So... since I've been bugging Mer about updating more, I thought maybe I should update, too. Hmmm trying to remember what I've been doing...

I just had this weird moment of trying to figure out how long I've been back from spring break. The weekdays have been so so busy... very productive for the most part. Many mentoring meetings with the firsties in the English 101 class I'm mentoring....various SAW duties...lots o' schoolwork... a few quiet evenings trying to get work done.

Last week while I was at the Blanchard SAW table, I heard these two women talking to students about summer jobs. I went to an info. session after I found out that they have locations in both Madison & Ann Arbor. It's through Greenpeace/ Sierra Club/ State PIRGs. It's strange... not very good pay, unless you bring in a lot of money while going door to door talking to folks about environmental/political issues. After talking to people about it, I decided maybe it's not the best job to have... You basically go door to door in a city from 1 pm till 10 pm. Hell of a way to spend my nights, right? It was cool though because I was interviewing with the twin sister of this girl I knew my first year at MHC.

Then, the next day, I had an uber positive job experience. An alum posted to chat about freelance writing projects, and I emailed her with my resume and writing samples. Within two hours, I got a phone call, and my first project! So that's been incredible thus far, and I hope to continue doing this throughout the summer so I can stay with Andrew before grad school.

Weekend news update:

So Saturday I thought it would be a really good idea to go shopping for a white dress for the laurel parade. Um, no. Bad, bad idea. Andrew & I set off for Sylvester's for brunch, but I found out that the waiting time was 50 minutes, so we tried the Waitley Diner. Cool looking place, so-so food. I guess like any diner, they get most their dishes out of tin cans and TV dinner boxes. My hash browns were obviously the kind you can buy frozen in any supermarket. The cornbeef has was just as obviously straight out of a can. I was NOT impressed. Andrew liked his omlette though, and the trippy metallic/ mirrored interior was worth it.

Anyway, after that travesty of a brunch, we were on our way to the Holyoke Mall. Ahh... I found TONS of beautiful clothes, but very few nice white things... A strapless white dress at Charlotte Russe seemed promising, but a bit too formal, and they didn't have my size on the racks (and I wasn't looking forward to undressing a mannequin). Forever 21 had a cool hippie dippie white skirt, but Andrew agreed that it made my hips look bulgy. I found a cute skirt embroidered with flowers (in white thread, of course) at Old Navy, but I couldn't find any cute tops to match it ANYWHERE. Every top was either the wrong style, the wrong shade of white, or too risque to wear (ie, no lining in the bra area). The trip to Target was successful food-wise, but again, no white top to match my skirt.

So... after feeling completely let down and depressed about that, I tried on this white slip dress I've had since high school. It was sitting in my drawer, and I finally remembered to tell Andrew that I had one possible thing to wear. He was incredulous & confused as to why we had gone through the shopping debaucle. I thought it was too clingy to wear, but I've since talked to friends about it and they agree -- I should buy clothes I actually plan to wear after May 20, & just use the dress I have for the parade. So that's decided!!

Oh, I saw Word Wars, the documentary about professional scrabble players. Sooo good. GI Joel is awesome!

Sunday I brought Andrew to brunch at Prospect. He felt sick all afternoon/ evening, so we've agreed: no more dining hall food for him. Instead, I'm going to use my dining dollars the way they were intended to be used: on Chef Jeff cookies & chai! In the afternoon I finished my Tom Stoppard paper & we headed into Amherst for dinner stuffs & to return my Old Navy skirt. We ended up wanting to get sushi from Trader Joe's, so we didn't stay for coffee at Rao's... The weather's warming up so you can't use the car as a fridge =) We did get our coffeeshop time in though, as we went to the Thirsty Mind for drinks & a scrabble game before dinner. I beat Andrew, finally!!! 330 something to 240/50 something if I remember correctly. Upon arriving back to my dorm room, I found out that the Stoppard class was canceled, so that took the pressure off me to finish rereading The Invention of Love. Very nice feeling to realize that you can spend the evening with your shmoopy!

I insisted upon bringing our "picnic" dinner to the private dining room in the delles. It's a strange room... The wall paper is this antiquated white rose pattern on green, the curtains are long and billowy, a chandellier hangs over the table, and there's this dusty china cabinet sitting diagonally across a corner. On the shelves there are maybe two china platters and one teacup. And by the door there's one of those industrial yellow wheely mop buckets. It's a very odd room now that it's never used. I'm sure it'll be a quadruple dorm room in a year or two. So we ate there (Andrew refused to sit at opposite ends of the long rectangular table -- I thought it would have been funny, but he said no). Then, there was a great, great episode of Desperate Housewives... So addicted, and it's been so long since there was a new episode!!

Anyway... Monday was a catch up day, and a day of two mentoring apps gone awry (ie, no one showed up). Tuesday was busy with SAW duties... I had the table, reading, and small group. Today was nice... it's definitely spring now. 50 something degrees & sunny... I wore flip flops for the first time this year!! Ahh... sitting in the Stimson room during teatime, I realized I only have a few more such teas left at MHC... and tomorrow is the English dept tea that I've been organizing with the ESB, & all the underclasswomen will be hearing about the awesome courses being taught next year (ahhh Amy Martin is doing a seminar on class & gender in the Victorian novel -- how frustrating is that!?).

It's that nostalgic time when seniors are reflecting on their last spring here at MHC... this morning I was even thinking back to my visit to this campus as an admit, in the spring of '01... sometimes I try to reconcile my impression of this campus (from my first visit way back in the summer of 2000) with my current intimacy with its layout... ahh... I'll miss so much of it, but it's so time to move on... I can't wait to buy my own food (which I hope will be super healthy to make up for the past four years -- organic everything, free range chicken, milk from cows that weren't treated with antibiotics or hormones, etc.). I can hardly imagine showering without flip flops... I look forward to that, a lot... and not bringing a shower caddy everywhere... just having my shampoo there in the shower!! And going to the bathroom in the middle of the night without worrying about getting dressed... and controlling my own heat... but oh, there are those things you know you'll be nostalgic for later, too -- the campus here (especially in fall, spring, and early winter, during those first snowfalls), having friends to eat dinner with every night... the English dept. that I love... ahh!

Ahh!

Hmmm. Now that I have all my admissions decisions, I've found that I have fewer procrastination ideas. So I'm updating my blog! Let's see... where we left off, I was just back in Boston...

I finally saw When Harry Met Sally. Rather sad timing, I believe it was in between my grad school visits. I see why it's such a classic... ahh!

I think it was Weds night that we went to the Lizard Lounge for dinner. I'm developing a taste for beer -- not any old beer, just certain kinds... So far, I seem to have taken a liking to Andrew's Magic Hat varieties, & really light beers with lemon (I had a Belgian white something or other). It makes my head feel warm and fuzzy...

