So my birthday (okay, pre-birthday) day has been amazing. We got back just a little bit ago from Restaurant Alma. It was amazing. I had a trout appetizer with potato chunks and mini croutons, a main dish of seared ahi tuna with a meyer lemon sauce and beans, and a dessert sampler of stout gingerbread with candied apples, lemon souffle cake, and a pistachio mousse with a chocalate torte. Add to this two glasses of a delicious Cotes du Rhone and the good company of the boy, and I am very very happy. I also got some of the coolest presents ever. I always find birthdays when you are dating someone to be difficult -- gifts can be interpreted as having all sorts of intentions and meanings and while you don't want things to be misinterpeted, you also want to be romantic and sweet.
On this front, the boy did an amazing job. I got a Napolean Dynamite sticker with a picture of a liger on it ("Its only like my most favorite animal ever!"), a cute card, a "Biker Chick" jersey (yay finally, a real bike jersey with pockets and air wicking. And in baby blue too!), a baby tee with GIR on it (and he is in his cute dog suit, yay Invader Zim), a gorgeous cream wool sweater from this Italian boutique place that we both really like, and a box of Godiva dark chocolates. I am a very very happy girl. I love birthdays.
Tommorow I am heading to the deep south. arghh deep south.... yummy southern food.
So, I am proctoring an exam and looking over the 100+ students, many look confused, asleep, wishing they were asleep, or cold. I can sympathize with most of these feelings. Today is a really good day though. I am going out tonight with the boy to celebrate my birthday and I am really excited to see where we go. Will it be old favorite Solera or something new and exciting like Oceanaire. Either of those would make my night. Actually just going out and having a really fun date wouldmake my night, so I am pretty excited. However, I have had a hankering for the hot chocolate and churros at Solera for awhile now. I have had a major sweet tooth for the last week or so and can't quite figure out why, but I don't really care. So anyway, today is fairly mellow -- I have to sort the exams attend a 3 hour long seminar, and then get ready for the night out. Wow,life is rough. Tommorrow we are flying to my parent's house (well, not directly), but I am very very glad that we are renting a car and will be able to explore on our own.
Friday November 19, 2004
4:49 pm
It is only about 5 pm but already I feel like I should be getting into bed and sleeping away. However, that is not going to talk about that. I am judging a round right now (yeah, yeah, I realize that perhaps I should give that my undivided attention, but it is just not going to happen. I was feeling guilty today for just sitting around being a bum and watching “Dawson’s Creek” until like 11 am, and then I remembered that I am officially working until past 10 pm tonight and the feelings of guilt were sharply reduced.
The judge’s lounge at the tournament has not yet been set up. Bahh. Thankfully, I am only judging 3 rounds total at the tournament, so I will have time to finally write the introduction to this agonism paper.
This round is really really bad for a varsity round.
My birthday is coming up and I am very excited – the boy is spending time tomorrow going shopping, etc. and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with. Hopefully there will be dessert.
Last night I had the yummiest dinner at the Loring Pasta Bar in Dinkytown. They just changedtheir menu and have this yummy new feature. You can get a meat type item with a sauce/butter/etc. and then a side dish. I had grilled salmon with a gorgonzola butter and garlic mashed potatoes. The boy had pork with some sauce and mashed potatoes. Then he starting looking lustfully at… my mashed potatoes. So, I gave him some and had a few glasses of Tempranillo and all was good. On a side note, I am really liking Spanish and Portugese wines as of late. And on a second note of randomness, I am really hungry right now. Lately, I have had a massive sweet tooth and I have found the best new food to satisfy it: Chocolate oat crisps. You can get them at IKEA and they come in this big box and it is an oat crisp sandwich with dark chocolate. With a glass of milk, I feel like I might be European. Or at least have a major desire to be European.
I really want dinner. Really really want dinner. GURGLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE.
Only 15 or so minutes left in this round. Thank god.
I got the coolest mix cd from Eric – thank you, thank you, thank you. This reminds me of the coolest website ever: artofthemix.com or .org… Google it. You can search for mixes based on a mood, title, or inclusion of a certain song by a certain artist. You can easily waste hours (and hey, isn’t that what you want to do?!)
More in a bit
I have a new love -- the Wedge's Triple Ginger cookies. They are almost cookie perfection (well, without being chocolately, which is a general pre-requisite for perfection). They are gingery (not gingerly), with pieces of candied ginger inside, sugar granules on the top, and the edges are almost crispy, while the middle is incredibly chewy. Utterly perfect.
I have class in 2 hours and I have not read my Habermas. I really hate reading Habermas with a passion. Today has been pretty good; I TAed, had lunch with a friend, complained about the prelims and various other grad school induced bitterness, am about to teach, and then have class. Hopefully tonight the boy and I will have date night, since last week we didn't because (and yes, this is the saddest excuse ever), the cable guy was coming.
Woohoo, I just checked my bank account and actually have money. This is a new and unusual occurence.
good enough
I hate headaches (as compared, I am sure to the many people that adore having them). Well, everything is remarkably well here and today has been kinda crazy. I am running around trying to get this tournament I am hosting put together and more and more teams are entered. A month from today I will be in a state of sheer panic, but thankfully, a month from today isn't today. I had my teaching evaluated today by the Director of the Upper School at Blake and I think it went well. The class was a bit rambunctious, so we did a section on Cross-Examination skills and then played (thank you Jim Hanson), the cross-ex game. I have emailed a gazzilion people reserving hotel rooms, getting trophies, trying to organize people bringing food and what-not. I really enjoyed the class I taught today and was thankful that the kids were excited (and sometimes a bit loud), but fun and really engaged in the activities.
