I had designs on getting to bed early tonight, seen as though school starts back up on Wednesday and I am going to need to have adjusted my rhythm back to normal by then. I wasn't ready when Andrew was. I wanted to check the status of my eBay auctions, blow out the candles, and drink a little more water before going to sleep. Still not tired, I decided I would pick my book back up (I'm working on Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman, in case you haven't been following my last few entries). On my way to bed I noticed that Darwin was still up so I thought I'd take her out of her cage and snuggle with her while I read. The iguana had absolutely no intentions on remaining still. She crawled down to the foot of the bed and proceeded to try and ingest the comforter. I went to the fridge to retrieve some baby spinach and I hand it to fed her. When she had her fill of that she resumed her attempts to consume the blanket. I brought her some mixed veggies and she ate a little, followed some collard greens. Darwin began to lose interest in food so she crawled on top of Andrew. He was sleeping on his stomach, as usual. Rand normally sleeps on top of him and tonight was no exception. I sensed a Kodak moment coming on so I ran to get my camera off the printer dock. Here are the resulting images.
I have just finished updating my eBay About Me page. I'm hoping that Andrew and I will get around to putting up my auctions later on this evening. I'll make updates to this entry once something has been posted. There are thirteen more items/lots remaining, but that can wait for tomorrow. My back and shoulders are hurting from hunching over this keyboard. I'm going to talk Andrew into playing a little SH3.
I got some assistance from Andrew and the wav file that I made the other night using my iPod and voice recorder accessory has been converted to MP3 and uploaded to my website. If you're really daring, you can listen to it. I just don't want any nastygrams about how bad my singing is. I'd rather persist under the delusion that I'm a halfway decent singer.
As of today, Andrew and I have been together for five years. In honor of our anniversary I would like to share with you how it is that we came to be a couple.
chatting_ron: so how did you and Andrew meet?
chatting_ron: as a single guy, I like to hear how people actually get together
chatting_ron: gives me hope
crystalshiloh1: He was my boss at my first college ;)
chatting_ron: Man...and I don't manage anybody...that doesn't do me any good
chatting_ron: lol
crystalshiloh1: sorry :(
chatting_ron: It's OK, guess it's back to the bars for me
chatting_ron: (just kidding)
crystalshiloh1: It's actually a cute story.
crystalshiloh1: I desperately needed a job on-campus and I needed one that paid pretty well.
crystalshiloh1: I applied to be the webmaster of Financial Aid at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
crystalshiloh1: He was the Associate to the Director of Financial Aid.
chatting_ron: uh huh
chatting_ron: wow...not too shabby
crystalshiloh1: At my interview, he pointed to a rack filled with servers and he asked me to identify each one.
crystalshiloh1: I was like, that's a server, that's a server, that's a server, etc. lmao
crystalshiloh1: Well one machine was actually a Jukebox, then there was the Jukebox server, and there was also an NT server (I could have told him that had the screen saver not been going).
crystalshiloh1: Before I left he gave me the job.
crystalshiloh1: When I went home to my dorm room, no sooner did I peel off my little Ally Mc Beal suit and climb into bed did my phone ring and it was him
crystalshiloh1: he said he wanted to make sure I knew I was hired and when I was to report to work, I was duh ??
chatting_ron: uh huh
chatting_ron: and....?
crystalshiloh1: sorry cat needed to be fed
chatting_ron: lol...I'm on the edge of my seat here....
crystalshiloh1: So anyway, I figured he just needed an excuse to talk to me again.
crystalshiloh1: I reported to work the first day that I was supposed to... time passed by pretty quickly.
crystalshiloh1: I noticed that he was pretty miserable at work
crystalshiloh1: he would always lay his head on his desk or grouch at one of the machines... he seemed very unhappy.
crystalshiloh1: One of his friends visited him as we were all just about to leave the office. I decided to ask Andrew and his buddy to go to a basketball game with me, not as a date but just for fun and his friend managed to talk him into it.
chatting_ron: You asked him out!
chatting_ron: lucky bastard
crystalshiloh1: After that, I tried to get him to go out on an actual date, figuring that I'd show him some attention and he'd cheer up somewhat.
crystalshiloh1: He fucking turned me down!!!!
