We're in...Delaware.

I don't mean to sound obnoxious, but I am debating whether to go to Amsterdam or Helsinki next weekend. I have to go somewhere because A) it's a three-day weekend B) it's my b-day and C) Sweden, Lund in particular, pretty much shuts down for Midsummer. Ah, the excuses, they are a-plenty.

I would either do 3 days in Amsterdam or 2 days in Helsinki. The latter is more expensive, both flight and hotel-wise, but on the other hand, when the eff would I ever go to Finland otherwise? I don't really have a pressing desire, like I HAVE to see Finland, but I certainly want to! I feel like seeing as much of Scandinavia while I'm here would be more practical. Amsterdam is more easily accessible and it's more likely I would make a point to go there later. ("Hey, baby, let's go to...Helsinki." Probably not. Not to knock the place, I'm sure it's gorgeous.) In either case, I'm traveling by myself and Amsterdam seems more like a place to go with others.

I'm doin' the math and it really may just boil down to money. If I do Helsinki, that also means I can go with everyone to Copenhagen the night before to watch the game...

When I was deciding, I looked at the map of Scandinavia.



I did shit just a little bit to realize that yes, St. Petersburg is just right there. I did look up a flight just for fun, and it was way too expensive. Not that I was seriously considering it!

(Btw, if you wanna know where I am, I am at the bottom of Sweden, where it says "Malmo." Lund is right next to Malmo.)

More pictures! Food and drinks mostly.



All beer should have this much confidence.



Yup, awesome.



They have a zero tolerance law in regards to drinking and driving. You can't even have had one drink. (The director also tried to tell us there was zero tolerance regarding controlled substances, but the Swedish students told us later that's really not true...not that I plan on testing anything.)

As I mentioned in the last post, S and I went out to Herkules for dinner. We can't eat out constantly, it's really pricey...but this place wasn't all that much expensive than other places and holy hell was it good. If you click on Meny, and scroll down to Varmrätter, S had the tuna and I had the rooster. (And if you click on Festlokal, that's their downstairs, where we went back after 11pm--we sat in the corner just under the pics. It was fine until around 1am when it turned into, as the Swedish girls put it, "a meat market.") Anyhoo, my rooster is the first pic.



They were both really, really good. Damn.



Today is low-key. Just my water bottle and homework mostly.



And one of the American girls clued me into the Nutella and pretzels in the grocery store, so that's my evening treat, hopefully with a little Netfux.



The pretzels are good and each one is twice the length of the ones at home. Weird.



Micro Pop is the shit. The yellow box is just the right amount of buttery--apparently the blue box is super salty, so I chose well.



My little fridge, full of frozen food, wine, milk and fruit.



So Swedish wine. It is gross. Actually it's drinkable--I mean, nothing will ever be Japanese wine, which might actually be grape juice with urine in it. No, this is just sweet and lame. Swedish beer, good. Swedish wine, bad. Noted.



And see that milk container? I am quite proud that I found not only the proper type of milk (read: NOT THE SOUR KIND, wow, that's big here), but also the skim kind. You sit there at the grocery store and stare at about eight different kinds of milk. Daunting.

Bed time!

You may have seen a meteor shower, but I bet you've never seen a shower "meatier" than this!

Wow, it's already Sunday! Today I've been taking it easy--went to the grocery store and did laundry. I am very proud of myself for working the Swedish machines...everything seems to have come out clean and the same size. I have no idea what most of the buttons mean.

I also figured out how to bypass Netfux's shitty little you-can't-watch-instant-download-unless-you're-in-the-country-bullshit. I get it's about licensing issues, but that doesn't mean I have to take it! Of course the VPN I downloaded or whatever it is gimps up a little sometimes--I should be able to turn the privacy on and off and sometimes when I turn it off, it turns itself back on. I mostly just need it for watching Netfux (so I turn it on), but I like leaving it on sometimes since it keeps my search results predominantly in English rather than Swedish.

Also got my grades the other night. Well, most of them. A certain professor did not turn in his grades and it's a class we're all dying to know about. Natch. I did better in everything this time except Civ Pro, I went down a little (ouch) and in Torts my grade stayed the same, probably the most depressing thing ever. But my highest grade? Contracts. Oh irony, you cruel bitch.

