I rented the newish director's cut of Blade Runner from Netflix the other day. I saw the old version (on videotape) like 8 or 10 years ago, and this version was way different. The main difference was the lack of Deckard's narration (which I think was a vast improvement) and the ( spoiler )

Also, the 20th anniversary special edition of Dirty Dancing was on sale at Best Buy for $7.50, so you know I couldn't resist that. God I love that stupid movie. Every single thing about it, from the fabulous music to the cheesy dialogue to the fabulous dancing. Also, Jerry Orbach, RIP. It's so weird to see that movie now, as a grown-up... it came out when I was 8 and I first saw it when I was 9, so most of the risque stuff flew right over my head. I totally didn't get that Penny was having an abortion... I guess I thought she was just sick or something. Heh.

In other news, I got my stimulus refund direct deposited today. It was only $300 instead of the $600 I was expecting. Oh well, that's still enough to pay for one class this summer. I was hoping I'd be able to pay for my English class too, because it's totally filling up even though it's not until the fall. I actually wanted to pay for that one instead of the summer class, because that one only has 5 of 25 people enrolled so far. But when I tried to sign up for the English class, when I entered the class number into the enrollment website, it kept popping up as some kind of IT class instead. I tried it like 10 times but it still kept coming up the wrong class. IDK, I guess I'll try again in a couple weeks when I have money again; hopefully the computer glitch will be fixed by then. Luckily the class still has 14 available seats right now.

... and it's a B! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay.

It seems slightly ridiculous now that I was so worried about not passing this class. Luckily you all had faith in me. ::snuggles::

Totally unrelated, but valerie_z, I need to send you that money for the hotel room for bandcon. Can you send me a PayPal invoice or something? I'm not sure which email address to send it to.

Just got this in my school email account:

Hi Marie:

Sorry for the delay. I hope to have grades finished today or tomorrow and I'll send you an update then. Rest assured, you have passed.

[Professor's Name]
Instructor of English
Northern Virginia Community College

I finally passed English 111! I LOVE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms on my flist! I know some of you have had babies this year (or are about to have a baby) so this must be an extra special day for you.

Enjoy your day!

::checks school email again::

::twitches::

Gaaaaaaaaah, I just want my English grade. I need to know whether I passed this stupid class or not. I'm going CRAZY here. I know I shouldn't expect it until at least Tuesday, probably more like Thursday or later, but the waiting is killing me. Doesn't my professor know I'm waiting on pins and needles for this grade? WHY DOESN'T SHE GIVE ME MY GRADE NOW?!?

::deep breath::

Okay, so I'm not the only student she has, and it's probably a wee bit unreasonable for me to expect her to give me my grade immediately. But that doesn't make me any less impatient.

So, I'm not sure I mentioned it, but I'm only taking one summer class, and not until the second six week session. I'm gonna take American History, which should be easy enough - I have to take classes that are generally easy for me during the summer session, because it's so condensed. I could never do like, Biology or something in 6 weeks. So anyways, the second summer session doesn't start until July 1, so that's 7 weeks when I'm not going to school, so I'm gonna work 40 hours during that time. I did this last summer too, and it was hard, but I did it. It's only for 7 weeks, after all. But if I have even less time to post or comment, it's because I'll be exhausted and not able to get to the library. Just so's you know and all. :D

In totally unrelated news, I rented Stardust and I Am Legend from Netflix last night. I liked Stardust a lot - I miss Claire Danes, and wish she'd get more roles - but I Am Legend was kind of lame. I wanted more backstory on how the zombies came to be, and how all the people died. I'm all about the apocalyptic backstory. But the ending was pretty good.

soul_warden tagged me to do a meme.

Here's how you play: Once you've been tagged you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself, at the end choose 10 people to be tagged, list their names and why you tagged them. Don't forget to leave them a comment saying '(You're It!) and to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you so since you can't tag me back, let me know when you are done so that I can go read YOUR blog answers.

Hmmm... ten random facts about me. Most of these people who regularly read my LJ already know, but whatever. I'm lame and unoriginal.

1. I thought I was 5'10" for the longest time, like until 2 years ago, when I randomly measured myself at the doctor's office and found out I was really 5'8 1/2". Which is still fairly tall, but not what I'd thought I was. So I was rather disappointed.

