Complimentary, my dear.

Today was a day full of wonder and excellence.

Until I look back on it and realize that, while it was somewhat above average, the only real difference was feeling so happy. Maybe it was getting so many worries off my chest this weekend (Symposium speech, job interview, first swing team performance--all of which went quite well, yes, thanks for asking).

I slept in over an our later than I usually do this morning. This has a very simple explanation. I use my phone for an alarm clock--on vibrate under my pillow, so hopefully Caitlin isn't any more disturbed by my waking up than she needs to be. Well, I lost my phone yesterday. And Inkheart is a more gripping book than I was planning on, which I read before bed last night.

So I was about 40 minutes late to Intermediate Life Drawing this morning.

How is this good? My teacher lectures the first 30-40 minutes of class. It is all valuable information, etc., but he could really work on the animation in his voice, so I usually end up zoning out anyway. I arrived just as they were breaking up after the lecture and were starting the actual drawing... awesome.

My figure drawing looked decent, I thought. This is a good thing.

It was a beatuiful, blue-sky fluffy-cloud smile-at-the-sun day.

I had two hours before work. I had the leftover half of my ceasar wrap from the day before (delicious), checked e-mail and such, and did a couple quick run-throughs of the speech I'd be giving in my 4:00 class, public speaking. Today was the informative speech, so I would just be delivering a very summarized version of my Friday morning speech.

Work was good. I didn't have that many books to shelve, so I started dusting. I got a good excuse to stop dusting because there were alot of pulls from the shelf I had done and would be more in the next. (Yes, I know alot is supposed to be two words. This is me, not caring :-p so there.) I didn't want Janice to hate me for burying her desk in pulls she hadn't actually asked for, so I just wandered around asking customers if they needed help finding anything (they didn't, usually) and checking to see if the books were out of order (they weren't, usually).

Then I got to leave work early to go to public speaking. I ran down to the Lost and Found on my way (ish) to check if they had my phone... which they didn't. I'll keep checking, though.

Public speaking went very well. I definitely had much more preparation and practice than the others giving their informative speeches that day because I'd written a hugely long paper on the topic and given a presentation four times longer a few days before. I'd forgotten the visual aids I had wanted, which turned out to be a good thing because I probably would have gone overtime if I'd had them. As I went to sit down after the speech, a girl leaned over and whispered, "Wow, that was really good!" and the boy next to her nodded. During the break a couple people talked to me about my speech and complimented me on my choice of topic.

What can I say? Hero's Journey=awesomeness.

XD. (<= :D with squinty eyes.)


After public speaking I went to the Wilk Ballroom for Swing Club lessons. I had half an hour before they started to actually sit and read... oh joy! I wish I could have relaxed more during this time, but I didn't have my phone to check the time so I was wondering whether it was cancelled this week or....? But then people showed up.

Inkheart is exceeding my expectations, random side note. I am sometimes distracted from the story by reconstructing the prose (why didn't she just take that simile all the way to a metaphor? That sentence would flow better if she reversed those elements.... that is such a cliche.) but overall, very good. Mind you, I'm not even halfway though and my opinion could change.

Anyway, swing lessons. Before lessons actually started we were all standing around and the girl next to me said out of the blue, "I love your nose. Its, like, perfectly shaped and proportioned. And, just, yeah." An odd compliment, but I'll totally take it :-)

Today the intermediate group lesson was on girls working within the lead/letting the girls work within the lead. Like, not highjacking exactly, but just the girl taking control for just a couple counts and then letting the guy take up the lead again. All I've really learned to do with dancing is FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW DON'T ANTICIPATE TONE TONE TONE FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW so this was a great lesson. The lesson ended early ish so we had more time for social dancing afterward than we usually do. This was one of those good times where I was asked to dance alot and only sat out a couple songs. One time the swing coach (of the team I'm not on) asked me to dance and commented, "Wow, you're getting so good! You're really improving!" I, uh, did mess up a few times after this, but there is a no-reurns policy on compliments ;-).

Later another swing regular, Ben (there are like at least three swing regulars named Ben, which is fine because it makes the name thing that much easier, except for confusing them with the Dans...) asked me to dance and it was alot of fun. We didn't do any fancy moves or anything, but it was a really interactive eye-contact dance, with lots of silly grins and O RLY? faces and just playing around with simple steps.

Then we headed up for swing team practice. Before practice started a bunch of swing people were standing around in the hall talking and I joined them. Again out of the blue, Ben told me that I had really pretty rosy cheeks. "Whenever I see you, they're so round and pink and rosy, like that picture in the MOA." I knew what picture he was talking about, a very pretty one. The conversation turned to why my cheeks are rosy ("well, you always see me after I've been dancing,") complimenting my beautiful pronounced cheekbones and the classical beauty of my face. We went to team practice before I could start feeling really awkward.

At swing team practice we took a break from doing our routine. We learned that we're going to start learning another routine for an informal competition in a few weeks. We worked on doing a couple moves to use in later routines--one jump-and-spin one that I need to work on my landing for, and one jive one that I caught onto pretty quickly--and left early.

I had leftover Thai Ruby for dinner, thanks to the beautiful Caitlin. I love my roommates, especially the ones that feed me. :-)

Now I will do my reading for D&C, read Inkheart, and sleep.