So, there's a terrible storm going on around me (too many accidents to count this morning), I need to get back to Iowa for classes I can't miss and work on Wednesday, and to top it off, coming home around what turned out to be a sick family has left me with someone's virus as well. The only way I can possibly get out of this is by succumbing to a doctor's visit (and also getting a note excusing me from my classes).

I called work and my boss (was nice, wtf) told me he'd try to find a replacement for me and get back to me, so that left the local clinic. I called them but the line was busy. I called a few minutes later and nobody answered. I called a minute after that and someone answered but she put me on hold immediately.

And after all that she told me that the only doctor accepting "new patients" isn't open for appointments for another two weeks. TWO WEEKS? I have to be back in Iowa in two days, not to mention the fact I won't be sick anymore in two weeks! I can't believe I just got blown off by them. I shouldn't be surprised, I mean, it IS public healthcare, but I'm slightly shocked (-____-);;;; Now I feel like I'm screwed because there's no way I can really get in. My mom told me to talk my aunt (her family might as well live at this clinic) but I have a feeling she's napping right now (my young cousin's at home sick) because she didn't pick up her phone or respond to my texts.

I want to cry (=_=)

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: news

Holy wow I am back at home. The concert I was looking forward to months came and went and now I have returned to regular life.

( Gonna try my best to recap the concert itself in bullet points - includes what I remember of the set list )
EDIT: I have pictures up on my Facebook! Try out this link. They're kind of crappy, but I can provide them in their original size if you want!

This morning before leaving we all headed to Mitsuwa and I bought a handful of magazines and books.

For magazines I got Nails Max, JUNON, Seventeen, PINKY, Smart (which is a men's fashion magazine, but dammit Keiko-chan was on the cover and I love her), Mini, and two issues of Playboy - I made Mike pay for them because I was too embarrassed to get them myself!! It's always nice to have new gravure, though. <3 I also thought this manga called "Good Morning Kiss" looked cute, so I bought all four(?) volumes. I like reading Japanese language manga a lot but not on my computer...for some reason it's much more fun to read them in print. It's different with English-translated manga though. I prefer scanlations. Also, Abbie and I have to translate part of a novel for that translation class we're in, and after carrying around the novelization of "Papa to Musume no Nanokakan" for a while, Abbie ran over to me with a book called "Gravure no Yoru" so I put back PapaMusume and snagged the other :D I'm REALLY excited to take some time out to read it! I was also excited to see an advertisement for it in one of the Playboys XDDD

Oh, Japanese Playboy is different from American, by the by....lololololol

All in all, fun times were had and Chicago driving wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But now I have a paper and lots of reading to do. Sigh. Back to the grind for one more day...I'm not going to let freezing rain stop me from going home on Friday, darn it!

Incredibly lazy weekend so far. Yesterday I finally was in the proper mindset to listen to my "Japanese indies" playlist, which is a lot of breezy guitar-pop and otherwise light-sounding music. (Artists include Chocolat & Akito, bice, lullatone, Sprinkle Boyish, roly poly rag bear, etc) From the spot where I'm sitting in my room, the view out of my window doesn't show the ground, just the treetops, so occasionally I'll just lay down on my bedroom carpet, stretch, and stare upside-down out the window, pretending it's actually 70 degrees outside and not 20. (Man, I wanna watch The O.C.)

I have a love/hate relationship with my new schedule. I love Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. I hate Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I have class from 11am to 5:30pm with one break from 12:10-1:05. I ended up skipping my last class on Thursday because I was having a crappy day, and coming home early really helped my mood. I'll be skipping class all day Tuesday, so I can't do it on Thursday. Oops. I'd love to drop a class, but I relatively like them all except for my morning one, but A) I already bought all the books and B) I need the credit. I'll get by.

Friday night was the potluck put on by the JCA and JSSC. I got to eat yummy Japanese and American food and hang out with lots of people I like being with. :D Afterwards, Abbie and I went to Java House with a couple friends to just sit, chat, and sip hot drinks on a cold night. <3 Saturday was Mike's social norms experiment, in which he had people dress up in kimono and shop around the Coralville mall while studying customer reaction. Some people were pretty harsh. I didn't dress up, but I followed around. It took guts, I'd be too embarrassed.

At the same time, if I had been on the outside and not known anything or them, I would've definitely thought "Stupid otaku." Hm. Maybe that'll be useful for his research.

We went to Oyama afterwards and I had pork tonkatsu. SO GOOD. We were all so hungry by the end of it because we didn't make it there until after 9pm, having not had dinner (and lunch for some of the girls).

I'm sure I have homework to do, but it's probably just even more reading. I have an easy one-pager due on Thursday that I might start now. Lately I've been asking myself, in times of uncertainty, "What do you want to do?" And then actually doing what it is I want to be doing. I feel like I'm understanding myself a little better, silly as it sounds.

