friday, 31 december

overheard: 'i don't care how pretty she is, you get your degree' -santa

ok. updates are gonna be brief while jack is in town. there's quite enough to keep me busy without trying to remember what it is i'm doing. hopefully allison will be feeling well enough to celebrate the new year. otherwise, i think we'll end up at rob's restaurant party. which wouldn't be so bad, except that i'm totally missing my driver's license. any ideas where to look for it? whoops.

wednesday, 29 december

overheard: 'i think i'm getting sensitive to splenda' -mom

tons to do today. jack arrives at 7 tonight. hurrah. but between now and then, i've gotta go to lunch with gramma, clean my room, clean the house, and generally stress about his advent. yesterday i had lunch with rob at brooklyn deli: YUM. and i got a tour of his new hotel, which is scheduled to open on 8 january. ambitious.

tuesday, 28 december

overheard: 'apparently it's not called babysitting if it's your own child' -dr phil

yesterday i finished the 3rd of 5 reels of christmas microfilm. and i ran into my latin teacher from school. pleasant enough. i always get a little embarrassed talking about my work, though. i tried (and failed) to make a post-christmas exchange: the stitching on a shirt my parents got me from the gap is all screwed up. but they didn't have any more of that shirt in my size at either of the two stores i went to yesterday. rather disappointing. i'm sure other stuff happened yesterday. OH. i saw a woman in hijaab at the grocery store yesterday. that doesn't happend often in spokie. hurrah for pluralism.

some new links to the right: people i know who have websites. yes, i'm a nerd.

monday, 27 december

overheard: 'oh! becky! your first time!' -aunt marguerite

christmas hangover yesterday. not an actual hangover. i promise. but it was the best christmas ever, i think. so much generosity. so many gifts i didn't think to ask for, but that other people thought of for me. those are the best types, i think. no snow here in spokie, but that can be overlooked. last night, it frosted so hard that it almost looks like snow. two more sleeps. best present ever: a rosary from the pope. oh. speaking of which: today is the 24th anniversary of my baptism.

saturday, 25 december

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
overheard: 'i could finger the backboard' -becky

so here we are. christmas day. one of my favorites. i'm not quite done buying/creating gifts yet, but i'm not going to fret. there are 12 days of christmas, after all. yesterday we went downtown and had our photo taken with santa. then my parents had their annual christmas eve lunch away from the kids, and the rest of us went to nordstrom cafe and had yummy sandwiches. we ran into suspiciously few people in the process, though.

so i made it halfway through the book the polar express last night without crying. becky, who was reading it to us, made it to the last page. but she still lost it in the end. which leaves robert to read it for next year. oh! coolest thing ever: the guardian, my favorite english newspaper, doesn't publish on christmas day. meanwhile, it's almost impossible to find more than a casual referrence to christmas on the new york times website. this is a national holiday, folks.

and now a message from the muppets:
A part of childhood we'll always remember
It's the summer of the soul in December
Yes, when you do your best for love
It feels like Christmas

friday, 24 december

overheard: 'oh, here's your fleece, it's on this chair. wait that is a piece of paper' -mom

wow. last night. i've always loved the 23rd. i generally, though, find the post-party bar-going a bit underwhelming. last night, however, we went to the PI. oh yes, that dive bar across from the hospital and 3 blocks from my house. little did i know that it was also a gonzaga prep reunion. there were people there i hadn't seen since, oh, 1996.

normally, you know, i don't like running into people from my first high school. fear of getting the crap kicked out of me, i guess. but i'm slowly getting over that. tonight one of the old "cool kids", brian, who i don't think had ever said more than two words to me in my life, came and talked to me for about 10 minutes. about ukraine and its history. who knew? ok. yes. i'm still a nerd. but it's nice to know that some of the cool kids are nerds now too. amanda and i didn't stay long, but it was not a hostile place, even considering the presence of the young man whose friends and family harrassed me out of prep in the first place. blah. perhaps time does blunt all knives after all.

