Sooooo Tired

Saturday evening, I got to Mom & Dad's around five. Mom, Dad and Jason were in Illinois for the weekend (visiting Aunt Julie, Uncle David and Matthew) so it was just me, Kimba, Anna and Kayla. We bummed around for a while, watching this really long count-down on VH1 about 100 teen stars, only for Anna and Kimba to gripe when Molly Ringwald turned out to be number one.

Around 8 or 9, some of Kimba's friends (and Camille) started showing up. There were 9-10 people in the living room once they all got there. We watched Shooter on the projector and screen, and had a couple of frozen pizzas.

After the movie, we played Scene It! twice, with three people to a team (four on one team, once the last person showed up in the middle of the first game). My team didn't win either game. Oh well.

Everybody left around 2am, then the four of us girls got ready for bed. Anna and I watched Danny Phantom, then Anna put in an episode of Family Guy and fell asleep. I made it through the episode awake, then stopped the disc and turned off the TV thinking I was going to go to sleep too. That was around 3:45 or so.

I ended up tossing and turning, unable to get to sleep for a while. The last time I looked at the clock, it was 5am.

Yesterday, I woke up at around noon and had a bowl of cereal. Then Anna, Kayla and I watched the first episode of Angel season 5. Kimba kept calling Anna downstairs in the middle of it though, so Anna wanted to find a way to watch it downstairs on the projector despite the light of day. She ended up covering the windows with her comforter and blanket, then turning off or dimming most of the lights.

We didn't watch anymore Angel though. Kimba decided to stay downstairs too, since we were all down there. Her original plan was to go upstairs to her room while we were in Anna's room, but since we were going to be downstairs anyway, she stayed.

Kimba doesn't care for Angel or Buffy--anything Whedon-esque, really. So, we watched the movie that Kimba bought yesterday while getting ingredients for dinner: Nancy Drew. That was a cute movie.

After that movie, we made dinner and ate it. We had chicken, broccoli, cheese, scalloped potatoes, and fruit salad. It was extremely yummy . . . and extremely filling. I wanted more, but I would have exploded if I'd actually eaten more.

After dinner, we cleaned up the mess, and cleaned Oreo's (my brother's hamster) cage. Anna found a way to hook up Kayla's Play Station 2 to the projector (and the speakers) using Jason's stereo, and we played Sing Star until a little past midnight, when we got ready to go to sleep.

The rodent got put back into her nice, clean cage, and everybody went to their respective rooms (I went to Anna's) to sleep. Anna and I watched another Danny Phantom; it was one I'd already seen before at least twice . . . the one with the nerd in the locker who tries to take over Danny's life. Then she fell asleep during Family Guy again, and this time I feel asleep pretty soon after the episode was over. That was around 1:30, I think.

I woke up this morning, got dressed, had breakfast, and came to work.

Man, I hate Mondays.

Non-D&D Fans, Read at Your Own Risk

Today, I've been putting all of my old character information into the AD&D 2nd Edition Character Sheet that I downloaded a couple of weeks ago. I had four characters, but I lost the information for the character I used to play online (Witheria something--I think she might've been either a cleric or a mage).

So, I put my other characters into character sheets. It was sort of confusing, because they had originally been created using the Skills & Powers and/or Spells & Magic options, but I wanted to just make them only reference the Player's Handbook. Plus, when I typed up all of the information, there was a bunch missing. Like one of my characters didn't have any equipment or gold listed at all.

I have two level one characters, and one level nine. The two level one characters are a half-elf fighter (I just created her so that I could learn to create characters, way back when), and an elven Cleric (who I created for the campaign that Matt & I started, with his friend Tim DM-ing when I was 15). Both of those characters have a lawful good alignment.

The level 9 character is a mage (alignment neutral evil), who I had originally created as a level one character, but got bumped up by the DM to 9th, so that I could use her in the DragonLance Play By E-Mail campaign I played in 2000. There was a whole bunch of confusing stuff to put into the character sheets--not the least of which was the fact that I'd lost the page with her ability scores on it, so I had to guess based on everything else! Also, the DM added a bunch of cool stuff from the Dungeon Master's Guide, which I kept.

The character I created a couple of weeks ago for 2nd edition is an 8th level thief. It was much easier to fill in the character sheet for her than for the other three 2nd edition characters.

I also organized my D&D binder. Now, it has four sections: Current Characters, Old 2nd Edition Characters, Old 3.5 Edition Characters, and Other Stuff (this is for extra character sheets, notes used during/about character creation, and basic information on the Haven).

Now that's all done and I won't be thinking about it anymore, I shall go take a shower and go to Mom & Dad's for the weekend.

Well, I did it.

