Lately I've been daydreaming about autumn. It seems I'm nostalgic for leaves turning colors, hot apple cider, and snuggling in poofy sweaters while there's a crisp sunny breeze in the air. Being able to sit next to a fireplace in a cafe and be thankful for the warmth against the chilly breezes periodically invited in through the door. I can't help it - I keep trying to remind myself how much I yearn for these warmer sunny days of summer when it's wintertime, how fleeting autumn really is, and how it will be here soon enough. I think just one day of real cool weather would help fix things and then I can go back to loving summer. But really, we've used up all the heat quota for the year, don't you think?
Aside from that, I got some 100% cranberry/grape juice and seltzer water today. Not as sweet as Italian sodas from cafes, but still pretty good. Tasty while still being healthy! I was able to catch Colin on video chat for a few minutes yesterday and today but it wasn't quite enough. While I'm enjoying having two-thirds of the couch entirely to myself all the time, I really look forward to my new hubby coming home on Saturday.
What else? The dean at the library wasn't able to meet with me until next week so no news on that front. My dad is competing in the national canoe race this weekend, both the 2-man and 1-man events. His goal: Don't finish last. I found a beetle on the cucumber plant, two peppers have flowers, and a couple of potato plants have popped up under the eaves outside of the little ditch where I planted all the eyes (they probably moved when the patch was flooded). Along with the robins and sparrows that use the makeshift bird bath, we've now got a hummingbird feeder which has been attracting a few of those little guys. They sometimes try to suck the food out of the crack between the glass and the plastic bottom when there's perfectly functioning fake flowers with ledges they can sit on. Not terribly bright but fun to watch.
I feel like I've done enough productive things for the day but for some reason I can't bring myself to just sit and read a book. Sadly, it's something I rarely do outside of just before going to sleep or specific situations. I've read a bit more this week than usual, with no Colin around to interrupt me. I'm also keen on getting back into the genealogy research but feel at a loss just where to jump back in and how to restrain myself from letting it suck up all my time. I think part of it is the fact that the time researching in Massachusetts was such a short and intense period.
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Robins, black raspberries, and a very big storm
What do you do when you're tired and just want to lie on the couch but you want to feel productive beyond shifting through inane internet babble? Apparently I decide it's a good time to write a post.
I love watching robins take baths (or avoid them as the teenaged ones do) and various birds drink from the makeshift basin (tupperware container) we have on the patio. It was a happy accident that I had left it out there with water in it once and noticed the birds appreciated it.
Oh, and the garden is still mostly green. There is the tiniest sweet pepper and cucumber, neither of which I don't think will actually grow up, but the tomatoes are doing pretty well. And potato plants seem to be thriving. I finally moved the lavender from the little container it originally came in into a little pot for each plant but they had started to whither really fast; they were doing quite well earlier.
There was a huge storm Monday morning. Colin woke me up, pointing out the window. I sat up, saw that there was sheets of rain pouring down the window, and fell back into bed hoping for more sleep. "Oh, that's nice," was about all I could muster. The power in our house apparently went out for less than an hour that morning.
We had considered going south to Deerfield that day but decided against it. We went about doing our usual home-bound activities. By mid-afternoon, we'd decided to go run a couple errands and hang out in a coffee shop in an area usually about 20-30 minutes from our house. While driving through our town, we were intrigued by the lack of lights - no stoplights were working and all the businesses looked black and shuttered up. Of course, that didn't ward us off at all. In retrospect it would have been a good time to turn around; we ended up sitting in traffic for three hours. And only being able to get one little thing at a hardware store and grabbing some coffee to go. The cafe was jam packed with people on laptops and everything else except the hospital seemed to be shut down. We went so far we saw the lake.
Tuesday was really not much better; I went to get some milk and other food stuffs at grocery store in the opposite direction that we took the day before. First, I had to pay for gas with cash. Then the store was closed. So I went to another store, which was open but had no milk. Had nothing that usually is kept cold or frozen, in fact.
There are trees and branches down everywhere. I left half an hour earlier than usual for my shift at work this morning anticipating bad traffic but it was actually just fine. However, I learned that some coworkers still don't have power at home, including one who doesn't have running water either. There's apparently something like 100,000 people who probably won't get power back until Saturday.
