some you don't know
is someone you don't know
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
11:20 a.m.

My thighs are really sore today. It's the tai chi. I enjoy it, even though it keeps telling me to do things ballet would find horrific- like aiming your feet straight forward, instead of turning out. It's slow and nice. It also gets me out of bed in the morning.

This morning, I had my first capstone seminar for religious studies. We went around the room and did names, and I took notes. The whole experience reminded me of an experience of Eric's wherein he felt he had been wrongly described by the girl sitting near him. I tried to be forgiving in my personal descriptions of people, but I did end up with one "messy hair, hemp jewelry, organic chocolate milk" person who left me aching to write snide comments in my notes. Once again, I can't really tell the men apart. I know the Lutheran seminarian because he has unnaturally long sideburns and the semi-older man with the oily hair and pretentious attitude, but that's about it.

Describing people can be hard. Jen's got a coworker in my tai chi class, whom she described as "of average height, white, with a beard" (not verbatim). There are four such people in my class. I deduced that one is named "Ryan" by staring at his risk statement when we filled them out. Another is a blond guy with dreads- I eliminated him because I didn't want to believe Jen associates with that sort. Then there are two other white bearded dudes who could be The One I am Supposed to Talk To, but I'll have to work on that. Tai Chi isn't really a talky class, we spend most of our time focusing on breathing, getting our backs straight, and walking around with wooden blocks on our heads.

I really have an awful time telling people, especially white men, apart. In Ukraine, people didn't wash their clothes much, so I usually used clothing as a mnemonic (sp?) device. However, when folks changed outfits every 2 weeks or so, I'd get thrown into chaos. That doesn't work here, because half of any given population is wearing Wisconsin sweatshirts. Plus- there are so many people with the same/similar names- like Chris, Kelly, Kate, Mike, or Lindsey. I tend to use nicknames in my head like "Sam's sidekick" or "Farting Man."

During the 2000 Presidential Election, I could not tell George W. Bush and Al Gore apart. I know who W is now, but show me a picture of Gore, and I probably do not know who he is. It was like that with the plethora of pre-primary candidates. Dean? Kucinich? Yeah, can't tell them apart.

Luckily, I pretty much know my friends and their names. Therefore, I will know if you are not coming to celebrate my birthday with me this Friday.

sunday morning
sheets still warml
kitties swarming
around our feet
Sunday, January 23, 2005
05:06 p.m.

It feels odd saying this, but I actually attended 3 social events this week! Thursday, Jen and I begrudgingly left behind our just-delivered dinner/ week of TiVOed Jeopardy! to drop by the LGBTCC's Open House. Diana lured me out by convincing me Sarah Hallas was there, but the little monster was only teasing. Oh well.

We had a blizzard on Friday. After walking from Kronshage in my girly red shoes and completely soaking my socks, I attended the Diversity Team Open House. Elisa bought a DVD-based game called "Scene It," so we played that with our residents, hungrily anticipating the buffet, which arrived a horrific 45 minutes late. I'd promised Elisa I'd stay at least one full hour, but since she and Carolyn offered me a ride, I stayed an additional 30 minutes. (Go me!) They drove me home through the artic weather, even braving the mountainous terrain of Pinckney Street! Jen and I stood in the driveway and watched them slooooowly creep through the snow in their "not-red" car. I'm shocked they made it up the hill! Elisa and I warned against it, but Carolyn has a rather wide competitive streak and insisted she could make it. And she did.

Jen and I had planned a snow day, which we spent eating pancakes, watching High Art, and testing our memories of the sexuality unit from Women's Studies 103. before stomping through the snow up to Eric the ex-Boss's for his dinner party. He is an excellent cook, though I did not dare sample the shrimp salad. (Whose idea was that? Seafood is gross!) Ash gave me a backrub, Jen met just about everyone, and John told the story of his night at line for the KK. Jen and I trekked (yes, that is a highly accurate verb) homeward for studying and sleeping. We can't be that metropolitan, we are big dorkwads of course.

So. There is a great deal of snow on campus. Like Eric, I do not really approve of mass volumes of the stuff. It's gorgeous the first day, but after that, it turns into gross brown sludge that worms its way into my shoes and stains the cuffs of my jeans. Yech.

