...

'Tis a lovely Spring morning, albeit nothing more than an evil trick from the weather gods. Sure enough we drop 20some degrees by Sunday and expect snow. FML.

I'm quite happy that this week is over. Grant it, it was a lot more stressful in my mind than in real life, but overall it wasn't very pleasant. After staying healthy the entire fall and winter, I finally succumbed to an illness - itchy, watery eyes, runny nose, mild cough, and just a general run-down feeling. After a few days of drugging myself, decent sleep, and not overworking myself at the gym (read: being too lazy to go to the gym) I think I am almost better. I'm going to point the finger at last weekend's debauchery as the cause for my falling ill.

I also had a paper and two midterms due this week - all yesterday. Lucky for me the midterms ended up being extremely long, but reasonable. I am getting a secret pleasure out of the fact that probably half of my Spanish class failed the midterm. The class is geared for people proficient in Spanish but without any linguistic knowledge of it, hence I am already aware of most of the things we are going through. For someone not into linguistics I imagine it might be a lot to process all at once - oh well! sucks for them!

At 1pm after I get off of work I start my BC spring break. destination: Allston, MA. unfortunately because of my class at BU and their different spring break, I still have to go to class next Tuesday and Thursday. i don't have any money for a vacay, but I do hope to have an enjoyable week. So far the only plans are outlet shopping this week/weekend and a Spanish dinner at Ines' place sometime during the week. I'm entertaining the thought of going out in Cambridge for a change but we'll see.

failure

well so much for not being a blackout mess, lol...

after spending most of my day in bed saturday, i finally got my shit together and headed over to Kristen's where her and Megan were still getting ready. i picked up some booze on the way, had a glass of champagne there, then we T'd it over to Washington Street. next raging ensued. we pregamed for probably two hours - we all took turns on the ice luge, i shotgunned (hadn't done that since undergrad), probably took 3 or 4 shots, and washed it all down with another few drinks. not quite sure what i was thinking, but i had a fucking blast. mary's Colby people were all really fun, and i thoroughly enjoyed busting out Cher, Celine, etc. with everyone. kristen as a belated bday gift got these beer goggles that are essentially one giant straw in the shape of glasses that you sip beer through.

by the time we got to faneuil i was tanked, though not visibly aside from my glazed over eyes apparently. long story short i couldn't get into any bars. Sissy K's let me in, but then i was quickly asked to leave as i fell up the stairs going inside. thanks to that my knee is swollen and it hurts to walk! after being denied entry into a number of other places i said fuck it and sketchily got a cab ride home. meanwhile i realized i had left my keys at mary's. that was clearly a sign that in the meantime i needed to go to Natalie's and kill half a pizza while I waited for Mel to get home. interestingly enough i ran into Mary & co. at Natalie's, but I'm pretty sure I half ignored them on account of being fixated on devouring my pizza. i sat in my entryway eating until melanie came home from Cambridge and let me in. *sigh* what an evening.

i spent most of yesterday on my ass, watched 2 lifetime movies, did some work, watched the oscars, and eventually ended up at chris' after he got home from CT. glorious. this week is looking rather meh. i have 2 midterms, neither of which i feel will prove particularly challenging hence my not studying very much. i hope to see finally see slumdog at some point this week as well.

feeling lethargic

im back in bed at 4pm watching Degrassi after having gotten out of bed at 2 this afternoon. i don't know how I used to get up and work 6 hours at Moogy's every Saturday and Sunday. I didn't get home until 4 last night, so i suppose I don't feel like that huge of a waste.

BREAK - went to TJMaxx

well that was nice. Melanie and I needed to get out of the apartment and feel like we accomplished something, so TJMaxx it was. I bought much needed undershirts, some slut underwear, and a Polo in anticipation of spring.

last night Ines came over for a couple of drinks. i made her her first dark & stormy, a drink for which i've had a taste for recently. the other night i really wanted to make this turkish delight martini, but of course finding rose vodka became an issue. as a result i walked out with some St. Germain, Gosling's, Absolut L.A., and ginger beer. random things but delicious all of them. anyway, ines and i chatted and looked at pics and whatnot. i really love the opportunity to speak spanish for a couple of hours. i think thanks to her my level of fluidity in speech is slowly creeping back to where it was in Madrid. now i need to start conversing with her solely in Catalan.

