Freshwaterpurls

So I'm totally lame because I never got around to taking pictures of my last haircut - but I chopped it again today (even shorter) so I thought that the least I can do is post a webcam picture.


You'll have to excuse the fact that my messy bed is in better focus than me.
I'm so in love with this cut! Yay - alright, back to homework.

I am thankful for class being canceled. I just need to remember that this is not the time to screw off but to catch up with all those other assignments.
My brain is mush - and it does not look like there is an end until March. This is going to get interesting.
Kelley has to have surgery on Tuesday. This is something that we are entirely unprepared for. Thank god we have insurance but it is, unfortunately, the catastrophic kind. He'll be out of work for 2+ weeks and I'm just praying that disability will provide us with something. I wish I had the time to get a part time job - and I wish the economy was such that it could provide me with one. I know this is something that we are capable of handling - but I feel so helpless without being able to contribute financially.

Finals are over and I think I've finally settled into vacation mode. I'm no longer waking up in a panic about whether I missed a deadline or forgot to go to class. I'm ecstatic about my grades though and am looking forward to my classes next quarter.
Paolo (our roommate) left this afternoon leaving Kelley and I the sole dwellers in this giant beast of a house. Since it has been so long since we've lived in anything larger than 300 sq ft. this place is really intimidating. When I'm upstairs in my bedroom I can't hear anything on the first floor - including the doorbell.
I was feeling a bit fever-ish yesterday but it seems to have subsided.
I'm stinky and in desperate need for a shower. Unfortunately all of my soap is gone. This is tricky because in order for me to walk downtown to get soap I need to take a shower. Bah.
I miss you all out there in livejournal land! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and don't forget to eat lots of pie.

So I'm in the middle of finals and what happens... yup my computer dies. More than likely the hard drive but all of my discs are in storage so I can't pop in the installation disc and run utilities to see if this is going to be a little problem or a big problem. I'm so upset about the things that I didn't have backed up. Why are human beings so stupid? Why can't I take 2 seconds and backup my F*&#@ work? Oh and... I just bought an extremely expensive copy of Wall-E because it had a digital copy included. What did I load onto my computer last night with it's single use activation code? Yup. Maybe once I get my computer back Disney will be all kind and send me a new code.
Tomorrow I get my haircut *bites nails*. I don't know if I've lost my mind or what. And then I'm going to Cafe Cocomo in the city and dance my cares away. Here's to hoping that my hard drive remains intact and capable of giving me back all of my files and data!

So my transition to Santa Cruz is going really well. I'm not crazy about the city itself but seeing how I have very little free time out of academia and crafting I'm not too worried. I think my strongest complaint about the area is all the animosity. I'm loving the school. I was so pessimistic about transferring and I was absolutely convinced that it wouldn't be any different. I couldn't have been more wrong. I am loving the core of my classes and am so excited to continue taking more courses in linguistics.
I'm trying really hard to meet new people and to make friends. It's been hard because a) the majority of the students are much younger than myself. And when I say this I mean both in age and in age. My life at times couldn't be any more different than theirs. b) I really don't have much time to cultivate relationships so it's been slow going. c) Here's the weird reason. So there have been a few people who I've found interesting and fun to talk to but when they find out that I'm married they seem put off. Now, like 4/5 times this has happened it's been with a guy and I realize that they obviously had different expectations but man... it's frustrating.
I'm thinking of cutting my hair. Short.

Thank you so much for the flood of support over my last post! Kelley and I had gone to the east bay to pick up some stuff from storage and had spent the evening being reprimanded by Kelley's brother over some very strange things. It left both of us feeling really worthless. I had such a fantastic time this summer seeing loved ones and was not (still am not) quite ready to let that go... so the whole night was pretty emotional for me. I'm so thankful to have friends like you all. I know we rarely get to see each other but I hope you know how much each and every one of you mean to me. Also, if there is ever anything that is bugging you please bring it up with me... I'm currently picking up the pieces from an explosion that was being held in for 4 years. Not pretty and most certainly avoidable.

