I miss you, babe. Like Pig in the City.

I broke my favorite mug, and a part of my soul chipped away with it.

R.I.P Beauty and the Beast Mug, 2003 - 2014

Everyone has a mug that is their mug, and this one was mine. It was perfect! Everything from the size to the thickness to the curvature of the rim... And then I dropped it.

I guess it just never occurred to me that I would ever be in a situation without that mug. It's one of the reminders of my past that I really thought would always be there. Only now it isn't. It was like drinking out of memories. I like my other mugs but they aren't steeped in the memories of my past the way that this one is. Not yet, anyway. It may seem silly, and in fact it may be silly to feel so strongly about the loss of a mug, but it really meant a lot to me. When I dropped it I sat on the floor and cried for a while. This blog is quickly turning into TMI with seasonings of regret for Older Ronnie. But isn't that what blogs are for? Yeah!

I decided that I couldn't throw away my mug. So I didn't.

YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL. NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY.

I would give you a life update, but breaking my beloved Disney mug is a pretty good representation of what it's been like lately. Very hard, lots of work, but unlike my mug, I'm getting through it alright. One thing that did happen was that my organization ran an event about one of the upper year ASCI courses at Guelph, and it was fantastic! More than ever, I know I can't wait to take that course. It's called the Honours Research Seminar and you essentially make this huge 40+ page paper about a research topic that combines your minors. It's meant to be like a lead-up to graduate school, which is of course, perfect! We'll see how this changes in the next year, but right now I want to write about how the environment has impacted the work of science fiction authors. Specifically I'd like to look at how their portrayal of the environment has changed over time to suit societal perceptions. Obviously that's just a rough idea right now, and I'm sure it'll get more specific and/or change entirely by the time winter 2015 rolls around (like maybe the environment on alien worlds vs. our own or something? Or how it's specifically handled by women writers, or those from a scientific background?), but for now I just can't wait!

Loser Tries to Explain Herself, Comes Across Even Sadder

This winter (and last fall) I've been wearing the heck out of my Stark toque, and while I've worn it I've been asked a lot of questions about Game of Thrones. Now, I don't mean like once or twice, I mean like all of the time. Sometimes the people asking me are friends, sometimes complete strangers in line at the grocery store. The most common question is "when's the new season starting?", but I've also had gems like "Is Tyrion (or the funny dwarf guy) still on there?", "What's the name of that cool chick with the dragons?", "How many seasons are there so far?", and "Didn't all those guys die (lol)?".

Kind of an old picture from last September but I didn't want to take a new one. Focus on the hat. The hat. Ignore awkward pose. I was studying. Ignore it. The hat. The hat. 

When I bought the hat, I never would have imagined this result. It's not that weird, but it's unexpected. I thought the hat would be no different from the likes of a STARWARS t-shirt, which seems to go through society without bringing up any questions, but it's not. Maybe just the fact that the word 'Stark' is written across my forehead rather than my chest is enough to call more attention to it, and maybe this speaks to the universal acknowledgement of Game of Thrones that everyone knows about it, and, apparently, has questions. To my credit, I've accepted my role as a compendium of knowledge about the show, and I answer questions about the new season like a walking advertisement, but I still think it's really fucking weird.

Anyway, back to blogging!

Oh, I miss blog time. Did you guys know that I blogged more in 2013 than I have all of the years since I started this blog? I was wondering why that was the case, and I don't think it's just because I was particularly interested in blogging last year, I think it's because my life is more exciting these days. No wait, that makes me sound like a loser. My life just has more happenings. I'm doing more things. This isn't helping, is it?

Reading week has gone away, and I miss it terribly. It's not so much the free time that I miss, but (loser time again) having people around.  Being back in Guelph I keep wanting to tell people arbitrary things about my day, like the other night I swear I felt the ground shake in my kitchen. I know it didn't, but I felt it. It was weird, but not at all important or significant. If I lived with friends/family I would have told them about it. But I don't. It would have made for a really odd and hard to understand text. So I didn't say anything. To anybody. And I miss banal conversations with people around me!

Doughnuts and Buffy. Man, it was a good week.

We also found a T-Rex in the living room. I'm telling you, it was a fucking exciting week.

(Loser time) I'm just  not around people that much anymore... Which sounds... bad? I see people in class, and I talk to them, but... that's it? Kind of. Sometimes. This semester has been reminding me a lot of first year, actually. I guess the main change is that one of my closest friends is away on exchange this semester (it's so cool- she's in England- she's so cool- it sounds amazing). She was my go-to pal for... actually pretty much everything so her absence has impacted my life quite a bit. She also reads this blog. I MISS YOU, MAN.

I'm making this sound really sad and awful, but it's not that bad. I have a lot of experience as a hermit and that is at least partially because I don't mind the lifestyle. I'm not huge on socializing, especially unexpectedly. Not unexpectedly in the "oh no, surprise encounter!" sense but more of a if I'm not in the mood to talk to people and I come across people I'm not very good at people. I am a homebody and I do appreciate time spent by myself, but over the holidays I spoil myself with a constant availability of companionship that I miss when I'm in Guelph. Hopefully that explains my situation a little bit better. I'm not drowning in the loneliness, a lot of the time I'm pretty fond of lone-ness, but I miss my best pal and my fam, which wouldn't be bad if they weren't all gone at the same time. Make sense?

Reading it over I still sound like I'm either crying myself to sleep every night or am in fact a weird sociopath that hates people. I guess I can't express this morning. I'm happy, internet! I swear!

I swear!

Oh, I just remembered that I sat down to write this to update you on my job search. I got one job (for next school year) and didn't get the other. So overall I'm thinking yay! Employment!