Heather's Blog

Here I am, it's past

Here I am, it’s past 11:00, I’m dead tired, but I don’t feel like sleeping. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.

I mentioned in my blog from Portsmouth, back on the 20th, that I thought I was allergic to London. That pain didn’t go away, and it’s still here. It’s gotten a little better than when it peaked on Saturday, but it still hurts so much. Saturday was horrible. It didn’t start horrible, and I had such high-hopes for the day.

We met up with Alastair at 10:00 at the London Eye and things were great. I felt fantastic, we didn’t have to wait in line, everything was good. After that, off we went to Covent Garden. That’s when I felt it. It all started twisting and turning again. I stuck through it, we went shopping, managed to keep the trips to the loo down to one. I was good at toughing it out, I thought. I could handle it. Bite the bullet and all that.


But then we went to Brick Lane for Indian food. I felt it all the way there. I felt like I would pass out on the Tube. I had to keep one hand on my dad’s shoulder at all times. Then we got out of the Tube and had to walk… and walk. My eyes kept feeling heavy. Not my eyelids, my eyes. They’d press down on my sinuses, making my head feel heavy, making me lose my balance and tumble against my own heels.


We finally made it to a restaurant and I dashed to the bathroom - it was coming, I knew it. But nothing came up. I sat in the bathroom for as long as I could without having to worry about my Dad or Alastair coming down the stairs, looking for me, making sure I was okay. I needed to catch myself, force my stomach to tough it out.

I ordered Tandoori chicken. Took one bite of the Nan bread and had to hold it. A few minutes later I took one small bite of chicken. Had to hold that too. And that look on Alastair’s face. Whenever I get asked, “How are you?” I always reply, “I’m fine.” I’ve been criticized for that before. This time I couldn’t, I knew it was written all over my face. He asked me if I was okay several times, and each time all I could do was shake my head. Couldn’t open my mouth, that was too dangerous. I’d shake my head and he’d get that look in his eye again. He’d look at me as he ate and whenever I’d look back he’d smile at me. Say something like, “Poor thing,” or “My poor Heather.” I felt horrible. It was my idea to come to Brick Lane, we came all that way, and I couldn’t even eat.


One more bite of Nan was a bad idea. Back I went to the bathroom and I came so close, I really did. But I made the mistake of catching myself, I still have no idea why. It should have come, but I put my hand over my mouth again. I waited, trying to throw it up this time. But what to throw up, I had no idea. I didn’t realize until the next day just how little I had eaten that day. No breakfast. Thank heavens Alastair bought me a pastie in Covent Garden. That was it, all I had eaten up to that point. No wonder I couldn’t throw up.

As we walked back to the Tube station I kept having to bend over, putting my hands between my knees, trying to balance myself. I almost threw up right on Alastair. He heard it, even. He turned around and gave me that look again and asked if I was alright again. All I could say was, “that was close.” “Yeah, I heard it.”

We parted at the station, and all the way home I felt horrible. There aren’t words enough to describe it. The knives in the stomach, a strange clicking under the left side of my rib cage, the tightness in my chest, that strange nervous pain down my left arm. My insides felt like they were melting, and my head was going along with it.

The worst was the walk home from South Ealing station. I needed motrin badly for the aching in my bones, but I couldn’t stop to get it. If I stopped I wouldn’t start again, and that wouldn’t have been good. My Dad went to a Chemists’ and I kept walking. Probably not the best of ideas, but it was all I could do. I needed the motrin, but I also needed to keep moving. As I walked I could feel my legs burning from the inside. I could feel every movement inside, and what was worse was my skin seemed so dry. My lips clung together and burned. My eyes felt heavy again, and my peripheral vision went all wonky. When I made it I collapsed in the bathroom.


I’m so tired of being sick.

I’m not sure why I wrote all that. I think I needed to talk to someone about it. Or something. I hadn’t mentioned how bad it was to anyone. My dad thought I just had to throw up. I think it’s more than that. It still hurts so badly. It’s been waking me up, that sharp, seering pain. Even now, whenever I move it hurts. If I hold still long enough, if I breathe shallowly, it doesn’t hurt quite so bad. I think I need to have to have more tests. I’m especially worried about my heart, but I’m not exactly sure why. I’ve had several echocardiograms and nothing was wrong. But still, whenever I had those tests they’d ask me if I ever felt a tightness on the left side of my chest, or a strange pain down my left arm. Now I have both, and that strange clicking underneath the bottom of my left ribcage. I think it’s more than the ulcerative colitis now.

I feel slightly better now that I’ve vented all that. It’s taken me long enough. I started this at 11:20, now it’s 11:50. Geeze. Normally I hide this sort of stuff. Actually, Alastair was a bit upset that I didn’t tell him I had a brain infection or a chest IV during the PotterWar campaign. I didn’t consciously keep it from him at the time, I just didn’t like to talk about it. If I could hide it when I appeared on TV, what would it matter?

I think I’m babbling now. Let’s change the subject.

