forestcelt

I have arrived safely in England, and have been here for two weeks. I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed by the experience, but my excitement has yet to subside. I just hope that my sleep habits will straighten out a bit, since I seem to still be running on US/Midwest time, which may cause problems in the near future. Strangely, I have yet to eat fish and chips.I plan to rectify this in short order.

More importantly, Austin is safely back in the US. Everyone's extremely relieved and excited. This will be the first time that he's back and I won't be there to see him, which makes me quite sad. All the same, I'm glad he's back, and I know that he'll enjoy having some time off.

Seven days.

Months of preparation and application submissions, followed by a period of acute nervousness as I awaited an answer, and it's finally here:




I will be starting graduate school in the autumn, and said graduate school will be in England. I'm incredibly excited about this, and now have to get going on my student visa and all the other preparations.

Austin is en route to Iraq for the second time. He’s of the opinion that this tour will be better than his first due to the fact that his unit is serving under different superior officers (at least one of whom, apparently, uses common sense, unlike many others). I had a long cry last night after talking to him on the phone and could hardly sleep.

Writing a research proposal for my graduate school applications has been like running into a brick wall. Why is it that when I’m at college, I can write a twenty page essay in under twelve hours, but at home it takes me two fucking months to write a two page proposal? I think I need to chug a Mountain Dew and eat something full of sugar and caffeine and go to town on this proposal.

I graduated on Saturday. The ceremony was dull, but went quickly, and I'm glad to be home. Now I can join the legion of college graduates who are working jobs far beneath their degree level. So I have a Bachelor's degree, graduated Cum Laude, and will be working a minimum wage job until I start graduate school. Joy and rapture.

Besides that, I'm home and relaxing for a few days. I spent three hours chipping my car out of the block of ice that's been encasing it for the past week. After that I curled up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate and Chingles laying on my feet, and I watched Ronin Warriors for the rest of the afternoon. Overall, it's been a pretty good day.

Apparently I'm experiencing stress induced health problems again, which isn't making life very fun. Hopefully they'll be gone once I graduate in a week and a half. This leads to the subject of graduate schools. I've decided not to even bother sending applications to American schools; I'm applying to several UK universities instead. My mother has already started the expected chorus of "But why don't you just stay at Iowa State for your master's studies?" Actually, she's been saying that for months, originally trying to dissuade me from transferring to a university in a different state. Now she's at it again. I understand that she's still trying to get over the shock of Austin being halfway across the country (when he's not in Iraq), but I really don't appreciate the way she's trying to persuade me to change my plans and go to a university that simply doesn't have a good master's program for History simply because she's clingy.

Bah, I don't like being angsty (irony?). I'm hoping that after all my essays are done, as well as my finals and graduate applications, I can Christmas break and not have so much shit going on.

It would seem that Otaku Omaha 2009 is going to be held on the weekend of the Fourth of July. Many staff members and previous attendees are of the opinion that this is a bad idea, and I agree. It's a shame; Becca and I really wanted to host a World of Warcraft panel next year, but I don't even know if attendance will be possible.

Other than that....only a week until Wrath of the Lich King is released. I finally managed to reserve a copy. And Quantum of Solace, the newest Bond movie, is coming to theaters the next day. I'm fangirling out over both releases. ^_^

To conclude............yay,entertainment!

Yay, another week of feeling tired and stressed out. The Celtic Dance Society is having trouble with a quarrelsome member who constantly tries to “take over” the lessons and has insulted nearly all the officers and several members as well. Last week, she had the nerve to insult my brother when we were at a coffee shop, and the person sitting next to me literally grabbed my hand to keep me from punching the bitch. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t have minded getting thrown the fuck out of Stomping Grounds or any other shop in Ames and never being allowed back in, because the satisfaction of knocking her to the ground would have made it well worth it. The others officers were furious when they heard what she said, and everyone is in agreement that something needs to be done. I need to arrange a meeting, which is always difficult due to difficult schedules. Joy.

In other news, I sparked a discussion/argument in one of my classes today when the professor overheard me saying that I found the book we’re reading to be highly inaccurate during group discussion, and asked me why I thought that once the class discussion commenced. I told her exactly why I felt the book was inaccurate, and the rest of class was spent discussing whether or not what I said was true. I’ve been told many times over that I should just keep my head down, do my assignments, and get my diploma without making waves. Fuck that. When an author claims that one in ten women were accused of witchcraft in sixteenth century England, I have to take issue.

On a more upbeat note, I've found that I enjoy Bleach. That is all.

Andrea and I needed to buy some groceries last night, which meant a bus ride and short walk. As soon as we stepped off the bus, we could smell a wood burning stove in one of the nearby houses. As it turns out, both of us love that scent because it brings back many childhood memories of gathering around bonfires, making s’mores, and spending time with our families. For me, it’s also a sign that autumn, my favorite season, is near. And so, for several moments, we just stood, taking it in. The past several weeks (the whole summer, really) have been pretty bad for me and my family, but things have been looking up in the past few days. Last night’s experience, for lack of a better word, was a much needed and welcomed respite from all the worries and trials of the past weeks.

