The price you have to pay

Wading in the [in the US: Persian, here: Arabian] Gulf in December while my friends are buried in snow: Priceless

Having sand in my socks for the rest of the day: TOTALLY worth it. :)

P.S. I'm not ready to go home yet. This place--this experience--is just incredible!

Hey - I'm in Paris!!

We made it to Paris - phew! This was after our flight to Minneapolis was canceled (…the day before we were to fly, but we didn't find out until we arrived at the airport; apparently they got some snow, or something? ;) ), and we got rerouted through Detroit and the Dulles airport in DC on our way to Paris, where we'll get on our original flight to Abu Dhabi in a couple of hours. We ran through Dulles - "it's not far," the airline lady told us about our gate, so we ran through hallway-escalator-hallway-BUS!-escalator-hallway and finally made it, barely!, on the flight to Paris! (I think "it's not far" will be one of the jokes from this trip - we've already used it once since then. :) ) One of the flight attendants saw us coming down the entryway hall thingy, and must have been able to tell how harried we were, because he moved to block the doorway, with a big smile - "I'm sorry, we've taken the final passengers!" When I teased him back in French that that wasn't nice, he then tried to tell me that this was actually a flight to Mexico. :)

So I've been able to use my French a little, and even! a little Arabic! Very little. :) We sat next to a nice Frenchman, and in getting to know each other a bit, J (the prof I'm traveling with), said that she speaks German, and in German she said, "and a little Swahili." And our new friend said something in German and then, in Arabic, said, "Do you speak Arabic?" And I said "Na'am!" and then tried to say something else - FAIL - and we went back to English. :) Ah well. :)

So one more pretty long flight, after not much sleep the night before departure (ask me about my new hairdryer sometime) and not much sleep on the flight to Paris, and then, luckily, we arrive in Abu Dhabi in the evening, and "sleep" is the first thing on my agenda. :)

So the plan is:
Monday - meetings with big names at the university and visiting classes
Tuesday - a speech by J and 2 poetry competitions (no I will not be competing :P )
Wednesday - a tour of Abu Dhabi, more class visitations, and another speech by J
Thursday - tour of Dubai!
Friday - 2am departure back to the States

Woohoo!

Just in case you forgot...

...this is what I look like when I'm talking:


And also - this:


And for those of you who need it - photographic evidence that I DON'T actually talk ALL the time:

The end.

Sharing

A beautiful poem by a dear friend - here.

Enjoy.

They learn so young. Or something.

I was chatting with my namesake-niece on the phone last night, asking her about her first couple of weeks in Young Women (she just turned 12 - !!!!!!!!!), and she said something about how since next week is a combined activity with the young men that means the girls will have to, groan, be in the same room as the boys for the mid-week activity.

Me: C'mon, boys aren't THAT bad.

My namesake-niece (who just turned 12, remember!): I have to hate boys now, because in a few years I won't have that option.

Ahem.

Wow.

and now...good-bye for 2 months

I just officially registered to take my PhD exams (we call them "prelims" here) in January. Two months from this week.

I'm frightened. I have my schedule of what I need to read and study, and it's a LOT. And will take a LOT of time. And my friends who've already gone through this process and passed prelims have told me that I need to give up on having balance in my life until after prelims are over.

Sigh.

And I've been feeling a little of this recently.

Send help...??

So...being lifelike is a GOOD thing??

And I quote Shylina, about some game called "Animal Crossing":

"If I wanted to play a game where I'm constantly in debt, I'd just live life."

Don't we all?!

Me: Wow! One of the students in my program got a $12,000 grant to support her dissertation research!

My supervisor: That's awesome! I LOVE $12,000!

Weeping and wailing and...what? Oh.

I just got a phone call from my sister, and I panicked--I couldn't understand a blessed word she was saying! She sounded garbled - like she was sobbing uncontrollably or there was something horrendous happening in the background. Possible explanations flashed through my mind as I left my office and ran to a place with better cell phone reception - her husband lost his job? Got a better job? One of the kids got hit by a car? She broke her leg??

