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.

Grunt. Sigh.

Started packing this evening. OK: so I only actually packed one suitcase full of clothes and three boxes of books, but just this little bit of packing made me realize how much stuff I actually have. I mean, I found a belt in my hanging shoe rack that I'd totally forgotten I own. Ack! Granted, the belt was a gift, and is not the right size (so I never wear it), but still...Still. I don't want to be the kind of person who forgets what she has because she has too much.

Another day of heavy rain, though not as heavy as yesterday. Not as heavy as the Midwest. This summer needs some sun.

Tomorrow: continued/accelerated packing. Bicycling. Work, of course. [Just reverse the order of these three, and that will about sum up my day.]

Bloomsday.

(Borrowed from Maria and Dan)

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

Ten years ago, I was fourteen and preparing to enter high school. The summer after I graduated from eighth grade, I worked as a sort of guide/receptionist for a program for gifted students (Summer Academy). My only other coworker, a boy who was also in orchestra, would commit suicide our senior year of high school.

I was terrified for three weeks before high school began: the thought of all those random people (about 3,200 students, in all), many of whom might not like me, only five minutes of passing time, cliques, etc., etc. That summer, I spent most of my time reading and rollerblading.

2. What are 5 things on your to-do list today?

(a) Buy groceries for the week
(b) Do laundry
(c) Send forms to the guy who's subleasing my room
(d) Go to the gym
(e) Read

3. Snacks you enjoy...

(a) Cinnamon and brown sugar pita chips
(b) Cheese and crackers
(c) Raw veggies (baby carrots and snap peas, especially)
(d) Homemade popcorn
(e) Various and sundry other things

4. Places you have lived...
Champaign-Urbana, Bismarck, Denver, Coon Rapids, Galesburg, Berlin, Northampton

5. Five things you would do if you were a billionaire?

(a) Buy a home for myself in whatever city I wanted, and pay off my mom's mortgage/buy my sis a house, too
(b) Start a no-kill animal shelter, quite possibly a Cocker Spaniel rescue
(c) Donate to Knox: in particular, the English Department, library, and Gizmo
(d) Organize a week-long reunion of some sort for all of my friends
(e) Travel

6. People you want to know more about...

Like Dan, I'd have to say people who don't (or rarely) read. People who remain truly calm in crisis situations, and people who would categorize themselves as having balanced lives - I'd like to get their advice. Also, David Lynch.

***

In other news: man, I should learn how to add photos to posts - those in the last post were supposed to be in the opposite order that they are now. Thursday night, using a borrowed hacksaw, I cut my bike free from its place of entrapment! (Lacking indoor storage space and generally not thinking ahead, I'd left my bike locked outside all winter, and when I tried to unlock it this spring, my key broke off in the rusty lock.) Went for an hour long ride that night, and one of my other plans for today is to clean the little bits of rust from the handlebars and the tire release levers.

Spent most of the day at Taste of Amherst yesterday. It was a small festival, only occupying the town common, but was surprisingly fun: Eric and I got wings from The Hangar (YUM) and apple pie from Atkins Farm, sat in the sun and listened to the local bands, and stopped by the petting zoo. Also stopped by the ABC tent for one beer in a commemorative pint glass: I am a sucker for commemorative pint glasses.

And I'm back on the homemade popcorn train; it had been a while (2 years?) since I'd made popcorn from scratch, but I got the materials last night and made some, and it was excellent.

I'm back...

Sort of. (Aside: I can't believe I've been dormant for over a month, but once you read about what's happened in the past month, my absence will be understandable.) So, from the top...

1) Ali graduated! It was excellent to fly back to MN for a weekend and see the family (even Bailey). I was a little nostalgic going back to Morris, MN, because even though I didn't go to school there, I visited many a time: was well acquainted with Don's Cafe, the Diamond Supper Club, the Salvo. A peripheral connection to be sure, but a connection nonetheless. Also, I still can't believe that Ali is no longer in college: this makes me feel really old.

2) Eric graduated! He now has his MA in English and will be starting applications for PhD programs (wouldn't be entering them until Fall 2009, though). His parents and grandma came out for the weekend, and we sampled the local cuisine, had our cookout at Look Park, went to the Mark Twain house, and enjoyed afternoon margaritas at Mama Iguana's.

3) Ruth and Adam got married! Congratulations, you two!

4) VACATION. Eric's parents rented a condo on Folly Beach (about a ten-minute drive from Charleston proper), and we spent a week there. Charleston is beautiful: the single-houses with their open piazzas, Palmettos, all the parks and monuments. Each day, we went to Charleston in the morning and early afternoon to see sights/go to the historic market, and we relaxed on the beach until dinnertime. (I also collected an ass-ton of shells.) I would never have classified myself as a "beach person" before this trip, but I would now. I'm tan! And loving it!
Even though I've been back for a few days, I'm still lamenting my necessary return from vacation. Here, I can't get sweet tea (excluding McDonald's sweet tea, which is OK but not as good as the other tea I sampled) and grits, nor can I collect shells or swim in the ocean or weave little place mats from Palmetto fronds. At any rate, I do have a plan: I brought home some quick grits and can cook them in times of trouble. Also, I'm going to find out how to make homemade sweet tea. Who's with me?



Also also, I'm moving in a few days! (Ten, to be exact.) I'm pretty excited about this - like a lot of you, I'm a fan of the sorting and reminiscing that go into packing, and also the streamlining of my collection of "stuff." I don't have too much stuff at present, but I have amassed a lot of books since I've been here, which are going to be hell to carry. Ali will be moving in with me at some point before the end of August - when, no one knows for certain.