I finished reading ‘Ender’s Shadow’ by Orson Scott Card. I do love those books. I caught quite a few stylistic “errors” in this one that might have made William Strunk roll in his grave, but OSC has a great talent for telling stories. He’s amazing at keeping each character’s idiosyncrasies intact and believable. He’s amazing. I think I’m going to rush out and buy the next book tomorrow, just cause.

I think I’m going to try and get some sleep now. Wish me luck.

I meant to do responsible

I meant to do responsible things today. Like answering emails, finishing up my travel log (which, on certain days, was woefully neglected), write postcards, scan things, etc. But I got rather sidetracked. I slept in until noon because I woke up at 3 and couldn’t sleep for a while after that. I ate lunch, talked with my brother Steve for a while, then two friends - Mike and John - came over. They needed Steve’s help with something computerish, but they ended up staying until just about twenty minutes ago. We went out to see Star Wars (again, for me), then came back here. The boys played Worms as my Dad took me out to get my film developed. Sadly, all one-hour photo services in Sterling have broken on the exact same day, which means I won’t get the film back until Thursday. Oh well. When we got back, Mike and I went out to rent ‘The Others’. We watched that, then Whose Line Is It Anyway, and then they left. Mike’s been behaving strangely. When he showed up he gave me a hug, which was strange because he’s never done that before. Weird.

Today has been entirely too strange. At times I feel glad that I’m home and able to rest, and the next moment I feel like crying because I miss it so much. And by “it” I mean travelling, seeing new things, the people, minding the gap, etc. When I was there it felt as if I had never left London. That everything in between was fodder. Now that I’m home, it feels as if I never went at all. It’s the first full day home and I already want to go back.

But I’m thinking the next vacation may be to some place less stressful. I’m thinking a lovely drive down the French coast to the riviera. Now the only problem is finding someone who’ll go with me so I don’t have to do all the driving, and so I don’t get lonely. Hmm. I know who I’d like to go with me, but I doubt that’d happen.

I think I’ll go to bed now. I’m still dead tired, even after sleeping in so late.

I'm home, but I'm dead

I’m home, but I’m dead tired. Just wanted to blog that I made it in one piece, I’m okay, and I don’t think I lost anything. Film will be developed as quickly as possible and I’m already planning the next London Log site. Now I just have to decide on a good name for the second edition.

I’m off to bed. More tomorrow, including harrowing tales of my last few days in England. oooh boy.

Hello from England I'm sitting

Hello from England

I’m sitting in a hotel in Portsmouth, playing with their highspeed internet connection, and generally resting up a bit. It’s been a busy weekend.

Let’s start with Saturday. I, of course, got no sleep whatsoever on the plane. It was way too crowded for that, and I had to sit right in the middle of the plane. Fun, fun, fun. When we landed things went alright, we got the rental car, and I navigated my dad to South Ealing. That went well, but it felt weird riding on the left side of the car. And I kept looking at the other cars on the M25 thinking, “There’s no driver in that car! Oh… nevermind.” Thankfully I never said it or anything. :)


As soon as we (meaning my dad and I) reached the apartment we were both dead tired, and on top of all that, I felt really sick. I fell asleep, though, and slept for a few hours. But when I woke up, ickies. After that calmed down just a bit we went out for a late lunch. We went to my favorite pizza place in London - Pizza Piazza on Gloucester Road. Mmmm. It’s so authentic. Like a good little Italian, I folded the pizza in half and ate it that way. MmmmmmMmmmmm.

We walked around for a while, went over to Westminster, then over to St. James Park and Buckingham Palace. We were both sore by then so we sat down in Green Park for a bit. I love the trees in there. I took only a few select pictures - sorry, I won’t have 19 rolls of film to display this time. :)

Sunday was much more relaxed. We went to church in the morning, then at 2:00 I met my friend Alastair at a train station. Neither of us arrived there by train - we drove, he walked there - it was just an easy place to meet. Dad waited in the car as I paced the sidewalk waiting for him. I was feeling a bit like Marilyn Monroe; it was so windy outside I kept having to hold my skirt against my legs (I was still in church attire - a lovely little brown dress.) He showed up, he met my dad (eeps!) then we went back to his place for lunch and to meet his sister and her kids. That was loads of fun. Alastair’s niece and nephew are way too funny. The nephew’s 6, and the niece is 4. Immediately the niece grabbed my hand and walked me over to the couch and her brother instructed me saying I would be the number one and the letter F. (I’m still not sure what that was for.) We played and ate and had some fun. The funniest thing was when the nephew pulled me over saying, “Let’s play a game.” He made me lay down on a fainting couch, then covered me in cushions, and before I could say no, he and the niece climbed on top of me. It was okay until the niece decided to stand up on my stomach, and the nephew started rough-housing on my legs. I couldn’t get them off because the niece decided it’d be fun if she pretended to fall off me, making me catch her from the most awkward position on earth. Then the nephew started playing with my bad left foot, which wasn’t good. Needless to say, Alastair had to come rescue me.
Even with the Heather-Climbing session, Sunday was lovely. We ended up staying at Al’s until 10:00ish, just chatting. That was nice, except I started to get the ickies again. By the time we got home I had to sit on the bathroom floor for a while cause I thought I was going to lose all three courses of the lovely lunch Al’s sister had made for us, and that would have been sad on so many levels.

