lonely home

Emily has been out of town since Friday. Her grandfather died (not unexpectedly) last Wednesday, so she went home for the weekend. She comes back tomorrow. This is the third time in 4 weeks that she has been gone for a long weekend. i think the cats are starting to take it personally. They are getting very very needy. Especially since I have been either working long days or doing things after work such that I have been home less than usual. These cats are in dire need of constant cuddling, but when i'm at home, i'm cooking, cleaning, and studying for the GRE. And sleeping. They seem to take this one quite personally, and spend many hours every night cavorting directly outside my door. It will be a long time until I am ready for children - i can't even handle 2 cats alone for more than 3 days.
I'm glad Emily's coming home tonight. It has been quite lonely here - i watched two movies by myself! One was Babel, which was actually very good - there are large portions of the movie in 4 different languages, American English, Mexican Spanish, Japanese sign language, and whatever language they speak in Morocco - Arabic, i guess. It's actually a very cool movie, with some good insight into cultural interactions and lots of different emotions. Definitely a drama.
I also, out of loneliness and boredom with studying, got bitten by the furniture-moving bug and spent an hour last night rearranging my bedroom, only to end up putting it back the way it was because i couldn't find a more attractive configuration. i will have to regroup and plan a new way, because i don't want to leave my bed in the window all winter. that seems cold.
now it's time for bed - must get good rest until this test.

life's little thrills

so, i'm studying for the GRE. ugh. it's amazing ...ly tedious. i'm amazingly stupid. sure, i do okay, but so far i'm doing worse and worse. i did awesome on the diagnostic test that was supposed to tell me where my weaknesses are. apparently my weakness is in studying - i lost the element of surprise, and now i'm not good at the tests.

in other news, my roommate Emily picked up a certificate for a free month of Netflix. This could be bad - very bad. we got our first 3 movies, and watched them all within 3 days. that's at least a 200% increase over my previous month's movie watching. plus i went to the movies (!) and saw 3:10 to Yuma, which is good if you like dirty, strong men shooting at each other and riding horses over beautiful landscape. the worst part of the whole movie was when one man shot the bag of gunpowder hanging on another guy's horse and man and horse blew up (is that what would happen in reality?) it was incredibly gross.

in still other news, happy fall. it sure is happy here. the weather could not be more perfect. and i may have a new friend - there's a new girl at work, also a fresh college grad, who sits in my office and lives in Evanston. i can't tell if she likes me or not, or if i like her or not. i haven't had much time to chat. i'm going to have a dinner party next weekend, with my other friends from work, and i'm going to invite her. maybe this week i'll get her digits. i should have done this week, and showed her around town this weekend. i did tell her about the farmer's market, and where i do my grocery shopping.

anyhow. i guess i should keep doing practice tests. maybe i'll break through the wall soon, and start doing well again.

the horrors of modern technology

whoops. i just got bitten in the behind by the lure of the cell phone. $250 extra dollars in talking in one month. ouch ouch ouch. well, live and learn, as they say. I am learning a lot lately.
i guess i will have to take a vow of silence.

check it out.

http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/programs/professional/
especially the Ecosystems Science and Conservation concentration.
Feedback? Thoughts? Opinions?

hey mom, the mexican restaurant 2 blocks from my house is doing a "like water for chocolate" menu this week.
maybe if i'm feeling wealthy this weekend i'll go check it out.

i want to see if the quail with rose petals makes me catch on fire.

my Friday night

so, on Friday i went to a concert - http://www.amyshoemaker.com/ is the website for Amy, who plays bozouki at the session twice a week. she's John Williams' wife, and she has her own band, the Shoemakers. i went to hear them at a club in Skokie, the next town west of Evanston, with my friend James. He is Noe's best friend in town. we had a great time, and the music was awesome. it was a very eclectic set list, with many of Amy's own songs mixed in with Johnny Cash and the Ramones and many other great artists. she was so thrilled to see us there, too. i don't think she'd believed me when i told her i was going, and James she just knows as the guy at the bar who always buys her (usually unwanted/unneeded) shots (she's a lightweight).

so anyway. that's the story. then i got James a book out of the library, and he lent me Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, just as education and adding to my list of classics. On Saturday night, i passed out in a chair at about 9:30, reading. a wild weekend, to be sure.

today, i went to Celtic Fest down at Millennium Park. it was sweet. the weather was awesome, and i hung out in the Harp Tent, the Celtic Voices tent (for storytelling and singing), watched some manly men in kilts throw heavy things around, listened to some pipe bands (and got very nostalgic), and ended up listening to a band called GiveWay, which consists of 4 sisters from Edinborough, Scotland, playing pretty traditional music in a pretty rock way - their drummer plays a full kit, one of them plays keyboard, one plays accordion, and one trades off between fiddle and acoustic guitar. they are awesome musicians, and their accents are awesome.
consequently, i was quite late for the session at Nevins - and, to my delight, much missed. i was the only bodhran player to show up!
now i'm back at home, and ready for bed - with the sun setting at 7, i get tired much earlier.

puppies!!

I will post pictures as soon as I get them from roommate Emily.
I finally got to meet Noe's puppies, now 8? weeks old? they are adorable. too cute for words. endless wiggling, until suddenly they yawn and then pass out.
if i had consistent puppy in my life, i think i'd be much happier. i told him he can leave the puppies with me anytime.
the cats aren't wild about them, but they're okay. they get over it and forget to be scared. and at this point the puppies are still too shy to accost the kitties.

hilarious moment of the evening: apparently he honestly wants me to call him Snake.