Let's see... We also watched Day of the Dead, which was quality. Not really, but it was funny. I especially enjoyed Dr. Frankenstein's pet zombie, Bob. I think that was his name. Anyway, this zombie re-learns how to operate a gun, which is a plot twist. Probably my least favorite of the zombie movies so far, though. Very low budget.

Thursday I caught up on the OC while Andrew was at work, and then we watched the new one over sushi. Andrew is getting quite good at making sushi (although he forgot to add the avocado in one roll). Soooo yums... While grocery shopping earlier in the day, I had picked out the most incredible avocado (just the right amount of give to the skin -- that's my new trick), and a not-quite-ripe mango (next time: the more squish the better).

Friday we slept in, as Andrew was leaving for the airport in the afternoon. For the rest of the weekend I had to fend for myself -- made lots of pasta, salad, and rice dishes. Friday night I watched Legally Blonde for about the twentieth time. Saturday I watched SNL (not so good).

My goal from Weds- Sun was to write 5 pages a day on my thesis. I reached it everyday but Sun, although some days involved some recycling of material. I now have 59 pages of critical writing... and I'm still working on the creative portion. Funny how last semester I had such trouble writing the lit. crit., and now it's flip flopped to problems with writing my own stories. I feel like my creative energies are drained with verse writing... oh well... So, with any luck, after some revising & editing, it'll be ready to send out... Then I can concentrate on the stories.

Sunday Andrew's plane was late -- big surprise, right? Another mechanical problem, something about a wing flap and the computer it was hooked up to. Screaming baby on his flight too -- do booking agents make sure to have at least one annoying child on every single plane?Andrew and I agreed that babies should be put on sedatives when they travel. Happy sleeping baby = happy sleeping passengers. Really, I think it's a strange sort of cruelty to both parties...

Anyway, once Andrew got home we had a quick version of Thai fried rice (with mango!), talked about his Michigan trip (seems it's a better match for his research interests than Wisconsin), and relaxed.

This morning we had a mad dash to the bus station... I was so worried we wouldn't make it in time. Then we got through a tunnel, and suddenly, we were there... Andrew was quite proud of himself, and I was astonished that we'd arrived with 13 minutes to spare. There were so many college kids returning from spring break that they had a separate express bus to the valley. I slept/ listened to music/ watched snow fall.

At MHC, I immediately checked my over-stuffed mailbox to discover my Harvard rejection. "We know that you must be very disappointed" -- yeah right... I wouldn't have exactly welcomed the idea of staying in New England any longer! Also lying in wait: tons and tons of notices and letters from MHC about commencement. Dear Lord!

It was tres strange to arrive at my room. It's been about two weeks -- and when I left, it was snowing heavily, I had no idea what my grad school decision would be, I felt swamped and worried with work... And now... so much more peace. Had good talks over lunch & dinner with Miranda, Sarah, Kathleen, Ariel, and Laura. News has traveled, & I chatted with Prof. B about next year. Ahh I'm going to miss our English dept. & everyone here!

Ack I've neglected my blog!

So I'm now 22 -- which doesn't feel much different from 21, except that it was less of a milestone. My "birthday weekend" (I didn't want to celebrate on March 7th since it was a Monday, and a very busy one at that) was fairly low-key. Saturday I got some work done & went to the jazz concert with Kathleen, where we ran into more friends. I tried the vanilla chai from our uncommon grounds place, and it was very sweet and very vanilla-y. And a cookie for later, as a reward for writing my 319 paper, which I did in the space between 9 pm & 1 am. Sunday I ran around between mentoring appointments, brunch, & the senior career fair thingy. Kathleen & I sat in on a round table discussion with alums & other students interested in grad school. When I said that I was deciding between two grad schools, and that one would mean being close to Andrew, the alum we were speaking with was like "Oh, go with your bf! Come on girls!" -- as in have fun and all that. Then I dropped the Stanford name, which always has the effect of reversing those opinions. And alas, even she backed up from her previous statement.

Afterwards, I headed back to my dorm room to wait for Andrew. We lounged around a bit before dinner -- Thai Corner! Which was yummy, I always order very safe things (pad thai). Then we watched Family Guy (or whatever the title is) -- that movie with Nicholas Cage in which he sees what would have happened if he had stayed in the states with his college gf instead of taking this great career move in Europe for the summer. We were laughing at points because it was like the same situation...

Monday was another crazily busy day. Mentoring appointments, class, preparing to leave for Stanford on Tuesday. I was all packed and ready by Tuesday around noon, just in time to be picked up. It had been raining all morning, but then around 11 am the fun started with little snow flakes drifting down... I told Andrew it was snowing and he said (ironically considering later events) that it wouldn't affect my flight. Ohhh the dramatic irony! So my PVTA ride was about 10 minutes later than the absolute latest they claimed they'd get there. So late I was contemplating giving up. By this time the snow was really coming down, and it had gotten colder. We got to the airport a little late, but my flight was backed up 20 minutes already. I heard a ticket agent say that everything was backed up with the weather. I proceeded, however, to my gate.

I sat by some middle-aged business men (they looked the part), because that usually seems like a good idea to me. And it was, again, in this situation. We sat there waiting to hear if the plane our flight was going to use had a change of coming in. Planes were deferring into Boston where the weather wasn't so bad. By this time, around 2:30, visibility was less than 100 ft, winds up to 50 mph (or so the rumor went), and lots of snow falling. It was swirling about outside the windows, and I couldn't even see planes docked at nearby terminals, so I figured it was pretty bad. F*&#ing weather!!!

It's hard to recreate this in my blog. We sat there long past our scheduled departure time, everyone around me was on their cell phones trying to find alternative flights or a place to stay the night and a flight in the morning. Not having a cell phone, I just sat there waiting for whatever the airport gods decided to do... One flight was canceled right away, as the plane had gone to Boston. We were worried the same would happen to the Chicago flight. Finally at least one plane landed near our terminal. It had circled for an hour and a half. Can you imagine? So there was hope that our flight would leave. At intervals the snow seemed to slow -- I could see further outside. Finally, around 4 pm, we found out that there was a good chance our flight would, in fact, leave today.

The problem with this was that the weather had only worsened, in my opinion, since various windows of "less bad snow." Plus it was just accumulating more and more as we sat there. The airport was closing off and on throughout the afternoon (also very disconcerting as you're sitting there waiting for a flight). I wondered if my luggage was still checked, or if all that had stopped working... very confusing. We finally did board, however, and the man I was sitting by (Chris I think) and I were incredibly happy. We must have been on the plane by around 5 pm, but then the fun was just getting started! I was trying not to worry about what would happen once I reached Chicago -- would there be a San Francisco flight later in the evening? Would I reach my host in time to tell them not to try to pick me up at the scheduled time? We all know how nervous I get about traveling, so it was amazing that I settled at some point & just figured that Chicago was closer to SF than Bradley airport, and had more promising weather!