What was the storm damage to my garden? One unripe tomato ripped off by the wind. We were just plain lucky.
...
I went for a walk near the college today and stumbled across some black raspberries. There was quite a lot of them and it didn't look like anyone or anything had eaten them. They were yummy.
The wedding is in two weeks and one day. We've gotten so much done but it feels like there's still so much to do, despite how low key, small, and simple we're keeping it. I don't want to imagine the headache organizing a more normal wedding would be - ick.
I'm feeling a little more awake now so I'm going to go get more things checked off the wedding to do list.
I love watching robins take baths (or avoid them as the teenaged ones do) and various birds drink from the makeshift basin (tupperware container) we have on the patio. It was a happy accident that I had left it out there with water in it once and noticed the birds appreciated it.
Oh, and the garden is still mostly green. There is the tiniest sweet pepper and cucumber, neither of which I don't think will actually grow up, but the tomatoes are doing pretty well. And potato plants seem to be thriving. I finally moved the lavender from the little container it originally came in into a little pot for each plant but they had started to whither really fast; they were doing quite well earlier.
There was a huge storm Monday morning. Colin woke me up, pointing out the window. I sat up, saw that there was sheets of rain pouring down the window, and fell back into bed hoping for more sleep. "Oh, that's nice," was about all I could muster. The power in our house apparently went out for less than an hour that morning.
We had considered going south to Deerfield that day but decided against it. We went about doing our usual home-bound activities. By mid-afternoon, we'd decided to go run a couple errands and hang out in a coffee shop in an area usually about 20-30 minutes from our house. While driving through our town, we were intrigued by the lack of lights - no stoplights were working and all the businesses looked black and shuttered up. Of course, that didn't ward us off at all. In retrospect it would have been a good time to turn around; we ended up sitting in traffic for three hours. And only being able to get one little thing at a hardware store and grabbing some coffee to go. The cafe was jam packed with people on laptops and everything else except the hospital seemed to be shut down. We went so far we saw the lake.
Tuesday was really not much better; I went to get some milk and other food stuffs at grocery store in the opposite direction that we took the day before. First, I had to pay for gas with cash. Then the store was closed. So I went to another store, which was open but had no milk. Had nothing that usually is kept cold or frozen, in fact.
There are trees and branches down everywhere. I left half an hour earlier than usual for my shift at work this morning anticipating bad traffic but it was actually just fine. However, I learned that some coworkers still don't have power at home, including one who doesn't have running water either. There's apparently something like 100,000 people who probably won't get power back until Saturday.
What was the storm damage to my garden? One unripe tomato ripped off by the wind. We were just plain lucky.
...
I went for a walk near the college today and stumbled across some black raspberries. There was quite a lot of them and it didn't look like anyone or anything had eaten them. They were yummy.
The wedding is in two weeks and one day. We've gotten so much done but it feels like there's still so much to do, despite how low key, small, and simple we're keeping it. I don't want to imagine the headache organizing a more normal wedding would be - ick.
I'm feeling a little more awake now so I'm going to go get more things checked off the wedding to do list.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
So I caved in
Earlier, I had mentioned that I was trying to resist maintaining multiple blogs on different topics. This rule has been broken. But - I like to think I have a good reason: I didn't want everyone everywhere to be able to read the new blog.
Don't worry, it's nothing embarrassing; it's just as a SLIS grad I was faced with a privacy dilemma. Last weekend we were in Charlevoix. We came home with a bunch of boxes from my grandparents' house and I wanted some way to share the scans and what I learned with other family members. Having a blog also provides incentive beyond "Ooo this is fun!"
It's not completely restricted to family members only, but since you need to ask me for access I have absolute control over who can see the stuff. So if you're interested in following or seeing what it's like, go ahead and ask for permission and (if I know you as a real person) I would probably let you in. Also, even if I wasn't worried about privacy, I would be worried about having a massive amount of posts that were possibly long and possibly boring (to most people) put up where, frankly, most people could care less about that and be more interested in, well, me and ... whatever else I do? The garden, yes that's it!