2. I used to bite my nails all the time, but I've cured myself of that habit by keeping my nails pretty short and filing them constantly.

3. I can't pluck my own eyebrows, because it makes my eyes water and I can't see what I'm doing. So I have to get them waxed every couple weeks (sometimes I wait longer, and then I have messy eyebrows, but I'm totally lazy and forgetful).

4. I used to read constantly, so much so that in elementary school one of my classmates called me "Marie the Readaholic". I fucking hated that kid. I still read a lot, it's just that I tend to read the newspaper, magazines, nonfiction books about politics, and fanfiction most now.

5. I have two tattoos, one of a sun I got in 2002 and one of a moon (with the word "Luna" in the middle) which I just got a couple months ago. They're both on an ankle. I want to get another one, of a fairy, maybe on my shoulder.

6. I've been working since I was 17. My first job was at a store called The Nature Company, which got bought out by the Discovery Channel Store.

7. I've been dyeing my hair since I was 14, and I've had my hair every color from platinum blonde to black to red to funky colors like magenta and blue. Right now it's a burgundy shade that you can see in my icon. I get sick of dyeing my hair, but I really like this color.

8. I wore glasses for a year when I first started needing them when I was 13, then I wore contacts up until about 4 years ago. Then I started wearing my glasses again, partly because glasses are cheaper than contacts, but also because my girlfriend at the time told me they made me look smarter. Yes, I'm really that shallow.

9. I have extremely vivid dreams. Sometimes this sucks, because I have nightmares about dead babies and zombies coming to eat me, but sometimes it's awesome because I have dreams about getting Frank Iero pregnant.

10. If I could wear flip-flops everywhere I totally would. I hate wearing fancy shoes, especially heels.

Okay, I'm supposed to tag 10 people. How about maggiesox, fox1013, ktnb81, atorable, valerie_z, couldbeyourlife, playfullips, jrs1980, cheesygirl, dragonsinger, and sweet_ali. Have at it!

I watched the latest Doctor Who yesterday. Good episode - the Sontarans were fun baddies - but mostly I'm focusing on the preview for next week. ( Spoilers )

In other "stuff I'm looking forward to" news, the next Chronicles of Narnia movie comes out in less than two weeks. The same day I'm supposed to get my stimulus check, actually! It's gonna be a good day. I'm way more excited than anyone who isn't in elementary school should be for this movie. I really liked the first one.

Believe it or not, I'm probably the only fantasy/sci-fi minded person who didn't read these books growing up. I read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when I was nine, and saw the PBS miniseries (or was it a BBC miniseries, that just happened to air on PBS?) and I loved both, but I wasn't inspired to read the rest of the series. I was too busy reading Little House and Babysitters Club books, I guess. I've been meaning to read them for years, but somehow never got around to it. Now that this 2nd movie's coming out, I have no excuses, and I finally got all the books from the library. Well, most of the books - they didn't have Book 1, The Magican's Nephew. But according to movie canon, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe is the first book anyways. Which, I'm totally confused on the order these books are supposed to be read in, but whatever.

Today it's been a year since I had a cigarette! ::throws confetti:: Well, I'm not exactly sure when my last cigarette was definitively, because I kept quitting and then starting again, but I definitely remember that I hadn't had a cigarette after May 2007. So I'm celebrating today.

A quick rundown of my addiction: I started smoking casually when I was 15. It didn't take long for it to become a daily habit. By the time I was 18 and could smoke legally I was smoking about a pack a day. There were times when I quit for weeks or even months at a time - but I always went back to it. Finally when I was 22 - January 1, 2002 to be exact - I quit for good. Or at least, I quit for awhile. A LONG while - almost 5 years. But then November 2006 I started up again. First it was cloves, and then I went back to my brand, Marlboro Lights. I smoked again for about 5 months before I quit again. I was only smoking a couple cigarettes a day, but it was murder to quit completely. I went through a lot of Nicorette and hard candy.

Hopefully I am quit again for good. I still crave cigarettes, but it's not all day, every day like it was when I was first quit.

Anyways, go me.

