REB #12: “She’s not going to have premarital sex until she’s married.”

– Bright Abbott on Everwood

If you don’t know me very well, you may not know this, but I watch TV like it’s my job; I watch entirely too much TV.

Which means that this past week has been amazing and yet stressful for me. On top of homework, class, and work, I now have to add a large pile of TV shows to my to do list. Thankfully, True Blood is over for the season, and Mad Men will be over next month. That’s two shows down for the season, at least 13-18 to go (depending on how you count them).

I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂

Sundays, I’m watching Brothers and Sisters (ABC) and Dexter(Showtime) – and, for a few more weeks, Mad Men (AMC), which I am relieved to say did a complete 180º, going from a terrible season 3 to an awesome season 4.

Mondays, I have nothing for now, but I plan to watch Lonestar (FOX) at some point, even though I’m 98% sure it’s going to be cancelled. I saw the pilot, and I really liked it. Anyway, in the spring, my Monday show will be The United States of Tara (Showtime).

Tuesdays, I’m watching Glee (FOX), Life Unexpected (The CW), and Parenthood (NBC). Unfortunately, the critically acclaimed Life Unexpected will probably be cancelled after its initial 13-episode second season order, due to low ratings. Parenthood didn’t exactly rock the ratings house either. In November, V (ABC) premiers, and if it stays in the same timeslot, it will air on Tuesdays; honestly, I don’t expect it to be renewed for a third season. I’ve seen the pilot to No Ordinary Family(ABC) and will likely be watching that as well, and I want to watch Raising Hope (FOX) at some point, but it’s going to have to wait.

Wednesdays, I have no commitments, but I am mildly interested in Undercovers (NBC). I might watch it when the season is over. Also, in the spring, Glee and Raising Hope will be switching to Wednesdays to make room for American Idol.

Thursdays, I’m watching The Vampire Diaries (The CW), 30 Rock (NBC), and The Office (NBC). I was actually impressed with The Office’s premier, as I did not like last season and fully expected this one to be terrible as well. They’ve got me for at least a few more episodes. Also on the potentially watch list is Nikita (The CW). I’ve seen the pilot, and for a CW remake, it was actually pretty good. And surprisingly strong in the ratings.

Fridays, I’m watching the final season of Smallville (The CW) – which started off amazing, by the way – as well as the shouldn’t-even-exist sixth season of Supernatural (The CW). It’s not that I didn’t want Supernatural to be renewed; it’s just that I wanted the producers/network to stick to the original five-year plan that the show’s creator had. This surprise renewal resulted in a bit of a cop-out for the season five ending, which should have been amazing but instead was a little too miraculous for my taste. That said, the premier left something to be desired, but I’ll continue watching out of loyalty and to see if it gets back to the high-quality episodes I know the show can produce. Anyway, in the spring, I’ll be watching the spinoff/second season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Starz). I’m so sad for Andy Whitfield and wish him the best in his cancer treatment. I hope he’ll be better in time for season three, but obviously, it’s not about the show. Best wishes, Andy. Get some rest. Take your time. ❤

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.

All This Busyness Business

Wow, it’s a busy week.

Sunday, Justin and I went to the aquarium with Lori, Kari, Eli, Wendy, and Danielle. It was a University of Baltimore event night. UB students got in for free; it was only $5 or $6 for Justin. Not bad, considering it’s normally $25 to go, and I don’t think they’re usually open at night. After walking around there for about an hour, and taking lots of pictures (*placeholder for pictures*), we went to ESPN Zone to eat and watch some of the All-Star game (for Lori, Wendy, and Eli) and Olympics. Then we went home. I had to go to bed early because I had to get up at…

7:30, or so, a.m. the next day. I have to work, so I walk Justin to his parking spot at Penn Station (because of the snow emergency in Maryland, there’s no guest parking at my apartment for the time being). He drives me back to the school, and we say goodbye. He goes home. I get my keys from the Public Safety desk and go across the street to the Business Center so I can clock in for work. Since I had a migraine the morning before, I haven’t finished my reading for class tonight. I work on it during any break I can get from work. It’s a pain.

I read at the desk; I read on lunch break; I read after work, at home, where I finally finish the reading. I finalize my writing assignment and print it out. I try to come up with a screenplay idea for my screenwriting class but get nothing. I make a sandwich for tonight since I won’t have much time for dinner because I have class from 5:30 to 10:45 p.m., with a fifteen-minute break between classes.

I go to screenwriting. It’s fun. We do a collaborative “screenplay idea” project, and my group actually comes up with a great idea. The professor has brought snacks, but ironically, this is the only class time in which we won’t watch any movie clips; and it’s because the snow day has caused us to cram material together.

