some pictures of california; a moving update, and the status of school

i'm reading tom jones. can you tell? i figured now that school's started and i've been back in boston for over a month, it's time to recap my trip to california.

the stables where i used to ride (now all closed up):




a series of pictures of the beach as seen from the great highway (where chris isaak lives), taken from the driver's seat of my rental car (totally not safe, but i was listening to dick dale and feeling pretty happy to be home):









this is a picture of my horse with a bunch of birds on him. it must be hot in california, because normally he would never settle for that.



my mother's cats:



diesel.



willie.



cleo hates having her picture taken.



a sign i saw when my mom and i went to the women impressionists exhibit at the palace of the legion of honor.



my dad's dogs, bella (the princess) and bart (the rugby player).



this is a picture of me with my dad's cat on my lap. you can't see it, but bart is licking my face.

school is pretty good so far. i've only taught one class, but i've taken two - i was a little worried about one because on the first day i looked around and realized everyone in there has different academic interests than i do, but i've started thinking that that's a good thing. i need a little breadth. and my other class is going to be awesome i think. also i'm working a few hours at the desk at the learning center (great coffee), and i got a job at the library, which has one of the most impressive irish collections in boston (which is really saying something). but, this blog has never really been about california or about school, so that's all about that for now.




this is the last picture i took of the view from my old driveway. it looks directly down the street my grandmother grew up on. i'll miss that view, the blue walls of my room and the breeze that came directly in my window, but now i live in an apartment where i hope both zeppelin and i will be happier. more on that later.

i went to the cape recently, where my high school friends martin and jon came for their annual weekend vacation. we played king of the raft and mini golf and they got along very long with howard. my family is doing very well.

i won't be going on the boat cruise this year. i'm going to a party and then to see jamie t instead.

i've become a completely callous blogger, i didn't even read this over or spellcheck it even though those things are so easy

well! it has been a while. pretty much the entire summer. last thing you knew, i was discovering this year's new animals; now, here we are, ordering baseball shirts and an electric kettle off of amazon in preparation for another year at school.

and now, an old favorite!!! lists!!!
what happened early on this summer:
the aquarium (jellyfish exhibit, cute penguins, overall too many children and the octopus' terrible beauty gave me the creeps)
walden pond (i'm not that into thoreau, so it was mostly about swimming)
the cape (again, swimming, but also we took james to see some points of interest, including several lighthouses. also i sort of reconnected with my cousin willie but never bothered to explain to him that that was what was happening. we went to the drivein. no big deal.)
carleton's bbqs
got a summer gym membership (saw several colleagues and the head of the english department in the shower, ran into many large russian women bellowing to each other over the tops of the shower stalls [also could have been brazilian - found out this summer portuguese sounds a lot like russian], developed a taste for weightlifting)
taught esl at pine manor, which my grandmother tells me used to be a finishing school (i am now a practiced classroom disciplinarian, although i'm told that freshmen at bc don't tend to come twenty minutes late to a fifty minute class and justify their tardiness by explaining that they are "on time in european time")

later in the summer:
spent a night at boy scout camp (awesome)
helped cook a large dinner for boy scouts (delicious)
cape, again (right now)
more bbqs, also some in-home cocktail hours
went home to san francisco (anxious, but then ultimately pretty great - drove a rental car which could call people using bluetooth technology, couldn't find the microphone so drove all over the city shouting at the dash, rode my horse frequently, played with cats and dogs, went to two museums [deyoung for the chihuly, palace of the legion of honor for women impressionists - more on that later if i feel like it], watched most of the olympics, saw many friends, ate burritos and drank beer in dolores park, hung out with my mother and ate her cooking)
dark knight (2x)
swan boats
butterfly preservation

i know there's more but the prospect of school is looming over me. to be completely honest, i started this post to keep myself awake and occupied until after midnight so i could check a thing on the internet. now it looks like it won't happen until tomorrow morning so i would like to go to bed.

"my head just exploded"

that was the subject line in an email from my medieval romances professor. he sent me this.

new animals!!!

pretty excited about this. don't bother reading the comments though. they're mostly about god, or self-education via the internet. my favorites are #8 - i've been pretty obsessed with jellyfish lately, partially because of the under the sea glass animals exhibit i saw at the harvard museum of natural history and partially because of the jellyfish exhibit i saw at the aquarium, also it would suck to die from a jellyfish sting but it would be pretty cool if by dying that way you discovered a new species; #2 - new dinosaur; and #1 - "electrolux."

thankfully there are more black people here - not many, but definitely more

if i were still in oregon i would have gone to corvallis to see this. absolutely.

existential dilemma

a white person wrote an article about obama's potential effect on the future of hip-hop fashion. as a white person interested in the future of hip-hop fashion but aware enough not to practice it, i'm not sure how i feel about this yet.

if you think i'm sorry you've got another thing coming

maybe a little sorry. but only to sarah and matt. also, matt, sorry for not calling you back. i was in finals. i will call you. soon. i've been very bad on the phone lately.

anyway, it's been over a month, and i'm going to start blogging again. eventually. until then:
summer hit of 2006
promiscuous girl
summer hit of 2007
give it to me
failed summer hit of 2007
crazy in love
summer hit of every single summer ever
ride wit me

things to come:
more summer hits
2008 summer hit predictions
information i have gathered from the learning center's administrative assistant based on his side of the personal phone calls he holds for approximately three hours out of every six-hour day