Today I felt just as icky, but I had stuff to do. We went to the Courtauld Institute of Art, the school where I’m looking into going, and dropped off my portfolio. They’re going to have an admissions counsellor look at it, then I’ll pick it up on Friday. The school’s lovely, and the courtyard is phenomenal! Very Italian. Then we went through the art gallery, which was just as impressive as I was expecting. They had a whole room full of paintings by Sir Peter Paul Rubens! It was amazing. After that we went to see Star Wars at the Odeon Theatre in Leicester Square - the same theatre where I saw Harry Potter. That was okay - it was a pretty movie, but the dialogue and some of the acting was just a bit, erm, over-the-top.

Finally, we had to drive out to Portsmouth, where I am now. Hehe, and we just recently got back from dinner where I was the victim of the most rude dining experience in my life! It was rather comical, though, but two seconds after I’d eaten my last bite I wanted to get out of there. We went for Italian, and I got another pizza. And of course, I cannot get a real oven-baked pizza without eating it Italian style - folded over and eaten almost like a sandwich. Apparantly, the people eating around me don’t get out much. From one particular table, I was the center of attention. There was a complete running commentary from two women; “OOo, lookee that! She’s eatin’ it like ah samwich! OOoo.” “She’ll spill it, she’ll spill it…. Ooooo.” It was so aggravating! Every bite I took there was another “OOoo” and another comment. I couldn’t hear half of them, and I’m rather glad for that. I was so tempted to walk over and go, “Stupido Anglaise!” and slap one of the women. She was being so nasty about it. “Imagine eatin’ a pizzah like tha’.” Imagine having a brain. Hehehe. They even commented on how my father signed the bill. He writes really tiny, and of course one of the women mimicked him and said, “Imagine writin’ that tiny! OOooo.” Imagine that the reason I was returning your stares was to get you to stop, not to make you giggle. Oooo. I can’t stand that. And, of course, they weren’t eating through any of this. They had already finished by the time my dad and I entered the restaurant. As soon as we left, so did they. It was most decidedly weird. Stupido Portsmouth Anglaise.

You know what’s sad? I think I might be allergic to London. Ever since I arrived I’ve had this horrible ache from my, erm, intestinal problems. It feels like a giant knife is constantly sticking through my stomach, between my sternum and my belly-button. It stings, burns, and hurts like heck when I move at all. Ever since I got over the first bad bout of ulcerative colitis it has only flared up like this when I’ve been here. If I don’t find out why and figure out a way to correct it I can’t see myself coming here for school, which is rather depressing. Getting all psyched about a school and not being able to go why? Because of my intestines. How silly is that?

I’m getting tired now, so off I go. More when I get back home.

I lied. The portfolio wasn't

I lied. The portfolio wasn’t done until this evening around nineish. Why? Because I remembered a few things I had forgotten. I forgot to add two important things I did, I completely forgot an award I for worked six years to get, and I needed to add the special little divider tabs. But, now it’s all done, and I’m done packing, but I’m sure I’m lying about that too as I know I’ll be up all night worrying about it, reminding myself that I’ve forgotten something. Then, hopefully, I’ll remember it before I leave tomorrow. At least I have the essentials - underwear, pajamas, clothing, presents, and my portfolios. Got my palm pilot, wallet, passport, books to read, snacks to eat… shampoo! I forgot shampoo! Hang on a sec…

…

Got it! Phew. I think my bag may be near the limit again. I’m not sure what my excuse is this time. Last time it was because I was carting around huge jugs of maple syrup, per a request from a friend of mine in Ipswich. Maybe it’s the portfolios - they got huge! Oh! Crap! I just forgot something else I wanted to add! I had a friend review it this morning and she said I should add a paragraph to the DADA/PotterWar section about how sick I was during the campaign - you know, icky details like the whole brain infection bit, the IV line. I should have added that. Oh well. I’ll spare the admission board’s stomachs. :)

OH! (Sorry, my brain is working strangely tonight.) I finally got those pictures of my straight hair off the digital camera. Here’s one of them. I haven’t had time to fiddle with it so the colors may be a bit off, or I just haven’t realized how frightfully white I am. Sadly the straight hair has to go tomorrow. I’ve got to wash my hair before I go, just because I can’t stand having a greasy-head for that long. Sigh. And I was starting to like it.

I’ve got to get back to answering emails now. I probably won’t blog while I’m in England, except maybe once or twice while I’m in Portsmouth. My dad’s taking his laptop so maybe I’ll be able to use it. We shall see. Expect lots of pictures when I get back, and lots of weird stories. :) See you on Memorial Day!

