Iowa, oh, Iowa

Well, I have been back in Iowa now for a few days. I realize even though B-town isn't that much further "south" it had been alot warmer...at least 15degrees, which was MUCH warmer compared to the 15-20 degree range in IA right now. I have complained about this to the Iowa friends, and they all agree, it's freakin cold here, and we all want to boycott cold weather! However, it has not snowed yet, so I guess that's a plus.
Most of my friends here are still in the midst of their finals week, I feel sorta bad to steal them away from their studies to hang out with me, and I serve as this great distraction. At least most of them welcome a break from the insanity that is studying for finals - ah I remember it soo well - thank goodness none for me this time around - next sem will probably kick my ass enough to make up for it though.
I have already been in touch with a few of the Indiana friends, and will hopefully get out some christmas cards before the end of the week. I have extreme empathy for one in particular as she's just gotten some really frustrating news related to a class. I wish I could help her out more, but hopefully something good will come out of it. She is very bright, a sweetheart, and a super gal, so it always sucks when disappointing things like this happy to the people who least deserve it. Karma be damned on that!
I drove back on Sat morn, after having stayed up way too late friday night, but for a good reason, Tanya and I went to tutto benne, which was lots of fun, I had grilled artichokes, yummy, and some wine. Then we went out and played pool and Art joined us. I turned down a shot from a guy that offered, and told him to give it to the graduating girl instead. It was pretty funny. After a few rounds of pool we just sat and discussed alot of different things, which was lots of fun for me, because I got to know Art a lill better, and Tanya was able to get sufficently wasted as planned. We went back to Art's place for awhile for afterhours which was also fun. Then I got three hrs of sleep and packed, and drove back to IA. I was glad Trac and I got Starbucks b.f I went for dinner, otherwise I probably wouldn't have been able to hang out so late, or stay awake on the drive home either.
I did fall asleep pretty quickly after getting back into town here. ate dinner w. the folks, watched a movie and then slept...missing a few invites to hangout. Last night we went out to the bars for awhile, I drove so didn't drink, but I had fun hanging out with the friends there...though I would have liked to have danced more, because I didn't work out yesterday at all. I have been trying to be better about doing at least 30 minutes a day in the hopes to get more muscle tone, which means I"ve also been lifting, and hah, a lill sore from that! If you haven't seen the movie SAVED, I highly recommend, as long as you can take a good look at the crazy religious zealouts out there, and take it all with a grain of salt, as they say, especially good if you are like me, and enjoy the sort of sadistic dark humor comedies. okies, well I will end this now, because I am off to join pete at house of aromas for a cheesecake latte and some catching up! hope you've all been able to stay somewhat WARM out there!

wrapping up

Well the semester will be over for me officially tomorrow, after I get my 401 homework turned in. Tanya and I will go to a more upscale place for dinner and out for some billiards. I'm joining Traci for our last Starbucks visit before break - sadness...I'll talk to her over the vacation I imagine though. I meet with the art librarian, B.J. Irvine tomorrow to hopefully beg and plead to be in her class next semester since my sched. got messed up. Profs should not be allowed to change the time of their classes this late in the game, it's been almost a month since we first registered for them...but hopefully all will work out okay. I've started my website project that will occupy some time over break. hooray. Today I went to INdy to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, there is alot of construction, but i did get to see the european paintings galleries, and the african galleries. it was a fun lill sojourn, though I was most proud because I did not get terribly lost, even though Mapquest didn't give me fully great directions. I-65, 465, and 74 are the same thing for PART of the trip, but not ALL of the trip...since 465 just circles in a "loop" i was okay just getting back on it to find my exit, however the Highway 37 to I-65 was NOT marked properly. Oh well, it was an adventure. I have wondered if anyone's ever written a scholarly text tracing the comparrison between stools and thrones of the kings in Africa to neckrests that they also make there...I thought they looked kinda similar, and I hadn't seen neckrests before this trip to Indy. The collection was pretty decent, though I was disappointed not to see more of it because of the construction, guess I"ll just have to go back in September (it'll be closed Jan-April) and I won't be in B-town over the summer...it was a good way to spend a few hours though, soaking up some artistic culture and remembering why I'm in this career path....I miss studying slides for tests though - how odd...guess i truly am an academic dork. Good luck to all on getting final papers/projects and such done! I'll be thinking bout ya! I feel like a wine dealer too, cause Oliver Winery will get good business from me on Sat...it's a lovely gift for those of age :)
night folks!