***

If that seemed like an ultra-quick summary, forgive me - it's been the busiest month of recent memory, but I will begin posting again with predictability (and hopefully more detailed accounts of what I've been up to).

In review: the perfect weekend.

An unexpectedly pleasant weekend. Or, I should say, a weekend I predicted would be nice (given this temporary absence of work and grading) but which then exceeded my prediction.
A run-down:

Friday, went to the job session hosted by Dara and Peter. It was really helpful; I have never (I'm ashamed to admit) been to Career Services, had no idea that they'd start files for us, send our dossiers to interested prospective employers, and so forth. (How did I not know this? I wondered later. So many things I need to learn.) Have begun jotting notes for an updated CV. Late afternoon, went to the bead store and picked up beads/wire for new projects. Spring projects in the palette of coral and turquoise. Watched "Sweet Land" with Eric. Cooked dinner, and accidentally watched, with E., the entire season one of Twin Peaks.
(We had not intended to watch the whole season, but the episodes were all run together - there was no option offered, in the root menu, of watching individual episodes.)

Saturday, went to the farmers' market and bought a mint plant, which I promptly repotted. Went to the gym for a slow, minor workout. Took a short walk with E., during which we came upon a tag sale - one of the vintage stores on Market St. is closing, and was selling most stuff for $1! (Some clothing items were $3.) Eric got two ties, and I got a miniature, forest-green teapot - it holds just one cup - and a purse fashioned after a creel. In total, we spent $4. Ate lunch, cleaned up, went to the laundromat and now all of my clothes are clean. Went grocery shopping for the week, though I bought less than normal since I'll be leaving for Minnesota on Thursday. Cooked dinner with Eric (kielbasa, tater tots, baked beans = Midwestern deliciousness), watched a rerun of the Real World. Drank a cold beer and made a necklace of 6mm turquoise colored beads with chips of coral at 1" intervals.

And today, E. and I made eggs and toast for breakfast, sat for a long time on the couch in the sunlight, looking at all the new potted plants, and talking about weddings we'd been to. I was spaced out on allergy medicine and reluctant to go to the gym, but I went anyway and felt good afterward. Had lunch (a hot dog, half a grapefruit) went to lay out in the field near my house. Had intended to start reading Lunch Poems but instead fell asleep in the sun. Went home and showered, read, cooked dinner with E. Am now reading (about halfway through) The Year of Magical Thinking and it is heartbreaking: in its accuracy and repetition.

Oh. I also read, during the course of Saturday, Meghan Daum's My Misspent Youth, which I really enjoyed, but from which few phrases/descriptions struck me. It was funny, to be sure, and poignant (the last essay, especially) (aside: I hate the word poignant), but not nearly to the level of Didion's writing. The only reason I draw this comparison is because Dan Wakefield's blurb for Daum heralds her as "A Joan Didion for the new millennium..."

What a shame that this weekend is almost over! Even in the absence of formal time constraints, I managed to get a lot accomplished, and a good variety.

If you haven't already, call your mom!

Evening plans.

James Tate is reading tonight(!), but before attending this event, E. and I are going to have a picnic on the lawn at UMass. (Which lawn, we're not yet sure. I'm not even familiar with all the knolls & grassy patches on campus and I think, in fact, that there are even picnic tables by Herter. So there's a good chance that we won't be sitting on the grass at all.) Picked up salami, cheese (sharp cheddar and Laughing Cow, for me), watermelon, and a mini mini chocolate cake. Some beers, which will have to languish in the fridge 'til later.

This weekend may = a strange calm before the storm. I'm done with my own classes, and my last day of teaching is Tuesday. Even then, I'll just be having a party for my students, so there's no need to lesson plan...Yikes! What to do with this sudden, brief, & lovely stretch of free time? Any suggestions for things to read, recipes to try, crafty-type projects?

Indeed: I may work on fixing an old necklace, making a new one, updating the scrapbook (which, like those beers, has languished: but for months). The bead store here relocated to a bigger/more out-of-the-way location, and I have yet to check it out.

Also, and totally unrelatedly, the aloe sprouts I transplanted last weekend don't seem to be doing well. (I successfully resisted the urge to use a sad-face emoticon. Congrats, right?) I thought their roots were long enough, but maybe not?

Flunk!

Happy belated Flunk Day to any Knox peeps who may remain in the readership! (Happy recovery, I guess I should say.) I hope the weather in Illinois was better than it is here, here being rainy and 45 degrees. Yesterday's email got me thinking about Flunk Days past - three, in all - and how singular & great the tradition is. I have spread the good word to those unfamiliar with the tradition, but the explanation bears repeating: Flunk Day is a day (undisclosed to the student body until 5 AM of the day itself) on which the Knox administrators cancel all classes and provide picnics/carnival-type amusements (foam pit, DJs, petting zoos, mechanical bulls, and so forth) for the Knox community. The students are awoken at dawn by a select group of upperclassmen ("friars"); at this point, heavy drinking commences. Most people prepare a Flunk Day stash of booze: because the holiday could be declared at any time, one must be prepared! Naturally, a certain amount of drama can/will happen on Flunk Day, but mostly, everyone is jovial & filled with goodwill.

Ahh, Flunk Day.

Sad news: Eric and I have to reschedule our birthday BBQ, planned for tomorrow. I don't understand how we had cloudless, high-80s days for the last two weeks of April, and now the weather is winter-like again. SUCK!