Back to pictures! Let's look at my room...



This is when you first walk in. That's a closet area off to the left (der) and the bathroom is to the right. I have the corner room at the very end of the hallway, which is pretty sweet, but from what I can tell, these rooms are pretty sound-proof when the door is closed. Although someone was watching The Daily Show with the volume at 11, but it wasn't me!



Bathroom! I love it--the whole room is basically the shower, I don't bother with the curtain...for one thing it kinda creeps me out. The toilet has a button on the back, but most toilets here have a two-sided button, one that uses less water and one that uses more (you know, depending...). And the cabinet mirror pops out and slides to the side, so you can angle it. Not really sure why, maybe for shaving? But it's fun anyway.



Step past the bathroom and you're in my room. They gave us a flat sheet for the bottom and what I thought was a sheet and a duvet. After doing laundry I realized the sheet is a cover for the duvet, which makes much more sense.



If the bed is on your right, this is the left. The microwave is pretty easy to use--I made myself a frozen dinner and popcorn today--the popcorn is THE SHIT. NOM. More on the foodie later. My fridge is under the sink.



My view and window! Love it. It opens and it has been quite pleasant out. Yesterday was chilly and drizzly, but I mostly hung out at Herkules (a bar/restaurant/club) with S and drank and ate...pics of that deliciousness to come. We went shopping and I got a hot pink dress--a poor man's Marilyn-style dress, and it was very reasonably priced. S got three things from a little boutique and the clothes were more unusual and definitely a good buy, but really pricey! I thought of you, Alex, you would have really loved the place! It was called Godiva Boutique--I told S I want one of her bags for home, ha ha...it has the Swedish address on it...I still have some of my favorite Tokyo bags.

Anyhoo. Back to our tour.



This is my light switch. But as far as I can tell the one on the bottom right does jack shit.



Leaving my room, you step into the hall and look down. There are about ten or twelve rooms, but there are 8 of us. Each of our doors locks, so that's nice. About halfway down the hall is the living room and kitchen.



The living area! And the kitchen is beyond that.



Mostly we use the TV to watch World Cup games, but one night I wandered out and got trapped along with four others watching Jersey Shore. Oh my god, if that isn't the worst thing ever, I really, really don't want to know what is. And four of us noted we'd never seen it before--to which someone remarked, "Wow, we had to come overseas to see this." I always knew what it was, but holy jesus. Good to know someone is filming the absolute lowest dregs of society. Sigh.



Beer! Grown-ups get their beer, wine, liquor all from the liquor store. The grocery store stocks beer, but it's all Oklahoma-style--meaning 3.5% and 2.8%, so I think anyone can buy that crap. This is Zeitgeist beer and has David Lynch-esque goat men on it in black coats, completely why I bought it. It was tasty, too. (This is a real beer. The first three places I found were the grocery store, liquor store and money exchange. Sweet.)



This is the shitty grocery store beer. It's ok, but meh. These are someone else's mistakes.



View from the living room.



Kitchen! I really don't use it much, I mostly use my room. There are still a couple holdover tenants who've been here for six months but I think they leave today or tomorrow--srsly, I think there are 2 or 3 of them and they all have one room? I just can't wait for them to leave so we can clean out the fridge. Right now it's packed with shit that's probably expired but I don't want to piss anyone off by throwing anything away...there's also a bottle of champagne we're all eying...



I haven't used the stove yet, but it took S 30 minutes to figure it out. You have to turn it on about 3 different ways. I'll wait for someone else to figure it out. (S lives on the floor above me.)



Swedish kronor change! (Except that American penny on the right...pretend I put it there for perspective.) I was so confused for ages because the one with the hole is 1 and there is another one that says 1. Yeah, the one with the hole is Danish kronor, which I got when I bought my train ticket in Copenhagen. Der. The gold one in front is 10, the 5 is the biggest.



Tasty! Yes, I bought that just because it's called Firefly. And the pink one is like ginger ale but raspberry, and I have yet to sample the third.



I'm picking up odds and ends to send to Fiona and Sophia, starting with these! Except, um, I ate this Geisha bar. It was GOOD, TOO! ;) It's hazelnut-filled. (I got another bigger one today--ok, two--one for me and one for them!) They are big on licorice here, so I got some of those, which I can assure you I won't touch. Also got a coconut thing that looks great except for that whole coconut part. The tiger dollar store also had beads, so I got some for Sophia.