Happy Halloween

Hey Everyone,
Happy Halloween! I hope you all had/have great days/evenings tonight and last night. For my part, everything was tons of fun. We went over to Traci's and carved pumpkins, then went out for Thai food at Esan Thai, SOOO good. yummy. Traci's friend Greg joined us as well, so the five of us went to dinner and then came back to the dorms to have some fun. We changed into costume (those of us who had them) and socialized, till going downtown. Traci and Greg headed home, cause Trac had been up until 5 am working on her paper, so I totally didn't blame her for going home. Greg seemed like a very nice guy too. Tom, Tanya and I hit the bar scene, for some dancing and fun. It was a great evening overall. Came back home around 2 am, and watched episodes of Family Guy on DVD and ate pad thai leftovers until we all pretty much crashed. Tons of fun. Happy 21st Birthday to Heathersissy as well! yay!

Listening to: Ben Harper - Strawberry Fields (Beatles Cover), Hepburn - I Quit, Hoobostank - Running Away,

No idea what to write about today. Guess the muse has amusingly decided to vacate my head. Yesterday was a pretty chill and rainy day, we spent it at the library doing homework. I came back here, watched part of a musical, then helped Christa find her Halloween costume (quite fun) But, alas, a normal ordinary type of day. Actually I appreciate the normal ordinary days too, because, it makes me realize how special a day of just chilling and relaxing can be. This morning was great. Tanya had the idea that we should try the Runcible Spoon, because she'd never been, and I'm a newbie to IU anyway, so it presents a good excuse to get good food at some local places and soak up some local atmosphere. It's a fun little place. A converted house, was very crowded, populated with interesting folks to people watch. It's also full of fun bookshelves with many mismatched volumes of various old binding varieties. Including "Peter the Great" next to a book on gardening. Such fun. A real treat for the visualist like me. We had to wait almost 45 minutes for our food, but I did get to catch up with Tanya. I haven't seen much of her this past week because of her midterms, and she's also been feeling under the weather lately. The food was great. I've been craving some good french toast for some time now, since I live off of cereal almost everyday for breakfast, it was well deserved and needed! It was the perfect way to start the day. I think Tanya and I will venture to a place on Thursday night to try our hand (or rather lend our voices) at karoake. What fun that will be! ;) And perhaps will go see BatBoy the musical on Friday night, and then Sat, we'll carve pumpkins and get out the costumes and attend a party ;) SO, I just have to keep my head in the game for the rest of this week and get all of my school stuff done...

Dancin in the House

Doing: typing at the keyboard, lit by the monitor, in an otherwise dark room.
I like when I can make people's days or evenings better by showing up and saying hello. I hope I was able to do that for Dick. He totally sounded like he needed a hug. Poor guy. His computer crashed, and snowball effect after that. So I went down to give him a hug and say hello. Then I subjected my costume to his approval, and he got the idea right away. He also plays the guitar and noticed I'd brought mine back from IC, (I didn't get to play it enough this summer, after the initial purchase, I learned 5 chords, and then realized I had three jobs, a precarious social life involving lots of long evenings spent catching up with folks, or dding for the bar, three really good novels to read, and the general helping around the house, the poor guitar did not get much use) So I like that the boys who know how to play can give the strings a work out every now and again when they wanna.
Tanya and I hit the bars tonight, totally rawking out. It was an awesome time. The DJ spinning at Bullwinkle's did a great job. I probably shouldn't have worn the new shoes, though they look totally hot, because by the time we come back here to the dorm (like 3:15 am) my feet are wrecked. I had a blast though. It was great fun. Tanya and I just cut loose and danced the night away. And at various points through out the evening many of the guys came up to tell us how hot we were and how we were working it on the dance floor and such, straight and gay boys. We met this hilarious gay boy named Mathew who had nothing but gushing compliments for us..and other guys were inviting us to parties because we "dance so great and are so fly", funny stuff. I think I danced pretty much the whole time too. Was remembering all those nights spent at the raves....all the times I danced from 11pm to 6 am and walked outside to the sun being up. (that was partly due to the dj's best friend, who was dancing the night away also, though for him, he had a lill help from an "e" friend hah) How many times I was so satisfied just grooving to the beats of a good house mix. Talking to all these random people, brought together by the music. Some of them high, some of them rolling, some of them just crazy weird and dressed up in funky costumes, candy flashing, glowsticks whirling, lights strobing to the beats. Some of them with car washing mits, which surprisingly felt SOOO good. I miss the all out endurance test of dancing all night to jungle and techno. I miss closing my eyes and just letting the music move through me and getting that sense of euphoric, nobody else cares how I dance, so long as I"m out there dancing and enjoying the music. That was nice. Few times when I dance am I ever self conscious. I love the fact that I don't mind getting up in a bar full of people, and being one of two on the dance floor - and ya, call me crazy but I do this sober! I was sober the ENTIRE time tonight, and it was fabulous...we were the first two on the dance floor, but by 12:30 the place was bumping and packed, but in a good packed way, where you could still move your body and not hit other people. So I'll just say how much I love to dance and free my body to the music and good night, because my feet want to rest!

