Media reads my mind Part I: today's NYT has an editorial about how rgeat the weather has been this June, and I was just talking with Kristin about that yesterday. I'd been reading my journal from last June and noted that it rained like every day, but this June has been temperate and sunny.

Media reads my mind Part II: there's an ad for Onion Premium on their site that features the exact article I'm kicking myself for not preserving from whan it was free. It's the one from Bush's inauguration that perfectly tells the future.

Of course, others have saved it, and have even annotated it.

Ugh, my head is so very hung over. But in great news, I put the tab last night on my credit card, and somehow ended up only contributing a net $2 for the bill, as much cash was amassed finally.

I need a nap.

I was going to do some laundry, since I have enough quarters for a load, but I was too lazy. Some of my DVDs came in, including the Christopher Guest three-pack, so I watched A Mighty Wind, since I hadn't seen it yet. Now I have "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" stuck in my head.

I should go to bed, but of course I'm less tired that I was earlier. But I should still go to bed.

People I can't quite get capture my attention, certainly, but sometimes I wonder if the real deal is that they're just confused.

Weekends change one's perspective to positive more often than not.

So I got this letter last week from the dept chair at Hopkins saying that they're offering a intro class on the biomedical sciences. It includes anatomy and physiology, which I've been wanting to take. But it's the two weeks before school starts. Even if I do get there on the 15th, I have no desire to spend the next two weeks in class all day. So, I ordered the book and maybe I'll see if I can get the supplemental materials and do some work on my own. Kinda lame that they waited so long to let us know.

Friday I did laundry and generally goofed off. I went and saw Elaine and her new baby before they take off to Cleveland, and then I went to Laura's birthday party. Grafton was fun, but pricey, and since I was one of the only people there who could drink out of many, I felt like I had to do my part to make the tab worthwhile for the waitress. But the drinks were yum, and there was delicious ice cream cake. After was a party at this cool apartment, and while we didn't stay very late, it was fun. M and I walked back to his house, which gave me little blisters, but those crazy $5 dragon sandals continue to astonish me with their overall comfort.

Saturday I mostly helped M with summer band copying and taping... music folder fun. We went back to his house for dinner, a lovely chicken caesar salad care of Francis, and then we dropped by the Cube where they were having a small but lavish barbecue. M had to go do more work, but he encouraged me to stay there and join him later. I had a giant burger and some corn before rolling to the bus stop. Astonishingly, the boys were going to eat *more* once I left.

Sunday was our excursion. The stupid 86 bus came *early*, by like 7 minutes, which in realityland means it was like 10 minutes early because it's never on time. Fucken bus. The issue was that Tim called me and planned to meet us at Sullivan. But I didn't have his number and we then had to take the T to Community College. But when we did not arrive at Sullivan, he figured it out, and walked to Bunker Hill where he met us at the top of the tower, all sweaty like. I'm really surprised my legs aren't sore at all today from the climb, but I took it at a very measured and slow pace. The kids dashed off and had to take little breathers (either that or they were stopping to wait for me, but I was barely out of breath by the top), but I just kept plodding up at the exact same pace from bottom to top. the view was lovely as always.

The USS Constitution was also cool. I ate my lunch in line since no one else brought lunch, ruining my picnic plans I had for Bunker Hill. But it was okay. The tour was pretty good, and the tour guide was much more super soldier prototypical Navy guy than the last time, which was sort of amusing. Then we walked to North End, where Jerry led us to a delicious, but somewhat expensive restaurant, leading to a weekend of overall too much money spent. I didn't get anything at Mike's afterwards, because I was tired of spending money, but they kids got cannolis.

I got M this pin at the USS... one of those name things with all the different names that never have mine spelled right. It was a Captain pin, so it's a little Navy looking thing that says Captain Matt. He was as pleased with it as I hoped he'd be. :-)

I really want ice cream. Why are there no good ice cream places around here?

I hate that every time I come home at a decent hour my roommate is in the kitchen, usually with the other girl who is here and is sort of my roommate right now, and invariably one of their boyfriends. There's always someone in the kitchen. I just want a damn snack, I don't want to have to be social to get one. Go sit in the living room!

In other words, I cannot wait to live by myself. Can. Not. Wait.

Mmmmmm, day off.

