no, really, tgif

Oh thank goodness, the campus shops are taking cards again. I had stashed a bunch of change in my bag just in case, but this allowed me to get a semi-gigantic coffee drink instead of a small cuppa joe.

Two things on my agenda today: research day, where students show off the fabby work they've been doing. If it's anything like last year, there will be a lot of cell/biochem stuff having to do with t-cells and receptors and proteins and whatnot, that I will pretend to be interested in and then a couple of really cool ethnographic or anthropological studies that are inherently flawed but fascinating. Second thing: a dance performance tonight that promises to have some nudity. I think I really need not say more, although I will report back next week.

grro...

I got some coffee. I went upstairs to the library-provided caffeine machine but I had to add 3 creamers to make it drinkable. Even with that, Jane was standing in my doorway and said, "I can smell it from here!" Yum.

grrrrowl

Yes, I usually fill up on coffee at home, but I'm still out of cream and can't drink coffee without it, so I stopped by the campus caffeine vendor, only to discover that the campus is under its second day of NO CARDS. It's a cash-only world around here and I'm cash-poor.

note to sis

From my horrorscope:

"Efforts you have been putting in to spruce up your house and yard may suddenly seem to take shape. You could look around and feel a lot of satisfaction at the way things look. This could be happening just in time for a well-loved visitor to come to your door. Your pride in your home will definitely contribute to your enjoyment of the visit. Spoil your guest and give them (sic) the royal treatment!"

The only problem: I haven't done any home improvement projects lately, although I did discuss the topic with a friend yesterday. Guess I'd better get crackin'!

mmmm, cocker spaniel...

There was a fairly hilarious story in the paper today about an alligator knocking on a woman's door. The hypothesis is that the alligator followed the woman home after she took her cocker spaniel for a walk around the alligator's pond.

There are two reasons this story is funny. First, the image of the alligator banging its head on the door, hoping against hope that the fluffy, tasty dog will come bounding out. I admit I'm not the hugest fan of cockers--of all breeds, they account for the most human bites most years.

Second, the dumb lady walking her dog around a pond where a huge alligator lives. It's like posting a sexy profile on MySpace for your 11-year old and giving out your home address. I had friends who lived on an island off the coast of Georgia and they knew to keep their pets inside or under close supervision at all times. Escaped pets regularly become gator food.

panties

I'm no longer a bachelorette party virgin. At the ripe old age of 35, I attended my very first one. All I'm going to say was that we had fun, we didn't do anything terribly stupid and thank goodness we hired a limo. Boy, that's a sentence fragment I never thought I'd utter.

is it friday yet? otg

I had one of those crazy fun dreams last night, where I was sort of surfing over big bouncy cushions. One of my friends said that means I am at a good place mentally/psychologically. I hope that's true, because I'm not quite feeling it! Perhaps it means I am about to turn the corner.

In other news, I checked my radishes, which are supposed to be full grown according to the package. They are still anemic little things, though, so I tried to stuff the ones I'd pulled back into the ground. Even if they don't make it, I have plenty of others.

colder than a ne'er do well's extremity

All morning the cat barely left my side. She sat on my lap on the couch, appearing to watch Good Morning America, which prompted me to decide that it was too chilly and we needed to turn on the heat. Did you hear me? I turned on the HEAT, in MARCH, in HOUSTON.

grey gardens

In honor of the GE's birthday last night, we all trekked over to see Grey Gardens. For GG virgins (which I was until yesterday), it's a documentary made in 1976 about a mother and a daugher living together in a huge old house in East Hampton. The film shows them at their worst and best, talking directly to the filmmakers/audience about each other, showing off, eating, accidentally flashing the camera, letting their cats use any corner as a bathroom, feeding their raccoons. It's all a bit crazy and yet you can completely understand what's going on, why they're where they are and their great dependence upon and love for one another. The film was introduced by Albert Maysle, one of the filmmakers, and he stuck around afterwards for a half hour of questions. He was so interesting--I wanted to stay and listen to him longer but those danged seats were so uncomfortable that all I could think about was getting home and lying down. He talked about the dvd which has an extra hour and a half of footage.