Our flight didn't leave till about 6 pm. We sat at the terminal waiting for the airport to reopen (ie, get down plowing) so we could go for de-icing. At the de-icing pad we waited while two other planes were de-iced and sent on their way (one even got finished that arrived after us!!) At this point I was curled up trying to sleep and ignore the fact that I'd been in the PVTA van or at the airport or on a plane for 5.5 hours now, and that I should already be at Chicago catching my SF flight. No leisurely dinner with my host -- no time to meet other admits -- ahh! The de-icing took awhile, about 3 or 4 times the pilot's lie of "ten minutes." Whatever time anyone associated with an airline tells you, multiply it by about 6 and you'll get a more accurate picture. We finally did take off, however, and the antifreeze goop did its job so we didn't fall out of the sky.

We arrived in Chicago around 7:30 pm (their time). Or perhaps it was a bit earlier... hard to recall. At the ticketing counter, a woman told me that I'd been rebooked on the 8 pm flight. So I was very happy. I waited in long lines at customer service, hoping to use a phone for free as the flight attendants had promised earlier, and eventually just called my host from a pay phone to let her know what was up. OK, this is how good Stanford is. They'd already seen the problem, and one of the grad students (a wonderful person I met later) had heard from the office that they didn't expect current students to go out really late at night to pick up admits. So they'd already booked a taxi, and told the driver to stand with my name at baggage claim. Wow, no one had ever done that before for me! I was a little confused, however, because I figured my 8 pm flight wouldn't get me into SF tooo terribly late. Little did I know that Stanford had already anticipated my next problem with United airlines...

No one was at the gate I was supposed to be leaving from in 20 minutes -- and it said departure time 10 pm. This other person waiting approached me, and he was also confused. So I decided to see what customer service had to say. Some of the same people were there. I finally got an attendant, and he kept asking if my eyes were OK. I started tearing up (after all, it had been a hell of a long day, with poor airline communication, and no idea where I would sleep if I didn't get to SF). It always makes me more sad when people actually seem to care that I'm sad. So he was handing me tissues and asking to hear what was up. I found out that the 8 pm flight was not leaving till late (I later heard that the time got pushed to 10:20, and that people were skeptical about it leaving at all -- they had trouble getting a crew into Chicago from the east coast). But, I also found out that I'd been put on the 9:30 pm flight, and that my luggage would already be on that one. So I was frustrated to be spending even more time in the airport, but also strangely OK with things.

I headed over to my new gate via the trippy moving walkway. Those flashing neon lights and the deranged circus music can put one in a strange mood when one isn't feeling happy... I kind of just stood there on the moving walkway and squinted at the lights and wondered what the hell the world was coming to. Eventually reached the end of the moving walkway, which was repeatedly pointed out to me by a mechanical voice. I reached the gate, and talked to Andrew on the phone awhile, mainly bitching about the state of United airlines and flying in general. By the time I got off the phone, an onslaught of bewildered people had arrived via an international flight. I quickly realized that my gate had been changed, and scooted down to find it. At this new gate I heard from an older couple that the gate had been switched a number of times. Also I encountered the same man of the 8 pm SF flight, who told me that that flight might not be going at all, so he was now rebooked on the same 9:30 one. We waited, and boarded a bit late for a "mechanical problem." Once on the plane, this mechanical problem that should have been checked out long before, reared its ugly head. The pilot said that mechanics had spotted fuel leaking, and needed to observe it for 10 minutes to check it out. He told us this specific time later -- but I can assure you that it worked perfectly with my formula. 10 minutes x 6 = one hour. Yes, we sat there for an entire freaking hour. And nothing was fixed or accomplished except for some paperwork. I think that 9 times out of 10 mechanical worries result not in safer flights, but in delayed flights, because they all decide that the plane is air-worthy in the end anyway! No one was in the middle seat, so I spread out and tried to sleep. My seat-mate helped me to a blanket, and as we sat there with the mysterious mechanical problem that ended up not even being a problem, I told him to wake me only if we needed to deboard. It was now 10:30 pm, 11:30 pm eastern time, meaning that I'd been traveling now for 11 hours.

I got fitful, uncomfortable bouts of sleep on the plane. We finally arrived at 12:45 pm western time. Add that up, I've now been traveling for 15.25 hours. Found my driver easily, and we waited on my luggage. We were friendly, and he was sure that I wasn't from CA since I wasn't bitching about the flight. This became uncomfortable once we reached the van and he needed me to help read the mapquest directions. And he kept asking if I wanted him to show me the city while I was there... As if I didn't have a million things planned already!! I tried to be nice, but not too nice... Why a driver feels the need to come onto a travel-weary girl when according to her time zone it's freaking am, is beyond me. We got really confused on the Stanford campus, and picked up this Australian student who directed us to the grad student housing area. Once there, the driver called my poor host, who came running out in her bathroom to find me!

OK, so this is one of my fondest memories now. Sarah completely took me in, fixing hot chocolate & cheese sandwiches, and we talked for about 30 minutes, mostly on the subject of what we do English-wise, and what my thesis/ mentoring job are like. I liked her immediately, and there was something infinitely reassuring about this woman in her glasses & bathrobe, with a mug of hot chocolate. She had gone above and beyond the call of duty -- she had fixed up her room for me to stay in, even leaving a mint on the pillow & putting daffodils in a vase. I wasn't sure how right it was for her to have to sleep on the couch, but I did fall asleep instantly! Soo tired... I ended up being "in transit" between MHC & Sarah's from 12:30 pm eastern to 5 am eastern. So what, 16.5 hours??? Pretty f-ing ridiculous!

The next day I got up pretty early and rushed to get ready for Sarah's African American Lit. Theory class. But as I was trying to go, Sarah's roommate struck. This girl is not happy at Stanford, and mainly wants someone to gripe to. I was it for an hour. I kept trying to go, and she kept thinking I should go, but somehow it didn't work out... I finally made it, however, and found the English dept. where I met Judy & picked up my folder. She sympathized with my crazy flight problems, and then I was on my way with Prof. M. to find the right building. I sneaked into the class, which was absolutely amazing. It was comprised of 9 women and the prof, who was this awesome woman... ahh. They were watching this disturbing Spike Lee movie, and discussing the homoeroticism of this one scene, and how blackface relates to the hip hop "bling" in the film. Everyone sounded brilliant, and the discussion never waned. I was completely impressed.