I'm less sure of the buildings at this point, but this is close to campus. I swear to god, this is a church whose name, translated, literally means "Church of Doom." LOVE.



This is not the library, but the library looks very similar. I will take pics when I find the library again, because hot damn.



Yeah, I don't know what this is. I figured I would make a better effort later. Everything is pretty close together here.



This seems like the quintessential Swedish town shot. Cobblestone streets and colorful buildings. Needless to say, walking around is quite pleasant. (Except on weekend nights when these streets are filled with drunk students...but even that's not bad.)



Ate here the first night with other American students from upstairs, pretty decent overall. I hadn't eaten real food in probably more than 24 hours, so the steak thing I had was pretty fucking amazing. Also, those awnings are mechanical--they lower them when it gets cooler at night and it retains more of the heat from the heat lamps, which are already nicely powerful.



Market clothes. Love the skeleton biker shirt.



Tiger dollar store!



One of my Swedish student hosts showed us around and she pointed this out as the best ice cream in Sweden. I haven't tried it yet, but I was excited to find it again. Nom.



After work! I was impressed that "after work" is from 2-6--when the fuck do these people work, anyway?



The train station! I have not been back here, you walk everywhere in Lund. But if the station is on your left and you walk three minutes past it, you're at my flat!



This was lunch the other day. Looked pretty decent, and it was fine. There is one small problem with cooking here sometimes, though.



Yeah, that. Luckily, it wasn't terribly involved. ;)

Ok, homework time! There's no writing homework--the professor in that class appears to be exceedingly mellow--but I do have con law homework. That guy seems to have a great sense of humor, so I don't think this will be too brutal hopefully. *Gulp*

You stay under water for three minutes. If you can do it, I'll just nick you.

Wow. A theme of Swedish or even Scandinavian movie quotes isn't going to fly. To say their films are pervasively bleak is a bit of an understatement...

Yay, picture time, picture time! The flat has been really quiet this morning and early afternoon...we're off today but we're supposed to go to a bar called Gloria's around 3:30 to watch the American game and get our Nations card--this is a student card that lets us drink cheaper at certain places. Thank god cause drinking out is as bad as Boston...and the food is ungodly expensive. I passed by Gloria's this morning and they have a $20 chicken burrito. 'nuff said.

I think everyone is out or passed out/sleeping from staying out and/or getting up at 3am for game 7...ouch, wasn't that a bad move. So much for the game 5 winner winning the championship 76% of the time...poor Boston! :(

Anyhoo, let the pics commence!



Ladies and gentlemen, the first picture. You know it. This is the loo at Copenhagen airport. LOVE. The bathrooms here ARE THE SHIT. They are private rooms with solid doors that shut and lock with sinks in each. This one is actually pretty big, being two tiny rooms all to yourself, but could America PLEASE START TAKING THEIR BATHROOM CONSTRUCTION CUES FROM EUROPE?! PRIIIIIIIIIIIVACY, MOTHERFUCKER.

Anyhoo, that big thing on the back is the flusher. Mine in my apt is a button, it varies rather alarmingly.



Copenhagen airport. Yup. Decent size, not too big and not too small. And by the time I was done in the loo and found the baggage claim, I saw my bag already on it! I didn't reclaim my bag in Paris (never sure if you're supposed to or not and the Boston lady said it would meet me in Copenhagen but would only be on the same flight I made (since it was up in the air, har har)...but how do they know til I'm on board unless I reclaim? Anyway...some airports I have had to and others I haven't...so I ttly said a little prayer as I frantically hauled my ass through Paris without checking.)

More than a few people had their bags stranded in NYC and Iceland, but I think everyone has been reunited by now.

I caught the train to Lund, 40 minutes, and it was easy enough. It was also easy enough to find the international housing, which is basically right behind the station, a three minute walk. Quite a haul with a heavy backpacking bag and regular backpack, but I made it--just before the pissing down thunderstorm, too!



The ad on the way to my flat. No idea. That is one thing about this place. Everyone speaks English beautifully, but everything is written in Swedish only sometimes. More on this later. (Lookin' at you, menus and cooking directions.)

