I haven't written anything up in here in a good while because I've been simultaneously extra busy and extra lazy. Spring break was wild, but I'd prefer to forget bits and pieces so I won't revisit it here. For the last two weeks I have hardly gone to any of my classes because I am incapable of waking up on time. That isn't to say if I could wake up on time I would be on time, but I think it would help quite a lot. My first final is on April 23rd, so it's definitely the season for hitting the books 20 hours a day to make up for the past couple of months I spent slacking off.

I'm moving to Jacksonville for the summer. I don't have a place to live yet, and I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to scrape up the money to pay rent both here and there for two or three months. I am excited to be so close to living by the beach for the first time ever, though, and I was thinking that I could make a stockpile of hula hoops to sell to people by the ocean for a little bit of extra cash. By "extra cash" I mean, of course, cash, period. None of it will be extra because all of it will be not quite enough.

I mostly write things here when I'm thinking about Johnson, so I start and then get bored and quit without ever posting any of it when I realize that I'd rather read his than write mine. It's about that point now.

Oh, but wait! It has been literally months since I've had a piece of cake. Until tonight. I made some cupcakes for a birthday thing over the weekend, and earlier tonight I tweaked one of the recipes-strawberry cupcakes, from The Joy of Vegan Baking-a little bit and baked it in a loaf pan instead of a muffin tin and made a glaze from strawberry preserves and soy milk and vanilla, and let me tell you that it was heavenly. I couldn't wait, so I cut a piece while it was still steaming hot, and I poured the glaze over the top and let it soak it allll up, and when I finally ate it...it was like tasting cake for the first time all over again. I'm so excited to be back in the kitchen to give my best efforts to vegan baking to see how I can do it all better and more creative than before. I will spread the word through the wonders of cake.

One more thing: I just finished reading The Monkey Wrench Gang. It was the best book I have ever read, by far. Nothing else is even on the same plane as this book in my mind anymore. I would recommend that you read it, immediately, for you will love it dearly, and, if you don't, I'm not sure how I feel about you anymore.

Dear Edward Abbey,
I love you. Thank you. It was truly life changing.

****

"Somewhere in the depths of solitude, beyond wildness and freedom, lay the trap of madness. Even the vulture, that red-necked black-winged anarchist, most indolent and arrogant of all the desert's creatures, even the vulture at evening likes to gather with his kin and swap a few stories, the flock of them roosting on the highest branches of the deadest tree in the neighborhood, all hunched down and wrapped up in their black-wing robes, cackling together like a convocation of scheming priests. Even the vulture-fantastic thought-goes through the nesting fit, mates for a time, broods on a clutch of vulture eggs, produces young."

****

"I think," said Doc, "these people are serious."

"It ain't people," said Smith. "It's a mechanical animal."

"Now you've got it," Doc agreed. "We're not dealing with human beings. We're up against the megamachine. A megalomaniacal megamachine."

****

I decided to create a new LJ account with a username that is not my actual name. I'm sick of starting from nothing when I delete all of my entries, though, so I am going to copy and paste the few entries from my old account here before I go and delete it.
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"Call me when you feel like being easy." - March 2nd, 2008 (11:20 pm)

It is the end of another weekend during which I achieved little. This one was different, though, because I am coming out of it feeling pretty good instead of feeling regretful and hungover. That's not to say I actually stuck to my plan of not getting belligerently drunk several days in a row like I do every week, but I think the positive aspects of this weekend greatly outweigh my foolish behavior.

However, on Thursday someone said something to me that I think was wildly inappropriate, and now I want to punch him in the face. We were out at Top, and this kid I know came up to me to complain about how his friends were leaving the bar and he had no one to hang out with. I told him he could chill with me and the people I was with, but he was trying to get me to go off with him myself. When I reiterated that he could bum around with me AND my people, he got angsty, said "Call me when you feel like being easy," and stormed off in another direction. I don't usually get pissed about random drunk assholes acting like assholes, but I am pretty mad about this little incident.

