I have a flight!!

I adore my fabulous boyfriend. Yesterday a series of frantic phone calls and constant calculations led to a family friend lending me money, and my darling boyfriend putting himself at the bottom of his overdraft in order to get me the money for my flight.

Prior to that, N used his excellent search skills to find me a flight for £350, saving me £23. There was only 1 seat available though, and by the time I received the money it was gone. I ended up purchasing a flight from Delta via Opodo for £369.60, thanks to a magic glitch at the bank that put the payment through even though I only had £350 in the bank. The point is, I have a flight!!

I'm going to Maine :D If I fail the reassessment I may get sent back again, but I AM GOING!! (I'm ignoring the very small possibility that I might get refused a visa).

In other news, I am doing lots of history revision. I've settled on four areas, instead of trying to learn everything. I'm not sure whether I have to write an essay, or if I just need to do an exam, but four areas should cover me. I've chosen the founding of the republic, the civil war, world war 2 and the sixties. Cue lots and lots of research and note-taking.

Oh, and guess what. Last night I went to sleep at a reasonable time, I slept through the night, and now I'm awake in the morning. Woohoo! I'm attempting to get my body used to a regular sleeping pattern. At least try to, anyway.

Anyone got a spare £400 I can borrow?

Ok, here's the Maine update. This morning I had a phone call from the woman at Keele who organises the study abroad programme. I, as predicted, failed my history module. (The good news is that it's the only module I failed). I will, as predicted, have to do reassessment sometime between August 10-14th. I'm due in Maine on August 24th. I won't receive the results of the reassessment period before I'm due to go away. I need to go to Maine as scheduled, and await the results. If I fail the module and don't get the required 120 credits, the American Studies department at Keele has the right to bring me home, and the study abroad department at Maine has the right to send me home.

So, I'm going to Maine. I may only be there for a few days, and I might get deported back, but I'm going. Oh wait, one other obstacle. This sticky little visa mess.

I've scoured the internet. I've looked at advice sites, and official sites, and read the nice complicated document about eligibility for visas on the US Embassy website. Criminal convictions are mentioned, but I can't find a single mention of cautions, other than that I need to declare them. This is good news. This means that I'm likely to be approved a visa.

On the other hand, I've looked into what happens if I am refused it. It isn't permanent. I can apply for visas as many times as I like. It will affect tourist travel though. The UK is part of the Visa Waiver Program, but is you've been refused entry to the US or refused a visa, you are not eligible for the Waiver Program and must apply for a visa. Oh the irony.

I can buy a flight today. I've looked and I've found one for £373.60 that gets me there at the right time with no ridiculous layovers or anything. There is one for thirty quid cheaper but I'd arrive in Maine too late to sign in and would need to buy a room in a hotel anyway.

Catch - I've also looked up how much this flight would cost if I brought it next week, or tomorrow. Approximately £600. Apparently at the two month point, flights get expensive.

The way I see it, there are a few ways this could go down...

1) I buy the flight today, I get approved for a visa, I go to Maine, I pass the reassessment, I enjoy four months studying in America like I've dreamed my whole life. Cost = £373

2) I buy the flight today, I get approved for a visa, I got to Maine, I fail the reassessment, I get sent home, but I've had a nice trip to America. Cost = £373

3) I buy the flight today, I get refused a visa, I stay at home and have wasted the £373.

4) I don't buy the flight today, I get approved for a visa, buy the flight then, go to Maine, pass the reassessment, enjoy four months studying in America like I've dreamed my whole life. Cost = £600 +

5) I don't buy the flight today, I get approved for a visa, buy the flight then, go to Maine, fail the reassessment, get sent home. Cost = £600 +

6) I don't buy the flight today, I get refused a visa, don't go to Maine. Have saved money.

I can't decide whether it's better to spend the £400 now and possibly have wasted it, or to have to pay £600 + in a month and a bit. Personally, I'd prefer to buy the flight now. Unfortunately, my calculations for saving for a flight were based on having to buy it after the visa approval. Which means I have approximately £100 quid saved for the flight, and I can't access it 'til Monday. I can only buy the flight today if someone can lend me £373.60 and let me give them a hundred back on Monday and pay the rest at a later date.

