elanya

Pay-It-Forward 2014: The first 5 friends to comment on this post that they want to play will receive from me, sometime in this calendar year, a random gift

It will be a total surprise! Maybe it will be a candle, jewellery, gift card, movie, collectible figurine, food, kitchen stuff, home décor, who knows??

There will be NO warning and it will be sent to you whenever the mood strikes!

So, what's the catch? If you decide to participate you MUST make this same offer on YOUR page and get 5 people to randomly gift too.

If you're one of my 5, I will confirm by answering your comment and asking for your mailing address in a PM.

This is supposed to be fun and give us a treat in the mailbox vs bills, bills, bills and junk mail!!

(I'll update once I have my five :3)

Today I received in the mail:

Soaps from Julie, mailed from Canada on Dec 16.
Postcard from Daniel, sent from Japan around Jan 6.

Fail, Canada Post, Fail.

In other news, I took my camera to Austin on Saturday and left it in Josh's car. And I need to to take pictures for school. And I need to make myself get back in the habit of doing school work at home/at all. And I should get dinner and/or possibly some groceries. And I would like to make some cookies. And And And.

While in Austin on the weekend, I let Zari entice me into another knitting project. I'm gonna make a bigass triangle shawl! It will be deep burgandy and a deep orange paired together. Should be pretty. However I keep messing up my knitting in frustrating ways, with the added annoyance that I will have to wait a couple of days before I am physically close enough to anyone who might be able to help me fix it to do anything about it. So, bah! I dropped/slipped a stitch on the end (I think) - that is my current hang-up. I hate getting stalled on projects that I am keen on - it induces this nigh-constant level of frustration, which gets worse whenever I make myself think about it by doing time-wasting things like writing a live-journal post. Hmmm....

Not sure how the rest of my night is going to break down. Groceries are a must as I am out of bread/bagels (for toast and sammiches, etc), and I need to figure out what i am doing for dinner tomorrow so I can prep anything that might need to go in the crock pot (take meat out of freezer, etc).

For those of you who don't know, Julie was down visiting this past week and it was quite awesome and now she is back home and I am sad. And yesterday was (I think?) the first day I had all to myself since Christmas, and it was awful (not because of loneliness, but rather because of mechanical issues and knitting frustrations). This is a shame as I usually enjoy time alone to some extent, especially after so long without a break!

Ahh well. I must do something to improve my day. But what! :o

Also I still can't find my keys. the last time I had them for *sure* was Thursday afternoon when I went in to school to shut down my computer... I might have had them Friday morning, but I don't 100% remember :x

So, I got home, and walked J. I usually check the mail on the way back. I wasn't expecting anything, but lo! Two manila wrapped things. 1 - my FREAKIN'TAX DOCUMENTS FROM ECU! Calloo Callay! maybe now I can start finishing my taxes :p

But what is this smallish other package? has someone sent me a present that i was not expecting? No! It is the new Decemberists CD that i had completely forgotten I'd pre-ordered :D

Quite please with both these things, I mounted my stairs.... to find yet another package, left since I'd taken Jola out :o It was clearly from the UK... I wondered if my dear sister had sent me a surprise.... but no, it was not so! It was in fact a package from longrat and the ratlings :D Thank you guys so much, cookies are deeelicious, and cute (if a bit....beheaded) :D

Today, gats wins at being a boy! Cookies for myself (Pirate Captian Elanya!) and my loyal companion Jola! Now I must hide them so as not to consume them all in one sitting..

Well, mine that is. I promise not to eat any of Jola's :V

Since it is long distance, and I'd have to charge that to my credit card, I am going to wait to call the methodist minister until I get home.

So instead - time to get some mails ready!

ETA: I kind of want the shirt for the second of this months BPAL Lunacy blends.... Mead Moon. It has bees! The perfume looks nice too, but I might actually like hay moon better. It's been forever since I got me some bpal :x Okay - Christmas. Thats' like forever!

