Today

Snow down and Christmas decorations up and a house a couple of blocks down the street from us looks like Hollywood.

My professor did not totally bash my idea for key concept for my essay, so yay for that, now I can use the seven pages I already typed as opposed to starting over, which I was afraid was going to happen. Now I just have to go to class next week and listen to other people’s presentations and then hand in my final paper. I am not saying one more word in that class. My face is closed.

I’ve decided to tell uncle Larry that the skis are too long for me and take them back. I think doing that will only be slightly easier than growing two inches. I still kind of want new skis, but they will have to be shorter. Until then I have my board, which I’m excited to get back on. Doubt the snow will stick here in town, but hopefully Pebble is getting whiter by the day.

Dreams & Reality

Shooter is sleeping on the couch and I think he must be dreaming cause he’s making all these funny noises and little grunt sounds.
The holidays are over and I have to clean before x-mas decorating.
Right? You can’t just put the stuff on top of all the dust and crap?
No?
Okay, okay.. Fine.
Just checking.
But it won’t happen before my presentation Tuesday.

What color is this saturday?

Black friday was not nearly as insane as last year. It wasn't insane at all. Me and Crystal entered Wal-Mart at 7:30 am and it was no different than a regular blue, red or green friday. The kitchen section of Macy's and Bath & Bodyworks were the only two places close to being a little crazy. We shopped till 6pm. I got a good deal of my x-mas shopping done. Ended the day with hot tubbing and pickles at Larry and Janies. It was a good, good day.

This morning all the calves got branded and the ones with balls got them snipped. We watched football, basket ball and wedged out at Melbas. Tonight there's a light parade in Buhl. Thanksgiving is nice. A break is nice. The farm is nice.

Sunday

Woke up: early for a Sunday, 8:30
Got up: not quite as early, 9:45
Did:take Shooter for a pretty decent walk, determined to walk him till he stopped pulling and the leash started to hang loose, that’s how you know he’s tired and will be less crazy the rest of the day.
Then: made coffee and ate breakfast, nobody else was up.
The weather: cold, but not as windy nor as sunny as yesterday.
Thought about: my literature paper
Worked on: research for my literature paper
Actually accomplished: less than planned, as usual.
Dinner: leftover crab, salad, bread and cheese.
Right now: should stop this nonsense and get back my paper.

Don't call me, I'll call you

My phone is not working again. I say again, because this is certainly not the first time this has happened. Every time either I or Dylan loose our debit card, and we always loose the card the payment for my phone is set up to, my phone quits working. This is a great opportunity to do something most people don’t do nearly enough; call New Dehli. I shouldn’t say that, it could be Bangkok. Or Goa. What do I know?

I know that the phone call will take for ever. I know that I’ll have to repeat my name a million times (Aaaaaasa, Ass as in ass, A as in A… yep that’s my name, uhuh, yep… Don’t judge me Mr. Nagashikakonya...)
Then they’ll ask for my first pet’s name. Ah, Cello? you say Ms. Ass… of course, that’s a splendid name for a pet. No need to repeat it, I got it the first time!

Then you have the new card information, that’s tricky. Repeat and re-repeat.
What plan do you want to be on? Same as before we cancelled it, and what was that? You don’t know Ms. Ass…. Well how about an upgrade? No? how about a smaller, but still an upgrade, upgrade? I will not tell you what payment plan you were on before Ms. Ass because I cannot see it here. No upgrade you say. Hm. I will put you on hold now, okay? No okay? Okay!

I can make fun of foreigners because I am one. Okay?
Okay, time to make the call.

Sunny days and dark rooms

It was almost snowing this morning when I rode my bike to campus. Because I’m having problems focusing my topic for a research paper due scary soon, I spent an hour before work in the library doing research. I don’t know how much it helped my paper, but it did sooth my guilty conscience, made me feel a little ambitious. When I left the library and headed to the office, the sun was shining and the Pocatello backdrop was as gorgeous as only snowy mountains and sunshine can be. That backdrop alone makes me think I really need to get a camera.