crystalshiloh1: I had never been turned down EVER!!!
chatting_ron: lol...bet it made you want him even more
crystalshiloh1: I guess for a while I pursued some more because I love a challenge.
crystalshiloh1: and when he finally said yes, I was like ummm NO!!!
crystalshiloh1: It was all just too funny.
chatting_ron: looks like you guys know how to play the game
crystalshiloh1: He came over to my dorm frequently with his friend.
crystalshiloh1: I guess someone was letting him in, because I sure didn't. I wasn't taking his calls either...
crystalshiloh1: Then finally I was having trouble with my roommate and so he offered to let me use his apartment to study.
crystalshiloh1: So, I accepted, and next thing I knew he was trying to pursue a relationship with me.
crystalshiloh1: Since he wouldn't give up I finally relented.
crystalshiloh1: but there's more to this tale.
crystalshiloh1: Before the relationship went any further I asked him before hand if he would tell my (our) boss about the relationship
crystalshiloh1: he said no. That was very important to me because I was paid in advance my entire salary for the semester and there was no way I could repay it if I were to be fired...
chatting_ron: good guy
crystalshiloh1: My tuition was astronomical.
crystalshiloh1: I asked him again and he said he would have to tell her. I made it clear that he better not. As usual, I went to class the next day.
crystalshiloh1: When I returned to my dorm room there was a message on my answering machine from Andrew explaining that he didn't feel honest not telling our boss about our relationship and that he had already divulged the information, despite what he had said to me about keeping it a secret.
crystalshiloh1: I told Andrew when he called that he just single handedly ruined my life and that I would never speak to him again. I refused to go in to work that afternoon.
chatting_ron: good start
crystalshiloh1: Yeah, he was such a jerk, but an honest one at that.
crystalshiloh1: well, when it came to interoffice dating, anyway.
crystalshiloh1: So Andrew walked over to my dorm and rang up. I told him he could rot for all I cared and that he should just go away while I tried to figure out how to fix everything.
chatting_ron: wow
crystalshiloh1: He said to give him just ten minutes to explain. I was like, no. You had your ten minutes when you explained it to Tori (our boss).
crystalshiloh1: I eventually relented and gave him 30 seconds.
crystalshiloh1: He told me that he really cared about me and that he was being moved to another department (to Flight).
chatting_ron: because he wanted to be with you?
crystalshiloh1: That didn't seem improve things much for me.
crystalshiloh1: Then Andrew told me that Tori wanted me to keep my job.
crystalshiloh1: I eventually forgave him.
chatting_ron: lol...i bet you did....
chatting_ron: that's a good story....
chatting_ron: you should post it on your website for people to read
crystalshiloh1: Maybe I will some day, lol
My Internet connection has been intermittent this evening, so I'll upload this entry after Andrew has had a chance to restart the gateway. He went to bed sometime around 11:30 pm. Right now it is nearly midnight and it's snowing outside. I don't get nearly as worked up over snow as I do about rain. I don't find this weather particularly "cozy." Right now I've got iTunes open and I am listening to a song called "Spark" by Tori Amos. I'm in the mood for music I can sing along with. I'm feeling very relaxed and comfy in a soft red sweater. I've still got my fur-lined snow boots on from when we drove out to Metro 29 for dessert. Oh yeah, I finished another book today, Wolves in the Walls, a children's story by Neil Gaiman. I plan to pick up Smoke and Mirrors (also by Gaiman) when I get tired of turning my random thoughts into keystrokes and listening to my MP3s.
So, school starts in a less than a week, six days to be exact. I think I'm ready to go back. One month was more than sufficient for me to build up my energy reserves, generally relax, and less specifically take care of some things that I put off until the end of the semester. I saw two movies in the theater, visited China town with a friend, and Andrew and I hung curtains. I've read five books, and perhaps I'll have a sixth completed before time runs out. Speaking of books and school, I have to be on campus some time this Saturday to pick up one last textbook that wasn't in before and locate all of my classrooms. Not a big deal, just something I need to remember to do. The only other thing left for me to take care of is to post the pile of stuff on my top bunk set aside for eBay. Fun, fun. Andrew and I keep finding other things to do with our free time like going out for dessert, lol. At least all of the snapshots have been taken. Not all have been edited though. I guess I'm just not anxious to see the status of my eBay account. It was hijacked (wc?) maybe hacked is a better word... a few months back, much to my annoyance.