This Friday is my 22nd birthday. My girlfriend has promised to make me carrot cakes (yay!). Since I'm a materialistic little imp, here is what I want for my birthday: (as per request, I'm not that tacky)

• The Griffin & Sabine books by Nick Bantock
• Affinity by Sarah Waters
• Maus II by Art Spiegelman
• The Hanged Man by Francesca Lia Block
• the Wood Fairy costume from American Girl
• Molly's embroidered cowboy boots from American Girl
• a stainless steel travel mug-thang for tea that will not spill, even when stowed in my bag

we can try, try each other on
in the privacy within New York City's walls
Friday, January 21, 2005
10:55 a.m.

Waking up this morning, I just happened to notice that my room is in a state of major disarray. There were books all over the floor (I'm in another of my OCD alphabetization binges) in front of my row of bookcases, messy piles of papers everywhere, and several random socks scattered throughout the entire scene. Of course, my major book purchases in New York didn't help the situation much- I had to buy a new bookcase to house my loot from the Strand, Bluestockings, Oscar's, and Shakespeare & Co.

Speaking of which, New York City was stellar. The four days went by far too quickly. I met Jen at O'Hare to shower her with weird under-$1 gifts and gleefully show her photos. We landed at LaGuardia complete with luggage (the winner of the cute luggage contest was definitely my new red Euro-rolly hard case). Our matching Timbuktu bags were happy to be reunited. We rode over to our super cute hotel, the Hotel d'Eauville, where a guy who looked like a blond, blue-eyed, overgrown Gollum installed us in a darling little room. It had our requested purple bathroom and impressionist prints that weren't even nailed to the wall. Of course, the room quickly became cluttered with presents (we did Christmas late), tons of clothes, and multiple electronic devices. Yes, we are a 2 iPod couple now... We had a nearly- $100 dinner at Salaam Bambay, which had a live sitar player. At least 4 different waiters served us, bringing us delightful food. They figured me for an India-Indian and thought Jen couldn't read, because they kept asking her if she wanted help with the menu. I don't have any clue how we made back to the hotel that night, but we must have, because we're not there anymore.

Sunday meant dragging ourselves out of bed for mass at Saint Patrick's. (Jen even sang!) It was huge. I prayed by the Virgin, lit a candle, and scooted our butts out of there to walk up 5th Ave to the Met. Highlights of the Met? The Hatshepsut statues, hundreds of tiny, daintily carved scarabs, Gauguin, Van Gogh, the choir screen, and the Renaissance paintins of the Virgin. The worst part of the Met? When I unexpectedly got my moon looking at a Gauguin painting of 2 naked women holding a mango. Jen had to lead me to 3 different bathrooms before I found a working tampon machine. Let me tell you- who ever planned the bathroom system did not realize that every bathroom should have a menstrual flow absorption vending device or that one bathroom per zone is crucial. Nevertheless, hygeine problem solved, children's presents purchased, and coats fetched from coat check, we headed off to one of Jen's favorite childhood restaurant to eat absolutely amazing pizza. We even like the same 3 toppings. Sometimes, I really do think we are clones. We got really "ate" and headed back downtown.

Monday meant visiting NYU (the girl at their Queer Campus Center was far too excited to see us). We holed up in Shakespeare & Co. for a while- I read a great book on the history of nuns' habits, found a tiny pizza place, took photos of the square, and lusted after the row houses full of bookcases. Jen got yelled at for taking a photo of a doggy daycare and we scooted off to Astor Place for a photobooth session. That night meant Malaysian food (we adored the mango chicken!) followed by "House of Flying Daggers" in Chelsea. Okay, the cinematography was gorgeous, but the people would not die. We stumbled home late, tried to take pictures at Grand Central Station, and crawled into bed.

Overwhelmed by the whirlwind yet? I was. We lounged in bed that AM, eventually emerging for our daily coffee/ internet session. Since the barista had been rude to Jen earlier, I ordered the drinks- which the barista gave me for free! Neat. Jen left for a day at Rutgers and I took on the city toute seule. I reaffirmed my love for NYU, poked around a Japanese bookstore, and spent a few hours at a few other bookstores. It was really rainy that day, but Jen had found a Ukrainian restaurant in her trusty Let's Go guide, so we hopped on the Metro yet again (those 7 day Metrocards are totally a steal, by the way).

