Wonder of wonders! (No, no that one. He’s on His way, though.) It’s the Friday Five — on a Friday evening!
1) What word irks you every time you hear someone say it? Societal! People, the word “social” means exactly the same thing, and it doesn’t sound so made-up. Save me a cringe.
2) What is your favorite word? Are you kidding? I like the word “juxtapose” a lot. Something about a word with a J and an X draws me in. I also like “verisimilitude” and “lovely”.
3) What does it mean? Juxtapose: to place side by side. Verisimilitude: the quality or state of having the appearance of truth. (Oh, M-W, why are you so wordy?) I’m not defining “lovely” for you.
4) What word do you say far too often? Erm, “lovely.” I also have a thing for using SAT words whenever I can in ordinary conversation.
5) Name three words you think other people overuse. I can only think of one: literally (and they use it incorrectly most of the time).
Hana’s birthday dinner was really fun. We met at the Metro shuttle stop to start our long ride: me, Megha, her boyfriend Eric, Scott, Andrew, Hana’s exchange student friend Joyin from Hong Kong, Dan, and Sara. Guy met us at the Metro station, since he lives off-campus. While we waited for Megha to show up, Scott noticed that we had exactly five girls and five guys, so Hana decided we should pair off. Megha had Eric, and Joyin chose Scott, I picked Guy, and Sara had Andrew, which left Hana with Dan. All that really influenced was our seating pattern on the trains and in the restaurant, but it was still kind of cute. And I hardly ever get to see Guy, so it was great to talk to him so much.
After a very long ride (all the way in on the Green Line, then back out on Red), we got to Maggiano’s to find it absolutely packed. We waited around for a while and eventually got a table for ten when that big group left. We decided not to order family-style because it was so expensive, so we just got big bowls of pasta and shared them. It was like we do at Adele’s, only on-purpose and classier. Hana got these cool long, thin candles in some yummy lemon cookies as a birthday treat from the restaurant, so we got sing to her.
The train rides back were pretty uneventful, though very cold. We all split up to change, then Guy, Hana, Joyin, Sara, Scott, Andrew, Dan, and I all met back up for some more gifts and games. Hana, Sara, and Rebecca had bought Dirty Minds to give to the blond boys. They got Hana sweetened condensed milk for her birthday. She asked for it. I love my crazy friends. We started playing Dirty Minds, but it wasn’t as fun as we’d anticipated. I think it would’ve been better had we not all been so sober. We switched to Taboo, which was awesome. Joyin did really well toward the end with the English words she recognized. All of Dan’s clues started with the F-word. When Scott said, “Okay, uh, she had a lot of drug problems,” I immediately yelled, “Whitney Houston!” Hana started every card by guessing, “Wildebeest!” It was a good time. I went to bed around 3am.
Church was kind of bittersweet, since I knew I probably wouldn’t see any of those people until the end of January. Maura and I were almost late, but we got there on time, though I was wearing no jewelry. I don’t know why I was so slow, my late night notwithstanding. I wished Chris a happy birthday afterward, then had breakfast with Maura (and possibly someone else I can’t remember). Then I came back to study for my Comm final the next afternoon.
I got up earlyish Monday morning, around 8. I’d forgotten to pick up my paycheck on Friday, so I went over to Benjamin to try to track it down. Alice (the grad student working with the program) sent me from the Dean’s Office down to the Business Office, where the vaguely rude woman told me I hadn’t done my paperwork properly. I ate lunch, then went to take my exam. My TA was playing videos from Launch, like he did before the midterm. Quite unconventional, that Art. I think I did okay with the media clip we had to analyze. He said it was one of his favorites. On my way across Hornbake Mall, I suddenly realized I’d forgotten to go back to a multiple-choice I’d skipped, and therefore may have also left one of the blanks unfilled. I was trying to avoid that thing I do where I second-guess my answers after I’ve chosen. (That driving school final thing still irks me.) I feel so-so about it, like I do about all my exams.
