The skin underneath my right eye itches. Perhaps it's dry. At any rate, it needs to be scratched, but I can hardly bring myself to do it. The skin there is so delicate that I'm sure I'll rip it off in an entirely too gruesome accident. And since my nails are overlong, the risk is even greater. But it itches!

Tonight, it appears my family will be going to the Olive Garden for dinner, followed by some movie or another. This dinner continues my stretch of eating pasta dishes this week. I lobbied for spaghetti instead of leftovers a couple of nights back, and the next day I had one of those "Pasta Anytime" meals for lunch. For dinner then I made (from scratch!) chicken noodle soup, which had a whole box of ziti in it because Sam insisted he "couldn't see the noodles" when there was only half a box. (By the way, Sam hardly touched his soup for dinner, even though it was quite good despite being overnoodled and underveggied. But that's a sensitive issue and I'll not go there.)

Last night, AMC had an Audrey Hepburn mini-marathon, showing Sabrina, Roman Holiday and the Backstory episode about the latter. It was wonderful! Sabrina is one of my favorite movies (even though I always wonder exactly how old Humphrey Bogart is supposed to be). I borrowed the fifty-foot cable we bought for the Xbox network adapter and brought my laptop out to the kitchen in order to have a clear view of the television, and I watched the whole thing. I only wish they had put on more Audrey Hepburn movies after Backstory instead of just repeating Sabrina.

Scott told me yesterday what he was getting me for Christmas (he wanted approval before ordering), and now I'm even more excited to get back than I was already. I have to start thinking about how I'm going to fit all the Christmas presents I bought for everyone into my suitcase. I'm afraid I didn't consider space constrictions when shopping for presents I thought looked cool. But I'll figure it out somehow. Hurray for Christmas!

And if I don't catch you -- Happy New Year!

According to the quiz I found on Shannon's site, my New Year's resolution should be "to break stuff." If you understand this, let me know!

I'm starting to run out of stuff to do. I mean, I have work-study stuff left -- I've only accumulated about seven hours of my target 20 to 30. But as I have to do that on my old and now a lot slower laptop (I removed the memory upgrade and installed it in my iBook), it's really an exercise in frustration. Dreamweaver crashed at least twice during the four hours I worked this evening, once just after I had saved a file I'd been working on for a long time. (Actually, that time my laptop went into one of its famous spontaneous restarts -- having saved the file just then was a great stroke of luck.) And the work I've been doing so far is really rather tedious. I've been reformatting a professor's old syllabi for his web site. It's all a matter of playing with line breaks, indents and text styles, and it's as boring as it sounds.

I'd like to play the new Sims game we got for Christmas, but unfortunately it only can run on one of our computers. (I assume it could also work on the computer upstairs, but you can't run it when someone's playing it downstairs since you need the CD.) Alas, the boys want to play it, too, and so the Dell is almost constantly occupied by one of them during the day (and spare moments are taken by my mom). Thus I can't usually play it until late at night when they've gone to bed, but oftentimes Dan or Sean have friends over late at night these days. Dan and company especially like to take over the computer while here -- they use it for their God-awful "recording sessions." There's a reason the first two letters of their "band's" name stand for "no talent."

That brings me to the NOISE that constantly pervades this house. If any of you ever wonder how I can stand to live next door to Laura, who likes to blare music through the walls all day, let me tell you that I consider that a respite. And I'm especially looking forward to it now, as the noise level has ratcheted up to levels unknown over this break. Between the new digital cable blaring from the family room, the always-running Xbox in the living room, the stupid Sims music from the Dell, that horrible new electronic drum machine Zach got for Christmas, Dan's friend playing guitar, the chatter of countless people who think they have the right to take over the house at all hours and many more annoyances, I can't believe that a) we haven't broken some noise pollution ordinance or b) I haven't gone deaf.

AHHHH!!! I just can't take it anymore!

