Guh...update.

I've started cooking at work--finally--and I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of it. I miss working night shifts, though. And I hate having Sundays and Mondays off. Annnd...my back hurts. But I got a massage a week or two ago from a coworker who's training to be a massage therapist, and it was intense (in a mostly good way). I've never had a deep tissue massage, or any kind of professional massage, for that matter. I thought it might be a weird experience, since I was practically naked (under the sheet, of course), and we're still at that odd point in a coworker relationship where you know each other well enough to joke comfortably, but you're not close friends, by any means. To my pleasant surprise, he was totally professional (almost opposite his usual demeaner at Pagliacci) and it wasn't strange or awkward or uncomfortable at all. Plus...it was free. And there are few things better than a free massage.

Even though winter quarter doesn't start for another 76 days, I'm so excited that I'm...well...counting the days. Obviously. I went up to the UW campus yesterday to meet up with Rachael (which was an awesome experience in itself, since we haven't hung out in months), and while I still don't enjoy the massive student body, or its composure of thousands of the Those Kind of People [arms flailing], it'll be so good to go somewhere other than Pagliacci. It'll be good to go somewhere other than Broadway, even. Guh.

In the nearer future, Laurel is visiting this weekend, and I'm more excited for her physical presence than I am for the Ani Difranco show we're attending, which was the original reason for her visit. Much adventure will be had!

Back to School

In January, that is. It turns out the University of Washington doesn't really care why you stopped schooling, how you did while you were there, why you want to come back, or how you've changed. It's just a simple act of being entered back into the system.

I think I would feel more validated if I had been accepted only after explaining myself. Though I don't really want to get into the reasons I need that validation.

I love mornings

I realize that it's only half an hour till it isn't morning anymore, but in my defense, I've been up since 8:45. Why? No particular reason. I don't work until later tonight, and I don't have anyone to see or anywhere to be before then. I just like to get an earlier start to my day. It's nice to have a few hours to lazily sip some coffee, munch on some breakfast, and update my blog-reading or news-watching. When I wake up later, after the sun's been up almost half a day, I feel like I've missed out on something. Even if there wasn't anything other than just bird-chirping and sunshine in my East-facing windows to sleep through. I guess it's just the fact that I can't sit around for 2 hours before I shower and still hope to get something done before work. No zipping downtown to browse the pretty things at Nordstrom that I can only hope to be able to afford in the future. No getting laundry done before I have to leave, so as to save myself from staying up extra late after I get home and want to go to bed. No relaxing grocery store browsing.

When I start back at school (whether it be this coming Winter quarter at UW, or some later time at some other university), I hope I'll be able to remember how much better it is to be waking up early and Doing Things, rather than sleeping in and doing absolutely nothing with myself. There's been far too much of the latter in the last year or so of my life, and I'm over it. I'm done with it. It's over. I hope.

It's been a while...

I have 3 major things to update:

1. I moved into a studio on First Hill at the beginning of July.
2. I cut all of my hair off on the 15th.
3. I applied to UW for re-admission two days ago.

These are all big-freakin'-deals for me.

First of all, I'm living by myself for the first time, ever. Laurel is in Spokane for the time being, and while it is nice to be the only occupant of my home, I do miss having her around to share our one-of-a-kind sense of humor and appreciation for odd details in each other's lives.

As for my hair, I knew the time would come, eventually, to shave my head and start anew. As I've told so many wide-eyed people over the last week, I have been planning it for a while. I just didn't know when I would actually do it. Turns out, it would be on a ho-hum sort of Saturday in mid-August, right after a pathetic emotional meltdown the day before. Which brings me to the last thing.

Ever since I dropped out of my classes right before the Winter '09 quarter began, I've felt like I'm in a bit of a limbo. I'm working, yes, but at a lowly pizzeria, which doesn't utilize or praise my talents and skills, other than by the fact that they haven't fired me over the last year for being a complete idiot (which, I'm sorry to say, has happened a few times in the time I've spent there). I thought I wanted to pursue music, but since I still don't have a keyboard or lyrics for potential songs, I'm feeling more and more like I'm lying to myself. I don't think that's really what I would excell at, and in any case, it's not guaranteed that I will succeed in any sense of the word. So, on something that was much more of a surprising whim than that which lead me to cut my hair off on the 15th, I reapplied for admission to UW last Saturday. It all sort of came together and the stubborn aspiring-musician part of me finally let up on the bullshit and admitted that i really need to go back to school. And while I'm still not entirely sure what I might end up doing, I need to finish what I started at UW so I can move on to bigger, better places in my life (figuratively, and hopefully, geographically). Since my GPA was so low when I left, I don't even know if they'll take me back. But I think I have a better chance there than I do anywhere else.

So we'll see what happens, I suppose. I've been humoring thoughts about becoming some in-the-know editor of a fashion magazine, but that fantasy might never amount to be more than just that.