I went to Iowa on Saturday for my cousin's graduation party and then stayed with the boy in his nearby hometown. The next day we drove back to my place, a road trip of wrong turns and hilarity, and the next day we went into the city to find things to do. Then he left. The end.

Now it's back to life as usual and it's ridiculous how bored I've been getting, but I can't complain yet. I've been movie-marathoning like nobody's business (Little Children was great, Doubt wasn't terrible, Rachel Getting Married made me feel suicidal, Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day was absolutely delightful) and I found season 1 of Psych at Target on sale last week. What I need to do is start marathoning dramas again. I have so much catching up to do and no motivation to do it.

The scale says I've been losing weight but my body doesn't. This is frustrating.

Current Music: the bird and the bee - love letter to japan

You know, for having oodles of free time in the summer, you'd think I'd be able to write a bit more. Oh well. Life. I nearly finished unpacking, but on Sunday Mom and I went back up to Iowa City to get the last of my things from the apartment. At night I got to hang out with my boy a bit and we came back the next afternoon. Mom's been wanting to buy a big TV for a year or so now, and we went to Best Buy but they didn't have the one she wanted, so they referred us to the one in Davenport. We went there (what a neat shopping area - everything I could ever want xD), got a brand-spanking new HDTV, AND a PS3! <3 This ruins my plans to buy a 360 someday, but I think I can live without playing Dreamfall on a console. Now I can play GTAIV if I ever get it. :D The TV's pretty cool, but I haven't hooked up the game system yet. We got home around 5:30pm because we went a different way from Davenport than our usual way. It involved us going through Peoria and Springfield, and even if Mom didn't like the new way, I had a lot of fun seeing all the new sights. The highway we normally take has gotten so boring.

It rained off and on the entire time we were driving, but mostly on. Even when we got home it was still raining, and for once I wished it would stop so I could go rollerblading with KC - I got spifftastic rollerblades at Scheel's yesterday before the HDTV fiasco and I've been so excited to use them. Now it's kind of monsooning too. (ToT)

What else...ah, I went to Six Flags on Saturday (with my mom, Nancy, and Tara) and reinitiated myself into thrill riding! Man, I missed rollercoasters. It rained then too, though. XD Eventually the rain got annoying so we left and later went to Olive Garden. And as usual, when the four of us go out to eat together it ended in a gigglefit and everyone at the restaurant staring at us but trying their best not to. xD; I always have so much fun with them.

Today's going to be a day of unpacking and some web work. <3 I woke up just before 11am, hoo boy. But after three days in a row of waking up disgustingly early, I deserved it. :D And now my cat is laying on me as I try typing this up - he is snore-purring. (o.o)'' Yeah, you missed me this year, bitch. You know it. <3

OH OH OH and I found Ivy's Long Distance album at FYE used on Monday!! Monday was just an all-around awesome day. XD

Current Music: price is right

I think it's time to let everyone know I'm alive. Finals week kind of ate me - most nights I wasn't able to fall asleep until 2am (sometimes 3am) and I had to wake up a few short hours after that to either go to finals or work. But it was a fantastic week nonetheless, even if I was so exhausted I did little more than lay around on the couch in my spare time. In that spare time, I needed to be getting everything ready so my mom could come get me on Saturday. Ironically, Friday night was the night I got the least amount of sleep. I didn't even make it home until almost midnight Saturday night and when I hit my bed I fell asleep almost instantly and slept in until 10:30am. It was awesome.

Even though I went to bed past 2am again last night, I woke up this morning to the sound of lawn-mowing and just laid there listening to it with my eyes closed, thinking I'd get up in a few minutes. Turned out this was 8:40ish. Oh well, I can sleep in again tomorrow. In the meantime, I have a particularly content kitty sitting on my lap as I attempt to type. \:D/

It's so good being home. Yesterday I went to see KC play baseball; he's gotten so good! I get to see Tara today after she comes home from school, but I need to keep unpacking. I have a silly amount of stuff that when it comes down to it, I don't need. It's possible that I have too many clothes, but it's also possible that I'm delirious.

