All Over the Place
Monday, Mar. 07, 2005 at 1:31 AM


I've been so many different places today that I don't even know where to start. Do I go chronologically or start with how I feel right now and work backwards? I think I'll opt for going chronologically.

I woke up at 2:00pm this afternoon when I had really wanted to get up by 10:00am. I think my sleep schedule was still fucked up from going out on Friday but there was no reason for me to sleep for twelve hours last night! Even though I probably wouldn't have gotten anything done yesterday since I was so hung-over, I had no concept of the fact that this would leave me only one day to accomplish what I would have had a hard time cramming into an entire weekend: food shopping, laundry, studying for two (albeit easy) tests and writing a 6-page paper for my Globalization class. Six pages isn't much, but it never got through my thick skull to figure in that I wanted to base my paper on about 120 pages of theoretical reading that I haven't done yet!

Once I got moving today I decided to conquer the physical tasks, food shopping and laundry, since I was freaking out too much to study anyway. As I drove to the grocery store I flipped to the last track of Odelay, the only thing in my car stereo that I felt like listening to. I immediately felt waves of nostalgia for a time in my life that, today for the first time, I suddenly realized was over. For years I've wanted to get a tattoo of a compass rose

to commemorate all my days of aimless driving. Whether I was driving cross-country through the Rockies and into the Nevada desert or just driving on the highways around metro Detroit because I was so depressed that that was all I was capable of, that kind of physical movement has always been important to me. And now I'm not aimless enough to really need it.

I decided (as I was driving the half-hour to and from Meijer listening to Ramshackle on repeat) that I'm going to get that tattoo for my birthday because if I don't do it soon I never will. Plus, maybe after I've finished my BA I'll take one, last road trip Out West. Because there's something about driving across this country that you just can't get by going abroad, and I'm not sure I'll ever have the chance again.

After I got home I ate something, relaxed for a little while and then got my laundry together. It's been so long since I've done it that I only have knee-high stockings instead of actual socks and I'm down to uncomfortable thongs and bikini bottoms. I drove around the corner to my laundromat only to discover that the fucking thing permanently closed on February 28th! I was totally thrown. My landlord got rid of the laundry machines in my building about three years ago and I don't know of any laundromats in the area as well-lit and nice as this one was. I came home and went through the online yellow pages. There's a 24-hour laundromat on Michigan Avenue, but I didn't feel like trying a new place downtoen when it's so late (it was after 8:00pm at this point). All the laundromats in the closer suburbs like Madison Heights closed at 10:00pm or weren't answering their phone, so that's also not an option. The only thing I can do is wait until Tuesday since I have an evening class tomorrow and either try the downtown laundromat in broad daylight, try one in Hamtramck that also didn't answer its phone or go out to the suburbs.

Like I said, this left me completely thrown. After putzing around for a while and silently freaking out I decided to map out what I have to do this week. 3:30pm on Friday I fly out to visit my parents for spring break, so everything has to happen before then. A lovely complication is that I lost my ATM card two weeks ago and when I called for a replacement they sent me this:

I'm hoping I'll get the replacement and pin number before I leave but I'm not sure that will happen. Plus, work will be super busy because I have to make sure everything is set for the April 8th conference we're having before I leave!

As I was figuring out my schedule it occurred to me to actually look at my Globalization syllabus because I had forgotten about the reading I'd have to do for this week in addition to the paper. It's a good thing I did, because in addition to some readings from Global Woman, which I did remember, we also have to read the entirety of Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy, which I did not. I wrote it into my schedule, then crossed it out. Something has to give and I refuse to drive myself crazy over a novel when I have so much else to do. We have to write email responses to our reading every week so whether or not I admit to not reading Lucy I'll just concentrate on the other book instead. I can read Lucy over vacation when I'm in New York and the hell away from all this shit!

So now, since I've taken Lucy out of the mix, I think I can get everything done that is physically possible. I'm not sure if I'll have an ATM card by the end of the week but I'll have taken my two tests, written a paper, prepared for a conference at work, and packed for a trip. Oh, yes, and applied for two scholarships at the English Department in addition to the seven I entered last Friday. I hadn't been feeling tired since I slept in until 2:00pm this afternoon, but luckily thinking all this through has worn my out. Good night, and I'll try to write an entry from New York this weekend if I'm not dead by then!


I'm listening to ... do anxiety attacks sound like anything?
I'm reading ...................................
I want to go back in time a few weeks and pay more attention this time

Previous:
- - Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005
back yet again - Thursday, Aug. 04, 2005
Batman - Friday, Jun. 17, 2005
Just fucking around today - Sunday, May. 22, 2005
pre-birthday - Saturday, Apr. 30, 2005