laurenisms

(I think if I’m really going to blog more, I’m going to have to get over using song quotes for everything; it gets hard to think of things.)

watching: Season 3 of Deadwood, FINALLY
reading: homework for class; Visual Design for the Modern Web; The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language
eating: vat of lentils from last week; queued up is chorizo-and-potato stew
knitting: a sock that I abandoned two years ago; a sock-yarn hat for Garth (slow going)
buying: a bajillion things at Ikea yesterday, most of which are already unpacked and assembled, yay!
anticipating: a package of goodies from Lehman’s; a package of work-related books from Amazon; G’s first Bacon-of-the-month delivery next week; baby chicks in 4-6 weeks!

Oh good, it’s still here!
Several smallish stories piled up over the last … month.
***
Mentally composed on Monday, September 19: I am cranky because last night I organized my life: figured out hours at my new job (which is the same as my old job), blocked out homework time during every day so I can try to keep it out of my free weekend time, made sure to schedule gym time three days a week. I was excited and energetic about my goals and I was going to DO IT, dammit, and today I woke up sick. Now no gym until I can breathe again; no work until I can move without feeling like my head is going to fall off. I get sick so rarely; did it have to interfere with my beginning-of-the-term optimism about getting things done? Now I may never recover.
***
Mentally composed at some point within the last couple of weeks: Yes, it’s definitely fall now and this means it’s time to reread Jane Eyre* and Ahab’s Wife. For some reason — perhaps the fact that they are full of wind and water and darkness — they remind me of fall and fall reminds me of them.
***
Mentally composed at some point within the last several weeks: Seven thousand fifty-eight flying and driving miles, four states, and ten-ish months later, the fourth and final stage of the extensive project that is meeting all the various combinations of divorced and remarried parents is over. We learned that the interaction between my mother and me at Thanksgiving is not a good first introduction to my mother; that Hawai’i is too hot, even in December, that I have become a (or discovered my hidden inner) dog person, and that three days in different states is bizarrely traumatic; that Wisconsin weather is hard on poor Northwesterners, but that Madison would be lovely if it weren’t so sillily flat and if it would just cool down at night (although then there would be no thunderstorms); and that my Reno family is almost too large to be tolerated, but that drinks in Reno are very cheap. It was a fun and adventurous project, the meeting of the parents, but I am happy never have to do it again.
***
Composed today: I did recover from the cold, physically and in terms of optimism as well. I started going to the gym again last week, finally, and though I couldn’t make it last Friday, I went today, and it’s already getting easier. School is well underway and I am actually getting stuff done. I am almost done with my portfolio; pending a few changes, my advisor will pass it and it will be on the randomly-chosen secondary reader. I got to see my sister last weekend, and we drove to Astoria to take her to her orthodontist appointment. That meant we also got to go to the beach and Shannon’s favorite restaurant and a wonderful fishmonger. I saw Serenity again and everyone else should go see it, too, even though J.W. ruined all my hopes and dreams. Today I applied for a really exciting job that I’m actually qualified for, even though I’d have to be in school full-time and working full-time through December. It might be the perfect job, though, so I am willing to sacrifice those six weeks to misery. In about a year an honest woman will be made out of me. I plan to wear a red dress. So maybe not that honest.

(song: “Question,” Old 97s)
* I love Project Gutenberg. Everyone should use it all the time.

I don’t know why it always surprises me that I am most likely to run into folks I know when I’m at the library on campus …
I’ve been sad because of a lack of being on campus and randomly running into people — it’s weird that I got so used to being able to do that, when I couldn’t, here, for at least a year. But today I was in the library to pay my $19 fine (I am a bad person) when I encountered my two favorite Writing Center customers from last year, Adam and Reese. Reese had to run off but I was especially pleased to see Adam, because I learned that he is to be in my Class of Deathly Boredom, aka Management for Information Organizations. I like Adam so am glad we get a class together, but was extra special happy because that means he can take notes for me on the first day.
I have to miss the first day because I am too dumb to double-check my calendar and figure out when class starts before I buy non-refundable tickets to Madison. (Yay, a sixth state to check off! I am a wimpy US traveler.) The first half of the summer term, in which I had one class, ends this Wednesday, and for some reason I thought the second half, in which I have a different class, would start next Monday, but no, it starts on Thursday. And I am leaving for Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon. This is dumb. I am dumb.
But Adam will be there to take notes for me!