I am super sore from basketball last night... I was sore when I went to bed, which almost never happens! Maybe I should not have stopped going to the gym. But this recess gig is a much more fun way to get back in shape.

On other arenas, disappointments abound.

I was massively productive yesterday, both at work and then after. I went grocery shopping and updated Quicken, which was like 6 weeks behind. Damn. Then there was karaoke, and I sang You Learn by Alanis, and it was decent. It was a fun night, though.

Today is going by soooo slooooowly. But I got a good laugh when I tried to make a map in SAS with a new background I'd created, and all I got was Alabama and one little bar poking out of it. I printed it out and put it on my wall. SAS gets fussy if you forget something.

One more day of work this week WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Aw man, the first meeting of the Evening Recess Club was so beatdown. We played kickball, which generally was depressing for the defense and made the offense feel like superheroes, because we didn't quite have enough on each side to properly cover the field of play. And then we played some sweet dodgeball and all got to assess our lack of fitness. Tomorrow is basketball! Lots of people came, so I think this is going to be a pretty consistently good thing. I rule for this idea.

We'll see if the Weekend Excursion Club fares as well. Bunker Hill/USS Constitution this Sunday, and so much fun planned all summer, or at least until I leave.

I got two emails from Hopkins people, including a guy I worked with at Harvard who's going for an MS in Epi, and a girl from my program with my advisor. I also emailed my advisor just now to say hi. I'm getting pretty jazzed about school yo.

None of those lazy jerks changed the water tank! FUCKERS!

I ended up doing it. I require tea.

Last night was Greek food followed by a short attempt to complete the mailing before the copier died completely. So I went up to the house and helped M get his laundry to the laundromat. They're going to do it for him, because the kid just doesn't have time to deal with it. Then he had to go to the BR because they got permission to use the upstairs copier. I stayed behind and watched TV with the kids.

M was mocking me because I said I could help him with the Yard concert in August, and he said, what happened to not doing anything for the Band ever again? But as I told him, that's more about helping him. And I'm not in charge of it, like I was with the BDJ.

Today has mostly been consumed by getting my social calendar in order. One of the new RAs starts tomorrow, so I have to get most of my goofing off done today so I can do some training and pretend I do work.

Friday night I went over to Cherry St, where Darryl had made delicious Chinese food, and Josh's fam was there, leading to amusements. They left, and we mostly just crashed around and drank Mike's.

Saturday I poked around, dropping off a big bag of clothes at the Goodwill in Davis and then heading up to Powderhouse to chill in the park and walk around. I called M, who was heading to the mall to get a new phone, so I went there too. He was shortly called back to Harvard to help with mailing issues, so we went back, but they were fixed. A few errands, sating of my technoenvy by hitting the Sprint store so I could look at phones and not buy one, and then we got dinner at Felipe's. Yum. We saw Supersize Me, which was so great, and then went and played some Mario Kart.

Sunday was mailing party. Wooooo. After many hours, we were as done as possible, and so there was Six Feet Under up at the house.

I'm having a water cooler standoff. I went to get water, and the tank was empty AGAIN. Seriously, I want to kill whoever empties that shit and doesn't refill it. So I'm just waiting for someone else to do it. I shouldn't have to do it all the damn time.

Okay, I totally lied about the not being helpful to Band thing, having worked on the summer band mailing after Holly's party. But that was cuz M was headachy and I like him to get home at a reasonable hour and sleep. :-)

I have no desire to do any work today!

So yesterday was a day of festivities. For lunch, the bosses took me out, as their vacations align such that there's no time when all of them will be in town all together before I leave. I got an exit interview, much praise, and Jeff gave me a wonderful salsa set... a big wooden bowl and a little wooden bowl with porcelain inset for salsa. Fun!

Marsha came by for one last coffee, so all the RAs went out and gossiped and giggled.

After work was a surprise birthday party for Holly. She thought she was just going to go out to dinner with Jeff and Mary, but really the whole slew of us were there when they arrived. Buahaha. She was surprised, and it was really fun.

Then, as mentioned, I went to the BR for mailing goodness. More mailing this weekend. I'm a huge dork.

Ooh, I can go get the mail. This is an activity which is easy and fun.

Yesterday I was also feeling sort of irked that my paper is going to have so many authors, really too many for such a small paper. But, then again, the people who want to be involved really like it, so I guess that's kind of flattering.

