Shake it, shake it.

Greetings from the laziest blogger ever. On that note, over the weekend I helped my sister edit her paper on digital media and the "second self," and I gave what sounded like very helpful insights from the "blogger's perspective," which is just hilarious to me because my friends actually have to remind me to update my blog. Triste.

Oh well! I had a most wonderful, relaxing, and fun extended weekend (and by "extended" I mean "consisting of real, class-filled weekdays that I converted into vacation days") at home in Chicago. I ate the shit out of Thanksgiving, and then after dinner all the cousins sat around nodding off while listening to our professional jazz pianist cousin play amazing songs for us. I spent the next couple of days hanging out with my sis and my parents, roaming the neighborhood, visiting grandma and grandpa, and seeing movies you have to see with your sister, like "Pride and Prejudice." (The best part about that was when Annie leaned over to me 10 minutes into the movie--when Mr. Darcy is being handsomely difficult and Elizabeth is being lovably sassy--and whispered, "this is exactly how I wanted it to be!" Totally.)

Then Brian came home from Hong Kong on Sunday, and the fun continued, since I decided to skip classes this week and not come back to NY until Tuesday night. Woot! We did everything from seeing "The Squid and the Whale," which I definitely recommend, to having sushi with Abbey. I even went to one of his law school classes on Monday, which was quite interesting. I learned all about authenticating evidence. Law school is so different from educational theatre...

And now I'm back, trying not to think about how fun and easy it is to be at home, and facing about a week and a half of ridiculous amounts of work. But then I'm done, and I am SO ready for this semester to be over! Not that it hasn't been great, but sometimes you've just had enough of certain classes. I'm trying to be very active and zealous in my approach to my final projects...we'll see how it goes.

You don't understand. There were SEVEN of them.

I ate so much goddamn pie. Mmmm.

Dinner with the other Susie in my life!

So, Susannah has made it back overseas from England, and we celebrated with our much-anticipated yummy dinner. Be sure to read about it on both of our blogs, because I always wanted to be a part of her mouthwatering accounts of the meals she has. Here's my account: She met me after class and we walked through the West Village before settling on a place called Westville. I had kale soup, Susie had grilled cheese (not just any grilled cheese-- this one had gouda and cheddar and interesting-looking bread and greens), and we split this "market vegetable" thing, where we got to choose four different veggie sides--through a very egalitarian, football draft-like process--that were all amazing: beets with walnuts, spaghetti squash with nutmeg, artichoke hearts with parmesan, and snow peas with sesame and ginger. Afterwards, feeling very healthy and veggie-riffic, we went to Cafe Angelique and had fancy coffee drinks and the biggest slice of french mousse cake ever. We caught up on our lives since we both left Ann Arbor and went various places (England, Chicago, New York)--or rather, we filled in the blanks, since we already know so much from stalking each other on our blogs. I hadn't realized how long it had been since we'd seen each other. Thanks for calling me Susie, it was the perfect end to an otherwise boring weekday!

While we were enjoying ourselves at dinner, I was able to ignore my nagging cold symptoms...but now, not so much. I went to bed with a sore throat and woke up with a slightly worse one. However, I feel it could go either way here. It's one of those times where I know that by the end of the day I'll feel way better or way worse. We shall see--the morning's always the worst, right?

Owww!

I feel like all I want to do is be asleep, but I haven't been able to wind down yet. Today was a really intense day, for so many ridiculous reasons. For one, Mondays are always stressful this semester, because I have classes that go late at night, and usually I have something due. And I don't get to eat in between, and anyone who knows me knows that I don't do well when not fed.

But today was hard for lots of other reasons too. I got up in a good mood, well-rested, and decided to do some research on the courses I need to register for tomorrow and other things like scholarships and financial aid. I felt really on top of things until, after about six different phone calls, I discovered that in order to keep my scholarship, I'm going to have to take more credits than I was planning to, which affects how soon I finish my program, which affects where I go and what I do next year, which affects Brian's possible plans, which also affect me, and so on. On top of that, I realized that I'm one credit short of the requirement for this semester, which I think might be solved, but I had to scramble to fix that problem too. It's not that I was greatly saddened by the news or anything, it just really shook up my worldview with a whole bunch of new things to consider.

