Yesterday was the oh-so-exciting Res Life mid year "retreat." What we were retreating from, I'm not sure. It was basically a time to listen to some cliched PC discussions and to bitch about everything wrong with MHC (ie, the budget). But I was strangely awake for it all. Which was good, because I hadn't slept much. After, I went with Lindsay and Adrianna to the "convenience store" (some clever Mohos have dubbed it the "inconvenience store" in way of protest). The checker guy from Wilder was there, and I had a Silence of the Lambs-esque moment when he started stalking towards me and said in a low voice "Hello, Rebecca..." Yeah. At that point Adrianna decided she was NOT leaving me alone there! It turned into a normal enough discussion about the weather, luckily. We also had a rather cool hall committee meeting at The Thirsty Mind, where I had a yummy decaf vanilla latte and sat in a beat up old chair.


Last night I was SO tired, I actually climbed into bed while talking to Andrew a bit after 11. I then promptly fell asleep. I woke up again at 3 am, and decided it was a prime time to take a shower. So I did. Then I let my hair dry a bit, and went to sleep.

I woke up this morning, slept in a bit, and woke up again. Then I went on my Kobe walk and ran some errands. Then I had a a "social outcast lunch" (meaning I sat by myself in an insanely crowded dining hall) before going to walk Newton. I still haven't gotten the rest of my books (maybe it would have been good to preface that with a comment about how I went to check my mail. oops), but I did get my final paper back from Quillian. It was a "satisfying end to the course" but not quite the same quality as my mid term paper. Argh, I will always be trying to beat that paper!

Continuing with my day of solo adventures, I read some English theses for about an hour. Lots of original poetry, plays, stories... someone wrote on Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49 (among other things). Then I felt like a grown up going to pick up my dry cleaning. Simple pleasures, right?

I fell asleep again this afternoon, and Dale came a couple of times to wake me up. I got to dinner rather late, and had a nice meal with Lindsay and Irena. Yay for Wilder being open again!! When I got back to my room I didn't know what to do with myself. I had a very active evening. Looking for things to do before classes start tomorrow, I redecorated my door (actually it was hardly decorated in the first place), organized my top desk drawer, made a collage, and tried to get my paper lamp shade on a lamp (not exactly successful on that one).

So yeah, in honor of the first day of classes I've decided to dress up tomorrow!

To begin with the beginning:

Thursday: I don't really remember Thursday anymore. I think I walked Newton and Kobe, I'm sure I ate stuff, but mostly, I wrote my paper. I decided the weekend WOULD be free and happy, so I sat down around 3 and started writing my Sappho's Muse paper. I was definitely the first one to hand it in!

Friday: Jill emailed to cancel my Kobe walking duties for today, so I had an unexpected amount of time on my hands. After my last Sappho class, and a weird thrown together lunch, I cleaned my room, braved hurricane-like winds to get another rug from a student living off campus, and got ready for Andrew's arrival! For dinner we went to Blanchard, but the new station wasn't even serving anything good. So we just stuck to the old menu. After, we watched Ed with Korisha and then headed back to my room.

Saturday: We got a fairly early start today! After eatching "brunch" at Blanchard we went to Springfield to see Love Actually. It was really great and sad in parts but always entertaining. Then we went to the mall so I could return my two right shoes. I proceeded to buy a toggle sweater and a too short skirt (which we'll be returning next weekend). I returned the toggle sweater after finding another one very similar for less.

Afterwards, we hurried to Northampton for dinner. I met Phoebe (an Amherst friend of Andrew's) and her bf and we had a happy dinner and then ice cream for dessert. It was really cold though! I don't know why we feel like eating ice cream in this weather, but it's just too good to resist. We had a brief stop in a candy store before saying our goodbyes and speed walking to the car!

Since we got back home at a decent hour and SNL was a repeat, we didn't know what to do with ourselves. So we talked and relaxed and got to bed rather late.

Sunday: We made it to brunch where they weren't serving the promised banana bread french toast we saw on the menu. But we did get a chance to schedule a Balderdash (beyond balderdash, actually) game with Korisha. And Dale somehow made it to MHC just in time to eat brunch with us! After finishing a weird movie that I don't think we ever really got into (The Everlasting Piece), we learned how to play Balderdash and proceeded to win! Everyone else was sick of playing by the time we won, but... oh well =)

At this point we were quite hungry, so we went out to the weird Chinese food place where the waiter was a little, er, stand-offish? Same instrumental music and everything, but we've now figured out that it's on shuffle play, because last time "Dream" was followed by that song from Ghost and this time "Have you ever seen the rain" was the following song. Decided that the huge goldfish in the fish tank must be the object of some cult worship. Then we watched Y tu mama tambien, which was pretty racy but I think we got the driving points. Then it was beddy bye time!

Now I'm trying to stay awake before getting ready for Res Life training! Yes, again, res life training... it never ends!