Speaking of the garden:
The zucchini plant has lots of buds which is very exciting. The lower leaves on all my pepper plants seem to be breaking off but otherwise they look healthy and half of them have had flowers (one each). The herbs are doing fine despite their lack of space.
My potato experiment is promising too; there are 11 separate plants that have sprung up with little bundles of leaves. I resist watering them, especially since they were flooded with the rain a few days ago. They seem happiest having no attention so far.
Today has been a nice relaxed Saturday. We went out for brunch, talked over wedding plans and what else we have to do. On the way home, we stopped for garage sales but didn't get anything (despite our garage sale-ing experience around here, we still hope). Then we went to a nice lake/pond park we hadn't been to and caught bullfrogs. And one teeny tiny toad. There was a family of three kids there who we helped out with how to catch them (and not kill or hurt them). There were a couple caught that still had fairly large tails. It was a lot of fun but it's quite humid today and eventually we left.
When we got home, we checked in on the nest in the tree out front where there's currently a dove family. The adult has been slowly getting pushed up out of the nest as the babies grew but it wasn't until today that we could actually see both of the babies. We knew there might be two because Colin had taken a picture earlier of the two eggs and finally we were able to see the face of the second one without having to hold the camera above our heads and take a picture.
Don't worry, it's nothing embarrassing; it's just as a SLIS grad I was faced with a privacy dilemma. Last weekend we were in Charlevoix. We came home with a bunch of boxes from my grandparents' house and I wanted some way to share the scans and what I learned with other family members. Having a blog also provides incentive beyond "Ooo this is fun!"
It's not completely restricted to family members only, but since you need to ask me for access I have absolute control over who can see the stuff. So if you're interested in following or seeing what it's like, go ahead and ask for permission and (if I know you as a real person) I would probably let you in. Also, even if I wasn't worried about privacy, I would be worried about having a massive amount of posts that were possibly long and possibly boring (to most people) put up where, frankly, most people could care less about that and be more interested in, well, me and ... whatever else I do? The garden, yes that's it!
Speaking of the garden:
The zucchini plant has lots of buds which is very exciting. The lower leaves on all my pepper plants seem to be breaking off but otherwise they look healthy and half of them have had flowers (one each). The herbs are doing fine despite their lack of space.
 |
| Two little potato plants |
My potato experiment is promising too; there are 11 separate plants that have sprung up with little bundles of leaves. I resist watering them, especially since they were flooded with the rain a few days ago. They seem happiest having no attention so far.
Today has been a nice relaxed Saturday. We went out for brunch, talked over wedding plans and what else we have to do. On the way home, we stopped for garage sales but didn't get anything (despite our garage sale-ing experience around here, we still hope). Then we went to a nice lake/pond park we hadn't been to and caught bullfrogs. And one teeny tiny toad. There was a family of three kids there who we helped out with how to catch them (and not kill or hurt them). There were a couple caught that still had fairly large tails. It was a lot of fun but it's quite humid today and eventually we left.
 |
| A bullfrog |
 |
| The second one shown - the other is hidden by the branch. |
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Heat, gardening, wedding planning, and smaller topics
In the words of Neil Gaiman: "Sorry that I've been away. I am a bad blogger." And indeed, it's been two months minus ten days since I've last written.
First, before jumping into what's going on in my life, I love reading the dialogs found here: http://jen-campbell.blogspot.com/search/label/weird%20things%20customers%20say
Summer has unabashedly arrived; the last couple of days has been very hot with the temperature dropping to high 70s at night. I saw 104 degrees on the car dashboard yesterday but that was after it had been sitting in full sunlight in a parking lot a couple hours. The real temperature seemed to hover at 98 and 99 degrees. It's a mere 90 degrees now at noon today.
I've got myself a container garden that was a gift from Colin's mom.
The list:
One zucchini
One cucumber
6 tomatoes
6 bell peppers (3 yellow, 3 red)
An assortment of herbs
There isn't anywhere near enough dirt in the pots so that's my gardening goal of the day. Silly me, I watered the plants this morning so I have to wait a bit. At least I've got all the material. Despite the heat, I've spent the last couple days burying old potato pieces with eyes on them in the clay-ey ground under the eaves (in the late afternoon when watering the garden a second time in the shade). I'm probably drowning the potatoes when I water them but I'm trying to keep them cool. The potatoes are not a high investment project and I needed to dig up the dirt anyway so I could include it in the pots. I'll undoubtedly post updates on the garden. It might even be what prompts future blog posts to happen.
