funghi marinata
slices champignons
chopped italian parsley and garlic
chopped red pepper
lots of extra virgin olive oil and lemon

YUM

Hmm, so if I spend a half-day in Central California by myself... is it alcoholism if I am:
a) wine tasting by myself
b) drinking before noon
c) still drinking before the sun goes down?

And does anyone ever chill with a novel and a newly-purchased bottle of wine?

utterly deep power nap.
my first V2 (and progress on that insane and insanely popular V2+).
#17, of course, and some triumphs and not so triumphant roll attempts.
a lengthy date with Mr. Wind-Up Bird.

and sleeping in and waking up with raw fingertips and without an alarm.

today is going to be a GREAT day.

So, um, when did 6:45am constitute sleeping in for me? As much as I'm bitching about all this writing and reading and writing and other school crap, there's nothing quite as satisfying as being worn out both mentally and physically at the end of the day and falling asleep like a 3 year old. I'm finally making some progress with these million projects I'm working on. I just need to time things right, and it'll all fall into place. It's also fun feeling like Wednesday at noon is actually Friday at five, since there's so little I can actually accomplish after a morning cooped up in Moore 2127. Though, that doesn't mean Thursday and Friday extend into the weekend... it's more of a push as hard as you possibly can into late Friday night so that you can actually have a weekend.

Speaking of weekend. Big Halloween Party baby!

Word Problem of the day: There are 30 students in room 28. What percentage of students like Ms. Chan's hair, and what percentage of students liked Ms. Chan's old hair better?

note: time to plan a trip up to SF again. missing the BFF already.

work up a sweat, swap travelling stories, devour some CPK, watch (scream at/cringe at/forget how over-the-top and ridiculous cable TV is) a Nip/Tuck marathon, and be that fabulous blond AND brunette all in one.

in other words, have a fabulous Friday evening. now go to bed early so you can read your eyes out in the morning.

to get, and be gotten
that's when it's real

dear god, it's that simple yet so far out of grasp.

So every once in awhile I like to flip back through the blog archives. Just to see what I was up to, what I was writing about, what life was like. Because I guess it's just hard not to be bogged down in what's going on now and remember what life was like just 6 months ago, or a year ago, or two years ago. So it appears as though one of my favorite ways to punctuate a post would be by inserting "onward" here or there. I guess it made sense at the time, like I was ready for whatever was coming up next. Or that I eager to keep things moving and shaking. It just seems so foreign to me now. Not that I necessarily want to dwell where I am right now, not that I'm particularly happy or content with how things are at this moment, but there's this sense of utter anxiety at what's coming up that I just want things to sit still. And freeze. Just an extra moment to sing in the car, to climb just a little bit longer, to run around with Joshua and Bethany, to put together all those empty picture frames and paint those white walls. Or just to lay in bed with a good novel, or to actually think about life without this pressure to make that mean something by a certain deadline.

Why is it when I have the most to think about ahead of me, I accomplish the least?

So part of being an academic is writing every day, so says the professor who says we can't have weekends. I suppose there is some value in writing every day though, because ultimately, it'll make me a more competent communicator of my ideas which is where I seem to go more wrong than right. I guess I'm realizing how articulate so many people can sound, but when it comes down to it, actually fail to articulate what they were really trying to convey. And I guess that's why we depend on the ones around us who understand the motivation behind what we communicate. There's a safety buffer there to what you're trying to articulate and what you're actually articulating. But it seems like that's a complicated buffer to fiddle with.

How's that for vague, shall we say, meta-babble?

In more normal words, boxing was fun last night. Talk about sweating up a storm and punching aggressions out (and praying, dear god, that I don't compromise my climbing hands in any way). God bless endorphins. :)

Ok, beginning of week 2. It's going to be a LONG quarter. Challenge is good. I just need to figure out how to make the most of my 24 hour weekends (I've decided that that's all I can allow myself...)

Here are pictures of Italy, as posted by the lovelies, Jess and Mell (note. they don't seem to view well in Firefox):
Jess Album 1
Jess Album 2
Mell Album
Some of the pictures overlap, but they're fun to flip through when you have the time. Or I suppose you can hit up match.com for most of the solo images (kidding). :)

Otherwise, I'm still alive and kicking (perhaps a bit more flexibly thanks to Charlie's yoga class). Oh, and I've just added word verification to the comments section. Annoying spam. Thanks for pointing it out Matt.

And Mell, your recent posts are definitely making me think.

things on my mind (among others): mortality, emotions, pushing theoretical frameworks, negotiation, complexities of social organization, and Mr. Wind-Up Bird

Back home. Almost over the jet lag. Completely sore and exhausted from a rather bittersweet first time climbing outdoors experience (so stoked I didn't panic and let my fear of heights get the best of me, somewhat saddened I couldn't enjoy it more because of my cold and because crazy people will always be crazy people). Now it's time to move full force into another school year. Definitely not ready, but slightly more up for the challenge now than before (I guess).

I guess this has been a productive soul searching experience for me over the past couple of months. Moving into another stage of life is complicated. I guess I can leave it at that for now.