Quickest post ever.

There are only two things I want right now, and I just may buy them for myself instead of waiting because my birthday is in, like, five months and I'm impatient.

This and this.

If you don't feel like clicking on the links, this is what they look like:





HINT HINT WINK WINK

- Jen -

ETA: Add in the Questionable Content "white text on a black shirt" shirt and I've got a Yahtzee.

Ben Folds and volcanoes

They really don't have anything to do with one another, but that's what I'm going to be talking about in this blog entry, so here goes.

Yesterday marked the day that Justin and I have been together for three and a half years. Isn't that nuts? I mean, we're only twenty and we've spent nearly twenty percent of our lives together. Math is awesome. I guess the concert yesterday was an indirect celebration of that, but we didn't really plan it that way.

I got my tax returns postmarked on my way up and saw some cops in some weird places (come on, it's totally not fair to jam your car up behind a bridge shoulder and then gun over said bridge shoulder, I can't even see your car), but nothing out of the ordinary. Justin and I grabbed some dinner, then it was onto the Healthline (the main bus line that runs up and down Euclid Avenue) to get to the House of Blues for the Ben Folds concert. It was me, Justin, another couple, and two of his other brothers (ugh I am so bad with names, hopefully post will be edited later to say who we actually went with).

We got there in time to get some pretty good spaces (not seats - this was standing room only) in the pit in front of the stage. Before the opening act went on, the other girl and I went up to get our merch. We ended up getting the same concert tee. It's pretty cool looking and I'm sure I'll be wearing it a lot. I wore it at the concert, which means it's filthy right now.

The opening act was really weird and kind of lame (as all opening acts are). Name was Matt Pool or something like that, but he couldn't play the guitar, so his friend was up there playing the guitar with him. His songs were good and I might have liked them if they had had a full band and slightly less cliche lyrics, but because it was just the two guys and they were an opening act, I was not impressed. Justin joked that he would have fallen asleep if we weren't standing up, but I did actually fall asleep on him at one point. (He was also referencing another concert we went to, where Grizzly Bear was opening for Radiohead and we actually did fall asleep in our chairs.)

Ben Fold was FANTASTIC. I can't even use enough sparkletext. We had singalongs to his songs, we clapped at all the right points, we danced and laughed. Ben even played the drums while he played Rock This Bitch, and he did some 'minimalist' renditions with a maraca against the mic in one hand and his other hand on the piano. I just - it was fantastic. And then for an encore he finished with 'Song for the Dumped Minor', which I didn't think he would play because that was a full-band arrangement. God, it was fantastic.

We didn't get back to campus until midnight, and boy are we ever glad that we got our swag before the concert instead of after. Justin and I were up kind of late talking and got to sleep in a little this morning, so that was nice. I still don't know when I'm going to see him again but I'm glad I got in a few hugs and kisses before I left again.

But speaking of leaving, this is where the volcano comes in. I'm pretty sure everyone knows by now that a volcano went off in Iceland and is spewing ash everywhere, but now I don't know if I can get back to school for the next term. My flight is on Tuesday, so hopefully the ash clears a little and the blockade of UK airspace ends, but if it doesn't I really don't know what I'm going to do...

Ah well. I have grandparents over after tonight's performance of Oklahoma!, so more on the musical after both of the performances tomorrow.

- Jen -

My blag got lonely!

I haven't been updating it much since I got home, but this was kind of a big deal that has an impact on my future and stuff.

I registered for my first semester of my classes for senior year.