None of the above.

She was laughing. Uncontrollably.

She just called to say that she got my email with this link in it.

Well. I'm so glad she enjoyed it. :)

Jealous, shmealous

Me, showing off my yummy dinner to my roommate: You should be jealous of me!

Her: I'm eating bacon right now.




Well, dang. I take it back.

AND ALSO!!! My 9-year-old nephew can recite the "Betty Botter" poem. IN PIG LATIN. I'm just sayin'...

Tree hugger?

Me: If I save paper by printing 4-pages-to-a-page but ruin my eyesight trying to read it, is that an overall win, or an overall loss?

My supervisor: It depends on how much your eyes would help the environment later.

Location, location, location

I was there Monday:

He was there Tuesday*.

Doesn't that make me famous?

Or something?

...please...?

*Click "gallery" in the bottom right corner of the picture, and then click to picture #17. It's the same podium, I swear.

Thanks for the picture, Jae! :)

Reason #1,900,889 that I completely adore my family

My aunt, my dad's sister, sent out the following email:

Because of an unfortunate event involving a demonstration of water safety to horses, my phone drowned. My new number is .... It's a Verizon cell with a two year sentence.

The horses did not snicker out loud.

My dad responded with:

I'm sorry, but you cannot leave the story like this.

I can picture you lending your cell phone to a horse who, texting while water skiing, ran into a wombat in a canoe being chased by a feral chicken. I can see the chicken, distracted, catching the cell phone dropped by the horse and, preferring a live cell phone to a wombat sharing a canoe with a horse, crossing the road and disappearing from human ken with your phone. But why would this cause your cell phone to drown?

I can also picture another, less likely, scenario, which ends up with your cell phone breathing its last (with a smile on its face) in a vat of molten (not moulted - that is a detail that goes with the other story) Ghirardelli chocolate.

Which of the two happened? And did you really mean drown, or did it just run off with some chick?

:) :)

Happy Vacation, people! :)

So there pretty much isn't anything cuter than my 4-yr-old niece strutting around in her little blue jeans and pink sunglasses. And I do mean strutting. Pretty much makes me want to die...of...her cuteness...

So here's what I've been up to:

- one week at sister #3's house in central CA with her and her 4 kids, Mom and Dad, and sister #4 and her 2-yr-old. 900 degrees outside--ugh.
- two weeks with sister #4 in southern CA. 60 degrees outside--aaah.
- now--partway through another two weeks with sister #3 and her fam
- then--2 weeks in UT with the parentals and sister #1 and her 7-yr-old

WOOOHOOO! :)

So there's been a lot of the following:

- being pleasantly awoken (waked up?) by cheery little 2- or 4-yr-old faces and giggles :)
- snuggling with small, and not so small, children at bedtime and in the morning and at random times during the day
- reading books to some of my favorite people on the planet
- enjoying air conditioning, someone else's cooking, and garden-fresh produce
- otter pops :)
- thinking, thinking, thinking
- organizing sister #3's house. Heehee! :) You think I'm kidding, maybe, but I'm not. I suggested that we do some big project while I'm there (here), since having another adult around can be really helpful. So she suggested, giggling, that we reorganize her ENTIRE HOUSE--new containers for things, labels, the whole shebang. Woohoo! :) So far we've done her junk drawer, the games/linen closet, and her walk-in closet. SO FUN! :) I just hope I don't get burned out of cleaning and organizing such that I won't want to unpack into my new apartment when I get home.

Um, what else? OH! Girls night in southern CA with Sarah and my sis, and dinner with her and Nathan and cute little Molly. Molly and my niece are almost the same age, and pretty much totally hilarious together. Friends like Sarah are rare, and hence a treasure.

