back from the eye doctor. have contacts and can read and for less than 150 dollars too.

i just have to get used to the major change in body perception: once again, i get to look heavier than i really am.

just drove the kids to school. it's fucking COLD out there!

eye appointment day today.

and when i DO finally get to school, i have to find out how to drop my two german classes. i am so stressed about the lack of money and work that they are just the icing on what will inevitably be a cake of despair layered with feelings of utter failure.

when i drew up the tentative schedule which comprises classes over the next two years, culminating in my graduation, i left my summers free, so i do have leeway on this. a LOT of leeway, in fact.

youth is SO wasted on the young.

i try to work smarter, but their ability to pull multiple all-nighters in a row trumps my dedication every time.

must sleep.

went to walmart with the youngest. she needed to pick up v-day* gifts for school mates, and got dove chocolate candy for herself. but i was good. i walked out of walmart with the same dollar i walked in with...

so we are in the car on the way home. and she opens the bag of individually wrapped chocolates. assaulted by the odor i keep driving. she opens one up.
"want one?"
"no."
"what? why not?"
i am breathing in the chocolate. and sugar. and richness. i can feel the silky goo sliding across my tongue...
and i say, unintentionally shatner-like...
"be. cause..."
"hahahaha!"
"why are you laughing?"
"that's not a reason! hahahaha!"
"it's the only thing i can think of..."

and i was good.

* should probably educate her on lupercalia, but i'm not in the mood for a "parent-teacher conference/CPS threat" just yet...

you have to love this.

studied all weekend, worked on the workbook too. spent many many hours on that stupid workbook. grade? 65%

::sigh::

http://www.christophe-mae.fr/home-2/
mmMMMMmmm...

very catchy tune. hot guy! what's not to love?!?!?

well, except that he doesn't live anywhere NEAR me, wouldn't give me the time of day if he did, and has a girlfriend already.

le sigh.

i've been up since 5am.

big test in russian language class today. and to be quite honest, i can't seem to be able to memorize the parts of the poem we were required to do so for the test.

i wish i could do this workbook faster. i am so slow that i feel stupid.

snow: "frozen angel piss"


BEST. EUPHEMISM. EVER!

чем называют эти небольшие чашки? для виски или водки.

спасибо.

http://utarussianculture.wordpress.com/

i am carrying the samovar.

i dont know for certain, but it seems that listening to music in one language while working in another language is helping me switch back and forth between the languages easier.

last semester it was a bit headache inducing to go from working in german to working in russian. i had to split up the homework to different days. now i find myself inadvertantly just practicing phrases in one language while listening to another language on the cd player. and no headache.

of course, it still takes me forever to learn anything, but that is just the slower brain of the older adult being a hindrance.

self, stop thinking "v-day" and think of lupercalia instead.

if you ever once thought that the plight of native americans mattered to the american people, take a look at these four links.

http://www.sioux.org/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=178x843

http://www.cnn.com/search/?query=cheyenne%20river&primaryType=mixed&sortBy=date&intl=false

http://www.cnn.com/search/?query=sioux%20disaster%20declared&sortBy=date (note the only articles linked in the cnn sidebar are NOT on cnn)

how can a community disaster of this level not even rate a single article on cnn??? WTF?!?!?

and to compare one small town disaster to another...

the day jarrell texas, pop. 1319 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Central_Texas_tornado_outbreak), was wiped off the map by f5 tornadoes:
http://www.cnn.com/search/?query=jarrell%20texas&sortBy=date

i lived in florida when jarrell happened, and heard it on the news so much i called my folks in a panic to make sure they were ok.

WTF!

"In the silence of night I have often wished for just a few words of love from one man, rather than the applause of thousands of people." - Judy Garland

"Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death." - Jean Jacques Rousseau

sometimes silence is golden. but lately, not so much. yet i know that this is just the stress talking. when i get my act together i'll be more inclined to not be so whiney.

this evening was slightly interesting.

i felt obligated to attend the model nato team meeting this afternoon. we held practice debates among ourselves and all did well.

then i bought the final two workbooks required for russian class. there was no known way to borrow them to photocopy.

then i stopped at half-price books. because i am just really depressed and really stressed, and finding a great book for cheap seems to soothe me a little bit.

i felt so physically horrible this morning that i wonder if i didn't wake up to a panic attack followed by a bout of gastritis. i need to figure out what to do about that before it gets worse...

today was a very long day.

tuesdays and thursdays usually are long. but the russian society had an event and i volunteered to help set up. there will be pictures soon and i will link to them as soon as they are up.

so i didn't get home till 7.

tomorrow is the club meeting and i hope i was an effective pusher of club activity attendence to the two russian guys who stopped by the coffee event.

i need a russian boyfriend.

so today was all about the decembrists and concerning those two russian poems i copied into my journal a few days ago. it was very interesting lecture.

i just really love Пушкин (Pushkin).

you know, with the state of public schools in texas...

i had volunteered to start a russian club at the high school. i would have had university professorial backing and support. but you know something? they don't WANT volunteers at the high school. wtf!
my daughter asked why not? the principal said they don't want unpaid people working at the school. so my daughter, ever the smartass, said, "well, then pay her"...

but still, no volunteers allowed at the school? this boggles the mind.

but i'm not one to be easily stopped. i'll have the club at my house.