Like a broken record plays.

The Saga of the Mouse, part 2: Die Hard

Goodbye, evil vole.
Your presence was beginning to pall.
You had the guts to off yourself
with one dramatic fall.
You crawled out of the woodwork
and you'd crawl, yeah you would creep,
you ate out of the trashcan,
and you made me lose sleep.

And it seems to me you lived your life
as a torment to my own.
Never knowing when you'd come out
always made me frown.
And I am sorry that I knew you
For reals, I do not kid.
Gravity took you out long before
the rat poison ever did...

Thyroid? More like SIGHroid. (Get it?)

Methimazole tastes NASTY. I'm usually okay with taking medicine and I don't always need water when I'm swallowing pills (I almost never need water to be honest) so I figured that I would be okay doing the same with this anti-thyroid medicine.

It's the most amazing thing. This tiny little pill seems to expand to the exact size of your throat so that you can't get it down. At the same time, it fills your mouth with this horribly bitter flavor. And it's chalky. Also gross. It took me half a bottle of water to exorcise the taste.

I'm supposed to see the doctor again in four weeks to see how my thyroid hormone levels are. I'm also supposed to see the doctor immediately if I wake up feeling feverish and have a sore throat because it potentially means that all the white blood cells have left my body. Cool, huh?

On a side note, THERE IS STILL A MOUSE IN MY APARTMENT. I'm probably going to name him Harold.

The Saga of the Mouse, part 1: Here There Be Rodents

GUYS I HAVE A MOUSE IN MY APARTMENT. I saw it on Saturday night and my first reaction was to freak out, tell everyone I knew and then panic because the housing office isn't open on Sunday. It was a little sucker, running out from next to the refrigerator, staring at me malevolently for what seemed like hours, then scampering back. I immediately threw out every open food container in my cabinets... and fridge. I realized it may not have been the most rational reaction ever after my second trip to the dumpster.

On the way up to my apartment on the last trip, I saw my next door neighbor sitting on the stairs. Now, I was suspicious before this because it's a 20 year old boy who lives by himself... if it's a contest between myself, my right hand neighbor who I believe is gay and this guy, the natural inclination is to believe that he's the culprit that invited this demonic creature in the first place. I was right. I tentatively asked him, "Have you seen mice in your apartment?"
"Oh, yeah, don't worry about that," he said. "Someone let it get loose when they were feeding their snake.
"......"
"Was it a little one, hangs out in front of the refrigerator?"
" D= "
"Yeah, I've been trying to catch it. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but he woke me up one night running over my comforter. But don't worry about it, he won't hurt you."

Well, I did worry about it. I worried about it all day and called the office promptly on Monday. They sent someone over the same day and all I can tell the guy did was leave out a note that said "Please wait an appropriate amount of time to see if the pest control treatment worked." Well, what is the right amount of time? Because it's Wednesday AND I JUST SAW THE LITTLE SUCKER AGAIN.

But wait, let me tell you about Monday night. I was lying in bed, about to go to sleep, when I heard a strange noise. I was listening to some music at the time so I stopped the song and waited. Nothing. I turned the music back on and there it was again. I stopped the song entirely and walked to the kitchen, to see, perhaps, if the epitome-of-evil was running around the kitchen, training for any marathons, making little roller coaster rides so he could open an amusement park called "Six Flags Over DANGIT I can't think of any good jokes because I have a freaking MOUSE in my apartment". Nothing. I went back to bed. This time I heard some random squeaks and rustling again. I isolated the sound.... IT WAS IN MY AIR VENT.

The next thirty minutes were spent with all the lights on in the apartment, sitting about four feet away from the vent and debating whether I should open it to investigate. You know how, in the horror movie, the dumb person always goes to see the cause of that strange sound in the attic? I FINALLY understand. It's not like opening the vent would have done me any good. I wouldn't have seen any salacious scene that I could have used to blackmail the mouse into leaving my residence. But all I could think of was whether I should open the vent so... the mouse could jump on me and eat my face? So tempting, brain! I still wonder how I managed to talk myself out of it.