after drinks we met up with Jillian, Jonathan, Vanessa, and a bunch of others at JTree (convenient). i miss hanging out with all of them - i feel like i never see them anymore, particularly vanessa. anyway, we stayed at JTree til it closed, and then walked over to Vanessa's apartment off of Washington Street. meanwhile Mel had met up with us and we stayed over there until maybe 3:30. we played catchphrase (lol) and some people ordered chinese. i ate dumplings. it was fun.

tonight it seems i'll be going out again, despite my feeling incredibly lethargic. i need to do some abs, eat dinner, and shower first. kristen and megan are pregaming at kristen's work friend's place inbetween Beacon & Comm. down by Washington St., then going to Faneuil. my new thing is not blacking out (lol), so we'll see if i can stay somewhat not of a mess for the third night in a row!

For Peter...sorry its kind of boring

well here goes another Monday morning, back to the daily grind...

The weekend was quite enjoyable, beginning with a Friday afternoon full of baking cookies and cake. We put together a surprise pregame/party for Kristen's 23rd, and around 3 o'clock Chris' Melanie and her friend Holly came over to start the baking process. In honor of Kristen and her strange food habits the appetizers were - peanut butter cookies with jelly, snickerdoodles, ham and butter sandwiches catered from panera, funfetti cake, and croutons with ranch dressing. Strange, but all quite tasty to be honest. The surprise went over very well, and around 10 we all headed to Dillon's where we had reserved the back area. The trip back home became mildly traumatic in that my Melanie a) lost her wallet with ID, etc. and b) fell on the ice and cut open her eyebrow/bruised her eye, but luckily the wallet has been turned in and her face is on the road to recovery.

Saturday our friend Mo came in from Virginia, so Chris and I decided to postpone our Valentine's day celebration until a later date. Chris and I did grab a drink at Eastern Standard but then split up for dinner. I ended up at Sunset with Mel, Lauren, Anthony, and Mo - very greasy and fatty but of course delicious stuff. We picked up beers from BLM and had a nice evening just staying in and catching up.

Sunday morning we grabbed bagels at Bagel Rising before a blah-ish day. I put in a couple of hours for my RLL job, BSC-ed ,went to Trader Joe's, did some homework, etc. I spent a fair amount of time attempting to book a flight to Taiwan at the end of May to visit Dani, but I have thus far only come out with an intense loathing for online ticket booking. I find these great deals for like $800 round-trip, I get to the point of purchase, etc. and then SURPRISE! WE ARE UNABLE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET! WOULD YOU LIKE TO PAY $500 MORE?!?!? Honestly it makes me want to die. Based upon this experience I don't have high hopes for making it to Asia in May...

As a consolation prize I booked Chris and my spring get-away to DC for Patriot's Day weekend. We have almost 4 full days, 3 nights at a Sheraton downtown plus airfare for $422 each. I think that is a pretty good deal and am very excited! We'll get to hang out with Mo and Dane (whole live close in Fairfax county, VA) which is an extra bonus. I went to DC in 8th grade for like 3 days and don't really remember much. I'm excited to check out the nightlife, the food, the museums (most of which are free, apparently?!) With all the immigration from East Africa to D.C. I am very excited for some great Ethiopian and perhaps some other fun cuisines!

This week is looking pretty non-descript aside from Tasca for dinner on Wednesday. Next weekend Chris is out of town so I am free, haha. We shall see if I am able to come up with some interesting plans...

weekend and more...

well after a whirlwind weekend and a traumatic start to my week that cost me almost $500, things seem to be back to normal...

the weekend at home was great - Chris got to meet more or less EVERYBODY in my family and i think it went really well. he was described as "charming" and "very attractive" haha. the first day we just had brunch with my parents, chilled in the afternoon, and then went to my sisters' show - West Side Story - at my high school. i was quite pleasantly surprised considering how difficult the score, etc. is, and both sisters did exceptionally well. i was dreading being back but luckily i only saw 3 peoplefrom high school, all of which i was friends with and not displeased to see.

day two we awoke to lox and bagels followed by lunch with kasia, ben, and andy; some caribou; and then borders. my uncle and aunt had invited us over for dinner that evening, so that was the day's main attraction. we spent 4 or so hours there chatting with them - we had a nice salad with fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers, a ham and mushroom lasagna, asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and covered in cheese, champagne, wine, etc. etc. it was all delicious and a very nice night. since we stayed so long, however, i had to cancel going-out plans with jeff and reschedule for brunch the next morning.

sunday we went downtown to meet jeff for brunch at ann sather's, a famous swedish breakfast/lunch place - check the food blog for that review coming up. we walked around belmont/clark and the boystown area before being lucky enough to have my godmother, who was driving into the 'burbs, pick us up. she ended up joining the fam for dinner at wild fish for sushi before we headed to O'Hare. She also brought me a belated Christmas gift, which included a Russian KitKat she picked up for me there! Hurray!