Any takers?

How to Meet and Woo a Nerd Girl

This is a post by one of the blogs I read. Absolutely fantabulous.

New Thing # 20

Date:- June 10th 2009
New Thing:- swap ipod contents with someone.

For new thing # 20 I chose to swap ipod contents with someone, namely N. Aside from the fact that I don't have an ipod (I have an mp3 player) and neither does N, it went pretty smoothly. He didn't care about getting my contents, so he just copied his music onto my laptop for me.

The idea of the challenge is to broaden your musical horizons. To listen to the music that someone else listens to, and perhaps discover songs/artists/styles that you never knew you liked, that all of a sudden you love. I'm not quite finished listening to N's music yet - he gave me more than 400 songs. Some of it is already my style, some of it I already have - like Dragonforce. Some of it is downright weird. But there are a few artists I've copied and added to my own music collection.

It's an interesting concept, swapping music with someone. It gives me more of an insight into that person. N has some music that I'd never thought he'd listen to in a million years. He's slightly more eccentric than I thought. I'm tempted to do this challenge again, although it won't count as a new thing, of course. When I decided to do it, the first person who came to mind was C. He listens to primarily Japanese music. I was interested to see if I'd enjoy it. But I never got a chance to speak to him about it before he went home for the summer. I might try next year.

Don't know what to put as a title.....

It's been a fairly odd week and it's only Wednesday morning. I'm not doing too well depression-wise. Monday I went from frazzled to meh to edgy to full-blown episode in about an hour. Ended up spending a tenner on junk food and binge eating while crying non-stop for a few hours. I may also have partaken in another unhealthy habit of mine. Yesterday morning my mood plummeted in a little under ten minutes and I spent three hours crying again.

Aside from realising that I haven't been taking my pills, I don't know why I'm so bad this week. All the fear and stress from sorting out Maine is getting to me, not to mention the constant bloody nightmares. I actually slept for 8 hours without dreaming at all yesterday, but then they came back last night. Not good. N thinks they're night terrors and that I need to tell the dr. He may be right. But I'm pretty sure the dr will just tell me I need counselling, which I already know. I'm waiting on an aassessment appointment to come through. My friend TA is of the opinion that there are medications available to block dreams. I dunno, maybe. I know I should go to the doctor, but that would involve being in control of my own actions at some point. It doesn't help that N is having his own episode at the moment. He was going to come down for the weekend just gone, but he woke up on Friday off the planet. Then he said he'd come down Monday if he felt better, but he didn't. I haven't spoken to him today, so I don't know if he's feeling better or not. I hope he is. I don't like it when he's off. It scares me. And I know it's not his fault, but when I have these episodes I like to be able to turn to my boyfriend for comfort, and right now he just doesn't care. Which sounds harsher than it is. He doesn't care about anything, it's the way his depression works.

In other news, I found someone to countersign my photo for the police certificate. I took it to Brownies on Friday for my district comissioner to sign (she's a nurse), but she's on holiday for three weeks. There is one professor at Keele who's known me two years and he is also on holiday. Stupid people, having summer holidays during the summer. How dare they?! In the end I managed to get my ex-boyfriend G to do it. G is an interesting young man, and a whole long story which I won't get into now. But we're still in a small amount of MSN-limited contact, and he's a civil servant who has known me for more than two years. He agreed to do it, in exchange for sexual favours next time I'm single. So that's been sent off and all I can do is wait for the police certificate to come through. That and start some history revision.

Finally, I have a new label to add. Weightwatchers. Little bit of background information for you.... For those of you who don't know me personally, I am fat. Huge. Humungous. Obese. Technically I think I'm beyond morbidly obese. I didn't used to be. When I was a young teenager I was ridiculously skinny.



