It feels like I've been at school for a long, long time.. but really, it's only been about a week and a half. Here's the rundown...

Weds. The first day of classes. Of course, I didn't have any of my own classes, just the course I'm mentoring for (English 101). I brought my little hand-outs, and had my little explanation prepared about what SAW is & what my role as a mentor is. We played the name game & I only forgot one name (and that doesn't count because everyone forgets the newest name). Felt pretty good about everything as I left... Prof. Davis seems to have much faith in me, & I'm realizing that I really do have something to help these first years with. My first task will be an MLA workshop, because I think most of them are going to have problems with that!

Thurs. Ok, so Thursday is my "busy" day. As in, I have all of two classes. History of English Language was awesome -- I love the people in the class, I love the professor, & I love the subject. Ahh!

Afterwards, I went over to the library since I have a huge break before lunch even opens on Thursdays. I went up to the Stimson Room & ran into Hollin, so that was cool. I sat and read my Eagleton & we complained that the radiator is really unnecessarily loud. Then I was alone in the room for awhile, and as I was getting all bundled up, I circled around looking at all the poems, pictures, & letters associated with the Glascock Competition over the years. Letters from W. C. Williams, pictures of Mary Jo Salter, poems by Sylvia Plath... I rushed to Blanchard & to my room, and felt vibrantly and lucidly excited about poetry & theory & politics. I think it had something to do with the sudafed I took that morning for my stuffy nose. [Note: I have since taken one tablet, half a dose, before bed, & I was up half the night. This is alarming because 1. it was half a dose, and 2. I never have trouble falling asleep when I'm tired (which I was), not even if I've had caffeine. I have concluded that sudafed, even before it's gone through whatever process to become speed, is very potent.]

Anyway, I was hyper-awake for Verse Writing. I love this class, too -- Miranda & Sarah are in it, which makes me very happy.

Friday I went on a campus-wide flyering patrol of all the academic buildlings. For SAW. It was exhausting & I got so hungry! Ran into Ashley Brown, dropped in on Quillian (who alluded to PBK very mysteriously!), joined forces with Kathleen (who was also putting up flyers for a different cause), and concluded that mass advertising on campus is very difficult!

In the evening I went to dinner with Karuna & Kathleen & Sarah & friends. I love those Friday Thanksgiving menus. We decided it must be really cheap to serve mashed potatoes & stuffing!! Afterwards, Andrew called to say he was here. So we had a little time here before going over to Audra's room to play Trivial Pursuit with her & Julia. So fun! I love that game, even though I just can't seem to get the yellow & blue wedges!! Went on rounds with Audra, it brought back memories. Julia had an awesome idea for an English dept. t-shirt that I can't remember... ack! Must ask her again.

Saturday. Got up a bit late. We made a run to Dunkin' Donuts & the hardware store for hooks for my room. Andrew installed the hooks & shelves in my room, & in combination with the yaffa blocks that we organized Friday night... my room is great! I'm using the shelves for sweaters, since I can barely reach the one dirty shelf in my closet... & for scarves & hats & mittens, since I didn't have a convenient place for such things. The yaffa blocks are to organize the top of my fridge & my bookcase. I'm really enjoying things!

Later we went to Target & BN (I used my gift certificate for our yummy desserts & a supply of Tazo chai. Yeah, I know I'm an English major, but I have a stomach, too! And we all know I have QUITE the supply of books over here!!) Back at MHC, we ate dinner (yums, Andrew made it) and watched some Real World (I love watching that show). Then we watched The Village finally... I'd been wanting to see that. Scary but more psychological & twisty that I had expected. Pretty good one! Also watched the first two episodes of Desperate Housewives, which were awesome.

Sunday: Went to brunch at the Lone Wolf. I got yummy challah french toast. We decided to have a bit of a marathon watching Desp. Housewives. I'm now sooo addicted to that show... after dinner and my Verbosity meeting, we watched another two shows. It's like a dark comedy about suburbia & the horribly normal surface of things. Looking forward to fully catching up next time I see Andrew...

Monday: Has been good... Verbosity table [Note: BUY VALENTINES FROM US!], Tom Stoppard (yay for all the cool people taking that course!), hanging out at Blanchard, going to the modern lit. lecture on printing presses in the modern era & women... dinner with Claudia, Sarah, & Miranda... and now I think I'm joining the English dept. search committee for a prof specializing in the same era that I'm interested in. cool =)

Back at MHC!!

Had a great time in Boston with Andrew -- watched lots of movies: Saved, Dawn of the Dead, The Stepford Wives, etc. Very scary, that Dawn of the Dead remake. We got the director's cut, unedited... whew. Lots of blood, lots of biting. I was scared for the next twenty four hours -- trying to plan escape routes in case of a zombie attack, re-imagining various biting/ chainsaw scenes. Now we're planning to do an all out scary movie fest by renting the original Night of the Living Dead trilogy. (Let me know if you're interested in this venture! I think it'd be a cool movie night.)

Also took an evening to go used book hunting -- wasn't too successful. No one has used Tom Stoppard plays. Argh!

Weds. night we went to 9 Tastes in Harvard Square -- 15 month anniversary!!

Andrew started feeling sick Weds night, & stayed home from work Thurs. and Fri. with a yucky cold (which I think I now have). So we had an extended weekend, and left Boston for MHC on Saturday. Everyone was out in force with the snow storm warning, presumably stocking up on food. It was CRAZY. Traffic backed up & grocery store entrances jammed, entire lots completely full... Just goes to show you that, in case of a REAL emergency, we'd be woefully unprepared & disorganized. We can't even handle a couple feet of snow without getting worked up into a frenzy of buying and freaking out.

We didn't get to Amherst till around 3 pm, and the snow was starting. Places were closing up, so we got Fresh Side to go and made it back to MHC. Very pretty, the snow piled up fast! My room was pretty dusty, so Andrew & I set to work... I dusted and swept, he was in charge of rugs. Then I reorganized stuff & unpacked. Next weekend Andrew's going to live up to his "Handy Andy" middle school nickname (haha have I embarassed you yet?) by (we hope) putting up shelves & bringing yaffa blocks. Hoping to better organize sweaters & food (random, I know). So in the evening I unpacked my mailbox, and we watched The Shining & SNL. Andrew didn't think it was very scary, but at least now he knows where the "Heeeeere's Johnny!" expression came from.

And what's with the recurring character of Rachel Dratch as a single woman bringing her dates home to meet her "pets"? One week it was Jasper the parrot, this week it was Franklin the cat. Very strange, especially after Andrew ran across an ad about "furries" on Craig's list. Want to know more? Check out this link: http://pressedfur.coolfreepages.com/press/vanityfair/

Sunday was a bit sad... went to see Meet the Parents finally, very funny. Went used book shopping in Amherst, still couldn't find anything... Went to Pasta e Basta for dinner (my first time there, very good), and got more cheesecake from Rao's for dessert (the chocolate variety is sooo yummy). Played Trivial Pursuit in the evening -- Julia is amazing at that game. That cheered me up, I'd been getting sad about Andrew going.

In the morning, Andrew was all dressed and at the door with his work laptop in hand, when he got a phone call from Cheryl (who he works with). Apparently they were told to work from home, so we suddenly had an extra day together! We slept, got a parking pass, had some breakfast... I slept some more as I was starting to feel cold symptoms... then in the afternoon we had lunch, worked, ran some errands, and went into Noho. Very fun, going through used book stores. Found Eagleton's After Theory, which is great, it'll be my for fun reading. Then we went to the Haymarket, and I had lovely ginger lemon tea and started reading T.E. Afterwards, of course, we had to go to Herrell's... sundae!! My favorite food in the world... Burnt Sugar & Butter with hot fudge sauce. Yum.

Back at MHC we got some food from the Blanch & ate in the living room. I turned on a couple of chandeliers, it felt rather elegant. Watched Monster's Ball finally -- pretty good.

This morning 'Rew had to go back to Somerville for an eye appointment. As I was ordering my Tom Stoppard books online & signing up for their better-than-mine credit card, my internet suddenly blinked out and I had to re-request an IP address thingy. I was pissed... First of all, returning residents to the same rooms weren't supposed to have to do this. Secondly, why in the middle of the morning, when people are doing important stuff? Why not overnight so that you aren't in the middle of anything? Crazy. So I called up and complained, and then re-filled out the application on amazon. Bah!

It's awesome seeing everyone again... Kept running into people at Blanchard. Missing Dale though... & Andrew of course, but I'll get used to the whole weekend schedule. Cross your fingers that we get into at least one grad school together, with funding!!

Dinner time now, must go!

The reading by Sawyer-Laucanno on his new biography of E.E. Cummings was interesting, although I was wowed more by the content than his speaking... Appropriately, we focused on the early years, as Cummings grew up right here in Cambridge. I sneaked out afterwards, as I didn't want to buy the book there. In the evening I went over to Jen's for soup & talking & Carnivale. Great show -- some things became a bit more clear by the end. And it was fun just hanging out with Jen, usually it's with the boys in tow, but it seems like we have lots in common. They have the cutest apartment -- it makes me eager to be out on my own, too...

So Monday I was expecting that Andrew would get home around 9:30 in the evening. I got rather ambitious, & bought stuff to make fried rice... And I was sure to simulate "leftovers" with the rice -- combining some I'd made Sunday with a new batch, & keeping it all in the fridge. Somehow there is a huge difference between using fresh, warm rice, and leftover cold rice in fried rice. I think it has something to do with ridding the rice of excess liquid. Anyways, in the evening I realized that I had forgotten the frozen peas. Oops. Freezing trip out for said peas.

