The recap catchup

Well, I am back in the swing of things here in indiana. Enjoying the nice 62 degree weather today, though it was rainy, at least it wasn't icy, like back in IC. I hope you've all stayed indoors or gotten home safely over there! The two classes I've had so far will be good I think, both with professors I had last semester, yay for them! I'm more nervous for the seminar in art librarianship which will be on Thursday - because I haven't taken the prereq and it's a class of only 9 people. I already have reading assignments and *gasp* had PRE-reading assignments too...publishing syllabi on the web has it's advantages for the profs, and disadvantages for the students I guess. It's hard to push my brain back into school mode though. I did get over to the SRSC today to work out a bit, which will be a good habit to get into. I'll recap the last few days in IC and here, in order to catch folks up, and close this quickly, because I've got massive reading to do for Thursday...
I spent Thurs night by hanging out a bit w. Jon, who CRUSHED me at NCAA Football on xbox. I thought it rather comical - for someone that usually learns what the buttons do by creating random schemes of pushing all at once or all in a row - that he handed me the MANUAL, I was thinking to myself, what kind of messed up game is this, and I quickly learned that I would do well to memorize that manual. So ya, I'll learn what all those buttons do, and then, Jon, you better look out, cause it'll be GO TIME! After some xbox adventures, we went and picked up Ashley, Kath, and Chai and went to the women's bball game. I LOVE watching basketball - I have a lead on Yogi's as the place to watch the Hawk Men this weekend (bummer that they are 0-2 in the big ten now). After the game, we went back to Jon's, where Chai and I played some Burnout Three, - my FAV xbox game (out of the 4 I've played). Then we headed to pick up folks and go to MugClub. It was quite fun for the most part. I think the people i was with know like every single person that lives in the town of iowa city, cause they were all running into people they knew. Besides my friends, I only ran into one other person that I know myself. It was good times though. Then i went home and crashed! I met with Rijn at 10 am to discuss the internship this summer - I'm hoping to keep myself super busy with working ALOT so as to make ALOT of money - which means, after internship meeting I went out to ACT to interview. I must fill out many other appl. as well, when I"m back in IC - if anybody knows someone looking for summer help...please pass along my name ;) ...Then I joined Misa and Ax for lunch at the hospital, which was fun, and i headed over to Hardin and visited with Hope (my old boss) She's so cool. Couldn't talk for long though - cause i met pete at house of aromas for coffee (or in my case, Orange tea) that was a great convo :) I was happy he wanted to go. I also met Jaime for dinner at the mall, and that was fun to. wedding plans seem to be coming along nicely. After that, Misa and I headed up to CR for the girls night! Sorry to my boys out there, I love you guys, - but sometimes, the gals just need a night to have some fun with their own kind :)....we had a total blast! It was a group of about 10 of us, including some of hte Mt. Mercy girls that i haven't seen in Ages! We went to a new place called "element".
My one funny story from the night, just proves that I will always remain the oblivious "blond". When Misa and I walked in, I was wearing a zip-up sweatshirt over my "goingout" tank top. For thoseo f you that don't know I have a set of "goingout" tanks, which, to various degrees are mostly designated as such because I can get them smoky and wash them easily. Well, as I paid to get in, the bouncer told me to unzip my sweatshirt top, - no worries, I thought, this is probably just to check for concealed weapons or something. Well, after, rezipping my sweatshirt back up, the bouncer informs me that I will need to check my sweatshirt. I was thinking, "huh? what? that makes no sense" and I think he saw the look on my face conveying my thoughts. He responded by saying the coat check was free. I nodded, paid and walked in. It was FREEZING in the bar, so there was NO WAY I was going to check my shirt! I asked Misa, who was wearing a zip-up fleace over her tanktop "Did he tell you to check that?" and she gave me this weird look. "No, why?" "Because he told me to check mine. Which is soo stupid, it's way to cold in here. jeesh" and misa gave me another look, that clearly conveyed I'd been the "oblivious blond" as usual...the bouncer was totally interested in seeing me wearing my tanktop all night, instead of my zip-up sweatshirt. In other words, he'd been trying to hit on me. *shakes head* In the end, it's more annoying than endearing for bouncers to hit on you when you walk into a bar, but, in my case, I guess I won't notice anyway.
The rest of the night went really well, lots of fun dancing, and the drive home was nice, because misa and I got to catch up. I left IC early on Sat morning, and drove back to B-town, which just a lill bit of snow and icky weather right outside Indianapolis, so no big. Settled back in, and did dinner and a movie with Traci...yay! She's such a good cook, and a regular martha stewart without the jail time. :) We watched Eternal Sunshine. Sunday I lounged around and got my textbooks and finished unloading. So that's it...it's back to the exciting life of a grad student. - I am looking forward to starting work on Friday though. Art Libraries RAWK!
hope you are all well!

