Yay me...

Dear blog,

I'm up and dressed, I've showered and eaten. I've even done my homework and gone to the library. So why do I feel so guilty?

MEH.

Dear diary,

I am sitting at my desk knitting and watching Grey's Anatomy. I'm knitting even though I told myself that I would finish my HW today so that I wouldn't have to think about it during the rest of my four day 'holiday'. I'm 50 words into this 150 word self-introduction I'm supposed to be writing in arabic, and it's not as if I can't think of anything to say or that I don't have the right vocab to say it, because I do. It's just that I'm so not into it right now. I'm tired and I just want to rest and not think about anything.

This week was rough. I broke my TV fast and stayed up until at least 1am every night on netflix, and obviously I couldn't focus in class. I gave myself caffeine poisoning by drinking five cups of coffee before lunch, so then I had to switch to soda this week and it really isn't the same thing at all. I'm finally losing all ability to eat the food at the kiosk, and now just the sight of it makes me want to throw up. So yes, I'm enjoying my long weekend and knitting and not writing arabic essays.

On friday night Tabby and I went to California Pizza kitchen. We've started this thing where we are going to try every pizza on the menu, and since this past Friday makes our 3rd such visit, I feel the time is right to finally blog about it.

Our first pizza was the BBQ Chicken Pizza, and it was amazing. I must admit I was a little skeptical, after all I've always thought that BBQ sauce on pizza was an abomination before god, but it was amazing. After that we had The Greek. I picked it mostly because it said 'feta cheese' on the menu and I love feta cheese, plus I was kinda craving salad and this pizza had fresh tomatoes and cucumbers that were put on it AFTER it was cooked. It was soooo good. The cheese, the combination of the hot pizza and the cold veggies, and the combination of the soft crust and the crunchy cucumber. It was so so good. Of course, it was also drizzled with greek yogurt which I'm not really a fan of, but on this pizza it worked.

And this friday we had the chipotle chicken. Mildly spicy, with beans and salsa that left your tongue numb.... it was SO good.

Of course, as much as I like the pizza, there are other good things there too. For instance when we went on friday, the first thing we noticed was that the menu had been changed. I ordered a shrimp appetizer that was crunchy and spicy and brand new.

I also am testing out the drinks menu but thats a completely different story. When Tabby ordered dessert the waitress asked if I wanted a second drink, I hesitated for a split second and decided that instead of a second mojito, what I really wanted was an irish coffee. OMG. Was that ever the right decision. I felt GREAT after that. Went home and the next morning I did two loads of laundry, saw how gray and foggy it was outside, and decided to go back to bed. I made flash cards and watched TV in bed all day.

Today, Tabby and I went out. We walked all over, we walked down franklin street, we shopped in cannery row and got ice cream at fishermen's wharf. We sat on the beach, stuck our feet in the icy cold water, and found super cheap flip flops at wallgreens. Then, after months of deliberation, I walked into a music store and put a deposit down on a violin. It's a little more expensive than the ones that I was looking at on-line, and I'm not 100% sure that it's better, but I liked the store. It had a nice vibe, and Brian was super friendly. Buying it from the store felt right, it means I have a place to go if I need repairs or have questions, and they do violin lessons on sundays. They have multiple violin teachers. How great is that? They had to order my violin because they didn't have adult sized ones in stock, but I'm super excited, and I've been walking around in the sun all day and I'm tired, and stiff, and so yes, I'm not doing my homework. All I want to do is sit here and watch TV and knit, and you know what? I can't even bring myself to feel guilty about it.

The violin question

I have been talking about learning how to play the violin for a few years now. I can't really stop obsessing over it, and a few weeks ago when I asked the nice lady at Hobson about it, that all got even worse. She said yes, the hobson did have a violin for people to play. I've been excited and nervous ever since. I ordered books on-line and I've been listening diligently to the suzuki book 1 CD. I must admit I've been a little scared to actually take the next step - to actually pick up the violin would be opening myself up to failure, while talk doesn't let you down. I went to the hobson today though, and guess what I found out? They do have a violin, but it's broken. It only has two strings and I got the impression from the employee I talked to that it's condition was old news, and would last indefinitely. I mentioned that I'd never put new strings on a violin before, but asked if it would be OK for me to give it a try if I brought some in, and he said sure. So it seems like my options are :

wait for the violin to be fixed

buy strings and attempt to fix it myself (scary)

give up for now/buy my own violin.

Not sure what I'm gonna do. But I didn't want to waste the trip up there, so I spent two hours playing the suzuki songs on the piano. Might as well work on my sight-reading, right?

A day in the life

The other day was pretty crazy, so crazy that I think I will share it with you. No, not everyday is this crazy, but yes, DLI is hardcore.

0500 : wake up, roll over and try to go back to sleep

0515 : realize that room-mate is already in shower. Jump out of bed and dress hurriedly.

0600 : clean room, check over HW one last time to make sure everything is filled in.

0630 : Muster on the grinder. Endure uniform inspection and try to memorize the passdown. Today is the command run, muster for the run is at 1600. People with 7th hour should bring their PT gear to class and change there. Curses. I have 7th hour.

0700 : go back to room, shove PT gear and shoes into back pack.

