So it Begins...

What can be said?

Classes are... a pain. Because of my prior idiocy, I have been forced to take a grand number of courses, half of which are night classes. For the most part they seem like they will be fine and that I will function while taking them, and I'll be able to complete them in a fashion fitting of someone of my intellect (not gloating if its the truth!). But it will be... a challenge.

In other news, the Activities Fair went off very well. I was under the impression that the lit group would only generate about 10 interested people, but we ended up with... 44 I think. It was fun and our table looked incredible and... there was a picture taken of it but I don't have it.

I never have pictures for you guys. I'm lame.

This weekend I have a lot of 'work' to do. Most of it involves reading and then a little bit of it involves non-reading activities. I'm excited to "get to it" but at the same time worried that I'll just grow lazy in two weeks time and then where will I be?

But, the upside is this semester I don't have a brother living with me writing a script for two weeks, keeping me from class, homework, friends, the outdoors, real food, showers, etc. So I should be doing better.

In last bit news, I finally purchased the first two volumes of "Flight", a graphic novel series of short comics that deal with the titular theme of flight. It is done by a bunch of different comic artists all over the world and none of the stories are directly connected. Some are funny, some are kinda lame... but this one in volume 2 about a robot and a bird actually made me tear up at the end. So they are aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalright. I wanted to pick those up a long time ago, but collected the "Universe X" series instead.

I wish I could go back in time...

The End of Summer

And so... We come to the end of another fine summer.

First off, I got over my depression. It was a day-long thing that required copious amounts of Frasier DVDs and ice cream to solve, but I got over it rather quickly.

For my final day of summer, however, I spent a good chunk of time seeing people I needed to see again. First off, my folks were around, moving my younger brother into his new single dorm at Simpson in Indianola (yes, all the Bartels boys are now in Iowa. Me in Des Moines, my younger sib, Zak in Indianola, and my brother, Dr. Pete Bartels is in Iowa City), so I helped them move him in and I also was able to collect my shower shoes, which I'd been going without this past week.

Then I encountered an old friend, Mr. Justin and a friend of mine from high school, Rachel Samson and we all attended a Weird Al concert here in Des Moines, at the Hoyt Sherman Place. It was a ritzy place and really nice. It was a great show, too.

Mr. Justin and I played some Guitar Hero before I gave him the boot, now I'm sitting here contemplating my many upcoming "tomorrows". (does the period go inside the quotation marks? I never learned... I'm a terrible Writing Major student...)

I don't have work tomorrow or classes until 2PM. Which was unplanned. Otherwise, I have a meeting to go to at about 3:30 in the Student Life Center for the on-campus organizations and then I will audition for the plays this year (for once!) before my night class.

Then I don't know what's going on. Although, to be fair.... I never do know what's going on.

This past summer was a terrible and long blast of awesomness. I worked and that was stupid, but I got to go swimming and that was great; I had to take an Accounting class and I hated that, but I got to know a really cool girl so that was something I didn't hate; I mowed a lot of yards and that was hot, but I got to see Transformers twice and that was SUPER-hot; I got to do a lot of annoying Facebook notes and they were super-dumb, but I also had fun doing those notes so that was... well, also pretty super-dumb.

Regardless, I'd give the summer a 5/10, an improvement over the past two college-summers I've had. So, best summer in a long while.

Now to make this the best semester in a long while.

D-Pressed

After having only been back a total of two and a half days, I have hit a nasty depression.

I am fully aware of why it happened; yesterday saw fit to bring me roadblocks of many kinds. It was raining all day, I was tired all day, events led me to have no money, I had to cancel the only thing I was looking forward to all day, and then I ended the day questioning my own moral beliefs until I finally went to sleep at about 5AM.

Now I'm sitting here in my dark, silent room... the only sound coming from the low hum of the air conditioner and the clack-clack-clack of this keyboard as I type. I can't even be depressed properly because I don't have any ice cream and I have no money with which to purchase any ice cream.

The worst part about being depressed for me (and maybe for others, too) is that even though you've already got a mountain of things bothering you and eating away at your mind, every little thing from your past and every little thing from your future start to crawl out of the depths of your mind and pile on top of that mountain.

Now I'm worrying about everything at once and I really don't know how to resolve anything.

So, at the current juncture, I'm simply sitting in my dorm room in GK wishing I was back home where at least I wouldn't have to worry about so many things. Everything would be far away and not so scary.

