bookmad woman
Mar. 13th, 2009 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ontologyGuess what I get to do tomorrow? If your wager was 'get up at six in order to sit in an ugly grey school gymnasium for four hours and fill in little circles', you're right! Congratulations, you get a cookie. Except I'm fresh out of cookies, so you can have this chocolate that got sat on just now.
So yes: SATs tomorrow. Am I ready? HAHAHAHAHA... no. But I could study for months and not be a bit ready, especially for the mathematical bits. I am very confident -- perhaps even cocky -- about the English bits, if terrified of the essay, which is a little comforting; at least there's something on the test that won't feel like bicycling into the wind (which I did on Wednesday night). And I really ought to becramming studying, but instead I am nursing a headache. Bah to all headaches. Bah to spectacles with the left stem missing. Bah bah bah.
Adventure of today: Dad drove me to a town even more dismal and grey than mine, because it is only there that I can acquire a photo ID. I need this in order to take the SATs, and also in order to open a bank account (I have an unsettling amount of cash hidden in an undisclosed corner of my bedroom; also I would like a debit card, and PayPal, and not to have to wait until my parents can cash my paychecks for me). And really there are bits of my town which are extremely nice indeed -- my old neighbourhood, for one, with its old respectable houses and lovely ancient trees and the hill, and some of the old abandoned buildings around town which, while sad and ugly, are also very fascinating. In Clearfield I cannot imagine anyone ever being happy. Or wanting to move very much. Or being able to see in colour.
The Department of Motor Vehicles is in the mall. The mall consists of Ollie's Bargain Basement (significant for its enormous quantity, if not variety, of bargain books), Goodwill, Dollar General, the aforementioned DMV, and... something else? Perhaps? Some arcade games and things. There is also a J.C. Penney. I have never been inside. There are also lots of empty spaces, and everything is sad and tired and grey. Fortunately I did not have to wait around for very long. I filled out a lot of paperwork and had to present a lot of other paperwork as evidence that I am, in fact, human, and precisely who I say I am (the bloke in charge was a very professorly looking fellow with a neat white beard and spectacles and a sweater; I liked him), and I signed my name about six times. And then I stood in line to get my picture taken in front of a blue sheet. (My picture turned out quite decently, I must say, for an ID photo, since they are usually ghastly. I wasn't even having a particularly good hair day! But I did, in fact, smile, which no-one in front of me seemed to be interested in doing. And my peacock-feather earrings and cameo brooch necklace are clearly visible...)
And then I met Dad at Ollie's. I had been mourning that Dad, unlike Mum, would not be as susceptable to the lure of bargain books, and it was unlikely that I would be able to convince him to take me there for a bit, but when he could see I would be in line for a good ten minutes he said he was going to poke around there, and I said fervently that I would meet him. So I did. After a while. Actually I went straight for the book section and he found me there five minutes later. And I must say, I scored very well! -- a gorgeous hardcover copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (I have a paperback, but I've never much liked my cover -- green, over a painting of something, and the original cream-on-black cover is so beautiful and simple and evocative!), and The Book Thief, and The Scarlet Pimpernel, all hardcovers! And the most expensive of them was four dollars. Oh, books. It made up for not getting to the library before it closed. (Anyway I still had the last fifty or so pages of the penultimate Dresden Files book to finish. Auuugh, there's only one left to read! Until the next one comes out, anyway. But whatever shall I do inn the meantime?)
And now I should write another practice essay. And look over the algebra section in my test preparation book some more. I covet your prayers, dear ones. I covet them a lot.
So yes: SATs tomorrow. Am I ready? HAHAHAHAHA... no. But I could study for months and not be a bit ready, especially for the mathematical bits. I am very confident -- perhaps even cocky -- about the English bits, if terrified of the essay, which is a little comforting; at least there's something on the test that won't feel like bicycling into the wind (which I did on Wednesday night). And I really ought to be
Adventure of today: Dad drove me to a town even more dismal and grey than mine, because it is only there that I can acquire a photo ID. I need this in order to take the SATs, and also in order to open a bank account (I have an unsettling amount of cash hidden in an undisclosed corner of my bedroom; also I would like a debit card, and PayPal, and not to have to wait until my parents can cash my paychecks for me). And really there are bits of my town which are extremely nice indeed -- my old neighbourhood, for one, with its old respectable houses and lovely ancient trees and the hill, and some of the old abandoned buildings around town which, while sad and ugly, are also very fascinating. In Clearfield I cannot imagine anyone ever being happy. Or wanting to move very much. Or being able to see in colour.
The Department of Motor Vehicles is in the mall. The mall consists of Ollie's Bargain Basement (significant for its enormous quantity, if not variety, of bargain books), Goodwill, Dollar General, the aforementioned DMV, and... something else? Perhaps? Some arcade games and things. There is also a J.C. Penney. I have never been inside. There are also lots of empty spaces, and everything is sad and tired and grey. Fortunately I did not have to wait around for very long. I filled out a lot of paperwork and had to present a lot of other paperwork as evidence that I am, in fact, human, and precisely who I say I am (the bloke in charge was a very professorly looking fellow with a neat white beard and spectacles and a sweater; I liked him), and I signed my name about six times. And then I stood in line to get my picture taken in front of a blue sheet. (My picture turned out quite decently, I must say, for an ID photo, since they are usually ghastly. I wasn't even having a particularly good hair day! But I did, in fact, smile, which no-one in front of me seemed to be interested in doing. And my peacock-feather earrings and cameo brooch necklace are clearly visible...)
And then I met Dad at Ollie's. I had been mourning that Dad, unlike Mum, would not be as susceptable to the lure of bargain books, and it was unlikely that I would be able to convince him to take me there for a bit, but when he could see I would be in line for a good ten minutes he said he was going to poke around there, and I said fervently that I would meet him. So I did. After a while. Actually I went straight for the book section and he found me there five minutes later. And I must say, I scored very well! -- a gorgeous hardcover copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (I have a paperback, but I've never much liked my cover -- green, over a painting of something, and the original cream-on-black cover is so beautiful and simple and evocative!), and The Book Thief, and The Scarlet Pimpernel, all hardcovers! And the most expensive of them was four dollars. Oh, books. It made up for not getting to the library before it closed. (Anyway I still had the last fifty or so pages of the penultimate Dresden Files book to finish. Auuugh, there's only one left to read! Until the next one comes out, anyway. But whatever shall I do inn the meantime?)
And now I should write another practice essay. And look over the algebra section in my test preparation book some more. I covet your prayers, dear ones. I covet them a lot.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-03-14 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-14 04:09 am (UTC)I'm going to the used book sale at my library tomorrow morning, and I'm so excited. Books! Last time I got about ten books for five dollars, one an omnibus edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in perfect condition.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-14 06:17 am (UTC)All the best of luck, dear. I have no idea what the SATs are like so can offer only general sympathies, but all those are yours.
♥♥♥
no subject
Date: 2009-03-14 01:23 pm (UTC)Also, huzzah for a nice ID picture! My first drivers license was pretty bad, so I made sure I looked extra nice for my renewal, which actually looks fairly decent. And my passport picture? Urgh. The colours! They've got to have the worst colour printer in the world. Really, I think they must design those machines to make people look as hideous as possible. It's all a conspiracy!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-15 12:04 am (UTC)It's by