I got settled and met 3 of my flatmates--they are from other sections but I vaguely knew one girl. The other two are guys are they are all very nice. There are about 8 of us total, but it's quite large and it's not crowded at all. There are about 6 suites total, maybe about 40 Americans in this building. The pics will help. Anyhoo, then off to find the grocery store. We did get sheets and a pillow, though we'd been told otherwise. I just needed essentials and food and plus, who doesn't want to check out the Swedish grocery store? I didn't take pics in there, maybe later...but it's about five minutes away...



These are the bikes across from the station. They don't fuck around with bikes here.



This is the little square across from the station and next to the grocery store. LOVE the trees.



More square.


There's a little open market foodie guy but there's a much better locally-produced place further away, one of the Swedish students told me later.

I took it pretty easy the rest of the day and got settled. I went out that night with a group that all knows each other, but they were quite nice. I didn't take any pics, I was trying to pay attention to where I was!

The next day we all had to go to the law school for just an informal information session, so on the way home I explored a little more and discovered that "after work" is code for "happy hour." Sweet. I went here:



That's the station across the way. The wine was typically 58 kronor (8 bucks?) and since it was "after work" (i.e., 1400--1800), it was 39 kronor! (Less than 6.) I was in one of those red swivel chairs.



Surreptitiously taking pictures of the bar behind me...



This is the walk to my place.



This is it!



And this is its' name!

I will have to do Pt II later...this is getting to be an arduous length. And it's getting to be nearly game time, I am going to have one of the interesting beers I bought (and took pics of) for some pre-gaming. I can hear my flatmate Dan yelling at the TV because Germany is totally blowing it...he is very upset. ;)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: "No more fucking ABBA!"

I'll upload pics soon.

Get to find the university tomorrow for orientation bullshit, whee. Early.

But I'm in Sweden!! Went out with the other people in my suite tonight, who all know each other because they were in the same section last year, but I was in another section. I'm actually sort of glad in a branching-out-kinda-way, but it's also a slightly isolating feeling to be the outsider. We have mutual friends, so that helps. So does alcohol.

It does get slightly darkish here, but not til close til 11pm. And even then, it looks as if it's 8:30pm Texas time. Luckily, we have big shades. But the pillows suck. Sigh. the showers are very Japanese-esque, meaning the whole bathroom floor is really just part of the shower, there is no separation. I'll take pics. (And this is MY OWN ROOM with MY OWN SHOWER, thank you very much. Thank fuuuuuuuuuck.)

Speaking of which, I need to take one now and finish my GOD LAGER. Yes, after the mandatory grocery store stop, I managed to find the currency exchange stop AND the liquor store. (You can't buy proper alcohol--meaning even wine and beer--at a grocery store. The grocery store sells beer but only at 3.5 and 2.8%--I think 18 year olds can purchase this but not the real stuff.) So I found the liquor store and bought a beer called HELL and one called GOD LAGER. And one called Zeitgeist that had goat men all over it in purple. Ah, Sweden.

Spent too much already on dinner and drinks, but for the first night out--amongst others, no less--I guess it's okay. And I was fairly well behaved, so hooray. (Read: I did not order the tiramisu.) And it's really hard to divide everything by 7 in my head to figure out what it is in dollars. Sheesh. Trying doing that after drinking!

Also, for what it's worth, don't ever be running late at the Paris airport. Just don't. I was and my connecting flight was delayed--meaning the forces aligned and all was right with the world. But the original flight getting IN was 3 hrs late, meaning anyone going to Copenhagen or Athens was pulled from immigration and redirected to another part of the airport (and just pray you don't lose your place in the sheep herd tromping toward some unknown destination), but the Athens people had a flight that left before ours, and just initiated anarchy and unleashed the barrier ropes and starting cutting in line, much to the chagrin of everyone else.

On the plus side, flying within Europe does not appear to be "international." We all got to Copenhagen at our separate times and kinda freaked out a little that we missed immigration or customs. But whatever, I just went with it. The consensus was that no one cared enough to worry much, but one guy actually sought out officials about it, he was so worried. Just goes to show, there's always someone else who makes you feel better about your own stupid mistakes.

Why don't you tell everyone I said to go fuck themselves for making my high school years a living hell?