Loyalties and Parties

All day today my away message varied from "I hate snow" "I despise snow" "Snow sucks" and "When I'm grown up, I want to live somewhere warm" mostly this is due to my cabin fever of sorts, because I was stuck inside the house for the ENTIRE day. Blah. There was this huge storm that's moved through Iowa (will not be done until tomorrow afternoon) and it started with sleet and ice, and now is snowing. So the grounds are not only icy, but snowy to. Just the kind of weather I really LOVE being around. *ahem* cough, sarcasm. I also hate when the weather means my plans get cancelled. Just proves Mother Nature really does rule our lives, and rightly so - as we've recently seen how powerful it can be, and sadly at that. But tonight we were going to make ghetto gingerbread houses, and it was going to be fun, I just know it. We did it a few years ago and I thought it was a blast. I like being creative, and I especially like when I can be creative at the same time as other people and we can share the creative vibes. OH well, only a few more days in Iowa, until back in Indy I will not have time to do anything but study, attend classes, study, read for classes, hopefully work out occasionally, figure out housing for next year, and maybe do dinner a few times with some friends. That will suck...means to an end, means to an end. I'll just keep telling myself that. I meet with my internship advisor in the morning (if I can get OUT and drive on the roads) I hope that she doesn't think I'm a total moron, and that I have no business being an art librarian. I'm worried she'll think I'm not ready for it...
This past weekend was a total blast. I haven't been out to party that consistantly in FOREVER. Firstly we went out for Eben's bday on Thurs night, fun times. At least my hair looked really spiff and cute. Was a small West high Reunion, and Jana and Pete got to come along as well. Then on Friday night we did the new year's styles. All the pics are up on the web. it was a blast...I love those folks, thanks for celebrating with me you guys! Sat I was on full recovery mode. I did almost nothing the whole day. I fell asleep at like 10:30 that night too. Sunday night we went to Jakes for Kimi's 21st. That was also quite fun, took me back a ways to last year and many years previous when we'd go there to dance and have a good time just grooving the night away. Jakes is also the bar that is somewhat known as the "hook up" bar, though Sunday night, during break, there weren't too many ppl out. We did have a few guys that danced with kimi and me for a bit, but mostly it was just the group on the floor. Then Monday night we went to the Field House to help her celebrate with Pitchers, I drove though, and was bummed that they didn't have the dance floor open that night, but it was okay, it was a very relaxed and chill evening to help Kimi reach official legal age. Tonight I've stayed in, due to the weather...tomorrow night, I'll watch the hawk men open their big ten season. I am definately a hawkeye at heart, having spent 22 years of my life cheering on my black and gold. - so when I'm in Indy I will have to find a sportsbar that'll show the bball games so I can stay on top of things, and go IU basketball too - I watched the IU women take on the UI women the other night, and had my Iowa sweatshirt on, especially because I went with my mom, and she's also a UI grad. I cheered for the IU girls when they made good plays, but ultimately, I find my loyalty sports wise must rest with the hawks still - not to mention that after the hailmary pass to end the Capital One Bowl, I'm pretty impressed with how lucky my Hawk football team was, with the end of their season. Only 3 more days in Iowa...hopefully the weather will be good for the drive back on Sat. night folks.