This morning I woke up, oddly, before my alarm even rang. After last night's drifting off and having a bad dream REM stage within like 45 minutes of being in bed, I would have thought my body would want to sleep some more. But no, it woke up promptly at 8 AM. So after lounging in bed awhile I eventually dragged myself out and got to class on time after a quick breakfast. I was late for lunch, as I stayed after to get approval from the professor for my paper idea. So tomorrow I need to write my paper, and then Friday I'll turn it in so the weekend can stay free!

I had my last creative writing group, only three of us today. It was short, but pretty productive. Then I had some free time before waiting waaay too long at the bus stop. I stood there, staring into the sunset, looking for the Amherst bus, for at least 15 minutes! It did arrive (luckily), and Lindsay and I chatted on the way. We had another super leisurely dinner, and met a certain Emily R. of Valentine, who filled us in on the Amherst view of things. They do, in fact, call us "Mo hos," and we're seen as rather, well, I'd say floozy to sum up. Of course my explanation for this is that the only Mohos people see are the ones that get off this campus, which generally is the same thing as saying, the ones that are drunk and partying. Anyway. We had a good dinner, despite the fact that the dishwasher was out of commission (which meant that we ate off styrofoam with plastic utensils). Lindsay bottled some pineapple juice. And I stole some tea.

Our class was pretty awesome. Prof. Sanderson seemed rather excited at the prospect of colored chalk, and proceeded to write on the chalkboard in blue and pink (she eventually thought better of it after the color rubbed off on her, too). She talked about how marriages become less happy when the first baby is born. But, as good news, she told us that all marriages experience a decrease in satisfaction. Her explanation: "You know, like we all like oxygen but we don't appreciate it every day." Pretty clever, huh? And her conclusion: "Marriage is a whole hell of a lot of sacrifice." We clapped.

On the bus ride home, it was just me and Lindsay. We talked relationships and guys (of course, after our class, who wouldn't!) Our bus driver pulled over in Amherst on the way, left the bus running, and ran across the street to a little gas station mini mart. Me and Lindsay were rather confused, and considered taking over and driving ourselves back to MHC! Luckily he came back before we resorted to such drastic measures.

Now I'm waiting for my clothes to dry, as they were dripping wet from the washing machine. They're on their second dryer run as I type. Yay for over priced, moldy, decrepit washing machines!

Back at MHC after the best weekend ever, it's kind of hard adapting! But the problems of constructing my spring semester schedule and obtaining textbooks has been offering plenty of distraction. Here's where I was and what I was doing:

Friday: After a botched attempt at french manicuring my nails (yeah I know I'm making up verbs) I swore off self-nail painting (although I know I won't stick to that). I finished getting ready just in time, dragged my baggage downstairs, and had a surprise meeting with Ashley! Then Faith (the kind soul that drives me to/from Boston) showed up, and I was on my way! I realized soon into the trip (within the first, oh, ten minutes) that I hadn't eaten much that day. The next logical realization was, of course, that I was hungry. Looking through my bag I had one fruit snack packet and two fortune cookies. I ate the fruit snacks and then had a fortune cookie for dessert. The creepy thing? I picked the one that read "You are almost there." So you know where I'm going from now on when I need advice (no, not the Career Development Center or my advisor): Fortune Cookies.

For awhile I kept awake in the car by playing The Alphabet Game. But after getting through the alphabet one and a half times I got rather bored, as playing against one's self isn't very challenging. So I fell asleep. By the time I woke up we were nearly there, and I needed to pee. I wandered around the Alewife station until some woman (who must have heard me lamenting on the phone to Andrew that I needed the bathroom) came up and directed me to the restroom, warning me that she didn't know how clean it was. Indeed, it wasn't just not clean, it was filthy. But no one else was coming in, so I used the big handicapped stall to keep my baggage safe and prevent me from bumping into any mysterious substances on the walls, etc. By the time I got back to the pick up area, Andrew was there!

We ate at a great Thai restaurant in Harvard Square, and ducked into stores as necessary to avoid the cold while walking about. And we got to see Big Fish, which was wonderful but really sad, I was all choked up for the last like half hour! I get a little sentimental about movies... Anyways, we then had a little supermarket visit and dessert and attempted to start a fire (in the fireplace, don't worry).

Saturday we had a leisurely breakfast and then went shopping in Boston. Andrew found cushy down slippers and I bought two right shoes (which we will be returning NEXT weekend =/ ). Andrew found the one last pink unicorn shirt at the American Eagle, in a size XL. But, after taking his advice that I should ask someone that worked there if they had any left in the back, I was presented with an XS, a small, and a medium! So now me and Mer have matching shirts!

