I spent almost the entirety of the day shoveling piles of dirt from one place to another as part of the larger process of building a rammed earth house.  It’s a pretty cool project, one that’s been in the works for the past four months, I’d say.  Construction began with the laying of a river rock foundation, piece by piece, stone by stone.  I mostly avoided this portion of the work because it was frustrating and slow, like if Tetris were a game that wasn’t fun and didn’t have the catchy yet paranoing tunes playing in the background.  But that finally got done and the whole thing was capped with cement, so now the actual rammed earth part of the building begins!  A better, more complete explanation of the “Boden Haus” can be found elsewhere for those whose interest has been piqued by my riveting prose.

So, as for shoveling, it’s an incredibly exhausting mode of physical exertion.  Not to sound too much like a wuss, but I’m more sore from one day of this than, oh, nothing else I’ve done in the past year.  In a way I’ve found the experience refreshing, and I’ll probably put in a few more days worth of digging before everything is said and done.

As often happens, some considerable amount of time has elapsed for which I’ve failed to account.  Chock it up to negligence, forgetfulness, or just plain laziness.  In brief, these past few months I have managed to accomplish a few more or less important things like completing my first year of college and, well, that’s about it.  After a few weeks of being home I’ve fallen into a schedule of waking up no earlier than 10:15 a.m. and retiring only after 1:30 a.m.  I wouldn’t call it the most efficient paradigm, but it does offer pleasure in that my lifestyle seems to resemble the luxury and intrigue of the 1920s socialite more and more every day.  All that’s lacking are the extravagant dressing and evening gowns and the overabundance of alcohol.  And the handful of handsome suitors to take me out for a night on the town.  Is it really so much to ask?

These days I’m also suffering mild frustration owing to a lack of close physical contact with other people.  Now, I’m very an acknowledge-others’-personal-space kinda gal, but sometimes I just have the urge to be in very close proximity with others.  And not under any spectacular circumstances.  Sitting side-by-side with someone whose arm lightly presses against mine –that’s all it takes.  Maybe that’s sounding desperate and pathetic, but it’s just how I feel.

So, with 8 minutes remaining ’til the third hour I’m going to call it a night.

it’s nearly 2AM.  i’m getting up in about 5 hours to take an exam for my Astronomy class.  it’s interesting stuff–maybe i’ll work towards a minor, or something.  japanese and astronomy.  somehow it strikes me as a good combination.  

okay, it’s probably time for all good children to be in bed.