Disregarding that brief portion of the festivities, I would say the weekend was a success (I'm not sure what my definition of "success" is). I got to hang out with a couple of really cool people I'd never partied with before, and I played in the sun quite a bit. I also got to play with a lot of dogs. Now I have to do my homework. Dang. I'm keeping my attention on the fact that Langerado is in four days to keep my mind off of how I am slacking so bad in school, even though Langerado will contribute to the slacking. At least it will fucking rock, so I can come home and get my life together with a few fresh memories of fun and insanity. The good kind of insanity.
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LANGERADO MUSIC FESTIVAL - February 27th, 2008 (12:25 pm)

OK, I know I'm obsessively hawking Langerado, but I feel the need to spread the word. It's happening March 6-9 at the Big Cypress Indian Reservation in the Everglades, and it will be obscenely fun. I'm going no matter what, but it would be pretty sweet if I had someone or a group of folks to go with instead of having to latch onto a random pack of kids. I will do it if I have to, though!

The lineup includes the Beastie Boys, REM, Phil Lesh, the Roots, G. Love & Special Sauce, Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood, Built to Spill, Les Claypool, Umphrey's McGee, Keller Williams, STS9, Dark Star Orchestra, Ozomatli, Blind Melon, Perpetual Groove, the Avett Brothers, the Walkmen, Dr. Dog, Spam Allstars, Steel Train, AND MANY, MANY MORE!!

The Beastie Boys, y'all!

I really want to go to Bonnaroo this year, but, depending on my employment options, I don't know if I'll be able to. I would be devastatingly sad if I missed out on this for no reason other than nobody else was down to hang and then missed Bonnaroo too because I am being cultivated to be a slave to the man.

So check it out at www.langerado.com. It will be the fucking jam.
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old and tired and sad, yeah - February 25th, 2008 (12:15 am)

Once again it is Sunday night, and I have accomplished so close to nothing it blows my mind.

Thursday night we went to Swamp, Ale House, Beer Pit, and then Gotham. I'm pretty sure I acted at least a little bit inappropriate, but my memory from the evening is not so good. So I woke up on Friday feeling like ass and like an ass, but I went to Book Lover's Cafe for dinner and the sweet sweet vegan food made me feel better. We went to midtown to party a little bit and ended up at Copper Monkey because it was the only place that wasn't packed. Actually it was almost completely empty when we got there, but it filled up more later in the night. I was a little less ridiculous there, but my friend lost her ID at the bar after this guy who had been looking at it kissed the freckle on her nose, which was unsolicited, and she got a little bit belligerent about it/because of it. I made the guy empty his pockets and show me his wallet since she thought he stole it, but it was nowhere to be found. I spent most of Saturday in bed thinking about how I should probably stop drinking tequila. I also ate an entire box of Special K Red Berries.

I was supposed to go to Lake Wauburg with someone early today, but she didn't answer the phone so I went to lay out by the pool and read for land use instead. I thought the sun would soothe my soul, but instead it just gave me a sunburn. I dicked around for several hours and then went to play in our last regular season soccer game. We played the same team we played in our first game this season, and we did a lot better. I almost got carded for slide tackling this girl, even though it wasn't intentional or malicious. I was trying to kick the ball out because she was right up by our goal, but instead I nailed her in the legs so her legs flew out from under her and then I fell and she crashed down on my head. When I got up from the violent collision, the ref was bitching at me for slide tackling her and threatening to card me if he saw my feet leave the ground again. I got kind of pissed that he was threatening to card me instead of asking me if I had a concussion or something because the impact was so hard. He got pissed that I was questioning his intramural-outdoor-soccer-ref authority, but it turned out alright. The Grad Cup games are on Friday. I want to beat the med students, but I really want to annihilate the dental school kids.

