Happy Leap Day!

Weeeekend. Friday I went to the gym for about two hours, since I wasn't going to the hockey game. So good. Headed to the square, where I went to Cest Bon to buy Jer some beer. Got to the counter, and the guy asked for ID, and when I opened my wallet, it was missing! I recalled leaving it in my pants pocket after karaoke. Needing it for the rest of the night, I went out to catch the bus, which was arriving, so I ran to get it, took it home, came all the way up the hill, got the ID, and went all the way back to run and catch the bus on its return. Beer was obtained, and the kids were back when I got to the BR.

We went to Kenton's for fun and games. Then Matty and his friend Steve and I went out. Steve is M's friend from home, and he's super cool. We went to Temple, which was all right, but people were taking up all the cushy chairs, sadly. Then we taxied to the Kong for scorpion bowl, crab rangoon, and scallion pancakes. Service was terrible; it wasn't the cool waitress, and we lacked the Doctor.

Saturday I met up with Withers and Lisa for lunch at Mary Chung's. I'd never been there... it's quite tasty. Then Withers and I hung out in the BR for a bit stealing the kids' soda. I headed home for a bit, then set back out for the Flophouse party. It was a pretty crazy party. People got pretty slizzered. I got snapped at for doing nothing (and actually trying to be helpful), which was not cool, but it was resolved. And my baby is awesome.

Today I've largely bummed around, got up lately, had a leisurely brunch, and then did nothing useful around the house. I napped for about three hours, and now I'm sorta watching the Oscars, though they are pretty dull.

Happy birthday to Jenn. One by one we all get old!

The worst realization of the year so far was that folks in the class just above me are turning 25. 25! That's when you become, like, a real adult. Uh, or not really.

HOPKINS!!!!! My potential future advisor called me to tell me! And she's one of the faculty that made Hopkins so attractive, because her interests are exactly the same as mine! Perfect! I should be getting the letter soon, and then I can call her and maybe go visit and WOOOOOOO!!!!

Wow, I swept! Jeff was right!

Aw, I thought that the refutation of gamete donation would be more interesting than just "ack I have a kid out there somewhere." Yeah, that's weird, but the feeling is non-controversial. What no one ever questions is why people go to all this trouble to produce a new human when there are plenty of humans already born that could use parents. I don't discount the time, effort, and potential frustration the adoption process can entail... but, is it really more of any of those things than the various medical procedures you have to try when the old fashioned way of baby making fails? People go through emotional hell trying to make babies, and I think it's sad that our society is not more focused on adoption. Our society is not focused on supporting each other more broadly in general, but... I dunno, I've come to the personal conclusion that I probably will never produce my own munchkins, and that I'll likely adopt. I'd actually like to adopt an older kid too, maybe second.

That's kind of a weird topic for the morning.

Oh man, karaoke last night. We almost didn't get in because they were full (damn fire code), but people left so woo! I sang Lady Marmelade. And I discovered a secret: wearing earplugs makes me sing a LOT better, and with vastly more confidence. We were sitting at the table right next to the big loud speakers, and about halfway through the night I thought, damn this is loud. Wait, I have earplugs now (for Band... that makes the Band sound better too). So I popped them in, and it was magic. I could still hear the meoldy out of the speakers, and I could hear the singer better, and I could hear people talking to me better! So I decided to try singing with them in, and it was great. Usually when I sing, I find it hard to really sing loud, because I can hear myself in the speaker, and it's all loud and I can't hear myself directly and yech. But with the earplugs, I could hear the melody from the speaker so I could actually pick up the key much better (so many people get up there and think some harmony is the key and they sing the whole thing out of key... but some of those folks may just be tone deaf), and then I could hear myself sing directly without interference from the monitors. Rawk. So, it was a hit, and I belted that sucker out.

Next week is the big birthday karaoke, cuz I turn 24 partway through.

I've seen a good point about Nader pop up in a couple of places today: what the hell has he been up to since 2000? The past four years should have been a golden opportunity for anyone on the left to make waves criticising this administration and the one-party domination of our legislature. But he's been off the radar entirely, even on the internet where you don't have to squeeze through the media filter to make yourself heard.

Thing I learned about home pages today: if something people normally read is suddenly 403, they'll look all over the rest of your page to find it. Like 4 separate people were poking around the other sections! At least it alerted me to the issue.

