Another year older

I realized today that the older I get, the younger my group of friends seems to be...hmmmm... I think this may be due to several reasons:
1. I have returned to school after taking several years off to work, therefore all my classmates are several years younger than me
2. All of my friends from college live far away and so that prevents me from hanging out with people my own age
3. I am maturing in reverse, and trying to pretend that I am still 22
4. The bad (but fun) influence of Krista (also see #3)

Fortunately, I have found that regardless of how young my friends are, there are some things that inevitably come with age, and I've found that it's perfectly fine with me to have 2 glasses of wine at home and call it a night instead of partying until the wee hours of the morning every weekend. Although when Krista is in town I will always make an exception, I just have to plan to spend several days to recover. Speaking of that....who's up for Halloween on Franklin Street this year? :)

A question for Pookie

It's raining...and it makes me so happy. I doubt that it will even make the slightest dent in our rain deficit, but I think I can already see the grass getting greener (if it's not completely dead already). Not only has this been one of the hottest summers on record, it has been the driest since they started keeping records in 1895. (See the News and Observer article). I guess I don't feel so bad for abandoning my garden in late-July, I think if we had tried to keep watering it we wouldn't be able to take showers anymore (no shower + hot weather = stinky girl).

So as I was lying on the couch being lulled to sleep by the noise of the rain on the roof (and reading about SAS programming language), I was rudely awakened by my cat, who decided to use this as an opportunity to take a bath while lying in my lap. Maybe it's just my cat, but she makes SO MUCH noise when she cleans herself it is ridiculous, all I can hear is these loud slurpy-licky noises. Does anybody else's cat do this? And not only is it annoying, but she is OCD about cleaning herself, and literally will keep licking until she has licked all the hair off her belly (which is why we call her "pink belly"). So let me ask you this Pookie, Do I look like a bathtub to you? Do I? Next time I take a shower maybe I'll invite you along and see how you like it.

The cold hard truth

This weekend I decided to run a few errands and pick up a birthday card for Shawn, and I decided to check out the new shopping center that just opened up. This is no ordinary shopping center, this baby has ALL my favorites and it's less than 15 minutes from our house...NY & Co, Ann Taylor Loft, Dillards, even a whole store of just LeCreuset (I know Natalie is jealous!). So needless to say this is very dangerous for me, a girl who despite wanting to be a simple country girl, still loves to shop. Unfortunately, reality hit hard when I realized that I no longer make enough money to be able to justify spending $100 on clothes if I feel like it, actually I now have a hard time justifying $10, and it's hard to find a cute pair of shoes for $10! I really feel like this is a cruel joke on the part of the shopping center developers...they must have known the torment I would feel driving by it every day...damn them! Oh well, I guess now I have no choice but to be a simple country girl, so don't laugh if you see me at school in my denim bibs and john deere t-shirt...OK maybe I'm exaggerating (and that is actually one of my favorite outfits, see...)

So far, so good...

I have officially made it through my first 3 weeks of graduate school, which really isn't much of an accomplishment considering that these will probably be the easiest 3 weeks I will have in my entire time here at UNC. Of the classes I am taking, one didn't start until this week because the prof doesn't believe in teaching before labor day (and apparently also doesn't believe in teaching after Thanksgiving according to the syllabus), not that I am complaining! This seems so fit with the overall attitude of the department, which is very laid back. While this is great, and I am glad not to be in a place that is cut-throat competitive, I realize this also means that I will have to be my own ass-kicker if I want to graduate in a timely manner (hopefully 4 years). I met some students at orientation that introduced themselves as "7th year students" and had a small panic attack...

But honestly I think that I am really going to enjoy grad school (don't ask me to repeat that during finals) and I have already met many students and faculty that are just down-to-earth, nice people who are so happy that we (the first-year students) are excited about the same things they are, and I have never felt more welcome. :)