On the way to the train, while carrying many things and trying to eat a sandwich, I bit my lip so hard that it hurt my teeth. That was just the icing on the cake, because I was already harried due to the many places I had to go: First I had to go to work for a meeting that I was late for, then I rushed to NYU to rehearse a scene that I absolutely hatehateHATE and think is horrible and annoying, then went to mask class (for which I had to carry two heavy bags and a large piece of cardboard on many subways), then I had to go to class and perform the scene that I hatehateHATE, but which fortunately wasn't quite as horrible and annoying as it had been. I have subsequently bit my lip about seven times since the first overwhelmingly painful encounter, but at least class is over. (I apologize if that was tedious to read...but it was a tedious day. What can I do?)

Here are things that make me happy:

- I had an awesome weekend, spent mainly at a staff development retreat with my coworkers. We went to a summer camp place upstate, where we did ropes courses and other activities while bonding and finding each other hilarious. Seriously, everyone should get to work for people as supportive as that.

- I began to build a giant pig head today in my masks and puppetry class.

- I got my ticket home for Thanksgiving. 10 days till pie.

Pretty paintings and yummy cupcakes.

Tuesday was Annie's birthday, and consequently a very fun New York day for me. It's so easy to get into a routine of school and work, and not make time for the things I should really be experiencing while I live here. The main part of the day--before the party at night--included a visit to the Met to see the exhibit of her fave Renaissance master, Fra Angelico. It's gorgeous, and even better when you see it with someone who studied him and lived a block from his monastery in Florence, so can therefore explain all the nuances, narratives, and symbolic meanings, as well as provide explanations for why certain saints are always shown with knives in their foreheads, and other fun facts. It was great.

And despite her best efforts to thwart our plans, in the evening we pulled off a little suprise gathering at Beauty Bar, at which we had cosmos and cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery. Brendan and I then whisked her to a fashionably late dinner at August in the West Village, which was deeeelicious. (Schutt, this is for you: I had an amazing Portuguese bean soup with chorizo and veggies, Brendan had tarte flambe, Annie had butternut squash and roasted garlic pizza, and we all had apple strudel for dessert.)

It was an early night, but don't feel bad for my birthday girl sister. We didn't go home early because it was a school night, or because she had to work the next morning. No no, the festivities ended early because they were GOING TO ITALY FOR ELEVEN DAYS TODAY. That's right, the Met exhibit was just a little whiff of the incredible art they're going to see for the next week and a half, and the nice dinner was just a whisper of the ridiculous cuisine they'll be enjoying. And I'm not jealous, nooooo sir-ee! Love it. Love. it.

But speaking of lovely experiences, I got to go to a beautiful wedding at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago over the weekend. Yes, aren't we fancy? It was soo pretty, I've always wanted to see what it would be like to dine and dance among contemporary painting/photos/sculpture/installations, which in our case was a gigantic, wildly colorful collage mural covering the wall above our table for the Brazilian "Tropicalia" exhibit. Awesome!

Why am I still awake at 2am? What am I, in college or something?

Rock Lobsters make the best dancers.

It's all about the claws.


Peter Pan (me) and Elvis and Priscilla Lobsters (Annie and Brendan) in the midst of Halloween revelrie last night.

Halloween is fun. Also, Hail to the Victors.

Soon I will post pictures of my various Halloween experiences. All I'll say is that Brian was a perfect Tinkerbell to my Peter Pan, and vice versa. He looks hot in satin and tulle, and I rocked the green tights. Also, last night my Monday class got out at 9pm and I found myself right in the absolute middle of West Village Halloween Parade madness. And it was definitely madness...too bad I couldn't capture any of it with my teensy camera phone.

More when the pictures arrive (ahem, to a certain someone who dates my sister).

As for the rest of my weekend, Michigan beat Northwestern. I was there with a bunch of NU people...that's right, Brian and I are on opposite sides of that rivalry. We went to a tailgate before that was quite fun--thankfully it was a night game. It's too bad the Wildcat fans in the group were all sad after their loss, but I had a great time watching my team win. Fortunately, there were also tons of UM fans in the stands with us, and definitely a guy with a cowbell right behind us (do-do-do-do-do-GO BLUE!). Gotta love the cowbell.