A · Story · of · Transcendence

I just woke up from a v. interesting dream. I was at school with bluerose16, and there was some great big lecture we were supposed to attend together. But to get in, we each had to have a danish. And we did.

Until.

I either dropped or ate mine, I don't know. So we had to go get another. bluerose16 was really pissed at me, and I had to chase her around holding a danish (they were these really pretty danishes with strawberries and apples and mmm...yeah, I think I must have eaten the first one).

When I finally caught her, and had my second danish in hand, we had to climb onto the roof of the lecture hall (without dropping the danishes) and climb in a window. We were then promptly thrown out, for being very late and for climbing in a window.

I'm really sorry, bluerose16! I know how much you wanted to go to that lecture.

I love H. neanderthalensis, I really do.

They're the underdog; people are always badmouthing them. Just because they went extinct when H. sapiens invaded their territory doesn't mean they weren't a complex species--they were the most complex of the hominids, excepting H. sapiens themselves!

I feel protective. If only I could go back to the Middle Paleolithic and comfort them. But, then, they wouldn't understand English, and they would be very disturbed by my deep vowels.

This is a macuahuitl.

It's a type of weapon used by the Aztecs. Its long handle is fitted on both sides with rows of deadly sharp obsidian blades, like razors. According to my professor in Case Studies in Archaeology, it can behead a horse with a single stroke.

When I take my revenge on him, this is the weapon I'll use. I have access; after all, there's an archaeological lab on campus. I'll sneak up behind him while he's drinking his hot chocolate, marking giant red Fs on random student papers, wearing his SPAM sweatshirt, singing stupid songs in his foghorn voice. And I will test his theory of the macuahuitl: how many strokes does it take to get to the center?

I seriously think of this more often than is healthy.

I've been rereading all of my favorite old fanfics for the past few weeks. Some QAF, most HP. And I missed them. But one thing I did not miss: the terrible, awful fanfic sex. --The horrific dirty talk, and the ridiculous sex noises: (quote) "Annnnnngggghhuh!"

Seriously.

Posting because I'm beginning to feel like my journal's just sitting here.

Last week kicked my ass and had me huddled in bed all weekend. Happily, things are better this week. I got the grades back on my two exams, and now I'm going to gloat about them. (First, I would like to note that I am just desperately glad to have something to gloat about, given my recent academic troubles.)

One of the exams was in a lower-level anthro class, so making an A isn't really a big achievement. The other, though, in Language and Culture, was horribly long and complicated, made entirely of tricky essay questions. I spent two hours scribbling so furiously that all of the muscles in my neck and back were sore for two days. We got them back Tuesday, and I was happy to find I'd made an A. But! Today, I compared grades with everyone else, and it turns out my grade is the highest in the class. Mostly, I'm just proud to have done so well in a class full of really brilliant students--all the best students in the department. I sit in the back of the class, so quietly no one remembers I'm there, and listen to them debate, feeling like I could never do what they do. Maybe it's just a matter of temperament and comfort. But for once I don't feel like I'm fucking up my education. I needed that.

On a very different note, and a less happy one--I've been really, really sick for the past month and a half. At first, I thought one of my meds was upsetting my stomach, but it's been so long now, and it's reached such a pitch that I don't think so anymore. I spend almost all day, every day, painfully sick. I can barely keep any food down at all, on top of which I have no appetite. I usually only manage one meal a day, and those meals consist of "half a banana" or "several spoonfuls of soup." The inevitable result is that I've lost 20 pounds in the past 6 weeks, and I don't know what's wrong or how to stop it. I have an appointment with a doctor next week, hopefully that'll help. But for now, I'm having to leave in the middle of class to be sick, and I have so little energy I barely get out of bed for anything other than school. And I've missed a lot of that lately.

I feel really ridiculous. Because when someone asks how I am, the truth is that I'm barely making it through the things I need to do, that I'm sick, and that my fibromyalgia is suddenly viciously bad. But I don't know how to say that without sounding so pathetic that people would be uncomfortable. So, I guess that's why I'm saying it here. Because I was late for class today--busy being sick in a public restroom. Because I went to one of my favorite restaurants for lunch, tried to eat my favorite meal, and might as well have used that ten dollar bill as tinder, for all I actually ate. Because I don't know what's fucking wrong with me, and it's always something.

...And now my glowy little mood from earlier is gone. Oh, well.

(Happy Birthday, bluerose16!)

I looked in the mirror today and realized how fluffy I am. I'm really starting to miss my shaved head.

( Someone give me clippers. )

1. pottery sherds (about 51,238 of them): plain, incised, brushed, and stamped
2. metal buckle, belonging on the harness of a horse
3. pieces of a kaolin pipe (kaolin is a white clay found in Georgia)
4. lithics: the pieces of flint and chert that make up, or are the byproducts of the manufacture of, most stone tools, including several tools used for scraping hides
5. 2 musket balls
6. several decorative metal plates that would have fitted on the musket itself
7. one or two more functional parts of a musket
8. glass beads: several clear glass in the shape of pentagons, several clear glass with raised dots around the rims, several seed beads (tiny) in black and turquoise, and several black beads
9. two sherds of German-made glazed stoneware, one wave-patterned in dark and light blue, one plain brown
10. nail
11. miscellaneous bit of metal
12. small round bell, probably belong to the harness of a horse
13. small pestle
14. posthole of some sort of structure
15. two trash pits
16. animal bone butchered by the Hitchiti, the tribe that occupied the site
17. etc.

