Karen, our custodian, is a heartless MONSTER

Yeah, I skipped them. I don't regret it, though. I slept through the first one and I knew exactly what I was doing. The second? Not my proudest moment but that beast of a Spanish composition had to be written and there was simply no other way. Two classes down, I hauled ass to Spanish, the one class I can never EVER miss no matter how profusely I'm bleeding out of my head. All I contributed the ENTIRE class was "Los limones son agrios." "The lemons are sour." I get to the end of the period and come to find out, the paper's not due until viernes (Friday.) Bummer. I will be checking the revised syllabus from now on, thank you Profesora Valentin. You're right, checking before class would have saved me a lot of trouble.

Halloween was relatively uneventful. Ryan and I made a Wal-Mart run- Britt drove us at midnight in her Volvo- and then ate Valveeta Shells and Cheese using XTena's dishes. The trip reminded me of driving around in CatTed's Volvo, "Lola" (although Britt's Volvo is named "Vulva") for days and days listening to Dave Matthews Band and Busta Rhymes. We would usually have coffee from Avalino's and then sit in the car at a beach because I hate beaches because of their annoying sand. I miss the ocean a lot. I miss every kind of water, actually- lake, ocean, river, stream, drainage bed, puddle. There really isn't any water in Iowa. Rachel, Jordan, Kelly, and I had good conversations at Birch Bay and Lake Padden and near puddles because water is so condusive to good conversation. Naked.

I talked to CatTed on the phone yesterday several times because she lives down a really scary alley on State St. and she needed someone to keep her company during her walk up to campus. Also, I haven't talked to her for a billion fafillion years and I miss her a lot. She walks the with a flashlight alone most nights but she says the walk up the hill to WWU is making her ass shrink so it's worth it. FRAN'S COMING BACK TO AMERICA in six weeks. She's really excited. So am I. All I want to do is take him up to Vancouver and stop at IKEA so he can eat delicious meatballs and drink lingonberry juice. Beth, her roomie who she met while counseling church camp a few summers ago, is having second thoughts about letting him stay at their casa (house.) I say, Beth can move in with CatTed's parents for six weeks. That is all.

Newspaper was kind of fun last night. I mean, not fun like I was having fun, but fun, like it was bearable for a change. I swapped music with Christena near the end of the night and I introduced Pat, a veteran of the Marine Corps who is like 24, to Regina Spector. He seemed to really like her and not just because her last name, Spector sounds like sphincter. I got to lay out the Drag Extravaganza page. My headline: "Stuffed shirts, stuffed pants to stuff seats at Drag Extravaganza." The show should be kind of bad but few of my friends from Multicultural Manor will be performing. Tips earned by the kings and queens are going towards offsetting the cost of AIDS/HIV testing that will be offered on campus next week.

This weekend, Rachel from NOLA is hosting a little get together at her off-campus residence. Ryan and I are excited because it will be a reunion of sorts for our Alt Break group. It's been awhile since we've all been in the same place at the same time laughing about stupid things that make others squirm. During our Real World/Road Rules Challenge Make-Up Marathon tonight (which we were forced to watch in the smoking lounge of Cleveland Hall because everyone else on this campus was watching Greys Anatomy in groups of 30+,) I saw this commercial where a bunch of people get roaches dumped on their heads. I miss New Orleans and roaches. On my arm.

So in Spanish, we're reading this drama called "En La Ardiente Oscuridad" about a group of students that are attending a school for the blind. It's really terrible and I don't want to read it any more. Also, the book has words that are not in my Spanish dictionary. I'm convinced the author keeps inventing words; Merriam-Webster simply can not keep up.

Uncle Jack sent me a really awesome Starbuck's care package yesterday. He wants me to grind and test the varieties of beans he has sent thus far so he can send my favorite of the two next month. He insists on sending fair trade, organic because he knows that I am a bit of a hippie. I attended both the masturbation workshop and the School of the America's Vigil information session on Tuesday. The workshop was fine although I did not qualify for the door prize because I couldn't name all the parts of the vulva. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed in myself so I added a little note next to the unmarked diagram on the quiz- "It's not because I don't care." I hope to attend the protest in Georgia on November 17. The School of the America's is a military training academy on the Fort Benning Military Base. Latin American military officials are trained with American tax dollars at the SOA and when they return to their countries of origin they commit atrocious human rights violations against their own people. The US has never acknowledged their role in this and the school continues to thrive. Dotty and Al Dale will be there too. They've attended the vigil since it began 20 years ago during the Cold War. I love them.

My skin is really dry. So is Kathleen's. Our coastal reared skin is FREAKING OUT.

Also, Karen the custodian on Loose Second threw away my pumpkins yesterday without consulting me. I was pissed.