I just decided to try out the voice recorder accessory I got for my iPod. Might as well before I try to record any lectures with it. I recorded myself singing along to a couple of songs. After listening to my first attempt I realized it is not necessary to so close to the mic and so I gave it a second try. It worked much better this time at a distance. I'm listening to myself singing along to Tori's "A Sorta Fairytale." I have this cute little girl voice, lol. At times, I can also hear the hard drive spinning. If I can figure out how to, I'll put a copy up tomorrow. I suspect I'll need Andrew's assistance for that feat of technology. Anyway, I have book waiting for me. I'm going to call it a night after I kick the cable modem real good. Ha! That'll teach it to fuck with me. :)
Ok, I've read the introduction up to the conclusion of the short story entitled "The Wedding Present." I set Smoke and Mirrors aside for a time when I feel like reading more. I wanted to take a moment and comment on my reading selections this break. All, with the exception of Mona Lisa Smile by Deborah Chiel (I'm not even considering A Cherokee Feast of Days by Joyce Sequichie Hifler because that's not a novel or compilation of short stories or anything close to that) contain certain elements that I'd like to eventually see in my own writing. I don't think that I can exactly explain them. I don't even think I want to give it a go. I'm just storing up all of this data, somewhere deep in recesses of my brain, until I am ready to do something with them, when I am at the stage when I will be compelled get down to the business of becoming more serious about my work. I have to say that I'm reading much better material now, since I became a student at George Mason University.
It seems the snow has stopped. I say that although there is little trace that it ever occurred in the first place. On that note I'm calling it a night, although technically, it is already morning and it has been for two hours and some odd minutes.
Yesterday Andrew and I met up with Rebecca and her friend at the Springfield Mall to see Big Fish, as we had tentatively planned to do when we got together for Chinatown earlier this week. The movie was really cool and it is one that I'll want to purchase on DVD when it comes out. We poked around in a few stores afterwards, dry of ideas as to what to do next. We ate and then we parted ways. Andrew and I played some Silent Hill 3 and called it a night sometime in the morning.
Today we took pictures of all the items I set aside to auction off on eBay. We have a turkey breast roasting in the oven, but it will be a while yet until we eat the main course. My Aunt found a recipe for popcorn cauliflower and we decided to try that out. We'll probably try to do a little more with the images we took earlier and play some more SH3 if there is time.
| Class | Hours | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| ENGL-325-001 Dimensions Writing/Literature | 6.0 | A |
| HIST-100-043 Hist Western Civilization | 3.0 | A+ |
| MUSI-101-001 Intro to Classical Music | 3.0 | A |
| RELI-314-001 Chinese Philosophy & Religious Traditions | 3.0 | A |
Current Term Statistics:
GPA: 4.000
Earned Hours: 15.0
Cumulative Statistics thru 2003 Fall Term:
GPA: 3.949
Earned Hours: 54.0
Academic Status at End of Term:
Good Standing
Academic Honors::
Dean's List
I have been spent a good amount of time this winter break doing some reading. I started out with Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. I had bought my copy and had it autographed when I went with a girl from ENGL 325 to hear the author read from her first novel, the The Namesake. I got to it a little bit faster than I otherwise would have because that same girl from class had invited me around that same time to a future meeting of her book club where Interpreter was to be discussed. I enjoyed the book tremendously. Since I was in the mood for more of Lahiri's work, I followed that up with the Namesake (which I also purchased and had autographed at the reading I attended). My Aunt Lil sent me a copy of A Cherokee Feast of Days: Daily Meditations for Christmas and I have been trying to good about keeping up with that. I also read Mona Lisa Smile a novel by Deborah Chiel based on the motion picture. I thought this book might enhance my understanding of women in the 1950s, which I briefly explored in my America in the 1960s class that I took during my first semester at GMU. Having completed it, I don't really feel as though it did. Earlier today I finished Stardust. This is the best book that I have read by Neil Gaiman thus far. It's a fairy tale for adults. You should check it out.
