I know I haven't posted much...and I know why...but I feel bad. I don't even know how to start with how to catch up everyone.
So, I haven't had a lot of time...and for a fair amount of time I wasn't getting a lot of sleep either. I guess, as a documentation that is me at any point of time, there is a lot of things that I personally have been uncertain of, and so how do I talk about them? So I opted not to. Not that things have changed all that much...And I'm still not going to talk about most of them. :P
But...The reason that I haven't had a lot of time. So...way back at the beginning of August, my staff returned. :) And soon afterwards, so did my residents. I much prefer my residents here...not that the PSP students weren't fabulous, but its a different community, and I know this one far better. And a few days later, I took responsibility for Clara Dickson Hall. For you non-Cornellians, Clara Dickson is the largest residence hall at Cornell. It has the largest number of residents, the largest staffs, and has a portion that is the Multicultural Living Learning Unit (a themed house, as my HILC is) and a much larger portion that is a first-year student hall. My friend who is the usual RHD in charge was on maternity leave. I was glad that she came back for training to set the tone for the staff as she would like it, and spent my time between Dickson and HILC trying to maintain them appropriately. It was exhausting...and I know that I don't want to do something like that again. I mean, I guess I already knew that I prefer themed housing to a (large) first-year hall, but in some ways, that confirmed it. I guess its the difference in style. It isn't me. But, on the other hand, I worked with some awesome students.
After that, I "took vacation." This is in quotations because I think it should be considered lightly. I didn't sleep. And at little fault of those who I was with. My friend Angie got married to a man that I am confident will make her very happy. :) So I went a bit early to help out. They were trying to do as much as they could on their own. They made all of the invitations, centerpieces, souvenirs, and more than I can remember. I I made bouquets, and a rose piece for the top of the cake. I also helped out with decorating and such. Angie also asked me to do a reading during the ceremony. The wedding was beautiful, and Angie and Thad are in Europe on their honeymoon as I type. :) And I was really glad to have been there for everything..and wish I could have helped more earlier.
I left there for Amy's in New Jersey. I got there, and she decided that she also needed to wear a cute dress (I promise, mine was super-cute) and did random things...like had lunch at Penang, went to Costco and bought Winnie the Pooh animal crackers, and went to Trader Joe's. mmmmmm...Trader Joe's. I bought a lot of food. The next day I finally bought those cute Sketchers that I think I've wanted for well over a year...and ended up getting two pairs for what I would otherwise paid for one. And then got a bunch of stuff at the Asian grocery store...including lots of lychee Calpico and these Japanese cookies that I've gotten my co-workers kinda addicted to (they swear that there's some crack in them). We went apple picking...and I guess my bag was the heaviest...and I need to figure out what else I want to do with all of the apples. :) On Monday, I took the train in to NYC (by myself) and wandered around. I found a Jamba Juice for breakfast (yummy!) and found a map of where all of the Jambas are in Manhattan. Score! I hung around the M&M store for a while, and wandered to a few other stores, including the Disney NYC store...where I bought more pieces for my Mr. Potato Head (I had Optimash Prime, adn thought those pieces would be cool with Disney pieces. On another note, I discovered that I have no ears for Mr. Potato Head...and all of the arms that I have are rather non-traditional, so they look kinda silly). While I was in the Japanese book store looking at Spicy Brown shirts, my friend Scott called, and I was able to meet up with him for lunch. It was really good to see him after so long and to try to catch up a lot. I think being around here, I forget every once in a while what its like to talk to people who know theyre grown up without feeling like a little girl. And in some ways, I miss Scott for that.
I left NYC by mid-afternoon so that I could take the train back to Jersey and drive to (finally) meet Sunny from APAN. She lives in Larchmont, which according to my Yahoo Maps directions should have taken me an hour and 15 minutes from New Brunswick. Ummm...no. I hit traffic that, I must say was a billion times worse than I have ever seen in California (north or south) and in part because the drivers were ridiculous. But...it took me nearly three and a half hours to get there. So it was far later than I had intended and expected. *sigh* But I got to meet her in person, after years of only sending emails and chatting on the phone. We were co-coordinators for the same position in APAN for two years.
I left Amy's the next day as she was leaving for school, and drove to see Kerrie in Schenectady. It was her birthday. :) I was glad that I got to have lunch with her (even though she didn't let me buy her lunch, as she was instructed). I then went to pick up my friend Conor in Albany who was at a conference there. He doesn't have a car and I thought it would suck for him to have to take a bus back to Ithaca. So...drove back to Ithaca from there.
I have pictures, especially of the wedding, but they and pictures from my birthday, and everything in between, are still on my camera. I'll find time to take them off of there, eventually. I want some of the pictures to print anyway. I'll do it. I promise. And they'll be on Flickr too. But I think between the uncomfortable mattresses at the hotel and whatever other odd hours I was keeping (and the random fact that I learned during the past two months that it takes two weeks for your body to recover from an all-nighter), I came back tired. And with new and weird other things to think about. But I slept a fair amount this weekend...10 hours one day and just under 8 (I think) the other. Maybe I'll get to the catching up on sleep, writing, and playing my cello more than I have, then get to the pictures. Writing. That's something I haven't done for myself in a while. I was reading through some old stuff...and I can't remember what it was about at the time, but it sounds like I could have written it today. *sigh* Isn't it strange how things keep moving while all the while staying exactly the same?
Anyway...today was also a 3.75 CD purchase. I'm listening to the third-ish of the CDs...I have very mixed reviews about everything so far, but two songs that are sticking out for me right now. I may share them later.
Oh, and I started a playlist on iTunes that is just music that I borrow lyrics from for away messages on a regular basis. I may expand that to be anything from here on out that I use just because I do. And maybe one day I'll even listen to said playlist. :p
OK, I've been up late enough. I'm going to bed. Good night. :)
