Fellmama

Dishes done, laundry in the washer AND dryer, mother appeased via telephone, sheets changed, various emails sent, money transferred from one account to another, and it's not yet one o'clock. DAMN but I'm good. Now off to Plato. Stupid Plato.

Interesting: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6143010.stm

( Full text for hobo China people )

But haven't they seen Shall We Dance? Ballroom dancing is obviously the solution! Of course, the teddy-bear lady sounds preeeeetty funny in the head

One advantage to being on the verge of depression half the time: a little thing can really brighten up your day. I ate lunch with one of my friends, and it reminded me of how very nice it is to just sit and talk to somebody.
In other news, cookies are tasty.

Today is my four-year ljversary. Funny, I felt then pretty much like I feel now. All alone in a new place, few friends, no clue about anything. I hope that fall 2006 Mary will be succeeded by spring 2003 Mary, who was very, very happy.

Yesterday, I ate lunch with one of my fellow history grads. It was a lot of fun to just sit and talk with someone. Made me realize how much I miss going places at Whitman and always finding someone to sit with, eat with, chat with.

Today is also the history department picnic. Yay! Not only will I get free food, I will meet new people and, with luck, further my accquaintance with the cool people I've already met. There have also been hints of serious drinking afterwards.

Oh, and I FINALLY got my bank account and deposited my various checks. Now I need to figure out how to close my other accounts . . .

This is awesome. You can work out the message, by the way; the picture is big enough: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/books/31poet.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=arts&adxnnlx=1157123388-A0BaeZhlaDPic9p5fuMsRA (If you don't have a NYT account, get one for God's sake. It's not like they cost anything, and it will enable you to be pretentiously well-informed.)

I finally had my fourth class on Wednesday. It's called something like "Gender, Sexuality and the Body in Late Antiquity," and it promises to be really interesting. The professor is cool, and the readings have been mostly good so far. Judith Butler defeated me, but I'll readily confess that I actually like Foucault. He's somewhat sexist, true, but you get used to that when you work with antiquity anyway. Also, the prof has organized a conference in October, so we'll get to hear/potentially meet some of the authors whose work we've been reading. That will be wicked cool.

I got invited to a party tonight, but it's too far away for me to go. *sad face* I've decided that I really do need a car. The bus will do for the immediate future, but I can't do this for five years plus. Especially in the winters. And if I ever want to have people over, I'll need more than three chairs, and maybe a table so that they don't have to eat on the floor. Speaking of living space, I really should finish unpacking . . .

Why why why do PDFs take so long to print?

All right, so this is fucking insane. After I wrote the majority of this, I was walking across campus to find the post office, and I see someone who looks familiar. This happens occasionally (it's a huge school), so I'd normally have ignored it, only I notice that she's looking at me, too. So I stop, and she says "Do I know you?" "Sonia?" "Mary?" That's right--for those of you who remember John's friend, Sonia, she's now in the architecture school at Cornell. Of all the people, in all the places, to run into . . . CRAZY. (For those of you who didn't know her, what makes this even crazier is that she left Whitman two years ago, and last anyone heard she was in Portland.)

Victory is once again mine. I am a registered student, with the ID to prove it, AND I got paid. Not just for the month, for the semester. I have a check for almost ten thousand dollars. W.T.F.
Also, I went to the bookstore to scope out some stuff. All their copies of Orientalism were used. Guess where they'd come from? That's right. I came 2500 miles to buy a used textbook from the Whitman bookstore.
This thing is really cool:
( My Interests Collage! )

Victory is mine! Internet!!! *dances*
Seriously, you have no idea . . . (except maybe Aspen). Alone, no one to talk to, nowhere to go. If not for the cell phone, I would have gone insane. Well, more insane.

I'm in North Carolina at the moment. You ought to see this place we're staying. It's just the house of some friends of ours . . . but what a house! Marble and tile and a sweeping staircase, etc. I am sleeping in the lowest bed on the totem pole, which is a queen-sized air mattress. Life is good. Also, for the first time in a week, I have my own room. I cannot stress enough how happy this makes me. I need a LOT of me time, which has not been achieveable lately.
It's also hard to talk on the phone late at night when you're sharing a room.

We are now in Luverne, Minnesota. Woo! The hotel is a thousand times better than last night's.
Last night, we were lying there in the dark. I was just starting to doze when a voice in the darkness said: "I wonder what the alien master controllers look like?" I love my dad.
Yes, I saw myself in the alumni magazine. Nicole was there too!

Victory is mine!
About an hour ago, I signed the lease on the apartment I mentioned in my last post. It is teh awesome. Two bedrooms, two living/whatever rooms, bathroom, kitchen, washer/dryer, some furnishings. A fifteen-minute walk from my department. $600 a month. I win. It will be expensive the first year, but, with any luck, I can find a roommate once I know some people. Meanwhile, I have my own space. Oh, and the stove thing? Turns out that, according to the state of New York, the landlord is officially running a boarding house. Boarding house = he can't put a stove in the apartment. If I choose, as a tenant, to put a stove in the apartment, he "knows nothing about it." SQUEEEEEEEEEE!

Also, my landlord's name is "Dr. Funk." Really!