The main reason I've been neglecting the blog is that the big thing happening in my life right now is wedding planning and I wanted to try to tell as many people one-on-one that Colin and I are getting married before I mentioned it here. Which makes it a bit difficult to do any blogging. For those who didn't know yet, I apologize - it's so difficult to get to everyone especially when almost everyone lives so far away.
Let me say right away: This is not a big formal white wedding.
- It is small; just immediate family and close friends. People that have actively been a part of our lives the past 3.5 years we have been a couple. Less than 50.
- It is laid back and casual. I'm only wearing dresses so we can do the whole "bride as the centerpiece" thing. However, I've got plans for the actual ceremony which don't include a white dress.
The wedding is less than two months away. The invitations were going to go out in the mail this week but they won't be done until next Monday. There's still things to be sorted out, but I don't expect the actual planning and preparing to take over as much of my days as it has in the last few days until the time is much closer. (We'll see. This sentence might come back to taunt me.)
Logistics aside, it's hard for me to put a positive spin on the experience right now. At the same time, I don't want to get into a rant and moan about all the details. I'm kind of confused about this, since it's pretty much a "yay they didn't elope" party, there's so many wedding-y things we're not doing and so many potential fires that aren't happening. Hopefully things will look better after we spend this weekend with my family; we haven't been to my parents' house since Thanksgiving and my brother's high school graduation open house is on Saturday.
I made zucchini bread a couple days ago that's probably poisonous. So my heart drops with the sight of dropping the whole thing in the trash. I try to keep telling myself "It's better than getting sick from it and next time I won't use the 8x8 pan but have two 8x4 pans like the recipe said to use."
Despite the weather and the stress, I find myself having quite a few happy moments. I wonder if it's my body's way of preventing things from overwhelming my life. Plus, I like the rhythm the garden's needs puts in my day, even the aches and blisters it gives me. Ooo and also I have been reading the Hunger Games trilogy. While not sunshine and daisies, the books are sooo gooood.
I also gave myself a haircut on Sunday. I was so tired of how long it was. It hadn't been that long since sometime in elementary school; it was starting to get caught under my arms and when I had it pulled back (which was most of the time) I would catch my head being tilted too far back because of the weight. I guess the final straw was when I was trying to remake a bun and I broke the pencil when I didn't even think I was pushing it that hard. My hair broke a pencil just by looking at it.
So I lopped off more than enough for what I think is my third Locks of Love donation. I can still pull what's left into a small pony tail and I need to trim it since one side is longer than the other but otherwise I like the layered and slanted bob look. The very instant after I had fully cut through the thick rope (the scene in Princess Bride when Vizzini is cutting the rope at the Cliffs of Insanity doesn't do cutting my hair justice) was the most shocking and relieving. My hair was still in shock for a day or so but I had been looking forward to cutting it for so long I adjusted much quicker.
Okay, it's time to get back to what needs to be done before we leave tonight for Michigan.
First, before jumping into what's going on in my life, I love reading the dialogs found here: http://jen-campbell.blogspot.com/search/label/weird%20things%20customers%20say
Summer has unabashedly arrived; the last couple of days has been very hot with the temperature dropping to high 70s at night. I saw 104 degrees on the car dashboard yesterday but that was after it had been sitting in full sunlight in a parking lot a couple hours. The real temperature seemed to hover at 98 and 99 degrees. It's a mere 90 degrees now at noon today.
I've got myself a container garden that was a gift from Colin's mom.
The list:
One zucchini
One cucumber
6 tomatoes
6 bell peppers (3 yellow, 3 red)
An assortment of herbs
There isn't anywhere near enough dirt in the pots so that's my gardening goal of the day. Silly me, I watered the plants this morning so I have to wait a bit. At least I've got all the material. Despite the heat, I've spent the last couple days burying old potato pieces with eyes on them in the clay-ey ground under the eaves (in the late afternoon when watering the garden a second time in the shade). I'm probably drowning the potatoes when I water them but I'm trying to keep them cool. The potatoes are not a high investment project and I needed to dig up the dirt anyway so I could include it in the pots. I'll undoubtedly post updates on the garden. It might even be what prompts future blog posts to happen.
