Birfday!
I’m all tuckered out from an excellent birthday day! I’m full of love and happiness. I saw lots of friends, had a good time in Berkeley, had a lovely walkabout in Davis, played with my new things… happy times, happy times.
Posts tagged birthday
me-mas-eve
Good day, after a bit of a rough start. Boring section this morning because we had so much material to get through. Then I found out I had lost a paper draft I should have read a week ago, and didn’t believe that the student had ever turned it in. Found it, and speed-graded it, thankfully. My worst problem student came in when I only had 10 minutes left of my office hours, complaining that he had no idea what a research paper was supposed to be. And not in a feeling-unsure sort of way as if he would write a decent paper and he’s just worried. More like the very concept of a research paper was foreign to him, and it was a travesty that we would request such a hurculean feat as a four page research paper. Meh.
So that was the rough start. After I shooed him out of my office, a bunch of the ling grads took me out for a burger and a beer as a pre-birthday shindig. I really love these guys, and it was neat to have a little thing with them. Had our Friday night class after that, then I’ve just been hanging out at home and enjoying this Giants-Mariners game. Randy Johnson was pitching, and I saw Griffey bat! Good times… he almost got a grand slam at the bottom of the ninth, but it was just a little short. It’s been 1-1 since the 6th inning and they’re in the 12th already. I’m not sure I’m going to make it through the end of the game… but it’s been a very nice way to spend the night. Gotta get on a train in the morning to meander down to Berkeley and have a nice birthday afternoon out with some of the Ask folks and Armand. Should be good times. I’m looking forward to it!
Pisqa de Mayo
I’m wrestling with my day. Also, I think I’m winning.
Spent much of my morning and afternoon on campus, though I had intended to come home to go shopping. Wanted to get the midterm finalizing and copying out of the way so I wouldn’t have to think about it any longer. Stayed a bit after that to have lunch with Lewis, and then decided to work in my office instead of come home so I could actually get some stuff done.
Did manage to get my work mostly done, and go to the gym. Worked off a fair amount of my grumpiness, and also managed to stretch out my arm a bit so it’s hurting a lot less than it was last night. It was also Lewis’ mom’s birthday tonight, so we went out to dinner with her and her sister’s family, and then took her out for a cupcake on our way home. It was a nice dinner, and a good time, and now I’m completely exhausted and ready for bed, even though I know I’ve got a bit more work to prepare for my section tomorrow.
Also: arg, mother’s day is coming. It’s in 5 days. Better not screw this one up like the birthday. Grad school seems to distroy anything that takes more than one day of preplanning. I’d better get something together tomorrow and get it in the mail. What a crap daughter I am!
Hoot
Happy new year and all that! And happy birthday to my sister!
Nice party last night at a big mansiony place out in the boonies. Good lazy day today watching football (USC -> Rosebowl) with the in-town Weasels and making the rest of our Xmas essens. Now I’m off to get a little relaxing massage from my sweetie!
Birfday!
Another “too tired to post” post. Too tired to post. Tummy full of meat. Had a wonderful day with birthday Lewis! Got up and made french toast from yesterday’s tea sandwich leftovers. Then went to downtown Sac to go to the train museum but got waylaid by a historically reenacted good time (and tasty comestables) at the “Sacramento County National Historic Day” (not sure what the deal is with a national day for a county, but I’m not complaining). Went thereafter back to the Lawyers’ for presents and then off to Winters to finish off at the Buckhorn. Very tasty. Very tired!
California, Curtains, Cocktail
Got so much stuff done today, it’s great. I should probably also mention I just had a delicious cocktail and I’m feeling both sleepy and spunky.
Lewis made scones this morning, which was pretty much the best way to kick off a Monday. Went to Woodland thereafter (to the very sad, very run-down County Fair Mall) to get some cheap supplies for the new bed in our guest bedroom, and curtains for ours. Boy do I hate shopping in those big department stores. When you’re looking for cheap, they’re the way to go, though, and that is definitely what was on the order of the day. Did manage to find some sheets for our odd-sized (single?) bed and curtains, and two new pillows to boot. Too bad it took us forever!
Came back to Davis to do a little Lewis-birthday shopping (while he got some bike supplies and more folk music at Armadillo). Feeling a little better about the inevitable belatedness of the major present, but it’s still rather silly that I mussed this all up. Anyway, wrapped some presents this evening on our awesome work desk and got a little bit of cleaning done – vacuumed, swept the kitchen, etc. It’s really starting to look pretty homey in here with our curtains and all that. Or I’m just getting used to where everything is. Finally!
I spent forever on Facebook last night, a thing I’m not normally apt to do. Perhaps I was feeling my having-nothing-to-do collegey best, or was just feeling disconnected from everyone. But I finally friended a ton of people who were in my “you may also know” list, and it’s pretty excellent seeing what everyone is up to. Making me excited to go back to Seattle next week! Good gravy, that’s next week already… we really need to get some stuff done before that happens. Like send in our residency paperwork to UCD.
