new orleans

vacation was wonderful. and is now over. a few photos to commemorate the wonderful food, beautiful homes, and utter relaxation that was last week, before i get back to the grind.

this is a library. that is being closed for lack of money for upkeep. but it is a beautiful building, inside and out and i would love to have had this around the corner as a child.


this is my mom and a beignet. the new orleans version of a donut. divine.


this is an alligator.


as is this. apparently, the zoo used to have (still has?) a number of white alligators, though the only one we saw was a life-size model in a tank. and this handsome fellow, of course.

the cornstalk fence. there are only two in the city, one a few blocks from my aunt's home, and this one, at what is now a bed and breakfast.


i wish i had photos of my aunt's home, but sadly, i forgot. this is her dog, though. Gizmo. who liked to eat my feet.



ps the guatemala project is done and turned in and not to be talked about any more.

clean and clear

home state. california. apologies for neglecting while touring, but 6 "beds" (read couches/futons/air mattresses) in 13 nights across 3 metropolitan areas (5 cities, i believe) does not make for the best posting conditions. tonight will mark the last stop before home, and as it is my god parents' home, which is essentially home, i do not mind. warm hugs, showers i'm used to, and an actual bed that i have slept in dozens of times make this almost the real thing.

in any case, brief highlights from caset's tour across the northeast, in which she managed to stay one step ahead of the major grossness that is now hitting it full force. so ha. nary a delayed flight or missed bus.

much of boston has already been highlighted.
the final day/evening was spent with:
> frustrated academic searches (i shall never understand archives that won't let me take photos of their images if they won't scan/copy them for me)
>a divine tapas dinner with the lovely anna, my thesis advisor from last year
>trivia night with em and her law school friends - i contributed sambuca and basalt
>followed by a highly entertaining chat with gregorio, one of the most amusing people i have ever met. "you're looking for a donor, right?" "ooohhh so that's why you were so insistent on seeing me." (very loudly to the bar at large) "i use my high speed internet to watch porn. so does she. she's also looking for a donor. anyone interested?"


next day greyhound dash to queens and rs's lovely apt (which she shares with mdm and at) for baking and a long desired reunion. we realized that the majority of our friendship has been conducted long distance, as we only got close last march or so. wonderful to see her face to face. spent the next couple days shuttling around the city to see various friends, often accompanied by the fabulous miss ebk. plenty of good eats and shopping and the moma:


martin puryear's exhibit at moma is soaring and glorious. the sculptures feel completely liberating and joyous. i don't know how interwoven wood strips and huge magnifications of farming equipment (amongst many) can emote so, but if you're anywhere near ny, do go.


giant paper masala dosa for a much belated bday for rs. eat my dosa. enjoy the humor in the amount of food inside the dosa.


and for my father, from their shop at the union square gift market:
because he fosters a tender spot in his heart for teddy. and how could i resist that jolly look? visit the unemployed philosopher's guild for more silliness.


to dc on friday morning. reunion with the other third of frammey (ebk and myself being the other 2/3), miss fchm at her office in dupont circle. where someone has established the dream bookstore/coffeehouse/bar that krb, lsl, and i had planned. later, reunion with friends from cty, adventures with first year lawyers, a fancy dinner at an overly snooty and completely white (marble, hanging flowers/leaves, lights, tables, dishes, oddness) restaurant, a visit to the wonderful national portrait gallery/museum of american art. i like dc. i like free museums. and good public transportation.

i do not like taxis without meters and wintry mix. nor do i like feeling poor. but i believe i managed my money at least decently this trip, while still finishing my christmas shopping and buying myself a few key items of clothing. and seeing juno. more on that later, but everyone should see it.

now to help pack the rv for the trip all the way homeward tomorrow.

sleepytime

so traveling is not terribly conducive to posting. nor to sleeping, apparently. i'd forgotten how late my big h friends stay up.

anyways. being here has been enormously fun thus far - i've seen many many people, visited all my favorite haunts, and generally had a glorious, if exhausting time. kong three times in as many nights - it's been completely redecorated and looks a swanky now, though the food is still as greasy and groan inducing as ever. tealuxe makes me happy, as does curry chicken soup from le's and mojitos at casablanca.

the show was glorious - i'm so proud of hrgsp and its production values, even if the board is apparently falling apart at the seams. all japaned out - gorgeous kimonos, beautiful set, lovely voices - it was so odd to sit down and realize i'd had nothing at all to do with it. for the first time in four years, my name was no where in the program. actually, that's not quite true, as i donated enough to be listed as a patron. but still, that's only on an insert.

ball afterwards was quite fun, and though i forgot to take any pictures, plenty have been posted on facebook. they remind me that i need to start going to the gym and eating only cucumbers or something. but oh well. we danced and sang and drank lots of champagne, then danced and drank some more, and finally ended up with only grads (plus apope) at the kong before finally heading to bed. the last two nights have been 4am bedtimes.... such ridiculousness.