The main reason I've been neglecting the blog is that the big thing happening in my life right now is wedding planning and I wanted to try to tell as many people one-on-one that Colin and I are getting married before I mentioned it here. Which makes it a bit difficult to do any blogging. For those who didn't know yet, I apologize - it's so difficult to get to everyone especially when almost everyone lives so far away.
Let me say right away: This is not a big formal white wedding.
- It is small; just immediate family and close friends. People that have actively been a part of our lives the past 3.5 years we have been a couple. Less than 50.
- It is laid back and casual. I'm only wearing dresses so we can do the whole "bride as the centerpiece" thing. However, I've got plans for the actual ceremony which don't include a white dress.
The wedding is less than two months away. The invitations were going to go out in the mail this week but they won't be done until next Monday. There's still things to be sorted out, but I don't expect the actual planning and preparing to take over as much of my days as it has in the last few days until the time is much closer. (We'll see. This sentence might come back to taunt me.)
Logistics aside, it's hard for me to put a positive spin on the experience right now. At the same time, I don't want to get into a rant and moan about all the details. I'm kind of confused about this, since it's pretty much a "yay they didn't elope" party, there's so many wedding-y things we're not doing and so many potential fires that aren't happening. Hopefully things will look better after we spend this weekend with my family; we haven't been to my parents' house since Thanksgiving and my brother's high school graduation open house is on Saturday.
I made zucchini bread a couple days ago that's probably poisonous. So my heart drops with the sight of dropping the whole thing in the trash. I try to keep telling myself "It's better than getting sick from it and next time I won't use the 8x8 pan but have two 8x4 pans like the recipe said to use."
Despite the weather and the stress, I find myself having quite a few happy moments. I wonder if it's my body's way of preventing things from overwhelming my life. Plus, I like the rhythm the garden's needs puts in my day, even the aches and blisters it gives me. Ooo and also I have been reading the Hunger Games trilogy. While not sunshine and daisies, the books are sooo gooood.
I also gave myself a haircut on Sunday. I was so tired of how long it was. It hadn't been that long since sometime in elementary school; it was starting to get caught under my arms and when I had it pulled back (which was most of the time) I would catch my head being tilted too far back because of the weight. I guess the final straw was when I was trying to remake a bun and I broke the pencil when I didn't even think I was pushing it that hard. My hair broke a pencil just by looking at it.
So I lopped off more than enough for what I think is my third Locks of Love donation. I can still pull what's left into a small pony tail and I need to trim it since one side is longer than the other but otherwise I like the layered and slanted bob look. The very instant after I had fully cut through the thick rope (the scene in Princess Bride when Vizzini is cutting the rope at the Cliffs of Insanity doesn't do cutting my hair justice) was the most shocking and relieving. My hair was still in shock for a day or so but I had been looking forward to cutting it for so long I adjusted much quicker.
Okay, it's time to get back to what needs to be done before we leave tonight for Michigan.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Crap versus Quality
I just came home from the local library where I got to check things out for the first time! Quite excited to enjoy the books, with the topics being India and the origin of American English language (not in the same book). I had also picked up some DVDs which I hope Colin will like. Burn After Reading definitely, Pursuit of Happyness maybe, and The Darjeeling Limited? Probably not, but who knows? I seem to have a soft spot for picking up those movies with skeptical quality ...
I was catching up on my feeds, mostly of the library flavor, when I suddenly felt the urge to click on the tvguide.com browser tab. Now, why? Why, in the face of such treasures I'd been so excited about just moments before? Why, in the face of intriguing, career-related posts including news of the LOC trying out cloud storage?
So the fact that I'd been sitting reading for two hours about North Korea and then sampling a bunch of books could have something to do with it. Perhaps my mind desired some wandering and easy entertainment. Junk food instead of whole grains. No matter how yummy and good for me the grains are ... sometimes I just gotta have the stuff that is pretty much worthless for me.
