likethepaint

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Today has been intersting to say the least.

When I woke up the cleaners were doing a "deep clean" that lasted two hours, so instead of eating and taking some ibuprofen like I wanted to I had to suck it up and shower and walk to Tesco Express in agony.

Andy and I got so lost. It took us 45 minutes to find Tesco Express and 10 minutes to walk back to the university... And in the end we only found it because some lady saw us flapping the map around trying to work out where we were and asked if we wanted directions. Bless her. ♥ (We were about to walk in the wrong dirrection as well!)

They didn't have any vegetable oxo cubes, so I had to get stockpots and I don't know how they're going work in the soup tomorrow, but we'll see. Hopefully it'll turn out alright or I'll have to seriously sad face.

After that got back and had no time to eat before photography, so I still couldn't eat or take my pills :( And it messed up my back really badly leaning back to photograph at the right angle. BUT I did really enjoy doing a proper shoot with an actual model that the society got in so yay for that!

Then I finally got to eat! And took loads of pills and then went to the library with Andy. I've pinched an idea from fadefromblack and decided to read 100 books in a year, and Andy and I have decided to do it together and see how many we can get to so woo! We're starting tomorrow and I can't wait because I'm always saying I need to read more.

Um. Yeah. I'm in so much pain again, but I feel too sick to eat :( Mostly watching Have I Got News For You and attempting to do my essay but not getting very far.

We got our presentation marks back today. It wasn't brilliant, but we got 65, which is a good solid 2:1 so y'know. At least coupled with my online test (80) it still averages out at a 1st.

I have too much to do and not enough time in the world. This essay is going badly, and I have no idea how to pull it back, but y'know, I have tomorrow morning between cooking for the meal and going to my photography meeting.

Other than that I really just want to sleep, but it's barely 9pm!

Doctors verdict:

Option one: (Most likely) it's sciatica and I need to take some ibuprofen and grit my teeth until it goes away in a couple of weeks.
Option two: (Only likely if I get some red-flag symptoms she told me, or it gets worse / lasts more than a month) it's a tumor on my lower back. S

Um, I'll go with option one, thanks, even if the treatment for it fucking sucks. I've been taking ibuprofen up to the max dose all weekend and I'm in so much pain I could curl up in a ball and cry (if I could curl at all). It hurts so badly to walk, but there's no other way to get to lectures or get food or anything. :( Still two/three weeks of extreme pain > tumor.

Don't ever look up symptoms online. My foots been dead since I woke up yesterday, and I've had numbness and pins and needles on and off for weeks now, but it was only when it went completely dead yesterday that I panicked, couldn't see the doctor today because they have no appointments until next week, but I'm gonna do drop in tomorrow. Still, I thought I'd google it, see if there was anything I could do to stop the pins and needles in my ankle while I'm stuck here with noothing else to do. Google thinks it's a tumor. Not cool, google, not cool.

The problem is, logically I know it's highly unlikely to be a tumor, and it's probably a trapped nerve or something, but I must admit, I'm still really kind of freaked out.

My plans for Thursday have been ruined! :(

Pip came home and decided tht next wednesday was a bad day to do Christas dinner so changed it to this week instead, which totally gets in the way of making soup and cupcakes for Thursday. Oh and writing my essay so y'know, I don't have to be writing it on Thursday, that too.

Instead, because Photography has now moved to Wednesday, and Andy wants us to go check out the lecture on house hunting wednesday, I now have to finish my essay tomorrow. I'm about 1/3 of the way there...

But I tidied my room today! It's not finished, but it's getting towards presentable, and then I'm gonna get it nice so that it can be seen, seeing as lots of people are going to be in my room this week, including my parents. Eeek!

Andy and I need housemates for next year. It seems ridiculous to be thinking about it now, but I know we need to. I can think of like 2 people out of those who don't have known arrangements who I'd be happy living with, and neither of the have even met Andy. Of course coldgreentea is one of them ♥♥. (Don't feel like you have to or anything, though!)

Bleh. In better news I'm making rissotto, and it looks and smells very yummy! And my sister is coming to stay in February AND we might go see Fightstar then too! Yay Welsh tour dates!

I finally finished the book! It was such a relief to see the chapter 'November 2008' and know that I only had to survive 4 days of the month.

