Turns out I'm not going to college after all! It's a funny story, really.

Okay, maybe not. Since my college is a town away, it's always been much more convenient for me to register for classes and get my books online, but apparently when you order your textbooks, my college has a policy where one's credit card isn't charged until the books are taken off the shelves. I didn't know this, since my card had always been charged immediately - but that was because I was having them shipped directly to my house. This time, I wanted them sent to the local satellite, thinking it would be faster.

Guess not. The card has yet to be charged, the books yet to be sent. So what does that mean? I'm not going. It is far too late for me to hope to get them now. Instead of worry over it, I will just never go to pick up my books. Ever. The money has already been withdrawn from the account and spent on better things.

I suppose, now that I have oodles of free time available, I will spend this would-be semester focusing on writing & my design hobby. Good a time as any, isn't it? This will make a whole year I've been off of school, but come the summer, my ability to get to and from campus should significantly improve, so there will be absolutely no excuse to go.

At least I have plenty of time to snuggle with Nolan now.

Ew, the feedburner in the corner of the page looks ugly.

I'm going to have to figure out a way to fix that in the next few days.

Still don't know what book I want to adapt just yet. I wanted to try a book that hasn't been done yet, and that of course leaves Ray Bradbury out. The author of the blog post I mentioned before seems quite adamant that adapting something that one doesn't have the copyright to is a bad idea. Which sucks, because I'd just come up with the perfect idea for me.

When I was about 14, I read a book that was phenomenal and really touched me, oddly enough. And that was The Free Lunch, by Spider Robinson. Sadly, it was written in 2001.

So, I am back to square one. I'm going to defer to my Horror Writing book by the HWA, and see what it recommends as classics. Maybe one of the authors as some other not-well-known novel out there? I hope so.

And hey, wouldn't you know it - this blog post actually looks blog-y, what with all those links. I'm proud of myself.

Nolan returns home tomorrow morning!! I am beyond ecstatic right now. After living with him for four months, having to return to the hundreds of miles that use to be between us was torture. The most I've gotten to talk to him was about an hour or two over YIM late a few nights. The rest was just the occasional text every so often.

I was miserable. To the point I wasn't hungry anymore, I was having trouble sleeping (Thursday night was an example of that. No sleep at all) and I cried every time I thought about him too much. Is that bad for only a week apart? Probably, but I can't say I care.

Now he's only a good night's rest and a few hours away. Although, I don't think he'll be resting much - the bus doesn't usually allow for that.

The worst thing about this whole situation is that the day after he gets home, I've got to start school. Which means I'll be away from him for about 10 hours a day. (Class + lots of travel time.) At least it's only 3 days a week. Sadly, I checked not too long ago as to my Interpersonal Communications status, and it is still at #7.

But, oh well. Tomorrow I just want to focus on the fact he and I are together again, and get as much snuggling in as possible.

I'm wondering what sort of subject I want to tackle for a personal project - an adaptation of a book. A blog post I read months ago by a screenwriter I follow, suggested amateur writers start out their portfolio with adaptations. I've yet to finish a script from start to finish, so maybe..

...Oh.. good lord. I just got an spam email about the Snuggie. Which, in case you don't know, is this:



Wow. Alright, back on topic: so maybe this will give me the push - and structure! - that I need to finally finish one. I was considering Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for a while there, but now I'm learning more towards something by Ray Bradbury. This requires a trip to the library for sure..

Also: running on zero sleeps gives you a major headache. Time to relieve it with some zombie slaughtering. (What can't Left 4 Dead solve?)

Incredibly tired at the moment. Despite laying down and getting all cozy underneath the covers, sleep never came for me last night. So I have been up and about since about 4:30 a.m. today. Not even an entire energy drink is waking me up.

Although, I was graced with good news this morning. I'm officially enrolled in three classes now - the latest being Understanding Human Behavior. I'm still #7 on the waitlist for Interp. Comm. but, my hopes are high. Several people always fail to show up for the first class, and even more for the second.

