I Hate Laundry

Somedays, nothing goes right.  I was having one of those days yesterday. 
It started with me needing cash.  I walked to the nearest shop and looked through the things.  I was going to buy a drink, but I was sort of wary of doing this, since temptation was going to be high.  I have given up pop for Lent, and there wasn't much else there to buy.  I finally settled on a vitamin drink, which was hopefully healthy. 
I bought it and got the cash back I needed and went back to my building. 
Usually, there are meant to be these rolly laundry carts in the laundry room.  You can borrow one and put your things for washing in it.  There's been a problem with people taking them and then not returning them.  And I found myself annoyed and on the end of this problem when, yes, I was in a rush and there were no carts.  I didn't have anything else to take my laundry in, so I took a chair that happened to have wheels.  I was hoping that no one would see so that no one would see how silly I looked, a mile high pile of clothes on a chair, but I forgot about it as soon as I realized the chair would need to be pushed extra hard between the crack between the floor and the elevator. 
There was another woman in the elevator.  She was going to do laundry.  Oh no, I thought. 
I exited first, and went into the laundry room quickly, beginning to put my laundry in a washing machine.  I was already so behind schedule-wise, and if I didn't get two machines I was going to be even farther. 
Someone was calling in the hallway.
I peaked my head outside and saw the woman from the elevator and another woman standing there, a sock in between them on the floor.  My sock. 
This sort of angered me.  It was a sock.  Not even a pair, just one sock.  They both saw me and saw where I went.  Both of them had their hands free, and not either of them could pick up said sock, walk into the laundry room, (which is right next to the elevator) and hand it to me.  No.  They had to call at me. 
They had to call at me so that I would exit the room and so the woman in the elevator could take the machine I was going to take.
Obviously, I was really annoyed.  There was something about it that smacked me of how very rude they were.  I probably glared at the woman.  I would have probably said something to her, calling her something equally rude, as soon as I finished trying to cram two loads of laundry into one washer, but then Sarah came in the room.
Sarah said hi to me, and I said hi back, my mind only half paying attention to her.  I was clearly busy.  She kept talking. 
"So you heard about what happened?" she asked. 
"Yes."  I had.  I had wondered if it was going to embarrass her to the point of dropping out of sight.  I would have probably disappeared, had I done the same thing. 
"Well, I have these nieces and nephews, and the oldest nephew is just like Dennis the Menance-"
Seriously?  I thought.  Do I seriously have to deal with this now?
"-and he is just like him, and after I told them about what happened he said 'Well, that was probably the leprachauns' and then I remembered that was the old story the Irish use to use when they did do something wrong.  How appropriate, right?"
"Yeah, that's a cute story."  It came out hollow, and I didn't mean for it to.  I like Sarah; she's nice; I was trying to be nice back to her. 
"Are you having a bad day?" she asked. 
Sarah's actually pretty good with human behavoir.  I was sort of surprised she didn't pick up on my stress earlier. 
"Yeah.  I need an extra washing machine."
Sarah looked into the one nearest her.  "This one is done.  Let's take the clothes out."
The woman from the elevator walked towards her.  "No, I'm using that one."
And the other one on my left, I thought.  There are two sizes of machine, and she had enough for one small one, but felt the need to use both one small machine and one large machine.  I was still annoyed at her for the sock incident less than three minutes ago. 
"Oh," Sarah said. 
"It's really okay," I said.  I was stressed, but I was trying not to take it out on her.  I just needed to cool off. 
Sarah promptly left, and so did the other woman.  I pilled as much as possible into the first one, but realizing I couldn't get anymore in, realized I would have to wait for the next machine to open up.  And would be even more behind. 
I sat down and did some reading while I waited.  The woman eventually came back and said hi to me.  I didn't give her much of a glance, but maybe she sensed my anger because she left pretty soon after that. 
Eventually, a second machine opened up, and I got the rest of it started.  Sarah came back in with a collection of books.  She said she was cleaning out her place and she had lots of good titles.  I had already taken a bunch of books from her earlier. 
"I'm sorry about earlier."
"It's okay, we all have bad days." 
We talked about books for a while, and she talked about one of her favorites, Overheard in NYC.  She had it with her and I looked over it while she talked to me about it.  "When I first read it ten years ago, it really offended me," she explained. 