apope decided mid ball that we were each other's default date, so, as with last year's qball, we danced and held hands, followed each other around, and generally behaved as though we were on a date. which is always fun, though i don't think i would ever actually date that boy, despite his sweetness. i don't know that he'd actually date me, either. mel g and i crashed in his room, which, in my overly champagned and vodka'd state, i had rather hoped i'd be crashing in by myself, so that if nothing else, i could get a nice cuddle out of him. in the long run, it's of course better that that didn't happen. but still.

i apologize for no photos ... oh well, i'll remember to pull out my camera in ny and dc. tomorrow is library day and tonight i am retiring early as my throat hurts and i can barely keep my eyes open.

hot mess and a half

life is both terribly dull and really really exciting right now. mostly just busy though.

namely, this is because i leave for boston tomorrow! waaaaah - so excited. But, of course, i have a bazillion things to do today, which is why i woke myself up too early and am now giving my brain a couple more minutes to adjust before i start.

most importantly, i have to edit and conclude my paper for dain. it's a rather boring paper, being a lit review and all, but in drafting i put in a few rather horrid puns that i need to go find now and remove. because, somehow, i don't think he'll appreciate them. the paper is long enough, has 50-odd sources (I know! when did i even skim 50 sources!?!?!?), and i think does what it's supposed to. if not, well, i'm screwed. and don't care.

if that gets done at a decent hour (i.e. before 1, which should be very possible), part of the afternoon will also be spent attempting to finish (not just conclude, but actually write the last section) my colonialisms paper. which i wrote 8 pages of yesterday sitting in the library, something i generally hate. but i did NOT want to haul even more books home. so i randomly decided to look at A Passage to India as an imperial/anti-imperial novel (i know, i'm a historian, but i'm also a lit person and the prof seems okay with that. hopefully.). and have now skimmed and summarized too much criticism. i hate that that's all i do as a grad student.

other things that need doing today:
laundry, returning various books, writing a few more holiday cards, turning in my financial aid papers, buying gifts for my girls here, baking cookies, finding something for rp, oh, and packing. i know that list is actually longer. but if i'm to make it through and still get to watch prunway tonight, i need to start now.

dull post. like my life. but by the end of day, i should have all sorts of reasons to celebrate how exciting my life is!

upcoming adventures

if i haven't mentioned how excited i am about my upcoming trips lately, whoops. cause it's all i think about these days.

for thanksgiving i'm heading north to minnesota with ks and two first year guys she's also adopted for the holiday. we're leaving weds after i finish up seminar and driving to winona - five to six hours - for a weekend that will include, according to ks, "a trip there includes taking a hunting boat across the river to some bars on the Wisconsin side in the middle of the night;" "the Turkey Bowl, which is a football (the American kind) contest held annually by my extended family on Thanksgiving Day. You do not need to be good at football or even know how to play the game to participate. Also, if someone passes the ball to anyone under the age of 8, it is an unspoken rule that you will pretend to run very hard after them but let them score the touchdown anyway;" and any/all of the following: "bowling, drinking, spending time with my cousins, drinking with my cousins, drinking with people from my high school, sleeping, and eating the best doughnuts you've ever had." sounds like a good time to me! food, drink, family, games, more food and drink....

then, in a little less than three weeks now, i'm heading back east to see all sorts of friends before going back to california for the holidays. stops to include: cambridge, maybe new haven, new york, and dc. three to four days in each place (not including new haven - that'll just be a night if i do stop), many many people to see, a ball!, either the rockettes or the nutcracker, more drinking, more eating, and all the people i love. i talk to someone i'm going to see most days online and each one makes me more excited.

it's not that i don't love being here (i do and more so each day, despite desperate posts), it's just that the people i'm going to see were my life for four years and just know me so much better than people here. mostly of course, its theater people - boardlove! -, but i'm also going to see my cty crowd for the first time in one place since 2004 - somehow they've all ended up in the dc area, aside from me of course -, and rs. rs! who i talk to pretty much every day on gchat, but who i'm going to get to see! and stay with! rs! hurrah!

something else i've been thinking about lately: i talk a lot more here than i have ever before in my life. in class, with friends, i'm chatty. i'm sometimes clever, sometimes snarky - "like the surveyors she was writing about, she didn't venture more than a mile from the border they were drawing." but mostly, i just pipe up more frequently. which, i think, more than anything, shows that this is a good place for me. everywhere else in my life, i've been the listener, the nodder, the ear to unburden to, and it's not that i don't have quiet moments, that there aren't places where i have nothing to say, but that i'm much more willing to interject now. and i love it. who knows what'll happen when i'm back amongst my boisterous friends who are used to quiet me. have i actually changed, or is it just that people here don't like to hear their own voices as much as my friends elsewhere?