Last night I made a journal for myself, using the instructions from this tutorial.



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If anyone else does bookbinding, I was wondering if you have any tips for beginners? Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. Also, would it be possible to have the covers and the binding be one continuous piece? I'm assuming it's not a big deal, but Nick thinks I should check to make sure I don't end up with a falling-apart mess.

I went to the dentist today to find out what's been causing the intense pain I feel whenever I chew on the left side of my mouth. Turns out the tooth (which I think is the first bicuspid) is cracked across the top. The dentist said that it's not usually too hard to fix, but because I'm having so much pain the only options are to either crown it or give me a root canal, and he's as reluctant to do the latter as I am to go through with it. They took impressions of my teeth today, next Tuesday they're going to give me a temporary crown, and then three weeks later I'll be getting a permanent one.

I'm pretty sure I know how my tooth got cracked - after I got my last filling, I had to go in to get it filed down because it was too big and causing problems with my jaw, and the pain I'm experiencing now started immediately afterward. I stupidly ignored it for almost a year, and then I thought the dentist in Germany fixed it, but it started up again a couple months ago. Still, it could be worse.

Also, the awesome thing about the new dentist? His name is Dr. Bacon.

I have a new favorite poem:

Tommy was a chemist's son.
But Tommy is no more.
What Tommy thought was H2O
Was H2SO4

Feeling insecure? Just grab an Ugly Girlfriend as the must-have accessory of the summer! Make yourself look better while drinking shitty alcopops even at the mall. You'll be at the height of class with your Ugly Girlfriend and Bacardi at your side!

Sidestepping the whole "what the fuck are you on that you think these women are ugly?" issue (I think they're all pretty cute), what the hell would make anyone think that it's a good idea to advertise their product in a way that insults their intended target on top of the "undesirable" demographic? Nothing says "Buy our stuff!" like telling your audience that they need someone less attractive around to make them look better.

The serpentine belt in my car broke today, and I ended up losing power steering just as we got off the highway. It's a good thing Nick was driving. His stepdad was awesome and fixed the car pretty quickly, but I had to spend the money I was going to use to paint my room.

Next Sunday is my birthday, and I'm hoping to have some friends over for cake and movies. I didn't realize until today that it's also Father's Day (something I should have remembered, considering my dad's family always celebrated my birthday in conjunction with Father's Day and an uncle's birthday). With any luck, at least a couple people will show up. Mom's coming over on Thursday to give me my present and take me out to eat, since she and Mark won't be around on Sunday. I really need to clean the apartment before then.

On May 21, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed a complaint filed by a woman who said she had purchased "Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries" because she believed "crunchberries" were real fruit.

All I can say is "ROFL". Seriously.

I got my paycheck on Saturday, and now that my cupboards are no longer bare I've been trying to get myself to cook more. It's a bit of an uphill battle - I don't feel like cooking a lot of the time, I'm constantly running back to the store to buy staples like flour or butter (stuff I never had to really think about in the dorms), and I usually don't start thinking about dinner until I'm already fairly hungry and I don't want to wait a half hour or longer to eat. At least I have food, though. It feels good to be able to eat something that doesn't require a microwave to become edible.

Also, I will be making a rhubarb pie tomorrow, because Nick is coming home on Friday and I want to make him something special. :3

I just ran into the mail carrier. Apparently changes of address sometimes don't go into effect for a couple of weeks, and the reason they weren't putting any mail for me into the box was because the previous tenants never filed a change of address and the names on the mail and the box didn't match. She didn't have my check today, but hopefully it will get here tomorrow or Monday (I got the Netflix DVDs today, at least). She's also a replacement, so I may try to ambush the regular guy tomorrow and see what exactly he did with my check. I need fresh food in the apartment, damnit. D:

Fucking Western. We were told that we should get our checks for working Medieval by Tuesday, but apparently this means "Your check will be available to pick up at Res Life on Tuesday, and then we'll send it out to be mailed on Wednesday and it probably won't actually BE mailed until Thursday, so expect it on Friday at the very earliest." This is especially not cool because if it doesn't show up tomorrow, I won't be able to go grocery shopping on Saturday (since the bank closes at noon on Saturday, and the mail doesn't get here until 2:00-3:00) and then I'll have very little food to last me until whenever the damn check gets here. I'd be worried about getting to Oz's tomorrow night, except Mom was kind enough to fill my tank up today so with that and the $20 she gave me for her drawings I should have enough to make it to Dearborn and back.

I am definitely not the only one who thought they'd have their paycheck by now, and I've been checking every day since Tuesday. That, plus the fact that my first Netflix DVD was shipped to me last Monday and never arrived, has made me incredibly paranoid about the mail. At first I thought that I hadn't written down my new address correctly, but I double-checked Netflix and that's correct, and I copied down my address directly from the information we got from management (plus it matches everything that I've received in the mail, which is all for the previous tenant, and both the delivery guy and the cable guy were able to find my place). Then I thought maybe it was because I hadn't filed a change of address, which I hadn't realized I was supposed to do because no one actually came out and told me I needed to. I did that online on Sunday, though, through the USPS website, so it should have gone through already and Mom assured me that it wouldn't have anything to do with mail being sent directly to my apartment... so for now I will have to hope that it really is just a coincidence that Netflix is a week and a half late and my check got mailed after the day it was supposed to get here. I reported the DVD missing and they shipped a replacement today, so hopefully it'll get here with or shortly after my check.

