We spent yesterday repelling invaders. It turns out that this dormitory is in the habit of renting out guest rooms for any activity that goes on at any of the neighboring colleges, as well as renting rooms for alums who are passing through town and don't want to pay for a hotel room. Well, yesterday a crowd descended upon us, coming into our lounge, and asking if they could borrow cups, dishes, and use the refrigerator. We, of course, were a bit put off by this, but we weren't sure we had any right to ask them to use another lounge. It actually might not have been so bad, except that one of the women asked if it was really necessary for us to have the giant blow-up Godzilla in the lounge (in a tone of voice that indicated that she was going to ask us to remove it.) Our answer, needless to say, was Yes, it IS necessary for the giant blow-up Godzilla to be in the lounge. We finally learned that we had indeed paid for exclusive use of the lounge and that the other people were to use the one on the 12th floor. Still though, it's very strange to have a bunch of non-clarioners on the floor.

But all in all we reacted very maturely, I think. We did have to change all of the messages on our dry-erase boards though. Previously we'd had lists of things that we were each knowledgeable about (for research resources.) Last night they sort of got...altered. Mine used to say "Ask me about the south, hurricanes, casinos, martial arts..." Now it says, "Info on: sin in the workplace, the drawbacks of morality, and profiting off of other people's addiction and misery." Other boards have such phrases as: poses of submission, dog sex, sweat licking, hypersex, and stool viscosity.

I think we're getting punchy.

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Yesterday I had Eric drive me to Office Max so I could buy a new printer cartridge. I actually managed to get out of there for less than $40. I love office supply places. I could spend a fortune there if I wanted.

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I finally got a clue on my next story. I decided to erase my name off of the "turn in Tuesday" list, and just shoot for the Friday turn-in. I've figured out what I'm going to write about, and once again, I'm doing something a bit different (for me.) This story is going to take a bit of research and careful plotting, and I've never really done a story before that needed any kind of extensive research. Cool thing is that while I was researching the topic, I ran across some cool tidbits that will definitely add to the flavor of the story (and allow me to include reversals and obstacle the way Connie taught!)