tonight I’m gonna party like its 1999

I don’t know about the 1999 party or in all honesty about the party part, but I am pretty darn excited because I just submitted the last of all my graduate school applications! How exciting is that! very, I tell you very!

If you remember back to those bleary late january days, I was all in a dizzy about getting things done. And now I have completed the biggest part of that, grad school applications! The important thing to know in all of this is just how much I hate applying, be that to programs, jobs, etc. Anything that makes you sit down and write about how awesome you are/how good your job skills are drives me bananas. So now all that is left is wishing and hoping and waiting to hear back about being accepted or not.

In other news this past weekend was a good but crazy one. I was up in Wisconsin at a fellowship single women’s retreat. We stayed in this big rambling house right near the lake and Friday evening, after the moon rose, a bunch of the younger women all walked out onto the lake and slid around on the ice. We twirled around to various disney songs and raced each other, until the cold and occasional weird popping ice noises sent us indoors.

The retreat itself was very thought-provoking, mildly overwhelming in a good way and generally a lovely time.  I got back latish on Saturday night and Sunday was  a pretty packed day with church, helping Erini move in (for only an hour, the true heroes of the tale are Jess and Becca), attending a dance performance at the high school, supper with Tim and Charletta and then watching the Academy Awards on an amazing crystal clear flat panel television at a friend’s house.

Coming up this weekend is another busy one, but again lots of fun to be anticipated.  My family is getting together at a cabin in Michigan, where I am sure there will be much game playing, walking, picture taking, and general rest and merriment.

events of a speculative nature

Last evening while walking to a meeting, I was crossing the road and looked down there was our blue silicone heating pad, which I hadn’t even realized we were missing.  Although it had been run over a few times, its rubbery existence was unfazed by the event.

Upon arriving home from work yesterday the cat was very insistent on cuddling with me.  Except once I she was on my lap she managed to produce a fart so noxious in smell I almost fell out of my chair.

Today I didn’t check my email at all until right before lunch, the effort needed to accomplish this far exceeded my expectations.

music to my ears

This past weekend was lovely, or should I say the part that started Friday afternoon, stopped Saturday early morning and then continued around noon on Saturday (the blip represents when I was taking the GREs a rather creepy, but fairly successful experience*). Filled with good times with my roommates, social events, great discussions, very little work on my application essays and several excellent meals I would have to give it a 7.9 out of 10. Here are some of the highlights:

- attending a concert by some very talented neighborhood folks and getting compliments on my lovely blouse afterwards

- going to the Field Museum for free with my roommates and going through the very fascinating exhibit on evolution

- meeting a co-worker for lunch at the nearby Ethiopian restaurant and sitting around talking for close to 2 hours

- playing a wonderful game of Settler expansion pack in a two part edition Sunday afternoon and Monday evening

- sitting around talking (to new friends!) until 1am last night

The main downside of the weekend was waking up this morning and the fact that our school keeps playing odd semi-Hawaiian music in the halls which makes me feel like I should have some fruity drink in my hand and be laying on sand.

*I did pretty solidly on verbal and better than I expected on the quantitative considering I haven’t had a math class in over 6 years! The creepy part was the odd little cubicles, all the cameras, the narrow hallways and everything being in corporation white.

Oh and on a random note, today just turned into my highest number of visits ever, what happened I wonder.  Why are all of you reading this?

V-day

I was trying to find some inspiration about what to post on this auspicious day by looking through my old archives. I can’t believe I am working on my fourth year of this blogging thing. Which means I had three different valentine’s day posts to look over and see what I was up to in previous years.

2005 – This was a pretty good year, I was down in Indianapolis and living with someone who loved this holiday (this always helps ). While none of us were dating anyone, we all got dressed up and cooked ourselves a really yummy meal. It remains one of my favorite memories from that semester.

2006 – A senior in college, I once again celebrated with friends, this time at my parents house. I also worked a shift at the coffee house and reflected on being single (my default state for v-day). This is a slightly more moody post, but it seems like I was finding ways to enjoy my life and all the other ways I had to express love.