Veselka, the restaurant, was amazing! I loved it so much that I even called my dad to rave about it. We even saw my anthro crush, Ray, on the street. We ordered vareniki, kasha, chicken Kiev, latkes, stroganoff, Slavutich beer, and mashed potatoes. Even though we were totally ate, we ordered 4 DESSERTS. We shuffled home in the rain, extra desserts in hand, and began packing. :(

Our last day was a whirlwind of bookstores (books are heavy, yo). We took a towncar to LaGuardia, ate a bunch of greasy food at the airport, cried over race issues, and ended up in Chicago, where we would be stuck for a long, long time. Luckily, our meals were still comped, so we ate another $100 meal, this time at Outback. Of course, we had to continue our grand tradition of TONS OF DESSERTS. After staying a bougie hotel with a GINORMOUS bed and spending hours upon hours at O'Hare, we returned to Madison. We still had uneaten desserts, thank you very much.

So, here I am, fattened, loved, and back in Wisconsin. Classes have begun. Don't ask me how I am going to handle 3 hours-long seminars. Thanks to Jen, I'm taking tai chi, which so far, is great. We learned how to lie down and bend our knees. I love my Jewish history class and my classes with Caitlin's advisor are great.

I know y'all hate entries of the "what I did today" sort, so now that I've blithered on about NYC, we'll get back to the regular schedule of complaining!

and i was spellbound at the sight of you
beautiful and grotesque and all the rest of that bug stuff
Saturday, January 8, 2005
01:01 a.m.

I have a crush on my girlfriend. I was out shopping today in Nob Hill and I kept seeing things I wanted to buy, wrap, and surprise her with. Of course, several of these things were hideously expensive and cost more than my tuition. Nevertheless, I've accumulated a small stash of things to hand her gleefully (even if I did have to use the ugly cardinal wrapping paper on 2 items, yech!). I love shopping when I'm home. I usually emerge with half a duffel bag full of things for myself; this time, the presents are for her. How did this happen? I was coasting along, enjoying my life after a gut-wrenching break-up from a woman I seriously considered spending the rest of my life with. Then, I met this articulate and beautiful woman who has more in common with me than anyone I've ever met- and not just in the "wow! we have so much in common!" way but also in the "uhhh. did you suck my brains out and copy the data onto your brain's hard drive?" way. It's a little strange to sit in front of someone's bookshelf and realize you own half the books and would own the other half, if you had the money. Plus, how many people in the world have heard of, let alone been to, the tiny Dutch village I love? (Emmalien, you don't count!) So yeah. Crush on the girlfriend. I'll see her soonly, which is fabulous, because I've spent the past 2 weeks with next to no human contact, sharing a bed with my mom and a chihuahua.

Despite my obvious delight at returning to WI and seeing not only the GF, but also my friends- including my husband, one fabulous Eric- I really don't want to leave home. I love it here, even though we don't have a furnace, you have to heat bath water on the stove, and there's no way to watch Jeopardy! or ER. My mom is fabulous. Tonight, she made my favorite meal- fresh tortillas, cherry limeade, and GREEN CHILE STEW! I don't care how much I love Vientiane, samosas at Himal Chuli, or that coconut sticky rice dessert at Sa Bai Thong- I am, and will forever remain, the one and only Green Chile Super Girl. I love living in a state where you get asked "Red or Green?" when you order a taco, where actual tumbleweeds hurtle across the highway, and where kids say sentences like "My favorite Coke is water" and it makes sense. I love our mountains and the way the landscape is basically one giant vulva. You can run into Julia Roberts at the co-op by my grandma's or go sledding down pure white sand dunes. (Though I must admit, going sledding is the best method for getting a girl into bed I've heard of in some time.) Folks are going to have to put up with my homesickness and be extra-loving to me, because taking a Green Chile Super Girl away from her power source and plopping her back in the land of cheese curds is a crime.

So. I will be flying tomorrow. I will be flying American for the first time. Apparently, this is the airline with more PowerPorts than any other airline. However, there are a few MD-80 (yes, I looked up the type of plane) configurations WITHOUT PowerPorts. If I am riding in one of those planes in any of the 3 legs of my trip on the MD-80, there will be hell to pay. I mean- I am flying from Albuquerque, NM to New York City! Do they really think I am going to make it that long without being able to play Sims for longer than 2 hours? Really now! If I am forced into said situation, I will be writing them a letter wherein I will clearly state that the only reason I am agreeing to fly a non-Northwest flight is for the PowerPorts, and they didn't perform! (The real reason is that I needed a flight with Jen, but I think she'll understand the situation.) I'm not as excited about the "customized comfort cushions" or the six-way adjustable headrests (I'm not tall enough to even use the headrests anyway), but damn, I need my power.

Enough whining!