Two plus two is ten

One of the things that cracks me up about Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare is how nonchalant everyone is about the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. It makes sense, kinda -- as Nate pointed out, when the undead are roaming the land in great numbers and things like zombie bears exist, people aren't going to get too het up about a creepy horse that weeps blood. But I still think it's hilarious that no one says stuff like, "So...I noticed your horse was on fire," or, "Not to be rude, but are you aware that your horse is swarming with locusts?" Hee.

Anyway, I finally took my math placement test the other night so that I could get into statistics, nutrition, and/or chemistry. I've been putting this off for two years, because I haven't taken math in, like, A DECADE and lord knows I'm not all that confident in my math abilities at the best of times. Perhaps this is why I waited until the last possible minute to get this shit figured out. Luckily, my week and a half of frantic cramming paid off and I qualified for statistics, and I'm feeling much better about the whole thing now that I'm finally registered for a class.

The guy at the testing center was hilarious, though. There are three or four different math tests you can take depending on what you're trying to get into, and for stats I had to take the test with advanced and college-level algebra with some trig thrown in there for...I don't know, variety, I guess. So I take my test and there are things on there that I totally didn't study, like factorials and imaginary numbers and bullshit like that, and afterwards the guy prints out my results and is like, "Yay, you qualify for statistics!"

I go, "SWEET!" and do a fist-pump, because I am a noble and dignified flower that way.

Then! THEN! Testing guy gets all sadface, and he says, "But you didn't qualify for calculus or trigonometry, though. You'd have to go through college algebra before you could take those."

Me: ...AHAHAHAHA, OH MY GOD.
Testing guy: What?
Me: Dude, all I care about is stats. I haven't done trigonometry since I was sixteen. Sixteen.
Testing guy: How old are you now?
Me: TWENTY-SEVEN.
Testing guy: OH. So...I guess that's okay, then?
Me: Yes, quite.

It was just...I don't know, it's like he was trying so hard to make me feel better about the fact that I didn't qualify for things that are ridiculously over my head anyway, and it was amusing. I'm still kind of a amazed I qualified for statistics in the first place, given that I outright guessed on three of the four factorial questions before I remembered what the fuck factorials were. I mean. Factorials?! What the fuck.

/cool story

It's weird -- I didn't do anything productive at all yesterday (unless you consider baking cupcakes productive, I guess), and yet I still feel completely stressed-out and overwhelmed. I suspect the impending move is responsible for most of it, because I haven't even started packing and it's happening this month. THIS MONTH. And I have so much shit left to do that I am thisclose to having a giant panicky meltdown, because giant panicky meltdowns are just how I roll.

I mean. We have to finish painting the kitchen, prep the third bedroom for painting, paint the third bedroom, measure all the rooms for the reflooring, pick a floor and buy the damn thing, and then either refloor ourselves or hire someone to do it for us, AND, while all of this is going on, start packing up shit at the current place so that moving can happen in a timely and expedient fashion. And I have to do all of this while putting in my 40 hours a week for a job that's become a massive headache and a half, studying for my current class, and getting my shit together for my OHSU application in September.

Plus the usual business of grocery shopping and cooking and whatnot, although I feel sort of silly counting those as stressful. It's just that I've been a vegetarian for two months and I've been making a concerted effort to eat vegan, and sometimes the thought of fixing a healthy veg meal is just one thing too many and I'm all, "FUCK IT, I AM EATING CARROTS AND FLATBREAD AND HUMMUS, FOREVER."

Or I freak out and bake cupcakes, whatever seems like a good idea at the time. I don't really know how my brain works when it comes to these things.

Worst of all, I'm starting to really worry about Ivan. He's still as loud and affectionate as ever, and he's still eating, but he's also throwing up a lot and shedding way more than he should be and he's losing weight again, and the tumor has gotten much larger. Thinking about what this could mean makes my heart hurt, so...that's all I'm going to say about it right now.