Keep Your Head Up

My friend Sam showed me this video.  The song is fun, though it seriously sounds like so many other songs I will probably get it confused with other ones. 
What I really like in this video is all the cute clothes the girls are wearing.  I would totally wear these outfits.  I especially like the girl with the orange highlights and the pink mini coat that the girl with pigtails is wearing.
And Dwight!  Gotta love Dwight.  He would totally show up in a music video.   

Now That's Talent

At dinner tonight I was sitting with Bethany and Olivia.  Crazy woman from a few posts ago was sitting at a table nearby.  At one point she burped (exploded, really) loudly and all three of us whipped our heads around, not realizing it was her. 
"Now that's a talent," I said.  Bethany and Olivia both smiled.  The talent show was tonight, and Bethany was performing. 
I asked Elena if she wanted to go to the talent show we were having, and she said no, because she had to study.  Then she sat down and started watching a tv show online.  Okay, I thought.  Elena isn't very social.  She'll sit with me in the caf if I'm alone, but if I'm with anyone else, she'll sit alone.   
But I went anyway, sitting down next to Lavina.  We chatted a bit, and then Jenny came in to sit behind me.  She was exicted for this talent show because she thinks everyone here is talentless.  Considering who I knew was performing, I had to agree, but I was here mostly for the treats and the laugh. 
It was worse than I thought.  First, they had Portia come up and read a poem.  Portia strikes me as really stupid, but I had no idea she was a writer.  The announcer said she had even been published and then I thought "maybe she really is good."
But she wasn't.  Poetry is so hard, I know, but her poem was about the language of love, and about the soul, and at one point the "pencil of justice" was involved.  When she said this it was really funny, just because she said it like a mother scolds a child.  Jenny started cracking up behind me.  I was trying really hard to ignore her because if I started giggling I might not stop. 
Then a solo by Mary Kay.  She has a low voice, which might have been fine, but she was totally off-key the entire time.  She was good enough to dance through her song though. 
Then a couple of artists showed off their paintings.  The announcer kept saying they were watercolor, but I'm pretty sure watercolors don't really manage black (I know because I tried during my Gothy art days).  I'm almost certain they were oil paintings.  Also, someone took responsibility for this creepy painting of a man that eyes follow me every time I'm in the room.  So I guess now I know who to blame.
Then Bethany's dance.  It was by far the best performance of the night, but I didn't think it was that good.  As terrible as this is to say, I've seen such better dancing, though there were parts where she was really fluid or did something bendable and impressive. 
Next, a duet featuring Mary Kay and Mimi.  This is what I really wanted to see.  Mimi is one of the most overbearing people I've ever met.  A group of girls had gotten together last night to watch Glee while Mimi and Mary Kay were practicing, and apparently it was wretched. 
And it was.  They did the Beatles "Eight Days a Week."  Both were low singers, and again, off key.  Mimi was trying to concentrate, but Mary Kay kept making devil horns behind her head.  She wanted us to clap, so we started clapping, then she tried to get us to do a little double clap thing, and it took the audience three choruses to get it.  And then Mary Kay started doing this thing where she would lean in really close to the mic every odd line so it would be "eight days a week I LOOOOVVE you.  Eight days a week IS NOT enough to show I CARE."  And awkward like that.  This went on the last two thirds of the song. 
Mimi was kind of mean to Jenny yesterday, so I quietly enjoyed the making a fool of herself bit. 
Then a few girls came up and showed off these handbags one of them made.  One was actually really beautiful and, depending on price, I would totally buy. 
And then an older woman got up and sang "Second Hand Rose."  She wasn't great, but she was wearing black sequined hot shorts.  She had great legs for her age, but I was totally shocked by this, because my Grandma would complain about age appropriate clothing.  And because this woman is part of the group that complains about certain people wearing pajama bottoms at dinner, even though they cover the entire leg. 
I asked, since Thanksgiving is coming up, if I could help with a particular dinner service they're doing for the homeless.  They said they had too many volunteers, but thanked me.  I'm sort of bummed out about it because I was planning on it. 
Then we had treats.  I had apple cider (the only stuff of it I've had all year) and pumpkin pie.  It was a bit rich, but I sat with Jenny and Elizabeth and Clare and later Ruth came over and we had a good chat.  Elizabeth wants to get Clare and Jenny to do a play with her next talent show (yes, there's another one next month...)  Clare's busy that night, so I suspect it won't happen.  And Ruth, who I haven't seen for ages, seems to be pretty tired these days. 
I was pretty entertained, I must admit. 