Afterwards, I walked with Other Sarah & James (from New Zealand) to the faculty club lunch. OK, great food, and I had the most incredible chocolate truffle cake ever. I was in heaven. I met a prof. who is friends with Prof. W at MHC, and talked with Prof. S about going to a program far away from my bf's. The discussion hit upon an Old Norse course, the name Grendel being used for pets, and Hamnet. Between that and the truffle cake... yeah, amazing. Also listened to fellow admit Jessica, who is brilliant & cool, talking about her medieval/ early modern interests. Met Marie & Ruth, two amazing 2nd year students, and heard them talking about the difficulties of teaching CompRhet courses. Which they enjoy, overall.

After that I decided to skip out on an American lit discussion, and went to see where Jessika lives. Found the house, but not Jess! I called her, and then sat under and orange tree in the sun. This is another thing: coming from blizzard to 70s sunshine... WOW. I was so sold already. Later in the day I made it to the Aesthetics Theory course -- they were discussing Elaine Scarry's On Beauty and Being Just (I think that's the right title). Another amazing discussion. They were all giving presentations since it was the end of the quarter, so I got to hear a lot from the students. They're all super-bright, sharp people. The prof was also great, and already had learned my name. Again, I was super impressed.

After the class, we gathered in groups to head to Prof. M.'s house for dinner. My group was looking at housing options. In one of the Studio buildings, the elevator lurched twice and then stopped. We tried pushing the open door button, nothing happened. So we called the emergency line. A strange bonding experience. We all sat there, waiting for the firemen to arrive, and started talking. Another reason why my life is like an existentialist play -- rather reminds you of No Exit, doesn't it? But eventually the firemen did come, and told us just to push on the door. I was a little worried for our fingers, but with all of us pulling the door open, it worked... and we realized that we were standing just 3 inches above a floor! So we all stepped off... and it's still hard to believe that happened! Someone said, perhaps Sarah, "We could have done it all along if we'd only believed!" Strange!

So after that we decided to go right to dinner. One of my all time most favorite discussions over dinner. Most of the admits sat at one table in the lofted dining area. People were out on the porch, milling about in the living room with drinks, etc. It was like my image of what a nice dinner party would be like. Over dinner we shared admit/ reject stories, what our various choices were, which foreign languages we'd studied/ planned to study, and talked lit (of course!) It was amazing... I opted not to go out for drinks afterwards, and got to bed at a decent hour.

Thursday had been designated more of a SF day. I went to breakfast, and then we headed over to the library. The librarian of special collections had pulled out awesome original texts/ manuscripts that matched up with our interests. This was like a candy store for us -- Two editions of Chaucer (one put together by William Morris), an original Johnson dictionary (opened to "oats" which I'm going to use for my 319 assignment next week), the book of King John's inauguration or something of that sort, one of the original Ulysses published by the Royal Shakespeare Co. on Dutch paper, a serial edition of Ulysses, Woolf's Between the Acts (yay Hogarth Press!), various editions of Robinson Crusoe, a long poem illustrated by William Blake, an 18th century Paradise Lost... it was amazing. The librarian was telling us about how he gets these books, what the process was like woodcutting/ metal plates, etc. And the library is gorgeous.

Afterwards, we ran to catch the caltrain. We met up with J., a 7th year dissertating student, and some other 3/4 year -ers who live in the city. We had lunch with a prof (her apt. is cool, and we met the birds and turtles) at a pizza place, and then drove up to Twin Peaks for a view of the city. Very pretty up there -- can see the ocean, the city, the bay... Back on the train I talked with Jill and James, and back at Stanford I went to the English dept. and then planned to meet up with Jess & JP. I was standing out in the Memorial square area, with the sun beginning to sink... and the shadows from the archways were beautiful... and people were out on the lawn... and it was this idyllic, peaceful scene... palm trees' tops visible over the buildings... And then Jess & JP were there, and we walked around (they gave me a bit of a tour, explaining traditions, etc), and eventually I got to see her dorm, which is amazing! I kept joking that I couldn't understand why I didn't apply there for undergrad -- I felt like her dorm experience must be what MHC's used to be, but with better weather =)

Then Jess drove me around, and I got a much better sense of how the campus all fits together, where students live, and all that sort of thing. Plus it was so awesome to be sitting there with Jess! She walked me up with JP to the English dept, so I had this bubble moment of introducing my-friend-since-middle-school to my possible-future-cohorts! Ahh... Then all the admits and the grad student organizers went out to dinner at this cool restaurant in Palo Alto -- Mardi Graas beads and all... I had jambalaya, which was as spicy as warned... Our table was all women -- the Sarah who wasn't my host, and 5 other admits. Talked about moms & reading & finally asked Sarah what she had wished she had known before coming to Stanford, what what her least favorite thing was... the quarter system! Which Judy had warned me about before. I guess it can be something of a transition when you're used to a semester with all that dead space in the middle. Afterwards I decided to be daring and went out with Sarah for wine & dessert (which I didn't eat any of because I'm a germaphobe and can't bring myself to share things like that). A lot of current students were there, so I got more of a chance to talk with Joe & Ruth. Mostly about the long distance thing... and our conversation swerved to talking about bread/ baking... But it sounds like many people are in LDRs in the dept, and that the dept. understands personal lives... So that many people leave during their third year to start dissertating from afar... Or spend their summer language study months with loved ones... that sort of thing. I got the feeling that there's a lot of money floating around for grad students, and lots of opportunities to professionalize oneself.

Anyway... the next morning Sarah took me to the airport, and I think we hugged three times outside the terminal. I still feel like it was some fantasy I dreamed up. I told Sarah that one morning, I'd woken up and couldn't believe I was at Stanford, and couldn't understand how my life had led me up to this point. Really incredible... Ahh so it was sad leaving, but at least our flight left on time! It was a very full flight... And we ended up delaying landing as we waited for the runway to be de-iced (welcome back to the Northeast, right?) Andrew picked me up, and all was well -- we went to Sugar & Spice for dinner, and I had the purple rice (appropriate! Sarah saw me with my purple luggage, purple tennies, and purple shirt that morning, and said "Wow, everything you own really IS purple!") Then I did laundry, and repacked in the morning for Wisconsin.

Andrew dropped me off for my flight, which was supposed to leave at 1:25. I met up with Annie (awesome to sit and talk MHC English with her), and we were wondering why the plane hadn't started boarding yet (this is about 1:10). We got on the plane late, and then sat there till 3:10 or so as they checked out a mysterious "mechanical problem." People were pissed. The pilot kept saying "15 minutes"... "OK I know I said 15 minutes, and it's been 17, but it looks like 15 more"... "the mechanics are telling me just a few more minutes"... "we should be out of here in 30 seconds" (that one got a laugh). Yeah, it was ridiculous, like all my other plane experiences of the week. We finally got in the air around 3:30, and most of us missed our connecting flights. I got placed on one leaving Chicago at 8:10, so I had 3+ hours to stagger around my new favorite place: the Chicago O'Hare airport! Yippee!

