Finally Able to Access

So after several months of not being able to access this site (I think Google's acquisition of Blogger, combined with my long blogging hiatus contributed to this issue), I am finally back on Blogger. Since I have more time in the summer, I'm hoping to get back into the writing thing.

Blogging

I'll admit it's been a while since I've been on Blogger. And it's hard to believe I've been blogging here (off and on) for nearly eight years now! I feel kinda old. But I'm also sad to see that so many of my blogging friends have gone the same way as me and haven't been on for a while. I thought at one point that I would catch up on my Word of the Day blog, at least, but life seems to get in the way of that sort of thing sometimes. I'm not as funny as I once was. Maybe this is because I am actually happy right now, and during my college years when this blog was thriving, I wasn't at my happiest; I think I used humor and entertaining stories to keep my sanity. Maybe I'll be able to get back in the groove. Who knows. This is kind of a stream of consciousness entry, if you haven't guessed already. Since I teach English now, I find myself reading and writing less. I mean, it's my job now, so it's difficult to want to do it for fun. Kind of makes me think if one were a prostitute and getting paid for it would make it less fun. Which (WARNING: meta observation coming up) my blog was named after: Writing is like... prostitution. Totally unaware of that connotation as I was writing it. As I said, this is just a stream of consciousness thing. I never realized my stream of consciousness was so... coherent. It's much more organized than my supposedly organized thoughts. Gonna go have some wedding cake now. I'd like to say I'll get back in the habit of this, but I also thought I'd finish Skyrim and play through Inferno difficulty on Diablo 3, so instead I'll see you next year so I at least get one entry per year in this blog. Peace.

Married

Just wanted to update and say I am officially married now! Things went pretty well, all things considered. Granted, there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth, but that sort of thing is to be expected at weddings.

Miscellany

Been a while since I posted in here. Lots of new things going on. I have two new 2nd cousins this year and a new cousin-in-law. Andre had a baby boy, James, and Renee had a baby girl, Elise. Pierce got married, and I got engaged. Not a bad year for the Ninja Turtles.

This does not mean that we haven't had our share of tragedy, however. Too many people getting sick and dying. The loss of Jeremy's dog. Various annoyances and frustrations and crises and feelings of hopelessness that make life, life.

Tonight, I just want cake. I don't know why. I have been wanting cake and mac n cheese lately. Maybe it's the comfort I crave. Probably. Between all this range of emotions, I just seek stability. It's funny, when I first broke up with K, I wasn't burdened by these emotions (remember kids, I have been engaged before). Then as I grew closer to Jerome, my emotions started opening up. At first I felt bad that I was so devoid of emotion; now I kind of long for those days. I'm tired of having emotional breakdowns and being stressed out. I have chilled out considerably, but I can still be an emotional wreck far too frequently. I don't know why I can't seem to find a happy medium.

Wedding planning is rough. And since this is the second time for me, I am feeling that numb feeling that I was just referring to. It's not that I'm not excited about marrying Jerome--he's a great guy--but it's just hard to get excited about it anymore since the last time left me with such emotional damage.

I'm finding myself searching for the childhood I never had, since I was born old. I am now more well-versed in Internet memes than my students. I am keeping up on new movies and video games and trying to catch up on YouTube videos. I still don't feel cool enough. And I am finding myself drawn to comic books for the first time since I was maybe 10. I tried to get into the X-Men once, but it just didn't happen. Now, however, I have a Marvel app that I find myself spending far too much money on.

And it's not just comic books. I am probably going to ask for TMNT cartoons on DVD for my birthday this year. I have really gone through a craving for the Turtles again. And Mega Man. And other stuff from my kidhood.

Last night, Jeremy showed Jerome and me a video that was supposed to be scary. It didn't affect me at all. I actually kind of miss being scared. Maybe it was too many campy B-movies with K that made me immune. Or maybe it was being a creative writer. I don't know what caused it. I do miss the adrenaline rush of feeling scared though. Not scared for my life, but just creeped out. You know, the kind of crap we used to pull on each other at Halloween.

Which I might actually participate in this year.

All my life I have hated Halloween. Not because I feel any kind of religious antagonism toward it (I think it is an innocent holiday of dress up, regardless of origins), but I just have this incredible aversion to dressing up. I like being taken seriously, and if there is one thing about dressing up, it is that you cannot be taken seriously. Honestly. But I'm trying to not take myself as seriously and to just learn to have fun. We'll see how long that lasts.

Also I'd like to try to write a scary story for Halloween. I don't know. I have papers to grade and should probably quit with these random thoughts. Maybe a bit of Nutella will serve as comfort food enough for tonight.

Summer Vacation!

It is nice to be on summer vacation for a few weeks, though I am teaching a month of summer school closer to the beginning of the fall semester. I've been at my parents' just over a week, though in a way, it seems a lot longer.

Of course I miss Jerome. Once again, I cried at the airport, but I am doing better now, since he talks to me daily.

I played a lot of Pokemon on airplanes, and continued to do so at my parents'. However, I have also been expanding my horizons a bit, and have decided to watch several movies (some on DVD, others in the theater). Jerome and I have plans to do a long-distance date to see X-Men: First Class when it comes out. Also, I watched Saw on DVD just today. I am considering watching A Clockwork Orange today, as well.