the party itself was wonderful, as always. seemed a bit less crowded than normal. but not in a bad way. i wish brandon had been there. i do miss him, especially at christmas. i haven't opened allison's christmas present yet, but i'm guessing she spent far too much money on me. all i really want for christmas is a washboard stomach. a boy can dream.

five more sleeps. thank god!

wednesday, 22 december

overheard: 'i'm gettng a blow job right now' -some girl in the spokane airport parking garage

well well well, yesterday was busy. i think. amanda and i had a solid three hour work stint at the GU library, which we followed up with picking up becky at the airport (our cousin tommy was on her flight) and going out to lunch at azteca with my mom and bo. very nice. then we watched a bit of chasing liberty (not that great) and entertained a visit from steve and cindy. then all of us but dad went to the GU-ewu basketball game. gonzaga won (hurrah), and almost every single spokane person was there: if i were a thief, i would have done me some thievin' during the game.

came home from the game intent on calling james and tricking him into going out for a drink with me. instead, i ended up returning a call from katie and watching saved with her and my family. now, i agree with joe that it's better than mean girls, but i still think that when jack is in town, we'll watch MG before we watch S. just sayin.

for those of you following washington state politics, you'll be interested to know that after the most recent recount, christine gregoire (d) is leading by 8 votes. out of 2.9 million cast. pretty amazing, eh? the state supreme court should today release a decision on which votes are eligible for recount, and we may have a new governor by the end of the day. hurrah!

tuesday, 21 december

overheard: 'saved is even better than mean girls' -joe

how does joe know that? did i forget to update yesterday? i guess so. i did get a lot of work done, though. and i had really good fajitas at my godparents' house. i actually have to run and eat breakfast now so i can get to the library at a reasonable time. more tomorrow, i hope.

sunday, 19 december

overheard: 'oh! he has that vomit high!' -woman at christmas party last night

yesterday mainly involved baking 60 loaves of christmas break for family and friends, interspersed with about a million errands. the best news of the day was definitely receiving a letter from the IRS telling me that i don't actually owe them $800, which is a relief for so very many reasons. remind me to buy a christmas present for my dad's accountant for sorting it all out while i was trapped in far away UK, being taxed to breathe. but also being provided with medical care if i had trouble breathing.

today: brunch at cindy's, then symphony with gramma. then mass and dinner with some of my parents' friends. tomorrow: back to the library.

saturday, 18 december

overheard: 'it was a catatonic schizophrenic midget' -amanda

sorry about no update yesterday. we picked up manda at the airport and went out for a chewable snack (of course), so we didn't get home until after midnight. i woke up at 8, talked to jack, and was then told by my mother and godmother that i should be at the library. which was news to me. but i went to the library and had a very productive 240 folio day. in 3 hours, that's really not half bad.

last night i got tricked into watching a movie called 13 going on 30. this is the problem with having a high school freshman living in the house: we get tricked into watching really silly movies. but that's find. romantic comedies for teenage girls are, um, not as bad as they're chalked up to be? right.

the most exciting news from yesterday was an invitation to participate in a group discussion with a handful of american rhodes scholars on stipend. it's being filmed for a documentary on the discorery channel about US-europe relations. more details as i learn tham.

thursday, 16 december

overheard: 'have you found a nice english girl yet?' -substitute helper-bee at my dad's office

happy birthday, paul! and safe travels to my younger sister amanda. she's flying in from dc today. and the family gets to meet her at the airport, instead of a boy. i know. pretty exciting. also, pray for my uncle steve today as he's being cardioverted. and then relaxing on our sofas and watching trashy reality tv. anyone heard about this awful "who's your daddy?" show? it sounds pretty horrific.

i'm off to the GU library for another few hours of fun fun microfilm reading. you are all jealous. it's alright. and i'll likely spend the afternoon wrapping gifts. a very good day.