Wow, Air France, wow. So I got an e-mail from them saying (first in French but then luckily in English), yeah your 5:40 flight? It's gonna be at 8:00pm, go suck it.

And you know, whatever, who cares, that's fine, but uh, my flight LEAVING PARIS does so at 7:30am and NOW my flight gets in at 8:30am, also meaning the next flight at 9:45 to Denmark is not an option. So NOW I get to leave Paris at 12:45, and I'm barely going to get into Sweden by 4:00, the latest our liaison is going to be around. (I sent her an email.)

This is probably all fine but what really is taking years off my life...is the hold music Air France has. NO. SHIT. 1-800-237-2747. You have to call it and press 2 for booking and listen. I guarantee you will get it--I was on hold for THIRTY MOTHER-FUCKING MINUTES before a woman answered. It's like being drunk underwater listening to a music box in hell, tested thoroughly for maximum insanity. It's a little two-minute clip that repeats over and over and over and I have never been more sure how easy it is to make the human mind snap and FUCKING EAT PEOPLE'S GODDAMN BRAINS OUT.

I can be quite patient but OHMYFUCKINGGODTHEMUUUUUUUUUUUSIC. Holy Jesus.

And I'm still listening to it. A very unsympathetic (but efficient) French woman helped me but switched me over to ticketing. And that woman is supposed going to send me an email? I am not sure and I have forgotten anything we talked about because this is already heading toward another 30 minute stretch.

Ok, all over and done with and it really didn't matter much. I just get into Denmark way later, and Sweden later. Kind of annoying actually. Gee and now I have four hours in Paris instead of 90 minutes. Not really what I was after...

I was perfectly polite to those two women, by the way, who are making me realize that I should go ahead now and forget all about that false American customer service concern so often dripping over any inconvenience. Not that I need that, but it's good to know ahead of time not to expect it...

No, we are not friends. I don't take this shit from friends. Only lovers.

By the way, I want to take the train to Oslo while I'm over there. I know absolute bupkis about Oslo, but I just remember it so fondly from my Commodore 64 game, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Man, fuckin' thieves went to Oslo all the time!

Ok, I'll pick you up at ten tomorrow morning and enrage you.

I'm all checked in for my flight tomorrow! It's a little over six hours to Paris, where I get in at 6:10am. I'm only there for a little under two hours, so I won't really be able to claim I've "been to Paris," but the airport is a good baby step since I'm sort of terrified of going there. The flight there is really full and it's a double decker! I've only been on one of those once--and we did have seats in the upper deck...but apparently on Air France those seats have more room and I could score one for $66 more. At 5'1", I think I'll live.

The flight from Paris to Copenhagen on the other hand? I think it's the size of those toys that go between Boston and Vermont, but even those flights had some people on them. If the screen really tells the story, myself and one other person are flying to Demark tomorrow AM. Holy shit. I thought about changing my seat to be in the middle seat right next to them, just to be super creepy. But mostly I'm worried they'll do what American would do and just cancel the flight and put us on a later flight. We shall see.

And I've only ever experienced Terminal B at Logan International...now I get to sample the offerings of Terminal E, which looks devastatingly pathetic. I am fairly certain nothing beyond security sells alcohol. Are you shitting me? It's a tiny terminal with only 8 gates, but they all seem to be international. If anyone is in need of a stiff one, don't you think it's those of us in that terminal?! Anyhoo, I learned this all from Logan's website. I hopped over to the Copenhagen airport to see where I'd be landing, etc. It was really hard to tell which airlines were where--rather than being practical, I found--far more easily--this link.

Architecture? A link for it? All I could think of was Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction telling the cab lady, "We're Americans, honey, our names don't mean shit." I mean sure, some of our airports are nicer than others, but how often was an airport built here with aesthetics in mind rather than the lowest bidder? Hahahahhaha...

I'm mostly packed, too, which is scary. I have so few outfits for 2 months. I am probably going to want to burn my clothes when I get back.

I still have to watch Let the Right One In tomorrow morning, you know, homework. ;) But I did get to show D Tootsie today, which he had never seen. It's still incredibly funny and cute, but I see it with just the right amount of regularity that I never doubted it for a second.

Also saw the new Lewis Black special--Stark Raving Black. Not as good as some of his older ones, but still enjoyable. Also, I would try to catch it after midnight on Comedy Central for blip-free goodness...less swearing than usual, but what there is is awfully emphatic, as always!