I figured I'd shower and then start dinner at around 8... everything in the kitchen takes me longer than normal because I'm OCD and have to wash all the time. [I'm only half-kidding.] It wasn't until 9:15 or so that dinner was sitting warm & waiting, and the dishes were done. I loved it, I so rarely cook, and I surprised Andrew by actually making something edible. We caught up over dinner, & Andrew showed me the fortune cookies he'd bought at a specialty shop (to which I said, cute, but not quite chocolate), and then the yummy cocoa mix he found for me =) He was very clever about not dropping any hints over dinner, even when I reminded him that LAST time he went to San Fran., he brought back a really good chocolate espresso bar. So of course we had to sample the hot chocolate, and it was yummy (you just can't recreate hot chocolate with "just add water" powders).

Today I've been reading, watching some MTV... and I saw something rather disturbing.

Has anyone else seen this commercial? The camera follows this young black man around school, playing sports, etc., and there's this little child in the background with a birthday hat on, and you're wondering, what's up with this child? Why is he stalking this guy? Then it flashes to a scene of the little boy at his birthday party, and you realize they're brothers, and their father is telling the older brother something about the little boy being disappointed if he (the older brother) doesn't stay at the party or something. And it closes with "Don't ever forget the people you hurt when you're high," and flashes "Regret, the anti-drug" up on the screen. So you might be like wow, profound. But it doesn't make any sense. First of all, no drug is named. And the most likely drug for teens to be using is pot, so you're trying to figure out how this fits together. It doesn't... Any number of things might make a teen miss his younger brother's birthday party -- prior plans, embarassment over spending time with the fam, being plain old inconsiderate, not caring, depression, hell even alcohol -- anything, basically. Seems that these people making commercials are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I'd just like to say, for like the millionth time, that alcoholism is way, way, way worse than smoking pot. Especially if you're living with one or both as a child. Alcohol is addictive (pot isn't), it impairs judgment in a totally different way... and how many times have you heard about someone driving while high and killing a family? Compare that to drunk driving statistics. Makes you wonder why one is legal and the other isn't... I wish we'd just make pot legal and tax the hell out of it & fund education/ social security/ medicare with it.

I'll stop ranting now... but I hate those commercials!

Sooo...

Andrew's off in San Fran. for a cousin's wedding, & I'm here holding down the fort. Well, Kory's here too, but whatever. So yesterday was sad, seeing him off... Sad because I'm used to having him around, and because this was the only full weekend in January that we have here, and because he was going off to do something fun & I'm a brat & can't be happy for people. =)

Anywho, last night I decided to make something semi-healthy for dinner. I made pasta & a salad, and then discovered that I didn't know if we had any marinara sauce. Looking in the fridge produced one opened jar, and in the cupboard I found one full one... Luckily I didn't find the vodka sauce in the fridge till later (apparently it's old). The one in the cupboard was of the "roasted garlic," and upon a taste inspection I realized that there was no way in hell that I was eating anymore of that. So that left the one opened jar in the fridge that tasted better, but was of dubious background... I was pretty sure it was around a month old... Looking up online, could find nothing as to the durability (isn't that a funny word to use about pasta sauce?) of foodstuffs in the fridge after the initial opening. So... I decided that, since it tasted OK & there was no mold on the lid, I would eat it. Because I'm lazy and I didn't feel like going to the store.

Then... I realized that I had a full evening to do... what? in. Finally edited a story, watched episodes of the OC that I missed last month over ice cream, watched some Jay Leno, & slept... The OC is sooo good. I held out for awhile, with my attitude that it was just a dumb sitcom and that surely 4 years of college has taught me to appreciate more... well, more thought-provoking shows. Nope, can't deny it -- I love the soap opera drama elements.

This morning I woke up and knew that I had to do something interesting. This meant a trip to Harvard Square to locate White Noise, because the movie of the same title (but about something tooootally different) reminded me that I should read that sometime when I'm not bogged down with other work. And since I only read one other novel this break, it was about damn time I started a new one. Had a slow start, watched the news on TV & kids' Saturday morning 'toons. Trading Spaces Boys vs. Girls is actually really entertaining, I discovered.

I got directions online to Harvard Books, and set off for my little adventure. I passed Au Bon Pain & the Adidas store, and I was like, wow, so cool, I'm on the right track! I passed right by the store, thinking that it was just part of Harvard U.'s Coop & student bookstore, not realizing that it's the SAME THING as Harvard Books! Oops... So I walked... and walked... and saw another T stop off in the distance, a bit down Mass Ave. from the YMCA. So I turned around, and started walking back. Stepped into this old man's used bookstore (you know the type, totally deserted except for you and this bookish old man with white hair, so you HAVE to buy something or feel like a complete idiot suddenly walking out...) No White Noise. Did, however, find a Tom Stoppard play that I might possibly need for my course this semester. So I bought that and put back Waiting for Godot as the guy wanted 2.25$ for each old beat up play. Craazy. I was thinking maybe like, 1$... Guess I'm used to Oregon pricing still.

Back on my merry way up Mass Ave, I went up and down side streets, and examined every store front. Soon began to despair that I would not find Harvard Books. Finally saw the store, realized my mistake, and saw the Plymton St. sign that I had previously been searching for (as the directions told me to). How did I pass right by that sign without noticing?? Looked through used books, remainders... no White Noise. Went up to the new books section, resolving that if I had come this far, I had may as well just spend the money and get the damn thing...Couldn't find it among the D's... Then looked up into the highest shelves, realized that it was overflow or something, and saw one reddish spine with hard to see little letters... Saw that it was probably White Noise, dragged a footstool over, and grabbed it. Last one! Unfortunately it was $15.75 with tax (I'll figure I used Grammy's x-mas money on that one).

Felt good walking out of the store, and decided to find Peet's. Soon found it, but not before being harassed by a panhandler (is that an old-fashioned word?) This guy was right in front of me asking for change, and I made the mistake of looking right at him and thinking that, if my spare change wasn't in my wallet in my inner coat pocket, and if I wasn't planning to use it for T fare, that perhaps I could give him something... So, as always happens to me when I'm walking somewhere (esp. walking somewhere alone) in cities, he picked me out to yell at. Something like this: "Take me seriously! Don't just look at me with your big pretty eyes, I don't buy that lady..." As I walked as quickly as possible with the crowd across the street. Fled to Peet's... If I had money that felt like throwing away (which I don't, not with this wisdom tooth extraction coming up that will be expensive -- and I'm not going to launch into a defense of how I spend my money), I would rather give it to my parents & family than to some nameless guy bumming money and yelling at me in the street. Honestly, harassing me does NOT make me want to give you money! Do something nice if you want money. I have been known to drop change into collections when it's for people playing music that I like...

At Peet's I enjoyed the college student vibe, & got some not so special chai. Next time, the special teas are probably more worth the money. Then I realized that my plan to sit quietly and read in a coffeeshop would be difficult, since there was no where to sit. I pretended to look at the loose teas for sale, and then got up the guts to ask a girl sitting with her laptop if I might sit and read at her table. So I sat and read the first few chapters, and plotted how I might retrace my steps to the T station without encountering said panhandler again.

Upon arriving in Porter Square, I remembered that we have a relatively new bookstore right next to us in the shopping complex. I went in, to see if they had a cheaper copy of White Noise (and if I therefore should have gone there)... no copies! Saw a flyer for this Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno, who wrote a biography on Paul Bowles (a writer Quillian once assigned -- he wrote this cool story "A Distant Episode" that I wrote an essay on for Lit. Crit. & Theory). Apparently he's going to be at the store tomorrow, promoting his new biography of EE Cummings. I think I'll go -- hopefully he's going to actually read and not just sign books. If it sounds good, perhaps I'll use my gift certificates for that book & Terry Eagleton's new one...

I bought the most unhealthy thing for dinner ever -- Banquet fried chicken -- every once in awhile I feel the urge to eat really random/ unhealthy things. Like orange soda.

Also edited another story... wonder how many times I'll need to do that before it's "good enough"...

Last night I was getting really into revising & elaborating on some poetry fragments I'd written into my little purple notebook. Looking forward to having a verse writing class again this semester. Feel rather guilty about not taking a 5 college course yet, but there are always things here to take... no other college in the valley is offering a verse writing course this semester, except the intro/level one sorts, and I already had that so it seems silly to essentially retake it. I'm hoping for more freedom in the level 2, and less people in the course just to get rid of requirements.

I've become more addicted than ever to princetonreview.com's message boards for grad school. Keep hoping that I'll get an early acceptance letter so I don't keep worrying that I won't get in anywhere =(

That's all for now... Happy birthday to Merrers & Dale!

Something funny I found through oddtodd.com for Mer:

Here's the story: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/basket6st/basket6st1105014896.aspx

Here's the picture:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050106/photos_sc/mdf814516

I'm now in Boston, swimming in free time as Andrew is usually at work and will be gone this holiday weekend for a wedding in CA. I originally intended to work for Warm2Kids during the break, but they've been kind of unreliable with actually paying me, and I have plenty of my OWN volunteer work to do! (Because even though the grad school applications are done, you can imagine that fellowship applications are pretty damn similar.) So now I'm working on finding funding for grad school, catching up on sleep, and working on my thesis. I'd also like to read White Noise finally, as soon as I find a used copy. Oh, and there's no connection between the book and the movie, but seeing that movie title plastered on the TV everyday DID serve to remind me about needing to read the novel...

Here's what I've been doing...

Before leaving Oregon, I hung out with Mum, visited Dad once more (thanks to Tim driving me), went along on Mum's visit to her old piano teacher (Lois), visited Shannon at her apartment in Parkdale, & generally just enjoyed being at home. It was pretty sad leaving, and Tim was trying to get me to change my plane ticket and stay longer! Although I'll be in great pain, I'll enjoy being at home after my wisdom tooth removal ordeal in June. On that front, I've discovered a great food that I can eat even while my mouth is "laid up" -- cream of wheat!! Mum hates it, but after having some at a restaurant I told Andrew that we must try to recreate it for our own home use. Yesterday morning we made a yummy batch -- when it's made with milk and supplemented with sugar and cinnamon, it's SO GOOD.

