Welcome to Fall

Yesterday, I noticed that the garden on my street had been converted into a haunted garden. Pretty spooky, right?

how charming

looks like I'm the third taffy girl trying to catch up on a little penguin blogging today. Fermi, I LOVED your story about the mama's boy on the bus. Mostly because I love watching/stalking people on public transit, but also because it was interesting to see someone through your eyes who is just starting grad school as I am just starting grad school. Tino, I put the Natalie penguin up. I thought: "how apt!"

so here's a quick rundown of some life stuff:

1. grad school is fucking hard

2. I miss sleep and friends

3. I'm scared about becoming addicted to diet soda through my new-found need of caffeine to study

4. Virginia is a strange place

5. having a dining plan sucks just as much as it did 6 years ago. At least there's a better selection than cheese pizza and corn on the cob a la highland cafetoria.

6. I think I'm falling in love.

The Natalie Penguin

HA! I came on this site because I saw that penguin on Nataliedee's site and I was going to post it here. Looks like somebody beat me to it.

I haven't blogged in a while. A tree fell on our rent house and we moved to another rent house. We're in that annoying stage where all of the things are in the new house but they are all in boxes. It is strangely overwhelming.

I'm in a little bit of a tight and stressful period. Hurricane + moving + end of six weeks grading deadline + a million rehearsals for a performance coming up + PMS.

But school went awesome today--I like it when I'm actually TEACHING.

I'm supposed to be grading papers before rehearsal. I keep saying in my head: I'll do one small stack per night. It wouldn't take me long at all, but I don't do it any night! I think I'll go sit at my dining room table in the middle of all the boxes and knock some papers out right now. I should probably at least get off the couch to pee.

Fresh Air

I am unsure of what it is about the quality of the first cool spell in Louisiana that reminds of being a bright-eyed Freshman at LSU. I just remember being excited and scared about being another face awash in a sea of faces. The cool air caused me to be on my toes and expect the unexpected that was assuredly waiting just around the bend. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that time that was inexplicably more exciting than now, but then I come to my senses and realize that it's always better for me to be where I am than where I was.
I am well into the semester and pleasantly surprised at how dedicated I am to the program. Usually by this time in the semester, I would have already begun to slack and pull my just-barely-keeping-up tricks out of my bag. This time around, not surprisingly, I am schooling with a renewed sense of purpose, cause I need a fuckin job, y'all! So, I am feeling good and that -- although it'll take a lot of work and hustle to keep up with everything -- I will do just fine. I don't know when I'll be done, though, which is a bummer. I've been assuming all this time that I would be done by the end of the Spring semester. I have been, sadly, mistaken and now don't know when I'll be done. Regardless, I don't think I'll be moving out of state in the Fall. Sad face. Oh well . . . hopefully I'll at least be able to move out of my parent's house, if not Lafayette all-together. Cross your fingers for me, please.
I started teaching an ACT Prep Course at SLC and I seriously don't know what I'm going to do about the Math section, seeing as I haven't even thought about studying Math since I tested out of Calc WAY back when. I'll just have pull some of those tricks out of my bag. Any tips are welcomed . . .

Apron Strings and Grown-Up-Clothes

Obviously, I have not been blogging lately. I blame it on this graduate women therapy group that I am quitting today. More on that later.

Work is pretty awesome. Seriously. :) And, I managed to work out not once last week, but 4 times! By Monday (yesterday) I was feeling so energized that I did 40 min on the elliptical rather than my minimal 30 min. I feel like I might be getting my life back, and that is a good feeling.

Yesterday on my commute home: bus then train, I had my binder of organic to study but I got distracted by a gentleman on his cell phone. The guy had his back to me on the bus, but he was tall, blond, and lanky... and he was wearing kackies, a dark polo, and "grown up" shoes. You know, not tennis shoes, boat shoes, or even flops,* but instead black leather dress shoes. This is not how the normal nerdy American student dresses at my university. As the shoes suggested, there was something uniquely "grown up" about his appearance. But his conversation is what distracted me. He was talking to his mom. This I am sure of. He seemed very sheltered, but maybe we all seem sheltered when we talk to our parents. Maybe not.

He was talking about starting graduate school. (This is what caused my ears to perk up.) He is taking 3 neuroscience classes, and he just found a research group. Three grad students and one post doc. A small group. He seemed really relieved to have found a group... And it is impressive that he already has a group and it is mid-september. Now he has to play catch up on his classes.

He has an undergrad math degree. He hasn't taken his advanced math classes in 6 years though... He worked between now and his Bachelors. That is probably why he is wearing Grown-Up Clothes.

His little sister is engaged to a friend of his. A guy he has known since Kindergarten. His mom says that the guy is self-centered. Grown-Up-Clothes says he has always been that way, and that he doesn't think anything of it because he never expects anything else from him. His sister's name is Logan. Fuck. If my parents named me Logan and I was a chick I would be pissed.

The other interesting thing about this guy, other than the start of grad school talk, and the total innocence with witch he talks about it, is that he is not from the south. He talks with long O's. He says "You KnOW" repeatedly. And in, "People say I am good at memorizing," mem-er-ising turns into Mem-OOOORR-rising. Grown-Up-Clothes is a beagle in human form.