It was a very good book, however, I did remember most of the stuff that was in it. Except, I must have missed the events covered in the subchapter 'Racists For Obama'. I don't even know, I laughed so hard I cried a little at:

"A canvasser knocks on the door in Washington, Pennsylvania and a woman answers. The caller asks her who she is planning to vote for. She is unsure and asks her husband, who is in anoher roo watching television. He yells back: 'We're voting for the nigger!' The woman turns back to the canvasser. 'We're voting for the nigger' she says brightly.

There is something so brilliant about that. I know some people would take it as offensive, because that word is pretty much considered one of the worst you can say by most people (at least one of the worst a white person can say - I certainly never use it.) but it's not actually meant as offensive, it's just different generations / social groups / upbringings / whatever leading to different ideas of where the 'line' is as to what's an okay word and what's a no-go area.

Also, I love the idea that while everyone I know was sort of going 'okay, the economy's crashing, we'll cut down to one bottle of wine a week instead of two,' or going from branded name food to supermarket brand food, there were some people for whom "racism [became] a luxury they [couldn't] afford." Like it was a new dress or fancy food or something. Brilliant.

(Sorry if you're offended by this in any way. I'm far too excited about finally finishing the book.)

Today (or technically yesterday since it's now 1am), I came into the kitchen to find Rachael and James selotaping advent calenders to the wall. Not only did they buy an advent calender for everyone, tape them up on the wall and name tag them, they hunted down a box of candy canes that are vegan for me! And I have a santas sack (clear plastic food bag) selotaped to the wall with 25 candy canes instead of a dairy milk calender. You guys, my flatmates!

We might get a tree for the kitchen as well! If we do I might actually die a little.

Also I wrapped all my presents yesterday, and I brought myself a little gold metal tree thing for my desk, and there are presents under it for coldgreentea (everyone elses presents are stacked up ridicuously in my bedside table - 17 tubes of chocolate) and Andy's present is Inglorious Basterds, which is fitting because a) we love that film and b)he is a basterd at times but I fucking love him anyway.

It's almost, almost a week until it comes out on DVD. The only downside is, if it's a week until it comes out on DVD it's a week until I have to hand in my essay...

In the past two hours I have gotten myself from the end of June 2008, to the beginning of August 2008. Fucking hell, I can see why people complain the campaigns are too long! It's all very, very interesting, but unfortunately, it's now close enough that I remember all these events very well, and am therefore just reading for quotes and footnote references to points I already know and it isn't half getting tedious.

And in just under eight hours I have to get up and go learn about medieval Europe... Probably from John Law who just makes me want to stab my pen into my own ears just to end the torture. Fun times!

[This icon is not one of my pretty! icons. But it does apply rather accurately to both my feelings about the presidential election right now, and John Law in general.]

I'm feeling bizarely tearful yet very excited today. Or tonight, really.

I've spent the entire day doing American Studies and in a second, despite the fact that it's nearly 10pm, I need to start doing some more. Bleh. I started a book on the 2008 elections, spanning Nov 2007 - Nov 2008 at 10pm yesterday, read it for two hours before going to bed, started reading again at 10am this morning, took maybe an hours break in total for lunch and things, stopped at 3pm to go to Spa for food and then my lectue, and started again at 5pm when I got back. I am now, at 10pm just beyond the point where it becomes Obama vs McCain rather than Obama vs Clinton. I just need to get this and then I have 8 more books to read tomorrow so I can start my essay on Saturday when I get back from my photography induction (which despite occuring every week since I got here, I have yet to attend. Oops.)

God my life is bleh. But in the plus side of things, we have Christmas decorations in our kitchen! And we're planning Christmas dinner for the wednesday before we leave. Proper three course meal, soup for starters, made by moi, and then full roast, followed by crumble and Christmas pudding. I love my flat (except Amy, who hates us all and is never here except when she wants to yell at us, and no doubt won't participate in Christas dinner). The best part is, because of the size of the table, it's a flat only event so bitchface won't be here and I won't have to be in a room with while we both pretend to be nice so Rachael won't cry.