Ok so the plane ride now. I had a short leg up into Seattle. This was on an airbus. It was literally the size of a bus with wings. I did not feel safe. In fact, I felt pretty damn UNsafe in that rickety little swaying contraption. I managed to eat lunch, however, and it was nice having the whole row to myself since the plane was not even half full. After walking freaking half a mile in the Seattle airport, and searching in vain for an AA worker to confirm that I was at the right terminal, I settled down to waiting for an hour till the plane started boarding. Boo!

The flight was OK, they even fed us (although it was gross pasta and marinara sauce, how do you screw up marinara sauce? worse than MHC's!!!). We were even half an hour early into Boston. I was happy. Then the bad news hit, because we all know that there is no such thing as an uncomplicated airplane ride. The pilot came on to say that we'd be stuck sitting on the runway for 20 minutes as they were waiting for a terminal to slip into. I was sitting there like, BS, it's 9:30 PM, the snow/rain was supposed to be done by early evening in Boston, they've had plenty of time to plan for this expected weather and clean up afterwards. I've flown in worse with no problems, what's going on? I accepted this, however, as there is nothing else for a passenger to do but protest and be thrown in jail (according to one obscure passage in the Patriot Act or another). So I sat there for twenty minutes, after being on the plane for over 5 hours while it was in flight. In "compensation," the pilot put on the radio. That did not make me happy. You know that loud underlying hiss noise of airplanes? Well the radio wasn't much louder, and just sounded fuzzy. I was getting a headache from all the noise and the canned air. Then the pilot came back on. His first word was "unfortunately." We all groaned. Another thirty minutes sitting on the f*&#ing runway.

Again, I sat there for the full time. Around 10:30 the pilot came on again. We'd been sitting there for an hour already. He said it'd be "five minutes, and we'll be in shortly." 15 to 20 minutes later the plane actually started moving. The air steward people were no where to be found, so I finally called one out for a cup of water. Hint for airlines: If you keep passengers sitting in an unmoving aircraft for over an hour, you need to AT LEAST offer them water or beverage service to keep them calm. To keep them happy, you should offer free alcohol. In fact, you should always offer free alcohol in case of mishaps. This is what I'm used to when flying, and I was sorely disappointed that I wasn't compensated for my wasted time by the chance to put myself into a fuzzy stupor.

By the time we got off the f*&%ing plane, everyone was practically running to the baggage claim. More bad news there! I could see piles of luggage in roped off areas. That is never a good sign. It means someone screwed up, because that luggage is not with its rightful owner! I waited 15 minutes as the same old luggage that wasn't our plane's floated by, round and round. Andrew magically appeared with Dunkin' Donuts and I whined loudly to him about the horrid state of affairs with AA. After waiting another 15 minutes, and sharing notes of the mishaps witnessed on both our sides, we were convinced that my luggage was not going to appear. Asking an attendant, we found that they already had a freaking form letter and hotline set up to deal with the luggage issue. The lady was uncertain about my using it, however, saying that I hadn't yet waited "30 minutes." I informed her that I had just waited an hour and a f*#$ing half out on the runway, and nearly 30 minutes in baggage claim, and that we needed to catch the T asap. She shut up and handed me the paper with the info. A few minutes later they announced that our luggage was actually coming out for flight 2270, so we headed back over and (miracle of miracles) my bags soon appeared.

Moving on from my American Airlines debaucle... We got home pretty late after all that hassle, and I ate chicken soup and advil to counteract my headache. Slept till about 1:30 the next day (but that'd be 10:30 am Oregon time). Watched Garden State with Andrew in the afternoon, and joined Jon & Jen for dinner, an impromptu viewing of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (to get us psyched up for the new one), and the first Carnivale of the new season.

Tonight we're going to Sugar & Spice for Thai, and doing some food shopping to get ready for the rest of the week. I need to get string cheese and TV dinners for while Andrew's gone this weekend.

Today I slept in, read, about finished my grad school apps (must just read everything over, print, choose writing samples, and send off), took Bosun on a walk, and relaxed. Bosun ran away from me when I was trying to walk him. He barked at me when I called to him, encouraging him to hurry his ass up and catch up. He sniffed a moment longer and ran back down the trail to the house, so I ran after him. I tackled him halfway back, and he lost his balance and fell. Then I tried to herd him back up to the ditch, and resorted to walking him on his leash. He insisted on going down to the frozen ditch for a drink, so I tried to break the ice for him. Then he went out on the ice himself, and his back legs kind of splayed out like he was trying to do the splits. He looked mighty confused, and then got the hell off the ice. When we got home, I gave him one of those chewing ears that Mer bought for him, and he grunted and walked away from me. Crazy old basset.

Check this out Mer: http://postgazette.com/pg/04363/433410.stm

Ahh I can't believe Andrew & Mer are gone already! Had such fun... Going to taco night with the girls (and Andrew), staying up late New Year's Eve playing Trivial Pursuit (Lindsey & I won!! yay us!!), watching the illegal fireworks, trying to make ice cream out of snow, going to dinner at the Crazy Pepper (thanks Mer for the gift certificate -- Andrew understood why I love that place after taking just one bite), watching cheesy 80s movies...

Saturday afternoon we were lazing around on our last unplanned day, watching videos of the house being built, and Mum suggested a hike. Luckily Andrew & I didn't wimp out -- Tamanawas was beautiful with the layer of snow over everything. We rushed to the falls, and it was sooo worth the 2 miles of slippery snow. I didn't remember what it looked like -- very impressive... a sheer drop off with water pouring over. Andrew took 70 pictures along that hike!!

Afterwards, at home, we warmed up by the fire and drank hot chocolate. Yums. I made mine from scratch (as in baker's chocolate, sugar, some of a chocolate bar, and milk). Helped Mum make scalloped potatoes, and Andrew & I made the sugary & marshmallowy sweet potatoes. Our efforts at a fancy dinner were thwarted by the sudden break down of the oven. The range top worked, so we finished dinner by frying up ham and microwaving potatoes. Ack!! [This problem is due to be fixed next Tuesday, so it looks like me and Mum won't be doing the twice-baked potatoes.] In the evening we watched Spaceballs (so cheesy).

Sunday was taking Mer back to Corvallis day. Saw her lilac room, hunted about for a certain pair of shoes, helped Mer change her sheets and make the bed while Andrew put her cushy chair together. We kept forgetting things for Mer in the car, so I made two trips up to her room after our goodbyes (and she still forgot her gum! But don't worry Mer, I won't chew it, I promise!) Then Mum started honking and we yelled at Mer's window from the street to get her attention, as a particularly cute basset was going by. Are we the most embarrassing family members a first year college student could get stuck with? Yes.

Coming back I slept, using Andrew as a pillow. Then in the middle of the night we brought him to the airport. Going back to bed in the half empty house was tres sad =( I miss you, Schmoopy! And me and the Dtub can't get used to Mer being gone! Luckily I worked with Mum today so I didn't mope around the house. I worked a bit on applications and read some more of my book... Tim's worried about the pipes freezing.

I found liquorice altoids today. SO GOOD!

