Dear Utah Transit Authority,

Thank you for sending that bus an hour late today. I love standing in 15 degree weather with wind chill. Today I woke up and told myself that I really wanted to lose feeling in my toes, nose and fingers, and you helped me achieve that goal. I was able to experience the feeling of almost freezing, to death - something I thought I would only feel if I didn't have a coat, an alpaca sweater, 2 pairs of socks, and mighty boots on to keep me warm. Thank you also for having your bus smell like BO, urine, and stale cigarettes when you did show up. That was the smell I really wanted to creep into my sinuses as feeling returned ever so slowly to my nose. No really. Thank you. You have made my bus experience today a fantastic adventure.

Love
as always,
Claire

I'm good at being alone and entertaining myself.

But sometimes I really want somebody to talk to and just be with and snuggle up to when it's cold outside.

I'm sick of being alone.

Yesterday, I spent all day studying with my math buddie. And we worked out everything we thought we would need for the test that was today. It was good. By the time we were finished, we felt like we could ace that midterm bitch. Ready to go. I was absolutely sure that I would be up on this thing. But today, when I got the test, I was sorely mistaken. The questions were strange variations on what we had studied. They were bizarro questions that terrified me and made my brain freeze up. All in all... I'm frightened about what is going to happen on this midterm. I mean. The test kicked my ass. Why do I need to study this stupid subject if I'm an English fucking major?

Dear patron and/or patrons on the bus,

When you are riding the bus, there is one thing you should remember: it's not socially acceptable to spread a strange viscous material all over the windows. Now, I know that it is very tempting to spread such items where the world can see, and where everyone is susceptible to all of it, but this is just not something you should do. Just think about it: when you spread it everywhere, it gets on people's coats, their gloves and yes, even their hair. I will say it again. Your strange goop gets in fluffy, golden locks. Your crud will make such victims want to cry out, or just plain cry. You, dear patron(s) are creating unnecessary problems for many people. They will have to go home and wash the gunk out of their hair and try not to think about what it was you put there. They will also have to do a load of laundry. Your mucus/hairgel/cornsyrup/kygelly/whatever is not what most people want to see on the bus. They just don't. If you get something on your hands, somebody in close proximity to you will probably have a wet-wipe (it's flu season, those things abound) and wouldn't mind giving one to you. It's not ok to wipe whatever kind of sludge you barfed all over your hands on the window. Know that. Not ok. So, next time that clear, strange material finds its way onto your hand, think of your fellow bus riders. Think of the horrors they will have to wash out of their hair. Think of the trauma you inflicted on them. Don't wipe weird gak on the bus.

Thank you,
Concerned Bus Rider

My bathroom has been plagued by random fruit flies. Which is strange, because it's pretty clean. I have waged war on them. I have given up on my pacifism and have killed. I left the dead carcass of the fly on my counter - a warning to the rest of the family. "We wouldn't want this same thing to happen to anybody else. Right?"  All bets are off. The brutality of this single act should scare them into submission. It's only a matter of time before they get my message and vacate.

Since there is nothing of great political import going on right now, I give you another creative writing assignment that I thought turned out rather well.

Here's the assignment: Description Experiment

Using notes from your character constructing exercises earlier in the semester, choose two characters you’d like to see interact. Write a scene between the characters that occurs at a public place.  The scene begins, “You’re lying, I know it…” Allow the characters’ information help determine who is lying, what the lie is and what the characters will say and do.  Write the scene using an objective point of view (the narrator doesn’t take sides, and describes only what we would see on the surface).  Write the scene again using limited omniscient point of view, selecting one character to inhabit (in this, we get to see a characters thoughts and see more of his/her perspective, but the narrator still stays out of the fight).  In both scenes, pay close attention to the description of your characters (looks, gestures, voice, etc.) and setting, making sure that what you chose to describe fits the perspective from which the scene is told.

