(no subject)

I have my high school transcript. It's below average, as I expected. I was 356th in my class of 468, primarily because of F's in the first two years. My senior year (I was only there for three years, due, I think, to some home schooling that my parents did for me and which I love them for) I managed eight As and four Bs out of sixteen classes, without any Fs. Not so great, but not surprising. It's not hard to see where my interest was; three of those As were for my computer programming course. I made a D+ in health, and couldn't really care less about that.

I thought about this, and I'm pretty ok with it. High school was a horrible place for me that I have only muddled fuzzy memories of. Given the circumstances, and where I am now, life is ok. And it will look good, if my transcript matters at all, that I did so much better in my last year, as though I was collecting myself somewhat.

It's not just work I'm having trouble concentrating on; I'm having a hard time getting motivated to do anything much. I should have called Gateway today to make an appointment with a counselor. I need to figure out how far behind on my student loan payment I am right now. I need to catch up on finances again. I should have gotten more stuff ready to put up on Ebay in a five day auction today. I'll do the latter two this weekend at least. Sometimes I have a lot of energy and get a bunch of stuff done, but more often I feel like I have to overcome some great inertia just to get started. The internet is an awful distraction that I need to try better to stay away from. I feel like I waste so much of my time because I can't seem to get started on things that, in the end, would make me really happy to have done, or put time into. It doesn't help, with Gateway, that I hate talking on the phone professionally. Even socially it feels awkward most of the time.

I need to email some people too. Just kind of putting that here as a reminder to myself.

I guess I'm putting off financial stuff too just because I know the figures will be rather lower than usual and I don't want to see the depletion of funds. Moira's car is working again, but it required a chunk of money to get to that state. We also had other stupid expenses lately; $200 for a photo-enforced red light for one. I've also caught up on a personal loan from a family friend that I was behind on; Evil Bob gave me an unofficial student load of enough money to go to school in Michigan, and paying him back is a priority. It is a relief, though, to finally have one solid reliable vehicle at least. Mechanic Juan should be looking at Igor the Neon this weekend too, so maybe I'll have a reliable car of my own!


Tonight I'm going to the board game night at Rockhead's here in town. I'm going to bring all my remaining Magic stuff and see what kind of store credit I might be able to get with them. I've got other cards too: Jyhad, Highlander, Star Trek. I have no idea what any of it's worth anymore and I need to check into it. I know all my Magic stuff is just leftovers because I already sold all the good stuff years and years ago, but maybe Jyhad is worth something. I want them to go away.

But first, Moira just called and offered to take me out to dinner tonight. I was really touched at how she's trying to make a somewhat frustrating couple of days better and I'm really looking forward to some pizza! Thank you sweetie; I love you.

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I have a ton of old stuff I could still post, but I still haven't posted much about St. Louis and DC, and I'm excited about them, dammit! So let's dig into our nations capital. And I do mean dig.


Union Station Underground on the DC Metro



This station was my first look at Washington DC's subway system, the Metro. It was love at first sight.

When I talked to Moira later that day I raved about how incredible the station architecture was and how much I felt like I was living in Logan's Run when I walked through it. New York City has DC beat for history and secrets, but for sheer wow, I have to go with the Metro.

There'll be a lot of subway pictures as I get my DC shots posted. I just love these stations.

Somehow, I managed to take this from not quite the right spot; things aren't lining up quite perfectly here. No matter where I go and what I shoot, one thing is constant; I always wish I had more time to back and recompose and make more images of the things that really move me. Still, I think I should get credit for, after riding a train ride that was over six hours late getting into Union Station, still being up to taking photos at all! (Honestly, the new scenery and even the train trip itself were so awesome, I hardly minded. Except that my gracious hosts, savant_da_rat and ankhorite, were kept waiting on me for dinner!)

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Thank god, god/dess, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and the Invisible Pink Unicorn; it's Friday!!