Also, Mike let me borrow 358/2 Days and I've been having fun playing that since bedtime last night. :D Still playing Pigg, but things have happened that have me becoming very tired and bored of it. And I want more clothes. >/ I keep getting stupid shoes on the scratchcard. Oh, and I should have a Mukai Osamu-filled parcel from CD Japan coming soon. Finally talked myself into getting his photobook and calendar while they still have it. I STILL do not have a 2010 The Office calendar, which is a crime. Wonder if eBay has one...?

Why is it so hard to be productive on a Sunday?

Current Music: Tsuji Ayano with Okuda Tamio - Sha la la

( this looks fun )

LOL, who the heck made that list? xD It was missing a lot of shows I watch.

Saturday night I went over to Jaz and Abbie's and we had Girls Night with a few other friends. We watched Up and pigged out on pizza, french fries, sherbet, and chips. It was a lot of fun. Today I went back over to their apartment because Abbie made yakisoba for lunch (amaaazing) with her, Jaz, and Mike, and we all formulated a game plan for the ~~~~~~~*UTADA HIKARU CONCERT IN A WEEK AND A HALF*~~~~~~~

I am restraining my excitement lately. I really hope it's not bad weather when we leave. We're talking about going to Mitsuwa too either before or after (if we have time, before) so I'm going to be saving my money. I can do without a new rice cooker for now. And I shouldn't need to buy food. The only bad thing is that I'm only going to have one paycheck at best between now and then. Meh. I'll figure something out. Can't say I quite care. xD I'll work it back.

It's so cold. (=_=) Sick of it.

Should probably be reading for class. I haven't been academically productive all weekend.

Current Music: The Simpsons Movie

woke up with a terrible headache. Sometimes I wonder if I should move the humidifer closer to my bed or just shut my bedroom door at night?

anyway. this question was floating around in my head before I got up.

can my boss ask me why I can't work weekends?
I'm assuming he can...but then if I say "personal reasons" he can't pry further, can he?

the first part happened, but i was so taken aback by the word "why" that all i could say was "because i do things"

Current Mood: groggy

EDIT: apparently this has been sitting in semagic all day. I wrote this around 9:30am. xD

I've had crazy internet problems since I came back to Iowa. Sick of it. Outages that last several hours long. We had an ice storm yesterday, but does it really take that long to fix it? I went to bed and it was still down, long after the storm. *whine*

In addition to that, I haven't been receiving my mail since my Hold Mail request ended on the 15th, so I called USPS yesterday and they weren't able to do anything because their servers were down. (>_<);; At that time my internet was still working, so the customer service lady had me go to the website and contact them there. If I don't hear anything by Friday I'm going to be mad. >O I'm waiting for my bus pass so I can stop having to scavenge for change when I ride. Looks like I'll be doing it again today.

And to top it all off, my rice cooker broke. My new one. I don't know if I blogged about this here, but I think back in November before Thanksgiving break was when my rice cooker of three years broke. This was also a time when all I had in my apartment to eat was ramen, rice, and eggs, because I thought it pointless to go grocery shopping if I was going to go home in a week. Now I've got more food, but GODDAMN. I've had this rice cooker for three months and have only used it once or twice. This pisses me off, especially because I can't do anything about it. Understandably, my mom no longer has the receipt. Guess I have to go buy a new one this weekend.

Iowa is nothing but problems. (x____x)

Anyway, new semester. It's kind of cool so far. I won't start work until next week, so I've just been dealing with class, which I have on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. T/Th are the exact same schedule: class from 10:55 to 5:15pm with an hour after the first one for lunch. Hectic, but the classes are all pretty laidback. My first one (which I have to leave for soon) is an Economics/Social stuff in Medieval Europe history class. I'm really considering dropping it because I don't need it, just the credit, but it's probably the least homework intensive class I've ever had. We have no weekly or biweekly papers. No weekly tests or quizzes. Our grade is going to be made from attendance/participation (7%), a mid-term (31%), a final exam (31%), and a final paper (31%). Wow. I'm kind of in a dilemma when it comes to dropping it.

Then I have Classical Japanese (meh), Disney in America (yay!), and Korean Pop Culture, which is going to be homework intensive but I'm kind of excited for it because I don't really know that much aside from the handful of music I listen to. I wish there was a Japanese class like that! There was Contemporary Japanese Culture but the focus was on anime and manga. The Korean one focuses on film, dramas, and music. That's like my forte in Japanese culture. (=_________=) Monday I have a translation workshop again, but because it was a holiday I haven't yet had it.

But, with my Wednesdays and Fridays free, it's going to be amazing. Yesterday I cleaned all day and went outside to take care of my car from the ice. Scraping was fun. =3 Time to go get ready for class~

Current Music: conan

After discovering on Friday that I have no school on Monday, I decided to prolong my break even further and will not be leaving until tomorrow now. I kind of can't believe I'm going back. At this time last year, I was in the biggest funk of my life, ready to actually quit school. I think I'm happy I didn't. I think.

At least I got my loan money, and it should be enough to pay for my next seven months of rent. That allows me to breathe easier.