I don't really know what sort of activity went on last night because I was so tired from not sleeping, from imagining the little rat jihad that was slowly gaining more and more support ever since news of my use of chemical warfare has leaked, that I just passed out. It probably helped that in order to get away from this hellish houseguest I actually went out and exercised*! Maybe I should let him stay, at least until he charges up some outrageous phone bill or leaves his crap in the kitchen.

Oh wait. He already does that. Literally.

My coworker advocates taking matters in my own hands and buying the strongest poison I can find. I'm partial to the idea, except for the fact that I kind of want to use this as an excuse to bring some cats up here to hang out with. I get lonely sometimes, you know? And while mice are okay at listening, they really suck at giving advice.

Well, advice that doesn't involve jumping on their hosts and eating their freaking faces off.



*Geez guys, do you realize that it took me three minutes to spell "exercise"? I tried "excersize" and "exersice" before I gave up and used spell check.

Face it, people, some of you are average. In fact, most of you are average. It's kind of what the word means, isn't it? Deal with it, live it, embrace it, but for heaven's sake; stop trying to be eccentric. Yeah, it's cute for the first twelve times or so, but after that? There's even a wikipedia article. Read it. Avoid it.

Granted, that's the girl stereotype. I guess the boy equivalent is the moody, emo kid. My gosh, can't these people just be happy? And not the fake, giggly, ridiculous happy, but the kind of quiet, calm, I like to read books happy? Maybe the moral of the story is

JUST CALM DOWN ALREADY.

First, go to the library. It's the place where they have lots of books, and you get to take them home for free for a week or so, and bring it back. Walk up and down the aisles for awhile, then look carefully and pick a book. Then? Read it. So this may be the English teacher talking, but come on. Practically everything you're thinking? It's been thought already. And then someone wrote about it. That doesn't mean you have to stop trying to be original, but just stop taking it so seriously. Originality is difficult. Realize that. It might be the first attempt at originality that has gone through your brain so far, but with constant effort, it just might not be the last.

Next, and I realize that this might be difficult for some people but give it a shot anyway--don't be a jerk. I actually heard someone today question the need for compassion. It's appalling. I'm appalled. This is my appalled face. >=O
You don't even have to dress it up in fancy words. Be nice even if there's no reason for it. Be nice even if there's no reward for it. Just be nice.

Mogi-ogi-o by Heidi · 365 Project

Mogi-ogi-o by Heidi · 365 Project

53%

I think I'm starting to get carpal tunnel. I am definitely sleeping less than I am accustomed. I am currently trying to balance work responsibilities, a social life, One Act practice, writing a novel and playing Skyrim. Thank goodness it's Thanksgiving next week. I'm hoping to knock out the majority of the thing then and finish early because I know that the end of the six weeks' grading period is going to be mad.

Weirdly enough, my bf has started calling shopping carts 'buggies' and it makes me want to punch him. I hope he stops. They're shopping carts. Buggies are something you ride across sand dunes. Buggies are something you pull with a horse. You do not take a buggy with you as you go grocery shopping. They're also not trolleys or trams or whatever the heck other naming mockeries people have made for this simple shopping aid. Also, calling something a name that's different from what everyone else calls it does not make you look interesting and unique, it makes you look like a pretentious dolt. Don't say 'cheers' to end a phone call or in place of 'Thank you' unless you're from someplace that still has a king or queen.

That's just daft*.






*See what I did there? How do you like it? Hm? 

Ten percent!

I'm ten percent finished with my NaNoWriMo novel. I am amazed at my fantastic literary prowess as I write, the way my fingertips flash across the keys, the way the words stack up in regimented lines that suddenly become poetry--oh, who am I kidding. This novel will be worse than Twilight. But at least I'm working on it. I'm really determined to finish this month and become a "winner". Winning is important, or at least that's what I hear. And no, I'm not going to make any Charlie Sheen jokes, you people can do that for yourselves.

Lazy.

I miss you most in the morning.

 

I miss you most in the morning.
Most every morning, I wake up thinking I could call,
I could come visit, I could come running--
we could relive it.