For dinner I had my first real not in a dining hall sushi experience! And it was surprisingly yummy. And after picking up kindling on the walk home (we must have looked sketchy rummaging about in the dark in the little plots of grass), we had a real fire! Ahh, very romantic =)

Sunday we had a great brunch in Jamaica Plain (Lindsay you will be familiar with this place?), and even though it was in the 30s and "slushing" (mix of snowing and raining, I think it should be a verb), it felt downright balmy after the negative temps BEFORE wind chill. Keeping in the Asian food theme, we had Thai food for dinner! We watched this crazy new show on HBO called "The L Word" which was pretty racey and fun to watch. The next day was kinda sad just because it was the last day I could spend there! We ran some errands, watched Flirting with Disaster, had some ice cream, and stayed up late.

So that brings us up to today! I took the bus home, got a lot of reading done, walked the dogs, checked out the textbook situation, had lunch and dinner with Korisha, and watched some hilarious American Idol try outs! And now I need to get to bed!!

So cold here. Yesterday I whined to FM until someone came over and ripped my curtains off, a side effect of the intended action: to seal the edges of the windows. Definitely has cut down on the cold draft effect.

Lindsay and I decided to try out the Amherst College cuisine while we're on campus for the psych course. Turns out centralized dining doesn't seem that bad at all. They have JUICES! And not just orange and apple juice! But, me and Lindsay got yelled at when we accidentally left our silverware on our trays instead of throwing them down the specified shoots. Oops.

Last night was the first ever scrabble match between Andrew, my mum, and myself. Andrew won, mom beat me, and I definitely lost. Typical!

Yay Merrie! I just read your blog, a perfect documentation of the weather conditions back in Oregon. I especially loved the snippets from the Letters to the Editor: I hope that superintendent loses her job over such poor decision making. All she had to do was turn on the weather forecast and her decision should have been made. Especially considering that it rarely snows so much in our county, it's ridiculous to risk the health and safety of children just so they can get to school late, sit in freezing classrooms, and then endure a perilous journey home.

Speaking of bad weather conditions, the "high" tomorrow will be, oh, 7 degrees! I will be trudging about between my classics course, lunch, creative writing get-together, dinner at Amherst College, and close relationships class. Busy day! Looking forward to the weekend!

I am finally back on campus!! Andrew rescued me from Windy's house, and we had a good weekend despite the frigid weather. Saturday we stayed in the village commons, played scrabble (not just scrabble, deluxe scrabble) and ate dinner. SNL wasn't, well, as good as it could have been. Being John Malkovich (I hope I'm spelling that right) was a brilliant movie, why didn't I see that when it first came out?? Sunday we did lots of new things: Andrew had his first Holyoke Mall experience (we bought sweaters! I refrained from buying another really really cute scarf set), we both had our first Springfield $2 movie theater trip (second run movies, since you never see everything the first time around, a nice cheap option! School of Rock was much funnier than I expected, and the little blonde girl was so so cute), then our first trip to this Mexican and South American restaurant in Noho, La Cazuela (really yummy, I gorged myself. but the rice and beans aren't as good as the Crazy Pepper's back home). We had a scrabble game in the evening with Korisha and Emily, Andrew definitely won but I was close!!

Today it was back to the routine... I did most of the discussion leading in my "group" but that was fine with me, I had lots to say about everything. And I had an, uhm, overly eventful Kobe walk... First she dragged me to the neighbors' house for dog biscuits, then she refused to move from their driveway until they gave ME the dog biscuits. Then someone's dog that was obviously loose, no leash or anything, followed us and got Kobe really excited, which meant lots of tugging and lunging that, well, isn't too safe with slick roads and sidewalks. So I dragged Kobe back to her house, the other dog was like, in the middle of route 116, and then finally after I got Kobe safely situated inside, the other dog left. Yeah, not cool to let your dog roam around loose on busy streets...

Dale came up for a visit today! She went to a very lackluster dinner with me and Lindsay, then accompanied me to Amherst for a movie showing, Beautiful Girls. Which we loved! The entire room was laughing when Will was going after the 13 year old girl, and I was practically in Dale's lap when Birdy was getting beaten up.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day...!

Uh oh, I haven't updated in awhile! Uhm... I'll try to remember stuff...

The rest of Monday: After realizing that me and Lindsay had a movie to attend that night, I raced to Windy's (basically so that silly dog could piddle and eat some cheese off the top of his dog food that he still hadn't eaten from his previous dinner) and then back again to scarf down some food at the rockies and literally run with Lindsay to the bus stop! The movie was pretty good, Singles. And it started snowing so I had a nice very late night walk back to Windy's. And I took a nice bath, dragging my laptop into the bathroom for music!

Tuesday I blissfully did nothing but laze, give Windy a couple of walks, and read. Lots of reading. Finished Slaughterhouse 5 and read all the Sappho fragments and the packet of poems for comparison. Also started the novel we're reading in the classics course. Oh, and Mum called, saving me from falling asleep in the afternoon! There was a "snow squall" during my evening walk, it was a clear night and suddenly there was a gust of wind and snow just started falling. Within about ten minutes there was half an inch on the ground. Luckily it did not continue at this rate!

