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My dry spell from exciting and entertaining stories marches on. My life has successfully turned into the daily grind, slogging through with coffee mug in hand. I am delighted to report, however, that my inability to make it through a day or meal without spilling in some conspicuous location has NOT improved with age.
The inevitable falling off the blog wagon happened even earlier than I had expected. Alas, I am BACK. Unfortunately, most of my hiatus was motivated by the complete lack of content my life has recently provided. Nothing overtly entertaining.
The most exciting moment of this week highlights the general awkwardness my area of study is set to bring into my daily life: I am doing research on the national health goal of reducing the percentage of unplanned pregnancies this month. When I was in the doctor's office this week, I noticed brochures on emergency contraception, early pregnancy care, and a card of resources seemingly aimed at surprised pregnant women and picked them up for this project. I dumped them on my coffee table at home with all my other literature on prenatal care, etc etc. I came home yesterday afternoon and noticed a note from my landlord set right next to them, as she had been in to check on my radiator. It was signed with an addendum at the end, "let me know if you ever need anything, or want to talk." Another successful encounter, since she surely thinks I'm pregnant now. And, of course, there is never a good time to attempt to correct her.
Today I walked out my back door, to where there are bikes chained to the outside of the stair railings. Because the tires are suspended in air, today I was delighted to see a squirrel who was running along the top of a bike tire while it spun like a treadmill underneath him. Then he saw me and jumped off.
This weekend, I went to Des Moines, Iowa. It was a long drive, with our only stop being to assist in some alcohol transport for friends. Though long, the drive was relatively uneventful.
The weekend's festivities began by staking claim to a place at the hotel bar, which became a perfect viewing post for all ranges of personality. We were lucky enough to be sharing the beautiful, quaint hotel, with 2 wedding parties, an Autism convention, and Harley-Davidson race-goers.
As the weekend went on, we dutifully attended the hockey games we were in town to watch. No news there. Aside from a paramedic, in a questionably joking tone, threatening to beat Erik up for the jersey off his back.
En route back to the hotel, after a full day of touring Des Moines (including a farmers market, complete with 4 live banjo bands), my car's dashboard lit up and screamed. Nearly instantaneously steam billowed from under the hood, and we were stuck spending the next 3 hours waiting for a man named Mike driving a tow truck. When he came to save us, he regaled us with his stories of picking up travelers who were guilty of "driving while mexican" and other assorted tales. Finally we got a cab back to the hotel from the gas station on the corner of nowhere, and re-saat ourselves at the hotel bar.
We had made it back just in time to watch the weddings heat up. One of the 2 grooms (the 12 year old one...) spent most of the night buying rounds of shots at the bar and screaming incoherent things while running around without shoes. Drunk dialing bridesmaids made their rounds in and out of the revolving doors with mascara running down their faces, shoes in one hand and cell phone in the other. An old man in a cowboy hat came up to Erik to ask if anyone ever asks if he plays basketball, and then suggesting that he respond by asking if they play mini golf? Some man sitting at the bar, after seeing on my ID that I was from Minneapolis, joyfully started a conversation about the cities. When I told him I was stranded without a running car, he said, with alarming ferocity, GOD DAMN, WHY CANT YOU JUST WALK THERE. He tried to save himself by telling me he wasn't trying to be rude, and then glared at me. He spent the rest of the night pacing around the lower level of the lobby and shooting me dirty looks. I'm still unsure of how I offended him... And old-man-mini-golf walked by repeatedly pretending to take things off our table and laughing at himself.
Finally, after realizing my car was not going to be fixed in time to return home for class/work/meetings/etc my mom graciously offered to subject herself to a night in Des Moines to wait patiently for the car...... outcome tba at a later date.
THE END.
This week, in all its chaos, I have discovered something-- I am wholly addicted to Microsoft Office.
Yesterday, I was in an open-notes exam and searching for a specific quote. My intuition said, ctrl+F-- problem solved.
Several days before, I thought why don't red squiggly lines appear on my paper when I misspell handwritten things?
Office has made everything so easy, that now my non-digital life seems overly laborious. WHY can't I spontaneously draw on drop down menu for things like synonyms, or easily cut and paste? Wouldn't life be so much better?
Alternately, I am concerned that my post-wine-drunk computer is going to suddenly die leaving me high and dry without Office, in which case I would be a lost soul.