Man, good thing I still got like 3 weeks left on my warranty. They're just gonna ship me a new hard drive!

It's funny, all I wanted to do yesterday was crawl up into a miserable little ball next to M, but then when I saw him, I wasn't miserable anymore. And I fell asleep right quick like when I got home, feeling better.

I felt good first thing this morning too, but now I'm kinda back to hurt. The bus not coming didn't help at all. I just don't understand how someone who claims to care about people can totally devalue your most painful personal experience and then be completely unapologetic about it.

And then claim to be misunderstood. Oh my god, a laugh a minute, that one.

Maybe I should have said, that kind of idea has the weight of a lot of guilt behind it, whether you realize it or not. Guilt just makes it worse. I spent days at the BI and an entire miserable summer wishing I had been successful in my little endeavor because of people who laid that kind of guilt on me. The only thing that kept me from doing it right the second time were those folks who didn't judge me, and who helped me fight down the bad parts of myself. The people who were so absorbed in the implications for themselves made my life hell. Furthermore, I've dealt with it on the other side, and I've earned people's trust by listening to them, not judging them even if what they were telling me was nuts, and getting them to a safer place by helping them fight against the inside place that wanted to hurt their true self.

But, you know, I didn't want to play the My Personal Story card, because I tend to think that can be too easily emotionally manipulative. But I guess when people are too dense to read between the lines and Get It, you have to be really obvious about where you're coming from.

Then again, fuck stupid people. I can talk until I'm blue in the face, and I won't get anywhere with people who don't care.

And I should focus on all the people who have made it clear that my words were not in error, that I spoke for them, and that they are with me in being appalled at the response I got. Because I don't deserve that kind of crap from anyone. No one can make worthless the wisdom I've gained through my own experience.

With all the madness, I totally forgot to mention that I got into Harvard! Now just waiting on Hopkins. But damn these public schools are expensive. Harvard has loans set up, but I won't hear about scholarships for a bit. Meanwhile, UNC has el cheapo state tuition...

Well, I guess that's sort of a resolution. And fuck the mailing list for not sending out my emails a little faster so I can correct myself in a timely fashion.

I still feel like poo. But what else is new.

I can barely type at the moment, I am so. very. enraged.

Just when you think idiocy has reached it's peak in the world...

You know, I spend a really long time writing about something important to me, opening up just a little for the first time ever about something intensely personal and painful (though it happened long ago now), trying to communicate a difficult thing. And someone comes along and trashes me for it, because they can't spend 30 seconds trying to comprehend what I have to say. Because it's in response to her, it must be me being a big meany and disagreeing with her. At least other people got what I was saying, so I don't really feel like I said it wrong. I got read wrong by someone who I don't even think bothered to read.

I mean, I can be a dense writer and there's a lot more between then lines than most of my posts, but man, when the topic is serious, have a little faith that I'm not just mouthing off. Fucken A.

In further news, it seems my computer hard drive may be dying. Not what I want to deal with tonight.

Actually, at this point I'd just like to curl up and read somewhere cozy. If you know where I mean.

I think Nader is right. Dems should just relax. Relax and not vote for him!

WOW.

There are definitely people I should expect less from, so I will never be disappointed.

At least a wide variety of people have validated my position. People who are by no means obligated to do so.

Wandering around used to be more cathartic. Maybe I just walked more vigorously. Maybe I worried less about gropers and wackos. Lord knows today was a day of wackos. It also seemed to be warmer.

I just can't believe I know anyone who could be so immature. It's just like, my brain won't comprehend it. I don't remember *ever* being that immature. I don't remember other people that immature since like, middle school. Hell, lots of middle schools excel in maturity in comparison. I can't understand.

I have such a headache. And I have that verge-of-teary feeling on and off. How can people be so cruel, really.

The roundup. Thursday night was the usual class. It's going well, and it's very engaging. Friday was hockey, and we won in OT, and I drank Rumple and ate orgo homework. Seriously, one of the poor frosh girls brought this sheet with some kinda molecules on it. Someone lamented its presence, another person stole it, and I quickly got it into my hands, and shoved it in my mouth. I turned it into a little soggy ball, but alas, I did not fully consume it. A photo of this is making cautionary rounds amongst the orgo-taking masses.

Later was Adams for poker, but really mostly for hanging out. Then sleep. Saturday I actually managed to do some reading, though M was only marginal successful on the homework front. Then more hockey, and we slaughtered St. L and made their sieve look sad. I went off to dinner with a slew of folks, and it was delicious.