Weds. was another crazy day (like Monday). Walked Windy, walked to school, had my classics class (that sounded funny, didn't it?), ate lunch at the Rockies, had a brief kinda-sorta creative writing meeting (as in one person showed up and we chatted for awhile), walked back to Windy's to give him a walk and dinner, walked back to school for a lovely thanksgiving-esque dinner with Lindsay, had a leisurely walk to the bus, had an awesome first relationships class at amherst, bussed back to MHC, walked to Windy's while it snowed very lightly. Then I took a bath and relaxed!

Thursday: Another day like Tuesday. See a pattern developing? I slept, read, watched some "must see tv." Friends was great, Ross in a woman's sweater... disturbing. The Apprentice is more entertaining than I expected, unfortunately I had to take a break to shower. Good news: I'm only a packet and a chapter away from having my reading for Monday done!

Friday: I'm sitting here, having woken up indecently early (6:45 am) in order to check my email for creative writing stories. Uhm, no one has sent one yet! So if they send them all an hour before class, obviously I can't comment much on them since I won't have time to read! Oh dear. Well, we can always read everything aloud since there are only 8 possible people who could show up, and if it's anything like Weds not everyone will...

Good news of the morning, grades are posted and I maintained my A's!

Thursday morning I woke up around 9 am for my antibiotic, and looking out the front door I saw snow, and only snow. Everything rather foggy and white, steady snow falling. Not thinking much of it beyond "that'll be fun to take a walk in later with Mer," I went back to bed. I woke up to widespread panic. Tim was doomsdaying, Mom was looking for a ride to the airport, and I started a whirlwind packing spree. All caused by some snow. Yeah. So Mom and I waited for 2 hours for a bus that showed up after we had left and decided on a Plan B... Tim drove us down an extra tire (in case we had tire problems...) and me and mom slowly, slowly drove to Portland. Actually we kept up a decent clip, but we had PLANNED to drive slowly...

In Portland, the cheapo motel was booked up, so we went to a nicer hotel and had a nice dinner and ice cream and I attempted to get some sleep. That didn't work out, however. Very nervous at different points. Esp. in the plane after taking a nap. The panic hits me after i've drifted off and forgotten about it.

Everything went smoothly, despite my worrying. It was lonely at first, being back in South Hadley, but Andrew surprised me and drove out on Saturday! So now I'm recovering from another lovely weekend, we wandered around in Northampton (and I had ice cream!), fixed dinners together, watched Annie Hall & Mona Lisa Smile, and played games. I enjoyed Mona Lisa Smile more than I thought I would!

In a particularly bright moment I didn't mark in my planner that my J term class started today, so I had a panicked run over to the prof's office! Luckily he caught me up and I'm ready to start the reading!!

Now I'm rather hungry... will update more later!

Monday night the pipes froze. Which meant that we didn't have water. Which meant that Mum's emergency water stash (ie, the water she stores in old pop bottles and milk jugs under the front porch "in case there's a terrorist attack out here"). Which meant that we were all a little grumpy about the water being icy cold, and, well, not so readily available.

At some point Tim identified the point that was frozen. Luckily, Mom prevented him from using a propane torch. Instead, he used a hair dryer to warm up the pipe. Cries of "It's dripping!" and "It's running!" and "We have WATER!!!!" were heard throughout the house, as we turned on every faucet full blast. Then for some reason Tim climbed on top of the shed and fiddled with the electricity (turning it off, then on, then off and on again). Somehow he slid off and fell. But he's ok now, except for a rather sore back.

After the madness ended (as much as it ever ends around here) Mum and I headed out for the Dalles. We had wildly successful trips to Maurices and JcPenney's and Fred Meyer's. I picked out a shirt and sweater for Mum, and she got some cute flattering jeans. Yay Mum! I bought lots of cute stuff. Mum almost lost her JcPenney's gift card in the bathroom of the store, but luckily she ran up at closing time and found it after realizing it wasn't in her wallet.

Fun times, shopping.

Today Mer went with me to a Crazy Pepper lunch with Audrey, Joanna, & Lindsey. We had lots of catching up to do! It was lots of fun, I brought pictures of me and Andrew and the twins had all sorts of updates about our class. I never hear any of the gossip!

After, me and Mer watched the third Lord of the Rings. Wow, amazing, fantastic, perfect. Makes you sad when it's over because, well, it's over, and you don't live in the Shire or with elves or exciting battles of good vs. evil. Hell, you don't even live in a time when you can easily identify what good and evil are. I guess that's why they call them fantasy. We could speculate on why fantasy movies are suddenly so popular in mainstream culture...

But, anyway. So now I have either reading those books to look forward to, or the next fantasy movie that comes out. The Last Unicorn should be awesome. I wish they'd make movies out of The Last Vampire and The Blue Sword.