OK so I've avoided posting on here for awhile, but I have a good excuse! Here at home (in Oregon) the computer is in the laundry room, and when that washer goes on spin cycle it feels like a 5.5 earthquake! Here's what I've been up to: At MHC: I did indeed finish all my work, and I didn't give up sleeping. The last English class was fun, and I turned in all my Spanish work. I started feeling sick I think on Tuesday, so Weds. I just met with Prof. Moran, slept, and got a little work done. I made a 2.5 page outline for a 5 page paper -- I think it went OK... Thursday I felt better, which was lucky, because the Winter Social was that evening. The ESB arrived early to decorate and set up the refreshments (which were yummy), and we hauled an old bookcase down into the Cassani Room to serve as a podium (we forgot to order one). It was so lovely... Jaime helped me introduce people (thank God), and Prof. Davis read from Sedaris and Louise Erdrich. Prof. Hill read something from Thomas Mann involving icesicles, and Prof. Stephens read selections of poetry. Prof. Berek talked to us later about a course he's teaching next semester, and Prof. Stephens's daughter was so so adorable while running about. Maryanne said the next day that things came together well, so I'm happy! I went back to my room and was a tad bit sad about that being my last winter social at MHC. Anyway, I wrote the criminology paper, and studied for the American Lit. exam. Friday I took the early test, turned everything in, wrote thank-you cards for my profs, endured a tense lunch at Wilder, and then packed that afternoon. D. Becky was able to bring me to the bus station, so we had a good chat and I realized I'm not very good at getting out of my routines and just traveling and living by the moment! This was prompted by talking about Becky's plans for travel, and of course the things she's already done which scare me (especially the mice in the tent part). Said goodbye to Becky and it finally sank in that I was done with the semester... ack. Hopped on the bus to Boston, dragged my luggage from the terminal to the T, and then met up with Andrew at the Porter T stop, where he patiently waited for me while my bus was late! That evening we ate a real dinner (yay no more dining hall food for awhile!) and relaxed. We watched Elf, which was awesome. Saturday Andrew's father arrived fairly early, and we went with Jon and Jen to the aquarium for the afternoon. Saw Myrtle the turtle again, and the puffer fish. Then we wandered around in Quincy Market, and searched the North End for this particular Italian restaurant that Jon had been to before. I had chicken and pasta and artichokes and veggies in some sort of chicken and wine sauce... yums. Very relaxing and wonderful, esp. after finals and turning in 5 grad school apps! Afterwards we went to Mike's for pastries, which we later devoured at Jon & Jen's apartment. Chocolate cake with cheesecake... sooo good. We were really tired that evening... The next morning we woke up fairly early to meet up with Andrew's dad at the Neighborhood for breakfast. It's this cool place that serves American/ Portuguese breakfast -- the cream of wheat was AMAZING. Creamy and with cinnamon... I could eat that every morning. Back home I napped and Andrew finished another application. Then I worked on my applications while he went off to buy sushi supplies to use with his new rice cooker (from his dad for Hanukkah). The first roll was a little sloppy, but the second was professional looking -- even Kory thought so. We tried to keep up the theme with miso soup and salad with rice vinegar. Some difficulty over the avocados -- we ended up with a "slimcado" which was huge and with like 40% less fat than a normal avocado. Yums =) That Monday was consumed with grad school applications and packing. Early Tuesday morning I dropped off three applications at the post office and we were on our merry way to the airport. Luckily we got a ride there, it was so much less stressful than taking the T would have been. We played travel scrabble, watched an episode of the OC, napped, watched some SNL, watched A Shark Tale, and relaxed... best plane ride ever! At the airport we met up with Mum & Mer, and stopped by at Grammy's on the way home. Arriving at the new house was amazing... And exploring it! Last time I was here it was just a framework. Everything was perfect...I love it! My room has a skylight, the living room windows capture a great view of Mt Hood... ahh! So since Andrew has been here, we've been trying to keep busy. That night I remember eating enchiladas and unpacking a bit after exploring the house. The next day I got the metal bar in my mouth removed (8 years I wore that after my braces were removed!) and Mer took Andrew on a hike while I had my teeth cleaned. Hmm. I think Mer's blog is probably more accurate at this point, but I remember we went shopping in the Dalles one day before Christmas, and I wrapped a bunch of stuff. We trimmed the tree to Amahl and the Night Visitors (see Mer's blog -- Licorice! Licorice!), went to Arlene's for Christmas Eve (MacKenzie was adorable dancing to her singing guitar), had a quiet Christmas here at home and dinner with Grammy, visited my Dad, went up to Timberline Lodge and had hot cider, etc... Two days ago we went on a hike up at Laurance Lake, watched Dodgeball... hmmm I hope I'm not mixing up my days... The day before yesterday Mer had friends over, and we all went on a walk, had bbq-ed hamburgers, played games, and roasted marshmallows over the bonfire... Yesterday was our big Portland trip... Andrew drove, which was funny... We went to the zoo in Portland which wasn't too crowded since it was a pretty dismal day, saw tigers, elk, jaguars, hippos, owls... Saw some of the "zoo lights" before we left. Then we stopped at Powell's where Mer had a rendezvous with Alex, and we sat in the cafe drinking odwallas and coffee. Next stop was Buffalo Exchange, where I found cool jeans and Mer found 3 pairs of pants in like ten minutes. Our parking time was running out, so we just ran into the same big dressing room and threw jeans at each other to try on while frantically looking in the mirror to see if the jeans made our butts look baggy or OK. Fastest shopping trip ever! Next we really really needed to eat something (we hadn't eaten since breakfast). Andrew & I flipped through the remnants of the restaurants section in the yellow pages at a pay phone booth, and saw half an ad for Thai Orchid. I really wanted mango fried rice and/or pad thai, and this place was just 12 blocks up. Luckily we squeezed into a parking spot, and the restaurant looked nice, so we settled on that place quickly. No mango fried rice, but everything was great, and we introduced Mer to Thai food (and tea!!) She liked it, yay =) After dinner we waddled down to a Goodwill that was right next door, and Mer found ANOTHER two pair of pants, one a retro style pair of Gap jeans that I wish I could squeeze into. On the ride home we got stuck at the same weird alley-looking area that points to I-84, and then I had the bright idea to stop at Multnomah Falls. Pretty even though it was dark out... Back in Hood River we split a PB cup blizzard and got high on sugar. Last night we played another game of Scrabble in which I lost (boo!) OK now must go eat! (I know, it's the common theme in my blogs.)

It's been awhile... Short story of why: Grad school applications and the end of the semester.

Andrew and I have had two super productive weekends here at MHC, while still managing to have fun. Last weekend I think we worked Friday night, most of Saturday (until we went to dinner at a Korean restaurant & got ice cream at Herrell's), and most of Sunday (until we went to Vespers). I loved Vespers, and we sang Mum's favorite "O Come all Ye Faithful." When the lights were out and the choir walked up the aisle holding candles, Andrew turned to ask: "Are we getting inducted into a cult?" It was a funny moment. And I wasn't bored during the boring parts (ie, songs without words in English or Spanish). Handbells were great!

The past week was crazy with grad school applications. 5 down, 5 to go. Oh yeah, and between last Thursday and last Tuesday, I wrote 29 pages of my thesis!!

This weekend we had more fun -- Friday we played Balderdash (I'm never going to live down the Scottish landlord's infamous eviction notices) with Emily & Julia & Korisha, Saturday we did a little mall shopping (so many crying children and irritated parents) & went to Karuna's very fun birthday party, Sunday we slept in and did a little more shopping, had dinner at Judie's. It took me 20 minutes to decide what to order.

More on Karuna's birthday --
At one point, D Becky carried me back into the sun room. Andrew didn't know where Shakespeare was born. I was very loud (I hope not too annoying). Claudia & Kim will never again be on the same Trivial Pursuit team. Very fun! =)

OK now back to the essay for class tomorrow. Here's the countdown: this essay, memorize a poem, write a 5 pager for Criminology, take the English self-scheduled exam, turn in my 395 progress report, and write thank-you's for my recommenders. I'm hoping to make my grand exit on Friday night.

First off: Happy Birthday, Mum!!

Secondly: Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

The NYT again pointed out things that I am mad about. First, Maureen Dowd wrote a great op-ed piece on why airline security is getting out of hand, embarrassing, and even starting to look like sexual harrassment. And why we should be angry: It does sh*t. Yes, believe it or not, making women drink their own breast milk and feeling up 70 year old women's breasts is not, somehow, preventing terrorism. Hard to believe isn't it? I mean with a game plan like that, how could anything slip through? If you want to learn more, check out the NYT for Nov. 25th. It's worth it.

And most importantly, Republicans are trying to push through a bill that would entirely cut the Pell grant program. Because obviously education isn't important, nor is helping to level the playing field so that people like me can go to college, and not just the Bush family kids (who, if they are anything like W, are not very smart). Now I'm going to cite some of the editorial "Undermining the Pell Grants" in case you don't believe me:

"The pending cut could cause as many as 1.2 million low-income students to have their grants reduced - and as many as 100,000 could lose their grants altogether...The Pell program, which is meant to help students pay for tuition and other expenses, like books and housing, has been gravely underfinanced for a long time. Congress has tried to mask the problem by tricky bookkeeping. In particular, Congress failed to revise the maximum grant to keep pace with rising costs. Left untouched for a decade, the aid formula is still capped at around $4,000 a year - far less than what it takes to support a college student...the Republican leadership has advanced a proposal that could slash the program...by roughly $300 million. Eliminating the resources to help needy and qualified students go to college will not even put a dent in the nation's growing deficit, but it will greatly diminish opportunities for upward mobility for the nation's youth."

For the article, go to www.nytimes.com Definitely worth reading. I am completely shocked that first abortion rights are being threatened, and now Pell grants. And we're still in November of the first month of Bush's second term! Can't this administration do anything right? If we're going to dump billions of dollars into a waste of a war, can't we at least reserve a few million to educate our own bright youth? The program was designed to help students with the grades to do well in college to go, despite economic disadvantages. This cut would clearly hurt the working class and lower middle class by preventing their children from having the chance to make a better life for themselves. Wtf is wrong with this administration??

Because it's funny and it's Brownlow and it's on our daily jolt page:
"If you take a porpentine [porcupine] and get it really mad, its hairs will separate like it had washed its hair with no conditioner, you know?"- Professor Brownlow, discussing Hamlet, Shakespeare

Also: went to Variasians for the first time Saturday. Good Thai iced tea, but that warm coconut drink I couldn't drink (it reminded me of soap or something that I didn't feel like I should be drinking). The food was good besides that though, and it was great fun to sit with Kathleen and Heather and watch the show. The Chinese ribbon dance was gorgeous. And the dance involving a brass plate. Made me wish I could dance. Watched SNL at D Becky's. I don't think people really got The Falconer. I don't like U2's new song. Becky's bunny was as cute as ever!

OK, back to the Spanish paper...

Last weekend: The GREs. Yes, the trivia and "fun facts" for English majors. A little under half is straight identification of passages (matching up authors and titles, authors and passages, you get the idea), and then there's the multiple choice literary analysis sections. So, yeah, it basically is totally useless. Despite this fact, while I was going through it I can honestly say I was rather enjoying myself. I did the best I could, although I guessed more than I should have. Definitely some familiar territory after all my own reading and my studying. Odd coincidence: Thomas Pynchon made an "appearance" on The Simpsons in a paper bag. Yes, in disguise, even as a cartoon.

After the test, I found Andrew in the library and we went to Amherst for some of the homecoming game. The main attraction was the reception afterwards, where there were cookies to be had. Also, went to a book signing for some Amherst profs and their new (very funny) book. At one point they had a joke about how profs. should retain a class's attention by hiring a work study student with a particularly loud or inviting laugh, and the prof. pointed at me right afterwards and said "you'd do well." Andrew laughed at me =)

Also had a celebratory (in my mind it was very much a celebration, anyways!) dinner in Noho, with sushi. And then I had a very large Herrell's ice cream (burnt sugar and butter with fudge on top. Sooo good. If there's a heaven it should involve eating Herrell's ice cream).

Sunday we worked quite a bit, moving from study area to study area. I finished one book, started another I think... Introduced Andrew to Pratt library (a new favorite).

On the application front, I have sent out my general GRE scores and transcripts.

I have a new and I think better idea for my final Spanish essay, involving Cabeza de Vaca (yes, you heard right, good ole Head of Cow himself) and Hans Staden. Andrew, with his vocabulary of maybe 200 Spanish words, was very worried about that name. Apparently, Cabeza de Vaca's father or grandfather or some male ancestor plopped a cow skeleton on a plot of land to claim it, and from then on, they were known as the Cabeza de Vacas. Profesora seemed interested, I believe her exact words were: "That could be interesting," so I'm plunging ahead.