I gathered up my books and trekked out to BookHolders. On the way, I passed the UBC tent and decided to at least price the five books I had to sell. (So different from last semester’s, like, fifteen.) They gave me $35 for my Comm book and $7.25 for The New York Trilogy, which I’d bought from BookHolders in good condition for $40 and $10 respectively, so that worked out well. The rest I gave to BookHolders; we’ll see how that goes. They’ve done fairly well with my books so far. I’ll have to try the Book Exchange next semester; I hear they give better prices than the Book Center.
I spent the rest of the evening prepping to come home. My dad was supposed to pick me up Monday morning, but the rugrats’ activities made that really awkward, and he has Tuesdays and Wednesdays off anyway, so we switched it to Tuesday morning. I happened to have one more clean pair of socks; yay for foresight. I kept a lot of worksheets from Spanish I never looked at again. I kept almost everything from 280. It was such a cool class. Again, I felt like I was packing up half of my stuff, but I’ve never quite understood packing light. What if I need something? I had dinner with Hana, Scott, Andrew, and Dan. I miss group dinners already.
I got up and kept packing Monday morning. Hana came over to say goodbye, since the rest of the Woo-Hoo Sisterhood had already left. She helped me and my dad carry stuff downstairs, which was really nice of her. We definitely have to get together over break with Rebecca and Joyin. My dad and I went to the BX, where I got a picture frame for my mom’s second present, since I wasn’t around for her birthday. (I signed her card at Thanksgiving and left it in my closet for my dad to retrieve.) We ate lunch, then came back. We had teriyaki chicken for dinner, which was awesome. It’s my favorite. I actually managed to write about it for one of my last Spanish essays. (FYI, “teriyaki” does not translate, but “soy” does; it’s “soja.”)
I realized that if I’m going to get another OfficeTeam assignment next month, I’ll need dressy clothes for work. I don’t own a lot of dressy clothes, and had absentmindedly left most of them behind, remembering only the five Sundays when I’ll need church clothes. My dad agreed to drive me back to campus on Wednesday to fetch dressy clothes. I also grabbed the two dresses I wore this semester (astonishing, I know) to wash here. I have a feeling the machines in QA would destroy my purple gown. We went to Target, where my dad got a cute bracelet for my mom. I think she’ll like it, if it doesn’t turn out to be too small for her wrist. I would have tried it on for him. We went to Giant, then came back. I like spending time with my dad, but not too much, you know? That was just about right.
That night, I helped Ryan with his math homework. It reminded me why I don’t like math, but he can totally subtract fractions with unlike denominators now. He had basketball practice on Andrews, but my sister was finishing her game at her middle school around the same time, so she asked me to take Ryan to practice. (The rugrats got all the athletic talent in the family. I’m heavy on academics. Ryan’s got a nice balance going, though.) Reasoning that she could walk back from the school if necessary, she left me drive her car to take Ryan on base. I haven’t driven since August, but I’m not sure she knew that, since her car is less than a year old. (It’s an insurance settlement from the accident she was in.) I got us there intact, though. My parking was bad, as usual. Ryan had to help me with the power windows, since I only realized just outside the gate that I don’t know how they work. He’s very mature for an almost-ten-year-old. I tried to read during his practice, but then they started shooting at the basket I was sitting behind, so I figured I should pay attention. I thought I lost my gloves (again), but found them in the car (again) after walking around looking for them.
I didn’t do much that day, either. I tried to watch my Deluxe Edition Men in Black, but I was tired, so I fell asleep several times.
Yesterday, my dad paid me $10 to wrap all his presents. I would have done it for free. I should donate the money the next time someone solicits me. I wrapped the presents I bought, then wrote a sonnet for my mom and wrapped that. It’s not a very good sonnet, but it took more effort and thought than would something I bought for her just for the sake of buying it. I watched two more episodes of Joan of Arcadia. Wow, I love that show. I also realized I never found out what Pat thought of my scene for Buffy class. I’ll have to ask; maybe he’d be interested in using a Joan clip sometime next semester.
Today was also a nothing day. I watched Camp Nowhere this morning, which brought back third-grade memories. I’m going to dinner with some people from high school in a few minutes. Greg’s supposed to be there. I can sense the awkwardness now.
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