OK, I'm off to shower and clean a closet and shuttle kids to playdates. :)

Gardening

So my sis has a garden. Well, ok, ALL of my sisters have gardens. But this afternoon my 2-yr-old niece and I walked toward the garden of my niece's momma, the sister of mine that I'm currently visiting, who has a garden. Ya with me?

And she was coming toward us, from the garden, with 2 little round squash (squashes? squeesh?) in the pocket of her hoodie. Her squash plants have been transplanted twice this season, due to some unforeseen circumstances, and my sis has been worried that they're not doing too well, so she explained that she picked those two squash, which are a little small for picking, in order to allow the plant to put all its energy into recovering from the most recent transplanting experience, rather than into producing those squash.

And I thought...I wonder how often Heavenly Father does that to us, and we don't recognize that that's what's going on. We think, "Hey look, I'm producing this great fruit!" and then He picks that fruit, takes it from us, and we mourn, not recognizing that what He has in mind is for us to be bigger stronger plants.

(And as I'm writing this, I feel like it sounds like I'm really depressed, but I'm not. :) It was just a cool thought, and I thought I'd try to capture it in writing before I lost the feel of it. :) And I'm not sure I captured the real feel of it, but there you go.)

They ARE listening...

My sister wasn't feeling well, and said, "oh I feel like poop on a stick." Her precocious 2-yr-old copycat daughter said, "Yeah, yeah, poop on a stick."

heehee

Too corny

I was jokingly praising myself for doing such a great job shucking the corn for dinner and my BIL Chris said, "Yeah, Margaret. You really shuck."

Um, thanks?

scheduling

Haircut: check
Returned stack of library books: check
Arranged ride to the airport: check
Got new calling in the YW presidency: check
Wrote last check to pay off bed: check (pun not intended, but still oh-so-clevah)
Packing for 7-week vacation that starts tomorrow: no way, Jose.
Packing so that I can move out of my apt the second I get back here in August: ugh. I still have to do my bathroom, bedding, and all the "little things" that get left to the end, which then take 3 boxes and 14 hours to pack. :P But my aforementioned ride to the airport gets here in 12 hrs, so I can't take longer than that. ;)

Happy summer, everyone!

It really is uncanny...

Yesterday I woke up with a stuffed and runny (yes, BOTH) nose. Apparently the boy-going-through-puberty voice that I've had for the past week was NOT just from talking too much. :P

The uncanny thing is...guess what I did the day before yesterday?

Made an appointment to get my hair cut next Monday.

I didn't think they were allowed to coexist...

My sister knows...

...these people. Those are her friend's kids.

And yes, the baby really is duct-taped to the window.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!





heehee

Um, okay...

So if you have multiple bumper stickers on your car, and one of them says:

Friends don't let friends vote Republican.

...and another says:

Buckle up! It makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of your car.

...then you should know that the latter makes it hard for me to take the former, or really anything about you, seriously.

Just so you know.

Sean Voyage

So yesterday marked the departure of a good friend. He finished his Master's degree and left town, moving on to life as a, um, grown up?, with, you know, a "real job."

He has certainly left his mark on those of us who knew him here, if not for his good heart, good work ethic, and cheerful attitude, then certainly for lines like this:

"It's really hard to hide things under the bathroom signs at the State Capitol Building."

He would know.

We'll miss you, Sean.

This really touched me today.

http://itswhatmakesmeme.blogspot.com/2010/03/worst.html

It's about the daughter of a friend of a friend of mine, and I wonder--how often does that happen with us and our Heavenly Father? How often are we in the middle of a trial, and He's trying to help us, with all the resources available to Him, and He KNOWS He CAN help us, and we struggle and cry, "I can't breathe!" as we gasp, frantically for air? And then, eventually, finally, desperately, we listen, and we hear, and we breathe His healing, and we are OK, as He knew we would be.

Maybe the lesson is:

Struggle less; listen, hear, and BREATHE more.

You might be in the south if...

