" been a loooooong tiiiiime gooo-OH-ooone"--The Dixie Chicks
Actually, I haven't been. I've just been away from the computer for most of break; I checked my email perhaps five times, and LJ slightly more.
FYI, Smoothie Blend Jelly Bellys are excellent. I'm staving off lunch-hunger, because my ID card fell out of my coat pocket at some point over break, and it is a little bit of a hassle to get a new one. I'll do that after this entry. The office is conveniently located in the basement of the nearest dining hall.
I was neither here nor there about coming back to school. I am excited for classes, as always, but I love break. Lyndsey came and stayed with me for the last 4 days of break, and we were both dragging our feet about coming back. However, rearranging our room did wonders for our moods. We bunked our beds and moved Lyndsey's dresser and desk around, and now the room looks half again as big as it did. I set up my comfy papasan chair, and we hung up the beautiful lampshade/quadrilateral wall hanging of Ganesh the elephant that Holly gave me for Christmas. Our room is definitely the coziest one in the suite, and now people will be able to hang out comfortably in our abode.
I ate breakfast with Laura and Laura's wonderful mom this morning at 8, which was an impressively early hour, considering that I stayed up past midnight watching a disturbing movie (anyone seen "Secretary" and want to discuss it...?).
The weeks leading up to Christmas were just packed, as was last week, but the interim was quieter than any break I've had. I read 4 books, watched a lot of movies, painted and drew a little, played with the puppy, and made interesting food. I made a particularly awesome coconut curried chicken dish with bamboo slices and green beans over jasmine rice that I was proud of. I also made sweet and sour tofu, and corn chowder, and some cookies.
After a lovely sleepover with Holly and Sand and the Waymans' slideshow on Saturday, I went on an impromptu trip to Williams college with Ian Fields to visit Noah. Lisa Fields was worried that Noah was stressed and unhappy at school, and she decided she wanted me and Ian to check in on him, since he wasn't really talking to her about it. Basically we were sent as spies, but I was the only one in the know (because Mom told me). Lisa cleverly erased her fingerprints from the plan, mentioning to Ian that I wanted to visit Noah, so he called me and said, "So, I hear you want to visit Noah. I want to go too. Let's go tomorrow." I felt slightly used, since I had never said anything about visiting Noah, but it ended up being a fabulous trip.
We were only going to stay Sunday night, but there was a blizzard in the Boston area Sunday night and part of Monday, so we stayed Tuesday night as well. Noah was thrilled, because he'd wanted us to stay longer anyway. What a great couple of days. I <3 the Fields boys. I could devote five pages to describing the trip, but I'll summarize. We explored an old, locked church at midnight, helped some of Noah's friends make posters about voting for the primaries, ice-skated (my first time), watched Noah try out for a broomball team, explored the closed sections of a beautiful old library and got in a tiny amount of trouble (with an elderly lady who was obviously taken with Noah), went to a great Thai restaurant, and watched Chocolat (after which Ian played Johnny D's theme song riff on Noah's suitemate's electric guitar). Noah had a lot of meetings, several classes and quartet practice, so Ian and I wandered around and found things to do while Noah was busy. We took several walks and visited the local art museum, which had a surprising number of famous paintings, and we laid around on the couches in Noah's suite, drinking tea and talking. I taught Ian to fingerknit, so we had a race to see whose knitting was longest at the end of an hour.
Noah was such a gracious host. Ian and I slept on the floor of his minuscule room, and since Noah had to leave early, he set out towels and shampoo for us in the morning, as well as sliced (and nicely arranged!) pumpkin bread for breakfast, and he set the alarm for a kinder hour of the morning, all without waking us. I think he really is doing alright at school, it just took him a while to adjust. He says he's happier now, and he thinks it will continue to get better.
Ian and I talked the entire 5 1/2-hour drive to Williams, and then practically nonstop over the weekend, and then most of the drive home (when we weren't singing along to Joni Mitchell, etc.). When we stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom, I told him, "Let's pick out the weirdest food we can find and buy it." After a lot of looning around the little convenience store laughing maniacally (the unshaven, potbellied cashier raised his eyebrow at us tiredly), we settled on dill pickle-flavored, unshelled sunflower seeds and Scooby-Doo "fruit" snacks. Then we sat in the parking lot and attempted to eat the horrible sunflower seeds. The package said, "Experienced Seeders hold a mouthful of seeds in one cheek while biting open one seed at a time and spitting out the shell." Naturally, we tried this. Ian and I are not "Experienced Seeders", apparently. What a mess. Woohoo.
Ian called me on Friday before he flew back to France, while Lyndsey and I were transferring new finches into a bigger cage. He said, "Um, I just wanted to make sure you had a good time and that you weren't bored on that trip, because I had a great time. I just want to make sure." Uh, please. Fat chance of boredom. The trip was incredible.