GKL describes me in that period as looking like someone has stapled my feet to the ground and pulled on my head til I was all stretched out. I was about 13 or 14 in that picture. When I was 15, things went tits up in my life and I ballooned. This is me in summer 2007.



During that summer GKL (the other fairy) started Weightwatchers in Nottingham, and when she came back to Stoke I joined her. I'd tried on a Keele hoodie and the largest size hadn't fit me. I was so upset I was physically ill. After all the embarrassing things that have happened because of my size (including having two fully grown men stand on the harness to close it at Alton Towers - and that was in the fat person seat), and all the abuse I've recieved, it was not being able to wear a Keele hoodie that convinced me to lose weight. So we started Weightwatchers together.

At my first weigh in I was 25st 6lbs. Fun. The Weightwatchers plan is reasonably good though. You are assigned a certain number of points per day based on your height, weight, age, activity levels, etc. And every food has a points value. You can eat whatever you want, as long as you keep to your points allowance. I did pretty well at first. When you weigh so much it's easy to lose at first. Six months later I'd lost a coupla stone. It was good. But then things with N went all ass over tits, and I hit a wall. I'd lose a few pounds, and put them on again, and lose them and put them on again. It got depressing. I reached the point where I decided I didn't want to pay five quid a week to be told I was fat. So I took a break. I never went back.

I'm happy with my size. I'm comfortable with my curves. My issues come when other people aren't happy with it. When I get insults and abuse in the street, when doctors tell me that all my health problems are because I'm fat, when I can't buy that absolutely beautiful dress because it doesn't come in my size. I like my food, I get depressed when I diet. I didn't want to spend years trying to lose weight and being miserable.

GKL, meanwhile, reached her goal weight, after a LOT of hard work. She had planned to keep going to Weightwatchers to maintain that weight, but work and things got in the way and she stopped going. The weight came back, and she recently decided to go back to Weightwatchers, but she's been having trouble. I decided to go back too. For a few reasons.

1) I know full well that doing the programme with a friend means GKL will likely do better (why does that sound grammatically screwed?).
2) I have a few skirts in my wardrobe that are ever so slightly too small for me and it'd be nice to fit into them.
3) I am almost guaranteed to put weight on in America and if I lose some before I go, then it won't be so bad.

Let me just point out that I am NOT going back because I want to be skinny. I never want to be skinny. I like my curves. I'm going back to lose 'some' weight. I have no intention of reaching the goal weight that will be set for me. I have my own goals, which I'll list in a minute. I absolutely refuse to spend the next twenty years dieting and then die.

Last night was my first meeting, and my initial weigh in. I was curious to see if I'd put on everything I lost the first time around. I stepped on the scales, glanced at the readout and turned to GKL with a look of abject shock and horror on my face. I HAD put back everything I'd lost, plus another two and a half stone. My current weight is 27st 13.

It was shocking, and slightly humiliating, but it's a fact. I have a bit more weight to lose than I'd planned. The thing is that I do not look like I weigh 28 stone. I haven't gotten much bigger than before. I'm still beautiful. But, the weight needs to go down at least a little bit.

For my height and age, my weight should be somewhere between 9st 10 and 12st 11. If I plan to reach that weight I need to lose 15 stone. That's a whole fully grown man! Quite intimidating. But I don't want to reach that weight. Here are my goals.

1) To fit into the clothes in my wardrobe.
2) To be able to buy clothes in a shop other than Evans.
3) To be able to go horseriding again (most stables have a 20st limit).

Other than that, I don't really care. But I'll keep you updated.

Sleep - my elusive friend

I am awake. It's quarter past three in the morning, and I'm awake. Yesterday I was awake at two o'clock in the morning. It seems my body just does not want to let me sleep for longer than 5 or 6 hours at a time at the moment. It is exceedingly frustrating. Just like a lot of other things in my life at the moment.

