My good buddy Steve Houlton snapped these two photos at the Halloween party I was at Saturday night. Oh, the joys of digital cameras these days! I’m told more photos are coming. Wait and see.

During a game of Spin the Bottle, Chris Machian (going as a Chicago Cubs baseball player) decided he’d rather mount/hump me than kiss me, as Pete Batallion looks and laughs at our sorry attempt at “getting it on.” Is this a good thing?

Here’s me, dressed as a Catholic school girl, sipping on OJ and vodka. I know very little of the Greek warrior in the background, so don’t ask. Oddly enough, the skirt an eighth-grader wears from my Catholic grade school (Holy Ghost School in Omaha) stills fits me at age 24. Again, is this a good thing?

Ever wonder what I listen to in the car, while I’m working on my Mac, while I’m playing with my iPod? Wonder no more, dear friends. I discovered a nifty application that allows me to post my playlist on the Web. Click below to view a list of the 1,516 MP3s I call my own.

Wendy’s MP3 List

Interested in a mix CD? Or, swapping some songs? Let me know.

To those of you who attempted to read my LiveJournal last night, I apologize. It appears the LJ servers had some problems and changed the layouts of the online journals. We’re up and running once again, though. Thanks for your patience.

***

Grad School Update
I’m able to register for classes beginning Nov. 17. Before that, however, I need to fill out my financial aid information. I’m in the process of filling out the FAFSA online, which has become a huge pain in the ass. The FAFSA site estimates the entire process takes about an hour. Horseshit. It’s taking me days. There’s then a three-week wait before my results are sent to UNO, where the financial aid office will then determine how much help I get. Oy.

***

I use Apple’s iChat, which is an Apple-created application of AOL IM. Wanna chat? My screenname is: ibookwendy.

What a weekend. Chris Machian, my Gateway buddy and friend from high school, threw the ultimate Halloween party Saturday night. The drinks were flowing, the music was playing. The best part? We played spin the bottle around 1 a.m. Because I was a wee bit tipsy, I got roped into playing, too. I got to kiss all these boys from high school whom I spoke to only briefly. What fun!!

I didn’t get home until well past 3 Sunday morning and didn’t fall asleep until 6. By the time noon rolled around and I had to be at work, I was in no condition to be among the awake and alert. To my surprise and delight, my boss at my weekend job sent me home after working only two hours. I couldn’t hide how tired I was, but it worked in my favor. Thank you, Doug!

Now, it’s time to shower and start another day at the Bellevue Leader newspaper. I can’t believe how quickly Monday rolls around. Perhaps I’ll stop at get myself a vanilla moo this morning. Yum.

***

Here in Omaha, the weather has been ideal for the fall. It’s been cloudy the past few days, so the leaves appear even more rich in color; they’re not competing with a bright, blue sky. As for the weather, it’s raining outside, but that’s OK. I like the sound of rain. It’s soothing.

Ohm.

You’ve read that my iPod was under the weather yesterday. I stopped by CompUSA on the way home from work tonight. The guy at the help desk (who looked like an unkempt Chris Martin, by the way) didn’t even take my iPod out of the box. I told him my problem and, because I purchased a 1-year replacement warranty in May, he got me a new iPod, no questions asked. And the best part? CompUSA was out of 15GB iPods (which is the size of my iPod), so I got a 20GB iPod instead. For free! Fucking amazing. I nearly wet myself I was so excited.

But wait; there’s more.

I walked through the store’s Apple department before leaving, and came across three stacks of Mac OS X Panther mousepads. I used my girlish ways and scored one for free! I’m a sucker for Apple, let me tell you. I’m still smiling.

Shit, I’m a geek. Shit!

Oct. 31 has arrived once again. Be sure to gorge on candy and other sweet things today; it’s an American tradition, you know.

Tonight will be my first Halloween in my house. I have plenty of little candy bars to hand out to tricker-or-treaters. Hopefully, I’ll have some visitors!

And now, a Halloween joke:

Why did the vampire subscribe to the Wall Street Journal?
He heard it had great circulation.

You’ll recall that I received a fortune cookie a few weeks ago from P.F. Changs: “Good news will be received in a letter.”

That fortune came true today; I received my acceptance letter into grad school!

Dear Ms. Townley,
On behalf of the faculty and staff of the University of Nebraska at Omaha I am pleased to inform you that you have been provisionally admitted for graduate study to the program listed below.

(It’s the English program, by the way.)

What great news!! My next hurdle is to do well on the Miller Analogies Test Nov. 13. I purchased a used MAT prep book from Amazon earlier this week. I’ll have a better idea of the exam once my book arrives. Keep those fingers (and toes) crossed for me, please.

***

My iPod is sick. I’m worried. It’s either a software or hardware problem. I’m not sure. I purchased a complete 1-year replacement warranty when I bought my iPod at CompUSA in May. I’m going to make a stop there tomorrow and see what’s what. Ideally, the warranty will get me a new iPod, no questions asked.

***

Had a delicious Dundee Dell dinner with my good friend, Molly. What an awesome girl! We gabbed about life and so much more for nearly three hours. It’s good to have close friends like that. She’s the best!

Look no further than Forbes.com. They’ve posted a handful of celebrity masks. My favorite? Steve Jobs, of course.

From Forbes.com
Steve Jobs
Net worth: $2.3 billion
Argh! Thanks to the iPod, the chief executive of Apple Computer has become the best friend of music pirates everywhere. Sure, his online music service iTunes gives fans an opportunity to actually pay for their pop songs. But for every legitimate “Stacy’s Mom” downloaded, there must be dozens of pirated Britney Spears songs playing on Apple’s gear. Maybe Pixar should make a Bluebeard movie next.

Here’s a list of my favorite stuff, in no particular order:

my glasses
PowerBook G4
iPod
chocolate chip cookies
chocolate cake
Adam Brody
my LiveJournal
books (too many to name)
Rolling Stone
Allure
chocolate milk
chicken noodle soup
The O.C.
Macworld Conference and Expo
San Francisco
my Hollywood Wendy keychain
The Onion
106.9 The City
NPR
my Commodore 64 Power T-shirt from Simply Vintage
Steve Hartman on CBS
60 Minutes
my red-and-white striped turtleneck sweater
Sunday Morning
Alias
Click and Clack
dawn
dusk
a rainy Friday night
J. Crew
holding hands
hugs
an extensive vocabulary
slim-fit jeans
pearl earrings
email from friends and family
daisies

That’s all for now. More later. Maybe.

I’m writing a story for Medium Magazine on Donna Huber, an Omaha-based acupuncturist. We chatted on the phone for nearly an hour yesterday, and something she said stopped me in my tracks.

“One of the big lessons I’ve learned in life is that when I stopped trying to control what I thought to be and allow that what was, life became easier.”

Amazing.

Here’s more info: Thirteen Moons Acupuncture.