whisky tango foxtrot
Sep. 14th, 2005 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenSo, I was just skimming through the Southport Visiter*, when I came across the headline: "Southport Ravaged By Hurricane Katrina".
I do, on occasion, have a tendency to live in a world of my own, but even so, I think that's the sort of event that wouldn't escape even my notice. I read the article. Turns out one of the central districts of New Orleans, where the superdome is, is also called Southport. I am led to conclude that they must have been really short of copy this week.
Other than this short burst of surrealism, I've had a nice, productive day. I went shopping. Not on a whim; I've been dreading the whole buying-clothes-for-university thing for a while now. The thing is, I've worn school uniform since I was three. I am eighteen years old and I have nothing to wear. It is tragic. Now, I have a few things. I have a pretty pair of black shoes with little bows for formal occasions, such as matriculation (I forget who it was, but they described the entire event as "getting up at six in the morning, dressing up like a penguin and being barked at in Latin**", which strikes me as wholly apt) and other such things, and a black skirt, also for formal occasions, two tops from the Gap (red and black; deep cut neckline which would look obscene on any other woman), a pair of jeans that are, amazingly, not baggy, and a black jumper. Somehow, I'm managed to live in this climate all my life without owning any jumpers. Now I have two. This is an improvement.
Basically, I've spent more than a hundred quid on clothes in one go, but never mind, I did need them.
Also, on the subject of things what are good, my iPod is back! I'm actually impressed with Apple's service; the iPod is spiffing and new and thoroughly overhauled, and Loki is behaving himself in regards to it. All the music on the laptop has been transferred, and I'm feeling rather pleased. So real-life stuff is all sorted. Something else good on that front - I have realised that slowly, gradually, without my really noticing, I can drive. I really can. I still have occasional panic attacks at junctions and slow down too much or too little to an accompaniment of gears crunching, but I can accomplish the manouvres (yesterday, I reversed round a corner without hitting the kerb!) and generally speaking, I can get in a car and take it places. I am, however, left with a problem. I need a few more weeks' practice before I can take my test. There's no way I'll be ready for it before September 26th, and no way that I can get a test date then, anyway. But come January, I won't have driven for three months and I'll be back to square one. I really don't know what to do on that front.
Sigh. Right. I must get out of bed early tomorrow and phone Pritchards, I must be home by twelve because of British Gas, I'm writing it down so I don't forget. And order forms. Subfusc, Oxford union, envelopes, stamps. See me be productive. I also want to write fic tomorrow, in between reading my reading-list books, but I seem to be hitting a dry patch. I have two fics on the go - which is strange; normally I have at least four - and they have both stalled. One is a girl!Doctor/Jack story, which for some reason wants to be gen and has run to twelve pages without anything actually happening. Am consdering deleting it on the grounds of utter boringness. The other one is my only attempt to date of a girl!Doctor story that isn't primarily supposed to be funny - I wanted drama - but that's really boring too. They are both boring. Maybe it's just me who's boring.
Okay. Driving test, stamps, British Gas, subfusc, Rousseau. I can remember all this.
*No, this is not a typo. That really is the name of the newspaper. The jury is still out as to why.
**Latin or not, it's mostly instructions not to burn down the library. I'm tempted to make myself a badge saying "ex libris"; I am, after all, a librarian newly released into the real world.
I do, on occasion, have a tendency to live in a world of my own, but even so, I think that's the sort of event that wouldn't escape even my notice. I read the article. Turns out one of the central districts of New Orleans, where the superdome is, is also called Southport. I am led to conclude that they must have been really short of copy this week.
Other than this short burst of surrealism, I've had a nice, productive day. I went shopping. Not on a whim; I've been dreading the whole buying-clothes-for-university thing for a while now. The thing is, I've worn school uniform since I was three. I am eighteen years old and I have nothing to wear. It is tragic. Now, I have a few things. I have a pretty pair of black shoes with little bows for formal occasions, such as matriculation (I forget who it was, but they described the entire event as "getting up at six in the morning, dressing up like a penguin and being barked at in Latin**", which strikes me as wholly apt) and other such things, and a black skirt, also for formal occasions, two tops from the Gap (red and black; deep cut neckline which would look obscene on any other woman), a pair of jeans that are, amazingly, not baggy, and a black jumper. Somehow, I'm managed to live in this climate all my life without owning any jumpers. Now I have two. This is an improvement.