2:15 in the morning and

2:15 in the morning and I’m finally done! I’ve been working literally all day on my portfolio so I can take it with me to England to present to the admissions people at Courtauld. It’s so dang huge! It got really big, and I didn’t think it would. I included photos, writing samples, blurbs about my websites, screenshots, newspaper clippings about Warner Brothers… And of course, it’s all very stylish and pulled together with coordinating fonts and borders and such. It looks rather professional in its nice, sleek little notebook. There’s a white one and a black one - the only other difference being that one of them has the photos printed on photo paper, the other’s on cardstock. But, you can’t tell the difference, so it really doesn’t matter.

But it’s done, yay! I’m so glad that’s finally finished. I’m dead tired, but I doubt I’ll be falling asleep any time soon - I’ve developed a really nasty stomach ache. I think it might be from the cookies I ate, but it feels higher than that. Like a knife is going through my stomach. Not much fun at all.

Tomorrow I have to pack, go to Office Depot, clean my room, and answer 45 emails. Woooie. Sorry if you sent me an email and I haven’t replied yet - I’ve been busy. Hope you understand.

I’d love to be able to tell you I did something else today, but I haven’t. I mean it literally when I said I spent all day on it. I only took two breaks to eat. When I woke up I rolled over onto the office chair and began working. The afternoon was spent printing it all out and I’ve been printing and organizing up until just now. I also had to glue all of the pictures into place, which I did while watching TV (I had to get out of my room for a while.) So, that’s my day.

My hair’s still straight, but I still can’t get to the pictures. My brother’s bringing over the right cord to ransfer the pictures to my laptop tomorrow so I’ll have them up hopefully before I leave on Friday.

Egads, I don’t want to pack. I’m so afraid I’ll forget something.

Anyway, stomach ache or no stomach ache, I’m going to bed. Good night.

Well, it's been a while

Well, it’s been a while since I last blogged, but dang have I been busy. Let’s start with the bad news:


Looks like I won’t get to go to that Army banquet after all. After three days of “umm, dunno” we finally found out that the event is a Dinings In, which means no-women-allowed. It’s only for officers and men, which I think is awfully rude, but oh well. At least that means I can quit stressing about the dress. I was really worried about it not fitting right.

Good news: I got my hair cut today and guess what? It’s straight!!! The beautician asked if I’d want to try it for a laugh, so I said sure. (No worries, it’s not permanent.) Thirty-five minutes of tugging and blow-drying later, I have a straight head of hair. It looks very different. I took loads of pictures, I just haven’t transferred them off the digital camera yet.

I’m excited about this trip to England, I’m just not sure I’m going to get everything done in time. I have a portfolio to prepare, I still have to pack, and egads. I’m just not sure. I hope it works out, but I really should get some sleep before I keel over.

Hmm, what else have I neglected to mention. I saw Ocean’s Eleven a few nights ago. Fun movie - nothing serious, mind you, but it was rather pretty and well done. I absolutely love the camera shot from the back of Brad Pitt’s car. That was amazing. And the whole Chopin bit at the end. Mmm, cinematography… Haha, you thought when I said “rather pretty” that I was talking about Brad Pitt, didn’t you? Naaah. Not my type. :)

What else. Things and plans for London are going well for once I’m actually there, if I can get everything done. Dinner at Alastair’s on Sunday, which will be loads of fun. Star Wars at the Odeon in Leicester Square. Pizza on Gloucester Road. The British Museum, Sunday with my friend Matthew (the next sunday), and everything’s set up for a visit to Courtauld. I’m a happy duckie, now I just need sleep.

Oh! And the hotel’s all booked too. Guess where I’m staying. I get to go back to the same place I was in before! I’m rather happy about that - this time I’d better remember to take pictures! :)

Okay, enough talk, time for a decisive moment. I’m going to bed. Good night.

Just call me the Fountain

Just call me the Fountain of Good News because I have even more stuff to spill. I went out shopping today and actually found some nice stuff, which is odd because the look I want for my new wardrobe is a bit strange. I want weird, but not too weird. Not the kind of weird where people go, “Holy crap, what is she wearing?” Just weird enough where it’s unexpected. Like classic cuts and styles, but with modern, bright fabrics. That sort of thing. I found a few things that are close, so I’m happy.

And, it gets better. When my dad came home from work this evening he was bubbling with good news - he spoke to a Colonel in the Royal Army on the phone today about his upcoming visit to Portsmouth. Guess what? The Royal Army’s holding a black-tie event the week that we’ll be there, and we’re invited. How fun is that? I get to dress up and go play with the Royal Army. I’m rather excited about that, I’m just nervous about where I’ll find a dress. I’m going to the Saks Fifth Avenue outlet tomorrow, and maybe all the way out to Potomac Mills, depending on how my mom feels. This time I don’t want to go for weird, I want to go for a mix of va-va-va-voom and classy. Either a kick butt red dress, or something in a brilliant shade of blue. Dark green might be nice, since it matches my eyes… sigh. I’m still pining for that kick butt red dress. I really want it. I saw one in London last time I was there at a Hugo Boss store, but a kick butt red dress shouldn’t cost $8,000. Nope.