I'm so happy, the only thing I can complain about right now is the lack of plasticware in the apartment...do I really have to eat my Golden Grahams with metal!?!? Agh! This must be fixed.

Oh, I got two DreamWidth invite codes, so if anyone wants one let me know! And Tori, what happened to your account!?!?

I got a DreamWidth account thanks to sequindreams <3 Right now I'm still kind of playing around with it but I like it. I won't move from LJ, but add me if you wish. I took back my name =) I could do it here on LJ so easily with a rename token (I used to have the name "wapiko" but moved it to "kiyomichan" during high school) but I kind of like being the opposite of obvious.

I had my first final this morning. It would have been next week at 7:30am on Thursday, but the first day of class my teacher took a quick poll and decided to move it to regular classtime (because he admittedly can't function at 7:30am). I think I did better on this one than the midterm, but I think I was less prepared this time. I don't know, it's weird. I had way more work to do the week of the midterm with a Japanese speech, paper, and other tests going on. I went to lecture more this time around, but I didn't do as much of the reading as I should have. And yet, the final was easier. We also got our term papers back, in which I got an 87%. Pretty happy about that, considering I had no idea what I was talking about when I was writing it. Going to cross my fingers for a B in the class overall.

I painted my nails to look like watermelons earlier this week (pink with black dots and green tips), but I think they look more like strawberries. I've had reactions of both from people. Too bad it's starting to chip already.

I also gave a presentation on Nakata Yasutaka in my 3nen yomikaki class. That was a lot of fun, as nervous as I was.

It's just been a busy week. I feel drained. I have to clean up my room so my mom can take everything to Ottumwa for storage, but I've barely started on that and I have this bad feeling she'll be pissed at me tomorrow when she comes unless I get it together while she's driving here. But I have to work tomorrow, and decide if I'm going to astronomy review or not, and then go to my kaiwa final, and then meet a friend for a short chat because I won't get to see her all summer. =/

We had another get-together last Saturday. It was a good night. =3

I got to feed a duck out of my hand today. Now I can check that off of the "Things I Need To Do Before I Die" list. Other points of interest include petting a penguin, playing with a baby tiger (or any other big cat), and keeping a squirrel for a pet.

Current Mood: listless

Weekend recap: Sushi Night (aka The Event That Caused My Blood Pressure To Undoubtedly Spike) ended successfully on Friday, so I'm happy it's out of the way. Not only did we find fish, we got some donations from Oyama restaurant. Afterwards we got a huge group together and went downtown for ice cream. I got a yummy citrus smoothie from Coldstone and can't wait to go back for another one. \:D/ We all hung out in front of Whitey's for about an hour before the group downsized and came back to my place for Apples to Apples. The next day I had to work, but after getting off work my uncle Jeff and his friend picked me up and we went to the casino, where I lost money. :D It was so good seeing him; the last time had been the day after I turned 21 last year. After the casino I came back home and we had a Sushi Night Is Over party that I was too tired for. And finally, Sunday was another unproductive day of nothing but video games. It was great.

I decided to go to my astronomy lecture yesterday because it'd been about two weeks since the last time, and it's a good thing I went because I found out we have an exam tomorrow. (=_=) I've already resigned myself to the fact my chances of passing this class are slim, but I'm still going to try. I've got to study for it tonight. I've also got a Japanese test (my last one before finals!) today that I need to be studying for instead of hanging out on LJ. The only thing that ever worries me with those is the sheer amount of kanji I need to know. I glance over grammar patterns but those are simple...stupid kanji.

And stupid me for buying Apartment Life on eBay last week. It came yesterday and I had no time to play it until late at night. D:

Speaking of yesterday - I signed the lease for my apartment next year!! I'm so excited to get out of this place and into somewhere quiet and clean and friendly. The bus was fairly simple to figure out to get over there too, so I feel a lot better about the possibility of having to use it next year so I don't use as much gas for my car. Additionally it was rainy, and there's just something about a rainy day on a bus that makes me happy.