In Experimental Forms, the professor says that he hadn’t contacted us during the snow break (no shit?) and that he decided we will just push everything forward a bit and try to fix the missing class later on. He couldn’t have told us that? So we didn’t break our backs trying to read the assigned reading, as well as finish the writing assignment from the class period that we lost? Oh well. Some of us hadn’t finished the reading anyway, but we all have the writing assignment done. Which we read next, out loud, one at a time. There are around twenty of us, so it takes most of class. One of us doesn’t read; she’s like that sometimes; she’s pretty shy. But she could at least give it a shot instead of saying, “My name is _____. I don’t want to read mine.” She’s the only one who doesn’t read. There’s no way she can keep this up and get a good participation grade. Then again, I’m not feeling so hot about my grade tonight either. I don’t speak much because of the nature of tonight’s class. I can’t comment on things read out loud to me (for the first time, at least), on the fly. I need to see it in front of me and have time for thoughts to fester. I’m not going to like these writing exercise classes. *sigh*

After class, I say goodnight to Mike and Lori and walk home with Kari. We say goodnight at the door and each go to our separate rooms. I come back out and pour some cereal. I eat while surfing the Internet—getting caught up on my YouTubes and checking my e-mail. I have a long e-mail to respond to but don’t have the energy or time tonight. I feel bad because I’ve been neglecting people today. Hélène had called during work, and I haven’t called her back yet. I realize I don’t have to work at 9 a.m. the next morning like I thought; I’m scheduled for noon. I stay up a bit longer, surfing, talking to Justin via IM. I get hungry again and eat some pretzels and Cheez-Its. I go to bed, trying to think of story ideas as I drift off to sleep.

I’m at work now—noon, not 9—writing this. I have to write a story for tomorrow’s Fiction class. I have an e-mail to write and a phone call to return. And a tax return to re-send, because I put the wrong zip code or something. I’m overwhelmed.

I’ll have class tomorrow evening. I’ll finish the story during the day (or not; he had said we don’t have to have them finished, per se). I’ll try to do the tax return, the e-mail, the phone call. I’ll relax at 9 p.m. with LOST on ABC. 🙂

I’ll try to remain sane.

I might succeed.

P. S. I want a Tivo. And a new camera, or two.

UPDATE: Sent the e-mail, finished the tax return. I’ll make the phone call soon. Then I’ll get caught up on my TV (still have to watch last week’s Supernatural and this week’s Life Unexpected), get dinner, and get ready for LOST.

Snow Update

All this snow was fun for a few days, but in the last couple of days, it has officially become a pain. Thursday, Kari and I spent about an hour digging her car out of the snow so she could go to a follow-up job interview the next morning. The wall/gate around the parking lot had fallen down on one side because of the snow. Some protection that was!

And I had to skip The Vampire Diaries (while we were digging) and Supernatural (while I was making myself some dinner) because of it. I just watched 30 Rock at 9:30 while I ate. I plan on getting caught up today.

Last night, Justin came over, and it was annoying finding a place for him to park. The parking lots are, of course, not plowed very well, so people were just parking wherever they could find room. So that’s what he did, too. We considered going over to Lori’s to hang out with her and Mike and Kari, but as we had just found a parking space and hadn’t seen each other in over a week because of the snow, we decided to stay in.

I’ve been staying up until 4 a.m. and sleeping until around 11—this snow has messed up my schedule—so it was nice that Justin had to leave early this morning to be back in time for a dress fitting. I think he’s done with this particular freelance job. On to the next one! Anyway, I got up about 9:30 today, so I’m hoping that will get me back on track. By the end of today, I plan to get caught up on The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, and The Office, as well as finish reading The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, for class. I pretty much hate it. Everything in my Experimental Forms class has been difficult to get through. *sigh*

Oh well. Another requirement down, after this semester (two actually, plus an elective). In three months, I’ll have a year of my program done. If I think about it like that, it’s going a little too fast (but we still have summer)! I guess that’s why we are planning as many events as possible while we’re here—me, Lori, Kari, Mike, Danielle, Wendy, Eli, Tykia, and some others, plus Justin for some of them. We might go to the aquarium tomorrow (there’s something special there on Valentine’s Day), but Justin and I will probably go to dinner or something to have some alone time.

I guess I should get to work on my plans for today. Vampire Diaries, here I come!

P.S. If you couldn’t tell, Justin and I are still dating and are official (have been for over a month at this point). I apologize for the confusion, if you care enough to be confused (LOL), but I had to wait until after I was fully out to my family, which happened over Christmas break. Finally.

Open for Friday?

Apparently, the University is going to be open tomorrow, officially, but liberal leave is in effect, so a lot of classes probably won’t happen (thankfully, I don’t have any classes after Wednesday anyway). Phase II of the Snow Emergency Plan for Baltimore City is still in effect for Friday, so cars will be towed if they are blocking snow emergency routes. Free parking for all University of Baltimore members at the Fitzgerald Garage “on Friday and through 8 p.m. on Sunday.” What that means is anyone’s guess; it’s kind of ambiguous.

So, seriously? We’re really going to open for one day?

And we’re supposed to get more snow next Monday. I wonder how that will go.

For now, I’ve finally started reading for Monday’s class, just in case, and I’d like to get most of it done by tomorrow so I can work on my writing for Monday and Wednesday. But on top of all that, I’m watching Ugly Betty, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, The Office, 30 Rock, and Smallville this weekend. And I’d like to get caught up on Nip/Tuck (I’m SO close!).