And the worst part of the whole thing is that there's nowhere to escape to. The noise (especially from the stupid drums) penetrates the floor of my room. It's snowy and freezing outside. There's almost never a car available to me in a house of five drivers, and even if there was, there's nowhere for me to go. Even if I did feel like going downtown to the library or something, I'd not be allowed to stay for more than an hour or two, I'm sure, because I'd be roped into being chauffeur for one or more of my brothers. Getting myself away here just isn't worth the hassle.

I just want to be alone! I just want some quiet! How is one supposed to sleep in a house with 24/7 noise, anyway?

Why can't I go back now?!

Today I went tubing, and good God was I cold. Despite wearing two pairs of socks and winter boots, I felt like my toes were going to fall off. But that's not even enough to describe the feeling in my fingers when my gloves got wet. Cold, cold, cold cold cold.

I had hoped to write more, but my brain feels a little dull after not getting much sleep. Tomorrow I hope to sleep in!

It's nice getting random compliments on the site. Thanks!

It's family picture day. I'm wearing my new red blouse (as my mom has again insisted we all dress alike) and waiting for the call to the car. Hopefully I won't look as awful as in the last one.

I've pretty much gotten the new computer set up. All of my old files are on it, and I've ripped all the CDs I brought with me. Today I'll try to transfer my old memory card to this laptop. I'm still waiting for Adobe GoLive to come in the mail (naturally, as I ordered it only yesterday), and once that gets here, my machine will be complete.

Yesterday, I spent a great deal of money between books, GoLive and Christmas presents for school friends. But I'm calming down from that today, and now the major problem is how to get all this new stuff back to Chicago. Yikes!

Snow, snow, snow everywhere! What better sign that Christmas is here? (Well, personally I could go for some sunshine, but let's be realistic.) A snowstorm hit Erie on Christmas Day, starting in the middle of the night (sometime while we were in Midnight Mass) and continuing through this morning and early afternoon. I began to fear people wouldn't be able to make it through the snow to our house for the big party at our house and then we'd be stuck with enough food for thirty (or a hundred) people and only eight to eat it. Fortunately, everyone pressed on and we had a full house today.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Christmas officially started last night with the first gift exchange. As there are six kids in this family, we decided several years ago that we just wouldn't attempt to buy each and every sibling a present as this could potentially take up our entire Christmas budgets. Thus, we do a Secret Santa exchange within the house. However, it seems that this year, only me and possibly Dan actually picked out and purchased the presents for our Secret Santas -- the rest came from my mom in the guise of sibling gifts. I guess it's not so bad -- the presents are usually nicer -- but it really seems to defeat the purpose. Oh well, it's Christmas, so why complain?

After opening these and other presents, we played a round of Cranium, the gift I'd gotten Sam. In light of the experience of playing it today as well, I'd like to say that it is best played a) with only two teams, b) without a lot of background noise, and c) without any drunk people. When someone's not quite sober, it's rather difficult to get them to pay attention long enough to explain the rules.

Eventually, we all got dressed up and went to Midnight Mass. This one is the real show -- the full choir, the pianist, and the brass band were all there, and all three priests plus a deacon and four altar servers (all female, by the way) led the celebration. There was enough incense to make you dizzy and enough volume to blow out your eardrums. It was almost like a rock concert.

After a bit of last-minute present-wrapping, I collapsed into bed around 3 a.m. I tried to stay up for the end of the classic version of A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sim, but I fell asleep as soon as Tiny Tim died. I was not pleased to be awakened at 8 a.m., but I figured I'd just get up and go since it was going to happen that way no matter what. I went downstairs and opened my few presents (with getting a new laptop, the present total shrinks significantly, naturally). I had a cinnamon bun, set up my iBook, then went upstairs and slept until 11:30.

The rest of the afternoon was spent frantically cooking and preparing everything for the big Christmas bash. The potatoes took longer than expected and didn't brown sufficiently (we made them into a lovely casserole instead), the sweet potatoes didn't mash enough (there was no helping those), and the oven just didn't have enough room. But somehow, we managed to pull it off, and we provided the most enormous Christmas spread we've ever offered. (You all should have come to dinner -- we had enough for at least ten more people.)

