flashing 12:00’s

My brother’s in Santa Monica and my sister’s in DC, so I’m a little bored.  Visits to my site are way down, so I guess that means it’s time for an update!

Last week was Bible School, so I didn’t have a chance to update.  Now, not a whole lot is going on.  The power has gone out in this house so many times the last few weeks.  So I’ve been pretty busy resetting all the clocks and everything.  I can’t stand to have any flashing 12:00’s.  Resetting clocks is one of my hidden talents.

On Tuesday, I went up to Purdue to register for wine tasting this fall.  (I have to refine my palate before my big move to California.)  As I was doing that, I ran into Dr. A— and he said he’d help me get a residency there.  And when that man says he’ll do something, he makes sure it gets done.  I think it was a phone call from him that got me in pharmacy school in the first place.  I promise, if that man were any nicer, well, I don’t even think that’s possible so I don’t know where I’m going with this.

That night, Ryan and I were sitting on the front step being eaten alive by all the mosquitos (thanks Mitch…), and Ryan mentions, “It’s so funny how differently our minds think.”  And it’s true, but I love it.  We do have radically different approaches to thinking about things.  And I was just thinking how crazy it is that two people whose lives are so different could somehow converge into the same city on the same front step.  It’s all such an amazing Plan!  For the first time ever I’m actually really excited about living arrangements for next year.  Ryan has hard core arranged his room and it looks really good.  Everything matches and it has a very rustic New England feel to it, I think, complete with lobster cage.  It (almost) makes me want to put at least one chair in my room to make it a little more inviting.  But even if his whole room didn’t match his bedspread, I’d still be just as excited.

And while I’m thinking about it, I want to mention one of my pet peeves.  I can’t stand it when people say the phrase “this next.”  It really annoys me.  OK, I just googled that phrase, and I’m going to use this sentence as an example:  “The Gibbon won the G-race to be our engineering mascot for this next release, but it was a close run.”  Which release are you talking about?  This release, or the next one?  They’re two different releases!  But so frequently people use the phrase “this next” when they can just say “next.”  It’s redundant!  I don’t know why this bothers me, but it does.

And you officially know I’m between semesters because… I have to go to the dentist tomorrow.  Meh

unbelievable

Tuesday was my day off, so I got to hang out with my favorite aunt Kathy.  She took me and my sister to Augustino’s at Stop 11 & Emerson.  I hadn’t been there before, and it had a feel to it like an actual family restaurant in Italy.  We were greeted immediately by the owner/chef because my aunt and uncle are his best and favorite customers.  My aunt introduced us to him, and he brought us the last bottle of a particular wine that he knew she liked and that he had set aside just for us.  The food there was amazing, too; the best Italian food I’ve ever had!  The entire time we were given royal treatment, and he ended up comping the wine for us!  It seemed more like a family get-together than a night out.

Afterwards, I went to my aunt’s house and we sat in her front yard in her little bistro that she has and finished the vino as the sun set.  It was so much fun.  She told me about her travels to Italy and Napa Valley, CA for wine tours.  I told her there’s a wine appreciation class at Purdue, and she talked me into taking it this fall!  I jokingly asked my advisor if she needed to card me to get into the class, and she replied and said that someone in the food science department actually does!  So I need to go back to campus some time to get that taken care of…

I’ve opened up a new checking account with Charles Schwab, and I am thrilled with it.  I decided to leave Chase after all the ATM fees and withdrawal limits I had to deal with in Vegas.  Now I have no ATM fees and a variable interest rate of 2.01% on my checking account.  It’s unbelievable.  Thank you Nathan for talking me into getting that.

OK, and The Brothers Karamazov is getting really good.  Unbelievably good actually.  And to think, the biggest reason I started to read it (and why it actually worked this summer) is so I could call Robbie about it…