I've been planning how to spend my paycheck from Medieval - with any luck, it'll be about $400, which means I can fill up my gas tank and get some decent groceries, pay Anga back for at least part of the money I borrowed from him when I visited, and go see Oz and stop by Mom's to get some more stuff for the apartment. I need a bookcase (actually, I need several, but I can get one from Mom and then Nick will be giving me one as well), a colander, baking pans, a cookie sheet, a spatula... What I can't get from Mom, I can probably get Beth to either buy or contribute toward buying, since I've already gotten some stuff that we'll both be using when she moves in.

I also want to get myself a pet. Originally I thought I would get a hedgehog, as I've wanted one for years but couldn't get one due to living in the residence halls for so long. Unfortunately, they're not commonly available in pet shops (not that I would want to get one from a pet shop in the first place), and there are no local breeders with any available hedgies. So I've been considering getting a pair of rats. After hedgehogs, they're the animal I'm most interested in owning. Ben said he can get me some info on good local breeders this weekend, since his mom knows somebody who owns rats, so hopefully I'll find something soon. I'd like a pair of males, I think.

Everything is moved into the apartment - now I just have to unpack and arrange everything. FUN TIMES YOU GUYS. Also, right now my clothes are spread out all over the place because I did two loads of laundry while I was at Mom's and neither of them dried all the way through. I'm hoping that by the time I get back (I'm at a friend's right now), they'll either be completely dry or dry enough to just fold up and put away.

Now I just have to make sure I can stretch what very little money I have until I get my paycheck, which should arrive by next Tuesday. Then I can pay Beth for the cable/internet (which she's ordering on Monday), buy some food, and possibly visit Oz for her birthday party.

I have the keys to my new apartment in my possession! I'm really quite excited, even though I feel kind of silly about it. It's just an apartment, and not even an incredibly good one - but hey, it's mine, and I don't have to go back to the dorms or spend the summer at home. Tomorrow I'll be packing everything in my room, moving what I can over to the apartment, going to Gini's for a work-is-over party, and then going to Mom's for the night so that we can start moving everything from home into the apartment on Saturday.

I feel kind of bad, though; a week ago, Mom said we could go to Dad's with the trailer and pick up the desk he's giving me, and I said "Okay, that sounds good," told Dad we'd be coming over Saturday morning, and didn't say another word about it. I guess Mom assumed that meant I didn't want to do that or something, because I asked her about it tonight and she was kind of upset at me for "springing it on [her]". Oops? She said she'd talk to Mark about it in the morning, but that he's in a bad mood and it's possible he won't want to go to Jackson to get the desk. That's okay, I can live without it for a bit, but Dad's going to be kind of pissed off since he'll have to go get Cate's parent's van and drive it up here. Frankly, I'd like to avoid that as well, seeing as how I really don't want to spend any more time with Dad than I absolutely have to, and if he ends up bringing the desk to Kalamazoo then he'll want to go to dinner and hang around for a while.

The only other thing I have to do is remember to get some envelopes and turn in my time sheet tomorrow before noon. I would like to receive the money I earned, please.

Dear G,

You were supposed to come in at 4:00 yesterday to relieve me from my shift. I started looking for you at around 3:40, as we've been told to come in about ten minutes before the shift starts to make sure we communicate with each other about what needs to be done. When you didn't show up by 4:15, I called you and left a message on your cell phone, then called the Manager on Duty. Thirty minutes and twenty phone calls later, the front desk finally sent someone down to take my place - and you never showed up or called anyone. And, at this point, is it too much to ask that you at least apologize? My email and phone number are on the contact list we all received, so you know how to get in touch with me.

It's possible that I'm taking this a little more personally than I should, since by the time I left I hadn't eaten anything all day but a couple cookies and a glass of juice and I desperately had to use the bathroom, but you know damn well that we're all sleep-deprived and either eating badly or not at all because of our schedules.

I realize that you have a four-month-old baby, and that your schedule is probably all kinds of messed up thanks to the combination of baby and random 4-8-hour shifts, but your SO seems to be dedicated to you and your child, and you've told me that both of your mothers are willing to watch the baby for you. You've known what your schedule is since last weekend, so this shouldn't be a problem of finding last-minute childcare. At this point, I'm actually hoping that this is all just you being an irresponsible jerk, because I honestly don't want anything bad to have happened to you or your family (and if that's the case then I'll be fairly mortified for getting angry about it).

- Sarah

Reading back entries and comments made me realize how much I miss Jimmy and Kitty and Savannah, and all the other friends I don't talk to anymore. I think I'll try to call them tomorrow.