What's sad, however, is that, even if things don't go my way and I end up not getting enrolled in this particular class - 6 weeks from now, the classroom will be half empty. Perhaps I should start looking into some late-starting classes for around 8 a.m., to fill the void?

I slacked this year when it came to writing resolutions - meaning, I didn't. It was on my to-do list. But, like a lot of things, I just never got around to it. However, in light of my recently clear schedule (Translation: I'm bored) I've decided to write them now, in no particular order.

1. Be more productive
2. Set and meet deadlines
3. Eat a little healthier every week
4. Go for a walk once in a while
5. Cook more
6. Bake more
7. Treat the people that I love like I love them 100% of the time.
8. Start a writing project and finish it. (Like that adaptation I've been mulling over...)
   

School starts again in just four days. I'm optimistic that I'll do as well this semester as I did last Spring - so long as I stay on myself to keep up with the reading and the work. Even though, for some classes, waiting until the last minute is my key to an A, but when you've got four classes that'll likely each give me an assignment or reading to do every day - compared to three that rarely even gave out worksheets - I don't think my usual plan of putting things off would be a bright idea. Things pile up, and deadlines seem to come much faster, the more work you have to do. I'm going to try and implement a weekly planner of sorts, to try and keep myself on track. We'll see how that goes.

Although I'm most worried about the prospect of groups - I never do well in them. There's something about having to cooperate with others...

Hopefully in the English IA class I'm taking this time around, the final project won't be a group presentation. That's why I failed it before. Well, that, and I didn't even write the essay that went along with it, which made basing a presentation off of how it connected with the others' a bit difficult. I ended up just not going, the more in depth we got into the project. Still to this day, I don't think I've told my parents I got an F in that class.

Of the four I registered in, I'm only technically in two of the courses. The others, I'm on the waitlist. At least for one, I'm #1 on the list. As soon as someone drops out or fails to show up, I'm in. For the last class, I'm not quite so lucky - #7. Who would've thought so many people would want to take Interpersonal Communication at 8 a.m.? I've got my fingers crossed for when I get there Monday morning, that enough people don't show. Or at least that I move further up.

The only class thus far that I was guaranteed in from the get-go was American Government. Oh. Boy. Doesn't that sound like a blast? The second semester of 10th grade Social Studies was basically American Government, for me. I hated that semester. I hated that teacher.

This time will be better, though. Right? I hope so. In any case, the breakdown of my school days (MWF) will look like this:

• 5:00 a.m. : Wake up. Ugh...
• 6:10 a.m. : Head out the door to get dropped off at the bus stop by my dad. Wait for the bus. In the cold.
• 6:20 a.m. : Get on the bus. For an hour.
• 7:30 a.m. : Make my way all the way across campus, from the bus drop-off point to the small music room where my Interpersonal Communication class is.
• 8:00 a.m. - 8:50 a.m. : Interpersonal Communication
  
• 9:00 a.m. - 9:50 a.m. : Understanding Human Behavior
  
• 10:00 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. : Introduction to American Government
• 11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. : English 1A: College Composition
  
• 12:00 p.m.: Wait around in the computer lab.
  
• 1:50 p.m. : All aboard the bus!
  
• 3:30 p.m. : Get dropped off at the local satellite of the college in Red Bluff, and wait to get picked up

Blogs, when used for documenting one's personal life, rather than trying to broadcast to an audience in a certain niche, is a weird little thing. How many people kept a diary or journal during their teenage years? And then, how many of those hid it away where they thought no one would look, throwing a fit when it was discovered under their mattress by a parent or sibling?

It's their private thoughts and having another read them is an invasion. Yet.. most personal blogs have within them the very same entries I would expect one to keep in an offline journal, should one be used instead. I suppose it's the anonymity - that always seems to bring out strange things in people.

In any case, despite having multitudes of other online & off options, I'm trying again to blog about... nothing - in the Seinfeld meaning, of course. In the grand scheme of things, it really is nothing, but for now, for the occasional posts, it's something.