August 02, 2002

I got poor again…

Today I shipped home all the various and sundry things I've purchased over the summer and don't have room for in my suitcases. And wow, was shipping expensive, and this was sending them by slow boat. The only thing more expensive would have been to pay for extra baggage to take it all on the plane (well, airmail would've been even more expensive than that, but then we'd be getting into stuff I just couldn't afford period). So I paid the piper, and realized that after all the expensive eating I did last night, coupled with this, I was once again staring at the persistent puss of persnickety pauperhood. Well, no problems, I'm leaving soon, and still have my emergency cash on hand, should I get into a… well, emergency.

I also got to sleep in late, since the only activity we had was a rehearsal for the graduation ceremony tomorrow. That went well, since it was just to make sure we knew when to stand and say 'hai!' Afterwards the people who've been playing koto these past few weeks got together to practice the selections we'd be playing tomorrow. Then I went and watched some anime in the lobby. A lot of anime. You see, before I left home, I burned a lot of anime to CD so that I could watch it on my computer here, but I've just never had either the time or inclination to sit down and watch any until now. After the academic building closed for the night (so we couldn't practice koto anymore) I found myself with a long stretch of evening in front of me with nothing in particular to do. So I whipped out my CD holder, fired up the computer, and just started watching stuff.

It was a decent way to spend the evening, and I had lots of interesting conversations with people about the pros and cons of various anime (and pissed the hell out of one student who kept trying to get a rise out of me with comments like, 'Eva sucks, it tries to be a religious and stuff at the end, but is just sorta lame.' [little did he know that I have reached the true zen state of otakudom, where I can love a series all to heck, and still recognize and admit to its myriad of flaws and failings]).

I'm feeling a bit tense, because I am highly intimidated by the prospect of playing even a horrendously simple piece in front of a huge audience (the fact that so far I haven't managed to get through the whole thing once without at least one flub hasn't been helping my confidence much either), and that after the ceremony tomorrow, well things will be well and truly over, and just thinking about that brings me down a little bit.

I really liked it here. I don't want to go.

Ah well, these things happen.