tortoisegirl

This past weekend was the start of a fleamarket at the nearby high school that runs over the spring & summer (I've posted about it before). My mom had a table to sell our old junk and my sister and I helped her out. Selling is not as fun as buying at these things. I'm no good at bargaining or pricing things to sell. It was cute to see the little kids who bought our old toys having fun with them- one little boy bought our scooter and was riding it around the parking lot the rest of the morning. My sister made a dent in getting rid of her old collection of horse toys. And I got sunburn. :(

But I bought things too! A really pretty metal owl:


( And more! )

I've recently given into the madness and watched all of the new My Little Pony episodes. I've made no secret that I like children's cartoons and even though this one is like an overload of pink sparkly rainbow cute, I like it. Okay, maybe I like it because of the pink sparkle rainbow cute. Twilight Sparkle is my favorite.

It's a lot more entertaining than almost everything on Disney Channel, at least. Had me laughing out loud a lot and the cultural references scattered around and wtf silliness of it remind me of Cartoon Network's stuff (Billy & Mandy, Flapjack, etc). Even if each episode ends with a big ol' "moral of the story" wrap up. There's an episode based on the tribble ep of Star Trek, and another on the Greek myth of Icarus! And songs that get stuck in your head for days and days! And they have a city called Fillydelphia how cute is that.

Also, this:


In short, haters to the left.

A bit more about the jury thing-

I don't think it'll actually be that bad. I was at the courthouse all day yesterday, 8:30 - 4:30, so I was tired and uncomfortable by the end and being told I'd have to come back set off an "oh god no" reaction. But hey, I have an excuse to try out different eateries around the courthouse during our lunch breaks.

I could have brought up things that might have stopped them from choosing me, but it's all stuff that I don't think would prevent me from being objective- I think the judge's "look into your conscience and be honest" speech made me scared to claim things I wasn't entirely sure about. One thing brought up is that you can't do outside research relating to the case; the judge pretty much said "no Googling", and they specially said you can't comb the social media spots for info/opinions. I could have told them "as soon as I get home I'm going to be making a livejournal post about this" and maybe been disqualified XD But, I will resist Googling and oversharing. The judge was pretty cool, definitely the most relaxed and least serious of all the court folk. Probably because she knows she's the top dog in the room :P And the bailiff looked like Jackie Earl Haley!

Today there was a bunch of stuff going on in the city and I...well, I tried to participate. There was a Walk for Choice I planned on being part of. I got in late and rushed to see if I could intercept them along the walking route but couldn't find them, then walked about half the route trying to catch up but never managed it. The walk was meeting up with a pro-union rally in Love Park...which I also missed. There were some lingering people with signs from both groups when I arrived, but stuff was over by then. So it was pretty much a day of me failing at activism. :(

I hit up a thrift store while I was in town though and got a nice pair of boots for cheap. Oh, and funny story- about two weeks ago there was a book I wanted but neither Borders or B&N had it, so I figured it was out of print and ordered it from an individual seller. Today at the thrift store I go to the bookshelf and, there's the book. -_- Very funny, universe.

( I want your loveeee. Lav lav lav. )

<3 <3

The main character of the book I'm reading now is a baker who keeps mentioning her cinnamon rolls, and after 200 page of this I succumbed to the power of suggestion and made cinnamon rolls. I messed up a little with the yeast so they didn't rise as much as I'd hoped. They're closer to bite-sized than the big puffy rolls I was going for. But they taste good.

And they were well-timed treats, because we've had miserable weather the past few days. Yesterday was a constant switch between rain and snow that turned into a mess of slush, then overnight we got about a foot of heavy, wet snow. Thank goodness it's my day off work (because the school didn't close, even today), but there's still shoveling to do at home. There were several backups on our narrow little street when cars got stuck on the ice. Snow is pretty and all, and exciting, but I've hit that point where dealing with winter weather is dragging me down.