Geeze, this blog got girly real quick, didn’t it? All I did was talk about clothes. Did the Royal Army even that out at all? Let’s talk about something not quite so girly then…

Ummm…

Did I mention my room is decorated with plaids and pictures of sportsmen? Ah, now it’s all evening out.

I’m serious, though. I really do have pictures of sportsmen up on my walls. I started a collection of vintage photographs. I’ve got an Oxford boating team, an Australian cricket team, some weird looking boxer guy, a bicyclist, a swimming team, some guy with funny snow boots on, and even a hunter! Phew, I’ve been saved from that bout of girliness.

I still want that kick butt red dress, though.

Guess what? I have so

Guess what? I have so much good news to talk about that I’m beat! I’m dead tired, but I’ll blog anyway, cause it seems silly to let all of this good news roost for too long without spilling the beans.

First off - I’m going to England again! Woohoo! In just about one week to be exact. On May 17 I’ll be crossing the atlantic for the… umm.. seventh time. (Sorry, had to count.) That’s not seven trips, I’m counting going and coming. Once to Italy, again to Italy, once to England, and again to England. I’m a pretty lucky girl to get to go to England twice in a period of a year. Pretty dang cool. I know I talked about this yesterday, so don’t call me crazy. It’s just that it’s definite now. Airline tickets are purchased and everything. I went out to the airport to get my ticket this evening because I had that $750 travel voucher from getting bumped in Atlanta. (That still sounds horrible no matter how you say it.) So, my trip is entirely paid for. How lovely is that?

Oh, that just reminded me, I need to write to a friend real quick.

Okay, I’m back. Not sure why I wrote that, but okay. I can blame cold medicine again. Wheee.

Other bits of news: I’ve finished my fan fic once and for all. I’ve been working on it since this afternoon, running through the ending one more time to make sure it’s okay. Not sure what I was worried about, honestly. It just needed a bit of tweaking to keep it from seeming too hurried, but all in all I’m pretty pleased with it. I’m surprised at how down-right weird it got. There were so many times when I wanted to get so much more graphic, but noooooo, I had to restrain myself because of the kiddies. I’m seriously considering writing horror novels. I think I’d be good at it. Watch out, Stephen King, little innocent girl’s hot on your heels! Haha, yeah right. :) But I’m not kidding (well, only sorta). My fan fic got seriously demented. It’d make a great movie.


I even have the IofY contest stuff set up. Why isn’t online do you ask? Because I haven’t copied and pasted the reedited chapters onto the site yet. It’s a very very time consuming project, that. I’m up to chapter ten but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow morning because egads am I loopy. (As I’m sure you’ll be able to tell from this blog entry.)

The contest is going to be so cool. I hope I’m inundated with entries. That’d be way too fun. (In case you don’t know, the IofY contest is to try and get cool cover art for the printed version of my fan fic. Fans can send in cover artwork for a chance to win a printed, bound, autographed copy of the book, as well as a few other knick-knackey things.) If I get tons of art I want to hang it up in my office and stuff. I think it’d be awesome. Custom artwork. Ah.

Okay, last bit of good news; my computer’s working! Yaaaay! The essential bits came yesterday, and the case arrived today. My brother spent all afternoon setting it up and installing windows, and now it’s humming happily under my desk. I’m not using it yet because we apparantly need to buy a new modem for it. My old one got lost somehow. Oh well. I might miss having my little computer by my bed. It’s been literally right by my bed so when I wake up in the morning - if I want to avoid getting ready for the day - I can roll over, flip open the laptop, and poof, I’m online and half-awake at the same time! Not that that’s uncommon, but half-awake and still in bed, that’s a geek accomplishment.

I’m going to have fun this week trying to whip together a portfolio to take to that school. I started working on it today but got distracted by IofY and by the fact that I had no idea what I was doing. So, I emailed my adopted Aunt Margie, asking for advice. She’s going to help me tomorrow, which will be a very good thing. I wish she lived here, but alas, she’s stuck in Arizona. She isn’t even really my aunt, she’s my sister-in-law’s aunt, but she fits in with the family so well she might as well be blood-related.

I’m seriously tired, can you tell? I’m babbling. I think I’m going to sleep now. Hopefully the cold medicine won’t give me bad dreams like it did last night. I remember that all of a sudden I was on this air force base, being sworn in because I had accepted some military scholarship in return for four years of service. Sort of like their medical program. The sad thing was, as I was saluting for the first time I realized, hey, wait, I didn’t want to do this! I tried to get out of it, and they wouldn’t let me, so I was stuck in the air force forever. Then all of a sudden it switched from me being in the air force to being on some away mission on star trek. I seriously have to quit watching that show. One episode and bam, I’m getting freaky dreams. Stupid Gene Roddenberry.

