well said

I started a post after last weekend, but I was unhappy with the way it was turning out. So, as with many, it was left untouched. There are many such posts - typically about important events - where I feel my lackluster writing does it injustice. Posts about the Red Sox World Series win, hosting my first Thanksgiving, and even the day I had to give back my laptop, they go unfinished or unfollowed-up on. Last weekend was really one of the best weekends I've had in a while. I had my first visitor to Texas; not only was I excited to share things about my life here with someone from home, but it was really great to spend so much time with AY. She's so thoughtful and has already sent me a wonderful thank you note that sums up, much better, what I was trying to say. So - I'll steal it from her!

"So much fun packed in 4 days! Where to begin - tacos, longhorns, bbq, coffee in a soda cup, xxl cowhides for sale, dismembered doll butts, camera-shy killing knives, discontinued football purses, exes from Texas, chicken with herbes de Provence, line dancing, "everything's fiiiiiiine", tips on using a feather vs. a chicken, brownies with ice cream, buffalo chili."

I noticed only one thing missing from her description....but, she closes the letter with:

And remember -- W.W.J.R.D.?

In the end, it's all there. And was a great weekend in Austin (and surrounding areas). In addition to the fun, I learned some valuable lessons:

1. The pull out couch in my apartment is not only easy to pull out (if my 90 year old grandmother could do it I shouldn't have been worried...but I was) it's also not terribly uncomfortable.

2. The ghetto bathroom set-up in my apartment was not as horrible as I expected it to be.

3. A cowboy hat, western shirt, big belt buckle and boots make just about anyone incredibly attractive. And, two-steppin' around a dance floor can't hurt either.

4. A small diner in Johnson City claims to have "splits, phosphates, and iced tea" and the Fredericksburg Trade Days claim to sell primitives. Really, all I learned was that these things exist. I was at the diner and the Trade Days, but I have no idea what phosphates and primitives are.

5. Rain in Texas halts air-traffic as bad as a blizzard in Boston.

good idea, bad idea: part II - adventures in babysitting

I was babysitting tonight and had a small instance of déjà vu. Although, this time, instead of styrofoam popcorns it was small plastic tiddly-winks. And, instead of carefully dumping them onto the ground they were violently thrown from their tub by a 5 year-old. And, instead of a long-haired cat there was a small dog (smaller than Mia). Also involved in this "game" were two different colors of putty and some magnets. I was never quite clear what the rules were, other than make a huge gigantic mess sending your babysitter into OCD hysterics. But in the end, I got the little rugrat. He began to throw a tantrum about picking up the mess, as he did this I picked up one of the wand-magnets and started collecting the magnetic tiddly-winks. I cleverly bragged to him that I could pick up more than he could. Wouldn't you know it, I lost. Boys and their competitive edges.

We then decided to play "rock band" which involved real microphones and real instruments. Which were banged around in a way that I am sure was not their intent. I put a stop to this when he began ripping these down off the wall (mind you, these line the walls of his play room...but still, are they toys?! who knows!) I played an electric guitar and the keyboard while he screamed into a microphone. I think we were pretty good. Although, the lyrics - "ya baby, all night long, you are soooo cooool, all night long, ya baby" - they have me a little creeped out.

Cancer wife lives on!

good idea, bad idea

I won't lie, this seemed like a perfectly fine idea at the get go. Dump the styrofoam on the floor, put items in box, refill with styrofoam. I overlooked a few very key elements, like the static attraction between sytrofoam and long-haired cat. Also, the territorial behavior of long-haired cat over styrofoam. Finally, the teeny tiny small styrofoam pieces that were littered all over the floor as I finished up. In the end, the box is packed, Mia is styrofoam-free, and the mess has been cleaned. Next time, maybe I'll use a bag!

impressive

One of my classes this semester, that I think will be pretty fun and immensely useful is called Do-it-yourself Stats. I can hold my own as a small-time script writer; I spent many years pouring through other peoples code, figuring out how stuff works, finding bugs, making things happen the way I wanted. But Matlab has always been the one thing I was afraid to touch. DIY-stats happens all in matlab! It also will teach me the fine art of making up my data boot-strapping.

Our first assignment is an easy one, generate random data, calculate the mean, and get a histogram that should look Gaussian. To do this I wrote a simple script. Then we were asked to find the sample variance and sample size for each run and to plot those. I got fancy, I wrote a script around my script to gather all these numbers and plot it. I think I expected a straight line, showing the constant relationship.



I got this blimp. I think there is a problem somewhere.

UPDATE (2:55pm): After figuring out that all the variables I created needed to be cleared before I rerun the script - and after realizing that I was starting my graph with an unnecessary (0,0) coord, I think I've done it!

noontime revelations

Instead of remembering to buy more spoons to bring to my office, I've gotten very talented at eating my yogurt with a fork. Sadly, I feel I am already one step away from GoGurt, which haunted me as a camp counselor and I swore I would never buy or eat. Maybe it's time for a new lunch idea!

sending out an s.o.s.

could someone please tell the cat to get out of the damn bathtub and eat something, she stopped listening to me weeks ago!

UPDATE: While you are at it, can you also tell her I'm sick of playing "how many places can I hide a hairball", and that I know it was her that turned off my alarm clock three days ago!

reading material

I went to the library today, and I got a library card. I also checked out a book - because I plan to have oh so much time to read once classes start on Monday.