Happy Holiday Greetings to everyone! I love spending time with the family and friends during the season to be jolly. Grandma arrived in Iowa City on Wednesday, after a meer 4 hrs on the road, - we were impressed she was able to make the trip and I'm happy she got here safely. Unfortunately mom took her to the ER today as she's got bronchitis, poor thing. I get to pick up my bro at the airport tomorrow, and I"m sure I will pick his brain about what to do in San Fran when i'm there over Spring Break. I will also get to satisfy my need for pets by taking care of Fritz, the awesome schnauzer of some family friends. I get to stay at their house to, which is great, and will give me some much needed time to concentrate on getting some of this work done for school and cuddling with a puppy is always nice :)
We went out to MugClub last night, it was VERY cold here in IA, no snow yet, but some negative degrees and nasty windchills...apparently Indy got dumped on with lots of snow recently - I hope that will all melt before I am back there for the start of next semester.
I have caught up on many of the movies that I'd wanted to see, which is one thing I can cross off that list I wrote awhile ago, and I've worked on the website alot too - though it's not nearly done yet...Surprisingly I haven't really taken many pictures since getting back to Iowa either. Guess I"ll get on that here soon! I have seen :
Oceans 12, Finding Neverland, Saved (hilarious), Napoleon Dynamite, Collateral, American History X, GhostWorld, Super Size Me, and some others too. I've also caught a few of the men's bball games....I think i will miss that the most when i'm back in Indy, and may have tomake a few trips to some sports bar with possible regional coverage that extends to the other "I" states.
Chai asked if he could come to indiana for the Iowa/Indiana game, and I promptly told him Of course he could, and that he can watch it at the sportsbar with me, silly boy, the game's in IC this year. Haha, the hawks kicked texas tech butt though - so Bobby Knight didn't have much to be happy about the other night.
hope everyone is having a good start to their celebrations (whatever you celebrate)

Christmas Spirit and Alchy

It's 3:!8 am Iowa time, I'm not tired. I hate how much I've thrown off my sleeping schedule in the first week of being on break. It's really annoying that I basically get up with the sun, because, surprise, my parents do. and then go back to sleep, after breakfast, and sleep until like noon or so, and lounge around all day, working out, and doing the normal break things, like reading and such. I'm a huge dork I know. Tonight was friday of finals for the Iowa folks, so I actually got to see a few of them out and about. Misa had a wine party get together thing that I attended, I did coffee with Jaime, and also got to see faraji and Krisitn. Kristin I haven't seen since WAY back before I left for IU, which I guess, while not being a super long time ago in reality, meer months really, still seems like forever. she's awesome and I did have some fun hanging w. her at 808 (previously Malones, and I gotta say, was better as a more sit down irish pub enviro than drunk college kid place) but, nonetheless it was interesting. Got hit on by a guy in law school here at iowa, was a way to pass the time I guess, making conversation...and another guy chatted with me, and a really drunk guy sang a few christmas carolls for us - I REALLY had to hold myself back from decking him. Honestly, I have a pent up rage building for christmas songs, and especially people, (though drunk they can NOT really use that as an excuse) who randomly break out into their favorite little xmas ditty, when I didn't ASK them to serenade me, and could care less to hear O Holy Night, while some rap song is playing in the background and they feel the need to TOP the base in the dj's song by yelling out All is Calm and Bright at the top of their freaking lungs. He asked what my favorite christmas song was, and I was sure he'd sing it anyways, so to shut him up (hopefully) I asked to hear 'Santa Baby' - feeling rather smug and kewl about my answer, he did NOT break into a screaming rendition, but instead remarked 'that's great, but for me to sing it, kinda gay." Thank God.
I'm all for the xmas spirit, sure. I mean, the spirit of giving and having fun and holiday breaks and such, but for some reason the whole idea of christmas carrolls is entirely pissing me off righ tnow. Perhaps it is because I have tried to boycott hearing them at all, which is an entirely impossible task, as every radio station is the eastern Iowa area seems to LOVE slipping a few in every HOUR! There are only so many times I can hit the seek or scan button on the civic and really not crave to plug in the ipod - current events and songs be damned. I have nothing against ppl enjoying the chance to sing christmas songs in the privacy of their own home (thank you mom and dad for not playing them or humming them 24/7) I do have a problem with being forced to listen to anyone sing. Carrollers, dont' stop at my house, or I will shut the door in your face this time around - not sure why it's affecting me so much this year - last year I wasn't like this...misdirected rage towards the happy go lucky idea of xmas songs? perhaps tis more the season to be jolly is okay and well and good - but not for those people that celebrate Kwanza or Haunakah (can you tell I'm not jewish cause I can't spell that word at all?) I ALMOST told the guy in the bar: "I don't celebrate christmas. I was adopted by an african american family and I celebrate kwanza, and your carrolling offends me." but duh, iowa city bar friday night of finals week, there isn't really a way to SAY that and not hear about ten rounds of "jingle bells" as an answer.
so ya, bah humbug to xmas carrolling in public.

