BlogFerret

Brien gave me a gift card to Amazon for my graduation. Well, what with moving and all, and then my perverse enjoyment of anticipation over gratification, he basically almost got me a birthday present (2 weeks!).

I just wanted to say thank you again, Brien, and let you know that you got me really cool stuff. I got an educational book, a movie, and an electronic gadget - ok, a memory card, but it goes inside an electronic gadget. I put them on my Amazon store as the last three items, if you’re curious. But yes, through the magic of Amazon, I was able to get three of my very favorite things.

I’m pretty sure I’ve thank3ed everyone else for graduation goodies, but if I’ve missed you, feel free to berate me by email or even here, (sort of) publicly. I won’t be offended. And then you’ll probably get a thank you note in the mail if I have your address.

And yes, Brien, I could have emailed you, but this way is better: it announces your awesomeness to the world. If that makes you uncomfy, I’ll happily delete this post.

I find that the more interesting my life is, the less time I have to write. The more time I have to write, the less stimulated I am, and therefore have fewer interesting topics to write about. The only exception to this rule is a sort of in-between period I get after I make a decision to put myself out in the world more but before I’ve actually put the plans in motion.

In any case, I’ve been getting out into the world a bit. And I’ve been staying in a bit, too. We had a couple of friends over for the weekend. I made chicken crepes with a sherry bechamel sauce, salad and a lemon ladyfinger dessert. None of it was particularly dietetic, but it was all delicious if I say so myself. I really enjoy cooking, and I am very gratified when I make a dish and people really enjoy it. From a fairly early time in my life, I’ve always wanted every meal I cook to be at least a bit above “average.” Maybe it’s because I’m from New Orleans, but I’ve always appreciated the differences between food, good food, and great food. What’s the point of eating something that’s just “okay?” Read the rest of this entry »

In the interest of expanding my knowledge of 19th century literature, I recently read Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. I admit I’ve been a fan of Treasure Island since childhood, but I had never read this book before. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve decided to try something new with my website. Instead of posting random blather in a stream of consciousness style, I’m going to keep to a regular schedule and post about specific things. Novel idea for me, no?

I’m aware that my life lacks a lot of focus. I complain because I don’t reach the “lesser” goals in my life, but I am pretty unfocused and disorganized unless I have something big on the line (i.e. graduate school). I also seem to let some people influence me where I wouldn’t normally be influenced if I were more certain of myself. I feel as if at 31, I really should go ahead and attempt to figure out exactly who I am and exactly what I want. Now, a weblog isn’t really going to help me do this, but if I work on structure and focus in this small way, maybe I can see how it works on a larger scale. In any case, I’d really like to improve my writing in an online medium.

Otherwise, I’ll have to start putting “Verbose and Directionless” beneath my name on my business cards.

And you are already a famous blogger as well as a tech savvy individual, you might want to head over to Shiny Media’s Tech Digest and apply for a job.

Whatever you do, however, if you get the job, please, please PLEASE make sure that the “read more” style jumps actually work. Also, although shinyshiny.tv used to be one of my favorite daily rambles, on each page of multiple entries I am now finding both broken jumps and numerous pronoun agreement errors.

I know, I know. “Picky, picky, snarky whiner!” I can hear you all screaming it. No, really. Get off my lawn. But seriously, I understand the world of constant bloggers even if I am not one myself. The occasional typo that spell check doesn’t catch, a grammar mistake here and there . . . so what? It’s not the end of the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday night we had a little dinner party. I made gumbo with a butter roux. It was eventually delicious, but I will remember two things about gumbo: 1. start much, much earlier 2. butter roux is harder to brown than oil roux. Also, I’m not making gumbo again until the winter.

My friend Kevin came over, and the four of us had a great time. We’ve been using the pool a lot lately, and we all went swimming.

We’ve decided to rent an apartment in the same complex as Craig does. The apartments are large for the price, and the amenities are good. Also, they are 4 miles from James‘ work.

We arrived in Austin, TX at around 5pm Sunday evening. Our friend Craig was waiting for us and even had supper ready! How cool is that?

Monday, we got our bearings and went to the employment office. Tuesday, James left at 8am and came home at 12:30pm from a job search, having interviewed at his first choice job, AdsLed. By 2:30 we heard from his new boss that he had the job and he would start at 9am Wednesday morning. So the job search is pretty much over. Tuesday evening spent with Kevin, celebrating with drinks at the Spider House.

Now we are beginning our apartment search. So far, we can’t seem to find a place that suits. Of course, we haven’t looked at many places yet, though.

Craig, who has been good enough to put us up for a while, thought I messed up his computer by putting it on a router so I could also hook up wi-fi for us to use. It turned out that his computer thought that when I moved it I had opened the chassis, and he also needed to change the battery in his wireless mouse. Today has actually kind of sucked, but I can’t really get too upset about it.

So much has happened this week that I can’t even put everything into words. I feel like I’ve done and seen many things, but really I haven’t scratched the tip of the iceberg, to mix metaphors. I told James last night that I was feeling anxious, and he replied, “Well, I don’t know why you’d be feeling that way. We’re only in a completely new, larger city, with a totally different lifestyle and we’re living in someone else’s apartment.” I’m lucky to have a man with such a pragmatic outlook on life.

At any rate, I wish I was all high tech and could post cool phone pics here, but I haven’t taken any yet.

Graduation is imminent. I just keep thinking about dinner. If I can get to dinner time, I will be okay. Too bad that’s 8 hours away.

I am going to have to see if my cell phone makes noise when I IM . . . no, really. I’m serious. How am I going to get through a 3 hour ceremony, sitting next to people I don’t know, without moral support? The tiny post-Katrina UNO graduation was bad enough, but an insane giant assembly center full of people? How do they expect us to get through that without a drink? Sheesh.

Ok, so perhaps some of you have noticed the MA Thesis progress bar has advanced to 100%. That effect is due to the fact that on April 8 (only 3 weeks ago!) I defended and passed. Suddenly I are an authority.

I am now in the format check stages and am ready to print the copies on bond paper. This means that I have to pull more money out of my butt. I am still not sure where the school thinks I get all this money to spend on crap like caps and gowns and 20 lb. bond paper. I also don’t understand why the school makes walking in the ceremony mandatory. I could refuse to participate, but it is actually more difficult to do that than to just go ahead and participate. Can’t I just quietly bask in my own sense of achievement instead of spending 2 1/2 hours in a smelly auditorium watching people I don’t know yammer and prance about? My family wants to come and sit through all of that just to watch me walk (and probably trip) across the stage for 5 seconds. Read the rest of this entry »

So I got some Easter candy, despite advice from medical professionals and nutritionists across the nation. Easter candy for me consists of these staples: Elmer’s Gold Brick and Heavenly Hash eggs, Reese’s peanut butter eggs, and jelly beans. Unfortunately, it almost looks like it will be a jelly beanless Easter.

I got 1 package each of our easter staples, and they will be shared by four people. I got them at Wal mart. Wal mart only had Starburst and Jelly Belly jelly beans. These are not jelly beans, to me. Honestly, though, if the Jelly Belly beans had been in festive springtime packaging, I probably would have bought them. Well, this morning, I went to Brookshire’s to get a few things, but guess what? Brookshire’s also has no jelly beans. I was appalled.

When I told my husband that I was beginning to suspect that there were no more jelly beans, ever, he asked me deadpan, “Didn’t you get the memo?”