Watch, hehe, I’ll start getting angry emails from Star Trek fans. “He is not stupid, you smelly ferengi! You barbaric, pink-blooded klingon!” Haha. Eat my photons, small heads. (Extra points if you know what that quote’s from. Not sure what the points are for, but whatever.)

Holy crap, I hate cold medicine.

Geeze I hate the West

Geeze I hate the West Wing. I was all happy and geekified watching Enterprise and then boom, my mom wants to watch West Wing. I can’t believe people like this show. Sure, they spend oodles on fancy cameras and sets, and yet, their writing is crap. Have you noticed how all of the characters speak exactly the same way? They always speak quickly, they interrupt, and they all retort in the same ‘witty’ way. Next time you watch the show keep that in mind and you’ll see what I mean. Beyond that, have you watched old reruns of Sports Night recently? Compare the character types - they’re exactly the same, just in different settings. The blonde girl in West Wing is exactly like the girl in Sports Night that was also in Sliders. Martin Sheen’s the black guy. It’s just plain stupid.

Anyway, enough ranting. This cold is seriously bugging me. Today I watched the 39 Steps (the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock version), then I watched my favorite movie, ‘Daddy Long Legs’ on tv. I love that movie. It’s my dream personified, although I’m not sure Fred Astaire is my dream man. I’d like certain traits of his, but not everything. Anyway, this isn’t making any sense and I have no idea why I’m talking about it.

My email inbox is piling up again. Drat.

Looks like I’ll be going back to London later this month, this time with my dad. He got permission from work to go check out some “site” in Portsmouth, so I’ll be tagging along in order to check out Courtauld. I’m excited about it, I’m just hoping I’ll be able to stay longer. I’m still trying to work that out with my parents. I’ve got lots of things to do! Pizzas to eat, chocolate to buy, gaps to mind, and Alastair’s parents to meet. It’ll be all too much fun. As long as my passport doesn’t expire. It expires some time in June I recently discovered, and they may pose a problem. If I can take a photocopy of it to an American embassy in Europe to get an immediate reissued passport, and yet I can’t get one on my own soil. Talk about silly.

I’ve got to get back to doing whatever it was I was doing. Good Night.

Argh, I'm finally succumbing to

Argh, I’m finally succumbing to the cold that’s been circulating. This afternoon I started getting a really bad sore throat and now I can barely talk. Good thing I got all those singing cravings out of my system over the past few days. As I’ve been fighting insomnia I’ve been belting out various albums, from David Byrne to Beauty and the Beast; Sleeping Beauty to Morphine. As my friend Mike said when I told him to play Cake on his car cd player, “You’re one weird girl.” It’s not my fault. Blame the Pearl Jam and Morphine on three older brothers.

That got waaaay off topic waaaay too fast.

So, what did I do today besides get a really bad cold. When I first woke up I called the Courtauld Institute of Art to ask a few questions about admissions. I got to talk to a very nice lady on the phone and she was a lot more helpful than all the other schools I’ve spoken to about my rather unique situation. I can’t wait to find out what kind of students go to that school - the lady I spoke to was so easy going it was almost ‘free to be you and me’, which is very strange for a university. Normally it’s nothing but limiting conformity when it comes to application. She was going on about “Just send us whatever you think will help your application, and we’ll check it all out.” When she asked me about tests I said I’d taken the SAT and ACT, and she wasn’t really familiar with them, but she sounded impressed with my scores. The funniest was when I asked if I could pay all three years worth of tuition up front. She kinda did a double-take and said “One lump sum?” It was great. I was getting concerned about school on Sunday cause my mom started talking about it, and then I got all weird. It’s hard to explain. But after talking to that lady on the phone I remembered why I want to go to Courtauld. They’re a small school - they only admit 40 students each year - and yet they have a fantastic reputation, they’re well respected, they have the exact degree I want, and best of all, they’ve got a killer art gallery. You know that self-portrait that Van Gogh did with that bandage over his ear? They own that one. Cool, eh? They also own a ton of Rembrandts and stuff, which is good. And it’s located right in the heart of London, smack-dab next to the river Thames, in the Strand. Their campus is a famous old building called Somerset House. It sounds perfect for me. I really hope I get in.

Okay, I promised Sujit I wouldn’t keep ranting about the Harry Potter movie, but I just have to share this. Someone sent it to me, and it’s just too good not to share. I won’t even go into what I think of it, I’ll just let you read it on your own. There. I’m being good… eergh. :)

I’m getting really worried. This friend of mine is moving, he hasn’t emailed in a while, and well, I’m just worried. There, enough on that subject.

I think this is the grand ADD post for the month. It’s almost midnight, I can’t talk, barely breathing, and my mind is jumping all over the place.

Whoa, an old friend just IMed me. He and I met in Italy and I’ve been to Florida to see him a few times. Nice guy.

Okay, this is getting stupid. Good night.

Argh, I hate computer problems.