Tonight was kind of crazy. Scott and Linda brought Nibbles, the very old and very strange red-nosed dog with gas problems. We ate, talked, watched some of the John Lennon video and Twilight Zone episodes. Then of course we watched the ball drop! Happy New Year! =)

Funny things:

"Jack Lalanne isn't dead, he says it'd ruin his image if he died." - Tim after a quarrel with Scott over whether or not JL has passed away yet or not. Scott had some story about him dying while dragging a tugboat in the English Channel or something equally far-fetched.

"A tree that's green
Is a sight to be seen
A tree that's brown
Can burn your house down"
- clever poem brought to you by the Hood River Fire Department.

"I still wouldn't let someone with AIDS lick the salt off my potato chips." - Merrie, very late at night while eating Pringles. Merrie just now, not so late and perfectly in her right mind: "Do you think that might be offensive to some people though?" Me: "uhm...no?"

A day of changes of plans. Mum did, indeed, schedule a dental appointment for me. And the funny part was, it was with Lindsey’s dad’s office! So we saw Calli’s mother again, and I had my whole head x-rayed. The machine made a space age sort of fluttery noise as it was going around my head. But I had my eyes closed because I wasn’t sure what one is supposed to do with one’s eyes while one’s head is being x-rayed. I suppose it’s silly to close your eyes as if that’s going to protect your eyes from the x-rays, when we all know the big lead apron thingy is the only thing that’s going to block them. But yeah, I still closed my eyes.

The good news: the wisdom teeth can wait till May to be plucked out (ok, cut and wrenched out would be a better description, but plucked makes it sound so simple and painless). The bad news: that I have wisdom teeth in the first place. They aren’t very “wise” teeth, either, to be coming in like that without my wanting them. If they were smart they’d find a way to come in without being hard to brush and without causing infections or cavities. The pain in the ass teeth would be a better name.

So… afterwards we went to Artifacts and I found a volume of Catullus’s poetry, but it’s a different translator… but it was only a dollar so I bought it anyways.

Then we had a visit with Grandma R., who is definitely worse from the last time I saw her. I got a little, well, nostalgic and stuff, and it was difficult to see her in such a different state from how I’d like to remember her. But we did it— I suppose that’s important.

An old woman came up to us in the Alzheimer’s unit and kept asking Mom “what is it?” She was curious about the fabric of Mom’s coat… Then she came up to me and touched my coat which I was holding and she was rather excited about it. I told her it had some wool in it. I guess she enjoys fabrics or something. Then another woman in a wheelchair was sitting in her room in the dark and one of the assistants came up to her to ask what she was doing. And she said “I don’t know but it must not be right.” That made the assistant laugh and say it was a good answer.

We also saw our great uncle, Johnny… Who’s pretty sharp with his quotable comments, although he pauses before he speaks. Very cute fellow, Johnny.

The little jabs continue, as Tim will simply not take his boots off and he tracks in snow which melts which I step in and which causes my socks to be damp. I hate damp socks. But, I soon will be back, fending for myself in MA, pros and cons to both locations…

Yesterday was more eventful than today, so, let's start with that:

Saturday: We got out of the house early (as in, noon) for our shopping trip to Portland. We went into all sorts of mind-numbing teen/twenty something clothing stores, frustrating Mom and disgusting Merrie. I did, however, find a few items. Shopping will continue Monday, as I'm looking for boots. Got some random books at Barnes and Noble, in retrospect wish I had gotten some Don DeLillo as I'm about done with The Body Artist. Oh well. Next time. After, we got lost in Portland looking for Old Town Pizza. Mom was cruising around in circles, asking people on the street for directions (they didn't know where it was), stopping at a gas station (they didn't know where it was, either, although one guy remembered seeing the pizza delivery guy on a bicycle), and eventually asking someone that actually knew what street the restaurant was on. After parking, we were quickly walking to get inside out of the rain, and someone was yelling obscenities and "hey girls" and I assumed he meant us, so of course I didn't turn around, and when it turned into "f-ck you" I was particularly glad I wasn't acknowledging it.

Well! So even though we were a quarter of an hour late, Patti and the girls were late, too. All turned out well, we girls sat at one table and our mothers at another. We had lots to catch up on, but I think we barely scratched the surface! Hope to see them again soon! We all have fond memories of weekends spent together back in the old days...

So today! Uhm... I woke up really late, felt really faint and yucky in the shower, watched some tv, read some of my book, took a nap, ate dinner, had fun talking to Andrew, read some more and talked with Mer and Tim, and now Mer's watching the Garfield Christmas video finally. That's about it! More later =)

My throat this morning was definitely worse off than yesterday. I stumbled out of bed and promptly began making this fact known to the entire household. Naturally, Mum called and made a doctor's appointment for me. The doctor's office... not so crowded. I whizzed past signing in and getting weighed and actually saw the doctor within ten minutes of arrival! Yay Dr. P--! So he talked to me about college (he has kids around my age) and looked in my ears and at my throat. My right ear was apparently red and worse looking than my throat (funny, my throat feels waaaay worse than my ears), and apparently at the beginning of an infection (I'm not crazy! I knew my ears felt funny). So I'm thinking my ears are... extra-weak in constitution, because I distinctly remember having swimmer's ear in high school and I definitely didn't do a lot of swimming.