Halloween Happenings

Shopping today. Played with a cute puppy at the petstore, and named him "Tuggers", which the woman at the petstore decided to call him since he didn't have a name yet. Funny. Screamed in the Spencers for ten seconds. That was pretty fun. I haven't had a good scream in awhile. :) Tanya got her devil ears to match the red dress, so she will be going as the "devil in the red dress" - instead of the "blue" dress. I got my costume to. Considering I'd started out with the whole "Rainbow Brite" idea, and found that I would have to MAKE that costume, and I don't really know how to sew beyond buttons and hems, that idea was out. Then, I was totally about going as the Bride from Kill Bill, not in the yellow jumpsuit - though it was comforting to know at least the manufacturers thought girls my size could pull it off. It wasn't original enough...so I figured I'd go as the pregnant Bride from the Two Pines Massacure...alas, no maternity bride dresses to be found at Goodwill in IC or places I'd looked around Bloomington. I still don't even know WHAT we are doing for halloween here, besides a few of us dressing up at SOME point, and hopefully carving pumpkins. So yay for carving pumpkins and dressing up!
Even if I have nowhere to GO to wear the costume, I'll still wear it to celebrate the Halloween spirit. It will not be something to wear to class though. Actually, what am I saying, it is TOTALLY something to wear to class, haha, as long as the people in my program didn't get totally offended by the mocking nature of my gist. It's totally the stereotypical librarian garb. It was a thrown together idea, mostly because I didn't really have to purchase much else to go along w. the parts of the costume I already owned. So yay for Halloween and Librarians!
Different than last year's "Gothic Angel" where I actually purchased the black gloves, and the make-up (I did already have the skirt from the previous year's outfit as the black cat - Meow!) And the leather tube top was from the year before that, when I went as the not so high priced call girl, hehe. Now THAT was a fun night. Halloween three years ago. Firstly, I dyed my hair red, secondly, I got dressed in my hooker gear. Thirdly, I strapped on the bookbag and went to take a 7pm journalism test. Oh yea, that was fun. It's really hard to take a professor seriously, as he passes out papers and he's wearing a red clown nose. I don't care what his official title of PHD means, that's just funny.
The BEST part about that night though, and I love ya Mees, but this totally takes the cake. Before leaving for that test, we agreed to meet at the chemistry building (where my test happened to be, since it was the biggest lecture hall on campus). Ihelped to improvse her costume though, because I didn't wanna be the only one of us strutting around as the call girl that night, so I roped her into it. Well, I will NEVER forget the fun I had that night when I got to pop her boobs. Yup. My improvisation was a hit. I never figured bubble wrap was much good for anything, beyond wrapping up your breakables and the occasional Mexican Hat Dance across the floor with sound effects. But actually, it worked quite a bit better than kleenex. I have to say, had I had balloons on hand, I would have prefered to fill a few with water and use those (for the consistancy factor if nothing else). Yay for Halloween and fake boobs!
Oh, of course there were other moments of fun, and some GREAT costumes out that night. Becks went as your standard kitty, Salena, the standard bunny, so we were all in great spirits. The best outfit had to be the guy who came dressed as the "One Night Stand" now THAT was hilarious. He literally had fashioned a night stand table to slip over his body, complete with a lamp, alarm clock and a drawer. I'm not sure WHAT exactly was inside the drawer, but it was rumored to be functional and contain a box of condoms. I hope he won one of the contest prizes that night. Props also go out to Tom for his costume last year, which I found very clever, especially for the "play on words". He went as an "Orgasm Donor" instead of an "Organ Donor". Nice work.
Should I have been celebrating Halloween in Iowa City this year, there was talk of going as "Troop 69" in which all of the girls would be dressed as girlscounts, and of course, one of the guys would dress up as our "den mother" - my contribution to the idea -- the belief that our merit badges should reflect our traditional girlscount talents -- sexual positions. So Yay for Halloween and the Troop 69 Girlscouts!
I think Christa will do Mary Poppins, her costume was at home in Michigan, where she is this weekend, and perhaps I can convince Traci into dressing up with the other gals for the festivities ;) (especially if she reads this haha) Even if all we do on actual Halloween night is sit around and play poker or watch movies, I don't care, so long as people are happy to be involved and enjoy themselves. Yay for enjoying ourselves!