Personal

Halley at Misbehaving.net wishes us a happy 2004. She says that "someone once gave [her] the great advice, 'If you don't hear NO at least three times a day, you aren't asking for enough stuff in your life.'" Hear, hear. I'm going to take a cue from Halley and from The Smiths:

Shyness is nice, and

Shyness can stop you

From doing all the things in life

You'd like to

Fabulous news: Assuming our applications are approved, my roommate and I are moving to a new place! It's going to be a little more expensive--(not much more though!), but worth every single penny. Check out what we get in return:

This is my personality to a T:

Via Invisible Adjunct, who is cadet blue, and golden Phlebas.

Oh, and another thing--last night this Anagram Generator brought me lots of giggles. My favorite anagram for my name is Cat Fancyfrill. :-)

If you have ceiling, consider yourself lucky! I don't! I implore you to click the "read more" and read this whole post. Really, it would mean a lot to me. If you consider yourself to be my friend or friendly internet acquaintance, please do me the courtesy of reading the post and looking at the pictures. I would really appreciate it.



At 7:15 yesterday morning, I was awakened by the sound of a BIG SLAB OF PLASTER falling from my ceiling. A week ago, a crack formed in my ceiling with an accompanying leak of cold brown water. Then more cracks branched out from it:

Hey, everyone, it's about that time to start thinking about New Year's resolutions, if you're into that sort of thing, as I am. I think it's a good excuse to improve something in your life. The NYR I'm most proud of is my resolution on 1 January 2002 to quit smoking. For eleven years, I smoked about two to five cigarettes per day, but I haven't had so much as a drag in coming up on two years now. Yay me. I think that my resolution for 2004 will be to floss every night without fail. I already floss fairly regularly, but not every single night. I've been doing it nightly for about a week now and am going to continue in 04. Then there is that resolution that I always try to make, that one involving money--not even touching that this year. I'm sticking with the flossing, the one that's more under my control. Floss or die.

Oh, maybe I should throw in an exercise resolution, too--something realistic--three workouts per week?

Lately, I have been thinking about compliments I have received throughout my life that have stuck with me and given me confidence over the years. Here are a few:

• This guy I dated off and on from ages 19 through 25 (we're still friends) said that over the years that he has known me, I've become more and more intense, deep, compelling, intelligent, powerful, what have you. He said that he thought it would continue, and that when I'm an old woman, I'll be magnetic and utterly irresistible. I said, "Will I be like Dr. Walter?"
  
  
  
  (Dr. Elizabeth Walter was the head of the art department at the University of North Alabama--she retired right after I left, but I was lucky enough to have taken two classes with her: History of Photography and Art Theory and Criticism. She was fabulous, confident, a lefty feminist, with this booming voice. Everyone loved her.)
  
  
  
  He said, "Oh, yeah, even better." :-)
• One of my grandmothers, who passed away when I was 19, gave me a book of poetry. The first poem was "The Builders" by Longfellow. She said that the poem reminded her of me. It's kind of an unspecific compliment, but I appreciate the thought.
• My friend Scott said once that my personality has a lot more depth now than when I was in college. I don't know what that says about how I was then--maybe I was a little Paris Hilton or Anna Nicole Smith-like, but anyway, it was nice.
• One of the professors I had at UNA, Lisa Minor, with whom I had taken several classes, told me soon after I graduated with my B.A. that when I was in her sophomore lit survey course, I was already ready for graduate school. :-)

Compliments are very important, at least to me. I need to be better about giving them to other people.

I'm going to follow Jason's command and post five things I would rather be doing that what I'm doing now, working on my presentation in my genre theory class:

1. Getting a hot-rock massage at a spa.
2. Walking along a beach. I don't care what beach, as long as there aren't very many people around, no garbage, and no dunebuggies.
3. Birdwatching someplace with a comfortable ~60 degree temperature.
4. Exercising--yoga, pilates, weights, stretching. That would feel great.
5. Sleeping, watching movies/sitcoms, vegging out.

WHEN am I going to start feeling better? Here I sit, on a Friday night, while all my friends are at a party. I'm sneezing constantly, and each sneeze feels like a lawnmower going through my throat and eustachian tubes. My friends are making fun of me because when I talk, I sound like a completely different person--like Kathleen Turner meets Eartha Kitt meets hoarse cheerleader. What is going to knock this virus out? (The doctors did a throat culture and told me that whatever I have is viral, not bacterial, so no antibiotics. I just have to tough it out.)