My roommate still sucks. At this point, though, I'm not sure she can be cured. She's the type that expects everything to be handed to her and calls everything ridiculous when it isn't. She panics if she can't go home every single weekend, which typically results in her getting "sick" and finding a reason to come home anyway. Moreover, she regularly skips classes, particularly on Mondays. This last week was the apocalypse for her, because apparently her boyfriend said something impolite to her (I doubt it was even that bad), and she proceeded to call everyone she knew and tell them that she'd had a "huge fight" with him and that she "didn't even care anymore" and so their relationship was "over." She ended the string of calls with one to her father, as she is a spoiled rotten daddy's girl, saying that she "couldn't be alone right now" but then insisted that he didn't have to come up and see her. Unsurprisingly, her father came anyway for a few hours, took her out to eat, and bought her shit. Yes, because retail therapy will surely solve her problems. You know, if Liz's personality is any indication of her origins, then I would say that her parents did a shitty job raising her. She doesn't know how to deal with anything that's thrown at her in life without utterly flipping out and breaking down. I've given up on trying to give her any advice, because even when she listens, she overrides me with complaints and never actually does anything that I suggest. Give me a break. This is my FIFTH year in college, moron. I can help with college-related problems! Like I said, completely incurable.

On a different but equally annoying note, I have two term papers to do. I asked for an extension on the daytime philosophy one, which he was awesome and granted me with no problems at all, but that still means that I have to get it done this weekend for Monday. I have another paper due for the nighttime philosophy, but I feel like it will be easier, and it wouldn't be so bad if I don't finish that by Monday, because I have time between French and that class to work on it. I also have to have the first half of 'Frankenstein' read for Monday, which I just can't motivate myself to do for some reason. On the other hand, I've been very studious with getting all of the French vocabulary and whatnot written down as of late. The book has twelve chapters, and I'm currently working on jotting down the points for the eleventh, so I'm doing well. Also, I finished the last French lab over the week, so I won't have that to do this next week.

I obtained a new album a few days ago - Imogen Heap's new one, 'Ellipse.' I was looking forward to it, because despite her peculiar voice, she has a tendency to come up with some creative stuff that I find lacking in pop music these days. Of particular interest are the songs "Earth," a message from the earth to humans in the tone of a mother scolding her unruly teenage children, and "Tidal," which is just an interesting, well-flowing piece. I'm happy that she's going a little more out of the box with the production on the songs and experimenting with more worldly sounds. Mute Math also came out with a new album this year, which I'm still working on getting, but I have high hopes. With just their first album, they became one of my favorite bands, so I hope they've kept their spark of genius going with this album as well.

So... the Kobato anime. We're eight episodes in, and already half of them have featured stories that have nothing to do with the manga. It's not the worst thing in the world, but when you can pin the end on the episode within the first three minutes, you know it's predictable to the point of being lame. I just wish that they would stop taking CLAMP stuff and producing it before the stories are finished. I feel like Tsubasa would have been a great anime had they just waited on it. For that matter, they need to start signing with a different production company, because I think it's... what's their name... Madhouse?... that keeps pushing them to do the anime so soon, and aside from clean animation, everything is always so slow-paced and drawn out, which I feel might not be CLAMP's fault. It could be, though. Anyway, the stories that they're adding to Kobato are reminiscent of the types of things that the manga had, but with the (lack of) speed of progression, it's beginning to bore me. *sigh*

Thursday night, I went over to Colleen's house for the first time in like... two months. Just as I showed up, though, most of the people left to hit the bars/clubs, so I didn't get to talk to much of anyone. I was basically just showing up there to get rid of some liquor that I was sick of keeping in my fridge. I had some cheap Smirnoff passion fruit vodka that was making me throw up every time I tried to drink it, as well as some jaeger knockoff that I like, but didn't foresee myself drinking anytime soon, so I decided to offer them to Colleen for a small fee. There's a Kaluha knockoff in there, too, but I like that one enough to hold onto it. Anyway, I'd had that vodka since last semester, so I didn't see the point of holding onto it if I obviously wasn't drinking it. I didn't drink while I was over there, because I'm not a Thirsty Thursday kind of girl. I prefer to be alert and ready to go for my Friday classes, not half sleep-deprived. (I don't get hung over; I just wake up repeatedly in the night feeling extremely cold, and so I'm tired as hell the next day.) We did sit and chat for an hour or so, though, before I headed back home.

Colleen and her friend did a shopping trip thingy on Friday, to which they invited me. I didn't need anything, but I did take the opportunity to get an extra half gallon of milk at Wal-Mart. We went to Goodwill as well, where I looked for some cheap winter boots, with no success, but I did find a very cute pair of dress shoes that I plan to use for my ice-stretching experiment. They were only four dollars, so you can't pass that up. I also succeeded in spotting a pair of shoes that I would have bought in a heartbeat, as they were really similar to the Mary Jane platform shoes that I had years ago that I loved, but they weren't in my size... but they just happened to fit Colleen perfectly, so she bought them, and I guess she really likes them, because she was wearing them today as well. She had to stop by the dollar store to grab some soap quickly, and then we went to a wine shop last, which had a lady who pretty much knew everything there was to know about any wine you were curious about. She was pretty awesome. (Actually, she reminded me a lot of the restaurateurs in Sevilla who could tell you the whole history of anything they were selling.) She was also knowledgeable in cheeses and other wining and dining kinds of things, and so we got a free tasting of the cheeses that were going to be scheduled for today. She also did a tasting of a few wines, which I skipped out on until I saw one that perked my interest. I was skeptical about it at first, but after trying it, I think I just found my new substitute for Bailey's. It tastes pretty much exactly like it, except without as much alcohol burn, and it's about half the price for the same amount. I bought a bottle to bring home, but I haven't cracked it open yet. I might end up saving it to drink around Christmas-ish time with Nicole, or maybe I'll grab a second bottle before the end of the semester.

Anyway, the official cheese tasting, etc. was today, and so I went with Colleen and some of her/my friends back to the shop, where I did in fact re-taste the cheeses again, but I also tried some tasty candy-coated, chocolate-covered dried fruit. I didn't bother with the wines, and instead spent most of my time just wandering around slowly looking at everything in the store. It's a small room, essentially, but there's a lot to look at. A lot of things looked pretty delicious, but they're pricier, and when I stepped back and thought about that, I realized that the wine is really the only logical thing to get in that wine shop. Although, the other stuff was pretty unique.

I've spent most of today just lounging around and trying to find reasons not to do my philosophy work, which will probably persist through the rest of the night until I'm panicking Sunday evening.

Oooh. Evening of Elegance is tomorrow, so that means that they whip out the good food. I told Liz earlier in the semester that she should go, but she's never here until Monday afternoon anymore, so she won't be around for it. Roanne said that she should be here in time for it, though.

Time to go microwave me some Domino's Cinna Stix.

Wait. I feel like I've forgotten something important. Oh well.

See you, folks.


- Jen