Guh, I haven't written anything substantive for a week. How about a stab at it.

Class Yard concert last Wednesday was kinda cool, even though (and maybe because) it rained and there was distant thunder and lightning. I always start out really hating that concert a lot, but by the end, I'm having fun. I always then forget about the fun until the next year, when I hate it again. It was far better than the earlier reunion gigs, which had been wicked hot. The rain cooled off everything.

Next morning looked a lot like two years prior, but it never got to be that rainy, just drizzly at worst. Commencement really flew by, I felt, and the usually painful afternoon alumni meeting was actually fairly engaging this year, and Kofi Annan was cool. I felt tons less tired after the day than in previous years, and my need for a shower after was purely recreational.

We had some dinner with kids at Uno's Porter, and moved some shit before hitting the party.

And party we did. I did too many shots to print here. Sometime I realized that it would be fun to do an '02-'07 boat race, since they'll be graduating while we're around for our fifth reunion. That made me feel old, but not too old to do double duty in kicking the youngins' asses. There was lots of dancing. At some point, everything gets much fuzzier. We went to Tommy's, which I only vaguely recall. Then it was time to go home and my purse was missing. When we returned from Tommy's I must have plunked it in the instruments without a thought. This lead to me freaking out massively, given that my purse contains my wallet with my ID, bus pass, vital pharms, and cell phone. Aha! Cell phone. I struggled to call it, which lead us right to it. I'm a little sad that I was the one to think of and execute this idea, given my state.

Anyway, we left, me still prattling on about the crucial importance of my purse and justifying the emotional effort we had expended to find it, and before I knew it, I was crying about how I didn't know what the hell I was thinking leaving Boston and my friends and the boy, and I didn't want to go to Baltimore. All my insecurities and stresses just kinda jumped out in a huge overdramatic way. Everything is pretty much a blank after that, except at some point I went to throw a kleenex away and got trash all over the bed somehow. But other than this brilliance, I'm assuming I just babbled a lot before crashing to sleep.

The next day was pretty rough. At least I only had pm work.

My fears were assuaged by my trip to Baltimore. Saturday I flew down there early afternoon, spent a while experimenting with publis transit to get to my hotel, and then I mostly chilled. I found a grocery store and stocked my mini-fridge with fruit, cheese, and diet Coke, then watched a lot of TV. TV really sucks without MTV, Comedy Central, and VH1. But I did have HBO, which was useful. I really needed some Mario Kart action, to be honest.

Sunday I saw three apartments, each better than the last. The first was downtown-ish, in Mt. Vernon, for those who know the area. It was a little north of where I would have liked, not quite as nice as the more commercial area. The apartment was super cheap, but an efficiency, which is okay, but I really dig having a couple of rooms to chill in. It did have a rockin roof deck, though. The second apartment was absolutely enormous. Like, the entire 3rd floor of the place, high ceilings, every room large. And the landlady was super awesome, and she was planning to re-carpet and paint the place, which will make it even nicer. Unfortunately, it was several blocks south of where I felt comfortable living... not only a shlep to the shuttle, but also just felt less safe an area. The block itself was not so bad, and she said lots of homeowners lived there and grad students. But... nah, couldn't quite get comfortable.

So I met up with Ericka, who I know through electronic means and finally met. She is super cool, and so is the apartment she is vacating to move up here. It is up right near the college campus, which is a lovely area that I feel safe walking around, and it's a decent-sized 1BR for a fab price. I felt pretty good about it. We went out for coffee, which was cool, and she told me all about B-more, and then gave me the landlord's number.

Monday I looked at a couple of places, but nothing moved me, so I called the landlord of the place I wanted, and he said he wants to do some painting and stuff to the place, so he'd prefer mid-to-late August for my move-in. Hence, a little time in Boston to pack and chill, and a little time in B-more to settle in without getting bored and lonely. I hopped on the shuttle to the airport, grabbed and earlier flight, and made it back for some Mario Kart at the Cherry House.

Last night was karaoke goodness (and finishing the BDJ woo). We were the only singers there for a while, and the only people who could seemingly pay attention to the rout of an NBA championship and the singing at the same time. I sang No Rain by Blind Melon, a suggestion from Loren, which was excellent. We were all pretty good, which was kind of sad given the small and lackluster crowd. But we press onwards!