I find myself, for the first time in my life, wishing my counselling appointment would come through. I've been having nightmares. I have them quite regularly, but recently it's been nothing but nightmares. Aside from one dream about being given a German Shepherd puppy called Rocky for Christmas, every dream I've had (at least that I can remember) in the past week or so has been a nightmare. Several a night. I can't recall all the details of them, but they've had me waking up sweating and shaking. I woke up crying the other night, which was not fun. But aside from the nightmares my depression is okay-ish at the moment. A few meh-attacks, but nothing more. Aside from an edgy fit on Monday, but there was a reason for that.

After the pallaver last week with paying the SEVIS fee, I was relieved when a payment cleared in my bank on Monday and I could call the US embassy visa line and make my appointment. Nice and easy step. Phone em up, make the appointment, pay the $131 fee. Simple.

NOT! Of course not. This is me. Nothing ever goes right. That would be ridiculous. I phoned the number and gave them my passport number as requested. Then the nice man with the Irish accent (?!) said that he had to tell me that the Rehabiliation of Offenders Act did not apply when applying for a US visa, and that I had to declare any arrests, cautions or convictions in my past. So, I told him about my two arrests and cautions for shoplifting. (I had an interesting teenagehood). He informed me that I could still apply for a US visa, but I had to provide a police certificate and go through a pre-screening process, and that my chances of getting a visa were reduced.

I calmly listened to the nice Irish man explain what I had to do next, then I hung up and promptly burst into tears. Yet another fuck up of my own making interrupting my plans to get to Maine. Not to mention that if I was refused a visa it was a permanent, lifetime thing. No moving to live in America eventually. Bye bye lifetime dream. I very nearly reached for my blades to partake in some punishment, but instead I texted GKL and we went to Taybarns. We'd both had bad days and Taybarns REALLY helped. I can't decide whether it was the scrummy roast and cauliflower cheese they have there, or the superbly delicious ice cream and profiteroles and hot chocolate fudge sauce, or the company of my best friend. But I came out of there feeling a lot better.

So here's what I need to do for the visa. I need to download a form from the police website requesting a police certificate (like a more indepth and official Criminal Record Bureau check), get a photo verified and counter-signed by a professional who's known me for more than two years, photocopy passport and proof of address and send it all off with a cheque for £35. When the police certificate arrives I need to fill in a consulate form and scan that and the certificate to email in. Then the embassy will begin their pre-screening process. Getting the certificate can take 2-10 working days, the pre-screening can take 5-12 days. THEN I can call to make a visa appointment, but I'll have to be interviewed by a specific consular officer, dependant on what the results of the pre-screening are, so I may not get my interview til August. All kinds of wonderful chaotic fun.

I have my form, and my cheque and my photo. Just need to get someone to sign it and I can post it off. Problem solved. Sort of.

And yesterday it all got even messier. I had a financial notification from the Student Loan people, with reduced tuition fee and increased maintainence loan. I called them to confirm it was correct. They said that because I'd be studying abroad I only qualified for half of the year's tuition fee. The second half. Which means that I'd need to find £1600 by September, on top of everything else.

Once I'd finished cussing, I called Erica in the Centre of International and Education and Development office (hereafter known as CIED). I wanted to see if I could arrange a payment plan or something, because there was no way I could afford the sixteen hundred by September. She informed me that as I was only going away for a semester, I should still get full tuition fee from the Student Loan people. It was only if I was going for a full year that I'd only get half. So I called the Loan people back to double check what was on my application. Seems like I screwed up the application. The man gave me directions to a form online that I needed to print off and fill in and send back, changing my circumstances. Then to wait for another financial notification.

Problem solved.

Next problem - in the pack I got from USM last week there was a sheet detailing minimum insurance requirements I needed to meet US entry requirements. I doubled checked it against the Keele insurance plan I'd taken out, and noticed discrepancies. It was more than likely that I'd need to cancel the Keele insurance and find another one, which would no doubt have been more expensive. But I emailed the relevant Keele person, who informed me that their insurance was adequate, it just didn't have everything written on the initial application form. Or I couldn't understand it anyway.

Problem solved.

