For Briana

This song makes me feel emo.

This post will probably make Briana want to shoot me.

BLIZZARD OF 09!

Vanquished! Took 14 hours to do an 8 hour drive, but it's done. My sister said that if someone said she had to do that again, she would vomit and then say no. It actually was terrifying (at 5%) driving through the unplowed Delaware and Maryland. Thank goodness we made it, fishtailing and all. Onward to SC in morning.

Polar plunging

Hello, folks. I've left the Cape a week early to go home for a funeral. Weird; I imagine it'll be real once I see my cousins. For now, it's a long trip to somewhere sad. Indeed, the longest ride ever from the Cape to NYC (7 hours), and another 9 hours to get to NC, plus 3 more to get to SC.

On another note, I found out early this morning, threw my bag together, and proceeded to go to work (i.e. "fun day"), which involved 5 hours of playing games with my housemates and other AmeriCorps Cape Codders. So I suppose it was the best workday to go to 'cuz it was pretty lighthearted and truly, "fun." We concluded with a polar bear plunge on the Atlantic side of Dennis. OMFGOSH, so frigid. My body didn't actually feel anything at first, then it said, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I didn't know, so I looked at the other bodies and they were all diving into the water, so as my body struggled to remain upright, my mind threw it flat into the water. If I could levitate, it should've happened then, so I guess I can't. Ice water doesn't just burn the skin, it also totally disorients the mind. TOTALLY WORTH IT!! I think we got it all on tape, too!

I also discovered that I have only spent 3 days in a row off Cape since I arrived in September, and it really feels strange to be leaving now for 15 days. I am excited to return home...excited in the way you feel when you are compelled to go home to create a family web for renewed stability and comfort. But I am sad to leave Wellfleet. Those folks, in the three and half months that I've lived with them, are a family to me now. I wouldn't have guessed that would happen, really, I was quite skeptical. We're celebrating Christmas morning tomorrow, and I'm video-chatting with them for the first 15 minutes, since I won't be there. I'm like the parent away on a business trip calling home to the kids and saying warm things as they open up their presents.

Sorry for the bummer post. Hope all is well with you, my friends!

Another gross skin-related post from Leah

Story of my life/year, I guess.

I went to Punta del Este, Uruguay last weekend. It was fabulous: I laid out on a beach for four hours, went for drinks, then sat on another beach before going to watch the sunset. My dream, right?

What I found out later: Punta is under the hole in the ozone, making the sun there 2x as strong as any other beach. Yr girl got BURNT.

My entire face peeled off yesterday (I couldn't stop thinking of that part in Silence of the Lambs when Anthony Hopkins wears that man's face to get past the guards. Though I never really understood how that could have been effective) section by section. THEN once I became satisfied enough with its uniformly pink color keeping me from looking like too much of a freak, I made the huge mistake of going for a run. When I got home (are you ready for this?) all the beads of sweat had collected beneath the sunburned skin on my chest and stomach and popped out of my skin as waterdrop-like blisters. Terrifying/disgusting (plus I had to go to a classy art event, so inconvenient -- I wore a scarf in the 90 degree heat). Anyway the blisters became just spots (hopefully not permanent spots) but I'm not going to run again for a few days. Ugh.
Moral of the story: sunscreen, always. In Uruguay, 2x the sunscreen.

The Good Ol' Days

Like a sad lonely geek, I rewatched our ebony dvds tonight...boy, those were truly our shining moments at Carleton. LOL.

But for real, it really made me miss school and all of you guys. When will we get to do something so undignified and ridiculous ever again? Those were the days. :]

I haven't posted for awhile, but not a whole lot has gone down anyway. I've almost completed my first session teaching at Foss--just 2 lessons to go! Monday I had a trainee shadowing me--probably so she could observe what to do when you must teach a child of Lucifer...aka "that little shit" as my manager calls him. haha.
I spent the last couple of Fridays at a pub in Dinkytown watching some of Adam's friends play in a 90s cover band. Those guys bring down the house (and make A LOT of money in exchange for their street cred). I've never seen so many sweaty white people scream along to Third Eye Blind that weren't at a Third Eye Blind concert.
I've also watched almost every Vikings game this season--I'm bracing to be horribly disappointed when they lose the playoffs in the last 5 seconds of the game and I end up swearing to never watch them again for the 31956196819th time.
Lastly, I've come to realize I now primarily hang out with men--albeit mainly emoish haired, tattooed or in a band kinds of guys. So my dream come true, right? lol. jk. Basically, Ashley and Twilight are my only outlets for girl time. So its a good thing Amy is coming to stay with me this weekend!!! Yay!