Then I met up with M, and he had a big ol headache! :-( So the evening mostly involved being horizontal and trying to be comforting. Do headaches have a function except misery?

Anyway, he felt better today. Just in time for BR cleaning. Yech. I helped a little, then ran away. I've done nothing productive since I got home. Well, not totally true, I balanced my books and sorts did my state taxes, though I'm waiting to file until I get my other bank statement. Woo.

More work... I wish I could get more excited about work these days, but I think I'm ready to go off and do school again. And I'm beginning to realize that my office not having windows really sucks and makes me tired.

Though there are certain ways in which going back to school can't be distant enough.

But it's a long way off yet.

Next weekend will be crazy. Hockey which may not happen, the West Coast crew up, maybe Jenn (?), M has his friend up. Madness everywhere.

I kinda thought Storey really meant he doesn't believe in any self-defense... I think he's nutters. But he knows this already. I just don't understand how you're supposed to "sit there and take it" if it means being raped or killed, if you can possibly prevent it. Certainly I can understand self-defense as a last resort, as a failure mode when other options have run out. But to make morally equivalent a woman smacking a killer rapist in the head with a large blunt object and the actions of the killer rapist... that disgusts me. Self-defense is not "just thinking of doing the same thing second." It's not like people who find themselves in need of defending themselves before that moment ran around blithely unaware that people could hurt other people... "Wow, you're trying to kill me... that gives me a brilliant idea to hurt you! Wow this is fun!" Please.

And I'm really trying to stamp out the voice in my head saying "Only a guy could possibly think that way," because I know it's not true, but... when the topic of violence comes up (or doesn't) in mixed company, I often notice the women looking at each other and shaking their heads because the threat of violence is so salient for women all the time. And I'm not going to say that's the case here, because I really don't think it is, it's just tickling that part of my brain.

Also because that part of my brain is already open due to the Katie Hnida thing. It's terrible... and the DID YOU SEE WHAT THAT ASSHOLE BARNETT SAID?!! He basically went on and on that she was a terrible kicker. "It was obvious that Katie was not very good. She was awful. You know what guys do - they respect your ability. Katie was a girl, and not only was she a girl, she was terrible. There's no other way to say it. She couldn't kick the ball through the uprights." I'm shocked that this is a program being scrutinized for multiple sexual assaults with a superstar coach like that. What a douchebag. How in a conversation about rape can you possibly think to bring up her kicking ability? Maybe because he always thought she was a "distraction" because his team was full of a bunch of sexist pigs and he not only knew about it but fostered that culture, so instead he wants to blame her for being a bad kicker. Damn.

I already thought Katie Hnida was a superstar, for her record first appearance in a college football game by a woman and her record first points scored by a woman. But now I have unfathomable respect for her, for putting her life back together and not letting her experience at CU keep her off the football field, and for the very difficult task of coming forward about the assault.

Storey and I just have very different first premises. I'm a pretty strong proponent of self-preservation at certain costs (and for several definitions of self-preservation) and Storey is the strongest proponent of non-violence at all costs that I know. So we often disagree. :-)

In other Storey news today, his Country Quiz has finally hit the newserver I frequent... I never posted the quiz there because I wanted to see how long it would take to get there on its own and by what route. I still don't know the route, so updates pending.

Also, the old Pro makes the leap to 24 tomorrow, as my calendar tells me. OLD.

I got my dad's message seeing if I'd heard about Katie Hnida and CU, and somehow without even looking up what the story was on the internet, I knew. Sure enough, she was raped while at CU. Fucken bastards.

In brighter news, 24 was epic tonight, and then I sang a new tune at karaoke, Alanis Morrisette's "You Oughta Know," which was simply epic. Sorta strange to sing such an angry song when I'm so happy, but middle/high school angst doesn't really leave you. :-)

I don't know what Storey means when he says, "quite sadly to me, almost everyone believes in self-defense." I don't get what's sad about that, unless he's talking about people who want to keep a gun under their pillow to shoot potential robbers or something like that. I think that's pretty misguided. But if he's talking about preventing attack on oneself... maybe I'm just too militantly opposed to anyone trying to rape or kill me, but I can't fathom even a little bit how self-defense is a bad thing in that situation. If preventing attack on my person requires violent force, so be it.