Next problem - I worked out exactly what I have to pay out between now and when I'm due in Maine. And I worked out what I can afford to pay from my paydays (there are only 5 left!!). I have everything covered. Just about. I looked up flight information and rough prices. When I first looked, back in January, they were about £200-300. Not bad. If I buy one now, it's about £400-500. Slightly more expensive than I can afford. I'm a bit short, but I'm sure one or two of my lovely friends can help me out. However.... I can't buy the flight until I've recieved my visa. Well I can, but it would be illogical. And I really should wait until I get my re-sit exam results too. This means buying a last minute flight a few days before I go. I looked at last minute flight prices. BIG PROBLEM!! We're looking at £650-750. No way I can afford that. I'm several hundred pounds down. I'm useless with money and I've never let it bother me, but now I've apparently screwed up my chances to go away (AGAIN)!!! Consider this lesson learned. I WILL start being better with money. I promise.

This problem is surmountable. I can possibly gather the money I need, and indebt myself to several people in the process, but it's doable. But all the problems and obstacles and things have left me a little frazzled. And by 'little' I mean 'utterly and horrendously'.

Hopefully though, my lovely N will be down later today and can cuddle me and make things all better. If nothing else, I feel safe around him and can sleep properly and nightmare-free. In the meantime, I'm gonna try sleeping again.

New Thing # 19

Date:- 29th May 2009
New Thing:- the match box competition

When you were a child, were you ever challenged to see how many items you could fit into a match box? I don't think I've ever done it and I decided I'd try it for a new thing. It's always more fun as a competition though, so I roped GKL in to do it with me. I gave each of us and empty match box, told her we had two days, and offered her a tenner if she could beat me.

Here's my result...



It all fit into the match box, honest. Here's a list:

- plaster
- pendant of a bat
- hairband
- pro plus tablet
- a match
- laptop key
- xmas light bulb
- one reese's piece
- googly eye
- counter
- mini battery
- silver ball
- red bead
- nail
- button
- picture hook
- sticky star
- sequin
- screw
- staple
- needle
- pin
- 5 pence
- safety pin
- guiding badge
- small piece of plastic
- little purple hoop doodad

That, if my maths is correct, is 27 items in a match box.

Here's GKL's...



And here's her list:

- bottle lid
- tiny flower
- ring pull
- stamp
- biro tip
- bobby pin
- paper
- needle
- pin
- pearl bead
- hair slide
- rice krispie
- green gem
- badge back
- 5 pence
- pill
- earring
- nose stud
- tongue stud
- tiny gift
- silver ball
- keyring ring

And that, if my maths is correct, is only 22 items in a match box, so I win!!!

New Thing # 18

In the absence of sleep I have decided that I shall (finally) update you on the New Things situation. I AM still doing them, I just haven't written them up. I've dispensed with the scrapbook, and I also haven't stuck to the one a week schedule, but I figure that if I get the 52 New Things done by New Year, then I'll still have kept to my resolution. I'll try to get the ones I've done written up today. Beginning with...

Date:- 19th May 2009
New Thing:- try a new fruit

While grocery shopping with GKL in Morrison's I made the spontaneous decision to try a fruit I've never tasted before. I grabbed a Sharon fruit. 50p, and it looks like this...



I don't know why I picked it. It looks, quite frankly, like a not-ripe tomato with an old stem. But I was willing to have a go, in the New Things spirit. The little sticky label attached to it said you could bite into it like an apple, but that seemed a little too brave for something I've never eaten before. So I sliced it in half. I was expecting pulpy, with a billion little seeds. GKL tells me I was thinking of pomegranete. Who knows? I've never had that either. Sliced in half the Sharon fruit had a pretty star....



(Since my pictures aren't too clear, here's a nice one from Google Image...)



It was a little intimidating to bite into something you've never eaten before, or even heard of, but I did it. It was nice. Like a peachy mango, but not nearly as sticky or slimy. Ever so slightly tart, but maybe I didn't pick a ripe one. It had a kind of grainy texture like mango has under the slime too. I enjoyed it and, if I
ever get around to it, I'll definitely have some again.

