the summer blahs

FURSCA is almost over.

I am kind of excited. It was a good summer, surely, but by now, I’ve kind of got the “blahs”. I’m sick of cooking and at this point would rather starve than just put something in the oven. The effort, the time, the fact that it’s so goddamn hot and I don’t feel like turning on the oven to make my not-air-conditioned cinderblock box already warmer than it is… and the risk of campus safety visiting on the off-chance I attempt to pan-fry something. It happens. What’s resulted is an urge go out to eat every night, or just buy hot premade food from the local grocery store deli. It’s gotten so bad that last night, after discovering McDonalds was closed, the boyfriend and I drove out to Jackson (approximately 20 miles down I-94) and went to Steak ‘n Shake. And sayed in Jackson until 3am. After going to Denny’s at 6am the morning before. It’s terrible, really.

So, what’s next in the coming weeks before I have to move in and do band managery things?

- A wedding. (August 3rd)

- Working at a high school band camp in the Lansing area for a few days. (August 4th-7th)

- Sitting around a dirty sorority house. Perhaps making it a slightly cleaner sorority house. Also helping to gear up for British Eighth band camp. (August 7th-13th)

- Moving in and suffering through hot, long days that I would never trade for anything else. Except some more sleep, perhaps. (August 13th-22nd)

- Hopefully a trip back home with the boyfriend to visit my parents. And my cats. And my dog. We’ll see.

And then school starts shortly after all of this. I can’t believe I’m going to be a junior. I feel so old – didn’t I just graduate high school like a week ago?

i hate construction season

Dear whoever decided re-paving both Burns Apartments driveways at the same time would be a good idea,

You suck, and I hate you. Thanks to you, EVERYONE IN BURNS IS TRAPPED IN. I mean, I don’t have a car, so I don’t have a right to get angry per se, but DAMNIT, I have people give me rides and they can’t get in. And what about the people that DO have cars? They can’t use them right now, because you asshats are blocking both driveways. Plus, the smell. You know what asphalt is? Burning rubber. Guess what it smells like? That’s fucking right, BURNING FUCKING RUBBER. That is NOT a pleasant smell to deal with.

Seriously, why couldn’t you wait until FURSCA residents move out? We’re only going to be here for another two weeks, the least you could have done is shown some fucking patience. The project will only take you a day or two, and there is at least two weeks before people move in for band camp.

WITH LOTS OF HATE,

ally

accomplishment

I’ve gotten a lot done today, but I still haven’t left the apartment.

But,
- Uploaded and finished cousin’s book website that I was only paid $125 to do, but $10 went to domain registration.
- Moved blog page.
- Finished index for Marching Ants to put up until I’m not too lazy to finish a website.
- Found out how to get my pictures out of the package that the new iPhoto put my entire picture library in.
- Made new Flickr account because I can’t access my old one.
- Resurrected last.fm account.
- Registered and created blog for cousin’s website.
- Made a really healthy lunch/snack. Turkey sandwich w/lettuce, bowl of yogurt w/sliced-up strawberries and granola sprinkled on top.
- Even used proper knife handling/slicing technique to slice the strawberries. Alton Brown would be so proud.
- Found out what the word ‘skazka’ means (because it comes up so much in the text I’m reading for research).

All of this in the past three hours.

Maybe today I’ll get around to unpacking the remainder of my clothes and putting them away, and cleaning up the apartment a bit.

And now that we’ve gotten the apartment to look like it’s not a padded cell, burns is actually kind of nice.

a whole bunch of things

It’s ten days until FURSCA. It would be nine, but mom informed me I had a dental appointment on the 27th that couldn’t be missed. I’m not sure why I have to postpone the trip down a whole day if the appointment is at 9:00 in the morning, but whatever. I’m very excited. I know, it sounds a lot like last year when I was on my way to Interlochen and ended up hating it a little bit, but I think it’ll be different this time. I’m really excited about starting my research (even if I’m dragging my feet on starting the preliminary stuff Mac told me to do).

I bought kitchen supplies today too – a knife block that comes with measuring cups and measuring spoons, and a set of cups and bowls that are painted with red, pink, and white stripes. My mom bought me cereal, graham crackers, and a box of couscous. I like couscous, but I’m never sure what to do with it other than eat it just in a bowl.

I got in touch with a professor a CREES (Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies at U of M) and he wants me to meet with him for lunch in Chelsea or Jackson so we can talk about my work. He also agreed to help me out when I head to Ann Arbor to work at the library there. I still don’t know when I’m going to do that – so many things with this summer are pending.

As much as I didn’t like it, I kind of miss Interlochen sometimes. It was nice being there by the forests, going to the beach all the time, waking up to the horn parts from Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, being surrounded by the arts all the time, getting ice cream and sitting by the lake underneath the Kresge bowl, hanging out with Maggie and Marshall (most of all) – Aviva, Bill, Mike, Meredith… I miss them all. Hopefully I’ll be able to go back for a visit this summer.

Also, I just applied for a job helping out with marching band at DeWitt in August. $200, lodging and meals paid for for three days. Not too shabby. The only problem is, I told my mom that I would be a few days late coming home from FURSCA, and now I’ll be even more days late coming home. But for $200, I’m willing to deal with it.