Friday the 21st was another D&D night, and my character got enough experience to move up to 2nd level. Yay!

On Saturday the 22nd, I managed to finish Mansfield Park. By 11:00pm, I was finished with the article for the Commuter, as well as a neat little sidebar I thought up to go with it.

I went over to Mom & Dad's house after that, and Anna and I watched some TV before we fell asleep.

Sunday, Kayla wasn't there (she was spending 10 days with her family in Alabama), so we didn't watch any Buffy or Angel. Instead, I read The Jane Austen Book Club, which I borrowed from Anna. I was kind of on a Jane Austen kick the whole weekend, despite having just finished all six of her novels--I just wanted more! And Anna wouldn't watch any of the movies (she has Pride and Prejudice times two, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma).

Tuesday was our mid-term for Astronomy. Most of the questions were multiple choice (and therefore extremely cinchy), then there were four short answer questions. The whole test was pretty easy--the only question I wasn't entirely sure about was the last one.

Wednesday, I went over to the Haven and did some reading about the fictional place that the game I've been playing on Friday nights is set in. While I was reading, someone put a movie on the projector called The Gamers. I didn't catch very much of it, but it looked like a cheesy college project. What little I caught of it was funny though. After that movie, someone put in one from 1960 that had Angela Lansbury and the lady who played the mom in Mary Poppins in it. I can't remember the title.

There was no class yesterday, because of the mid-term on Tuesday, and Kayla came back, so I went to Mom & Dad's for dinner. We had tacos--Kayla's favorite. When I got home around 10:30-ish, I watched last night's Smallville, then one more episode of MacGyver. I'm somewhere in season 2 now.

Tonight is another D&D session, and I got paid today. Yay money!

Catching Up

On Thursday, I went to the Haven after work, and met a few people (there were actually more girls there than I thought there would be--I was only 1 of 4 that I saw). Then I played Rock Band on the X-Box there. I did drums and vocals, and I have to say I was better at the drums, since I didn't really know any of the song lyrics or anything.

Friday, I went back again, and got in on the D&D 3.5 game for newbies. My character is a ranger.

Saturday, after doing some things at home, I went to Mom & Dad's, and Anna, Kayla and I (and sometimes Jason) watched Buffy and Angel. Anna wanted to get through episode 18 of Buffy season 7 and Angel season 4 before Kayla left to go to Alabama for 8 days (or was it 10?). We finished Angel 4.18 around 12:30 Monday morning, and then went straight to sleep.

Yesterday, I went to get my allergy shots, then I went to Staples. I had gotten $175 for my work in the primary election last month, so I could afford a few more supplies that I needed. I got two more of each ink cartridge for my newer printer (an HP Deskjet F4135 All-in-One--my HP Deskjet 722C doesn't need new ink yet, since I haven't been using it for a while), a couple reams of paper, some batteries, and a little calculator to put on my keychain (since I'm sick of having to do math on paper, on my Palm Pilot, or in my head all the time).

When I got home, I watched a couple episodes of MacGyver (I'm now finished season 1, disc 2--so the next time I watch I'll be starting on episode 1.09), then finished Sense and Sensibility and started Emma. I only got one chapter into that though.

I have four days to finish Emma and read the entirety of Mansfield Park. If I don't finish the last one by Friday (or at the very latest, mid Saturday morning), then I won't have time to write that article for the school newspaper, because the deadline is Monday, March 24, and I know I won't be able to get any writing done at Mom & Dad's house.

I was originally thinking of going to the Haven for board game night tonight, but I've really got to crack down and finish my reading, so I'm going to stay in and do that. If I don't get back to the Haven by Thursday, then I'll definitely be going on Friday for the next session of D&D.

Yay TV!

The DirecTV guys didn't show up until almost 8pm last night, but they did get there. They also hooked up the dish to Stacie's and my receivers. We now have "cable" TV in our rooms. Finally.

The list of channels was somewhat confusing (there were multiple numbers for channels of the same name) so I went through and picked out my favorites and made my very own reference sheet, with all of my favorites sorted three different ways: by number, by name, and by call sign.

I checked out The Haven on Monday after work, although I only stayed a few minutes because I had to do laundry. It's a pretty cosy setup, and I liked what I saw, so I'm definitely going to go back as often as I can.

I'm also going to upgrade my membership starting next month. The $10 per month is the Standard Gaming membership (one-day guest membership is $5, with the first visit per month free), but I want a Crafting membership as well, because I want to be able to use the forge and get to sign up for some of the crafting classes a month before everyone else. The Crafting membership is $25 per month.

Right now, I'm not experienced enough with role-playing games in general to be a Game Master, but when I am, I'll want a GM membership too. By itself, the GM membership is $25. If I combine the GM and the Crafting memberships, I'll only have to pay $10 more, for a total of $35 per month (instead of $50).