This evening I went to Falling Bodies (Mary Jo Salter's play) with the Across The Lake crew, and I think we were rather evently split on who did/ didn't enjoy it. Jaime and I were laughing at some points, I remember specifically when we both were like "Comus!" when Milton mentioned the masque he wrote. And the Andrew Marvell and Donne allusions...And the nun in a box...

Yeah.

Further news: Merrie's on facebook, and she revealed a post-makeover photo to me.

Pink Poodledog: haha! mer!
Pink Poodledog: that's a cute picture there
Pink Poodledog: wow, it looks like mascara and eyeliner and shadow...
muskrateer86: yeah, the whole works
Pink Poodledog: and your hair! so cute --
muskrateer86: I decided to preserve the moment because it'll probably never happen again
Pink Poodledog: pretty eyes mer -- see, you should always wear that stuff when you dress up
Pink Poodledog: hahahahaha

Oh wow it's been a long, long time since my last post... OK, quick sum up!

Halloween weekend: dog-sitting. Phantom of the Opera = very cool, loved it, the music was amazing, and the singing... ahh. Dale's party was fun and I wish I could have stayed longer... but as it was I was seeing shadows all the way home after the scary movie!

The following weekend: Andrew came out, we studied at the Thirsty Mind, in the Stimson Room, etc. Breakfast at the cute Roadside Cafe was yummy. Taboo with Katie and Karuna and Jasmine very fun (and funny). I got my letter of rec materials together. We had dinner Sunday at Fresh Side (very good). We stayed up late editing my personal statement.

This week: Lots o' the busies. I got my GRE scores back, 5.5 on the writing... I guess that's OK, but I felt like I deserved a 6! I wrote so much, and I thought it was coherent (at least at the time). Prof. Moran scared the heck out of our whole class about our midterm, but me and Sheyda were sitting together and were like "what's going on? we did well..." And I think I should have gotten an A, but I believe my test was the first one he graded (ie, before he read all the other papers, which he called the "worst batch he's ever gotten"). Because the only things he didn't like were that I didn't explicitely use the term "scientific method," and that I repeated myself a bit in the conclusion (well, duh). Blah!

Lovely dinner with Dale, Nora, Liz, Erin, Jaime, & Laura tonight. Oh and the cookies at the Stimson Room tea today were amazing. And the berry tea. Yums. What else... Oh yes, it's bitterly cold out. And my heater is a beast, it's constantly pumping out heat. Everyone says my room feels like a sauna. YES! I love it. This is the first year I've had a room that was actually well heated. So I'm enjoying it to the fullest, delighting in the luxury of leaving my window wide open and still feeling comfortably warm. GO FM!! For one the inaccuracies in the heating system are working to my benefit...

OH YES. And the F*CKING FIRE DRILL last night at 3 in the MORNING! What the hell use is a fire drill at 3 am when no one takes roll, checks in people's rooms, etc.? Except for breeding apathy? THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF, MHC, REMEMBER THE BOY!! Stop the insanity!! There is no EARTHLY reason why I need to be woken up at 3 in the morning to go up and down the freaking stairs. All it teaches me is that, when I hear the fire alarm, it is JUST A DRILL, so I may as well take my TIME and find my coat and put on socks and shoes before I go outside. PRETTY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE!!!!!! And to all those who say it's the law or some such nonsense: Some laws really need to be re-evaluated by semi-intelligent people, because these fire drills are not in the least little bit helpful. GROWL!!!! Add that to the list of things I definitely WON'T be missing next May!

And the other angry thing that has happened since I last posted: Bush. What the hell, America, were you thinking? Yes, it's a good idea to ignore the environment, with our high cancer rates, why should we worry about the environment we exist in? And I totally agree that we should spend 200 billion dollars in Iraq instead of educating our children, providing our citizens with affordable healthcare, or balancing the budget. Oh yeah, so there weren't WMD? And S.H. never threatened us or our liberties? Who cares! Let's just make even MORE people mad at us, because that will really help in lessening the number of people that hate America so much they start terrorizing us. ARGH! GROWL!!!!! And I won't even get started on gay marriage or abortion rights!

Life is so depressing sometimes!

OK, now back to work, no more ranting (till tomorrow).

Here's our pumpkin!! Happy Halloween!! 

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.

I hear screaming. That must mean that the Red Sox just won. Yay for beating the Yankees!!

So last Tuesday went as I predicted. Took a nice ride home with Erica and talked about pets, boyfriends, rides to Boston, MHC, etc. The short week was WONDERFUL and MUCH APPRECIATED! I had my first ESB meeting (very short) and another Verbosity meeting (which was "crashed," you might say). And then Andrew was here!

Friday we weren't too active, just GRE studying in the evening (it was raining). Fell asleep without brushing and all the lights on (oops, that's what happens when your eyes are burning from lack of sleep!)

Saturday we got a slow start... headed out to Rao's for coffee and study, but unfortunately it was parent's weekend at one of the other colleges and Amherst was overrun with people. It turned out OK, however, as Andrew found us a table with a view to the outside world. I read my criminology for the week, and some KM. Man next to us noticed the KM and knew who she is. Wow! Told me "The Garden Party" is her best. I disagree, I think "Bliss." But whatever!

Afterwards we headed to Fresh Side for dinner. Andrew had the satay (pretty good) and I tried the 8 Treasures Rice (pretty good except for the gluten, what an odd concept... very mushy). Also had Black Sheep for dessert. Yums... Back in my room I immediately started getting ready for Las Vegas Night. Had to wear my pink and black tube dress again, as after I graduate I will have no place to wear it! Attended Emily & Korisha's preparty which was fun and probably a better place to socialize than any other of the evening... so crowded at Chapin and in Blanchard! They had boys, too, so it seemed like a more normal environment. Andrew and I stuck together, and luckily Julia and I had the same views on dancing (ie, we didn't). The boys seemed quite impressed with the MHC dorms. Initially they thought Emily and Korisha's room was a quadruple. Right... When Korisha launched into why she needs a Buddhist fisherman, I almost lost it. And the Hampshire boy she was telling all this to was completely flabbergasted and tried to reason with her (which made him look a bit silly. PS, Andrew spotted him dancing with this girl later at Chapin. But they didn't look good together).

Then, in Blanchard, we met up with Karuna, her sister, D. Becky, Kathleen, etc. Andrew was set upon the Ipod and gambled while we socialized and ate the fondue. Then D Becky and I decided that the music was better in Blanchard than in Chapin, so we danced there. I stole some of the snacks and put them in my coat pocket (but one of my trail mix packages somehow was lost -- very unfortunate). I'm going to turn into one of those old ladies who steals salt shakers at restaurants.

Finally we found that -- big surprise -- we hadn't won anything. Party in Chapin super sketch. Very crowded and sweaty. Was glad I warned Andrew that we'd need to shower post-dance. Yuck! Good night though overall. Didn't get to bed till around 4 am though!

Somewhere between 4 am and 10 am someone STOLE MY DOORMAT. Who does that? I sent my floor an email alerting them to this fact, and Andrew later found it in our kitchenette. VERY CURIOUS. I called Public Safety to ask if perhaps FacMan had done it, and the woman said she didn't know anything about it, but that if I wanted to report it missing, I was welcome to do so. Tempting -- I'd enjoy being in the Public Safety log for "Student reported doormat missing after LVN debauchery."

Sunday we got a slow start. Studied in our sunroom for awhile. Very pretty and peaceful and quiet. Decided we'd go to Noho with Karuna and her sister for dinner.

In the later afternoon Andrew found the perfect place to get a pumpkin. We drove five minutes to a farm -- McClury's or something like that? Petting zoo (lots of white geese like our one strange bully goose at Lower Lake, very big horse, pony, sheep, rabbits, chickens, goats, etc.) and ice cream and hayrides and pumpkins. It took us a long time to pick out the perfect pumpkin (no surprise there! throw two indecisive people together and tell them to pick the best possible pumpkin for carving and baking seeds... ack).

The pumpkin rolled a bit in the trunk on the way home, but we managed. Then we headed to Noho for dinner at the Indian House. Very beautifully decorated -- low lighting, deep colored woods, candles, metal statues...Our table had a glass top with elephants carved in relief on metal beneath it. I had Masala curry... sooo good. Andrew's buriyani (I think?) wasn't as much my favorite. But the Masala... yum. Apparently I'm the mild spice sort.

Had a fun ride home, and a quick stop to Rao's for the coffee addicts (Andrew and Karuna's sister!) Studied some more words with Andrew, had M&C's and my leftover cake, and then we launched into practice GRE tests. I got a 690 on the verbal and a 710 on the quantitative. WTF! I've studied verbal all summer and no math till like, last week, and I still get a better score on that section. CRAZY!! Andrew did slightly worse on the verbal and aced the math.

Saw Andrew off this morning and was lucky to catch a very pretty, very pink sunrise. Then I slept till class =)

Today I was sitting about in my room, working on my personal statement, when I received an email and a phone call alerting me that there were flowers ready for pick up at Blanchard. I was like "what? who's sending me flowers? did dad randomly send flowers? who doesn't know my address and would send them to blanchard?" etc. etc. So I walked over, and realized on my way, duh, it's our one year anniversary tomorrow, maybe Andrew really DID keep a secret from me! So in Blanchard I saw this pretty bouquet with roses and baby's breath, and I walked up to get it. Then Rhea reached behind the desk and was like, no, you get the BIG one, and pulled out this huge bouquet of roses and ferns and baby's breath and, yes, the big red bow. I was like, shoot, I need to clean my room in order to bring these home! Everyone I knew had something to say when they saw me walking back to the Delles... Andrew was very clever and ordered a bouquet with a vase (last time I remember trying to put flowers in a big plastic cup...) So I had to call him right away and tell him how surprised I was and how pretty they are =) They're doing a marvelous job at making my room smell nice (instead of the smell of my icky radiator paint).