Send to me the addresses of the places you can be reached! I will send things! Probably postcards!

I might already have your address, but if you aren't sure, ask!

Comments screened to protect anonymity.

*nods*

Giiiiiiive!

bed time!

I think I owe my mail carrier some cookies. Considering that the letter was sent on October 25th, I don't think it it coincidence that it turned up the day after I wen down to the PO to inquire about it's location.

Fortunately, I'm *good* at cookies! Not so much at addresses...

Now I just need to polish up and print everything else. Come on SSHRC!

And I had a nice walk home. I had been expecting a bus, but, whatever, I'm sure I need the exercise.

*munches freshly made bread*

I ordered a bunch of drafting supplies. They were 'delivered' today. And by 'delivered' I mean left on (or possibly under) my doormat, for some other asshole to steal.

I hope they like their ship curves *hiss*

Stuff like this really *really* pisses me off.

ETA: The neighbor's kids stole them, but I have them back now :p

Thismorning, the system had finally been updated with the correct tuition amount, taking into account all of my fellowship and such. I went to pay online. Oh, wait. Texas A&M does not accept Visa. WTF, eh?according to their site, this is because:
VISA permits TAMU to charge a convenience fee but requires that we charge the same convenience fee (percentage or fixed amount) for all payment options we offer. The vast majority of our customers have elected to pay using e-checks. Charging convenience fees at a higher rate to our e-check customers or diverting scarce dollars from academic pursuits or other necessary student services in order to support the acceptance of VISA would be inappropriate. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Any inquiries can be directed to VISA at the Cardmember Service telephone number on the back of the card.

Now, I can't decide who to call bullshit on here, VISA, or the school. Convenience fees my ass - we should pay you money in order for you to take money from us? Bite me. Take it out of sports :p Anyway, this caused me stress and hassels because, of course, I haven't been able to transfer money from my Canadian account for various reasons. So I was just going to pay with VISA, see? I eventually got it sorted out after I got home from a pointless meeting and running around like a chicken with my head cut off by going to my bank. *sigh* So now I go back up to campus tomorrow....

The meeting I thought was new graduate student orientation was actually not, even though I was told to come and that this is what it was. So in fact, I rushed up to Campus to try and take care of my fe issue for *no reason whatsoever*. if I'd have had more time, I could have called some placed and tried to figure out a better solution (like the one suggested to my by my dad, which is the one I took) and saved myself a bus trip there and back, as well as a bunch of aimless wandering.

Well, if nothing else, I have now re-stocked on stamps, so I can send out mails! :) See i'm all relaxed now because I have the thing I need to pay tomorrow, *and* I went swimming, and I am going to try making whole lemon muffins tonight. With poppy seeds because they didn't have any cranberries. Yum!

I also should say that I had a great time out with daemonnoire, ruby7829, and the other ladies. The Mexican was bad, as promised. The margaritas were effective. The conversation was varies, and interesting :) There is going to be a thing next Wednesday night, somewhere... And yes, it should be fun. We are going to watch The Machinist, I believe, and those who have crafty projects can work on them.

"Most shanties tended to be about frisky mermaids who loved putting out for sailors more than anyone."

Jodie is the best and I love everything ^-^

In other news, my defense is really going to be next Thursday at 11, and I am going to go in on Monday to talk to Dr. D :o

Today I hung out with anth peeps, as Laura is leaving tomorrow :( I helped her load the moving van along with some other folks and then we just hung out and had pizza and such. Lisa brought her dog Gracie along as well, which was fun. Gracie is such a sweetie, though a bit timid. She is generally very well behaved and minds Lisa pretty well. Tomorrow maybe I will go mini-golfing with Kim, Nate, and Lisa, depending on when they are going and such.

That was pretty much my day. Now I should work on writing or something but instead I am reading The Pirates! In and adventure with Scientists, by Gideon Defoe, which is a pen name if I ever heard one ;) Exciting! :D