As we were waiting for the train, I saw his face: baby face. Indicative of someone without "life" experiences. It is true that you can't hide anything from people who know about things. Like drug addicts can tell other addicts by the look of their face, and the lack of "life" shows up just as well.

I felt some sympathy for this kid, Grown-Up-Clothes. He is a long way from home. He doesn't have many friends yet. He is optimistic about graduate school. And in the next 2 years he will figure out how shitty it can be. I wanted to tell him it will get shitty, and to hold on. But I said nothing to him. Mainly because he never got off of the phone with his mom.

*flops = flip flops

Getting it out one word at a time

I haven't written anything on here in a week. I have wanted to write about things I cannot tell, and beyond that my thoughts are scattered.

A list of my scattered thoughts:

1. McCain looks like he has had plastic surgery. His face is creepy when he smiles, as if he has already spent a lifetime of not smiling, so that he needed plastic surgery to smile again.

2. I need to do cardio more than once a week.

3. I made a foolish promise to relearn organic chemistry-my weakest chemistry knowledge- and now I have to study all the time. I crave girl time-just to ride around in the car shopping for records-but I have to study now.

4. Jips and I realized something that I have known in my soul for a lifetime: I don't like "dinner" foods. This may have something to do with why I am comforted by grocery stores.

5. Football season makes me happy.

6. I wish my house was clean.

7. Insurance companies are the devil.

8. I want to bake cake. Lots of cake. I want to eat cake. Cake cake CAKE.

9. I want to be a better mom to my dogs. I love my dogs.

10. Political speeches are lame. People that cheer at them need to be introduced to football.

11. Every night in my dreams I am aggressive and fighting. Sometimes physically fighting, mostly arguing and yelling. I am either fighting people I dislike in my department at school or black girls that are cashiers.

12. I wonder what my boss would look like if he got plastic surgery like McCain. My boss is the most negative person I have ever met.

13. I am in a graduate women's therapy group. Things that go on in group live in my mind but I cannot tell them. I want to take one of the girls home with me and make her my best friend. As if we had time for that.

14. I read Opting Out? Why women really quit careers and head home, and it made me depressed. I have enough mental notes for a whole blog post about this. It was an excellent book, just too much reality for me. I have to remind myself that I am just going to do the best I can in the world I currently live in.

15. When will the economy turn around?

woops

Looks like it worked after all. NICE!

Guidos are the new black

I tried like the dickens to post a video poking fun at Lee Hotti and other such shameless Guidos, but youtube refuses to recognize the fact that I've registered another bloggy. I'll have to settle for badly photoshopped pictures (that are hilarious) that were made to look like inspirational posters.
I am unsure of when my curiosity for the Guido began, but it was definitely piqued when Fermi published that FABulous Guido Beach video and the blog post concerning the same subject (and causing quite the stir!) penned by a displaced Cajun living in New York. Guidos and their mates (both male and female) are the things that comedy gold is made of . . . seriously, you cannot make up a more tragically funny character. Whether it's the steroid-swilling, horrendous fake tan, offensively spiked hair, puckered lips or fake diamond earrings in both ears, I am simultaneously entertained and saddened/disturbed that they exist each time I encounter them via TV or the Internet. What can I say? The Guido gets me every time.

Can you blame me?

PSA - Don't Sleep With Those Guys

kung pow penguin

So, how do we like the new picture? I felt an Asian dude dressed as a penguin was the best representation for our bloggy as we head into Fall.

So I'm just chilling here, trying to write my first grad school paper and gripped by fear that it's going to be bad. Well, I'm pretty sure it is going to be bad, just worse than I'm anticipating.

I'm so over this shit.

I like the name Gustav

Jips and I like going to the gulf coast during labor day weekend because there are fewer people on the beach, and this labor day the combined forces of Gustav and the shitty economy made for even fewer people on the beach.

Yes, you read that correctly, with the approaching hurricane Gustav, I traveled south to go to the beach. It was wonderful. The beach is the most healing place for me: mentally, physically, emotionally. Coming home I feel refreshed and peaceful. If I was doing it again, I would not stay during the 24 hours before the hurricane hit land. 2 days before the hurricane was ideal beach weather:

And then on Sunday, August 31st, the winds picked up and the surf reminded me of the Atlantic rather than the gulf.
We drove back Sunday night after seeing Bobby Jindal on CNN talk about how once the tropical storm winds started it wouldn't be safe to drive. We drove north with lots of other evacuees and since we were just leaving vacation early rather than leaving our homes, the exodus felt fun like going to a football game.

the discomposure before the storm

So this is my first Louisiana hurricane from outside Louisiana. I know it may sound stupid, but I wish I were there. My parents are sticking in Laffy, as is Skuh. Tino is in the raggedy. I'm pretty sure they still have the interwebs, so they may even read this and chuckle at me giving our readership updates on their safety.

I am really worried for New Orelans. This is precisely the last thing that city needs right now. I guess I should just be glad I got to enjoy and appreciate it this summer. However, I want a New Orleans to return to in December and then for years after. It's an amazingly unique city and the US will be at a deficit if it ceases to exist tomorrow.

So I think I'm going to go pretend to read Plato and some scholarly articles in the lobby with the big screen TV tuned to CNN.

My heart goes out to the homeland.