0715 : grab an undersized bacon biscuit from the kiosk. Snag an apple pastry and some milk to put in the coffee.

0745 : After making coffee, eating breakfast at the desk in the class room, and taking attendance, turn in everyones homework.

0755-1545 : Class. Ten minute breaks at the end of every hour plus a 1 hour lunch break from 12-1300. Eat lunch in classroom in order to read kindle during break.

1545 : pack up and change into PT gear in the head. Muster on grinder.

1620 : Forward march! the 2 mile 'ish' run goes up the hill, around the hill, past the PFC, past 833, back down the hill and ends up where we started. We take up a whole lane, and it's amusing to jog past all the cars that have been stopped so that we can all pass. We are one huge mass of mustard yellow and navy blue, singing chants that we know only half the words to at the top of our lungs and keeping - for the most part - in step.

At this point I lose track of time. All I know is pain and exhaustion. Left over sub is in my fridge. Eat. Read. Rest.

1730 : Deck clean up.

Then it's homework, more reading, and bed. Room-mate goes to bed at 2100 and I follow an hour later.

Love

I may be having an affair with coffee. When it was just coffee with lunch during the week I could pretend it was just a fling; something to keep me awake during the second half of class. But now that I'm having coffee with breakfast on the weekends.... I have to admit that it might be something more. But oh is it worth it. Irish Latte how I love you.

Also in good news, the red box finally had my movie! I am number four, so with any luck I'll get to see that today. Yay!

I already finished my homework and I'm thinking about doing Monday's homework in advance just for kicks. Laundry is almost done and I started watching Gray's Anatomy...I'm not sure why I put off watching this show because it's totally epic ^^:;

Long weekend

Hey blog! I just suffered probably the most god-forsaken four-day-weekend in my life, and I was *sooooo* happy to go back to class today! I love my teachers and Arabic is pretty cool. - Although it IS annoying that I can always think of how to say things in Japanese, but have no idea how to say them in Arabic. I live in fear that I might one day blurt out a Japanese word without realizing it during class @_@

Things have been busy here. For kicks I thought I'd post a picture of my school books :

There are a lot of them huh?

Hmm. What's new? Bought a new battery for my laptop, so now I'm mobile again. Moved to a new room where the wireless connection sucks, so I have to go sit out in the lounge if I want to stream a video without it pausing every five minutes. Watched Eli Stone which was a heartwarming show that regrettably ended after just two seasons. Also watched the first season of Sarah Connor.... But it was too depressing to continue, knowing what a uber cliffhanger the show was canceled on. Siiiigh.

Read an amazingly gothic teen novel titled bliss and am now (finally after ages of it being on my list) reading The lightning thief. It's adorable. I'm having trouble getting into the most recent scifi book that I downloaded, which is always a huge disappointment. I'm thinking I'll re-read enders game and sulk.

Have a test tomorrow which I'm (weirdly) psyched about.

Cheers!

HW blurb

Hey blog!

Don't think that just because I haven't written, that nothings been going on. Oh no! Life here, while it has settled into a predictable rhythm, still lacks in the 'boredom' department. Everyday someone says or does something incredible. This past weekend kind of sucked due to me being tired/annoyed with some people. And it was cloudy. I think if the sun could have just come out it would have made anything OK, but the cloud factor lent itself much too easily to pouting, so that's what I did.

On top of which my room-mate moved out to a better room. Kinda don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand, she was cool so her leaving = sad. On the other and I'm extremely antisocial so OMGOMGOMG I GET THE ROOM TO MYSELF!!!! MAHAWHAHWHAWH. And then of course there's the almost mandatory jealousy over her now completely superior housing situation. Sigh. I love my crazy life.

I started class on Friday, super excited about that! The classroom is like this uber long walk away, so my huge accomplishment today was figuring out how to work the shuttle bus system. No more walking = Yay! Proof that despite it's best efforts the Navy has yet to cure me of being inherently lazy XD

The only downside about figuring out the bus was that I then felt guiltily compelled to ride it up to the galley and eat the 'free' food, rather than pay for the uber yummy food near the classroom. Siiigh. I might buy food tomorrow. I dream about guacamole and salivate.

Hmm. What else interesting? I finished watching buffy again..... Can anyone recommend some really awesome shows for me to watch? (especially if they are on netflix...) I definitely study best with some kind of visual/audio stimulation, and as much as I love all the shows on my 'top five' list, I've now seen each of them a minimum of 2 times....

What am I currently watching? Re-watching Battlestar Galatica (epic) and Kyle XY.

Also currently working my way through Medium (about to start season three. ) Even though I've never actually seen all of the episodes, they are formulaic enough that nothing that happens is ever really a surprise.

Also reading loads on my kindle. Read "Green Rider" Per a recommendation, It's a book I've read before and I re-read it with the idea that I would continue with the series...but now I'm not so sure I'll bother. There are plenty of more artfully written books out there.

The book I'm reading now is The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham.

I haven't gotten a real fix on the book yet, it falls somewhere between Brent Week's Night Angel Trilogy and the more subtle Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss

If that doesn't mean anything to you I'll just say, it's a really good book so far!

And I'm super excited because I have two more potentially awesome books already downloaded on my kindle and ready to go when I finish this one ^^;;