A friend of mine recently got back from a trip to Tennessee. This is an ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPH she took down there.


And that's all I have to say about that.

Delivery!!

I received these in the mail yesterday...


Hee hee!!!! knee-high, awesome colors, super soft, and accompanied by a hilarious note from my dear aunt, and the best part is...

They're...


That means I can wear them with ANYTHING!!

And oh baby, I plan to. :)

Thanks, Aunt Cathy!!!

Happy summer vacation!

So it's been a week now.

heehee

To celebrate my freedom from classes I have...

• read a good stack of books--fun books, not school books, just to clarify ;)
  
• watched a few movies
• stayed up WAY too late too many nights
• submitted a research proposal that got turned down :(
• found out about 2 As in classes from last semester :)

... and decided to maybe move to CA for the summer???

How's your summer going so far?

I just...

...turned in my last paper of the semester. It was the right length, and I had a topic. And sources. And on the way to print it out and turn it in it occurred to me that I might not have actually SAID anything in it.

Oh well.

And I called several members of my family to celebrate and none of them answered.

I feel like spending a lot of money.

Those two facts are not related.

I think.

Check these out!

Something to inspire you:

http://www.hopefullymormon.blogspot.com/

Something to cheer you up, and other people, too:

http://operationbeautiful.com/

A way to make a difference:

http://tippingbucket.org/

Current status--updated:
--> Arabic final--over. Ugly, but over. I only left 2 blanks. :)
--> 4 pg essay--done. Ugly, and I'm kind of embarrassed that I turned it in like that, but done.
--> 10 pg paper--done. I think it was actually pretty ok. :)
--> 7 pg paper due in 20 hrs--have some sources. Topic? not so sure.
--> Blog--updated. Sigh. :P

Happy finals to you, too.

It just got louder in the library (people JUST getting out of bed, or lunch time??) so I turned up the volume on my Pandora. Think it'll help?

Ugh ugh ugh ugh

Current status:
--> Arabic final in 23 hrs--not ready
--> 4 pg essay due in 27 hrs--at 3 pgs, but too many more sections to write, will need to trim a lot
--> 10 pg paper due in 27 hrs--umm...have sources, and outline...
--> 7 pg paper due in 3 days--eep. Maybe have topic? maybe a few sources?
--> Blog--updated. At least I have my priorities in the right place. :P

send help

P.S. One possible reason that my status is as stated above.
P.P.S. The aforementioned reason has to do with the CONTENT of the comic, not the fact that I am reading the archives of an online comic while my finals are in such a sorry state...
P.P.P.S. send help

He's right.

My brother-in-law, that is.

See, his wife, my sister, likes to share with the family the cute things her kids say.

She wrote:

"[Four-year-old daughter] just asked me, 'Mom, have you ever noticed some babies just have one hair?'

We were reading Horton the Elephant (one of [four-year-old daughter]'s favorites). On the last page she piped up, 'We don't have elephant birds around here.'"

And because I am always interested in both sharing my knowledge of flora and fauna and gaining new knowledge, I responded:

"No, I believe they are native to Argentina, and are a close relative of the feral chicken. Right, Dad?"

And my esteemed father, also always oh-so-willing to share his, ahem, extensive knowledge, wrote back:

"Margaret, of course, is right.

It´s that old saw about opposites attracting.

Moonlit nights - soft background music - and chickens and elephants just find each other irresistible.
Generally, it is culinarily irresistible - feral chickens have a tremendous, gigantic, enormous weakness for elephant steaks.

But sometimes, in the springtime, the hens fall for the big guys in a serious way."

And then my bro-in-law:

"You people are all totally, irrevocably, certifiably insane.

It's so good to fit in."

And he's right. :)

Don't hide your light...