So now I'm on the miracle-drug-ever-since-the-1940s, frequently sought out by not-so-smart parents to cure their children's viruses, the antibiotic. but, for once, I apparently don't have a virus! woo-hoo! and I don't have strep throat, which was the other not-so-pretty bacterial choice (involving a big fat needle to las nalgas or a ten day purple liquid regiment). Uhm... I don't feel miraculously better yet, though...

After the doctor, we proceeded to downtown Hood River, where I redeemed the Silverado gift certificate. Managed to get both a necklace and earrings with amber. Then the happy-dappy wal mart trip, where I bought everything I might need going back to college (including the best kind of notebook ever, a BUNGEE notebook! and in purple, a three subject, couldn't find it in that color last summer! this is going to be a good semester!) Oh! And I bought a couple little things for Mer as it's her birthday Jan. 14 and I won't be here and I don't have much opportunity to be sneaky! Also got some too-dry otis spunkmeyer m&m cookies (in place of my usual chocolate chip). And then we headed over to mcdonalds because I wanted dippin' dots! Yum!

Oh, and now I'm updating really late because i fell asleep with wet hair and thought I'd best blowdry it before going back to sleep. Goodnight! Good morning!

Christmas Eve I woke up a little more sick feeling... I had quite awhile to relax, however, before Mer & I headed down to Hood River to meet up with Dad & Margy. (I read part of Santaland Diaries to Mer on the way down!) They got a motel room for a couple of nights so it'd be easier for us to see them. Since of course there isn't a Christmas tree in the room, they fashioned a "tree" out of a lamp with gift wrap around it. We had a nice little gift exchange and Dad really really liked the clothes we picked out for him, so we were happy! The 70 channels is too much of a temptation for Dad, however, so we watched some of a Bruce Lee documentary and part of some black and white movie. We almost went for a drive to see Christmas lights, but Mer was just not up to the task of driving anywhere new at night!

On to the next Christmas festivity, we drove to Tim's mother's. We beat Mum & Tim down, so we socialized with Scott, Linda, and Arlene for awhile. And of course the orange cat Morris, who is not allowed inside due to his excessive shedding habits. We had a nice dinner, the usual homemade chili, and Arlene's dining room looked like something out of a Martha Stewart Living magazine spread. Tree with gifts, table perfectly set... Robin & Maribeth arrived with the baby (Makenzie, now two years old and cheerful and cute and talking!!) and we gradually started the gift unwrapping. Makenzie definitely stole the show, she got super excited over everything given to her. She received not one, not two, but three stuffed dogs! She kept playfully attacking us with the dogs throughout the evening, and looking into the birdhouses that Mum made for everyone, trying to find the birds!

Last night Mer ended up sleeping in my room, and I listened to a little of the Nutcracker music before bed. Tub woke me up at like 7 am by being cute -- she laid down across my arm so I could hug her and pet her, although I did eventually fall back asleep. Unlike when we were, oh, say, five years old, we started the gifts at 11 in the morning! Mum pretty much picked out the perfect things I needed/wanted, and we're going shopping for anything else that requires our selection within the next couple of days in Portland. I think everything I picked out was well received, yay =) Mer loves the green zip up sweater, and Mum actually wore her red hat around for awhile! Mer did, indeed, pick out the things I pointed her towards, and some cool things she found all by herself! And she actually like the necklace I made her! yay, Res Life actually taught me something useful!

Well, now I think it's time for breakfast and relaxing, my throat's a little more sore than normal today, what is wrong with my immune system!!??

Visiting Grammy & Grandpa today, had to give them the whole story on Andrew. Things my grandparents enjoy: hearing about college and questioning me about this new fellow that shares my grandpa's birthday! We chatted for quite awhile, I love grandparents... especially mine! =)

We saw Dad walking in Hood River but couldn't find him by the time Merried looped back around... Finished the Christmas shopping craziness, thank God.

I had another happy visit today, I continued the new tradition of watching old Christmas specials with Lindsey! We watched Garfield & the muppets, drank hot cocoa and ate caramel corn. And the new puppy is so soft and cute and already so smart!!

Tonight... was strange. I was cold so I wanted to shower, and accidentally was in the shower while Tim was in the other bathroom taking a bath. So I definitely had a cold shower which wasn't helpful! Now I'm warming up with hot tea, however... Sometimes I can't wait to be back at college... I'm going to enjoy having Windy's whole house to myself...

Ahhh so much has happened!

