i'm nothing but trouble, baby.

It's been a weird couple of days for me - the fluctuation between colder and warmer weather the past few weeks has left me with a cold that seems to be growing into something much more than a common cold, and my sleeping habits have changed: I go to bed around 11-ish (my usual bedtime) and wake up around 5AM or 6AM feeling totally fine, but then I end up taking a 3 or 4 hour nap later in the day. I really do not need this right now. The weather is nice, I should be feeling good about it! And I'm done with school in a little over a week, I should be pumping myself for the fact that I will never have to go back to that horrible college again instead of worrying that I've got some massive respiratory infection (and the fact that I have received no indication that the large Amazon order I made to celebrate me being done with said college has shipped just adds to these worries.)

Oh, and I got a blister on the heel of my right foot from taking a walk around the neighborhood in my trusty ballet flats. Not only is it painful because it's a blister, but it has the added pain of being on my heel, where I (sadly) put most of my weight when I stand or walk. So I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon hobbling around on my left foot until I could find some relief - in the form of a makeshift band-aid of medical tape and a strip of Second Skin. I've got it hardcore taped up now, making it looks as if something worse than a blister appeared on my foot and is causing me pain. I can walk and stand on it and it feels totally fine, but I'll keep it taped up for a few more days just in case. I got chided by both Mommy and Dad for being stupid enough to take a walk in ballet flats, and have now realized that I shouldn't wear them when I go out for a walk.

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The only part of this week's ep of The Office that I liked was Pam's reaction to Andy playing a tape of Here Comes Treble singing Pachelbel's Canon/You Can Call Me Al: "Wait a minute, am I walking down the aisle to 'You Can Call Me Al'?" FINALLY, SOME HINT THAT THEY'RE ACTUALLY GETTING MARRIED SOON. Other than that, I wasn't really feeling it. And I'm not really pumped about the last episodes for the season either. I watched some of season 4 yesterday ("Money", "Chair Model" and "Job Fair") and got really nostalgic. That was a pretty good season, despite the fact that the writer's strike cruelly cut it short. It was funny and engaging and sweet; I wouldn't even think about using those adjectives to describe this season, even though I predicted during the season premiere that season 5 was going to be the BEST SEASON EVER for the show (and I feel incredibly guilty about it.) I just feel that the show hasn't been what it used to be - the last time it was was "Stress Relief" and even then it had to be funny, because it was given the post-Superbowl timeslot and attracted viewers. And I think another part of it is the fact that Greg Daniels and Mike Schur are too focused on making Parks & Recreation live up to all of NBC's hype that The Office has faltered as a result (and by proxy, so has Parks & Recreation, because Greg&Mike are making it too similar to The Office.) So to reiterate a point I orginially made here, I WANT GREG&MIKE BACK WORKING ON THE OFFICE.

( But there was some spoiler speculation that sort-of cheered me up. )

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Eleven days left of school (actually eight; I only have classes Monday-Thursday and don't count weekends) and I have very little homework this weekend, which is wonderful - just research for my final paper (done yesterday) and an article summary (will be done tomorrow on my break), both for English. I have a Film quiz tomorrow as well, but I'm printing out the notes I need and if I just look them over beforehand, I should be fine. I do need to need to find a job for the summer, which is proving a little difficult - I went to the College's job office on Thursday and looked, but wasn't yielded anything promising. So I think I'm just going to apply everywhere I want to work and see what happens. I need something to do with my time once I'm done with school, and I really could use the money as well :)

Or I would be, if I didn't have to give up virtually all carbs for eight days - my diet, sadly, is largely built around them. I'd rather give up having to eat meat every Friday than part with leavened bread. Plus, Easter candy! But I watched the Passover episode of Sports Night ("April Is The Cruelest Month"), found out that Aaron Sorkin might be returning to television soon, and the analogy of Sports Night/The West Wing was the first thought in my mind when I watched ( Parks&Recreation and The Office. )

Things I've done over the past few days:

• CLEANED. Grandma (Dad's mom) arrived here last night, so in preparation for her visit I cleaned various parts of the house. She's staying in my room, and I've been so busy that I rarely do anything in there besides sleep, read and do homework in there, so it hasn't gotten very messy - it took me literally ten minutes to clean. I left a few things until the last minute, and I got home late and was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get them done before Grandma got here. Luckily, Mommy was home all day, and she finished straightening up my room. So Grandma's here, I'm sleeping in Monica's room, and week that she's here is going to be fun.