Tomorrow I get to see Panic and the Hushies! Eeeeeeeee. ::dances:: You guys, I am so ridiculously excited for this concert. I get to see Ryan Rossy's precious little stoned face!

Because Panic's playing in DC tomorrow, there was a little article in the Express, a free mini newspaper that the Washington Post gives out in Metro stations. Brendon was on the front page and I almost squeed right there on the Metro. I'm kind of pathetic. Although it was false advertising, because the article only interviewed Jon Walker and not Brendon or any of the other band members. ::sadface:: But still, JWalk! Apparently he and the other boys have been playing a lot of hackey sack. God, could they *be* any bigger stoners?

Hey, so apparently people whose social security numbers end in "00" are getting their stimulus checks today. People like me, whose SSN's end in numbers 77-99 don't get their checks until May 16. LAME! But hey, I'm just happy to be getting a check at all. Even though I think this stimulus package is total bullshit, just like the 2001 checks were, because we could have used those billions of dollars on social services, new roads, more cops, education, etc etc. Also I've heard that these checks are going to make our tax rebates next year $600 less, although I've also heard that's not true. Either way, I think it's stupid to send people relatively paltry checks and think it's going to magically fix the economy and keep us out of a recession (which, I think we're already IN A RECESSION, no matter what Bush says). But I'm not a politician, what do I know.

In other news, I paid my $48 con fee for bandcon. I'm not going to be able to pay for my hotel for another couple weeks (I'm actually planning to use my stimulus check to pay for the hotel & airfare). Which, I was wondering - what's the best site for finding cheap airfare? I haven't bought a plane ticket for like, god... actually, I don't think I've *ever* bought a plane ticket! Well, I've booked flights for bosses and stuff as a receptionist/secretary, but I always used the site the company wanted us to use, I never had to google for the best rates. And I've flown before, of course, but someone else always bought my ticket. So I'm kind of clueless here. What's better, Travelocity, Expedia, etc or going directly to the airline website? Any suggestions are welcome.

Juno came from Netflix and I watched it yesterday. Very good movie. I actually cried when ( Slight movie spoiler )

I'm working on my last paper for English - the semester ends May 12, which is in like 2 weeks. This paper counts for 25% of our grade, but hey, no pressure, right? Gah. It's due Thursday and I've still got over half of it to do. But the good thing is that it's a kind of weird paper - it's actually like 5 mini papers combined into one, where we have to do things like a newspaper article, an advice column, collage, etc to make 5 points of argument. I think I mentioned before, my topic is global warming. I've made a pretty kick ass collage and written an advice column, but I'm kind of stalling on the other genre pieces.

I like this professor a lot, but sometimes I wish she'd just assign simple, straighforward papers instead of these hybrid type assignments. But I guess that's part of what makes her a good professor - she gives unique assignments that aren't what you'd expect.

Anyways, so... yeah. I still don't have internet access at home, and I'm still just trying to get by using the library and my school wi-fi, so I'm ridiculously behind on my flist. I've barely managed to skim it in the past 2 weeks. So if it's your birthday, or something monumental or interesting happened, please leave a comment here so I can comment on it.

My big Psych Paper of Doom, the 8 page one that I'd been working on forever?

I got an A.

::dances::

In other news, it's only 8 days until my Panic show, when I get to hang out with psychodragon82 and meet atorable and couldbeyourlife for the very first time. SO EXCITED OMG.

Last night I dreamed I was putting on makeup. Mostly eye stuff - eyeliner, purple eyeshadow, mascara. Lipstick too. It was a rather vivid dream, but I was sure it was a dream all the same.

Except just now I saw myself in the bathroom mirror here at school, and I'm totally wearing eye makeup that I didn't put on this morning.

o.0

Apparently I put makeup on IN MY SLEEP and totally forgot about it. Fucking Ambien, I swear. At least I don't have a car, so I don't have to worry about sleep driving or whatever. It does make me wonder what else I've done in my sleep that I don't remember. Hopefully I'm not eating in my sleep - I haven't noticed any food wrappers or anything in my bed.

1. I saw Sweeney Todd last night. It was good, but entirely too gory for my tastes. But the music was great. And Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman are worth a little bit of gore. Ooooh, also, Anthony Head (Giles from Buffy) had a cameo! Awesome.