There's much more to say about this film, so I think I'll add to this in another entry later.

necessaries

There are a few things I always keep in my office: tissue, crackers, aspirin, toys. They all come in handy. Today it was one of my favorite toys, a twisty, colorful sort of puzzle thing that my sis gave me years ago. It's soothing to twist around while you sit and listen or sit and talk. Today it was put to good use by my supervisor's baby. She's just big enough to hold it, twist it and put it over her head like a necklace.

related fans only

The Related finale was on last night. First of all, isn't it weird how the television "season" has changed so much in the past few years? Shows are on for a few weeks, disappear and then reappear to air the remainder of their episodes?

Anyway, the end of the show was typical of end-of-season cliff hangers. We were left with Ginny, having decided not to have an affair, coming home to an empty apartment (where the heck did the dog Ruth get to between the first and second hours of the finale? Did they leave her in Cape Cod?). Margie broke things off with Jason. Rose slept with...oh gosh, I forgot that guy's name, but you know the one I mean, the one who's had a crush on her since the first episode but she burned him and then decided she loved him after he moved on. Yup, that guy. Finally, Anne was seen talking to Danny. I think that's the most promising relationship to begin season two with.

Boy those girls are bratty.

more mad!

The second madlibs goes like this:

Friend

My friend Miles is a former actor (we all knew he was!) who appeared in many Broadway fingers. He was also on the television soap opera "All My Doorknobs". He has been acting since he was 11 years old (what is that in kitty years?).

mad! update

So here's the first madlib, filled in:

First Date Aid

Make sure that you wear something pink. You don't want to have to worry about your shirt all night. And it may sound short, but wear thin shoes, too. You might be walking around all night.



Call me crazy, but this sounds more like advice for a first-time hooker!

wearing of the green

Tomorrow, if you want to have an early april fool's day, volunteer to assist your color blind friend in dressing. Make sure to tell him (or, more rarely, her) that yes, that blue (or grey or brown) shirt is GREEN. Then sit back and enjoy the pinchfest.

mad!

Okay, put responses to these in the comments:

adjective

article of clothing

adjective

adjective

person in room

plural noun

plural noun

number

thursday angst

Just finished reading up on friends' and loved ones' blogs, I realize that despite my serious troubles on the dating/love life scene, I am pretty darned happy with my life. Sometimes that just isn't enough, though. I mean, you can be completely fulfilled at work, have a bunch of cool friends, hobbies, quirky movie-watching habits, pets, etc. but if you don't have a BOYFRIEND or HUSBAND, things just seem a little...

There's no word for it. It would be a word that meant that things just didn't feel quite right or as meaningful as they should, because you're not able to share them with a special person. I wish I didn't feel that way, and a lot of the time I don't, but when I do, I do.

mary mary quite contrary

I was out watering my garden this morning and realized I have a lot of little planties sprouting up. I need to figure out how much to thin them out because certainly there is not enough room for all of them. If you're in town and you want to transplant, let me know. I have extra radishes and cucumbers for sure.

break of the spring

Spring break is a state of mind, I've discovered. We notice that faculty tend to wander into the li-berry, blinking as if they've just come up from underground, to see what's new or to track down those last references for papers. We work on projects we've been too busy to do during the thrust of the semester. We start to think about the summer. We daydream a little.

bits and pieces

I suppose it's against the blog code to write about a blind date, so maybe I'll just mention that I had one and it was okay. We have some friends in common and we had a decent conversation but it wasn't a love match.

I spent the rest of the weekend trying not to scratch.

I also watched Nashville, one of Robert Altman's epics. Definitely a classic and dang that Keith Carradine was handsome and could sing! This breaks a long movie-viewing dry spell for me. For some reason I hadn't seen a movie (except on tv) for over a month. Well, that's not entirely true: I have seen my friends' art films, but I couldn't call those movies. Speaking of art films, they're playing at the M2 gallery in the Heights throughout PhotoFest, so drop by and see them.

whoowhoo

Well, thank heavens for this (from my horrorscope):

"You are about to be more down to Earth and to experience strong emotions. Your private life is going to change. These changes will occur in your sex life. You will no longer be inhibited by your body. You will no longer be embarrassed when you are with your partner. As a matter of fact, you tend to love your body. A new sex life can change a person!"

coffee and cigarettes

Which is a great movie, by the way. Of course, by my standards any movie with Tom Waits in it is great. Well, except for Mystery Men. Even he couldn't save that stinker.

