but don't be sad like knives

I have two term projects due on Thursday, one in the morning and one in the evening. I am the queen of procrastination and working under pressure. Normally, this would result in me completing one at 4 AM Thursday and the other ten minutes before I had to rush out the door Thursday afternoon.

I have finished both of them, save a supplementary PowerPoint presentation for one I am currently creating. Considering it is basically an outline of my paper, I expect it to take twenty minutes or less. They are proofread, printed, stapled, and in my bag, ready to go. I can now more or less chill tomorrow and during the day Thursday.

How the heck did that happen?

So, Marvel doesn't want me.

I should've seen that one coming, but I live on hope. But, yeah, I have no special collections or archives experience, so it was a long shot.

HOWEVER, on the SAME DAY as Marvel sent me a 'thanks but no thanks' e-mail, I gave a presentation on special issues in cataloging comics in my cataloging class, and the professor, who is also our university's special collections cataloger, said when I was done, "I have a question: someone just donated their entire comics collection to us, would you like to come be my intern next semester and catalog them?" and I nearly exploded from squee and relief, because I didn't have a backup plan and I do kind of need an internship.

I went over Friday and looked at it; it's ten longboxes stuffed full of joy and nerdery. I couldn't pull out much because they were really jammed in there and they're not bagged, so I'm kind of scared of damaging them, but what I did see was, like, a lot of Silver Age DC (plus a random issue of Alpha Flight). I nearly had a nerdgasm. The lady who did the in-house inventory, which is bare-bones, title, issue, box number, said it's around 3500 issues. And everyone kept saying, "This is your project. Tell us what you need." (A metric ton of acid free bags, more longboxes, and a workspace large enough to unpack one of these things, I said. Done, they said.) I'm going to organize and catalog all of this and figure out if we can track down things to complete incomplete runs, and I was talking to the special programs coordinator about getting with the comic shop to promote the collection and Free Comic Book Day and...it's my project. It's a lot of work, and I'm kind of intimidated, and I'm really excited at the same time.

The ironic part of all this is, with this project to my credit, assuming it goes well, if I were graduating next December instead of in May, I would be the perfect candidate for the internship I just got rejected for. I could send my resume to Marvel with "HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?" scribbled across it. Ah, well. I get to nerd it up anyway.

Normally I send out Generic Holiday Cards(tm), but this year I found some really cute Christmas cards. Sorry to those of you who do something different. But they're cute!

So, if you'd like a card, leave your address. Comments are screened! Don't assume I have it, I'm a giant flake lately--I think I've actually missed the window on a couple of people's card posts just through flakiness. D:

Things That Are A Bad Idea
Jaywalking
Jaywalking slowly
Jaywalking slowly at night
Jaywalking slowly at night in a poorly lit area
Jaywalking slowly at night in a poorly lit area while dressed in black.
Jaywalking slowly in a poorly lit area while dressed in black during a rainstorm

That was close.

1. Dear Yuletide Recipient,

On the off chance you see this, hi! I promise I'll try my best.

2. Dear Yuletide Author,

( cut for a bit of length )

Yay Yuletide!

I stood in line for an hour and a half, and I listened to the woman behind me yammer about Jesus, and I made faces at the cute little girl the lady in front of me was holding. And then I voted!

While I was in the polling place, I was pleased to see a poll worker calling the county office to help a woman whose name wasn't on the roll, and that a woman who'd just moved was just handed an update form with her ballot instead of given grief.

And then I went to Target and bought apple pie to eat while I freak out at CNN tonight (apparently a lot of people had the same idea, as I couldn't find fresh apple pie and all the good frozen ones were gone, too, but I got pie!), and was reminded by the cashier to stop at the in-store Starbucks for my free coffee.

I voted! Whee!

Now I'll be freaking out until they call this thing.

Edit: I just called my dad to make sure he'd voted and he said, "I'm sure I will eventually." He...does realize the polling place closes in less than three hours, yes?

Dear China's gymnastics program,( spoilers if you're on the west coast )

GUYS, why why WHY does everyone think that the fact that every guy at Forks High wants to date Bella Swan and every girl wants to be her BFF is indicative of A) some great beauty she is unaware of or B)her utter (and undeniable) Mary Sue-ness?

Hello? SHE'S THE SHERIFF'S DAUGHTER. She walked into that school and EVERY KID THERE saw the way to no more speeding tickets. And its name was Beautiful freakin' Swan.

I grew up in a small town and went to school with the local traffic cop's daughter. Trust me on this one. ("Hi, Mr. H! I had a doctor's appointment and now I'm late for band practice, you know, Jeanette's already there, yeah, you know how Mr. E. is when we're late--oh a warning? Thank you so much!")

*returns to sweatshopping out yet another paper, god*