Addicted to lols, part 2

I have had a total of two hours sleep since I woke up at stoopid o'clock this morning. And have I used the rest of the time to be productive and get stuff done? Have I buggery. I've looked at the entire back archives of this website. During my hours and hours of giggling and wasting time, I have bookmarked about six more sites to look up, and decided to subject you to watching some very funny videos. Be warned though, they are geeky. If you aren't a geek, you may not appreciate the full humour.

This one is a nice little piece about a revolutionary new piece of software called "Paint"...



This one is the reason I don't use Macs...



What if websites were people?...

Damn, I can't get the embedding to work, but follow this link. It's worth it. Very funny.

What if fonts were people?...

Watch Font Conference on CollegeHumor

If you're a Twitterer, here's a little warning video for you...

More linkage.

This is quite cool. Very clever...

One more link.

This one reminded me of GKL so much, mainly because of the era, but it's very clever and so true too...



This one is the reason I haven't owned a personal printer in about five years...

Another link.

There, viral video torture over.

Twitter

I was just scanning through all my old posts, adding 'Maine' labels where appropriate, when I spotted that I'd mentioned joining Twitter ages and ages and ages ago, as CleoCeleenaCree.

Just a note: I got bored of Twitter and let that account slide, but have since rejoined as SwitchCleo. Blame N, he developed an addiction to it first, so I followed him.

Anyway, you can find me here.

Stoopid O'clock

It's half past seven in the morning, and I am wide awake. I've been awake at this time of day before, but usually because I haven't been to sleep yet. Today I was happily asleep dreaming of N and our house in Ankh-Morpork with its view of the Unseen University, then I woke up. I woke up, and despite being so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open properly, I couldn't get back to sleep. So now I'm awake.

It's not a bad thing I suppose. I do have a very large list of things I need to do. My room is such a mess I can't find anything I need to do the list of things I need to do. So the first thing on the list is to tidy the damn room. All kinds of fun and games. Once I actually start doing it, I'll enjoy it. I like organising and sorting and putting things away. I just don't like starting.

Once the room is tidy I have a mountain of paperwork to do. Things for Maine are progressing. I came home from N's on Tuesday to find a nice package waiting for me on the mail shelf. My acceptance pack from Maine! Yay! Included in the package was my DS-2019, also known as a Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor (J-1) Status. This is a very important document. I haven't been able to do anything towards my trip without this document. Now that I have it I have lots to do.

a) register with the Department of Homeland Security and pay a $180 Sevis fee
b) call the US embassy in London, pay a $131 appointment fee, and make an appointment to get my visa
c) fill in crap loads of forms
d) go to London, have my interview, give them £14 so they can courier my passport (and hopefully my visa) back to me
e) when the visa arrives I can start looking for a flight

There's a million more things to do after that, but these are the important steps I'm focusing on at the moment.

I did step a yesterday. I started to do it online here at home, but the website informed me I needed to print the receipt so I had to go to Keele library. Then I realised I didn't have enough money in my usual account so I had to get GKL to come to Keele to give me the card for the account I opened to save for America. She showed up, I tried to pay and hit the next bloody obstacle. I opened that account with the intention of saving, and being able to withdraw cash while in America without a hefty charge. I had only ordered a cash card, not a debit card. So despite the money being in a Nationwide account, I couldn't pay the damn fee. It would take 3-5 days to transfer the money to my usual account, and I really needed to get this Sevis fee paid and out of the way. My wonderful N bailed me out again. He transferred the money instantly from his account to mine (we bank with the same people). I paid the Sevis fee, and when the transfer clears I'll pay him back.

So step a is complete, despite hassle and chaos and me being a complete numpty. When the transfer clears and I've paid N back, I'll call the embassy and embark on step b. All kinds of fun and games. (Is that twice I've said that now? Do I have a new annoying catch phrase?)