I got some nice presents this year, and, surprisingly, most came from my Christmas list. I got the new iBook, of course, plus The Others and Arsenic and Old Lace on DVD, three pairs of shoes, a web cam, a subscription to Archaeology magazine, and more. I also got two pairs of pajamas, which I didn't ask for, but they're nice. And I just bought the new Foo Fighters CD off of my brother Sean, who got three copies of it.

Now I must start looking around for new software to clog my computer's hard drive with.

Merry Christmas!

I need to cook tomorrow! If you should see me online, remind me that I must:

• Make breadcrumbs
• Slice cheese, beef stick, pepperoni, etc.
• Make pinwheel appetizer
• And so on

If I neglect to accomplish this stuff tomorrow, there will be problems.

Scott called to inform me today that, despite a long initial flight delay in Cairo, he has made it back to this country just in time for the holidays -- although being in a predominantly Muslim country for a couple of weeks naturally doesn't put one in a Christmas frame of mind.

I neglected to mention that I took the Sesame Street Muppet's Dark Secret quiz (I found the link on Shannon's site), and I turned out to be "The Count's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder." I doubt anyone is surprised.

Okay, the site is finally purple again. Enjoy the present for your eyes!

I'm attempting the switch to the old design now. Give the page some time to come back to normal!

A ridiculous IM conversation with Britt:

Britt: you think it's impossible for me to accomplish *anything* tomorrow?
Colleen: not unless your tv suddenly explodes
Britt: but there are 4 of us in the house. other people will be using the tv for much of the day
Colleen: the type or quality of programming doesn't generally seem to deter you
Britt: hehe, true
Colleen: look at it this way -- i have faith in your infinite capacity for laziness
Colleen: it's sort of like infinite wisdom. but not.
Britt: hehe
Britt: that should be my motto

My head hurts. I've been playing too many video games.

I almost slept through my brother Zach's school Christmas party. As I was supposed to be one of the "homeroom moms," that was not a good thing. True, I did get more sleep than I have in the past week, but waking up forty-five minutes before I'm supposed to show up in a classroom wasn't the best idea. I had half an hour to get myself and the party gear ready and then get out the door. I was the last party person to arrive -- that's including all sixteen classrooms. Oh well. At least the party didn't begin without me.

Why did this happen? Because my mom had informed me that I was supposed to drive her to work again that day, so I didn't set an alarm since I figured she'd drag me out of bed at 8:30. However, she decided to foist that responsibility upon my brother, so I got no wakeup call. I only managed to get up when I did because me aunt stopped by to drop off some checks and show me her dog (who jumped up on my bed and licked me).

Of course, despite sleeping "late," I did end up awake before 1 p.m., more than I can say on most weekends at school. Strange how time is so different here.

My room is cold.

We're not talking cold like when PARC's heat hasn't come on once the temperature drops in the fall. We're talking full-fledged, I-feel-like-I'm-living-in-my-refrigerator cold. I'm not exaggerating -- the rest of the house is pretty cold, but stepping into my room, the temperature drops about ten degrees. At least. Mine is the coldest room in the house.

Why is this? I live in a room with two big windows that do not face the sun but do catch the wind. On top of that, the room right below mine is just the same -- and that just so happens to be the room the temperature control is in. Apparently, the rest of the house gets "hot" because the living room is unusually cold and causes the heat to come on too much. (I think this is a load of crap, by the way.) Thus the minimum temperature has to be set low in in there so the heat will come on less. And therefore, my room never gets heated beyond the minimum temperature to prevent hypothermia.

It all really sucks because of how cold it gets at night. I have a sheet and a comforter on my bed, and last night I kicked off the sheet in my sleep. I started getting so cold -- despite my fleece socks and flannel pants -- that I actually woke up. Now, I had to get up early today to get to the madhouse that is Erie County Farms grocery store, and I had gone to bed early enough to guarantee eight hours of sleep, something I haven't gotten in a while. I did not appreciate the interruption. Now I'm tired and cranky and really annoyed about my stupid room. Argh.