Here's how I spent the time: First, rushing to the rebooking phones, where I was reassured that I was on the 8 pm flight and that my luggage would be on it, too. Then Annie & I went to this new gate, and I was told I needed to go to the original gate for a meal voucher (since mechanical problems meant I missed dinner in Wisconsin). Annie ended up on a United flight, and I trekked back to the original gate (no small feat). I went to an H-gate, in the general area, and the woman let me call Gwen to say "don't pick me up! I'm not there!", and then said if I wanted a meal voucher I needed to find the original gate. So I tried another, and a white haired lady gave me a form and said I could mail in a complaint, but that she couldn't do anything since in the computer it said we were delayed because of weather (it was barely snowing, and nothing like the blizzard I flew out of on Tues., so I was having none of that, esp after hearing he pilot reiterate "mechanical problems" over and over). So then I was about to give up, and started walking... Till I saw this man who looked nice & whose counter wasn't overrun with irate passengers. I talked with him, and he said he'd get a supervisor as I wanted... no supervisor came, and we talked about my trying to speak Spanish (and inability to roll R's), about people not understanding the diff. between weather & mechanical delays (mechanical delays mean you're guaranteed to be taken care of at the airline's expense, whereas weather means nothing), etc. Called the supervisor again, and he didn't come. So this man, one of the first human beings I've met at Chicago's airport, printed me a meal voucher and told me to use all of it. So I did!

I trekked back through the food courts, looking for something appealing. I ended up eating at Chili's, in a high table all my own. Then I called Andrew as I waited for the plane to board. I decided not to wait another hour for a later flight, in exchange for a $250 travel voucher. Funny how American Airlines offers $250 to wait an hour, but does nothing when they cause you to wait 3+ hours. I should have taken it in retrospect, but at the time I was worried about Gwen picking me up, etc... Talked to a student at Wisconsin as I boarded, he said to go to Stanford (if I'm remembering correctly).

It was a quick flight... but my luggage was not waiting for me at Madison. Funny how they had over 3 hours to load my one suitcase, and they didn't get around to it. Curses! I hope AA also goes bankrupt!! These airlines cannot function efficiently! Argh. So I met Gwen and Greg, and later Thom & Justin (all of the English dept.) We went out for drinks, and I saw Glynis (also of MHC -- there were three of us admits). Then my co-admit Emily arrived, who also stayed with Thom, Gwen, and Justin. I stayed in the basement among all the books.

On Sunday we went to lunch... and it was strange. I was sitting by an admit's friends who had nothing to do with English, and some CompRhet people. Also, nothing was paid for. Then we had a brief, cold tour, and I saw the ugliness of the Humanities building (built to resist student seiges), and the beauty of the views from within the building (out onto the frozen lake -- people playing with dogs and making snow angels). After going home briefly so that I could change, we found my luggage sitting there (finally arrived at 3:30...it must have sat in Chicago for a good 12 hours). So I was able to wear my own clothes (instead of Gwen's!) to the reception. I didn't mean any profs that I was crazy about, and none of them knew of me or my application (dif from Stanford's more intimate dept). Also, a lot of truly strange students who I couldn't imagine having as cohorts.

After the lukewarm reception, we headed to a prof's house for a potluck. Also kinda strange environment. Talked mainly to this girl Anne who's very loud, Emily, and this Matt guy who talked a lot. We four & a current student, Sarah, went for coffee & tea at Michelangelo's. I took some pictures of the state building (beautiful). Talked about movies, teaching, etc... Not as great as the conversations at Stanford.. Everything just felt less wonderful. I was not so impressed with my prospective cohorts.

Monday I got a late start since I didn't have anyone to walk over with for awhile. Finally Gwen, Emily, & I walked 30 minutes in the cold to the humanities building. I sat in on a panel about intellectual life in the dept (which sounded cool -- Prof. W seems sharp), and then a class about Ethics/ theory. The class was really awful -- no one talked, the prof wasn't dynamic, and people just didn't know their sh&#. I heard later that that was a particularly bad one since for some reason people didn't do the reading. Well, I knew at least one person in the Stanford class I attended who hadn't done the reading, so I imagine that isn't uncommon anywhere. But the diff. was, those Stanford classes still kicked ass.

Anyway, I left halfway through, and supposedly it got better. Emily & I ate lunch, and then attended diff. panels. I went with Morgan (fellow admit) to "What Will I Teach?" & Emily to "How Will I Live on a TA Salary?" It sounds like they are more bogged down with TA-ing (from 2nd to fourth years, and then no support except as a TA/ writing center person -- whereas at Stanford you TA & teach your first 3 years and then get support your last two years without doing anything but your dissertation), and it seems with more students, too, and probably not of the same caliber as Stanford undergrads. Soooo.... yeah. It seems like they have fun teaching, and that the students are good and hardworking, but I didn't get the same feeling that I did at Stanford. After this, we met up with Gwen and all four of us walked to the apt. to snack and talk and watch TV till dinner.

For dinner, we three admits with all our hosts went to The Weary Traveler for dinner. I had goulash, which was good and spicy, but it was a kind of strange meal... Justin kept smoking which was making me feel really gross (and got my clothes all stinky), and we talked about furries, Arcadia, etc... After dinner Gwen, Emily, Gwen's friend Laura, & myself all went to Woodman's for cheesecurds (Emily wanted to bring some home in a cooler. Strange). It was cool seeing Laura & Gwen -- they seemed more like people to have fun with on the weekends than I had realized earlier. Singing along to Beyonce songs & telling stories about going to nightclubs and having the guy friends pick them up at 2 am drunk.

Back at the apt, I ended up getting ready for bed early. Got plenty of sleep, and packed the next morning to leave. Thom brought me to the airport, and we talked... He said he didn't envy my position, since it would be a hard choice: Andrew/good profs at Wisconsin vs. assurance of Stanford's overall experience/ reputation. At Wisconsin it seems more laid back -- and Thom was like "but maybe you're a rock star, I don't know" (as in, should be at Stanford instead). So he's hoping to get profs. in touch with me to help with the decision... But talking to Andrew (and hearing Andrew's dad ask if we both realize I'd be crazy not to go to Stanford) and Mum... I just had that spontaneous gut reaction about Stanford. Maybe it's partly the weather, the order in which I visited the schools, the allure of the security of Stanford... But when it comes down to it, I feel really excited and elated about my Stanford visit, and disappointed with my Wisconsin visit. I guess that's as much as anyone has to go on, right?