Argh, I hate computer problems. My laptop interrupted a very important conversation not just once, but twice! It bugged me big time, and by the time I restarted my computer my friend had gone. Dang it all.

I’ve got a killer headache again. I need my friend Sam to come give me one of those chinese head massages. Ooh, those feel nice.

I don’t really have much to talk about today. I just wanted to drop a line to let you all know I’m still alive. :) Maybe I’ll think of something to write tomorrow.

Today's been a busy day.

Today’s been a busy day. I went out errand-running with my dad this morning, trying to deal with the bank again. They finally cleared the check I got for that job I did way back in December with Simon. They held it for 11 days for no reason! I’m really fed up with them. And, on top of all that, they were rude today when I came in to check on it. I hate banks.

I got to see “Spider-Man” this afternoon. I enjoyed it, even though I had my doubts about Tobey Maguire. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised - he captured Peter Parker pretty well. (Hey, after growing up with three older brothers who were obsessed with comic books, I know my way around the Marvel Universe.) I was slightly disappointed with Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane. She didn’t have depth, but then again, I may be biased because I always liked Mary Jane and I’ve never been too fond of Kirsten Dunst. Although Spider-Man hasn’t been my favorite super-hero (Batman would whoop his butt) I still enjoyed the comic books from time to time, and the movie certainly matched the feeling of the character. Man, the guy they got for Mr. Jameson was spot on! Some people might think it’s a bit too campy, or a bit too silly, but what can you expect when you take the silliness villain and try to capture him on the screen? Willem Dafoe captured the Green Goblin perfectly, I was very impressed, but I’m afraid the villain was my only real problem with the movie. It’s not that he wasn’t portrayed well, quite the contrary. Dafoe got the insanity of the character, as well as the eccentricities, it was just the stupid helmet. All I could think when he was on screen in that silly costume was “Power Rangers, my goodness no, it’s the Power Rangers.” But, I’m not sure how they could have done it differently. So, all in all, I liked it. If you like Spider-man you’ll love the silly campiness of the film. If not, you’ll like the special effects. And if you’re a Stan Lee fan, you’ll just love it no matter what. :)

Somebody shoot me if I start talking about Star Trek like that. I feel myself sinking deeper in the geeky abyss. Hehehe.

After that the movie watching didn’t end there. I’ve been having bad phantom pains again today so I decided to take it easy. I watched ‘The Avengers’ for a while because I felt like distracting myself while doing two things at once. I wanted to play online and watch/listen to a movie at one time. Then my parents got home from their ‘date’ and we watched a movie we rented; ‘Harold and Maude’. Now I know why I never liked 70s movies. :) It was so dang weird. It was great up until the last fourth of the film. It’s about this kid, who looks like he’s 12, who falls in love with this 80 year old woman. Up until the final third it was just about them doing crazy stuff, and how the boy was obsessed with death. (And believe it or not, it was funny.) But then it got all icky. Eeeugh. 12 and 80 don’t mix. He’s supposed to be 20, I think, so he’s not twelve because he was driving, and his mother was trying to marry him off. And he had hair on his chest, and I haven’t met many twelve-year-olds with chest hair. But still. You look at the kid’s face and he looks so young! Here, see for yourself: if you dare. Weird, weird movie. It reminded me of my friend Jordan up until the last third. The fake suicides were just hilarious.

Yeah, okay, so I’m morbid. You should have been to my house for dinner last night. We had some missionaries from our church over for dinner and we found out Missionary Number 1’s father is a mortician. He told us all sorts of funny mortician jokes, it was great.

Geeze, that sounds awful.

Something else I don’t like about the 70s: what was up with those pants?

Okay, I think I’m babbling now. I’m off to bed, good night!

I can't sleep again. I'm

I can’t sleep again. I’m really sore. And I keep having phantom pains. For the past three hours it has felt like my toe’s still there and it’s really swollen, making it feel like a giant tourniquet is wrapped around the base of the toe, and it’s so tight it’s putting immense pressure on the bone. I can feel the pressure as if it’s from the inside out and it makes my whole foot go numb. It hurt so badly, and there was nothing I could do about it.

My chest hurts. I need to quit being mad, but it’s hard. I’m going to jam to some David Byrne for a while, try and calm down, and then maybe try to sleep.

I finally got to order

I finally got to order the new parts for my computer, so maybe by next Saturday I’ll finally be back on my other computer. I even got a new computer case! It’s all pretty and stuff. Not as freaky as I was hoping, but budget had to override style. It’s still cute, though. Check it out here, then click “See Me”.

Today was another nice, relaxing day. We went to the mall in the morning to play with Max on the indoor playground, then went to Hot Topic, played around in the mall, then to Michael’s to buy some canvases, then Wendy’s for frosties, then home again. We spent the afternoon playing games, talking, having fun. It was nice, considering my back still hurts really really bad.