Can you not use the 'f' word in Vera Wang?

I think my annoying errands are nearly done for leaving the country. I made copies of my passports and credit cards--oh, and the copy machine decided to jam while I was doing the backs of my credit cards. The same copier I have used for a full year with no problem chose THEN to jam. At least it was at school and I'm 90% sure there's nothing left behind.

I only had to buy one book and it was super tiny. However, both classes have a ton of supplemental material we're supposed to print out. I did and wish I hadn't. Are you fucking kidding me? It's bigger than War & Peace. We'll see if it makes it. (I can access it online, though I do prefer hard copies, plus I can take those around town with me with greater ease than a laptop.) But some things--you know, clothes--may prove to be more essential.

I had a nearly 3-week vacation in Little D back home, which was over far too soon. Didn't get nearly enough of my family or Tex Mex (I could just mainline queso, for what it's worth), but the weather nearly hit the 100s just for me. I'm back in Beantown now and sittin on an enclosed patio where they serve blueberry beer and have free wifi. On the downside, it's Allston/Brighton, a somewhat dodgy area. Dude across from me just spent minutes licking his plate clean. Like, hardcore grabbing it and bringing it to his face. Every once in a whie shit like that really catches me off guard and I accidentally stare.

But you know what totally sucks? Toy Story 3 comes out four days after I leave and then doesn't come out overseas til late August. (But oooh!, The Killers will just be coming out...no wonder everyone hates us...) Anyhoo, it's a shame because TS3 comes out the day I get my final grades and that is exactly the sort of pick-me-up I'm going to need. Well, shit. I was planning to go to Amsterdam the weekend of my birthday, but we have a three-day weekend that weekend, too, so maybe I'll switch it up...you know, I was aiming for laughter but drugs are good, too. Just kidding. Sort of...

Trying to find accommodations is a little challenging for Amsterdam. The best area to stay in is a pretty raucous one, but it's three days and what do I care? I don't really want to do a hostel cause, dude, I'm 30, but a lot of them have private suites, so that helps. I can do dingy, tiny, loud, cheesy, whatever. I just don't want other freaking people in my room, kwim?

And it would be a flight from Denmark to Amsterdam...despite the magic of the Eurorail, unless I want to take half a day and go to Germany, too, the train just ain't doin' it. Oh well. I brought lotsa Dramamine.

I have nearly no money, but I think a weekend to Amsterdam is okay. Especially since I am betting a sidetrip to Madagascar while I'm in South Africa will be waaaay too pricey...and I ditched the idea of getting malaria pills. It was too inconvenient and I already had to bend over backwards just to get some goddamn traveler's checks. I went to my credit union and the woman was like, "Oh no, someone already came in and cleared us out, we hardly ever use them." But it turned out to be for the best--turns out they charge $1.25 per $100 (!!) and she turned me to AAA, who does it for free if you're a member. I'm not, and the fee was basically a tie (membership vs. 1% face-fucking charge) so I opted for membership cause at least I'm getting something now. Not sure what, really, aside from roadside service that I already have because we switched back to Geico...anyhoo.

The waiter just took my dish (which I did not lick, thanks) and said, "That was fast." Not sure if meant the food or the beer, but either way, it totally was not. Wtf.

The rest of this weekend is going to be spent mostly watching movies and a nice Firefly marathon. And a bottle of vodka (from Sweden, why not) that isn't going to drink itself. And yup, it's in the 60s outside. Not too bad. I guess I'd better get used to 60s...though in Sweden it will be BRIGHT ALL DAY LONG AND MOST OF THE NIGHT and then in South Africa it will be WINDY AND RAINY ALL DAY LONG. Good times.

Did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks? Yeah.

Yesterday was very nice. Got a nice hair trim and had a yummy lunch at Stephi's. (That's the place where we had the "drunken goose" wine, mom!) One of the physical therapists, M, was giving me a hard time later though, since he thinks it's the "most pretentious place in Boston." Hardly! He mostly has a problem with their overpriced salads and on that, okay, I concur. But I'm pretty sure Sonsie might have the honor of being the MPP in Boston. And he agreed that might be the case.

But outdoor seating and people watching! Can't beat it. (I was reading a book mostly, but still.)

