shock transition have gone through the same thing was somehow comforting.

Things have felt like drudgery, but since airing them out, I've at least felt more at peace. I got a LOT of work done over the weekend (though nowhere near what I wanted to/needed to get done) and arrived at class this morning, bright and early for the 8am-ness, only to discover that it was cancelled.

But I took it well, and since I aired out my strife, I've been handling the bumps a little better.

Some of my funny/previously stress-inducing vignettes:

On the train ride down to Maryland, in the packed train I sat down next to a lonely bag. I figured its owner was in the toilet, or on line at the cafe car.  I didn't become alarmed until the train had already made its first stop in New Jersey, but when the Jerseyans entered the train, I let them know that the seat was, to my knowledge, taken.

This guy in the seat in front of me turned around and said "Stop lying you cunt! Just move your fucking bag and let him sit down"

Oooch!  Seriously? I explained to him that it really wasn't my bag, and that I presumed someone to be sitting there, but the jock-face who was standing in the aisle moved the bag into the overhead and sat down.  He was cranky too, complaining loudly to his (?) girlfriend on the phone that he was sitting "next to some bitch whose stuff was everywhere."

I tapped him on the shoulder and explained that No, really, it wasn't my bag, but he just got all huffy that I was "eavesdropping"

Finally, the conductor came by and I let him know about the bomb bag that had been in the seat next to me. He checked it, and saw that it was a crewmember's bag.  The crewmember, a "sassy" woman came over and started to sass me when she thought I'd moved her bag.

But of course, I sold out the jerks sitting in front of me and next to me.  And did she let them HAVE it!  The other conductor started yelling at the guy next to me, saying that had the bag been a bomb, he would have endangered us all!

I felt very vindicated.

Also, I did not lose my wallet again.

On Saturday, I tried to boot up the newly-hard-drived laptop that I'd picked up at the Apple Store on Friday.  The machine seemed to be working sort of okay on the train ride down.  But on Saturday, it seemed to have forgotten that it HAD a hard drive.

Calls to Apple Technical Support were fruitless.  (Remember when Apple had really great customer service and people in tech support who weren't just reading from a manual in an indiscernable accent?)

I called the store directly, looking for the guy who'd helped me before and who told me to call him if anything else went wrong.  After having to pseudo-fight with the girl on the phone that insisted that Geniuses Were Not Allowed to Use the Phone, she put the guy on the phone, and he asked me nicely to come back to the Apple Store, and that this time they were going to replace my motherboard.

Why didn't they do that the last time, instead of just band-aiding it with another hard drive?  Who really knows, but I made a point of saying that I have enough shit to do without having to pitch a tent in the Apple Store and live there indefinitely while they try every option that is not d) Replacing my Computer with one that actually works.

But I still laughed about it.  My art was appreciated, too, but I didn't get to make any more:

                                 
Fat Brown Bear                                                                   Fat Purple Dragon


Yes, they're both fat.  And it makes them cuter.

I'm talking with the Chem Lab techs tonight.  And, despite class being cancelled, I showed up at Swahili this morning ontime and with all of the work prepared and finished.

I also had an interview for an AWESOME internship that reinvigorated my faith in myself on Friday, as a genetics tech at the Museum of Natural History, studying changing genetic fitness in arctic mammals as a result of global warming. I think I nailed the interview, so we'll hope that that pans out.

Never can have too many good things on your resume.

Gotta go up front.

A lot of people spent the early parts of January making posts about their New Year's Resolutions.  They tacked on sentiments about the previous year, and regrets they had that they intended to amend in the coming year.

I intend to make no such post, because I feel like my 2007 speaks for itself.  It was filled with intense happinesses (yes, plural) and a tremendous feeling of growth as I learned what, exactly, it was that I needed to maintain my levels of happiness.

My only real regret was that I was unable to be completely happy in what should have been perfect situations. It caused rifts that I fear are irreparable.  But the loss that I feel at the lack of these people in my life is palpable.  They cannot be replaced, but since I cannot offer them what they truly wanted, it is my loss to bear.

The new year has started on highs and lows.  

High:  I bought an apartment!  A real one, on 133rd and Broadway.  I was helped immensely by regyt, and while I'm still unpacking and have ever more furniture to buy and assemble, I feel more at home than I have in ages.  I'm also watching kinfae's cats until March or so, and it's nice to have furry friends in the house again.  I took rosefox's suggestions and bought the Furminator, and woa, does it loosen hairs! Watch out for kitties running away after being Furminated -- anything they rub up against will be furrier than they are.

High: I started a new job at Columbia library! I'm no longer a data slave in the basement;  I have a proper job at the circulation desk, regular hours and when things are quiet, time to do my homework, etc. The biggest improvement is the niceness of my boss.  She figured I'd balk at having to empty the collection bins and process the books inside.  But it was STILL better than working in the basement!

Low:  I've spent most of January being sick, and having a cough that wouldn't die.  I finally went to the doctor two weeks ago and discovered that the whooping cough I had back in Uganda in 2005 compromised my lungs and, when I get a little sniffle, my lungs will almost certainly get infected and make it hard for me to breathe/not cough.  That sucked to discover.  But, I'm handling it alright. I did end up missing most of the first week of school which is really no way to start off, but I believe that with a little extra work, I can get back on my feet.

And really, there have been no other lows.  I do miss socializing tremendously. I feel like I never see anyone (I don't) and since I have Swahili again at 8:30 am on Fridays, going to Montien is going to be difficult. I was too sick to go to Vericon, and too moving to go to Arisia.  Perhaps Lunacon?  Who all will be there?

I really think, though, that for a month at the beginning of a New Year that I'm remarkably lucky and doing incredibly well.  I've missed about a gazillion years of Livejournal, so if you have any new news, please tell me or link me!

Or if you'd like to make plans, let's do it! Come and see my new house!

redmilkwood

thegarlicbite

astralina

a) you haven't been outside in nearly two days

b) you're not sure whether the medication that is firm in its mandate to "not take more than one a day" thinks that a day has, in fact, passed, because we are not so sure.

s00j

catvalente