Tired.

Woo! Blood donation successful! I got pie and a perdy scarf. This means I now have about half a dozen scarves.

Woo day off today! I accomplished nothing I should have woo! I went to the BR and helped with the mailing and had lunch with Lee and dinner with Matty and then came home and have done nothing.

The weekend, the weekend. Friday night we lost the hockey game, and then back at Eliot we played Mario Kart and then went to sleep. Saturday Matty took me out to lunch, and he gave me pretty roses. I think part of my grumbling about Valentine's Day all these years has partially been out a certain awareness that I'm actually a sucker for these sorts of things, and I knew that by being resentful I was also being a giant hypocrite. But, it does make the day lovely, and the flowers were for Ben's group, so that is good. And lunch was delightful and we sat by the window. Then there was more Mario Kart, and I played and was terrible, but I sorta got better.

Won the hockey game Saturday night. This was good because before I was dour at my inability to procure Steel Reserve for post-game relaxation. The store that carries it was out! So, I suck. I did have a wicked headache after, though, so we chilled in Eliot before the party, but then I felt better, thank goodness. The party was crazy weird. I ended up on more BerthaMacth lists than I thought possible, which could mean I just answered mostly the modal answer for the questions which lead to lots of matches. Which could mean I'm just the pinnacle of Band opinion, or its ultimate manifestation. Anyhoo, people were drunk and making odd decisions.

Being not angry singles, we didn't get so drunk, and we ducked out pretty early. Not so early, I guess. But getting ridiculously sloshed was not the goal so much. I guess I'm again probably a big hypocrite, in that now I'm part of a "boring" couple and not the crazy single person trying to make the party wild and fun, as I think I commented on several V Days ago. Then again, I'm old, I shouldn't have to be fun anyway! :-)

Rather, I should be fun, but with a, um, select audience.

Sunday I had to get up way too early to go to MIT and read TASP applications. I was nostalgic for my TASP, and Svetlana was there so we reminisced. I wish I knew what was up with the whole crew. But I was also disappointed at the quality of some of the applications... lots of kids can write sentences just fine, and they can communicate certain levels of ideas, but forget about constructing a good argument and using evidence and being unique and mature. Maybe I'm just harsh, but then again, we kinda had to be harsh because only like 1 of 8 applicants gets interviewed at all. But I felt like Simon with my commentary.

I came home, had some dinner, and took a three-hour nap. Chatted with Withers, who was trying to find his car, since he had to work on a Sunday! And then talked to M, who was in the BR working. Then I went back to sleep for like 12 more hours. Lazy, but maybe I needed that much sleep to get rid of this chronic tiredness and headaches.

I should go to sleep now so I will be even more refreshed for tomorrow. And maybe I will go to the gym even!

Oh! I got an email Friday from the department head at Columbia telling me I'm in! Woohoo! So now I have UNC and Columbia, and I'm waiting still to hear from Harvard and Hopkins, which is crazy since they had the earliest deadlines.

I dig you more every day.

My ear feels funny, but it seems to be a little better than earlier... I hope it's not an ear infection. Of course the internet tells me I could have meningitis, but I can still touch my chin to my chest tso I should be okay. :-)

Despite the ear funniness, I went to get my hemoglobin checked today: 12.4, just under the threshhold for donation. Maybe by Tuesday.

I should go to the gym, but now I'm paranoid and don't want to lower my immunity by running around a lot. And I've done nothing today and need to edit this grant.

In further grumbling, I have a little friend that is taking its sweet time going away. My body is just being offensive today. What's next? Gas? Halitosis? Rash? Spontaneous combustion?

More sleep, but still tired. At least my class is fairly early. Also, I think part of why I've felt so crappy is just lack of sun, as my office has no windows, so I'm doing all my reading today in the solarium.

Wooo karaoke contest. I did not participate, for I didn't want to waste my $5 because I knew I had no chance to win, but it was fun.

But now I am tired.

I think I'll take a small nap when I get home and then do my homeowrk.

I love OutKast, but when I saw Andre 3000's performance of "Hey Ya" at the Grammys, I kinda felt ill. I thought maybe I was just being oversensitive, but, no, turns out Native Americans are pretty pissed about the alien indian schtick. I mean, I thought it was a pretty stupid idea and I had to wonder who thought that wouldn't be offensive. Seriously, who is the director of taste on television these days?