Of course, there is one other, pretty major obstacle between me and Maine. I may just possibly have scraped a pass in my Politics module, and in my Sex and Survival module, but I have most definitely failed History. There is no way I could possibly passed. So I will need to take resits in August, just a few days before I'm due to go away. The word 'urk' springs to mind. Since I KNOW I'll have to do resits it makes sense to start revising now. This I will do. I'm going to focus on 4 areas, rather than trying to learn it all. One area for an essay if I have to write one, and three to choose from for the exam.

I WILL do the revision. At least two hours a day studying. I need to, and I will. If I can't go to Maine because of my own stupidity and failures I will probably kill myself. Not good.

Hmmm, I'm ridiculously tired. I'm going to try sleeping again. If I can't, I'll tidy up. If I can, I'll tidy up when I wake up.

HUGE update

I read a lot of blogs. This is not news to anyone. A few of the blogs I read don't update very often and I tend to get very frustrated. It occurred to me this morning that I may be a bit of a hypocrite. Actually, I know I'm a hypocrite in a lot of areas, I'm just talking about this one specific area today. I get frustrated when people don't update often, but I haven't been updating my blog either. I suppose there are people who might get frustrated when they click on my link and there's nothing to read.

So here I am. I am making a conscious decision to update more regularly. Not everyday, but more often. It's not even like I don't have things to write about, so I don't know why I've been absent. My life has descended into a geeky/nerdy cycle. N has a t-shirt which describes a geek's perfect day. It goes something along the lines of: wake up, play video games, eat breakfast, play video games, eat lunch, play video games, eat dinner, play video games, eat supper, play video games, sleep. My life is becoming much like that, but with less structure food-wise. I sleep until N wakes me up through consistently texting/calling me and nagging me to wake up. I check my millions of blogs, and my email accounts, and facebook and twitter. I grab some kind of food stuff. I watch TV shows (currently obsessing over Bones, have just watched both seasons of Pushing Daisies, and when I'm with N we're watching Battlestar Galactica). If I'm not watching TV and knitting/surfing, I'm playing World of Warcraft. (I have a lot to say about this, it will come later). I repeat this tv/surf/wow/eat cycle in various routines until I fall asleep again.

A lot of this time is spent online, so I don't know why I don't blog, I just don't.

The past fortnight has actually had a helluva lot of social interaction in it, which is unusual. N came out on the Stitch and Bitch end of year outing, to see Wolverine and to join us in the Union quiz (Stitch and Bitch came 2nd). (I'm very proud of N for his socialising, and for being so generally wonderful and lovely recently). I had my traditional end of exams extravaganza, which had in attendance my lovely N, GKL and IMP, KI (who I can't believe I haven't mentioned before, and who is actually two people K and I who are most often seen together and so will be referred to as KI) and CB and her new girlfriend. C was missing, which is sad, and I haven't seen him in a few weeks, so I hope he's alright. But the party was a success, and I got presents (having decided that it would be my substitute birthday party - yes my birthday is actually in October, but I will hopefully be on a different continent by then). Me and GKL attended the society awards on behalf of Stitch and Bitch, who I am proud to announce came second for Best New Society. We lost to the Controversial Film Society, and we have decided that they were worthy opponents. If we'd lost to the Motorsports Society who came third, we would have been decidedly cheesed off. We also managed to convince the organisers to let us submit last minute candidates for colours and merits (general well-done awards) to some of our members since we hadn't recieved the nomination forms.

The Summer Party that I'd been looking forward to all semester was a major bust. It was an atrocious waste of £20. The 'fairground' consisted of three rides, one of which is regularly parked outside Argos in the town centre. Despite the provision of several music stages in order to diversify the music offered, it was all the same horrible techno hip/hop rubbish. We left after an hour. bitterly disappointed. KI, GKL and IMP went on to go bowling or to the cinema or something, while I went home feeling so disappointed I was ill and edgy. Thursday was the Super Quiz in the ballroom, with a magnificent Stitch and Bitch turnout. I was there, naturally, with IMP and GKL, and KI (who are not actually Stitch and Bitch members, but were in our team anyway). Also present were President T and his girlfriend, and MH. It was a badly organised evening (just like everything else our current Vice Preisdent: Activities and Finance has arranged this year), but prizes were won aplenty during games of horrendous bingo (cards that went up to 100, with only 90 balls available!). Stitch and Bitch won third place, actually winning money! It was only £7.80 between 8 people, but there were some cute little jewellery boxes too.