But when I think of all that we've been through,
going back to you seems such a foolish thing to do.
I hope you know that even if I don't,
I wanted to.

All those words you said at the ending
were pretty revealing and I can't forget them.
All those ways we missed at connecting, despite all our trying,
it always came back to what I couldn't give you.

So when I think of starting up again or trying to be friends,
it seems impossible to do.
That even if we can't, I wanted to.

Who knows why two people perfectly aligned
should ever have to find themselves apart?
I'll never understand my heart.

I miss you most in the morning.
Most every morning, I wake up crying.

 

 

 

Even if I Don't.

Rachael Yamagata

Update.

Well, while it seems like forever since I've updated this, it appears to only have been a month and four days. Could have been worse. Things have been busy and with school starting back up, all I've been doing is working, grading and doing my best not to fall asleep too early in the evening. That hasn't always been successful, as last Monday's 13 hour night's sleep is evidence. But give me credit for trying people.

Today it was easy to stay up til now, because it was Labor Day and I didn't have to work. Also because I took a nap. Went hiking around the Fort Worth Nature Center and I really wanted to see a buffalo (bison? I don't know) but I didn't. I did see a prairie dog, which is not at all the same thing.

Also, notice how terribly brown and dry everything is. Texas has been suffering from the most ridiculous drought ever and basically everything is catching on fire. I was reading about the terrible fires around Austin, and I know that Possum Kingdom had another surge of fires last week and gosh, people. Just stop burning things already. Even little things.

But the weather today was fantastic. It was cool and I think that if it did make it over 90 degrees, it wasn't by much. It's sad that I'm excited by 90 degree weather, but after days and days of 105 and 108, 90 degrees is immeasurably more pleasant.

Also pleasant, my classes this year. I'm not going to get into much detail but I do feel like I will enjoy my second year of teaching. First years are always difficult, and I'm glad I didn't end up with a job over the summer because by the time that last bell rang in May, I felt like a mushy pulp that had just been poured from a blender. It's taken an entire summer of lazing around to get over it and I was still bracing myself that first day, waiting for that one class that I just knew would be the worst.class.ever. So far, I'm still waiting and even though it's only been two weeks, I'm holding out hope that the kids stay the way they've been so far.

My birthday is in a week, too, which I guess can be pleasant or not depending on how you look at it. While the idea of aging isn't terribly fun, at least I'm still under 30. Also, I feel like this year's birthday will be better than last year's, which was celebrated by splurging on pizza, because I was too poor to afford a real splurge. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do like pizza, but not as my sole birthday extravagance. The boyfriend's birthday is the day before mine, so we'll have a weekend of celebrating, and by celebrating, I mean probably watching Bizarre Foods on Netflix and making something yummy for dinner. And having cake. And eating it, too.

Yours are the sweetest eyes.

It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside.
I'm not one of those who can easily hide.
I don't have much money, but boy if I did,
I'd buy a big house where we both could live

So excuse me forgetting but these things I do.
See I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue.
Anyway the thing is, what I really mean, 

yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen.

And you can tell everybody, this is your song.
It may be quite simple but now that is done
I hope you don't mind. 

I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
how wonderful life is now you're in the world.

If I was a sculptor but then again, no,
Or a girl who makes potions in a traveling show.
I know it's not much but it's the best I can do.
My gift is my song and this one's for you.

And you can tell everybody, this is your song.
It may be quite simple but now that is done
I hope you don't mind. 

I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
how wonderful life is now you're in the world.

So my trend of liking covers continues. This version is different enough, and I like Ellie Goulding's voice. It's sweet. Approachable. Kind of like how I wish I could sing if I could sing, but alas, I can't. 

In other news, I have exactly two weeks left of vacation, and then in-service begins. Tomorrow I'm not exactly free either, since I've signed up to attend a workshop given by the region. The good news is that attendance will count towards my comp days later in the year. The bad news is that it's in Azle and I have to drive 35 minutes to get there so I'll probably have to wake up super duper early. For the first time since May. Not counting the weekends where I go biking. But I don't really know how well getting up early helps in regards to cycling in the heat, considering it's so freaking hot here. It was 98 degrees at 10:00 this morning. This whole week, in fact, looks like it's going to be super hot, which is fantastic, since I'm moving at the end of it.

