twenty-four!

Goooood birthday weekend.

Some highlights:
-ran 3 miles nonstop Thursday (most ever)
-birthday cupcakes from Tessa
-good birthday celebration after the hockey game (which was sold out so I didn't get to go... boo)
-went to the Dartmouth game on Saturday where we won 3-1 and both figuratively and literally beat the crap out of them

Visual highlights:
My birthday cake - self baked and decorated. I think it looks awesome, but I have to say someone else drew on the tongue and nose. I just had a plain smiley face.

Tessa!

Tim and I!

Amir attack!

Erik and I.

Rachel, looking adorable.

Ryan, classy as always.


Marshall's birthday present to me. If you can read the writing, it says, "Happy Birthday, Ass."

The downlow

Here's the downlow: School's started up and it took me forever to figure out my schedule.

I've started my new job as coffee hour coordinator, aka, make coffee for after YDS's daily chapel service.

Tomorrow is the first community dinner and I've been planning that for the past week or so and just decided today that we should have smores.

I haven't gotten my loan refund yet so either a) my lending bank is playing a horrible joke on me, b) YDS is playing a horrible joke on me, c) I'm missing paperwork and the internet isn't telling me, or d) my loan refund got sucked into a black hole created by the particle accelerator in Geneva.

Nonetheless, it means I can't buy the majority of my books or buy groceries or new bike tires or utilities or go visit Tessa this weekend. My mom fronted me some cash, so I was able to buy books for this upcoming week, but I already burned through half of that buying 4 books.

I have two morning classes, one that meets twice a week at 8:30 and one that meets twice a week at 9:00. I've decided to become a morning person, if only out of necessity.

Due to my new job as coffee mistress of YDS, but mostly because of my coffee addicted roommate Jake, I drink 3-4 cups of coffee each day. I had virtually no caffine at all this summer.

I like my roommates immensely and am super psyched to be living in such a great community with a cool history. On the downside, I have to talk about my feelings on a regular basis.

My advisor makes me all tense and jumbly on the insides whenever I meet with her.

I need to do laundry.

In addition to being a morning person, I still think I can be a night person. This is failing miserably, leading me to a loss of sleep, which is why I took a 3 hour nap yesterday and was still able to fall asleep at a regular hour.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Whose house? My house, say what say what!

You know how I said I wanted to get my paper done by Thursday, Wednesday if I was doing really well? Wouldn't you know, I finished my paper on Wednesday. I think this is one of the first times I've set a deadline for myself and actually met it. Maybe not. I was pretty good at meeting my deadlines for my honors project. Anyway, first time this year. I feel like I've been plagued with procrastination since I've been at YDS, and this semester I've done really well with finishing my papers on time, if not early. And with that... I'm done for the semester. Halfway done with my masters. Holy crap, my friends.

Tessa's coming up tomorrow to celebrate with me before I leave the Eastern Time Zone for the summer. I mass emailed a bunch of friends, so hopefully some of them will be able to go out drinking tomorrow night. Other people with extended deadlines are finishing up around now too, so people are more free to be out late.

I'm heading back to Green Bay in less than a week, on the 21st. Whoo! I have to pack my apartment and move before then, but it's doable. I'm still figuring out how to move my stuff, but some friends offered to help and to let me use their cars. I'm still trying to figure out the large furniture, but I think it's just the futon, desk and bed that's too big to fit in a car. Maybe this chair, too, but it's getting pretty beat up. I love it, but it kills the back sometimes. I've used it since my sophomore year and it's stayed in pretty good condition that whole time. When I moved from Minneapolis to Green Bay at the end of last summer, we didn't have an enclosed trailer so it got rained on, unfortunately. I think that's why the leather is ripping a lot more.

I didn't get that internship I applied for, unfortunately, which majorly blows. When they called me, I was working on my paper and it pretty much stagnated any work I was doing. I don't know if the thought of going through the whole job search process was demoralizing or what, but it just felt really shitty to have to start all over again. Anyway, I hadn't seriously considered it before then, but I decided to take language classes at the U for the summer. I mean, I'm going to have to take French classes eventually for my PhD so this just means I don't have to take any next year. It's going to cost less at the U than at Yale, so it does make sense to take it now. I sent Kari the relevant information and had her run over to the French department to get the necessary signatures, so I should be a-ok registration wise.