In the course of drinking too much beer and yapping my trap, I worked out some conclusions, I think. And today, pondering them, I'm formulating a better picture of the next couple of months. I think the trip really alleviated my panic about moving. I have a place to go, I have a timetable that makes me happy and will keep me relaxed but busy, and I'm actually really looking forward to it all now. I can spend my remaining time in Boston enjoying it instead of feeling like it's all slipping away and I'm headed to some kind of void. I know where I'm headed, and it will be really cool, so I don't have to worry and I can just enjoy what's happening right now. And when I leave, I don't have to hang on to anything out of fear that I won't find anything new to focus on. I'll have plenty to do, places to go, people to meet.

I know what my home will look like. I know where to get groceries, where some of the cool stores are, where there are pretty trees to walk through, roughly how to use the buses, where to get the shuttle. I know where the coffee shops are when I can't study at home for whatever reason, the market where I can get milk and a few little things. I know what's left to explore, and how to get to DC for greater amusements. And soon I'll have so many classes I won't be able to function, but it will be fine. It will all be fine.

It doesn't make leaving completely easy, but it makes it a lot easier, and the course much clearer.

Toadies is so good for days of annoyance. Extreme annoyance. I spent like two hours in the BR to do ten minutes of work because someone slacked off. And more annoyingly I was made to feel like I was being unreasonable for being annoyed. God forbid my time should at all be valued, like I have nothing else to do with it. No, no, go ahead and inconvenience me without worry, I just have laundry to do and a party to attend tomorrow.

But so what else is new with Band, eh? I'm through doing helpful things for it, as far as I can tell, seeing as I'm leaving.

Truth be told, a day like today makes me really excited to leave.

Quick notes before bed. Apartment secured, target moving date mid-to-late August. I prefer this to the original plan of Aug 1, so I will have a bit more time with my friends and less lonely time in B-more before school starts. The apartment is near the college campus, in a cool neighborhood, and I know the girl who is living there now, so it's nice to have a recommendation behind the obvious qualities of the place.

I also have a new AIM name, since I guess the AOL account finally got cancelled. Fuckers don't let you keep your screenname, but lock the whole name down. Email for the new one.

I have tons to write, but it'll have to wait, as I need to sleep and tomorrow I go to Baltimore. I *will* find an apartment. I can't imagine something won't work, so by Monday night, I should have an address.

I must say, however, that I do have the greatest boyfriend in the world, for his brilliant post-Commencement ideas and his unending patience with whatever silliness I unleash.

I don't have as many appointments to see places as I'd like, but I think it'll be okay. I feel confident that I'll see something this weekend that I'll like, and it's all wicked cheap, so that rules.

Anyone who wants a gmail account should email me, and I'll hook you up with dat shizzy.

Last night was the craziest senior BBQ gig ever, with half the Band late due to a towed car at the beach plus rush hour traffic. It was entertaining. Amazingly, we actually had decent instrumentation, and if I could play snare, it may have been hidden that we were a little shorthanded.

M went with me to karaoke even though he was tired and stressed out. He is the best. He even sang! I sang You Light Up My Life, which was cheesy but fun. I was hoping to get in a bit later with that, so I waited to put my sheet in, but then they reshuffled them and I ended up singing third, which is way too early. Mihalyfy brought down the house with Age of Aquarius.

I'm really looking forward to Commencement tomorrow, though sadly the weather forecast is eerily reminiscent of my own commencing. As in, morning rain. Beh. At least I'll be under the tent this year. Also, threat of rain isn't so bad, cuz then we don't feel like we have to deal with the drum.

If I find a place this weekend, I think I can really take next week for major relaxation.

Wow, in the last half hour I completely absent-mindedly drank an orange juice I brought back from the meeting. I just went to open it only to find it was already consumed. I am such a space cadet.

It was small, so maybe it just didn't take long.

After today I have 28 days left of work! I've worked out my vacation days so I have a bunch of three day weekends. The closest I get to a full week is before July 4th weekend, when I leave early Friday instead of taking off the whole day.

I didn't go watch the transit of Venus this morning, because it was ass early. Also, I don't quite understand the allure of watching a little dot pass in front of the sun, but to each his own, I guess. I mean, I understand last time they did some very important scientific things with it, but no one going to watch it this time is doing that, they're just looking at some pinhole projection.

