oh! happy bday bunkadoo!

i arrived back in champaign about an hour ago...and there were three soaking wet boxes on my porch. three boxes...sitting in the rain, snow, and floods that apparently happened here while i was in dc. not to be confused with the rain, snow, and floods that happened in dc while i was in dc. who the hell would send me boxes while i was out of town you say??? who else...the dreaded ex. impressive that almost all of it is completely ruined because it was sitting in water outside for at least a week. at least i can ring out the old year fully and completely.

oh...and my younger brother is now engaged.

yesterday's book selection was...microserfs by douglas coupland. especially if you work at or have ever worked at microsoft. you will undoubtedly feel warm and fuzzy when he describes all that is the eastside. particularly funny (to me) are the mentions of the pro club.

60 minutes II has on a piece called sex, lies & videogames, which shows b-b-b-b-b-b-ill in mill-d playing the reporter in the only fun game that's in fuzion frenzy, sumo. anyway it was largely a fluff piece on videogames aimed at *older* *mature* audiences (from the sims online to bmx xxx) but when they showed the microsoft parts i was hoping that i'd see someone that i knew walking around outside the building. no such luck.

whoa...i made it! i'm actually the newest member of that experimental social theatre group now. AND i'm going to get to perform my piece "15-to-life" in april. and that's not all!!!! i also won a full tuition and fee waiver for spring...thank god! so despite the monsoon we are having outside (and, yes, i have yet another leak in my roof)...today's a pretty sunny day!

harlan pointed out via email today that i do have fans of my blog, even if no one else except bunkadoo ever leaves me comments...i dunno...sniff...it seems that only bunkadoo really cares...sniff...

[was that pathetic enough for everyone? ;) ]

so here's the situation: the university has this special course that you can take if you are a grad student nearing completion which makes you look like a full time student only you don't have to pay tuition. the benefit to taking this course is that your student loans don't kick in because it looks like you are still registered. ah...so you are waiting for the catch 22? you cannot be receiving any funding, including student loans while you take this oh-so-special course. so once again the graduate school rushes in to help out those who are in a situation where apparently they don't need any money because they are being supported by their spouse or whatnot. terrific! outstanding!

btw, have you seen that visa ad where this salesgirl freaks out when she sees that british girl from frasier and it turns out that she's only freaking out because she's using a visa card? anyway, christina from high school is the freaking out salesgirl.

i'm going to reach out and choke insight communications. for two months now my internet access has been absolute shit and they have already been out here twice and i'm sooooooo glad that they took over for excite@home when they went belly up. right.

anyway, i'm up working on my dissertation if you can believe that and i have to say...i'm getting a LOT bit sick of adding, deleting, re-adding, re-deleting my human subjects forms as appendices everytime someone changes their mind as to whether or not it should be in the document. i'm thinking about turning in old drafts as new drafts every now and again just to see what happens. but you know...at this point i'm just at the "fine...you want me to say that i love pickled herring in chapter four? fine..." stage of writing.

it's true. they've beaten me down.

starting at midnight, my favorite coffee shop in urbana (as opposed to champaign) will be open 24 hours a day. unfortunately it's only for exam week. why the fuck aren't there any 24/7 coffee shops in this town? and for that matter...24/7 bookstores. for that matter...why isn't everything open 24/7? who needs sleep, right??

so yesterday i had a dream about greg sending me back my stuff (hahaha) and today on jenny jones...or some show just like it..."give me back my stuff!" wow. did i will that show or what? greg has my blogger mug, a $200 rain jacket, TWO (2) pairs of my running shoes, a super cool blue sony cd walkman WITH external speakers...plus ALL MY SUMMER CLOTHES which at this point who cares...but what a fucking slacker.

gwyneth paltrow is playing the part of sylvia plath in an upcoming bbc movie? yeah. i can see it. right.

so no matter how many times that i tell art boy that i think he really needs to get some professional help...he won't do it. and i know that i can't make him and his other friends can't make him but i'm sorry...winding up in the er the other night because you drank almost a whole bottle of vodka when (1) you haven't had a drink in years and (2) you were alone...need i say more? and what exactly was the crack staff at the er thinking that night to not bother to even take his blood alcohol level?

uh...why exactly am i obsessed with making glass xmas ornaments in bizarre and non-xmas color combinations right now? oh well. keeps me off the streets. not really though. every now and again i run out of paint and have to go down the street to get more.

btw, the plan for dc, part two is december 20 - 30. maybe this time i'll not miss the fucking plane and will actually have time to call and see people while i'm there.

i'm completely covered with paint. well, no, not really COMPLETELY covered. i was in "project mode" today and you know that usually means that i'm up to no good. at least i didn't destroy the apartment...this time. anyway, it was a pretty ok weekend in general and isn't it funny how my depression seems to be lifting now that it is 4000 degrees below zero? i have some kind of fucked up reverse SAD or something.

watched in the gloaming again on hbo this afternoon and thought of marvin. and i thought about what it means to go home to die...when do you decide it's time? i miss how funny you were marvin...i miss how completely, completely outrageous you were and how you sometimes told me WAY too much information. perhaps you meant to shock me. perhaps it was because you really needed me or someone or anyone to listen. i'll never really know and it doesn't really matter which it was or what else it could have been now but i hope that i heard...completely heard...all you wanted to tell me.

so who wants to go to SXSW with me in march??? come on people! let's go! i'm dying to go to the film sessions.

it's world aids day and i miss marvin.