Saturday, October 9, 2010

essay writing with breaks to fangirl

Okay, the first essay of the school year is officially complete. Finally. Hopefully I'll be able to get my act together a little better for the next ones. Maybe. I doubt it, but I can always hope, right?
Sadly, I spent all of today in my dorm room. All day. Writing my paper or avoiding writing my paper. Or snacking on pita bread and bananas and peanut butter. Peanut butter tastes like home.
I also did the rest of my homework, I guess. I'm really glad that I bothered to read Midsummer Night's Dream earlier this week, because I would definitely be in trouble if I still had it left to read. I could probably sneak through class based on what I remembered, but I definitely wouldn't pass the quiz!
For Arabic, I got to do fill in the blank sentences like 'My dad works for the oil company' and 'I live in Zamalek', the last of which I'm not entirely sure I spelled correctly. I see the word so often in English that I've never bothered to look up how it's actually spelled in Arabic before.
The highlight of my day occurred when during one of my mini-breaks, I visited Neil's Magnificent Oracular Journal for some encouragement. If you go visit it, please read the instructions before testing its magic. They're important. Anyway, I asked the oracle whether I really could finish my essay well in a timely fashion. The reply of the oracle? 'Sure.'
Knowing that the words of wisdom the oracle produces are drawn directly from Neil Gaiman's very own blog, I immediately felt better about my essay, and went back to writing. A little while later, I tweeted at him, expressing my thanks for the oracle.
@ just wanted to say thanks for your magnificent oracular journal. Q: 'can i really do this?' A: 'sure'. made my day. :]
A little while later, I checked twitter again, only to find this waiting for me:
@ it is magical and oracular.
He replied! I was fangirling all over the place, it was awesome. So I tweeted back:
@ it certainly is. even when i ask 'how is my hair today' and it tells me 'And there are sheep' i remain awed by its magic.
And then, just a few minutes later, from Neil:
@ at that point it is being Deep.
Honestly? Day. Made. I couldn't have been happier. Then my friend Nicole tweeted me, and said:
@ you and your cute conversation with neil. i can hear you fangirling halfway across the world.
Which was also awesome. And completely true, she probably could hear me. Nicole knows how much I love Neil, since she's the one who stood in line with me until three am to meet him and have our books signed when he visited UCSB.
So, yeah. Writing an essay and having a twitter conversation with Neil Gaiman were the highlights of my day. Nothing, not even waking up early tomorrow to catch the seven o'clock bus, is going to make me forget how awesome today was. Nothing.

4 comments:

  1. yay neil gaiman tweeting and essay writing!

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  2. That is super exciting! Now you can say you're his favorite fan. I saw some of Niel's books in a store last week, and then today there were people selling books on the street and I saw some Terry Pratchett. Both made me think of you, and I thought about buying you one, but then I realized you couldn't read it anyway. (But if you do want some book in French let me know!)

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  3. I think its so cool you heard from Neil Gaiman. There's something very exciting about making contact with someone who has impacted your life anonymously. Hopefully you understand what I'm trying to say. Ethan got to meet Michael Scott at the Jamboree and hear James Patterson and those were two of his highlights.

    Aunt Julie

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  4. ELISE!!! that is soooo coool! Talking to Neil Gaiman....that rocks as big as it can possibly be. =)

    -mags

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