This weekend was surprisingly eventful!

Mom’s marriage:
L: “Do you two want to get married?” (It’s the only thing that Washington requires in the ceremony.)
Them: “Yep!”
L: “Yay! Then you’re married!”

Harry Potter:
Finished Saturday night. Interesting. Not sure what I think, actually.

Homemakerdom:
Pulled lots and lots of weeds; did the dishes and cleaned the counter in preparation for a mini party on Sunday night.

Mini party:
Gins&tonic, bourbon, Oban (grâce à Chelle, thanks!!!); delicious guacamole (made-up recipe to be posted on Kitchenisms when I get it transferred); Simpsons, Firefly. Chelle and Tom and John & Laura. Good group!

This week: write a paper; laundry; pack; cash checks; figure out how I can get out of going to the first day of class.

(song: “The New Face of Zero and One,” the New Pornographers. A trail of sisters through New York.)

i wanted to post on thursday but i didn’t have time, and now i’ve forgotten all the things i wanted to say about what a lovely day it was, and how everything was happy.

i am, of late, obsessed with gardening. i had a really fun class at the experimental college today about kitchen herb gardens - how to grow herbs for cooking, how to cook with fresh herbs, etc. it was very educational!
(i am also really enjoying belly dancing, which is also through the experimental college. i wish they would offer the cooking one i missed last term. but i really enjoy the experimental college in general and i think everyone should take classes from them!)
so i am going to have a container herb garden, with some, like maybe the basil, in the ground. and i am going to have a real vegetable garden with tomatoes and zucchini and cucumbers and salad and lots of things. but i have given it its own blog too - i am many-blogged! - which i will link to later when i am done messing with it.

this evening i finally watched rushmore all the way through from the beginning. i liked it.

(song: “oh yoko!,” john lennon)

i’m such a wimp.
last night we watched totoro and it was super cute. i supsect that for other people it’s about monsters or spirits or whatever the hell totoro is, but for me it’s about sisters. especially the part where the little one gets lost and the big one is so worried. it made me worried too.
but then the catbus comes and says “next stop, little sister!” and takes the big one to the little one and everyone is ok.
if i had a catbus i would visit my sister all the time.

(song: “flinty kind of woman,” dar williams. radio KoL is good to me - it introduces me to dar williams songs about a posse of pissed-off mamas chopping up some guy who touched their kids. yay!)

last night we went to see garden state at the bijou. i quite liked it, and not just because of adorable zach braff. it’s just a movie about some people who do some stuff. they drink and they ride around on a motorcycle with a sidecar and they talk a lot. and they don’t know why they do what they do and why they aren’t happy. it made me feel weird. i can’t quite articulate it any better than that right now. but it was a good movie.
i had my exit interview for fieldwork today. it was pretty pointless. we talked about my fieldwork, and then she said i get my three credits, and i said ok, and that was the end of that.
my schedule until leaving is disturbingly full:
tomorrow knit at roma and then at rennie’s.
friday-sunday in seattle
monday pick up u-haul
tuesday leave.

(song: “only living boy in new york,” simon & garfunkel)

i don’t remember now why i started to post. safeway’s $3 wine isn’t nearly as good as my beloved two buck chuck. roommate bryon and i are ostensibly doing homework but really watching the season finale (i think) of joe schmo, which is funny but ethically questionable.
i made fabulous three- (actually four-) bean salad this evening from a slightly modified recipe from robin, including kidney, garbanzo, white, and yummy fresh green beans. the dressing was the best part though - homemade white wine vinaigrette with lots of fresh garlic, yum. i really should modify knitblog to be knit- and craft- and cook-blog.

(song: “don’t let’s start,” they might be giants)