I'm going to get a part time job so there's some cash flow this summer, and since there's people living in the Catholic house over the summer plus the 8 tenets for the fall, the rent is ridiculously cheap - between $200 and $250. So it seems like everything is going to work out for the summer... it's just kind of ironic that I spent so much time on the internships, between applying and interviewing for a different department, waiting for them to make a decision, and then interviewing for another department and waiting for that decision... I mean, I sent in my application before I went to Ireland, back in February. And then after they shot me down, it was pretty much a couple of hours later I knew what I was going to do. My registration form was to the French department less than 24 hours after they called.

For any students having trouble selling back textbooks, I highly recommend Abebooks Buyback. They'll buyback your books and pay for shipping, too. They don't take all books, but I had really good luck with mine. I'm sending in two boxes worth of books and making $50 bucks off of it. Not too shabby, I have to say. Plus I'm sending them off in the weird shaped boxes that will be awkward for moving. Anyway, I'm making money and getting rid of some of my stuff. Win-win, in my opinion. If only they took DVDs... I want to sell the ones I don't watch anymore and cut down on my DVD collection.

I've really enjoyed posting at Female Impersonator, the feminist blog I mentioned awhile back. Anyway, if you want to read what I've been writing, here are some of the ones I've enjoyed writing/been proud of: Are Sex and the City incompatible? and How to save money by looking like Barbie. Some of the things I've written have been linked to by much bigger feminist blogs, so that's pretty exciting. My friend Lisa says it's like I have a cool feminist internet persona. I don't know if I'd call it that, but it is cool.

Anyway, huzzah to me for being done with school! Huzzah for Tessa! Huzzah for $50 just by pulling books off my shelves! Huzzah for summer classes! (I'm probably going to regret this one).

School's out for ... someone that's not me.

Well, finals week is over so that means that finals are over. Except for people like me, who have papers due much later than everyone else. A blessing and a curse, let me tell you. It's nice that I didn't have to rush to get my paper done this week, but at the same time, having a deadline so far in the future (May 24) makes it hard for me to actually be productive now. I need to be productive now, since I'm flying home in 10 days and I need to pack and move my apartment by then. When I look around my apartment, I'm like "yeah, I don't have that much stuff!" but then I remembered moving here and all of the things I've acquired since then (thank you, YDS bookstore).

As finals end and people are more free to have fun, I'm kind of sad that I won't be around for the summer. I like New Haven and I like all of the people I'm living with next year - plus the current roommates who will be in the catholic house for the summer. I spent this weekend pretending I was done with work, which was nice but now I have to start writing my paper. Friday was Community Dinner, which I'm actually going to be coordinating next year, so I went early and helped set up. It was a ton of fun, mostly because after the dinner, some people still around started dancing and we had an impromptu dance party. True, much of it was fueled by the keg and wine from dinner (not to mention the beer run before the liquor stores closed), but it was so much fun. There were maybe 15 or 20 people still left, and some more came when they heard the music from the common room. I felt like shit the next morning (and afternoon) - but let me tell you, div schoolers know how to dance.

Then yesterday I went out with some friends for Chinese food and then to the bar (a really loud screamo band was playing. yuck). They'll all be around for the summer, working or taking classes or some of my friends are going to Israel for awhile, but they'll all be here having fun. I suppose I'm going to have just as much fun in MSP, but it makes me sad nonetheless. But Andrew's not in New Haven, or Kari or Mom or Amy and Drew. Plus I promised Nat I'd come visit her in Nebraska over the summer and it's a lot shorter drive from MSP than New Haven.

I'm going to go eat some leftover Chinese now... Procrastinate a little more before I get my work done. I'm self-imposing a deadline of Thursday, hopefully Wednesday. Tessa is probably coming down on Friday, so I want to hang out with her and I want to start packing. Bacher out!

I am back! I'm back from my Jane Austen weekend with Tessa and I'd say we watched enough Jane Austen to last for a lifetime. Ok, not a lifetime but still.

