MILES to GO || before I sleep

Well, today was better than yesterday, purely because:
a) I didn't embarrass myself in Japanese class and lose credit (when I shouldn't have)
b) I got to see Scott (even though he was rather difficult to get along with, let alone TALK to)
c) I woke up determined to make this day better, and I think that actually made the difference.

The downside is that I'm still very much worried about the laptop that I blew so much money on, and my current sorry state of funds. I also find myself getting bored by everything I do, lacking inspiration or motivation to do the things I want and NEED to do, and generally becoming very cynical about everything around me. I want a challenge, I want freshness. That doesn't mean I want to change my religion, rearrange my room, or start eating an all-sushi diet. But I *AM* trying to be more fit (I signed up for the gym at last and had my first workout session of this week; I would have done another today, but I thought it would be yucky to get all sweaty and then go to class), eat better (note: foods I once enjoyed make me sick now-- that's how healthy my body is!), and do things that will improve my life, even if I don't see some immediate benefit to me.

With the laptop, I'm still waiting on the Drivers and Utilities CD. It's not that I think I'm lacking much in terms of drivers; all the necessary devices work just fine. But I do want to have all the original Dell programs that were likely included in the cost of my laptop (Norton and WordPerfect excluded), and the Owner's Manual. I also wonder if maybe some obscure driver NOT listed in the Device Manager has something to do with why the computer is so sporadically slow to shut down, open up some programs, or download email. Worse, when I try to use Firefox on my laptop now, I get the browser with the title bar of the webpages, but no tabs, no screen-- just white! It's freaking me out, and I don't know what to do.

I'm also waiting on my new Kingston 1 GB memory chip (which I paid a lot for, so it better damn well make a difference), my PS2 (I pray that it got to Dave okay; he hasn't emailed me back yet), and a bank statement, because WaMu online is being a bitch.

I want to have more time to myself, to actually SLEEP, perhaps get some more writing/work (icons!) done, webpage design, and the inevitable CLEANING OF ROOM. The right side of my room is all paperwork; the leftside is all clothes that need to be put away or hung up. ;_;

When I finally DO finish my icon sets for iconfiend100 and 7sinvirtueicons I want to pimp them over at the usual places: goodygoicons and the like. The same applies to my fics; when I release a new chapter of WDKY, I have to remember to post announcements at setoanzulove and pro_anzu_fans along with ygowritersguild (any others?). Same goes for the completed 30kisses set! X_X I really think I need to make lots of colorful to-do and checklists that are laminated or something.

I really want to be enthusiastic about October and November:

* October 1st is the all-day Clubs & Organizations Recognition Conference. Workshops and free food = fun!
* October 1st-5th, Baba and Grandpa are away in Seattle. PARTAY!
* October 3rd is the Student Development and International Programs (SD&IP) workshop for potential Study Abroad students. I plan on commanding and conquering the competition!
* October 3rd or the 13th I can apply at Red Robin. Hopefully that will lead to a new, more challenging job where I can make friends, get good pay, and learn more.
* October 30th is Daylight Savings Time-- one more hour of sleep!
* October 31st is Halloween/Samhain, my favorite holiday EVAR! If only I could come up with something cool to do/dress up as...
* November 1st-2nd, there are two Leadership Institute workshops I'd like to attend.
* November 20th is Mai's birthday, and I'd like to have several of the late 20s WDKY chapters out by then, when Mai has some pretty big, kick-ass roles.
* November 21st is Scott's 26th birthday, and even if we're not together, he is still technically the best friend I have down here, and someone very dear to me, so I want to think of something special to do/give.

There's cool stuff coming up this month, too. September 25th is both a speech about the miracles of twins (too bad it's at CalTech; I have to find a speech to attend for Story #2 for my WRP2 class), plus a scrapbooking workshop at this lady's house in Granada Hills. September 26th, Eva comes back to SoCal. September 29th, UCLA starts and Alias premieres.

The big kicker, as I kind of mentioned before, is my lack of funds. Food, clothing, treats (manga), and all the computer stuff I bought has added up, and now I don't have the $400 to take a Driver's Ed course, which I really wanted to do before December. So I sent Mom an email (early Xmas present?) and asked her to call me back, but I haven't heard from her yet. I can't ask her over the phone... ;_; If I get the money (regardless of who) I will take and pass that damn course. I want my driver's license, dammit, even if I don't have a car.

( A slight update on my 30kisses )

I have to do my ygo_lyricwheel entry soon, plus there's (as I said before) all those icons... and hey, rhapsody_dragon, we need to brainstorm more themes for ygo_offtopicon ne? I have a good idea... ^_^;

After work today, I got my last 2 textbooks-- my Creative Writing book and my Syllabus (which isn't really a syllabus at all, it's a workbook of weird pages and random stories). I'm kind of worried that the teacher seems so obsessed with himself, using his own works as examples, but then again, maybe he's proud in a good way. If any of you guys who write fanfiction taught a Creative Writing class, would you ever use your own writing as an example? Why or why not?

My Mythology teacher scared me at first-- kind of chubby with a double-chin, very pale with light eyes and pink lips-- he looked like a corpse with crooked teeth. But once he got talking, he was very funny and the class looks like it'll be interesting. Many class activities will be conducted online, which I'm grateful for.

Back to Japanese... Scott was called on today, and he either wasn't paying attention or he seriously needed the textbook (which I picked up at the bookstore before class; QuickCopies took forever to assemble the binder of notes, but I got it in less than 10 minutes). He didn't know what to say... I tried to help him out, but I think I might have made things worse. He didn't seem upset at me or anything, now that I think about it, but like I said earlier, he rushed off to Aikido, and he never saw or said anything to me after we parted ways. :P He owes me lunch tomorrow.

Wednesday is what I'm really looking forward to, though, because aside from Japanese and Mythology, I'll also have my 2 Journalism classes, my WRPII course (with Salido again!) at night. I wonder how I'll get home? I do have to learn to drive though, and I'd like to have learned by December. Time to research some driving schools... (I don't even know what course to take)

I'm glad people are submitting alternative lists at 30kisses. I really have to finish my SxA pairing for that, so I can either pick a new pairing (a few of the other pairings I write for were taken, but the authors have PROBABLY given up... *sigh*) or focus on my 100 icons. I've gotten a few more done lately, but I want to do all "batch posts" where I have at least 5 icons at a time, so it might be a while before I post at iconfiend100 again.

*yawn* I'm so tired! It's so hot! I need to learn sign language, and I have to stop blushing when a Japanese person orders at Jamba Juice!