( Here's what I ended up doing. )

I turned the page of my awesome batman calendar and all I got was dumb stupid Christian Bale scowling. So, I dressed him up a little bit.

Yes, another creative writing assignment. Because I have nothing better to post. The prompt this time was to listen to a piece of music and come up with a character based on that song. Once we had a pretty good sense of who that character was, we were supposed to write "A 1 page letter to someone asking for something."

( This is what I came up with. )

Just finished a flash fiction piece for my creative writing piece. I had quite a hell of a time coming up with an idea, so... well.....( this happened... )

Today in Creative Writing, we somehow got on the subject of vampires. Then, it degenerated into a long Twilight Hate Rant.

"You know what," Said the Prof. after a while of dissing the piece, "I wouldn't be above writing some piece of garbage and making serious money off of it."

"Yeah," I smirked, "and then after you get a giant following and millions of dollars to line your pockets, you can write whatever you want. Y'know, good stuff. You'll have the cash. You'll be able to be experimental without worrying about income. Set for life, man."

"I always wanted to write about a succubus or incubus."

"Stick 'em in a High School setting and you're golden." I laughed.

"I can just see it, 'Oh! I love you... but I want your soul!' 'I need to inhabit your body...but I love you!' " She laughs.

"Oh! Oh!" I cried, "Toss in some conflict with the Popular group in the school...some Chupacabras (for flair)...and maybe a creepy romance that is, in reality, kind of gross if you think about it...  I guess you already have that developing if you're going for the incubi and succubi thing. Then write it as fast as you can and I think we've got the next young adult fantasy hit on our hands."

"I'm quitting my job tomorrow so this can happen." She nodded her head decisively.

Because the U is a kind and generous school.... they gave us last week off. Thank God. Everybody needed a mid-semester break. The fam and I ended up not going anywhere, which turned out quite nice (even though Yellowstone is amaaaaaaaaazzzziiiiing this time of year...).
So, during this staycation, I got a lot of stuff done. Y'know... important stuff:
1. Took a little journey through the first Kingdom Hearts game with Maddie. Good times. 'Twas my first run through it, and it's really an awesome game, and cute as hell. Donald is pretty much the best thing ever. Best. Thing. Ever.
2. Got totally strung out on PF Chang Chinese cuisine. Seriously. This food is my crack. The lettuce wraps and the cake... aaaahhhh.
3. Got back in touch with a friend I haven't seen in about a year. (Bonus! we learned what really bad sushi tastes like... avoid it if you can.)
4. Procured Beatles Rock Band. And learned that it equals a pretty hefty Beatles-gasm.
5. Learned that it's difficult for older generations to really grasp the inherent laws of video games. (i.e. if there's a door, go through it, hit a button on the controller when it tells you to, how to navigate a menu screen...etc.) It always interests me, because all this stuff comes second nature to me, and it's fascinating to see that it can be difficult for other people. I always assume that people just know how to do all that stuff (or pick it up pretty fast if they are new to the game) already. My friends and I play all sorts of video games, and I'm not used to having to explain what each button does. We just pick it up and play. So it was a really crazy experience to have to keep stopping to explain again and again how to use the little rock band guitars to my parents and relatives who were over for the weekend.
6. Found out that you can do serious damage to your hand playing Rock Band on Expert. Seriously.
7. Realized that I really like Rudyard Kipling... even though he's kind of a sexist.
8. Leveled up Wolverine and made Storm a total badass in X Men Legends.
9. Learned that my great grandfather was kind of a scary dude.
10. Learned that you can have holiday-themed political hate signs. The dudes at the bottom of our hill do. In light of the upcoming holiday of Halloween, they have changed their usual big, red lettered sign that says "Stop Obama" to, "There’s Nothing Scarrier than Communism!" It says this in big orange Halloween font. Spelling error included. This sign makes me laugh every time I see it.
11. Found out that Passion Pit is a seriously kickass band. Crazy as hell. But awesome.
12. Got told off because even though they were the Tropical kind, Starbursts are not part of the South Beach Diet.
13. Realized that I do not know what to say to somebody who has just lost a friend. Wind's good pal just passed away, and I'm at a complete loss. I don't know what to say or do. Any ideas?
14. Developed a burning hatred for people who double park in my driveway, trapping my dumb car in its spot, then leaving so they can't move their dumb double parked car...
15. Caught up on some much needed sleep. yes!
16. Got told by multiple people this week that my eyelashes look fake.
17. Did some Spanish homework. ¡Ay Español! ¿Por qué me odias?