wednesday, 15 december

overheard: 'either this wallpaper goes, or i do' -oscar wilde's last words

woke up kinda grumpy this morning. we'll see if i can't shake it. i'm having my teeth cleaned today, which means i'm missing a costco run. later, i'm having lunch with my grandmother and taking her to her pedicure. christmas pedicure. i'm hungry.

yesterday i did 5 solid hours of work at the gonzaga u library. the first day of working with any set of manuscripts (or any microfilm reader) is always slower than normal, but i still managed to get through 560 pages (i.e. 280 folios) of the 19th repertory of the court of aldermen of the city of london. i'm not displeased with that. now if i could just get back there to read the next 2800 folios. merry christmas! ironic smile.

tuesday, 14 december

overheard: 'i think i will have that other spring roll' -gramma

yum. thai feast for lunch yesterday with my grandma and dad. so much food. going to lunch with her again tomorrow. so many lunches. so few crunches. speaking of which, i sadly learned that my 24th birthday not only ended my insurance cover under my parents, but also ended my athletic club membership under their account. on the plus side, i did get some cool new shoes for my birthday.

yesterday i ended up doing no work. boo. but i did respond to almost all my backlogged emails. except abby's. i'm a bad person on that count. everyone should read this article in today's new york times about a new project spearheaded by google to digitize the holdings of the bodleian library and of various research libraries here in the US. the article says that 10s of thousands of pages will be digitized at each library each day. i think, though, they've never seen the snail's pace at which bodleian employees move. and i hope the scanning machine isn't too big, since oxford likes to hide books under garbage cans in scotland and such.

ok. time for this one to eat some breakfast.

monday, 13 december

overheard: 'that would kill your cheeks' -mom

it's my aunt's birthday. and st lucia's feast day. that seems dangerous. but at least there are pancakes involved. speaking of pancakes, i'm officially festively plump. not a problem for now, though i do think i'd prefer to, you know, be fit and charming by the 29th. the flight back from denver yesterday was uneventful. well, mine was. left denver at 9.30. arrived in spo at 10.45. my parents, meanwhile, were supposed to leave denver at 11.30. i don't know when they did get out of there, but they didn't get home until 6 pm. which is way too late.

it being my first day home, i have tons of errands to run. so festively plump i will remain. but i'll see gramma k, and marie, and others. and i may even get to the GU library to see a man about a microfilm. i mean no man. and 5 microfilms. yee haw. manda comes home thursday. hoo-ray. so many emails to write. but breakfast now.

saturday, 11 december

overheard: 'so many extension cords' -mom

ok. i'm very hungry, so i have to make this brief. great birthday. no gifts yet. ridiculously warm. denver seems to be a large version of spokane: i thought bigger cities were supposed to get denser. it also seems to be a city completely devoid of any sense of style. i blame its great distance from natural forms of water. there aren't even any real stores downtown. oh my. but becky's friends are lovely, so that helps.

friday, 10 december

international human rights day
overheard: i got nothing, but i did have 6 meals yesterday

ok. lots from yesterday. first off, the washington state supreme court decided that a woman broke state anti-snooping laws by listening in on her fourteen-year-old daughter's phone conversation. apparently state law protects all private communication from interception. who knew? also in the state supreme court: on the 8th of march, justices will hear oral arguments over the constitutional status of a law prohibiting marriage between members of the same sex. no doubt, a constitutional ammendment banning such marriages will also come before the state legislature next year. let us hope they prove more reasonable than every other state legislature in the US.

now, i'm in denver. and, surprise! there's free wireless internet at my hotel. so that's pretty sweet. denver is...sprawling. but i had a really good burrito last night. and i smell of garlic now, i think. it's snowing in the mountains, but it's supposed to be in the upper 50s here today and the mid-60s. so basically it's really warm. and i slept until 6.45 this morning: not half bad! now for a shower.