So I have a paper due in 4 hrs and 49 minutes, and oh, it'll be done by then. :)

But I just saw a guy from the class for which that paper is due, and we were talking about the presentation of our papers, which will be in class tonight, and how we have a very limited amount of time to present, and I made a crack about how "I talk so fast that I can fit 20 minutes of content into 1o minutes" and he agreed, and then he said the following (he's a native speaker of English, btw):

You know, you should take pride in the fact that you are one of very few native English speakers that I have a hard time understanding...not all the time, just sometimes.

Um, really? I should take pride in that?! I'll have to think about that...

But under the circumstances, with only 10 minutes to present some pretty interesting material, I'll just be grateful for this "talent" and move on with life. :)

The end of a streak

Today is the first time in one month that I have worn a hoodie in public. And yes, it has a little something to do with this item of clothing that I got for my birthday one month ago. But I still felt it was worth noting. :)

And also - remember this presentation? Well it was today, and we got a few laughs. :) And then leaving class, a classmate not in my group muttered to me, "Congratulations. Yours is DEFINITELY going to be the best one." And another student, who is in that guy's group, said, "I resent that lack of confidence in our abilities!" And the first guy said, "it's not going to be better than THAT!" :) heehee

Pondering on my fingernails (don't you?!)

So at the potluck last night my friend H complimented me on my brown (freshly-applied) nail polish, and while I thanked her and told her how much I, also, enjoy my chocolate-colored fingernails, I also pointed out the spot that had gotten chipped-already, gol-dern-it!, and her sweet, spontaneous response was:

"You don't need to show me your imperfections. I like you anyway."

Thanks, H, I needed that right then. And not just about my nails. :)

And speaking of my nails, as I sit here considering the next step in the preparation of a paper that is due Wednesday and the presentation of said paper, for which I have to do a trial run in front of one of my classmates in 1 hr and 30 min (and the # of Powerpoint slides I have right now = 0), I find myself filing my nails as an aid to concentration. I was doing this in my lab several years ago, and a dear friend commented on it, and I said, "filing my nails helps me think," in response to which he simply looked again at my nails, which were fairly long at the time, implying, because I don't think he would have said it aloud, that there must not be much thinking going on, if they were that long. :) Well guess what, Jeff? They're short now!! :P

Do we think my prof would allow me to use that as evidence that I did put at least some thought into this paper?!

Sigh

Al-hijab

I just spent all day with a group from my Arabic class, filming our final presentation. We did a TV morning news show, and one of the parts I wrote and recorded was a (spoof) commercial for hijab. We thought we were very clever, even if we couldn't get all our jokes to go smoothly into Arabic. :)

So if you show up in our class on Tuesday, you might see a little of this...

Ask and ye shall...

...get a five-day extension on a paper!

YAYAY!!

And also -

phew

And now, back to work.

Retail therapy??

After discussing some other topics in a gChat convo with Jeremy:

me: have i mentioned that dan and i broke up?

a month ago

Jeremy: no way

do I need to get my gun?

5:09 PM me: and then we had the grad student symposium that I was co-in charge of. i've been so swamped but its catching up to me and I'm REALLY frightened for the THREE papers i have to do in the next 15 days.

no. it was mutual. we both got the same answer. but it still sucks.

we were best friends for more than a year and dated for 6 months of that.

5:10 PM Jeremy: ok, but I could still get my gun

plz?

me: so it's just weird.

Jeremy: what, my gun?

me: do you HAVE a gun?

lol

Jeremy: not yet, so I need an excuse to get one

me: oh

then by all means.

Jeremy: cool.

I can't wait to tell brooke

me: lol

Jeremy: about the gun, not your breakup

me: right :)

You've got the right idea, Jer. Shopping does make everything better. ;)

Today's status

Desperately trying to find sources for a paper that is due in one week. Yes, I'm THAT awesome.

And I wear my jean jacket every day. I am also THAT awesome.

pj pants (because I was cold) + t-shirt (because it was comfy) + skirt (because it was Sunday) =

"Margaret, Heavenly Father thinks you look ridiculous."

