MIA

No no no no. I mean, where the f have I been? I know, you don't accept that Photo Hunt nonsense as blogging content, not after I proved I could do nablopomo last year.

The last several weeks of school were hectic. I finished my papers and passed my exams, and then ran out the door of the Graduate Center with the most luggage I've ever brought on a trip in my life (read: one medium suitcase and a backpack). (The main reason New Yorkers spend a lot of time caring about and feeling superior about transit is because it takes a ton of work to learn your way around here. I had prepared a self-inflated rant about how I have now learned enough to navigate even though I thought I was lost, but I'll save it for some other time!). Regardless, I've spent the last month ish traveling, thanks to my new-and-improved Grad Student Income!

First it was Chicago, to crash with Dan and Merilee, and spend the day hanging out with Mingwei. We ended up at a fabulous bar where I had about 45 minutes to catch up with kiran, Neily, and other NASCOol people. It was over in the blink of an eye, and I had to leave to catch a bus out of town. It was the beginning of a series of visits that were far too short. I met the twin (!) at the bus stop and we took an overnight bus up to Minneapolis (which was terrible...*shudder*). We got picked up and spent the next week visiting Dad, Jacki!, Sara, and Robin. We even got a visit from the other syblings, and on Christmas Day picked up the new Sherlock Holmes movie with our brother. The next day we drove to Dodge Center and met Mom and the rest of the family there for Christmas. We had a great time playing games (I learned Hand and Foot, although hell if I can remember it now), conquering Super Mario Galaxy (at least, as Mario!), cooking/eating, and talking, talking talking. It was the most relaxing way I could imagine to spend those days, and lovely to see people! Because of the icy weather we ended up staying an extra night, which felt like winning the lottery! I love my family!

Then, of course I had to spend a few weeks in Madison. I spent the first few days hanging out with my Mom and sister, and getting over a small cold. I first ventured out into Madison for New Year's Eve with Lindsay and Patrick, their friends Mike and Celina, and our old friend Laura (who lives on the West Coast, alas!), and diverse other folks like Scott and Emily and Kat! It was definitely the best NYE I've ever had, even better than the one year I accidentally made out with Emil's bi then-boyfriend. :) It was a much smaller, quieter party, but we barely noticed when midnight rolled around. We played games and talked and laughed and shared the evening and the morning after in a very sweet and special way. It wasn't the first, nor the last time that I realized I'm honored to know such wonderful people. Lindsay and Patrick became my gracious and amazing hosts for the rest of my time in Madison.

Throughout the next two weeks I saw Kathy, George, Kevin, Steph and Jared, Nicklaus, Anna, Rachel and Ari, Maya, Erica, Quentin, and various Phoenicians, coopers, and Madisonians. I felt so loved and I am so blessed and lucky to know you all and have such warm and wonderful, loving people in my life. I visited many of my old Madison haunts, spent a ton of time with my awesome family members, and even took a day trip down to Milwaukee to eat at our old favorite, Capri. I played trivia at the Alchemy, went to the Weary Traveler five (5!) times (including for an amazing pork-off: candied bacon FTW), drank at Paul's Club under the tree, had dinner at the Phoenix, napped at the MCC Office, had brunch with Mama Davis at Lazy Jane's, drank strawberry vodka at The City and coffee at ERC, discovered new things with Rachel, washed with soap made by Steph2, waited in line for over an hour at the Old Fashioned, bought 10-year cheddar from Carr Valley, flirted with a bartender for the Merc, spent an afternoon reading and sipping at Barrique's, saw a play at the Overture Center (a great one! Called Why Torture is Wrong and The People Who Love Them, by Christopher Durang, and produced by the new group in town: Forward Theatre Company. Madison theatrites and art-heads, you should be excited!!), looked out on the lake from Observatory Drive, learned to play Sheepshead (!), shopped the Frugal Muse, had a salted caramel from Gail Ambrosius, drank wine at Kathy's place, and yes, ate cheese popcorn. It was a veritable orgy of pleasant experiences, hopefully enough to keep my level of joy and self-esteem flying high through the next semester and summer of loneliness in New York!

I followed that up with a little more than 24 hours back in NYC before I hopped on a bus to DC. I visited Clare and Rachel there in a whirlwind 48 hour trip, and managed to squeeze in the official reason I was supposed to have gone: to see Black Voices: The Stories We're Going to Tell, a festival for the new works of black playwrights. All of it was awesome, although I missed the whole discussion for the rest of the weekend and didn't know anyone there. Also, Georgetown is a strange and isolated campus, so no one could tell me how to get back to the train (they've chosen not to have a train stop so the rabble can't bother them), so I had to walk a few miles in the cold to the area where I knew there would be a train. Boo. But this was all made up for by the fun I had the next day with Rachel and Clare, playing dress up in Clare's vintage store and drinking too much beer and reminiscing about the coop. Clare helped get rid of my burgeoning mullet while we were drunk, at the expense of a small chunk of hair about my left ear. But anything is better than a mullet, so I guess that was a net gain.

Finally, I stopped back in NY to check on the cat, and then took off for Boston, to eat vegan for 48 hours (yay!), wander through Boston Commons and the Harvard Campus. I visited Nick (therefore we talked about oppression for hours and watched star trek), Shira (hi Shira, I told you I would blog about it), and was graciously hosted by Avi and Alexa in their charming Boston College area flat.

But now I am on the megabus again, this time coming back to New York, where I look forward to cleaning and sleeping and finishing the Baroque Cycle (by Neal Stephenson) before classes start on Thursday. They are late this year, but that's fine with me. It's been a marvelous tour of various large and larger cities around the Midwest and the east coast, and I don't really feel at home anywhere anymore, but I'm almost looking forward to a few days by myself. Which is good because that's precisely what I have in store for myself.