Since I had to wait for the DirecTV guys to come and leave last night (nobody else was home), I was about an hour late for class. Luckily, they were still there, and Bryson (one of my classmates--he always types up his notes due to poor handwriting) was able to e-mail me the notes I'd missed. I'll copy them into my notebook when I get home from work.

I also found out last night that we won't be having class tomorrow, so combined with Spring Break next week, I won't have to go to class again until the 25th. Sweet! That means more Haven time for Darcy!

I can't go tonight, because Anna asked me to help her with her homework tonight, but I was already planning to go on Friday anyway, since they're having a free How to Play D&D 3.5 class that evening. So I'll get to go two days in a row--three, if I can afford to take the $25 Leather book binding class on Saturday (I get paid on Friday, and have to pay bills and buy groceries, but other than that I should have enough, I hope).

I joined a club!

Thursday's class was fun. Instead of doing the lab individually, like I usually do, the whole class got around one table and we went through the lab together. It didn't help me much, since I usually get finished with the labs pretty quick, but it was fun talking to my classmates.

Not much happened on Friday.

Saturday, there was a play at the Maryland Ensemble Theater called Killer Joe. Anna and I went to see it. It was a head trip and a half--disturbingly enjoyable. And funny. Can't forget funny.

Yesterday, I had yet another appointment with the DirecTV people. It was supposed to be between 4pm and 8pm, so Anna, Kayla and I took the projector over to my house, and we watched Buffy and Angel on the wall in the living room. That part was fun.

We were at my house from about 3 until about 9:45, but nobody from DirecTV showed up. They didn't even call to say they weren't going to show up either! I called them this morning, but the nearest appointment they had was for tomorrow evening, so it looks like I'm going to have to risk being late for the astronomy lecture tomorrow. This whole situation is just ridiculous.

I was talking to Gabe (a guy I work with) about RPGs, and he told me about this club where they play games (board, card, RPG, etc.) and do crafts and have classes and stuff called The Haven. It seemed pretty cool, they're there pretty much all the time (though weekends are busier), and joining only costs $10 per month. (They only charge so that they can keep it to a private club--they only want about 100 members or so.) So I signed up. I'm going to go over there after work this evening (it's only a couple of blocks away from the office) to check it out.

Let's Go . . .

Monday evening was good. I went straight from work back to Mom & Dad's house. When I got there, Anna was just getting in the car, so she took me to her work and we sent a fax that I needed to send, but my Dad's fax machine wouldn't work for.

Once we got back, we watched three episodes each of Buffy and Angel, including "The Body, Forever," and "Intervention." I can't remember the titles of the Angel episodes we watched, but they were the corresponding episodes from those three points in the second season.

I got home around midnight, then crashed.

Tuesday, I went to work, then came home and started my laundry. I got the first load washed and dried, and the second load was going in the dryer (third load in the wash) before I had to leave for class. After class, I finished the laundry while reading.

Speaking of reading, I finished Persuasion yesterday, and started Pride and Prejudice this morning. Since I've seen two different film versions of this book, I suspsect that I'll have an easier time discerning emotions, despite the very-formal language, since I already know what's going on.

After work yesterday, I took my kite across the street to the church parking lot. It was a very nice day for it, and I wanted to fly my kite before it got dark. I got the kite to fly to the end of its string, and stayed out until my hands got too cold. Then I went about the rest of my at-home stuff. I managed to get caught up on my fanfic reading, and took down some notes on Persuasion, as well as doing a little more research for the article I'm going to write about these books.

Anna and Kayla came over for a while, and Anna and I played a bunch of music. I taught her the first few bars of "Robinton's First Whistle Tune" on my recorder, and then we played various instruments, ending in me playing the piano (mostly one-handed) while we both sang a bit. She also tried my trumpet and my (broken) clarinet, and I played some guitar and trumpet too.

Before I went to sleep last night, I finished watching the first season of Duck Tails--finally. Now, I just have seven seasons of MacGyver to get through, and I'll be all caught up on my DVD-watching.

Tonight the sub-contractor for the DirecTV is supposed to come over. I've been checking WeatherBug constantly the past couple days, just to make sure there won't be any wind gusts this evening--I want to be able to watch TV (and not just movies and serieses on DVD) darn it!

I may be late for class tonight, if the sub-contractor stays later than 7:30. I'll have to leave by 7:30 to be on time for class, and I suspect I won't be able to leave an hour early and read in the foyer (or on a bench in the hallway) like I usually do, since I might have to wait for the guy to leave. If Amit's not home, Jenn won't want to be alone with the guy, and if neither of them are home, then I'll have to be there anyway. If both of them are home, I still want to be there, for anti-confusion purposes.

