my moral standing is lying down

So I moved out of my apartment on Jan 1st and am now sort of living with my parents and occasionally staying over at friends' places. But then I got sick for like 5 days and that was all at my parents' house. I barely moved from the couch and watched SO many music documentaries, it was kind of the most awesome thing ever. =DDD

You'll be glad to know that Liz and I just settled on the road trip route and itinerary to LA-- which she'll be taking with me!!! I'm so excited to be going on a cross country road trip with my sister, you don't even know! We're both pretty much grinning like idiots over it. Ahahaha, only downside? She never actually learned how to drive. So, there's that.

Whatever, this is the plan for my ROAD TRIPPPPPPP: \m/

NYC > Pittsburgh > Louisville > Memphis > New Orleans > Ft Worth > Albuquerque > Phoenix > LA

If you're somewhere on this route and want to meet up, let me know!!!! =D

---

Aaaand, this is sort of late on my part, but I've been sick and actually without internets except on my phone while at my parents' house--

Please help spread the word: SINTE FICATHON SIGN-UPS are due on SUNDAY!
(Late sign-ups will definitely be accepted!)

Pic? URL: http://i41.tinypic.com/17qwbd.png
Link to post? URL: http://osaraba.livejournal.com/431536.html

I've really got to get back into the habit of posting again, I really hate going a whole week without checking my flist and then having to play catch-up and missing awesome things like music friending memes and M&G/concert reports, and then also having like a million things to update about, too. So here goes.

Drove down to Philly on Tuesday so Juliet and I could get inked. This was also THE DAY OF THE DC EARTHQUAKE WTF. Juliet had to take the bus back that night so Nicole did her first; I stayed over and she did me and I drove back to NYC on Wednesday afternoon. So actually, these weren't as painful as the chest tats I had done a couple years ago (and didn't take as long, either -- 5 hours altogether instead of 8), but the aftermath has been way worse. My upper arms are very swollen, which is sometimes uncomfortable and sometimes very painful; I've got heat rash from the humidity like you wouldn't believe. Don't even ask me to describe it because it's horrible and icky and you don't want to know. The redness probably won't go away for another two weeks, but I'm hoping the swelling will lessen soon because it SUCKS. And also I've got a fucking P!ATD concert to go to on Thursday and I'm going to be on the fucking rail if it kills me. Which, let's face it, it won't, because it's a P!ATD concert and I'll have to restrain myself from popping 15-year olds in the face, but maybe I can find a bunch of guys and convince them to start a mosh pit with me. LOLZ.

Anyway, I'm not posting pics of the back-of-the-arm tats til they look better. But here's a pic of the third one, on my right forearm. A prize for you if it rings a bell:



The other big news of the day is that I'M GOING TO INDONESIA FOR SIX WEEKS!!! Um, yeah. So, I'm currently unemployed and I've got relatives there that I can stay with for free and a dollar goes a LOT farther there than here, so... yeah. I'm sort of SUPER EXCITED and also like, SIX FUCKING WEEKS, WTF. But I mean, I've meant to go to Indonesia for a couple of years now and what better time to go than when I don't actually have to take vacation days to do it? Liz is going to come with for 10 days at the beginning and then leave to go back to work. I'm ecstatic over that because while I still would've gone, it just wouldn't be the same without her. And meeting a hundred relatives for the first time, most of whom don't speak English, will be a lot less intimidating and a lot easier to handle when we've got each other. =D

You know what's going to be the weirdest? I'm going to a place where I will BLEND IN WITH THE NATIVES. Think about that for a second. And I don't mean that I will, really, because I'm sure I'll be dressed differently and relatively easily-identified as a foreigner (or a freak), but-- I could theoretically just disappear into the crowd. I've never, NEVER, looked like anyone else. In NYC there are so many ethnicities -- and I've only ever lived in areas that have extremely diverse populations (Queens is really good at that) -- but the Indonesian population here is relatively small and I've never really been part of it and I've NEVER looked like everyone else. This whole idea is sort of freaking me out!

So, two things of note:

1. Indonesia is 11 HOURS AHEAD. Which means, tweeps, that I will try to stalk your twitters anyway and DON'T LEAVE ME OUT OF ANY IMPORTANT CONVOS OR UPDATES, OR I WILL BE VERY DISSAPOINT. #wolfpack
   
   
2. Do you or someone you trust happen to be looking for a room in NYC to sublet for 4-6 weeks? If so, please point them my way!

To reiterate: INDONESIA. SIX WEEKS.
Spencer Smith is now going to demonstrate how I feel:






ETA:...oh yeah, that whole itinerary thing I meant to post:

Friday 09/09/11:
CX 841 JFK 10:05 → HKG 14:05
CX 719 HKG 16:00 → CGK 19:40 (arrive Saturday evening)
[22.5 hours travel time]

Monday 10/24/11:
CX 798 CGK 00:05 → HKG 05:50
CX 830 HKG 09:20 → JFK 13:10
[24 hours travel time]

Spencer was the boy at the drums with the gorgeous smile who could lay out a joke so dry it wasn't funny until Ryan laughed.

This description from Anywhere You Let It Go by skoosiepants has been stuck in my mind since I read it earlier this week; I just can't stop thinking about it. Anyway, if you haven't read any of her fic (which you probably have since it's like four years old by now), just go and read it all. Because it's all insanely quirky and amazing. And I now know more about fanon!MCR and fanon!Cobra Starship than I ever thought I would. Everyone in bandom is clearly nuts. =D

In other news, I have been a hermit this whole week, have barely talked to anyone, and it's sort of freaking me out but I can't seem to do a whole lot to fix it. =/

ETA: Oh yeah, Liz and Juliet found an apartment in Woodside, right off the 7 train, so even though it's not suuuuper easy to get to, they're going to be pretty close and it will all be theoretically awesome! Technically, there IS a bus, at least, that goes pretty closely between our places, so there's a plus.