Now are the days of being Santa Claus. I've been shopping for presents, getting ordered ones in the mail, and wrapping them all up. Plus I've bought some of the stuff for Christmas dinner, and tomorrow I begin the search for a veal shank (which is a baby cow leg -- I hear all my vegetarian friends retching). I'm more concerned myself about the turkey, which my grandparents are going to fry and bring over for dinner. Yum, fried turkey! Many people (including meateaters) may think this is a very weird idea, but it's actually a great way to prepare turkey. You just stick the whole thing in hot oil for about 45 minutes, and it comes out completely cooked and very moist. Fried turkeys don't get the breast meat all dried out and overdone like roast turkeys do. Plus you can inject them with marinade, giving them even more flavor. And it's not even unhealthy -- the skin's the only part that is affected by the oil, and you can just take it off (though some people really seem to like fried skin -- umm, yuck).

Tonight I'll make my first batch of cookies since coming home. Likely they will be snickerdoodles, and this weekend I'll make the frosted sugar cookies. I'm still debating making gingerbread men. After all, they're dangerous -- they do like to run ...

By the way -- we went to the Apple Store in Buffalo today, and somebody came home with quite a nice Christmas present!

I swear I've been trying to update, but Blogger is just not working right for me. I'll figure this out soon.

I am almost ready to declare myself well. I think I'll hold off until after finals, but I'm almost as good as it gets. No swallowing pain (well, I haven't attempted anything beyond water and medicine yet, so we'll see).

Scott informs me that he and buddy Joe are headed to Port Said today in order to enjoy fresh seafood while I am not around to plug my nose. And also to travel across the Suez Canal to Asia, but I think it's mostly the former.

I have lots of studying to do today in order to prepare for my two finals (back to back, 9-11 and 12-2). I need to outline seven essays before 11 p.m. and go over notes for my class on Japanese history. Then, I need to throw myself upon the mercy of God so that I don't completely fail them both.

Oh yeah, finals are fun!

My throat seems to be getting better (let there be celebrations throughout the land!). It only stings a little, so I can swallow pretty easily. The new drug works wonders.

Since my throat's feeling better, I've started to empty my fridge. Gone are the frozen apples (oops) and a little more of the ice cream that's made me turn down the fridge so low. The bread is gone, as is a little of the cheese, since I made a grilled cheese sandwich. I tried dipping it in ranch dressing for a change, and I decided it was okay but not my favorite. Should have gone with the mustard. Oh well.

I finally disposed of all of my recyclables today. I hate not having a can in the lobby. I have to walk all the way across the building and out into the cold, wet stairwell every time I want to recycle cans and bottles. It's enough to make a somewhat lazy person like me almost want to give up the cause.

The throat hurts, the computer sucks, the food makes me ill -- same old, same old.

I hate my stupid ethernet port so much. It never works consistently, and I am constantly afraid of missing important communication.

I have a wicked throat infection. My left tonsil has swollen to about twice its normal size. It's horrid and gross. Why is everything bad happening to me now? Is someone trying to test me? Because I'll break down quite willingly if it will end.

Apparently what I have isn't strep throat, but some other sort of bacterial/viral infection (no, not mono). The doctor prescribed me some new, stronger antibiotics that are very expensive and that will cause me to cry if they do not cure me. I mean, the alternative treatment of drinking lots of fluids is highly unsuccessful since I cannot drink without putting myself in pain.

Oh, it's all so sad.

I'm done with all of my papers!

Save for the unhappy fact that I will have to arise and walk to the anthropology department at around 9 a.m., the torture is done. I now have a leisurely week in which to prepare for my finals on Friday.

Unfortunatly, I may very well be sick for much of that time. My throat still really hurts, although my temperature has gone down. Though that hasn't prevented me from having to go through several pairs of pajamas since Friday, as I seem to have night sweats or something. It's rather uncomfortable.

But you know, I could really go for some French fries right now. Spicy curly fries ... good stuff. Especially since I've eaten next to nothing these past few days, through a combination of a weak stomach and a weird schedule. Not to mention that sore throat. Maybe I'll get some food after going to drop off my paper tomorrow. After all, I'd hate to add "starvation" to my list of woes.

