i'm pretty sure fictitional is not a word....

but my professor seems to think so! ah well, no point in telling her now. i'm flying through my week! only 2 more days to go, and then a 3 day weekend followed by a 1-day work week and a 5 day weekend! doesn't get any better than this :) nate's sister is getting married next friday, so we're headed to PA to celebrate. which reminds me, i have a lot of cookies to make! has anyone else (that's NOT from pennsylvania) ever heard of cookie tables at a wedding? gram? have you? curiously awaiting lots of cookie table stories, :)

i'm guilty...

of some serious blog neglect! as a result, i've given the blog a routine face lift and a new post! so let's see... there was a wedding, there was a long drive, there was a six month marker, a first day of class, second day of class, last performance, turn of a year... that might cover it! the more detailed version is that life has been a whir of activity in the past few weeks since nate and i came back from indiana. cassie and i went to see the skeleton key last week, which i definitely recommend. won't keep you up at night type scary, but definitely one i didn't figure out for myself! hollywood had to hand it to me :) work's been unbelievably demanding lately and school started this week! i'm taking two classes (last two!) which are: dynamics of organizational behavior and training system design. both seem very interesting from the initial class. i'm excited :) more later, headed to the cellar to see paul clark's last performance!

what an extra couple of dollars will get you

so yesterday, i headed to vintage cellar to purchase a bottle of wine for a friend of nate's. when i found the particular one i was looking for, it was one or two dollars more than i can buy it for at kroger, two doors down. i put it back on the shelf and was about to head to kroger when i thought, eh, no big deal, i'll just buy it since i'm already here.
turns out, they happily gift wrapped my bottle of wine in all it's glory :) so my extra two dollars was well worth the personal touch!

wedding photos

i'm too lazy to post these individually ;) but you get the idea!

everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

i'll post the wedding pics soon ;)

no really, it's friday

thank god i'm on vacation the next two days! don't think i could take anymore :) actually, i'm exaggerating-- knowing i won't be here for the grueling all weekend-long physical inventory is a comforting thought ;) thanks anna and rick for getting married this weekend so i have a reason to head out of town! :) nate and i are headed to purdue tomorrow. i'm very excited to take him to all my old haunts (read: the coffee shop). just a short 8 hour drive back to my old alma mater, and
in other news, i finally got to hold miss malayna :) very exciting ;)
counting the hours until i'm off for 4 whole wonderful days...

billy don't you lose my number!

still a bit skunky...

but getting better :) i've taken 4 or 5 showers since saturday night and i still get the occasional skunk whiff from my own skin while i'm sitting here at work! cleo is better as well, but she's in need of another bath (1 qt. of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 c. of baking soda, 1 tsp. of liquid soap) to battle the skunkiness. aside from that, i'm working on getting back into the swing of things! nate and i went for a looong walk yesterday, from my apartment to downtown and back. still trying to live a healthier lifestyle although my attempts are intermittent at best! the poem below (if you can make it through the entire thing!) touches on the subject :)
in others news, congrats to my mom who has a new job! she'll be setting up a new home office and selling baby shoes to boutique stores :) she's very excited!
okay, better get back to work :) i'll post more siesta fiesta pics later, there were some great ones :)

Aubade by A.R. Ammons

They say, lose weight, change your lifestyle:
that's, take the life out of your style and

the style out of your life: give up fats,
give up sweets, chew rabbit greens, raw: and

how about carrots: raw: also, wear your
hipbones out walking: we were designed for

times when breakfast was not always there, and
you had to walk a mile, maybe, for your first

berry or you had to chip off a flint before
you could dig up a root: and there were

times when like going off to a weight reduction
center you had a belly full of nothing: easy

to be skinny digesting bark: but here now at
the breakfast buffet or lavish brunch you're

trapped between resistance and getting your
money's worth and the net gain from that

transaction is about one pound more: hunting
and gathering is a better lifestyle than

resisting: resisting works up your nerves
not your appetite (already substantial in the

wild) and burns up fewer calories than the
activity arising from hunger pangs: all in

all this is a praise for modern life — who
wants to pick the subrealities from his teeth

every minute — but all this is just not what
we were designed for, bad as it was: any way

I go now I feel I'm going against nature, when
I feel so free with the ways and means, the

dynamics, the essentialities honed out clearly
from millions of years: sometimes when I say