And then my mummy and daddy are coming soon! All my family is! Keith and Melissa haven't even seen my room yet! They're bringing my guitar, and I'm gonna buy a bike and the chest of drawers thing I liked weeks ago but can't be fucked with carrying back to the uni because they'll be an actual car. And mostly I'm just gonna love having my brothers here and going shopping with my sister. God it's been too long, I was only home at the weekend, but it's been too long. I can't wait for two whole weeks at home at Christmas.

Uh, this wasn't supposed to be a whole essay. Sorry, have a pretty!Joe icon to make up for it.

Just got back from the library. Despite being the BIGGEST library I've ever seen, they have no books on American elections written in the last decade. I need a book written post Obama, ideally, so that was really quite fustrating. So we went to Waterstones on campus and I spent £26 on books that have been published this year, one on the 2008 election campaign, one on America post 9/11 concentrating on very early Obama and Bush. It's not good money wise, but my loan is going to come through monday apparently, and mum gave me £40 to treat myself / buy food / whatever on Sunday and I wanted a treat for finishing the presentation so yay me! It's like essay + treat rolled into one!

Still pissed at the library though...

SHIT! I've just realised it's my posting date and NONE of my stories are titled and I haven't worked out what format I want to use to post them. :(

Dear self, it's Canada, just Canada, and if you could stop misspelling it now that'd be really awesome because it's kind of embarrasing when you write 'Candadadan' in front of people and then need ten minutes to work out exactly where you've gone wrong. Candada is midly less so, but also very much unacceptable.
Love, me.

*headdesk*

Ugh today was horrible. I wish I'd stayed in bed.

Making History was a waste, I didn't listen to a word, and was one of like 25 people who turned up, out of about 250-odd people who were supposed to. Then American Studies continued to prove itself as a giant disapointment, although, to give my tutor his dues, he managed to talk for an entire 45 minutes without any needless insults. He was critical, but I thought his points were fair so it didn't bother me.

Then I did my presentation! Jesus, we came so close to failing. I think we just about managed to pull it out of the bag though. We talked for 15 minutes, and I did the fair 1/4 of that and was generally really proud of myself for standing up in front of a class and managing to talk something that could just about be considered English. THEN we got asked questions! We were not expecting questions, and strangely, it turned out that I was the most competent in my group so I ended up fielding all the fucking questions with just Vic's help. I don't blame them, Chloe was paralysed with fear, and Chris wasn't much better himself. But oh god, since when was I the best public speaker? Still, pulled off about 5 minutes of hard questions from the tutor, then she made all the other groups ask one to show they'd listened, and two went, answered those fine, and then this other group I HATE just sat and stared at us for 4 minutes (I was watching the laptop clock) not saying anything while our tutor made us stand at the front until they asked. They're so stuck up, they never say anything yet they act like they're really smart and posh and shit. I can't stand them and I know that's really judgemental but it was really awkward standing up at the front waiting for someone to say something, especially when Vic actually whispered to them 'ask why we picked d-day if you can't think of anything' trying to help them out.

Ugh. They're doing their presentation next week, I'm so going to look up their topic and find a really hard question to ask the, because either they'll get to prove they're as smart as they act, or they'll get to feel as awkward as I did stood up there.

But whatever, presentation done! 60% of my grade for this module achieved! The online test went well, 80%, I think the presentation went alright, and now just to do the exam in January. And to go back to bed, I think.

Andy is in a pissy with me because I hung fairy lights IN MY ROOM, seeing as I'm going to be here practically to Christmas day, and I don't know, I felt like being a bit festive this year. (Also, shut the fuck up LGBT, they're fairy lights. It's not fucking offensive.)

Here are the regulations emailed to us:
Please keep decorations away from hobs, cookers, appliances, lights, etc
We advise you to ensure that fairy lights are bought from a reputable source and meet the required British Standard.
Please do not hang decorations or place Christmas trees in corridors or entrance doors where they may obstruct evacuation routes
Please be reminded, that the use of candles is not permitted under any circumstances.

I'm curious as to where we woud put a Christmas tree that isn't in the corridor/kitchen but personally, I think they're very fair. I'm surprised we're allowed trees at all, to be honest.

Now tell me what part of me stringing reputable fairy lights up around the top of my walls (not across any doors or anything) and not near anything flamable is going to land the flat a fine? I'm so fucking tempted to go buy a tree and put it up in my room now just because I can and it'll piss him the fuck off.

