through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered . . .

In brief: things I have done over the last couple of weeks.

* Classes! I had to drop American Popular Culture on account of it having so much reading that I may as well have been taking a third English class, so I replaced it with Historical Construction of Sexuality, which I had wanted to take anyway but couldn't take on the fifth class. Four is plenty, especially now that I'm in the higher level courses. And it . . . has so much reading I may as well be taking a third English class. Sigh. (I think I got spoiled by the History prof I had the past two semesters, whose reading assignments were almost always able to be treated as optional, since he gave such thorough notes in class.) It's a nice parallel to my Gender and Sexuality Theory class, though, and I think the two of them paired together will be helpful this semester.

Also, my Acting for Non-Majors class involves yoga. WTF is that all about? Yes, please, let's perform activities I associate with gym class, which I am still, at twenty-seven years old, grateful that I no longer have to attend. That'll get me nice and wound up and uncomfortable just in time for the various acting exercises! And, oh god, last week we did one of those guided relaxation thingies - you know, the kind where a soothing voice (or, in this case, the professor) tells you to relax your body an inch at time over the course of like twenty minutes? I cannot be the only person for whom this has the opposite effect. Thirty seconds in ("Relax your scalp") and I've got ants crawling under my skin and I want to run around in circles screaming. This is my reaction to anything that involves holding still/making careful, deliberate little movements for longer than like three seconds. (I would be the worst surgeon EVER.) So if we have to do that again this week, I may lose my shit. Or possibly lose a battle with the Giggle Loop, which you should NOT GOOGLE if you don't know what it is. Trust me. You're better off that way.

* Oh, yeah, also, I had a birthday on the twenty-third. Thanks to everyone who wished me a good one! If you posted something and I didn't comment, it's probably because when I scanned my flist that evening, I was not entirely sober, so I missed it.

* I have effected a change in my wardrobe! It now involves more tunic shirts and leggings and skirts and fewer jeans and t-shirts. I am bored of jeans and t-shirts, because that's what I've been wearing for like fifteen years, and I love the tunic shirts that are in style right now because they allow me to wear more comfortable things like leggings. I have a belly and jeans dig into it when I sit. The wrong pair can actually give me a stomachache. And I want skirts and dresses too because I also have thighs, and the inseam of a pair of jeans (aka, the only part of the entire jean that cannot be fucking patched) wears through too quickly. And I HATE jeans shopping, omg. Skirts will not present that problem. And leggings have less friction than denim, I think, and are cheaper to replace in any case.

I really miss pockets, though. Goddamn. I only have one actual skirt so far and want a couple more. I'll be looking for ones with pockets.



And that is all the fascinating stuff I have not been posting about since the semester started. And now that I've caught up on that, maybe I'll start posting again because I won't be thinking "BUT THERE'S SO MUCH I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START HALP maybe tomorrow."

I went to the mall today. It mutated far beyond my control. I'm not even telling how much I ended up spending, but I think groceries next week are going to be, like, lentils.

* First, the purchase I actually intended to make. Way back last decade, there was this series by an author named LJ Smith called Night World. Night World was awesome. It dealt in teenage supernatural romance and the idea of soulmates and I have ALWAYS, even as a teenager, thought both those things were CRAP, so you understand how good this series had to be for ME to like it. There were nine books published in a fairly short span of time, as far as I can tell (1996 to 1998 - I got into it a couple years after the last one was published, I think; I had a friend who was HEAVY into it and had to really scrounge around online to find all the books). It was building to a climax and then it just . . . stopped. The final book has still not been published. So I gave up on the series years ago, other than to occasionally wonder, "Did that ever get finished?"

And then Twilight happened, and suddenly teenage supernatural romance was cool and popular again. And Night World is being reprinted, in three three-book volumes, with the final book FINALLY due out sometime next year. I found this out yesterday, and found out the first volume is out, and IMMEDIATELY made plans to hit the mall after work today. I'm about thirty pages in and finding, much to my joy, that it's holding up really well. You can never really tell with the stuff you liked as a teenager; I was ready for it to suck. I am ready for the possibility that it will suck later. But so far, it's good, and I'm really happy.

* This one has girl talk. About bras. Deal.

Meanwhile, I went home over the weekend for my younger sister's birthday celebration. Conversation with Mom and my, uh, older younger sister? the twenty year old, not the eleven year old - turned to bras. As it does. Long story short, it was determined that I should get a fitting and some new bras whenever I could, because apparently ancient sports bras from Wal-Mart really don't cut the mustard after a certain point. Who knew? Not me. I've never known anything about bras. Couldn't be bothered.

But that was in my head when I went into the mall, so I ended up in Victoria's Secret to get fitted. Turns out I've been buying two cup sizes smaller than I should be - which explains why I could never deal with anything except sports bras, since obviously too-small underwires aren't going to be too pleasant - and I have never in my life worn a bra that fit me properly. Now, thanks to the lovely and very helpful Sarah, I am. This fact has led to my being in the following two states of shock:

A) Holy shit, I have boobs. I have nice boobs.

B) Wait, a quality bra costs HOW much?! I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW MUCH I SPENT ON A BRA. I know, I know, Victoria's Secret, paying for the name, blah blah, but I had absolutely no concept of how much could be charged for a bra. I really, really should not have paid it, but I went in there and availed myself of their services fully intending to buy, and I would have felt like an absolute shit just skipping out. And, damn, it's a REALLY awesome bra. I'm not as sorry as I should be.

* So. Possessed of a book and wearing my new bra, I made the TRAGIC mistake of wandering into a Hot Topic, where I was confronted with: a display featuring a squillion Dark Knight Joker t-shirts. (And also an awesome I Believe In Harvey Dent shirt, which I liked but was too cheesily designed for my tastes. I mean, it was a mock political shirt, it was meant to be cheesy, but still. I don't really want to wear Aaron Eckhart on my chest.) And I was just going to look. I really, really was.

But then an employee wandered over all, "All the Dark Knight stuff is ten percent off if you have a ticket stub!" And I just happened to have my stub from Sunday still in my pocket. Dammit, I never had a CHANCE.

So I bought this shirt. It was hard to decide, because there really were some excellent designs - say what you like about Hot Topic, but they give great pop culture t-shirts - but in the end, I really don't like to have my shirts staring at me.

Usually, I buy large t-shirts, just because I always have. It used to be because I found them more comfortable, but now it's mostly out of habit and I tend to find them to be TOO large these days anyway. I have a few shirts that are smaller because I couldn't get larges, and I tend to gravitate toward them more and more lately. So, emboldened by the new bra, I decided to size down, not just to medium, but to SMALL. And I like how it fits. By which I mean that it, like, FITS. It feels a little tight because I'm not used to it, but I checked the mirror and didn't see one of those chicks who wears her shirts way too small and oh my god REALLY REALLY REALLY shouldn't, so I think it's okay.

MOTHER OF CHRIST THIS IS THE GIRLIEST THING I HAVE EVER WRITTEN.

My overall point being - much like this post, my quick trip to the mall to pick up a book got WAY out of hand. And I'm not sorry.