2007 – While my post from this past year was a pretty rough one, I want to instead link to  day after post, because in it I write about one of the best parts of this past year, my roommates.  Instead of repeating a lot of what I wrote last year, I will just direct you all to go back and a take a look at it.  However this stage of our happy foursome is quickly coming to an end, Steph is moving back to Goshen in just over a week and will be marrying a great guy come June.  Erini will be moving in (here’s to the new gang!) and things are changing.

Change is good, but not always easy to process, it will be strange to have Steph living 3 hours away, considering I have lived with or very near her for the past 6 years.  I am very excited for her and the new stage of life she is heading down, but also aware of how things can never be like they were before.  I am constantly amazed by how quickly life is progressing and how it is impossible to return to any previous stage of life.  Ah, there is nothing like a 24 year old ruminating about the progression of life as we get older, to really sound full of it

Here’s to you and your valentines, be they your friends, families or lovers, I hope you have a wonderful day.

Bird over Edinburgh

IMG_1310.JPG, originally uploaded by AbbyN.

One of my favorite evenings in Scotland, was when Jess and I climbed up Carlton Hill. Only a block away from our hostel, the hill was dotted with various odd buildings and towers built in styles ranging from Greek columns to 19th century domes. Along the side of the hill sea gulls gathered in flocks to catch the updraft whipping up from the harbor. They would launch themselves upward and then just float whirling around. After several attempts, I finally caught this bird as it turned out towards sea.

beware the pre-midnight blog posts

for lo they often take on the melancholy and end up resembling nothing more than bad poetry.

Tonight I danced and it was good, but it made me ache for things I don’t have right now.  Things that aren’t in my control, things that I can only attempt to gain by waiting and remaining open to new people.  Two things that are not exactly easy for me.  Sometimes I don’t understand the world today; the body language of flirting, the Rules and the complex of dance of showing interest without revealing yourself too soon.  Maybe we should go back to the days of Little Women, where the moral boys and girls always triumphed in the end.  Where waiting was rewarded, flirting looked down upon and simple joys were encouraged.

Yet even that is not enough, because I like the simple joys of being able to vote and my increased chances of not dying in childbirth.  Is there a way to connect in simple lasting ways without reverting to old fashioned romanticism?

I too was once 15…

…but every day it seems more like an alternate universe

Student 1: “Spell IHOP out-loud and then say ‘ness’.”

Student 2: “Why?”

Student 1: “Trust me its really funny!”

Student 2: in hushed whisper “Eye aech oh pe ness” … “oh hahahahah, that’s so gross!”

Student 1: “isn’t it great!”

Teacher: “Excuse me, we are in a library”

Quote of the day*

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.”

- Alan Watts (lifted from Writer’s Almanac, which you all should be reading by now!)

*not actually a daily occurrence and Mennogirl cannot be held responsible for a future lack of quotes of the day, thank you.

an ode to Netflix

Some time last year, Steph persuaded my roommates and I to get ourselves a Netflix account. And I have been really loving it ever since then. It helps that we have a drop-off place for mail right in the main office at work and either we live in a magical close to all distribution centers bubble or Netflix offers great service everywhere. I mean my turn around from return disc to new one is usually 2 days! For example I mail a disc Monday, it gets there Tuesday, they ship a new disc out the same day and wallah! new movie in my mail Wednesday.

All this to say that I just had to show you all this movie summary that popped up in my recommended section (probably due to my recent interest in 1970s romantic comedies):

“Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) is an easygoing trucker and a great fist-fighter. With two friends — Orville, who promotes prizefights for him, and Clyde, the orangutan he won on a bet — he roams the San Fernando Valley in search of cold beer, country music and the occasional punch-up. When Philo falls hard for sexy country singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke), he sets out to win her over.” Every Which Way But Loose

I think the really key part of this lies in the way trucker/fist-fighter and orangutan are so easily thrown together. Why of course, I mean, why wouldn’t Clint Eastwood carry around a monkey with him as he romances a sexy country singer?

Yes, we know our cat is fat

Kitty plots the death of her owners, originally uploaded by AbbyN.

Here is a picture of our lovely cat basking in the love and tummy rubs her owners shower on her. Note the look of death/defeat she is giving the room.