Low/highlights (5.9.07)

• Waking up
  
• Creeping up the final (not-even-that-steep-)hill of my commute (in granny gear) this morning when one of my students passes me on his single speed
• A personal phone call from Mr. Ride the Ducks himself . . . telling me I was off to a good start and even had the potential to be a candidate for Rookie of the Year. I have to check my copy of the 2 page handout we got at the staff meeting last Thursday, but I think that might actually be an award category in the new supercomplex bonus system they set up to encourage captains to actually show up to work on time. More on that later.
  
• Realizing that with each passing day I am coming closer and closer to the limit of my remedial Spanish comfort zone and soon will have to pretend that I remember the preterite tense, not to mention the subjunctive . . .
  
• Getting my first package in the mail at my new house. It contained a bag of chocolate chips, a couple spatulas, a pair of fuzzy dice (actually requested, although it is something my mom would throw in a package randomly) and a package-within-a-package of mix CDs (from Karen sent via Massachusetts--thank god for the constancy of the parental PO Box)
• Diet Coke with Lime
• Seattle weather. 70 and sunny. Seriously.
  
• Getting a text message this afternoon from my housemate saying the internet had been set up

So yes, after 3 months of withdrawal, I am back with regular internet access. And not only that, but I can access it from anywhere (in my 10' x 20' room)-- no need to crouch at the Window of Knowledge. Of course, now that I am working 60 hours a week (12 hours of teaching tomorrow and a weekend chock full o' duck tours), I can't promise that I will post as much as I should. But it's got to be better than the last few weeks.

Party Crasher

The first house party I go to in Seattle makes it into The Stranger.
(My co-worker Chris (a fellow teacher, not duck captain) was the third roommate, on the right in the picture, but he got cut off in the online version. He was also wearing a "Just Married-- NOT" sailor hat.)

Anyway, I'm moving on Friday. Just across the city, though. At the end of May, I'll have been in Seattle for four months, which will be the longest period of time I have been anywhere since leaving Philly last year. Anyway, I'm hoping to get internet at this new place, so hopefully I'll have a real update soon for y'all (if anyone's still reading), like how my first day of duck tours goes this weekend and if the UW IM bio grad student softball team that I'm playing on as "Kristy Brady" makes it to the championship (which I won't be able to play in because they actually check IDs in the finals and apparently I look nothing like the actual Kristy Brady).

Sorry

I've been a delinquent blogger. I apologize to you loyal blog checkers. I would write a post now to make up for the last few weeks, but I'm going to go play softball now for the Barking Spiders, an intramural team at the UW made up of mainly biology grad students and other random people, like their roommates (one of these random roommates is this guy I work with), and now, apparently, me. It's co-ed and they needed an extra female tonight since they have to have 5 on the field at all times or else. So I'm going to stand in outfield and hope they don't hit it to me since I have a badly sprained (if not broken) pinky finger on my throwing hand, but if my job is just to stand on the field and be a girl, I should be able to manage that, right? Haha. But that reminds me, I do have a classic women's restroom story from last weekend that I will share next time I have time.

Three Books

I've read recently that you should read if you get the chance.

• Activism, Inc. by Dana Fisher

• The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky by Ken Dornstein

• The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost

ROADTRIP

it's friday. it's sunny & 70 degrees. i'm wearing shorts & flip flops
and in a few minutes i'll be on the road. driving down the 101.

well, I5 first, but by tonight we'll be on the Oregon coast. with a campfire.