I keep thinking that it's a good thing it's Friday. I feel like I've barely made it through this week, what with the itching and the weeping and all (my arm, not my eyes). It's got to get better soon, right?

We're making plans to have a St. Paddy's day party and I am very excited. Have I mentioned how much I love holidays? I used to always make some sweet treat and dye it green when I was in junior high/high school. One year I made Kentucky Derby pie (green) and another year baked apples (green). Maybe I will make something green and festive this year, like green banana bread, green cookies, etc. It's fun to make something that really shouldn't be green green.

cat food

Isn't cat food weird? I mean, cats mainly eat whole animals in the wild, right? They don't eat grains except from the stomachs of their prey and they certainly don't eat sugar or salt. If you look at the ingredients of most dry cat food, you'll see that it's full of corn, salt and sugar. Then there's the canned stuff, which is often something or other "by-product", which means the cast offs. The lips and snouts. I try to give my cat a decent food that features meat as its first ingredient and the least-nasty canned food I can find. She loves both, which is lucky. Let me tell you, I once had to feed my old cat a food made of duck and potatoes or something like that and he hated it. Anyway, this morning I gave her a can of fish and shrimp food. I could actually see the shrimpies in there and dang it smelled like fish. She doesn't like chicken or beef, but anything fishy she will absolutely beg for. I'm sure she's at home right now, head on my pillow, dreaming of fishing in a cold mountain stream...

ice cream or antihistamine

The GE and I celebrated the fact that we're able to have civil conversations now by getting ice cream last night. He let me try his--it was a banana almond chocolate ice cream with peanut butter mixed in. It was good except for the banana. He said he didn't taste the banana, but right at the end of the cup he got a banana mouthful and nearly spit it out. I had a hot fudge sundae with one scoop of sweet cream and one of belgian chocolate. Sweet cream is one of my all time favorite flavors.

On the way home from ice cream fest, I stopped to buy some antihistamine so that I could sleep without scratching myself to death. I took some before bed and then more at about 5am. Unfortunately that meant I was groggy, headachy and nauseated until about 10:30 this morning. I'm not sure what the cure was, but I ingested large amounts of ibuprofen, water and coffee. Now I'm at desk looking forward to my 2 o'clock class. If they act up, I will wave my weeping forearm at them!

don't scratch it!

Did I mention the poison ivy? Did I mention the itch? Did I mention the ugly pustules currently residing on my left forearm? You're lucky I don't have a digital camera because you can be sure I'd post a photo--it's that gross.

I'm trying to keep my mind off of it, but IT ITCHES! Must find distraction, immediately.

yaaardwork

My back hurts, my arms are all scratched up, I got a sunburn in the weirdest place...Yup, I spent the weekend working in the yard. It's amazing how much energy a little weeding, lawn mowing and general straightening up takes.

I also planted my tomatoes. I got three kinds of cherry tomatoes, to see which I like best. Some of the other seeds I planted have germinated and are popping out of the ground. I'm pretty awed, considering what that patch of ground looked like a month ago.

no cigars, please

Uh huh. This will come as no surprise to anyone.

What Famous Leader Are You?
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mining

I worked late last night on the desk and I kept helping one guy who was trying to find the readings for his class. Several of them were articles that could only be found in one of our databases, so the prof had written out the pathway, or at least the beginning of it. The articles are older and much written about so we kept getting tons of hits until I got smart and started using the advanced search page. Three cheers for specific searches! Anyway, it was fairly frustrating for the kid who didn't really seem to understand what he was doing and it was annoying for me because he should've caught on to doing it himself. Sometimes I think there should be a library portion of the GRE that people have to pass before they can get into grad school... So the final time he came up, I look up and he's rooting around in his nose. I mean, I know we'd gotten comfortable with each other over the past hour and all but jeez, some things should be done in the privacy of your car while you're speeding down the freeway, right?