Yes, I get to move to my one-bedroom, after a whole year of having entirely too much space on my hands. I'm excited for the lower rent and to get away from the loud upstairs neighbors, since I'll become an upstairs neighbor myself, but it's supposed to be 108 on Thursday. 108! Or 106, depending on which weather source you use, but either way it makes me sad. Already. 

Went to Austin with the boyfriend, which was fun. I'm  tossing in some photos from there so that it looks like my summer vacation was entirely more eventful than it actually was. I'm not complaining, because I relaxed the heck out of myself and I'm pretty sure the next 10 months will get me all wound up again. Plus, I'm hoping for a lot of fun and exciting things to happen during this next school year. And then next summer... don't get me started on next summer! (It's going to be fantasmic!)

Life

I wish everyone in the world would live by one simple rule.


Don't be a jerk.


It's so easy!

Knees, knees.

Well my knees are shiny and newly fleshed, so the world is looking like a much better place these days. The boyfriend and I were hoping I'd be all patched up in time to make the Parker County Peach Pedal the Saturday after my fall, but Thursday was the last day to sign up and I wasn't sure if I would have made it and we decided to forget about it for this year. My knees were still pretty painful up until Friday night, and then they turned itchy. Soooo painfully itchy. I took off all remaining bandages right there and this past week they dried out and flaked and itched and this weekend I was back in the saddle and making another go at the Trinity River Trails.

After 13 miles or so, I got a flat tire.

It's beginning to appear that I'm not meant to get past the 13 mile mark on a bicycle.

Fortunately, the boyfriend had brought things to fix the flat. Unfortunately, he was out of CO2 to air the tire back up and he rode back to get his car and retrieve me while I began the lonely walk of shame towards the park. Several people rode by and asked if I was okay and I responded in the affirmative. Bicyclists are so nice! Then a man coming in the opposite direction rode over and fixed the flat right up. His name was Eugene and he had ridden for 56 miles so far. I was impressed. After the tire was fixed and aired up, I rode to the edge of the park and watched people toil up the incline to the path over the river. Hills, how I loathe thee.

Decidedly less independent.

Happy Fourth of July, peoples. Mine has been not so great. The amount of pain that has result from what is basically skinned knees has been phenomenal. It's like a sharp, shooting, stabbing, biting constant whenever I stand or sit or lay down for the amount of time it takes for my skin to grow accustomed to whichever way my knees are bending. Boyfriend calls it road rash. I say it's more like my knees are little heads that have been scalped. Except one knee was scalped twice, so maybe it was a conjoined twin or something.

The backstory is pretty simple. I'm clumsy as heck and we decided to go biking on the Trinity River Trails in Fort Worth. We had been there the week before and had a lovely time, going about 13 miles. This time, I decided we should try for 18 miles--9 there and 9 back. The first half was fantastic, though I do have a terribly difficult time going up ramps. On the way back, we had gone about... oh 3 or 4 miles when some people passed on the left. They let me know they were passing, but I still panicked and ended up going off the pavement. Now, this happened when we were alongside the river, the bank appeared steep and I started panicking some more. The people who were going to pass were yelling at me to stay off the concrete but all I could think of was the terrific splash I'd make when I fell into the river and decided, heck, I should go on the concrete. I did not make it, to say the least and have assorted injuries to show for my lapse in judgement. A bump and bruise on my head (though the helmet did the job it was made for and kept me from, you know, dying), some scrapes on my hip and shoulder, a few cuts on my hands, a scrape on my elbow, three giant scrapes on my knee--two on the left and one on the right and what is probably a bruised rib and what I believe is at least a cracked toe on my left foot. My neck has been sore, my side has been sore, it hurts to laugh or cough, and I walk with a limp.

But the worst has been the knees.