Basically, I've spent more than a hundred quid on clothes in one go, but never mind, I did need them.
Also, on the subject of things what are good, my iPod is back! I'm actually impressed with Apple's service; the iPod is spiffing and new and thoroughly overhauled, and Loki is behaving himself in regards to it. All the music on the laptop has been transferred, and I'm feeling rather pleased. So real-life stuff is all sorted. Something else good on that front - I have realised that slowly, gradually, without my really noticing, I can drive. I really can. I still have occasional panic attacks at junctions and slow down too much or too little to an accompaniment of gears crunching, but I can accomplish the manouvres (yesterday, I reversed round a corner without hitting the kerb!) and generally speaking, I can get in a car and take it places. I am, however, left with a problem. I need a few more weeks' practice before I can take my test. There's no way I'll be ready for it before September 26th, and no way that I can get a test date then, anyway. But come January, I won't have driven for three months and I'll be back to square one. I really don't know what to do on that front.
Sigh. Right. I must get out of bed early tomorrow and phone Pritchards, I must be home by twelve because of British Gas, I'm writing it down so I don't forget. And order forms. Subfusc, Oxford union, envelopes, stamps. See me be productive. I also want to write fic tomorrow, in between reading my reading-list books, but I seem to be hitting a dry patch. I have two fics on the go - which is strange; normally I have at least four - and they have both stalled. One is a girl!Doctor/Jack story, which for some reason wants to be gen and has run to twelve pages without anything actually happening. Am consdering deleting it on the grounds of utter boringness. The other one is my only attempt to date of a girl!Doctor story that isn't primarily supposed to be funny - I wanted drama - but that's really boring too. They are both boring. Maybe it's just me who's boring.
Okay. Driving test, stamps, British Gas, subfusc, Rousseau. I can remember all this.
*No, this is not a typo. That really is the name of the newspaper. The jury is still out as to why.
**Latin or not, it's mostly instructions not to burn down the library. I'm tempted to make myself a badge saying "ex libris"; I am, after all, a librarian newly released into the real world.
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no subject
on 2005-09-14 08:22 pm (UTC)Yes, I know that makes no sense. But it's true.
Southport and others
on 2005-09-14 08:39 pm (UTC)Cairo, Missouri is pronounced KAY-ro. Dubois, Pennsylvania is DOO-boys. The county in Texas that contains Houston is Bexar County, pronounced "bear." The explanation is that "bear" with an X was the brand used by a legendary local cattle rancher.
We do funny things with language over here.
no subject
on 2005-09-14 08:43 pm (UTC)Re: Southport and others
on 2005-09-14 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-14 08:48 pm (UTC)Re: Southport and others
on 2005-09-14 08:59 pm (UTC)Re: Southport and others
on 2005-09-14 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-14 09:02 pm (UTC)(Don't worry about the misposting comments; LJ has been eating mine all night.)
Re: Southport and others
on 2005-09-14 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-14 11:11 pm (UTC)Don't worry about it too much. It's one of those things which you just kind of, you know, remember.
I went on a student exchange when I was sixteen, and halfway through the going from OMG-I-have-to-change-gears-and-watch-for-other-cars-at-the-same-time to the cool-calm-confident-it-was-only-a-little-crash-driver-that-I-am-now process. (Oops...weird sentence.)
Anyway, I got home from living in a country where not only couldn't I legally drive, but they also drove on the wrong sides of the road, and the very next day my father got me back into a car and made me go places. There might have been some screeching as I went around roundabouts, but I didn't crash!
no subject
on 2005-09-15 03:03 pm (UTC)It wouldn't all fit in the picture. I'm 5'7'', and it came up to my chin.
no subject
on 2005-09-15 03:05 pm (UTC)Re: Southport and others
on 2005-09-15 03:19 pm (UTC)Duh Moine. It is indeed in Iowa. And it occurs to me that in mentioning CAY-ro, I neglected to add that Missouri natives do not pronounce the final I as an "ee" but as a schwa: Miz-ZUR-uh.
no subject
on 2005-09-16 11:09 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-17 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-17 12:32 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-17 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-17 10:27 am (UTC)