Tengo muchas noticias!

Let's start with last Weds...

Weds: Watched super disturbing movie "How Tasty Was My Frenchman." No, it was not a bad porno, it was a 1971 film about cannibalism and colonialism in Brazil back in the 16th century. Then I went to dinner. Had a lovely dinner with Kathleen and Dale (and looked over Dale's E.D. paper). Did much homework before bed, and much packing...

Thurs: Got my ass on a bus to Boston. Unfortunately had to miss both my American Lit class and my Criminology class, but what better excuse than the GREs? Of course, I ended up behind The Screaming Baby and in front of The Snoring Frat Pigboy. Was it a pleasant trip, Peter Pan? I'll be honest: NO. Why do babies ride for free? They've got to be the most annoying fellow passengers possible: they scream, cry, lick the windows (yes, I swear to God, they lick the windows), they can't control their bodily functions (ie, always vomiting, need diapers, etc.) If babies were adults, we'd totally not want to sit next to them on a bus!

Anyway. After we landed I found my way through the tortuous labyrinth that is the bus terminal/ T station. Could they make the path between the bus stop and the T entrance any LESS direct? I'm thinking no. Unless the people I was following over were just dumb and didn't know the fastest way to go...

So I got to the apartment at a decent hour, took care of some random stuff, maybe I did some homework or something... I don't really remember, to be honest. Andrew got home, we ate (paprika chicken night -- I remember days by what I ate), studied some vocab, worried about the next morning, etc. Andrew INSISTED upon going over essay forms. Got to bed at a decent hour, and I didn't feel too nervous.

Friday: 6:30 am. Damned early. I still wasn't too too nervous. Just a tad. Had breakfast with Andrew and drank some tea for the caffeine. Found our way to the testing center which was near large mall complex. At first we thought it was IN the mall. Friendly people at the test center, strict rules, horrid guide to using a mouse and keyboard, etc. Test went well, I was so excited after my essays were written. And then I was shaking when I saw my score (EXACTLY the same as my final SAT scores. People seem very secretive about this stuff but I'm not. 760 on verbal, 700 on math. I think that's a pretty mediocre math score, but Andrew and I were surprised I even got that so I'm not complaining!) I felt like I was beaming when I came out of the test room, although Andrew claims he couldn't tell how I was feeling. So glad to be done with that!! PS, Andrew did great on the math, and I beat him on the verbal (which is as it should be!)

After, we had a rather stressful lunch (because I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat, beyond knowing that it wasn't in that food court). Went shopping. Bought a skirt. Much happier after that. Then we headed home, bought green beans at Pemberton, coffee at the Someday, I called Mum, etc. Andrew made a truly curious dinner involving sausage and stovetop (to Andrew's credit, Kory said it was the best smelling recipe off a Stovetop box, ever. Take that as you will). Watched Mean Girls in the evening. Why did it have to end so nicely? And I thought middle school was the truly horrid social scene, not high school.

Andrew found the most amazing sorbet, ever, at Trader Joe's. I think it's Sharon's something or other. The raspberry kind has berries from the Pacific Northwest (yay!) and tastes like heaven. YUM! And the ingredients ? water, berries, cane sugar, lemon juice, pectin. WOW!

Saturday: Truly a lounge around day. Slept in till like, after noon (Kory was surprised, we never sleep in like that!) I did tons of Spanish reading. Watched the game in the evening. Andrew tried to explain things and eventually gave up. I watched some of SNL in the other room to entertain myself. Highlights:

"A pet turtle in China fell from a 10 story tall building, onto a taxi, and survived. The turtle claims it was an accident, but then why did he leave a note?"

"T Bone, I don't mean to embarrass you, but it's pronounce NUC-U-LURE." [HILARIOUS because Bush really does pronounce it that way...]

We also finally carved the pumpkin. I cut into it and gutted it while Andrew made dinner (porcupine meatballs). I love the feel of pumpkin mush. I separated all the seeds out and baked them, too... Andrew carved the face, so it turned out really well.

Baked brownies and watched some of Spinal Tap in the evening...

Sunday: Watched some bad movies on TV -- Mr. Mom and Say It Isn't So -- and ate cornmeal mush for breakfast (better than cream of wheat). Shopping at Target, dinner, packing... My ride ended up having an accident in the parking lot and couldn't drive me... Luckily her gf was able to drive us back! Gf being Emily from delles first year, so it was awesome seeing her -- I loved first year... we had the bestest floor ever. Anyway, got home a bit late and since then... lots o' work.

Today AL3 was canceled, so I luckily had more time... Kathleen's gonna be my Spanish tutor!!

And the avocados at dinner tonight --- YUCK. It's cool to put the cut up pieces in lemon juice so they don't turn brown, but not so long that they start to pickle. YUCK.

Important issues on the Oregon ballot -- besides the president (which anyone reading this who knows me, you already know how strongly I feel about THAT):

Imp. State Measures:
32: Amendment to Medical Marijuana Act -- creates dispensaries and allows sales to patients, increases how much marijuana patients may possess. [I'm voting yes, I want a slippery slope to make marijuana legal. Because come on, which is more destructive to anyone who's been around both: pot or alcohol?]

34: Balancing timber resources -- requires half restoration (preservation and conservation), half for production. [I'm voting yes because I'm all for keeping our forests instead of cutting them down. Trees don't grow back that quickly.]

35: Limits how much you can sue people for in noneconomic damages in the event of an injury caused by a healthcare provider. Doesn't apply to wrongful death claims. In other words, if something doesn't go well in surgery, getting stitches, whatever, you can't ask for more than $500,000 in pain and suffering. [Voted yes because health insurance is getting so expensive due to people suing for insane amounts of money.]

36: Amendment to constitution so that it reads that marriage is ONLY between a man and a woman. [I voted NO because I'd rather keep it how it is -- without gendered terms. Plus it sounds like a way to ban gay marriage, and I'm not into this whole movement of using the Bible to define marriage. It reeks of using religion in state business. So much for separation of church and state under this administration!]

37 & 38: I didn't know what to do beyond that I wanted to save our state some money, so that's how I voted.

Local Hood River issues --- I had to vote no on the proposal to increase our property taxes to keep school programs. We're over taxed as it is. PS: Oregon's economy is horrible under Bush. School year is being cut short, 16 teachers in our district have been fired. But increasing the tax burden isn't going to solve the problem... we need more funding on the national and state levels, not the county level. I'm kind of confused as to how Bush is helping our nation's education system. From what I've seen, he's only made things much, much worse.