2. I found a coupon for a free tall coffee at Starbucks every Wednesday until May something in the paper yesterday. I have discovered I really like coffee with a dash of cinnamon too. Nom nom nom.

3. I am so over the insane media coverage of the Pope's visit to DC/the United States in general. I mean, I respect that he's the leader of a huge religion and all that, but I kind of can't stand the guy. I liked JP2 much better.

4. Yesterday I turned in my Psych Paper of Doom, the 8 page thing I've been working on since the start of the semester. Well, heh, I've been *researching* it since the start of the semester, I've only been actively writing it for the past week and a half. (I am a master procrastinator.) I really hope I do well on it, because this paper counts for over half of our grades.

5. Speaking of school, I was wondering if anyone could help me with something. For my final English paper of the semester we're doing an arguement paper, and I chose the topic of global warming. Now, I'm not gonna try to argue whether global warming is real, because it's pretty well established by everyone that isn't funded by an oil company that it is. But I'm gonna try to argue whether setting emissions caps should be mandatory (I believe it should, but the arguement against it would be that it's too expensive and would hurt the economy). Has anyone seen any arguements against mandatory emissions caps that's from a REPUTABLE source - i.e., not from the American Enterprise Institute or some equally shady right wing think tank, or a "scientist" that gets all his funding from Exxon? I'm willing to look at sources like The Wall Street Journal's op-ed pages or whatever.

... I just watched the two most recent episodes of Doctor Who last night, and I'm in love with my show all over again. I miss Martha, but Donna is awesome. And I like how they're really explicit that Donna's not gonna fall in love with the Doctor... we don't need more of that. I seriously couldn't handle another companion falling in love with him. I mean, I know David Tennant's gorgeous, but really now.

Also, am I the only one that cooed at the tv (or computer screen, as it were) when those little fat blobby baby things showed up in episode 1? Awww.

Next week's preview looks really interesting. I'm excited to see that particular monster-of-the-week coming back.

In other news, I saw The Prestige this weekend. That's the magic movie with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale that came out last year, as opposed to the magic movie with Edward Norton and Jessica Biel that also came out last year. I definitely liked The Prestige better of the two. It was kind of confusing to follow, with all the time jumps throughout the movie, but it was more interesting, and had a better surprise twist ending.

I just got back my English paper, and I got an A. I was really stressing about this paper, and totally not expecting to do well at all, so this is an excellent surprise.

I was shocked when I got an A on my Psych midterm last week too, so maybe the key to getting good grades is to assume I'm gonna do terribly, and then I'll always be pleasantly surprised. :D

Hey, it's Gerard Way's birthday! He's 31, which is totally young, for trees. (Yes, I'm like the 20th person on my flist to make that joke today.) Gerard is the only one in bandom who doesn't make me feel like a pervy old lady. No matter how young these jailbait boys are, at least I can always say I'm younger than Gerard. (And, hey, I'm still a month younger than Pete Wentz! This is important, people.)

I haven't been reading as much MCR fic lately, mostly because there's been so much great Panic fic coming out, probably because of Pretty.Odd.'s release. But here's two new fics with Gerard in them, to celebrate his birthday.

++ Football is the Gayest Profession (and I, Dear Madam, am a Professional by tremblings, PG-13. Pete/Patrick, Jon/Spencer, Frank/Gerard. High school football AU, which kind of put me off for a couple days, but I finally sucked it up and read this, and OMG it's wonderful.

++ It's Warmer When The Rum's Gone by impertinence, "Adult". Frank/Gerard, Mikey/Ray, Pete/Patrick, Brendon/Ryan, Gabe/Greta. Pirate AU! I still haven't finished this, but it's awesome so far.

I'm trying to go to sleep, but everytime I close my eyes I see a giant grocery cart filled to the brim with groceries, and I kept pulling items out to scan and bag but the cart never goes down - there's just more and more groceries in the cart. It's like the never-ending grocery cart from hell.

This happens sometimes after a particularly long and busy day at work. I try to tell myself it's just my overactive imagination, and remind myself that I'm at home in bed, not still at work. But it fucks with my head. Also fucking with my head: I took my Ambien like half an hour ago, and everything is fuzzy around the edges, but I still haven't fallen asleep. Lame.