• Listened to The Decemberists' new album The Hazards of Love. I've only listened to it once in full, but my impression so far is that it's better listened to as a whole album rather than as individual songs. It's pretty interesting, but I think I prefer their earlier stuff from Picaresque and The Crane Wife; I'm gonna go as far to say that The Hazards of Love is to The Decemberists as Narrow Stairs is to Death Cab For Cutie. I think I'd be able to offer a more cohesive review once I've listened to it a few more times. So I'll do that.


• Read new spoilers for The Office, declared that season 5 pretty much sucks, and lost all hope that I'd be getting a Jim&Pam wedding. I HAD TO WAIT A WHOLE SEASON TO GET A FRAKKING PROPOSAL, NOW I'M GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT A WHOLE OTHER SEASON TO SEE A WEDDING, WHICH I COULD HAVE SEEN THIS SEASON HAD THE WRITERS NOT DICKED AROUND WITH ANDY/DWIGHT/ANGELA FOR THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON AND KEPT PAM IN NEW YORK. NOT FAIR.


• Hardly any homework. It was wonderful to just lounge around, sleep, and watch The West Wing season 2 without any major worries that I had more important things to do, especially after the weeks I'd been through.


• Wrote my story for inrevelations. It's making me frustrated - I've got it planned out in my head, and when I put it down on paper, it doesn't sound as good. I'm reading other people's entries, and even though I shouldn't compare my stuff to theirs, mine seems much, much worse. I hope the person I wrote it for in enjoys it. And I'm worried that I won't reach/exceed the 800 word minimum. So I'll keep writing and self-editing, read others stories, and have mine ready by Friday. I hope it turns out as well as I think it will.


• Got psyched about Obama's press conference tonight, though I'm pissed that it messes up my TV watching schedule.

Yesterday was the real "last day" of my spring break :( Both Graham and Monica are around this weekend, so it's gone back to being super-stressful around here. I no longer can get the computer to myself for long periods of time, stay up until midnight and wake up at noon (like I did last night), or spend the days bumming around in my pajamas doing absolutely nothing. Plus, we "spring forward" an hour tonight, which is totally going to mess up my already-screwed up sleep schedule. Great.

I had to be actually productive yesterday, since I hadn't done anything school-related the entire week. I printed out a few sources for my research paper (which I've decided will be on realism in The West Wing - an absolutely ace topic, given it's been something on my mind lately since I re-watched the last two seasons and has actual sources for me to cite.) I didn't do the research proposal yet, but it won't take as long now that I've got a topic in mind, so I'm planning on doing that during my break on Monday. I'll annotate the sources sometime this weekend, along with reading those stupid, unrelated-to-the-class essays and writing summaries and answering questions about them. But I did watch The War Room and Annie Hall last night for my Film review, both of which were incredibly good. I have a feeling I'm going to have a hard time picking a film to write a journalistic review on.

The Office was pretty meh this week, but ( American Idol was surprisingly good. )

I'm still sick, by the way. And I think it's getting worse, which is absolutely great when I have to go back to school. Really.

At the library right now. I haven't actually stayed here longer than a few minutes - I came in briefly a few weeks ago to pick up The Thumpin'. I really don't like using the computers here (the one at home or the ones at school are a heck of a lot better), but I'm making do. I picked up Anderson Cooper's book Dispatches From the Edge (thus continuing my streak of reading political non-fiction/memoirs) and the sixth season of The West Wing on DVD. Season 7 was already checked out, and I'm nearly done with the 6th (only about 5 eps left, plus I watched the finale this morning when it was on Bravo), but I can watch them on TV instead of the computer, in time to spend spring break marathoning it. That is, if I don't have tons of homework to do then. I've got two weeks to figure something out.