As I was going home, I passed by Bethany and some other girls watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. 
"When are we going to see less of Stabler's clothes?" I asked.  Some of the girls laughed. 
"He just got shot, you know."
I immediately left.  I can't take hearing that. 
When I got back, Elena was still watching tv. 

The Steal

Truth: I don't really like malls.  Or shopping.  I still have issues with clothes.  (Why don't they ever fit right?  Why are they all made for the super skinny?  Why do I have to dress the same way?  Why do stores all sell so much of the same stuff?)
So going to the mall today with some of my friends was sort of a different thing for me.  Obviously, I was going so I could chill with them.  They're all much bigger shoppers than I am.  I don't even remember the last time I was in a mall or out shopping.  Last summer probably, but I can't even remember.  Oh!  Now I know: I went out in May 2009 to help my sister look for a graduation dress.  I bought a dress for the Honors College Ball (one I looked amazing in) and bought two other dresses, and my sister didn't get anything, because if there's anything I've learned about shopping, it's the person who's not looking for something who finds exactly what they've been looking for. 
First, we went into this store that sells accessories.  I started looking through stuff.  I found this great top hat decorated with red lace ribbon.  Ever since my steampunk convention a few weeks back, I have been on the lookout for cool steampunk wear.  I could totally use something like this, even though I already have an (artfully battered) steampunk hat with gray ribbon.
I try not to be an impulse buyer.  I try to talk myself out of at least 75 percent of my purchases.  I talked myself out of this one. 

Meanwhile, Tori and Natasha were inspecting vampire stuff.  "What's this?" Tori asked, holding up a journal with a design from the Vampire Diaries. 
"The Vampire Diaries," I explained, thinking that was enough.
"True Blood?"
"No, that's a different show." 
"Wait, in addition to Twilight and True Blood there's another vampire thing?"
I decided not to mention Buffy or Interview with a Vampire or Anita Blake.  Might not go over well. 
We walked down to a store that sold body lotions.  We walked in.  "I have a headache," I said thirty seconds later.  Natasha heard me and laughed.  It was actually not that bad, but my Mom cannot handle those places at all.  She's very headache-sensitive. 
We looked through things, and I smelled some of the testers.  I kind of hate it when things are described as Midnight Rendezvous or April Showers, because I always think "What does that smell like?"  With something like Strawberry Sorbet it's like, sure, it's meant to smell like strawberries.  At least if it doesn't smell like whatever, you can still be like "Oh, well, at least they achieved a general fruity thing." 
Madison picked up this massive brush and hit me with it and it hurt.  I thought about Josie and pervertables.  She'd love to hear about this.
We then went into an actual clothing store.  While Madison was looking around, I went into the boy's section.  I really love guy's clothing, and a year and a half ago, I promised myself I would start wearing stuff I liked, regardless of where it came from (unless it was from a store that sexually abuses its employees.  I'm not supporting that.)  I'm a big fan of plaid shirts (or plaid anything, really.)  This isn't the right weather for it, but I looked through.  And then I saw this bag on the ground. 
When I went to that convention, I was really sorry I didn't have a better bag (I had just opted to take my handy-dandy goes anywhere black purse).  I had wished I had a canvas bag and there one was.  Like God had heard me thinking about it and asked my Dad if he had one, and then decided to send me to the mall and a store I about never go into. 
I picked it up.  It was a decent size, which was what I wanted.  It was a messenger bag, like I wanted.  It didn't have holes or tears.  Good, good...and I looked at the price.
7.99. 
It was cheap.  A bag like this is a minimum 20, sometimes 30.  How the heck...? 
Well, obviously, I had to get it.  And then, as the clerk was ringing me up, she was like "Oh, it's on sale, plus you get another 20 percent off.  5.49."
5.49?  Sold! 
I showed it to everyone and they were all impressed.  5.49 for a nice big bag like that?
I'm the kind of person who buys something and then instantly regrets it.  I keep expecting it to happen with this bag.  I keep opening it expecting a giant spider to come out and chew my arm off.  To be fair, it's a little awkwardly designed.  If I was making this bag, I'd order different clasps and shoulder strap, but it's really the right look.  
Hilariously enough, of all my friends, I was the only person who bought something today.  See what I mean?  When you're not looking for something, it finds you.