"you" in my poems and appear to be addressing
the lord above, I'm personifying the contours

of the onhigh, the ways by which the world
works, however hard to see: for the onhigh

is every time the on low, too, and in the
middle: one lifts up one's voice to the

lineations of singing and sings, in effect,
you, you are the one, the center, it is around

you that the comings and goings gather, you
are the before and after, the around and

through: in all your motions you are ever
still, constant as motion itself: there with

you we abide, abide the changes, abide the
dissolutions and recommencements of our very

selves, abide in your abiding: but, of course
I don't mean "you" as anyone in particular

but I mean the center of motions millions of
years have taught us to seek: now, with

space travel and gene therapy that "you" has
moved out of the woods and rocks and streams

and traveled on out so far in space that it
rounds the whole and is, in a way, nowhere to

be found or congratulated, and so what is out
there dwells in our heads now as a bit of

yearning, maybe vestigial, and it is a yearning
like a painful sweetness, a nearly reachable

presence that nearly feels like love, something
we can put aside as we get up to rustle up a

little breakfast or contemplate a little
weight loss, or gladden the morning by getting

off to work . . . .

a mexican, a pinata, and a skunk

so i think it's fair to say that the mexican siesta fiesta was a success! the evening is better captured in pictures, but of course i'll also add my own synopsis. the night started off with more food that you can shake a maraca at, plenty of guacamole, shredded beef, bean dip, cheese dip, and tortilla chips to eat it with. offerings of other party guests included mas guacamole, watermelon margaritas (homemade!), 7-layer dip, and more! and of course, cassie, the birthday girl of the hour who had a tiara, but it wouldn't stay on her head. after everyone had arrived, we all headed to the garage to break the pinata! but after breaking the broom handle several times over, we broke out the big guns and used an aluminum baseball bat. after it STILL didn't break and the little plastic airplane bottles inside were breaking instead, we tore it open and all went at the goods. those with loot toasted and quickly consumed their prizes. after that we all headed back upstairs and cleo, the solo canine party guest, wandered outside and found something to chase. thinking it was the racoon that had earlier been on the porch, i went out to get her but just as she ran back to the porch and i grabbed her, cries of "what is that smell??" filled the house. turns out, cleo had rustled up a skunk and had been sprayed! her eyes were watering but otherwise it was just the HORRIBLE smell that made her the least popular party guest of the evening. after nate and i secured the walking stink bomb in the garage, we headed to the grocery store to gather all the ingredients from a recipe provided on the internet. nate patiently explained and re-explained why the situation was funny and not a complete disaster that my drama queen side was making it out to be! after we had washed up the dog and most of the skunk smell, my sense of humor returned and i watched an intense game of flippy cup take place. overall, it was a wonderul evening filled with lots of laughter and all things mexican (and a little skunk)! truly one to remember!

una otra dia en mexico

so far, my favorite things are the people and the food! i've had watermelon, papaya, and pineapple juice in the last few days, all deliciously tasty! lastnight, we again to the japanese consultant out to dinner, this time for chinese. and yet again, he terrorized the wait staff -- demanded a plate of vegetables used in the cooking and then gave instructions on how they should be prepared - received them, sent them back, and finally received what was considered to be on the borderline of acceptable! i also had a michelada, dos equis in a glass with a salted rim, mixed with lemon juice and some spicy stuff - i liked it :)
tonight, it's out in tiajuana, then tomorrow morning, just a few hours at the plant before we cross the border and head to the airport. nate's picking me up tomorrow evening and he'll be a welcome sight :)
again, can't resist plugging the mexican siesta fiesta for casita, it will be muy divertido y habra mucho cerveza! (yes, my spanish is still horibble even after 4 days in mexico, but i'm learning!)

happy birthday cassie!

feliz cumpleanos a mi hermana hoy! please join us this saturday at her mexican siesta fiesta! :) see me for details...

buenos dias!

well it's been an interesting first couple of days. i love it here- the people are very warm and friendly and the city is bustling and full of life! i'm probably pretty sheltered however to the poverty and lesser sides of tiajuana, but i've enjoyed my stay here so far. lastnight we took our japanese consultant to a sushi restaurant. yes, sushi i mexico, i live on the edge! the weirdest things i tried were: salmon eggs (gross, gross, gross, don't EVER eat them), octopus (better than expected), and then just run of the mill sushi type stuff, tuna and salmon, some dumplings, california roll, tofu, etc. nate got to hear all about it when i talked his ear off for an hour or so lastnight ;) but that's all the time i have to update for now :) more later!