the Dalaverse

Just a bit added to this part to connect it. I'm fucking with the he said/she said chapter format here, but I was never too bound by it anyway.


"For Want of a Nail" Chapter Nine: ( In Which There Is Lots of Yelling and Slamming of Doors, Also Some Pillow Mutilation )

These Hershey's milkshake drinks are awesome. Bless the campus store for carrying them, as well as the best, cheesiest white cheese popcorn I've ever had.

Clearly I've gotten past the whole "I hate food EWW *gag*" thing.

I kept meaning to post about the weekend, but everytime I sat down at my computer I started to write more "Nail." Which isn't a bad thing, of course, merely inconvenient as it's midterm week. I only have one midterm-related thingy left, the lovely ten-page (that's TEN PAGES PRECISELY, not nine-and-a-half, not nine-and-three-quarters) due for Silex on Friday. I figure hey, all my classes for tomorrow are cancelled, it's the perfect day to camp out at the library without any distractions. Except for me, the library ITSELF is the distraction. Dude. The books live there! How am I supposed to concentrate when I'm surrounded by BOOKS?!

Anyway, Satuday was the visit of Vanessa's friend Tim, who was nice enough and is clearly smitten with Vanessa, who has told me that she adores him as a friend but has no romantic feelings for him. It was kinda sad. She didn't hug him when he got there or when he left, and I said why not, and she goes, "Tim and I...don't hug." They used to date so it was extra-awkward. We wandered around campus for awhile, had brunch, I got my ass kicked in LOTR Trivial Pursuit, then took a nap while they played card games and gambled with Creamsavers. Vanessa has this thing for gambling. She figured out how to bet during Trivial Pursuit and Go Fish, for heaven's sake, and made up all these complicated rules. Girl should just stay outta Vegas.

But the most important thing about Saturday was that it reminded me I need to hang out in cemetaries more often. In particular, our own cemetary, down by the old Episcopal church. Perhaps I'm biased, but it is one of the most beautiful spots you can imagine. Big old cemetaries are peaceful to start out with, but this one's bordered by the river on three sides. There are benches and trees scattered around, a memorial to Lord Calvert, a family crypt that I can only assume is for cremated bodies because it's all sunken into the ground with tiny little squares. And from the side that leads to Historic St. Mary's City, you could actually see the model of the Dove they've got down there. WHICH I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT. 'Cause I still haven't gone to Historic SMC, even though I get in free. Because I'm an idiot.

If I'm not careful, I might get addicted to living surrounded by water. The view from the cemetary is especially impressive, though for sitting and contemplating I favor the arbor over by the Garden of Remembrance, because it's tucked away and I would rather be hidden than sit on benches out in the open.

Oh! And the headstones. The cemetary is pretty damn old. We were just giving it a casual run-through with Tim and we could only find some as far back as the mid-1800s, but Ness and I swear we've seen some 1700s stones too. Most of the older ones are illegible or sunken so deep into the ground that you can't read them, but I have definitely seen at least one from the 18th century. And then, then there's MY headstone.

Picture this. You are casually walking past the cemetary, heading to the bench overlooking Church Point, when you happen to glance over and see a large marble headstone with YOUR FIRST NAME carved into it. No other information, not the rest of the deceased's name or a date, just your first name. And it's not like your first name is all that common as a last name.

This is disconcerting, to say the least.

However, I've moved past freaking the fuck out at seeing my (first. JUST THE FIRST) name on a gravestone, to the point where I must pose with it and take solemn pictures, wacky pictures, weird avant garde pictures, anything.

Yeah, it's still creepy, but it's also cool.

Moving on, Saturday night we went to see the production of "Don Juan Comes Back from the War" in Monty. What a weird fucking play, that's all I have to say about that.

Sunday was mostly spent writing. I did go see "The Matrix: Revolutions." Now I read all the press on this film and I decided that there was only one way it and I were going to have a mutually pleasurable experience. It depended on two conditions: that I didn't expect it to make sense, and that it didn't expect me to take it seriously. Adhereing to those conditions, I had myself a grand old time watching shit get blowed up and Keanu Reeves bad-act.

Then I got told the news about Beth's baby and freaked out for the rest of the night. It was fun. Yesterday was a terribly simple Polysci midterm, and today was just regular class. I love my Tuesday/Thursday classes mostly because the professors are people I'd want to hang out with in a non-school sense. In Richardson's class we got into several off-topic discussions about feminist critique of the Arthurian legends, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne Rice, and British comedy. Professor Guyton's just all-around funny. I have some great quotes from her that might be converted into away messages.

And tomorrow will hopefully be paper-writing, or at least paper-starting, day. Boooo. Until then I will work on the dream sequences for "Nail." Norrington also gets some attention from his lieutenants, though not in a dirty way. They make him understand the difference between his desire for friendship and his desire for Jack, which incorporates friendship but is so many other things as well. Jack, meanwhile, gets to suffer a relapse, be threatened by dear old Mrs. Perry, and cuddle (not with Norrington, though, as he's off playing pirate-hunter). It's gonna be good times.

::chants:: I will not write tomorrow. I will not write tomorrow. I will not write tomorrow.

Wait, scratch that: I will write MY LIT PAPER tomorrow. I will write my TEN-PAGE LIT PAPER tomorrow. I will write my TEN-PAGE LIT PAPER THAT'S DUE FRIDAY tomorrow.

But before that, a little more "Nail," dream sequences and lieutenant-lurve included.


"For Want of a Nail" Chapter Ten: ( In Which There Are Two Kinds of Ghosts )