I study.... sometimes. When I'm not practicing drawing poorly....







In other news, I aced my Spanish Midterm!!!111!!!!! My partner went in there well prepared, but nervous, and wowed the la profe. After we held a conversation demonstrating our knowledge of the Past Imperfect, la profe exclaimed, "Wow, girls! You really practiced for this! You did awesome! I can tell you this much: you're getting an A right now!" My partner and I were so stoked we busted out of the building and performed a "Highschool musical jump-hi-five" right there.Good day. Good, good day.

I have an awesome prof. in my Critical Lit Theory class. During our discussion about Fish's essay, "What Constitutes A Poem?" we got into talking about Interpretive Communities, and how readers are influenced by these communities and thus see that in what they read. This stuff says that you only perform the things you learn. Awesome Prof. busted out this gem of a comment,

"Sci Fi is always the place where you go to work out these hard interpretive questions. You see... with the Interpretive Communities that Fish proposes... you as a reader become the Borg."


I laughed.

It's midterms this week. And, honestly, I'm not stressed. I'm just... not. It feels wrong to me. I feel like I should be stressing and crying and freaking out, and I'm oddly zen. Hell, I was calm enough to drift away in class and draw this:



Yeah... there's a looonnng inside story that someday I'll tell you about. For now... just enjoy the photo.


I think this is gonna be an ok week. :)

Today, I heard a strange knock on the door. ( I opened it and... )

Last day was good. Plus, I realized that not only was it my last day of employment at Sandwich! but it is my last day as a teenager. Yes, friends, I turn 20 tomorrow. I still don't know if I shold be excited or scared, but either way... it's gonna happen. We'll see what this decade has to offer.

Today's my last day of working at Sandwich! until maybe the summer. Then, perhaps I can have some semblance of a life. Yay!

Wrote a Villanelle that I wrote for creative writing. It's a bitch of a poem to write, since there are a bunch of rules you need to follow. I cussed over this little nasty for too long (it didn't help that I was going for a specific meter to the thing as well...) but now that I've finally finished it, I don't think it's half bad. The title is the best part of it, I think. Tell me what you think. :)

Here's the roolz:

1. It's a poem of 19 lines.

2. It has 5 stanzas, each of three lines, with a final one of four lines.

3. The first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas.

4. The third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas.

5. These two refrain lines follow each other to become the second-to-last and last lines of the poem.

6. The rhyme scheme is aba. The rhymes are repeated according to the refrains.


Here's Mine:

In Which Jeff Calls his Friend After He and Pete Get in a Hunting  Accident in Texas.

Pete killed a unicorn!
It was awful, man.
Thought it was a longhorn!

Pete I could not forewarn
the act I could not ban!
Pete killed a unicorn!

I am so filled with scorn.
He shot like a madman.
Thought it was a longhorn.

Guess it was early morn
and we had no good plan.
Pete killed a unicorn!

He was just too stubborn
to see it wasn’t, man –
thought it was a longhorn.

We are pretty forlorn.
It was over before it began.
Pete shot a unicorn –
thought it was a longhorn.

It's on; the countdown.

22 minutes until my GUN class.

2 days until my big ol' English essay is due.

3 days till my last day of work at Sandwich! for the school year.

4 days until I am 20.

5 days until David Cross comes to town.