( a few television related thoughts - House has sort of redeemed itself! American Idol continues to be lame! a fave character returns to 24! Lost! Plus, I think I could be a better scheduler that the NBC guys. )

It's Conan O'Brien's last show tonight :(((( I'm buying this and this to remember it by.

I somehow lucked out of getting any homework this weekend. AGAIN. I don't understand it at all.

( Quick thoughts on The Office. Plus, Grey's Anatomy! )

I'm working on finishing up season 2 of Mad Men - I have the last three episodes yet to watch, which I'm converting now. And I still have the new Lost yet to watch.

So the Cardinals didn't win last night, failing to make the Superbowl a real Cinderella story like I (and Mommy and a whole bunch of other people) thought it would be. Instead, Pittsburgh won, making this the second straight Superbowl where I came out disappointed. Congrats to to the Steelers and all, but they've now won six Superbowls - the most recent one three years ago. Most of the players on this team played in that game and already have a ring - they really don't need another one. I mean, THE CARDINALS HAVE NEVER WON A SUPERBOWL. Who I am supposed to see about that? Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald and the rest of the team played their absolute best, and they should have been rewarded for it.

(Seriously, I knew things weren't going well towards the end when they played "Boogie Shoes" and Pittsburgh had a slight lead. I secretly hoped that it was a good sign that the Cardinals might just pull this thing off, but that was not the case. MAJOR LOSE.)

( But the post-Superbowl episode of The Office certainly cheered me up! )

My second "free Friday" of the semester, and once again I didn't have it to myself. Today is "Records Day" for the public schools (I think it has something to do with the fact that the high schools are done with first semester finals), so Monica is home with me. That's fine; we get along great and are able to split computer time evenly. I'm just worried because next Friday is the last Friday I'll have to myself, since Graham has every off starting in February. And you all know how things go with me, Graham and the computer. But he can drive now, so maybe he'll be out of the house more, working and stuff.

Whatever. Today I'm doing laundry and debating whether or not to watch The American President.

I took a nap last night around 6:30 - and I woke up three hours later realizing I had totally missed The Office when it originally aired. Thank God I had the series recording setup on the DVR. But seriously, I could have skipped it and be no worse off, it was that bad. Is it just me, or have a lot of episodes been filler? It certainly feels that way. Although I am pretty excited for next Sunday, since that's the big post-Superbowl episode. There's bound to some exciting stuff then, right? I hope so.

Another reason why this semester > last semester: I literally have no homework this weekend. All I have to do is reprint my Film paper because I forgot to italicize the movie titles. That's it. I don't know how it happened, but I definitely like it. More free time for me!

I woke up this morning around 9 hoping to have the entire day to myself (I don't have classes on fridays this semester again) - staying in my pajamas, making pancakes, watching Sports Night, reading The Audacity of Hope. This hope was shattered fifteen minutes later when Monica came down the stairs; turns out she and Graham didn't have school today because it was too cold.

So instead, I ended up taking a shower, napping for 3 hours, and trying to justify why Graham spent nearly six hours (seriously) on the computer when Monica and I both wanted to use it. This is the exact reason why Mommy&Dad won't give him his computer back. However, if he did have his own computer, these types of problems wouldn't exist. (Relatedly, now that Circuit City is going out of business, I'm hoping to find a really good deal on a laptop so my parents won't have to wait until fall to buy one. Since I'll need it for school and all.)

If you really want to know how I felt about this week's episode of The Office, you can read shornt's thoughts here; I basically agreed with everything she said. I am, however, very excited about upcoming episodes because there's some Jim/Pam stuff that they've definitely been lacking this season. I'm really happy to see them come to the forefront again.

I signed up for the challenge at inrevelations purely to see if I can write something that's good. I'm hoping it goes better than my picfor1000 story, which by the way, hasn't even been started yet. I'm definitely more excited about it, which is a start.

( icon meme, or proof that Maureen tries to diversify her userpics as much as possible. )

Sports Night DVDs finally arrived today (!!!), so a marathon is imminent. ALSO: BLOOPER REEL.