Discoveries

The Costco near us has started selling giant chunks of St Andre. This might be bad for my saturated fat intake.

Also, the New York Times just informed me that Obama is a smoker! Noooo!!! I'm kind of disappointed, actually.

Also, we had a very lovely Christmas. Brandon and the kitties and I all went to West Virginia to see my Dad's side of the family. Activities included cutting down a Christmas tree, decorating said tree, eating about 12 kinds of cookies, presents/stockings, singing songs from childhood, poetry reading, Trivial Pursuit (my team won!), and three FOs (pictures to come). It was a very Garmin Christmas, with Jenny, Dad, Brandon, and I receiving Garmin GPS systems and Brandon receiving a Garmin running watch.

Now we're back in Cleveland, cleaning the house top to bottom for the first time since, um...October? Yeah...

I hope you all had wonderful holidays!

All by myself...

The worst part of this isn't the travel. Or the expense. Or the constant wearing of suits. Or, really, the fact that I've rotated through 4-5 outfits without variation over the past month and a half. The worst part is how lonely this is. I miss my friends and my family. Every once in a while I get to see someone I know, and it is just wonderful.

The other part of this is that it makes you want to bond with anyone familiar - like the other applicants. I now have a handful of new best friends who I know because we're on the same interview circuit. We've exchanged emails and friended each other on Facebook. One woman and I spent 6 hours straight talking nonstop on the train from Boston to Philly. We're friends because we have similar interests and passions and things to talk about. But, really, we're friends because we're lonely. We're so starved for friendship. And we're finding it in each other. And some of them? Some of them will become my best friends for the next four years - I just don't know who yet.

Also. Also, I've learned to eat dinner by myself. Because of the ice storm in Portland, I'm staying in a hotel downtown instead of with my future in-laws up a steep hill. And also because of the ice storm, the resident dinner was canceled tonight. So I found a nice restaurant and treated myself to one of the nicest dinners I've had in quite a while: a salad of endive, apple, cranberries and pine nuts, and some hazelnut crusted trout over farro. And a glass of Rioja. Because this is my comfort. And because otherwise, I'd be ordering room service in the hotel and feeling even more lonely.

Only two more days until I get a break. Until then, I have my comforts.

Rookie mistake

I actually ended up liking the little bit of the south I visited pretty well. Plus, the night before party was next door to Ben Folds house! Awesome!

But.... I ran out of knitting. I don't know how I let that happen. I was working on the second mitten for Annemoi, and even though I knit the first one almost a year ago, I do remember it finishing very quickly. But I did not take this into account in my knitting packing (the most important packing of all). So on Tuesday when I finished the mitten during my Midway layover before the interview even happened, I knew I was in trouble: no knitting until I got home Wednesday night.

So now I'm over-compensating. For a trip from Thursday to Sunday with two flights and one train ride, I've started a sweater (Cherie Amour) and brought two cones of yarn (the yarn Laura made for me in Montreal). I will not let this happen again.

My hair is not big

I am in the south. Not The South, but the south nonetheless. As in, the airport I flew into had a leopard print baby grand. And a lot of cowboy hats. But, apparently the program is newly more Family Planning friendly than I thought, and B really loves it, so I'm trying to swallow the cowboy hats.

Boston (and Hahvahd)

Apparently at the hotel in Boston (Brookline), the shampoo and conditioner come in the following flavors: quinoa and amaranth. At least my hair is getting its whole grains even though my body is not while I travel about and live on Dunkin Donuts. I do like those egg sandwiches though.