So this past weekend -- what did I end up doing?

I said that my cancelled plans had been uncancelled, but that was a bit of a lie. Instead, I WENT TO LONDON FOR THE WEEKEND! A friend gifted me with plane tickets to London to visit my sister, and made me promise not to tell ANYONE until after I got there. INCLUDING MY SISTER. OMG, it was THE MOST HYSTERICAL THING EVAR! <3

My sister was completely surprised. I just showed up on her doorstep -- I literally woke her up Saturday morning at 9:30am by knocking on her door. =D It's a good? thing that security is so lax? Well, I also look like a student, so it's not like I raise any suspicion... also, coincidentally, I had excellent timing. I was worried I'd have to wait a long time to get into her building, but a bunch of guys were going back into the building at the same time I got there so I didn't have to wait at all. Then, as I approached her flat door I heard someone coming out of the bathroom as I knocked; one of her flatmates just opened the door for me. Haha, then I knocked on her door. She told me she came to the door all angry because she thought it was the cleaning lady and that "it was so unnecessary for the cleaning lady to be knocking on my door at 9:30am on a Saturday morning!"

HAHA, SO GREAT!

I left Friday after work, so to those who may have called to wish me a happy birthday after around 6pm New York time, my phone was off as I was on an airplane to London by then.

We had an awesome time hanging out, going around. The weather was GORGEOUS! We went to Ministry of Sound and had some issues with American swipe credit cards and UK ATMs... which resulted in Elizabeth getting in for free! HAHAHA! (Unfortunately, the music there is mostly boring...) But on the way back... someone puked on the bus we were on. The guy totally tried to act all nonchalant after, too. Pretty funny.

Liz and I would intermittently turn to each other and ask what I was doing there.

It was a great weekend, and an awesome birthday gift. =D

This past weekend was awesome indeed... Liz is back home (YAYE!!!!!!), Izzard was great!!!!, and the move went AMAZINGLY well! We were able to get to Ikea even, to pick up a bunch of the stuff we needed! Thank you guys, SO MUCH, for helping us out -- Jerry, Juliet, Sean, AJ, John, Cube! More of you came out to help than I really expected, which was kind of surprising, and really, really great! It certainly cut a few hours' worth of time off of my expectations!

As for this Friday -- I have a cargo van rented. This is the dilemma: we need to pick up a few more things from Ikea, but it will close at 6pm that day. I think it would be wise to do one trip from my house to the new place with all Maryann's furniture (we know it will all fit because we did this when she moved in) and whatever other big stuff we can fit in at the same time. We drop it off at the new place, then 2 people go with me to Ikea. Hopefully at least one of those 2 people will be a guy with strong upper-body strength (I'll be buying a new bed, and it's going to be unwieldy, I think). ^_~

Meanwhile, a few people can be at the new place helping Judy move stuff from that room we put all the stuff in, into her room.

At Ikea, we already know exactly what we need to get, so we can go directly to the self-service area and get the boxes, pay for them, and then go back to my place to fill up the van with whatever else will fit.

As long as we have help with the furniture and heavy stuff in that first trip, and the Ikea boxes in the 2nd trip, we'll be fine. Whatever boxes are left over after that will be able to be moved pretty easily -- and maybe we could even take them with my car and not use the rental van mileage, depending on how much stuff it is.

Please keep in mind that the van will fit 2 additional people -- one in the passenger seat, and one on the floor between the driver and passenger seats (or maybe someone in the back if they're willing, but that will only work to/from Ikea).

In addition, I may or may not have access to my car to drive between my place and the new place. If not, though, I can pay for a cab. ^^

So.... Sean, AJ -- any preferences as to what you want to be doing? If you go directly to the new place to help Judy, I'll ask some combination of Jerry/Ben/Juliet to meet at my house to help load the van. If you come to my house first, I'll ask them to go over to help Judy instead.

Have I mentioned how much I appreciate you guys helping us move all our shit? I really, really do, you know!!! (Ahhh-- this makes me feel even worse I couldn't help you guys move recently!)

Last night I got to hang out with Angelica for a little while. We went to the mall to eat and had just enough time to go into JC Penney's. I thought I'd see if there was anything that I could get 'cause they're having a sale (see post about my weakness for a sale). I tried on a couple of things, but nothing fit right. I know I've complained before that all the regular sizes are too small, but the "plus" sizes are often too big. (Which is why I always spend so much when I go to Lane Bryant -- 'cause their stuff actually fits me properly.) But, yes, I'm sure you don't care about all that.

The amazing part was that while I didn't buy anything, Angelica ended up getting two pairs of jeans AND two button-down shirts for work. LOLOL! Heehee! It's fun when that happens 'cause usually it's the other way around: I spend lotsa money while she watches and laughs with her still-full wallet!

Liz is coming home today, yay! Her plane lands at around 5:15pm, so I won't be there to pick her up 'cause my interview is at 5:30. And I think she might be going practically from the airport to her friend's sleepover/party thing. So I won't really be able to see her. But it'll still be nice to know she's back in NY. You know, it's odd, but I think I missed her more these last 6 days than I did when she was gone for 10 to Italy. I think it might have to do with the fact that I talked/LJ-commented with her more often than I did when she was in Italy. I dunno.

You know, I'm never nervous for interviews until the day of. It really sucks.