We got on well yesterday, and I actually realised I'd missed him strangely, but today I can't be fucked with him.

Also, I watched about 30 seconds of some girl on Children In Need bitching about her autistic brother and wanted to punch her in the face. Can I just say, on behalf of people everywhere who find their siblings annoying but love them anyway, IT'S NOT THAT BAD! Seriously! I've got fucking two of them, and I wouldn't change them for the fucking world. We don't get any support from charities or anything and we do just fine. Yes, Roddy will have a tantrum if he's angry, but if you raise a child right, teach it right and wrong regardless of disability they learn some degree of right and wrong. Roddy will pinch you in a temper, but he also very much understands that it's the wrong thing to do. And he does it a hell of a lot less now, to the point where I was home for the whole weekend and he didn't get into trouble once. They're the most adorable, loving, delightful people you'll ever meet, and any generalised statement about the 'horrors' of living with disabled people is a fucking offense to me. Seriously. I can't imagine my life without them, Keith will clap you just for walking in the room, even if you'd only been out to the toilet. I'm Roddy's hero. Fuck you and your stupid narrow minded world, you'll never find anything as perfect as this.*

*I'm sure the girl on Children in Need isn't this bad, and it isn't really aimed at her, just the stupid attitude that it's a horrible environment to grow up in.

In better news I have my hotel, my train tickets, and the tickets to see Cobra Starship in Leeds in February, so there is good in the world. Also fairy lights. Andy aside, they are awesome!

Booked a hotel in Leeds for me and my sister to go see Cobra, hopefully they'll actually come this time. Last time we planned to see them in Leeds they cancelled twice in a row. :( It was such a stress phoning around the train company trying to find out if we could get to Leeds for less than £100 each. I can go from Swansea for £12.55 if I go via Manchester instead of via Bristol like I want to (so I can meet Melissa on the train), but my sister is looking at paying £97 at the moment.

Still, providing we get to Leeds it's going to be an awesome weekend. I'm amazed I managed to talk mum into it, because she was convinced that I'm too young to go to Leeds without an adult yesterday, let alone my baby sister.

Ugh, I can't believe I was excited about this trip. I haven't even been back in Taunton a whole day and I've already been in tears twice, and I'm pretty much ready to tear my hair out or punch someone. I hate being treated like a child.

Anyway. We saw Snow Patrol last night as my Christmas present, me and my mum. It was beyond spectacular. No support, just Snow Patrol right through from 8pm, to 10.50, with a half an hour interval in the middle. They had about half an orchastra on stage, which just made all the songs that much better, and the first half was more quiet, and sit down enjoy it, and then the second half was their heavier stuff, where you could get up and really enjoy it too. It was absolute perfection. Run almost made me cry, it was just so perfect. Gary Lightbody was hillarious, kept fucking his lines up and laughing mid song, and generally having a really awesome time which was good. And the accoustics of the Colston Hall made the whole thing seem so impressive. Aside from a technical fault with the drums putting off weird feedback, and the whole forgetting of the lyrics, for something that required half an orchastra operated by about 6 people switching around instruments, and about 50 billion guitar changes I can't believe how well pulled off it was.


Now I just want to go back to Swansea quite frankly.

I just spent the best part of two and a half hours tidying and ironing and now my room is ready for inspection providing they don't want to look under the bed. There's no rubbish, it's just a mishmash of bits that have no actual place. They'll probably think I'm trying to hide weed or something.

That and I don't think we're technically allowed guitars or amps and I have both so I'm hoping they're pretty lax on that rule. At least if they're not it'll put an end to upstairs' band.

I put my favourite tshirt on this morning and it's been stretched out. :( Where it was fairly snug aroud my hips it's not three miles too big. I could actually fit two of me in it, and I would say 'oh, I've been ill, probably weight loss' but a) I had no weight on my hips to lose, and b) surely it would affect all my tops and my jeans too?

I'm so unhappy, I loved that top. I'm gonna take it home and see if my mum can fix it.

Uh, when you're me this is what you think is a good idea at midnight when you can't sleep. I'll probably cringe so badly in the morning.

( 250 word story, NOT BETA'D IN ANY WAY! You have been warned )

Um, yeah.