Wolves, jeans, and the turtle, Great A'Tuin

[raven]

For once, I am not going to start this entry with a pathetic sneeze. Because I feel better. I really do. I'm still coughing slightly, and probably still hopelessly contagious, but I feel like I can stand up and walk across the room without the roof collapsing in on me inside my head. It's such a novelty feeling normal that I shall savour it for some time yet. I was feeling generally all right in the morning, enough to go to school and the library committee meeting (sorry, the library committee weekly bonding) first thing. Becca decided she was going to come along and miss assembly, and Mrs Barry was suitably casual about it. I don't think she even noticed she had an extra person. Anyway, conversation turned to how much people borrow books from the library and how many they've borrowed, and so to answer a few arguments, Mrs Barry took a look at the computer records. I am on the top of the list, with one hundred and seventy-nine books borrowed since September 1998. The worrying thing is the second person on the list is sixty-five books behind me, so I'm likely to keep my present position for as long as I remain in the school.

So, yes, that was fun, and I pulled up the total further by borrowing one more book on my way out. I think I stayed in a good mood through the morning, went to Politics without a quibble, and Biology with scarcely a whimper. I like it in Wednesdays, because we're in the little Physics room and it doesn't seem so bad.

What is bad, however, is the Chemistry I missed yesterday. I got the notes off Sarah but didn't understand much of them, and then I pounced on Julie, who proceeded to give me a quick lesson while we made coffee (black, due to lack of milk) in the upper kitchen. I have learnt that there are four sub-levels to each electron shell in the atom, and the order goes 2, 8, 18 and so on, and I've learned that the electrons in a pair spin in opposite directions, but what I don't understand is what happens next, and why this is important. So, yes. I will copy it up and enquire why later.

I had lunch with Becca and Emma (Wood) and I feel it may become routine; we went down to the village and got pasties and cookies and gingerbread from Sayers, before Becca had to go to Fourfield (sp?) for her voluntary service. Mine (and Emma's) was cancelled, because of the outing to Aintree Racecourse, but I was flagging by then, so I figured it might be a good idea to go home. I stopped by Coronation Road Library on the way, but it was closed for lunch, and I didn't have time for it to open again.

I mentioned that for a reason. As it happens, Raven is on a Quest. A Quest to read the entire Discworld canon, which is proving difficult but nice. I realise I am the last person in the world to catch on, but still. It's fun. I've read Pyramids, Mort and The Fifth Elephant, and I got Witches Abroad from the school library this morning. Strangely, my mother seemed enthusiastic to help out with the Quest, although admittedly she has never heard of Terry Pratchett or the Discworld, and when I started to explain it's a world shaped like a disc balanced on the back of four elephants that are themselves balanced on the back of a giant turtle called Great A'Tuin, her eyes began to glaze over. However, she was still ready to help. As well as Witches Abroad, I have Hogfather, Night Watch and Interesting Times to read, and I'm looking forward to it. Like I said, I am the last person in the world to discover Discworld, but I feel like I have to share - I love Death. Also Susan. Also Carrot and Angua. Angua I love for obvious reasons, but I love Carrot because he's cool and the redundant heir to the throne of Ankh-Morpork. I love the fact Ankh-Morpork has a redundant heir to the throne.

And... well, it was not intentional, but I came across a Harry Potter/Discworld crossover today. With the perfect pairing, too. Remus Lupin (werewolf) and Angua von Uberwald (also werewolf). Perfect. When I know more of Discworld canon, I may try it myself. The difficulty is the fact that Remus and Angua (and Oz, who is only other relatively well-known werewolf I can think of) are different kinds of werewolves. But still. Fic is good.

So, where was I? Yes... my mother and I went to Formby library, then she went to get her car fixed as all the brake lights had broken at the same time, and then she wanted to go to the supermarket "to look at the reduced-prices stuff." I insisted that doing so would be unspeakably sad, but she went anyway and dragged me with her. And I'm glad she did. In Tesco's, of all places, the other Quest came to a sudden end. The other Quest, being one for the perfect jeans, had hit new heights lately when my mother threw out my old ones. She tried to use them as dusters, but I complained that they were my jeans and I loved them entirely too much but it wasn't respectful to use them as dusters. She threw them out and I moaned. Howevever, I now have new jeans. Just baggy enough, soft, faded denim with heavy zips and lots of pockets and I love them.

I'm in a good mood. I'm going to read Hogfather.

Comments

[language-idling.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of one of the awful ways we used to torment my sister, actually. One night, at the dinner table, my brother was explaining all of the destructive things he did as chemistry experiments and that lead to us asking dear little Smellen a chemistry question that she couldn't answer (it was basically equivalent to "are you made of acetone" but in really obscure terms, then spent the next several days talking about how we were going to dissolve her.

Er...

I'm a dork.