Um, I Still Exist

watching: LOTR -Fellowship Network Premier on WB
Hey Everybody, I haven't quite dropped off the face of the Earth. I had a weekend full of interesting events :) Including the "not so official weekend" start on Thursday night with drinks and karaoke at Bear's and dancing and drinks at Axis with Tanya and some of her friends. Had a BLAST...then of course, got home at 4 am, still feeling the buzz, and chatted online until the sun came up. Fabulous. Course, I had to shower to get rid of the smoke smell...slept for about half an hour, then went to my 9:30 class - leaving the dorm at 9:20 - and arriving just in time. Class was a blur, by nature of my distracted personality at that point, but I still took very good notes (surprisingly). Then I spent the next massive amount of hours in the library doing research for a collection development project. Came home and slept for god knows how long, until waking up on Sat and doing the SAME thing, more collection development project ALL day. Heh, the relief and break came when Traci and I joined one of her friends for Indian food. I'd never had it before and it was really really good. Not too spicy(heh, we had the recommendations of the native to help for that) and quite tasty. We also went to Nick's for a bit to converse. Her friend really likes brain teasers and was trying out a few on us. I was close to both of the right answers in my logical thinking process, but not quite there. Course, my first instinct, as always, is to problem solve by going outside the parameters of the given situation. i.e. in the case where you have a light bulb upstairs, and three light switches, and you want to know how many times you would have to go upstairs to determine which lightswitch turns on the bulb - I first decided, i wouldn't have to go up at all. I'd make one of my friends do it as a favor :) hhaha, can't let it be said that I don't think outside the box right? - the answer in reality, is 1 time. which was my inital guess, though I couldn't totally back up why....turns out, lightbulbs get hot, if lit...which I knew, so I was trying to guess how many times you'd go up to know that the bulb was hot...if you go up after you've flipped the second switch on and off, then you know...because you can feel the bulb...if the bulb is hot, it's the second, if it's warm, it was the first, and if neither, then it's the third switch...so the initial choice of ONE time is correct...but ya, was kinda a fun lill test of analytical thinking skills. Other than that, I haven't done much else besides homework all weekend, and won't do much else for the rest of the week either. I'm getting excited to go home again over thanksgiving and see all the IC crew, and my parentals. I do miss them. It was nice that my mom actually called me the other night, complaining that she wanted to hear the sound of my voice, rather than just doing the AIM chatting that we have been doing mostly so far...they are somewhat tech savy...I'm very proud of that fact ;) but was nice to know they wanted to hear from me. Anyways, back to the studies now

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!