Anyway, my flight from Madison to Chicago was smooth (although I started freaking out when we started boarding five minutes late... I was sure there would be another problem!) Then I had just enough time to eat, find my gate, call Andrew, and use the restroom before boarding for Boston. Quick flight -- like 1 hour 38 minutes I thought I heard? Must have had winds helping us out. I read "The Real Thing" and looked out the window. As we swooped over the Charles River, we had this incredible view of Boston's skyline with a backdrop of orange/pink sunset on the horizon. Everything worked out -- I got my luggage and called Andrew, and there he was in like five minutes. Dinner -- watching Jacob's Ladder (during which Andrew fell asleep) -- rest -- it was good to be home.

I'm beginning to feel as if the admissions gods have decided that Andrew & I will not be allowed to make any easy decisions. Today I got my Brown rejection letter in the mail, and Andrew's out at MIT. So now, well, the only faint hope would be Berkeley, but through the grapevine we've heard that they've already handed out all their CS acceptances. OK, I'll backtrack a bit:

Friday: Andrew came out, and we talked from around 7:45 pm till 3 in the morning or so. Punctuated by bouts of intense hugging & sighs. I'd put off wanting to talk about this stuff till now... I kept saying, let's see where we get in, and THEN worry about it. So now we're worrying about it!

Saturday: Slept in, had some lunch, read at Rao's in Amherst, and brought home yummy wings to go with a salad. Had a bizarre run in with this girl in the N Delle tv room.

Andrew and Becky are sitting in the TV room, eating dinner and watching a home improvement show. The lighting is bright. Enter one socially awkward, soft-voiced MHC student, from here on known as SAS.

SAS: Are you going to be long?
Becky and Andrew exchange confused glances. Becky: No, maybe another ten minutes?...
Andrew: We're just eating. Exuent SAS.

Ten minutes, on the dot, pass. Enter SAS.

SAS: Are you going to be much longer?
Andrew: No, we're just eating...
Becky: We're just finishing up... We're not watching anything special, if you want to turn the channel. Awkward silence.
Becky: Ok, we can go, I guess.
SAS: It's just, I have a movie to watch for my history class... I don't mean to kick you out... You can go to another room though, and the other tv room, but the VCR there isn't working.
Audience might be reminded that it is 7:15 pm on a Saturday evening. Becky and Andrew gather themselves and leave room to SAS.

I don't understand what's going on with MHC students. Are we this socially awkward & just plain strange? Who kicks people out of a TV room to watch a movie for class on a Saturday evening, when they haven't even reserved the freaking room?? Argh. I would never do this to someone! That's what the freaking VIEWING ROOMS are for in the library...

Anyway, afterwards we had fun at J-show, sat with Kathleen and D Becky in the front row since we got there when Chapin was still empty. Enjoyed the glow sticks, and wished that people would shut up so we could hear the show. Result was, you needed to be as annoyingly drunk as the most annoying audience members in order to be entertained. So sorry, juniors! I wish people had kept it under control...

Highlight of the evening was going to Lauren, Jess, & Mel's party in the Delles. Started playing "never have I ever" (actually, never had I ever played that game). Weird incident: When 3 MHC-ers came and drank alone in the sunroom and then departed without saying goodbye or contributing to the party... later one of the girls realized some of her bottles were missing!

Sunday: Another sleep in day. Went to brunch with Kathleen and Karuna, did some work, and then had fun with a playreading of Travesties (I love our Stoppard class, the coolest people are in it). Andrew had fun, thank goodness -- we needed more voices (and it's nice to have a guy). In the evening we went looking for dinner at Chili's. Never again! They should not try to do Mexican food. Their "fajita quesadillas" are no better than Blanchard's. Andrew was a sweetheart to put up with me... Had a yummy dessert though! Cheesecake from Rao's.

Today, in light of Stanford, I told all my recommenders the news & broached the question of how one chooses between love & academics. Quillian had stories of the first woman tenured in Stanford's dept, and her husband who ended up switching areas... and how they both ended up at UCLA. Corinne and I are talking on Friday. Collette sees this as a great opportunity... Ack. And the Brown rejection, albeit expected, was no less traumatic... Why couldn't I have gotten in there instead?????? Grrrrr!

In some good news: I had two people drop in at the Blanchard SAW table today! And I had a chat with Tom, this older gentleman representing study abroad programs through East Anglia. Lots of pretty snow! A good chat with Kathleen over dinner. And my eyes seem better after a day off of my contacts & a nap.

Let's see... where to start... Well starting around Valentine's Day, actually, I've been feeling kinda run down and tired. Very strange. My mind usually feels sharp & engaged, but my eyes are burning and tired. Started wearing my glasses in the morning instead of contacts, thinking perhaps that was the problem. Doesn't seem to help. And I hate having bloodshot looking eyes. So gross! Very sensitive about eyes, anyway, as Mer can tell anyone -- yuck, they're like spheres of goo, but without them... well I can't imagine not being able to see. OK, anyway, moving on to actual events in my life rather than bizarre rants on eyeballs:

Last weekend was pretty low key. I had an essay to write, after all. Friday night we watched Night of the Living Dead, because I wanted to see the originals after the remake of Dawn of the Dead. Pretty good, with the satirical ending... rather bleak view of the world. Saturday was a quiet day, stayed on campus, and in the evening we were waitlisted to see this play, so instead we played trivial pursuit while drinking gin & tonics (my favorite drink, it seems "adult," & it really DOES taste like a Christmas tree). Sunday morning I had mentoring appointments, and in the afternoon we went to Rao's in Amherst for studying & Fresh Side (I love those ginger tofu rolls). In the evening we moved from the black & white Night of the Living Dead to the very '80s Dawn of the Dead. Interesting to see the original finally. It definitely had a lot more going for it in terms of, um, content. The new one is all special effects, and they seem to have forgotten to use the whole idea of the mall/ consuming/ commercialism, etc. The Romero version, although it might not be the most high tech (come on, the flesh eating scenes were CLEARLY latex and fake blood), at least had a POINT.

Anyway, we also watched Desperate Housewives with Karuna, which was another great episode! Overnight it snowed, so Andrew stayed till lunchtime. We ate at Blanchard (where we apparently were seen by half the campus), and then he walked across the snowy green to his car while I headed off to Clapp for my Stoppard class. Kinda funny having him around for what is normally a more hectic part of the week.

This week has flown by. Last Friday, PS, I had a major breakthrough with the thesis. Not in the productive I wrote 50 pages way, but in the wow, the way I was doing this really wasn't going to work, and this is a better way, even though it means scrapping 15 pages of writing. So it looks like my class relations chapter is going to be expanded to, somehow, be my entire thesis (along with my short stories...) Tomorrow will be my thesis work day, it needs some attention.