So far, Tegaderm, Johnson and Johnson Advanced Healing Bandages and nonstick gauze with plenty of Neosporin has been tried. The Tegaderm has been the most effective, but unfortunately, since the little skinless patches of flesh tend to leak constantly, the Tegaderm falls off. The Johnson and Johnson bandages were applied next and they soak up whatever it is that's oozing out of my bared flesh, but they also fall off easily. The nonstick gauze? NOT NONSTICK. I saw that one was peeling off and when I looked closer, saw that it was stuck to the wound it had explicitly promised not to stick to. I went ahead and took all the pads off and they had all stuck to my skin (or lack thereof). Pulling it off resulted in pulling off little bits and pieces. It hurt. It hurt a lot.

So right now I have made do with a combination of all three and will probably end up going to the store for something else tomorrow, which goes against my original plan to stay in bed all day and hope that my knees magically regrew skin by Tuesday. It's been two days, is that so much to ask?

Ow.

Cycling is dangerous, but people are kind. After I busted, I had a group of 5 or 6 people around me, trying to help. I broke my helmet in three places and have a bruise on my forehead.

Skein of skin is all too few to keep me from you.

Unable to sleep, due to upstairs neighbors stomping around as well as upstairs neighbor's dogs stomping around. I've had this song in my head all day since driving home and hearing it on the radio. Or rather, on the CD that I burned that I listen to so that's kind of like being on the radio? 

Anyway, I love love love the Decemberists. I got to see them in concert a few months ago, and hope to see them in concert again and again. Just like I like reading books over and over. And watching episodes of Spongebob Squarepants even though I've seen them maybe a dozen times already.

Can you blame me? Patrick Star is awesome. And that Gary... so wry.

Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet, a sweetheart left behind
far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas.
That's where my true love lies

Look for me when the sun-bright swallow sings upon the birch bough high.
But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils all a'chew upon your bones so dry.

But when the sun breaks to no more bullets in Battlecreek.
Then will you make a grave? For I will be home then. Then...

When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee made a seam to hem me in.
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless, got my heart right pierced by a pin.

But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas--all the bellies and the bones and the bile?
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren and my own belly big with child.


But when the sun breaks to no more bullets in Battlecreek.
Then will you make a grave? For I will be home then. Then...

Stems and bones and stone walls, too, could keep me from you.
Skein of skin is all too few to keep me from you

But oh, my love, though our bodies may be parted, though our skin may not touch skin.
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow.
I will come on the breath of the wind.


Yankee Bayonet
Decemberists

Drama drama drama

I just finished watching episode 12 of 내게 거짓말을 해봐, also known as Lie to Me. I am a big fan of Korean dramas and have had pretty good luck so far in picking out good ones to watch. So now, in a burst of remembrance, I'm gonna go over my favorite dramas that I've watched. Not any that I haven't watched, because that would be weird, wouldn't it?

Watch Episode 12 of Lie to Me. Seriously! I tried embedding the player in the post, but ah. It didn't work. And I might have broken something.

The first drama I watched was My Lovely Sam Soon, which was a great way to get into the whole drama-watching field. It was short, only  16 episodes, which I find is ideal for me. If you go over 16 episodes, I start to lose interest, or the plot begins to resemble something closer to American Soap Operas, with someone falling off a cliff or slipping into a coma or something. Also, Sam Soon was fantastic because of Daniel Henney, who I love. He's my secret husband. (Please don't tell my boyfriend.)

After Sam Soon, I watched Spring Waltz, basically because it also had Daniel Henney in it. This one was a little too melodramatic for me, and also the fact that Daniel never gets the girl becomes irksome because... hello, have you seen him? How in the world could he not get the girl? Also, if I just spoiled the drama for you. Um. Sorry.