I really don't know how I'm going to pass the time for the next 10-12 hours until I can go to sleep, again.

This is sad and depressing, I know. So I'll end with a joke:

Q: You know what I've really enjoyed about being back at Drake?

A: Nothing

END OF SUMMER BONANZA!!!!

Ok, so I got that car I was looking to get. I'll have pictures of it sometime, maybe, but for now you'll have to settle with knowing its AS AWESOME AS I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE! It is a 2005 Chevy Cobalt and yellow. And it is my new best friend. So there.

So I have a few dozen things to take care of before I can go back to Drake. The primary concern of mine is that I have to get taxes and insurance stuff done for that new automobile I have sitting in the driveway, here at home. I will be taking care of that bright and early tomorrow morning.

Then I have to do ALL MY LAUNDRY. That's right. I'm going to do all my laundry. Almost every thing I own to wear will be laundered and cleaned and made to look spiffy. This process has already started this evening and will continue long into the next 24 hour period.

I also have to pack all my junk into my new car so that it can go with me to Drake on Tuesday morning/afternoon. I don't really know when I'm heading back. I guess I'd better figure that out, too.

Whenever I DO get back to campus, I have to move myself into my old single dorm for another year of schoolin'. Then I am GOING to see Stardust no matter what. Unless no one else is going with me. I'm too embarrassed to go by myself...

On Wednesday, rain or shine, I'm helping the new little tykes move in. That's right, Skyler C. Bartels is doing volunteer work. But I get a free shirt, the group (L!T)'s name gets out there a bit, and I get to move in early and avoid the hectic craziness that weekend move-ins always seem to become.

On Thursday, I will restart my Help Desk employment by working an 8 hour shift in the dungeon. No, 'dungeon' is too cliche a thing to call it... Uh.... how about.... Help Desk? Same connotations behind each one, I feel. Yes yes. I will also be doing this same shift on Friday, starting at 8am. This is cool because it'll help train me to get up in the mornings again. I haven't seen 8am in... well, a few days, actually. But I'm still staying up until 4-5am every 'night'. I have mental issues.

That weekend I have to take John Flowers to see Last Legion and then I'm going to a Wierd Al concert on Sunday. Otherwise, I'm pretty much free both days.

Otherwise... my first week back will be wet (if the weather reports are correct) and full of packing and moving and lifting and exasperation.

Sounds like the perfect precursor to college.

Episode.... Man, I am done with episode titles

Yeah, shocking... I know. It was a great running gag, but I just no longer feel the need to keep it running.

So, I know you've all been on pins and needles waiting to find out what's going on with "Skyler and the Hunt for a New Car" and your waiting will not go unrewarded... When I actually get the car, you will all be front and center at finding out what the story is. But, well... a few things got in the way the past few days and I wasn't even able to leave the house and look at cars.

Today, however, I actually went to Hastings, NE and took a look at the car of my dreams... And test drove it... to the songs of Stone Temple Pilots ("Interstate Love Song" to be exact) and let me tell you... I will own this car.

But until I do, that's all I want to talk about it.

Otherwise, I'm almost ready to leave home again and head to Drake to move in for my fourth time. I'm not going to have any help moving in, so for the most part I'm going to have to fill my car with essentials (I just mistyped "with" as "whit" and I don't know why I'm sharing that, but.... yeah ok moving on now...) and hope I can survive off of that until my parents can cart the rest of my junk to me.

That's next Tuesday. Then on Wednesday I have to help move in the new students so they can start their new lives as Drake students. Oh joy! I'm sure I will only make one of them regret coming to Drake.

Then I have about a week of nothing before my fourth and final year. I've made mistakes in my schooling in the past, but now I'm going to go forth and correct them in eight-ish months.

Or fail.

Either way, at least I'll be able to say "I tried."

Unless I fail, then my folks will kill me and I'll never say anything again.

Episode 46: Car Talk (or: CAR-LLING ALL CARS!)

I got a lot of puns, and so little time.

After years and years of driving my car and hating it for the trouble its been worth... I'm finally taking it in to trade it in for something else. Something better. Something that won't have transmission problems, will have a working stereo, will not die on me at random in parking lots across America, won't blow hot air at my face that melts my eyes out of their sockets, etc.

