I love hanging out with Julies

Currently Watching The X-Files - The Complete Second Season Episode 2x24: Our Town see related

Yesterday, I was one Julie's favorite boy and another Julie's hero.

I felt so loved!!

I was helping Julie Laugherty with some work she was doing for Baptist Press, proofreading and stuff like that, and I offered to keep helping when she got more done... and apparently that made me her favorite boy.

This is my second stand with the temporary distinction, awarded only on the understanding that Brandon Emerson is the favorite boy of all time (hey, I'm in good company).

Shortly thereafter, I made some silly little joke that started getting a sarcastic laugh, which turned to an honest-to-goodness crackup on the part of Julie Palmer, who apparently needed a good laugh, and I was then designated "Hero of the Day."

I was then hugged by two Julies at once (and I'm not sure, but Patrick's Xanga may still include a bit on why Julie gives the best hugs).

If you have the opportunity to hang out with Julies, take it.

This week is a relatively quiet week sandwiched in between busy weeks, a week of nice weather sandwiched between rainstorms, and periods of lots of Coburn work sandwiched in between long stretches of not-Coburn work (that is, I'm working all weekend after working Sunday last week, with only Wednesday in between).

In other news...

Classes continue going well; I'm going to be sad to see this semester go, though I'm looking forward to getting past the general core classes.

The downside of class: In Written Comp, it must be "Literature Tyler Hates Week." We started Monday with a reading of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and ended today with a discussion of Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" (or Oedipus Tyrannos or Oedipus the King or whichever language they've decided to use for the title at the moment). At least the discussion isn't unbearable... I've enjoyed Professor Rogers the REST of the semester.

I've got a tentative schedule for next year, though the new registration programs won't show class openings over the Internet, so plans are a little more subject to change. If my schedule as I have it works out for next semester, however, that'll be three in a row with no 8 am classes -- hooray!!

I've left messages with the lady from the magazine in Atlanta whose internship was referred to me by Kristen Nicole Sayres, to whom I am still grateful; hopefully, I'll hear back soon (possibly over the weekend, or the beginning of the week).

Rehersals for Commedia dell'Arte are insanely fun -- it's horrible what happens when the actors get to write the script themselves, and the amount that is played with just as improv is enough to ensure we get a different play every night. It's going to be GREAT. Coming soon: Live "commercials" in which we go around in character at random points on campus.

Still no word on a shooting schedule for my student film ("Chick Flick 101: An Exercise in Self-Mockery"), though Kyle Kurlick is taking some photos for prop posters, and Nic Pfost and I have discussed visual style.

Kyle has a Darth Vader voice-changer helmet. He uses it in conjunction with one of those dinky little glowstick lightsabers, so it's kind of weird, but the look of the mask is pretty cool. He was using it to make prank calls the other night.

The breakup of my roommates looms imminent; not only is Jon graduating, but (seemingly out of nowhere, but then maybe that's because we just are never in the room) after two years of noble independence and Onion-hood, Brett up and joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon, so he'll be moving in with some of those guys next year. So it's down to Derek, who I can't really see staying anyway (though the guys I could see him moving in with already have a full room they wouldn't give up), and me. Kyle, however, has mentioned that he and his roommates are trying to get a kitchen unit in Ebersold next semester, and that they'd still have an open room... so, possibilities, maybe?

With the exception of stress, exhaustion, and one unfortunate case of mononucleosis, all my friends seem to be doing really well (and Evelyn may be sick, but she's not letting it get her down).

Speaking of Evelyn, it seems she's given my last name to a character in her fantasy-novel-series-in-development... apparently, she just likes associating with people who have cool last names (Storm or Gunn, for example). Of course, she can crack jokes and humorous comments about that, since her last name is pronounced "Witty."

It looks like I'll have three articles in next week's paper, back up from the one in the last. I love working on the paper, even if it keeps me up.

I was attacked on Tuesday night when Amber Roberts cried "When vegetables go bad!" Suddenly, I was hit with a bag of green beans. The wonderful people at Ziploc do a good job; you can hit someone squarely in the arm from four or five feet away with a bag of green beans without having it open all over the place. Ah, the fun of a mess-free food fight...

I've been watching quite a bit of History Channel in my downtime. Last weekend, they did a long special on the papacy (oddly enough, followed by specials on an Aztec city, the Incan El Dorado legend, and a history of Area 51). Some news commentators are getting on my nerves even more, now, since I started looking up some papal history as inspired by the History Channel special. When discussing the worldwide Roman Catholic church, some commentators keep saying that it's time for a non-European pope, appealing to the facts that there are thousands of Catholics in Latin America and Asia, and that there's never been an African pope. There's only one problem: There have been TWO African popes! Of course, they were from the ancient Roman province of Africa (modern Tunisia), so the commentators still have a point about sub-Saharan Catholics, but we journalists are supposed to be perfectly clear.

Speaking of commentators on the papacy, I'm not sure whether the media need more conservative values or if the general public just needs more common sense. I'm going to scream if I hear one more person say the Vatican's stance on birth control is contributing to the AIDS crisis. (Now, to be perfectly clear, I'm not trying to belittle the AIDS epidemic, which is horribly tragic, or to specifically endorse the Catholic view of birth control; my point is coming.) This is almost like saying "They're spreading AIDS because the Vatican won't let them use protection!!" Those complaining of that just aren't thinking; last time I checked, the Vatican was still frowning on casual sex, too.

On that note, I think I've become addicted to "Desperate Housewives," the first show of this season that I've actually been able to see more than once (I almost never see prime-time TV anymore, though I usually can on Sundays). At least I'm in good company there, too, with my mom and sister, as well as with Dr. Fant, chair of Union's English deparment.

The rain from the last few weeks has started getting to be not-so-nasty... it's gone from cold and driving to a gentle lukewarm downpour, the kind you can actually be outside in without going insane. It's the kind of rain that makes you want to go outside and just stand in it, imagining that clip of Tim Robbins that's in commercials every time a TV network shows "The Shawshank Redemption." It reminds me a little bit of my first trip to Russia, when we did our drama in the square in front of the ballet house in the rain. Ah, great times.

Last night, after a day of great weather, no wasps, and a strange smell from the other side of the apartment, I slept with my window partly open for the first time. It was actually really nice waking up this morning. I beat my alarm by ten minutes and just stayed in bed.

I have the song from this web animation stuck in my head. It's not pretty.