a cog in something turning.

Go to Wikipedia. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.

January 16
EVENTS
1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
1968 - Youth International Party (Yippies) is founded.
2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which will be its final one. Columbia disintegrates 16 days later on re-entry.

BIRTHS
1874 - Robert W. Service, Canadian poet (d. 1958)
1932 - Dian Fossey, American zoologist (d. 1985)

DEATHS
1806 - William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)

...do you guys have MySpace addresses? I'm setting up shop there (no plans to leave LJ, though) and would love to add any/all of you as friends.

We now return to your regularly scheduled Caprican Resistance Fighter pr0n daily agenda.

Why is it so difficult to record an acceptable voicemail message? Why, why. I recorded my name eighteen times but the sound of my voice on the playbacks made me cringe. I sound both stoned and eleven. Eventually I thought, Well maybe it is my name that sounds bad--not the quality of my voice itself. But when I left my name as Eleanor Roosevelt, it sounded just as bad. Does anyone else agonize over this? Being nasal and retarded, I mean, not being Eleanor Roosevelt.

Here's what I've been doing lately.
x listening to Ryan Adams on repeat
x floating in and out of sleep all night
x trying to embarrass myself as little as possible at work
x juggling reading materials based on mood/caffeination level/blood-alcohol content/which book I remembered to stick in my bag before stumbling off to work: currently it's SK's new one, Cell, The Great Gatsby--I will never ever tire of that book--What She Saw... by Lucinda Rosenfeld, and an amazing New York Times essay by Tennessee Williams, "The Catastrophe of Success", which was published just before the premiere of A Streetcar Named Desire. Later versions of the essay can be found in current editions of Streetcar and The Glass Menagerie. I totally recommend it to anyone struggling to maintain an artistic life in the face of poverty/adversity/rejection/suppression/depression. You know. The standard -ions. Anyway, read the essay. It's fortifying in every way.

I've also written more in the last two weeks than I have in five years. What's surprising is that it isn't fiction, or criticism, or even the long-dreaded Statements of Purpose--it's poetry. Never considered myself much of a poet, but recent events have compelled me to, uh. Shut the fuck up and write poems. Yeah. So. I feel different now than I felt before I began writing them; it's a kind of vision re-alignment, this awareness of detail in the people and objects around me. If you habitually regard the world in this way there's no temptation to fold inward on yourself again, to surrender to self-pity or frustration. There's always work to do. This is a mindset I'd like to maintain for as long as I can.

Anyway, at least one of the poems will see the light of day because it's a gift.

I miss you all very much.

1. As I despise hard work, it should come as no surprise that moving (from home to home, not from indoors to outdoors or room to room) is one of my least favorite pasttimes. NEVERTHELESS I have accomplished this, thanks to lots of help from fieldreporter (♥!) and my brother. The new apartment--henceforth to be referred to as Casa Corona--is lovely and homey and just so so so pretty, you can't even believe it. Cream walls with toast-colored carpets, beautiful big windows with marble sills, sweet little white-painted radiators that keep everything warm and cozy...I just adore it. All my books and toys and pots and posters and things, out of storage at last! And my garage! :D And my own mailbox in the hallway! :D And and and. Well, I'm just totally in love with the place in case you couldn't tell.

2. Still no phone line/internet hookup yet, though. Working on it.

3. Work's okay. I've picked up a ton of extra hours at another store this week, and tomorrow's my first day there. This should prove interesting, as this particular Sbux is located inside the richest mall in Dayton (as opposed to "across the street from the ghetto mall"--i.e., my own store), and will probably (at this time of year) be even busier than I'm used to. But hey, hours are hours and it's not like I'm not used to retail holidays.

4. Who's seen Narnia yet? I'm going this afternoon, I can't wait. Did you like it?

5. Happy early Christmas, in case I haven't said so yet. I love you guys. There are probably a million things I've forgotten to mention, but I'll be back as soon as I can.

Oh my god, I'm so in love with autumn right now. The world is a wind tunnel, or a snow globe filled with golden leaves instead of white bits. There is a huge volume of leaves on the ground right now, and when the wind is up the sound of them--scraping across pavement, rustling against branches--is as amazing as the blustery swirl of colors. Today the air is warm and grey and full of gold, and this makes me infinitely grateful that I'm off work.

To Do:
1. make bank deposit
2. library run
3. Subway for lunch! (okay, mcdonald's...-___-)
4. B&N to read rest of The Penultimate Peril <3
5. look at apartments...?
6. walk

[ETA:....yeah, like #4 was going to happen.]

It is the birthday of my beautiful friend rogue24!

Hey Melissa, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you! And will even have a present for you when I come home.

What? I have a paid account? WELL IN THAT CASE MISTER.