OK... so further big news on the grad school front. Andrew was rejected at Stanford last Friday. I was rejected at UC San Diego (on the same day!) But that morning, while waiting for a call from a prof. at Wisconsin, a prof. called from Brandeis to tell me that I'm in (which entails a 5 year funding package, free health care, etc.) Hmmm. I finally called this prof back, let's just go by M.S., and Prof. S. has this great English accent, and at one point actually said "Oh, excuse me, the kettling is boiling," followed by the sound of a whistling teapot growing louder in the background. So excellent! Apparently he was at Columbia the same time as two profs. here... That was a "small world" moment.

So eventually I did get the call from the Wisconsin prof, and we chatted for awhile (not quite an hour though). I feel like it would be a very "safe" place to go (she made it sound as if I'd receive a "warm welcome"). We talked about where literary theory is going (finally got in my comment about reading Eagleton's After Theory and feeling all jazzed that the field is wide open). At some point, I realized that I was sitting on my bed in my 5 year old delia's flannel star pajamas. Funny moments in the life...

So the BIG news, though... Today I got back &, like every other day, immediately checked my voicemail & my email. Saw at least one email from Stanford. Thought, OK, I'll open this first, probably a rejection, no big news, Andrew isn't in there. Opened it... wow. I've been admitted! With full funding, of course, because that's the dept. standard. Argh! Now what? Talked to Audra this morning about this worry... That I almost wished I wouldn't get into places that Andrew didn't, even if they are my tippy top choices. Talked to Mum a little. Must speak with Quillian & S. and... ahh... I don't know! I mean... their website says they generally offer places to 12 students a year, out of like 350 applications. And the prof. made it sound like this was an esp. competitive year... ACK. So direct any comments, opinions, pieces of advice, words of wisdom, to my "comment" feature, recently enabled by none other than my Andpew, who so should have gotten into Stanford... they don't know what they're missing out on =(

Still holding out hope that we both get into Brown, Berkeley, or MIT/ Harvard.

Food for thought: http://www.ghchealth.com/forum/post-211.html

After reading White Noise... I'm not exactly surprised... but just one example of the growing problem of living in a for-profit world... why are we selling products to people that contain chemicals that are unsafe, and, as the author points out, have plenty of safer alternatives?

Ahh had such a lovely Valentine's Day weekend, it was a bit difficult to get back into the swing of MHC things. Here's the update:

Thursday: It was raining all day, as it was too warm for the snow that had been predicted. Around a quarter of 4, it started snowing. I wasn't exactly thrilled -- I was supposed to be heading out for Boston with K. (not a strange literary allusion to Kafka, btw). I left class on time (we were going over time but Prof. Shaw was kind about letting me go early), and rushed back to the Delles in the quickly falling snow. Really beautiful when it piles up at least an inch in half an hour, but, come on, bad timing! I was in such a hurry, and then I sat out in front of the Delles for nearly 20 minutes waiting. In that time I did see a fender bender, which was eventful (no one hurt, of course). I was so glad when K. arrived, I'd been worried she decided not to go due to the weather. I rode shotgun, dozed... the weather was weird all the way. The Mass Pike was fine, nothing sticking to THOSE roads (it'd been really slippery around MHC). We saw snow, sleet, and rain in Boston. Andrew had a "snow day" after the media hype about the storm (that never came, it might be noted. It's all a conspiracy).

Anyway, K. dropped me off at the Shaw's and I walked for what, one minute? to the apartment. Relaxed with Andrew and ate dinner... watched the OC... SO GOOD. Then we got ready to go to the Brothers Past concert. Ok, so I had all intentions of enjoying myself, but when I hit the cold sidewalks in the wet drippy weather... and there was a huge ass line... I had my doubts. Very vocal doubts. Luckily Andrew was patient (and had the foresight to quickly procure an alcoholic beverage for me once we were in). Once we met up with Jon & Jen and I realized that this was not the smoky, drug laden, beer soaked atmosphere of the Hartford Disco Biscuits show, I was happy. Definitely enjoyed myself! (Thanks Shmoopy!)

Friday: Andrew was off work early for his dental appointment, and I spent the whole day getting a rough draft of a chapter for my independent project. I went to the supermarket for dessert, and holed up in the bedroom, while Andrew cooked a romantic dinner. Definitely one of those "aww!" moments...He'd turned on the lowest light, lit candles, bought wine, and cooked my favorite, string beans (with steak & potatoes of course, but I was so impressed that he remembered my string bean thing...) Admittedly, Andrew does a lot (cough, most) of the cooking, but I was still completely impressed.

I think we caught up on Desperate Housewives afterwards, Andrew gave me the most amazingly packaged gift ever (wow the colors! lots of purple!), and we had dessert. Stayed up pretty late.

Saturday was a sleep in day & a shopping day. Andrew was on a mission to find a wok. We eventually found one at Bed Bath & Beyond, and I found some destressing gifts. Back home, Andrew made a pretty good imitation of my favorite dish at 9 Tastes: Mango fried rice. Again, very impressed with the culinary stylings! SNL wasn't good.

Sunday: Woke up kinda late again. Had many fraught discussions with Mer about her math class situation. Did my reading for the Stoppard class. In the afternoon we found a used copy of a play I needed to buy, and had a huge ass sundae at Herrell's (the Boston one). The guy working there was totally apathetic and unenthusiastic. He put on a little fudge sauce, and then methodically placed the equivalent of an entire hardened snickers bar on top of the ice cream. We had trouble finding the ice cream under the whipped cream and candy bar. Andrew had to put half of the candy bar into his mouth in order to break it apart into manageable sized pieces. Began laughing uncontrollably as he tried to chew it and discretely put it back into our shared bowl. Rather bird-like, really.

OK, so I admit, this has been a very food oriented post so far. The next section will be less so, I promise!

Monday: Arrived home via the bus. Large boy sat next to me. I always hate it when really tall/ big people sit next to me. They tend to overflow into my space. I don't like that. Anyway, luckily it was soon over and I slept most of the way. Back here I wheeled my little suitcase all the way across campus (the bus stop couldn't be further from the delles), went to lunch, class, etc. Did my reading for Tues. in the evening.

Tuesday: Early morning class (drat I left a worksheet at home). A quick visit to the CDC, then SAW tabling over lunch. I have concluded that the CDC needs to find a way to raise awareness about various fellowship & research/ intern opportunities. Maybe a newsletter with dates to be aware of, etc, instead of personal info. on the people who work there?