Speaking of UCD… I told Lewis today if they were a service I was paying for (and not expecting something like my PhD back from) I would have cancelled them by now. I can’t figure out how to do anything, and I refuse to believe it’s because I’ve been out of “the school environment” for three years already. I have no idea what classes I’m supposed to take, should take, can take, must take… I got waitlisted on the class I was most excited about. The prereq-type class I thought I had to take (though now am unsure I even need to take, if it’s even a graduate course..) cooccurs with the class I TA for. All I managed to register so far is a class I’m rather nervous to take cause I’ve never been any good at it — Semantics. I’m really starting to get frustrated that I’m going through all this trouble for a bunch of classes I don’t even want to be in.
Every time we ask the department for help we get this crazy roundabout answer that leaves me more confused about what’s going on that I was before I asked. And that’s saying something! We both got billed (though only Lewis got an email about it…) and I’m not sure how we pay the school, since our funding packages both include our fees and tuition. Though the email I got from the department today told me I would be responsible for the (heretofore unmentioned) “remaining 214 dollars”. …sure. Whatever.
I really feel like I need an advisor just to get me to the point where I walk into campus and sit down in a class. You know, with my registration done, residency verified, fees cleared, and a paycheck in my hand. Oh. And why in the world does the first stipend disbursement happen in *November*? That’s six weeks after school starts! What the hell does everyone do for all that time, just sitting around waiting to get paid? Why would that take so long? Sigh. I wonder how much of this has to do with graduate school generally speaking, how much is Davis specifically, and how much of this has to do with being at a state school instead of a private school.
Sigh. This is nothing I should be getting worked up about right before bed. We have a breakfast date tomorrow to a pub in Sacramento, and I spent all evening working on an amusing geography project. Perhaps I’ll close this blog with the fruits of my labors: a map of California counties and whether Lewis (blue) or I (yellow.. nearly completely absent) or both of us (green!) have been to them. Criteria dictates that we had to have slept a night there, or done some kind of serious touristing to count as having “seen”. No interstate fly-bys. Viola:
Map of Counties Visited in CA
Davis!
It’s been almost 20 days since post-the-last. Egad! I’m not sure I’m going to spend much time recapping those days. Let it suffice to say that there was a mad rush at packing, a furniture move sooner than planned, several box-gathering trips, several cleaning adventures, and a long, long series of unpacking and fidgeting days. In the last few days we’ve managed to get the last of the big boxes out of the way and have worked up to hanging pictures and arranging rooms. Woot!
We had a really productive day yesterday, hitting up the Co-op (my new love!), the Village Bakery, the Artery for a belated anniversary present (and a sweet calligraphy pen!), and The Paint Chip for framing. We must have spent at least an hour trying to figure out how to frame two sets of three odd-sized works of art. The girl there was so cooperative and indulged our sense of cheapness and eventually helped us figure out how to strike the perfect balance of cheap and decent looking. Ended up getting cheap ready-to-use type frames (with glass and all) and having them cut custom mats for them, and then float-mounting them ourselves. I can’t believe how well it all turned out! First art up in the new house!
Oo, we also had a very excellent party last night at Dylan’s house. I may have drank most of a bottle of wine by myself. I hardly ever drink, but apparently I was in the mood last night, and I must say it turned out to be a really great night. Good company, good drinks, all that. I’m also surprisingly completely not hung over this morning. I don’t know if it was the banana and peanuts and water Lewis fed me when we got home, or if I didn’t drink as much as I thought, or what… but woke up (rather late) this morning and all was well! Only amusing thing to note (other than there being a guy at the party last night who was the perfect combination of Sean Nelson and Scott Greider…) was that Lewis and I took a route through UCD campus to get home last night and definitely ended up riding through a sprinkler. Very surprising at 2 am. Oh, and we had to do a drunken tire patching job before we could take off. Great success!
We’ve also got next weekend to look forward to — we’re having a housewarming / hushed birthday party for Lewis on Saturday. Think lots of folks will be showing up, which is most excellent. We’re leaving for Seattle a few days after that, which is making everything feel like it’s coming up really quickly. Stupidly I put off ordering Lewis’ present till just today and now I’m sure it’ll arrive while we’re in Seattle… which totally sucks. We’ve been awful with presents this year for some reason, and I’m usually so good with them. Booooooooo. I do have a few other ideas up my sleeve, so I think I’ll at least pull of a half-yer-presents-now, half-yer-presents-later sort of thing. Sigh. Suboptimal!
Tomorrow is a trip down to Berkl to have dinner with Armandka and welcome him back to California. I’m so excited we’re finally on the same coast of the same continent. It’s been ages! I’m not sure how the whole train thing is going to work. I’m feeling a bit like maybe borrowing one of the Lawyers’ cars so we can hop in and out whenever. Not to mention the 75 bucks per train trip (two tickets, round trip) is a bit off-putting. But I guess we’ll see. I suspect Lewis is pretty adverse to asking to borrow a car for a thing we could do by ourselves, and I too am a little wary of driving when we could be taking public transit. It’s odd to be up against that money-vs-idealism wall again and it’ll be interesting to see how it all falls out. 75 bucks richer and come-as-we-please, but yuckily driving and parking? Or 75-bucks poorer, somewhat time-pressed, but more relaxed transit and more environmental?
Recent posts
Archives
- February 2014
- January 2014
- March 2012
- October 2011
- April 2011
- November 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008