We watched:
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Pride and Prejudice (the 2003 Mormon version! Awesome? yes.)
Pride and Prejudice (BBC version with Colin Firth)
Sense and Sensiblity (Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet)
Sense and Sensibility (the second half of the PBS Masterpiece version)
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey

When all added up, we watched 986 minutes or nearly 16.5 hours of Jane Austen movies.

And because we're awesome, we also found time this weekend to go out dancing! A car commerical played "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and I mentioned how much I love that song (and that it reminds me of watching Now and Then with my mom), and Tessa said there's a bar she really likes by the East Village that plays good dancing music (not a lot of the crap that's in clubs). This was, of course, after we drank 2 bottles of wine so any idea we came up with would have been a great idea. So we peeled off the sweatpants and went out! It was a lot of fun; we met up with Tessa's boyfriend Dan. The bar ended up playing more 80's than oldies, but we rocked out to Prince and even a little Jackson 5 - I do love ABC. Dan lived only two blocks away and all of his roommates were gone, so we crashed there. Perfect! The only downside was some handsy boys at the bar, but I made perfectly clear it was unwanted and would end up no where. Also, when I was standing in line for the bathroom talking to the guy ahead of me, he thought it was a good idea to lick my face. Also let him know that wasn't cool, because who wants their face licked in a bar by a stranger? No one!

My weekend of fun is now over so now I have to do lots of work.... boo.

February in pictures

Kari and I at the Spice Girls concert

Tessa and I!

My birthday cake and my candle!

I had to bake my own birthday cake... what is that about?

At least I have friends...

The view across my desk, out the living room window... I get a lot of work done obviously. A fine example of New Haven's exemplary plow job.

My birthday present from my grandma - new shoes! I got the exact same kind as a pair already owned. New shoes (left), 4 year old shoes (right).

My birthday present from Kari, an otter floating in the water.

Birthday update

Kari has come and gone, Tessa has come and gone; I think it's official to say that my birthday celebrations are over. It was a very excellent couple of days - although I don't think I've ever had a birthday I haven't liked (double negative alert!). Maybe it's just that I like my life most of the time so the only place to go is up.

Wednesday: Mom and I had birthday breakfast over Skype, which was nice. My grandpa used to take my mom out for breakfast on her birthday before school, and so my mom did the same thing with us when we grew up. I'm not sure when she started doing it, but it's lots of fun. She tells about when I was born, which pretty much consists of "my water broke and we barely made it to the hospital in time! I was admitted at 6:02 and you were born at 6:07" or something like that. I was a fast baby.

I did some stuff around school, picked up Kari at the airport and then drove to the arena for the Spice Girls. Had a nice Chipotle burrito (chicken fajita... I usually get steak but the guy gave me the wrong kind but I like chicken so it was ok) and almost immediately got really bad stomach pain, which lasted throughout the concert. Rocked out to the Spice Girls with Kari and the thousands of other late teen-early twenties girls who were 13 when the Spice Girls were popular. The concert started 30 minutes late (lame) and some of the girls who were sitting on the ground floor were nice enough to dance to the loudspeaker music for entertainment. It was super entertaining when they decided to do really explicit, vulgar dance moves so the whole back of the arena could watch. There's nothing better than watching two girls pretend to have sex for thousands of people... Ok, maybe there is. I'd say almost anything. Talk about the need to perform for people to gain a sense of self worth. It was so ridiculous to have these girls slap each other's asses for literally thousands of people, most of who cheered. I can't say I'm surprised, though, considering at one point during the concert Scary Spice locked up one of her backup dancers beneath a ladder and proceeded to give him a ladder dance, pushing her crotch in his face and ended it by pantomiming oral sex. Oh, the people we choose to emulate and make role models of...

After the concert Kari and I drove back to New Haven, my stomach still hurting through the whole concert and drive back. By the time we made it home, my abdomen had hurt for 6+ hours. I decided to go to the emergency room in case it was my appendix. I ended up sitting in the hospital for another 4 hours until 5 or 5:30 AM. It wasn't my appendix, but they think it was gall stones, which does fit with my family history. Apparently it comes on after you eat a fatty meal and can last for several hours. I got some medicine, so that's good in case it happens again. Kari had her laptop with her, so it was funny when the doctors gave their diagnosis because after they left the room, we immediately looked it up on wikipedia. I had to take it easy on food for the past couple of days, but it seems to be ok now. Kari and I can't go to concerts together anymore because I always get sick. I had mono when we saw Queen, I had gallstones when we saw the Spice Girls... I'd hate to see what I get if we go again.

