If you start a band, don't call it Huey Lewis and the News.

awesome.

My 21st birthday is 4 weeks from today! Everyone on my f-list who's in the area is invited (not many of you but still). The night of will be dinner at Pizza Luce and drinks at various bars, ending with Sir Ben's, and the following weekend (either Friday or Saturday) there'll be a party at Tom's house.

But first I need a party theme!

Poll #1480091 Birthday Theme
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 2

What should my birthday party theme be?

Apple Festival was this weekend. My feet are SO SORE. I really need a good pair of walking shoes; my boots were the only footwear I had with me (well, I had a pair of chucks at home but it was raining the whole time Friday and Saturday). They don't have any support, so walking home from the casino on Saturday night when I got off the shuttle, which is only a mile or so, was super painful and it's usually fine for me if I'm wearing decent shoes. D:

The good news(!) is that I can actually afford to get much-needed new shoes because my financial aid went through! I'm still waiting on the WF loan, but I just sent in the promissory note on Thursday. I may or may not have cried with relief (in private) when I got my stipend AND my tuition payments went through--and I didn't even have to embarrass myself by crying in the financial aid office again. Yay, I get to stay in school!

Also, I'm hoping to get my next tattoo in Cloquet this weekend! I have this kickass phoenix designed and was set to get it this summer with Ginny but her car was having problems, so I was planning on getting that but I'm also thinking about getting an eagle or an eagle feather. I'll probably eventually have both tattooed on me, but I don't know which will come first. I've gone through one hell of a transformation in the past ~2 years and I like to think that I've fucking risen out of my own ashes, which is why the phoenix is so important to me, but the eagle is part of why I think I've been able to survive all the bullshit too. It's my clan and my Ojibwe name means Eagle Woman, so I dunno. Maybe I'll make the appointment and decide at the last minute.

At this point, all of my tats will be bird-related.. well, until I get one that isn't. Interesting.

I am aware that I should save my money and not spend it on things like tattoos, but I need to do something for me, and I have already justified spending this money because Maura is super talented AND inexpensive, which is an awesome combination in my book.

The hard drive on my Macbook Pro went kaput yesterday, which was the FIRST FUCKING DAY OF THE SEMESTER. I brought it in to the campus computer people and they're going to fix it and give me a new (and hopefully relatively cheap) one.

I bought a mini HP netbook at the bookstore today because it's the first week of school and I 4srs need a computer. I was thinking about getting one anyway, but these are not circumstances under which I wanted to buy it. :| But I'm slowly getting used to it (it makes me feel like a clumsy giant, but the keyboard isn't too bad) and it'll work for the stuff I need to do for class/etc. in the next 2 weeks. According to Guy At Desk, they won't even get to working on my computer until next week and I probably won't have it back until 2 weeks from now. Sigh.

That said, I'm really excited about my classes this semester. But I'm up way too late, so I'll post about them tomorrow.

Okay, so I am applying for a Wells Fargo student loan. Sallie Mae won't disburse if my suspension appeal isn't approved (and I'm not sure it will be, but I'm crossing my fingers), and I'm just covering my bases because my eligibility for the WF loan isn't affected by Satisfactory Academic Progress, or my lack thereof at the moment. I'm going to work my ass off to stop being on probation anyway, but it's good to know that I won't have to drop out of school if I can't do it within a semester or two (I definitely can't do it in a semester, but maybe by the end of this year I'll have it figured out? We'll see). I've had a pretty damn shitty rough patch these past 1.5-2 years, but I WILL get out of it. Eventually. Soon.

I opted out of the Pride festival and RuPaul because I didn't feel well today. Moderately sad, but not really; I would've had to take a cab home anyway, since the buses stop going to my apartment well before 7 on Saturdays, and RuPaul was performing at 7, and I didn't really want to do that.

I'm looking forward to school and dreading it a little at the same time. I'll be fine and hopefully a little more sane than I have been the past 3 years because I'm not organizing V-Day this year. It's a weird feeling, but a huge relief.

musicmama06, Clinton, Collin and Ross came over on Thursday, all at different times. Collin and I may perform at open mic at Sir Ben's! I think I'm going to play the one on campus too. The songs in my 10-minute set will probably be selected from the following:

-My version of Amanda Palmer's ukulele version of "Creep" by Radiohead


-My version of Maria Bamford's version of "Old MacDonald":


-"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley (I played it the last time I played open mic on campus, but it was pretty epic so I may do it again)
-a funny/cheesier version of "Say My Name" by Destiny's Child because that's how I roll
-or a funny/cheesy version of "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys... either way I will be making light fun of 90s R&B but only because I loved it so much as a tween.
-I would really like to do "Heat of the Moment" by Asia but haven't memorized it yet. Will definitely do it if Ross comes to see me/us. Haha.

I'm finally back!  So very relieved, even though my roommate is annoying sometimes.  However, I can get over that; she's not fucking batshit crazy so that's good.  She's working all week anyway, I think.

Going to the mall after I shower & get dressed (moderately annoying hangover this morning = not showering until 1:30 PM) to do some back-to-school shopping.  Mostly I need new shoes.  I would reeeally like to find a cute, comfortable/well-fitting pair of brown oxfords so that I can wear socks when it's cold this fall and I don't want to wear my black boots, and I need new black ballet flats.