The previously mentioned trauma happened Monday morning as I exited the parking garage elevator. Thanks to some black ice, I fell right on my lower back and right on top of my messenger bag - which had my laptop inside. Don't worry - repairing the screen only cost $490. FUCK ME. luckily i recently filed my taxes, and my return will take care of that. nonetheless i would have much rather put it toward oh i don't know - a vacation, opulent dining experience, clothing, etc. in response to this traumatic occurrence i bought myself a tanning package, new shoes, a shirt, and a sweater, because spending MORE money certainly makes sense ;-) i DID get good deals

speaking of money, my financial situation has actually taken a turn for the better.
A) i filed my taxes and that combined with my retroactive whatever check from Bush, I am ~$1200 richer.
B) i've taken on a new job in the Romance Languages & Literatures Department compiling information on all of their applicants for 2009. 10hrs/week @ $12/hr. makes for an extra $400-some a month.
C) as part of this job i may be reimbursed for 3 tuition credits, some $3000. AMAZING.

this all being said i should have no problem staying here for the summer, provided i put some of it away as a backup for hypothetical summer job money. if only BC didn't wait until April 1st to post their summer positions...

An interesting evening

The other night I was part of quite a curious situation and ended up feeling very embarrassed. I was sitting at my computer doing some homework when I heard some kind of an alarm going off. I walked around the apartment and realized it was coming from the hallway. Going into the hallway the place was filled with a grey-black smokey haze and it became clear that the piercing 'EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!' was coming from the neighbors apartment. I have never seen the girl that recently moved in there, so I didn't just go knock like looking back I suppose I should have. I was surprised that no one else in the building was coming out into the hallway considering the smoke and piercing beeping echoing through all the halls. Nonetheless I went downstairs with my stuff and decided it might be best to make a phone call.

I decided to call 911 to be safe, because who knows - the apartment could have been on fire, and my neighbor burnt to a crisp. I explained to the guy where I was, and told him that I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but there was smoke and and alarm, so I just wanted to be cautious. He told me fine, and that he would send someone out to check it out.

WELL. "Someone" meant 3 firetrucks and at least one police car. It was a HUGE commotion and I felt like a retard considering by that time the alarm had stopped going off. The firemen all basically ignored me, and were getting out the hose and whatnot. I finally got one to talk to me and told him why I had called, etc. So 3 guys in all their gear with like crowbars go upstairs and I see the poor girl from the apartment in the hallway being like "omg i feel like a moron". They went into her apartment to check on everything while I hid in my own apartment, waiting for them to leave. In the end I heard them laughing, but I felt so bad that I made such a huge commotion for nothing.

The end.

neshto kratko

ugh i need a detox after all the food and beverage consumed this weekend. yesterday I legit did not leave christopher's bed aside from eating and relieving myself. i watched 'jesus camp', parts of 2 gay documentaries - one on Chinese prostitution, another on judaism and homosexuality, then this heinous movie comprised of 10 gay-themed shorts. i should have been working on my phonological sketch of Medumba for my BU class - that is the rest of my night tonight...

i am fucking sick of this weather. it is currently 48 degrees and very spring-like. come tomorrow morning its back to the upper 20s and snowing. seriously - what the fuck. i finally caved and ordered boots online, so at least i'll be able to deal with the ridiculous puddles and whatnot from the melted snow.

this week is tedious. i just want it to be friday so i can go home and chill with chris. it looks like friday we're pretty booked between brunch with my parents and then my sisters' show. saturday we're having dinner with my uncle zdzislaw and auntie barbara, then sunday who knows. our flight is sometime in the evening. i'm wondering how many viator people will be at the show friday night and will potentially want to go out somewhere afterwards. i'm cringing at the thought of going out in the suburbs but we'll just have to see how it goes.

i'm off work in 10. then off to trader joe's and gap. i need use to use my merchandise certificate, but can't redeem online which sucks. i'll probably pick up some new converse since gap sells them and i threw out my green ones and my red ones are on their way out. gym around 4...then maybe a talk on LGBT issues in the classroom. bleh.