Man, I haven't heard that song since I was in high school. Feels like so long ago ... Well, I thought that my life was complete when I got the plaid Chuck sneakers. Ohhh, how mistaken I was! Because, not an hour after I posted that entry, who should walk into the computer lab where I am pulling my all-nighter ... but Meredith Yates! Coming in to keep me company, and to keep me from falling asleep at the keyboard. She decided that I needed a pick me up, and brought me my Christmas present early. What was it, you ask? A normal-sized, non-talking WISH BEAR. Yes, the Care Bear. I'd been looking for once since I was four. And this girl, that I have only been best friends with for maybe a little over two months, just out and gets it for me! Needless to say, I squealed, I laughed, I rather enjoyed the moment as Mr. Wish Bear sat in my lap the rest of the duration in the lab. So my self-esteem, my confidence ... it's soaring right now. I feel ... good. I've noticed that I start to feel a whole fucking lot better once I stop being the person that everyone else wants me to be, and just outright decide to be myself. No flimsy fascade, no trying to please other people ... just be ME. And oh, it feels so good. I figure - people can either learn to accept or tolerate the real me - or they can just fuck off. I don't need the added stress. Aside from pulling an all-nighter, the whole day just went by really well. I took my Math final - which was easy, just really time-consuming. And then I printed off one more lesson plan, took it to my next final ... where we didn't have a final. All we had to do was turn in the lesson plan and talk for fifteen minutes. Nice. After that, went to work to pick up my pay check - so now I have money in the bank and I feel like I have a nice little cushion to sit on until next week, when I will have one more check to get more money for gifts and whatnot. I'm all about the giving thing - and my pocketbook ... or rather, the gaping hole in it, is an excellent reflection of that. Kelley cleaned the apartment. Did I mention this? I walked in to the apartment to drop off my laundry before going to study group, and I was just like "whoa." The place looked great. The dining room and den actually have carpet. Wow. I was so grateful, I took out the four bags of trash left over from such a feat. The word of the week, month, and year has been dedicated. For 2003, the word is: Idiosyncracy. Which seems to be the word of my life, but still. Idiosyncracies: n. pl. of idiosyncracy 1. A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group. 2. A physiological or temperamental peculiarity Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Mr. BoondockSaint hast askedeth for a picture of me. Gee, I don't know. It'll take me a little bit to find a decent picture, scan it, put it on the hard drive, upload it on the site. Might not take too long. I'm sure I could find a couple lying around somewhere. In the meantime, I want to thank BoondockSaint and everyone else who have been leaving positive messages in my comment box. I know I must say this a lot, but I really do mean it when I tell you that they're greatly appreciated. I honestly don't think I've felt this good since ... I don't know. At least before midterms. 11 more days to Winter Solstice! Happy Holidays and blessed be! _____________________________________________ Here ... enjoy some pictures, BoodockSaint. You know ... every picture taken of me with a regular camera gives me red-eye. Thanks to Microsoft's Picture It! 7.0 Express - I can remedy this problem and make myself seem a hell of a lot less demonic - pun not intended. I'm sure I'll find more later. My hair is shorter now - like to mid-neck. I'm waiting for Mad Dinner pics to come back so I can scan those and show them to you all ... _________________________________________________ Uh huh. So I took that Super IQ test thing. Got a 131. Funny, last time, I took an IQ test, I got a 129. Guess I'm two points smarter. "What's a two-point conversion?" "I'm not sure. My family's not that religious." Anyway, here's what it had to say: Melissa, your Super IQ score is 131 Your overall intelligence quotient is the result of a scientifically-tested formula based on how many questions you answered correctly. But it's only part of what we learned about you from your answers on the test. We also determined the way you process information. The way you think about things makes you a Visual Linguist. This means you are highly intelligent and have many diverse talents. You have especially strong linguistic talents and are very good at interpreting visual information. You've got your feet on the ground, but your mind is capable of very complex, abstract thought. Compared to others, you are easily able to see situations from many different angles. You also understand how things work in a very practical way. How did we determine that your thinking style is that of a Visual Linguist? When we examined your test results further, we analyzed how you scored on 8 dimensions of intelligence: spatial, organizational, abstract reasoning, logical, mechanical, verbal, visual and numerical. The 3 dimensions you scored highest on combine to make you a Visual Linguist. Only 6 out of 1,000 people have this rare combination of abilities. Well, Mr. Boondock, looks like I fall in that small percentile, too - but for a different category. How strange. Small world. Yes, I have diverse talents ... obviously. Strongly intelligent, and yes, I know this - but I'm just too goddamn lazy to care. I usually apply it to things that really matter to me. Like the stuff I do while procrastinating. Yeah! Like I'm doing right now. I just told my dad my IQ score. He was impressed it went up 2 points. "Looks like the college education is starting to pay off ... a little." Yeah ... my dad's cool. More later. Enjoy your pics. "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." - Confucius P.S. I got my flute back! Thank you very much.