The drama watching period gets hazy here, probably because I saw a lot, or started to see a lot and then stopped. I think the next one that I watched all the way through was Boys Before Flowers. This drama was ridiculously popular, and I liked the fact that I could discuss what was happening with my students. This one fell prey to the "more is less" syndrome, and started to get a little ridiculous halfway through. I think the drama people realized that they were in the midst of a national phenomenon and decided to get as much out of it as possible. There were Boys Before Flowers things everywhere. And I do admit, I bought some F4 stickers. I excused it as a purchase for my students, but I did take the best stickers out first and put them in my organizer. I really liked Lee Min Ho in this, probably because he was tall, which resulted in me watching

Personal Preference, and yes, I realize that these are out of chronological order. They're not in the order of how I watched them either, but hey, it's cool, we can still be friends, right? ...right? I liked this drama, it was short, Son Ye Jin played a cute female character and Lee Min Ho remained tall. I can't stress enough the importance of the female character in the dramas. I mean, yeah, they're necessary because you can't really have a love story with just one guy. Well, you could but gross? But I digress. Geum Jan Di in Boys Before Flowers just got to be kind of annoying. Goo Hye Sun is adorable, but the way Jan Di was written eventually became really... not fun to watch. I don't much care for dramas that have contrived conflicts that could be easily remedied if one party talked to the other party. Personal Preference wasn't bad, and the story line was unusual because it dealt with *gasp* homosexuality which isn't such a common topic in Korea. As a friend told me, his adult student explained that they simply "don't have that here [in Korea]".

Which brings me to Coffee Prince, also unusual in that the female romantic lead dressed up (and looked) like a boy throughout most of the drama... and the male romantic lead fell in love with him. Her. Whatever. Yoon Eun Hye played the female lead well, and it was interesting to watch almost all of the male characters fall inexplicably for their "male" coworker, and then try to deal with what it meant. The writers never really answered what it meant. Maybe you're meant to fall in love with one personality, regardless of what that is housed in?

You're Beautiful also had the whole gender-bending phenomenon, and the whole straight man falling for another (seeming) man and questioning themselves. But this one is probably my favorite drama that I've watched. Park Shin Hye plays the female lead and her twin brother, and she was cute without getting too annoying, droopy, whatever. The male lead was Jang Geun Seok, and his character always wore eyeliner which was basically the hottest thing in the world. (Please don't tell my boyfriend.) The idea for the drama was there was a popular band led by Jang Geun Seok's character, but to add to their popularity, they brought another member into the group. Unbeknownst to the music label management, the additional member got a botched plastic surgery job and the man who recommended that brought in his twin sister to replace him until he could get the plastic surgery fixed. Fortunately, despite their gender differences, the twins looked and sounded exactly alike and the story goes on from there but I'm not going to get into it. The soundtrack for this drama was great and I may or may not (totally may) have favorited the last scene on youtube so that I could watch it whenever I wanted. Don't judge. You watch it, you're going to do the same thing.

Jang Geun Seok was also the male lead in Mary Stayed Out All Night, and he played a poor struggling musician who agreed to enter a fake marriage with a poor girl in order to keep her father from forcing her to marry his old friend's son. Moon Geun Young played the poor girl, and I really like her as an actress. Her voice is all raspy and cute. She was A Tale of Two Sisters, which was creepy but I watched it anyway.  I also always saw her on Mr. Pizza commercials. I liked Mr. Pizza. I also liked this drama a lot, too, though it did have several of those "Oh my gosh, talk to the other person already" instances, in which a lot of trouble (and probably several episodes) could have been avoided if someone would have just said something.



Moving on, Playful Kiss starred one of the actors from Boys Before Flowers. I actually watched it because it was recommended to me on Hulu, and I was so excited to see Korean dramas there that I started to watch it and got sucked in. Kim Hyun Joong was the spacy, perfect artist guy in Boys Before Flowers and he was kind of the same character here. The female lead was cute, she played her character well, but gosh, at this point I started to realize that there are way too many dramas with a perfect, rich man and an adorable but somehow flawed girl (she's usually poor, in this one she was dumb, too) that wins his heart through sheer persistence. Oh, and there's also going to usually be a boy that's consistently in love with the poor girl (though she never returns his feelings) and a perfect girl that the perfect boy wants before he decides to fall in love with the poor girl. Maybe these dramas are meant to give their audiences hope that they too will someday through sheer force of will cause a perfect, rich, handsome man to fall in love with them?


