happy turkey.

A and I are in Chicago for Thanksgiving with my extended family. Getting here was anything but pleasant. The four hour trip became seven hours thanks to snow, slush, and my unusually slow storm driving (I'M FROM CALIFORNIA, DAMMIT!). Now that we're here though, we're having good time, except for missing the peeps in Simi Valley pretty bad. Consolation on that note: the Christmas trip is less than a month away. Freak out on that note: Two thesis chapter due dates are less than a month away. Do we hear an eek? Eek.

The Midwest Winter Bulge is rearing its ugly head, which means that after this trip, I will be eating tuna fish, oatmeal and lean cuisines like nobody's business. This also means that I will be having an extraordinary, pants-buttons-bursting goodbye session with all other foods this afternoon.

Hillary Clinton on Sunday. There are benefits to living in Christmas Island.

--buelsy (has a date with a boy and a bird).

word association.

I like Google's dependable sense of holiday spirit.

As you may or may not have realized, I had a momentary break through at the laundry room last night and consequentially felt very confident for my Prospectus Defense today. It went pretty well. My thesis is semi-different than what I thought it was, but in a good way. I have more clarity and direction now. Yay. I also have some catch up work to do on my supposedly three-fourths of the way done Method Chapter. Boo.

Speaking of "boo," happy Halloween. There's a party in the squadroom, complete with streamers, costumes, and an ouija board. I, in the spirit of adding to the party, am going to bring a hefty bit of grading that needs to be done by tomorrow morning.

Speaking of tomorrow morning, effectively, there are only two more days of Oral Communication to teach. The rest are "speech days," when they get to do the talking. There would be three left, but I'm tapping into professional liberty and canceling class so that K, A and I can drive to NCA in Chicago a day early.

Speaking of early, I want to take a muscle relaxer because my back has functionally "quit," but I have to wake up early, and in my world, muscle relaxers last about fifteen hours.

Speaking of hours, only 24 hours until Friday Funday, complete with Netflix, wine, vietnamese/thai food, and lots and lots of brain cell inactivity.

--buelsy (where's the candy?)