Thanks so much, Amber.

And no, I didn't leave my house like that.

Posted with permission :)

Barbi bought Jorden some new summer clothes and he was really upset.

Why was he so upset, you ask?

"Mom," he wailed, "why did you have to buy me new clothes??? Why couldn't you buy me beef jerky???"

I like that kid. :)

From anotha motha?

My new bff, A, said this yesterday, while talking about a faculty member with whom she works closely:

I love her like my mother. Well, I don't really love her like my mother, I love her like other people love their mothers. My mother is special.

Mine too. :)

Should I be concerned...

...that my usually extremely rational father is almost certainly going to buy a Jaguar?? From a Minnesotan hippie named Lyle?!?

So is it a bad sign...

...if my Chinese fortune cookie is EMPTY?!

I can hardly believe it.

I had the following conversation via gChat yesterday, with my symposium co-organizer...

me: we still need to figure out printing nametags, and get copies of the half sheet about the identity panel

Carolina: do you know how all these happened?

the symposium I mean

me: how all what happened?

Carolina: the event

me: do I know how the symposium happened?

Carolina: did we really do this?

me: lol

2:34 PM Carolina: anyway, we'll figure out the name tags

me: yeah I kinda can't believe its all come together :)

And seriously, I kinda can't believe it. All the panic, all the work, all the embarrassment for not having started working on it earlier, the grant proposals, the pleadings for help, the emails drafted a million times before sending, the coordination with committee chairs, the GRATITUDE when people took assignments and ran with them, going over the budget, going over the budget AGAIN, ordering supplies, publicity, registration, volunteers...it's all almost over. The symposium is tomorrow. Tomorrow and Saturday. We have a location, we have people coming to speak, we have people coming to listen, and we have food. Sounds like it's gonna be just fine. :)

Self-portrait

Here's hoping that getting a haircut can also ward off mental illness...

I ate breakfast.

I woke up in a panic this morning, after having nightmares about the symposium*. Such a panic that I couldn't get out of bed for a while, couldn't admit even to that extent, the getting-out-of-bed extent, that the week was starting because I couldn't bear the thought of what it might bring. And then I did get out of bed, said a desperate prayer for help, and got dressed. And texted my best friend to say, "will you please text me every night around 8 or 9 and make sure I've eaten?"

'Cause I just know I'm going to forget, and that's not going to help anything.

*I'm one of two co-chairs/organizers of a graduate student symposium that will take place on my campus this weekend. We've been planning it for about a year, and will have presenters and attendees from all over the country. It's been a TON of work, and the work's not over yet, and, apparently, I'm panicked.

Snow?!

Are you KIDDING me?! First three days of torrential downpour and now snow?! This must be payback for having temperatures in the high 70's over spring break last week. :) Just in time for my parents to visit. :) :) And for my birthday. :) :) :)

In other news...my head is about to explode. But next Friday and Saturday is the graduate student symposium for which I am one of the co-chairs, and after that I'll be able to breathe again.

Breathe and write three 10-12 pages papers in the next two weeks.

Ah life. :)

Sometimes I take cool pictures.

I'm really enjoying this one right now.


P.S. That's San Diego in January. I only wish I lived there.

For the birds. Or something.

I got a fun visit from these folks - hoorah for family events that bring my friends into my state!!

We went to the zoo...

...and maybe had a little too much fun...


Did I mention I cut my hair and got glasses? Yup.

Mouse count

= 4

Unless that first one that Dan and I accidentally let go in the driveway got back in and got caught again. In which case:

Mouse count = 3

Which is still pretty yucky.

Apparently he says stuff like this all the time. Whatever that means.

Actual conversation, as reported to me by Dan:

Chaz: I didn't expect to see you so clothed!

Dan: What does that even mean?! I'm going to have to think about that for a few days.

Chaz: Oh, you know, it's always a great day for a toga!