thursday, 9 december

overheard: 'london is a bit more acceptable this time of year, provided it's not raining' -insufferable prig on the x90

it's a beautiful clear winter morning. perfect for flying. i'm listening to becky's "one thing" song. getting ready to head out to see her. i'll miss my friends here, but i'll be back in five weeks. yesterday's birthday festivities were amazing. thanks, jack! now i'm leaving on a jet plane. yay!

denver first, you know, so no updates until monday. mi dispiace.

wednesday, 8 december

feast of the immaculate conception
overheard: 'what if they run out? i'm a crazy old woman' -jack

it's a holy day of obligation, too. so get your butts to mass. it's also [a.ho]'s birthday (celebrated), which means that i get enough dim sum to make me sick. though yesteday, with its christmas shopping, microfilm-collecting, cooking, lgb wine, and dinner with mike and brian, was the best birthday present i could get. and today should be just as nice. it's very warm, anyway. and misty. and it's 9 already, but i'm not prepared to go to the bod just yet. i LOVE christmas time.

safe travels to xiao. and bern is actually alive (yay!). haven't heard from her in far too long. miss that woman. she's the best. today, other than royal china, you may be able to see me at my favorite bodleian reading room, rhodes house, keble college, the chch plodge, the cinema watching i heart huckabies, or in my room cleaning and packing.

tuesday, 7 december

pearl harbor day
overheard: 'his butt stuck out like a babboon's' -mike

63 years on. weird. i remember the 50th anniversary. sorry about the lack of updates. i was in london feasting on a christmas lunch made by jack's mom and then working my tail off at the guildhall. thursday i leave for denver. so probably no updates between thursday and next monday, when i finally roll into spokane. where has term gone? today, i have lots of shopping to do. gifts will be bought for people like my siblings. and my scout. and jack's parents. and allison. so wish me luck. and not to break the bank. i'm hungry. let's get a taco.

interesting news: firstly, how ridiculous are shih tzus? ridiculously cute, i mean. that's actually the most newsworthy thing i can think of. it's warm here today. gotta run.

saturday, 4 december

happy birthday, (gtown) lauren!
overheard: 'very normal, but not in a boring way' -jack

no time to chat today. work to do.

but of course there's an eighteen-foot tall statue of vladimir lenin in seattle. and of course they decorate it for christmas. why not?

friday, 3 december

overheard: 'you can't equate a baby with a cigarette' -chch lauren

between two of my favorite women's birthdays, i'm glad it's friday of 8th week. even if i don't have anything particularly amazing to show for michaelmas term. more writing today. in pajamas. it's really the only way to do it. dinner at brown's last night with fr lee. very good. nice to hear what all the oregon province SJs are up to. and gossip about catholic things. english catholics aren't as much fun as american ones. i've decided i miss katie. and julie. and christmas in spo.

wednesday, as you all know, was world aids day. HIV infection rates are on the rise again in the US, for both homosexual men and african americans of all sexualities and genders. and it's fueled by silence. silence about the consequences of risky behavior or silence about sex generally. the stranger had a good article on just this topic yesterday. go read it.

thursday, 2 december

happy birthday, maria!
overheard: 'i'll wake up with a croissant on my penis' -jack

ok. running late today, so only thing i have to say is that maria is 24. and old. which means i'll be 24 and old next week. gotta get to the library. bye for now.

wednesday, 1 december

world AIDS day
feast of st edmund campion, sj
overheard: 'jesus was an androgynous mother' -the undie

has it already been a month since the election? goodness. i'm feeling a bit better today, but i think i'm going to stay in my PJs and type type type all day. i head back home a week tomorrow. hurrah. well, technically to denver, but then i get a birthday. and that will be great fun. in the meantime, i have more work to do than i can shake a stick at. i ran into gretchen last night in bath place; we decided it is quite unfortunate that the terms here are so short: you finally get into your social and academic groove and bam, term is over.

i went to my rhodes classmate kathleen's piano recital last night in the holywell music room. very very good. can't say i like chopin, but she does play beautifully. tonight i have to defend my title as GCR LGB rep. no fun. hopefully dinner is decent, though.