Oh, and Pride is this weekend!  RU PAUL IS PERFORMING ON SATURDAY I AM SO EXCITED OMG.  Woot.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back and excited to see people.  And very hungry, so I'll post something more substantial later.

Poll #1443228 Halloween costume ideas
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

What funny-sexy thing should I be for Halloween?

(stolen from _coherent because I love writing letters)

Comments are screened. Post your address, and I'll write you a letter.

Super-Special Bonus Prize: If you post an idea for something you'd want me to draw for you, anything at all, I will draw it (read: doodle it, not actually create "legitimate" art). I may not be artistically inclined, but I AM a pretty amazing doodler. Or I'll pick something for you and send you a doodle anyway, whatev. I personally think it's more fun for someone else to come up with a completely random idea for a silly drawing for me to do.

---

Also, I'm leaving for Minneapolis tonight! Pride weekend + onceupon and Kate's reading = good times.

I'm fine, but it was kind of crazy. I've had a constant pain in my side (usually just annoying, but sometimes hellishly stabbing) since Tuesday, so I wanted to make sure it wasn't something serious.

I left work early to go to Health Services to see if I could get a walk-in appointment but there were no openings for the rest of the day. The receptionist sent me to talk to one of the nurses, who sent me to St. Luke's Urgent Care in a cab (apparently if someone comes to UMD Health Services and needs to go to the hospital but doesn't have a ride, they'll pay cab fare). I went to Urgent Care and talked to a nurse, who said that I would be given a bed in the emergency room. They took samples of my bodily fluids and did an ultrasound and a CT scan to see if it was an ovarian cyst or kidney stones or a tumor, but luckily it's none of the above. Apparently, some of the fat cells outside my large intestine are inflamed and twisting together but the pain is part of the pre-necrosis stage so when the cells die it should be fine. Unless it still hasn't gotten better by tomorrow, in which case I have to go back to the doctor.

Anyway, I got a prescription for hydrocodone and it helps.

In other news, my job is pretty fun and I'm going to Minneapolis for Pride weekend + the fatosphere book reading. Yay!

OMG YAY I GOT THE JOB!  It's only six weeks but the pay rocks and it should be really fun and I have transportation there and back and it's for the greater good and it makes me want to type run-on sentences.

I don't even really know a whole lot about my duties yet, but the program is through the Center for American Indian and Minority Health (CAIMH) on campus and it's for Native American high school students who are interested in pursuing a career in medicine.  It starts on Monday, and I have a "training" later this week.

I'm going to go to school and print/fill out/drop off the forms!

Random stuff that I thought you should know just decided to tell you:

• I'm trying to grow out my hair.  I'm pretty impatient, but my hair tends to grow fast so yay.  I think I'm going to keep bangs though, and probably try to make them thicker/straight-across instead of dumb and to the side and stubborn when I get them trimmed.
• Dropped the Beatles class.  It seems interesting, but I just got the syllabus (in an e-mail) from the prof and I think I broke up with critical analysis of music-related things when I decided not to be a music major anymore.  Also, will probably be too busy for it.  However, still very much looking forward to Human Sexuality, Gender in Society and Science Fiction.
• Thinking about signing up for bellydancing classes when/if I ever have money again. :D I figure it'd be a lot more fun/less icky-inducing than working out on campus, since the director of the fitness programs is a complete tool (not that I would ever encounter him in the cardio or weight rooms, but I don't really want anything to do with him... which is why I've abstained from eating at the only one of his retaurants I've ever been to, which happens to be only 9 blocks away from my house(!), despite their delicious, delicious burritos.. stupid douchewads ruining everything).
• There's a swing dance fundraiser for NYMP on Saturday.  I want to go, but I have a feeling it'll be awkward going without a dance partner.  Meh... maybe I'll try to find a date.

I definitely had a sex dream about Patrick Dempsey last night.  It was a little weird.

I'm a full-time student this summer, starting tomorrow. I might hate that fact if I wasn't really excited for the classes I'm taking (all INI/independent study/online courses):

Topics in Human Sexuality: A Personal Perspective
Gender in Society
Science Fiction
Music and Lives of the Beatles

The first two are for my not-yet-declared Women's Studies minor, and the last two are for my also-not-yet-declared Cultural Studies minor.

And I think I might have a job! There's a program through UMD that's for Native high school students who are interested in careers in medicine. It's only 6 weeks, but the pay is pretty good; depending on how many hours I work, the hourly wage could make up for the fact that it's not all summer.  I currently have $0.55 in my checking account, so yay money!

Things I could use this money for:

• Bills
• Groceries
• Tuition
• Textbooks
• Saving for the fall, when I may not have a job and will need to buy these things

Things I will probably end up spending it on instead (maybe not all of them, but at least some):

• Piercing(s) (I'd like to get 2nd lobe holes, possibly lip/labret)
• Another tattoo (fingers crossed! ...will probably have to wait on this one though)
• New clothes
• Bills (yeah, it would probably suck if my power got turned off)

Probably groceries too, but whatev.