Another great weekend that was too short to do any real things I should have got done, because I was having toom uch fun instead. Friday night I met up with M, who had had a terrible day up to that point. Life just piles on sometimes. But we had a nice dinner at Boston Beerworks, and then Big Fish was just really spectacular. Fun and pretty.

Saturday wakeup was way too early. :-p Jenn got to town in the afternoon, and we went to Chuck's for lunch and caught up. She liked the snowman head candy bowl I made her. That's the project I was working on this winter: a snowman head with a top hat for the lid to the bowl. It was plastic canvas with yarn needlework. Very fun. Anyhoo, after lunch we picked up Matty and headed to Building 19. What a crazy place. They have some wicked cheap stuff there. And some crazy couches! But unfortunately, not much else in the way of furniture, so we headed to Big K-Mart for extra luvin. Woo shelving. Off to Summer St to grab a rug and then back to the square so boy could go to dinner with folks. Jenn and I hit Davis for MEAT and then Sligo, that awesome dive with cheap drinks and a place to sit. After that was the Cube, where Danny was chill on percocet before drifting off to sleep in a chair, but that's not unusual anyway. They put a pin in his arm, and it was in a sling, but it sounds like they can remove all that pretty soon thanks to the pin.

It got real cold! Thank goodness for taxis. The saxes and low brass were watching Big Lebowski when we got back, and people were a widdle drunk.

Sweet sleep. Got up, more lunch on Papa H's dime, then back home for a bit before heading to Summer St for the last couple weeks of 24 on tape followed by the Grammys. Which were actually entertaining at times.

Today I am sleepy. I also just remembered there is Prop Crew sectional tonight and I think I will go, even though it's really far too late for me to stay up again.

So I finally got my hair cut, since I hadn't since September and Matty declared the situation "urgent" and "dire" and, in fact, "an emergency," as if my luscious locks were some Iraqi nuclear threat. I think he'll find that even much shorter it will still be an interminable nuisance. Shaving my head is the only solution, and I think that causes vastly more problems than it solves.

Not too much going on. I did make it to the gym Weds, and the scale only chided me a little. My muscles chided me a lot more for not using them for so long. Sad. That night I went to dinner with the ski trip drivers, which was lovely but turned me into a beached whale for a bit afterwards. I got to see Matty's new room, which is lovely without smelly old Clark in it (ha, just kidding), but slightly overheated. Like, wow, tropical. Clark's room is a size befitting a man who lost so pathetically at beer pong (muahaha), and Sam and Ben have put up about a million posters in the double, and I think the ceiling will be the next victim.

Just caught the bus home! Perfect timing!

Yesterday I had my first seminar. It was good. I seem to be one of the younger members of the class, which I guess I should have expected for a graduate seminar in the extension school. I think it's going to be a pretty challenging course.

After that I tinkered with the BDJ a bit, as I will be its layout master again this year. Woo! Then I spent lots of time bugging the boy. And then it took me an hour to get home because the MBTA is a bastard. Perfect timing one night, nonexistant buses the next.

Tonight, trek to Fenway for dinner and Big Fish with M. Then Jenn will be in town tomorrow!

Can I mention how proud I am to be in MA right now? On many many issues I can comprehend some portion of the opposition's viewpoint, but on the issue of gay marriage, I'm pretty certain the opposing viewpoint boils down to "gay people are icky." It's bigotry, plain and simple. Hurrah for the MA SJC interpreting the law in alignment with the principles of liberty, equality, and opportunity we claim to espouse in this country.

Okay, forget worrying about diet for weight -- there's a far more pressing issue at hand. I went to go donate blood today, and a not-quite sufficient hemoglobin level has deprived some blood-short person my delicious O positive. Delicious, but inadequate, that is. So for the next week it's iron time: meat and green vegetables with some citrus for Vitamin C to aid absorption and no tea because it apparently reduces iron absorption.

The nurse was quite sad, as they really need blood, and O is particularly desirable because it's pretty rare but highly usable.

Note: I really wanted to write desireable and useable up there. Like how I will spell it judgement til the day I die. I guess that's actually an accepted variant. But I actually prnouce those words like the base word plus the ending after, so I feel like it should be spelled that way.

This will help you understand how it is that Worcester can be pronounced as it is. It's not wrong, it's just not Wor-ces-ter, but Worce-ster. Since Massers don't do Rs, it Wooce-sta. Jerry pointed this out one day, and it changed my life.

