my heart is a glorious machine;

I'm a bit overdue on this one, but -- comment and I will name you 3 interests from your list, and 3 userpics, and you explain them in your own post, asking the same of your f-listers.


And today was a good day. I bicycled to my guitar lesson in spectacular weather, thereby getting some much-needed exercise (and sun!), and then I stopped by Rosie's Bookshop on my way home and was redeemed for That One Time when they had two copies of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I didn't purchase either of them because there was a new copy on the shelf and it is now mine (!!!). (I will have to post about the book when I am finished re-reading because it is amazing and possibly the only book that comes close to being comparable to Tolkien in any substantial way.) I also found The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (!!!) and a new copy of Anne of the Island (mine has pages missing, and the book itself might actually have finally got itself lost, as it is not in my bedroom nor the box with M-authored books in the basement), and got a little sack of chocolates, and made cupcakes when I got home (cupcakes that were not sour).

As of, um, just now, I have 1000 songs on iTunes. [insert shock here] Goodness, I didn't realise that my music collection plus a goodly amount of my dad's music collection was that large. (Now d'you see why I must have the 7,500-song video iPod? ...Which we can't afford and I can't even hope to save up for anytime in the near future?)

Which...yeah, speaking of music, could I persuade someone upload Switchfoot's Nothing Is Sound album for me? I own it, but, like many people, I've got the copy that is incompatable with iTunes, which means that I rarely listen to it, because my discman is dead and my stereo is a hazard to CDs. It happens to be one of my favourites. ('The Blues', anyone? 'The Fatal Wound'? 'Daisy'? Blimey! Also, I realised while listening to it on my stereo--which, as usual, made a generally benign album skip like mad--that it reminds me a very great deal of tuesday_skyline. midenianscholar was kind enough to burn me a copy, but it appears to be one she bought off of iTunes, which means it refuses to work on my computer.

Also, three tracks on my Coldplay X&Y album skip tremendously (it used to be four, but I found a download of 'Till Kingdom Come'), which I know is the fault of my bloody rotten stereo, so, if anyone's feeling charitable, could you also send me 'The Hardest Part' (one of my favourite songs, and it's almost entirely obliterated!), 'Swallowed in the Sea', and 'Twisted Logic'?

...Argh. I feel like an absolute heel for begging. Um. Maybe I could offer a song or two in return? (I can't offer entire albums, as a) my computer would likely explode from the effort, and mostly b) I don't feel comfortable with that and would prefer you go out and buy them unless they are out of print, especially if they're an obscureish indie artist. Yes, I do have several burned albums which wonderful people gave me, but, you know, I don't encourage it, and most of them were decently popular stuff, too, so I wasn't over-worried about some starving artist not getting a sale out of it.)

Considering that I leave on Saturday, I should probably mention the fact, otherwise I will get frantic emails wondering if I have been kidnapped, or if my characters have finally staged a revolt and gotten my head on a platter. So: I am leaving for Mississippi. I will be gone a week. (This means that I will be back next Saturday. I think. I will probably not see a computer until Sunday, because I will probably get home very, very late.) My youth group is doing relief work down there, and as an added bonus, I will get to meet timetakestime for the very first time ever. We've known each other for three years and never met face-to-face, so, as one can imagine, we are both rather excited at the prospect. 

I'm going to be on a plane for the first time since I was ten. Also for the first time since 9/11, which shouldn't matter, except that I am and always have been Very Paranoid. Um. And the first time since becoming a LOST fan, which means I will be even more paranoid and look out the window all the time and bring extra food and clothing and polar bear repellent and look for cocaine in the bathroom and refuse to sit in the tail end of the plane. Despite my general paranoia, I'm rather thrilled about the prospect--airplanes and airports are even more fascinating than subways and subway stations, even if there isn't any interesting graffiti and it's difficult to see out the windows. Then again, you never get snacks on the subway, nor do you have nifty fold-out trays, and airplanes are most certainly more comfortable. I shall over-exert myself with people-watching; it will be absolutely thrilling.

The downside is that I am going with youth group people. Honestly, I think I would have been a lot less apt to agree to the trip if I'd realised it was a youth group thing, because most youth group functions have turned out to be moderately hellish and involve me being neglected while everyone else runs about with their BFF and giggles and people laugh at me for reading "for fun". (Really. This actually happened. And the girl was, like, twelve, so I really, really wanted to smack her, but that would have been an inauspicious way to begin an evening.) At least one of the girls going is rather nice, although most of our common interests are surface ones--at least she's intelligent, if several years younger than me and somewhat sheltered. However, there will probably end up being about sixty young people working when we get there, as apparently other youth groups are coming out the same week. If I can conquer my utter terror of people and especially teenagers, there's a slim possibility I could find a kindred spirit. If not, there will be plenty of adults to talk to.

The other thing is the heat. Most of you lot are probably aware that I am a hardcore North Easterner--a New Englander (in heart, though no longer in location), at that. This means that I adore bitterly cold weather and panic during eighty-degree heat-waves. (Stop laughing at me, ressie_noldo. I MEAN IT.) Now, imagine me in Mississippi. IN JULY. It wouldn't be so bad if it were dry heat, but it's generally humid, and I hate humidity. (Mum says even Pakistan wasn't that humid, as best as she can remember.) I am collecting all of my coolest and most flowy items of clothing, and hoping to dig out Mum's suitcase full of Pakistani clothing from the eighties, as they will probably be cooler than most of the things I can find hereabouts, us being near the mountains and therefore not especially prone to intense heat (except when our confounded heater actually turns on during the hottest bit of the summer, and yes, that also actually happened). 

All this to say: do pray for me, because I would like to have a wonderful, life-changing time and not be miserable from bad human interaction and The Heat of Doom. (I would also like to not be in a plane that crashes, or get sick from bad water, or have all of my blood drained by mosquitoes, but again, I am Paranoid.) I will try my best to keep a journal of my goings-on, despite the fact that all attempts at writing long experiences by hand have proved failures--but I think this is something I really, really want to have notations on as it happens. 

Mmm. Rambling done.