@ Bonnie, I finished reading Prey last night. I thought it was incredibly good, I liked it a bit more than her usual books (the difference between Prey and the rest of her work is that there is no one who is ill). It’s a little edgier than, say, her One Last Wish series and at the end (and this is not a spoiler, not really), you don’t really know who to feel sorry for.

So today I went downtown with the sister and with K and I got my ears pierced! It was a lot pricier than I had originally expected it to be, but it was an early birthday present from the sister. Online, the place looked great. Sterile work places, scans of certifications. The actual place was even better. The places where they did piercings (and tattoos as well, I’m guessing) were very clean. There was a serious doctor office feel to the place. There were boxes of latex gloves, disposal for latex gloves, sterile instruments, sinks, framed certifications on the walls. It was all very professional. I had a guy named Cory, who said that I looked scared and K was like “That would be Michelle!” He asked some questions like how old I was, what I did (mind kind of blanked so I mentioned writing manuals, go me). But overall it was a very easy experience. The anticipation of it was the worst part of it all. He did the left side first and I was just thinking to myself ‘That’s it? All that and that’s it?!’ so the right side was even easier. So I walked out with studs in my ear, with an even higher appreciation for sterile instruments and then we went shopping.

Shopping consisted of the idea of going for shoes for K and a housewarming gift for my sister’s friend (party tonight). K ended up getting clothes and the world’s best looking watch in the whole wide world (I should have taken photos with my cell phone, but I didn’t - it was $4 and from a dollar store, surprisingly it was labeled as water resistant). Sister ended up getting an awesome magnetic silicone pot rest (kind of like a cooling rack, just made of silicone). And the packaging said it could be used as a pot holder and as a jar opener. Only the pot holder didn’t seem so awkward. I ended up going home and spent the bus ride texting Clay. I corrected him on something and then this happened:

C: You’re such a smart apple.
M: Apple? Seriously, I’m an apple now?
C: The apple of my heart.
M: Cute.
C: I try.

Only my mother has commented on my ears (she thinks they’re uneven). My father hasn’t yet. Yay parents for being oh-so-awesome.

I got mail today! I got mail today! I got mail today!

The first important piece of mail was from this education savings plan place informing me that I don’t qualify for education assistance because of my standing with my university. So I have to mail them back a form stating that I’m going to be delaying my education assistance for a year. Luckily I worked full time this summer so I should have absolutely no problems paying for tuition, books and assorted expenses this year. I’m going to have to go to the postal office on Saturday and get it mailed back (I will most likely be sending it registered, that’s what I did with my first letter to them). Of course, this whole mess brings to light (to my parents, at least) that I still have first year standing. Luckily they don’t know the real reason behind that, heh.

The second important piece of mail was my package from Britt! I got letters, photos, postcards (I wish I was in the Netherlands right now, I went once when I was 10 and haven’t been back since - it’s very disappointing), a mixed cd (which includes one song by The Ataris that I actually do not have on my computer - shocker), candy (I haven’t tried it yet) and a bracelet. I don’t think that I’ve forgotten anything - photos later. I’m going to get to replying to Britt’s letter probably tomorrow and send it on Saturday as well. I have to say though, there’s an awful lot of holes on the sides of the note paper in the Netherlands - my looseleaf paper only has 3 holes on the side compared to like… 30 maybe? I haven’t counted, I should though, hehe. (more…)

I had K over today and then we went over to Shopper’s to go and buy hair dye. She was uncomfortable with bleaching my hair and I was uncomfortable with having my hair bleached, so we decided on the brightest red hair dye we could find in hopes that it would show up on my very dark (read: black) hair. K made sure that she got all the roots, she made sure she got all my hair. I got my hair covered in plastic wrap and got to feel how leftovers usually feel, getting covered with a thin layer of plastic - at least I don’t have to get microwaved! So the plastic wrap came off, my hair was rinsed and then conditioned (at least I think it was conditioner) with the tube of conditioner than came with the dye twice. Then my hair got blow dried and, well, K did an excellent job on my roots! The red took very well to my roots and if I move my hair to one side, I can see more red underneath. It’s rather bright, but if you look down at the ends or just the rest of my hair in general, there’s very little difference (depending on the lighting). With different lighting, it either seems like I’ve done nothing at all or like I have dark red streaks. However, if I look down at the ends of my hair on the right side, it just looks dark red in the lighting that I currently have. I had my hair washed like four times today in the space of maybe 1-2 hours, it’s kind of nice. My scalp is no longer very red, so I’m going to be using a headband tomorrow at work to avoid people asking about the rather bright red on top. But I did come up with a cover story with the help of K if people ask.

The cover story will be “I don’t want to talk about it… but if you do insist… There was an accident, at school, in the bio lab… With the chemicals and the oxygen tank and the frogs… Oh god, the frogs!” And then I get kind of sullen and depressed and mention how I’m mourning my lab instructor (and no, I’m not jinxing anyone’s death because I didn’t have a lab component with my bio course this summer). There’ll be something along the lines of little froggie screams and then… nothing. And just how much of a miracle it is that I’m still alive, I managed to get away chemically altered hair on just the top of my head and how I managed to get a ‘chemical reaction’ to the chemicals on my skin (and somehow avoided my face and just got around the hairline). Yeah… Work is going to be great tomorrow!

