I sat down for lunch today and had a hilarious realization. Everything I was eating was orange. I had left-over Thai red curry over rice, a piece of cheddar cheese, and baby carrots. Ironically, the only other thing on the table was a clear bottle filled with 409's ORANGE POWER cleanser. I decided this was my centerpiece.
Finally, this is one of the best AIM coversations I have had:
(15:47:26) nkhwoodward: yuppers
(15:47:36) nkhwoodward: we do need to get an officiant pretty soon
(15:48:01) nkhwoodward: and probably need to determine if we want a
completely civil style ceremony or anything at all religious/spiritual
(15:51:11) mtkohner: back
(15:51:13) mtkohner: sorry about that.
(15:51:20) mtkohner: I prefer civil.
(15:51:20) nkhwoodward: np
(15:51:35) nkhwoodward: me too but with some readings of the romantic-y variety
(15:51:43) mtkohner: if every other word is god and jesus I'm afriad I
might burst into flame.
(15:51:56) nkhwoodward: ie i dont want 5 minutes of
(15:52:02) nkhwoodward: "do you want to marry you"
(15:52:04) nkhwoodward: "yes"
(15:52:10) nkhwoodward: "and you want to marry you"
(15:52:12) nkhwoodward: "yes"
(15:52:16) nkhwoodward: "good, lets have cake"
(15:52:19) mtkohner: hahahaha
(15:52:35) mtkohner: I like cake
(15:52:36) nkhwoodward: this is going on my blog
(15:53:48) nkhwoodward: but definately no "and god gave adam a helper
in the form of eve and today woman exists to be her husbands helper"
(15:53:53) nkhwoodward: "and clean his feet"
(15:53:54) mtkohner: hahahaha
(15:54:07) mtkohner: you NEVER clean my feet and that disappoints me.
(15:56:04) nkhwoodward: yeah well
(15:56:27) nkhwoodward: you don't protect me from marauding goats so I
am also dissappointed
(15:57:00) mtkohner: hahahaha
(15:57:06) mtkohner: maruading goats/
(15:57:06) mtkohner: ?
(15:57:07) mtkohner: ???
(15:57:13) mtkohner: that'd be a great punk band name.
(15:57:18) nkhwoodward: washing feet?!?!?!
(15:57:27) nkhwoodward: not as good as breathing vaginas
(15:57:45) mtkohner: hahahah
(15:57:56) nkhwoodward: hey, deny it
(15:58:02) mtkohner: heh.
(15:58:27) nkhwoodward: if i was attacked by a goat,would you kill it?
(15:58:33) mtkohner: yes.
So, I wish I had some exciting news to report from the neither reaches of debate camp, but I don't. I have spent much of my time trying to avoid researching "Australia" for the college debate topic, working on developing my high school travel schedule, reading email, and missing the boy.
Missing the boy has taken a lot of that time actually. I have been at this camp for 5 years now and I think each time I was dating someone. Last year was the first year I ever missed someone while I was here. Last year it was tied up in a lot of anxiety and "egads we havent been together for a long time and will he be mad at me when I get back" and I was gone for almost 5 weeks and it was horrendous. This year it isn't that; I have to say I don't really feel much anxiety at all, just a general longing and missing home and the boy and wanting to be back there.
I had a short bad scare last night until this afternoon after I dumped alot of water on the iprecious (not the iprecious that plays music, the iprecious that I use to go online, the first is more accurately the ipodicious). It wouldn't boot up and wouldn't work until I removed the keyboard and put a fan directly on top of it and left it. Everyone who knows anything about computers who I have told this to seems shocked that I did exactly the right thing. I have to say that this was not my idea, it was the boy's. However, I was hopping and jumping and yelling "Precious, Precious" like a really really tall Gollum when it started to work.
I have found two awesome websites.
LiveArchive. This site is a collection of concert mp3s (legal even) from a lot of obscure bands. They have a lot by Cracker, Camper van Beethoven, and Cowboy Junkies, so I am very happy.
H2O.
This site just has to be experienced. It is a collection of classroom lectures (typically at the graduate level) on a variety of topics. Fascinating. I am especially glad because I had occassionally wondered if my mind might rot next year. Now, thankfully it won't.
Lab so far is going all right. I was wondering if I was just a complete dud this year because when I talk, my affirmative lab tends to look at me as though I am either a) an idiot or b) psychotic. This feeling was lessened by the critique lecture I gave this morning that was awesome. It was really fun to do and the students responded a lot and when I was leaving they all said it was really "sweet" and their favorite lecture so far.
I bet they tell that to all of the debate coaches.
I have been trying to get some exercise while I am out here and have been attempting to walk and not be a slug sitting in my chair the entire time. So far this is going okay, as I have walked to Starbucks once, Merchants once, and have taken a general walk for awhile once also. Another walk is scheduled for this evening.
Before Ileft, the boy and I were drinking a bit of Rasberry Lambic and when I was at Merchant's for dinner they had the bottles in the cooler on sale. I think I might have to procure one and have a relaxing evening sometime while I am here. I love the Raspberry Lambic, but it is almost incomporable to the peach lambic, which the words of five poets could not accurately describe.
