Back from Philly and moving...

Hey guys,

I had a blast visiting Pam in Philly. I mean, we didn't go out very much and I didn't stay very long, but I'm really happy to have hung out with Pam again. I felt silly (I knew I still could!), and we joked about stomas the whole time...
I also love her little Pee-wee, he's so cute. I never thought a maltese could be fun, but you learn something new every day. Take yoshi is also really cool. so chill, just so chill, and so good at cooking seafood.
I'm now moving into my summer sublet and I put down a deposit on a new apartment for September.
I boarded a plane at about 5:30 this morning and got back home around 8am. On the way home from the airport my friend, Sarah, gave me the phone number of this landlord, and I called around 7:30am and left a message. I took a 2 1/2 hour nap and then saw that the landlord called, so I showered quickly and went straight over to see the apartment. See, I knew I wanted to take it already, so I felt like I needed to act immediately before it was gone.
First, a little background on why I knew I really wanted the aparment. Well, I learned about it through Sarah who I referred to my friend, Ben, because she was looking for a nice one-bedroom apartment, and he was going to vacate his. His was already taken, so the landlord showed her the same apartment on the next floor. She saw it, and loved it, but has decided to stay in her old place because she doesn't want to scramble to get everything together before she goes to Lebanon this summer, and then move really quickly when she gets back. So right, I like his apartment too, but this one has the same layout and is even nicer! The walls are painted a subdued pastel green, and it is accented by white moulding and decorative ceiling beams. There is an old pantry cabinet built into the wall. There's a very appropriate, double-doored bunny closet. And the back porch is new, and very appropriate for small-scale grilling extravaganzas. So yeah, I put down the deposit and talked to the landlord. Hopefully that will be the last time I move for a while!
But yeah, I dragged at least 50 pounds up 3 flights of stairs at least 20 times today. I seriously own too much crap. and honestly, I'm already throwing out a carload of stuff. What happened to my promise to myself that I wouldn't buy anything I don't absolutely need? I suppose it's mostly books. I didn't restrict book purchase--maybe that's the problem.
Adam Ring called. I think we're both done now, so it's time to start our summer book club. We're going to read Walter Benjamin's "On Hashish," first sober, then on hashish. And then we will reflect on the experience.
So I think I need to sleep now. Tomorrow, I'm doing another carload before I spend the rest of the day in the burbs. I meet up with the old high school chums for lunch, then hit the mall to find a tote bag and a present for my sister. Maybe a nice bottle of wine? She might like that. Then I have to go to my sister's birthday dinner when I will present the bottle of wine.

On the brighter side of things, I'm starting to think about things freely again.

But indeed, I am a busy frau for the next 22 hours or so.

love,
$.

UND SO....

IT'S OVER!

KEINE ARBEIT MEHR!

well, that's not really true, but I get to take a week or two off to breathe.

I'm packing my things to move down the street and I'm scrubbing the crap out of my apartment...

Then I'm going to philly.

Then I come back and might kick it in the burbs at my mom's house for a few days...
you know, watch a lot of satellite tv and jacuzzi a bit....learn some things from the food network...

Then I have to start working really hard translating and studying for my exam....finishing my masters thesis.

yeeeeah, that's right.

more later, luv y'all,
monZ.

You don't make friends with sa-LAD! You don't make friends with sa-LAD!

One week to freedom

I realized something today:

You are truly free if you don’t doubt that you’re always right.

Like, you no longer constrain yourself with your own anxiety.

And this is the attitude with which I have decided to approach this finals period. I am right because I say I am right, and then we call what I say, "knowledge"..."truth," if you will...

I think this is healthy.

Anyway, I'm now booked on a flight to Philly June 13-16

New York, aug 8-15? Dish, is that ok for you? the conference is aug 10-14, so we'll just maneuver around it.

Alright. That it. I'm going to bed. I'm getting up at 8, I'm running 3 miles, and then I shall hit stats review and pound out the majority of this paper.

all my love to all,
$.

Maybe this is best as a once-a-week thing...

So I blogged a lot in the beginning....now i have less to say--at least until the quarter ends.
I feel like I've bleen flipping out lately. I can't take this anymore. It's a few days until June, and I won't be done with finals until June 8th. less than 2 weeks...