Ooooooooooohhhh. I feel so awful.

Walking around for more than a couple of minutes makes me feel nauseous. My throat hurts, and gargling with salt water just substitutes one bad sensation for another. I'm tired and I get periodic body aches. I'm hot and cold.

I just want to go home!

I am sick. Sob!

I went to the infirmary this morning, and they confirmed what my 101-degree temperature had clued me into -- that I am, yet again, at the mercy of disease. It's come at a horrible time, as I have a paper due Monday, and I didn't go to work at the poli sci office all last week. Plus I have finals Friday. And on top of all that, it's just been a terrible week in general, save last night's trip to the planetarium, and even that ended with me nearly freezing to death.

Oh, and my internet disappeared last night. It came back eleven hours later, but I still don't think it's a good sign.

My eyes hurt, and I still feel rather weak and trembly from my activity of this morning.

Why me?

I. am. so. cold.

Tonight PARC went to visit Adler Planetarium, a trip I organized for the dorm. It was great fun, as basically we had the run of the place with our admission, all shows and such for free. However, it is incredibly cold outside right now, and for the past day or two I've been starting to feel sick. It's not a nice combination. At the moment, the cold has still not evaporated from my body. Thus I think my brain is frozen and I can't think of anything more to say.

I have internet again!!!

I keep thinking this whole paper thing ought to be over with, and thus I don't think I actually need to write anything tonight. I cannot express though how happy I will be when it is all over. I have never looked forward to going back home so much.

Wish me luck. Send me some happy vibes so I will feel less glum.

Well, I have three papers down, and only one more left this week (I'm choosing to block the memory of the one I have due on Monday at 9 a.m.). This is only a five-page one, so it shouldn't take so long, I hope. But I am incredibly exhausted from pushing myself so much the past few days. I never want to have to go through this again.

The ethernet is still not up and running, either. I haven't heard from the person who was supposed to call about it yet. Figures.

In the midst of paper three, and although it's progressing all right (I switched the topic to Zionism, a whole lot easier than existentialism, which I never really understood anyway), tonight has really been awful. To sum it up, my ethernet no longer works. The jack in my room this year has always been picky, and tonight of all nights it decided it hated me. I had to call the rescon, and while she promised to get someone to fix it, she cautioned that since it's near the end of the quarter, it could take a while. Thus, I'm sitting in the basement computer lab typing this, having dragged my computer around the building looking for a viable ethernet port. What really sucks is that since the battery doesn't work, I have to shut it down and restart it every time I move it. That wastes much more time than I would generally waste if I could surf around the internet as I wrote. It's so frustrating, especially considering how dependent I am on my technology. I just look forward to next quarter, when I'll have both a working jack and a working computer. Then my life will be good.

I have finished paper two!!!

It took me about three and a half hours, but it's done. My strategy this time was to reward myself with reading one article online for every paragraph I wrote. This cut down on my procrastination time a bit, I think, and I managed to churn out several long paragraphs.

Now, it's off to get some food, and then back to the dorm to write the next paper. This one's going to take about six hours if I go at the same pace, so I'd prefer to be closer to my bed when I'm ready to collapse.

I heard today on TV that a few key Democrats have released a statement calling for the party to rally around the center and return to the strength of the Clinton era. Apparently the Dems have moved too far to the left in the past couple of years ... do you get it? I don't. But I of course found solace in America's Finest News Source.

I just read a very sweet weblog entry that, while in some ways a little corny, seems very much like what I want love to be. Not heavy and dramatic, but light, sweet and so good it's silly.

I just said good bye to Scott, who's now off to Amsterdam, Luxembourg, France and Egypt for winter break. (I am very jealous of the Egypt, by the way.) I barely managed to get up and get dressed in time to see him off, but I did, and currently he's en route to O'Hare in a friend's car.

At the moment, I don't feel up to doing work on my two papers due tomorrow. Instead, I'm going to drop off my first paper, then get some lunch at Norris, and finally go to the library and see if that environment is more conducive to paper-writing.

People should leave me comments because a) I think that's a nifty function and b) I want to know who looks at my site. And who doesn't. Wink, wink. I will soon produce a long and extremely controversial entry to encourage commenting.

