Monday, December 01, 2003

Ok, now all the madness is over and I'm too itchy to sit down and read so I'm going to update! So last we heard, I was stuck in the Somers library, doing a mix of work and procrastination (read an excellent article on the upcoming Lord of the Rings). Well, Joni & Dale called, but in my hurry to make the ringing stop in the quiet library I hit the "end" button instead of any other button which would have connected me! Luckily in about ten minutes they showed up and off we went! Dale wasn't feeling too well at this point, and by Sat. morning it had developed into a flu or cold of some sort. Thank God we had a couple of hours of peaceful sleep after the pug left with Dale's grandfather. That dog snored even when it was awake, you can't imagine the bone rattling racket she created in her sleep! I had a nightmare of suicides and unearthly dogs that chopped down trees with their jaws on Thursday night, which I'm blaming on that dog. Anyway, Dale was quarantined in her room at this point, and I spent most of the day reading and cuddling with the cats.

In the afternoon I got ready to see Andrew, and questions mounted as to what I was going to do if Dale wasn't well enough on Sunday to drive up to MHC. Joni assured me she'd bring me up to MHC, but that seemed like an awfully long day and lots of trouble (big travel day and 3 hours in each direction with traffic). So when Andrew arrived in the evening he learned he was going to have a stowaway on his drive up! I greeted him at the door with Selena the rat (who is greatly enjoying her new condo). Maybelline warmed up to him (naturally, since she's mostly white and he was wearing black fleece), but Dunlop behaved herself (maybe for my sake) and didn't act like a slutty girl, although as Joni says, usually she likes anything in trousers ;) Theseus saw fit to invade the bathroom via the cat door, too. So our date plans changed, rather, since now it seemed like a better plan to get an early start up to Boston rather than being out at all hours of the night. We had dinner at a Chili's (my first experience with this one), and then went back to Dale's to fetch my things. I think Dunlop is going to be angry with me for a long time, after I made her cuddle with me all the time and then I left =(

The drive up was good, I subjected Andrew to my oldies CD and one of my girly favorites mixes. We stopped for corn nuts & fruit mentos, and time flew by. We caught the latter half of SNL with Justin Timberlake (who can't act or sing); weekend update was funny but way too short. Got to bed at a decent hour, no late night scrabble matches!

Sunday morning we definitely slept in, but it was an odd sort of sleeping in as I was expecting to catch a ride either with a student or on the bus back to MHC. So I wasn't really content. But we had a nice brunch & went on a walk looking at some cute stores and revisiting Jamaica Pond (lake, really) & the albino squirrel. Got a better picture of our white furry friend!! (make sure I send it to you Merrers.) At some point the idea was raised that I could just get a bus in the morning and relax Sunday evening with Andrew. So once that was voiced as a viable possibility, I felt very sure that that was what I wanted to do. With the help of Madalyn I did my Spanish paragraph-on-final-paper-plans and was able to watch The Practice with Andrew (second time in two weeks!) We had yummy pasta for dinner from The Cheesecake Factory (if we do this again I must remember to just eat like a third of an entree we split and then have room for the cheesecake!)

Again we got to bed at a decent hour, and woke up at a horribly early hour, 6:15 am... =( I don't think I've been up that early for months. But I was pretty awake! Andrew dropped me off at the bus station, and I ran up the steps and into the building as if I knew what I was doing. This illusion was promptly broken when I was unsure of where to go, to the left or up the escalator. Luckily a woman waved me up to the 3rd floor for buses. Another crisis when I found a completely deserted ticketing counter. There was a sign from Bonanza buses about a bus to Rhode Island leaving at 8 am, and I was quite sure that this was the bus I needed to take (pay the driver at the bus). In something of a daze I considered calling Peter Pan about what bus to take and how to pay, and I absent mindedly wrote out some luggage tags. Then I wandered around a little bit, and finally realized the ticketing counter on the other side was open! So I did get my proper ticket from Peter Pan from a super friendly woman. At this point I decided to get a chocolate donut to reward myself for finally figuring out the station.

Got on the bus without a problem, but unfortunately got a rather sleepy seatmate that was perpetually on the verge of tipping over in his napping onto me. Luckily his balance held out (usually the bus would jolt him awake over a pothole in the road before he was in a deep enough sleep to capsize) and at Springfield I snatched a seat with a girl in my Spanish class. I had almost talked myself out of going to Spanish, but even with arriving at MHC five minutes late I had time to ready myself for class and bolted off. I didn't have my interpretive question for "Chac Mool" (I forgot) but Prof. Pesola smiled when I said "me olvide" and let it go. Did get to hand in my paragraph, which at least one person hadn't done yet (I like to measure myself against worst case scenarios like that, it makes me feel happy about myself).

I had a rather extended lunch of soup and carrot sticks, and ate my ice cream on my way to Kobe's. Kobe was in fine form today! We took a walk and did a little fetching, she ran full on into me at one point, and was throwing stuff around for herself. She skidded out trying to catch up a tennis ball in her mouth and actually fell down, did a half roll, and picked herself up again for another try. Crazy dog. Some guy in a red car slowed down while I was walking her, and had the goofy "I know you know I want to ask you something, thanks for stopping there and obliging me as I roll down my window" smile. So I waited, and he finally asked "Is that a Leonberger?" To which I replied, yes, the couple down the street own her, I'm just a student who walks her. He has one too, apparently, down the same street in the opposite direction. There was a snow flurry, so I explained away my trying to tug Kobe on her perhaps not liking the snow and going in the direction of the wind. But really I always have to tug her along after she sniffs at one plot of dirt for five minutes.

Newton was likewise admired on his walk by a couple of FM workers who didn't think he could see with all his fur in his eyes. Saw Newton's father again as I dropped him off.

I hate it when professors say they'll put something out for you and then forget or do it after you stop by... Must go to Prof. Pesola's door again this evening, as I'm nervous about how I did on my Spanish paper that I didn't like and wrote before the fire alarms were supposed to go off.

Daley's gone =( And she would have so enjoyed Prospect's dinner tonight: quesadillas!

Yay I posted a lot today. Tonight must continue with To the Lighthouse (which is much better the second time around) & attend a hall committee meeting.

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