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday! I've almost finished my Christmas shopping. I prefer to do my shopping online, but since xmas is next week I must now venture out to the mall and fight for parking spots with suburban soccer moms...in their suburbans.

Come home to Minnesota soon. Lately, the high temperature here has been like 3 degrees. You know you miss it.

New Years Eve

To answer your question, Rye, Andrew and I were just talking about new years eve. So I think everyone's going to be at my place since I have lots of places to sleep (queen bed, queen futon, air mattress, sleeping bags) and no roommates. As of now, the plan is to drink lots of alcohol, play games (family fun night!!! I'm also buying loaded questions which is like who's most likely but better), and watch the ball drop on tv (we can see the city from my window, so maybe we'll see fireworks at midnight too). Let me know if there is other stuff you guys want to do (there's tons of bars close by we could hit up at some point in the night too but they will be EXPENSIVE). I'm also assuming we'll all do something on the 30th like go out in the city perhaps? What do you guys think?

So I fly into NY on the 30th at noon...so I'll be at my apartment by like 1pm. When and where is everyone flying in? And how long is everyone staying? You're all welcome to come crash at my place once I'm there (I'm sure you could crash at Andrew's too).

I'm excited to see you all in a couple weeks!!!

Teachers Pet...Each Other

This was the title of an article in a new york daily news paper yesterday. Two female teachers were caught naked making out during a school talent show. I just can't get over how funny the title is...

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This isn't the best time of year because of the warm glow of strangers' small kindnesses, the stillness of newly fallen snow, the loving family get-togethers, or even the looks of excitement on the faces of young children. No, this is truly the most wonderful time because of all the "Best Of' The Year" lists that come out!

Oh I know they're trite and don't really represent the year in any way, but they're still mighty entertaining and I weirdly look forward to them. This year's also the best because we're dealing with some "Best Of the Decade" lists...and they're even more ridiculous and less representative (refer to the Newsweek list and all others on their website)!

Red Bull? Seriously?
http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/unknown-in-1999-indispensable-now/online-airline-check-in.html

Best Entertainers!
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20321301_20324236,00.html

Best Movies!
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20321301_20324027,00.html

Boring, but important.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/11/30/the_top_10_stories_you_missed_in_2009

Two of these involve incredibly rare species being eaten. God, humans suck.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091202-top-ten-discoveries-2009-year-science-news.html

My Boyfriends's Back?...

I just uploaded pictures from my camera that I took this past summer and there were some of Schley that I though he might want to keep AND I thought it had been long enough that sending a no-subject email with a brief explanation that I had sent three pictures, and nothing else, was safe. I was expecting no response. He wrote me back to tell me what he was doing, where he was and said: "tell me about your life; I am interested; what's on the burner?" NOOOOOOOO!! Do not want to open this up again and yet...GAHHH!! What should I do?

This Is Real

This is a classmate of mine and she is wearing a camouflage wedding dress. I'm from here.

homemade chocolate cake and peanut butter mousse

This is the cake that I made from scratch of which my family "tasted" and left over 75 percent of it for me to take back to Wellfleet.

I wanted to add red lines to the white part of the eye (i used cool whip instead), but somehow, it felt inappropriate. getting older/wiser/more normal?

i also quite egregiously solicited compliments for my creation from my housemates, most of whom complied readily.

2012

I hear the movie's awful, but bad reviews won't stop me from seeing it when it comes out here on Thursday. As far as the real end-of-the-world myth goes, this is somewhat comforting.

In other news, I stayed in tonight to save money and ended up eating half a bowl of cake batter (w/coke, though, so it's better, right?)
I think I miss my friends, too.