because those sunny installations never came.

I miss California.

I miss the freeways, the sun, and the one hour dry cleaning.

I miss having to maneuver my way through crowds of people who won't look at your face.

I miss the Hollywood Bowl.

I miss standing in line for hours.

I miss Sig Alerts.

I miss going to the beach and hating the sand.

I miss the scratch of my dad's clock radio droning news about the world in the morning.

I miss things I can't even begin to describe.

--buelsy (likes dinners of cheese and candy hearts).

now, i'm not one to brag...

...but HOLY CRAP! I just got a ridiculous amount of work done tonight. Indulge me and let me list the accomplishments of Sunday, February the 3rd, of 2000 and 8:

• Long overdue creation of Oral Comm. Gradebook, Attendancebook, and Attendance Sign In Sheets.
• Grading and inputing of said grades.
• Filing of all sorts of paper mumbo jumbo.
• Updating of tournament files (yay for OCD record keeping!)
• Posting and publication of coaching hours for this week.
• Extensive redrafting of Interpersonal Comm. presentation and two page handout.
• Creation of extensive presentation and three page handout for Comm. Theory.
• Initial edits on paper nominated for Graduate Symposium.
• Scheduling to the hour (because to the minute would be excessive) of my life for the next four and a half days.
• Packing of lunch.
• Cleaning of kitchen.

This all boils down to the question: How cool am I? And how self indulgent?! I actually feel a little bit excited for it to be Monday.

IN OTHER NEWS:

1. The Yogurt-of-the-Year prize goes to Dannon's Light and Fit Vanilla, a happy experience for dieters and non-dieters alike.
2. Latest Pet Peeve: when certain co-inhabitants of Messy Manor do the dishes and put them away in completely wrong and illogical places. Don't get me wrong, I'm digging the shared domestic responsibility, but the lack of OCD in dish placement? Entirely unacceptable. (I love you, A).
   
3. Thank you, Hollywood and Hollywood Writers for coming out of your respective time-out corners and making up so that the rest of us CAN GET ON WITH OUR LIVES!!!
4. I need to wash the rug in the kitchen in Messy Manor. Who knew that rugs needed to be washed? While I consider myself to have been adequately exposed during childhood to the nitty-gritty aspects of survival in the suburbs (Buelsy cleaned her some toilets), rug-washing escaped my repertoire. Nonetheless, rug-washing has been scheduled to occur between the hours of eight and eleven tomorrow evening (do you sense that OCD is becoming an outstanding theme in this post?).
5. Go Giants, I guess.
6. Things you should remind me to get at Tar-jay this week if you're feeling benevolent, dear readers: more fifty-cent-orange-plastic-dish-scrubby-things (no, they do not have any other name), more plastic sandwich baggies (sorry, mother earth), and a new cutting board (snap-crackle-pop).
   

I think that is about all. Shower, tea, yogurt, bed.

--buelsy (feeling significantly better than in days past).

bottle it up, tuck it away.

As I reached for some hot pink staples in my top desk drawer a moment ago, I realized how much of my sanity depends on compartmentalized mayhem. Messy Manor is generally half-way clean these days (I blame A for a large portion of the remaining mess :) ), the Rav reached new levels of tidiness last weekend, and my office is pristine. However, there are little pockets of space that are all sorts of chaotic: The aforementioned top desk drawer, an aptly labeled "junk drawer" in the kitchen, a couple of baskets near the bathroom, a plastic tub pushed to the very back of the shelf in my closet. All of these spaces are jam-packed with odds and ends and have absolutely no rhyme or reason in terms of organization. Being the English major that I was, and still secretly am, I can't help but look at these haphazard hiding places as metaphors for the rest of my life. Good-to-go on the surface, but just barely keeping the chaos at bay.

--buelsy (buckling down).