I'm currently watching Where the Wild Things Are, and um, it's boring the shit out of me. I may have to turn it off. Life is too short.

But anyway, I had my last PT appointment yesterday, so hopefully my neck will stay manageable. It's not back to perfect but it does feel a whole lot better than it used to. I gave A a bottle of Hendricks Gin to say thank you (it's his favorite, can you tell we're the type to get along?) so he was pretty happy.



Today my friend S is having an end-of-the-year party at her house near Davis Square. I really love that area. If I ever have to move again, I either want to live around the South End, meaning I'll live in a cardboard box and I will have great places around me to eat and drink I can't really afford often, OR I want to live in Somerville (Davis Square area especially), meaning I'd be about as far away as I am now from downtown Boston, but it's closer to Cambridge and much more charming.

Anyway, my point is she has a great house. S had a really hard end of the year because her dog died, whom she's had for 13 years, and to say that he was everything to her is something of an understatement. I pet-sat him and her cat over Thanksgiving, he was a very sweet dog. So she's had an especially rough time, particularly being alone in the house (he was a big dog). She's going to Sweden as well, so I think it will be good for her to get away. (Even though yes, we're technically taking classes!)

Whoops, which reminds me, apparently I need a letter of recommendation for the Cape Town internship, so I'd better go beg my writing professor! And turn this fucking movie off.

(BTW, Google is VERY cute today, for Pacman's 30th anniversary. It was so cute I forgot what I wanted to look up for a couple minutes. OMFG, it LETS YOU PLAY!! AWESOME!!)

Can't you explain to Lady about Sundays?!

So that popped into my head this morning as I lay awake at 5:30am. Look, brain, I know for a while there I was making us get up at 4:30 and 5:30 in the AM, but that was unusual and we're not doing it anymore. Mmmkay?

Jesus I would not wish the past three weeks on anyone. That was some ugly shit, yo. I wish I could at least say I lost weight but I don't think I did. The sad thing was I went to class and paid attention (well, except for that one class, *cough*, I'm sorry, contracts) and I still had to study like a crazy bitch. Torts was the worst to study for, everyone agreed, and I have no idea why.

Oh my god, I'm watching The Daily Show and they just showed a clip of Glenn Beck being reasonable. It was weird.

Anyway. But I have a very big day today. I gots a whole lotta nothin' to do! Well, that's not true. I have a hair appointment at Liquid. My friend E recommended it; he called me up after his appointment and wanted to meet up for drinks because they "plied him with gin the whole time." And his hair did look good, so that's why I'm going... ;)

They're in the South End (Boston's trendy gayborhood), so then I'm going to wander down the street to Stephi's because they have great people watching seats and they don't judge me when I day-drink. And I just bought Dan Savage's The Kid, which I remembered I wanted to read after Alex sent me this article about the musical adaptation. (Btw, I was SO CLOSE to heading to NYC this weekend to see it, but look! I refrained! I just didn't think it was smart since I'm pooooooooooooooor as all hell and even though it's off Broadway, they sure aren't priced that way!)

So big day. Yay! And I'm almost caught up on my Daily Show. But embarrassingly, as shows wrap up for the season, there are one or two shows that will wrap up next week, when I'll be in Denton, which means I'll have to admit to watching them. One in particular is shameful, and I've already admitted to watching Glee, so how much worse could it be?





That's right, people. I've been watching American Idol. My friend L is to blame, somehow she got me watching it. I only started watching when they were down to 13 or so. And it's addictive, so now I'm invested. And I genuinely liked the top 3. I was trying to root for the blonde guy, Casey, since he's from Fort Worth, but he just wasn't really bringing his A game. Plus one of the judges, Kara, kinda pointed out that his vibrato has sort of a bleeting lamb thing going on, and you know, it's true.

So he got voted off this week and now it's down to Crystal and Lee. Normally I'd go for Crystal, she seems very cool and unconventional, but you know? I've been won over by Lee; my friend L and I starting calling him "Eeyore," because he can be quite good but wow, the confidence hasn't been there. He's gotten much better about it, but I still like calling him Eeyore. He has especially won me over by singing The Boxer and Hallelujah (to be fair, Simon Cowell picked the last one for him, but he rocked it, so I'm counting it.)