Last night when looking for my carry on suitcase that I promised Tiffany she could borrow over break, I found a whole room I didn’t even know existed. Our house is a huge beast of a monster building. In that part of monster belly, previously unvisited, I found our spare tires (other people clearly knew about it) our x-mas decorations, AND the winter coat I’ve been looking for like mad. Until I gave up and bought a new one, two weeks ago, that is. So now I have two winter coats, x-mas stuff to throw on the walls in a couple of weeks and an even stronger sense of that there could be a whole family of fugitives living in our house that we don’t even know about.

Yes

Am I looking forward to Christmas break?
Does coconut water taste like water and the actual coconut like try wood?
Did I forget my homework in the office?
Do married cousins play the banjo?
Do I want to go over to the neighbour’s house and play with their puppies?
Do you feel really attractive when you go to Wal-Mart?

To look like shit without even having fun first

Woke up this morning with eyes puffier than marshmallows and a rash on my neck and inner arms. Don’t know what that’s all about, but it was not pretty.

Most mornings when you wake up and look like a night of many drinks, late hours and no washing your face, it's cause you had a night with many drinks, stayed out late and didn't watch your face. But this was sunday night, I didn't even wear make up, watched a movie and slept for like 9 hours.
It seems unfair.

One week left till Thanksgiving break. Which won’t be that much of a break since I have two papers to write and will be working the first two days. But at least we’ll be getting some family time and a break from Pocatello.

Nuts

When you’re not really all that rich and trying to spend your income wisely, it is a good idea to do your grocery shopping at Winco. It’s not however, such a great idea to buy coconuts, lemon grass, crab, oyster sauce and fresh asian noodles…just cause it looks interesting. Don’t you think?
I don’t like going to the grocery store much, but I obviously can’t trust that coconut to go alone.

Good Day Mate

Good lunch. Who knew Oliver’s had such a vegetarian friendly menu?
Good talk. Knew but forgot that talking about problems can help. Like pointing a flash light to a big scary monster; you realize the shadow is so much bigger than the actual thing.

Another good walk with my grey bearded pedestrian companion. Yesterday we too a long morning walk to our old neighbourhood in Old Town, poor dog was so confused.

Good job me typing almost my entire report.
Good luck trying to pull this research paper together.

Wanny go occupying and make s'mores?

Why did the hipster burn his tongue? Because he drank his latte before it was cool.

Seriously, I don’t see the difference between the Occupy Pocatello movement and the College of Dems going camping on a street corner.

And if these oh my god so involved people, who are freezing their asses off occupying a piece of Pocatello lawn that nobody cares about, would let an actually homeless person sleep in their bed while their laying in a tent feeling noble, then I could get behind the idea of them making some sort of change and actually helping.

But now, no. I don’t get it.

Fire & Ice

So it’s been all warm and sunny and nice lately, right? Well of course it starts snowing like winter freaking wonder land last night and this year’s half marathon was a cold and slippery one.
They did have a fire up at the top though, so that was nice… racers could huddle up and stay warm as we waited for the last bus to try to make it up the hill. But, as I’m standing there, good distance from the fire, this group of jerks pushes themselves in the crowd and I get moved a good two feet closer to the flames. At first it felt fine, but pretty soon I could feel the back of my running tights starting to melt and I tried to squeeze in between the jerks and get away from the fire but they wouldn’t let me in (cause they didn’t even see me) and when I finally made it out of the fire huddle, I realized my hair had caught on fire!
No joke.
My tights were fine, chunks of my hair was falling out. You know how burnt hair smells? Not good. That’s the smell I had in my nose for the entire half marathon. While my toes and fingers were getting frost bites.
And now I really need to get a hair cut.

Make up Wake up my mind

This has been the longest day. And it’s nowhere close to over. I still have an hour and a half… until my night class starts. I won’t be home till 10pm.
Sucks.
The computer lab is buzzing with people. I’m having a hard time finding a focus for my paper. I’m having a hard time finding focus in general. One day I’m all about leaving this domesticity and move to Marshall Islands or whatever and get a parrot instead of a cat and be nomads forever. The next I drool over strollers and want to learn how to make pot pies. One day I’m a motivated grad student zooming in on semantic shifts, the next I can’t figure out how to structure a basic sentence.
Is it Thanksgiving yet?