Current Music: hln

http://www.tokyograph.com/news/id-4690

tl;dr - LIAR GAME is coming back for a second season AND a movie! This was one of my UTMOST favorite dramas when it aired. Additionally, Nakata scored the first season's soundtrack, so here's to hoping he does it for these two new ones as well!!

brb, shaking and crying

Work was more fun than not last week. It really helps when I have friends I get to work with. The only bad thing was on Saturday when we had almost two hours of nothing and then a big rush along with someone who called in an order of about 8 sandwiches, two salads, and four soups. At least they called in ahead of time, but it was still a bitch.

After work on Saturday Sabrina and I hung out at the mall and grocery stores <3 I bought oodles of juice and food among other things. After that I went to hang out with the 2nensei gang at Vanessa's place so we could have our Taco John adventure later that night. We put Dave in the trunk because Ichigo's car could only seat five. Good times. I forgot how much I love Taco John's. =/ It was yummy. I didn't get back to my place until around 2am, which meant I had been at home Saturday for a total of an hour and a half at best. Crazy. So sleeping in on Sunday was fun. <3 Then Dave, Julian, Jaz and I went on our "sushi night shopping!" adventure because JCA is holding a big event this Friday. We couldn't find fish though. (=_________=) Irony. I'm probably getting an ulcer over all the preparations for this event and can't wait till it's over and I can focus on classes more.

One of my classmates lent me the first four volumes of Koizora manga to read. It's really good, and I'm happy how easy it is to read. I'm only on the second volume, so I'm hoping she'll let me keep them a bit longer.

Current Music: desperate housewives

I had a small adventure today. Actually, it seems that whenever I'm out by myself doing something out of the routine it becomes an adventure. Sabrina called me up this morning, about an hour after my shower to ask a favor, which, to make a long story short, was basically me dropping her off at work with her car after she ran back home to get a paper sent to herself. Then I would take her car back to her apartment and come back to my place, because she just lives a few blocks down the street. I had already finished my morning homework so I didn't mind, and it was such a nice day out so I knew I wouldn't mind the walk back. Before I dropped her off she said I could use her car for whatever, so I took her up on that offer and went grocery shopping after dropping her off. \:D/ It's the little things, you know? I went to Hy-Vee because I'd been wanting more juice since my sick phase (which I am FINALLY almost over), and the only place nearby that sells it (The Bread Garden) is so expensive it almost makes me cry. So I found it for a dollar less (^^) I bought two cartons of juice (orange juice and peach mango orange, mmmm), chocolate chip pancakes (I didn't know they sold those frozen!!), syrup to go with said pancakes, bread, cream cheese, and lastly I discovered they sold tissues. That kind of rocks my world because I had been completely out thanks to my leaky nose of last week. I pretty much just gave my entire shopping list, but aaaagghhhh, you have no idea how excited I am when I get to go food shopping and everything is reasonably priced.

This morning before all of this, I'd been daydreaming about what next year will be like. I'm going to attempt a schedule with no Friday classes so I can go home Thursday nights like Sabrina does, because I'll have my car next semester (HOPEFULLY!), and having a whole extra day to be at home is going to be fantastic. I'd like to come home at least once without telling anybody, I think it'd be a nice surprise for my mom if she came home Friday after work and saw my car in the parking lot and walked into a clean apartment. (Fridays are my cleaning days at home~) When I was driving Sabrina's car around town, it reminded me how nice it would be next semester when I have the freedom to go wherever, whenever. Driving around IC is a little fun for me, because I'm so used to walking around here and I've only driven in this town a couple of times.

The night before, Sabrina and I hung out for a little bit and went to the Sycamore Mall and tried on lots of clothes at Von Maur. :D I found one top-thingie on sale and bought it. Oh, the weekend before was fun too. Nobody was in town, so Jazmyn and I decided to watch a movie Saturday night and called Jay to hang out with us. Men in Tights is hilarious, and Cary Elwes used to be so ~dreamy~. Then on Sunday the three of us had a small easter egg hunt and played video games. Fun times.