There's been some buzz that the Rovians are certainly going to try to link MA gay marriage and John Kerry in voters minds. So he needs to come back with this: not having jobs hurts families. Not having health care worth a crap definitely hurts families. Having your kids get shoddy underfunded education hurts families. Sending your kids off to die for a bunch of lies hurts families. These things are obvious. Let's talk about how the Bush administration has fucked up all these, because it's clear that it has, and let's stop talking about this questionable notion that some gay people getting married is going to hurt any familiy anywhere. Let's stick with the obvious, America.

Holy crap, I totally agree with Storey on something! :-) He write about how weary he is of food fads. While his diet of "eat what tastes good" may not work for someone who thinks everything tastes good (me!), he does make a good point about how ridiculously overly seriously people follow the latest trends. Even if some of these diets have some scientific backing, scientific backing is never never permanent, and new discoveries are always swinging what we think we know on its head. Probably the only decent food advice these days is eat whatever foods you want, just not so damn much of it (unless you're scrawny, then eat away).

Of course, I haven't been to the gym in two weeks, I went on a vacation in which we ate plenty, and I'm sort of procrastinating going today because I'm a little afraid of the scale. I may return saying I'm hacking all breads and sugars and saturated fats out of my diet for the next couple weeks.

Back at work. I need to win the lottery so my vacation could last forever. It was a wonderful trip, and I am so very happy.

From the top. Tuesday evening we left, after people finally figured out how to load and get into vans. Damn these kids. My van was a party, and we had this nifty fm transmitter for the ipod, so we had good music the whole way. Matty was a driving stud and drove the entire way there.

And we stopped at Cumby's! And got Cumby snacks! ::snicker::

We got to the chalets, which were pretty cool, if not a little old and kitschy. And the walls, oh the walls they were so thin! We could have entire conversations with each other in different rooms, doors closed. But it just added to the amusement. We stayed in the smaller chalet, which was good because it stayed a lot cleaner and saner, and I would have been constantly battling clutter and garbage in the other one.

Wednesday we got up really late, went to the SAQ and the IGA, the liquor store and grocery store, respectively. We bought too much at each. But it was good, because we could eat at home most of the trip. We mostly just hung around and ate and drank and played Game Cube, and M and I went into the little town and walked around for a while. It was your typical cute little ski touristy town. At night we watched Tampopo in the big house... what a crazy little movie! But I like weird movies.

Thursday was the day of failed snowshoeing. We went up to the mountain, rented these plastic things that turned out to be truly not-good snowshoes. Like, not only did they not stay on very well, but they also sank in a lot! BWe couldn't find the trail at all on the mountain, so we drove for a while to this other place which we did find. We had to walk up a giant hill to get there, and then when we started walking, our shoes kept coming off and we kept sinking, and then Clark's broke. And the wind was so horrific that there was really no point in continuing. But, the driving was fun and pretty. After dinner was Drink Empire Strikes Back, but I played A. Drinks Her Port Whenever She Damn Pleases.

Friday we went to the bigger town near our ski town. Mostly we did the dumb American thing, converging upon a small mall populated by retired people, eating poutine and invading the dollar store. That dollar store was fucking heaven, seriously. They had everything there. The boys bought foam swords in obscene fluorescent colors, and Matty bought a little dart gun which had surprising accuracy, and which I plagued the chalet with the rest of the trip. We traipsed through the mall with our ridiculous wares (Jeremy also bought an assortment of St. Patrick's Day headwear), and we wandered looking for a bowling alley for the night's fun. Josh almost got killed by Steve Martin. Yeah, he tried to stab at a poster of him with his sword, slipped on the slush, and landed on his ass. Pretty hysterical.

That night we went to the bowling alley, but it was league night! Calling around, we discovered two more bowling alleys in the area, both too full to take us. Those Cowansvillagers, they love bowling so very much. So we headed back and watched Return of the Jedi instead.

Saturday was Montreal! En route Matty went to stop at a gas station so he could fix the mirrors. But the station lot and a snow plow had never met, so when he went to turn into the lot, the giant van we were driving slid softly into a telephone pole. Fortunate, really, because otherwise we might have drifted off into a snowbank, which would have probably been a much bigger issue. We surveyed the damage, which appeared to be only a broken headlight cover and a tiny dent in the fender.

Little did we know.

