Whoever Dances is One with the Universe

So. I finally finished the religion/history paper that was bringing about my doom, and now it's time to start the contemporary religion paper that is going to be the doom of the next few weeks. Delightful! I met with the professor about the first paper, and she essentially told me that I was choking on writing it because I was overprepared. And then when I said I was a neurotic overachiever she agreed. XD So there's that.

It's hard to believe that in fewer than six weeks my poetry study will be over. It's basically one of the best things I've ever done, and I'm... I don't want to stop. The professor who's doing that with me loves dogs and poetry, so I'm buying him a copy of Sharon Creech's Love That Dog as a thank-you gift.

Last Sunday I did the hive consolidation for our bees essentially on my own (there was a sophomore assisting me, but she kind of stood thirty feet away the whole time). That was really exciting and it felt really cool to be doing something like that, to be responsible... I got stung nine times, once on the back of the neck, and I'm not dead! That was exciting too. Only I didn't have the guts to pinch the queen, so I put her in a tupperware and when she died I gave her to the entomology professor.

Maria has decided that she wants to be an entomologist. I think it's really cool; I also think it's a job where she can do stuff that's both academic and intellectually stimulating, and lots of fieldwork and stuff that's hands-on. I think she'd be bored and miserable in an office or at a teaching job, but entomology has lots of practical application and also bees. AWESOME. I'm really proud of her.

I applied for the intercollegiate honours society yesterday, which was torture -- with the application in front of me I couldn't think of a single noteworthy thing I'd ever done. >_> Luckily it's sent off and I never have to look at it again, and I don't really care if I get in -- I only applied because Daddy really wanted me to.

My mama called me on Monday night to tell me that my cat, Calico, was hit on the road and killed. She was thirteen, so I am torn between 'well she lived a long full life' and 'but I've had her since I was a wee kid!'. I told Maria that I was sad that she'd never get to bite me again (she was also the meanest, nastiest cat in existence), and Maria said she was probably in purgatory, biting the sinners. It's an amazingly comforting image. Callie would have no place in heaven. Mama said that to replace her I can have one of the kittens in the barn, so I'm looking forward to trying to catch one of them to tame. Actually, I'll be catching all of them if I can, because I think she wants to try and tame one for my cousin Johanna, who's decided she really wants a DLH for Christmas (although Johanna wants her DLH to have a smush-face, which I think is kind of ugly, and these kitties don't have them).

On Monday I'll be sitting on a panel to raise awareness for invisible illnesses, discussing bipolar disorder! That's pretty cool.

I also finally got paid by the church, so I'll be able to pay the guy who did the photography and digital editing for my picture book, which is a relief, because I feel like the worst client ever right now. >_> He asked about payment two weeks ago and I had to tell him that I hadn't got the money yet. The editing is almost done; right now I'm working on putting the individual pieces together into pages, which is harder than I thought it would be. I only have three done.

I've been watching a hilarious Let's Play of Silent Hill 4 lately, which is pretty much my only "fun" outlet besides RP. Oh, school.

So that's all the content of the last month, I think. Now I'll go back to posting contextless poetry and stupid Tweets about religion films (another one to-morrow! :D).

So I asked my friend Kat what she would like for her birthday, and she picked a pangolin. And over the past two days I have discovered that a pangolin is an awful lot of work to piece together from small attractive pieces of paper. But the good news is, it's done, and it actually looks fantastic. I'm going to try to get a picture before I give it to her to post here so y'all can see, because I'm really proud of it.

Other than that, my life has not been enormously exciting. Getting back into the usual craziness of classes etc., and it turns out I'm the vice president of our apiary society, which I did not know and which resulted in some mad panic Thursday night when I found out fairly last-minute that I had to represent that club at an RSO meeting. Still, everything ended up working out fine.

Mostly I'm just having ridiculous body issues. Going back to school is always pretty problematic because argleblargle lots of slender friends who make me feel gigantic and horrible ugly, so I am kind of wanting to roll myself up in a rug and put myself in storage somewhere for-ever. But oh well.

I am a boring person!

So, a little update on what's going on in Soujin-land!

1. I should be asleep right now, but I'm not; for some reason I am not sleeping very well lately, which has led to me sleeping in too late in an effort to get some sleep at all. Last night I had only had four hours, and I still was awake for an hour after turning off the lights and lying down. That's stupid. Anyway.

2. Still at mhari's! Having a good time! We are mostly just being colossal dorks with each other, although yesterday we went to the New England Aquarium and it was good times. There were lovely lovely comb jellies and a petting tank with starfish and urchins and horseshoe crabs and a skate, and ANOTHER petting tank with some really gorgeous rays -- both the round Atlantic type and these adorable cownoses, which are so sweet omg. They come right up and bonk your hands. We weren't supposed to touch their bellies, but they kept swimming over and flapping at our hands! Anyway, they have the most amazing texture -- like slightly slimy velvet. So cool. Unfortunately we had to go home before we could visit the octopus, but they had LION'S MANE JELLIES. OMG. Little tiny ones! I am used to conceiving of Lion's Manes in terms of, you know, these VAST MONSTERS with tentacles that get up to thirty feet long. It somehow never occurred to me that they might start out as wee little babbies. So that was pretty sweet.