This laziness, opting for the easier path with more immediate reward, is both beneficial and detrimental for humankind as evidenced by our ability to use brains to make tools and tasks easier and faster, and the abundance of quick-fix, get-rich, etc. promises. My philosophy for most things in life is simple: balance. This means watching an irresistable episode of NCIS (with a blurb mentioning a frozen guy coming back to life, could you resist?) while looking to do some dishes, read "Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States" ... that is, depending on when Colin is done at work for the day and I pick him up.
I was catching up on my feeds, mostly of the library flavor, when I suddenly felt the urge to click on the tvguide.com browser tab. Now, why? Why, in the face of such treasures I'd been so excited about just moments before? Why, in the face of intriguing, career-related posts including news of the LOC trying out cloud storage?
So the fact that I'd been sitting reading for two hours about North Korea and then sampling a bunch of books could have something to do with it. Perhaps my mind desired some wandering and easy entertainment. Junk food instead of whole grains. No matter how yummy and good for me the grains are ... sometimes I just gotta have the stuff that is pretty much worthless for me.
This laziness, opting for the easier path with more immediate reward, is both beneficial and detrimental for humankind as evidenced by our ability to use brains to make tools and tasks easier and faster, and the abundance of quick-fix, get-rich, etc. promises. My philosophy for most things in life is simple: balance. This means watching an irresistable episode of NCIS (with a blurb mentioning a frozen guy coming back to life, could you resist?) while looking to do some dishes, read "Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States" ... that is, depending on when Colin is done at work for the day and I pick him up.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
New places, new dramas
So finally summer vacation is here! I just finished the final project for my summer class this afternoon. Scary to think it's the last, but I think it's mainly because change of any kind tends to be at least a little scary. And it's gonna be short - 7 weeks left, I read in the Indiana Daily Student this week.
Lots of changes have been happening, including officially moving into my new room across town yesterday (I actually first slept here two days before that). Fountain Park, the big ginornous apartment complex, told me I couldn't live there for only six months. Twelve, maybe ten, but not six! Even though they happily let me move in with a signed six-months' lease in the first place. So started a long arduous journey to find another place to set up my stuff for the last semester of grad school. Lots of trawling through ads, craigslist, and campus site for housing. It'd be fun to count all the emails I sent and either didn't get a response or they replied with a "no." Not really.
There was a house with a room for only the fall semester. Perfect, even very close to campus. I even went to check it out. Problem was that right then I was waiting to hear if I had landed a dream summer internship at Yellowstone NP (I didn't get it). I was told I'd be called if the other person moved forward on the offer. The next week, when I finally got the Yellowstone response, I emailed back and found out that the other person had grabbed it up the day after I was there. I did have misgivings about the extremely small kitchen for five girls (most undergrads), but I was gonna take anything except frat/sorority crap at this point.
Another offer was a guy who was looking for roommates but he didn't currently live in Bloomington. I still don't know where he actually was living, but his job was going to relocate him here and he was always running around on business trips and it was hard to get ahold of him. I did meet up with him and liked him but the house was not a done deal; it turned out the people who lived there (and owned the house) didn't actually know if they were going to rent it out. In the end, they didn't and I wished the guy good luck.
At the same time, I was juggling an offer from a recent SLIS alumnus, Duane. Turned out we had been there together last winter before he graduated but apparently never really met. He was info sci not library sci, so really not a surprise. His house was outside of the city limits, about five miles from campus, but the price was right and he was willing to let me stay there for just six months (after I offered to pay two extra months' rent, which is a deal at this point). The previous roomie had moved out abruptly and he wanted to keep up with his mortgage payments. So here I am, living with two guys.