 Baker King, Kim Tak Gu did not have a perfect rich boy as the lead. Kim Tak Gu was cute but oh my gosh, so emotional. I started watching this with my mom on KBS last summer and then finished it online and every time Tak Gu cried (and oh my, did he cry a lot), I would get teary eyed. Or cry. When I told my mom about it, she said she did the same thing. This story was different, which is probably why I liked it. Tak Gu was poor, the female characters were poor-ish, the bad guy was rich but he wasn't really the bad guy except for the fact that he was totally awful and... well... you'd have to watch it to understand. Unfortunately, this sucker is long. 30 episodes. And it has a lot of those easy-to-fix conflicts that make you so annoyed because you're so tense but you can't stop watching anyway because you want everything to be okay and for Tak Gu to stop crying already. Gosh.

All of this leads me to the episode that I linked to in the beginning of this entry. So far, Lie to Me has been an enjoyable drama-watching experience. It's also got Yoon Eun Hye, but she's not a boy the whole time this time! She plays the hard-working, kind of quirky, down to earth girl and she lies about being married to a perfect rich guy. She never explicitly says she's married to Kang Ji Hwan's character, but people see them together and the rumor spreads and he finds out and gets mad and is going to sue her but she asks him to pretend to be married to her so that she can get revenge on her college friend who stole her first love and he finally agrees after some interference from his younger brother and then shenanigans ensue and I'm on episode 12. I don't know how it ends and if I did know, I wouldn't tell you anyway. So there. I like this drama so far because there isn't a super evil villain character, it's funny and Kang Ji Hwan's character basically gives me unrealistic expectations for boyfriendly behavior forever now. I realize the big cultural differences between Korean men and American men. And I would never ask my boyfriend to buy all the tickets to a concert I was organizing or to give up his own professional well-being in order to make me feel happy. But some of those other things aren't bad. Like asking your significant other to tell you about their day. Or surprising them at their home. Drinking bowls full of soju is optional. (You can totally tell my boyfriend some of this. Unless he's reading it himself. In which case... hi, honey.)

Anyway, there are several dramas that I'm leaving out. These are the ones that stuck with me so far, and most of them are really good. They're also valuable learning opportunities to be found in the viewing of these dramas. You can learn how to be a rich, snobby guy which will lead you to fall in love with a cute, persistent girl. You can learn how to say the equivalent of "You suck" in Korean. You can find scenes to look up and favorite on youtube so that you can watch them over and over again whenever you like. Or you can decide to do any of these things later and fall asleep because it's late and you're tired and it's been a long day. But you still have to watch at least one of these. You (or your girlfriend) will thank me for it after you decorate an entire park in tiny Christmas lights in order to apologize after a tiff with your significant other.

I could go anywhere with you.

I miss old Bright Eyes. I even miss folk-alternative-country Conor Oberst. I am not too enamored of 2011 Bright Eyes. Previously, if you had told me that a new Bright Eyes album was forthcoming and I wouldn't be listening to it within the first week, heck, the first day of release, I would have laughed and called you a liar. Bright Eyes was such a huge part of my life. I listened to almost the entire discography, on repeat, from... oh... 2004-2008. That was the music that got me through rocky breakups, rockier breakups, good days, bad days, job after job after job, fights and making up and, you know, life. I would listen driving home from work in Lubbock, and sitting around in my parent's dining room, and walking down the street to my apartment in Seoul. And now, as with everything else, it seems that I have moved on.

It does make me worry about the transient nature of the world. Well, not about the world, but about me. What if I'm fickle? I realize that change is a part of life, but it's weird. The people in high school that meant so much to me are barely a footnote in the annals* of my life. I've changed my favorite color three times, people. Three! I used to really dig blondes, but now am very much into brunettes. I formerly hated sour cream and now I think it's not so bad. Oh, and I have decided that, overall, Charles Dickens has a bad rep for being wordy, but he's a clever dude and I enjoy reading his books. That would have never been the case 10 years ago! What else has changed... I think I'm much less social than I was, but I like it. I enjoy going out and being active, and I'm still talkative, but I don't feel like I'm missing out if I'm not always around people. OH and I listen to NPR. A lot. And do crossword puzzles. Maybe it's just a natural part of getting old.

