Excitement!

I am getting incredibly excited to go on vacation and leave the Chicago area. And i am also getting excited to see all the people I love.

Danielle is winging her way to Chicago right now, with her father. They're going to visit with his mother tonight and tomorrow, and then she is going to make her way to me tomorrow night - i think we are meeting another friend downtown, having a wild time, and then going back to my place. On Thursday she's visiting her cousins that live north of the Garden, and then on Friday we're driving to Ithaca!!!!

I'm working extra hard this week (except at this exact moment) to get all of my data analysis done so that I can actually just take all day on Friday off and get to Ithaca before dark - or in as little dark as possible, since it takes longer to drive than there are hours of daylight. Apparently it's going to be a big weekend - Friday night is wine and cheese night at some friends' house, then Saturday is Ding's Japanese drumming exhibition, Sunday is Thanksgiving at Prospect of Whitby, and I'm going out to lunch with my undergrad advisor on Tuesday. I am almost too excited for life to handle it.

On the downside, my internet in my apartment is busted. We think the little box that turns cable into internet kicked it - it was over 2 years old, and you can't expect electronics to last longer than that. Hence not so much blogging and emailing in recent days.

I had a lovely day on both Saturday and Sunday - on Saturday, I hung out with my roommate in Evanston, then went down to my friends' new house in Humboldt Park, which is lovely. We made pumpkin soup (my recipe!) and grilled cheese sandwiches, then my friend Rachel taught us how to make truffles and how to knit (i think i could get into it - i know mom tried to teach me once, but i was too young to appreciate the coolness, i think). Then i went out to a party with these friends and slept on their air mattress (Aerobeds are awesome!) so that we could keep having fun on Sunday morning - we made pancakes and played Scrabble until 2 in the afternoon. Then i biked home the 11 miles from Humboldt Park to Evanston, mostly along the lakefront. It was beautiful, and it felt really good except that i was wearing jeans so i got a bit sore. I made it home in time to go (late) to the session, which was a rockin!!! good time!! it was a good one, a nice way to go out, as i won't make it on Wednesday, so i won't be there for 2 weeks.

Now I am just crunching numbers nonstop. I have been using Excel almost exclusively for a week now, trying to analyze a lot of data. BOOOOOOORRRRRIIIINNGGG... but that's okay. i guess i'm learning a lot.