It's a good thing it's just a lab tonight. I can get it done pretty quickly, even if I'm a little late for class. If the guy stays past 9:00 (which isn't really likely) however, I'll probably just have to e-mail the teacher and get the lab from him on Tuesday or something. But it probably won't come to that.

Satellites and Museums and Concerts, Oh My!

Friday night, I stayed home, because my visiting teachers were coming that evening, and because I was expecting the DirecTV guy on Saturday. Sister W. gave me cookies with M&M's and chocolate chips in them--yum! On the way home from work, I had stopped at Blockbuster, because I wanted to see if they had any copies of the one movie made that was based on Northanger Abbey, but they didn't. So I looked at the pre-viewed movies instead, and bought Becoming Jane and Driving Lessons.

Saturday morning, at about 10, I got a call from the DirecTV guy. At first, he said that he wasn't going to be able to do anything because of the gusts of wind making it unsafe for him to climb on the roof with the ladder. Then, when I said we already had a dish set up, he said something about a smart box, and that he'd be there after he'd finished the four appointments he had in front of mine, and that he would call me back when he was on his way over.

The original appointment was for between 12 and 5 pm, so I figured I would hold off on taking a shower until 5, so as not to be caught in the shower when he called. I didn't get a call until almost exactly 5pm. He got there at about a quarter after, and then looked at the box which sends the cable to the rooms in the house.

Turns out, the sub-contractor who originally installed the dish didn't put down two cables like he was supposed to--only one. The one cable goes to the main hookup, and then the other one gets splitters on it to go to the other rooms with receivers.

But, since the wind was gusting at unpredictable moments that day, the DirecTV guy couldn't get up on the roof and add the second cable on Saturday. He said that the earliest he could reschedule would be for March 10th, but that the sub-contractor may have an earlier appointment open. Since it's the sub-contractor's fault, I won't have to pay for him to come out and do what he was supposed to do in the first place.

Around 6pm, the receptionist from the sub-contractor called (the DirecTV guy called the sub-contractor from his truck while he was parked outside the house), and set up an appointment for this coming Thursday (March 6th) between 4pm and 8pm. I figure, as long as he gets there after five, and before 7:30, I'll have no trouble getting to class on time. I want to be there myself, so that the guy can explain things coherently, and I won't get confused when I try to ask Jen and Amit what went on with it.

So, I have to go almost another full week until I can get regular TV in my room (as opposed to movies and serieses on DVD). Hopefully, there won't be any wind gusts on Thursday evening.

Anyway, after I got the call from the sub-contractor, I packed up to go to Mom & Dad's house for the weekend (or what was left of it, anyway).

I got to the house, and hung out with Anna for a while. We watched some TV, then got ready to sleep. I realized then that, in my hurry to pack and leave my house, I had not packed a single shirt! Sure, I had jeans, socks, and all of the other accoutrements for staying the night someplace, but I had no clean shirts with me. So I borrowed a shirt from Anna to sleep in, and took a shower. We watched a little more TV, then went to sleep after that.

Yesterday morning, Anna's alarm woke us up at 8:30, because Anna's art class was having a field trip, and she invited me as a guest. I borrowed another shirt while Anna showered.

We got to FCC around 9:45, and waited a while until the teachers, other students, and the bus came. We watched the first half of Driving Lessons on Anna's laptop on the way to the capital.

Once we were in D.C. (around 11am), we stopped at the National Gallery of Art and got off the bus. Anna and I looked around there for a few hours (had lunch in the underground concourse between the buildings), then sat outside on the main steps for about half an hour until the bus came back at 2.

The next stop was the Kennedy Center, where we saw the National Symphony Orchestra perform Peter and the Wolf. That was fun.

Once the concert was done, we went back to the school and took Anna's car back home. Both of us had headaches, and Anna suspects that it was because we were up on the highest tier of the concert hall--the view was great, but they don't call them the "nosebleed seats" for nothing.

A little while after we got home, dinner was ready, so we ate. Kayla got home a little later, while we were finishing Driving Lessons. So, we decided to watch a few cartoons (an episode of Danny Phantom, and all the rest of the episodes of Family Guy that were on Anna's TiVo) before it was Jason's bed time.

Next, we watched a couple episodes each of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series. Between the second episode of Buffy and the second episode of Angel, Anna was kind of freaking out because her headache had been getting worse all evening, and she couldn't find her headache medicine. She can't use regular over-the-counter stuff, so she has a special prescription.

After about 10 minutes, she found it, and all was well, so we watched the second episode of Angel. It was the one with the zombie police men.

By that time, it was about 1am, so Anna, Kayla and I talked for about an hour and then went to sleep.