goin' to the big city(!)

I went to Cedar Rapids with K today. We shopped at Steve & Barry's, which was a little too good to be true. Everything in the store was nine bucks. I bought three things for my sister, and two things for myself. As long as the purchases for others outweigh purchases for self, I figure that Christmas time personal splurging is okay. S & B's apparently maxed out* our karma though, because we spent the following hour and a half searching for and finding two different Indian restaurants that upon eventual discovery... were closed. We then opted for an establishment called "Sushi House" which made us both want to throw up. The sensation of wanting to throw up led to a rather sketchy stop in Brandon, Iowa (Home of A Very Large Frying Pan), where we peed in a "Kwik Trip" that I'm pretty sure is going to be featured in Saw 5.

It was an extremely fun day.

*Speaking of maxing things out, one of my favorite Life Stories of all time happened in New Orleans in 2006. Clutching neon green hand grenades, SD and myself attempted to rebuild the city of Nola through the purchase of excessively priced souvenirs. At one particular establishment, SD's card was declined. So she tried another. And another. All declined. Although most people would be visibly flustered in this situation, SD calmly sipped her hand grenade, motioned toward my wallet, turned to the cashier and said: Oops. I maxed out.

RANDOM MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS:

1. Hugs and love for the random girlfriend on The Real Housewives of Orange County who just pointed out that one mother's expectations for her children are particularly gendered in nature.
2. Final grades have been submitted. It was an A- sorta semester. That's what happens when you grade under the influence of Cup Of Joe's.
   
3. There is a sign near the condiments and other food amenities in Maucker Union at UNI that says: We have switched to a "greener" napkin. Please pull carefully as they tear easily. Every time I read this sign, I make a slight alteration in my head: We have switched to a "greener" napkin because they are cheaper. Please pull carefully as they tear easily because they are shitty.
4. Glamour magazine (which is on my highly preferred reading list) did a story about the fiance of a sex offender that was arrested for soliciting sex to a fake 14 year-old virgin on Dateline: To Catch A Predator. The woman decided to stay with the offender despite having two daughters, aged 11 and 13. In fact, she married him during her lunch break less than a month after the Dateline incident went down. My favorite part of the story was on page 187, when the woman revealed that in 2003, she was briefly addicted to crystal meth.
5. Clearly, I am watching the Real Housewives right now. A 21 year old without a job just got a fairly large tattoo with his mother's credit card. The mother asked her 7 year old what he thought about the tattoo. He said: "Um. BAD." Like, duh, Mom.

Speaking of moms, I'm going home tomorrow night. A and I are leaving for Des Moines (where all the prettiest girls live) at 2 a.m. We fly out at 5 and will be in L.A. by 9. I get that prickly feeling under my eyes when I think about it.

--buelsy (back to l.a.)

charles shaw.

We're home from Chicago. A got a keyboard at some super Black Friday sale in Palatine, and now there are gigantic keyboard boxes laying all over the living room. Annie and Tuta (Christmas Island's Most Fashionable Kitty Social Lights) are loving it. They are also loving the Itty Bitty Christmas Tree that is now on one of our side tables. Our tree kicks Charlie Brown's tree's ass (proving pictures coming soon).

I just smelled UCLA. Weird-sad. UCLA is such a phenomenon to me; those were two of my favorite years of my life, and they went so incredibly fast. As (completely) happy as I am now, I still occasionally wonder why I was so powerless in 2006 and unable to force a continuation of that... era of wonderfulness. Thinking about it makes me sad-ish.

Best part about the most recent trip: TRADER JOE'S. We stocked up on Yellow Curry Tuna dinners, Soy Milk, Pesto Pasta, Punkin' Granola, Frozen Asian Chicken Breasteses, Holiday Ginger Cookies, and most importantly... TWO BUCK CHUCK! Well, three buck chuck in Chi-town. There's a reason why they call California the golden state. (Unexpected homesickness. First the UCLA smell, then Trader Joe's and two dollar wine... Simi Valley living sounds pretty good right about now).

I'm having a last hurrah right now on two levels (Have I mentioned that I love enumeration?). First, I'm drinking and being food-merry, for tomorrow I shall diet or die, whichever comes first. Second, I'm doing things that need not be done, like blogging, and Internet window shopping, and watching Blood Diamond and knitting hats in pretty colors. Tomorrow there's going to be a gi-normous change of lifestyle. DIET and SCHOOL are the new hardcore life themes until December 13th, at which point finals are over and Buelsy can start remembering the smell of the Golden State and happy times without what-might-be-tears-and-stress-wrinkles all over her face.

--buelsy (wishes she could be trader jane)

sleepy face.

I want this bag. It is very rad. The unfortunate thing is that it's only offered with the purchase of Method products. Don't get me wrong--I'm a huge fan of Method, I think they are everything that is right and hip about environmentalism. However, I'm not really in the financial state to be spending big bucks (yes, $20 is big bucks) at this point in my life. It's the first week of the month. I'm still recovering from the trauma of a rapidly emptied bank account.

I'm also still recovering from the trauma of turning in a paper for Critical Methods. I should keep working on it, because it was not nearly up to par, but I just can't... I need to take the weekend off (and by that I mean go to a Tournament and work on a million other things).

Anyways. I should put some make up on. I overslept and rushed in to Oral Comm. borderline late. My hair was like (insert freakiest idea possible) and I definitely had a deodorant mark on my shirt. I think I scared the kids. How's that for a teaching strategy? If you can't get 'em to respect you, just show up in your pajamas.

--buelsy (late to a meeting)