some blue sweatpants and a blue swimsuit top

Let me tell you about the time I dressed as Princess Jasmine for Halloween, circa 1992...

something besides cooking

Well, the Bittman is good. I had it delivered to my work (so we wouldn't have to pick it up from the post office). It arrived on a busy day and I put it on the open desk space next to mine so I could have more room. Then, about an hour after I came home from work, I sat up and said, "I left the cookbook at work!" Yup, after all my excitement about the cookbook, I left work without the package. I hadn't even opened it and it slipped my mind.

Andrew and I went back to get it, of course, and he got to see our new office space. Before, the office was a windowless cave in a business park. Now, it's a big, bright suite in a building with other social services. The difference is between night and day. I was only in the old office for a few weeks, but it was completely depressing.

The other night we had Amy, Drew, Eric and Nelson over for dinner. Nelson's birthday happened to be a few days earlier so I baked him an apple tart to celebrate (definitely not because we had a lot of apples from going apple picking. Definitely not).

Nelson had also run his first marathon the day before so he totally deserved a birthday tart.

In two weekends, Andrew and I are going camping with a bunch of his family members. I'm pretty excited, if only because it's been ages since I've gone camping.

This is our new tent, a wedding present from his parents. They also found a good price on a sleeping bag and some camping chairs so that gets to come camping with us too! We're going to a state park north of Duluth, which will make it my first trip through Duluth. The leaves will probably be off the trees by then, but it might still be pretty.

I've decided what I want to be for Halloween:

I've always wanted to be Princess Leia but for the past few years my hair hasn't been long enough. Since I've been poor and haven't had a hair cut in months, I'll hold out for a few more weeks in the name of Halloween. I think we might be going to Green Bay for Halloween, if only because the trick-or-treating is better.

I hate the Yankees.

This one's for my mom:


Time to read, put away laundry and dishes, sweep... basically return the apartment to a state of cleanliness. Bacher out!

Let's discuss

The length of my hair - let's discuss. Grow it out or cut it short?

Cut it short:
I look good with short hair
It's easy to take care of
I only have to use shampoo in the shower
Will be nice to have in the upcoming summer
Quick to blow dry
Anything past my shoulders bugs the crap out of me

Grow it out:
I like putting it in two buns, ala Princess Leia
I could be Princess Leia for Halloween


I just really want to be like Princess Leia; I won't lie. I can fit my hair in two short pigtails/buns now, but I'm getting it cut before Nat's wedding. It's driving me crazy right now and the only thing going for the length is the Princess Leia-factor.

When I get to the bottom, I go back to the top of the slide

I know you were all anxious about my New Testament midterm, but I have to say that it went fine. There were a few I messed up on, but for the IDs (which is 50% of the exam) there were only one or two that I know I got wrong. So I'm pretty pleased with myself, especially since I'm not great at identifying passages from texts with the texts themselves. It usually has something to do with the fact that I'm not the most ambitious about reading everything assigned.

Next Tuesday I have a group presentation in my Political Economy of Misery class, which is shaping up nicely. It's on Texaco, by Patrick Chamoiseau. It's about the history of Martinique through the eyes of a shantytown founder. It's pretty interesting, but I only started reading it this past week or so I'm not finished yet. I can't bring myself to read a novel when I've got tons of other reading due sooner, but I figured I should at least start the text so I know what I'm presenting on. But after yesterday, I'm about halfway through it, so that's not bad. I was going to read a little bit every night before I went to bed, but it's hard to get into at first and sleepiness doesn't contribute to that very well. Besides, I like my pre-sleeping reading to be 100% for my own pleasure. Recently I've reread Reading Lolita in Tehran and Blue Like Jazz, and am now on to one of my favorite authors, Nick Hornby. He's so great, I love everything he writes. I bet I'd even enjoy his grocery lists. Right now I'm rereading A Long Way Down, his most recent book. It's about four strangers who meet on the top of a building on New Years Eve, all planning to kill themselves. It's v. good.

It's Halloween weekend, and tonight there's a party at the Div school. I love dressing up for Halloween, and right now I can't decide between three costumes. I could go as what I was last year - a member of the Rockford Peaches for A League of Their Own. Or I could dress up like I did this summer for costume day - Rosie the Riveter. Or I could go with a costume idea I've had around for awhile - Lovely Rita from the Beatles song. But the dress I bought for that is super itchy, so we'll see.

For years, my favorite Beatles album has been Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Before I left, Andrew ripped a lot of their other albums for me - so not just the bunch of random songs I had before. I have to say, the White Album is inching up to the top of the list. And Revolver and Rubber Soul are really good too. And Abbey Road! They're all so good. But I definitely woke up with Glass Onion from the White Album stuck in my head this morning. And Sexy Sadie is maybe my favorite song on the album, with I Will and Blackbird and Happiness is a Warm Gun and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and Helter Skelter... well, all of them. I also really like Love, but that doesn't count since it's not one of their original albums. But a lot of the songs are really good. And some of the songs from the Across the Universe soundtrack are pretty good. I just like all the Beatles songs.

Most Fridays I don't have class because instead of having three lectures a week, we have two lectures and one discussion section, so I didn't have class this morning. I haven't been outside yet, but I saw a group of people walk by in winter-like coats. I think I might have to bust out the peacoat today. I checked the temperature too, and it's low 50's. We'll see. Ok. I'm out.

Do you have a zombie defense plan?