I've joined Dreamwidth (amadeupname). I'll probably just cross-post most of my posts from LJ onto it. Yay double journals?

I made tapioca this weekend in my rice cooker. It turned out pretty well, although next time I'll be soaking the tapioca pearls in water for a bit first. Most of them were only cooked about halfway through, and only a little bit were fully cooked. The coconut milk worked amazingly, though. This may be my new study snack.

I started my Summer I class today. It's German 500 (Elementary German for Reading Proficiency), and when I signed up for it I didn't realize that it was meant for people who have never taken German - I just thought "Hey, it's a 500-level course, and I need two of those to graduate, so why not get them both done over the summer?" Nick says I should just keep taking it for an easy credit, but I'm bored silly. They're going over 100-level stuff - der/die/das and conjugating verbs and learning how to pronounce umlauts - while the last German class I took involved reading books and plays. The professor says it will get harder when we go into passive and subjunctive voice, but I went over those in 200 and 201, and there's nothing in the book for this class that I don't understand except a word or two I haven't encountered. And speaking of the book, it cost $81 when the books for my major usually cost around $20. I think I spent less on my books for two of my classes last semester than I did on this one book. It's absolutely ridiculous. I'll call Mom tomorrow and see what she thinks of the whole thing. While I wouldn't mind an easy A, I want to actually learn something in class, or else what's the point of paying all that money? I'll be taking German 560 (Studies in German Lit) in the fall anyway, so if I just take another 500-level in the spring I should be all done.

I can't sleep. I have class at 9:00, and I know I should go take a shower and go to bed, but I'm not really tired. Okay, my body's pretty tired, but my brain just seems to want to keep going for a while. I think it might be because Nick left for Egypt today. I know he'll probably be safe - Chris assures me he's in a "resort" area and that the most he'll have to worry about is making too many friends, or something like that - and one month isn't nearly as long as six, but I still miss him. I've gotten so used to seeing him every day that I feel really lonely when I don't get to see him, even if I spend the entire day with friends. He took one of the little frogs that I knitted with him so he has something to focus on when he thinks of me, and left me the little Viking that I got him in Schleswig-Holstein. He said he'd probably email me Tuesday, and call me when he could. I'll probably feel a bit better when I can hear his voice, but still... well, there's not much I can do about it.

Hooray for a two-hour-long lunch break! I'm actually going to get something done, since I need to pay off that parking ticket I got in December and get a temporary parking pass for the next couple weeks.

Conversation with Nick yesterday:

Nick: So Ihop should be good for breakfast-slash-lunch.
Me: It's called brunch, hun.
Nick: Oh, you're all fancy-like. You just want to make the slash unemployed.
Me: No, I want to employ the slash ... between two men.
Nick: Well, let's go find another guy, then.

I probably deserve to be punished for that one.

Also amusing: today at work, Stephie sneezed so hard she collapsed on the floor. She went from standing upright to being face-down on the carpet. It was pretty hilarious.

Oh man, I just joined Twitter. I couldn't help it - once I saw that Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, the Mythbusters, and Jonathon Coulton are on there, I got kind of excited.

Is anyone else on Twitter? I'm following two IRL friends, one LJ friend, and one Internet friend I've been talking to forever, and the rest are nerd!celebs and webcomic artists. I am also slightly confused - when I added friends from Gmail, it said my stepmom was on Twitter, but if I try to friend her or search for her nothing comes up. I think I'll email her and ask if she's on.

I feel like death on a stick.

It's annoying, but I can deal with waking before my alarm to an extent. Ten minutes, half an hour - not fun, but not too bad, either.

But THREE HOURS? Dammit, body, why do you have to hate me so much? I gave myself extra time to sleep so I'd be well-rested and so I could fight this cold off, and you have to go and team up with the loud assholes on my floor to keep me from getting a good night's sleep. What the hell? I'm trying to make you better, dammit!

Nick gave me what every girl always dreams of getting - a cold. Thaaaaanks, honey! I'm so thirsty.

My brain is having trouble acknowledging the fact that finals are the week after next. I'm not exactly ... prepared. Also, this means a term paper and I am shit at getting big projects done. And after that I start working the Medieval Conference, and then I have class at 9:00 AM every Monday - Thursday for the rest of the summer. And since Medieval is only three weeks long I need to apply for as many jobs as possible so I can earn food money for the summer.

The semester ending also means that Nick will be going to Egypt soon. It's only a month, so I'm not too worried about it, but I know I'm going to miss him all the same. By the time he gets back, we'll have spent more than half of our relationship on separate continents. Fun times, eh?

Beth and I are going to apply on Friday for the apartment we looked at last week. It's at Winchell Way, not too far from Sweetwater's. It's a nice place, about $629 a month, it's not too far from campus, and I'd be living in it by myself for the first month since Beth can't get her dad and brother to help her move until the weekend of my birthday. I'm pretty excited about it, to be honest - it's my first time ever living in an apartment. I realize that's a pretty silly thing to be excited about, but whatever. I'll probably be sick of driving to campus after a week.