Thursday: We slept in late from the long night before, went grocery shopping and to the liquor store for some wine and beer. I had an afternoon class, and Kari met me downtown after my class was done for a checkup with my doctor - he said everything's peachy. We had dinner at this good vegetarian restaurant downtown and then went home and watched The Prestige (awesome movie). Kari fell asleep so she missed most of it. She's lame that way, though.

Friday: I worked in the morning and had an afternoon meeting for V-Day and the Div school's production of A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer. It's going to be really cool. Kari and I had lunch with some friends, chilled out at my apartment and then met my friend Becca for dinner and a play at the Yale Rep. We saw The Evildoers, which was good but kinda weird at the end. Weird in a good way, I'd say. I feel like I'd have to watch it again to understand it fully, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Saturday: Low-key morning and afternoon, and then Tessa came into town around 5. She brought delicious cupcakes (not all gone yet - there are 3 1/2 of them I have to get rid of somehow...). We went over to my friend Ryan's house for a shared dinner of deliciousness - good chili! Sarah and Ryan/Duff (Ryan's friend) had a chili cookoff. I can't officially endorse one chili or the other, unfortunately. You have to let the people decide on that. Anyway, I made a cake and there were candles and singing and wine and beer... very good times. Lots of laughing, so I think that's a good sign. After the gathering with friends, Tessa, Kari, Marshall and I went to Archie Moore's, which is now my new favorite neighborhood bar. I might even have to move closer to officially declare it my neighborhood bar. Plus they have Smithwicks on tap, which makes me very excited. When we walked up, there was a Div school student standing outside and he said, "I know you, you're that sexy librarian." I thought it was cute. When he left, he kissed my hand, since I'm the birthday girl. The real question is going to be if he remembers it in the morning, since he was more than a little inebriated. Tessa, Kari, Marshall and I had a couple rounds and lots of fun. They're good people. I never know how people from different parts of my life are going to interact, but since I generally choose top notch, quality people as friends, it's no problem. I made some comment to Tessa that of all my friends here, I think Marshall would fit in best with my friends from home and she agreed. I think it's because he likes drinking a lot. We do too. In a good way. He remembered to bring back my Sports Night (I lent it to him literally months ago... September or October probably) and he lent me Six Feet Under, second season. I can pick up where I left off my freshman year of school, watching with Sarah and Jenna and Amy.

Sunday: Made some delicious cream cheese french toast for Kari and Tessa. It was quite excellent, I must say. They took the train back to NYC and Tessa helped Kari figure out how to get to JFK by train. Kari should get there fine, since she's quite the navigator. If not, she can come back and live with me. I'd be ok with that. This next week is a reading week, so I don't have any div school classes. I have two classes downtown that aren't off for reading week, but the professor for one of them is going out of the country this week - so canceled! I only have one class (and work - gross but good moneywise) so I'll be spending most of the week in my sweatpants watching West Wing and Six Feet Under. And, you know, doing homework and stuff. But mostly sweatpants and tv on dvd. Trust me on this one.

Now... Birthday pictures! The first three are from the concert and the last one is in the hospital waiting room. Lots of fun!

I make glass tubes

I have to write my exegesis paper before I leave for Thanksgiving. I really don't want to. If anyone has any brilliant insights into Mark 6:45-52, let me know. It's JC walking on water. But I have to do it before I leave town, so I'll be trying to think of something to say between now and then.

I went to New York this weekend to see Tessa and The Farnsworth Invention, Aaron Sorkin's new play. It was AWESOME. It was so good. I really, really, really liked it. And, in typical Sorkin style, there were some Sports Night repeat lines - the bit about Cliff Gardner from the second season, for certain. It was well-written, well-acted, plus Tessa got us great seats in the third row. It was excellent to see her again, as I hadn't seen her since August. I'm definitely making a return trip. Lots of fun.

Ok. I'm going to go procrastinate now.