Ran down the hill to meet Dale for dinner, which was lovely. Salmon and Caesar salad and Thanksgiving food. Yay! So tonight I sent suggestions to Dining Services: 1. I threw up a week and a half ago, do something about that salad at Blanchard. 2. Dinner at Prospect = amazing. 3. Must do something to address poor student sanitation in the dining halls. NOTE: Do not use the same place twice -- you get your saliva-y germs all over the serving utensils. Get a NEW plate instead and save us all from eating your germs!

That pretty much catches us up...

FLU VACCINE ALERT
As many of you know, our country is, yet again, experiencing a flu vaccination shortage. No big surprise there, right? I mean our priorities are in the right place, right? You can get a botox injection anytime you want, Viagra pills on demand, but flu vaccinations? Nah, not a public health issue. No, 36,000 people didn't die last year, did they? Oops, maybe they did... Oh well! How many millions of dollars were lost in productivity due to the flu? How many people suffered through fevers, pains, cramps, vomiting, etc.? COME ON PEOPLE! Let's learn something from Britain and not put all our eggs in one basket next year. Like any good investor, DIVERSIFY! Let's get some domestic companies making flu vaccines, get the government to step up and make some wise decisions for a change (wait, I'm asking too much, the gov. can't even do that when it comes to wars!) ARGH! I'm an English major at a liberal arts college and I STILL feel better qualified to order flu vaccinations than our FDA. Shouldn't this be a priority? We worry about biological warfare and order smallpox vaccinations, but what about known killers? 36,000 people in one year, that's nothing to sneeze at (no pun intended). Why can't we even harness the basic medical expertise that could keep people well and healthy through the flu season? I'm feeling no trust in our government... if we're going to have a huge gov., can't we at least have one that can do something useful??

To read about the chaos and problems this shortage is causing, here's one article out of dozens of examples: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/health/14flu.html?th=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1098148324-6ZGBLQSoK/JbFgAneuivjw

From Mer's profile -- this made my night:

"I call them up everyday and yell at 'em. It's the only way to get anything done in this world."-Tim

I'm on my last day of the best October Break EVER... so i'm going to write out my blog now to prevent nostalgia and melancholy later.

Thursday: Mock interviewed Karuna and worked on something that I can't really remember now. Packed for the weekend. Oh yes, and had a great lunch with Kathleen, Dale, and Kiara. Talked of relationships and striving for a "healthy dependency."

Friday: Criminology class was about deserted, so Prof. Moran told us about the history of Oct. break (we didn't always have it, he claims a couple of women in the English department originally suggested having a break in Oct. instead of a full week off in November). He then got into an argument with Sheyda and her friend over the effect of Ritalin on kids with ADD. After class I ran some errands and finished packing. Had a hell of a time finding my ride -- I was imagining the wrong parking lot! Luckily Elizabeth walked by and saved me.

Very pretty ride into Boston. Leaves turning colors and I napped a bit. I took the T to Porter Square and got on Andrew's computer. I had the afternoon to do some practice GRE tests and spend a FULL HOUR looking for jet black size A nylons. I settled on off black size B nylons. ARGH!

Andrew got home around 6:30 (it was such fun to see him in his puffy vest after waiting all day) and we had dinner, packed, and headed out to pick up Jon and Jen. The ride down to Andrew's father's house in NY was pretty long and a bit cramped in the back seat with the guys' clothes, which needed to be hung up. We stopped for the regular bathroom break, and got back on the road. We listened to the debates on the radio, and we all agreed that Bush sounded kind of whiney while Kerry sounded calm and deliberate.

We got there pretty late -- and didn't get to sleep till about 2 am. Andrew & I endured the flip out bed from the couch although we realized later that we didn't have to. But probably better that we did... Woke up a bit after 8 am and got ready for the morning services. Inevitably, out of any group of people, I am always the last one to get ready. There wasn't anything in the house to eat, so we stopped off on the way (but still arrived on time!) Met up with Andrew's dad and Ann. This was the first time either Jen or myself had been to a synagogue and it WAS rather disorienting. The rabbi said something in Hebrew to me as I came in and I just kind of smiled obliviously and proceeded in. Then the bat mitzvah - specific yarmulkes, and the talits, and I was rather confused and just followed Andrew. (He looked awfully cute, despite the fact that his yarmulke would NOT stay on).

The whole room reminded me of churches I've been in, as there were the pews and the books in the back and all that. But the whole ark thing, that's different. And everything being in Hebrew, that's really different. I pretty much just sat and periodically whispered with Andrew. It was chilly! (air conditioning) Andrew's cousin did great, she kept rushing through things but she seemed to have everything down. It was the very very beginning of the Torah -- the creation. So that was familiar. Maggie elaborated on what God said was "good." Everything seemed to take so looongg... (also like going to church).

The rabbi had a great service/sermon though, that would never fly in a church back home (and esp. not in a Catholic church). He was basically encouraging people to vote for Kerry since he would protect abortion rights, which should be protected according to his reading of the Torah and Judaism... That already present life is more important than potential life, and that we've "forgotten the time of coat hangers and back alleys." So I was pretty interested throughout that.

The reception afterwards for the two kids was pretty elaborate and VERY crowded. We had a hell of a time finding a place to sit, and this woman kept chair hopping to prevent Jonathon from sitting down. I gorged myself on chocolate cake things with cream. YUM. And tea. Around 1 pm we headed home. We explored the yard sales and flea market right near Andrew's house, and I found a great purse. That reminded Andrew and I (independently) of the floral patterned arm chair that we sold over the summer. I napped, curled my hair, and started getting ready early (but still was last to be ready!) We took pictures and then headed out to the party for Maggie.

Everything was ice cream shop themed -- from the catered food to the labels on the salad dressing to the flashing signs and table decorations. Beautiful place to hold it, and everything was amazingly well-coordinated and charming. The girls all had gorgeous dresses on, and tuxes on the guys... We ate the hor'deurves and I had a very strong chocolate martini (good though, just made my mouth burn). The doors eventually opened to go into the seating area, and Andrew's whole family had a table. Lots of music, drinks, and Maggie's candle lightings... Andrew's family got called up and Buster got a mention =)

We finally danced a little which was the most fun I've ever had, ever, in a dancing situation. I wish we had pictures, I think we must have been rather funny and cute =) Dinner was good (tv dinner themed -- I had salmon), and the desserts were amazing: chocolate fondue (which I skipiped), fruit, brownies, bananas foster with sundaes... We finally left around midnight, but it was definitely one of the most wonderful evenings.

At home we decided to crack out Andrew and Jon's bar mitzvah videos. Hilarious! Unfortunately Andrew's didn't have sound. We saw all the same relatives we'd seen that evening, and laughed at old hairstyles and teeth, and the retro outfits. Finally got to bed around 3 am.

In the morning we went out to brunch for Andrew's father's birthday. Maud's -- and I had my first mimosa. Andrew and I shared some chocolate brownie cake for dessert. I talked mainly with Andrew's grandma and Aunt Stella (great!) Finally met Grandma Hilda, who calls Andrew on Friday nights on his cell phone and insists she doesn't have his number. She seems endearing and sweet. Also had the nickname "Andpew" explained to me.

The drive back didn't seem too long. I dozed in the backseat. Pretty leaves although it was overcast most of the way up. Stopped for a snack towards Boston, dropped off Jon and Jen, and headed home. We went food shopping out of necessity, and had a nice quiet dinner. Finally finished watching The Terminal. Lovely evening... =)

Monday morning Andrew was off to work, and I did schoolwork most of the day and caught up on sleep. In the evening we went to Harvard Square for dinner (9 Tastes, mango fried rice, yum). Home at a decent hour to do some grad school work. Watched a little Jack Black and had a quiet evening (romantic after our busy weekend!)

Today I did some more work -- finished reading for Thursday and did another practice GRE test. Tonight we're probably going to Porter Exchange for sushi and then I'm off to MHC -- whether I want to be or not!

Teaching Mer the really important things about college life:
muskrateer86: one question..what is beer pong?
Pink Poodledog: well they were actually probably playing beirut, another drinking game
muskrateer86: I just thought "beer pong" sounded funny
Pink Poodledog: which is basically where you have two teams on different sides of a long table, and you try to get a pingpong ball or other object into the other team's cups of beer. if you succeed, they have to drink the beer, so they get drunker and less able to get a pingpong ball into YOUR beer, so that you can retain your motor skills
Pink Poodledog: an ingenious game invented by half drunk frat boys, no doubt
muskrateer86: haha
muskrateer86: that's hilarious

OK so for those of you who have not heard me whining about this already, here's the sordid tale of Weds:
Noonish: I order a scallop coconut salad (the weekly special) at Blanchard
3 pm: Severe stomach pains. I leave class.
3:05 pm: Vomiting in bathroom. Loudly. First time to regurgitate contents of stomach in 3 years or so.
3:15 pm: Frantic check-in to the health center. I accidentally fill out a survey instead of an admittence form.
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm: Apparently no one thinks it's food poisoning, the counselor is in there ASAP. I try to explain I've been anxious lately, but not today, and I really think it has something to do with what I had for lunch. After all, I was in a class I am not even actually taking, and afterwards I was planning to meet Rachel's puppy and have a relaxing evening. Triage counselor refers me to counselors across the street for long term therapy.
4:30 pm: I am given buttered toast and sprite (as that's what my mum always gave me for an upset stomach).
4:45 pm: I head home. Run across Gus and Goose Patrol clearing the lake of the Canadian geese. Question: Where will the white bully goose go if he gets chased off? Or is that impossible?

So there you go. Do not eat seafood at Blanchard. BAD FOR YOU!!!!! Rest of my day was shot. Thanks a lot, Dining Services!!!!!!

Later, whining on the phone with Mum:

Mum: "Well, you never did like scallops."
Me: "I don't really remember ever eating them before this past year."

