HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PROFESSOR QUIRRELL!    Well, according to the Project Orpheus timeline, anyway.  XD  With Pottermore, Rowling made his birthday officially September 26th, but I decided that I put enough work into making the Project Orpheus timeline without a lot of canon background that I'm going to, for once, say "Fuck canon," and go with mine.  

Anyway, I've been up to some stuff lately...  As usual...  XD

Break did get better when ~Ikaeru got back, thankfully, but it was still crazy stressful.  I've been an emotionally volatile mess lately, and stress and pressures and annoyingness are certainly not being helpful.  

I never really talked about it, aside from mentioning in the last journal that mom would be coming back into town, but she had gone on a trip to Colorado with her boyfriend over break and they were camping in the mountains (In the winter, it was stupid, I know.  ).  She came back, following the posting of the last journal, and her immediate response was to start bitching at Zion and I for having not done dishes that day (when she left pots and pans in the sink when she left), for not having taken down Christmas stuff yet (it wasn't even New Year's and that's when we traditionally do that kind of thing.), and for other assorted nonsense.   It was stressful as hell.  Plus, her love-sick-puppy-ness multiplied HEAVILY when she got back because her guy proposed on top of the mountain...  These people have known each other for less than two months.   They're getting married in June, and I have to be part of the wedding.  This is not something I condone or support, and I am supposed to be aiding and abetting its perpetration?  The fuck?  

So that frustration spawned other frustrations, and I am now acutely aware of the pressure to marry being pushed at people my age.  Including my mother, three other couples I know of got engaged over or around break, radio commercials on the infrequent occasions I tune in are constantly advertising for wedding photographers and bridal shows, and countless other sources are going, "YOU!  FEMALE IN YOUR EARLY 20S!  GO!  MARRY!  BREED!"  It's sickening and frustrating when I know that those pressures are going to be there forever and that, though we've talked about it, marriage for me, provided I stay with ~Ikaeru, isn't going to be a thing for another four years, just because of how he feels about it and the fact that I agree with his stance.  Anyway, that's just one of the little stupids that's pissing me off lately.  

School started up again, and, after a bluh break, it was quite welcome.  Getting moved back into the dorms was nice because having my own space is fantastic.  I'm taking four classes and probably ought start looking for a job.    The plan is to move "out" this summer.  Now, because mom's going to be getting a place with my new step-dad (yeah...that's a thing now... o.O)  Zion and I are going to be in charge of cat-care, we might wind up renting the upstairs of the Cheshire house from my mother...  We have a couple other options, yes: An apartment over my father's might be opening up around that time and one of ~Ikaeru's friends has asked us if we want to move into a house with him and his girlfriend.  However, the option to stay at the Cheshire house allows for the cats to stay in one place and not be split up, for my brother to not have to move either, and for the place to come mostly furnished, depending on what all mom decides to take to the new place.  We're still thinking, but we're certainly seriously considering that option...

Anyway, back to classes.  I'm taking a 100-level, a 200-level, a 300-level, and a 400-level.  XD  The 100-level is Classical Antiquity in Popular Culture, a Monday night-class.  Effectively, we talk about movies and mythology and ancient culture on Mondays and have an optional film-viewing on Fridays.  Fun.  Easy.  Wew.  My 200-level is Medieval Art History on Tuesday nights.  It's going to be a bit tougher, since my art experience is rather limited, but should still prove quite interesting.  Medieval Lit on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, is my 300-level.  I've read a little of this stuff before, like Chaucer, but we're going to be learning to read Middle English which'll be cool.  I fortunately had the textbook for this one ahead of time.  XD  I'd wisely saved my anthology from English Literature before 1800 that I took second semester my freshman year (incidentally the same semester I met ~Ikaeru, though it was in a different class).  My 400-level is my capstone on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  It's a Shakespeare-focus, mostly working with adaption, which is something I LOVE SO MUCH OH MY GOD!  XD  ~Ikaeru's in that one with me which is awesome and nice.    And yeah, you read that right, if you were paying attention.  I don't have class on Fridays.    Well, just the optional movie, but it's just an optional movie.  

Other than that stuff, I've been playing Minecraft like crazy lately.  I played through an adventure map: [link] and am working on a City Construction Challenge: [link] that's going really well.  I'm up to almost done with Stage 3.  I just need to build another community building and possibly do some more fiddling about with the wall.  

~Ikaeru and I have been watching Burn Notice since I got back.  I'm definitely enjoying it.  XD  It's good stuff.  Other than that, I haven't been up to too much.  I've been having some ideas for fantasy settings start rolling around in my head from all of the medieval stuff I'm doing lately, which is cool.  I need to start getting some of it down on paper...  

Other than that.  Yeah...that's it really.  XD  Later.