Summer vacation has been treating me well so far. I've settled the details on where I'll be living next year. The lease was up on my current place, but as it's a two bedroom and I'm only one person, I decided to go for something less... two-bedroom-y and settled upon a lovely one-bedroom apartment... across the street. I'll be moving after the first week in August, which will be exciting, since I am not going to try to get a rental car and am just going to take everything apart into pieces small enough to hopefully fit into my car. Did I mention I have a Ford Focus? They'll be REALLY small pieces. I don't have too much stuff so I don't think it'll take long.

I have read book upon book upon book. This evening I finished Scarlett, the sequel to Gone with the Wind. I've read both of the books before. I've actually read Gone with the Wind a lot. I always feel sad for Scarlett at the end, though, so I decided to re-read the sequel just to be able to remember the characters with a happy ending. I'm one of those people that like books to have a very in-depth denouement, so that the tension from the conflict of the story can be alleviated. I want at least a few chapters after the climax... and an epilogue. One that doesn't raise questions or introduce a new conflict for a new story. I guess that's childish, but I want to know the characters that I've spent so much time on have a happy ending and lasting peace. The lasting peace part is important, anyone can have a happy ending*, it just depends on how long that lasts.

Hmm, what else. My refrigerator broke and I got it fixed. I got my recommendation for my standard teaching certificate, which is awesome. I spent a lovely weekend with my boyfriend and we went cycling. I am kind of scared to go fast on a bike, since I realize that it's easy to fall and hard to grow new skin, but it was fun. This morning we went on the Trinity River trails in Fort Worth and I managed to go just over 13 miles. Of course, my legs are tired and my butt is sore now, but it was pretty worth it. The scenery was lovely, the company was grand, and best of all? I didn't fall down.

OH and then there's the baklava. We went to Chadra Mezza in Fort Worth and I had baklava, which I love. I've only eaten baklava a few times, so when the waiter at the restaurant asked us about dessert and mentioned that, I got really excited. The plate came with a few different kinds of baklava and a little bowl of ice cream. The ice cream tasted of nutmeg and cinnamon with a bite of cayenne at the end. It was probably the best food in the entire world. Or close.

 

Hmm. I went to the Amon Carter museum on Friday morning, too, with my coworker.  I hadn't really thought I'd like it much, but it was nice. I'm not a big fan of Western art, and there was a great deal of it, but there were also some interesting paintings and sculptures that were more my style. Also, I just like going to museums. They're usually pretty nice, air conditioned and free. Or cheap. I like free and cheap.

So I think that's it. I'm going to visit my parents this week and see the Rodeo Parade. My mom wants me to help at the public library's centennial celebration, which will probably amount to ladling punch or passing out cookies, but hey, as long as it's air conditioned. My standards for fun things to do lower considerably when it's triple digits heat outside.

*Oh grow up.

*Oh, grow up!

Awake.

It's so hard to go to sleep and wake up at a reasonable hour when there's nothing forcing me to get up in the morning, and nothing to prevent me from napping away the afternoon. I thought I did alright today, since I had left out the whole napping part. I was even feeling slightly lethargic a little after midnight. I thought that, for sure, once I crept under the covers, I would have no trouble falling asleep. But then I kept seeing flashes of light in the window, and once I realized that the rumbling I was hearing sporadically was thunder, well... then I had to get up and roll up my car windows. Then I decided to go ahead and take out the trash. And now I realize that I'm just not very tired. I'm not sure what to do about this. I could go back to bed and toss and turn and try to sleep. Or I could read a book. I could watch some TV on the internet. I could knit an afghan. I could paint a portrait. I could learn to tango. The possibilities are endless!

Gloom.

Today was not a great day. I think a lot of factors went into that. But there weren't enough good things that happened to alleviate the bad things and thus, by the laws of math, today = not good day.

Take that, people who say I am bad at math.

Also known as the world.

10:01 pm.
Just gave all my parent's animals a bath. One dog and two cats. If I'm going to have a rough day, at least three other entities will have one, too.