I was disappointed by the public library near my house. It was small, and smelled musty. And had a limited selection. If, by limited I mean, lots of books on Texas, Jesus, and how to speak English. And also, quite the Danielle Steele selection. I was unable to find the book I wanted, and really shocked to find the one I ended up with.

with too many cats

You know that old lady, the one who lives alone, up the street,with too many cats. She's crazy - or at least that's what you and the rest of your 13-year-old friends call her. In reality, she likely knows what is going on, but maybe she doesn't agree with it, or chooses to ignore it. She's not crazy, she's just in a different time. In a different place. But, you call her crazy, because she lives alone, with too many cats. You know her. In 50 years, I hope not to be her!

But, in the last two months, I had a glimpse. I was the crazy-cat-lady.

Mia and I went on a plane, twice. And she was great. It was me - I was the disaster. I was the spectacle. I was the crazy-cat-lady. When we left Austin, I put her in her carrier and she complained minimally. She tried to push her way out - this picture was her actually putting her small paw up against the mesh of the bag, and whining. Whimpering. Pulling at my heart strings. Whispering - "You're a bad mom". She stopped relatively quickly, because I'm a bad mom and I ignored her. In the car on the way to the airport, not a peep. I pulled her out through security - silent. The security guard even commented on her well-manneredness.

While waiting in the airport I tried to sit in quiet areas, and I tried to talk to her a lot. As Stace pointed out - most people probably didn't know there was a cat in that fashionable bag of mine, and I was the crazy-lady-talking-to-a-bag to most. I ensured that I could pre-board the flight (you know along with people who have legitimate mobility problems and small screaming children). When pre-board was announced, there I was, the crazy-cat-lady, the only one pre-boarding. Families with children were sitting and waiting, while I was rushing down the jetway to the plane. I crawled around the floor of the plane situating her comfortably under the seat, talking to her all the while.

On the flight up, we shared a row with no one. So after take off Mia got her own seat, and I opened the carrier enough to fit my hand in and pet her - while I tried to sleep. She didn't like take off, or landing - who can blame her. But she suffered in silence. As is a cats way, she drooled a lot. I had to ask for copious amounts of paper towels, and I kept talking to the bag, so eventually the flight attendant said to me "What's in here anyway?" I told her it was my cat and she said "Ohhhh! Kitty!" but had this look of relief, figuring out I wasn't insane - maybe.

I think the low-point occurred while I was waiting at Logan for my flight home. My parents were waiting with me, all of us sitting to eat a little and drink coffee (them, not me) and I needed to use the restroom. I left Mia in her bag with my parents and took my purse and went to the restroom. On the way....I talked to my purse. I did. I forgot it wasn't Mia. And I actually spoke to my pocketbook. Crazy-lady-talking-to-a-bag, with too many cats.

thanks for looking out for me

One of the nicest things to come home to, is all the wonderful shows that my DVR has been taping for me. We've got episodes of The Hills, Gossip Girl, SVU, Everyday Italian, Ace of Cakes, and so much more. So, I've given up on the food shopping for now - must catch up with LC first!

UPDATE: DAMN YOU DVR! the episode of The Hills that was there yesterday has been deleted. Damn you setting that was set to only save for 14 days. I'll just have to settle for Gossip Girl.

home again

I got back home yesterday and my reaction was "Oh, this is where all my stuff is!" I really started to forget what my apartment was like, and what all my stuff looked like. It was nice to be in my own bed, but I did watched "Fever Pitch" to wallow in some missing-New-England-self-pity. Now, my only problem is, who is going to go and do my grocery shopping and make me breakfast? Accepting volunteers now.

all that you can't leave behind.

I've always loved this song, there are a few times in my life it has seemed appropriate. This, again, is one of them.

Walk On - U2

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage that you can bring
Not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no - be strong

Walk on - walk on
What you got, they can't steal it
No, they can't even feel it
Walk on - walk on
Stay safe tonight

You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly - only fly for freedom

Walk on - walk on
What you got, they can't deny it
Can't sell it or buy it
Walk on - walk on
You stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
You can only take so much
Walk on - walk on

Home - hard to know what it is if you never had one
Home - I can't say where it is, but I know I'm going
Home - that's where the hurt is

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
You can only take so much
Walk on

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind

All that you fashion - all that you make
All that you build - all that you break
All that you measure - all that you feel
All this you can leave behind

All that you reason - it's only time
Love in a fever - no, not mine
All that you sense - all that you scheme
All you dress up - all that you seem
All you create

she said I think I'll go to Boston...

Perhaps the perfect few days were spent in Boston - so perfect it's like I never left. There were many scenes straight out of my old life: sitting on the couch with Stacey, both of us in our PJs, drinking diet coke, playing with a crazy cat, with an SVU marathon on in the background - I mean, that could easily have been one of a thousand weekends over the past few years; hanging out at Chris and Allison's playing crazy games around the coffee table, laughter abounds...only thing missing was the boot; procrastinating with a.y., complete with a perfect New Year's brunch, appropriately fitting soundtrack - a wonderfully procrastinated start to '08; a morning of cooking in the kitchen with Mel and a little RR!; and, of course, gossip in Charlestown with my SBF. Man, I've missed this place.

But I had many firsts too! Thanks to Vihann and Julie for classing up my act, taking me to Shabu-Zen for hot-pot, where I managed to use chopsticks for the first time, and did not spill on my white pants. For further class, champagne at symphony hall watching the Boston Pops was perhaps the most fun show I've seen in a while. And Emily and I braved the fancy-pants new wing of the Natick Mall (or whatever they call it now) walking through some really festive trees. And, thanks to a.y. I saw many great fireworks in Boston, both at the common and over the harbor. All in all, a great bunch of new memories from my favorite city.

Now, back to work.