Right now I am waiting for my assistant coach to show up. He was supposed to be here 90 minutes ago. Arghh. I am experiencing some debate frustration as in I don't understand why my debaters have to behave like the high schoolers they are. However, right now all seems pretty good and they are excited and I am really excited about my younger kids, who I think have a lot of potential and could be quite good.
I don't really know why I am in such a good mood, but I don't care very much. These last few months have sometimes felt like a constant battle to not get depressed (like I have every winter since I moved here) and to not go on SSRIs (again, every winter since I have moved here and they screw with me). I don't know why it is working, but I am not really questioning it too much. Part of it is that I am not as insanely busy as I was last fall and winter, part of it has to do with a good relationship, some with making sure I get light and good protein-y food and exercise. I'm not quite sure what the rest is. Maybe, not caring very much is the trick. And I am certainly perfecting that.
I am also very excited about my birthday. I feel like Katie when she was getting her tattoo with me. Allyou had to do was remind her about parties or puppies and she grinned, talked (surprising to those who know her) and felt better. Right now, part of my birthday happiness is that the boy is planning something and I know he has been thinking about it for awhile and putting a lot of effort into it, so I am sure it will be fantastic. I also get to travelon my birthday and spend the evening at my parent's house and my sister will be there with her new kitten, Trouble. I think my dad will make salmon on the grill which will be not only delicious, but also a source of entertainment. The last time my Dad made salmon when I was at home, he used the wrong type of PAM and started a fireball that my mom saw outside her 2nd floor window. The shrieking started and was loud and prolonged. I can't wait!!!! Hopefully this year will be even better. And the boy will be there (down South) and I am wondering how all of that will go. The boy meeting southern culture will be fascinatingly interesting. However, he will love the food down there and I think he might become addicted to goo goo clusters. We are renting a car thank goodness so we will be able to bum around whenand where-ever we want.
I really might knock off a couple of my debaters. Not really. There was a case like 20 years ago of a debate coach killing one of their debaters. Now, if that doesn't make for the geekiest "America's Most Wanted," I don't know what does. "Tonight, a crime so heinous, caused by a young man.... not completing his assigned briefs!!!"
It is pretty much about time to head to the gym. I am getting blury-eyed and am caffeined out. I should really never have Swiss Cake Rolls for breakfast, ever ever ever. But they are so good and I love them. I LOVE THEM.
Finally,I don't know if it is me or not, but I don't think there are any good movies out. I don't really want to see Ray or Birth, for instance.
All right, I have a hot date with a stationary bike and then the whirlpool. So, I'm blowing this popstand....
natalie
So, I am continuing to be a bad grad student (BGS Syndrome) and didn't go to my TA class this AM. Ah, I'm not so very worried. In the midst of learning the DVR and being pop culture obsessed, I have found a new love: The Sunday Night Sex show. The host is an older Canadian woman, and I now believe that everyone should be required to watch this show. It is amazingly fun, open, funny, and helpful. It is on Oxygen every night, so I have DVRed it for the rest of the week.
So I have really very little to say. It is a dark and gloomy day outside, and I am hoping it gets more sunny and warmer. Tomorrow I get my teaching evaluated, which seems petrifying, but is kind of exciting too.
The boy has come up with a good solution to the cat problem!! Thankfully, his is far better then my dad, who suggested having the cat put to sleep. The boy is building a room divider to keep the cat out of my "bedroom" (hard when you have a studio apartment). Yay!!!!
To see that I am in a bad moodmight be an understatement. I am having a sort of mid-twenties mini-crisis. I turn twenty five in a few days and think that I have done nothing very productive since college. Sadly, college was four years ago. Since then I have undergone now approaching 4 years of course work with no degrees to show for it, some interesting (albiet disaterous) relationship failures and an inability to have nice bedclothes because my cat has a hormone problem and will pee on them. I have one more year of department funding left, little chance of finding a job after graduation,my debate job isn't going quite as expected, and I haven't yet taken a prelim.
I am feeling rather pathetic right now. I have had just horrible cramps all day and wanted to spend the day laying on the sofa, feeling like the disgusting blob that I am positive I looked like today. I was just happy to have a short tournament this weekend that I wanted to relax since I have one until late next Saturday and the next weekend I am at my parent's and the next 2 weekends I have another long debate tournament and then I host a huge tournament. There is not much relaxation time in the next 6 weeks, and I am a big crampy mess and wanted to just lay around. The boy needed alone time though and kicked me out for like 5 hours. With the afore mentioned cat hormone problem I couldn't go relax at home without a major fear of getting peed on (damn cat), so I had to run around for hours trying to find something to do and being a cramp-ball and I was grumpy. I got back, was upset, talked to the boy about it, decided on getting a loft bed for my place so I could comfortably sleep there without worry, cooked dinner here forme and the boy, hung out while he worked, and he was in bed by 9.
This weekend has sucked and I feel sorry for myself.
I am currently sitting in a round that I have off at a debate tournament. I have a new obsession with Invader Zim (see this site for great pics from the show). I have a new love for the robot/dog/wanna be mongoose GIR and think he might be the cutest thing ever (almost as cute as a Totoro). He has great quotes and sings the doom song. Quotes include: The knowledge! It fills me! It is neat!
I can not believe that this round has ended early since the negative has conceeded. That isn't good. Novices are absolutely adorable but often like newborn puppies -- they run into things, they don't know what they are doing, they bumble, but are pretty fuzzy and likable.