.....Oh, and CHIGGERS!

1. nicknamed your professor Dr. Sasquatch
2. been hit in the head by a shovel
3. used a giant mound of dirt as a chair
4. gotten chigger bites on your ass
5. dug a 300-year-old musket ball out of the ground
6. subsisted entirely on peanut butter and jelly for a month
7. danced a Scottish reel with a professor you have nicknamed Dr. Sasquatch
8. wielded a machete
9. learned that Dr. Sasquatch is actually a Human Machete
10. watched Dr. Sasquatch leap from tree to tree in search of a GPS signal
11. made friends with a family of armadillos or seen a mouse staring you in the eye from the branch of a tree
12. sprained your wrist trying to trowel down to the next soil stratum before lunch
13. discovered that there exists a pottery style called Carrabelle Punctated
14. visited a site where a mysterious clay phallus was excavated from the top of a burial mound
15. ridden in the back of a truck with five other people on the muddiest day in history, then gotten stuck
16. turned cartwheels and hoolahooped on the lawn while various (drunken) others did ballet and breathed fire
17. persuaded Dr. Sasquatch to overturn a cooler full of water on his head
18. ate two plates of fried pickles in a sitting
19. been dubbed the person Most Likely to Rejoice At Finding Her 325th Potsherd
20. begun marking your belongings with flagging tape

The University of West Georgia 2009 Archaeology Field School is now over.

I came home last night, slipped into my bed, and thought that I should be happy. I'm proud that I did it; I'm glad that it's done. But the feeling of intensity is still there. I guess I'll be back to myself in a few days.

Here is an article that UWG did on the field school, complete with a tiny picture:

http://www.westga.edu/index_2283.php

When I wake up tomorrow, I'll get dressed, put my bags in the car, put on my green Indiana Jones hat and drive to a tiny site some twenty miles from Columbus, GA. 13 anthropology majors in one house for a month. I think it will be a good thing, but I'm not quite Indiana Jones.

Cross your fingers for me?

I told you I would get you photos of my hair! Well, here they are. Longer and longer!

( I really miss the fuzz )

Soon, I'll be Rapunzel. Or should I shave it again, do you think?

My Kindle slipped out of its cover and dropped about a foot to the floor, and now is completely ruined! The motherfucking idiots at Amazon refuse to replace it (even though it's clearly a design flaw--oh, and their cover failed to hold it in place). INSTEAD, they will kindly send me a refurbished Kindle for only ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY DOLLARS. Which is practically the cost of the original device.

It's a good thing I am nowhere near anyone who works at Amazon right now.

Kushiel's Mercy was on my Kindle! How am I going to finish it?

!!!!!!!

Shit.

I just finished the Study series by Maria V. Snyder, consisting of Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study. Hopefully, I'll have them reviewed on brightleaves soon, along with Ladies of Grace Adieu and Ironside by Holly Black.

What started out as an intriguing series unfortunately became repetitive and somewhat predictable; characters who were enjoyable were replaced by ones that I came to truly dislike reading about. The first book grabbed my attention; the second and third disappointed me.

Starting to reread the Kushiel books again. I think I appreciate them a bit more now, and I miss the characters.

On a silly note , I've read 4,803 pages since the beginning of the year. ETA: 5,705 pages. ETA: 6,392 pages, 4/19/2009 ETA: 7,624 pages. 5/17/09

It has been a while since I made a true update. I thought it was about time.

( Drugs, Doctors, Decisions )

The point is, I'm feeling better. Whether it's a temporary mood fluctuation, or proof that the Luvox is working, I'm glad for it.

I have just a few minutes before I have to rush out the door, but I want to give a school update and a reading update.

My Archaeology class is wonderful. We had a hands on identify-what-kind-of-bone-this-is exercise in class on Monday. We're studying Paleoenvironments and Osteology, at the moment. We have an exam today, the third exam of the semester. I'm a tad nervous, but I'm sure it will turn out fine. It's just that my professor, while extremely kind and informative, isn't very good at writing the exams, and they can be confusing, or have questions on subjects he told us wouldn't be addressed on the exam. I'm crossing my fingers for luck. But then, my luck is getting better lately, so maybe it will be alright.

Also, I am working bit by bit on a research paper on the Ainu of Japan, for my Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology class, which I took an Incomplete in last semester. This paper is the last assignment for me to complete the course. The research seems to go on and on, but I'm just going to sit and start writing the different sections and hopefully I'll have it off my chest soon.

I have really been meaning to write a review on brightleaves of The Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins by Carl Zimmer, but haven't really had the time. I'll make it a priority for the next few days. Lately I've read The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke, and Ironside by Holly Black. I am planning reviews of both of these, as well. At the moment, I'm reading Poison Study by Maria Snyder, because I wanted something light. After that, it's Wuthering Heights, which I can't wait to squee about with bluerose16.

That will have to be all for the moment; I must go to the post office and then study my heart out on Osteology and methods of discerning environmental information from concentrations of pollen.

Good day to everyone reading this.