Break

Things and Other Things

I got unceremoniously kicked out of my studio space this semester and so I've been alternating between my adviser's office and my house to work. I'm not getting much done because of this, but then again that's not unusual. In the meantime my adviser has been trying to get us a space dedicated to our (really his) project. It turns out that our department has lots of extra spaces around campus, but they're all being used by people who no longer teach at our university, are retired, or are stockpiling old and worthless computer equipment.

The most recent development is that we might get the office of a retired professor. His stuff is still crammed into this spare office, but it doesn't appear that he has even set foot on campus in over a year and rumor has it he originally needed this office solely to park his recumbent bike. There's a computer (seems operable and it's a Mac) in the office and old student projects and slides are neatly organized on all the horizontal surfaces. There's also a thick layer of dust. If we're willing to risk the wrath of this retired professor and move all of his stuff we could maybe be in this space by the end of the week. And best of all the office is in the Stock Pavilion.* So this, if the office works out, is what I could look at when I eat my lunch.**


Although I'm afraid by gushing about this space working out that it might not work out at all. I'm still waiting with my fingers crossed.



*Is also wonderful because it smells like dirt when you walk into the building and the office has absolutely huge north facing windows.

**This is also an old picture that, I think, I've posted before (the Stock Pavilion being, like, one of my favorite places on campus). I thought I had another one with an odd grouping of a conference table and chairs in the middle of the arena, but I can't find it. Most likely I deleted it off my camera before downloading it.

!!!

We have an awesome bus system*, we have a kick-ass library, and now Zipcar has come to town!**






*For a town this size.
**Although I doubt I'll ever use it.

Techno-biblio-phile

I also* like how our library is willing to text you call numbers. I think this might have been around for a while, but I still like how it kind of breaks the stereotype of the nerdy librarian. Then again, it is kind of the ultimate in nerdy and geeky to have your library book call numbers texted to you.



*In addition to our wired-up buses.

Almost

It took me eight minutes to get dressed yesterday. I know this because while still in my pajamas I checked the MTD's STOPWatch* and the 4W Blue was due in eight minutes. It passed as I was pulling on my sweater. I was waiting to catch the 4E which was due in nine minutes. I headed downstairs and approximately one and a half minutes later an east bound bus passed our house. I hate missing the bus, it means at least a half hour wait, and although I could ride my bike it was snowing and the weather was saying something about blizzard conditions. Mary heard my exclaimation about the bus coming early and offered to let me borrow her car**. Nine minutes later, as I was brushing the snow off her car, my bus drove past. The earlier bus that tricked me, and always trick me, must have been Not-In-Service.

Today I went to campus to resolve some of my clerical issues with the university. None were resolved, instead I have an appointment, online applications to fill out, and a buffer until I can sign up for classes.

I'm going to try to make Tom Kha Gai tonight. I only have about half of the ingredients, but I'm really hungry for it so I'll be experimenting.

I found the battery charger for my camera, now I just need to find the cord that will connect it to my computer. Then I can start posting pictures again. First on the list, the Slim Jim shirt.





*I really love this feature of our bus system, I kind of geek out over it every time I use it. Real-time information about where the bus currently is is piped to the internet, text-messaged, or widgeted from a GPS unit on the bus. So if you catch the bus at the corner of John and Elm, for instance, you know pretty much exactly when the bus will be there or if you're at 6th and Peabody and don't want to wait too long in the rain. Unless it has iced overnight and the bus is 45 minutes late in which case you'll catch the 8:00 bus at 8:48ish and then all bets are off.


**Because of the busted out window.

CSI: The Breakup

Oh 2009, it turns out that I don't like you very much. I had high hopes even though you were promising to make me make some very difficult decisions about living and working. I don't like making those kinds of decisions but I was willing to overlook this fault of yours. Dear 2009 it's going to be hard not to compare you with your cousin 2008. Although not an absolutely stellar year, 2008 did deliver some pretty great stuff. There was the whole thesis presentation thing, the new bike, getting into cycling proper, teaching some pretty cool students, new friends, good times, and on and on really. Granted 2008 and I didn't start off with much of a bang but it was a love that grew from our day to day trials. I'm not sure if I can ever love you 2009.