Mum: "We're going to put the cougar in the house. Tim's going to vacuum it tonight."
Me: "Is it dusty?" [cougar = stuffed cougar]

It's been awhile (of course) so here we go!

Friday: I think I ended up watching some Friends with Karuna and talking in the evening, then going to bed... very hazy. I guess that's the trouble with updating so far in the future!

Saturday: Worked on homework during the day, headed out in the evening with D. Becky and Karuna for dinner in Amherst. We had Fresh Side (yay for introducing people to Fresh Side), stopped by the library, and then went out to the bars with Katie. I wasn't feeling the whole bar hopping scene... but yeah it was fun anyways =) We had horrible music at the ABC, and stopped in at the Irish pub (which was better entertainment-wise). Hung out in Blanchard for awhile afterwards.

Sunday: Don't really remember... I think I sat out in the garden all afternoon and worked on an English Lit. practice test. Very pretty, that garden. An older couple walked by and a few MHC students, but it was overall quite quiet!

The week... went by slowly... normal routine I think, the weekdays all blur into one another.

Friday: Highlight: Drinking chai with Quillian, Jaime, Laura, and Marjorie. Lovely!! I wish we always had little meetings together. With any luck, the English Student Board will now include all of us =) Then we went to dinner at Wilder which was definitely fun -- and I brought large amounts of hallah back to my room.

Andrew came in the evening and we had our reunion (felt like forever since 2 weeks ago). Also got more of the good cookies at Big Y (used my last silver coin, woe is me!)

Saturday: After a late breakfast, Andrew and I headed to Amherst to get coffee at Rao's and study. Did a GRE practice test, some review reading...Fresh Side for dinner in the rain. I had the pad thai (it's good, but different than what you might expect). We studied in the evening back in my room, despite the parties on the 3rd and first floors. Poor South Delle HP... our living space now smells like stale beer. Come on, people, let's not spill beer while playing beer pong on the freaking mahogany furniture. They just redid that room like two years ago and it's gorgeous, heaven forbid we keep it looking like a living room and not like a bar room.

Sunday: Visited Rao's in our library after breakfast, talked to Annie about how the west coast is going to blow up with this volcano (Mt. St. Helen, why do you do it?) Then Andrew & I studied in the garden during the afternoon. Dinner at La Cazuela (yummy burritos and such a pretty space!) and ice cream at Herrell's... ahh the fudge sauce! But Andrew & I were confused as to why fudge sauce is $1 extra =( muy triste!

In the evening we started watching The Terminal. It's a very comical "version." As in, you can see people sitting down in the theater seats.

Monday: Andrew left =(

Tuesday: Busy day with wonderful Spanish table session!

Weds: Violently sick post-scallion salad at Blanchard. Just say no!!!

Finally updating! OK -- here goes:

Last Friday: I had pretty much made up my mind to take the class that would finish my minor. I was all ready to go to Boston -- Andrew's friend from Amherst who graduated last spring is also dating an MHC-er, and she was heading up for the weekend. Both of us met the boyfriends Amherst's Homecoming Weekend, so it was kinda weird to have the same 11 month anniversary! We had a hard time following the directions once we reached Boston, and had to wait for her bf to come point us in the right direction. Some kind souls got me into the T stop even though I didn't have a token or pass at a token/pass only entrance. Oops. I beat Andrew home and surprised him (not much, but it was still entertaining for me!)

In the evening we went to the mall for the food court's version of thai and japanese food. The Thai tea was really TOO sweet... At home we watched the season finale of Six Feet Under. Great show! Going to miss it =(

Saturday: It felt like freaking winter. Cold, cold -- I was wearing layers of sweaters -- and raining ALL DAY. GROSS!!! We stayed in, had pancakes, watched Envy, went on a shopping trip to target (because that's what I do when the weather sucks -- go shopping)...We had dinner at the Asian food court in Porter Exchange (much more authentic). I finally tried the seaweed salad. Chewy, very chewy... And I had my usual avocado rolls and such. Yums. In the evening we went to the Someday Cafe for chai/coffee and GRE studying. It was nice except that the chair was too low for the table and I kept having to sit on my foot in order to get a good view of my papers. Hmm... what else. I think we watched another movie... oh yeah, Zoolander. Hilarious! Now I'll finally get all the jokes people make in reference to that movie.

Sunday: Much better weather today. We had brunch at Johnny D's (I couldn't finish, way too full of pumpkin pancakes) and then tried to figure out what to do with the sunny weather. Chilly, but sunny. We ended up trying to go to this wildlife refuge out towards Concord. We got lost and ended up going raspberry picking first. It was idyllic -- bucolic -- halcyon -- trying to remember all those pastoral GRE words. Yes, I AM a dork. Anyways, it was a beautiful day to pick raspberries. Andrew had no idea as to what he was doing. =)

Afterwards we headed out to the refuge. It was a lovely walk, lots of birds and cat tails and a slow moving river. Finally warmed up a bit, too. Had to stop by the river and sit a few minutes. It felt like summer -- it could have been any of our weekends in summer... ahh! On the way back we went by Pemberton Farms (like old times) for the string beans. Had dinner out on the porch. Very sad to go =( Stephanie and I commiserated on the way home. Suddenly it felt like a weekday night again, didn't seem quite so bad.

Monday: The craziness started, with mentoring appointments and classes and reading for my Spanish class.

Tuesday: First Spanish class, Nina had a great class and brought us cookies and soda =) Felt better about taking a 300 level Spanish course. Longest day ever, with a small group meeting, the Spanish table, a CDC workshop, etc.

Weds: Busy with mentoring and reading.

Thursday: MOUNTAIN DAY!! I was getting sick on Weds, so I wasn't totally thrilled. Plus I had to walk Kobe for Dale, and go to Treasurer's Training in the later afternoon. So I had some restraints, and only missed one class that I really like. Oh well. D Becky, Karuna, Liz, Rachel, and myself all went hiking. Becky took us on a leisurely trail to the halfway mark, then we scaled the mountain for the last half. Ice cream! Saw Windy with Prof. Barry, and sat in the sun. Also ate a fudgsicle after my popsicle (the popsicle was much better, even though it dyed my mouth green). We all agreed that Jo Jo really scaled back on the frozen confections this year. Bad idea!

It was a lovely hike though, and great company. Only missed the rest of our first year crew =(

Today... Not seeing Andrew this weekend, and it feels so odd... Doesn't feel like a Friday!

It's been awhile... but for good reasons. I got through Thursday and Friday (the first days of classes) quite easily. The weekend was great. Andrew came out, and Friday night we played tipsy Taboo with friends in Abbey. Took some really embarrassing pictures, and couldn't stop laughing. Ahh if only all of college was like that (wait, it could be, too bad I'm at MHC instead. No, I'm just kidding, I love MHC. Or at least, sometimes I do...)

Saturday was the big senior carrel day. I woke up damned early after our late night, procured food for Andrew, and then sat in line for awhile. Something of a bonding experience for all us seniors, standing out on a Saturday morning to get a desk in the library. Woo-hoo! Crazy times at college! I didn't get quite the desk I wanted, but it's pretty good nonetheless. Sixth floor, one window to myself, one row west from the row Katherine Mansfield's books live down. Pretty good placement!!

So anyways, we soon headed out to Amherst for lunch (Bub's BBQ, fun "truck stop" sort of place and good food). Did some shopping -- had indecision over which kind of mixed drink to make at some point later -- decided to get ice cubes for my fridge -- etc. On the way out we went to Puffer's Pond and had a cool nature walk. Idyllic looking place. I saw some big frogs, turtles, and a crawdad. We walked around half the lake and then scaled down a gully to wade in the stream. Very pretty... such a nice break from being on campus!!

In the evening we had dinner at Blanchard and then watched Along Came Polly with the new drink service. Don't worry Mum, I still have never been really drunk. I don't seem to ever drink fast enough, and since I don't exactly practice a lot, I don't think there's much danger of my getting sick from it! We had some sort of pina colada mix thing with coconut rum. Doesn't taste good without ice -- discovered that that's a necessary part.

Sunday we had brunch at Abbey with everyone (went table hopping to do all the visiting!) Visited the carnival, discovered that Oregon does all voting by mail, ate cotton candy, and a snow cone (for free! thanks MHC, you kill me, but I appreciate the free sugary confections that remind me of fairs at home!) In the afternoon Andrew had a soccer game to go to in Amherst, and I did some vocab words out on the blanket on the lawn. Very nice. Killed a couple of mosquitoes (yay me! on my quest to purge the world of mosquitoes, we've got two less to worry about!) Then I had a Verbosity meeting, and soon Andrew was back.

For dinner we wandered around Noho comparing various places. Decided on the Northampton Brewing Company. It was lovely...sat by a window inside with cool fans. Low lights, not too busy, with a kind of midsummer night feeling. Great food, too... I had some sort of blackened cod with mashed potatoes and veggies, and Andrew had spicy jambalaya. Yum =)

On the way back to my room we encountered my floor's first meeting. Oops. I sat in on the last part of it. Had a quiet rest of the evening. Sad to see Andrew leave in the morning =(

The rest of the week since then... CRAZY. Spanish class fiascos, entire days spent wandering around campus, waking up feeling sick to my stomach every morning from worrying, UGH!

Today, for example: Woke up an hour before my alarm went off and felt worried about things. Checked email to see if a professor got back to me yet on possible classes to take. Left early, visited the registrar's office, went to Am. Lit. III, ate lunch at the Rockies with Karuna, Claudia, and Jasmine, then scooted off to Carr for an Intro to Old English class (awesome, by the way, even if I don't get to actually take it), went to Nina's office and talked to her (very reassuring and helpful), went to the library to do some errands, then went to Corinne's office for my meeting. Thank God for Corinne. We talked for like over an hour and a half about my thesis, grad school, life, the summer, critical schools... ahh! I left feeling SO MUCH BETTER. The sick feeling in my stomach? Gone! Noticed again how beautiful today was, warm and sunny and summery. Walked to dinner, and enjoyed talking with Katherina and some new friends. Then I had an Org meeting, which was boring. Went to Pearson's to sell my flip and fold, and then to the library for more errands. Then to the Delles, where I sat in on some of Karuna's hall activity (magician, I hid the green cork!) and ate cake. And now I'm here!

