good saturday after all
i got about 4 hours of sleep last night, but it was my own damn fault. i thought that i might drive to columbus (OH) for winter warmup, which is a great contra dance weekend, and i have since to make it to a contra dance weekend in my graduate career, which is downright embarrassing. david and matece were already going this time so that was promising. and yet, alas, school won out again. i ended up having to schedule a pervasive computing meeting for this morning. we really needed the meeting, and i was glad to make progress because i was getting worried, so what can ya do.
i ended up able to fill another traditional committment this way, at least – the overnight at the uu church bazaar. they have a big art and stuff sale every year as a major fundraiser, and everyone feels better if someone is in the building with all those thousands of dollars of merchandise, so several young adults stay over and run around and make cookies and stuff.
how very wholesome of us, eh?
i got there around 10 or so, and katie and kelly and heather were there. we did this little candle lighting meditation thing that kelly thought up, and talked about how we thought we’d feel older by the time we got to be this age, and shared thoughts on how marriage does or doesn’t fit in to our developing senses of self. it ended up being a pretty honest talk with people i don’t really see that often, and that was nice, even though it probably sounds like sap as a retrospective.
so it goes.
to add more sap, i was a little amazed at how thoroughly transfixed we all were by the candles, and how well they contributed to the mood, despite the fact that i could also acknowledge that we looked like a freaking magazine insert with a title like “5 quick ways to find your center amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life”
what can i say, we humans are some pretty easily suckered machines.
we ordered some pizza (and i tipped the guy nearly 20% tif, so hopefully the church can start earning back a good reputation! ;) and took advantage of my favorite part of the deal – the ability to walk around the meeting room and look at all the art with the moon in the windows and no one perched over our shoulders. it’s an awesome thing.
i drank some coffee at around midnight, which was probably my undoing. my logic was that i wasn’t really going to sleep much. i don’t usually sleep at these things (the first year i didn’t sleep at all, and ended up making like 6 dozen biscuits in the morning… it’s like it takes place in another dimension), and i had work to do to get ready for the pervasive meeting this morning. so kelly went to bed, heather went home, katie made pie, and i started working. it was not pleasant because i was so tired, and the coffee only made me awake enough mentally to tell how tired i was physically, which is one of my least favorite sensation combinations. i just end up feeling cranky and like my body is revolting (in the liberte! egalite! fraternite! sense of the word).
i cranked out enough to show my face at the meeting without embarrassment, but it was one of those push through the wall kinds of experiences that i’m never quite sure i will actually see through to the end. i went home at about 4 to sleep because i had realized that i didn’t have my contact case, and since i was just going to wake up and leave it didn’t seem to matter whether i stayed the last few hours. i didn’t sleep well, and felt nauseous when i woke up, which was less than fun. i got through the meeting, sat around at school for a while watching richie and apurva decorate for the holidays (not christmas!) because i didn’t feel like moving, and eventually forced myself to go home because i was about to collapse.
i took a nap and felt a bit better, but also Hungry. i got a sudden desire to make minestrone soup, so i decided to go out and buy vegetables and run errands. i went to bloomingfoods and had quite a little shopping trip, which was good. i got some of the cheese that the traderspoint folks are making now, and let me just say that i am consistently astounded by how well they do at everything they try. a few years ago jeff and i complained about how there isn’t a good local dairy, and while i still wish it were a bit cheaper and they recycled their bottles, i admit to having to eat my words, and am happy to do so as long as i can have some banana mango yogurt to wash them down.
i made my soup, which turned out excellently, listened to garrison keillor and the folk show on the radio, nibbled some cheese, drank some wine, talked to my mom about a christmas present idea i had for lloyd, and am now sitting here quite blissfully, still tired, but feeling like i made good on the day, and it’s still only just after ten.
tomorrow i’ll do some more pervasive stuff, try to finish the hsc proposal that i was supposed to have turned in a few weeks ago now, and potentially cook dinner again if Someone (ahem ;) ever calls me back.
this turned into much more of a play-by-play than i thought it would be, and i don’t think that’s my favorite format for blog entries, but oh well, live and learn.
i’ll write something different after i sleep a bit more, perhaps.
for now i’ll finish my wine and find out how the story of the day will end.