Oh man, I am so tired of working. I'm looking forward to school again.

I still have no idea how I'm gonna get around this weekend. But I think I'm definitely gonna need a car once I get there for real. The city is just too big.

The weekend was pretty standard dead week kinda stuff. Thurs night we went to the Kong for Ben's 21st, which was good times, and B got pretty buzzed on scorpion bowls and terrible shots. Friday night was all about chilling up at the house, which was nice. Saturday there was a gig which wasn't that terrible, then later was the foosball tournament which went late. And there was a little visit from the asst director at 1 am, which was interesting. Either he was checking up on us, or he just doesn't know that it's not cool to come around after about 5 on a Fri or Sat night. He needs a life.

Yesterday was the fastest patron appeal mailing I've ever seen. Seriously, it took like 4 hours, because everyone chipped in. It was crappy out, and so everyone was inside doing nothing anyway. We had rehearsal in the evening, but sometime in between, I got to the point where I hated everyone and people were annoying me who weren't even doing anything particularly annoying. Welcome to Dead Week/Commencement week.

Rehearsal could have gone better. It was slow. And I wish my advice on pre-rehearsal investigation of the music had been taken. Also that certain people had better attitudes. But I had fun once we got to the Commencement music, and Tom said he was glad to have me there. Since by the end I was probably one of the only enthusiastic people there.

I'm only here for half a day before I leave for more rehearsal. I was really tempted to call in and take the whole day off and sleep in, but eh. I'll maybe take Friday morning off instead, or save the time for some other week.

Also, I got a couple phone calls in to set up stuff for this weekend. More for tomorrow.

Rehearsal today went better, even though it was really long. I planned to listen to a conference call for the last half, but since the chorus was there, there was actually a lot to do, so I gave up quickly.

Watched Harry Potter II and lazed around the BR. I made minor progress on the BDJ, so I think I can finish it tomorrow, finally, now that I have all the damn pieces.

I also got a call from a woman with a couple cheap-ass apartments to look at, which is good. The weekend is shaping up. Though it's gonna be a bitch to get around without a car.

I only have 8 weeks left in Boston. This is only freaking me out, well, tons.

I had an attack this evening of feeling unimportant, unintegral, and insufficiently loved, but seriously, I need to just chill.

I'm sure this is just the AP collapsing too much information in an inaccurate way, but, "The Annie E. Casey Foundation study, offering an annual measure of how children are faring, showed that nearly one in six young adults -- 3.8 million Americans from 18 to 24 - was not in school or the workplace in 2002." Um, excuse me, people aged 18-24 are not children, but are, as the later part of the sentence denotes, young adults. Maybe the point of data on that age group is to look at outcomes of childhood.

Ya know, I was planning to rent a car for my travels to Baltimore, but seeing as I'm not 25, turns out that would be expensive. It's so not expensive to rent a car when you're 25, but so very expensive if you're not. Poo. This means I have to take the stupid bus again, and I hope I can look at apartments all in the same area.

Friday I met up with the kids for Greek food. M finished his exams! Woo! But he had to pack a lot, so I hung out. I'd bought him some Steel Reserve for celebration, which he drank, and Ben and I drank champagne, guzzling the whole bottle. This caused the little cold I had in my nose to take residence in my throat, making me a very squeaky girl for most of the weekend. But it was fun.

Saturday was more packing and spending too much at restaurants. I helpfully removed posters from walls and played a lot of Mario Kart. Oh, I also helpfully went and procured bubble wrap from home. But on Mario Kart, I played the Special Cup at 50cc and got the record! I didn't even fall off the tracks that much. Next I will try it at 100cc, once the Game Cube is up at Cherry St.

Lee's mom arrived with the wheels, so the next forever amount of time was spent loading that shit up and unloading it at the house. I ended up being part of the house crew, and did things not involving stair climbing, since I was all wheezy and congested. The new digs are totally sweet. The living room is a decent size, but most importantly, they have On Demand! Delicious. they also have the largest bean bag chair I have ever seen. It's seriously huge. The kitchen is ginormous and wonderful (despite a lack of dishwasher), and there's a huge back porch with couches and stuff for lots of lounging. Awesome. Matt's room is pretty good, and he has the best bed by far, which swallowed me up a few times over the weekend.