So my point is that I've hit rock bottom. And I'll be in Denton for the finale, so I was going to have to admit it at some point. Glee is on that night, too, so it will just be one big goddamn shame parade.

I did catch up on some movies yesterday, though! Started with My Best Friend, starring the wonderful Daniel Auteuil. But you know? Meh. It was good and all, but once was fine. Cute, sweet, but nothing special. Then onto Inglorious Basterds, which I've been meaning to watch since, oh, February.



I really liked it! Didn't a lot of people say it was boring? Were they crazy? It was pretty toned down for a Tarantino film, too. It definitely had his fingerprints all over it and what violence there was was pretty intense, but hey, great stuff. Recommend.

Then I finally got to watch Silkwood, which was out of print on DVD when we read the case in Con Law. The funny thing is, the issue in that case that got it before the Supreme Court is pretty boring, considering how interesting the facts are. (It had to do with preemption and potential conflicting state and federal law as to the punitive damages the family got for her death...punitive damages are punishing and it was argued that that was basically trying to "regulate" the nuclear plant, etc. But long story short, the family got to keep the punitive damages of about 10 or 15 million, I forget, for negligently exposing her (and lots of their employees) to plutonium. So GOOD. Oh, and she didn't die from the exposure, but rather in a Mysterious Car Accident...that's not a spoiler, the movie was shot in 1983 so if you don't know by now it's not my fault.)



But it was a pretty good movie. I was surprised I had never seen it--it stars Meryl Streep, Cher and Kurt Russell. They are all very young and Cher looked normal, especially her nose. The ending was a little weird--it had that very late 70s/early 80s editing vibe to it. I guess it wasn't supposed to be a surprise. And you almost have to watch it just to watch Meryl rock a mullet.

And now, my dad will be pleased to know, I finally get to watch My Night at Maud's, something else I've had for far too long.

Completely unrelated to anything, maybe I'm still tired, but I thought this was kinda ballsy for American TV, I kinda giggled...



And you gotta watch this Colbert clip just for the RABBIT. It was some intern's job that day to find the weirdest/coolest looking rabbit. And they totally did.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Indecision 2010 Midterm Elections - Sue Lowden
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

It's like jazz. It's the sense they DON'T make.

So the other day, we were all contemplating the color of our contracts professor's most recent handout (they come in various shade of the rainbow for some reason). My friend M had to pass them out, and the guy behind me remarked, "So M, what shade are these?"

He paused momentarily, then said, "Smurf. Definitely Smurf."

The first guy laughed and said, "Where do Smurfs come from, anyway?"

Without missing a beat, M said, "Whenever there's a blue moon, a smurf is born."

There was a really awkward pause and I said, "That came a little too easily. Like that's the right answer."

And he laughed and explained that he just remembers from the show. I occasionally forget that he's one of the few people in my class who's actually my age. (Not that I knew where Smurfs come from, but I do know they're three apples high. Wtf.)

I said, "Please don't tell me you can quote the volume and episode number."

He said, "It's volume 4, episode 20, it's called Gargamel's Big Day."

But I think he was kidding. I think.

Du Jour means seat belts. Du Jour means crash positions!

My favorite Dallas band Odis is breaking up! :(

I was already hoping to sneak home between finals and summer work, so we have yet another incentive here...(their last show is May 29th). The worst part is not knowing if I'll ever get a recorded copy of my favorite track, Hey Now, even though they recorded a new album this past February. Fingers crossed it sees the light of day...cause God knows being forced to listen via shitty youtube clips is sorta frustrating. Especially when the clips aren't that great...



Especially since they did just record their second album (not sure if it got finished, admittedly), it seems a little sudden, but I suppose that's how it goes. (Although when I was telling D one of my bands was breaking up, he was like, "Depeche Mode?" and I was like, "Dude, jesus, they should have broken up like ten years ago, but nope, they're still around." (Sort of, anyway, not that they're really the band I grew up on anymore...)

I'm impressed they lasted five years because I don't think I could stand anyone after running around in a van for days at a time, at all hours of the night, frequently on the road, etc. for anywhere close to that long. But this was the band I used to watch constantly around DFW the summer before I left for law school, so it really takes me back to that time when I hear their first (uh, only) album.

But anyway, back to studying...even though I'm still really pissed. Sigh.