We got to Montreal without incident. Then we had to find parking outisde, because the van was too big to fit in most garages. Every time we made a tight turn, some horrible noise would emit from below. We found a lot, after going down this incedibly steep (but awesome) hill, and I got out to inspect. Matty turned the wheels back and forth, but no noise. But when we got out, it was clear that the fender had been pushed into the wheel well a bit, and so every time the wheel moved far enough out of the wheel well, it had to scrape by the fender, thus making a terrible noise. We wouldn't have noticed it on the highway because the tire was fine while turned straight. We figured getting the fender back forward would not be a terrible task, and seeing as the garage right there was closed for the day, we figured we'd go have fun and wait until the engineer of the group got to town later that night before worrying about it.

We ate lunch at the restaurant at the Holiday Inn we hung out in a couple of years ago, which I had entirely forgot about. Then some of the crew headed to the casino, because we'd seen most of the important historical stuff already, and it was friggin cold. We mostly played slots and wandered around. It was a decent casino, and just fun. Back at the train stop, we walked toward the Biosphere, which was neat, stopping at a sort of shed with lots of ice sculptures inside. On the return walk, we found a little playground of sorts that was like a circus. There was a snow sculpture of an elephant with a ball, and there was a tunnel through its legs, so there was amusement taking pictures of that. Then we found trampolines! Big ass trampolines! That could never happen in the US because of liability and crap like that, but there they were, unguarded, unbarricaded trampolines. It was awesome. Near the station was a wall of little block sculptures... basically they would give kids a block to carve, and there were all these tables with tools. Then the finished block would go in the pile with others, making a really cool effect.

For dinner we went to Marche, which was tasty, though I feel like I've been there a million times, but I was too lazy to find anywhere else to go. The whole crew met up, and then a group split off to go fix the van. Holy hell, if we'd known it would be such trouble, we definitely would have made sure to take care of it right when we got there. The problem was there was no good way to get leverage to bend the metal back out, and we lacked any decent tools. So, we had 21 people, two operational minivans, and a busted 15-person van with a dumb little defect. The minivans went back with 5 or 6 in one, because for whatever reason they left without picking up any people who were trying to fix the big van, and nine in the other, with three folks squished on the middle double seat and Clark crammed on the floor between the seat and the door. The plan was to send back one of those vans to Montreal to pick up the others after they got the van towed to be fixed, but it turns out the two truck driver got there, saw how pathetic the damage was, and fixed it himself. What a hero! So they started back just as we were getting closer to the mountain, thank goodness. When we returned, they opened the door and Clark fell out of the van in a cramped up little shape, which had us all dying with laughter.

Sweet sweet sleep, a later wakeup call than planned (thank goodness), and then the drive bak. M took on the slightly snowy Canadian roads, and I tackled the mostly dry US roads. The duty free shop in between provided me with Johnny Walker Blue, for the memory of its deliciousness in my mind could not be ignored.

Then the Super Bowl! God, how crazy was that! Though I wanted to see the streaker. After the game, we immediately ran into the Square... which was pretty dead since it's intersession. So we hopped on the T and headed to Kenmore, which was pretty crazy (though thankfully not as crazy as around Northeatern where someone was actually run over by a car). There were lots of peeps.

Then back to the BR, grabbed my stuff and hopped in a cab home. To sleep straight through until I had to get up for work.

So those are the events of the weekend. It was definitely the best ski trip I've been on in lots of ways. It had the standard big group thing going, you know, the annoying people, the dirty, whiny, selfish folks, but they were unable to overshadow the fun people. And there were so many little moments I can't begin to cover here. Like laying on the bed listening to 18 covers of Layla and Phish singing the jam part of Free Bird while M put his head next to the headphones so he could hear too. It was even sometimes a relaxing trip, even with all the madness these crazy kids bring everywhere.

It also settled my head a lot. A lot a lot. I really know now, without a doubt.

Hey kids! I got into UNC! So, I have one school! Woo!

I was really surprised when I opened it. I expected it to be a letter about missing paperwork or some financial aid forms or something. That was the third app I turned in!

Oh yeah, so I got an email from Hopkins that was like, oh, your app is still in process, the department won't have decisions until mid- to late-February. Okay, so why did the admissions office tell me that it'd probably be 3-4 weeks? Fuckers.

Tomorrow night: karaoke contest! I don't think I'll enter, but you never know.