Dilemma: Choice One -- Take Old English this semester and skip out on Spanish seminar on Latin American colonial studies with Nina, and then take Spanish seminar on cinema in the spring with Justin? Choice Two -- Take Nina's class and save the extra spot in the spring for another English course or anything else that strikes my fancy.

Note: Sorry for any typos. I found some but don't have time to proofread lately.

PS. We covered TS Eliot today in AL3 (funny how Brits and Americans alike claim him). Tonight I was in N. Delle's living room for Karuna's activity. Connection? TS Eliot visited the Blackstick Society (literary magazine that was very exclusive -- by invitation only) here on campus in 1933. They met in North Mandelle!

Saturday: Andrew & I drove out to MHC with his car packed with stuff. We had some worries about my papasan chair on the top of the car, but it ended up working. We stopped briefly at this lookout point over the Quabbin Reservoir, it was pretty much unchanged from our last visit (besides the new foliage!) That was something of a transition point, going from our apartment in Somerville to this place we had only visited while I was in school last year. We kept driving -- going through familiar places was kind of disorienting -- we went through Granby at one point and everything was so tranquil and country like out there. At MHC (it was very weird being back, by the way) I got my keys and we started the lengthy process of moving all my stuff in. We got my room situated after much deliberation (the furniture placement is so important, you know!) and started hauling in all my things from the car. After unloading all that, we were rather hungry and went to Tailgate.

The second round of moving in was getting all my stuff out of Pearson's trunk room and over to the Delles. It took two trips! Andrew was amazing -- he did a lot of the stuff I wasn't looking forward to while I started organizing stuff and getting it out of boxes. We took a trip to Amherst, where we had Fresh Side (but no Black Sheep as they mysteriously closed early). The Wal-Mart stop was stressful -- they had run out of most things and were closing as we were going around browsing. I got most of the stuff we'd set out for, and we headed back with a movie to watch and things to help my room get on track. We were up pretty late...

Sunday: The unpacking continued, but soon reached a very livable level. Showed Andrew the Delles trunk room (much better from when I was a first year, when stuff was strewn everywhere, there was broken glass on the floor, retro tvs...) More trips to Wal-Mart for organizing stuff and more electrical outlets, and then home again late in the afternoon. Andrew slept, I organized till my head was a little sore, and then we ate soup and leftover Fresh Side and headed out to Hartford for a concert. The concert itself was great -- I hadn't expected to like the Disco Biscuits, either. But we left after the first set because I couldn't stand everyone smoking in a closed space, the heat, or the beer being spilled on me. Yuck! Andrew rescued me and we left early (which was still pretty late into the night). Had a late night food stop, and then home finally to sleep.

Monday: I grabbed stuff for Andrew's breakfast, and then left for my training. SAW training was pleasant --- we had Black Sheep (complete with desserts) for lunch, and got out an hour early! Very different from Res Life training... Afterwards Andrew & I went to Amherst for more Fresh Side for dinner (we ate out on the Amherst green, rather romantic and picnic-like...), and then Flayvors for ice cream. It's kind of unappetizing sometimes when you're eating ice cream and you can smell the noxious manure... Back at school we visited Dale (she gave us lots of gummy bears!) and then headed to see if Kathleen was back (she wasn't). Back to my room, and we attempted to get tipsy (I succeeded, couldn't stop laughing) and find pictures for a collage. Funny!

Tuesday: In the morning we all went to breakfast at Prospect (with Dale and Jaime) which was VERY lackluster. Plus the line for hot breakfast was just not moving. Afterwards we napped a bit, and then headed to Amherst for Andrew's grad school appointments. Amherst is nice, P.S., esp. Converse Hall. Ate our bagged lunch on the Amherst green, I hung out in the library while he was at a meeting, and then we went to Rao's (yum chai). We wandered around in Amherst for awhile, and Andrew got his hair cut! Sad!

For dinner we ended up going to Wilder with Karuna. Andrew liked the food (yay!) We started watching City of God, got more of my room put together, pasted up the collage (had an emergency trip to Big Y for more glue, and a visit to Dale). Karuna visited and made us less sad about the whole last night together thing. Very sad though still =(

Weds: It was horribly sad seeing Andrew off, and then I kind of lounged around before convocation. Got green with Karuna, and then headed over to brunch. So exciting to see everyone, and Kathleen was there!! Crazy day, skipping lunch for our class picture, running around in the soggy rain, meeting with my mentoring class professor (ack speaking intensive class!), going to the CDC, etc. Karuna rescued me with food and Friends episodes. Dinner and the Odyssey, got caught up with Karuna and Kathleen over dinner and in the evening. Lots of fun! I'm glad they're back =) (but I still miss Andrew!)

More later...

OK so once again I haven't posted in days.

Weds before last: After work Andrew & I went to KFC for a bad-for-you-dinner. Once a year I feel like eating their fried chicken and mashed potatoes. It was good -- but it's too bad that fast food places don't have very nice seating areas. Rather depressing looking place. And I checked the nutrtional chart again, and it STILL lists "macaroni and cheese" as a VEGETABLE. Some people have scoffed when I've related this story to them, but now I have further proof -- it's not just the KFCs in Oregon, it's KFCs EVERYWHERE. What really befuddles me is how anyone could even pretend for one moment that macaroni and cheese is a vegetable. Pasta is a starch and cheese is a dairy product. We don't call starches like wheat bread "vegetables" just because wheat grows in the ground -- same goes for pasta! No wonder Americans are the most overweight group ever -- fast food chains put misleading info. out there (just classifying it as a vegetable has probably inclined rather too many people toward the idea that it must be more healthful than if it were under "fatty stuff") and the people devising nutrtional info. for the US have sugar interests preventing them from coming out and saying "cut excess sugars" (The New York Times recently ran an editorial about this problem, which has been around since the US food pyramid's creation -- the people creating the pyramid have financial interests in promoting products. Ever wonder why grains make up the base of the pyramid? Check out this website: http://www.neto.com/rcr/outbac86.html#topic2)

Anyway, after we ate we went fabric shopping (re-covering stuff I bought) and then to JP for more of Andrew's stuff. Finally met Arlene, a friend of Jon & Jen's.

Friday: After work we ate dinner and had a little time before heading over to Carlo's for Andrew's friend's (Roger) welcome back party. So that was fun -- watched everyone play that game involving throwing stuff into cups of beer (I didn't partake in that game, I couldn't even finish one beer in 2 hours) and caught some of the Olympics (side note: did anyone catch the US pole vaulter who always wore a helmet? Andrew made the astute observation that it is probably used to prevent his long hair from knocking the pole over. Also the I think Jamaican relay team? Forget which team it was -- but anyways, they were running in trendy one shoulder strap outfits. When form beats function even at the Olympics...) Kiwi the pug was absent, unfortunately.

Sat: We went yardsaling early -- I got SO many books!! Also a Norton American lit anthology for 50 cents. Also a seat cushion. Then we went to Walden Pond as it we were sweltering in the heat. The park was full so we parked across from Rt. 2 and walked in like everybody else. Swam in a shady spot, but soon moved into the sun. We had just cracked out our books when a noisy family with small kids asked to sit between us and another quiet couple. Cute little girl on a floatie, though. She kept biting it. As I was swimming I saw a turtle's head out of the water and I paddled over in time to watch it swim deeper. So cute! We saw it again -- it made Andrew want to catch one or buy one for a pet. I told Kate about it, as she lives in the area and goes swimming there often -- and she said it was odd because she'd never seen a turtle there.

Headed homewards -- Pemberton Farms for food, dinner, and then a walk to Harvard Square. Looked at the Coop and Andrew got a cool shaggy rug (that he's now very glad I talked him into getting) for $10 at Urban Outfitters. It's like 5 by 8 feet or something and looks awesome in our (now his!) room. I found red and white astronaut panties for $1. Love the bargain basement!! Oh, and I got eaten alive by the freaking mosquitoes. Can we please get rid of those things? Launch an attack? YUCK. Die bloodsuckers, die!!

Exciting Saturday news was ... making cookies and cream jello! YUM.

At like, 11 PM, we watched The Butterfly Effect. We were both pretty tired but it was such a good movie that we stayed awake for the whole thing. Disturbing and violent...

Sunday -- went to more yardsales -- I found an old fashioned vanity mirror for $1 and a cool bulletin board for $2. Yay yardsaling! Then we went to the zoo, which was empty -- probably due to the unrelenting hot temperatures. Saw cool animals! Andrew complained that they were all "mini": an ocelot instead of jaguars, a pygmy hippo in place of a "regular hippo," etc. I liked the little white falcon bully birds. One was all fluffed out and bent over and looked freaking ridiculous. The hippo yawned, that was exciting. Should have taken a picture, in retrospect, although at the time I wanted to just watch and enjoy how silly hippos look. The butterfly exhibit was cool, but the petting zoo was closed by the time we got there. The barn owl was awesome though!

In the evening we had grilled hamburgers and picnic food, and then headed back to Harvard Square fo rhte director's cut of Donnie Darko. Elucidated a lot of points. DEfinitely enjoyed it more upon second viewing with added scenes. So late afterwards!

Monday -- watched 6 Feet Under in the evening (going to miss that at school)

Tuesday: Andrew was moving with Jon and Jen so I got rides with Kate. We took the shortcut on the way home and I was so much earlier than normal! Got some studying done while Andrew put his clothes in his newly arrived dresser. Watched some of "Things I Hate About You" (so funny) and got to bed at a decent hour.

Since then... lots o' packing. Today I go back to MHC! At work yesterday we had cake in celebration =)