One could say with some level of truth that I am indeed a grown up. I have my own apartment, I haven't lived with my parents for several years now, I shop responsibly at the grocery store*, hell I even have a savings account with more than $100 in it (barely). I don't know why I'm prompted to think of this, but it might be that for the first time in my life, I bought a sack of potatoes at the grocery store today. Not a bag, but a sack. Well, it was in a plastic bag, but I like saying "sack of potatoes" better than "bag of potatoes." Also, Friday night my lovely friend Rebecca had people over to her apartment for a dinner party. Her roommate Adrienne, a grad student in the sociology department (I'm not sure if she's Ph.D or just Masters), is a great cook and it was a really delicious meal. There was corn stuff and artichoke stuff and then banana frites for dessert. I can only remember the name of one dish that's not made out of a box at a time. I even dressed up - well, I changed out of my somewhat holey long sleeve t-shirt and put on something with a little more class. There were some Div students there, some sociology students, some School of Management students, some chemistry Ph.D students, ect. A good time. Of course, with such an opportunity for interdisciplinary mingling, I talked to pretty much only Div students. Ok, I talked a bit to some of the other people, but next time I'll do it some more.

Monday is my first midterm exam at grad school. Well, I had a somewhat midterm in my Iconography class, but it consisted of 10 true or false questions and 10 fill in the blank questions, so it wasn't a comprehensive, exhaustive exam or anything. My test is in New Testament, so along with the final and the exegesis paper, it's one of the main sources of points for the class. I wonder if you get points for good spelling. Anyway, I shouldn't be procrastinating as much as I am, but I'm thinking I'll be sleeping with my study guide under my pillow tonight. Education by osmosis.

Last night I went out with my friend Marshall and two of his friends from Chicago. It was really fun, I hadn't been out to the bar in awhile (not since Erich's wedding... so not that long really. A while since I'd been out in New Haven). People are already starting to get dressed up for Halloween, so we saw a Jack Sparrow out, and some other costumes. While Marshall and I were walking from the bar in search of a taxi, we passed these people dressed like zombies who were staggering along the sidewalk (I'm guessing from the alcohol and not from rigor mortis, since one of them looked like she was going to vomit on the Yale Art Gallery) and one of them decides to be weird and pretend to be a zombie. I'm sorry, but fake zombies are no issue. I don't care if you're drunk and want to weird people out, it's not going to work for me.

Real zombies, on the other hand, are a big issue and everyone needs to have a zombie survival plan. You need to think about your home, your work, the places you go and what to do in case of a zombie attack. Do you have big windows? How many entrances/exits in your residence or place of work? Do you have access to weapons? Have you considered different plans if the zombies are the slow, staggering Night of the Living Dead zombies or the fast, running, freak-your-shit-out zombies of 28 Days Later**? My old apartment was great in case of a zombie attack. Lock the door on Snelling (no windows to break through), lock the big metal down on Englewood and it's virtually impossible to get up to the apartment level. Plus, we could go across the rooftops of all the businesses on Snelling - all very useful businesses in case of zombie attack - a hardware store, a restaurant, all with very little street access. I should have lived there forever. But seriously. You need to prepare yourself, or at least have an idea of a plan. Consider yourself warned. It's like a public service announcement.

Next week is the Div School Saints and Sinners party. Apparently everyone comes dressed up as something saintly or sinnerly, and it's a good time. You can go literal (slutty anything) or metaphorically (someone wore a sign "Babylonian Isle" and put egg cartons all over them - so Babylonian Exile/Eggs-Isle). Erich and I were brainstorming ideas for both of us - something slightly offensive but still funny. He likes being someone "above reproach," so we were coming up with ideas like assassinated John Lennon or JKF. Katie and I are going as the same thing, but we're in different time zones so it's ok. I'm going as Joan of Arc, but post-bonfire. I think it'll be good, especially for the party.

Along with my quest to be more politically vocal, I'm also working on being more environmentally friendly. I don't know what it is, but here I'm more concerned with my "environmental footprint" than I ever was at Hamline. I think it might be at Hamline there really wasn't a lot of action - just a lot of talk, while here at least small things are offered, like using your own mug at the coffee shop or a place where you can keep dishes in the Refectory so if you want to reuse a plate, you can. Anyway, I've been thinking for awhile that I've wanted to buy reusable sacks for my groceries. I bought some at the store yesterday and I'm excited to go grocery shopping next so I can use them! It was kind of funny/irritating since I bought my sacks and started filling them up with my groceries, and the young gentleman who was checking my groceries finished scanning and started helping me pack by putting some of my groceries in plastic bags. I mean, I just bought reusable grocery bags and you're putting my groceries in plastic bags. Did he miss the point? Or thought I was running out of room in the bags? I don't know. Anyway. Now I have two Stop and Shop reusable bags. They have their logo on the side, so that's annoying, but whatever.

My birthday is a long ways off still, in February, but I know what I'm doing. Kari and I are hanging out! We are hanging out ... and going to see a Spice Girls concert. The things I will do for her, seriously. I can't believe it. A fucking Spice Girls concert. She had better get me an awesome birthday present (not from the concert, thank you). But at least I get to have birthday breakfast with her! Hopefully, anyway.

I think I've procrastinated here enough, and I can move on to my next procrastinating tool -washing dishes. Then, seriously, I am going to study. I think I'm going to go outside since it's a beautiful day. When I was walking down to the little market down the street (procrastination 1 of the day), my skin soaked up the sunlight like a sponge. I miss spending lots of time outside every day like I did during the summer. I am going to sit in the sun and get some Vitamin D, since my cave of an apartment barely lets any light in, and no directly sunlight (damn northern exposure!). It will be wonderful and I will absorb the sun and the New Testament at the same time.




* This means I don't buy exclusively Pringles and Pop Tarts. Sometimes, when I feel super grown-up, I get Pringles, Pop Tarts and Eggo Waffles. Ok, just kidding. Maybe.
**I know they aren't zombies in 28 Days Later, but the Infected. So technically they're still alive and don't need to be killed only by destroying the brain, but they're still zombie-enough where there's no coming back from being infected and the only thing you want to do is eat human flesh.