Oh, and neither are Duane. I have yet to meet him in person; he's got a job in England. The two others are Robbie and Chris, both journalism majors (Chris undergrad, Robbie is working on his master's). Robbie also has a teenaged son, Tim, who is hanging around for the summer. The two of them plus Duane's ten-year-old dog Hank spend most of the time on a boat. I still think it's weird, being so into sailing and living here. All the lakes bigger than a pond are man-made and are or were the city's reservoirs. Lake Monroe, the biggest, is fairly large but it's still smaller than Lake Charlevoix. There's another unofficial housemate, Ray, who acts like he owns the place ... I don't understand the whole situation, but Robbie allowed sailing people to stay in his master bedroom and Ray just hasn't exactly left since he was first here two months ago. He isn't here every night but I don't really care for him. Apparently he has a girlfriend that I know was here last night but I only saw her car and flip flops as evidence.
I bump into Chris the most. He likes to talk and although he has very different views and opinions, I certainly don't mind listening. He usually sits in the middle of the big couch with his laptop and tv on. Since he saw the new Star Trek movie, he's been watching a lot of episodes. Between Whitney, Colin, and Chris, I'm feeling my disinterest (not dislike) won't survive much longer...
I don't plan on staying away as long this time, but things never go according to plans. (Do you ever wonder if we just planned for the opposite of what we want to happen, things would end up going the way we want?)
Lots of changes have been happening, including officially moving into my new room across town yesterday (I actually first slept here two days before that). Fountain Park, the big ginornous apartment complex, told me I couldn't live there for only six months. Twelve, maybe ten, but not six! Even though they happily let me move in with a signed six-months' lease in the first place. So started a long arduous journey to find another place to set up my stuff for the last semester of grad school. Lots of trawling through ads, craigslist, and campus site for housing. It'd be fun to count all the emails I sent and either didn't get a response or they replied with a "no." Not really.
There was a house with a room for only the fall semester. Perfect, even very close to campus. I even went to check it out. Problem was that right then I was waiting to hear if I had landed a dream summer internship at Yellowstone NP (I didn't get it). I was told I'd be called if the other person moved forward on the offer. The next week, when I finally got the Yellowstone response, I emailed back and found out that the other person had grabbed it up the day after I was there. I did have misgivings about the extremely small kitchen for five girls (most undergrads), but I was gonna take anything except frat/sorority crap at this point.
Another offer was a guy who was looking for roommates but he didn't currently live in Bloomington. I still don't know where he actually was living, but his job was going to relocate him here and he was always running around on business trips and it was hard to get ahold of him. I did meet up with him and liked him but the house was not a done deal; it turned out the people who lived there (and owned the house) didn't actually know if they were going to rent it out. In the end, they didn't and I wished the guy good luck.
At the same time, I was juggling an offer from a recent SLIS alumnus, Duane. Turned out we had been there together last winter before he graduated but apparently never really met. He was info sci not library sci, so really not a surprise. His house was outside of the city limits, about five miles from campus, but the price was right and he was willing to let me stay there for just six months (after I offered to pay two extra months' rent, which is a deal at this point). The previous roomie had moved out abruptly and he wanted to keep up with his mortgage payments. So here I am, living with two guys.
Oh, and neither are Duane. I have yet to meet him in person; he's got a job in England. The two others are Robbie and Chris, both journalism majors (Chris undergrad, Robbie is working on his master's). Robbie also has a teenaged son, Tim, who is hanging around for the summer. The two of them plus Duane's ten-year-old dog Hank spend most of the time on a boat. I still think it's weird, being so into sailing and living here. All the lakes bigger than a pond are man-made and are or were the city's reservoirs. Lake Monroe, the biggest, is fairly large but it's still smaller than Lake Charlevoix. There's another unofficial housemate, Ray, who acts like he owns the place ... I don't understand the whole situation, but Robbie allowed sailing people to stay in his master bedroom and Ray just hasn't exactly left since he was first here two months ago. He isn't here every night but I don't really care for him. Apparently he has a girlfriend that I know was here last night but I only saw her car and flip flops as evidence.
I bump into Chris the most. He likes to talk and although he has very different views and opinions, I certainly don't mind listening. He usually sits in the middle of the big couch with his laptop and tv on. Since he saw the new Star Trek movie, he's been watching a lot of episodes. Between Whitney, Colin, and Chris, I'm feeling my disinterest (not dislike) won't survive much longer...
I don't plan on staying away as long this time, but things never go according to plans. (Do you ever wonder if we just planned for the opposite of what we want to happen, things would end up going the way we want?)
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