So... last Thursday after I handed in my paper I slept, and I slept until Kobe's dad called and let me off dog walking duty for the day (he was down with the flu and home from work). Dale came in and worked on her paper on my laptop after we had a "lunch" at Blanchard... a goodbye lunch with Lindsay! This girl from Res Life training gave me a M&M brownie ice cream sandwich, which was very appreciated after I got ripped off for a little orange sherbet push up pop! Anywho, in the evening we walked to Prospect and realized that we weren't being fed dinner! So we unearthed Dale's car from under its pile of snow and ice (with help of One Card and Rite Aid card), then Dale finally turned in her paper and by like, what, 9 pm? We headed out for the grocery store!

I ended up buying $24.67 in food stuffs (since Res Life reimburses us for up to $25 if we stay till Saturday to close up the dorm), and Dale and Miranda got Chinese food. We had a little dinner at the nice dining table downstairs, and I stayed up rather late...

Friday! Everyone was leaving... and I walked Kobe... then the mail center didn't need me, so after talking to Priscilla awhile I headed off again! Had to come back to pick up a package (it ended up being my verse writing portfolio... course grade: A!) Then I cleaned up my room, visited with D. Becky, returned library books, and mailed letters. Got ready in the evening to see Andrew! I dragged my cd player/alarm clock into the bathroom and blasted music while I showered, it was fun! I definitely took advantage of having the dorm to myself! (or at least hypothetically, if someone had been so inclined she could have stayed and eluded us closing the dorm.)

After looking around online, Andrew & I went to Amherst for dinner at Judie's, which was really fun! We sat at a Matisse table, and Judie herself with talking at the table next to us so we got to overhear random tidbits about the owner's life... It was so cold though! I was "ice skating" on the frozen over snow outside Pearsons!

Saturday was rather sad, and I was nervous as usual before traveling. Andrew was an amazing help with getting me ready and to the airport! I was definitely feeling rather sick and scatterbrained and he was calm and helpful, and, well wonderful =) Sad leaving but it helped that he really had to leave me at the airport as there were police cars around and his car was "parked" in the "actively loading/unloading" area!

My flight was SO long! I went to Atlanta, ended up having to switch planes, then sat next to some gals home from boot camp all the way to Portland. Time in the air: about 8 hours! My lower back was killing me. Luckily I had lots of music to listen to, Andrew and Lindsey made the best mixes ever!

So in PDX Mum & Mer & I were standing around, and my luggage was definitely not riding the big belt circle thingy... a bad premonition was in the air. My luggage was definitely still in Atlanta, no doubt just hanging out on an identical big circle thingy, going in endless circles, subject to any random person going by and stealing it... I think the Delta customer service guy heard me bitching about "what a huge inconvenience this is" and how they'd "better drop it off at our house, we don't want to drive all the way here just to make up for THEIR mistake..." and about how "there's not much time before Christmas and my gifts are in that bag!" Yeah. Because he was super duper helpful! And my luggage was delivered to our door yesterday!

Yesterday... I didn't do much. Partly because my clothes were in transit still. I was bumming about the house in sweatpants and a hole-y sweatshirt. We did decorate the tree, however, and I watched the Homecoming air guitar video! I kinda tipped the tree over a bit (think the leaning tower of pisa) and had to readjust the damn thing (my hands were all pitchy afterwards) while trying to make our vcr work (didn't end up working for me). Cleaned my room and unpacked finally! Threw lots of junk out. Had hot chocolate with a candy cane and fell asleep in my bed a little early!

Today was a good day =) Mer went to the library and I did some more shopping, then I directed Mer to what I want for Christmas and she bought stuff for me with the money I loaned her while I waited! Funny, huh? So I have a good idea of what she got me... Oh! and she ended up buying this sweater I found from Anthropologie at the second hand store in Hood River that was only $14 and looks new. In the catalog I bet it'd be over $100... so I told her she should definitely buy it, if she hadn't I would have! She needs sweaters though... On our way out of town we went to McDonald's and spent the last of our cash (she'd forgotten her wallet and I had used my credit card for nearly everything as I don't carry much cash on me) at Mcdonalds... Yes, like the silly girls we are, we sat together and split french fries in the empty restaurant!

So now I should go eat dinner! Tomorrow I get to see Lindsey and the new puppy!!

I just physically handed in my paper... Quillian was in his office so I got to hand deliver it! Here's how it went:

Quillian: Do you like this paper?
Me: I hope so.
Quillian: No no, I mean, do YOU like this paper?
Me: Well, I did last night, and then I got jittery handing it in.
...
Quillian: Don't worry, you did fine. And I'll see you next semester! ... Have a happy holiday!
Me: You too!

Something about delivering a paper in person is so much more... rewarding. Handing in a paper I wasn't totally enthusiastic about would be easier with any other professor, but one just doesn't want to hand in anything less than perfect to Quillian... Oh well, I tried, I have had my vision!