I'm unhappy.
I'm tired of drama that is surrounded by the same people over and over again.
I've made a mistake and I don't know how to get out of it this late in the game. At least not for another 3 months.
I'm so sick of people telling me that I've acted inappropriately.
I am so unbelievably homesick... something which I haven't felt since I went to Latvia in the 12th grade.
I have no idea what I want right now.

Anyone have Harry Potter book 7 that I could borrow?

Oh my! I have forgotten how intense chloroquine dreams can be.
Now if I can just get out of here before I spend every last penny that I've saved.

So we finally bought our tickets for Nicaragua today! Woo hoo! Our flight leaves LA on July 1st at midnight and we return on August 30! I can't wait!

Tell me that the word "puff" doesn't lose all meaning after watching ( this. )
I must be in a really weird mood. I keep watching this over and over and it's funnier every time.

Thought I'd share a blog that I've been reading lately. Polyamory in the News

So definitely not the complete list of what I'll be reading this summer but here's what I'm really looking forward to.

1. Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
2. This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin
3. City of Thieves by David Benioff
4. Wrack and Ruin by Don Lee
5. The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu
6. The Thirteeth Tale by Diane Setterfield
7. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
8. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
9. Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
10. La Autopista del Sur y Otros Cuentos by Julio Cortázar

I'm just about to finish The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. It was so hard to concentrate on finals while in the middle of this - it's really engrossing and Larson's history reads like fiction. The other books I'll pick up this summer will be for the book club.
What's on your list?

[School] forcibly snatches away children from a world full of the mystery of God's own handiwork, full of the suggestiveness of personality. It is a mere method of discipline which refuses to take into account the individual. It is a manufactory specially designed for grinding out uniform results. It follows an imaginary straight line of the average in digging its channel of education. But life's line is not the straight line, for it is fond of playing the see-saw with the line of the average, bringing upon its head the rebuke of the school. For according to the school life is perfect when it allows itself to be treated as dead, to be cut into symmetrical conveniences. And this was the cause of my suffering when I was sent to school. . . . I was not a creation of the schoolmaster,--the Government Board of Education was not consulted when I took birth in the world. But was that any reason why they should wreak vengeance upon me for this oversight of my creator? . . . So my mind had to accept the tight-fitting encasement of the school which, being like the shoes of a mandarin woman, pinched and bruised my nature on all sides and at every movement. I was fortunate enough in extricating myself before insensibility set in.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Finally it is over. If you need me, I'll be in the back yard reading... for pleasure.

I'm selling my car. It's a 2006 Subaru Forester (blue). It's in excellent condition - we've hardly driven it in the past two years (16,000 miles). I'm doubting anyone is interested, but if you are it's priced at $17,000.

Okay so I totally suck at scrabble. I have a tendency to play funny words rather than strategic words. My average score is somewhere in the low 200's. Today I got my first 300 score!

Kelley 261 Lizz 302

So I've been trying to decide between Berkeley and Santa Cruz for the past month and I finally made my decision today. Classes are scheduled to begin at the end of September and I'll be enrolled! I'm hoping that this will help me find some motivation to finish my degree.

Should I start a new journal? I'd love somewhere to share my summer-travels and livejournal is accessible without my own computer whereas my mac.com account isn't.

I am counting down every last second until this miserable semester is over. At this moment: 1,966,913 seconds.

The end of the semester means that I will have spare time to enjoy Fairfax until we leave it indefinitely. Our things will be packed and stored for the next leg of my University experience (which, I don't want to think about right now) and we will be leaving LA for Peru in July. In case you didn't hear, and I don't know why you would have considering that I've only told 1 person so far, upon returning home we will be spending August and most of September in the city of Angels. I can't wait to be near you all again... even if it's only for a short period of time.

Now, I am off to waste 3 hours of my life listening to a teacher that I can't stand. When did I get so negative? Sometimes I look in the mirror and I don't even recognize myself.