We also saw some adorbs frogs, although the surinam toad was hiding. :(

Also, mhari bought me a blue whale plushie for my birthday. He is enormous and so soft; his name is Captain Shakespeare.

3. I got a job! I start on the twenty-third. It's caregiver work, which is great -- I basically was going to die if I had to take another horrible depressing retail job, so the fact that I get to work with people but in a useful, helpful capacity is fantastic. I'm really looking forward to starting. I don't even know what my wage is and I DON'T CARE.

4. Still haven't figured out this birthday party stuff. Mama said I could have one, but everybody's weird places at weird times and I'm really not sure if it will actually happen. :/ Not a super big deal, I guess.

5. My awesome Summer Project is coming along surprisingly nicely. I bought more stuff for it here, and I can't wait to get back to work on it.

6. Maria and I are going to rock this world this summer. We're both full-time, forty-hours-a-week employed, but we are going to make a list of all the summer films we HAVE TO SEE (like Thor, and First Class) and then DO IT. Cos we can. In between, of course, we will work our asses off and keep bees, because we're rad like that.

7. I am going to make the time to start bicycling again, gdi. I really miss getting to go on long bike rides, and Maria said she wants to start biking too, so it's going to happen. My hope is also that once I start doing something that at least looks like exercise, Mama will get off my case about being fat. THIS HAD BETTER WORK. I do not have the time to squash real exercise in on top of everything else.

8. Chiiiicks! Keeeeets! They're coming June first. I am so super excite.

9. Mama has a new bunny, I don't think I mentioned. It is dopey and very pretty and scares the hell out of the cats.

10. We might actually get internet at home this summer. This one guy up on Gamby Hill is thinking of building a reception tower because he is crazy as pants and apparently wants to be able to get internet, even though we live out in the sticks and most people are Mennonite. If this happens, the whole valley would have internet potentially, so that might actually happen. It would be pretty sweet, I have to say.

11. I am watching a playthrough on YouTube of Deadly Premonition, which is a really neat video game. Also, the guy doing the playthrough is great -- so deadpan and sarcastic and unfazed by everything that happens in the game. LOVE him.

12. That's really all atm. Basically I am busy and scattered and kind of crazy, so if there is something I should be doing with you/in general, please let me know. I'M WORKING ON IT. There are a lot of caps in my life, is what I'm saying, but I still am trying to beat the dialup into submission every night from 10 to 1, so hit me up, I will probably be around.

Although this may all be irrelevant come Saturday and the rapture. :P

Anyway, in the words of the Pope, ciao.

Poetry.

( Trans )

xxx

( Paper Thin Hotel )

**this poem is a tribute to Leonard Cohen, as evidenced by the references to Famous Blue Raincoat, Paper Thin Hotel, and his rather unique singing voice.

xxx

( Psychophysics )

xxx

( Apitoxin )

xxx

( Genesis )

We did hay to-day! We put up a hundred and twenty bales off the long bottom, and it was disgusting. Also, every single one of us, Daddy excepted, is allergic to hay, including Maria's friend Elena who is down from Cleveland to help us, so we are all broken out and puffy.

And I got stung by a wasp and a bee yesterday, so I'm extra-puffy! It is great.

On the plus side, the bees are doing so well that we had to add a second hive body. So that's really exciting.

(And now Maria and Elena are canning ALL THE CHERRIES IN THE WORLD. I wish I liked cherries. They're extremely aesthetically pleasing.)

(To-morrow I go to shadow Daphne at the church! I'm really excited and I hope this goes well.)

The good: we got the bees in just right. We picked them up in their nuke box from Andy, drove them home, waited until dusk, and then put them into their new hive. They seem to have settled right in, and we're going to check them to-morrow to see how they're doing, as far as the queen and such.

My fish remember me; I went and sat by the pond yesterday and the day before and they sucked on my toes, which is the weirdest and nicest feeling. One of them has a super long tail. He's really beautiful.

I am in charge of monitoring the broody hens, since Maria will be away about the time their clutches are due! I'm so excited. I have to go in and check them every day and see if they have chicks or poults, and take them away right away if they do. Then I whisk them upstairs to the brooder shed that we have slapdash put together in the laundry room.

Maria and I finally saw Iron Man 2, which was awesome, and then spent the afternoon at Michael's spending the gift card I got for my birthday--we bought all this cake decorating stuff we've been coveting for ages, a beautiful set of dyes and cake glitter in two colours and shimmer in one. We're making cookies to-morrow so we can use it all. We're super excited. To-day we cleaned the house while Mama was at work so she wouldn't be in such a bad mood when she got home (she and Dad are arguing about horse fencing again).

the bad: Perci died while I was away at mhari's. Mama thinks she didn't keep him moist enough, which I don't know if that's true or not but I don't want to say that it is because I know she'll just feel worse. I haven't buried him just yet, but I will to-morrow. Dad says he lived a really long time for a hermit crab, but since all the websites say you can keep them alive for ages I feel like I just screwed up somehow.

One of the barn kittens died, but I didn't notice in time, so the barn cat moved all the rest of them somewhere else and I didn't see where. I am going to look for them to-morrow--I think they're still in the barn because she's still lurking around in that area and there's plenty of warm, dry hay that's gone loose. I have to bring a flashlight, though, since I tried a cursory look around yesterday and couldn't actually seen in most places.

So--that's all the news.