I don't have much time to update amidst my scrambling to get my stuff packed to move back to ISU (that and playing WoW a lot), but I will say that Anime Iowa 2008 has come and gone. We had a good time, and everyone attending the stage cosplay competition got FUCKING RICK ROLLED.




Anyway, the highlight of the weekend was getting Chris Ayres, Clarine Harp, and Greg Ayres' autographs on my Speed Grapher set, and talking to them about the series. Also, I don't know how many times we listened to the Dr. Horrible soundtrack on the journeys to and from the convention, but I now have the Bad Horse songs stuck in my head.

World of Warcraft provides hours of entertainment.

I finally checked my grades today, having put it off for the last three weeks for fear of what I would discover. I had the feeling that I didn't do as well as I hoped in two of my classes. However, I got an "A" in all of my classes again, so that was a lot of stress for nothing. Now I can finally relax and enjoy my summer.

My Integra outfit will probably be ready for Otaku Omaha next weekend. The convention is going to be a blast. And, being an extreme nerd, I'm already considering cosplay ideas for future years.

London was amazing. I took over 1000 pictures, but haven’t had a chance to get them off my camera yet. Every single day was packed full of site seeing and whatnot, and a hell of a lot of drinking at various pubs (strawberry beer = great). I just loved seeing so many places that I’ve wanted to visit for years now…and I’ll admit it, I was a bit…overcome with emotion at a few of them. I know it sounds lame, but to actually get to stand in front of the spot where Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and others were executed was a bit overwhelming (just one example).

I would write more, but I’ve got essays to work on. :(

I had a crazy weekend; I traveled to the Twin Cities with a few other members of the Celtic Dance Society for a ball. Not one person in our group got more than five hours of sleep over the course of the weekend. The ball itself was fantastic, and the after ball party ended up being pretty good too….I ended up having an eight hour long conversation with one of the Minnesota dancers about…just about everything. Dancing, anime, World of Warcraft, college, pets, etc. I think I’m in love with the guy.

I got a few good pictures and videos of the ball, so I might post some of them later.

I've managed to pull myself out of my yearly winter slump (this time it lasted for six weeks), have been feeling better, have been more cheerful lately, and have been watching Shaun of the Dead a lot. I've also been watching a hell of a lot of anime and reading a lot of manga, which has helped (mostly...why the fuck do I read Berserk when I'm feeling depressed?). In short...life feels good again. I get to go to another Scottish ball this weekend (yay for dressing up and feeling pretty!), then I leave for London the week after that (yay for everything...hell, I get to go to London!), and the week after that, Austin leaves Iraq (which is truly the greatest source of happiness for me right now). March is going to be extremely busy, but it's going to be a good month.

I wish I could wear these leggings. If I could, I would strut around in them proudly....I would even run through an enemy town in them.

The spring semester has begun, and everything is going well….with my classes, that is. Outside of classes, I seem to have developed a habit of getting ill on an almost daily basis. I’m losing weight, sleep, and some of my hair has fallen out (although not a lot). Fun times, made even more fun by the fact that I don’t know why this is happening. Hopefully it’s just a seasonal thing, because I don’t know how many more lectures I can make it through on no sleep.

On a happier note….the Grand Ball is not going to be held over spring break (as it usually is), so I get to go to it this year…that means that I get to dress up and feel pretty for a while, which is always good. And the week after that……I get to go to London! I’m so excited I can hardly think straight. I can go to the Tower, the British Museum, and a bunch of other places that I’ve wanted to visit for years! Damn it, I’m excited.

Only a matter of hours left until the first of three finals that I have on Monday......Dr. Griffiths said that he loves to watch his students panic and sweat over their finals, and since I sit in the first row of his class, he's going to have a damned good show to watch. Oh well, three done tomorrow, then another two to finish, and then it's back home for Christmas, which I'm looking forward to. I'll get to play with Chingles, Buster, and Eric for hours each day, and I might actually be able to finish Final Fantasy XII (although I'm starting to doubt that.....I'm sixty-five hours into the game and only at level fifty for all my characters.....seriously, level fifty after playing a Final Fantasy game for sixty-five hours? Either I really suck at Final Fantasy XII, or the game does a damn good job of forcing the player to progress slowly. I'm fairly certain that it's the latter). Best of all, I'll get to hang out my friends. Yay for vacation.

I'm officially old enough to legally purchase alcohol in the US. Yay for me (not really). My birthday this year hasn’t been as bad as my last few. I had a nosebleed in one of my classes that rivaled some of the ones in various anime series (and the good, perverted anime viewer will probably connect that to me being in love with my professor, or something similar), spent a hell of a lot of time at the library frantically looking through the dozens of books on crime in Early Modern England, and finally got to enjoy the cake I was saving for today. And best of all, Austin called me from Iraq, which was the best present I could have received today. Apparently Prince Abid, one of his tarantulas, died a few days ago, which saddens me, but the other one is still alive and well. More importantly, Austin’s doing as well as he can, considering that he’s in Iraq. Only five more months until we get to see him again. ^_^