Wedding!

An extravaganza of paper-mache turtledoves, I'm sure.

I've spent the last two weeks loading my moving truck, battling a spider infestation and other odd jobs around my Mom's house in Davis, and bouncing from couch to couch in the last week.  On Tuesday I forgot to brush my teeth.  And now I need to pull myself together for a wedding?  I should find some nail polish.  I have no idea how to be pretty anymore.

I'm in Concord at my Dad's house right now, surrounded by wild fires.  Pony finally has a nice big yard to, it turns out, get completely muddy in.  I had to interrupt my breakfast to wrestle her and the hose in my pajamas.  Fun.  My cereal tasted like dirt after that.

Some highlights from the last few weeks:

1. Moroccan food in San Luis Obisbo.

2. Driving the 101 from LA to SF.  Never thought I'd describe a freeway as pleasant.

3. Left my cell phone on the kitchen counter in my apartment after calling my landlord to tell him I was leaving my apartment keys on the kitchen counter and locking the door behind me and then doing that.

4. How many California missions have you been to?  Have you been to Soledad?  San Juan Batista?  'Cuz I have.

5. Turns out many people in Little Tokyo like to talk to you about their dogs.  Kind of unexpected.  Ellen pointed out that these were people that were on the streets of Little Tokyo in the middle of the day, as if that made them shiftless.  Was she saying I was shiftless for wandering the streets with my dog in the middle of the day?  Maybe all these people were just recent PhDs.

6. The take-home message of the Doctoral Hooding ceremony is that PhDs don't know how to write their names phonetically for the announcer-person.

7. I have now read most of the Julia Child French cooking bible.

8. I did not know that $50 of gas could fit in my car.

9. I'm giving Hemmingway one last chance.  If The Garden of Eden doesn't do it.  I'm giving up.

10. My old roomie Ting is engaged!  I'm a terrible person for not calling her with my good wishes but as explained above, my phone was being held hostage by 1280 Barry Ave.  Today, today.

12. Eleanor Starks Cardena is very cute.  She did have a gurgly poop while I was holding her though, so I think our friendship is still in neutral.

13. My trailer has made it to the storage terminal in Alabama!  The floodwaters were crossed without incident.  Now I only need to worry about it being pilfered or exploding into flames.  At least insurance covers that.  Oh, and hurricanes which are not covered by insurance.  Nor are packs of marauding alligators, though I don't know what they'd want with all my history of science books.

14. wasabi-peas!

And Now We are Seven

Yesterday was my brother's 23rd birthday.

He is the very best person I know.

I know.  Its been so long.

I was frantically busy with graduation and moving out (the stories cometh).  

Now I am relocated in Davis for a few days, relaxing in the stupid hot.  Tonight I'm going to a Monarch's game with my Mom.  Kevin who?  We're all about the WNBA in this house.  My mom laid out a purple t-shirt for me to wear first thing this morning. 

Also, I found a spider in my bed yesterday.  A spider!

Okay, off to shower.

My dishwasher is making a strange squirting sound.

Is this normal?  I never use the stupid thing.  

My dried bean/grain/sea salt storage jars are going to be so shiny clean for their spankin' new Home Depot box!

I want to do a guerrilla garden with the last of my balcony plants.

Does anyone want to join me?  If its to be done before I move out it will need to be in the next few days which may not be enough time to find the appropriately neglected bit of dirt and coordinate an under-the-cover-of-darkness planting.  I'm going to scout places tomorrow on my run.  Alternatively, I suppose I could leave my scraggly succulents and lime tree and thyme and curry plant with someone until I return.  Anyway, let me know if you're interested.  This article has gotten me fired up. Get fired up!

Fun at Home Depot!

I absolutely love Home Depot.

I love the way it smells.  I love its ridiculously high shelves.  I love looking at the paint samples, and perennials, and cordless drills.

I stopped by on Thursday after lunch with my bro.  Its a good thing I'm moving or I would have spent way too much money.  So many handy things!

The other fun thing about going to the hardware store alone as a girl is that it makes for interesting sociological study.  Back in 1999 when I was doing a lot of sculpture, I got a lot of helpful advice on hose clamps from a guy named Vincent that as far as I could tell was not an employee.  When I worked at the Smithsonian field station in the backwoods of Maryland I was ignored by cashier until I ran back to my F250 truck to get my wallet.  Amusing, this strange world of contracters and plumbers, among whom I am so alien.  Anyway, this last week as I was leaving and showing my receipt to the guy so he could check and make sure I wasn't stealing washers or whatever, he asked what my astrological sign was.  Hahahaha.  Hilarious.

AND I am now the proud owner of 20 collapsable cardboard boxes, plastic sheeting, and a handsome roll of bubblewrap.  I built all my boxes and made a giant tower/mountain thing and it really took all the self-control I had to not take a running leap into them.  Seriously.  I stood in the middle of the room weighing the pros and cons for five minutes.  Decided I'd wait for the flip side.  Had to pack them quickly before I changed my mind.  Right this second Sloane is actually rolling on the bubblewrap though.  I'm not going to be laughing when all my wine glasses show up in Mississippi broken, I'm thinking.

