Today I found out I'll be graduating with honors this winter. :D Tori Amos was playing in the background, and all felt right.

I also found my dwarf hamster a new home, and his new owner is a complete badass. She showed up on a red motorcycle with a matching cane and 15 years of owning hamsters. Still sad, because I've been with that hamster for 9 months. D: On the other hand, I'll be with Shelly in a week and a half. :D

Pity that before that, I'll have to spend half a week with Duc. I should visit Lila and see how the squirrels are doing.

Still procrastinating if it isn't obvious.

• Find a new apartment before I leave next week
• Move two of my finals ahead so I can avoid homelessness
• Find some summer storage for my crap
• Figure out Mother's Day
• Pack stuff + donate other stuff to charity
• Clean apartment
• Decide on a new owner for the hamster D:
• Prepare for presentation + policy paper + finals
• Call Houston Community College and ask why they're treating me as if they're a real university
• Meet with Matt regarding my honor's thesis
• Meet with Andrew regarding a ride to SF
• Midterm tomorrow! Get off the internet.

I know there's more but...hm. And this is why I make these lists: so they can be ignored and forgotten later.

Oh yes! Take a walk through the community forest, eat breakfast at Crosswinds, buy a goodbye present for roommate (even though she ruined my cram time today).

I'd also still like to get a tattoo, but we will see if there's time for that. It would be on the inside of my wrist, all subtle. And it'd have to be something like a bloody torso, or a bunny foraging on clover. One of those two.

(I really do genuinely want an inner wrist tattoo, and for no good reason except that the experience of having a tattoo might be fun and new. Like it'd give me a little control over my body. My boss suggested I try dropping acid instead.)

Remember when my roomate's boyfriend and I were haunted? That happened while I was living in San Francisco, but I think something followed me here.

So I woke up yesterday morning with the distinct feeling of knees in my upper back and my shoulder; it was like I was lying on someone's lap. I panicked and started flailing around, but something was holding me down on my chest. I could see the other side of my room the whole while, but for some reason, I couldn't turn to see whatever this ghost was.

I then said, "I'll kill you!" which, in retrospect, is a terribly stupid thing to say to a ghost. I could feel the knees press harder into me after that...and then it disappeared and I could move again.

I still don't think it's a dream because again, I never feel things in my dreams. And my dreams have a distinctly unreal quality, even when it's something as banal as going into my living room and watching tv. But these two episodes feel so real. That first time, I could even hear my sister snoring next to me. Way too detailed.

So yah. The boyfriend said this happened to him several times throughout his life without any real consequences. But now it seems like he's passed it on to me...and it's getting bolder.

For sure.

Talking to Kat last night made me realize how much I miss that bitch. It's making leaving Humboldt just a little easier. :3

I have a lot of papers and tests and an honors thesis to come up with, so I decided to spend today cleaning and packing up part of my kitchen.

Also, I had no idea this movie existed, but it just premiered at South by Southwest: http://humboldtcountymovie.com

Predictably, it's about hippies and pot. And that girl from "The Craft" is in it. And the trailer's not great. But holy crap, it makes me all the more sad that I have to leave Humboldt for the summer...and that after I come back, I'll have one semester before I leave for good.

I am not talented enough to either describe how awesome Humboldt is in either words or pictures. Yeah, I make fun of it, but even the hippies do that. Spending 4 semesters traipsing around forests and eating organically has just had such a profound effect on me. I'm still spoiled and I still need some of my urban conveniences, but I could really happily sit down in a pile of mud and count woodpecker cavities (like I did all semester long).

People have been saying this all throughout my 2 years here, and now I'm saying it: if the economy weren't shit here, I'd stay. Actually, I've probably said that before, but I'll say it again anyway.

Anyway. Movie is neat because I recognize bits of scenery. Funny because when I recognized bits of Alhambra in "Rumor Has It...," all I felt was a deep shame. Gross, I can't believe I had to go to work within 50 feet of Kevin Costner.