Anyway, the rest of the day was dedicated to rereading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man & writing a poem. Had a dinner meeting to discuss the future of the SAW table, too... Had a good talk with Anna about germs & being OCD & the viral perils of life at MHC.

Weds: Today's been rather crazy. All morning I finished A Portrait & planned for my MLA workshop tonight. Had lunch, went to the course I'm mentoring, read in the library, made copies for this evening, ran over to the arts committee meeting, ate dinner and planned further, led the MLA workshop, talked about Stephen's aesthetic theories in A Portrait with a student for an hour, returned to my room to find a message from a U Wisc. prof. I'd expressed interest in studying with on my voicemail, read for tomorrow, & now, I'm updating my blog! Thought I'd put that out there, mainly for the Andrew, who has trouble picturing me running about campus.

In further news, my eyes have been very tired looking lately and I seem to have little stamina. Karuna thinks it's all part of the cycle (she's probably right).

Oh, and Mum, thanks for the care package!!

So this week started off with a bang --

Monday morning I was checking my email to see what happened regarding my emails to grad schools with updates. As I was sitting there I received a second email from U Wisconsin, saying that, really this information wouldn't do me any good after all, as they'd already made a decision! They're offering three years of guaranteed support as I pursue a PhD (probably through a TA position), and looking for a fellowship for my MA year. Wow! I was speechless. Andrew wasn't online and it was too early to call Mum, so I had a little I'm-so-overwhelmed-I'm-crying moment, wandered around my room, and got used to the realization that, really, I do have options now!

All day this news sunk in, particularly at the Student Achievement Event... What does one do when one is on stage? I awkwardly twisted my hands and shifted my eyes from Jojo to the floor to the windows... The alumnae were awesome... articulate speakers and the sort of women one hopes to become after being at a place like MHC. The U-Wisconsin materials were waiting for me in my mailbox (along with a nice letter from Mum). Back in my room I checked my voicemail... I'm SO glad I finally set that up last week. It was a professor from Wash. U, saying that I'm in & that I should call her. Their support doesn't look quite so appealing -- 2500$ stipend (I imagine per year). With any luck, however, either the Olin or Chancellor fellowships will pull through for me there... this is all so overwhelming and surprising!

Today was much calmer, as I went through my daily routine... time seems to have gone so slowly between yesterday morning and tonight. Crazy.

Ahh so the weekend is over. Last week was wonderful & busy, with the search committee for the English dept (they're going to hire a modernist), classes, Verbosity valentines, and time with friends. Thursday night Kathleen & I watched Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, and I realized that I had totally forgotten the ending. Oops. Friday, my supposedly "free day," was spent at the SAW table in Blanchard, at a meeting with my independent advisor, at the English dept. lecture, and then at the Thirsty Mind with the candidate. Dinner at Wilder was good, and I caught up with Rabia on the English dept. & grad. school & life post-MHC till quite late! We had a funny moment when I realized that my contacts were starting to get all dry and icky, and Rabia immediately got her eye drops, sat me down, and somehow got them in my eyes in the middle of my blinks. Definitely must get those next time I'm at CVS! That would be a smart thing to carry in one's purse... During the Francis Bok lecture I def. would have used them.

Later in the evening I went by Sarah's room to see how The Prince & I was progressing. She & Karuna were pretty into it, but I kept getting sleepy. So I finally headed back to my room and slept a loooong time. Had lunch with Karuna, Kathleen, Laura, Claudia, & friends at Blanchard. The chicken sandwich really is about the only thing there that I feel semi-healthy eating, and actually fills me up. Strange. Anyway, in the afternoon we had a Delles reading of our Stoppard assignment: The Real Inspector Hound & After Magritte. SO much fun. We've definitely stumbled upon something. It's so much fun to do a reading with friends. I hope more people in our class start coming, and that we can keep up the energy. Of course, I suppose Stoppard would be fun regardless, but getting to laugh with everyone and be a little theatrical is cool.

Later I went to dinner with Karuna, and we had a long talk with Anna & Hannah. It was awesome... One of those "only at MHC" chats that went on for a couple of hours and involved realizing how intelligent and interesting people here are. After, Karuna & I headed to D Becky & Liz's birthday party. Yummy cupcakes, I kept eating M &M's and my candy necklace and reading conversation hearts for dirty innuendos to joke about with Kathleen & Becky. Of course, the best one was "LET'S READ." Nothing says I love you like a good book. We also played clue. Rachel was the murderer. But we forgave her. Karuna got it right on one of her first tries. SNL was pretty awful. Paris Hilton isn't even good at playing herself.

Sunday brunch continued the conversation from Prospect the night before. Our search committee meeting concluded in agreeing to disagree, and realizing that we're really glad we don't have the final say. In the afternoon I finally caught up on emailing grad schools with updates on my grades/ PBK. I feel kind of like the annoying student who's trying too hard and being a bother, but everyone kept saying I should get around to doing that. Ack. Also had a good chat with the Merrers, and a brief catch up with the 'Rew.

Karuna & I watched some more Desperate Housewives... I think the next episode I needed to see was on tonight as a repeat. Such a good show!! This too will be a new tradition!

Because everyone wants to join in on the fun:

SITA3783: Hi Becky!Finally reading your blog, long time. Funny you talking about Andrew editing, can I? Did you mean to say you had seen "Meet the Fockers" instead of "Meet the Parents"???

speaking of which, I bought "meet the parents" on ebay so Tim & I may actually sit down together tonight and watch that!!

Rain here finally and a bit of snow in hills predicted. Heard you can get into Lost Lake and Cloud Cap at moment.

Is Andrew there this weekend?

Do you want a cake or large cookie compliments of MHC

[Just for the record, Mum DID send all this in just one IM!]

Will update tomorrow on actual activities & such!

Some of you may have noticed that I sometimes "edit" my blog if I have a mistake. This is due partly to my own re-reading, but recently Andrew has taken to editing my blog (apparently editing my personal statement for grad school ten separate times just wasn't enough for him!) Of course, the irony in all this is that I was at my English language class when Andrew sent me these IMs. (But, as we talked about in said class, there are different discourse communities that we participate in, each with varying levels of formality... Obviously my blog is toward the "informal" side of that spectrum...) So if you were confused when reading my last post, no worries, I've made a few edits.

Andrew: honey! sudafed is used to make "speed", not "crack"!!! :-)
Auto response from Pink Poodledog: english language class, then back here...
Andrew: crack = bad street drug
Andrew: speed = conceptual artist drug of choice (according to sedaris)
Andrew: :-D
Andrew: also i think you wrote "i'm not sooo addicted to that show" instead of "i'm NOW soo..."
Andrew: sorry to have taken to editing your blog, but that sorta changes the meaning :-)

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.)