We have lab for 45 more minutes and have NOT A DAMN THING to do in some ways. The joys of a micromanaged schedule.
Also, if anyone knows of a way to get the MyTunes program (that isnt the SonicSharer one) for Macs, please let me know and me and my music collection will be greatful.
So I have successfully made it out to debate camp after the Friday night flight was cancelled and leaving at 5:30am on Saturday. The time change has been slightly rough as it is 2 hrs earlier here and we had a meeting until 10 pm last night and I was up until midnight doing dorm stuff. However, today I have nothing much going on until 7pm this evening, so I am adjusting fine.
I am very happy (though not really surprised) that Lance won his 7th Tour de France. I was surprised at how well Jan Ullrich ended up doing.
I have been obessively reading about this recent blog-o-sphere/Grey Lady scandal. After reading the article in the NYT and the blog, all I can say is WAHHH Susan Olen and that I hate her. More (and more eloquent) commentary can be found
here
here
and as the lead story of today's Salon.
I am currently printing stuff for mt curriculum and getting ready for tonight's lab to start. However, being that we had to get all of our evidence done in advance, I feel pretty useless.
The last week has been filled with the mundane doings of randomness; working on moving, filling out the forms to move into the boy's apt, registering at Marshall Fields, Williams Sonoma, and Pottery Barn, cutting debate cards, and doing some cleaning while attempting to avoid the heat. I have, however, been reading a lot. I got Harry Potter v6 and bawled at the end. The book is, I think, the most well written in the series and I found the end surprising. My thoughts are (SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT AND ARE PLANNING TO):
1. That as much as I would like for him to be evil, I don't think Snape is really evil, but that like Harry, he was following Dumbeldore's orders.
2. I haven't decided but some thoughts on how the final book might end up
a) Harry is the 7th Horcrux and must either kill himself after killing Voldemort or dies and Neville (maybe the real "chosen one") kills LV. Kids will be crying for weeks and (who am I kidding), I will be also or
b) Harry's scar is a Horcrux.
However, I have a sinking suspicion that Harry will not survive book 7.
I also read Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman and was just incensed the entire time, just hating every single male character within the book. This is definately a time-related issue, since I think part of the point of the book (written in 1968) was that these were not outwardly oppressive men, but rather a description of how norms and expectations are naturalized.
I am also almost finished with Greg Critser's Fat Land about the food and beverage industries and the increasing waistbands of Americans. I have not fully formed an opinion on the book; the author certainly takes a hardline approach, arguing that in a few years, Americans will recognize the financial and social costs that the growing numbers of obese persons have and will begin to view obesity in the same terms that we certainly view smoking. There are some interesting comparative examples with European countries and a lot of discussion of American education. I am not sure if Critser's hypothesis is correct, because I was personally hoping that the next group of people to get treated like smokers would be parents, because I really am tired of going out to eat at a fairly decent (i.e. not chain or fast food) restaurant and have screaming children surroundme. Thus, I am starting a petition to have the sections in Minneapolis restaurants that were smoking and non-smoking before the smoking bans changed to with children and child-free. Somemight protest that the previous smoking (and now, with-children) section was in the bar of a restaurant. My response is that if I have ever collectively seen a group of people who are in desperate need of a drink, it is parents of small screaming children. And to the people who brought like three kids under the age of five to Las Cucarachas last week, perhaps you should consider that boothes are close together and while you might find your child screaming cute, the vast majority of other patrons don't. There is my random rant of the week.
Finally, I just started Don DeLillo's End Zone. So far, it seems delightful.
The only other exciting move is that I had an awesome bike ride yesterday -- I have vastly moved up in gears and am now almost exclusively riding in the big ring in the front and we were going between 16-18 mph for most of our 10 mile ride (excluding the part on the roads). It was awesome and the boy seemed impressed.
I leave for debate camp on Friday and I really don't want to go -- there is nothing much there (besides making my salary) that I am looking forward to. So, I will remember my salary and be happy about it.
So both a lot and nothing has been going on in my world. I was at debate camp for a couple of weeks and now have been manically cleaning the apartment getting ready for me to move in. I spent yesterday shopping with Katie and had some very good purchases, the best being 3 pairs of Kenneth Cole shoes for $20 each. The boy and I had dinner with Katie and Baxter and Dave and Amy and then the boy and I were zonkedout and headed home. I hadn't really realized that yesterday would be the last day I saw Katie before I left. I realized it at the end of dinner and when the boy and I left, I burst into tears. I was so sad and will miss Katie a lot.
The Tour de France has been really exciting; especially the team time trial. Nike has debutted one of the best commercials ever I think. It shows the press conference where Lance Armstrong announces that he has cancer. It flips to a black screen and then back to the press conference where he says he needs to focus on his treatment but hopes to return strongly to biking. Then it flips to the Nike Just do it on a black screen. There were tears. I have a rather large and not terribly attractive crush on Lance Armstrong (which I have confessed to the boy).
I have been contemplating a lot this whole marriage and partnership thing and becomming a "wife."