I am really frightened by a long thread about knitting-related baby names.

Jesusfuck, people. That is how strongly I feel about this.

Also. I'm re-watching season 1 of Project Runway and the rawness of it is so amazing. I've become deaf to everyone's catchphrases after 4 seasons, so it's hilarious to hear Heidi say things like: "One day you're in, the next day you're out. *pause* Fashion is a bitch."

Best of all was Tim Gunn: "Let's go out and rock it."

It's so nice to see everyone treat the show like an experiment, a reality show, and a day camp all at once. That ridiculous atmosphere and those designers made a lot of the best and worst clothes in PR history. (Speaking of which...I had no idea the tumor dress was one of the judges' top 3. I just thought they brought out the 4 worst and the 2 best.)

I miss what you were, and I fear what you will be on the Lifetime Channel.

ANIMAL ACTIVISTS, DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE YOU START MOUTHING OFF RANDOM STREAMS OF EXTREMIST DIARRHEA.

I need to say this because, for the past week, I've been distracted from my work about how irresponsible these PETA and anti-Mars people are. I have to give a 20-30 minute presentation on the habitat loss + degradation of whales and sea turtles next week, and yes, I'll probably get on my soapbox again during that speech. (Just a bit! At the end! And I'll even encourage people to write to the Bush administration and say "YOU'RE AWESOME" if they truly think so, because that's their right!) BUT. At least I do research first, research with facts and multiple sources from multiple viewpoints. Then, and only then, are you entitled to argue for action.

( More of me on my soapbox of rage. )

Anyway. My friend just sent me a care package filled with movies, children's books, and cookies to help me de-stress. Since this post didn't work (still wanting to reach through the internets and smack these people), I'm going to try chocolate toffee cookies.

Every day for the past few days, Duc and I call each other and quote from "Doctor Who." Usually I'm spitting out Baines' speech from the "Family of Blood" episode and a Russell T. Davies' remark:

After his audition I sent a note to the casting director saying, "He's not just good for Baines (his character), that's the next Doctor. Seriously. He's so brilliant."

THAT HE IS, FRIEND. Not wanting Tennant to leave at all (never ever please) but Harry Lloyd as the 11th regeneration would make me pee my pants, and quite literally so. I'm going to start watching "Robin Hood," just for him. (I only recently found out he plays Will Scarlett, thus my renewed zeal for Baines and that arc.)

We haven't even touched on the awesome that is "Battlestar Galactica."

Rawr, this is my life outside of school, hiking, and knitting. ._. Besides my vet-related anxieties, I really am happy like this. A lot of people in my major tend to be in the same rut: nature, environmental responsibility, cycles of pot and beer. But...now it seems a bit sad.

Oh well, time to wash the stink of arsenic and formaldehyde off me.

Post-graduation itinerary:

- Leave San Francisco airport
- Arrive in Saigon
- Spend 2 weeks exploring jungles + wildlife (to-see list: leopards, tigers, and this monkey)
- Leave Hanoi airport
- Arrive in Tokyo and meet Nell!
- Go back to SF

...Is what Nell and I are discussing for December and January. To be honest, I'd rather go to Okinawa than Tokyo, since my Japanese friends are convincing me that it's a much nicer place to be in the middle of winter. But Tokyo'd probably be cheaper?

For spring, I'm thinking about applying for for jobs in Vietnam educating people about wildlife. They keep illegally trading animals, including endangered ones, to China to be consumed in a variety of ways. If people can be taught to respect these creatures and make money off them in a less invasive way (i.e. ecotourism, which is why I'm risking contact with relatives and going to Vietnam), then maybe I won't have to smack a bitch. :O

Speaking of animals that have been screwed over...The Dodos are a pretty awesome band. (I'm going to be lazy and link to Hype Machine, where you can just play the songs straight off the site.)

Fools
Paint the Rust