I don't know why I feel the need to give a recap. But there you have it.

Current Music: 土屋アンナ - Crazy World feat. AI

Sometimes I dread watching (romantic) comedies for the part that happens about 2/3rds in. You know, when something horrible happens to the main character to take her life from happy to crappy - like in The Devil Wears Prada, when Nate and Andy have that big fight (and then she runs off to Paris and shit hits the fan), or 13 Going On 30 when Mattie almost ends up marrying his girlfriend in the future and Jenna's idea gets stolen, or Mean Girls when Cady loses all her friends. Even if I absolutely love these movies, these parts are just horrible. =/ Even if they shape up in the end. Almost everything in this sort of genre I watch has that sort of predictability, but I love it regardless.

Also, decided to do this "Top 10 Anime Crushes" from offdutycupid, but I couldn't find 10 anime crushes so I expanded it to include manga...and still could only come up with five.
( in order )
Kind of failed at that. I think in the future I'll do a "Top 10 Drama Crushes" instead.

Also, these commercials have had me smitten for months but I keep forgetting to mention them. Watch them all in HD!
Frito Lay channel @ Youtube

Current Music: Kylee - VACANCY

So, so sick. I'm only going to Japanese today. I'm going to need to borrow someone's textbook for my Astronomy test over whatever we're studying now, because I've only been to one lecture. We have a test on Wednesday over black holes which I should be more worried about, but I think that part of my brain (the one that tells me to freak out) is being blocked.

Friday I was at work and found out the same-sex marriage ban in Iowa got overturned. I didn't believe my coworker at first (I had NO IDEA it was back in the courts...oh man) but when I was checking my phone just after getting off I had texts from a couple friends confirming it. Pretty damn cool. That evening I went to the rally downtown...it was like a big queer reunion, I got to see so many people. The next morning I had to work again, and I had considered giving my hours to someone else when I was working Friday (and I had takers - people are hours-hungry now) but in the end, I'm glad I worked even if I felt like crap. It wasn't entirely busy for once, and now I'll have a bigger paycheck...which is going straight into the bank.

After work Jazmyn and I took the bus out to the mall like we'd been planning. I still felt horrible but I needed to go and buy some medicine and we needed some household supplies. We made a detour at FYE because they were having some sales, like 25c CDs. Amazing. Clearly I'm reliving the 90s, because I bought Frente!'s "Shape" CD, Innosense's only album (anyone remember them? I so have that single), and then I went looking around for more sales and found two Veruca Salt albums, including "American Thighs." I've been getting into them the past few months and was excited to find it. Both CDs were used, so they were pretty cheap. I also found Incubus's "Make Yourself" in another sale bin for $7.50 new. :D WIN! But the icing on the cake was the special edition of "Dogma" for $10. I've wanted that movie for so long...gotta admit, I'm a fujoshi for Loki/Bartleby. Oh man. Perv.

Went to Target then, got my meds and a couple things of juice. The quart of OJ I bought is pretty much depleted, so I should've bought more. I don't regularly drink orange juice but for some reason it's just tasted amazing, and I like to think it's going to help me get better. I bought some Theraflu tea-type thing...it's got a buttload of acetaminophen in it, wow. It tastes like liquid, hot cough drop. Kind of. It's yummy. I think getting DayQuil would've been easier but for some reason I forgot. Anywho, by the time Jazmyn and I got home I think I had a fever from all the excitement and had to sit down for a while. In retrospect, I shouldn'tve gone to the rally on Friday or to the mall on Saturday. But the rally was a once-in-a-lifetime thing (hopefully), and I needed to go and get things from Target so I guess it couldn't be helped. To make up for it, I didn't leave the apartment at all yesterday and did little more than sit in bed doing homework and catching up on television. I'd like to think I'm getting better but I woke up at who-knows-when-in-the-morning because my nose was stuffed up and I couldn't breathe.

Ughhhh, this drink gets grosser and grosser the closer to the bottom of the mug I get. Yep, should've just gotten some syrup or pills (=_=)