When I finish all the paper-writing and other work, not only will the site finally go back to the original design, but it will also feature more links in the entries. I figure this will add more interest to the site. And cause me to lavish more time on it.

I have several projects for when I get home, and I ought to start recording them. First, there's Christmas shopping. Second, I want to make a new web site. Not a personal one, but a hobby-based one. It should be much fun.

Okay, I know what you're saying -- why am I not in bed, for crying out loud? So it's off to dreamland for me. Good night.

2638 words: Done with everything. That it took me an entire day to write this nine-page paper does not bode well for tomorrow, when I must write a ten-page one and a five-page one.

2622 words: I'm done with the writing. Thank God.

2,525 words: I can't believe it, either.

1859 words: Lincoln is president (celebrate, Emily!). Or was it Buchanan? Let's hope it was Lincoln because all Buchanans suck.

1492 words: I've either just discovered America or reached the point where I would have been done on the last paper. You decide.

881 words: How is it that I only have 881 words?! (incoherent muttered curses)

A conversation with Britt on writing papers:

Britt: i may never get to work on this paper...
Colleen: i may never finish this one
Britt: well, at least you've started
Colleen: started, yes. but that's not really the important part
Britt: well, it's an important and necessary step
Colleen: well, i suppose i could hand the paper in now, but it would be a little short.
Britt: but you'd still get a grade on it... even if it's only a 50 or something, that's far better than never starting and getting a 0
Colleen: i suppose
Colleen: but not much. it's still an F
Britt: but it's halfway to an A+
Colleen: that's twisted logic
Britt: so? i'm twisted.
Colleen: it's also 75% of the way to a C, but you don't see me jumping up and down
Britt: i'm just pointing out that someone who has started but not finished is far better off than someone who has not started.
Colleen: so start. write "makiko's diary" on the page
Britt: ok
Colleen: so have you written "makiko's diary" on the page?
Britt: yes
Colleen: hey, you're halfway there now. you've started
Britt: hehe
Colleen: 50%, here you come!
Colleen: ah, mediocrity

633 words. If this were the last paper, I'd really be halfway there. As it is, I intend to fill the first, oh, three or four pages with stupid background information, so it is sort of like I will then be writing the last paper over again. Note the "then."

I have 355 words so far (not including my outline), a little less than 10% of my paper completed. I'm trying to remind myself that last time it didn't take very long to write this paper, but that's really little comfort to me now.

The paper has started, though it goes slowly. It's looking less and less likely that I'll get the second one done tonight. Ugh. I have one more paper than I am capable of producing.

My hope is that once I finish gathering my evidence for this paper the actual writing will go fairly quickly, leaving me time to get at least a good start on the second paper. Otherwise, I'm done for.

All right, I should be working. I should draft my papers and then determine if I must go to the library for additional information. But I'm still having trouble motivating myself to think. Maybe I need to actually write the papers at the library. It's generally easier to feel scholarly there. But of course then we run into the problem of having to go outside again ...

I feel pretty much like a failure when it comes to getting my papers done. Sure, I did make it to the library tonight, and I have done some research (which, if you think about it, is already more than I do for most papers, at least prior to the night before), but I didn't outline either of the ones I need to finish for Wednesday, nor did I even write a little of either. I basically gave up on thinking for the night the moment I stepped out of the library.

Today, it seems, is going to be an awful day.

I am going to go to the library. I am. I swear it. I'm going to put on my boots and coat and hat and gloves and I'm going to walk to the library. I'm not going to sit here and procrastinate. At least not forever. Well, maybe that's unlikely. I probably will sit here forever, and I'll probably keep on writing and writing these silly entries (goodness, I've posted a lot today) and just not moving. I'm never going to finish my papers. And what's awful about it all is that it's really getting to crunch time. I need to produce two big papers very, very soon. It's not a great situation. Maybe I'll post a running word count again. After I get back from the library, that is. Right, I'm going. Going. Now. Yeah.

Ow. I burned my tongue on my chai latte. Ow.