Karnage (the Krap society version of the Summer Party) was this Friday just gone. It was only £4 for non-society members, and the posters advertised a fire show, a free bbq, bouncy castle, surfboard simulator, limbo competition and many other interesting acts. I'm not one for dancing, so I like events that offer activities other than drinking and listening to music. By the time we got there after Brownies, however, the bbq had run out of food, the surfboard and bouncy castle were gone, the limbo competition was over. The music was far far better than the summer party and the people were a lot nicer to look at, but the summer weather had disappeared and it was cold and rainy and cramped and loud and I ended up leaving after an hour, again. I went home to pizza, ice cream and World of Warcraft.

Saturday was the Summer Fete at the church where I do Brownies. We had a table to run some games, in order to raise money for the unit. The Rainbow Guider provided a soft toy for a guess-my-name competition, and the Guide Leader brought a jar of sweets for the how-many-sweets competition, and CB and I sat at a table next to the "DJ" for two hours. It was not a success. After taking out the money to reimburse for the prizes, we had made a grand profit of £3 something. Of this, half was to be given to the church, and the remaining 50% was to be split between the Rainbow, Brownie and Guide units. Not a success. Cue more disappointment.

By the time I got home Satuday evening I was sick of being disappointed. I don't do social very often, and I'd been looking forward to the events of the past few weeks. The repeated disappointment had piled up on me and made me edgy. I sank into my bed and resolved not to leave for at least a week, and to quit socialising already cos it really doesn't work. Then last night N invited me up to see him in Preston and I was packed, dressed and out of the door in ten minutes.

Now I'm sat on his bed blogging while he plays a game I have no interest in whatsoever. In a while we'll watch Battlestar Galactica or play World of Warcraft of just generally cuddle. It's nice :D

And so on to World of Warcraft. N is a geek. I am a geek. N is a gaming geek, and he plays WoW. I have heard of WoW and played half an hour on his PC sometime last year, but I forgot about it because my old laptop Archimedes had a fit and died if I tried to run two programmes at once. If I'd installed and tried to play WoW it probably would have disintegrated in my lap. Then I brought a new laptop. N installed a trial for WoW for me, helped me create a character and taught me how to play. Since then he's paid for three months subscription for me. I wouldn't say I'm addicted, but I have been known to be surprised that the sun has come up whilst playing. It's fun. Hard to get used to. I've only ever played word games, or Mario, where all I have to pay attention to is the timer. There is a LOT more to focus on with WoW and I often lose control. But I enjoy it. I have three characters, but my favourite is Celeena. Celeena is a cow. Actually, she's a Tauren Hunter (currently level 36). N has a Tauren Druid who plays along with me and rescues me a lot. I have a tendency to dive off tall things into large groups of people/animals/creatures that want to kill me and get overwhelmed.

Last week I kept playing for a while after he'd gone to bed, and managed to find my way around an area called Thousand Needles, wander aimlessly until I accidently found my way up a mountain that I needed, killed a whole lot of bad guys, summoned a dragon, killed it, took what I need to complete the quest, and go back to the guy who'd sent me there to hand it in, all without dying once. I was so ridiculously chuffed with myself I texted N at three in the morning and woke him up. I'm still pleased. It was a big milestone for me.

Last night's action has made me realise that I DO NOT like underwater quests. I don't like that monsters can attack me from any side, as well as from above or below. I get killed a lot. I think I died about ten times in the course of collecting some encrusted fins.

I think I'm reasonably up to date now, I do realise I have rambled quite considerably, but it's in the title, you were warned.