I'm so deliciously happy with life right now.  I sleep.  I sit in the sun.  I have all these crisp new boxes and pens in which to organize and pack my life.  Mmmm.

A life limited to twist-off tops...

my roommate apparently took the bottle-opener with her when she moved the last of her belongings out last weekend.

She left a Dell power cable though.  Shows where her priorities are...

Thought of another one

As I sat stuck behind the #5 Big Blue Bus today watching the light go from green to yellow to red while some passenger stood in the doorway not getting on the bus until some lengthy discussion with the driver resolved, I realized something.  I have never seen all the Big Blue Bus lines.  There are at least fourteen lines yes (though perhaps not a #13)?  And I have seen the #1, #2, #3, today the #5, the #8, #12, and #14.  So there are four lines out there I've never seen.  Where is this #9 they speak of?  Anyway, a before-leaving-LA project.

Also, holy jesus I have a lot of whiskey in my apartment right now.

Willkommen!

The email dialogue with my soon-to-be-department-chair that followed my turning down my faculty housing offer in order to live with another new hire in the house of a faculty member that is going on leave all next year.  Yes, I turned down my own place but really, $650 for two-bedrooms seems so steep compared to sharing a three-bedroom place with a proper yard for $325.  Yes, yes, its crazy cheep rent.  But I think that's because there are marauding packs of alligators that wander the streets at all hours picking off household pets and young faculty.  I mean, I've heard.  Alligators and tornados.  And crushing poverty.  Anyway, the exchange:

THE CHAIR: Glad you made that choice Alix.  I was and am looking forward to seeing the true story of how two strangers picked to live in a house... work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens when people stop being polite... and start getting real.

me: Hah.  That's exactly how I was thinking about it.  Now at least this Matt fellow HAS to be nice to me.

THE CHAIR: If you think the cameras will make Matt be nice to you you're obviously not an avid devotee of the show...

Ah, hilarious.  How awesome is my department chair?  He has a little white poodle named Hailie Jade after Eminem's daughter.

Also awesome?  That this Matt fellow is like Scrabble champion of the world or something.  He'll wander into the kitchen for a snack or something and I can point at him and shout: "Quick!  Five letter word ending in C with a triple word score in play on the third space!"

Fun!

Furtherly awesome?  Obama's speech tonight.  I got a little misty at the end.

And lastly awesome, mostly in a BEHOLD THE AWESOME POWER OF THE REPRODUCTION IMPERATIVE! kind of way:  There is a stack of 11 newborn diapers sitting on my desk here.  They're weirding me out a little bit (though I have been brainstorming fun craft projects for which they can be used - attach some cord and you've got a nice hanging plant basket, stick to together and stuff them and you have a cute little throw pillow...).  No, they are not for me or the dog or some cephalopod gestating in my belly.  They are on route to be delivered to Sarah and Robert from Matt and Ligaya (their baby, Malaya, ambitious squirt that she is has already moved on to infant).  Speaking of ambitious squirts, unless the horror show is going down right this instant, I believe that baby Eleanor had 29 minutes left to make her date with the cold, hard world.

I am done.

I filed on Thursday.

(definitely forgot to bring the large envelopes with my title page and abstract stapled to the outside that not included in any of the filing instructions.  the mean lady scolded me for not knowing about the secret envelopes and then said it didn't matter since she had a lot of leftover ones.  fun.)

You must now all address me as Dr. Alix or Dr. Knowledge or Professor Cupcake.

I have, since the deed, done in no particular order, the following:

Drank.

Had a conversation with the produce guy at Pavillions in which he tried to convince me to become an elementary school principal.

Caught up with some friends on the phone (poor Kate, hopefully she's not still stuck at BWI)

Journeyed to San Gabriel.

Been hit with waves of panic that Thursday was all a dream and I have now missed the filing deadline.

Felt the faint stirrings of post-partum depression.

Made phone calls about shipping pianos (had a nice chat with a guy named Vince).

Passed out in a gutter.  Maybe.  That part is hazy.

Slept so much that my eyes now itch.

[segue here out of list format]

Which, well, its been two days now of itchy eyes and its starting to really bother me.  What could it be?  I think I'm going blind.  In fact, I'm sure of it.  Sloane will be the worst guide dog ever.  She doesn't look before crossing the street and mostly just guns for open garbage cans.

My roommate came back this last week to move the last of her stuff out.  So now I have the complete run of a two bed/two bath apartment.  I'm thinking of setting up a giant Candyland board.

Oooh!  Oooh!  So now that I can think beyond my dissertation filing I can think about leaving LA.  I'm moving out of this apartment in two weeks (eep!) and out to Mississippi (I learned this weekend from Dr. Ron that locals refer to it as "The 'sip") at the end of July.  Soooo, I need to do all the touristy LA things I've managed to miss out on in the eleven years (Jebus) that I've lived here.  So I'm taking suggestions.  Here's what I've got so far:

1. SoCal taco tour

2. make-out with celebrity under 45

3. I guess the Getty Villa, LACMA, etc. 

4. San Gorgonio/Mt. Baldy

5. Working up the nerve to tell off that mean librarian in Biomed.  Seriously, I want her spirit-broken and crying.