But oh! I got a really cool summer job. I'm going to translate Georg Simmel's "Der Raum und die raumliche Ordnung der Gesellschaft" (Space and the Spatial [Organization] of Society) <--look, I made a translation decision! for this really well-known theory professor who's going to present it next year. It's part of Simmel's most important work, and parts of this piece are very famous, but apparently, there are parts of it that have never been translated into English. I'm psyched, but I feel like it's a bigger summer responsibility than I thought i would have when I thought I might become his office lackey/receptionist. But on the bright side, it's a great opportunity, I really want to read this piece anyway, I was committed to keeping the German up this summer, I think he wants to be my "mentor," and wow, if he's in, I have completed a dissertation committee already. Or at least broken the ice and curried the favor of the three ethnographer/theorists in the dept. In any case, I also have to study for my prelim exam and do some novel-reading and re-reading theories long forgotten--And, most importantly, I need to kick it. I need to, bike, play frisbee, and travel. I need to get my drink on, get my mack on, and get my weed on so hardcore that I really start to look forward to going back to school in the fall.

The last apartment situation sort of fell apart. I didn't actually do anything to deserve this, but the 42-year old male roommate we were going to have took me off the lease. The move was so shocking that Juhi, my friend, who is also pretty good friends of the dude, is seriously thinking of pulling out...she hasn't signed yet....we'll see.
So I'm moving to my friend, Beckett's, very nice 4-BR apartment for the summer. I will move again in Sept. after carefully selecting a new place, either with Juhi, or just with Pooittle. I dunno...sometimes I think I like living alone. I can do whatever I want all the time. then i think it would be nice to be able to share things, interact with somebody else every day who you really get along with...and i keep remembering something Pam said in Berlin last year. Remember when she almost died from Carbon Monoxide because of that coal heating? She said, "Wow, if I died from that. Nobody would have found my body for, like, 3 days, until the dude came to check the place and pick up the rent." Yeah, weird, right? I feel like after a couple days, people would wonder where I'd been, but nobody would think that I was dead in my apartment, you know? So, right, it's nice to have a roommate.

And with that note, I am off to bed...I haven't figured out whether we get memorial day off or not. I really don't know whether I should go to class tomorrow.

eh,

$.

i see that i have not written in 12 days...

gee, i hope you guys are still checking!

so, what's up...

ok, so masters thesis is a big "go." advisor was into my initial efforts, found it "Very very interesting" so hopefully i will be done by the end of the summer.

i've been doing these department functions this past week(end). and it was an interesting experience. really, the conference isn't so great, and i'm not incredibly close with most people in my cohort, but i did get to kick it with my professors, etc. i suppose that it was pleasant to find out that they actually like me a lot more than i thought. sometimes i feel like the crazy of my class...because i talk about things that aren't specifically in the texts for the day, and the other students respond to me sort of badly if they respond at all...so it made me feel shitty. so how surprising was it for me to find myself in a casual conversation with one of the really famous profs in the department who had taught us for half a quarter early on, and have her tell me that she definitely remembered me as the "creative one...with all the ideas"...i choose to take this as a compliment...i mean, the lady doesn't remember many names or faces...
what else? i move into a new apartment on june 1.

it's kinda slammin'. it's the whole top floor of the building. 4 Bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms. wet bar. fire place. sunroom. dining room. HUGE living room (i think it will be our communal "office"). our own laundry room. one of the bathrooms even has a jacuzzi tub and one of those huge glass case showers. 2-car garage with additional parking gated in.
i'm sharing it with my friend, juhi, this guy, shiraz (what a cool name!), and probably this girl sarah, who i just met...sarah #7. she might pull out, but then there are 4 other people on our "wait list." i like it and al, but it makes me a little uncomfortable because it's just like my mom's house, but transported to the top of an urban apartment building. oh well, at least there's an alarm system and it's cheaper than my current hovel!

what else? dealing with life in may respects. COME VISIT THE PAD!!!

yeeah, so i'm going to a wedding of a high school friend on saturday.

oh shizzle, gotta talk to y'all about canada.

umm....tscheuss!!!

monica.

Man, today has been SHITTY

yeeah...
real shitty
statistics can kiss my ass.

my head hurts.

i almost hit "first total freak out of the quarter" but was able to resist it, more or less.

i am a weakling.

i am so human, all too human.

boo.

boo on me.

boo on poo.

monica.