Super Amy

When there are enough things that I need to do and have not yet done, and especially when they build up to an unbearable amount, I will seek out any way to procrastinate. Pretty much everyone does, I think.

But here’s the thing. I am convinced that, at least on occasion, procrastination finds me. I came to the computer lab intending to finish all the things I started. But I’ve misplaced the graph I need for CIS 321. So I can do art homework, no big deal. Once I’m settled outside, preparing a fantastic tree composition, with beautiful shadows and everything, it starts to rain. “Okay,” I think. “Amy, you were smart in bringing your knitting with you to school, because now is the perfect opportunity to work on that second glove.*” I’m back in the lab with my knitting bag, ready to start knitting, but my second bamboo needle is somewhere at my house, probably buried in the sofa. How is this fair?

So I’m blogging. Any time that I try to be logical and do things that make sense and are organized, I am foiled. I’m pretty sure this is my fault, because nobody else hid my knitting needles in the sofa, or misplaced my dataflow chart, and pretty much anybody could have seen the rain coming, but I just don’t know why I can’t come up with some sort of planning system for scheduling things when they make sense.

(Incidentally, I have in my blogging absence forgotten how important double-checking/proofreading a blog can be. I apologize for yesterday’s sentence fragment and punctuation issues, and if you find any other problems, let me know — I’ve gotten rusty.)

Because both of my computer classes (CIS 321, CIS 498) are project classes, everything we do is done on teams. This means that, aside from time spent in class, there have to be team meetings. My teams are pretty much on the ball all the time, and ahead of the game, which I like because last-minute doesn’t always fit into my schedule. What this means, however, is that I’m at 8 am on some mornings when I wouldn’t normally have to be, and that I’m at school until four or five almost every afternoon. Because on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have an electronic art class at night, from 6 to 9, I pretty much just live here all day. Today being a Thursday, I’m starting to miss my bamboo knitting needle more than ever.

It’s been an interesting week. I’ve missed my blog, and I promise I’ll make it look sharp before too long.

song of the moment: The Cranberries – Linger

* I’ve discovered that my favorite part of knitting is seeing the finished piece. This is problematic in cases where I am knitting a pair of something – my green fuzzy socks, and now my fingerless gloves, for instance. Once I knit the first one, and see what it looks like, I feel completely unmotivated to knit the other half. I would do well, I think, knitting things for people who are missing limbs.

Don’t get me wrong. Trees are very artistic — The way some of them are fluffy, and some of them are spiky, and some of them are oddly shaped. Some trees are artistic in a very pitiful sort of way. As a subject of illustration, they can be challenging too, and I like challenges. But all trees, all the time, the composition and shading and rendering and whatnot — it could possibly drive a person insane. I mean, I’m not 100% sure yet, but I’ll get back to you. I think it’s an issue that could potentially lead to something.

I’m truly enjoying art class, though. I really am, because even if I drew trees for hours, days, weeks even, it would probably still beat designing, analyzing, and/or implementing systems of any kind.

If you saw how well I’ve been doing this semester, you would be so proud. I have gone to a coffee shop maybe four times since the start of the semester, and I have purchased lunch perhaps twice. Last semester, it was a rare day that didn’t find me at a coffee shop at least once, sometimes twice, and then at Subway or Taco Bell for lunch. You would think that such preservation and self control would make me a much more financially stable individual, wouldn’t you? You would ask me about the wonderful places that money must inevitably be going to now that I’m not spending it on coffee and food. And the honest truth is that I have no idea. It’s going somewhere, because it isn’t in my bank account, but I don’t remember spending it.

Okay, wait. Does ordering French coffee over the internet count? And there was that trip to Hobby Lobby… obviously, installing a coffee maker in the computer lab and relying wholeheartedly on travel mugs and school lunches isn’t doing me much good. I think this means I can start going back to the coffee shop tomorrow. *makes note*

I just re-stumbled upon 43Things.com and remembered what a cool website it is. I only have 15 things on my list right now, because 43 is a lot more than it seems like. But I got to cross “learn to knit” off of my list. I’m getting there.

Annnd, I’m getting sleepy. A few more regular blog posts like this and maybe I can cross “become a better” blogger off of my list. Maybe.

Song of the moment: M. Ward – Post War

Every time I hand over money to such companies as GoDaddy.com and Haisoft.net in order to keep this thing up and running, I get little pangs of guilt. Yes, you guys. I can do better.

New Year’s Resolution. Totally happening this time.

So an update for the past however long… Jessi is married up, and Tom Waits changed my life forever. I am taking classes again… this time 2 CIS, 1 Math, 2 Art.

My wonderful, beloved and faithful dear Toyota Corolla, after several honorable attempts to keep going, has retired from the roads and has been placed in a reserved spot in my backyard. He has been replaced by a shiny white Dodge Neon, circa 1995, though much fresher than other things from 1995 (see: Tanya Harding; Clueless; Pogs), and I am quite pleased. In fact, I’m almost so pleased that I can ignore the fact that the untimely necessity for a new car once again delayed buying a Mac for at least another semester. But hey.

I’ve been knitting, because I think knitting might help keep me sane. Or maybe it will be my increased coffee intake that saves me. Who knows.

I’m starting a new Disciples Bible Study at my church, and I think it will be interesting.

I feel like there’s something important I’m leaving out, but I can’t remember what it is, so I will reserve it as a reason to blog tomorrow.

I will blog tomorrow. I will blog tomorrow. I will blog tomorrow.

song of the moment: Julie Holland – Mexican Blue