Ok, NOW I'm hungry enough to be motivated. I will get a new card, eat, and sign up for my guitar lesson time slot. Yummmmy.
FYI, Smoothie Blend Jelly Bellys are excellent. I'm staving off lunch-hunger, because my ID card fell out of my coat pocket at some point over break, and it is a little bit of a hassle to get a new one. I'll do that after this entry. The office is conveniently located in the basement of the nearest dining hall.
I was neither here nor there about coming back to school. I am excited for classes, as always, but I love break. Lyndsey came and stayed with me for the last 4 days of break, and we were both dragging our feet about coming back. However, rearranging our room did wonders for our moods. We bunked our beds and moved Lyndsey's dresser and desk around, and now the room looks half again as big as it did. I set up my comfy papasan chair, and we hung up the beautiful lampshade/quadrilateral wall hanging of Ganesh the elephant that Holly gave me for Christmas. Our room is definitely the coziest one in the suite, and now people will be able to hang out comfortably in our abode.
I ate breakfast with Laura and Laura's wonderful mom this morning at 8, which was an impressively early hour, considering that I stayed up past midnight watching a disturbing movie (anyone seen "Secretary" and want to discuss it...?).
The weeks leading up to Christmas were just packed, as was last week, but the interim was quieter than any break I've had. I read 4 books, watched a lot of movies, painted and drew a little, played with the puppy, and made interesting food. I made a particularly awesome coconut curried chicken dish with bamboo slices and green beans over jasmine rice that I was proud of. I also made sweet and sour tofu, and corn chowder, and some cookies.
After a lovely sleepover with Holly and Sand and the Waymans' slideshow on Saturday, I went on an impromptu trip to Williams college with Ian Fields to visit Noah. Lisa Fields was worried that Noah was stressed and unhappy at school, and she decided she wanted me and Ian to check in on him, since he wasn't really talking to her about it. Basically we were sent as spies, but I was the only one in the know (because Mom told me). Lisa cleverly erased her fingerprints from the plan, mentioning to Ian that I wanted to visit Noah, so he called me and said, "So, I hear you want to visit Noah. I want to go too. Let's go tomorrow." I felt slightly used, since I had never said anything about visiting Noah, but it ended up being a fabulous trip.
We were only going to stay Sunday night, but there was a blizzard in the Boston area Sunday night and part of Monday, so we stayed Tuesday night as well. Noah was thrilled, because he'd wanted us to stay longer anyway. What a great couple of days. I <3 the Fields boys. I could devote five pages to describing the trip, but I'll summarize. We explored an old, locked church at midnight, helped some of Noah's friends make posters about voting for the primaries, ice-skated (my first time), watched Noah try out for a broomball team, explored the closed sections of a beautiful old library and got in a tiny amount of trouble (with an elderly lady who was obviously taken with Noah), went to a great Thai restaurant, and watched Chocolat (after which Ian played Johnny D's theme song riff on Noah's suitemate's electric guitar). Noah had a lot of meetings, several classes and quartet practice, so Ian and I wandered around and found things to do while Noah was busy. We took several walks and visited the local art museum, which had a surprising number of famous paintings, and we laid around on the couches in Noah's suite, drinking tea and talking. I taught Ian to fingerknit, so we had a race to see whose knitting was longest at the end of an hour.
Noah was such a gracious host. Ian and I slept on the floor of his minuscule room, and since Noah had to leave early, he set out towels and shampoo for us in the morning, as well as sliced (and nicely arranged!) pumpkin bread for breakfast, and he set the alarm for a kinder hour of the morning, all without waking us. I think he really is doing alright at school, it just took him a while to adjust. He says he's happier now, and he thinks it will continue to get better.
Ian and I talked the entire 5 1/2-hour drive to Williams, and then practically nonstop over the weekend, and then most of the drive home (when we weren't singing along to Joni Mitchell, etc.). When we stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom, I told him, "Let's pick out the weirdest food we can find and buy it." After a lot of looning around the little convenience store laughing maniacally (the unshaven, potbellied cashier raised his eyebrow at us tiredly), we settled on dill pickle-flavored, unshelled sunflower seeds and Scooby-Doo "fruit" snacks. Then we sat in the parking lot and attempted to eat the horrible sunflower seeds. The package said, "Experienced Seeders hold a mouthful of seeds in one cheek while biting open one seed at a time and spitting out the shell." Naturally, we tried this. Ian and I are not "Experienced Seeders", apparently. What a mess. Woohoo.
Ian called me on Friday before he flew back to France, while Lyndsey and I were transferring new finches into a bigger cage. He said, "Um, I just wanted to make sure you had a good time and that you weren't bored on that trip, because I had a great time. I just want to make sure." Uh, please. Fat chance of boredom. The trip was incredible.
Ok, NOW I'm hungry enough to be motivated. I will get a new card, eat, and sign up for my guitar lesson time slot. Yummmmy.