The best discovery of the day, as of 8:48AM: opening up the faux-newspaper liner notes of my special edition of Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick and finding Vanilla Ice’s To the Extreme. Seriously. The album.
I can only imagine that I unintentionally stole it from Sarah De La Garza at some point in high school…
I’ve been avoiding political commentary for a while now, mostly because I’m rarely able to manage much more than incoherent rage. In times like these, it’s good to know that Monty Python can be counted on to speak for the voiceless such as myself (link courtesy Ali).
My main accomplishment for today, other than ripping another shelf of my CDs (iPod-bound), was updating and expanding the Peace Corps section of my website (again). I added to the Senegal page, the job description page, and the application process page… I figured I should spend some more time on it after I discovered that I’m the first result on a google of “peace corps senegal blog.”
I think it still needs more pictures, though.
Graduation yesterday was… underwhelming. A combination of reasons, really—only a few people who I really cared about at the Plan II ceremony, not feeling all that different after finishing college, all this emotion and excitement I’m storing up for Africa… who knows.
The main event so far, actually, has been the long string of incredibly good meals I’ve been having with my parents: Mother’s, P.F. Chang’s, Wink, Eastside Cafe…
Dinner last night at Wink was especially exciting. It’s this tiny little 16-table restaurant behind Whole Earth Provision Co. on Lamar that has a rotating menu of fresh / organic / just plain weird food. We didn’t sit down until 9pm or so, but they greeted me by name, congratulated me more times than I can remember, and managed to spell my name incorrectly not only on the personalized menus they printed but also—in a different misspelling—on the envelope they gave me to take my personalized menus home in after they had been signed by the chefs.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Our appetizer was “bison carpaccio with day lilies and colendulas,” which was a paper-thin slice of raw bison with flowers on top. Kathryn and my grandmother had sauteed fluke, Bryan and I had skate wing, my mom had marinated lamb loin, my dad had crisp duck breast, and Leslie had rabbit rillette, which was very tender rabbit smooshed into a cake. Rabbit spam.
All the entrees had strange combinations of exotic mushrooms and local veggies and rice or lettuce or other unidentifiable green things. Fun presentation and just the right amount of food to fill you up but leave you thinking, “Hell, I could totally fit in some dessert and coffee.”
Which we did, of course—el rey chocolate cake, chocolate soup with milk chocolate-ginger mousse, creme brulee, and lemon meringue pot—all rich and tasty.
Two hours later, “opulent” was really the best word that came to mind, other than “ohlordi’msofullican’tmove.” It was amazing. Pictures here.
Other pics from graduation weekend so far are up as well. Plan II grad, Matt’s picnic, Noelle’s party, etc.
Come to my and Mike’s screening tonight: CHICKENS! Woooo!
7pm. CMB Studio 4D. Party afterwards.
In the website update department, I’ve set up a category archive in the Peace Corps section of my site to only display PC-related blog entries.
Last night a few of the RTF guys who live near campus hosted a film night, projecting an episode of Upright Citizens Brigade and a bunch of student work onto bedsheets hung on the side of their neighbor’s house. There was a good crowd and a good collection of films—plus a good response to my thesis, which was nice since it was the first time I had screened it in front of an actual audience. Besides, you know it’s a successful indie event when the cops show up due to noise complaints. Twice.
As I announced in a mass email to most of you, Mike F. and I are going to be showing our thesis and class-related projects this Thursday in CMB Studio 4D starting at 7pm. It should be random and fun, so come watch—and then mosey over to my house afterwards for an end of thesis, end of semester, end of college, end of whatever gathering.
And then there’s this, which showed up at my front door this morning: my graduation present to myself ; )
shiny:
So, yes, I’ve been taking lots of the inevitable reflection-on-back-of-iPod pics. I can’t help it—it’s so cute! I also rushed out to buy its first accessory, an iTrip. I haven’t tested anything yet because I’m being anal about sorting through my music before junking up those glorious 37.2gb.
And, apparently, I graduate Saturday. Life is good.
Maryann left this morning for Baton Rouge and preparations for her sister’s wedding next Saturday. I’m taking full advantage of having the house to myself by guiltlessly blasting music, walking around in my underwear, and peeing with the door open.
It’s a downhill slide into summer from here. I was dangerously, gloriously close to boredom yesterday and so treated myself to a trip to Half Price Books. Scoured the Travel section for books about Africa, found three plus a book for “the Independent Woman Traveler” and one about traveling American backroads because I’m a sucker for road stories.
Started on Dear Exile last night and finished it this morning—a fast, engaging, hilarious, and (dare I say it?) touching read. Now onto Mango Elephants in the Sun, which is so far a bit smarmy for my tastes.
Date/time: May 12, 2004, 9:56 pm
Status: Package status
Location: SHANGHAI CN
Comments: Package in FedEx location
Estimated delivery date: May 17, 2004 by 10:30 am
“Est. Ship: On or before 05/14/2004”
And I finally have a moment to catch my breath—predictably, while at the DVlab, but thankfully while watching the little colored bar inch its way across the DVD Studio Pro progress window. We’ll see if this works or not.
Finished:
I thought I had some actual content to post, but that’s all I seem able to offer right now. However, I can tell I’ll survive if only because I’m already itching to make to-do lists for this summer.
———-
Update: The Verdict from the thesis advisors: “respectable”
-sigh-