We failed to go to IHOP with the kids, but we were tired.

Sunday was sooooooo early. Man, the longest day ever. I got up and helped sweep. Rather, I swept the whole suite as people got their crap out. So many dust bunnies. I swear, I never knew what dust bunnies really were until I came to Boston and witnessed their grey sticky floating nastiness. At home, dust was just kinda like small dirt, and it didn't clump up so nasty like. Anyway, I was real tired after that. I was going to go home before a BBQ at the Cube, perhaps to get in a nap, but when I got to Davis, there was a parade, holding up the buses. I got some beer at the liquor store for the party, and then my bus arrived. But it was my bus running the 87 route! That is decidedly not the same thing when I feel crappy and don't want to climb a hill. So I hopped off at Danny's street and just went there. I found a rockin fold-out bed-like thing to chill on while I had a beer. Somehow, beer made my voice return. A miracle!

Now, this barbecue. Usually Cube barbecues are good, but this day John decided he would be culinary. Daaaaaaaang. Burgers with cheeses imbedded in the meat, butter burgers, beerbrats, corn cooked in cajun spiced butter, bacon-wrapped scallops, asparagus with parmesan cheese, sweet onions, vegetables. Mostly a heart attack, but all delicious. There was an incident with the butter burger, though. I shared one with Mike, because really, who can eat a whole one. M called just after I got it, and Mihalyfy snuck away with a piece while I was fumbling with the phone. I was irked by this and by being questioned about my lack of accurate knowledge of Liquor World hours, so when I got off the phone, I just wanted to consume sweet buttery beef. I got like maybe two bites before Damon thought it would be funny to disturb my plate and send most of it flying. The bit remaining I threw at him in a rage unthinkingly, and then pushed over his chair and kicked him, maybe a couple of times. But, he's huge, so he was mostly unharmed, just frightened by A-rage.

We had to go buy a couple of handles for the party, and I ended up buying *more* beer as they were running out. How I don't know. M and Jer gave me some money, so I didn't end up spending *too* much money, but damn. Some people were lazy and didn't bring any beer. Fuckers. And I wasn't going to make the Cube guys reimburse me, because they got all the food!

Anyhoo, I went home briefly to do some shit, and returned to Cherry St. I found the God house, a scary place with all these signs on it with Bible quotations. M was poking around his room looking for things he needed to bring back to Harvard, and Clark was watching some Curb Your Enthusiasm on demand. He fell dead asleep, so when M wanted to wake him up, he poured a little of the water he was drinking on his head. Clark mumbled, duuude, and rolled over. About ten minutes later he succesfully awoke and arose, and he brushed back his hair and was all, why is my hair wet? He didn't remember M pouring water on him at all. Hilarious.

The party was pretty chill, since most people were kinda tired from moving. I wanted to dance, but just felt crappy as all get out. We left early and went to Cherry St for some sleep.

Yesterday I didn't really do too much, which was okay cuz there was much sleeping in. I did get make progress on the BDJ, though, and I'll work on that more tonight.

I managed to fall asleep last night fairly quickly, even though it took me forever to get to bed, cuz I'm dumb. I was a little afraid oncce I started thinking about how I need to find an apartment when I get to B-more in two weeks, but I managed to change the mental subject, relax, and sleep.

That's one of the best things about being around M, is that I feel so immensely relaxed, and sometimes when I'm alone I can think of that and feel relaxed too.

How do I love Boston? June 1 = 53 and rainy. :p

Also, this morning I looked at the Commencement forcast, which was sun. I looked again just now and it says showers. I'm pretty sure the long range forecast is set to random, and they just change the days that are closer.

I started poking around for apartments today in the big buildings, and then I started getting panicked about how maybe I'm not going down for long enough, and maybe I won't find anything, and maybe I'll be screwed and have to go down again or I'll settle for something that's only okay. But I got a lead! So this has settled me a lot, and I think I can proceed with my search more calmly.

Doesn't make work at all productive, however.

As nerve-wracking as finding an apartment is, it's actually much easier than finding a place with roommates. Because in that situation, three things have to go right: you have to like the apartment, you have to like the roommates, and they have to like you. Here, I only have to like the apartment. Simple.