Oh! I forgot to give you all a link to the tLoG shirt I mentioned yesterday. It’s here. (Or, www.cafepress.com/blogstuff if you want to type it yourself.) There are a few extra things in there as well, like my favorite mousepad. :)

There really isn’t much else to report at the moment. I’ve been very slow mentally today, so I’m not even going to try to think of something funny, witty, or intelligent to say. So, good night!

Ah, another long day enjoyable

Ah, another long day enjoyable day. Loads of stuff to report. First off, I was supposed to go golfing today but I was far too sore for that. Instead I stayed home and rested for a while whilst my mom ran errands. I laid down for a while, then I designed a really fun tLoG shirt which I’m dying to get now from CafePress. It’s a design I’ve been thinking about for a very long time, I just never got around to making it. Now I’ve just got to have it! Sigh. Hehe.

Today was big mail day for Heather. I opened the door to go get the mail and there was a huge box on my doorstep addressed to me. I wasn’t expecting anything, so it was a nice surprise. It was from my cousin Matthew, whom I’ve never met, but he’s into writing screenplays. My parents must have told him about mine when they met up in Tucson last month. He sent me some screenwriting software, a couple of his screenplays, a screenplay from the show ‘Sliders’, a book he wrote, some cool screenplay binder screw things, and a nice note. It was really cool to get in the mail! Now revising my script will be a lot easier.

The fun started at 3:00 - we called the masseuse in the morning and she happened to have an opening at 3:00, so I got my sore back massaged. It felt so good, but it was so deep I’m a bit bruised now. It still feels better, though. My three-day headache is finally gone, and my shoulders feel a lot better. I want to go back, though. It felt so nice.

Then we ate dinner, goofed around, and I taught my parents to play Pinochle, which Jen taught to me only yesterday. I picked it up really fast, and on my first game I scored a pretty good 300-something. This game my dad and I beat my brother Tim and mom. We didn’t really finish the game cause it got too late, they just wanted to learn. After three hands it was 221 to 75. I think I’m pretty good at it. I was worried I’d be too slow mentally to pick it up because I’ve been feeling a bit stupid lately. Maybe it’s just my imagination or something, but I’ve felt really slow. Maybe it’s cause of the headache I’ve had. Yeah.

I’ve got a David Byrne song stuck in my head, which wouldn’t be so bad if my David Byrne cd weren’t stuck downstairs somewhere. Oh well.

I’m off to bed now. Good night!

This is going to be

This is going to be short because it’s really late and I’ve got the world’s worst headache. It’s been going on for a while now - I think it’s because my back is so tight. My shoulders are like rocks, literally. I’m going to set up a massage appointment for this weekend because I just can’t take it anymore.


It’s been a while since I really blogged, and there’s a ton of news to share, so I couldn’t go another night without it.

Firstly, I finished the screenplay the other day! On the 29th, in fact. I mailed it overnight express, fifteen minutes before the post office closed. 118 pages of insane people. I can’t believe I got it done. I not only wrote a script in about a week, I had to learn how to write one. Even if I don’t win (and I bet I won’t) I’m really proud of myself. The script may not be perfect, but I think it’s pretty dang good considering. And one week! 118 pages in one week! And now I understand script formatting. It’s been wonderful to apply myself and really see something develop from it in a timely fashion. Now I’ll just be crossing my fingers until the finalists are announced.


What’s funny about that is I wasn’t nervous at all about writing the screenplay. Not until I was standing in front of the post office with it in my hands. Good thing I paused to look down at my application form - turns out I had the wrong form! I had to go back to my brother who had driven me to the post office and go “whoops.” Thankfully we were able to rush right home, I found the right form, filled it out, and we took it back to mail it. It worked out and it’s now sitting in Beverly Hills. Now I’m nervous. Hehe.

Secondly, I got my ACT scores back! I did really well on the sections I thought I would, and bad on the section I was expecting. My composite score of 27 puts me in the 90th percentile - pretty good, I think, considering I hadn’t studied for it at all. (I tried studying, but it just made me feel so nervous that I nearly threw up. I decided it would be better to go in with a calm head then going in and tossing my cookies.) But when you break it down it gets really cool. 29 in English, placing me in the 95th percentile. Pretty dang good. 26 in Science Reasoning; 88th percentile. A crappy 16 on math, placing me sadly - but not shockingly - in the 23rd percentile. And finally, the really cool bit, a perfect 36 on Reading. I aced it! 99th percentile on reading comprehension. I rule! Hehehe. :) Really good for not having studied, yup. I may take it again, depending on what Courtauld says. If they’re happy with a 27, then I’m peachy keen with it. It’s just up to them now.

And finally, the reason I’m up so late - I just watched all six episodes of the first season of League of Gentlemen with my brothers and my dad. Tim, the one home to visit, hadn’t seen it or heard of it. So, of course, we had to have a marathon. As the Lawver we know he is, he loved it. Ah, good to know he still fits in after his long absense. :) Hehehehe.

I think my sanity is failing me now, so I’m going to get some much-needed sleep. Off I go, and excuse the typos. Good night!