A blog in honor of the wit of Merrers:

Pink Poodledog: I'm going to walk to the library with dale (at 2 am, mind you), print my paper, and then scurry over to quillian's office and leave my paper on the box on his door
MuskratFan: hahah. Why? To get your paper in like, earlier than everyone else or something?

...

MuskratFan: oh my goodness
Pink Poodledog: and then "well I was married at 19, and grandma was married at 20, so we're thinking it's probably going to happen to you"
Pink Poodledog: hahahaha
MuskratFan: omg. The whole freakin' Bambi thing AGAIN!
Pink Poodledog: hahahah what???
MuskratFan: last night, I forget what we were talking about, but she said "it could happen to you.."
Pink Poodledog: hahahaha
MuskratFan: and I was like, mom, that's the whole twitterpated speech the owl gave
Pink Poodledog: HAHA oh DEAR!
Pink Poodledog: so true!
MuskratFan: yeah, it was ridiculous. It was something totally unrelated to relationships though

...

MuskratFan: it's really starting to annoy me at school, seeing all the couples cuddling and blocking the hallways!
MuskratFan: it really pisses me off. Like now that it's almost break, people are spending more time together or something?!
Pink Poodledog: hahahaha
Pink Poodledog: just wait till one of your crushes and you get together, then "it'll happen to you"
MuskratFan: ack!

...

MuskratFan: I'm adopting if I ever want kids. If I get too desperate, please get me a small lap dog. I have no feelings for children except they're cute at times as a "novelty sort of thing"
Pink Poodledog: hahahahaha
Pink Poodledog: will do mer, I'll get ya one of them dogs that have the reincarnated spirit of a monk in 'em, the wiggly caterpillar lookin' ones
MuskratFan: ha. Those caterpillar dogs
MuskratFan: well, I suppose I should let ya go now.
MuskratFan: sounds like you have a mission to carry out

And in her blog, if you haven't read her latest:

Oh yes, I forgot to add previously that there is an angel in my bathroom. (As in a small lighted plastic angel that mom traditionally sets up in the living room around Christmas time).
posted by Merrie @ 10:52 PM

Mum IMed me today, so yes, I'm going to copy and paste some tidbits instead of actually writing anything new!

SITA3783: are you typing away?
I got your sheets changed. I think they were already changed, but it was hard to tell for sure, since the Tub (and Mebes) [the cats] had tucked themselves in a few times

...

SITA3783: did I tell you about the girl over here who landed in the Hood River on one of her first driving lessons?
Pink Poodledog: haha! nope!
Pink Poodledog: what a story
SITA3783: she was driving with her stepmom, down there where I took you, on the port front.. learning to park. anyway I guess she hit the gas instead of the brake
SITA3783: and they landed in the Hood River and they had to kick out a window or something to get out . they were totally submerged

...


SITA3783: I had to change a light bulb, kinda had to rob peter to pay paul
SITA3783: did you know you can die from water poisoning?
SITA3783: merrie was like telling us you can actually drink too much water
SITA3783: like if you drink a couple gallons
SITA3783: it dilutes out the potassium and salt and stuff.
SITA3783: anyway that was a weird thing to learn

(who says this?? love you mum!)

And from Merrer's blogspot:
I asked Becky about what song I should use to represent me in English class...then realized with the answer its implications! Hilarious is right...

MuskratFan: I can't decide on one! What about something from The Last Unicorn? Hehe..
MuskratFan: or Cake? Or Mundy?
Pink Poodledog: mundy'd be cool
Pink Poodledog: what's that song...
MuskratFan: yeah..I don't know which one
Pink Poodledog: the something and something sky
MuskratFan: gin and tonic sky
MuskratFan: oh no! Not that one!
Pink Poodledog: haha why not??
MuskratFan: There's this joke in that class...
MuskratFan: 'cause of that near-empty alcohol bottle that Zen found after I house sat!
MuskratFan: that was consumed most likely by that other guy that was staying there!
MuskratFan: and it came up in class again today that my song would be something about a drunk Irish man! And Mundy's Irish! And he's singing about gin and tonic skies!
Pink Poodledog: hahahaha
MuskratFan: now that's hilarious
Pink Poodledog: oh my gosh, that's hilarious
Pink Poodledog: yeah, precisely, I saw you typing that the same time I was...!
Pink Poodledog: but I finished anyways to show how apt the word was :-)
MuskratFan: so funny. Glad I thought about it before I used that one! Hehe. But it would have been funny anyway


For the record, Lorenzen asked my freshman high school class the same question, what song would we pick to "represent us" or be the "soundtrack to our lives." And I think I said Paula Cole's "I don't wanna wait"...

I just wrote a 13 page paper in like, 24 hours. And it didn't feel the least bit rushed. By page 6 I had a vision of my paper turning out well, so I hope it has! Must read it over and see if there's anything I should tweak a bit, but I think it's basically done! Wow, only a year and a half left of MHC life! I'd better get on those grad school applications!