I'm still working on campus, and being there not as a student is a little strange. Thinking about stuff like finding classrooms and buying textbooks makes me happy not to be doing that anymore :) I've started the venture of shopping for appropriate job interview clothes, which as been less fun. I even need to get new stuff like a new purse and shoes (my current purse is so battered it's not doing me any favors, and I'm realizing I don't have any black heels).

Ah well. For now I'll go eat my cinnamon rolls and keep my toes warm.

Happy New Year everyone! It's time to celebrate 2011!





Looking back, 2010 was actually a really good year for me. Besides everyday life and school going smoothly, I got to do a lot of new, fun stuff too.

And as a tiny New Year gift, here's some music, (very) loosely based on the passage of time and looking ahead to the future.

1. The Beatles, Here Come the Sun
2. B52s, Song for a Future Generation
3. The Editors, An End has a Start
4. Billie Holiday, This Year's Kisses
5. Eels, Stars Shine in the Sky Tonight
6. Flogging Molly, So May the Living
7. John Frusciante, Penetrate Time
8. Morrissey, Tomorrow
9. Led Zepplin, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers, 21st Century
11. Peace, Already All Right

Best wishes for all of you in 2011 <3 <3

There's a lunar eclipse happening this Tuesday, fully visible from North America! I hope to stay up to see it, but we'll see if I can make it to the wee hours of the morning.

The Christmas spirit is strong around here. The tree is up and decorated, and we even had a nice pretty coat of snow the day we got the tree. I made biscotti to give out and it turned out great, which I'm very happy about 'cause it's only the second time I've made it. There's still some gifts to buy but at least I mostly know what I'm looking for, so it's just a matter of going out and finding it.

However, I could use some advice from my coffee-drinking friends! I want to get my mom some nice coffee for Christmas, something of a nicer quality than she usually buys, but I don't drink coffee so I'm not sure what's good. She usually drinks Folgers. Starbucks? Dunkin Donuts? Something else? Preferably something I can get in a store or coffee shop rather than ordering online. I'll either get her a bag or maybe a sampler of a few flavored coffees. Any input would be very helpful!

Hey! LJ is offering this free holiday cookie v-gift, so does anyone want a v-gift? I can send five free ones. Digital cookies for your profile!

I finally got to watch the finale of The Walking Dead yesterday (I missed the airing on Sunday) and I have all sorts of thoughts that I want to type out. I should be focusing on my finals at the moment so I'll hold off that until next week, but the longer I wait the more long-winded and rambling I'm likely to get. It's nice to be watching an actual scripted TV show again. It's the first non-cartoon, non-reality TV show I've gotten into since Lost, and as frustrating as cliffhangers and long waits between seasons can be (arrrgh no season 2 until next Halloween) it's fun getting pulled into a large, drawn-out story & world like this.

In a complete non sequitur, there is a mouse living in my kitchen, and my cat is being COMPLETELY USELESS. He sits and stares at the gap under the stove and...gets bored and wanders off. No matter how much I point at the kitchen and yell "Get it! Goooo!" \If he actually saw the mouse scurrying around I think he'd either RUN AWAY, or keep staring. That mouse has gotta be laughing at us at this point.

A late Happy Thanksgiving to all. One of the recipes I tried turned out fantastic, while the other failed about halfway through and left me scrambling for a plan B. Dinner at my grandparents' was great though.

And now 'tis officially Christmas season (even if the Christmas music has been playing in stores since Halloween), but no one has their Christmas lists ready yet so I won't be shopping for a while. The forced listening to retail store Christmas music is delayed a little longer, for me at least.



Despite the unsavory language, I love Fairy Tale of New York. And just a warning, the video includes a reenactment of domestic abuse, so if you're sensitive to that I'd skip it.

Saw the new Harry Potter movie yesterday, and I have some thoughts!

First of all I went with my mom and since this graphic's been circulating recently it came to mind:


Because I was 14 or 15 when I saw my first HP movie in theaters with my mom and sisters, and now I'm seeing the last one with her at 23 (and I'll be 24 when the 2d part come out!). Also, seeing all the little kids in the theater it struck me that the whole Harry Potter series started before these kids were born. I felt old. :(

Onward to the movie though.

( Spoilers for the movie )