God, when did it get dark out?

Today was field trip day for the fourth graders. The destination? Day one of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival(!) If you think that taking 20 rowdy nine-year-olds to a festival sounds like a crazy idea - well, you're right. Kids were running and screaming and tearing their sandwiches to pieces and throwing these pieces in the air, and it was altogether a great time. MC Hammer played, and the class (though most of them had little to no idea who he was) went nuts. S. (the student teacher) and I milled and chatted and tried to prevent kids from running into the "woods." When we returned to school, the class had recess, free reading time, and more recess.

When I was in elementary school, we did not take cool field trips. Once, we went to the wastewater processing plant, but that's all I remember.

Day one of the move went well, though I have to buy a bunch of stuff (mattress pad, bookshelf, dowel for the closet, cushions for the mission chair) to make my room fully livable. I'm excited, though - I'm going to have a reading/plant nook!

On which note: time to kill that anthology.

Moving Day.

This is my fifth week in San Francisco. I'm beginning to feel settled, in small ways: I've established grocery shopping habits, have been to the dentist, can navigate the bus system without disastrous results. Today I begin the process of moving into my own apartment (i.e., room), which will undoubtedly increase my sense of settled-ness while subtly disturbing it - after all, I do have to repack and re-move all my stuff, then unpack, identify, sort, tidy. I'll eventually venture to IKEA. The grocery store, to buy a duplicate bottle of honey, and Bed Bath & Beyond for bed linens and an extra towel.

I don't know if my new place has a coffeemaker, but this will be one of the first things I find out.

Today has not been so productive. It's 1:50 PM EST, I'm unshowered and groggy, and my house is a mess. The shower thing will be easy to remedy; the house thing, less so. The bad news is, I stayed out later last night than I have all year (& consequently slept until 10:15 ), but the good news is that I've already packed three boxes of kitchen stuff today! And I cleaned up all the bacon pans left over from last night's [early this morning's] boozy bacon extravaganza. The extravaganza was not my idea - I was a mere spectator - but it was greasily hilarious! Eric and Darren cooked and ate a pound of bacon, then commenced a series of arm wrestling competitions! HA!

The cleanup was not hilarious, but I survived.

Finally it is sinking in that I'm leaving Western Mass, and I am going to miss a lot of people and places. People, you know who you are, and you best come visit me in Wisconsin. I will bake you pies and take you out for boots of beer. Among the places I'll miss most are the bike path (Norwottuck Rail Trail), the Smith Gardens, Forbes Library (where I spent many an hour editing the old thesis), and the Hangar, which serves the best boneless wings in the country. I'm not joking about that: I do not joke about chicken wings.

We celebrated The Return of Jesus with lots of movies.

And, this diet Pepsi tastes really syrupy. Is this only because I rarely drink soda?

Saw "Adventureland" on Friday, which I enjoyed and which was not what I expected. (The unmet expectations owe to my total unfamiliarity with the movie prior to viewing it.) Overall, I dug this movie: it made me nostalgic for amusement parks (which were a verboten aspect of my childhood), summer, semi-illicit drinking, and so forth. I was psyched that "Satellite of Love" was on the soundtrack: this was my song obsession the summer before I started grad school! And the casting was really good. I did feel James was unconvincingly immature for his age - that is, he was going to grad school and he'd never had a job, ever? AND he was still a virgin? Come on, people! These quandaries seem more appropriate to a college sophomore, methinks...but, plausibility issues aside, pretty solid.

Easter, we watched "Rachel Getting Married" and "How To Lose Friends and Alienate People," both Blockbuster impulse rents. Well, I'd wanted to see "Rachel" for a while. DRAMA! Family politics! What could have been more appropriate for a family holiday? The latter was amusing-ish, though I found myself getting reallytruly annoyed @ Sidney Young. Really? I thought. This guy would have gotten his ass kicked, like, 75 times by now. Also, he would have been fired after the "disappearance" of Sophie's dog. But whatevs. Whatevs. This is a movie.

Eric got me a giant chocolate rabbit called "The Professor." It stands about 1 foot tall, and is bespectacled. I have not yet broken into it, because I'm not sure how to approach the initial breaking.
I am going to make a collage using images from "The Professor's" box, because the box incorporates awesome 70s graphics of woodland creatures.

My thesis defense is Friday, and I am starting to get freaked out in my brain. As in, what if my committee decides to surprise me - SURPRISE! - by not passing me, or something? Not that I think I will not pass, but, you know: nervousness.

E. and I are still trying to decide on an apartment. This is OK, because the application his parents sent us hasn't arrived yet. It looks like I'll be staying in the Valley at least through the end of July, which fact saddens me. I know, based on some of my former posts, that it seems like I abhor this place, but I don't really - not reallytruly, anyway. I'm just excited about my up&coming place of residence, and I want to be there now! I want to get on with my life! Plans! Newness! There's still a chance that we'll move to Madison before August - i.e., in the case that one of us gets a superawesome job that requires us to move before then - but in all likelihood, August it shall be.
I will try not to be impatient. I will instead use my time productively, applying for jobs and looking for fun IKEA furniture and reading things I've always wanted to read (because I won't be in school anymore, yo! And I will have time for fun reading) and cycling. Yes. This is the direction my actions will take.

Settling

Well, I'm almost entirely moved in. [Correction: I am moved in, in the sense that all my stuff is at my new place. I just have a minor buttload of unpacking to do, but I don't think that affects my definition of "moved in" - at least, not in any serious way.] The move went really well, for the most part. I didn't rent a truck (my initial plan), but managed to fit all my furniture in my car - minus my dresser, which Eric and I carried from my old home to my new. Strenuous, to say the least, but it's over.

I am obsessed with my new apartment: it has newish hardwood floors (they were put in two years ago), a roomy kitchen, good ventilation, excellent natural light. I'm saving the larger bedroom for my sis - she's slated to move out toward the end of the month - but mine is the room with better windows(!) (Aside: all the windows have windowsills wide enough to put plants on!) Also, the kitchen sink has a garbage disposal: something I never felt I needed, but which is so convenient. The kitchen and my bedroom are mostly set up, but the living room is still bare; I'm waiting 'til Ali arrives to figure out the coffee table/sofa situation.

Last night, I tried this recipe:

TWO-BEAN SALAD WITH BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

1 14- to 16-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed, drained
1 14- to 16-ounce can black beans, rinsed, drained
2/3 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Combine all ingredients in medium bowl. Toss to blend well. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving.)(Bon Appetit, April 1996)

It was really easy to prepare, and tasty. A little too oniony for my tastes, though I think the onions might not have been chopped finely enough. Next time, either fewer onions or smaller onion bits. I might add crumbled feta, too.

If any of you have good chickpea recipes, share them! I have a surplus of these beans and need some creative ways to prepare them. Over & out.