Mom and I are making road trip plans for part of my spring break. It'll be the first time I've actually gone anywhere or done anything for spring break, I think. We're talking Pensacola...I'm so excited!!!

I started Real Clothes after finishing Haken no Hinkaku and ditching First Love (ughhhhhhhh). It's like the second coming of Yama Onna Kabe Onna, with a focus on fashion/appearance instead of bags/boobs. What's more amusing is that it's borrowed some of the actors from YamaKabe as well. xD Also, Hachiya and Tabuchi are totally boofing. Jus sayin.

Dunno what's going on tomorrow before I leave. My aunt talked about getting lunch. Probably leave here around noon, 1pm at the latest.

Skins season 3. I am reluctant to continue after episode 1, maybe I just tired of watching rebellious teenagers get wasted and have sex. =/ I'll continue on though, because Luke Palasquino makes me squee "oh," and because I didn't like the first episode of season 1, but look how that turned out. Bahh, maybe I just got too connected to the first group. =(

Time to catch up on Desperate. <3

Current Music: The Soup

Hana told me about this Ameba chat service called Pigg a while ago, and I've been dinking around a lot with my Ameba blog so I thought I'd start up my own Pigg avatar. It's a lot like this service I used to use called Unichat, so many years ago... (Didn't you use it too, Kiri-chan?)

I didn't start out that cute. xD And it cost me 30-ame (their currency) to change my hairstyle but it was worth it. I still want cuter clothes, but I like my jacket, which I bought with a voucher.

Anyway, I've made a handful of friends since joining only yesterday. I've been talking most to a guy from Osaka, and tonight I actually met a Japanese woman nicknamed Yumidon, who, get this, lives about an hour away from me. I was floored. xD Biiig coinky-dink~! I thought I'd get a lot of flack for being American, but I try not to broadcast it too much. When others find out, they don't seem to care because I've already been speaking in Japanese with them. (@_@) And I'm proud of myself because I've been able to keep up fairly well. (And I only got nanpa'd once! Damn, was it awkward.) Maybe when summer comes closer and I'm at home more I'll see if Yumidon wants to meet up~ It's really been a while since I've done the whole chatroom thing, but the customization aspect is a lot of fun.

So, this is what I've been completely hooked on for the past two days. I'm starting to come down a bit though, which is good, seeing as I go back to school in a few days. Ughhhhh. I decided to go back Saturday instead of Friday.

I haven't really been productive otherwise. The weather's finally gotten nicer around here; it's actually in the 30s now! I feel like an Alaskan refugee~

pigg pigg pigg. You guys should start playing too. <3

My poor, poor pikoPod. She's crashed so many times this weekend, and even now after taking her off the stereo charger, I tested her out to see if she was okay and...crashed again. I haven't done a backup since March, so I'm doing that now in the event something goes permanently wrong. I'd hate to have to transfer all of my stuff onto a new iPod knowing that there's not really an official way to do it, but if this keeps up I'm not sure what else I'll do. She's done me well these past three years.

I just put on a buttload of new music, too. Typing the words "kaskade remix mediafire" into Google and looking at only the Mediafire results was a bad, terrible thing. <3 Luff Kaskade.

I finished series 2 of Skins about half an hour ago. It kind of made me cry. I'm looking forward to starting series 3 though, and I think series 2 gave the characters a good send-off.

Mom and I cleaned and baked cookies today. I ODed a bit on said cookies, as Mom continued to make "rejects" that had to be eaten.

Today was a really good day, and I didn't even set foot out of the apartment.

Going to let my iPod copy overnight and hope my computer doesn't crash in the process. She is also quite touchy. (>_>);;

Current Mood: worried

I started actually doing stuff with my Ameblog earlier this week! I set it up back in 2008 but couldn't figure up from down so I quickly got bored. Now that my Japanese is a bit better I can navigate easier. I want friends, though! <333 I know some of you have accounts, so add me. Or become a reader, or something, and I'll do the same. I don't know how that's set up. xD

http://ameblo.jp/wapikoblog

It snowed pretty heavily here on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, which is kind of weird to happen in southern Illinois, it seems. We've only got about 4-6", but they cancelled school on Thursday and the roads were absolute crap to drive on in the more residential parts of town. I was surprised when it got cancelled Friday as well but didn't complain - I went out to Denny's and ran errands with my younger cousin and aunt. Most people down here have no idea how to drive on snow, though...you'd think we lived in the deep south (>___>)'' If this was Iowa and I was still in primary or secondary school, they definitely wouldn't cancel. (-_-)'' Envy! But even though I'm on winter break, when my older cousin called Thursday night to tell me school was cancelled Friday, her enthusiasm was contagious. I loved getting snow days when I was that age. (^__________^)

Beat Mirror's Edge the other day! I'm really happy to have beaten it and get some closure on the story, but it's definitely open-ended enough for a sequel, which I am also excited for. I wish games didn't take so long to create (*o*)'

I woke up just past 8am today, whooooooo~ Despite being asleep around 1:30 or 2. Ridic.

Current Music: Cheaper by the Dozen