( Last one in the poll's a rotten pumpkin. )

I'm probably the least skilled programmer in the joint, but every once in a while I satisfy myself. [ETA: OMG WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME IT LOOKED LIKE SHEER BUTTOCKS >:O >:O] disdainty, when you commented on how pink my very first layout was, I assumed you meant "IT IS NOT PINK ENOUGH". Also, like an idiot I just yesterday discovered (to my joy) that LJ saves your customizations for each different S2 style you use. So I can make as many layouts as I like without worrying about them being swallowed up and deleted. I am unreasonably happy about this.

More good news: I'm not working on Halloween, so I get to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with Jack. "Libby" is so busted. The weather here is October-splendid, my hair is retaining some semblance of straightness in the low humidity, and I have a pile of scary DVDs to watch this week. Man, this is so my favorite holiday.

1. the way autumn arrives earlier and stays later
2. the long light of early evenings
3. the lack of traffic
4. wealthy suburbs
5. no Sheetz(!)
6. more health food alternatives (e.g., Trader Joe's)
7. DollarSavers Cinemas <3
8. (937)
9. lots more community theatres
10. super-luxe libraries
11. Kettering Rec Center
12. Christopher's Restaurant
13. the Flyover downtown
14. dark, smooth fountain water in Lincoln Park
15. flat. flat. flat. flat.

Damn you, Cameron Crowe. Why do you always know just exactly how to push my buttons, no matter how hard I resist & try to remain objective?

( elizabethtown & more, possibly spoilerish. )

This week has been a lot of fun. Living with my brother's family is something I'll remember really fondly--dancing to Louis Prima with Jack, late-night talks (with popcorn!) at the kitchen table after everyone is home from work or their gigs, carving jack o'lanterns and drinking Ichabod pumpkin ale...Well, it's just cozy. It'll be a lot better when I can come over and enjoy their company without feeling like I'm imposing.

I really, really want my own apartment. Now.

I don't know what the weather is doing where you live, but here in Ohio it's legitimate autumn. As in Blue sky with intermittent gusts of rain, showers of yellow leaves, crisp days and frigid nights autumn. I should be enjoying the beauty, out scuffing the sidewalks in boots, drinking coffee and hanging around downtown. But I'm cold and a little sick these days. I've had some kind of weirdo stomach virus for the past couple days--the kind that feels like a clenched fist in your abdomen, so that you like awake, aching & nauseous, rather than getting truly sick and relieving yourself. But it's already going away, I think, and it's interesting that it didn't hit me until I was done with my 10-hour training day on Thursday. My body is usually courteous enough to wait for down time before getting sick. It must have known I don't have to go back in until Tuesday, so it was a good time to hop on a mild case of the plague. *thumbs up*

It didn't even occur to me to connect this illness with Stress until last night, when my dad mentioned that he had never started a new job without getting sick. Then my friend J said, "Oh, well you might be run down from working hard and worrying." That's probably true. But it was almost worth it, because today my brother made me matzoh ball soup. <3 And tonight I'm staying in to babysit Jack, my beautiful nephew; so I have a built-in excuse to cuddle up beneath a blanket and read all night rather than straightening my goddamn hair, putting on heels, and going out to spend money I should be saving for an apartment of my own. O paycheck, where art thou.

I am working my ass off to finish training and get certified at Starbucks. I should be ready to work as a full barista by the end of next week, which means TIPS. So far I'm loving my store and my coworkers--a very loud, competent, and diverse bunch of people, all of whom seem very friendly and have reassured me repeatedly that No, I am not making an ass out of myself calling drink info in the wrong order. (Which I didn't know mattered, but it does.) I look good in my too-long green apron. I know the difference between drip-brewed and French-pressed coffee. I can tell my Indonesian blends from my African. I am Amy, hear me pour.

In further news, I am suddenly shy to post because I've been away for so long. There are some people I'm not even sure how to friend, or even find, because I'm out of touch with the Secret El-Jay Identification Network [SLJIN]. So bear with me and forgive me for my plebeishness, and I'll forgive you for the Jamie Foxx .jpgs that have metastasized like prostate cancer across my Friends page.

why i like sawyer. Normally I don't fancy blonds at all. And there are plenty of reasons not to fancy Josh Holloway's character, Sawyer, on Lost. Here's why I do anyway.

( Read more... )

( which cure song are you? )

Official first plebey quiz of the new El Jay. Go me.
...OKAY I PROMISE to stop spamming, I'm just geeked out about being back.

GO MOUNTAINEERS!!!

[edit: for the non-sporting fans on my friends list--a category which usually includes me--the WVU football team just beat Louisville 46-44 in TRIPLE OVERTIME. And they are a much higher-ranked team. AND we were behind 17-0 at the HALF. WE RULE! >:D<]

Amy's latest LJ. Mostly public, some private. Welcome.