Realizing that many people may never see the completed entries if I don't keep at least two days' worth posted on the home page, I have made the appropriate adjustment. Don't expect the tweaks to stop here. Nor the commentary.

Okay people, just to let you know the setup now: the day's posting will show up on the default page, but the rest of the week's postings are relegated to that week's archive page. In other words, it's just like it was before.

This is a very buggy bit of software, and if it doesn't start posting consistently for me there's gonna be a reckonin'.

I've had a horrible nightmare. First, I dreamed that my dad (only it didn't really seem to be my dad) sawed our van in half, not vertically but horizontally. Basically, he turned it into a convertible without the whole "converting" part. But what was truly frightening about it was the enormous, heavy blades he was using to do this. Enormous, heavy blades that were for a few, unwarned moments held about my and my brother Zach's heads.

Of course, on top of this, we were greatly concerned about my dad's apparent insanity -- he'd just taken the top of our only car that could carry the whole family, and we don't exactly live in Florida. I think my intense worries about having to ride in that thing in the cold and snow were ironically justified when I awoke this morning to a great deal of snow having been dumped on the ground.

The second nightmare concerned death in a more obvious sense. I was attending rituals in a tomb for a dead, newly mummified pharaoh (although it didn't appear to really be in ancient Egypt), and as the priest or whoever was in charge was droning on and on with incantations, the dead man suddenly awoke, opening his eyes and starting to sit up. The person next to the corpse pushed it back down as if forcing a child to sleep and the priest droned on, but I was horrified. The mummy stayed awake (for some reason I could see his eyes open through the bandages), and when I asked how it could possibly live through the process of mummification it told me that it wasn't really the soul that should be inhabiting that body, but a passing spirit taking up temporary residence. It seemed to have a lot of trouble breathing (perhaps due to a lack of lungs), and I asked it why. It then countered by asking, "What do you think the air is made of?" It suddenly dawned on me that the air must be full of supernatural essences, spirits looking for a body to inhabit, like this mummy. This realization seemed to make me feel vulnerable to such an invasion myself, and I began to breath in gasps like the mummy did. It tried to provide me with some metaphysical calm, but had I not awakened when I did, I probably would have started to hyperventilate.

I am so lazy. I must complete four major papers this week -- the two biggest ones by Wednesday -- and what have I done since last Wednesday, when my vacation started? Sat around and amused myself. True, I read a bit of my book for a paper due Thursday, but that's really it. I have done no other research.

The main problem is that I have to go to the library to do this other research. Going to the library means going outside, and it is cold outside. On top of that, I'd like to have my computer along to take notes on if I went to the library, and my stupid laptop has a problem with it's power system, meaning that it won't run off of a battery. Thus it must be shut down and restarted every time it is moved. Seriously irritating.

Well, all I know at this point is that if I don't get myself into gear soon I'm not going to finish any of my work. And considering what a great percentage of my grade these papers count for, that's definitely not a good thing.

I'm sitting around in Scott's room right now, waiting for my breadsticks to be delivered and watching Nick and Scott consume foreign beers. (Beer smells bad, by the way.) I much look forward to getting the breadsticks as I haven't had them in quite a long time now. Not since the beginning of the school year when the dining halls were closed. Breadsticks. Yum.

For those reading this tonight and likely until I leave for winter break, this site is going to look pretty ... umm ... bright. Eventually I will switch back to the purple format, but for now I don't really feel like I have the time (or energy). I have to complete five or six papers in the next couple of weeks (depending on what you count as a "paper"), and I also have two finals. Ugh.

Back to more pleasant topics. We made Mexican food this weekend. Mexican food is great because it is a) cheap and b) delicious!!! Yum! We had rice and refried beans and burritos. Very good.

Well, the breadsticks are here. Catch you later.

I just added a commenting feature. Again, I'm not sure if it'll work right immediately, but it's cool anyway.

Okay, I'm just setting this up, so it's going to look a little weird for a while. But I figured since I've been so lax in updating lately that I ought to expedite the process in hopes of encouraging myself to update more often.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be working all that well.