I'm enjoying your blouse this morning.

I'm home! First things first...Wednesday's concert with Sara Bareilles was fan-fucking-tastic. I had a great seat. When you have reserved seating at House of Blues, you can just text them and they'll bring you a beer! I never had to, as they went up and down the aisles often enough.

I wish she had more than one album, but this is another great song of hers (and kind of an odd video...)



Two artists opened for her, the first I loved and the second left me totally cold. Raining Jane is a group of four girls is from L.A., and my favorite one plays the cello. Hot! A different girl sometimes plays the sitar--it was amazing. You should watch this one, it's a great song and while it's mellow (and involves neither the cello nor the sitar!), they can do rock just as well. I bought a shirt from them and Sara Bareilles.



Then there was Marc Broussard, who just really didn't do anything for me, but the girl next to me was apparently there only for him. She missed the first set and left before the headliner. To each his/her own... It was like really bad white R&B.

The next morning I got up around 4:30am (jesus) and we hit the airport. Smooth sailing and Vel picked me up just in time. We found our B&B, which was about 20 minutes away from the university. It was off on its own but it was quite cute. A little small for my taste in that there were only two rooms, making it almost a little too...well, I like a tad more anonymity, you know? I like the coziness of a B&B but there is such a thing as too personal. But our host was incredibly nice and made very delicious breakfasts, both a salmon frittata and a bread pudding number that was very tasty.

The tour of the law building was great, but it was very Hogwarts. Because they've added onto the original building, there are staircases in some very random places! And it is SO EASY to get lost! But was a great building. As I mentioned in a previous post, you can live there your first year, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about that. Getting away from the building might be nice. Sunlight, you know.





The class was interesting, they were discussing whether or not damages should have been awarded for mental distress in two different cases and talked about how anyone goes about trying to establish it. There was one other girl sitting in with us, and she's related to a professor who teaches that same class there at Cornell, only apparently he's really scary (as a professor). I made a mental note about his name!

Had a mediocre pub lunch and then got very lost trying to drive away from Cornell. No reason, we just couldn't seem to get off campus! We finally did, however, and went back to the B & B for some late-afternoon wine and Will & Grace. Dinner was at the Boat Yard, one of the more popular restaurants with a view.



On the way there, we saw two deer on the side of the road (it was night, the pic above I took the next day as we passed it) and I guess I flipped out a little too much, as Vel turned to me and said, "You are so not from around here."





I was in the mood for steak but reconsidered, since I didn't think a Texas girl would get anything she was hoping for in upstate New York. I settled for a peach-chicken dish that was quite tasty.

The next day (Saturday) we drove up highway 13 til it became 89 and stretches out along Lake Cayuga. It was gorgeous--this was one view along the way...



They have a number of vineyards and wineries in the area and we hit two. The first was small; we did a tasting and moved on. The second was much larger, Americana Vineyards, and offered a sampling of all 12 of their wines, plus local fudge plus a cafe full of delicious nibbles. We spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon there. I buckled (you would have, too) and bought three bottles of wine (it was so reasonable--I spent $35 on all three bottles) and just prayed they survived the airline's batterings. (They did!)

Americana Vineyards...



And more fudge than you'd ever know what to do with...



We ate at their cafe, selecting two appetizers to go with the Apparition wine, which was the clear favorite for both of us.



I brought one bottle of it home, along with a Rosie (which I don't normally like) that makes their fudge even more succulent. The third is a Cayuga White, made with grapes from Cornell. I'm saving that one for LSAT day. (Uh, after the LSATs.) And the food was nearly as good as the wine...



We had to stay somewhere else last night, as the B&B (and every other B&B in town) was fully booked for Saturday night due to it being Family Weekend at Cornell. We stayed at an incredibly dodgy-looking hotel that I had booked online. As we pulled up, Veloute said, "Great. This is going to be like one of those weird motels they stay at in Supernatural."

And then we thought, cool. Sadly, it did not have one-eighth as much personality.

Really, other than the tub (shudder) it wasn't that bad. I think we had a larger suite; it had 2 windows that actually opened and you could get onto the roof from one of them (once you pried the screen off). Someone may or may not have had too much wine and gone out exploring.



(Do not demonstrate "jazz hands" while holding your hair clip, as you might accidentally fling it across the roof. Just fyi.) And don't worry, I'm laughing, not puking.



For the record, apparently I also do a great demonstration of "opera hands," meaning we're looking at the pics later and Vel says, "Yeah, I don't know what's up with your 'opera hands!'" Me, neither.



A little fudge, some more Will & Grace and some sucktacular Chinese takeout later, it was bedtime! And we got up at a reasonable hour this time (more like 7am instead of 4am) for my flight and her drive home.

And completely unrelated, there was the coolest diner we had to pass every time we went to and from our B&B and hotel, and yet when do we finally get a picture? On the way to the airport, and I barely wrestled my camera out in time. I give you Manos Diner!



It's an MST3K joke and we so wanted to at least get coffee here. Next time.

Damn. Back to studying and trying to write even a passably decent personal statement that doesn't make me yak my lunch all over myself.