I've got my eyes (which haven't melted, yet) on this 2005 Chevy Cobalt. It's yellow. I have been in love with yellow cars for years. Since before I've been driving.

I've never been into cars, I only really feel a need to have one to get me from A to B and back again. But to have a yellow car... and a sporty one at that? I'm close to changing my mind.

Its a bit out of my price range, but I plan on driving it anyhow. I will do just about everything in my power to get the vehicle back here.

Regardless, I will come home with a new car tomorrow and then have a new car for when I go back to Drake. It will rock.

I will be so mad, though, if I come home with my old car. Like you wouldn't believe. This is a two part episode, though... I will post part two after I bring my car home.

It will be awesome (I hope)!

Episode 45: Water (or: Submerged)

I haven't been swimming in over 12 years. After a time, I became self-conscious about my thin torso and stopped going. By the time I got over that, I felt I was too old to go to the child-filled public pool here in Harvard, NE.

Then I went to college and I never really went again.

Today I went to some Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital (where my father works) picnic at a water park and, well... I went swimming.

I'd purchased a new suit and towel prior at Wal-Mart and then I dove in. I did every stroke I could remember, and it was thrilling.

The difference in gravity, the weightlessness of being underwater, the blue world down below... And going off the boards! Oh my lord, how I'd forgotten! To swim, to dive, to dive down deep down to save my head (Heart lyrics. Oooh, barracuda!)... It all came back to me in an instant.

I at once felt both at peace and nostalgic in the water. I felt like I was ten years younger, at least. Swimming, I remembered how long I used to be able to hold my breath, how fast I could swim, how deep down I could go, and everything... And today I learned that I've become far worse at all these things in the decade+ I haven't been swimming.

So, I'm going to take it up, again. That's right. Not only am I lifting weights now, but I'm also swimming on a regular basis.

Yeah, I'm awesome.

Episode 44: Nostalgia (or: Blogging is Cool?)

Sometimes there is simply no place for me to vent about my extreme issues. This is typically good, though, since... as a worrier of great magnitude, being unable to vent gives me ample time to reflect on my issues and deal with then in a far more normal and healthy manner. This is different than what I almost always like to do, which is to simply call upon my old 'talking diary' (who was actually a good friend of mine over MSN messenger, not one of those prepubescent toy journal things girls used to have, although I'm not sure if they made talking ones or if I'm simply wishing they had) and vent and rant and rant and vent for hours.

These days, my diary... she's gone, has moved on. And while I'm sometimes sad about this fact, it just means that I have to find a new outlet for my pent up frustrations about life, school, girls, friends, trouble, family, school, life, and school.

Back in high school, pre-talking diary, my most often used resource was my old Xanga page. If you could go back and read some of the things I wrote about, you'd probably short circuit. Anything was fair game, back in those days.

Now I not only find myself without my diary, but blogging is - for the most part - simply not about that, anymore. Now I talk about what I've been up to, what movies I've seen, how many brownies I've eaten, etc. I can't share my thoughts on the world at large and all the people and problems within it because those people and those problems and that world has easy access to it, and can judge or mistake or read too much into the things I write.

For instance, I am really dying to talk about a person I know's apparent recent life choice and how funny I think their poor decision making skills and timing are. But I can't. That person could read and might misinterpret it. So, the blog is out.

And I re-learned recently (I keep forgetting this fact, for some reason) that my friends sometimes share things with people, and since ever since high school all my friends have somehow known all my other friends through strange connections, I can't share my thoughts with a new 'talking diary', which is both maddening and comforting, because it'd suck if my thoughts got back to the person in question.

At times like these, when I can't sleep... and I can't think... and I can't focus or concentrate or anything... I'd like to listen to music. Or play through Half-Life 2. Or watch an Indiana Jones movie. Or something... but everyone is sleeping and I've got a haircut in the morning and work tomorrow night and the ever looming stress of people and things and the world hanging above my head at all times.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, this isn't a post about anything in particular. It's a post about how it can't be. And why my blog is usually filled with jokes or non-sequiturs or puns or anecdotes, instead of important life events that happen to me or people I know.

I need to sleep. I need to listen to Hooverphonic. I need to get better at playing guitar. I need to get out of summer and into school, where my life can get back on a track... of any sort.

Sorry for the lengthy, over-worded post about stuff you won't care about.

I just felt the need to vent a little.