Week in Review

Right now I'm listening to a CD of Belle & Sebastian and Kate Bush that Cathy gave me. Thanks Cathy! Ask and you shall receive.

So last Monday I finally had more than two people over to my apartment. I got about six other librarians-in-training over to play Trivial Pursuit because we're hardcore like that. It was really fun, and it made me clean my entire apartment which doesn't happen all that often. It was so lovely--it's pretty much gone to hell again already. It's at times like these that I understand my mother's frustration in keeping the house clean for more than five minutes. So it's the 1981 Genus edition of Trivial Pursuit that Ellen gave me for Christmas. I never got my Pink wedge because I don't know '70s pop culture. Really I don't know any pop culture before 2004, and even then... I also don't do well with the orange sports category unless it's a leisure (read: drinking) question. I read enough GQ that I could pull out a contemporary athlete's name even if it might be the wrong sport, but athletes and games before 1981--I'm helpless. I got one question about a quarterback, and Ady said Greg doesn't know any quarterbacks, only wide receivers and tight ends. Thanks Ady. I did do better than Heidi who answered every question with Jesus. It was pretty sweet when she got a question about the book Heidi though. Chloe had to leave early which meant that Tim won, of course.

On Wednesday, my group in Research Methods had to give a twenty-minute presentation on our paper. I had made slides the night before and sent them to Andra. Well I checked my email at school realizing I had sent a PDF file and not a PPT file, and so I had to run home send the slide, and run back to school up the giant hill. So much for being calm and poised. The presentation actually went pretty well. It just wasn't a fun day.

On Thursday we had a celebraxination for 530 which started with brunch at Portage Bay Cafe whose motto is Eat Like You Give a Damn--y'know locally grown, ethically raised, organic, and environmentally friendly food. I got the lemon curd French toast which sounded delicious but the lemon curd was too sweet. I also met Moritz, Maggie's German sweetheart, who is on his spring break or something. We were trying to find something that wasn't too sweet for him because his German, and so we settled on the buckwheat pancakes, except none of know exactly what buckwheat is. It did lead to a interesting discussion of challah and communion wafers. After brunch, I was going to work on my Zotero assignment and edit/rewrite my final paper, but I watched TV instead waiting until it was time to go to Chapel to continue the celebraxination.

Chapel is a sophisticated martini bar in Capitol Hill. It was actually a former funeral home converted into a lounge. Now, as you well know, I'm a cocktail and gin snob. Martinis are made with gin and dry vermouth, stirred over ice, and served up with a lemon twist or an olive. End of story. Just because you serve a drink in a cocktail glass doesn't mean it's a martini--appletini, flirtini, pomtini, chocolate martini, etc. Martinis go in martini glasses. Fortunately, I had a coming to Jesus moment. Their so-called martinis first of all have more creative names than just adding -tini at the end, and secondly are delicious. I started, in my snobbery, with a John Doe--a gin martini that was super strong. But then I had a lavender martini which was a revelation! Then the Edie Sedgwick which is a lot like a cosmo, the Campari martini, because I love Campari, and finally the NYC. So I realized that I can make myself an excellent gin martini anytime at home, but I can't make an infused cocktail like the lavender martini.

So Meagan drove us there, us being Susan, Andrew, and I. Our original game plan was to have one drink, or two, and then go home like responsible students who have an 8:30 Friday class. Well drink one derailed us from this plan of attack. Halfway through her Stigmata, Meagan was like we should stay out ALL NIGHT and go to IHOP and then to class. I strongly protested this line of thinking. Anyway, there were about twenty people there and we it was lovely to see everyone and converse and drink. So after five drinks, singing "Somebody Told Me" with Meagan, and falling down in front of the font, the party decided to travel down the street (far, far down the street) to Neighbors, a gay dance club.

So normally, I'm not one for clubs or dancing, but I was drunk enough and they played enough awesome songs that I just went with it. We were probably there for an hour and a half or so. It was awesome to see our professor out there shaking it. Grad school is awesome! We left shortly before midnight, our dreams of staying out all night had been sensibly crushed, and Andrew and I had a dance-off (not really) to see who the most sober to drive. Andrew won. But first we had to go to Dick's for some hot, greasy food to soak up all the alcohol. I got home just before one, took some ibuprofen, and drank a couple of glasses of water. (Meagan took pictures of all the madness, which I'm sure will be on Facebook soon enough.)

I woke up in the middle of the night realizing that I had to complete two assignments later that day, and wondered why, oh why, did go out last night? And then when it was time to wake up, I had no problems getting out of bed, surprisingly. I usually don't get hangovers, and this wasn't even the worst I've felt after a night of drinking, but I didn't feel super great either. So at 8:30 when our professor started talking about social issues, I was like, I can't handle this. Why am I here? It was a short day though, so that was nice. I had Ben help me export an RDF file from Zotero because I had no idea how to do something like that.

Anyway, after my last class, I raced home, and had little over an hour to complete my Zotero assignment. In the RDF file, I had to identify the XML namespaces and other identifiers. First of all, I have no idea how to read XML, so I basically made it up. It was due at 5. I submitted it at 4:59. Booyah! On to my paper. So in class, our professor had some us talk about papers so we could hear what other people were working on. In class I was like, I don't even remember what my paper's about because I haven't looked it since I got my peer review comments back. Anyway, I went through the comments, made some changes, read through it, fixed my citations, and turned it in. Not my best paper, but oh well. 16+ years of schooling has reinforced the concept that I can put everything off until the last minute and be fine. Jeannie was having an end-of-term/St. Paddy's party that night, but I was pretty much catatonic at that point, so I stayed home.

Yesterday, I went and saw The Last Station which was a perfectly fine film. And then I walked home, down the Ave and through campus, and it was such a beautiful day. Sunny, and warm, and all the cherry trees on campus in bloom. Then I decided to make Turkey Loco burgers. So I mixed up the ground turkey, onion, and spices in a large bowl, formed the patties and grilled a couple of them. Then I got out a smaller bowl to make the guacamole topping--this is the "loco" part. So the guacamole called for a jalapeno, minced. This was my first jalapeno and I didn't wear gloves. However, I did hold the pepper with a paper towel and didn't touch any of the seeds. Fortunately my hands didn't catch on fire, but I rubbed them in oil just in case. After I had eaten, I was putting everything away, and I realized the smaller bowl I got out was still clean. Then I realized that I had made the guacamole in the same bowl as the raw turkey. Awesome. Well, I'm not dead yet.

I also made a Caipirinha, Brazil's national cocktail, which is lime wedges muddles with raw sugar, add cachaca and ice, then shake it all up. I had no idea what cachaca was until yesterday when I discovered that it's a lot like rum, but whereas rum is made from molasses, cachaca is made from sugarcane. So I don't really like rum, but I bought this 10 Cane rum from Trinidad which I really like. The thing about 10 Cane is that it's made from sugarcane and not molasses which makes it more of a cachaca than a rum. Anyway, Caipirinhas are delicious, and I might just make them every day for the rest of spring break.

Afterward, I drove to Capitol Hill since Cathy was having a small party. We played Partini, which is a bit like Cranium (more party, less brainy), and there's a cups and ball game. So I went to pick the ball up off the floor and my fingernail hurt. I looked at my fingernail and realized that there was a flaky piece of wood or something from the baseboard jammed up my fingernail. I took it out and it bled a little bit, it wasn't too painful though. But I might die from tetanus, if the salmonella doesn't get me first that is.

Well, that's what I've been up to. Today I need to go through my email, apply for the FAFSA, and work on my final JavaScript project which is due tomorrow. Then I'll be officially free.