I mean, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but with a few numbers and a few clicks of the mouse I am now one step closer to actually graduating, and it's kind of scary. I did get most of what I wanted, though, so that's good. Fiction writing for majors was blocked to me for some reason (I have the sneaking suspicion that they require 'pre-registering', which I feel to be unfair to those who aren't studying on main campus and thus can't have meetings with their advisers like everyone else on main campus do). I did manage to get a pretty good second theo though (War, Peace, and Conscience - pretty awesome, if you ask me). So, here's how my schedule stands right now for Fall 2010:

Monday-Wednesday (no classes on Friday woohoo):
Narrative and Sexuality with Susan Cannon Harris (I heart her, this will be awesome)
3:00-4:15

Tuesday-Thursday (bad, bad days for me):
2nd Theo: War, Peace, and Conscience with Michael Baxter
9:30-10:45
Virtue, Sex [as in 'or gender', has little to do with fornication] and the Good Life with Margaret Doody
12:30-1:45
Contemporary British and Irish Fiction with Mary Smyth
2:00-3:15
Visits to Bedlam with Christopher Fox
3:30-4:45

So that's that, I suppose.

Oh, and over break I not only got my hair redone while I was home, but I also got new glasses! Pictures forthcoming, maybe. I haven't taken a lot of pictures recently.

I've now gone up twice to Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University to visit Justin, and I went up to Notre Dame once to visit all my friends there. All of these visits were really, really fun, but I have to say, some of the highlights were:

-Seeing Zombieland at Case and formulating zombie apocalypse plans with Justin afterward
-Going shooting with Greg and getting to shoot a P90 (check Facebook pics and vid for confirmation of this - it was completely and totally awesome)
-Going out to Olive Garden with, like, 12 of my new best friends (and riding along people's laps to get back to campus, woo was that an adventure)
-The Beta formal that just took place this weekend (I will have a new profile picture soon and it will be very pretty!)

That's pretty much all the time I have for right now, and that's the highlights from the last few weeks. I'm only in town for another week or so, and there's not much going on in that next week besides writing, the Ben Folds concert on Thursday night, and Oklahoma! this weekend... well, I guess there is a lot going on. I'll try to be better about my blogging, and I know it will be better once I get back to school. (Crap, I still have a term left of school!)

- Jen -

Best dinner ever.

So tonight, there was just going to be my mom and I for dinner, and we decided to clean out the fridge. It ended up that we created a bowl of the best pasta I've ever had.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup rotini (the corkscrew pasta noodles)
1/2 jar queso sauce (we used Taco Bell brand)
1/4 serving sloppy joe meat
1 tomato, diced

Boil pasta, warm queso, dice tomatoes, reheat leftover sloppy joes, mix together, eat and enjoy.

I also got new glasses ordered today. They have metal frames around the eyes and plastic frames back towards the ears, and best of all - they have magnetic sunglasses clips! I don't get them for another week but I'm quite excited.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm watching Oklahoma! and this is very important.

- Jen -

Wow it's been a little while.

I got kind of busy. Sorry, everyone, my life has been weird.

Today I had an eye exam! How exciting. I hadn't had an eye exam since, like, December 2007 (I remember getting my current glasses, the red frames, before Spring 2008 semester). And you know how they say with exams like that, you can never fail? Well, I did.

My exam took twice as long as expected, because I have apparently developed astigmatism in my left eye (non-dominant eye) since my last exam (which, yeah, 2+ years ago, but still). Since we didn't know about the astigmatism, we had to check my left eye with three different contacts, and three times with the lenses. I think we have the prescription down by now, but it's still weird that it took so long to determine what was wrong with my eye.

Then, of course, he had to measure the curvature of my eyes, and do the juvenile glaucoma test, which... blah, my least favorite. I do not like having air puffed onto my eye. But it's important, that I won't deny. Our high school principal's son has juvenile glaucoma so I try to raise my own awareness about it through word of mouth.

The rest of my day was taken up by buying bridal shower gifts, going to Taco Bell, doing knitting, looking for frames that I might like (need new glasses now if not sooner), doing a transposition of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" for my brother, and watching Oklahoma! since my brother is Curly (the male lead) in the musical my high school is putting on this year. It's been a busy day, and I would go to sleep, but I'm still vaguely upset about things elsewhere on the Internet, so we'll see.

- Jen -