As I mentioned earlier, my friend Rebecca and I went to Chinatown today. It is located in neighboring D.C. There really wasn't much there to see, a lot of Chinese restaurants, a couple of shops, and a grocery store.
Here's where we ate lunch, the Wok n Roll restaurant.
Rebecca is meeting me at the Rosslyn Metro here in a little bit. She sat next to me in Religion two semesters back and that's how we became acquainted with one another. We're planning to go over to Chinatown to browse the shops and perhaps have lunch there. I'm very excited to see my friend. It has been a while since last hung out with each other (we last got together over summer break... I believe that's when we went to the National Cathedral, but I could be entirely mistaken) and to see this area of town I have yet to take a closer look at. I think I might find a few neat things to bring back home. Andrew and I have incorporated a lot of Chinese elements in our home decoration. Who knows? I'm completely up for the adventure. I'm bringing along my new camera so I can take lots of pictures. I'll probably post another entry later on this evening. For right now, I need to hop into the shower so I'll be ready when I get Rebecca's call.
Here's hoping that everyone out there had a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Sorry this comes a bit late, but I needed a break from just about everything... Andrew and I had a wonderful Christmas. We spent it here, just the two of us, in Arlington, VA. I don't have total recall of everything Andrew and I exchanged, but here's the highlights: I gave Andrew a 20 gig iPod and he gave me a 40 gig with an inscription on the back. It reads, "For my dear CrystalShiloh / Love Andrew." We both decided it was time to replace the digital camera I bought back in 2001, a Kodak DC 3400 (which now belongs to my mother). The new camera is a Kodak DX 6490. We also got the printer dock for it and I sent copies of the picture of Andrew and I kissing (see my entry from December 7, 2003) to everyone on my Christmas card list. Andrew's sister gave us some accessories for the camera, among them a 128 MB SD card (we had purchased a 256 MB card when we got the camera, but Andrew also wanted a spare he could use with his Palm Zire 71). She also sent us a camera bag that I picked out and a Kodak kit, containing extra Photo Paper and a spare Cartridge. Andrew got the Indiana Jones DVD box set and I got a blue ceramic bath tub filled with Bath and Body Works goodies. We both received two PS2 games: Amplitude and Silent Hill 3. My mother mailed us some sweaters... My Aunt Lil sent Andrew a vibrating wrist pad to use with his keyboard. She gave me a book on the Cherokee Feast of Days, a metal book mark that says "Happiness" in Chinese calligraphy, and three sterling silver charms wrapped in cute little notes, along with a charm bracelet that fits me much better than my current one.
On Christmas morning Andrew and I made snowflake-shaped eggnog-flavored pancakes. The non-stick molds worked out surprisingly well.
What I really enjoyed most this holiday season was spending copious amounts of time with Andrew... His vacation extended from the day before Christmas Eve until Monday, January 5th. Over that period of time we went shopping, watched a few movies (notably LOTR:ROTK at the Uptown theater in D.C. ) and played video games. We also got a lot of stuff done around the apartment. Notably, we hung curtains in my bedroom and in the living room. We also went through nearly everything we own to clear out the stuff we don't need. Some of it we donated and the rest is waiting in a neat pile in my living room for me to post on eBay. When I get around to posting the auctions I'll announce it here in case anyone out there is interested in Crystal and Andrew memorabilia (just kidding about the memorabilia). We also went to a concert with a friend named Dave from IRC. We saw They Might Be Giants at the 9:30 club on December 30th. We were too pooped to do much about New Year's, but then that has never been a very important holiday to us. I celebrate New Year's at the end of spring semester because over summer break I actually have time to undertake major reforms in my life. Eating dinner out was enough for us coupled with seeing the ball drop on television, speaking of which why is Dick Clark still alive??? Our theory is that he sleeps at night enveloped in Tupperware!!!
Our Christmas tree this year was made out of tinsel. We decided to decorate it with blue LED lights, small blue glass balls, blueberry flavored candy canes, and a few little Hello Kitty ice skating ornaments.
This picture was taken January 2, just before we dismantled the tree.
Darwin and a disembodied hand.
Closeup of Darwin on Andrew's bed.