I was open to your advances even though you threw me a nasty cold as you rolled around, even though I have a weird itchiness under my left eye, and even though you've been remarkably cold and icy. I was even willing to work through the uncertainties of the current economy with you. But today you went too far and now my trust in you is ruined. Because, 2009, this morning when I went out to my car, guess what? The window had been shot out by some punkass with a BB gun. I know it was a BB gun because I can see exactly where the BB hit my window slightly above and to the left of the sticky residue left by the tow warning. Thankfully my windows are (were?) tinted and so the shatter was held in place, but now I have to crawl in from the passenger side and every time I hit a pothole I can hear more of the glass pieces as they make their way to the bottom of the door panel. It's shitty to get your window shot out, by the way, because not only is it highly inconvenient they're also expensive to replace. And almost worst of all is that now one of my windows, perhaps the most visible of the collection, will not have a bronze-ish tint on it. I, as the driver, will now be on display to the masses.

You'll have to do some groveling a more than a few late-night phone calls before I'll reconsider our relationship. You should know that I'm pretty forgiving, and let's be honest we've got a long way to go with each other before we can officially call it quits. Still I thought you might have let up on me today, but you didn't. I won't go into the details but I'll refresh your memory with "registration hold" and "student account."

So 2009, I had the best of hopes for you and me working out, but as the jilted lover I'm going to have to move on out. I do not wish you well.*



*Unless of course you start treating me well and then I'll be back all over you faster then you can say I'm-not-looking-forward-to-the-rest-of-this-year.

Snacks as Fashionwear

For a long time I've been very anti-sweatshirt assuming that if I'm cold and need another layer I'll just add a sweater. Sweaters, even the ones with holes and those that have been accidentally shrunk in the wash, look more finished than the sweatshirt while accomplishing the same goals. A sweater is perfectly acceptable to wear around the house and while working on messy projects; ones made from wool have the added benefit of being flame resistant. And so for years I've worn holey and oddly shrunken sweaters instead of sweatshirts to look a little more put together while catching myself of fire.

In the past year I've twice broken my stance on sweatshirts by buying two of them. The first was really too awesome to pass up at the Goodwill. It's a brown hooded number with Helsinki spelled across the front in orange letters. Yesterday I broke my rule again at the same Goodwill. This time I impulse bought (because I can't foresee any situation where I might wear this shirt. Yes, even around the house.) a white shirt that's not quite your average sweatshirt. It's cut from a thinner material and is longer and leaner than usual and it still has a front pouch for keeping hands warm. The added length is needed because the entire front is filled with large black letters spelling out slim jim. I'd never paid close attention to the Slim Jim font and logo before*, but my goodness, it's really great typography. The slim is on top of the jim (no jokes) and the letters align in what could be called a perfect array. The s gets left out so that the j curves beneath the l, the i's are showcase creating the center line, and the m's are stacked on top of each other holding down the end. If this wasn't perfect enough, there's a registered trademark logo down at the corner of it all it's printed so that half of it is on the hand warming pocket and the other half is off. This half on and half off is almost nauseatingly wonderful and is what made my mind up about buying the shirt and breaking my sweatshirt rule yet again.



*I've never eaten a Slim Jim either, the recognition comes from going in to gas stations to pay for gas and the ubiquitous stand of Slim Jims by the cash register, back when going in to pay for gas was common.

In Love But Not at Peace

Although there are quite a few things I fell in love with in 2008 this is by far my favorite little guy* of the year.**



*Not mine.
**I got him that monkey hat for his 1st birthday. Cute!

Nine Things I Have Already Done in 2009

1. Put on a shirt with buttons.

2. Watched football, it just seemed like the thing to do.

3. Showered twice in the last 12 hours.

4. Caught a cold.

5. Lost weight (see above).

6. Took a few swigs of grossly expired liquid cold medicine, then threw up (see above).

7. Took two spoonfuls of NyQuil, didn't throw up even though it tasted terrible.

8. Had a dream where I was wearing overalls and was appropriately horrified. Most likely fueled by the NyQuil.

9. Worried about my status as a student at the U of I (I got a phone call from Records that I didn't answer).