The Good, the Bad, and the Really, Really Yucky.

The good:
I got a 100% on my midterm for my Islam class. :) I told one of my classmates, who is also in my Arabic class, that it's been a while since I got 100% on anything, and he said, "What about in Arabic class?" Um, yeah. About that.

The bad:
I AGAIN fought with the phone tree system of a certain wireless company to try to tell them that I DON'T actually owe them $184.68 in early termination fees, since I canceled the contract in less than 30 days. And NOT ONLY do I not owe them that money, but the nice employee that I talked to the last time I fought with their phone system told me he had cleared the charges, so something is messed up, since I am STILL getting threatening letters about how they're going to send me to a collections agency if I don't pay up. AND!!! NOT ONLY should those charges have already been cleared by the last guy I talked to, but even getting to talk to a person is a royal pain!! They sent me THREE different customer service numbers, ALL of which required me to enter my 10-digit phone number to continue. When I entered it, the system said, "That is a not a valid number with our company" and kicked me out. I KNOW it's not a valid number! I'm no longer with your company! The letter that you sent me, WHICH TOLD ME TO CALL THIS NUMBER, acknowledged that I'm no longer with your company! And yet there is no number I can call to get through the system.

Erg.

Obviously I eventually got through. I entered my phone number as 10 0's. Twice. :) And then I selected the menu option about activating a prepaid phone that I (supposedly) purchased at a store. THEN I got a human, who listened to me rant and then told me very nicely that she was with the prepaid department and would be happy to transfer me to the contracts dept. :) But hey - at least she didn't kick me entirely out of the system.

Anyway, moving on.

The Really, Really, Yucky:
It is confirmed that we have a mouse in our house. My roommate told me a few days ago that she suspected it, and I confirmed it. WITH MY OWN TWO EYES. That's right, I saw the nasty little bugger. It was eating one of my potatoes in the pantry. And yes, I jumped backwards and screamed like a girl, which, in fact, I am.

So now we get to put all our food in hard sided containers and set traps and maybe borrow Dan's cat and throw her in the pantry and shut the door and see what happens.

Good times, internets, good times.

Today...

...a colleague and I have a grant application due. It's pretty much getting to be almost done.

...I have an Arabic essay due. It's about half done and due in one hour.

...is the last full day before Dan gets back!!

Plus, this whole new Google Buzz thing...I'm not sure how I feel about it. I mean, I've participated in the narcissistic practice of blogging for a while now (holy crap it's been four years - !!), and we know I use my gChat status bar, but somehow imposing a one-line status on the world, knowing that it's going to show up as "new" Buzz and someone's going to feel obligated to read it, if for no other reason than to get their "unread Buzz" back to zero...feels even more narcissistic. I'm not sure I can handle it. (And is it considered meta-narcissistic if I post on my blog about it??)

Happy Monday! :)

These are not the droids you're looking for.

So my boy is out of town for the weekend :( :( which leaves me with lots of, um, "free" (?) time. You know, all that time every day that I usually spend with him (after my school work for the day is done, of course!) that now I don't get to spend with him because he's several states away. :( So this weekend I get to fill that time with, um, more school work, or late Arabic homework, or house work, or laundry, or late Arabic homework, or my visiting teaching (eep), or even, you guessed it, late Arabic homework. (Ooooh - or grocery shopping!!)

His flight left last night at 7pm. So what, you ask, did I do with all that available evening time???

Yes, that's right. I did.

I went to bed at 7:30pm.

Happy New Year?

"This year needs to be over--I'm so done being hit by cars."

- Elise, who was hit by a car 3 times in 2009

Yeah, I guess we all like to stop traffic...

From the kitchen of Dan

And I quote:

Worcestershire sauce makes meat more beautiful. It's like make-up for women. ... Except not really, because make-up tastes horrible.

Welcome back to school.

I'm starting to get sick. Do we think I could fend it off with a haircut?