*yawn*

Okay, so this is going to be one lameass LJ post. Suffice it to say that my relatives haven't gotten any easier to tolerate in the months since Christmas. If I feel so inclined, I may go into more detail later. For now, however, I'll stick with this: we all survived mostly intact.

I redesigned my website over the weekend, and though the new version isn't ready to put up yet, it looks a lot better than the old one. It's cleaner, the graphics are better, and I'm including my essays and travelogues as well as my other writings and icons. At any rate, I like working on it - it's relaxing.

Drabbles 41-45 are cut below, as is a random quiz that's really a little pathetic but nevertheless funny. All drabbles are set immediately post-Not Fade Away, and they're based on the Counting Crows title "Goodnight LA." Enjoy!

( Angel )

( Spike )

( Gunn )

( Illyira )

( Lorne )

( My LJ RPG Team )

Democracy and Post-Its

I signed up to be a pollworker again today (I performed the same job in the January primaries) - I figure that if I can't vote I can at least try to help others - and had to sit through another one of the most boring orientations on earth. On one side of me sat a thirtysomething man who was either extremely hyperactive or high on something; on my other side perched an old partially deaf woman who kept asking me what the speaker was saying. Then a girl from school (Amber? Ashley? Amanda? Alex? I couldn't remember) arrived and naturally sat behind me so I was forced to make polite conversation with her. Apparently, she knows me fairly well, which made me feel bad, because I don't know her at all. It's always embarrassing when someone I've met only once or twice seems very familiar with my life, classes, and activities. It makes me feel like I should be paying attention to what she is doing, even though I don't normally associate with her.

Then I went to GW to get my books for the fall semester. I had to buy two paperbacks - one full of short stories, the other an anthology of poetry - and since I was in the college supply store, I also bought Post-Its. I'm the worst at resisting office supplies. I love fun pens, notebooks, folders, binders and those dividers with the little tabs, highlighters, markers.... I am, however, most susceptible to Post-Its. I am addicted to colorful Post-It notes. The square yellow ones don't do it for me - I have to get the blue ones, the green ones, the purple ones, the clear plastic ones, the star- and arrow-shaped ones, the ones that come in a little dispenser attached to a highlighter, the flags that come in those fun little cases. I'm a total Post-It junkie.

In my defense, though, Post-Its are practical. I have one on my computer that notes my library code to renew books online; one on the edge of the bulletin board reminds me that I need to renew my passport; I mark passages in books with them so I don't have to dog-ear pages in order to find my favorite sections. And there's always a brightly colored Post-It marking the answer section in my math textbook that corresponds to the night's homework.

You know how some people form drug habits? I have a new disease, known commonly as Staples Syndrome. It's thus far incurable.