Now it's past midnight, and I still haven't even started re-drafting my contract for legal drafting, which I have at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. Or today, I suppose. I've been bummed about a couple of particular things lately, and it's really not doing anything for my motivation or work ethic. I've also been having trouble sleeping before 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., so I'm usually walking around exhausted as well. I was thinking about giving the Master Cleanse another chance, but I don't think I can survive without coffee at this point in my life.

Dang my life is boring, y'all. I would try to have more adventures, but I am old and tired and sad. I think it's about time for me to wander back to Chattanooga and Knoxville to refresh.

This postsecret horrified me today: http://bp3.blogger.com/_a7jkcMVp5Vg/R8Dji9P2NlI/AAAAAAAAEQk/L1bUTDem83k/s1600-h/pubicspider.jpg
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tomorrow is the big day - February 19th, 2008 (10:40 pm)

My PETA interview is tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. I have been freaking out about it constantly for the last week, but last night I transitioned from paralyzing nervousness to optimistic excitement. I'm going to take that as a good sign. Hopefully in the morning I won't be all jittery and incoherent from panic and will be able to make a good impression. I would do pretty much anything to get this job. Send your good vibes my way if you can spare any! I'll return the favor when you need it. And if I get hired everyone will reap the benefits of my sheer joy. You better believe there will be vegan cake, and you know you don't want to miss my baking comeback.
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oh Sunday - February 17th, 2008 (10:40 pm)

It is already past ten o'clock on Sunday night. My weekend typically starts on Thursday at 9:50 a.m., when my last class of the entire week ends, but this week it started on Wednesday at 3:50 p.m., when the last class I chose to attend ended. I didn't really choose to skip my Thursday morning class. I just accidentally slept until noon on that day. The point, really, is that my weekend started on Wednesday and it is now Sunday night and I have not accomplished a thing. Right now, as a matter of fact, I should be outlining a contract for my legal drafting class--the very same class I slept through on Thursday--but instead I am watching the NBA All-Star Game. Sometimes you have to sacrifice.

Friday night we went to Sidebar to kick off the evening. Before heading downtown, we drank some champagne and then downed a couple of beers on the way to the bus stop. I drank enough to close out my tab at the bar before we left to go to Boutiq where we were on the VIP list. I always thought the concept of the VIP list in Gainesville was kind of disingenuous, but we got to skip a mighty long line and didn't have to pay cover. And I felt kind of like a pimp for that. Boutiq is not like anything I thought existed in this town. The club is three floors, and all you can see throughout is blinding flashing lights and a frightening crowd of people dancing. I went up to the third floor first where someone promptly bought me a drink. He then proceeded to grab my ass until I jumped up on the DJ platform to dance to escape him. I spent some time down on the first floor, where I went to find the bathroom but where I stayed because they were playing some song I was digging when I got there. Eventually we made it back to the bus and back home. Before I decided it was high time to go to bed, I tripped over some stuff in my bathroom and busted my face on the trash can. I didn't get a black eye, only a swollen red spot on my cheekbone, and thank goodness for that. I would hate to have to explain a black eye away as a drunken blunder.

I have an interview on Wednesday morning for the only job I truly want. I've been having nightmares about it which involve me competing head-to-head in physical challenges with the other applicants being considered for the position. Last night I had another one where I was being violently attacked by a whale in the middle of the ocean after attempting to hold onto its fin longer than the other applicants while it raced through the water, agitated and confused. If you know me, you know that I have an irrational fear of whales. It was a horrifying way to wake up, but at least I did wake up. I applied for a couple of externships I think would be pretty sweet, but I think there is too much competition for me to stand a chance at getting contacted about any of them. I would get to stay in Florida though, and I have been kind of wanting to hang around by the beach for a while. Right now the weather is so sweet I have a window open with the fan whirring around to bring in fresh air, at night. In any case, I will hopefully not be completely void of employment options for much longer.

I hate when good songs are in commercials for shitty products. Thin Lizzy should not be tainted by an association with Miller Lite.