My mother thinks that it’s hilarious that I have only vibrant red on the top of my head. And she brought up, after K left, that everyone at work is much taller than me so they’ll probably notice the red when I walk away or turn my head. And I went ” Well, I’ll just have to walk behind people. And not turn my head, of course.” She laughed and said good luck to me on it tomorrow. My father, on the other hand, thinks that I’m crazy for even considering dyeing my hair to begin with, so he really didn’t have much to say beyond shaking his head at me for my crazy ideas. I heard him asking my mom if I was being a rebellious teenager. Luckily I’m not going to be a teenager for very much longer, so he won’t be able to use that term for very long. He thinks it’s going to start me on a road of debauchery. First it’ll be dyeing my hair, next will be piercings, after that is logically tattoos (tramp stamps ftw?). Although, if I have it my way, by the time I’m 20 I’ll have (visible…) dyed red hair (not this bright though!), ears pierced at least once and, well, I’m not really big on the tattoo thing. Something about ‘permanently inked skin’ doesn’t do it for me. Although, if I were to get a tattoo, would I really show my parents? Probably not. Perhaps a black phoenix somewhere? Hmmmm…

So I’m working on a plan for a community-style blog. I’m also looking for volunteer bloggers for it, I’m planning on having it focus mainly on technology and perhaps fashion (that’s how it was in my dream, after all). I’m also working on coming up with a name for it, and will be looking for a host and other things as well. I’m kind of excited, I do like group projects.

Anyways, I might have photos of my lovely black/red/reddish-brown hair soon. My cell phone doesn’t take decent shots so I’m waiting for my sister to come home to get some nice macro shots of the colour for you all to see. It’s actually a nice colour, just not… everywhere enough. And it’s back to work tomorrow. Which means I will get to see the Boy and everyone else. And I get to see Goose’s daughter because he’s bringing her in tomorrow to meet everyone! I am so excited, I get to meet Allie! Whooo, tomorrow’s going to be interesting indeed. I’m also going to be placed on a new project in the sales department tomorrow. It’ll be fun, the guys in Sales (all the people who work in the sales department are male, surprisingly) are really easy to get along with so it’ll be fun, I hope.

[edit] (more…)

Someone new…
I made a new friend in my biology course today! His name is Brian and he introduced himself with “I don’t believe in using lines to meet girls…. I guess that was a line.” He was incredibly random and funny, he jumped from topic to topic quite easily from the class to shoes (he liked talking about heels for some reason… foot fetish, perhaps?) and then to classic British literature and then started talking about Russian literature with me. Which is nice, because I have read some translated work so I could keep up with the conversation. After class he asked me if I wanted go out on sometime, like on a date. I hesitated and he asked if there was a guy and I said it was complicated. He gave me his email and his number and told me to give him a call if things get simplified and said okay. Of course, even if things do get simplified, I probably won’t give him a call. There wasn’t much of an attraction there.

Someone old…
I’ve been catching up with some old friends lately. In particular, R, who I haven’t seen in ages. We’re in the planning stages of a reunion. Which is pretty cool. Plus I’ll be getting shows to watch from him. Love, love, love. Speaking of shows, I should stop watching episodes on my laptop and get back to studying for my quiz (!!!) tomorrow.

Someone borrowed…
I called to complain about my class to A, but instead her boyfriend picked up the phone so I borrowed K for like 15 minutes to bitch about the course until she got back to the vicinity of her cell phone. She asked me why I was borrowing her boyfriend for a bitchfest - I answered “Well you let him pick up your phone…”

Someone blue…
The Boy is depressed and unhappy and nothing is making him cheerful. If I wasn’t feeling disappointment in him right now, I would consider cheering him up. But I’m not in the mood, despite being in a rather excellent mood today. I didn’t go for a run, I didn’t eat an absurd amount of junk food. I’m just content today. It may possibly help that I know that he’s feeling incredibly shitty…

Title
It comes from the song Save You by Simple Plan from their third, and self-titled, album. It’s from the chorus: Sometimes I wish I could save you. And there’s so many things that I want you to know. I won’t give up till it’s over. If it takes forever, I want you to know.

University
My biology course began today. It’s going to be pretty intense, what with the quizzes and the midterms and the final exam. There’s homework every single day. But it’s a pretty small class, there’s only 104 students in my course (according to my prof, who seems rather nice thus far, but it’s only been the first day). I met some new people today. I got into an argument with someone over what triggers leaves to change colour. I said it was because the levels of chlorophyll begin to decline, she said it was because there’s “some chemical” that changes the colours of the leaves. I make excellent first impressions, can you tell?

Friends
I was walking by the administration office today on my way to the bus loop after my class and I heard someone shout my name. So I turn around, not really expecting it to be someone looking for me, but it was. It was Alex and he was pushing a stroller with the most adorable little girl sitting in it. I finally got to meet Madeline and she was a complete doll. She wouldn’t sit still for a photo though, and kept on moving so the photos came out blurry and make her look like some messy coloured blob (which, obviously, doesn’t resemble her at all). But we caught up a little, talked about how our lives were going. I found out that he was there to get copies of his transcript since he needed to get them rushed for his applications. He’s moving and I was rather saddened by that, but it was nice seeing him again and it was rather fun to meet Madeline. She kept on pulling at my hair and babbling. (more…)