Regarding books, I do have several that I would like to read, but my main goal is to finish Brave New World. I started the book several months ago, but I just can't find the time to read it. But then, like 1984, the book takes a while to digest, and hopefully like 1985, I will like it all the more for having taken a while to read it.

Gaming! As I've said, I have been playing a lot of Pokemon, though I'm only to Route 5 in Pokemon Black right now. I think I'm about the same place as Jeremy. Jerome considered buying a DS and a copy of the game so that he could play it with me, but he hasn't done so yet. Also, I've played quite a bit of Puzzle Quest 2 on my iPad. I have been giving serious consideration to starting up my WoW account again, but I'm afraid that if I do that, I won't accomplish any of my other goals.

Such as exercise. The weather has been all over the place this summer, so I have yet to start going on walks. However, I might start that soon. Also, Mom has a Zumba video here at the house that we should probably start using soon. I certainly need to lose some weight.

We are planning a vacation for next month. Hopefully it will be fun. Part of the vacation could include a hike, so that might help me get back into shape. Also, vacations are good for...

Writing material! Obviously, you can see that I am trying to get back in the habit of writing, and perhaps going on a trip would inspire some more creativity. After looking at my resume, I see that I also should really start trying to get things published again and/or attend/present at some conferences. Busy busy!

And on top of this, I have some cooking/baking and craft projects to do. Oh and I'd like to listen to some podcasts and watch PBS. So many things going on.

Got that Bitch a Meme. Bitches Love Memes

There was once a time in the dim, distant past when all you needed to be cool was a Blogger account and a working knowledge of Urban Dictionary. Or, at least that was the case where I attended college. I used to be one of those cool kids that was sorta on top of things. Not sure what happened, exactly, but I think grad school can shoulder some of the blame for me losing my coolness.

Anyway, as implied, times have changed. And for me to once again regain my status, and add to my cred, I have to keep up with these ever-changing times. This is not always easy as I now work many, many hours a week as a college instructor. Well, and the fact that I'm soon to be out of the "cool kid" demographic.

But apparently, my students don't think so. One of my college students suggested I check out Reddit a few weeks back. I'd heard of it, but Reddit was one of those things (along with the geeky/nerdy websites and webcomics that my boyfriend and his brother frequent) that I simply felt I did not have the time for.

Around the same time, Jerome, Jeremy, and I all started looking at Reddit. Not really sure what spawned it, but it has been terrific. I have been sending comics like a boss, laughing at rage faces, and picking up on Internet memes.

Reddit seems to be the place where all the hipsters come to hate on the other hipsters and all claim to not be one. The hipster must be the most elusive creature known to mankind, for s/he cannot admit to being one without simultaneously losing the status. It is the ultimate form of irony, which hipsters nationwide aspire to, but of course they can't because that is so yesterday. Hipsters always have been and always will be hipsters before it was cool. But they won't, either.

So am I a hipster? Absolutely not. Accuse me of being one and I'll send you a rage face with f7u12. But am I regaining my former coolness? Possibly. I have two and a half years left of being a 20-something. Hope to have to creds to prove myself to the disinterested cool kids.

That Awkward Moment When...

...you run into that kid that works at the comic shop... while you are at work... and you work as a college instructor. Yeah, that happened to me today. This guy is used to seeing me in ill-fitting Disturbed shirts and equally ill-fitting shorts, browsing Dungeons and Dragons books, Warhammer miniatures, and Magic: the Gathering cards. He's also seen me at a friend's house for a birthday party. Where I was failing miserably at the Scott Pilgrim video game because I was looking at the wrong character. This guy isn't supposed to see me as a professional English instructor.

But he did. As badly as I wanted to talk about Mortal Kombat and Portal 2 and other various games, I forced myself to talk about end of the semester work stuff and then duck up the stairs to hide in my office. Another crisis narrowly averted: between this and my day of playing Puzzle Quest 2 in my office hour, I am dangerously close to being found out as a nerd by my colleagues.

Office Etiquette

I work as a college instructor. But since I'm fairly new and the school is growing by leaps and bounds, I am currently housed in a cubicle room. Being fairly antisocial, it's not ideal, but I'm just grateful to have a job.

Usually this office sharing isn't much of a problem: I come in, log onto my three email accounts that students may use to contact me, and turn on Stuff You Should Know podcast on my iPod and commence to reading/responding, etc.

But the other day, I literally had no work to do during my office hour time. It was a welcome relief after having been stressed to the brink of emotional breakdown off and on during the past several months. Anticipating that I would have very little to do during this time, I decided to bring my iPad to my office hour.

I have 3G capability on that bad boy, but haven't ordered a data plan yet, as I have unlimited Internet most places. However, I didn't want to waste the school's nets (and we were kinda asked not to anyway), so I decided to play Puzzle Quest 2, which is an app that doesn't require online communications.

Do you realize how difficult it is to pretend to be doing something productive while actually playing a game? First, I plugged in my earbuds so that no game noises would accidentally occur. Then I sat in my chair, facing my computer (while legitimately checking email), with the iPad in my lap. Periodically, I would sae my game's progress to refresh my email pages, but that's about it.

It's not like I would have gotten into trouble. I mean, I had nothing at all to do. I'm not sure if I was hiding my iPad out of game-playing shame, or because I didn't want to have to talk to anyone about it.

ETA: This was a lot funnier when I first had the idea (while iPadding in my office) than it was in writing. Sorry everyone.